00:00And number three, and most importantly, I need you to remember that the open of the show each and every
00:04day is brought to you by our friends out at the other place.
00:08Stop by, grab a bite to eat, grab some lunch, grab some dinner, grab a drink, catch whatever sporting event
00:15is on and go see our friends over at the other place.
00:18So where I would like to begin our conversation today is with the chief schedule.
00:23Now I am not going to insult your intelligence nor waste your time by sitting here and going through the
00:30wins and losses.
00:31Number one, we don't have the entire schedule and number two, that is a stupid exercise.
00:36So I'm not going to do that, but I do think you can make some takeaways from the portion of
00:43the schedule that we do have.
00:46Let's start with number one, Patrick Mahomes is playing week one of the NFL season.
00:52Now we talked about this earlier in the week, so we don't have to rehash the entire conversation, but the
00:58chiefs are going to play on Monday night football in week one.
01:02They're playing on Sunday night football in week two ESPN pays almost $3 billion for the rights for the national
01:12football league.
01:13NBC pays $1.7 billion for the right to broadcast NFL games.
01:20I did the math before the show today, NBC spends somewhere between $120 million to $130 million every single game
01:31to broadcast the NFL.
01:32You think they're taking a chance in week two with Justin Fields when they could very easily get the chiefs
01:40later in the season where there is much more of a certainty on whether or not Patrick Mahomes is going
01:46to play.
01:46So we don't have to rehash the entire take.
01:48You guys know where I stand on this, but I will not spend our summer having conversations about whether or
01:55not Patrick Mahomes is being is coming back because ESPN is taking a significant gamble that he is going to
02:02participate in week one.
02:04NBC is taking a significant gamble that he is going to play in week one.
02:08The national football league is taking a significant gamble that Patrick Mahomes is going to be there in game one.
02:15So, you know what?
02:16I'm going to be on their side of the argument that Patrick Mahomes is going to participate in the early
02:21portion of the season.
02:22So you should at least go into the summer with optimism that Patrick Mahomes is going to play.
02:29There was a time where I think there was a shred of uncertainty.
02:32There was a cloud around it.
02:34In my opinion, that cloud has been lifted.
02:36Now that we saw the schedule, I thought if it was looking shaky, if it was looking dicey, that Pat
02:42was going to be back, that they would put the Arizona Cardinals week one for the chiefs.
02:46They were going to kind of ease the chiefs into it and then load up the second half of the
02:51schedule.
02:51That is not the way that at least the schedule leaks would appear.
02:55They got out the gates Monday night football against a team in your division Sunday night football the next week.
03:01So I'm talking about your plan on a primetime audience where we know the NFL cares about television ratings.
03:07They are not throwing Justin Fields out there in my opinion.
03:12So that is number one.
03:13Number two.
03:14Now we'll talk more in depth about this as the show continues.
03:18I completely understand if you don't like when the chiefs play on a holiday.
03:24That it's a religious holiday.
03:26It's a time for your family.
03:27You just want to sit back.
03:29You want to relax.
03:30You don't want to have to go to the stadium.
03:32I completely understand all that.
03:34I like when the chiefs play on a holiday.
03:36I mean, I already plan on watching the games.
03:39It's a cool time to have that bonding time with your family and sit back and watch it.
03:43But I understand if you don't like when the chiefs play on a holiday.
03:46Now I will caution you when it comes to one thing you cheer for a nationally prominent team.
03:52And the NFL has made it a point that they want to dominate these holidays.
03:57They now want to take over Christmas.
03:59They've always taken over Thanksgiving and they are trying to expand their footprint when it comes to Thanksgiving.
04:05You got to work some holidays to be playing the National Football League.
04:09You got to work some holidays if you work out at the stadium.
04:12That is what you have signed up for.
04:13If you are choosing to be a part of the chiefs organization in some capacity, I don't know if in
04:19terms of the way the schedule breaks down.
04:22If you can be that mad, if you're a chiefs fan, they play a road night Thanksgiving game that should
04:28not interfere with Thanksgiving dinner.
04:31Have your dinner at your one, your two, maybe your three o'clock.
04:35You don't have to worry about getting ready and going out to the stadium and spending your time in the
04:39parking lot at Arrowhead.
04:41It would appear to be a night game on the road in Buffalo.
04:44And we know the number is going to be massive.
04:47The chiefs are not playing an international game.
04:49So you don't got to worry about waking up.
04:51They're not playing in Spain.
04:52You're not losing a home game because the chiefs have given that home game away to another city.
04:59And they don't play on Christmas day.
05:02So you got no Christmas, no holiday home game.
05:06You got no international game.
05:09I don't know if you can really be that upset about the way that the schedule has broken down for
05:14the Kansas City Chiefs.
05:15I think it's pretty favorable.
05:17I think it is pretty fair.
05:18I think for a team that is clearly one of the bigger draws in the National Football League, I don't
05:24know if you can be mad.
05:25You got a warm Monday night football game.
05:28You got important games late in the season that are going to be nationally televised.
05:31You don't have to be an arrowhead on any holiday and they're not playing in Spain or Australia or Mexico
05:39City or any of those games with extensive travel.
05:43I think the chiefs came out pretty well.
05:44If you were talking about schedule roulette and who has to go where now, this is the part where I
05:49will caution you with the schedule.
05:51And I understand why we do it.
05:54I understand why we look at the schedule and we see these grouping of teams and the way that they're
05:59put together and you start to get worried and you start to get fearful.
06:03And there is a stretch where if you are playing the on paper game, it's a pretty difficult stretch for
06:08Kansas City.
06:09I mean, you go on the road to Buffalo.
06:11You go on the road to Cincinnati.
06:15You play New England.
06:16I mean, it's a difficult stretch there on the road to play the Rams.
06:20I mean, they have a stretch there in November where they play three straight road games and then they follow
06:25it up with a Monday night football game at Arrowhead against the New England Patriots.
06:30So I certainly get it.
06:31I get why you would be worried about it.
06:33I get why you would look at that as being that murderer's row of games.
06:36I would just like to give you a little bit of information of what we know about the league.
06:41This is not my opinion about the league.
06:43These are stats and facts that we know about the National Football League.
06:49If you look at the history of the league, there have been seven consecutive years where a team that selected
06:56in the top five made the playoffs the following season.
07:00So some of these teams that we think are going to be terrible or were terrible last year are going
07:06to be good this season because that's how the National Football League works.
07:10You can go from being the New England Patriots, you then fire your head coach, you hire Mike Vrabel.
07:15Next thing you know, you look up and you are in the Super Bowl.
07:19Something like that will happen this year.
07:21Now you have to guess and try to predict who it's going to be, but Tennessee will be much better
07:25than you thought they were going to be.
07:26The Giants will end up winning their division.
07:28Maybe the Raiders end up winning eight games this year.
07:31Who knows, but one of those dregs from the league from last year are going to be good this season
07:37and you can never pinpoint who it is on average about five to seven new teams make the playoffs every
07:44single year.
07:44So a team that was good last year, Kansas City, a couple of years ago that everybody is hell bent.
07:50That team is going to make the postseason fast forward the next year and they miss it.
07:55Rob, you remember last year we did the topic where if I gave you a million dollars for every team
08:01that you bet in a parlay to make the playoffs and if you missed any one of those teams, you
08:07would automatically be eliminated from the parlay.
08:09Remember how everybody put Kansas City in that parlay?
08:12Well, you would have lost your bet.
08:13So there are no certainties.
08:15There are no guarantees.
08:16There is no team in the league that you can say you are 100% certain is going to make
08:21the playoffs.
08:22Now you might have a strong inclination about somebody.
08:25I feel pretty good about Buffalo heading into the season, given what they've done the last few years, given their
08:29division.
08:30I feel really good about Seattle going into the year.
08:33But again, you cannot be certain about anybody.
08:36Also, the most important thing to note, injuries.
08:40You have no idea who's going to be healthy and who's not going to be healthy.
08:4362 different starting quarterbacks happened last year.
08:48So you go into a game thinking you're going to go up against Patrick Mahomes.
08:52Next thing you know, it's Gardner Minshew.
08:53Oh, no, it's not.
08:54He's injured.
08:55Now it's Chris Oladokun.
08:56And it radically changes the results of the game.
08:59So all I'm going to say is just breathe easy when it comes to the schedule.
09:04I get it.
09:06You're going to look at the schedule.
09:07It's fair.
09:08It's unfair.
09:09It's too difficult.
09:10They got an easy schedule.
09:12We got a tough schedule.
09:13The same commentary I had yesterday about let's not get worried with who's hosting game one and who's going on
09:19the road in game one.
09:20Because somebody has to go on the road and somebody has to stay at home.
09:25The schedule usually evens out.
09:27There's going to be some teams that are good that are going to end up being bad.
09:31There's some teams that you think are going to be bad this season that will wake up and it'll be
09:35weak.
09:36And you'll think, huh, that seems a lot better than I thought they were going to be.
09:39So let's just let the NFL season play itself out.
09:42But I really do feel for the schedule, at least with the information we have now, I don't know how
09:47mad you can be about the schedule.
09:49I really don't know how mad you could be.
09:50The Chiefs open up the season at home.
09:53It's always great to get a Monday night, Sunday night football when the weather is going to be great.
09:57That's going to be an amazing tailgate day.
09:59You get a tailgate day on a Monday, take off three-day weekend, and it's a Broncos game and the
10:05return of Patrick Mahomes.
10:07That's a great ticket to have.
10:09They don't play at home on Thanksgiving.
10:10They don't play at home on Christmas.
10:12They don't play an international game.
10:14This is a good schedule breakdown for the Kansas City Chiefs.
10:17And trust me, do not worry about that month of games.
10:20Two of those teams will not end up being good because that's just the way that the NFL breaks down.
10:25We are going to be joined by Andy Reid coming up in an hour.
10:28Tell a friend that the head coach of the Chiefs is going to be on the show.
10:31We'll continue our Chiefs conversation, getting you ready for the total and complete schedule.
10:35Keep it right here.
10:36So drive.
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