We continue our discussion on quarterback storylines going into the NFL offseason with an episode focused on the AFC North. Professor Lewis reviews how his QB Wins metric predicted the division's 2022 outcome with one outlier. This episode also features discussion on Jake Paul's loss to Tommy Fury as well as fan anticipation for The Mandalorian Season 3.
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Transcript:
Mike Lewis 0:08
Hey welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Emory marketing analytics center fandomanalytics podcast with Mike Lewis and Doug Battle. Welcome back, Doug. I know it's only been a week but it feels like
Doug Battle 0:20
oh, it's it has been longer. We're taping on a Tuesday this week. I believe you wanted to say, yeah, you wanted to wait on some of the Pay Per View numbers from that,
Mike Lewis 0:31
which Logan Paul was couldn't find.
Doug Battle 0:35
James, I get it wrong. Whichever one we're supposed to talk about. I get it wrong every time. Janet does it. They're interchangeable in my eyes. The Jake Paul fight. Yeah, we have that this week. My God, Damian Lillard put up 71 points and an NBA game pretty quietly. I'm rocking the jersey though. Over here, out of respect for Damon Dame time, that's the Sukkot 70 plus point game by a player in the NBA this season. Donovan Mitchell had one earlier and it was the same night as Damar Hamlins. injury. And when everyone no longer cared about sports for a day, and therefore no one ever talked about it and gotten zero coverage, but both of those have kind of gone under the radar. My point 70 points is
Mike Lewis 1:18
how many points did Tatum score in the All Star game?
Doug Battle 1:23
Like 63, maybe? Yeah, part of me is like, is it because the game is just becoming so high scoring now? He had 55. So okay, nothing. Yeah, nothing. But yeah, Dame dolla. Doing that was probably the highlight of my sports week, but I am a fan of his. And you know, he's a rapper, Mike. He's got like, four albums out. Like that's what he does in the offseason.
Mike Lewis 1:50
I want to say he was boxing to was any renaissance man.
Doug Battle 1:53
I don't know if he was by I mean, he probably trains as a boxer. A lot of those guys do. I don't know. He's just not a boxer these days, though. I mean, anyone can be a boxer. Like I said, Jake Paul.
Mike Lewis 2:06
Okay, well, let's start. Okay, I mean, I think it's luck. And you got to keep me on us. Because we've been talking about Jake and Jake Logan, Paul for or Logan, Jake Paul, for a couple of years now. And you got to keep me honest, in terms of where my opinion has been about the whole phenomena? Because I honestly don't I suspect I've been all over the place, pro QA, indifferent. But I think this is over. You know, I think this has now run its course, that that I want it. Like I said, Well, I want to wait on the podcast this week. So we could potentially get the Pay Per View numbers. But, you know, I think the magic is finished.
Doug Battle 2:47
Yeah, I don't know. Something tells me it's going to the next one's going to be like Mac McClung and the ring going up against a former NBA player or something. But there seems to be buzz kill with Jake Paul losing. And I think that's part of, you know, the deal with fighting is when you're undefeated, there's all this interest and excitement. It's like, well, he hasn't lost anyone. So who knows he could What if he's like, actually a professional caliber boxer. But to the best of my understanding, this was his first fight against an actual boxer and not just a fighter of sorts. went about how you would expect
Mike Lewis 3:28
let's dig in on this then because I think this story, just the more you look into it, in some ways, the in some ways, the weirder it gets, and in some ways, it also gets less weird. You know, so hit the Pay Per View Results for Paul's career, or someone named Desi. D J, I guess another YouTuber, and that one Drew 700,000 Pay Per View buys. Then there was Ben aspirin 1.5 million Pay Per View buys. Tyrone Woodley. Let me get the reading glasses out for this one. Tyron Woodley, fight one 500k buys Woodley 260 5k buys mn Silva was reported between 203 100 So maybe it's more like 200 Maybe it's like 201k 1000 Pay Per View buys. So this has been trending downward yet. Right. And you know what I was saying way way it almost does almost feel almost more like in some ways it is very similar to traditional boxing is a boxing is always if you want to use I'll use the word suffered from not having some global organizing commission. And so it's what you were saying you get into this game of opponents being constructed over time and everyone wanting to be undefeated, because it was always brand versus brand. Yeah, right. And so in some ways, Paul was as the boxing industry is kind of dying off. Paul might have been the exclamation point to take it to its purest form of just being about hype.
Doug Battle 5:10
Yeah, I think so I think it got eerily similar to wrestling, Mike, where it's more about the personality and, you know, Jake Paul being dip in his opponent prior to the prior to the match when they're, I guess they're doing their weigh ins. And that type of social content that drives everything nowadays is what's driven interest in boxing as a whole as far as these amateur or semi pro type events. And yeah, like you said, the interest died down, I heard a lot more, or a lot less talk about this one. Then some previous fights, particularly at first with Jake, Paul, I have to wonder for him, like, what's the point at this point? And, you know, I gotta say, I am kind of impressed that he can hang in the ring, like watching the watching the the highlights, like, I know, I couldn't do that, you know, so it's like, there's a level of respect, like, Okay, this guy's like training for real I'm like, he's, he's a peak performance for what a non professional athlete can do. But I don't know if like, people want to pay a bunch of money to watch non professional athletes reach
Mike Lewis 6:24
this a little bit, because you think about it. So in some ways, the brilliance of this. Boxing is a tough sport to get into. Because there isn't, you know, there isn't like this, like high school structure of you play on the high school football team, you go to college, etc, etc. Right? For boxing, you're probably going to a local boxing gym, and sort of finding your way into the sport via that. So I think a lot of aspiring boxers probably have other jobs. Right? That they're, they're working it, you know, they're working at Kinkos. Or they're working at Publix. Sure. And then they're trained, and then they're paying a trainer to work with them. Right after work in so Paul came at this with all the resources in the world. Right. And so I do think it's, you know, he was able to sort of advance himself, perhaps artificial, you can even look, you know, that the Paul brothers have world class training. Oh, yeah. Class nutrition. You know, everything is, you know, everything is a professional fightcamp. And they've got less worries. So, you know, like, so I don't, I don't know how much credit we can give. And the other reason why, I don't know how much credit we should give them is that, it turns out that Tommy fury might not be the realest fighter in the world. And so I was unaware of this. But you know, Tommy fury, you want to guess how many Instagram followers he has?
Doug Battle 7:54
I could not even he had
Mike Lewis 7:57
four and a half million Instagram followers. Okay. Okay, that sounds like that sounds like that's a pretty big number. That's like more than Mike Trout. Yeah, right. Yeah. For a professional athlete. That must be something. Tommy ferry, as it turns out, is best known for appearing on a reality TV show in the UK called Love
Doug Battle 8:16
Island. That's what he's best known for. Yeah. So Well, I mean, his brother's
Mike Lewis 8:21
the heavyweight champion of the world, right? He's essentially a reality shark reality star. So this was actually probably two reality stars.
Doug Battle 8:31
It's like a Jordan Rodgers situation. Aaron Rodgers brother, who I believe, okay, I could be wrong. I believe he was on The Bachelor. And he's on ESPN as a talking head as a site quarterback expert, because Aaron Rodgers brother, he played at Vanderbilt.
Mike Lewis 8:48
Okay, but I'm saying, you know, it's not clear that Tommy fury even played. Someone told me and I don't I don't have this that that Tommy ferries opponents record is something astonishingly bad. So he is one of these kind of constructed, he's a constructed brand fighting against another constructed brand. So yeah, fitting into all
Doug Battle 9:10
of this. Yeah. And I think for I think part of the problem from an entertainment standpoint is that it's boring. Yeah, well, that but also Jake Paul, he's good enough to hang in there. And so you don't get the rocky story. He's not knocking anyone out. He's not like he's not that good. He's not you can tell initial like as soon as they start fighting, you can tell who the professional is and who the amateur is. But he's tough as nails. He's in phenomenal shape. And he's good enough to hang in there. He knows how to he knows how to hang in there. He'll he'll he'll hug when he needs to at one point there was kind of a group hug with the official two fighters toward the end when I think you know, you're just trying not to get knocked out. And so there's no Kaos there's no I mean, we haven't seen that and I think everyone that watches I think probably over half people that watch, just want to see the kid get knocked out. They think this guy's cocky, he's arrogant. He needs, you know, a taste of humble pie. And I'd love to watch that. And he's he's profiting off of that. So it's smart on his end, but he's good enough to not get that and so when it when it's been several instances of him just kind of hanging in there. A lot of hugs, you know, a couple jabs landed, takes a couple blows a body shot or two, you know, and that's the whole fight. I don't know. That's what fans expect with boxing when they're used to watching creed or rocky.
Mike Lewis 10:38
What's the next act for the Paul brothers though? I think it's, I suspect it's played out unless they get something new.
Doug Battle 10:45
Yeah, I was gonna say like, rehab or something. I don't. I don't know. I mean, it's like, does he start a rap career? You know, does he tried to get in a rap battle with Eminem?
Mike Lewis 10:56
Is that acting perhaps?
Doug Battle 10:59
I mean, celebrity All Star game for basketball? Yeah, do that every year.
Mike Lewis 11:04
I mean, look, I don't know what was Paul. I'm gonna rely on your generational knowledge here. What was Paul known for before? The boxing thing? Well, how did he beat built his YouTube following? What was he doing
Doug Battle 11:17
controversy? I don't, I don't really know. Like, I don't keep up with this stuff. I do remember that name being associated with all kinds of controversy. Like, race related or? Okay. I don't know. I there's some story there. I like I said, I haven't kept up with it. But to the best of my knowledge, just making YouTube videos, and getting into flirting with trouble on the internet. The whole thing has
Mike Lewis 11:45
been kind of a farce in some way. So
Doug Battle 11:49
everything like what are the Kardashians famous for? Like being being people that are rich? Yeah.
Mike Lewis 11:57
I think that's fair. Um, but it's interesting, right? I mean, it's interesting, sort of the winners and losers of that. And, you know, Kardashian was sort of the previous generation in this. Sure. So I mean, in the case, I think current Kim Kardashian, outside of my wheelhouse here, but I think Kim Kardashian came up as Paris Hilton's assistant. Right?
Doug Battle 12:18
Okay. I don't know, I'm not as well read on these things as you are, Mike.
Mike Lewis 12:23
Well, I could be you know, it's like the old Seinfeld line, if I believe it is not a lie. But you know, but you know that that was an era where she's essentially viewed as good fodder for the tabloids, both print and television, right. Where you wonder, again, you know, how does the Paul brothers? How do they get sort of selected and kind of put into this environment where they're just sort of creating havoc and chaos agents in a way does Jake
Doug Battle 12:55
Paul become The Bachelor? So that's another artificial mechanism for creating celebrity? That could be a good
Mike Lewis 13:02
all these things you're speculating on seem realistic to me, but they all seem to seem like significant pay cuts. That's true. And that's what I wonder, you know,
Doug Battle 13:11
yeah, that's true. I don't I don't know what's next. But I do. I mean, obviously, the numbers tell the story with the interest in boxing. And yeah, we had conversations you asked me to keep you honest about where you've been, as far as this goes. We had conversations I don't know two years ago about like, is this the future of boxing SPECT, you know, is it just gonna become a spectacle sport because we don't have that Muhammad Ali interest of you know, we don't have these big brands that once were and there's not this greatness, there's not this Michael Jordan element to it as much as people nowadays, having brands that they know, and then putting them into those situations rather than letting the situations you know, greatness come from those in the brands come
Mike Lewis 13:55
on. This was also the time I think we had that conversation around the time that Tyson had come back. Yep. Fight Roy Jones, Jr. and the League of Legends which I think I look, I think that was the if not the top Pay Per View boxing event of the year was very close to it. So it's interesting to me why Tyson backed off that caught that concept. Maybe he couldn't get, you know, Thomas Hearns or sugar Sugar Ray Leonard, you know, he couldn't get those guys to you know, step back in the ring, perhaps?
Doug Battle 14:27
Yeah, maybe so I'm surprised we haven't seen Sylvester Stallone in the ring as his fictional character rocky making one last comeback and in real time. But anyway, the the Jake Paul story certainly was kind of the non sports sports story of the weekend. A couple of non sports stories going on. Mandalorian starts back tomorrow, which is or maybe when you're listening to this if you're listening, or watching, so on Wednesday, March 1, so that It's a pretty big pretty big pop culture story I don't know why I had in my head if he listened to previous weeks I was like yeah so cuz gonna release at the same time? No, it's not. Don't that was I was misled by my language you're speaking of us on Ahsoka, Ahsoka, the the other Star Wars show that's like in the fall or something, but it's mando time. And I think that, you know, we talked about fandom and sports fans and fans is such thing. First off, there's definitely a lot of overlap in the two. And you'll see a lot of marketing like right now during NBA games, or, you know, I'm sure, I'm sure we'll see for Ted lasso as well. But there's a lot of overlap that people that tend to be fans of one thing tend to just be fans in general and become super passionate about things like Ted lasso or the Mandalorian. On the same way that they are with sports.
Mike Lewis 15:49
Let me try and make an observation. You tell me if you agree with this Mandalorian is interesting in that, especially when they did the you know, because that that that series is running in parallel to the bulk of Boba Fett. Right? Well, but it strikes me that they've started to. And, you know, I also get the sense that Disney is entire is continually RIA readapt readapting a train trying to salvage their Star Wars franchise. And it strikes me that they've actually kind of built that part out as something separate. And it's actually about the most, maybe about the most effective corner of that Star Wars feels like they're trying to chunk off this into corners. And that might be a corner that's working better than some of these other corners in terms of, you know, resonating. And again, you think about it by construction. So the Mandalorian something new baby Yoda, you know, almost like a little bit of a cheap shot of let's put a baby out there. And then to bring back the classic Boba Fett. And, you know, the book of Boba Fett was very, was at best mixed.
Doug Battle 16:58
Yeah, at best.
Mike Lewis 17:00
But, you know, that's, that's a relatively tight structure that they can or let's not a tight circle, but a really kind of strong core, that they can build a sub universe around where even, you know the what was it? What's that giant slug light thing.
Doug Battle 17:19
Jabba the Hutt.
Mike Lewis 17:21
Jabba the Hutt, Jabba the Hutt, what was his job at the huts, cousins showed up or
Doug Battle 17:24
don't? I don't remember, I think the concern of fans that I speak to is that this has been successful. And look at what Disney's done with other Star Wars projects that previously were successful. It's like they try to milk it to the point of it becoming such a commercial product that it's no longer art in the eyes of its fans. And so I know fans that are concerned about that. And recently, Jon Favreau came out and said they they don't have an end in sight for the Mandalorian. They haven't written an ending for his story. And so they're it's kind of like in this perpetual middle with no ultimatum on the horizon. And I don't know how many seasons I think, you know, my impression is that Disney's like, this is our, this is our cash cow. Like, Let's ride this thing out. Let's tell the story forever.
Mike Lewis 18:15
And Disney, you don't want to enter that story? No.
Doug Battle 18:19
And, and so and we've seen a lot of, you know, a lot of TV shows over the years that has had a lot of success for season after season. But there are ones that you can tell when it overstays its welcome to a degree and I think that, you know, there's some concern with the Mandalorian I think Stranger Things is a great example of a show that I had that concern and they did a fantastic job. I didn't know how they could keep telling kind of the same story and have resolutions along the way. But they managed to develop characters that hold the interest of a massive audience, and even introduced new characters that people like I know in season two of the Mandalorian seemed like a lot of the strategy was to bring in those cameos of Boba Fett. Ahsoka, who I mentioned earlier, Beau Catan, who apparently is going to play a larger role in this third season, the female Mandalorian character. And so apparently they're building out the you mentioned kind of a, like a separate universe or a mini kind of story universe within the bigger universe, it seems like they're they're going to build out the Mandalorians as a whole and focus on that culture, which is something that Disney and Star Wars have touched on in the past, but not to get too in the weeds. But all that to say that's a big phantom story I'll be keeping an eye on because it's going to go one or two ways it's going to either continue to be one of the one of the only successes in the minds of True Star Wars fans. You know, the longtime Star Wars fans that Disney's put out, or Vietnam people are going to change their tune and feel like they're ruining something else. That's great people, passionate fans And the same with sports. You're never you never just are okay with your coach, he's either the best coach or you want him fired because he's an idiot. And I think that's how Star Wars fans tend to be with the different projects. And we'll see that in the coming weeks one way or the other.
Mike Lewis 20:13
Yeah. And I should probably let it go there. But it is, you know, there's serious lessons to be learned from the Mandalorian. And some of them are not particularly flattering to the Mandalorian fans, right? I mean, the fact is, the Mandalorian is a show about a puppet and a mask. Yeah. Right. And that, you know, that's sort of unfair to the fans. But like I said, you know, you bring this classic mask Boba Fett into it. It's gonna be absolutely and again, you know, probably maybe there's a bigger story and all this is, what will Disney do with this? Right? Can Disney stay out of its way, right? Because the parts of the work about the Mandalorian are and again, in some ways, bringing in baby Yoda is the cheapest thing ever. Right? The most manipulative act of all time, you know, bringing back but but were they brought back Boba Fett from the dead essentially, interview was saying about all that.
Doug Battle 21:10
And that's been a that's been a staple for Disney.
Mike Lewis 21:13
And so the question is, you know, does Disney foul this up? Right, in terms of, you know, the standard game plan of, you know, because the other elements that they've tried to bring in and Boba Fett clearly did not work. The Power Rangers now. The male, Boba Fett second and commands, blanking on her name. Yeah. Well, that's that was exactly where it's going with it. This female badass character, but it is sort of standard to the de Disney formula. The number two. She was utterly forgettable. Right? Neither of us knows her name. She played essentially no. You know that that whole story advanced on the strength of God, we'd love that mask from the second Star Wars Episode. Right? Yeah. I
Doug Battle 21:59
also felt like was that which one was that the
Mike Lewis 22:02
first or the second? The first
Doug Battle 22:04
season? Five and six? And the originals? numberings? Outrageous. Yeah. Five, six, which is the second and third movies they made? Yeah, I think that that show. I think part of the character that people liked to see was mysterious. And that show kind of took down the the cloak and made him so much less mysterious, in such a boring way where he felt so like, Oh, he's just,
Mike Lewis 22:33
I'm the baddest man in the city. I need some teenagers on scooters. Yeah.
Doug Battle 22:38
And so I think fans are disappointed with that. And I think that's, I think Liam Neeson came out recently and said part of the issue and you know, when you have the actors talking about the issues, that's not a good thing for Disney. I'm sure they hate that he said this, but he came out and said, you know, they're putting out too much Star Wars stuff. And part of what made those original movies so special is there was this the level of mystery to the force? And, you know, what is this? And what is this history of these Jedi? And who are they? And what did they do? And what is this kind of cult that they're part of? And how does, who are the Sith? And what is this? And now Disney's going and in such detail, kind of unfolding all of that mystery, and sometimes in ways that are disappointing to people who have imaginations? And who kind of it was better when left to imagination, what you know what the story of this masked character must be, and you know, how bad of a man must he be? And as it turns out, he wasn't as bad or as cool or likable, as people probably had imagined in their heads. And it was kind of a net negative effect on the audience, I think.
Mike Lewis 23:46
Well, and look, the reality is the stereotypes associated with a character that looked like Boba Fett, with his backstory, probably aren't allowed at Disney at this point. Right. I mean, is that fair? I mean, you know, it's, we always end up tiptoeing around these things. Yeah. You know, that. Oh, my God, Boba Fett is taught. Yeah, has a terminal case of toxic masculinity.
Doug Battle 24:14
Right? Yeah. I mean, he's a he was a bounty hunter. You know, I think the character I would like him to as far as people's imaginations was like, he must be like a Jason Bourne, like super assassin. And did we see any assassinations? In his show? I don't remember he got in some fights,
Mike Lewis 24:32
right. But we saw a lot of concern for the, for the people for the citizen for the people self
Doug Battle 24:37
defense, not the types of things that that fans had associated with his character. So I think that is an interesting note that, you know, touching on a property that was made in a different era and trying to bring modern values and force those upon characters who were that's not consistent with who their character was and the character that fans had grown to love. This is gonna rub those fans the wrong way.
Mike Lewis 25:02
Welcome to pop culture and 2023.
Doug Battle 25:05
It reminds me It reminds me Mike of the backlash that maybe the NFL or NBA gets, when they take a stand for a social issue, whether it's something on the helmets or in the endzone or on the court, or the T shirts, the players were and people who are longtime Minnesota Vikings fans, or, or Portland Trailblazers fans or whatever, you know, they they don't like seeing something that they've known and loved in one way to all of a sudden be kind of twisted into a modern social message that may not align with theirs, or even if it does, where they feel like it's preachy, and they feel and so I think it's that same thing we see in sports and, and as a whole, it just, it tells a story of fandom and how fans behave. And that fans when they have expectations for something, and when they love something, it's probably best not to mess with that thing. Or there, there's going to be some backlash. And that's, that's as a whole an oversimplified explanation of what's happened with Star Wars.
Mike Lewis 26:10
You know, and it's going to tell a story from class, but I'm not. That's probably. So our core topic for today is continuing or sort of rundown or retrospective on the quarterback narratives from the past NFL season. Today, we turn our attention to the AFC North duck, you know, this one? In a lot of ways, the AFC North played out almost about as we expected, as we anticipated.
Doug Battle 26:44
There's a caveat to that.
Mike Lewis 26:46
Well, I mean, but even I think the caveat you're talking about was something we kind of could foretell. Right.
Doug Battle 26:52
That's fair. That's fair.
Mike Lewis 26:54
That, you know, the but this was, you know, at the beginning of the season, we put out I think I put out said that this was like a, an A grade set of narratives. And for the most part, it was, you know, and, and I mean, so the one I think you're talking about in terms of the caveat is the Cleveland Browns and Deshaun. Watson, right. Yeah. And so I had originally forecast Watson in the Browns as having a great season. I statistically I love Deshaun Watson. Now, and again, I would sort of give myself an asterix on that. It's tough when someone hasn't played. Right. And he was sort of, you know, what, I think out two seasons is sort of out two and a half seasons. So I don't know what Deshaun Watson means. Watson season was obviously fairly poor, just to make it sort of shorthand, seven touchdown passes, five interceptions, terrible ratio, you know, about just a little more than one touchdown per game. Not great, you know, you for an elite quarterback, you probably want to see, you know, maybe even you know, you know, two and a half, you know, two and a half touchdowns per game is probably what you want to see running through really elite quarterbacks. And maybe about point three, or point two as the ratio of interceptions. And so, you know, Watson, absolute disaster, from beginning to the end, in terms of for the Cleveland team, the Cleveland fan base, the controversies? You know, we'll see where it goes from here, but in 2022
Doug Battle 28:25
Ouch. Yeah, that's a team that finished seventh and 10. And so it is kind of interesting to imagine. Yeah, had Watson played the whole season and had he had a little bit more rhythm with the team would they have won a couple more games and maybe been a playoff team? And there'll be a different story there. But
Mike Lewis 28:42
there were seven and 10 Yeah, seven to 10 That's really interesting. Because you know, if they go nine, you missed
Doug Battle 28:48
what he missed. Yeah, a lot of games. So yeah, so I mean, with the browns, I think the verdicts still out on the whole Watson move, they gave up a lot for a guy that was likely at the time to miss the season of his prime or half a season. And now unless for the time being he's, he's available, but is he the same player that he was before?
Mike Lewis 29:14
Yeah, and let's talk about what they gave up because what they gave up actually plays into another quarterback in this division. So what they gave up was to man with the Browns you know, you almost wonder how the rest of the NFL franchises view the Brock brown do they view them as a you know, it's kind of great these guys they can never seem to get it around so you know, they get it together so there's more opportunity for us or do they look at like the Browns just do some stuff that make it difficult for us to make our decisions because the Browns gave up flow as a two first round picks for Watson Yep. Right and so suddenly, you know the the bears with a guy like Justin fields are going what Well, he's shown some promise, can we get a, you know, trading a quarterback should get me to first rounders. But perhaps more importantly, and this gets us to the Baltimore Ravens quarterback, they gave him a quarter of a million dollars guaranteed. Yeah. And so that's our core
Doug Battle 30:17
a quarter of a million dollars, whatever a billion. Yeah, I misheard you. And I was like, let's make sure everyone hears this
Mike Lewis 30:24
$50 million guaranteed. And so apparently, it's come out that Lamar Jackson is absolutely focused on Deshaun Watson's contract and does not want to settle for less money or in particular, less guaranteed money in the browns, sorry, in the Ravens. were nowhere near that they were near that money in terms of the the overall, but not in terms of guaranteed
Doug Battle 30:49
maybe the Browns were playing 40 Chess here. And the whole goal of the entire Deshaun Watson experiment is to derail the ravens and lose them their franchise quarterback or force them to overpay for the long haul for a guy who's likely to be on a downward slope.
Mike Lewis 31:11
And this is because the Browns were the Ravens. So the Ravens moved from the Ravens where the Browns remember moved to Baltimore. Right. And this elaborate five d chess revenge Yes, city. Okay. I like I
Doug Battle 31:24
almost guarantee there's someone out there that that believes that. But yeah, I mean, if I'm Lamar Jackson, I look at that situation. And I do the same thing, especially given that Deshaun Watson had a lot of red flags that Lamar Jackson does not have Lamar Jackson's a former MVP clean act off the field. You know, there's there's never been concerned about him and his character and whether, you know, his ability to stay on the field as far as suspensions, and things of that nature. So for the Browns to give up what they gave up for Watson. You know, I think if you're Lamar Jackson, you look at it if Deshaun Watson's worth two first round, draft picks, and $250 million, guaranteed, what am I worth when I'm not going to miss half the season? And I am a former MVP, and I don't have all these off the field issues.
Mike Lewis 32:17
But and this is where, you know, maybe just Shaun Watson didn't perform. But God he made this this next offseason. Really great to watch, right. Because, you know, part of the story now is the ravens are struggling to decide, are they going to put one of the two franchise tags on Jackson. And you know, one of the franchise tags is set up so that Jackson can negotiate with other teams and potentially set up this kind of, you know, sign and trade deal, right. And so again, then suddenly now, the NFL tends to move not so much by let's say statistical analysis of players, but by comparables and so if the you know, Deshaun, Watson was worth two laser, two first round picks, then the Ravens think that they should get two first round picks. And you know, that $250 million, that's going back aways now, right, and that market keeps escalating. So maybe it's $300 million. And Doug would as I say this stuff out loud. That seems nuts. $300 million to first round picks. Suddenly, if I'm a fan, I don't want my team coming anywhere near Lamar Jackson.
Doug Battle 33:38
Yeah, as a Giants fan. That's how I feel. Now let me say if the giants do go all in on Lamar Jackson, I will sell myself on Lamar Jackson and why he's gonna make us a perennial playoff team and contender so let you're good. I gotta put it that way. Because it's, I mean, I used to pull for the Brooklyn Nets way back when because I was in New Jersey Nets fan due to Vince Carter and how much I liked watching him dunk basketballs. So I followed them to Brooklyn. And when they made those ridiculous trades for Kevin Garnett, Paul piers J. Jason Terry. I mean, their team was loaded with aging stars, and they gave up the next 10 years in the franchise for it. And as a fan, you just had to look at it. And Joe Johnson was on that team. A Deron Williams, you had to look at it and say, All right, well, we went all in you know, if we're going to the next 10 years are going to be awful because of this. So this better be a good couple of years here. We better enjoy it while we can. And I think that would be my position, you know, if the Giants were to make that move for Lamar Jackson. Now, a lot of fan bases, though, are all excited about I mean, I the New Orleans Saints fans, I know the Atlanta Falcons fans, I know, I know quite a few fans of different teams that would they have that mad and approach of like, yeah, just give up the draft. picks give up, you know, give up the salary cap, whatever, like, it'll be fun, we'll get to have a fun quarterback all of a sudden. So I think the right fan base, you know, will view it very differently than you and I view it, Mike. And I think the Baltimore Ravens I touched on earlier, the fact that when fans are in love with a brand and come to know a brand's identity as something, it's best not to change that thing significantly. If the Ravens let Jackson walk and maybe because he's asking too much like, maybe it really would, you know, maybe it's in their best interest to train them or to let them go. There's gonna be a lot of unhappy Baltimore Ravens fans, and, and I know several of them who have felt like, you know, the front office has been screwing this up, just pay the man just pay him what he wants. That's kind of the mindset for lots of reasons. One of us, he's one of us, we can't let him go. And then a couple years
Mike Lewis 35:51
from now, you can forget you said pay the man when he wants you to about the way that guy managed the salary cap.
Doug Battle 35:58
For years, we tied up all that money to one ageing player who was losing, you know, who was clearly on the, you know, his best days were behind him.
Mike Lewis 36:08
If I'm a Baltimore Raven, if I'm the Baltimore Ravens General Manager, I forget who it is. I don't want I'll be, you know, again, I don't know a lot of people are saying this out loud. It feels like you're not supposed to say this part out loud. I, if I can get to first round picks for him. I am so happy to have this chapter and then move on to what's next. Statistically, I don't love Lamar Jackson. I don't think he's, I don't think he is that elite, Super Bowl quality quarterback. When I look at the AFC, the AFC in particular, and I go down the list, I would rather have the I would rather have Josh Allen, I would rather have Joe burrow, I would rather have Justin, Justin Herbert. You know that there's, and that's just a start. And then he sort of in the mid potentially, let's say, the X group. Yeah. Right. And so you're asking to, for me to give up? Let's say let's say the number that someone and this is the question, will someone bite on this of potentially $300 million over five years, right $60 million a year, which is little more than I think a quarter of the of the of the salary cap. If that's my situation for a guy that average 186 yards per game passing last year, who was hurt for five or six games whose touchdown to interception ratio was 17 to seven. Again, you know, I will take those, I will take those two first round draft picks. And I will you know, take my my salary cap savings and move on for something next and again, you know, part of the problem will always be this issue of like the running quarterback and the longevity of those ran away. And people talk a lot about like running back carries, right and there's there's sort of this magic number for running backs that don't sign a guy that has this much mileage on him. I've never heard anyone do that analysis for running quarterbacks, but I suspect there's something real there too.
Doug Battle 38:21
Yeah, I think like Cam Newton late in his career, there was a point where you're looking at him and you're like this guy's two three years removed from from being an MVP of the league. Maybe he's just you know, maybe he is worth it. And it was not the same player when he played for Patriots. Not that Jackson's that same age or you know, he's not quite there yet. But we have seen that Michael Vick when he played for your Steelers or even the Eagles was definitely he was good for the Eagles but he was a lot less of a running threat and so I do think there is a the game changes for those guys. And you know, Jackson's got a got a or anyone taking on Jackson has to be aware of that, at the very least something we haven't touched on with the Ravens situation is the fact that they've got a 25 year old quarterback on the roster, who perhaps by fluke made the Pro Bowl this year and his name is not Lamar Jackson. It's Tyler Huntley came in second in the precision passing calm test. Behind Derek Carr at the weirdest Pro Bowl ever.
Mike Lewis 39:22
Back at the Pro Bowl, it was a strange listening.
Doug Battle 39:25
You know, he wasn't a quarterback of the Pro Bowl. Patrick mahomes Joe burrow, Josh Allen. I mean, pretty much everyone we just mentioned. I don't know if Justin Herbert was there. I didn't watch the actual game. But watching those passing contests it was guys like Derek Carr and Tyler Huntley.
Mike Lewis 39:42
You know, while he's not in this division, you know, Derek Carr is kind of irrelevant to this story, too. I mean, so, you know, I'm giving you my judgment based on the data and the potential value that you can get for Lamar Jackson. But someone's going to You know, someone's gonna bite on this. I mean, the derrick cars and the Daniel Jones, Daniel Jones talking about a $45 million contract. Someone's gonna go for this right. And so if you're the general manager of the ravens, and you're sort of thinking in terms of probability fans are bad in terms of thinking about probabilities, right, in terms of like, that, the smart play is that, you know, one of the franchise with the franchise tag that allows you to, you know, have him negotiate with other teams. And I think that that might be something that is happening, it's like, what I'm suggesting might be kind of the obvious thing when you're really looking at the dollars and you're looking at the the numbers. But going back to your point, no one associated with the Ravens brand wants to come anywhere close to saying what I'm saying out loud.
Doug Battle 40:52
Yeah, so I have a question, Mike, for you. If you take into account their not just the player and their performance, but also the contract that you're likely to have to give the player. How do you how do you rank this year's quarterback? Free Agents, as far as guys like? You mentioned Daniel Jones. So let's say Daniel Jones at 45 million or Lamar Jackson on a long term. YEAH. Jimmy G. Whatever price he's coming in at like Baker,
Mike Lewis 41:25
what is Derek Carr talking to Derek
Doug Battle 41:27
Carr? Yeah, these guys like when you if you're a team, like the giants are team like the Ravens teams that have flexibility this offseason? Would you rather give up 55 For a guy like Lamar Jackson or 4040 45? For guy like Daniel Jones? I don't know. I think that makes it a different decision. Because you're not just choosing between a player but you're choosing between, you know, how, how all in Are you on this player? And would you rather be? Would you rather hedge your bets a little bit and have another guy who maybe has just as much upside? Like, would you rather have Daniel Jones with his upside, or Lamar Jackson, with his like, I don't know he's running his best running days might be behind him. And he cost more money.
Mike Lewis 42:09
I'll give you the worst non answer ever, aren't pass on all these guys. And I'll draft will lapse. And I'm dead serious. I will take I will take Anthony Richardson and pay him $3 million a year with the hope that maybe it's going to work out then take Derek Carr. Because, you know, if I'm looking at this, and all I really care about is ultimate upside and winning Super Bowls. Then I'm going to roll the dice on this these kind of talented rookies that I only have to pay, you know, $3 million to rather than, you know, a guy that I kind of know what I'm getting. So that being said, you know, I probably look at it in terms of like Daniel Jones and go, This guy is still in the trajectory where he's improving. Yeah, and so if I have to take one of those guys, then he's probably the guy I'm taking. But those numbers are just astronomical, but I think you're right, he's gonna He's gonna get it. Cuz someone's gonna, someone's gonna say We're the 40, Niners we've got a Super Bowl level team. And if we've got a guy that is a solid quarterback than we can get to, then we can get there. You know, I don't know that that's, you know, there's all probably in some ways, frankly, there's probably some calculation in terms of how long do I get to keep this GM job? Right. The approach I took might be more likely to get to Super Bowls, but might be more likely to get you fired.
Doug Battle 43:38
Right? Yeah, I think that's fair. And, you know, Daniel Jones, I think he's a guy that a lot of people look at and say, Oh, he's just, he's just a faster version of Kirk Cousins. Well, I mean, Kirk Cousins was an MVP candidate. And, you know, I mean, that's a legitimate starting NFL quarterback, it just comes down to do you really want your team to have maybe a fringe top 10 guy at best, or to risk you know, having a number 30 guy with the upside of having a top three or four guy. And I think most fans want that second option, even though when they get the top 30. Guy, they they regret it very often.
Mike Lewis 44:18
What do you think? What do you think? Well, you know what, let's, let's, let's save the Daniel Jones for when we get to
Doug Battle 44:22
Yeah. But yeah.
Mike Lewis 44:26
You know, I do think you have to think in terms of the ceiling on some of these guys. Right. And, like, you know, you look at the ceiling in the AFC north, just to sort of keep this focused. Jackson at this point. Does anyone think Jack Jackson is this elite kind of quarterback, this top five player? I think some folks do. Yeah, I think if you look at the data is unlikely. I mean, but again, you know, they have better, they have better physical data than I'm going to have publicly. So maybe he's fully healthy. He's not going to lose any speed running the ball for a number of years. Is Joe burrow? Is Joe burrow a top five guy? Or does he have the potential to be a top five guy? 100% Yeah. Right. So I think you have to look at it like that in terms of Deshaun Watson, you know, again, sort of the mystery for the Steelers, Mitch Trubisky. Right. You know, how much should you be willing to pay these guys? And, you know, Trubisky I think out about what do you get, like about 20 million from the Steelers last year? And I think they've, they've parted ways. But a lot of these guys are very expensive, given the ceiling that they seem to, they seem to bring, while the top guys. It's odd, right? We can talk. Let's talk about burrow next. The Bengals should probably pay burrow, right, they should probably here's why.
Doug Battle 45:49
I can tell you one's questioning
Mike Lewis 45:51
and lock him up as soon as possible. Bring them to 50 or $55 million, you know, sign that, you know, sign that mahomes Like deal. And sort of make him the face of your franchise for as long as he wants to be it.
Doug Battle 46:07
Yeah, I think the only knock on Burroughs like he tore his ACL, you know, as first or second year in the league. And I guess first year in the league. And other than that, I don't know if there is an argument not to pay the guy. It's it's not the same situation as I think Lamar Jackson is just such an interesting situation. Because you see, he's he's got some of the best highlights in the league First off, and it's like, he's so capable. And it's like, well, you know, when he does doesn't play great, it's he's always injured and it's like it but does he have an injury problem? Or is that just a one time thing that, you know, now he's healthy, I don't know. But burrow. It's just like, he's been consistently so impressive at such a young age. And he was in college and he's got all the makings, there's always a risk, there's always a chance he has a career ending injury or whatnot, because he, to a degree, he relies on his athleticism, but not to the not to the same degree as a Lamar Jackson, or, you know, I mentioned earlier Cam Newton was one where it was like, you know, he could be the highest paid quarterback in the league. At one point, he was the MVP of the NFL. But at the same time, the second his athleticism began to drop. He was, you know, exponentially worse as a player. And I think that's the concern with with Lamar Jackson, and where you don't have that as much. And you know, I would say, the guys like, guys like Daniel Jones, don't get that treatment, because of thought of is like a pocket passer or Josh Allen, but you look at the rushing stats, those guys are running the ball quite a bit as well. So I do wonder, you know about the sustainability of the kind of ball playing Josh Allen's been doing over the years. And eventually, when he gets a little bit older, Daniel Jones is one where you'll have, you know, they'll have to evaluate, I mean, he truly is a huge part of his game is running the football. And if you take that away, whether it's from injury or whether it's from, you know, just age and athleticism dropping off his game drop off, when people are seeing, Oh, he's got this high ceiling that he hasn't reached yet. But maybe athletically, he's there. And he's got to develop a lot on the middle part of football to be an elite quarterback. And so that, you know, raises some concerns about him as well.
Mike Lewis 48:21
You know, I had a conversation with a student and student mentioned the we're talking about performance statistics. And the student mentioned, the the idea of the eye test. And, you know, I kind of pushed back on him saying, Well, what is the eye test? Right? It's, it's something that's kind of hard to explain, right, the eye test of like, well, I know. And almost everyone feels this way, they know more than is in the statistics, right? So they can take the statistics and they can make a judgement. Now, of course, the eye test of, you know, Bill, Bella check is probably better than the eye test of the average students sitting in my, my class at Emory University. Right, a burrow. And this is, you know, why you're always doing a disadvantage when you're just playing with data and you're doing with publicly available data. burrow would seem to pass of a different kind of eye test. I mean, the physical capability is all there but burrow projects, something related to like a levels of intangible in leadership that is very rare, right? I mean, and he's only How old is he? Like, like, he's younger than Stetson Bennett. Right. Wasn't that one of the comparisons? 2525
Doug Battle 49:34
Yeah.
Mike Lewis 49:37
But I think everyone sort of kind of goes, yeah, he might be 25 Given the ball to in the game. Yeah. total coincidence, right. Yeah. So he put that in terms of some sort of eye test. And so when you were talking about like, the the level of risk, he just strikes me and again, this is this is the danger right when you really like a guy in terms of how we operate It's an the the eye test is where you get into a lot of the biases. He seems very low risk, very high performance. And his impact on the Cincinnati Bengals brand is off the charts. Right. So that is a that strikes me as the easiest extension of all time.
Doug Battle 50:23
Yeah, I couldn't agree more about burrow. I will say, you know, I was talking earlier about selling myself as a fan on a player. When the Giants took Daniel Jones, I was not pleased. I wasn't, nobody was none of the Giants fans, people were real critical of the giants general manager at the time. And when I watched his tape, and I watched his, you know, his combine and all the rest, I started to think to myself, you know, what, if you took the same guy and put him on that LSU team that Joe burrow was on with Jamar Chase and Justin Jeff Jefferson as his receivers and Carlos Edwards, a layer like they pretty much had it all NFL team. If you took Daniel Jones and put him on that same team, he would have been the number one pick in the draft because they would have won a championship. His stats would have been amazing. He probably would have won a Heisman, but he played at Duke and everyone thought he was a joke. But like if you watch the two play, and an indoor facility, and run 40 yard dashes and throw the long ball, Daniel Jones might be the more impressive specimen. But when you're talking about intangibles, and you're talking about the eye test, that is the one eye test of of tangibles, the eye test of you know, seeing Zach Wilson throw it rolling left, you know, seven yards down the field, or seeing Daniel Jones and Joe burrow in some kind of athletic competition and realizing wow, this guy, you know, Jones gets kind of overlooked as an athlete, he might be a better athlete than Joe burrow, and he just didn't have the pieces around him in college that burrow did. But burrow does have that and has had that unreal, cool to him, were in the moments of the biggest pressure he has. He's not just unfazed. It's like he's enhanced. He, he plays at his best. And if you if you look at the body language of a guy like Daniel Jones in those same moments, it's very, very different. And there are concerns there. And so, you know, I like what you're saying about two different eye tests. There's kind of this eye test of what the players physically capable of. And then there's one that goes a little deeper where you're kind of reading into their psyche and burrows burrows, one of the few players that passes not just the stat, you know, the analytical test, and the eye test as far as like, wow, he's, he's, you know, he's physically he's an NFL quarterback. Maybe we were we were talking last week about Bryce young might not pass that same test. But beyond that, he's got that, you know, his psyche is exactly what you want from a quarterback who's going to play in big games and win big games. And that's something where, I don't know if people feel that way. I don't know if anyone feels that way about any of these other quarterbacks. We've mentioned Derek Carr, Lamar Jackson, Daniel Jones, like looking at I mean, Baker Mayfield's Jimmy Garoppolo some of these other free agents or potential free agents to Kobe percent, Geno Smith, Joe Flacco, Andy Dalton, like I don't I can't name a single one that where I have that same confidence. It's
Mike Lewis 53:18
Tom Brady, like, in a way and you almost wonder, is there almost you can almost imagine that, that it's almost like they're missing something. They're missing, like some standard human fear gene. And it just allows them to, you know, go out of their way and be completely unfazed. Okay, last team in this division, Pittsburgh Steelers, this story played out, almost exactly as predicted. Mitch Trubisky gets the start. Nothing good potentially happens. You know, the Steelers actually suffered some really kind of damaging injuries. You know, which which are there? Which, which, what what brother did they have TJ what TJ Walker was down kind of the cornerstone to that the most dynamic player on that defense or one of the two most dynamic players on that, that defense Trubisky doesn't seem to be able to get along with other people in the locker room. They go to pick it, pick, it has some actually kind of iffy statistical profiles, you know, more interceptions than touchdowns. But the Steelers start to play. Yeah, right. Maybe the guys start to get healthy. And so that that fan base, I think is very pro Kenny Pickett, when I eventually run the numbers, I think picot season will look fairly disastrous, you know, maybe he's on an upward trajectory. But that you know, the easiest story to predict from the beginning of the year that Trubisky would spin out and pick it would get the ball but he was struggle as a rookie. But you know, for what pick it was how pick it was regarded. Again, almost nothing unpredictable happened there.
Doug Battle 55:00
yeah you know the Steelers finished at nine and eight which is very respectable record for a team without a franchise quarterback or at least one that are in the playoff
Mike Lewis 55:09
I think if one if maybe if the dolphins did last year in the playoffs
Doug Battle 55:13
yeah so respectable situation and I want to go back to the quarterback wins metric because it beginning of the season, someone can go back and find the episode. We were talking about the Steelers in this perception that losing Ben Roethlisberger would lead to this massive drop off and wins. Whereas the reality is Ben Roethlisberger had become maybe a breakeven or a minus one plus one I don't know somewhere in that range. And that Mitch Rybicki would likely also be in that same range and from like a wins and losses standpoint. That's that has played out exactly how you predicted Mike with the QB wins metric. I think like you said this division as a whole the Bengals ravens Steelers, like those three right there. Pretty much went according to plan as far as your analytics, and what they led you to project.
Mike Lewis 56:02
And Doug, I just looked it up in 2021. The Steelers were nine seven and one. Yeah, there we go. And then they went to nine and eight. Yeah. And you you played Roethlisberger with those two guys?
Doug Battle 56:14
Yeah, in your own words pretty much said. The difference and Roethlisberger and Trubisky are picket, you know, it's going to be more or less a breakeven and it's going to lead to the same result. And that's exactly what we've seen minus, of course,
Mike Lewis 56:29
if I'm going to attack myself, my prediction was actually the Trubisky would be essentially almost kind of equivalent to Roethlisberger. A guy like pick it, you know, the rookie numbers from the ones I've looked at, are usually frightening. Right? So, you know, but yeah, it's
Doug Battle 56:48
for those listening. When we say equivalent to Roethlisberger, we mean 2022 or 2021, Roethlisberger. Not, not his career. Nobody was projecting Mitch Rybicki to become a two time Super Bowl champion that Ben Roethlisberger was.
Mike Lewis 57:08
Okay, Doug, well, we're at 57 We're at 57 minutes we've, we've covered the, the AFC north. I didn't know you know, we're gonna talk about the Mandalorian. But you know, I'm looking forward to that dropping as well. Anything sort of a quick look ahead here and we'll turn the Microsoft.
Doug Battle 57:24
Yeah, I mentioned earlier in the NBA, Damian Lillard scoring 70 points. I think it this time of year. I mean, it's might tomorrow's March 1, it's the focus is about to shift very quickly in the sports world to basketball. And I'm pretty excited about it. I start to get excited about basketball this time of year, March Madness on the horizon. This last weekend, I can't tell you how many buzzer beaters there were. But it's like you started to get a taste of March and college basketball, with some wildness beginning to happen and only a glimpse of what's to come this month. So I'm really excited about that. And I think that's something to start really paying attention to. And then the NBA. We've talked about how there's parity and
Mike Lewis 58:07
the think tank college basketball, you can go into the NBA. Yeah, you know, I'm fascinated by it, too. It made me from a different perspective. Like I think listening to your voice, you think the interest is going to pick it up, and it's gonna start to pop standard March Madness. college basketball might be the sport that worries me the most, it seems to have almost flown completely under the radar this season. So I'm really interested if you know, will the magic happen? You know, will the conference tournaments start to get people like juiced up? Will the you know, the network's TNT and the other one, the other one sorry? That will they find their their kind of their narratives to start to build up the hype from March Madness? Will the standard story kick in? And I find myself going? I just, I just don't know, because I'm just not seeing any real hype. In terms of in terms of the covered so yeah, again, I'm fast like I'm looking forward to it too. But again, a big big question mark for me. Yeah, I
Doug Battle 59:09
think college basketball as a sport is in a unique place where for a long time the brands were the players and now with such with the greatest players coming and going so quickly or some bypassing college as a whole and going to the G league or going overseas. It's become all about the coaches and there's been kind of a changing of the guard of coaching much like quarterbacks in the NFL a couple years back where you know, we went from Peyton Manning Tom Brady all those guys to you know, who are the starting quarterbacks gonna be who the stars gonna be? And you know, in college basketball, it's really Williams isn't their Coach K is in there like this year. It's, you know, a lot of these big brand teams, people can't name their coach or a single player on the team, but I feel like and we kind of talked like about the Super Bowl this way. I feel like March is where those legends are made. And we're the stories. And even if it's not a big brand, even if it's a, you know, some nine who prays and her team goes on a big run and becomes a meme and, you know, big upsets of big brand teams from some team from the MAT conference or whatnot, like, the magic just seems to always sort itself out in March, and people who you've never heard of will become your favorite person on Earth by the end of the month based on their performance, and, you know, the the stuff of legends that happens in the turnout.
Mike Lewis 1:00:35
Hopefully. Hopefully, there's still enough residual there that, you know, we can find a nun rooting for, you know, you know, rooting for Loyola and you know, hopefully,
Doug Battle 1:00:52
hopefully, so we I'm a little more optimistic than you might I can tell. And then as far as the NBA goes, I'm enjoying I've started tuning in a lot more, I'm enjoying the parody of this league, seeing the I don't know if you caught this might but clippers Kings game on Friday night went to overtime or to overtime, I think the final score is like 175 to 174. And guys, we're making crazy shots. You know, like I mentioned before Damian Lillard putting up a 770 Burger the other night, the Lakers starting to compete, you know, I had a 20 Plus, I think, like a 28 point and 27 point comeback against the Mavericks on Sunday. Lots of big things beginning to happen in the NBA as teams start to start their playoff push, particularly in the Western Conference, where there's a lot of competition for those last couple of spots. And teams like the Lakers teams, like the Warriors seems like the Mavericks. Teams like Portland, all these teams on mentioning, are gunning for for a playoff position. And so with the new format, with it being 10 teams and the last for getting a play in tournament, I think that's heightened the competitive level of the second half of the season. And, you know, like we've talked about, I think that all in all the fact that the lack of super teams, and the lack of, you know, one team being kind of the team and neither conference has created more competition, more excitement in the NBA, across the board, for me at least. And so I'm looking forward to, you know, the second half of the season post all star break as,
Mike Lewis 1:02:25
and I'll say this, you know, it's like, I've pulled up the standings as well. And I'm going to be really interested to see how the TV ratings do. Like I'm looking at the Western Conference, and you've got Denver, number one, Memphis to Sacramento, three, Phoenix four, it'll be you know, finally, after all these years, it seems like we're gonna get this test of the playoffs and the finals, being kind of superstar free. When you know what, that's not fair. But you know, what I'm saying what? Being sort of brand name, you know, that the second year and a half, are going to have to be really fascinating to see how the fan the NBA fans respond to that. So this is your, your your right where, you know, and again, it's the same point, sports always delivers the stories, right? Yeah, it's not intentional. They wander into him. Okay, Doug, I'm looking at the clock. We're a little over an hour. So we'll wrap it up here. As always more content on WWE dot fandomanalytics. And Doug is doing some really great video shorts. Oh, really? Oh, shorts on YouTube? YouTube? Yeah,
Doug Battle 1:03:36
YouTube shorts. Instagram reels. That's kind of the two main platforms has been cranking out content. So give us a follow and pretty much repurpose this stuff with video content to enhance
Mike Lewis 1:03:48
the status for Fanalytics on those platforms.
Doug Battle 1:03:51
Yeah. Fanalytics with Mike Lewis, I think Instagram it's Fanalytics Mike and yeah, Fanalytics with Mike Lewis is the channel on YouTube. If you subscribe, you'll get all those videos as well as each episode. So like and subscribe, as they say. Leave us a comment. Tell us you know, I don't know. I feel like half of the comments are people mad about something? That's how the internet works. So just tell us how terrible we are at what we do.
Mike Lewis 1:04:19
As I told my students today, class, Twitter's done a nice place. Listen, we'll be back next week.