The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1189 - Michael Lombardi, Kirk Herbstreit, Tony "Smoke" Stewart LIVE In The ThunderDome, George Kittle, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about cut day in the NFL as every roster must get down to 53 players by 4 PM, if we’ll see any trades, and everything else happening in the NFL as we are only 9 days away from the start of the regular season. Joining the progrum to chat all about how this final day of cuts works, how difficult it is, the strategy that goes into building team, and all his biggest takeaways from the preseason as a whole is 3x Super Bowl Champion, former GM, host of the Lombardi Line and GM Shuffle and NY Times best-selling author, Michael Lombardi. Joining the progrum in hour 2 to chat about the start of the college football season, the Connor Stallions documentary on Netflix and if there will be any fallout from it, his thoughts on Michigan this upcoming year, and the prospects of a 12 game playoff, is the voice of college football, Kirk Herbstreit. Next, one of the goats of auto racing, Tony “Smoke” Stewart joins the progrum to debut two new paint jobs for his cars that will be competing at the NHRA Nationals this weekend in Indiana. Later, 5x Pro Bowler, 4x All-Pro, one of the stars of Receiver on Netflix, George Kittle joins the show to chat about DirecTV getting rid of satellites, 49ers being in the news and if that seeps into the locker room, Brock Purdy getting jacked in the offseason, how his body feels going into his 8th season, his thoughts on Iowa football this year, 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 NFL Cut Day Tuesday, August 27th, 2024, this program starts now. Football! He's the greatest and we can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. There's a lot to talk about today, about a thousand people, 948, 950, 930, maybe 980, depending upon the number of, you know, who does what. Anyways, a lot of cuts have to happen today. Smotrak reporting 948.

Other people will say 1,000 because some people are going to get cut from two teams. Some people are actually going to be at 4 o'clock today on a roster. They're going to think that they made a team, but instead, tomorrow, guess what? They're cut. Why? Because another team cut somebody that they like better, and you're gone. There's going to be movement around all 32 NFL teams on this glorious day, and we'll try to cover it all as it happens.

Some big names are going to be moved. For instance, Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Dealer, I believe, just tweeted that DTR has been informed that he's making the team, so he'll be Deshaun Watson's backup. So what does that mean? Well, Jameis Winston and Snoop Huntley, allegedly, on the trade block. Those are two very, very accomplished quarterbacks who are very well known. Will they get traded by the end of today's show or by 4 o'clock?

We shall see. Dalvin Cook's going down to Dallas to see if the Dallas Cowboys want to sign. He looks absolutely jacked. What does that mean for the Dallas Cowboys? We shall see. There's a lot of things that are about to take place over the next four hours because teams need to get down to the number that they have to have going into the regular season.

Now, is that good news or bad news for your team? Are you going to learn anything today? I think so. I think there's a lot to chat about. We will certainly do that for the next couple hours right here on ESPN2. The Deuce. Okay. Hell yeah.

Kind of becoming our new home. It is a little bit. Love the Deuce. Little League World Series in the U.S. Open. Love to drop right into the Deuce. We. Hell yeah. Kind of becoming our new home. It is a little bit. Love The Deuce. Little League World Series in the U.S. Open. Love to drop right into The Deuce. We're lucky to be here. Tried to watch the U.S. Open yesterday. I didn't know anybody.

Am I going to know people in this tournament? Djokovic was actually 945 last night he started. 945? Yeah, it was a late one. It was a late one. In America? Yes. It's called the U.S. Open?

It is. Why are we putting him on at 945? Good question. He beat the piss out of some U.S. Open? It is. Why are we putting him on at 945? Good question. He beat the piss out of some guys. Oh, I bet he did. That's appointment television. I would stay up for the Joker and everything like that. But I was watching in primetime.

I had no idea who anybody was. And I saw the ball go back and forth. And I was like, wait a second. Monday Night Raw is on. Then I went over there. Sure. But I do appreciate the fact that the U.S. Open is taking place. We'll have some sports to chit-chat about.

Sorry to Braun Strowman for what happened to him. He got tsunami through the top of a car last night. That's absurd. And then there were some sparks flying in the car. I don't know what the hell happened in there, but something bad, obviously. When you've got that much meat going through a car, there's going to be some insanity. But we'll talk about everything today. We've got Michael Lombardi joining us in about 13 minutes.

Obviously, he's been a part of a lot of cut days from the old days where there was like three cuts. Then there was like two cuts. Now there's just one big one where everybody gets fired at the same damn time. It used to be a rollout of cuts because you could make the first cuts. That was a little bit of hope, a little bit of dream. But then your roster would change whatever that first cuts would make because all of a sudden they're looking at the waiver wire, everybody else. So you would lose people. There'd be a lot of change.

Then the second cut, I make the second cut, but I didn't make the final cut. Now it's just one big ass cut. I want to get eyes on everybody. More joint practices. Today's a big day. Today's the day where some people are going to realize that everything they've worked for for their entire life was worth it, and they made an NFL team.

Congrats! For one week. Right. For one week. Maybe even one day. But then there's going to be some people that are going to realize they're probably going to be selling insurance or coaching football after today, and that's not bad either. The fact that you even got into an NFL camp, had a cup of coffee with an NFL helmet on,

you should be incredibly proud. Not everybody's going to make it, but who does? We'll talk about all day. The Talks Table is here at Boston Corner. That Ty Schmidt, great shirt. Let him run, pal. Let him run. Yeah, one of the favorites.

I figure, you know, since it is such a bad news day, I'd wear one of my favorite shirts just to, you know, feel a little better. No, it's good news. Good news. Good news. Dreams are coming true today. Dreams are coming true. Good news. Good news. Dreams are coming true today. Dreams are coming true. Dreams are getting slaughtered.

Dreams are coming true today. Dreams are coming true. Yeah, it's just I knew that the day was coming where Zip on the Ball Zappy was no longer going to be a New England Patriot. And I'm bummed out about that. I truly am. And I know he'll find another home because he was beloved in the locker room. And like his name says, God can spit. Zip it almost.

He can zip it. I mean, the Vikings are probably calling him right now. Well, the Vikings are certainly going to be in the hunt, people think, for a good backup quarterback or even a starter, especially with some of the names that are going to become available from around the NFL. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Done.

Cowboys tone digs with a brand-new cowboy hat looking extra thin and crispy on this particular day. Are we going to learn anything about the Pittsburgh Steelers today or anything that you think we should talk about? No, I mean, their roster is pretty settled in. Maybe who the third quarterback is going to be, something like that, and who they're going to take more O-line and D-line, whatever. No, they're pretty set.

Not a lot of questions there. But I am interested to see the quarterbacks move the needle. There's going to be a quarterback market all of a sudden built today. There's going to be a quarterback market that gets built, and we're going to chat about it, and there's going to become a fan base that doesn't have a player on their team today that might in the next couple days have no one to be like, yep, we're going to win the Super Bowl. We are going to win the Super Bowl.

That's all we needed was one piece at the right position. We got it. Bang. We're going to win the Super Bowl. See a lot of these old heads, too, that maybe weren't around. Now it's time to see where teams lie, what teams need. We'll talk to Lombardi about that, obviously. We've got Kirk Herbstreit in the second hour.

College football season is off and running. Week zero was up like 31% from last year or something. Five million viewers, I think, on Florida State, Georgia Tech. It was a phenomenal game. Great product. Lucky to be there. Ireland, once again, phenomenal host. The best. Congratulations to Dublin and to Ireland for that entire thing. We product. Lucky to be there. Ireland, once again, phenomenal host. The best. Congratulations to Dublin and to Ireland for that entire thing. We'll talk to Kirk about that.

In the third hour, 2.05-ish, we've got Tony Smoke's third join. Go, Smoke! Big announcement coming. Big announcement coming from Smoke and his drag racing NHR team. Can't wait to talk about that. And then George Kittle will join us at 2.35. Can't wait. I think he's making a team. I think he's making a team. Can't wait to talk about that. And then George Kittle will join us at 235. Can't wait. I think he's making the team. I think he's making the team.

Nine-year NFL vet. One of the biggest brains in town. Any town he goes to. Darius J. Butler is here. D-Bot. D-Bot. Cut day is obviously a massive day. Dreams are coming true. You were second-round pick. Yep. Second-round pick. So you knew you were making the team. Uh-huh. You kind of knew you were making the team. For me, pick 222.

I was in a punting competition with Tim Mastay, who was certainly a better punter than me at that time. Whenever he got released before I think our first preseason game, or maybe our second preseason game, I forget what it was, it was kind of handed off for me to be the guy. And they wasted a draft pick on a punter, so a lot of people told me I was safe. But I was having some days of practice where I was like, I don't know if I'm safe. And so when that last cut day came, a lot of kickers and punters were getting released from teams. When I found out I made the team, I was ecstatic. I was so pumped.

I was so thankful. I thought about my journey. I mean, it was like a full moment for me to take in. But then really, the work just begins. For you, was there ever a time during those cut days where a perspective was put in place because you have lunch with a guy, and then all of a sudden you go to a meeting and then he's cut you never see him again that's the first time a lot of these rookies have to deal with any of this type of stuff yeah it's tough because you know you come from college where you know you're going to have your class there for

four or five years you know you build that brotherhood and then you get into the league you realize how much of a business it is um when you get drafted or signed you know somebody else has to come out that door i think when i got drafted, they traded like Ellis Hobbs, maybe that first, like as soon as I got drafted, they traded Ellis Hobbs. So, you know, it's always a numbers game. And being a second-round pick, I still didn't know at that point. So, you know, like Bill was talking about yesterday, you're hearing your family, you're calling agents,

you're like, oh, I had a bad day. He's like, hey, you're good. You can trip over the 50-yard line every play, and you're going to make the team, but you'll be good. But the second year kind of of struggled my second year, even as a second-round pick. And then going into that third year, I was released. And then the year after that, I went to Carolina.

They claimed – so I don't know if people know this, but based on your draft position, they have basically first – Team's draft position. Yeah, first in the pecking order, the team draft position. So the Panthers were the worst team the previous year, so a few teams claimed me. But the Panthers got my rights, played there for a year, got cut again. So the second-round pick, team the previous year, so a few teams claimed me. But the Panthers got my rights, played there for a year, got cut again.

So the second round pick, it was back-to-back years going into my third year where I had been cut and then found a home in Indy where I came here with Chuck. What, you have two picks first day of practice? Oh yeah, yeah. We were so happy! It lit that fire under your ass. So it is a rough day for a lot of players.

But at the same time, you know, you got to working and keep um being prepared for that opportunity when it does present itself you know i found a home a lot of people get cut kenny more kenny more i think he got cut from the patriots yep found his home in indianapolis just signed another uh big deal this offseason so it's never really the end of that story until it's the end you keep working and you keep finding you know keep working keep grinding and my third time uh grixen at the time i sat down with grixen he was like hey i remember you when you were coming out how are you coming out i think he's with philly at the time but he was like hey this probably is going to be your last opportunity your last real opportunity because when you're a high pick you get more opportunities just based on your draft position your expectation and talent

all that stuff so um i came in i'm like all right if right, if I go out, I'm going to go out my way. So I took more chances. I studied more. And you kind of become a pro. You know, you learn things. And then it was a lot of things that I didn't like about my first stint in New England that once I got to year three, year four, I kind of realized, okay, that's why they do these things.

That's why the practice is this way. That's why you prepare this way. So you get a different perspective as you get older. But a lot of times, a lot of people don't get those type of chances. So I was fortunate. But to the people out there, man, it's not the end. Keep working. It is a tough day.

It's a great day for a lot of players who get that call and say, hey, you made the 53. I'm pretty pumped that they both caught you. He's joining up in Indiana. Me too. Me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I am very pumped. First day you got to,

I think you had two picks in your first practice and me and Vinatieri were like, we fucking got it. Finally. We got it, we got it guys. And then obviously

you fit in the locker room so well, so quickly. And you know, everybody learns and adjusts their, like for me, I mean, I got arrested and then immediately

after that is when I started having success because life got put into perspective very quickly, which I think cut day does for people. You know, you kind of start realizing like, wait, I did not have a backup plan my whole life. All I had was football, football, football.

But to your point, UFL still exists, right? UFL still giving a lot of jobs. CFL still giving a lot of jobs. Teams have more practice squad spots than they've had in the past because of COVID. It's not over for everybody, but some of you need to look in the mirror and realize it probably is. You kind of, once you get to this level, you realize it's a different ballgame really quick. You've got to bring it. You've got to bring it every day.

You've got to bring it every year because even as you get older in the league, you start to pay attention to the draft a little more. You start to pay attention to who's going where. And as you mentioned, there's going to be a lot of guys hitting the street today at 4 o'clock. So, as you mentioned with these other teams, hey, I'm thinning the old line. It becomes a numbers game. So, a lot of times it's not that you're not good enough to make a team,

but, hey, we got some injuries, a wide receiver. We got some injuries, a corner. That team let go of, you know, Allen Robinson is available now. Noah Brown just got released from the Texans, who had a good year last year. He'll probably get picked up somewhere. Hodgins, you saw Malik Willis. He's now the backup in Green Bay. So it'll be a lot of moving parts. Jameis.

Potentially available, which is crazy to think about. Especially with everything that's been coming out positive with him in Cleveland. He said we and us to Cleveland in his interview. With us like 15 times. And now Mary Kay, who's been covering the Cleveland Browns forever. So more names coming out. More things

potentially. More players available for teams to get better overnight. I just think, like, man, if you sign somebody, like if the Minnesota Vikings go out and sign somebody, I know Sam Darnold's going to be great, okay? But if they sign, like, a big-name quarterback, let's say Jameis or let's say Snoop. I mean, I was going to say he's a pro bowler. Snoop Huntley made a pro bowl a couple years ago. Your fan base gets reinvigorated again.

It's like, hold on, wait a minute, we can actually make this. But if you're a player that's potentially sitting on the edge of the bubble, you want to see as little talent as possible hit the wall. Oh, yeah. I want everybody to be cropped that gets waived or gets cut. Because to your point about the numbers game, we'd have a linebacker or something that was very good at special teams, rookie.

Like, I would like this guy to be on my teams or whatever. They're like, well, we got good linebackers. We don't have a lot. Somebody just got hurt in a corner room. So we're going to have to go sign somebody. And this guy who's a good linebacker, potentially going to make a team, going to get cut just because there are only a lot of 53 people. And he happens to be the last one in that particular room.

It's like, so you could see how so many people who are very good at football their entire life get jaded at the end of their football career. Because there is numbers games that happen and people never really get an opportunity. There is an injury that takes place, maybe in training camp. Maybe there's one game where you were told

to do the wrong thing and you get exposed. So on film, you look bad. And all you're wondering for the rest of your life is what if, what if, what if, what if, what if, what if. And that sucks for people. And today, some of those what if moments start for some people oh yeah but on the flip side hall of famers are making a team for the first time today that is walk not walk-ons but you get it undrafted undrafted guys have made a team made a pro bowl made the hall of fame there's a chance one of those stories happens today. It could be on your team.

It could be on your team. It will probably be on one of my teams. There is what? I mean, probably not. But, I mean, when you're talking about New England, probably. Derek Brackett, one of the greatest of all time, straight out of Rutgers. Yeah. What do you –

The guy out of West Virginia, Beanie Bishop, who's undrafted, who's going to be the starting nickel, I think, who's going to make the 53. I cannot believe he was undrafted, by the way. Made a lot of plays for the West Virginia Mountaineers. Can't wait to get down there on Friday. That should be an absolute. Was Victor Cruz undrafted? Yeah.

Yeah. Hard knocks helped propel him into the stratosphere. Huge, huge preseason game. First Super Bowl champ. Like, yeah. And good luck to all the players. And congrats. And thank you for your commitment to football throughout your entire life,

if you don't make a team. You know? And still a great sport. Taught you a lot of things. You have a head start on everybody else because you did play football. Congrats, and thank you for your commitment to football throughout your entire life, if you don't make it to the end. Still a great sport, taught you a lot of things. You have a head start on everybody else because you did play football. Mentally, they got you. Physically, you'll be able to take care of yourself. You just need to apply everything from the world of sport and football into your regular life if you are done. And if you're not done, hey, good luck and go take advantage of the opportunity.

You're getting a head start on everybody with the amount of money you're about to make for playing a kid's sport. Kid's sport, king's ransom. Chuck McGonigal used to say it all the time. Get to it. Don't have to. And it's like, well, a lot of people are getting to make money off of this. We should be as well in this entire thing. Documentary was released via Netflix, Untold.

It was Connor Stallion's story. It was quite a buzz around the internet this morning. It's an hour and 27 minutes long, so we didn't get a chance to watch the entire thing as we're piecing together this morning's shows, but clips were coming out. And I think the reaction that I've seen thus far, and correct me if I'm wrong,

is if you were a Harbaugh's a piece of shit, he definitely knew type of person before this documentary, it solidified it. Seemingly, this is the reaction that we're reading on the internet. And if you think Harbaugh's a piece of shit. He definitely knew type of person before this documentary. It solidified it. Seemingly, this is the reaction that we're reading on the internet. And if you think Hardbaugh did not know and Connor Stallions was a rogue agent, you feel that way even more after watching it. For sure. I will say as somebody who has listened to Hardbaugh speak about this entire process and watch how he reacted this entire process. And now he's continued to maintain his innocence about not knowing what was taking place and how it was taking place.

I don't think Harbaugh knew. I have not watched The Hour in 27. I will do that this evening. So I might come in tomorrow with a different story. But from the clips that I've seen, this Connor Stallions guy was committed to the Michigan War. That's one word. I mean, what are you saying? I mean, he was committed, but he was some other.

Psychopath? Obsessive? Obsessive. Obsessive? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, but hey, that's what the greatest are, right? That's what it takes. Tom, MJ, Tiger, we all... Stallions.

Stallions. You've got to be obsessed with your craft, which Connor Stallions certainly was. There's one particular clip that I think kind of showcases why Connor Stallions' name was mentioned,, brought up and became a massive story. And it took place while he was getting interviewed by the NCAA, I believe, with his lawyers sitting right next to him. It's a longer scene, but here's the part that basically says, yes, I did what everybody kind of was saying that I did. Connor, did you ever direct anyone or instruct anyone to attend a college football game in which Michigan was not playing?

No, I don't ever recall directing someone to go to a game. Have you ever purchased tickets for someone to attend a college football game in which Michigan was not playing? I've purchased tickets to many games. College football, obviously, Michigan's playing, so I don't have time to go to another game, but I either resell them, or if a friend asks for a ticket, then I transfer it to them or her. Okay.

And would any of those tickets that you purchased that you would then transfer to a friend or a family member, did any of the individuals who you purchased a ticket for attend a game that Michigan was not competing in and film or record the opponent's signal callers? So to my understanding, there are some people who attended games using tickets that I purchased

and recorded parts of those games. To my understanding. And who are the individuals that recorded parts of the games that were sitting in seats that you purchased? I don't recall exactly who. I've purchased tickets to a lot of games. How do you know they were recording parts of the game then? Because sometimes I would receive film from them. because sometimes I wouldn't receive film from them.

I've had a friend send me film, and it's kind of like when your aunt gets you a Christmas present that you already have. You're not going to be rude and be like, oh, I already have this, I don't need it. You know, just, oh, thanks, appreciate it. You know, feel like they're helping out or whatever when I already have the signals. I already memorized the signals. it you know just oh thanks appreciate it you know i feel like they're helping out or whatever when i already have the signals i already memorized the signals i mean what's so just say thanks whatever

you know i mean all of it is very interesting he was very open in it all and obviously that uh recording was done from the research that the ncaa was gathering while they were doing what they were trying to do and figure out what the punishment's going to be. And obviously we've heard and been told by the authority that's probably going to be a massive financial litigation through it all. But if you listen to him speak there, you could tell he was trying to outlaw the lawyers, to my understanding. And then he said, yes, they have semi-film and yada, yada, yada. And you would think to yourself, well, somebody was telling him to do this, right? It's like, not necessarily. Here's another clip from this thing.

This guy was obsessed with being the greatest sign decipherer of all time. And you say, why do you know, or how do you know he's obsessed with it? Listen to what this fucking guy would do. I mean, this guy wanted to be the greatest sign decipherer is what he would describe.

And I believe his obsession with that led him to the, like, I think he got trapped into, I'm the greatest of all time. Listen to this clip and watch what he would actually do. Thousands of signs he said he would do this to me. The first thing that I evolved that made me good at deciphering signals was my game day sheet.

I took a couple weekends. I found a white wall as the background and I wore dark clothes to contrast. I propped my phone up and just recorded myself doing every possible signal I could ever imagine. could ever imagine. Any signal I've ever seen, any signal that we've done, any signal any other team's done, and any variation of any signal. So I recorded myself doing probably two to 3000 signals. When I was done, I uploaded each photo

into my sheet where it belonged. I developed my own database, which is the next evolution of my game day sheet. Instead of memorizing words, I was memorizing pictures. And I would say that is the number one reason why I became as good as I did at deciphering signals. You're talking about thousands of signals he would piece together on his game day board. Instead of, you know, play calls or words, he would just put obviously the signs. So then he's watching across the thing. He knows exactly what it is. He's quite a weapon all of a sudden for the Michigan Wolverines as somebody who was in military as opposed to growing up in football

and coaching in football. And I think what you're hearing in the reaction from everybody is, obviously this dude, this guy was really obsessed with this. I mean, he was committed to this more than anybody else on earth. But let's listen to Coach T. Mitch here,

defensive coordinator for the Arkansas Razorbacks. And if you do recall, he's the one that freestyled in front of the team, and they all said, yeah, Coach, in the middle of it, had them all bought in. Here's what he had to say about science. Once again, remember, dog on the football field as a player, now defense coordinator in college. Oh, a lot. Like, it's so funny.

You'll be shocked. During the week, I know offense all around the country. They're going to look at it. They're going to get the TV copy, and they're looking at the signals. Yeah, just one person. That's your only job, look at the signals. And then, boom, oh, we can't get the defensive signals. Okay, well, let's see what the defensive players are signaling.

Then they'll try to get it that way. You know, so they got different ways. I remember we played Louisville and he was really good. And I saw the TV copy and I could just see the whole time. He's just like this. Just watching, watching, watching. And then at halftime, they got the signals. So we played him next year.

I was at UCF. We played him that next year and I got his contact and I called him that next year, and I got his contact, and I called him. Like, hey, man, I need you. And he sent me the whole thing. He said, this is what we had, and it was like 80%. Correct. So we had to change our signals because they just passed it around, so they're just sending it to the next. So we played SMU and Red Lashley to them, and they had the same signals.

I wasn't mad that he sent it around. I would have been mad if we didn't change it. So it's huge, like, just signals, and it's perfectly legal. I know teams right now that have two guys on the field because you usually have them in the box. So you know how many times you see a lot of these teams behind the actual team. They got these – they pull out these big curtains behind it. If it wasn't important, they wouldn't be doing it.

A lot of – 80% of the teams in America, when they sign, they pull out the big curtain behind so the guys in the press box can't get them. important, they wouldn't be doing it. 80% of the teams in America, when they sign, they pull out the big curtain behind so the guys in the press box can't get them. Well, they done smartened up. They done put them on the field. So they got two guys and they just sit here and try to get it. So you got to have ways of highing your signals.

So you can always know when a play happens, hey man, they got our signals. It's like the perfect play. You just know. All over college football. So that's hey, man, they got our signals. Because it's like the perfect play. You just know. All over college football. So that's not – man, it's nothing new. It's not one of those deals where it's like unethical or something like that. Like they do it.

You just – if you're crazy enough to keep the same signals, that's on you. That's Coach T. Will. I call it T. Mitch. That's 100% on me. But Coach T. Will basically breaking down, I think, what every former player had to say about the sign stealing. I think why the Connor Stallion thing happened is because the advanced scouting rule that was in place and I think if you were to watch this untold entirely that he's saying that he exploited the

rules like I wasn't at the game there was no coaches at the game it was other people were they family friends so I didn't know some of the people that were there but sign stealing has been happening since the beginning the conversation now from the coach to the quarterback and the ability to call into play to the mike linebacker they're obviously still going to use signs but this entire thing of signal stealing is a weapon if you have a guy that's very good on it uh good at it on your team and conor stallions might have been the guy who was considered the greatest of all time which leads me to saying that harbaugh could literally not know that he was paying people or buying tickets and sending people going forward.

Harbaugh could have definitely thought to himself, though, I got a good sign stealer on my sideline, because every team has been looking for those since signs have been given in any sport, seemingly. Yeah, like Coach said, like Coach T. Will said, you know, you got to change them. And at the same time, we use, I mean, this is going to be quads. Like, you know, these are going to be seams. Like, it's a certain thing.

Brady had a signal. He would go like this, and that meant the outside receiver's going up, the slot receiver's breaking out. And he did it for 20 years. So, like, you can have signals, but you got to execute. Like, I think somebody – oh, it's a tip when Trent Williams and it's a runner. You got gotta execute. I think somebody, it's a tip when Trent Williams and it's a runners when it's, you gotta execute. So I've never been on a team where we didn't have a guy who gave us signals,

who gave us offensive signals. Hey, this is what they get it from the TV copy, they'll get it from across the field. Sometime you'll have three guys doing the signals and one guy is the real guy. The other two are just smokescreen. So it's always, it's's gamesmanship it's going on week in and week out if you're not cheating you're not trying but at the end of the day you got to execute we played Peyton Manning the first time he came back here obviously Reggie had spent a bunch

of time with him and these quarterbacks you know Aaron Peyton Drew Tom all these guys they carry a lot of that same shit over and they're more concerned about their guys been on the same page having the signal so they're not going to out tricktrick themselves. Defense, you can have all you want. Reggie will tell us this, that, and the third, but, hey, don't get too caught up on this shit because he'll go and change it and make sure you hear him call it and you're like, hey, this is coming, and then they'll have some other option perfectly drawn up.

So it's always been a part of the game. It's literally people's job to do it. Usually it's a quality control guy or whoever, what are they called, the grads, GAs on the college level. So it's always somebody. But at the end of the day, you've got to execute. You've got to do it usually it's a quality control guy or whoever did uh um what do they call grad the grads gas on the college level so it's always somebody better in a day you got to execute you got to get it done between downs and more importantly you got to be on the same page with your guys that we're doing what we need to be doing in quads coverage or cover two or cover three whatever that is the the way the story was rolled out was as if it was out of a novel in a movie and then we're listening to it it kind of yeah yeah it kind of is and i think at connor stallion's head he was beating a rule with the advanced scouting he wasn't i wasn't telling if they sent it to me they sent it to me if i saw it i saw it

and then he'd be able to put together a signed board for who they're playing against i mean it's like all those things that it's just it feels like they want to you want to fall yeah you just went you want you just want to we're all trying to do it. But you just went. You took advantage. And I think Connor Stallion said, is that my fault? Is that your fault? Who's saying where the line is?

Is like what Connor Stallion's question is. Because if the rule says that I can't go or that coaches can't go, it doesn't say shit about somebody I meet on the internet that I just got tickets for. And if they want to happen to record some stuff and send it to me, even though I didn't tell them that, right? Ask the lawyer. I didn't say that. To my understanding, right?

Yep. Okay. I did that. Very fascinating, this whole situation. I'll be intrigued to see what the NCAA does with the punishment because you potentially open a Pandora's box for people to go back about the signed stuff, especially with what Coach T. Will just said right there. We saw Michigan play football last year.

Yeah. Boots on the ground. We saw them, I think, a couple games. We see Arkansas. Arkansas, what was their record? Everybody's doing it, but you got to go out there next year. You got to have the players. You got to have the scheme.

Everybody's doing it. And Connor definitely found some loopholes. He went a little maybe too far, but it was interesting on my X, at least. It was like people were split right down the middle. Harbaugh definitely knew. Harbaugh had no idea. So I'm interested to see once I watch the hour. Connor Stein's got game ball against the Hawks.

He did, and it kind of just reinforced my beliefs that, you know, I mean, we were cheated, obviously. I mean, he was decided. No, but it really, I mean, like we've talked about this. It's a perfect example just of, you know, pigs get fed, hogs get slaughtered. Because if he would have just continued to kind of do it how everyone else is doing it, I'm sure, you know, then whatever, you maybe get a slap on the wrist. But, like, the smoking gun really – or when it – I feel like when it kind of got to be like a massive deal

is when they had that picture of him, you know, like dressed up on the Central Michigan sideline. It's like, okay, well, if he's doing stuff like this, like maybe that is, you know like dressed up on the central michigan sideline it's like okay well if he's doing stuff like this like maybe that is you know he's not just having one of his buddies record signals at a different game it's like this dude who is a staffer for michigan is on a different university sideline you know like what the hell is he doing there i feel like that's when it was really like okay something needs to be done about this and also you know and we said about we said this last year during the coverage of it all and our show was used a lot in that documentary i didn't know that was coming uh so that's why we ran their shit too without asking you know we can fair play good on you and i think we might have maverick carter uh who's one of the

executive producers on it uh on this week at some point to chit chat a little bit more about the entirety of the story but it became the thing that took over college talk and it's like even if Harbaugh didn't know they reaped the benefit of it they certainly reaped the benefit of everything that was happening which is why the punishment is going to have to happen at some point and did happen at time but for their team not to blink after all

that imagine if they were able to continue to know everybody's signals like did they have a backup signal guy? Because every other team they were playing against going forward certainly had people trying to decipher signals. Did Michigan have no signal people because they weren't allowed as they went on to win? It's almost like, wait a minute, was it more impressive now that they weren't able to do anything?

We shall see. Joining us now is a guy who probably knows a little bit about this because in the NFL this is happening as well. In the NFL, there are certainly guys that make teams and are on sidelines because they have a very good understanding of what's happening on the other side of the field. Now, coaches obviously are expected to know this type of stuff, but if you have a quarterback or a player or a GA that understands what hand signals are for coverage on the backside of the other one and can see it, get it in,

and get it to the quarterback before that 15-second time limit where they can't talk anymore. What an advantage. Joining us, ladies and gentlemen, Paisan, NFL legend, three-time Super Bowl champion, host of the Lombardi Line, the GM Shuffle. He's a TED Talker and founder of the Daily Coach, an email newsletter that you need to read when you're taking your morning dumps.

Michael Lombardi. Hey, Pat. What's up, guys? How we doing? Welcome back home. You guys did an impressive job there. Very good. Well done.

You represented America very good in Ireland. I mean, I don't think they thought we can't drink over there. I think we proved that. Thank you. Thank you. That was one goal. It was like, hey, let's have a little respect. But I would like to let all the people in Ireland know,

I get a lot but respect for you. Hey, man. Those lads. Those lads can really go over there. Those lads can really go over there. And Chimus might be the one who could go the most out of anybody. But we had a blast. We thank you for paying attention to our program, Lombardi.

We love having you on. We're talking about the Connerstead. Give me a joke. Yeah, I know. More Guinness. Talking about the homeland. Talking about the homeland. Some leftover Guinness, perhaps. talking about the connor step give me a joke yeah i know more goodness some leftover goodness about the homeland uh we're talking about the connor stallions documentary on netflix untold where they get the behind the scenes and the investigation and him being questioned and what he was saying you know and how he won about it all and t will who's the

arkansas defensive coordinator basically just said when i was at ucf they had my shit here they passed it over here i just asked him like hey what was our tell he told us everything and what conversation led from is like since the history of signs being given in sports not just football but in sports as a whole there has been a weapon of being able to figure out so yeah if you can of course that's an added benefit for sure so it's interesting how this is all going to get viewed by the ncaa whenever they punish michigan inevitably and announce it what are your thoughts on it all and what do you think about football and signs and sports as a whole well i think look sign stealing has been going on in the national football league since they took away the quarterback

calling the plays okay and there's guys in the hall of fame currently today that have spent a lot of time stealing signs. And I'm not, you know, I am a true Italian. I'm not going to tell anybody names or anything. I'll plead the fifth and do that. But I think if you're dumb enough to show your signs out there in front of God and everybody, you deserve to get them stolen. Because it's a competitive disadvantage if people know what you're doing. I mean, you're giving away your signs, and you have to be very careful.

One of the reasons why, if you're an NFL team, you do not want your sidelines across the field from the press box. Why is that? Because you don't want people stealing, having a clear view of your signals. One of the things when I went to Cleveland, that's one of the things I said. We've got to move our sideline away. Now, we have radio communication, so that's not necessary anymore. But I think to me it's really important that you understand that this is a competitive

environment, and everybody's looking for that little extra edge. And if you're dumb enough to give your signs on national TV, then that's what's going to happen to you. you yeah in the nfl the connor stallion situation is they didn't have communication from coach to quarterback so everybody had to give signs everybody had those big dumb tarps that coach t will was talking about and it's like we got to hide our signs it makes sense that they're finally initiating the quarterback coach conversation but at one point you know there were some conferences or schools that wouldn't be able to afford it so that'd be be a competitive advantage for some people.

It's like, all right, we're in 2024, happy we're moving on. Let's talk about moving on. Teams have to move on from a lot of players today, and I know you're a former GM and been a part of, obviously, personnel and consulting, and we talked to Bill yesterday, who looked young, didn't he? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Looking good, yeah.

Getting rest. Younger day by day. Sleeping in, yeah, doing good. Yeah, he looked great. He's sleeping in, yeah doing good yeah he looked great he looked he's sleeping in yeah absolutely he looked younger he talked about how during cut day he had to fire 37 people every single year at least let alone maybe more people as a former gm as a personnel person today kind of sucks obviously but you're making things come true as well which one do you try to

focus on more and how do you think these conversations go with me and has everybody tried to fight you before whenever you cut? Well, no, I think if you're instructed, like if you're the general manager and you're going to meet with the players, you have to treat the young man in front of you as if it's your son. And I think that's really important. That's what I would tell the kids. I mean, if I was in there talking to a player,

I would easily say to the player, look, I'm going to talk to you as if I were talking to my own son. Here's where I think you can excel. Here's where I think you need to work on. Here's why you didn't make the team. And here's where we think you have a future and why we want you on the practice squad or why we may not call you. I think the worst thing you can do to any young man who's been disappointed about not making the team is lie to him. I don't think you should lie to him. I think they want honesty. I know it's going to be hard to handle. I know they're devastated, but you have to be very polite and sensitive, but you also have to be honest because you don't want to sit there and say,

and this happens in a lot of NFL organizations, well, we really liked you in the scouting department, but the coaches cut you. This isn't the blame game. That's not fair to the kid. The kid deserves to know what he has to work on what he can improve on and does he actually have a future and i think that's the conversation and you try to make it as honest as you possibly can and when you have to let somebody go copping out by blaming other people is not necessarily the right thing to do horrible because then those makes the organization look bad pat makes you well wait a minute they just told me the coach didn't want it. Why did I get cut? That's just horrible. But it happens. I'm telling you, it happens in every city. Okay, so let's talk about some of

the big names that are potentially going to be on the move. How closely do you think GMs are watching the other waivers more so than their own roster before making their own decisions? Well, I think what we'll see today is we'll see waiver manipulation so we'll see trades like the bears made with daryl taylor and chris williams where the bears wanted to get those two players so they gave up an asset for a flip right they traded this pick for that pick and essentially it was no cost at all that's kind of what's going on i think when now these names get released like for example bailey zi got released by the Patriots. Okay, we know he's going to be on the waiver wire.

Say you're a team that needs a backup quarterback or the Giants who maybe think they need somebody as the third teamer and it's not Tommy DeVito or whatever. Then you make a trade for the guy if you're not high up there on the trade list. This today is about improving the bottom half of your roster and having young players on your team that can help you win games in November and December. Remember, this time last year, Clowney was just on the Ravens. Van Noy wasn't on the Ravens.

Those guys combined for 19.5 sacks because they added them later. And I think that's kind of what we're dealing with right now who can help us as we develop them so the Packers wanted Malik Willis you know instead of letting him hit the waiver let's trade for him and make sure that's exactly right okay cool cool cool yeah that happens yesterday which I think Packers fans are got pretty excited about uh it was a 2025 seventh round pick which I assume the Packers like we're willing to give up seventh round pick to get our backup that we would like to have on our particular team who are the backups sean clifford and yeah and michael pratt a guy they drafted this year but in the seventh round yeah

from two lane and the floor said yesterday like we're gonna see what else is out there like they they had not impressed in either the games or practices during preseason so in their eyes they just use the seventh round pick next year on malik Willis. Yeah, right. But it's probably a conditional seventh too, Pat. So if he's on the roster for three weeks, then it's a seventh. If he's on the roster for eight weeks, it's a firm seventh. It's one of those. Usually those picks, when they're just pick swaps like that, they have some conditions to them. Because if he doesn't make the team, you don't want to give up a seventh round pick. But it's roster manipulation. you know, the Dotson trade that the Eagles made. I mean, that one marvels me because that trade, the Eagles said a pick that's going

to be somewhere between 90 and 96 third round pick for the Eagles. They're going to be a playoff team. They're going to pick somewhere in there. And they still got assets back, which makes you wonder why wasn't there more competition for Dotson like why weren't other teams trying to offer because Washington surely would have made a deal with Pittsburgh instead of making a deal with Philly well yeah Philly in that MC East getting the Giants running back and then getting a slot within I mean Howie's doing it and Bill heard Bill say that yesterday as well he's like what Howie's been able to accomplish I don't know I don't know it's doing it. And I heard Bill say that yesterday as well. He's like, what Howie's been able to accomplish. I don't know. It's amazing.

It really is. But he's got no competition. I mean, his picks are not great picks. They're 90 to 96. And yet he's beating teams that need players. Now, Dotson, let's put this in perspective. Dotson's going to be the fifth option for Philadelphia. He's never going to see the best corner.

He's never going to see the best corner. He's never going to see double coverage. He's going to have the best time of his life because all that stuff goes to A.J. Brown. It goes to Smith. What's his name? What's his first name? What do you think his first name is? Oh,

I got it. I forget. I get Waddle and Smith confused all the time. Devontae. I got it all. I get Waddle and Smith confused all the time on first base. Devontae Smith. Devontae. I get them confused. Yeah, but watch your ear, Brangham. I was on a roll when you stopped me.

I was going. I was in a run. You're right, though. You're 100% right with the Eagles. Him just being able to just kind of leak out with how explosive he is, is bananas, especially with how much they're going to have to respect Saquon and Jalen. We already know what's been happening when he has a good running back. What happens to the outside linebacker, safety, whatever, just frozen completely.

Let alone Saquon potentially going the other way. Now you've got a little Dotson and Batman, a little Batman. I mean, and Goddard able to go right up the middle. Goddard's a good player. So it is, hey, good on you, Eagles. Good on you. Going to have to figure out who's going to replace Kelsey. Now, what does today do to potentially expedite the processes

with teams in their situations? I'm sure the boys will ask about what's happening in the Niners. I want to ask about Hasan Reddick, who has never even been inside of the Jets' building since getting traded out of Philadelphia because Philadelphia wouldn't give a long-term deal to him. Now, Robert Saleh was asked about him. He said there is a path to him to be able to play in week one. He assumes he's in phenomenal shape.

We got a video of Hasan Reddick working out with a pass-rushing specialist, Coach BT Jordan, who I looked at his website and his profile after this. Works with a lot of guys. He was down at the Pass Rush Summit as well, so I assume he is his individual coach. And Hasan Reddick has had a phenomenal career, but we see six seconds of him going over some hurdles and then getting around a dummy.

We assume Hasan Reddick is a pro and is in shape, but he hasn't even been in the building, and he still wants to get traded. Does today expedite this process for teams? Like, is there a chance that more people come out of the woodwork wanting Hasan Reddick? Do you think today will bring a day where the Jets will want to get a deal done with Hassan Reddick? How do you feel today and the cuts kind of work in this type of situation? Well, the Reddick one, I don't see the solution. I mean, he wants a new contract.

Nobody's going to take the Jets problems off their hands. They traded a 26 third round pick for the guy, you know, and so there he is. I think he's been fined close to $4 million going up. The meter's running like crazy. I don't know how. To pay the fine back, you've got to have $4 million of cash sitting in the bank. And now he's going to start losing game checks. I don't see how that works. I think the hardest one, and I listened to Shefty yesterday on your show,

the hardest one is Ayuk because Iyuk is really not being reasonable. He sees himself in the Lamp Chase category. It's hard to do a contract when you can't put the player in the right category. He should be signed by now. They've offered him a deal that's commensurate to what his production has been, But he's being unreasonable in terms of he wants to get paid at a higher level. That's a hard deal to do. Like the CeeDee Lamb deal should not have been this hard. It should have been done three weeks ago because it fit perfectly within the structure of the wide receiver contracts. It was perfectly fit. Now, maybe he didn't want to go to Thousand Oaks, and that's all well and good. I don't know that. But the Iuke deal, to me, the hard part why that's not getting done is the player has a different sense of value.

And the agent can't convince the player this is the market. Because if he really was about money, he would have taken the New England deal. Where does he want to be? Yeah, that's the… I think that's what everybody's trying to figure out. I think it's the most frustrating thing of all because he's constantly changing his mind. I think of the 49ers. Now, the rubber meets the road this week or next week.

They're going to have four days off this weekend. All teams have to. But when it starts next Tuesday, a week from today, when you start getting ready for the Jet game, you're either going to be playing or you're not. And if you're not playing, you're going to start getting fine game checks. Well, and Trent Williams' deal also, you know, kind of sitting out there right now. And he is obviously goat conversation at a very, very, very needed position for every single team. So the San Francisco 49ers certainly have their situation.

There's a couple other situations at brewing, too, at a very important position. Go ahead, Dee Bunch. Yeah, the most important position, quarterback position. Obviously some big decisions to be made in new england and out in pittsburgh seems like russell wilson is probably going to be the guy in pittsburgh i know tomlin said he will name a starter at the end of the work week but how do you see these uh quarterback situations play out and how would you uh i guess play them out as a gm well if i were in new england i would play i would play brissette only because i think their offensive line is in such a state of disarray that I don't want to hurt the young rookie's progress.

I think he's looked very good. I think he shows he has a future. But preseason is way different than the regular season. And I think they signed Brissette for a purpose. And until they can protect the young quarterback, there's no reason to put him out there. There's no reason to put him out there. And the game speeds up so dramatically on game one of the regular season that all of a sudden that offensive line, which wasn't blocking the backups of the Washington football team,

and will struggle to block Cincinnati. I would play Bursette knowing that you're going to eventually get to May. Here's the problem. If you start May and he doesn't play well, now you have to bench him. And now that hurts the kids''s confidence and it affects the team. Let people want to see May play eventually while you get your line. I think the main decision in Pittsburgh for Mike Tomlin is about who's going to protect the football.

I mean, Mike Tomlin won 10 games without very good play from their quarterback last year. So he's about protecting the ball. Russell Wilson was seventh in the National Football League and not throwing interceptions last year. He did protect the ball for the most part. I think ultimately that's going to be the deciding factor, whereas Mike's going to

want to win the game with his defense, run the football, and not turn this thing over. Allegedly, you know, it's coming out. This was never a competition between Justin Fields and Russell Wilson. This was Russell Wilson's job from the beginning. Well, Mike Tomlin did say he was in pole position going into training camp and to the offseason. Justin Fields, whenever he was on the field for the Steelers,

obviously did what Justin Fields does, which is provide a lot of excitement. But then there was also some potential turnovers. And to go to your point, Mike Tomlin's not going to be sitting there watching the quarterback just give the ball to the other team, mostly because if you don't, we're going to win a 9-6 game. Because that's what we've done for the last 10 years. That is literally what we have done for the last 10 years at Pittsburgh football. Russell should be able to take care of it.

Russell should be able to. But if he doesn't, once again, you've got Justin Fields sitting there for maybe a quick little burst. And maybe dual quarterback situation. Have Justin Fields ready and utilize what he's fantastic at. What's that? I mean, I feel like if I'm a Pittsburgh fan, the guy who will want to win the job and be the quarterback of the future is Justin Fields because with Mike Tomlin there,

you're going to win eight, nine, ten games. You're never going to be picking in that top three to get a franchise changer at that quarterback position. How many times do guys hit the market so i mean that's the guy you want obviously you can't just make it happen but that's the guy i would want justin fields to get in there and show hey he has he's had potential now he's protect the ball can he get rid of the ball can he read coverages to do those different things that's what i would want though if i'm still those are big questions if he could do those, that would be great and that's who we would want. I think the challenge that Mike has is he's got to stand in front of his team and sell the starting quarterback. We all don't see who's

the best leader. We all don't see who has the command in the huddle. We all don't see about who's working in the team meetings. All those factors, when Mike stands in front of his team and says, Russell's the starter and here's why. Because there's a lot of doubt in that room. There's doubt in the sense that there's probably a group of people that think Russell should start. There's probably a group that thinks Fields should start. There's probably a group that's wondering why the hell did we sign Mason Rudolph back? So you've got a lot of groups in that room. And so Mike's got to convince the room, this guy gives us the best chance. See, that's what people don't understand.

You lose your credibility when you try to sell something that's not real. Yeah, and the team knows it immediately. And then also the games figure themselves out. Because somebody could look crop in preseason, then regular season comes and everything clicks for whatever reason, and then the complete opposite can happen. They're both there. Russell Wilson's only getting paid a million bucks, you know,

so they can make a lot of decisions. That quarterback position is a big decision to be made. Let's go to Connor who has a question for you, Lambeau. Yeah, Lambeau, a situation similar to New England going into the season was Minnesota. They brought in Sam Darnold to be their bridge quarterback, you know, draft. J.J. McCarthy in the first round hoping that he'd be the future, but now he, J.J. McCarthy's out for the season with the knee injury do you think they're going to bring in

someone like a Mike White you know we talked about how DTR was named kind of the backup to Deshaun so now Jameis or Huntley might be on the block do you think they're going to bring in one of those guys and make that a competition again or do you think that you know the Vikings might do the Jets situation just roll with the guy that they have and don't make any moves and just kind of see what happens I think if you're Minnesota and you're Kevin O'Connor you're saying who's better than Nick Mullins that's on the waiver wire can we get a better player than Nick Mullins is this guy equal to or similar to Nick Mullins if the answer is yes don't make a change if the answer is this guy is

much better than Nick Mullins we've got to make the move. Sam's going to be the starter, but if Sam goes down, I don't want to lose the season. I don't want to have to sign Joshua Dobbs or make a trade to get a quarterback to come in here midway through the year. So really, the question you're asking inside the Minnesota building is, is Mullins good enough to be the backup? And Hall, as the third, they drafted him. They have promise for him, whether he can be the guy or not. But that's the fundamental question they're asking. Is Mike White better than Nick Mullen? Is Bailey Zappi better than Nick Mullen? I mean, that's what you're trying to constantly do.

And then as the waiver wire comes in, most of these guys are vested veterans that are getting cut, the quarterbacks. So you can get to them quicker than you could some young guy. So if Winston gets released by Cleveland or traded, they could easily get him on the team the next day. I think that's what's going on in Minnesota. Well, and the vested situation is obviously interesting because if you're a vested player, which is four years or more, I do believe, four years or more, and you're on the opening day roster, your salary for the entire year is guaranteed.

So it's a guaranteed salary. Bill broke it down yesterday, but it's a very real thing that happens during all these cuts, which is why vested players, you see their names kind of pop up, and then there's a game played, then they're signed, then you move it. Jameis Winston not being a Brown this year would be a real bummer. That would be so bummed out about that. He was saying, we and us.

But, you know, the other thing people do with Vestive Veterans, Pat, is they could go to and say, look, we'll sign you back on Monday. And then we can manipulate the roster a little bit to do that. That's kind of how this thing goes. But I would be surprised if Winston didn't have a job. I really would be. Let's talk about the roster stuff. Ty has a question for you yeah Lambo before you got on we were kind of talking Pat and Debo were saying how most of the time you know if guys are getting cut it's it's

just a numbers game it's not necessarily that a guy isn't very good but we're seeing a lot of different situations teams are cutting guys who they either drafted this year and maybe like the fourth round fifth round etc or whatever or a guy they just drafted last year how difficult is that process where you're trying to decide whether or not you want to keep a guy and it's a guy you just sunk some you know uh like a draft pick into whether it was last year or the year before right the hardest thing to do is evaluate your own team and you have to remove bias from it and you have to be honest just because you draft them if you can't play you still can't play you know just because you drafted them doesn't

make them any better than how he plays I think this year is a fascinating case study in this sense because of NIL we saw a lot of kids who typically would have come out for the draft stay in school because they're getting money now they're professional athletes in college so the fifth sixth and seventh rounds were really watered down this year they were more like eighth ninth and tenth rounds which is going to make teams decide this guy really good enough we drafted a fucking tenth rounder this year yeah right well i think what happens when 150 guys stay in school pat that affects the draft agreed and so i'm not saying all those guys would have gotten drafted but i think this draft at the end of the draft was a little watered down. And so that the quality of play in those later rounds and still be some guys who make it and some guys who do great. But I think that's going to make teams think twice about it. Remember this. It's not about where you start on the roster. It's about are you on the practice squad? Can we bring you up? A lot of guys have been on practice squad, have gone on to have great careers. I mean, you know, Jason Peters, the great left

tackle, I could have signed him when I was at the Raiders. He was on a practice squad for the Buffalo Bills, and I couldn't convince Mr. Davis to do it, and so we couldn't bring him in there, but there are players that are out there. It doesn't matter how you get in the building, just that you're in the building. I think that is the big message. Yes, there are some guys who are getting rich off of this particular contract. Their first contract as a rookie. But it's that second

and third contract where you get wealthy. So if you're in the building and you have a job, anything can happen. That is legit. And if you've got to play special teams for a year and a half, two years, just be the best that you could possibly be at it because you have no idea what's on the other side of all of that. Man, the NFL makes dreams come true. I'm so bummed out that we got to talk about everybody getting cut and becoming insurance salesmen. It's like, there's also millionaires being created like that their

families have never experienced in the history of ever on this particular day. It's a true, beautiful thing. It's a true, true, beautiful thing. You got to be where where your feet are. We're talking about Jameis possibly been on the move, but I'm sure he took every opportunity he did in Cleveland and in Tampa and New Orleans. So wherever he goes, wherever he signs him, you know when you bring him in, he's going to be a guy that – he's going to bring energy, he's going to prepare, and he's going to bring something to your team.

So you need that, especially for a guy who probably won't be playing as a backup, and if he is, you want to be prepared. We know James is still spinning. James can definitely see. And Bally's happy. He'll go to Bally. Last question here, Lambeau, we know you've got your show

coming up here in about nine minutes. We appreciate your time. Go ahead, Tom. Speaking of nine, we are nine days away from the NFL, Lambeau. With college football gambling, I love to look at continuity going into week one, coaches, OCs, quarterbacks, how many returning starters there are. Does that matter as much in the NFL? And to you, what are you looking for in these week one games? Is it continuity?

Because Bill talked about yesterday with D-Butts how if you have a veteran defense coming back, you could call so much more defense than you can with you guys. What do you think the biggest thing we should look at gambling for Week 1 is? I think a lot of it is that continuity, but I think it's how teams prepare. For example, Zach Taylor's 0-4 the first two weeks of the last two years. He changed how he practices this summer. He changed. His team looked a lot better.

I mean, his team went out there against starters and played really well against Chicago. His team went out there against starters and played well. So he's got better depth. I think he took a more serious approach to preseason. I think you have to go with teams that have tough camps, teams that get their teams ready for the rigors of the opening game. Detroit had a good preseason. They practiced a lot. They had their guys. Kansas City, I mean, my home is playing. I always tend to gravitate to coaches who have

proven over time that they are very good in week one. And you can tell the execution. What I always typically will do is go through the game books on week one and see how many rushes and completions a team has with the same coach. Rushes and completions means how many times they run the ball and how many completed passes. When that number's over 52, your execution is really good. And so that's an indicator of how hard your camp was. And I think that's kind of how you have to look at week one.

It's fucking math, D-Buck. It's math. That's all it is, man. That's all it is, baby. Thank you. Hey, thank you for making it so simple for us. How about that Georgia Tech-Florida State game? Five million viewers.

Great game. Most watched week zero game ever. Numbers just came in for college game day. Biggest week zero show of all time. I could see it, yeah. I mean, we love it. It's great. I mean, and look, the acc at florida state you know that every year one thing i know bill would say this

to you guys all the time every year's a new year the one thing we know is unpredictability will be predictable boom and football is amazing you're the best yes can't thank you enough ladies and gentlemen michael lombardi thanks guys yeah I guess the game day numbers are big. Our show on Friday, numbers big. The game, big. It's like football, baby. Football, baby. Continues to climb.

Football. Thank you, football, so much. What a game, too. Yeah, it was a fantastic game. And that number was so much. I think it was 30 for the game. Georgia Tech, Florida State was up like 30% compared to last year. 31, I think.

31% over Notre Dame and Navy. Notre Dame's fan base, especially Ireland. Gigantic. That is why Notre Dame has so much prestige is because Notre Dame is gigantic. It's like Florida State fans obviously everywhere. Georgia Tech fans showed up in a big way. But football fans, I think, just appreciated the fact that real football was back. And we're so lucky to be a football studio show.

And football matters again. Yes, it does. This weekend you got Penn State, West Virginia. I know. You got Texas A&M, Notre Dame. What? The Thursday games. The Thursday games are awesome.

Two Colorado plays on Thursday. That's Colorado, Dakota. The Thursday games. The Thursday games are awesome. Two Colorado plays on Thursday. Colorado, Dakota, the Jacksonville State is playing on Thursday night. We learned this last year about this Jacksonville State team. Must watch TV. Must watch TV every single year.

We got massive games. Georgia. SCLSU. How about this SCLSU is happening? That Sunday game the last few years has been awesome. How about that? USCLSU is happening right now in August. Yeah, awesome. That feels like a December, November.

Because most teams, the way they would schedule their football early, if you're a big-name school, we're not losing any. But now with the conference realignment, the opportunity in the primetime games, and medello vegas kickoff classic which will be herbie and reese i believe you're calling that game it's gonna be mad it's like we get marquee matchups every single week and i am so fucking pumped thank you college football thank you college football and the nfl obviously we're a couple weeks out from that thing starting off. Baltimore, Kansas City, first game. Then Philadelphia, Green Bay the next day. Then a college football lineup that is absurd.

And then a full NFL Sunday. Then a Monday night football. My God. My God. One more Monday without football. What a time to be alive. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. We're so incredibly thankful.

Thank you for spending your Saturday morning with us. Thank you for spending your afternoons with us Monday through Friday. And thank you to football for being here for all of us. If it wasn't for football, I would obviously be nowhere near where I am. As the world's population grows, so does the need for resources like Potash to support sustainable food production. This is why BHP is building one of the world's most sustainable potash mines in Canada. Essential resources responsibly produced. This is what BHP has committed to Canada.

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That's a big day today. There's people getting cut. There's people experiencing dreams coming true and dreams getting slaughtered. There are teams taking shape that are going to inevitably make a run to the playoffs. There's teams taking shape that are going to inevitably make a run to the playoffs. There's teams taking shape that are inevitably going to suck. And then there's one team that is taking shape right now that is going to end up as world champion down in New Orleans at the next Super Bowl. Who will it be? Everybody has hope.

And today, teams can get better or worse in the public eye. But does any of it matter? We'll talk about it all. The Talk Stable is here at Boss of Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Sweet shirt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys 10 digs. Looks incredibly fit over there. Good to see you, pal. Sweet arm tattoo. Thank you.

Finally got it done. Yeah, it looks good, though. Especially with the way you had it. It was like, oh. Just comfy. Just comfy. No, but I'm saying, like, the way it was, though, you could see that. It's shining. Is that fire there? There is a fire in there, yeah. Yeah, it's fire. Fire in the eyes. I see the power of the fire right there. It looks really good.

Thank you. Shout out to Plum, by the way. Shout out. Me and Diggs are from Plum High School. And? Nick Morota in the back. And myself. And Phil.

After his recent comments. Yeah, Boston Conner, I do not know if you're necessarily. Anyways, do you know that We Got a Golfer is going to be the greatest in the world? I have heard. Have you heard about this? Yeah. Really? We Got a Guy. Okay. Listen, We Got a Guy. anyways do you know that we got a golfer it's going to be the greatest i have heard have you heard about this yeah really we got a guy okay listen we got a guy uh wes lorish which i hope i am pronouncing the name right plum kid golfer plums golf team has obviously exists for a while

uh there is a golf course country club in plum called rolling fields which is a super nice top five course in america probably. Maybe in the world. I mean, I ain't seen any golf courses in Ireland. Definitely North America. Definitely. Is this like a Kenny Wood situation? Yes, it is. Wow.

No, it is not. Yes, it is. We know the owner of rolling fields. USA Today ranked it in the top ten. Yeah. Yeah. Great point. Yeah, we do.

We do know about Kenny Wood. Fantastic. Boys at the University of Pittsburgh just confirmed that last week. Wow. So I don't even need to hear it. Duquesne's going next week. They'll talk about it. No way.

Yeah, and then everybody in Tons going down, and they're saying it's still great. It's fastball. And Kenny Kangaroo, he actually looks a little bit more mature this year, not as ratty and as grumpy. That's what everybody's saying. Wes Loris, though, kid shot a 32. Okay, this is at Willowbrook.

Again, Central Catholic. First win over Central Catholic in golf in 36 years. Okay. So I think you could assume that the high school that I came from, probably not just producing golfers as much as maybe like a Central Catholic private school. Central's the only private school in the city, pretty much. Yeah, potentially creating golfers. So massive win, and it's because this dude is leading a team of Mustangs.

Shot a 33 on Oakmont last week. Damn. Oakmont is the U.S. Open course. 33 in nine holes is what these high school matches are. I think he shot a 30 a couple weeks ago on the same course. He shot a 32 the other day to beat Central Catholic. So Central Catholic, obviously, massive rival in everything like that. So in the biggest moments, this kid shows up and plays his best golf which means dog it's from plum it's going to be in there uh he went to a

tournament this past summer i think it was like his first time going to one of these big tournaments did very well in it i think he's a senior i guess there's college golf i'm learning about oh yeah i've kind of been learning about all this through this kid's story because obviously we've been very it's been very cool to be a part of this world mustangs here fund alongside eddie edwards and phil maynes and keith donenberg who is the golf team's coach actually where you know we've invested two million dollars back into our high school athletics because we want kids to continue to play sport because we think sports are amazing our biggest success story thus far and being able to assist is this west kid and he might be the best fucking

golfer in the country. West, keep going, bud. Hey, it's not good. It's just the beginning, West. You've got to keep getting better because everybody else is, but I want to make sure people know that he exists because plum golf, I don't think he's getting highly recruited. I don't think that's how it works. And that's a big part of it, actually. Those summer tournaments are so important.

Unfortunately, the high school tournaments, I knew kids that would shoot really, really well. When I was in high school, no one knew about them, so they didn't go anywhere. So if he goes to those summer tournaments, does well. So it's like AAU is the summer ones. Exactly. And if he's shooting three, four under, that's Division I numbers from what I remember at least.

Yeah, and I think there's a kid that plays at West Virginia now from Penn Trafford that he won for the state championship last year, won into extra holes and lost to, but he's a freshman now at West Virginia. West Virginia has a golf team. I did not know that. Wow. I did not know that. Wow. I did not know that. Kid Mountaineer fan.

I don't know if I am potentially a reason why or if his family. Nonetheless, it's like we got a dog and plum. I'm so pumped about it. Let's go, Wes. Hey. Let's go, Wes. Keep it rolling. Got to keep working, though, brother.

He will. Anybody can be good when you're 70. Let's go. Is he playing rolling fields all the time? Yeah. Yeah, of course. That makes it like 10 times more impressive. What are you talking about?'re 17. Let's go. Is he playing rolling fields all the time? Yeah. Yeah, of course. That makes it like 10 times more impressive. What are you talking about?

Respectfully. What are you saying? I've been to rolling fields. I love rolling fields. What are you saying? Respectfully. Respectfully. Respectfully.

That's a tough track. That's not it. That's not rolling fields. Yes, it is. No, that could be. That could be. They might have got some new trees, new fairways, new land. There's no crabgrass there.

He's a big lefty. I mean, he's just in control. So smooth. In the biggest moments, rolls putts in. That's rolling fields right there. I don't think that's rolling fields either. No, no. Unless they got a new hole, which maybe they did.

That's all in one probably. Smooth swing. Let's go, Wes. Go get it, pal. And that whole team, congratulations on big wins. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here live in the Thunderdome. Good to see you, D. Butch. You look incredibly cool.

You look incredibly cool. Feels like this year is going to be another year of incredibly cool fits from Darius J. Butler. Season's here, so it's still off-season fit right now. Oh, that's nice. We got the wardrobe for the real thing a couple weeks ago. You feel pretty good? You already have it in the closet?

Yeah. real thing a couple weeks ago. You feel pretty good? You already have it in the closet? Yeah. David Allen is shipping me like six sport coats this week for game day. I said, hey, Bob, listen, I need to wear them for game day. He goes, what do you think?

I'm like, you're thinking. He was with Skeen yesterday. Yeah, he is a dog. Basically, everybody in Pittsburgh, he dresses, and then in WWE, he has connections as well. So I just told, hey, David Allen, yinzer fuck. I need to wear him on TV. You see what I do?

I just need for game day to look presentable. Because do you see the way Herbstreet dresses? Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Desmond Howard is one of the cleanest. They are like the cleanest. The gray with the green from Reese was. Reese with his. They are like maybe the cleanest. The gray with the green from Reese was.

Reese with these. They are like maybe the cleanest dressed. And then I am notoriously not like the worst. But I'm on morning television next to them. So it's like have to look somewhat presentable here. And there have certainly been some looks that I bought from Amazon last minute that maybe people didn't appreciate the way. I saw a lot of people say, this guy looks like he's a Miami Club cocaine dealer or whatever

it's like well I'll have you know I spent $17 on that suit on Amazon the night before because I had nothing else that fit and I couldn't wear this year preparing this year looking ahead this year David Allen's gonna be taking care of me John you asked David Allen about recreating the bosses out for you the bosses final boss oh yeah he dressed Dwayne Johnson through the entirety of it all. I think he dresses Cena. Yeah, David Allen's the answer. He's a dog.

I think he's going to have me looking okay. I haven't seen any of them. I have no idea what's coming, but I got faith in him. A man who dresses well every single day. Always. Well... I'm a little upset. He was gifted something he hasn't worn on the show yet. Yeah, that's despicable.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, former president of Ohio, A.J. Haw. Hey, Connor. Yeah, it's not on there. I'm not going to wear it. I'm going to wear it during a live show event. That's what I told Seamus. I will wear the authentic Irish vest sometime on our live show. How about Seamus no-selling his hangover on Saturday to us?

How about that? You saw that? He's a savage. He's an absolute savage. He's an absolute savage. He's an absolute monster. Top to bottom. Top to bottom. Sheamus, they need to put a title on Sheamus immediately.

Amen. They need to have, I, getting to hang out with him was, like, obviously Ireland was incredibly awesome, but being around Sheamus for that long, learning Sheamus' story, seeing the way Sheamus operates, and Sheamus just knowing that it was a complete clusterfuck in there, and just being like yup that's exactly where I'm supposed to be and taking care of us it's like Sheamus is a legend needs to be a champion

give him everything and then he got in a cold tub on Saturday morning and said recovery patty or whatever and he sent me this photo and he also posted it but him showing up just no selling it is classic wrestler this is what the professional wrestlers do. They feel, you know, as if they are good drinkers.

So whenever they hear about other, oh, you sports guys like to have, yeah, absolutely. Undertaker told the story of him putting Cypress Hill to bed one night and carrying X-Pac out over his shoulder as if they had a thing. So trying to keep up with Sheamus is a wild move. And he is a weapon. And he'll go to WWE and tell the whole story of the entire weekend to everyone there, with Sheamus is a wild move and he is a weapon and he'll go to WWE and tell the whole story of the entire weekend to everyone there too which is professional wrestling that is how Sheamus is a dog hey Sheamus we love you buddy love you thank you for everything Sheamus

and Sheamus brought eyeballs uh that game day is was up i guess it's the most watched week zero show ever they need to change that week zero thing because it wasn't a zero at all it was a heroic weekend it was the weak hero is what it should be called because football is all the way back but it feels like football is only growing in popularity aj which is a beautiful thing i'm lucky to be a part of the ride yeah i know i i always wonder like is there ever there's no like ceiling right like we can just continue to gain more and more viewership i would imagine like there's there's so many people out there i guess that we don't watch football that we don't realize. That's the goal.

What do they do? There's a lot of people that go out on Saturdays and Sundays and don't really know that football happens. That's a real thing. What do they do? What do they talk about? Apple picking. Soccer. Soccer is gumpy. Soccer watchers at least know American football.

There's people that, I guess, I've been told. I've never told i've never encountered it i don't think i think i've ever encountered it somebody just knows nothing about football nope i've never heard of the pumpkin patch every saturday you're from pittsburgh so in the united states of america those people exist there's a lot a lot of people what is there like 350 million americans and 50 million watch the afc champion there's three there's 300 million people be watching. Yeah, but total audience delivered if you do the calculation. How many people are in each house whenever they're watching alongside? How many babies? Bingo, how many

babies has on football? I don't know how people don't watch though and don't get entertained by it. Like that Georgia Tech, Florida State, no rooting interest. You watch that game, it's like, this is awesome. Unbelievable. And this matters a lot. There's national championship conversations that are going to be taking place from this. Speaking of, the national champions from last year, Michigan, feels like the last big thing, you know, that was going to come from the sign-stealing situation just arrived on a Netflix earlier today. The untold story of Connor Stallions.

You, former president of the Ohio State, what are your thoughts on it? Have you got a chance to watch it? We've only seen clips, so we have refrained from judgment. But it feels like the Internet is, if you think Jim knew, you still think he knew. If you didn't think Jim knew, you still don't think he knew. And Connor Stallions, I think everybody agrees, was obsessed with figuring out every sign on every single team.

That was kind of my takeaway from the reaction to it. Have you watched it? Have you seen it? And what doesio feel about this entire michigan situation i haven't got like a total feel exactly i know online how people from ohio feel like they feel justified if they felt like hey this was going on all this stuff happening i haven't seen the whole thing top to bottom but i have seen a lot of the clips and i started watching it uh earlier last night i guess but i i don't know like first off this dude is obsessed i think you said it earlier last night, I guess. But I don't know. First off, this dude is obsessed.

I think you said it earlier. He's committed. He's definitely committed to what he is doing, how he was filming himself and the clip that you played earlier in the show. I don't know, man. I need to watch the full thing, but man, this dude was obsessed. He's had 1,000, 2,000, 3,000,

all the signals that have ever been given in the history of anything. They got along that. I had to record. It was just a one minute clip of him doing every single signal. And then he cropped every single one of them. And then he put the play or then he had to find out what play it was or formation. Like there was a trips formation in there that he.

Every week. Coloring associated. He had to do that every single week. He had to do that every single week. Take the picture of himself that he did in the garage. Dark shirt, light-colored background. For the contrast. Could have made that a PNG, but Connor Stallings didn't want to get that.

Do it with the garage door open. Or a green screen or anything. I don't think he needs you. I agree. What's the Central Michigan deal? What's the Central Michigan part of it? That's the whole other added conversation. He's saying that he was giving tickets to other people and i i think bill mccomis watched

it this morning while we were all sitting around we i was like we need somebody to watch this entire thing impossible for us hour 26 it's a long one so we'll watch the whole thing bill mccomis basically got the anecdote from it that he feels as if he exploited the rules as opposed to broken rules like coaches aren't allowed to go Like coaches aren't allowed to go. Scouts aren't allowed to go. You're not allowed to. Well, what if the film is a gift from like a friend? You know, like what if. But then the CMU thing feels like then that's the kind of the rebuttal.

So he's saying, Connor's saying, though, I didn't do anything wrong. I didn't break the rules. I just kind of pushed through. I just kind of, I towed the line of what the rules may be, what you can and can't do. I explored the space of what the rules were. you know, like, cause they said, were they family and friends? Because I guess in the rule about the advanced scouting that they put in there, I assume no family or friends of coaches or staff are allowed to go because this was probably thought

of before. And then he said, nah, I don't know. I was just selling tickets. He was like a secondary ticket broker. He was acting as if for some, I make a hundred bucks a ticket here, and I'll just move them to whoever. And then sometimes they would send back a video, but I – Already had it. Yeah, already had it.

I don't even need it. I don't need it. Thank you. Do you know if he was a big Chips fan? Like was he a big Central Michigan fan and just was on the sideline like that? Yeah, maybe he was planning on protesting like oil drilling. Sure. So he just got a ticket to get down there so that he could sprint onto the field.

And spray. Yeah, spray. But he backed out, actually, because he was watching the game. And he was like, you know, they should stop the drilling. But also, pretty good game. I won't interrupt it. You know, so that maybe. Like, I guess you could think of any.

Oh, yeah. He probably has. Well, think about Rich Eisen's doing it, for sure. Oh, like Rich Eisen said, so you find somebody on Etsy. You think they're going to be able to get you a good, clean shot of who you need to see? That was awesome. I didn't know that was going to be the angle.

Great angle. Yeah, great angle. But then he listened to Conor Stein speak. He's like, you know SeatGeek? Greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and the moon. Yeah, it's not a bad business. Easy. And they had the list of all the tickets that he transferred to

and who they transferred in that one video that we showed. So it was so easy to track. But at the same time, if you made your decision before this, this documentary is not changing your life. It's got everything in this world. Yeah, it is. That's wild, isn't it? Even if you were presented with a bunch of facts that would make you be like,

hey, you need to change your opinion. You were actually wrong. You could very. Yeah, but where that wasn't. That wasn't. No bullshit. Yeah, I don't believe it. And then you start seeing stuff on the Internet and you're like, well, that's not real.

Like right now, there is 1000% AI edits of this documentary being put onto the Internet. Oh, yeah. And being presented as I found this interesting from the Untold at Netflix thing and just putting it out there. It'll be Conor Stallion's face that we didn't really know much. I didn't really know. I knew him as CMU guy. I knew his head a lot more from CMU pictures than I did from Michigan stuff. But when he does his interview, good-shaped guy, obviously ex-military.

He's a coach at a high school now, obsessed with ball. But, A, I could definitely take him and just have him say anything. Oh, yeah, Jim Harbaugh told me to do all this. Yeah, Jim Harbaugh and I actually met once a week. And just, oh, this is fascinating from it. Some Ohio State fan, not that only Ohio would do that. But somebody could take any of these shots and put any words at all. Did he say this wasn't him?

I don't. Yes, he said it wasn't him? I don't... Yes, he said it wasn't him. You think this guy is me? Look at the jawline. Are you kidding me? I didn't know Connor Stallion said that bald head that could be sucked on like Blaine Stewart. Coach Blaine Stewart.

He's got some macomas in him. West Virginia Mountaineers. Who knows? You've got to watch the actual documentary. It's on Netflix. And I assume the conversation will only continue to go exactly how you were having it before watching it to the point of literally everybody

here. But I'm happy it's kind of behind us. Now, what isn't behind us is seemingly petty suspensions. DeMarco Murray, running back coach for Oklahoma, he has been suspended for a game because he talked to 16 recruits or 17 recruits during a period of time in which you can't talk to recruits. This goes back to whenever there was quiet time where you weren't

allowed to reach out to recruits, which was made because coaches were sick of having to text recruits all year round. So they made a time period where nobody's allowed to talk so that we all are kind of forced to take a break. Some people, all people, I think, have broken those rules over the years. DeMarco Murray, the most recent one, to get punished for it.

Kirk Ferentz, tampering stuff before he's suspended for a game. I think there's a wide receiver coach somewhere that got suspended. At Iowa, too. At Iowa gets suspended. There's another. So it feels like we are currently in the middle of the last shit from everything in the past of the NCAA. All the pettiness, the bullshit.

Feels like this is the last, and then we're moving on to the next iteration of college football, which is going to have a salary cap, which is going to have a free agency time, which is going to have a trans-reporter rule, which is going to have contracts that I think are understood by both parties. I think there's going to be comps. I think it's going to be CBA negotiating.

I think that's all going to happen, but right now we're still dealing with all the pettiness. The petty stuff. You sent a text when you couldn't. That team just delivered a bag of a million dollars to that person's front. But when did they? There's weird rules, too, though. Like, if a recruit tweets you, you're allowed to tweet them back, I think, in those dead periods. But you can't.

If they reach out to you, you just can't be the first. There's all these weird things. Can I send a gift, too? Yeah. Joining us now is a man who probably knows a little bit more about it, but is excited, I assume, about the future of college football because we're in a transition era. And I think all any of us want is just a little bit of,

all right, let's figure out what it is here. Because we're living in the past a little bit still with some of the suspensions, but we're very much living in the future, 12-team playoff, money share, money being made. We've got to figure out how it's going to look. Ladies and gentlemen, a man that's going to be a part of that process whenever he retires, although he doesn't have a spot

in the College Football Playoff Committee Selection Board, people think he does. That's because he's been a part of the college football world for 30 years. Ladies and gentlemen, the ever-handsome former president of Ohio, Kirk Herbstreit. Yay! Ladies and gentlemen, the ever-handsome former president of Ohio, Kirk Herbstreit. When did we move over to the former, AJ, you and I?

I don't know. I don't know who the current is right now, actually, to tell you the truth. Who would it be? It's Kirk has always been. I think Kirk is the sitting president until he decides to give it up. No, no, that's you, bud. I mean, that's you and Chris Filner. Maybe the general.

But, Kirk, you're aiming that question at the wrong person on this screen. AJ was the one that told us that you guys are no longer presidents of the state of Ohio. I just want to let you know that. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Bingo. That's okay.

Let him take it back. Who won the award this year? Is Bobby Carpenter taking that? Taking the reins? He's the general. He's not a president. There's president and there's a general. You got to always. Yeah, he did get another star. He's the general. He's not a president. There's a president and there's a general. He did get another star.

We were just talking about the Connor Stallions documentary that came out on Netflix, Untold. Some behind the scenes stuff. I think we got to know a little bit more about Connor Stallions. He literally was one of the most obsessed humans I've ever seen when it comes to doing what he thought was going to maybe expedite his career going to the top, legitimately.

Now, did Jim Harbaugh know? I don't think anything in there tells anybody that he did if he didn't know i don't think anything in there reaffirms whatever the case we're caught in between a time period now of college football of like yesterday where we're suspending people for tampering but then we're also giving millions of dollars and in urgent deals and then we're also trying to get to tomorrow what are your thoughts on where we are right now? How quickly does it come together? And what do you think about some of these, like DeMarco Murray suspended the game,

Kirk suspended the game. This Michigan stuff is going to happen at some point this year. What do you think about yesterday and tomorrow kind of meeting in the college football space that we're in right now, Herbie? I heard you talking about it. I think eventually the only answer

is to try to have some kind of CBA or some kind of an agreement with the players and the future of the sport, which would be this big division of You know, what's going to happen with the ACC? You know, if they end up, some of these schools get out, is the ACC going to exist? Are they going to stay in the ACC? So I think we need some answers there. But, yeah, I think, you know, you and I talked with Charlie Baker. We listened to him. You know, I think he's steering the Titanic.

I don't think this is something that just because he is a savvy guy and a guy that I think is very impressive, I don't think he can untangle this web just like that. You know, not to mention, you got to deal with the power brokers of the sport, which are the conference commissioners and the big conferences and the Big Ten and the SEC and the others. So I don't think it's an easy thing. And that's why why at some point it wouldn't be great to have just one voice you know one commissioner that would be able to run this sport and his office would be able to care about the entire sport the reason i think we are where we are is you have conflicting interests you know what what they care about you know in the mountain west or let's say the big 12 or the sec or the everybody's worried about their jurisdiction you know their

chancellors presidents head coaches players fans their constituents that's it that's all they're worried about they're not worried about the totality of the sport so it's very hard to move the sport forward when you have all these different agendas and all these different people looking at it through a different lens so until we get everybody looking through one lens, you're going to have this, not to mention the NIL space, the rules in Alabama versus Ohio versus California versus Louisiana versus everything's different. So we need some kind of federal rule that's going to say, here's the rule for NIL. Or we need a CBA to say, because right now it's just do whatever you want in Louisiana. Oh, over there in Michigan, you guys got to watch out.

You can only do this. And so how do you move forward when there's just so much? It's not an easy thing to just come up with an answer. So that's why you get some of this stuff. But according to what we heard from charlie some of this small stuff uh hey like you were referring to you're gonna i bought him a cheeseburger or you know here's a hat like i think that stuff's gonna go away the petty stuff but um how we get there ultimately i i think we're all kind of scratching our head wondering if charlie baker i don't know if he has the authority without Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti

and other conference commissioners getting on board. Right now I feel like they're more powerful in college football than the NCAA is. Is Charlie Baker the right guy to maybe do it, though? You know? Yeah. Because after listening to him speak and his vision, it's like I think maybe he would be one of the humans that I think I would put in there. Sankey obviously is another name that will get mentioned patiti is a name that'll get mentioned

saban's name is obviously going to get mentioned because of his connections i think i heard your name get mentioned before not by florida state people but by a lot of other people in this entire thing and i think it's going to take place it is quite a quagmire right now yeah for certain uh but i think it's going to get figured out because the popularity of the sport through the roof. Do you see the numbers for Georgia Tech, Florida State? Five million. That's the biggest week zero game ever. People yearning for college football, loving that real football is happening. College game day's numbers are huge. Anything associated with college football, big. Anything associated with football, big. It's a beautiful time in our sport so that's

why i hope these petty things don't continue to pop up because every time a petty thing pops up we have to bring up all the bullshit like we have to bring up this is just a stupid thing because the sport the tradition the fans the players the coaches it is wonderful and more people are watching it now than ever kirk and this 12 team playoff is a big piece of that entire conversation i think yeah i i think that and i I think the summers get long, you know, I think we get excited for the start of football. The way you guys represent every day on your show, football, I think that represents what we all feel, you know, it's just exciting to see games back. I mean, week zero, you know, there are people watching, you know, not just Florida State play against Georgia Tech,

but they're watching all these games. There was like three or four. I think Nevada was playing SMU. Gumpy, of course, that guy, he follows every game. Anybody who plays anything, my man, is dialed in on. That's right. You got to take advantage of those books. We love the Lobos.

Here we go, Lobos. Yeah. On the plane with the Lobos. That was awesome. That was a blast, by the way. But, yeah, in that game, SMU was down and they fought back. We're paying attention over the Atlantic.

I think this week is going to be bananas. You've got real games. You guys keep putting that graphic up of some of the games that are going to be here. Week one starts Thursday night. I guess the big one is for Wiley, North Carolina and Minnesota. Friday night you've got some great games and then you can just see what's going on over the weekend. Massive games with Georgia and Clemson. I know Georgia,

look at that. They're favorable almost two touchdowns. I tell you, I think Clemson's going to win the ACC. I think they're ahead of the playoff. I think they're much better, and I think they got a lot of pride on their roster. I think that game's a lot closer. Miami and Florida, holy cow. Billy Napier, you talk about a lot of pride on their roster. I think that game's a lot closer. Miami and Florida, holy cow. Billy Napier, you talk about a lot at stake in that one. Notre Dame and A&M, we're going to be down there for that one. Can't wait. Then we fly over to Las Vegas to call the LSU-USC game.

So, man, it is. These are a lot of November games, brother, in August. Doesn't it feel like that? That is massive. Doesn't it feel like that? And I think this is one of the good things that is taking place with the transition period we're in in college football is the marquee games with the amount of money that are getting that's getting dumped into these contracts are going to be big all year like i think it's october 12th or something like that

saturday october 12th is like from noon till midnight. It is just marquee, marquee, marquee, marquee. And that's just October. You haven't even got into November. So there's a lot of good coming out of this. And week one is about to be off and running. Go ahead, AJ. Kirk, with all this NIL stuff going on, all the movement, I guess, on college rosters, do you think the quality of college football

is going to be better here moving forward in the next five to ten years you think it might take a step back i i think listen to some of these coaches you know when you were playing if you got to a point not you but but your era if if a guy got to be a point of maybe a third rounder you know his coach might say hey you probably need to come back and a lot of times that that player would listen to to other other folks and many times they would go off to the nfl some guys would go off to the nfl not even get drafted you know because they were just done with school i think the nil was that guy if you're a first rounder obviously you're gonna go but that guy that that maybe is a second third or later, I think he's thinking now, man, I think I'm going to stay another year

and I'm going to play some more college football. I'm going to take advantage of the NIL, make some more of that money, and then I'm going to go maybe improve my stock and then go to the NFL. So I think if anything, I think the portal is different because I think we're getting used to it,

but it's still a little bit strange. Like I'm calling these games this weekend just doing preparation, and it's amazing to see like on A&M's roster with Mike Elka, who left Duke to go to Texas A&M to become the head coach. You know, he looked around that roster, I'm sure, after Jimbo Fisher left. He probably lost a lot, and he's like, man, we need some guys in the secondary. We need some D linemen. And we need some receivers. And they went out.

And now you've got to try to bring it together and gel and create continuity through winter conditioning, spring ball, and then into camp. And you really don't know what you have until you go out there and play, you know, as you guys know. And that's scattered all over college football. So on one hand, I think the NIL is going to make guys stick around. And then on the other hand, I think with the portal, it's about who can come together. You know, I just brought up A&M, but Notre Dame has some guys, like six or seven guys that are portal guys. Then I go to Sunday. I mean, LSU, they've got guys.

USC has a bunch of guys. So that's the norm now. But who does the best job at creating it? But who does the best job at creating it? Because as much as it's about the individuality on Twitter, and as much as it's about your individual brand, the goal is still to win football games as a team. So which coaching staffs do a good job of creating that bond that's going to allow you to get to it?

A lot of times people are bringing up Ohio State. If it's not now, then when? They bought in. They're going to win. I do that on game day, actually. But I'm saying, dude, at the end of the day, when was the last time Ohio State took the field with a shortage of talent? Well, not this much talent.

I heard it straight from the horse's mouth. But I'm saying, you don't respect the sport of us? Against Michigan last year? Justin Smith and Jigba. I mean, Ohio State has had a – the last 10 years, Ohio State's had NFL players all over their roster. I don't look at this roster. I really don't.

And go, oh, my God. They have Caleb Dow. $20 million. Holy cow. Ohio State's serious this year. They got Will Howard who's going to get beat out at Kansas State. Holy cow. They got Will Howard. who's going to get beat out at Kansas State. Holy cow. They got Will Howard.

Oh, my God. They got Junkins, who was a backup at Ole Miss. Whoa. They can't get tackled on a video game. He's not going to start at Ohio State. Trevion Henderson. So I don't – Ohio State's had a – it's about are they going to come together. It's about are they going to be a team.

This is rappable. It's not about who they who they what are you guys bullshitting about he's d recruit it's good kirk you're d recruiting him yeah you're a boy coach day well you're trying to love here you're trying to yeah because i mean as it was coming out of my mouth i certainly was like gosh it's putting a lot of heat on day but it's already been there yeah i mean they spent 20 i think i think i think jim trussell and urban meyer that's what i'm saying And then the amount of money that's been spent, $20 million allegedly, and then you say, oh, they got Caleb Downs, they're going to be different.

I was told that that dude was a Hall of Fame player literally the day he stepped on the— He's, you know, before you say that, Minka Fitzpatrick, because I've covered all these Bama teams, Minka Fitzpatrick showed up as a true freshman. I watched his first scrimmage. I was down at the stadium down in Tuscaloosa. Kirby was the defensive coordinator. Watched, they all these NFL first rounders everywhere. And I was like, I got done with the scrimmage. I go down to the field. I go to Kirby. I go, I go, who's that? Who's that 29? And he goes, ah, that's our freshman, uh, Mickey's out

of Jersey. And I was like, I was like, that guy looks different. Like he's, when he's not in, he's standing next to a senior. He looks like he's asking questions and he's, when he's not in, he's standing next to a senior. He looks like he's asking questions and he's like, he's got a chance to be pretty special. So what you're saying, Caleb Downs is that kind of guy, not to mention make him play the money backer, nickel. He could play corner. He could play safety.

That dude was doing everything as a freshman. You knew what he was going to become. Right. And what's that? Caleb, I think, led Alabama in tackles last year, right? So yeah he did as a true freshman so i agree i i think he's great but they they've had a lot of good ones come through there he's going to help ohio state immensely just with his energy and just his leadership he's just an old soul you know as some of those guys come around you know aj's played with guys like that. But you look back at Ohio State's roster,

go back to 2015. They won it in 14. They came back with the Bosa brothers, I think, or the Joey Bosa. Look at that roster in 2015. That was the year they played Michigan State at home and everybody got mad. They didn't give the ball to Zeke Elliott. They ended up getting upset by a backup quarterback at Michigan state. That team was maybe the best roster I've ever seen in 2015. So the point is they've had pretty good rosters. It's not like they went from having an average roster to all of a sudden buying a big, rich roster. They've already had a lot, you know,

and teams for a long time. Say it Herbie. Yes. Yeah. We still got a little petty rules. Tattoos. Yeah, we understand. We understand.

We understand that. AJ, you get paid? AJ, wouldn't you? I was never offered anything, Kirk. Yeah, okay. He gave you that baby alligator. And he's an elk. He's an elk right there.

Yeah, it's a Centerville elk. You're right. But immediately after, as soon as he was done playing football, obviously, hey, here's, will you sign these 10 things for $150,000? Exactly. And that's what having a fan base as passionate as Ohio State fans becomes. You said that was post-career? Yeah, it was post-career.

Once you're done. Once your senior season's over, yeah, you can go sign autographs. That's what happens when you're done. Okay. Bullshit. By the way Stay next to me at Centerville Friday night

How do we feel? Going back to dad's town? It's going to be a great atmosphere, Kirk Honorary captain? No You should fly the helicopter to the ball end Helicopter to the ball end I used to tell them, Kirk

Mike Hartsock used to bring the ball end to the 50 yard line And land it from the helicopter You should fly the helicopter to the ball lane. Helicopter to the ball lane. I used to tell them, Kirk, Mike Hartsock used to bring the ball into the 50-yard line and land it from the helicopter. You should be that guy. At Centerville, you guys had the ball get thrown out of the helicopter? No, landing, getting out, and handing the ball to the official. Landing at the 50-yard line. That's what Centerville football is? Like the weather chopper.

No, the weather chopper. John Fedko showed up with the football? Yeah, DiNardo would have done it. DiNardo was on the Doppler. Fedco was on the ground and in the chopper. Man. The Fedco zone. Welcome to the Fedco zone.

Man, you want to get on the Fedco zone. I had a tackle against the Eastport. Boy, I got showed on the Fedco zone. Never been more pumped up in my life. He was the local sports guy who flew around on the chopper and showed all of the high school highlights on Friday nights. It was electric. It was electric. Yeah, chopper.

He's the prank call show all the time. No way. Asshole kids in Pittsburgh really were. He would say, welcome to the Petco zone. Dabo, he ain't taking Dabo's done with that shit. Dabo's done with phone calls. Smart play. Smart play. I like the way that whole thing goes. That show still exists? Oh yeah. Whoa. I didn the way that whole thing goes. That show still exists?

Oh, yeah. I didn't know if he retired. Is he still going? You tell me. The show sucks? Is that what you were saying? How's that show? Is that what you said? I thought maybe in Dayton,

the guys that AJ is referring to, they've retired. That guy's still going. Oh, you're talking about Fedco? Yeah, Fedco's retired. Yeah. Fedco does not hit the chopper anymore. What?

He's retired. Since when? They don't put him up in a chopper. Omar Williams is done, right, AJ? No. Don't say that about Fedco. He can't be dead. No.

Please don't. Oh, no. He'll never die in my heart. I know that. It does not matter if his soul is still in a body here What was the budget for that show? 200 million Forever

Did he film from the chopper? Were the highlights from the chopper? One hand on a highlight, one hand on a rope And then his legs were holding the ball And Fedko would drop down and say Now you guys can play the football It would start with the aerial of the stadium And then they would go to the highlights from the field game.

Yeah, come on. This is standard operating stuff. You guys know. You had Centerville, Ohio. You had three choppers overhead. Same as Hartzell. How's St. X going to do against Centerville? Are we going to be okay?

I bet you if there were a betting line in Vegas, I would say Centerville is the home team, probably a two-point favorite, I would guess. One or two-point favorite. Well, we know AJ's actually going to the coin toss, right, AJ? You're going to be at the coin toss for this weekend's... I'm going to be at West Virginia. I'm not sure if I can make it back in time, but I'll try. Oh, yeah, because

I think there's a rock... I can't wait for Friday for you guys in Morgantown. Holy cow. Yeah. That's going to be wild. No, I don't think so. It's going to be a great time. It's just going to be good fun. No, no, no. You thought the pub in Northern. We're not doing that again. This type of wild.

Where are you going to be? Where's the location this week? So it's where the original stadium was in Morgantown, West Virginia. It is now near the Life Sciences building, which is a building that every freshman has to have class in pretty much. And there's like a grassy knoll if you will i hope not that is oh yeah don't love it especially with everything that's coming out but there's like a grassy field that is certainly knoll like uh in between two buildings where our stage will be they're telling uh students that they can't get there until 9 a.m on friday no

overnight camping and the fact that that was even a thought that they had to put that they can't get there until 9 a.m. on Friday, no overnight camping. And the fact that that was even a thought, that they had to put that on there, is wild to me. I'm excited to see if anybody comes. If they do, can't wait to have a blast. We've got some surprise guests coming through. We've got some West Virginia legends. And it's the biggest home opener since 1998 in Morgantown.

And the whole town's buzzing. Give me your top five WVU football legends. Your personal Pat McAfee top five. We'll do that on Friday, I do believe. I'm curious. I know you are. That's great. Watch on Friday. We have a

piece being made right now for the Open. I'm going to really try to let the world know that there's a lot of history in this town there is in this town is uh i don't say the big 12 isn't home but it is like the big 12 we are so far removed from and that's probably neil brown calling you right now saying make sure you mention my goatee which he looks super cool yeah but like wvu ending up in the big 12 instead of like the big 10 or the ACC,

I think for some people, especially in the area, maybe forget about West Virginia a little bit because they're not playing against their team. It's like Morgantown is a phenomenal college town. West Virginia has a lot of history, and there's been a lot of superstars that have come through there. Now, with that being said, I don't like that James Franklin's already saying like, yeah, don't like my guys providing any bulletin board

material for anybody else. So we'll say, it's like, if I'm helping feed this Penn State team that doesn't need any more assistance after everything has happened to them, to get them motivated to go into Morgantown, that is obviously something, because they're a great team coming in, ranked at number eight. And with this 12-team playoff, I think they have more hopes and dreams than they have

in the past, because they knew knew you lose to Ohio State, you lose to Michigan, it's over. Like, we got no shot. It's going to be them because the way it was East-West. Now, 12-team, no division. It's like Penn State has more hope than ever. West Virginia does, too.

It's like this is a celebration of what's kicking off here in West Virginia. That's kind of how we're viewing Friday, if you will. Yeah, man. Going back as a kid watching college football, West Virginia-Penn State was a game. Jeff Hostetler, I remember watching those games, and they played Penn State early in the year, and it was always a big rivalry. I'm so excited that they're going

to be playing that game this weekend. What a way to start the season for both those fan bases, and you're right. It's a different time. You know. The Big 12, it's just weird. You think of the future. We just talked about where this thing's going to land in a couple years. Who knows? I'm not saying that West Virginia is going to get out of the conference that they're currently in, but how great would it be if we could get back to them playing against teams that their fans get excited to be playing against? Penn State would obviously have been an out-of-conference game, but teams like Virginia Tech or who knows where Cincinnati is going to be, Louisville, teams like that, I always really loved watching WVU.

And people who have not been there, it is your typical wild on Saturday. That town comes alive. They believe in their Mountaineers. And it's going to be wild. It'll be a great show you guys have on Friday. I can't wait to watch it. You were calling most of those Thursday night games, right, when we were playing in all of them?

Man, we did. It seems like we had a ton of those games on Thursday night when they were in the Big East and you were a part of those teams. Miami, Florida, of course, was competitive back in those days. But Louisville and Rutgers, all those teams were really good along with WVU. UConn. UConn was up there.

No doubt. We might be in the Big 12 in a few years. Basketball school. What happened? The big time was scared of West Virginia? Is that what happened? Do I recall? I think it was an academic thing.

Academics? Who cares? We're talking about sports. We got public Ivies only. All right. What's that? Public Ivies only. What does that mean?

It means get your- Coach him up there. Coach him up there, Ty. Get your GPA up. All right. Who cares about GPA? We're talking about F-O-O-T-B-A-L-L. Well, these are student human athletes, okay?

Because guess what? Not all of them are going to be going to the NFL, but all of them are going to be going pro in something other than sports. Remember those commercials? Boom. All right. Those are my favorite commercials. Nailed it.

Yep. Over 10,000 student athletes. Listen, only you can prevent forest fires, okay? If we're going to start doing this entire thing, you just want to go back and forth here. It makes sense. Them, Notre Dame. Whenever we do this again bring west virginia

and notre dame in the big 10 and then we can call quits and if it means anything i do believe they bulldozed a lot of part of town that was potentially bringing down the academics okay i don't love it because that's where i lived you know i lived in those areas actually on dude what i can't imagine you in college oh my god it's too much did too much too quickly had a blast should have focused more but here we are and i'm very lucky that i was a west virginia mountaineer aj aj can you imagine him in college no i can see how you could bring a good uh good spark to a college football program though i could see it yeah i guess yep i'm talking about after the game yeah i'm saying too that's what i'm saying the bonding

the bonding moments and pat's trying to run up a wall and flip backwards. Well, excuse me. I didn't try. I did those things. That's exciting. Yeah. And me and Thor, me and my guy Thor, we were out every night. So we hung out with basically every department.

Defense department, they're out on what nights? Offense is out on what nights? Special teams obviously going out on these nights. GAs are out on this particular night. So, you know, I got a chance really. Now, now doing that you're not going to be perfect obviously you're going to happen to piss into some alleys get some underages and stuff like that that's going to end up being on your record for a little bit and that type of stuff's gonna happen what were you supposed to do whenever you shut down every bathroom in town at midnight and you're 40 penny pitchers what are you what am I supposed to do just piss my pants okay I guess

we're in Ireland again all of a sudden I mean what is uh it's just uh I supposed to do? I'm just pissed my pants. Okay. I guess we're in Ireland again. All of a sudden. I mean, what is the, it's just, uh, I had a great time. I was lucky to be a Mountaineer. Happy to be going back. Pumped me going back. Did you ever go out with Owen Schmidt? Did he ever, did he tackle, I picture him tackling like dumpsters, you know, like just. So Owen, for those that don't recall, was a runaway beer truck. And, uh, he was good friend of mine mine in college and we went out on a pretty

regular basis he was one year ahead of me he if for those that don't recall uh ended up with the seattle seahawks as a fullback yes and he take his helmet off or something and bang his head his first start offense is getting announced and uh first ever start uh in the nfl is offense getting announced and he comes out and Owen is electric. Always electric. He is always great to be around. He comes out, takes his helmet, and he's like, I know what will get these motherfuckers going. He starts banging his

head off him because he had a rock head. We've got to have video of that. He's got an audio. He dashes himself so hard. So bad. One everywhere. Had to get stitches. Missed the start. Could not get on for the first place, so hard. So bad. So bad. Went everywhere. Had to get stitches. Missed the start. Oh, no.

Could not get on for the first place, so he missed the start. But I think, honestly, I couldn't picture. What a player. So good. He was Pat, Steve, and Owen were the reason. Because we had to dive to Owen, right? And Owen could run 4.55, 4.60. I'm guessing he was 2.40? 2.55, 2.50.55, 4.60. I'm guessing he was 2.40? 2.55, 2.50.

And running 4.5. And hang cleaning like 600 pounds, too. You're talking about just like full specimen, this guy. There we go. That's Owen Schmidt football right there. That is Owen Schmidt football. My bad. Also one of the most beloved guys in the locker room by everybody.

Could hammer beers. He's like Mike Allstott. Bingo. Walked on at West Virginia. Was a bouncer at some bars whenever he was. Had to be. As a freshman so he could pay for his schooling. If you learn about his entire family and everything like that.

Earns a scholarship. Becomes a runaway beer truck. Becomes one of the most pivotal parts of our entire team, which would obviously lead to the growth and expansion of West Virginia as a whole. But boy, pounded beers. I mean, absolutely. I don't know if it was you that phrased him as the runaway beer truck,

but whoever did, as we heard it, we're like, that seems like the right, that is the perfect description of the guy. We can't wait to get back there. Let's get back to some Big Ten talk there, shall we? Because the national champions, the conversation I'm scared is going to be about this Connor Stallions

doc, as opposed to how they're going to do this show. What does Pete think of the new Netflix show? What does Pete think of Connor Stallions' Untold on Netflix? Suffice to say, I'm a little disappointed because I basically cracked the whole case

open, and they didn't give me any fucking credit in the Netflix. Didn't see my shelf launch on there. Now, yeah, sure, in the media cycles afterwards, I'll get the sneaky Pete, the greasy Pete from all the Michigan fans out there. But, yeah, I think they could have done it a little bit better. I was ahead of this Connor Stallion stuff before anyone else. And then Netflix comes prancing in, and now they're the heroes.

They crack the code. I don't think so. So yeah, let's just say I've got my big boy pants on, and I'm kind of ready to crack my next big story, which, I don't know, might be coming this weekend in College Station. Really? Wow.

I can't wait to hear that. I don't like that they cut you out of it completely, Ty P. Well, again, it's horse shit, but, you know, I mean, what are you going to do? You know, a lot of times they say there's only room for one superstar, and they didn't want to take the spotlight or the shine off Connor Stallions, per se. Ty P., I heard you worked the crowd a little bit on College Game Day. Well, yeah.

You know, I mean, when people are chanting your name And foaming at the mouth To kind of, you know, see you get them Going, I mean, what are you going to do? I mean, again, it's Entertainment after all, right? Alright, let's stay with Michigan We love you, Pete

Let's stay with Michigan. Joan has a question For you, Herbie. Yeah, Herbie, I can't remember if you had him in the playoffs or not, but I am fascinated by Michigan. 18 starters lost, I think 13 drafted. We don't know if Orgy or Tuttle or whoever's going to be the quarterback, and then they have two of the best defenders in the country, Mason Graham and Will Johnson.

Week one, Fresno's no joke with Tedford and Mikey Keene at quarterback. What do you think Michigan is going to be this year? I think like a lot of these teams, I think around the quarterback position, they're going to be great. I know they lost a lot of leadership more than anything. The reason they got to where they got, it was not just J.J. McCarthy and his playmaking ability, but it was obviously the leadership up front of that offensive line. Those guys played so much ball. Blake Corum, just look around that team on defense, Sanistro, they were fantastic as a group. Going back to what we said earlier, they came together, and then you lose a large percentage of that. So who's the new leaders?

I don't think from a talent standpoint you're going to watch them and say, wow, they're just not a talented team anymore. And I remember talking earlier this summer with Sherell Moore, and he said, you know, a lot of people think we don't have people back, but these guys have played a ton of football. They just were more in a role of kind of that 1B type of guys. So they would come off the bench and still get 30 or 40 snaps. So I think they're more experienced and people want to give them credit. It's just going to come down to, can they find a quarterback

to run that system? They are not an offense in this era of finding a Caleb Williams. That's not who they are. They're more of, we've got to run the football, we need a tight end, we need a fullback, which, by the way, they have. We've got to run, we've got to hit play action, we've got to be smart, we've got to be efficient, we've got to punt the ball. They play an old-school style of football, and I think because of that, you don't have to rely on that quarterback to be a savior. And so if they can block out all the Netflix and

are they going to be suspended? Are they going to get in trouble or all this stuff around them regarding the NCAA, which I think is just going to bring them probably as players closer together. I do have them in the playoff. I do think they're going to be better than people think. I don't have them winning the Big Ten. I had Ohio State winning the Big Ten. I had Oregon in the Big Ten winning the national championship once we get to the playoff. But I do have Michigan making it, which would probably get them at that, I don't know, 9-3, 10-2 mark. I think would get them into the playoff.

What do I have? Is it an 11 seed there against Texas? This 12-team playoff format, whenever we put them up on game day and I got to see everybody's, man. I mean, I know it's a long time away, and we've got to take a lot of different journeys to get to this point. But these first-round games with home field advantages, oh, my God. Electric.

I cannot. I know. You know what? I know. It is. I know you've got to experience it for like 20 years or whatever. And you still get, like, I don't want to say goosebumps, but I think you do still get goosebumps whenever you walk in.

Are you kidding me? How could you not? I mean, I'm worried about my 10 seed there. They still can, you know, obviously they can get back in position. Who's that? Oh, that's Florida State. I have Florida State there at 10, but we're off to an 0-1 start. They lost to Georgia Tech.

No, they did, everybody. And remember, they did lose. This is not indicative of how they're seeing it. That's what I heard. Come on, guys. Have you seen Norvell's record without Jordan Travis? Wait a minute. It's like 2-9 or something.

Wait a minute. 2-9, I think, without George Travis. We don't need to do this. I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it. I know you're not. I know you haven't. No, Gumby told me they lost.

That's the only reason we didn't do it. Okay. Herbie has them in the playoff. He does. He has them in the playoff. Picked them to win. Seamus is the only one to pick Georgia Tech. And I think after we saw how passionate the Florida State fans were this weekend towards

Herbie for their team, obviously we are still incredibly bummed out for you with the way last year went. Once again, there are other teams that felt incredibly bummed out as well but weren't undefeated like you guys. With that four-team system, inevitably somebody was going to be left out every single year. That's why this year, even with the loss week one, you still got everything in front of still hey still got everything in front

of you still got everything in front of you which is exactly what you put out and exactly your immediate reaction was like 12 team playoff they can still make it if they figure it out is going to have to figure it out a little bit they're going to have to play better football but this is why this year is better than any year of the past in my eyes amen amen you know on one hand you'd like to think every game matters, you know, and you want to feel like you've got urgency

to win every game. But then on the flip side, what you just said is very accurate. I mean, Florida State, you know, their fans are upset now with not me,

but about the team losing and being 0-1. But what you just said, they got a game Monday night. I think somebody said earlier there's no Monday night football. Florida State-BC is a Monday night game

without the NFL this week. So a chance to get a big audience, regroup, get this thing turned around, get to one-on-one, and away we go. So yeah, they have so much in front of them. It's just a matter of putting that disappointment behind them and still thinking

about trying to have a big year. And you are a massive fan of Norvell. We think he can call it the big culture. We hope it happens for him because getting to experience your passion, although it's pretty negative at times, cool to see. And that's why college football is as great as it is. We can't thank you enough for the time, Herbie. You got it, man.

See you guys. Have a great time in Morgantown. I'll see you Saturday. All right, I'll see you down in College Station. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Herbstreit. Yay! I'm in Morgantown. I'll see you Saturday.

All right, I'll see you down at the college station. Ladies and gentlemen, Kirk Herbstreit. Yay! Oh, interrupting their playlist to talk about Defying Gravity, are we? That's right, Newton. With a Bronco in Bronco Sport, gravity has met its match. Huh, maybe that apple hit me a little harder than I thought. Yeah, you should get that checked out.

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Switch to Quest Wealth Portfolios today and keep more of your money. Cond't wait. Opening an account is quick and easy. Switch to Quest Wealth Portfolios today and keep more of your money. Conditions apply. Right now, we're getting a chance to experience something incredibly special in the racing world. The Talks at Table is here at Boston, Connor and Natai Schmidt. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Live from Manatee, Ohio, A.J. Hawk is here. And joining us live in the Thunderdome, ladies and gentlemen, racing icon, Indiana legend, and a man who's racing this weekend in a top fuel car at the NHRA U.S. Nationals happening right here on the west side of Indianapolis, Tony Smokester. Smoke, great to chat with you again.

Obviously, you're an Indiana legend. And every time U.S. Nationals comes to town, we get a chance to catch up with you. How has the season been? This weekend's the biggest race of the year. How are the cars? We just saw the new livery, new paint scheme on the outside of Israel. Look at these bad boys. Look at these bad boys.

We just got a chance to debut this. Let's fast forward if we could. If we could. If we could. Boom! could. If we could. Boom! Look at these beautiful things. Damn. Hey, they look beautiful.

Okay, so brand new paint job for the U.S. Nationals this weekend at NHRA. That was a debut right there to you, to me, to the entire crew. What is the symbolism behind this? And are we just american muscle about to go 330 miles an hour down the track yeah this is to celebrate uh direct connections 50th anniversary so uh to do a throwback paint scheme and you know this the u.s nationals this weekend this is the super bowl for drag racing for nhra so the biggest event of the year it's it's in our backyard obviously it's a home race for us uh and obviously dodge is a great partner of ours so having them here and being able to debut the paint schemes and uh we even got a chance to

drop you down in an 11 000 horsepower funny car for a minute yeah i got the smell of the hammy oh yeah i got the feel that hammy right in front of me and you just you just mentioned how many how many horsepower over 11 000 okay 11 000 horsepower in the engine uh very nice sports car that you're driving around let's say you see a mustang so it's 600. that's like 600 700 horsepower is absurd for a car 700 horsepower is insane for a 11 000 horsepower in these cars and they're going how fast in a quarter mile over 330 miles an hour in a thousand feet if we bring a still shot up from that drone shot uh so we can talk about each car individually because they are two different cars but they both have same engine as if we go a little bit more so we can get the full aspect of that one the one on the uh

boom the one on the left there is the funny car right the funny car and then the long skinny one is the top fuel dragster okay so the funny car is kind of shaped after a car i saw there was some like details like fake lights on the front and everything like that i sat down in that thing 11 000 horsepower right in front of your lap that's what separates that plus the design for the top fuel or how do we get two different 11 000 horsepower engines in two different cars that just that just feels like we're doing a lot. I think the biggest thing and the biggest variable is the car I drive with the top fuel dragster, the motor is behind me. So if something happens, it blows up, it catches on fire, the fire is behind me and I'm going away

from it. Matt Hagen that drives that funny car that you sat in and warmed up, if that blows up, you are going into the fire. I mean, and not a little fire. This isn't like a matchbook that catches on fire. This is nitromethane burning and you're driving into it. So I mean, and not a little fire. This isn't like a matchbook that catches on fire. This is nitromethane burning and you're driving into it. So I think the funny car guys, I think they're crazy. I think they're nuts. Yeah. So I didn't have any of those thoughts whenever I sat down in the car. We didn't tell you that part because we might not want to get in it. We do have footage of that. And I believe we're trying to transfer it right now to the computer because it literally just happened. But I'll tell you when you started it right now to the computer because it literally just happened.

But I'll tell you when you started that thing up. Oh my God, you can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. You can smell it. You can sense it. You can feel it. I had a gas mask on like it was back in college.

You know what I mean? We were trying to find some Jesus Christ in there and whenever that thing started up, I could feel it and it was a thousand degrees. I mean, today's a very hot day in indianapolis indiana i had earplugs in i had a gas mask on obviously you're standing right next to me with neither of those things so i appreciate you doing that but then once those wheels started rolling it was incredibly how many how long does it take to build one of these engines and how many people are doing that because obviously the engineering of this entire thing is the show i assume yeah

these guys can service this car so that car can come back from a run they take the body off like we did to put you in the car that's how they service the car they can literally turn that around in 40 minutes so be ready to run again how long does this take to build this particular engine here uh total time from start to finish i don't know the man hours it takes to do that but literally just a service that comes off of it they service everything new pistons new rods new, new heads, new headers. All of that gets changed down in 40 minutes and is ready to go back on the racetrack. I felt alive, Tony. Ready to go.

Tony, I felt alive in there. I didn't get a chance to physically look at the bottom of the seat because I think there's a chance he might have wet himself. No, no, no. Just saying. I've been out to the track over there where the U.S. Nationals are. I used to live in that area. All week ahead of the race, you hear them practicing at night. You hear the sound because of how loud these engines are,

and I assume there will be some neighbor that will complain. We've seen you race NASCAR, IndyCar, Dirt Car. Now you're racing Top Fuel Car. Have you ever done it? You just like racing things? Is that kind of how we we got to this point and how much fun is this particular style of racing versus maybe the long-term track racing and everything like yeah this is polar opposite of what i did in nascar nascar i was in the car for three and a half hours now the run lasts three

and a half seconds so and we're talking everything is to the thousandth of a second not tenth of a second hundredth of a second to the thousandth of a second, not tenth of a second, hundredth of a second, to the thousandth of a second is what makes a difference in these cars. And the get-off is the big deal, right? The tree happened. So let's say we're watching this weekend because I assume there's a lot of people that just saw how sweet those cars looked

and just heard what you said. You see, you know what? I'll check that out. I will see what these cars are able to do. The reaction time is the most important part of this entire thing? For the driver, it is. as soon as those lights change once that once both drivers pre-stage and stage then the next thing you see is the three amber lights on both sides at the same time and as soon as the driver sees those lights they hit the gas and off you go on yeah how much driving

are you doing doing that yeah hopefully not a lot but but they don't as much as the track is straight i mean it is dead straight every time. The car never goes dead straight every time. Connor has a question for you. So how do you get your like reflexes ready? Like you're not just obviously walking out of your bus and getting into the car and, you know, lights come on and you're going like, do you have any routines, things you

do before a race to kind of get your brain ready to get your feet pedal to the metal ready? Because it doesn't really sound like your hands on the wheel too much. Yeah, honestly. And it's something that I've struggled with. Even, even this year, uh, last year I was running a top alcohol dragster that ran in the 270, 280 mile an hour range and still had to go through the same thing on reaction times. But now I came from cars where I was going to be in there for three and

a half hours. So I got in there and tried to get calm because I was going to be in there a while. Now I'm doing the opposite. Now I'm having to try to get my heart rate up. I'm trying to get my energy up. I'm trying to get like I'm getting ready to go into a fight. That's what you have to have that energy when you get in there because everything is on that reaction time on the light for the drivers.

And it's 130 degrees in there. Oh, over that. So hot. I mean, I was just cooking in there. I didn't have the suit on. I didn't have the helmet on. Didn't have the whole thing firing. It. So hot. I mean, I was just cooking in there for, I didn't have the suit on, I didn't have the helmet on, didn't have the whole thing firing. It was so hot. So having to deal and navigate with all those things, I guess,

and you're saying it's milliseconds of reaction time for U.S. Nationals win or loss. That's insane to think the amount of pressure on every single second. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, when you take all that into consideration, obviously it's only three and a half seconds or whatever, but how physically demanding is the whole process? Do you have to be in good physical condition going up in there?

I assume you're sweating like crazy in there. Also, we're talking 11,000 ponies under the hood. How physically demanding is it trying to actually control that thing? Something I didn't think about and never factored into when I started driving these cars, I didn't think it was that physical. I've always watched as a fan and watched it on TV. And I'm like, why are these guys out of breath? I mean, we can hold our breath in a swimming pool for almost a minute. And these guys make a sub four second run and they get out and they're breathing heavy and

this and that. And it's because your heart rate and everything's so high. But when you hit the gas, you get up to six, six and a half G's. And then when you throw the chutes at the end to slow down and stop, it's another six Gs the opposite direction. So you have a 12 G swing with your body weight, your helmet, everything. Everything in that car is going back when you hit the gas. And as soon as the chutes come out, it tries to throw you through the windshield. AJ has a question for you from Ohio. I know in NASCAR, a lot of the cars are very similar and they try to like have parity.

And I guess like a lot of cars are very similar to each other. And it's kind of hard to separate from the pack. Is it the same in these like the funny car when you're drag racing? Or is this more, hey, like it's on the driver and your reaction time and whoever jumps, it usually wins. There's a lot less rules as far as compared to NASCAR. NASCAR is so micro. I mean, they measure everything to the thousandth of an inch. And there's still rules in NHRA that is the same way, but you're sitting there taking an 11,000 plus horsepower car and

trying to make it go a thousand feet as fast as you can. The body being off a thousandth of an inch here or there, that's not going to make the difference to those guys, to the sanctioning body. So the rules are way more relaxed, but everybody really is just trying to manage an 11,000 plus horsepower car and trying to get it to get the maximum grip on the racetrack for what the track conditions are. How do we feel about our car going into the weekend? Our car is going into the weekend. We feel good? I think so.

I know Matt and Dickie on the funny car side, they're excited about it. They've really started hitting their stride right before the playoffs. This is our last race before the playoffs start for us. So this is a big weekend. It's points and a half. The top fuel side, we've struggled all year until the last two events, and luckily we're getting hot at the right time. We set records multiple times at the last event.

I finally went 334.7 miles an hour in the Top Fuel car. So it was a – Hey, that's smoke, baby. Yeah. That's why I had smoke driving right there. There could have been bombs going off beside the racetrack, and I wouldn't have known it was going on. What's it look like, 334 miles an hour?

It's tunnel vision. Really? It's very much tunnel vision. What do some people say, like slows down almost? It does when you get more comfortable, but that's the first time I'd been that fast. The previous event, the fastest we had ran, which was the quickest run we'd made all year, was 331 miles an hour. So granted, three mile an hour doesn't sound like much but you're talking three mile an hour and it's accelerating in a thousand feet so when

it when it made that pass and it ran 3.68 seconds that was the quickest elapsed time that i had in the run and i knew it was fast i didn't know how fast the numbers were didn't know how fast the mile an hour was but i knew at half track how hard it was accelerating that this was on a run and well you're just eyeballing the finish line or what are you yeah that's the whole time yep and do you everything is just 334 miles an hour in a quarter mile yeah great so that is but this weekend weather should be perfect right conditions look like it's gonna be great for all cars yeah we would not like to race in the conditions we have today it is hot out there there. How come? Well, the asphalt gets hot, the rubber gets hot, and when it does, it gets greasy and it gets slippery.

So instead of running 335, for example, you might be running in the 332, 331 range on a track like this. 334 feels like a winning mile per hour? Yeah, if you can run in the mid-330s like that, you're normally laying down a good run. Hell yeah, Tony. You feel like you're figuring it out? Starting to.

I mean, it's only taken 40-plus years in my racing career, and now I'm driving a car that I have really struggled to get used to this. Because like we said, everything was always in motion, and it was a long race where now it's short races. You have a couple hours in between runs, and then you've got to get yourself up. You've got to be ready, amped up. And then the car is going to go from zero to 330 miles an hour in less than a thousand force family was the big family of drag racing right still are still are still in the daughters i believe and i don't i don't want to say grandkids but that that family was the big drag racing family right is there any other notable names that we should look out for either this weekend or in the sport as the history?

Well, you've got Cruz Patragon that drives the Dodge. You've got drivers like Ron Pat, Patron Brown. You've got some really cool racers, Steve Torrance, Austin Prox here from the west side of Indianapolis. There are some great drivers in the competition this year. Of the four years that I've really been involved with NHRA, hanging around my wife Leahah and everything in both the top fuel and funny car classes it's the most competitive i've ever seen it your wife's a racer right yeah i believe that is because last time you're on the show i don't know if you guys are married yet yeah well we were you just maybe you but it was like you were with a it was like rice racers right is that that was the accurate story of the romance the reason that i'm driving the car is because she's seven months pregnant.

Congratulations. Thank you. That is awesome. Probably not a good idea for her to be driving a 330 mile an hour race car and sitting in a hundred. But she did, right? That was like her gig. Yeah. And she will get back to that whenever she's. Yeah. That's the plan is for her to get back in the top fuel car.

She has this really bad idea that she wants us to build a second top fuel team. So when she comes back, I have another car to drive and we get to race with each other, which I think is insane. It's a terrible idea on paper. It does not make sense because if you beat your wife, you get stuck to the couch for eternity, never get sleep in the bed again. And if you lose, you have to look at yourself in the mirror twice a day and go, I got my ass kicked by my wife. And all your buddies are going to and go I got my ass kicked by my wife and all your buddies are going to say you got your ass kicked by your wife so that's just the reality has a husband wife ever raced against each other I think they have I don't know if it was at the top fuel or funny car level but we I do know there's been multiple husband and wife combinations

and she's like a driver too right yeah and she's every bit as competitive, if not more competitive, than I am. So we both hate to lose. I think she might hate to lose maybe a little worse than me, but she would get excessive celebration penalties for every time that she beat me because she would rub it in my face. Yeah, well, that is something. But I would expect that from her. Yeah, as you should. I would want her to be that way.

That's a good relationship. It would be hard to celebrate that because you can't get out of the car. I mean, it took me like 30 seconds to get out of the car because of how fat my ass is. It's hot. And it's hot as shit. And you don't really know if you won yet, right? Whenever the race ends, you don't know if you won. You actually do.

There's two little lights on the wall, and when you get to the end of the run, if your light's on, you know you won. If that light's not on, you know your competitor won. Okay, so you start on Friday, right? You start on Friday. We got trials. We got one round of qualifying Friday night, which night qualifying is awesome to see the flames off these cars.

Thousands of fans will be there. Thousands and thousands of fans. They fill this place up. It's like a smaller state fair almost with everything in the middle. Had a few beers at one of these events. Great corn. You got state fair food there. Good crowd.

The best crowds out here, I'm assuming? Yeah. This is a big event. This is huge. So one round of qualifying Friday, corn yeah state fair food there good crowd the best crowds out here i'm assuming yeah this is this is a big event this is huge so one round of qualifying friday two rounds of qualifying on saturday and sunday and then the races and eliminations are on sunday or on monday on monday against each other yes got it so it's just like a 16 uh field bracket so just like a ncaa bracket go from 16 to 8 to 4 to 2 is it it time or speed? It is literally who gets to that finish line first. It doesn't matter if you left a second after I did, but your car was a second

and a half faster, you'd beat me by a half second. So you can run 334, but if it took you a little bit longer to get up there than somebody else that was able to get there quicker, they win the race. Correct. Exactly. Well, good luck out there. you smoke thank you so much yeah i mean i did think like wait i've seen they wear fire suits for a reason as that thing was getting started up here and uh i think if you watch me back i look around i'm like i think i trust these guys yeah these guys build it you were looking for the fire extinguisher orange i was wondering i was like these guys build a good engine yeah these guys build good... You were looking for the fire extinguisher one shot. I was wondering. I was like, these guys build a good engine. Yeah, these guys build a good engine. But then when you stood right next to me, I was like, all right, well, if I go down,

let's go down as well. It's not just what we do. I mean, we talked about that 40-minute turnaround time. Every one of those guys, we as drivers trust them with our lives because if they make a mistake, that thing could be on fire, the car could crash. I mean, we trust our guys and we are a tight family unit,

and everything they do is precise. I mean, these guys are great at what they do, and they all have their individual specialties of what they are responsible for on the car, but it is ultimately what keeps us safe in the car and what makes it go fast at the same time. Real talent. Yeah. Real talent.

And if you have weapons in that department, you win more races. I think that's clear across all fronts. Even F1. Have you ever raced F1? I've driven an F1 car. I drove Lewis Hamilton's car. We did a seat swap. So he drove the cup car for four laps.

I drove the Formula One car four laps. Do you think you'd be able to, if you went over there? I weigh too much to race with those little skinny guys. America. And I'm not going on that diet. Yeah. Amen. The U.S. Nationals

this weekend for NHRA, all weekend long here in the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana. We've got cars going 330 miles an hour in a quarter mile. 12G swing on bodies. Incredible engineering and an electric environment.

People, how could you not when it's right in front of you? You know, they talk about the pink slips in a show, drag racing and everything like that. It has always been fun to see whose engine is better than the other. And whenever it's happening at this high of a level, it is always a spectacle. Can't wait to see the Tony Stewart Racing Team and that beautiful new paint scheme take the track this weekend. Congrats on everything, Smoke, and thank you for stopping by. Appreciate it.

Thank you. That thing was loud. Oh, yeah. Yeah, had earbuds in. It felt like I did it. It was so hot. It was also so bright outside. It was very bright outside. It was so hot and bright outside.

I'm happy you guys kind of waited it out for us. We are so sorry. We did not know you were bringing your whole fucking team here. We would have been able to create more spots. The boys watched. I think some of the boys watched the program program so we appreciate the hell out of you guys for letting us be a part of your day today good luck this weekend have fun be safe ladies and gentlemen tony smoke

stewart thank you johnny good luck Good luck Good luck Thank you all 335 Go get them It's going to be perfect

Oh man I can still smell I think we're going to smell that forever in here You're the man Smoke Okay alright good Happy to hear that it's in my blood Horse power in my blood It's in my blood. It's in our skin. Yeah, horsepower in my blood. Part of us now.

Horsepower in my blood. Congratulations. Thank you. No problem. Good luck. You guys are going to make incredible parents. All right, see you guys. Holy hell.

Yeah, thank you. All right. That was electric. Dude, it was so powerful. Yeah. I couldn't imagine sitting behind you. So loud. Dude, so loud.

So loud. And they were like, I didn't know I was sitting in that thing. Obviously, I had no idea. so powerful yeah i couldn't imagine sitting behind so loud it was so loud so loud so and they're like i didn't know i was sitting in that thing obviously i had no idea i knew we were debuting a new paint scheme sure that was kind of the conversation us and smoke have a relationship over the years so it was like hey u.s national is happening smoke won't stop by our smoke would stop by would you want smoke to stop by it's like absolutely and then tony offers up like we'll have to debut our new paint we should do that with with pat or whatever it's like thank you for the opportunity to do that and then they're like we're also gonna put you in one of these things and i'm like yeah i guess i fucking you have to do that to get the opportunity to sit in one of these things so much power aj so

much as somebody who likes i like cars i enjoy cars i uh it's something that i think like literally since i'm a kid like see a nice car like well i like that i like that I think like, literally since I'm a kid, I see a nice car, like, oh, I like that car. I like that car. I like that car. I'm into cars. Not as much as other people that are into cars. There's people that are really into cars. Getting under the hood. Yeah, and they'll alpha you in a conversation. Turn and wrench. Bingo. All those types of

things. And I can keep up a little bit, but nowhere near as much as car people. I went to one of those races because I could literally hear the motherfuckers from my house where i was living at the time i'm like what is that sound they're like oh that's the nhra u.s nationals and i'm like is that like some bush league they're like no that is the fastest cars most powerful cars are racing like quarter of a mile in your backyard i'm like i hear them all they're like midnight, 1 a.m. leading up to these U.S. Nationals. They're going.

I'm like, I got to go see this. I get there. Party. Just thousands of people at this thing. Beers are served ass cold. I mean, you got, it is. And then you see these things take off down the strip, and it's like a blur. It's literally like a blur out of nowhere.

And then you see it go wrong sometimes. And it is not a blur. There's no easy way. There's no easy way to go wrong when you're going that fast not at all how close are the spectators the crowd uh you're behind like it's like a drag strip which is about as wide as a runway i'll say like an airport runway and then there's a little bit of space then there's like bleachers kind of down both sides of it you're caught you can feel it i mean you can feel and you got little kids too being held up over the edge like come on son it was uh the people are all incredibly kind the racing community is always like very jacked up about racing so it's like a fun place to be i think it was like families there people were

having a blast and then inevitably one person's engine is going to be better than everybody else's and it's like feels like smoke's engines heating up at the right time right there you warmed it up and it feels like Smoke's engine is heating up in the back. Yes, it does. He warmed it up. He said he went doing that little soft F1 stuff. Yeah, those little bitches. He drove a car, though.

Italian Grand Prix this weekend, by the way. Oh, nice. Was that in a one-lane road? What B-League MLS game is on? I'd rather watch that. Well, speaking of B-League MLS, Gumpch, we got the guy. He's a 14-year-old. Why is he playing in front of no people?

I feel like they're just trying to get him some minutes since they haven't been using him on the first squad. For whatever reason that is, I don't know why. For those that don't know what we're referring to, we're referring to a 14-year-old who made his debut in the MLS for the Philadelphia Union. He is from Philadelphia. His older brother plays for the Philadelphia Union.

He's 14 years old, debuting in the MLS. Hanging. Playing well. Comfortable. Confident. This comes after we see Jaheim. Jaheim from Spain? Lamar, yeah. Jaheim? Oh, boy. I know it's Lamar.

We saw a 16-year-old turn 17-year-old play for Spain who kept up, looked great. And then we see this American 14-year-old come on and play in the MLS. Like, we got the guy. And then he doesn't play anymore. Now he's playing for the B team. And he's doing this in front of no people. We have that in our back.

Come on, man. Let's get him in front of people. Left peg, too. He's right footed. He's filthy. What are we doing? There's a left peg from a right peg guy. I mean, let's put him on the field.

He's 14 years old. The guy's getting paid from Man City for five years. We can't get him in a game in the MLS. What are we doing? Let's let him play in his high school, man. High school would have more people. What the fuck are we doing? That was a strike.

Get him on the big club. Is he good enough to play on the big club? Dude, he looked good when he was out there. I saw him for 10 minutes playing. He looked really good. He took a shot. What's the union's record? The union are not a good squad.

Exactly. Build around a 14-year-old. They're better as of late, but their record is not very good. I just don't get it. This is a problem. I just don't get it. We got the guy. Let's let him be the guy, AJ.

Like Ty said, if they're not undefeated, what are you doing? Give the kid a chance. He's a sucker in the States. Trying to push him out. How about us? Literally everybody talks about it. He was on the Today Show. He was like, hey, looks pretty good.

Took a shot. Was very comfortable. A couple giving goes with his brother. Worked a couple things. Looked very confident. Obviously, the place went crazy. He could be the next one, not only in America, but in the entire world. And the Philadelphia Union are like, that's right.

And you'll see him in three years playing for a different team in another country. Yeah. It's like, come on. Go back down to the B League, man. What are we doing? Put the guy on the field. If Pochettino gets wind of this, he's... That's not his thing.

It should be if it's not his. Pochettino needs to poach him back up to the main squad. He's a good gaffer. He is a good gaffer. What is his name? It is interesting that that still hasn't been – that deal is not sealed just yet. What?

You're saying Poch is the head coach of the U.S.? Well, they haven't introduced him yet. I don't know what the holdup is. It's Chelsea being assholes again. Well, we don't like that at all. I thought he looked at the union and said, oh, you're not going to play a 14-year-old on the main team? I'm not fucking coaching for a country that does that.

So let me get this straight. You guys have a guy that everybody wants to watch. It could be the next one. We're not playing him. Okay. And then Methy got here. He won a bunch of games. Those games don't count.

Okay. So you're going to get it. Maybe he's trying to sort some things out, too, to see if he really wants to do it. Hopefully he does. Speaking of things getting sorted out, shout out to DirecTV. Shout out. DirecTV figured it out. They did.

Always do. Don't need a damn satellite anymore. To tell us more about that is All Pro legend, icon, one of the stars of Receiver for Netflix, friend of the program, Iowa Hawkeye legend, ladies and gentlemen, George Kittle. Yeah. Go, go, go. Woo. Woo.

All right, George. So tell me- What's up? Tell me about what's going on here. You know what I mean? Tell me what's going on with this helmet that was not to be worn in a conversation with you. Talking about taking the top off a little bit if you're DirecTV. George, tell me about it. Man, what a softball layup pitch. You guys are just so talented.

I really appreciate that. Thank you, bro. The DirecTV just wanted to show everybody, man, you don't need a satellite on your on your roof anymore man they're streaming now on the go at home whatever you need to do and so we thought nothing on your roof on your roof you're like my hair's long on the on the top sure on the side we just reverse that and it turns out i look completely different but at the same time still handsome yeah incredibly handsome you're george kittle i mean that's why you do those nude ads with those other companies but but let's stay with the DirecTV. Feels like this is a move that should have been, was made a while back for college students. DirecTV did this, I think. Now they're

doing it for everybody, it feels like, George. Yeah, it's for everybody, and the nice thing is it's for all pro football games and all college football games, so whatever you want to watch, you want to watch Ohio State and Green Bay, you can do that, AJ. It's all whatever you want to watch, man. Anybody can do whatever they want to do. If you want to watch Iowa and Green Bay, Iowa and the Bears, whatever you guys want to do, guys, you have access to it and just stream. For more information on DirecTV, how to enter for your chance to win the helmet and check yourself out with a nothing on your roof hairstyle go directly to directtv.com backslash nothing on your roof that is d-i-r-e-c-t-v dot com backslash nothing on your roof and you can maybe win one of these helmets damn maybe you see how you would look if you got the nothing on your roof cut that george

kittle had for this commercial now i will read the bottom anecdotes that we got sent here uh please george kiddo footballed helmets do's and don'ts right here do's and don'ts good to know do describe the helmet as a fun novelty keepsake item i think that's easy yeah yeah that's easy i think we said don't wear the helmet on air, it says. Uh-oh. And also, also, don't suggest the helmet could be used on the field during a real game. Well, sorry about it. I'm sending this to every youth league in the fucking country. Naturally. Just in case anybody was confused that this is not a game regulation helmet. Thank you for the do's and don'ts.

Is that? It's not. Are you sure? Put a helmet on. Put one on. Do you want to find out? Do you want to find out? Don't put the helmet on. It's like, what the fuck? Why'd you send me one?

I'm going to put the helmet on. It's cool. This is great for DirecTV, though. We are incredibly pumped about it, and I would like to see who ends up winning one of these helmets because you see it it's hard not to just be like what that is awesome so sweet this is a good idea george speaking a good idea thank you no problem how are you doing brother the idea is flowing how's the team feel because you know uh we've a lot of drama being chatted about your team outside do you guys hear it inside or no how's

that all go uh you know what it's hard to hear a lot of drama when you're in the middle of training camp. You're just waking up and you're practicing and you're in meetings all day. Then you go home and just go to sleep. So there's not really a lot of time to hear the drama and the outside noise. But like for us as the 49ers, like I know that the guys are going through contract negotiations. They're doing what they think is best for them. And we all support them in that. And as players, we're just going to show up there. We're going to practice every single day and just see what we can get out of the guys that are practicing. And so, you know, I got to ask, you know, like, how tough is it that Trent Williams is there?

And, well, yeah, he's a Hall of Fame first ballot guy, like, and he's going to play really good football for a long time. But I'm getting incredible reps with our backup left tackle, Jalen Moore, that I wouldn't get otherwise. And, you know, if Trent's not playing, I have no idea what's going to happen, but I'm getting these valuable reps with Jalen. And when Trent Williams shows up, he's inevitably just going to be amazing again. And I'm not going to really need that much practice with him because he's just better than everybody else. Okay. So let's talk about when he shows back up, because it feels like the Niners have had a little bit of this over the last couple of years with contracts and obviously superstars, and they've always been able to work it. I don't think people fully understand that when Trent Williams comes

back in that locker room, when it gets figured out, hey, let's go. Now we move forward, right? Isn't that kind of how the entire locker room feels about everybody, especially IU or Trent or anybody else? Oh, yeah. No, like as an NFL football player, like not everything's guaranteed. You know, it's the NFL. It's not for long.

So, like you want everyone to take advantage of the situation that they're in and make as much money as they possibly can and, you know, do what they've dreamt about since they were kids and make money for their families. And so and you know do what they've dreamt about since they were kids and make money for their families and so you know we all we all have their backs and we understand the position that they're in so there's no bad buttering like that so whenever they show up whenever whatever happens happens uh it's pretty seamless you're just right back into the flow of things. George how's this training camp been compared to others in the past we've heard multiple players

throughout the league kind of say that this was kind of a tougher training camp than they may have had. There might be more like a sense of urgency for some teams. Has that been the case for you guys? You know, I think Coach Shanahan does a really good job about the way we've scheduled our practices and, you know, the way that like, you know, we get guys ramped up to go out there and play football and how we do reps and stuff like that. Coach Shanahan does a great job of putting us in really like, you know, do or die moments, you know, situational football. And just like having those learning experiences is really good.

I do feel like our team has a great sense of urgency. You know, it's a little bit different when you're missing, you know, a couple of pieces out there. Like you've kind of noticed that. But what's nice is you get to see other guys take advantage of those opportunities. And, you know, like a guy like Chris Conley has played really well for us at X this year without IU being there. You know, our offensive line,

you know, there's a lot of moving pieces for it, but just kind of fun to see you guys out there. And at the end of the day, you have Brock Purdy throwing to, you know, me, Debo. On the defense, you start out Fred and Nick Bosa is still pretty decent at football, I'm pretty sure. I think he has like 100 sacks. And that's nothing against our offensive line. That's just how good he is. And so we have a sense of urgency and we're practicing hard and it was a tough training camp but you know yesterday was a super high day for us and i think our offense came out on top which was kind of fun to see yeah i'd love to have a little a dub over the other side uh of the roster in training camp because if one side's dominating a bit boy it does get loud in meetings and cafeteria and

everything like that. Shout out to the offense. Shout out to the offense. Thank you. Congratulations to you guys. Without Trent and Ayuk, you know, that is – you guys should be rubbing that in their face as well potentially. You guys see what the fuck's going on.

You talked about Bosa still being great at football and being incredibly jocked, which he is. There's another guy too that allegedly – go ahead, Conman. Yeah, George, has Brock Purdy been getting drug tested? Because it seems like he's on PEDs. There's some before and after photos in this offseason. He looks incredibly jacked now. What did he do, and did you just kind of give him your playbook?

Like, hey, you got to do arms for 30 reps every single day? You know, actually, I think the most impressive thing with Brock right now is he's turning into a mini McCaffrey slash Bosa and just has huge quads. And it's just like, I'm a tall and like, I'm skinny guys. Like, I just don't get that. Like I have nice quads, but they're not like Bosa, which is it. I'm a little jealous, but it is what it is, but pretty just see fits in that category really well.

And, uh, yeah, you know, he looks a lot better, uh, like just bigger, faster, stronger, which is nice to see. And it just looks more mature. And Pat, it's hard to looks a lot better, like just bigger, faster, stronger, which is nice to see. And it just looks more mature. And Pat, it's hard to give like a thoughtful answer every time I look at the screen. I agree. It's really tough right now. Come on. You look incredible.

You're distracting. Don't support the business, brother. Right here, bub. Maybe that's why you weren't supposed to wear it because I would get distracted. Okay. They said, we know George better than you do. You put that helmet on, you're not going to get shit out of him. But you just gave a great answer about Brock Purdy there.

How about mentally? How about around the building? And I know being a young quarterback is tough because you're being asked to basically be the CEO of a professional operation. Now I know Shanahan is obviously the offensive leader and you've got stars everywhere, but as a quarterback, there's going to be expectations of you chirping and talking and

motivating and everything like that. How is he done with that? Have you seen any growth other than just his biceps and his quads? Have you seen any growth behind the scenes that maybe we don't get to see? I think one of the biggest things I've noticed, like you can give like the, you know, the professional answer and say, you know, he comes into work every single day he's the same guy he's consistent but what i've really liked about brock ever since he got into the huddle his rookie season he's a guy that like he speaks with confidence and when you're a quarterback with confidence like the players like everyone looks at you you have everyone's attention 24 7 and there's no bs behind it like it's just who he he truly is and one thing i really noticed this offseason, because it was

his first healthy offseason. He had to do all of OTAs. He had to go away, take some time off, then come back for training camp. I think he just has a new confidence in the offense. He's kind of taking the reins on it. I think him and Kyle have discussed about what his favorite things are, and those are the things we try to get better at.

When he's at his most confident, he's getting guys like me, Debo, McCaffrey, Juice, Jawan Jennings of football, you know, in third downs and third and long. So I think he's just taking control of the offense. It's fun to see that. Yeah. We're big Brock Purdy supporters over here. Love them.

We have Brock Purdy's all the time. He's so good at the football. He's so good at the football. He is good at the football. Hey, I have a question for you, Pat. How was Ireland? Buddy, it was awesome.

It looked like a riot. It was quite a runaway, a little bit of a gong show. I would recommend it 10 out of 10. I don't know if I can survive another trip to Dublin, but we got about a year to prepare. I don't think I'm going to drink until then, but buddy, it

was awesome. I don't think I'm gonna drink until then but buddy. It was awesome I mean just like well I don't know what everybody's thoughts are on like should Dublin be a place that I travel to throughout my life You should you absolutely should it is a blast. It's like a you know hard-working time They they are made they will love American football that town in that place will continue to grow their love for American football So I think there's gonna be more opportunities for it. But, yeah, a little bit of a gong show there, George, because the people in the pub couldn't hear us.

The PA wasn't working. So all those people could not hear us. They were there, and we were sitting, what, 10 feet away from them pretty much. So I decided early that I'm just, you know what, I'm going to chug 10 of these things for the show for the boys here, the Irish lads that are in the bar. That not a great decision you know because that led to about 15 more and then there were shots of whiskey you know it was a long night but they took care of me which i'm very grateful for and we got to experience dublin in a way with seamus that i don't think

anybody ever it was a dream george wow it was a fucking dream the legit dude seamus there too is just so sick that is so fun for you guys. I went to Dublin, I think like two years ago for a wedding. Alex Mack, the former center for the Falcons and then he was with us for a year. And we got in and like at 10 a.m. me and Claire went to get breakfast and two guys next to me

were just drinking Guinness. I was like, well, I guess it's I guess I'll have a beer. Sounds like a good idea. There were some people that didn't love the show. I'm like, what the fuck do you want me to do? These people can't hear us either. Imagine what that's going to become if we're not engaging with them at all. It's like, when in Rome is a statement for a long time.

We were literally in the place. We were in a pub in Dublin with so many good lads. So many good lads. Speaking of lads, of lads younger lads d-butt's got a question for you george george you've been around for a while i think going to year eight and obviously one of the best tight ends in the game a lot of great tight ends coming out of hawkeyes as well and they start tightening you do you find it that uh a lot of young guys

reach out to you now um i would say yes or no i've had a lot of college guys uh hit me up and like high school uh guys too just like asking for drills and stuff that I think would help them out. And I try to respond to as many as I possibly can, but you know, I've worked with a couple of college guys in the off season. And then definitely with the, um, like the younger NFL guys, we had a bunch of first and second year guys there, uh, this year and whether they were like on active last year or even practice squad trying to earn their spot onto an active roster um they ask a lot of questions i mean like how often do you get a like greg olson and travis kelsey evan ingram in a room and be able to ask some questions about what they did when they were a rookie and like what they like what what they could learn from

them and how could they get a little bit better as a rookie or a second year guy so i think it's just like it's invaluable information at the same time too like after every preseason game i gotta go up and i gotta see all the tight ends that were at tight in you so yeah that was pretty fun for me as well yeah holy cow what was that everything all right dude you look fantastic oh thanks okay racist fucking appreciate that wow is your your your your domes a little different color, though. Yeah, maybe. Well, we don't know. Hey. We don't know.

Maybe they should. George, take it easy, bud. We don't see that stuff. It's blurry. It's blurry. I can't see. It's not – it's the connection. Oh, you're in Ireland, too.

Yeah. Because that was all. I should be streaming on DirecTV is what I should be doing. Yay. Way to bring it back. Nothing on the roof. Way to bring it back. Okay, so what's your guys schedule

Right now you got four days off I guess this weekend I guess that's NFL mandated What is your schedule going into next week Let's see Friday night I'm going to hang out Probably with my wife maybe play a couple Video games Shout out Claire

And then Saturday night we have a players party At Coach Shanahan's house which he throws every single year, which is a good time. Is that the one where he threw the football across the thing? I think that was a different one. No, that was just him hanging out in San Diego one offseason with John Lynch when he threw a football into a pizza oven or something like that. Yeah, on the other side of the street or whatever. Joe Staley.

Yeah, that was with Joe Staley. Legend. What games are you playing? I like that. Good question. You know what's crazy? I just got into Elden Ring. Okay. I'm going to get into that. Claire's not going to be happy about the time I spend on that one.

What is Elden Ring? It's like... Randy Orton just said he's playing 600 hours. This is how long he's played that game. He's talking to Yeah, he said he's playing hours. 600 hours. 600 hours. Is how long he's played that game. Yeah, he's talking to Cody Rhodes with the Wheatley vodka. Yeah.

That's a great conversation. Awesome. And Randy Orton, obviously, living legend, so is Cody. But what is it? Is it like a Dungeons & Dragons type game?

What type of game is it? Sure, kind of like that. Yeah, kind of a mythic thing. You beat a bunch of bosses. You get to customize your person. Oh, sick. Yeah, there you go. Spellslls fighting.

I'm 30, I'm 30 minutes into it. So I can't give you a great description of it. Do you stink at these types of games? You're very good at these types of games. Um, I'm pretty good at these games. I haven't played an RPG in a while.

Um, but I'll, I'll get back into it. I was a big mass effect guy, uh, which is pretty similar to it, but, uh,

that, and I play a lot of rocket league. Oh, that's the soccer with the cars. Yep. Always been a gamer? Yeah. Halo 3 is my entire identity

in middle school and high school. Let's talk about college a little bit. Ty, here's a question for you. Yeah, George, I'm sure you've seen the NCAA is completely fucking blackballing Coach Ferentz, suspending him for the first game. We all know he didn't do anything wrong, okay, but they'll slap him on the wrist, give him this recruiting violation.

It's bullshit. You don't need to comment on it. I know you agree with me. Most Iowa fans do, but I don't know if you've looked at our schedule this year. I'm kind of feeling a home playoff game in the first inaugural 12-team playoff. What are your expectations for Iowa this year? You've got to get the quarterback figured out, obviously. But beyond that, what do you think?

You guys do. You got that transfer from Michigan a couple years ago that Kirk cheated to get. Yeah, exactly. And we probably won't be going back to the portal anytime soon. Tim Lester. First, I'll say free Kirk. Free Kirk. Free Kirk.

Thank you. Yep, Kirk's dogs. Free Kirk. Besides that, I would say free Kirk. Free Kirk. Free Kirk. Thank you. Yep, Kirk's dogs. Free Kirk. Besides that, I would say, you know what? You know the defense is going to play at an incredibly high level. You know you have the top two special teams in the country, not number two with LeVar Woods as the special teams coordinator. And I just think if the offense can just score 10 to 14 points a game,

the defense is going to score seven, or the special teams is. And so that's an average of 14 points a game. The defense is going to score 7, or the special teams is. That's an average of 21 points per game, and you're going to win a lot of football games doing that. Let's just win the games that we're supposed to, upset one or two guys, and then let Kennett get really loud. Yep. I like all those.

Are we at Ohio State? At Ohio State. That'll be fun. I'm against Washington. What's the date on that? October 12th, which is a stacked college football card. That is so sick. No, it's at home. It's at home.

Okay, okay. It's at home. Oh, yeah. You got home Northwestern, home Wisconsin. You're at UCLA. Need it. You're at Maryland. You're home against Nebraska on Senior Day.

Big. Which, who knows what rules team is going to look like then, legitimately. We have no idea. All I know is that Iowa versus Nebraska, it's George Killiver versus Will Compton, and my record is pretty good. Tell them, George. Will Compton just interviewed Peyton. So cool.

He got Peyton to do the... I love Will. I open my phone, and I see Will Compton's face. I'm like, it's going to be a good day. It's going to be a great day for the boys. Hey, same with you, man. You bring great vibes all the time. That's a massive piece, I think, of your success.

Did you enjoy the receiver documentary thing? Did you enjoy that last year? I really did. You know, it was actually funny. I was a really hard no when they first asked me. And then it was actually Claire convinced me. She was like, first, we watched a couple episodes of the quarterbacks, and they did a great job of just showing behind the scenes of those guys.

And then she was like, hey, this is something that you're going to be able to show your kids in like 10 years. And it's like a very unique experience. So thinking like that, I was like, yeah, this will be really fun. And the whole process was awesome. NFL films are the whole thing. We got a girl with the same video crew every single time. So you get to build a relationship with the film crew and it really wasn't that invasive like they only

came to your house if you asked them like hey they're like hey can we shoot something this week but no they're like okay sounds good we'll ask you again next week like they were very they worked with us in every way possible it was fun to watch you and claire and your family and everything learn about you and i think that was peyton's big pitch whenever he did quarterback the first time obviously with omaha and he asked patrick mah and Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid both said Peyton you would never do this ever like this why are you asking and then Peyton gave a story about how you know his kids Mosley and Mark like they don't know they don't get to see what it looked like what one day of my life what work looked like how people talk how I talked how we went about our

business he was like so I do wish actually I would have been able to do something like this. You have it forever, and I think you looked incredibly cool and good. And it seemed like your teammates love you. And that continues every single offseason. This past offseason, you did something special down there in Nashville. Go ahead. Yeah, George, before the Titans preseason game, I saw that you had all the boys over the house to work out.

First off, good for you. You've done very well. But was this mandatory? Did everyone have to come to the barn and work out in the field? Or how cool was this? How did this work out? Oh, man. Another thing that was my wife's idea.

She goes, hey, you guys are coming to Nashville? Because they tell you if you're not going to play in the preseason game. And if you're not playing in a preseason game, they always require a workout. And we either go to a local college or a local high school and we're like why let's just go out to our place so my dad being the lawyer he is he worked up a little deal a little a little thing with the niners signed a waiver he's good at waivers and had all the boys out for like a two-hour workout and there's all the guys who didn't play so it was a really fun experience you know it's a place i take a lot of pride in

i spent a lot of time in there you know basically five days a week minimum uh all off season just working with like all my friends and so the fact i get to bring my teammates out here some guys have been teammates with for a long time and just kind of show them how i do things have them on the property uh chef made them like we had barbecue pulled pork chicken sandwiches oh super tasty so the boys were well fed. And just an overall great experience on this. I like showing guys what a little bit of land looks like as opposed to living in a big city. Yeah, and we were supposed to swing by and experience a cold tub.

You have a full setup over there. You have like a... I got spa. I have a sauna, a couple ice tubs, a hot tub, you know, every day for the guys. You know, we do laundry. We do, you know, we got tub shorts. We got towels. AJ, come on down and get in the sauna with your boy. Do you do loops?

You got loops? Yeah, you got mesh bags? Do I do loops? We got mesh bags. Okay, smart. That's a great setup. The loops kind of a situation. At TST, the soccer tournament we did this past summer,

they were a loop system for your uniform only. In the tournament, we clean it. So, like, you put the jersey, shorts, socks on a loop. We will wash it. We will get it to you before your next game. I was like, that was very nice of them to be able to do that. We had some boys on our team, the arena boys, that hadn't done laundry in a while.

So, that loop became, well, I need next Tuesday's shirt, actually, and also some underwear and maybe a pair of jorts in this thing. So some loops were packed, you know, complete. And to TST's credit, they said fucking enough. They opened that.

Not doing this. We're not doing this. That's awesome. Yeah, so I've always been a bad guy myself. The loops, though loops though very very efficient speaking of nashville good times d-butt's got a question for you yeah i was just celebrating with uh bryson dechambeau after he won uh us open down there in nashville dude that was just a wild experience we had uh it was the third day of titan u and all it is we were like at the vanderbilt

for like two hours doing like a little pass pro stuff and then uh then we had this big pool party we were in out a cool house and we had a couple like food trucks and stuff like that we're playing drinking games in the pool they had a chipping green so like guys are you know chipping and then all of a sudden they're like hey uh Liv Liv is here and uh Bryson is going to come over with the trophy and I was like really that's cool and so he just showed up he was he was such a cool guy um he passed around the trophy to like i don't think he expected 40 people to chug beer out of the trophy but it went around the base of the entire that was apple juice it wasn't beer remember we had coffee on friday in dublin you were drinking apple juice there it's all good it was it was bud light and it goes all

the way around and my mom even got it she goes i'm doing this too my mom she turned 65 in two weeks and she had she enjoyed herself as well i was like mom good for you way to be an absolute stallion hey nashville is awesome huh oh my gosh i love that place man i i can't i'm like i'm looking forward to the point of my career uh where i get to live in nashville for the entire year but till the fall off, baby. And it feels like it's going to be forever because how you take care of yourself and how good a shape you are. And it feels like you're, you're in your prime for what the last six years it feels like. And it's no stopping. You feel strong, body feel good. Are you staying playing weight and everything that you were last year and years in the past? Yeah. You know,

at the end of the last season, cause of my injuries, I got down to like two 14 and I got back up to two 42 before the season started. I was pretty pumped about that. Oh, yeah, I saw like a graph. That was a wild one. A 40-pound swing or something was like the mean. That's real. That actually happened.

Yeah, that happened. I had like surgery. I couldn't do any workouts. And when I don't work out, I lose weight very fast. And so I was like 214, and my wife looks at me, and she goes, are you okay? I'm like, no, I lose weight very fast. And so I was like 214. My wife looks at me. She goes, are you okay? I'm like, no, I'm not okay. She's a woman.

Hold on. So protein shakes like DeChambeau. We're doing protein shakes, forced eating. Oh, yeah. You are full time. Oh, yeah. All the time. Protein shakes, as much food as I possibly can and as much lifting as I possibly can

to just get the body back to what it was and feeling great now, which is really fun. It feels good going into – I'm like 10 days away from playing a football game. Yeah, real one. One that actually matters. 13. Yeah. Monday night. Monday night at Jets.

Oh, yeah. I forgot Jets coming to town Monday night. That's an opener for Monday night football, right? Yeah. It's going to be JT. It'll be really fun. Unbelievable. It's going to be Thursday, Kansas City, Baltimore.

Friday, Green Bay, Philly. Saturday is going to be a stacked college football lineup because that's what college football is every week this year. Every week. Stacked. And then opening Sunday and then Jets-Niners. Let's go, George! Come on now.

Football's back, baby. Yes, it is. And you can get a cool hat. A helmet. A football helmet. Why do you think they said don't wear they said that so I do they got you obviously people would think you can wear it in the game it's like car hand tat is sweet is that new that hand tat yeah this is a blue a tune blue eyes white dragons trying to show that from Yu-Gi-Oh.

New, right? That's new? Yeah, I just got this last... Oh my God, I'm going to go out of the camera. There we go. Two wedding rings, too. Really cool. I got married twice to Claire. That's nice. That was beautiful. You had a gold one and a diamond one.

Literally matches with everything. And then that hand tat is sweet. Sweet hand tats look awesome. I like good hand tats. See, this is Hobbs from Calvin and Hobbs. He's cute and cuddly. Yeah, he is. Catches footballs.

I know. Hey, I had one more question for you, Pat. Are you all really in the WWE game? Yeah. That is so sick. Thank you. Thank you. We're pumped up about it.

Not all wrestling fans are as pumped as you were. Are you kidding me? Like, what a fun opportunity for you guys. Because you put, like, hey, you're there. You put the hours in. You're there all the time. And for you to get all the boys in, too. Like, have you and AJ, like, fought yet in the ring?

Well, sure. Yeah, certainly. I'm a big gamer. In the video game. In the video game. You guys have fought each other? Yeah, I won obviously And AJ tried this flying chin thing on me

But I super kicked it out of nowhere It was a good time I'm not a gamer and neither is AJ So it might have been the worst match in the history of WWE 2K But it's an honor to be in there Have you made the toxic table champs yet George? Maybe take some time and make the toxic table champs out there I need to make the time.

You would be, and I know you can't because you're playing football until the wheels fall off, but, like, you know it. You were built to be a WWE superstar. You know it. Personality, your love of the business, your ability to kind of physically keep up. You would have been a phenomenal WWE superstar if you did it full-time, and I can't wait to see the time in which you are able to

kind of dive into it a little bit. Legit. I'm looking forward to that, and I've already discussed building an extra little indoor facility so I can build a wrestling ring with my wife, so we'll get there at some point. Okay. Don't tell the Niners that. Yeah, we won't. We'll dump that. We'll dump that.

Yeah, cut that. That's what I used to say in the receiver when I knew I was mic'd up and I said something. I was like, Niners that. Yeah, we won't. We'll dump that. We'll dump that. We'll dump that. Yeah, cut that. That's what I used to say in the receiver when I knew I was mic'd up and I said something. I was like, just cut that. Don't. The cutting room. Did you see it before it was released? Did you know what was going out before everybody else or no?

They sent us highlights of the things that we were looking at and stuff like that. But no, a lot of it was a live reaction. All right. Well, let's get out of here. Shall we? Yep. Be a friend. Tell the friends something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Come on, George. Team on three. Georgie anything say the team?

Hey, you guys have a wonderful day. Be your best selves and destroy the rest of the week. Team on three. 123.