The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1188 - Ireland/College Football Week 0 Recap, Adam Schefter, Bill Belichick, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 26, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap their Ireland trip for week 0 of the college football season and how incredible of a time it was, as well as the great slate of games that kicked off the college football season, the last week of the NFL preseason, CeeDee Lamb officially signing the 2nd biggest non-QB contract in NFL history, and everything else we need to be aware of as we have these 2 weeks off before the start of the NFL season. Joining the progrum to chat about the CeeDee Lamb situation, Trent Williams and his contract situation, if Drake Maye is going to be the starting QB for Patriots, and much more is NFL Senior Insider, Adam Schefter. Next, 8x Super Bowl Champion, the greatest coach and GM of all-time, Bill Belichick joins the show to chat about his biggest takeaway’s from the preseason, how difficult it is getting the roster down to 53, the Judon trade, why he doesn’t put too much stock into what we’re seeing from rookie QB’s in the preseason, and more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow 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 glorious Overreaction Monday, August 26, 2024. This program starts now. Football! It's magical. Football for real started this past weekend and there's a lot to talk about. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living and for us getting to talk sports every single day, which has led us literally to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean for a fantastic time meeting

up with a lot of friends before we dive into all that the toxic table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt's sweet new hat we'll talk about it one half of the hammer died Cowboys 10 digs with a brand new cowboy hat what What happened pal? Well, watched Twisters on the way back and you see Ty wearing that hat. Not this Ty, you know Tyler from Twisters. You have to go out and you don't watch movies and I become the character. So I went out and I had to buy a new cowboy hat. That's what happened. So you're a tornado guy now? Yeah, I'm a tornado guy. Ladies and gentlemen, tornado toe! Great to see your hat. Looks great. It's also a new body tone here with a new hat. Ladies and gentlemen, Tornado Tone. Great to see you.

Your hat looks great. It's also a new body tone here with a new hat. Hell yeah. You know what I mean? Like sometimes the cowboy's got to get on a new bull. Exactly. The bull that your hat is currently riding is the most fit bull I've seen of Tone Dick since high school. You look amazing.

Thank you. You had a fantastic weekend over in Ireland. We'll talk about it. Joining us, ladies and gentlemen, all season long, a man who travels more than anybody throughout the course of a season, but his football brain's so big you have to hear him everywhere. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler. D-Butt, I see you wearing a little color green there, which makes sense.

We'll talk about that in a matter of moments. What you need to know, though, as a football fan, is that real football is back. And, yes, the last preseason game for the NFL took place last night, and now we've got a two-week wait until the regular season begins, all setting up for an 18-game schedule so that they can move this ahead so we don't have to do this. It feels like everything in the wheels are currently in motion for that. But as that happens, just know that college football has your back. Week zero of the college football season obviously brought the first college game day, which once again we'll talk about in a matter of moments.

But it also brought four underdogs covering. What does that mean? Well, that means that's great games. One massive upset that will shake the entire landscape of college football for the rest of the season. Four games. Three of them were fantastic. Week zero of college football was absolutely awesome. Shout out to the Mids.

Let's go to SMU at Nevada. SMU, 28-point favorites heading in. Down 24-23 with a minute 20 left. Down 24-13 going into the fourth quarter. Todd Long from Preston Stone. SMU almost upset. Instead gets a miraculous electrifying dub with a 34-yard

bomb connection in the corner of the end zone. This football matters. This football makes you feel something. That particular football play gives SMU a win and they move on. What will SMU do this year in the ACC? I'll tell you what, they're undefeated. Not everybody in the ACC is undefeated.

We'll talk about that in a matter of moments. Let's go to Montana State taking on New Mexico. Montana State was a 13-point favorite, but as with everything in Week 0, that was not the thing that mattered. 31-21 New Mexico over

Montana State until 93-yard touchdown run from Adam, not Pac-Man, Jones. Now, obviously, that would bring them to within three with New Mexico as they celebrate a potential big 31-28 fourth quarter. 15 seconds left. First thing goal. What are you going to do week one? Well, hand the ball off. Power that thing. Boom. Montana State takes going to do? Week one. Well, hand the ball off. Power that thing.

Boom. Montana State takes the lead with 10 seconds left. Game winning run there by Scott Trey Humphrey. Good name. Then let's go to Dublin, Ireland. Georgia Tech, 10 point underdog to Florida State. And it comes down to Davis Shanahan with the hold and Burr with the kick from 44 knocks it through Florida State completely defeated on the season after going undefeated last season in Georgia Tech a team that seemed to find their rhythm at the end of the year last year coming into this particular game saying this isn't a surprise this is exactly what we expected to happen massive win massive upset massive start to college football and I don't know if you heard or into this particular game saying, this isn't a surprise. This is exactly what we expected to happen. Massive win, massive upset, massive start to college football.

And I don't know if you heard or not, but we're in Ireland this past week. Hell yeah. Yeah. Welcome to Dublin, Ireland, on this Feel Good Friday, August 23rd, 2024. We are live from J.R. Mahan's. Drinks are on pop back a bit tonight, fellas. Let's go! Hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, hup. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go.

The fact that anybody knows we exist in Ireland. We are so incredibly thankful. And to all of you, we say, Bonne chance! Olé, olé,, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Florida State, I just want Kurt to know I got a thousand phone calls when we got the playoff. He didn't have anything to do with them not getting in the playoffs, and I didn't either. We both got hammered. Some of us did get hammered. We have real football happening today for the first time in months.

This is a beautiful time in a wonderful town it's fight night baby Jameis, this is Dave we gotta go for Georgia Tech, I gotta go I would be that buck in the country if I didn't pick Georgia Tech 44 yards away from the German He got it! He got it! And the yellow jackets did it!

Great work on that talk, and thank you, Ireland, for being absolutely hospitable as hell. To Robert Mahan and his brother John, you guys were awesome. We can't thank you enough for reaching out to us with the idea, the concept, then making it all go, and then hosting us for most of the evening, then walking us around town, making sure we were good. Big shout out to Patty, the bartender on Friday who had a hell of a performance. What a legend.

To all the bartenders we encountered throughout the rest of Dublin. To the bouncers that maybe I was chest passing Gaelic balls to that did not know who I was no did not care thank you for not beating my ass taking care of us and also to the entire city everybody we encountered thank you for taking us dumb Yankees in and basically just I mean it's because Seamus thank you Seamus Seamus is an absolute legend but like the way we were kind of that was a dream

that was a bucket list trip to Dublin I did see on the internet that there were some people that did not enjoy the show as you know we were hammering some drinks and you know maybe repeating some conversations and everything else that was maybe happening. I mean, we did throw to a six-minute package at one point because maybe we had to run to a bathroom on the other side of about 100 lads who had been having a good time.

There were some people that really thought that everything we did was terrible for television and for all that stuff. And to them, I understand why you feel that way. There was a lot of people who like that show, too. That might have been the most pub experience, I think, that a lot of people have maybe ever had in their entire life. And I think what we were trying to showcase is that the country of Ireland, for those that don't know a lot about it, obviously like to have a good time, damn hospitable, very passionate about their sports and love their sports as well.

The energy was palpable throughout the entirety of the weekend. They felt very honored and thankful to be kicking off the college football season in such a big way. They hosted it perfectly. There was no problems with the stadium. College game day was a mile away from the stadium. That whole entire street packed out everywhere we went. Some people didn't know that any Americans were really supposed to be in

town, so they were certainly taken back by what the hell is happening here. Just being so open as they were with us, It's like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And they say, when in Rome, you know, do as the Romans do. How the fuck was I supposed to sit in that pub for three hours at a Friday on a Friday at 5 p.m. local and just without a PA system. So they could not hear what we were saying. With the lads sending drinks and getting drinks, I'm supposed to turn that down? If you are a person that feels like what we did was wrong, I fear that we're never going to be able to agree on much. No.

Because in my head, as beers were getting sent up to me, I actually thought to myself, if I end up chugging 10 Guinnesses during this show, people have to be fucking... Absolute legend. Wildly impressed. Yeah, impressed. They have to think. People were not thinking that.

Not one bit. To those people, we apologize. But to the people that ride with us and support with us and heard us talk about this all week last week, pretty much, while it was going to end up happening, and for going to bat for me and for all of us, we appreciate you. But more importantly, to the people that enjoy the hell out of life and like enjoy sport and like

don't mind having a good time you know dj coward has a thing he's rolling on right now like it's okay to be happy like it's okay to be for those types of people we hope we did you know a little bit of justice for how awesome the weekend was but also fuck all those other people let's just continue to enjoy this ride yeah out of doubt you know like let's i was reading some of them i'm like who cares who cares we were so lucky and so thankful but i do know that the toxic table has one particular man that they would like to pay a tribute to i do believe and and ty you're actually uh trying to resemble him today and maybe for the rest of your life. Yeah, I mean, obviously, when you first said we were going over there and we heard earlier last week that Florida State was bringing 30,000 people over,

I think, at least I assumed, I don't know what everyone else did, I was like, okay, when we do this show, it's going to be a bunch of American people who are fans of the show that are in the pub. The amount of Irish lads who are actually fans of the show that are in the pub like the amount of irish lads who are actually like fans of the show who showed up like most of the conversations we had were people who were from dublin who were from ireland and no one made a bigger impact on on us than the nfl ireland lads and more specifically one michael mcquade nflQuaid, there he is. Legend. Love you, McQuaid.

Everywhere we looked, boom. It was McQuaid. There's McQuaid. Just McQuaid waiting for us. Eli's got any questions? You need me to answer any questions for you? You need me to get you into this bar? I'm almost certain that McQuaid, he has like a series of tunnels underneath Dublin that he owns and operates because we would see McQuaid at a bar.

We would leave. We'd walk 15 minutes to a different bar. And then, boom, McQuaid pouring pints behind the bar. Just already there. Already knew what we wanted to drink. I mean. He already prepped them. Like, hey, there's going to be a shirtless.

There's going to be a couple shirtless people walking in here. Exactly. Okay, there's going to be a couple. Normally, everything in you says kick them out of here. Don't worry about it. Right. That McQuaid in the Mahans. Oh, my God. Oh, everything in you says, kick them out of here. Don't worry about it. McQuaid in the Mahins. Oh, my God. True legends.

Absolute legends. They will live in my heart forever. Forever they will. Seamus, too. Seamus the entire show. First of all, the flight over was basically like a six-hour just, hey, let's ask Seamus as many Irish stupid questions we can. We actually kind of held up the plane almost.

Yeah, there was a point where me and Seamus did come to blows a bit just because, you know, that's going to happen when you're drinking as many Guinnesses as we were. Yeah, and we were just kind of, you know, rubbing shoulders going at it. And him going behind the bar for the entire show was so cool. Like, I don't know. He mentioned to us he doesn't really get home as often, so for him to take the time while he was home to do this for us during the show and then also, you know, the entire night, really,

that wasn't the only bar he was behind. The next two bars after that, he was behind pouring pints, leading songs. Me and Gumsh have been listening to this song that he sang maybe 20 times in one of the Irish pubs that everyone joined in on. But Sheamus, like, true, true legend. And talk about a banger after banger. It really was banger after banger after banger over in Dublin. I mean, that was legitimately the greatest time of my life.

I'll remember that forever. And, yeah, we chugged more than a few pints of Guinness that day. And for the people that didn't like that show, come on. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. You try to say no to a baby Guinness. Yeah, what are you going to do? What are we supposed to do? I mean, what are you?

The saying is literally, when in Rome. Yeah. There has never been a more wet when in Ireland. Football is being celebrated. That's right. Yes. Okay. So all American football fans that are in the area, Ireland, Northern Ireland, you know,

down there in County Cork where I guess I'm from County Antum actually. Oh, okay. I thought I was from County Cork. That is not. Thank God. Thank God you're not. Well, that's what Seamus would say, you know, and certainly have some conversations about that. But we just cannot say enough thank yous to Ireland.

Game day came pretty quick that next day, though, I will say. Yeah, snuck up on you. That may have been your finest hour. You were pro. Thank you. Pro, yeah. Pro's pro. I was impressed.

I appreciate that. So, in all goes, and a lot of people I saw saying I got IVs or something like that. When would that happen? No. I don't know when to time. Well, McQuaid. McQuaid would have been able to. He may have snuck in your hotel room. McQuaid might have saying I got IVs or something like that. When would that happen? No. I don't know when to time. Or where. McQuaid would have been able to. He may have snuck in your hotel room.

McQuaid might have gave me some IVs. Honestly, I'm not 100% sure. Thank you, McQuaid. Rob Mahan might have as well. Yeah, there was no time to get the IVs, but there certainly was an expectation, though, of like, all right, can't be out hooting with the owls if you can't soar with the eagles in the

morning. That's right. You know, shout out to Coach Stu. May he rest in peace. But it really was like, as the night was going on, game day was a prevalent. Patty, one more. Patty, one another. Yeah, yeah, I guess. Yep. Here's sunshine. And then that song would be sung and bang, we're off and running. And then it's just like, am I supposed to stop this? How many more times am I going to be in Ireland ever? Who knows? Well, I guess 364 days, probably.

If that becomes an annual thing, I do believe I will die much younger than expected, even though I don't know how I made it past 30. I had a conversation with Coach Saban the next day. He goes, how are you doing, man? I think he had like three when I was on, bro. And I'm like. Multiply it by about 100. We really got after it.

Miss Terry, obviously. Incredible dancer. The Trad Bond. Can't thank them enough. How about the dancer? The Irish dancers. They were great. The Irish entertainment. I want to say collective club. You did great. The Irish entertainment.

I don't want to say collective club. You did say it on the show. Something like that. Everybody was so nice. Everybody was so, so nice. The tech people. Big Rob, I believe. Big Al was in there. And Dahi.

And Dahi was in. I mean, the amount of folks that were. Big Paul was my driver. He was in there. There was a guy, a Florida State guy in the lobby that tried to fight me. Shout out to him, too. One tried to fight me, too. It was basically everybody but Ken, who told us that if we brought pieces onto the plane,

that the entire airport might explode. Ken has high anxiety. Ken worked at the airport. We were an hour and a half late to the plane because of traffic and getting to airport, not because of anything else. And the lad that was, I believe, put in place to oversee our travels to make sure we got in smooth and out smooth, he might have had two heart attacks just on that particular day.

And I would like to let Ken know we appreciate how diligent he was. Of course. And we made him. Yes, we did. So good work, Ken. Absolutely. We can't forget Marge either. She was an absolute treasure.

She sold us all the flat caps, and she called Gumby a dipshite. Yeah. Which was... Gave me a kiss. It was truly wonderful. I missed the dipshite because I was at a meeting. Greg. Very bummed out about that, but the caps were...

You did get your flat cap. Amazing. I did get the flat cap. It made it home. Sure. Yeah, absolutely. For sure it did. Brought mine.

How about that? That Gaelic ball? Oh, man. Getting taken. I mean, it should have, absolutely. For sure. Brought mine. How about that? That Gaelic ball. Oh, man. Getting taken. I mean, it should have actually. I was chest passing people just walking. Yeah, it was great. Walking down the street.

Hey, look alive. You know what I'm trying to juggle it. I can barely stand up. Go past. True treasure. I assume late there. They got a little loose. I assume.

We had so much fun. Thank you, Ireland. They should be able to host more. Yes. I think Ireland should come back live. McQueen. We had so much fun. Thank you, Ireland. They should be able to host more. Yes. I think Ireland should come back live. McQuigley. We will, McQuigley. We will, McQuigley.

Your wish is our command. We will, McQuigley. I think Ireland and Dublin should be able to host more. And I think I may have read some stuff on the internet about Dublin before going there, about how things are and what's taking place. That was not our experience at all. No. But it was cool.

Everything was set up. And one last thank you, Ireland. Love you, Ireland. Okay, preseason is over. And last night we got a chance to see Drake May do a little something-something. The Washington Commanders did not have Daniels play for, you know, whatever reason that they feel that way. Third preseason game, not a lot of people playing.

New England Patriots were different, though. They had Jacoby start the game, then they had Drake May play. Both of them were able to showcase some stuff, even though Jacoby's taken off after one series. Feels like Drake May's going to be the starter up there, which has led to a lot of conversation around, should he? Should he not? What is, Dan Orlovsky

is begging them, please don't do that. Let this guy kind of develop even more and even more. Boston Connor, how do you feel on the entire subject as a Patriots fan? Yeah, I mean, the conversation yesterday was all around how bad the offensive line was. Now, their leader, David Andrews, wasn't playing, and that's where a lot of the pressure was coming for most of the snaps that Drake May was dropping back to pass.

But personally, if this is a true QB competition, it really, without question, is Drake May. He has played better than Jacoby from jump. Now, I know you don't want to start a guy who's a rookie that, you know, is only 21 that needs time to develop, but at the same time he's going to have to be tossed in there during, you know, whether it's the first eight weeks or the, you know, last nine weeks, he's going to be playing football. So if this is a competition, Drake May has won it.

He's been more impressive. He's great in the pocket. I mean, he threw a completion with one shoe on yesterday. Show me another rookie QB doing that around town. I don't think there was one. But honestly, I personally think that you've got to wheel him out there. The offensive line is going to be a problem all year long. It's not going to change between

now and then. Look at this. I mean, a guy dropping back to pass. Mayo said they're going to be hunting, though, right? How about that? Yeah, he said being third on the waivers, there's a chance the starting guard today isn't the starting guard tomorrow. I don't know if you can just pick up some superstar lineman at

that position in waivers, but maybe they're looking to wheel and deal as far as trades go. You never know what could happen there. Trent Williams still holding out. So, hey, who knows? Trent Williams getting traded to the New England Patriots. But no. Yeah, hey, hasn't been settled yet.

You never know. Haven't seen him. No, and we've been in contact with them with IU. Let's just, you know, mix and match and do Trent Williams instead. But, no, I think you have to start Drake May. You know, it stinks that the plan was Jacoby. Of course, he can be the guy in the bridge quarterback. But May has just been completely better.

D, but you've been there. It does feel like, right, even with this brutal shot Jacoby took that he might be hurt, that you've got to roll with the guy who's impressed the most. Yeah, I mean, just so much we aren't privy to. We haven't seen in, like, practices and obviously meeting and how much he understands. You don't – it's the conversation that we have about a lot of these quarterbacks, especially rookie quarterbacks.

You don't want to throw them out there and then four or six weeks into the season, you got to pull them, go to another guy. What does that do to their confidence? Is he getting the shit beat out of him behind this offensive line? All those different questions. I like what they did, how they the skill positions um on the outside they are young guys so they got to learn how to play so maybe you want to vet under center to kind of bring them along until drake is ready um i wouldn't go as far as like you know dan o who's like i'm

begging please don't do it don't put the guy out there he did a lot didn't he i was really saying it's a lot because caleb's lot. Because Caleb is going to start. Jayden is obviously going to start. Bo Nix is going to start. It's going to be rookie quarterback starting. That's kind of like how things go at this day and age. We were playing. It was different.

They waited maybe a year until they were ready. But I think right now, you said it sounds like Drake. Drake, it kind of still sounds like Jacoby to me until otherwise. And I think that's a smart thing to do until Drake is completely ready. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might have a little bit more insider information. Because there's a whole bunch of, did he play better? Did he win the competition? Does that matter?

Yeah. It's like, does it matter? Do you still just wanna be able to give him eight to nine weeks to watch how a quarterback operates in the NFL? Not just on the field, meeting rooms, training room, cafeteria. When are we taking the offensive line out? Is that on Thursday nights or is that Friday nights? How do you handle, how do you do that whole thing? That is very, very, I don't wanna say like the most important part because obviously

play on field is, but knowing how to be a pro, especially at that position, when you're being asked to be the face of a program is a huge huge part of it and i've always said this i wish andrew luck could have watched peyton manning for one year just the way he moved talked who he talked andrew would inevitably have his own iteration of that around year four year five but i think that could have started boom like immediately like hey I know you're 21 22 years old you're a baby face you're brand new here but also we go as you go so if you have any actual opinions on shit like plays players the way things are going you're allowed to speak up like you're allowed to be told and it takes a little bit I think to develop that type of confidence yeah

Mayo said this morning in his press conference too like, like, hey, me, Elliot Wolfe, the GM, Alex Van Pelt, the OC, we've had the same plan. We want to stick to that plan. And the plan, day one, was for Jacoby to start so he could watch him. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might know more about this, and we apologize for making him wait, Adam Schefter. Yay, Schefter! Schefter, sorry about that.

We're still hungover. You get it. Well, I was going to say, I was going to ask you if you feel better from your trip to Ireland yet and how would you rate the experience? We started off the show, I'd give it a tan!

A tan! A mother fucking tan! That is what I loved it. Everybody was so incredibly kind and to be honest, woke up Sunday morning, obviously a little, you know, hungover. But then the boys, we started texting. I started seeing photos.

It was like 100% worth it. But now we're in real football, which is why I think it was so amazing as well. Like kicked off real football season. The college slate was phenomenal. The NFL is a couple weeks away. Let's talk about some of these headlines, you know, that are kind of brewing, Shefty. You heard what we just said there about Jacoby and Drake May.

And obviously, it's a strategy thing. It's a tactical thing. It's a development thing, whatever the case is. What do you think ends up happening there in New England? And is an offensive line to worry? Do they want to see him develop more? Do they want him to watch Jacoby? What do you think it is over there, Shefty?

Well, Pat, I think here's where they're at right now. I think that you heard Gerard Mayo say this morning that Drake May has outplayed Jacoby Brissett, but that's not the only factor in determining a team's starting quarterback. Again, you want to make sure that a rookie has time to learn, acclimate, grow, do all those things.

You don't want to expose a rookie quarterback before you have to, especially behind a shaky offensive line right now. How about the fact that the first game is on the road in Cincinnati? And so they know that Drake May is going to be their quarterback long term. They're not looking to rush him in, and I think Boston said it before, right, that their plan, initially they came up with an idea of what they want to do, and I think everybody believes their idea was to go with the veteran, Jacoby Brissett, until they believed that Drake May was ready.

Whenever that is, clearly he's playing well enough to start right now. But it certainly sounds like Jacoby Brissett still may have the edge there in being the opening day starting quarterback. But the fact that Drake May's outplayed him, that they're talking about this, admitting this, I guess that just makes you wonder, how soon is it until we see Drake May start? There are people who felt like he could sit out his whole first year and not take any snaps. But clearly, he's on the trajectory where he's going to play this year.

And the only question now is how soon that's going to be. Is the Jacoby injury legit? Well, Gerard May has said after the game that he could have come back in. So, again, I'm sure there's going to be more testing today. We'll see if it's more severe than they thought. When I was watching it, I thought, okay, this is going to be something. But the initial

indications from the Patriots were that it wasn't. Left shoulder instead of right, which obviously is a conversation piece, but still could be very, very painful. Jacoby Peset probably gets a start, it sounds like, and not to dan orlovsky's degree but i agree that this is the right play yeah are you worried about winning the super bowl week one in new england realistic realistically absolutely not okay so let's let's maybe let this

offense align to try to figure it out first let's let drake watch how jacoby operates let's let him get kind of quickly baptized. Let's move to the great state of Texas. D-Bot's got a question, Sheffield. A team that does have aspirations to win the Super Bowl this year in the last 30 as well. Dallas Cowboys. Obviously, Dak is going to be out there week one. Been some rumblings

about some reworking of his contract, but C.D. Lamb, we're about two weeks out. He's obviously a huge part of their offense. I heard you mention earlier, they're like a million dollars apart salary-wise. That's what I heard you say, I think. Where are they at with Dallas and CeeDee getting this thing figured out before week one? To me, I cannot believe it's August 26th and it's still not figured out. And I don't think the sides are all that far apart.

And I don't think they've been all that far apart. And I don't think they've been all that far apart. And yet here we are in the spot we are and it's still not done. And so most people believe this deal is going to get done at some point in time, that he's going to make it back, that he won't miss the opening game against the Cleveland Browns. That still is the thinking. But again, to me, what are we talking about here? If they are, as I've heard, roughly a million dollars a year apart on average, just figure out a way to get it done. Like get both sides of the table,

sit them down and make sure nobody leaves until there's a solution in the end. Now, again, I'm sure I'm simplifying it some, but it can't be that hard to bridge a difference that is that close together already. Yeah. Can't you just get an 18-team deal? Boom, hey, we'll have you do it. Appearance Ace here with one of the team sponsors, four of them, 250 a pop. That'll be a million. Bang, we're off and running.

Because if it's a five-year deal, obviously that's a $5 million difference, which is a little bit different than a $1 million difference. But nonetheless, that is money that is easily found in the Dallas Cowboys organization. They make $77 million every game day, right? Yep. Every home game?

I mean, there's some sponsor somewhere that could step up to the plate. Every day matters, too, at this point. Like, you're 13, 14 days away from the season. Like, he hasn't been out there, you know, running full speed routes. Obviously, he's on the same piece, played a lot of downs with Dak. But, you know, getting acclimated, that's what preseason and training camp is for. So, I'd be concerned about that if I'm a fan and if I'm on that offense. And what did Jerry Jones say?

What did he say? He said, look, no one can do what I do. I'm the best at what I fucking do. That's his actual quote. We are not making this up. That was his actual quote. I've done it all, so I have an ordinate amount of confidence that fuck, if anybody can figure out

how to get this shit done, I can figure out how to get it done, Jones said. I've been there every which way from Sunday, and I've busted my ass a bunch, a bunch. And there's nobody living that's out cutting and shooting that can't give you a bunch of times they busted their ass. So, hell no. There's nobody that could fucking come in here and do all the contracts and be a GM any better than I can. Hey, you guys, you didn't write that for him, Pat? You didn't write that for him? Not AI. No. We did

not write that. That is true quotes. Fact. That sounds straight out of the program. I'm just telling you. Yes, yes. You should have seen how pumped we were whenever we heard it. We started doing a little... Hop, hop, hop, hop, hop, hop. That's the way we... Oh, my God. I don't know if that just came in a... If Jerry thought he was hop, hop, hop, hop. That's the way we, oh my God.

I don't know if that just came in, if Jerry thought he was off the record. He was certainly on the record. I don't know if that was with a full day hangout. Clarence Hill Jr. though, poked it out there. And I wonder if that was about Bill Belichick. He'll be joining us next hour. Excited to get his kind of take on this entire thing. There's somebody back at practice.

That's a big deal. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shefty, what's going on with Jamar Chase? We heard he's back at practice, that's a big deal. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shefty, what's going on with Jamar Chase? We heard he's back at practice. Is this kind of an indication that they might be closer to getting a long-term deal done, or how does this whole thing shake out? Yeah, I don't think they're

closer right now, but I do understand it to be the fact that this was like a good-faith gesture on Jamar Chase's part to continue the dialogue that's gone on between these two sides in the hope that both sides can get something done before the season begins. And again, I believe it was a walkthrough practice. I don't believe he's still gone through one of these 11 on 11 full exertion

type practices. I don't know when that will happen. I would imagine if and when they can get a deal done here. But I think he went back there and participated in the walkthrough type practice with the idea, hey, I'm here. I'm interested in getting this done. And his situation, I think, has played out a little bit differently than the Brandon Ayuk situation. I don't see Jamar Chase commenting on tweets about where he should play or what he should do or liking tweets from other people. He's been very quiet about things, and the Bengals have been very quiet about things. Both sides have kind of done their business behind closed doors here, and I think that they would like to try to figure out a way to get something done. And in an effort to continue whatever discussions they've had, Jamar figured he would go through the walkthrough practice. Quiet mouth, loud mind,

normally how that entire thing kind of operates. Last week, Bill Belichick told us that whenever, who was it that had two years left and wanted to negotiate? Judon? No, no, no. Before that, whatever it was. Richard Seymour? Maybe. Whatever the case was. He said when there was two years left on a contract and somebody won a new contract, he said that he wasn't going to be negotiating with you unless you're at practice. Like, if you're not practicing, we're not going to be negotiating.

Because that's two years left on your deal. We'll start a 15-man parade into my office if that's how this entire thing goes and the people start handling it. So maybe there's a similar situation going on. Maybe Jamar's like, all right, I'll come back. Let's do this. Maybe we can do a little bit better business or maybe Jamar has just come to the point of realizing that the Brown family this is uh this is since the 1600s with uh the way the Bengals

kind of operating this entire thing do you think either one of those is potentially uh I think to Bill's point I think what he's saying there's absolutely an element of truth to it. The only thing I'd say is, I think there are certain guys, certain guys in different categories. Not everybody on that roster is as talented and as important as Jamar Chase. Agreed. So there's his leverage. So if there's a linebacker or safety or an offensive lineman with two years left, how many of them were the fifth overall pick in the draft? I think he was the fifth overall pick. How many of them have put up the numbers

that Jamar Chase had? How many of them are as great as Jamar Chase is? It's a little different with him, but Cincinnati obviously is very disciplined in its negotiating tactics, and we'll see if the two sides can figure out a way to get something done here that would help both. Discipline,

very solid way to describe that on their end. On the other side, it's a cheap game. Yeah, cheap game. But that's not real anymore. No. Because they do business now. Right. They sell it.

They're going to pay, you know, the pay joke. Like there is, it feels like we're in a new era, the Bengals. And hopefully this is just business by Jamar saying, all right, you got it. I'll come back. We'll continue to talk and then make it work because he is electrifying. You talk about Ayuk being a different situation. Well, the Ayuk situation leads to a massive situation that's happening

at the left tackle. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Shefty, I think you shared the sentiment over the past month about Trent Williams, him not being at practice, whatever. It's training camp. He's an old vet. He's been there. He's done that. Whatever. Training camp's over. The last preseason game is over.

Is there any concern now, now that all that's over about getting Trent Williams into camp and what's the current situation with his deal in holdout? I think there is some concern. I think their offensive line didn't play particularly well the other night. And I don't know. I don't think that they've made a lot of progress so far. I don't think that Trent Williams made a lot of progress so far. I don't think that Trim Williams is closer to coming in today. I also think that we're entering a week now where the 49ers play two weeks from tonight against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Two weeks from tonight,

which is amazing to think about. And I just think that this is the week where I'm expecting every one of these situations to have some type of ramped up activity. Now, I don't know that all of them will get solved. I'd love to see every one of them get solved and kind of have everybody move ahead to the season. But how would the 49ers not make renewed efforts this week to try to figure out and resolve the Brandon Ayuk and Trent Williams situations? How would the Bengals not figure out ways to do Chase and the Cowboys and Lamb and the Jets and Hassan Redick? Every single one of these situations,

we're at a pretty critical juncture here for team and player. And it's time, as teams are adjusting their rosters, to crack down on all these situations and figure out if everybody can solve it, to move past it, and to get the guy back in so everybody can begin getting ready for opening day together. I don't know if you heard, Connor earlier said he'd be a great Patriot. Yeah, I mean, he'd look great in this helmet right here.

I think he should consider it. Not the only fan base that would say that. Maybe you trade him Shrem Williams and Brandon Iacob in a big package deal. No, it's okay. We'll just take Trent Williams and we'll give him all the money that he wants. I don't think, Chef, you're saying just the Patriots. I think he was saying, is there a team out there that wouldn't mind just kind of restarting? Maybe a team that has a brand new owner.

Connor has a question for you, Shefty. Yeah, Shefty. Josh Harris gave an interesting little two-minute answer about the state of the Commanders being the Washington Commanders, and he basically said, like, shit, I used to be a fan here. I know how much we used to love that name, but we can't go back to that name. And he also mentioned how first things first, we've got to win some games. Is there a chance that the commander's team name gets changed,

and more so, when will it get changed? And is it kind of bad juju to win games with the commander's name and then change the name? Don't you think you should probably just do that sooner rather than later? Well, I think that they've recognized that the most important thing that they could do is win, because it does feel like there's just a different vibe surrounding that organization. And obviously over the weekend they make the announcement that they're gonna take down the statue that was built that figurine statue of Sean Taylor and

put up a proper statue of him which is a great thing and so I think they're addressing all these things a little by little like you can't just do everything all at once. And I don't think they're at the name yet. I think eventually everybody thinks that they'll get there. I don't know whether that's a year, two years, three years or what. But at some point in time, I would imagine that they're going to sit down and say, okay, is this the name that we want to keep? And I don't know. I don't know if there's a lot of support out there to keep the name commanders. I haven't heard that very much. So I would think that'll be open to debate and decision in the coming months or years. What if they just change it every year?

That'd be cool. That would be sweet. Just every year. You know what? What was wrong with Washington football team? I kind of like that. Well, we all say that now, and we liked it at the time as well, but that's how bad commanders has been received. Yes. You know, we're all like,

why did we ever get off WFT? That was really, really enjoyable. And I think in real time, we enjoyed Washington football team as well. But then I don't know if it came from the building or if super marketing and business experts were like tough tough to get with no mascot, really no, that's a tough thing to really, it's like you stamp that WFT everywhere. NWO did pretty good. Yeah, they did. NWO did pretty, you just have WFT literally everywhere. So maybe Josh Harris gets it.

Yeah, maybe. I mean, they had wild hogs. Wild hogs were staring him at the face. What was that other one? Compton was pushing hard. Red Wolves or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That would have been sick.

Hey, anything? I don't know. Anyone who likes Commander? I mean, Commander's his own. Wale's his own. Yeah, Wale's. There's Wale's song. He liked it.

That's not Wale. Black Jersey's was sweet. That was Oh Goody. And they liked it. And they made a banger for it. Put your left hand up. Who are we? The Commanders.

That was sweet. That was pretty cool. We are Commanders. Where's that from? They still do that. Anything we should ask you about here? What's some big news that's coming down the pipeline? You know, we had a little bit of a blurry weekend in Dublin.

Anything that we kind of maybe missed out there in its entirety? Well, you heard about the Chargers getting stuck in the elevator for two hours, right? That was on the morning news this morning. Kaylee Hartung did that on the Today Show. She talked about it. And then Harbaugh's quote about it all is unbelievable. Here it is. Here it is.

It was a shared experience. I think 11 or 12 of our players were there for about two hours. And that's a shared experience. I mean, brought them closer together. I just missed it, you know, being on that elevator. So close. I wish I could have been there with those guys, you know. But Justin Herbert was.

And the remarkable things that came out of it was, you know, to a guy, Tarheed, a young rookie player, Justin Herbert's a leader. He was a rock, Kept everybody calm. Jerry Fouts told me the same thing. Pulled me aside after they got out. Just how great Justin was. Justin Herbert, his hair was a little wet, but his shirt was completely dry. That's another thing that blew me.

Guy didn't even sweat. He was in an elevator with 12 people. Other guys taking their shirts off. but his shirt was completely dry. That's another thing that blew me. The guy didn't even sweat. He was in an elevator with 12 people. The other guy was taking their shirts off. He didn't even sweat. Well, he did sweat up here. He didn't show it to the other guy. Yeah, he didn't want people to know in the back there, you know, just kind of behind.

Listen, if you need strength, I got you. We're here. We're going to have a good time. In another part of the interview, he said, Justin Herbert was the last one off. Justin Herbert was the last one off the elevator. And it's like, if you're Justin Herbert, you have to be so pumped that that guy's your head coach.

But also, since we're in the NFL, and Tone mentioned it right there, how about Jim Harbaugh being back in our world going, man, I just missed getting stuck in an elevator for a few hours with 12 people. And wanted to. Disappointed. What a shared experience that would have been. Imagine right afterwards just being like, wow. We were just stuck in there for hours and hours of our lives.

He's a legend. This guy is out of control. But I think that is like the type of energy he takes everywhere, which is why he's had success coaching in every single spot, Mr. Schefter. You know him better than me. That's our coach. He's got a unique perspective. He's got a great outlook on these things. He always

views these things as bonding experiences. Disappointed that he couldn't be on the elevator. Impressed that Justin Herbert didn't sweat a lick, though his hair was a little bit moist there. I mean, that was certainly a headline. And Jerry Fouts, of course, the wife of Dan Fouts, the

great Chargers quarterback who was doing the game on TV that weekend. So lots of interesting insights to take away. You asked headlines the weekend, right? So that would have been one, the Chargers being stuck on the elevator, Jim Harbaugh not getting stuck for a couple hours, the Dallas Fire Department having to rescue these Chargers players, and Justin Herbert demonstrating great strength and leadership while they were stuck in there.

The other one, the injury of the weekend, without question, the injury of the weekend was Field Yates. That was the injury of the weekend. ESPN Fantasy, I don't know if you heard it, Pat, so the headline in the New York Post was ESPN Fantasy Analyst Field Yates

dislocates shoulder while picking fantasy draft order. Now, how soft do you have to be? That's how it actually happens, right? He sold out, though. Good hit. Tackling dummy, poor form.

He dies into the dummy. You could see how he grabs his shoulder, wrist, arm. He knew it was bad. It was bad. He got taken to the hospital in the Bahamas, and the headline made him out to be very soft. arm. He knew it was bad. It was bad. He got taken to the hospital in the Bahamas. The headline made him out to be very soft. I consider going after the newspaper for libel for that.

They made him out to be very, very soft. I've been looking into libel a little bit, actually, for my own potential lawsuits of people. Field Yates needs this thing to be pumped bigger and bigger because although that would suck to separate your shoulder while tackling

a dummy or whatever, he sold out entirely for that. As if there was a crash pad behind him. There was not a crash pad on the other side of that. So I think Phil Yates got proved he's a dog. Here's what I want you to do. Phil Yates played

high school football, went and played college football at Wesleyan. Bill Belichick knows Field Yates since he's a little boy. When you show Bill, if you show Bill that video, Bill is going to be disgusted by Field's form that he used on that tackle.

Yeah, right. That's 1999. That's an open field tackle. He had to bring his legs. He launched himself. That would have been helmet to helmet. That's not great. Here's the other thing. He doesn't have the head to the side.

He has the head to the side. It didn't look like it. I think he looks good here. Not bad, personally. I think he looks good, not bad. The tackling dummy's fault. They're supposed to have a little give. That thing just gave right away. Yeah, top of that flimsy, dimsy, whoopsie, doopsie at the top.

And then he left-hand high-five, too. Because the guy wanted to give high-five. It looks like Post Malone a little bit there. Dan Dopp. That's Dan Dopp. Oh, that's fantasy football Dan. Okay. That might be Dan Dopp.

He looks super cool. He should be shirtless on TV. I know people will be mad because of things that are on TV. You're not supposed to be on TV, but he looks super cool. Field gives him a thing, trying not to let him know that something bad's happening there. Could you imagine if Field just pulls that? That's what he should have done.

Just pops it right back in. Someone yanked my arm now. Yeah, so that was the injury of the weekend. And here's the other part. Field Yates was supposed to be with me in Chicago at a different fantasy convention. ESPN calls together this fantasy outing in the Bahamas, and they invite Field. So he shouldn't have even been there. So he leaves.

Him and his wife leave their girls home, and they figure they're going to have a nice romantic weekend away. And it doesn't quite go the way that they expected. The fantasy department's taking a trip to the Bahamas. Okay. Doing well. By the way, you guys are in Ireland over the weekend. The fancy department's in Bahamas. I don't know what kind of operation we run.

I get to go to Bristol and New York City. That's what I get to do. Not very much compared to what you guys are doing. No, we got an opportunity for you to come to Indianapolis once a week. That's right. Spend Mondays with us. We'll be incredibly grateful. That would be fun, actually. That would be fun. If we could figure it out. You figure that out, Pat. I'd be happy to.

Okay. All right. We will need an O's sighting because we know you're his agent. We will need an O's sighting at some point. But, Chef, we appreciate the hell out of you, brother. Guys, have a great day. We'll talk next week. Have a great week. Wednesday, owners' meetings tomorrow, right? So we're going to get anything out of that? And then when's the deadline for cuts and shit?

The deadline is for Eastern tomorrow for cuts. Everybody goes from 90 to 53. Then everybody brings back 16 players to the practice squad. They do that by Wednesday. Tomorrow's the owners' meetings. I think what you're going to hear there is that they're going to approve private equity ownership of teams, maybe up to 10%. That could happen tomorrow. That's a whole different deal. The league has never done that before. About to do that now. So you got that going on. You got the cuts going on. You got

the hold-ins and hold-outs going on. So it's going to be a busy week. And usually, usually in the last few years, the league has done a great job of clearing the docket and letting everybody kind of catch their breath on Labor Day before the season and the marathon begins. But I think there's just too much pending business right now that it's going to mess up some of the weekends of some of these teams with all this unfinished business right now. I'm excited to see who makes team, who doesn't make team, what trades take place. There are certainly teams that are still hungry for things

and there are certainly some outstanding situations around the entire NFL contractually. One last follow-up. How much do you know about the VC firms getting into NFL ownership? And is it max 10% per equity firm or is it max 10% per team

from an equity firm, for instance? That's what I expect this week. I expect it to be up to 10% of each team is what I expect it to be. The whole up to 10% of the entire team, not 10% per equity team. Right. That's what I think, but I haven't checked. That's what I think. Okay.

In my head, I just said, okay, so I got to meet 11 people. Yeah, because all of a sudden you get together 10 different groups and you're buying the whole team. I don't see that. Just to let you know, while you were talking, in my head, I was like, wait a minute, I think we get a lot of felt deep, depending on how we do in a slideshow, and hopefully they accept shows that have beers

in Dublin and not the opposite, which there are certainly some of those. We appreciate you so much, brother. Thank you, guys. Have a great week. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. See, and that's why I'm an asshole. As soon as he said, they'll be voting on the private equity for 10% thing,

as he's talking there, I'm like, sir, we just need 10. Just need 10 people to say. Just need 10. That's all we would need, then. Yeah. Sure. Wait a minute.

So all of a sudden, that 30-year plan becomes like maybe two, three months. Yeah, three months. Hey, how we doing? How we doing? How we doing? Let me show you why this would work, why it wouldn't work. Now, can't go to Dublin too much. Sure.

Can't do that. Can't bring an NFL game there. We would love to. Yep. Can only one game though. Yeah. I don't think, and me and Seamus were talking about this, and once again, Seamus is the man.

I told him, I said, but I legitimately don't think I could be in Dublin. I don't think, and me and Seamus were talking about this, and once again, Seamus is the man. I told him, I said, but I legitimately don't think I could be in Dublin. I don't know how you grew up. I don't know how you live here. It is a city that I should probably remove myself from. He goes, Patty, you didn't even get to see the, we didn't go see, like, the beauty. No, no, no.

You know what I mean? We need to go do some of those shots that College Game Day was putting up, the Tourism Island people put together. Incredible. Oh, my God. And then it was, like, very nice the day College Game Day was putting up, the Tourism Island people put together. Incredible. Oh, my God. And then it was very nice the day College Game Day was happening, like 70 degrees or whatever. When it's rainy and overcast, it's like nobody acts differently. It's just like this is what the day is.

You just keep it moving. People are like, well, it's going to rain or it's going to ruin. It's like, nah. You just live your life. That is what you do. And it just happens to be raining a little bit. It's a little chillier. It's like, nah. It's just like, you just live your life. That is what you do. And it just happens to be raining a little bit. It's a little chillier. We do need to go back and like see. Yes, for sure.

We need to go see it a little bit. It did feel like football season over there though. Yes. And then we landed in Buffalo and it was like 95 degrees. And now today, this whole week it's going to be like in the 90s. So it's like going back to the summer when we were just in the middle of fall and football season. That kind of stinks.

I do apologize. Two dudes in Buffalo. You guys were great. Great guys. Great guys. Immigration guys. Yeah. Had Gumpy there for a second.

Oh, boy, did we. Yeah, we thought Gumpy was done for. Fans of the show. Guys were fans of the show. So they knew the show. So when Gumpy comes. Yeah, but the one did start, you know, screwing on that silencer on his pistol. Okay.

All right. Point it under the desk. It was a funny moment. Gumpy ready to see out back. gumpy comes yeah but the one did start you know screwing on that silencer on his pistol okay yeah yeah it was a funny ready to see out back it was a funny moment though like they pulled gumpy gump we're in line like kind of going through we know the dudes know the program and also literally has all of our names so they could just google they know exactly who's coming whenever all the time and kylecart's on that thing and they see it. So Gumpy comes up and they go, you got any of that extra paperwork I need to see?

Yeah, Gumpy. You could see Gumpy. And Gumpy's in line behind me as we're going in there. I could sense a little sense of anxiety. Oh, again, Paul. But instead it was just, hey, lad, good. Welcome back home. We're happy you made it through there, obviously,

which you're supposed to with all your stuff. But also, I'm happy they gave you a welcome home, bud, because guess what? Although we felt home in Ireland, when you get back to America and get it. Very nice. What was that thing they gave me that wasn't water? What was it? The red ale?

Yeah. What was it? The red ale. It's like the light version of the Guinnesses that we were being served. Those people were awesome over there, man. Yeah. How about the outlets, though? Yeah, that's a power.

That's a backbreaker. The power, they have different outlets. We had the converters, though. We had the converters, okay. It wasn't that big of a deal. My hotel room had the USB and the USB-C, so I didn't have to use it. Wow. Having to put your card in to get

everything to work in the hotel, I lost my mind. I lost my card three times. Yeah, I'd get all the way down to the lobby and I'd be like, my card is in my wall. So I can turn on the light. As soon as you get in, you gotta do... And you know how some places are like, would you like to help us conserve energy by putting your key in here? No.

Okay. Yeah. We got in at 5am They're like, would you like to help us conserve energy by putting your key in here? No. Okay. Bunch. Your key, Bunch. We got in at 5 a.m., and they were explaining that to Connor because he was the first one to check in. And while Connor was checking in, everyone was just chirping him. And so we didn't hear those instructions. So we all went to our rooms at 5 a.m.

Pitch black rooms. Pitch black. And then there was just text flying in like, I think there's no power in this country. So how about the air conditioner turns off yep every single morning and every time you pull your car down oh yeah and it was like nice days i assume you don't normally need it but it's like their style of living is very different than ours pretty but boy thanks to the lads over there a lot of comments on how clean dublin was like so great it was clean yeah was clean. It was great.

Legitimately, we don't know. It was a big event. But it was, man, go to Ireland. We have to go back. We have to go back, gentlemen. They love NFL football. They love football over there. So many comments about it.

Now, granted, smaller country, right? I guess all countries are kind of smaller whenever you put our fucking map next to the entire thing. Because how, you know, and Columbus actually made his last stop at Galway, which is a... Really? Yeah, it's in Ireland, actually, before he decided to say, yeah, I don't care if I die. I'll go over the edge if I have to and make it then steal and then well yeah all the stuff that's right anyways but ireland loves football and i think that the growing i mean their sports can translate well to it yeah gaelic and in their style uh rugby you know like pearly i think irish people are supposed to love american football too yeah like

i think it'll be a match made. They're the rest out of the UK. Well, I learned about my family being servants back in the day. That's pretty good. A lot of Steelers fans over there. Yeah. Because of the Roonies. A lot of Steelers fans.

Well, also, not only McQuaid. I met a lad over there. I think his name was Micah. Oh, my son. There was Luke, Micah, and i forget the last guy's name i woke up saturday morning get a coffee at the cafe uh in the hotel and i'm pretty i'm pretty banged up sure and or no it's friday morning dead tired we just got in two hours before that still kind of banged up still getting it's just from the play pretty banged up and i sit down these three dudes with uh one guy

had a uh chiefs jersey on i think one got a steelers jersey on with one guy had a Chiefs jersey on, I think, one guy had a Steelers jersey on, then one guy had an Oklahoma Sooners jersey on and they came over and said, what's up? And they had the wristbands for my hands

and I said, why are you a fan of that? And he's, my great grandfather, my family, whatever, there was a family reason and then the guy

wearing a Steelers one, I was like, you got family from Pittsburgh or whatever? He goes, Tone Diggs made me a Steelers fan. And I was like, what? It's incredible. I said, Tone Diggs made me a Steelers fan. Oh, and I was like,

that's incredible. I said, Tone Diggs made you a Steelers fan. And he goes, yeah, just watching your show. I've never teamed. So I FaceTime tone immediately.

I'm like, your son's here, you know? And he was like, daddy, it was, that didn't fall upon deaf ears. I took him home with me.

He lives with us now. Okay. I didn't see him on a plane. Must've had him in the back. Beautiful plane. Oh, that plan. Oh my God.

Top class. Karen, thanks for getting us over there and back through customs and everything. Karen is an absolute weapon. Absolute weapon. She's a dog. Absolutely. Speaking of, can't wait to get to Morgantown this Friday. Our show will be live from the Life Sciences Building lawn area, the green area.

It used to be where the stadium was way back. So it's like a natural bowl there. Mutt's in Sunnyside used to be where the stadium was way back. So it's like a natural bowl there. Mutt's in Sunnyside used to be an area where a couple gong shows. Sure. A couple runaways. Yeah, for sure. They kind of demolished that whole area and then put like very new apartments and parking garages and everything.

And then the Life Sciences Building, obviously, is very legendary. I think every freshman has to have class. Like, it's like one of those places. We'll be in a good setup. And the weather is seemingly going to be very hot or it's going to rain, depending upon when you're looking at the Doppler. We can't wait to get there as they are set to take on Penn State in the biggest home opener since 1998 in Morgantown. Just a couple heads up.

James Franklin on his press conference says, first of all, I love Pat McAfee, he said. Wow. Press conference today. That was an update that went through. That's kind of sweet. And James, I do appreciate that. Obviously, you've been very kind to me

whenever I've gotten a chance to see you in the past, but don't you fucking think that that's changed anything. He knew what he was doing. Smart by James. Oh, very smart. Baby face move. So you feel, I saw him in your 12-team playoff, but you feel good about this game?

D-Button, you answered the question with the preface. I saw him where? 12-team playoff. That's right. They're winning the Big 12. Now, you can lose your first game and still win the Big 12. Now, that will not happen in this particular case. Okay, I think West Virginia has

what it needs to beat James Franklin and Penn State. This is my top 12 and I don't have Penn State on it. Now, they're going to have a tough go in the Big 10. They're going to judge them harshly. So, I don't think it's fair. I don't think it's fair for Penn State. Three? Very unique. What's that?

They're ranked three, not four. Well, I have them ranked above Virginia Tech because that ACC is going to cannibalize itself. You've seen it already. You already saw it. You already saw it. Yeah, and everybody's wondering

about how and why. Look at West Virginia's schedule. Look at West Virginia's schedule. Look at Penn State's schedule also. This weekend's game

between Penn State and West Virginia is a real... Massive. For both? A lot of those. For both programs. There is a lot of those. Massive weekend this weekend as

college football kicks off week one officially, Tom. Yeah, we talked about it already happened with Florida State, but the other top contenders in the ACC, Miami has Florida this weekend. That's a huge one for playoff hopes, not necessarily to win their conference, but if you're trying to get an at-large for Miami, that's a big one. Clemson and Georgia in the past would

have been bigger. Now it's still two top 15 teams, but Georgia's favored by 14 points. That tells you how good Georgia is this year. LSU-USC is kind of flying under the radar. Yeah, there's a lot of good games this week. Yeah, I mean, even the game day game. Yeah, Texas A&M, Notre Dame. Nobody would have thought, oh, I can't wait. Can't wait.

Can't wait for that. To kind of see what they have cooking. And to college football's credit, it always shows up, man. I am very, very worried about Elko's dome in 120-degree heat on the field. He's a dog. The Caucasoid that I am, that I learned more about from Northern Ireland, County Arnhem, okay, up there. That heat, I broil from the outside and from the inside.

He's a similar way. He's ready for it. He's been prepared. Elko's dogs are ready to run. But how is Freeman's team? As a Fizz member, you can look forward to free data, big savings on plans, and having your unused data roll over to the following month.

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Add your team to your Uber account today. Football! It is wonderful. Football is great. Football took us to Ireland. Football had us at a few Guinnesses and some whiskeys. What? Good times. What?

In a football game that kicked off a football season that is going to be bigger and better than ever. Georgia Tech beating Florida State in Dublin is a great indicator of what this season could be. Not just because Georgia Tech is as massive as an underdog as people might think who are outside of the college football world. as people might think you're outside of the college football world. Because at the end of last year with this Georgia Tech team was able to do and become was certainly a team worthy of conversation. Now with that being said, the conversation at the end of last year was the fact that there's a dog with the fact that Florida State didn't get in a college football playoff.

This is a year of vengeance. Revenge is in store for everybody. ACC is Florida State's. ACC is going to have a national champion. The ACC is going to have a kicker that hits a 59-yard in Ireland. Fitzgerald, a fantastic kick. But instead, week one, week zero actually, before it even gets started, Georgia Tech knocks off Florida State in what will be considered a massive upset.

But we'll see how the rest of the year goes with this Georgia Tech team. We don't know how big of an upset this is after, brr, from David Shanahan's hold out of County Cary, Ireland, going back home and getting a big dub and a perfect hold on that entire thing. We don't know what Georgia Tech's going to be. So to act like this is a massive upset is certainly cool in the moment, but 10 weeks from now, we might be talking about Georgia Tech being the team that's representing the ACC in the college

football playoff. We might be talking about Florida State not being that great. Maybe Florida State's not as great as they were last year, which is why it is a bummer, and we all feel that way. If we were associated with Florida State, player for Florida State, or coach for Florida State, we would be pissed about what happened last year, but nonetheless,

this college football season's going to be bananas, and Week Zero kicked it off perfectly. The toxic table is here. At Bossett-Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Ireland, great place to kick off a season of anything. Yeah, fantastic. Genuinely, I said this before, but they need to do an NFL game over there. I think it's the perfect setting for it.

And to be honest, I mean, it's one of the greatest countries on planet Earth. I think we can all agree with that. I believe mr. Rooney was like a Irish diplomat and I believe there was a Rooney actually in Dublin the one half of the hammer bad Cowboys tone digs massive Steeler fan Rooney was there right yes Dan Rooney who is I believe son of Dan Rooney who was the ambassador to Ireland yeah he was the ambassador to Ireland while he was the owner of the Steelers. So, yeah, there's a lot of Steelers fans over there. I'm hoping that the Steelers can play there one day,

and then I would definitely go to that one. Yeah, definitely be worth the trip. And Yinzer's in that town. Oh, man. I don't know. I don't know if that will blend well. I really don't. There was one of me walking around.

I don't know. Oh, buddy. What a question that is. I'm excited for us to have that debate. Too many different NFL jerseys walking around aside from Steelers jerseys that I know Yinzers would take offense to. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Debuts, but I think this

week, zero proof to us that literally college football wide open with the transfer portal You have no idea what a team could be they'd be brand new from last year or the teams that have a lot in common A lot of things that have returned maybe they're gonna go on and win it so many questions to be answered week zero Set us on a good path though. Oh, yeah, and it's so much Anxiety for teams coaches players fans because you don't really know especially in college You don't have any preseason games you came and you know get that operation until you get out there in week zero so when you get out there you don't know how it's really going to look and like you said we don't

know if this is a big upset maybe Georgia Tech goes on and wins the ACC and they're great this year maybe Florida State is kind of middle of the pack team but we shall see it's exciting uh week zero to kind and it's great what college football does with the week zero because then it gets us really, really, really, really ready for week one. Should be called week one. Maybe it's called kickoff week as opposed to week zero. But then how does it go on the record? I'm not 100% sure. Because any time you have zero next to anything, that indicates like –

It's nothing. It doesn't count. I mean, in some apps, like I was trying to go back in one specific sport app to see what the scores were, and it wasn't even there. Yeah, so I'm – It has started to gain some – what's the word? Not lore. Maybe lore.

Heat. Good heat. Yeah, people will be like, week zero is – But there has to be a way you can turn that. Kickoff week is definitely the one because, like, it's the only football that you've had since the super bowl it's re it should be like football's back like that should be called that's what the week should be called because it was real football with real things on the line

it had really really good games three out of four now joining us is a man who was also in ireland had a blast i think he was there doing it he did he was He was doing it. I think he also got a new gift. Ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, former president of Ohio, A.J. Hawke. Hawker, how you doing, pal? Doing great. I did receive a great gift

from, you know, what did Ty, what did you say, Ireland's own Seamus. It's good to see mcquade getting the flowers he's fun poetic about mcquade for 25 yeah this was incredible and he got a gift from mcquade and you did it though i don't want to want your heart to break no yeah he got a gift from seamus i believe mcquade was the gift oh okay that would make sense his 11th kid from ireland uh and also there was a j, I believe, or Jamie.

I mean, I am literally, as I went to the bathroom there, I was like starting to just like the amount of, I mean, the amount of, oh, fuck you. So thank you to everybody in Ireland for being on. AJ, expect, I mean, need to do that every, they should take more stuff there is what I'm saying, AJ. They can handle it. Yeah, it felt right.

It felt like this is – there should be big-time football games being played there every single year. Yeah, and I didn't know what to expect. I was looking forward to it, man, and it exceeded all of my expectations. Like, the people there were just – that's what makes the place as cool as the people. And all the people there were just so cool. And they love physical, aggressive sports

too. I think that's a big part of it. They really do. They love physicality. They like fighting. They like knocking around with the lads, the boys. It's just a fun place to be for sure. Proper crack, if you will. Alright, okay. I'm just getting information from the back. Split the G there too. I'm holding that a little bit off.

Dan Rooney, I guess, is attempting to get a Steelers game in Ireland. It'll do very well. He was awesome. Had a great conversation with him. If you have Steelers Patriots over there... We have to go. And especially next year when they do it again for college football. Because we talked to Seamus on a plane right over there about a lot of things, Ireland, as

he was pouring these Guinnesses into these pints. I mean, held the plane up. 30 minutes. Yep. Running down the runway with all this stuff stopped at a proper irish pub here in indianapolis called this snug and uh owners of the snug need to know that seamus yeah he stopped at other pubs he did and you were the only one that's a proper pub there he got a a dozen Guinness glasses from this pub. Wouldn't charge them. Wouldn't let them pay.

And then he walked in with just an obnoxious amount of cans of Guinness. So many. So many cans of Guinness. The people on the plane were like, we got a bunch of these bottles and the extra stout. That's shite. He hates the bottles. Hates. Refused to finish the extra stout.

Yeah. Did this 40 times. I don't even know. That particular cloth right there was not that color by the end of the entire. Because there's just Guinness flying everywhere. Seamus. Hey, Seamus, we love you, man. Love you, Seamus.

We love you, Seamus. We love Ireland. We also love football. And football, every once in a while, will create some storylines that are just amazing. Jerry Jones, I don't know if you know this, in a Clarence Hill Jr. article, who Clarence Hill Jr., if we could please do a quick rundown, has been covering the Cowboys since... 1997.

Okay, been there, done that. Not a quick math with this, but 27 years or so, almost three decades, depending upon how many people are talking about it. He reported, this is not us making this up, this is actual reporting of Jerry Jones talking about being a general manager. I've done it all, okay? So I have an inordinate amount of confidence

that fuck, if anybody can figure out how to get this shit done, I can figure out how to get it done, Jones said. I've been there every which way from Sunday. And have I busted my ass a bunch? A bunch. And there's nobody living that out cutting and out shooting that can give you a bunch of times they busted their ass a bunch? A bunch. And there's nobody living that out cutting and out shooting

that can give you a bunch of times they busted their ass. So hell no. There's nobody that could fucking come in here and do all the contracts and be a GM any better than I can. Now, Jerry, congrats on talking your shit. Think about the decades and decades

of the people and fans saying Jerry needs to get his hands out of the team's business. Ever since Jerry has started running things, we haven't been good. He got rid of Jimmy. He got rid of Jimmy. And then nobody's able to check Jerry. And Jerry's just got his little fingers and everything. He's making decisions.

He's drafting from the yacht. He's cutting people. He's negotiating deals. He's calling plays sometimes. Shit, he will get out there and throw the ball himself if he wants to. That is what people say. That's why the Cowboys haven't been good. So if this is a new interview or if this is Clarence Hill Jr.

writing about something that happened back in the day, it's like shout out to Jerry Jones just finally telling everybody, hey, eat shit. Just want to let you know that. AJ, how do you feel about it? And what do you think Jerry Jones is thinking about everything he's got going on with his current Cowboys team where there's a CD deck allegedly there's conversations in their close CD within a million deck maybe just going to play out a year then he got Mikey got Mike McCarthy on the

final year of his contract there's a lot going on after hearing that from Jerry and knowing that's how he's thinking what are your thoughts on the Cowboys situation this honestly made me feel better about the Cowboys in their season thinking hey, hey, if you're a Cowboys fan, you should love this because Jerry is pissed, I think, at the narrative outside the building and what the, oh, you can't figure this out. You've got to get these guys in camp, all of this situation. What's Dak going to do? Is he going to be gone after this year?

I think Jerry feels really good about the team, honestly. I think that's why he's doing this. Now, I don't know when that interview took place. It's great to hear him wide open like that. But, yeah, I think Jerry is very, very confident in his team, and he's probably pissed that other people aren't, I guess, outside the building. Jeremy Fowler, by way of an R.J. Ochoa,

who also covers the Dallas Cowboys, I believe for the Athletic, you know, basically did a full breakdown. Yeah, yeah. It's a long one. This is a very long one, but it's basically talking about the money difference between them and how everything is looking to play out. And it feels like the CeeDee Lamb deal, potentially close. Dak deal, depending upon whether or not Dak wants to maybe hit free agency.

There's just so much going on being speculated about. But I think where we've landed on this particular Monday, CeeDee's going to get a deal done, and Dak's potentially going to let it ride in a free agency because if he does that, after seeing what Kirk Cousins did last offseason, that money would be through the roof, D-Buck. Yeah, Dak should reset the market. I don't see a situation where he does a renegotiation unless it's a long-term reset the market type of deal.

Obviously, I don't understand the CD stuff, especially with Shefty saying it's a million apart a year, and obviously a million dollars is a lot of money. But, jerry's yeah you've been there you've been doing it you've won super bowls but it's been a long time since you've really reached the expectations of the team now a lot of these teams their issues they don't have the talent or they don't have the coaches or they don't have the the support or whatever from the ownership group cowboys have kind of had all of that i know greeny laid out how cheap they've been but they've had rosters good enough to win 12, you know, 11 games damn near every year it seems.

So up until this point, they've been disappointed. So I want to see some changes. It's great to see, you know, Jerry, you know, confident in his team or confident in himself and what he can do with the team. He's an owner, so he should feel that way. But you've got to get these guys out there. You've got to get them situated, especially being less than two weeks from the real thing, real

bullets firing. I hope we all just start talking like that, too. I hope that just becomes like... That's a goal. Yeah, that is like, hey, let's be humans here in real life. How does Jerry Jones probably talk if we had to guess? Is that the first time he's ever said that?

The F word, you think? That's the first time I've ever seen him say, fuck, you know, five times in like a two minute response. Yeah, he doesn't do that in his regular life. No, definitely not. Very buttoned up, you know. I mean, we saw on Hard Knocks, you know, he said something about McDonald's and the Whataburger people weren't happy. And I thought he was going to, listen, your burgers ain't fucking shit compared to a McDouble, okay? No.

I eat McDonald's every fucking morning. No, he did say that, but then didn't the next episode he came out and he was like. Nothing better than what a burger. The business, man. Business first. Can't argue that. Hey, listen, NFL Films, here's the deal, okay? I kind of got in a little bit of shit with what happened.

Because what happened was a McDonald's breakfast sandwich that I put a salt on every single morning. And you guys showed and everybody loved. Everybody got a good kick out of old Jerry Jones, billionaire, eats Egg McMuffins every fucking day. You know who did enjoy that? The company that gives us 10 million a year. So I'm going to need a two-minute segment. I'll let you know when.

It's got to start the show. Don't I talk about how good. Do you remember? That was literally. Oh, yeah. Those fries? Oh. The fries?

Every day, I tell you. Don't I? Every single day. Just like two minutes straight of a commercial with somebody. Jerry Jones always working an angle. What's his angle going to be if the entire team, though, isn't there? They're going to have to pay a lot of people. With the CD situation in the years past, when the Cowboys have been really good,

they're super balanced. Obviously, they had all those years where Zeke Elliott was on. Their offense is predicated on CeeDee Lamb having 115 catches. They need him to be successful. I don't know if they can do the same. They have Zeke back, obviously, but he's not the same guy he was five years ago. If they're going to go win a Super Bowl or go deep in the playoffs, they have to have CeeDee.

We will have a man joining us here in about a moment or two that has won a few Super Bowls. Excited to get his thought just on, you know, when there's that much noise, and granted, there's been a lot of noise around a lot of success. It's like, how do you focus in on what is a priority? You know, what is the priority? And how do you juggle both of them? You have multiple people doing it. Well, how do you know multiple people are great at what they do?

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, eight-time Super Bowl champion, head coach, and general manager of the New England Patriots, friend of the program all year long, Bill Belichick. Yeah, coach! How you doing, coach? Great, Pat. Hey, Jay, how you doing?

Good to see you guys. Always good to be on with you on Monday. How's it going? Hey, life is good, man. Jay, how are you doing? Good to see you guys. Always good to be on with you on Monday. How's it going? Hey, life is good, man. Thank you. We got a chance to go to Ireland this weekend. Football's back. Yeah.

Yeah. What a game. What a game. What a game for Georgia Tech and Coach Key. That was fantastic. Yeah. Coach Saban, I think, flew over or knew him, Coach Key, because he used to be in his staff or whatever.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, so he was talking about the entirety of it, how the team goes together, the amount of confidence they had going in there. Let's just talk about it there. If you're Key going into that game, that's what you're talking about all offseason, right? The kicker, the punter, David Shanahan, who's from County Kerry, Ireland. So he was back over there. Great story.

And Ireland loves American football. After the game, though, he was interviewed by McQuaid and the boys. And he talked about how this offseason was by far our hardest offseason. We were – this is the hardest we've worked, the most prepared we are. They were using this Florida State game all year. I mean, that's immediately, right? Do you think that is the kind of mission, the mindset? And why do you think they were able to go in there

and knock somebody off like that, knock Florida State out? Well, first of all, Georgia Tech's got a good program. Great. They're in a bowl game last year, and they've consistently played well against good teams in the ACC. So I think Brent's done a great job there. As you mentioned, he was a disciple of Nick, and so I'm sure that he's taken a lot of lessons

that they learned there in Tuscaloosa up to Atlanta. But when you have a really tough opener like that, I think it just sets the tone for training camp. And I think that'll be true in the NFL here with Kansas City and Baltimore as a good example. That's a big game for both teams. One team's going to win it, but it's forced both teams to really have a strong week of preparation.

Not week of preparation, a strong training camp in preparation for the opener. And, you know, it just kind of heightens, just kind of sharpens the knife a little bit going in there. But, yeah, great win for Georgia Tech. Great setting. Yeah, great setting, great in Ireland. Let's move on to what you were talking about there with teams who have,

you know, a hard opener and everything like that. I didn't even think about Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, and I'm thinking about their opener against Baltimore during preseason. They're like, he's playing a quarter and a half. He's playing a quarter and a half. Well, they got immediately here. We got a great opponent. So, let's talk about where teams are right now.

They have until tomorrow. Speaking of Kansas City, you know, they came into New England, and, I mean, they kicked the crap out of us in the opener. And we went on to, you know, have a good year and, you know, and win. But those are the kind of games that get you, you know, really get you, you know, gets the players and the coaches and everybody, you know, in urgency in training camp. It's not just, you know, go through the motions, check off the days.

But, you know, when you have a, you know, a game like that coming up, it just sharpens you. It sharpens the intensity and the competitive side on the field. Again, no matter how the game comes out, I still think that's beneficial for you in the long run. Of course, both teams are open to win it, but there's only going to be one. So, yeah, we've been there before. We've been on both sides of those openers.

Yeah, obviously a lot more wins than losses. I remember Alex Smith would go into the MVP conversation immediately after that night, and then he would end up in Washington, and Patrick Mahomes is the starter all of a sudden. Now we live in a brand-new league because the Kansas City Chiefs are who the Kansas City Chiefs are. Let's talk about where the teams are right now, though. Have to make cuts until tomorrow at 4 o'clock.

How final are these things at 4 o'clock tomorrow? And what are teams and coaches kind of looking at? Is it other teams' cuts? Is it who played best in yours? What is kind of the mindset right now for most of these GMs and coaches until 4 tomorrow, Coach? Right. Well, I think it's an interesting situation.

When you look at the final 53-man roster, only 48 players can be active. So five players on that 53-man roster aren't going to play anyway. Now, there are injuries at play there, but you're really talking about depth, right? So whether the player is inactive on the roster or inactive on the practice squad, they're both inactive. And if they're both in your system, then it gives you as a team, you know, the opportunity to have multiple positions of depth. So I think really what a lot of those end of the roster decisions are centered on is who can we keep? If we put this player, you know, out there because he's young,

because he has a good contract, because he's maybe was a, you know, a draft choice who just isn't ready yet, somebody else will snatch him up. So we want to keep him on the roster and protect him. Who do we have a better chance that won't get claimed that maybe is uh less maybe he's been with a couple other teams or he's been released by a couple teams or whatever his circumstance is that okay the league's had a shot at him a couple times nobody's really taken him uh you know this be a guy that we can keep on our roster then you have the veteran players right you have the veteran players who if they're on the roster for week one, on the 53-man roster for week one, then they're guaranteed their whole salary for the full year.

So if you feel like, well, this might be a player that we're not sure he's good for us now, he's good at depth, but we have these couple of young guys coming along, they're not ready. We might want to move on from this veteran player. Then that's a player you would put on the practice squad and then elevate him to the game to play him in the game as a practice squad elevation without being locked into a full year's salary on him. And so teams that are in tight salary cap situations, teams like New Orleans, Philadelphia, or teams like that, actually it could work for any team. But it's just another way to manage your team. And again, from the player standpoint, he knows he's going to be activated for the first game. He knows he'll play, but he doesn't have the full year guarantee. In some cases, if that player's agent can get him to another team who will put him on the roster for the first game where he has the full year guarantee, then he might flip teams. So, again, there's a lot of play there.

I'd say the trade thing is it's going on. I'd say there's a lot more talk than there is action. But I thought it was a really interesting trade that Philadelphia and Washington had. To me, it was another great trade by Howard Roseman. I don't know how he keeps getting number one picks for Carson Wentz and gets Dotson for basically a fourth from the team in his division. But it's a great trade. Howie, you know, the Eagles don't have much money on their salary cap, but they get a rookie contract. They get a good player. I get it that he's not a starter, but he'll be the third receiver. He gives them a lot of depth and he'll be, you know, nobody's going to double Dotson there, right? I mean, he'll be the third guy of, you know, with Brown and Smith and maybe even goddard so uh i think it's a great great move for philadelphia they really strengthen their team they really have to give up anything there isn't giving me salary cap money as little as possible and they

gave up uh you know really not much in the draft i mean if you think about philadelphia's fifth which will you know probably or philadelphia's third which should probably be close to a fourth and washington's fifth which is probably gonna be close to a fourth. And Washington's fifth, which is probably going to be close to a fourth, let's just say, in the ballpark. You know, you're really looking at not too big of a trade there. You throw in the sevens. But, I mean, it really isn't a big trade. And I think it was a great trade by Philadelphia and by Howie.

I don't know how he keeps pulling those off, but I think he had great value on this one. Yeah, Howie's got to feel good whenever they have the NFC East meetings. You've got Saquon obviously, then you've got Dodson, and immediately upon seeing the trade, I just thought the Commanders were trying to get a third, because that's what allegedly the Niners

were looking for in an IU trade, and maybe it's a part of a bigger scheme, but nonetheless, Eagles look like the real deal. Whenever you start breaking down that fifth-year option, I'm breaking down that fifth-year option, I'm sorry, not fifth-year option, the guarantee, that's after vested players, right, four or five? And are you, when you're talking to them about their situation,

they understand it, they get it, this is just a part of the business? And how many times is that person signed immediately afterwards? And there's a lot of questions, but I think it all kind of ties together. When veterans were allowed to start being put on the practice squad, how often did you – because that wasn't always the case, right? It wasn't always – That was essentially a COVID rule. But that became like a weapon for you guys, right? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that was a whole thing. So I think it ties together, but it was a lot of questions there. But the veterans going on the practice squad became a tool, right? So then you don't have to do the guarantee that you can go the opposite way? Yes. And in the end, I think it actually protected the veterans. It gave more veterans practice squad spots. It gave more veterans elevations versus them sitting out on the street. You know, if you have a veteran practicing with your team, it's a lot easier for you to put them up there for a game, bring them up for a game or two than it is to sign them off the street, bring them in, teach them the the playbook and all that and so i think really it was a good rule for both sides

it was good for the players and it was good for the you know it was good for the teams and and they're just gave more they put more veteran players on the practice squad than there were before uh which is what you got into you got into all these young players on the practice squad that weren't ready maybe to have more developmental prospect but they weren't as ready to play and so if you needed a guy you go out and get somebody but he's not in your system so i think this just you know makes it a smoother transition all the way around um what were the first couple questions pat no you answered it all you answered it all you answered it all uh but like i mean i think that you know the iuk situation was interesting too you know here's a guy that um again I don't know all the specifics of it,

so I'm really looking at it from the outside here. But, you know, didn't want to go to New England, didn't want to go to Pittsburgh. In the end, is the little more money, however much the extra money is, is that worth going to a team that, you know, isn't maybe has the same opportunity to win as maybe what San Francisco does? And so I think that's kind of the you know, whether C.D. Lamb's going through the same thing down there or not. I don't know. Like Dallas is a pretty good situation. Got a great quarterback. I got a good team. Got a lot going for you. You know, does he want as much money as possible?

Yeah, of course. But is it really worth it to go out of town to wherever uh and and not be playing in the environment and the opportunity it has there in dallas so i mean aj you've been there before you know that's a player you know the decision you have to make as a player like how much is it you know you want to try to get as much as you can from the team you want to be with if you're already on that team then you know how much is it really worth by the time you move you know pay your 50 tax or your millionaire's tax in new england you got that one too uh you know how much what's really a differential what's that millionaire's tax about yeah that's strictly new england what what's oh

yeah it's tax taxachusetts yeah that'sets. Yeah. Tax-a-chusets. So virtually every player, even the practice squad, but even the minimum players are pretty close to a million dollars. And so once you hit that million-dollar threshold, then you pay more state tax in Massachusetts. So, yeah, just another thing you've got to contend with in negotiations up there. It's not likeennessee or you know florida or nevada or some of these teams have no state income tax so you get but you know you get you get hit pretty hard on that you know with the agents they'll they'll come and sledgehammer you down about you know tax they're paying we don't get any benefit from that that's good business

for for massachusetts and uh from the agents but you're right that was why you know when these destination teams start popping up, it's like if you're in Florida or Texas or Tennessee, it's like all of a sudden really good. That's good bartering. That's a couple hundred thousand. That's a lot of money here. Now, we all want to pay our fair share.

Where's it going? I would like to learn that, but we all want to pay. All right, we'll stay away from that. Go ahead, AJ. Go ahead, AJ. Coach, I want to pivot on the new kickoff rule. What are your thoughts, I guess, after watching them run this throughout the preseason? I believe they're meeting soon, if they haven't met already,

to talk about what they may do going forward. Do you see the kickoff continuing like we have watched throughout this preseason? It's pretty hard to get used to, I'll say that. Look, my thing, AJ, first of all, my thing would be just move the ball back. I mean, this is like golf. You know, the 400-yard par 4s are no longer 400-yard par 4s. They're 500-yard par 4s. So if they can hit it further, just move the ball back

and kick off in the 20 or 25 or put it wherever you want to put it. But if you want kickoff returns, then just move the ball back. I think what we saw in preseason was most teams kicking the ball so it would be returned so they could evaluate their coverage. And sometimes they might have had a, you know, some kind of a situation with their opponent where, well, you do the same thing for us. So, you know, we get a chance to return the ball, right? And that's, you know, that's what it is.

I think once you get into the regular season, if the team's got a good return. Touchbacks, Bill. It's just going to be touchbacks. That's all it's going to be. That's all it's going to be. Yeah. I mean, you put the ball on a 30 instead of a 25.

I mean, big deal. But I'd rather do that than, you know, to kick it to one of these guys that, you know, has got a chance to, you know, change field position on you in a hurry. So I think I think we're going to I think we saw more returns in preseason percentage wise than what we're going to see in a regular season. And again, remember, preseason, I mean, first of all, the games are the games. And second of all, a lot of guys that are back there are just guys that, you know, teams want to evaluate.

So it's it's a little different. back there are just guys that teams want to evaluate. So it's a little different. You start talking about kicking off to Turpin and Duvernay and guys like that. I mean, I'd kick it out of the end zone. Could you imagine putting Tyreek back there, Coach? Could you imagine ever thinking in your head, kicking the ball inbounds if Tyreek Hill's standing back there?

It's like, no way. No chance at all. And every team has one of those guys. Back in the day, it used to be like there was three good returners. You know more than me. I don't want to talk out of pocket, but I'm just talking from what I've been told. Three good returners around the league, four good returners maybe. Now everybody has a great returner if they want one. A fast 4-3, 4-4 guy that could potentially do it. And all you need on a kickoff is just somebody to do this. Literally, just do this. And with the speed, it's gone.

So with a 30-yard start, I don't think anybody – I think it's just going to be touchbacks. I'm kind of bummed out about it because I'm worried they're just going to get rid of the kickoff next, Coach. You know? Yeah. I'm worried about it. Yeah. Well, and I say a lot of these teams have two good returners because if you only have one,

they'll just kick it away from them, you know, in the split safety look that everybody's using. So they'll just kick it to the other guy. But a lot of teams have two. So there's really, you know, you don't really want to kick it to one guy. You're not really that excited about kicking it to the other guy either. So just touch back and go out there and play. Yeah.

It's not like you. When we played you, Pat, I'm telling you, we spent more time on kickoff, the onside kick, the spike kick, you putting the ball in a dead space on us and everything. I'm telling you, we wasted more time on kickoff returns just making sure we got the damn ball when you kicked it. We were hoping you would touch back us. We didn't have to worry about all the other plays that you could put it. Then Edelman was running by me,

and I think another guy was running by me as well on a couple of punt returns. Yeah, so, hey, if it means anything, I thought about your fucking ass too all week in this entire thing. You guys are always the standard, Coach, honestly, in special teams. So whenever we hear you start talking about it, I get excited, and I feel like I'm learning stuff. But hopefully the NFL folks have heard all of us in the special teams world just be like, because it was originally pitched to move to the 35-yard line after a touchback.

And then like last minute to get the deal done, it was like, nah, we'll just take it to 30. Everybody's just like, nah, we'll just take it at the 30 then. 35, a little different convo. I think some people are having a little bit different convo. Do you agree with that or no? Well, sure. The further you keep Moving it up then the more It's a conversation I agree with that absolutely Yeah I hope they have that convo

I hope we keep The kickoff Because they take the kickoff Bill well they take Next punt and then guess what else They're going to take cut off hoodies on the sideline They're going to take away those Extra points they're going to do the whole thing No more on the sideline? Yep. They're going to take away those. Extra points. They're going to take away extra points. They're going to do the whole thing.

No more fun. Okay, you got it. Connor's got a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach. Some big transactions last week with Judon and Simmons going to Atlanta. What did you think about those moves? Because, you know, you mentioned how much money out Atlanta has. And then also, when you're trading for a guy or signing a guy to a one-year deal,

what is that kind of negotiation like? Because, obviously, Judon's going to be guy to a one-year deal what is that kind of negotiation like because obviously judan's going to be playing on his one-year deal even though he won an extension and then simmons too he's just a one-year guy what is the kind of interaction and uh recruiting for guys like that to your team well uh yeah there's some interesting scenarios that can come up on that. With a player like Judon, who's on the last year of his contract, when you trade for him, essentially what you're doing is you're trading for a comp pick, right? Now, the question is what that comp pick is, and it's a year away if you're in the comp pick business, right? So teams like Baltimore or, let's pick business right so uh teams like baltimore that that you know or i'd say you know arizona now teams like that historically have a lot of comp picks if you

get the guy in the last year of his contract then he ends up signing somewhere else the next year uh like claire's campbell did this year went to okay well then baltimore gets a comp pick for that right so the trade-off on the trade is it's not even, but there's a little time lag there, but it's not that bad. From the player standpoint, you know, he's playing, he's earned a contract no matter what he does. So he either earns a contract in free agency for next year, or he earns a contract with the team that he's at.

So there's some players that aren't afraid of the one--year contracts and they really like the opportunity to improve their value and and create the marketplace there's other players that don't like the one-year contracts and they want the security i think it just depends on the individual player uh in the negotiation i'm kind of surprised that uh atlanta didn't or hasn't extended judon's contract i I think that he's pretty undervalued for what his contract is based on the way it was set up there. It was kind of a complicated situation. But generally what I've done in those type of situations is try to rather than extend the player, which you can do,

certainly there's times to do that, but I think Judon's 31, 32, whatever he is, extending that's a little bit different. So you can put an incentive in there and give an opportunity to, if he has a good year, then you gain some money in incentives versus doing an extension on the contract. But there's a lot of different ways to work around that. Yeah, a lot of different business moves, and I think you worked in incentives last year with Judon.

He ended up getting injured so he wasn't able to get it. So now his deal is what it is, which carried into this season. And then with the Hassan Reddick situation, it's literally happening right in front of our eyes, to your point about being surprised about not having something done with Atlanta before going down there. And then he put out the statement, if I get to prove it, I got to prove it.

Raheem Morris recruiting his ass off down there. I'm excited to see what they end up doing with it. Judon, great player. Other great players. Again, with Judon, that money was just moved forward. So it was taken out of the 24 contract and put into the 23 contract for incentives. So I was a little surprised that they agreed to that, but they did. I would say, to me, the bigger surprise in Atlanta would be signing Terrell

to be the second highest in in uh atlanta would be you know signing terrell to you know telling the second highest paid corner in the league you know for a guy who hasn't had interception in two years i mean it's just you think about the guys that change games and turn the wall over and and that type of thing what are they getting paid um you know it's great to knock down passes and and all that uh but you know you look at guys that are they're really game changers that they can turn those interceptions into can turn those bad passes into interceptions instead of BBUs. To me, they're just worth a lot more money. Okay, so let's talk about that from what you just said.

Obviously, it will be heard by a lot of people there in Atlanta and Terrell. But it feels like as you – Terrell's a good player. I'm not saying that. Terrell's a good player. Agreed, agreed, agreed. He's just not an interceptor. That's all.

Hey, so whenever these deals happen around the league, when a deal happens and your general manager, your guy, that's trying to figure out your, you see these deals happening. You go, what are they doing?

What are they? How is that? What were, why is that what we're paying people now? Because it immediately affects your deals, right? Whenever that type of stuff happens somewhere else, those become the comps. That becomes a conversation.

So then that becomes your headache for every single negotiation. So you're looking around whatever website, whether it's Pro Football Talk or ESPN or getting text messages. You see a deal get announced and you go, whoa, that's what we. And then you immediately see 10 headaches on your team. I got 10 guys better than that guy. Is that real? Is that like the reality of the business whenever you're in one of those positions? I personally don't look at it

that way, but I think the players do. And I think it certainly comes up in the conversation. My conversation to the players would always be, look, we can do what we can do. I can't control what another team paid somebody else or didn't pay somebody else. That's really out of my control. The only thing I can tell you is here's what we can do. And I would try to structure the contracts on the team I was coaching so that they were consistent. So you can come into me and say, well, you know, Bill's getting more than I am and I'm a lot better than he is. Then that creates a problem for me because, you know, you've made the decision on those numbers. So, you know, when somebody else throws out a number, you know, you have to deal with deal with it but in the end it's not your number so

you know we can't negotiate look every player is going to come in and say well this is the highest paid guy some of the team's getting it you know we want that well you can't make everybody the highest paid guy based on contracts you know on 31 other teams in the league it's impossible so um i i try to structure it on what our team is and you know if uh you know if if brady's making less than than uh you know a corner then there's something wrong right there's something wrong and that corner might leave and go somewhere else but i can't pay a corner more than paying my starting quarterback who's won three Super Bowls, you know, in 2010 or whatever. I've had that conversation. Trust me.

Yeah, it sounded like you were just pulling from, so you want me to pay him more than I'm paying Tom Brady. Okay. It's the market. The market. That's what everybody else is going to pay. Everybody else is going to have to be the one paying that then. That ain't happening to me.

What a legend you are in negotiations going through it all. i'm sure there's so many players that have just i think ninkovich told us yeah you walk in there you have a conversation with them and then you just you walk out all right i guess i accept the deal that is just like whammy that is uh but you've had success for 20 plus years and there's a reason the business side is a big part of it and the teams that are good at it and able to you know like, like the chiefs right now, the reason why the setup is so beautiful and being compared to the new England Patriots is because Patrick Mahomes, similar shit, his deal is set up long-term. We're able to move around. We got Travis Kelsey, I think took one, a big cut a couple of years ago. He just got a deal though. So he's getting

paid again. It's like the way you're able to manage that roster is a massive ordeal debutch got a question well that was another i mean that was another good move uh i thought by kansas city you know re-signing the center you know creed humphrey like that kid's a good young player he's got a lot of football left in him uh you know a long-term deal that solidifies you know the middle of that and that center is an important position especially with a quarterback like patrick in terms of uh not only the cadences but the mic points getting the protection set right you know seeing subtle things that a center can see on on the line of scrimmage about you know where a blitz might be coming from or or alignment cheat in a certain way can help the quarterback out like that's really a big position and I think a lot of those guys

honestly are undervalued because of how good they help the other four guys play on the line like a bad center kills the other four linemen a good center can help those guys play better by by making the right calls and doing the right thing uh you know a guy like kelsey at philadelphia like that guy's gonna be a hard guy to replace because of not just his playing ability, but his ability to help that line, you know, play really good as a unit. So I thought Humphrey, that was a great signing by Kansas City, especially for the quarterback. And there's nothing that a quarterback hates more than an undependable center. You know, where's the ball going, and is it going to snap it early, and do we have the right guys blocked and all that?

I mean, honestly, that would drive the center crazy. I'm honestly, you know, I can't remember the last time this happened probably didn't happen before it has happened since but you know when we won the super bowl in 2001 you know we had to bring mike compton in the center to snap on the shotgun snaps and move woody to guard just for the security of the quarterback center exchange on the shotgun snap so um you know that the center's an important position. I thought that was a great signing by Kansas City. Congrats, Creed. Humphrey's a good player.

Congrats, Creed. Great name, too. Yeah, oh yeah, Creed. Yeah, phenomenal name. Also showed up Monday Night Raw, was ready to fight for Patrick Mahomes, which we absolutely love. Dee Butts got a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, early in the season,

obviously coming out of preseason, we talk about it a lot, we see the games, we see the quarterbacks do certain things and we know as players and coaches like hey the defense or the offense aren't really showing their real things how big is that advantage when you're bringing back a ton of players or key players on a different level especially on defense when it comes to running sophisticated things you know early in the season i know you kept high tower mccordy chung those guys they-term. How much more comfortable were you going into those week one, week two games as opposed to working with guys who maybe this may be their first year in the system

with a green dot? Yeah, I think it's a huge advantage. Defensively, especially in those opening games, you don't know what you're going to get. Teams are going to spring something on you that they've been working on all training camp and might be a new formation or where they have the personnel uh configured on certain formations things like that uh so to have an experienced uh defensive team especially at the

signal color position but really just a whole unit is good i mean you'll get a team like new orleans like i think that'll be a big advantage for them early in the season like those guys have played together uh they know what they're doing. I mean, they brought in, you know, Gay from Kansas City, who's another experienced player, even though he wasn't at New Orleans last year. But, you know, teams like that, I think will do, you know, really well on, you know, early in the year based on just how experienced they are. They were obviously well coached.

Dennis Allen does a great job down there. But the team's experienced. And so teams like that, I think, will have a big advantage over some of these teams. You know, a team like Baltimore, for example, you know, they lost three defensive staff members last year, right? McDonald's head coach, and, you know, they had two other ones go on to be coordinators. So they're replacing the whole staff. Now, I'm not saying that they aren't good coaches, but I'm just saying they haven't had the experience working, A, together and B, with those defensive players. So against a team like Kansas City or, you know, somebody else is an early opponent, you know, it could be challenging just getting everybody on the same page, making the right adjustments, reacting as quickly as,

you know, you need to react in those situations. And, you know, AJ, as a signal caller, when you're on the same page with the coordinator, you know, it's great. He tells you, you know, AJ, as a signal caller, when you're on the same page with the coordinator, you know, it's great. He tells you, you know, exactly what you want to do. When you're thinking, you come off the sideline, it's like, hey, I was thinking this. And the coach says, wow, I was thinking that. And then you get that, you know, there's that gap there and you miss an adjustment or, you know, you give a play. Like it's sometimes that happens. It's nobody's fault.

It's just you have to go through those. You have to work through those situations some. Yeah, you got to dance, right? And it's probably a dance. You got to learn about each other, you know, which leads me to asking you a question about what's happening back in New England right now. You know, and not just New England. I guess it can happen anywhere.

But whenever you have a plan, let's say the plan is we're going to draft somebody with the number three overall pick. We're going to bring in a veteran quarterback who's been a starter in numerous places that we have respect for. And then we're going to let the young buck kind of watch, learn, and then inevitably they will become the starter. Then you have a preseason where young buck plays really good. Veteran guy maybe gets banged up a little bit,

but he would be able to make it back into the game. How do you balance if you're New England and you are New England, but if you are New England, playing a rookie too early? Are you worried you're going to ruin his confidence? Take me through the mind of what you think is potentially happening there and then also other places in which it takes place around the NFL on playing somebody too early or do

you baptize them and let them kind of do their thing? Is that kind of the debate that's taking place, you think? Well, I mean, first of all all i don't think you really know how anybody's playing in preseason i mean especially at the quarterback position the schemes are so simple uh from the other side of the ball generally speaking you know you're you're running uh you're for the most part you're running very basic schemes you're trying to evaluate your players you're trying to get them to play the good fundamentals that they know how to play you're not disguising things uh you just you just want your defensive players to be you know ready to react and play fast and quickly and you

don't want to put in like a thousand adjustments uh against a team who offensively isn't running that much anyway so most of those games are very basic. When you watch the games, it's, you know, two or three coverages. You see a lot of man-to-man coverage because teams like to, you know, evaluate their players and see who can play man-to-man and who can't. And so, look, zone teams play zone. I'm not saying that. But, you know, you do things to evaluate your players. I think to come out of preseason and say, oh, this guy's really playing good.

That guy's really playing good. I wouldn't put much stock in that at all. I'd put more stock in what they're doing in practice. And let's see what happens in the first three or four regular season games when the opponents specifically attack certain players based on what they think they can and can't get on them. And then let's see how they're playing then. don't really i've never felt like that's why opening day is so hard you don't know your team well enough to know how they're even if it's the same players it's different circumstances you're going to think that's a different opponent

than you saw last year that new team's different i think it takes you a good you know three or four games to really know what your team is good at i I thought Andy did a great job of that last year. You know, Kansas City learned how to win differently than they had won in the past. You know, they won with Prosecco. They won with defense. They won with a different style of play than kind of what, you know, what you had kind of thought of them as previously. And now this year, it looks like they're going to be a little different this year with, you know, Worthy and Indian Virgins, you know, with their receivers and I would say, you know, the running game. So they might go back to being, you know, kind of the higher scoring

team they were. I'm not sure if they're as good on defense. They've lost a couple of defensive players. So I think you learn your team every year and you learn, you know, how you need to win, So I think you learn your team every year and you learn how you need to win, how you need to win as a team each year. And so I wouldn't place too much stock in any of these guys in preseason. It's nothing against them. It's more you're getting ready. You're physically getting ready. You're mentally getting yourself into a routine.

You're working on your timing and your actions and all that. But we'll see here in the first few weeks of the season not necessarily opening day but by the end of september we'll start to see how some of these things are playing out and that's you know that's a really interesting month of the season yeah amen and thank you for opening your mind up and letting us listen to that because i think the quote i always heard out of new england from players is like after thanksgiving that's when football matters like that's when you know it matters so you don't take too much like fear or worry over the first couple weeks it's like we still got a lot of time to figure out what we are who we are we have to get better like the first few weeks is almost when you're trying to I don't want to say pre-season evaluate but kind of you're

trying to learn your team still over those first few weeks and then we're trying to sort out how we can do this entire thing if we want to win a super bowl yeah well look i don't think you go into the early games saying like well we don't care about the games this is preseason i'm not saying that you're going in there to win them and you're shooting off all your you know you're emptying the holster but i think you've got to learn about your team there's an old saying called mid-season form i think that's really what it is. By the middle of the season, you're in top form. You're in condition. You've had enough reps and experience with your teammates, with your timing,

with situations, with communication, with all those things. That's when you should be playing your best football. But obviously in the National Football League, in the end, the only thing that really matters is how you play in December and January. I think if you look at the Eagles last mean, they got off to a great start, okay? And then look at the way they finished. They beat Tampa decisively in week two or three, whatever it was last year. And then they, you know, they got beat by Tampa in the playoffs. You know, you look at Dallas. Dallas had, you know, they won the division. I mean,

they had another strong team, a really strong team, and then go and lose, you know, you look at Dallas. Dallas had, you know, they won the division. I mean, they had another strong team, a really strong team, and then go and lose, you know, to Green Bay in the playoffs, and it was like their season was a disaster. So, you know, in the end, to win a championship, you've got to play good in December and January. I mean, you just have to or you can't do it. And there's an example of two teams that were both really good teams, I thought, last year, Philadelphia and Dallas, that at the end of the season, they're sitting

there looking very disappointed and maybe, I would say, upset at the way things went. And that's different than Kansas City that kind of was up and down. And then at the end, they played the best. And so, look, Coach Parcells had a saying that I learned and he did a long time ago. By the way, belated happy birthday wishes to Bill. His birthday was last week. Happy birthday, Bob. Never met you.

Heard you're awesome. Heard you're awesome. You know, Bill would always say it's not who has the best team, it's which team plays the best. And that's really what it's about. It's not, sure, you've got to have talent and you want to have as many good players as possible, but it's who plays the best. It's not about an all-star team.

It's about a team that plays well together as a team in all three phases of the game and players and coaches. So that's where I'm at. Look, opening day will be interesting. It's a great environment it gets things started it's always very challenging time because you have so much to prepare for and so much time and you know they can only run 65 plays you can only run 65 plays or whatever it is but you know you look at thousands over the off season and training camp and you know drive the players crazy with every adjustment that you know you over a 16 game

season that you might have seen in in uh in preparation but you know in the end like it's really going to be about fundamentals about basic execution uh in all three phases of the game particularly the kicking game because a lot of the players who are good in the kicking game haven't even been playing in the preseason so it So it's been the evaluation of some younger players and all that. And so over time, three, four, five weeks, then things will start to sort out as to who the good players are and who's prepared to play and who isn't. But I wouldn't base too much off preseason.

I'm like, this guy looked good in preseason. He's going to be great. Honestly, I just haven't. Coach, you don't know shit. The Detroit Lions were undefeated in preseason, and then they went on to lose every single game in the regular season. Yeah, that's right. That is the way that goes.

Hey, Coach, we can't thank you enough for making us smarter every single week. Enjoy this one. We can't wait to talk to you next Monday. Yeah, sounds good. Well, this will be an interesting week with a lot of player movement, 1,500 players, right, transactions one way or another. So it week with a lot of player movement 1500 players right transactions one way or another so it'll be a lot to keep track of and that and that'll keep going for another you know probably two weeks into the second regular season game before things start to

settle down but um you know it'll be interesting to see how a lot of these situations resolve some of the hold ends and and uh you know some of the the cuts and there'll probably be a couple trades here as well. So it'll be interesting to see how things shape up as everybody tries to get positioned for the start of the regular season. Are you happy you don't have to cut a bunch of people this year? That seems like a pretty negative – are you? Well, look, that's the worst part of the job as a head coach

in the National Football League. That's 100% the worst part of the job. And most of it happens this weekend uh or has already maybe happened in some cases but yeah you know you have players that come in and they have dreams and they do everything you ask them to do they lift weights they work hard they train they're in the meetings they you know they're there early they stay late they do everything you ask them to do and ultimately 90 players come to camp and 53 are on the roster. And you're firing 37 people.

I mean, it's more than that because there's some transition during it. But you're firing 37 people that have given you everything they've got. And in some cases, it's been for multiple years. And this happens to be the end of the line for those players and their families. And they're under a lot of pressure, you know, all through training camp. They're under a lot of pressure you know all through training camp they're under a lot of pressure yeah there's you know five or ten stars that they're not worried about it but i'm telling you everybody else on the roster you know they get it from their friends their family hey how's it looking are you gonna make the team this year hey do you think you're gonna be all right you know do you have a you know what's it look like there and hey i heard

this guy look good i you know and they get and every day they get that from their family. Hey, how'd it go? What do you think? And their friends and their coaches and their ex coaches and their so forth. Agents. It's a lot of pressure for the players. It really is. And then ultimately it comes down to, you know, if you get that, you know, you get that call, which I mean, my first year in the league at Baltimore, I was the guy.

I was the Turkk i was bad news billy and if they saw me coming anywhere around they were nobody wanted to see me no because if i was coming to get them that was bad news it was always bad news there's only one time i brought good news to a player that whole year in training camp and um but you know they they know we all know and it's a tough part of the job. It really is. And then when you have to tell the player, you know, look, it just wasn't, we're just not able to keep you. Um, you know, I mean, I always tried to have a lot of compassion for those guys and what they went through. And at the same time, we're trying to help them in any

way I could. And if we, he couldn't play for us, then maybe he could play for somebody else. And if anybody ever called and asked about, hey, what about this player? You know, I mean, we would be the first to say, you know, worked hard, was there on time, is a great teammate. You know, we'll give you everything you want. And, you know, he would help your team, even though he couldn't help ours this particular year. And who knows? There's a lot of guys that come back the second time around so guys like pat chung brandon bolden guys like that that for whatever reason you know weren't on the team came back to being on the team and and we're valuable members of the team so um you know it's a long to me it's a long-term relationship and you always try to help those guys as much as you can

but is it a tough day absolutely it's a tough a tough day. Even the guys that see it coming, it's still hard. It's really hard. Nobody wants to be Bad News Billy. No. That's the human side of it. I didn't want to be Bad News Billy. I was. Oh, no.

Here comes the bearer of Bad News Billy. Billy shit. Well, I'll get my shit, I guess. I'm going to get out of here. Thank you for showcasing the human side of that. And to your credit about I would always help people out, anytime anybody got cut from the Patriots, they were signed somewhere. Because everybody else in the NFL was like,

so this guy was good enough for Bill Belichick to bring him into the building? Yeah, so he's not good enough for our building? No. Okay, that is the way it goes, which is a massive compliment, I do believe, to you. You should take it that way. Here's another compliment. You make us fucking better, coach. We can't thank you enough. Ladies and gentlemen,

the GOAT coach and GOAT GM, Bill Belichick. Appreciate you. Yeah, coach. See you, coach. All right, let's get to a break, shall we? He's awesome. I mean, that'll never not be like unbelievable talking to bill you know what i think they people say like uh i i've forgot more information

than you've ever learned in your life about things probably 10 times over oh it's cool and i it's just a nice reminder every time he gives an answer i'm just in my head like man i don't know anything about football yeah holy i don't know anything about football. Yeah, holy shit. I don't know anything about football. Well, it's everything. The front office stuff. Like, when he started coaching, did he expect that he was going to be running everything in the front office as well?

Like, he's not just doing X's and O's, building game plans. That guy was doing everything. How about him going right back to a point? So, you want me to pay your corner so I can, just so I can, you want me to pay your corner more money than I'm paying Tom Brady who's won three Super Bowls already? Okay, all right, just making sure. Just want to make sure that's what you're pitching right now.

Get the fuck out! Legit. Imagine people walking into that meeting. Hey, I got a good pitch. I've heard it, I'mma fucking. Here's what I'm thinking. All right. I've done a lot of good stuff.

All right. Yep, you're on. I'm certain. Yep, you're on. I'm fucking lucky. I'm thinking. Yep, you're right. Yep.

You got it. I mean, it feels like I'm fucking 20th in the league now all of a sudden, but all right. We're going to win. I mean, that fucking A.J. Terrell ricochet shot. Holy shit. Good player. It's a lot of money for a guy who hasn't intercepted a pass in two years. This is how much we're valuing guys that don't. Oh, I mean, breaking

a pass is cool. That's always the conversation. Amongst players, D.B.'s, you know, you want Richard Sherman or you want Revis. Guys who's going to lock down one side. Sauce is kind of like that now. He's like, he's not going to rack up five, six interceptions every know, guys who's going to lock down one side. Sauce is kind of like that now. He's like, hey, he's not going to rack up five, six interceptions every year, but he's going to lock down guys back to ball.

Asante Samuel probably was the guy coming in wanting to get paid more than Tom because he got seven, eight picks every year. So the ball is a program. So if you can get, hey, two, three more, five more possessions for your team throughout the year, like that's huge. Asante Samuel fucking hates Bill Belichick. I would a thousand

percent agree that if it was anybody, it was Asante Samuel. Bill paid Revis. That was a mercenary deal. One year 14. And then another one, right? He just did one. Gilmore got paid. Gilmore got paid

one defensive player of the year. Revis, we won the Super Bowl, too, with Revis that one year. We have breaking news from the NFL! Who? C.D. Lamb and the Dallas Cowboys have agreed on a record four-year $136 million deal.

It now makes him the second highest paid non-quarterback in NFL history. The deal includes a $38 million signing bonus, the largest ever given to a wide receiver. Torrey Dondi of CAA negotiated the deal with the Cowboys. It felt like Jerry and C.D. were going to get a deal

done. That was kind of all the reports this weekend. No matter which insider you were listening to, it felt like C.D. and the Cowboys were close. Now we know. It is official. Congratulations to C. to. Felt like CD and the Cowboys were close. Now we know it is official. Congratulations to CD Lamb. I wonder what the full guarantee is as opposed to just the signing bonus because that'll obviously be a massive number.

That was probably a big part of the negotiations and what the big holdup was. But Jerry, just like he said in the interview, if you think you can get a fucking deal done, try it because I will and i can and i am cd lamb dak prescott's favorite target is back in dallas obviously we got two weeks until then cd will be in great shape dak prescott has one year left on his deal what is he gonna do how about everything else going on around dallas we shall see but this is a big piece being finished

oh yeah i mean everybody has to feel a lot better about Dallas obviously huge huge we talked about a bunch huge part of their offense and now you get this two weeks where you can get some work done obviously not a ton because I'm sure they won't be working as much Dak on a contract year you can expect his best ball so this is huge for him didn't get up to that Justin Jefferson number but we talked about it with Bill just now being in Texas much morefriendly, so he'll probably end up making more, actually. But great job by Dallas and CD getting this done. Anyone who's ever played football knows, even if you go all of training camp,

week one, you are so, so, so tired. How, like, for you guys that obviously played in the NFL, how many weeks, how many practices before you feel like you're, does CD have enough time to feel like he's ready to go? I mean, everybody's different honestly and it's just when you when you're playing actual football it's not only physical but it's mentally you don't understand you don't really you can't really get ready for that because that it's like mentally taxing as well um so i'm not sure what how long it'll take him but i think you know he's a guy i've seen workout videos and things like that he's gonna be physically in shape it's gonna going to be the mental part. And they'll probably work him in.

They probably won't give him 15 targets in week one, maybe 9, 10. But he'll be in there on the key downs. This is big for them going forward. AJ, huge deal for Mike McCarthy going into the last year of his contract. He's got to be elated about this. He's got to be pumped. Going back to that, like, how is this like enough time to be ready? The good thing is, like, the receiver position.

You can work him in as much as you want You can come in week one and feel like hey he's definitely Going to be in there in third down he's going to be in there In red zone when we actually need it We'll put him in but we're going to make sure we rotate Him out and don't wear him out early because it's true Like it does take some time for your body to kind of Get used to getting hit again

And everything like that but these guys are freaks Like D-Butt is one of them we know this like DBs and receivers can run all day long without getting tired, and they're just absolute freaks of nature, and CD is one of them as well. DBs have no tap-out ability, to your point about what CD can tap out if he has to. Not that he

will. He knows how important he is, and we can't wait to see this. Allegedly, Pellicero is reporting $100 million guaranteed. $136 million. Congratulations to CD. And it's a classic news break. We'll give one person the scoop. We'll give the other one the finish of the information.

Everybody's happy, right? We move along. The CD Lamb and the Cowboys agree to a $100 million guaranteed deal, allegedly, and he is back now officially with the Dallas Cowboys. Also good to know that when Jerry puts a quote out like that, he's going to stamp his nuts on the table in about two hours after that or just give

it a little time. There is a nine figure, what was that? Coming. Immediately afterwards. 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. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us and contact Desjardins today. We'd love to talk business. Football! It is the greatest sport on earth. That's A.J. Hawk. The Talks at the Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer.

Done! Cowboys with a new cap. Mm-hmm. Hey, tip of the cap to you, sir. That one looks like that thing can ride a little faster than the last one. Last one's a show one. This is more of a go one, it feels like. Yeah, you took the words right out of my mouth.

This is more of a light summer cap, so I've got a few more weeks with this one before I've got to go back to the winter felt ones. But, yeah, you'll see me in this pretty much every day. Oh, so I didn't know this cowboy life you've been living. Very recently, new cowboy life you've been living, right? Yeah, a few years right? Well, no. This new iteration. This new iteration.

Didn't this new one just happen this weekend? Oh, this iteration. About 10 hours old. Oh, yeah. Because I watch Twisters on the way back. Yeah. The tornado tone. That was literally the first 10 minutes of the show.

You are a new tone. You're a tornado tone. When you're a cowboy through and through, deep and deep, you go through different iterations. Deep and deep. Well, yeah, this is more of a, listen, when you're chasing. Right here, NFL veteran Shane Butler is here. When you can see it, and they feel it, you can chase it.

You need a lighter cap. The boys are sitting in a group of four on the plane, all plugged in, watching Twisters at the same time. It was quite an experience watching them all. Good movie. Great film. I mean, pal. Bangers only. Glenn Powell.

Banger after banger. Seamus. Banger after banger. Glenn Powell. Banger after banger. That's just how it's goinganger. Glenn Powell. Banger after banger. That's just how it's going to be. Glenn Powell, so hilariously handsome. Yeah.

There's only been a couple people I've been around where I'm like, what the fuck? Thank you. That's an interesting. Jesse, Connor Campbell. Yeah. Jesse Palmer is one of those guys. Yep. Yeah.

Jesse Palmer will walk by you and you're like, the fuck was that? What was that? He had a he had a uh he had a pint yeah he did him and him and joe's fault we knew paizan tessitore was gonna be having a time in there great call on the game winner uh jesse palmer normal human too which leads to the fact of it's amazing that you could be that glenn powell normal human seemingly yes a very good actor and hilariously attractive yo jacked just the whole thing good on you glenn good luck out there uh also would like to say congratulations to us doing journalism while hammer drunk so there was uh fact of the matter there was some quotes floating around the internet and who knows who created them like that that's literally how it kind of floating around the internet and who knows who created them

like that that's literally how it kind of works on the internet now and if a couple people pick it up then they just assume that that person's accurate and then they'll pick it up as well and then all of a sudden everybody's reporting something that was maybe created by like boner garage 10 but boner garage 10 happened to get into somebody's feed which got into somebody that's legit feed and then the people that follow that feed that are either counter that person or on that person's side they run with it boom it becomes something this is the truth of the matter it's not but everybody has seen it and it's gone last week there was some conversation that nick saban basically chewed jimmy sexton's ass out jimmy sexton's his agent everybody's agent in college

football which somebody should look into that. It's pretty wild. That story should be told. But he told, allegedly, Nick Saban told Jimmy Sexton that Lane Kiffin was the biggest narcissistic asshole of all time, and how did Jimmy let him hire him, and yada, yada, yada. So that was on the internet, quote, gone. And Lane Kiffin, with the life that Lane Kiffin has lived very publicly, that is something like, yeah, Saban did say that.

People just automatically read it. They see some people that are legit reporting it or posting it. And then they just go on with their life thinking, yeah, that's something that's true. Then we asked Nick Saban about it. And he goes, I've never said that in my entire life. And then Jimmy Sexton, I've never said that in my entire life. Then Lane Kiffin was asked about it today at his press conference, and here's how he handled it.

This past weekend he made the comment that Lane is one of the best play callers in the country. He can take advantage of the defense as well as anybody. Just your thoughts on your time in Alabama. You made mention that you pattern a lot in your program after Alabama. Yeah, I mean, as time continued to go on, as you're further removed, I had even more appreciation for Coach

and what he did for my career and taking a chance on me. And then what I've learned from over three years is every day there's something that I pull from. And, you know, he was asked about those comments. And, you know, I think it's a shame when people make comments and they write things with quotation marks and then you know the coach or the agent says they've never been spoken to

the writer about that subject so i think that's why he was seemed kind of upset they they put those words to him or to jimmy when both people said they never had that conversation ever with either writer so this is this is very similar to whenever and shout out to Brad Logan caught their COTE they're on your side uh for reporting this entire thing but it's like Lane Kiffin's done this a few times did that to Feinbaum yep now he's like he seems like he's in his mind I've let a lot of people get away with saying a lot of things over the years. That kind of stops now. Also saw the Coke Zero next to him. So I do appreciate that out of the people from Coca-Cola.

But I appreciate that he addressed it, and I appreciate that Coach Saban came out and spoke the way that he did about it all to kind of settle that thing. But that kind of is an issue we have in our Internet world that we're living right now. Yeah, do any idea like where this originated from like does anybody know is there a writer that we can credit it to well that's normally the well i heard it from and we've you know we've certainly it's a shame because how do you how do these coaches know what to address and what you can't just waste time addressing everything that's that's garbage and fake

possibly but you yeah you don't want that out there if you're saving definitely doesn't want that i can't know like i didn't if you didn't say it yeah like i would absolutely piss you off well and jimmy who probably reps yeah both lane if i had to guess he doesn't necessarily what do we what do we even how is this even but all you need is literally just one it's crazy legitimate site to see it post it and then boom we've been wrong before we've had to come out and say hey whoa whoa we apologize because you're going to get got on there but there's a lot more of that happening nowadays than ever i mean it just happened to us literally last week with awful announcing and outkick yeah and it's because they both just saw something a headline that awful announcing wrote

that was wrong and slanderous and libel and narrative building and character assassination and they stole our video to did that thing so that's theft as well so there's you know just just a lot and misrepresented what was being which you know happens on a very regular basis with that particular group of people that you know could certainly find themselves in a situation of a you know just everything they've done but then they post it but other people see them as legit i have no idea why i've no i honestly genuinely have no clue why anybody sees that as a legit operation but then they take it they see boom they just read the headline it wasn't accurate at all. Misleading, mischaracterization of me.

Pretty big shot across the bow at me as a human. And then also at ESPN. And then OutKick grabs that. They just don't even listen to the video. Post the same thing. And then boom. Now you got those both things out there. Now, obviously, OutKick reached out, said, we apologize.

And they took it down. It's like, you got, this is the internet. This happens. But it is like just a never-ending, feels like it's a dog-tail situation happening on the internet. I have no idea. And once again, I'm a human that's just projecting issues that we have in society out without having an answer. Because I don't know if there actually is an answer. Well, everything, don't you think for people, it's, obviously, this is just the world we live in right now with everything going on. But, and everyone is not going to do it but you would hope like okay with everything going on either

you just don't believe anything that's ever said or everything that you you read or you're looking at you're like okay who said this when did they say it is it possible this isn't true like you have to at least think this is possible that maybe this person did not do that or say that but lane kiffin's sitting there like you know how many million people saw that and they're never going to... Recruits? Recruits, everything. Yeah, like everybody, for real. Yeah, and it's believable, potentially believable, you know, about it just because of everything else that's been

kind of said about Lane, who we've known since, what, he's been a coach? He's 32 or something. Yeah, youngest head coach or whatever, so it's like just people just going about their life like, yep, heard that, here we go, we're off and running. It's a wild time to be alive. Yeah, it's coming out in a book by Armin Kittain. I think it comes out tomorrow, I believe.

All right, here we go. So this is only going to continue. That son of a bitch Saban allegedly said of Kiffin to the agent, according to a review of the book, I'm going to fire you, Jimmy, for ever talking me into hiring that narcissistic prick. Oh, geez. Jesus. me into hiring that narcissistic prick. Oh, jeez. Jesus.

Allegedly from this. Who is that? People in the know at the time. It just never ends. It never ends. Obviously, the situation is different, but with college football in particular, you get a lot of those blog websites that a shitload of people from the university go to. they're started by

fans but then they get all these quotes for i mean you know how many people are associated with like a major college football team so you get one of these you know uh anonymous quotes from someone who which could be nothing and it could be like a rival school or a school in the conference and i feel like those just spread like wildfire and like they've kind of ended up being like not like you know newspapers and stuff like that but like these people who started them who are just massive diehard fans like they end up being looked at like you know like they're like the arbiter of truth when it comes to these programs and it's like that shit's super dangerous too because almost every single school has one of these. Yeah. It's a wild time to be alive. 24 football, brother.

Hey, yeah. We're thriving, though. Let's remember that. It's good to be here. Blame AI. Blame AI. When in doubt, you blame AI. Which could be.

But there could be fake accounts. Like, there's, you know, people tell stories about, like, a narrative wanting to be built. So you just get a bunch of bots and just send them, basically. And be like, yeah, get people to think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people think this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is how I should think. Fake. It's not even, that's not even real. No, but what about this other? Fake. What about fake? What about fake? What about fake? Well, who? One person. All this. And you just, oh yeah,

I should think that way. But that's the internet, baby. That's right. We've all gotten got probably, you know, but we need to keep our eyes peeled. It's tougher on X, too. We obviously live on there, but it's gotten much, much tougher to sift through the bullshit. And I mean, I don't live on like message boards or like Reddit and stuff like that. I'm sure that's a whole different world. I'm not smart. But even X, like you got to see it or you got to verify, make sure it's the name, go

check another source maybe. But it's, I mean, it's probably like five people I trust. And I see them tweet something out and I'm like, all right, that's legit. Dude sure it's the name, go check another source maybe. But it's probably like five people I trust. And I see them tweet something out, and I'm like, all right, that's legit. It's crazy. It's crazy. It is a very crazy time to gather information because we know more than ever. But do we? It's only going to get harder.

That's a good question. We know more than ever. Yeah, because the AI is only getting smarter. Exactly. And more talented. Yeah, it's going to get more difficult. I mean, even when we saw the Jerry Jones quote this morning. Fake hat.

There's no fucking way this is real. And then you keep going through and you find the guy's Twitter, Clarence Hill Jr. And even then, you're looking at it and it says he's been writing since 1997. But you still think, like, there's no fucking way he said this. A lot more skeptical. You've got to have a much more skeptical eye. But not everybody does, which is why whenever something gets shown to, I don't know, a couple million people, they're probably just going to believe it.

And even if you post a video, whatever you caption is probably what people are going to believe. Yeah, people aren't watching this. So whenever you misrepresent an entire video, take something out of context and try to character assassinate people, which one account has done more so than anybody. Like people aren't watching the video. Well, the video, I stole the video and posted it as well.

I mean, I could have posted a video, but instead I ripped it myself so that I get credit for it because my company is shit and I don't own anything. And you post it, it's like you stole the video, you mischaracterized it, you knew people aren't going to watch it and you're making. And you post it. It's like you stole the video. You mischaracterized it. You knew people weren't going to watch it and you're making

a business out of it. It's like, that's not just that particular case with me. There's a lot of places that are, it's a wild time. Hey, but we're lucky to be here.

Let's remember that. Slug to, we're in Ireland in a couple days. That's right. They don't have that in Ireland. No. Just something to think about

when we're deciding if we should go back or not Dude We need to go see our countryside out there Yeah we need to go back for like a month We don't need to go to the countryside Let's stay right where we were We need to do both

There's a less than zero chance That if we went back there we would go see the countryside We got a lot of countryside Oh look grass Cool grass Z almost drove like an we got a class in the countryside oh look grass cool grass zeed almost drove like an hour and a half in the morning or two hours each way to go see where game of thrones was that's winter oh he was gonna go to scotland too and go see this piece of land oh man yeah unfortunately i did not bring my certificate i left it here he's a lord

obviously he has a piece of land in scotland right and he did not get a chance to go see it and put a flower down and do the whole song and dance. Set up his home base. I was going to cut my grass, finally. Nice. Oh, you were going to cut it? Nice. We did have the lawnmower on the plane. I wonder.

We did it right. We shouldn't do anything different. Yeah, we should just do that over and over again. I'll tell you what. It did feel like we landed at the right. Well, it landed a little later, probably. So we can just get right into the day. Yeah.

As opposed to the three-hour fake nap. I don't know. The three-hour fake nap, I feel like we landed at the right, well, landed a little later probably, so we can just get right into the day. Yeah. As opposed to the three-hour fake nap. I don't know. The three-hour fake nap, I feel like, helped us. I feel like that definitely helped. Did not sleep at all on plane. Not even a lick. Well, one of us potentially. And guess what?

That was my plan the entire time. I'm going to black out on this plane and fall asleep and then sleep a little bit more when we get there, and then I'm going to be ready to go when I wake up. Hey, execution at a thousand. Flongs. He was sprawled out on this seat over the Atlantic Ocean, nowhere near Dublin.

No. Nowhere near. Almost halfway. Three hours, 45 minutes in. It was. We might have been over land still. No, it was right before the sea bass came out. I did miss out on the sea bass. The sea bass was so good.

The food was so good. Speaking of so good, you know what else is good? Businesses. You know what type of businesses are good? Good business deals. Ladies and gentlemen, UConn has negotiated a deal for their logo. Jesus, sir. All right.

Put it on the field. Stores Central. Now, it feels like this would not be that groundbreaking of a move because every bowl game that you've ever seen has had this type of thing. And basketball has a bunch of things all over the court. But UConn has become the first school with an NIL collective as an on-field logo sponsor. That's amazing. A little showcase to Storrs Central.

You know, they're there to make football better. That's why they're on the field. UConn, big news though, isn't just that they got some logos on the field. It's also the fact that maybe a home? Maybe. Maybe. We're obviously independent right now, but maybe going to the... There's some rumors. Pete actually put a... Pete Thamel, the authority, actually put out some conversations

about going to the Big 12. Football in 2031. Basketball, I think, 2026. That would mean leaving the Big East for basketball. It's right around the corner. But, I mean leaving the Big East for basketball. It's a long time away. But, I mean, I don't care about any of this shit until we start winning. We got to start winning. It is tough.

You guys know, especially when you're in the locker room. I'm not in the locker room now. This is my locker room. But when your team stinks, like that, that's tough. That makes it tough. Oh, yeah, college football is back. College football is back. It's like, damn, you know, the video game is back.

I'm not playing with you, con. That breaks my heart. You know, that breaks my heart. So Jim Morder, boys, we got to get it back going. I obviously got all the faith in the world and those guys. Absolutely. But, you know, that's what I care about first and foremost. But you got to get in the conference.

You can't recruit, especially if you've been in the Northeast. You got to be in the conference and have any type of people. It works out for everything. There are things in it. It's different. It's different. They got to have cash. Yeah, they've got a lot of paper.

UConn does, too. Me not putting Notre Dame in my college football playoff certainly ruffled some feathers amongst the Notre Dame fans. Yeah, that's going to happen. Tough schedule, don't they? Tough schedule. They've got two games.

They've got one in November that they're going to have to win. I forget if it's Florida State. I think it's Florida State. They do play Florida State. I think it's in November. They got two games. They got one in November that they're going to have to win. I forget if it's Florida State. I think it's Florida State. They do play Florida State. I think it's in November. Check that one off. We don't know what Florida State's going to be or what Georgia Tech's going to be. We all have to remember that.

That is my big flaw from college game day. Yeah. My first couple years on game day. Okay. I see these teams' first two weeks. Boom. Got it made up. Lock it in. Week eight, that team shows back up on the docket. Picking. I see these teams first two weeks. Boom. Got it made up.

Week eight, that team shows back up on the docket picking. And it's like, this team. These guys fucking stink. They don't know how to run the ball. It's like, have you watched any games over the last? I've seen the highlights. There's enough. I saw.

Yeah, I know. College football teams can change. Mightily. Very much so. Uyunglele, though, is going to have to change a little bit, too. That whole offense is going to have to go. There was a third in something. He put that thing into J.R. Mahantz.

Oh, yeah. A few of them. He's been having a rough run at it on OX. Yeah, he's been getting You did that gas station commercial for NIL. Yeah, it should have stayed on the West Coast. What do you mean? Good gas?

Oil money is good. You want to get into gas money. I don't know if they gave him money. I think they just let him go in and get as many 79-cent Polar Pops as he wanted because that's all he was talking about. And they have his favorite flavor, which is Blue Mountain Blueberry Powerade. In the memes from that video now, hey, sir, I'd like 20 bucks on pump nine. Oh, because he's got the whole song and dance he's

doing the whole thing oh no yeah it's not fair they're saying he's working at a gas station yeah it's circle k so it's a nice gas station but i had a teacher say i was gonna work at a gas station when i grew up not like this though but dj you was really getting it huh yeah yeah he's getting it good getting eviscerated some say you should have stayed on the west coast you know those late night games you don't They don't see you as much. Yeah. Plus, you're at Oregon State versus Florida State. So, if the Beavers are good, it's like, hey, this is cool.

But if Florida State's good, it's like, yeah, they better be. Yeah. That feels like they lost a lot of guys in the NFL. A lot of guys in the NFL. Yeah. And we talked to Jordan Travis. Obviously, he's not there anymore. No.

If only. What if it is? Oh, I'm not saying that. I think Florida he's not there anymore. No. If only. What if it is? Oh, I'm not saying that. I think Florida State's going to figure it out. A ton of fans, too, man. They've got a following. I hope they stick with them. We saw a ton of Florida State fans. 30,000, allegedly.

25,000 to 30,000 traveling over there. Everywhere we went, you'd see Florida State jerseys everywhere. Huge groups of people that made the trip. Like, it was cool to see. And they're all out on DJ. I'm just going to say that now because can you imagine flying to Ireland and then having to – Booing Herbstreet for three hours.

Yeah. And talking about – This guy, you're – Oh, we're showing this asshole today. Getting a lot of heat. That's impressive. That was Dom Mysterio here. Yeah.

Truly. I told him at one point during a break, I'm like, you're very professional. That's what I said to him. You are very professional because if this crowd

was doing that to me, I would have immediately, let's talk about it. All right. You're a bomb. Just like straight. It would have to kick me off the show,

you know, just because that's the reaction. I mean, you boo me, I boo you. Like that is, and I have a wrestling mindset. He was getting dom.

As soon as he was, ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Herbstreit, boo. So loud. And he just, hey, right through. Didn't even. He's a pro. Anytime he talked, too. It wasn't just the intro. No.

Anytime he was talking, they started booing. It was like when a player returns, like when Kyrie comes back to Boston and he gets the ball, he gets booed immediately. Kirk didn't mention it. Nope. Picked Florida State to win. He did. Picked Florida State to win.

His tweet after they lose is like, hey, it's all right. 12 team. We can regroup. You'll be able to regroup. You'll be able to get going. It's like there were some people that were maybe with him that were like, now's the time. Kill him. Now is the time. He was like, no, no, no, no. He said he likes Norvell a

lot. He's a big fan of Norvell. I think that's like the biggest thing that all of the offseason was like he was so bummed about is because he didn't want Norvell to think that he didn't have respect for him when the entire thing was taking place. So he legitimately, this is his legitimate thoughts like, hey, this is the reason for the 12-team playoff. If you lose one early, you can figure it out. And if you're one of the best teams at the end, you can still get into the dance. That's literally the purpose of this 12-team playoff.

You know, a lot of people said that this was ingesting everything, but it's truly how Kirk feels about, I think, every team and why he loves the 12-team playoff so much. Yeah, and why it's so awesome. Because, like, to your points about Georgia Tech, too. It's like, hey, Georgia Tech can now be that undrafted team. Unranked. Unranked, excuse me, that finishes in the top 12.

And, like, we were there in Dublin to see the whole entire thing start. And then on the opposite side, Florida State could be that team that's in the top 10 that finishes unranked. That's just the reality of what happens throughout the college football season. And that's why even going to Texas A&M now, both these teams being in the top 25, Elko, his first time there in A&M,

Riley Leonard, now new era, because he's at Notre Dame now, right? It's like the college football season being here is actually the greatest thing of all time, and NFL in 10 days, even better. We're going to be in Morgantown on Friday celebrating Penn State versus West Virginia. The biggest home opener for West Virginia since 1998 is how it's being labeled, and obviously implications in the Big 12 and the Big 10 on the line for the rest of the year in Week 1.

James Franklin was asked about me, and I don't know how it was phrased. I just saw you know the video. Here's James Franklin. Well first of all I love Pat McAvee and his energy and enthusiasm for sports and specifically college football. I think he's been good for college athletics and sports in general. I think he James. I think he's fun, right? Great. Hell yeah. I think his ability to speak freely is unique and fun in a lot of ways. Sounds like he can say whatever he wants.

For us, it's a fine line, right? I think it's very similar to the old billboard material. I want to make sure that our guys don't say anything and our staff doesn't say anything that creates billboard material because for some people, that motivates them. Okay. All right. All right.

All right. All right, Coach. You motivating the boys? That's right. Don't be listening to me up there. No, no, no. This Penn State team is phenomenal. This Penn State team is so good.

James Franklin going to cut a promo after the game on you, you think? Just – Dan Lanning, free game. I don't like anything about the answer he just gave. I appreciate how complimentary he was. But, boy, towards the tail end there, it certainly sounds like there's been – have you heard? It's what they're saying on ESPN.

You hear what the fun guy's saying? We're going to find out what the question was. We're going to find out what the question was. This guy, he speaks so freely. Just uniqueness. Oh, man. He's got some family in him. The way he was talking.

I didn't know that's how he just... Boys. Boys, listen. Week two. Fucking we are. You know? And the state. This is just a... You know, this is just a... boys listen week two fucking we are you know this is just you know

this is just a what's the spread right now eight and a half eight and a half it has gone down it has gone back up a little bit I think it's potentially

because they heard James Franklin gave a presentation about all the things that are being said maybe from this particular program I don't love that

and I do you know what GG likes this GG likes it there's bulletin board material because I was playing college football 2k25 the other day they couldn't tackle GG you tell me coach is that realistic or not and in the locker room I think you guys are so cool I think you guys are great I think you're so athletic you guys can go on to win the big 10 good after this first week it's just gonna be a tough one in Morgantown. It's going to be a tough one down there.

It's going to be a buzzsaw, pal. Yeah, it is. Last year, you know, it was – and I saw a West Virginia D lineman who remembered last year that Penn State scored with, I think, on their very final drive to cover when they didn't need to because they were up 31-13 or something like that. Yeah, so they covered on that one. So they remember that.

Yeah, we got some bulletin board material. In the top 100. Like, you don't need bulletin board material from Penn State when you're getting it from the top 100 list without GG. Now, if James Franklin knows this, I can tell by the way Coach is speaking there, Neil Brown's not going to be able to control the way I speak ever for the rest of my life, amen.

Okay? Would that go to you? Would that happen? Yeah. Amen. Would that go to you? Would that happen? Maybe. But I would like to apologize to Coach Neil Brown for potentially adding, you know what? It's the biggest home opener since 1998. Okay? Coach will be able to handle it.

The boys are ready. Joining us now, a man who represents Penn State, A.Q. Shipley. Wow! What's up, boys? A.Q., canley. Wow. What's up, boys? What up, Q? A.Q., can't wait to have another season alongside you. I hope you're fantastic.

I don't know if you heard James Franklin basically alluded to me potentially feeding a billboard material to the Penn State Nittany Lions locker room for this week. Smart move. Okay, shut up, A.Q. It wasn't billboard material. I'm just hyping up the West Virginia Mountaineers, you know. Are you guys worried, though?

Are you worried a little bit? Are you worried about what's about to happen in Morgantown at all, AQ Shively? Not worried at all. It was a blast seeing you put West Virginia number four on the college football playoff. I think it meant to be 4-D, but three? Is that what it was, three? Yes.

That's an aggressive move. An aggressive move. It all starts Saturday. It all starts. Hey, listen, the only thing that gives them a chance is that it's week one in Morgantown. That's the only thing. I don't care.

That's good. Penn State by 25, baby. Penn State by 25. Leo, you hear this, asshole? Whoa. Put it on the billboard. Put it on the bulletin board. Put it everywhere in Morgantown.

Penn State alumni says Penn State by 25. The disrespect. Do you have any respect for football or sportsmanship at all? Son of a bitch. It's going to be the same thing as it was last year in Happy Valley. Same thing. Ladies and gentlemen, A.Q. Shipley.

A.Q. We gave equal time. I mean, James Franklin just tore the TV off his fucking wall. You do it, A.Q. He just asked his boys not to do that. I appreciate James Franklin. That was awesome. I like him.

He's fun. He's fun. He's charming. He speaks freely. Unique. It's very unique it really has this ability to just say whatever seemingly all the fucking time you know I tell my guys is let's not motivate the other team when they don't really need it because they potentially beat the fuck out of you one year ago okay James

I hear you're talking yeah we'll be there Friday. Gassing this shit all over. I cannot wait. Would you imagine being in front if there's fans to show up? Oh, yeah. It's going to be... Are you kidding me? Yeah, it's going to be amazing.

Imagine what's going to come out of... Cut, Franklin. All I ask is we make an agreement. You don't utilize anything that I say Friday against me or the West Virginia Mountaineers. Please. It's all a matter of...

It'll be in their Friday highlight film. You know how a lot of times they put a highlight film together the night before the game? You'll have a talking head of you multiple times in there. You with the headset on, too. Spring game. Looking like a Dovey. Oh, my God. Can't wait.

I mean, universe ball. What are we even talking about? See, that's the thing. I was just thinking about it, but this ball feels extra slick today. That's what he got all week. Hoop looks a little thing. I was just thinking about it, but this ball feels extra slick today. That's what he got. That's what he got all week. Hoop looks a little smaller. What if you make it, though? If you make it, they're winning. What do you mean, what if?

Hey, James, sorry about it, pal. GG. He didn't say what the ball was for, though. All right, so we lose the first half, but wait until you see the second half. Okay. Then overtime, because we did was for that so we lose first half but wait to see yeah Yep. You're right. It came back. And that's all that matters, boys. Sorry about it. Yeah.

Woo. What a comeback. Put that on the bulletin board. Holy shit. We're sorry, Coach. I mean, just wait to see whoever West Virginia plays. I think they play FCS Northeast. Nice.

Tough squad. Which I'm going to say terrible things about. Same thing. I don't want to. Damn it. I don't want to. Those it. I don't want to. Those boys can play. There's not a lot of people saying good things about West Virginia either, Coach.

Actually, nobody. Ever. Yeah. It would be cool. It would be cool. It would be cool. I think there's going to be some surprise guests on Friday. Okay.

Okay. Some West Virginia legends are going to stop. So they're saying biggest week one since 98. Home opener. Biggest home opener since 98. Weird because they're not ranked and you guys were like going to stop. So they're saying biggest week one since 98? Home opener. Biggest home opener since 98? Weird because they're not ranked and you guys were like going to go. Yeah, but we always played like Eastern. You guys didn't have any big early games like that?

Nobody would schedule us. We were one of those teams that people wouldn't. Yeah, you know? Stupid. We'd be stupid to schedule. You're right. Yeah. Those first opening weeks, I wouldn't punt till like fourth quarter,

like cause we got our fifth stringers or whatever, you know, but I would kick the entire time. And then one of the games, I had an eight yard punt. It was the only point of the year. So, uh, cause of the game. Oh yeah. So going into week two, I have an eight yard punt average. I think I was, I think I was like, uh, maybe I had one more. It was like a 20 yard average and I was up for the Ray guy

before the season started. And then, yeah, that was tough to look at all week. Yeah, that didn't help. Can I get another opportunity,

please? Can we fucking stop scoring? Can we please just take a knee in the third quarter at least whenever we're up 100 if we have to do this entire thing?

But yeah, first week was always some, stadium would be empty by the second half. You know, things over daytime game oh those were the worst just got a last we got to survive through this yeah bring your old juice yeah that's literally what those were because it was packed at the beginning you know because pat and steve sold out everywhere pat and steve sold out every stadium i mean that's just a matter of

fact everywhere we went sold out sold out but at home they used to get free student tickets so the entire top level and then the bottom level was students they get free tickets so at halftime and our parking lots were a good time i mean the parking lots are very good time so halftime they go out to just go refill it because booze wasn't available in the stadium and then we're up 35. Is anybody going back into that place? No. No, so second half was always just like, all right, just us out here, boys.

Everybody else is literally right outside of the stadium. You'd hear them. Something would happen. Yeah, what? You'd hear like a reaction from outside. That's what it used to be. But I think this time, it's a noon kickoff in Morgantown. That place is going to be raucous.

Yeah. Friday should be a lot of fun. Can't wait. We're off Wednesday. We're off Wednesday. Got a thing at a place. Yep. That's exactly what it is.

Just hanging out. Got a thing at a place. Exactly what it is. Taking a field trip. Team should take a nice field trip before the season starts. Should be fun. And then Friday, we're in Morgantown, West Virginia. And I'm not

drinking. Ever again. Can't. You got work Saturday. Can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it. You see, what happened to my liver there in London, or Dublin, I'm sorry, I fucking called it the wrong name. To what happened to my liver there in Dublin,

I think it is oozing through my body still to this day. Oh, yeah, true. Without a doubt. No doubt about it. No. What is that red thing they gave me that wasn't water? Yeah, red ale.

It was not red ale. It was called a dilute or something like that. Yeah, me-loot. It was like, remember you used to squirt those things in the water? Flavor. It was called like a me-a-wo. Somebody tweeted me about it. So it wasn't a red ale it was not already so it wasn't beer no i think they were trying to give me like electrolytes oh water i think it's its own drink over there but i've seen that thing

it was like lukewarm yeah what were those things you squirt in the water you had to run me oh yeah yeah it's like one of those is that thing beeping again again back there? Yep. We got a beeper back there. Jesus. I was in here yesterday trying to sweat and get some things together. And all of a sudden this thing just started beeping back there. I'm like, all right, I'm going to figure this out. And I remember, I don't fucking know what any of this shit is. New battery.

We need a new battery back here. There were so many wires back there. Oh, my God. Double A? Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's like a massive rack home. Yeah, oh, yeah Yeah, that's terrible it's very loud too yesterday scared the shit out of me I was just like sitting there. I was looking at something and that sort of beeping

I'm like is that about the fucking sneak in here put a bomb in blow up this bill bill Shaved his mustache AJ Why If this one goes in. Well, grow that motherfucker. I mean, the mustache. No, no. If this goes in, he's got to be completely bald the rest of the year. Eyebrows, too.

Whole thing. Yep. Bill, we need you to agree to that, obviously, because you're shaming eyebrows is a big deal, but he looked good with a mustache. Yeah, great. I mean, mustache community is pumped to have him, and now he's now welcome back. He went from Leo to basically a naked mole rat. Jesus.

Leo DiCaprio, did you say? I'd like to disagree. Look at the meerkat just popped out. Hey, Bill. He looks good. Bill looks good. Bill, you're very handsome. We all agree.

If this goes in, you'll shave every hair off your body for the rest of the year. All right. Need you here. That one doesn't count. That was a warm up. No, no, it doesn't count. Way to go, Bill. Grow that mustache back, Bill.

Fuck! You had a good mustache, dude. You had a good mustache. Great. Does it not welcome back? All right, let's get out of here. We got a big one tomorrow. Holy shit tomorrow.

Huge. Fucking massive. Can't wait. Did you hear about tomorrow? Can't fucking wait. Oh, yeah. He heard. He knows. Yeah, he knows. AJ, here. We got a big one tomorrow. Holy shit. You fucking massive wait Do you hear about tomorrow? Yeah fucking what you know, you know AJ do you hear about tomorrow? I can't wait. Absolutely

Won't be able to sleep and save Gumpy. Have you heard have you heard back there? What's that? Hey, we got time to grow. Yeah What have what I missed sorry missed sorry no it's not about what don't worry we have missed it's about what's coming up but you're gonna see brother yeah what you're tomorrow's about to be just a fucking how's that happen what a program i'll actually have her it's my apology oh he has her yeah that's not it that's not what's happening tomorrow no it's not what's happening you're not supposed to look him straight in the eye what are you doing tone tone so disrespectful what are you doing why can't you look at it that's not what's happening. You're not supposed to look him straight in the eye. What are you doing, Tone? Tone's so disrespectful.

What are you doing? Why can't you look at him? That is not what our program is. Bill, Bill. I don't get it. Bill, we love you, Bill. Bill, that's fucked up. That's so scary. That's a scary shot. What? What is everybody's deal?

It just is. Alright, we'll be back tomorrow. Why don't you guys practice what I guess I preach? Be a friend and tell a friend something nice. I did. I told him his mustache looked incredible. Told him his bowl of shite smelled good this morning that he was eating. He does eat a bowl of shite every day.

Thank you, Bill. Love you, Bill. Bye, Bill. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Thank you, Ireland,

for the hospitality. We'll be back again soon. We're going to go see your countryside. Hell yeah. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

Team. Goodbye.