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americanexpress.com/with Amex. Terms apply. Welcome

1:06

to the Peter King Podcast. And

1:08

man, it is a jam act.

1:11

Late January, post-divisional,

1:14

pre-conference championship podcast

1:17

with my good friend and co-host,

1:19

Miles Simmons. We're going to be

1:21

joined later in the podcast by

1:23

Michael McCambridge. I sort of, he's

1:26

an author. He's written a lot of things. He

1:29

wrote a huge tome, a

1:31

history of Sports Illustrated, 24

1:33

years ago, something. And

1:38

I wanted to have him on because I think I

1:40

stirred up a hornet's nest talking in

1:42

my column, writing in my column this

1:44

week, Football Morning in

1:47

America, about the very,

1:49

very sad demise. Of

1:51

Sports Illustrated. So we're going to

1:54

have Michael McCambridge on to discuss

1:56

that. And Miles, you

1:58

know, we're- going to go over

2:01

the two games that were just played. We're

2:04

going to preview in the back half

2:06

of the pod the two

2:08

games about to be played

2:11

this weekend. Kansas City at

2:13

Baltimore obviously and Detroit at

2:16

San Francisco. But

2:18

I must say that

2:22

in the weekend's games the thing that

2:24

really hit me is

2:27

something that happened in Buffalo. And

2:32

you know this is it's a

2:34

rarity in the NFL for the media when

2:37

after a game you leave

2:39

the game to go

2:41

to the locker room and you got to walk through the crowd.

2:44

But you have to do that in Buffalo and

2:47

I have to say that

2:50

was one angry

2:54

incensed crowd you

2:57

know screaming out things a lot of

2:59

which 90 percent

3:01

of which you can't quote directly

3:05

because of the curse

3:08

words. But basically

3:11

one guy his plaintiff whale was

3:15

we will never

3:17

effing win. And

3:19

you know it's hard to argue with

3:21

him you know to for the for

3:23

the Buffalo Bills to have been as close as they

3:26

have with Jim Kelly and now

3:28

with Josh Allen. There's got

3:30

to be some sadness a friend of mine who

3:33

works up there Vic Carucci

3:35

longtime NFL writer. I talked

3:39

to him on Monday every text

3:41

on Monday and he said he

3:43

dropped his grandchild off at

3:46

kindergarten and one of the other

3:48

moms said yeah my my

3:50

husband just said I'm not going to work today. And

3:53

she said to him a little dramatic. But

3:56

anyway that's what I

3:58

saw in Buffalo. And Miles,

4:02

I am not joining the

4:05

party that says Josh

4:07

Allen is some limited guy and

4:10

he can't get his team over

4:13

the top. They're going

4:15

to be bridesmaids forever. I

4:19

don't like that at all. I think it's

4:21

lazy. And could

4:23

he have made better plays? I want

4:25

to dissect the end of that game.

4:27

The only thing that really bothers me

4:29

about it. But welcome to you. And

4:32

what are you thinking as

4:34

the game is, you know,

4:38

as the clock is winding down

4:40

and you're seeing another excruciating loss

4:42

for the Buffalo Bills? Well,

4:45

I watched the game with a bunch

4:47

of Chiefs fans. So they were extraordinarily

4:49

happy that that field goal went right,

4:51

right. And you know, it's obviously something

4:53

that's happened to Buffalo before. We're not

4:55

in the divisional round and a higher

4:57

stakes game than that. But

5:00

it's interesting, Peter, you know, growing

5:02

up in Cleveland, there was also that sort

5:04

of sense of we will never effing win.

5:06

Right. And it's something that the

5:08

Browns have certainly gone through in their

5:11

own time. But I feel for Buffalo

5:13

fans in the sense that this is

5:15

excruciating because you keep going through

5:18

the same thing again and again

5:20

and again. And three divisional round

5:22

exits in a row is

5:25

really disappointing for that team. And

5:27

you know, I think it

5:29

is about the team, right. It's not just

5:32

about Josh Allen and whether Josh Allen is

5:34

good enough to do it, et cetera. So,

5:36

you know, Patrick Mahomes is the greatest quarterback

5:39

that I've ever seen. Right. And

5:41

I know Tom Brady is Tom Brady, but

5:43

there is a difference

5:45

in the skill set and what's going

5:47

on right now. We are in the

5:50

middle of this guy's

5:52

prime and he is still elevating

5:54

his team week after week after

5:57

week in the most critical games

5:59

and most critical. critical situations. I

6:01

did not think a month

6:03

ago, even two weeks ago, that we

6:06

would be talking about the Kansas City

6:08

Chiefs in the AFC championship game. And

6:10

I think they had a chance, sure,

6:12

because 15 is there. But everybody in

6:15

that offense had just been so unreliable

6:17

that, you know, you see it when

6:19

Nicole Hartman is fumbling on the

6:21

one yard line because it's first in goal and

6:23

he doesn't put the ball away. He tries to

6:26

stretch it out and it's a quick oblique. I

6:28

mean, these are the kinds of things that have

6:30

been going on. But in this

6:32

particular instance, the Buffalo Bills made

6:34

more mistakes at the end of the game. Right.

6:37

So I think that that game is not

6:39

just about Josh Allen. It's about how

6:42

do the Bills as a team figure

6:45

out a way to make the right plays

6:47

in the right situation. I

6:49

don't know what the correct answer is for that.

6:51

But it seems like Buffalo doesn't know

6:54

it either because again, three straight divisional

6:56

round exit. Yeah,

6:59

I totally agree.

7:02

I'm not going to go

7:04

panicsville on this team

7:07

in any way, shape or form. And

7:09

I'll tell you, there's a couple of

7:11

things that I thought of, you

7:14

know, as we were going down the stretch

7:16

of this game. And

7:19

again, look, Miles, it's

7:23

impossible to look

7:26

at a game like

7:28

this game and to

7:30

just have one rock

7:32

solid opinion because it was

7:34

such an incredible roller coaster.

7:37

But I'll tell you what

7:40

really occurred to me as

7:42

this game is

7:44

winding down. I

7:46

thought of Patrick Mahomes back

7:49

in Frankfort two months ago, 10

7:51

weeks ago, really in early November, when

7:54

he looked at me after the game

7:56

and he said, oh, I promise you,

7:58

we will fix this all. offense.

8:01

He was absolutely certain

8:04

that he would and

8:06

they did. And I thought

8:08

of that because in the last two

8:10

games that count their

8:13

New Year's Eve game against the

8:15

Bengals that

8:17

meant something, the next week against

8:19

the Chargers didn't really mean much,

8:21

didn't really mean anything. But

8:24

in the last two games for Kansas City

8:26

that have meant something. They've scored

8:28

25 and 27 points and they've

8:32

gained 373 and 368 yards and they fixed their

8:34

offense. They figured away,

8:42

they're not explosive, but

8:45

they're significantly more efficient because

8:47

Rashi Rice has become a

8:49

big, big factor and

8:52

because the offense now, they won't say it,

8:54

but the offense, a lot

8:56

of it runs through Isaiah Pacheco. So

8:59

that's one thing and the second thing that

9:02

I thought of watching this game is

9:04

that you

9:07

have to have a real lazy take to

9:09

think that Josh Allen is

9:11

the guy who is responsible for the

9:13

Bills not being in the Super Bowl.

9:18

But, but, but there's

9:21

two plays at the end of the game

9:23

that will bother me whenever I think of

9:25

this game. Okay,

9:28

so the Bills are down 27-24. They

9:31

know they need a field

9:33

goal at least to force

9:35

overtime and they have tried

9:37

to bleed the clock so that

9:40

if they do score the Kansas City won't have

9:42

any time left. It would have

9:44

been a tremendous accomplishment, but they

9:46

weren't able to do it. At

9:48

the two-minute warning, all right, the

9:51

Buffalo Bills had second and nine

9:53

at the Kansas City 26 and

9:56

you thought okay, like

9:59

I was thinking. Okay, run

10:02

one play here. Kansas City

10:05

will use its second timeout and

10:07

then throw for the first down

10:09

after that. And

10:13

then wherever you are

10:15

at that point, you're gonna have to kick

10:17

the field goal. So

10:19

I thought that and what happens? Josh

10:22

Allen threw two deep incompletions. And

10:25

I thought to myself, why did you just do

10:27

that? That's just not really...

10:29

It's one thing if the guy's wide open, but

10:33

the throws were off target and

10:35

I just simply don't understand why they did

10:38

that. That is the total

10:41

of my criticism of

10:43

Josh Allen in this game. I thought he

10:45

was very good to

10:47

great for most of the game

10:50

and I am not gonna jump

10:52

on the bandwagon of people who

10:54

think that he is not good

10:56

enough. What say you? I think

10:59

that there's some nuance there, right? And

11:01

you just laid it out very, very well,

11:04

Peter, in that Josh Allen played a

11:06

very good game. He did. I thought

11:09

that earlier in that drive, a

11:11

critical mistake that really should have

11:13

been a turnover if the Chiefs

11:15

just fall on it was Josh

11:17

Allen's fumble. I mean, he

11:19

got a little reckless with the football

11:21

and this has happened with Josh Allen

11:23

more than once and it has not

11:25

happened in the two postseason games to

11:27

that point. And that's I don't

11:30

know if it was the moment or what have

11:32

you, but on that last drive, I thought that

11:34

Josh Allen could have been better and then they

11:36

recover the fumble. They get the first down

11:39

on fourth down. Like all of those things

11:41

were still really good. But

11:43

those are the things where you get

11:45

the two misthrows and I know it

11:48

looks like Steph Diggs is open underneath.

11:50

You never know how quickly defenders

11:52

are gonna rally to something like that if

11:54

they recognize it and the ball didn't end

11:57

up going there. So that also makes a

11:59

difference. But. Yeah, the throws weren't

12:01

where they needed to be on the last

12:03

drive. And also, he had a fumble that

12:05

could have been picked up. But I guess

12:07

my issue, Peter, is a little bit more

12:09

with the decision-making from McDermott. And again, a

12:12

game never comes down quite to one play.

12:14

But I don't understand when

12:16

it's, I think, 12.57 on the game

12:18

clock in the fourth quarter. And it's

12:21

fourth and five from your minus 30.

12:24

All right. If you want to go for it

12:26

and you want to be aggressive, I

12:28

get that. But send Josh Allen

12:30

out there and do it that way. Because Josh

12:33

Allen is the kind of athlete and

12:35

the type of competitor where you could

12:37

have told the entire Kansas City Chiefs

12:39

sideline, all right, that he's going to

12:41

run the football on fourth down and

12:44

five. And he still has a damn

12:46

good chance of picking it up. But

12:48

if you give the ball to Damar

12:50

Hamlin, who's not a ball carrier, okay,

12:52

and you're going for the element of

12:54

surprise, quote unquote, whatever you want it

12:56

to be, like, that's not

12:59

a good football play to me. Because

13:01

it's already, it's just not. I

13:03

don't know. You have one

13:05

guy who you know can do this, and

13:08

you have one guy who is just not trained

13:10

in doing this. And has never carried the ball

13:12

in the NFL in his life. Look,

13:14

here's one of the things that,

13:17

in my opinion, the

13:20

play you're talking about, Miles,

13:23

just watch the play. It's like

13:25

they were telling Kansas City, we're

13:28

going to fake it here. Did

13:30

you see Damar Hamlin lined

13:32

up to the right, to the left, in

13:34

the middle. He was just kept walking around.

13:36

It was there. Tell, hey,

13:39

something's going on here. Right.

13:41

And it was the choreography

13:44

by Buffalo was awful. Yes.

13:47

And look, it's one of those

13:50

things, honestly, if it works,

13:52

you're a genius. If it doesn't, you're

13:54

a boob. But the

13:56

choreography was so bad that they

13:58

invited Dave Tobin. special teams

14:00

coach to understand that

14:03

hey we're faking it right here. Listen

14:06

we got to move on because we got to cover

14:08

three other games in eight minutes right now. But

14:11

I want to say one thing about the

14:13

other AFC game and

14:15

Miles this this

14:18

is gonna sound like I

14:21

am being critical of the media

14:25

who covered that game and I don't mean

14:27

to be I just mean to make an

14:29

observation. But the big story

14:31

coming out of that game was

14:34

that Josh Allen lit up

14:36

everybody at halftime and said

14:39

we are not playing how we should

14:41

be playing. Lamar Jackson you said Josh

14:43

Allen. Lamar Jackson sorry sorry sorry sorry.

14:45

Lamar Jackson that Lamar

14:47

Jackson hey lit up everybody

14:49

said we got to get

14:52

our stuff together all that stuff. You

14:55

know over the years I've heard a lot of

14:57

those after a win I've

14:59

heard a lot of people say

15:01

yeah we we got rid of

15:03

the riot act at halftime and boy that that

15:05

really work. I

15:07

mean what about all the times that you got

15:09

rid the riot act and you stink

15:12

in the second half. Why does

15:14

it work sometimes and not work other times?

15:16

So so I'm only saying that

15:19

one of the things I wanted to find out

15:21

is what exactly happened at halftime and

15:23

I'll tell you what happened. Lamar

15:26

Jackson went to

15:28

T Martin his quarterback coach

15:31

and he basically said look

15:33

we don't have time to

15:35

run the plays that you

15:37

guys are calling. They're

15:39

zero blitzing us they're killing us we don't

15:41

have time to block these guys for that

15:43

long. We got to get the ball out

15:46

fast we got to run the ball a

15:48

little bit more and all that so

15:50

it goes up the food chain tell Todd

15:52

Monk and Monk and talks to Lamar and

15:55

they agree we're gonna change our

15:57

play calls for the second half.

16:00

from what we thought we would be doing. They did.

16:03

I'm not saying they wouldn't have done

16:05

it without Lamar's prompting, but that was

16:07

how Lamar was a hero in this

16:09

game, in my opinion. He said,

16:11

we've gotta change how we're doing things.

16:13

He did it. They

16:15

outscored him 24 to nothing in the second

16:17

half. Lamar accounted for three

16:20

touchdowns. He was masterful. What'd

16:22

you see as you watched? Yeah, I

16:25

thought he was absolutely brilliant in the second half.

16:27

And I think you make a great point of

16:30

what Lamar Jackson did versus what kind of

16:32

the narrative is. And I know he said

16:35

this in the press conference. So it's like,

16:37

oh man, I said some stuff that I

16:39

can't repeat and la, la, la. But

16:42

when you have a quarterback who understands

16:44

what it is that he's seeing as

16:46

he plays, and then he runs that stuff

16:49

up the food chain as he did,

16:51

like that is the stuff that, I

16:53

don't know, it's pretty quarterbacky to me, right?

16:55

When you are understanding what it is that

16:58

you're seeing on the field is

17:00

how to attack it. That's how Lamar Jackson

17:02

controls games. That's why Lamar Jackson is in

17:04

all likelihood going to be named MVP at

17:07

NFL honors in another week and a half

17:09

or whatever it is. Like that's

17:11

the kind of stuff that he does that is so

17:13

masterful, right? And so it's not just the

17:15

throws, it's not just the runs. It's also

17:17

understanding how to manipulate defenses. That's what makes

17:20

him such a great quarterback. San

17:23

Francisco Green Bay, in my

17:25

opinion, San

17:28

Francisco is damn lucky to have gotten

17:30

out of there with a win, didn't

17:32

play well. A lot

17:34

of things about that game kind

17:36

of alarmed me. Number one, I

17:40

thought Kyle Shanahan is normally a

17:42

bold play caller with

17:44

timid right before halftime. And

17:47

I just think

17:49

when you're playing, knowing

17:52

that, well, at least we can get a

17:54

40 or 45 yard

17:56

field goal let's have from Jake Moody

17:59

before halftime. I'm

18:01

not, I mean, I'm not saying I'm cutting

18:03

Jake Moody, but I don't want him on

18:05

the field when the game really matters. He's

18:07

not a good kicker. He

18:09

might turn into one, but he

18:12

hasn't been a good kicker this year. And

18:14

it seemed like they were playing for a field goal. That

18:16

bothered me. It

18:19

also bothers me, and I think it's

18:22

an exclamation point, what happens when

18:24

Deebo Samuel's not in the game. Deebo

18:27

Samuel isn't as

18:29

fatal as when Tyreek

18:32

Hill isn't in the game for

18:34

the Dolphins, but it's close. He

18:37

is so vitally important to everything

18:40

they do on offense. His

18:42

absence was felt, and if he's not

18:44

70 to 80% at

18:47

least in this game with his bum

18:49

shoulder, that

18:53

excuse me, that's going to be a problem

18:55

for them. The final thing I would say,

18:57

Brock Purdy worries me a bit. Didn't

19:00

play well in that game, didn't play well in

19:02

the last game that really meant something for

19:05

the big game against the

19:09

Ravens. And it's

19:11

just, I thought he played great at the

19:14

end. His last drive

19:16

was perfect. But

19:20

I do think he's opened the

19:22

door for people to really wonder,

19:25

can he beat a

19:27

good pressure defense led

19:30

by Aiden Hutchinson on Sunday? Yeah,

19:32

I have that same question. And Purdy

19:34

just did not look comfortable throughout that

19:36

game. He had the big touchdown pass

19:38

to George Kill early, and then it

19:40

was like the wheels just completely fell

19:42

off the cart. And they didn't get

19:45

back on until that last drive in

19:47

the fourth quarter. But I also would

19:49

say that I was really impressed by

19:51

Jordan Love throughout the night.

19:53

I thought he had really, really good command.

19:55

It's just that in the

19:57

critical situation, he made the one.

20:00

big critical error that you can't make,

20:02

right? And throwing the ball across his

20:04

body. And I understand, look,

20:06

he's a gunslinger, you know? There are so many

20:08

good things that he can do, and this is

20:10

a learning process for him. The Packers got ahead

20:12

of schedule. I don't think anybody expected them to,

20:15

A, be in the postseason and to win a

20:17

postseason game, especially going on the road to Dallas.

20:19

So it looks like Green Bay has

20:21

got a bright future. But if you're

20:23

the San Francisco 49ers, you got to

20:25

be on your P's and Q's this week because

20:27

Detroit is going to come in and

20:29

they're going to be serious. Jordan

20:32

loves your two interceptions. And

20:35

you're right, the last one with

20:38

whatever, 52 seconds left, whatever it

20:40

was, was

20:42

horrible. You just simply can't make

20:44

the throw. But I think we

20:46

have been conditioned recently to think,

20:49

oh, this guy's not a rookie or whatever he is,

20:51

a third or fourth year guy. He

20:53

plays so far beyond that. But

20:56

he didn't, you know, he, I'm

21:00

not saying that Green

21:03

Bay would have won that game. But

21:05

wow, he handed it to him both

21:07

times in plus territory

21:09

for the Niners in, you

21:11

know, in Niners territory. You're

21:14

getting intercepted twice in the last 18 minutes in

21:18

your opponent's territory when

21:20

every possession is gigantic.

21:24

I like Jordan Love. How can you not?

21:26

But man, he made some big errors in

21:29

that game. But last

21:31

game, I thought

21:33

the Detroit Tampa Bay game was

21:35

interesting from the standpoint that what

21:38

we saw was everybody who

21:40

said, you know, I

21:42

really want to see Jared

21:44

Goff play well again. And

21:47

that's a little greedy, OK,

21:49

because obviously he played very

21:51

well in that face-off

21:53

with Matthew Stafford. But

21:56

I thought what was really impressive

21:59

is. that this was a difficult

22:02

game for

22:05

the Lions coming in because honestly when

22:07

you look at it, the

22:10

Bucks came in with nothing to lose.

22:13

They really did and Mayfield threw a

22:15

couple of picks, but Jared Goff, again,

22:18

he just did not make the big mistake. Threw

22:21

a lot of passes. He was

22:23

whatever, 68%. I don't know

22:25

what he was, but he was somewhere in

22:28

the high 60s. And

22:30

to me, he showed that

22:34

I can come back after

22:36

a really good game

22:38

and I can play another one when

22:40

everybody's season is on the line. And

22:43

that's the thing about Jared Goff, right? Can

22:46

he avoid those critical mistakes? Because the

22:48

mistakes that were there from 2019 into 2020

22:50

were why the Rams ended up moving on from

22:55

him and going to Matthew Stafford. So

22:57

he's been playing really well, really at

22:59

a high level. I think there's no

23:01

doubt about that. And it's fun to

23:03

see as somebody who covered him day

23:05

to day in the beginning stages of

23:07

his career that he's been able to

23:09

do this. But yeah, I think

23:12

going into this week

23:15

with the conference championship game, you've

23:17

got Goff going into Santa Clara.

23:20

That's a tough game in

23:22

and of itself. But then also,

23:24

you've got a Bay Area kid coming home, playing

23:28

in that area again after

23:30

going to Cal. And like I said, he grew

23:32

up in Nevada. So that's something that may

23:35

or may not affect him. I don't think it'll affect him in

23:37

a negative way that much. But going

23:39

against the 49ers defense, the defense he's seen

23:41

plenty of times over the course of his

23:43

career, and they've gotten the better of him

23:45

over the last few times that they've seen

23:47

him. So it's going to

23:49

be an interesting challenge for sure.

23:52

And I'm interested to see how

23:54

Ben Johnson uses that group of

23:56

skill players to attack that defense.

23:58

Yeah, I think it's going to to be a very

24:00

interesting matchup. So

24:04

Miles, we're gonna take a break and

24:07

we're gonna get to our guest

24:09

Michael McCambridge. 25 years

24:11

ago now he wrote a book

24:15

called the franchise a history of Sports

24:17

Illustrated magazine. I don't

24:19

know how many pages it was but it

24:22

was a lot and I really

24:24

enjoyed the book and I thought

24:26

with the news of Sports Illustrated

24:29

seemingly careening to its ultimate

24:32

demise at some point

24:34

fairly soon with massive layoffs last week

24:36

I wanted to get I

24:38

wrote about it in my column

24:40

football morning in America this week

24:42

and he had a

24:45

he wrote me a long email had a lot

24:47

of interesting things to say so I said you

24:49

know let's lean into this talk

24:51

to Michael McCambridge about that

24:53

and about his beloved Kansas

24:55

City Chiefs so we'll be

24:57

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25:51

So happy to be joined by Michael McCambridge

25:54

this week on the podcast. Many

25:56

of you know Michael

25:58

McCambridge for his his

26:02

fantastic books that he's written

26:04

over the years on so

26:06

many things involving American sports

26:10

and American culture. And

26:13

I wanted to have him on this week because

26:15

I think I hit a nerve in

26:18

my football morning in America column this

26:20

week writing about

26:22

the demise of Sports

26:24

Illustrated and how if you're

26:26

a person of a certain age that

26:30

means an awful lot to you. And so

26:33

I thought of Michael as a

26:35

guest because he wrote a book, what

26:38

Michael, 1996 the franchise? 1997

26:44

the franchise and history of Sports

26:46

Illustrated magazine. Right, right. So this

26:48

book now is 25 years

26:51

old but I think

26:53

during the course of reading

26:55

that book and researching the book or at

26:57

least I found reading the book

27:01

I was not terribly optimistic

27:04

about the future of SI and

27:08

not that a lot of people were optimistic

27:11

because of a lot of things that

27:13

happened. But Michael I wanted

27:16

to have you on because you wrote to

27:18

me in a really good

27:20

email on Monday

27:23

and your whole point in your note was

27:27

essentially that

27:29

and I'm going to quote

27:31

from your letter if it's okay. I

27:34

think people if anything are selling

27:36

it short meaning the demise

27:38

of SI. It wasn't

27:41

just that SI was the gold standard for

27:43

sports journalism. You can make a

27:45

case that it was one of the great magazines

27:47

in American history. It

27:49

didn't merely set the agenda for

27:51

sports. It elevated the

27:53

games and you

27:57

made the point in this. that

28:01

reading SI made fans more intelligent, and

28:03

boy, could we use some of that

28:06

these days when entire segments

28:08

of sports shows are

28:10

devoted to things like, should you

28:12

bet over or under on 4.5 catches by

28:16

Amman Ra's Saint Brown? Over,

28:18

by the way. Yeah, and

28:21

I just, that really hit me, because

28:25

there are so many sports

28:28

shows on today, not just in

28:30

football, but in everything, that

28:33

rely on the principle of the hot

28:35

take, or some

28:38

piece of betting information. And

28:42

I really thought after I read

28:44

this email that I wanted for,

28:47

because there are a lot of people who

28:49

don't necessarily understand,

28:52

because they weren't in

28:55

their prime sports loving

28:57

years in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. And

29:01

they don't really understand, they shrug their shoulders

29:04

about the demise of Sports

29:06

Illustrated. I gave you the

29:08

floor, Michael McCambridge. Were

29:10

you sad on Friday when you heard this news

29:12

and why? Well, maybe

29:14

sad, not shocked. I mean, as

29:17

we have discussed, we've

29:20

been dealing with essentially a zombie

29:22

Sports Illustrated for years. I

29:25

think the magazine's

29:28

decision to change from

29:30

weekly to biweekly, and then biweekly to

29:32

monthly, that was the,

29:34

I think I mentioned,

29:36

the journalistic equivalent of Roberto

29:39

Duran's no-mas capitulation in the

29:41

second. You're right. I

29:43

mean, the magazine attained

29:46

greatness, because it

29:48

was within the context of

29:50

a weekly news magazine devoted to sports.

29:54

Also, not just the agenda setter,

29:56

but this reservoir of great

29:59

literary long-form. journalism, as so many

30:01

people have pointed out, to the

30:03

point that even people who were not particularly

30:05

sports fans used to read

30:07

Sports Illustrated regularly for a Deford piece

30:09

or a William Nack piece or a

30:12

Gary Smith piece because

30:14

they were first-class writers. But

30:17

I think as important as

30:19

any of that is

30:21

this sense that Sports

30:24

Illustrated allowed intelligent sports

30:26

fans to remain on top of

30:28

what was happening in the world

30:30

of sports in

30:33

all of its different forms, in

30:35

obviously the major sports, pro football

30:37

and college football, pro basketball and

30:40

college basketball, hockey, baseball.

30:44

But also how many times

30:47

did Sports Illustrated introduce you to

30:50

someone who would dominate the discussion

30:52

of sports for years and

30:54

decades to come? Most American

30:56

sports fans were introduced

30:59

to Mike Tyson on the cover of

31:01

Sports Illustrated, were introduced to

31:03

Ralph Sampson on the cover

31:05

of Sports Illustrated. You know, you

31:07

had that feature... LeBron James. LeBron

31:10

James, famously. You

31:13

had that feature on Monday

31:15

in Monday morning quarterback or I'm

31:17

sorry, football morning in America, where

31:20

you asked people to name their favorite SI covers and

31:22

one of them was the

31:24

Larry Bird cover on

31:27

the 1977 Sports Illustrated

31:29

college basketball preview. And

31:32

there were good comments on that but what

31:34

nobody mentioned is for most

31:37

American sports fans that

31:39

would have been the first photograph

31:41

that they'd seen of Larry Bird. Chris Russo

31:43

actually said that. Yeah. Chris

31:46

Russo said that. Chris Russo said that. They

31:48

might have seen the name and

31:50

just assumed. And so that sense

31:53

of this one place

31:56

where all sports fans could

31:58

gather that would have all

32:00

the essential sports news of the day

32:02

and also off the wall stuff like

32:05

this book I just finished about

32:07

sports in the 1970s. There

32:09

was a great story which I remembered reading

32:12

when I was like 12 years old but

32:15

Curry Kirkpatrick wrote about

32:17

this audacious

32:21

international volleyball association

32:24

which yeah start up professional

32:26

sports league, Wilt Chamberlain participated

32:29

in it after he retired from

32:31

basketball. There were franchises

32:33

all over Southern California but also

32:35

one on the El

32:37

Paso-Huarez border and

32:40

Curry Kirkpatrick went down there and wrote about all

32:42

the stuff that was going on and that was

32:44

the sort of glimpse that

32:46

you had to have Sports Illustrated for because you weren't

32:48

going to get that in the sporting news or anywhere

32:50

else and that sense of all

32:53

the stories coming together and

32:56

we're going to apportion which ones

32:58

are more important if Sports Illustrated

33:00

still existed as a weekly magazine

33:02

these days we would

33:04

have had a lead story in the last couple months

33:06

on the rise of the Oklahoma City Thunder and

33:09

their arrival as a team to be reckoned with

33:11

in the NBA there would have

33:13

been a story about the in-season tournament

33:15

certainly there would have been somebody writing thoughtfully

33:18

about what it was like for Taylor Swift

33:20

to show up at the NFL games and

33:22

we miss having all of that in

33:24

one place and

33:27

with that I will end this filibuster. Well

33:30

I think the biggest thing that you touched

33:32

on it but the biggest thing that I

33:35

am bothered by is that

33:39

and look I

33:41

might be an

33:43

absolute dinosaur my

33:46

reign might be ending or whatever you

33:48

would say about me and I

33:51

don't necessarily mean just me but I mean

33:54

people who write lengthy

33:57

stories basically

34:01

unwanted today and

34:05

I think that

34:07

is the one thing the

34:10

fact that the depth that

34:13

you would hope to be able to

34:15

find that you

34:17

always found in Sports Illustrated and

34:20

not just in long profile pieces

34:22

right game stories also you know

34:25

how did the 49ers survive

34:29

the Packers on Saturday night how did

34:31

they wind up winning you would get

34:33

that story that went just beyond oh

34:36

they made this mistake and Jordan love through

34:38

these bad passes it would go deeper and

34:40

even though it came to you four days

34:42

later it would tell you something about the

34:44

game and how the 49ers

34:46

won and how the Packers lost that

34:48

you didn't get and there

34:51

is this sense we're always looking ahead always

34:53

looking at the next game we've

34:55

seen we can't swing a dead

34:57

cat without hitting a mock graph these days

35:00

which is happening in April but

35:02

what we are losing is this

35:04

sense of the really insightful informative

35:07

enlightening game story and SI was

35:09

the best at that okay

35:12

I'm going to tell you something about

35:14

this past weekend in football that

35:17

really bothered me I

35:20

covered both games this weekend

35:22

I covered Baltimore Houston on

35:24

Saturday and Kansas City

35:26

Buffalo on Sunday and

35:30

at the Baltimore game you know

35:33

I heard this storyline after

35:35

the game about this I guess

35:39

what people thought was a dramatic

35:41

halftime flame

35:44

out by Lamar Jackson

35:48

urging his teammates in very

35:51

strong and blue language to

35:53

get it in gear because they were

35:56

tied with the Houston Texans 10

35:58

to 10 at the half we

36:00

are not losing this game and all that. And Michael,

36:04

in my opinion, that

36:06

is just like chum in the water

36:08

for the media. And I am not

36:10

sitting here saying I know any more

36:12

than anybody else. It's just that I've

36:15

been doing this a long time. And

36:18

every weekend in the NFL,

36:20

you can find somebody who

36:22

said something at halftime, and

36:25

a team went out in the second

36:27

half and then played better. And

36:30

I always say because over the years,

36:33

I say, maybe that

36:35

is why the team played

36:37

better. But let's examine fully

36:39

what happened. Let's examine

36:42

fully about what happened in the

36:44

Ravens Houston game. Lamar

36:46

Jackson did something at the half.

36:49

Something that really mattered, in

36:52

my opinion, what he did was

36:54

he went to his position coach T

36:56

Martin, and he said, Listen,

36:59

we don't have enough time. They're sending

37:02

zero blitzes at me. We don't have

37:04

enough time to block for these deep

37:06

pass routes that that are

37:08

being called, we got to just

37:10

get the ball out fast, we got to run a

37:12

little bit more, we got to do this, we just

37:15

got to play faster. And

37:17

T Martin talks to the

37:19

offensive coordinator, Todd, Todd Munkin, who talks

37:21

to Lamar and they say, Okay, we're

37:24

changing. In

37:26

the second half, they

37:28

gained 234 yards, they obliterate Houston 24

37:32

nothing in the second half alone

37:34

and win 34 to 10. In

37:37

my opinion, that's a

37:39

lot more significant than

37:42

Lamar Jackson saying, Hey, you MFers,

37:44

we got to play harder out there. And

37:48

that to me, Michael, and again, and I'm

37:50

not saying, Well, I wrote that. So I'm

37:53

right. I happen to think it's

37:55

right. But my point is the

37:57

storyline after the game that

37:59

ever Everyone was talking about Lamar

38:02

Jackson, the vocal leader,

38:04

turned the switch on this team. Sorry,

38:07

I just don't buy it. I

38:10

buy that the play calling was different

38:13

and they were more able to

38:15

be explosive in the second half

38:17

because they were faster. Lamar

38:20

Jackson shorter time to throw, much shorter

38:22

than it was in the first half.

38:25

That is the thing that

38:27

I think we're going to end up settling

38:30

for. If we don't

38:33

have people who go to these games and

38:35

who ask the questions, what really happened

38:38

at halftime? That

38:40

was, I think, to bring it back

38:42

around to SI. The

38:44

thing that SI loyalists decry,

38:46

and I should preface this by saying,

38:48

there are still good writers at Sports

38:50

Illustrated. There are still good things that

38:53

are being published by Sports Illustrated. What

38:57

is most disappointing for

39:00

fans of what the magazine used to be is

39:03

the magazine did not go down fighting.

39:06

It gave up. I mean, The New Yorker

39:09

is a great magazine, and The New

39:11

Yorker is also having financial trouble, but

39:13

The New Yorker is fighting

39:15

the fight on its own terms.

39:17

It continues to be an excellent,

39:20

vibrant, relevant weekly magazine. And

39:22

SI, just even though it was profitable,

39:25

as recently as six years ago when I wrote

39:27

that piece in The Ringer about

39:29

the demise of Sports Illustrated, it

39:32

was still profitable then. And

39:34

rather than continuing to do what it did

39:36

best, it just wound up

39:39

giving ground and giving ground. And so

39:41

now it's just a caricature of what

39:43

it once was, and we don't get

39:45

those pieces. We don't get a great

39:47

story with great

39:49

pictures about that scintillating

39:52

Buffalo, Kansas City game on

39:54

Sunday night. And

39:56

the other point I made to you is 50 years from

39:58

now. now when people come

40:01

back and look at what was the world

40:03

of sports like in 2024, where are

40:05

they going to go? They're going to go see

40:07

some videos on YouTube and then they've got a

40:10

hope that those web pages

40:12

in the ringer and NBC

40:14

Sports and all the

40:16

other websites you go to for sports news, you've

40:18

got to hope those web pages are still alive

40:21

because if not stuff just gets lost. That's

40:25

the thing probably that bothers me the most. I

40:27

can't even find the early days

40:32

of my Monday morning quarterback

40:34

column anymore back in

40:36

the late 90s and the first 10 years of

40:39

this decade. I can't find them and

40:42

that's the way life goes. Listen,

40:45

Michael, when I wrote for the magazine,

40:47

I thought

40:49

about this much later in my career.

40:51

I never even saved my covers. I

40:55

just that wasn't in my I just I

40:58

love the job. I didn't look at

41:00

the job like, oh, let me save this and

41:02

let me put this on the wall. Let me

41:04

do that. It just I was just not

41:06

a part of why I did

41:09

it or what made me excited. But

41:14

I think I would say one other thing about the

41:18

demise of SI and

41:21

and you mentioned it. We

41:24

just saw one of

41:26

the great games I think in I

41:28

think two weeks in a row. We've

41:30

seen two incredible

41:33

games. Detroit 24 Rams

41:35

23 was a great game.

41:37

Yep. And this

41:40

game, another three point

41:43

game or another close game.

41:45

Excuse me. This one by

41:47

a field goal was a fantastic

41:49

football game. And

41:52

yet we don't read Sports

41:54

Illustrated. We don't read with

41:57

perspective, whether it would

41:59

be less say Greg Bishop

42:02

or one of the, you know, any

42:06

number of people who are still

42:08

there or who could do it.

42:10

Michael Rosenberg, Connor Orr.

42:14

We don't get it. And

42:17

frankly, I think it's a big miss.

42:21

It's a loss. Yeah. All

42:25

right, Michael, I have one other question for

42:27

you. And that

42:29

involves your Kansas

42:32

City football franchise. For those who

42:34

don't know, Michael

42:37

is quite a Chiefs follower.

42:41

And I wondered, first

42:44

of all, I'm really curious about what

42:46

you thought when

42:49

you were watching this game. And

42:52

this team over the last two

42:54

weeks has really kind of become

42:57

kind of revived on offense versus

43:00

what they were even three, four

43:02

or five weeks ago. And

43:05

also, I wonder what you

43:07

thought watching that for Tyler

43:09

Bass and the city

43:11

of Buffalo. Well,

43:15

you know, I was there for the 1995 playoff

43:17

game and Arrowhead when

43:19

Lynn Elliott missed all

43:21

those field goals. So I know what it's

43:23

like to have a season suddenly end. Buffalo

43:28

Bills, great franchise, great

43:30

quarterback, great fans. But

43:33

I've been on the other side of that as well. I

43:36

thought the I thought the Chiefs had

43:38

a good chance to win. I thought

43:40

they were peaking at the right time. The

43:44

offense has been streamlined really since

43:47

after that horrible Christmas loss to

43:49

the Raiders, the

43:51

Cincinnati game the week after, and then

43:53

they rested their starters for the final regular season

43:56

game. And then the two playoff games, Chiefs

43:59

are scoring on like 75% of

44:01

their drives, they're becoming real efficient. So

44:05

yeah, I think they're peaking at the right time. Now,

44:07

whether they can come out of

44:10

that epic game Sunday night, and

44:13

then beat the Ravens again on the road next

44:15

week remains to be seen. But you

44:18

know, they're still the champions. As

44:21

the saying went in the wire, if you come at the

44:23

king, you best not miss. I

44:26

would I have to ask

44:28

you because I actually

44:30

thought of you walking

44:34

out of the locker room on

44:36

Sunday night when I left

44:39

Andy Reid and the only guy who was left

44:41

in there I stopped and said hello to him

44:43

was Harrison butker. But

44:46

I actually thought of you walking back up to

44:48

the locker room. Because I

44:51

said, Michael McCambridge is

44:53

going to love the fact that

44:57

Andy Reid on

44:59

the morning of a huge football

45:01

game takes out a

45:04

moleskin journal. And in

45:07

red rollerball Kurt

45:10

writes in cursive, extremely

45:13

neat cursive

45:16

about how he thinks

45:18

the game is going to go.

45:20

And I just thought to myself,

45:22

Michael McCambridge is really going to like

45:25

that little factoid. And I loved it.

45:27

And I could just picture Andy Reid

45:29

sitting there and

45:32

having that moment and collecting

45:34

his thoughts. And it's, you know, one

45:36

of the many reasons he's been so successful

45:39

for so long. Michael

45:42

McCambridge, thanks so much for doing this. I

45:44

appreciate it. And oh, and by the way,

45:46

have one other quick SI thing. Yes,

45:49

I have because we live in this

45:51

sort of society now. I

45:54

had a bunch of email this week that

45:56

said Sports Illustrated died because it

45:58

got woke. And

46:01

I started to think to myself, you have

46:04

no idea about the business world that

46:06

says nothing to do with somebody saying

46:08

that he doesn't like Donald Trump, who

46:10

works for Sports Illustrated. I

46:12

believe some people said the NFL was going to

46:15

fail because it got woke, but how's that going?

46:18

Yeah, exactly. That

46:20

is a great point. Hey, well, listen,

46:22

thanks so much for taking the time. All

46:25

right, Peter, keep up the good work. Really enjoy

46:27

reading you every Monday. All right.

46:29

Hey, thanks a lot, Michael. Much appreciated. Take

46:31

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47:08

At Bet365, we don't do ordinary. We

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47:32

Terms and conditions apply. I

47:38

thank the Michael McCambridge. Really some good

47:40

insights on the downfall of SI. And

47:44

I'm happy that he chose to spend

47:46

some time with us on

47:48

the podcast this week. A

47:50

lot of people wondering what exactly went

47:52

down with SI. And, you know, as

47:55

I said to him, you

47:57

know, I've had a lot of people say, ah,

47:59

you know, Walk Politics got their fi

48:01

everybody you know given their political

48:04

opinions look. Else says

48:06

absolutely nothing to do with

48:09

woke Nis. Assess the do

48:11

with the fact that printed

48:13

publications are in gigantic travel

48:16

and there aren't a lot

48:18

of people anymore who pay.

48:21

To. Read four days later.

48:24

A. Nice story with nice

48:26

pictures. About a big

48:28

game that happened over the weekend.

48:31

It's sad. I. Am sad

48:34

about the whole thing. But. Ah,

48:37

As I wrote in my column, Is.

48:40

His wife. And

48:42

nothing is forever in our business

48:44

anymore. And I don't mean to sound

48:47

maudlin. But. Man.

48:49

I'm just gonna miss. I miss it

48:52

for years now because it just hasn't

48:54

been the same. I went to bi

48:56

weekly and monthly, but anyway, let's go

48:58

either the championship games miles. On

49:01

a started Baltimore first as the first

49:03

game three Pm. Eastern. Time.

49:06

Kansas. City at Baltimore set

49:08

the stage for you. The

49:11

last time. There was

49:14

an A of see championship game.

49:16

In Baltimore. Was

49:18

the first. Meeting

49:21

the first A of see

49:23

championship Game in January Nineteen

49:26

Seventy one the two leagues

49:28

the A Felon Nfl had

49:30

just merged. And the

49:32

Baltimore Colts at that time

49:35

played at Memorial Stadium, a

49:37

neighborhood ballpark in the city.

49:41

And. When. That

49:43

game ended. The

49:46

Baltimore Colts had won the

49:48

game they beat. John Madden

49:50

is Oakland Raiders. And.

49:52

I look up this game the Other Dame.

49:54

It's so interesting. Johnny

49:57

Unitas. Quarterback. Universe.

50:00

The In Louisville. Pass.

50:03

The Torch Lamar Jackson the next

50:05

time. There's. A conference

50:07

championship game at home Lamar

50:09

Jackson. Quarterback. University of

50:11

Louisville. My other fun thing about

50:14

this game? In. Nineteen Seventy

50:16

One. That. He

50:18

lied easter one touchdown pass that day.

50:21

The. Recipient. Re.

50:23

Perkins. And

50:26

for those of you who love

50:28

football, you know that may or

50:30

may have repercussions. was a coach

50:32

while he was a coach. But

50:34

he used to be a long time

50:37

ago and nifty little split and. Catching.

50:39

Passes not a lot of on but

50:42

some for Johnny Unitas self. Miles.

50:45

Tell me when I when I hit

50:47

you with this game. Tell

50:50

me a factor or to. The.

50:53

You think it comes down to. When.

50:55

You think about this game when it hits

50:58

you. What? Will decide who

51:00

wins and loses. Ah,

51:02

is Baltimore's the fence going to

51:05

force Kansas City's off? And and

51:07

I'm Steaks and and we've seen.

51:09

Throughout. The course of the regular

51:11

season, Six Kansas City's often says

51:13

mistake prone. I think we've also seen

51:16

by that same token that Baltimore's

51:18

defenses so fundamentally sound that they will

51:20

force team and the mistakes were at.

51:22

I can't get the image of Kyle

51:25

Hamilton like swatting up a pass charlatans

51:27

for gas it against Cleveland out of

51:29

my mind. and he returns for six

51:32

Mean that's the kind of thing

51:34

the Baltimore defense can do to you

51:36

at. But one of the fun things

51:39

I think about. This is that. We've.

51:41

Got. Number. Fifteen on the other

51:43

side. So it's not like you know you're

51:45

just saying oh man, what is this matchup

51:48

gonna be in that I like? This is

51:50

somebody who has proven time and time again.

51:52

That. He can do what needs to be done

51:54

in a post season setting in order to get

51:56

his team across the finish line So. i'm

51:59

looking forward to that particular matchup, like

52:01

how does Baltimore's defense look to

52:03

attack Patrick Mahomes and that offense,

52:05

and what are they trying to

52:07

take away the most? Because if

52:10

it's Travis Kelce, yeah, that makes sense.

52:12

We'll see if Rice can step up,

52:14

if Alistair Scanlon can potentially step up

52:16

again, and if the run game can step up.

52:18

But if they're trying to stop the run game,

52:20

which I think that they would probably want to

52:22

do, right, with Pacheco and then say, well, Mahomes,

52:25

are you going to be on target and are

52:27

your receivers going to be able to catch the

52:29

ball? It's still kind of an

52:31

open question, especially going on the road, Peter. Yeah,

52:34

I'll tell you, I think

52:37

that Lamar Jackson is going to get his

52:39

points. He's going to get his yards. He'll

52:43

probably rush for 100. We

52:45

talk about that like it's nothing, but in

52:48

his five playoff games, he's done it three times,

52:50

even though he hasn't been great, basically,

52:52

in four of those games. I

52:56

thought he was really good in the second half of this game, but

52:58

I think what I

53:00

look at as a huge factor in

53:02

this game, is,

53:07

excuse me, is whether the Kansas

53:09

City offense can

53:16

be run through

53:18

Isaiah Pacheco. And

53:21

obviously, look, two

53:24

playoff games, 186 rushing yards, 4.8 a carry.

53:29

He is doing exactly what

53:32

they want him to do during

53:34

the season, 4.6 a carry. And

53:39

I look at this game and I

53:41

say, look,

53:44

the Ravens are really a

53:46

difficult team to

53:49

play against. However, with

53:51

that defense. But

53:56

they allowed 4.5 yards a carry. this

54:00

year. And that's

54:02

not great. And if

54:04

there's one thing I

54:06

would be worried of trying to make my living

54:09

with Mahomes thrown at 38 times.

54:12

I think this is Isaiah Pacheco's game

54:15

for Kansas City.

54:18

And I will be surprised if

54:20

he doesn't get 25 touches. Very

54:23

surprised. Because first of all, if

54:26

you're Kansas City you want to chew

54:28

the clock, okay? If you're

54:31

Kansas City, it's

54:34

really, really important

54:36

to limit Lamar Jackson's

54:38

possessions. So to me, I

54:41

kind of think this is an Isaiah

54:43

Pacheco game, Miles Simmons. Yes,

54:46

I do too. I mean, it should

54:48

certainly be an Isaiah Pacheco game. I

54:50

mean, I think that he has been

54:53

the most reliable player for them on

54:56

offense, aside from Patrick Holmes, most

54:58

reliable skill player. And you know, I think he's

55:00

shown time and time again that he is the

55:02

guy that should be getting the carries down near

55:04

the goal line and not hardman. Because he is

55:07

going to get the ball into the end zone

55:09

on his feet. He's not gonna extend the ball

55:11

over the goal line and then potentially send it

55:13

out of bounds. I don't think he's gonna

55:15

be trying that again. I doubt it.

55:19

Miles, I think I

55:23

kind of like Kansas

55:25

City, but I think,

55:28

I said this to somebody this week, what

55:32

if you told me that the Ravens were

55:35

gonna get 11 possessions in this game,

55:39

I would say the Ravens are

55:41

not losing this game. Yeah. I think

55:43

it matters how many times they get

55:45

the ball, whether they're

55:47

able to win the battle of the

55:49

clock. Those are the

55:51

things I think are important. So

55:53

I'm fascinated by this game. I think

55:55

it's really good. Let's move

55:58

3000 miles the

56:00

West. And I think

56:06

there's no game in

56:08

the NFL that

56:12

I think of when I think, man, it's

56:14

a long season more

56:17

than this game. And let me explain why.

56:19

I think in the

56:22

course of a season, you look at the calendar

56:24

and it's, you know, from the start of the

56:27

game season to the end, it's only five months.

56:29

It's shorter season than baseball,

56:32

basketball, hockey. But those

56:34

five months, they can

56:37

each have about four seasons in

56:40

them. Because I think, I

56:42

mean, let's look at this. Let's

56:44

look at this. The Detroit

56:46

Lions, they start off really emotional

56:48

big win at Kansas City. They're

56:51

mostly good during the course of the year, but

56:54

holy cow, did they get their rear

56:56

ends handed to them when they played

56:58

in Baltimore? Yeah. And, you know, they

57:00

had ups, they had downs, they have

57:02

the Dallas game and all

57:04

that. But now they're in the

57:06

postseason and they have had two

57:08

emotionally charged, uplifting games.

57:10

They've scored 55 points

57:14

against two good teams and

57:17

they come in and

57:19

I think they're gonna come in and play well. On

57:22

the other hand, the 49ers. I

57:25

mean, the 49ers after five weeks,

57:27

they beat the Cowboys 42 to

57:29

10. And I

57:31

said, man, this is the best team in football. I

57:33

don't know that it's close. And then

57:35

they go on a three game losing streak. Brock

57:38

Purdy starts to be a little

57:40

shaky as a bad end in

57:43

the loss at Minnesota. So, you

57:45

know, you're a little bit shaken. But

57:47

then they start winning again. But at

57:50

the end of the year, Baltimore

57:52

just hands them their lunch. And

57:55

then Brock Purdy doesn't play very

57:57

well in the playoff

57:59

game. in

58:02

the divisional round. So both

58:05

of these teams have

58:07

had three or four seasons kind

58:10

of jammed into one. And

58:14

I think the 49ers are gonna

58:16

play well in this game, but

58:19

you have to think that

58:21

Kyle Shanahan has started to

58:24

think, you know, I

58:26

wonder if the bloom is coming off the

58:28

rows a little bit with

58:31

Brock Purdy. And I still

58:33

think that Brock Purdy is really

58:35

good. And he's gonna be a

58:37

good quarterback for this team. But

58:40

he simply has to play a little better

58:42

and he can't be missing some of the

58:44

throws that he's missed

58:46

going back to the Baltimore game and

58:48

obviously against Green Bay. I

58:51

think one of the things that Kyle Shanahan got

58:53

to do as a play caller is just get

58:55

Brock Purdy and be very

58:57

comfortable early. And we talk about getting

58:59

guys involved in the game plan kind

59:02

of like a receiver, for instance,

59:04

right? And you wanna get them some early touches so

59:06

that they just get in rhythm and they get their

59:08

mind in it and all this stuff. I mean, I

59:10

think I would wanna do that with Brock Purdy. I

59:13

think he's shown that he is still

59:15

a young quarterback. I think he has

59:17

played at a very high level in

59:19

an offense that can make it easier

59:21

for quarterbacks. But look, last week was

59:23

not good aside from that last drive,

59:25

just wasn't, right? And the earlier touchdown,

59:27

the kiddo. You have to be more

59:29

consistent. And I guess one way to

59:32

do that is to give

59:34

Brock Purdy just some of those early

59:36

easy reads, easy throws, get them in

59:38

rhythm. Don't have them drop back

59:40

too far and have to look down. Just

59:43

drop back and get the ball out

59:45

of his hand. And then as you go on

59:47

in the game, maybe he gets more comfortable and

59:49

he can start making some better off-schedule plays as

59:52

we've seen him be able to do or take

59:54

some of those deep shots. But it's not gonna

59:56

be easy because this is a Detroit defense where

59:59

At the numbers... The raw numbers may not

1:00:01

show up, but they match up very very

1:00:03

well. My think what they did to the

1:00:05

Rams and the Red Zone, especially in that

1:00:08

opening round of the playoffs this season tells

1:00:10

ya lot about what they can do defensively.

1:00:12

So yeah, this is a really interesting match

1:00:14

up and brought party is going to need

1:00:16

to play really really well for Detroit to

1:00:19

where it's unique and disgrace as if he

1:00:21

plays really really well. Detroit goal is Tiffany

1:00:23

Blaze really really well. San Francisco is going

1:00:25

to have that good shot with. So.

1:00:29

I'll give you my one other factor in

1:00:31

this game. And

1:00:33

the other? the other factor that I

1:00:35

think is significant in this game. Is

1:00:38

that? If. You look at.

1:00:42

Jared Goff. And

1:00:44

his career. Against.

1:00:46

The Forty Nine. So.

1:00:50

Jared. Goff is played a playoff

1:00:52

games. Has. Not faced. The

1:00:55

Forty Niners. A

1:00:57

D in a single one. yet. But.

1:01:00

The Forty Niners is over

1:01:02

time. Have. Really gotten to

1:01:05

know Jared Goff Well now

1:01:07

obviously Twenty one, Twenty two,

1:01:09

And Twenty three. Ah,

1:01:11

Jared Goff has been. In

1:01:14

another division with Detroit so they

1:01:17

don't see him twice a year.

1:01:19

However, You. Know as

1:01:22

you look at both of these

1:01:24

teams. And their history

1:01:26

together. He's. Only played the

1:01:28

Forty Niners and one time. Since.

1:01:31

He was it since he's been in Detroit. And

1:01:33

bizarre leave apps his first game.

1:01:36

As a member of the Lions, Are

1:01:38

Detroit played San Francisco at Ford

1:01:40

Field opening week in Twenty Twenty

1:01:43

One. The Niners won the game,

1:01:45

but Goff had a. Prolific.

1:01:48

Game he threw the ball fifty seven times.

1:01:51

But. Before then before then.

1:01:54

He had some rough days

1:01:56

against ah, against the Forty

1:01:58

Niners and. Forty Niners know.

1:02:01

Steve Wilkes obviously wasn't there as

1:02:03

the coordinator. But he's

1:02:05

thrown some pics. He's.

1:02:08

Had some okay games.

1:02:11

And he said some games where

1:02:13

he is really really struggled and

1:02:15

I think probably some games that

1:02:18

convinced. Sean

1:02:20

Mcvay. Maybe we should get rid

1:02:22

of I'm in in fact. He

1:02:26

lost. When

1:02:28

you look at the Rams

1:02:30

Forty Niners matchups, He. Lost

1:02:32

his last four games. As.

1:02:34

The Rams quarterback to the Forty

1:02:37

Niners, so they know him very,

1:02:39

very well. And. I think for

1:02:41

guys like. Three. Greenlaw

1:02:43

for Fred and Warner. Off

1:02:46

for Nick. Both said they have seen

1:02:48

this movie before. They. Understand

1:02:50

how to play him. I think that

1:02:52

could be a bit of a hidden

1:02:54

edge in this game. You think it

1:02:56

matters? I. Do think it matters,

1:02:58

Peter A You when you're a head coaching,

1:03:00

you gone against the money in your division

1:03:03

for as long as how Shanahan did would

1:03:05

geared gop. It's certainly make a difference because

1:03:07

you understand the kinds of throw that he

1:03:10

can make in the kinds of both he

1:03:12

likes to make, and you know where his

1:03:14

eyes might start to drift in certain situations

1:03:16

That I think that that is kind of

1:03:19

a big deal mean it's interesting know that

1:03:21

the Rams generally had not beaten the Forty

1:03:23

Niners in the regular season from at the

1:03:26

end of two, the Twenty. Eighteen season

1:03:28

until just the end of this season

1:03:30

when Carson Wentz actually started the game

1:03:32

and when he up getting the ramp

1:03:35

that succeed self the Rams in general

1:03:37

I'm not had much success against San

1:03:39

Francisco the last few years aside from

1:03:41

that twenty one Nfc Championship game. But

1:03:44

looking at this now I think that

1:03:46

beat not just the census them that

1:03:48

know goff right gop understand the principles

1:03:51

and the general idea of what San

1:03:53

Francisco wants to do as a defence

1:03:55

under Head Coach Kyle. shanahan now get

1:03:58

you know steve wilkes is not this same

1:04:00

as D'Amico Ryan's or as Robert

1:04:02

Salla, who's now obviously the Jets

1:04:04

head coach. So there are some

1:04:06

differences there. But you've still got

1:04:08

four down linemen. You know, you've

1:04:11

still got a lot of the

1:04:13

same personnel that he's familiar with.

1:04:15

So there are things there where

1:04:17

maybe the edge cancels itself out.

1:04:20

But I do think that that familiarity

1:04:22

between the quarterback and the opposing team

1:04:24

does matter. Yeah,

1:04:26

I think that's true. And I think one

1:04:29

of the other things that I

1:04:33

think, on the one hand, the experience against him is

1:04:35

one thing. But I think, on the other hand, Jared

1:04:38

Goff has shown the last two weeks that

1:04:41

let's not try to write his story

1:04:43

based on what happened three and four

1:04:45

and five years ago. He

1:04:48

has been incredibly impressive

1:04:51

in huge moments, especially

1:04:54

against Matthew Stafford. What must

1:04:56

that have felt like? And

1:04:58

obviously, against the Bucks, putting up

1:05:00

31 points. So

1:05:02

that, to me, is a

1:05:04

really, really interesting game.

1:05:07

And it's going to, I think

1:05:09

both of these games come

1:05:11

down to the two-minute warning. I don't

1:05:13

think either one is going to

1:05:17

be one of those that I look at to say, this

1:05:20

can be 38 to 19. I

1:05:22

think they're both really close. Miles,

1:05:24

really appreciate you joining me this week.

1:05:27

We cranked another podcast out.

1:05:30

You are a wonderful co-host of

1:05:32

Menge and all those other nice

1:05:35

things that I can say about you. We'd

1:05:37

like to thank Michael McCambridge for joining us

1:05:40

on the pod this week to talk about

1:05:42

Sports Illustrated. And

1:05:44

enjoy the games this weekend. We'll

1:05:46

be back with another podcast, another

1:05:49

episode of the Peter King podcast

1:05:51

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