00:00Hey, I don't know how jazzed up the actual Browns fans are about number two.
00:07I know one thing, they don't like number four.
00:09No.
00:10And when you're bringing up that, and I saw it immediately,
00:14I had four emails right then and there yesterday evening.
00:18As we were watching the skies again.
00:20We have a day without thunderstorms.
00:22All of a sudden it's Florida around here.
00:25In August.
00:26No, it's just a pain in my ass.
00:30Anywho, I saw your emails.
00:32A lot of you feel the same way.
00:35You know, when you got to talk about not playing a guy in a preseason game at home
00:39because the home fans are going to boo him,
00:42you got to consider what it's all about.
00:47The same theory went in for everybody.
00:49They're not playing him.
00:50They're going to have him.
00:51And I guarantee, like when I brought up, when you asked me about the preseason game
00:55and I said, well, you know, if you have Deshaun Watson take the predominant snaps
00:59in the joint practice and then Shador plays in that second preseason game,
01:06does that mean that Deshaun's going to end up being the starter?
01:09And so many fans are just like, well, they don't want Deshaun Watson to get booed in front of the
01:14home fans.
01:16Because do you believe that Deshaun Watson is going to get booed next Saturday?
01:20If he goes out there against the Bills?
01:22It would be first thing completion.
01:24And maybe even him walking on the field.
01:27When he hits the field.
01:28Yeah, but they probably would not make a huge announcement about,
01:34yeah, they'd probably just do the defense.
01:36It's not like baseball.
01:38Do you have to announce that a new quarterback's coming in?
01:40Okay.
01:41Because you have to in baseball.
01:43Players enter and exit the field every snap in football.
01:47The only thing you have to do is announce that who's a tackle eligible.
01:50I'm eligible.
01:51But that's...
01:52You've got to rub your chest.
01:53Yeah, someone's covered.
01:55Mr. Official, I'm eligible.
01:57Boy, that's interesting.
01:59No, no, there's not going to be that many fans.
02:01It's a preseason game.
02:02So it's not like it's going to be 67,000 in the ballpark on next Saturday.
02:06But it's also not, and this is kind of a key for who's been going to these games over the
02:12years.
02:13This is like the 537 section come to life.
02:17Correct.
02:17The whole stadium is 537.
02:19If you've ever been to a preseason game and had a 537 ticket, a lot of times they will
02:24like come get you and go, no, you can go down to 137.
02:27And when you have fewer people, you can kind of hear their words more clearly.
02:32Oh, yes.
02:32Like you could, when it was the 90s, well, Ric Flair's woo wasn't that big in the 90s,
02:37but when it was the 90s and there was 40,000 people in Jacobs Field every night, like you just
02:41heard a roar of a crowd.
02:43But later on in life, you can hear the woos at 1130 at night after a rain delay, pretty crystal
02:50clear, and a lot of things being said to a lot of different players.
02:53And you might hear that coming up next Saturday and even the Thursday after.
02:57So those are things I guess they, I would say you have to take into account, but I don't think
03:01you want to take into account.
03:03But this is what makes this year so bizarre.
03:05It's that you have a guy that I think is likable to the fan base, but I think that a
03:10lot of fans are like, okay, fine, whatever, let's move on even, and we'll see where the season goes.
03:14Maybe I'm wrong on that.
03:16But there are definitely a lot of fans who don't want to see the other guy.
03:19And they, I got to tell you, they are just, they can't believe that he's back and he's going to
03:25play.
03:26And that he's practicing, and they thought they'd never see him in a jersey again.
03:30I mean, after that Achilles injury, that was it.
03:33They thought he was, they thought he was going to, you know, last June or this last June, I should
03:37say, that he was going to be let go, and that was going to be it.
03:39And we were finally going to move on from this entire mess, and he's going to start next, this coming
03:45Saturday.
03:45Now that's on the road, but what happens when he hits the field the Saturday after that?
03:49Probably a lot of people are going to boo, because he's a memory of bad football.
03:52And what could have been?
03:53But that was, all of that was baked in to the decision to allow a fair, open, and honest quarterback
04:00competition.
04:01And it's something that Todd Munkin, do you think he cares if Deshaun Watson gets booed when it's time to
04:08have the starting lineups?
04:11I would like to say no, and I still don't think.
04:16But if the boos are that strong, and it feels like they might be, he's not going to notice that?
04:22Now, I don't think that that's really going to have a decision being made, or affect his decision more than
04:27likely.
04:28Yeah, he's a football coach.
04:28He's got to do what he's got to do for the team.
04:31And if Deshaun Watson goes out there and plays well, there will be no, I don't know how much cheering
04:35there will be,
04:36but I don't think there's going to be very much booing.
04:38Now if he goes out there and he plays like an MVP candidate like he did six years ago, well,
04:42obviously things are going to change.
04:43Fans are going to cheer if he throws a touchdown pass to KC Concepcion.
04:47Yeah, but they might be cheering for KC Concepcion and not him.
04:49Sure, but I think that quiets things.
04:51Well, certainly.
04:52The better you play, the more it quiets things down, and then eventually you turn people if you have good
04:56play.
04:56That's the way the world works, especially in professional sports.
05:00But, guys, it is not lost that the first thing that so many people said is like, yeah, they're trying
05:04to avoid the boos.
05:06So they'll start, like, and the theory is, well, yeah, Shonor won't start the season.
05:09He'll start week three against Carolina at home.
05:12Well, Deshaun Watson will start the first two games.
05:14I'm going, well, what if Deshaun Watson throws three touchdowns each of those first two games?
05:17You're not going to hear a lot of boos.
05:19And if they win one of those two games or both of those two games, he's going to start week
05:22three against Carolina.
05:24So we got to, as much as I do care about how the fans feel, as much as I do
05:30care that, yeah, fans are going to boo,
05:32and that is our world, how fans feel.
05:35There has to be a reality of it going, yeah, but if he plays well, there's just nobody who really
05:39thinks he's going to play well.
05:40And there's been no reports that said once live bullets are coming after you on Saturday that they're going to
05:46play really well.
05:47See, that's the thing.
05:48You're having problems getting your plans out.
05:50Then you go to the line of scrimmage.
05:51It's just going to happen.
05:52This isn't Clemson anymore.
05:54You're not just physically better than 90% of the teams that you play.
05:58This is the NFL.
05:59You know, those are killers over there.
06:00They're just as good as your guys.
06:02In a lot of cases, even better.
06:04And they're coming after you in real time and in real life.
06:06And that's probably going to change a lot of things coming up Saturday.
06:09Well, it is interesting to even consider that we're talking about this this many years into the Watson thing
06:14when they already had removed all the signage.
06:18They had already admitted the owner that this was, you know, a disastrous move to trade for him.
06:23And here we are in August, mid-August of 2026.
06:27And the very first preseason game we have, we are going out there with Deshaun Watson.
06:32Listen, does he deserve any credit for a potential comeback story here?
06:37No, he doesn't get any credit.
06:40I think the organization gets blame.
06:43We wrote him off for debt.
06:45We thought this was over.
06:46I didn't even think he cared to be on the Browns anymore.
06:49First chance he had, every time there was any kind of rehab or whatever, he was in Miami.
06:54He wasn't here.
06:55I still don't think he really does, to be honest with you.
06:58He's not proven anything to me when it comes to that.
07:00You say whatever you want to in a press conference.
07:03I mean, but whatever.
07:04You're out of here on the first thing smoking, any chance you get, really.
07:07It's a little different this year.
07:08He said he'd take a long-term contract.
07:09This year he's definitely been around more.
07:11Yeah, because he does got to get ready to try to win a job.
07:14He was going to have a chance to win a job, so I can understand that.
07:17But in most cases, he was out of here on the first thing smoking.
07:19You have a chance to get a job, so I can understand that.
07:22But the question is about, well, long-term, would you sign a contract long-term?
07:26Well, they might be the only organization that will have you.
07:28They seem to be right now, so yeah, you're going to say nice things.
07:30You're not going to just sit there and rip the organization in a press conference.
07:33That's for podcasts three years from now when you're no longer with the Browns.
07:37That's when you do that.
07:38Well, we have talked so much about Shador and the four workouts a day
07:41and everything he's doing to get ready.
07:43And locally.
07:44We know he stayed here.
07:45Yeah, does Deshaun Watson, is there evidence that he's been working his ass off?
07:49I'm sure there is, considering he can physically move again.
07:52And I said I saw it with my own two eyes when he was working out last year.
07:56So there's never been a question about his physical prowess.
08:01He's a hell of an athlete.
08:02It's just whether or not he can play the position of quarterback anymore.
08:05You know, I'm not asking him to do American Ninja Warrior.
08:08I'm asking him to play quarterback in the NFL.
08:11And there's a big difference in that.
08:13So he might still be a hell of an athlete at 29, 30 years old.
08:15I'm sure he is.
08:16But is a hell of an athlete going to play quarterback well for me?
08:20It's shown that he hasn't.
08:21And I don't have a lot of faith that he will.
08:24We just thought we had talked about him being so mentally checked out a couple of years ago
08:28that we didn't think we'd ever see him again.
08:30That's why I was asking.
08:31Well, it seems like he's dialed in a little bit here.
08:34Because I think he does like the game of football.
08:36I think he does like playing football.
08:38I think he does like making money playing football.
08:41And I don't think that there's a lot of football teams other than the Cleveland Browns right now that would
08:45have him.
08:46Like there's people who are saying, well, what if we can work a trade?
08:49They're still trying to work a trade.
08:50Who's taking him?
08:53You can't get him out of the huddle.
08:55Okay, if you can't get him out of the huddle then, what is a backup quarterback supposed to be able
08:59to do?
09:00Get him in and out of the huddle.
09:01That's why we're saying Dylan Gabriel has a chance to be a backup quarterback for 10 years.
09:06Because why?
09:06He knows the offense.
09:07He knows any offense given to him.
09:09I always give him that credit.
09:10And he can get teams in and out of the huddle.
09:12Look, if you can't get him in and out and you don't even have the idea of the offense, what
09:18are you doing here?
09:19So they're going to trade for him?
09:20No.
09:22216-474-0092.
09:23I don't believe that at all.
09:25If he wants personal credit for it, I'll see it on the field.
09:29And if it doesn't happen on the field, I'm sure a lot of people say, I told you so.
09:33I don't think anybody needs to.
09:34I think we're just going to get what we expect and we move on.
09:37Well, you do sound like you're afraid of him getting booed and the impact of that on the football team.
09:42Oh, no.
09:42I'm not afraid of that.
09:43I'm not afraid of that whatsoever.
09:44No, no, no, no, no, no.
09:46If I'm afraid of something, I'll tell you I'm afraid of it.
09:48I ain't afraid of anything.
09:49I'm afraid of losing games.
09:50I'm afraid of him being booed.
09:51Why am I afraid of him being booed?
09:52I'm just telling you what people are sending ever since they announced it last night.
09:56Well, if there's no reason to be afraid by it, then who cares if he gets booed?
09:59Right.
09:59I think the organization would care if he gets booed.
10:01If they're going to lose games and they have a guy out there they don't like.
10:03But if Todd Munkin's head coach, he can make the decision.
10:06I've always said I support Todd Munkin in whatever decision he has to make because he
10:10has to be responsible for 53 people on the roster, not for 60,000 in the stands.
10:15But if he wins football games, who cares, right?
10:18Do you think he's going to win football games?
10:20I believe a healthy guy with a mental head in the game, I think he can do it.
10:26What has told us over the last six years that he would?
10:29Well, why do you keep – what does that matter?
10:33Because it's been a long, long time since he's won games.
10:38I understand that.
10:39But today, we're talking about today going forward.
10:41What if he wins games?
10:42I mean, there is a comeback player to your award.
10:45Not that he's going to get it, but there is an award for this type of situation, right?
10:49Well, listen, if he – Mike, I'll meet you halfway on this.
10:53Can you imagine?
10:53Thank you for the call.
10:54What a season it would be if Deshaun Watson's up there for comeback player of the year.
10:58I'm not going to be nasty and dismissive towards Mike.
11:00I'll meet you halfway.
11:01If he does it, I'll admit how surprised I'm going to be.
11:04But I'm not going to let – I'm not going to close my eyes and close my ears
11:10and put my fingers in my ears and not pay attention to the last six years of not-so-great
11:15times.
11:15Or I should say the last four years with the Cleveland Browns of really bad times.
11:20The odds are against him.
11:23We can't get out of the huddle.
11:25We're throwing a bunch of picks.
11:26We don't know where our wide receivers are going.
11:29We drafted wide receivers.
11:30You took a first-round guy in the second round to pick 39.
11:34All we do is – of the positives, we rant and rave about these wide receivers.
11:39So if he can't do it in practice when the orange jersey is off
11:45and guys are going after him, do we really think he's going to be able to do it in a
11:49game?
11:49I don't have a lot of faith.
11:51So maybe Todd Munkin is a magician or I really just have to go and be as realistic as I
11:56can about it.
11:56But I ain't afraid of a damn thing, Tone.
11:58I don't know.
11:59It's just a little bit, so.
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