The Porch Is Live _ Did Art Rooney II Say Anything?

Chris: What's that? I'll tell you in a minute. Yeah, this is crazy. This is crazy. Trying to do 15 things at one time. Yes, I know. I know. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
Chris: Oh, there it is. Absolutely. The music was playing guys. I'm really sorry about that. I just want to welcome everybody to the sports porch. Uh, we are here in Pittsburgh. We are live all over the world on Facebook, Instagram, Instagram, YouTube X, LinkedIn. And of course we dropped the podcast right after the show, right after the show. We sure do on a, where do we do it on the I heart radio app, Apple podcast, Spotify, and don't forget YouTube, YouTube, our new channel. Anywhere you get your freaking podcast and I want to let everybody know The internet the new pittsburgh internet radio station the one that we created so magnificently Is up and running and you can stream it live right now on internet radio on radio pgh. I just put that comment up there I want to thank everybody for joining us on instagram grace says hello my hometown. I miss pittsburgh We miss you. We miss you.

Steve: We miss you too, Grace. We're still here. So come and visit us. Grace, we're right here.

Chris: We're right here. We are. We're right here. We're right here. Oh, guys, you know, what can I say? Everything is crazy right now. We're going to talk NFL as always. We're going to talk about the Steelers. We're going to talk about the Penguins and what a shit show that's been lately. And the Pirates, you know, not really yet. Not really that time. I wish we had an NBA team to talk Yeah, let's bring it back to the Steelers. Okay, we'll bring it back to the Steelers. All right.

Steve: Do you really wish you had an NBA team?

Chris: Yeah, actually, I do. It would be fun.

Steve: Yeah, especially like this week when there's no sports.

Chris: That's exactly right. So, hey, if you guys want an NBA team, drop a comment and let us know. Drop a comment. Let us know. Luke is in the house again. Thanks. Now, here's one thing we're going to try this week because Mark's wife, Amy May, was so kind in allowing us to invade her home in Foxchapel last night and act like children. I love when your wife watches football with a Schwaber because she actually knows stuff. She's into it. She's pretty good.

Steve: She knows when to turn it off. Like, it's over. I just am turning it off. We just continue to watch it like adults.

Chris: I think she said this game is over and the Lions were still up by two scores. So, um, but yeah, I, I want to thank her for being, for, for being so gracious. And, and, uh, I'll tell you a Schwab or those, uh, those, what, what, what are those nachos? It was that, uh, were those, were those Jewish nachos? Ooh, are they special Jewish, Jewish nachos?

Marc: You created them on your own. What I do is I take the ground meat. and I chop it up, you know. Even though it's already ground? On the stove. Right. Well, it's got a, you know. Oh, kind of Philly cheesesteak style? Yeah, you gotta brown it, you know. And then you put some garlic and some, you know, onion flakes in the meat. Right. And then you lay down the nachos, you put the meat on, then you go vegetarian beans. Oh, yeah. I saw the beans in there. Vegetarian beans on top. You sprinkle a little bit of onion flake. You sprinkle a little bit of cilantro. You put on a little Giant Eagle Market District mild salsa. And then you do a couple layers with the nachos. Then when you're all done, you have the melting cheese. What was that cheese? I love that cheese. It's just a great melting cheese. And then you got to spend some coin. You got to go to Whole Foods and get the world's best guacamole to put on top. 1099 for like a quarter of an ounce, but it wasn't the best guacamole you ever had.

Chris: It's up. It was good. It was good. Yeah.

Marc: And then of course you had Amy May with the sweet and sour meatballs.

Chris: Well, I, I would know what they taste like, except that you ate 72 of them and I had three.

Marc: Yeah. My wife is still talking today about how I didn't have enough food for you guys.

Steve: There was plenty enough beef in the, in the nachos. It's not just vegetarian.

Chris: Yeah. Yeah. Well, what I want to know is you just got the beans in there and that's all. What is the difference between beans and vegetarian beans?

Marc: Uh, they just have a better taste to them. That's all. Is he serious? No, they do say vegetarian beans.

Chris: Aren't all beans vegetarian? Aren't aren't.

Steve: Well, if they eat each other, they're really cannibal. Yeah.

Chris: I mean, it's like, you know, I think I was watching a video about that earlier.

Marc: Basically, it's like if you get like, let's say you get like the, uh, you know, like the bush, like barbecued beans, right? You get like a little piece of bacon somewhere mixed in there, you know? Um, and I think it's just not necessary. Okay.

Chris: All right, so Amy May is chiming in. She says, we're welcome. It was fun to watch football with you, too. I know a lot about football. I was raised watching the Steelers of the 70s. Amen, Amy. But what I did want to say, as far as Amy was concerned, is she has told us that she does not like when i interrupt us with all of these comments so if you're watching us live right now obviously you can drop a comment we want everybody to comment we're going to have a lot of fun tonight but what i'm going to do is i'm going to try to pick some more strategic points at which so usually I try to respond to your comment as soon as I see it. But if I don't just stick with us in the show, we'll get to your comments no matter what. I am going to start with comments. There is no ham in the vegetarian. That's Jewish nachos. Yeah. See, I was right. I was right. Unless the beef was not kosher. Dg is in the house. Stop messing with the comments. Robert dg is in the house. What's up dg? How are you? Luke says vegetarian you're fired Uh cds in the house. The doctor is here beans beans the magical fruit Uh, no, you don't want to be tooting in that house. Yeah. Well, we've got some story Well, i've got some stories about that for another time maybe All right, Steelers, we're going to bring it back. We're going to bring it back to the Steelers. Oh, Klein and Strategery. Laugh out loud. Yeah. Thank you for that.

Marc: Mike Tomlin had a end of season press conference, correct?

Chris: Yeah. Well, and Art Rooney, the second made some comments today.

Marc: He's tired of not having any playoff wins.

Chris: So did Art II ease your fears? Let's go to our resident Lifetime Yinzer right here, who has been very critical of the Tomlin and Rooney administration over the past couple years. Steve, did Art II ease any of your fears?

Steve: Well, I mean, no, he did not. But he did say some interesting things that I think we can kind of parse, which are essentially parse. Let's parse. Essentially, what he said was it's a Jewish word, Mark. Are you guys okay?

Chris: Sorry, I'm just looking at it. It's just it's been a crazy night.

Marc: Yeah.

Chris: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah. Christian.

Chris: Hey, listen, this is a this is a no holds barred show. So if you're offended, just don't watch. All right, Steve. What did Art say?

Steve: What are we going to parse? First, we're going to talk about Coach T. What he said about Coach T. He said that we still feel good about him. And that, you know, he is still the same, has the same key characteristics that he had when he first hired him, which I don't know really what that means. He's breathing. Uh, yeah, that's a good characteristic to have. Right. You're going to be a coach. That's a key character. And he said that, you know, he's still the thing. I think that he said that he says he's that he has the attention of the 20 year olds and he keeps them engaged all season. But he did say about making a change, he said they would have made a change if they didn't think that he could still lead them to a championship. Which is interesting because I don't know what characteristics he's talking about that could lead them to a championship because he talked a lot about Kenny Pickett and how the next offensive coordinator needs to have characteristics to make Kenny Pickett a better quarterback. I know. And I also think that that's part of the head coach's job. So if Kenny Pickett isn't progressing, then isn't that part of Tomlin's job also? And he never addressed that, by the way. And I didn't expect him to. Probably, I thought the most interesting thing, and I think you have a different opinion on this, Chris, is when he was talking about Cam and he said, you know, I don't really want to talk about Cam because he's under contract. So he's basically saying, He's under contract, but we'd like to negotiate that salary down and not have him come back in after next year, essentially, because he said after this year, maybe next year, you know. So basically, he's signaling the cam that this could this could be his last year unless he wants to restructure his contract so that he can take some of that money and move it to a second year. And then I think that would work better for the Steelers because they're freeing up some cap space and it works better for the organization. And let's face it, Cam's not worth it when he's getting paid anyway. Not right now. So I thought he was pretty good about that. The other thing he said, you know, that there's there are further improvements coming to the stadium. that they need improvements for them to stay long term. They like what they see, but they need improvements. Now, I don't know what those improvements are. Maybe they need better boxes. I don't know, honestly, because they put a lot of money into that stadium over the last couple of years by enclosing the one end, putting the new television down at the other end and enclosing that end and adding some more seats there. Right. I'm not really sure what he's talking about. I think maybe he's just posturing for a new stadium in 10 or 20 years.

Chris: Right. So let me, let me just address the whole cam Hayward thing. My take on the cam Hayward conversation was more like. We want we want this guy back. He's not going to talk, obviously, you know, he's not going to negotiate a contract through the media. But I think his answer was kind of predicated on everything that came out when they were quoting Cam on the podcast saying, hey, I'm not going to take a pay cut. So it's kind of like, you know, is he drawing a line in the sand? And I would respond to Cam by saying, look, if you leave the Steelers, you're definitely going to take a pay cut. You know, because I don't think anybody's going to pay him more. Look, it's not.

Steve: It's I think they're playing the game, though, of right. Do we cut him? Yes. And I don't think they I don't think I didn't get from what Art said today that they want to cut him. Exactly. And they didn't and he didn't want to even go down that road by saying, I don't want to talk about this.

Chris: Yeah. And the question was actually, I did not like the way the question was posed when, when they asked, when the question was asked, it was kind of like, are you willing to go into next year with Cam Hayward's huge salary cap? Yeah. I mean, anybody's going to, anybody's going to, if they're going to really answer that question, they're going to say, no, it's a huge salary cap hit. And of course, the player is going to say, I don't want to take a pay cut. Well, there's ways they can restructure that in which he doesn't actually take a pay cut.

Steve: They're not going to negotiate that through the media. That's the dumbest thing to do. And I thought that was that was smart. You know, the other thing he did mention was about Mason Rudolph. And he talked out of both sides of his mouth when he was talking about Rudolph, because he was, what did he basically say? Mason showed that we were capable, that what kind of team we were capable of being when we had a quality player. And by the way, that was the first thing he said about the quarterback position. We need to get quality play out of our quarterback. in that position going forward. And then that's when he said he didn't say that Kenny Pickett had quality play, but he did say that Mason Rudolph did have quality play. But I think they're just OK with letting him go because he did say we appreciate what Mason did.

Chris: And he also said they'd like to have him back.

Steve: Yeah, he did say that, but when you're saying we appreciate what Mason did, he's using Mason in the past tense, which means bye, Mason, goodbye. We appreciate of what you did, not of what he's done. You know, there's a big difference there, and I don't know if he's just not that nuanced with his language, but I think these guys use the right language when they're trying to make signals to players about what it is they really want to do. What do you think, Schwaber?

Marc: Well, that's a lot to unpack there. Yeah, I know. Well, on Cam Hayward, I mean, he's still a good player. His big problem now is staying healthy. Yeah. So, you know, you don't want to spend that kind of money on a guy who's going to maybe play half the season for you. Right. You know. But I think, you know, with his relationship with the Steelers, I'm sure they can work something out or where he'll come back at a lower price. It'll still be a pretty hefty price. Believe me.

Chris: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Marc: You know, like like the Eagles, like they bring back like Fletcher Cox every year is not too different than like Cam Hayward. And like he comes back for like 12 million. Right. You know, instead of 20 million.

Chris: You know what I mean? Right. Right. And Kyle's in the house. He's on Instagram watching us. What's up, Kyle? How are you doing? Um, so how do you feel about, um, they did ask him about the Tomlin extension and he, and he said the same thing, you know, we're not gonna, we're not gonna negotiate, you know, Tomlin's contract here in the press. Um, I.

Marc: Well, I mean, look, I think, unfortunately, now it depends on if you like Tomlin or you don't like Tomlin, whether it's fortunately or unfortunately, right? If you like Tomlin, then it's fortunately. Overall, there's nothing wrong with trying to win every year, you know? So, you know, they see themselves, they're a playoff team right now, and they can be a playoff team again next year, so why would you make a change? That's sort of the glass is half full lens to it. The glass is half empty is you really have to be willing to say, we're going to take a step back and in all likelihood, you know, unless we pull off like a Texans type season, you know, we're not going to be in the playoffs if we're going to move on to another coach and start to rebuild. Right. So they don't want to do that. Now, me personally, I would rather my team, you know, be under 500 and have a down year or two and get some high picks and kind of restock and kind of bring a new group of young good players up together. But that's not what they're going to do. So I think we're kind of stuck with what we got and you never know. I mean, Look, I don't think it's a Steelers type of move, but geez, like, you know, if they would bring in like a Kirk Cousins or somebody like that, I mean, they could contend, you know, but they're not going to do that, you know, because they're kind of, I think they're a little bit stuck in their own path sometimes where, look, they still want to prove that they were right about Kenny Pickett.

Steve: Well, I think they have soured a little bit this year. There's no doubt about that. And mostly because of the play of Mason Rudolph in the last three games. The question is, are they willing to make it a real competition? Are they gonna say, we've hired an offensive coordinator to specifically work with Kenny to make him better. And the other thing that Rooney said was, it's basically Tomlin's decision. So, you know, they're not gonna hire some young. some young kid who's going to have some crazy schemes and they're going to, they should bring in a new quarterback for that position, right? They're going to bring in like an Arthur Smith who, you know, knows how to run the ball, knows how to run some schemes a little bit differently, maybe has a little bit more of a complex offense, but they've got to do something different on the offense. So I think no matter who they bring in. God, can it be worse? I just don't know. And, you know, if it can, then, you know, it can be.

Marc: It could be.

Steve: If they hired that offensive coordinator from from Carolina, I think it would get worse if.

Marc: Yeah. I mean, you never know. I'm sure there's another Matt Canada out there somewhere. You know, so it could get worse. I guess it could. But I mean, I mean, I would really like to see Mason Rudolph be the be the starter next year. And I truly believe if they let them compete equally in in the preseason and in training camp, I think Mason Rudolph would would win the job. He certainly has the endorsement of his teammates. You know, you heard, you know, Deontay Johnson and Pickens. He's our guy.

Steve: Well, I think Pickens also said on when they were cleaning out their lockers that, you know, Kenny, Kenny is a really good quarterback and, you know, he has confidence in him, too. So I think the wide receiver is going to play both sides of that fence. They just want the ball.

Chris: Right. I, you know, I'm not sure that we really got any answers out of him, to be honest with you, that anything other than they did.

Steve: The only thing was Tom one's going to be picking the offensive coordinator and he liked this year's draft class. That was really the only truly definitive thing that he said. And he said he thought the direction of the Steelers from last year to this year was up, but he didn't say. How high up he says it's going in the right direction, which just means they made the playoffs and they last year they didn't.

Chris: So a couple of comments from people here. DG says, uh, that Rudolph said that Tomlin and Omar both said they want him back. But he's got to know he's really going to be a backup to pick it. If they pay him a fair backup salary, he might stay. You know, C.D. says Tomlin needs to hire smarter, creative coordinators. We know that. God forbid Arthur Smith, who does not highlight talent on the roster and Terry's in the house. Thanks for being here, Mason. He united that team, energized them and rallied around them, giving him shot, give him a shot. The thing that I got from Rooney too is when he talked about Pickett, he talked about a progression. You see a progression. And he also referenced some other quarterbacks. He didn't, I don't think he referenced them by name, but what he referenced was the fact that You know, you know, in year two, year three, you know, year four, you start to see progress. And that's what we would hope to see with Kenny.

Marc: And for some, I mean, like, like, you know, Josh Allen, for example, took off in his fourth year. True. But I think that's more the exception than the rule.

Chris: Oh, he's he's infinitely more talented as a quarterback than Kenny Pickett. That's easy to see. Yeah.

Marc: Yeah, but I mean, even just it taking four years, you know what I mean? It didn't take CJ Stroud four years, it took him four weeks. Yeah, that's true.

Steve: The thing that's interesting about Mason and Kenny competing for it, How much do you think they got to sign Rudolph for? He's got to get like seven or eight million, right? Yeah. Well, think about that. It'd be double what Kenny's making next year. How can you pay that money and then not and then Kenny start? That doesn't make sense.

Marc: Well, here's the thing. You know what I mean? Well, first of all, they did pay that money to Trubisky. They paid him 10 million. Yeah. Well, he's going to get cut with with chooks right after the suit Right, but I mean like before the start of this year, you know, and the previous year, so you can have somebody who's making more. I think if I'm Mason Rudolph, the reason why I would stay is because, you know, look, Mason Rudolph is going to be very borderline to get a starting job elsewhere. He's going to have to fight for it wherever he is.

Steve: Yeah, he'll be a backup wherever he gets signed. He's not going to be a starter unless maybe not. I mean, unless maybe Baker Mayfield goes elsewhere and Tampa Bay likes it or somebody maybe gets injured, you know, or something like that.

Marc: Yeah. But, you know. I mean, my thought on it is, he's going to have to compete no matter where he is. And if you're him, and honestly, you're looking at the first two years of Kenny Pickett, and you could be saying to yourself, hey, if I waited out four or five weeks, this is maybe the best place to be.

Steve: You're right. I mean, I can I can see Mason staying for that reason. Yeah. And especially if they give him like a three year contract. Right. Yeah. And then you got some stability and, you know, you could be backup quarterback or maybe even start if it's a true competition. And he's he knows they're bullshit at this point. Right. So he'll be able to decide whether or not he wants to stay for it or leave.

Marc: The difference, though, is that because he played so well at the end of this season, The pressure from the fan base is going to be enormous if Kenny Pickett doesn't get off to a good start.

Steve: It's going to be enormous. That's the thing that we're not talking about and it's impossible to talk about it because you don't know how he's going to play. Right. Right. You know, it's all predicated on that. But as a manager of that, you probably don't even want to go in the season with that, like as a possibility, because that's a management nightmare. Well, it's bad. It's bad for Kenny, because now you're constantly asking. You're getting asked questions every week. What's your criteria for who's going to start this week? And, and Kenny didn't have a really good game. Are you thinking about playing Mason Rudolph now? And that's just like as, as a, as a head coach and even the offensive coordinator, how do you, you can't answer those questions without throwing somebody under the bus.

Marc: But see, here's, here's the thing though with that. Like it's one thing if you've got a guy who is like a bona fide you know like a top 10 pick type starting quarterback and you don't want some the crowd pulling for the veterans so you almost have like a no backup so that you know it's never called into question but you know that scenario you might be not thinking about the playoffs in the Steelers scenario they're thinking playoffs they're thinking we want to win a playoff game right So you kind of have to have a good quarterback as a backup because they're certainly not certain on Kenny Pickett, no matter what they say. And he gets injured every year.

Chris: Right. Well, and I think the bigger issue here is after a couple years of hearing them talk about, well, the goal is just to try to make the playoffs. Now, all of a sudden, you're hearing ownership say, hey, look, we got to win a playoff game.

Steve: No, he said wins. We didn't play off. We need win.

Chris: Whatever we need. We need playoff wins. Well, you know, where the hell have you been?

Marc: Well, that's the that should be a message every year.

Chris: Exactly. And how are you going to win a playoff game or get wins in the playoffs? When Kenny Pickett is your quarterback and he obviously, I mean, I guess the benefit of the doubt here is that it's been a very chaotic, offensive scheme situation. And he came into, you know, a situation that where he couldn't, there wasn't anything stable there. So maybe they picked the right guy, which I wanted to go down, down this list here. Uh, Brown from Carolina, horrible, horrible choice.

Steve: choice they could make.

Chris: I mean, I don't even know. I don't even know why they think that that would be even reasonable. Where do they go from there?

Marc: I mean, you know, they're looking at Gerard Johnson. Yeah. He's the guy that helps CJ Stroud. CJ Stroud. So that makes sense. But he's not an OC. He's not, but he could be, you know, an up and comer.

Chris: And sometimes Tomlin said he wants somebody that called place. Oh, he does? Yeah, Tomlin has said that.

Steve: He didn't say that, but you know what? Tomlin can always change his mind.

Chris: This is true. Yeah. This is true. Just like we change our minds on a daily basis. We're allowed to. About how we feel about each other on this show.

Steve: Well, who's even outside the show?

Marc: Well, who's, well, there's Arthur. Arthur Smith. Arthur Smith. Yeah. Although, you know, usually if somebody interviews and then like they're not signed within like 48 hours, you kind of wonder if it's going to happen or not.

Steve: Yeah, well, I mean, you know, Tomlin said he had he had to put together his pecking order. So I don't know if all of his pecking order has been through the fence yet.

Marc: Yeah. Yeah. One thing one thing I will always got to take one thing I will say, which I find disappointing if I'm a stealer, you can play. If I'm a Steelers fan, I, this is something I do find disappointing. Like, you know, everybody else is like, you know, doing three interviews a day to try to grab the best people. And it's like the Steelers, like, you know, through the first round of the, you know, like, I don't know, it just seems like it's taken them so long to hear about interviews.

Steve: Well, maybe the Steelers want the San Francisco 49ers offensive coordinator.

Chris: That's a possibility. You think? Yeah.

Steve: I don't know. I mean, it's possible.

Marc: Well, that's Shanahan calls the place. He does. Right. He does. Yeah. But they still might want them. Yeah.

Steve: I mean, he's an offensive coordinator.

Marc: Right. Who would you know it is?

Steve: No, I don't even know his name. I don't even feel like looking it up to be honest. Other guy from Still Valley that people keep talking about.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Forget his name.

Chris: Yeah.

Steve: Honestly, it doesn't really matter. The important thing to know is Tomlin's making the call, so when it comes down, you can say, well, this is Tomlin's guy, and sink or swim with him, really, when it comes down to it.

Marc: That's what they do every year. Now, here's an interesting question. So, is or is not the Steelers' offensive coordinator job a good job? You know, do you think folks would want that job? Now I'm not talking about, you know, the quarterback coach who of course is going to take that job. And I'm not really even talking about, hey, Steelers are a great organization. I want that job. Just as far as the pieces on the team, on the offense, and that you have to work with Tomlin. and his sort of strategy of run the ball, play defense kind of offense. Is it an enticing position or not?

Chris: I think you could come up with reasons why it is and reasons why it isn't.

Marc: So you're saying it could be or could not be.

Chris: C.D. says Matt Nagy from Lancaster County. What does he do out there, farm? In Lancaster, yeah, they grow tobacco and tip cows. Interesting perspective, Chris. Tell us more. Well, I grew up in York. I, you know, I spent a little time in Lancaster. And for all of you yinzers out there and other people, it's not Lancaster. That's if you're in England, it's Lancaster. Are you Amish? As if that matters. No, I am not. I am not Amish, although I have a mean beard.

Marc: I have been accused of that. I thought I saw you going down the street in a buggy. Yeah, you're fine.

Steve: I thought I saw him shoveling the you know what behind shoveling the shit. He does that here. No, Mark's point is actually an excellent point, which is. Who wants to, who wants to be offensive coordinator for the Steelers? The bottom line on that is nobody wants to be offensive coordinator. I think you're right. I think you're right. If they have the philosophy of run first and then pass. And that's why you get all these old guys popping up like Arthur Smith, right? Because that's all they, that they know that game, right? They understand that game. And unless Tomlin's willing to change up his defense a little bit so that. It's a quick hit offense and they score more points and the defense is going to be on the field some more That it's it's a disaster. It'll the the mix will be way off and it'll actually be a lot worse next year than better D wins on instagram says I love this

Chris: Uh, this is where, this is where the speculation and all this crap is. It's great. A few weeks before the end of the year, John Gruden was at a home game of ours. He worked with Tomlin in Tampa. Could he be a candidate for OC? He is known as a QB specialist.

Marc: I'm sure that Goodell is going to approve that.

Chris: I was going to say, he's also known as something else right now, but, but in all, in all seriousness with, with, with a guy like Gruden, he wouldn't be allowed to send emails. No, the shame is, yeah, the shame is that all of that stuff happened. But there's a mind that I think would be good for football, a football mind that would be good for football. As far as the O.C. position. Is he an offensive guy, though? Yeah. Well, he also created the Tampa 2 defense. He was the originator of that. So,

Marc: You know, I mean, he's, he's got it on, but he, he was a great, I don't think that was, I think that was, uh, that's Dungy. That was Dungy. He stole that off Dungy. Did he steal it off Dungy? Yeah.

Steve: He just stole it off of Knoll really.

Marc: He just won the Superbowl with it. He just won the Superbowl with it.

Steve: It all comes back to Chuck Knoll these days.

Chris: Yeah. Let's get back to Chuck Knoll. Hey, is Chuck Nole available? I think in another world, maybe. In a parallel universe. That's right, he died. Yeah, but if you believe that all time is happening at the same time. It's flat. We're going to come back and he's going to be there.

Marc: You got it. You believe we don't die, don't you? Conspiracies.

Chris: I don't know if that's a conspiracy or spiritual thing. The question is, are we really alive? Well, it's not. Listen, listen. You don't… Here's something that I heard today. Here's something I heard today that I do believe in. Okay. You don't have a soul. You are a soul.

Marc: You have a body. That means you just think too much. How about that? Yeah. Yeah.

Chris: Nobody's ever really accused me of that.

Steve: You should have been doing more graphics for our thing here.

Marc: Yeah. Like, look at me. I'm intelligent.

Chris: I try. I try. I try. Okay. Oh, speed job for Pittsburgh, I think is a very, that's a very tough call. If you say, is it a place somebody would want to go or not want to go? It's a real tough call. I think as far as Tomlin is concerned, you're going to have to, you are going to have to conform to the idea that he is a run first, more of an old. Imagine thinking like when they hired Tomlin that even at the age of, I don't know, 53, 52, whatever he is, that you'd be calling him an old school coach, but he's more of an old school coach.

Marc: Oh, yeah, he definitely is. You know, to be honest, though, I wonder, well, he was defense first. You know, if you look at the teams and if you look at the teams in the final four of the NFL this year. Yeah. All of them run the ball very well. I mean, I think running the ball is actually kind of coming back in. I hope it is.

Chris: Honestly, I think it is.

Steve: No, it's always been. You guys are always so focused on the past. It's always been. You run the ball so that you can pass the ball. Do you understand what I mean? Yes. Well, except because if you pass the ball like Baltimore did yesterday and we should get into the games yesterday, we're going to, because we're, if you pass the ball, if you like, they, they ran the ball six times, six times, they gave it to a running back for Baltimore and they got killed because there wasn't enough mix between the run and the pass.

Marc: And that's what Detroit screwed up in the second half. They had six runs in the second half.

Steve: Same thing. And what did San Francisco do? They stuck with the run. Even when they were down by three scores, they still ran McCaffrey. And even though he was getting stuffed at the line, they said, it doesn't matter. We have to continue to run the ball. And you don't run it right. You get creative with it. Right. And when you have CMC, you can get pretty damn creative.

Marc: Yes.

Steve: Although I would say that that's the difference. Like you shouldn't be run all the time. You have to, you have to run the open up the past and the past has to be a deep pass. So then it loosens up the run again. And then it's when you have the chance to run, when you have the chance to pass, you pass and you can do whatever you want. And then the defense is on their heels. That's what's successful in the NFL.

Chris: Okay, so we're gonna although one other thing though.

Marc: I go for it for the other side of the coin on that though is the the The idea that you you pass the ball to get the lead and then you run the ball to win the game, right?

Steve: But you still have to be able to run the ball, right? Sure Yeah, so you're not just you're not continue like what the bills tried to do the past three years. They just passed They could never run the ball. That's why I like them this year, but they just they didn't get it done. No, I

Chris: OK, so we're going to do our picks now and I want to announce that our playoff records last week, Steve and I picked the Chiefs to win and Mark picked the Ravens and me and Mark picked the Lions and Steve picked the Niners. So this is the first week that Mark was winless in the entire football season.

Marc: So, but the Grand Swabini has another thing coming. He saves it for the big game.

Chris: Yes. That is like the weirdest looking lamp. It's like a, it doesn't matter. You got it for me. No, no. DG got it. DG got it.

Marc: DG, DG.

Chris: It's a magic lamp. The records are now at least we have a little bit of a little bit of drama with this now because Mark is eight and four and Steve is eight and four. It comes down to one game. So it's the Super Bowl and I am three and nine hundred and thirty seven. So I had a horrible year picking games. Oh, you're really bad. I am bad. That's because I always go opposite of you. Yeah, I don't.

Marc: You're not even really. So you're not even really. And then you're just you're not even really picking past week two. I know. you know, you get yourself into like a one in five hole and then you're like, whatever you're not picking. Yeah, that's true. That's exactly how it is. It's kind of like waiting for us to mess up.

Chris: That's exactly how it is. All right. So we're going to do our, we're going to do our, uh, Superbowl picks. I want you to drop your comment for your Superbowl. Yeah. Let's just do them this week. I got an idea. Here's what we're going to do. Let's do them this week and we can get a do over next. That's exactly right. Okay. Okay.

Marc: Because there'll be injury ports and there was, there was one of the defensive linemen for the chiefs tours ACL. The one who came out last, uh, Oh yeah, that guy that was hobbling.

Chris: So he's out. Okay. So, uh, Superbowl picks Steve.

Steve: Well, it's really pretty simple. There is no way the NFL wants Patrick Mahomes to be two and two in Superbowls. They absolutely want him to be three and one so they can push the narrative of the new Tom Brady flags picked up. And on top of that, when they do raise the Superbowl trophy, Travis Kelsey can take it all over the world, over the Europe. And he can get all the people over there say, look, this is the NFL. It's the trophy. So what are you a Swifty? And so, so, so we already know. So they can push the narrative of NFL in Europe through Taylor Swift. It's just brilliant marketing. So there's no way they're going to let Kansas City lose.

Chris: Well, so, so you're saying it's going to be scripted. They all are Chris scripted Lord.

Marc: Well, it's going to be interesting because we're going to have to go off of points because the Grand Schwabini also sees a scripted Kansas City Chiefs victory. There are going to be some flags that are picked up and Wasn't offside. Poof. Wasn't pass interference. Poof. Ball was uncatchable. Never called, but in the Super Bowl, yes. Poof. Patrick Mahomes. Oh, that's a roughing the passer. Mahomes interception. Oh no. Holding on the defense. Five yards. First down. Um, so all that's going to happen and it will be the chiefs.

Chris: Yeah. I, I was very distracted by the vigorous nature of your lamp rubbing. Well, that's a problem. All right. So what you pick the chiefs, chiefs, chiefs, you guys pick the chiefs, the chefs.

SPEAKER_03: Yes. All right. I'm going the opposite. I'm picking the nine.

Marc: You're a Purdy man.

Chris: Anyway, Brock, Brock Purdy, hall of fame, hall of fame. That boy will be in the hall of fame. Listen, he is unflappable love affair, unflappable. I'm telling you right now, this is the year my homes goes down. Brock Purdy is going to win this game. Their defense is going to, it's just going to outplay. Patrick Mahomes.

Marc: Their defense was so good in the first half against Detroit and Green Bay.

Chris: Yep. Taylor Swift is going to be so disappointed and she's going to break up with Travis Kelsey because, you know, she wants a Superbowl. She wants to write a song about the Superbowl.

Marc: Yeah, that's what's going to happen. All right. So what's the final score, Steve? You going with?

Steve: I don't actually think it's going to be a very high scoring game. I think it's going to be mid 20s. I'm going to go with just going to be a field goal in there. Probably both teams 2724. Wow, it'll be close. Wow, it'll be close.

Marc: I swore to God I had the score in my head 27242624 holy cow.

Steve: I do. We agree on this. I think it's going to be a really close game. Yeah. But I don't think it's going to be as close as I because I think what happens is San Francisco scores late. They have a chance to go down the field, but they just can't.

Marc: I think what's going to happen is the old classic. The refs come in again. And you know what?

Chris: You got to hold it up a little higher when everybody's dead.

Marc: Oh, that's a that's a personal foul. So now the whole two minutes after the two minute warning are kneel downs for Pat Mahomes.

Chris: Patty Mahomes. OK, and I think it's going to be to no good. Can I get my points in here? Thirty five, twenty one Niners. I think it's going to be not even close.

Steve: There you go. I think if the Niners are going to win, I think that's that's the right score. They're going to have to score a lot of points. There you go. There you go.

Chris: All right. Uh, thanks for watching everybody. We're we've still got another segment to go here, but I want to remind you, you're watching the sports porch on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram now. And obviously we dropped the podcast right after the show on the I heart radio app, apple podcast. Uh spotify and anywhere you get your freaking podcast. Amy may says she's seen enough of the lamp She's had enough lamp. Yep. She's she's tired of your rubbing Sorry, put your lamp away. Sorry, my lady put that lamp down. Okay Uh, uh podcast we drop it right after the show guys. You can always visit us at the porches live.com. That is our website and uh this is it's going to be a quick one i guess because um as you all know if you're a penguins fan we do have hockey jesus in the house um there he is right there right across from me hockey jesus preaches on the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or anywhere you get your podcasts after every single penguins game uh you can tune in and listen to how he feels about the penguins latest debacle or win or overtime loss or whatever you don't want to count it. So hockey Jesus. Preach away. Not a whole lot now because we got the all-star break. They're not playing till Tuesday next week, right?

Steve: That's true. They don't play until February 6th. They have a home game against Winnipeg that that night. The Jets are like, I think that's a week from tonight. It's a long way. It's Tuesday. So it's a little. Oh, yeah.

Chris: Oh, yeah.

Steve: It's a week basically a week from tomorrow. There's been a lot of emotion in this past week. I mean, they could have really they could have literally have gone. Owen for in their last four games, and I think that would have opened the floodgates to trading Jake Ansel. I, I still don't know if they will trade him or not. Honestly, I really don't know, but that overtime loss, uh, to Florida and then the, and in the shootout really, and then the, uh, the overtime win against Montreal. So they get three out of four points in our last two games. May have saved it. I'll put it this way. If they're going to sign Jake Gensel, it'll be this week. They'll make an announcement this week that they signed Jake to a long-term contract. If they sign him this week, my guess is it'll be between $8 and $9.5 million a year. It'll be in that neighborhood, which is a little bit of a discount because supposedly his market is the knee-lander market and he got $10 million a year for six years.

Chris: Question, should they sign Jake Gensler?

Steve: Well, this is the big question. It depends on how you feel about the Pittsburgh Penguins today. If you think that they're a playoff team this year and can be a playoff team again next year, yes, they absolutely should sign him. If you don't think that the Pittsburgh Penguins can make the playoffs this year and have absolutely no chance next year, they should absolutely trade him. Because the reality is they only really have. The reality is is the windows probably already closed to another to another Stanley Cup with this group, right? So the question remains, can they at least make the playoffs and do OK and still continue down the path of let's watch Sid go from 21st overall in points to 20th? You know, down the line until he gets into the top 10.

Chris: and how long will malkin hold on during that time period i i i personally in the malkin yeah i think i think i know malkin as far as a player goes in his production like an average nfl player is not having a terrible year but for malkin he's having a bad year and and from what i've seen what i've heard. I hate to say but i think he's done.

Steve: Well, the problem with Malkin is and he's always been this way in his career. He has games where he can just take over the whole game, right? And then he has games where he just doesn't want to play. And lately he's had one game like that and then five or six games where he doesn't play. That's what I'm saying. And that's the problem. Like you don't mind when he takes over a game because literally they just decimate the other team or he's the reason they win the game. Um, he did score, he did score the, the goal to tie, uh, uh, send that game in the Florida and overtime, but he had a horrible game. Like the only reason he scored was because Sid, of course, who's having probably one of the best years in his career, just hit him with a blind pass. Kind of like he did with Jake the other night. And, and Gino just buried it and look, they took Gino off the first power play. I've been clamoring for that for, I think they're listening to 10 or 15 games. I, because he just won't shoot the puck. And, you know, I think they actually need to put, um, I think they need to put Carlson back on the first, but there's something about the way Sid and Jake and let Tang have this chemistry when they're out there that. Carlson doesn't quite have yet, but he'll never get it if he's not out there. And I actually think that Carlson's a much better puck mover than Latang is. So for that reason, I think they need to put Carlson back on the first and then maybe get Latang to get some of that chemistry with Malkin on the second. I think that would work really well. And by the way, they put my guy, Pustin, up there, Valery Pustin. Only because the guy shoots the hell out of the puck. And that's all they really need. You just need a trigger guy on that power play. Somebody, when they get it, they're not stopping the puck and thinking about passing it. As soon as the puck's coming to them, they're setting up and they're getting ready for a one-time slap shot and they get it on goal. And I think that will make the power play better. But to the Jake Gensel point I can I can I can argue either side of it but the way I feel about it now is I just feel that if you remove Jake from this team this team will not make the playoffs and it will not be any good and you still can't get rid of like Gino. And not that you would get rid of the Tang or any of the other guys, you can't get rid of any of those guys. So now you have a less talented team, right? And you still have the same core that you can't do anything with. Now everybody would say, well, but you'd get some other players that would be good, but you know, the way it is with other players to come in, it takes them a little bit of time to figure it out. So maybe they would figure it out in the next year, but if they didn't, they would be in a much worse position for next year.

Marc: Well, what about like a contending team that just could use a scoring boost to send Malcolm to that, you know, to that team and, you know, maybe get back some picks and then that way it frees up money to spend on Gensler.

Steve: The problem with Malkin's contract and literally Malkin, Rust, Sid, not that you would move Sid, LeTang, Those four guys in particular, they all have no movement clauses. Oh, do they? Yeah. So when they signed them, they, they signed it a discount so that they would get the no movement.

Chris: Well, and they, they've been playing together for so long. They just want to keep playing again.

Steve: Now, if they wanted to leave and let's say, let's just say, Hey, do you want to go play for GM JR over in Vancouver? They look like they could probably win the cup. And they said, yes, then you could trade them. But they would have to agree to it first. And these guys are not going to agree to it.

Chris: Is this still like the ghost of Ron Hextall?

Steve: No, no, no. I don't get that feeling, but I wanted to ask that question. This got rid of all of those guys, right? This is of his making, like bringing Carlson in maybe wasn't the right thing to do because yes, he's a great talent, but is he the right fit on the team? And you never know that without going out and getting the guy.

Chris: Yeah. Well, he's another he's he's an offensive defenseman and that's kind of what letang is.

Steve: So, you know, it's I don't know. I don't think they know how to coach him either because he's such a he's such a unicorn like you just have to let him play in my opinion. And I heard this actually from John Steigerwald. I think he was being interviewed by Mark Madden and I thought it was brilliant. They should just release him. They should just let him be who he is. Like don't don't think of him as a defenseman. Just always have somebody who who comes in and and goes to the point whenever he's got the puck and let him go wherever he wants to go and just just protect from you know a two-on-one maybe the other way right and just say okay do whatever you want because you're such a playmaker and it's not working trying to keep you on the blue line which is where he makes all his mistakes and then they're going the other way two-on-one anyways because he can't catch up with them so let him play his game yeah just let him play let him go i think if they if think i think if they would do that And they would have to change your strategy around then that's a strategy They don't want to change around because now you always have to have a forward like say drew o'connor who's always watching him And instead of thinking he's getting the puck. He's thinking. Okay. When is he going to make his move? So I got to go go protect from from the two-on-one the other way. It's it's trickier than you think Um, and and that's the problem with the jake genzel thing because if you do trade him and you get players who are good They're not going to trade him to like Philadelphia. Let's just face it. Of course, they're going to trade him to probably Vancouver if he's going to get traded or maybe the L.A. Kings. He's going to go to the West Coast. Right. They're going to send them out of probably even out of the East, to be honest with you. They would. So that's the only way they would do it. And. I don't know, they just haven't done it, and I just don't see them doing it now.

Chris: Well, there you have it. Hockey Jesus who creatures. Oh yeah. Yeah. Reweedle update. Oh, sorry about that. I always forget about Reweedle. That's because who was our guy last year? Uh, who was the guy who was the guy?

Marc: Yeah.

Chris: Who was it?

Steve: It's uh, they got rid of him like mid season.

Chris: Yeah. Now he's having it now. He's doing well. Um, Who was it? Oh, shit. I can't remember. I don't really care. Oh, yeah. Blooger, Teddy. Blooger!

Marc: Blooger update, Teddy Blooger. Nobody ever matches the original. Like, there'll never be another Chickalow. There won't. There'll never be another Blooger.

Chris: We need Chickalow on the podcast. If anybody out there knows Chickalow, give Chicks a call.

Marc: Yeah, we'd love to have Chickalow on the show.

Chris: Yeah, just so we can have Chickalow on the show. Chickalow on the show. Then we can eat chick, what are chicklets? Chickalow knows. Or Chick-fil-A. He should have his own chicklet. Chickalow's chicklets. Chickalow's Chick-fil-A. I don't know. Not enough to talk about anymore with football being over for the Steelers. That was Hockey Jesus preaching on the podcast right here on the sports porch. And if you're watching us live, thank you so much live on social media, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn X, and Instagram. And as you can see at the bottom of the screen, you could screen, you could catch the sports porch podcast. We drop the show after this show and you can get it anywhere. You get your podcasts. Uh, I think we're going to bring back over the next couple of weeks. We're going to bring back. What are you watching?

Marc: Yeah, let's do it.

Chris: We're going to bring back headlines that mean something, have a little fun. Cause we're going into what we like to call the dead zone. And, and I don't know if you know this, I was telling Schwaber, I think you might've assumed this. We're going to be doing the Superbowl here this year again.

Steve: So of course you are, you're not going to be here. I didn't hear that. Why? Oh, I don't know if I'm ready for that.

Chris: That's like a, that's a big commitment to come here and watch the Superbowl going on and have free food.

Marc: It could get a little haywire.

Chris: This house is dry. Well, you can bring wet stuff.

SPEAKER_01: Sorry.

Steve: You wouldn't know about the wet stuff.

Chris: That was not nice. I'll bring my own wet stuff. Coming from you, that was not nice.

Marc: But we're even. Can we make some recommendations for the food? Sure. Go right ahead. Okay. All right. No, no, go, go right ahead. I will think about it. Oh yeah.

Chris: We got to make a list. Yeah. Are you going to bring a famous Schwab's Jewish nachos?

Steve: No, no. I want to, I want to try them with the kibos.

Marc: I want, maybe I should bring them with the kibos. Yeah. And, uh, he's not endorsing that by the way. Yeah. Um, I, I would like lobster this year.

Steve: All right, well you go catch us a few lobsters. Anybody up in Maine got some extra lobsters?

Chris: Actually, I could go down to Woolies. Send them down to Pittsburgh. I could go down to Woolies there. Jeff, just like the old days, party at Chris's. Oh, just like the old days.

Steve: Hey, if you remember some of those old days, Jeff. We need to hear about that.

Chris: This is what I'm going to tell you. Okay. We all went to college together. So I can tell you right now, Jeff's old days with me and your old days with me. Yeah. The same. Right.

Marc: So as you were living the same lifestyle in high school. Yes, I was. And that's very sad.

Steve: Yes, it looks like he wants some brownies.

Marc: That was fun at the time. Looking back, it's it's a shame.

Chris: Well, looking back, I'm having nightmares. Jeff says, yeah, right. OK. And Amy wants Lauren's brownies. And I'm sure she will be happy to accommodate you there. Sounds good. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: So long.

Chris: All right. Well, this was a fun one tonight, guys. And thanks for being here, everybody, on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube X, and of course, Instagram, we have added. We're going to drop the podcast in about 15 minutes so you can catch up on it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you get your freaking podcasts. And remember to subscribe, leave us a review. That's it, guys. We made it. We did it. We made it. One more show under our belt. 122. There you go.

Chris: Thanks, Jeff.

Chris: You have a good week. Thanks, Amy. Great show. Get yourself some cornbread. Yeah. Get yourself some cornbread. All right, guys. That's it. I am your technical director and I am out. Thank you, DG.