The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1063 - Trenches Wednesday With Alabama Head Coach Kalen DeBoer, JJ Watt, Utah Jazz Owner Ryan Smith, AQ Shipley and Darius Butler LIVE In The ThunderDome, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about Jim Harbaugh allegedly having the choice up to him as to whether or not he wants to be the Head Coach of the Chargers, the masterclass that Aaron Glenn put on display against the Buccaneers on Sunday, if the heat behind Bill Belichick getting another Head Coaching job has slowed down, and everything else going on around the NFL as we prepare for Championship weekend. Joining the progrum is new Head Coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Kalen DeBoer, to chat about the tumultuous times since taking the job, his pitch to keep guys within the progrum, getting used to everything at Alabama and getting his staff and guys in place, being on the recruiting trail, the expectations, following Saban, and much more (22:10-45:41). Next, 3x DPOY, Houston Texans Ring of Honor member, future 1st ballot Hall of Famer, JJ Watt joins the show to chat about Championship weekend, his thoughts on all 4 teams, his thoughts on all the coaching openings, why the Brock Purdy slander is weird, how much difference a new DC can make, and much more (1:03:26-2:03:08). Later, owner of the Utah Jazz, Ryan Smith joins the show to chat about the NHL considering his pitch to bring an expansion franchise to Salt Lake City, having the infrastructure in place already, and why Salt Lake City is such a compelling expansion city, plus how his Utah Jazz are doing as we approach the All-Star break (2:04:16-2:35:22). 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 of this wide trenches Wednesday, January 24th, 2024. This program starts now. Football is beautiful. Football has a ton of storylines and we'll be talking about it all today. We'll also be talking a little bit of NHL because there's a Mormon in Utah who's writing open letters now to the NHL saying it's time to bring a hockey team to beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. And he'll be joining us today, Ryan Smith, billionaire, obviously, self-made, formerly of the company Qualtrics, which is a surveying company way before and way ahead of its time.

This dude, not that old, self-made billionaire, game changer, owner of the Jazz and many other things, has had massive success. Has been very open that he wants an NHL team to come to Utah. And I'll tell you what, I think it would be the perfect place for it. The Utah folks show up whenever they have events there, and that city is gorgeous. So nice. It is beautiful. have events there, and that city is gorgeous. So nice.

It is beautiful. Now, he will come on and chat here in a few hours, and we'll see what his thoughts are on whether or not Bettman, who did respond and say we appreciate Ryan Smith and his passion for not only the sports but the state and everything he's trying to look at, basically kicked the can down the road and said, yeah, okay, sounds like a plan. We'll hear what Ryan Smith's thinking in a couple hours. In the second hour, what, JJ Watt?

Watt. That is a weekly appearance. Last week, if you do recall, he ended the show on ESPN by saying, PFF sucks. Have a great day, everybody. And then got us into a stats war, whenever we were already in every other war possible before. We'll see how one week has maybe changed his mind

on his stance or his thoughts or how the week has been since igniting that war with the numbers experts. Now, speaking of numbers experts, yesterday, the R numbers expert, Hembo, gave me a bunch of stats about Brock Purdy, and I led the show with I'm sick of the Brock Purdy Center. That thing was seen by a lot of people. A lot of people.

A lot of San Francisco 49ers players and fans saying, thank you for talking about our second-year quarterback in a positive way. We have some interesting questions. We're going to get questions from Hembo today, and in 18 minutes, we'll have Kalen DeBoer, the new head coach of the University of Alabama.

Obviously, the only thing you're hearing about that is everybody's leaving. Alabama's done. He's out on the road recruiting, I do believe, but he's a friend of the program. Just led the Washington Huskies to the national championship in his second year as coach there in the final year of the Pac-12. And now with the transfer portal and a 30-day rule whenever a new coach is hired

or whenever a coach decides to leave a team, there's 30 days where a transfer doesn't count. It's just like, hey, kind of green flag racing for everybody to come poach and recruit and cherry pick. And obviously Ohio State had a couple big-time pulls out of the Alabama locker room, as did many other schools. What are his thoughts going forward? Because that guy, damn good ball coach. When he was at Sioux Falls, he started there 2005 in 2006 they won a national championship whenever he goes to Washington Huskies in 2022 and 2023 they go to the national championship Kalen DeBoer has been able to

build winners everywhere he's gone feels like he might have to do that again in Alabama even though he's coming through a program that has been well established and figured out this will be the best resources he's ever had this would be the best talent he ever had. I'm excited to see what he does with it and how he feels about it. That's 17 minutes from now. Now, with all that being said, the NFL has stuff popping off. There's been a GM hired. There's been some offense coordinators interviews, and there's been a coach

fired. Let's go to the talks table at Boston Corner. Looking amazing in your kitten shirt. And Ty Schmidt, owner of the Green Bay Packers. Now, a man that you have been kind of on the fence about here as of the last week or two. Yeah. But I've certainly been on the get that guy the hell off my team train for a long time. Joe Barry officially fired his defense coordinator whenever you saw this.

What were your immediate thoughts, especially with how good they'd been playing towards the last two games of his tenure, pretty much? Yeah, for sure. Never want to dance on a guy's grave, obviously. But yes! Thank God, okay? Because, okay because listen he did he was great his last couple weeks never want to you never want to dance on a guy's grave because you can't have don't have to sometimes well but in this case you kind of do because i have been calling for and you can't be a flip you can't be a flip-flopper i couldn't you know because they lost to the 49ers

but look pretty good you can't be like all well, let's run it back next year. I mean, stats don't tell everything, but when they first hired him in 2021, it was kind of – I mean, it wasn't the kind of hire, I think, where, like, everyone got really excited because you look at his previous experience as a DC, and it's like, already hasn't been great, but, you know, it doesn't matter what you did in the past. It's all about what you do in the future. But the same things were happening that had been happening to those previous Packers teams.

During his tenure, they never finished higher than 23rd in yards allowed per rush. So they could never stop the run. In the NFC, especially in that conference, people are just running it down their throat. When you get into championship games, it's happened several times over the last few years where the 49ers, it's like it doesn't matter who they have playing quarterback because they can just run it 40 times. And in that NFC championship we talk about all the time, they had 186 yards or whatever it was before contact.

Not total rushing. Before contact they had. Right. And they had. I mean, against the Bears in Week 18, they looked much better. And then obviously in both playoff games, Cowboys offense is unbelievable mean, against the Bears in Week 18, they looked much better. And then, obviously, in both playoff games, the Cowboys' offense is unbelievable, so is the Niners', and they were pretty good.

But when you look at what he's done as the Packers' D.C., like 28th in rushing yards allowed per game this year, that's terrible. Can't win with that. Last year they were 26th in rushing yards allowed per game. They have eight first round picks on defense that was kind of the whole thing is like hey they need to find someone who can come in here and get the most out of all the talent that they have on the defense and for whatever reason he wasn't able to do it because it was like especially when love when rogers left and

love was the quarterback the kind of the general narrative going in was like hey the defense is kind of primed and ready to to take the reins and and kind of carry this team while jordan loves getting his feet wet and getting ready and it just never happened and then obviously jordan love kind of emerges and it's like okay he is exactly and he ends up carrying the team so it's it's one of those things where again he got much better but a change was absolutely needed like i mean packers are Packers are one of those franchises, like the Steelers, like the Patriots, where, you know, like, granted, they don't have a Hall of Fame quarterback anymore,

but, I mean, we'll see what Love does, you know, over the next, I mean, he looks pretty damn good. But, like, you can't rest on your laurels and be okay with just like, hey, we shouldn't have made it to the divisional round, but we did, and then we lost. And, like, that can't be, like, we're trying to win Super Bowls here. We're trying to win the division, especially when you look at the Lions now. Like, they're going to be a legitimate contender for the next seven years.

So we'll see. And then you also look at what DCs are potentially available. Like, you know, people are throwing around, like, like Ejero Everett or Avero, excuse me, who LeFleur worked with in Los Angeles and who was kind of a hot name to maybe be a head coach before he went to Carolina. I don't know if he'll get let go. Vrabel's obviously out there.

We don't know if he's going to get a head coaching job. And he has size LaFleur. Exactly. They were both in Tennessee together. Belichick can't see him just being a D coordinator, but he's out there. Could you imagine him being the DC for LaFleur's team? LaFleur's leading the meetings and Bill Belichick's just sitting there. I think that's going to be a tough one.

But maybe Braves because he and LaFleur have respect for each other. Exactly. You never know. Winks out there. Yeah, Winks out there. I mean, there are a couple guys where I feel like if they actually get it right this time, like there is someone out there who you don't need to do a massive overhaul with who they have on defense. Like there is someone out there who can get the most out of the talent they have on defense,

and if their defense is a top 12 or a top 15 unit next year, they look much different than a 9-8 team who kind of limped into the playoffs than they did this year. I think they can be legitimate contenders with how well the offense did down the stretch. So, very excited. Obviously, it sucks for him, but they're saying he may stay on in some sort of capacity. I don't know what that would be. I don't know why you would want to do that after you get shit canned as the D coordinator.

I have a feeling you'd probably want to get the hell out of town, but either way, great day for Packers fans kind of shaking off the, the, the, you know, that, that bad taste in our mouth from Santa Clara.

So then George Kittle. Yeah, exactly, which I didn't mind that. Hey, that's good shit talk. I appreciate that. George O is an Iowa guy, so I love and respect him. But, no, it was a great day for Packers fans because I really was. As we were getting through the playoffs, I was thinking, okay, well, he's done enough in these last three games.

They're going to keep him, and then it's going to be more of the same next year, and then we'll see. Maybe they have two or three games where it's like, oh, they might be figuring it out, but it was time for a change, and I'm glad the floor finally said, okay, enough's enough. Let's go find a new guy. Eight first-rounders normally means a lot of athleticism

and talent. For sure. Wink Martindale. Exactly. Running, you know, gunning, potentially. And I don't think he's going to be, guys, just going to rest on his yawnies and take a year off. He could do it. V vrabel if he was to get back in there i'm sure he would have some ideas on how to strategize and win games it's like with all the options that seem to be available both head coach and coordinators right now yeah it's like a lot of moves being made now some of them will be right some of them will be wrong we never know until how we see the teams play out

but winning a headline is certainly something the Packers want a headline yeah exactly with Joe Barry unanimously fans are like hey enough is enough I understand the last three games were awesome and they look better but like the proof's in the pudding he hasn't been very good all three years he's been the DC so time to move on this is awesome let's let's go find a guy hell yeah well good luck and Jordan Love needs Love deserves it. What a dog he is. You said we don't have a Hall of Famer anymore just because we don't 100% sure now. Feels like.

Certainly feels. Yeah, Jordan Love's unbelievable. One half of the hammer. Cowboys, Big Steeler. Tone Diggs is your Big Steelers fan. Cliff Kingsbury allegedly interviewing for the offense coordinator job, which this man, 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion, player and coach, Jackie Moon, host of In the Trenches, A.Q. Shipley's here.

A.Q. is obviously played for Arizona under Cliff Kingsbury's guidance. He interviewed for the Chicago Bears job. Now, allegedly Peter King said that he's interviewing for the Pittsburgh Steelers job. He's back on the circuit doing O.C. With the modern offense, he's the right,

he's a good, he's a great – he'd win the headlines, I think, if you were to hire Cliff Kingsbury as your offense coordinator. He's exactly what you want. You want to basically infuse the new age scheme into that Pittsburgh Steelers locker room. They haven't had it in years. And he's so good.

I mean, there were so many times he would come up to us and be like, hey, man, this is what I do. I get guys open. And when you turn on his tape, there's guys open all over the field. Former quarterback, obviously incredibly handsome. Father and Marine. From Texas, just loves ball and looks cool all the time. I mean, he's in there at 3.30 in the morning all the time.

Really? Yeah, he's a grinder. I don't think anybody talks about that, but Cliff, because how cool he looks. He's in there early, getting his workout in. He's watching tape by 4.15. Jeez. Okay, Cliff. Didn't know that about Cliff. Obviously, dad Marine from

of course. Should have known this from the beginning. Speaking of looking cool like Cliff Kingsbury and a guy that's crying at 3.30 a.m. Every day. Nine-year NFL vet, host of everything DBs, Good D, Bad D, and the Man to Man podcast, Darius J. Butler. Thanks for the call. Defense coordinator, is it as easy as you find a good one,

your team's good, and if you have a bad one, your team's bad? No. I mean, it's just about just with most other positions, just the guys are going to be the same guy every day, and they can get their message across. And then you've got to have players that you empower, too. And we don't talk about meeting rooms enough, like the different players in each meeting room.

I think that's the most. Position groups? Position groups, yeah, because that's where we spend most of our time, right? We have team meetings. That's where we spend the least time as a team. Unit meetings, offense, defense, special teams, and then, you know, DB, quarterback room, running back rooms. The guys you have in those rooms are very, very important. You can look at their teams left, and that's what matters.

Culture matters, obviously, but on this level, the players are what separates the team. Derek Barnes actually gave the game ball that he got immediately after the Lions win against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the linebacker room. He said, hey, this is to the linebacker room. That's kind of like your little family. That's who you're hanging out with. That's who you're learning with.

And also, if you guys are getting blamed for losses, the whole room is getting blamed. That's another name I wouldn't mind seeing getting some D.C. opportunities, Kelvin Shepard. He's done a good job with that linebacker room in Detroit. A lot of guys, I think, league-wide, you wouldn't look at that and say,

that's a great linebacker core, but he's got him in great position all year long. And Shep, by the way, awesome beer run. Legendary human. Great mana. Where's he from? Kelvin Shepard? He played for us. Played for Bills, I think. Yep.

Buffalo after Indy. As soon as he came in the locker room, be loved by him. Weapon. Yeah. Great dreads. Nice. Great, good vibes. Great vibes.

Always great vibes. Bring him to Newark. But he's very like. Great communicator too. He was on Hard Knocks a bunch. Rodrigo. Yeah, Rodrigo. So great, great communicator. too. He was on Hard Knocks a bunch with Muzio. Rodrigo. Yeah, Rodrigo. So great, great communicator, great coach.

Love him. Aaron Glenn's defense put on a show this past weekend. Now, everybody assumed that Aaron Glenn was going to the Tennessee Titans, but by everybody I'm saying like everybody we were talking to that would potentially know about anything happening around the NFL, potentially before others. They were saying Aaron Glenn's going to be the Titans' new head coach. Done.

That's just how that's going to go. It's like they're already interested. He's having the year of his life. It is the perfect timing for him to get a head coaching job. That is going to happen. Then they hire Brian Callahan, which we will talk about here in a matter of moments with AQ as well. But this Aaron Glenn thing, I would like to chat about because the only thing we've really

heard is that they fire the secondary coach in detroit and then defense becomes great and you talk about mcdc you talk about jared goff obviously talk about brad holmes the job that he's done you talk about the grit you talk about everything going on but you don't really talk about the defense much and you don't really i don't know about aaron glenn they'll show him on the sideline i'm like oh yeah i could pick if like if they did uh who's a Aaron Glenn, I can say that's Aaron Glenn, but I don't really know much about him. Then you started watching this film against Tampa Bay Buccaneers AQ. And you said, Hey, you know how we did a Todd Bowles masterclass type situation. Aaron Glenn played chess against the Tampa Bay

Buccaneers and out scheme the shit out of them pretty much. And probably won that game for the Detroit Lions. That's exactly right. I didn't know much about him because all we heard last year was their defense was terrible they fire the db coach they go on a little bit of a run they've been great this year but again foxy says like the narrative on him is it's not good right and so i dive into the film and i'm like well this is pretty good and so when you look at it um right here so and this particular look right you see five guys across the line of scrimmage right right? And so one, two, the center's covered. Then you got over the right guard and then you got out wide with Hutch, right? So they see that as a five down. It's an empty protection. The key here is Anzalone, the linebacker, right? So all the right side is doing from the field

is they're going to have to sift. You always want to leave the widest on the quarterback. So check this out. They're looking at him. The minute that Anzalone fires in the A-gap, the whole right side, 69, 67, right? They slide down to the left. But here's the key. As 67, Luka Deki goes down. The guy over the guard drops out, so he's got no one to block.

He tries to react and get back out on Hutch, but this is a this is a key when you can out scheme somebody and you get hutch one of the best players pass rushers in the league one-on-one or one-on-none really and just a free hitter on the quarterback yeah because he does a fake come right old buddy on the uh right tackle who he's on down to and you always take most dangerous right that's exactly right you always want to leave the widest so this is the widest just so happens to be aiden hutchson just so happens to be and here's the other key that really kind of confuses baker here is he sees someone drop out he thinks he's protected because

it's a five-man protection they're really only bringing one two three four right and so by doing that they trick him they get him to sift but he can't get back out and baker thinks maybe oh he sees someone pop out oh i might be protected and aaron And Aaron Glenn knew that this was Tampa Buccaneers' rules pretty much. He did, and he did it all game long. He had an answer for all the protections. If they were sliding to the willy to get him going there and bring two from opposite. I mean, it was all day long edge pressure. He did a great job.

When those two backers drop out, especially a big backer like Campbell, like you take away those short, those quick throws, those quick throws across the middle. So, great, great job on that. Yeah, listen, Aaron Glenn. I mean, I think Aaron Glenn's family is probably pretty thankful that we just showcased that because nobody's really talking about it. His name was up for head coaching jobs, but we didn't know anything about him.

That's back-to-back weeks where you can showcase the football IQ pretty much. And great coaching matters. Which leads me to interesting sports media questions from Hembo. Yeah. Damn it. AQ, what's your problem? You know what this does to my gears. Why?

You know how I feel about this. Why? We used to do this thing called questions from other sports shows. And now those questions are on this sports show. No, just right now. This is the first time. That's what this is. This is not the first time.

This is not the first time. This is not the first time. Oh, we read them last week. Yeah, we did do them. Now we have a cool, stupid graphic thing that makes it even worse. No, but this guy is not stupid. He's only cool in sports media. I completely agree. I love him.

This is what we are. Remember? No, no, no. That is it. We're journalists. It's much different. I don't know, because that whole thing, boy, they've been saying a lot about us and the disgrace we are to that.

So to make it better, we're going to do it. We're going to do. Play their game. We're going to do sports media. This game sucks. This game doesn't. We haven't even played it yet. We haven't even played it yet.

I already hate it. I already hate it. Are we going to get an Emmy? Huh? Are we going to be up for Emmy? Well, that's another conversation I don't want to get into. No, we're not. I don't even want to get into it. D was a there was no reason to bring that up we want a razzy we don't want it

we're doing what you know everybody else does yeah but like that's the thing about the emmys like who's voting on it do those people matter never never have never will for this particular show so it's like for other shows maybe but for But for our show, like who cares about those people? Those are all the people that didn't want our show to be on any platform ever, doing all the voting pretty much. So like do I even want to play their little game? And do I think we even deserve it? I don't think we deserve it.

Would it be an honor? Yes. Are there people that would like love to get one of those though? Yes. So I'm almost at the point where it's like, nah, to hell with it. I don't even want to participate in the entire thing. But I think we're going to be forced to potentially...

No, no, don't worry. If we keep doing these questions, no one will give a shit. No, we'll get... This is how you do it. This is probably the teaser, actually, for the... This is the Emmy nom, probably, if I had to guess. Count me out. You're going to be teaser actually for the this is the emmy nom probably if i had to get count me out we're gonna hey you're gonna be connor cartbell yeah exactly sure okay on the

that's fine give it to someone melt it down into nothing where's the necklace maybe maybe maybe throw it into a lake somewhere throw it into a lake yeah yeah come on maybe it turns maybe it turns into an amulet get these are people's super bowl bro you remember when shrags was on a couple that's when i learned oh yeah that's when i learned like oh this is the this is what everybody in tv is really really hunting i didn't know enough about anything i apologize but when shrags came on after good morning football one holy shit this guy just won a super bowl yeah he was talking about retirement walking off into the sunset got miami dude i look in my heart i was like all, I do care about these now.

Because look at how happy somebody is for winning one. That was incredible. We just don't have enough respect for these things, which is why that second line there attacks us as well. Anyways, we'll learn to respect it more as we go. Of course. Sure we will. We don't have as much time now for this seg.

Ah, shit. Because everything you two did. Son of a bitch. I hope you two are happy We'll have to do this later We'll have to do it later Let's just do it now We'll do it later We don't have the time

Just rattle through them real quick This isn't a rattle through This is a seg What are you even talking about We can just trim it down LeBron or Jordan, bro. That's not what it is. That's not the one we're using.

Come on. That's not the one we are using. Which one are we using then? And we're not more impressed with this or that. That is not it. It was actually a confidence rating. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Okay. And like certain objects or what? Confidence in... Who's going to have a bigger game? Lamar Jackson or Patrick? No, that isn't it either. What are we doing? Good question. I'm sick of it. We're doing right now.

I thought we're trying to win Emmys as of like a minute and a half ago. No, and now listen what you guys are doing to the entire thing. Not you guys one guy and I and pointing two fingers at me. Tony is a little over the top, but I will take it. Sure.

I'm the guy. It was going to be confidence rating. Listen to this angle. Okay. All right. In the coaches remaining in the NFL. Loved it. Loved it.

We'll do that later. See, why can't we do confidence rating in away team locker rooms? Which away team locker room are you more confident in? I have not been in the Santa Clara Levi's Stadium locker room. I was in it quite a bit. It's a very nice locker room. It has to be better than what Candlestick was. It's a very nice locker room.

Candlestick was, I mean Oakland was so bad, but Candlestick was the second worst I'd ever been in. And they were selling tickets for people still watching baseball games sideways. The football field was over here. Do you remember that? Oh yeah. They were the first place I ever went to.

Prison bathroom, no Nice. It was. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. They were the first place I ever went to. Prison bathroom. No doors. Love that. There's a lot of those. They had three dumpers and there was no doors on them. So you could just kind of look at each other in the mirror. It was carpeting in the bathroom. That's wonderful. It's pretty cool. It's pretty old school. No, it's perfect.

You piss on the seat or you miss the toilet. You don't have to clean anything. It's genius. Yeah, and I couldn't even imagine the decades of that that happened with meatheads like you're thinking. I just remember the locker room being tiny and in there. You're seeing Santa Clara one brand new. You feel like you're in a home locker room when you go there. Baltimore.

I don't think I'm just indifferent because I don't remember anything. I don't remember Baltimore. Baltimore's not bad. That's what I'm saying. I assume it's just like... Yeah, not bad. You remember the bad one. Yeah, only the bad one. Only the bad remember Baltimore. Baltimore's not bad. That's what I'm saying. I assume it's just like... Yeah, not bad. I mean, you remember the bad one. Yeah, only the bad one.

Only the bad one. And there's a lot of bad ones. There is some. As it should be. They try and make it uncomfortable for you. Not anymore, though. With these new stadiums, I think they're trying to make it...

Make it a little better. Yeah, because they're hosting events and people are using these. They have multiple locker rooms. Yeah, like the Colts locker room isn't even a Colts locker room. It'll be somebody else's locker room. They take names down, actually.

It's a wild thing. So here we go. Hey, that was good sports media. More confident in the San Francisco away locker room. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who in his second year is the Sioux Falls

segment's over. Thank you. Hemp over. In his second year as Sioux Falls head coach, he won national championship. Wow. In his second year as the Washington Huskies head coach, he took them to the national championship. Damn. And now he's being tasked with following in Nick Saban's footsteps as the head coach at the University of Alabama.

Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, Kalen DeBoer. How are you doing, coach? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm fantastic. Two quarter zips. Love what you're up to. You know what I mean? I love what you got going on down there. You look amazing. Where are we? We're recruiting right now? We're on the road. We're on the road. Yep. Pulling over to the side here to spend some time with you so it's a great day well i appreciate you doing that for us and obviously we'll let you get back to work as soon as possible but i have some questions for you coach all we're hearing is about everybody that's leaving your program right now alabama but there's like a hundred some guys

on scholarship right how come nobody's talking about who has stayed around and do you have an opportunity to know all these guys that have already stuck around and do you have an opportunity to know all these guys that have already stuck around and did you talk to the guys that left how do you kind of feel about where the roster is right now at Alabama yeah I think in a short amount of time I think our staff's done an amazing job uh just really getting to know these guys and and you know I think there's 28 or so guys that I think when you look at it from a whole piece have entered the portal. But really about 18 to 20 of those guys were gone before we even had a chance to be here. So, you know, there's a few other guys that I think were just kind of holding on and had other places to go.

So, you know, maybe there's six to eight guys, maybe tops that have entered. So I think our staff's done a phenomenal job. As I said, most of those guys were gone before we even had a chance. And so it's just the time and way of college athletics and especially college football. Certainly understand that. But we've had a chance to get around our guys. And I think they're really starting to feel the vibe and feel what we're going to become. I'm excited about this journey with them.

I'm excited for them to get to experience you as a coach because obviously I got to for like a day and a half up there in Washington. Your players all loved you. The vibes were immaculate. It was a professional outfit. That's why I thought you were the perfect guy to follow Nick Saban in this impossible task

of taking over the Alabama head coaching position. And whenever you say like eight guys and 28 altogether, most beforehand eight guys, how many guys are still there on scholarship out of the whole? Because I don't know the exact numbers. What is the number? Yeah. I mean, the number I'm working with, you know,

is what we're going to be this fall, you know, and we still have a few to work with, but it's not that far off. You know, we're within. Yeah, but what is that number? Is that like 30, like 20, 30 30 what is the number of people that stay because my point is all anybody talks about is alabama being the number one recruited class all the time any amount of five stars and then people are like well 18 guys left it's like well they're still 55 stars like they're still right isn't that kind of this is the most amount of talent you've ever had, I assume, whenever you walked into a locker room. No question.

No question. And what's really cool is these guys are, you know, they're the heart and soul. They're the ones that are going to bring this whole thing to life. And, you know, the guys who are with us right now, they have just like, you know, sunk their teeth in to another level. They're hard with – they're hard at it with the workouts. It's going extremely well. You know, checking in with, uh, coach blue, our strength coach, he's just, um, got

them rolling. And, uh, you know, for them, uh, there was a little bit of time where there was some uncertainty and I think we've really kind of calmed things down and feeling good about the direction and what's going to happen here this spring. But, you know, the core of our, the core of our team, um, is right here and, uh, they and they have a chip on their shoulder. They want to win that national championship. They had it right there in their grasp, and these guys are already turned the page and moving on and excited about what our new staff is going to do, building on what Coach Saban has done for many years here at Alabama.

You both have in Michigan, and your year is something I assume you could have bonded upon. But with the way it's been happening and covered since you got to Alabama, I assume you have a chip on your shoulder as well, which is a beautiful thing, especially for a guy that is a former player, loves ball, coaches the hell out of teams.

I think I'm excited to watch the entire Alabama story come together. And you've had immediate success in a couple of different places that you've gone to. And I think that's a tribute to the type of culture you're able to instill quickly and the way guys buy in Jalen Milrow staying down there is obviously a massive piece I think of the puzzle and of the pie having a quarterback when you talk to this offense do you say hey boys I know you didn't get a chance to watch the Pac-12 much last year but with our offense with Grubb we had three guys averaging over 100 yards a game.

We had two of the top wide receivers in the entire country, and if McMillan doesn't get hurt, probably three of the top wide receivers in the country. Are you selling that? Are you talking to them about that? And what do you think about being able to have SEC talent? No offense to anybody in the Pac-12. I don't mean that.

Please don't take it that way. You don't mean any offense either. But having an option to have now SEC-type talent at those weapons, what do you think your offense is going to be able to do down there in Alabama? Yeah, that's certainly a big piece of these guys here in the program understanding what we've been. We were on national TV a lot, enough for them to see what we were doing and be excited about their roles. You know, you talked about Jalen, you talked about the receiving core, and, you know, these guys are fired up about getting those opportunities within this offense.

You know, Dylan Johnson was the leading rusher in the Pac-12, you know, and so, you know, all the skilled guys, they're fired up and ready to learn the system and continue to grow and then you know just defensively bringing in kane womack an experienced uh you know head coach from south alabama who i've worked with before at indiana um i'm excited about what we're gonna do defensively and building on the great tradition of defense and uh what uh you know what physical football and good solid defense is all about. Now, obviously, everybody has said, including yourself, Nick Saban is able to do whatever the hell he wants.

If he wants to pop back in, I think he has an office at the stadium. Have you been able to lean on him at all whenever you're visiting these new areas down the South, potentially? As an Alabama guy, has he been a part of any of this process? Or how do you think that's going to kind of play out as a man who just decided you know to retire after the greatest of all time career being had yeah i mean i'd be pretty foolish if i didn't lean on him uh have a have a door that was open for him to come and and uh see it and and uh you know for me to reach out for advice um to have done that uh quite frequently especially uh the week. And, you know, he will

be someone I know, I appreciate him having his line open for me at any time. You know, he built this program to the point and you invest so much in it. You know, I know that he wants nothing more for this other than for this program to continue to build on what he's done, all the work he's put in. He just doesn't want it to go float off into you know into space uh he wants it to be great yeah it's great to hear we got a chance to chat with him all season obviously and as soon as he started doing that a lot of people were like he's retiring there's no way he's doing this and still going and then i don't think he knew that he was going to do that at the beginning of the season it kind of

all came together but down the south know, it's different down there. You know, I think I got a chance to experience that with College Game Day. The expectations, especially at Bama, are going to be absurd. Have you had any, oh, it's different down here moments yet on the recruiting trail or heard anything or read anything? I think just even just arriving, you know, you land and you're going to meet the team and just the reception of fans, you know, being there. I mean, that was really neat for me and my family.

And, you know, being around the game long enough, I understand there's still a difference in some things that will come with it, being here in the SEC. But, you know, it's intensity is what we look for. But, you know, it's intensity is what we look for. You know, you come to Alabama to be with the very, very best, to compete at the highest level. And, you know, that's what I want to do everywhere I've been.

And so I'm not going to be shy away from how important winning is. I think that was probably something that was attractive from, you know, Greg Byrne and Alabama towards me. I'm not going to shy away from that, but we're going to continue to do things with the Alabama standard always in mind and continue the winning tradition. Yeah, I heard you say that at the basketball game. The standard was Bama. Roll Tide.

Big pop out of there. It was good speech. Hey, good speech. Now, I had fallen asleep. I did not get to see that live i saw it the next morning yep coach which is something you know that kind of yeah you've done that before with me yeah and i was wrong i told you i was right i've told you numerous times i was wrong i'm sorry halftime pac-12 championship i fell asleep whoops holy hell oregon won and then

wake up the next morning coach de bourne the boys are on game day. I'm like, okay. No, they didn't. Way to go. And that's kind of been your team, though, has always been like that. And we talked to Saban all year. He felt like that locker room was a close one, a tough one. It feels like your teams kind of embody that as well. That's why they're able to withstand the late adversity in multiple games this year.

And the final run is the Pac-12. How quickly can you feel if your team is the type of humans that you want? Like, you know, and I assume Alabama is always going to have the type of humans you want, but how quickly can you feel like, okay, we're getting somewhere when it comes to the culture aspect? Yeah, well, I think you first look at right now, even with the guys that are returning and just you can feel that closeness that they have. And that's a tribute to the coaching staff, Coach Saban, and everything that they've built. It's not just a bunch of really good football players out there

that won the SEC championship. It's guys that really believe and came here for a reason. It's continued the legacy of Alabama football and build on their own. And I truly believe that because there was so much noise, and there still will be noise outside the program. You know, people who are trying to come in and just, you know, put a little doubt in their mind. And they've really, you know, the nucleus of this team and the program is really these guys have stayed the course, you know, and really hunkered down and

ready to go back to work and continue to prove some people right, but also prove some people wrong. And it depends on what side of the line you're on. So I think you can feel it pretty quickly. And that's going to be the great challenge. And that's what I love to do is continue to bring these guys together, bring our staff together, all for a common goal. And so I'm excited about this opportunity, which I know is an ongoing challenge each and every day. Hey, you and me, pretty fair-skinned. Down in the south, that sun is different, bro. You know what I mean?

Let's make sure we get a full— I got you. I got you. Yeah, we're going to need that. I was down there for a three-hour for my show. You remember? Oh, yeah. I got third-degree burns on my face.

It was not a good day for me, Coach. A little different in Washington. Beautiful in Washington. Beautiful. But that sun, for some reason, down there in Alabama. And then when they play Dixieland, the light. Oh, place goes apeshit, Coach. Ty has a question for you.

Yeah, Coach, Pat mentioned, you know, with Saban being on the show this year and everyone saying, oh, he's going to retire. Like, that happened all year. But I think when he actually did retire, everyone was still kind of shocked. Did that kind of shock you as well? And then also, the process of getting the Alabama job, it came together pretty quickly. How difficult was that decision?

What went into it? And ultimately, you've mentioned everything that goes into coaching at Alabama. Was it kind of one of those things where it's just, hey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go to one of the best programs in college football and also on the heels of Coach Saban? But how did that kind of all come together so quickly? Because once your name got brought up, it was kind of like, oh, okay, yep, they found their guy, and they're going to do whatever they can

to make it happen. For us. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I think, first of all, I think everyone is surprised. I mean, you know, Coach Tate has just done it for so long and has it rolling. And as I would say, the cover's not bare with who's here in this program from a player standpoint.

You know, he just was relentless every single day. And, you know, when you see someone give everything like they have, you think it's just going to continue on. But I think probably just like you, you know, when you see someone give everything like they have, you think that it's just going to continue on. But I think probably just like you, you know, we're all a little surprised. But, you know, when you get the opportunity and like you said, it happens really quickly. You know, when you and when you invest so much into a program like I did at Washington, that's the only way you can do it is just jump all in at a place whether building relationships with the players you know the people around the program the alumni that's how it has to be done for it to really be successful it was a hard decision you know I

felt like there was unfinished business you know at Washington coming up short of winning the national championship which was our goal but I also saw this as just an amazing opportunity that just could not pass up on. And to be the head coach at Alabama and, you know, not shy in our way. I understand the way that it gets perceived with following a legend, you know. But, you know, there's been another legend also in this program, and Coach Saban had to follow in his shoes. And so this program was built with great foundation, and I can't wait to continue to build on the great ones that have been here before. Yeah, and if you're able to do that, I mean, I had an opportunity to watch Andrew Luck, you know, immediately after Peyton.

You have to have a, I don't want to say maturity, because obviously you're a head football coach, you're obviously a mature person, but, like, the way you have to view things, because if there is something that happens that goes astray, they're going to say, well, Saban would have done this. Saban would have, you know, you're going to have to hear that regardless, though, if you want to be the top coach in college football. So is that your view on it all?

Is that kind of the thought? Or how do you expect to keep those noise out? Yeah, I think you just got to be convicted in who you are as a person. You know, you got to believe that, you know, your experiences and, you know, how we do things is going to work and can work anywhere. And I believe that we'll build a great staff that I know will have great perspective and be able to handle, you know, those things that people throw our ways and trying to bring doubt, you know, that can't be sustained. But you just got to be convicted in who you are.

And, you know, I've had success at a lot of places, and I feel it can carry over. A lot of times it's just about simply building around people and the relationships and the X's and O's and things like that. Football is football. And, you know, I'm getting to know this part of the country very quickly. Not completely not familiar with it, but, you know, got some people around me that certainly are. And so we're hitting the ground running. I'm excited about it. Building all these relationships and, you know, making this next season, you know, not waiting around.

Not rebuilding, but reloading. Hell yeah. Great way to phrase it, too. On that that note darius has a question for you speaking on the people around you coach what is that process like putting that staff together making those calls and i know in the nfl a lot of times a lot of things stay in place you know nutrition training room equipment room those guys stay around forever what's that like for you uh obviously moving on to alabama yeah it's so critical you, because it trickles down. Do you know the vibe and the culture that you want in your program?

It starts with your staff, and the players will bring it to life, but they have to have the buy-in and the people, and that we care truly about them, first and foremost, not just the football aspect of it. So I'd love to take more time, but in the, in the days right now that we're in, you know, mid, mid to late January already, you don't have a lot of time. So fortunately I got some people that I'm connected with and, you know, feel really good about. And I think we've really done a really good job, you know, building the coaching staff,

you know, the off-field staff. Many of the people here have done an awesome job. And so you can't help but look at them and give them a chance and looking forward to that partnership with them. Saban thought you were going to? Yeah. Okay. I guess I'll take it. It would be dumb not to do that.

I mean, honestly, I think that's the humility that you have, but also the success and the amount of football that you've coached that as soon as we heard you were the guy, it was like, this is the right hire. There could have been a lot of other names, and obviously they could have hired within, which I think some people expected. But after getting to know you and the way you operate,

it's like this seems like the only person that can maybe do this. Now, on that note, whenever you hire from a successful school with a great recruiting class into another school with a great recruiting class, there comes a lot of questions. Go ahead, Conman. Yeah, Coach, you've mentioned there's been a lot on your plate, and clearly you've had to deal with a lot. But when you do kind of take that next job to Alabama, what are your conversations like with the recruits that were going to Washington

and the recruits that were going to Bama before knowing that you were the head coach? I assume there's some emotion to it, but also do you have to sell yourself to a lot of the Bama guys and try and get some of those Washington kids to come with you? Or how does that go once you take that job? Yeah, I mean, you know, first and foremost, you want to make sure that the guys are committed, that you're understanding and evaluating them. And, you know, I think the biggest recruiting and the best recruiting we've done is still our current roster.

You know, there's not really portal guys, you know, because the portal window is closed other than those that have coaching changes. So we've had to recruit our own roster, and I think we've done a great job of that uh and you know in regards to there's 55 alabama yeah yeah that first okay coach that is just such a wild thing to think about because everybody's talking about this guy's gone this guy's gone this guy's gone but every year during recruiting season we're like alabama's got five deep at every position then you watch them jog on the field like we have for these megacasts,

and it's like they got six-foot-five, four-three for 45 seconds coming out of the tunnel. I feel like that's pretty smart play over there, Coach. Yeah, the nucleus and the core is going to be the guys that are here. I experienced that just two years ago. We kept the nucleus and core for the most part together. And, you know, that's the heart and soul of your team. And then additions that you get a chance to bring in, you know, I want nothing but the places that I've invested a lot of time in to be successful in the future. And that's Washington,

that's Fresno State. Those places are special places to me. And, you know, you want to be a part of the legacy looking back that you continue to build on and the people after you. They made it even better than when you were there. So as far as a few guys, there were some guys in a portal, and if they're going to go anywhere other than being at Washington, I certainly am going to want to have a chance to have them here because I trust and believe in them, not just as players, but as people. So we've had a few of those situations here in the last week.

D-Bone, what was his record at Washington? I believe it was 25-3. Jeez. This guy sucks! I mean, it is. Coach, I think a lot of the people are just getting to know you, you know, because probably only saw you in the playoffs. I assume that's really the only time they got to see it. Now, Washington was obviously covered this year a lot. Hopefully everybody feels that way from the Washington people by college game day, but the

national story hasn't been Washington for like two decades or whatever. So I don't think a lot of people have really known the way you go about doing your business and how you win. I'm pumped to see you with SEC resources. Now, SEC, though, potentially does bring some change. Go ahead, AQ. Yeah, Coach, I loved watching your offense, and by the way, as a former offensive lineman, I loved your group. Having said that, you guys were pretty wide-open offense, down the field, chunk plays, get it down the field. Are you going to be able to run that same style offense in the SEC, or will that have to change? Yeah, I think that, I certainly think we can. I think the heart and soul of it still is that you have to be physical and your offensive line has to be great. And, you know, our running back, Dylan Johnson, you know, there's some amazing running backs in this program.

I've seen firsthand, you know, who these guys are. And, you know, the offensive line is always a huge piece of the success and where it all starts. So I think what we've done, you know, you always tweak it here and there to fit your personnel. Ryan Grubb and our offensive staff, they will do exactly that. You and Grubb have been around a long time, I think ever since Sioux Falls. Zito just told me your overall head coaching record is 104-12.

Is that right? Yeah, that's correct. Yep, yep. Pretty good. Jesus. Is that good? Oh, my God. All right, well, last question here for you.

126 games coaching. Mm-hmm. 104 wins. Pretty good. But Sioux Falls doesn't count, obviously. No. No. You know, because it's vastly different.

Even though you're playing with Sioux Falls, guys, and you're playing against that. Winners win. I think that is literally what everybody says. Football is football. Football is football. We're still tackling, blocking, kicking, throwing, running. It's all the same.

We're excited to see you now at this level. Not that Washington wasn't, but you get it. SEC at Bama is a big deal. Speaking of, last question here, Coach. Coach, you talked about learning the South and all the areas around there. One thing, Brian Kelly, when he went to LSU, he immediately adopted a Southern accent. Have you thought about taking a similar approach and just immediately talking with a Southern accent just to help with recruiting down there? I think that would go wrong for me.

I just know who I am. There's some South Dakota in there, and that's who I am. I just got to live with that. Family. You got me for who i am and uh there's there's some south dakota in there and uh you know that's that's who i am so uh i just got to live with that family uh you got me for who i am what is that canadian dakota does it sound a little canadian or what is it what is the degree i think so it's on the verge of that i think once in a while but uh uh yeah because the top of america minnesota yep michigan upper peninsula michigan i think i assume theotas, there's a little A, don't you know? A vote? Yeah. I don't hear that out of him.

It's only a year from now, though. You can't help it. A lot of y'alls. With it being around. Yeah. It's going to inevitably happen, and hopefully you'll be down there the next 15, 20 years, just like Saban was, doing great things.

We appreciate you joining us, Coach. Good luck on the recruiting trail. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate you guys having me on. What state are you in? Are you in the south right now? I'm in the south. I'm in the south.

Is it raining down there? Is that what is going on? It's raining. South Florida? It is definitely raining. You brought some Seattle to the south. That's great. It's very nice you i'm sure i

was i wasn't gonna say it i wasn't gonna say it but uh i was thinking it so yeah it's a home game for you right now it is right hey i stepped on your uh roll todd if you want to give another one roll tie hell yeah ladies and gentlemen coach caitlin yeah because all the reporting and obviously any other school other than Bama that's in the SEC would like to shine a spotlight on the fact that a lot of people are leaving because that just affects recruiting for everyone. You know, somebody could be on the verge of potentially going, and then they hear, oh, did you hear? Did you hear?

Sending links. So you've got a lot of narratives potentially trying to be built by a lot of different platforms and a lot of different humans that certainly would benefit from an Alabama downfall. And then I just started thinking, thinking, how many scholarships are there? I don't know how many there are, but they didn't say everybody on the roster left. All we ever talk about is how deep Alabama is. He was like, first thing we need to do is we look at the transfer portal. None of these guys are as good as all these guys that are on scholarship right now with Alabama, which is what every other school

was doing whenever that 30-day window, which I think they're still in right now. Like, how's the transfer portal? Cool, cool. But Alabama is also available right now. We're going to get in there. So him hitting home feels like the spark. But also those guys are going to take a lot of pride in, like, hey,

when they thought Alabama was going to drop off because Coach Saban, it's like a whole new angle they can go with. I do hope that he keeps around the tradition of all the old Alabama guys coming. Yes, he's probably about to. It's a reunion every single game. It felt like whenever we were down there only twice. But Josh Chapman on the sideline, a lot of the OGs in the building, I hope that remains.

And I would assume that's what Coach Saban is helping with. Like, hey, we're still all in this Alabama family as opposed to just coaches and coaches. Because when West Virginia changed coaches, it was like we weren't even really allowed in the building for a little bit. It was like, hey, we're repainting a new narrative. This is who we are. Move to a new conference.

Go to the Big 12. It was like, yeah, Pat White, Steve existed, but not really. Here's Geno Tavon, which we're big fans of. Let's not get it twisted. But they wanted to start a brand new angle i hope that doesn't happen with alabama and it doesn't sound like that's going to take place and kaylin debor he's a unifier man his team quickly comes together i talked about that sioux falls second year national championship and i talk about washington's second year national championship it's like he's

able to get people to buy in and he's coached a lot of football i feel like he's going to do it the right way that's going to be big not not only for the program, but for recruiting. Because a lot of times you come to campus and you see maybe a Kirk Patrick or one of these greats around, maybe show you around, do a little whatever, this and that. So that would be huge for him. And I doubt he wouldn't go that way. He'd be foolish not to.

They're saying, okay, let's move the – go ahead. You mentioned winners win. He's a winner. And he made a good point, too, because I think with the transfer portal and everything, we forget about all the guys who transferred before he was the head coach, and all those are just attributed to him. So it's like the narrative is, hey, since he's got there, 30 guys have transferred out or whatever, when in reality it's only been –

and granted, a couple of them have been pretty big names, but it's only been – Huge. Caleb Downs leaving. Yeah, massive. Now, Saban's still there. Caleb Downs not leaving. Any coach, though, especially with the option for every team

to come in and tell Caleb, hey, we can give you this amount of money. That's going to be tough to keep. He's the best player in football is what everybody says, pretty much. So losing him is a massive ordeal. But you can't help but go back to the point that all we say ever about these recruiting classes is... Filthy. Caleb was a freshman, true freshman last year. Yep, yeah. Look at the league and how many But you can't help but go back to the point that all we say ever about these recruiting classes is filthy.

Caleb was a freshman, true freshman last year. Yeah. Look at the league and how many guys left Bama because they couldn't get on the field and go to the league and they're pro bowlers, you know, four, five, six-time pro bowlers and they couldn't get on the field at Bama. So those next guys that step up, you would expect them to be up to par. Now, obviously X and O's, coaches matter, but then obviously he talked about it, like the character of those guys in that building is going to be a big thing too he's that's a huge

part of his entire yeah he was a very professional outfit over there in washington the way the practices were being run i watch a practice i watch a walkthrough i got a chance to see a lot of behind the scenes footage of him in a team meeting like he is just a very just like saban it seems like sure like just like hey this is kind of how it goes. He's mature in coaching. He's been around long enough where I think his resume commands 104-12. That's absurd. That's ridiculous. 25-3 at Washington. It's like, what are we talking about here?

There's a lot of people that are trying to kill him early because he's not an SEC guy. And, you know, Saban started in Michigan State, Big Ten. So, it's like, can he go in there? Can he learn it? That's understandable, too. Agreed. You know, we've been down there. Like, that is, you know, football country, SEC. So he's definitely going to have to come in there and prove himself.

And now the landscape, it's like you've got to recruit your guys every year. So, I mean, that's – That's the big difference. Yeah. I think it's a whole different landscape right now because you've got to spend as much time keeping your guys on the roster than when we played it was just, hey, listen, everybody's going to be here that we got.

Now we just go recruit our 25 guys we want. Now you've got to recruit 25 plus keep 75 or 80. Yeah, the only time anybody would leave is if the coach was trying to force them to leave because if a coach took a scholarship, he'd look bad to that entire state pretty much for taking somebody's yearly scholarship. So nobody was ever gone. They just make them run the stairs for six days straight.

Hey, we got a 6.30 a.m. workout for who? Backup middle linebackers. Just that one. That seems like you're targeting. No, just trying to get better. You want to play or not? And then he's got a 45-minute cardio session. And then tomorrow we're going to do the same thing.

We're just going to get you better. What? You don't have to. We'll write a letter of recommendation for you to go somewhere else. That's what it used to be like. That is. That was literally – Eight guys getting in trouble for going out the night before

and, like, two guys are letting go of the other six. You know, all right, give them a second chance. Those two, I couldn't wait for you to mess up. Yeah. Man, we were waiting on a situation for you to potentially quit this team. You guys talked about culture, and if the guys were good enough for Saban, they probably should be good enough for DeBoer or whatever, keeping that smart decision.

I looked it up. The two directors of player personnel were Chapman, Josh Chapman, and HaHa Clinton-Dix. HaHa Clinton-Dix is still recruiting. He's out with DeBoer. And Chapman is still listed as director of player personnel too. Yeah, that's smart. Yeah, Chapman was, I think, captain as a sophomore at Alabama.

Jeez. Or captain as a junior. Whatever it was, he was the first ever. And he's D-tackle, nose tackle. Beloved by every human I think he's ever encountered. I don't think there's ever been a person that has not enjoyed being around him. So I think he'll help keep the whole past and the future together alongside HaHa Clinton Dix.

I think they're going to do it right down there. Winners win. The standard is Bama. Kalen DeBoer has won a lot of football games as a head football coach. Yeah, and, I mean, Utah, Bama players being pissed. He's probably pretty pissed, too, that he didn't win a national championship. So he's got something to prove as well. It's not just the players.

Only people have seen him potentially two times. Exactly. And it's against Texas and in dogfight, obviously, a big-time play. And then against Michigan, who beat him by 20-some points. And people are like, this guy, he just lost to Michigan. It's like, Michigan just beat Bama. They've been kind of built

for everybody. Let's talk about Michigan. Jim Harbaugh, allegedly in his second in-person interview with the Atlanta Falcons today, after it is being said behind the scenes, that Jim Harbaugh basically has to make up his mind on whether or not he wants to be the Chargers coach because allegedly Pete Carroll also wants to be the Los Angeles Chargers head coach and has been petitioning or campaigning for it behind the scenes I believe Snoop Dogg was one of the first people to report that because

of their connections at USC but also it has been legitimized by others so this Chargers head coaching search has obviously gotten pretty loud. They've interviewed a bunch of people. Harbaugh in Atlanta. Harbaugh in L.A. Seems like Harbaugh is getting the treatment that we thought maybe Bill Belichick would get. Yep. Which is a wild thing to kind of think about.

There's now a report about the Bill Belichick momentum potentially slowing down, and the conversations about him getting interviews are loud as maybe some agent spin to try to draw up some interest. AQ, we haven't heard really your take on this. As a man who coached in the NFL and obviously played in the NFL, when Tom Brady became a free agent for the first time, I was very loud into a microphone

on the internet. Like, every team's going to want him in the building. Every team is going to want to be lifted and play better. Every single department gets better when Tom Brady comes in there because expectations go up. Now, there are some teams that have had that elevation with greats in the past, whether it's here in Indy with Payton

or elsewhere, but nonetheless, if you're a struggling franchise, you're going to want Tom Brady in there. We thought the same for Bill Belichick. Allegedly, not that much interest in Bill Belichick. A lot in Harbaugh. What's your take on it? Why do you think that's the case? And how do you kind of see it unfolding?

So I have so much respect for what Bill Belichick has done. But the biggest thing that we're not really taking, obviously, all we see is the body of work, right? And so same thing with Tom. The two things that they have similarities with was Tom was 43 when he became a free agent. Bill Belichick's, what, 71? So how much more time? I think that's the biggest thing that you say. Like, hey, listen, when you're rebuilding and you want to start from scratch, it's like,

I need to get at least five years here. Are you going to get that from Bill Belichick? I don't know. What do 77s look like? I don't think I know. On Bill Belichick? I don't know what 77 looks like. I honestly don't know. I don't either. Looks like 37 on Bill. We saw him coming out of that little beach house. Oh, yeah, with the ring camera.

We know that his body. Yeah, he's got a chest as a 50-year-old. Yeah, bingo. He's in basically the same shape as The Rock. But as a Patriot fan, the question is not only can he last, but can he do what Bill Belichick does in 2024, which is obviously getting pretty loud seemingly by the critics that said, we have been predicting all along that nobody would want Belichick does in 2024, which is obviously getting pretty loud, seemingly by the critics that said, we have been predicting all along that nobody

would want Belichick. But Harbaugh, older, same exact style, seemingly, but he's had success as of late with Michigan, so he can obviously relate to the next generation. Is that what everybody's thinking? Yeah, I don't really understand why he wouldn't. I guess the age thing, sure, maybe, but that's the one thing I think doesn't

matter. He's a lifer. He's going to coach in the NFL no matter what. I think the other side of it, hey, if Bill comes in here, are we just firing 30 people in our front office immediately and then he goes and does his thing, which obviously has been successful, but those are 30 people that have relationships in the building

that have probably been there for a long time. A lot of drama. Do you want to bring in a guy for possibly, let's just say if five years is the minimum or the time period, do you want to get rid of all those people for five years and then have to try and find all those people that you have been building? Because I assume for some of these teams. 30 is a little bit much.

Yeah, 15. Yeah. 10. 10. Even with those 10s. Well, the scouting department said he's bringing in. 30 might be. Yeah, I didn't even think about that. Probably 30. Okay, like 10. 10. Even with those 10? Well, the scouting department said he's bringing in. 30 might be. Yeah, I didn't even think about that.

Probably 30. Okay, so 30. I assume Atlanta hasn't just hired 30 people where they're like, well, we can just fire them when we bring in a new coach. I'm assuming they like a lot of those people. So if that is the debate, whereas Harbaugh maybe is only coming in with a few of his guys, probably some players on the staff. But it's not as if he has a front office.

Is there a front office to poach from at Michigan that he's, like, bringing a bunch of people with? No, and I assume Harbaugh's going to have say in the personnel, but he's not going to have to bring in the entire personnel department, which is him pretty much. Yeah, or be the GM. He's still pretty connected within the NFL circles as well. But another thing with Belichick, you know, we talked about Brady.

Like, you know, what has he done since Brady has left? You know what I mean? So, obviously, the body of work, we were all in the league while, you know, they were dominating, so we saw what it was, but that is a question for people. Yeah, a lot of people say, does Bill Belichick still have his fastball? Brian Callahan

got hired over him. Yep. Uh-huh. Antonio Pierce got hired over him in Las Vegas. Yep. Tom Telesco got hired. Congrats to Tom. Yeah, attaboy, Tommy. And Antonio Pierce over him. Yep. Uh-huh. Antonio Pierce got hired over him in Las Vegas. Yep. Tom Telesco got hired. Congrats to Tom. Yeah, boy, Tommy. And Antonio Pierce over there. Yeah.

New head coach. Grizzle veteran GM coming together. Football. It is beautiful. Football is wonderful. And we get the chance to talk about it every single day. The Talks at Table is here. At Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt.

One half of the hammer. Don! Cowboys Tony Diggs is here. Looking phenomenally fit today, Tony Diggs. Thank you. I appreciate that. You got your haircuts, too. I did get my haircuts.

That's a big deal. Yeah, you've always been a hat guy on this particular program. More specifically, since COVID, it happened. I'm not saying anything else. Since COVID, you've been a COVID cowboy and then he became a hammered dime cowboy. But your hair underneath is reaching to a place

that is phenomenal. There will be a day where we're going to hang up the hat. We're going to put it on something right behind you there? What? Hanging up? What do you mean, hanging up? No longer a cowboy? Every cowboy at some point has to ride off into the sun.

Well, every rose has its own. There's a day. Yeah, but they don't take their hats off. They're still cowboys. Well, it depends. We don't see what the wind does whenever they go over the hill. True. Remember, because they always ride off the hill into the sunset,

and then we kind of lose them. We don't know if there's a big wind gust that knocks the hat off. We could do the classic thing where I'm riding off in a horse into the sunset, and then we kind of lose them. We don't know if there's a big wind gust that knocks the hat off. We could do the classic thing where I'm riding off in a horse into the sunset, and I get shot in the back, and I slump over, and you don't know if I'm dead or not. While you're getting your ass beat by the horse. And then the hat falls off.

Bingo. Then we know you're dead, though. 12-year NFL vet. Super Bowl champion, player, coach, A.Q. Shipley's here. 9-year NFL vet, D Bowl champion player and coach A.Q. Shipley is here. A nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. Looking super cool today, D-Butt. I miss my cowboy hat, though.

Oh, do you? Me too. Because you had it for, I don't know, two hours before. You couldn't get rid of it quicker. Yeah, you did just give it away as soon as you were gifted a cowboy hat. Messed up. For the college football national championship. Neither of these teams have anything to do

with cowboys. It's like we're in Houston, Texas right now. Do you know this is the home of the Houston Rodeo? The Rodeo here? Do you know Parker McCollum rode a horse onto a stage and sang during a Houston Rodeo in this stadium right here? Sorry you guys don't have any

culture or tooth or brains. We're going gonna wear these incredibly heavy and stiff and kind of painful hats a little bit for three and a half four hours during that national championship the cowboy hat is sweet but it is a little stiff isn't it i think it was a good move though i think so too oh yeah it was a good move are you kidding me i look at mine all the time it's in my i love that cowboy. Joining us now is a man who had a cowboy hat on somehow. Yeah. Don't know how they made one.

We said, hey, we need a cowboy hat for a bucket. Like an actual bucket. Excuse me? College football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, massive head having, the greatest jawline in sports media, which we were doing earlier, A.J. Hawk. A.J. Hawk. How's it going, cowboy?

Going pretty well. Diggs talking about getting shot and slumping over on the horse. I mean, we don't really need to end a movie like that, do we? Sometimes you just have to cowboy. Or your life. Sometimes you just have to cowboy. Well, Tun Diggs wants to kill the cowboy anyways. He's already been planning this for months now. A gone girl.

Probably the travel. I know what I realized from having the cowboy hat from the national championship game, traveling with a cowboy hat, that is a lot, especially someone that probably travels with multiple cowboy hats like Diggs. That would not be fun. I think he brings a multi-utility cowboy hat that fits in everything. You know, every costume he's going to wear, one cowboy hat will work. Because you are right.

Having to carry that thing around and keep it in pristine can't be touching anything. And you can't wear it for the entire travel because you would have a headache the size, you know, forever. It is pretty high maintenance, the old cowboy hat. Yeah, normally I know what outfit I'm going to wear, like when we were traveling for the watch-alongs. So I'll know what color I need. Super Bowl week, I'm going to have to bring a couple. So it's going to be a thing. May buy one out there. Yeah, you should get a Vegas cowboy hat. No, that's going to have to bring a couple. So it's going to be a thing. Okay, a couple out there.

Maybe buy one out there. Yeah, you should get a Vegas cowboy hat. No, that's not the type of cowboy I am. You're not a Vegas cowboy. I'm more of a Texas cowboy. Come on, a little rhinestone? Not a Montana cowboy. There's different cowboys out there.

You're a Texas cowboy. When we went to Texas, that's where I felt home. Felt it in your plums. I love that, deep in your plums. AJ, there was a lot of conversation in the first hour about Kalen DeBoer in Alabama. And then towards the end of it, we start talking about how the Harbaugh kind of story, this potential coaching cycle, has been what we thought Belichick was potentially going to be. Behind the scenes, allegedly, Harbaugh is the one who has to decide whether or not he

wants to be the Chargers head coach. I say allegedly because we know nothing about anything. I don't think anybody does. We're talking about billionaires making decisions for their operations, but with everything we've been reading, Harbaugh and the Chargers are a thing if Harbaugh wants it, but then there's Pete Carroll who's lobbying for the gig, I guess, and obviously people have put Bill in Los Angeles and then in Atlanta, Harbaugh's now doing his second in-person interview down there. It's like Harbaugh is the bell of the ball, seemingly, for this potential coaching cycle.

And I think he's obviously earned it, AJ. Yeah, he has earned it. I mean, I guess it's – I wouldn't say I'm surprised by it, but I'm surprised that it feels like the Chargers, that deal was locked up. How they let him out of the building if he's going to travel or do a zoo, however he's going to interview with Atlanta? I would assume, I mean, this is a genius move by Harbaugh. Just keep playing the field. Let him know. It just drives

your price up, drives up how much more that they want you at that spot, whatever, I guess whatever spot he wants. But also, when's he going to make a decision? Have they set a deadline? No, I mean, I guess that's the next step is we need to know an answer. But if you put it, we need to know answer on Jim Harbaugh, he's potentially out of the running.

Jim Harbaugh, you know, he's still head coach of Michigan. There's a lot to think about here. Wow. Respect him. He wants control, though, too, doesn't he? Doesn't Harbaugh want a lot of control over the front office stuff as well? Especially coming out of Michigan, you know. Michigan, he was, you're the guy.

You are the one in charge of everything. stuff as well especially coming out of michigan you know like michigan he was you're the guy you are the one in charge of everything the scheduling the players the recruiting the team how we're going to go about making the team the strategy every you're a part of it all and i think you're hiring jim hardball to get that i think that's what you would want as a part of the jim hardball hire so i think these are two different places that seemingly are like yep we're in on well i agree and and uh one of the things things that happened with the Niners, him and the GM butted heads, too. The guy who's in Jacksonville now, his name is escaping.

Paul Balke. Him and Balke kind of went at each other, I think, towards the end of that relationship. So I don't think he's going to want that to happen again. How many years has he been in Michigan? Eight? Something like that. 16, right?

That's a long time. Yeah. Seven, eight years is a long time. Joining us now is a man who went into the Houston Texans Ring of Honor as quickly as any human in the history of getting in the Ring of Honors. Hell yeah. There's only three of them for good reason. This man's an icon and a legend in H-Town.

He'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer and a guy who loves statistics. Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of Burnley FC currently. Bottom of the table again. Dude. Jeez. Sorry, I'm just telling you. Not last place. Just report it.

I just said bottom of the table. I didn't say last. JJ Watt. Here you go, JJ. Connor, I'm sick of your shit. Dude, what did I do? I'm just reporting what the standings are, bro. How is that how this conversation starts?

I don't like that one bit. I don't like it one bit. Bottom is a specific place. It is literally bottom. Like, do you understand what the word bottom means? Yeah, bottom. Let's not. You didn't say bottom area.

Don't you say power, boy. Don't you cast spells. Sheffield is below Burnley. So they're the actual bottom. Yeah, I said bottom of the table, though. If you think about a table, the bottom of the table, there are multiple people there. There aren't just one person at the bottom of the table.

I think they call it the table is what the English people call the whole thing. Yeah, yeah. So like the top of the table are like where the tops are. Exactly. Liverpool FC top of the table. Well, yeah. So, like, the top of the table are, like, where the head. The tops are. Exactly. I think it's the head of the table. Liverpool FC, top of the table. Well, Roman Reigns is the head of the table. For now.

There's only one. Yeah, there's only one. That's our tribal chief. As for now. Look at the polo today. Yeah, wife bought a bunch off Amazon. 15, 16 bucks. Showed up at the house.

I feel super professional. And also, fashion. This thing's a zipper. Oh! Paul's got buttons, idiot. You see that, JJ? What are you wearing there? Breakfast Club?

That's super cool. I like that movie, right? Breakfast Club, yeah. Shout out Bender. Shout out. So do you buy the shirts for the... Whoa, whoa. Yeah.

Whoa! Whoa, they're throttling us. They're throttling us. What the hell is going on? No, they're taking over. Oh, my God. Oh, no. Is Indianapolis okay?

That's a lot of you. No. No. No. Not on Emmy Wednesday. No. We had a full sports media segment earlier. Damn it.

But then you had to go and bring it up again. You said PFF sucks. God. I didn't say anything today. Yeah, you did. We heard it. And everyone echoed your sentiments on the internet, too. Thanks a lot.

Do you feel like a real hero? Everybody on the internet's smart. Well, not everybody. There wasn't everybody agreeing with you. There was not everybody agreeing with you. It was a very large majority, but okay. All right, so how has it been this past week? Have you found yourself

in the trenches continuing to defend your stance alongside the many that agreed with you or did you see all the no I don't do that I don't like continue it like I said what I wanted to say I said what I said and that's it I don't need to go down a rabbit hole and continue to give more energy and time so

hell yeah yeah we're on to the next thing what do we fix it next what do we got going on next uh head coaching hiring spree where yeah we got yeah we got that going let's go let's dive into it let's see here there's been a lot of interviews you guys feel like there's been a lot of second interviews where generally i feel like in the past like you said people don't let somebody leave the building like on our second interview we don't let them leave the building but i feel like with belichick with hardball these guys have been doing second interviews um which i mean is good for obviously thoroughness and people really diving in but uh it just feels like in the past it's been a little bit more maybe it's just me but it feels like it's been

like let's not let this guy leave the building now over the last couple years they've been casting very wide nets uh seemingly i think the colts interviewed like 20 people. They actually interviewed 20 people and there's 80 hours worth of it because you're allowed to interview whoever. So they wonder like are you trying to poach information? Are you actually interested? Who is potentially what you're looking for? Because sometimes some of these teams will interview people

that are two polar opposites and it's like do you not have a plan on what you want? Are you still trying to be sold on what you're looking for? And then is there a third party doing the hiring, or is the actual ownership doing the hiring? It's a wild scene. But Bill Belichick, you talked about his second interview with Atlanta. Seemingly nobody else has interviewed him or been interested.

How do you feel about that? I'm kind of surprised. I think we all are. I would agree. I'd be fascinated to know if that's a situation where he also knows exactly what he wants and he's going to be specific with whatever interviews he may be taking. Or if it literally is, nobody else has asked him.

I mean, if you're not even poking around on a six-time Super Bowl winning coach, that's kind of like the Lamar Jackson thing from this past offseason, you know, where it's like, hey, do you actually want to be good? Or do you think you're smarter than everybody else like maybe at least ask some questions of the guy that's got six rings yeah we can poach some information potentially from bill belichick on his thoughts and how to build a champion now people are saying wouldn't you be fascinated to sit in an interview with bill belichick like gosh i want to know what that sounds imagine you're an owner and you have to

interview bill belichick yeah like let me see if you're good enough for tell me tell me what you're all about and bill having to act like this person matters yes you know that's a whole that's a wild and especially the falcons man like i mean like he's got to be just sitting there if you're like 23 god i took your soul do you want me to pull up the tape like do i do you want me to just should i just show you the screenshot or what what do you want me to just show you the screenshot? Or what do you want me to do here? I don't want to. But, like, who has the answers here? Huh? Yeah. The 28 part or the three part?

You just tell me. You say. That's an interesting thing. But he's 15 away. Hey! There we go. Oh, be careful. Don't go any.

Don't go any. A lot of folders. A lot of folders. Don't be swiping. Zito, watch it. Watch it. If you want to go on safari right now. What is dirty graphics?

Oh, yeah. We're bad, baby. See you, baby. See you, Z. Z, we almost saw your search history there. You understand that it's probably just baby. Very dark place. No, no.

Stay away. You got a baby now. It's a whole different world now. Oh, you're right. I deleted all that. Atta boy. Smart. What would you delete?

Stop. Give me a couple months. What would you delete? What would you delete specifically? The dark web. Yeah, okay. Speaking of the dark web, self-reliance, good movie. So good. Loved it. Anyways, AJ has a question for you, JJ.

Let's say you were an owner of a team and you're interviewing Bill. Actually, you are. Say you're the owner of an NFL football team're they're bringing in bill belichick and jim hardball separate days to interview what what would you ask these guys what do you want to know if you're the owner of what makes this guy the right fit for us yeah for me a lot of it's going to be the structure of the organization and how you see everything fitting obviously bill belichick having been in that gm role and the head coaching role um some of those questions you want to ask are about, you know, how do you see this going? Do our visions align? And as an owner, you have to know what you want. Are you willing to give

that type of role and that type of power to one individual person, or do you want him to fit within the structure of your own? And then obviously with Jim Harbaugh, having been out of the NFL game for a while, having had extreme success in it, but also having been out of it for a while, you just want to ask those types of questions and make sure that, you know, the league changes very much year to year. So you want to make sure that everything is still on the up and up and that he's obviously stayed with everything. But he's been extremely successful now in both levels.

So I would imagine that he is going to be very successful whatever he does next allegedly harbaugh can accept the chargers job if he wants that's what's being reported on the internet we are not making this up this is just what's being pete carroll though lobbying for chargers opportunity as well uh allegedly behind scenes it's like pete carroll him and justin herbert would be a fun yeah that would be no pat what does that mean though? If he's lobbying, of course, everybody wants to be a head coach. Not everybody. But it also confirms that he,

like they tried to say it was like some amicable, like he got fired. Oh yeah. JJ, they did this, like the Premier League does to the bottom three teams. They just, boom. Yeah. They kicked him out.

We don't want you. Boom. Pete would be a great, Pete would be a great fit down there, I feel like. Yeah, but he's 72. This is a little conversation about are they potentially aging

Bill Belichick, Pete Carroll, these guys saying, nah, it's way too old. It's time to turn the page. How old is Andy Reid? On it, I think he's 46, maybe. With the way he sets that camera for that interview he does, it's always right down here.

He looks younger and younger each week. 65 years old. So it's been very well. I mean, Pete runs around. He plays catch before the game. He looks a lot better than a whole lot of 72-year-olds I know. You know a lot of 72-year-olds? Not that I'm like, yeah,

that doesn't sound like I hang out with a lot of 72-year-olds. Yeah, it sounds like that pickleball stuff you got going on. A lot of pickleball. Hey, speaking of, we got Ryan Smith joining us in about 45 minutes or so. He just openly said, I want an NHL team. Yep. And we'll see what the NHL does. He said, we can have a team next year you want.

We're already ready for it all. We have a team name, logo, arena. What? Supplies. What? City. What do we need? We can do this.

And the NHL responded in a positive way. We'll be talking to him in about 45 minutes. I don't think he's 72. Yeah. Are you in? Did you tell him about our interest in the NHL endeavor? Oh, yeah, buddy. Oh, yeah.

That's part of the conversation. Oh, yeah. All right. Well, just make sure. I'm not that far away. I'll pop up there right now. No, you're in soccer. You're in soccer.

And your team stays. Yeah. Do you want him part of your organization? It's a valid question. Well, just look at the track record. How did your team do this year, Connor? I'm so, like, you act like you're, like, yes, you won a lot of Super Bowls. You guys are incredible.

Absolutely. Connor did not win a Super Bowl. Thank you for acknowledging my late contributions to those rings. They're part of the journey. Yeah, I agree. I agree fans should say we and stuff like that. But when you're J.J. Watt and you're talking to Connor, I don't think you should say, all right, Connor, you got six Super Bowls.

That was a great lead-in, though. I mean, this is a great time. Maybe we can kind of revisit this whole coaching church thing. Let's say you were the owner of the Utah. Whatever. Whatever. Yeah. Maybe you interview J.J. Watt here. Let's's say you were the owner of the Utah whatever whatever yeah maybe you interview JJ watt here let's see if you were going to well JJ doesn't know anything about hockey that's the problem we've seen his clap bomb it's weak we've seen him on skates he can't skate this

guy's right I might I might play for the team I might go out there and Jackie Moon defense you singing it in between between periods would be awesome. Do the whole thing. Fight Dewey. Salt Lake feels like. What would you name a Utah hockey team? I think they already have all that. So I'm not going to say a single thing.

Avalanche is taken. Avalanche is great. The Utah Yetis. Bingo. So that's the name you would say? 100%. Utah Soakers. I'm with you on that one.

Soakers. This went down. Don't say that in%. Utah Soakers. I'm with you on that one. This went down. Don't say that in about a half hour. Yeah, the Utah Super Soakers and there's this one guy quaking beneath someone else. Oh my god. And the guy on the top has a Super Soaker in his hand because you don't want to do the actual dirty.

So dirty to make that logo. He's laying on his back like he's shooting pucks at you. And he's flying in the air. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah, you got the skates are actually on yeah exactly we lost it we lost it gary betman ain't watching this show thank god shows shows gone we're not getting a team we're screwing who's we yeah you've been trying to work your way in here from that little cabin. That's a beautiful room. What are you right now? Illuminati room.

I'm in my kitchen. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's just a background. It's like AJ's. It's like AJ's. It's just a green screen. So you're on the island right now?

You're on the island right now? Oh, of America. No. Oh, of my kitchen? Of my kitchen. Yeah. What are you thinking? I am so sick of these.

I was like, what island are you talking about? America isn't an island, asshole. He's got a bunch of 72-year-old friends. Anyways, you're on the kitchen island right now? Yeah, that's correct. Is that the oven behind you? What type of oven? Is it an Indian oven?

No, that's like the sink. That's like the sink. Geez, big. Oh, you're so big. Is it Indian style on your island? Native American style? No, I'm in a chair. What are you talking about? I'm sitting in a chair.

Alright, well we're happy to hear you're so successful. Way to go. What a nice backdrop. Unbelievable. Like the Thunderdome isn't a nice backdrop. You have your own playland. Let's not act like we're slumming it up there. Valid, but we're only here. You are in 17 different penthouses throughout this entire season.

It's not a play land either. Yeah, when are you going back to CBS, too, to your New York penthouse? When's that? Sunday. No, on location in Baltimore. Very much so. Here we go. Let's talk about that particular game because obviously this is the best team

and best Lamar that we have seen, and M&T Bank is going to show up, and we cannot wait for that to be on display. Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs have seemingly found it. They're in the middle of a dynastic run. Could the Ravens start their own dynasty? Lamar Jackson was actually asked today a hilarious question about, hey, Lamar, what do you like about competing against Patrick Mahomes? And here was his answer.

I don't like competing against him at all. But, yeah, I mean, he's a great quarterback. Definitely a Hall of Famer. It's not even a – it's a no-brainer. He's definitely a Hall of Famer. But it's just – I believe it's just two greats, up-and-coming greats just going toe-to-toe, you know, like a heavyweight fight, heavyweight matchup. That's just what I see.

I love it. Do you see it the same way? And I think, obviously, there's four teams left, so everybody's great. But I think we got it right, too, with the four teams we have this year. Yeah, I 100% agree. I mean, it is two phenomenal quarterbacks. I mean, Patrick Mahomes, six AFC championships in six years as a starter is mind-blowing. I don't think that we give enough credit or we understand how incredible and how

special that is and how lucky we are to get to see this guy play at such a high level for a long time and i think it's also partially because he has that mentality he has that killer mentality he has that uh like the clock uh the whatever it it was, the thing that he posted on Instagram. Why am I blanking? The thing about the clock. Good luck. Good luck. That's what it was.

Sorry. Good luck. Where they were like, yeah, saying good luck. And then he remembers that. He has all those things. It's a little bit similar to Tom and what he had. But Lamar is playing at an unbelievable level. The Ravens obviously took it to the Texans this past weekend.

They played extremely well. They're so well-rounded, man. Their defense is so strong. They can do so much on offense. They can run the ball when they have to. Lamar can run if he needs to. He can throw when he has to. It's just so difficult to stop that team, and they just look so good. It's going to be a really, really good matchup, and I'm really looking forward to Sunday. The Colts were able to beat the Ravens, obviously, but throughout the year, this Ravens team, whenever you're watching, and I've said this a few times because it's kind of an enigma almost. You just look at the score, and they're up

two scores already, and it's over. And it didn't really feel like it. It just felt like, you know, there's three and out, this happened, and then it's over with the way that offense and way that defense plays. They smother people on the defensive side. And Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen, a lot of mic'd up stuff's coming out. They like

hitting people. They annoy violence. Kyle Van Nooy says it's not about a wall or anything, but we like violent football. It's very obvious. The fact that Roquan ended up there and obviously got Patrick Queen, the linebackers that they have there

are so strong. And the fact that Roquan just kind there and obviously got Patrick Queen. The linebackers that they have there are so, so strong. And the fact that Roquan just kind of got out of Chicago and got put into this situation on one of the best and helped make it even better than it already was up there, he's a special, special player, man. It's a lot of fun to watch him play in that defense. My former D-line coach, Anthony Weaver, is up there, and he helps coordinate all the pass rush,

and those guys are crushing it with sacks and everything. So it's much fun to see them jd's obviously up there clowny making plays van noy comes off the couch and is just dominating so they got a really special squad up there the bank is a great place to play i've played playoff games there and it's a phenomenal atmosphere so i'm looking forward to getting back there and seeing that atmosphere again because it's a really cool place and they do a good job that's kind of been our like uh our show's thing for the last five six weeks as it looked like they were going to have home field advantage it's like i don't think the national media truly understands what m&t bank stadium is like it is very loud especially when when any team's playing good obviously their fans are going to be louder sure they're going to be more invested that's just not

that's not bandwagon that's just people have lives and why am i going to invest as much time as i normally do in a bad team as opposed to a good team people are going to be more likely to invest that in a lot of these cities and places but when that team is playing that place is bananas five false starts for your houston texans team i think had a phenomenal run this year obviously young, young team. But let's go to the other game now. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, JJ, on the other side, Brock Purdy, who didn't play his best game. No one thinks that against the Packers.

But he also has been getting bashed a little bit, you could say. What do you think about him just as a whole? And you just said it about Patrick Mahomes. Six AFC championships in six years. Brock Purdy, two NFC championships in two years. Is this kind of the dawning of a new day in the NFC with Purdy being that guy who just dominates? Or what do you think him and the Niners are going to do this weekend? Yeah, you know what I think?

I think it's a problem of today's media world where there's no nuance. You're not allowed to have nuance in situations. Everybody wants to have the take. Everybody wants to have that hot-button issue or that topic. Does he have incredible weapons around him? Yes, absolutely. Do they run an offense that's extremely effective and finds ways to get guys open,

and also those guys just happen to be awesome playmakers? Absolutely. But also, does Brock Purdy perform well and get the job done and he's made the two NFC championships in a row? Yes. Is he sometimes doing it by himself and making these unbelievable plays? And is he Patrick Mahomes at this moment right now? No, I don't think so.

But overall, has he done a good job? Yeah, he's been in the NFC championship two years in a row. So let's not detract and take away from that just because he's got an incredible team around him. I think the guy deserves credit. I think he takes more heat than he should. But also, they're a great team. They're just a great football team.

Let's not take away from that. Yeah, I think the issue with it all is we're going to find something to bitch about regardless. Always. And Brock Purdy, he's not supposed to be as good. Team's not supposed to be as good with him in not supposed to be as this good with him in there. But since he's been dropped into the fold, what are they, 21-5 or something like that?

20-5 or something like that. 17-3 when Debo's playing. And obviously, Debo, George Kittle told us yesterday, was a massive part of the game plan going into this game against the Packers. George Kittle said yesterday, going into the game, I thought Debo was going to have three touchdowns.

So whenever Debo gets hurt early and they have said yesterday, going into the game, I thought Debo was going to have three touchdowns. So whenever Debo gets hurt early and they have to adjust, especially with the weather and everything, and them being able to find it late in the fourth quarter whenever they had to have it, it's like the kid's smart. He seems to have incredible accuracy. You guys know with

a locker room too, there's a ton of huge stars on that team, a ton of big names. And the way that that locker room has talked about Brock, they've come out on that team a ton of big names in the way that that locker room has talked about brock you know they've come out and they've worn shirts and they've said he is him and all those things like you have to be a certain type of guy and a certain type of leader and a special guy to be able to go into that situation and perform well enough and also have the respect of your teammates and to be able to lead them at times like last game you know in the last drive like that that don't discount for that either like being able to lead them at times like last game, you know, in the last drive. Like, don't discount for that either.

Like, being able to go in there and handle that as a leader and as a guy that they look to in the huddle. So I have respect for that as well. That's not as easy as people think. That's another asset that he has that just says he's a guy. Now, is he 6'4"? No. Is he running a 4'3"? No. Have other quarterbacks in the past been his size or shorter or his speed or slower

and his arm or weaker and had great success? Yes. And Brock Birdie is proving to have the exact thing. He can't run and play the same exact style as maybe a Patrick Mahomes who can throw it lefty and off balance and everything like that. But what he does, he can extend the play if he has to. He finds good balance balance so he has great technique and great fundamentals and he you talk about being able to balance all the egos like

that's good politicking like he has to go keep everybody happy not only with balls we've seen it with a lot of wide receivers yep now granted i think that niners locker room is laser focused on just success we don't care who has uh the numbers and stats everybody does though that is that is a real thing that happens and takes place. It just gets exposed in some places that aren't as good as many others. So being able to balance and coordinate all that stuff, as the last pick in the draft, and I said yesterday, this guy was handed

nothing, and I was talking about him in the NFL. Last pick of the draft, you're not even on a team, guaranteed. You're not getting reps at practice. Once he got in the building, yeah, he was drafted. But other than that, it's like, you are very're not getting reps at practice like he was hit once he got in the building yeah he was drafted but other than that it's like you are very dispensable you are worth a last pick of the draft is worth nothing nobody's trading for the last pick of the draft ever for

anything so it's like he's had to work through all that and just continue to go i'm nothing but impressed with the dude genuinely and on the other side jared goff he was kicked out to detroit what him and mcdDC have been able to do have found an identity. It's beautiful up there with Ben Johnson's offense, JJ. It's awesome. It's really cool to see everything going on in Detroit. Like you said, even with the simple narrative of Jared Goff kind of

being pushed out, Stafford going, I know I've seen it all week, but possibly the most even trade in the history of trades. Everybody's happy. The Rams win a Super Bowl with them. The Lions get golf, and they go and do this now. What they're building up there, I mean, the atmosphere that they've had at Ford Field these last couple weeks

and just how proud and happy and excited the people of Detroit are, it's really cool, and I'm looking forward to that game as well, I do think. Who was that beer truck there that tied in? Brock Wright. Yeah, that was awesome watching him get those knees up late. He was really running. Chess forward, that's best. That guy was ready to go.

Huge play. Yeah, no, I think Connor was right. These four teams, it's an exciting time. It's a very exciting championship matchups this weekend, and the winners of these two are going to create a hell of a Super Bowl, whoever ends up in it. 130 million people watching that Super Bowl, I predicting yeah I mean maybe even 140 yeah what was it last year 114 or 130 makes it regardless I think regardless you see these ratings numbers

everything is up and to the right seems like yeah well last year every single time every time you like the tweets come out they're like we have never seen a game with this many in the history of football. I'm like, I saw that last week. And they're like, this time. I mean, our CBS had 50 million plus viewers this past weekend. So it was awesome to see. It's incredible. The NFL is king.

Peaked at 50 or 60? 56. 56. Yeah. And then the 49, it peaked at 49. I think it might have been 56.1, 56. I don't know. I don't have the exact.

More than all the World Series games combined. So with numbers up across the board just for these games, I would assume Super Bowl is going to be the same type of thing. It's just like the NFL is the hottest show in town. I don't think it matters who's playing. Now, granted, Patrick Mahomes playing with Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey in the middle of a dynasty run. People know who the hell they are.

They're on a lot of commercials, so a lot of casuals know who they are, and there's a story to be told. Obviously, that's going to operate. Football people don't like that, but that's just a fact of the matter. People that don't follow football every single day and aren't football people are going to be more interested. I don't know either. I don't understand it.

We show male celebrities on TV all the time. We show Matthew McConaughey on the sidelines of Texas games all the time. You don't see these internet upwards by any of that. He showed Blueface at LA Rams game. Blueface was in his suite. Especially with the Super Bowl, that's part of it. You have a large majority of people who are just watching for the commercials. The spectacle is part of it.

So if Taylor Swift's there, yeah. A lot of people are going to be tuning in just to see her going ape shit in a suite. We do have it on good authority from the new heights podcast that Tay absolutely love Jason Kelsey. Nice. So she's a human. I think she showcased that she's more human than.

I mean, it would have been a pretty big red flag if she didn't like it. That's what we're saying. And there's been not even a single, like, some of Taylor's friends don't know if that big drunk Yeti is good for her image. Instead, it's been the complete opposite. Taylor's becoming like a football junkie. Yeah, like she is all in, which I'm a massive fan of.

Yeah, Entertainment Tonight also reporting that, you know, Travis has never been more focused about the Valentine's Day plans around the corner. So I think that's also helping. Chivalry's not dead, and we're thankful that she's dating a football guy. We are very thankful that Travis Kelsey is representing football as well as he is for all the Swifties because she's been in relationships before that have been public, and even with some actor, musician. No.

You think chivalry's happening? No way. Football guy, let me hold that door for you. Oh yeah, by the way, I'm 6'5". He's doing a good job, man. He's doing a good job. It's not easy. He doesn't have an easy place there to balance everything. I mean, obviously dating literally the most famous pop

star in the world and also being on a team in the AFC Championship game and handling everything that comes with that. I think you've got to give credit to Trav. He's done a good job and he's handled it all well and he seems to be in a very happy and healthy relationship. Hey, brah, you Trav. Good work, Trav. You know, at their soul, at the end of the day,

Travis and Jason Kelsey, both just Ohio folks. Yep. And that is something that can't be forgotten. Ain't that right, AJ? That is correct. And, JJ, staying in that game, let's say you were the D-line coach for the Kansas City Chiefs what what's your rush plan for what do you tell your guys hey how are we rushing Lamar Jackson what do we what can we absolutely not let happen

number one thing with Lamar Jackson is obviously lanes so you can't get too far up the field you can't fly past him to create big lanes in the B-gap and you also don't want to rush too shallow so then you create outside rush lanes where he can big lanes in the B gap, and you also don't want to rush too shallow, so then you create outside rush lanes where he can get outside of the pocket. But I would say first and foremost is not giving up those big gaps up the middle like you see right here, especially if you're in a cover five, which is a man under two deep, which means that those guys are going to be running with their backs turned to Lamar, and they're not going to be able to see him scramble,

and he's going to have 30 yards like that that's what a coach always tells you if we're in man coverage we are basically putting 100 percent of the onus on the defensive line to contain the quarterback and that's where as a defensive lineman you start rushing and you see him get loose that is where you are just in pure panic mode because you know nobody's coming to help i gotta chase him and newsflash i am nowhere near as fast as lamar jackson so we are screwed so it's it's those lanes up the middle so i tell my guys i would tell my guys you know we got a guy we got the two pushers in the middle you can't get pushed wide like they did right here this was clearly a design draw and it was executed extremely well um but and then just the outside guys can't rush past the passer.

The problem with that is, as a defensive lineman and as a coach, you're basically kind of telling your pass rushers to not do what they do best, and that's play free and play loose and go get the quarterback. So it's a very fine line in balancing your D-line and saying, go do what you do best, but at the same time rein it in a little bit. It's a hard place to be, and that's what Lamar does to you. A lot more discipline. Obviously, it's different playing against Lamar than anybody else. I assume it was similar whenever Michael Vick was playing back in the day, but the first time we played

Lamar and they had a DB playing quarterback, I was like, well, it feels like we're probably in a bad spot. We just want to get a look for what it could be. And obviously, just punt returner taking it to the house every time. It's like, oh yeah, and also, he can throw it 65-70.

It's a banana's weapon. It's impossible because all your defenses basically are lined up to handle 10 people because you don't worry about the quarterback is he might throw it

or hand it off, but he's not going to do much. Now you have to reconfigure all your defenses to count for that 11th person in any run play and any pass play. It's fascinating. I talked to TJ about it, obviously, because that AFC North,

those guys all beat up on each other. And the Steelers beat them twice this year, obviously the second time without most of their starters. But you start to figure it out. Okay, why do these teams have have success But literally no one else can And all those reps and all those things over the years Just add up and they start to have a little bit better feel What's his record against the NFC?

It's like 30-1 or something Yeah, it's something absurd 21-1 maybe I thought it was 21-0 Who did he lose to? I didn't remember the loss It's hard to prepare if you haven't played against it. The AFC North, like Steelers know,

Tomlin is saying the same message against Lamar. Hey, just like we experienced last week, we just got it, or last year, we got to do this. Whenever you're playing for the first time, you have six days to prepare for something that it takes years to maybe develop the discipline. Yeah, Lamar Jackson is 20-3 against the NFC in his career. Giants last year.

Tough to prepare for. Wink Martindale said, I was at Baltimore. Here's what we need to do against Lamar. So now that the Chiefs are coming to town, and that D-line was talked about, D-Butt has a sports media question for you. Yeah, we had a sports media segment earlier that Connor just absolutely ambushed. That's not true. You did too.

Let's not get crazy. Obviously, as a D-line expert, what's your power rank these last four D-line groups left in the dance? Wow. That is a very on-the-spot tough question. Now, sports media, dude, welcome. Welcome to the Thunderdome.

Let's see here. How do I get myself not just absolutely destroyed on the other guys here? They're all great. Yeah, whoever you put out for them. You can just tie them, I guess. They're all tied. Detroit. I mean, the Ravens have got

like, Matavuke is still underrated in my opinion. Like, how he wasn't first-team all-pro is, in my personal opinion, criminal. Like, the guy had an unbelievable year. He should have been first-team. I don't know how he didn't. So, dude, this is – because, I mean, there are some dudes on the D-lines. I think I'm going with the Ravens one. I think I'm going with the Ravens one.

Okay. Are you adding linebacker core into that as well? Are you doing front center right now? No, no, no. Front. No. It's just front. It's front. You add linebacker core. It's two. I mean, you got Greenlaw and you got the 49ers and the Ravens inside linebackers.

Those are the two best units in the world, hands down. I mean, you got Patrick Queen. We got two in the ranks. Holy hell. We just ranked inside linebackers? That's crazy. Now we're doing D-line rankings? Yeah, no, we're done. We did it. Good job. No, who's last? Who's fourth? We did it. We did a good job.

Who's the worst D-line still around? Say it. Lions, one of the best. Just say it. Chris Jones and Chiefs. Everybody's tied for second? No, I mean, if I truly had to do one right now, I'd have to say it's probably Detroit. Oh! There's some bulletin board material.

There's more. There's more. Thank you, JJ. Wow. Wow. You don't like the city of Detroit's comeback story? I love Detroit. Listen to this guy, Detroit.

Hutch is awesome. Minsky. I guy, Detroit. I love Detroit. Detroit is awesome. Minsky. I mean, it is what it is. We gave you a lot of outs. You had three tied at second, potentially. Yeah, I know. But I'm also here to play. I'm here to play the game.

Hell yeah. It's time to play the game. AQ's got his ranking. AQ would like to dive into the sports media. Is this D-line or O-line? This was D-line. Okay, who is it? I just wanted to see where he was at like to dive into the sports media. Is this D-line or O-line? This was D-line. Okay, who is it? I just wanted to see where he was at.

I also had the Lions last. Oh, no. Thank you, AQ. Last of the AFC champions. Bingo. That's the last of the best of our team. That's your phenomenal D-line. You got him right top five in the league.

Yeah, exactly. Top five in the league. Which is very good. So you got Lions, and then who you got won? I had Niners won Ravens two. Okay, got it. You got Bosa, Armstead makes $115 million. You got Chase Young.

They got Hargrave, who makes $90 million. Strongly shaking off AQ. Where's PFF? Where does PFF have them? Yeah, what are we doing? Yeah, let's see what the world of imaginary numbers has. Let me look it up. Don't look it up.

Why do you think Baltimore over Niners? You were very, because in my head while you said Baltimore. I think they get home. Now I could really make myself look like an absolute moron here because I actually don't know the numbers. I don't have them in front of me. What are the sack numbers? Mr. PFF Stig.

These are actual numbers. These are actual numbers. I do think the Ravens did lead the league in sacks. A sack is a real statistic. It is something that actually happens in the game. That is a real statistic. It is not some made-up Fugazi number of, I think you won this, Rush. Fugazi. Fugazi, Fugazi number of, I think you won this rush.

Fugazi, Fugazi. How important are pressures, though? Are pressures important to you? That's a good question, AJ. Pressures are great. Pressures are great. I think it's extremely subjective who's deciding what is a pressure, what isn't a pressure. I think that's very subjective.

I saw on the internet this weekend a massive debate about when tony romo said that chris jones caused that bad throw by josh allen half the people were like he didn't even affect the throw in any capacity and the other half were like wow what a pressure he did affect it like so who knows if one person's grading it they're not giving him a pressure on that play if another person's grading it they are he literally caused the interception so like there's all sorts of different things, and that's why you just got to be really careful with subjective numbers like that where you've got all that going on. Detroit Lions were in Baker's Grill pretty much all day.

And, you know, Aaron Glenn was scheming it. So now you also got to dive into the defensive coordinators, which, J.J., I would like to hear you rank all four defensive coordinators that are left out there. It should be four teams left, and obviously trying to dissect negativity out of it is going to be tough in today's sports media as a whole. But, like, as I said at the beginning to you, I think they got it right.

These four teams are here we go. You know, like we have it right on offensive side, defensive side. I feel like the characteristics of the team are what we want football to represent. It's tough. It's hard-nosed. There's electricity on the field for everybody. All four teams have electric playmakers that can come out of nowhere

and make big plays. Man, seven-point dogs? Yeah. Tough in the world. Yeah. What do you think? That seems excessive for an NFC championship game, does it not?

Yes. They said their D-line was no good, so that's... Yeah, you said that. It's moving to seven and a half. Yeah, yeah. The sportsbooks are listening

to you. Like our 10. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the dome is now being talked about for the Lions. You should see them at home.

They're phenomenal. But open air, when there's fresh air coming in, can't play. Can't play. That's what everybody's saying. It's supposed to be 70 degrees. I think no wind.

But, yeah, stats are saying open air stadiums, the Lions' worst nightmare. That's what they're saying, JJ. Well, I mean, that's what the Browns had happen to them. If you look at their stats from the season, they were the number one defense in the NFL at home, and they were the number 32 defense on the road. And then they went on the road in the playoffs and obviously had a very tough showing. So there's only a few factors that I can think that actually matter when you go on the road versus at home.

And obviously the number one for a defense specifically is crowd noise and being able to get the snap count and things like that. But beyond that, like over the course of a whole season yes in one game you might have rainy conditions or the grass is slippery or something like that but for that stat to happen over the course of a whole season is a stat that i truly don't know how to wrap my head around i think i cannot figure out how you would be number one at home and number 32 on the road there isn't real logistical reason why that would work. Well, it's because the hotels are choosing to stay in Iraq. Exactly.

Yeah, they need to up the logistics a little bit on the back end. They spent all that money on that contract. And then they started getting a little cheap on the plane and the hotel and the food. Were you in any of those types of conversations? Because, I mean, obviously, the later you get in your career, the more you're are kind of in those conversations and people are looking for every advantage so they're like what do you think about how we travel what do you think about our food situations what do you think about our hotels yeah i mean chuck having the punter say things to him his first year there was probably you know a little abnormal a little abnormal hey you know chuck we didn't fly

on these planes before you're here that was that just like, hey, it is different now. The food, this is not what the food was like before. Just a heads up that that is not. These hotels, vastly different what it used to be versus now. Just a little ammo in you if you need to. And they did change to the credit of... In the plane, right?

Yeah, the plane was something. Our first trip was to Buffalo. Costanzo's leg was literally right next i was sitting in the row in front of him his right knee was directly in my back six foot eight six seven wherever it is in one of the three seaters you know three seat or three seat or on either side i don't even think they had a first class and his left leg was my arm thing now you know because he was was like right here. And I'm like, what the hell? Are we trying to win a football game? This guy is protecting the number one ever. Vic, is this what we're doing here?

I've always thought that was wild, man. But then I also think like we are, yes, we are absolutely pampered. Yes, that's the first world problem. Because I saw the picture of the Packers playing from the first flight ever where they flew, I think it was from Chicago to New York for a game against the Giants. The Packers were all stuffed into that one tiny little plane. And I was like, oh yeah, they did do that back in the day. But in today's world on a tens of billions of dollar business, I did think it was wild to see a starting offensive tackle, six foot seven,

jammed into a seat, knowing that he's going to need all those muscles that are just being tightened up for the next four hours the next day. It is wild. And then as sports science developed, they're like, alright, we're going to stretch now. And then we're going to jam you into this. Even though there's certainly a plane that's larger than this that has been available for the Colts in the

past, but not right now. Tell me if you had this thought because I had this thought and I'm very curious. I've never asked anybody else this, but I'm curious if i'm the only one that has this you know when the patriots got their own plane the first time two of them i thought when they got their own plane i had in my head that there was vision i had like they had beds they had like massage tables they had like i beats i had it set up like they had a custom plane with everything and then i found out it was it was just a delta plane painted with their logo.

No. Everybody at first class had to. Everybody got big seats. Well, yeah. I mean, like, there were still lay-down seats and everything. But, like, I thought it was set up. I don't know why I thought this. But I thought, like, when a team gets a custom plane.

Like, have you seen some of the NBA planes? Yes. Where they do have, like, all the tables and everything, which we never had any of that. But I thought, like, well, maybe they have like Norma Tech set up. Maybe they have all that type of stuff, like a full-blown recovery lounge. So after the game, that's what I thought in my head. Yeah, and like Air Force One, Bill's got an office. Yep, of course.

We have a team meeting room if we need it. Rejector comes down. That's what I thought. Yeah. Me too, I think, actually. It's just a bum-ass plane. No, no, it's not just a bum-ass plane. No, it's a nice plane. It's a nice plane, but I'm just saying

I thought, that's in my head what I thought and it wasn't that. Yeah, we all have too many expectations, I think, for the NFL since being here. I'm looking at the inside right now. All the seats are first class. Okay, that's good. That's NBA. That's what the NBA has done. Other than that, it looks like it's

If you're looking at the inside, can we see it? Yeah, I just did it. Or is it not? I think the NBA only takes like 25 people, though, on their flight. Now, I saw, what's his face? Cross. Jerry Cross. Jerry Cross.

Dancing down the middle. It's not just the players, remember. It's also the entire crew. They still got a three-wide, so you're going to have somebody sitting in the middle, huh? Yeah. Yeah, that's... It's a... Seattle had a plane, but they got rid of it.

Seattle used to have a plane. I heard it was really nice. Oh, they sent it out like they did Pete Carroll? I don't know how many years ago, but yeah. It's a stupid plane. Stupid Pete. Get out of here. Boeing.

Yeah. It was just Jimmy Graham. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you saying about Boeing? I didn't say anything. You didn't. I didn't say anything. It's in Seattle.

What's going on over there? I would shit my pants So We had a little turbulence I'm dying, sweet, I'm dead If a part of the wall just went missing I'd have a heart attack and die I'd die in my seat

No question I guess a few times And then you land and it's like Listen, I know that you'll think about this For the rest of your life and never be able to sleep again. We can give you a $700 voucher for your next travel experience. And also the peanuts that we weren't able to serve because if we served them, they would have got sucked out in the atmosphere. Here they are.

Here you go. On the way out. Thank you so much for coming. That would be wild. After you got over the initial shock, it would be pretty wild and fascinating just to fly with half the wall open so you know when you're at one of those like high things and there's like a door some people have like the urge to go yeah oh yeah like open the door and walk out once you realize that you're not immediately dead whenever once again side of the plane is missing at whatever 30 000 feet

like the two minutes after the full panic, oh my god, I'm a dead person, you're still alive? It would be interesting to be like, what's going on out there? Right next to it. That's a long time to panic. It's not like a half an hour, we're good. We gotta find a runway,

put the landing gear down, we can't just drop out because everybody's, you know, we gotta do this whole thing. How cold it would be. So cold. Do we have any blankets? Can you walk past the hole in the wall and give me a blanket? I mean, what am I supposed to do? They did.

I did a USO tour. I did a USO tour over in Afghanistan. And we did the helicopter with the doors wide open, flying around through the mountains and everything. That was a wild and badass experience. Did you have a.50 cal? Were you the one? Yeah. You got X-m experience. Did you have a 50 cal? Were you the one? Yeah. You got X-mated.

Did you shoot anybody? With how big you are, I assume they were not pumped that you were in their helicopter, or they were excited you were in there? Well, I mean, I hope they were excited. That was literally the whole reason we were there. Yeah, when they walked up. Stupid J.J. Watts here. How come we couldn't get a smaller?

It was awesome. Stupid J.J. Watts here. How come we couldn't get a smaller? It was awesome. We had Steve Smith. Steve Smith was racing army guys. He was racing soldiers down the tarmac. He was like, because the soldier was like, I can beat you in a 40. And he's like, all right, right now. And on the middle of tarmac, like just C30s lined up all down the tarmac. And they just lined up and ran 40-yard dashes down the field. Who won the who won who won see and he talked a lot of shit it was awesome yeah that's awesome that's what they're looking for i went on a uso tour as well to uh japan in japan is just the complete

opposite of america pretty much food language view everything they're so nice so so incredible quiet nice clean how you doing? Just opposite world or whatever. And their language is nothing like ours. I assume Afghanistan is similar, but Japan, their language is... So whenever we were there, it was just like they were happy a piece of America was there, almost. They were just

very thankful. That USO crew does great things, I think. I enjoy it a lot. The USO does a phenomenal job. It was a really, really cool experience. Something I will remember for the rest of my life. We played flag football with all the soldiers. We also got to just hang around, walk, meet them.

Then, obviously, you go to the hospital and you meet some of the guys and the gals who have been injured. Just truly a life-changing experience. It was unbelievable and forever thankful for every single person who puts their body on the line hell yeah thank you troops uh ty's question for you not about the military yeah jj you mentioned anthony weaver uh he's been kind of floated as a potential new dc for the packers after they fired joe berry today i don't know how many times in your career you had a D.C. get let go of right after the year, but people always talk about what the Packers say.

They have eight first-round picks on their defense. They should be much better than they are, but for whatever reason, year after year, they can't stop the run, and they're kind of just middle of the road towards one of the worst defenses in the NFL. How likely is it that like a new dc comes in and like whether it's a change in scheme or or whatever it is like a new guy and a new voice can actually get all that talent to buy in and we'll see them be like one

of the better defenses in the nfl next year yeah i think it's a combination of both things that you just said i do think that the voice and the leadership does matter, but I also think defense in the NFL is very schematic and does need somebody who really knows what they're talking about and knows how to make adjustments against certain schemes, who knows how to do things against, who's seen a lot, who's been around. So it's that combination of the two. Sometimes we talked about it with D'Amico Ryans as a head coach

and why I think he's so successful as a head coach. He has the schematic knowledge and he knows everything and has the expertise, but he also at the same time can put that into his players and get them that knowledge and deliver it to them and motivate them to play even better than they might otherwise. So sometimes it's just a matter of those two things. I mean, from all accounts that I've heard, Joe Barry is a phenomenally nice guy. For me, Anthony Weaver, obviously, having been with him down in Houston, I love the guy, and I hope he gets a shot as a D.C. or head coach, and I hope you all have a fantastic day.

Ah. You still got time. ESPN. Ten seconds. Just hang out for a couple more seconds. Hey, how's it going? I hope you're having a nice day. No, we don't want to talk about that.

Nah, I'm good. See you guys tomorrow. Nailed it, JJ. You did really good. Your salute was way late. Plus, what was that late shit? The music is sometimes like 20 seconds, sometimes 5 seconds. I never know. Well, it depends on whether or not you're saying something worth a fuck. Oh, so I was getting played off the screen? They were like, dude, nobody cares

about you. No, you were saying good stuff, so we delayed, delayed, delayed as much as possible. Now, whenever you hear that thing middle of your answer, and there's 30 to 35 seconds left, then it's like, okay, here we go. You know, there's something to remember. I assume CBS is very similar.

Oh, it's super similar to this show. It's almost identical, yeah. What will you guys be talking about? how many hours are you out there for um i honestly don't know this weekend with the championship but i do know for the super bowl we have a four-hour pregame show um so that is a significant amount of time uh to speak to a whole lot of people so about one game i'm looking yeah about two teams like you don't even have the whole slate. The NFL never – What's that? We do post-game after Super Bowl II on the field?

Yeah, we do pre-game. We do the little halftime, obviously, leading into Usher, and then we do post-game also. Usher, baby. What do you think he's going to do? You remind me of a girl. Who's he bringing? One, one.

How many hip thrusts out of Usher? So many. Usher's going to be just spinning it all over the place. I mean, AJ just brought it up, too. He's probably bringing Bieber because Biebs and Usher are boys. So you assume them two are going to do something crazy. Taylor probably comes out of the suite. No, Taylor ain't working if they're in the Super Bowl.

And actually, from what I've been told, I think the internet said, she's got a show in somewhere. Super Bowl weekend. Hey, bad news for that show. We are getting rescheduled. Yeah. You guys are going on Wednesday. That thing's not happening Sunday.

That'd be a bad, ooh, I don't think so. She's picking Travi over her fans? Love. She's picking a Super Bowl for the family. Yeah. Her fans should do that. Have you seen her fans' response? Her fans love it.

Her fans are all about it. They just want to see her happy. Amen. She is, goddammit. Yes, we do. Whoa. Whoa. Who's not happy?

What? Tone made a little comment. Who's not happy? So she has a show in Tokyo, which is 14-hour, 15-hour. She can make it back. She'll be back in plenty of time. Yeah, what's the time? I'm sure the fans that bought tickets to that and will have to reschedule and stuff will be fine.

Selling out the Tokyo Dome is awesome. What is the time difference? Four nights in a row? 16 hours, I think. Good lord. I think it's 16 forward. Wow. Yeah, so by the time she finishes, it's probably still Saturday in the States.

Yeah, because they're New Year's ahead of ours. Bingo. So she could probably be back. But then she's in Australia the next week. Melbourne. Yeah, but Tokyo. How many people does the Melbourne Cricket Ground hold? That sounds like it's going to hold a significant amount of people.

I think it's 115,000. Shut up. Yeah, the grand final for the AFL, I believe it's in the same exact place and it's over 100,000 people. And that's just in the stands, let alone if they fill the field, which is big. The field's huge. Two nights in a row, back to back.

Yeah, how you doing? My name's Taylor Swift. These stadiums you guys are playing in, cute. 53 guys on each team, plus coaches and a full media push to sell this place. So give me a guitar, give me a fucking microphone. I'll sell this place. Yeah, but I don't know why we're showing her on TV. I don't know. It's not like, oh, yeah, no idea why we're showing her.

That was a pretty good A.Q. Shipley impression, J.J. Yeah, but I don't know why we're showing her on TV. I don't know. It's not like, oh, yeah, no idea why we're showing her yet. That was a pretty good A.Q. Shipley impression, J.J. He was saying, why are we showing A.Q. Shipley? Yep. Oh, is A.Q. pissed? Is A.Q. one of these tough guys? He should have seen it. He's like, hey, why are we showing A.Q. Shipley? I want to see the football.

Oh, wait, there's J.J. Yeah, J.J. I wasn't saying that either. I promise you. No, he equally hates all of it. Yep, equally hates Jay-Z. Yeah, Jay-Z. I wasn't saying that either. I promise you. No, he equally hates all of it. Yep, equally hates all of it. Yeah, easily. You hate any celebrity being shown at the game.

Yeah, I just want to watch the game. Show the fans. Let me ask you a very specific question. Let me ask you one very specific question. Okay. Did you enjoy your paychecks from the National Football League? Taylor Swift pays it? It would be a lot smaller if they never showed a celebrity in the history of the game.

Paychecks would be a whole lot smaller. Oh! I don't agree with that one bit. You don't think that the fans are the reason we have a game? The fans? Thank you, JJ. Thank you for saying what you're saying to AQ. There you go, man.

Put them on a split, JJ and AQ. The fans are the whole, AJ. Thank you for saying what you're saying to AQ. You need to shout it. Put them on a split. Put them on a split, JJ and AQ. The fans are the whole reason we have a game. A thousand percent. A thousand percent. If she was a real fan, would she have a Tokyo concert the day before the Super Bowl? They scheduled this a year and a half ago. We weren't dating when this was scheduled.

What he's saying is she knows when the Super Bowl is every week, and if she was an actual football fan, she would. She's just getting into it. What are we talking about? Is there a knows when the Super Bowl is every week, and if she was an actual football fan. She's just getting into it. What are we talking about? Is there a show on the Super Bowl? Is there a show on the Super Bowl day? There is not a show on the Super Bowl. I mean, this is absurd.

Put those two marks on a split together. You're talking about Tony, thank you. Exactly. Those are the two. Yeah, we're the tough guys. We don't want to see Taylor Swift on our street. I never said it. Get out of here. You love't want to see Taylor Swift on our street. I never said it.

Get out of here. You love your fame, JJ. Good job, man. You're doing great. You love your fame. You love all this stuff. I bet you love it. I don't hate it.

I don't hate it. It is a pretty sweet gig. I'm not going to lie to you. Let's not forget what JJ's take was when we first started this thing, too. Okay, I see you've come around now. Well, there was a lot of people. Early on, it was a little much. JJ wasn't believing that it was real love.

He thought it was all for publicity. There's a lot of people that thought that. I don't think JJ exactly said that, but I think Tony's putting words potentially into his thoughts. This doesn't even have anything to do with that if that was or wasn't the case. This is just being shown on the screen.

It is... These people don't understand sports entertainment. They don't, to be honest. Sports entertainment is so much more complicated. You guys don't get it. I would like to let all the Swifties know.

His name is A.Q. Shipley. He lives in Arizona. I think he has an honorary Marine degree or something. Green Beret. He lives in Arizona and he hangs out in a basement. So if you ever want to send your hate mail to the basement in Arizona. He rolls around with those guys in the basement. Was personal chef to Joseph Biden during his time as vice president.

Yeah, we don't know. Wears gigantic shoes. Very comfortable shoes. Yeah, he is a 100-mile runner. No, but for real, though, I'm happy that that beginning part where there was a lot of angst. Oh, yeah. We've gotten past it now

and i think the way old taylor and trav have handled it has been good and i said this since the beginning because i'm a human i think that knows travis a little bit yeah i've got it he actually i think on our program stated that she was probably going to be at the game that upcoming weekend which obviously led to a lot of uh buzz And we're thankful that Travis, you know, is a friend of the program. Same with Jason. It's like they feel like it's a perfect situation. Travis at the stage of life that he's at with how old he is. People forget because how cool Travis looks.

He's been around a long time. He's made over $100 million in the NFL. For sure. Like he's been around a long time. She's obviously at a stage now where she's been, you know, through a lot in life. It's almost a perfect situation, which is kind of my thoughts from the very beginning. But boy,

there's a lot of people that didn't want it to be real. There's a lot of people that didn't want to see them happy. Didn't want to see them in love. Bullshit. And I think there's a good depiction of it with this bald-headed man right here. I love love. No, you don't. I love love and I love football. Just don't want to see it with your football. I just want to watch my football and see the fans cheer. So you don't want Do you? No, you don't. I love love and I love football. Just don't want to see it with your football.

I just want to watch my football and see the fans cheer. So you don't want – She's a fan. I'm so confused. You don't think any celebrity ever should be shown? I care less if a celebrity's shown. Blue Face, you seen that clip? Could care less.

Yeah, Blue Face killer. What about Eminem? If he was out there singing as part of the pregame festivities, I would love it. How about whenever he's shown on Jumbo Drum? I could care less seeing him jump up in a thing and go like this. That did nothing for my experience. Do you like when they show somebody's mom after they score a touchdown?

Like when Hop goes over and gives his mom the football after the touchdown. Yeah, I think that's cool. I think that's cool. But why can't they show? I don't think you're comparing apples to apples here Not one bit We're comparing DeHoff's mom to a celebrity

Well Taylor's not a wife yet Which Tony Romo has said numerous times Well there's Taylor's brother-in-law And Taylor's mother-in-law Tony Romo's just put them already being married Maybe he knows something that we don't know Maybe he married them There's a chance Romo was the ordained minister at their wedding.

Anyways, Tay loves Jason. That's what is the most recent news. Sorry, that's big news. And it's Taylor Swift. And if Jason, bingo. Congrats to them. Yeah. Love you, Taylor.

Congrats to football getting exposed to a demographic. Don't clap, AQ. Don't clap. I'm proud of applause in it. Thanks for joining us. All right, JJ. Great work this week. I don't know if we started any wars, but I think you went to bat for the right things.

Fans are the reason why we have jobs. Always will be. And we're appreciative of them. The ratings are up and to the right, no matter what. Stats can some be real, some be fake, and Burnley's in second to last place. We need to get them up a couple spots. Oh!

Right? Yes. Yes, we do. Gump, do we have any chance in hell to move up this ladder for Burnley? Are you guys getting Carlos Forbes on loan or not, JJ? I can't discuss our business moves publicly. Did you see anughton Forest? We did sign Fofana.

We did sign Fofana on loan. Nice. Naughton Forest got Gio Reyna. Yeah, why did you go get Gio Reyna? Are we making any moves like that? Yeah, there's an American that was available named Gio, and you said, I don't want him. Sweet.

Was that you or Tyler's call? Sheriff is nodding. We do have Man City coming up in our next match on a week from today. And Erling Holland is getting healthy at exactly the wrong time. So that's... But we've got some time to prepare and we're looking forward to the opportunity.

Well, Fofana's ready. If you do get Carlos Forbes, I like your chances. You guys... Gumpy, advisor for... Carlos Forbes, very good young player. They have to play Man City, Gump. They are so close. Yeah, they don't need to beat Man City, though.

There's a lot of other games left. How many games do we have left? Thank you. A lot. I'm going over there for a month. I'm going over there for a month, so I'm going to see a bunch of them. That's when things will heat up. Okay.

Sure. Do we have a good run during that month? So whenever we see you go to England, we're like, now Burnley has a chance? Hopefully. What's your record? Boots on the ground, JJ. I started last year, so I got two wins

last year, but it was a championship. Obviously, we won the league last year. Doesn't count. No, that counts. That counts. That does count. Yeah, so 2-0 there, and then we lost to Man City in the first match. 2-1.

We were winning, and then we lost to Villa. 2-2. So 2-2. And then. You kind of have to beat Fulham here coming up, JJ. You got to win that Fulham match. Saturday, February. I agree.

I agree. Yeah, that's the one. You've got to win that Fulham match. Saturday, February. I agree. I agree. Yeah, that's the one. You guys tied the other one you were at. And then, obviously, we've got Liverpool. So you're 2-2-1 boots on the ground. Still 500. There's a chance to get a winning record, especially over a month.

You go from Fulham to Liverpool. Yikes. Tough. To Arsenal. To Crystal Palace. You can get Palace. What else we got? Yeah, we got a – That's February. It's the Premier League. It's all hard.

You can get Bournemouth. West Ham's a tough squad. I start right there with West Ham. I start with West Ham. Brantford's got Tony back. They're kind of buzzing right now. He'll be hurt by that. Are you swinging over to Ireland for St. Patrick's Day there?

If you're going to be over in England in March? I hadn't thought about that. is not a bad idea but like I've been over there during that time before and it's it's obviously crazy I prefer it a little quieter do they like you over there when you're in Ireland I love Ireland I've been a bunch of times once a Six Nations rugby match um against against France. The Irish rugby team has been at my house in Houston drinking beers. Oh, it's your celebrity. Yeah. We have a good time.

Get to do this. The Irish hated me, pal. Buddy, I've never seen a guy hate somebody so quickly. Why? You're wearing the Irish green shirt. You drink beer beer i'm sure why why are they not like you name's patrick mcfee i thought it was gonna be a big parade it was not stupid yank everywhere okay thank you i appreciate that i'm not the only one too handsome evan fox got

similar treatment yeah jj they kicked my whole family out of a bar out there it was uh well your dad wait what we respect it yeah the dad's booze bag for sure. But like. Ordered 80 beers when you walked in. We respect it. We respect it. That's how it was. Right.

But did not expect. What did you do? Respect it, but did not expect it, if that makes sense. Interesting. But you got kicked out? Me? No. Foxy's whole family did.

For me, they just threatened to fight me. But why don't they like you? They just automatically, as soon as you stepped in For me, they just threatened to fight me. Why don't they like you? They just automatically, as soon as you stepped in the country, they were like, not a fan. Yeah, we all see how I've dressed throughout my life. They know I'm American as soon as I get dropped in anywhere, pretty much. It was hard to get served a drink.

If there was more people at a pub than just me, it was hard to get a drink. There was a lot of literally going over my head to order. I'm like, gee, what the fuck? What I'm trying to do, I'm trying to get hammer drunk with you guys. And it was. Where's your number one place to vacation? Phoenix, Arizona. Love it.

Absolutely love it. Come on down, baby. Right after the season. Vegas is close. Just pop right down. There's also an island in the Caribbean that AJ's been trying to tell me to go to. You remember that, AJ?

AJ was probably right. Probably a good time for me to get out of here. That's a Tuesday conversation. This is when... Don't be a wuss! What was happening? Owner of Burnt H.J. Watt.

Thank you, J.J. Yay! Football! It's what we normally talk about. That man's a champion in college and at the professional level of football. That's A.J. Hawk. Howdy, baby, A.J. Howdy, A.J.

You look amazing today, obviously. Is that a turtleneck, a mock turtleneck, or a hoodie? What do you got going on? It's like a hybrid hoodie slash thing that has a high neck, yeah. And I think we've tried to talk about this before, but obviously in normal AJ Hawk fashion, you get very defensive. Does that thing have a tight circle like Kenny from South Park type hoodie? Yeah, a little bit.

You work out in that thing? You get after it? You get jocked in that thing? Yeah, I will. I'll wear this for any occasion, really. What time is the workout every single day in the morning? It just depends. Any time between maybe 5.15 and 6.15.

Any time between 5.15 and 5.17 is any time. It could be in there, obviously. AJ, an absolute machine, a monster. The Talks at Table at Boss Connor Natai Schmidt. One half of the Hammer. Dog. Cowboys turn digs. A 12-year NFL vet,

hater of most things, host of In the Trenches, ladies and gentlemen, A.Q. Shipley, nine-year NFL vet, host of the Man to Man podcast and everything, DB, Good D, Bad D, Darius J. Butler. And joining us now is a man who plays basketball, I think, at like 6 a.m. or 5.30 a.m. every day. Damn.

Now, I don't know how many billionaires are doing that. I don't know how many team owners are doing that. But once we had a chance to meet him late October, whenever we traveled out to Utah, we realized quickly, this guy's a go-getter. This guy seemingly does everything right. And now he has put it out into the universe publicly from his business that he is looking for an expansion NHL team to come to the state in which he loves, which is Utah. One of the most successful Mormons in the history of the religion. Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Smith. What's up, fellas? Hey, you look so cool right now. I just want to let you know, you look so cool right now with the visor and the collar popped under the sweater. Are we golfing? Did we just get done golfing? What's happening? No, I played last week, and I haven't taken it off.

I'm, like, going full Keith Mitchell. I reserve the right to switch it up, just like you're wearing sleeves right now. We reserve the right to switch it up. It's not backwards hat. At my age, I can do it. Yeah, you're allowed to do whatever the hell you want, especially with the resume that you have. And I appreciate you allowing me to maybe wear sleeves every once in a while

if I'd like to maybe get into shape where I can finally wear shirts that don't make me look like a fat ass. With that being said, last week at the AMX golf tourney that the Alabama kid won. Wednesday, Pro-Am. How good was that, by the way? He's the next one. This is this guy, Ryan Smith, owner of the Jazz, obviously self-made billionaire, and look at this stroke. This is on hole 17. Alcatraz? Alcatraz. What happened? What?

No. Wow. Hey, we talked to you before you went out there, and we knew you looked really cool. I mean, you looked incredibly cool. We didn't know what the game was going to look like because you said you might get a little tight with the crowd. Seems like you bought.

Hey, congrats to you, yeah that's massive yeah that's all that's all that practice that i had out behind the the thunderdome with the boys just a little further distance but if you can do it there you can do it out there at alcatraz but it was good it was good i mean it's very different when you're under the ropes i was i was a lot better from 150 than i was around the greens but um that was an amazing experience. So it's like one of the only sports that you can be in the ropes with the pros come game time. Like it's an insane experience.

Did you get better or worse, you think, at the golf that day? I think it was a prep for next week. I'm teeing up at the AT&T with Tony Finau as a partner next week. Pebble Beach. It's going to be tight. All the nerves, full display, we're going to see. No, everybody's going to think you suck anyways.

Remember, Tony Finau's supposed to be good. Tony Finau's supposed to be good. You're not supposed to be good. Remember, wow, with all the nerves probably and the anxiety. Everybody's not expecting you to be great, so when you put one to two inches, look at this guy.

That's the clip that makes it out there. You're in a great spot, I think, Ryan. Not a bad spot. How does that not go in, though? How does that not go in? Well, there might be one little thing missing from your universe. And obviously, you're living the dream of a lot of humans in the United States of America.

I believe you dropped out of high school, ended up creating a business. We're going to sell that thing a few times, become a multi-billionaire, buy the hometown favorite Utah Jazz team, run that into a wagon right now, Ryan. And then now, as of this morning, you kind of project into the world that you think you're ready for another team. You basically ask the nhl to do another round of expansion and bring a team to utah and you and i chatted about this this particular evening where gumps looks incredibly cool i'm on a bunch of uh vitamins that you know tough to find in utah but had a great night obviously had a great night there but we even chatted about hockey there and your love

of the sport and how you think it would do in utah now it seems like you're kind of trying to make it happen what led you to make this statement publicly towards the nhl and how close do you think you actually are yeah so first of all i think on our side we're all in i mean i think that's the most important thing is that we get lined up um i think we've gotten and established a pretty good relationship with gary batman and bill and the crew over there for a couple years now and i think that that's important as well and you know if you look at the momentum of utah we've got to put something in front of them that's pretty tough for them to turn down and i think we've done that we've got the youngest demographic in the country, the fastest growing state. We just were in the process of the Olympics, which is massive for 34 and hockey.

Hockey is one of the only winter sports that isn't training there. We've got a top five tech ecosystem and and really we've sold out 251 straight jazz games. It's going to be successful. And I think if you take a step back and you look at that momentum with a chance to build an incredible new arena somewhere that's hockey specific, it's pretty compelling from our standpoint and our group, our ownership groups completely lined up, ready to go. Okay. So it feels like whenever you say ready to go, people would say, well, it'd be a transition process. I think in your statement, you even said, we'd be ready to

do this next year if we had to. Logistically, it's set up. You can get the logos. You can get the graphics. You can get the marketing. And with the way the NHL has handled expansion over the past, your team will be good quick as well. That's kind of how the NHL expansion process goes. How serious are you about we could do this next year? And do you think that's a reality? Yeah, over the last couple of years, we've been holding NHL games. We've done the Frozen Fury and the Delta Center. It fits. It works. It's not as many seats as we would like because it's not configured the right way. But we could get 14 000 plus in there and get going on a launch so our goal is our organization is we want to be ready to go we know it's going to be successful utah is excited about as you've seen the reaction

and so we're leaning all the way in how come today did you choose to do the public? You know what I mean? Because two years you've been working this seemingly with Gary Bettman, trying to figure out if it's right. Now taking it public is applying a little bit more pressure. Why did you think now is the right time to do it? Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of people who express interest or, hey, it'd be nice, or like we'd be open to it. I think as we sat down recently with our group at SCG,

we basically decided if we're going to go in, we got to go all the way in. And like we're going to have to come out and say that we're ready and be ready for everything that that entails. Because unless we show the NHL that that's where we're at and have those discussions with them and, and get them in a spot where they've got to look at this and say, holy cow, like this is the youngest,

one of the youngest ownership groups in sports, tech focused. They wear cool visors. They wear cool visors. This is, yeah. So, so I think,

I think that if you put all that together, like it's a pretty compelling case. And so it's out there. We're ready. And I think that's the next step, which we hadn't done, honestly, in the past. In the past, it's been, you know, Pat, you and I talking, our group talking, saying, hey, we'd love to have it there.

It'd be working. It is on the tape. It is on the ticker. Yeah. And that's normally when things happen, you know, whenever that gets to that point. Today in hockey, obviously, there's a lot happening. But if an expansion team was to come to Utah, boy, that'd be a beauty.

We would love to travel out there for a couple games. Go ahead, AJ. Do you have any idea, any other cities around the country that may be vying for an expansion team as well? And does that come into play when the NHL is looking at where to go maybe? Yeah, I mean, I'll leave all the expansion up to Gary because, you know, he's got to run that process or whatever that looks like with their group. But, you know, I've seen just like you've all seen multiple cities saying,

hey, we'd love to do it. I think we've been in that spot. And now it was, you know, this is I think is a little different, or we're saying, hey, like, we're ready. And we can do it now. We don't need to go build an arena to land a team right now. And, you know, it's not by accident that we've been putting these games in. But I think with the Olympics and everything else that's coming, to be one of the only winter sports that's not there as a home for training in the U.S., it's pretty compelling if you add that with the growth and everything else that's going on. Your sense of pride in Utah is obviously very real.

And I think you've chatted to me about, you know, the connection of Utah and bringing Utah together because there's, you know, the Soakers. Of course. I'm just telling you what Utah people told us about BYU. Hey, we had 18,000 last night at the Marriott Center at BYU on ESPN for BYU Houston. It was electric.

Great game. Should have seen what they did after. Yeah, after. Did you guys win? Did BYU win? I just teed Houston. It was electric. Should have seen what they did after. Yeah, after. Did you guys win? Did BYU win? I just teed that up for you guys. Yeah. Get you all visors.

Yeah, we're talking about the bed. We're talking about the beds just rocking. Big time win. You know, 18,000 amount of energy. That's probably in that soaking atmosphere. Oh, my God. The amount of earthquakes going off. They probably had to get the Richter scale out of that whole place.

Yeah, we saw it. It was actually on the news. Yeah. Oh, my. That makes sense now. So there was not an earthquake in Utah last night, but there was a celebration of earthquake. Man-made. Yeah, man-made.

No, we didn't win. There was no celebration, but we. Oh, sad soaking. Sometimes better. Anyways, there does seem to be, you know, Utah, BYU, two different kind of fashions in Utah. But you have been, like, one of your main messages to us immediately was about how, hey, Utah is an incredible state, great state.

We need to bring it together, and everybody loves sports. And with the thought of bringing another team to Utah and the way you sell Utah, are you like future governor of Utah, or why do you think you're the guy that is doing this for the state of Utah? Why do you feel like you have to? I don't want to say have to, but why do you do it?

Look, I mean, we have incredible people in Utah. I'm not the spokesperson for the state of Utah, but what I can explain is I think it's one of the most unique places on the planet. I've been everywhere. Obviously, in tech, we've got offices in 26 different locations around the world. Utah's different. It's unbelievable. It's good for the soul in a world where wellness and mental health and all of that is an all-time low. I get back to Utah whenever I travel, and I just take a deep breath, and I'm like, this is incredible. The mountains right there, the growth. Before, people would just go there, and then they would leave. I mean, 7 million people come in to ski, and now people are going there and saying, wow, I actually have this ecosystem that's here. We can be successful here. I can raise kids here. It's awesome. And we don't want more people moving to Utah. We have enough. But I think the idea though is, is this platform or the role that

we're in, it's, it's, it's hard for me not to, you know, have a ton of pride about this state and everything it's about. And it's really cool because typically we have pride about different things. We have pride about our family. We have pride about our sports. But to actually have pride about an entire state, it's invigorating. And I think there's a lot of people in Utah who feel that way. And there's a lot of people outside of Utah who are going just like yourselves.

You come, you felt it, you were there. You were like, actually, this is different. You know, you guys came to the game, you went through and that's what's happening. And so there's a lot of momentum around this amazing state right now. And I just couldn't be happier to be in a spot where it's authentic. It's truly authentic that I believe it in everything great I've gotten my life has come from that. So it's pretty cool. How many billions? No, geez, we don't we don't we don't think that way. Do you Google that and say that's all right. What they say?

And how often do you keep track of that? How often do you keep track of that? Of what? I've like, Hey, how much am I worth on this particular day? Zero never ever. That's how other people keep score. Okay, I respect that. But at some point you had to look at the number to see if you could afford an NHL team, right, with the franchise?

And like when you do – Go ahead. I'll never forget. We sold our company. I mean, we've been super fortunate. We've been super fortunate we've been super blessed i remember selling our company in 2018 and like it's been a ride that we had worked for for a really long time that involved so many amazing people and i specifically remember sitting down with my wife ashley um who you met and awesome awesome and i was like hey check this out. Like, this is what just happened to our accounts.

Like, it's kind of weird. And she literally just looked at me and was like, ugh, scary. I was like, wait, that's the answer, scary? And, like, reality is, is, like, there's only a certain amount you need, and the rest is, like, what are you going to go do with it? And, like, how are you going to do this? And really, if you think about it like sports franchises and there's not a bigger platform to go and affect community change what we've done with our scholarships um we have 60,000 kids playing junior jazz like tech's great and

it's an incredible platform sports is the greatest unifying platform of all time i mean look at buffalo yes look at them like shovel. Look at the energy. Look at the reaction of Jazz fans when the Delta Center comes back. You start looking at what sports can do. It's invigorating. And so the idea to continue that with hockey and try to replicate what the Jazz have done for the community, you got to go for it. You got to go for it. Even if it's taking your life worths and your life savings and putting it all towards that, what else are you going to do with it? Buy more visors? Well, I was about to say, Jerry Jones told a story to Joe Buck, I believe, on this one interview show that was really good. I don't think they do it anymore.

Jerry said, you know, there are people who are about 230 yards away from the green. There's a little bit of water in between them. And they decide to lay up and then hope for a birdie maybe that maybe we get there. I'm going for the green every fucking time. And he talked about his investment in the Dallas Cowboys. He went all in on the Dallas Cowboys, I guess. Everybody kind of misconstrued how much money he potentially had. He was spending every dollar he had on the Dallas Cowboys,

now their most profitable, most expensive franchise on earth. And that mindset of like going for it is certainly a reason for his success. It sounds like you have a very similar thing. It sounds like you have that same mentality. Yeah, I'm still heavily involved in tech, so I kind of have a day job a little bit on that side. And we're probably, Jerry and I, probably have very different strategies on how we operate.

You know, I don't do that many interviews. Hey, you're killing this one, though. Hey, you're crushing this one. Hey, there's no question. There's no question that that like what he's done has been his style and his way and it's worked and he's gotten a bunch of people around him to to go and do that and so in a scenario if you're going to go into sports there's probably no other way you can't tiptoe into it and say hey hey, we're just going to be laying up here. You really need to go all the way in.

And, like, that is something you learn throughout. And I don't think it's any different than what you guys are doing. It's like, hey, if we're doing all of this online and we're working, like, we are in it. We're going to buy the Thunderdome. We're going to make it good. We're going to set up golf holes just for Ryan when he comes to try to hit a hole in one and not be successful. But, like, windy day. That was tough.

That was a windy day. Windy day. But, like, no, there's no other way. Like, what was I saying? There's nothing good you've got in your lives where you haven't, like, pushed beyond your comfort zone and where you thought it was. So, naturally, you've got to be around people where you can look around and be like, all right, we're going come hell or high water, we're going and we're going together. And that's,

that's, that's in the DNA in Utah. Probably, you know, in a in an unfair rate, because that's what breeds the entrepreneurship that's there. Because you need. And that you need each other. And I love that. I love that. because that's what breeds the entrepreneurship that's there. Cause you need each other. You need each other. And I love that. I love that. And that's what you feel when you go to Utah. Now Utah doesn't have the exclusive on it. No one does. No one's got the exclusive exclusive on smart people and people that are willing to do that. But that's what I love about our state.

And that's what gets me wanting to promote it. Hell yeah. Hey, you though, having to look at the price of an NHL team and then being like, yep, we can do that. Sure. That's a cool moment. You said congratulations on that. Not a lot of humans in history can do that.

Not a lot of humans can do that. We have a bunch of amazing people who have gotten behind SCG, from Ryan Sweeney at Accel Partners in the Bay Area to Mike Cannon-Brooks in Australia, D. Wade, Arctos, like we have incredible people, Big J, who are not in Utah, but are Utah and want to invest there. And I like it when people almost a little bit outside our state love our state as much as those inside. And they're all in and so um that's where we're at and we're super fortunate we're super fortunate you've crushed it pal connor has a question for you

about something yeah right both times i don't know connor if you're allowed to ask more questions after last time well what did he say last time well you were like hey i'm not gonna do the the byu stuff and then then i sat down and you're and And then I sat down and you're like, well, I'm not going to do it, but Connor might. Yeah, yeah. Well, that's what. Yeah, because Ryan asked me, he said, you're going to bring up soaking, I assume. I'm like, well, I will not. But Connor's first question will probably be about soaking.

And then show started about two minutes later. I mean, that's how things go, pretty matter of fact. You've handled it very well, by the way. We still don't know what's real and what isn't. Just want to let you know that. Well, none of it's real. See, I don't know. If you think it's real, I've got a bunch of new startups for you guys to invest in.

Well, actually, with your success rate, I was... Yeah, sounds good. We would like to potentially get in there. But we've heard from a younger generation. Yeah, Connor, what's up? What do you got? Yeah, I'm just, you know, rattling ideas here. A shake weight for a bunk bed. That is kind of...

In the bed. In the bed, yeah. So you face Don. It's like a stripper pole on the bottom of the bed. So you face Don. Yeah, boom. Now, what's your real question? Yeah.

Get a piston installed in there? Yeah, a piston. Yeah, there it is. Yeah. Yes. Boom. Look at us helping. We're nowhere near Mormon.

No. We got a lot of friends that are Mormon. Two Theraguns blasting it. Two Theraguns in your hand. Hey, I saw you with Austin Colley the other day. Bingo. I feel like I know theuns in your hand. Turn full blast. Hey, I saw you with Austin Colley the other day. Bingo. I feel like I know the Mormon community pretty well. Austin looks incredible.

How about Puka? How about our boy Puka out of BYU? Love Puka. He was great on our show. He came on our show. He was phenomenal. We love the Mormons. We're trying to help out.

We're good. Go ahead, Connor. Something to think about. You flip on a light switch Yeah exactly And there's 17 Theraguns underneath the bed Oh gee And then you activate it like it's a massage chair

Like you got different settings Yeah you can do the bunny to the turtle To kind of figure out where you want to be We're so nice but how come nobody ever says how kind we are And consider it that we give our ideas to others Yeah and the only price would be 20% of the Utah hockey team. Yeah, bingo. Simple.

Good business. But, Ryan, I just want to tell you one thing first before I ask you my question. You look fantastic on the show today. You looked fantastic when you came in here and you sat down. I mean, shit, the photo of Gumpy, you and Pat from late October, you look fantastic. I know there are a plethora of great photos of you and that big, handsome son of a bitch, Jay, just walking around Utah. I checked Twitter. A lot of people think that Gumpy is tagging the wrong Twitter profile because the profile picture doesn't look as cool as you always look. Can we change the photo?

I think maybe you just need to get in there, change the photo up and kind of show how cool you look on a daily basis because people don't think you're the same person and that is not okay. Because of my Twitter profile? That's what people are saying. That's what people are saying on the internet. Your Twitter profile photo doesn't reflect how fucking cool you are when you come on the show and just look from a day-to-day basis.

So I'm just telling you that from a fucking asshole in Indiana. But with that being said, obviously you have the plans immediately to play in the Delta Center. Have there been any other things thrown around? You know, we talked about Jerry Jones. Have you thought about building like a Ryan Smith world, like kind of like a Utah jazz hockey team world where you have the restaurants, kind of like the Staples Center, the way the Kings do it.

They have the Staples Center. No, for sure. Yeah, okay. Yeah, for sure. So I think if you take a step back and you say, okay, we've got 60,000 juniors playing junior jazz, you know, who have come through and played junior jazz, and it's unbelievable. What does that mean?

I don't think I know what that means. That's just a youth league? Yeah, we have a youth program, and everyone in Utah plays junior jazz. And as you're a youth, you come in and you sign up for it, and it's helped grow the game. You get a couple tickets to the game, and it becomes part of who you are. I think one of the benefits that Utah can do with the youngest demographic for hockey is if we actually set up a hockey-specific arena,

and we're still whiteboarding a lot of this but if you set up a hockey specific arena one of the limitations on hockey is definitely ice time imagine a world where you could actually create the movement with the junior hockey league similar to what we've done with the Jets. And so that would be an idea that we would have. And then that would actually dictate us saying, okay, how would you actually create a full environment of entertainment around that? But actually given hockey, it's moment. I mean, we've got one of the best basketball arenas in the country in the Delta Center with the slope, like, ultimately, it would be really really

cool to to give hockey this moment that people can rally around is that batman dare no that would be cool imagine if he says you got a team you know stop talking yeah just facetime him in yeah that would be amazing actually he he actually uh when he joined the program he had his uh button down button that's yeah he's sitting on, he had his button down button. That's right. He's sitting on the side of his arm. He looks super cool. We asked him about expansion.

He said he doesn't have an exact time of when it's going to happen, but he's always looking into it. Maybe you're able to kick him over there. And it would be great for the sport of hockey to have another home, especially a home that loves hockey and loves winter sports. Go ahead, AJ. Have you kicked around any possible team names for this uh team that you may be uh having come to town soon no the internet is full of them holy cow i mean we have more graphic

designers and uh brand agencies in the state of utah than i've seen i mean there was a bunch out there i saw the utah venom i saw um the yetis utah yeti with a killer logo i thought that was pretty cool actually especially with the u and the y they finally come together oh because look at that byu so so so so i think that there's there's a lot there but like i mean our number one goal is like let's land the plane here and get nhl in ut. And we can kind of worry about all the other stuff after that. I don't care how it gets here. Like, we just got to go.

And I think, I mean, NHL was gracious enough. I mean, we weren't really 100% expecting the response that they had today. But them leaning in and saying, hey, look, like, we know Utah is an incredible market. We haven't been asleep. We're watching the growth in Utah and everything else and the desirability of that region and then you and everything you guys are doing at SCG. And we'll continue discussions. I think that's a really, really good approach, and especially one from Gary.

And no one can see all of the future but that's that's a good acknowledgement of where we're at expansion's the only option because obviously uh the Phoenix Coyotes playing a thing called the mullet arena which doesn't even change over the logos in the arena for the Coyotes from the Arizona State hockey team so that team has obviously been chatted about being moved out of Arizona for a long time. Just because it's not good for hockey, what's taking place down there is how hockey people feel. That is not how we are saying.

This is just the reality of the situation. Has that been chatted about or only expansion? Just about every interview I've done. Okay, good, good. I'm happy we hit it. Nice. Yeah, I'm happy we did. nice yeah yeah yeah but look i think our goal is nhl and and i'll leave the rest on how all that happens to gary expansion i mean we

went through the expansion process but you know we're ready and we're ready to go and we just want to be true partners with with the league like we've done and everything else. And, you know, let, let those power to be, figure out what the best way to, to get something here on whatever timeline they fill. We need to get them out of Arizona.

Gina Malkin scoring own goals in there. Gross. Guys just don't even play good hockey when they go. Bumpy ice. Even though we love Phoenix, we wish that was not the case. It's my favorite place to travel to. It beautiful uh last question outside of utah that's your favorite place outside of utah and pittsburgh be honest hey are you guys ready for all-star game

no we're not no ryan you you came with a lot of ideas what was that like three weeks ago yeah hey we got the super bowl coming up yeah ryan's like hey listen i got listen, I got ideas. We just had the All-Star Game in Utah. Here's some things you could potentially do. I'm like, are we getting TikTok to do that? Who are you talking to? Is Taco going to do that, Ryan? You're like looking around. Okay, I will.

Yeah, Ryan, I will actually do that. But we are, I think Adam Silver's coming on? Yes. The week. The week. We are promoting that the NBA All-Star Game's coming to Indianapolis. Are you coming out here? I'm going to try. That's out here? I'm going to try.

That's a no. I'm going to try. That's a no. No, it's never a no. I got five little kids, man. Like, everything's day to day. Five? I understand.

Five's a lot. You've got to start at five down there. Hey, cute kids too. Oh, yeah. You have to see them. Oh, yeah. I will say Utah filled with very similar looking very handsome and beautiful people. That is awesome. Isn't it? I mean, I

saw 14 of the same guy at the Utah Jazz game. That guy. Wasn't that guy just putting? Now he's doing this. Is that the same? Are we picking random people from the arena or the same guy? It was all pretty much the same people. Let's talk about the Jazz though. Hey,

we're hot. We're Okay. We're hot. We're good. We're playing. What happened? Hey, let's go. Yeah. Jazz are hot right now. Hey, Coach. Yeah, Coach Hardy's doing an incredible job getting dialed in.

I mean, I think we, you know, at the beginning, getting the lineups right and everything, but, you know, I think we'd won 12 out of the last 15 or that. We didn't have as, I mean, going on the road stuff, we kind of have a brutal road trip right now. as, I mean, going on the road stuff, we kind of have a brutal road trip right now. But, I mean, we won five out of six at home, including, you know, Denver and some of these other really, really hot teams.

And it's good. It's good to see the young guys step up, and we're excited. We're a long way, but I think given how the team's rolling, Lowry, Collin, JC, it's fun to watch. I mean, we went to the game together. We've been to two games together, and it's been pretty incredible. Yeah, watching you watch the team is awesome. Invested, like not only financially, but actually. Emotionally.

In between quarters, that was a bad quarter, and we're walking it off, emotionally you know in between quarters we're taking we're great that was a bad quarter and we're walking it off and we're going there and you're in there that's a cool thing to see i think that's another thing like gary betman has to understand like you're in there somebody's on the door last question because you brought up your coach making a big play there yeah young coach uh obviously will hardy i don't know how i don't know how hands-on or off you were with that interview and hiring process. In the NFL right now, we're kind of in that era, a lot of second, third interviews. When, I guess, did you know Will Hardy was the guy throughout that interview process?

Yeah, so first of all, that came quickly right after kind of taking over. I'd been through a bunch, obviously, a bunch of interview process, but never through an NBA interviewing process and probably one so public. Um, but I mean, Danny Ainge is the one that ultimately led that and brought myself, JC, um, or Jay-Z, Justin Zanuck on our side and, and Dwayne Wade through that. And we went through a, a long group. I mean, if you, if you actually think about it, I think it's been pretty noted. We got down to the last couple people. Will was definitely the youngest, but Will's got it. He's a star.

And, you know, you just felt something in there, and you said, hey, we're going to go do this. He'd never been a head coach before. But Danny had done this in the past. If you look at Brad Stevens coming out and um you know him identifying talent that's what i think he's best in the world at and you know duane having all the confidence and will as an nba player and what that would be like and locker room stuff and then um myself ultimately just trying to get everyone's opinion and hey do we all feel the same way and we were unanimous and um we're all in with will and i think since then um look it's i've never had so much fun um in an organization running and it's about the people you're working with and i think

that's what's really really cool and i just feel like i get to go to work um with some of the coolest people on the planet. Yeah, Will is really, he has sick shoes. I mean, he has some chains on there, absolutely clean. Just like this guy. But then the way he was talking and handling everything, it's like the next generation here is kind of happening in the NBA. Seems like you guys

have a guy, and hopefully you'll have a hockey team soon. We appreciate you joining us, pal. Alright, guys. Peace out. We'll see you hey guys hey listen let's get it sorted on the soaking thing please come on think about that idea we need we need new content we need new content no we don't what was that about he's all right that's funny to think about because he's like, maybe his generation did not have the thoughts to put teammate underneath the entire thing.

So then as that is being the conversation discussed about his alma mater, pretty much, he's like, what the hell happened? Why is this the conversation? We got a lot of other stuff going on. 18,000 people in their arena last night for BYU. They love sports out there. It's also something to do. Like he said, 251 sellouts for the Utah Jazz.

It's like it's something to do. Like let's go do this. And the entire city shows up seemingly. And they haven't been good for 251 straight home games, by the way. It's not as if they have been a fantastic team. They've been up and down, kind of through it for a little bit here. And they're still going. That says a lot about the people of the people hopefully he gets a team out there

Nick what are the chances how do we feel about it's just literally if Gary Bettman wants it to happen yeah I'd say pretty good especially off the heels of the success in Seattle and Vegas I mean that's got to be Gary and the other NHL owners they see that money pouring in and that has to just light their eyes up so that that's expansion. He didn't say no to the potential another team. He said, we just want to be in the NHL. So however that works out, that's up to Gary Bettman in the NHL. That Phoenix team has been discussed to be a move for a long time. Long time.

AQ was in the building the other day, the Mullet Arena. How'd it go? Great atmosphere, not a bad seat in the house, but the issue is there's like 5,600 seats, and you can't make any money off that. So they know they need to get an arena. They just got to get approval somewhere. They've tried like six places.

We're coming down to the wire. We got to make a move. And they beat the Pens. They smoked the Pens. Yeah, they didn't beat them. They were feisty on the ice. Well, yeah, everybody relax. Gina Malkin scored her own goal.

Yeah, and that's a bad reflection. Crosby might have had a top 10 goal of his career. It was pretty awesome. And no one will remember. No, people will remember Sidney Crosby. No, they'll remember the own goal and the fact that they're playing in front of, the fact that Sidney fucking Crosby is playing in front

of 5,600 people. What a disrespect to the NHL. That's not good. One thing that makes Pittsburgh people feel good, though. I mean, let's go Penn's chance. We're loud. Yeah, it was all Pittsburgh people. I mean, it doesn't matter what sport it is. Pittsburgh shows up.

I mean, if it was a Cardinals game, it would be 70% Steeler fans. Like, they just travel. AJ knows it. Green Bay does the same thing. Yeah, not Pirates. Not Pirates. No. Well, they just signed a role as Chapman.

They might be back. I saw that. Big time signing. What would we pay him? Who is this guy? $10.5 million. He used to be really signing. What would we pay him? Who is this guy? Ten and a half million. He used to be really good. He's the best closer in the game.

I was telling Tony, if you need a guy, if you've got a three-run lead, if you need a guy to come in against the seven, eight, nine guys in the order to walk seven, walk eight, and give up a homer to nine, tie the game going to extras, Chapman's your guy. This is a disgruntled. That's a disgruntled. This is a disgruntled Yankee fan. AJ knows that as a Cincy Red

He was unbelievable If the Buccos are winning when they get to the end of the 7th And Bednar And this guy comes in What's this guy's name? His big issue is he's a closer And he can't fucking throw strikes And when he does throw strikes he throws them right down

10.5 million A year? Yes. One year. Three saves last year. One year. Three saves in 170 games. He's got a live arm.

He does have a live arm. The only problem is with that live arm, when he does throw strikes, he throws it right down the middle a hundred miles an hour. You guys will see. And gives up a lot of ding-dongs. We won't see.

They're never on TV, but we'll... They're on TV every night. What's going to happen with Chapman is he's going to play for the... Up until the ding-dongs. We won't see. They're never on TV, but we'll... They're on TV every night. What's going to happen with Chapman is he's going to play for the... up until the All-Star break. This guy doesn't know. And then he is going to get traded to a contender. It happens every year. He signs with some

shitbag team for about $10.5 million. And then they're like, hey, this guy fucking sucks. He throws hard. Let's get him the hell out of here. Last year, same thing happened. What happens? He gets traded to the Rangers. He wins a World Series. This guy's World Series champion? Welcome to Pittsburgh. hell out of here last year same thing happened what happens he gets traded to the rangers he wins a world series so kind of world series champion welcome to pittsburgh yamamoto guy okay we're impressed what he said you're right well that was an insider take this is purely a baseball take and i've watched a lot of her all this chapman and yeah he used to be good he

fucking sucks so enjoy he was awesome in 2016. How long ago was 2016? Oh yeah, that was about fucking eight years ago. That was a long time in baseball. Tell us how you really feel about this guy. The Pirates are investing money in someone. Why are you shooting down all my hopes and dreams? I told you exactly

what to expect. So the first time that happens when they got a three run lead and you're thinking hey, let's go. This is why we paid this guy. He's going to come in. He's going to throw four straight balls to the seven hitter. He's going to throw four straight balls to the eight hitter. Not a single strike. And then he'll, no, so what he'll

do to the nine hitter, he'll burn one down the middle 100 miles an hour. Because he just threw eight straight balls. Exactly. And that guy will whiff on the first pitch. Almost knocked that over. He'll whiff on the first pitch. And then what he'll do is he'll throw a fucking 82-mile-an-hour saucer, just a little slider that ain't fooling anybody, and that guy's going to hit it into the fucking Allegheny. And then you guys are going to –

Nice hitter. They said the same thing about A.J. Burnett, and that dog led them to the playoffs. Mark my words. I've seen it happen many times. Fucking nine hitters is the worst hitter on the team, right? Typically. You should have known that that's not.

Might be the pitcher. Yeah. The Pirates. We're doing it today. We're making moves, Tony. Yeah, Pam. That's what you guys have been begging for. Rest of the bullpen any good?

Yeah, Bednar's a dog. He's closer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Local guy. Back-to-back all-stars. You guys just got done. There's the Rest of the bullpen any good? Yeah, Bednar's a dog. He's closer? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Local guy. Back-to-back all-stars. You guys just got... As the owner of the Pirates, we just got done talking to Ryan Smith, owner of the Jazz. They're having a success run.

This guy's pulling all the right triggers, dude. This guy knows what to do. He's the only owner making money in the major leagues. Bingo. You guys got Paul Skeens. And Paul Skeens. What are we talking about here? They do have Paul Skeens.

Is he on our team still? Oh, yeah. Is he good? Oh, yeah. Did he do good last year? No, number one pick, the LSU pitcher. No, I know who he is, but did he just do minors last year? Yeah, he fucking dominated the minors.

Of course he did. Wait. That mustache? Call him up. Huh, that's crazy. What's that? I don't know. My brain might have just broken.

I just figured for some reason right after the national championship, after they win, he's straight to the majors. That's what I thought, too. He's going straight to the Pirates. Yeah, I know. The Pirates are too good for that. No, no. That's just not a thing.

So let's not be fucking. Could be. That's why I said I must be a dipshit. I just figured the number one pick of the draft. That guy who's 6'7". Yeah. He'll get an invite to spring training this year. He'll have a legit shot.

Oh, he might make the game. This fucking year. He'll have a legit shot. He might make the game. Baseball sucks. So it always goes? Yeah. Well, the baseball season ends in... The college season ends in June and then... Can't have the guy potentially sinking $400 million. You can't have him throw

1,000 innings his first year. Don't worry. We ain't taking $400 million in anybody. No, yeah, I know. I mean, he'll be great for a couple years and then a couple years down the line, either the Yankees or the Dodgers. Is Kutch back or not? Yes, he is. Okay, we got Kutch. We got Chapman. Kutch is like eight years old.

Who's still playing? Jim. Leland, yeah. Oh, man. That's his whole family. He's going in. Who? Jim Leland. He's going into the whole family. Congratulations, Jim. Love you, man. Catchy Hall of Fame. Is it really? He's going in. Who? Jim Leland. He's going into the Hall of Fame. Congratulations, Jim. Love you, Jim.

Not as much as the mayor loves Jim. No. But we love. Just a mere mention of Jim's name popped the mayor so hard he made that sound in the microphone. And Connor will obviously never forget it. No, never. I mean, when you're playing for Jim Leland, you do. That was one of my

favorite moments of all time of this entire show. As if we, Sean Casey, the mayor of Pittsburgh who played in the majors for like forever, was the first baseman. They called him mayor because anytime anybody else got on base, he's having full small talk with everybody in the entire majors. Used to get great ball contact.

Yeah, let's definitely call him, actually. He used to get great ball contact. Used to be able to spray it around the yard. So much so that he got hired to be the hitting coach for the New York fucking Yankees. No big deal. It did not work out as well as everybody had hoped because the team couldn't see the fucking curveball anyways. So he's back on TV. We love him. He loves Jim Leland.

Loves him. Loves Jim Leland more than anybody else. Currently calling him to see what the actual take is on this Chapman guy. Because I'm a little bit down in my dumps after seeing that whole thing. Because I saw an internet report that the Pirates are paying a guy. Oh yeah? I saw some real excitement from people in Pittsburgh. And then now your immediate take

is the guy's going to blow games for you. That's all he's doing. He's only got three saves in the entire season of 170 games. He used to be an elite guy. Elite guy. He is no longer that elite guy. But that's He is no longer that elite guy. That's fine. All right.

Well, let's move off of baseball because there's no reason to talk about it right now or most times of the year. Amen. Thank you. Unless we're breaking the... You going back to the Hembo deal? Thank you. No, we'll do that tomorrow. Okay. Hey, Kish, before we get out of here, you want to do a giveaway?

Darius wasn't able to hit yesterday. What'd you do? Turn and shoot. Shot. Basketball. You know what to do a giveaway? Darius wasn't able to hit yesterday. What did you do? Turn and shoot. Shot. Basketball. You know what to do. All right, here we go. Some putts.

He was using a hockey stick earlier. The balls are not set up because he was playing like a child, batting them all over the place. So I don't think the putts is necessarily an option at this particular standpoint. But the NBA, we just talked to an NBA owner. Come on. We got to do something basketball related. Just make one.

How many people do you think should win? What do you think? 15? Yeah. I love it. 15 people, $500. All you got to do, AQ, is put the ball in the hoop right over there. All right. Holy shit.

Oh! What? You did the legs, too. Yeah, you did do the legs. That was phenomenal. Bro, what a shot. What a way to end this White Trenches Wednesday. 15 people, $500.

All you got to do is repost this video, say something nice to somebody, and put the easiest way to pay you. Great work today, AQ. Great job. Deep watch, great work this week. AJ, great work. Boys, phenomenal job. Great work this week. AJ, great work. Boys, phenomenal job. A.Q.

With the bank to send 15 people to the bank with $500. That's beautiful. We'll be back tomorrow with another packed one. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Let's never forget that.

Goodbye.