Right.

So you see everything, right? You see, uh, right wing populism before it moves elsewhere.

You see sort of a technocratic government before it moves elsewhere.

And, uh, one thing I noticed, though, is that if Italy itself maybe doesn't change, the experiments that it introduces into the world, they do sort of have an effect, and it introduces something into the bloodstream that we see elsewhere.

Mm-hmm.

So, but Trump just turned out to be a bridge too far for her and for all of Europe, really.

And so th- she has decided, uh, and it, because her, her population, the Italians, do not like Trump, he polls terribly there, she was looking essentially for a way to break up with him.

And when Trump attacked the Pope, he gave her just the greatest sort of opportunity of all time, and she stood up to him and the l- relationship's pretty much been kaput since then.

But has there been anything that you've seen besides obviously dealing with the injury last year? Like what's like the most popular way that you've seen teams try to sort of slow him down?

Well, go back to the Patriots deal with him.

The fact that Christian Gonzalez and Carlton Davis are both banged up.

You're like, that's not good.

Because when you do line him out wide, you're not putting a safety out there.

There's not a linebacker in the league that can hang with him anyway.

And so you do have to have your best cover.

last week but there's nobody like with the Patriots right now obviously if AJ Brown was here it's a totally different conversation but there's nobody there like oh we got a double we got to make sure we take this guy out of the game so how do you think they'll approach this I mean a lot of teams have tried to heat up Drake there's been a lot of this it's been this big thing about cover six against Drake may try to make it beat you with like a million paper cuts and he has struggled with that and at times but what do you think they'll try to do to sort of frustrate Drake will they bring blitzes or what

Yeah.

Right? So he brought them in, and his bet was essentially that he could neuter those parties, and his critics would say he was normalizing them and letting them in the door.

And so that's the big debate that I think is going on in, in Europe now, and I think it started with Berlusconi, which is, um, did he let the sort of fox back into the henhouse, or did he actually declaw the fox? And, um, so defenders of Meloni would say, "Well, it looks like Berlusconi was right because Meloni is governing the country essentially as a, you know, a, a normal conservative."

They would argue center right by Italy's standards.

By Italy's standards, but also by American standards I think that they would say center right maybe.

But then you look, you go to Germany and you go to France and you look at the people who also look to Meloni and they say, "Well, if she could do it, why can't we do it?" And those are different systems, and the Italian system is much more moderate.

It basically constrains you, and I'm not sure that they have the same constraints in those other countries.

So in other words, Meloni started something that I think is spreading to the rest of, uh, Europe, and it do- and those other countries don't have the same constraints that Italy has.

But I'd have to imagine that even as, you know, you loving your job, these first three weeks had to be pretty enjoyable to call the games with the Raiders and what's going on right now.

It's been a lot of fun.

The Raiders flagship station in Las Vegas, they play a game with me every Thursday.

It's like, guess what play happened when your partner, Kirk Morrison, made that noise, which is a really fun game.

I love it.

But, you know, I will say this.

I think, you know, everyone's shocked, quote, unquote.

Is it heading closer to that relationship with Mendoza year one?

And you lead us right out to my next question for you, Jason, which was going to be and is going to be, who is Cody White and where did he come from?

Yeah.

You know, some people have asked me this because I shared it on the broadcast and I've shared it on some radio things.

Cody White and I have an interesting connection that he did not know about until a week or two ago.

So Cody White's from Novi, Michigan.

He went to Walled Lake Western High School, which happened to be the high school where my mom was a high school guidance counselor for 20 years.

And she passed away in May of 2016.

How about this matchup with the surprising Saints so far? What really stands out as you do your prep and get ready for this broadcast?

[laughs] Got it.

Like, they're like, "We can't really do this." But anyway, so, uh, they're reading all this weird stuff, but they don't have, like, a text, a founding text that they can really get behind that isn't taboo.

And then, uh, a version of The Lord of the Ring appears in Italy in the '70s, right? And they glom onto this big time.

And so by the time Meloni is there as a fifteen-year-old in the '90s, this thing has become, like, biblical, right? So The Lord of the Rings, for the hard right in Italy, is not just a story about, like, elves and dwarves and hobbits, which when I read it to my kid, it was, and when I watched the cartoon when I was a kid, that's what I thought it was.

For them, it is basically the story about, about them, about, you know, people who are alienated and who are, um, victimized and who are really just people, like good people, the hobbits, who now have to defend, you know, their identities, right? Dwarves are dwarves, and elves are elves, and no one should, you know, no power should change that.

No sort of European Union or overarching power should stop a dwarf from being a dwarf.

So it's-- they, they extrapolate from this fantasy novel all the sort of political feelings that they have and, and it becomes their, their most important text, and hers.

Sure

So tell me, how's Fernando doing in these practices?

Yeah, Fernando's doing great.

I, I, I think they feel really comfortable and confident where he's coming along.

And I think where, where they feel the best about Fernando is what Tyler Linderbaum told us last week in our meeting before the game, which is, you wanna see how rookies do after they make mistakes.

And when Fernando makes a mistake, as Tyler told us last week, he never makes that mistake again.

So all the coaches talked about the preparation coming in and all of the things coming out, and they've been the most impressed with that, which is what he's lived up to, on top of the throws and all the other stuff that we see.

Right.

Uh, and there's young guys there.

you, which I still can't

do.

But we as folks who watch this every day or almost every day in training camp and OTAs, you lock on to a player or two or three because it feels like that's what it looks like when you're watching the practices.

Dante Thornton was that guy last year.

He was running with the ones.

He was making a lot of flashy plays during training camp.

Coaches were then asked about him so that coaches talked about him.

Where can that go? Do we finally realize now that Michael Mayer is more than just a blocking tight end?

But just what you saw and what you were able to call throughout the course of the year for Jenty, what was kind of your vantage point?

You know, I thought he was – I mean, we all know how diligent of a worker he is.

I thought he stayed within what they asked him to do.

They threw him the ball a ton, which some people were questioning how that would go coming out of college, and obviously he's got good hands.

I'm sure there are a few of those that he'd like to have back.

But, you know, I thought the patience – was hit or miss throughout the year and and you could understand why there would be some frustration and why he wasn't as patient but his durability was something that I think we should game he took hit after hit he was constantly hit in the backfield uh you know he got all those touches he played what was it 80 79 80 percent of the snaps last year i mean that's a lot for a rookie uh and he didn't hit the rookie wall that's the other thing you know a lot of rookies uh come come end of october mid-november they hit that rookie wall and and and he did not he he had his biggest game of the year in December right before Christmas so I thought I thought there's a lot to build on the offensive line having Tyler Linderbaum is a lot to build on and I think that's all going to be great you know and the other thing Mike Washington's a lot to build on you know watching him last week at mandatory minicamp man that guy is big and fast He is blazing fast.

And at 6'1", 225 or whatever he's going to play at, that's a lot for a secondary or a defense to go.

For you, being on the call, what would it be like for you to have that local call of a Super Bowl and a championship?

Yeah.

That is exactly who he is, and, and you get that feeling.

I think he's, um, I think he is giving orders to the other coaches to do what they do so he can kinda have a higher look at it.

I think he is very organized.

It is stretched out for months at a time.

They already have their entire training camp plan in play.

But, like, it's, all of it's just different.

Yes.

Yeah

... "it was 38 to 3." And oh, by the way, Ty Simpson plays at Alabama, and Fernando Mendoza's at Indiana.

And we can say whatever we want about how, you know, what Indiana was this year, but it's still Alabama versus Indiana, and I think you're really stretching yourself thin to make that argument.

Um, but I've also seen a lot of NFL quarterbacks, and, and I don't need the comparisons to who he's compared to, but a lot of people have broke down his film.

Like, there's, there's a lot of impressive stuff about this kid, and yes, he wasn't highly recruited out of high school.

He was gonna go to Yale.

You know, he took a ton of hits at Cal.

Yeah

Mm-hmm.

But it was sort of a strange thing because throughout the day, just amongst insiders and people who follow this, there was sort of a sense that maybe, though, this afternoon they would sort of form a consensus and that the smoke might not be black.

[crowd cheering] And once you realize it's white, you realize that something momentous has happened.

And then a few minutes later, the bell of St. Peter's Basilica starts tolling.

[bell tolls] And marching bands start surrounding the square.

And the Swiss Guard start marching up.

And all of a sudden-

That marks a really big change.

Yeah

... and irrelevant in a way to the big discussions going on.

All of a sudden, you know, the Roman Catholic Church had a, a leader who was not just at the table, but in some ways, you know, was sort of dictating the agenda.

But while he's sort of getting all this adoration, within the Church itself, there starts to be a feeling that, not just of bemusement, but of real concern amongst conservatives that, wait a minute, is this guy actually gonna start changing the rules of the Church? And the rules of the Church isn't just sort of legislation, right? It's the truth for them.

And so the idea that you would have a pope who is extremely popular using that popularity to, to change doctrine, what they care most about, starts really causing a lot of fear within conservative circles, and a backlash starts building.

[gentle music]

Hmm

... deal, right? Because that means that all the clergy and all the, you know, the bishops who really run things for the next generation are gonna be of a different mindset, and that mindset, it becomes clear, is much less traditional, and is much more open to debate and much more pastoral, and that's sort of the guiding word for Francis, pastoral.