SCHOOLED with "The Professor" John Clayton

The Professor sits down with David Fleming, senior writer for ESPN to discuss the recent trend of NFL players retiring earlier in their career rather than waiting too long. Luke Keuchly, Andrew Luck, and Doug Baldwin are all examples in the last calendar year that have walked away from the game with more football left in their tank. Will this trend continue? How will it impact the quality of the NFL game that fans are watching on the field?

The XFL season is just around the corner, and with a new league comes a new set of rules for the familiar game of football. Seattle Dragons President, Ryan Gustafson, sits down with us to talk about everything that will be different about this fast-paced version of the game that we all know and love.

Officiating has been a major topic this year in the NFL. The NFL installed a coach challenge system for pass interference that has created nothing but controversy and confusion this year as to what is interference and what isn’t interference. Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com joins us on Schooled with the Professor to go through this season of change. We start off by discussing officiating in general this year. The officials agreed to a five-year extension but there could be as many as two dozen officials leaving the league because of a lucrative severance program for officials who have been in the league for two decades. We talk about how much tougher it is to find people willing to be officials. That has a major impact on high school, college and pro sports league. There have been seven referee changes in the past two years. Some of the best of the best have left and more may join them. Kevin then breaks down the pass interference experiment. Officiating is the main topic on Schooled.

Even though no one expected the Arizona Cardinals to be good this year, they remain one of the most interesting teams in football. They surprised everyone by signing Kliff Kingsbury as head coach and then drafted Kyler Murray with the first pick in the draft. On Schooled with the Professor, we break down the Cardinals season with Arizona Republic’s Kent Somers. Somers has covered the Cardinals for many years as a beat writer and now as a columnist. We go in depth about the Cardinals problems on defense. We spent a lot of time talking Kingsbury and Murray. David Johnson is making $13 million as a running back but he’s now a backup. Somers tells us why. We talk about how the Cardinals use their wide receivers in the Air Raid offense. The NFC West is the league’s best division. How long will it take the Cardinals to catch up? We get some answers on Schooled.

The Carolina Panthers have been one of the biggest disappointments of the 2019 season. They were thought to be a solid playoff contender but losing Cam Newton after two games changed that. Also, owner David Tepper decided to move on from longtime head coach Ron Rivera. We take a big look at the Panthers on Schooled with the Professor with former Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme. Jake helped the Panthers go to the Super Bowl back in 2003 and now he’s working as an analyst on the Panthers radio broadcasts. He breaks down the Cam Newton injuries and the impact of his loss as well as his replacement, Kyle Allen. Later we spend time talking about running back Christian McCaffery and how he’s emerged as one of the best running backs in the NFL. Delhomme also talks about the coaching change, the problems on the offensive line and what’s left on the Panthers defense. The Panthers are under the microscope on Schooled.

Why have the Rams been able to latch on to the sports fan base in Los Angeles quicker than the Chargers? This week on Schooled, I'm joined by Sam Farmer of the Los Angeles Times as we go in depth as to why one franchise has more stable footing than other. Were there any truth to the rumors the Chargers were looking internationally for their next home? We also take a look at what the reason is for the Rams' up and down season. We get Schooled this week by Sam Farmer.

It’s Thanksgiving week and it’s time to be thankful. It’s time for family, friends, food and football. One thing we can be thankful for is Larry Fitzgerald Sr.’s gift to football. He has been a sports writer for years and is the father of NFL future Hall of Fame receiver Larry Fitzgerald...one of the great gentlemen in sports.

Larry Sr. lives in Minnesota and has covered the Vikings for decades. He joins us on Schooled with the Professor to talk about the Vikings, the NFC West and the Seahawks. Larry knows his football. We talk about the Cardinals’ new Kliff Kingsbury offense and also dive into the struggles of the Los Angeles Rams. Larry offers great praise for the San Francisco 49er offense and Russell Wilson. We have a long, deep discussion about the Minnesota Vikings and how they’ve turned their offense around but also discuss some of the struggles they are having on defense.

It’s a feast of football knowledge with Larry Fitzgerald Sr. on Schooled.

The NFL is undergoing an amazing change. About 18 teams have quarterbacks who are 26 years old or younger. Many of those quarterbacks are runners, making it tough on defensive coordinators to figure out how to stop them. Steve Mariucci of the NFL Network joins us on Schooled to talk about the changing quarterback landscape. We discuss whether it’s better to plan man coverage or zone coverage to stop these running quarterbacks. So far, no one has figured out how to stop Jackson. Steve likes Russell Wilson as the league’s MVP so we discuss his season and his value to the Seahawks. We talk about the pocket passing quarterbacks, particularly the older ones such as Philip Rivers and Tom Brady. Do those kinds of quarterbacks have a place in the NFL anymore? Steve Mariucci educates on Schooled about quarterbacks.

NFL officiating is under review more than any time I can remember. Kevin Seifert from ESPN.com joins me on Schooled to figure what is going on. The big concern is whether the pool of future officials is shrinking. There have been seven ref changes over the past two years and it could bleed into next season as talk of 10 to 20 officials possibly departing. We dig deep into officiating on Schooled

It’s always great to catchup with former Detroit Lions wide receiver Herman Moore and talk about the evolution of the wide receiver position. He joins us on Schooled this week.  Moore came into the league in 1991 as a first-round pick of the Lions. At 6-4, 210 pounds, Moore started a trend in which the NFL got bigger and taller at wide receiver. On Schooled, he discusses how receivers have gotten faster in recent years. He also talks about how the defenseless receiver rule has allowed smaller, faster receivers to work the middle of the field and make plays. When he played, even the big receivers had to shy away from the middle because safeties had the license to blow up those trying to catch the ball. We talk about how the Air Raid offense being run in Arizona has some similarities to the Run and Shoot he played in Detroit. We discuss current Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford and Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. Offense is the name of the game on this week’s Schooled.