Shawn Mackey (00:15.082)
Alright, that's the best spice I can do right now. Told you last week about some issues we were having. Still can't figure that shit out. So right now we got some limited sound effects we're gonna be incorporating into the show. Welcome to season two, episode two of the Shawn Mackey show. What a fucking meltdown of epic proportions.

Have we seen with the Chicago Cubs? Holy crap, this team cannot catch a break.

Shawn Mackey (00:57.706)
eight games back in the NL Central, somebody had put together a meme of a probability chart and that as of May 1st, I think it showed something like the Cubs had a 66 % chance of winning the National League Central and the Brewers had like a 14 % chance.

And then that chart went up and down to present day.

and holy hell have the tides turned.

I'm going to tell you what, at some point this season, the Cubs were on the bus and they were traveling down the road and that left rear wheel started to wobble a little bit and they called management for advice and they said, don't worry about it. Just keep driving down the road. And so they did. And then a couple of miles later, a couple of fricking lug nuts fell off of that left tire.

and they called management. Hey, don't worry about it. Just keep driving down the road.

Shawn Mackey (02:16.962)
Well, that tire fell off the bus, skidded into a ditch, flipped over.

Everybody got out safely, but as the bus was on the side of the road in flames, those players were probably standing around going, what the fuck?

So now management has to get into their private jet and fly out to the airport in the no-name town in which the wheels fell off the Cubs bus, get in their $80,000 rented SUVs and drive out to the accident scene.

Hey, don't worry about it. We'll take care of this. got help is on the way. Help is on the way.

Okay, well that help turned into another injured player. Miguel Amaya comes back off the IL, first game back.

Shawn Mackey (03:28.052)
suffers a terrible injury hope everything's okay for that guy bring up Owen Cassie eight games back in the National League Central

Now, the Cardinals are 16 games back in the Central, but they're only four games back in the Wild Card. The Cubs hold a small half a game lead over the Dodgers for the Wild Card. That's a tight race. This team might not even make the Wild.

I have no answers. I was worried about this. If you're a regular listener to the show, you know this. If you're new, go back and listen to season one. I was afraid this was gonna happen with Jed Hoyer continuing to be at the helm. I said, don't extend him unless you win a world series. You extend him He makes moves.

Shawn Mackey (04:31.924)
Everything's in flames at this point, folks. Like I said last week, the best thing I got going for me is its football season. That's right. The NFL is here. The Bears are getting ready to play the Bills this Sunday night for game two of the preseason. Starters will play. That's a good deal because we got to see what's going on.

I told you before, I was a Tyson Bagent fan.

I personally from what I witnessed last week. he did pretty decently. He did well.

Time will tell. Case Keenum looked like an old fart out there trying to continue his career. Read a report today in which he left camp early. Austin Reed got the third team reps today. So we have to see how that plays out. And like I said, I was impressed, but I'm not all the way there yet. It's still the preseason. Bears didn't win. They didn't lose.

They tie, had some injuries, brought in some dudes, right? Today, as far as training camp goes today, we saw some really good things from the offense. Caleb Williams doing some good things, getting ready for the joint practice with the Buffalo Bills tomorrow. You know, and I saw a report yesterday and people are really...

Shawn Mackey (06:16.694)
And I don't blame them, they're not, fan-wise, Caleb Williams is on a short leash. Leash, okay? We've seen this with Justin Fields. Caleb Williams came in and did some good things last year. He's got a better offensive line.

Shawn Mackey (06:37.902)
He's going to gel and click. And I think today was one of those big indications at camp where him and Rome Odunze kind of hooked up a little bit more getting on the same page. They're both working their butts off, but this dude's on a short leash with the fans. And I'm also still seeing reports from other defensive coordinators around the league in which, you know, Caleb still holds onto the ball a little too long.

So now if we've got that offensive line and they're giving him a shit ton of time and and we're still seeing those sacks. Now that's all on Caleb. Right. And then here we go again, Bears fans. But the jury's still out. Things were looking good for him today. He connected with a whole bunch of receivers, like I said, stepped up with Rome Odunze OK, here's the thing that's.

freaking me out. It's not even free. Okay. It's not freaking me out. Let me backtrack her beep beep beep beep beep right back up the bus. Gus. but I thought Ozzy Trapilo would have been the odds on favorite to overtake Braxton Jones at the left tackle position. Now Braxton, he's been coming back from some injuries or stuff. He's been the guy for the last four years. I haven't liked him I still think

When you really watch the games and then you see his numbers. To me, it's kind of iffy. OK, but the Canadian kid, Theo Benedet Or is it been a day? Hey, hey, how you doing? Whatever, right? So that was my Canadian voice, but it came out totally Chicago. What are you going to do? This guy's getting some reps, but now.

And this is the nice thing about Ben Johnson's offense. You're looking at guys on the offensive line. think Jones got, they, they moved Trapilo over with the second teamers. I want to say at like right tackle. And I think Jones got some reps there. Kiran Amegadjie

Shawn Mackey (08:57.698)
getting third team reps. thought this kid had a bigger chance to make an impact this season, but he's sliding in that left tackle, right? Luke Newman was getting some left guard reps with the number one unit. So I think Ben Johnson's got all these guys like, look, we, you got, you can't just be a left tackle, you know, we got to work out everywhere else because

The history in the last few years with this team is the line hasn't been good. And a lot of times they're injured. Fuck a dude. You know, he had to sit out six weeks or some shit a couple of seasons ago because he stubbed his fucking toe. Jesus Christ. OK, so we're seeing some of that. And that's surprising me because I thought Ozzy was going to be that guy. So.

It looks like reports are saying that maybe they're getting closer to solidifying that left tackle position. But. I don't know, we'll have to see how the kid from Canada does right. So. Good luck to all of them. But the nice thing, too, was that I saw I saw a post, I think it was on Twitter maybe, or is it X? I don't fucking know.

Who knows X formerly known as Twitter? And everybody puts it's like X formally known as Twitter. Like, think fucking by now, most people know it's X I know it's X and I'm fucking with you. But fuck, I can't keep it all straight. But it was cool to see that they had some offensive line and defensive line kind of drills, but they weren't drills in the traditional sense. Like I saw where a couple of like Darnell Wright and

John Thuney. They were lining up as receivers. So then linebackers or defensive linemen were covering them and both of those guys Darnell Wright pull down a catch. And so did Thuney, you know, so these guys are looking, and, and, and it was cool to see cause they were celebrating and, know, jumping and doing the chest bumping and, and, and I remember those days playing football when you were doing football stuff.

Shawn Mackey (11:14.668)
but it wasn't really football stuff, right? You're working your ass off. You're in two a days in high school. You're playing semi pro whatever college ball and you're going through practice and you're doing all the drills and the calisthenics and then, you know, this, that offense and defense and you're rotating in and out and you're working your ass off. But then you get those moments of fun. You get guys like offensive linemen going out and catching passes and that's a cool thing. And I'll tell you what now,

Most of my life. There was one year I was a line, a middle linebacker. I had some speed. I was a great fucking middle linebacker. But I'm one of these guys like I played offensive and defensive line most of my life, but. I could have been a fullback. I could have been a tight end. I promise you 100 percent. If you played with me, athletically, you know this to be true. If you didn't.

You better reach out to a friend and find out what's going on, because I feel like one of the reasons. I made my high school team after I transferred, I transferred from the Catholic League to the public league. So then I went to tryouts and I remember in tryouts, you know, they're doing their timing in the 40. You're doing some drills, you know, going through some cones. They're they're checking to see if you know what a three points dance is and all this shit.

But I also remember

as a big guy who knew I was going to be a lineman, getting lined up and being told to go out and run routes. And I'm telling you what, I'm catching the ball, tuckin' it, you know, I'm doing all this stuff. And I think that's why I ended up being a middle linebacker because my high school coach, Les Callas may he rest in peace, recently passed away. I was a defensive lineman, but

Shawn Mackey (13:13.974)
When I made the team. And we came out for two days within a couple of weeks, coach pulled me aside and said, hey, you're going to be you see me clapping if you watch the video, I'm trying to catch this little gnat You're going to be you're a guy left tackle. And I'm like, OK, I didn't understand the left tackle position at that time. I'll tell you what, honestly, in all transparency, I was kind of pissed because I was like.

Fuck, I can be a guard. I'm a guard. I like to get in there and fucking, you know, I was like left tackle and a of those guys are lined up far enough away. I don't know if my speed's going to be able to get out there and handle this shit. Right. But I was given the starting job and then I was a backup defensive lineman. So I know at some point late in our junior season, I was working as the backup offensive.

defensive lineman because we were putting in our second string on offense and get them some reps. So I was went into the defensive line mode, you know, keep going and practice and get in there and do some things. And my speed stood out and less coach Callas. He said, Hey man, you're pretty fast you're going to start working out with the linebackers now. And I was like, so excited. So then I did, I started working out linebackers, tip drills, learning all their shit.

And then I remember, you know, junior year, I get into a game. Something happened. Jason Williams, he was one of our middle linebackers and he was out for a few plays. So I get in the game and now I'm playing and I'm I'm a couple of tackles. One, two series here, there. And then by senior year, I'm the starting middle. I'm one of the starting middle linebackers. So I feel my athleticism and a lot of these guys, Joe Thuney, Darnell Wright Hell, when they were younger playing high school ball.

You know, they probably came out in and played other positions and then they just kind of get bigger and everybody gets switched around. Who's the guy on the Bears defense? shit. Last week's I want to say Dominique Robb. shit. Anyway, I was watching the game and like this dude's huge. I mean, he reminds me he looked like imagine back in the day, Alonzo Spellman, right?

Shawn Mackey (15:38.285)
And they said this guy came out of high school as a quarterback, started college as a quarterback, got converted to wide receiver. And I was like a defensive end for the Bears and just dudes keep growing and they just keep getting bigger and bigger and working out. But their athleticism is what kind of carries them into the professional ranks. And to me, that's fucking awesome and cool. So we're getting ready today. You know, you're going to get this episode on on Sunday.

Bears bills. We'll see what that brings, but we gave you a little bit of insight to, what's going on with Bears training camp. So we promised you last week that we were going to discuss a few more nicknames in the NFL that we personally, me, host of the Shawn Mackey show thought were kind of cool. I'm not saying they're the best.

I think you could probably find some more. If you find other nicknames that are cool, like I've been trying to get you to do all season one, throw me a message on Facebook, click on the link on Spotify that says, drop us a message. Tell me what you're thinking and I'll hook up with you or I'll get you out, you know, and a shout out on the show, but Hey, don't be shy. See what I'm saying. So

couple other nicknames and we'll probably continue this a little bit next week for a finale of the preseason. Cause once we get into regular football season mode, we're going to try to do some things where we record ourselves watching the Bears' game so we can use clips for the YouTube channel for our podcast. And then we will actually record

and get all of the NFL into the Sunday episode. So. Yeah, you got that to look forward to, and I'm hoping by then I got this whole fucking sound effect background music thing figured out because I really want to do that. But here's another great NFL nickname that I just love. Chuck Bednarik This is a throwback. If you're old and listening to this show, you know.

Shawn Mackey (18:04.746)
If you're young, Google Chuck Bednarik B E D N A R I K and they called him concrete Charlie. Now this dude is known for. He hits your ass. I'm going to tell you what. I love this guy watching old clips of this guy because I feel that when I played, that's how I was. I flew around the field and I would fucking just try to lay into your ass.

We played a lot of football growing up. No equipment. Contact full tackle football and I would throw my shoulder into you at full speed. I did. I I know and I'm sorry, but I know I dislocated a shoulder once. I know I dislocated a knee and I didn't hit the dude in the knee. I hit the dude and blocked his ass right in the fucking chest.

Shawn Mackey (19:07.916)
and he dislocated his knee. I'm not proud of that, but that's, I'm just using as an example of how I flew around the field and I hit folks. Now, concrete Charlie, Chuck Bednerik, I'm telling you, you Google this guy. There's a clip of him just laying out Frank Gifford and Frank Gifford's a hall of fame NFL player. He was a really good player in his own right. He was a host on like Monday night football.

He was married to Kathy Lee. She was that host with I don't know. think she hosted maybe a little bit with Michael Strahan. I'd have to look into that. My memory is kind of boom, boom, boom. I know Michael Strahan was with Kelly Ripa, but I know Kathy Lee had a show and Frank Gifford and and he's a good ballplayer. Chuck Bednarik just fucking laid him out. Right. And Bednarik comes out as the number one overall pick.

Shawn Mackey (20:10.222)
In the 1949 NFL draft, he comes from University of Pennsylvania. You know, right there, this dude fucking hits, right? But he doesn't get his nickname because of how he hits. He doesn't hit you as hard as concrete, although he did. He's one of these throwback guys that had an offseason job and he worked doing and selling concrete. So they call him concrete Charlie.

shit. You got to love a nickname like that. Now this next guy, is it a nickname or is it just a moniker someone else placed upon him? But this comes from Chicago Bears own coach, Eric Bieniemy And I know that when Chris Berman and he does his fastest three minutes in the NFL on Monday night football and he gave

Eric, Eric sleeping with Bieniemy In one of his clips, Bieniemy was a running back. So at some point, Chris Berman. Boom, he hits him with that nickname, but you know, that's kind of Eric sleeping with Bieniemy It's a play on sleeping with the enemy. For those of you who are slow and I know you're not slow. I just needed a moment to fill.

within the podcast, but it's kind of a crazy nickname. I'm pretty sure people don't walk around and say, Hey, how you doing sleeping with Bieniemy Hey, sleeping, how you doing? But I saw it. I had to throw it in there. Okay. Now I'm going to finish out with this last guy. Cause again, I want to talk about a few more next week on the finale of the preseason for the Chicago Bears before we get into the NFL season.

but here's a guy, slinging Sammy Baugh right? He's the quarterback credited with being the throwing the, the, what you want the prototypical throwing quarterback in the NFL, right? He plays in a time when the running game is still the, the attack mode of choice for coaches, right?

Shawn Mackey (22:34.626)
He gets the nickname from a sports writer when he's playing at Texas Christian university. He goes on to be an all American quarterback twice during his time there. He played 16 years in the NFL with Washington and he is the all time leader in passing yards by the time he calls it quits in 1952. And he's the, he's the credit for the prototypical throwing quarterback, the guy you want.

to be tall, to have an awareness, to be able to take the snap, drop back in that quarterback, go through his progressions and boom. And I'll tell you what, when he played, there probably weren't a lot of progressions to go through. You were mostly a running team back then and you're gonna start putting in this passing game. I'm pretty sure there was one or two choices. Boom, you come out, this guy, that guy, nope, do something else.

Maybe three, you know, receiver, receiver to X, Y, Z. But now with all these offenses coming out and the way you can line guys up, you might have five fucking progressions out there. I don't know. I haven't been around the game long enough other than watching it. We used to have you'd call plays and you'd say the play and it'd be like X five, you know, and it wouldn't. It's like, you know, we're going to call it X, Y, Z. So if you'd hear.

You know, shotgun, I formation shotgun, five two seven. You knew it was XYZ. So whoever was the X was going to run a five route. Whoever was the, you know, Y I was going to run a set. So whatever you called the number. So, but things have evolved and I don't keep up that much on that side of it. When I was coaching, I was more of a lineman guy. I coached offensive and defensive lineman, and I was a defensive coordinator. So I kept up on the.

you know, on defensive sides. And that's why I really like what Dennis Allen's doing, because we're seeing more of that man to man, more of that aggressive. We're not seeing that soft ass zone that gets your ass in trouble. So there's a lot of kinks to be worked out there with that approach. But I think we're going to see some good things come hopefully early middle end and maybe we get into the playoffs. We.

Shawn Mackey (25:01.782)
I don't play for them. The Bears get into the playoffs. Would love to see it. Because already we know from the beginning of this episode, the Cubs are already going down the shitter. So shitter's full, Clark. Hey, that's all I got for this week. I hope you had a great time. I certainly did. You know what? We'll see you next week. Peace.