The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1044 - Trenches Wednesday With Paul Bissonnette, JJ Watt, Barry Sanders, AQ Shipley and Darius Butler LIVE In The ThunderDome, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

On today’s show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about last night’s episode of Hard Knocks In Season, and how awesome Mike McDaniel is, why he’s the perfect coach for the Miami Dolphins, his relationship with Tua and the team as a whole, and everything else happening around the NFL as we prepare for week 17. Joining the progrum to give an NHL update and to tell some hilarious stories is a man who played professional hockey for 16 years, co-host of the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast, and analyst for the NHL on TNT, Paul Bissonnette (31:51-56:55). Next, 3x DPOY, future Hall of Famer, Houston Texans Ring of Honor member, owner of Burnley FC, JJ Watt joins the show to chat about TJ Watt’s continued dominance, his thoughts on the Jaire Alexander suspension that broke today, the Lions winning the division for the first time in 30 years, how good Lamar Jackson is and how difficult it is playing against him, his thoughts on Burnley, and much more (1:03:25-2:09:48). Later, Hall of Famer, 1997 NFL MVP, 1988 Heisman Trophy Winner, 10x Pro Bowler, 10x All-Pro, 1989 Offensive Rookie of the Year, one of the greatest football players of all-time, Barry Sanders joins the show to chat about the Lions finally winning the division, what it means to the city of Detroit, how many touches he could give the Lions right now, when he knew that Dan Campbell was the right guy and how that decision got made, and much more (2:12:11-2:33:37). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. Or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you tomorrow, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this Trenches Wednesday, December 27th, 2023, this sports program starts now! Football! It's all around us, isn't it? Oh yeah, it's a good one. The spirit of the holidays and Christmas and Kwanzaa started yesterday. That's right, yeah. Hanukkah ended a couple days back.

The spirit of the holidays is certainly all around us, but so is football. Meaningful football. There's game clinching, playoff clinching, home field advantage through the playoff clinching games happening this weekend. But, oh, that's not it. No. College football playoffs is on Monday. What?

College football playoffs is on Monday. Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Pasadena, California. What? Brand new year. It's a great time to be alive. We can't thank you enough for joining us. We have a packed show today. The biz nasty man himself, Paul Bizonet of TNT,

spitting chiclets, and 16 years of pro hockey playing. Will join us in about 30 minutes to chat about this year's NHL season, which is fantastic because hashtag hockey is awesome. That is just the way it is. If you don't know the sport, you should get to know it because in the offseason, we're going to be paying close attention to it now that we can actually run clips on this particular program as opposed to just being on the internet show

where we're being threatened to be sued by everybody. That's a nice little caveat to this upcoming offseason. We'll talk to Biz about that. We'll be joined by J.J. Watt. How about Burnley get a win? Yeah! And then, well, then he'll lose. this upcoming offseason. We'll talk to Biz about that. We'll be joined by J.J. Watt. How about Burnley get a win? And then, well, then he loses. So he can't even come on the show after a win because they do get a win.

And then they lose right before the show. So we got to bring up, what's going on with Burnley? Is Burnley dying? I thought we were up in the hell out of Clarence and now all of a sudden they're back down. How long do we keep him up? Maybe a little bit longer than two days. We'll talk to J.J. Watt. Obviously, his brother T.J. is leading the NFL in basically every category on the defense side of the ball. And that team is back alive.

We'll also chit-chat about all his thoughts about everything happening around the NFL. And then guess who's joined us in the third hour on ESPN Plus and YouTube? Who's that? Barry Sanders. Wow. Hell yeah. Wachita? Barry Sanders?

Wachita, Kansas. Wow. That is correct. Now, he did spell my name wrong in a personalized autograph that got sent to the Wattles, which is awesome. I will certainly hang it. So you pronounced his hometown wrong. He spelled my name wrong in an autograph thing. We love Barry.

Yes. And what better time to chat with old Detroit Lions legend Barry Sanders than just a few days after the Detroit Lions win their first division championship in 30 years. Since he was playing. He's going to be jacked up. He's going to be pumped up. And he's always great on our show, by the way. The Talks table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys, Terran Diggs is here.

Nine-year NFL vet. A man who's always dressed properly. Darius J. Butler is here. And joining us on this Trenches Wednesday. Has been here every single Wednesday except for a couple weeks ago. He couldn't come on Wednesday because he was going to a fake war camp in the woods

of North Carolina. With the Green Berets. Not the Navy SEALs. Which he told us and we projected loudly and then he posted a photo. I'm at a Green Berets camp. And then we're the assholes. Even though we appreciate and respect the military. I think Maureen's show is probably on air. That is the real deal. So AQ is normally here on these Wednesdays.

We get smarter on these Wednesdays. He's a Super Bowl champion. He's a former, what was that award you won in college? Remington. Remington, award winner. An absolute stallion out of Penn State. Pittsburgh Steelers. Philadelphia Eagles,

Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, the Baltimore Ravens, the Arizona Cardinals, and then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Ladies and gentlemen, player coach, Jackie Moon, AQ Sheffield. AQ! Nailed it. You nailed it.

You got them all right. Hit the whole path there. War camp included. I feel pretty good. The reason why I like to... Yeah, he did get award games. Yeah. War games. Not real. I feel pretty good. The reason why I like to... Yeah, he did get award games. Yeah. All games.

Not real. Regal was there. But practice. Yep. He got to practice with the team. We actually met down whenever he won the Remington. That's the first time we got to hang out with each other. It went exactly on day one, how it would go for the rest of the entire life.

I think. That's exactly right. That was pretty quick. I had heard of the entire life, I think. That's exactly right. That was pretty quick. I mean, I had heard of the AQ Shipley. Sure. Obviously, we both grew up in the Pittsburgh area. I assume he had heard of me as well from people, stories. You know, and the stories were pretty simpatico stories that were maybe being shared.

So down in Orlando at that college football playoff awards, we were the only ones out, but we were having a good time. We were having a great time. That was when I met Kirk Herbstreit, too. That's right. First time I ever met Kirk Herbstreit. Yeah, because we were just kind of moseying around. Nobody knew who we were. It was very nice.

Yeah, it was awesome. They gave us per diem. Yep. So we had some money. Now, he went to Penn State. I don't know what he was getting. I'm sure he got handshakes all over him. More than handshakes.

Well, keep it to, we're talking. Okay, yeah, I'm just saying. We're talking money. Have to bring it up still. Yeah, because NIL wasn't real then, but some schools certainly were just playing by their own rules for a long time. And we had a blast.

And ever since then, it's been great to see your career come together. Super Bowl champion now. And now he's super fit. Yeah. Super fit. Don't love that part. What do you mean you don't love that? It's just, you know, in the trenches.

You need big guys in the trenches. You're a skinny guy now. You think we're losing credibility potentially with some of our segments? We only have a couple of them, and you're saying we're losing credibility with one of them? I'm just saying on the same day we have a guy on here, you know, that's still going at it in the trenches every single day. He's in the Houston Texans building, you know, half the time during the season. And then our other guy, he's going to work here.

Well, I think he's at a different stage of retirement. Yeah. J.J. Watt, very new to retirement. Yes. Okay. This is his first season of retired. So he's still freaking out. I was still 290 last year.

Let's not forget that. Still eating the same exact way. Working out the same exact way. Because you become a creature of habit. We'll see what happens to J.J. Watt next year or after. After they get relegated.

That's going to take a lot of weight. Take it easy. He's right. Hey, Gumpch. Burnley sucks? Is that what we're saying? No, they played a very good Liverpool squad. The issue is everybody around them in the relegation zone won yesterday.

That is a big issue. For those that don't know, that's our sport in England, soccer over there. If you're bottom three in their league, you get sent out of their league. So you stink. You're not good enough to be in our league anymore. You've got to go down to a lower division. And then a lower division sends a couple up. They're trying to build up. And there's been stories

of teams that are down here. We're talking about out of this league. Been relegated out of this league. Out of this league. Relegated out of this league. And then they just chip in a chair. Just fishing a chip. And they just go all the way up. And they end up making it all the way to chip. Right. That's right. And they just go all the way up.

And they end up making it all the way to the Premier League. That's a beautiful thing that their sport has over there that we don't have. But it's always the good stories you hear about. Now we're living with the investment at this league. Yeah, right. And then we're potentially. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of money.

What's so funny, Foxy? That was just well put. I'm sure JJ hated that, but it was well put. We've never heard this story before. No. We've always heard the good side of this whole thing. Man, if you put a team together and you guys do it right, and you really focus, you put the right pieces together, and you coach them up, and you play hard, you win some games,

you could turn this team into a... You could be playing against Liverpool. That's right. Ryan Reynolds. You could be playing Manchester United right That's right. Ryan Reynolds. You can play Manchester United right here in this state if you guys just get it right. Ryan Reynolds, exactly. Rexham, they can do it. Rexham, you can do it too. We're doing it.

And now we're actively watching. The curse have said. Yeah. The thing that is a gift and a curse. Season one, Ted Lasso. Hey, it's alright. Story will be even better with J.J. Watt. Picks those boys up. Big Kyle. Puts them on their back.

Tyler, for Christ's sake. Tyler, dude, perfect. Haven't seen a lot of him talking about Burnley. Haven't seen a lot of him. I'm wondering if he's thinking about maybe, I'll get back in there whenever. Yeah, exactly. Tyler knows. Tyler's not a front runner. I agree. Tyler's been whenever. Yeah, exactly. Tyler knows. Tyler's not a frontrunner. I agree.

Tyler's been there. Yeah. Tyler boots on the ground to build that entire dude perfect. But with that being said, we haven't heard much about him talking about Burnley. No. We need that to happen. New graphics. Ooh. Sweet. What a show. How about that? Damn good. And while I got your attention down here, look at this

bad boy. That's happening at 530. Wow. Are you serious? That's the Duke's Mayo Bowl. Yep. Okay? This team, this team is going to lose to this team in this game.

And that's actual mayonnaise inside there. I am a mayonnaise fan. I assume everybody thought that immediately upon looking at me and then seeing me wear tank tops for a long time. I love the mayo. Don't know if I love that we're in a Duke's mayo bowl. Sure. But I do like the fact that Neil Brown's getting a mayonnaise bath after their game at 5.30, I believe, today.

5.30 p.m., yeah. It starts at 2 p.m. with the military bowl between Virginia Tech and Tulane. Ooh! We got massive respect for her. Hopefully those two will put on for the military yesterday we had minnesota bowling green how'd that one end up uh minnesota came home obviously because if you're there's one thing you need for bowl games what is attachment snake oil bingo yeah and pj fleck has jars and jars and gallons of it. What's that all about? Well said. And that's why they have the longest active bowl win streak in FBS

because P.J. Fleck brings it every bowl season. Yeah, but that's not how you described that. And you knew you were like, who's that guy that puts his hand up puppets? Jeff Dunham. Jeff Dunham. He's incredibly talented. That's what you just did with Ty

because that puppet's saying jokes that he wants to say. He's saying it in a different voice. So this puppet can be – it's a beautiful gimmick. It is an absolutely beautiful gimmick. He does it better than anybody. That's what you just did with Ty. I didn't say it. Yeah, I didn't say it.

I said it. That's what Jeff Dunham does with his puppets. But all I'm saying is P.J. Fleck gets the boys up for bowl season. But why is that, Ty? Well, like this year, because they were 5-7, they probably shouldn't have went to a bowl game. But, you know, hey, if you want to beat the hell out of Bowling Green and celebrate like you just won the Super Bowl, then, you know.

But, hey, Minnesota beat Iowa this year, so I can't say. Whoa! One of their five wins was against Iowa? It was. Oh, it was a punt return. Yeah, they didn't actually win that game. It was actually the first time P.J. Fleck has beat Iowa since he's been at Minnesota.

But I'm a Big Ten West showing out in both seasons so far. So I love it. I love it. Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa. That's an actual chant in Minnesota. Seems like it has gotten to your feelings a little bit. No.

And I don't know if you're non-biased right now or being a journalist. We're on JSBN. I understand. You got to remember that. Congrats to the Minnesota boys. And congrats to West Virginia. Get a big time win today. Last time West Virginia and North Carolina played each other

in a bowl game, it was also in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Monarchy Car Care Bowl. That would go on to be Chase Rice's last football game ever. He was playing for North Carolina. And we won. By one. It was awesome. That was a lot of fun. And that was like the Pat White sayonara. Appreciate everything you've done for us.

Hit Ulrich Arnett for a couple touchdowns. He was one of our wide receivers. Is that tall? Yeah. He was really good. Like 6'7", right? I was watching. No, that was Wes Lyons.

Okay, yeah. He was also very good. Pittsburgh guy? Yeah, he went to Woody High. He ended up being at Steelers. I think he's an author now. Pursuit is something he wrote. But they put a video together.

I don't know how I feel about it. I didn't get a chance to go. They basically said Deja Vu here and they had Pat White highlights and then they were cutting it to Garrett Green. Are you kidding me? I didn't love it.

Who did that? I did not love it. Who did that? Wait until Gary Green comes out next year and wins the Heisman. That's what I'm saying. Gigi does run wild. And I am happy that he is our quarterback. Rich Rod and Neil are the same guy.

Suspend whoever made that video now. I want his ass fired. I want him on a trip to Miami so he can post something for the Dolphins. And he gets fired from there, too. Okay. Well, that's a whole other story. That guy's just trying to earn a living. The video was nice to take a little

trip down memory lane back to Charlotte. My last collegiate game. The class that I came in with, a lot of guys got redshirted obviously. That was my last time with pretty much it. They still had another year they were going to play with. That week, that entire thing, I remember it like it was yesterday.

It was a beautiful thing. So to relive it, it was cool to do, but the way they were like, same situation here. I'm like, we need to watch our mouths when we're talking about Pat White. I saw Ulrich Arnett have a couple touchdowns. I didn't remember

that. Me and Jello celebrated. It was nice to see that team, and obviously Pat White just won bananas. Hakeem Nix in that game caught a ball out of his ass running across the middle. His hands were the size, like, literally from here to here on him, and the only reason I know that is because he caught a ball out of his ass

over the middle, and his hands, just like there was no gap in between his legs anymore. It was one of the nicest catches of all time. He would end up being a teammate of mine at the Colts. And literally as soon as I meet him, I go, you remember when you caught that ball out of your ass in the Montecito? He said, I do, or whatever. I'm like, we were all mind-blown on the sideline.

You should have heard us talking about you. We're like, look at this thing out here. And then he would obviously go and have a great NFL career. He won a Super Bowl, too, with the Giants, right? Yeah, he did. He had Brandon Tate, too. Dog of a receiver. Kick returning, too. You probably kicked to him. Got drafted. We got drafted. Same draft Bowl, too, with the Giants, right? Yeah, he did. He had Brandon Tate, too. Dog of a receiver. Kick returning, too.

You probably kicked to him. Got drafted. We got drafted. Same draft class to New England. He's a dog. We beat him by one. That's all I know. Good game.

Late extra point. About a minute left. Only time I ever had an opportunity to hit a game winner. Had like six or seven game tying opportunities. Those are always the best, you know, because people remember them when you make them. Absolutely. Never. That's all they talk. Don't remember when you miss. Never. But if you miss, boy, this people remember them when you make them. That's all they talk about.

Never. But if you miss, boys, this is the worst human of all time. You make them, though. You just go to overtime. Thanks. Thank you. It's like, yeah, no problem. I just want to let you know in my head what's going through there as I walk out there. Happy I became a punter, to be honest. But, yeah, good luck to the West Virginia

boys as they beat the hell out of North Carolina. And I like those North Carolina boys, too. I got a chance to meet them, you know, and everything like that. But I think they got a lot sitting out. We don't. Yes. We got a lot of guys playing. Right.

Our money guys are playing. Mm-hmm. All their money guys aren't playing. We'll break it down. I think we're only favored by six and a half, too, or something like that. Oh, man, lock it up. It does feel like this is a Neil Brown Super Bowl for this West Virginia team. Exactly.

And them trying to make, you know make the Garrett Green, Pat White comparisons, I was in both play quarterback for certainly. Garrett Green has the opportunity today to propel himself into next year. As Gigi Ron Wild all over everybody. Today's there's four games and each side has, each game has a clear side of where there is a clear motivation advantage. And you should look to take advantage of those today. That's bowl season pretty much, is it not?

Yes, it is. Just like Florida State's motivation on Saturday is to win national championship. Yeah, it's better. They could potentially be the only team that's undefeated when it's all said and done. Who are they beating? Oh, the reigning national champion who won 29 straight games or something like that, then lose one, and they're not in it.

So there's a lot of implications on the line there. Florida State, what a legacy builder. They got all their guys playing. They got all their guys playing for that. And then for Georgia, Florida State's got nobody playing. And that's tough. With everything that happened.

The back of Roderick Baker's transfer, he's not playing. It would have been really nice. Dude, none of their players are playing. Georgia though, we got not playing. It would have been really nice. He's in a portal? Everybody. Dude, none of their players are playing pretty good. Georgia, though? Okay. We got guys playing. We got a lot of guys.

And if we do remember, like, at the end of the national championship, we were there. We're going to be at the Rose Bowl, too, by the way. Hell yeah. Let's go. Can't wait to do that. So stupid that we get to do that. Plumped.

But if you remember what Georgia's third stringers did against TCU in the national championship in the last quarter. It's not only the fact that maybe backups will play against Florida State, but their starters are also playing. The way Kirby views this, especially after what happened, it's like, that one could get ugly.

But Florida State, they do miraculous things to win games this year. So there it is. Chance to win a national championship for these Florida State teams. I'll call them co-nat. Absolutely. Undefeated. And what happens if they lose by 40? Is that like opposite?

They just get propelled down? Maybe they get kicked out of the ACC? Yeah, relegate. You can relegate them to the shit, Big 12. No, no. Relegated to the Big 12? You don't see people paying $500 million to get out of the Big 12. You see them just sending contracts and saying, we're not staying.

But you don't see people paying $500 million to get out of the Big 12. It's never been our problem, people getting hot. Too many people want to get in right now to the Big 12. Well, all the teams that don't really have a home want to get in. But everyone else, they went to the conferences they actually want to go to. I am worried about the Big 12 falling into an ACC situation, which Florida State fell into this past year, coming up, but at least the champion automatically in the 12-game

playoff next year. So that's good news. Until that changes. Right. Because somebody's going to be pissed about something, but let's move on. Ladies and gentlemen, last night's Hard Knocks episode on HBO, phenomenal. Okay, I actually, we in NFL films have had a contractual relationship for a few years.

We all saw it come to a boiling point last year whenever we were pretty much getting sued by the NFL for utilizing graphics of NFL teams on graphics on our show. We could run video because we're paying multiple millions of dollars to nfl films for on our show i was paying multiple millions of dollars to nfl films to run highlights on the show but once it was paused you see with the logo no logos can't do that so that was and we're the first people that was an independent company independent operation that got rights and got a deal done with nfl films so i was very thankful and proud of NFL Films.

But through that whole process, NFL Films and the NFL lawyers had to battle a lot. NFL Films went to bat for us a lot. NFL Films has been a great partner for us for the last couple of years. We know a lot of people over there, okay? So whenever we say, like, we should be watching Hard Knocks,

it's not just like for the entertainment value. It's like we understand how much time NFL films puts into hard knocks and how much like effort they put into it and how much of acknowledgement they knew that it was kind of getting stale there for a while. They understood that they had to kind of reinvent the wheel. So then they do this in season one and the Colts had it for a little bit there. I forget who the Cardinals had it.

And it ended bad. It was starting to get a curse. It was starting to get a curse. Do not have hard knocks in season. Just like the regular hard knocks was just like the Madden curse became. It was like, get a curse. It was starting to get a curse. Do not have Hard Knocks in season, just like the regular Hard Knocks was, just like the Madden curse became. It was like, don't do this. And the NFL films people feel that. They actually hear it.

They listen. They take it. It's a whole thing. So now that they have the Miami Dolphins, I feel like we should have been watching all season. And last night we all made a commitment to each other to watch the episode. That might have been the greatest Hard Knocks episode I've seen. Across the board.

It is phenomenal. They got a head coach in McDaniel who is not scared at all of being on camera. And I think the thing about people who get scared about being on camera are people that aren't authentic people. The people who maybe have a facade that they are putting out to the world are very scared to be on camera whenever they're not working or they're not doing their gimmick or their acting might feel like they might get exposed for being a fraudulent or a

fugaz like don't find out who i actually am let's just keep this fake front that we are mcdaniel addressed the hard knocks thing at the beginning he was like yeah cameras are here great would i like them not no but i'm not changing and are you. And he has remained the same person that we all assume he was throughout the entire. You see clips from week one, and then you see last night's episode. This dude is awesome. McDaniel is fantastic. Does it work if they're losing? No.

Maybe not. Nothing works whenever you're losing. Even if you're Bill Belichick, greatest of all time. Shit doesn't work if you're losing. But it is working. They are winning. And there's going to be other owners that are going to be like, you know, let's find another McDaniel.

I don't think there is. And everybody says, you know, he wears those pants up a little bit. Sure. He's got those sunglasses on. Very cool. Super cool. Shoes. Like maybe he's not, you know, the right guy.

Accountability. Maybe he's not the right guy to ask things of his players. Got a lot of egos down there. A lot of personalities down there. We're going into a week 16 game here, and we're watching Hard Knocks. Listen to the decision he makes and how he goes about making his decision. Because remember, coaching is just communicating. How do you communicate your message to the team?

Now, you've got to have the right message. Feels like this guy's a football wizard. His message seemingly always good. But how do you get the message to the team? Now, you've got to have the right message. It feels like this guy's a football wizard. His message seemingly always good. But how do you get the boys to buy in? Listen to him on a Wednesday or Thursday meeting, week 16. Everybody's exhausted at this stage. Not a lot of people want to practice at all. Listen to what he does to motivate the boys to get a great practice

before this Dallas Cowboys game. Yeah, I'm going to go talk some shit and get this turnt up today. Hey, Butch! I know you just wanted to go through the motions today. Oh, you almost bit me, bro! Hey! We're competing today! We're competing today! It's not time to be stopped!

We're competing today! Like, I want shit talking after completion. Oh yeah, visualize f***ing his world up. Bitch, fuck, fuck. Oh, I love your noises. Hey, I hit the White House today. I hit the White House with this.

Ravage these corners. F*** these corners up today. Wes Welker, Sam Madison told me to apologize to you because this guy's going to choke your guys out today. Are you ready for a play call or what? I'm ready. And then they just go hard. Now, some practices are obviously not at a good level.

The intensity level is not fantastic. I love the way he chooses to do the things that he does. After they had a massive loss, the way he decided to put accountability on others was like, also, hey, not all your fault, my fault as well, but he was calling people out and doing it in his fashion. I love his message, AQ. I love the way he operates. And I think this is the perfect hard knock season for the whole world to learn about this dude's style. I've loved everything about him since the beginning. Listen, he came from San Fran, right?

And he was the architect behind that offensive line. Every single person I've talked to, the offensive line meetings, the run game meetings in Sam Fran, he ran. So he's taken that kind of persona, bringing it to Miami and the way that he's gone about it, right? There's a fine line between being cheesy and hitting the right message to

the guys, and I think he's nailed it. I'm going to go talk some shit today, but, and then you said I like that whenever he told, too, I want plays and I want you to talk shit. It's like that's how you create a culture, right? That's the culture he's trying to build. The one word that comes to my mind with Mike is empowering. And you see what he did with Tua.

And it kind of just shines a light on how important coaching is, especially head coaching, seeing where Tua started and where he's come. Even that conversation he had with Armstead in the locker room at halftime, that was dope. Him talking, getting his guys going. All the personalities, Tyreek, Ramsey, Wilkins. Like he got a bunch of big persons. Still having Uncle Dan around.

Dan Marino still in the building. That was awesome. But how he keeps the guys going, like you said, there's a fine line between cheesy and to your point, if you're losing. None of this. Oh, it gets real cheesy. Now you start getting, you know, maybe Russell Wilson type, you know how people felt about him last year.

But it's awesome to see, especially, obviously, as a lifelong Dolphin fan. Yeah, from South Florida. From Broward, though. Hey, listen, I learned a lot on the Internet about that this weekend. Speaking of empowering Tua, here's Tua in the huddle, okay? We saw Tua at Alabama. I don't think I knew much about him. I knew he could play the ukulele.

Very well. I knew he was well-liked. I knew he could put a ball literally in a keyhole if you wanted to. Didn't know him as a person. Then he gets to Miami. And that was terrible. I mean, there was lawsuits about, oh, they're just trialers. And then there was fake reports going out to make him look soft.

He didn't get hurt, actually. He broke his thumb. Yeah, well, remember he had the hairline fractured in his ribs. Yeah, he could have played. We didn't really find any injury. Then three days later, it was like, oh, he actually has a hairline fracture in his ribs. It's like, well, why'd you guys try to make him look bad, saying he didn't have an injury? It was terrible.

Thought he was potentially broke and thought he was never going to have a thing. Then McDaniel tells us and tells everybody that, you know, I went through however many plays of Tua. I found all the good things. And I'm going to build this team around making Tua good. And his only messaging was like, hey, Tua, you're a dog, dude. You are really good. We're very thankful for you.

You're fantastic. And I don't know what Tua was like in the huddle whenever he was first quarterback for the Dolphins when they were pulling him out before two-minute drill and having Fitz Magic go in and everything like that. But listen to him talk to this huddle on a game-winning play his first quarterback for the Dolphins when they were pulling him out before two-minute drill and having Fitz Magic go in and everything like that. But listen to him talk to this huddle on a game-winning play against the Dallas Cowboys. Listen to the confidence, the sense of urgency,

and also the command of a group of men who are very large, very competitive, very exhausted, and have their own egos and everything. Listen to Tua be a damn quarterback here. This shit right here, T, this is on you guys on that left side. Here's the deal. Miami gets a first down. They could basically waste the clock down to nothing, try and kick the game when they field roll.

Mike White, relax. This is it. We'll see. He's going to have a first down. Let's go! Let's go! Down to the 10. No timeouts left for Dallas. Let's go! Let's go! Down to the 10. No timeouts left for Dallas.

Let's go! Now, Jason Sanders had not made a kick yet, but he would go on. I saw Jason Sanders jog on the field while Tua was doing all that stuff, and I was like, all right, got to make that. You better make that. You got to. Hey, let's not watch this entire thing. You already won 4-4.

And I think McDaniel last night, there was a clip of him saying, he's got this shit. He actually, McDaniel says that as he's walking on the field, and he inevitably makes it. A big third down, too, where Tua kind of called the shot. You know, immediately, hey, knew what play he wanted to get to. The little Tyreek screen. Tyreek, like, all right, talking to himself.

Like, all right, got to get this shit. Got to get right. Got it to him. Got the first down. And obviously, that, all right, talking to himself, like, all right, got to get this shit, got to get right. Got it to him, got the first down, and obviously that was a big drive to basically, you know, seal it. Just his confidence, though. You know, like, he's the guy. He's in control. He's the trigger man.

And it's like, I am pumped for this Miami Dolphins story as a whole, and I'm thankful Hard Knocks is up. And like you mentioned earlier, there probably won't be another Mike McDaniel. Just, like, the position he was in. Think about the guys that are thinking about being head coaches now. It's all OCs. McDaniel just kind of came out of nowhere. And even when he was hired in Miami, it was like, who is this guy?

What did he do? I don't know if anyone really gave him as much credit for the Niners run game as it was initially when he got hired. But it would be out of nowhere if there was some Mike McDaniel and let's say Ben Johnson or the guy down in houston or kafka any of these guys that were up for jobs that were ocs and then some run game coordinator comes in out of nowhere and he's the head coach now like that that would at least it blow me out of the water if that happened this offseason and by the way like there's gonna be and i mentioned this earlier there's

gonna be teams that are gonna try to find the next week big thing. I know it's like, I don't, hey. Don't try. This feels like 101 here. Yeah. He had an Ivy League brain. Yep. Right? He's got an Ivy League brain.

Yep. He also grew up around ball boy there for a while. Ball boy, yes, the Broncos. Happened to be in the Shanahan, like, family pretty much. Lost his job. What's that movie, The Outsiders? Or the, what's it called? When they, like, Bill Gates grew up around the only computer.

Oh, yeah, Outliers. The Outliers. It's like, outliers. The outliers. It's like this guy is an outlier. This guy is one of one. I don't think it's repeatable. And then you add in the Moxie and swag that he has. Listen to what he says as the captains are about to go out. And Uncle Dan Marino is the honorary captain of the night.

First of all, look at Tua and Uncle Dan's relationship. And then listen to McDaniel just looking like a little kid. This is the head coach of the team. Just chirping all the boys, motivating in his own style. I'll go dance. Go get your ass. Go.

Our captains are really good players. Holy shit. Okay. And we even got Dan Marino. Yeah, Dan Marino. We're coming for your records, Dan. We're coming for your records, Dan. Dan and him love each other, by the way.

That's why he's in the building. I assume they were showing a video of all of Dan's accomplishments and Dan's records and what it is, number one, number one. And everybody's clapping, having a good time. And McDaniel's like, we're coming for you. Chirping, chirping Dan Marino right before the game. And you hear how cool Tua is. Hey, let's go get their ass dances.

Yes, sir. And Tyreek, we even got Dan Marino. It's like the vibes immaculate, the confidence through the roof, and they have the talent in all phases. Why not the Miami Dolphins? Seriously, why not? The vibes are immaculate, and it feels like we talk about

matching head coaches with the city. It feels like he is a perfect match for Miami. I just noticed something in the background of the captain's clip. Why is Miami... Is that the game against the Cowboys? Yeah, I think so. Why can't we show up on time, okay?

Miami. It's Miami area, no chance. Yeah, weather. Remember LeBron, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh? I thought this was FinFam. Yeah. Christmas Eve. Christmas Eve. time okay miami it's miami area no chance yeah weather remember lebron duane wade chris bosh i thought this was finn fam yeah christmas eve christmas eve listen you know what's going on that's just how miami is i think we all just understand there was playoff games there for the heat yeah where the lower bowl had 14 people to the second half or whatever and then that's like lebron like they were about to go win the entire bar some good bars good clubs good spots

up there. They're just getting ready for the game. Listen, they got warm up too. They know when they are at their peak. It's called tailgating three hours before the game starts. Well, you can sleep in a little bit. When it's 70 and you're tailgating too, not as big of a rush.

When you can just enjoy the weather, get a nice little tan on versus getting in there when it's 10 degrees. Yeah, and I don't know what Ross is charging for drinks. Probably much cheaper outside. I would assume. Probably much cheaper outside. To your point, though, he is a great match from Miami. We talked about, like, you're not going to find another Mike McDaniel,

but we talked about the Lions yesterday and, like, what Dan Campbell has done. Like, it's just about being authentic. And if you are a little cheesy, Mike McDaniel is a little cheesy. Be cheesy, be that, but be that when you're – You think he's cheesy? I think he's a little, you know. The one thing that's awesome. A little quirky.

Oh, yeah, some of this press conference. I didn't think anything I watched there was cheesy. That's the difference, though, is, like, the stuff we see on Twitter and stuff like that where it's kind of – but, like, who he is in, like, the team meeting room where you see it on Hard Knocks where he's letting F-bombs fly left and right, that guy's not cheesy. You know what I mean?

Yeah, going in front of the media and having some of those quirky responses, but he's not going up there and letting F-bombs fly. But when he's around his guys, I don't think any of these guys, maybe at times, but for the most part, I think all those guys are bought in and they're hanging on every word he says, at least based on the clips we see on hard knocks.

It certainly seems that way. What did Flores say? Flora said that uh or colin cowherd who said it what did they say last week uh gump something about him being all over social media or something yeah he said uh mike mccarthy would never be on twitter because mike mcdaniel's all over it mike mcdaniel actually doesn't have a twitter either pal i hate to break it to you no yeah and we were fake Gucci bags. Cowboys were the real Gucci bags. No, I do appreciate the Colin Cowards. Like, every time I'm on here, there's a video of this guy. Yep.

Okay, I don't see Big Mike on here. Colin Coward throws 102 on the tape. All the time. All the time. Walked in. Any time something will come up from... Let him go yard. What's that?

Oh, you're going to hit it hard? Let him go yard. Locked in. Anytime something will come up from. Let him go yard. What's that? Oh, you're going to hit it hard. Let him go yard. Yeah, absolutely. That's why he's been doing it for so long. Absolute dog. But he did say some things. I think he echoed the sentiments of what a lot of people think. Like, oh, this guy wants attention.

This guy this. It's like, he won't come on our show. Like, I don't think he does. He doesn't. He does only the mandated stuff. And then he's all ball all the time, which he's up at 4 a.m. that guy. He's up at 4 or 3 a.m. to go to the work at 4 a.m.

because of how much he loves ball. It's like I think what you think because the glasses and the shoes and the off-whites and because he is a personality and everything, like he's younger and he looks sweet, I think people's natural implication is like, oh, this guy's got to be a certain way. It's like this dude is unlike anything else that, oh, this guy's got to be a certain way. It's like, this dude is unlike anything else that there is.

And Miami's got it. Miami's got it. You've got to love that. Now, pivoting away from the NFL, TNT's got it. Yes, they do. You know what I mean? Spittin' Chicklets got it. Yeah, they do. Both of them have a cast that is phenomenal covering the NHL.

This man is a driver behind both. He played professional hockey, I believe, for 16 years. That's right. Now, some stops at the Wheeling Nailers. Of course. Great team. Maybe Eastern Europe. Six years in the NHL, including with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Never seen a person more beloved by every human in his sport than this guy. He started his biz nasty on Twitter. It was one of the most iconic athlete twitters that was at the beginning of the entire platform being built he's parlayed that into an incredible podcast with spitting chiclets of the barstool sports network and also on tnt's coverage sitting next to who oh i don't know wayne gretzky how about it ladies and gentlemen pa Paul Bissonnette. Yeah! What's up, dude?

What's up, gang gang? That's quite the intro, boys. Thank you so much. I assume a lot of people... It's good to see Bubba Gump in the mix, too, eh? He's back down in the United States. Hell yeah. He's Canadian. Hey, listen, you hockey players, especially Canadian hockey players,

understand that the immigration process isn't just the easiest. You know, getting Gumpy back into America from Canada with a very good job that he can be the only person that can do the job was damn near impossible, Biz. I did not know that was the case, pal. I had no idea. What do you do? Get

caught smuggling some maple syrup in or something? What was the deal? why couldn't he get his visa uh i think it was labatt blues too much too many too many molson molson triple x yeah could have been a little bit too much hey biz let's dive in here um on saturday night christmas eve eve i'm hanging out i'm watching the hockey i'm like hell, hockey's all the way back. Love it. Conor Bedard. Conor Bedard takes the puck,

puts it on his stick, as if he's like the at-always-hockey guy on Instagram, or if he's somebody on the internet that does trick shots, pulls out the Michigan in the middle of his rookie campaign, lifts it up over the shoulder. That's goal time all the time in the first period.

Conor Bedard, the next one, doing absurd things at an incredibly high level. And for those that don't watch hockey, this is not a normal thing. It was founded, I believe, when a Michigan player in the NCAA tournament back in 1996 did that. Boom. They call it the lacrosse goal as well because you stick it on her as if the ball is in a net not easy to do it's phenomenal then that takes over the internet obviously it's like well that's not going to happen again no way no way it's going to happen again it's abnormal that

this happened to begin with and then you go to the mighty ducks quack quack quack quack quack and the guy that's on the cover of what? NHL 23. Zegers. Yeah. In the same exact night? Is this just like a normal thing now? Because hockey is obviously an electrifying sport. But if we're going to up over the shoulder. Look at that.

He flipped a stick, scooped that thing, threw it over the goalie's shoulder. It's like he also told the reporter for the Ducks earlier in the day he was going to do it. Or she asked him to do it for him so romance and sweetness is obviously fantastic part of this he's like Babe Ruth he called a shot but look at he picks it up huh bang okay biz I do all that to say this is hockey at its highest level it's ever been right now and is the NHL having shit like this every night I didn't know this was taking place as I haven't been able to follow along as closely. The skill set in the NHL right now is, yes, it's the best it's ever been.

And I mean, yeah, this is becoming more and more common. Zegras has actually done it before. And it was in a pregame interview when he was on the ice that she asked him to do it. He's like, oh, sure, yeah, I'll throw it in the mix. And ended up executing it. So as far as the skill set in the NHL, I think that the game after the last lockout,

they made it so there wasn't obstruction, obstruction, hooking. There wasn't all the BS. There wasn't as much fighting where the skill set could flourish. So the game is, especially from a live perspective, it's so much more fun to consume and more and more of these players who are

doing these fascinating things that we haven't seen, or maybe we have in the past, but like you said, they're becoming more regular. Conor Bedard, he's a freak. And with all the expectations that he had coming into the league, he's surpassed them.

And even to start the season, they had them on prime time between ESPN, TNT. Then they had them go to Toronto, Montreal, play Colorado, and then Vegas as far as the two last Stanley Cup champions. So they battle tested him early and he passed every single test. And even after that, he's continued to escalate, escalate. And it's not like he's

surrounded by the most talented players either. That's not taking anything away from the Chicago Blackhawks, but this is a clear rebuild. So it's not even like he's surrounded by all these other guys to make him good. He is just that good, and he's going to be the face of the league. And I probably would compare him to Crosby, the way that he handles himself and how hockey-obsessed he is and how media-trained he is and how he's able to take the torch. And like I said, he's the next face of the league once your boy Sid retires. The NHL has been so kind to us.

They had Conor Bedard on our show the day before they took on the Penguins in that league opener. And he talked about how Sidney was obviously big hero, mentor, idol. It feels like hockey knows who the next guys are, more so than other sports. It's like in other sports, there's a lot of projections.

This one, this one, this one, this guy, this guy's guy's going to be the guy hockey seems to get it right more often than not why is that um i maybe it's because of the world juniors and the fact that they're internationally tested to and put on the big stage these guys are like pro players since like teenage years they move away from their families and shit right like i don't think people understand that completely right so in canada they have the chl which is the canadian hockey league so he played in the western hockey league which i would probably say is the toughest of all of them because they they have more physicality so when as you're you're moving up in the ranks you're kind of used to getting more of that punishment i played in the ohl and then they had the quebec major

junior league i moved away from home because I was drafted in the second round. So the first two picks usually from each of these. I was 16 years old, buddy. I left home at 16. I went to live with a Billet family. And I'll never forget, I came home at 17. My mom was like, I don't even recognize this person, right? Because you're thrown in the hockey locker room with 19, 20-year-olds,

and all of a sudden you're slinging back pops and you're introduced to females. You know, you've never met females before, of course. So I think Conor Bernard is a little bit more laser focused than I was. And I got a little bit more distracted. But and then on top of that, like I was 16 going to the OHL. He was 16 going to the WHL and then having to play for team canada and then leading team canada to a gold medal at international play playing against the world's best eight you know you know 18 year olds and 19 year olds so he was playing at that level when he was so young so as far as knowing

who those next guys are going to be i mean matthews did it mcdavid did it so these guys were ranked like double a prospects coming in where it. So these guys are ranked like double-A prospects coming in where they knew that these guys were going to come in and they weren't going to skip a beat. And as I said earlier, Conor McGarrett has surpassed any expectation, in my opinion, that he had coming in and probably has the most lethal shot

since Ovechkin coming in as a player. On that note, AQ has a question for you, Biz. Yeah, Biz, last year there was a big campaign talking about Ovechkin kind of breaking this record. Slow start this year, obviously not as great a team as they've had. Is there still a realistic expectation that he breaks that record? I think that he'll probably play until it's broken. He got off to a slow start this year and kind of has still been in that he

did score a six to the year in overtime the other night i don't know if you guys saw that pretty funny picture of mers lincoln's the goalie and the whole team looking back at him basically taunting him for for giving tom wilson a walker sandwich which led to that power play pretty pretty cool photo but um i think that you gave him a whopper sandwich which led to that power play yeah he was a little pissed off at tom wilson who seems to get under a lot of players skin in the league hey tom dropped him as soon as he tom as soon as he got up one swing dropped the goalie by the way that's tom wilson still got it tom wilson still tom wilson he's a savage and probably the best power forward in in the entire national hockey league it It sucks because if Washington doesn't make playoffs,

I feel like that's a guy who could really impact the lineup. I would love for the Leafs to be able to pick him up, but he just locked into a seven- or eight-year deal in Washington. But going back to Ovi, I just think because the game is so fast, this is probably the first year that he has looked a little bit slower. And the power play and where he normally hangs out you know how gretzky was known for being behind the net and making plays behind the net of course ovi's known for that big his office that's what they used to call it right ovi's office is

that one timer on that offside top of the circle area like when he retires or is going to he's tickling the rafters every time he's just waiting for it and then it's clap bomb city every single time and usually players don't really want to get in the way and sacrifice their bodies blocking that but it's maybe became a little bit more predictable to where teams have now lined up and and and taken that away but like i said i think that if he plays two more full seasons i think he'll be around breaking it and if he hasn't broken after the next two years i could see him coming back for one more year just to you can't come this far and then not go on to break it

right talking about bill belichick like that with the head coaching wins record and how that's all going to pan out so i assume the legends that are that close, you have to go, like Vinatieri was going to get the points record. Yes. You know, like he was going to, yep, I've already committed 19 years of my life to this. I guess I could do another one. It seems the same for Ovi, I would assume. And if not, maybe go back overseas

and get a little bit of the Russian gas and get a little more pep in your step and come back and get back to the old Ovi. I don't know. What's the Russian gas there, Biz? What are you talking about there? A little science? We talking a little science over there in Russia? We've had players on our podcast who have played in the KHL, even going back to the Super League when it wasn't even called the KHL. KHL, Russian League, for those that don't know. Yeah, like to the point where like sometimes when they're going through a gold drought over there, they'll bring a lamb on the ice and they'll slaughter it in the crease and i'll drain the blood and then they'll cook the lamb up that uh you know kevin dullman who's from niagara falls

near my hometown so i knew him he came on he had a great breakdown of of taking the russian gas so did timmy stapleton who was a guy who played a little bit in the national hockey league he actually went overseas to play for mike keenan who was like an insane coach in the NHL. And he's actually coaching over in Italy now, believe it or not, which is a very calm league. So I don't know how the Italians are taking to his style of coaching. But it's this thing that even with my podcast mate played in the KHL and he took it. It makes you feel incredible. Like you can skate for,

for days and days and days, you're light on your feet. So even if you're playing in a back to back, you huff this, this gas, and then you go kind of squirrely for about 30 seconds to a minute. And then finally you come to, and then you go take your pregame nap and you come back and it's the best

you've ever felt on the ice. And this is something that these guys are taking over there. The trainers will be handing you pills that you don't even know what they are, and you're just gobbling them down. Rush is a different place, boys. It's no holds barred. We need to get this gas! What is this gas? What is it? It sounds like

Toradol, but better, it sounds like. It sounds like you're smoking. It's like the meth version of Toradol. You're doing it sounds like. Smoke it. It sounds like you're smoking. It's like the meth version of Toradol. You're doing crack. With a little Russian spice. And like I said, it makes you feel incredible. I'd love to get a tank right before I do podcasts, so I'm just humming like you out of a gate.

Maybe a little mix of Adderall in there. I don't know what they got going, but it's definitely something I want to try. I don't think we can step foot in Russia because of the stuff we've said about it on the podcast. I'm pretty sure we're on the no-fly list. Kind of like Bubba Gump. Yeah, bingo.

Gumpy gets banned from the United States. I think all of us, though, probably banned from Russia at this point. I don't know how it's all going. You would know better in international relations even uh timmy stapleton told the story about who's timmy stapleton can you tell me tell the world who timmy stapleton is because i thought you're gonna say tim horton and i was like a king timmy horton was on the russian gas i was i was excited to hear so he was a pro hockey player and we've had him on our podcast.

I think Whit played with him at some point. He was the first one to come on and who played in Russia. He also told a story of going over to Russia where when they would be on the road, he would come back and he thought there was ghosts in his apartment because his furniture was always moved around. So he pulled his groin. He went on the road trip and Mike keenan was like like you know you better be playing here you know you're an import and he was the crazy coach but at a certain point he's

like keen my groin's like hanging on by a thread here i can't keep up with these other guys out here so they sent him back and when he got back early went to open up his apartment door and it was dead bolted and sure enough when he was on the road the the guy who owned the apartment was subletting it so somebody was sleeping there when he was on the road so this guy timmy stapleton who came on our podcast was the first one to really go and dive deep into the antics of what were the khl about the insane training camps of how you're going on the ice two three times a a day, you're running 10 miles. They're basically forcing you to take these drugs.

Oh, you're in a golf slump. Let's slaughter a lamb in the crease. So the stories were just, I was in tears. Cause I've never heard any of this stuff going on. And that, that was,

Timmy Stapleton's a legend. And he kind of broke. There he is. I just learned so much. He's built like a bag of milk, too. So just the fact that he was a pro athlete is astonishing in itself. So shout out to Timmy Stapleton. Let's give him a round of applause.

Love you, Timmy. Love you, Tim. Man. I would like to continue talking about the KHL. Sounds like they got a lot going on. Oh, yeah. The AK-47s of the security guards who showed up to the airport to pick him up. And the one owner of one of the teams was so crazy that he would,

if the refs were calling too many penalties, and mind you, they had like four goons on their team who were just going out there beating guys up and suckering them. And he would come down and threaten the refs' lives if they called another penalty. So they'd be going around the rest of the game, not one penalty called. If the team was paying poorly, he'd come in the room with an AK-47,

and he'd be yelling in Russian to all the Russian players, so all the North Americans were like, what the fuck is going on? Oh! What is going on? He's quoting! It's not him saying it.

Somebody else says it. It's a Russian. Is there a fine jar? Absolutely. Five hunch. Oh, Jesus. I'll Venmo you. We'll donate it. There it is.

Aaron owes a couple thousand. JJ owes a couple thousand JJ O's you're in 500 what a hero you are thanks Biz for doing that anyways I need to go I need to go watch KHL hockey game at some point

and I need to get some of that laughing gas Putin scores like 10 goals that's the all star game when Putin's just the oh yeah And I need to get some of that laughing gas. Go to one where Putin scores like 10 goals. Yeah, what is that? That's the all-star game when Putin's just the... Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you don't go...

He's got like a 10-foot bubble around him, bubble boy. And he just... The goalies will sell out and make it look like it was a great goal. Just like trickling in five hole. They got to like sweep it like curling just so it crosses the goal line. Hey, that's our sport now, right? We beat you guys? Is that the case?

Oh, yeah. USA, that's our sport now, right? Curling? Curling's our sport now? You guys beat us. We beat you. I had no clue. I haven't been following the curling ranks.

Yeah, we won the goal. It's our sport now. I think it's our sport now. I think it's our sport now. Tokyo. All right. Well, at least we got our maple syrup and hockey. For now.

No, we have hockey too. The Americans are nipping at the Canadians' heels with all the prospects and the talent that they have coming out with, like, the Hughes brothers. I mean, Matthews, of course. The Kachuk boys, who have really done an amazing job. Walt Kachuk was a legend himself. He should be in the Hall of Fame. But he had two boys who now play. Brady Kachuk was a legend himself he should be in the hall of fame but he had two

boys who now play Brady Kachuk who's the captain in uh in Ottawa and Matthew who went off to the Stanley Cup finals last year and really dragged his team into the fight and he's so fun to watch because every game they're just mucking it up and they really embody that old style of hockey so if you're a casual hockey fan I would I would tend to want to watch Florida games because regardless of what's happening, you're going to see scrums, you're going to see fights, you're going to see goals.

So it's a little bit of that throwback style of hockey, which is not as common anymore because of the skill set what these players have and the fact there's just not a lot of fighters. Yeah, Darius is a big Florida Panthers fan. Oh, is he? There you go. My captain. Awesome. How long have you been following him? Three, Darius is a big Florida Panthers fan. Oh, is he? There you go.

My captain. Awesome. How long have you been following? Three, four years. A whole damn life. No. Is that right? Well, yeah, since they've been down.

My sister was a dancer there. Oh, okay. Hey, I didn't know the ball was there. You got blood ties there, man. I did not know that. They made us proud last year. Yeah, you're damn right they did. What a run.

Offense is always phenomenal. Oh, yeah. Got Bob in the net. He's a dog. The story about Kachuk was what? He had broken everything. They had to put the skates on him, and they just propped him up and were like,

hey, go play. And then afterwards, it was like, yeah, he had a broken sternum, fibula. He had ribs and a neck problem, but he played. Yeah, he played out there. Hockey's awesome. Full body cast before games with the Hannibal Lecter mask, and they just wheel him out to the ice,

and he'd get out there and play. That's how hardcore he is. I don't know what they were freezing him up with for him to try even to go play in the Stanley Cup finals. Maybe Russians. They should. That's a banned

substance in the National League, by the way. You can't be doing the gas in the NHL. So they know what it is then, right? So if it's banned, that means they know what it is. Oh, Gary knows what it is. Yeah, he's definitely on the no-fly list. That's on the no-fly list. Yeah, because that was the thing in the NFL.

When that deer antler spray got in and everything, it was like players and scientists or whatever, they were just trying to beat the scientists that the NFL were working. So it was just like a constant shell game, like just trying to outsmart them. And then, well, that's bad now. Oh, that's bad now. That's bad now.

I assume the Russian guests, I guess they know what Gary Bettman knows what it is. But that we need to find out what that is. He's probably got a few tanks in his office. He's hiding it all for himself. Did you see how cool he looked when he came on our show? He had to he had it unbuttoned. He had it on the side of his office. He was sitting in a chair.

He was super cool. Good commish? We like him? I would say for the 30 years he's been on board, he's done an excellent job. I think the only thing that's probably held back his legacy is the fact that maybe there hasn't been a best-on-best in recent memory.

Crosby and McDavid have not been able to play for Team Canada together, but COVID also happened. But all things considered with the franchise values where they are, with now that hockey's on ESPN and TNT and getting all the coverage that it's getting, I would say that Gary Bettman has done a tremendous job as commissioner of the National Hockey League. All right, way to go, Gary.

Way to go, Garrett. Connor has a question for you, Biz. I also just looked it up. The thing that's in the gas that is illegal for the NHL is that if you do it, you become a communist and then you start hating Ukraine. Timmy Stapleton's a communist? Oh, no. I heard Witt took some of this.

I love Witt. It's only a 48-hour effect. You start yelling at everybody in Russia. It's like Tortal. Exactly. Once it wears off, you don't want to kill the entire world or Ukraine. But, Biz, we were talking about this, and you kind of brought it up with the young stars that the NHL has.

Do you feel like it's going to take one of these players to kind of do what Deion Sanders did in the NFL and kind of promote himself to make a superstar. And obviously he has all the talent. It's not as if he did that, but the persona of, you know, prime. Do you feel like a player in the NHL like a Zegers and clearly not Bedard because like you mentioned, he's more like Crosby, kind of quiet. But do you think it's going to take something like that to kind of not promote

only the NHL but also build the stars of the nhl just because of the fact that you know like if a bedard or a zegras were to walk around in you know arizona or columbus or i mean shit even boston sometimes do you think that those guys that it's going to take someone like that whether it's from you know an american or a canadian hopefully not a russian but do you think one of those, you know, people could kind of send the players themselves into the, you know, stratosphere of those NBA, NFL guys that are, you know, massive all over? Great question. I just feel like, I feel like hockey players like to stay in line.

And I would say that maybe the knock is they are a little bit vanilla, but it's, I think it's just more that that's their personality. So they are staying true and genuine to themselves. I mean, as a, as a guy who's in the media world, like I would embrace any type of guy who's willing to come outside their shell and,

and sell the game to that perspective. And I think that guys, guys are slowly doing it. It's a progression, but the NBA and NFL standards standards we are like hockey is behind but once again i think that it's just more guys staying true to themselves but i just mentioned matthew kachuk i think that he's been a very candid in interviews and and and there are guys who have taken the reins in that regard like even certain teams are allowing players to

traditionally players wore suits to games, right? They would wear like the gray, blue and black suits. And it was very vanilla where like even Toronto, they've been very relaxed with the dress code. So players have been able to show. Yeah. Yeah. Fashion.

So players have been able to show their personality off a little bit more with what they're wearing for clothes. Maybe not so much coming out of their shell as to what they normally think but i also think that guys are very sensitive so they're worried about what the the fans and the general public will say when they do fall out of line where you have to have a real big you know your give up front meter has to be very low in order to do that type of stuff and you have to have very thick skin where I don't think there has. What's that?

Good discipline on you there. Good. Good. You know what I mean? Yeah. The, the, the bomb I have to do on TNT.

I dropped the bombs quite a bit, but you guys have them on it with ESPN, but PK Subban was really a guy who came out of his shell and especially on the fashion side and how eccentric he was. And he dealt with a lot of criticism throughout his whole career, even from the top analysts, like Don Cherry was pretty critical of him. Mike,

yeah. Which is insane. Cause he was, he made his whole brand on being that exact same guy. Thank you for pointing out a bit of the hypoxia, but Don Cherry's a legend, and I won't speak negatively on him, but Mike Milbury was critical of him. But PK, he had thick skin, and he didn't care,

and he wanted to stay true to himself. So I think that he did an excellent job of growing the game beyond what its traditional fan base was. So I would be very pumped that there were more P.K. Suh bands and less maybe of the Vanilla guys. But that was a great question. I agree with you, and I think it would help grow the game a lot more. Yeah, we enjoy it.

You don't like the Vanilla guys? Too many Vanilla guys? Just more P.K. Suh bands, that's all. No problem with Vanilla. Just more three cases wins, that's all. No problem with that. It is becoming, there are more colored players coming in the national hockey league. Oh, hey, look at that. Deepak.

Deepak. Like no black players. Yeah. That's. Like Quinton Byfield out in L.A. is a young stud. Dog. Who is playing on that top line with Aze Kopitar and Kempe. Nice. Adrian Kempe. So he's a guy to look out for if you want to jump on that bandwagon well certainly do um hey real quick biz just want to

let you know you're awesome dude keep crushing it we appreciate the hell out of you uh keep going we're gonna watch the season alongside of you and the spitting chicklets boys and on tnt hey and congratulations to all you guys and what you've built and obviously the transition over to ESPN. Dude, you guys have grown a juggernaut. You have an amazing team and it's wild, man. You guys go ham. Well, we all love you. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Bissonnette.

Joining us now live from Connecticut, Ohio is a man who's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, a father of 10, a COVID survivor, the president of Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Hey, dude. A.J., great to see you, pal. Great to be here.

We need to get some of that Russian gas that Biz was talking about, no question. Yeah, it sounds like they're smoking Toradol plus adding a little Adderall in there with maybe some of that pill that, what's his face, was taken in there? Deer antler? No. Niagara? Nugenics? No.

Limitless? Limitless pill. It feels like there's a little limitless pill in there as well. As soon as he was describing it, he's like, oh, it gives me a nap too. I take a nap. I love nap. And then I wake up and I'm just better than ever before. We love it.

You're right, AJ. We'll keep our eyes peeled for the Russian gas that makes us superhumans. Speaking of superhumans, allegedly a human decided that he was super and elected himself team captain for the Green Bay Packers this past weekend. So Jair Alexander, it came out, was not one of the announced captains for the Green Bay Packers this past weekend. But whenever the coin toss took place, there was four players out there, even though three had been announced.

Shire Alexander was added. He added himself, is what we found out. Now today, and he called it and spoke. So now today, it has come out. He's been suspended for Sunday night football's game against the Minnesota Vikings. Well, a game in which they have to win. And if they win out, the ESPN analytics are giving them a what percent chance? 96, I believe.

A 96% chance of making the playoffs. The Green Bay Packers still in contention, very much so in this first year with Jordan Love. And Jair Alexander has been suspended for a massive game against the Minnesota Vikings because, Brian Gutekunst said, what happened before the game. Now, for those that didn't, the decision to suspend a player is never easy and not one we take lightly.

Unfortunately, Jair's actions prior to the game in Carolina led us to take this step, said Gutekunst. As an organization, we have an expectation that everyone puts the team first. While we are disappointed, we had a good conversation with Jair this morning and fully expect him to learn from this as we move forward together. We look forward to welcoming him back next week as a valued member of this team and will

continue to be in the future. Okay? So that's a big deal. That's a big suspension, obviously. We got a chance to hear what Jair Alexander said immediately after the game about not actually being captain and just kind of electing himself captain of the team and deciding to speak. Here's from Matt Schneidman's Twitter account about Jair on the incident

immediately after the game. Supposed to be a captain because the team announces the three game captains and you were the fourth and you called a toss. What happened there? Oh, yeah. I mean, you know, it's only suiting, you know, I don't think coach knew I was from Charlotte, you know, so. So you just did that on your own?

I mean, you know, I mean, it was like a, you know, the guys backed me up. This is real. They knew I was from here. Did you realize you almost made a big mistake on the call, though? What'd I do? Well, you said we want to go on defense. Yeah. Which, in theory, they could have said, then you're electing to kick off,

which you had lost the opportunity to receive in the second half? Yeah, no, I told them that I said I want our defense to be out there. And they all looked at me like I was crazy. I'm like, I mean, it's pretty simple what I said. I want the defense to be out there. They're like, you mean defer? I'm like, yeah, I guess.

Did he say that to you? Yeah, he did. Because the mic was on. Oh, it was? He heard you. Oh, really? No, he did. Because the mic was on. Oh, it was? He heard you. Oh, really? No, he was just like, defer? I was like, yeah.

Everybody was like, yeah. Everybody was laughing. I'm like, what are y'all laughing at? It's pretty obvious what I'm asking you for. So did anyone say anything to you when you got back to the sideline? Why would they? That's not a movie. No.

AJ, that was real life. Sunglasses on. Sweet. There is some verbiage at a coin toss. Any of us that have gone out there, it's like, can't say this, have to say this. Because if you say this, like he said, there is an opportunity for you not to have the ball either half. Because if you defer your option into the second half, then you're getting the ball in the second half pretty much it's a technicality but it is something that actually takes place out there figure out who's talking hey pat you got it you're talking i'm

talking so you figure that out boom coach says hey this is what we're thinking i in vinitary normally vinitary but i happen to be sitting there so i guess they just asked us in general but like there's a lot of people taking in the concern. Hey, which way do we want to go? If we don't have this, it's what we want to do. Hey, we're taking the ball if we get a chance. We're setting a tone. There's a full conversation that takes place amongst those captains

and the coach and everybody. The ref saved him, though. The ref saved him. He could have screwed him. If you don't save the – you could be kicking both times. So I give the ref credit, I guess, for saving him. Yeah, shout out to the ref being a human, which is what we were looking for.

Bill Vinovich with the safety thing. Be a human here. We all agree. I appreciate that. Everybody knew what I was saying with the sunglasses on. Now, Goons Goons watched that video and was just like, are you this guy? He just elected himself. We didn't know he was from Charlotte.

He said, yeah, we're playing here. I need to be the captain. I'm going out there. The guy's back to me. The guy's back to me. He said, the guy's back to me. The guy's back to me. You know what they thought it was?

This is an entertaining human being, Jair Alexander. Has been throughout the entirety. What a move by him. And now, Sunday Night Football, you're out without one of your best players and a guy who can elect himself captain. The boys are like night football, you're out without one of your best players and a guy who can elect himself captain. The boys are like, yeah, you can do that. He's a big part of that locker room, I feel like. His personality.

We'll see him next week. Although we need to win both games. Ty Schmidt, you're an owner of that team. You got guys just electing themselves to be a captain out of nowhere right before the game and then almost messing up. What the hell is going on in Green Bay, pal? I mean, just a nightmare. It seems like wacky shit happens every week that kind of just leaves you wondering what the hell is going on.

And then, yeah, you know, I mean, basically if the Packers win out and the Steelers beat the Seahawks, the Packers will be the sixth seed in the NFC playoff picture. And now you've got to go play the Vikings. Nick Mullen's trying for back-to-back 300-yard games. Justin Jefferson is back. He's guilty. And now we're going to have to start two seventh-round rookies at cornerback

as opposed to your all-pro guy who you paid a bunch of money to. So, yeah, this is just – Elected himself. I've never heard this before. He's out of a movie. Joining us never heard this. This is out of a movie. Joining us now is another man who's out of a movie. Because he's such a good human. Yep.

Such a good football player. Why Hancock? This guy is special. Yeah, he is. This guy's remarkable. He's joined us every single week. And it has been some of the greatest conversation we've had all year. Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of the Burnley Football Club, J.J. Watt.

Yeah, J.J.! Hey! Another backdrop. How we doing? Another backdrop. Where are we now? Wisconsin ball, I see right there. Are we back at home right now? Are we in the home bedroom here? What's going on? No, we are at the gym. I'm at next level. It's a long story, but I was supposed to be at my parents' house doing this. I'm staying

at my brother's house, was going to go to my parents' house after the workout, scheduled an Uber to take me there, but I scheduled Uber to the wrong location. So I'm doing it from the gym. So we are at the gym. This is Brad, my trainer's office. Is this the place where you were squatting, having mail delivered to the neighbor's house for the free agency? Is this where you are right now? having mail delivered to the neighbor's house for the free agency is this where you are right now uh yes this is this is my home gym i've been working out with brad since i was 15 years old hell yeah brad what a monster he created did did brad ever tell you about like hey before a game you don't just elect yourself captain walk out there and then actually be the one speaking you know because the away game gotta call it yeah gotta there's a lot and then actually be the one speaking? You know, because the away team, got to call it. There's a lot.

And then just because amongst the four. Fill me in. Fill me in because I missed this. I need to hear exactly what happened here because I was. Let me hear it. So Jair Alexander suspended for Sunday football against the Minnesota Vikings. Goons came out and said, like, this is not a normal thing we've ever had to do. But what happened before the game was obnoxious.

Can't have it. Pretty much what he said. Yeah. We heard Jair Alexander just now speak about it after the game, not knowing that it was mic'd up and everybody heard exactly what happened out there. But he said, Coach, forgot I'm from Charlotte. The boys backed me up.

I went out there. Because even amongst the four that normally go out, there's a discussion on who's talking. There is his point. So he elected himself captain and then also decided, I'm going to talk. I'm going to be the one talking to. And then he almost messed it up, you know, because you've got to do the defer thing as opposed to the defense thing.

And he did it all. And then afterwards he had sunglasses on describing it, saying, what are we doing? What are we doing? The video. So that's where we are right now. Have you ever – it's not a movie. This is real life right now for the Green Bay Packers,

who are still very much in playoff competition. Very much. Very much. Have you ever heard about this? Did Brad ever tell you about this? No, me neither, dude. This is a movie. This is great.

It's so outlandish that I have respect for it. I mean, that is a big baller move. That's an alpha. He's like, hey, I got this. The whole thing. Yeah, I'm not even supposed to be out there. I'm going to go out there. Hey, call it.

No problem. That's me. And once we decide, guys, guess who? Me again. That is awesome, isn't it? Did you know Helmet? Definitely know Helmet. Might have a chance on.

How do we know? Know Helmet. You do feel a little different when you're playing in your home. You got the home air, home state, whatever. So maybe he just feels himself like, you know what? I'm Jire. You know, every week he picks people from the city in which we play to be captains. Here we are in my city.

He must have forgot. That's what he said. He actually said, I think coach just forgot him from Charlotte. The boys backed me up. He said, the boys are like, yeah, Jire, you are. Did he go around asking people? Like, hey, should I do it? Should I go out there?

I think he's talking about the boys that were next. I think he showed up and was like, right? Right? Only fitting. And he walks out there. I mean, I haven't gone out for a lot of corn tosses. I'm just trying to picture somebody walking up next to me, and I'm going to go out there, and I'm like, wait.

You're not normally here. So hold on. And then I start taking a couple steps, and then he starts taking a couple. I'm like, wait a second. So you're going to come. And then we're like, all steps, and then he starts taking a couple. I'm like, wait a second. So you're going to come. And then we're like, all right, whatever, fine. He's calling it. He's calling it.

And then they go, heads or tails? And I start to say tails. And the guy goes, hey. What the hell? Please. Then he wins it. Yes. So he's like, uh-huh.

That's what I say. There was a defense out there. He said. Ah, Jair, thank you, man. Love you, Jair. Thank you. Suspension seems kind of, doesn't the suspension seem like a lot, though? Yes.

I think so. Full game check, too? Are you kidding me? It's too much. There's too much on the line. There's more going on there. There's more going on. Is he far side of ref, too?

Because normally, you know, the one speaking is closest to the ref. The ref's got to be on the left side here, right? Ref's got to be here? Has to be, but I agree with you. It does kind of look far side because the kid is generally by the referee. Bro, he's speaking across everybody? There's no way. There's no way.

He's going to lean in. He said everybody was laughing, so everyone definitely heard him. Green Bay is a young team. So to JJ's point, because JJ is probably a different comment, or AJ up there or somebody, but you've got young guys. Who is he sitting next to there? Quay Walker. He's young.

He's in his second year. Good call, D-Butt. That's a good call. Wilson? They get named. There's captains every game, so they don't really know. They could think, yeah, Jair's from here. I'm sure Coach told him to come out.

Congrats, dude. Yeah, it's cool. Quite an honor. You're talking. Okay, all right, yeah. From here. From here. The boys agree.

A lot of teams do new captains every game. Yeah, that's some places. Yeah, I guess. No, I'm thinking I have been on a team that did that. Yeah, that type of stuff. I like that. I like that. I like that. Yeah, because, you know, there will be the – there normally is the three

and then, like, that fourth one rotating. You've seen, like, six, seven people walk out before. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, you just put out the whole side of a ball? Okay. I always think it's ridiculous at the beginning of the year when teams announce their captains. I've been on a team where you have nine captains or ten,

and obviously you only send three or four out for the coin toss. But you've got 11 Cs out there. And I'm like, all right, at some point we are diminishing every single thing that matters with this denomination. If we have 11 quarterbacks, we have no quarterbacks. That is kind of the issue we got here. Let's talk about absolute stallion of a brother that you have. Captain Jair Alexander, once again, thank you.

Keep going, Jair. Thank you, Jair. We hope you have a good one. Do it again. As soon as you get back from suspension, do it again. What if on the way back, they're like, you know what? Jair has earned this. We didn't know how bad he wanted it.

But he is our alternate captain. Guy can call it a coin toss. Do we want it or do we not? Well, he wants his defense out there. Well, let's just muzzle him after that whole thing. What if the next captains text him before the game? What would you call? And what if Jair screenshots that and then posts it while he's at home?

You guys probably aren't allowed to have cell phones on the field for the coin toss, right? You just FaceTime Jair on? Yeah, it should bring him in there. I hope he plays for 30 years so we can continue to see stuff like this. That is phenomenal. Happy son on my team, but excited that it's taking place. Let's talk about your brother.

Hey, more stats are coming out about TJ Watt, and obviously the Defensive Player of the Year conversation is ramping up. And there's a lot of great football players this year on the defensive side of the ball. Your brother's leading everybody in everything. Did you know this? Did you know that your brother has not only the most sacks, the most tackles, the most this, the most that, tackles for loss, this whole thing. I mean, he's leading the NFL in everything.

But he is not a very big topic of conversation, Defense Player of the Year-wise, except for when you're talking about it on this particular program. Why is that? Is that because the Steelers' story this year has been how bad their offense has been, even though they woke up? Or do you think it's because he came out and said, the NFL is something against me, and they've been throttling the convo about your brother?

What do you think it is, JJ? I don't know. I truly don't know. And it does baffle me because, I mean, he literally is winning every single category you can possibly win. He's on one of the most storied franchises in NFL history with one of the largest fan bases. Every other person in the conversation has less.

It's just a fact. I mean, I'm so baffled and confused by it all, but that's okay. I just keep plugging, keep doing what is it they say that his haters say yeah he's sex but that's oh he just gets sex he doesn't intrude is that what they're saying it's but does it have anything like i feel like recently with defensive player of the year it's like oh yeah they've had a great year but this guy hasn't got one yet. Yeah, no, we get bored with greatness. It's annoying.

We get bored with greatness in this world. We see somebody be great so much, we're like, okay, yeah, obviously he's going to be great, but this guy, look, this guy just started to be really great. Or look, this guy, like, almost did it. Almost did it. Five hunch. Five hunch.

Very proud. Five hunch. But I'm so sick of it because the guy's dominating. He's about to lead the NFL in sacks in three of the last four years. He's every single category. You want to go TFLs? Guess what? Leading.

You want to go regular tackles? Guess what? Leading. You want to go sacks? Leading. You want to go from his position, interceptions? Just miss me with all the bullshit, man. JJ, I like that you're going back for your brother.

A lot of people do. It was good fire out of you in that gym with Brad's gym. You know what I mean? It was good fire. It was like you're 17 years old. Built by Brad. He's trained here, too, since he was 15. I mean, this gym has built some good athletes now.

Yeah, haven't updated the cabinetry. No. Old school. Hell, yeah. I'll take you out there. I'll take you out there at the end of the showetry. No. Old school. Hell yeah. I'll take you out there. I'll take you out there at the end of the show and show you around the gym. Oh, get a tour. Yes.

The hell of a gym. Go ahead, AJ. How difficult is it now, though? Your brother, the numbers that he is putting up, obviously it's crazy, but the fact that he's able to do it in this era, too, where you can't really hit a quarterback, you can't land on him, you can't – like a lot of your great plays, plays like not a lot but some of them will get taken away with these weird penalties and stuff because we're protecting guys so I think it's even more

impressive when you can rack these kind of numbers up but for you as a pass rusher what was that like knowing could you actually think of that oh I can't land on this guy I gotta brace myself I gotta do all of this how do you adjust in game like that yeah it's actually a conversation I've had with him because i i think that there's times where quarterback hits get left on the table because it's a very delicate game on how and when you can hit a quarterback but it's an art it's a skill you literally can within the rules do it properly you have to understand that you have that one and a half steps after the ball is gone.

And if you hit him, there's two different ways you can hit him. One, you can hit him like with the shoulder and it just looks really badly. Or you can go to wrap him up, tackle him, fall off him and let him go to the ground. And the argument that I always use, which works 100% of the time because it's true, is what if he pump fake? So anytime I was talking to a ref and they were like, oh man, you hit him a little late and i just hit him with the well i thought it was a pump fake i thought he was holding on to the ball because i've actually done that early in my career pump fake so i pulled off and i didn't get the sack and so now i always tackle but you have to

look like you think he has the ball all these guys there was one i think it was micah in the game this weekend he dropped a shoulder into the quarterback like you think he has the ball. All these guys, there was one, I think it was Micah in a game this weekend, he dropped a shoulder into the quarterback. You're going to get called for that. They know that you're not intending to tackle him. You have to at least make it look like you think he has the ball, and then you have to make it look like you're trying to get off him. You don't want to land on him.

You have to really play it up a little bit. It's a skill. Yeah, you've got to work on it, actually, in the offseason. It sounds like it's worth it because there's been players that have lost a lot of money because of these fines, but also a lot of stats that could change the trajectory of their entire career. How about Christian Wilkins? Yeah. Christian

Wilkins the other night shows up to Dak, backed up, big time, massive play. Ball gets out, but he's there, and then he literally goes both hands out like this. Now, he lands directly on top of him, which is probably something he worked on, by the way, which is another thing he probably worked on,

but his head was getting pulled, obviously, is what people say. But like they called that and it was like, what is he? I think even Rich Eisen, who was the first employee ever of NFL Network, was like, what is he supposed to do? What is this guy? Because that's real late, real close. That's crazy.

That is physically impossible to do anything better. I mean, you physically can't. He is a 300-pound man going down to the ground with gravity, and they say, well, take your body weight off him. And you're like, in what capacity? Yes. Have you ever played a sport in your life? Have you ever done anything athletic in your life?

Oh, don't ask those questions. Look at that. and his hands are out he's literally showing and Dak pulled his helmet down on top of him smart and then he looks at the ref like oh what's going on what's smart by Dak I give Dak all the credit he's very smart yeah that is a good play that's like a basketball when you go up through a guy's arms look at these quarterbacks drawing up ways to draw more fouls good hey I guess that's smart stuff but on the defense side it's continuing to be a nightmare I want to talk these quarterbacks drawing up ways to draw more fouls. Hey, I guess that's smart stuff, but on defense side, it's continuing to be a nightmare.

I want to talk about quarterbacks real quick. Russell Wilson essentially getting benched. Now, the conversation revolves around a $37 million guarantee that is in for next year, but if he was to suffer a catastrophic injury before March, which is when he gets locked in, that would then be guaranteed from the Denver Broncos to Russell Wilson. This is very similar to the situation with Derek Carr when he was told he's not allowed back

in the building pretty much with the Raiders because they didn't want a $24 million guarantee come in if a catastrophic injury was to take place. So this means that the Denver Broncos are seemingly moving on from Russell Wilson after this year and everything like that. But whenever it comes to these types of clauses and money things that

are making the decisions, how do you feel about that? and what do you think happens with russell wilson now that he's enough he's gonna be a free agent yeah they're gonna cut him and deal with the dead cap is that what's gonna happen with russell wilson how do you feel about the whole situation that's brewing right now as we speak jj i mean it certainly seems obviously that that it's heading towards a parting of ways which from the broncos standpoint is basically they're saying, yes, we're going to take a big hit right now, but we're ready to move on to the next phase of our organizational history and see who our next quarterback is going to be and how we're going to build that.

But from a player standpoint, I mean, I always have a hard time feeling bad for anybody when you're getting a $37, $39 million check on the way out the door. That's like that Ed Ogeron clip where he's like, yeah, just tell me which door you want me to leave and what time you want me out of here because no problem. I always think like, yes, I do feel bad that a guy is getting

benched and he's getting cut, but I mean, $39 million to walk out the door, I'm... I don't think he gets it. He would only get that money if he was to suffer a catastrophic injury. No, but he still gets the rest of his guarantee, correct? He had a lot of guarantee, yeah.

He still gets the rest of his money. It's not like he's not getting any more dollars moving forward. Oh, yeah, because the injury guarantee is something, and then the guarantee is something. Remember, it's always two numbers. So $37 million would be added for the injury guarantee if he was to get injured before

march of next year but all his other guarantees yes that will also get into the dead cap and everything for however many and more years and this is the argument obviously for that football players always have you know in the locker rooms we always talk about we see baseball contracts we see basketball contracts 100 fully guaranteed no matter what. And ours are obviously not. So when people see these big numbers in the paper, they're like, oh, wow, this guy just signed a $300 million contract. And they're like this guarantee, that guarantee. Well, injury guarantees aren't real guarantees. We all know like there's a real, real number that you actually are guaranteed. And it's generally much, much smaller, still a beautiful number,

but much more smaller than the public thinks. And then we all look at those baseball and basketball contracts, and we're like, that is amazing. You don't have to cure COVID to get that? Because in our contract, we've got to win seven Super Bowls straight for me to get that extra $75 million. Is that what Shohei has to do? No, actually, he's deferring it so he doesn't even have to pay tax

for the next 20 years on this entire thing. It's like, yeah, all of it's coming, though, at some point. It's like Bobby Bonilla. Those ones blow my mind, man. Bobby Bonilla. 10, 12-year contract. Bobby Bonilla's still making it. I think Ken Griffey's still getting paid a bunch of money.

As he should. Like, beautiful. Great for them. I've always wondered in baseball, like, 12-year contract. I don't know where I'm going to be like you have no clue if a guy's going to be good in 12 years what are we doing like good for them though hockey does nine years i think is the longest you're not allowed to do 10 years is that right eight eight years is the longest but normally all the people that get drafted two teams it's like they're locked in

immediately almost eight years here we go. Their free agency, not great. Hockey? Their first duels? First big one, pretty much, yeah. As soon as Sid got to America, he was locked. We were going to have him. Ovi, as soon as he gets to the Capitals, he's going to be there for a long time. Gino, whenever he gets from Russia, smuggled out of Russia.

They had to smuggle him out of Russia, get his family separated from him, smuggle them out of Russia. Yeah, because they didn't want him to leave the KHL, which we just learned about. And then he comes over to Pittsburgh. It's like, yeah, we're going to have this guy for the next 20 years. That's how hockey kind of works. All guaranteed, though. All guaranteed over there as well.

I just found a small church. When I was in high school, I was a pitcher in baseball. In my sophomore year, I basically had to decide, am I going to play football or am I going to play baseball? Because you can't work out when you're pitching. And, I mean, this is stupid. I don't know why I was this ignorant and dumb thinking, but I guess maybe it's part of the reason I made it. But I was like, you know what? In baseball, you got to go through the minor leagues.

Then you got to go through arbitration. Then you get to your big contract. Football, you just go college and then you go pro. It's right away. And I was a sophomore in high school, like, looking at the contract situations, like, I don't want to go through all that stuff with baseball. Like, I was actually going to make it.

Like, I'm a moron. JJ, there's a chance you would have made it. You need to now, like, swim. I was looking at football players, and I looked at Tyson Jackson out of LSU, and I was like, because I was starting to transition to defensive end, and I started to look, and I said, okay, he was the third pick in the draft. This is how tall he was.

This is how big he was. This is how much he lifted. This was the speed of the combine. And I literally looked at his stats as a sophomore in high school and said, okay, what do I got to do to get to those numbers? And that's how I built it. So Tyson Jackson, I appreciate the motivation. Hell yeah.

Hey, set a goal, make a plan, execute plan. Put that on repeat. Simple. Yeah, that is as basic as it possibly could be. Here's goal. Well, how the hell do we do it? Let's execute how the hell to do it. And then once we get there, sweet, let's get that next one set up.

And then let's just keep doing that. They're diving into the Russell Wilson contract right now. A little bit more Spotrak is. A pre-March 17th release for Russell Wilson would mean $85 million of dead cap, $39 million of it cash in 2024. Designating him a post-June 1st release would mean a $35.4 million hit in 2024, $39 million cash, and a $49.6 million dead cap hit in 2025.

I assume they're just going to want to do one, you know, as opposed to deal with this through two in this entire thing. What a wild turn of events. Unprecedented. Yeah, right there at the bottom. Unprecedented release. Yeah, nobody does this with Mr. Alimi.

Now, JJ, I don't know if you know this as we were talking about this earlier, AQ saying, hey, Russ playing good football right now too. I think he's playing great. I mean, you watch this last week's game. Even in the fourth quarter, him being able – I mean, he threw for over 100-and-something yards in the fourth, brought him back, makes a great play on the two-point conversion roll. I mean, he's playing good football. A lot of teams want a quarterback this offseason.

Sean Payton never wanted Russ Wilson as his quarterback. What are you talking about? Well, he came in and then he started talking about this offseason, about what Russ did here before with his team and his own office, blah, blah, blah. That's never going to work. It felt like the whole time there was always little shots here and there at Russ. And then he yelled at him on the sideline the other day i mean i think the ownership the new ownership obviously having the unbelievably deep pockets

that they have is a luxury to have in this situation because any team that gave up what they gave up to get russ and also the contract that they have him on and the numbers that you have to give up and cap space and everything like a lot of teams that is a tough tough number to take but I mean you got the Walton family on your side you can you can kind of make some decisions in a different way I would say wealthiest owner in all of sports is out there in Denver and we assumed that every coach would want to get there because there's no salary cap on coaches uh so you could pay them whatever the hell you want. So if the Walmart family wanted the best coach who was available,

they were going to get him because they were going to be able to pay more, and also to the assistant coaches, which is quite a weapon to have, to your point of this entire thing. But what's their plan then? So hold on, though. So Russ is out. Hold on, though. So Sean Payton, whenever he came on the show, Sean Payton

said, we asked I think about quarterback being one of the reasons why you want to go to a place and he said all he cared about was alignment between the coach, GM, and ownership. That's all he cared about. So that would mean when Sean Payton was interviewing for this, he said, we'll try Russ, right, for one year, and then they all had to agree

if it doesn't work out, you can move on. Because that's a massive investment in Russ for one year for it not to work. He was calling plays, honestly, this year. He was calling plays like he had an undrafted free agent playing quarterback. It was so predictable. Anybody that played any level of defense,

if you're watching it, first down, they're going to do a wide motion, do some downhill run. It's going to be second and long, and then Russ got to make some, you got to pull something out of his ass and make something happen. Like, I don't understand the offense.

I know it's not surrounded by great talent, but they invest in the offensive line, got decent receivers. Sutton is a decent receiver when he's healthy. Judy's okay. Mims. But, I mean – That wasn't much different than what they did in New Orleans, though. It wasn't.

Like, they ran that same style. It was old school, fullback, downhill, and then some play action and Breeze just hit down the seam. It wasn't very creative. It was more seam, more intermediate pass, and more even like screen game, like more creative screen game. Like it was – especially on early downs, first, second downs with Sean Payton. So, I mean, I don't get it.

Maybe he – I mean, he sees them in practice every day, so maybe he didn't trust them. This guy stinks. Can't do it. Yeah, maybe he didn't trust them, but it's tough. But to your point, JJ, it's like what do they do? Do they draft? I don't know. What do you think?

I mean, yeah, what are you going to do? Are you going to spend a whole bunch of capital to move up in the draft and pick one of these top guys, or are you going to go out and try and just blow somebody out of the water with a trade offer to get somebody? I mean, it's not like quarterbacks are just sitting out there ready to be picked in free agency. Teams don't give up good quarterbacks. So I'm very interested.

There has to be a plan in place for them to move on so quickly. Because like you guys are saying, it's not like you could say Russ isn't playing up to the level of the contract that he's got. But can you say he's playing badly? I don't know if you can truly say he's playing bad enough that you know somebody better. Who's better right now that you're going to get? Is it somebody in the draft or is it somebody in the playoffs? I don't know. Joe Flacco's on.

Just a few weeks ago. Jacoby Brissett. Sure. Jacoby Brissett gets like a half a quarter. They're trying to get Kirk out there. Kirk Cousins? Oh, maybe Sean Payton's like, you know, everybody's saying Drew Brees. It's like Kirk would be a Drew Brees.

What about Drew Locke? What if he saw that primetime game and was like, give me that backpack, kid. Straight back. That would be the ultimate just roundabout. I mean, speak about flackism. What the hell were we doing in the NFL that this guy was just sitting on his couch, ready to roll,

and literally has a chance to potentially take a team to the damn Super Bowl? We don't know. This is impressive, and this guy was just sitting on the couch and all these teams, oh, we don't have anybody at Bowl. We don't know. Like, this is impressive. And this guy was just sitting on the couch and all these teams. First play of the game. Oh, we don't have anybody at quarterback. We don't know what to do. Like, the guy is playing incredible ball.

They were calling teams, J.J. Him and his agent were calling teams that needed a quarterback. And we're like, hey, you know, Joe Flacco still wants to play. Yeah, we'll get back to you. Isn't that crazy, J.J.? It is crazy. It is crazy. And it's also crazy that, like, he had the back to you. Isn't that crazy, JJ? It is crazy. It is crazy.

And it's also crazy that he had the chance to do this other places and didn't necessarily shine, which kind of goes back to the player versus coaching, like who's at fault, what's at fault. But Joe Flacco clearly still doing it, clearly having a blast doing it. And he has the Cleveland Browns as a legitimate contender. And it's a lot of fun to watch. And he seems to be taking it all in stride perfectly. You know, when he answers the question, should I be the comeback player of the year?

And he says, no, I would. Coming back from what? Delivering my kids to school? Like, I think that's the coolest attitude ever. And he's just having a blast with it. So good for him, man. Yeah, he might earn himself like $50 million. Two years, $50 million deal.

Two years, $45 million deal somewhere. Maybe the Denver Broncos. Why not? Who have a lot of dead cap now that they're moving on. DeeBot has a question for you, JJ. Somebody else that was kind of available, not available as long as Joe, but your former teammate, David Clowney. Always been somewhat of a game

wrecker. Never really had the numbers, especially being that number one overall pick. People from the outside looking in maybe think he underachieved somewhat in his career at this point, but he's having an unbelievable year. So is that defense in Baltimore, first in takeaways, first in sacks, first in scoring. What's your thoughts on your old teammate Clowney and the rest of that defense over in Baltimore?

He's crushing it, man. He's crushing it. I'm so happy for him. I think he's had such unbelievably high expectations since his days in college and since that hit against Michigan. I mean, that hit is one of the coolest highlights in the history of football. So when you have that out there, it then becomes the expectation level is that you are going to be some godlike player at every level.

And the reality of the NFL is it's a difficult league. And he's been a good player for a long time. But it is really cool to see him this year kind of putting the entire package together, having a lot of fun doing it, being disruptive, getting the sacks that people expect him to get. He's there with Anthony Weaver, who was my D-line coach in Houston, who was JD's coach in Houston, who's doing an unbelievable job with Baltimore in that front and getting the sacks. I mean, those guys are eating people alive out there. And they're a dog i mean that team is an absolute dog and talk about quarterback sitting on the couch he wasn't sitting

on the couch but he was available yeah and lamar everybody this offseason came out of their way to say we don't want him nope we're not interested we don't want him jj your gm if your g GM said that, fire him. JJ. JJ. What? I'm right here. Chris Ballard didn't say that, but we certainly had question marks at the quarterback position. And as we were covering it every single day, we were covering Lamar watch every single day. We had the number four overall pick, too.

I mean, we had some tasty, we had some potential tasty move makers. And if you get this guy with Shane Steichen, could you imagine? Not that Munkin, like they're doing a great job, obviously. But like, I'm the Indianapolis Colts fan here that's on a microphone. And knowing that this was a potential possibility, you had to make a trade. You had to make a play. You would have to do something. But it's like, Lamar got a deal done.

He was representing himself. Allegedly, that was something that scared a lot of teams. They're like, well, can you get a deal represent himself he's like he was able to okay so the ravens were able to you can't is that you're not able to do it's like what in the hell problem with this that's my problem with this i'm not saying that somebody could have gotten a deal done i'm not saying my problem with it is people coming out publicly saying we're not interested. I don't care. Yes, yes, you can try and fail, but to come out so publicly and say we are not interested in Lamar Jackson. Lamar, former MVP, currently playing like an MVP again.

You are a moron if you're not at least sniffing around. Odds on favorite for the MVP right now. Still, after getting the biggest bank in NFL history. you know, it's like, um, I think it's because he doesn't have an agent and I don't want to say that that is the reason for everything, but I think that was certainly a part of it where whenever you're cutting out, you know, people's businesses and those people happen to know a lot of insiders and GMs and they do a lot of business with a lot of businesses there's a chance that there is a little bit of a fear like well if he gets a deal done are other people going to see this as the new avenue to do this and I'm not saying it will be Lamar has a special talent to get deals done he's a businessman I think we've seen that he has displayed that

congrats to him getting a deal done alongside of his mom that's unprecedented deal was made in an unprecedented way so I think there's a chance that there was a little bit of like gaslighting kind of like kind of like the sean's fully guaranteed deal when everybody didn't like that like when they don't like something it generally creates a little hesitation to do it again i mean i i love it you talk about like having no agent at all and then having no suits to report to. People could potentially not like that. Yeah. Too bad if a player does it for himself

and can figure it out by himself and can make all that extra money himself. And do it better than they've been doing it. That's a pretty cool thing. Pretty sweet. And go out and win MVP. Yeah. Yeah, it is pretty cool. Hey Pretty sweet. And go out and win MVP. Like, I mean. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it is pretty cool. Hey, congrats to Lamar. Way to go, Lamar. Changing the entire game. And then call out the media. I love that, too. Like, media said he was going to get crushed. He said, hey, no, you don't play. Guess what?

I did it. You suck. And Mike Flores ain't putting the pads on. No. Okay, if he was putting the pads on, then he could talk maybe the way he was talking. I don't think he would be. As he was fixing his headband with the do-rag on it. I don't think he'd be talking that way.

That was like one of the coldest answers of all time. And it's like the stats for Lamar this season versus MVP season are not the same. But they've been the most dominant team. And he's obviously the driver of that entire offensive squad. You know, it's like the MVP conversation. I don't know if you heard Aaron talking about it the other day, you know, at the CMC Tyreek Hill quarterback award. I want the battle for you, JJ.

You know, I want the battle for you. I brought up your reference, but I do think it's real what you said. And I think Aaron believes that maybe a skill player could get it. But he also mentioned Josh Allen. Don't look now. Most touchdowns accounted for in the entire NFL. And if the bills continue to do what they are doing right now, Josh Allen, don't look now. Most touchdowns accounted for in the entire NFL. And if the Bills continue to do what they are doing right now,

after Kadarius Toney, just four inches. That's all. Five, six, seven, and eight, maybe a foot. Maybe a foot. Maybe a foot. Now that we're a little bit further away from it, we're seeing the photos. They're rolling.

And maybe Josh Allen steals this. It's up in the air right now this mvp j it is it is and like i've said the whole time and you guys have heard it and you had a discussion yesterday but most valuable player is about the word valuable to me like that's i i do think that there should it should be a best player award because i think that's a more fun like people you can debate that like who's the best player who's doing what they do best what's that um but if we're why not if we're going with pure value to say, okay, if we took this guy off of his team, what does that team look like? And I think that you take Lamar off that Ravens team, it is an entirely different team.

I do agree you take Josh Allen off that Bills team. It is an entirely different team, and I don't know if they're anywhere near as successful. I agree with CMC out there in San Francisco, and you take him out of that team, they they're anywhere near as successful. I agree with CMC out there in San Francisco and you take him out of that team, they're not anywhere near as dynamic, but I also think that team is going to be pretty that's why I say the quarterback is the position that matters the most because you take that guy out of it

I mean, he literally has his hands in every single play of the entire game. It has to be a quarterback. It has to get to the running back. It has to get it to the wide receiver. Obviously, the offensive line has to block. We can do that game, but there's one person that has the entire program in its hands. Every

single... Which is why they get paid. You know why the dead cap is like 50-some million, potentially. That's how it all goes. That's a value. That's an asset. Should add best player. It'd probably just come down to the offense player of the year, defense player of the year, but who cares? That adds extra fodder as well you can take home two awards yeah also most improved is what we need to do because the comeback player and most improved

two different things we had that discussion with gino smith last year winning comeback because he didn't want to get hurt but he won comeback player of the year whereas improved player of the year that would have been a layup to kind of solve that problem yeah let's give everybody most improved man nobody wants to win most improved. That was the one in the pool. Mostard might win that this year. Mostard, Flacco. Yeah, then those guys at least get some

because Mostard's having a hell of a year, but no one is talking about him as offensive player of the year because of Tyreek and McCaffrey. He's crushing. But I mean, most improved, that's almost like saying, hey, you sucked last year. Call it the he's back. That's what comebacks turn into. He's back or. But, I mean, most improved, that's almost like saying, hey, you sucked last year. Call it the he's back. That's what comebacks turn into. He's back or he's here.

You know, it'll be one. Let's move along. We're not shaping the entire NFL honors award. I've never been invited. JJ, you go all the time, don't you? In the break, Barb? Yeah. He looks really good.

Don't you? Yeah. You were a part of a sing-along there, weren't you? Was that you sing? Oh, Kirk. Kirk, yeah. Oh. That's Kirk Cousins.

He did a good job. Did you ever host the honors? Another white guy. Don't worry. Very similar. No, I have not hosted. But, I mean, one of the coolest moments of my life was at that when I got to present Defensive Player of the Year award to TJ.

I mean, that was one of the coolest moments I've ever had. I don't remember. Did you guys cry? No. Maybe. No. No, but it was probably as close on a stage I've ever been to crying, I would say. That's all right. You can show your emotion, especially when –

That was an emotional moment. I'm talking about it's okay to be like that. I didn't say that. You did. No. You did. No. I missed it.

I missed the complete scene because I didn't say it. I called You did. No. I missed it. I missed the complete. See, because I didn't say it. I called you a wuss. You do that a lot. You do that a lot from 2,000 miles away. We'll figure that out when we're together. Go ahead. At the Super Bowl. Can't wait for that.

There's been a couple players. I'll take you by that mullet, and I'll shove you right over the stratosphere over there in Vegas. Go ahead. Then guess what? I get one of your Defensive Player of the Year awards. How about it? Boom. Take them for everybody. That's fine. I got three. Don't matter. Nice. Vegas. Go ahead. Then guess what? I get one of your defensive player of the year awards. How about it? Boom.

Take it for everybody. That's fine. I got three. Don't matter. Nice. Yes. Bring it. 2014, you probably would have been that best player if you had those awards.

Same people that run ESPYs run NFL honors. Oh, sweet. We're going to be a part of it. There you go. Tone Diggs has a follow-up about Lamar Jackson, I believe. Yeah, JJ. So he is 20-1 now against the NFC. He's 3-2 against the AFC North this year,

17-10 against the AFC North this career, which is still a really, really good record against your division. But is that just not seeing him and knowing what his speed and how he plays is going to be like on the field when you're an NFC team and you don't play him like twice a year? And then in the division, you just kind of have an idea of what he does well. Is that why he is so good against the NFC? Yeah, I mean, the NFC North is obviously its own animal.

I mean, we all know how tough that division is and how they all play each other. I mean, it's a true battle every time they play. And it is, like you said. You get more opportunities to see somebody. As a defensive coordinator, you get more opportunities to try something out see if it works and if it doesn't you know you're constantly tweaking whereas on that nfc side you only see them once every now and again so you're you're putting that game plan out there and you're

hoping it works but if it doesn't you don't get to see him again for a long time whereas in the afc north you see him twice a year so in that first game you may have an idea where like hey what if we go man over here and you know we put two guys in this spot or we run the spy and if that doesn't work you can tweak it for that next matchup but I mean we all know there's something about that AFC North where it is just a brutal brutal battleground and like we said I mean you look at the Ravens the way they're playing right now and you look at their record and in that first Steelers game you're like what happened to the Ravens the way they're playing right now, and you look at their record in that first Steelers game, you're like, what happened to the Ravens offense in that game? They just didn't play up to the level they thought. And you're like, Steelers came out of that one with a win.

Now we're going to find out again here in a week or two if that holds up or you get another opportunity, another bite at the apple. First year with Munkin and Lamar together. Absurd. So it's only, you would think, up into the right. Andy doesn't have Mark Andrews out there right now. JK. JK Dobbins at the Achilles factory out there in California with Dr.

Neo-Electron. I have put the pads on, and I think Lamar is incredible. So I hope that holds up for something because I have put the pads on. And I also know it's unbelievably hard to tackle him. So anybody who hasn't put the pads on, newsflash, very tough to play against him. Put it on there. That's right.

JJ responds to Mike Flores. Now. That's my favorite part of the whole thing. Yeah. Just blatantly calling him the wrong name. Walking in the tunnel. I mean, we did the Tomas, you know. Yeah, true.

Sure. Just blatantly, as soon as you walk in, what's his name? In the tunnel. Mike Flores. And then making sure, I don't know if that video got out. what's his name? In the tunnel. Mike Flores. And then making sure, I don't know if that video got out. There's a lot of cell phone video at the press conference. I would like to let this man know that we do not appreciate the way he was speaking.

Now that they know Flores exists, welcome to the Thunderdome. Flores every day. He's got, Florio is, every day he's hearing, well, and prognosticating about the potential of what that could potentially bring. Big brain loves being in the mud. Oh, yeah. When did he turn – because I feel like I remember he used to be just pure news, like rumors and news on teams and everything, and then he kind of transitioned into predictions and things.

That used to be the place you went to like, all right, what's going on in the NFL, just transactions and everything. And now all of a sudden it seems like it's a little more like, you know, first take a little more like some of these. No, no,

leave it to the pros. Leave it to the pros. I mean, we can have, I mean, it's your show, but we can have a different conversation about those types of shows, but they're very, very successful. Very, but we can have a different conversation about those types of shows.

But they're very, very successful, very, very lucrative. Well, and also there's a few people that are fantastic at it. And then there's a lot of people that are trying to be the people that are fantastic at it. And I think that became a part of the problem of what sports media became. I could be Stephen A. Smith. Easy. Yeah. I can put together phenomenal promos every single day for two hours, make them entertaining, and be a little bit of a hater, potentially, if I have to be. And the reality of the situation is there's probably only like six people that can really even get into that sphere.

But these suits, they saw the ratings. Oh, yeah. Oh, you see two people. Wow. You see two people who disagree. Even if they don't disagree, we've got to make them disagree. This will be a debate. Yep. Let's do one of those.

Let's do another one of those. Let's do another one of those. Because it's Copycat League. It's Copycat League. And that became just like a decade, decade and a half of everybody having big brains. And it's like, not everybody can play the hits like Skip Bayless for 30 years.

Not everybody can do what Stephen A does every single day. There are some that are great, though, nowadays, but not everybody. No. Sometimes you can just chat. You just have a conversation. I mean, there's stuff coming on now. You know, some of these guys, like, they say one thing one week ago, and then this week they tweeted something that contradicted it entirely.

Well, we used to be hard against those guys as well, but now that we are in the Thunderdome every single day, it is hard not to like when you hear something live too. It's like Russell Wilson has been benched. It's over. This is the worst deal of all time.

Sean Payton hates him. The ownership knew this was the deal and then he'll come out tomorrow and be like he's actually a little bit injured. They were looking out for his future, especially after a loss on Christmas Eve. He is very much in the plans still for the Denver Broncos. Next year, he plays very well with Sean Payton. Then they'll pull our clip.

Remember what they said. Boom. It's tough. I used to bury those people a lot more than now that we are the people that are getting buried by people for the entire thing I appreciate that and also we appreciate Florio dude Florio is glued into the NFL

actually 15 hours out of the day he did tweet an apology he did retract his tweet his apology people are not happy with his apology. Florio should just get

his own Twitter account is the issue. Florio should have his own Twitter account, not Pro Football Talk. People say that about me, too. I agree. Yeah, but that's your...

I think it's just articles he puts on Pro Football Talk, and then he has a hot take when he's all boozed up on Christmas Eve. What? Yeah! No, that's what I'm What? That's what I'm saying. I agree.

I used to go to pro football talk and then all of a sudden his hot take, like a drunk dude, just came in and you're like, wait, wait, wait. Who's got control of the handle? He's got this man cave cabin that we've seen. He has a good time now. He has a couple of whiskeys.

He's a guy. He's a football guy. But every once in a while, he will just be like, you know, I heard from somebody that there's a chance that boom and he that promo he cut against the Ravens losing to the Niners. As I was watching, I'm like, Florio, this is pretty heavy. They are going to kick the shit

out of the Baltimore Ravens. I'm like, is this Florio? I didn't know that was standard Florio florio normally the florio angle is like a piece of information who's gonna get buried by it bang he pieces things together like that in the moment very quickly but him cutting that promo on the mar it did feel like well this guy's talking like yeah yeah shit right well and yes and i feel like the ravens i don't know why but I feel like the Ravens are a team where you show them that video at a team meeting and they're just like, all right, no way we're losing this. Like zero chance.

And I don't know why. There's some teams that you get that vibe with some of the Ravens. I feel like if somebody disrespects the Ravens, it is over, man. Yeah, I think so too. And I think the reason why is because how tight of a team we've seen them be. And that goes back to like Lamar Jackson's leadership, I think. Nobody ever talks about that. You know, he's very similar to, like, how LeBron leads.

You know, LeBron's still, like, one of the guys. Like, that is how he's viewed, even though he is LeBron James. Lamar Jackson, like, the way he leads, he's one of the guys, but also he's Lamar Jackson. I don't think I've heard anybody say they don't like playing with Lamar Jackson or on the team of Lamar Jackson. Everybody loves him. Yeah, you mentioned how Harbaugh kind of put the ownership in

a position where they pretty much had to pay him. You hear all his defensive guys talk about it. And then when he gets in the game, he's still like, you know, you can tell he's an elite competitor where he's still going to get after his guys a little bit, get them going. But I love how he leaves. He's a dog, dude. Hey, thanks for being in the NFL, Lamar.

And also, thank you for you. Yeah, his response yesterday, too. I don't know if you guys saw it, but he was more so just like, you're welcome, Baltimore, for motivating you. Which? We love. Awesome. Connor has a question for you, JJ. Yeah, JJ,

obviously, we all saw this weekend, first time in 30 years, the Detroit Lions and Motor City. Dan Campbell, our leaders and kings of the NFC North. Have you ever seen a turnaround like Detroit? Because it does feel as though this, at least for me, is the first time that the poopiest franchise in the NFL has completely come around and is now one of the pillars of the NFC.

Poopy. No, the Browns still have one. I mean, that's an interesting way to describe it. Is it wrong? Were they not the poopiest about 10 years ago when they went 0-16? I mean,

sure. I mean, coming from you, I suppose that is the proper term. Boom! But I will say, I think it's so cool to see what's happening in Detroit. I think that finding a head coach that fits their style and personality perfectly, having a team that they can be proud of, having been through all the extremely difficult years

and still supporting that team, like, I really think it's a great story. I think it's a great thing for the NFL to have. I think it's a great thing for the city of Detroit. And, I mean, you look at Goff. Goff literally sent out of LA and people, okay, he's not as good. All he's done is gone there and ball. Sometimes that gets lost in the conversation as well because of Dan Campbell, because of the grittiness of the team, because of everything that's going on and Detroit doing stuff that hasn't been done in a long time. Give all those guys

credit, man. everybody up there. Amon Ross, St. Brown, Goff, D.C., Hutchinson, all those guys, man. Such a good squad, and it's going to be fun to see. I mean, the meltdown against the Bears a couple weeks ago gives you a little bit of a scare going into the postseason, but you really wonder what happens when Detroit gets a playoff game and gets fired up and that stadium gets rocking? Like, what can they do?

Matthew Stafford coming back to town? Ooh. With the Rams? He's been dealing, too. Oh, yeah. Not that Jared Goff hasn't been. Sure. And he said the Lions were the Lions just a couple weeks ago.

It's like, I think Dan Campbell, like, needed that. He actually said, I'm going to coach him a little bit harder this week. We're going to see where we go. They found it, you know? It feels like we're starting. It's cool, too, because you think in your head, okay, he's just a tough guy who instilled this confidence and this hard-headed attitude.

But that works for about half a season, maybe a full season. After that, you have to be a legitimate quality coach in this league, and he has clearly proven that he is, and he has built a staff that can do that. Once you combine those two things you got the right mentality and confidence and also quality coaching that's something special that was really good hell yeah he even had like little gimmicks yeah when you got this and you got this you see circle no edges Like a ring on your finger. It all comes back, doesn't it, JJ? Especially as the lights go out and we head off of ESPN. We'll be back tomorrow with another average show.

You're the best. See you then. Nailed it. Way to go, JJ. Good job, JJ. Did you hear JJ whenever the music came on? Oh, yeah. Finished his answer.

Didn't rush, though. No, we did not. You know what I mean? Because amateur, you know, not so. so here's the music and you're done sometimes too jj here's the music and just what we got doesn't care this one got the answer in about seven eight seconds that was great jj you're a professional let's go yeah no it took me uh it took me far too many weeks to figure out how to handle the music playing. For the first five or six weeks of the year, I didn't even know there was music. So that was a disaster of my own.

AJ says the same thing. Sometimes you can't hear everything, right, AJ? Yeah. I don't always hear it. I heard it today, but yeah, I don't always hear it. Whenever I'm on the road somewhere, it's like hit or miss on whether or not I can hear anything. Like sometimes the entire open, no music. And then you hear like the what, like you'll hear the words,

but you won't hear any music. I get really confused by that. And then trying to guess the football thing. And then also there's been times where Talkback has just been going over the speakers. Sure. Oh, yeah. Out to the crowd. Out to the crowd.

And that guy in Bristol. Yeah, bingo. Dan in Bristol. There's times I wonder if AJ hears anything at all over there. I mean, just occasionally. Oh, AJ, I want to. I asked you if you wanted a question like two times, and then like dry erase board in front of me brings up like a perfect thing

for the conversation just to go to. You got fucked today, AJ. Sorry, AJ. We're good. I did want to ask JJ quick, though. Do you think how is Russell going to handle this situation? Because we see Russell kind of keep the company line, stay almost like politician-esque in his answers,

always says the right thing. Do you think we're going to get a chance to see Russ just get reckless now and saw some people down? You know, that's a great question, because it is something that I am very curious about myself. And I think that that's, I mean, it really is a good question because I'm curious. Like, clearly something hasn't lined up fully there and he has said all the right things so far. But if they do indeed part ways, Pat, I'm learning.

See, I dropped it. If they do indeed, just in case, I know. But if they do indeed part ways, like, does he come out and say his own like say his piece and put his because he does want to control the narrative he does want to have uh you know shape everything and the mr unlimited and all that stuff which um what's that that's the way he's always done it why'd you bring that up mr why'd you bring that up there's a lot of things you could have brought up why'd you bring that up because you guys just did the bit two minutes ago yeah Yeah, but there's a lot of bits. The danger witch. We care a lot. Yeah, but you didn't bring it up.

That's right. Just did the family. No one went to his birthday party. We care a lot. There's a lot of things. He's got a sweet house in Denver, though. That house was sweet. It's on the market now.

I don't know. I feel like he's always tried to to take the high road and do that and i think i would imagine he will again and i would imagine he puts like an extremely positive spin on it and has a new opportunity a new chance a new fresh start um and maybe he'll say they need a fresh start too maybe it's best for everyone you know i don't know um but i'm curious. It would be pretty awesome if he just came out guns blazing and just forged everything. Won't they find him today?

Won't he have to speak sometime this week? Backup quarterback have to speak? Everybody has to be in the locker room for media, I guess, for what, 15? They'll find him in the locker room, yeah. You've been there. You can avoid it if you want. I never spoke to media ever. That's about rough, though. They're going to be looking. They're going to be looking

around the corner for him if he is high. Danger Witch? And is it different now than in the offseason? Like, I don't think he'd go scorched earth right now. Like, I think right now

he'd go... It'd be tough, though, don't you think? What's that? He can't feel great. What's that? I agree. No, that's why

I don't think he'll speak. I don't think he speaks to the media the rest of the season. That's my feeling. If he does... Because if it just happened today, he's got his PR team and stuff has to to the media the rest of the season. That's my feeling. If he does. Because if it just happened today, he's got his PR team and stuff has to prepare him for three. Team three, for sure.

Deepo brings up a good point. No, do they send him away like they do with Derek Carr? Because I think that's what they were probably trying to do. Like the island of Missick. He doesn't get hurt. It's time to go home. Yeah. Just get out of here.

Get out of here. Go on, get. Well, I mean, they did take away all of his training. Like he had all the trainers and everybody in the building, and they took all that away. So maybe he's like, hey, let me go train with them. If you're not going to play me, at least let me go train with my guys. The thing, see, and my guys should be the Denver Broncos,

which a lot of people have been saying since the beginning is the issue. But, like, with the Derek Carr situation, what were they thinking? Like, he was going to hide behind the gate stand, and then when somebody comes through, jump in front, get run over by a car, and then have the catastrophic injury that you need to have to be able to lock in an injury. Were they thinking he was literally taking headers off of every staircase? I like the way you're taking it. I like your thought process much different than mine.

Yours is far more entertaining. I mean, it is one amount of building. Like it's hard when you got like a guy who might be better than the person that you actually are putting in and some of the guys do really like and do want to be their quarterback and other guys maybe don't but like it is a locker room it's a weird situation to walk into the locker room every day and see the guy that started for such a long time was getting paid a lot of money and he is not playing and that can cause a divide and then if that guy behind him goes out there and stinks you're like well so we're not actually you're just telling me we're not trying to win but yet you ask me to play hard every day this guy's right here this guy yeah this guy but you want me to give me my full effort

you want me to give everything that i have every single day but you know that this guy gives us a better chance to win and you're still not putting him in the game. That is a hard thing for somebody to come in and say, I think. I think with the Derek Carr situation, that reminds me of why people didn't want to bring Cam Newton in for a backup quarterback, because the locker room can be divided

quickly, and at that position, don't need that to take place. But you saying that's what happened with Derek Carr right now is kind of blowing my mind. I didn't even think about that. They just turned off his fob. I was going to say, I mean, they turned off his fob day of. You can do that. Bam, right into the door. But exactly. When you, I mean, restrict

a guy's access and make his key fob not work anymore, that's kind of like a big, fuck you. There's, I mean, there's a common denominator between both of these events. What is the denominator? Stidham's got black magic. He's got some voodoo going on with these coaches.

It happened last year with Derek Hart. It happened this year with Russell Wilson. What the hell is Stidham doing in practice? Bingo. Stidham is a dog. Stidham will saw your kneecap actually off in practice as a starting quarterback. That's one of the things that happens. He becomes a starting quarterback. He will take a hacksaw and saw your leg off.

Catastrophic injury. Just one of the things. Just one of the things. Two games left in both situations, right? Yep. I don't get it. Has he done that before to somebody else? Yeah, last year. Sean Payton must just fucking hate him. And maybe he doesn't, but it does feel like Sean Payton must

and maybe he doesn't. But what are we talking. Sean Payton must. And then maybe he doesn't. But what are we talking about? Payton's got full control too, right? I'm with you. I'm with you. That is so much dead cap. That's not like we can get by. That is an absurd amount of dead cap.

And Sean Payton's still like. All right. All right. Zito and the boys in the back are bringing up the greatest hits. That's what I thought Tony was going to say with Derek Carr and Russ. You brought up Mr. On Living. Seriously, what is the plan? Because you got that much said, Captain.

Now your free agency is hurt for the next year. You still have to find a quarterback in this league. As much money as you have, but the beauty of the NFL is the fact that the whole goal of the league is for everybody to be 9-8-8-9. The parity is what makes the NFL great. So it's not like you can have $100 billion and just go out there and create some crazy super team. You still have to build the team properly. And if you've got that much dead cap, and we all know how hard it is to find a quarterback,

exactly what is the plan and exactly how long is that leash for the coach GM to figure it out? They had to have had this conversation when Sean Pay payton was interviewed you think no no chance i think this is no they definitely had it no there's not like we're just gonna make this move and figure it out that's the way they're off no because gannon gets hired he has to be all in on kyler remember that was like one of the things yeah sean payton doesn't take that job remember yeah was offered that job was in the building for 11 hours walking around doesn't take that job, remember. Was offered that job, was in the building for 11 hours walking around, doesn't take the job. But it is reported that we're building around Kyler. I believe that if that same thing happened in Denver, this would not be taking place.

It would be like, we must make this work. I think there was a conversation by Sean Payton whenever he was getting the job. Like, hey, if this guy doesn't work out, what do we do with how much money you're giving to him? And then they've had to thought about the dead cap and everything. But what's the answer? There is no – Probably a bad year. Like, to JJ's point, there is no answer.

Well, that's what I'm saying. I think they probably have already committed to, like, yeah, it's going to be a bad year. We fought. Yeah, we fought. But down the road, it's like, we're going to figure it out. Like, they don't have an answer six months from now. Hell no.

It's like, hey, do we draft someone? Do we try and get someone free? They don't know what's going to happen. A lot of teams. It's really the third, do we draft someone? Do we try and get someone free? They don't know what's going to happen. It's really a third guy, too, because it was Randy Gregory earlier, and then we had Kareem Jackson who was supposed to be coming back from suspension, but P.J. Locke was playing good in his absence. Older guy, 14-year vet, I think, at this point. And now Russell Wilson, so maybe it's just Sean just kind of, hey,

turn the page, get my own guys in here. Well, have a bad year. But, I mean, yeah, what's the alternative at the most important position in sports? That's wild. I think it's a lot easier to get Randy Gregory's replacement than a quarterback. Oh, yeah, for sure. And Kareem as well. Chuck Blacko's on the catch.

Boom. Yeah, maybe someone calls Big Bad Brad Johnson. Let's get Brad Johnson back in the league. He's making basketballs and footballs into hoops from three miles away. High clip. This guy's got a.50 cal sniper from his right arm putting balls into hoops on the internet every single day. How's that work?

Maybe. But again, to that, I also think that – No, I'm not taking it seriously. I'm just going to be honest with you. You haven't seen Big Bad Brad. Yeah, you got no idea what you're doing. I don't even have a remote idea of what we're talking about. This is like a Gary Vee card situation.

There he is. There he is. Hashtag Big Bad Brad, dude. Brad Johnson. Just one of the greatest trick shots in the NFL. He's tired. Is he on the Dude Perfect team? We need to get him on Dude Perfect.

He's too good. No, his shit is real. Whoa! Big Brad is real. No smoking mirrors. What? Are you talking about Tyler? I didn't say any names. I just said Brad shit is real. You can make

whatever you want to do with that. But that is a sweet hat. Is that a new color? Oh, AJ, you're okay. That's your business partners. I think they took a registration shot there. Wow. Switch to my hat?

That was the worst transition of all time. No, I just saw it. It was a good hat. It is a good hat. But Big Bad Brad may be coming off the couch, or maybe some other quarterback just grows into a great one. Here's Big Bad Brad. This is Big Bad Brad, dude.

What age we got on Brad? We're saying 50. I'm saying 50. He's got a kid who's been in college for quite a few years. Boom. He's got the arm of a 25-year-old. Straight. And he's not done.

He's taking the other side, too. Rope. If Gruden was starting today. Oh, no. I mean, we don't believe Photoshop's a thing or what? Big bad Brad. Photoshop. Bingo bad Brad. Photoshop. Bingo.

Boom. Check the hat. This is like when Brady did like the. No. No. You son of a bitch. That's a Super Bowl winning quarterback, JJ. That's big bad Brad, bro.

Come on. Same celebration, by the way. Hat that says big bad Brad. Yep. And then fist bump underneath. Check the hat. It looked like the hats were for sale if I saw it at the beginning of that video.

The internet is getting scary. I am getting scared. No idea. You could start really, really questioning what's going on. Not with Big Bad Brad. No, never with Big Bad Brad. he's the only other people can we pull up big bad brad's instagram please he's big on tiktok i don't even know how this i hate that

today has come to this jj brad's office right that's brad's tip wow yeah oh is that the problem a little brad inferiority complex brad off yeah there is he ain't big i love when i love when a uh i'll say veteran takes over a social media like i think that's a great like i love it when they're like all right i can do what the young kids do and so kudos to big brad brad we're talking sweat stains oh yeah we're talking full he's been out there wait those were those were sweat stains i thought he was wearing a cutoff over a t-shirt. No, no, no, no, no. He's working.

Cut it back. Cut it back. Put it back on. There's more. We're trying to find more videos. This dude doesn't just boom, bang, pow. Big Bad is 55. 55 years old.

And you're out here. That's it? You're saying he's using AI. Come on. He's 55. But you see the header baskets. He last played in 2008. Dude, he'll spin it. Do we have any? Have we found any? I don't know. Pulling it up. Hang on. He's 55. But you see the header baskets he last played in 2008. Dude, he'll spin it.

Do we have it? Have we found any? I don't know how long. Pulling it up. Hang on. That shirt was just soaked with sweat. He busts his ass. He commits himself to the game.

Grinded. Pro bowler. Two-time pro bowler. Two-time. Fucking right. Sean Payton's going to call him up. Back when the pro bowl was the pro bowl. Exactly.

That was back in the good days. National champion. Quarterback challenge. Yeah, you're talking about the pro bowl was the Pro Bowl. Exactly. That was back in the good days. National champion. Quarterback challenge. Yeah, you're talking about the Pro Bowl. Those were sweet. Quarterback challenge and, like, Larry Allen putting up 40 on the bench press at the Pro Bowl. That was awesome.

Do we have any? I've got 41, I think. Here it is. Just pull up the ones from a basketball hoop. Yeah. A court. When he's at a court. Keep scrolling.

It's down a little bit. I was just on his feet. There's one right here with the tennis. Do this tennis one here. Yeah. A court. When he's at a court. Keep scrolling. It's down a little bit. I was just on his feet. There's one right here with the tennis. Do this tennis one here. Yeah, that one. And then the basketball one next. He did something. Yup. What's up? It's Big Bad Brad. How you doing? I'm a stud. You know who I am. Fuck off. Happy Thanksgiving. Let's remember. I love the captions. Just popping random captions

up there. That's Big Bad Brad. Dude, perfect. Eat your heart out. Thanks, BBB. Look at this. He got a full promo before that. And then what? He's Big Bad Brad. Dude, perfect. Eat your heart out. Thanks, BBB. Look at this. He got a full promo before that. And then what? He's Big Bad Brad. Barfleet! Oh! Oh! Oh! He's not done. I see that other ball. Yeah, you want another one? I'm going to follow him.

You want another one? 10 million. You want another one? I see the ball rolling. Boom! Pull the hat off. Hat, hat. Yeah! Yeah, you're saying he's that fake AI. Are you kidding me? Go to that other one with the basketball.

Yeah, take your ball. Here we go. Look at this one. He'll do spins and shit. Is that the windmove? Easy. Behind the hoop. This is easy.

Oh. Huh? You ever do one of these? Bang. Off the easy coming. Remember watching Joker warming up? He can't do this. Bad spin move.

Oh. Oh. Woo. Big bad breath. Oh, no way. No can't do this. Bad spin move. Big bad breath. Oh, no way. No way. He's real. He'll show the misses. He's humble. He can get better.

That ball's gone. What a sweet court. Look at that background. Yeah, Big Ben. Yeah. Where's the off the heezy one? There's the MVP race. Hey, we're out of here.

Big Ben, Brad, need to be at the top. Put Brad in the MVP. Dude, he. What's he doing there? He's here. There it is. There it is. We are scrolling his Instagram right now.

Sorry. This is the one. This show has just turned into a middle school kid. Middle school what? What did you say, JJ? I'm sorry. I said this show is just a middle school kid scrolling through TikTok, and I love it. Yep, absolutely.

This show is better than any show on television. I don't know if that's true. Oh, spin move. He's got that. I mean, that's down. Wait a minute. He's not done, though. See?

What? Are you not entertained? Oh, oh. No way. Not even looking. Back by not done, though. What? Are you not entertained? Oh, oh. No way. Not even looking. Back by. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.. Oh. I'm going Brad, let's go. Back by popular demand, dude. And then every once in a while, I'll get a comment on something I do on social. Yep, there it is. I don't know if we're selling as many hats as big bad Brad there in this particular case,

but he'll put can't hide talent every once in a while. I'll put a post up there and I'll see big bad Brad comment. I'm like, goddamn right, Brad. Thank you, Brad. You know that more than anybody. Before we get out of here, it's been a long one. And we thank you on this

27th from the gym. You've yet to be able to come on this particular program that we have here on these Wednesdays after a Burnley win. Had a win. Had a win. Oh, big one. Oh my God. Two-nothing, too. Not just one. Had a win. Oh, big one.

Oh my God. 2-0-2. Not just one of those boring games. No. Domination. Two goals. We did it. And then all of a sudden I'm like, I can't wait to talk about Burnley maybe not going to the south on the, maybe going north to safety. You know, like, is this

the way that the Burnley boys are going to go? And then just yesterday, loss. You guys stink again. You just lose to Liverpool, 2-0. So you have to come on the program, and you never get to celebrate. I think that hardens you a little bit. But where do we stand with the Burnley boys? Because Gumpy's saying that everybody else, what did you say, Gumpy?

Everybody around him is doing what? Yeah, Nottingham Forest won, and so did Luton Town yesterday. It was a bad day. And who are they? Who are they? They are fighting relegation with the Burnley boys. Burnley did run into an absolute buzzsaw in the

Liverpool lads. Yeah, you never walk alone. Gumpy's a part of that crew that's walking for Liverpool. He knew it was happening, but everybody else seems to go this way. You guys went this way in the area that sends you this way forever. What are we doing? How are we doing? Is everything okay? Yeah, I mean, Liverpool is literally in first place. So we, uh, they're

very, very good football team. Uh, second half, we played extremely well, proud of them, but I'm, where are we? You ask, where are we? Uh, I am very, very much on board with everything that we're doing, obviously. I mean, we're literally an owner, but I am at the point right now where I understand where the rest of the world is and what their thoughts are on us and where we are on the table and everything. I can't wait for the day that I can look back at this and say everybody jumped off. Wasn't jumping off. No plans on jumping off. And then we came back around and everything back up and up.

And all of a sudden, hey, where's everybody now? Welcome back aboard. So don't worry. Big J is going to be on the bandwagon the entire time. I'll see you guys again once you decide to hop back on. BJ's in. We didn't hop off, JJ. We were never hopped off. We're pundits. We're soccer pundits.

We've been riding with you, JJ. We are looking into possibly making up the Charlotte shirts after your debacle last week trying to pronounce our name. Clarence. Clarence. Clarence. Everybody, you need Clarence. Charlotte's a city. I appreciate the support on Saturday, by the way. It wasce, Clarence, Clarence. Everybody, you need a Clarence. Charlotte's a city. I appreciate the support on Saturday, by the way.

It was really cool to see you tweeting about the match. It was a big win. It was great to see you. It was a lot of fun, and I appreciate all you guys supporting it. I see all the tweets and retweets and everything, so thank you very much for all the support. So let's remember those whenever the bandwagon that BJ's been in the front of. After it goes down

turns back up this way. We don't want to see you now. Where were you when is what Big J's going to ask. We're right here the whole time. Need more BJ's. We need more BJ's I think is what it seems like. You think the boys or just

in general? More BJ's is just better for the team. Just for everybody. Just for everybody. Learning of BJ. Awesome. Just happened a moment ago. Now we need as many BJs as possible.

Especially with those Burnley boys. They need BJ all the time. Crates of BJs. Why don't we get BJ in the building? You know what I mean? Get more BJ around. I've been there five times this year. I mean? Get more BJ around. That'd help. Maybe that'll turn the... I've been there five times this year.

I've been over there five times. Five BJs? You think that's... How many players are on the team? How many players are on the team? You're going to need 50, brother. How many? Jeez Louise.

Come on. Get on the plane. It's a long flight, man. It's a long flight. For a good BJ. Well worth it. Can we see the gym? I heard we're going to do this.

All right, getting a BJ tour. Russian gas plus a BJ. Best BJ ever. It's a good show. We're going north. Who's that? This is Brad. This is the trainer. He was in the Hall of Famer. Holy shit, look at that neck.

Italian-American Hall of Famer? Oh, shit. I don't know. They don't... No phones in there. Yeah, he's born to work. Nice gym. Who's that? Who's that weapon? Here's Brad. Here's Brad.

This is Big Brad. Hey, Brad, thanks for your service. Easy. Easy. Thanks for your service. Guys, we're in sandals. Love that, Brad. Absolute legend. Oh, quick feet. Brad still got it. On the ladder. Hey, can you ask Brad his neck size?

I saw in a photo and I see him there. Brad, what size is your neck? Yeah, it's better than his. That seems like higher than the gigs up and down. 90, I think he said. He's got the router in his office. 19 and a half, 19 and a half, 19 and a half. Oh, that's better than his high-visors. That seems higher than the gigs up and down. 90, I think he said. He's got the router in his office. 19.5, 19.5, 19.5. Oh, that's a round mound.

Solid neck. Hey, listen, you don't want to try Brad when he's got those sandals on or not because that 19.5 point, he'll Cobra Strike you. All right. JJ. There's no internet out there. Sorry. That's all right.

It's workplace. Hell yeah. Shout out to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I don't know if he's watching this particular program, but it is Turbo Time, Bo. It is Turbo Time. This guy sucks. All right. Thank you. Yeah, great appearance.

Thank you, guys. It's an absolute disaster. All right, JJ, one thing. Merry Christmas, JJ. Merry Christmas, JJ.J., one thing about... Merry Christmas, J.J. Merry Christmas, J.J. Up to Charlotte. Go get them. Football!

This is the greatest sport on Earth. Hell yeah. That's A.J. Hawk. He's a champion in multiple levels of the football. The Talks Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. Sweet shirt con day. Thank you. Yeah, new batch, new at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Sweet shirt comment. Thank you.

Yeah, new batch, new batch. Yeah, way to go. Hey, Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you guys. Merry Christmas. Mollet looks fantastic. Happy Kwanzaa. Happy Kwanzaa started yesterday.

Yeah. Hanukkah ended. A while ago. Was that? A while ago. Yeah, really? It does end early. Yeah.

It's not really a holiday. No, it's like an eight crazy nights. Is that how it starts, though? Because the holiday season, I think, is that what starts the holiday season? Is that technically? Yeah. It's not really a holiday. No, it's like an eight crazy nights. Is that how it starts? Because the holiday season, I think, is that what starts the holiday season? Is that technically? Yeah. It's different every year. Huh?

It's different every year. I'm an expert. I think Thanksgiving. I think his wife is actually a Jewish lady, so he does Hanukkah every single year. It changes. It moves. Yeah, it's different every year. Like Easter?

Yeah, but sometimes it falls on the same, like it works all the way up to Christmas. Sometimes it's before. Sometimes, yeah, it's different. My kids get like 14 days of gifts. Mazel, mazel, you know what I mean? We appreciate that. How'd you do? You had a good Hanukkah this year or what? Great Hanukkah, great Christmas.

Everything went very smooth. Wow, way to go. Way to go. Yeah, Christmaka, we call it in our house. That's beautiful, isn't it? Isn't it? Yeah, well, it's Kwanzaa. That's beautiful, isn't it? Isn't it? That's beautiful.

No, I celebrate Kwanzaa as well. There's actually an event here in Indianapolis I just learned about on the news that celebrates the start of Kwanzaa. It was just a bunch of people dancing. That was a great time. It was downtown. Where were you? Sounds like a good time. I've never been to a celebration.

I like dancing. It looked like a blast. Both, you know, synergy. Coming together. That's what we need to see more of. Especially in this world. In his house, they're celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. It's like, why not celebrate

everything that we are? Bingo. Good for you guys. We could throw in Little Santa, perhaps. Yeah, from Canada. If you guys were to live in Canada, that would be the whole thing. Yeah, the whole shebang. Good for the Shipleys leading the way.

That's why you go to Green Beret War Camp. You know, and do your thing. We appreciate you, AQ. Thank you, Q. Love you, Q. Nine-year NFL vet, host of Everything DB, presents Good D, Bad D, which we'll be learning later. Man is always incredibly freshly dressed

and has never been to Wachita, Kansas. Mm-mm, not one. Darius Butler. Thank you, Bob. Joining us now is a man from Wichita, a man who absolutely changed football forever, a guy who has a documentary right now on Prime that you should watch called Bye Bye Barry

that is a nice reminder not only of how sick he was at football, but also the entire story and everything he did and how he handled everything. It's been nothing but first class. Ladies and gentlemen, probably the greatest football player of all time, former Detroit Lion, Hall of Famer, Barry Sanders. Let's go. Barry, how are you, pal?

I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me. How are you guys doing? Dude, we're you, pal? I'm doing great, man. Thanks for having me. How are you guys doing? Dude, we're pumped, Barry. Like, we understand that the Wachita, Kansas thing happened one of the last times you were on when we were talking about bye-bye, Barry. And we appreciate the autograph and the send-over here. And we understand that your Detroit Lions now are champions

for the first time in 30 years. A lot has happened in the last few weeks since we've chatted. How about this Detroit Lions team? How pumped are you for them? And what do you think this means for the future of the Detroit Lions, Barry? Oh, I'm so excited, man. Like so many Lions fans. And, you know, I feel like coming into this season,

certainly there was great just anticipation as to what this team would be. I think they met those expectations from fans. I know that obviously we got a big one this weekend in Dallas. Looking forward to handing the Cowboys their first loss at home this season. Going into Jerry World.

I love that. You know what else I love, Barry? And I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to listen to everything you were saying there. As soon as we went on full screen on you, saw one of the sickest things of all time over your right shoulder. Is that a – that's on the side of a building? Where – what is this?

Where are – you're in a Zoom right now. Where is that portrait on the side of a building at? What? Well, it was on the side of a building in downtown detroit for uh for several years they're uh like late late 90s early 2000s so that's that's that's what that image of hey you are always you know because you retired early in everybody's eyes could have gone on to play but i feel like your relationship with the lions has always been good that's good is that true is that how you see it

and what do you think of the current structure of the Lions with Sheila Ford Hampton and Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell how is it different from maybe previous regimes that maybe you've been around or have you not been around as much as you are now yeah well I'm around much more now. When I first retired, you know, things were probably a little bit icy. But no, but now currently things are great. You know, we're excited with what Coach Campbell has been able to do, what Brad Holmes has been able to do, and all, you know, led by Sheila Fordham, as you mentioned, you know, and they've constructed just a great team that we're proud of, that we've known, you know, can do exactly what they've done this year. So, but yeah, I think everyone's excited.

Even from day one, people were excited about having Coach Campbell there, just his attitude, his approach, you know, and what he's been able to get out of these players. Yeah, I think ever since he said he wanted to gnaw kneecaps off whenever he's getting up, I loved him. But there wasn't that narrative everywhere. You know, a lot of people thought he was a buffoon. But it feels like him, Spielman as well, right? Wasn't he a part of the entire rebuild? And let's do this. They wanted like Lions. You know what I mean? They wanted like, hey, we want Detroit Lions to be a certain type of way. And I think a massive piece of this is

you say you're around a lot more now, Calvin Johnson is as well. It feels like they're doing it all right, right? It feels like the Lions are doing everything right in what it could be for so long. And it's obviously everybody's reaping the benefit of that on the field as well. It feels like everything's going good. Right, Barry? Everything.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think you look at the end of the first season with Coach where they didn't win a lot of games, but the guys played hard. I think they won the last three games. Then you look at last season where, you know, at the end of the year, I don't think anyone wanted to see us. We went into Green Bay, knocked them out of the playoffs, still, you know, and finished above 500. And so it's really been building to this point, you know, and so, yeah, we're just excited about how things, you know, because really winning organizations, that's something you have to design.

That's something you have to build and put all the right pieces together. And they've been able to do that. Go ahead, AJ. Barry, it talks about now you hear coaches say, like, how do you handle success? Like, some coaches like being able to coach through losses. It's easy to be hard on them and keep the guys kind of motivated. Now, don't you think the Lions are kind of at this spot where, hey, they set the standard, this is who they are moving forward?

How do you think they handle success, and how do you think the whole city around them will handle that success? Hey, we're expected to win games now going into oh well i i think from from a player standpoint obviously success is something that you you should expect um you know and i think that's one thing the coach is really instilled in this team is expecting to win um you know you see some of these games um that they've been able to win years past. They probably would not have been able to win a lot of those same games. So you expect it.

This is a competitive league. Whenever you're on top, people are gunning for you. People want to know how legitimate are you. And I think this team has to obviously prove that this weekend. But it's certainly a mindset that you take into every practice and every game. But it's something you have to expect and anticipate because, you know, that's why you play the game. And that's the only way really to be successful. Yeah, you earn that pressure, right?

That's what everybody says. There's potential massive pressure coming right down the pipe. A.Q. Shipley has a question for you. Oh, Barry Sanders. A.Q. Shipley has a question for you. Oh, Barry Sanders? Yeah, Barry, so if the Rams come into Detroit in the playoffs, what do you think that atmosphere is going to be like, and what do you think the crowd reaction is going to be to Matthew Stafford coming back home? I think it's going to be hard to contain the excitement of Lions fans.

I promise you. Having a home playoff game. I think they'll be fairly cordial to Matt Stafford. I think we appreciate his time as a Lion. We're glad he had a chance to go win a chip a few years ago. So I think generally speaking, people respect him. But in a scenario like that, obviously

he's coming in as an opponent and the fans are going to go absolutely berserk with a home playoff game at Ford Field, I promise you. The thought of, remember he said, what did he say? We're the fire, you're the kindling, man.

Remember he said that for like a spring practice that they had open to the crowd down at Ford Field. And his message to the crowd was like a motivational speech to the crowd and what they wanted to do. And it's like now Detroit is all the way. How many sellouts were straight there? And then it stopped because there was doubt and a lack of faith? But then all the great football town, great football town always has been.

Now they've got a reason to talk their shit, which is good news. Because if this season was only remembered for that Jack Harlow halftime Thanksgiving performance, that would have been a damn shame. But instead, we're talking about the brand new Lions. Obviously, Barry, you know Foxy. Foxy has some things to say to you. Yeah, Barry, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure you were part of the process in hiring Motor City Dan Campbell

along with Sheila Fordham and Spielman and all that. During that process, first off, thank you. You got the right guy, obviously. But during that process, what did you you got the right guy obviously but during that process what'd you learn about mcdc and what'd you see that said hey this is our guy for for detroit well yeah the way it really happened is you know chris billman uh sheila um and rod wood they were pretty much in brad holmes uh um sheila ford um those were really the personalities who made the decision. I was kind of in on some of the conversations.

And really, you know, Chris was looking and the group was kind of looking for someone, you know, who could really lead the team, who they feel like young players or players in general could respect, you know, and who had a really winning mentality, you know. And so those were kind of some of the conversations, some of the things that we were talking about during some of those meetings. We showcased his press conference when it was announced he was the head coach. And then some of the responses, it was like, and then they go 0-10-1, right? Yes.

And then they win and he cries. Yep. It's like Dan Campbell, like when they think outside the box, it's like from a head coaching standpoint, it's like there's a box, you go outside of it, and then you've got to hop in one of Elon Musk's rockets. That's right. Then you've got to go out of the stratosphere,

and then you've got to go outside of that as well. Whenever you think about what head coaches normally are, how they normally speak, how they normally act, what they're supposed to say, how they're supposed to say it, it's like he was one of one from the beginning. They go 0-10-1. There was a lot of people saying, here we go again. But it sounded like, and you said Chris Spielman's name

first, it's like, we knew exactly what we were getting into. They've been patient with it, which not in the past has certainly been something with Detroit. It's like, this feels like a good football program. It feels like they're making all the right decisions. And a lot of people say it's because Peyton and that guy from Dumb and Dumber,

they went into a tub of people say it's because Peyton and that guy from Dumb and Dumber. Yep, Jeff Daniels. They went into a tub of, I think it was Jungle Juice, in the middle of Ford Field, and they got rid of all the things that were, all the curses. Right, Foxy, you know what happened? Yep, the Bobby Lane curse. I believe that was a tub of whiskey. Yep, and that's never been the same since.

No, Jungle Juice. Whiskey's in Jungle Juice. Nonetheless, congrats to Detroit not being cursed anymore, seems like. D-Bud has a question for you, Barry. Yeah, first of all, Pat mentioned it, but thank you once again for my personalized post. It was awesome. In the man cave.

But this year's MVP race, kind of been going back and forth with the favorites. I saw you respond to fellow Hall of Famer Shannon Sharp and say, hey, you know it's going to be a quarterback award. They made me split it back in 97 with Brett Favre. You still feel that way?

And who would be that quarterback that would potentially split it with CMC, in your opinion? Oh, well, I would say you look at, I mean, Dak's having a great year. You know, Jalen Hurts is having a solid year. Brock Purdy is having a solid year. I think – you know, I may be forgetting someone. Lamar Jackson. I think – but Lamar Jackson, obviously, yeah.

That's what I was forgetting, yes. So I think either one of those four, you could throw their name in that hat. You didn't care at all about any of that? Or what, you were pissed when they gave you the coat one? How did it – because, you know, you did remind people, like, hey, just a reminder. No. I'm much older now.

Still got it if you need it one play probably. One game. I would assume – you think 10 plays, first down, one series? What do you think right now the body could go if it hasn't? 10 plays. I think with this Lions offensive line, yeah, give me between 10 and 15. Oh, hell yeah. 10 and 15 touches to Barry Sanders.

That just reminds me. I watched the doc, and I couldn't believe they had you on the sideline for that first. Like, what was that? Did you miss training camp? Why were you on the sideline? I think it was the Cardinals, your your first game you got in at some point but because you couldn't imagine that right now today's nfl but how do they keep you on the sideline for so long and why what was the reason behind that no because i signed um i signed the week of the first game so i missed

all okay gotcha gotcha so that that's that's why that happened like that. It wasn't like any kind of a punishment. I just, you know, I hadn't been able to get the playbook or anything like that, so I signed really late. I didn't know the playbook. You just tell me right left. We can figure this whole thing out, but they wanted at least a week for me to start

the NFL, and we got a chance to see in that documentary, and then who's Zito? Who's Barry's guy? You got a great to see in that documentary and then who's, Zito, who's Barry's guy? You got a great, your guy's a good guy. J.B. Bernstein. Is that the name? Yeah. Great. Very, very

active. Sends us stuff like, hey, this is happening. Good. And then we saw your college football stats. They went through like that one year, the amount of yards you had in every game. And there was one game they held you to 150 yards. You must have been sick. You must have been sick. I don't know.

But this guy went for like 250, 300 yards. Right now, I guess, 35th anniversary of him at the Holiday Bowl where he went for 222 yards and five touchdowns. Oh. So you not playing that first game, I assume all of Detroit was like, every time we've seen this guy play football, he's better than everybody else.

Why do you think, you know, like, here we go. Barry Sanders, highlight from college. See ya. Running so fast that nobody could touch you ever. You know, you get in the NFL, it's the same exact thing. Was there any, you know, like when you get to the NFL? Because I'm at the age that we just know you like 10 years, 10 pro bowlers, 10 all pros. See you later.

Basketball time. All we see is highlights. Was there down games? Did you have down games ever? Is that something that happened? That's a real question. That is an actual, like you woke up, you know what? Not feeling it today.

Not able to. I think it happened. You think it happened? That's a real question. That is an actual, like you woke up, you know what, not feeling it today. Yes, I think it happened. You think it happened? I think it happened occasionally, yeah, for sure. That's a nice thing about where I am, you know, being retired and in the Hall of Fame. They only pretty much show highlights, and they don't really show the lowlights. But there are a few. I mean, you know, we lost a few tough playoff games and things like that that I can think about, you know, in Green Bay.

Actually, we lost the home game to Brett Favre in the playoffs. I mean, so we don't need to dive into that. No, I agree. I just want to let you know, your highlight reel has spanned my entire life pretty much, and every time it's a new play. So it's like what a weapon you were speaking of weapons detroit has one ty schmidt has a question for you yeah

barry obviously not the same situation when you got drafted but i feel like this year when jameer gibbs got taken with that premium pick a lot of lions fans at least early in the season we're kind of saying like hey we're not seeing this guy as much as we want to david montgomery was kind of the bell cow but then down the stretch here, getting ready for the playoffs, it seems like he's kind of taken the lion's share, like the carries and touches and things like that. And he's obviously added a major new dynamic to their offense. Have you been impressed with the way they've kind of decided to use his usage now?

Because it seems like he doesn't have all those extra miles on his tread going into the playoffs now, and he's firmly kind of in that position where he's expected to make a massive impact week in, week out. Oh, for sure. I mean, I think they just kind of wanted to start him off slowly and work him in to certain situations. But really from day one, I mean, he work him in certain situations. But really from day one, I mean, he's shown that sort of burst that we see. You know, I think he's either just a clip a thousand yards

or on the verge of clipping a thousand yards. But, you know, the kid has, you know, the kind of burst that you just don't see. And it's really transferred to this level and to the NFL. And really with all the other weapons, it's just really accident what he does. But every time he gets the ball, it looks like he's going to do something exciting. And he's just been a great addition and really met with everyone's expectations and hopes for being drafted that high. Ben Johnson, too.

What a weapon. You know what I mean? Feels like he gets it whenever they need it. They have something, it seems like. You know, Ben Johnson has an answer. And it's like some coaches, offensive people, I think they run out creativity by the year's end or whatever. They get scared to do something.

Ben Johnson always has something, feels like. Always an answer. Always. And when they need it, you see it. And they'll hold it, too. Very patient play caller. I feel like he is – he's a guy that's obviously going to get a lot of gigs, but Jameer Gibbs, when he gets going, he's fun.

Yeah. He is fun to watch play football. Go ahead, AJ. Barry, when you watch defense, it's kind of attack ball carriers these days. You watch them, like, guys are coming up throwing monster punches at these guys trying to get the ball out it seems like sometimes sacrificing their body trying to get the ball out and i think that's that's something that's pretty new over the last five ten years i believe it seems like guys are doing that more and more was that happening at all when you were playing and would that change your running style if that was kind of like how

it's going today i think you certainly have to be just more aware of it as a runner that they are attacking the ball, you know, and defenses are trying to not just get you to the ground, you know, but get a turnover, what have you. And so I think, so yeah, it would would change it to some degree just being being more conscious of it you know and that's something you know and obviously even in practice you know something that you rep and think about you know because guys are definitely and you know it is you know certainly making a difference I think you see probably more turnovers

because of that and defensive coordinators are really teaching that to their guys. So it's something you got to be aware of. Yeah. Darius Leonard used to do this every game. He would come flying in. You know, Peanut Tillman obviously started this entire thing. I think he's an FBI agent. Yes, he is.

Shout out to him, serving the country. We appreciate him doing it. And also becoming a guy who does the punch out. And then, like, it became a very – Darius Leonard did at least six attempts a game. Yes. And it's like full body – you're talking about, like, them working it. Full body punch. And the ball would come out a lot.

Marlon. Shaq Leonard was going for it the other night a lot. Yeah. He's going to – They're not doing that to Barry. You missed, though. They're not doing that to Barry. You missed, though. It's like knocking a dude's dude's wind down too imagine how many shots you're taking if you're

catching if you're not hitting the ball and you're catching the ribs knocking the wind out like it takes its toll i think i'm running well and for the puncher though too you missed it's a helmet that's an elbow you know just like in uh that's a great i love that if you run back to take though of uh 20 in detroit it wasn wasn't too many guys in position to. They weren't close enough. Yeah. You just try to get some cloth. Yeah, well, that's the thing.

He actually has an NFL record, I've just been told, of most amount of carries without a fumble, like 803 or something. Boom. Who would have thought? Hell yeah. Barry, you ain't giving away the fucking program. No, you ain't getting this. You put the ball in my hands.

I am going to make sure we have it for the next play. And then once you score a touchdown, by the way. Boom. There you go. Done this a lot. Why? Because you were just, yeah, what are we talking about? Score a touchdown.

Cool. But it ran further. This thing stopped me. So I don't know what we're doing. You always just handball the official guy? Like even in high school, everything like that? That was just move? Yeah, yeah, it was.

It was. Never once did you, ha! I got you! I'm better than you! I'm better than you! I just cooked both of you. You're down. You're still out.

You suck. You shouldn't be on the field. Not one time because you are referenced by everybody. Paris Sayers used to say in a bowl official. I mean, that's what he used to do. That's what you used to do. That's what you used to do. Everybody says it across the entire country. Was there ever a time where you were

like, I'm Barry Sanders. Was there ever that ever happened? Hey, Pat, for me, it was more of a thing of I just did my job and there's actually more to do. I want to get here a few more times.

So I'm not going to get too excited about getting here, you know, once or twice. I mean, you know, so it was always more to do, more to accomplish, you know. And when you get to the end zone, for me, the job's been done, you know. Five, by the way, Holiday Bowl, 35 years ago, 222 yards, five touchdowns. That's it. Has three touchdowns in a bowl game, right? Huge deal.

He's like, excuse me. We got two more quarters. We got two more quarters. Five touchdowns. It's crazy. Same draft. You got Deion Sanders who's on the complete opposite of that spectrum. Yeah, but also.

He can hot step 40 yards out. Yeah, do you ever? I never even thought about, you know. It's crazy. Maybe. Obviously not. Obviously not. That's why you are who you never even thought about, you know. It's crazy. Maybe. Obviously not. Obviously not. That's why you are who you are, and we are who we are.

Just absolute dipshits. You're a legend, man. We appreciate you joining us. Congrats to your Detroit Lions. The prime doc is awesome. I don't know if you've got a chance to watch it or how you would treat that, but it is fantastic. You're a good dude.

The NFL is lucky that it had you. No, I appreciate it, man. Thank you. Great to be here. I'm glad to be here with DirecTV, Holiday Bowl, celebrating my 35th anniversary of playing in the game. It's hard to believe it's been that long ago. Thanks for having me on again.

Let's do it again soon. Yeah, you got it. Also, let's get this thing back on a building. Let's get this thing back on a building. Yeah, you look it. And also, let's get this thing back on a building. You know what I mean? Let's get this thing back on a building. Yeah! You look good, Barry. You look good. Can still give you 10 to 15 snaps if you need them. Ladies and gentlemen, Hall of Famer, Barry Sanders.

Yeah, Barry! Alright, Barry. See you, buddy. So good at football. Every coach in America, you know how many people, how many coaches, especially in my generation growing up, reference Barry Sanders. Just give the ball to the official. Just give it back.

That's the best in the world. Just give the ball to the official. It's not only coaches. It's like fans. Whenever there's some fans who will see a player do something, he's like, Barry Sanders just gave the ball to the official. Why you got to do all the song and dance? Across the country, everybody.

And it's like his mindset was one touchdown. Yeah, Come on. I'll be back. What are we doing here? So it was maybe on the highest scale of confidence that you could potentially have. Yeah. I'll be back. You know what I mean?

Like celebrating would be seemingly a confident talkie. It's below him. It's like beneath him. He's like, what are you talking about? I'll be here at least three more times. That is kind of a mental fuck as a defender. This guy just shook us, went for 80, and he's just ready are you talking about i'll be here at least three more times that is kind of what am i doing fuck the defender like this guy just shook us went for 80 he just yeah whatever ready to do it again yeah i was supposed to do that yeah how many this ball out of my hands i'm

disgusted with it you see what i just did this is too easy all right let's get this next drive let's do the same thing again five touchdowns in that holiday ball he was so good how many games did he only have one i don't know that's that's why i asked him like 10 just all pro since you got as soon as you get in there yeah just and to be that young and win that award you got to really turn some fucking heads oh yeah so it's not like you're having bad weeks you know you're not having like multiple bad weeks in a row it's like what a fucking weapon dog barry sanders is and as these i'm happy he's out and about, you know. Awesome. It's great because, yeah, he seems like a very low-key guy.

But, yeah, it's cool. Not only are the Lions playing well, but Barry seems to be embracing it a little bit more to be around and do stuff publicly. It's good for football, you know, that Barry's around. Uncle Dan. We got Uncle Dan down in Miami. Uncle Barry now in Detroit.

Hey, we haven't got a chance to chat about Hard Knocks, dude. Have you watched this? And it is fantastic, isn't it? Man, yeah. I just love what they're doing. I love McDaniel. Like, yeah, I just put myself in those players' shoes, and you watch him going around at practice trying to get the guys going

and the way that he does them. Like, yeah, of course. He's the guy that if, like, he if he does that at the beginning of practice, starts talking about, oh, hey, the running back's going to cook you today, whatever. You get a pick, I'm throwing the ball right at him. I'm going to pick and throw it at the coach. All that stuff. And then he's getting excited trying to throw it back at me. I can

see how that would kind of invite more competitive atmospheres and really kind of get guys going and continue, I guess, over the long course of a season. Here's what AJ is referring to from last night's Hard Knocks right before a week 16 practice when boys get tired. Boys are sore. I'm going to go talk some shit and get this turnt up today.

Hey, Butch, I know you just wanted to go through the motions today. Oh, you almost bit me, bro. Hey, we're competing today. We're competing today. It's not time to be soft. We're competing today. We're competing today. It's not time to be stopped. We're competing today Like I want shit talking after completion. Oh, yeah Hit the White House with this. Ravage these corners.

These corners up today. Jay was not even turning around. What? Jay wasn't turning around yet. He told me to apologize to you because this guy is going to choke your guys out today. Are you ready for a play call or what? I'm ready. What a human. AJ, you were talking about that.

This Hard Knocks season, I guess, has been great. Yeah. Yeah. It has to be with the characters that they have, including McDaniel at the top. But it's also from the episodes that I watch, which is last night's full one, and then clips that have made their way to the internet. Yep. And you talk about Uncle Dan being around.

I think they've done the same thing that Detroit's done. Like, yeah, we want to embrace tradition here. Like, we want people to come back. We want to run the business good. They are. I'm believing. I didn't catch it the first time, but two former Dolphins. Wes.

Yeah, Wes and Sam Madison. You know, that was one of my favorite corners growing up. Sam Madison, Pat Sertain. And then you got Wes. Obviously, we played there before he went on to dominate with New England. But to have those guys that have been around, know what the city's about, know what the team's about, the history of it, pretty dope. Dan there is huge.

Oh, actually, yeah. But it's like, yeah, Dan, like, I love. He's in the gift exchange. Dan's in the quarterback meeting room doing the gift exchange. Like, how awesome would that be? Which we have the clip actually for it, and this is beautiful. Dan Marino is in the quarterback gift exchange for the 2023-led Miami Dolphins. And this isn't like, oh, just for hard knocks.

The way they talk about him is as if he is in the building. This dude is around. Not a bad person to have around to have around obviously yinzer so he's going to be hilarious he's been there he knows the city knows the team and also one of the best fucking players of all time whenever you're talking about dealing with stuff here's him part of the gift exchange and look at the gift that he gives and then watch two will be a good teammate. I got you all guys. I just told you. How do you remember Pat Detective? Yes! Lifetime supply! Lifetime!

That is hilarious. Lifetime supply. Tua's so pumped. Tua's so casual with Dan Marino. Like he's in there, I think. He's been around too. Good times, bad times. Yeah? This is fun.

Yeah. This is fun. Are we ready? The tour is so cool. Oh my gosh, dude. So excited for you guys to open this. Oh my gosh. I do like UGG slippers.

Three, two, one. Yo. What is it, Mike? It's a golf simulator dude. Gifted a golf simulator? Two, one. Yo! What is it, Mike? It's a golf simulator. Gifted a golf simulator? I didn't know those came in boxes. What? Great teammate.

I believe... Easy, brother. Dude, I didn't get Uncle Dan this one because he already has one. We got to do another QB challenge. No one has any excuses now. He's has one. You got to do another QB challenge. No one has any excuses now. Work right after the Super Bowl. He's quarterback challenge. He heard that. Other conversations happened.

And then he talked about quarterback challenge. Dan Marino was like, yeah, back to that, by the way. After Super Bowl. We'll see. I might not be able to spin it like you guys anymore, but we get on a golf course. We'll see how this whole thing goes. He probably could still spin it.

Yeah. For sure. Big bad Brad, I mean, still spinning it. Oh, yeah, I didn't even think about that. Dan can sling it. That quick release, Dan can sling it. Dan may be like, I bet he's on a lot of people's like, you know, they say, hey, what's your dream?

Force him to play golf with. I bet Dan's in a lot of those groups because Dan would, you know, he seems amazing. And now he's seemingly a good golfer. Yeah. Right, is what he said. If he wasn't on my dream, force him to golf with. I think I'm putting him good golfer. Yeah. Right, is what he said. If he wasn't on my dream foursome to golf with, I think I'm putting him in there now.

Probably. He has never been on this program, right? No. No. They said he's in the building every single day. That's awesome. Every single day he's in the building. So he's just like an advisor?

He showers with the boys and stuff? Is he like in the hot tub, cold tub, you think? Oh, yeah. Hey, Jay. Come on. No, I'm saying I assume he has a locker. He has a locker probably, and he has his own shower in there. Probably with the coaches or a front office or something like that.

I don't know if he's in the player's locker room. I didn't say that. I believe his title is special advisor to the vice chairman, president, and CEO. Hey, so basically my eyes are around. Okay. And if you need anything, come to me. If I need anything, I'll go to them. Don't want to be on my bad side.

No, you don't. But I like that they just call him Uncle Dan. That's just like the casual. Sweet. Uncle Dan just came into the defensive meeting room. Can't wait to hear what he says. Don't you think you guys should? What if Dan is just like that involved?

I assume he is. I'd bring him in. When you bring him in, D-Bud, if you're on defense, I'd want Dan to come into the defensive meeting room. Hey, Dan, what did you hate? What gave you a hard time? what do you hate defenses to do and then i like to hear like what do they say absolutely yep and obviously bringing up those quarterbacks because dan was like ahead of his time when it came to like don't like throwing the ball like

5 000 yards waiting like 84 i believe how he threw it how he saw it wasn't surrounded with you know the best talent good guys i'm sure those guys that organization for sure wants to win a super bowl obviously for everybody in there but dan would be one of those guys that he's going to be one of the first guys touching that trophy you know we didn't get him one and you said that the first question you would ask him if he came on the program was talking about today's football yeah how how well you think dan marino i would i would ask him because he's one of those guys where people say, like, oh, Jordan, if he played today, he would score. He would average 60 points a game.

Like, Dan is a legitimate quarterback. I think if he played today with the rules, because the last few years he was playing, he had, like, prosthetics on. Like, his cleats came up to his damn knee. His high tops were up to his knee almost. Not moving, just all just flicking the wrist. I think he could legit throw for 6,000 yards in today's NFL. I assume he would appreciate hearing you say that.

I wonder what his answer is because I assume he's thought about it when he's watching these games. Yeah, with that offense too. It's not like he's watching a certain team. He's watching an offense that everyone's trying to copy with Tyree Kill. Uncle Dan, how you doing today? Well, I'd be better if I was you. Yeah.

Via Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddell and McDaniel calling plays. Mostert. Go ahead, AQ. Defenses are so different. When I was coaching the one year, I went to Clyde Christensen, who we all know, quarterback coach in Tampa when I was there, was also Peyton's quarterback coach, right? Worked with Tom Brady, Peyton Manning.

He was good. He's going to have a book one day. It's going to be really good. Andrew Luck, he's had them all, right? So he was watching film the one day and thing i like walked in i'm like what are you watching he's like it was like 2005 colts versus patriots fourth quarter tight ball game patriots are running three four cover two base defense the entire drive like two minute drive and i'm like oh my god the game has changed so much vince

wilfork was in every single play. Two minutes. Like two minutes, he wouldn't even be in a game. And now why would it change? The speed would just be so much different. Yeah, you've got five DBs on the field. You've got six DBs sometimes. It's dime, especially with Peyton Manning on the field, right? The skies in.

The skies in. They're bringing pressures. They're doing all this stuff. It was literally base defense, cover two, no bullets. It's just, here we go. Like when offenses run hurry up pretty much. Bingo. The most easy stuff ever. You see a lot of we go. Like when offenses run hurry up pretty much. Bingo. The most easy stuff ever. You see a lot of teams have success whenever they're running hurry up,

and it's mostly because the defense isn't able to do anything or get set or sub. So it's a basic defense, plus they're getting tired. It's why some of us think run hurry up all the time, although it's not sustainable. But what were you about to say there, D-Bud? No, it's crazy because still in today's NFL, one of the basic calls in two-minute defense is still cover two.

Every time it's like you know it's coming, you know offense, they're going to run a dagger, and you still see it. Like 30 years later, it's still the same. Those same bones of the defensive offense in that operation two-minute is still the same shit. If you were to watch this film of Dan Marino that we're watching right now, what defense do you think they're running? They're running the same stuff, huh?

Oh, I'll have to see it. You think it's just basic? Oh, flea flicker! Oh, yeah. Dan Marino sets his feet. You know what that means. Touchdown, Dolphins! It's hilarious watching these, though,

because the first touchdown pass that he threw, definitely not a touchdown today. What's the catch? Yeah, strictly because the guy landed on the ball. There's no way it's a touchdown. Whose ball? That ball. That ball right there.

Oh, yeah. Buckets. Dan Marino crafted his arm and his technique in Oakland, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Went to Central Catholic. Was an absolute beast. Had an incredible throw. Irving Fryer. Yep.

Incredible throw. Coming out of college. Oh, fake spike. Yeah, Fryer. Yep. Incredible fro. Coming out of college. Oh, fake spike. Yeah, I don't want to do it. Fade. Back shoulder. Bucket. Way before everybody else.

Air gland. Back shoulder. I mean, and look at the boy. He's going to be excited. Oh, yeah. He's going to win. Living down in Miami at that time, too. I couldn't even fathom how good the tan was on Dan Marino for most of the time.

Not just the tan. All the Dan was outside. Yeah, he definitely was. That's why he's so relatable. That's why everybody likes him. Now, whenever he does a read for a commercial, there's no fucking flub. No waste of time.

Fucking send it. He's hanging out with people on the bi-week too. He's not just doing nothing. Fucking send it. Two of the greatest clips of all time. He was on Bowie Bowie. Yep. All time.

Hey, way to go, Uncle Dan. Love you, Dan. You want to do something to do a giveaway or what? Sure. All right, what are we winning? Are we throwing? You know what to do. Whatever you want to do.

You know what to do. Don't say any words. Just grab and go? Yeah, just chuck. Pick up that ball and huck it. You already looked at it too long. Nope, I didn't. Okay. I'm going to reset the scene here. Just grab and go? Yeah, just chuck it. Pick up that ball and huck it. You already looked at it too long. Nope, I didn't. I'm going to reset the scene here.

You ready for it? Hey, 15 people, $500. All you got to do is put a ball in that hoop over there. Thank you, Shipley. 10. Oh, man. What if that became your signature move? What if that became your signature move?

I don't know. I felt good about that one. 15 people, $500. All AQs got to do is just put a ball into the hoop. There it is. Oh, my God. Those are your best efforts, though. Yeah.

Those certainly are your best efforts. Let's just keep it going. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the first time this man has attempted this. 15 people, $500. All he's got to do is put a ball in the hoop. Oh, my God. Best ball, best ball. He's got a sharp shoe.

Oh, no. Lights areball, basketball. He's got a sharp shoe. Oh, no. They took it down. That was big. Lights are down. You ruined Christmas. But you can make 15 people's Christmas. That was the worst one yet. That was the worst one yet.

You know what happens with songs that get made? Sure. The first four times you hear them, they're awesome. Yeah. And then they just beat them. They do too much, and it loses its luster. So we're done. We quit this? I think there's a chance you ruined with five straight misses here.

You know what I mean with the no look huck thing? Okay, we're back. But we got one more. 15 people. What are you doing? No, no. It jumps short. 15 people, 500. Oh, no.

Oh! Now you got to wonder. Monkey in the middle. No, we're swinging around. We're getting you the perfect shot. Ball movement. Whoa. Oh!

DB, classic. Oh, no. Jeez. It's a bad throw. It's a bad throw. Oh, okay. Oh, no. Jeez. It's a bad throw. It's a bad throw. Oh, okay. Oh, no. Turn over.

Dang. Reset. Ball. Check ball. Oh. Skip pass back. 15 people, $500. That would have been the coolest one.

That would have been unbelievable. That one would have been really cool. Where's Beal? We kind of did all of them. Not enough screen to move, but. Yeah, the offense we run, we don't even got to set picks. No. Ball movement.

Changing the whole thing. You see me working the paint, though? Oh, yeah. I appreciate you. That's why you're a Hall of Fame basketball player. Worked the post. Kabaly said it last week. Couldn't leave the paint.

Kabaly, dude. Kabaly. Kabaly did say you were a force down low. player. We're at the post. Kabaly said it last week. Couldn't leave the paint. Kabaly, dude. Kabaly. Kabaly did say you were a force down low. Yeah. You read it, right? Yeah. You guys all read it? Kabaly said one of my first jobs was covering A.Q. Shipley playing basketball at Moonton

Ship. He was a force in the paint. Except for when you ran into a bigger force. Who was that? Who was that? What was his name? Hartung? Nate.

You remember? He's 400 pounds. 400 pounds. He was A.Q., but bigger. How tall? Maybe my height, too. I think he was like. 400 pounds. He was AQ, but bigger. How tall? Maybe my height, too. I think he was like 6'1". He was your height?

Four bills? This dude was a mythological creature in Pittsburgh. Went to BYU to play nose guard. Yeah, he was a monster. He was 400 pounds and could move. Yeah. He was on a newspaper every week. Look at this thing.

Okay. And it was... I put him on there, too. That's what they said. Yeah. It was phenomenal. I couldn't even imagine you two rhinos battling it out down there in the paint. To replace the hardwood after the game.

Yeah. You know that indent that Zion had when he was dunking? That was just the paint the whole night whenever AQ and Nate Hartung. There he is. Yep. That was Hartung. Is that Big Bob? Look at everybody on the ground.

It's not a roof. That's not a roof. It looks like butter. That is real. That's real. I's not a roof. I got a lot of clips. That's not a roof. It looks like butter. It's not a roof. That's who, yeah. That is real. That's so many good basketball fans. I had to guard him. No way.

True. This can't be real. This is real. He doesn't have knee braces on. This isn't real. This is real. No, it's not. He got his toe got.

Find another picture. Seriously. There's a bunch. This is real. He was a mythological creature. I can't believe that. He used to just play against everybody too. Like single A ball there, double. They would just drop him into a gym

and he was dominant. Football, same thing. What is that? I'm not believing that for a second. That guy was five foot three. Look at him! Oh, this is real? Yes, it's real. It nate or tongue what a name he's got six wheels on there look at that look at 64 right there what do you tell me if this

is real or not yes it's real it can fucking get happy to be back oh my goodness funny as he had a brother who was like that's not super skinny and Yeah, number three right there. Younger Hardtongue. Make an impact. Anyways, AQ for big Nate Dogg. For big Nate Dogg. And the nostalgia that we just got to experience everybody in western Pennsylvania around that age. Why don't you go ahead and make this football

in that hoop over there. What's your problem, D-Butt? Nate Hardtongue would have got buckets. Is he in the NBA right now? He focused on football instead. Should have stayed in basketball. Should have stayed in basketball. He would have been Big Perk.

20 people, $500 for Big Nate Horton. Here we go. All you got to do is put the ball in the hoop. Thank you. Bam for Nate. Yeah, I mean the basketball. I mean basketball. I got to see this actual play, though.

He was listed 6-3", 4'10". What happened to the guys on the ground? Did he use your steps? They were fouling him. This is after him getting fouled, and there's a third on the way. You know, it used to be hack a hard time. That's what they used to say. 6'3", 4'10", is what he's listed.

Yeah. I was also listed at 6'3", in high school, too. The name was 6'6", for sure. I mean, they got to cut 23. I need to cut this man down. Come on. All right. There was some recruiting things that had me listed at 6'4,

and then I'd go on these visits, and they'd be like, we got catfished. What happened? There was a Nate Hartung coming here. You have your lips. All right, AQ. Here we go. For big Nate Hartung, 20 people, $500.

All you gotta do is make the ball that's over there. Come on. We know how this goes. Because you just have nightmares of Nate Hartung. How does Chuck make this everywhere? Chuck practices. Does he? You know why? You're getting a sweat on and doing all your bullshit, sitting at that tiny little chair at our high table over there. We all got a sweat on today.

It was nice. It was. Good to see everybody. Good to see you. I was able to wake up. Good to see you in there. Alright. You guys. Ty, we saw it. Throw the ball, funny man. See, but when you're doing all that, Chuck's practicing. Chuck literally comes out here

and he practices. Both hoops, by the way. Oh yeah. He goes ambidextrous. What do you think of you? I'm going to go here. I like this one better. How many people do you think should win if you put this in? 20? 100. Because it's not going to happen. What are we doing here?

We said that last week. Here we go. This is 20 people. $500. All you need to do, AQ Shipley, is what Nate Hartong did. Put the ball in the hoop. There it is. Oh! Chipley is what Nate Hartong did. Here we go. Put the ball in the hoop. Big Nate. There it is. Let's go. Good work.

Thank you. Just like Big Nate. Just like Big Nate. With the scoop hook underneath. Listen. Look at that. Look at the pitch. And at court.

And say what? That ain't a foul. What? Sorry about it. 6'3", 415 pounds. Welcome to the Hartung house.

Don't you dare come in there. He fouled out a lot of games, but Nate Hartung was going to give it his all every single fucking play. You know how many kids... This is high school? Yeah.

It's what he did. Enforcer. Dang. I mean, he sat there. What did he want him to do? He wasn't moving. He was not he did. Enforcer. He sat there. What did he want to do? He wasn't moving. He was not happy about the call either. You see him. He's walking it off.

That kid's life changed forever on December 2nd, 2003. Nate Hartung was getting fucked by these refs, but when he got the ball. Escalade. No holding. No holding. Nate Hartung was before his time. Dead. He paralyzed that kid.

That kid's never walked again. That one was a little Oh, what'd you do? He took a charge on that one. That wasn't a flop. That guy couldn't walk. Oh, no, he wasn't moving. What are you talking about?

6'3", 4'10", trying to get in the way for a block. Get out. These defenders need to communicate, man. Let your buddy know he's coming. They're going to call it off. Listen, they prepared all week for Nate Hartung, but it isn't. Whoa, what a pass. Vision is crazy.

Can we see a jumper? I don't think he has that. What? Yeah, he's in the pair. Here it is. Dunk. He's draining threes. What do you want him to do?

He's trying to go for the ball just like everybody else. That's Nate Hartung. Hey, thank you, Nate. Love you, Nate. Your inspiration found 20 winners of $500 here because A.Q. Shipley was able to do what he very rarely does. What do you want the guy to do? He's doing it.

It's four in a row. It's four in a row. Yeah, Nate Hartung's game. I mean, the refs just are, give me that. Yeah. He didn't dunk that? No, he didn't want to show off.

He saved that for big games. He didn't have his knee braces on that day. Run to court. Run to court. Give him the ball. Feed that man. Whoa! Oh, man.

After Christmas? Now you guys understand why he was folklore in western Pennsylvania. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. This is J folklore in western Pennsylvania. Oh, my gosh. Look at this, dude. This is Jokic. He's so good.

Yes. Oh, yeah. That's basketball. That was the day after Christmas, too. Tough to focus. Well, fresh New Year, same name. Same name. That guy was airborne.

Happy 2004. Same name, hard time from 2003. That's got a call-out screen. Oh, he was a weapon when he got at the top of the page. Number 100? No, he's double zero. Number 100. Did they put a one on his jersey?

I mean, how pumped was the student section to cheer for this guy? I don't know, but you were not going to box him out. I don't know what nobody thought. No. Oh, my God. There's AQ and the Hardtongue. And one. Come on.

And one. Did you replay him? Did you replay him? Yeah. You did? Oh, my gosh. Dead body on the court. There's. Come on. And one. Did you replay him? Did you replay him? Yeah. You did? Oh, my gosh. Dead body on the court. There's a dead body on the court.

AQ had this game circled on his calendar. Way to go, Nate. Way to go. Five, not right there. There we go. They were cheering for him. Two minutes left in the first half. He took no shit.

You know, and that's what you need. That's what it's all about. When you're going to play a little hoops in western Pennsylvania. Hell, yeah. I appreciate you making that for not only him, but for 20 people, AQ. Today was fun. I hope you all enjoyed it. We'll be back tomorrow.

We'll be back Friday as well. And then remember, week 17 is kicking off tomorrow night. Yeah, let's go. Enjoy. Yeah, let's enjoy it. Yes. Let's not get Don. No, it's not.

Because there's not a lot of games left. Let's get up because we have the games to enjoy. Got Joe fucking Flack up. Don, Tom. Yeah. Because there's not a lot of games left. Let's get up because we have the games to enjoy. We've got Joe fucking Flack up. Yeah, I'm Tom. Yeah. Joey Flack. Yeah. He's all the way back.

What? Oh! Yeah. Let's have a good one tomorrow. Hell yeah. All right. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice.

It might change their life. AJ crushed it today. Boys, same thing. New graphics were awesome. Way to go, Dirty and team. Goodbye!