The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1178 - NFL Preseason Week 1 Recap, Shams Charania, Adam Schefter, Vikings Head Coach Kevin O'Connell, Bill Belichick, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 12, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap everything that happened in week 1 of the preseason including doing a deep dive on all the rookie quarterbacks and how they each looked in their first game action, some highlights from more of the new kickoff, and all the other big takeaways. They also wrap up the Olympics as it has officially come to a close, and once again, the United States is the greatest sports country in the world. They are also joined by a group of incredible guests including NBA Insider for Stadium and The Athletic, Shams Charania to break some news about next year’s NBA schedule, ESPN Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter to give some injury updates and chat more about the Brandon Aiyuk situation, and Vikings Head Coach Kevin O’Connell to chat about how the preseason has been going so far and what he has seen from JJ McCarthy. Later, in the 2nd hour, 8x Super Bowl Champion, the greatest Coach of all-time, future Hall of Fame, Bill Belichick joins the show to chat about what we can take away from watching these preseason games, how he approached practicing with other teams and limiting fights, his involvement with the University of Washington football team, and how he decided how much starters were going to play in the preseason. 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. We’ll 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 Overreaction Monday, August 12th, 2024, this program starts now. Football! What's all weekend? Look out! Football games are back in our lives. And can we determine who's going to win the Super Bowl by the final scores of these preseason games? Absolutely not. But can we tell if somebody might have a chance of being worth a fuck in the NFL from these preseason games? I think so.

I hope so, at least, because it's all we really have to talk about at this stage of the game. Obviously, there's some injury news and some things happening around the NFL contractually. We'll be talking to Adam Schefter in about 15 minutes to see what's the word around time

in all the NFL times. Now, there are some superstars in the making. We'll break down the first round quarterbacks performances over the weekend, and I'll tell you what, Chicago might've done it. Just preseason game. Just preseason game. Don't overreact. But the wonder was, can Caleb's shit that worked in college work in the NFL? These are grown men. These are my words. These are grown men who are trying to feed their family. These are men that are 29, 30, 31 years old. They've had to take on the fastest and the best around colleges for generations and decades now playing in the NFL. And will Caleb be able to do his shit to adults?

Well, I've seen a quarter and a half. It's going to work. And if you're a Bears fan, we have some stats and some graphics whenever we run through it all later. It's like this is a, he did a ha, he did a run a ha. He did a ha, ha, ha strike after reading the defense. It's like, what the hell is happening? He might be better in the NFL than

he was in college somehow. They didn't win a lot at U.S. won games, but they didn't win a lot because the defense was a sieve, is what people said. They scored 150 points every single week to do that. It's like with this Bears team, with the defense, with the weapons they have, with the vibes, with the energy, with Caleb's leadership, it's like

hold the phone. The Chicago Bears all of a sudden in discussion. That's after one preseason game. We'll do that with every single rookie that played. We'll also have Shams Charania joining us in about eight minutes or so. He has some news, I guess, to break after an incredible Olympic final from both the men and the women. The men winning in superstar fashion with Steph Curry just going unconscious at the perfect time

against the home team in front of the home crowd, doing what Steph Curry does. And why basketball has evolved so much is because this dude's been doing this at a high level for so damn long. Pull up. How tall do you got to be? 6'9", 6'8"? No. You just got to be able to put the ball in the bucket in the biggest moments of all time,

all the time. And that's Steph Curry football, baby. Obviously, this is his third straight three. And at this point, everybody understands it. Right now, we need to feed the ball to one person. And he is currently running around France telling everybody to eat shit. And then they get him the ball. Pause that.

Go back a little bit. Go back. We don't have to pause it exactly whenever there's two people guarding. But play, play, play, play, play, play. Pause. Okay, so you got LeBron James and Kevin Durant up top wide open. Kevin Durant, one of the greatest shooters of all time. He's right here.

Just left him. This is Kevin Durant. Everybody said, nah, we ain't doing that. This guy just shot three. He is fading away falling with two gigantic Frenchmen in his face. And, yeah, obviously this one, you know, he checked. Yup, we're A-okay. We win a gold medal. He's celebrating. They're nuit nuit he was saying night night to all of france

it was a beautiful thing we'll talk to shams about maybe the yeah i mean the hands are in the face just completely kevin durant yeah who's he nobody i guess let's follow this guy okay buckets buckets to win a gold medal. Are you kidding me? What a beautiful moment for this basketball team that answered all the questions we had going into the Olympics. Are they going to be able to buy in? Are they going to be able to put the Eagles aside? Are these guys going to be able to maybe sit on a bench, ride the pine

and not become a distraction? They did. They have. They're calling themselves the Avengers and it makes sense because all the superstars showed up. Even Tyrese Halliburton who's battling a muscle injury. Yeah, that's right. He banged up. He ends up putting out the greatest tweet of all time. So this team just can't lose.

This team is awesome, and we are incredibly lucky to get to witness them, and we appreciate them. We'll talk to Shams in about five minutes or so to see if there's any news coming out of the Olympics, any super teams maybe. Yeah, feels like it. Starting to cook. And then maybe some breaking news.

We'll also be joined by Kevin O'Connell later this hour at about 36 minutes or so because obviously J.J. McCarthy had a debut and it was good. Justin Jefferson was mic'd up and it was electrifying. Are all the Vikings negative stuff behind them? And now just let's go play some ball. B-Flow is the defense coordinator. He has been a great defense coordinator since he has become a defense coordinator. So we assume that they're going to be good.

Can't wait to talk to him. And then in the second hour, we'll have Bill Belichick. Okay. Okay. We'll have Bill Belichick. So today should be a great day. We can't thank you enough for joining us. The Talks at Table is here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

Calm Man Olympics are over, but hell of a run. Yeah, it was awesome. I mean, start to finish. You put out a tweet yesterday, and it is a bummer that it's done, and it was an honor to honestly watch them, but I don't know how it gets better than that. Like, I'm now thinking four years from now at home in la maybe that'll be fun but without steph curry without lebron who you know tbd i assume he'll be playing la 28 but this team in particular it almost like revitalized

my at least for me individually how much i love olympic basketball because in the past even tokyo in 2021, and maybe because there wasn't that electric environment with fans, maybe it wasn't as big of a deal because the home country wasn't in the final. But that was the biggest thing for me. The crowd interaction, because it was against France in both games, the women and the men, that was so much fun. Because it was more so like a road game.

Like silencing people. And there was one three, and I don't know if we have the photo of it, but the three Steph had in the corner on Wemby. Oh, he throws it straight up? They're throwing it like best photo of all time or whatever, hanging in the Louvre. Asinine. I mean, that was all time, and they should hang it in the Louvre

wherever the hell it is. Yeah, that ball goes in, obviously, and the ball's not even in the shot because he had to shoot it straight up. Wemby is next. Everybody is saying that. But for right now, our boys, they're supposed to win. Okay, yeah, that's how sports work. Whenever you're supposed to win, you just win all the time, right?

You don't have to give any credit to teams that were supposed to win and go on and win. It's almost harder whenever you're supposed to win to go out and win because the amount of distractions that could show up and maybe derail you could potentially get in the way instead that dude you know he puts crown on his head all the time yeah which i respect you know we're putting crown on he is a kid just so people know hey remember they're saying prince crown here no no no he's the big one he rallied the team yeah he's the one that brought it all together he's the one that's been coaching since the beginning. And now they're saying, hey, put it in a conversation about the goat talk

whenever you talk about LeBron and Michael Jordan. Now, they're playing two different sports, which leads me to this point. People talk about how the Dream Team would beat the shit out of this team. And then they showed some highlights, lowlights, just lights, I guess, of who they were playing in this Olympics, the Dream Team. Oh, come on. I mean, just like I thought whenever I saw the last dance. It was different.

Michael Jordan is ahead of the time, but it's two different sports. They were playing two very different sports. Much more physical back end. Much more, yeah. Much, much slower, much less technical, much less strategic. Yeah, the skill.

Much less, not their fault. No. This is evolution of sport. This is kind of how it goes. So I hate the Jordan and LeBron debate because it's two different sports actually, but like this Avengers team I think I'd feel pretty comfortable with them playing any basketball team in the history of basketball Yeah, especially at the end of the tournament whenever they were all bought in what a fun run for the entire Olympics and Thank you to the Olympics for being in two weeks of like shit

We really enjoyed all sports even breaking in the end we end up tying uh china and golds but we had the most medals by a lot how you doing keep it moving we are the greatest in the world again let's never forget it so shout to us for uh regaining that title i don't know i don't know if that's been that way for a while or not but we're the greatest uh you all know it scoreboard that's right there you go right here don't want to hear it from anybody way more silvers too way more second place we let other people win we're also most hospitable nobody ever talks about that no everybody always says we're rude and stuff we let other people win more than anybody else yeah we might have a bronze coming back at some point too oh geez they're whipping that they're ripping

that right off of charles's. They're ripping that bronze medal. I thought the IOC was good. I thought these were the good ones. I thought they were the good people. Remember, that's what I was told. They're the good ones. And now they're ripping this off. Two people.

Because the girl that is, she thought she won. And then right before the thing, like, nah, actually, boom, bang, piled it, Charles. And we're like, hell yeah. Love Jordan Charles. And then here a couple days later, like, Charles is going to have to mail that shit back. Not a chance.

No, make another one. No, we're going to come and take it out like your Kirkwood Emmy for college game day at his house. That's what we're going to do. Cut it in half. Don't love the drama. There's always going to be that. But thanks to the Olympics for doing their thing. Now let's get to the football.

Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. D-Butch. Yes, sir. We saw a lot of rookie quarterbacks do a lot of incredible things. Is there any one that sticks out in your mind after watching the weekend? And we'll do a full breakdown on all of them, obviously, here in a matter of moments. But in your eyes, who was the one? You mentioned it.

You know, Bo made some plays. Oh, he cooked up those. J. McCarthy, he looked good as well. But Caleb Williams, he looked kind of a step ahead. He was as built, as was expected. You mentioned it at first, third and 12, gets a good defense, drop back. You know it's a step ahead. He was as built, as was expected. You mentioned it at first, third and 12 against a good defense. Drop back, you know it's a passing situation. Drop back, read the defense, do a strike.

The no-look screen pass to Swift. The rollout, like all the things that we saw him doing at collegiate level, you've seen him doing it on week one. Obviously, it's the preseason, but that's what you want to see from a rookie quarterback. He looked like a seasoned vet trying to get a couple series under his belt, get out of there. I mean, he looked great.

I can't wait to see him, obviously, when the full season gets here. But Caleb Williams, he had a great, great start to preseason. The way they're talking about him, too, like behind the scenes. He called up the boys and was like, hey, trash, need to keep it. That's a veteran-led speech normally. So the fact that everybody took it and didn't say, oh, shut up, too, that's a whole other animal. And then Kyle Long put out a tweet, former

obviously Chicago Bear, of the Long football family dynasty. Of course. All pro. Was a baseball player until he decided to be an offensive lineman, then became an All-American in the first round draft pick. And then he made Pro Bowl the first five years I think he was in there. Athlete. His tweet was like, do you have any doubt? Look at what the offensive line is doing for this guy.

They know they have a guy. So it's just like the kicks and the punts, which we will talk about. Whenever a return team knows they got a guy that can go, you'll see them give more effort and like, let's be tight. Let's not get as many penalties. Because the fact that there's somebody behind them that they know can go, it's like a booster. It's like, I'm not going to be the reason why it doesn't work. With Caleb, they're all bought in.

He's leading meetings. He's a rookie. All we want to see is him be able to take a snap be comfortable give out the calls and keep it moving this dude is like you said he's like a veteran almost seemingly out of nowhere maybe it's because he made 10 million dollars the last couple years he's already been there done that with the business maybe it's because just the way he is he's doing a tb12 eating now already tom didn't start that until what like 10 10 years into his career? I mean, it's just like he's buying in completely. It's everything. And obviously from Kyle Long. That would have been cool. That must be cool. For sure. That must be cool. From his standpoint as an offensive lineman, it's great. But even

as a defense, your special teams, everybody, when you run out of the tunnel and you know you've got a quarterback that gives you a chance. Andrew Luck, we had him as a rookie, but we knew if he got the ball with, you know, two minutes left, we're down four, he's probably going to drive it down and make whatever needs to happen happen. But to see that from Caleb, the under center stuff, I know Dan was all zeked up about it. I forgot which quarterback he came on. He was like, oh, he saw some great – was it Drake May?

He had some, you know, great – The handoffs. Which he did. Which he did. Which he did. It's like you're crazy. It was great handoffs. He did. It was really good. And it was against the starters too. So it was against the starters too. So it was against the starters, against the Buffalo Bills starters.

I've seen some good players out there. So I love where it's off. Bears end up beating the Bills 34-6 or something like that. Yikes. Interesting conversation. 33-6, sorry. Interesting conversations happening there. It's a preseason game.

Yep, of course. But what we saw from the movement of Caleb, a lot to be excited about. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who is a senior NBA insider for the Athletic. Sons of bitches. Wait a minute. Not everybody. We all remember that. Look, I'm pissed.

It ain't right. It ruined my day. It's not right. What happened, guys? They fired Marco Boli. That's not real. They fired Marco Boli. The Athletic fired Marco Boli. What happened, guys? They fired Marco Bolli. That's not real. They fired Marco Bolli. The Athletics fired Marco Bolli. It's not fair, bud.

How many days before NFL season starts? 27 or something. 26, 25, whatever the days is until NFL season starts, Marco Bolli out of a job. Hottest free agent. Well, looks like I just became a free agent, is what Mark Caboli says there. If anybody's looking for a veteran Steelers NFL writer with 22 years of experience, feel free to reach out to me. DMs are open.

A lot of people in the journalism world would probably point out that first sentence there. Well, looks like I just became a, because the A in there. He's speaking. That's transparency. That's transparency. That's Kaboli football. Voice to talk. Just know that Kaboli's going to be okay. Kaboli's going to be A-okay, and we may or may not have already been in contact with Kaboli,

and I know we're not the only ones. Sure. But from the athletic, still somehow, I don't know. I thought these. Take your stand, brother. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I don't know how he hasn't got fired. Yeah, exactly.

So handsome and good, just like Kaboli. Ladies and gentlemen, Shams Sharan. Yeah. Shams, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I don't know how he hasn't got fired. So handsome and good, just like Kaboli. Ladies and gentlemen, Shams Sharan. Shams, I don't like it. You don't like it either. I know you don't, but you can't say anything. You got to do what you got to do. Pat, you know, changes happen, I guess. But I will say there was a change last week.

We broke some news on your show last week. You weren't even there for it. I heard. You weren't even there for it, Pat. I heard. I heard. I heard, though. I was at a college football conference obviously uh learning all the ins and outs about about college football when you broke the five-year 200 plus million lori marketing deal

to utah congrats to all parties involved over there absolute beast including you you know and you didn't get credit for that one on this particular network but around the world they do that's right around the world they knew let That's right. Around the world they do. Let's dive into some NBA stuff. First of all, coming out of the Olympics, I know we've chatted before about potential super teams brewing underneath, and I think Wendy has come out and said, like, that would be very difficult with all the contracts that are happening.

Is there any fallout from the Olympics that we should keep an eye out because everybody seemed to be so damn tight, Shams? I mean, I would look at guys like i mean bam out of bio anthony edwards like those are like the younger mold franchise cornerstone type of players i guess you know everyone knows that kevin durant anthony edwards relationship is special and right now both guys are locked in long term so the phoenix suns kevin durant they want to continue their partnership he's extension eligible this summer he can get a few extension next summer so i think that's where the future is out for kevin durant and then we'll see what happens you know in minnesota long term but i would look at the younger group of guys the bam out of vials

adjacent tatums anthony edwards which guys out of that mold click i think we'll know more in the coming you know weeks and months it's it's hard to say right now which which guys are gonna form together but it's gonna be something to look back on. Absolutely. Because of how tight. I mean, it was just so cool to watch it. I became, obviously, edge of seat every game. Loved watching greatness come together and be greater.

You know, that is something that can happen. And that's kind of the epitome of team. It's like, hey, we all got to do our role. And if we do our role, we're going to be better than ever. And there's tweets from Devin Booker from a few years back where he said, I'll do it. When somebody put out a tweet that was like, need somebody come in here, smack the wood, play defense for Team USA.

And Devin Booker was like, I'll do that. And then he held up his end of the bargain, playing defense, putting up shots whenever he had a chance but not being scared to dish it. And then Steve Kerr actually shouted him out at the end of the press conference because nobody asked about him. He was like, hey, that's our unsung MVP in this entire thing. But it feels like that could be said about a lot of the guys. You know, Tatum didn't pick.

Nope. Devin Booker, Drew Holiday, those guys were essential to this team. And then when you think about this USA roster, last year in the World Cup, they came in fourth place. And around this time last year in August, this team started with the three guys. LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant. Those guys started having conversations last year, this month in August, talking about them three committing and really starting to form a team. Which guy do we want? Do we want this player? Do we want that player? And Grant Hill, managing

director, he had to have a lot of the pressure on him to form the team. But I think those three guys, LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant durant they also took a leadership level with this roster with this team and those three guys it starts at the head of the snake and it starts with those three guys committing early uh making clear they want to play for their country and then you have the drew holidays the devon bookers anthony davis's bam out of bios those guys were were locks and then whoever came after that but i think you're gonna going to see. I will say on Jason Tatum, in talking to people around USA Basketball over the last week, two weeks, I think this is going to motivate him. I think he's going to be even more motivated to not only win a championship but an MVP

and really take that next step in his career. I think this will be a motivating factor. And Tyrese Halliburton as well. He had a lingering injury, obviously. But one of the greatest tweets. He did get an A on the assignment. Yes he did. Yes he did. One of the greatest tweets of all time. 26 million views. That is Tyrese Halliburton swinging a hot bat. Oh yeah. He knows. He said what do you need from me? You need a couple of these? Got it. You need a couple of these

on the sideline? You got it. Great practices. Great. Unbelievable. Making them work. Making them work. Hey we need you to act like that little itch from Serbia. You got it. Great practices. Great. Making them work. Making them work. Hey, we need you to act like that little itch from Serbia. You got it. He's out there doing it. He's just absolutely balling. Love it. That's a guy that's going to be a part of leading the 2028 team, right? They get it. Anthony Edwards, Jason Tatum.

This was looked at as the last dance for players like LeBron James and Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. This next wave, Tyrese Halliburton, Bam Adebayo, Jason Tatum, and Anthony Edwards, that's going to be the future of USA Basketball. Conor has the thought that LeBron is going to play in L.A. in 2028. It does feel like something. Maybe he has the Terrasi rule.

Maybe he's the coach because Steve Kerr said, I'm not doing this shit. That'd be sick. I'm not doing this shit. I think BC saw Kevin Durant in the Boston Bruins hat and got a little excited about the potential of those three guys playing again in 2020.

I don't see that happening. I'm more seeing LeBron being like, look, I could come off the couch and get triple doubles if I want to. So if it's the Olympics in LA, I'll retire. He can play for the next five seasons if he wants to. The question is. Ten probably.

It makes no sense. He is a special, special athlete. Imagine if he just did the Olympics. I'm not saying he's playing in the NBA. I'm just saying, hey, the Olympics are coming around. Training for two years just for the Olympics. Yeah, he's like, okay, fine, I'll do it. Yeah, because he's going to need something. Exactly.

There's no way he's just going to be able to stop. Let's move through the NBA now. I know you have some NBA news to share with us, Chumps. We just got this. So I put out the Christmas Day schedule the other day, but opening night of the 2024-2025 season on October 22nd, according to my sources, Knicks at Celtics for ring night. Shout out Boston Connors.

Knicks at Celtics is ring night on October 22nd. And then the second game that night, hear this, Timberwolves at Lakers. That is the opening night schedule. Knicks at Celtics, Timberwolves at Lakers. And you think about, for Anthony Edwards, two primetime slots in the NBA calendar, major slots in the NBA calendar. You get opening night, and then you get Christmas Day. The Timberwolves obviously on the rise. Victor Wem and Yama

also going to get a Christmas Day game this year. And then we know about the Sixers. Them getting Paul George. They're also going to be one of the opening games on ESPN, October 23rd against the Bucs. They're going to host the Bucs on October 23rd. There are a few other

notable games. November 12th, Clay Thompson goes back to the Bay, goes back to the Golden State. So that will be another notable game. And then the NBA Finals rematches. Mavericks, Celtics, in Dallas, January 25th, and then in Boston, February 6th,

the day of the trade deadline. Hey, Shams, we can't wait for it all to get started. Obviously, we're in football time, so it's tough to take that as serious as we should. But whenever Clay goes back to Golden State, it it all to get started. Obviously, we're in football time, so it's tough to take that as serious as we should. But whenever Klay goes back to Golden State, it's going to be buzzing. I need to hear Brosnan Conner's take on that opening night, though. Are the Knicks a real challenger? No.

Are you scared of the Knicks? I mean, look, you just said it. Tatum's more motivated than ever, and sure, even if he isn't, think about what Joe Mazzulla is going to say to Jason Tatum. He might be the next coach. I mean, he should be should be off Team USA he'll be the right guy come on guys relax they're exposure obviously all right that's Miami Heat fan this is the NBA Insider that we love to chit chat with Shams incredibly handsome stuff you need to let the world see the relaxed hair shot I don't know what you're talking about. This is how I wake up.

You wake up looking much cooler. Yeah, somehow. I don't know. He's got this big curl. It's like Shams Shalameh. It is. It is. Truly.

It is straight out of a magazine. Ladies and gentlemen, Shams Shalameh. Thank you, buddy. Shams. All right, so we've got some news here. That's awesome. Big game. I am pumped.

November 12th. We'll care. Clay Thompson's coming back to Golden State. You kidding me? I already wrote news there. That's awesome. Big game. I am pumped. November 12th, huh? We'll care. Klay Thompson's coming back to Golden State. You kidding me? I already wrote it down. Clear the calendar. I don't care about that one. D-Bucks!

I don't care about that. But I do care about Ant-Man getting some primetime games. And Wimby. Wimby did look phenomenal. I am ready to watch him play Sebastian. You know, I didn't see that. Memphis. Is there any Memphis?

No, Memphis and also Bucks. Giannis kind of taking a backseat. I guess the opener on October 23rd, but not Christmas. I think we all kind of forget Ja. Yeah, for sure. Ja is electrifying. Happy birthday to Martin Lawrence. Had one of the greatest tweets also on X in history to wish him happy birthday,

which is why I think everybody kind of forgets about Ja. Can't wait for him to be back. The NBA is doing their thing. They should try to pivot somehow off this Olympic success because it was the most number of people that has ever watched Oh, yeah finals or something like that. I'll be excited to see what Adam silver and them do good work everybody all parties Oh, yeah joining us now ladies and gentlemen senior NFL insider for ESPN friend of the program, Michigan man Adam Schefter What's going on holy shit you slept Shefty, have you slept? It's been a long preseason weekend, I know. You look awesome right now.

You look like you are in mid-season form, Shefty. How you doing? You know, Pat, the players aren't the only ones going through drills, getting ready for the season. We just got done a little walk, a little run, a little boxing, a little bit of everything, and so that's the way it goes sometimes, right? Hey, I respect it. We got a long haul coming up, us and you.

Football season, obviously, being here is awesome and exciting, and the green flag is currently waving on the year. Let's talk about some shit that happened over the weekend. Hollywood Brown, okay, so he's obviously a member of the Chiefs now after being with the Cardinals, before that with the Ravens. Explosive, incredible wide receiver, there to beefing up the weapons for Patrick Mahomes. There was something that could have killed him that happened to him this weekend against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Am I reading this accurately, Schefter? Stefania Bell tweeted about it, and she gave a better explanation from a medical standpoint than I could. But basically, it's a serious injury there where it's dislocated. It goes right into a dangerous area. And so they rushed him to the

hospital there in Jacksonville, kept him overnight. Team flew back to Kansas City. He was discharged after doctors did what they needed to do on Sunday morning and got back to Kansas City in the afternoon. So that's all encouraging. Yeah. But those are injuries that scare you. And the chief's medical staff did a great job here, got him to the hospital, and it's a similar injury to the one that Tyree Kill had when he was with the Chiefs, and ironically enough, he sustained it against the Stars as well. If I remember correctly, he missed about one month, and I think the timeline right now initially for Hollywood Brown would be similar, which would mean he would have a chance,

a chance to be back for opening night against his old team, the Baltimore Ravens. Now, if you remember last year, Travis Kelsey hurt his ankle a couple of days before the game, and they opted to hold him out of the game, got him 10 days rest, and I think he came back for week two. So would I be shocked if something similar happened with Hollywood?

No. But they want to see how he's healing before they make any decisions. I think they obviously averted the worst case here. Not a comfortable injury, but doctors took care of it in the Jacksonville area hospital. He's back in KC now, and we'll see how he recovers here in the coming weeks. Shout out to the training staff. Shout out to the training staff and to the doctors for making that happen. Obviously, that's what football is. There's a very large chance that

damage and injury can take place. The guardian caps that we saw during the games. The Colts, I believe, had the most. Five players wore the guardian caps, including Jonathan Taylor, starting running back, one of our highest paid guys. That's a big deal. We talked to Dr. Alan Sills last week. He said the players are allowed to do that if they want. We've sent the knit tops to cover up the pillows so it looks as if it is the helmet and the entirety of it. Other teams did it as well. I think Pittsburgh Steelers had a guard that was wearing one. Is this just going to become the new norm?

Or how many more players do you think we see this from? And what is kind of expectation you think around the league, Shafter, what you're hearing? You know where I think this is going, Pat? I think we used to see hockey back in the day where players never wore helmets. We used to have people driving cars that never wore seatbelts. And I don't think this is going to happen overnight,

but I think eventually we're going to look back and we're going to see some of the great players in this sport have played this game with little helmets that didn't protect their brains and you're going to see more and more people gravitating towards this because it's a safer way to play and I know it takes a little time to get used to seeing the players like that but already as you said five Colts were wearing them we saw sprinkles of other players wearing them throughout the course of the weekend. And to me, it's only a matter of time before this becomes more and more regular, more and more accepted. And players recognize that it's just safer for them to be out there like that.

Let me ask you this question, Pat. Would you ever, if you were still playing, if you were still punting, I know it's not the exact same thing, but you played in a violent way. If you still were punting, would you consider wearing a helmet like that? I was talking about this actually earlier today because I appreciate the fact that the Colts are seemingly the smartest team in the entire NFL.

Now, there's a lot of old school football players that are going to say, this guy's putting pillars on our heads in games. That's old school football players, but old school football players think that about everything. They're yelling at clouds for everything. I very much led with my head every time I tackled somebody. Head just leaning,

literally torpedoing. Now if I get called, it's a kicker getting called for personal foul, leading with the helmet. Pretty sick actually. Would I do it if I knew all the ins and outs or if i had any head trauma or how they probably especially if it was an option i think what's going to take place though is now we're in a race for these helmet manufacturers to just make bigger so you don't

have to put it on top of them yeah who can make that helmet just already to begin with and i think that's what dr alan sills was kind of alluding to about how there was five helmets that were made in like the last year or something that are more safe than any helmet that there's ever been on the market I forget the exact words but the helmets are just going to get bigger I think where the guardian cap on top is just going to become a part of the helmet absolutely and it's it's obviously tough to look at now and it's different I remember when when the revolution helmets first came out like Larry Fitzgerald I believe was like the first big time player to wear and it's like that looks where I will never wear that shit.

But at this point, you know, being out of the game and knowing, you know, the after effects and concussions and all those different things, if it is the best option, like you said, helmet manufacturers would obviously make them where they just fit in. This would be ultimately the evolution of the helms. I think, you know, 18 game seasons come about, Guardian caps would be right behind it. Yeah. And if you get guys like Jonathan Taylor doing it, obviously other people on the team will feel much more comfortable following suit.

So I think that's a whole conversation in and of itself. Our offense is going to have to figure the fuck out on the coach. But the Guardian and Caps, if it keeps them safe, all good. Last question for me before the boys have a couple. Jerry Jones on a microphone before the Los Angeles Rams. Trey Lance first. Stetson Bennett battle, which was great. Great game.

Great game to watch. I got trapped in that game. It was very fascinating to watch that whole thing. Congrats to Stetson. Boy can ball, Katie. Yes, he can. He's a winner. He throws four picks.

Who cares? He'll pick himself up, maybe throw a fifth. But then he's going to score a touchdown and win that thing. Stetson Bennett back for football from a year off. We're happy he's back in football. Congrats to Stetson. McVay mic'd up. Was sweet.

Jerry Jones, before the game, though, talked about the C.D. Lamb situation. Here's what he had to say. So we wouldn't have him out here. It has really not anything to do with his contract. I won't be out here this afternoon. And so the bottom line is, what it is, is no,

there's not that urgency. Now, I understand completely the angst that's happening when you're anxious about and someone says anything about whether you're missed or not. Well, CD, you're missed. Okay.

But you're not missed out here competing and it doesn't put any pressure any place on us. Well, C.D., you're missed, okay? But you're not missed out here competing, and it doesn't put any pressure anyplace on us. So I think what he was trying to say was, the dude wouldn't be fucking playing today anyway, so we're not missing him today. You are missed, though, as a person.

Is that what you're hearing, and how does this work out? Well, first of all, I was very distracted by the fact that Tom Brady was in the background, so I was watching what he was doing there obviously michigan man yeah right in the background but look i think jerry obviously was trying to make cd feel better about what he said last week because people were up in arms over the fact that he said there's no urgency to get this done when the dallas cowboys best wide receiver and most dangerous offensive weapon isn't in camp and Jerry says there's no urgency to get it done so he took the opportunity yesterday to get in front of the mic and say he misses C-Day he said again it's not urgent to get

him out they basically said the same thing but the fact that he did admit that they miss him now look here's the deal it is hard for you it is you miss me hard for me and others to imagine that they miss him. Now look, here's the deal. It is hard for... I miss you. It is... You miss me. Hard for me and others to imagine that they will not figure out a way to get this deal done for C.D. Lamb. Like, I would be floored if he's not in camp before the start of the season,

and I would be floored if he missed any time. There's no way. It's just not going to happen. I don't know when they're going to get this done, whether it's this week or next week, but at some point, smarter minds are going to prevail. They're going to figure this out. He's going to get into camp. He's not going to miss any time, and C.D. Lamb, I expect to be there for the regular season opener, however these sides

figure it out. Okay, we can't wait for that. Dak also a deal up. McCarthy also deal up. Micah wants more money. There's a lot going on in Dallas. We'll see how the season goes. Stetson beat him yesterday. Yes, he did. Stetson Bennett beat him yesterday. We'll see when it gets all finished out.

Big news this morning out of Miami. Go ahead, D-Buck. Yeah, I saw you put a tweet out as well. Jalen Phillips, nine months after his big injury last year, he's been taken off of the PUP list. What's the timeline for him down there in Miami? You know, again, I was a little surprised with that because I thought it was going to be into the season.

But the fact that they took him off the list this morning and now they're going to bring him back to practice, that tells me that he's got a shot, I guess, here to be ready for the start of the regular season. He almost, he tore that Achilles almost nine months ago. So a tremendous comeback already. We'll see how much of his explosiveness he can recapture and regain. Almost, he tore that Achilles almost nine months ago. So a tremendous comeback already. We'll see how much of his explosiveness he can recapture and regain.

But the fact that they activated him off that list today was a huge win. They need him to get back there. Again, they're waiting on him. They're waiting on Chubb. So they're waiting on a couple of players. But it looks like Jalen Phillips now will be back here in no time at all. Okay, let's go to the NFC North, which might be Caleb Williams' town. Go ahead, Tosh. Yeah, it could be.

Shefty, we heard reports that Stephon Gilmore is visiting with the Vikings today. Any likelihood that that's going to get done sooner than later? And also, are there any other teams that he might be visiting with? That's the first visit that he's taken and they certainly need help at the position and look I don't think Stephon Gilmore is taking a visit to waste his time like if he's going there there's a chance that he's going to wind up there they need him they could use a player like him and so we'll see whether or not that gets done today I don't know that he has any other visits lined up right now he's been talking with other teams as well, but the Vikings are the first team he visits. So again, I think

we'll give him a chance that he's going to wind up there. Certainly Simmons is visiting too, right? This is two massive veteran secondary members here visiting people today. Is this by their choice or team's choice? Well, you know what it is? We're in mid-August and teams assess their roster and they decide, okay, well, we can use upgrades. The Vikings have been looking for help at the corner position all along. You know, when I see the Falcons, when the Saints have been in on Justin Simmons following, I wonder, okay, do the Falcons really need another safety or are they essentially sparring with their NFC South rival here, and they could use a player, but it certainly doesn't hurt to raise the price in the Saints a little bit

if that's what it takes. So I don't know what that is, but the Falcons have him visiting today, and so we'll see if they can get something figured out with Justin Simmons. Okay, let's stay in the NFC South. Charlie Smith, kicker out of Ireland. Hits a game-winner, only kick of his life in American football out of Gaelic football. Hits a 37-yard game winner

for the new orleans saints and obviously we're all incredibly jacked and psyched about this he trained with a guy named tai tai whoa it's an irish name t-a-d-g-h but i believe it's pronounced tyke leader and he documented his entire story how he used to be a gaelic football kicker and then in august of 2023 decided he wanted to try to kick so he's been kicking like three four times a week since then trying to learn the style of kicking american football the nfl opened up the combine to international kickers for the first time ever ever this dude goes in there showcases himself and then in his first game first kick hits a game winner slainte good on you lad and if you keep running that when he gets back to that sideline the entire team loses their mind i

mean the entire is that the end of the video right there so the entire that whole crew in the back there all those legs you see they all come up and start celebrating with them too massive preseason moment that you don't normally see the emotion and everything uh i i'm sure you're not on the beat of the irish kicker but is this guy i mean this seems it's a beautiful story and shout out to the nfl for opening the doors almost seemingly more for more talent this is good for the game good for everything and charlie i mean he nutted that thing oh yeah that thing's good from 60 if it had to the way he was flying slow rotation perfectly end over end i mean that ball is going that ball's going. That ball is absolutely plastered in the biggest moment.

First-ever kick in live reps. Unbelievable, Sheffield. That's pretty cool. Now, you can appreciate what he did more than I can. I can just say this, that the league loves bringing in these international players, and they've put a big emphasis on teams bringing in players like that. And having been around some of that,

I think the guys, I don't know if when you were with the colts or darius in the nfl you guys had some international players come in those guys are very popular they're very well received in the locker room and this guy comes in on saturday night at arizona first kick in a game and he makes the kick and again to your point you see the emotion on the sideline. It's a huge moment for that guy. It'd be awesome if he could somehow win that job. And, hey, listen, these international guys are getting chances now more and more. The league is trying to grow the game. They're encouraging that

type of participation. And there's another example of it on Saturday night in the desert. Hey, sláinte, Charlie. Sláinte, Charlie. Way to go. That's awesome. He hit that thing. Pure. I mean, absolute stroke there. In his head.

Think about how big that moment is. Oh, yeah. Huge. First ever. First ever. He'll never forget it. He'll never forget that the rest of his life, right? Hopefully, it's just a start.

Hopefully, it's just a start. Just like Aubrey. Aubrey, for the Cowboys last year, was a soccer player. Go ahead. You know, it's funny. Last year, I was in Cowboys camp, and they were telling me about Aubrey. And they were raving about this guy. And I'm like, oh, this is going to be interesting to watch

because you hear coaches rave about players, kickers, whoever it may be all the time. Aubrey was that and more. That guy was unbelievable last year. And it looks like he's one of the best kickers in the league right now. He missed one this weekend from 64 or something, which I wasn't thrilled about because Aubrey doesn't miss. He pushed it right. He never does that.

But he'll make a 64 yarder this year. Yeah, because he hits a draw. He actually hits a draw. So when he hit that thing, I'm like, okay, it's good. In the home, I think it was the Rams commentary. It was like, it's short, it's short. And I'm like, Aubrey murders the ball. These are good stories.

If the kicking positions can be the positions that open up the world for the NFL, consider me pumped, bro. Yeah. Consider me pumped. Last question here, speaking of the NFL, and obviously a lot of situations within it, there's a massive one. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Shefty, over the weekend the reports about IUK were that now

it seems likely, or at least they're working on a deal for him to stay in San Francisco. Is that what you're hearing? And then also the Niners had to cancel joint practices with the Saints this weekend. How bad are they injured if they're already kind of being like, yeah, we don't have enough guys to field two teams? Well, they're shorthanded at a few different spots, and so they don't want to risk anybody else going into a joints practice,

so they canceled that. I understand that. The IUC thing, look, this saga, and it's been a saga, has had more twists and turns over the last few months than any story that I've seen in a long time in the offseason. And this has been at a point where at one point it looked like, okay, he might get traded to Cleveland. And then it looked like, oh boy, he might get traded to New England. And then it looked like he might get traded to Pittsburgh. And now it looks like, you know what? The 49ers sit down, the two sides talk it out. And now, and we'll see where it goes. Now it looks like the focus and emphasis is on keeping him in San Francisco and not trading him.

But I would say that this has had many twists and turns to it. And until there's final resolution, you don't know. But the 49ers want to keep him. They don't want to trade him. They've never wanted to trade him. They've wanted to get a deal worked out with him. The deal has been elusive. The player was the one who requested the trade. The player was the one who tweeted at Mike Tomlin. The player was the one who went on with Chayden Daniels and talked about going to the command. The 49ers were not interested in doing those sorts of things.

They were interested in getting a deal done because they wanted to keep the player. But when the deal became difficult to get done, when he kept demanding a trade, when other options surfaced like that, everybody's got to do what they have to do to look into it. And so they did, and nothing has worked out so far. And now they're at a point where they'd like to try to figure it out. That would be their goal to keep them there in San Francisco, which I think really has been a goal all along, despite the fact that in a relationship, there are ups and downs with everything. And so they're trying to see if they get this deal worked out now. And if they can, obviously, he'll be staying and he won't be going to Cleveland

or New England or Pittsburgh or any of the teams that have had conversations with the 49ers. But that would be the team's preference right now to keep them and to get that deal worked out. And that's what they're trying to do. And we'll see if they can get it done. That was the storyline at the very beginning of this entire thing, which we normally feel like is the most accurate because at the very beginning of most of these stories is when the real shit is and then there's all bunch of mumbo jumbo that you got to dodge duck dip dive and dodge and then mumbo jumbo can be used by both parties to weaponize a little bit more leverage or to gain a little bit more favor in your direction for the outcome or whatever it is so as these reports just started coming and going like so fast and so chaotic,

it was like, well, they want a second and a third in 2025. The Patriots are willing to pay $32 million, but he doesn't want to go there. Cleveland wants in on the action, even though the Mark Cooper might get traded in there. No, Pittsburgh is trying to take a hometown discount, even though it's not his hometown. It's like all those things felt like, just to me, mumbo jumbo. That all felt like mumbo jumbo to me in that the end result was going to be him ending up as a Niner. Did you feel at any moment it was not going to be that way? Did you feel like there was a chance he was going to go elsewhere? Yes, but again, we've said all along that this is a very hard deal to get done because any acquiring team would have to satisfy both

Brandon Ayuk and the 49ers. And so if a team can't do both, then a deal can't get done. And so you had teams out there that could satisfy one of those conditions, but not both. And with that being the case, I think Brandon Aiyuk felt like, look, he'd like to stay in San Francisco, but he wanted to get paid. They couldn't get the deal done. Okay, let's see what else is out there. Again, he's the one that's advertised these other places.

He's the one that's honestly been outspoken in the media. The other day he was commenting about how there are leaks in the Niners. I'm just telling you, I don't think they're talking that much. I don't think they're talking that much. I don't think they're talking that much. I really don't. Who are the leaks?

Not publicly. Could be other teams, I guess, trying to leak. It could be the agent. I mean, there's just so many different factors. There were so many people involved, so many other teams that inevitably people know, but it's not like San Francisco is advertising that they want to move on from the guy. They've wanted to keep the guy. They just have not been able to get the deal done.

And those other things, they were real, Pat. Like, those other teams were interested. But again, you've got to satisfy Iyuk and the 49ers. There wasn't a team out there, at least there hasn't been to date, that could satisfy both, that could meet the 49ers' compensation and meet Iyuk's price and be a place that he was willing to go because once it's a place he doesn't want to go he doesn't have to accept the deal so that team's out that team's out then right got it and then Trent Williams is going

to get done I would assume that I think their focus has been on Iuke and we got a 36 year old tackle who it doesn't matter that he misses camp. I would think that they'll get that addressed and figured out and get him in, and if he misses camp, he misses some camp, but they want him back.

He's so good, they have to have him back, and I would think that they want to get this Iuke thing taken care of before they move on to Trent Williams. Ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL insider, the man who comes fresh out of a workout

to let us know what the hell's going on. Wow. And we can't thank him enough. Getting fight in shape, Shefty. The season's right around the corner. Nice. Yeah. There you go.

24 days away. 24 days away. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Shefter. Yay! Fresh out of a workout. Yeah. Looks like Paul Rudd. Didn't even have a soak yet.

Nope. Hasn't even had a soak yet. Still sweating. He's going to get in his cold tub right now. Mm-hmm. You know, that's a— The go-tub. Maybe the go-tub, Michael Phelps.

Everybody's in those things. What do you think? Okay. We got Guardian Caps in games. Mm-hmm. Colts have the most. We're the smartest team in the NFL. Hey, maybe Trent Williams puts one on.

And then all of a sudden it's— I don't know. Trent Williams might have came from the generation, you know, before this particular one. Really? I would think, you know, because there's some people who try to utilize their helmet as a weapon. And I know in modern football it's not as much. But we'll be joined by a stooge from Ohio in the next hour who literally

the heavier the helmet, the better. Why? Because it was more protective? No, because I could utilize it as a weapon. There's always going to be those people in football. However the tactic's going to be. But if you can save a little bit and it doesn't affect your speed, I could see why guys

would want to sign up for it. Jonathan Taylor, he had a brain. He got accepted to Harvard. Business man, obviously we've seen what happened. I think those super genius people are a little bit more apt to be like, I would like to keep every brain cell. And then as more stats and analytics roll out, it's like, hey, just like one shot to the head for offense alignment here from a defense alignment, you don't know. You

might hit the right spot. We don't know. And then boom, all of a sudden you can't do this anymore. And then it's like those types of things being presented, even though I would assume large majority of some of these contacts don't do that, there is a chance that it has happened and will happen. So if you put that thing on there, the look is tough. It looks like a pillow. No doubt. It looks like you've got a pillow on your head.

It is tough. It's like football pillow. But that's why I think the helmets will end up just becoming what they become. Yeah. That's going to be what it is. It's larger. They're going to become space. Yeah.

Quarterbacks are going to have one that goes massive. All the way back here. That'll be so cool. Jonathan Taylor's, I think, is going to be real big. There's going to come a time where the hole's going to get small, and then that thing is going to act as a boom. Like a baby. Yeah, it is.

It's going to be like giving birth. Giving birth. Boom. We were talking about this with Tua. When he got banged up, had a couple concussions, he was like, oh, maybe he gets the helmet. They kind of just, when he hits the ground it kind of like an airbag it is it's weird to look at but like you said all the medical and everything behind it you get it um with all the violent hit violent contacts and i still remember when those revolution helmets first came about i'm

like it's no way these are catchers no way players will actually start to wear these and then every year more and more our our university actually damn near made it mandatory that we switch into those helmets. So this is just the evolution of the player safety. Especially, you know, if they're able to make these helmets gigantic, lighter, and safer. I mean, guys will be like, all right, so it's lighter, it's more comfortable, and I'm safer. I don't care what I look like. Do you see the clothes we wear to these games? We look like assholes all the time.

That is kind of the new, that's like the new fashion. He has some interesting fashion, too. Yeah, that was not looking like an asshole. Latu looks sick. He did look sweet, yeah. That's what I'm saying. Like, everything's fashion. I would assume, like, these big-ass helmets will become, like, cool.

Because there was, like, the TV stretchy thing, you know, that happened? Yep. And there was a photo of Jonathan Taylor that got out there. People were saying, you know, how big that helmet looked and you do the tv thing i mean it did look gigantic but you could see how jonathan taylor be like this looks cool yeah and he could keep it moving our offense needs the colts offense needs to you gotta pick it up i know i know it's just pre-season and hey we're working on stuff everybody else seemed to look good speaking of let's look uh we're supposed to be catching up with kevin o'connell if we're able to get with

him oh ladies and gentlemen never mind joining us now middle of training camp so hey you do what Everybody else seemed a little good. Speaking of, let's look. We're supposed to be catching up with Kevin O'Connell. If we're able to get with him. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, never mind. Joining us now. Middle of training camp. So, hey, you do what you got to do. That is not on you. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach for the Minnesota Vikings. Former NFL quarterback.

Hell yeah. Scott can spin it. Oh, yeah. Scott can spin it. He can also call play literally in the dirt in turf and make it work. Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin O'Connell. Yeah. How you doing, bub? I'm doing great, guys. How are you?

Good. Thank you for taking time in the middle of training camp. How do we feel? Are we in the middle of it right now? Is it the dog days of training camp? What does that mean for a head coach? What does that mean for you? And how do we feel?

Yeah, I'd like to think we're still in the dog days a little bit. Got through the first preseason game. Getting ready to go to Cleveland this week for some joint practices. And before you know it, we'll be right into that final preseason game week and we'll be trimming our roster down and getting ready to roll. Okay, so trimming the roster down is obviously something that takes place and the bottom half of the roster is always going to be something that's discussed in buildings a lot more than in the

media. We would like to wish all of them that are going to play special teams with this new kickoff good luck. The kickoff is wild. Let's talk about at the top at some very important positions obviously. You guys draft quarterback J.J. McCarthy out of Michigan and what I've been told about J.J. McCarthy before he got to Minnesota is like, this dude is beloved by his teammates. This dude is a winner, has been a winner. Everybody literally enjoys being around him. And then we start seeing clips of him at a Minnesota baseball game. And then we see him hanging out with the teammates. And then we got a chance to see him play quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings this weekend. And he had a damn good outing. What are

your thoughts on the rookie? What do you think we should expect from him and how should we view his start against the Raiders? Yeah, I think, I thought JJ played really well, you know, for his first time out. No coaches on the field, no, you know, it's just those 11 guys, 11 guys on defense and the refs out there. There's really not much more you ever want to see than just the guys take the work from the practice field. And especially as you get into different groups on your team, you find out who's prepared, you find out who's ready. And obviously, anytime you play a game, preseason or not, in an NFL stadium,

when the lights come on, you tend to see who guys really are as players. And I just thought, you know, there was a ton of learning moments in the game for jj but what i was most proud of uh is just the way you know even after uh you know turns it over early uh and comes right back and is ripping the ball down the field standing you know standing in the pocket uh generating explosives on early downs a couple big third down conversions and i got the team down the field, standing in the pocket, generating explosives on early downs, a couple big third down conversions, and got the team in the end zone a couple times there, which I thought was just a great example of what playing quarterback in this league is all about.

There's going to be some plays that go your way. There's going to be some plays execution-wise that you'd like to have back. What can you do on the next play? What can you do to kind of keep doing your job, propelling the offense forward and give your team a chance to win a football game? I thought he did all those things. I thought he did it in a way that I felt poised and confidence at the same time from him. I thought it was a great first start for him, you know, really getting some game reps under his belt in our offense. Is everything off the field exactly what they said going into the NFL?

Like all the people out of Michigan that talk about him, like everybody loves him. Janitor loves him. Is that accurate? Obviously, you wouldn't bury him publicly, but have you been very excited about the human he is alongside of the football? Yeah, this is an easy one to answer,

and I don't have to bury him publicly. It's all been real, uh, Pat, you know, what you hear about him. And that's what, one of the, you know, things that really drew me to him throughout the draft process, uh, is this guy is authentically him himself every single day brings a ton of juice and energy, um, enthusiasm. And, and the guy works his tail off. I mean, he is, uh, truly is truly, you know, in that quarterback room with Josh and Grant trying to get better, even, you know, outside of, you know, the time

with the coaches, you just feel him totally invested in being an NFL quarterback. And he's had success at every level he's ever, you know, really been at. But what I like is just seeing the quiet, lonely moments when he's just putting putting in those hours putting in that work that will serve him really really well down the line and he's just he's got the makeup you know the guys on our team young guys in that rookie group with them veteran players love being around them uh couldn't say enough about just adding a guy like jj into our, especially at the quarterback position. Okay. And obviously it's a preseason game. So I don't know how much you invest in it emotionally when Reichardt hits that game winner. Are we, we're juice, right? I see Justin Jefferson's mic'd up. He comes out there celebrating the team's excited after the game. What's the speech?

What do you say to him? Yeah, nobody really knew how I would go about it. Cause we've never won a preseason game since I've been here. This guy sucks in the preseason. You know, so I think I was even telling AP right there, you know, that was a hell of a football game. I'm glad to get that first win finally in the preseason. You know, we did play some of our guys early on. That tends to help, especially uh as you as you get into

some of these preseason games and the depth of your 90 man roster is really tested uh but i would just say i was just happy the way we won it uh will coming out there kicking the game winner jaron hall kind of taking the offense down the field to get us some field goal range it's really uh you know being kind of a situationally sound football team, it's a testament to your whole roster because those guys are all in the same meetings. They're in the same. They may be watching a lot of the two minutes throughout training camp. They may be having to take mental reps and kind of absorb what this would be like if we're trying to go win a game as we're simulating that throughout training camp. So for the defense to get the stop the way they did in the four-minute situation, and then our offense to get it in field goal range, you know,

take that clock all the way down and Will to go out there and kick the first of hopefully many game-winning kicks in his career. Hell yeah. Just victory cigars after a preseason game is a good thing. Oh, yeah. I did give a couple game balls out. So Will got one of the game-winning. Hell yeah, Will! Way to go, Bob. We need to get a new number on Will ASAP, but that'll come. thing oh yeah i did i did give a couple game balls out so we'll we'll go game hell yeah well

way to go bob we need to get a new number on will uh asap but that'll come that'll come uh we're there's a hard out coming here in about five minutes d bud has a question for you we can't thank you enough for the time yeah k i gotta ask you you don't have to deal with this this uh preseason fortunately you locked up jay jefferson reset the market probably messed it up for a few other teams out there trying to sign some big time wide receivers but what is the importance of those preseason reps with a quarterback and those top pass catchers especially outside of receivers and how much different is it from training camp and then obviously in the season when things are moving so much faster yeah i think uh you know d but you know when you're putting together a training camp you try

to simulate as many uh you know of those weight weighty downs, third down, red zone, two minute that you can to try to make it feel like the game. We'll have some really important reps in the joint practices this week against Cleveland. And then ultimately, you know, we you know, like I said, we did play some of our guys. Justin was, you know, him and Harrison Smith were two guys that, you know, we held out. But I do know this. I do know the way Justin practices, the way he has built a rapport with both Sam and JJ, getting reps with both those guys. I know Justin's excited about kind of the training camps that they've had, but also, you know, his role. He's really assumed a leadership role on our football team.

He's really assumed kind of a guy that's had an unbelievable start to his career on the grass. I think, you know, the next step for him, he was a captain last year for the first time in his football career, believe it or not. And now he's kind of taking that and running with it, setting the standard, you know, what it's like to work. And he's got a lot of other really good players, really good veterans setting that standard every day. I've really loved what we've done training camp-wise. It's been physical. We really kind of maximized our time and now we got to put a bow on it

and finish this thing up the right way before we get into preparation for the opener against a good Giants team. So much juice by that. I mean, he got to be a lightning rod, obviously around everybody. We have like one minute here, and Connor wanted to ask, but it kind of is the story of these joint practices.

How do you tell them not to fight? Like, how is it not a fight? You've been a player. You understand. How is that not a fight? Like, what is your messaging? Yeah, I think, you know, we're both trying to simulate game reps, and you can't fight in a game, so why would you be able to fight in a practice?

What happens when you do fight in a game? You get kicked out. So I have kind of a standing rule. If guys fight, they're first and foremost going to get kicked off the field. Secondly, if they were set to play in the game, trying to fight for a roster spot, they will no longer play in the game. And if they were a guy that we were going to hold out of the game, they're probably going to strap on the pads and go play a little bit in that game that weekend. So that tends to be enough to hold off those guys

that may be thinking about it. But at the same time, you don't want to take out the competitive side of it. And that's it's about who you practice with as well um kevin stefanski is a guy i have so much respect for we kind of feel similar about that i know uh hopefully uh we have two really good days of work physical work it's going to be a physical football team we're going to practice against and both teams are trying to prepare themselves for uh 17 plus games that are out in front so any any rep uh period, any drill that gets cut short it's a damn shame and we can't let it happen

Hey coach, we appreciate you so much for your time enjoy the rest of preseason, hopefully we'll get to catch up before the regular season begins but if not, good luck this year boss always appreciate it guys, thanks guys Hey, Caleb looks fucking good so does JJ, but I'm just saying he might be a couple guys.

Ladies and gentlemen, Kevin O'Connell, we appreciate you. Yeah, coach. Hey, Caleb does. I like that. Offensive lineman not playing. Veteran offensive lineman not playing in the game. Gets in a fight all of a sudden. Hey, guess what?

First quarter. Have fun. You. Not worth it. It's not worth it. Yeah, got to remember that. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. I want to let you know. It's not worth it. It's not worth it.

I want to let you know, though. Let's be in the fucking parking lot. Write it on the tape. That might be the way to go about it right there. Got to figure it out. If you're at the bottom of the roster, ejected, you're not playing. Top of the roster, guess what?

You are playing. All right, maybe that gets it done. At Desjardins, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardins Business, we speak the same language you do. Business.

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very okay in saying we're the greatest on earth at sports so that's fun and uh the worst country on earth at break dancing is australia we know that not because we have any biases towards any group of people but because we have eyes but we do know that the fish on a boat dance is now going to be utilized everywhere it's already one for one at evan foxy's wedding reception hell yeah let. Thank you to Ray Gunn for introducing us to the side fish flop. And it's crowd pleaser if you want to bust it out. The Talks Table is here. At Boss Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler.

Thank you very much. And live from Hammer.com, Tone Diggs. Tone, we have a breaking news in college football, Ton. Yeah, the first AP Top 25 pool is out. No surprises at the top. Georgia is in first with 46 first-place votes, followed by Ohio State, Oregon, and Texas.

I think that's what everyone expected it to be. Shout-out to Bama. You lose the greatest college football coach Of all time And you're still number five That's respect for Alabama As a program And Dons

They lose Dons And Dons And I think it's And Kalen DeBoer I think that just says A ton about Kalen DeBoer Bond You're defending

National champions Michigan Are at number nine It's after losing I think it's 18 starters From that football team which is what they they had 13 drafted i think 18 went to the combine bro they're ranked fourth in the big ten there yeah that's nuts yes yeah at nine that's fourth in the big ten obviously because oregon ohio state

penn state ranked above them and then michigan fourth in the big ten wow big ten loaded yeah yeah that's where they're let's talk about loaded so. So I think Big Ten, if you go down, I think I was the other Big Ten team at 25. So I think they have five overall teams in the top 25. The SEC, nine. The SEC has nine teams in the top 25, Pat. People are talking about multiple teams making the 12-team playoff from each conference. There's going to be three.

There might be, and this is going to get loud. And I know the group of five best makes it in. And to be a champion of the conference, you automatically make it in. There's going to be some conversation about the other teams that make it in there. And it's not about, like, who on paper, record-wise, it's who is the best team. Because I got a chance to hear, you know, last week at the college football thing. It's like, who do we project to be the best teams at this particular time of the season?

And it's like, I think the college football playoff committee, I think you're going to hear a lot more from them throughout the season this year. I think you're going to hear a lot more where, like, they want to entice teams to schedule hard teams and hard games. Like, so if you have the best record, but you didn't really you know your

schedule is like that's a big deal to them because they want college football to remain awesome and competitive they don't want people taking easy way outs and with how many conference games there's going to be for some of these schools there's a chance you play what four top 10 teams yeah in the first five weeks of the year so So you might get two losses. Who'd you lose to though? Well, the best teams. It is going to be interesting to see how they balance the amount. If a four loss team

makes it in, there's going to be so much shit. We have no idea what could possibly happen, especially with the depth and the power of the SEC and of the Big Ten. And that's like Michigan this year. The Big Ten, their conference schedule is very tough, but non-conference, they play Texas almost right away. So that's one of those teams where if they play Texas really tight and lose to them, and then

I don't know who they, I mean, lose to Ohio State, I don't know who else they have in the Big Ten. Michigan's got Oregon at home. Yeah, exactly. So you lose those three games, and then let's say they play a Penn State two and lose a tight one there, and they go nine and four, but it's like, well, their four losses could be four teams in the top ten. And then West Virginia in the Big 12. Exactly, same deal. We go ten and two, ten

and three, whatever it is. It's championship in the conference championship games. I mean, it's going to be messy still. There's 12 teams, it's going to be messy, but I think we're going to get great football. Great football. And there's five SEC teams in the top 12, six in the top 13, to your point there.

So that's just insane. The whole top 10 would have been SEC and Big 10. Florida State jumps in there at number 10, but you've got Notre Dame as well. The top-ranked Big 12 team is the newcomers Utah. The Utah Utes there are the top of the Big 12. And then Florida State is the top of the ACC at 10 there.

Coach Dutch Danger made an appearance there. Obviously, he cut his teeth in Utah. He really earned his stripes there. Fascinated that Notre Dame can never be the number one team in a college football playoff. Ever. Because they can't win a conference championship because they are independent, which has always been an advantage.

You know, always. Being able to schedule whatever, whoever, however, whenever. We are going to have a massive deal anyways because we're the first school to ever have a television deal. So we know this game inside and out, and our fan base is massive because there are Catholics everywhere. Catholics everywhere. Every private school kid wants to end up at Notre Dame, our fan base is strong. We are going to have it.

Always been good to be independent. Now, because they can all win a championship, there's a premium on winning your conference championship because that's what all the commissioners wanted. The commissioners wanted the conference championship to still matter. If you're going to move this to 12 and yada, yada, yada, we want the championship, the titles, to matter the most so they get the buys, you know, in the entire thing.

Notre Dame, best they can do in a college football playoff is five. If they have a perfect year. Yep. That's going to be some shit. I like it. I like it. You should ask in the conference. I'm tired of them getting up there and getting ass beat anyway.

Certainly. I think a lot of people feel the way you feel. But the Catholics aren't. Boy, they are going to be loud. Wow. They're in God's conference. Yeah. Oh, we got to play each game? All right? I can't wait for it. Thank you,

Tony. Hey, how'd gambling go? First week of the preseason. What should we be thinking about? Dogs were 10-6 against the spread. 8-8 straight up. And then it was the under. So two years ago, I think the under was like 14-2 or 15-1 in week one. And then last year, the book

all adjusted and everything went over. So I think they adjusted it again. It was 12- or 15-1 in week one. And then last year, the book all adjusted and everything went over. So I think they adjusted it again. It was 12-4 to the under in week one. So look for week two, too. They'll adjust and they'll go over. Okay. So look, too, for over-adjustment potentially from these books. Good to know.

All right. We appreciate you. Time takes. Thank you, buddy. Joining us now live from Manatee, Ohio, is a man who's a college football national championship holder. His school is number two in the country right now with more talent than ever.

He's an Ohio State legend. I don't know if he's ever going to be invited back as an honorary captain like Jim Harbaugh is for their home opener after being suspended and having a four-year show-cause thing by the NCAA as a coach. He'll be back as honorary captain alumni player for Texas-Michigan, I believe. Is that the first game? No.

They have two home games first, back-to-back? I believe they play Texas the third week of September or second week of September. Because we're going Ireland, right? Then we're going Texas A&M. Yep. But that Ireland game is week zero. Yeah, nobody else plays. There's three other games, but they're not any of the power conferences.

They have Fresno at home in week one. Okay, Fresno. So that's their home opener. So that is who it is. It's for Fresno. Damn. If that would have been Texas, Michigan. Oh, man, no.

With game day and everybody there, it would have been awesome. But the fact that Michigan is doing this, hysterical, and we are incredibly – congratulations, coach. Oh, sorry, player. Yeah, that's right. Player, not coach. I don't know. Can't be there as coach. Can certainly be there as ex-player alumni, right?

Absolutely. That's what I thought. Are we flipping a coin here? Am I flipping a coin? Who's flipping a coin? Oh, he better be. I love flipping a coin because it's not really 50-50, especially if you put it into the universe.

Imagine him. Oh, my God. He has gloves on in practice right now, taking darts, doing this, flipping tires, giving press conferences, just setting a precedent of what it's going to be. Welcome back to the NFL, Hardball. And we're happy you're going back to college. Absolutely.

To walk right in. I mean, imagine him walking onto that field for that honorary captain thing. They'll probably be running a video of everything he has done. For sure. And then run a quote probably at the end of him saying, whenever they bury me in dirt under wood, I believe is his exact answer he gave. If they say he was a good Michigan man, that's good enough for me.

They just run that. That place goes absolutely bonkers. They're nuts. In the NCAA, they used to sit in there. They did it again. These sons of bitches did it. Nuts. And the NCAA is just sitting there. They did it again. Yep. These sons of bitches did it again. And then Harvard, okay, thank you.

And then off to the Chargers, which look. Uh-oh. What? Uh-oh. What? I mean, Herbert's going to be hurt all year. No, they're going to figure it out. Joining us, ladies and gentlemen, I don't know if he's going to be an honorary captain.

He should be. A.J. Hawk. Yeah. How about Michigan doing it again? Finding a little, you know, finding a little do-si-do to get Harbaugh on the field. I love it. Yeah, why wouldn't they? I mean, I'm sure they do not agree with all that has gone on surrounding the whole program

and what everyone on the outside has been saying. So, yeah, why not? I give him credit. Why not? Just bring him back. That place will go absolutely crazy when they see him walk on the field. He's probably going to be wearing cleats, too. Imagine that Fresno say, absolutely.

I hope he has gloves on, honestly. Holding the trophy from last year. Yeah, over a shore. Like the title. In a baby bonnet. Yeah. In the front. Took it from my grandkid.

Just the way he would explain it all. I hope they do it. How do you feel about that top 25? Four Big Ten teams in the top whatever, eight or whatever it is. That's – the SEC, to Tone's point, what was it? How many, Tone? It was nine for the SEC, and I said five for the Big Ten. I forgot.

I think you said five in the top 13 for the SEC. Oh, five in the top 12, six in the top 13 if you count LSU. But there's actually six Big Ten teams. I forgot about USC. They're now a Big 10 team. Oh, yes. I mean, so it is literally, I mean, you just look at it, Big 10 SEC type situation brewing here before the season starts. Ohio State's number 2, but

they're going to have, hey, if you make it now, it's just not to the game. You don't just get to Michigan now. No offense to any other teams that play against the Ohio State over the last two decades, seemingly. It's going to be Ryan Day. Good luck, buddy.

Tough gig. Tough gig. But the good thing is, do you care? If you were the head coach of a program, would you care if your team was number one? Would you feel slighted if you weren't preseason number one? It gives your team actually some juice if you're not and you thought you should be, maybe.

I think it probably helps with recruiting. If I had to guess, they could just say like, Hey, we're supposed to be. But preseason, does anybody care about pre? Like I never understood. I think going into my sophomore year, I believe we were preseason number one and everyone was trying to act like it was a big deal. I'm like, what? Who cares?

Like we lose one game. It doesn't matter. Like who cares what we're rated, what we're ranked now? Like let's just go undefeated and we know we'll be number one. Yeah, that's championship mindset, AJ. I'm not sure every human certainly has that. A lot of people like to flex that they made an NFL roster whenever they're the 110th person on the roster.

They will turn their bio on their social media into member of Jacksonville Jaguar, and they know damn well. They got zero reps in practice. They got zero reps in the game, but they are a member. a lot of people like to flex these types of things, but I would assume if your programs are at the top, you don't have a lot

of guys like that. Kirby Smart said, we're number one, huh? That's cool. Bloody Tuesday. That's right. We're getting after it, okay? Ryan Day says, hey, we're number two in the country, huh? Well, I've almost been fired two times because I only have two losses in the history here, and I'm making three, actually, with Michigan. Let's move on.

If West Virginia was in the top 25, I'd be flexing today. I get that. It's a big deal for sure if you're outside the top 25 and all of a sudden you've built your program up and you're inside the top 10 or top 25. I get it, but I don't understand all the hype

and hoopla if you are number one or if you're not number one. Yeah, well, it. But I don't understand, like, all the hype and hoopla if you are number one or if you're not number one. Yeah, well, that's Ohio. It must be nice. It must be nice. Five-star program. Yeah, you do got a five-star program. You've been sending the house.

You know, you've been doing these recruiting visits for so long up there at Ohio State. You get it figured out. There's somebody about to be joining us in, like, a minute or two. Okay, right now, who's – I mean, this seemingly is a bit of an advantage. I'd say. In the college world. To have a team, you know, that's, I mean, this seemingly is a bit of an advantage in the college world to have a team that's located in Washington

that has just a couple people strolling around these practices. Just strolling around. Pete Carroll, what has he ever won? He's just strolling around just University of Washington training camp. Oh yeah, I got fired. Yeah, nothing going on. What do you guys need to know? I know fucking everything. You would say oh, Pete Carroll's there. That must be a on. What do you guys need to know? I know fucking everything. Okay, you would say

oh, Pete Carroll's there. That must be a lot. Guess who else is just moseying around up there? Michael Lombardi. This guy. Just Italian guy, just walking around a college university. A guy who is addicted to watching film. I assume he's just talking to these guys. Look at this, look at this. This is what we got going. You know who else is just

roaming around? Who? The University of Washington football program's training camp. Who's that? Greatest of all time. Coach and general manager. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, what a fucking advantage this has to be for Washington. Bill Belichick.

Yeah, coach! I love it. Coach, coach, don't you think this is kind of bullshit? You, Lambeau, Pete Carroll, obviously Coach Fish, there is just brains galore up there. Does it feel like we're back at training camp? How involved are you up there, Coach? Well, it's nice to just get back and watch some action going on in the field,

being around Steve, being around Jed. They do a great job here at this program, and it's just fun to watch what's going on and sit in on some meetings and, you know, watch the players work. But good spot out here. Good environment. Practicing right on the lake. Temperature is perfect.

This is great training camp weather, 70 to 80. Weather's nice. Facilities are good. And, you know, The players are working hard. Are we spinning the whistle? Because I've seen the documentaries. I've never been in one of your practices, but I've seen the whistle. That was the decision. That was the decision

that was made. Who made the decision? How involved are you? How out are you? How much do they want you? Because I assume everybody's like, hey, what are your thoughts on this? Both coaches and players alike, or are you hands off here yeah jed's got the whistle yeah i'm just here to watch and uh you know sometimes they ask me uh you know to look at something or what i think about this or that or whatever but uh yeah it's really it's been great it's great to see these guys and uh you know just got a great. Jed does a great job with this program. I look forward to following him during the year.

I'll bet you over in Washington. For sure. I'll bet you over in Washington immediately. I couldn't even imagine. How has it been looking at college defenses and college offenses? Has it been fun? Have you always done this? It has. It really has. It's not something I've ever really done before. At this Yeah, it really has. You know, it's not something I've ever really done before. You know, at this time, you know, for a long time, I've been in training camp worrying about our team and what we need to do and so forth. And now it's, you know, an opportunity to look at college players,

college schemes, some of the matchups that are coming up in college football. And, you know, that's exciting too. So, you know, I enjoy all aspects of the game, pro, college. And, you know, it's aspects of the game pro college and and uh you know it's like there's a lot of you know a lot of interesting situations in college football with the realignment and um you know the just the the college game in general and then you know obviously also in the nfl so um you know looking forward to following both of them closely this year let's talk about the on-field stuff for college before we talk a little bit about the nfl and training

camp which obviously in pre-season you were a part of for 50 years or whatever it was at the highest level. They say the college football is starting to get into NFL football for like the last 10 years you know because RPOs play actions have become RPOs and I think what Bo Nix did with Denver there's a lot of Oregon shit in there. Is it very similar from your experience here over the last couple weeks breaking down washington and everything going on to the nfl style of play or are there two very separate uh like things that you could point out yeah i still think there's a pretty big gap um you know i think you know most college teams have a few pro players but you know the other guys are either a long way off or that's not really or the talent isn't at that level,

especially the quarterback position. NFL quarterbacks and college quarterbacks, for the most part, I think there's a pretty big gap there. What you're defending in the passing game is just different. The NFL guys, they can hit almost everything, every throw. I would say that's not really true of all the college quarterbacks. You have a lot more college quarterback run game, call it Wildcat, some version of that, in addition to the passing game.

So the hash marks obviously are different, and I just think there's a bigger gap between what's called seniors and freshmen than there is between some of know, some of the first year players. Uh, you have a couple of rookies on your team, but not, not usually too many. Uh, and the veteran players, I think just the overall, you know, talent gap on, on each team is, is a little bit smaller in the NFL than is in college football. It's not bad. They're just a little bit different. Okay. So let's talk about that talent gap and how some guys are able to make the transition. Obviously last season cj stroud had

the best rookie quarterback season of all time we're getting a chance to see some of these rookies now for more specifically first round quarterbacks in some action caleb williams the highlights that we saw in the way he handled himself and his composure and the stories that we're hearing from off the field about how he's the one actually telling the team like hey we need to pick up our around the locker room as opposed to a veteran saying that like seemingly meeting all the criteria to be an nfl quarterback what are your thoughts on it have you got a chance to see it and how quickly can we judge somebody you think from your experience well i i think we're gonna have to the rookies when they get to the regular season. You know, preseason is a good time to gain experience and, you know, get a little bit of game exposure.

But especially at the quarterback position, the defenses are very basic. There's not a lot of scheme. And, you know, when you're on the defensive side of the ball, you're playing, you know, let's call it three deep throughout the course of the game, first quarter, you know, midway through the third quarter to another group to finish the game. You're running the same things the whole game. You're not game planning.

You're not showing too much. You're just trying to run the stuff you've been practicing. So what the quarterbacks see in preseason and what they see uh in uh joint practices and then what they see during the regular season i think are going to be quite different um you know it's almost like playing in an all-star game where you you know you just see a handful of coverages okay so what can you pick up like whenever you were evaluating your team in these preseason games against very basic looks what are you judging them on for guys that are maybe bottom half of the roster or even the the starters who could potentially get what should we be watching these games and like taking seriously if that

makes sense right well well i think what the coaches are evaluating is what how well the players do the things that they've been instructed to do and they practice to do so their fundamentals the communication within uh the limited water down schemes that they're running uh you know and just the the live competition that you don't get to see in practice there's not much live tackling there's not much live running uh for the running backs and and the receivers after the catch the live tackling and even the defeating blocks and and blocking on the in the interior line then there's still that finishing the block getting off the block making the tackle not being able to or or offensively you know finishing blocks you know cleaning the pocket knocking guys down that

you generally refrain from when you're working with your own team you don't want to get your own players injured on that but you know once you're in a competitive situation i think you can evaluate the players toughness competitiveness and his ability to finish plays better than what you can in practice so uh those are all fundamental things i think that the scheme part of it again is is very very watered down go ahead aj coach how did you uh throughout your time when you're coaching in new england how would you put together a plan of how your starters may or may not play throughout the preseason and did that change throughout your time uh in the nfl how you kind of how your starters may or may not play throughout the preseason. And did that change throughout your time in the NFL, how you kind of employed your starters? Yeah, you know, that's a great question, AJ. And that's one that I think is a pretty long conversation, but a very,

very important one. It really just depends on your team. You know, if you're going to put your starting quarterback out there, you probably want to put them out there with your starting offensive line. You want to put them out there with, you know, receivers that he's going to put your starting quarterback out there, you probably want to put him out there with your starting offensive line. You want to put him out there with receivers that he's going to be thrown to. So if your depth is not good at those positions at that particular point in time, maybe you've got a couple guys banged up or whatever, then is it really worth it? On top of that, you have to spend time preparing for your opponent, right? You don't know what they're going to do. So I don't think you want to play your starters for five plays.

That doesn't really do any good. You want to maybe leave them out there for 20, 25 plays, something like that. Well, that involves preparation time, and that's maybe two or three days of practice. And I'd say with the shortened training camp timeframe now, that's a little harder to do than what it was in the past. I remember when I was, you know, with the Giants and you had three and a half weeks of training camp. You know, you could take three days to prepare for your first preseason game and play your guys, you know, 20 plays a game or so. And, you know, let them and let them get into it.

Well, now it's hard to get those days. get those days when you go with joint practices uh you can go ahead and put your best players out there and let them compete against the other team you know for a couple days and really get a lot of reps and get a lot of quality work then you know do you really want to come back and play those guys two days later you know basically on no rest and and put them in a you know in a big contact situation can you get more out of the joint practices so uh and then some of it especially at the quarterback position i think depends a little bit on the player like tom tom always wanted to play in pre-season he he always felt like you know i want to get more work i want to get the live you know the speed of the game i want to do that and so uh and then you know i've been

with other players that are kind of you know not that they don't you know they don't really don't want to do that as much like i want to get a lot of work in practice. You know, I really want to do that. You know, the 10 plays in a preseason game doesn't really do anything for me. I don't care about that. And I don't think there's a right or wrong on that, but I do think that especially with the quarterback position, you would take that into consideration. You know, if the player really wanted to play and felt like he needed it for his timing, then I think you'd probably find a way to do it. But as far as the rookies go, I think for those guys, you know, they should play and felt like he needed it for his timing, then I think you'd probably find a way to do it. But as far as the rookies go, I think for those guys, you know, they should play and they should get a feel for the game, the speed of the pass rush, just, you know, especially I'd say some of

the rookie quarterbacks this year who, you know, some of whom are a little undersized, just, you know, the height and the girth of the defensive lineman and all that. I mean, that's good for him to experience in a live game situation, you know, not just practice. But from the team standpoint, you just want to make sure that you can, you know, protect those guys both with their linemen and also with receivers and backs and so forth that know what they're doing out there so that if there's any type of adjustments that need to be made, you know, you have guys out there that are going to, you know, do the right thing and, you know, give the quarterback an opportunity to get rid of the ball. That was one of the best situations

or situational answers I've ever heard in my entire life. And speaking of situations, joint practices, you just mentioned it there briefly. Dee Butch got a question for you. Yeah, Coach, it's been obviously more of an emphasis on that with teams going at it with other teams and joint practices. What was your approach

as far as you mentioned it with the quarterbacks and different situational, third down, third down, red area, and then also with the fights? Obviously there's been some more fights going on big time with Detroit and the Giants so much so that they got some fines. So what was like you're talking to with the team going into these practices with other organizations? Well, you know, the way I think, look,

it's really important that whoever you're having a joint practice with you're on the same page with the other with the other staff and the other team and and uh say for the most part you know i've had really very little problem with that uh you get on the same page with the other coach and and uh what happens in the game if you get in a fight you get ejected right so in practice when we have fights then uh you know we just eject those players and and so you know we're out there in practice we're out have fights, then we just eject those players. And so we're out there in practice. We're out there to get better. The people that we're working with are there for the same reason.

So you have to try to get a little bit of the macho part out of it and just focus on improving as an individual and improving as a team. Sometimes when something happens and there's a you know called borderline play is it a cheap shot is it a late hit is that kind of thing you know that those are the kind of things that set it off and and hopefully and in most most of my career cooler has it prevailed uh certainly working with coaches like uh you know like with sean payton or you know we had you know great practices with the eagles and and uh you and last year with Green Bay, with Coach LaFleur, and with Houston and so forth. Some of the ones we've had in the past, you just have to get on the same practice tempo with your opponent.

The fights and all, if that's what it is, then you're probably better off not practicing with that team. It's counterproductive. But the great thing about the joint practices is just as D-Butt said, you know, you run all your stuff defensively. You run your blitzes. You run your combination coverages. You run your disguises. You run all those things that you're not going to run in a preseason game. And you get to see them against another, you know, live competition and vice versa.

They run their motions, their pick plays, their, you know, their gadget plays, things like that, just to get a look at them against, you know, they've run against themselves, but now they get to run them against you. And so you can really work with each other. And I think your team can take some major steps forward, even though it doesn't show up on the field until you get to the real games. But in terms of preparing your team, I thought they were great. We can go out there and rep your starters, if you will, 40 plays, 45 plays,

and really give them a hard practice both mentally and from a conditioning standpoint that you probably aren't going to do in a preseason game. You can do it back-to-back, and in two days you cover a lot of situations. So I thought they were very good in the environment that we have now relative to the length of training camp and the three preseason games. Starters are going to love it, obviously. Oh, I've got to go 110%. Okay, great.

For how many reps? 40 of them. And then we're going to reset it too, by the way. And we're going to do it again. We've got goal line. We've got red zone and third down today. So third down. Two minutes.

We've got two minutes. Two minutes. Yeah, but and, yeah. Two minutes. Yeah, but Pat, if you're like A.J., A.J.'s, you know, look, A.J.'s a good player. He's a great player. He wants to play well. How's he going to play well? Prepare. How are you going to prepare?

You go against another team. I agree completely. But this is. You don't know who that guy is. So, you know, good players want to compete. Good players want to get better. Good players want to, you know, they want to do things that will make them play better in the regular season games. They don't want to get clipped by some free agent that's going to be driving a truck next week.

They want to work against other players who respect the competitiveness of the joint practices. Amen. And so I think those players, they embrace it. I mean, they enjoy it. And then there's a game within a game. Hey, can we fool them? Can we disguise them? Can we use a coverage or run a play or a blocking scheme or something?

It's a little bit different. How will that work against these guys? Your team's seen it eight times. It doesn't work anymore against them. But can we get that against somebody else? So the players that I've coached have really embraced the joint practices i yeah it's a lot of work but you've got to do something to get better you just can't sit around and you know kumbaya and it all come together at some point you got

to go out there and play football okay so what i wanted to say there let me on this one aj hey amen no it's not on coach spot 100 right but like as this has become you it feels like you were ahead of the game with the joint practices. It feels like you were. You were doing them. And then now it's very commonplace that Dee brought up. I think your players and the way you run things is obviously what everybody's going to do. But what is the history of joint practices?

Have they always been around? Because now it feels like there's a shit ton of them happening every single week. When it wasn't really always like that. Were they doing this way back? Do you well at the giants we did them we came up against new england and practiced against new england um you know so i was back in the 80s but again i think it's also good to see how other teams practice and sometimes they hey we do this drill a certain way we do it their way and you're like you know what like that's not bad maybe we should start doing it that way or they have a certain you know whether it's a warm-up or an individual

drill or the way they organize a seven on seven or nine on seven drill or something like that or maybe the way they do their red area uh you know a lot of times you get some good ideas out of that so um yeah it's been around for a while it really really has. We went down in 86. I remember we went down and practiced against the Falcons. You ever won a Super Bowl? And, you know, I remember walking off the field with Dan Henning. Dan was head coach down there at that time. And I said, you know, we're kind of talking about each other's team. And, you know, Dan, of course, had been at Washington. And, you know, Dan's comment was, hey, Bill, there's nobody in the league that can block your front seven. Don't worry about the running game. You've got to be ready for misdirection plays and a passing game. They can't run on that defense. And you know what?

When you really step back and think about it, you know, I mean, it was Taylor, Banks, Carson, Pepper, Burt, you know, Martin, McGriff, you know. I mean, he's right. And sometimes you kind of lose a little bit of perspective of, like, where your issues are or aren't. Because I wouldn't worry about the running game. You guys spend too much time on the running game. You've never been able to defend a pass. Nobody's going to come in here, you know, and try to run the ball 40 times against this front seven.

It's ridiculous. And so, you know, and Dan was you know dan was great it was a great experience working with the falcons down there uh and before the 86 season but it really helped me see what our team was from the other side of the ball not from you know from our side so uh you know things like that yeah it was great i love it i love to hear that that is awesome just seeing your team through somebody else's eyes is probably like, oh, because I'm around this gold jacket front seven we have all the time. I forget that other teams are not sleeping for the entire week thinking about that whenever they only get to play us once a week

as opposed to us having to play our guys. It's a beautiful thing. I hope the fights slow down. I do hope the fights slow down because it does sound like it is incredibly beneficial for all parties if they end up working out. Colts got a couple back-to-back here. Well, you know, Pat, I always told the officials if there was a fight or a taunt, you know, do what you would do in the game. You know, treat a taunt like a fight. If, you know, our guy catches the ball and goes over and spikes the ball in front of their bench, just throw him out of there because it's just going to cause a deterioration of practice. And it's not what we're here for.

We're here to improve. And, hey, we're going to make some plays. They're going to make some plays. It's not about, like, making fun of each other and taunting and, you know, and trying to cheap shot somebody. It's about, you know, make a play. We'll go back and make another one. You know, just keep making them.

Keep showing us, you know, what you can do to help contribute to the team. Earn your spot. I mean, this is your chance for it. So I think if the officials who are officiating the training camp practices would take a little more of that mentality of like, look, we're not going to put up with that stuff. And I told the officials, too, you know, that, look, if our guys come in the huddle and they don't have their knee pads down and they don't have the proper equipment on or whatever it was, then just throw them out. And they did. And that really – then I'm saying, well, look, the reason you're not in there

is because you don't have any knee pads on. So go get them on. The official threw you out. Not me. What do you want me to do? And so things like that. I think the official can really help get the players used to it. I set the 42nd

clock at 35 seconds instead of 40 and you know because we didn't tackle but you know we got less time we're back in the huddle we have you know less time to operate and speed it up and get in the game and hopefully it doesn't feel you know as rushed so um i always believed in you know harder in practice than in the games but i do think the officials who officiate those joint practices can really help get the players ready for the regular season by, you know, being, you know, being as strict on them or maybe even a little bit stricter than they are, you know, during the season. I think that they can help on that. I appreciate you blaming the refs at your practice. I really do. I'm not blaming the refs. I mean, no, no, no. I'm saying whenever you say,

he kicked you out. White cap kicked you out. It wasn't me. What do you want me to do? I don't know. I love that. That is an awesome thing because obviously players buy in.

Your players have. And it's like, it's treated like a game because that's how you're evaluating. It sounds like, especially in the practice situations, is this is a game. We need to treat it that way.

And we get two games back-to-back with these teams, which we wouldn't normally have how many of the other teams players are you scouting have you ever found a guy at one of those joint practices and been like we need that guy on our team yeah absolutely but i'd say usually when you go into the when i've gone into those i've gone into them pat with the other coach saying look we're not here to steal your players you're not here to steal our players if we're not here to steal our players. If we wanted somebody, I would call and say, hey, is this guy available? And that type of thing. I wouldn't try to, you know, steal them off the waiver wire or steal them off the practice squad because they do the same thing to us. You know, they're seeing our guys up close. That's not the

purpose of it. I think a good working relationship with if we were in the AFC working with somebody in the NFC, you know, like the Eagles, you like the Eagles, they're a great team to work with. Or somebody like that, like Coach Henning and Coach Parcells, they were close. So the Giants and the Falcons, that was a good working relationship. Same thing when Coach Payton was in New Orleans and I was in New England. We're not really competing directly with each other, really. And so we're not there competing directly with each other really uh and so we're not there to steal each other's players uh do you see somebody and say like hey this guy would really

help us sean uh you know would you trade him yeah or no we really need this guy and then you know then then we would you know we would kind of play hands off with somebody like that knowing that they would do the same thing with us that's awesome that's awesome to hear about because my perspective is like, oh, they're just – that's blatant. It's like, well, we're not trying to fuck the people over. We are trying to do business with here in this entire thing. That's a beautiful thing.

Thank you so much for opening up about all this. I don't think any of us have thought about that. Connor has a question about – it's a little news story that kind of came and went pretty quickly, but I think it's pretty large. Yeah, Coach, a few weeks ago, Kyle Shanahan kind of talked about how he offered you any role that you wanted on the San Francisco staff. Was there any thought there, like, hey, maybe I do go just be a DC for a season in San Francisco?

And also, did any other teams or coaches reach out, like, hey, Bill, come on in, you can do anything that you want, even just go hang out on the sidelines? Washington, sounds like, University of Washington. Yeah. Yeah, well, I appreciate the question. I'm just going to keep all those conversations that I had between any of the coaches or teams or whatever,

just we'll keep those private. I appreciate the conversation. And, you know, Kyle's great. I love Kyle. I have a ton of respect for him, his dad, and, you know, the way they coach the game, what they've done for the game. I love Kyle and Mike Shanahan.

I think they do a tremendous job. I'll just leave our personal relationship aside on that one. I study them a lot, and I've learned a lot from both Kyle and Mike. They're great coaches, and their teams are great, very competitive. How close? That was an awesome answer. That was a press conference, Bill. Figured that was close.

That was awesome. So now on that point, you don't have to tell us who, but was there moments where you had to consider what you wanted to do, how you wanted to do it and everything? Because obviously doing this particular show on Monday was a part of a decision that you had to make. Monday Night Manning, a part of the decision you had to make. And I know you wanted to say, I think you're doing Inside the NFL with under...

Doing an underdog sports. Underdog sports, doing a show. No, Inside the NFL is NFL films. Oh, yeah, Inside the NFL. But then you're also doing your own show, I do believe, as The Lights. Yeah, we're going to do a podcast. Go down. And the lights just went off.

Yeah, motion-detected lights. Obviously, Washington's doing well. Yep. They're in the National doing well People forget that It's a great way to save money on electricity He just gave you an answer He's given Tom He's given Tom E. Curran that answer

That he just gave you 30 to 50 times There's always a chance that something's going to happen In that whole process of figuring out what the hell you want to do this season Was there a thought of maybe just, maybe just defensive coordinator again, or did that road never really get crossed? Pat, once you made me the offer, I'm in. You said draft, I'm in.

You said Mondays, and I'm in. And that's it. Man, that's the best offer I had, and I love that offer. Oh, geez. I'm top Pat McAfee. Okay, all right. You're better than being on a Pat McAfee show. Okay, all right. You better be on the Pat McAfee show. Okay, all right.

Coach Saban did the same thing last year, right? Yep, yep, yep. Coach Saban, Mike Lombardi. I mean, I feel part of a very select group, and I appreciate the opportunity to be on with you. I really do. You guys do a great job. Hell yeah, Bill.

Hell yeah, Bill. Okay, Bill. Hell yeah. We do wish we would have been able to see you as just a defense coordinator. I mean, that's it. We started thinking about you with that San Francisco 49ers defense, too. And it's like you don't have to deal with any other bullshit other than just drawing up plays for that defense. It would have been crazy to think about.

It would have been the old LT days whenever you had your down on it. I mean, we would have been, you know, we were thinking about it. Yeah, writing upside down on the chalkboard, right? Writing upside down in front of the team. Yeah, would have been, you know, we were thinking. Yeah, writing upside down on the chalkboard, right? Writing upside down in front of the team. Yeah, would have been old school. We would appreciate it. Okay, so. This year, I'm just excited to be on with you.

I really am, Pat. And AJ and the rest of the crew, like, you guys are awesome. It was great at the draft, and I look forward to the season. Look forward to being with you every week. Well, we're lucky to have you. Are you with Lombardi right now? Is there a Paizan roaming around or no? Mike's next door. Yeah? Mike's next door.

Yeah, Mike's next door. What do you mean next door? You have an office? Yeah, of course. Well, he's in the next room. Yeah, I mean, we're trying to I don't want anybody to come in and, you know, mess up our conversation. That's very nice. Do you have an office out there, though? Does Lombardi have an office out there? Do you have an office? Pete Carroll's got an office? We just got... We're in different...

What the hell's going on? There's a couple empty rooms. You know, we pile into them, you know, dump our stuff down sure yes yeah washington over i don't know how to do it we appreciate you coach we don't know if you're ever leaving washington but we'll talk to you next monday from up there hopefully yeah no i'm leaving yeah no i'm i'm leaving i'm i got some other stuff going on this week here and uh you could no, I appreciate the opportunity to see you guys. What about West Virginia? Talk a little preseason. I know sometimes the fans get frustrated with preseason,

but honestly, for a coach, it's a great time of year when you can build your fundamentals, see your team come together just as the chemistry part of it and all that, and watch players get better. This is where they make the most improvement because they have on pads and they can do things at a at a tempo and a speed that you know they can't do in in the spring and then honestly this is uh you know again you guys know it this is where you build your foundation this is the pillars of your season where your fundamentals your conditioning your communication there's not a lot of game planning it's just you know being able to execute what we

do and then we'll fit it in, you know, to game plans as we, you know, as we go through the year. But, you know, this is a great time of year for football players that want to be good. This is when you become good. All right. Well, we appreciate you. And you obviously were able to do that at a high level for a long time. Can't wait to catch up with you next week with another weekend of the new kickoff under in store. I'm excited to hear your take on it all. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, the GOAT, Bill Belichick. Yeah! Ooh!

Washington. Should be solid, huh? Six and a half is the number. Okay. I assume that just enough information is floating around those hallways. Pete Carroll's there, right? Yeah, Pete Carroll's there. Lomba's there.

I'm here. Yeah, Fisher's there. And then Steve Belichick. You guys know him. He's right down there. Just for the coaching staff alone, the little tiny things that always come up. If you're watching a practice and you're not sure, hey, what our blitz pattern or what we're doing here.

Hey, Mr. Belichick, you mind taking a look at this quick and just let me know how you might run this like just all of those little situations would be so valuable yeah yeah why aren't they west let's get them over there in west virginia well yeah who do they have over you got to get steve you gotta get a belichick over there. Yeah. I assume we could have hired him. What tree is Neil from? How about Jed Fish, though? Coached in Arizona last year. Now he's in Washington with all those guys.

Yeah, turn him around, though. Yeah, he had him going at the end of the year. Take it very good, very quick. I mean, Matt Jones fell apart when Jed left. Nobody talks about it. Nobody does. Nobody talks about it. Try a quarterback up in Washington. He'll be good.

Speaking of quarterbacks, even though Belichick basically said, let's not get crazy here. Very basic defenses we're going against. There are certainly some things that we've seen from the first-round quarterbacks this past weekend that need to be spotlighted and highlighted. Let's go in reverse order. Okay, from the lowest top first-round pick to the highest. Let's start with Bo Nix in the Denver

Broncos. Now, he didn't get to start. Jared Stutum got to start, but when Bo Nix got in, boy, he looked efficient. Now, were there a couple turnovers that could have happened? Certainly. Did Kenny Moore get a pick? For sure. But what we saw was four scoring drives and a guy that seemed in complete control and very,

very comfortable. Now, there's a couple times he got out on a run. I think this is one of those plays. He looks a lot faster than I could have imagined him being in the NFL, able to pick up the first down. Had a nice couple touchdown throws. Sean Payton obviously loves him. He's, like, obsessed with him basically since their pre-draft meeting.

Bo Nix looked damn good. He was picked number 12 overall. They get a win over the Indianapolis Colts this weekend. And the Bo show was a real deal. He's not listed as a starter, but it feels like it's inevitable, AJ. Yeah, and right there, that second line, you see he led the team on four scoring drives in the five possessions he played. That's huge.

Like a coach wants you to be able to move the ball down the field, find a way to score, not punt the ball. And I think Bo Nix looked great. That little touchdown pass he had, just how quickly he had to make that little baby read, like a little RPO type thing to the ball handling. Boom, boom. He's got to get a good...

You've got to get a good grip on that thing and let it go because if he grips it late or whatever, that's a pick six, 99 yard touchdown. That's Oregon right there. That's literally Oregon's offense right there. It's not easy. There was a couple plays that just looked like classic Bo Nix as a duck, like just happening against our Colts team, and he cooked against us. Colts, I am excited. Yeah. Should be. Defense looked good early. Yeah, they did. Got a few stops now. Granted,

the backup's obviously not a lot of depth here, and on offense, we had like a three and out and, you know, a partial three and out basically with our starters. Not really great news. But Bo Nix, certainly a superstar in the making. It seems like for Sean Payton and the Broncos. Remember, a lot of people saying, this could be his next year of breeze. Look out. This could be his next year of breeze.

Remember what happened? Let's go to the number 11 overall pick. We just talked to Kevin O'Connell, J.J. McCarthy, obviously out of Michigan, goes to the Minnesota Vikings. They have Sam Darnold as well on the roster. They lose Kirk Cousins, but he has a rocket launcher. We saw it at the Rose Bowl up close and personal. He showcased that in the game this weekend, AJ.

Yeah, I like to see him under center and like the play action. Sometimes a quarterback under center with these play action fakes, it feels like it's old school football. But I think we're going to get and see a little bit more of this from certain teams around the league. But this dude, we watched this guy in person. Now, they may have not asked him to throw the ball down the field a ton in Michigan at times, but you remember watching him,

every time he did, the dude can absolutely sling it. And he's super athletic. I mean, these are all great things. I guess in the preseason, you don't really know exactly what you have, but you'd much rather your quarterback look good than look terrible. Yeah, I would much rather have our team look good than bad. Just, you know, would much rather have that just for sake of mine and ease. But it's like I think off the field is what the J.J. McCarthy show is all about.

He is like a consummate team guy. Will hand the ball off 40 straight times in the middle of a potential Heisman run and not care at all. Able to make plays. KOC will get people open too. And Justin Jefferson hasn't even been on the field yet. Yeah, you know KOC will put him in a good situation. Obviously, you got Sam there.

He's a starter now. But at some point, this is going to be JJ's team. He threw a pick to Jack Jones early, I think, on the third and nine. So that's the obvious passing down. That's when quarterbacks are going to struggle the most at their youngest. But he's an athlete. He'll figure it out. Love his arm and love his mind early on.

Let's go to number eight overall pick, Michael Penix Jr. out of Washington. Now, obviously, this was a surprise to everybody because they paid Kirk Cousins $180 million this offseason with $130 million guaranteed. You would think that Kirk Cousins would be the guaranteed quarterback for the future. Well, they saw Michael Penix. They loved him.

They drafted him at eight, and we shall see how it all works out if Kirk gets hurt which we hope doesn't happen obviously this would be a great backup as he's able to continue to be incredibly accurate and seemingly in control of the offense now Belichick just ran through everything it's going to be basic defense we're just going to be asking you to run our shit Penix has been mature seems like for the last 15 years of his football career good start for Penix as he gets going down there in Atlanta, AJ. Yeah, good start. Obviously, he's played a lot of football in his college career.

He's been around for a while. So I think that definitely helps early on in the preseason, too. And I'm not really worried about quarterbacks that throw. And not that Penix was one of them, but when guys do throw picks, I know Stetson threw four picks, correct? Yes, Stetson Penix threw four. Which he's not technically a rookie or whatever, so that doesn't worry me as much if a young rookie quarterback

is trying to pull the trigger and try to see, like, okay, can I fit the ball in these little windows that I could in college? I think there might be a little feeling out process for some of these guys at times throughout the preseason. But we all know once a regular season starts, everything is so, so different. They're going to be facing everything that's much different. Kirk Cousins, confirmed starter down there. Let's go to New England!

Drake May, number three overall pick. He had a massive outing. One series, a bunch of handoffs, and a third and 12 screen that was right on the money! Drop Mayo, head coach of the New England Patriots, came out and said that that was the plan all along,

especially with the way the weather was. Drake May looked comfortable. He looked confident. He looks like he could potentially be a guy of the future. But once again, we didn't see anything from Drake May, really, that was understandable. But, yeah, certainly amazing. In the rain.

Yeah. Third and 12th screen gone. He did what he was supposed to do. He did what he was supposed to do. Who made this graphic here? I mean, to be honest, I don't know if there's ever been a better graphic on this program than now. I mean, he was amazing. And he threw the ball with a lot of zing as well. Don't forget about that.

Yeah, a zing on the ball when Drake May is playing amazing. He was the only rookie quarterback to play in the rain and throw the shit out of the ball. It's easy to look good in a dome in nice weather.

He's battle tested now in the rain. Suck it. You guys don't know what your rookie quarterback In a dome in nice weather. He's battle tested now in the rain. So suck it, rest of the NFL. Suck it. You guys don't know what your rookie quarterbacks are in the rain. We do. Third and 12. Scream God on the grass.

And is that inaccurate? No. First down, bitch. Keep the chains moving. Good ball. It is good ball. Put it right there on. Should have seen it check down on the next third and 11.

Holy hell. In the pocket. All right, let's go to number two overall pick out of LSU, Jaden Daniels for the Washington Commanders. Now, obviously, the chitter-chatter around the Commanders has been small, even though some people think they're going to be a lot better than people were calling for, mostly because they think Jaden Daniels is a game-changer.

On the feet, he's fast. He has so many highlights from college, both at Arizona State and at LSU, where he's outrunning the entire party. Then he was able to showcase the arm a little bit, drop one in from the clouds on old cuz. Daniels dealing in debut is the headline. I don't know if we've seen anything from anybody, but I think Daniels has certainly looked like he could be the guy

leading the commanders to a little bit of prominence, a little bit of relevancy, and they've certainly been a nightmare over the last, what, decade and a half or so? Yeah, it's been tough. It has to feel good to hit that 42-yard bomb. Even if you only get a series, you only get a couple completions. To complete one down the field has to feel good because, you know,

if you don't, people are – it's just a matter of time before they try to say you just dink and dunk and you're uh you know you're a what are you game manager which nobody wants that title i'm okay if anthony richardson quarterback for the colts is called a game manager going forward that would mean we hit all the ones we're supposed to we move matriculate down the field we are good i want game managers all over the place jayden daniels is a potential star but i think everything we're hearing is he's going to be the guy for the commanders that are going to lead them to the promised land. Yeah, polished. Coming out of college, looking at his tape, he rare coverages.

He's accurate with the football. We know he can be the most dynamic athlete with the ball in his hand any given Sunday. So, I mean, as advertised, a little glimpse of him, but I'm excited to see these guys in the regular season. Now, ladies and gentlemen, the number one overall pick the mind who was the clear-cut number one overall pick seemingly for the last two years everybody said this guy's special these guys different everything about him screams nfl franchise quarterback caleb williams chicago bears debut

was phenomenal now how much can we judge know, a lot of people are talking. That's third down right there. Goes through his progression, stays comfortable in the pocket, delivers an absolute strike. Then Caleb, you know, he can run so fast. Will he not want to run away? You know, will he be too quick to pull the trigger and get out of there? How about whole place collapse and no look?

Drop down, check down, first down. Game, manager, game changer. Caleb Williams, can he do Caleb Williams shit in the NFL? On the run, to the sideline, dart, strike, first down. I mean, just like everything you wondered about Caleb in his first game, he proved he'll be able to accomplish. Got out of some heat there, got some pressure, got down, stayed safe. It's just like this is potentially da answer for da Bears.

AJ, and I know as a Green Bay Packer fan, this is going to be tough. Because much like how Colts fans have felt with the Houston Texans, the Texans were supposed to be a dumpster fire forever. Then all of a sudden they get CJ, they get D'Amico, they got their owner Shotgun and Beers now on stage with Luke Combs. I mean, everything is going in the right direction. Is that what's about to happen with the Chicago Bears? AJ Hawkins, Green Bay Packers fans and alumni

shitting their pants over what they saw from potentially the answer in Chicago. Well, I mean, Caleb's unbelievable. Honestly, I think Green Bay is going to be fine. I think we've got a quarterback in Green Bay that's playing pretty well with a very young roster who are just full of stars everywhere you look. But getting back to the Bears, Caleb, what I was more impressed

is we all know the physical tools this guy has how he can move how he can throw the ball on the run but all the mental stuff he did there's different clips of him looks like he may be checking out a few things dealing with the protection and just doing the little things i think that we know hey if you couple that with the physical tools this dude has like he could be absolutely special rookies showed out seemingly all over the league, and we appreciate them, and we can't wait to continue to watch. You should go watch one of them play live. Thanks to our friends at SeatGeek, the greatest ticket-buying platform on planet Earth,

and Zami. They got 28 million downloads, and they're still the number one rated ticketing app. Each ticket is rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Green dot means good, red means bad. Use PMS30 and get $30 off tickets right now. They have tickets obviously for everything. NFL, NBA, NHL, concerts, comedy, whatever.

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tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Wow. Well done. That was pretty solid. Nailed it. That really came together. Fresh off a weekend, too, you know? Yeah, season four. I think I'll be jacked up watching all that football. Oh, yeah. We were very close. Dude, I woke up this morning

like, I don't want to say so much happier, but so much more joyful than it's like football. Absolutely. We got football. We got football. We got football. But with that being said, thanks to the Olympics, AJ.

Uh-huh. Thanks to the Olympics. Absolutely. Thank you to the Olympics. I agree. Saturday was fantastic. To get a full update on what we did and what we didn't do at the Olympics, let's go to Hammer.

Don. Don. With Tone Diggs. We won it all, Pat. Yeah, we did. USA! USA! USA! USA! Hell yeah, we did. Yeah, we did.

Now, technically, we tied the red flag with some yellow stuff on it for the most gold medals. But we won the tiebreaker, so guess what? We won the medal count so guess what we won the medal count again we've done it every single times as you see it there since 1992 in Barcelona and who helped us get there Pat it was the US men's basketball team is the US women's basketball team it was the US soccer team women's soccer team sorry the men didn't get it done obviously both four by four hundreds dominated that was pretty much this weekend. We needed all those.

Ending with the women's basketball team yesterday to get that 40 count and win the overall Olympics. Yeah, shout out to that. One point win over France. Obviously, that was electrifying. What the men's basketball team was so cool. Yes. What they did was so cool.

I mean, that was just fun to watch. It was good basketball. Truly. Great basketball. It felt like everyone in the world was watching it. And numbers came out. They were. I mean, it felt like everybody on earth was watching

And they were both times It was re-ran and they were like Let's run this shit back The Avengers is the nickname of the team That the team has given to the team that won the gold medal They win the gold in exhilarating fashion Thank you to France for putting up a good game And to Serbia

And to Serbia in the semifinals For putting up an incredible game yeah and the serbia good game yeah and the serbia in the semifinals for putting up an incredible game that was electrifying basketball and joker showed up to the uh medal ceremony hammer oh he did very he wasn't the only one but he was certainly the one that we were looking at they had the serbian boys stick around obviously hey you win the bronze we need to give you the medal you need to go to the podium this is the olympics so during the day he almost got choked out there people were saying saying he almost passed out, fell. Drunk guy next to him, obviously, in the same exact altitude as Joker. There's a video of them partying during the day. Yep, here it is.

We win the bronze. We are pumped. We're already shirtless. You know, and I think this was taking place while the Americans were playing the French team. So then whenever they have to go to the medal ceremony afterwards, what do you expect from Joker? His horse just won. He just got a bronze medal for Serbia, and they're having a time what do you expect what do you want he shows up hammer drunk and uh that's why we love him that is why we love a lot of people

are saying that joker looked happier to be winning the bronze with serbia than he ever has for winning anything with the denver nuggets and it's like I think that is what a not true I assume he's awesome in a locker room when they're having a time yeah parade thing yeah I want parade yeah yeah like I assume he is fantastic away from it but the Olympics is special I think because you felt that everybody had a sense of pride about their country except for Embiid obviously Embiid had a sense of pride for the United the United States of America. And on the top of that, as they're booing him, and the entire team is waving it in, then he's telling them

to suck it. It's like, the Olympics was awesome. He earned his stripes, Pat. Embiid did earn his stripes. There's five new sports in 2028. Flag football, baseball, and softball, squash, lacrosse, and one other one is escaping my mind.

That was five there you just said. They counted in the one slide. Baseball, softball was combined into one, I think. But unfortunately, there's one event that won't be there in 2028. Yeah. That's breaking. No. Easy come, easy go for breakdancing in the Olympics.

First time we saw it, we all wondered how it was going to go. Yeah. And then that lady from Australia did what she did, and it potentially became mockery. And I don't like that. It's bullshit. Because the gold medal winner for the dudes. Unbelievable.

That was some of the most impressive shit I've ever seen. This fucker spun on his head for two minutes, and then he picked up speed somehow. He looked like a figure skater on his head. So what he did, I think people would say like, oh, if everybody was doing that,

I think it would have been a little different. But I guess this decision was already made. Oh. I guess this decision was already made. Yeah, I don't know

if B-Girl Ray Gun Yeah, I don't think it was strictly because of Ray Gun. But Olympics is in Australia, I believe, after LA. 32, yeah.ralia is going to have to decide whether or not we're it'll be back they're already trying yep calling ray gun

out of the director of culture doctor of culture and back into the break dancing circle and we can't thank her enough for being a part of it so sweet she hit that shit that shit she definitely did hit how is that not a gold medal yeah Tuck did do this entire thing after dropping his third jack and die obviously intrigued about what was happening

Raygun we appreciate you honestly love you Raygun she finessed away for an all expense paid trip to Paris she's an Olympian she got the full

track suit yeah you know she Olympic Village I assume heroes welcome they all came back they're like yes this is our break

do it again please yeah they gave a speech they're like yeah and had her do it on the sidewalk better routine on the sidewalk kind of crushed it

yeah than in the saving it for the gold better routine on the sidewalk kind of crush it yeah then in the saving it for the gold lights are bright well lights are bright maybe she felt a little bit more at home with her people here who weren't saying that she was the worst break dancer of all time they're saying no she's the best female break dancer in australia oh oh oh oh love that move have we considered that you know because she's normal used to break dancing in australia where everything turns one way and she couldn't she couldn't adjust to everything spinning the other way i didn't see any of that in the olympic well that's because we only saw the fish flop in the kangaroo hall right that seemingly stole the show but hey ray got great

work but breaking i do fear easy come easy go yeah in the Olympics thing. Much cooler for the people that won gold then. Yeah, and to old guys that did the whole thing. That was a fucking legendary performance. It was. Impressive. That was very. Are there other sports? I'm sorry, are there other sports that are won and done in the Olympics like this?

Big question. I don't recall. I don't recall that happening. Basketball. Was basketball in the Olympics ever? Yeah, in 96. I think it was. Because the U.S. did it.

Richard Jewell messed it up. There was a bomb in St. David Park. I wouldn't be surprised if video games is on its way at some point. Which one? Which game? Yeah, which game, though? You could rig that, right? Wouldn't people be very worried about getting in there?

Oh, yeah. Hackers? Oh, yeah. What would it be? Call of Duty? Yeah, Duty. Whatever is the most popular. Overwatch or League of Legends is probably the most popular. Can't predict of Duty? Yeah, Duty. Whatever is the most popular. Overwatch

or League of Legends is probably the most popular. Can't predict that four years out, though. Maybe Rocket League or something? Yeah, well, isn't that the soccer car thing? That's the soccer car thing? Yeah, that game looks sweet. Whose voice were you doing, Tone? Bill Gamer. Basically, Bill Gamer. Haley McComas is what he just did there.

Hey, GTA coming out? Six. I heard it's coming out this fall. Yeah, we'll see. I think it got pushed to next spring. Oh, 2025 it said. For now. And that video going around the internet is not for GTA? Yeah, I saw that. That was for a different situation.

What video? There was what appeared to be people dancing to make the reality. Breakdancing? No, Ray Gunn is potentially in the new GTA. I heard the delay is to get Ray Gunn in GTA. You can play as

I believe there's a male, there's a female and then you can play as Ray Gunn in your screen actually. You can't kill anybody, you can only breakdance. That is how you... Reagan's a dog. Yes, he is. Do we know any other breakdancers' names?

B-Boy Skrilla. Logistics. Big Girl Logistics. And? Jabbawockeez. So she's not a Jabbawockeez. She is not a Wokkie. I don't know.

She could be part of the promo Wokkie's that we had. Yeah, there you go. Now we're walking around Radio Row. Now you put the mask on. You just pop a walk a couple times. walkie. She might be part of the promo walkies that we had. We're walking around Radio Row. He put the mask on. He just pop walked a couple times. I'm telling you there's a show. That guy who won gold might be a jabberwock. I think he is. Probably gold, silver and bronze I would assume. But we'll never know because that's

part of the gimmick. Hey Tony, you did great keeping us updated on all the Olympics, brother. It was awesome. Now this could be a prisoner of the moment, but gimmick yeah exactly sweet hey tony you did great keeping us updated on all the olympics brother it was awesome i i now this is could be a prisoner of the moment but i thought that was the best olympics we've ever had of all time of all time best olympics small time now did i pay attention to the last one that much uh no but here we are we'll remember this one though in a year yeah all the other ones of the past, we specifically have not remembered. Oh, we beat COVID again. We cured it again.

Oh, yeah. Noah. Noah Lyles had COVID. Yep. Won a bronze. He won a bronze. Almost on track, obviously, because. Yeah.

Respiratorial issue. He was then cleared from COVID. He beat it. Easy come, easy go. And he was back partying and having a good time. Yep. Cutting it up. There's another man who just got it again.

He got vaccinated six times or something. Noah Lyles got COVID again? He was out in that club. Gump, you got it again? I know you're vaccinated six times. Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, there's another man six times vaccinated. Got it for the third time. Aaron? I hope everybody's okay. I know you're vaccinated six times. Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, there's another man six times vaccinated,

got it for the third time. Aaron? I hope everybody's okay. I hope they survive. That's what I hope happens. I genuinely hope everybody survives. Who's he talking about? Noah Laws out there in the club was a move because he should be happy, you know?

One 100-meter, fast man in the world. Sure. At 100-meter depth. But, I mean. Could have used him in the four by one. He probably should have flown home. Well, I mean, the baton issue we had. Yeah, that was nuts.

That was. Closing ceremony was cool. Tom Cruise did his thing. Yeah, I mean, we knew TC was going to show up and he did. What was he doing? So he was repelling off of his foot there? Is that why his leg was like this? I'm under the impression that he wanted to just fucking base jump. No wires or anything. They're like,

TC, we can't let you. We gotta at least hook you up. So yeah, I think that was like his little speed gimmick thing that he could, you know, kind of jerk at and it would make him go faster. Because he was coming down looking like a flamingo. He had that leg all the way up there. He didn't love that. I don't think he enjoyed the lack of coolness that he could show

coming in. I agree. You know, but his hair was... Like, look, he gets his leg back. He's kind of just stuck. He can't really do anything. He did the gaga from the Super Bowl. Like, I don't think he likes the way he looks. No. I don't think that's...

And he's pulling that thing off and then boom, all the way off the leg. Pulled it off. Oh, yeah. Of course. Because he's TC, obviously. But then I love him walking down through all the athletes and fans takes a selfie sees his hair oh no not perfect gets the flag from simone bottles who potentially she was in a boot yep yeah she's okay hope she

ends up okay i hope she participates in 2028 so we can make some noise in America for her no matter how many events she does but TC getting a welcome that he got oh kiss on both cheeks oh easy yeah he's sucking face with Tom Cruz and here's this oh let me see oh look at my hair whoa his ass hopping on a motorcycle oh that was cool taking that flag all the way hopping in the back of a bomber. Right into it. They land in L.A. I don't know how. That's Tom Cruise football. Record time. France to L.A. so quick. And then him coming out of the sky.

One point just chilling like this. Knowing that he has the Olympic flag. Nuts. What a wild animal. Was it a helo jump? Was it 30,000 feet? Was it a helo jump? Do we know? I think he was in that bomb. I think he was in that bomb.

Halo. I think he was in that bomb. What a moment. And then the Hollywood sign. What a picture. What a picture. Yeah, this one, definitely a great photo of him on a motorcycle rolling out of there. And standing on a motorcycle is hilarious.

You know, it's like a kid on a bike. It's a funny thing. As he had to kind of dodge people, too, because there was a crowd. Because it's... It's DC. It's Tom Cruise. Right. It's a big crowd.

But then him actually hanging the color in the different rings of the Olympics on the Hollywood sign, that's TC difference. Exactly. Because as you're filming it, you know he's actually doing that. Correct. Like, that's not somebody else. He actually hung it there. And he was standing there with no strap, no wire on. That's why the Olympics in LA

is going to be awesome. Obviously Snoop Dogg does his thing. Dr. Dre comes out. Billie Eilish. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Her was in France. Her name is Billie Eilish. Yeah, AGR. We're talking about the national anthem

in France. What was that gold thing that was walking around? From Greece? Yeah, IGR. We're talking about separate national anthem. Yeah What was that gold thing that was walking around from Greece? Yeah, I don't know Peacock maybe was it a metal? I was like walking. Who was it? It was walking around super cool look to the Scarecrow, he looked like a little bit like a scarecrow Whatever the case Congrats Olympics and Congrats to you Ken. Good work. Thank you I was just informed by Twitter cricket was the fifth one that I missed there oh we're not going to win now we had four gold medals yeah we're not going to get cricket oh yeah we did we had biggest india yeah upset in world history we beat pakistan yeah oh on our home cricket courts oh Oh. Fields? Oh. Those two.

Match places? Oh. Arena? Sure. All of them. Are we going to have the proper crow hoppers? A lot of matches like a month long sometimes. How are they going to do that in the Olympics?

I think they'll shorten them. Time limit? Four days probably. All right. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Tony Dixon. Oh yeah. Tony.

Jameis Winston's back giving pregame speeches, and I believe, after what I heard, he's maybe swinging the hottest bat that Jameis Winston has ever swung. We know that he's racing Vrabel every single practice. Now he's giving pregame speeches to a brand-new team, brand-new team buying in and listening. Deshaun Watson's about to have his best year he's ever had. Roll it.

Yo, the message is simple. Yeah, it is. Be obsessed with your opportunity. All of us that came from wherever we're from. I healed. We got it right now. So be obsessed with your opportunity. I got one thing for y'all, man.

One thing, one thing, one thing. I know what y'all want. Help me out because I know we're a team, all right? I have this in my dream, all right? All right, when I say one of my dogs, y'all say we ready, all right? All right, when I say, when my dogs say, y'all say, we ready, all right? When my dogs say, when I say, when my dogs say, y'all say, we ready, all right? When my dogs say,

now I'm about to spell the grounds that I know we want to. I'm about to spell the grounds that I know we want to. Come on, Daniel! You're going to say, that's getting it. With my B-R-O-W-N-S.

That's getting it. Buying.-R-O-W-N-S. That's getting it. Buy-in. Full buy-in. Yep. Full buy-in. One, two, three. Sometimes you can't hear on the outer layers of the circle. Jameis made sure he projected his voice.

He also wasn't speaking in one direction. He was making sure everybody heard it. And when he dropped in that last one, we already had a give and take early. Now we've got a brand new give and take to wrap this thing up. They executed perfectly. Jameis Winston is pulling all the strings right now. Jameis Winston is seeing the field. Jameis Winston's words

are going to put Deshaun Watson back on top. Look out for the fucking Cleveland Browns because Jameis Winston's in town. I mean, especially because you can see the future. I mean, you saw that in his dreams. Wait until he sees, you know, hey, Deshaun, I saw the two-minute drive on third and eight. Make sure you check the safety because he's going to come up and you're going to throw a touchdown down

the left sideline. Jameis is electrifying. Jameis is going to have to play football this year, too. Yeah. If we've seen anything, 17-game season, Deshaun Watson, probably going to see some Jameis Winston football. More of their speeches are on the way.

Yes. And if the Brown social media team, which is one of the best in the league, can do us any favors, we need Daly. Yeah, constantly. Every game. Mic him up. What's that? They better win.

I mean, look, we know Jameis. He's a great leader. You got him in the Super Bowl. He's been a winner. He was the number one overall pick, won a national championship in college, so there's no doubt about that. Maybe that's not Deshaun's thing. Maybe it's the pregame speeches and getting guys hyped. That's not a winner. He was the number one overall pick, won a national championship in college. So, there's no doubt about that. Maybe that's not Deshaun's thing. Maybe it's the pregame speeches and getting guys hyped.

That's not his thing. Hey, stick to the football. Hopefully, we see the Deshaun Watson of 2020-21. But, yeah, they better win. Didn't work on Saturday. Yeah, he wanted three out of the gate. You got Jamison there in the pregame. It did work.

Play that back. Did you hear how bought in everybody was? And Joku. And Joku's in there. And Joku's dialed. Yeah, five. Play that back. Did you hear how bought in everybody was? And Joku. And Joku's in there. And Joku's dialed. Yeah, five. We're hearing, yeah, five's in there. Oh, my God.

Go ahead. Yo, the message is simple. Okay. Be obsessed with your opportunity. All of us that came from wherever we're from. We got right now. So be obsessed. Where would you be, AJ?

Right where he jokies. I'll be gassing him up. Hi. Think about how hype his dreams are. Oh, my God. He's a great orator. Orator. We ready.

Say, you want to jump in. Uh-huh. Yeah, you want to jump in. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on, Jameis. Come on, Jameis. Let's get it. Yeah, I mean, that's a successful pregame.

That is good. So sick. If you treat that pregame speech like a play, okay, just one play that happens, and then we got to move to the next play, Browns win. 99-yard touchdown. Bingo. Nobody even close to tackling. Nope. Yeah, Javis.

How about that? Now that, I don't know. I wonder. That was a little facetious. Yeah, I'm wondering a little bit. Yeah, if there's some guys on the outside that might be a bit facetious or maybe just throwing some gas on the fire. You're talking about those?

Honestly, though, Jameis is authentic. We know the speeches of those that we hate are the ones that are fake, and the person does it because they see the cameras and they think the coach wants it. Jameis, at least, he's authentic. That is Jameis. I guarantee you he would do that anywhere. He's not doing that for the camera. I was so happy.

It's his first year at the team. I was so happy. It's his first year at the team. I was so happy. Yeah, I know. He's racing Vrabel. Yeah. Racing Vrabel, talking knick-knack, paddywhack, give a dog a bow. Yep. You guys liked that one, didn't you?

I just rhymed. That's what – He's going to be himself. You can always appreciate and respect. He's going to be himself. Yeah. He's got a future after football. He'll be a pastor probably.

He'll be a public speaker. I would want him to come and talk to my high school football team, my college team for sure. Yeah, I would want him. Yeah. We need Jameis. That'd be awesome. Could you imagine when he walks, he shows up I assume on a thousand.

Oh yeah. It's just all the way through. And then when does he, do you think at night when he puts his head down he goes, okay Jameis, now time for Jameis time. We've given enough to the world. Every time he's on 1,000 that I've ever seen him. Right? Sideline, on 1,000.

Yep. In a game, on 1,000. He was playing for both teams for his last year with Tampa Bay. Yeah. He was preaching. Off-season workouts. On 1,000. Preaching at church.

He had that kid in his hand. On 1,000. Heaching at church, he had that kid in his hand? On 1,000. He's on 1,000 all the time. You can't help but love that around. Browns got better whenever they brought in James. Hell yeah. And so do we. Yeah.

Hell yeah. So do we whenever they got in there. Punts and kickoffs, obviously punters just tackling everybody. Yeah, they are. Punters are the story, and that's a big takeaway from preseason weekend one. Big balls, big bombs, big tackles. You name it, the boys are doing it. Here's Tress Way, grizzled vet in the NFL. Massive leg, always has.

Absolute dog, incredible ping pong player, great social media guy, incredibly entertaining. The Washington fans love him because how good he is at his job and how good of a guy he is. Boom, open field tackle, trying to cut back. Seven-yard gain, I believe, on is at his job and how good of a guy he is. Boom. Open field tackle. Tried to cut back. Seven-yard gain, I believe, on that return inevitably. So, trust me, it was down the field. Damn.

In a preseason game, making a tackle. Absolute dog. How about Cam Johnston? New home. Pittsburgh playing against old home. Houston. Hits the ball in the middle of the field in between numbers and hash. Ends up, boom, shoulder.

Plus, alongside Peyton Wilson big time tackle to Tank Dell yeah yeah what Tank what I think he potentially thought it was just him Peyton Wilson snuck in the back side doesn't matter love when the punter's that juiced speaking of punters in new towns how about Tommy Townsend in Houston hits an absolute nuke out of the back of his end zone Tommy Townsend murders footballs. Had a bobble, a drop. Houston gains 70 yards of field position here with the ball. Tommy Townsend comes running down. Catch the ball, bitch.

He's saying, catch the ball, bitch. That guy's got multiple Super Bowl rings and hits the ball further and higher than anybody else in the league. He can say and do whatever the hell he wants. I like that he chooses to do so. Love it. Yeah. Punters are winning the entire weekend, pal. Yeah, I mean

the whole thought like, hey, why didn't the defense, you know, that intensity transfer over to the Hall of Fame game and transfer it over to Tommy Townsend only. That's right. Into this game. Tommy Townsend's a dog. How about the Chiefs now have Matt Ariza back in the NFL. Punt God whenever he

came out. Obviously gets massive false allegations made against him that derail the start of his NFL career. He's back now with the Kansas City Chiefs. I think he's going to be great, but Tommy Townsend became a free agent, commanded real money. Oh, yeah. Commanded real money.

And D'Amico Ryan's defensive-minded head coach, right? GM Casario comes from a field position world of doing a Patriots. It's like worth paying a guy who is a weapon. Tommy Townsend is a weapon. He is, he hits the ball so high. Like I think I watched him doing warmups. Was it last year or two years ago? And I was like, yeah, probably right time for me to get out. You know, I couldn't, uh, yeah, that ball is so fucking high. He is so strong. And I like to talk shit. Let's talk about the kickoffs now, AJ. Kickoffs, big story of the weekend. Special teams

running the show all weekend, okay? There's one particular post from the Jacksonville Jaguars that has a bunch of different angles of their big dynamic kickoff return on their Instagram, and one move was made by a returner that I saw that I thought to myself, wait a minute. That might be the game changer. That might be why

hang time matters. This dude catches this ball up on like his shoulder. Okay. He catches it up on his shoulder. So he steals, is this the Instagram one? Yeah. Boom. Right there. So that ball, he catches that thing up on his shoulder. Harrison Bucker tries to punch that ball. Okay. He's just trying to punch it down to like the one, because it doesn't really matter how far you hit it. He's just trying to land it on the one, like a little punch just a little driver this dude catches the ball on his shoulder at like the seven or eight or nine yard line so all of a sudden he is often running running forward little punch ball bang and now we got a shorter amount of time it's like hang time might matter

like you might actually need to bring it in from the sky if you want that thing because some of these guys can maybe move up to, like, 15. You know, if guys are line driving it, snag that thing. Be aggressive decision, obviously. But if you're able to catch it, you can really benefit from the shorter amount of space that the defense, the kickoff return team has to block for. There were some big returns. There was some great coverage. There was a lot more action, obviously, in the preseason week.

So I think the NFL people are thinking that it's a win and it's a success. We don't think we have any idea how it'll be until regular season starts because we assume people are hiding stuff. Some players that will end up playing aren't playing it yet. Or maybe it's just touchbacks when the regular season starts. But it has been electrifying to watch, AJ. So I think the NFL is probably pretty pumped about it. Yeah, I mean, I think we're watching like every team trying to figure it out in real time. That's why the preseason has been fun. Like, you want to stick around for kickoffs because we don't really know. Like, I think teams are all trying to figure out exactly,

hey, what are we going to do when these games really count? Like, I don't know. I don't love the way it looks. Obviously, we all have said that, but it honestly has brought a new element to the game and it makes these kickoffs much more interesting. Normally, you're going to take a leak. You're going to do something else because you know it's a touchback.

I was bummed out I missed a kickoff. Now, granted, obviously, kickoff person, special teams person, but I wanted to see it. I think other people were trying to see what the hell was going to happen. They had a safety happen in a game. So I think over the last few years, I don't know if it was necessarily a rule, but it had become if the ball lands in the end zone, it's just going to be a touchback. Like refs just started blowing it dead as soon as the ball hit there.

I think to save any potential contact. Back in the day, it was like live ball, live ball, live ball. Ball hits the end zone, it is live. Until somebody kneels it, until the ball is actually finished, it is a live ball. That was the rules for kickoffs forever, basically. That was like one of the biggest rules. Then it became like as soon as the ball hit the end zone, the refs were blown as the touchback because the play kind of became forfeited i guess the decision was made with this new dynamic kickoff that has been brought back to

the league that the ball would have to be downed inside the end zone it's not just called dead so this particular situation happens this is the ball yeah this is the ball that you want to hit now granted returners could catch that in the end zone and kneel it. Classic old-school touchback. That comes out to the 30. We keep it moving. But the fact that it hit the ground and then backspin back into play, McColl Hardman was kind of caught between a rock and a hard place.

Thought about the out-of-bounds rule where you can grab the kickoff and kind of reach yourself in there. But instead, he actually moves the ball from a sitting position in play to a live position in the end zone for a safety to be called and it's like this kickoff literally fucking anything can happen yeah literally anything can happen and the ball being live is a big deal yeah that's huge you mentioned obviously the rules changing but this is a learning moment for everybody now every special teams room will be looking at this players hey these are the new rules because you know you listen to the rules,

but you don't go to every byline and read every rule. But now that you see it actually happen in preseason, this is what preseason is for, too, for shit like this to happen and for all 32 teams to go over and look at it and say, hey, these are different now. Don't take the safety when the real shit starts flying. McCole Hardman, not the only human in the NFL. He's been around.

Yeah, a lot of dudes would have done exactly what he did because there's the old school super genius special teams rule where if you put your feet out of bounds and grabbed a ball, all of a sudden that kickoff is out of bounds because you were technically out of bounds. You touch the ball before it goes in for a touchback. That ball is at the 40 now. So that used to be like super genius play.

Like, okay, what do we want to do? We want to do that. So I think he was thinking the same rules. Why is it? Uh-oh. Is that the one? Your mic is out. Yes, it is.

I can hear mine. Mic check, mic check. I can hear them. Yours is not on. I can hear AJ. Hello. I can hear everyone except for Pat. Can't hear you. Yeah, I can hear them. Yours is not on. I can hear AJ. Hello. Can hear everyone except for Pat. Can't hear you.

Yeah, I can hear everything. We can hear everyone except for Pat. What was that? Nope. Is that one on? Someone tell him wireless mic. Tap the mute button. Wireless mic.

Wireless mic on top of your desk. Whoa. Nope. No. That's out too. What is happening? All right. How about this?

Yeah. Can you hear me? Yeah. All right. Yeah. So here's the deal I don't know what the hell happened Was that the Wyatt

Was that the Was that the Wyatt 6 right there? Or did we just have a full Power outage from a power surge And now we gotta talk into a microphone That's in a wall It looks like it's in the moon though When you're talking, which is kind of cool a microphone that's in a wall. It looks like it's in the moon, though, when you're talking, which is kind of cool.

When the moon. I think that's actually a meteor. Did you guys see the fucking, there was northern lights last night. Didn't see them. Sky actually looked like this, allegedly, if you look northeastern. Okay. Northeasterly last night. You missed it.

Did miss it. Did not happen. Look at photos, though. I think Phil tweeted a photo of a Pittsburgh shot of the Oh. I can hear a voice there. What the fuck? Are we still on?

Yeah, we're still live. Yeah, we're still live. We're back. This thing's back. This thing just came back. And Mike's back. Okay, here we go. We are back. Alright. Have we been live this whole time? Apparently. Yes, here we go. We are back. Have we been live this whole time? Apparently. Yes, absolutely. Oh, great. Okay, well, we'd like to let everybody

know just like you saw, every fucking thing shut down. We're supposed to have generators that are supposed to. I assume that's what kept us live, probably. Yeah, it must have been. And then your microphones were on generated power, probably. These ones are not.

So we'll figure it out. Good test. We'll test the system. We'll test the system. Just like McCall Hardman. That's right. Just like it. We're learning.

As we go, what are the rules? Well, at any given time, you could lose all power. What happened? I have no idea. Maybe like a squirrel crawled into the junction box. Because remember when we were downtown, we had to worry about homeless people just pulling on the cartoon-sized lever that was red outside that said power. Yes. Do you remember that, AJ?

Did you ever see that? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember. It was actually a cartoon-sized lever. I can't believe that was real. I can't believe that was a real situation. Me neither.

Put a cager out. Do something. Not in a cage or anything. We keep losing power. Do we know? We don't know what's happening. Okay. And then we just walk behind the cage or anything. We keep losing power. Do we know? We don't know what's happening. Okay. And then we just walk behind the building one time.

It's like, is this the power for our building? Yes, that's power for your half of the building or whatever. Literally just. It's basically the wheel from the price is right. And any of the slots turned the power off. And any buddy would feel like, oh, I want to pull that. Yeah, got to do it. I would want to.

You kind of see it. You're like, oh. Let alone if you're potentially homeless on meth, see a lever. Holy shit. Like, definitely want to. Boom. So now I thought we had that fixed. Do we have a lever somewhere we need to figure out?

Is there somebody attacking us? We're complimenting a new kickoff rule. Yeah. Who would hate on that? So I guess we were out for like 10 seconds on YouTube, and then we came back. Wow, what a play. All right, well, I'm going to get out of here.

I think we need to figure some stuff out. Yeah. We have a lot to sort out. Sweep the perimeter. Have Bill out there and sweep the perimeter. It's preseason. What'd you say? It's on Rodan.

Well, it's in Austin, Texas. Texas is far. And big. Texas is far. Once you're in Texas, it doesn't is far. And big. Texas is far. Once you're in Texas, it doesn't mean you're there. Love Texas. Love it. Whoa.

Looks kind of sweet. Yeah, look at that. So were we not on? We're watching. Oh, yeah, you can see. I could hear nothing at this point. Nothing at all. Yeah. I could not hear at this point. Nothing at all. Yeah.

I could not hear you, obviously. All of my, it was only your mic that stopped for all, all the mics that were on your desktop. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's awesome. We know that one on the wall is good. Brand new by the way.

First day. It's the first day for this one. Good work. Right here. Hey, good work. Good debut out of you. Cool, Mike. That's for whenever I'm yelling at a screen,

which was going to happen for the kickoff. Do it tomorrow. Okay. Do it tomorrow. All right, let's get the fuck out of here, boys. We've got to figure that out. We do have to sort out what just happened. Yeah.

We apologize to everybody that's watching. A crop product shows up every single day, but we don't need to add losing power in the middle of it. That'd be rude to those who watch and listen, who we are incredibly grateful for. Got a chance to see some of the people at the state fair this weekend in Indiana. It was really rude to those who watch and listen, who we are incredibly grateful for. Got a chance to see some of the people at the State Fair this weekend in Indiana. It was really cool to run into people. Hey, hey, hey,

good to see you. Watch the program. Hey, hey, hey, thanks, thanks, thanks. Very good to see you. Corndogs, right down there. Let's go grab them. State Fair Corndogs. Still unbelievable. Yeah, top notch. They are so good. Can't beat them. State Fair season's awesome. Oh, yeah. Is it through August? I think it's got like another week.

Maybe two. I don't know. Should be three weeks. How long is it? I thought it was three weeks, but it might just be two. Because it started, I think, last week was first week. So we need to get out there. Do you guys have State Fair in Ohio? Yeah, I think the biggest State Fair in the U.S. is

the Franklin County Fairgrounds. Where's that at? Columbus area. Do you go? Fairgrounds. Where's that at? Where's that at? Columbus area. Do you go? Nope. So then it's not. Why don't you go? Never been. Just a lot. You've never been to the state fair? Never been to it. No, I have not been to that. Where I grew up, there wasn't state fairs, and then I came out to Indiana

and there were state fairs, and I'm like, county fairs? These are fucking awesome. County fairs. Yeah, there was never a state fair. It was, you know, it was probably two hours away from me growing up, so we would never drive to it. Not worth the trip. I get you. Yeah, this one here. We'll go to Kennywood.

We'll go to Kennywood instead. Smart. That's smart play. It is for sale, I have learned. True. How much? I don't know. I don't know.

Believe me. Oh, my goodness. I don't know if they asked me, but I certainly was asking myself. I was certainly asking myself. This Thunderdome, our little power issue, is certainly going to be no more because we're going to be live from the category every single day. On the coaster?

Every day. Every day somebody in there. Yeah, there's so many things. Noah's Ark. I mean, the amount of content we get out of Noah's Ark is insane. You know, and they've got stages set up everywhere. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's expensive, though. And then let alone the insurance.

Fuck, the insurance would be absolutely absurd. The part of town that it's into with like a little bit of investment, you know, for a weekend. There's really only one way to go, though, since you've already transitioned a church into a studio, is to make a theme park into the everyday studio. Bingo. Yeah, that was what I was thinking. In my in my head i'm like we'll open it up it'll be like we'll be able to set this thing up however we want just run the amusement park all of a sudden we're that guy what's his name willie wonka oh yeah there you go oh yeah all of a sudden we're willie wonka

we can just fucking set up like i mean believe me i me, I went way too deep. Way too deep into what it would be like to own an amusement park. More specifically, Kennywood. I was like, alright, so how do we go about getting a couple hundred million bucks here to buy fucking Kennywood? And then do the... No way it's that much. Do the property itself.

The upkeep alone. The upkeep that's going to get you if you want to keep those rides. Well, there's probably Two rides running anyway Right? The amount of space it is Is going to be expensive As shit to begin with All the shit that's there

Is expensive Just to weed whack it Just to pull the weeds And weed whack it It's going to be A hundred grand a year It might be worth it It would be sweet

To see him cutting Cutting talks on The racer You know what I mean? Oh yeah This is fun This is a good time It also comes with Sandcastle I I believe, which is the water.

Oh, wow. Water. See, you can't even say it. That's a deal. Game changer. Boy. Sure, that water's clean. Now, they're competing against each other on any given day that either are available

to be open. You know, so you can never have like a, there's never a Sandcastle season and then a Kennywood season. Those are both at the same exact time. Sure. So, that is a little bit of a. Build a dome over it. Interesting dynamic. Yep. Sandcastle at the same exact time. Sure. So that is a little bit of a... Build a dome over it. Interesting dynamic.

Yep. Sandcastle with a dome would be so sick. So sweet. Sandcastle was sweet. It's a year round. I don't know. Those indoor water parks stink. Yeah, there's a bunch of them in Ohio.

AJ, you probably go to all those. What are those ones called? No, there's are. No. Is it called Nozar? No, like Great Wolf Lodge and shit like that. There's one. Oh, yeah.

Cincinnati. Yeah, Great Wolf Lodge. Yeah, I, yeah, Great Wolf Lodge I've been there Is it awesome? It's really awesome Okay It's very crowded Indoor water park You're standing with water up to your knees

That has more piss than the toilet But that's from me and my kids as well That's why we love it That's why we love it. That is why we love it. So anyways, I have removed the thought of buying both of those from my brain. Not fully.

Completely. It's got to be completely out of there. We've got to make space for other stuff. Figuring out why we lost our fucking power. We'll get to that. Then we'll be back tomorrow. We can't thank you enough. Shout out to Belich for other stuff. Like figuring out why we lost our fucking power. Yeah. All right, we'll get to that. Then we'll be back tomorrow. We can't thank you enough. Shout out to Belichick stopping by. Obviously, that was...

Yeah. Sean Shirani broke some massive news. Adam Schefter did some real chat about the IUK situation, which we appreciate. Fresh out of a workout. Did you see him, AJ? I mean, I tell you what, Schefter, you had CrossFit Schefter.

I see him. What's he doing? And then Kevin O'Connell, what a weapon. We're in a good time. We're in a good time. We're in a good time. I think we have Coach McDaniel on the show tomorrow from the Miami Dolphins. Here we go. And others.

I believe there's a lot of people that we are currently. I don't like, and this is a problem with our program. And it would have been cool to have it sorted, but it is not sorted. And we will have to figure it out at some point or just battle through. I don't like asking people, come on program. i don't like asking people come on program i don't like asking people come on program especially in downtime off season i'm like yo there's about what one million things i can think of that would be better than coming to chat with us but when football season comes back around those conversations are a lot you know yeah hey do you want anybody on yep. So it's like, life is really good right now.

Yeah, it really is. And we got to make sure we remember that, you know? Because there was times there where, boy, I was a little bit worried about what we were going to do. And if we would have been worth watching. And most days were not. But today, felt like we were. Tomorrow, another one.

Hell yeah. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Great work, boys. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Tony's back at his house resting. That's boys. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me.

Tony's back at his house resting. That's right. Anklemoner's back on. I'm going to spell out Browns, all right? And then you say, let's get it, okay? Okay. B-R-O-W-A-N-S. Let's get it. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

Team. Bye-bye.