The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1088 - A New NFL League Year Officially Begins, Michael Lombardi, Luke Combs, Bill Cowher, Rece Davis, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: March 13, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys continue to chat about all the different free agency moves, and the Chargers having some decisions to make about some marquee players in order to get cap compliant before the start of the new league year. They also announce that they will be doing the show live from Iowa City next Friday ahead of Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes first round game of the NCAA tournament. Joining the progrum to chat about free agency and what other moves he see’s coming is 3x Super Bowl Champion, host of the Lombardi Line and GM Shuffle podcast, and NY Times best selling author, Michael Lombardi. Next, one of the most popular country artists in the world, winner of countless awards, and Carolina Panthers superfan, Luke Combs joins the show to chat about how he’s dealing with everything going on with the Panthers, and the songwriting process. Next, Hall of Famer, former Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and CBS NFL analyst, Bill Cowher joins the show to chat about all the different moves being made in free agency, his thoughts on the Steelers moving forward, and his upcoming roast. Later, College GameDay host for both football and basketball, friend of the progrum, Rece Davis joins the show give us updates on everything we need to know as we approach the men’s NCAA tournament. Make sure you subscribe to YouTube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. Or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on this happy new league year Wednesday, March 13th, 2024. The sports program starts now. Sports! I'm going to set the odds of March 15th, but it is not. It is March 13th and it is a massive day today. The new league year for the NFL kicks off by 4 p.m. today. Every single team has to be salary cap compliant. The Chargers are all eyes on because they're like 20-some million dollars over the cap right now. They're going to have to make some moves. What does that mean? Well, probably some big names

potentially being released. Maybe a little bit of a restructuring happening with some of the names that they want to keep around. Jim Harbaugh in his first year, who does he see as Chargers in the image in which he plans on building the team? We will find that all out today in the next four hours. There's been a lot happening around the NFL. Obviously, free agency signings are continuing to take place, even though they're not official until today. A lot have already been announced. Yesterday, after we went off the air, a lot of things happened. The Talks at Table is here, at Ty Schmidt, at Boston Connor. A lot of chatter about the things that took place yesterday on a glorious Tuesday.

Yeah, a lot of big names off the board. Daniil Hunter, kind of one of the best, if not the best pass rusher from the Vikings. He had 16.5 sacks last year. He's signing with the Texans. No! No! Yeah. Damn near fully guaranteed deal. Two years. Yeah, there it is.

49. 48. 48, excuse me, guaranteed. Up to 49 Yeah, there it is. 49. 48. 48, excuse me, guaranteed up to 49. I believe it's actually up to 51 after looking into it. He was a big name. C.J. G.J. Stud safety from the Lions, formerly of the Eagles, going back to Philly after saying that the worst part about Philly was the people of Philadelphia.

He has already apologized. That was extreme. He was playing GTA. He was all geeked up. C.J. G.J. He has already apologized. That was on stream. He was playing GTA. He was all geeked up. CJ, GJ, he talks shit. That's literally one of the reasons why a lot of people were hoping he would join their team because he's a culture setter, tone setter immediately.

You see what happened to the Philadelphia Eagles at the end of the year last year. You do wonder if you have a CJ, GJ in that locker room, does it take place because of who he is as a person? He was streaming whenever he went to the Lions. You know, he was with the Eagles. They do good. Thought he was going to go back to the Eagles.

He ends up going to the Lions, which is a good culture for a CJ, GJ to go to anyways. He's streaming, playing a little GTA, and he was asked by somebody in the chat, you know, like, hey, what's your least favorite part about Philly or something like that? And he said the fans were the worst. Now, I would argue that he and the fans have so much in common, which is potentially why that they could see maybe odds. But I think he was also just talking shit. I think that's all it was.

So as soon as he gets back there, makes some plays like he always has, the Eagles fans will love him again, just like Jason Kelsey said about Zach Ertz, who was once a man they wanted out of town. And then once he started making plays and playing in the Philly way, the right way of football, they loved him again. Good for CJ GJ going back. Good for Sirianni getting him back in that locker room, which I think

Vic Fangio will obviously make the most of. Yeah, Fangio's got to be juiced up about that. We also had another in-division signing, former Bills stud, our guy all pro-po, Jordan Poyer going from Buffalo Bills to the Miami Dolphins. That's like a one-year, $2 million deal.

So absolute steal, it feels like, in Miami. And Jordan Poyer, I'm just reading the internet from Jordan Poyer's social media and some other sources that we have. I think there is a chance. I'm not 100% sure. I think there is a chance. I'm not 100% sure. I think there's a chance Jordan Poyer is currently in Costa Rica right now. Oh, wow. I think there's a chance. He posted on his Instagram last night a picture from Playa Estorios Este.

Nailed it. Thank you. Zito, did that sound good? Yes, it did. Okay, thank you. Zito speaks Spanish, so that is obviously a little check there. When we look within and heal our wounds, we contribute to the healing of the planet by shifting the collective consciousness towards greater love, empathy, and sustainability.

And hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. I mean, amen. Come on. With a good use of an emoji at the end to kind of bring it all together. He's sitting at a table on the left side, a white with sunglasses and a lady with dark hair who seems to be explaining the world. Okay, here's the universe, here's you, here's how this whole thing goes.

And then if you look at the blue hat with the sunglasses and mustache, I'm not 100% sure, but from the side profile, is that a future Vice President of the United States of America? It could be. It looks like it. Okay, so Huga, I believe that is Aaron Rodgers there. Now when the news broke on the internet yesterday from the New York Times

that RFK Jr. had Aaron Rodgers as one of the finalists for his potential vice president in his independent presidential run that is currently taking place, obviously the world... Oh, yeah. Exploded. The world, you know, went. Tom Pellicero was the one that was able to break the news in the football world, so this entire thing went.

Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Dabati Ventura, who is a former WWE wrestler and also governor of Minnesota, I do believe, who has always been a very independent mind thinker and very free to speak about however the hell he feels. I think a lot of people would say he has courage to say things that a lot of other people don't say is how that whole thing is wrapped, just like Aaron Rodgers. You can see what RFK Jr. is kind of looking for here. And boy, I did not expect this one.

I had no idea this one was going to happen. I started thinking back. You can see how RFK Jr. maybe, Aaron really ruffles some feathers in the politics world. We happen to be in the middle of that. And I didn't necessarily love the feathers that were ruffled because I had to be in the middle of the storm. In the middle of the absolute storm.

But, hey, listen. Aaron Rodgers, friend of the program, friend of ours. This is how he feels. He's one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of football. This is how he feels. You're learning that as journalism. You're learning about this particular person. So I reached out to Source.

From my understanding, there is a that um said person that is potential future vice president for an independent president if that was ever to happen first time ever in the history of the united states of america never really got more than like i think four percent vote or something if it happens though i've done a lot of quick research here over the last day i'm sure there's people that know a lot more um that man the world found out why that man was in costa rica that vice president yeah so whenever that picture is posted jordan boyer aaron rogers we can allude now from our source down in costa rica right now correct what are they doing in costa rica we assume there's a chance they're going to take a visit to blank log exactly getting ready to sit with the medicine they are

ready to sit with the medicine and they said you don't necessarily have to go attic and basement if you prepare for this entire thing. To be honest, I had no idea. Thank you for Jordan Poirier for documenting this. That is a much nicer setup than I was expecting whenever I heard these stories of the ayahuasca usage down in Costa Rica. Because they're talking about being a teepee and all this stuff. I'm like, well, I'm never doing that. And I've seen other people do videos. And it's like you're walking through mud,

like you're sleeping, like jungle. Seems like a very nice setup down there for them. Feels like these, the people that go down there, everybody that does it seemingly comes back on the other side of it, feeling like a better person, feeling better about themselves. I think they're all seeking something

whenever they choose to go to Costa Rica to do this. And I think that's why anytime I hear somebody has done it, I'm like, I'm happy that you went and found something that makes you happy or fulfilled inside of that. I'm not 100% sure, though, that the quarterback for the New York Jets necessarily knew that New York Times was going to be reporting that he was potentially going to be vice president. I didn't get many follow-up questions in there. In the middle of something. But I'm not 100% sure there was a

full roll-out plan because he would not be in Costa Rica you would think. Now, Jets fans read that. Boy. We just kicked the entire season. Four plays into our season, it ended

and then we were just like, next year will be better because he's going to entire season. Four plays into our season, it ended, and then we were just like, next year will be better because he's going to play more than four plays. I would assume that Aaron's going to be a quarterback for the Jets and play great football. I would assume that this vice president thing potentially was a part of a conversation that took place and people in the know at the time heard it and said, hey, this is being discussed especially

because rfk jr is going as an independent so there's a lot of people that potentially would try to be ruining it you know like there is not ruining but you get it that's political that's how the whole thing goes so i do wonder and we will try to get the answer from aaron in the in where his mindset is but i'm not 100% sure this is, from my perspective, from the things that I know, that this is anywhere near a reality. No. Now.

Bummer. That's a huge bummer. I am bummed out. Yeah, that sucks. I am bummed out about that. Just because the way that would have been covered and the stories that that would have, and maybe he does.

I have no idea. This is, once again, I have not gotten any answers or asked AJ Hawk, who will be joining us in the next hour. He might have more, to be honest, in this entire thing. But this does not feel any answers or asked. AJ Hawk, who will be joining us in the next hour, he might have more, to be honest, in this entire thing. But this does not feel like a potential reality.

What feels like a reality is that, you know, he is currently doing his regular, this is a very standard Aaron Rodgers offseason. And then I assume OTAs are back. Like everything that was being built up for last year's Jets team, in that feeling that he, because if you remember the way he was talking about how happy he was to be back in the building and loving football again and everything like that. Him jogging out on September 11th with that flag,

which RFK Jr. is probably like, that's all he does. Anybody else have that? The whole thing. That feeling that he had, I think he is going to be searching for that feeling again with the New York Jets this season. I think he's going to be a guy who wants to do exactly why he wanted to go to New York, which is bring a winner there. If you bring a winner to the New York Jets this season. And I think he's going to be a guy who wants to do exactly why he wanted to go to New York,

which is bring a winner there. Because if you bring a winner to the New York Jets, king. Yeah. Forever. Forever in that thing. Like, he knows that. That team knows that. I think, like, he's going to try to do that.

So this whole thing, I think Michael Cole sent me a text. So pumped. He sent me, I guess there's images now of Kamala Harris's head on Aaron Rodgers' body with a Jets uniform on. He goes, this is my life now. What do we do? This is your friend. That's what he is.

He's your friend. What do we even? Guy's going to heartbeat away from running a free world. That's what it is. The guy's supposed to just throw. We just want 35 touchdowns next year. That's all we're looking for in this entire thing. I'm not 100% sure how real any of it is, but I'm sure it was potentially discussed.

But I am excited that this has become a news thing in the world. Because other than NFL free agency, in the new league year, which is going to be... We're thinking fireworks are happening today with big names, big contracts with the Chargers. It's about to be college basketball season. We can't talk about college basketball because we FaceTimed Reece Davis this morning. He didn't answer. What are you going to do?

Good season. College basketball is awesome. Reece Davis didn't answer. He didn't answer. I wanted to. This is a new thing. Cold FaceTimes in the morning. What are we talking about today? Got some good news. Luke Combs is on new thing. Cold FaceTimes in the morning. What are we talking about today? Got some good news.

Luke Combs is on the show. Hell yeah! 105 Eastern. There was another cold FaceTime that kind of took place. Plus a connection maybe from a Coonan. Maybe from a David Coonan here who's currently in a park in this entire thing. He puts out a tweet about the Carolina Panthers. Obviously, he's upset about what's going on there

and what the future looks like. Diehard Carolina Panther fan, obviously country music superstar. He will be joining us to chit-chat in the second hour. Also in the second hour, another Carolina legend, I guess, NC State superstar, Bill Carr. Yes. Coach? Yeah, Coach Bill Carr will join us in the second hour.

Here in a few moments, Michael Lombardi will join us. And once again, no Reese Davis because he just didn't answer her FaceTime. So we made the decision as the call was being made, the cold FaceTime, that maybe if Reese answers, we'll talk college ball. But since he didn't, we won't. With that being said, next Friday, we will be live on the University of Iowa's campus. Hell yeah. From the Fieldhouse.

Obviously, that will either be the day that Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes tip off and start their March Madness run, or they will be scheduled to play on Saturday. We will not find out until Selection Sunday. But we are very thankful that this relationship with ESPN has afforded us an opportunity to be able to go back to Ty Schmidt's school during a time in which Iowa is experiencing a once-in-a-generation type run that will catapult the Iowa Hawkeyes into a successful organization for the next 20 years, probably, because of what Kaitlin Clark is doing. And we get to be there next Friday. I'm pumped about it the whole show will be there i believe there's a chance roman reigns is flying what what's the trouble what i believe the travel chief is

flying in yeah kidding me yep yeah this is all these cold face times that just take place like hey this is happening what are we thinking yeah i think roman reigns is traveling in big respects the hell out of caitlyn clark i think smack Reigns is traveling in. Big respects to hell out of Caitlin Clark. That's awesome. I think SmackDown's going to be in the area. I was like, yeah, we just would love to do it. Divert a flight quiz. We'd be honored to do that.

It's like sweet. I think Dallas Clark is going to stop by. Hell yeah. I couldn't even fathom the amount of people that were going to be able to stop over there. It's going to be a good launch to the women's college basketball tournament, and Iowa should be electrifying.

Now, where the hell is this show happening at? Yeah, Fieldhouse. So it's kind of on, I want to say, I think it's the west side of the river. So there are a bunch of dorms right there and then it's kind of near Kinnick Stadium and Carver where the basketball teams play. A little bit old. Used to be where the men's team played like a long time ago and then it got kind of just turned into like the rec center. They built a beautiful new uh downtown more like towards the library but it should be a good time it's been a while since i've been back on campus so i am very very excited and i assume like there probably hasn't i mean there there was a little like they i went to the orange bowl my freshman year so like you know you could go to a rose bowl like that buzz was palpable but

i'm very excited to see what it's like with Kaitlin Clark, them being a one seed. Like, you would assume being a one seed. Like, it should be awesome. The assumption is they are a one seed. That's why we're going. Correct. Because they would have a home game.

Now, we had to wait until the Big Ten Championship and how everything would go and how everything went. They end up winning that. We had eyes on. Reach out to Vice President Mike Foss at ESPN, former MLS superstar who's our point man over there, and we go, we should go to Iowa. Like, this is a cool thing.

Like, this is a cool moment. We want to support the Women's March Madness as well because we watched last year. It is electrifying. So now that we get a chance of maybe being a home of one of these games, let's go. Let's do this. We won't know when the game is because there's a chance we're not in the

field house. There's a chance we do the show in the arena. There's a chance, I guess. That's if they are scheduled to play on Saturday. If they're scheduled to play on Friday, obviously, get the hell out of the way. Right. Get it.

But if not, there's a lot going on. We will be in Iowa, though, next Friday. Cannot wait for that. Shout out to Ty. Shout out to the Hawkeyes. And hopefully we'll see some people. Hopefully some people will come out to watch the program. Should be electrifying.

One half of the hammer. Cowboys tone digs. The women's March Madness. I assume it's SC, then LSU, then Iowa on the odds for the tournament. Is that accurate? Yeah. And Iowa and LSU have the exact same odds to win the tournament. SC is the favorite by quite a bit.

They got a six-foot-eight girl who throws punches. Yeah. And banks home threes. They got a minus next to their number. So they are the favorites to win the tournament by far. They are so good. They got a point guard, too, that's just like. Oh, yeah.

You can shake. Could you imagine if, like, Caitlin Clark was on? I'm not. No. The Iowa Hawkeyes team is awesome. awesome fair point i love the way that they play ball in that senior with the swat yeah gabby marshall incredible kate martin's a dog shooter yeah the five two is phenomenal always has head on a swift yeah hannah stolke yep there it is yeah like they are an incredible they don't have a six foot eight". No. You know what I mean? Not many.

That's why whenever Kaitlin gets in a fever, I'm excited to see her. Yeah, playing with Aaliyah Boston. Yeah, because you watch a South Carolina point guard. It's like, we're really... That's why this Iowa Hawkeyes team is going to be smacking for it. Oh, yeah. They're going to have to be... Hit a lot of threes. They're going to get hot.

The logo's going to have to be... Obviously, Kaitlinrees Get hot, the logo's going to have to be Obviously, Kaitlin's going to do her thing But it's like, the women's basketball tournament is electrifying And next Friday should be incredible Yeah, I know a lot more about the women's tournament This year than I do the men's Which we tried to learn about We called Reece Davis, he didn't answer

Did that tournament start yet? Who's that? The men's We tried, I don't know. We tried to ask for his name. I didn't hear anything. It don't matter. UConn running it back.

Did they already? Okay, cool. Ladies and gentlemen, that's nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. Yes, sir. UConn women. They're not even in the top. What are you talking about? No, UConn men.

The reigning national champion right now. They're probably a better favorite to run it back, I would assume. Who's the coach? He's a wild animal. Dan Hurdle. Yeah, he was going to fight a crowd. Oh, yeah. would assume. Who's the coach? He's a wild animal. Dan Hurdle. He was going to fight a crowd. He's awesome. They'll be up 20 and he's going after the rest. They are the favorite to run it back.

What are they? Plus 480. Oh, not that good of favorites. That's still pretty good money. Who else is up there? Houston, Purdue. Oh yeah, they got that little guy, the coach. He's an older fella. He's been around a long time. Samson?

Yeah, there you go. Kelvin Samson. Wow. Good pull. Thank you. We don't need Reese Davis. Yeah, Reese is going to hell. I don't know if he's still in Oklahoma or one of the other several places he's got fired for cheating from.

Whoa. Allegedly. Cheating? Kelvin Samson, hats off for what he's done in Houston. Allegedly. That sumbitch is going to be cheating until his guy ain't dead. The NIL, I thought he was just ahead of the time. He wanted to take care of the players.

Yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah, that's Calvin Sampson basketball. I got to watch his Houston team here whenever they played Final Four, maybe. Was it UCLA? Indianapolis. They were awesome to watch. Yeah, they were playing against UCLA.

Kid with the big fro. Yeah, boom. Was the point guard. All those guys probably still in school because it's COVID. Is basketball doing the same as football where guys are there for like eight? Once again, we try to get these answers. Reese Davis did not. We try.

This is the least I've ever known about college basketball. Yeah, Debo just gave it to us. We got three minutes until Michael Lombardi's going to come in and break down the entire free agency process. We're on ESPN News today. We're doing this. Yeah, we are. I might be wrong with that.

I think they say that about Edie at Purdue, that he's been there for like 20 years. They retired his jersey. Edie has deserved it. He's 28. UNC, is he still here? Yeah, he is. Jeez. He got a full retirement.

Senior night. He got a burger, too. He's got a cheeseburger down there. I saw. At Jimmy's? Oh, he's a burger named after him? Yeah. Oh, the bacon burger?

What's Reese's deal? What's he doing? I saw it. Y'all call it Pete. It's probably something like that. Is he sitting on a beach or something? I'm sitting on a beach. Down in the Bama?

Sitting so strong. Reese coming up. Does Pete do college basketball? I think so. He's reported on a couple guys getting coming up. Does Pete do college basketball? I think so. He's reported on a couple guys getting let go. Pete, we're live. He didn't answer. He might be plugged in right now.

Charging? Yeah. Anyways, college basketball is happening. We'll be at the women's college basketball tip-off next Friday in Iowa. That is fantastic news. Now let's talk about some of these DBs that signed. You know, Jordan Poyer goes down to Miami. CJ, GJ, what are your thoughts on all of it? Kenny Moore

back to Indiana, something you chatted about. What are your thoughts, D-Butt, from a secondary position? Yeah, Kenny Moore coming in, I think, was it last year? Before last, you know, kind of had an up and down year. Had some contract dealings, some issues going into that season. This year had a great season. Signed the biggest deal for a nickel in NFL history. Three years, million i believe okay congratulations because it's only going to

continue to grow as football evolves i think right the nickel position becomes like a base formation so important they're pretty much starters they do so much uh not only the run game but in the past game of course so him going down there mentioned all pro pole uh cam curl is still out there still available quandary Quandre Diggs as well. Justin Simmons, probably the best safety, still available right now. Also, you mentioned CJ, GJ going back to Philly. He's got a three-year deal as well. I know the last couple years he's been wanting a multi-year contract

ever since changing his position and leaving New Orleans. So, love to see him going back to Philly. Joining us now is a racist Italian man who happens to have literally done every single job in the NFL. He's an author, a speaker, a podcast host, or a GM, a multiple-time Super Bowl champion, friend of the program. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Lombardi. Yeah, Lombo! How are we doing today? Lombo, if you just say it a bunch of times, it's the truth.

I want to start. You have to be excited at the kickers that were going on Monday. The flow of the kickers. Will Lutz, all these guys, Brandon McManus. I mean, it was exciting, this kicker world. I like the fact you got both their names right because that is a big deal. I'm off

to a good start. It'll go downhill from here. No, well, Will Lutz, McManus, you're pulling kickers names out of free agency. I mean, you did pretty good there, Lambeau. Also, Tommy Ponson, punter, signs with the Texans. Then you got Cam Johnson signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Will Lutz said he had

a handful of teams that were in, which is the question I asked him, a handful of teams were in the market that he was talking to. Jacksonville was one of them. Denver was one of them. I think there was a couple other teams as well that were looking to sign him. Now, the obviously justin tucker got broken off and uh i forget who somebody else gay matt gay signed the biggest deal here in indianapolis but like if a team loses games because their kicker misses normally that free agency the gm can make a

decision like i'm gonna go after a proven kicker and then that kind of covers your ass too, like I tried to address it. Isn't that kind of something that takes place with the kicking community? Well, there's some feeling like kickers are all within the same range, but that one or two kicks separates one of the two kickers. But handling the pressure of the moment, making big kicks, clutch kicks, that's really something. And this game comes down to one or two plays, one or two kicks, and you have to.

I think people have realized that you're going to have to pay for some kickers. I know, you know, the Patriots, you know, went with a rookie cooker. That really hurt their team. At times, San Francisco's kicker hurt their team a little bit in terms of making kicks. But I think the importance of when you send that guy out there knowing that he's going to make it and you feel, you know, 95% confident he will is important in games,

especially as close as they are. So I could see why they're getting paid. They deserve to get paid. Well, I think like fan bases too can accept you paying a kicker if they have to suffer through a couple games where the kicker loses the game. You know, because I think a lot of fans of fans you know throughout the history of football have always thought the same thing you are like i'll get a kid it's an easy job just go make your kicks make

your kicks but if you're a fan base that has suffered through a season where the kicker ruined it for you it's almost like the gm can win a headline by signing a good kicker as well which it always has it hasn't always been that way And with the salary cap getting to where it's going, if you throw a couple million at a kicker, that's a big offer. As opposed to a vet min, you can steal some real talent. Now, Will Lutz is one of those guys. McManus is one of those guys. I'm not sure how many will hit the market, but happy for the specialists. Let's talk about that first day and second day of free agency. Who has won this entire thing, Lambeau eyes now i know it's impossible to say that somebody has won free agency we have no idea how any of this is going to work out in the regular season headlines in march don't mean football games in

february we understand that completely but who do you who do you think has really approached it in a way that you would say i like what they did with their money and how they did it well i think i some of the things that washington has done i like i like that they are able to they get a two players from carolina's team frankie luva and jeremy chin both really good players now chin was hurt last year but those are two players that will certainly upgrade washington's team to go along with our strong who they signed from dallas so you know i and then they got got McManus to kick so that there's three, there's four positions that they've improved on a team that need a lot of improvement.

And it's going to be a gradual thing as you move forward. Look, Christian Wilkins is a really good player for the Raiders. I think that was worthwhile spending the money on because it's hard to find three techniques. And I believe in building strength on strength. When you're strong in an area, then you strengthen that area with someone else. So when you now have Max Crosby lined up at left end and you put Wilkins over at left tackle, all of a sudden, you know the center's coming your way because they got to get three on two over on this side

with the back chipping. I think that really helps. But I think when you go through all these individual moves, there are certain things that you look for that can get you your team. Like Green Bay. Green Bay made a conscious decision to really improve their power run game. They decided, let's take A.J. Dillon and let's take the best of Aaron Jones and combine it into one player.

And that ends up being Josh Jacobs. Because Jacobs is very good in the passing game. Let's not confuse this, right? Like, Jacobs is very good in the passing game. Let's not confuse this, right? Like Jacobs is very good in the passing game. In fact, they should throw him the ball more because he can catch very effectively and nobody wants to tackle this guy down the field. So they did them on a one-year deal, paid him $14.8 million. You know, they get McKinney to come in to play safety. I kind of like that. You know, I didn't like losing Aaron Jones because I love Aaron Jones. I understand why they had to do it. I think Minnesota, too, in their front seven, they get Van Ginkle, who's a good player. They get Greenard, who's a really good player. And they get Aaron Jones,

who's a good player. Now, everybody doesn't worry about Sam Darnold. Well, they're trying to bridge themselves to the next quarterback. How about the Texans and what they've been able to do? They're active. And it feels like D'Amico is going to be able to recruit and get people to come to Houston. Texas has the no state income tax. I do believe they're one of the states that has that, so that's quite a benefit. But if you look at what they've been able to do,

I did not expect this from the Houston. The Houston Texans were supposed to suck for 10 years, and I love the Houston Texans. I love and appreciate C.J. Stroud. He's been great on our show Casario has been awesome on our hasn't he oh yeah he's been really good he's been too good on our show almost in this entire thing D'Amico has been fantastic Everett their PR guy best guy in the NFL to us I love that the Houston Texans and the people there are having success with that

being said as an Indianapolis Colt fan they were supposed to suck for the next 10 years. Now they're seemingly making smart moves and getting better every single day, Lombo. Do you see it that way? Well, I think what you want to look for in free agency is does the team have a plan? Are they executing a philosophical plan, not trying to fill team needs? What are we trying to accomplish? And I think D'Amico Ryans has taken that 49er approach that we're going to put money in defensive linemen. That's what we're going to do. That's what wins the game. That's what wins the game in the fourth quarter. That's what we have to do. Now, Greenhardt's a good player. They lost him, but they replaced him with Danielle Hunter.

And I think to me, they're putting their money. They have a formula on what they want to do. They're following the San Francisco blueprint, which has been successful. I think that's something you want to be able to do as a general manager. You got to have a blueprint. What are we trying to accomplish? You know, everybody gets so upset if you don't spend money. But if you just randomly start signing players without a blueprint, you're going to waste money. And I think what the Colts are doing, you know, they're signing their own guys. They're using their cap room to extend their players. That doesn't mean they're not going to improve their team, but they're going to be very careful about how they approach that. I think it's way too early to judge the finality, but Houston, I think really, Houston has done exactly what San Francisco has.

Getting Mixon, they had a chance at Barkley. I thought they might get Barkley because of the state income tax you referred to, because here in Jersey and Philadelphia, it's heavy tax. But I think Barkley, being a Penn State kid, being from the area, wanted to stay close to home. You like that move in Philly? You like Saquon going there? Yeah. I think sometimes you have to analyze what is the impact of the move, right? And so what they're telling you in this move is look jalen hertz operates really well when miles sanders was humming two years ago and they were running the ball really effectively and they had that play action pass going and they were dominating the line of scrimmage

now they what they decided is they went they went on the cheaper route last year they let sanders they let mile sanders go for just over six million it wasn't a lot of money in the realm of things. And it affected their offense. And they need to take some of the pressure off of Hurts. They need to stay in a play-action pass game. And having a legitimate back in the backfield, somebody who can break tackles, make long runs, fits their profile. Because here's what we know about Philadelphia. They get into any third and one, they're going to convert the first down.

I mean, you know, so really they operate like most offenses, which is two downs. I mean, all they've got to do is get, you know, they third and one, it's a first down. I mean, you know, so really they operate with most, like most offenses, which is two downs. I mean, all they got to do is get, you know, they third one, it's a first down. So I think this is some way what Philly did was it's against their norm. Now they typically don't like to sign running backs, but I think what they were saying to themselves from my viewpoint is we have to do everything in our power to help Jalen become the player we paid him to become. And I think Barkley does that. Yeah. I wonder if Kellen Moore will stick with the run, you know, you know, that is, that's a whole nother question because down there in Dallas,

he had Zeke and Tony, and then Dak goes and has 40,000 yards or whatever the case is. And it's, or 40 touchdown and however money. And it was Mike McCarthy who say, you know, I know Kellen Moore wants, he wants to run up scoreboard, youboard, even though they paid Ziggy Tony. It's like Kellen's M.O. is to air it out. We are going to air this thing out. You bring in Saquon, hopefully that's enough of a piece,

and I would assume Sirianni's going to drill home that we need to run the rock. But I think Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio are big upgrades. You bring in Saquon, obviously that's another weapon. You got A.J., you got Devontae. You got an offensive line without Jason Kelsey, so who knows if the tush push is still 92% or 98% or whatever it is, but we will assume that's the case.

Doesn't feel like the Eagles are that far away, but we didn't think that last year. Big Dom's back on the sideline. That's good. Let's go to the complete opposite end of the spectrum. Toten's got a question for you, Lambeau. Yeah, Lambeau, I got a question for you about having a plan and a trade that happened last night. Deontay Johnson for Deontay Jackson and a pick-flop, basically,

between the Steelers and the Panthers. Both of those players were on their last year of their contract. Is that an example of, hey, we're not restarting these guys after this year? And they kind of haven't worked out. Or Deontay's worked out, but he's kind of made made some waves and then as far as the plan down in Carolina you know they've signed a couple guards to improve the old line they bring in a a weapon for for Bryce Young now is that their plan now how do you how do you see Carolina's uh offseason going so far this trade was made as kind of an old school trade it would happen years ago when Ron Wolfe was the general manager of the Packers.

He traded Fred Vinson, a corner who was in the last year of his contract, to Seattle for Amon Green. And everybody's probably too young to remember that. But Amon Green was a really good player for the Packers. So these trades kind of like they become, it gives the player a fresh air. It gives him an opportunity to prove his worth to the new team i think and both teams needed that with cutting patrick peterson i mean pittsburgh needed this look pittsburgh signing patrick queen was significant for them because

they've been trying to replace ryan shazier for years they've been trying to find that inside linebacker who could run and give their defense more team speed. That's been a hard thing for them to do, and they haven't been able to quite do it yet. Hopefully, they can do it with Queen. Carolina, look, for me, Carolina... They're dead for what? Three years? They're dead for three years?

This is... Tepper understands that they've got to multiple... We have Luke Combs joining us in like 35 minutes or so. He put out a tweet and was like, what are we doing? What are we doing? No first for Christian. No, no, nothing. I agree with the man.

I asked the same thing. Like, I don't know what they're doing. Jeremy Chin was one of their best good young players. Brian Burns is one of their good young players. I mean, this trade here, what they paid, is there anybody in that building saying to this owner, we can't do this like we're gonna look stupid like at some point like this is like just continues to mount

and where's the plan like give me the idea of what the plan okay we signed two guards all right okay great you know that's great we signed two guards but what is the overall philosophical plan for the team where are we going what are we trying to build here like what are we trying to accomplish like i think to me and i can't find it in carolina you know and everybody says well they you know all these moves that scott betterer made last year morgan was in the building when they were making them so i guess he didn't approve of them i guess because he's getting rid of all the guys that they brought in so i'm a little i'm with luke combs on this one here i don't get it. Most Carolina fans will be driving a fast car out of town if they don't

win too quick. You got to like that. I think I didn't know that song. You didn't think I knew that song. You thought I was too old to know that song. It was just on the Oscars. The Grammys. That was a great performance. So great.

And his hair looked awesome. Yeah. Normally he has a hat on. Yep. Hat off, in tux. I thought the best thing about that thing was the respect he paid to her. I thought you could just see the respect that he was giving her in that video. And I don't even know the guy, but I could just feel it just looking at it.

So I got a chance to meet him at App State. Just just what a i don't want to say basic ass dude but like regular dude when we facetimed him earlier he's taking trash to the dump and then he had to go take care of his daughter clean out the garage yeah he were it was like he's a normal i think that's why he's going to continue to resonate and continue to write songs that people can relate to because he's seemingly a human but he told the story about driving around with his dad and like this song basically getting him into music as a whole so i think he was very honored to that she said yes and that was her first time ever performing at the grammys if i do recall performing a long time in general yeah they crushed it they They absolutely crushed it. Yeah, we, hey. Shout out. Okay, Lambeau. Also, shout out Tracy Chapman for sure.

I'm trying. I'm trying. But how about you pulling the trigger? Unbelievable. That was pretty good. Ty's got a question for you, Lambeau. Yeah, Lambeau, you kind of already mentioned it, but the running backs kind of stole the show on the first two days of free agency.

Do you think that's more indicative of teams not really liking who they see in the draft this year at running back or do you think we're kind of getting a little resurgence or was it just the fact that this was the best free agent running back class in in maybe the last like 10-15 years i mean look the guy you know the raiders are going to cut hannah renfro he was making 16 million a year they're going to cut him he's a slot receiver you don't think josh j Josh Jacobs does more for the Raiders winning than Hunter Renfro did? Like, there's an imbalance here. Pretty racist to you, Lombo.

Pretty racist to you. Barkley's going to touch the ball 200 times for the Eagles. He's going to make a huge difference in their team. And I don't think people overpay for the backs. I mean, Barkley got his deal, and Jacobs is really a one, three, one year deals at around 14 million and change. So yeah, I do think the value was there. Like Eckler didn't get a great deal from Washington, nowhere near what I thought he thought he could get, but he didn't have a good season. So he's going to have to prove himself. But look, when you can get a running back that can make this kind of a difference, you know,

when you put Derrick Henry behind Lamar, and if they get him under center a little bit and they're able to run him with some power, you know, it just opens up a lot of other things. And I think that, you know, this running back market has been so depleted that I think there are guys that deserve to get paid $8 million a year for a guy that's going to tote the ball 300 times.

Ain't a lot of money. Okay, we have some breaking news from Adam Schefter right here. A trade slash reunion. Morgan Moses is going back to the new york jets uh after playing for the ravens in 2022 and 2023 obviously offensive line help for the new york jets is what they've been looking for jets also receive a fourth round pick while the ravens receive a fourth-round pick, while the Ravens receive a fourth-round and a sixth-round pick in return. Aaron Rodgers, I believe, is in Costa Rica currently. The New York Times says maybe he's the next vice president of the United States of America.

What we certainly are sure of is he's the quarterback for the New York Jets going into this next season. They're addressing a massive need for them, which is offensive line, we're assuming here? Yeah, I think so and you know the ravens also redid ronnie stanley's contract too to get under the cap ronnie stanley was the highest paid player on their team in terms of cap number and they restructured that deal which they had to because he's missed so many games his durability has been an issue look i think the ravens have taken the approach they need to improve their offensive line you know kevin zeitler's a free agent out there. I think they've got to improve. Stanley's got to play better. They've got to get better at right tackle. I think that's why they traded Moses,

and he helps the Jets because the Jets don't have a right tackle. So I think it's a little bit of help for both teams, and it really didn't cost very much money. So it's hard to find tackles in free agency. Look, it's hard to find offensive and defensive linemen out there on the market, especially at the tackle position. So we'll see how this works out. But I think the Ravens, if you said to me, what do they really need to fix? They need to really spend time on their offensive line.

Now, maybe they have some young players that they feel that they can step in and play well. We'll see. Derek Henry helps the offensive line immediately, right? You think if he's playing his best football? he's playing his best football i think go ahead i i think if he if they put lamar under center and you got henry back there at seven yards and you're worried about patrick ricard yeah and they're running the outside zone on you and all of a sudden because remember this there's only one play in football the quarterback blocks

somebody that's on the boots and naked So somebody's got to run out there with Lamar. So if he fakes a handoff or gives it to Henry, somebody's going to follow him. So an eight-man front becomes a seven-man front. And I think, to me, this really gives you a dynamic explosive play-action

pass-passing game. This guy can run inside zone, outside zone. Look, I watched his workout on Twitter. That was impressive. I mean, I thought after his first 400-carry season, he would go downhill, but he hasn't. He's got this unique ability to play with incredible power in his lower body, and I think he's going to make a difference for them.

I don't think they'll go into a playoff game next year and run it nine times. Yeah, against Chiefs, which is the whole conversation after the game, was lost by the Ravens after a phenomenal year, a dominant year, where they were resting starters in the fourth quarter in multiple games throughout the entire season. That's how dominant they were. Some of

these workouts Derrick Henry puts on the internet are absurd. He's using bands for things at like 400 pounds. His arms are shaking. He's moving. Everything he does is phenomenal remember he didn't start his nfl career as being this guy allegedly what took place was eddie george and he had a full sit down eddie george is an actual house derrick henry and eddie george are probably the two biggest running backs in the history of the nfl that have had success

i'm just saying that i have not researched that but eddie george is so large as he i don't think people realize that because i don't think they've seen him in real life oh yeah just yeah like strapped absolutely stacked and that was a big part of his game i think a lot of people see the highlight of him like running down the sideline or whatever but he was a massive dude who could move but also punish people and allegedly eddie ge George talked to Derrick Henry and was like, hey, this is what we got to start doing more of. And then, boom, the Titans go on that playoff run. He becomes a star.

Tannehill gets paid. He gets paid. Here we are. Maybe back in Baltimore, they're able to relive some of that with Derrick Henry, who certainly still has juice. Now, speaking of juice, the number one overall pick has a lot of juice. That team carries a lot of weight on Indianapolis, free agency, and the trade talks. Combine's got a question for you.

Yeah, Alonbo, obviously I think after polls did his entire combine thing that they would move quickly with fields and they want to do right by him. People were expecting that to happen, especially by now by free agency, and nothing has happened. And the Bears said that they're doing their due diligence on Caleb, and he's got his pro day coming up here how do you see this situation playing out and what do you think they're actually going to end up getting back for fields and is there any chance that he's on the roster well I mean that's a great question is it starting with is he on the roster I mean I have a

hard time believing that you're going to have fields on the team and draft Caleb Williams and I think the problem is, you know, this whole notion that we haven't really talked about trades with anybody. No, no. You know, nobody's been calling. Nobody's really asking. Everybody thought, well, he's going to get a one and a two. That didn't happen.

Oh, okay. Well, now he's going to get the Alex Smith trade, a three. Well, there's no interest. And quarterbacks are like musical chairs. Once the chair gets filled, nobody wants them. I said this a month ago on my show. I said it on the GM Shuffle. If the Raiders aren't interested in Justin Fields,

with Luke Getzey as their offensive coordinator, that sends a powerful message to the rest of the National Football League. It sends a powerful message because the NFL is always behind the scenes. Coaches calling other coaches. What do you think of this player? What do you think of that player? Is this guy good? What's he like?

Can we coach him? All that. And I think with the Raiders giving $15 million guaranteed to Gardner Minshew made a huge statement in the sense that they weren't interested because they could have easily gotten him for a draft pick, a Saturday draft pick. So I think this is going to go on. And I think what Poles is trying to do is damage control now.

He's trying to pretend that, well, we really haven't done anything. We're still doing our due diligence. Look, let me tell you something. If you're a general manager in the National Football League and you haven't really done a lot of work on the quarterbacks and you know you need a quarterback, what the hell have you been doing? Like, what have you been doing? Like, really? Like, what's going on here? We're still doing it. a quarterback what the hell have you been doing like what have you been doing like really like

what's going on here we're still doing like he's just trying to buy some time and i think ultimately i said this on the podcast i think philadelphia would be a great they lost marcus mariotta to washington as a backup i think philly would be a great place for hertz to go and play to be the backup excuse me to play behind hertz fields because the backup, excuse me, to play behind Hurts Fields because I don't see somebody saying to Justin Fields, here's a starting quarterback job. I've said it for numerous months now and it's proved to be true. My question for you about Justin Fields and maybe being moved and not moved, there's no chance he's still with the Bears next season? I just think from a team building standpoint, how do you play? How do you do that, right? You

draft this guy first overall. You want to play him right away. What happens? And then I think ultimately, are you going to increase the value? You know you're not picking up the 50-year option. See, this is the other problem with Fields trading for him. You're not picking up the 50-year option. options see this is the other problem with fields training for him you're not picking up the 50 year option and so you know there are certain people that think he can be an mvp player but there's people in the league that do the evaluation that don't see that right they don't see what other people are seeing and i think to me that's the challenge and i think you've got to clear the pathway for caleb williams who you draft to be the guy you got to start that right away because if you wait too long you know the contract all of a sudden you know you're to be the guy you got to start that right away because if you wait

too long you know the contract all of a sudden you know you're in the second year you don't have time anymore media stooges say a lot of dumb things and I apologize but this is just what we have been saying for a couple days that maybe we are media stooges Calvin Ridley we've been wondering why he hasn't been signed and why he hasn't gone anywhere. Then we read maybe on the internet somewhere that he wouldn't have been able to be signed until the new league year because of something, but couldn't have just been deemed in the new league year with deals? Have we been very stupid in saying, when's Calvary going to sign? He was never going to be signed anywhere until the new league year because of what Jacksonville

would have to deal with? Or are those signs happening all the time and it's just being deemed in the new league year and we were right because i as soon as we read this we're like we are idiots that we've even been talking about this but i feel like that a lot of people have been talking about this how do we get it all wrong yeah well here's what i don't understand i think you've been right because if the jags are going to re-sign him and they're going to pay him what he's probably going to get, why did they sign Gabe Davis? Why did they sign Devin DuVernay?

Like, why are they signing all these other receivers? Like, you know, what are they doing? You know, they've got Ingram, who's on the franchise tag. They spent a lot of money on Christian Kirk. They still have Zay Jones there. So, like, for me, how many can you have? It's not a hockey team you're not running lines out there so i thought to me it was a message that you're sending that you're

sending you know that that you were not going to get ridley back and now he could have signed somewhere though ridley could have signed like this could he's just what do we yeah i think that the way i read the terminology of that deal and i haven't looked at his contract, is it's only the trade affects him if he signs back with Jacksonville. So if he signs three days in the league year with Jacksonville, but I think Jacksonville's allocated money. You know, that's the problem with free agency. If you don't get money now, you start taking visits now. Like, you know, we see Chase Young taking a visit.

This guy's taking – when you start taking visits, that means you don't have a market. You don't have a market. You don't have a market. I think Ridley has a market. I know New England wants him. I'd assume a lot of teams want him, especially in this we-need-weapons time of the NFL with what Calvin Ridley has done. And shout out to Calvin Ridley, by the way. Bouncing back completely. That's a good

story. Great story. We're happy for him. We're pulling for him. Excited to see where he ends up. He's still a big name that is potentially available, even though he allegedly wants to go back to the Jacksonville Jaguars. We can get another team in there and take him out of the AFC South. We can do that for him. Excited to see where he ends up. He's still a big name that is potentially available, even though he allegedly wants to go back to the Jacksonville Jaguars. We can get another team in there and take him out of the AFC South. We can do that for sure. D-Butts has a question for you about today's big conversation that's inevitably going to take place.

Yeah, out west, the Chargers, Harbaugh, they got to get under cap, be cap compliant. Is there any world, number one, where they can keep those big name guys with those big contracts, do some gymnastics and keep Bosa and those Mack and Allen and Williams all in the building? Or if not, if you're in that office, who's the short man out? Who's the guy that's left out? Well, I think to me, every time you want a team that has cap trouble, you look at who has high paragraph fives, right?

That means their base salary. look at who has high paragraph fives, right? That means their base salary. So what happens is like what they did with Pat Mahomes, like what they did with Josh Allen, like what a lot of teams do is they just guarantee the players paragraph five and it lowers their cap numbers significantly. So the Chargers could go in and I'm sure Ed McGuire does a really good job of the Chargers in managing their cap. I'm sure they know exactly what they're going to do, who they're going to guarantee and what they're going to do. It's really no more money spent. It's just simply guaranteeing the paragraph five, which converts into signing bonus, which then lowers the cap number. But for me, I think the one player who's vulnerable, and he's a really good player, is Keenan Allen.

But they signed Mike Williams last year, and he's the home run threat. He's the guy that changes the game. Keenan Allen's the guy that possesses the ball and keeps you going. Good player. But if you're going to get rid of one of those guys, you're probably looking there, or you're looking at Khalil Mack because of his age.

This idea they're going to cut Joey Bosa is absurd. I mean, Joey Bosa's got great value in the market. I know he's not been durable, but he's got tremendous value. They're not cutting a guy like that. Keenan Allen, I would assume. He's there every day. He's the blankie.

He's the safety blankie for Herb. Yeah, he had an unbelievable year. Mike gets hurt a little bit. Superstar. Went healthy. Unbelievable. Absolute superstar. And they paid him for the superstar moments.

But he has gotten injured. Big guys, a little bit more susceptible to things happening, especially on the outside. Fascinating situation over there. In that division, though. Yeah, Lambeau. Jimmy G, are we going to see him in the UFL or maybe the ELF, the European League of Football, of course,

new home of John Gruden? This guy was in a Super Bowl a couple years ago. Yeah, he was in a Super Bowl. Is that the Italian League? I'm insulted I didn't get a call from that league. That's the Italian League? I can't believe that. Gruden, I believe, is advising in the Seaman in Milan.

I think the Seaman and Milan are being advised by John Gruden. That is news that broke last night. Grazie, prego. Forza Milano. The pot, the pot. Stay off Milano. The boss, the boss. Stay off the email. You know, we don't take email over here. You know, that whole thing.

But Gruden knows ball. That'll never. And the Seaman, they love ball. They know ball, too. They know ball. The Seaman know ball better than anything in history. Just about everybody. They were birthed in the ball.

Yeah. The Seaman. And now, you know. Five-time champs. Five-time Italian Bowl champs. Well, that's what they do. The semen. Five-time champs. Five-time Italian Bowl champs. Well, that's what they do. The semen, find a way to win. Italian Bowl, too, filled with meatballs and spaghetti when you get it.

Just like the Orange Bowl. They don't have meatballs over there. They don't have meatballs. Meatballs are an American thing. They don't have meatballs over there. That makes sense. That makes sense for sure. That makes sense.

Peel Parmesan. There's no meatballs in Italy. You're acting like a real asshole right now. I'm just saying. Uncultured swine. The idea that there are zero meatballs in Italy. Stick to your potatoes, okay? I will.

I mean, it's like lasagna. You can only get lasagna like on holidays over there. What? You know, it's like that. Yeah, that's right. It's a cake. It's a cake. It's an actual pasta cake.

Look, I went to see Springsteen in Florence, and I stopped at, I went to this restaurant twice, and I said, do you make lasagna? And the lady said, if you come back on Saturday, I'll make it for you, but I only make it at Christmas. So I came back on Saturday. She made it for me. It was tremendous. The lady died because she wasn't able to, you ruined her schedule.

She took her 10 hours to make that lasagna. They got cabagool? Had to shut, they definitely got cabagool. Had to shut. They definitely got cabagool. Oh, they got all that. Yeah, they got all that. Double check. Oh, yeah. Come on.

You know, this guy. No meatballs, no lasagna. I got to ask. A lot of fish and pasta, my friend. What have you been lied to about? All the food. Food propaganda. I thought it was everywhere.

Thank you. Meatballs. Thank you, buddy. Spaghetti with meatballs. They got pizza over there? No. They got breadsticks or no? I hate to was everywhere. Thank you. Meatballs. Thank you, buddy. Spaghetti with meatballs. They got pizza over there? No. They got breadsticks? I hate to break the news to you.

They don't have veal parm over there or chicken parm. They don't cover everything in cheese and sauce. That's a mistake. This place sucks. Not having chicken parm is a massive mistake for the boot country. Come on. Italian-American food and then there's Italian. Yeah, but how come the Italians can't be like, you know what?

Yeah, the gringos did good. Good idea. That's actually a pretty good idea. Chicken parm. Are you kidding me? I'd love to see Giuseppe Marcellini over there take his take on chicken parm. No, they got pizza. No, they got pizza. No, they have pizza.

Don't kid yourself. They have great pizza. I mean, they better. Pizza Hut, yeah. Good Lord. Is there a Pizza Hut in there? Not Pizza Hut. Don't ask.

Idiot. What are you talking about? What? Idiot. There's no Pizza Hut? Oh my God. Right next to the line. Pizza Hut pizza is always good.

What are we even talking about? There should be one in the Coliseum. Are you kidding me? Look at what they have done in the United States of America to our beautiful thing pizza. They've created a hut, hut, hut, hut, hut that has the greatest pizza every day, all day, all the time. That's right.

How's the quality? Great. Top notch. Oh, my God. Sorry, Lomb. They're missing out. I don't know if breadsticks and wings, though, do they? I don't think they got the wing house.

No. Wing street? No, they definitely don't. The wing street? Anyways. Don't try and get a pepperoni pizza, either. What? Beloved Italian American foods not found in Italy.

Baked ziti? They ain't got baked ziti. Come on. Baked ziti now. Thank you. Thank you. Caesar salad? I thought I was eating Italy when I was eating Caesar salad.

They don't have garlic bread? Are you shitting me? I'm never going now. What are you talking about? I need to go. Go see that. It's amazing. This is go. Go see those channels. It's amazing.

This is unbelievable. Go open a pepperoni pizza shop. If you went, you would not miss an inch of it. It's so good. Here's another thing. Like in Ireland, I went to Ireland, and they eat all fried food every day, all day. Dogs. They don't have ranch dressing.

Really? If you were to take ranch dressing to Ireland, it's like I think you'd become a billionaire. King of the castle. That's all I think you'd become a billionaire. King of the castle. That's all I thought for like four straight days. I'm like, is there any ranchers? We don't have it. What's that? No wonder they hated you. They hated me over there.

Every restaurant. You guys got ranch dressing? No, we don't. They need it over there. Pepperoni pizza in Italy. Here's a business plan. Boys, gonna have to go live in the boot for a little bit. Pepperoni pizza, spaghetti with meatballs. Wait until you hear this protein we're putting alongside the carbs on top of it. You guys are going to love it.

And then in Ireland, we're opening a ranch warehouse. Anyways, is that where Jimmy G is going to be working next year? What do we think about Jimmy G? Well, he's going to serve. I can't imagine somebody after the two-game suspension, you's going to get cut here when the league year starts, right? And I think all those guarantees get washed away because of the suspension. So, you know,

I'm sure he'll be on some roster as a backup quarterback somewhere. I mean, look, now we're in the backup quarterback cycle a little bit here. Mariota goes to Washington. You know, Jameis. Jameis is in Cleveland.

Which is interesting because they didn't sign Flacco back. I thought that was interesting. Where's Flacco going? I don't know. He's going to be out there. It'll be like Jimmy G. They're all out there. For example,

what does Chicago do? They're going to have to get a what's the – like, for example, you keep – you know, like, what does Chicago do? They're going to have to get a backup out if they decide to trade fields, when they trade fields. All right. We appreciate the hell out of you. Have an incredible day. Thank you for the time, pal. You too, guys.

Thanks a lot. Hey, get out and see Michael Lombardi. Yeah. Hello. Hey, Chuck Pagano, figure it out. Yeah. That's wow. Italy doesn't have Italian dressing?

Then why is it called Italian dressing? I'm putting out a call right now to the Miraldos, the DiGiulios, the Monoros, the Peronios, the Master Giacomo. You guys need to figure out how to get meatballs on spaghetti back in the homeland. If you want to give back to Italy, get pepperoni pizza. There are some places that serve meatballs. They don't serve it in the homeland. If you want to give back to Italy, get pepperoni pizza. There are some places that serve meatballs. They also don't serve it in the pasta. It's like a side dish to the pasta.

Well, that's smart because you're not supposed to put meatballs on a sub bun and people do that. So I'm happy that we have abused... They definitely don't do that in Italy. Well, that's because they got brains. Which is what we're saying. Pepperoni is more like they put like prosciutto or gabagol on top of the pizza.

Yeah, they got it like spread out. Plus, no garlic bread. How do they stop vampires over there? All right. Hour one's wrapping up here. That is nuts, though. Great question. Great question.

Best kind of bread they don't have? No, the food's so good you do not even notice what you're getting or what you're not getting. I promise. I bet. Here's the thing about these Italians, okay, making their it's like good ingredients sure thank you we love pizza hut yeah but boy the toilet knows we're coming oh yeah yeah sure the toilet here's us talking about part of the and it's like okay what's coming next john yeah toilets like preparing for super bowl and pizza huts coming in you know what I mean? As it should.

Those Italian ones, you don't feel as... A lot lighter. Yeah, you don't feel like you're dropping a bomb. I would assume that's what the pasta, everything is like over there. 100%. All of it's fresh. You can tell it's fresh. You can taste that it's fresh.

And they just chill, right, too? We're taking two hours off in the afternoon. They don't work at all. They don't work at all. Respectfully, they don't work at all. It's awesome. They seem very, very happy. When is the restaurant open? I don't know. all. They don't work at all. Respectfully, they don't work at all. It's awesome. They seem very, very happy. When is the restaurant open?

I don't know. Get off my ass. You own the restaurant. That's all of Europe, though. I went to Spain, and the entire country was off for a month. That was just how it was. What's that? Siesta?

The afternoon? A little siesta. It's expected at some places. Hey, not open until, what, 2, 2.30, 3, depending upon how good of a nap we all get here in the afternoon. It'll be 5. It'll be 4, depending upon the day. It's like, where are you guys? Where am I?

Do they live longer? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yes, a lot. Might be on the same. Saying that carbo-low diet when you get older helps keep you alive longer. I heard. I read something on the internet.

Not good. Well, they've been trying to tote that. Yeah heard, I read something on the internet, not good. Well, they've been trying to tote that. Yeah, they've been trying to tote that for a while. Oh, yeah. They're telling me I'm dying soon. I'm like, wait a minute. I just read something a couple weeks ago where I'm living forever because I'm smoking. Well, yeah, tell your heart that.

Yeah, heart attack incoming. Yeah, it's coming right down the pipe. I'm like, wait a minute. I thought that was from the bacon I was eating. I didn't know that marijuana was killing me. People without signs. I just would like to let everybody know that we come from a point and a standpoint of it feels – because sports is starting to happen more and more

and we are right in the middle of it. Stats are on everybody's team somehow, and I don't know how that works. I would like us to – you know, we're talking guardrails on the NIL. I'd like us to start putting guardrails on stat usages in every day sports every i would like us to start doing that because somehow some way somebody who is very qualified will say this with stats and then somebody who is equally as qualified whether you like it or not will come on the other side with a stat that will directly contradict what this one is. And us stupid people, we've got numbers flying at us everywhere telling us we're going to live, we're going to die.

This is right. This is wrong. You're a hero. You're the worst. It's like, how are we supposed to sort it out? You're supposed to go for it. You're not supposed to go for it. Let's figure it out.

Let's put guardrails on stats. It's a good idea. That's why our next, the community notes are awesome. Because, for instance, yesterday, I wouldn't have known about Sidney Sweeney if there weren't community notes on the photo. Sports! All beautiful. The weather is starting to turn here in the four-season climate.

Cities and sports are happening, and the NFL is cooking. And today, we have a chance to talk to Luke Combs in four minutes and Coach Bill Kyer in about 25 minutes. I'm not alone. I get a chance to chat every single day with a great group of fantastic Americans. The Talks Table is here. I have Boston Connor and I have Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer.

Darn. Cowboys turn digs this year. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Evan Fox is in the back. Zito's in the back. Nick's in the Darius J. Butler is here. Evan Fox is in the back. Zito's in the back. Nick's in the back. Dirty's in the back. Bruce is in the back.

Mitt's in the back. And then there's one Canadian man we get to chat with every single day as well. And that's one half of the hammer. Don Cowboys. Bubba Gumpino. Now, Gumpy, you let me go through that entire thing without mentioning Bill. So that's on you. No, not at all.

I love Bill. Yeah, so do I. I absolutely love Bill. Who doesn't? me go through that entire thing without mentioning bill so that's on you no not at all i love bill yeah so do i i absolutely love bill who doesn't and bill we bill's never on a microphone unless we're talking about serial killers in the midwest which i don't like that he knows that stuff yeah hey an expert's an expert you can't argue he's done the research uh gaming yeah computer building yep dips and shrugs correct he's got his own um uh ai in there that he does every single day editing youtube's building but you are the only canadian in here do you feel outnumbered at times bubble gumpino no we're all big family here yeah you're right yeah yeah plus we all hate canada here i mean let's just go a spade a spade love hockey yeah yeah absolutely. Love Sidney Crosby. Yep. Individual.

I said Canada. SGA. I love Niagara Falls. Toronto's a great city. Toronto. Right. That's pretty sweet. Montreal. Montreal.

Manitoba. Saskatoon out there. Saskatchewan. We like toques. We like toques. Yeah, like Ripper. Not Ripper. Manitoba.

You talking about the hockey guys? Kipper. Kipper. Kipper. Kipper the Ripper Manitoba Kipper Kipper the Ripper Yeah because when he gets that Pop on his Rip on Kip Their bacon stinks Canadian bacon

Oh that's ham right Sandwich We're not eating it everyday Tim Hortons Well the fact you guys call it Canadian bacon is a little self serving It's not where you're not eating it every day. Tim Hortons? Well, the fact you guys call it Canadian bacon is a little self-serving. It's ham. Get over it. You know what I mean? Like that is kind of our thing, but I like

King Timmy Hortons. I don't mind him. Everybody loves Timbits. Canada's not that bad. Why'd you say we hate Canada? I was just throwing it out there, seeing, you know, testing the polls on how we feel about Canada. Do we hate Canada, you just said? The answer's no. Hey, let's go, Canada in the polls on how we feel about Canada. Do we hate Canada, you just said. The answer's no. Hey, let's go, Canada.

We're on TSN right now. What's that? We're on TSN right now. Of course we are. Boss. The Sports Network. Nailed it. Is that what it's called?

Hell yeah. They put the T for the in TSN? I love that. It's pretty good. Now we're talking? Yeah. Now we're talking. Joining us now is not a Canadian, but an American who has the greatest jawline in the history of sports media.

He's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of future vice president of the United States. Can you wait until I answer? Come on. AJ Hawk. AJ Hawk. Oliver, how are you doing?

Okay. Is everything okay? I don't know. What's going on, man? Who's going to be the next VP? I don't know. You better promise me a spot. Tom Pelissero reported via New York Times reporting that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

has recently approached Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Dabati Ventura about serving as his running mate on an independent presidential campaign uh and both have welcomed the arbiters and we did see a photo from last week or a couple weeks ago where aaron and rfk jr got high together not talking about drugs talking about hiking a mountain with a bunch of dogs i assume maybe a conversation or two happened while they're out in the wilderness trying to avoid mountain lions and such over there in california um aj i i reached out to one of the persons involved in the story and uh i was told in costa rica just start getting a bunch of text messages out of nowhere i'm not 100 sure he aaron maybe knew that this news was going to get announced on this particular day uh but i did not do any follow-up or get any more

information from that i assume you know more when did he tell you he was going to be vice president united states of america and what were your follow-ups to that entire situation whenever you found out which we assume months ago aj knew about of course no i i had no idea and if he did actually tell me that he was gonna you know thinking about making a run for the vp i probably would not even have any follow-ups i'd say say, okay, yep, sounds about right for, you know, what you've been doing. What you've been doing. It's not like a, it's not a, it's not a bad thing. I'm just saying, like, what, nothing would surprise me right now.

Yeah, I think, I think we all kind of feel the same way. Like, when we read it, we go, of course. Sure. Of course. It'd be sweet if you did it both, though. Why not? Do it. Do it while you're leading the Jets back to victory.

That'd be pretty cool. Well, that's the thing. The Jets fans all see this and they though. Why not? Do it. Do it while you're leading the Jets back to victory. That'd be pretty cool. Well, that's the thing. The Jets fans all see this and they go. Got to focus on ball. But we got four plays last year. That's what they're all about. We got four plays last year. They were told to punt the entire season, remember?

Joe Douglas really didn't do much. Solid didn't really do much. They were trying. They were trying their best. But, you know, the whole season was basically like, yeah, you're going to have to wait until next year. All those happiness and emotions and feelings you were having coming into this year for the first year with a real chance. Need you to bottle that.

Okay? Yep. Put that bottle into the fridge. Let that thing get ice cold. And then go ahead and grab it for next season because we're punting on this one. And then all of a sudden they're ready. Are you guys going to run for vice president of the United States of America? What?

I thought we were going to do this entire thing. In your eyes, and I let off the show saying, like, I have no information. I've not been told. This doesn't seem like a reality, but maybe. Is that how you feel as well? I mean, it does not feel like a reality at all. But they never said anything that Aaron said. He said he welcomed the overture.

Yeah. So I think what they're— If they want me to be a VP, I'll say, yeah sounds good man give me a text give me a call let's see whatever happens that's how you're saying that's that's what i'm saying it could have gone hey what if i picked you to run for my vp okay cool man yeah let me know that'd be crazy cool yeah yeah hit me up welcomed overtures i guess the opposite of that would be stop yeah don't you even yeah the way he was phrased is interesting we'll try to find out we will try to find out and if it's not us it'll be somebody but like obviously this is just another uh jets fans this is what it's like yeah yeah everything aaron does every conversation he has on a hike is going to get

it's going to get and it's going to get blown out of proportion. Aaron is literally in a jungle somewhere. That's how this goes, from my understanding, with Aaron over the last four years. You probably know a little bit more. You're not saying that's a great rollout for announcing your VP candidate if he doesn't even know and he's in another country?

Alright, AJ. Can't take anything serious that you say. When AJ's doing this, he knows more information. This is him deflecting. We will continue to try to pepper him. Now, we've got to pivot away from that because we have a CMA Entertainer of the Year joining us. We have a CMA Single of the Year reigning defending current champion. We have a man who went up on stage alongside Tracy Chapman

and stole the entire Grammys. How you doing? Giving out awards to people? Sweet. We're going to have a performance that's going to be so amazing. Everybody on earth is going to talk about it. Die hard, App State Mountaineer fan. Die hard, Carolina Panther fan.

And a man, if he comes to your town with a tour kicking off in about a month or so, you should go see because he's a showman. Yeah. He is a showman. Taking his trash to the dump earlier. Now, talking about a dump of a franchise, Carolina Panthers. Ladies and gentlemen, Luke Combs. Good to see you.

Hey, how are you? I'm great, man. I apologize for saying there at the end, the dump of a franchise, Carolina Panthers, because that is a team that you are a fan of. Yeah. Yeah. Your tweet the other day seemed like there was a little bit of passion behind this. A man who's in the middle of a country music career that people dream of,

selling out stadiums. We're not talking about theaters. We're not talking about arenas. We're talking about stadiums. So he can take the high road, just kind of, hey, good to see you guys. So you have to do that. Instead, looks at his football team that he's been a fan of since he was a kid growing up in North Carolina and goes,

what are we doing? Is there a plan in place at all for any of this? New GM, new head coach. How do you feel about the state of the Panthers? And I think you're speaking for a lot of Panthers fans whenever you're tweeting something like that out, Luke. Yeah, it's tough, man.

It really is, honestly. I saw that picture on the screen, and, God, those were good days, man. The dab, those were good times. You know what I mean? Keekly, those were good times, you know? Feels like a century ago, man. It's tough right now. What do you think?

What do you think, though? How long is this going to happen? We got Canales in there. He did go with Tampa down. Morgan, he didn't blink his whole press conference. The guy didn't blink one time. Super football guy. This is good news, right, Luke?

Here we go. We're back to being optimistic. No, man. It's like I'm, you know, I obviously don't know Dave at all. You know, I'm sure he's an awesome guy. But I don't get the hype behind hiring the offensive coordinator for the 20th best offense in the league.

You know what I mean? I mean, that's just, I mean, to be completely honest, you know what I mean? Like, what are we talking about here? There's 20 other guys. I just don't know. You know what I mean? I don't know what the answer is. And if there's some big plan, I certainly don't know. You know what I mean? I don't know what the answer is. If there's some big plan, I certainly don't understand it. I'll tell you that much.

Okay, Luke. Well, I'm hoping that Morgan and Mr. 20 out of 32 will be able to earn your appreciation on Panthers fans because I think it's all you're kind of hoping for. Go ahead, AJ. Have you been able to meet the owner, David Tepper, and have any interactions with him? And do you have faith that this guy's going to kind of get you guys going in the right direction? I haven't. I've met him very, very briefly. I actually did my fantasy football draft a few years ago in the Panthers stadium that's interesting uh as that is me and me and my best buddies did a uh did a combine of our own to determine draft order if you can imagine how

how'd you do how'd you do that was oh terrible second to last pick dude i'm not not a speed guy you know you can probably tell me bench yeah did you bench yeah no bench there was no bench it was like flip cup you know those kind of it's more more of that stuff yeah yeah we understand how your flip cup or one one you you play guitar well so i i went second so it was interesting because my my buddy reed went first and he's a decently athletic cat and he came in last. So it was kind of like the person that went first did the worst, and then I did the next worst.

And then I don't know if it went all the way up the chain like that, but it seemed like everybody else kind of figured the program out after they watched us fail at it a bunch of times. Well, I like that. I like that you offered to go second, seemingly, is what I'm hearing. I think it was random. I would have definitely went last if I could have. Yeah, smart. Okay, Luke, I appreciate that move. That's the right move in this whole thing. I assume there is where you met Tepper briefly, because what we know of Tepper is at his previous job, he had a guy who was a manager or something of him, and he won a

race. And that guy said, you don't deserve a race, David Tepper. This might not be the real story, but who knows. David Tepper said, oh yeah? And starts his own company. And then the company gets bigger. Buys this guy's house. Tears this guy's house down completely. Just tears it down

completely. Builds a bigger house in place of that guy's house. And I don't even completely builds a bigger house in place of that guy's house and i don't even think he lives in it then goes to the carolina panthers he uh he owns the soccer team as well he has fired like 10 coaches in two and a half years whenever you uh when you combine it i don't know if that's the accurate number but you get it for the for the story of this thing he seems to be a guy that wants to win, right? Doesn't it feel like that is what it is with his moves? But do you think he is a guy that can? And when do you think you'll talk to him and be like,

Ted, we got to get into a better spot here whenever we're talking about the way we're running the Carolina Panthers? Yeah, I don't know. You know, I mean, his ability to get it done, I mean, it hasn't happened yet for sure. I mean, his ability to get it done, I mean, it hadn't happened yet for sure. So, you know, I mean, you know, he's obviously a shrewd businessman, but I'm a great musician and I'm not a football coach.

You know what I mean? I mean, that's just the way it is. I'm great at doing music, but I ain't at the combine telling you who to draft you know what i mean i just say it ain't happening yeah you know i mean you can be good at one thing don't mean you're good at something else i mean that's the way you know and i think as a fan i think we all you know i mean throwing drinks on the fans in jacksonville ain't a hot look dude you know what i mean it's like he he's probably trying to buy my house, right? He's probably going to try to buy my house right now.

He could. I would be glad to sell it to him. But, you know, I just think it's kind of like it feels like we're the worst franchise in all professional sports right now. And it's really hard. It's really hard to deal with that. You know what I mean? It's going to get better Luke. It can't get any worse dude.

It can't get any worse. Well you know, this has been happening to you for your whole life. It could get worse. There was only like 100 people at the last home game. It was like a completely empty stadium. And we've heard your words before.

Diamond rings and football teams. Pornace boy part. You talk about the Panthers there, huh? That's what you're talking about. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Are we in the middle? I grew up in Charlotte.

I love, you know, I was, I mean, I was meeting Sam Mills at Burger King when I was five years old, the first season that we were a team. It's literally to say born into being a fan of this team is pretty close. You know what I mean? It may be almost more than that because they became a team. Some of my first memories are going to Panthers games, watching Panthers games with my dad. I cried when Brady beat us in the Super Bowl.

I was probably 10 years old, 11 years old or something. I just brutalized us, you know, stay up past my bedtime. Casey kicks it out of bounds. Oh, whoa. We bozoed that. That was brutal. No reason, Brady, to kick her. No reason for that.

I mean, I understand it's part of the story, but like kickers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I get it. Yeah.

Well, I appreciate, I appreciate that you're a football guy and that you have the ability to create the music that you do. Are we in the middle of, are we writing anything right now? Where are we doing right now? Where are we at in life? Cause obviously life's a different point. We got, we got, we got family now. We're, uh, we're taking the dump our trash out

to the dump our football team sucks football awful sucks oh app state oh there you go team playoff we got a shot right that's what we're looking for i don't know i don't know about right now um but man i yeah i love app cool there uh we talked a little bit earlier, and I was like, yeah, you know, I don't think App's going to be a contender for the national championship anytime soon, but maybe one day they'll get in the 12-team playoff and get beat by 60, and you laughed because you thought 60 wasn't enough points. Yeah, that's true. Well, yeah.

Be fair. I mean, that is a fair observation for things that have happened in these big games. Look what Georgia did at TCU. We were there. George, we were there in person, raining in L.A., raining on us while the blowout's happening. Georgia has their sixth stringers in, sixth stringers in on offense and defense, walking right down the field and getting three and outs the other way, let alone what Georgia just did to did to florida state yeah in the last bogan florida state had a lot of studs that

didn't play i get that and understand but they won by six 60 point spread is very yeah that's a normal but it's a yeah could you imagine app state gets oh yeah and loses by 90 i could actually i could imagine that or app State blocks a field goal. There you go. I was just about to praise Airbrush T-shirt over there for his speech he gave at JMU. Oh, thank you very much. That was, man, what a moment. That was a moment.

Hey, why did you do that? Because you love App State? Because you love Luke Combs? Yeah, definitely because I love App State. More so because I just wanted everyone to yell you at me. Because the vibes were too good. I need to let them know it's not going to be like this. All right.

Well, App State makes the 12-team playoff in the next 10 years. Carolina Panthers, Morgan, and Canales, he goes from 20 to 1 with Bryce Young. Things are looking up. Let's write a couple songs about that. I'm a big Dan Morgan guy, by the way. He's a top 10 Panther for me all time. Top 10 all time Panther. Let's go!

Big Dan Morgan guy. This is good. Things are looking up. Ty has a question for you, Luke. Yeah, Luke. Pat just mentioned it. What about Bryce Young? If you had to guess what the fan base thinks of him, where would you put him at right now? And also, how tough is it comparing him to C.J. Stroud, considering what he just did, knowing you guys could have taken C.J. Stroud? Are people still all in on Bryce Young and the fact that people are calling him the Steph Curry of the NFL?

Or is that kind of washed away with how abysmal the Panthers were last year? I mean, I don't think that we know, right? I mean, obviously the comparison game makes you want to jump off of a bridge right at the moment. I mean, comparison game is brutal. You can't even get into that. I mean, we just had, what, the best rookie season of all time. All time.

In the history of the NFL. History of the NFL. So that hurts, for sure. Oops on that. Big oops there. Missed opportunity. But I don't think that you can really discern anything about Bryce at this point. I mean, he was behind a really brutal offensive line.

I mean, the guy couldn't even have a half a second to throw the ball the entire season. I mean, he had, what, two coaches in his first year. So that's great. You know, talk about set up for success there. So I think the guy – I mean, I think the guy deserves – I think that, you know, I've always loved the Green Bay system, right? I've loved the – Hell, yeah.

I loved the Rodgers comes in behind Favre. I loved the Love comes in behind Rodgers. Why is nobody else doing that? Obviously it works. Because we all attack them. We all attack them immediately. Fans attack – we attack them. Fans attack them.

And then here they are sitting four years later, and Jordan Love was like a much different quarterback than he was when he came into the NFL. Yeah. But I don't attack – I wouldn't attack anyone if we we had if we had a plan that made sense right like you can't bring this guy into at the time I mean obviously you're one of the worst the fourth worst team in the NFL at that point because we had what the fourth pick and we came up to get number one right through all of our picks away to do that and so I think you you need to draft a guy that can sit for a few years.

I mean, that's what used to happen. Like expecting somebody to come in and be the best guy in the league in the first year is just never going to happen. Yeah, I think the Panthers were like seven or eight, but nonetheless, story remains. This past season, you got earned number one over yeah absolutely earned it there's no patience though there's no patience in the nfl for anybody at any time i think social media is a reason obviously because you hear from the fans more likely and i

think fans are more likely to take action against teams like not show up that may be in the past kind of do things so now it's like a sense of urgency is it the same in the music world like do you think like if you didn't hit early you're done is that no way man i mean music music is like it you you have i mean look at chris stapleton chris stapleton is the prime example i mean he had been in nashville for years and years he had 250 cuts as a songwriter i mean you know i mean obviously he's one of the best singers of ever you know, so that helps a lot too. But him getting to have that moment with Timberlake on the CMAs, I mean, that changed our entire genre. I mean, that kicked open the door for a guy like me

to be able to have success too. So it doesn't have to be, you know, and the difference is, like Chris was so good at that that time but it does remind me of the jordan love thing right like he comes in he got to watch somebody that's great be great and learn from him every day for years and years and you know they go up to green bay and hide away from the media which i really love that aspect of and i wish i was a packers fan because it just feels like they do so many things right.

In the sense of, you go up there, you're out of the hype, there's no nightclubs going on up there. There's nothing to be distracted by. I'm sure AJ can talk a lot more. Yeah, I was about to say, AJ, what places did you used to go? You told us about that one adult ballet. Yeah, there's a place called the Oval Office that guys would frequent

after games every once in a while. We know the Onite Casino is very famous. Talked about it all the time out here. But you like the way Green Bay Packers operate, and I think Gutekunst is the new GM. One year ago, I'm doofus outside looking in, and I'm a part of the problem. We're a part of the problem with the patients

saying, like, this team stinks. Because we have to say, like, if a team stinks, they do stink. Their fans get loud. Like, a year ago, I think, I speak alongside a lot of Packers fans, this team stinks. Because we have to say, like, if a team stinks, they do stink, their fans get loud. Like a year ago, I think, I speak alongside a lot of Packers fans, this is his first entire team. Like right here, this is his team pretty much. Move Aaron out, Bakhtiari out, like all the OGs are out. This is his team.

So I was like, is this guy just going to be able to do what all the Packers have done from the past, like that have been in the building for the last, he did. They haven't figured out. I mean, they got a whole team reloaded, back in the conversation. And then there's the Colts. We haven't won AFC South in like 10 years,

CJ Stroud told us. Panthers, I feel like it's probably felt for you like 30 years. Some teams just got it. Some teams don't. We're going to turn it around, though, Luke. You and I. Colts and the Panthers are going to turn this thing around.

Now, I will say, there's some chat on the internet right now happening, Luke, you and I, Colts and the Panthers, going to turn this thing around. Now, I will say, there's some chat on here right now happening, Luke, about you. Uh-oh. And, Luke, when you're on top of the mountain, Luke, you know that a lot of chatter about you. A lot of chatter about you. Yep. The Atlanta Falcons posted a photo of you wearing a Falcons jersey on stage, which I think you were probably just doing to say thanks to the local community for coming out and supporting you. And this particular picture,

I think he's been weaponized against you, not only from Falcons fans, but some Panthers fans say, I'll never be caught dead in a Falcons jersey. Whenever they're talking about it, can you, I just would like to offer a platform for you to kind of give your side and your take on this thing as the Falcons were certainly trying,

you know, here to not only get you into their fandom, but also say, hey, what's going on over there in Carolina, I think. So if you would like to use this time to address all this, I would love to. Of course. Yeah, yeah. Of course, yeah. Floor is yours.

Yeah. There's actually, I'm sure there's a picture of me wearing a Bucs hat. I played in Tampa Bay last year as well. That particular picture, I believe, is from 2019 at a show called ATL Live that I played with Eric Church. And I actually lost a bet to my Keys player at the time, who was a Falcons fan. He bet on the Panthers-Falcons game. So nobody can question my fandom. We lost the game.

I wore my, you know, wore the Falcons jersey out there like I was supposed to. So weaponize it all you want. I sat with Arthur Blank at the Super Bowl this year. So, you know, Panthers didn't invite me to go to the Super Bowl. Oh. Oh, you know, Panthers didn't invite me to go to the Super Bowl. Also, all these stadiums that you're selling out now, you're in business with NFL owners.

This guy's doing business with NFL owners now at this particular point. We're the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hat saying, hey, thank you to the Tampa folks. But you're saying all you people attacking me for wearing this Falcons jersey. The problem is this. Oh, the Panthers lost to the Falcons again. So all these things need to go right back to the Carolina Panthers, and I appreciate you addressing that. AJ's got a question for you, Big Dope. Luke, going back to songwriting,

how did you learn to become such a great songwriter? Is it hanging out with other great writers, learning from them? Like, what's the process? Is it smoking weed? What? Drinking beers? What? Is it long neck, eyes, cold beer? them like what's the process is he smoking weed white drinking drinking beers what he said a long

is that what it is what is it it's uh i mean those things can help at times uh i think really you know i think it's like anything right if you want to be great um you know there's a lot of people that write by themselves and nothing against that but i try to lean on the people that are around me. I really, I really spend a lot of time writing with people who mean a lot to me, you know, that I have personal friendships with and have developed relationships with just outside of,

you know, where it's not just a working relationship, right. We're friends, you know, we can get together and write a song or we can get together and go fishing or ride around or go turkey hunting or go to a football game or you watch football, whatever it may be. It doesn't have to be, you know, I think to me,

that's important. Right. I mean, I think if you, you know, I think AJ probably speak to this pad as well, but if you have relationships with your teammates outside of, outside of the field, that makes, that makes what you do on the field that much better and i i believe that music is that way too so whenever you're doing this writing process and amen by the way with camaraderie that's an x factor that we talk about with teams in the nfl it's like hey this team likes each other we'll get videos from practices like warm-ups and

everybody's dancing together it's like hey this team likes each other huge yeah huge big deal in our world whenever we were looking at that right and now do you like each other because you're winning maybe it's a lot easier to get along yeah but investing in each other and in relationships that you can't measure that with uh stats and analytics whenever you're writing these songs because i think it was uh one of kenny chesney's songs or albums that i listened to i was like this is good in the the way the angle in which the songs are being sung was like, it feels like this person is singing a song directly to me, like in this exact moment in my life. Then it won an award and I saw 30 people come up onto the stage that wrote the thing.

And I'm like, well, whose brain, who am I, who am I relating to as much? What is it like? Is somebody writing like one word at a time? How does this? Because we hear about these writing sessions in Nashville where there's like 30 people, and that shows song land. I tried to learn as much as possible about the process because I love music, love the whole behind-the-scenes thing.

How does this writing thing happen? One person's a lead writer, and then there's punch-up writers? Or is it literally line for line, word for word? How does that country music world work and for you how does it work normally i mean country music you know at least in my experience right as i mean this is my 10th year here and probably my 12th or 13th year doing music um i guess you could say professionally that's a weird word to use um it doesn't feel very professional, but I'm getting paid to do music 13, 13 or so years. Hey, hell yeah. Congratulations. But I think, you know, Nashville is right.

There are companies that, that pay people to write songs, right? That's their job every day. And, you know, we call them kind of lunch pail songwriters, right? Like you wake up in the morning, kiss your wife or your husband or whoever. Goodbye. Get your lunch pail, drive into town, write you a song. You're home by five o'clock in the evening. And there's people doing that five days a week. Not nearly as many as there used to be, because, you know, songwriters are kind of the uh forgotten people of our industry which is a shame because they're really the heartbeat of our industry um and so um in today's day and age

the streaming era has really limited um you know what a songwriter can make um even songwriters that have the biggest careers you could imagine um you know are to some extent struggling these days but um that's a conversation for a longer time but anyway no that's that's the part of the music industry that's a problem right i hear a lot of music people talking about that like the way the streaming is kind of i don't want to say cucked but like kind of cucked a lot of the talent because the way the deals have been kind of structured thus far in the precedent that's been set i think there's a lot of artists and i guess songwriter i didn't even think about the hey that's all me that's all me that's all me hand up a bad guy but the songwriter the whole

the whole thing's kind of being affected as it's all changing is that what you're saying yeah it really is right you know i think um you know if you're you know this is, you know, if you're, you know, this is probably, you know, people are going to probably destroy my math on this. But, you know, back in, let's say you were writing country songs in the 90s, right? And you get, you wrote a song that was on, you know, one of Shania Twain's records that sold 25 million copies, right? 25 million physical units, right? And let's say you wrote a song that even didn't even make it to radio. It was just on the record, right? So that album sale would generate 10 cents per album sale for the songwriter.

Per song, that's generating 10 cents per album sale, right? So if one person wrote a song on that album by themselves and it made 10 cents every time that record sold you're looking at two and a half million dollars for writing a song that was never on the radio your math is mine too so we're both getting crushed okay but let's say you even if you wrote it with three other people like if you wrote it with three people total so then you're're splitting that. What's that's a little under a million dollars a piece, right? Which is a lot,

750 grand, 800 grand a piece or something somewhere around there in that ballpark. And that's for writing one song on one album that wasn't even played on the radio. And if you were to get it on the radio, you're talking exponentially higher than even that, right? Cause that's a per play on the radio basis. talking exponentially higher than even that right because that's a per play

on the radio basis well nowadays right so a physical album sale equates to 1500 streams so how many how many artist songs have you listened to 1500 times. I listen to a long neck and ice cold beer for sure. Some Jeezy songs probably I've gotten 1500 times. Maria, I like it loud. I like it loud, play it every day. 1500 is a lot. How many years is that if you listen to one song every day? 365? About four and a half years? Every day? It's a long time. It's a lot. So, and it stream, listen, streaming is incredible. It's an incredible thing because you have every song that you ever could want at your fingertips. You know what I mean?

And that's what it allows. It allows me to have a career at this point, right? Because it allows anyone to get their music heard without there being some sort of someone being a gatekeeper for the industry. There's not someone going, well, you only hear the music that we let you hear. That doesn't exist anymore. The power of social media, the ability to distribute your own music. I mean, it's changed the music industry for the better a lot. But like anything, there are so many different things.

for the better a lot but like anything there's so many different things and and as technology changes so rapidly you know our ability to keep up with it whether that be royalty rates or laws is just not quite there yet and that's something that nashville has really led the way in fighting for the the songwriters which are the heart of you know all of your favorite music when you saw that kenny chesney song or album win that award, all of those people do write songs every day. And that may be the biggest moment of their career, and it may have only made them $600. You know? Damn, I tried my best.

I listened to a couple of those 1,500 times. 1,400 times. I tried my best a couple of those songs. How do we help then? Live events, right? Shows. Go to shows. That's how we help the artists and everything like that in the world. That's how we support the Luke Combses and the songwriters is going to

live shows? Yeah, I mean I don't know about the songwriters. I mean that helps me a whole bunch for sure. The songwriters is more difficult. You know what I mean? Helping the songwriters is more difficult and it's a long process. It takes litigation and a lot of people who are a whole

lot smarter than me but um i'm definitely here to be an advocate for them for sure because none of us would be able to do what we do i certainly wouldn't um without the help of those guys and they're really the backbone of of our industry right? They're the blue-collar worker of the music business. Hey, let's get these songwriters taken care of. Get them paid. Hey, smart people, figure it out. We say that on this show a lot. We say, hey, smart people, figure it out, because we don't have the answers.

Now, people are saying we're adding to the problem whenever we don't. I don't think that's the case. I think we're calling to action. Hey, smart people, figure it out. I don't think that's the case. I think we're calling to action. Hey, smart people. Figure it out. Add the songwriters to the list. Last question here comes from Darius J. Butler about your Carolina Panthers. Go ahead.

Yeah, I know it's kind of doom and gloom right now. I want to take you back to some happier times. You mentioned Sam Mills, rest in peace. Keep pounding. But I've got to get you while you're on here. What are your top five Panthers of all time? Obviously, a lot of great Panthers. You got Cam, you got Steve Smith, Olsen, Ryan Khalil, so many great TDs,

so many great names. Who's on that top five list for you? Frank Reich. Frank Reich. Rodney Peet. The God of Sam Mills has got to be in there for sure. Pep is in there, no doubt. Steve Smith is in there for sure

I mean Musa Muhammad, Ricky Prole Keekly McCaffrey This is the math Brian Byrd Kevin Green Oh

Yeah I mean there's a lot. I mean, every era. I could have the top five from every era. Cam is obviously absolutely. Cam is, I mean, Cam is the guy. I mean, he's the guy, you know. I mean, like the excitement he brought to that city, that team, to me as a fan,

I imagine there was, you know, however many Panthers fans there are, every single one of them was exhilarated. And, you know, it all was brought on by what Cam brought onto the field. You know, the whole attitude of that whole team. The year that we only lost one game and then ended up losing the Super Bowl. I mean, it was like, I can't express to you what that was like. Super Bowl. I mean, it was like, I can't express to you what that was like. And I want to straighten it out here before I leave that I will go down with the ship of the Panthers, dude. I'm in. Hell yeah.

All this frustration, all the quips that I've said here and there is all said out of absolute diehard passion and love. Like, I will never be a fan of another team. I will never go anywhere else. If we're the worst team in the entire planet forever, then so be it. I'm in. I'm just that loyal of a cat

when it comes to that. We need more Luke Combses out there in the NFL fandom. We appreciate the hell out of you, brother, for taking time. Good luck on tour. You're not coming to Indianapolis. What? Well, well, well.

Well, well, well. I did last year. You guys didn't come. Nobody came last year when I was there. I was there. I was there, Luke. I was at WrestleMania. Hell yeah.

You scheduled it on WrestleMania weekend. That's on you. 39, dude. Biggest one. That's on you. But I want to let you know all anybody has said that was it at the indianapolis show or of any of your shows showman yeah yeah hey you're showman out there luke you're showing it's a good show people enjoy the hell out of it you know because

like stadiums aren't easy especially with you know music and how small you are you got to think like at stadiums you got 11 on like football is 22 dudes around the field doing stuff you know because you got people up there you're full and i'm not saying you're the only human that has done this obviously taylor swift phenomenal show whenever they're at the stadium and it's like what you do from what i've heard from people that have gone and from the videos i watch you're electric out there luke we appreciate the hell out of that. We love that. Well, I try my best out there.

Those aren't real shotguns, though. That's fake beers. Those are gimmick beers. No, those are real. Those are real beers. Luke. Not ice cold. They're real beers.

They're real beers. That's going to be. I mean, you don't think so. That's too fast. That's way too fast what you do to that shotgun. Have you always been that talented in the shotgun department? Yeah, I wasn't really talented in anything else in college. So drinking was high on the list, you know.

Drinking's up there. I played rugby in college, so there's a lot of, you know, a lot of drinking going on. The rugby house is one you never want to end up at. It's alongside the hockey house, one you never want to end up at. It's alongside the hockey house, one you never want to end up at. Wrestling. Wrestling house is another one. Problematic. These are houses you end up at.

They acknowledge that you play a different sport and go, welcome to Thunderdome. Get over here. It is a full night always. Great times, though. You're also a great punter. I've seen you punt some red solo cups. We're talking second level. You really get through that. You're a good great punter. I've seen you punt some red solo cups. Like, we're talking second level.

You really get through that. You're a good cup kicker. Yeah, I could hit the scoreboard at AT&T probably with a solo. I could, I think. I wouldn't put it past you because you've got those big shit kickers on, too. And you're going full. I mean, I saw a follow-through all the way up to your chest. I'm full extension.

Yeah, what's that all about? You a soccer player? No I mean it came from It really came from rugby To be honest A lot of kicking going on It's like the NFL They don't let the big guys do anything Other than take up space But at practice

Get a lot of kicking in You can really turn that thing over huh? Yeah I got you know, take up space. But at practice, get a lot of kicking in practice. You can really turn that thing over, huh? Yeah, I got, you know, I got a full, I got the whole pendulum thing going. There's a lot of momentum coming. You know what I mean? That's 300 pounds of fun coming. Ladies and gentlemen, go see him when he's on the road.

And also, let's pull for our Panthers fans' friends know that are out there ladies and gentlemen luke combs thank you that was awesome yeah that was sick just comes in just talking shit about his whole situation i did not expect that you know some people when they come in our particular program and this i assume this happens every show but I'm just talking about from personal experience, the person that you maybe chatted with, you know, maybe in person, they get on and it's like completely different person. Yeah, and you go like, what happened out there?

Hey, what happened? You turn into a politician sometimes. Kind of like Aaron. Well, he's turning into a politician actually. Excuse me. Good to know too, AJ. New age. I'm glad AJ told us he used to hang out at oval office i mean that's great news yeah that's the name of the bar that

aaron and uh all the green bay packers go to is this is this aaron's dream to potentially end up in the office and that's why they used to go to that bar to mention he realized i don't know if it's much of a bar. What is it? More of, what do you call them, Pat? Gentlemen's? Adult ballet? Yeah, it was much more of that than I think the bar or the eating. What do you call them? Man, I ran through my head about a lot of things that I've called things.

I'm like, boy, I don't know where to start. Adult ballet. Adult ballet. Okay, good. Well, I'm happy to hear that there's a good dancing community out there in Green Bay. It's important. The Oneida Casino, obviously, is fantastic. Joining us now is a man who we are 11 minutes late for.

Uh-oh. Oh, no. Uh-oh. We tried. Oh, no. Oh, no. This isn't going to be good. Make it a cool 12?

Hall of famer champion one of pittsburgh's greatest exports yeah yeah ladies and gentlemen coach bo car hey guys how you doing how you doing hey so you know what? I was waiting on Luke Combs. And you know, my wife is a songwriter and singer as well. So letting him talk about his pain of Carolina, but also the process of writing songs, I was enjoying that very much. So feel free to stay on and let me wait another five minutes. I am happy we got that messaging out as well.

You know, I'm happy that we that messaging out as well. You know, I'm happy. Okay, yes, yes, yes. Yeah, that we're a platform for that. As it was happening, I want to let you know, as it was happening, back of my mind is like Coach Bill Conner's going to be like, what time is this 1.30 meeting supposed to start? Yeah, exactly. That's fine.

Luke Combs, if he was late, he would have been sitting outside a door shut and asked me about the meeting. I said, ask one of your teammates who was at the meeting on time. And then you're going to find, as well, Coach, we appreciate you waiting around. Yes. You're not a man that should ever wait, but every time we get a chance to chat with you, it feels like we get motivated, inspired, and pumped up. Let's start right there in Carolina because we're talking to Luke Combs.

He seems to be donning out. What are your thoughts on, because obviously you're down there close, NC State Wolfpack Hall of Famer, I believe, and alumni, obviously, your story, huge down there in Carolina, even though you're a Pittsburgh guy. Whenever you think about that Panthers team,

what do you think we should be expecting if you're a Luke Combs or one of their 125 fans? Right. Well, yeah, 125. So Dan Morgan came in, right? Dave Canales comes up. I think for Dave, you know, it's. Well, yeah, 125. So Dan Morgan came in, right? Dave Canales comes up. I think for Dave, you know, it's kind of, okay, let's kind of start from ground zero. I mean, I don't understand the Burns trade, to be quite honest with you.

I think it's got to identify leadership in that locker room. And the girl you had on yesterday, the beat writer down there, when you asked that question, who are they building around? There is no leader in that locker room. So they got to identify who that is going to be, who they can build that kind of culture with. And so, you know, I feel bad for Bryce Young at this point. I think running the thing they can do right now,

they signed offensive lineman. You know what? Run the football. That to me is one thing they have to do right now is run the football. AJ, go ahead, pal. Coach, if you were – let's say you were coaching the Panthers right now and you went to your first off-season meeting, say, in April for OTAs, what do you tell the team?

What do you present to give them some hope? He's thinking. AJ, if you don't move, people will think it's just their TVs well no they won't okay I should have got that yeah yeah yeah we're back baby

I don't know if you heard the question if you're the coach of the Panthers then what are you saying in that first meeting Rose again coach of the Panthers, though, what are you saying in that first meeting? Rose again. AJ's eyes moved too. I should have blinked. So hard. I chose to do that with my eye open Next time I need to do that with eyes closed

Yeah that's That's the whole thought there That is the roll of the dice whenever you're dealing with internet No internet You know what a part is Some people like to exit their house And when you exit your house you're still on house internet And then you're on service on the outside

There's always like an uncomfortable moment there Where our smartphones are allegedly more intelligent than they've ever been, but they just can't figure out a smooth transition from house Wi-Fi that ends about 10, 15 feet, 20 feet outside your house, depending upon what internet you have, and then just cell service outside of that.

The handoff is always horrendous. It is. And everybody deals with it. You go outside, it's 73 degrees. I'm going to go outside, take a walk. You take a walk. All of a sudden, over. Yep, done.

And wait, wait, what? I can see. Can you see me? You can't. And then we're back. And then the other side thinks, oh, that must be mine. No, no, no, no. You've got to do the full explanation.

Oh, I just want the whole. Yeah, Coach, you've got to get the Verizon home internet. You're right. You want to have that issue? There you go. Verizon needs to book off. Yeah, Verizon also, a couple get the Verizon home internet. You're right. You want to hear that issue? There you go. Verizon needs to book off. Yeah, Verizon also, a couple weeks ago, there was an adage or two. There were adages.

A lot of, about four of them. Yeah, but not, but not. What? AT&T had the worst. Yeah, but Verizon, still. Nails. Didn't even know it happened. Nope.

I was like, what's everybody bitching about? And I had no idea because Verizon was the only one that didn't. Shout out to Verizon. Way to go. That was an EMP test. So be on the lookout. Okay, see? We don't need to get down that road. We launched a political campaign potentially, but nonetheless joining us back, I believe

in... Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Carr. Bill Carr. Hey, I know how to adapt and adjust. I'm good. Well, that's what adversity is all about. That's why it's there for you to get better. And look at you. You just got a chance to showcase that technology.

Although it's very modern, you're an old school guy. You can conquer it if you just put your mind to it. No question about it. Just tell me my resources, a little bit of direction. I'm good. Hey, speaking of direction, what direction would you go if you were a canalales doing his first team meeting whenever you go into OTAs there to talk to that squad?

So I think the biggest thing I said, Pat, was I think right now with what they're doing to get offensive linemen, is they've got to establish the running game and run the ball, take the pressure off of Bryce. I thought lean on the defensive side of the ball also, and that's where I was kind of confused with Brian Burns being traded. So I think you've got to go back right now. I get concerned in the second year for Bryce Young is him losing confidence and I think that's the biggest thing to me is getting back to run the football something I

think they should have been doing more of I think they start doing more of that for Pittsburgh with Kenny Pickett for young quarterbacks a guy like CJ Stroud comes along you know he was able to process information and adjust to the speed of the game very quickly. He's the exception, not the rule. Okay, I agree. I think a lot of people are going to think that they're going to do a Houston Texans turnaround, and that is certainly possible.

We just witnessed it, but there's a lot of brains and personalities in that building that are able to change the culture quickly. Speaking of doing that, let's go to Tom Diggs in Pittsburgh. Yeah, Coach, let's talk about what the offseason's been. One of the more exciting offseasons in Pittsburgh in a long time. Obviously, they bring in Russ Wilson. They bring in

Arthur Smith, who I assume you're happy with because you just mentioned they should have ran the ball more for Kenny Pickett. What are your thoughts on bringing in Russ Wilson and what they've done so far? And then on the other side, what does it say about Russ Wilson that the Broncos were okay with taking on an $85 million dead cap to just part ways with him? Yeah, I mean, that's a lot.

I mean, obviously they inherited Russell, both ownership and the coach and Sean. I thought Russell played very well last year. I think the year before he was embarrassed by how he played. I think the whole situation there was one where he had to kind of recapture his confidence. More of a, a very good job. That is,

he's, his DNA is running the football. That's what Pittsburghers want to hear. They have the nausea hairs, Jenna Warren, and that offensive line. I think putting Kenny Pickett and you put Russell Wilson under the center, they both are great rollout passers

in the play action game. You don't have to change styles. And I think it's going to be a very healthy competition that they have. One's at the beginning of his career. The other's at the latter end of his career. I'm sure that conversation was had with Mike very early in that situation. Listen, you've got a window of time right now with T.J. Watt, Cam Hayward,

Micah Fitzpatrick. You've got some great defensive players, and I think it would be a disservice not to make sure that you take care of the other side of the ball to maybe try to bring this unit together and get one run that they can make it's a tough division but I like what they did I love hearing you talk about Carolina with Bryce Young like hey let's run the ball Pittsburgh people are thinking the same thing with Russell hey let's run the ball let's we got a great defense let's run the ball in Pittsburgh mostly because of you and also I guess with Noel you, it's like Pittsburgh fans like being a physical football team.

Pittsburgh fans like when the defense is smothering. They like whenever the offense is controlling the line of scrimmage. Not every city necessarily wants that. Pittsburgh wants to be the more physical team. I think that is a real thing, don't you? Absolutely. I think if you look at the four teams that were in the final four of the NFL last year, you talk about the running back.

You were talking about earlier the market and all these guys got picked up. What Isaiah Pacheco did, what Christian McCaffrey did. These were two guys that were two dominant players on their respective sides. Jameer Gibbs in Detroit, Gus Edwards in Baltimore. And they're all all four of these teams. You know, Kansas City got right when they started running the football and having more balance in their offense. And I think that you saw with all four of those teams,

the running game being an integral part of their offenses. It helps the defense. It helps offensive linemen develop because you take the pressure off of them now having to pass block every down. So I'm a big believer. Listen, I'm 0-4 passing the ball. We were one of the teams that spread it out. We had, you know, Cordell Stewartart playing receiver we have five receivers out there but i know one thing

there's a mentality that you have when you know you can close a game and there's a physicality that you can apply that you know you're more physical than a team that you're playing against i always said you throw early to run late god you see he started getting into it. Oh, yeah. He started getting jacked up, Coach. We started getting really – I did, I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So did we. I want to let you know that.

We're running into a hard out here in about a minute and a half, although the show will continue on YouTube and ESPN+. Darius J. Butler has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, I want to ask you how – Hey, what's up? Good to see you. How tough is it going into draft? You're obviously in the draft period right now.

What positions do you feel are the toughest in today's NFL to kind of project to that next level? I know the Steelers over the past decade or so, they always knock it out of the park with receivers. Seems like they haven't found a corner in a while. What are those toughest positions right now to project to the next level when you're at this time of year as a coach? I think the quarterback position is the toughest one because of the process of information. But I also think when you look at the corner position, Darius, and you know as well as I do, the speed of the game, how open the game is,

the receivers and how big they are, how fast they are, to acclimate to that and just the officiating that you have to be able to acclimate to. I think for offensive linemen, I think it's a very deep year this year. That's why you don't see as many offensive linemen going at free agency. And that's why I think what you're going to see is a lot of offensive linemen, I think it's a very deep year this year. That's why you don't see as many offensive linemen going at free agency. And that's why I think what you're going to see is a lot of offensive linemen going early.

And if you're going to take a defensive back, do what the Chiefs did. They drafted about two or three of them and just threw them right into the lineup and said, you know what, you're going to be able to play man-to-man early. The zone will come as you get that understanding of the game. The zones will get a little tighter. So I just think playing these guys early helps develop the team. And also, you saw what the Kansas City Chiefs have done. They've been a model for playing guys early on the defensive side of the ball.

And you can see what's resulted in the last couple of years. That was phenomenal work. We got eight seconds until the hard out. You knew it. You had the shot clock in your head. Yeah, I knew it. See you tomorrow. See you later.

Take care on ESPN News. I'll be back. No, I didn't leave you. I didn't leave you time. You missed it. You missed the last one. That's on me, not on you. We're continuing YouTube, ESPN Plus, and TikTok, which... Yeah, not for long. There's a topic of conversation everywhere, Coach. I don't know how in the know you are.

There's a TikTok chatter happening. Aaron Rodgers may be going to be Vice President of the United States of America. I heard that about Aaron. That's awesome. Yes, it is. It's a wild time to be alive right now. It is awesome. You're right. It is awesome.

Everything's awesome. We'll just continue to keep it moving. The time frame right now, Georgia has their Pro Day happening today. I think the big story out of there, Ladd McConkie, will he be able to back up what he ran at the combine, 4-3, whatever? Will he be able to run routes? How's he catching? I think everybody already knows seemingly at this point.

But Conman's got a question for you about it all. Yeah, Coach, it feels like now at the pro days, especially with everything being rehearsed, that it's hard to actually find real things when these guys are you know making their deep balls running their routes everything like that uh is it you know what are they looking for at these pro days coaches specifically and scouts too that they can't find like on tape that they already have back at the facility how they're viewed upon by their teammates the guys that they're working with um You can kind of see the presence they have. And for me, the first place I'd go is right into the training room,

talk to the strength coach. I want to talk to these coaches in person. I mean, they give you the thing. When you go to their place, there's a little bit of a kind of – the guard gets dropped a little bit because they feel comfortable. So I just want to know about this guy more, what he does off the field, what kind of work ethic does he really have. Can the guy play with injuries or get a little bit of nicks is he okay with that um and just talking

to some of the position coaches i want to see his interaction with the other players and then particularly as he goes through his workout okay whenever you're there what type of questions you ask you're asking the coaches to see like if they're real you're asking equipment managers like hey how's this person treat you? Athletic trainers. All that shit is very valid. I think that's real information you can get about guys. 100%. Who's coming to the games?

Are his family very involved? Does he have any brothers? When you tell him he's going to get this big start and he's going to be captain, who's the first person he calls? All of a sudden,'s going to be captain. Who's the first person he calls? All of a sudden he complains about something. Who's the first person he relates to?

So I just think it's trying to find out about the individual and who are the most instrumental people in his life. And I think that's the connection you have to make. You've got to get to know your players as people. One of the things I always try to do is if they're not good at home, they're not going to be good at work. So I wanted to get to know your players as people. One of the things I always try to do is if they're not good at home, they're not going to be good at work. So I wanted to get to know them as people and their wives, their kids, their parents, their brothers, their sisters, whoever is important to them.

Who are the people you're sharing this period of time with that's most important and the most unbelievable time of your life is being a professional football player? It's a window of time. And who are those people that are influencing you the most and who are having a big, big part of your upbringing? What's that quote? You show me the people you hang around, I'll tell you who you are or something like that. Yeah. That entire process.

I don't think that's necessarily completely fair in all situations because, you know, people come from different places. But it is very valid to be like, hey's taught who's in his ear who's he talking to who how does he respond to adversity like all those things matter and i i think i don't know if media understands that enough you know because the combine thing is the numbers steal the the conversation going in the draft numbers steal the conversation and then people will find plays from their seasons that back up those numbers like oh yeah look at how fast this person is but like when you're running an nfl team it's a smaller locker room longer season it's a real like who's the human you're getting and you and i don't think a lot of people there's some young gms i think that don't think about that there's

been gms in the history of the nfl that don't think about that. There's been GMs in the history of the NFL that don't think about that, that put teams together. But I feel like maybe it's a point that people need to think about almost as much as their talent. Are we bringing in a culture killer? That needs to be at the forefront, don't you think? And in this era, it might be a little bit different to try to figure out with the NIL and everything I wonder how how that kind of plays into it all so so I really believe culture has a lot to do with leadership culture has a lot to do with the people that you bring in and so the element of that is you know metrics can tell you one thing but I always just said the same thing is you know I'm going to treat everyone the fair fairly but I'm not going to treat everybody the same because

you're getting asked to do different things and so to, the one thing that you have to do is have a set of core values and just recognize some people are going to test you. Okay. I always had this one, it's called production and tolerance. So as long as there's production up there, you're going to have a little bit of tolerance for that person right there. But all of a sudden the production goes down, you're going to tolerate some things, we're going to talk. And if your tolerance doesn't come down, we're not going to be talking anymore because you're not going to be here. So it's production and tolerance. And at the same time,

I wanted edgy people. You don't want everybody you can coach. I said this before, and I said I wanted guys who would walk the line. Walking the line is what I wanted you to do. I want you to be confident. I wanted you to have a swagger about you and maybe even arrogant. I said, when you cross the line, what's crossing the line is disrespecting the opponent.

You disrespect the game or you disrespect the teammate. And if you walk across that line, I'll pull you back. But damn, I want you to walk that line close. And if you don't ever cross it, you're not trying hard enough. I want edginess. I want confidence. I want cockinessiness. I want confidence. I want cockiness, but I want you to respect the game, but do it with a little bit

of a swagger and a chip on your shoulder. Yin's are legend, dude. Did you hear that? He basically just described what a dream Pittsburgh football team would be. I had Kevin Green in my head. Yes, absolutely. You start rolling through the entire squad. Who was a Carolina Panther? He was a Carolina Panther. Their first coach was green in my head yes absolutely yeah you start rolling through the entire squad who was who was

a carolina panther he was a carolina panther and their first coach was uh um dom capers who was my defensive coordinator jerry richardson came up when the carolina panthers was asking dan rooney how to run an organization and i sat there with jerry richardson when he came up the first year in 1994 and we sat down after the season and talked about and I said you know I have the perfect guy and it's it's Dom Capers would be great so he took Dom Capers I thought it was great for Dom a year later after the Super Bowl Kevin Green God bless him is went down there Barry Foster went down if you look at that first team Sam Mills was a teammate of mine with a Cleveland Brown back in 1982 i was in the same camp with sam uh we worked for sam retigliano and so

you know the carolina panthers when they started out that was a dude that was a good football team they were able to get people from the outside and they were drafting right um something just they something has gone wrong since Cam has left, really. They haven't been able to find that quarterback. You're still tied to the Carolina community closely, right? You're down there? Yeah, I have a place at Boathead Island. So I have a home down there, and I'm still very much –

I talk to a lot of people at NC State, and so that's still a big part of it. That's – hey, you know, Russell Wilson went to NC State, so he's got some good genes. Well, Pittsburgh, I mean, yeah, you can tie it all together, I guess. You can find a link. If you hit that damn siren down there at that Hurricanes game, don't do it. I did. I did.

I know. Let's not do it again. Let's not do it again. I know. I didn't think it was a big deal. I went up to Mario before the game. I said, you don't have a problem. I said, you know, because I said, I'm down here. You know, I it was a big deal. I went up to Mario before the game. I said, you don't have a problem. I said, because

I said, I'm down here. I got asked to do this. Ronnie Francis is a good friend. Ronnie was from Pittsburgh. Ronnie Francis on the week before says, if we win this series, we play Pittsburgh, you got to do the siren. I go, sure, I'll do the siren. I didn't think they're going to win the series.

They won the series. They played Pittsburgh. I was living down there. I did the siren, and boy think they're going to win the series they won the series they played pittsburgh i was living down there i did the siren and boy there was some i ruffled some feathers that was a serious thing yeah so that was i want to let you know i watched the reaction to you doing that siren as ginger legend and i like you going to mario and going like hey i'm don here i want to be a jag off you know dropping all pittsburgh stuff you know it's getting a little slippy around here they're asking me to do this entire thing i took the gum don't want to be a jag off dropping all Pittsburgh stuff. It's getting a little slippy around here. They're asking me to do this entire thing. I took the gum band. I went and took the buggy there. They're

telling me to hit this siren. I mean, Ronnie Francis, he was a penguin. He was from Pittsburgh. That's all I got to... Ronnie Francis, he was one of the best players I've ever had. So I said, you know Ronnie, he's the GM for Carolina. We're all in this together, Mario. It's not a big deal. so i want to let you know that i thought about that just a couple weeks uh

months ago oh yeah a couple months ago we go out to the las vegas golden knights game uh for super bowl week and they they ask if i'll hit the siren and And I'm like, yeah, yeah, of course, of course, because we're trying to get in there. Ty Schmidt's been a fan since day one because of you. So I appreciate you doing this for me. Because of you, there was never a chance I was going to hit that siren because of the way Pittsburgh people responded. But we did do the old okey-doke to them and put Ty in there to do it. So he had a moment in which I think he would say rallied the boys to a big-time win. Yeah, absolutely. And one of the greatest photos I've ever seen is somebody hitting a siren.

And I didn't get ruined by the city of Pittsburgh. You actually were the guinea pig for that entire thing. So I appreciate you. Ty, I appreciate you too. Absolutely. Yeah, we all appreciate you, Coach. I'm glad that I took one for you guys, which is fine. That's good. You can learn something

from that. I'm proud of you. Hey, that's a good teammate. You're a good teammate there. You just were loud, though. They were so pissed. We forgave you, Coach, but we haven't forgotten. I got you. I got you. Hey, so I got a roast coming up And they're roasting me

Mel Blunt Has got his annual His annual dinner right You're getting roasted So you know Mel Yeah You want to come Where is it

That means I'm signing up To get cooked by everybody too You'd be good You'd be very good April 12th In Pittsburgh Alright if the calendar is free If I am available,

if not, I will donate so that the roast makes money. But if, if date is open, I will go. I'm not happy about this. I will let you know. I'm not happy about it.

I don't want to say bad things about you, but with my brain, with what it is, the things I'm going to come up with, probably. Yeah. Probably. Troy, Paul,aro will be there.

Oh, no! That fucking asshole! Brad Kiesel. Jeez Louise! We won't bring up the Indianapolis game. I promise. I'm going to be sitting there. Oh, my God. How long is that going to be? That's going to be a two and a half, three hour roast of meat.

I was going to say say add on to that. Oh. Five. Can't wait, Coach. Anything for you, Coach. Bring Tone in with you, too. Oh, Tone, you're getting roasted, too? No, no, I'm not going to get roasted.

I'm just going to be sitting there in the audience enjoying it. Where's it at? April 12th, Mel Blunt Youth Home All-Star Celebrity Roast honoring Bill Kyer. Go to melblunt.org for updated information. For additional information, contact you on the Blunt Okay Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Love the Wyndham

Mel Blunt was so So good Mel Blunt, there is You loved him, I mean he changed the game Yeah 6-3, 2-something 4-4, just an unbelievable player Literally changed the game, beating the shit out of people

in the line of scrimmage. Absolute monster. Dog. So this is every year he does a roast or something like that? Who got roasted last year? Do you know? Troy. Troy Palamalo.

Oh, no. You guys pretty mean to each other? Yep. Like, how is it? Yeah. AJ, you come in, too. There's some pretty good linebackers we've had down through the years. Yeah, I'd say.

Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think you have. You being one of them. James Harrison. James Harrison. Good luck roasting him. Who's going to roast him? You guys roasted Tony Dungy?

You guys roasted Tony Dungy? Jesus Christ, Bill. Whoa. Yeah, yeah. Tony Dungy. Ham will be there. Ham will be there. Ham will be there. Casey Hampton.

Big Ham? We've talked about this numerous times. One of our favorite times as teenagers and going through that entire Casey Hampton era was the first day of training camp where Casey Hampton showed up at weight-wise. That was always a story in Pittsburgh. Casey Hampton showed up this year at a record breaking 422 pounds he will be not practicing for about a week to two but they think whenever he's back on it this is going to be the best year he's ever had and they'll show him walking with a big ass fucking pillow in a bag untied shoes he's just walking in and everybody's like we love that

we love that guy i'll give you i'm gonna give give you one Casey Hampton story real quick, and I'll go. So Casey Hampton was a first and second down player. Third down, he'd come off the field because we're in our nickel package, and Casey was not the greatest pass rusher. So first, we're playing a team, and third down to four, and they get a first down. Casey, after running off, runs back on. Now it's third and six.

Casey runs off the field, and all of a sudden, they get the first down. Now Casey's third and six. Casey runs off the field and all of a sudden they get the first down. Now Casey is getting mad. He's running back on the field. He's running off. Next time it's third and eight. He comes off. He stops right at the numbers and just yells

at every one of those guys, I'm not running on this freaking field again. Get your asses off. I'm watching this play. I'm not running on this freaking field again. Get your asses off. I'm watching this play. I'm not going to sit down this time. Whoever's fault it is, we're going to talk. It was third and eight. I go, what did you say to him? He goes, I ain't running out there again.

I said, okay. Did they get a punt? They got a field goal. They kicked a field goal. I said, Case, you need to talk to these guys more often. Big, big hamp, big hamp, big hamp. He made his point known. He was a first and second down player, stopped the run.

You boys do your job on third down. I'll take care of first and second down. He was in Pittsburgh loved by everybody. Like everything he did seemingly was entertaining too. I mean, you can't be that big, that athletic, and that cool all the time. That's why Casey Hampton's one of one. Okay, so A.J. Hawk just signed up to get cooked by Pittsburgh Steelers for three and a half, four hours.

Can't wait. Right? Is that what we heard? It's awesome. I'm going to call that. What did Aaron say? What did they say about Aaron in the VP situation? What did they say?

He welcomed the… Overture they say? He welcomed the... Overture. Okay. He welcomed the overture. Yeah, we welcomed the overtures. We're welcoming the overtures. I hear you. So just to let you know, there's an official invite that's been put out there.

And that's from my side how much respect I have for you and your show. Connor and Ty can come too. Listen, bring the whole gang. Okay. Man, this is a welcomed over. Hey, welcomed overtures from all of us. Yeah, let's go. We're all welcoming the overture, right?

We are welcoming the overture right now in real time. We've got to figure this is not a lot of time, Coach. You know how we're always late for you? This is not a lot. April 12th. You know how we're always late for you? This is not a lot. April 12th, where are we? Less than a month. Is this March of 31, day one? Yeah.

So we got an extra day. So we got a month. Right, exactly. We'll figure it out. I just agreed to doing it about two weeks before. Oh, beast. So Coach, you said, I couldn't fucking tell you. Yeah, that's what he did. I couldn't fucking tell you.

I didn't know until 13 days ago. All good. We're honored. Legitimately honored. Hell yeah. That you would ask that, and we're going to figure out how to do it. I don't think I'm going to have a fun time that night, though. You might.

You might. You could. I got to look at Troy Polamalu. I was supposed to have a fucking touchdown in Pittsburgh, but that guy with his flowing hair ruined it. Just absolutely ruined it. And then Kiesel, his beard is bigger than I am. The amount of money that guy has raised for Pittsburgh with St. Baldrick's

and everything that he's done for that entire – it looks like Casey Hampton is going to be there. It's like my childhood heroes are all going to show up, and they're going to be on microphone, and they're just going to be. I mean, Joe Green is going to be there? It's like my childhood heroes are all going to show up. And they're going to be on microphone. And they're just going to be. I mean, Joe Green's going to be there. Mel Blunt will be there. You know,

Lynn Swan, John Stallworth. Hines. Everybody. Do people hire writers to write their stuff? Well, I just want to know who's going to do roast me because I got enough stuff in my background coaching some of these guys. I'm okay with myself. So I just want to know if you guys are coming

because I just would like to look up some stuff on AJ, get some stuff on Pat. I'm sure he's a great high school player. Okay. Went to West Virginia. How many scholarship offers did you get a great high school player. Okay. Went to West Virginia. How many scholarship offers did you get out of high school? Kent State, West Virginia. I think that's it.

Northwestern looked into me, but thank God. Why? Well, I just heard about what they did in the locker room. It was fascinating. Car wash? No, West Virginia didn't do any of that. Thank God. My grades, though, got me out of a lot of places.

A lot of places stopped looking at me because my grades weren't great. My grades weren't great. Why'd you pick West Virginia over Penn State? Because Penn State was pretty renowned at the time, right? Yeah, so funny. Yeah, you knew. You've done enough research already. Yeah. They told me they were going to offer me a scholarship. They never did. Mike McQuarrie, yes, that Mike McQuarrie told me.

I was not Penn State material. Thank God. Yep. So a lot of these things, hindsight kind of coming together. But Kevin Kelly, lefty from the eastern part of the state, ended up getting a scholarship, even though I was told I was getting a scholarship. And we didn't do any. So, yeah, it's a similar story. I only got two scholarship offerings.

I went to all these places out of high school. One was William & Mary and the other was NC State. William & Mary decided to drop football two years later, so I picked the right one. Thank God! Good call. Good call on this entire thing. Alright, Coach, we appreciate the hell out of you. Have an incredible

Wednesday, and we'll get that information back to you about whether or not we're going to make it soon because we would like you to have a full amount of time to do research and we would also like a full list of who's going to be there as well. We need that pretty soon as well. Let me know, and I will let you know who's confirmed, who's speaking. Because I just want to know who's speaking.

Everyone who's there, if you're there, that's one thing. But if you're talking, I want to make sure I have a rebuttal. That's all I'm saying. How much time is everybody being allotted that's definitely going to get powered through? I don't think it's not a lot. So I actually have people that are bringing it up. My two daughters are actually going to finish up and do a

dual talk about myself. Nice. Great Fox Chapel students. Great. Yeah. Matter of fact, matter of fact, both of which play basketball, world basketball at Princeton. And you're talking about Caitlin, big, big both of which play basketball, world basketball at Princeton. And you're talking about Caitlin, big, big fan of women's basketball.

So I want you to know they both play basketball at Princeton. Hey, we're talking. What type of players? My oldest daughter, she's still the second all-time leading scorer at Princeton. Damn. We're playing physical? My late wife actually played in the professional basketball league back at Nancy Lieberman. Wow.

Okay, we had the cower. I'm sure we were diving for loose balls. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So actually, my

second daughter got elbowed by my oldest daughter in a playoff game. And I was in the stands. And I remember it's one of those weird things when everyone goes quiet and they hear you talk. And I said, get up, Lauren. You're fine. And just as everybody else. Yeah. Yeah.

And my wife was sitting there. I go, oh, okay. So she got up, kind of looked at me, went back down, got into this defensive stance, and all of a sudden this blood came rushing out of her nose. You're not fine. That's a broken nose. No, no, no.

So they run out there. They got this nose on her thing. She's walking back to the bench, and she's like this, and she goes, she takes it off. She goes, I'm not fine, dad. I'm not. My bad. You felt like the smallest human in that room.

I go, I told my wife, I better go down and say something. She goes, no, you're probably better off staying up here. I'll go down. That's amazing. All right. We appreciate the hell out of you. Obviously, Pittsburgh legend. You're the best. Thank you for joining us today, buddy. Thanks, guys. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Bill Cowher.

Yeah, Coach! Imagine getting to grow up with him being the head coach of your football team. Man. That's what we got to do. That's awesome. Yeah, that is awesome. Those players, too, you listed. Just all, I mean, as a Patriots fan, all those guys are so awesome.

And think about how they all played. Yeah. We're talking. So think about football town. We all played football, whether it was on the street or in a backyard, whether it was organized or not. Everybody played football. Like, that was the football team that was inspiring our entire city.

Yeah, I think he took over in 91, which you would have been four, I think, and I was three. And then he retired in 05 or 06, so that was our, from birth till high school, end of high school. He was our... Bill Kyer's the face of what we're supposed to be. Now the jaw a little bit bigger than most.

We're not going to be able to keep up, but AJ was like, I got it. Yeah, don't worry. Which we appreciate. Do you guys talk about jawsaws, you and Bill ever? No, I have not really got to speak with him outside of him coming on the show. He's awesome. What a good dude. He seems like a great human. The man.

Dude, and then once he starts looking at that camera, he's in the team meeting room. How is he not coaching? I wanted to ask him, how tough is it for you to not be a coach? We asked him that last year, and he said something like, I haven't lost a game in 17 years. CBS brothers. Yeah. It does feel like when he's with the CBS group,

this is just from J.J. Watt's Instagram story, and he, like, treats that as, like, his team and family. And they said, watching the game, he's coaching all 32 teams. So I think he feels fulfilled with his football role because he is a football guy through and through. Yep. It is a bummer the Masters are April 12th. I will say I am kind of.

And ESPN has the connection. Yeah, exactly. So it's one of those things. Like, you know. You ever done a roast? Gotta do the Bill Cowher thing. One. It was for a lawyer.

They can go pretty bad. They can go pretty terrible if they're not set up right. Yeah. This one's been going on for 25 years, though, it looks like. So this one's good. Yeah, and I'm seemingly the new one coming in. And you are, too. If I'm doing this, you're doing this.

Oh, no. I'm not supposed to be on the dais. What is it? Dais. Dais. But no, I'd be in the crowd. I don't enjoy it. Yeah.

Like, I get shit on and then have to shit on people don't like doing either of those but if it's raising money for Bill Cowher it's like alright all these legends I guess I could do that it's like

oh no Chuck Strong is taking place on the same exact day with Chuck Rogano so we'll sort it Oh, no. Yeah, that's what. Chuck Strong is taking place on the same exact day. Oh, yeah. With Chuck Regano. So we'll sort it. We'll sort it. We'll sort it. And if it's not this year, maybe next year, we'll donate because we would like Bill Kier's night to be one that we are a part of.

We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We got the Chuck Strong text first. You know, that's kind of. Maybe you send in a nice video they play. Huh? You send a video they play. Huh? You send a video they play at the event.

That's even worse. At a roasting event? We're sending... We're just going... You're sending a video roasting everybody and then... See you later. All right, see you. Shut up a bit.

Get you back. Perfect. Right here. Yeah. All right, good luck, boys. Pointing at people. And then, what, I guess everybody in the crowd would just have to record it and send it. Yep.

Yeah, but at that point. If you'd like to take a shot at me, just ask somebody in the crowd to record your shot so they can tweet it to me. I'm sorry I can't be there. That was cool to get offered that from Bill Cowher, though. Very. That's a very cool moment there. Yeah. I did one for a lawyer in town.

He was raising money for, I think, so people could get free representation. I think there's a fund for these lawyers that they put together. He represented me in my public intoxication. Okay. Pro bono. He is also, which went to trial, so I'll never understand how that, you know, they told me public intoxication never going to even make it to trial. Act like you killed somebody.

Trial? Not trial. I'm sorry. It didn't make it to never going to even make it to trial. Act like you killed somebody. Trial? Not trial. I'm sorry. But it made it to court. Like, I had to go stand in front of a judge like, not only in jail, but in there. And I was told that's never going to happen. Like, literally. This guy not good? No, the prosecutor that was trying to Oh, he had a hard on. Oh my god. Of course. At one point, the judge asked me,

have you ever been arrested for a substantial amount of time before? And I was like, no. No, I have not, Your Honor. And he stands up and goes, we don't know if that's true. We would like an extension. And I'm like, look, he's like two feet away. He's wearing jeans, this fucking guy.

Oh, Jesus. In a courtroom? Yeah. Boom. Should have been thrown out for that. Anyways, it was at that moment I said, I'm going to represent myself going forward because I would like to, you know, because I was being told, don't say anything.

Don't say anything. It's like, I would like to say something. Don't say anything. Anyway, he's a good dude. Jim? So him and a bunch of his buddies all roasted him? Jim. Jim?

Voiles? Voiles. There it is. Jim Voiles. Yeah, good dude. Does a lot for the community, though. Big time lawyer. I think like a lot like, he was the Colts

the Colts called him. Sure. So he's like a very successful lawyer who's made Indianapolis home. Good man. He's given back a lot. Like, gives back a lot. He's great human. After I got to meet him, they were roasting him to raise money for something he asked me personally. If I could do it face to face. Oh. Face to face asked me, hey, could you

I already checked, you got nothing going on. That whole thing. That's tough. That whole thing. And it was like, yeah, I'll do it because I did appreciate this human. And yeah, I didn't necessarily enjoy the idea of what the show is. Okay? Because if we're roasting people, like there's a couple good people.

Who's deciding what the line is you know and who will be funny if it crosses yeah bingo and for me there's a lot of things you can find you know that boy i'm just getting cooked because my life is the most absurd one of all time and i thought that's what it was going to be it's kind of weak it wasn't that good but a late surprise roaster was introduced moments before so i had to sit up with this thing for three or four hours sure okay the surprise roaster much like what we just talked about with video being sent in can't stay the whole night because he's super busy it's like oh yeah we're all yeah okay everybody nobody else is busy you're a hundred you're alone it was

the brand new mayor of indianapolis the one that the brand new mayor of Indianapolis. The one that? The brand new mayor. Yeah, it was his first year when he was the brand new mayor. We had a mayor in Indianapolis for like 50 years. This guy was the mayor of Indianapolis pretty much. That's a military guy. He was the one that kind of did everything. He retires. Brand new mayor comes in.

Did not even know this guy. Had no idea what his name was. Must have been within the first few weeks of him getting voted in. He was the surprise roaster. He had to go first because he had get out of there get here and his speech had like how about these other roasters right so i'm listening to this guy talk and i'm like well okay and the way he was introduced about how he has to get out of here he's very busy and i'm like in the middle of you know probably 14 fucking jobs in this entire thing and uh so, yeah, I just cooked him, basically.

He left. He stood in the back of the room. I was the next person. It was like, that's not the fucking mayor. And obviously, it was a big pop. And then, like, it was hard not to just completely direct myself. Oh, he's got to leave. He's busy.

This is Chip Ganassi. Chip Ganassi's up there. He has, like, 10 cars in the IndyCar, owns 30 car dealerships, traveled in from Pittsburgh to do this. Yeah, chip ganassi's up there he has like 10 cars in the indycar owns 30 car dealerships traveled in from pittsburgh to do this yeah chip ganassi's not busy you know this fucking guy so i guess that's what it became for 15 minutes and afterwards i was like why'd you have to do that you know like to myself yeah why'd you have to this guy's probably a good guy but it's a a roast is the nature of this entire thing. So like, that's why I feel terrible afterwards. And then people cook you for three hours.

It's like, I'm not built for it, but for fucking built power, you know, I think you gotta be. I think you gotta be. Getting done for. That is not what, could you imagine you two on a roast with Deus? Oh, no, no, no.

We are not doing that. We were just going to have a couple cocktails. No, no, no, I'm just saying in general, a couple years, let's say five years from now. Oh, yeah. You know, we'd going to have a couple cocktails. No, no, no. I'm just saying in general. A couple years. Let's say five years from now. Oh, yeah. You know, I would love to have a talk table on this. You guys having like a month to write things about people and research people, like that's absurd. That is just crazy to think about what you could say to just saw some person done.

Yeah. It's like that's the nature of it. Who's the roast master? He's good. Oh, Jeff Ross. There it is. He's good. Yeah, he's unreal. That's like a dream to do a roast of it. Who's the roast master? He's good. Oh, Jeff Ross. There it is. He's good. Yeah, he's unreal.

That's like a dream to do a roast of someone I know very well. See, I feel so bad. I do not. This is why we are here. This is a roast. You brought me in here to rip you apart. It has to be someone you know because a lot of times for those celebrity roasts, they'll bring people up who obviously know the person that's being roasted,

but they don't have a close affiliation. I feel like that's where you get a lot of like, that was way over the line. This fucking guy. If you're doing it to one of your buddies, it's just like, okay, whatever. That's good. I felt so bad afterwards. I literally, why'd you have to fucking do that? Never ever.

I did. I did. I did. Did you leave? Never ever do one. No, I sit there. Yeah, same. I had to sit there. What's that? You don't feel bad? No, I just wouldn't do one. Would never. I did. I did. Did you leave? Never ever do one. No, I sit there. Yeah, same. I just sit there. What's that? You don't feel bad? No, I just

wouldn't do one. Would never ever do one. Yeah, that was my immediate thought. As I'm sitting in that chair up there, just thinking that guy may or probably gonna have to fucking deal with him going forward. And then these people are just cooking me about the same thing different. I was like, I never thought about it. If you show up though, you know the deal though. If you show up, you

shouldn't take anything personal. You know, you know what you signed up for. You also have, I never thought about that. If you show up, though, you know the deal, though. If you show up, you shouldn't take anything personal. You know what you signed up for. You also have to be funny to do one. Yeah, what was that, Mike? They hire writers. A lot of them hire writers, obviously, that write their stuff for them. Because it's really tough to be funny. Didn't Brady have one? How was his?

It hasn't happened yet, has it? Yeah, it was supposed to be on Netflix, wasn't it? It was supposed to be on Netflix, yeah, but it hasn't. Brady's pretty funny, though. There's a big promotion for that. Yeah, he's hilarious. Stand-up. Some of those people, that was Doodsy.

Oh, yeah, you're right. That was not actually Tom Brady. Oh, yeah. You're right. Damn. That was the AI from Will Sasso's podcast. Correct. Called Doodsy.

Just going. Just rushing. No pauses, just hilarious. Well, that's, the AI's got no feel. Yeah. Yeah, but that almost added to it. Yeah. Tom Brady put out...

Tom Brady had one of the greatest 30-minute comedy specials I've ever heard. So good. From this AI named Dudesy. Yeah. Will Sasso. So good. Tom Brady needs to just rehearse that. Mm-hmm.

And just go ahead and just tour that. Yep. It was phenomenal. AI's funny. Oh, yeah. AI's funny if it needs to be, which is a little bit scary. But that Tom Brady one is coming, right? Is that what that just said?

Netflix special taping featuring Brady and friends slash frenemies. May 5th. Key forum. Is that this year? When will it come out then? Yeah, I thought it was last year, May 5th. We would have got clips or heard something. Had to have.

Maybe. I figured it was last year and they haven't finished making it yet. Jeff Ross is part of it, so it'll be good. Frenemies, too. I think Giselle leads off of it. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Stop. And the instructor.

See, that's too far. That's what I'm talking about. Frenemies was just a joke. But that right there would be Jeff Ross's. It's got to be in there. It's going to happen. Yeah, but that's not even. That's like there's like so many different layers that that person will go.

If it comes from a place of love, it all plays. If you love the person that you're roasting. Sure. And I love Tom, so we're good. You love everybody, actually. If they wear this helmet, there's a chance. Boys, it's 225. Hell yeah.

Has anything happened? Oh, yeah. The Chargers have released a wide receiver. Boom. Big deal. The Chargers have an hour and 35 minutes to get under the salary cap. They have officially released wide receiver Mike Williams. The move will save the Chargers $20 million against their cap,

and Williams will become a free agent. I wonder what the dead cap is. I wonder how much money they owe him for next season. I should have done the research on that. We thought big names were going to be released by the Chargers today because they have to get salary cap compliant. I wonder who's next, what's next, how it's next. Mike Williams gone. Explosive,

dynamic wide receiver. The reason why they're saving $20 million is because at one point, they said, we need to pay this guy at least $20 million to keep him on our team because of how fucking good he is. Now, that being said, he becomes the Indianapolis Colts. How much money are the Chargers paying him? That's what a lot of teams

are going to be thinking. If he can stay healthy, you're talking about game wrecker A.J. Hawk. Yeah, that's the only reason why they had to move on is because he hasn't been able to be on the field as much as he should. But I don't know. What's his market look like and who do you think brings him in? Should be him. Should be great.

I think he becomes more of a market than – he becomes the number one write-up. There'll be a lot of in-game bonuses, right, Pat? Per game, you've got to be active for that game. He'll have a lot of money in that because they want to know, hey, if he's not hurt, then the incentives will help him out to be on the field. Yes, percentage of games played is probably going to be added in there. Per game, roster, all that up, active, inactive, I assume going to be a part of normal contract talk for Mike Williams

for the rest of his career because of how this entire thing has gone with the first big contract he got. But I do wonder what his money already is. Like what is he – He just signed a three-year $60 million deal, I think, going into last season. But to your point, your best ability is availability. And then they just drafted Quentin Johnston last year in the first round. Did not have a great rookie year, but that's kind of –

he's basically in that same mold with Mike Williams. Big guy, get down the field, make big plays. The Chargers are now cap-compliant. Oh, wow. There it is. Congratulations to the Chargers making a big-time play release of Mike Williams. They keep Keenan Allen, who I think Jim Harbaugh has complimented.

They keep Derwin James, who Jim Harbaugh has complimented. They keep Justin Herbert. They keep Khalil Max, who seemingly here, he's salary cap compliant. Bosa's on the team as well. I wonder if Harbaugh's in there working out with them in the morning, trying to figure out who's going what. But congrats to the Chargers who had the worst cap situation going into the salary cap compliant timeline at 4 p.m. Eastern time

to making it underneath with time to spare. Way to go. Now, I wonder, because I assume there are some free agents out there. I assume they're going to have to add some guys, so are they going to have to cut one of these other guys eventually or restructure or something like that? They're not done. How much money has to go to rookies, the rookie draft class?

It's not like 10? What's that number? Seven and a half. I assume it's already prepared, and they know that because of all the slotted deals. So now Mike Williams will be added to this free agent watch as of this morning, I believe, 1145. These were the names that were on the list. There was a lot of moves that we did not cover that some garnered as a little bit smaller. Sure.

And we feel bad about that. But congrats to all the players that are getting new opportunities in new places, and good luck to all the free agents in finding a new home. Let's go to a break. On the other side, maybe Reese Davis. Okay. College ball.

Talk college ball. We're going to Iowa next Friday. Pretty good reaction on the internet. I hate it. How about it? I told you. People are excited. How about it? I told you. I think.

I mean, people are excited. People will be. That'll be a lot of fun. Yeah. That'll be a lot of fun. The field has. Yep. Field has.

I was our people. Amen. Can we get burritos in that Pancheros place? Oh, you best believe I'm going to be stopping at Pons. How about some breakfast pizza? Casey's? Yeah. That's going to be a must.

What else are we doing? Are we hopping on that damn train? Am I riding that train? Hawkeye Express. It depends where we land. I don't think the Hawkeye Express is in service outside of football season. Damn! Yeah.

Can we drink some of that Hawkeye vodka? At your own peril, my friend. No one needs to be drinking Hawkeye vodka. Do you think Pat Anger's mana is going to be around? I sure hope so. I sure hope so because God knows we could all use it. It's always around. Luka Garza's?

Well, obviously. Garza's playing football for the team right now. We're going to see his statue, right? Yeah. Yep. It's as tall as the old Capitol. It's like 450 feet tall. Wow. Yeah. Now that kind of sets precedent for what they It's like 450 feet tall. Wow. Yeah.

Now that kind of sets precedent for what they're going to have to do for Edie over there in Lafayette. Let alone Kaitlyn Clark. Garza, let's just say if those two giants would have faced each other, if they would have been in school at the same time, Garza would have ate Edie's fucking punch.

Talking about Zach Edie. Yeah, I am talking about Zach Edie. No. Yeah. Let's see him go fucking guard Luca Garza out of the perimeter. Not a chance. Edie's saying, shoot all day. You're not going to shoot 100%.

I'm going to stay right down here, wait for you to come into the big man's land, and guess what team I'm on? The SWAT team. Your shit's getting sent. And then Edie's backing him down and then lifting up his hand like this and dunking. Okay. And you know what Gar It's not even like this. You know what Gar's saying? It's not even like this. It's like this. That's what Edie's doing. He's dunking.

He's dunking. Oh, you want to let me shoot all day? You're a big dumb dipshit. You're not familiar with my game. I'm going to shoot 15 threes and I'm going to shoot 70% from three-point land. And we're going to And we're going to fucking boat race you guys. That's not what Zach Eady would ever allow happen.

Too bad. We'll never find out. We can get their statues to battle maybe one day. Did you guys retire his jersey, Lucas? Yeah. On his senior night? I believe so. He's the all-time leading scorer for Iowa. Oh, they did that for Eady too. I was about to say

checkmate. It's kind of dumb doing leading scorer for Iowa. Oh, they did that for Edie, too. I was about to say checkmate. No. Yeah, well, it's kind of dumb doing that, to be fair. That's an honor. Yeah, well, they're stealing a night from him later when he can come back. But sure, absolutely. There'll be a reunion. There'll be an anniversary.

Reunion for losing to a 16 seed? It's going to be a shame when they lose the first round again. Yeah. Edie? Yeah. That's what happened last year. He's retired. He ain't going to lose the first round. He might. There's no point. I mean what happened last year. The Chargers are tired. They ain't going to lose their first round.

He might. There's no point. I mean, hey, I already got my stuff. You saw him at Gatsby's. I did. You saw him at Gatsby's. Yeah, he's a big fan. He's by like Purdue Mountain in March.

Yep. It's every year they do. Absolutely. I think they might win it all. They probably will. Let's go, Edie. Let's cement your legacy. For your cement statue.

They're making it cement. That'd be sweet. That's cool. That's what's in his shoes. Oh! Oh! He's a student human athlete. He's also Canadian, too. He is Canadian.

He played for the Canadian U.S. or I I guess, national team last year during that tournament. Gumpsh. Start and center. It was too easy, though. I had to do it. Which goes back, once again, to the roast thing.

Exactly. If we have a month to do that, I don't want to say the words. Could be dangerous. I like to make people feel good. Hey, be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. You want to come to the roast? Three hours?

Just complete opposite of that. Could be fun. I enjoy watching. Sure. I enjoy. It is a form of entertainment that I will watch. And a lot of... Damn. I've always thought of myself up there just being like... For not only myself,

but other people. Like, imagine sitting next to somebody who's just getting. Shins whack. Yeah. Oh, my God. Sorry. They start, like, what if they're crying a little bit? You can tell it's really affecting them.

Go to the bathroom. Like, I gotta go to the bathroom. We're done. We're done. And then they come back, and it's like, what happened to you, little bitch? Tissue's in their pocket. We're on roast stage, you know, so I gotta know So I gotta play the part Let's get to a break

Maybe Reese Davis honored to be asked Welcome the Overture Yep Didn't we get a definition on that Overture It was just like a gesture I thought it was music It is

It's a double entendre. The English language is something. It is. Why do you drive on a parkway in park in a driveway? Rest in peace, Gallagher. Rest in peace. Thanks for slamming those watermelons. Let's get to a break.

We'll be back on the other side talking college ball. You're going to want to hear this. Yeah. We're about to get into March Madness. We don't know if we have a guest or not So it might be a lot of what you just heard right there That ended with Gumby Taking quite a shot across the bar To a

Friend of the program Countryman I mean Garza also did play against Edie Had a pretty good day How did Edie do, though? He had a good day, too. I don't think so. They both had good days, which is allowed to happen.

Yeah. Edie had three points. Oh, damn. How many guards did I have? 22. It was 50% from three points. Yeah, roll ankle. Oh, wow.

I think that's almost exactly what I said. He did have a bum ankle. He had a bum ankle. Edie had a bum ankle. Did he? Wow. I'm sure Purdue won because historically they fucking beat Iowa. Iowa center Luka Garza commanded the floor for the Hawkeyes,

scoring 22 points and pulling in nine rebounds. Didn't have a double-double. Garza was not only successful from below the basket, but he shot for free from the three-point line as well. That's pretty good. Luka Garza had a good game there. He was a dog. You know why he was staying out there?

Yeah, because he fucking knocks them down. No, because he didn't want to dance with Edie. Yeah, I'm sure he was shaking in his boots saying, oh, Edie's 114 from the field with three points. I can't let this guy get hot. He's saying, come on. Talk about on the other side of the court. I'm talking about the other side of the court.

Garza was never worried about the other side of the court. I'm going to go score on offense, and then I'm going to go back on defense, and I'm going to get fucking flat-backed trying to, you know. Oh, yeah. A lot of that. Is that his problem? Well, yeah. He's not uber-athletic, but, boy, can that man, the post moves.

Can that guy fill it up? So our college basketball hoops talk is about Luca Garza who doesn't play college ball anymore. Yeah, correct. That's our problem. Correct. It's like five years ago. It feels like 15 years ago. Gone too soon. Oh, so Edie was 12 years old. Okay.

Okay. Yeah, this was in 2020. Edie was in his first of eight years of college then. I don't want to hear it. He was 7'8 at the time still. He was 16 years old. I hope you're happy. Sorry. This is the men's league, bitch.

It's not. You're right. Technically, this is close to the men's league. Bitch. Bitch. This is Big Ten basketball. I actually like Zach Edie, by the way. He's so good, by the way. He's so good, by the way.

He is so good. I do. I do. He is very good. Purdue literally finds a way to lose. Not this year. It's a new era. No, they won't give him the ball.

Watch. They will not feed him the ball, and they will lose. He's the team. What are we talking about? They won't feed him the ball. It won't be his fault. This is what happens. Coach, basketball fucking sucks. Reece, stay with us. Join us on the ball. It won't be his fault. This is what happens. Coach basketball fucking sucks.

No, it's not. Reece, join us on the other side and tell us why it does. Okay. Our fantastic thing, that's A.J. Hawk. The Talks at the Table is here. I'm Boss of Connor and that's Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. God.

Cowboys 10. Diggs is here. And a nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. Good to see you, D-Bot. D-Bot, you look really cool today. That's a color that I don't think a lot of us could pull off, but you certainly have in a fantastic fashion. I appreciate you.

Yeah, he's super fit all the time. So how's his best one? Is your favorite one? Olive green? No, this was kind of totally. That's the best one he's had. I think this is what you were talking about earlier a couple weeks ago whenever you were talking about the way his seat and the camera.

What are you talking about? Yeah. What's going on? Is this what you're referring to, though? Well, yeah. It is the angle of me. I want to let you know for next football season, we will have that adjusted.

Yep. We should just get him like an attachment that he can just slide into his. Yeah, like when you got to get an x-ray or something. Bingo. And they wrap that thing around. Just get one of those. Yeah, but it looks like a table. It does. Okay, so as soon as he comes in for the show, strap, like a belt,

flips it around. John Cena, one of the things he had on. See, you and John Cena, like people are thinking, this guy's gotta be humiliated by this. He's got 1.2% body fat. Yeah. Should have been embarrassed by his sandals.

We talked about that a few times. The Birkenstocks, right? Yeah, that's where it was. Personally, I just don't do that. They kind of went with the robe or toga or whatever that was afterwards. Oh, so it's kind of a little bit of a teaser for what's come. That makes more sense.

Okay. Okay. Okay. But you, for instance, like with how, you know, somebody offers, how about this? You want to be naked in front of 15, 20 million people? No. No.

Not going to humiliate me like that. You say I'm not going to initiate it or nothing. No chance. Also with Cena, you know. Cena was just holding a card. We're going to need it or nothing. No chance. Also with Cena, you know. Cena was just holding a card. We're going to need, you know. A couple cards. Yeah, probably a card.

It's going to be one of those things. Are we talking college basketball? You call? No, it's one of those things where, what's that thing that rolls? Scroll? Scroll. That's what we're going to need.

Like the Lil Nas X one. Yeah, good news. He's holding that Grammy thing. Well. Probably nothing affiliated with. What? With who? We're talking about the prop.

Yeah, we're talking about the prop he had in his hand. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Hey! Oh! Back alert on this new league year Wednesday. Eagles and kicker Jake Elliott have reached an agreement on a four-year, $24 million contract extension.

The $6 million average per year ties Elliott with Justin Tucker for the highest-paid kicker in NFL history per source. Elliott is coming off a season in which he connected on a career-best 93.8% of his field goals. That's via ESPN's Adam Schefter, obviously, a man who's on all the phones all the time trying to break all the news. Jake Elliott has been incredibly consistent since he got into the league. We met him whenever he was on the Bengals as backup. He came into the studio with Kevin Huber, who is one of my friends from back Big East days, whenever he was punting at Cincinnati, and he taught me a lot.

I mean, they came by the office, and we saw him, and he's not as tall. So I'm a guy that I would like kicker punter to be a little bit, needs to be a big body. You don't see DHs that are small. That is just not a normal thing. Got to be able to generate a lot. As Luke Combs said, he's got 300 pounds of fun behind his punts whenever he's doing that entire thing. I see Jake. He was properly jocked, but he was like

5'10", maybe, or 5'9", whatever it was. So I was like, are we kicking the ball deep? And Huber's like, this guy murders the ball. And then he gets his opportunity with Philly, and as soon as he gets there, he just is consistent, bombs balls, kicks that aren't supposed

to go in. Heavy wind, left to right. This place is crazy. Somehow, someway, some kickers are able to figure it out. Jake Elliott, since his first time getting an opportunity with the Eagles, which is not an easy place to kick, has figured it out. He's a weapon for them in an era in which they're scoring a lot of points, and the offense is going to have to be great. Congrats to Jake on getting paid.

Proud of you, buddy. Wasn't handed anything. Was not handed any opportunities. We're not talking about getting drafted. He had to go, figure it out, battle, Wasn't handed anything. No. Yeah. Was not handed any opportunities. We're not talking about getting drafted. We're not talking about anything. He had to go, figure it out, battle, do this whole thing. Now, the man out of Memphis, University of Memphis, college, Memphis University, University. Yep.

Cool. Memphis University. University. Penny Hardaway. Penny Hardaway. Well, I don't think it's going great there. Anyways, Tigers. T-I-G-E-R-S

Tigers Get another one He had like the kick of the year last year To send the Bills game into overtime Where it was like a 61 yarder in the rain and in the wind And he had been making those like 60 yarders 58 yarders, 59 yarders At a high clip as like his first year

It's like perfect It's like damn, this guy's a real deal Him and Money Mac from Cincy Yeah, they kind of have similar starts With teams where It's like, damn, this guy's a real deal. Him and Money Mac from Cincy. Evan McPherson. Yeah, they kind of have similar starts with teams where it's like, these guys are just coming and been stone cold, which not easy to do mentally or your leg to keep up with because of how long the season is.

And Money Mac, kind of a shorter guy, too. Go ahead, pal. The last three years in Philly, three of three from 50+, five of six from 50+, and seven of eight from 50+. He's good. He's a stud. And that's not easy.

Pay that guy. I'm glad he got paid. Yeah, are you kidding me? And with where the salary cap is going, like $6 million a year, you can find that if the guy's going to make it. Now, at that price, and Justin Tucker knows this, and every kicker or punter that has ever signed for a little bit more than what everybody else has signed for

you have to make them all there's not a three week stretch where we don't know and Jake Elliott has proven not to be that guy just like Tucker has proven not to be that guy but at that price tag that is the conversation if he gets hurt somehow and there's like you miss a couple

games and the season doesn't go as well for the eagles it gets loud in the offseason with how much money is allocated to a kicker like that's the reality of the situation jake out jake elliott's the right one to have that type of pressure kind of why it sucks for brandon aubrey like these kickers are getting broken off but he was a he was a rookie like he's gotta go do it again yeah yeah so if he doesn't do it again it's's like, hey, sorry, buddy. You had a great rookie year, but we don't fucking care. That was really good. That one year was fun. Yeah. It was really fun. You won a lot of games. You went to Pro Bowl.

Yeah, it was cool. I mean, he's got the exact same team coming back around him, so he'll be comfortable. Cowboys are the only team. The only team. I did see that. I saw an empty graphic of here's the Cowboys free agency moves, and it was an empty graphic. Oh, no. Yeah, like I guess I did see that. I saw an empty graphic of here's the Cowboys free agency moves and it was an empty graphic.

I saw Cat Williams. Oh yeah. Speedy bet. Skip was pretty pissed. Let's chat about it a little bit. The Cowboys not doing anything. We talk about the roster being really good. That is kind of always the conversation.

It's never like, oh, the roster stinks. That's never a conversation. So everybody always talks about Jerry Jones meddling in everything. Until he stops doing that, they're never going to be able to win again. Now, do I believe that to be true? Maybe. Maybe they never win again with Jerry. We have no idea.

I do think the tours through the facility that I learned about just a week ago could certainly be an idea that Jerry has had business-wise that could affect the ability for every single player to be at their absolute best. I think some players are perfect for that. But if you miss on a guy that isn't supposed to be a Cowboy and isn't comfortable every single day people doing tours and meetings and stuff, that can potentially draw you back a little bit more than everything else.

So whenever you're doing free agency or drafting anybody or anything like that for the cowboys i think it is crucial that you get people that can be dallas cowboys in the entire story that's a that's a real thought that has come into my mind since the dalton schultz conversation like not everybody's cut out to fucking be watched while they're working out like that you know like not everybody's supposed you got to find that guy they're working out. Like, not everybody's supposed to. You've got to find that guy, and you've got to find talent. I assume it's not easy to win down there in Dallas, and they certainly haven't for a long, long, long, long time.

Yeah, it ain't easy. And that culture thing, somebody's going to point a finger at it when you're not winning. It's always going to be something. But I'm sure they were the same way when Emmitt was there, when Dion was there, when Troy was there, Irvin. Like, that's just how Jerry does business-wise, and you've got to hit, especially this time of year. I am surprised that they haven't gone after any linebacker, though, you know,

because I feel like that was their biggest glaring weakness. Obviously, you lost Trevon Diggs, but Deron Bland had a great year. Dillmore played okay. But that linebacker spot, I would want to keep Micah off the edge as much as possible. You've got to get some real, you know, three-down linebackers on that second level. Zim down there now?

Is that who? Yeah. You see Zim? So I assume he's thinking a lot of the same things. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they were in on people, but it probably just didn't make sense for whatever reason. But if they reach and go overpay people, then people want to kill them as well. So it's like, what do you do?

They can't do that, though. They have to pay their most premier positions. Micah's going to probably reset the market. CDU, he won't reset it because of Jefferson, but he'll get 30 probably. I mean, they have – Dak is a legend. Dak needs another contract. I mean, you can make the argument Tyler Smith needs to get prayed reasonably soon. Like the Colts, if the Colts were to be judged,

and obviously this is not good for the Cowboys to be in this particular conversation. They're probably not happy about it. But you guys didn't win the playoff game either. Wait. Okay, so that's just how it is. Same boat. The Colts had a lot of signings, so they seem to be very active. And it's all their own guys.

A lot of their own guys are getting signed back. Like if the Cowboys had to sign their own guys, seemingly they would be very active right now. And you're not winning any headlines, and Cowboys fans normally win every single headline and then you look within a division you got saquon going to the eagles you think he probably gets better there with the philadelphia eagles so i think that's why it's been so loud you think big mike mccarthy's word you think big mike mccarthy knows everything that's on the line every year i guess but most definitely this year for him yeah i would say would say Big Mike understands.

He knows what is on the line. He knows also, hey, we got to get out to a fast start. We can't be messing around this year. No question. We all win. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to call a man who is currently on a car ride, I believe, to the airport. Nice.

He is not driving. I think a lot of people, whenever we cold call people and people answering, they're in a car. A lot of people go, hey, you should be paying attention. We don't talk to anybody that's driving. No. Distracted drivers are the worst drivers. We don't like when they're pulled over on the side of the road. I'm a motorcycle.

I ride motorcycles. I do not want distracted riders. No. We are very good set. So just know if we're talking to somebody, they either have a driver or they're sitting passenger seat. We do not want to risk society's safety at all. Absolutely not.

We won't be a part of it. Never. How about when Herbstreit parked on the side of the road? The most uncomfortable I've ever been. Every car is shaking. His truck, yeah. He's holding the thing perfectly, too. Maybe the greatest FaceTime holder in the history of the show. Kirk, so let me pull over to the side of the road here. You guys greatest FaceTime holder in the history of the show.

Sure. Kirk, so let me pull over to the side of the road here. You guys kind of caught me in the middle of a road trip here. I'm heading down to Tennessee, and he's literally at the bottom of a hill with a bend that is at the same exact angle his FaceTime is. Yeah. So I'm watching this 18-wheeler gain speed down probably a quarter mile, maybe even a half mile around. And then it blows by his car, and his car shakes.

And we saw the whole thing, and I was like, all right, Herbie, we're done with this. I can't take you dying around the bend. So that's how adamant we are about that whole thing because we are a cold call show. Need to keep that in the show. Join us now as in the back of the vehicle

heading to the airport, ladies and gentlemen, college basketball, college football's Reece Davis. Reece? You know what? The biggest upset is that Herbstreit is driving himself someplace and I'm not. That is. Look at you living the high life.

Hey! Living that high life, getting chauffeured around. We respect and appreciate that because of all the hard work you put in we called you out earlier in the show we said because you didn't answer a cold call earlier today we weren't going to talk college ball we're appreciative that you are back to enlighten us on stuff this morning i assume you were busy please tell me i just i just put my phone down i was packing to go to the acc tournament and my phone was away from me so i didn't know you'd call until later.

Classic. That's on us and obviously the way I operate. No, it's my fault. No, no, no. Listen, you do what you gotta do because you're packing to go cover some basketball, which is why we need to talk to you. Okay, so right now we're in the middle of conference championships taking place. The women, I believe, were last weekend. The men

this weekend and Selection Sunday is happening. Who should we be? What are the teams in the men's side that we need to be paying attention to? D-Butts, tell me. UConn. His UConn team is the team. Who are the teams this year that we need to be paying attention to, Reese? I'm with D-Butt. I think UConn's the best team.

A team that I really really liked though is tennessee um now tennessee they won the sec right they got beat at home by kentucky last saturday but they've got this dude dalton connect who transferred from northern colorado he put 40 on kentucky this past weekend and he's done that routinely he's the sec player of the year. He's going to be a good NBA player, I think. And he gives Tennessee a little something that they haven't had in the past in terms of offense. So I'm a big fan of Tennessee.

I think they can get over some baggage that they have as a program in the tournament. They've never made a Final Four. Rick Barnes, you know, has had his share of struggles, both at Texas and Tennessee in the tournament. They've never made a Final Four. Rick Barnes has had his share of struggles both in Texas and Tennessee in the tournament. So I think this is a real opportunity for Tennessee to

go to the Final Four. I like those two a lot. Purdue, I'm going to have to see it to believe it with their tournament history. Amen! Amen! Well said, Reese. He's a big-time player, and they've added some depth. They've added some older players that have helped them.

But I just worry about the mental side. I think their last three outs are Fairleigh Dickinson, St. Peter's, and North Texas. Yikes. And, you know, if it gets a little tight, I worry that weighs on them. They're good enough to do it. I just worry about their mental overload and the pressure that comes with that one-and-done thing in the tournament.

Yeah, but remember, we're in the Zach Eadies. Jersey has already been retired era. Things are much different right now for the Purdue Boilermakers. I like hearing that about Tennessee. Good old Rocky Top down there. I like to hear that. And UConn obviously has a fiery, fiery head coach who's got the boys reigning national champions.

Maybe do it again. Tone Diggs, I've got a question for you for all us bracket people. Yeah, Reese, there's always a non-Power 5 or Cinderella, if you will, who's like 28-2, and we haven't heard it. We don't know about them. It's been like Drake and teams like that or Florida Gulf Coast in the past who have been really good in the regular season, but we just haven't heard about them because they're non-Power 5.

Is there a team like that out there this year? There are a few. One you mentioned already is Drake with Tucker DeVries. Really, really good team. They're going to be in the tournament. The team they beat to win the conference championship, Indiana State with Robbie

Avila. They're calling him Cream Abdul-Jabbar because of the glasses or college yoke. He's awesome. Really unorthodox. Odd player. He's an unorthodox type player. But boy, is he a good passer. Really good passer, can score.

I think they can cause some trouble. And a team that I'd heard about, or actually a coach I've heard about for years from some friends of mine in Alabama that I got a chance to watch his team play last night is Samford, which is in Birmingham. Bucky McMillan is the coach. They play a really aggressive style of offense. Got a little tight late in the game last night, but they'll be in the tournament, and I think that

they might be able to win a game once they get there, too. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Reese, going off Drake getting in, I think they were maybe kind of like a fringe bubble team, because they're pretty solid, but going into Selection Sunday and the conference tournaments, do you get the sense that we're going to get quite a few bid stealers here?

Like, is the bubble – I mean, obviously, outside of UConn, it seems like everything's kind of wide open. Do you get the sense that we're going to – like the bubble's going to really start to shrink here in the next few days? You know, it's – I don't think so, but here's the caveat. There are fewer teams in the ACC right now that appear to be locked. If you have somebody rise up and come through. Sure.

Yeah. Look at that. It's a great still shot. Yeah, we agree. So that's a great still. We agree. That's what we think, too. So those are the ones that I looked at. I wouldn't say a ton of them. Okay.

All right. Hey, you look better than you've ever looked. The ability to have that suit and tie. Fantastic. He's truly phenomenal. How about that? All right. Hey, Reese, we appreciate you taking time today.

We're going to continue to blow up your phone over the next couple weeks as March Madness tips off. You're the man, pal. I'll keep it with me. Thanks, guys. Travel safely, ladies and gentlemen. Reese Stakes. Hey, Reese.

He's in the back roads of high society. He's getting chauffeured around us. Yeah, exactly. That's going to take place. Driving with connection. You know, we've done that song and dance. It happens. So what did we do?

We talked men's college basketball. Yeah, we did. We talked women's college basketball. Yeah, we did. We'll be in Iowa next week. Wait. Next Friday. Caitlin.

What's up, AJ? What's up, Tribal Chief? What are we doing? Yeah. Boom. Robin Reigns will be there. Oh, yeah. Mommy won't be there, sorry.

Mommy's not coming? Damn it. Fuck. Mommy is not going to be in Iowa next week as we are at the field house on the campus of the University of Iowa, but Roman Reigns will be in attendance. Oh, hell yeah. And when I said that, I thought he was, you know, when I said it earlier. But then he quote tweeted it.

And said, yeah, I will be there. You're fucking right, I will be. I guess we're saying it should be pretty electrifying over there. Early indications. There's been a lot of questions about, I guess there are some people that maybe weren't in the know on the University of Iowa campus. Sure. That are maybe question answerers. Panicking. that maybe weren't in the know on the University of Iowa campus. Sure. There may be question answerers. Panicking.

You know, they're like getting a lot of questions, I guess, a little bit. Sorry. I should have told somebody we were making the announcement today. Oh, making the announcement. You gave them damn near two weeks. That's a long time. Yeah, but we should

have told somebody we were making an announcement. Probably at WWE, probably at Iowa. Well, you asked somebody and they kind of gave you a go-ahead. Well, that was 14 seconds before the show started. Still out. Question to question. Isn't making the announcement kind of telling someone that you're going to make the announcement? Yeah.

They'll figure it out. Obama was there, you know. Don't sleep on Barry O. Smart people. Figure it out. DT, too. JWG was there for a while. How about...

I FaceTimed Pat Anger. No answer. I go, we need Pat Anger sitting on a cell just with an American flag. Yeah. I think that's...

Yep. What if he's just shucking corn? Just right there? Yeah. The entire time. I think I's just shucking corn? Just right there? Yeah. The entire time. I'd have him just holding a flag. It'd be awesome. Yeah.

We cannot wait to get to Iowa. Pumped. Never been. I've been there once. Twice. Yeah. Two times. Always a good time.

Yeah. I mean, it's awesome. It's like, you know, Iowa City is a college town through and through. Iowa people, though. That too. Like, Iowa people, good times. Oh, yeah. You know, good energy, good vibes.

For sure. Which I'm very pumped for. This will be our first live show in a while, huh? Yeah. Back on the road, boys. Yeah. Let's go. Getting back on the road.

First one with a... Iowa's got to be close. That's got to be a short flight. I would imagine, yeah. Let's keep our eardrums intact. Of course, the drive. First one with a... Iowa's got to be close. That's got to be a short flight. I would imagine. Yeah. Let's keep our eardrums intact. How far is the drive? That'll be good.

We just... Drive is about six and a half hours. Sounds like... No. To Iowa City, it's probably 545. Oh. Okay, so we're talking an hour flight. Should be.

This is good news. Great news. We're more pumped all of a sudden. Yeah. We are very... After a check. We are very more pumped. We are very. San Antonio, four hours.

Where are we? Am I going to Europe? And this entire thing. Look up at the map of the plane. It's like, God damn, we are nowhere near. And they tell you how long the flight is. So even with how big they put the plane on there, it's like we're not even halfway home.

We're not even. Are you facing a strong headwind? Both ways, seemingly. Yeah, exactly. San Antonio left to Texas. Houston, right to Texas. You would think Houston would take less time. Houston was a haul, too.

Same exact time. It is way down there. Love being there. Love Texas. Couldn't emphasize enough how much. You worried about flying now, Pat? There's a lot going around. AJ.

The airplanes. I've heard. I've seen the chatter. People are getting worried. People are worried. I've muted it all. Yep. I don't like what he just did.

I didn't hear it, and I don't want to hear it. I saw a whistleblower actually. Oh, well, that guy's dead. Yeah. Well, he actually is, yeah. That's what they said. According to the report I read all year. But don't worry.

Unalived, actually. Sorry, yeah. He unalived said. According to the report I read on the internet. Unalived, actually. Sorry, yeah. He unalived himself. No questions asked. None. Are you going to ask questions? Sounds like you wanted to do that. No, I don't even know who I would ask questions to.

How about the Royals? Did we learn anything there? Oh, yeah. They opened last night. Second Princess Kate's dead. What? I think she's dead. Her lawyer said that.

Yeah, you didn't see that video from that very trustworthy woman last night? I did not see that. I'm surprised I didn't because once we brought it up yesterday because J.J. Watt. It was all in my timeline last night. Call J.J. Let's call J.J. I got a great theory. We need an update.

Huh? I said I got a great Kate Middleton theory, but I'm going to keep it in-house until it's proven correct. This morning? Was it yesterday or this morning? I'll text you, AJ. It was yesterday, but I reiterated it this morning for the rest of the day. This one you don't want to. You've got to document it in-house until it's proven correct. This morning? Was it yesterday or this morning? I'll text you, AJ. It was yesterday, but I reiterated it this morning. This one you don't want to. You've got to document it so it becomes true.

He had an American flag steer hat on that he bought at the Texas Rodeo a couple weeks ago. Of course. That said, country pride across the back. Great hat. He had a bottle with 10 zins maybe in his mouth, and he looks over at me and goes, you don't want to know the real deal behind the rules. And I was like, what are you doing?

That'd be awesome. I laughed so hard. I was like, this is a movie. This was a movie. This was actually a movie interaction right now. And I started dying laughing. He goes, you don't. You don't.

And then he told me to look into it. And I did last night a little bit. And? It's pretty wild. There's a chance. I mean, this is a five-year prediction because a lot of things need to happen still. But I do have my – Aaron Rodgers is just getting dropped into the fucking vice president talk yesterday through the New York Times.

Yep. talk yesterday through the New York Times. The New York Times is just like the smallest of most absurd things that are potentially being talked about. The internet is alive right now. The internet is really swinging. We're talking back whenever it was the juice era of MLB, what the internet

is doing. There's a new McGuire or Sosa stepping into the batter's box, hulked up, taking swings on the internet is doing. There's a new McGuire or Sosa stepping into the batter's box, hulked up, taking swings on the internet, and hitting balls out of the stadium. The views on some of these tweets and some of these things, it's like that's got 17

million views. I'm like, a lot of people have seen this. Does everybody know a lot of people have seen this? And then this one, a lot of people have seen this, and I'm not seeing any community notes going, nah, dog, that's actually what community notes are now. Yeah, they are. Which are awesome and hilarious. It's an insane time to be alive.

It is. We're lucky to be here. We're lucky to be here. Grateful. I mean, this is the most going through Twitter. You see more tweets with 5,000-plus retweets than you ever have. That's interesting, isn't it? Yeah, it is.

Yeah, the views are all big. Oh, aren't they? I mean, have you seen the TikTok? Not everybody's. I've seen some other people's that aren't that big. No, I don't have it. I don't have that thing. Have you seen the TikTok quote tweet one where it's like,

what's the TikTok video that's the reason why they shouldn't delete TikTok? I mean, there are at least a hundred tweets in those quote tweets that have one to 10,000 retweets. I mean, some of the fantastic. The internet is, I mean, it's sci-fi

in some parts. It's comedy. It's roasting. A lot of roast. A lot of Jeff Ross is out there. A lot of roasts. A lot of scary. A lot of Jeff Rosses out there. A lot of roastmasters on the internet, seemingly. Just one after another. A lot of their jokes fly.

D1 haters. D1 haters? Self-admitted. Yes. Hey, self-admitted. Proud D1. So we appreciate and respect the self-awareness, and it kind of adds to the allure of it. But yeah, there's some scary stuff going on on the internet.

You see things happen to people, you're like, oh, that that never happens to me does morbid history pop up in your for you the trains i mean the shit that happens with it how about that amazon driver had the fucking train oh yeah that's nice that was a survival that was a survival because as i started watching that video i was like, back in the day you used to think, nah, they wouldn't put this on here if this guy dies, right? Now the internet's like, we don't know if he's dead. Fuck it. We don't know if he's dead.

Somebody's very much alive. Some team has given somebody some money. Source, the Jets are re-signing punter Thomas Morstead to a two-year deal with over $5 million. Way to go, Thomas Morstead. He was drafted in the same draft class as I back in 2009. Just an absolute machine. The guy's an actual jugs machine.

Just same ball, same place, right where he wants it. He's a veteran. I think everybody loves him. Went to bat for the team and the franchise and the program publicly a couple times. I think he was NFLPA-like. High up member. You're talking about a staple of the NFL for the last 15 years around buildings, I think, and coaches and players obviously know him.

Maybe not fans as much. He got big popular this last year because of his running. After field goals, he kept himself warmed up for kickoffs. He also, I think, won some games for the Jets this year, even though the Jets only won a couple games. I think he was a big part of it. So they signed Zerline and Thomas Morstead back. They just traded for Moses right at the tackle.

Jets are making some moves here. Here we go. Also signed John Simpson from Baltimore to play guard, I believe. Howard Taylor, too, right? Yeah. Backup quarterback. Could be started if there's a seat at the Oval Office, which is a

strip club in Green Bay. I was actually thinking of the timeline, though, because the election's not until November, and then the inauguration's not until the New Year, right? Or after the New Year. It'll be playoffs. So he should be good, right? There's the Oval Office in Green Bay. Is that in D.C.? No, that's not the one.

Really? Is that the White House? The replica? No, I think that is the adult ballet. Is it two stories, AJ? You've been in there. Up top is Boom Boom Room? I honestly have not been inside.

Okay, so the upstairs. What happens to the upstairs? Second floor getting shoulder rubs? I think those are like faux windows. I don't know if there is like an upstairs. Oh, it's just high. So we got from the sky. Look up in the upstairs. Second floor getting shoulder rubs. I think that is faux windows. I don't know if there is an upstairs. Oh, it's just high. So we got from the sky. Look up in the sky! Spicy cinnamon!

And then she catches herself with the thighs. That's going on in the Oval Office? I think so. It might be. You know how you know it's nice? Did you see the grass and the shrubbery and the landscaping around the Oval Office? I did. I looked at the sidewalk. I was going to say the concrete on the sidewalk was artsy.

It's very well manicured. You should definitely go there. Yeah. Okay. It's actually an exact replica of the original White House before the Brits burned it down in the War of 1812. No, I actually think that that exact replica is actually down in the Florida Keys. Oh, they moved it. Picked it up with a helicopter.

Oh, there it is. Okay, so that is the exact replica. Yeah, that's the Oval Office. Is that the... Wait, what? Yeah, that's where the president sits. That's where the president sits in the back there. You're right, Nick.

I was wrong there. This is the exact replica of the Oval Office. Is that Lincoln on the wall? Yeah, I think Elvis Presley met down here with the president at the bottom. They talked about peanut M&Ms. You got that big table because you got a lot of shit to talk about. Oh, yeah? They say about two days in, the whole thing's big table because you got a lot of shit to talk about. They say about two days in, the whole thing's filled with papers.

That's why you age like a president. What the hell is that? What is that? That's your office. What are the little cocktail tables in between the stuff on the outside? They're computers, laptops. So the cabinet sits around the big table

and then all the assistants and stuff like that sit at the cocktail table. A lot of delegates. Yeah, Biden almost died in there actually. Well, he was at the kids table and he had his back turned. Slicky Will loved this room. Who? Slicky Will. No, he Bill Owens. This was the

this is what he designed. Anyways, it's an honor to look inside of a place that has obviously affected so many things yeah what's a bummer is that you can't see the top because i believe lewinsky's jersey is hanging up in the rafters yeah yeah performance in there that people say still talk about shout to the oval office getting things done in there i would that happened i would assume that even the most frequent visitors of that particular Oval Office

had no idea that that's what it looked like. Wait, hold on. That's how? There's a lot of lights on. Man, I'm in there. Is that a portrait of Lincoln on the... The walls are white? I have never seen that.

I've been there the last 22 weeks. I was there last night. What's that? Same thing, but at night. Now we're talking. Is that George W.? That is W. Yep.

Oh, geez Louise. Yeah, second floor getting shoulder rubs. That is happening. At the Oval Office. But they still got the chance to drop from three floors. Yep. Nice looking establishment. How far is this from Appleton?

About 30 minutes. This is right in Green Bay. We stayed in Appleton. Yeah. We went out there because you guys didn't have enough hotels because the only buildings that are able to be hotels are actually strip clubs like the Oval Office. Yep.

So that's good. I think the Oval was the only one, honestly. I really do. Oh, so it's like... In Green Bay. Oh, that place must be passed out. They drink a lot out there in Green Bay. Is the draft in Green Bay soon?

I believe so, yeah. We got live from Brooklyn. Next year. We're not doing that. That's where George W. came up with his we do not negotiate with terrorists line. A wash me tip this stripper. But then he just remixed it to drive yeah exactly is that why they got a picture of them in there

it's all a legend we do not know if this is true correct we will be at the draft in detroit yeah that's a big deal that'll be cool detroit i saw the look i've heard stories and i don't want to live the stories. I just want to hear them. Detroit's great. So they say. It's great. Good people on a rebound.

Actually, not that many people. The Red Wings suck because the Red Wings put an actual trash company on there. They put a trash can logo on their jersey. My God. Is that – Yes, that's accurate. So the Red Wings had won six games in a row. Hockey Town's back.

We're going to make the playoffs. Everyone is so excited. You don't understand. The Red Wings mean so much to Michigan and the city of Detroit. So people have been waiting for this. And then they decide to put a sponsor patch, a priority waste management company, and they have lost six games in a row. Now we might not make the playoffs.

They put a dumpster company on their chest. Yikes. On an original six jersey. The greatest tarp in all of hockey. That's a lie. They ruined it. How much did they get for that? They're fighting it.

I hope they got a lot of money. Well, I do appreciate that the greedy corporate fat cats. Yeah. Stevie Y. No, that's not a Stevie Y decision. No, I know exactly who it was. Chris Illich. That's who everyone's blaming. Illich's father

was the one that started Little Caesars, owned the Red Wings, owned the Tigers, owns a bunch of stuff in Detroit. He passes away, passes it down to his son. He's just a money grabber. We won six games. Let's try to get some money. Who's the dumpster company? Whatever. Money's green.

Bam. Put the dumpster on the tarp. Disgust. I hope this doesn't happen with George Kraft. Hockey's supposed to be awesome. That's not awesome. The boys, Gumpy mentions, the boys were fighting at practice today, too. A little scrap at practice.

Just throwing trash cans at each other. That's how pissed they are about the patch. That's how the replacement looks so bad on the youth round. You want us to act like trash? Okay, we'll act like trash. Is that what you want? We're trashing the games. We're trashing practice. We'll act like trash when we fight each other. Yeah, there's a petition to get that removed.

That ain't gonna work. They already took the money. Too late. Oh, I know. And what I heard is the dumpster company was like, we'll pay this amount for wins, and we'll pay this amount for wins. We'll pay this amount for losses. So they're not even getting the amount of money that they thought they were going to get from this dumpster company that potentially cursed them back into being a sucky team. Wow.

Damn shame. A lot of people say dumpster fire. But then you're burning all the trash. True. It's a good thing. Yeah. Things just need to be a dumpster. A all the trash. True. It's a good thing. Yeah. Things just need to be a dumpster. A full dumpster.

Yeah. Very full dumpster. Right there. We're looking at it. You guys are biting them. Does this happen a lot in in-season practices? We don't know. You would know better than us, actually,

and your family is a Stanley Cup champion. Are we serious, guys? Remember? That wasn't a fight. Yeah, what are we talking about? A little face wash. This is like a training camp. Oh, so you guys won't even fight now that you guys got trash orders. The boys are fired up.

They're ready to go. It's a weak-ass fight. Yeah, it's not a fight. He's fucking smiling. Oh, he threw it right there after he lost his helmet. Yeah, hell yeah. Oh, there's another little shot there. Great lettuce on that guy.

Who said this was a fight? A little scrap. It's not good. Footage got out to a dust-up. I'll tell you that much. It is a little dust-up. Bit of a dust-up. Yeah, it's your own team.

You like to see it. Yeah. You like to see the fire. Good passion. It's like a players-only meeting. You know what they need? They need fucking MCDC to walk into that locker room and get them ready to go. And MCDC's going to say, you guys put a trash company on your chest?

Right over your heart? Okay. I'm out. That ain't this team. Wow, you guys suck. I didn't know the Red Wings were so trash. Original six franchise. That's back when they were winning. You can't mess with the hockey gods

like that. You cannot do it. Well, if it means anything, Penguins is just real players. I know. Chet, did I send you that text today or no? Well, what? About the Penguins. What'd you say?

I mean, look, I shouldn't be in a spot to say anything because the Bruins are not playing well right now. Oh, you guys suck. That's great. Not as bad as this.

I believe the Penguins have two goals in their last, like, 250 shot attempts. These guys are standing on their fucking head against the Pens. We're trading away our good players.

I mean, what are we doing? Nick. Panthers rolling. At this point, the best thing they could do is lose out and keep their first round pick. Oh, Sidney Crosby's supposed to just skate out there and lose. Yeah, there it is. Sorry, 288. Jeez.

My bad. A lot of shots on goal, though. A lot of goalies. Good goalies. Not all on net. Just shot attempts. Oh. We goalies. Good goalies. Not all on net. Not all on net. Just shot attempts. Oh. We suck.

We finally get rights. You hear me? Mm-hmm. Doing the show, what, six, seven years? Yep. We finally get hockey rights. Able to do it. End of the era.

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's the fucking wrong time for it. Like, at least give us a year or two of being able to grandstand and peacock about how great we are. Now we just suck. He's talking about tanking. Yeah. He just said we hope we lose. I don't hope we lose.

It's okay. How the Golden Knights doing? You guys suck? No, no. Actually, massive comeback victory last night. Jackie Ace is fucking potting one in OT, taking down the Kraken. So, yeah, the boys are buzzing. They haven't been great, though.

They've won two in a row. So they're, you know, you get a couple big-time acquisitions at the deadline. The boys need to, you know, kind of get their skates wet, so to speak. Are you still on the team? I haven't heard anybody reach out to you. Has anybody reached out to you since the Super Bowl? I'm on LITR as well

with Stoner. LTIO. Whatever. Who fucking cares what we call it? I'm going to be sitting out until the playoffs is what I'm on LITR as well with Stoner. LTIO. Whatever. Who fucking cares what we call it? I'm going to be sitting out until the playoffs is what I'm getting at. Still on the squad, obviously. Is there a locker room problem? Nobody's reaching out to you? No locker room problem whatsoever. Jackie's back.

He's got the boys under control. They don't need me anymore right now. The Panthers are the team from what we've been told. Roland, huge comeback last night. I mean, I don't know if I... Huge comeback, captain. What a crock of shit that game was. Who'd they beat?

Well, it was 3-0 Stars, and then it was a parade to the fucking penalty box. 3-0. Does that happen? I don't have my eyes on the Panthers. Does that happen every time the Panthers are losing? They just get power play after power play after power play? Oh, Dallas sucks. Sorry about it. Let's talk about the Panthers are losing? They just get power play after power play after power play? Oh, Dallas sucks. Sorry about it.

Let's talk about the Panthers. Look at the mental toughness out of the Panthers. Why are we crying about the refs? Gump, is that what we want? No, I was asking you because I haven't watched many Panthers games. I know you're a big fan. Does that happen every Panthers game? You know what?

We get wins however we need to get them. When you go in a tough barn like that, however you need to do it, come out. Oh, that was in your barn? Yeah. The Panthers. I want to see you right now. CFO Phil said, Panthers fun team.

He coached hockey, played hockey. Kid playing great hockey. Hey, I think Phil's kid is going to be an American Hope. Might save the pens. In 15 years. Have you seen the video? Oh, yeah. Nasty backhand goal. Probably fucking won.

Yeah. 1-0. He's got a little moxie, too. Yeah, a nice little celly afterwards. Yeah, little Phil's got moxie, too. Wait, they're both Phil. All time. Hold on.

There's three? Wait, who did that? All of you guys's name is Phil. You know who. When did that happen? I assume numerous times now at this standpoint of the entire game. That does. Anybody, Mitt?

Boy, Mitt. Mitt grew up in the NFL. Like every athlete names their kid Junior. Yeah, little Phil, though, is a dog. I assume he's going to end up in that Michigan. Every athlete names their kid Junior. Yeah, Lil' Phil, though, is a dog. He's going to be... I assume he's going to end up in that Michigan camp. Ann Arbor. Where all the American

hockey players... Go to Shattuck. What's that? It's like that prep school that Sid went to. In Michigan? Jack went there, I believe. Is it Minnesota? Yeah. Jack went there, too. Okay, so that one's in Minnesota. That's Junior in Minnesota? That's a junior in Minnesota? That's like a prep school.

What you were talking about, sorry, is the U.S. National Development Team. Yeah, but don't they live up there? Yeah. That's like their whole life. Yes. Aces, I believe, did that. Yeah, that's who the one who I talked to about it whenever he stopped by the suite to see what's up. Very kind of him to do that.

Ty was 17, Whiskey? Yeah. Died steep? Oh, yeah, I was fucked was up had already had a sword wielded a sword an undefeated knight sword yeah but i talked to him about it and i was like so are you guys running plays or what are you doing he's like well there's different when you dump it everybody's just kind of reacting like you're kind of taught different systems and all that type of stuff and i'm like so you just did your whole whole life? Yep. And he talked about that Michigan place where he was up.

And all the guys that are good, seemingly, just go up there, and they just play against and with every fucking day. Yeah, all the American kids, because they don't have the junior infrastructure like Canada does. If you're in Canada, you go play junior hockey. If you're in the U.S. and you're really good, you can go play for that team, and they'll travel around, play all the good college teams.

Yeah, but every day they're playing against each other, too. Oh, yeah. What age do they go up there? I think teenager, like teams. Yeah, but every day they're playing against each other too. What age did they go up to? I think teenager, like 14. Yeah, 14, 15. They move away from their homes. Yeah, hockey's a different world, man. It really is.

Go live with somebody else in somebody else's house for multiple years and every day it's just like, hey, we're doing hockey. My uncle used to coach that team. Really? Yep, they won the gold with him. Nice. Way to go. Thank you, Uncle Fox. Thank you, Uncle Fox. Really? Yep, they won the gold with him. Nice. Way to go. Thank you, Uncle Fox.

Thank you, Uncle Fox. And the one in Minnesota is the same type of academy? Slightly different. It's a prep school, so they got a different system and stuff, but the idea is the same. That's where Sidney Crosby went. I believe Jonathan Tays went there, too. Where'd Sergio go?

Where'd Kenny Ryder and Sergio go? Serge went to the USHL, which is an American Junior League. It's pretty good. And then he went to Ohio State. He went to Ohio State. He was from Plum. Do you remember where Kenny went? I'm not positive, but I know he did the same thing. He just left.

We were like classmates in class together, talking to him. Hey, good friend. Kind of talking every single day. Gone forever. See you, Paul. Where the hell did he go? He wants to play hockey. Holy shit. Guy just moved out of his house. Just wanting to live somewhere else.

Like Jason Dream. That's the hockey. That's a wild come up. He go pro? He make it? Yeah, I think actually he's playing I think he's playing overseas. He's played in the AHL which is the minor league from the NHL, and the ECHL, both of those, which is a step down from the A. But he's gone back and forth between both.

I think you say he's working. Minnesota State Championship coming up. There will be some sweet stuff on X. That already happened, right, didn't it? Because they broke the glass. Was that the final? I didn't know if that was the final. Was that playoffs or final?

Playoffs are happening. One of these Minnesota high school fan bases for this hockey tournament, state tournament, I think they broke the glass while they were cheering. I saw that. Oh. Yeah, I saw that. Broke the glass. I think it was two panes of glass.

It was during the game. During the game, something happened. The state championship is at the Wild State and it sold out. They fill that fucker up. They love the hockey. State of hockey. They have those patches. I used to go to a lot of high school hockey games.

Those were good times. The best. That's awesome. You've got a guy on your team who might not be that skilled, but he's going to try to start a fight with somebody. So at least you've got a little bit of action. The other students that are from the other team that are going to be there, there's always a little edginess.

Some beef. There's always a little edginess. Some beef. There's always a little edginess. And then whenever inevitably somebody slots one home in an ugly fashion, there's going to be some drama. It's going to be – it was electrifying, those hockey games. And then you watch those Minnesota ones, and it's like they really get after it over there. Oh, yeah.

That's a big deal. That's like Texas high school football. Yeah, bingo. Kind of like, I mean, you can make the argument like high school basketball in Indiana, how seriously do they take it here? 7,000, 8,000 people in gymnasiums here in high school basketball in Indiana.

It's wild. Yeah, it is. That's why the Hoosiers not being good, like what are we doing? He should be good. He should figure out how to be good with how they feel about basketball. We got one team with Purdue! Which is nice. Yeah, but you got to have family that went to Purdue here in Indiana to be a Bo how they feel about basketball. We got one team with Purdue! Which is nice. Yeah, but you gotta have family that went to Purdue

here in Indiana to be a Boilermaker. But here's a Hoosier until a generation changes it. But Edie can change some people. Now, hey, he's got the opportunity. Let's go, Edie. Who was saying he can't? I said I hate both of the teams.

Like the whole IU until they both suck. They both won't win anything. All right. That's very fucking negative. Well, I mean. Let's end this one a little bit more positive. D-Butch. You.

Butchie. What do you want to do, D-Butch? It's the offseason. Don't feel obligated to do anything. You can literally pick any of the contests that you would like to participate in to win the people some money as we get the hell out of here on this New League year. I mean, if it's

me, I think you're throwing that football right into The Rock's bucket. Whoa. Okay, there's footballs around here. I like it. That's the old baby Duke. You guys see John Cena have to shake The Rock's hand backstage naked? Yeah, I saw that and I saw The Rock turn his head away from the camera to say something. I would like

to hear what The Rock said to John Cena in that exact moment. Well done, brother. Proud of you, brother. Hey, glutes look good. I saw them from right here. Probably will, yeah. Glutes, cardiovascularity on the shoulder capsules. How'd you get that? Those sandals. I didn't understand what you

were doing. I saw the robe. And I saw the robe. I was like, oh, that's a March. Got it, Greek. Got it. You want to throw that where? Oh, no. You don't have a microphone. Good luck, brother. Right in the garbage can, brother. Good luck, brother. Our mana is being sent

your way. Yep. Boom. Shaka, shaka, shaka. From the rock. I got you. From the rock. From the moon. If you make this with all this mana, 25 people, $500. On this

Mana Wednesday, NFL New League Year Wednesday, March 13th, 2024, you can be a hero for 25 people. Darius J. Butler. Play action. Good fake. Jeez. Darius J. Butler, play action. Oh, good fake. Jeez. Oh, that was very close.

So much mana. You want to try a different one? Yeah, just chuck it again. There's no more mana for you. Oh, we're staying with the football. I was talking about a different contest, but we're staying with the mana toss. Okay, we'll do the mana toss. All right, one manaoss was not The right one

But what you learned in that monotoss Will lead into this monotoss 25 people, $500 If you're able to drive that ball Into that mono Barrel Right over there That mono bucket

You put that football into that mono bucket We'll send 500 monos To 25 people Who retweet this bit No way I mean you're aiming it Just spin the pill We didn't even get

Whoa That's going to hurt the mana Rock said he's number 54 for a reason He's not going to catch every ball that you throw his way. Hold on on the monobucket. Darius J. Butler. Aloha. Hi, brother.

All right, Uce. Here's the deal. If you're able to acknowledge your tribal chief, who's going to be at the University of Iowa next Friday as we are live from the Fieldhouse, noon to 3 Eastern, which is? 11 to 2 Central Time. Also, just a caveat, this is the Fieldhouse,

not the bar Fieldhouse downtown. This is the actual Fieldhouse. Oh, great. So I'm sure we started more shit with that. No, I mean, you're a dipshit if you thought we were doing the show from Fieldhouse downtown. This is the actual Fieldhouse. Oh, great. So I'm sure we should start more shit with that. No, I mean, you're a dipshit if you thought we were doing the show from Fieldhouse. That place is a dump. Good time, but it's a fucking dump. We would never go there. Gotta respect for that place.

A lot of those places, we've spent plenty of evenings in all those places. But yes, this is the Fieldhouse. Correct. The athletic facility, the Fieldhouse. With Tribal Chief Reverend Rice stopping by. On that note, with how much mana is running through this Thunderdome,

you put that ball into that mana bucket right over there, 30 people, 500. Holy shit. On this glorious new league year Wednesday. Oh, yeah. This guy sucks. Guy's wasting all of our mana. What did Saban call him? Energy vampires?

It's a mana vampire. Yeah, I can't send more mana or else I might pass out of the chair. I'm not letting any more of my mana out. I can't. You know all those points or whatever to get more mana. Of course. Chakras? The chakras. You know the chakras. Alright, here we go.

One last attempt here. With this yeet toss, if you are able, if you are able to put that yeet into that yeet right over there, we're talking 30 people, $500.

Just one throw of a dorsal fin football. Yeet. Yeet. Oh, God, he got it. Oh. Good throw, though. Great throw. No yeet.

Did you hear the ball yeeting when it went through the air? That was well calibrated. Yeet. That's a show show We are done Great work today, boys in the back Phenomenal job, way to go today Hey Bill, good work Bill Alright, we'll be back tomorrow with another

Hey, tomorrow's show Huge dude Already got it booked I mean, just apps We actually do Ladies and gentlemen We have an announcement to make Alright

Okay Tomorrow Roddy Kyle Busch Will be stopping Wow KY Yeah KY Stopping by

Let's go I assume he's won Every race of the season For NASCAR Yeah so far I assume that is the case Yeah And I can't wait To talk to him About them all What's that What are you besides from Aside from the other KY He's won every race of the season for NASCAR? He hasn't so far. I assume that is the case? Yeah.

And I can't wait to talk to him about them all. What's that? What are you besides from? Aside from the other KY. Kyle Larson's been winning some races as well. Both on your end. Ask him about F1. We'll see what he thinks about F1.

Kyle Busch ain't got time for F1. You should ask him about NASCAR. What's that? F1 sucks, but so does NASCAR. Do you agree? We got Kyle Busch coming on. No, I know. I'm just curious to see his take on it.

Because that's how I feel. I just don't know. That does not mean that's how I feel. I disagree. Connor doesn't feel that way. Connor sitting right next to him doesn't feel that way. I disagree strongly. I got a chance to go to the NASCAR Hall of Fame down there in Charlotte. Had a blast.

Had a blast. Oh, yeah. Had a blast. Got to walk through the cars that have really paved the road for NASCAR to be what it is now. Changed some tires. You know, I don't feel that way. Jit, jit, jit, jit, jit. Pray there three or four hours. Simulator. I was there a long time.

Long time. Did not expect to be there as long as I was, but we were there. We were there to play the simulator. Crashed 14 times. Yeah, nice. One lap, Daytona. It's very hard. It's hard. it was but we were there we were the place simulator crashed 14 times yeah nice one one lap daytona it's very hard to be clear i don't think my sim car a little touchy you know like i turn in it i just all of a sudden i get it it's hard it was a tight squeeze

i couldn't fit in the fucking thing. Okay, so my foot was on the brake puddle and the gas. It was tough for me. It was not good. I didn't get around that many times. But I think it was also set up like, hey, this isn't easy. And I'm like, I get it. I understand it's not easy.

You know what else isn't easy? Getting out of this fucking thing. Yeah, sure. And I'm going to be here for 45 minutes. But it was awesome. It was beautiful. It was. The NASCAR people have been good to us. We're very appreciative of that.

And tomorrow we talk to their champion, their hero. Yeah. Kyle Busch. Let's go. I'm excited now. You and Kyle Busch are going to get along. Oh, no. I love KY.

He's been on the show. I love KY. The sport. You know. I just miss Carl Edwards. That's it. You know. Yeah.

Me too. Backflip. Exactly. Off the front of the car. Mark Martin. Mark Martin. That's it. Yeah, me too. Back foot. Exactly. Off the front of the car. Mark Martin. Mark Martin. Kyle Busch ain't about flips. Jeff Gordon.

He's about rubbing and racing. Amen. And that's why I love him. Intimidator. There was a time for my life when I was on a microphone. If I was asked who's going to win a race, I said, if Kyle Busch is racing, Kyle Busch is winning. This is F1, sir. We were wondering, is Kyle Busch in F1?

If he was, he would be winning. I do wonder how he feels about F1. Like, does he think they're that good at drivers? Like, if he was to be dropped into that thing where they're told, you're not allowed to race, okay? You're just driving a car around a track. You're not allowed to even know the other... You are racing. No, you're not. You're not allowed to even know the other... You are racing.

No, you're not. You're racing a clock the entire time. Well, that's qualifying. No, and Monaco. Monaco, you're doing the same damn thing. Yeah, Monaco is against the clock. You're one behind the other, and you're just racing. You're not even allowed to...

Like, you're not even allowed to... No, no. Don't even think about it. No gamesmanship. Don't even think about it. Why though? When I go to a go-kart track, they let me pass people and we're racing. That's racing. That's racing. Yeah. That's what we're talking about.

That's everything but F1 seemingly. A lot of passing, AJ. Yeah, F1 needs to take a page out of the go-kart book. When do they pass? I don't think I've seen one successful pass. You got into the bad time, okay? Most dominant era. Usually there's a couple teams up there. Just like

I'm sure NASCAR, IndyCar, usually got a couple top teams. And pass it is strategy. When do you pit? How well do you manage your tires? How quick do you pit stop? I love that, man. Diva Tugling's been an F1 fan for 20 years.

Sorry, I can't do it. I tried. Jay Leno. He's with Jay Leno in the garage. Jay schooled me up. And Leonora. Yeah. Weren't you with Leo Don in one of those races?

Brad Pitt. David Beckham. DC was there. Oh, they were out there, yeah. Where's Shakira? Oh, shame on us. A lot of time was out there the last one. Ibrahimovic?

Yeah. What do you... Now's not the time. We're up to something. That's a good idea. That is. Yeah. That's a good idea. Get on the phone now. We're a good idea. That is. Yeah, that's a good idea. Get on the phone now.

We're on the same page right now. Yeah. And we all just agreed. We're back if that's the case. You need to make some calls. Let's get out of here. We got shit to do right now. Yeah, I guess we do.

All right, AJ. Great work today, bud. We appreciate you. Appreciate you guys. All right, be a friend. Tell a friend something nice that might change their life. You know, even if it's like you feel like you're lying

to the person, who cares? They need to hear it. Some people need it more than you could even imagine. Some people you don't think need it, need it more than you would ever need it. So just say something nice to somebody. Might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three.

One, two, three. Team. Goodbye!