00:00Well, as we ramp up for the 2026 NFL season, it was great to see football on the tube this
00:07past Thursday when you got a chance to watch the Hall of Fame game.
00:11You get a chance to go out there and watch football again.
00:14I know, again, it's not real football, but anytime football is back on your tube, you know you're right around
00:20the corner.
00:21The thing that I love about the Hall of Fame week is this.
00:24You celebrate the past, and you put those men into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
00:30And then once the game and once the ceremonies are over, we start prepping up for another edition, another chapter.
00:36And what is America's pastime now?
00:39That is pro football.
00:40College football as well.
00:42That will start up in three weeks with week zero when we're talking TCU and UNC, but it's great.
00:49I love the game of football.
00:50I have my entire life.
00:52It's a game that teaches you many things.
00:54It's a game that's the greatest reality television show of all time.
00:57This is why fans are transfixed each and every single week.
01:01It's the greatest reality show of all time.
01:06You don't know what to expect.
01:08The 2026 season, hey, everyone's looking at the Los Angeles Rams as a team that is there and in the
01:15bullseye for them to go out and win and beat.
01:17I think they have the best roster in all of pro football, but how many times have we seen it's
01:23about the collective, not about the stars.
01:26Go and look at what New England did for those 20 years.
01:30You couldn't name a Hall of Fame offensive football player that Tom Brady played with outside of Rob Gronkowski that
01:38was a skilled player.
01:40Not one.
01:41Not one first-round draft choice Tom Brady played with for 20 years.
01:47Think about that.
01:48No first-round draft choices.
01:50The Edelmans, the Amendolas, the Welkers.
01:53Even Gronk was a second-round draft choice.
01:57You may have the greatest roster, and I've always compared people and tried to explain.
02:03Look at what Indianapolis had compared to the Brady era.
02:07They had Marvin Harrison.
02:09They had Reggie Wayne.
02:10They had Marshall Falk.
02:12They had Edger and James.
02:14They had Peyton Manning.
02:16They had the collective stars.
02:18But the Patriots had the collective team on both sides of the football.
02:23Just because you have the most talent doesn't necessarily mean you're going to be the champion holding a Lombardi trophy
02:29at the end of the year.
02:31That's what makes pro football so great.
02:33You never know.
02:34And the league is set up this way.
02:36There's always going to be surprises like we saw with Chicago a year ago.
02:40Or we saw with what Jacksonville did, rising from the ashes with Liam Cohn taking over and putting Trevor Lawrence
02:47on a path that looks like now his career is heading in an upward swing.
02:51We'll see.
02:52That's what the league is.
02:54Pro football is the greatest anticipation sport of all time because we're anticipating what our favorite teams are going to
03:01do this coming year.
03:03The game of football has taught me a lot.
03:05And the game of football is now the number one sport in America for a reason.
03:10Fans can't get enough of it.
03:12This is why they're talking expanding to 20 games.
03:14This is why they're now most likely going to play an 18th game.
03:18Why they're going to go overseas.
03:20Look at the NFL and how it has grown because of its fans.
03:25The only thing that I would say that the NFL always has to be concerned about, let's not forget the
03:30people that make this sport great.
03:32And that is the fans.
03:34These crazy price tags that we have now that fans have to spend to go to football games are being
03:40priced out of their own buildings and out of their own passion to be able to go to these games.
03:45People from Coca-Cola told me a story about two years ago that said that 96% of all NFL
03:51fans have actually never been to a football game.
03:53It tells you how important television is.
03:55It tells you how important the presentation of the sport is and how the league is presented to its fan
04:01base.
04:02As long as the NFL never loses that, it will always be America's pastime.
04:07We look forward to each and every single Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night now compared to what we used to
04:14back in the day when it was Sunday and Monday night football.
04:17It's truly going to be a great year.
04:19Do I have a favorite that I think will win the Super Bowl?
04:23I really don't.
04:24I have no idea what team is going to be holding that Lombardi trophy at the end of the year.
04:29You got your favorites.
04:30Obviously, we said the Rams, Kansas City, will they end up coming back?
04:35I love that Charger team.
04:36Will Kyle Shanahan ever, like, win a big game?
04:40What will Josh Allen do in Buffalo?
04:43Lamar Jackson.
04:44What's the storyline there with him?
04:46As great a football player as he is, is that guy going to go and do something that needs to
04:52be done to make his legacy in the postseason?
04:55Same with Josh Allen.
04:57The job that Sean Payton's done in Denver.
04:59That's going to be a storyline.
05:01Bo Nix, who was on, like, a GI Bill in college when he was at Oregon in Auburn.
05:06And then, of course, the guy in Philly, who continues to prove me wrong.
05:12Will he win another Super Bowl?
05:14Will he get his team to another Super Bowl?
05:15Will he win another division, Jalen Hurts?
05:18These are all storylines that make the NFL the greatest sport in America for a reason.
05:24May it be another system.
05:24Just one.
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