Michael Schulder: Terez Paylor, welcome to Wavemaker Conversations, the annual- your second time on our annual “How to Watch the Super Bowl Better Than Your Friends” edition.
Terez Paylor: That's right. I'm glad to be back. I enjoyed our first conversation-
Michael Schulder: Our first conversation was in person in Atlanta, after a heartbreaking- Kansas City Chiefs missed the Super Bowl by one [00:01:00] drive. But here you are with a lot of reason to smile.
Terez Paylor: That's right. That's right. Mainly because I live in the city of Kansas City - I'm not a Chiefs fan per se, you know, I'm a reporter. I grew up in Detroit, so if I were, you know, if I had to classify my NFL loyalties anywhere, it’s with the Lions, because I grew up there. But, you know, you I've lived in Kansas City for 14 years now, 15 years now, and I'm so happy for people here because I know how much their football team has put them through for so long. So it's just kinda cool to see them go from basically the team that never had a great quarterback and never won the big game to basically the team that always wins the big game with the great quarterback. It gives hope from fans of other franchises- it gives hope to fans of other franchises who were in the spot the Chiefs used to be in, including my hometown team!
Michael Schulder: I have not watched a single NFL game this season, so I am coming to this game like I'm from another planet. What are we about to watch and what should we be looking for?
Terez Paylor: [00:02:54] Well, Tom Brady is the Bucs’ quarterback and, you know, he's the greatest football player of all time. [00:03:00] His six championship rings define that, his litany of awards, his rare ability to bring teams back from deficits and almost always winning the big game - that separates him from the rest of the pack. What's interesting about this game is that now, like head to head, he's basically going to face a young quarterback in Patrick Mahomes for Kansas City, who I believe has a chance to one day usurp him of that claim, right? And very rarely in pro football do you get pass-the-torch games between the greatest of all time. But I do think that, if Patrick Mahomes can beat Tom Brady, he'll have six super bowl rings to Brady's- he'll have two super bowl rings to Brady’s six, and it's conceivable that over the next 10 to 15 years, Mahomes can tie him in terms of rings. And if that's the case, I think we could end up looking at this game as a sort of a tiebreaker, in a decade or two, about which player was greater. So there's actually a lot on the line here if Mahomes fully fulfills his potential. You know, if he gets the [00:04:00] five Super Bowl wins and Brady has six, you know, how much is this one worth? They're playing head to head. You know, it's about legacy for people who are football dorks like me. And, you know, the matchup is going to be great because of A) it’s two great teams who play an exciting style of football, but B) these are arguably the two biggest names in the game right now facing off in the biggest game at the same position with historical ramifications. This does not come around every year or even every five years or even every ten years. This is a rare thing. So it should be pretty great.
Michael Schulder: And with that historical perspective, here's why I came to you this time. I actually had my producer do some research, is there any interesting themes in the Super Bowl, and he came up with your article, “Eric Bieniemy Still Isn't an NFL Head Coach and Every Excuse Why Falls Flat” by you, Terez Paylor, just this past week.
Terez Paylor: That’s correct.
Michael Schulder: Because of your article, I am now going to be looking at the sidelines at this offensive coach, Eric Bieniemy, on the Kansas City side. I'm going to be looking at him, I'm going to be thinking about him. Why is he an important figure? How does he relate to what we're going to be seeing on the field?
Terez Paylor:. In a league where it's become more offensive heavy than ever, right? More points scored, the rules are tilted that way, like, the league has become more offense oriented than ever. So what have teams and owners tried to do? They try to hire as head coaches, people who specialize in offense. That makes sense, right? Specifically people who work with the quarterback, right? Because the quarterback is the most important position on the field. Over the last three years, Bieniemy’s been their offensive coordinator, and that has coincided also with the rise of Patrick Mahomes, who I mentioned earlier, who is amazing and certainly has a ton to do with that success, but it's not all Mahomes, just like the coaching isn't all Andy Reid, right? So my point is here's a guy who checks all the boxes as far as, like, the style of play he wants to coach, the people he's been around, his ability to motivate and, honestly, correct guys and still have them love them - that's a pretty hard thing to find in today's day and age, because people don't like being told they're wrong, right? He checks all of these boxes, he's been a part of a prolific offense [00:08:00] and yet, still, he's about to go into year four as a Chiefs offensive coordinator, maybe two Super Bowl rings, without a head coaching job, in a league that values offence more than ever. People generally, Michael, are [00:09:00] mystified why he can't get a head coaching job in his league when he seemingly checks all these boxes. And there's a lot of frustration from African-American coaches who both know him personally and those who don't. And that column was a reflection of that and the people I talked to – who weren’t just black, by the way, who just don't understand it. But here's what I do know. Men like Bieniemy understand this. Sometimes you don't get what you're supposed to get when you're supposed to get it. You get it when it happens. But oftentimes when it comes late, you're better prepared for it than you otherwise would have been. So I know that Eric Bieniemy for a fact, I know for a fact, when the time comes for him to be a head coach, he will be ready for that opportunity. I think he'll do a great job.
Michael Schulder: I'm just going to let you basically riff on what you see and maybe how what we see in these still photos might translate into what we can look for on the big day.
Terez Paylor: Sure. So Mahomes, number 15, is one of the best quarterbacks in football, one of the best players at football, at avoiding these guys coming after. He's unbelievable at it. Like watch it. Like he, when, when, when defensive players get around him, he normally just runs away from them and throws strikes, which isn't that common, right? There's some interesting things about that in this game, though. He's got a toe injury which might limit his mobility, which means [00:18:00] that these guys that you see around him right now might actually be able to get around him in this game, all right? And that's going to change the game.
Michael Schulder: By the way, is it his right foot toe or left foot toe?
Terez Paylor: It’s his right foot toe, yeah.
Michael Schulder: Which is, which he's leaning on right there.
Terez Paylor: Exactly. Right. It might affect how he plays, right? Now, it didn't in the last game, he was unbelievable. But, you know, if there were, if he were to get hurt again in a similar way to how he got hurt in the first place two weeks ago, that could, that could affect the game. There's also this. You know, every offensive line, the guys who are charged with protecting the quarterback has five players, all right? Well, the Chiefs’ offensive line, let's say these are the five, this guy, the right, the right tackle, and this guy, the left tackle, they're hurt. So these are backups in, okay? And the four guys that will be lining up across for them- from them are unbelievable. They're really good. [00:19:00] So there's a scenario where there's more pressure on him, on Mahomes, than normal, and he can't move around like normal, which would give Tom Brady a chance to win the game. That's what it would take, in my opinion.
Michael Schulder: That is- now, this is complicating things for me, because now I'm going to have my eyes peeled on those two right- on the right tackle and the left tackle, which brings me back, you know what? This brings me back to my final question, ‘cause you said earlier the quarterback is the most important position in the game. A few years ago, I got obsessed with the role of the center. The center is somebody we never pay attention to unless he messes up a snap, but there's more to the job of a center than that. What should we be looking for? If we wanted to just take one or two plays to focus on the center, what should we look for?
Terez Paylor: Well, the guy for Tampa Bay, the center for Tampa Bay, he has long hair, he wears number 66. His name is Ryan Jensen, and he is incredibly nasty. He is an aggressive player that plays with a lot of aggression, again - I wish I could have found a different word, but he- it- I can't really think of a different word because that's what he plays with. Watch him on a handful of plays; he finishes his blocks, he makes other players who go against him angry because of how aggressively he finishes his blocks. He's a really good player. He'll be in white, number 66 with long hair. He's really good at what he does.
Michael Schulder: Going back to coach Bieniemy, [00:22:00] who used to shout during the practices you saw on the sidelines, he would say “Finish, finish!” How can we tell when a player does a great job finishing and when he- were it not, if he had just finished, it could've turned into a blowout play?
Terez Paylor: Yeah, when they play through the whistle. So when the whistle ends and you see a player still, still, like, competing through the whistle; it’s like finishing the round in boxing, like, they ring in the bill, you’re still taking your shots, you finish that. Now, you don't go too far. If you go too far, you'll get whistled, you'll get, you know, penalized for it. But that's how you, that's how you measure it. Play through the whistle. Don't stop trying [00:23:00] really really hard until the whistle blows. And even when the whistle blows, just a little extra, to prove a point