00:02it is a football friday mike will be here in a second but right now i am joined by thomas
00:10john lang tj junior yeah if you're gonna go full name you gotta you gotta throw in the junior i
00:15didn't know you were junior i will be the uh angry italian for the next hour or so until uh
00:22mike is
00:22mike's gonna join us at some point so long as you're not like the nicks fan and your name is
00:26nixon five nixon five they misspelled that that's uh and they did i didn't even realize that until
00:31you brought that up and five was spelled f-y-v-e anybody wondering we were watching uh the tvs
00:38in here and somebody named their newborn child nixon five right first name is nixon nixon name is five
00:46so yeah f-y-v-e so tj lang's what happens when you win it is tj lang is joining
00:51us he joins us early
00:53michael said we'll be here uh momentarily we got the rest of the gang here and david and paul
00:59and guys we're gonna talk all about the lions and the packers game because look this is the lions
01:06first division game this is the lions first chance to win back-to-back games you know in a few
01:14weeks
01:14that they haven't done in over a calendar year which still seems ridiculous that i'm saying that
01:19but it's factually true they have not won back-to-back games in over a calendar year
01:23been a while you got the packers coming in who are red hot but we're gonna start off with something
01:28that i warned people about earlier in the week tj so as you know sam laporta goes on a podcast
01:36and
01:36he gets a little comfortable and he started he gets talking about how he went out there and broke
01:42is effing back for this team and if he plays for him great but if not oh well and i
01:48said the problem
01:49with that is you got to make you're not going to make your teammates and you're going to make your
01:53coaches have to answer for you and we're going to see if he talks today but yesterday some reporters
02:00waited around reportedly for over 45 minutes waiting to talk to laporta he wasn't there jack campbell
02:06came out spoke about him but today dan campbell got asked questions about sam laporta and what he said
02:46i'm sorry
02:48you
03:09so that was dan campbell talking about that but then i like how he threw him rarely
03:14right well well because here's the thing rarely happened maybe a few minutes later because
03:22briquette had a follow-up question after his answer to try to get him to see you know well
03:27you know is he sorry is laporta sorry for what he said
03:46wrong answer briquette briquette is the jim costa in person in person version where costa gets to
03:54talk to him on the phone and you can hear him cut him off sometimes briquette's becoming that guy
03:58but he's not asking anything out of balance tj yeah tj here's what it is hey dan you're mad at
04:06the wrong person you're mad at the wrong person you're mad at day briquette for doing this job
04:10and asking a follow-up question to see what's going on you don't want this to be a distraction
04:15maybe you focus this on the person who got comfortable on the podcast and went out there
04:20and said some stuff because like it or not now he's the distraction it's not briquette it's not
04:26the reporters it's not any of these people but the fact that he's like i didn't want it to be
04:30a
04:30distraction well it was already one dan it wasn't dave briquette i don't think it's a distraction
04:36inside the building and guys are professionals you know that hey he's going through a contract
04:41negotiation that's his business as long as he's showing up and and putting in full effort uh the
04:47during practice during the meetings and making sure he's not pouting sam laporta is not that type of
04:51guy and i've got a lot of thoughts on uh on what he said on that podcast and number one
04:57i would say
04:59everybody in the nfl or professional sports you always hear the phrase it's a business it's a
05:05business you got to look out after each other you got to look out for yourself things happen right
05:10hey if that's a teammate of sam laporta you're saying hey you got to do what you got to do
05:15you don't really understand that though and until you hit that contract here until you start having
05:21those negotiations because from the team obviously they're going to try to get the best deal from the
05:28players perspective and the agents perspective they're going to try to get get the best deal
05:31there can be a lot of things said we went through it with jalen during just recently where hey my
05:38feelings are hurt this is i thought you appreciated me i thought you did this you don't know but rico
05:44i'm saying you don't truly understand the business side of it until you start hearing some of the
05:49things that are said about you and then you realize okay it's because of negotiation and it's not
05:55it's no different than any other business in the world i've gone through a couple contract negotiations
06:00so yeah and people can tell you hey we don't think you're very good you're like wow i'm no i
06:05am i am
06:06more valuable than you think you're my friend like where did that come from and both can be true
06:10but both can be true but you know what and just for clarification's sake for those who don't know
06:15here's what sam laporta said on the podcast
06:22you
06:53you
06:57you can also fall into the trap and this happened to me multiple times where you might be having a
07:05conversation with somebody that you think is just fun and you say something and you're a little bit
07:11more honest than you probably should be and in sam laporta's case and this is not defending sam at
07:17all he's normally a very calculated guy i've i've talked to him for a lot of you know last four
07:22years
07:23doing the post game interviews he was a guy that i was i would go to because he would give
07:28you good
07:28stuff but he was always very calculated he still is sometimes when you sit on a podcast like that
07:35which is part of my take which is one of the if not the top podcast uh in the country
07:40for sports
07:41it just is sometimes in the back of your mind you're but it also has like a comedic feel to
07:47it
07:47too right it's not it's not you sitting down one-on-one with dave burkett it's not you sitting
07:53down one-on-one you know like chris illich did with wojo it kind of it loosens you up a
07:57little bit
07:58and then you up tj but here's the thing no but let me just finish real quick because when you're
08:03on
08:03something like that and you understand i can't give these guys basic generic answers because
08:11they're not going to want me back right like they're not they're not they're not going to
08:15invite me back i'm on the top podcast of the world i gotta give them something juicy but no but
08:21i swear
08:22to god you think about that if he just went on there and said hey guys i'm just not going
08:25to talk about
08:25that no that's something i'm just going to keep private well okay well sam laporta was super boring
08:30we're never going to have him back on our on our podcast that that helps you grow your audience
08:35too so you can fall into that trap and i've done the same thing and i'm not making excuses but
08:39i think
08:40you think sam wants to go back on that podcast anytime soon probably not i don't think they set
08:45him up for anything no no they didn't he got comfortable 100 and here's the thing and sometimes
08:51when you do a podcast it's like i'm not talking to the whole world i'm just talking to my buddies
08:55having fun oh crap there's millions of people that are going to hear this and it's going to
09:00be a story and then 30 minutes after you say that you're like i wish i didn't say that i
09:07wish i
09:07would i wish i would have put that a different way i think it was the end part where he
09:11basically made
09:12it sound like because saying you know what i went out there and i broke my effing back for this
09:17team
09:17that was factual we all saw that but then it just got to the point to me look if i
09:23play for him i play
09:24for him if i don't i'll play for somebody else and that that kind of is the anti-detroit versus
09:29everybody because as you know here in detroit either you're with us or you're not and if you're
09:34if you say something like that that's the quickest way to get the fan base to turn against you especially
09:40coming from a guy that we really never heard anything from yeah so we all kind of had assumptions
09:45of what laporta was and then you hear that and you're like well i thought he was one of us
09:51and
09:51you found out very quickly it is a business yeah he is he is still one of us i i
09:56truly in my heart
09:57think that sam wants to be here and the other part of that is as a player the last thing
10:03you
10:03want to do is give up any sort of leverage when you're in a contract negotiation if sam laporta
10:08came out and said i want to be here this is where i want to be i want to finish
10:13my career here you
10:14know there's no other team i want to play for what are the lines going to do they're going to
10:18keep
10:18offering them below market value because they know you gave up your leverage i got into i only had
10:25to go through it one time in 10 years thank god because it was painful but i made the mistake
10:30of
10:30uh after my eighth year before i signed here with detroit i i made a comment to somebody that said
10:35you know i'm going to give green bay the the the right of refusal over any other contract that i
10:41get
10:41offered because i want to be a green bay packer i love it here my agent called me and ripped
10:46my ass
10:47not only because first of all they're not going to offer you what what you're worth and second of all
10:52you're going to scare away a lot of other teams because they're thinking it doesn't matter if we
10:57make an offer he's just going to give green bay the opportunity to match so that's that's part of
11:02it too where i said sam's a very calculated guy when he speaks that it doesn't it's nothing against
11:08the team his teammates or his coaches it's nothing against the city it's i've got to use every i have
11:16to use every little bit of leverage that i have and if i if it has to be the bad
11:21guy approach where
11:22i know i'm one of the top three or five tight ends and you're not going to pay me like
11:26that
11:27somebody else will but i don't hate sam laporta for it oh no no i i'm not saying you but
11:33it's the
11:33quickest way to get the people of detroit to turn on you 248-539-9797 how big of a deal
11:41is this laporta comment because it's got enough that dan campbell walked off of his uh when he
11:47finished his press conference today he was not happy dj lang okay he's in early and i want to
11:53keep picking his brain because he's actually been in the locker room before i'm trying to be the angry
11:58italian oh hey 97-1
