The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1053 - Pete Carroll Out As Seahawks Head Coach, Trenches Wednesday With Phil Mickelson, JJ Watt, Jordan Schultz, AQ Shipley and Darius Butler LIVE In The ThunderDome, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys look ahead to this weekend’s Super Wildcard Weekend matchups, and how the weather might play into the games and have an impact on them. They also further discuss the different coaching vacancies and who might end up where, and react to the breaking news that Pete Carroll is officially out as Head Coach of the Seattle Seahawks and will be moving into a front office advisor role. Joining the progrum to chat about how LIV golf is evolving, what changes are coming in the future to help grow the game and the product, how Jon Rahm signing with LIV helps bridge the gap between LIV and the PGA, his thoughts on the Ryder Cup, and the world of golf as a whole, is 6x Major Champion, 57 professional golf wins including 45 on the PGA tour, World Golf Hall of Famer and icon, Phil Mickelson (19:50-50:54). Next future first ballot Hall of Famer, 3x DPOY, Texans Ring of Honor member, one of the greatest football players of all-time, JJ Watt joins the show to preview Super Wildcard Weekend, the different coaching openings, a weekly Burnley update, if he’s considering suiting up for the Steelers on Sunday, and much more (59:25-2:04:28). Later, Bleacher Report NFL Insider, Jordan Schultz joins the show to chat about the Pete Carroll situation in Seattle, if this was to be expected, who might be in line to get the Head Coaching gig, and how he wasn’t the first guy on this (2:21:54-2:27:45). 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, January 10th, 2024, this sports program starts now. Football! It's all around us and we're heading into a super wild card weekend that is going to be an absolute delight. Now on this glorious Wednesday we have a stacked lineup of humans joining us. Phil Mickelson, obviously three-time Masters champion, will join us in about 20 minutes. The golf world has been chirping.

Chit-chatting, yeah. People that are on this side, once I've just, I'm on this side. There's a lot going on with a lot of big names, and obviously the live season starts in February. PGA will be right around the bend. And hot does the future look like for all of golf we shall see. We'll also be joined by J.J. Huat. He teased a comeback to the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday on the internet.

Whoa. When Adam Schefter tweeted that T.J. Huat is going to be out for this weekend's game because of an injury against Buffalo that might have 40-mile-an-hour winds, by the way. Yep. Let's muck it up. Kansas City might be like, it's supposed to be negative 2, maybe. Who knows what the wind chill's going to be? Maybe negative 15, negative 17, negative 20.

So we got some nice football weather games in the AFC, which is why home field advantage is so important, which is why the season is so damn important. We'll have a graphic that'll actually showcase where some teams were in Week 10, where they ended up at. Some teams are hot. Some teams have gotten cold. Some teams are going to be able to benefit from playing great football

all year long. Look out for the Baltimore Ravens with this weather that's happening and them being known and having a home field advantage. And then also the San Francisco 49ers don't have to travel to any hell places where it might be negative 20 like Green Bay. As this weather continues to turn in this glorious country that we get to live, Will Johnson and the Michigan Wolverines might join us in the third half. Sweet. We've been in contact with the person Wolverines might join us in the third half. Sweet.

We've been in contact with the person, obviously a massive pick in the national championship, but everybody talked about him being this is the best corner that Michigan has. And also, Shane Rastil is the second best guy in their second year. Both of them basically play their biggest game in the biggest moment, which is the story of that Michigan Wolverines team. He might be joining us. There's some other people that might be stopping by.

What we do know is the guy that stopped by yesterday caused quite a conversation. A little bit, yeah. A little bit. Now? Very usual. Not like that. So Aaron Rodgers Tuesday season four is done.

Yeah. Complete. Good season. There's going to be a lot of people that are happy with that, myself included, to be honest. But the way it ended, it got real loud. And real loud. I'm happy that that

is not going to be my mentions going forward, which is great news. We always, and this is legit, and I think I'm never going to act like people are out to get people.

Sure. But throughout my life, there's been a lot of people that have definitely wanted to see me not do good because I'm uber confident in being loud. And if I think you're trying to hold me or my guys back, like, I'm an asshole, too. Certainly.

Have zero. Don't need you. Hey, what are you? Nothing. Sweet. See ya. Keep it moving. So there were some people, especially when, you know, like I negotiate

my own deal here. So that's a whole business there. Right. A couple jobs. Connections, a lot of stuff like that. See ya. Hey, I'm gonna with, I'm running my show. I keep my creative

rights, okay? 100%. Who's gonna create, me and my guys? That's a whole nother entire profession. No, con man. You can just keep your sound effects to yourself in this exact moment. That's a whole nother profession. People. A lot of people.

So you got this group here, this this group here and then we have it we've cut the line to a lot you know because this is supposed to be like a union where you just kind of wait for others that you go so then you got you got like that group right so going in we knew that we potentially ruffled some feathers in about three to five professions that have a lot of power and a lot of say and we understood it we completely understood it i appreciated it i have a lot of respect for a lot of agents there's a lot of horrendous horseshit ones though that somehow get by and they kind of make the good agents look bad by the way so that is just that with this whole thing i don't believe in any of like i don't like the middle management producers that run shows and stuff and create headlines and ideas

and stuff they none of them have a lot of respect for me i don't have a lot of respect for them which is why i'm like don't put us up for the emmys don't want to be an emmy person because these are the humans that are voting on them now through our times i've found like three to four these people that are good at their jobs and creative and fun most of them though just kind of very yeah you know this type of thing so don't really get along with much of them and then all these people that think we jump line and we don't deserve it like those people have hated us since we were on the internet i have a lot of respect for them and their hustle and their grind but they were going to be against us forever and we knew that i knew that coming into this. And over the last week, we have certainly given them all a lot of stuff to get

mad about and become loud about. We have messed up in that particular aspect. And by we, I mean, we're a conversation show. People are having conversations. We live in a country that has freedom of speech, but also you're going to have to deal with the consequences of your freedom of speech. So what I'm saying is we've given a lot of people who've been waiting for us to fail a lot of ammo and things to attack us for over the last week. And we would love to get back to the point where we just move on and continue to silence all the haters over here who can't negotiate as good as I can. All the people over here who can't create a show as good as us and all the people up here who just can always be here and they're going to hustle and do their thing, which I respect we need to do that and that is our focus that is our

goal and aaron rogers is a hall of famer he's a four-time mvp he's a massive piece of the nfl story whenever you go back and tell it he will be a huge part of it we are very lucky to get a chance to chat with him and learn from him some of and opinions, though, do piss off a lot of people. I'm pumped that that is no longer going to be every single Wednesday of my life, which it has been for the last few weeks. On Friday, obviously, I threw us into the fire as well. Forever stand by that. Everything else

though, just can't do that and not what we want to be known for. I'm also pumped that I don't have to do these types of talks anymore. So with that being said, sports are alive right now. There is so much happening. The Talks at Table is here at Boston. Connor and Ty Schmidt, sweet shirt, Connor.

Dang, appreciate it. Sheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. I figure because it's purple, anytime I wear purple, it matches the municipal shoes. So might as well just grab it off the shelf. Actually, all my shirts are hung up now. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

This guy's got a closet in his house. Yeah, I finally got a closet. He just upgraded, actually. No longer on the floor. Can actually walk around the place. It's very nice being a human. From the pub to where you are now wearing Mark Wahlberg shoes, I am incredibly proud of you.

Ty Schmidt, massive weekend, obviously, for the Packers and the story of the NFL. There's a lot of things saying, why not the Packers? I mean, we talked to C.J. Stroud and with the Bengals going to the Super Bowl a couple years ago, those young teams who kind of, you know, you don't know what you don't know. You just go out there and play. Cowboys have all the pressure on them.

If the Packers do win that game, the amount of talking heads the following Monday who just kill the Cowboys once again. They have to win this game. They're expected to win this game. They should go to the Super Bowl. The Packers are playing incredibly well right now. They're incredibly young. Those guys just need to go out there, play free, don't know what you don't know. Why not shock the world on Sunday?

And I'm talking myself into it more and more with each passing day. Which we love because if it doesn't happen, you were a believer. I will be. Yeah, exactly. Which I'm pumped for i i believe that's what sports are for you're supposed to live and die with a team you're supposed to have belief and faith that somebody will show up on a moment and give you a memory that you'll be able to have for the rest of your life especially in a year where nobody could have expected it to go to the place that it's gone especially with a few of the weeks where i look bad real bad it's like wait a minute are they gonna have to do full overhaul have they earned another year here has j, especially with a few of the weeks where it looked bad. Real bad. It's like, wait a minute. Are they going to have to do a full overhaul?

Have they earned another year here? Has Jordan Love earned another year? Because the way they set up the contract with the signing bonus so you get paid a little bit more money, they could move. How about the floor? What's that whole thing? Good, good. What's that whole thing?

Well, it turns out, all of them. Yeah. Working good. Absolutely. Good for you guys. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Speaking of everything working good, one half of the hammer.

Done. Cowboys, Tone D good, one half of the hammer died. Cowboys, Tone Diggs, Pittsburgh Steelers traveling to Buffalo. Now, that has been a place that has not been terrible for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Buffalo has been a place where Pittsburgh fans show up. Oh, yeah. Pittsburgh Steelers show up. And they're saying 49-hour wins. Jeez.

They're saying this is going to be a grind-and-pine football game. The difference between this Pittsburgh Steelers team being good and a Pittsburgh Steelers team being awful was Mason Rudolph opening it up. Does that scare you a little bit, especially because they got Josh Allen, who's a 6'5 power running back if they need it? How do you feel about the matchup with how the weather's going? When these matchups came out, was it Sunday?

You and I were talking, and I immediately showed you the Buffalo weather report, and I said it needs to be as windy, as cold, as snowy as possible because the Pittsburgh run game, we have a guy I think here later that could maybe touch on this, has been so much better as of late. Like Warren and Naj have been, they're doing different things in the run game that has made it really, really well lately. And Buffalo, as far as yards per rush,

they are 28th against the run. Now the Steelers are 21st and Buffalo can run the ball too. But if it is a running game versus running game, and yeah, Josh Allen can be used a ton in that running game, but running game versus running game, and you could kind of take josh allen passing game because josh allen obviously light years better than mason rudolph in the past

sure and the sealers kind of just did this i'm not saying i was just making a sound effect but it's gonna have to be ugly for them to win on sunday and if it's 50 mile an hour wind gusts it's gonna get ugly and that's the best chance that we have on sunday yeah and con man just pointed down a Bill Belichick picture in the New England Patriots helmet, because remember up in New England, what was that, two years ago? Still wearing masks. That was Mac Jones' rookie year.

Bill Belichick showed up with a navy mask on his face, and then they ran just power, triple option football the entire game. Buffalo planned on doing the same thing. Mac Jones actually checked to a throw one time. And Bill Belichick, who told this kid to do that? Where's Hoyer?

Buffalo has been a place that has been notorious for having bad weather in certain moments. I got a chance to play up there in my rookie year in the middle of a blizzard. Two feet of snow ended up on the field. It's possible. It's what makes that Bill's place as great as it is. And, you know, they could have put a dome on that next stadium,

and they said that's not Buffalo football. So you're going right into what they want. And Buffalo is one of the hottest teams in the entire NFL because Kadarius Toney had no idea where to line up. No, he didn't. And also that hippies that came out against McDermott the week before. They've rallied. They've been great.

Whenever you talk about the run game for the Pittsburgh Steelers being much better, it would be dumb not to bring in 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion, a man who used to look like an offensive lineman but is still an offensive lineman at heart. Ladies and gentlemen, hosting the trenches, A.Q. Shipley. They just have a much better design in the run game now with the

new offensive coordinators since Matt Canada has left and been fired. Is that the case for Pittsburgh? It's better design and it's better blocking. That's the key, right? I think that when they made the switch in Broderick Jones, right, when he went in to tackle, I think that was a big key piece. But moving forward, listen, you can design all you want.

You really can. You can design. You can have Kyle Shanahan. But if you can't block people up front, it's not going to go. And they are running the ball. They're blocking people. They're staying connected. They're getting a hat on a hat. George Pickens has run his feet.

He got buy-in as well. I'll tell you. Hey, why not the Pittsburgh Steelers? And joining us, nine-year NFL vet, host of Everything DB, and obviously a man who's had a fantastic season thus far. We assume he will continue it that way. Ladies and gentlemen, D-Bots, your main team that you. Ladies and gentlemen, Dixie Ballers.

Deepak, your main team that you're a fan of, the Miami Dolphins. Okay, they are traveling to a very cold place. Very, very cold place. They're saying negative two. Windchill could be who knows what it could be. Kansas City Chiefs team obviously has played in that type of weather for a long time. Andy Reid was actually asked about the weather, and he basically just stated, like, it is what it is pretty much and then he gave a nice little metaphor at the end because he's andy reed

always end on a high note here's andy reed talking about the weather i'm excited to hear your thoughts on miami having to deal with it what mcdaniel's message probably is the guys are pretty resilient and uh so you get you get yourself ready and if it works out that way for you or whatever I don't know how to I don't know how to quantify that you know it's cold so I just say get ready for the game let's do that I don't really care what goes on out, we're not having a snowball fight. Okay. So there's not a snowball fight, although we have seen those before in NFL stadiums and NFL games.

But dealing with the cold, I'm from Pittsburgh. It gets cold in Pittsburgh. I've heard too many assholes tell me when it gets cold, you're from Pittsburgh. I mean, I like it. You know what I mean?

And everybody, AQ moved to the warm weather as fast as he possibly could. He's from Pittsburgh. Rather tough guy, I think a lot of people would say. But the old adage is like, Florida boys don't like to play in the cold. That's just how it is.

This Miami team, a lot of explosives, a lot of energy. But don't you think that there's a chance that you actually use this game as like a celebration? Don't get to be in the cold. Don't get to be in the snow as much. Absolutely not. Okay. How big of an advantage do you think this is for Kansas City? It's going to be miserably cold, freezing cold. We played in the snow as much. Absolutely not. Okay. Absolutely not. How big of an advantage do you think this is

for Kansas City? It's going to be miserably cold. Freezing cold. We played in a freezing... Were you there for the game we played there that was freezing cold? Yes.

Frozen field. Oh, yeah. I slip... I come on the field to warm up, okay? Frog, my guy, equipment manager, he's like,

hey, you need to be wearing a flat because of how... I'm like, Frog, I'm going to wear a cleat. So I go out there, first punt, warm up. Bang. Right in front of... There's like, Frog, I'm going to wear a cleat. So I go out there, first punt, warm up. Right in front of, there's like 40 Chiefs fans,

probably that bank robbing son of a bitch right there, pointing, laughing. I'm like six feet away on the ground in the back of the end zone, pointing, laughing at me, acting like I'm an idiot. And then Frog comes running over, obviously. Frog goes, here's a shoe you need. It was an ice skating rink.

It was an actual ice skating rink. We ended up winning that game. Bruce Aarons gave a speech at halftime that literally just said it's cold as shit let's win and get the hell out of here and that was the motivation that we needed do you think the dolphins are in a massive disadvantage for this because kansas city's been here done that before and does it matter it definitely matters it definitely matters just like late in the season when some teams come from you like this and then go down to South Florida and you're dealing with that heat and humidity because a lot of our offseason now looks kind of like that picture right now, and then you're going up there on a Saturday. It would have been good to be here the last 12 hours or so.

That's why you got to win those games, man. I'm more worried about, obviously, the team. We struggled against good teams, good ball clubs. And obviously, Kansas City is that. Patrick Mahomes is that. Andy Reid is a great coach. They're going to have a great game plan. It's going to be Tyreek Hill, our biggest weapon.

He's used to playing this weather. He's been in these big games. He'll kind of be in that revenge game mode. But as long as we're out there, once you start playing football, once the blood gets flowing, it's football again. TV time tv timeouts up you know you stand out there in the field you're not by that heater but you got heated benches you got your helmet heated so once you start playing it's not it's not that bad but it's definitely an advantage in kansas city for kickers and punters in this game and not that they need it they probably already know but for others in the future and

even players everybody can learn from this. They give you those big parkas, those big things. The key to this, and Vinatieri, I don't know if he had mastered it before I got there and he's the one who introduced it to me, but this is just how I've always known. You turn that son of a bitch backwards, okay? You put that over top of you and you sit on that heated bench because there's heat coming from the bottom as well for your shoes.

So not only are you and your ass and your back getting heated up, but now you've got hot air coming through your entire body. I would sit on that bench until it was fourth and whatever. Like not even warming up in the net, I'm not even hitting one over there. That thing's making me more cold than it. I just sat literally with this thing the whole game sweating i'm having a great time have to like it's negative five i'm like not really all right it was phenomenal that's you don't get the luxury

of doing that while you're playing the game sure but those of us that are on the sideline that is the play that is the move but that's how much it goes into whenever it's miserably cold like trying to figure out how to stay warm. When do I go over to heat a bench? Do I go over to the little torch thing that doesn't really work that well for other than about two inches of people and everything like that? It's a whole other added element, and that's why the home field advantage is a massive ordeal.

Go ahead, Tom. I know Brady wore scuba suits. Can punters, can D-backs wear scuba suits? I know the old linemen like idiots will not wear anything. Not anymore, though. Not anymore, though. It's changing. Definitely changing.

You've seen more sleeves on O-linemen more than ever. I tried. How do you feel about it? Listen, I mean, I love the old school thing, but I'm also at, I've grown a little bit. Yeah, you're 260 pounds. I've moved in warmer weather. I figured out, why not be comfortable?

Cold sucks. Why not be comfortable? Yeah. Cold sucks. Why not be comfortable? You got to find out what works for you. And recently, Hall of Famer, NFL Hall of Famer, and College Football Hall of Famer, now Randy Moss, one game we were having, I believe my rookie or second year in Chicago, it was cold as hell, wind sideways. It may have been snow, hell, whatever.

And I'm out there, no sleeves on, trying to be tough. Hey, bud, hey, get your ass in there. Put some sleeves on. You ain't intimidating nobody out here. He had his sleeves on. Hey, you got to do what works for you. I know Tom wore the scuba suit. Whatever works for you.

Some guys. What's that stuff? Some guys, new skin. Yeah, new skin. Or Vaseline or whatever it is. For me, it's fingies in the toes. As long as those are good, I'm all right. And it's the one time in football

where you actually at least me you actually kind of think about when you're going to hit somebody like oh it's like oh shit i got a fit filling holes hitting hitting the ball the ball like kicking the ball because it's what it's impossible yeah it's gonna suck yeah because normally when it's cold it's windy too yeah that's why the wind chill is there and wind is your biggest disadvantage so not only is the ball worse, the wind is your nightmare. So they're coming in in abundance. And you've just been laughed at by fans because you fell on your ass. So, yeah, it's not fun.

Good luck to all of them. How pissed off would A.J. Hawk be right now if he was in this conversation just listening? It's cold. Everybody has to deal with cold. Are you going to die? No. Okay. Make a tackle.

That's what A.J. Hawk would say. Now, granted, we'll see if that's how he addresses it. Yeah, exactly. In the second hour, he's got to clear some things up from what he said yesterday, too. For sure. For sure. And hurt. He certainly, and hurt.

Yeah. And reacted to with his face. That's right. And then brought back. Yeah. I was, that, by the way. Yeah, right. You know.

I was almost damn near done. And the checking thing made it worse. Yeah, you shouldn't check people. That's why I don't. I'm a skill player. Let the internet check them. I'm a skill player out here. Anyways, yesterday was wild.

Wild day. Last 12 hours have been pretty crazy. Yeah. Just people so mad. I got people telling me I'm the greatest thing to ever exist in America. And then the following five messages are that I should just

disappear, go into a dark cave hole like Aaron did and never come out because I'm the worst, most despicable human of all time. I don't like that.

I don't like that there's two different responses. I thought we were unified. Come on, I'm trying my best to unify. That is literally my goal in this entire thing. So,

hey, in our mind, we're always here, baby. We get to talk about sports. We get to talk about sports. Speaking of sports happening, how about golf? Yeah. Now, Tiger Woods filmed a video with Foreplay Pod, I believe, today it released. And if you think, I don't know, I'm excited to see what's in there.

I think I saw him helping Trent with his golf swing. I think I saw Frankie posing a little bit, so he probably hit a dime in front of Tiger. Good for him. The boys are over there. Riggs is really built. That's a fantastic group. Good for them.

But if you think about the history of golf, there's like two names. One of them is Tiger. I mean, you're going to think of Jack. I get it. But I'm saying an arm. Right. And the other is this lefty who likes to hit bombs. He's got his own coffee.

Massive calves. Huge. Massive. Ham hocks. He's got thighs for calves. Seems to be always cool. Wears the best sunglasses. Yeah. And he's been part of a conversation about changing golf forever for the better a

massive piece of it is he doing that i guess it's who you ask but joining us now ladies and gentlemen from live three-time masters champion phil mickelson yeah guys thank you thanks for having me on hey thank you for joining us phil how's life pal how's everything going over there things are great and i really enjoy your show I enjoy what you're doing and how you are kind of changing the game and bringing in a different level of energy and a different way of presenting things. And it's been fun and interesting to watch, and I think that there's a lot of synergies and parallels to what's been going on in the world of golf as well and similar to what you've been going through. Well, they're going to clip that and obviously cook me for it because of everything, but I want to let you know, Phil, I appreciate you, Phil, because we appreciate the hell out of you. We love you, Phil, and let's go into it now

because there's a situation kind of brewing here with Rory McIlroy, which if we go back a couple years, you going to his defense and him basically talking good about you guys would not be the case. We all knew that he was one of the faces of the PGA, was very anti the potential changes that are coming. And now Rory's statements are like, wow, I'm kind of seeing the picture of everything. Rory came out and basically said that what Liv has done is expose flaws that have happened in golf, which I think all of us were saying that we're excited about the changes that were taking place at the very beginning. You were certainly saying that at the very beginning, and now he's kind of come around, and then people started attacking him and assuming that you wanted to attack him for saying this,

because it's like, ha ha, Phil was right, you were wrong. You came out and were like, whoa, hey, listen, this is probably taking a lot of effort to get to this point for Rory McIlroy. We should celebrate this and move forward. Now, with that being said, are you proud of the fact that here we are a couple years later? Liv isn't completely gone, seems to be growing and making the game better. Is this kind of the vision of it all? And how do you see it over the last few years, Phil? So with change, there's going to be disruption and we're, we're,

we're through most of the disruption, but you know, when you look at big picture and, and most people aren't going to care, but this is my life's work. Like I love golf. I've been, you know, playing my whole life and cared and dreamt about as a kid playing professional golf. And so this is, uh, my passion, what I love the most. so i care about where the the game is going and so forth and it's been concerning the last many years of the uh age of our viewer increasing steadily from 55 to 60 to now 65 out on tour and the pj tour when i was there was trying to do everything we could to attract and appeal to a younger crowd and we haven't been able to do that. And so now we're finding a way to do that. And Liv is starting to bring in a younger audience by presenting the game of golf in a different way. And so there are other aspects of about golf that

are difficult that we're trying to solve. Give you a couple of examples. One, the golf fan is the most loyal fan in all of sports. And here's why, when you buy a ticket to an NFL game or a basketball game, baseball game, you, you buy a seat, you sit down in your seat, you get to see 100% of the action. But in golf, you buy a ticket, you walk for miles and you see a fraction of the game. And so when you wanted to come out and watch um tiger play and you want to watch myself play we were always on opposite end of the spectrum so you've got to get there at eight in the morning and watch early and then you've got to be there till six in the afternoon if you want to watch myself play we're trying to change that and present it in a

different way so that with the shotgun start you can come out and you watch all the top players play in a short four and a half hour time period. That's that's one little thing. The other thing is when you are a player in the NFL or baseball or so forth, you are an employee of that team and that team controls your schedule. And when we go play as a fan, you know who you're going to watch to play. we go play as a fan you know who you're going to watch uh to play and so in golf you see every week people are committing to the tournament so that fans have an idea of who might be there rather than knowing who's going to be there and so that model is starting to change and if you're a sponsor and you're investing into the game of golf or into an event you want to know who's going to be there that's the attraction that's the the product that you're trying to bring. And so you want to know what it is you're buying.

And all of these things, Liv is trying to change. And this allows us to bring golf, which is already a global sport, to different parts of the world. Just like NFL is trying to bring football to London and other parts. And by controlling their schedule, they're able to do that because you have the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Buffalo Bills in London and you know who's going to play. And golf, we haven't had that ability to do that, which is why our attempt to bring World Golf Championships throughout the world have been unsuccessful globally, but okay in the U.S. And so if I'm a fan, I want to see the best players play against each other. And as a top player throughout my career, I want to play against the best players more often. And our schedules

would never match up outside of the majors. I would play what was good for me, and it was never really directed. Now, Liv is creating 14 events where you know who's going to play and who's going to be there. And the tour is starting to do that as well now with elevated events, which is great. Like if you're a fan of the PGA Tour, you know that these top guys from the tour are going to play there. And I think in the big picture, when all of this disruption and change irons out and settles through, we're going to have a product that's going to be better for the fans because you'll know who's going to be there and you'll have a product that's easier to buy if you're a sponsor because you know who's going to be there. And we'll be able to move this product throughout the world and capitalize on markets that we've never been able to touch before and hopefully grow the market for all of golf, whether you're

a manufacturer, clothing, or an investor or a sponsor who wants to use golf to bring clients together in different countries, you'll be able to do that because you'll have the best players playing there. On that note, I think that's what I liked about you guys being on YouTube at the beginning because obviously we have benefited from YouTube being a global, I mean our audience literally Australia, Japan, here. YouTube has that reach. And then when you move to CW, I think at the beginning,

now CW has a lot more sports. CW is investing in sports. You guys were one of the first ones. I think for a lot of people, it was kind of hard to find at first. Are you guys worried about the potential? Is it if you build it, they will come? Or are you guys keeping an eye on ratings and attendance and everything at this stage? Are you guys super patient with that entire thing?

So it was a great start for us just to have a network to get on. And CW has invested a lot in our product and live sports. And so we were kind of the start. And as a startup, which is what Live is, you have to start somewhere. And so it was a good starting point in the end. We also had a lot of challenges that we had to overcome with pressure from outside sources, from other networks to not get involved with us. But as we start working together as a whole, if we start putting the entity of professional golf at the forefront, then we're able to create more partnerships rather than

combative relationships. And I think that's kind of where we're headed, which is ultimately where I'm going with this is a better TV product for live and more corporate involvement from live going forward. Darius has a question for you, Phil. Yeah, Phil, I was lucky enough to get a chance to watch you and a DJ actually down in Doral this past, in this past off season. What was your favorite venue that you played at last year? So Doral was spectacular, and I think it's an exceptional golf course.

And we're going to be starting the year at Mayakoba in Mexico the first week of February, which is the week off of the NFL. So hopefully you guys will check it out. I love that Mayakoba course. And then we have an old historical site that we're going to be playing in Las Vegas Country Club the following week, the week of the Super Bowl in Las Vegas. It's a course I played 30 years ago when I first came out on tour in the Las Vegas Classic. So I get to return there in a live debut, if you will.

And by bringing golf the week of the Super Bowl to the Super Bowl site and having it finished the day before the Super Bowl, we're hopeful to introduce the game and get some excitement for the game from people that we might not be able to cross over and attract without the use of football in this case. Do they test for marijuana over there at live? They do drug testing. Yeah. I don't know if that's one of the drugs they test for, but they do drug testing on us. Why do you ask that?

Well, I smoke copious amounts of marijuana whenever I'm in legal states. Obviously, we never do that in Indiana where we call home, but anytime we get to travel for states, obviously. Yeah, obviously. Obviously, we never do that. In Indiana, where we call home. But anytime we get to travel for anything, obviously, I do. Nevada. Bingo, for the Super Bowl, obviously.

But I will probably continue to do that for a majority of my life. I don't think it's right for everybody. But for me, it has certainly made my brain, life, happiness, everything better. But I'm working at golf, Phil. Phil, I'm up there. Listen, Phil, I'm up in this golf simulator i'm on the back we got we got a simulator up there right behind where what wednesday says right there that's a golf simulator i'm up there working i'm on this

two courses we have two holes out here in the back i'm trying to get good at golf i just didn't know if you know if i get good enough because you can golf through your 70 oh yeah that's right you can golf through your 70 you'd be great at golf till you're 70 i didn't know if live was going to be a potential opportunity. Now, speaking of live being a potential opportunity, at the beginning, all anybody said was they just want to take down a PGA. They have enough money just to take down a PGA. They don't want to be a sustainable business.

And while you were giving off your answer about being able to travel this way, you talked about clothing manufacturers and brands and everything like that, running it as a business, which is what you would assume everybody is going to attempt to do, especially if they're investing money. With the ROM addition, and we assume there's going to be more, like there's been a lot of money invested in this. Is there a thought that this will inevitably become like profitable and sustainable? Or is it just like we actually have a never ending supply of money? Like that is an actual, that's an actual weapon that you guys certainly have in this entire thing. Is there a thought about that? Will that disrupt things? Is the future very strong? Uh, even if it doesn't become profitable until maybe 10 decade or so?

Uh, that's, that's, uh, that's, let me explain a little bit more of the business model because when we, when we have the ability to control the product, meaning, uh, live knows what they are selling and you know what you're buying as a sponsor. We are now integrating golf on a global scale and we're going to different countries and utilizing tourism budgets to get us there so the reason we're going to hong kong is they are paying an exorbitant amount of money to bring professional golf at the highest level there and they're using the tourism budget to do that we were not supposed to go back to singapore this year and then the tourism board at singapore gets involved and i'm talking tens of millions not just a million or two

so when we started out at libya we had to pay for sites because it was controversial and there were threats against us not to be involved with us and so forth but now these countries are using tourism dollars to get us to go there because of the impact we're having on their on their economy and so uh it's it's as much to cover the entire purse. So to not see this opportunity is short-sighted. This is an area of monetary opportunity that we've never had in golf because we've never controlled the product and be able to sell something tangible. There's too much uncertainty. So will it be profitable? I think it's be profitable a lot sooner than you think, especially as we start working together, all professional golf, and we stop having these kind of threats and trying to suppress our product and our TV opportunities and our sponsors. rom signing is really being used as a bridge to bring these sides together realizing that live isn't going away that this is going to be a staple and that if we compete we're going to be competing against uh each other for television uh dollars and sponsorship dollars and so forth rather than working together and to to do create the best product for the fans and as well as sponsors and the best opportunities for the players. So we're starting to work together.

Jon Rahm has been a huge impetus in this, and this is going to open up markets, just like I mentioned, tourism dollars, not to mention global companies that are outside the U.S. that are very large that want to get involved and use golf as a way to bring clients together and promote their brand. So there's incredible opportunities. It will be profitable very quickly and building equity in a brand and bringing a team aspect, although it's difficult to see right now because golf has been an individual

sport for hundreds of years or not hundreds, but you know, many, many years, at least 100 plus. It's hard to see this transition and this change and the benefits of this. But in the big picture, again, what I also see is like a team, let's say, is an opportunity to help young players that don't have access to the same type of support system that's necessary to be successful. And by that, I mean this. There's a lot of great young players that don't have access to the proper physical training or the proper instruction or the proper facilities needed

to be their best. And as a team owner, let's say with High Flyers years down the road, five, 10 years, I'll have a High Flyers golf course facility that I'll have world-class fitness training, world-class physical therapy, world-class instruction. And I will be able to bring in many young players and give them access to this training. And what will I benefit from it as an owner of the team? I'll have first-rider refusal. So when they go out and they become a great player and they're winning majors and winning tournaments,

I'll have the first-rider refusal to sign them to my team. But I'll be able to bring dozens of young players in. Academy, this is the European Academy model. You know, bring them in, provide everything for them to become the best that they possibly can in the sport. That's huge. I had not heard that about the live golf.

Is that far away from now? It's all part of the big picture. It's all part of the plan. Like I say, it's evolving. And so we want to create opportunities for young players to get involved in this. And as we start building this team aspect, each team will be able to provide those opportunities and benefit from them, hopefully long-term, by, again, having the first right of refusal to maintain these players. idea. I had not heard that. And you're not a lawyer and obviously we're not expecting you to know everything that's happening, but you're one of the founders seemingly of Liv and the way you've just described the business side of it. It feels like you have a great handle of everything happening over there. I was told Liv and PGA were together, right? Remember old buddy that went on

a vacation for two weeks immediately? Jay Monahan. Jay Monahan. He, remember, he was meeting in restaurants in Italy, I think, or Milan or something, and then out of nowhere, boom. And then it was like blindsided almost everybody. And then as it continued to go on, it's not. What is, is that still ongoing? What's happening there? Because you said Jon Rahm is a great bridge to bring both sides together. We're hearing Rory speak positively.

It feels like there will be a lot more agreeance from the members of the PGA to kind of combine forces now more so than a year back or whatever. Is that still ongoing? What do we not understand about that process there? So I don't have a lot of answers for you on where they are in the merger. I'm not involved in those discussions per se. I just know the vision of what yasser has for the game of golf and is working hard to bring that vision together and to bring professional golf and present it differently

to the public to help grow the game and to help grow it on a global scale and grow the interest to younger players and try to attract the demographic that we have not been able to attract so far. But with John Rahm signing on, what it's done is create a bridge and an opportunity for us to come together because the realization is that isn't going away. Like that's what the talk is like. It's ridiculous. And so now people are realizing, okay, it's not going away and we want to work together. And if we're the majors and we want to have the best field and keep on the tradition of these great events, we're going to have to have the best players in the world, and we're going to have to create a qualifying system for these players to get there. And if you're the PGA Tour and you realize that your most important asset is the quality of field and the players,

and you are going to keep losing players if you don't work together this is a bridge that now is opening the those conversations to start working together and i thought i thought that that it was a very big move on rory's part to say a couple of things that he said one was that we don't want to go forward in the rider cup without john rom that's a big step it's a a total turn from these guys made their bed and lie with it. It's a coming together, like he opened the door for us to start working together, I feel, as well as the recent comments about how there's a place in golf for live and for team events and so forth. And the way, look, there's always going to be a need for traditional golf and there's always a desire for it. Like

these tournaments have been around for a long, long time, have a great history, a great reverence, but that's also led to an increasing age demographic in our fan base. And we've got to be able to, to also attract the younger players. And there's a place for live as well. And there's a place for a fun, edgier, louder presentation in, in golf. And that's what we're trying to do, and they both should be working together for the greater good, and I think that that's where we're headed, and Jon Rahm's signing is that bridge because it's the realization that we need to work together going forward for the long-term success of the game.

We love Rambo Bombo. Yeah. Absolutely love him. I assume everybody on both tours does as well. Connor has a question about that. Yeah, Phil, because Rahm has joined, do you feel as though, or have you actually kind of got more people reaching out to you? Like, okay, now that Rom's there, maybe this is something I consider.

Like, are golfers now, because of Rom, probably going to cross that bridge if they were thinking about it in the past? And then also, is John's getting his own team? Is he going to have the whole facility like yourself? And is that something that was talked about with John? And do you know what maybe his team would be? Is there any sneak peek we can have perhaps? So I don't want to speak for John on his behalf, but I know that all teams, big picture, are

trying to have that type of model where we have these facilities that can support our own teams the best way and provide opportunities for great young players who need that type of support system in a financial model that sustains it rather than just taking donations and creating a institute of sport that continues to drain funds each year there'll be a model here where these golf courses will sell memberships and those members will have access to those facilities as well. And it will be a profitable venture that we can sustain and continue to bring more young players in. As far as John's team, I know that they are talking to a couple of players, but I don't want, I mean, that's their thing. I'd rather let them discuss that. I know that I've had a lot of calls from players that realize that

what they have been being told now for the last year and a half isn't really accurate. And it has opened their eyes to this is another option that if I'm available or presented with the opportunity to play, it's not going to it's not going away. I'm not going to be undermining my career. I'm going to be creating a different opportunity. So there aren't a lot of spots. And so live as being very selective on, on who they bring in because they want to create value for the product and continue to strengthen it. So some of the players that have called me, they, there hasn't been an opportunity for them to come, but, um, that will continue to change over time as we end up adding a few teams, creating a few more players and, uh, becoming a stronger product.

We think about some of the guys that were allegedly offered a couple hundred million, and then they turned down or whatever, and then now there's not enough spots left. It's wild, wild for all of them. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, Phil, 2025 when the Ryder Cup comes back to America at Bethpage, if you are not playing, do you have any interest in being the Ryder Cup captain at that time at Bethpage. If you are not playing, do you have any interest in being the Ryder Cup captain at that time,

or could you just be a player coach as well? I've had 12, 13 opportunities to be a part of the Ryder Cup. 12 as a player, one as a vice captain, and I've loved every minute of it and cherished those moments and those life experiences. I don't feel I'm the right guy to be involved with the team because I'm a very divisive character right now, if you will. And I understand that the players on the PGA Tour, there's a lot of hostilities towards me and I don't feel I'd be the best leader for them going forward. I think that as a Ryder Cup captain, you have to be

kind of a unifier and have these relationships solidified and somebody that you want to follow. And right now, I've been very divisive and I'm okay with that. I knew that was going to be the case. I knew the next couple of years that it was going to take a couple of years and that I was going to take a lot of hits and a lot of divisiveness. But I believe that it is in the best interest of the game of golf to present it a different way to a younger crowd and to try to stop a problem that is coming up quickly, which is the age demographic of our fans. I also believe that it's going to be a better thing for the professional itself to some of the things behind the scenes. I don't need to get into the details of the pay structure and the rights of the players and so forth. I think those are going to be solved going forward.

And this is a product that brings a different element with team and so forth that I really believe in. And so I knew I was going to take some hits going forward. I'm okay with that. And as a divisive individual, I don't think I'm the best unifier going forward for the Ryder Cup. And that's fine because I've had so many great memories with it. It's time for other people to be able to create their own memories, opportunities, and life experiences that the Ryder Cup provides.

Yeah, I think the Ryder Cup, obviously, for the fans is huge, which leads to this from Ty. Yeah, Phil, just curious. You've obviously got your feet wet now with a bunch of these live events. When you look at it and you talk to the other players out there, you mentioned the shotgun start earlier and then also the 54

hole format, the team format, all that kind of stuff. Is everyone pretty happy with how things are going? Are there any other maybe changes that you guys would like to pull from like a pga tournament format to to kind of just continue to evolve what live is like where does everyone kind of stand on the actual tournaments themselves right now have you seen a single live player not smiling i mean we are smiling all the time

the energy output each week is so much different. And all of the things that have been frustrating in a player experience has been improved exponentially. But in fairness, we only have 48 players relative to 156. And it's much harder to accommodate three times as many players who have three times, you know, triple the families, triple the coaches triple the the fitness instruction the physical therapy all this so it's much easier to accommodate and target and make the experience for these 48 players who are playing uh much better so in fairness like it's been a lot easier to fix those things and that's why we're all enjoying it and why we're smiling so much is that all of the the details that have been frustrating from a player standpoint, which nobody cares about, but it'd be, and shouldn't,

but the things that we've been going through, uh, they have been able to be fixed. You know, the, what tournaments are we playing? When are we playing? What is our schedule? When's our flight? Is it Friday night? Is it Sunday night? Where am I heading from there? Uh, all of these details that have led to challenges for scheduling and family functions and birthday parties and all the little things that are part of life yeah being a human yes it just has made uh the experience for the player uh incredibly better but that's not something that's going to translate let's say to the fan experience or or the things that matter when we are professional

golfers trying to present a product and are in the entertainment industry. But from a player's perspective behind the scenes, it's incredible. A couple of brainstorming things here, and I appreciate you talking about being a human because I think that's what that full swing thing displayed the most about how you guys, the PGA Tour, and it was amazing to me to find out that independent contractors are not guaranteed a single thing, but you have to play for our tour, but we're not going to guarantee you anything, but you've got to guarantee us that. I think we learned about that through the live. Guys losing money

each week from traveling if they didn't make the cut. They had a couple bad days, but they were being shown for 12 hours a day while they were golfing. It was like just the I don't want to say immorality, but seemingly bad business that was kind of taking place. And then we watch that full swing, and these guys are,

you got a pro-am on Wednesday. You got to practice on Tuesday. But you got to be in that city for the pro-am. Then Thursday, Friday, hope you make the cut. Saturday, hope you get Sunday. Well, then you got Monday off. Good for you. Then you got to practice somewhere.

Then you got to practice somewhere. Then you got Pro-Am in the next city. It's like it was a never-ending. That was wild to kind of watch behind the scenes and learn about. So thanks for committing your whole life for us to watch throughout however much time you did and now committing your life to golf going forward. Just a couple of brainstorming things here, though. As a spectator of golf, I love watching golf.

We talked about earlier about some of mying things here, though. As a spectator of golf, I love watching golf. We talked about earlier about some of my high-flying operations. Your guys' sport is perfect for that. I mean, it is. You know, take a nap, wake up, still stuff going on. Oh, there's a little bit of energy. Don't you think Sunday has to remain like Sunday? And then also, following the leader in shotgun start, I think, is brilliant, by the way, for first three days of the tournament or first two days of the tournament or whatever, so everybody can see it.

But on that final day, don't we have to make the final day a little bit? You know what I mean? Don't you have to elevate that just a little bit? And isn't Sunday that final day? I think as a spectator, that's one thing that I'm kind of caught off guard with. And then also, and it's going to have to be just changing watch style. I saw a massive putt. I saw a massive puttt i don't know how much money was on the line but i heard t pain right off right off the green which is like awesome to think about that being it but is there

any changes i mean i just kind of alluded to that but like the sunday viewer experience as a golf avid golf watcher who found CW to watch you guys. It's like, that is kind of in brain ingrained in our heads. And then like watching the leader all day is like a part of the story almost. Have you thought about that? Has there been conversations about that? Is that possibly something in the future for live? Absolutely. Like this is the feedback that we want. Like right now we have been starting two groups off of hole number one. So you have the leaders that, that tee off one group behind the shotgun start,

but you're right. Like that's the great thing about this product. Like it's new and it is, uh, agile. We can change it and we want to make it the best product and we're going to, and we want your feedback, but we want fans feedback and what the experience is like uh so oh phil mickleton of the

high flyers has a three-stroke lead going into sunday like us watching you on the driving range beforehand yeah you know what how your coffee's going like that's a whole part of the championship sunday oh yeah you know like that is and if you can mentally battle through that all to win it it's like even more impressive which i think golf already is mental gymnastics we're excited to see the future we can't wait to watch hopefully this year out of vegas we'll be out there we'll come check out see you hit some bombs down in florida darius just sent in a video you hit uh i think driver off deck yeah in rough around a tree and he was like right in front of it it's like that's a spectacle you're a showcase you're a carnival act with that golf club we appreciate the hell out of you man pat thanks for having me on the show and uh that particular

shot i probably made look a little bit easier than it was that happens with a lot of those shots you hit phil you know you remember uh you, you remember when you started just hitting the things over your head. Awesome. And then all those little golf videos of, all right, in this particular matter, you see the grass is growing towards you. There's a little bit of dew on here. You're on a little bit of a – you're going to want to punch this one a little bit quicker because the grass and the dewness is going to slow it down.

Plus, the sun is going this way, you see. So the green grass is going to want to find this one a little bit quicker because the grass and the dunes is going to slow it down. Plus the sun is going this way. You see, so the, the green grass is going to want to find the sun. So you're going to look, it's like, as we heard you speak about golf, a lot of us just said, we got no shot. We got no shot at all. You've done that for all of us, but you've made us all better. We appreciate you, Phil. Thank you. Thanks, Pat. Thanks for having me on. Where are you right now? Are you golfing? Are we golfing right now? What are we doing? I'm in Florida. We're just shooting some promo stuff with my team here. And then we're going to be flying back to California. And I've got my whole team here for the next four or five days.

We're working with Dr. Farnsworth on some Aimpoint stuff. We're working with TPI on power plate issues on our golf swing and finding out, you know, how, how they function the best. And we're going to be doing some blind testing for our, our equipment start of the season, which if, if you have no idea what that is, that's kind of an interesting thing on, on how to get better as well. Yeah.

Derry said in the middle there, we got no chance we do, but I think the future of golf having academies and like, look, he's like, hey, let me introduce you a little bit of game here. We're going to talk to this doctor about this. It's going to be better in the long run. We believe in you. Ladies and gentlemen, Phil Mickelson. Yeah. Speaking of believing in somebody, I believe in Mike Vrabel.

Hell, yeah. You know, and big thanks to Phil for joining us. He's really good at the golf. Yes, he is. Unreal. Phil makes a really good golf. And he's. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Nice. I don't know if Mike picks that up or not, but... Oh, it... It's a hassle. It does. It certainly does.

Pretty clear. There was a screeching sound. You know, as the weather turns here, a lot of the things in the Thunderdome are waking up for the first time. That's right. And this is something we should have definitely tested before we were live. We'll put it down in the notes

for next year to do that. But as Phil was giving a great answer, just this loud shrieking sound in the background. It was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, can't have that. But at least we know that we're not going to get frozen out of this place. Remember last winter, we had some pipes freeze right above

our head, and it was just raining everywhere. Oh, yeah. It was just raining everywhere. Just water dropping. We had to have garbage cans there. And that's what happens sometimes when you potentially perk. Yeah, we're going to want to keep that off, whatever that one is. There you go.

Yeah, perfect. Thank you. That'll be Bruce. No, it's Tim's. Yeah, I know. Tim, yeah, Bruce fixed it. Tim, Bruce fixed it. here. Yeah, I know. Tim, yeah, Bruce fixed it. Tim, Bruce fixed it. Good.

Okay. Thank you. Boy, Tim. I texted Tim mid-show. Hey, heater's acting up. Yeah. And then it got louder, and we sent Bruce on a mission up there. And Bruce probably hit all power out.

Yeah, he may have. Congrats to Bruce not shutting down. Hey, Bruce, Michigan's national team. He's having a week. Bruce is having a week. Thank you, Bruce. No problem. Hopefully it stays off.

What did you have to do? What was it up there? So the control panel thing is like bolted shut, so you just unscrew it, and then one of them has got to be power. You just hit all the buttons, and still it is. Okay. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, Bruce.

So he doesn't know what he did either. No, absolutely not. We have no idea how he fixed it, but we do know that sound is not happening anymore, which is fantastic. Hey, Bruce just turned everything off up there. Thank you, Tim. The second one started when I came up there.

Okay. Turn that son of a bitch off, too. Is it the heater or what is it? Heater or what was it? They do a bitch off. Is it the heater or what is it? Heater or what was it? They do a cycle pipe. Cycle thing. Uh-huh. Water softener.

I knew it. Same as last year. All right. The one was done. You can get it. Oh. Yeah. Okay, perfect.

A little redundancy check. All right. We had two water softeners that were running a reset check. There's backups for backups for backups everywhere. Love that. Well, they need to do a backup to the backup to the backup to figure out how to do that without making that terrible sound. That was brutal.

I mean, that was a horrible sound. I feel bad that Phil Mickelson probably heard that while he was down in that hotel room. I think Liv has a chance, especially with John Rom going, that's a big deal. Then Rory coming out and saying what he was like, basically, yeah, I could have got $800 million a couple years ago, and now I'm learning I should have done it.

That's what he said. Isn't he? Oh, yes. Yeah, that's what he would have said. Will Zalatoris, we're big fans. Future of golf, way to go. I think they were offering him a couple hundred million dollars, turned it down for the good of the PGA.

Then he got hurt. Yeah, and then Monahan just is like, yeah, I'll take it, though. It was a wild story there. PGA. Then he got hurt. And then Monahan just was like, yeah, I'll take it though. It was a wild story there. Seems like now they're all past it. Congratulations to golf. And in the end, I think golf fans just want to watch everyone play at the same place against each other. Don't care where it's at.

And to the point that our brainstorming activity had there, Sundays we need the... That's what we're doing. Have to. Have to. That's what we're doing. And I like that he said, no, we need to hear that. And that's the part of it. They're so young probably in their eyes that they're going to make some changes.

There's nowhere near it. I didn't want to get into the graphics, but I have no idea who these people are on your graphic. No, three initials. The PGA figured out the graphic. They did. Don't need all of them. Just do their graphic.

You know what I mean. Just keep it moving. I like the name High Flowers. Oh, yeah. Does John Rahm have a team name yet? You're a neighbor of his. Does he have a flag outside of his house yet? No, and I don't think he's got a team yet, but I know he's getting a team, right?

Yeah. He's getting a team. He doesn't have a name yet. Los Toros, potentially. Rombos. Rombos. The Rambos. The Bombos.

I mean, the Bombos would be a lot of creative liberties with that particular name. But we're not going to talk about it. No, no, no. Once again, we've talked about it earlier in the show. We've already given people too much. We need to stop doing that. A potential water softener going off in the middle of a— I'm sure that'll add to the entire thing.

Because we're out here in the middle of Indiana dealing with the weather. It's getting cold. That's going to be a big story this weekend, a super wild weekend. Yes, it is. Hell, yeah. We've got to keep an eye on who's traveling to where to deal with what elements because some of these places are just going to be obnoxious. Some of these games, though, we just got good on good and good conditions,

and we'll see how it goes. Like down there in Houston. I mean, that Houston Texans team, I saw Stephen A go on the bat for C.J. Stroud being talented, and I certainly love that. And then you got people saying, can't do this for a rookie, you're not going to be able to do that. Why not C.J. Stroud?

He has no idea. He has no clue that he's not supposed to be as good as he is. He has no idea that he's being historic right now with how he is operating. That could be a weapon when you get into playoffs, D-Bud. Yeah, he just wrote. And, I mean, the guys he's doing it with, I don't think anybody saw. He's going to come in.

Nico Collins is going to have an unbelievable year. Tank Dale, you know, he was, I think, third-round pick. Dalton Stewart's coming over from Dallas, so he's doing it. Offensive line has played great. Slowick has played great, dialing it up. Defense has been pretty good, especially against the run. You know how important that is in the playoffs. So, yeah, you don't know what you don't know.

He has been phenomenal so far. So, in the last three seasons, home dogs are 8-3-2 in the playoffs, and 83% of the money is on Cleveland. Houston is a home dog. You bet against Joe Flacco. You can't. I don't think so, pal. I don't think so, pal.

Football. It's happening this weekend. It was Super Wild Card weekend. As soon as I heard it was about to be yelled, I couldn't get excited and say it fast enough because football is at its peak right now. We've got a new national champion in Michigan. Congratulations. They're a good team. Great football team.

They beat the hell out of a good team, the Washington Huskies. Down there in Houston, Texas. And then this weekend, we have the perfect schedule of games. Got two perfectly placed games on Saturday. Three perfectly placed games on Sunday. Then a Monday night football game to kind of cap it off. We are in

the glory days as the man that's about to join us from Manatee, Ohio has always said this is the good old days. The toxic tables here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys turn digs is here. 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion A.Q. Shipley is here. Nine-year NFL vet, host of everything DB, Darius J. Butler is here.

And joining us live from an attic, no clap for A.Q., but clap for Darius. That says a lot, I think, from him. Love you, A.Q. He did go to clap for you. I did. I saw somebody. Well, AQ canceled Aaron Rodgers, so that is why boys probably didn't clap.

There's a lot of people clapping around the internet though. Joining us now is Aaron Rodgers' Tuesday season four is over. Yep. Yes. Has ended, has come to a conclusion. Because the season is over. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now live from Manatee, Ohio, is a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion,

a Ryder Cup winner, a man who's the current president of Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. How we doing? You hear us? Yeah, I hear you good. You gave Phil some good feedback, man. I think they might use some of that. I thought so, too.

Okay. Could you imagine if we are the – because we'll just start doing that a lot. Yeah. Hey, we got ideas for this. We got ideas for that. A lot of people aren't going to listen, but if they take that one in, they're like, we're here, and I don't know if you guys hear Sundays need to happen. We got to finish up.

Yeah, like have to happen. All of a sudden, are we making golf better? Are we a part of golf's history? Maybe. This is a sports program. This is sports. For the last 24 hours, it hasn't really felt like that. It does feel like we're part of them to do a tournament in Vegas.

The weekend of the Super Bowl, the same weekend that Waste Management has theirs. Yeah, Waste Management is Arizona, which is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I don't think our guy from PXG is hosting that particular. No, Bob Parsons is not this year. Maybe next year.

Or last year. Or ever. But that Las Vegas tournament, a lot of money is going to be out there. A lot of people are going to be out there. Not a bad play, especially Phil's going to be chipping in and doing some filthy stuff, and Dustin Johnson's going to be out there. Not a bad play. Especially if Phil's going to be chipping in and doing some filthy stuff and Dustin Johnson's going to be driving forever. Joining us now is a man

who is not only a first ballot Hall of Famer, but he's in the Houston Texans Ring of Honor. There's only four members. He posted a tweet yesterday. He said, wait a minute. Huh. Am I coming back and playing football in Super Wild Card weekend?

I think they noticed. And 40-mile-an-hour wins. Ladies and gentlemen, you see him on CBS on Sundays talking before games alongside Cowher and the boys. Am I coming back and playing football in Super Wild Card weekend? I think they noticed. And 40-mile-an-hour wins. Huh? Ladies and gentlemen, you see him on CBS on Sundays, talking before games alongside Cowher and the boys. J.J. Wong. Yeah. J.J.

What's up? Hello. I don't know that shirt. Rocket Power. What is that? That's a great one. Great show. Great show.

What is it? It's a cartoon? A show? Yeah, a cartoon. Street hockey. Street hockey is the basis of the show. You do a lot It's a cartoon? A show? Yeah, a cartoon. Street hockey. Street hockey is the basis of the show. You do a lot of cartoons, JJ? Is that you a cartoon guy, big cartoon guy? I'm currently developing my own cartoon.

Very excited about it. What? This guy. Of course. What's it called? Balltown. Hmm. JJ, we're already in middle.

Oh, okay. All right. Jeez. I didn't know which way you were taking ball time there i was i was pretty pumped to hear about it so you like cartoons so much you're creating a cartoon now i've heard the animation i mean is the problem with that our animation is extremely good it takes forever though right it takes like forever takes forever yeah it takes forever but uh i'm working with some people who have done some incredible things, working with some of the creators of Hey Arnold. Oh, what? I don't know if you've ever heard of it.

Working with some of the creators of Arthur. Don't know if you've ever heard of it. Heard of Arthur. I've heard of Arthur. Well, Hey Arnold, you should be careful because they were sneaking dongs into people's faces in the animation. That's real. Okay.

Well, that's a lot of animation because they can do that. There's not a lot you can do about it. It's true. Don't laugh. Haven't you guys had enough lately? Haven't you had enough? What? We're just...

What? Are you comparing what I just said? What I just said, are you comparing that to... Go to hell, JJ. It's been a lot, JJ. I knew my mic. I didn't know if I still had a show to do on Wednesdays.

I didn't know if we were all being done or if we were all not being done. So I just logged on and was like, I wonder if this is going to happen today. And it did. So I'm happy. Look at us. So happy to see AJ here. He's been trending on Twitter

for like the last week straight. People just meme central over there. At a, AJ! Hey, AJ. Thank you. Someone say it to his face. Have you enjoyed a lot of the videos, AJ? I saw one with a, what was the song in the background?

It was maybe like Meek Mill's Dreams of Nightmare. I believe it was. Yeah, it was. It really. Oh, da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. I mean, it was. It was really good, AJ. Yeah, I don't really get lost in it,

but some of my buds send me some of them, so that's when I see the majority of it. But yeah, I don't deep dive in. I take everything as a positive influence. I appreciate them consuming this content. Thank you all. You're trending. You are just dominating the trending boards.

Think about his face. Did it take a long time to sit there for them to for the sculptor to carve stonehenge in your likeness no not a long time have you seen the guy they actually got it wrong who's the uh it's crazy horse yeah yeah crazy horse that is the right play if they want to animate or want to remove some time you just do that but it's been a lot, JJ. We're lucky to be here, though. How's it going? How are we doing, guys? How are we handling it all?

How was Houston? Houston was great. The room you set up. Yeah, it was awesome. Well. Willie G's, I believe, was the place. Food there was so good. Thank you for that, JJ.

Thank you, JJ. That feels like so long ago. It does. But, yeah, it was awesome. That was a perfect setup. We appreciate you doing that. The people were great to us. Houston people were very, very kind.

I can see why you absolutely love that city, JJ. What is that, a Houston? There are great people down there. Sorry, sorry, no. Non-alcoholic beer. Is this your thing? At 11 a.m.? This guy started a cartoon. We got a non-alcoholic beer.

We got a Burnley hat on. Jesus, JJ. You're not the only businessman in the room, all right? This guy started a cartoon. We got a non-alcoholic beer. We got a Burnley hat on. Jesus, JJ. Take a second. You're not the only businessman in the room, all right? But, no, Houston people are unbelievable. They treat you very well. They have unbelievable food. Still, to this day, one of the most underrated food cities in the entire country, possibly the world. But, yeah, they're very, very good.

Looks like the national championship game went well. The weather, sounds like the weather Was brutal though Kind of hit like K and it left And it came back and it came back I will say, Energy Stadium Leaked a little bit Did you see that? Did you hear about that?

Yeah, so what? It was full capacity too, which I didn't know you could do Oh my god, what's this all about? Yeah What's the capacity about? Yeah. What's the capacity going to be like at Lucas Oil next weekend? Oh! Swing!

Listen. Just curious. I was just curious because I think NRG is going to be full. I'm just curious. Is the Loud House going to be loud on Sunday or Saturday? Tom Diggs is a Steelers fan. Okay? He said that and then got me into something. You know, the Loud House is going to have monster jam, I believe. I thought DJ gave it a lot of credit.

So, I mean, I know you guys are just getting your rocks off on CJ saying it was the loudest place he's played. So, he's only played in seven or eight away stadiums. So, let's not get carried away. And where do we rank? Yep. Number one. Boom. I mean, that was an an afc south championship game it turned out to be because jacksonville jaguars finished their season in the way that they have a lot of questions doug peterson's made a bunch of moves down there obviously the tennessee titans fire mike vrabel yesterday which we will certainly talk

about after this particular conversation about the texans and colts up there on saturday night what were your thoughts on that you guys win the the AFC South here in CJ's rookie year, D'Amico's rookie head coaching year. They come into an incredibly loud and hostile environment and getting massive. They weren't supposed to win that game. Now, granted, there was a drop there by Goodson, which he owned and took credit for if that is caught and who knows what takes place the rest of the game. But the houston texans doing what they've done this year nobody believed it was possible you have to be incredibly proud of that organization finding some greatness yet again so quickly especially with cj stratton at

the helm yes it is obviously an unbelievably exciting time down there not only currently with being in the playoffs hosting a home playoff, but also just knowing what they're set up for in the future with D'Amico as a head coach, with CJ at quarterback, with the cap space that they have. And now that is going to be a premier destination for free agents. We've talked about that before. No state income tax, a great young quarterback, the ability to build around him and to play for a great head coach like that.

It's just a special, special time down there. And, I mean, before the season, I said that they could get up, you know, they could be a possible 10-win team, a playoff team, and they really do look great. And it's, I mean, it's awesome. And I hope the place is rocking on Saturday, and it will be a lot of fun to watch. I think they got a great shot.

The last time they played the Browns, they didn't have CJ, they didn't have Nico, they didn't have a bunch of their guys, and Flacco played out of his mind. And Flacco has been known to do that, so he might very well do that again. But I think it's going to be a really, really good game on Saturday. Yeah, Joe Flacco's not the guy you want coming to town. That's the Grinch

instead of Santa Claus, especially with how he's playing. But the Houston Texans can very easily win this game. And we talked to CJ Monday at the stadium at NRG, which is a beautiful stadium and it's built to be loud too like that national championship was very very loud he does everything right he had his own teammates clothes on like not like just the little decision what am i going to wear i'm going on this show stop and by to say what's up just to be like hey we appreciate what

you said for like everything he does is right. It feels like Everett, I believe, was the PR guy for the Texans. Every time we talk to him, everything the Texans are doing is right. It feels like from a year ago where it was full dumpster fire, right? I mean, that was, we're rolling through coaches. Obviously, everything else is taking place.

The turnaround happened really, really quickly, very quickly for them. That's going to give everybody else hope. I don't think this is normal, though. This is not how it's normally supposed to go, JJ. No, D'Amico Ryan's is the catalyst for it all, and that's truly just the honest fact. And I was talking to their PR guys yesterday about before the season

when I was saying that I think they had a chance to do something special, and I said it comes down to truly one thing, D'Amico Ryanans being the head coach and my belief in him as a person and as a teacher and just somebody who knows ball, but also much more importantly, knows how to communicate to these players, knows how to get the best out of him. That's what he does. He is an incredible motivator. He's an incredibly smart, experienced coach, and he knows how to get that information into his players and to pull the best out of them. And he's done that, and now he's got a quarterback, like you said, who understands all the small things and little intricacies of how to handle the success, of how to handle the team,

of how to bring his guys along with him. And like you said, every step of the way, CJ's done it right, and I do think that D'Amico is like coach embodiment of that. Jack Easterby just left his holy water. That's right. You know what I mean? Instead of drinking it every day like he was doing when he was working there, on his way out, he said, I love this organization,

and he just dumped his holy water all over the whole building. And we'll all go. And just like Sage, it just kind of. There was a turnaround at a very certain point. Coincidences aren't always coincidences. Well, Aaron just said yesterday that coincidences never happen. They're not real, right?

Some people will point to... This show is just too much. I just can't take it. What were you saying? What were you saying, JJ? You were just trying to say... I wasn't saying anything. Well, there's going to be people that are saying you said something.

I don't need to be on the New York Post. I don't need to be on the New York Times. I don't need to be on the late night shows. Check them into the boards. I'm just here to wear stupid shirts and hang out for an hour every Wednesday. Oh, Rocket Power is stupid. Okay, now I know to never watch it. I'll wait for Balls Con and then I'll dive in the whole thing.

AJ has a question for you, JJ. JJ, there's a lot of talk going on about cold weather games coming up on Super Wild Card weekend, obviously. Andy Reid doesn't seem to be too bothered or too upset by anything that's going to happen outside. Do you have any tricks on what you used to use, like, when it was cold? Did you warm up shirtless, the whole intimidation situation, which I don't know how that works.

But what did you think about when you got to play, like, in a truly really, really cold game? Yeah, I mean, I don't understand the whole shirtless warm-up thing either. I would do sleeveless from time to time, but not as a intimidation factor. I don't know how much intimidation factor there is pre-game in the National Football League. You're going to go out there and you're going to play the game

the way you play the game. I used to punt. You remember. You used to tell me you could feel. I used to punt balls over teams as they were coming. That intimidated you a little. The kicker thing where they kick like through the cheerleaders or where they kick while you're being introduced, that's always fun.

I love that. Intimidating, right? You mean that's what you're talking about? Oh, super intimidating. Nothing better than a 160-pound dude just bombing balls through the field goalpost. That really scares the shit out of you. It's flair. All right.

Go back to your answer, please, about the cold. But, no, I mean the cold is – I grew up in Wisconsin. So, like, you know, playing in cold, playing in snow, things like that. I mean, now that I'm older and as I got older in my career, would I rather play in warm? Absolutely. It's just easier for your joints to get lubed up. It's easier for your body to get warmed up, to get ready to roll.

But there's also something to playing in those cold weather games, especially if you get a little snow on the ground. It's like old school football, and it does click you into a little bit of a different mentality, a little bit of like a little warrior mindset. But you also do have to worry about the things like footing, like what type of cleats are you going to wear? We talked about that last week.

All those things really come into effect. What type of gloves are you going to wear if you're a receiver how's the quarterback going to handle the ball all those types of things but um i tell you what some of those hits like you you get a like you hit your hand on somebody's helmet or you get like something happened like those hurt a lot worse in the cold that's just a pure fact yeah that's why i try to never hit anybody you know i try my best to just not hit anybody you guys i don't know what you were thinking doing all that tackling in the freezing cold weather you you smack your hand on somebody's helmet in the freezing cold weather man that that finger doesn't come back to you for about four or five plays hey how come the thought is that

defensive line is affected more than offensive line in the cold. I would assume A.Q. Shipley here, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, grew up near the airport in a town that had the only drive-in movie theater basically in town. I think he enjoyed that a lot. I think he did enjoy that a lot. The drive-in movie theater is

certainly something that is old school just like you are. By himself? No, never by himself, I don't think. I don't know. Always with the Lord. I don't know. Maybe by himself. Maybe he needed a little space, opportunities, some lotion.

So how come, how come, okay? That's all drive-in movie theaters were. Hey, you olds, they used to do drive-in movie theaters? We get, we know. We know what you're doing. We know what you were doing. We know what you're doing right now. We haven't figured out, yeah, all that type of stuff. Anyways, offensive linemen feel like it's an advantage, don't you,

whenever it's cold? Why is that? Well, because it typically brings running the football. And we live and die by wanting to run the football. Especially whenever you get, like Buffalo's going to have this week, right? They're going to have 40-mile-an-hour winds. They're going to look at this and be like, oh, we can't call that pass play because the wind's going to affect the pass, so let's get to a run.

Where you may not normally get to a run, now we get to more runs. JJ, do you agree with that assertion there, that that is why offensive linemen feel like it's an advantage? And is that something that affects you as a guy who's trying to get to quarterback? Obviously not a lot of passing plays. I mean, I would definitely agree that if the conditions tough it's you're generally going to lean a little bit heavier towards running the ball than you maybe normally would and i do think that defensive linemen are just intrinsically programmed to want to rush the passer so uh you're going to sometimes

even when you know for sure it's going to be a run play and like sometimes you can trick yourself and be like, ah, but they might be throwing it. Let me toss a pass rush move out, which is not the way that you should think, but it's just like the way we're wired. That's how our brains work. So yes, I would say that's a little bit of an advantage,

but I would also say from like a footing standpoint, if the ground is harder or if it is snowy or if it is a little sloppy, a defensive lineman does need to get into more you know leverage positions you need to get into more deeper shin angles you need to get those cleats the edges of the cleats into the ground whereas an offensive lineman is a little bit more upright up and down they wear sevens i mean they wear uh turf hogs instead of seven studs you know because they don't need that deep level traction to turn a corner.

They can kind of stay more underneath themselves, which yes, in the cold is harder to do. Sound like a roundabout way to say offensive line, big advantage in bad weather. Yeah. Is that what you heard? I mean, that's a great point though. Yeah.

I mean, the Superbowl, that's a great point with the turfs, you know, when it's bad, he's, he's a hundred percent right. Cause we're taught to play on our end steps, right? So the full foot is in the ground. They're taught to play on, like, toes up, jet stance, get rolling, and they do have to be a little bit more cautious of that whenever the footing's bad. Yeah, so then you only have, like, two spikes in the ground

as opposed to a potential full foot. That's just scientifically. Like, for me, any surface that I ever played on, if I couldn't turn the corner and bend and get on that edge, that's what would ruin my day. Like if it was either bad turf or it was hard grass because it was frozen or if it was wet or snowy and you couldn't get that full because my advantage was that I could get on that edge

and I could bend more than anybody else could. So if you can't use that advantage, then it becomes much more difficult. And the same thing also for like a bull rush or something. You need to have your footing to go forward through a guy. And if you slip out or anything slips from under you, that's why the Eagles pass rush, obviously, in the Super Bowl claimed to have so many issues because they couldn't get that footing. And as a pass rusher, it's extremely important. Well, the sod father said that didn't need to be a problem, but they kind of kept him out of the whole conversation.

The guy's only been doing the field since the beginning of football pretty much. Let's make sure we get him the hell out of there. The sod son probably gone, if I had to guess. Or sod daughter probably gone. I wonder if they're going to let sod father take another crack at the grass. Because last year was supposed to be his swan song grass. Supposed to be a tribute to him by others that he has hired. Instead,

he just got squished out pretty much. His name got ruined. That Vegas grass took some heat last week on Twitter. That Vegas grass in the last game of the season did take some heat. Obviously, they're going to put in a full brand new for the Super Bowl. Is that a good thing though, JJ? A lot of times they put that new field in that's when we get

the mushy weird field yeah i guess it depends on a what you're replacing and b how good i would imagine that they have so much time in between now and then that they can probably put it in right now and it should have about a month i mean obviously because they're not in the playoffs at the moment so they can just put that in right now let it grow let it hold on hey it's just the fact they need to do they need to hire ap by the way i don't know why there's even any question i don't know why there's anything like ap should absolutely be the coach down there what what is there to contemplate contemplate maybe davis who would be mad who dinner be mad if yeah who would be mad if ap was a coach any fans no any players no who media no who would be upset if ap was a coach on it yeah so you win

the announcement yep which is normally where the big detractors are and then you've already won games and shown signs of hope so that's already been done feels like a pretty easy decision speaking of players are fully bought in and vocally supportive like every every step of the way has been checked i don't really know what the downside to keeping him would be especially when you've tried a few different coaches over the last couple years and none of them worked out let's say this one doesn't work out everybody was on board so okay like i would rather try the guy that everybody is on board with and have that fail than try and do something crazy and have that fail and then people be like why don't you just

stick with the guy that we all wanted anyway you know like yeah well there's a lot that hard man a lot of bad decisions made in a lot of a lot of places every year yeah and you talk about like the coaches that even win the announcement by the way they might go on to stink too yeah and then people will still feel as if they were right in the time. It's like it never ends. It really never ends with judgment of this whole thing. And nobody knows until you get on the field. Like McDaniel down in Miami.

Did anybody other than us love everything about that hire? I don't know. There's probably some people. But I'm sure that was accosted pretty heavily. This dude hasn't even been a coordinator, hasn't even called plays. And why is he talking like that? You know, like there's a lot of – Sirianni, when it started in Philadelphia.

MCDC, whenever it started in Detroit. It's like that hiring day. Yeah, you can lose the hiring day for sure. But if you win, that's the only thing that matters. And a lot of coaches lose. So why not give AP a shot over there? Why not give AP a shot? there why not give ap a shot now you're the raiders he is like the he is like the embodiment of what they want to be as an organization who

they are it's such a perfect fit and just the mentality and the way the fan bases respond to the raiders have one of the best fan bases around and they respond very specifically to very specific types of people and ap has embodied everything that they want to be about as an organization as a fan base the black hole all that stuff he seems to have captured all of that give that man the keys yeah well mcdaniel's was always like a raiders guy josh oh yeah bleed black and silver you know now that you just laid out the way you just laid it out about the raiders fans and everything it was like mcdaniel's probably had a short, this better work, or we're going to need to get this nerd out of here. That is how this is going to be.

McDaniels is going to have another job. We very much understand that. Has had great success. But whenever a team and a coach and their style of play and the fans and the city they represent all kind of come together, that's when you got magic. That's what's happening in Detroit. That's what's happening up in Detroit. Not every coach is meant to have every single job.

But if you met exactly with D'Amico, not every place is going to be perfect, but if you find the right place, just like quarterbacks finding the right place, it's like we can make some magic. Speaking of making some magic, so like in the WWE, they have a very long history of having twins as a tag team.

You see? So then you can run a little shenanigans. You run a little shenanigans. Like, oh, one twin, boom, knocked out, rolls out of the ring. Other twin, slides that knocked out twin underneath ring. Twin that didn't get knocked out starts acting. Oh, that was me. Get back in the ring. All of a sudden, I don't have any effects nope that's not me that was somebody else jj you don't think that is

something that has happened in wwe for a long time you have the opportunity to potentially do that here we go tone has a question for you jj we pat kind of started the conversation with this and you just steered the conversation in completely different way you didn't answer if you're going to be there sunday as a twin in the old number 90 jersey and playing against josh allen in 50 mile an hour wins is josh allen just going to run the ball 40 times and how do you stop that also how is tj doing and um do sacks like are sacks not a stat anymore it feels like sacks don't matter anymore because he's got four and a half more sacks, like, are sacks not a stat anymore? It feels like sacks don't matter anymore because he's got four and a half more sacks than anyone else in the league, and there's been a couple AP announcements, or not AP announcements,

all pro announcements, and he's not on any of the teams, so sacks must not count, right? First of all, I'm sitting here in my house in Arizona at the moment, so it would be very difficult for me to know a playbook by Sunday. I mean, not that long. I could.

It's not a playbook. Lose it. Lose it. I need Josh Allen. Get Josh Allen. That's a playbook. Yeah, exactly. Come on, Rock for Brains. You've got seven businesses you're currently running. I can't learn a playbook at pass rush outside linebacker by Saturday? Sunday.

Sunday. Sunday. Besides punting the ball, I do have the easiest job on the field, literally just go get the quarterback. So it is pretty easy. Playbook, check. Any other brain busters? Book the flight. TJ's doing good. Playbook, check. Okay. Any other brain busters? Book to flight.

TJ's doing good. He's doing good. Obviously, he's very happy with not having something much more serious, catching that friendly fire. It could have been really bad. So only a couple-week thing, hopefully. But he's devastated to be missing this game, of course. I mean, with the season that he had and with the playoffs and getting in

and the team that they have and the guys, he's definitely disappointed and devastated by not being able to be out there, but he's looking forward to seeing Marcus Golden and Nick Herbig as well. I mean, those are two guys that are really good replacements for him and really looking forward to seeing them. I was a teammate with Marcus Golden down here in Arizona, literally one of the favorite teammates I've ever had in my life. His nickname is Junk.

Everybody calls him Junk because his – I think it was his middle school or his high school coach said, this guy just plays like a junkyard dog. He just goes out there and he's like a junkyard dog. And it's true. Like he's just the best, greatest teammate. I love him. And then Herbig, a young guy from Wisconsin who has – And it's true. He's just the best, greatest teammate. I love him. And then Herbig, a young guy from Wisconsin who has, talk about bending corners,

unbelievable bend. He can really get around a corner. He's got great pass rush moves. TJ's been working with him a whole lot, so really excited to see him get an extended role in this game as well. Between those two guys, it'll be just fine. Okay, so we'll let you continue about TJ Watkins and snubbed and everything like that. I'm sure you have certain thoughts about it.

TJ doesn't really have to miss this game. That's true. He can be represented. Stats can go to him. Think they would let me wear number 90? Yeah, and then build a statue. How would that work? Could we get a waiver to be like he can wear the same number just because it's already got the name on it?

Yeah, I'm sure that could be figured out. I don't think the refs are going to have a problem with it because there's only 190 on the field at the same time. Go 0-9-0. Still 90. That would be pretty awesome. I mean, that would be – what a story. Talk about script writing.

That would be pretty cool. Steelers, extremely historic, legendary organization. Brothers. I mean, the sad part would be that we wouldn't be on the field together. That would be pretty cool. Steelers, extremely historic, legendary organization. Brothers, I mean, the sad part would be that we wouldn't be on the field together. That would be the ideal. But you kind of are. You could put Derek in 99, put Derek in 99, have him line up over the center. Yeah, there's

ways we could do this, JJ. And you're in shape. Great shape. Still doing the legs. Gonna have to rotate that front, right? Yeah. Because 40-mile-an-hour winds and everything like that. JJ, this is a chance. This is an opportunity.

We're just going to pass it by? Yeah. Yeah. No, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Can be the hero. Man. Because did you see the mock-up that you tweeted of yourself wearing that jersey?

You did look like TJ. Oh, my. You did look like TJ. You look just like TJ. But also, you look like yourself yeah it was weird it was weird crazy it's just crazy guys it is crazy so crazy i mean you're saying there's a chance i don't know i don't know see you sunday i don't know what you're looking for i don't know where we want this bit to go or how we want it to end. Bit? Why does everybody think everything's a bit? This ain't a bit. This is reality.

We're trying to make it fantastic. I mean, no. I love it. Like I've always said, this whole season long, there were only two places that would ever be possibilities if anything ever happened. It was always Pittsburgh with TJ or

Houston with everything there. They're doing alright. Both of them are doing just fine without me, so I'm excited. I love being a fan. I love watching. I can't wait to see what happens in the playoffs. Yesterday, though, whenever you put that tweet out, if you're looking perfect in the black and yellow, black

and gold and everything, you look tough. Did you go outside to the gym or to a yard to turn on? This is 20%. I'm in great shape. I'm not worried about the shape at all. I'm more than ready. Look at you, dude.

Do you like that? Did you do that mock-up? No, I went outside to put all the stuff on. I give credit to D Tex the stuff on. I took a photo. I give credit to Dee Texans. He's a guy that's done that all throughout my Houston career. He's a great guy. He whipped that up in about

24 hours. Great man. Way to go, Dee Texans. I know you're a big visualization guy. You don't even have to make it up in your head. You just do it right here. Look at this. It's fantastic. Didn't really give a yes or a no there at the end, and that's perfect. We'll let Schefter try to get to the bottom of the entire thing.

Shall we not? He will. He always does. He absolutely will. I saw him say that you could maybe even break your own news, but he'll find a way to break it. Yeah, easy. He will find a way to get there before you. Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, JJ, since you've been saying a lot of stuff that you said earlier in the season, especially about the Texans, I believe you also

said earlier in the season that you think the Titans should fire Mike Vrabel because he's a bad coach. That's just how I remember it. I'm not sure how everyone else does, but obviously Mike Vrabel gets let go and pretty clear at this point, if Bill Belichick leaves, he'll probably end up in New

England, but did you expect that to happen? Did you also kind of were surprised by the fact that they didn't trade Mike Vrabel instead of just cutting bait with him? And what do you think he's going to do? And how pissed off do you think that he is that he got fired? I'm definitely surprised. I mean, I think most people are surprised. Mike Vrabel is a very good football coach.

He's an extremely knowledgeable guy. He obviously played in the league for a long time. He knows how to relate to his guys. He knows how to get the most out of his guys. Yes, the last probably year and a half, two years, their record and everything probably wasn't as good as they want it to be, and it's understandable. But Mike Brable is a very good coach,

and I think you have to look at a situation like that and you say okay if you're going to fire him who are you bringing in that you think right now is a truly better coach than Mike Rabel and that's a tough that's a tough barrier to reach in terms of a first of all as a Houston fan and obviously TJ playing for the Steelers much appreciated on the way out the door winning that game against the Jaguars, getting both of those guys in and getting the Texans in the AFC South Championship. But it's wild, man. It is wild. Do I think that he's – you asked do I think that he's happy.

I think you asked if I think he's happy about it. I mean, obviously if something wasn't's happy about it. I mean, obviously, if something wasn't working out, whether it was communication, whether it was visions, whatever it may be, or maybe it was just purely they wanted to go a different direction. Being a free agent and him having the ability to choose exactly what he wants to do next, where he wants to go, as opposed to the trade route, having to wait, having to figure out compensation. I do understand that does get messy. For him, it is definitely better that he's a free agent right now. Certainly better.

Definitely better. Let alone the Wink Martindale situation going on in New York where allegedly he just walked into Dayball's office, told him he thinks he's a big, fat, dumb stooge who can't coach football and he doesn't want to be here. Why don't you fire me? Why don't you fire me? Why don't you fire me? Just fire me.

Go ahead, do it. You won't do it? Obviously you won't. You're such a bad coach, you won't fire me. Allegedly. Now, these are all not real things that were actually said. We are just giving our take on what could have potentially happened as reports have surfaced.

You can't do that. You can only say real things. You can only say real things. Yeah, that's what everybody else does. We've talked about these types of things for how serious is that reporter up there like are we 70% confident because that's a that's an exciting story it's just I love picturing an exit interview all legs interviews I've ever been are like the most cordial like little they guy see you later. I would love to see an exit interview just go completely sideways.

You suck. I hate my life working for you. You see John Harbaugh? He was on the sidelines. And with Jim Harbaugh, he's won an national championship there in one seed. I met Jack Harbaugh. He won an FCS national championship. There's a real coach who's a coach for.

I wish I was still there. Here, I'm with you. It sucks. Remember you said. Have you had a bad exit interview? Ah, no. No, I didn't. They're the most like benign things ever.

Well, normally I would have an okay year, you know? So then it was just like, hey, we'll see you in the off season. You got it. When I went in for, because when I went in, when my contract was up, changeover of power. So there was no real. That could have been one. I guess it would have been awkward.

But other than that, just keep it moving. How you doing? But that whole thought of if they fire him, he can go coach the Eagles. If he resigns, he can't coach the Eagles. And he doesn't get the $3 million, I think, that he's owed next year to be on contract. So who's playing chess? Who's trying to move on? We don't know.

But Mike Vrabel, you know, a trade takes too long. That's what Amy Strunk said, the owner of the Tennessee Titans, who is also the one who owns the rights to the Houston Oilers uniforms. Here's Amy Strunk talking about, you know, everybody thinks he's a straight coach on the firing of Mike Vrabel. There's been discussion in a lot of different circles about the possibility of trading the head coach. Was consideration given to trading Mike Vrabel? Well, yes, there was, but there's a bit of misconception about a coach's contract, say, versus a player's contract. A coach's contract,

you can't trade them unless they're a willing partner to that trade. So yes, we thought about it. But at the end of the day, with league rules the way they are, it would have maybe put us back three weeks. And honestly, to get the right head coach, I was just not willing to go to the back of the line and take a chance of missing out on someone we really wanted. Okay. Amy says she ain't getting back along. No way. That ain't what the Houston Oilers do. No, not never.

That is not what the Tennessee Titans do. So they decide to fire him. Now, there was also a comment made by her about alignment and everything. And then it came out the other day about Vrabel not necessarily being on board with the ran hire whenever it happened. He wanted somebody else. I assume they were told ran that at some point. So it feels like this was a train crash that was coming inevitably. But now Vrabes is a guy that could just go coach anywhere he wants.

Now, if we didn't have Shane Steichen, I would be like, Jim Irsay, take the plane and a guitar. Sure. Four packs of Zin. Yep. Maybe three logs of Coke. Right. 14 vapes, Marlboro Reds.

Right. And might as well get some whiskeys. Right. Some beers. Right. And you're going to try to win over this Ohio guy to come bring his culture to Indianapolis. We got Shane Steichen. I'm happy about that. But there's going to be a lot over this Ohio guy to come bring his culture to Indianapolis. We got Shane Syke and I'm happy about that,

but there's going to be a lot of places that want to do that. So when you hear the owner speak in that particular fashion, how does it make you feel? And what do you think Vrabel does next? Do you think he takes a year off? Do you think he goes and coaches? Do you think he is incredibly pumped when he walked in there potentially like Wink Martindale?

Yeah. And then she was like, you're fired. He was like, oh. what what you sure dang it bomber come on seeming so much promise darn do i get to clean out my yeah thank you all right can I keep the cowboy hat? Did he get fired? Oh. Could you imagine him in his office after he got fired? Just ripping cigs inside. Whoever moving in. Yeah. Whoops.

Gonna need new carpets. That's wild, dude. It's a wild scene. It really is because how everybody else but them, I think, think that he's the right guy to hire. And there's six openings right now, if you count the AP. Could be seven if Bill Belichick and the Patriots

decide to move along. But Conor's already got him up in New England. Yeah, it's done. I mean, like, I understand there are six other openings, possibly seven. And Mike Reese, like we said yesterday, did say that it was a Hail Mary attempt, basically, if Bill is going to stay at this point, but Foxy has it.

Might as well run it, Foxy. This is what Vrabel said this year in New England. Wait. Come on, we got a game to win. I can't be up here at all. This guy's still the head coach of a different team. We.

I want to thank the fans. I haven't been back as much as I should since 2009, but I want to thank the fans. I want to thank the fans. I haven't been back as much as I should since 2009, but I want to thank the fans. I want to thank the fans that made coming and playing in this stadium unbelievably special. No problem, Mike. When we traveled, you were there.

When we were here, you were there. I can imagine how you screamed and yelled at the night games on third down and when you threw the snow and every memory that comes back right now. So I want to thank you fans for the opportunity to stand here today in front of you. Also in front of my teammates, I want to thank them. I want to recognize Logan Mankins, Bill Parcells, Dante Skarnecchia, who was one of the toughest assistant coaches I've ever been a part of in 25 years of the National Football League.

But I also want you not to take this organization for granted. I've been a lot of places. This is a special place with great leadership, great fans, great direction, great coaching. Enjoy it. It's not like this everywhere. Thank you very much. That was when he went into the Patriots Hall of Fame,

and Connor and a lot of the Patriots fans that are looking forward to a potential Vrabel era have just been bopping to that for the last 24 hours. Yeah, I've been bricked up for a while. I had to call a doctor to tell you in the Viagra commercials. But, I mean, it's not like he's played in a bunch of trash cities either. Or coached. Or coached.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, he's played in Pittsburgh, clearly. It's not the same in Pittsburgh like it is in New England. Kansas City, he's played there as well. There are a lot of places that just don't match up to what New England brings, and we were talking about it before the show. What has Bill Belichick done for the last 25 years? He's always thought about the team's future.

He's always picked guys for the future. Jimmy G, it caused a riff, caused a little tizzy, if you will, within the organization with the Jimmy G hiring. But what was he doing? He was thinking about the future. And who would we be? Who would Bob Craft be if he didn't think about the future? And Bill, yeah, he's going to break the all-time wins record. He is the greatest coach and GM of all time.

But he's got 5, 10, if we're being hopeful, years left in the NFL. Mike Vrabel's got 25, being hopeful, years left in the NFL. Mike Vrabel's got 25, about 30, 40 years left in the NFL. So why wouldn't we consider that when talking about the future of, you know, the greatest franchise in the league, especially when you are on the cusp of getting a quarterback that will be your quarterback for the next 20 years that Mike Vrabel could pick? Now, if it's announced that Bill Belichick's coming back, you're going to be pumped.

I'm going to be just as bricked up as I am right now. But, if Rabes is the replacement and Robert Kraft was playing close Sicilian in Tampering. Yeah, he was. Oh my, let's put the guy in the Hall of Fame. It's during a bye week. That'll be no problem. Let's get him back in front of these

crowds. Let's get him back in here. Let's do a little nostalgia. Night before, watch a video. Got some Barnecchia here. Got some people here. That's a wild way to go. Would he wear the red jacket on the sidelines? He can wear whatever the hell he wants. The Hall of Fame. Yeah, he's good.

Patriots Hall of Fame jacket. Yeah, that's me. Right there. That's my name. That's awesome. That could happen. Steelers get a win over the Buffalo Beals. Yeah. I know, too low. We'll never go to Houston unless it goes to the AFC champions.

That could be a situation that you find yourself in. Exactly. Pointing up. Ha-ha. Okay, JJ. But the whole frame situation, fascinating. The coaching thing. What makes a good coach, you think?

You talked about D'Amico and being able to get his message across. Why do you think some coaches just can't do it, like the Bill Belichick tree pretty much seemingly? And why do you think some people have it? And how many great coaches are there at any given time in the NFL? I mean, to be a truly great coach, you have to have a culmination of multiple different things. There's a lot of coaches out there that are good at one thing, good at another.

Maybe they're really, really smart when it comes to X's and O's, but they can't relate to the players. Maybe there's guys that have great charisma and are unbelievable with the players. And speaking of the guys, but they're just not quite as smart when it comes to game planning or getting a team ready for a certain week. Or maybe a coach isn't good at in-game adjustments or making game management decisions. Special coaches bring all of that together. They have a brilliant, deep knowledge of the game. They understand it at a level that players clearly see it. They understand it. And you know when you're going into their meetings, this guy is going to teach me something. I'm going to be better because of what this guy is teaching me. Then the coach has to have the ability, the personality, and the charisma to get that

information to the players and to pull the greatness out of them because he can take that knowledge and give it to them in a relatable manner where they can take it onto the field and execute it. And then he's got to be a motivator at the end of the day when two teams are matched up and it's a 50 50 matchup he's got to be able to be the one to take his team motivate them and elevate them to play at a higher level than they themselves even knew they could play at so all of those things have to come together and it's extremely difficult because as you know you've been around plenty of coaches. Some guys are really smart.

Some guys are really charismatic. Rarely both. How many do you think in a league at any given moment, like in the NFL? You think there's like 15 great coaches, 10 great coaches? I mean, 15 is too many. No, I don't think there's 15. Sorry, I'm going to leave one more now. Another thing great coaches have is the ability

to identify and enhance their coaching staffs like they need to have good people around them and they need to also give those guys the responsibilities and let them do what they need to do and let them show their skills as opposed to micromanaging and trying to be the one person that handles it all a great coach is so confident that he lets his assistant coaches be great as well. How about the NFL last year was paying $800 million in fired coaching contracts, and then JJ said there isn't 15. There's 32 teams in the NFL.

14 playoff teams. There isn't 15 great coaches in the NFL. It's a hard thing, but I think... And assistant coaches too. I always think about this. Whether it's strength staff, whether it's... We always assume, NFL, greatest possible, absolute best level, highest level, you're always definitely going to have the best coaches. You're going to have the best situation. You're going to be put in the best possible situation.

That's not always true. There's a lot of really, really good ones. Tons of great coaches, really, really good people, really good training staffs, really good strength coaches, a lot of really good ones out there. But there are also some that are just literally not good. And it's like we talked about earlier with quarterbacks or young guys being put in a situation to succeed. Not every single organization, coaching staff,

is set up for everybody to succeed. It's just that I've been, you know, there there's times where you're sitting in a meeting and a guy's telling you something, you're like, you're wrong. You're, you're not correct. And like young guys, like when you're older, you know, when you just go out and you do what the thing you know is right. But there's young guys that are impressionable, that are young, that are trying to learn that they don't know any better and now they think that is how you are supposed to do it and it is just completely and entirely wrong and that's sad and unfortunate well then think about that to another step because if you don't listen then you're not coachable then you're a distraction and it's like then it can all kind of pile on each other and then all

it takes is a little bit of courage to ask an older player and be like, hey, they're telling me to do this, but there's no way this is what I'm supposed to do. And an older player go, yeah, you just do it right. You make a play, you're good, pretty much. That is what happens. But the coaches are just trying to save their ass usually, those ones that aren't good.

So they're just trying to blame another position group is the reason why we are sucking or we are losing or whatever. It's a wild scene in there but to your point about less than 15 great head coaches we gotta stop overreacting to every head coach and hire yeah yes because every single one of them could be fantastic or abysmal it's like the draft yeah it's like the draft but everybody wants to win the announcement which i think is what jj's making about in tody pierce it's like that's really the only hurdle other than whether or not they win or lose if you win the announcement you're in a much better spot but also if it loses it's going to be

expensive and you're going to have to do it all over again tough to find the right guy tough to find the right guy like in carolina when they hired Frank Reich, it was Caldwell, Frank Reich. They brought in McCown. Like the situation from the outside was like, okay, they're going to draft a rookie quarterback. Dolan's going to be his backup. There's going to be all this quarterback knowledge within the building. And obviously they went 1-11 and everybody got fired.

Steph Curry of football. Steph Curry of football is coming in. They trade up. So on that note, D-Butt's got a question for you. Yeah, we got six, maybe seven going to be new hires coming up uh i was only one of them but justin herbert out in la will be the only one that you could point to and say hey that's a franchise quarterback uh your opinion what's that i mean zappy you know he's got the monster oh yeah okay so uh jj your opinion what's the best uh vacancy available right now? That's a good question.

I mean, I see a lot of people pointing to Washington as a great destination, obviously new ownership and things that they're going to do there. I mean, the reality is you still got to find exactly what you're going to do at the quarterback position. I think Justin Herbert out there with the Chargers certainly does seem to be a talent that has the ability to do great things for you. I mean, you're also living in L.A. and there's a lot of things there. I don't know, man. That's tough.

That's a very tough decision. I would say it's probably got to be between those two, but I would say if I was a coach picking, I mean, Chargers is probably a good situation there. I think we talk about coaches switching and all these things and the things that are required for success. One of the things that I thought today, obviously, is that the Bears are going to keep Matt Eberflus

and they're going to change, I believe they're changing their offensive and defensive coordinators. Think about that for a young guy in Justin Fields or obviously if they bring in somebody new in Caleb Williams. Justin Fields had different offensive coordinators have different different systems let's say he is the quarterback next year he's going to have to learn a brand new system learn a new coach get to know each other like there is also that aspect of things that is very tough in the nfl where if you are constantly changing

things especially at the quarterback position that is very tough on guys and it's very hard to judge guys because of that a lot of people say the success that they had was because of the consistency that they were able to experience. But if you don't get it right and you remain consistent with somebody, it's wrong. That's not good. But if you get it wrong and then you move on from them, inconsistency is not good either.

Sucks for Justin Fields, but I think the right play was made in the end, keeping Ibraflus. Because at the end of that season, they looked vastly different. It's almost like they bought in, right? It's almost like whenever they brought sweat in, you get a couple of players, they buy into the Ibraflus. Because at the end of that season, they look vastly different. It's almost like they bought in. It's almost like whenever they brought Sweat in, he'd get a couple players. They buy

into the Eberflus thing. Hopefully, he'll be able to find the right offense that Justin Fields just adapts to very well. Which one of these guys do you think we see coach again? Obviously, we'll see Vrabel be a head coach next year. For sure. If he wants to is what we think. The guy next to him will be

with Vrabel as his OC. There's a chance that he's going up to New England if Vrabel goes up there because the success that he had as an offense coordinator was in Tennessee under Vrabes, and they still are very close. Yeah, not to mention Derek Henry's a free agent, so he might be coming up too. And he just gave an incredible press conference where he

listed off every single person pretty much in the building that has helped him. King Henry, you're good. Yeah, you represent the NFL perfectly, pal. We're very lucky to have had you in the league. I can't wait to see what you do next. Now, there was a couple times in AFC South you needed to freaking relax. Forgot which hour we were in there. Close.

Josh McDaniels would definitely be an O.C. You think so? Yeah. I think he's a good O.C. And part of J.J.'s answer was saying, hey, some guys are good with X and O's. Other guys are good with teams and building the culture. I think he's had two opportunities to be a head coach, and we've seen how it went. His answer was saying, hey, some guys are good with X and Os. Other guys are good with teams and building the culture. I think he said two opportunities to be a head coach.

We've seen how it went. But when it comes to the X and Os, now can he do it without Tom Brady is a question. But I think he'll have another shot. What about that top row? I think he's done. I like everybody, I guess. The guys that have played. I'm very curious in your thoughts on this because i have a certain opinion on this i think it's very rare that a coach can be great while also being the main coordinator on offense or defense like i personally believe that a head coach who is just the head coach

and has his own offensive coordinator defensive coordinator not a sham one where it's like we have a d coordinator but i'm actually calling the plays Like a true head coach, CEO type who runs the organization, lets his coaches do their thing and inputs when necessary. In my personal opinion, that's the actual best situation. Is D'Amico calling plays down there? Is D'Amico calling plays down there? I think D'Amico has some input, but I believe Matt Burke does call the plays. I mean, I could be wrong about that, but I do believe.

But like I said, there are certain very small ones where it does work. Shanahan's obviously done it extremely well up there. I think there's guys that do it well. I believe Andy Reid calls the plays in Kansas City. Bruce Aaron. Mike McDaniels. But I like it when the guy's like a CEO and he runs the organization because there's just so much you have to know and do.

So what you're saying is Bill Belichick was able to be the GM and the head coach in New England and have great success. Others have tried it and have not had great success. That's a tough thing to do. To be a head coach and be a coordinator, that isn't just the easiest thing. Is that probably why Doug Peterson relieved the – Yeah, maybe. Because he was calling plays last year for them, I think,

to set the standard and tone on his first year with Trevorvor lawrence and then this year he gave it up and everybody was like what are you doing it's probably because of what you're trying to say now towards the end i assume there's gonna be a lot of question marks about everything i think for quarterbacks though and we the most of the guys we mentioned were offensive i think for quarterbacks if you have that consistency especially if you're developing like an andy reed who obviously had eric being to me but you see it's a difference there now as well if you have that consistency, especially if you're developing like an Andy Reid, who obviously you had Eric being to me, but you see it's a difference there now as well. If you have that consistency with a quarterback, because Bobby Sloat probably going to be gone soon.

Ben Johnson will be out of there. So these offensive coordinators, they have success, and they're out of there as soon as they do. So I think for on the offensive side of the ball, probably get a better shot. Shane Steichen's doing it right now. Yeah, big Mike McCarthy. Sean McDermott. LaFleur.

How long is it sustainable to? And the amount of work, you know, the amount of work. JJ, it's ending on ESPN. Anything to say to the people? Five seconds. We made it through a whole show without doing anything crazy. Hopefully we get to come back next week. All right.

I don't necessarily love the final angle of the message. I don't necessarily love the final angle of the message. I don't necessarily love it. It's been a wild few days. Self-inflicted. Hey, listen. Self-inflicted. That's the way it goes. We gave a lot of people a lot of stuff, JJ.

You know what I mean? Just hand it over. It's been phenomenal content. For me, being on Wednesdays and not really being a part of it all just being a spectator really enjoying it really really enjoying it are you thinking about you know the people you know in that entire thing how how it's going for them as humans um no no i'm not i'm clearly thinking of the content and the entertainment and the appreciation for the um and i also will say i just have a lot of uh i know that you'll figure it out that's just i just know that you're

gonna figure it out i don't know thank you that means a lot there's been a lot of dot in that particular part over the last 12 hours but i feel you know i feel like what we did all year should give us some credibility. You know? I agree. I think so. And I think we live in a time where once we earn, I think, you know, some people's trust. And I'm not saying at ESPN. I'm talking about, like, you know.

Viewers. Yeah. Not only viewers, but, like, the reaction business. Like, the business around it, pretty viewers. Yeah. Not only viewers, but like the reaction business, like the business around it pretty much. Sure, okay. Like as we continue to go, I think it will change. This is just part of it. You know, Phil Mickelson was talking about it earlier.

He was like, anytime you're disrupting some things, there's certainly going to be some backlash. I was ready for it. I was braced for it. And he has his own coffee that he takes every morning. Probably has some callous builder for his damn shins. Yeah, for sure. Because his big-ass calves are on the backside, and he has his own coffee that he takes every morning. He probably has some callus builder for his damn shins. Because his big-ass calves are on the backside,

but his front shins, they were taking quite a bah, bah, bah, bah at the beginning. Now he's feeling almost vindicated in that whole thing. I'm not saying ours is anything like that, but boy, he opened my eyes a little bit. We just need to be patient and consistent. I'm not going to touch Tuesdays. Tuesdays, that's its own thing. You've got to deal with that on its own. But the other stuff that you said,

like what you said on Friday, that's a big one. I'll leave that. That's its own category. You don't want to jump in? You don't want to comment on any of that? No, I'm good. I know what I know, and I know what I don't know, and I don't know a lot about it.

Buddy, you need to know that type of stuff if you're going to ever have my job. But, like, with Friday, like, with what you did on Friday, like, I know that you're not going to say any of that without being certain of it, like, because you're not an idiot. So, like, you're not going to go ahead and put that out there if you're not 100% confident in that, and if you're not truly, you don't truly know that that's what's going on. And that's also what makes the show great and what makes people gravitate because you're going to come out and say that as opposed to just towing the line and doing what you're supposed to do and keeping your mouth shut.

You have built that because you know that if you say it, you have the knowledge and the ability to do that. And that you are willing to accept what comes with that because in your mind, you know you're right about it. So I also think that's why you're still here. Because the people that make those decisions are like, well, I mean, I think he might be a little bit right. So what are we going to do? We're going to punish him for saying the thing that is true? JJ, I'll tell you what. I've kind of been this dude my whole life in many different situations. And every time I do it, I always

go, huh, why? That's what I always say immediately after. We're talking about going back to fifth grade, doing this type of stuff, like throughout my entire life just being like, nah, that ain't how this works. That ain't going to be how it goes.

And then boom. And then all of a sudden, immediately afterwards, it's like, fuck, here we go again. Here's the fight. Here we go again, you know? But I will say what happened on Friday. I got a lot of messages from a lot of people that I could have never expected that sent me a very positive message. And that was good. That was cool.

Because going down to the national championship, I thought we were potentially walking into a hornet's nest. Oh, my God. Yeah, because we're out here in Indy, so we're not in the building. We hear about what happens in the building because we have people in that building and things that are said about us and the way things go, and especially with how it all started. So I got my ears up but then once you start doing some stupid around you start like wait a minute that ain't right and then we're in indianapolis so it's just like an easy send it but then whenever you go to a city where the entire network is there i didn't think about that you probably should have done on friday by the way

oh but you're also like you have to think about it like you've you've also built up a you're fortunate enough to have built up a fan base to built up a show and a and a audience who gives you the ability to be like okay if you if they do say you're done yeah i'm gonna be fine like and that has a power to it the ability to walk away and be perfectly fine with the ability to get canned and be perfectly fine and and know that you're going to move on to something else and continue to have success that holds a lot of power that also gives you the ability to say the things that you said whereas other people sometimes are a little worried too because they know if they lose that job or if they lose that opportunity they are going to be in a tough spot and yes that

is a form of privilege i suppose but it is something that you built with your audience and with your fan base earned yeah i wasn't um you know we worked our asses off for this entire thing that's why like um and i'm assuming a lot of others are going to be able to do exactly what we did going forward i've heard that from a lot of people there's a lot of us in like every single sport and everything like that. So whenever like it was just getting torn down pretty much, that's why I got so mad. I'm like, hey, man, I've gone through a lot of weeks with like four hours of sleep, you know, trying to do the best shit possible to help out. Not only our family at this point in the Thunderdome and in our office, but also like the people that ride with us every single day, you know, we feel obligated to show up for them. We feel obligated

to do a lot of stuff. And we like to be associated with like positive happiness, mental vacation and stuff like that. So whenever there's like potential people trying to just ruin it by saying things that aren't true, they think is true, but it's just like not true to take us down. I feel like you're taking a shot at everybody. Like not just me, like we got newborns. Okay. We got literal brand newborns in this building. We got brand new houses being built and purchased in families growing and developing. We've been at this for a long time. So whenever people are trying to like kill it, I'm like, Hey, fuck you. Like that is, this has been earned here. You know what I mean? And, yeah, it is a nice sense of relief to know that at any given moment, if we were to go back to being independent, we'd be A-okay,

both with where we are right now, business-wise, financial-wise, but also what we could. We haven't even gone on tour yet. We haven't even started doing, like, live shows, ticketed in theaters and stuff like like we're gonna be okay but like we had a goal and it was we all grew up watching espn we all massive fans of espn now espn has obviously been a phenomenal contributor to sport for a very long time but a lot of it became the same exact style of thing

all the time. And that's what sports became. So like us getting the opportunity to go to ESPN, to a network that we watched and a network that hopefully will carry on for another hundred years because of how important it is to the history. Like a lot of pride in that going to ESPN.

Like I thought it was a big deal when ESPN was interested in our show we took it as a massive honor because of how we saw ESPN when we were growing up so for it to potentially get derailed and offset it's like that's a bummer because that's really why we came here and everybody's thinking like well he's trying to get fired or whatever it's like no way like we're trying to we're hoping that sports can only get bigger and sports fandom can get better. They're bigger because more people need sports. More people need to get invested in something that, you know, can display inspiration and maybe a little bit of community and a sense of feel and happiness and joy, but also pain and sadness.

It's like in an avenue to talk to people that aren't exactly the same as you, like sports need to continue forever. Like sports need to be a joyful thing. So like we've missed the mark. Obviously we've been put a lot of bullshit the last week and a half and a couple of years ago during the whole. Yeah. That one was global.

Yeah. No one else is putting anything out. But, yep. That was two weeks. Nobody was live except for us and WWE. We're every day. Obviously, they're twice a week. But nonetheless, we've worked our dicks off.

We want to make sports better. We want sports to last forever. And the people that did the deal with us at ESPN, okay, they're wanting the same thing. And we've given people a lot of ammo to attack both of us. So we're not going to do that anymore. Let's go sports. But nobody watches.

Nobody watches anyway, from what I heard. I heard nobody watches, so it doesn't matter what you say. Yeah, we got terrible ratings. Nobody watches, but we're giving too big of a platform to somebody. So they're contradicting themselves while they're attacking. But I do know nobody watches another show

that's pretty mouthy about us because they actually say things that you can't, like the hosts say, things that you can't say. And nobody even knows. You know why? Because nobody watches the show. That is true.

You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. We've experienced that over the last few weeks as well. I'm proud of this. Hey, community colleges in Arizona State have been caught in the fire. I just want to say. They have. Call the strays.

Don't need to catch strays. Community colleges, hey, you're out there. You're trying. You're doing something. You're going to school. You're trying to get an education. Respect community colleges. Arizona State, i believe they're building a medical medical school right now straight down the road for me good school let's let's not let's not catch

strays in in the wildfire here yeah you're right it was far wildfire yeah it was wildfire a lot of fire a lot of bullets being fired and we don't enjoy any of them. We just have a good time doing sports together. And that's why we appreciate Rocket Power coming on and joining us. Speaking of being together, is Burnley still together with the big league or is it now together with the smaller league? They're done. Not yet.

Guys, guys, guys, guys, guys. Just because you've got a shitstorm going on over there doesn't mean that we need to just shitstorm it up on my end also. We got a massive match on Friday against Luton Town, also in the bottom three. It's going to be a very large game on the turf at home. Huge.

When is it? When is it? Friday. It's on USA Network. It's on the USA Network. What time? Let me double check to make sure. We should go.

Huge game. I'm fairly certain it's at, yeah, it's 1245 my time, so that is 245 Eastern on USA Network. Be able to catch it. We should go. Tune in. Would you guys, it's at your place? It's at Burnley.

What day is this, Friday? Friday, yeah. I mean – Friday. They won't miss us. Who cares? So – I don't think we have enough time.

Long way to go. That's an international show. It's a long way to go. We don't feel bad about this person game. We need Tony Mule. Gotta have Tony Mule. Alexi Lawless. Mike Grella.

We do got a dollar. I'm probably going to spend a month in England sometime this spring and I'll be there for a bunch of games. We gotta find a time. We play games in the spring? We play all the way until May. And then the bad league starts like right after.

So they're playing like all year this year. Oh, so physics. Yeah, there's like a two-month break. That's it. It's literally a 10-month season. The Europe? How many more games do you have? How many more chances do you have to try to not get relegated?

About 20, 21, I think. We've got a lot of games left. How many more bullshit cups you still got to play? Hold on. 20? We are out. Battle A, you battled tough, though. One thing and one thing only. Losing one, not the next murder.

Anything to be upset about. The boys are trending in the right direction is what Gumpy's saying. Over the next 21 games, what do they need to win? Two of them? I'd say you've got to win five. Five? That's it? Because you're going to have to beat –

Five wins? You're going to have to. If you don't win – Good run. You have to win Friday. If you don't win Friday – Enjoy the championship. You guys just win 15 of them.

Win 15 of them? Let's just win 15 and eliminate this competition. We're a second-half team. Yes. We're a second-half team. I. We're a second-half team. I sure hope. What are we, in the fourth quarter right now? Is this overtime?

Perhaps halftime. No, we're halftime. We're halftime. Do you guys do cool promotional giveaways at your home games? Yeah, like J.J. Watt and Tyler Bobblehead Day. Yeah, and like toothbrushes and floss. Probably not a good one, too. Yeah, the bobbleheads are.

You guys know they watch this. They watch this. They talk about it. Oh, really? Well, let's let them know. Hey, let's score some goals. We only got to win two games. I'm here.

The team? No, that's not true. We need to win more than two games. You never know. Luton Town might go on and lose 20. All right. Well, good luck out there. Let's win four or 5 games here

Down the stretch We're going to have a good run It would be great Do you have a flat over there That's where you're going to live A flat No We have a place we will stay

Flat British term What else you got holiday like is that like a holiday for you holiday yeah it'll be a holiday for us yeah it'll be a nice holiday so you're staying one month or are you staying three weeks oh four three four weeks that's a little irish a little more irish ladies and gentlemen owner ofley, who is in the biggest league in the world. Well, second to MMLS. Right.

Obviously. Duh. They had a field day with your comments last week about the FA Cup and how the messy thing, how the games didn't matter. People just loved that. They just loved listening to you. So what did they say? It also was a reflection of me. So then they said our American owner is a moron.

This is what they all think. Everything we do on here reflects other people that are much more important. See, that's hard to get by. Attitude reflects leadership. Well, I know. Yesterday, go home from show, hang out with baby. Baby goes down to bed.

I pass out. Four hours. hours not good you're up at one yeah a little bit energy yeah sure one to three a.m just talking about all the shins that are being banged on right now because of our show that's not a good place to be i was in the darkness retreat yeah i was a darkness retreat all by myself for a few hours this morning wasn't fantastic anyways jj we know that you know soccer better than us. But with that being said, we're 100% right. It's our sport now. It is our sport now.

And it's coming home. It's coming home. When the World Cup is in America, by the way, coming up. You're the man, JJ. We appreciate you, pal. Thanks, guys. Always a great show. JJ Watt.

Really enjoy it. Good boy, JJ. I'm sure you do, JJ. We enjoy you, pal. Thanks, guys. Always a great show. JJ Watt. Really enjoy it. Good boy, JJ. I'm sure you do, JJ. We enjoy you, pal. I didn't even think about the amount of things he was probably told about what happened with our show over the last 24 hours and the text messages by numerous people asking if he should be. Hey, you sure you want to go on?

There's been a lot of that. It's a cartoon. Huh? I want to see Ball Time or whatever the cartoon is. Ball Time. Jesus. Ball Time. Jesus. Ball Time. Come on.

It's Ball Town, T-O-W-N. Yeah. C-A-H-N, yes. It's all the balls. It's Ball Time. Ball Time. Let's get to a break. Ball Time.

Yeah, I got it. It's going to be sick. Will Johnson, we don't know if he's coming on. We don't know if Will Johnson's coming on. Been a couple missed emails and made emails. They have an official parade for Michigan or I know I've seen the celebration.

Saturday night. Saturday night, I believe I heard this morning. They're going to Ohio State. Ann Arbor, probably a great place for the parade. It's going to be really cold Saturday night. That's even better, right? For the khakis? I mean, they're not going to be really cold. It's going to be freezing. That's even better, right? And that kind of... For the khakis? I mean, they're not going to...

Did you see? They have insulated khakis. Oh, yeah. They were having a good... In a warm Houston. I enjoyed that Michigan fan base down there. I didn't think... I've never really been around a lot of Michigan people. They were loud. Raucous. They were. Yeah. Seemed like a great atmosphere. Full culmination of, hey,

let's let some of this anger from the season out in this game right now. We got some breaking news coming out of the New York Giants. Oh, boy. There it is. Talking about Wink Martindale and the New York Giants, they've mutually parted ways. The latest we were hearing was that Wink Martindale walked into the exit

meeting with Brian Dable, the head coach of the Giants, and told him that he thought he was an ugly, bald stooge in an attempt to get fired. He went down to Florida, they said, immediately afterwards. He looked at the ocean, felt the vitamin D, had a couple of drinks, and then said, who cares about the $3 million? I can't go back there.

No chance. And the Giants said, no, you can't because of what you said. And now they're mutually parting ways. That's good. I'm happy to hear that. Now, mutual parting of ways, does that mean that he can go work for the Eagles next year, which is what everybody has kind of pieced together with the entire process of what's been happening between these two and between the program and that type of shit.

But everybody loves Wink from what I've gathered. Maybe he goes back to Baltimore after Mike McDonald's gone. I mean, last year we said – No, I don't think it ended great there. Oh, got to have something in the pipe, right, if he's going to turn down three mil to not coach there. I would assume that he just knew that something would be coming. Yeah, Green Bay. You know what I'm – what's know what's that green bay yeah why is everyone saying philly

does he know sirianni or that was just the big hold up of the contract clause if he was to resign because they would still be able to withhold his rights from where he'd be able to coach so philly would not be able to be possible allegedly that was being reported i did not make this up okay that was being reported by others on the Internet. If you haven't heard that before, I didn't make it up. But that is what was being talked about, which is why everybody was assuming he was attempting to get fired so that he would still get the three million and be able to go wherever. But we have not heard from Wink either. So we have no idea what's real and what isn't real at this point.

No, I don't think we should assume D.C. either. He can be a head coach. I don't know why he wouldn't get head coaching interviews. The conversation after last year was like, hey, Wink should probably get some head coaching interviews. If there's six right now, possibly seven, possibly eight coming up, I think he would be a great candidate to be a head coach. I love that Wink, though,

went down to Florida and just took a couple of my thighs. Yeah, that'll happen. Vitamin D. Fine. Florida people living good, man. Get out of the cold. Bad spot.

Smart. For now. Not a bad spot. What do you mean for now? Getting some heat. What's that mean? Even if you look over the past few years, Florida's always been the spot to be. Yeah.

It's coming back more than ever, I think, now. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people moved, obviously, you know, once. COVID. What's the best spot? What's the best spot, D-Bart? I'm not bringing it up all over me all over don't bring it I was good South Florida's, you know, once you pass kind of Palm Beach Jupiter it kind of turns to a different state So I would say South Florida Palm Beach County Broward County Dade County. There's beautiful. That's probably where

Our Tigers probably where Phil is right? Hey,'re a big West Palm Beach guy, right? I've actually never been, but there's been some nefarious action that I've heard happen down there in the past. All right. Yeah. Let's get through a break. It's really nice. What's that?

West Palm Beach. I've been there. Oh, yeah. As a boy. What are you doing? Yeah. When you were a youngster? That was just a couple winters ago.

Summer camp there? It's good sun. Yep. Good sun.ster? Just a couple winters ago. Summer camp there. It's good sun. Yep. Good sun. Good vacations. Oh, Foxy. Look at him. Foxy.

See how handsome he probably was. Oh, yeah. As a young boy, Foxy lived like a king. I was with my girlfriend. It was a couple years ago. Howdy, baby Foxy. I hope you got good vitamin D. Yeah.

It was. It's a good spot. AQ still drove here this morning with his red light therapy. Give him vitamin D so he could glow in this particular window. I wasn't allowed to talk to him again. You don't get a headache from that? I tried it the other day for when you came in a couple weeks ago. You did not get a headache from that.

I did. I promise you you did not get a headache from that. The light was so bright it was burning through my eyelids. I wasn't open eye, obviously. I've done the tanning. What you can do, it's actually good for your eyes, too. No, there's no way. 100%. Look up research. I've heard the tanning Well you can do It's actually good for your eyes too No there's no way 100% I've heard that

You've heard that right I'm supposed to just I don't know if it's right or not I don't know if it's right But I have heard that Yeah exactly No that'd be like The Kenny Rogers episode

On Seinfeld Can't have it I don't know what you're talking about He stares into a red light And it drives him insane Okay so yes I don't think You're looking at that thing.

That's a mental thing. So you can't look directly at it. You got to look peripherally. It's around your face. Well, direct into it, no good. But we can look like this. Like, blur your vision maybe? Yeah.

Blur your vision a little bit? Okay. You just look down or up or to the right or the left a little bit. Just there. There, there, there. You see what I'm saying? So it's making your skin better and your eyes tougher. Yeah.

Like that. Hell yeah. You can look it up, he said. I'm going to get rid of my readers, I promise you. Okay. Oh, so this is going to hire the quality of your eyes? What'd they say? Like carrots.

So you're getting LASIK every single day. You got LASIK? Congrats. Loved it. I'm basically getting it. Basically. How long does it take, you think? A couple years? Until you're getting LASIK every single day. You got LASIK? Congrats. Loved it. I'm basically getting it. Basically. How long does it take, you think? A couple years?

Until you're blind. I'll let you know I'm doing a research project right now. Can't wait. All right, let's get to a break. Holy shit. Whoa. Pete Carroll is out as head coach in Seattle. No.

Wow. That just came through the wire. Hold the phone. There had been six coaches fired around NFL teams in this 2023 season that has crept into 2024. The most recent one, Mike Vrabel of the Tennessee Titans, happened yesterday, shocked the world. And now, on this Wednesday wednesday january 10th 2024 pete carroll is fired

as the head coach of the seahawks holy shit that did great that went really that went really really well zd baby we definitely do mission company's doing his best and fantastic job did he get fired did he part ways? Did he retire? What the hell happened? Oh, Brad, she just said, don't be surprised if he lands upstairs in Seattle. So maybe this is, yeah. That's a Bill situation.

Brad Stevens. Yeah. Brad Stevens going from head coach to president of basketball operations. Yep. Okay. Congrats to Pete Carroll then. Yeah. I assume this is a move that he wanted to make if this is what he was going to do.

Pete Carroll out as Seahawks coach, but potentially still in the building is the current report as we see it at this time, 2-16 Eastern Standard Time. If anything ends up being different, we apologize for having it wrong. This is the information that is currently at hand. Pete Carroll still in the building, still around the culture that he had built I assume that they know the type of coach that they would like to get and Pete Carroll just wants to back off the day-to-day operations you think as a head coach AJ Hawk maybe I know he had made some kind of weird comments uh was it yesterday or day before

about like I'm here as I don't know like as far as I know I will be here or whatever but I would think he already has somebody that he would want. If he's moving up to the front office, it sounds like it's obviously pretty mutual that he has somebody he wants to be the next head coach that's already on staff. But the other day when he was interviewed, he said he expects to be back as the coach next year, I thought. So I don't know if this was for him. Well, they ask him questions, though. They ask him questions.

What are you going to say? Yeah, but also, did he even know at that time? That's what I mean. They were like, Pete, hey, we have a job here for you, but it's not as head coach anymore. Exit interviews, that's how it went. I just don't see it. There's no way this is the first time he's hearing of it, though.

They had to at least talk about it before two days ago. Backwards hat, dancing in the locker room, seemingly loving his life as a head coach. Spinning it. He obviously can relate to guys. You know, he was great in the college level. Obviously, you got to be a great recruiter there. Like, you know, practices, spending it.

I just can't see him still being that involved with the game. Schefter worded it as a shocker. Yeah, Schefter also just worded it as he possibly could still remain in the organization. So I think all the messaging is kind of coming the same way he still could remain in the organization but not as the head coach so i mean you can read into that a lot of different ways like he could still possible does that mean because he is thinking about it which means they told him this is the case you're moving on we're moving you to here

we still want you here if you want it and you said he had to have heard about it before then i mean i don't think so now no after reading the tweet when it said he still could possibly it didn't say hey he's like he's already moving up i doubt now it's that's different new information has been presented a lot of people are i see rapport i'm seeing others that dan quinn would quickly be considered a strong candidate to replace pete carroll because he was there as the dc under pete carroll so that could be a thing there the legion of boom obviously is still talked be considered a strong candidate to replace Pete Carroll because he was there as the DC under Pete Carroll. So that could be a thing there. The Legion of Boom, obviously, is still talked about to this day about the great days whenever Russ was the leader of the offense on a rookie contract.

Yes. And then the Legion of Boom was on the defensive side with so many characters and so many studs and so much success so quickly. They became a quick little dynasty over there Pete Carroll obviously the head coach of that team Russ Wilson the quarterback of that team Dan Quinn though has lived the high life as defense coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys I think he's the highest paid yep in the league he doesn't have to do all of the bullshit that head coaches have to deal with every single year or every single week.

And it seems like him and Mike McCarthy are doing just fine together. Would that be a place he would want to leave to go relive and rebuild the glory days of the Legion of Boom? Possibly, but the Pete Carroll situation is still one that I have no idea about. Just based on his body language and everything and the way he is, there's no way he doesn't want to coach next year. I just can't imagine that. Would Carolina make sense for a guy

like him where he has the cachet to potentially go in there and basically tell Tepper, hey, we're going to do things my way and he's not as adversarial in terms of butting heads a bunch. I just can't imagine him not coaching next year.

If they make the playoffs this year, does this still happen? No, and they're only a game out. Like, they kind of went in the tank a little bit towards the end of the season. But this just makes no sense. And Junior got hurt. It's not like they had their full team. One with Drew Locke. Yeah, one with Drew Locke.

I hope this isn't the case, but this does feel like maybe something, like, outside of football. No way. I hope it's not the case. What does Schultz say? Is it a little latte tap in up here? He certainly is. Yeah, he is.

Who's making decisions? I know the GM is John Schneider. Is the owner who what? Paul Allen's sister is currently the owner. Is she the one making the decision, or is there like a board? How does it work? I mean, I thought – I don't know if this might just be me. I thought it was legit Pete Carroll making most of the decisions over there,

so now I have no idea. Well, I mean, he can't fire himself, so I'm saying who fired him? I just texted Lil Latte, can we FaceTime you? That's wild. And was it reported as fired or out as head coach? That's the other thing. Lil Latte is Jordan Schultz of the Schultz Report. I believe he's with Bleacher Report.

We've known him for a while. His dad, Starbucks. His dad is Seattle kind of. He's got a stranglehold. We do a lot of that. Since he was like a young boy. ESPN's Todd Archer,

because I was looking it up, who covers the Cowboys, has reported recently that Dan Quinn does want to be a head coach again. Okay. Aramirov just reported that the Seahawks say Pete Carroll will become an advisor with the team. Okay. So Pete Carroll's moving up.

He likes Dan Quinn. I assume whenever they presented the situation, or maybe they came up with a situation together. We have no idea. No clue. Pete Carroll, every time he's in front of a microphone, by the way, good. Yeah. Like Seattle keeping him around. Maybe he's in front of a microphone, by the way, good. Like Seattle keeping him around.

Maybe he's going to – what is he? It says advisor, and then it just got sent to the group. The Seahawks released a statement. Okay, let's read the Seahawks statement here. If he's an advisor or has any say at all, it would be really nice to hear him talk from a different angle. Like what I think our team needs to do or what we're thinking about doing or maybe different players and scouting

and what he thinks of his guys. After thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interests of the franchise, we have amicably agreed with Pete Carroll that his role will evolve from head coach to remain with the organization as an advisor. Pete is the winningest coach in Seahawks history, brought the city its first Super Bowl title

and created a tremendous impact over the past 14 years on the field and in the community. His expertise and leadership in building a championship culture will continue as an integral part of our organization moving forward. Pete will always be a beloved member of the Seahawks

family. Okay, so they just kind of got here through conversations. I wonder what started it, what sparked it. Was Pete maybe the one that said, you know, do I want to commit to another year? Seemingly not. Did the Seattle Seahawks have to say, like,

hey, we're thinking maybe something different in the locker room to move forward and we still want you around to be an advisor? Is he an advisor to the coach? Is he an advisor to the GM? Is he an advisor to the owner? I hear an advisor to the GM? Is he an advisor to the owner? I have so many questions right now. And Pete Carroll is seemingly fired as the head. I'm not saying it.

I'm not saying it. I'm not saying it. I don't want to say that. If he accepts this new role, whatever it may be, there can't be too much animosity. If they said, hey, we're going to let you go as the head coach, but we want you to be around and have a role and stay with the program and the franchise. If he was pissed, he obviously would say, no, I'm going to go coach somewhere else.

Yeah, but what if it was his only option? Because Pete Carroll would have an option to do whatever he wanted. For sure. What about the players, though? If a lot of those guys still wanted to play for him, and then he's still around and they're seeing him all the time, and you have a separate head coach, I'm sure they didn't go and ask many of the players, but isn't that kind of a weird situation too?

Talking about two quarterback situations, how did the Celtics handle Brad Stevens and Mazula? It was pretty easy. It was Brad Stevens to Emei Udoka to Mazula, but the team was the same. As much as it was a change, I think that's what Ty's saying. Would that be something where they hire in-house?

Because Dan Quinn, was Emei in the building? Yeah, so, like, would that be something where they hire in-house so that's not bringing in someone? Like a lot of these guys. Was he in the building? Yeah, he may. No, he was at the Nets. Didn't that happen in Arizona kind of with Bruce Arias? Well, it happened in Tampa. That's what I mean.

It's like it's always like a weird situation because then it's like, as the new guy, is he accepting of it? Like does he feel like he's getting like someone's over his shoulder looking, you know, and then like every time something goes bad, it's like, well, it was working pretty good. You know, now it's not. So, like, I don't know how this is going to go. That's why I said out of football.

Like, you wonder if it's more so the fact that, like, he wants to spend more time with his family and his grandkids. Like, when was the last time Pete Carroll wasn't coaching football? 1990? Isn't his son on the staff? I don't know. He is up there in age hurt saving kind of said when you get to this point you know every year 72 kind of yeah you get to that point where you re-evaluate

things that it is what did bruce do whenever he was the advisor he's giving speeches he was yelling at marcus latimore on the uh sideline of the saints game when they go on that massive fight i remember that he's also on a golf cart yeah oh yeah right behind a couple different during training camp but i don't think he was like really actively coaching or helping out. I think he was just kind of helping out Jason, the GM, and just kind of up there. Exactly.

Walk around, good to see you. Yep. Not in the locker room around the team. Correct. Because that would be a weird thing, to your point, Ty. That would be an interesting situation. But hired in-house, right? Tall bulls. Just like, hey, you know the team. The team knows you. Pass the baton is what Bruce said, right?

Didn't Bruce say the team was set up? Now it's ready. It was the right time to hand the baton out. And that's why it's kind of weird here because a lot of these guys, they didn't play for Dan Quinn when he was the D.C. there. So it's basically this. It's not like you're getting a guy you already know and who you've played for.

It is an entirely new guy. Bobby Wagner is probably the only one that's still there, right? Mm-hmm. Dumpy Cole Schultz. If anyone can do it, Dan Quinn can do it. Guys love that dude. He's awesome. Got some young pieces, too, with Devin Witherspoon.

You know, came in, played at a really high level. I like Quentin Dre Diggs, the deep end. So he's got some of that, you know, a couple pieces in that. Drake Woolen. Drake Woolen. You know, he kind of struggled a little bit this year, surprisingly, but he definitely has the talent to be an all-pro.

They drafted well, even on offense. Kobe Bryant, Kenneth Walker. I'm interested to hear what Schultz has to say as a guy who's pretty well plugged into the building in Seattle. Yeah, he's got to be going through it. He's getting set up. I'm excited to see the shot.

He's got to be crushed. I'm excited to see what's going on with Schultz. Gumpy's telling me that he looks fantastic. Old-timer, he says. That's how great he's going to look. Ladies and gentlemen, the founder of the Schultz Report from Bleacher Report, insider for the NFL, Jordan Schultz.

All-time set-up. You look good. You look great, Schultz. Hey, Vince. How's it going? Hey, it Schultz. All the time. All the time set up. You look good. You look great, Schultz. Hey, Vince. How's it going? Hey, it's growing fantastic. Let's talk about you look great, by the way. There you go, Schultz. You're glowing.

Nice job, Schultz. You're glowing, Schultz. I want to let you know that. Hell of a year, hell of a season for you. We've obviously followed along. Question for you about the Seattle Seahawks situation. Obviously, we know that you're pretty plugged in over there. At least you know some people that would at least know something. This is a shocker. Everybody has broken the news

as shocker. Pete Carroll out as Seahawks head coach. Then it moved forward to he could possibly remain in the building. Now it is being reported by the Seahawks that they amicably agreed to have him be an advisor with the franchise. he'll always be a beloved member here how did we get here and why do you think this is taking place he's not going to be with the team on a day-to-day basis looking over the shoulder of dan quinn a new head coach or he's with the g how's this how's it all work out you think from where we sit right now schultz yeah i think the first thing is he's it's hard to believe but he's the oldest coach in the league at 72 years old he's been there for decades obviously been to super bowls won a super bowl but this was still

a complicated scenario on a day-to-day week-to-week basis in the sense that pete carroll despite being the head coach fellas really had operating control of the franchise it wasn't just john schneider pete carroll had the he had the final word as the head coach. He had the power. And I think that was part of the power struggle, but also the fact that Pete Carroll at this point in his career, I think wasn't, I don't know if he had the same level of energy. We always talk about Pete Carroll being this rah-rah guy, obviously having tremendous success. But when I talked to some of the players, they would tell me, listen, players would recognize that Pete Carroll's message, they wouldn't say the word stale, but they would say

sometimes they felt like maybe it was time to move on. I've had players tell me that over the past couple of years. Not trying to be disrespectful of Pete, but just the fact that they have experienced the same coach, the same message for so long. And then I've also talked to former players, Michael Bennett, Cliff Averills, and as much as they respect Pete, they would tell me at some point maybe it would be in the best interest of the

franchise to perhaps consider moving on at some point in the near future. Go ahead, AJ. Schultz, I know what Rapsheed said, he was shocked by this. Was there any rumblings of this, any kind of rumors or anything floating around during the season? Was there any rumblings of this, any kind of rumors or anything floating around during the season? Not necessarily during the season, but I think right when the season ended and they missed the playoffs, they obviously were very close, you started to feel that.

And then he said something interesting the other day. He said, yes, I plan to be back next season, or that's the plan. Then he kind of countered it or qualified it by saying, that's the plan right now. That was a little bit fishy to me. And I think also you have a built in replacement, right? Potentially a Dan Quinn, who I know would love to be back in Seattle. He was a big part as an architect of the Legion of Boom. They obviously had a lot of success there. He has now been with Atlanta and then subsequently with Dallas as the D.C. is getting interest from from around the league. But I can tell you point blank that Dan Quinn is a built in replacement, natural replacement for Pete Carroll.

OK, so Pete Carroll goes in for his exit meetings and they say, sit down, 72 year old Pete. OK, well, I don't think it was so much of listen, this is so early. I got to dive into this. But to me, I don't think it was so much of them saying, Pete, you're out, Jody Allen saying, Pete, you're out, but a mutual parting of ways. And like you said, he'll still remain on to a degree with the organization. He has that type of respect. This is a Hall of Fame coach who's won at every level. But I don't believe, Pat, it's not my understanding that they were just saying,

Pete, we want you out. I think similar to what's going to happen or what is happening currently with Bill Belichick and New England, when you have that type of relationship and that type of success, this is a long process of communication. And you can't just say overnight, I want him out. You have to have both sides be willing to do it. Okay. So this is coming from Jordan Schultz of the Schultz Report on Bleacher Report. He is deeply connected to the city of Seattle through family ties and coffee. Yep.

Starbucks. Hell yeah. You said a lot there that I don't think any of us really knew. I assume it's going to become a conversation piece about it all, but Connor does have a question for you being the Seattle NFL insider guy. Yeah, Schultz, you broke the DK Metcalf contract. You've broken a lot of news in Seattle.

Russell Wilson being out of there the entire thing. How the fuck do you not break the biggest news out of Seattle in the last 20 years? Are you going to shoot your source in the head? When you don't have it, you don't have it. I was fishy about it, but nobody told me this is definitively happening. I couldn't get it confirmed, so props to the guys who did. But sometimes you don't get the story.

You just got to respect it and move on. All right, Schultz. Well, we appreciate you, buddy, for joining us in the middle of the day. We'll be excited to hear how the news comes out and the ripple effect of this all. We're happy that Pete Carroll's still part of football, though. We love that man from afar. He's 72. That's old.

And I think, like you guys said, when you've been in an organization that long, sometimes the best action, Joy, is to move forward amicably, and that's what happened here. Happy to hear that. Ladies and gentlemen, Gordon Schultz. Thank you, buddy. There you are.

There you are. There it is. Oh and gentlemen, Jordan Schultz. Thank you, buddy. Hey, Jordan. There you are. There he is. Oh, yeah, wait. Okay. Has Schultz noticed that once? No. Yeah. He's locked in.

That's why he sits in the same exact spot. He has to notice it. He just doesn't play the game, I guess. For those that don't know, we've known Schultz a long time. A long time. He's really come up. He certainly has. Bleacher Report owned by Turner, right?

Yeah. TNT does a lot of sports. We're pumped for him that he did that. We went through some times with him. Sure. We went through some times with him. Odell. Had some situations.

Zach Wilson. Yeah, Zach Wilson. That whole thing popped up. There's a lot of things that have popped up that have got us in some shit through Schultz. But like Seattle, he is there. Yeah, Zach Wilson. the team never let that out because of the respect that they have for Pete Carroll, if that is to be true. So my buddy Alex Boone, who we all know played in the NFL forever, San Francisco, signed with Seattle I think like a year or two ago to practice what would go in the playoffs and said it was the best atmosphere he's ever been in in the NFL. Like locker room? Yeah, just like the team meetings, the energy, the whole fun, the basketball,

like the whole thing. So two years ago, I don't think there was a big drop-off from two years ago. I find that hard. They went into playoffs last year, and all those players came back for the first week against Russell Wilson. Yeah, what's going on? There has to be something. And when all the Russell Wilson stuff came out,

we were kind of saying how not one of his current team, everyone went to bat for Pete Carroll. No one went to bat for Russellete carroll like no one went to bat for russell wilson and said anything about that like current players previous players like they all went to bat for pete carroll well we talked about it though this year like with the steelers and potentially the patriots like sometimes when you're just out of place for that long like yeah it's things can just end it doesn't have to be a bad reason yeah you're right congrats to them yeah it, it's not over. If he's staying. It's not over, but I don't know what his work schedule is going to be.

Pete Covert. Especially when you have a guy who was in the organization before as a D.C. Replacement. Same thing could happen in New England. Oh, maybe Bill Belichick's just an advisor. Yeah, I mean, there's been a lot of people talking about it. But he has to get that record. Yeah, exactly. That's really the whole thing that's hanging almost every conversation up,

we assume, for Bill. I assume Bill has had his eye on that number for, what, 10 years now? At least. Whenever he found out he could potentially go get it, he's been locked in on it, and it's like he's earned the ability to be in the place that he's at so close. Oh, yeah. So close.

Two seasons. He'll get it in two seasons. No doubt about it. How many does he need? 15. Okay. You think he'll get it? Was his record this year?

Yeah. Four and 13. Could have ate a chunk of that this year. Yeah. Could have easily been one and 16. Chad Ryland misses that kick against the Giants. You celebrate Bills like God damn it. I mean, we lose to the Chargers 6-0 at home.

Chad Ryland misses three field goals. There's another one. God damn it, Chad Ryland. I think, honestly, that's why he never cut Chad Ryland. Because he's like, hey, I'm not getting it this year. And if we don't get someone better in here, I'm not getting it for the next decade. They were reporting that they've talked, right? Yeah, they had an initial meeting on

Monday and now there's supposed to be others later this week. But the latest was from Mike Reese was that Hail Mary. You think Bill's wearing flip-flops in there or what do you think? I think Bill is scouting the third string fullback from Middle Tennessee State as we speak.

And then he's probably, I don't think he's left. I don't know if he's wearing shoes at all. Probably staying grounded with the building. I'm talking about when he's talking to Kraft. Oh, when he's talking to Bob? Yeah. I don't know. Jeans and flip-flops for sure.

Jeans, flip-flop, probably a button down that's tucked into the jeans. Oh, okay. I was thinking hole and sweatshirt. Thong sandals on. Is that what he wears? jeans. Oh, okay. I was thinking hole and sweatshirt thong stand is on Is that we were from yeah, told he's out Big ol what's he's breathe got he's a boat guy. He's got huge feet. So Yeah, we saw it in that video came with it. Well, he's a huge. Yeah, you got barrel chest exactly Jacked so jock. How about I can too nice and tan. Well, he's on the beach.

Everybody's thinking the nudist. He we I talked to him post that video being released. Yeah. I can't believe I didn't bring up how big of a dog he is to him. Yeah. He didn't bring up that we reacted to that video either. It wasn't like a thanks for that ring. You think if you bring it up, he was like, what video?

Oh, coach. I'm not the guy that should be breaking these news. Ask Steve. Ask Steve. I don't want to be the guy that's – we just met each other. I don't want to be this guy, but they showed you on the internet. Yeah, they got you. You look good, though. You're at a Make-A-Wish event.

Yeah, you should be pumped about it. Yeah, you were traveling with the kids and other people. Went out to save the hospital. Went to get donuts and coffee. In the morning, took a deep breath, looked at a neighbor, and we saw it all. He was cheesing in his interview or his press conference. Was it this week or last week? Because somebody had the sweatshirt of what's it called?

What location was that? Nantucket. Nantucket. And he was cheesing, and I, in my head, thought he was just thinking back to that night where he was. God, I laid pipe so well last time I was there. Nice sweatshirt. Yeah, he's actually doing plumbing up there, right? Yeah, he's helping fit the entire neighborhood.

Nantucket is very old infrastructure. That's nice of him to do that. Actually, that's his charity. Nantucket, he's got neighbors got neighbors I assume up there on that? He had neighbors. I don't know if he still does. I do know that a couple neighbors who were not Patriots fans requested a couple trees to be cut down.

They'll say, get the fuck out of my garage. But that's just what I heard. And he was in fact lifting. And that is where that pale chest comes from. So funny to think about. That was a story that was rumored. We didn't make it up. Yeah, that story was told to me by the people who were there.

Big fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers comes in, moves next door. Need these trees to go. Trees stay. Get the fuck out That's amazing Bill Belichick's gonna be wanted Vrabes gonna be wanted Yep

Ben Johnson Seemingly Aaron Glenn Probably Yep Right with that whole Houston Slough

Slough's gonna be wanted There's only so many jobs man That's the thing about these coaches There's only so many jobs You know like hey If I don't jump now, my name might not be hot next year this time. The enemy going to be back in the...

Yeah, why isn't anyone talking about that? Are they just going to name him head coach or something? What do we think? I think he will. So I was listening to the GM shuffle, and Lambeau basically said he didn't think it boded well for him because if it would have, they would have fired Rivera. Mid-season.

And let him be the interim coach for the last eight weeks to kind of give him an audition. Which was weird about the Chargers because Kellen Moore didn't get it. And they gave it to Biff. First year, though, ownership. So they have no idea what they want. I assume they're very excited to go through the interview process for the first time to kind of figure it out. But, boy, you can get on that cycle like Tapper got on. And you can get addicted to those interviews.

Oh, I love this shit. Oh, my God. I love dumping $50 million in it. What about the – who's the Dolphins OC? Do you think someone's – He was rated, actually, by the NFLPA as the number one offense coordinator. Frank Smith. Yeah, so will he get posted?

He's already been asked for a couple. The NFLPA, He was number one. Okay, let's get to a break. On the other side, we're going to break down the NFLPA's All-Pro team. It's the first time I've heard this. I assume they've been doing it for years. No idea. I think two. At least two. So in the back, they think maybe

first year. You think maybe two. Whatever. It's pretty new. Yeah. System seems to be fair. They announce an All-Pro. The AP will announce an All-Pro. Obviously, there's Pro Bowls that's voted by players, coaches, fans, and everything else. Incredible nods to people who are great. Football! It's beautiful.

And that man won a championship at the college level and the professional level. That's A.J. Hawk. A.J., you've been dominating life as of late, and we know we missed your birthday, January 6th. A couple years back, you had a big celebration. Obviously, the world heard about it. This year, not as much glitz and glamour, but happy birthday, AJ.

Happy birthday. Appreciate it. Now, AJ, birthdays always bring a time to reflect on how the year was. Go ahead, and you wanted to give that speech. What we do, we try to buy some time for something going on. You trying to get somebody on the phone? Not a speech you wanted. No, we just assumed that you already had this one loaded.

It's already come and gone. My birthday is come and gone, you know. Yeah, you're right. You live in the moment. You live in the moment. How many speeches did you give on your birthday to the kids about living life and enjoying everything? Zero, actually, because kids do not listen to what you say.

They watch what you do, I think. Okay. Wow. That was a good message. That was great. That was a good message. Thank you for that message. Thank you, AJ.

Thank you, AJ, for that message. Happy birthday. The Talks at Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Don. Cowboys tone digs is here. Nine-year NFL vet. Host of everything DB presents good D, bad D.

Darius J. Butler is here. And, ladies and gentlemen, it is time for a man to continue to educate, inform, and hopefully inspire many young men who might be a little bit thicker than the other kids out there. Ladies and gentlemen, let's go in the trenches. Here we go, here we go, here we go. We got a couple scheme plays, and then we dive right into five plays that you guys will all say, scumbag.

Piero's not in touch mode, needed to go into touch mode here on the back wall. I don't know. Tactical difficulty. Yeah, I mean, this is a standard operating procedure. AJ's face is in the middle plus a computer screen. I mean, it's all going fantastic. The water softener situation. I have one in the basement. It annoys me when that thing

kicks off. Dude, it just went bananas up here. Started yelling at us in the middle of the Phil Mickelson interview. Started yelling at us in the middle of the Phil Mickelson interview. Started yelling at us in the middle of the whole thing. It was certainly a scene. Phil said a lot of stuff in there, AJ. Yeah. Yes, he was.

Phil was very open. Phil was good. Did you check him or no whenever he was talking? I did not exactly check him as he was talking, no. I tried to that one time. I said, wait a minute, golf. What you guys are doing? Taking money she's always didn't i aj yeah yeah invite him on just to bamboozle him right and tell him how terrible he is yeah exactly that's what i that's journalism i mean it

certainly sounds like everybody that's never really done anything in this particular world has a lot of ideas you know know, on how they would act. How dare you let him say that? How dare you let a human speak how they feel? All right. It's a talk show. That's what we're doing here, huh? It's a conversation show.

That's what we do. You should see how dumb this guy is over here whenever he puts a cowboy hat on. You should hear what he has to say. I can't believe I let that happen. Yeah, I tried to say it. I see why you put that thing on and didn't take it off, though. It's a little different with that thing. Yeah, I love it. Hey, pretty sweet, right?

Oh, did you, D-Butt? I did. You know, catch my mic. Because you gave it away for a foam big hat. No, he snuck. He traded it. I saw the trade happen. It was a good move. Good trade, D-Butt. Good trade. It was a barter? What happened?

You got one of those big foam cowboy hats? No. No. One of those big hats. National championship. So national championship. Got Michigan on one side. Washington on one side.

Oh, the big cap. Oh, yeah. Big cap. Oh, okay. I didn't know you got the big foam. The big cap. Hey, it's a moment I remember forever. Yeah, national championship cowboy hat.

What are we talking about? Had some people tell us that neither of the teams you're playing have anywhere near a cowboy hat. What are we talking about? Had some people tell us that neither of the teams you're playing have anywhere near a cowboy hat represented. Oh, I'm sorry. Are we not in the great state of Texas? Did we not walk right by a steer on the wall? Three of them.

Sure did. As we were walking through the halls of literally the Houston Rodeo. Don't know if you've ever heard of it. Not my first Rodeo. Don't know if you've ever heard of it. Not my first Rodeo. Did Blake Corum not or knew walk out as a light ranching cowboy? He did. Did Connor not grab 10 belt

buckles? Yeah, I grabbed 10 to 15. What idiots were saying that? A couple people were obviously not happy with the way we looked on there. I want to let you know, I think a cowboy hat makes you look really good. I guess you guys could have dressed as Wolverine from the X-Men. That would have been more professional. That would have been cool, though.

Yeah. Imagine if we were all just super jocked all year. Or we all could have gained like 30 pounds and been husky. Just husky as a whole. You're right. We could have been dogs. Could have put furry costumes on. That would have been okay. Wouldn't have been able to go to some convention centers on certain times

Because certain things get ended up inside those furry costumes You ever hear about that, D-Butt? That feels like a really white thing That feels like probably the whitest thing They did that on Entourage, didn't they? Oh yeah What'd they do? Entourage

What was that? He went in the trenches? What's going on on here? That's what Vincent Chase you doing? What was that? That's what Vincent Chase was doing, wasn't it? No. Drama. Do we think that is the most predominantly white thing that ever happened? Certainly top two.

Probably top three to accumulation of pedophiles. Most of the sports at the X Games. Skateboarding? No, not next. BMXing? Winter X Games.

Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, but Sal Mascali. Yeah, exactly. He's the voice of it. He's the actual voice. As I was saying, I thought of Sal. I don't know if you've never heard of the furries.

I said these whites, they wear costumes. Never heard of, no. whites, they wear costumes. Never heard of, no. Okay, they wear costumes. They're dogs, like he was implying for us to do. They're dressed up in weird, not weird, sorry. Artistic, whatever you wear. I think they're weird. Well, you're judging them, I'm not judging them.

Weird is fine. Weird's okay. I believe these whites look forward to these weekends for like months and months and months on end. They work on these costumes. Like work on them. Make real realistic. So realistic there's holes in places, allegedly,

and they're all just boning each other all night. The pink dog is banging the unicorn over here. The rhinoceros is doing its thing to the lion. Is that a convention? Yeah, it's a convention center, yeah. And they're still wearing all its thing to the lion. It's like a convention. Yeah, convention center, yeah. And they're still wearing all the gear. It's got to be like an anonymous thing, right? Like you feel the anonymous thing, they feel like, hey, I'm a cat.

I'm not really me right now. Yeah, it's like a bunch of them. Yeah, there's a lot of that. And then sometimes some of them are looking for a certain animal too. Yeah, for sure. Those sickos. Yeah, I could have went without knowing that. No, you needed to know that.

You need to know that. You might want to jump in. No, whoa. Hey, Jay. You just said it's the whitest thing of all time. I don't think Darius is going to be jumping in. They want to break barriers? They might.

You never know. You don't know? I don't know for sure. Yeah, we don't know. Nah, but this feels like a white thing. It's a white thing. If I had to guess, I'd say this is a predominantly white thing it's a white thing if i had to guess i'd say this is a predominantly white thing but i've happened upon a couple of these conventions at different hotels i was staying

at oh yeah one in indy when i was in india i told i said yeah there was a full convention that i don't know two years ago maybe it was everyone they were everywhere they're just there's waltzing around yeah right in front of you just. Just pretend like they're not wearing $600 mascot costumes. It ruins the city. The city sucks that weekend. It does not. It does. It's livening some things up.

I'm there for a lot of conventions. It's like Comic-Con. When that one comes to town, I do everything I can to get out of the city. The future farmers of America are all in uniform. That one's great. Firefighters. Firefighters. Firefighters convention won more mustaches in the city than ever before and probably more alcohol drink than any of the other conventions.

VCon. VCon, obviously. Gary VCon came to town. That was almost two months. Too many people. So many people. Coming back, right? I got to VCon.

I hope. All right, anyways. We didn't get to dress up like dogs. We're cowboys because we're in Houston. But there's a couple dogs around the NFL. A couple dogs. Oh, yeah. A couple dogs.

We got some good ones today. Oh, yeah? We got some good ones. I was nervous because, you know, a lot of starters rest the last week of the season. I was nervous trying to find them. But this game obviously played all the starters. Check out this movie. Not the best block in the world, but we get a little vet move throw by,

which gets this thing going. This is the play that Miami ran over and over again. They literally wore this play out. It's a fake dive just to get eyes one way, flip the other way. Look at the move by A-Chan as he goes. Then check out Taron Armstead. Listen, the backside block, the hustle play from the backside left tackle.

This is the one that sets it. He's just hanging out right now. We get it. He lets it go. He's just hanging. He's looking where he's going. And then he sees the safety, and that ends up being the block that springs it for the touchdown.

Who's that, Clay? Robbie Chosen? Why did they stop feeding each other? It wasn't Claypool. It wasn't Claypool. No. I don't know. It's a good question.

But this play, they wore out in the first half. I'm telling you, this has kind of been their M.O. the last couple weeks. They love this play. It's just look how he opens one way. It just freezes everybody on the back side for just a half a second. And then we get the toss opposite. It ends up just being really a toss strong. But we get eye candy with the jet motion.

We get eye candy with the fake open this way and then flip the other way. This guy, he's throwing him into the hole almost. Yeah. Watch the little flyby. We call this a little flyby. There, right there. See the little shoulder grab up the field? That's holding.

No, that's holding. Beautiful. That's a hold. Beautiful. They called it on Washington this week. Sometimes they call it, but that's a great move. You can get away with it more than you can't. Well, I'm sure he's pumped.

He's spotlighted. Yeah, he is. Do you see that, by the way? A lot of people are pretty bummed out about the officiating national championship. Yeah, but there was that one holding that happened. I didn't think it was bad. Yeah, but that was a bad call. That one?

That holding with a double move, Roman Dunza, because that was a big point of the game, too. I think they were down seven. Yeah, when the offensive lineman gets beat that quick, though, and the defensive lineman ends up on the ground, you're sometimes just. You talking about on the deep ball? Yeah.

The regular broadcast was on in the truck. Oh, okay. That was a clear hole. You can't just get beat and throw a dude on the ground. Thank you. You said it's true. Okay, well, all right. Friendly fire, friendly fire.

Normally you protect everyone. I protect most, but that was clear as day. I mean, he got beat on the inside. Man, it sucks for the timing on that. Terrible timing. First big play of the game for Washington. That changes everything. It did.

It was 2013, right? Yeah. Yeah, but they hit that. I'm assuming the next ball to McMillan's connected. Sure. I'm assuming the next one to Polk is probably coming. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

Just all you need is just a spark. Getting a rhythm. He missed Rome a couple times. Rome said he ran the wrong route. And there was one where he was a little bit out of bounds. There was one that was, like, a little bit out of reach. One that went through. He was, like, everything was just a little bit off.

You hit one, though. All of a sudden, we can do it. You take the top off. Yeah. Instead, we got a hole. Yeah, we got a hole. That's a damn shame. Sometimes.

I missed your run for 350 yards. Yeah, so. Yeah, I should have won by 35 points. Hard to pitch about the officiating. Yeah, but that play. That play, yeah, changes everything. 21-point play. Yeah, exactly.

What's so funny, AJ? I don't really hear many people say 21-point play. What was? Oh, shit. Looking back. I see why you said that. I see why you say that, though. I understand.

Yeah, absolutely. It's the truth, too. Momentum can be worth 28 points. Oh, why you said that. I see why you say that, though. I understand. Yeah, absolutely. It's the truth, too. Momentum. Momentum can be worth 28 points. Oh, maybe I undersold it. I undersold it. Might be. Okay. Who knows?

How about the Packers? This team's in a playoff. Ty, look at this, huh? They've been playing well. Hey, you've got to love it. This guy got going again. But check this out. Look, they fake one way, right?

They get him stepping one way. They open one way. They get the hand back the other way. Here's huge. We get the tight end arc into there. they know he's going to close because the tackle goes down inside he's going to collect him so you got two over here now check this out we get him going back he's going to bypass him so we get these two out in front for the two right there look knows he's going to close don't even block him he already took himself out of the play

bypass go collect aaron Aaron Jones for daylight. Huge hole. Wow. Great play. Love it. Awesome. They called us a bend back, right? Because they had to set this up early in the game, running zone, zone, zone,

all to the right, and then they get the bend back going back the other way. It's crap finish. He's been awesome. Yeah, he's – Better than Musgrave? He's been awesome in the run game, blocking. And very good in the pass game. Yeah.

He's been one of the more impressive guys on the team this year. Very good. Rookie? Yeah. Look at that. The Packers. Tackle. Tackle burying a dude from Penn State, by the way.

Yep, seventh rounder. Pretty much all rookies and second-year players. Listen, I would have failed this guy if we didn't put him on and maybe his last game as a Tennessee Titan. He was vintage Derrick Henry this weekend. I don't know if you guys watched a lot of it, but he was vintage. We get a great little scoop block right here. Check this out.

We're going to get a little motion. We get a scoop between the center. Watch him cut the legs out. Wait, we get the chip. Let it go. Well, fake link. We're going high're going high cut him now check this out go back here because this is huge this is the hardest block right here he's got he's the only one with the 101 block right here hardest block now watch henry that's skronsky yep now watch henry go like this this little stutter back to the right because right there might make the play

puts them back on him and then we get the cut. It's awesome. It's awesome. Look at Skronski. Puts him back on him. Right there. Now we get his head backside. You just won the block for Skronski. You get him playing backside.

Now we break it back to the front side. He's out the gate. And one more. Vintage Derrick Henry. Yep. Tannehill started. Derrick Henry started. Braves is out there.

They're old school Titans. Yep. Tech Tractor another round, boys. Tannehill started. Derrick Henry started. Braves is out there. They're old school Titans. Tech Tractor, another round, boys. They're so fucked. Goddamn. That is so bad. If I'm a Titans fan, I'm skydiving off something. I mean, they had it. They had it figured out. With a bear shirt, obviously, so you

land safely. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what they're going to do, though. No, actually. There's a lot of faith in Rand and Amy just to build it, right? That's what we're assuming. And Will Levis. Yeah.

A ton of faith in Will Levis. Yeah. Show of flesh. The other thing, too, and this is what we really haven't talked about, is with Tennessee with Atlanta, right, both very similar offenses. You have to have a certain type of person to run this offense. And so who do you bring in? You have to either bring in somebody of his own caliber scheme

or you bring in a Josh McDaniels, and then it's a five-year rebuild, and now you set your team back 10 years. That's why it's a poverty franchise. That's exactly right. Yeah, but they could run this clip in two years from now when they potentially figured it out. Run it because I think they're never

going to win anything significant. Maybe they'll go to the playoffs. They'll never ever win a Super Bowl. They're in the same division as CJ Stroud, Trevor Lawrence, and Anthony Richardson. The Titans are legitimately fucked for so long and they imposed their own curse.

The variable curse is officially active. How hard is that going from like a completely like a power play action type scheme to like a more open? I'm assuming that's where they go as an O-lineman or a coach. It's very few and far between. Like I like literally I got cut from teams whenever they brought his own guy in. I was not his own guy. I was like, I rebuilt it. Yeah, you got to bring in all new guys.

Chris Lindstrom, phenomenal football player. He's on today. Again, he's a great football player, but he's built for that zone Artie Smith scheme. So now you bring in another thing. Does he fit that scheme? Who knows? You don't know. He's great in that Artie Smith scheme. Speaking of,

Titans just requested an interview with Antonio Pierce. Trying to steal. Putting the rain at his feet to the fire a little bit. Antonio Pierce, though, he knows. He's not just going to take any job. Antonio Pierce has been a player. Antonio Pierce has been a coach a long time. Antonio Pierce is

one that I think is being highly sought after for a lot of things. And it stinks that this is how people are talking about the Titans, by the way. Because it has turned into like, hey, Antonio, you want to come here and go 3-14 the next three years and then get fired? Does that sound good? Or no, you want to stay in Las Vegas?

Try to just shake a play in Pokemon with Mark Davis. Well, they've got to catch them all. They haven't done that yet, but what did JJ say? He said there's less than 15 great coaches in the NFL. I think we'd all agree with that, right? So if the Tennessee Titans are able to find another one, you know, and then also if they're able to build a team that is good for that

particular coach in the style, offense coordinator, defense coordinator, head coach, I mean, that would be a hell of a job well done because as we sit, nobody has faith that it's happening. So that's just chips on her shoulder right i mean is it come on amy come on amy good luck i'm looking less than 15 is wild too because for able and belichick we can probably say they're two great coaches i started judging for able that way quickly because i mean you want to coach the

year and one seed with one seed with like 70 guys on the injury. 90, I think. Yeah, they played 90 guys that season, yeah. He never had a truly elite quarterback either, and they just kept winning. He gives you an identity, too. Don't you think he gives the team an identity? Like we always talk about a team taking on their coach's identity. You know when Braves is coaching a squad, you have something.

There's something there. His defense always played the right way, too. Defense has always played hard, you have something. There's something there. His defense always played the right way, too. Defense has always played hard. Physical. Tough. Well, who are the good players on the defense? Jeffrey Simmons. Yeah, so he's gone. Bired was great. I traded Bired. Bired, he's gone.

Drafted corner in the first round a couple years ago. He hasn't really. Who's the D-tackle that was in Indy? Autry. Demico Autry. All those good players gone. David Long. Tennessee sucks, dude. Holy shit. Nashville's such a good town.

I love Nashville. It's way up there with Houston, but that town is not going to be a football town forever. That's right. Vandy Baseball. Yeah, they are the truth. Vandy Baseball is a real deal. I think their basketball team is pretty good. Sometimes. They have the elevated court, though.

Oh, yeah. It looks sweet. And Nashville's got... Blake Shelton's got a bar. Right. They've got a bar, obviously. Kid Rock. Next one? Yeah. Yeah, you got it, buddy. We can go back to that. That's that Trevor Lawrence play. Oh, yes. We'll go back. We'll hit that at the end.

Yeah, we should. Yeah. You break it down and watch slow. It's not good. Always got to put Quinn Miners on. He gets at least one a game. This one isn't like a crazy one, but just check it out. They're going to run an ET. Max Crosby, just so we know, right?

This whole purpose of running this ET is Max is trying to de-cleat Quinn, open, pick the shit out of him, and then get him around. Exactly. And so watch him just eat the pick from Max and then

dump. Watch the little torque bury on the ground here. We like Max. Love Max. Love Max. Love Max. Love Max. One of my favorite football players. That was his 50th play of the game. One of my favorite football players to watch.

But whenever you can do that to a guy like that, pretty awesome stuff. You got to highlight it on the offensive side. God, Max Crosby flies around. Flies. And he's doing his job. I mean, that's a great pick. Quinn. Quinn just. Yeah, but Max Crosby's rolling I mean, that's a great pick. Quinn. Quinn just...

Yeah, but Max Crosby's rolling with Sean Strickland and the boys. Yeah. That got to the ground, which I don't think Quinn wanted. Max Crosby was over. And a pretzel. Yeah. Probably is a pretzel or a triangle thing. Right.

Might break both of his arms. It's a play-ended, to be honest with you. I agree. Hey, Denver Broncos are in an interesting situation, too. They are. That's a whole other place. Yeah. That dead cap is alleged.

They're working out of good faith, though. That's what I, yeah. So, ladies and gentlemen, George Patton, the general manager of the Denver Broncos, has come out and spoke about the Russell Wilson situation, which we all learned of a few weeks back, whenever he was benched as the quarterback of the Denver Broncos, this late, late, late, like last week,

allegedly what came out was after the Kansas City Chiefs game, they were in a bye week, by the way, and the Broncos won to Russell Wilson, asked him to get rid of an injury guarantee that was like $37 million for if he was to get hurt, this year would basically enact that. So they wanted to continue to play him, but they didn't want to roll with the dice of the injury like $37 million for if he was to get hurt this year would basically enact that. So they wanted to continue to play him, but they didn't want to roll with the dice of the injury, potentially guaranteeing $37 million from 2025,

especially if they weren't sure he was going to be their quarterback for a long time. So this is how George Patton described the situation that took place business-wise. I appreciate the question, Mike, and I'll address the Russ situation, you know, hopefully one time and as thorough as possible. You know, during the bye week, I did reach out to Russ's agent in a good faith and creative attempt to adjust his contract. We couldn't get a deal done. We moved on with our season. It didn't come up again. Fast forward week 17, It didn't it didn't come up again fast forward week 17 Sean makes a change at the quarterback position This was a football decision made by Sean what he thought was in the best interest of the team Completely independent of any conversations. I had with the agent and it was a football decision

Made by Sean in regards to negotiations, you know, I'll just keep the specifics private we had a respect for really everyone involved negotiations are hard you have difficult conversations tough conversations and and you can characterize the negotiation really any way you want and we always try to our handle selves professionally and in the best interest in the bigcos. Why'd you give them the big deal then? And this was no different. Well, that would be negotiating good faith then. And then he said in the bye week, General George Payton, by the way, not Payton, even though they're, yeah, okay. He said that they were negotiating good faith, independent.

There was a lot of words said there. And they're all bullshit. Yep. All right. Yep. In my opinion. Well, agreed. If you're trying to take away a guarantee that it's already been negotiated,

you would think the good faith negotiation had already taken place. Now, him saying that it was an independent decision, that it's a football decision, it's a business thing, we operate in good faith, those are all words to save himself from future lawsuits. Yeah. Okay, there was a lot of that happening in there, which is why he said, I'm hoping to cover this one time,

and hopefully he doesn't want to have to check all the boxes every single time he addresses it. But players are always going to think that's bullshit forever now that we heard it. And I do appreciate that he said, you can describe negotiations however you want from whoever's side. That's probably valid as well. I assume there was some other thing that they were willing to give

to Russell if you gave that up, because what else would you be potentially bartering there? And we don't know what that is. But at this moment, yeah, it's like, everybody's going to remember you gave that up, because what else would you be potentially bartering there? And we don't know what that is. But at this moment, yeah, it's like everybody's going to remember you did that. That is just how it's going to go. And players, free agents are going to remember that as well. And when you think about Russ, like now Russ could, I mean, sure he's going to get cut and lose some money,

but he could end up in Las Vegas. Think about the places he could choose from. Tennessee. Tennessee. Well, Levis, but still Tennessee. Oh, yeah, my bad. Was he the places he could choose from. Tennessee. Tennessee. Well, Levis, but still Tennessee. Oh, yeah, my bad. Was he the coach at Tennessee? What are we?

Atlanta. Atlanta. Atlanta. I mean, who knows what happens with the Bucs? They got Baker, but they might say, hey, we kind of like Russ Moore. Mike Tallman bringing in Russell Wilson. He's going to want big money, though, right? He'll still get a good chunk, will he?

Can you not? Correct me if I'm wrong on this, right? Because I think he still owed big money though, right? He'll still get a good chunk. Can you not? Correct me if I'm wrong on this, right? Because I think he still owed $37 million, right? $34, I think. Whatever it is. $34, right? So let's say can't somebody just sign him to a Vet Men deal at $1 million and then let Denver owe them $33?

That's definitely going to be the move, right? That's going to be the move. That's how it goes down. They can go higher too. But they also said, here's Sean Payton talking about the quarterback position, talking about Russell Wilson's future in it, actually. Look, I think when we get back and we begin this process of looking at a roster, you know, where we select.

There's so many things that go into a decision specific to the quarterback, which is significant, obviously. So it's too early at all. I spent half an hour with Russ yesterday, you know, and I told him, I said, look, you know, I don't think it's going to be a long, drawn-out process, but it hasn't been decided relative to what our plans are. Okay, so that's big news, right? Okay. We all just assumed he was getting cut.

They're moving on. He said that we have not made that decision yet, all relative to when are we picking, who's all available, what type of quarterback do we think could potentially come in here, because we're going to have a massive cap hit if we do move on from Russell Wilson after the deal that we signed. So, Sean Payton, at the beginning of that, you two started out, is everything all right? I mean, you know,

he speaks a lot to everybody, team, media, I guess, part of what, he was part of the job. A lot of, stumbled a little bit out of the gate. What does that mean? Hey, look, Russ is treated as like a true professional, and the fact that they even spent 30 minutes together, you know, kind of

surprised me at this point too. Him saying the decision is made, I just don't and then George saying oh fast forward to week 17, a football decision was made. I mean, come on. The Peyton stuff maybe because Sean Peyton just has... Which one?

Sean, the George Peyton saying it was a football decision, I could see that just because Sean Peyton came in and was like, hey, this is my team. I'm making all the decisions. I don't have to check with anybody. But the decision's been made. That's bullshit.

They've been acting as if, hey, maybe he stays. There's 0% chance that he stays. I assume Sean might like one of the guys in the middle, like J.J. McCarthy or maybe go up to 10 and take Pennix if he's there. But there is a 0% chance Russell Wilson is on that roster when the new season starts. What if he is, though? What if he's envisioning the snaps pregame again?

Sean Payton in the background of a photo? God, I fucking hate this guy. Can't play any better. We won too many games. We got too good of a draft. Too bad of a draft pick. Just remember him going, what the fuck? And remember, I don't want to bring all this up because, you know, it is a deep pool.

But there's a picture of Sean Payton, Russell Wilson, Steve Young eating dinner. You remember that? Yeah. And Joe Montana. Yeah, right after Payton got the job. Sean Payton got the job at Denver. And we asked him about it, and he said,

Joe Montana was there. I said, like, how was the dinner with Russ? You know, anybody's really talking about Russ. And he goes, it was good but like joe montana was there my boyhood idol yeah basically it was like i didn't talk to russ i talked to joe freaking montana that was the answer yeah okay me too yeah joe hell yeah he saved his uh grandkid by throwing a football hitting a burg burglar, a kidnapper. In the temple. Right in the nose. Sleed down the banister because he was upstairs,

pulled the ball out of a trophy case, slid down, bounced off, caught grandbaby, left-handed, and then put foot on kidnapper, who obviously had a broken beak and potential CT because of the football that he threw. We would love to have dinner with Joe Montana. Absolutely. But the conversation about that photo was not that Sean Payton got to meet Joe Montana.

No. The conversation was, hey, here's Sean Payton and Russell Wilson for the first time in public. And then remember the meetings, the office space that Russell had? Yeah, that bullshit stops today. Sean Payton said. Kissing the babies. We don't need a movie character. You're not a politician. Yeah, bingo. So I think from the

beginning, there's probably been a little bit of from Sean Payton to Russell Wilson like you're going to have to prove to me. You're going to have to prove to me that you're it. And that goes back to Sean Payton having to have told George Payton and the Walton family whenever they were interviewing for him, like, I have to be able to move on from Russell Wilson

if I don't think he's the guy. And that's an interesting little storyline of this whole thing because then we know for the next five, six, seven years, whatever it is, this is certainly Sean Payton's team completely. Not that we didn't think that at all, but how does he go about building it? What is Sean Payton looking for? Everybody's saying he's looking for the new Drew Brees. Russell Wilson started

having success in that offense, I think. They started doing it well. Who's he looking for? What type of quarterback is he looking for with that offense over there? I have no idea right now. The plan isn't obvious to any of us. Like Connor said, maybe he does have somebody in the draft that he has his eye on and he expects to be

in the middle of the pack. We know that is the most important position when it comes to success and head coach and all that. It's going to be interesting for him. You've had this offensive lineman on here every single time. He wanted to rebuild the offensive line. It's like I do wonder. He's about... He's about the

only guy that I'm sure Sean loves. And they spent money. Oh, geez, this guy. They spent money, too. Signed McGlinchey. Yeah, they signed Mike McGlinchey. Again, though, right? Like, McGlinchey comes from San Fran.

What have we talked about a million times with scheme, right? Like, it's, hey, listen, let's run the ball 35 times, and then we got 15 play actions built. So 50 plays out of a 65-play game are not very stressful, right? For an offensive lineman. For an offensive lineman. Now you go to shotgun, five-step, where 55 plays are stressful. It's a completely different world.

Plus, you never know. Sean Payton might have been like, hey, McGlinchey, let's let a couple guys through today get Russ killed. Was Sean the one who brought him in, or has he been there for two years? This is his first year? Yeah, first year.

They just signed him this year, and they brought in Cleveland from Baltimore as well. Not Cleveland, Powers. That Denver story is interesting. Because they're in the Chiefs division. It's always going to be a conversation of can you beat the Chiefs

as opposed to can you win a Super Bowl? Sean Payton had options. Sean Payton has been there before. I'm just going to assume he can figure it out. Just like in Tennessee, who's better? For Denver, who's better? Who's better than Russell? The conversation came after you beat the Chiefs for the first time

in eight years, I think. Are you talking about good faith? It's just wild. That was the bye week, by the way. Now that we know how at least a little bit of this Sean Payton story in Denver, his last year with Drew Brees,

I would have loved to get a little more out of Sean Payton that last year because what was he thinking then? When he decided to retire on a Monday? Yeah, Russell Wilson, what? He's played 50 times better than what Drew Brees was in his last season. He had all those great years with Drew, though. Yeah, there's a little buildup probably in the bank. I can't remember.

Drew Brees has actually gone on record as saying, like, that last year his arm. Yeah. I cannot throw. Yeah, we had respect, massive respect for Drew. And it was hard because they were on prime time because how good Drew Brees had been. And he looked different. I assume Sean Payton was certainly having a lot of conversations with

himself like that. Perfect call, of course. Perfect call, of course. And then he retires out of nowhere on a Monday. Yeah. Noon or 2 o'clock. We had no idea what was happening. Then he has to get traded out of there, remember, to the Broncos.

Big to-do to get Sean Payton to the Denver Broncos. First-round pick. Yep. First-round pick was moved, that whole thing. And now we're staring down a problem. They're going to have to rebuild if they move on from Russell Wilson. But I assume it was all part of the plan. Obviously, it's been a pretty active week.

You had the national championship. A lot of stuff going on. So life is good. I hope you are feeling the exact same way. AJ, great work today, pal. Happy you could hear us. Great audio today. Okay, great video, too.

You've looked fantastic. I think you've added to the memes in a proper fashion, you know? Perfect. We all like to think that we're just living right here because we talk about sports. Oh, man, that looks so nice. Let's show you Nardo's head. What island is that? Not the one you've been to.

That's what happens. That's the problem right there. Great work today, boys. Great work today. What's so funny, AQ? What's so funny? Nothing. I'm just – we're staying in this lane.

Yep. Hey, here we go. Good job, AQ. Blinders. Good job, AQ. Hell yeah. Back room, great work. Good work, boys.

Zito, congrats, baby. Congrats, AQ. Congrats, Z. Congrats, Z. And Coco. Congratulations. Can't wait to meet her. Other than that, we'll be back tomorrow with a big one.

Huge. No Thursday Night Football, but we got some good conversation coming in. Some good break time of the Super Wild Card Weekend, in which we have games on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It's a beautiful time. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life.

Goodbye.