 Tom Curran's Patriots Talk podcast is presented by FanDuelSportsbook. Make every moment more. Hey, what's up everybody? Welcome into Tom Curran's Patriots Talk podcast. Before we bring Phil in, this was interesting Sunday after the game when Bill Belichick was asked about the injury to Cole Strange. Phil? Yeah, it's tough to lose him, it's tough to lose Connor, it's tough to lose Hunter. So, you know, kind of at the end there, we were not, so I didn't feel like we were able to, you know, do probably what we should have done that situation at the end of the game, talking about. So, there was a conversation immediately after the game and in post game and it was fevered about Bill Belichick quitting on his team and raising the white flag and he did. But he did acknowledge that he had done so and he actually said, you know, quote, we didn't feel like we were able to do probably what we should have done in that situation at the end of the game I'm talking about. So, you never want to see a, you know, what's the use, woe is me approach and I definitely think the Patriots got there on Sunday. Let's bring in Phil to discuss this now. If Bill is going to, in that instance, sight injury as saying, hey, man, hands are tied, do you think that he might have a case or at least we'll attempt to make a case that there are portions of this season in which his hands have been totally tied and it's the reason, not one of the reasons, the reason that they are where they are. I think he might. So, when he sits down with Robert Kraft and says, listen, Robert Christian Gonzalez, Matthew, Jude on Cole Strange. Riley Reef was supposed to be our right tackle. Our swing tackle Calvin Anderson got sick in training camp. We never even had him, the offensive lines of mess all year. We got two rookies. It's just nobody could deal with that. And what I would say to that, if I were to push back on it would be, but the depth of the roster is also your responsibility and your starting quarterback didn't miss any time and you really only lost one receiver and the tight end has been healthy for most of the year. He was supposed to be one of your primary options. The two running backs have somehow remained relatively healthy until recently. So, I'm not sure those reasons, they are factual reasons that Patriots have dealt with injury. I'm not sure those reasons will cut the mustard thumb for Robert Kraft at the end of the season. Yeah, because and I agree, but we can absolutely trace the decline of Mac Jones to the lack of protection. I mean, his main problem is a lack of poise and indecision and I would say, sad to say, I think no professional football player wants to hear this, but utter fear. I don't think he's afraid of getting hurt. I think he's afraid of mistakes. I think he's afraid of getting, I don't think he's afraid. I think he's tough, but I think that he was afraid of getting hit. I think that creeped in. You could see it in his body language as pressure came and he was stepping backwards as he threw. You could come up with a thousand different instances where he was moving away from the line of scrimmage as he threw and there's no one on the planet who's ever going to be able to convince me that's the way to throw a football effectively. And Bailey's happy doesn't do that. Bailey's happy is not better than Mac Jones, but Bailey's happy stepping forward and ending with all his weight on his front foot is going to be a better quarterback than Mac Jones falling away. But you can look at the preseason, Phil, and say, hey, how would the season have gone if Cole Strange and Mike and Winnie weren't hurt at the start of the year? Winnie had a surgery, one guard. Strange was the other guard and he got hurt during camp. What if Calvin Anderson or Riley Reef who went out and signed to play right tackle? That was his plan. What if they ever made their way into the lineup? What if Taekwun Thornton didn't get hurt? Would he have taken a step forward? Would Mac have melted the way he did? Would Bill O'Brien have had a chance to install an offense? So it does trace back a little bit to those two injuries and then Trent Brown's perpetual, is he in, is he out? Is this a rest day, is he active? Mini camp, unusable training camp, look like a gem. So your ball. I come back to the roster building piece to this because Riley Reef, when he was signed, I remember talking to guys who have coached him and liked him and liked him as a player and everything brings to the locker and I said, boy, I'm surprised he's even still playing. He's clearly at the end. And so you're asking for trouble if that's your projected starting right tackle. I'm sorry because he is good when he's on the field but you're asking for trouble when Trent Brown is your starting left tackle. How can you depend on that guy being available for 16 games given his history? And again, he's really, really good when he's healthy and motivated but that's the kind of plan Riley Reef and Trent Brown that can blow up in your face and at least halfway did Calvin Anderson. That's a tougher one to project. The guy got sick and now basically he's missed a full season and the guards, you know, it's hard to project than getting injured too. But Tom, this is what happens. Offensive linemen get hurt, players get hurt. They actually, like I said before, they're actually lucky they're not more injured at probably some other positions that they would have needed for them to be a competitive team this year if everything else had been equal. But in the past, they've been able to not only get by but thrive with guys like Ryan Wendell and Dan Connolly, two players who started at guard for them in 2014 when they won a Super Bowl who were practice squad players at one point but developed and were tough enough and smart enough to do the job anyway. And the inability to bring those types of people in and coach them up in the way that those guys and others were, that to me does come back to the head coach. It comes back to the head coach because it comes back to the coaching staff and it comes back to player development. Now we can counter and say there are players who are developing and Bill should do this when he wants to make his case. He should say, look, DiMario Douglas, Atonio Maffi, City Soh, Marte Mapu. These are all guys who came in this year, Robert. They're all pretty good players. And then Robert turns and says, well, Pete Strong, Jake Bailey, give me more. I mean, he might also turn around and say Atonio Maffi and City Soh are not pretty good players. Bill, I'm sorry, I watched them all year that you can roll them out there and say that they're getting by, but they're barely getting by. I mean, it has not been a good year for the rookie class. Outside of four games of Christian Gonzalez, I would say maybe a half dozen games of Keon White who's flashed on occasion and Pop Douglas. Yeah, and that's great. Listen, three players from a draft class can be pretty good. And I'm not saying City Soh is never going to be a great player, a starting level guard because I think he probably could be at some point. It's just it's been a rough year. And so I wouldn't be necessarily pointing to Marte Mapu and saying, this guy's good. Craft from my look at you say that the first time we ever noticed him in a positive way was week 15, Bill. What do you mean he's good? And so that would be a harder argument for him to make. I would get it, but you know, the one side where they've had the most significant injuries has been the defensive side and they've gotten by there. Yeah, they've actually been they've been okay. So it's not an excuse for the defense. Why is it on the other side? It's because you're thinner and because you can't coach up anybody behind these starting level players, these damaged in some ways, projected starters that you began the season with. Yeah, I mean, you have an expansion level offense right now because you said goodbye to your best wide receiver. And I don't care how much hair splitting people want to do on the marginal amount of money saved because Jacobi Myers and Juju Smith Schuster have similar contracts, but you can contort it to make Juju's less. He probably should make about 30%, 50% more than Juju Smith Schuster at this juncture. That was a decision Bill made. Bill made a decision to bring in Mike Josicki, who he has described himself this year as a wide receiver. Yeah, Mike's a wide receiver. So he got two tight ends on the roster. One is Hunter Henry, who's probably a top 12 to 15 tight end in the league and the other is Farrell Brown, who, you know, fine. Marginal starter, probably a backup. And the late addition, Tom, not part of the plan. It was an emergency. Tight end, not part of the plan. They had a guy who's been okay. So they had no plan for the entire off season. This is the shit that pisses me off. Running back. No plan. Trade Pete Strong, Kevin Harris, I think was released and brought back. Just bring in a ZQO. Let's kick the tires on him. Let's see how he's doing. Lucky for you. He's pretty frigging good. And you could see it. The first frigging day he was there, but you rode those guys too heavy because you don't have a third down back. And you thought Time Monk Armory would be that guy and he's not and he's never been because he's perpetually injured, the poor bastard. And I like Time Monk Armory. I thought there was value there. But you got to look at what the actuarial table say about the likelihood of injury. Real high. Kendrick Warren's a good player. He put him in the frigging doghouse last year. The entire season ruined his ass, made him miserable. He came back this year. He checked back in playing well for you. And then he got hurt. It's the player development. Whether the player development is because of coaching, whether it's because of culture and attitude toward the players who if they don't toe the line in the way necessary, they get marginalized. When we talk about Bill as a coach, Phil, and this is what is very interesting around the NFL right now and actually locally too. Let me throw this from Christian Fourier on CBS yesterday. Talk to Bill Belichick. Do you think it's time for the Patriots to move on from Bill Belichick? Okay. It's going to be a flat no. Okay. And here's why. It's not a coaching issue. It is a personnel issue. It has been a personnel issue. And if I think, if I ask most people, paint me the worst possible picture imaginable when it comes to how you think the Patriots season would go if it went wrong. And you are all would underestimate how bad it's gone. It's gone bad in every single aspect, but it hasn't been coaching. And nobody wants to kind of admit that. This is still the best coach in the NFL right now. If he took over any team that was floundering or that had issues or that couldn't get out of their own way, he's a three to four win better than the guy that he would replace. Now, maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe they're just tired of them and they just want to move on and start fresh. But I would say as far as coaching goes, still the best. So Christian former Patriot, WEEI 10-2, I go on with him. He contends that Bill Belichick is still the best coach in the NFL. Why? What does Bill do better than anybody else at this juncture? Because I think there are things that he certainly can try it out there and say, you can't do what I do. My guess is Tom, he's talking about the X's and O's and the game planning part of it. You know, if he's looking at a sheet of paper and he's drawing up and he's giving you the three bullet points as to how we're going to win. Those things are probably still pretty effective. But your bro pepper said something to that effect very recently. I think the game plans are great. It's just we're not executing them. Well, unfortunately Christian and anyone else who feels this way right now, coaching isn't just X's and O's and drawing up a game plan and telling the players what they need to do to win. It's helping describe to them and putting them in positions to be able to carry that out. And I don't think that's happening consistently enough just based purely on the results. Right. Is it the players are actively ignoring what you're telling them maybe, but you have to find another way to reach them then at that point or you have to be able to motivate them in a different way. That's another element of coaching that is not just writing on the chalkboard. The three things we need to do today to win. Those might be correct. You might go three for three every single week. And if you were to do those things, you might win more games. But why aren't you able to do those things? Is it just that the players suck? I think that's a huge part of it. But you're either coaching it or allowing it to happen. Bill Belichick's friend, Mike Lombardi says that all the time. And so are they allowing the penalties to happen? Are they allowing the special teams mistakes to happen on a weekly basis? I think you have to say yes given the evidence not just from this year, but from the last couple. Injuries aside, Kansas City is a great case study in what we're talking about here. Again, there's oodles of case studies. Davante Smith and A.J. Brown held down in the first game against Philadelphia pretty well. Tyreek Hill bottled up when they played the Dolphins. Travis Kelsey bottled up when they played Kansas City this week, five catches, 28 yards. Bill can identify the problem that he's going to face. He can identify how to stop him. He can have the plan in place on both sides of the ball. He's hired an offensive coordinator who demonstrated on Sunday again. He can put a script together to help the offense play as long as they can execute those things. But as you said, Phil. Bill could say, look, I don't coach penalties. Well, no, but the players committing them because they're physically unable to block without holding. I mean, I think that's what kind of the Jalen Rager touched kickoff return at the beginning of the game was. They held. He was 50 yards out there because of the holes. It wasn't. Oh, shit. You know, that didn't even matter. That's why he was there. Same thing with the Connor McDermott hold on the Hunter Henry touchdown. That was not going to be a touchdown had Connor McDermott not held. So you can't say, oh, we got a touchdown wiped out by a hold. No, the touchdown happened because of the hole. Now we can talk about the key mares wiping out the key mares. It wasn't a key mares. He played in 2014. Alex Austin, great, great, that was right. It is Alex Austin, but great midseason addition in 2014. Jonathan Casillas and a key mares. Those guys ended up making some plays that year. Anyway, so and it's the coaching too. You know, the biggest loss is the Patriots have suffered a Tom Brady and Dante Skarnakia. And the inability to replace either of those and have an active plan in place to do that is quite obvious. The Patriots have cycled through quarterback after quarterback after quarterback. Not just Cam Newton and Mac Jones and Bailey Zappi, but the number of humans who've walked through here been handed a playbook and said you're in our quarterback room is astounding. And the same thing with Dante Skarnakia, Phil. No doubt. And you know, listen, I think Bill Belichick's influence on assistance really matters and he helped make some of those assistance over the years into the great coaches that they became. Not sure I give him credit on Dante Skarnakia, but a number of other guys that have come through the building. And I'm not saying, Tom, when we talk about Bill Belichick, I could do want to be careful. Like I don't want to make it sound like I think he's the worst coach in the league. I still think if he's given the right situation, he could probably have a lot of success. Christian's right. No, Christian's right, Phil. I just want to say this. Christian is right. If you want to say, hey, put all these coaches in a room and give them 30 minutes to craft a game plan and see which one, you know, like it was a friggin' college seminar and see which one comes up with the best game plan to stop that, the most innovative, interesting, executable game plan. I put my money on Bill in the top three, certainly on defense and he'd have a clue on the offense. He just really bad at figuring out what a good offensive player is. And he's become really bad, I think, at reaching players since his number one lieutenant, Tom Brady, and secondarily, Julian Edelman, and then secondarily, Devin McCordy, have lost the influence or been absent from giving players, hey, this is how we got to do it. This is how we got to do it. Guys are turning it off. Sorry. No, you're right. And that's the point I was trying to make earlier. I think he's still a brilliant X's and O's mind. And again, in the right situation, you could have a ton of success with that as your forte. But for an example, I just love bringing him up because to me, he's almost the antithesis of Bill Belichick. Is Dan Campbell a good coach? It seems to me like he might be a pretty good coach. Would I trust him to ever win an X's and O's, you know, as you put it, you know, five minute test, put him in a room and have him answer, you know, 20 questions about how to put together a game plan. Bill Belichick, I imagine would smoke him every time, but there's more to coaching than that. And I would say especially in today's game where it feels like half the battle is reaching this younger generation that's a different generation and there's a lot of care and feeding that's required that I don't think was required in the same way in previous eras. And so there's other parts to doing the job, especially when you have the two biggest jobs in the football operation, the way Bill Belichick does right now, that have led to some of the results we've seen. That's all. I think that the height of Bill Belichick as a head coach was 2014 because in that Super Bowl and throughout the decade, we saw he had the equipment and the personnel to attack a team that in the Seattle Seahawks was kind of the antithesis of the Patriots. They were not a game plan defense. They were a defense that would do what they do, but they had the highest end players you could imagine, the Bobby Wagner's, the Michael Bennett's, who's the massive safety... Oh, Kim Chancellor. Thank you. Just a promise. Thank you. Now you're helping me and that's needed because I blanked on everybody but a key mares. The point is... So you have a mad scientist in Bill who's going to cook something up every week offensively and defensively and his Russell Wilson game plan defensively along with Patricia and along with the Angels. It was fantastic. Make him throw out of the trash can, which is what he used to try to do to Doug Flutey. Keep him in the barrel, make him throw out of the barrel. He won't be able to see shit. It worked. But that's Bill Belichick and his genius in saying, we're going to X and O you. And even though you're the most talented at these things, you just, we know what you do and we'll figure it out. That's why Shane Varine's going to have 28 catches and we're going to see that defense again in the Super Bowl in 2016 and Jimmy White's going to have a thousand catches. And if we see that San Diego defense with Gus Bradley in the 2018 playoffs, do it again. Jimmy White's going to have 1,040 catches against you because we know how to beat that defense. You guys aren't smart enough to change your defense. I am. As the weather gets colder, the NFL offers stay hot on Fanduil right now. New customers get $150 in bonus bets with any winning $5 Moneyline bet. That's 150 bucks if your team wins. If you've been thinking about joining Fanduil there's no better time to get in on the action. The app is so easy to use. There's a wide range of betting options including spreads, player props, overrunters, I call them totals, and more. So visit Fanduil.com slash N-S-B-O and kick off the NFL season. Fanduil, official partner of the NFL. 21 plus and President Maas hope is here. First online real money wager only, $5 pregame Moneyline wager required, $10 first deposit required, bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. See terms at sportsbook.fanduil.com, gambling helpline, mass.org, or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support. Play it smart from the start. GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234. All right, Phil, changing gears real quick. You know, we've discussed Bill Belichick's job status, the future, the craft's disposition toward what they will do with Bill at the end of the season, even though there was a little pushback from Ian Rappaport. And I do say a little this weekend in saying there wasn't a firm conclusion reached. What I found most interesting in Rapp's report was the details about the timeline because he's setting the stage for what I believe could be a disastrous changeover and succession plan. Here's what Rapp wrote in a story that posted Saturday night. A decision on Belichick's future will play out over the next month, sources say. It could also take longer than that. Either way, expect a period of evaluation when the regular season ends with no immediate conclusion on Belichick coming. So is this an effort to put the for sale sign on Bill to an extent or to put an auction on with a reserve set, the reserve being the price that has to be met before you'll move on from them? Because the Patriots are certainly going to aspire to compensation for Bill. But if you're going to slow play it so you get the most for your money and with one would think a $25 million contractual obligation to Bill in 2024, maybe the crafts want to minimize that. What is more important? A seamless changeover. We hit the ground running with a top five pick, a new coach who has to assemble a staff in a personnel department and start to set a culture. We're getting the compensation, Phil. It's a tough one. I really am not sure because if you could somehow Tom, you could somehow get a first round pick. And I've seen analytics based arguments that suggest he would be worth the first round pick. I've seen reporting from Jeff Howell that suggests executives around the league think he would be worthy of a first round pick. If that's the case and you're the Patriots and you're looking at this roster, boy, could they use an extra first round pick? That would be a big deal. At the same time, what's best for the roster might not be what's best for the organization and specifically the future of the organization and the ability to celebrate all of the stored history that Bill Belichick has with this organization Hall of Fame events and statue unveilings because if you're holding them hostage, if you're holding them hostage and it gets to that point and it gets to the point maybe where a job that Bill Belichick might like actually comes off the board because they've waited so long to make their move on Bill Belichick. Then you might be asking for the world's greatest grudge holder to hold a grudge and maybe you lose the ability to celebrate some of those things that the craft should want to celebrate that Bill Belichick should want to celebrate that fans should want to celebrate because there is so much to celebrate for a long time to come here. And so that's where it gets delicate to me. Like for instance, Tom said, and I wouldn't necessarily say as we sort of go through the various scenarios that Bill Belichick would have, you know, nothing to do with the delay too. Maybe Bill Belichick is traded as far as two ownership groups are concerned. Maybe there's been something hammered out between Robert Kraft and another owner. And Bill says, you know what? I don't want to be traded. I don't want my next team. Even if I'd like to go to that team, I don't want my next team to lose a valuable pick. So sorry, I'm not going to go to that team. Robert, you're going to have to fire me. Well, then do the, do the crafts have to sit back and say, well, Bill, that was, that was your opportunity to make it quick and easy. If you're going to make this hard for us, I guess we're just going to sit here and we can wait. We got Rod Mayo waiting in the wings. We've got Matt Groh, Elliott Wolfe, any number of guys in that front office who could be the next general manager for us waiting in the wings. We don't have to hurry into a coaching search or general manager search. We could wait all day, Bill. And then you get to stand up. And what if Bill says, you know what? But eventually you have to decide whether or not you want me to coach the team. But is it, could they wait long enough because they feel like they have the succession plan almost ready to go? No, no, they can't. Could they wait long enough that when the music stops, all the chairs are already filled? They can't because Bill could say, you know what? I'll go work for CBS for a year. So I miss a year. So I miss a year. You got to fire me. So they'll say, okay, so it makes no difference for your TV career, whether we fire you in early January or early March when all the coaching jobs are filled. So if that's how you want to play it, Bill, and we're not going to get compensation anyway, then we're going to make sure you don't end up anywhere else. That's like, you're setting the whole thing ablaze if that's what happens. But that could be the, you know, that's the worst-case scenario. That's worst-case scenario. Worst-case scenario is the crafts decide to try and play it out and put compensation as the number one need for their team. If compensation for Bill Belichick cannot be the priority, they can't lose sight of the fact that the most important aspect is how do I get my team from being a three and 14 entity with no quarterback to being a team that has the arrow pointing in the correct direction? That's their goal. And creating a pissing contest and delaying the succession plan and pissing off Bill even more might be the worst idea of all just for a first round pick in 2024. Take a second rounder in 2025. Keep it clean. Keep it tidy. Move along. I mean, I really think that they should prepare for 10-folding and that this period of evaluation when the regular season ends as RAP points to with no immediate conclusion on Bill Belichick coming. Look, you're going to have assistants run up to the light boats all over the NFL. Now, I don't know if Bill is, you know, LeBron or whoever, give me a free agent who slows everything down. Aaron's judge a few years ago, a barely watched baseball. Tom Brady. Tom Brady, did he slow everything down? I don't know. Actually, probably not. He only had like two teams that were really interested in him. Yeah, like, you know, one of those free agents, well, once he goes, we'll figure it out. Right. I wonder if Bill is that individual in this offseason? Does he hold up the entire coaching carousel? Maybe. Maybe he does. Maybe Tom, just the understanding on Belichick's end that the crafts do have some leverage. If he really wants to coach next year, and we just, we just threw up the worst case scenario. If he in the back of his mind before the season even ends, as we're sitting here today, if he understands, boy, if they really wanted to, they could, they could hold on. I am under contract. They could hold on to me and make sure that I don't get it. But they could hold on to him and they could hold on to him and then Bill just starts showing up for work and blowing the whistle and, you know, march. I guess I'm still your coach. Well, right. Eventually you get to that point, you know. And then the crafts have to, as we talked about hypothetically last week when people like jumped down my throat, but, you know, if they're forced to change their mind, then you have a decision that was made that they have to go back on. That's what happens to see. It would happen before that. Once you get to the senior bowl, the senior bowl to me is really where you got to, you got to be pretty much squared away. And the senior bowl is Super Bowl week. You know, like, so if you wait much longer than that, you're losing opportunities to do your business the way you'd like it to be done. What I was just saying is if Bill knows that there is some leverage on the crafts end, maybe he would be more amenable to a trade earlier in the process. If he looks at it and says, well, that doesn't do me any good. I do want a coach. So screw it. Yeah, of course, I don't want to lose a valuable pick to whatever team I'm going to next. But if there's a chance that this entire thing blows up and I don't end up with the job that I want, then yes, I'd rather give up the pick to Robert and go where I want so that I can win some games right now and have some success at a different spot than go and work for Fox for a year if he doesn't want to do that. You know, like, just the understanding of that. You don't have to actually play out the worst case scenario. Just understanding that it exists might be enough to allow Bill to concede in some way. This is going to be a negotiation of sorts. There might be a negotiation in terms of how much he actually gets paid by Robert Kraft in the Craft family next year or whatever job he's at if he gets paid at all. You know, if he's willing to go and if he's willing to not take anything from his previous job, maybe that makes the compensation a little bit lighter in terms of a trade if the Crafts are still looking for that. You know, there's a lot of gray area here. I've heard people say on both sides, well, why would Bill Belichick ever agree to a trade? It benefits him in no way. Well, of course it does. If there's a trade available to him that gets him to the team he wants and if he mixes that because he just doesn't want to do a trade on principle and he goes to Carolina and wins two games next year, that's idiotic. There was no motivation for him to accept a trade. Yeah, he's no closer. It's important if he wants to coach. If he wants to launch his record, he needs to right now probably go to the Crafts. Hey, look, if you're looking to make a decision as I'm hearing and you're leaning towards moving on for me, why don't you call the Spanos family? Right. Start talking about to them. So I'd like to hear their pitch. I'm sure you would too. So talk about this as it goes along. Meanwhile, I'm on to Denver. Merry Christmas because Dean Spanos said this week, you know, that's that is the best geographically and financially not great. They do have a new facility coming in, but the same way the Patriots have to implement a new program, the team that Bill is going to has to implement a new program is Gary Myers in New York, described described last week. He was with Bill Belichick at the Hall of Fame meetings of the top 100 a couple of years ago. And, you know, he said to Gary, look, we can't I'm not going to go someplace. It's going to take three years and a full rebuild. So we can eliminate those places because it's later than that now. It's now Carolina off. Go ahead, Ben. Well, I'm just interested like this Dallas who just got smoked and is going to make the playoffs, but say they lose in the first round, you know, do they is because that might be such an attractive landing spot for Bill terms of money, get to work for guys that he I think clearly respects the Jones family. He's very complimentary of them every time he talks about them, you know, would that be, you know, again, if this is a negotiation, if there is some gray area, would he be more willing to be a party to a trade to send him there as opposed to just taking whatever, you know, the best job left is and you're just going to have to fire me and, you know, going about it that way. Like there's there's some movement that that has to happen. I think with some other teams too, maybe before the crafts end up making this decision on Bill Belichick. So maybe that's what's rapid, what rapid board is referencing. Maybe he's saying, well, you know, they want to see what opportunities are out there. What kind of takers there might be for Bill Belichick if they do want to get compensation for them and that won't happen, you know, necessarily 8 a.m. Monday morning, week 19. Phil, great job today. Appreciate it. Love the bazooka Joe look. We got to get skull crusher over to his dentist appointment. We've had a good time. All right, great stuff. And hey, we're going to more great stuff for you later in the week. We're talking to Chris Berman from ESPN, the legend, obviously an encyclopedia of football knowledge. And well attuned to the New England Patriots and Bill Belichick. So it's an interesting time to talk to somebody who is so plugged in in the NFL, but also in Foxboro. So talk to Boomer coming up.