Las Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast on my impressions of Tom Telesco, Antonio Pierce, Mark Davis, Champ Kelly, and the new direction.
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00:00 Hi everybody, this is Hondo Carpenter from Sports Illustrated's FAN Nation Las Vegas
00:06 Raiders Insider Podcast and I'm here at the Raiders headquarters.
00:11 I want to just quickly apologize if you notice I'm wearing the same shirt I wore yesterday.
00:18 It's late on Wednesday, so it's the same day.
00:24 It's late, I haven't showered or anything yet.
00:26 I mean, obviously I did this morning, but I just haven't had a chance.
00:30 I don't want you to think that I'm wearing the same clothes because I'm lazy or being
00:33 disrespectful of you, my audience.
00:36 I want to dig right in.
00:38 Earlier today, if you did not watch the video of Tom Telesco and of Antonio Pierce with
00:45 Mark Davis, I greatly encourage you to go back and watch it.
00:48 We have it up completely free for you to watch and encourage you to watch.
00:53 In fact, even if you saw it, I encourage you to go back and watch again.
00:56 I have several observations that I want to make from it.
01:03 Number one, it is clear this is Antonio Pierce's team.
01:10 No.
01:11 Final decision over the 53-man roster rests with Tom Telesco.
01:18 That has been made very clear.
01:21 But remember the last two podcasts, I have talked to you about esprit de corps.
01:26 You don't want a coach dictating to a general manager, which is what you've had the last
01:36 two times, in my opinion, other than Bill Belichick, it hasn't worked for anyone.
01:41 You can't tell me one person it's worked for.
01:44 You can show me a couple where it maybe worked for a season, meaning one year, but it's not
01:50 been anything that works in the National Football League.
01:55 I think it was important that that was clearly delineated.
01:59 However, it's Antonio Pierce's team.
02:04 He is going to set the agenda of how this team plays, the style they play, and everything
02:09 else.
02:11 Now, if it were my team, and clearly we know it's not, and Mark Davis doesn't care what
02:16 you or I think, I would have picked a general manager who fit the style that I thought was
02:24 best for my team and then let them go hire a coach.
02:28 Clearly, Mark went in a different direction.
02:31 He told my good friend, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN, that he interviewed seven general manager
02:38 candidates who all wanted AP.
02:42 I believe that, by the way.
02:48 So Tolesco, I asked him, and I said, "Most general managers come into a place in shambles.
02:55 This isn't.
02:56 This is AP's team."
02:58 He righted the ship.
03:00 And how big of a blessing is that to come in and you don't have to go pick a coach?
03:03 Because let's be honest, and I'm not a Tolesco hater, but let's be honest, his track record
03:10 of picking coaches is not good.
03:12 I mean, Brandon Staley was abysmal, the worst coach in the NFL.
03:18 In fact, it was a concerning factor to me that he didn't fire him sooner.
03:27 But I was told by somebody within the Chargers organization that the owner didn't want to
03:32 pay the guy and was going to make Tolesco live with his decision of hiring him.
03:38 Okay, so Tolesco doesn't have to deal with that.
03:42 He comes in and he's got his guy in place.
03:46 And I really respected Tolesco's answer.
03:50 Now I want to go back and point out a couple of things.
03:54 The reason, by the way, that I point things out is so that you can go back if you didn't
03:58 see it and read it, I mean, or watch it, excuse me.
04:04 Or if you did, just simply as a reminder, I think a good teacher reminds people of things.
04:11 And I try to be good at that, or a good communicator.
04:13 I'm not really a teacher, obviously, but a communicator.
04:17 So let me just say this.
04:20 I've told you before, owners love to be loved.
04:23 Coaches need to be loved because if they're not getting the love, it's hard in that locker
04:27 room.
04:29 And so Tolesco was very self-deprecating, talked about how great of a job AP was, that
04:37 when he walked in the building, he didn't even consider that this was a coaching, that
04:42 this would be a coaching search.
04:45 I always know when people say stuff, one of the biggest responses I get is, "Well, what
04:49 do you expect him to say?"
04:52 Tolesco and I share several mutual friends, and I have a very good bead based on people
04:57 who I respect of what they think of his character.
05:01 I don't think he would have said it if it wasn't truthful.
05:04 I think he would have danced around it.
05:05 I think there were a couple of questions he did kind of dance around.
05:09 You can figure out what those are because he's not a liar.
05:13 So first of all, I thought he was extremely genuine and very self-deprecating.
05:20 I think he was reserved, which was good.
05:27 I think he needed to be.
05:30 I've been told by several people, I was told by a general manager of another team that
05:37 Tolesco knows how to read a room.
05:41 And I think he knew he walked into AP's house.
05:45 I mean, I even said it when I asked one of my questions, I said, "This is AP's team."
05:51 And it is.
05:52 Mark Davis owns it, but this is AP's team and he has deferred to Max Crosby.
05:59 So it's an AP, Max Crosby house.
06:04 I think if Tolesco had come in any other way, it would have ruffled feathers.
06:10 I don't think anybody would have got their feathers ruffled with Tolesco's press conference.
06:16 I thought he was genuine.
06:18 I thought he gave very good answers.
06:22 I thought he answered some questions like an attorney, that he answered the question
06:25 and said nothing else.
06:29 Josh McDaniels used to answer questions and then bloviate.
06:33 And I believe he did it.
06:35 So then it takes up the press conference time and there's not a lot of room for a ton of
06:40 questions.
06:41 AP, he's a terrific communicator.
06:43 He answers your questions thoroughly.
06:46 But anyways, I thought Tolesco handled it really well.
06:48 So I've told you about coaches need to be loved.
06:51 Players love to be loved.
06:52 And he came in, deferred to Mark on several issues and deferred to AP.
07:00 Tolesco knew his audience today was not you.
07:03 And frankly, he knew his audience wasn't me.
07:07 He knew his audience was the team.
07:11 I do not want to in any way imply that I talked to the entire team.
07:17 I talked to, I'm going to guess nine players right around there, give or take one or two
07:24 either way, who were all very impressed.
07:28 All of them were, to a T. And a lot of them pointed out the same things.
07:36 So I don't think Tolesco could have done a better job preparing today, how he handled
07:43 today and just how the whole thing went down.
07:46 Now that being said, I want to go over some things that stood out to me.
07:54 Number one, I was stunned.
07:58 I want to make sure that's the right word.
08:03 I don't know that I would say stunned.
08:04 Let me rephrase that.
08:06 I was pleasantly surprised.
08:11 He was asked about the roster.
08:14 And I have said to you a couple of times, because people were like, oh, this is going
08:17 to be easy for him because he already knows the roster.
08:22 And when he was asked about it, he was very honest.
08:25 And it was almost as if he had listened to me, not saying he did, because he talked about
08:31 its difference in knowing a roster as an opponent than being in the house.
08:38 Again, didn't try to say, look at me, I know everything.
08:43 I thought that was brilliant.
08:45 I thought that was.
08:47 Now listen, I didn't know him going into today.
08:53 I have been around him and he and I share many friends.
09:00 So the people that I know who I have, and you guys have heard me say I root for good
09:05 people, I keep my circle tight.
09:12 And then I keep my second circle really tight, too.
09:17 I only let people in my sphere of influence.
09:23 I try to always enlarge my circle of love, to quote Tommy Burnett.
09:27 But I keep my circle tight and the people that I listen to and that I keep who have
09:35 Hondo's ear are people that I respect, people that I think are honorable and good.
09:45 Doesn't mean they have to be perfect.
09:47 And so the people that I respect, respect him.
09:52 So I didn't come into it expecting anything other than genuineness.
09:56 I was just pleasantly surprised at the depth of it.
10:00 He could have answered and said, yeah, I do have a working knowledge of the Raiders roster.
10:06 And obviously there's more I can learn, but I do have a very good working knowledge of
10:10 the roster, which would have been a truthful answer.
10:13 Instead, it's different when you're looking at a roster as an opponent and as somebody
10:18 who's part of the team.
10:19 I thought that was a great answer.
10:22 I can understand people's reservations with Tom Tolesco.
10:27 So I want each of you who have those reservations to know I am not minimizing your concerns,
10:34 but I can tell you if you watched his press conference today and you were fair, I believe
10:41 that you would have been impressed with his genuineness, with the depth of his answers.
10:48 I think he showed his mental acumen.
10:53 I think he showed a lot about his style.
10:57 So I think for him, it was a great press conference.
11:01 I think even his harshest critics would come away saying, all right, he had a good press
11:08 conference.
11:09 And I think those who are just being fair, that aren't critics, would say he hit it out
11:13 of the park.
11:14 I don't think people that were as big as cheerleaders would fall all over themselves.
11:20 I'm not a cheerleader nor am I a hater, so I think he hit it out of the park.
11:24 I was very impressed with several of his answers, number one.
11:28 Next, I thought AP was typical AP.
11:34 Now in the interest of full disclosure, I have a great relationship with AP.
11:38 I respect him.
11:39 You guys know that.
11:40 I have multiple mutual friends with him and have a great relationship with him.
11:46 I like him a lot.
11:49 And it was another AP press conference.
11:53 If you weren't ready to run out of that building and go run a hundred yard dash and whatever,
11:58 I would not do bear crawls for him.
12:02 That's an inside joke.
12:05 But if you weren't, I mean, he's just a motivator of men.
12:08 He gets it.
12:09 He understands it.
12:11 He brought his players in.
12:14 By saying we want a team with Max Crosby effort, he acknowledged his players.
12:22 He does a very good job of a "we not me" mentality.
12:28 And that's just part of what makes AP AP.
12:33 You may not like Antonio Pierce.
12:36 I find that incredibly hard to believe.
12:38 Maybe not.
12:40 Maybe because you don't know him, you don't like him.
12:42 I would be stunned if somebody knew him and didn't like him, unless you are a person offended
12:48 by people who are blunt and truthful.
12:54 In which case, the issue is you, not him.
12:59 He was extremely genuine.
13:01 I thought his answers about Tom were very good.
13:08 I thought his talk about an offensive coordinator, "What do you want?
13:14 24 points."
13:15 I thought that was really good.
13:21 I want to go back to Telesco for a minute because he talked about he's got to get players
13:26 that fit the AP system.
13:30 Now, I was greatly concerned until about two hours before the press conference, maybe an
13:36 hour and a half.
13:39 What happens if you get him in here and he's like, "Okay, I'm going to pick players that
13:42 fit my system and make AP try to make it work," which is not what he's going to do.
13:49 I was very impressed with that.
13:51 So now the question is, what kind of players they want.
13:55 They're going to sit down, they're going to evaluate the whole staff.
13:58 Another thing Telesco said that I thought was so good is, "I'm going to bring in the
14:03 staff to help me evaluate and learn the players."
14:07 That's fantastic.
14:10 Again, no ego.
14:15 No ego.
14:18 I thought that Antonio Pierce did a very good job of communicating kind of a vision because
14:28 this team's not going to look like last year's.
14:30 It's not going to have all the players.
14:34 It's going to look different.
14:37 I think that's important.
14:38 He began to set the vision.
14:41 AP did not use these words, but basically what he said is, "We're married to winning."
14:48 He talked about, "What do the Raiders do?
14:50 They run the ball.
14:51 They're physical, but they throw the ball down the field.
14:55 They make big plays, chunk plays."
14:57 Again, all things that are what you expect from the Raiders.
15:04 That's what the Raiders are.
15:05 It's their DNA.
15:06 It's what makes them.
15:09 I found that to be very fascinating.
15:12 I'm having a lot of people ask me, "Do you expect the Raiders to move up in the first
15:21 round to draft a quarterback?"
15:24 I did not.
15:25 However, when Champ Kelly did not get the job, I think that there's a better chance
15:31 of it.
15:33 I'm going to answer this question.
15:35 I want you to give me a couple of weeks.
15:40 In a couple of weeks, I'm going to tell you why I asked you for that.
15:44 Please just give me a couple of weeks.
15:48 I will give you my assessment, but I have a reason.
15:53 Right now, I don't want to give the reason, but I promise in two weeks, I will.
15:56 It's not a "Ha ha, na na na na na."
15:59 That's not it.
16:00 I literally want to do something that I don't want to tip off anybody to what I'm doing
16:06 until after I've done it.
16:08 In two weeks, I promise I'll come back and answer that question.
16:11 I think there are a lot of people making assumptions.
16:17 I wouldn't make those, not because I know anything right now.
16:24 I just wouldn't.
16:26 The Raiders, let's talk very quick about Champ Kelly.
16:29 The Raiders are hopeful that they're going to be able to keep Champ Kelly.
16:34 I think that would be wise of them.
16:36 I think it would be wise of them to make him an offer, give him a raise, and extend his
16:42 contract.
16:44 You cannot have enough good people around you.
16:48 When others come sniffing, and they choose to leave, that's beneficial to the Raiders
16:54 and to Champ.
16:59 The question would be, do you think Champ would want to stick around?
17:04 I have a lot of friends who've been fired, a lot of friends that have been passed over.
17:10 I was talking to a very good friend of mine who used to be a general manager who got fired
17:15 yesterday.
17:20 I was asking him about his opinion, what he thought Champ would do.
17:26 He talked about when you're in that moment, it's very hard to see clarity because you
17:32 feel rejected.
17:35 That's a human emotion.
17:39 Some people deal with it differently than others.
17:43 Some people deal with it, "Okay, you rejected me.
17:46 Screw you.
17:47 I don't care.
17:49 Your loss, not mine."
17:52 Then there are some people that internalize it and take it as a personal rejection.
18:03 Those people are usually not driven people, and they're usually not highly successful
18:09 people.
18:10 Nick Saban's fond of saying, "High achievers hate mediocre people, and mediocre people
18:15 hate high achievers."
18:17 Most high achievers are able to take rejection, understand what it is, and put it behind them.
18:23 If you've ever tried to do anything of anything in your life, you've felt rejection.
18:27 I have.
18:28 It doesn't feel good, but you just keep on going.
18:34 Having done all the staying, you just keep going.
18:40 You don't lose your way.
18:43 You keep walking.
18:44 I remember years ago, I was in a celebrity car race, and they invited me probably because
18:50 they couldn't find another celebrity, so they invited a nobody like me.
18:55 I'm in this race, and the driver, who was my teacher, instructed me, "If you go through
19:04 smoke or whatever, there's a crash, floor it, because you want to get through it as
19:09 fast as you can."
19:10 I go, "Well, if there's a crash," he goes, "if you're going to hit it, you're going to
19:13 hit it anyways.
19:15 Just floor it in case you can get through it."
19:17 Then if they wave the flag, and I don't remember which flag it is, you're on the lead lap.
19:24 Highly successful people know that if I'm going to try to do great things in my life,
19:33 if I'm going to try to be successful in my life, I'm going to have to deal with some
19:37 failure.
19:38 I'm going to have to deal with some rejection.
19:44 It doesn't mean that we don't hurt.
19:47 It just means we just cast all our cares to somewhere else.
19:53 If you're a Jesus follower, which I am, and I'm not preaching anything.
19:58 The Bible tells us, "Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you."
20:02 If you're not, sometimes you just learn to cast them off and, "Okay, I can't do anything
20:06 about it."
20:07 The serenity prayer, "I can't deal with it.
20:11 Let me understand I can't and just let it go."
20:15 I know this, Champ is a strong follower of Christ.
20:21 I would venture because he's human that he probably feels rejected.
20:28 That would be my guess.
20:29 But I also know he's a high achiever.
20:32 So if other opportunities don't come, I think he'll floor the gas and drive through the
20:37 smoke and give the Raiders everything that he can do.
20:42 Someone said to me, "How come you didn't ask about Champ?"
20:46 I think that's a very fair criticism.
20:48 I'm going to tell you why I didn't.
20:51 Number one, it was Tom Telesco's day.
20:57 It would be unfair to ask Tom Telesco about Champ because he just got the job.
21:02 He hasn't had any time to get to know him.
21:06 If I would have said to him, "Hey, what do you think?
21:10 You getting the job over Champ Kelly?"
21:12 Well, what do you expect him to do, spike the football on him?
21:15 I always laugh at people who want you to go ask these BS questions.
21:22 I had someone one time send me one, "Ask the coach why he sucks."
21:27 I laugh at all of you who want to tell us what questions to ask.
21:30 Go get a journalism degree.
21:32 Go work your way up.
21:33 Get an NFL job and you ask the questions.
21:36 There's nothing wrong with asking very tough questions and you have to.
21:40 I believe that I have demonstrated to you that I ask tough questions, but there's no
21:45 reason to be a jackass to anybody and I won't do it.
21:52 I don't think it was fair.
21:53 If Telesco had been here a couple of weeks, I would have.
22:00 He's going to do a press conference next month.
22:07 When he does, I'll ask about Champ then because then he's going to have time to work on what's
22:13 going on, what's the situation with Champ.
22:15 If Mark Davis would have taken questions from the media today, I would have asked him.
22:19 It would have been a very germane question.
22:23 It makes no sense that you had this man in meetings interviewing coaches and then wham,
22:31 do a 180.
22:32 I can tell you this, I know this for a fact.
22:39 For a fact, he was getting the job.
22:44 Multiple people in the building knew that, thought that, said that.
22:56 So again, there was a shift and I'll get into all that later at another date as to what
23:04 the shift was and why.
23:06 Not now, now's not the time, but that's why.
23:08 And then what am I going to do?
23:10 What am I going to do?
23:11 What am I going to ask AP?
23:13 He's sitting there with this new general manager to his right, he's trying to be supportive.
23:18 He likes him, why would he hate the guy?
23:20 They're on the same team now.
23:22 He knows what it's like.
23:23 He's a football player.
23:24 The season's cut, a new guy comes in and you can't be mad at the new guy.
23:27 It's not his fault.
23:28 It's like I laughed at people.
23:30 Now, there were some people that just didn't like Jimmy Garoppolo.
23:34 I was very critical of Jimmy getting the job from day one, but it wasn't about Jimmy and
23:40 it wasn't because I consider Derek a friend.
23:43 But there were some people that just hated Jimmy because they loved Derek.
23:46 Well, I mean, it wasn't Jimmy's fault.
23:49 If you just didn't like the way Jimmy played, that's fair.
23:51 But if you didn't like him because you were a Derek supporter and you wouldn't have liked
23:54 anyone that came in, well, you know what?
23:56 I can't do anything about that.
23:59 But I wasn't going to ask AP that question and put him on the spot.
24:02 What's he supposed to say?
24:03 Yeah, I think my friend got screwed.
24:05 Yeah, I think it's a shame.
24:09 No, I wouldn't do that to him.
24:12 And I'm willing to tell you right up front why I didn't ask the questions.
24:16 I think those are fair questions of Tulesko down the road.
24:19 Hey, what's Champ's situation moving forward?
24:23 And I think it's a fair question of Mark Davis.
24:26 You had him in the meetings.
24:29 As of Saturday night, there was nobody that didn't think he was getting the job.
24:33 And then wham, wham, what happened?
24:39 I think that's completely fair.
24:40 And again, had Mark been up there today, I would have asked it.
24:43 I wasn't going to ask Tulesko.
24:44 He hasn't had any time.
24:46 And I wasn't going to ask AP for reasons that I'm being accountable to you and telling you
24:51 why I didn't ask.
24:54 Lastly, I want to talk about the franchise.
25:04 I have been here, this is my fifth year.
25:08 And I can tell you with complete and 100% certainty.
25:16 I have never felt the Raiders in a better place than I do right now.
25:25 I didn't feel that way coming in here today.
25:31 I did not.
25:35 I do now.
25:36 Do I think there are some concerns?
25:40 I do.
25:42 I do.
25:44 Do I think there are some warning signs of potential problems down the road?
25:53 I do.
25:54 But I felt that the entire five years I've covered this team.
25:59 But I've never seen it in the position that I feel that it is right now.
26:03 I think it's in a good spot.
26:06 If everything that happened today was genuine, and I believe it was, because I'm trusting
26:12 the people who I know to be good and honorable, because they've proven it to me, then I think
26:23 the franchise is in very good shape.
26:25 And I think Raider Nation should be excited about where you're at.
26:29 So let me just very quickly end with this.
26:36 I appreciate the way Telesco handled today's press conference.
26:43 I appreciate the way AP did.
26:53 I have noticed several times in this franchise that Mark Davis doesn't speak.
27:02 I was disappointed in him not talking today.
27:06 And I want to make this clear.
27:09 There is a mentality among some media of entitlement.
27:14 And it makes me want to vomit.
27:18 And there's a lot of media that feel like they're entitled because we're the media.
27:24 Mark Davis doesn't owe me anything.
27:26 In fact, a wonderful meal today, he's always been very warm, very kind, and very generous.
27:39 I was disappointed in him not talking today because I believe Raider Nation needed to
27:48 hear from him.
27:52 I believe he needed to take some tough questions.
27:57 I believe he needed to talk about Kelly, why Champ didn't get the job, why was he in meetings,
28:07 and then not.
28:08 I understand he doesn't need to say everything.
28:11 But I believe he owed that to Raider Nation.
28:14 I think he owed it to Raider Nation to talk about why did you hire the coach before the
28:19 GM?
28:21 Why this?
28:22 If you wanted an experienced GM, why didn't you interview more than Telesco?
28:27 And that's not a slam on Telesco.
28:30 I will tell you, I was told by a senior member of the franchise, Saturday night, they reiterated
28:38 to me, it's Kelly's job.
28:41 May have been Saturday afternoon, whatever, but in that timeframe.
28:45 And so what happened?
28:47 I mean, your fans have been with you for a long time and you've let them down.
28:54 I felt like you as the fans deserve to hear from Mark.
28:59 So it's not a sense of Mark owed me.
29:04 Mark doesn't owe me anything.
29:07 And I don't think he's a bad guy.
29:10 Not saying that.
29:11 I've just been floored multiple times in the five years I've covered this team that he
29:15 doesn't speak and other owners do.
29:19 I don't understand that.
29:22 And I think this franchise needs to hear from him.
29:25 Now, having said that, it's very clear now, this is the AP Raiders.
29:33 It's who they are.
29:35 And so, okay, let him speak.
29:38 Let him be the guy that's going to be the face of the franchise.
29:41 It's him and Max now moving forward to it is.
29:46 But again, I felt that you guys may say, who gives a crap if Mark speaks?
29:50 Okay, we're moving.
29:51 We're turning the page and going to the future.
29:53 Okay.
29:54 And if you're a fan that thinks I don't care that I didn't hear from him, then I respect
29:59 that.
30:00 And my opinion is totally irrelevant.
30:02 I just think as a media person who has grown greatly to respect Raider Nation, I think
30:09 that you guys deserve it.
30:11 I've shared this quote many times, but Matt Millen told me once, every team in the NFL
30:17 fans think they're part of the team, but the Raiders are the only team where the players
30:22 in the organization think the fans are part of the team.
30:26 I think the fans deserve to hear from Mark today.
30:29 I don't believe that he didn't talk because he's a coward.
30:32 I don't think he didn't talk because he doesn't give a rip about you because I know he does
30:36 and I know he cares.
30:39 That's why I was surprised.
30:41 But again, I have great respect for the man.
30:44 And if I didn't, I probably wouldn't say it, but I certainly wouldn't tell you that I had
30:50 great respect.
30:51 I would just say nothing.
30:53 So there you go with that.
30:54 Now, a couple of other quick things.
30:55 If you are in San Antonio, around San Antonio, many of you know, every off season, I will
31:01 travel to several different cities and meet with Raider fans and hold what's called a
31:06 meetup.
31:07 I'm not charged for it.
31:09 I usually try to find a local booster chapter or a group of Raider fans.
31:14 They pick a restaurant that will give us a room that's off to the side.
31:18 You pay for your own drinks.
31:20 You pay for your own meal, but I pay all my expenses.
31:27 I fly in and we usually go for about an hour and a half where I answer all your questions
31:35 and we talk about Raiders and it's off the record.
31:39 And what that means is, is you promise you're not going to leave the meeting and disseminate
31:42 what we talk about.
31:44 Now, the reason that is, is because I'm very open, very open, very open.
31:52 I tell people all the time, the only question you can ask me is my wife's weight.
31:55 And that's because she gets mad when I tell people she's 120 pounds.
31:57 She's like, why do you tell them that?
32:01 Because that's not fat, babe.
32:06 But oh, wait, I just said it.
32:14 I'm in trouble and I'm not going to redo the podcast.
32:17 Sorry.
32:18 But anyways, so, but we just come in and we have a great time.
32:24 It's all Raiders.
32:25 I don't charge anything.
32:26 I answer everybody's questions.
32:28 I'll take pictures with everybody.
32:29 We just chat.
32:31 I may even do a podcast.
32:33 So I had a couple of people ask me when I come to San Antonio.
32:36 So we're looking at Tuesday, the 20th of May.
32:41 Now I don't have any details yet.
32:44 I'll give those to you later, but Tuesday, February 20th, Tuesday, February 20th.
32:51 We're going to look at some other places.
32:52 If you are part of a Raider booster team somewhere, or you got a group of them, if there's enough
32:58 people, I'll come.
33:00 And if you'd like to have us come and we can get it on the schedule, we'd love to.
33:03 I was asked today if I would go to Australia.
33:05 And I said, absolutely.
33:06 If there's enough of you, we'll go there.
33:08 So we're willing to go.
33:10 I love meeting you guys.
33:11 I love hanging out with you.
33:13 This year, I think we're going to do something a little different and I'm going to maybe
33:16 record some podcasts with you at the venue.
33:21 I think so.
33:22 I'm not sure, but keep that in mind.
33:23 And then lastly, I have never done this and I was unaware of it.
33:29 But I'm told there's a thing that you can do called a live stream, which is where you
33:35 do a podcast, but it's live.
33:38 I literally just learned about it today.
33:45 I have done podcasts where other people are taking questions.
33:50 I did it with my buddy Graphic Raider.
33:52 I did it with Raider Cody.
33:59 All the other podcasts I don't believe were live.
34:02 I've done a few others, but I don't think they were live at all.
34:08 If they were, I apologize.
34:09 I didn't know.
34:10 So I'm thinking about doing that.
34:12 And I would like to hear from you.
34:15 If that's something that interests you, please let me know.
34:20 If there's enough interest, I'm thinking maybe I'll do a couple from the combine, tell you
34:26 what I saw that day, invite maybe some experts, some of our staff that's with me at the combine
34:32 to talk about it.
34:34 I think that would be really cool.
34:37 I may do one right after the draft, but I'm still, or maybe every night after the draft,
34:43 I don't know.
34:44 So I'm still trying to ascertain information here.
34:47 I don't even know how it's done.
34:49 So bear with me.
34:52 One other thing, and I'm going to let you go.
34:54 Some of you saw me on TV and you commented about my haircut and I apologize.
35:01 Someone told me my haircut was fly.
35:03 I didn't know what that meant.
35:04 And so I asked what does fly mean?
35:06 And I learned that it meant it's good.
35:09 And I know that you guys all laugh at me about that stuff, but I really want you to know,
35:12 I just, I'm not going to be fake with you and pretend if I don't know, like I learned
35:16 something else today.
35:17 When I was a kid, when you said something was cool, it meant it was great.
35:22 Now you say that's hot.
35:24 Well, I would always call my wife hot.
35:26 She is too.
35:27 She's a beauty inside and out.
35:32 I met her on September 9th, 1981.
35:34 It was a Wednesday.
35:37 And I tell her every single time, every day I look at her, since that day, she's gotten
35:42 prettier and boy she has.
35:44 But anyways, and she's a grandma now.
35:49 She's approaching her mid fifties and she's my good thing.
35:59 I love you, Shannon.
36:00 I know you watch.
36:01 I love you, baby.
36:03 And so now I learned hot means good, whatever.
36:06 So I just wanted to tell you, I apologize, but I'm not going to be fake.
36:10 If I don't know, I don't know.
36:13 And I didn't know.
36:14 So forgive me.
36:15 By the way, make sure you go to si.com/NFL/Raiders.
36:23 Read all of our stories.
36:24 We had 12 pieces of content yesterday.
36:27 We got a bundle coming up today.
36:31 We're putting up shorts.
36:32 We're putting up podcasts.
36:33 We're putting up videos.
36:35 We're doing audio only.
36:37 We're writing all.
36:38 We are going through knowing who the Raiders are looking at, writing draft previews.
36:44 That's good stuff.
36:45 Now that's only for the hardcore Raider fan, but that's so you can kind of build your draft
36:51 boards.
36:52 We're only going to write about people we know the Raiders are interested in.
36:55 So, and as we learn more with the TELESCO regime, we'll do that too.
37:00 So please pay attention to all that.
37:02 Also remember you can follow me on IG, Hondo SR.
37:07 You can follow me on X formerly known as Twitter when you go to Hondo Carpenter.
37:12 And then if you don't want to watch me and I don't blame you, I shower with the lights
37:16 off.
37:17 I'm not an attractive man.
37:20 I tell my wife all the time, I don't know why you married me, but I'm just glad the
37:27 Lord convinced it.
37:29 But you can listen to our podcast on Spotify and on Apple.
37:38 And I do a second podcast every day, just riding with Hondo and Dexter, which is just
37:42 usually me and Dexter in the car.
37:43 It's when I get a phone call, whatever it may be, check it out.
37:49 It's a great podcast.
37:50 Again, it's just five to 10 minutes.
37:52 I really think you'll enjoy it.
37:54 And again, let me know what you think about if you would want to join a stream, a live
37:58 stream, let me know about that.
37:59 And I just want you to know something.
38:02 I am really fortunate that I get to cover the Raiders for you guys.
38:08 I'm really fortunate.
38:10 And I don't take for granted that I get to do that.
38:14 I don't have to cover the Raiders.
38:16 I've had two other job offers, obviously in sports journalism in the last 30 days.
38:22 Turn them both down.
38:25 Because I really love that I get to cover this team for you.
38:31 Raider Nation, you guys are amazing people.
38:33 I love going out in the meetups and meeting you guys.
38:36 I love the interaction.
38:39 And I love the emails.
38:40 I just love hearing from you.
38:42 So I just want to take a minute and let you know, I appreciate you and I'm grateful.
38:50 And I'm not entitled to you tuning in every day, listening to the podcast.
38:55 I'm not entitled to you reading every article that we write.
39:00 I'm not.
39:01 I have to earn that.
39:03 Every day when I get out of bed, the first thing I ask the Lord to do after I pray for
39:07 my family is I ask the Lord to help me serve you.
39:14 And that's our goal is that we serve you.
39:17 So I just want to say from me and all of our team at Sports Illustrated, FAN Nation, Las
39:22 Vegas Raiders Insider Podcast, you are appreciated.
39:25 We're grateful for you.
39:26 Again, that's my wrap up of yesterday's press conference.
39:31 If you didn't watch it, I'm asking you to go back and watch it, please.
39:34 I think you'll be impressed with Tom and with AP.
39:38 Thanks, everybody.
39:39 We'll see you back here again tomorrow.
39:40 [END]