NFL senior editor Lindsay Jones joins Tom Green fresh off Super Bowl week to break down the biggest stories shaping the league. From the shocking Hall of Fame vote that left Bill Belichick out, to behind-the-scenes insight as a Super Bowl pool reporter, to the political undertones surrounding the halftime show and Commissioner Roger Goodell’s press conference, nothing is off limits. They also dive into Drake Maye’s Super Bowl performance, Seattle’s championship formula, and what the Denver Broncos must do this offseason to maximize Bo Nix’s rookie contract window. An inside-the-room, inside-the-league conversation you won’t hear anywhere else.
Tom Green sits down with The Ringer’s senior NFL editor Lindsay Jones to unpack one of the most controversial Hall of Fame voting cycles in recent memory. Lindsay shares what it was like being in the room when Bill Belichick failed to receive enough support for induction and explains how the new voting structure may be reshaping the process. The conversation then shifts to Super Bowl week in Santa Clara, where Lindsay served as the AFC pool reporter, giving her rare, full-practice access to the Patriots. She details what she saw from Drake Maye, how Seattle’s defense under Mike Macdonald dictated the championship, and why the Patriots’ offensive line struggles ultimately decided the game.
They also discuss Roger Goodell’s carefully managed press conference, questions surrounding league ownership, and how the Super Bowl halftime show played differently inside the stadium versus on television. Finally, the focus turns to the Denver Broncos — their cap flexibility, roster needs at wide receiver and tight end, the importance of Bo Nix’s development, and why this offseason could define the franchise’s next decade. A candid, insider look at power, politics, and football at the highest level.
00:00:02 – Intro: Sportswriting, newspapers, and modern media
00:02:22 – Super Bowl pool reporter access: full Patriots practices
00:04:03 – PR approval, independence, and working around team/league clearance
00:08:52 – Drake Maye’s Super Bowl performance breakdown
00:15:11 – Mike Macdonald’s defense and Seattle’s championship formula
00:18:28 – Russell Wilson trade fallout and Seattle’s reset
00:19:44 – Halftime show: inside the stadium vs. television broadcast
00:22:29 – Hall of Fame voting controversy: Belichick and Kraft reaction
00:24:56 – New Hall of Fame voting system explained (80% threshold)
00:28:20 – Transparency debate and Lindsay reveals her votes
00:30:50 – Owners, Epstein questions, and Goodell’s press conference
00:35:55 – The NFL grind: combine, networking, and nonstop calendar
00:38:06 – Broncos offseason outlook: cap space and roster priorities
00:48:58 – Lindsay’s journalism path and love of sportswriting
01:02:20 – State of sports media, layoffs, and Olympic coverage
01:07:17 – Life on the road: family, travel, and the emotional toll
01:08:50 – Outro and closing
‘After the Horn’ is sponsored in part by American Financing
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00;00;02;05 - 00;00;33;13
Tom Green
Hi, there. Welcome to another edition of the other Tom green show. And today, as we talk about modern media like podcasting, I want to reflect for a minute on what now has become an older form of media. That's sports sportswriting. As I've talked about, I grew up in New York City in an era where there were several newspapers published every day, and there was some great American sports writing always available to me, people like Red Smith and Dave Anderson, older men even before my time, Jimmy Cannon, they were just people you had to read every day.
00;00;33;16 - 00;00;54;12
Tom Green
And, to take you back even further, the US Postal Service used to be important. They used to deliver things to you other than junk mail and bills. And one of the things they would deliver to me every Thursday or Friday would be the Sporting News. And then Sports Illustrated would also show up, and you'd read columns from national writers.
00;00;54;12 - 00;01;21;00
Tom Green
And for me, it was also exciting to read columns from writers from different parts of the country. And The Sporting News had read what Bob brogue had to say about what's going on in Saint Louis, or Art Spanier in San Francisco and Furman, Bisher down in Atlanta. And you would you would read their styles, you would read about those areas and how they they saw things probably differently than New York, as you may have heard sometimes in New York, people think that's the beginning and end of the world.
00;01;21;02 - 00;01;43;23
Tom Green
All those men had, one thing in common, of course, all those sportswriters of that era of primarily through the 20th century were white men. But as we now move into 2026, we look around and we see more people of color, more people, of different genders writing about sports. It is an advancement that has changed sports.
00;01;43;23 - 00;02;02;07
Tom Green
It has changed the way we consume sports. And we're going to get to talk about that with one of America's preeminent sports writers from right here in Colorado. Lindsay Jones is our guest today.
00;02;02;10 - 00;02;22;06
Tom Green
So Lindsay is here, fresh back from the Super Bowl. I thank you for bringing in the Girl Scout cookies, too. We should note that, of course, solutely thank you for those. And they'll be delicious. You at the Super Bowl primarily. We're covering the Patriots. You work now for the Ringer's a senior editor in the NFL. But you also had a unique role in that.
00;02;22;06 - 00;02;30;24
Tom Green
You were the pool reporter, which gave you unique access to the Patriots practice week. What do you see? What do you feel and and how do you report like that.
00;02;30;25 - 00;02;50;07
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. Well, first of all, thanks for thanks for having me. You said fresh off for the Super Bowl I don't know. Fresh is fresh is exactly the word survivor right now I survived. Yes absolutely. I got back to Denver very, very late Monday night after basically pulling an all nighter on Sunday, which, I'm way too old with all those don't work anymore.
00;02;50;07 - 00;03;07;25
Lindsay Jones
No. Definitely not. But, yeah. So it was a pretty cool opportunity, through the Pro Football Writers of America to be one of the two pool reporters, I was assigned to the AFC. And that was kind of predetermined. I was obviously I live here in Denver. I was going to be at the AFC Championship game.
00;03;07;25 - 00;03;24;08
Lindsay Jones
And so it kind of just made sense that I would cover the AFC team, no matter what happened. So when the Patriots won the championship game, I kind of started working with their PR team to figure out when their practices and everything were going to be. But basically this is one reporter and this happens every single Super Bowl.
00;03;24;08 - 00;03;42;12
Lindsay Jones
So the only the only reporter who gets to be there for the entirety of practice for the, for the entire week. So that's, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then Saturday, if they do a walkthrough or in the Patriots case, all they did was a team picture. So I had to go, write a read a couple hundred words off of Team Picture Day.
00;03;42;15 - 00;04;03;05
Lindsay Jones
But yeah, they, they open the whole practice. And, you know, we as sportswriters, as NFL writers, we don't get to watch full practices basically after training camp closes. So it's a it's a really interesting kind of access point. So you get to watch everything. I will say the Patriots were so really, really good to deal with.
00;04;03;07 - 00;04;19;02
Lindsay Jones
And I knew their PR team because just, you know, over the years it's the same guys. Yeah. In charge of that department that were there through all of the, like the Belichick year and stuff. But, everything else is new. Like, I didn't know Mike Vrabel very well. Kind of only done some group interviews and stuff with him over the years.
00;04;19;05 - 00;04;29;13
Lindsay Jones
But essentially, you know, we kind of asked for a bowl after the first practice like, hey, is there anything but yeah, you really want to keep like off the record, whatever. And he was like, whatever you, you know, but.
00;04;29;13 - 00;04;30;03
Tom Green
Everything you
00;04;30;03 - 00;04;32;19
Tom Green
did ultimately report was approved.
00;04;32;23 - 00;04;46;27
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. For it cleared. Yeah. It's that is what's a little different and like feels a little like you know, you're independent media or whatever. But you have to like send your story to both the, the team and the league PR for approval, which always goes a little if.
00;04;47;02 - 00;04;48;28
Tom Green
If you're tipping something or if they think.
00;04;48;28 - 00;04;49;14
Lindsay Jones
You're getting.
00;04;49;19 - 00;04;51;20
Tom Green
Something out. Yeah. They don't want out.
00;04;51;27 - 00;05;06;14
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And I'll say so there was one day, and you can see all of the pool reports are on the Pro Football Writers of America's website. They also were published. I tweeted them all last week as well. But, on Thursday they did a bunch of team work that was kind of their more intense day of practice.
00;05;06;14 - 00;05;18;15
Lindsay Jones
They were doing more like situational stuff. And they did a couple, a couple times through a two minute drill. And the offense was just really sloppy. And, I described in my report initially, like some of the ways
00;05;18;15 - 00;05;33;17
Lindsay Jones
in which specifically they were sloppy, and they ended up pulling that out, which I understand because I think you could pull out, like maybe you'd be missing some of the context and maybe that would have gone viral about this specific, you know, some plays and stuff that happened during the drill.
00;05;33;23 - 00;05;48;24
Lindsay Jones
But to their credit, they they had no problem with me asking Mike Vrabel about like, yeah, look like you know, there were a lot of mistakes from the offense. Yeah. And that drill and they left. You know he had a pretty good quote about like we're going to have some issues on Sunday. You know mistakes are going to happen on Sunday.
00;05;48;24 - 00;06;09;15
Lindsay Jones
And the biggest thing is that you don't let one mistake become another become another another. And they left all of that stuff in there. So to their credit, they were you know, I think they really understood the value of it. Kind of got to go wherever I wanted inside the stadium, which was kind of cool. The only time they have a, they have a security guy who was, kind of given me some green to leave.
00;06;09;17 - 00;06;27;12
Lindsay Jones
No, one of the Patriots security. And so they practice inside Stanford Stadium. And at one point, I was like, I need to go, like, I'm going to go check in the concourse and see if I can find a women's room. And I saw their security guy who, like, had eyes on me as if he came in, like, followed me.
00;06;27;12 - 00;06;39;00
Lindsay Jones
I was like, I was just in the country I wasn't going to try to sneak past. I'm gonna need a minute in the women's. Yeah. I was like, out. I was like, because you guys have, like, your locker rooms and stuff set up here, but, like, I need to find. So to find somewhere you'd.
00;06;39;00 - 00;06;40;16
Tom Green
Done the poor reporting at a Super Bowl.
00;06;40;16 - 00;06;45;15
Lindsay Jones
Before the Eagles Chiefs Super Bowl a couple years ago. I was the Eagles pull reporter because.
00;06;45;15 - 00;06;53;02
Tom Green
I wonder are there legendary stories and pull reporting of some guy didn't show for practice or some guy got seriously hurt and we.
00;06;53;04 - 00;06;54;03
Lindsay Jones
Yeah caught.
00;06;54;03 - 00;06;54;29
Tom Green
It. We had to eat it.
00;06;55;04 - 00;07;07;08
Lindsay Jones
Yeah I think there are you know, there's nothing right off the top of my I'm trying to remember somebody was telling me a story this week about, when was it when the Raiders guy, like, went Mia.
00;07;07;11 - 00;07;11;27
Tom Green
Oh, yeah. The center Barrett Robbins. Yeah. He disappeared. That's probably 20 years.
00;07;11;27 - 00;07;32;12
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. That was. Yeah, that was early 2000. But I don't remember the if if the poor reporter kind of knew about it. Generally what happens is you just you'll see like trick plays. Yeah. You'll see them installing specific packages. And then they run that and you and then you'll say, like I saw that I knew what happened.
00;07;32;12 - 00;07;45;28
Lindsay Jones
And there was, there was a little bit of that with the Eagles where you could kind of see them do some like personnel packages. The thing that I remember from covering the Eagles that week that became notable to me as like something that I had is a poor reporters. They spent a lot of time really worried about the grass.
00;07;46;03 - 00;08;10;26
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And the field. And like Nick Sirianni was kind of getting on the guys and the equipment guys about like figuring out what cleats they needed and changing stuff. And then sure enough, that Super Bowl, the grass ended up being like a major storyline, and the Eagles seem to be the team that was not prepared for it. Like they didn't have the right ones, even though they had really spent all this time during one of the practices, like kind of harping on their cleats on what the turf was going to be like.
00;08;10;27 - 00;08;24;18
Tom Green
Be ready. Be it. Be one, be ready for everything is you. Reminds me, of course, the Broncos had the famous Super Bowl with the Seahawks, where they apparently weren't quite ready for crowd noise. Yeah, and that it seemed like the Patriots were concerned about crowds.
00;08;24;18 - 00;08;42;15
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I mean they definitely even Bad Bunny. Yeah well they they definitely practiced like they expected it to be a pro Seahawks crowd right. They they didn't pipe in like the crowd noise. But they did have a lot of music going. And they turned it way, way, way out silent during when the Patriots offense was on the field like no.
00;08;42;17 - 00;08;46;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. Knowing they expected it to be loud and challenging for their offense.
00;08;47;01 - 00;08;52;11
Tom Green
So the game plays out as it did. It was not a great football game to watch.
00;08;52;11 - 00;08;52;26
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
00;08;52;29 - 00;09;14;02
Tom Green
And Drake Maye who almost won the MVP played far from MVP football. Your column the next day was was about Drake Maye in his game and having had access to the practices. It was a very insightful look at what went into that young man. Now, I contend that there were no other New England Patriots on offense who stood out.
00;09;14;02 - 00;09;17;23
Tom Green
Their offensive line was a sieve. The running backs got nothing, though. Nobody was open.
00;09;17;23 - 00;09;21;00
Lindsay Jones
It was a it was an all around miserable day.
00;09;21;02 - 00;09;32;09
Tom Green
And he, as the young man, gets to wear it. So it was an interesting day because you think this guy really was. We did, you know, all the awards and all the stuff was being handed out that week and he almost won the MVP.
00;09;32;12 - 00;09;54;11
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I was I was actually really surprised how close the MVP voting was, though. I, I had gotten a sense, from talking to other voters and stuff in that obviously seeing the All-Pro results a couple weeks ago that I was I was pretty confident that Stafford is going to win, and I thought he was going to win fairly comfortably, but it was really it was the closest MVP race since what since it was split.
00;09;54;14 - 00;09;59;12
Lindsay Jones
So 20 something years ago, I guess when it was the Steve McNair. And so Peyton.
00;09;59;16 - 00;10;01;27
Tom Green
It could be I'm trying I'm trying to recall.
00;10;01;29 - 00;10;19;12
Lindsay Jones
But since the last time the since it was actually split and that was a different voting process, that was when we could only vote for one. Yeah. So you vote for you would vote for one quarterback. And now we have this like ranked choice voting. So you vote one through five and there's points awarded and stuff. So but Stafford only got one more first place vote.
00;10;19;19 - 00;10;23;05
Tom Green
We're going to have to talk about voting and and the Hall of Famer.
00;10;23;08 - 00;10;25;26
Lindsay Jones
Yeah we can do it was actually it was a weird week I mean.
00;10;25;29 - 00;10;37;26
Tom Green
There's a lot lot there 2010 bobbing New England to. But let's let's stay with with the football game. The Seattle Seahawks were the best team much of the year. Their closest competition was in the NFC and in the NFC West.
00;10;37;26 - 00;11;00;17
Lindsay Jones
Really? Yeah I mean really the NFC. Those those honestly the two games between the Seahawks and the Rams in the regular season and then the NFC Championship game. You know I think ultimately when you look back on the season like those were the games that defined this year, who decided this season, I also think you could maybe say that about the Broncos Bills game in the AFC being kind of like the true game, that.
00;11;00;21 - 00;11;01;18
Tom Green
Razor margin.
00;11;01;19 - 00;11;14;13
Lindsay Jones
That. And then obviously with what happened to Bo. Yeah. At the end of that game to really kind of the game that just turned so much like kind of I kind of wondered what if the bills had won that game, you know, what would have happened?
00;11;14;14 - 00;11;17;28
Tom Green
The bills would have been a harder out in the Super Bowl.
00;11;18;01 - 00;11;34;16
Lindsay Jones
Able to get them to. Yeah. I mean I think there there are obviously a lot of weaknesses with this bills roster and stuff that has been covered a lot, since, Sean McDermott got fired. But I think Josh Allen would have had Josh Allen with that offensive line, would have had a lot of answers that the Patriots did not with.
00;11;34;16 - 00;11;41;07
Tom Green
Any other offensive line. The Patriots had as as poor an offensive line performance as I've seen in a Super Bowl in quite.
00;11;41;09 - 00;12;16;12
Lindsay Jones
In a while. Yeah. I mean, we were we were we kind of had like live advanced stats up in the press box while we were while that game was going on and was thinking a lot to the, the Chiefs back Super Bowl right few years ago where they just couldn't know, they couldn't protect at all. And even to us, I mean, that was kind of the story of last year's Super Bowl too, where it but you just had a sense that like, even though they were getting their butts kicked so bad, the Chiefs were that like, Mahomes would figure something out and that I just never had a sense that the Patriots were
00;12;16;12 - 00;12;28;28
Lindsay Jones
going to kind of figure it out. They they got it to 12. And you're like, well, maybe there's a game. Maybe they can get a punt return or something. Right. And then that was when Drake threw a pick and he said well that's ball game. So I'll do it.
00;12;29;00 - 00;12;49;20
Tom Green
You grew up in Colorado. You worked for the Denver Post. You still live here in the Denver area. The Broncos were this close to going to the Super Bowl, but the iteration of the Broncos at that point with Jarrett Stidham and Jake Dobbins, maybe, maybe not playing probably would have put on a better show than the Patriots. But I don't think they could could have played with the Seahawks.
00;12;49;27 - 00;13;11;09
Lindsay Jones
Yeah I mean I think the Broncos defense, the Patriots defense. I think we should give them a lot of credit around. They played. They played great throughout this entire postseason. Maybe bolstered a bit by the offenses that they faced along the way. You know Justin Herbert playing behind basically no offensive line, C.J. Stroud looking like he had maybe never.
00;13;11;12 - 00;13;12;06
Tom Green
Forgotten how to play.
00;13;12;06 - 00;13;29;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I mean, they were they were just really, really, really he was really frazzled in that game. And then obviously playing instead of making his first start in several years. So that probably helped their defensive numbers. But their defense played great in the Super Bowl. I don't think you can force field goals. They nothing else. They did. They held them to field goals.
00;13;29;28 - 00;13;49;15
Lindsay Jones
They were being really aggressive. They were forcing Sam Darnold to throw in some really, really tight windows. I think the Broncos defense probably would have, had a better shot. Been better. I think they would have, you know, just just the way that they consistently bring pressure, the way that the secondary I'd been playing, I just think that would have been helpful.
00;13;49;15 - 00;14;03;16
Lindsay Jones
I don't know how much better an offensive performance the Broncos would, would have been able to put forward. I think the plan probably would have been better from Sean. I think, you know, I think Josh.
00;14;03;16 - 00;14;07;24
Tom Green
McDaniel didn't have a great day, but I mean, what are you supposed to do if you guys can't block anybody?
00;14;07;24 - 00;14;30;19
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I mean, it was tough. They they really even though they couldn't block anybody, they still really seemed committed to this like downfield passing game. And I don't think that would have been Sean Payton plan. Sean Payton Davis Webb play on. I think there would have been a lot of like really short, you know, a lot of quick game, a lot of screen stuff, a lot of, you know, like horizontal stuff and not not as much vertical, you know, a couple deep shots maybe.
00;14;30;19 - 00;14;48;23
Lindsay Jones
But, I think they would have been able to protect better. I mean, one of the strengths of this Broncos team for sure, was their offensive line. So I think, you know, in that case, maybe it would have been a little bit better of a matchup. But I think ultimately this was the Seahawks year to win. And I think that the they did what they needed to do.
00;14;48;23 - 00;14;52;05
Lindsay Jones
Sam Darnold protected the ball well. They begin the ball well yeah.
00;14;52;06 - 00;15;11;07
Tom Green
The biggest surprise to me in all of this is the Super Bowl makes stars out of people. Sam Darnold seems like he doesn't necessarily have any need to be a star. He seems like he's a very nice guy and he's given credit to everyone else. It's lovely. It's great. And so he may maybe not achieve stardom. His story is a very interesting one.
00;15;11;09 - 00;15;29;10
Tom Green
The Invisible Man to me remains Mike McDonald. I don't think people if Mike McDonald walked into a room, most people would know who he is and and around the league. The respect for him has to be at the top. Now. He's he made that, made that football team play the way they did. I just think it's funny that he's he's been able to stay a bit of a.
00;15;29;10 - 00;15;48;29
Lindsay Jones
Ghost a little bit. Yeah. I mean, he doesn't have that, like, huge kind of personality. He's really well respected, really liked in his locker room. Does a really good job of, like, motivating his players internally. But, yeah, you didn't really, really get to see a lot of his personality. And I'll be curious if he, you know, obviously want a Super Bowl.
00;15;48;29 - 00;16;11;21
Lindsay Jones
Now, what that does to kind of raise his profile a bit, you know, if they're playing up in Seattle, if they don't get quite the level of national media attention as you do playing, you know, if you're in LA or New York. Sure. Yeah. Somewhere like that where, you know, he's going to kind of he's now into this like new tier of coaches.
00;16;11;21 - 00;16;18;04
Lindsay Jones
So I'll be curious to see kind of how much more attention they get. But yeah, he deserves so much credit even.
00;16;18;04 - 00;16;36;10
Tom Green
In the NFC West though, because everyone talks about Sean McVay. Everyone talks about Kyle Shanahan. These guys are these young geniuses and there really are great coaches. It's clear. But he has won the Super Bowl. He's beaten those guys. And he's still like Mike McDonald. You know is he going to do ads for Pepsi.
00;16;36;14 - 00;17;02;02
Lindsay Jones
Probably not. Yeah probably yeah probably probably not. And yeah it's got to be tough. If you're if you're Kyle Shanahan, I think because, he's made it to a couple Super Bowls, as you know, he's been there as a coordinator. He's obviously been there as a head coach a couple times. Have been really competitive in those Super Bowls and come up short and then I mean, Mike McDonald, the Seahawks are really smart.
00;17;02;05 - 00;17;24;00
Lindsay Jones
They said, if this if this is mostly probably John Schneider, you're looking in the division that you play in. You're looking at these offenses. And then you see this guy Mike McDonald, who has this scheme that is almost specifically built as this like to to counteract that. It's like he's figured out a way to beat that Shanahan McVay scheme.
00;17;24;03 - 00;17;43;08
Lindsay Jones
And look Mcvay's offense played great. Yeah. In in those games I mean they were close. They were really really close I mean they cooked I mean Stafford was thrown for 400 yards. And you know the margins were that thin. Look they as they are I mean there was that fluky two point conversion that may have flipped the season, you know, and results of the season.
00;17;43;11 - 00;17;46;16
Lindsay Jones
In that Thursday night game for the Rams, Seahawks.
00;17;46;18 - 00;17;49;04
Tom Green
Charbonnet just picked it up casually.
00;17;49;04 - 00;17;54;18
Lindsay Jones
And it yeah I mean if the Rams had won that game and they were the one the team with home field advantage.
00;17;54;18 - 00;17;58;12
Tom Green
You could have drawn the exact same line for them instead of the Seahawks.
00;17;58;12 - 00;18;17;24
Lindsay Jones
But you know you've you've got this guy now. But McDonald has had an answer for Shanahan that Shanahan has not has not been able to solve that. Yeah. Yeah he was pretty funny. On that note, if you saw him on the, he was on, which he was on one of the pre-game shows, ESPN's maybe. Right. And kind of got asked about like, well, what do you do?
00;18;17;25 - 00;18;28;01
Lindsay Jones
You know, you trying to what do you do about this McDonnell defense and how do you get the run game? And he was like, look, I haven't we haven't scored a touchdown against him. I don't I don't know why you're asking me. Like I clearly don't have the answer here.
00;18;28;03 - 00;18;47;11
Tom Green
Some of the residue, significant residue of the Russell Wilson trade was also on display. I mean, those draft picks that Seattle got, John Schneider, who who does have a big personality, he does like being next to a microphone. But he not only made that trade to to get those draft picks from Denver, but boy is he drafted.
00;18;47;11 - 00;18;49;12
Tom Green
He absolutely. He is really cashed in.
00;18;49;13 - 00;19;07;20
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. I mean, and that's been you know, that's really how Seattle is able to turn the page as they did this really quick reset at the end of the Pete Carroll era. Because it can be really hard to move forward from a coach who was as kind of all powerful and just all I mean, the entire.
00;19;07;24 - 00;19;07;28
Tom Green
Of the.
00;19;07;28 - 00;19;23;13
Lindsay Jones
Franchise. Yeah, that entire culture of that team was built around Pete Carroll. And, it can be really hard to move forward from that. Some teams, it takes them a really long time. I mean, it took a really long time for the Broncos to kind of reset. The Jets.
00;19;23;13 - 00;19;26;02
Tom Green
Are still trying to recover from Weeb Ewbank leaving.
00;19;26;02 - 00;19;26;27
Lindsay Jones
And yeah.
00;19;27;03 - 00;19;28;08
Tom Green
1970.
00;19;28;09 - 00;19;44;22
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. We talked a lot about the you know how kind of incredible the Patriots turnaround has been you know resetting. But they it took them a minute. Yeah it took them a minute to mostly getting getting past like the post Brady era. But then certainly I want it moving on from I.
00;19;44;22 - 00;20;05;20
Tom Green
Want to talk about the future of the AFC. The Broncos and all that in a minute. But let's stay in Santa Clara because halftime obviously became a big deal. The Bad Bunny show there was the kid Rock Counterprogramming it was all that, and 128 million people are watching Bad Bunny on TV. You're at the stadium. It's a different, very different.
00;20;05;21 - 00;20;06;08
Lindsay Jones
Oh, you different.
00;20;06;10 - 00;20;11;25
Tom Green
You see the show can't hear the show and it's it's beneath you like 100 yards away.
00;20;11;26 - 00;20;33;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. So they're experiencing the halftime in the stadium is different depending on what stadium you're at. Right. At Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, the press box is pretty high up. I was on kind of one end, probably at like the 20 yard line and and really high up. So you get this bird's eye view so you can like watch them setting up and you like see these grass people coming on the field.
00;20;33;29 - 00;20;44;26
Lindsay Jones
The grass people that is going on. But it was kind of set up almost like a maze. Yeah. So you could see and you could see that on the broadcast how, you know, Bad Bunny would like, make his way through when they have all these different.
00;20;44;28 - 00;20;45;14
Tom Green
Incredible.
00;20;45;14 - 00;20;46;15
Lindsay Jones
Choreography? A lot.
00;20;46;19 - 00;20;47;07
Tom Green
A lot of moving.
00;20;47;07 - 00;21;08;09
Lindsay Jones
Parts like small, you know, these like small stages and stuff. Obviously my favorite part was watching the grass people the way that they, because they were not stationary. Yeah, I'm sure everybody is now seeing kind of the behind the scenes of the grass people. But as the, like the, the staging would shift from different parts of the field, the grass people would like, and they would move, to like it was.
00;21;08;09 - 00;21;27;00
Lindsay Jones
So that was really fun. And actually a bunch of the grass people, like, got there at the same time we did, and I just, I didn't know they were as we were getting off of the busses and they were like, if you're media, go through this line, if you're wearing green, go through here. And I didn't realize, like being green, but you were part of the team, so I should have paid a little more close attention.
00;21;27;03 - 00;21;35;22
Tom Green
Does it have zero impact? Are you curious? Like what is this playing out like? Because obviously the entire world sees it differently than you do. They're watching it on TV.
00;21;35;28 - 00;21;55;23
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I mean, it always is like a made for television. Yeah. Halftime performance. Even the ones where you get to like, hear it and there's a little bit better of a stadium experience. It's always all about the television performance. Unfortunately in the box we couldn't hear it very well. So I had my headphones in listening to the broadcast, which was on a delay.
00;21;55;25 - 00;22;09;10
Lindsay Jones
But you could kind of tell immediate, like, oh, this is good. Yeah, like this is cool. But yeah, you couldn't really see it. I was getting a lot of texts from friends and people watching on TV being like, oh my God, is that Lady Gaga? I'm like, I think, so you can see her better than I can.
00;22;09;12 - 00;22;24;07
Lindsay Jones
I can't really tell. And like, I couldn't see from where our vantage point, you couldn't see all the, like, celebrities, like, you know, in that part you can. I didn't see I would have love to get eyes on Pedro Pascal, but let's go to high up in the, there to do that. He should.
00;22;24;07 - 00;22;25;04
Tom Green
Have swung by the press.
00;22;25;04 - 00;22;29;25
Lindsay Jones
Box. So he really shed. That would be a nice gesture on his part. Yeah, that would have been great.
00;22;29;25 - 00;22;51;02
Tom Green
So the week at the Super Bowl, besides being a poor reporter, you've always been, working with the pro football writers of America. And that includes all those voting, responsibilities. The Hall of Fame voting got tremendous buzz. All negative, I would say. Oh, well, I mean, yes, I don't know of anybody who said that worked out really well.
00;22;51;02 - 00;23;06;09
Tom Green
Maybe. You know, I like Roger Craig. I think he belongs in the Hall of Fame. That's great. You know, I like, I tend to think most people who are up close to the Hall of Fame belong in the Hall of Fame. I'm an easier pass than most people. The Belichick and the Kraft votes got a lot of publicity.
00;23;06;11 - 00;23;15;10
Tom Green
You're in the room. You're a voter. You can and can't talk about certain things that came with that. But describe for me what what that was like.
00;23;15;11 - 00;23;34;26
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I was so the, the news like, leaked early, right. So we voted. I think now it is out there. We were we were not supposed to say initially when the meeting was, but we voted on January 13th. That was our day that we had the full it was at least eight hours. It was on zoom, but that was when we voted.
00;23;34;26 - 00;23;55;29
Lindsay Jones
So that's when everybody there's the presentations and then you have like, you know, there's an accounting firm that does all the balloting. So you vote for the various the very you there's cut downs. And the first thing that happens is we, we have the, the head coach or the coaching finalist, the contributor, finalist. And the three senior candidates are presented first.
00;23;55;29 - 00;24;26;05
Lindsay Jones
Right. So there's a formal presentation discussion afterwards, for each of those five guys. And then you vote for three. So essentially the way that this works is they're like pitted against each other in this like zero sum game. We're not giving an up or down saying like yes or no on each candidate. You say, here's Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft, Elsie Greenwood, Ken Anderson and Roger Craig, and you get to pick three of them and it's the it's so hard to compare.
00;24;26;08 - 00;24;36;12
Tom Green
Can you think and this will maybe put you in a tough spot because of your role with. But is that is that make sense. Is that like the somebody thought that made sense.
00;24;36;14 - 00;24;54;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. So so it was two years ago. So it was before the class of 2025. So we've now had two classes where we had this voting system previously. The seniors were in their own, like bucket and essentially got an up an up down vote with.
00;24;54;28 - 00;24;56;17
Tom Green
Only 1 or 2 moving on.
00;24;56;18 - 00;25;19;29
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. So there would be I think there would be 2 or 3. I'm trying to remember, and I believe now I'm getting if my timeline is right, was a Randy grad Shah was in the was in the senior pool or was the senior one of the senior finalists that year? And I mean, as somebody who I was so happy that Randy got in, I feel I he should feel really lucky.
00;25;19;29 - 00;25;41;15
Lindsay Jones
And we as like Broncos Country should feel really lucky that he was a finalist the year that he was. Yeah. Because they changed the voting procedure. And when I say they it was the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Fame board and their trustees, they decided, you know, there was a lot of stuff. And actually Dan Sanders was the one who was like, probably loudest about too many people are getting in, too many people are getting into the Hall of Fame.
00;25;41;15 - 00;26;06;10
Lindsay Jones
It's too easy. It's, you know, it needs to be a lead, a lead, a lead. And so there was, you know, they did a lot of tweaking to the voting at the voting process. And changed that. So, you know, now the coach and the contributor are no longer in the pool with the modern candidates. They're now in the pool, the senior candidates, and they so not only are they we're having to vote pick three out of that five.
00;26;06;13 - 00;26;27;06
Lindsay Jones
They also have to get 80% of the vote. And there's five. So they have to get 40 votes out of 50 out of 50. So the threshold is really high. And the thing that I you know, I was really surprised last year's class of the class for the class of 2025 when Mike Holmgren didn't get in. Yeah. That was really, really shocking to me.
00;26;27;09 - 00;26;49;06
Tom Green
Because I do look at it and I, you know, maybe I'm soft, but Belichick, Holmgren, Shanahan and there are a couple others in there. They're all Hall of Fame coaches. And the idea that you have to strangle them through this tiny funnel and rip them out one at a time. I've always been, it's bothered me because I remember the Ring of Fame in in Denver.
00;26;49;06 - 00;26;57;14
Tom Green
The Broncos did it, and they waited and waited and waited. And when they finally put Red Miller and he died. Yeah. And I'm just like, what?
00;26;57;17 - 00;26;59;03
Lindsay Jones
Why are you. So we have to wait.
00;26;59;03 - 00;27;03;23
Tom Green
So long provincial about this. Let it let it happen. Recognize greatness and.
00;27;03;26 - 00;27;04;06
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
00;27;04;06 - 00;27;15;29
Tom Green
And be good about it. And I, you know, like I always tell people about baseball. Like when Willie Mays was up, he wasn't unanimous. I'm like, oh, really? Yeah. There were a couple guys who thought Willie wasn't quite good enough. Hank Aaron no, not unanimous.
00;27;15;29 - 00;27;31;23
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And so I'll say, I mean, I, you know, I think one of the, one of the things the rules as Hall of Fame selectors, we're not allowed to say what goes on in the discussions. That's very much like it's one of the, the key bylaws. I will just say that I when we left that meeting, I knew it.
00;27;31;25 - 00;27;50;25
Lindsay Jones
I knew it wasn't going to be unanimous for Belichick. I knew there were a couple people that weren't going to vote for him. But I was stunned. I did not think that there was a large enough contingent there that he wouldn't get in. So when that when ESPN broke that news about ten days before the Super Bowl, that Belichick didn't get in and that didn't come from us.
00;27;50;25 - 00;28;12;22
Lindsay Jones
And I will just say it. We did not know. We do not know the results of the voting until, they we got an embargoed release a couple hours before the show right on Thursday the day that it was released. So we didn't know. So it was not coming from the voters. It probably came from people on Belichick's side because they find out that they didn't get in.
00;28;12;25 - 00;28;18;26
Lindsay Jones
And as much as the Hall does not want them to publicizing that.
00;28;18;28 - 00;28;19;14
Tom Green
I don't know.
00;28;19;14 - 00;28;20;16
Lindsay Jones
How I'd people who did.
00;28;20;17 - 00;28;27;22
Tom Green
How I would revise the system because that's complicated. I don't know if you have a plan. Yeah, but what about transparency? As far as the vote, would you think?
00;28;27;22 - 00;28;45;03
Lindsay Jones
That's I think, I mean, I think it could be helpful, but I don't know how much ultimately it would change stuff. I mean, I think I did end up writing a column where I said, who I voted for, go ahead and say who you vote I put out. So, okay, of course, now I need to make sure I have this correct.
00;28;45;05 - 00;29;04;10
Lindsay Jones
So out of the group of five. Yeah, the from one, because this is really the part that was the controversial part. So I voted for Bill Belichick, Robert Kraft and Roger Craig was my three out of that five. And I kind of explained, I mean, I, I didn't really give it a moment's thought about voting for Belichick.
00;29;04;10 - 00;29;27;14
Lindsay Jones
I, we, I get there like there was a discussion about Spygate. And I understand that some of my fellow voters were had some concerns about that. I just I, I don't think that's enough to warrant them not being a first ballot Hall of Famer. So that was a very easy click for me. And then then you kind of have to weigh all the other the senior candidates.
00;29;27;14 - 00;29;50;20
Lindsay Jones
And Robert Kraft and and ultimately I think there's there I know there's people who are like, the bar should be so, so, so high for like an owner to get into the Hall of Fame as a voting body. And this was before I, this is my fifth year that I've been a selector. But as a, as a voting body, we've put in Jerry Jones, we put in Pat Bowlen, who I think was extremely, extremely deserving.
00;29;50;20 - 00;29;52;26
Lindsay Jones
And I wish it would have happened sooner.
00;29;52;26 - 00;29;53;08
Tom Green
Again.
00;29;53;13 - 00;30;17;06
Lindsay Jones
For him. Yeah. So that that's something that he could have experienced. Because I think he deserved it. So we've we've clearly set a precedent of what it means to be a Hall of Fame caliber owner. And Robert Kraft checks to me, checks all of those boxes. Right. If we've decided that this is what it means, and if we're going to make it possible for owners to be in the Hall of Fame, then Robert Kraft very much deserves to be there with the other owners that we've put in.
00;30;17;08 - 00;30;33;14
Lindsay Jones
And then Roger Craig to me, out of the senior pool, he felt to me as the one who I was like, what do you mean he's not in ring? Yeah, exactly. You know, and that's, you know, I don't want that to be as a, as a slight to Ken Anderson or Elsie Greenwood. But to me, Roger Craig very clearly was like a tier above.
00;30;33;19 - 00;30;34;00
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
00;30;34;04 - 00;30;50;02
Tom Green
No, that's from the pool. I think that's the problem. You start to debate, you know, people always say magic or bird and you say, oh, magic gets people going. You what do you hate, Larry Bird? And it's like, no, no, he's really I would take him to. Yeah. You know, it's like it's not either or, you know, in a good, bad way.
00;30;50;04 - 00;31;14;15
Tom Green
You mentioned, the owners and I should point out your column does detail the work you put in devoting the amount of effort, the interviews you talk to players, you talk to coaches. You do as much research as anyone. Owners also had a bit of a spotlight this week because of the Epstein files. Sure. And you you brought that up at the commissioner's news conference, which I the commissioner's news conference is, is is always irritating to me because he never.
00;31;14;17 - 00;31;25;23
Lindsay Jones
He never says anything. He never he's great. It's why he's it it's it's one it's like one of his best attributes if you're an owner, is that he's the one who sits up there to answer all the questions, but he manages to not really say anything.
00;31;25;23 - 00;31;28;08
Tom Green
No. And it's managed down well.
00;31;28;08 - 00;31;46;14
Lindsay Jones
And it used to be they would end Super Bowl week with the Commissioner's press conference used to be on Friday morning because there was nothing else going on. So it was it was like the culmination. It was like the the state of the NFL. Sometimes they would have the head coaches would, would do a little thing too. And then at some point they moved it to the middle of the week.
00;31;46;14 - 00;32;11;20
Lindsay Jones
So it's kind of in the middle of everything was happening. And then a few years ago, I don't remember it was post post-Covid. They moved it to Monday and they made it, like a invite only press conference. And when they did that, at first there was a lot of pushback from journalists because it was like, oh, you're eliminating who can be there and you're going to you're just trying to avoid the like the serious questions to the NFL credit that hasn't happened.
00;32;11;21 - 00;32;31;11
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I think they've by making it a smaller pool, it used to just be that if you had a media credential for the week, you could show up and other people, it's a free for all. And you ended up getting like, you know, hi, it's, you know, Joe Brown from Cleveland. And can you tell me what you think about the Browns stadium plan or whatever.
00;32;31;11 - 00;32;42;25
Lindsay Jones
So you get these like very specific local. You would get a lot of, you know, we always joke the play 60 kids who come in and the play 60 kid was still here. But you would get like a lot of those, right? So you would get kind of there.
00;32;42;25 - 00;32;44;22
Tom Green
Goes 15 of my art. 60 minutes.
00;32;44;22 - 00;33;03;06
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. So now to at least to their credit, like they are bringing basically like people who are going to ask like they get a lot of hard questions. I mean, got a lot of questions about the lack of diversity and the head coaching hiring this year. He got a number of questions about, Steve Tisch and the Epstein files.
00;33;03;08 - 00;33;06;13
Lindsay Jones
He got asked some questions about, like, business, you know, meteorites deals.
00;33;06;16 - 00;33;08;23
Tom Green
Did get all those questions and said.
00;33;08;29 - 00;33;25;02
Lindsay Jones
Said nothing. And I, I asked and so it's it's always so funny. This is like the behind the we take a bus there. So it's all the reporters and we sit there. We're all work, we're all competitors. We all are for different outlets. But we're like, we have to make sure, like, these are all the topics, yeah, that have to get hit.
00;33;25;02 - 00;33;41;07
Lindsay Jones
And so there's kind of like there is a little bit of a teamwork. Yeah. That goes on. You know, you obviously we have our own priorities. I know people who are your other stories in progress you want to ask. But there was there's also a sense of like we as a body as like the media body will have failed if we get through this press conference.
00;33;41;07 - 00;33;56;04
Lindsay Jones
And he didn't get asked about X, Y and Z. And so like, I had kind of my list of topics and that all of a sudden they don't really give you a lot of warning. You get an AQ kind of. And I'm like, I need a question, you're on Dash or whatever. And you didn't even get that. They'll just be like an up next it's Lindsay Johnson the ringer.
00;33;56;04 - 00;33;58;07
Lindsay Jones
And I'm like, okay, what what do I have. So I you.
00;33;58;08 - 00;34;14;02
Tom Green
Also have to pay attention to what else has been done. And in two ways. One, I think sometimes, like when I do a chat with you and you're doing your podcast on The Ringer, is you better listen to who you're talking to because they may have brought something up that you were like, on really I'd like to know more about.
00;34;14;02 - 00;34;30;26
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And so yeah, sometimes and then sometimes, you know, you won't get a follow up. And so you have to kind of structure your question where you can get multiple parts. And so I ended up asking about, I said the Super Bowl and the political messaging and the potential potential political messaging coming from the halftime in pre-game performances.
00;34;31;00 - 00;34;46;17
Lindsay Jones
He didn't say anything. No, really at all. And actually what he ended up, what he said about, I think it was about Bunny bad Bunny in particular, was that he expected their performance to be like a unifying message, and ultimately that that's where it really what bad bunny.
00;34;46;19 - 00;34;47;13
Tom Green
That what that was the.
00;34;47;14 - 00;34;49;10
Lindsay Jones
Intent. That's really what it was received.
00;34;49;10 - 00;34;49;28
Tom Green
Depends on.
00;34;49;28 - 00;34;50;10
Lindsay Jones
Sure.
00;34;50;11 - 00;34;50;28
Tom Green
Where you.
00;34;50;29 - 00;34;59;03
Lindsay Jones
Were. Yeah. Yeah for sure. But yeah. So I asked about ice presents. Yeah. The Super Bowl when it, when it got to be my turn.
00;34;59;05 - 00;35;09;08
Tom Green
So now we turn the page and yeah, I would think that the Super Bowl being over, you've survived another Super Bowl. And now you get to relax until training camp right.
00;35;09;14 - 00;35;26;12
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, totally. I'm just off. I'm going to like, log off and relax. Great. Yeah I'm going to go on vacation. No, that's not how the NFL calendar works. If anything. It kind of ramps up a bit. We this week is a little low key. You know, we can kind of all catch our breath, a little bit.
00;35;26;12 - 00;35;32;02
Lindsay Jones
But the combine is in two weeks, the NFL combine free agency. Are you going.
00;35;32;02 - 00;35;33;24
Tom Green
To run against Rich Eisen?
00;35;33;26 - 00;35;48;25
Lindsay Jones
I'm not, I'm not. And I actually, since I moved into, like, an editor, a managerial role a couple years ago, I haven't been going to the combine, which has been kind of nice for my family. Yeah, I don't have to, because it's really hard. You go, you the Super Bowl for 8 or 9 people are good.
00;35;48;28 - 00;35;53;07
Lindsay Jones
No, no, it's bad about like having to go to the Super Bowl. But it is a long trip. I was gone nine nights.
00;35;53;11 - 00;35;55;24
Tom Green
It's not a sleeping trip either. You're working?
00;35;55;24 - 00;36;13;07
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I know my daughter kept, she. I wish I was there with you. And I was like, kid, I wish you were here. I miss you, but like, you do not wish you were here. Just like it's not. You know, there are fun stuff like I did go to the I went to I only went to one party this year, but I went to the Spotify fan party where it was Green Day and Counting Crows, and that was really fun.
00;36;13;07 - 00;36;24;01
Lindsay Jones
It's a nice little, like pretty cool like you get at the end of the week. But yeah, the combine is a grueling, you know, event to cover really long days, early morning, a lot of interviews.
00;36;24;01 - 00;36;25;03
Tom Green
I mean coaches.
00;36;25;03 - 00;36;47;13
Lindsay Jones
And a lot of interviews. And then so much of the like, it's just like the extracurricular networking. So you feel if like if you're a reporter who covers the league, like you feel like you have to be out because that's where the sources are. And like you get good stuff from the podiums in the morning, but like, you really get stuff from hanging out in general with being.
00;36;47;13 - 00;36;48;28
Tom Green
Around being present.
00;36;48;28 - 00;37;03;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, yeah. I mean, and you, you kind of get a sense of like, okay, you know, that the, the Broncos people like to be at this, this is their place that they hang out and this is their team hotel. Or you know, Sean Payton likes to go to Prime 47. So if I cover the Broncos I got to be hanging out.
00;37;03;28 - 00;37;07;10
Lindsay Jones
I'll be around there. Got to be around there. So it's it's it's it's a grind.
00;37;07;10 - 00;37;11;02
Tom Green
Combine free agency the draft and here we got.
00;37;11;02 - 00;37;30;28
Lindsay Jones
Word. Yeah I mean really the only like kind of downtime in the NFL schedule is like late June to mid-July okay. So if you like ask anybody who works around the NFL like oh when's your wedding anniversary? Chances are it's like sometime in 28. Yeah, yeah. Between like June 28th and like July 20th. That's kind of the window and it's quiet.
00;37;30;28 - 00;37;45;28
Lindsay Jones
But other than that, it's real like go go go go go. I mean, news is happening now. All the coaches have been hired now that Clint Kubiak. Yes, is formally in place in Las Vegas. Yeah. So we're, like, full speed into draft and free agency now.
00;37;45;28 - 00;38;06;01
Tom Green
So if you're at the Broncos, you and the Patriots are in a similar spot. You're there. Now. You've kind of entered the chat and you still have the bills. You still have the Chiefs. You still have the Ravens. All these teams that underperformed or didn't finish their years very well. They're still going to be there next year. When do you see the Broncos doing in the off season?
00;38;06;01 - 00;38;18;22
Tom Green
Because they have they are now in that one year where Russell's contract is gone and Bo's still on the rookie contract. They have money to spend and confidence from what they did this past year.
00;38;18;22 - 00;38;37;25
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I think so. And then I you know, the other part I think that's really intriguing. Looking forward for the Broncos now is I think they're going to be a destination. I think this is once free agency starts and the free agency is not the way to build your team. The free agent pool is not is every year.
00;38;37;25 - 00;38;56;08
Lindsay Jones
It's not that great. I'm actually, you know, we're working on kind of re-upping our, like, top 40 free agent list of the year, and it's really it's it's not the way to do it. But if you're a team that has money to spend and you already have a really good roster, you can really, like, fill some nice holes, finish it.
00;38;56;08 - 00;39;21;07
Lindsay Jones
So finish your project. Yeah. I mean, for as much time as we spent in Broncos Media land talking about like a joker and a tight end and, you know, a playmaking, you know, getting other playmakers, I think that was very clear. Yeah. Like it seems very clear what this team still needs and that some more like truly difference difference making offensive skill position talent.
00;39;21;09 - 00;39;35;22
Lindsay Jones
I think wide receiver should be like very much a priority position, whether that's free agency or the draft that they're I mean, I know I'm trying to remember exactly who the right the wide receiver free agent class. It's not great.
00;39;35;25 - 00;40;02;24
Tom Green
No. And it's always tricky when you spend money in those positions because you can hit or miss and you still have to scheme it. Your quarterback still has to like it. It all has to to fit. But I thought that contrast between the AFC Championship game and the NFC Championship game, where all of a sudden you saw Puka Nickel and Jackson Smith and Jake Button, Kyren Williams and Kenneth Walker and you're going, yeah, we don't we didn't see any buddy like that three hours ago in the snow in Denver.
00;40;02;27 - 00;40;29;05
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, yeah for sure. The Denver the Broncos didn't have it. The bills certainly didn't have that sort of talent. The Patriots absolutely don't have that sort of, you know, and that was very much, exposed during the Super Bowl that they didn't have that level of, kind of offensive talent. I think the Broncos are probably I would take like the Broncos receiver in group against the Patriots or the bills as they stood in 2025, if.
00;40;29;05 - 00;40;29;21
Tom Green
Healthy.
00;40;29;21 - 00;40;49;15
Lindsay Jones
If healthy. Sure. Yeah. And that was tough. I mean, to just see if Pat Brian, Pat Brian getting hurt. You know Trey Franklin was getting hurt. Marvin Mims was kind of in and out where there was a point. I think it was during the AFC Championship game, right where it was like, I might have been the bills game where it was like, we're in real close to like not having receivers.
00;40;49;15 - 00;41;09;06
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, because Steve Smith, the longtime Panthers receiver, was in the press box and he kind of looked out of being like, I think he's actually the best receiver in the building right now. Period. Like could actually probably play anybody anybody around a little bit. Anybody else that's there right now. So yeah, I'd be very curious to see kind of how the Broncos are going to spend their money.
00;41;09;06 - 00;41;33;02
Lindsay Jones
I expect that I expect that they will. You know, they've been a very aggressive team, in free agency over the last couple of years, even with the cap constraints that they had from the Russell Wilson contract. How are they going to fill those holes, though? Like what? You know, what are they going to prioritize? Because they I right now, the windows open, you got to do everything you can to help Bo.
00;41;33;04 - 00;41;40;03
Tom Green
Yeah. And people, I think, want to make a question mark about Bo and his ankle. And I think until we know there's a problem, I don't want to.
00;41;40;10 - 00;41;59;21
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. For sure. Yeah. I mean, that was the weird that the weirdness with the, like the dueling press conferences after it was weird that was it was very weird. I don't I don't want to presume anything, but, they're both very fiery individuals. And I could see Bo being like, what the heck, man? You know, I think Davis Webb coming back is huge.
00;41;59;21 - 00;42;00;21
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. That was like.
00;42;00;25 - 00;42;23;21
Tom Green
Well, that'll be the interesting thing now is what Sean Payton is and isn't going to let go of as far as calling plays, does he see Davis Webb as a great play caller? I you know, he probably evaluates Davis Webb as this or that and says if he's a really good play caller, he should call the plays. But I mean, the idea of Sean letting go doesn't strike me as something that is his thing.
00;42;23;22 - 00;42;26;24
Lindsay Jones
No, that's not that. He's. No, no, he's.
00;42;26;24 - 00;42;27;10
Tom Green
A control.
00;42;27;10 - 00;42;41;20
Lindsay Jones
Guy. Yes he is that he he's very much a control guy. So, it's going to be an interesting a really interesting offseason. But yeah, I mean, I think if you're if you're the Broncos, if you're Broncos fans, I think you should be feeling pretty good. Yeah.
00;42;41;20 - 00;42;44;06
Tom Green
You know better than you have in the last ten years.
00;42;44;06 - 00;43;05;27
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. Although I don't want you know, I and I look I've probably been more critical of Bo and the offense than a lot of folks have. At least that's what the people in my Twitter mentions like to tell me a lot. And I think he's he did a lot of things. Well this year, I do think, there's a lot of growth that still needs to happen.
00;43;06;00 - 00;43;24;17
Lindsay Jones
Both from him, just the way he handles his. Yeah, the feel in the pocket and how quickly he was going down a little bit. Yes. A lot of that. Yeah. Some of that stuff, you know, the touch on those deep passes, the, you know, just some of those, the, those things that cost this team and some moments.
00;43;24;20 - 00;43;26;03
Tom Green
Not a young man, but he's a young.
00;43;26;08 - 00;43;55;00
Lindsay Jones
Pro. Yeah. It's it's like if you can just kind of harness some of that like that late game magic because he very clearly has it. Yeah. Yeah. No he has I think he's got the personality. He's got that clutch gene that we haven't seen in a Broncos quarterback in a very, very, very long time. But I don't want like a couple of those fourth quarter comebacks or like how well they play it at the very end of that Buffalo game to just like overshadow some of the the concerns that we saw.
00;43;55;02 - 00;43;58;13
Tom Green
Earlier parts of games in general.
00;43;58;16 - 00;44;07;19
Lindsay Jones
Because we never saw him like because of because of that at the time of the ankle injury. Like we never had that like really disappointing end. Yeah. Moment where like,
00;44;07;21 - 00;44;11;15
Tom Green
It was the shocking after the game and when the Sean Payton.
00;44;11;15 - 00;44;27;02
Lindsay Jones
Presser. Yeah. We don't we're not having the same conversation about him that we have that that we're having about Drake Maye right now who by all accounts had a significantly better season than Bo did. Right. But because of the way it ended, he had that kind of really bad moment in the playoffs.
00;44;27;03 - 00;44;28;14
Tom Green
The last thing on his resume.
00;44;28;15 - 00;44;47;05
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And the last thing on Bo's resume is phenomenal. Fourth quarter comeback against the Buffalo. The most exciting. And then the devastation of the ankle injury. So this is going to be huge. It's going to be a huge offseason I think for him personally recovering from the ankle injury and then really taking a hard look at where he can get better and how he can get better.
00;44;47;05 - 00;44;53;11
Lindsay Jones
And I think having Davis Webb still is is yeah, maybe now even having more power is his like coordinator. Now who's.
00;44;53;11 - 00;44;53;23
Tom Green
Choice of.
00;44;53;24 - 00;44;54;06
Lindsay Jones
Coach.
00;44;54;07 - 00;44;56;07
Tom Green
Who who's who's around him on the web.
00;44;56;07 - 00;45;08;18
Lindsay Jones
And I think Davis does a I think his personality wise he's very different from Sean Payton. Yeah. And I think having him in that room and kind of in that makes it work. I think it's going to.
00;45;08;18 - 00;45;09;05
Tom Green
Be it helps it.
00;45;09;05 - 00;45;33;12
Lindsay Jones
Work. It helps make it work. Yeah. And I think that's that's going to be really important. And keeping Vance Joseph was huge too. Yeah. This is what happens to good teams. Right. You start to get that like brain drain. And people come and raise your staff and I you know, I haven't spoken to Vance about this. I don't know if he emerged from this emerges from this job cycle being disappointed that he didn't get a head job this year.
00;45;33;15 - 00;45;35;09
Lindsay Jones
I'm glad he didn't take one of the bad jobs.
00;45;35;09 - 00;45;40;10
Tom Green
Yeah, there's some toxic jobs in this. And your career. You go to coach Arizona or something, and you're still.
00;45;40;11 - 00;45;54;24
Lindsay Jones
And that's the one that he was linked to. A lot because he had been there. And he you know, he knows the bed walls and stuff. But I was like, you can't you're it's really hard to get that second opportunity. Yeah. And don't go to a place where you're being set up to fail.
00;45;54;25 - 00;45;57;05
Tom Green
Go seven and ten and wash out.
00;45;57;05 - 00;46;07;29
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And I was thinking that with Davis Webb too. Yeah. It's like if your choice right now is to take the cleave. I mean, I don't know how much. And he was in the mix for the Browns job, but like the Browns job or even the Raiders.
00;46;07;29 - 00;46;09;13
Tom Green
Job, Raiders job has some ups.
00;46;09;13 - 00;46;22;03
Lindsay Jones
There's some there's some field side. But it is not a stable. That is not a stable place by any means. So it's like take a good job if you if you can afford to stay in the job that you're in, if you're in a really good coordinator.
00;46;22;04 - 00;46;24;29
Tom Green
Buffalo job would have been an exciting window for anyone.
00;46;24;29 - 00;46;25;13
Lindsay Jones
For sure.
00;46;25;13 - 00;46;29;13
Tom Green
With that quarterback and that fan base, you could step in for sure.
00;46;29;13 - 00;46;45;17
Lindsay Jones
But yeah, but some of these other jobs like if Vance Joseph can continue, keep this Broncos defense on the track that it's been on. Yeah. I hope that would set him up to have better offers. Yeah. In the future that he doesn't have to.
00;46;45;17 - 00;46;46;15
Tom Green
Go better cycle.
00;46;46;15 - 00;47;00;26
Lindsay Jones
Maybe. Yeah. Better ownership I mean I think that's that's one of the biggest lessons to me. Not just from this cycle, but from kind of year after year of covering ownership and coaching. Yeah. Jobs, there's a reason that the same jobs are open every couple of years.
00;47;00;28 - 00;47;05;13
Tom Green
Yeah. Take take the Jets job and you know, you'll be done in a year and a half.
00;47;05;13 - 00;47;16;06
Lindsay Jones
And yeah it's like the ownership is it's quarterback is important. But if you're like a head coach there's almost nothing more important than who owns the team. And how do they.
00;47;16;08 - 00;47;17;18
Tom Green
How they operate the whole.
00;47;17;20 - 00;47;19;03
Lindsay Jones
The whole operation runs.
00;47;19;09 - 00;47;28;01
Tom Green
You grew up in northern Colorado. So did you. Yeah. Did you Fort Collins last? Did you, were you a Bronco fan? Were you a sports fan?
00;47;28;01 - 00;47;49;26
Lindsay Jones
Oh, yeah. So I was. Yeah. I grew up in Fort Collins, where, like, probably, I mean, I, I was born in 1981, so, like, John Elway was just, like a constant presence in my childhood. And my and my adolescence. The Broncos won, went to a lot of Super Bowls when I was in elementary school and didn't go so great.
00;47;50;03 - 00;48;11;22
Lindsay Jones
But I remember my, you know, my parents hosting Super Bowl parties. I remember one year where they had everybody had paper bags over their heads. I do remember the 40 niners Super Bowl after like the two previous says. My my parents said, we're going skiing and so we went to Keystone. And I remember my dad like putting turn it on CoA when we were on our way home.
00;48;11;22 - 00;48;16;03
Lindsay Jones
And it was like. And then he turned it off. Okay. That's okay.
00;48;16;06 - 00;48;17;25
Tom Green
That went as expected.
00;48;17;28 - 00;48;29;16
Lindsay Jones
But yeah, the Broncos won their Super Bowls, my junior and senior year of high school. So so that was a pretty great that was that was really fun. Skip school to go to drive down to Denver and go to parade parades.
00;48;29;21 - 00;48;36;20
Tom Green
Were you did you were you destined to be a sportswriter? Did you have a, did you see that in your future?
00;48;36;27 - 00;48;58;09
Lindsay Jones
That not necessarily wasn't. Yeah. I wasn't like, this is absolutely what I'm going to do. I always, like, was a voracious reader. I consumed a lot of sports media and a lot of media in general. Yeah. We had, you know, we subscribe to multiple newspapers, the Coloradoan and Fort Collins and also, we kind of went back and forth between the post and the Rocky, as I was growing up.
00;48;58;09 - 00;49;05;15
Lindsay Jones
But, yeah, I mean, I read Woody Page and Bob Kravitz and, you know, just read a lot, you know, would read newspapers a lot.
00;49;05;15 - 00;49;08;22
Tom Green
I see Dick Connors name used so much by the pro football. Yeah.
00;49;08;22 - 00;49;27;24
Lindsay Jones
He's named after, for our writing award. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. And then we always just watched. I, like, just watched a lot of sports, like, have really, like, vivid, clear memories of watching a lot of football with my dad. And then once I got a little older, watching with my my high school friends. But so I, I always love journalism.
00;49;27;24 - 00;49;45;15
Lindsay Jones
I worked for my, newspaper at Fort Collins High School. Spilled ink, spilled. It's called. Yeah. Golem kins. And it was a really good high school newspaper. Right. Like, we we took it really, really seriously. Like, we would win writing awards and, go to conventions, you know, conferences and that kind.
00;49;45;15 - 00;49;48;23
Tom Green
Of thing was a good journalism school. But you wanted to you wanted to go elsewhere.
00;49;48;23 - 00;50;06;18
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. I was like, you know, growing up kind of in the college town, I wanted to go to a little bit smaller school. So, yeah, so on to Emory University in Atlanta knowing that I wanted to study journalism, but it wasn't like I'm going to be a sports journalist. And so I actually majored in political science.
00;50;06;18 - 00;50;26;09
Lindsay Jones
And the way that Emory at the time, this is no longer the case, but at Emory in the late 90s and early 2000, you could do a double major in journalism, but you can do a solo major. So you had to it was like what's considered a Co major. So I was a political science major. And then I also got a double major in journalism, worked for the campus newspaper, the Emory.
00;50;26;09 - 00;50;31;02
Lindsay Jones
We all, so I covered, you know, it's a D-3 school, no football.
00;50;31;04 - 00;50;31;14
Tom Green
But you're in.
00;50;31;14 - 00;50;45;03
Lindsay Jones
Atlanta. But it was in Atlanta. But, yeah, I mean, I covered my first semester, my freshman year, I was, on the men's soccer beat, and then I covered women's basketball, and I became a sports editor at the paper. And,
00;50;45;05 - 00;50;48;25
Tom Green
So this is when this is when it's happening. You're now becoming.
00;50;48;25 - 00;51;11;20
Lindsay Jones
I was kind of getting into it. And look, I say yes when you're covering, like, the Super Bowl, the stage is really big. But the actual like mechanics of, like writing about sports is the same, whether it's high school football or the Broncos. It's just like the the level of fame kind of or the stakes of the people that you're writing about.
00;51;11;20 - 00;51;27;01
Lindsay Jones
Although, I, I covert to my first job out of college, I worked at the Palm Beach Post. I was actually a news where I was a news reporter. I covered K through 12 education, cops, crime. I'd go to court. Would you like that? I did. Did you.
00;51;27;01 - 00;51;27;28
Tom Green
Like seeing your name in the.
00;51;27;28 - 00;51;46;04
Lindsay Jones
Paper? I did, I love seeing my name in the paper I loved I mean, it was like being in South Florida as a reporter was like a dream. I mean, there was just the weirdest stuff happens. I Florida man. Yeah. I mean, I think it was trying to remember if I was an intern, it might have if it was during my internship or shortly after my internship.
00;51;46;06 - 00;52;05;17
Lindsay Jones
We had to write about Vanilla Ice. Had, like a ranch and his animals, his, like, had exotic animals. And they got loose. I mean, this is like a mad libs, right? Like a wallaby and a goat owned by Vanilla Ice were running down highway 50. I mean, just like you could make it up. Yeah, yeah, the weirdest stuff.
00;52;05;17 - 00;52;23;19
Lindsay Jones
But you learn how to like being a news reporter. You learn how to just do the, like the on the ground. Yeah. Hard reporting. And you know, we we had to do like, jail checks essentially. So it would be like sometimes you could do it online, but I would drive my butt all the way to the jail and say hi.
00;52;23;26 - 00;52;40;23
Lindsay Jones
And you go through the logs and you just are like, who's here? Flipping through and flipping through? And then you'd be like, oh, suspected first degree murder charge. So we write that one down and then you got a call and figure out go backwards. What happens. Yeah. So I mean, it was really good just like on the ground reporting experience.
00;52;40;23 - 00;52;52;18
Lindsay Jones
But then I switched over to the sports department at the Palm Beach Post cover high school football, high school football in South Florida. Big. Just incredible. Yeah. You know, really so that was really how I like, learned how to cover football.
00;52;52;18 - 00;53;01;18
Tom Green
So the Palm Beach Post to the Denver Post, to USA today, and it made me think of Vicky Mikayla. So I looked up and Vicky.
00;53;01;18 - 00;53;06;04
Lindsay Jones
Was yeah, I basically just like looked at her like life plan and said, I'll do that.
00;53;06;06 - 00;53;21;06
Tom Green
Thanks. It was she was I knew her. She was covering the nuggets here in town, but she, was a terrific sportswriter and there weren't many female sports writers at the time, but she now has an interesting group that she's usually run for quite a while.
00;53;21;06 - 00;53;42;14
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. So she's at the University of Georgia. Running their, sports journalism program, that Grady School, the Grady School of Journalism. It's probably not the official title, so. Sorry, Vicky, but, Yeah, just doing a really incredible job. Like educating the next generation of sports journalists. So, yeah, she's she's been an incredible mentor and friend to me.
00;53;42;17 - 00;53;43;20
Lindsay Jones
Did you find any.
00;53;43;20 - 00;53;47;00
Tom Green
Roadblocks that were different for you? Because as a woman.
00;53;47;03 - 00;53;57;00
Lindsay Jones
I mean, I think I'm probably lucky that I was like a generation, maybe one generation removed from, like, really having, like, doors shut, like.
00;53;57;00 - 00;53;59;24
Tom Green
The Melissa blood keys and the stories that that preceded.
00;53;59;24 - 00;54;20;28
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. I mean, there was enough. Like, I was never the first woman right on my staff. A lot of times I was the only woman. Yeah. There were probably times that I was like the maybe the the first, like for the high school kids, especially that I was covering that maybe I was like the first woman that they had talked to about sports or about football, but I was never the first.
00;54;21;00 - 00;54;29;06
Lindsay Jones
So, you know, I think it was in some ways it was a little, you know, maybe a little easier. I mean, it's not to say it was ever, like, easy.
00;54;29;06 - 00;54;47;12
Tom Green
So I think, like Dorothy Mark was before your time, but she was the first full time sportswriter hired at the Denver Post in the mid 60s. But I got the feeling the assignment when women were hired to be sportswriters in the early era, it was to write sports for women as opposed to just do the job.
00;54;47;19 - 00;55;04;25
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And I think there's, you know, probably during kind of my era there, there has been this idea of like, if you're a woman, you need to write about women's sports or like, or women's sports can only be covered by women and not like the men in our departments would be like, well, that's a woman's right. That's a woman's story.
00;55;05;01 - 00;55;29;08
Lindsay Jones
I mean, I definitely felt there were times at Mo at a lot of the places that I've worked where it was like, especially when it was off field issues, when it was stuff about players who were being arrested for domestic violence, you know, issues that had to do with domestic violence or sexual abuse or, I was like lot and even sometimes then like the flip side of that is like the personality features are like writing about their families and stuff.
00;55;29;08 - 00;55;44;27
Lindsay Jones
I was like, oh, well, that's, you know, yeah, you got to write right about that. And so I remember in 2014 when that was the big year with the Ray rice. Yes. When Ray rice hit, I was at USA today at the time and it very much became like, this is Lindsay's story. Like you're the woman you need to write about, like how the NFL cares about women.
00;55;44;27 - 00;55;45;03
Lindsay Jones
And they.
00;55;45;03 - 00;55;45;19
Tom Green
Said it like.
00;55;45;19 - 00;56;00;16
Lindsay Jones
That. No, it just felt that's how I just kind of felt that way. And I don't. And look, it was a big it was a big story. And it was probably really big for my career, just in terms of like the sourcing and networking and the reporting that I was able to do from that on, like a league, a league level like that.
00;56;00;17 - 00;56;18;28
Lindsay Jones
I mean, there was a point. I mean, honestly, there probably still is a point that, like, I don't there's probably only a handful of reporters in the league who cover who cover the NFL that, like, have a deep understanding of the personal conduct policy and like the history of how the league disciplines players and stuff more than I do because of the work that I did over.
00;56;19;04 - 00;56;39;24
Lindsay Jones
Certainly then, but then over the last ten years, it's something we've kind of kept up, and it's something that I've tried to be cognizant about over the years, too. Now that I'm in an editor role of like, I'm not just going to assign the column about like Deshaun Watson to the woman on our staff. Right. Like the men on our staff should be caring about this stuff too and should should be involved in this too.
00;56;39;24 - 00;56;56;16
Lindsay Jones
And like, you know, I look now at women's sports as good business. It's it's not. So if you're a up and if you're a young man who wants to write about sports and you're interested in you're looking for a spot like women's, it's a good career decision.
00;56;56;18 - 00;57;04;24
Tom Green
Well, the Denver summit and soccer here, I think I think the women's soccer team here may already be past the Rapids as far as interest popularity.
00;57;04;24 - 00;57;15;28
Lindsay Jones
I mean, yeah, I mean, if you're a 25 year old dude living in this market and you want to find a niche and a fan base, you know, people are going to follow, you get in now. So I want to do it right. I want to.
00;57;15;28 - 00;57;32;09
Tom Green
Ask you about that, though, because when you went from, after the post to USA today, then The Athletic, which was kind of a new form, a more digital form of what became The New York Times sports section, and then The Ringer and the ringer is is very new.
00;57;32;09 - 00;57;33;19
Lindsay Jones
I've been all over the place time. Right.
00;57;33;19 - 00;57;43;09
Tom Green
But but you're also evolving like for me, I've gone into podcasting, but I was always in traditional forms of media, radio and television. And, you know, you're moving with the times.
00;57;43;09 - 00;57;45;00
Lindsay Jones
And yeah, I don't.
00;57;45;00 - 00;57;45;18
Tom Green
Feel comfortable.
00;57;45;22 - 00;58;04;11
Lindsay Jones
Although I would say like going to The Athletic. It was it was new when I went there in 2018. So the athletic launch in 2016, I went there in 2018. It was new in that it was a subscription model. And the numbers that we cared about most was subscriptions. As like, that's kind of what we were measured.
00;58;04;12 - 00;58;20;26
Lindsay Jones
You know, what we were measured by. But when it came to the journalism, it was very still, like old school. Yeah. Like we weren't, you know, necessarily trying to, like, do new styles of writing. It was very much like, we want to have that really old school storytelling, you know, be.
00;58;20;26 - 00;58;21;08
Tom Green
The place.
00;58;21;08 - 00;58;41;21
Lindsay Jones
For it, be the place for it. We just kind of did it. It was just in a different, you know, like distribution model. And then at and now, I mean, you look at the way that the business is going. Yeah. The Athletic is really not the only place it in many ways, it feels like the only place that is doing that like really deep comprehensive.
00;58;41;23 - 00;58;57;13
Tom Green
So you're at the Super Bowl where the world of sports gathers, especially football. And the Washington Post basically sacks the entire sports department. And that's not, you know, to take anything away from the other newspapers in America. But that's the.
00;58;57;13 - 00;59;16;08
Lindsay Jones
Sports. Yeah. I mean, I think, and my colleague at the ringer, Brian Curtis, wrote, wrote about this and on his podcast, The Press Box talked about this a bit last week. We want to get we want to have a lot of nostalgia about, like, the Sally Jenkins era, you know, the like what the post sports department was.
00;59;16;08 - 00;59;16;15
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
00;59;16;15 - 00;59;18;09
Tom Green
Who was there? Everyone was there.
00;59;18;11 - 00;59;54;09
Lindsay Jones
But it today. Well, not today. Two weeks ago, I would say probably the best sports department in the country. And the people who are working there now, just in terms of like the quality of writers and reporters that they had, the type of stories that they would pursue, the impact of the journalism that they did. I would say, you know, obviously I read The Athletic a lot, but if you're thinking of like a newspaper and the way that they cover their sports locally, the way that they cover the high schools in the DMV, the way that they cover, you know, their colleges, their but then the way that they, they and this is what
00;59;54;09 - 01;00;12;22
Lindsay Jones
I think ultimately this was maybe their undoing a bit from a management side was who are you? Like, what is our identity? What do we want to do? Do we want to be yeah, a local sports section or are we going to be this kind of like what's our direction brand and trying to figure out how how you evolve kind of in real time.
01;00;12;24 - 01;00;37;17
Lindsay Jones
But their beat writers that cover the nationals and the commanders are as good as anybody in the country, and they're like investigative team and they're. Yeah, I think features and enterprise writers. And it's all and it's just gone, like at least when, at least when the New York Times folded their sports department, which was shocking when that happened a few years ago there, it wasn't like mass layoffs.
01;00;37;17 - 01;00;57;06
Lindsay Jones
Their their reporters, their sports reporters were like distributed to the rest of their staff. And there a lot of those people are still doing really, really good work covering sports. It's just not like in the sports pages. But the they also paid $500 million to buy The Athletic. Yeah. So like they're doing more sports than they ever had before.
01;00;57;13 - 01;00;59;23
Lindsay Jones
The Washington Post has just given up.
01;00;59;26 - 01;01;00;16
Tom Green
And well.
01;01;00;21 - 01;01;03;15
Lindsay Jones
They're not doing it, which is just.
01;01;03;17 - 01;01;15;29
Tom Green
The owner is famous and the owner is wealthy beyond belief. It's not like they could have they could have done it without, you know, kept it going for forever without ever noticing it on his bottom.
01;01;16;01 - 01;01;28;17
Lindsay Jones
Well, and this is not this certainly isn't just like a sports a sports note or whatever, but everything doesn't. It's going to sound super like,
01;01;28;19 - 01;01;40;25
Lindsay Jones
Blue Prager or whatever, whatever it is. But like, everything doesn't have to be this massive money making. Yeah, like the business of journalism isn't just to, like, bit.
01;01;40;25 - 01;01;41;09
Tom Green
Of a public.
01;01;41;09 - 01;01;58;26
Lindsay Jones
Park in cash. Yeah. I mean, part of the I mean, why journalism exists is to like it is a public service. And it's hard to make money that way. And, you know, I think it's a it's been a failure of a lot of these media companies that they didn't find a way to at least be sustainable. With the evolving technology.
01;01;58;26 - 01;02;14;01
Lindsay Jones
But just looking at like, oh, well, your sports department, we're not we're not making money. It's like, but what you're losing this tremendous public service. And like, it's just shocking to me that they just the, the way that they've cut the local part, you know.
01;02;14;02 - 01;02;20;15
Tom Green
And I'm sure for you too, it's also like, I don't personally know, I don't think anyone on the staff. You do. Yeah. These are your friends.
01;02;20;15 - 01;02;45;19
Lindsay Jones
These are your colleagues. Yeah. And I mean, I was the I think the Washington Post only had a couple people at the Super Bowl this year. Normally they would have a lot. I think partially that was because of the Olympics and partially because they kind of knew this was coming. But they had yeah, they're there like long, long, long time National NFL reporter, a guy named Mark Maskey was there, and I saw him at the AFC Championship game, and he's like, I guess I'm going to the Super Bowl and we'll find out.
01;02;45;19 - 01;03;04;03
Lindsay Jones
And he was there. He asked, I think the first question at the commissioner's press conference on Monday and was still writing stories for the Washington Post, and, it didn't actually. I'm trying to remember if I saw him at the game, I trying to remember if he stayed, but then they had another one of their enterprise writers was there, a guy named Adam Kilgore, who is incredible.
01;03;04;06 - 01;03;14;21
Lindsay Jones
And I saw him Wednesday morning, which was with the day that all stuff broke. I mean, early, like 615. Yeah. In the morning, because he was going to catch the busses to go to the Patriots. Availability.
01;03;14;22 - 01;03;16;28
Tom Green
It's 915 on the East Coast. So the emails.
01;03;16;28 - 01;03;22;27
Lindsay Jones
Out, the emails were out and he he was on the three people on their stuff that kept their jobs. And it was just this like who?
01;03;23;04 - 01;03;24;00
Tom Green
All my friends.
01;03;24;00 - 01;03;40;01
Lindsay Jones
All my friends. So yeah, I mean it was just this like stunning. And they have a bunch of people over in Italy right now who everything was booked. I mean, like, look, our Super Bowl trips, we had to pay for our hotels, I think like January 15th or January 20th or something. So this was all paid for. But they just kind of killed.
01;03;40;01 - 01;03;41;20
Lindsay Jones
They killed these trips in the middle.
01;03;41;25 - 01;04;02;28
Tom Green
It's it's been it's been really hard to watch. And I love talking about journalism with it because it's, it's something that's always been important to me, whether it's reading it or participating in it, but always respecting it. And, you know, this is this is a bad, bad week, and I don't, you know, there have been bad weeks before, but this was a.
01;04;03;00 - 01;04;16;05
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. And it just felt like, yeah, I mean, it's an institution, you know. Yeah. And it's it's like there's really large scale example of what's been happening, you know, around the country and what we're seeing.
01;04;16;05 - 01;04;17;00
Tom Green
On television.
01;04;17;00 - 01;04;18;03
Lindsay Jones
Locally and the end of.
01;04;18;03 - 01;04;19;17
Tom Green
It, potential murders.
01;04;19;17 - 01;04;20;02
Lindsay Jones
For sure.
01;04;20;02 - 01;04;21;04
Tom Green
All that kind of stuff.
01;04;21;04 - 01;04;29;00
Lindsay Jones
That. Yeah, I mean, we're very wary. Like, how do you remember how shocking it was when the Rocky closed? Yeah. In 2009.
01;04;29;03 - 01;04;32;08
Tom Green
Oh, I miss it. I miss it every day because it made the post better.
01;04;32;09 - 01;04;48;13
Lindsay Jones
Oh, 100%. Yeah. And that was when I was brand new. I started here I moved here in 2008 or moved to Denver in 2008. So I had one year, like the last year of the. Yeah, like the newspaper wars and yeah, just like, you know, we all respected each other, but like, we all just what is it Rocky going to have?
01;04;48;13 - 01;05;09;00
Lindsay Jones
And the timing of waking up trying to fearing the papers. Yeah. Trying to public. Yeah. You try to if you had a scoop and this was you know, you could do this in 2008. You cannot do this now. Like, if you had a scoop, we would wait, but you didn't want to necessarily wait till the morning paper, but you would wait and publish it at like 1030.
01;05;09;02 - 01;05;25;24
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. Because then or like right around at ten because they past them. So the Rocky couldn't it was too late for the rocky to chase it and to get anything to their paper and the like nine News or Channel seven or whatever would have to cite you. They'd be like, and the Denver Post has this big report tonight reported.
01;05;25;28 - 01;05;31;07
Lindsay Jones
It's just reported. So they didn't have it. So they'd have to cite you to. So all these like games you play where you can't do that.
01;05;31;07 - 01;05;34;19
Tom Green
Anymore besides Girl Scout cookies, what do you want to pitch? Just you with the ringer?
01;05;34;19 - 01;05;54;11
Lindsay Jones
Sure. Yeah. Well, obviously Girl Scout cookies. We're. We will deliver. Thanks. Lina. Yes. From my daughter, who is a, She's a junior Girl scout, fourth grade, and is actively trying to make her reach them, reach some cookie goals. Tom bought some last week, so I delivered. And we will deliver to you, too, if you'd like.
01;05;54;13 - 01;06;00;21
Lindsay Jones
Or they ship anywhere. Okay. But. Yeah. So the ringer, we're, you know, it's kind of. It's a really fun place to work.
01;06;00;22 - 01;06;02;09
Tom Green
Was it fun to watch Simmons take a.
01;06;02;09 - 01;06;20;18
Lindsay Jones
Beating a little bit? Yeah. I mean, it was. It was very interesting. I didn't tune in live, to his pod because I was, you know, I don't mind. And myself in the press box, but, Yeah, I'm guessing more people probably tuned in to the Simmons gloat because that because the Patriots lost than they would have had they won.
01;06;20;19 - 01;06;20;26
Lindsay Jones
Oh, he's.
01;06;20;26 - 01;06;21;26
Tom Green
On to the Celtics now.
01;06;21;27 - 01;06;39;16
Lindsay Jones
Yep. Oh yeah for sure. Yeah Jayson Tatum I think is like on his way back which is kind of wild in the G League. But yeah we've got a lot of a lot of pods were really very much moving into draft mode. Our draft guy just launched. We've got the Todd McShay show. Yeah. And now just trying to plan out our like offseason content.
01;06;39;16 - 01;06;42;02
Lindsay Jones
Well, free agency content at the ringer.com.
01;06;42;02 - 01;06;46;08
Tom Green
And I hope you enjoy your your three days off June 29th 30th.
01;06;46;11 - 01;06;52;17
Lindsay Jones
And I am taking PTO next week. Just to like get caught up on like I'm going to deep clean my house.
01;06;52;17 - 01;07;02;20
Tom Green
So that's one last thing I, I don't want to gloss this over. The difference between men, sportswriters and female sportswriters sometimes is motherhood.
01;07;02;24 - 01;07;03;20
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
01;07;03;23 - 01;07;09;16
Tom Green
And I mean, you've you have a nine year old girl who requires 100% of your attention.
01;07;09;17 - 01;07;10;02
Lindsay Jones
Yeah.
01;07;10;05 - 01;07;17;18
Tom Green
And I don't, you know, like, I seen the Cosmo, spent a lot of stuff. And he's he's a great dad and all this stuff. I. But it's different for for women.
01;07;17;18 - 01;07;41;14
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. I mean, it's funny because I have, I've, like, multiple group chats with, journalists around the country, but a couple of them are like, you know, some fellow moms. And one of my I don't think she would mind me say about one of my friends who's in she's in Italy right now covering the Olympics and was texting yesterday because she was feeling so bad, because her son is just two little boys, and one of her little boys had a 104 degree fever.
01;07;41;14 - 01;07;54;23
Lindsay Jones
And and it was a it wasn't like my husband can't handle it because like, he can't, you know. And I was so kept saying we're like, they're going to okay, John, he's got this. You're okay. But you just can't get over that feeling of like, I want to be there. I mean, like, you know, your kid just wants to.
01;07;54;28 - 01;08;09;02
Lindsay Jones
Yeah. There's, as you know, as a mom, it's a big difference. But, yeah, I mean, I traveled a lot when Lena was a baby. When I was, I was still at USA today. And I went back and I did a lot, a lot of traveling. And those, those years, it was really hard. I felt it was really hard on me.
01;08;09;06 - 01;08;24;21
Lindsay Jones
Like it was harder for me to be gone. She was so well taken care of at home. My husband does an amazing job. We've got grandparents all local that were able to help. But then as she got older, I saw it being harder on her when I was gone. But now, like. And I ran away back in.
01;08;24;21 - 01;08;36;22
Lindsay Jones
Yeah, I was gone nine nights. That was. That was like the max. Like it was. She was right. And she was. So I mean, she's going to gymnastics and swimming and band and all that stuff, but it was like it was time for mom to be.
01;08;36;25 - 01;08;38;04
Tom Green
Well, I'm glad you're back home.
01;08;38;05 - 01;08;39;29
Lindsay Jones
I'm glad you're back. Thank you, Lynn and everything.
01;08;39;29 - 01;08;41;27
Tom Green
And I really appreciate you taking the time for sure.
01;08;41;27 - 01;08;45;08
Lindsay Jones
I always going to talk journalism and thank you all and stuff. So, yeah.
01;08;45;15 - 01;08;46;07
Tom Green
We'll see you again.
01;08;46;07 - 01;08;49;29
Lindsay Jones
Soon for sure.
01;08;50;02 - 01;09;09;04
Tom Green
Big thanks to Lindsay Jones from The Ringer for joining us today. And all I want to do is remind you the great taste of Samoas. Good and good for you. That is going to do it for this week's edition of The Other Tom Green Show. As always, we'd love to hear from you here at gorilla Sportsnet, and we look forward to seeing you back here again next week.