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00:00Live right here on this Tuesday morning on the early line on SportsGrid each and every day, Donnie Wrightside and myself, you could call it a meeting of the minds here on TEL this Tuesday and tomorrow, Wednesday in Minneapolis, a meeting of the NFL owners to vote on proposed rule changes around the National Football League.
00:20A couple, of course, that will draw headlines, a proposed ban of the tush push offered up by the Green Bay Packers and a potential change to playoff seating around the National Football League, not rewarding divisional champions, but focusing just on overall record to see the postseason and the one at the bottom that is expected to pass.
00:42That would be the NFL owners allowing NFL players, if that is a potential, to play in flag football in the 2028 Summer Games, the Olympiad in Los Angeles.
00:54DRS, you're meeting, my friend. You can pick any of those three hot topics that you would like to discuss first. Floor is yours.
01:03Yeah, we'll go first with the players in the Olympics here. And understand this, too, there is another agenda out there that really gets on my nerves.
01:09And that's with the onside kick, which we'll add that to the equation as well.
01:13But players like and also how much in advance do we need this, by the way?
01:17Because 2028, the Olympics football. Great. Fantastic. Going to be a lot of fun.
01:22I remember growing up as a kid in the early 1990s and getting sports illustrated for kids, like when I was like, you know, 10, 11 years old.
01:29And I remember Emmett Smith being on the cover like my dream is to play football in the Olympics.
01:33That was actual football with pads and a way to go. And they tried to make that happen.
01:37But no other country plays football. So it'd be ridiculous if they did that.
01:41So now we're sort of easing into the Olympics where now we're getting away from what the Olympics was actually spirited to be hundreds of years ago.
01:49Track and field, athletics at its prime, wrestling. You get all that stuff in there.
01:53And now we're doing stuff like, hey, let's throw in break dancing out here and see if that goes as an Olympic game.
01:58That's ridiculous. And now we're getting down that same path where flag football, where nobody plays flag football at a high level in the world, not even the United States.
02:07Like we have like, you know, flag football is usually for seven to 10 year olds because they can't wear pads yet.
02:12They don't want to get concussions, as we've learned. And then you graduate into full pads here.
02:16So the fact that now we're going to have the Olympics and have flag football, but then we're going to put American players out there going up against teams that don't even play flag football or football.
02:26What is the actual sense of this? And also understand this, Don, you're just hating on it.
02:30It'd be so much fun to watch these athletes. You don't even watch the Pro Bowl when we now have the pseudo Pro Bowl with flag football.
02:38Flag football is the most boring event in the history of the world.
02:42Why are we promoting or even letting players play in this? Let high school kids, let college kids, let no name people play flag football in the Olympics here.
02:52We don't need the NFL. It's an embarrassment overall, and nobody's going to watch and or care about it.
02:57You can understand the Olympic dream for NFL players who are the best at what they do, but that's why they probably don't play in the Olympiad either,
03:07because the sport just does not translate on a global and international level to Donnie's point.
03:13There is international flag football. We have a national team in the United States and all of those guys and exactly those guys, those girls, the female side as well.
03:25They have been busting their hump to play at a high level in flag football, maybe to have that taken from them.
03:31Again, there's a lot of times where Team USA is heavily favored to win an Olympic team medal.
03:37I think it would be the strongest ever minus money number for Team USA to win flag football if NFL players were allowed.
03:46You're going to have Tyree kill against an Icelandic guy who is also a plumber there as well.
03:52It would not be overly fair. We'll wait for that when it happens, if the proposal is even approved and what it would mean.
04:00Just because NFL owners give their players the opportunity to do so does not mean that the U.S. Olympic Committee would go with NFL players in 2028.
04:09Do you want to go onside kick next or do you want to go push push?
04:13Yeah, why don't we do that?
04:14Okay, so the onside kick tweak, here is the proposed change.
04:18The kicking team would line up one yard closer, slightly closing the gap.
04:22So instead of 10 yards away, I guess nine yards away, teams could attempt it at any time while trailing, not just in the fourth quarter, as the current rule states.
04:33The goal is to increase the success rate.
04:36Last year, onside kicks in the NFL had a success rate of just 6%.
04:41What is your issue with the proposed change to the onside kick?
04:45I don't mind the proposal here because I know where this is going.
04:50You know, you never have a take a look at a like a snowball that starts back at the top of the mountain that ends in an absolute boulder that can roll over an entire city.
04:57Say, well, why would you be bringing that up here?
04:59Because I know where this leads to.
05:00I know where this is going.
05:01And understand this in sports.
05:03The NBA has the single worst rule in the history of professional sports and fairness.
05:10And that means, man, I played well the longest, you know, all the way through.
05:1548 minutes in an NBA game, right?
05:1647 and a half minutes.
05:18We're the better team here.
05:20Oh, there's the whistle.
05:21Time out.
05:22Put me in the front court.
05:24Let me try to beat this team.
05:25You don't want.
05:26Where does this come from?
05:27Like, this rule is ridiculous.
05:29That's why college basketball is sensational.
05:31And I'm getting around to the NFL.
05:32Don't worry about this.
05:33Hold on.
05:33College basketball at the end of the game.
05:35You got to inbound with three seconds to go, go the length of the court, and he's a miracle to win.
05:40If you make it, wow, that's tremendous.
05:42But if you miss, the other team goes, that's what's supposed to happen.
05:45You're losing.
05:45Why do you get an advantage?
05:47So now when we take a look at the onside kick, it's like, okay, the old onside kick where you could just have battle versus battle, 11 on 11, or basically 10 on 11, going full steam to get it.
05:57And again, it wasn't still great statistics, but it still gave you a chance.
06:00Now they took that chance away for the fairness slash health of the game, and I understand that.
06:05But also, the concept of the onside kick is supposed to be a miracle anyway.
06:10Now you're getting a little bit close, which I'm okay with.
06:12We say, Donnie, are you upset with the actual rules changes coming in?
06:15No, I'm fine with that because I know where this is going in two to three years.
06:18Fourth and 15 to keep the football.
06:20Why are we rewarding teams that are losing the football game and giving them a chance to win?
06:26That's against every spirit of competition in every rule possible.
06:31Just leave it alone.
06:32It's supposed to be a miracle play to get the onside kick, and I'm fine with that.
06:36If you move it up a yard and it increases it by 3%, I'm fine.
06:40But do not bastardize this process.
06:42I know where it's going in three years.
06:44We need more offense.
06:45Fourth and 15 to keep the football.
06:47It should be fourth and 70, and no fouls can be applied to the defense.
06:51How about that?
06:52That has been a disgust change to make it like the UFL, where you just throw the football.
06:58You're at a fourth and 15 play.
06:59Oh, my God.
06:59Kill me now.
07:00Kill me now.
07:03Kill me now.
07:04If the day comes, I got to take you out to pasture because they changed the onside kick rule, my friend.
07:09Just don't turn around.
07:11Listen, this is DRS at its best.
07:14We'll continue with the owner meetings and the proposed rule changes next.
07:18I'm not sure if any NFL owners are watching the early line bright and early on this Tuesday live in Minneapolis.
07:25But please, for the safety of my co-host, Donnie Wrightside, and his mental sanctity, if you see what we are talking about here, do not vote yes on the proposed change to the onside kick because of the precedent it could be setting.
07:40And I just want to say, I understand what DRS is saying three to five years down the line.
07:46If the success rate is getting slightly better, but not where the NFL wants it for the theatrics of allowing the offense another opportunity, this could set in place.
07:55At least those started to change and change and change that you end up with the UFL rule of a fourth and 15 play as your onside kick.
08:05The reality, however, of moving the kicking team closer by a yard, I'm not even sure, DRS, that ups the percentage from a 6% success rate by a point fully to 7% in 2025.
08:19It is still going to be a very difficult play to pull off, but to your point, if this is setting the precedent for further rule changes when it comes to the onside kick to reward the trailing team to give the offense another opportunity, as the NFL has started to do, I understand the heat.
08:37Yes, and there should be heat on that.
08:39But by the way, also, if we're about safety, isn't it to me like, Ben, like the kickoffs had to change because you can't have 225-pound players running a 4-3-40, 40 yards and smash into each other.
08:50Like, you know what?
08:51That kind of makes some sense.
08:52I love the new kickoff rule because it adds a little bit more excitement and not just a ceremonial touchback, but it's still a football play.
08:58Like, if we're so worried, Ben, about guys getting 10 yards advantage to smash into each other, why aren't we three yards apart on an onside kick then?
09:08Because then you're not running into each other, but you still have unbelievable chances to get it.
09:12Now, I'm not saying that should happen because I'm not trying to reward a team that's losing a football game with a chance to win.
09:18That's the opposite of competition at that point.
09:20Hey, don't worry.
09:21In the fourth quarter, we'll have 16 onside kicks and have a chance to really turn the tide here.
09:25But if it is about safety, why can't you have the old onside kick but just make it four or three yards apart?
09:30Boom, the kickoff is there.
09:31It goes up.
09:32That would be mayhem to get the football and a much higher percentage to actually get it.
09:37But having said that, I don't want to digress into that point because you can't just leave it alone.
09:43That's all I'm asking for.
09:44And by the way, if we have like an open public forum where you have to vote here, nobody under 30 can vote on this because I don't want any stupid opinion coming in like, oh, it'll be so much more fun.
09:53I don't even watch the games, but I'd watch it if there was fourth and 20.
09:57Stop it.
09:57You can't vote on it.
09:58I don't think anybody's saying that around football, but I understand if there was a public forum, I think the NFL owners would be in for it.
10:06Now, the two proposed rule changes that will headline the owner meetings this week in the Twin Cities is what I thought Donnie would bring the most heat for.
10:14Let's start with the tush-push ban that was proposed by the Green Bay Packers.
10:19A little bit of the changing of the wording of this proposed legislation yesterday, pooling, grabbing, pushing a player forward, DRS, at the early spring meetings at the Breakers in Palm Beach.
10:33Now, a month and a half, two months ago, whatever it was, it was pretty contentious.
10:38Basically split the room for teams and owners that were in favor of banning the tush-push and teams that were still in favor of letting it be a play.
10:47Now, of course, your team, DRS, the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles, are really the only team that succeeds in the brotherly shove, that succeeds in pulling off the tush-push with any level of consistent success.
11:03So where do you fall on the tush-push ban?
11:06Should it happen?
11:07Will it happen?
11:09I don't know, but here's the thing that's interesting, too, because you saw last year and you see the eclipse running by with the embarrassment.
11:15That was the commanders who showed up and didn't even play a football game and then tried to make a mockery of the tush-push going, we can't stop it, so we'll try to delay and embarrass everybody.
11:23And you only embarrass yourself on that.
11:24But also, there is something, too, the defense can't push, but the offense can push.
11:28I understand that.
11:29But understand this.
11:30The NFL is all about offense, Ben.
11:32And when I was growing up, again, this isn't too long ago, 90s and even into the early 2000s,
11:37there was a time where it was fourth and about maybe a football on the plus 37-yard line,
11:44and yet we're punting footballs and making them cough in corners.
11:46So this is an extension of the offense that goes, okay, if we have a team like the Eagles and anybody can use this play,
11:51it's not just grandfathered in, we're, all right, we're on our own 40-yard line.
11:55Let's run the tush-push and keep the football.
11:57Isn't that better than punting the football down to the opposing team's 15?
12:01Doesn't the NFL want more offense?
12:03This is more offense.
12:04It's just a team that worked it out that goes, and yes, Jeffrey Lewis said the single most important thing in this.
12:09We invest in our offensive line.
12:11We invested in an athletic quarterback.
12:13This is why we do it.
12:15It's not our fault that you drafted a seventh-round center that can't push anybody around
12:19and a quarterback that's 6'3 and a pencil and can't move the pocket.
12:23Those are objective things.
12:25I wouldn't be tremendously upset if it was canceled,
12:27but it just seems like the people that are trying to cancel and get it out of the football are like,
12:30well, we didn't invest in it, and we can't run it, so let's take it out because we can't do it.
12:33That's all.
12:34A little bit more around the National Football League up next.
12:38NFL owner meetings today and tomorrow in Minneapolis.
12:42Two rule changes will headline the votes from the 32 NFL owners.
12:46And again, a reminder, you need 24 of 32 owners to agree,
12:51a supermajority, 75%, to pass any of these proposed rule changes.
12:57Of course, the RS1 that will be most notable, that would be the tush-push.
13:01I do not believe it will pass.
13:03I do not believe it should pass, that being the banning of that play.
13:07You might say it looks more like rugby, but it's a legal football play.
13:12The Philadelphia Eagles do not have a competitive advantage because of some loophole in the regulation.
13:17The Philadelphia Eagles have a competitive advantage because of what DRS said before the break,
13:23an offensive line that is crafted to run this play with success.
13:26A quarterback that can squat 600 pounds and then move the pile in a team that pulls it off to perfection.
13:35It is not the Eagles' fault that you can't stop it.
13:38It is not Philadelphia's fault that you fail to run it properly as well.
13:43And oftentimes, DRS, when we see a proposed rule change that passes based on a play,
13:51some sort of action between the white lines and on the gridiron,
13:54it passes in the name of health and safety first and foremost.
13:58They tried to present facts and figures about the health and safety of this play in the tush-push.
14:05There ain't a lick of data that says it is a more dangerous play than any other in the game of football.
14:13I hope it does not pass.
14:14I do not believe it should pass, that being the banning of the tush-push.
14:19And also understand this.
14:21Like, we understood that the play won't work at all with that offensive line
14:25and Jalen Hurts just running into getting 6 inches to 8 inches to 10 inches there or a foot or more.
14:30I mean, stop the madness at this point.
14:32What is the percentages going to change?
14:331% that they don't get 3 yards and actually get 2 yards, which is all you need at this point.
14:38So it's not a big deal to me.
14:40Like, oh, you should be up in arms.
14:41You're a Philadelphia Eagles fan.
14:42It's a play they do extremely well.
14:43But the optics of it, I understand why the NFL wants to ban it,
14:46because you can get a guy like Freddie Luvu who will make a mockery of the play,
14:50but also at the same time, you can remedy that as well.
14:53Hey, Freddie, you want to jump over twice?
14:54We're going to eject you from the football game, and it's a 15-yard penalty on your defense.
14:57Try it again.
14:58We'll keep ejecting players from your defense because there is a decorum to the play that you have.
15:02But also, just don't have the Philadelphia Eagles in a 4th and 1.
15:06Do your job on defense.
15:07And the fact of the matter is this, once again, Ben, this wasn't a grandfathered-in thing like,
15:11hey, you know, there's some weird rule in 1929 when the Eagles came into the league
15:15where they're all the only ones that are allowed to do this because they ratified it.
15:18You know what I mean?
15:18That's not the case.
15:19Every single team can do this here.
15:21I just want to hear the opportunities where the coaches, which I always think are funny,
15:24like Sean McDermott, like, ah, I just don't think it's good for the game,
15:27or people get injured.
15:28And they go, well, back that up.
15:29I can't, but it just feels like Pleeper are going to get injured.
15:32That's not a reason to do that.
15:33I want to hear valid reasons.
15:34If the commissioner says it's not a good look for football,
15:37just show me why it's not a good look for football, and they'll take it out of football.
15:40That's all.
15:41The one rule change that actually gets me the most mad,
15:44and I really hope does not pass, I do not believe it will,
15:48is the proposed change to playoff format and seating around the National Football League.
15:54As it stands right now, you have four divisional champs that are seated one through four,
16:00and then three wildcard teams in each conference, five through seven.
16:05All of those distinctions based on record, but in those group.
16:09The proposed rule change would be still the same thing.
16:13Four divisional champs earn that automatic bid to the NFL postseason,
16:17and still three wildcard teams.
16:19But once you get to the playoffs, you just seed one through seven based on record.
16:25So you could have a divisional champion ranked behind or seated behind a wildcard team.
16:31I hate it.
16:32It's nonsensical, and frankly, it's not necessary.
16:36Donnie, in a 17-game NFL regular season schedule,
16:40you play each of your divisional opponents twice, six divisional games.
16:45Your schedule is heavily weighted to your division.
16:48The tradition, the rivalries that you have, the geographic ties between these divisions
16:53around the National Football League.
16:56If we are going to weight a schedule so heavily, thus winning a division should also be weighted
17:03heavily as well.
17:05Earning the right not just for a playoff bid, but the home field advantage that comes with it.
17:11There needs to be that incentive.
17:13Anything else is asinine, in my opinion.
17:16Yeah, exactly.
17:16Why don't we just go back to, like, the 1940s Major League Baseball for them and just say,
17:20okay, the best record in the NFC, the best record in the AFC, they just play in the Super Bowl.
17:24Let's avoid the playoffs altogether because we only want the top teams to actually advance.
17:28Isn't that the best way, Ben, to get the two top teams to advance to the Super Bowl that you want
17:32doing it that way?
17:33It's stupid.
17:34Nobody's ever complained about the playoffs.
17:36Like, only boneheads are like, oh, my God, they added a seventh wildcard team.
17:39That's stupid.
17:39They have sixes enough.
17:40No, it's not.
17:41More meaningful football, the better.
17:43And if they're looking at saying, well, in Week 17 and 18, we might get one more game
17:48that might need something down the line, stop it.
17:50Like, to the victors go the spoils.
17:52If you played your entire season, won your division, and have wrapped up that number one
17:57seed or whatever it is, or even if you're already settled in as the fifth or the sixth
18:01seed, it is your right to take Week 18 off to rest for the playoffs because you earned
18:05it and you absolutely deserve it.
18:08When you look at things, Ben, where you don't need to fix them and you're trying to come up
18:11with a fix, and my favorite part of this, this isn't a team that got burned.
18:15Like, hey, here's our result.
18:16This was very unfair.
18:17Like, oh, okay, we'll take a look at it and put a proposal in.
18:19This was the Lions who, like, you know what was unfair last year, Ben?
18:23We got the number one seed.
18:25We had a bye.
18:26And then we lost to the sixth seed.
18:28So what are they actually complaining about?
18:30You had the low seed at home in your own building off a bye, and you got smoked.
18:35So where is this coming from?
18:36Like, oh, it was so unfair.
18:37We got a hot team that was really.
18:39No, it played out exactly the way Detroit wanted it to play out, and now they want to
18:43change the rule to get the top two seeds as a better chance to advance.
18:47You had your chance.
18:48You know, it was the two seed in advance.
18:50Yeah, it was the Philadelphia Eagles.
18:51They did their job.
18:52You know, the one seed then?
18:53Why just put the one seed then in the Super Bowl at the end of the season and have a playoffs
18:57in the NFC?
18:57That don't mean anything than Detroit.
18:59How would that fit you better, Detroit?
19:01It didn't work last year, so just make it so you automatically get a trip to the Super Bowl?
19:05Asinine stuff.
19:05There are multitudes of advantages for winning a division.
19:10Home field advantage, of course, that bid to the postseason, and if you have the best
19:15record of those four divisional winners, you get that opening round bye.
19:20There should be some incentive because, again, your schedule is heavily weighted to the pride
19:26of winning your divisional championship.
19:29I do not believe the change to the postseason format will pass.
19:34I really hope it does not for all of you owners listening to the early line on this Tuesday
19:40morning.
19:41Quickly here, DRS, Nick Sirianni, head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles, signs a multi-year
19:46contract extension to remain at the helm of this Eagles franchise for quite some time.
19:52A Super Bowl champion in his fourth season as an NFL head coach.
19:57He has been an NFL head coach for only four years.
20:01He has a 48 and 20 overall record.
20:04He has had a winning record in each of his four years at the helm in Philly.
20:08The Eagles have made the postseason in each of his four years in Philadelphia.
20:13They have won the NFC championship twice.
20:16They have appeared thus in a Super Bowl two times and, of course, a Lombardi trophy winner
20:21a season ago.
20:23So, it's funny when you work in Philadelphia, right?
20:25Because when things are bleak, your job could be at stake.
20:29But when you win, you are crowned a king.
20:32Nick Sirianni saw all of that in 2024.
20:36But when you think about success and when you look at the actual resume in track record,
20:41I don't even think it's much of an argument.
20:44Nick Sirianni is one of the three or five best current head coaches in the National Football
20:49League.
20:49He really is.
20:50And it's crazy to say from that opening press conference they had in Philadelphia, which
20:54was kind of awkward.
20:55But the Eagles were like, you know what?
20:56Trust us.
20:56We picked Andy Reid out of nowhere in Green Bay.
20:58We think this will work as well.
21:00And he wasn't really a highly sought after person that was getting multiple interviews
21:04here.
21:04And then he comes to town, has some success immediately.
21:06But then you hit those turbulent waters, which the fans start to turn against.
21:09You're very brash.
21:10The opposing teams in the NFL don't like you as well.
21:13You lose the Super Bowl, then have a great season, but collapse at the end.
21:16It was like, this guy can't coach.
21:17It's apparent that the talent level in this team carried him, and Nick Sirianni can't
21:20do it.
21:20Only to rebound, have a sensational season, and win the Super Bowl.
21:24But the one thing that's always stood the test of time, Nick Sirianni, even if the outside
21:28public, even Philadelphia fans included, were against him, the players love the guy, man.
21:33And that's half the battle.
21:34If you have the players believing in you and you believe in the players, that goes a long
21:37way here.
21:38And the fact that he works lockstep with the owner, the general manager, and the coaching
21:42staff, no brainer to sign this guy long term.
21:44He's been great.
21:46A lot of people not named Nick Sirianni get credit for this roster, for this franchise
21:51that is the Philadelphia Eagles.
21:53Sirianni earning his due respect.