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The NFL Championship Sunday is a wrap, it was cold and one surprise, and the other game was pretty much obvious and conclusive
Laveon Bell and Antonio Brown
Contributors
Santiago Leon – @sleon
Joe Toscano – @joeybagovdonuts
NFC Champ Recap
Bucs-Packers
The man with six NFL titles will become the first quarterback to play a Super Bowl on his team’s home field. He owes the Tampa Bay defense that sacked Aaron Rodgers five times, and a curious late call on fourth-and-goal by the Packers as Brady and the Bucs beat top-seeded Green Bay 31-26 for the NFC title Sunday.
“It’s great to get another road win and now we got a home game, and who would have ever thought a home Super Bowl for us,” Brady said. “But we did it.
“I thought the defense was spectacular. They’ve done that all year.”
Brady is back in his first year at Tampa Bay after reaching this stage nine times with the New England Patriots. He went 20 of 36 for 286 yards and three touchdowns, but also threw three interceptions as Tampa Bay squandered most of an 18-point lead. Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul combined for five sacks to help the Bucs hang on for their franchise-record eighth consecutive road victory.
The Packers lost in the NFC championship game for the fourth time in the last seven seasons. Green Bay hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since its 2010 championship season.
Rodgers went 33 of 48 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interception, but fell to 1-4 in conference championship games as a starting quarterback. The Packers had the NFL’s best red-zone offense this season, but they twice settled for field goals after having a first-and-goal Sunday.
AFC Champ Recap
Bills-Chiefs
The Bills did not get the reprieve from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes they had hoped for in Sunday’s 2021 AFC championship game.
Mahomes was knocked out of the divisional round the previous weekend by a hit to his head area, but he passed though NFL concussion protocol and was brilliant in Kansas City’s 38-24 win over Buffalo on Sunday night. He completed 29 of 38 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t turn the ball over.
After Buffalo took a 9-0 lead into the second quarter, Mahomes and the Chiefs settled into an overwhelming performance. Wide receiver Tyreek Hill caught nine passes for 172 yards, and tight end Travis Kelce caught 13 passes for 118 yards and two scores.
Duck Hodges to Rams, and Dwayne Haskins sign with the Steelers
Matt Stafford???
Favorite Florida Team?
Miami Dolphins- 75%, Bucs, Florida Gators – 25%, FSU
Joe: Miami Dolphins
Transcription
Santiago Leon 0:13
The sports cast January 25 2021. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe in all our channels YouTube, Periscope and Apple podcast. And if you’re listening on Apple podcast, please leave a rating and review it will help us out tremendously. We’re also on online digital radio. You could you could listen to us on the sports cast app or on our website, the sports cast dotnet. And follow us on Twitter at sports cast one the sports cast won the NFL Championship weekend has come to a close conclusive one surprise perhaps for one that was kind of obvious, but we had to see the proof in the pudding all the way from a cold Pittsburgh day. Joe Toscano Welcome back to the sports cast.
Joe Toscano 1:06
thank you as always, for having me. Wow, what a weekend so much. So much happened.
Santiago Leon 1:16
A lot happened. And usually, you know, championship weekend is pretty is probably one of the best bowl. I mean, ball games I see all season, perhaps more than the Super Bowl.
Joe Toscano 1:30
You know what, this weekend and the last weekend the divisional round. It’s my favorite weekend of football all year. It’s because all of the you know, wildcard weekend is fun. But some of those teams really don’t belong there. But once you get to the divisional round in the conference championship, those are the best teams and seeing the best teams play each other is just awesome. And then typically on that weekend, I usually go out for a restaurant, go out with friends and watch the game at a good sports bar. Super Bowl. I
Santiago Leon 2:01
usually refrain from it because it’s way too much people. You’re not going to find a seat. You got to have reservations, you probably got to pay a cover charge. Which I which one restaurant was charging 50 bucks then plus food. So I stay away from restaurants on the Super Bowl because everyone watches football that day apparently. But what I mean what I mean what I mean your traditions are usually watch at home or used to go out or go to a friend’s house.
Joe Toscano 2:30
So yeah, I’m the same way. Any time there’s a Steeler game. We try to go out to watch it. The playoff game is you try to go out to watch it but Super Bowl. We stay home. We just spend it with the family. Just we do a we do appetizers we do appetizers and make a big deal out of that. But yeah, we were the same way we just stay home for the Superbowl
Santiago Leon 2:52
no joke. I mean, do you have a chef right in front of your name sometimes during these days or you don’t do the cooking?
Joe Toscano 3:00
I do the cooking? Yes, chef, Chef chef Joseph boyardee. That’s me.
Santiago Leon 3:08
And what is your menu during these a football weekend? Basically just appetizers,
Joe Toscano 3:13
wings, mozzarella sticks. Those loaded baked potato skins, things like that. Usually, you know chips nachos, we eat way too much now that I’m thinking about.
Santiago Leon 3:28
Hey, is the best time of the year to eat. You know what I noticed? Papa John’s is gonna do stuffed crust pizza now.
Joe Toscano 3:38
Yeah, like stuffed crust pizza. I like I like when pizza does something like that. So I try something like that. Although Papa John’s is kind of where you get pizza. You gotta get like a nice local Italian joint with some old Italian guy have a cigar hanging out of his mouth. That’s what you want out of a pizza chain.
Santiago Leon 4:00
That’d be good commercial. Yeah, it’s true. Yeah, you know and when I saw that commercial yesterday I thought Pizza Hut had the rights for stuff cuz a stuffed crust pizza cuz you know you can see anyone else doing it Little Caesars or Papa John’s or like I had like the other pizza chain so it’s kind of like when I saw that okay, maybe they just wanted to do it. And I like the
Joe Toscano 4:26
pizzas our pizza places are like, ramping up their pizza making technology like that’s Yeah, we technological advances in is making pizzas.
Santiago Leon 4:37
Anyways, let go on. And try to recap. championship. Hyundai. Are you ready? Yes, sir. All right. NFC Championship Game held in Green Bay. The man with the six NFL Super Bowls will become the first quarterback play soon. On his team’s home field, he owes the Tampa Bay defense that sacked Aaron Rodgers couple of times. Five times in a curious late call on fourth, on the fourth and goal by the Packers, as Brady in the Bucs beat top seeded Green Bay 31 to 26 for the NFC Championship Game Sunday, Joe, what were your thoughts over this matchup
Joe Toscano 5:25
I thought there were a few moments that define the entire game. The first was at the end of the first half the guts on the fox to go for it at the end of the first half when almost every other coach would have just taken a knee or something like that. And then there was so few so little time on the clock left, and they’re still moving it down the field, and for the Packers to just allow that touchdown and not have the right defense is just it’s criminal. It’s criminal, and it really cost them the game. So there was that the and and the decision at the end to not go forward and forth down when you’re down eight, and there was only two minutes, nine seconds left. It’s just I don’t understand what Packers were thinking they choked.
Santiago Leon 6:13
Yeah. Aaron Rodgers was asked about that play. And he said, Well, that’s what the coaches said. And then what like when x mat on the floor. He just felt he felt right at that moment. Do you think there was like a lack of experience during these type of games from before?
Joe Toscano 6:33
I have no idea what happened there? I don’t I just don’t understand it. Yes, you have all your time out. But there was only two minutes left. You’re right there, you’re down. You’re down one score at a two point conversion. There’s almost no time left. Yes, yes. If everything goes right. You know, you give the ball back. And if the if there’s only, you know, a very few amount of time taken off. And maybe if maybe if you get the ball back, and maybe if you drive it down the field, maybe you can get another score. But there’s so many maybes there when you have the touchdown right there. And yes, it’s not easy to do. But still, I just I just don’t understand that decision. It’s It’s crazy.
Santiago Leon 7:18
Tom Brady. Whenever the game said it’s great to get another road when three road wins so far in the playoffs. And now we got a home game. And who’s ever thought a home Super Bowl for us Brady said but we did it. Joe? It is so weird. I never thought this would have happened in my lifetime. But is this like history in the making here?
Joe Toscano 7:43
You know, it is it is an amazing thing to have a home game. But you know, for a couple reasons. It’s not really a home game. First of all, they’re only going to have I mean 20,000 fans, something like that. I’m not sure the exact number. So you know, not as many fans but when you have a Super Bowl that’s there’s so many fans that aren’t usually there. It’s not like a bunch of Tampa season ticket holders can just you know show up to the game or something like that. So it’s Yeah, I mean, it’s nice to have the the game ain’t your home city, but it’s not really a home game. It’s still cold. It’s still cool as heck, it just would have been nice if it was you know different circumstances.
Santiago Leon 8:27
Mr. Tom Brady went for 20 of 36 for 286 yards and three touchdowns but also threw three interceptions as Tampa Bay squandered most of an 18 point lead. Shaquille Barrett and Jason Pierre Paul combined for five sacks to help the Bucs hang on for their franchise record eighth consecutive road victory. Let’s go into the interceptions because I was hearing the part of the game on the radio. And Tom Brady threw no interceptions and like the playoffs and I think most of the time in the regular season, when I saw those interceptions, wasn’t it giving you some doubts a little bit?
Joe Toscano 9:04
Yeah. Basically the story The game was the fox dominated early. And it was what 2110 at the at that half and then just the back the Packers just came back you know big time. The the defense was not able to stop the Packers defense was not able to stop the Buccaneers at all in the first half. And they really came back. Yeah, they call some interceptions. But really a major point in the game is the Packers offense did not take advantage of those interceptions. That’s huge. You have to especially when you’re down, you have to strike that dagger and yes, the Packers did come back and they did score a lot of points that they did do do well in the third quarter, but they did not take advantage of those interceptions. And that was that was huge. I mean It was the interceptions that Brady threw. They weren’t necessarily a terrible job by Brady. Some of them were questionable throws, but a lot of them were just really athletic plays by the Packers defense.
Santiago Leon 10:14
And when the Packers made those turnovers Tampa did capitalize on those moments, right?
Joe Toscano 10:22
Yeah. Yeah. The huge play was Aaron Jones getting rocked by Jordan Whitehead from University of Pittsburgh. And that was a huge play. You know, you know, what do they say that one of the biggest factors in winning your game is the turnover battle, and you got to take advantage of those turnovers.
Santiago Leon 10:43
How about Scotty Miller making those plays? I mean, coming in as clutch.
Joe Toscano 10:49
Yeah, it’s amazing. And for the the Packers defense to allow that touchdown at the end of the first half. Whoever that defensive court I would have I would fire that entire defensive coordinator and all any defensive coach fire them, they basically cost them the game there was no reason to allow with there was only a few seconds left in the half there was no reason to allow that. That defense to be like that. It’s
Santiago Leon 11:17
it’s inexcusable. The bugs came to play. Let’s give credit to the Bucs defense Shaquille Barrett, Jason Pierre Paul five sacks. Those players I mean, I forgot Jason Pierre Paul play for the Bucs, Joe.
Joe Toscano 11:31
Yeah. I’m not going to make any jokes about his, his fireworks displays, right. Yeah, the bugs defects really, really put pressure on Rogers. And a Rogers is. He’s not he’s not. He’s not that. That guy that could run around and stuff. I mean, he is he gets scrambled around a little bit, but that that really messes him up that pressure they put on
Santiago Leon 11:59
the Green Bay Packers lost in the NFC Championship game for the fourth time in the last couple of seasons. Green Bay hasn’t reached the Super Bowl since 2000. And almost 11 years ago, to the Super Bowl. Rodgers went for 33 or 48 for 346 yards with three touchdowns and one interceptions. But, but but he fell to one through four and conference championship games as a starting quarterback. The Packers had the NFL awesome Red Zone offense this season, but they were they but they went for physicals two times after having a first end goal Sunday. Joe, I was thinking about it yesterday, you know, when I was driving to watch the AFC Championship game, and I feel like Aaron Rodgers is not clutch all the time. He’s doesn’t have that assassin. Look as Tom Brady. Um, is it a riders thing? Is it a coach thing? Or just a Rogers thing?
Joe Toscano 13:02
You know, I’m not sure that’s a good question. I’m not sure what happened. I mean, yesterday. I mean, there were time there were times where, you know, they were close. So you knew that that play we talked about, you know, at the end where they chose to pick the field goal instead of go for it? Well, I mean, that, you know, people say that Roger should have run forward and maybe that he would have gotten maybe he wanted to, but I don’t know. But I mean, when you think about Aaron Rodgers is a first ballot Hall of Famer one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, to only be in one Super Bowl. That’s a that’s pretty significant. And you know, how many more chances etc, gonna get, especially the way he was talking? After the game? He’s like, he’s not sure what his future is going to be. They drafted a quarterback in the first round this year. I don’t know. I mean, is the window closing on Aaron Rodgers? I’m not sure. I mean, you know, they blame the coach for many years. You know, McCarthy was they said McCarthy was not a good coach. And that’s what I held him back. But yeah, you gotta put some of the blame on Aaron Rodgers to
Santiago Leon 14:08
making it a another bust this year. Again, Rogers was asked afterwards, Joe about the future. He wasn’t sure. I wasn’t really sure. But but he does have three years left in his contract. Um, he’ll probably eventually come back. Do you think?
Joe Toscano 14:25
Yeah, he’ll come back. From what I understand he basically his call the way his contract is so. Yeah, he’ll be he’ll be there for a while. You know, I’m sure. You know, when you say things in the heat of the moment, you know, just after the game, I’m sure you know, after cooler heads prevail, things will change. You know, so they’ll, you know, he’ll he’ll be there for a while. I mean, my goodness, look at the record. Look at the record last year and look at the record this year. You know, it’s it’s, it’s an amazing job. You know, the fluorogenic done an amazing job there. But, you know, they just can’t get over the hump.
Santiago Leon 15:00
Don’t you think you think they need more pieces or you think they have the right pieces, but they just need to get over the hump.
Joe Toscano 15:08
They need a defense that’s for sure they need somebody. They need somebody to cover. Scottie Miller that’s what they need that one corner you know, every team changes every team has needs and stuff. I mean that the the Packers look pretty complete. I mean, they look like you know, with a couple exceptions, they looked like unstoppable this season. So, you know, maybe just a few tweaks and they can be right back in it.
Santiago Leon 15:34
something to definitely look at. Of course, in the next couple of weeks. We got a lot of a huge offseason ahead of us. Tampa moves on going to play at home doesn’t have to worry about much about COVID Kansas. Well anyways, we’ll get into that more to detail. Let’s recap the championship game in the AFC the bills and the chiefs. The bills did not get the reprieve from the Chiefs quarterback Patrick mahomes they had hoped for and in this AFC Championship game, I thought mahomes you know was gonna be like 60% mahomes 80% mahomes enough for the bills to maybe get over the hump. mahomes was knocked out of the divisional round of the previous weekend by hit to his head but he passed through the NFL concussion protocol, and was brilliant in Kansas City’s a win over the bills. 3224 he completed 29 or 30 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns. He didn’t turn the ball over Joe. I thought I honestly thought those had a chance with mahones maybe being 80% he looked 100%
Joe Toscano 16:39
Exactly. We were told, oh, oh yes. turf toe. Oh, this Oh, he’s not he’s gonna be a shell of himself. He looked awesome. He looked great. So,
Santiago Leon 16:53
you know,
Unknown Speaker 16:53
we got we got fold
Joe Toscano 16:54
there. So yeah, I mean, the chiefs are just the bills are amazing. They had an amazing season. But the Chiefs I mean, it’s been the Chiefs all year. You know, we were we were all pulling ourselves in it might be someone else. You know, we thought well, maybe you know, they they don’t, they don’t blow everybody out. So maybe they’re vulnerable.
Santiago Leon 17:18
The bills took a nine zero lead in the second quarter mahomes and the Chiefs settled into an overwhelming performance. Why receiver Tyree kill caught nine passes for 180 yards in a tight end. Travis Kelsey caught 13 passes for 118 yards and two scores. I saw tyreke Hill most of the game. How about you?
Joe Toscano 17:42
He dominated. You know, he is he’s one of the best in the league. And when he’s on and when he when he makes a catch. He could he could break at any any time. And it’s just it’s almost between mahomes Tyree kill and Kelsey, it’s almost an unstoppable combination. Not
Santiago Leon 18:04
much of a running back and forth. I mean, a running back performance in this game, wasn’t it?
Joe Toscano 18:10
No, no, I mean, Clyde Edwards a layer. He’s nice. He had a nice season for a rookie. But they really don’t use the running game too much. And then you know, living on bail was supposed to be something hacky was a healthy scratch. So that didn’t work out.
Santiago Leon 18:24
That name. Sounds very familiar. Back to the bills. This team has a lot of sacks. Josh Allen was trying to run the game scramble a lot. He had a huge sack. I think he ran back with 20 yards back. What was going on with the bills yesterday.
Joe Toscano 18:42
The bills had an amazing season, the progression of Josh Allen and the addition of stefon Diggs, I’ve never seen a quarterback. I’ve never seen the wide receiver add that much to an offense. And I’ve never seen a quarterback Josh Allen was supposed to be known as an inaccurate quarterback. And the leaps he took is is just amazing. He’s one of the most important improved quarterbacks ever. The bill but last last, yesterday, the Chiefs put a lot of pressure on them. gotta hand it to that. chiefs defense. And when they did sack Josh Allen, it was ugly. I mean, though, like you said, there were some, you know, they just they just sent him back like 10 1520 yards. Those are devastating that basically kills a drive, you know, you can’t just, you know, you it would be better if you just, you know, if you just like kneel down or something like that, it only took like a five yard loss or something like that,
Santiago Leon 19:43
or try to throw the balls,
Joe Toscano 19:43
you know, he, he he is he’s a he was great was passing, but he’s also really good on the run. I’ve heard Josh Allen described and I forget where I heard it from, but basically, if if Cam Newton and Ben Roethlisberger had a baby Maybe Josh Allen,
Santiago Leon 20:01
something definitely look for the bills. I saw a lot of Cole Beasley in this game, a lot of catches.
Joe Toscano 20:09
Yeah, Cole Beasley is a big part of their offense. The thing that the bills need to work on is the running game. They basically had no running game this year. You can’t do that. I mean, the Steelers learned that the hard way. Also you have to have a balanced attack. You can’t just pass it, pass it all the time, you have to at least give the threat of
Santiago Leon 20:31
the Chiefs look all powerful. I’m the best of the AFC I mean, I mean, I was thinking of, I mean, can you name one other team that could have had a better performance or you know, a better matchup rather than like the Buffalo Bills?
Joe Toscano 20:49
Maybe the Ravens, really they have that whole different style? Wow. Really, I don’t know of a team. I really can’t think of I mean, it’s, you know, any team can beat any team in any certain circumstance, if you have like a bunch of fluky turnovers or different things can happen. So you know, it’s like, you know, if the if the chiefs and bills played 10 times, chiefs are probably one of those, but then again, that’s probably the same as any other team in the AFC. The chiefs are just, they’re just on top of it right now.
Santiago Leon 21:25
The chiefs are unstoppable. They’re the defeated champions right now. There are no they’re the defending champions right now. And they move on against Tampa Bay, the Super Bowl is in two weeks. I believe it’s on February something if I was like to say February 3, but it’s probably not gonna be that date. But it is going to be mahomes versus Brady, February 7, to be exact. It’s Brady vs. mahomes buccaneers versus the chiefs. Joe, I know we have two weeks to try to dissect this down a little bit. But as of right now, how do you see this matchup?
Joe Toscano 22:09
Well, it’s really interesting because they played each other in Tampa earlier this season, and the Chiefs won 2724 I think it’s just going to be a really good game of my my fear was I just, let’s just say I’m a really big cheese fan right now because I want Tom Brady to lose I hate him that much. But my fear was that if the bills won, that they would they would not do well in the Superbowl because that is a whole different, you know, set of pressure. And the first time you go in there, you just you could you could succumb to that pressure. And I think that’s also part of the reason why the bills losses, I think Josh Allen, not totally, but he did get a little nervous yesterday, I think, you know, it’s, it’s a lot. It’s a lot of pressure, and he’s pretty young, so it’s gonna be a great matchup. Wow, I mean, it’s just, it’s just gonna be fun. It’s just gonna be a lot of fun. I mean, right now, I would give it to the Chiefs because they’re just on top of their game. But you never know. You have two weeks to prepare for it. So who knows what these teams are gonna come up with? I think it’s gonna be either way. I think it’s gonna be a close game. I think it’s gonna be a good game. And I’m really excited,
Santiago Leon 23:28
which they did play in week 12. It was 3.1 by Kansas City. And Tampa. I’m Brady momentum. I know. You know, you’re not a fan of him because he’s played for the Patriots, but in a fair minded thought, place. How do you see Brady now he sees he’s 43 he hasn’t lost a step. But he can do it with a second franchise to win the Super Bowl. Joe.
Joe Toscano 23:56
You have to give all the credit to Brady and I begrudgingly do that but it’s it’s amazing what he’s doing. First of all, you know, you look at you look at Philip Rivers, just retired, Eli Manning, just retired last year, Ben Roethlisberger, maybe should retire. You know, Aaron Rodgers is looking a little old. Then you have Brady who’s older than all of them. And he looks, he looks 10 years younger, and then all of them. You know, you can have the best plans and stuff. But the way he executes them is amazing. And the way that the Buccaneers, especially this year, you have this superstar, one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time, going to an entirely new team, an entirely new offense, an entirely new set of players. and in this situation with COVID, where they’re not allowed to practice all the time. They’re not allowed to see each other all the time, all this stuff going on all these factors. They still made it work. It looks like during the season, they had their problems. They had their struggle. But during the bye week they they worked it out and they fix their problems and after the bye week the Bucs looked amazing so gotta give credit to Tom Brady you got to give credit to the box yeah and they didn’t just do it because of Tom Brady they have a good wide receivers good running backs a good defense they had they had you know all the pieces around Tom Brady so that he wasn’t just the superstar that had to carry things like he had to do in New England
Santiago Leon 25:29
which I was thinking about it once you know once we got like the whole Super Bowl matchup all set. I was thinking like so was it Brady that care New England to all those Super Bowls? Wasn’t that really billet check? I mean, or would you give belcheck a benefit of the doubt because you know, he didn’t really have a quarterback but was it more Brady than Belichick?
Joe Toscano 25:51
I think it was a combination of I mean, Brady and Belichick were a perfect marriage. But toward the end, it got ridiculous, you know, Belichick might you could say you know controversial one of the greatest coaches of all time, but I think as a general manager, maybe not so good because the the the pieces he had around Brady, the the wide receivers are running backs the past few years or just pathetic. I mean, look at Brady now. He had he has good running backs, good wide receivers a good offensive line and look what he’s doing. So I don’t know. I mean, that it was a it was a perfect marriage. It was a great marriage. But at the end it soured and probably
Santiago Leon 26:35
because of Lj Joe was right. patriots were not able to deliver a good wide receivers for Tom Brady and I wish I had been hearing Tom Brady’s complaint. I mean, one of the reasons why he left he wasn’t providing weapons. They did give him an AB brown but he did not. He he he only lasted for one game. Antonio brown and llevan. Bell are going to the Super Bowl. Joe, how do you feel about that?
Joe Toscano 27:04
former Steelers This is a Steelers fans nightmare. A lot of Steelers are still not over either of them are disgusted by their by their their presence. I really don’t care especially with levy on bell. Bell was a healthy scratch whatever happened after his contract dispute with the with the Steelers where he took a year off. And you know, ever since he’s been on the Jets, and now the chiefs. He’s basically a shell of himself. So I mean, I really don’t care about him. But Antonia Brown, that is going to be very interesting, he did not play in the championship game because of a knee injury. So who knows what the status of that is, I’m sure that he’s going to play because it’s such a big game. However, the off the field stuff with Antonio Brown, could possibly be a major distraction. Your Super Bowl puts a giant spotlight on every player. And when you look at all the things that Antonio Brown was involved in all of the domestic disputes, all of the charges, all the accusations against him, people are going to bring that up. I predict that Antonio Brown is going to be a major distraction. I have a feeling he’s going to have a meltdown of some type and I think he will end up not playing in the game for whatever reason. That’s just my opinion. Oh, well, I
Santiago Leon 28:37
could go on in these next two weeks some drama, some gossip, some soap operas. Before we go to Steeler news this past week, duck Hodges is going to the Rams and you guys got Dwayne Haskins signed with the with the Steelers how you think about that?
Joe Toscano 28:56
You know, at first when I heard that Dwayne Haskins was coming to the Steelers, I thought what what are we doing this is stupid. You know, cuz he’s just, he was just so terrible with the Washington football team. And, you know, you heard all kinds of things about that he really wasn’t into it. And he’s uh, you know, just not uh, not really dedicated and not a professional. But really it’s a no risk situation for the Steelers and and you know, if he’s coming in as the third or fourth quarterback, so be it maybe you’ll get something out of them. And if you don’t, who cares? So, you know, you’re just with someone like that he has a talent hopefully he could mature and be more professional and put it together and if so then then the Steelers have something and if not, then you know he’s then they could just cut him with no, no repercussions.
Santiago Leon 29:47
And of course, because you guys let him go go into the Rams. I guess Mason Rudolph is definitely up in the pedestal. Could be starting quarterback Ross Berger retires but if not, it’ll be number two.
Joe Toscano 30:00
Yeah, that’s a that’s a question right now is what’s going to happen with Ben Roethlisberger. I mean, most indications are he is going to come back. But there’s a possibility he won’t you have a situation where basically the the Steelers will be very different next year. marquees. pouncy. Looks like he might retire. You know the center. He’s Yes, there’s going to be a lot of players not coming back including Villanova, including Juju, he’s probably not going to come back. You already have a new offensive coordinator. The question is for Roethlisberger is you have all these changes? Yeah, with all these changes and coaches and teammates, do you really want to come back and quote unquote start over? Or do you just want to you know, call it a career? We’ll see. Most likely Ben is going to come back but if not, it probably would be Mason Rudolph for a year because of the salary cap situation. They would have to they would have to bring in either have either have Mason Rudolph or someone cheap because of the salary cap ramifications. You heard it here first.
Santiago Leon 31:11
That’s a Steeler insider news right there. I’m not sure what’s going on. But Joe does cuz he’s inside. Pittsburgh. Vance. McDonald, retired. That’s
Joe Toscano 31:22
Vance. McDonald had, he was he was brought in on a trade a few years ago with the 40 Niners and nobody really expected anything but he ended up being a great pickup for the Steelers. He was a very good blocking tight end. He made some good catches. And he had the one play against the box where he just stiff arm this guy I believe his name was Chris Conti. He stiff armed him into like another dimension. He was so bad. So yeah, he will be missed. That was a that he had he had a good career with the Steelers,
Santiago Leon 31:59
the Steelers news. AFC Championship recap NFC Championship recap. Now it’s time for a Twitter Poll Question of the day. What is your favorite Florida team options are the Miami Dolphins the Tampa Bay Buccaneers And one last night and go into the Super Bowl. Florida Gators or the Florida State Seminoles.
Joe Toscano 32:22
The Miami Dolphins will always have a place in my heart because of Dan Marino. Dan Marino is a is a de Marino’s is a Pittsburgh guy and that’s why I love them. But also he is the reason why I am stuck on the University of Pittsburgh. I blame him I blame him for my infatuation with the University of Pittsburgh, you know one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. I love seeing anytime there’s Dan Marino highlights with the dolphins thrown to mark duper and Clayton You know, that’s just have fond memories of that. So the dolphins are my favorite team. And I hate the Florida Gators because they had Tim Tebow and Tim Tebow beat the Steelers in the in the playoffs that one year and that was one of the most soul crushing defeats of in Steelers history. Well,
Santiago Leon 33:13
Miami Dolphins is winning the poll as 75% second, Florida Gators had 25 FSM bucks are at zero so we’ll see where the poll pulled numbers the poll needles go to. And Joe Toscana. What is the best way to reach you to to grab a last minute pizza recipe for the Super Bowl?
Joe Toscano 33:35
Joey bag of doughnuts on Twitter v seven f i I tweet way too much. I tweeted in my sleep last night How can I do it was like two or three in the morning and I sent out a tweet. I didn’t even realize it.
Santiago Leon 33:51
Have you ever seen those Twitter accounts that after that person died? The Twitter accounts still going with new content? Yeah, little creepy creepy Yeah, I’ve seen a couple of those But anyways, probably have an assistant you can reach us at the sports cast one on Twitter which we have no assistant. Well we have a couple people that run on our Twitter account or the sports cast net the website make sure you subscribe, follow share whatever and make this grow tonight we got Tyler Turner going at it he’s probably gonna go on the NFL Draft predictions or mock ups that he’s been putting together those things those those NFL Draft mock ups you don’t know until last minute like the real actual one but it’s probably a good procedure to bet on. Anyways and then tomorrow is Riley and constant those guys are up in the batter’s box ready getting ready. Of course we got two weeks off and we’ll be looking towards the Super Bowl and Tampa. February 7 6:30pm. Kansas City is actually going to get to Tampa the day before because because because of COVID protocols. You want to make sure no one has COVID By the time you play, especially mahomes anyways, that’s all I have. That’s all she wrote Joe Toscano. Thanks for coming on to the sports cast.
Joe Toscano 35:09
Always a pleasure man. Always love talking to you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
