The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1332 - Bills GM Brandon Beane, Rams GM Les Snead, Jeff Passan, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: April 29, 2025

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap all of last night’s playoff action in both the NBA and NHL, and look ahead to tonight’s tilts which feature 4 playoff games in each. Joining the show to discuss all their draft picks and his overall thoughts on the 2025 NFL is the General Manager of the Buffalo Bills, Brandon Beane. Next, to discuss their draft and trading out of the first round to pick up another 2026 1st round pick as well as some of the acquisitions they’ve made is the General Manager of the Los Angeles Rams, Les Snead. Later, ESPN Senior MLB Insider and NY Times best-selling author, Jeff Passan joins the show to bring everyone up to speed on what’s been happening thus far in the baseball season including Aaron Judge’s legendary run, the Mets being the first team to 20 wins, the Rockies potentially being the worst team in the history of baseball, Paul Skenes’ continued dominance, and why he thinks it’s still going to be the Dodgers over the field. 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 unfighting goather next Saturday Tuesday. This is how it starts now. Sports are happening all around us and we're so incredibly lucky and thankful that we get to talk about them every single day obviously there's NFL news that are always popping off and today we have a couple general managers joining us. Brandon Bean of the Buffalo Bills will join us in about 20 minutes you might Obviously there's NFL news that are always popping off and today we have a couple general managers joining us Brandon being in the Buffalo Bills will join us in about 20 minutes You might know him from running the Buffalo Bills You might know him from you know the draft that he just did this past weekend

You might also know him from a local radio hit that he did yesterday with Jeremy and Joe up there where he said I'm Bots sick of you guys bitching about wide receivers. Did we not just put up 30 points? Why you guys upset in? 2018 you guys wanted me to draft Josh Rosen over Josh Allen Okay So now we're doing the same thing brain and being is a human who happens to be front of the program Who also happens to be one of the best team builders? I think that there is in a national football league has his team won the Super Bowl No, but they're certainly working every day to get there. He'll chit chat with us in about 19 minutes

I can't wait to get his take on everything that happened during the NFL draft and in second hour. We got a less theme Oh, okay. Yeah, that's the Los Angeles Rams general manager will join us as well We're gonna have a conversation about baseball at the end of the show Jeff Passon is gonna join us fresh off of his Monday Night Raw We're gonna have a conversation about baseball at the end of the show. Jeff Passon's gonna join us fresh off of his Monday Night Raw appearance last night. Him and the Passon boys looked like they had an absolute

but yeah, let's go, let's go. He said, Hart T.C. Oh, T.C. Okay, okay, yeah, T.C. I thought he was giving a heart there a little bit. He did acknowledge his tribal chief, which I respect and appreciate. Had great seats and last night was a great show.

Great show last night. Seth Rollins, Braun Breaker, Paul Hey feel like they're uh they're gonna be a problem yeah I feel like they're gonna be a problem how about Becky Lynch is saying yeah I jumped Bailey so what deal with it yeah so I could be tag team with Lyra Valkyria and then I would attack Lyra Valkyria Becky Lynch literally in a matter of two moves boom boom boom boom was a champ again she's back now she's a top gun for the title it's like super genius type stuff yeah obviously she and Seth freaking Rollins could be scheming at all times around their child that they have together in their family While they're cooking and also I forced Smackdown's version of Adam Pierce

Mr. Otis who former champion in his own right handsome lad great middle manager to allow me to fight Gunther which I will be doing next Saturday at Backlash. So last night was electrifying, last night was fantastic, and last night I got to tell the world that that guy sitting down there next to me, he's the goat, and if you want a piece of him,

you're going to have to go through me. Now Gunther is a beast. Gunther is a dog. Gunther's in his prime. Gunther literally only spends moments of his life trying to beat up other people So while I'm here talking about sports having a good time with the boys

Following along with everything else all Gunther's doing is preparing to hurt people. I understand that but what he needs to know is I ain't no Huh? What am I, the parking shop? Yeah Yeah, this ain't no Okay, especially if you're gonna mess with the goat who happens to be one of my best friends. I don't think so. So his band has been lifted and we have a match now in St. Louis at Backlash and I saw his response. He put a little laughing face at it.

He's like, okay, Gunther, okay, Bob, listen, I understand you got an incredibly strong jawline. I understand your presence is wild, but I want to let you know, been hitting my chest with bamboo. That's right. Been hitting my chest with bamboo since last Monday, thinking this was possible. Just been banging bamboo off of my chest like I'm a karate kid getting this thing ready. He is a guy that likes to thump. Oh yeah. He is a chopper, a slapper, a puncher. He is a meaty man that's not scared to beat you down. Well guess what? I could become that too.

I'm ready for that. Huh? I punch that punching machine over there? Game buster? Harder than ever. Harder than anybody in the history of the world. That's right. I saw some guy on the internet hit one of these things

at a weight room, I don't know if you saw this guy. He looked like he was out in a 290, completely jacked up. He got all jacked up about a 915 or something like that. It was like, yeah, 915's fun. Me and Bruce do that left-handed, you know, in this entire thing. So if he wants to go ahead and get into the chopper, I think I'm gonna work some of those as well.

Because you can turn a knockout punch, which I have, I don't have titanium in here, but this thing has been around town a couple times You just open that thing up What if I'm a truck what if what if I didn't even know in my preparation of going through in this chop world? And maybe I got an okay one is what we're gonna find out There's a chance I get my ass kicked out there certainly is but just know that I'd rather get my ass kicked for standing up for My friend than to be a coward and back away whenever some bully comes in and starts messing with a 60 year old goat. So I'm excited.

Last night was awesome in Kansas City. Great crowd. Yeah. Great crowd. In the home of the Chief. They went with me. They did. I didn't know if I had the, I got really hit the rhythm here, you know, they went completely. There's a lot of signs around there.

I enjoyed the hell out of Kansas City last night. Very thankful. As we continue on the wild world of professional wrestling, lucky to be a part of the WWE. This Friday I'll be live from New York Times Square. The ring will be putting on a fight. I think you've heard about it. There's five fights actually happening in Times Square.

I'll be doing a nice solo, ISO setup from there doing it. I think we're gonna have some special guests. I think a lot of people are coming through. I think a lot of people are coming through. And just the thought of being able to do a show live from Times Square, I said, I'll do that. So that should be fun on Friday, getting in the boxing road, yeah, in the Big Apple.

Friday, May 2nd, in the Big Apple, in Times Square, with one of the biggest boxing events of all time. This is the biggest card of all time. No, Garcia's on there though. Yeah, that's right. Garcia's on there, and I think he's just... He's good again. I think he's just like Ryan Garcia, just a human.

Normal guy. He's Ryan Garcia. Best cap of his life. Sure, sure, sure. What do you mean, sure, sure, sure? Sure, sure, sure, sure, yeah. He's not doing all that. He had the most insane camp I've ever seen.

He had the most wild promo that I've ever seen he won That certainly was an interesting Dynamic, you know, cuz whenever you see people crash out appear publicly, especially in the fight game You think yourself this person's got no chance Yeah Because the other person has not been crashing out and instead Ryan Garcia public crash out seemingly through the entire promo and then he wins The fight it was like whoa, was that a work? Was that all, was that all work? Was that all for promo?

I'm not sure this one, fully focused. Obviously it's time square. There's going to be memorable moments. There's going to be memorable shots. And I'm lucky enough that I'm going to be, you know, right there, I guess standing right next to the ring. Yeah. Okay.

Should be a fun time. The talk to table is here at Boston Connor and that's how she made it. One half of the hammer, done. Cowboys AP tone is here. Nine year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. We'll be talking football obviously with the GM's but there's other sports taking over right now Man last night you said you watched all of the NHL. Yeah Panthers lightning

It was probably one of the best hockey games. I've seen in a long time that wasn't four nations and wasn't a Bruins game It's you know one nothing and Ekblad for the Panthers, who's just coming back off a 20-game suspension. He buries Hagel. No penalty called. John Cooper, the head coach of the Lightning, pissed off. Lightning respond in a big way, score twice in, I don't know, 30 seconds, maybe a minute. And John Cooper, who is an NHL hockey coach, and as we know NHL players, they don't show much emotion in general. John Cooper who is an NHL hockey coach and as we know NHL players they don't show much emotion in general. John Cooper loses his shit on the bench after they scored this second goal to go up to one. This bombs. That's right. He's yelling. That's right.

Bitch. Basically never happens at all. Never happens. Especially a guy like I love it. We need more of this. Yeah. Incredible. And then unfortunately for John Cooper, then the the Cats come back. They score twice in about 15 seconds to win the game. Eckblad with the first one who kind of started this entire thing with this hit on Hagel and then right off the next face off. They come down, score again 3-2. They get an empty netter. Panthers win 4-2. This is a muffin muffin I mean you got to save this you can't really let like that go in but when Marsha is in front of you it's hard not to get distracted but it was a hell of a night for hockey and then the the Stars Stars

beat the piss out of the avalanche again right off the opening face off they go down another muffin just kind of squeaks by For the Stars and they go up one nothing right here. It is bang. That's nine seconds into the game can't have it Stars win six to their barn. Yeah, yeah bingo. Yeah Maybe Texas hockey isn't terrible gumps. No, we're rolling now Ratnick scored his first goal for us our big trade deadline Acquisition used to play for the Colorado Avalanche legend. He got rolling. We're looking to get a couple guys back as well Let's hope we can finish this off Thursday night in Colorado

Okay, so currently the Panthers are up 3-1 over the lightning We saw that the stars are up 3-2 over the Avalanche Colorado Avalanche were being Discussed as a team that could maybe win the Stanley Cup, which is why people were hoping that Sidney Crosby would get traded over there. Yeah, very similar to the NBA. The West for hockey is all 2-2 or 3-2 now. That the Stars have played in the East is all 3-1. So the Western Conference, very tight. The Eastern Conference, not as much. Okay, so Wild at Golden Knights tonight, 930 ESPN, series tied 2-2.

Oilers at Kings tonight at 10pm on TBS, that is tied 2-2. Devils will take on the Hurricanes, 730 on TBS. Canes are up 3-1, could put them away. And then the Maple Leafs are at home taking on the Senators at 7pm on ESPN, Leafs are up 3-1, They can put it away. So a lot on the line tonight in the NHL. Can't wait to continue to follow along with the NHL playoff action, which is spectacular. And now let's talk about the NBA that's in the middle of its playoff run.

Jimmy Butler's back. Uh oh. D-Butt. Yep. The Warriors of old are the Warriors of today. Steph goes for 38 the other day. He's playing like old school Steph. Jimmy Butler's back after a little bit of an injury.

Is this team the team of the West that people need to talk about? What is going on in the NBA? You got to fear him. You got to have a healthy fear of him. Whenever Steph can have the lack of offensive output that he had last night and still find a way to get a win. It was a great game, too. I think they need to find another consistent scorer. If you're the

Rockets, I'm outside of Shengun who's an absolute monster, a dog. But yeah, Jimmy Butler just kind of took over this game. You can tell he's not a hundred percent healthy. Q Rich said it yesterday, if he misses a game he's truly injured but he came back, he battled and he kind of you know just took control of the game late in the fourth quarter. tilt still did his thing But yeah, the Warriors are a formidable opponent any night They go out there and they can definitely win it if everybody, you know plays their type of ball Jimmy Butler wanted out of Miami

Well, a lot of people are gonna be getting out of Miami. I think calves Blow out the Miami Heat in the first round of playoffs. And they end it with a 128 to 83 dub in the playoffs. Game four. This was a, I turned the game on last night as I got home late, where I was watching maybe Sports Center highlights. I forget what it was, maybe Sports Center highlights.

And they showed the score. It was like 60 to 20, it's by one point. In the first quarter probably. 30 to eight in the first quarter. It was like, all right, I'm not watching this. It was like, what the hell? This is not what I thought basketball and the playoffs could be.

This Cleveland team's a real deal. Real deal, real deal. And whenever you can get a sweep and obviously get some rest, because they're kind of banged up so when you have extra days off off pays huge dividends for teams and you know 122 points I believe was the margin in this series and I believe that is an NBA record So we let Jimmy walk it was that that relationship it kind of got to the point where both sides needed to go their separate ways

But I think Bam said it after the game is gonna be some big big changes big, big changes in Miami how Pat Riley usually does business. Yeah, that that Yanis thing we talked about yesterday, it does feel like more so than ever, Miami will be in on that. But Cavs-Pacers, if the Pacers win tonight, that series is set. That's kind of the one in the East now that is the biggest one, of course, because the Pacers, they run and gun and then the Cavs they've just been dominating teams and the Cavs are kind of like the Celtics they're a little banged up so the Pacers could you know as cool of a story the first round is Pacers come in they run and gun they might run away with it against the Cavs I'm gonna have a rematch in the Eastern Conference Finals. Okay and who would that be?

Pacers Celtics. Oh the Pacers made the Eastern Conference Finals last year? Yeah, they did. Oh, I forgot about that. We do. Nobody seems to talk about that ever. You know, the Boston Celtics are untouchable. Okay, hey, maybe. Cleveland Cavaliers, they're the team of this season.

Hey, maybe. New York Knicks, they got the most clutch player of the year in Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, obviously they're in the big, here we go their their team okay Miami Heat they're dealing with Jimmy Baller whose team might not even be okay. Is anybody gonna talk about the Indiana Pacers? No, he's anybody is anybody gonna is anybody gonna talk about the team that has only gotten better as the seasons went on? Literally, maybe not that great at the beginning and I think Tyrese Halliburton would be a big part of that beginning of the season for whatever Reason Tyrese couldn't find a bucket Tyrese just wasn't Tyrese Halliburton, then he doesn't get selected to the All-Star game

He takes a break and I think during that break he went to work and then on the other side of that this Pacers team Led by Tyrese Halliburton, Miles Turner, Spicy P, TJ McConnell and Rick Coach Rick Carlisle and the boys They have gone on a run epic in February. I think they had the most wins in the entire NBA. That continues into March, obviously into April now. It's like this Pacers team's hot, they're playing their best ball. They play physical, they play flashy, they can shoot it, they can get in, they can get underneath.

They got guys that are willing to fight people. It's like, the Pacers are a real deal, brother. Like that is just, and I know we're speaking about it because we're in Indianapolis, in Tyrese Hall Halliburton friend of the program and everything like that Actually facetime me and Michael Cole like a minute before we're live on raw and he says this could be a good show. It's like See ya. Yeah, it is gonna be a good raw tonight Tyrese But he's been how the ball and in the Pacers have been damn damn good And if they make it to the Eastern Conference finals yet again

And we spend another full offseason or another season not showing them any respect I'm be upset about it D, but I want to let you know that they're they earn their undeniable and Halliburton He is unbelievable. I think the best just true You know kind of old-school point guard in the game right now as far as keeping everybody involved and just the the pace that they play Like that's tough to run up and down with Them everybody's always involved the ball doesn't stick with one guys Not just sitting there like you know like a James Harden or Luca Where you're pounding the ball the ball's always moving guys are cutting guys are catching alleys and it defensively they're playing defense

And miles Turner if he can continue to protect the rim like he's doing they can definitely go out and beat anybody I'm curious who who Connor would rather face huh well serious I mean calves look when it came down to Celtics are banged up you know we're drew holiday hasn't played and he's not playing tonight so it's three straight games with a hamstring Tatum's got his wrist so that's not as as big of a concern and Jalen Brown's got the knee and the Pacers just sprint up and down the court Like I personally would rather play the Cleveland Cavaliers Especially after last year like if you're banged up if you're banged up and last year you can say well the Celtics

Swept the Pacers like you go back and look at that. We were supposed to win three of those Yeah, it should have been bound pass a dribble just there was a ghost on the court, I have no idea. That might have been Cousy, to be honest. I don't know who it was. It was Bob, baby. I mean, there was a lot of things that happened with the Pacers. The way that season ended, there was no,

they weren't allowed to be happy with what they did. Just made it to the Eastern Conference Finals. Nobody thought they were gonna make it to the Eastern Conference Final. They trade for Spicy P middle of the season. He fits in perfectly. I mean, he really takes them to the next level let alone TJ McConnell and everything He's done for the city since getting here in the team and everything and he's not he's not scared of moxie and swag

Rating people's faces. I think he lifts the grit level up in the way Carlisle expects them. Yeah, Carlisle expects them Hey, we don't got he goes around here. This is how we're rolling It's like the Pacers are a fun team and a good team for the state of Indiana Well, that's thing about the Pacers too is like last year in these Eastern Conference Finals They're young right first time there this year would be hey, we've been here before we know what this is like Versus the Cavs the Cavs haven't been there. So for the Celtics play in the inexperienced team, you would just rather do that. I I'm happy to watch the NBA playoffs become what it's becoming I saw a lower third headline

Do the Lakers have what it takes to win a championship this year? It's like they're down 3-1 and they played everybody the entirety of the second half in the last game I think it's gonna be tough. I think it's gonna be tougher Yeah, I used to be tough for the Los Angeles Lakers with that being said is Luca up now Where's Luca back next year? I think I thought he had one more year I thought he was el for the Supermax. Supermax, Max contract conversation was the big one over in Dallas.

And then there was people that were like, well, what if Luca ends up leaving LA to potentially go play somewhere else? How will this all be viewed in the grand scheme of the trade down the road? So if Luca's back next year, we're gonna assume LeBron's gonna be back next year. JJ Reddick's back for another year of coaching. Their culture is seemingly already set in you would think that the culture

set in. Maybe the Lakers will be set up for success next year but it doesn't feel like this is the year for them. But what do I know? It's not over yet. Plus 1100. To win a series? Cause I'm doing the series still. Yeah I mean LeBron James has done this before. Oh yeah. And Luca Doncia can do this to anybody. He's done it before, too. Yeah. And it's like maybe maybe they do just come back backs against the wall. Have to win. No more mistakes. Let's do this. And JJ Reddick says, yeah, we're not suffering for the full game.

You thought you thought one half was you thought one half was a lot. Wait till the boys are playing the whole damn game. He looked down on his bench a couple of times and he said, I'm disgusted. Look right back out on the court. I I'm thinking that JJ Reddick while he was playing because I think he made the playoffs like a 10 of the 11 years. Yeah he hit that crazy run. There was some stat that he had where he made the playoffs a bunch as a player if he was on a team they're gonna make the playoffs for some reason maybe he's pretty good with the team guy maybe he's pretty good

coaching guy maybe he pretty much understands basketball pretty good so whenever he was hired as a head coach maybe it isn't just because he drinks wine on a podcast. Maybe this guy was supposed to be a coach. Yeah, maybe. In his entire thing. But there's definitely been games where he's been sitting on the court and a coach has made a decision to sub somebody out and he's going, the fuck's that going to do?

How is that going to help us? And in his mind, that crawled back up the other night and he said, I've always wondered if this is the right move. Turns out those last couple minutes, that's gonna be tough, especially whenever you're taking on a guy like Ant, who seemingly always has energy, and a former defensive player of the year in Rudy Gobert, who elbows you in the back of the head

once you're already a little bit exhausted. You could tell they were tired at the very end of that game. Now, will they be able to recover? We assume science will be able to get them for that. But the question of, well, does this look, it does look good, does not look good for Los Angeles Lakers this year. Does not mean that the Luka trade is a terrible failure. It just means them boys look tired. And if they're able, was that a part of the thing that Nico was saying? I don't even want to get into that.

Would Nico take a celebration? Oh, yeah, for sure. He played a whole half, couldn't even play the next game. Remember you saw that. Isn't that interesting? So much drama. The NBA is showing up for us, though. Let's go to the NFL and congrats the front of the program.

Ladies and gentlemen, George Kittle. Baby George. George Kittle just signed a new four year deal. Seventy six point four million dollars in total. total, 19.1, which is 0.1 more than the second highest paid tight end. He has $40 million guaranteed, 35 million at signing. He got that literally today as he signed, 5 million in 2027 coming.

Congratulations to George and congratulations to the Bustin' With The Boys boys, Don Aaron Nashville, breaking the news. Now, that being said, the NFL did not give them credit. No, they did not. Whoa. I believe there were some other people that did not give them credit.

Welcome to Thunderdome. They'll yell at us about journalism, though. Remember that? Because we're just the dumb jocks. They'll yell at us about all the shit, but they operate in a much, there's a different set of rules, seemingly, for them, Will. That's bullshit.

And Taylor, seemingly a different set of rules for everybody. But with that being said, George Kittle has earned this. There were stats that were coming out about George Kittle last season, first in yards per game, second in touchdowns, third in yards, fifth in receiving. Did we talk about the Niners or George Kittle at all last year? No.

No, he's first in yards per game at tight end. Now obviously this has Travis Kelsey having a downer year last year and everything else like that. But Brock Bowers broke some some rookie records. Well he didn't come close to what Kido was and now he's making 19.1. Trey McBride just signed last week he's at 19 million. Travis Kelsey now seemingly underpaid even though he signed his deal last offseason. TJ Hawkinson 16.5. Dallas Goddard at 14.25 million. Hey, we're happy to sell for George. I saw him at WrestleMania. He was, he's such a good positive light.

And he was jocked. Marked out. He's in great shape. He's in great shape. Yes. He even acknowledged how great a shape he was in. He's huge. I was like, man, you look like you're in great shape.

He goes, yes, I am in very good shape right now. Yeah, I've been working out very hard. I think he is very excited for this season I think he assumed that this deal was gonna get done There was conversation about what the deal was supposed to be worth and he said your sources aren't correct It's come out that it is the highest per right So I don't know who's gonna say that right and who wasn't right, but I'm happy George got paid over there in San Francisco It's crazy cuz you talk about the Niners and George Kittle getting talked about. And you know, George, he did have an incredible season.

Brock Bowers was first team All-Pro, George was second team All-Pro. But if your team's not good, like if the Niners were good again, Kittle, we would have talked about Kittle every single week. But if your team's not good, and it's not your fault, but it's not your fault, like that's just kind of how it works.

But yeah, people kind of forgot about how good George's season was. And I love when you get paid just 100,000 more than the highest paid guy. That's my favorite thing going on. I love when you get paid just a hundred thousand more than the highest paid That's my favorite thing going on. I love when there's a little pettiness amongst the agency and And the general manager, okay put the Highest paid tight ends back up there with a okay joining us now Ladies and gentlemen is a man who has tight ends by the name of Dawson Knox

Dalton Kincaid and Zach Davidson and they are all so good at what they do. They need to start knocking on this man's door. Ladies and gentlemen, General Manager of the Buffalo Bills, Brandon Bean. Brandon Bean has a new high score at the tight end position. That's good news. Yeah, yeah. Well, I'd say his door is locked and bolted, so congrats to the 49ers for getting him done. He's a heck of a talent. Yeah, I mean, but if I'm Kincaid, I might want to think about locked and bolted. So congrats to the 49ers for getting him done. He's a heck of a talent.

Yeah, I mean, but if I'm King Kade, I might want to think about getting in there early. Yeah. You know, I want to think about it now that the tight end market is what it is. Don't be riling up my guy trying to get out. Don't be doing that, buddy. Let's talk about your team.

How do you feel coming out of the draft? Obviously in the first round, you get what seems to be the most electrifying guy in the draft room. I don't know if you saw the video I assume you did. Literally every person that got drafted had to dap up Maxwell Hairston because he was so damn happy for him and also where they put his room was right next to where the tunnel would go. Obviously he could have just sat on his couch kept everybody

like kind of behind him and not interrupted. He felt obligated it feels like to celebrate alongside every person that had a dream come true. I assume that was among many factors, including the fact that he's fast as shit, as why he was the guy for the Buffalo Bills for you in the first round? Yeah, I mean, that's who he is. He loves being around people.

He's an energetic person. Obviously you see his energy on the field and his speed, but I actually asked him about it. I was unaware of it until after my media that night. Somebody brought it up and I saw some video and he was just like, no, I was right there. He goes, I've met a lot of these guys through training and through the process along the way. And so he was just like, man, I was genuinely happy for him.

He was like, it's pretty cool. And I was in a perfect spot. They had to walk by me and I was going to love him up. So a lot of credit to him. That's just kind of his personality. So it was cool, you know, when he got his moment and people were dapping him up after he had done it for everyone else.

Yeah. I think if I was you, I would, I mean, cause nobody's asking him to do this. This is just him naturally feeling this way. And everybody else wanted to gravitate to him too. You know, it's like for you just to feel like, yeah, everything we thought about this guy's right. Just in that one moment, in my eyes, whenever I saw that with everybody,

I'm like, everybody likes him and he likes everybody. That's somebody we want in the locker room. You talk about his energy. Do you think you've got a bunch of guys that fit your culture? And how important is that as you're going through these picks? Cause I know, I know you know later rounds middle rounds there's a lot going on I don't know how many people you have on your

board but maybe the person before you took somebody that you want how often are you scoring like fit in our culture in our building while making all of these picks or how do you kind of judge that going into the draft? Yeah, great question. We kind of build our board that way. I mean, you start and you're building your board in the fall just off of what you're watching on film. You really haven't met these guys,

you're getting background on them, you're kind of putting the puzzle together of what they are as a person, their habits, their DNA, their learns, their medical, all that stuff that we're doing through the spring before we get to April. And so, you know, you would love it if they all check out his characters.

Sometimes it's like, the guy's not a bad guy. We got some work to do. His talent is in the second round. Don't love everything about him, but we think he's trending up. Maybe we drop him down a little bit and say we're gonna lower the risk here if we don't like him but we still think our culture our building can fix them so all those things can weigh into where you put them on the board but once we set

that board prior to the draft we just play off of that and we go with it even to your point if someone gets You know, we got our eye on a guy and he gets taken off right before we pick We look to the next guy and we kind of have those especially when we get inside five picks All right. This is choice one. This is choice two. This is choice three and And beyond and you just you know, you get two picks away you go. All right, here's choice a here's choice B You make the pick or you trade out. Are you watching the feeds of the draft? And then, or do you have a phone

that's just open to everybody? What is the setup in the war room? Yeah, we have the feed. So we got a couple of TVs on, NFL Network, ESPN, you got it kind of low, but you're paying attention. And then there's an open line that every team's on and you're here in the league run it of you know they'll say

Baltimore is now on the clock and then you see their clock start we have a clock in our room and then as soon as they'll say pick is in, Minnesota is now on the clock and then all of a sudden we'll get it advertised to us before it's on TV so that we can go ahead and start preparing, you know, again, that's one pick closer to our next one. Oh, got it, got it. So that's how picks get tipped.

Yeah, yeah, that's exactly how picks get tipped. If somebody with a team has it well before, especially as you go later in the draft and they're kind of coming up with their own stories. Sometimes a pick's been turned in and it's eight, nine minutes before it hits TV. We had to deal with that because you know, we do the internet show that you're not watching,

apparently it was good. Schrager was in there, Coach Mike McCarthy, you're on it. You joined us. You were part of it obviously, you can't watch it. I understand, probably tough with the tech there too. YouTube, I'm gonna say. I wanted to put it on, but can't watch it. I understand probably tough with the tech there, too YouTube I wanted to put it on but they told me no I wanted to That's probably boyko. Yeah, I understand. Hey, yeah

That damn boyko. He's he's a hard ass. I get it. I get it I thought we I thought we did a good draft show just for future reference. There was some uh words said, you know How was mike m Mike McCarthy on there? Hilarious. Just really, absolutely. At the beginning, he was a little uncomfortable. So he wasn't understanding that TV was happening around him. So like I'd ask him a question and then I'm pressing

a button right here, right? So I pressed a button on a thing. And I'm talking to the back room right now. So everybody in the back room can hear what I'm saying, right? And that's either Foxy communicating with me, Zito communicating with me, me communicating back with them. Oh, I want to see the film that we had here. I think there's a video of this. Zito will show me a video. I like that video. Let's do that. Let's rewind this. So that's all happening while people are talking, okay?

That's just a standard show. Okay, that's it. I have a board here. I have one whenever I'm in at any of these places a game day. I have one whenever I have a WWE. It happens whenever we're live on stage at the draft. And McCarthy's right here. So I ask him a question, he starts giving his answer and I'm going immediately to the back room. And I'm going like, hey, whenever he talks about this, we need to get to this and this. And McCarthy goes, huh?

Because he can't, because he can hear me through the headphones. He just goes, you're good, Coach. But yeah, so I had to go, no, you're good, you're good. He goes, uh, okay. And then he just kind of turned, then he kind of just turned this way. So he didn't see me. So like him being like naturally, um, uncomfortable with like what TV or what is happening around him was like why he was so good. Yeah.

Cause he got like real comfortable. Just started like telling stories. started chit-chatting about decisions telling story. Hey he's a storyteller that guy whenever he's done been around they will pay him to come to businesses and tell stories and he'll get paid very very well for that because of how good he is but yeah you can tell he loves football loves the players and he loved the draft and he loved the trenches getting taken he loved the trenches getting taken He loved big dudes getting taken which are seemingly the story of the night AP tone has a question for you

Yeah being I gotta ask you about your third round pick Landon Jackson He was one of the stars of the combine six six to sixty ran a four six eight I believe jumped forty and a half which is just absurd Him and Shamar Stewart were the stars of the combo. Shemar Stewart goes in the first round, even though Landon Jackson has a lot better production, 13 sacks in the last two years at Arkansas. Were you surprised a guy like that with that that production, that athleticism was still there in the third round? Well, I think it's one of those, listen, we were very happy

and I think the depth of the draft helps some guys like Alandon fall to the third and so we tried to take advantage of it. We knew going into this draft that there was gonna be depth at D Tackle and D in. And even if we got someone early, which we traded up in round two for TJ Sanders, if it was something still there on the D line, we weren't gonna turn away from it and pivot to an offensive position or a skilled position on defense. So, his tape, I would say, if I was going to define him, it's relentless motor.

That's what you see on him, whether it's run or pass. He's a three down player. Obviously, he had sack production that you mentioned. I will say he surprised me with his testing. I knew he would test well, but at 6'6", you know, his measurements to jump 40 and a half and run what he ran, I was, that was a wow moment for me sitting in Indy. When did you know that it was going to be a trenches first round? Well I just felt like the depth of this draft, I mean those guys get paid, you know, the game as you know, Pat, is won and lost up front.

We got away from that, though, don't you think? Don't you think football kind of got away from that there for a little bit? I don't think it's, I think people try to put it with fantasy football, but at the end of the day, if you go to who is usually hoisting the trophy, they were good up front. And you just go to this year's team. Philadelphia has had a good old line, Howie's done a great job there and their D line got after the Chiefs and that's not a new thing. I mean I go back to the two Super Bowls that I've been in in my time in Carolina all the

way back to 2003 we had a D line of Julius Peppers, Chris Jenkins, Brenton Buckner, Mike Rucker, Al Wallace was our fifth and he was a stud. And then you go to 2015, we got Charles- He put the wall in Wallace, I remember. That's what I'm saying. Like all those guys though, it's built up front. Both of our teams those Super Bowl years had good O-lines and good D-line and that's, no matter how the game evolves and changes, I still think it starts in the trenches

That's I agree with Mike McCarthy. That's I think that's where it's at. He celebrated every single one Yeah, well, I said, I don't know how many times I'm supposed to say this. I like the pick He said I need to look up different ways to say things. I like to pick you got his impersonation down I like that. Well, he said he's my dad. Yeah He sounds exactly like, basically, I don't know, a thousand dudes that I've met in my life. So when he goes, I don't sound like that, it's like, you do?

Yeah, this is exactly how I am. By him meeting Matt Mill, couple hours before the show. The whole show? You're gonna, so what do you mean? And then you said to him, well, coach, you can't win the big one down there. And he goes, jeesh. So I got shit said to him, well, coach, you can't win the big one.

Jeez, that's what he did. Yeah. He's just like, awesome. I think just from chatting with him over 24 hours and you know, all these football people, you're one of them. He he's going to get back into ball. You know, like it is there's no more questions about it. Yeah. Obsessed about it. Yeah. Obsessed with ball. Yeah.

What did stories revolve around? Ball. What are we comparing everything to? Ball. The barn. We got a barn for ball. Like everything is just about ball for Mike McCarthy. And when we were around him,

I think he would have no problems relating with any generation. Agreed. Like that is a real thing. And I don't want to say he was okay with leaving Dallas, but he has no hard feelings towards the people of Dallas at all to us, unless he's one of the greatest thespians of all time, which he actually told us a story about not being an actor. Yeah.

Yeah. Because he was told, I don't even know if we can, it was a great story. Anyways, the reference to the story was somebody once told him, okay, throughout his coaching career and that they were a very good coach. They were acting like a coach basically. That is what they were doing. They'd wake up in the morning and they would act like a coach. They were basically a professional actor.

And the person then asked Big Mike McCarthy if that was his style as well. I ain't no actor, but you know, it was like every story he told, it was like, this guy is through and through. So he was a lot of fun, but he loved every trenches pick. He loved every big body that was taken. And we do too. You know, we have AQ Shipley come on the show each week and we call it in the trenches and we do that whole thing. It's the most important part by far

I'm happy that the Philadelphia Eagles won because now I think it like Legitimizes that you can be an old-school football team still and win in the modern era So I think that's only going to continue now speaking of the modern era. You need weapons a lot of Connor New England Patriots fan has a question for you. Mr. B. Yeah Brandon. Thanks for bringing up 2003 You know, those are good. Those, a New England Patriots fan, has a question for you, Mr. B. Yeah, Brandon, thanks for bringing up 2003. You know, those are good memories for Patriots fans. All right, all right. So you know, those, you went on a radio show earlier this week, and these two fine gentlemen, who I thought

made some good points about the fact that you guys kind of needed wide receivers. And it turns out you disagreed. Actually, you buried them and kind of let them know a great promo on there. It was so good. It was a good promo. Average over 30 points this past season. You know, you actually even said, hey, last off season, if you guys brought this up, I

could understand. Okay. But now bringing it up is kind of bullshit. Why didn't you draft a wide receiver? Why do you think, you know, now with where Josh is, you know? You don't really need to have that guy in that room Well, I mean you look at look at Tom Brady We were talking about some of these teams that won Super Bowls look at New England. How many like? great historic receivers did they have in their Super Bowl teams and

So but the Patriots they were good up front. They had a good quarterback. They easily had some type of run game, whether it was Cory Dillon, whether it was Falk, even though, you know, White, a lot of those guys. And so there's a hundred different ways you can build it. Okay. And we're not against good receivers. But again, as we were talking about earlier, we want to be strong and certain. I would love to have a Pro Bowl quarterback,

an all-Pro offensive line, all-Pro running backs, all-Pro receivers, but when you're paying Josh Allen what you're paying him, you got to make some concessions somewhere else. And so I think it's just, again, the narrative since we moved on from Steph a year ago. I understood it last year, as you said. I understood why people were questioning, hey, do they have enough at receiver last season? But when you, as my point was, I thought they were kind of breaking down our draft and that was their takeaway was why didn't you take a receiver?

That's the part I didn't understand. Like we just showed that we could score 30 points a game for eight straight games. We averaged over 30 points. We had, we scored the most points of anyone last season when you include the playoffs. So why are we talking about receiver? If anything, you know, we, they didn't bring up that we had already had a Josh Palmer this off season as a free agent addition. We extended Khalil Shakir.

So again, we like our receivers. We feel strong about our receivers. And in our opinion, it wasn't the deepest receiver class to be trying to peg a player that would fit in our top four. Okay. So you said there, we're scoring 30 and we're losing. So obviously maybe it's the other side of the field that we need to chitchat about.

When do you make that decision that that is what the entire off season focus is going to be? Because I think we heard that the Atlanta Falcons were only interviewing defensive players at the combine. It was like, well, I guess Atlanta's loading up on D. Like, I guess that is what Atlanta's doing. And lo and behold, they trade back into the first round when everybody thought people would be trading in for a quarterback to get another defensive player. So it's like,

do you know that an entire off season is going to be shaped towards one particular side or how do you kind of balance that kind of, I don't want to say mission, but goal, I guess, of the free agency in combine draft season? Well, when you look at our roster coming out of the season, Pat, we had a lot of guys on offense that were returning to their positions. I mean, our whole O-liner, top seven, eight guys on our O-line are back, our top two tight ends are back. All three running backs are back, our quarterbacks are back, and

most of our backs are back. Our quarterbacks are back. Most of our receivers are back. We did add a Josh Palmer. So again, we knew going in there's going to be more transition on defense. We just felt we needed to add some free agent depth, which we did in free agency on the D line. We added Joey Bosa, Michael Hoyt, Larry Ogan-Joby. But then we looked at the depth of the draft. And as I said, when we started in February, we felt like there was going to be a good number of D-linemen that we would have an

opportunity at some point in the early in the draft, not necessarily first round, which we got a corner, but the next two picks lined up for us to take D-linemen. And so we weren't going to turn away from it with the value That we had on our board corner D tackle D and D tackle D tackle Tight end welcome the team 19.1 million now is the New going rate for a tight end damn if anybody on the Buffalo Bills that plays tight ends

19.1 million is the... Kittle was the fifth round pick too. Mm-hmm. Kittle on eye, well, what an absolute dog. Absolute dog. Corner, de-tackle, and then wide receiver. So it's like, we're loading up on the defense. I'm excited to see you kind of execute a plan.

You said something there early in your answer that had Connor almost jump up out of his seats. You said he got all three running backs returning is that right? yes we do yeah why wouldn't we? I've been seeing Zillow what's what are you looking for a house in Buffalo? It's beautiful. Are you guys moving the studio to Buffalo? I vacation there sometimes that's a fact maybe for a month or two you know I know how cold it can get up there in Buffalo and I vacation there sometimes, that's a fact. Maybe for a month or two. I know how cold it can get up there in Buffalo and I do respect snow, I appreciate that.

I'm comfortable where I am with snow, but Buffalo's not a bad place at all up there whenever there's sun out. They try not to tell people about it. I mean, on the lake during the summer. Great lake. Yeah. 716 up there.

One of the best. Yeah, it's a good spot. So you got all three running backs back. Yes, we do. Yep. One of the best. Yeah, it's a good spot. So you got all three running backs back. Yes, we do. Yep. Really? James Cook, Ray Davis, and we brought Ty Johnson back.

Okay, Ty Johnson. Hell yeah, we love that. Ray Davis, wow. Yeah, he's a player. He's a player. When he was coming out of there making catches that I... He made a catch late in the season that was... Kentucky guy.

...absurd. Yeah, Kentucky guy. I know Ray Davis. And then you were going to let James Cook there in the kitchen up there in Buffalo for a little bit. I'm happy to hear that. That's good news. We should assume that James Cook is gonna be a Buffalo Bill and

play Buffalo Bill football. Yes, yes, he will be here this year and hopefully beyond. I mean, we're focused on the season, but yes, for 2025, we'll have all three backs. And again, we love James and you know we would love nothing more than to keep him here longer term but in the immediate you know point right now is we got all three guys including him back for this season. I'll tell you what him Joe Brady's offense has been awesome to

watch and then obviously pairing with Josh Allen who is a running freak what a combo what an offense. Scoring 30 points, you guys complain about why. So, can we please relax a little bit? I asked you about when did you know what your strategy was gonna be going into the draft? You said basically immediately with everybody returning. Those draft when do you know questions

seem to be popping up more and more each year. D-Bot has a question for you. Yeah, and it's a great situation when you're going into a draft and you don't have to worry about the quarterback position. We know how important the trenches are, defense and everything else, but you're not going to win the championship. Without the quarterback, you got one of the best ones in the league.

And obviously we just got through the draft process. But I guess when did you know, because that was a deep draft in 2018 for the quarterbacks, when did you know that Josh was probably going to be the guy you wanted to bring in and build your team around? Yeah, I mean we spent a lot of time with all those guys through that process. I can remember it like it was yesterday and it was a fun process, a stressful one because we were sitting at 21 and 22 early in that spring and so it was like, man, how are we going to get up there and get a guy like Josh and he just every step of the way he just became more

attractive to us beyond the physical skill set which we just saw a young man in the making that was competitive off the you know just unbelievably competitive really really smart we did a lot of stuff from the mental side of things and then just a quick processor Which we know the speed of the game you got to be able to Understand pre snap but then you got to process when things change the ball to snap and so he had all that We just thought the biggest thing he needed to do was work on his mechanics work on his feet his base Arm angles all the things that he continually worked on and this guy everywhere we got he was gonna be a tireless worker

You don't need to challenge him He challenges himself way more and he's always been that way than we've ever needed to and and so we just felt like this Guy's gonna bring it you go back to my opening press conference when there was questions about Josh Rosen You know that we got for we brought that up yesterday You know that we got from, we brought that up yesterday, but you know, there was a lot of questions why we took Josh Allen over Josh Rosen and I was explaining in that press conference to go back, this guy is Buffalo through and through. He is blue collar.

You are going to love this guy way beyond the player of how he fits this community. And you know, they, after that, and they gave him a chance, they embraced him and he loves Buffalo as much as Buffalo loves him. Yeah, he is, he's special, man. Like, especially with the way he handles Buffalo and the way your teams have had to evolve with him at quarterback in Buffalo.

And you talked about his work ethic. It's like from year one to year two insane jump year two to year three insane jump year three to year four insane jump usually there's like one big growth from somebody oh they learned this oh they figured this out for him it was like four straight years of like oh this guy's getting even better and better so much so that now people call him like the prototype like what are you looking for somebody that is like Josh Allen, has the ability to run, power and speed, has the ability to throw very far

and has touch, has a teammates locker room that loves him and works his ass off seemingly from all accounts that we've been able to witness from the outside. He becomes a prototype. Was it always a high football IQ operation with Josh Allen as well? Tone has a question for you. Yeah, we actually showed up yesterday on the show,

Brian Dayball running through quarterbacks through last year's draft board work and stuff like that. You're shaking your head, so I assume you saw it. Was Dayball doing that to Josh and those quarterbacks back then in 2018? Yeah, I mean, we had a whole thing and what we said we were gonna do was we're gonna treat each quarterback the same as far as how you test them,

what tests you're gonna send them. Like, Dave all would teach them stuff and then send them a test and then when we got there, they would have to perform a test on their own, like a written test, and then we'd go in a meeting room and Dave all would teach them stuff on the board and have them go up there and some Of it would be time some of it wouldn't but Josh

I mean he just you know, no one picked it up quicker No one and there were some at least were some smart guys, but he really stood out from a mental standpoint Which was impressive. He was definitely smarter than you know I would have imagined a rookie would have been at that time. And so it was just a matter of this guy had played at junior college in Wyoming, and some of these other guys had played at more major programs. So how long would it take him to transition?

Honestly, we were hoping his first year that we didn't have to put him out there right away. Week one, we didn't, we got smoked, and guys in the locker room were looking around like, hey, put that wild Bronco that runs around the practice field, throw him on the field, we'd rather lose with him than what we're doing right now. I remember him jumping over Minnesota Viking.

Yeah, bar. I remember that one because he was standing straight up, seemingly. That was his second start yeah, he we lost to the Chargers his first start at home and you know, it wasn't pretty but he kept fighting made some plays at the end and then we were like 17 18 point underdogs going to Minnesota and Same thing. That's that's when the leap, you know took off. Okay, so

You talk about him being great in that day ball meeting. We were watching those day ball meetings and it was like, geez, that would be, you got no ball? I mean, you're gonna get exposed in there if you don't know ball. Like that's gonna be very evident. I don't need you to bury anybody obviously, okay? But story of this draft, one of them, especially on a networks I believe you were watching,

Shador Sanders drops from like top three pick to a fifth round draft pick to The Cleveland Browns. People thought the Cleveland Browns would take him in number two. They take him in the fifth round actually So then there was anonymous reports, which we all hate just like let everybody know anonymous reports anonymous sources get out and say I agree. I hate that too It affects your job too a lot though doesn't it? Yeah, let's just if we're gonna do anonymous. let's just say it out if we're going to take shots.

Boom! This is what I'm saying. Okay, so you probably heard this. So anonymous sources were telling people that he had like the worst meetings that have ever happened or worst meeting team one-on-one meetings that have ever happened. How would a meeting go bad if a meeting was to go bad? And what does that mean if that is true from what his anonymous sources are saying?

In your eyes, in your world, not with Shador, but in your world if it's ever happened. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I would say maybe if a guy was just kinda half assing it through the like, hey, sometimes you see, hey, my work spoke for itself. Like they're kinda not, like you either like me or you don't, you know, sometimes you see, hey, my work spoke for itself. Like they're kind of not like either like me or you don't, you know, kind of thing. I could see that happening.

You know, beyond that, the only thing that could really hurt would be where, if you don't think mentally, you know, you have to be very smart. You've got to be able to call the play, understand the play. You got to know where everyone's lining up. You got to be able to know what the defense is doing. There's so much mentally on these quarterbacks play. And so there is a threshold that you're like, man, I don't know if that guy is smart enough to run our offense at the level that we... That would be the only... other than being disrespectful or nonchalant, like, you know,

take me if you like me, if you don't, then I'm fine. You know, that would be the only other way. What an interesting thing, because there's stories of like Peyton interviewed teams whenever he was coming out, allegedly, that's allegedly, that was like the old fairy tale or folklore about what happened. And Gronk said he had a terrible meeting.

Horrible. Horrible. Fell asleep. Fell asleep, yeah, with the New England Patriots one somehow. And he got drafted there. And then you hear stories of these types of Meetings happening and then a guy who's supposed to be a top five ends up in the fifth round I mean that was a wild. Yeah, it was a week

We had a quarterback one year in Carolina that we brought in I'm not gonna name him and He met up with a receiver that he knew they were they didn't play at the same college But we had the receiver in on these 30 visits they met up and they went out the night before the receiver was flying out and he was supposed to meet with us and We couldn't find him for like three hours that morning. He was he was in his room and he was passed out. And so we We put him on a plane Brady. Yeah. Yeah, that's a bad meeting. I guess that would be a bad meeting there.

So that was a no meeting. And we took him off the draft board. But he did get drafted. He probably learned a lesson and played in the league. He did play in the league? He played in the league. It didn't turn out great, but he did play. Did it turn out how you were projecting it?

After that, probably so. Oh, not before that though. Thought it was going to be potentially great. Yeah, I had some talent. He wasn't a great athlete, but a pocket passer with a strong arm. It'll get you down in Charlotte. Charlotte will get you good time down there. It's good time down there. Ty has a question for you, Mr. Bean. Yeah, Bean, just curious. I know you guys don't really give a shit about draft grades,

nor should you, but I'll have you know that you guys are pretty much getting praised. Wow! Holy cow! The crossboard. Congratulations! Congratulations! Yeah.

Wow! What a job! Everybody thinks you knocked it out of the park. But is there any point throughout your career where immediately after the draft, you either have like, I don't want to say regrets, but you're uneasy about it? Or do you always feel great about the picks you made post-draft just because you're

OK with how much work you put in on your board going into the draft? Yeah, I mean, we're genuinely excited about the guys we got. We stack our boards, especially if you trade up and get a guy like, man, I really like that guy. But there's always times where you're like, man, a guy's falling to you and it's a perfect match with a position you need and someone trades right in front of you or the team in front of you,

you had no idea, you're kind of paying attention to to their needs you don't think they really care for them and you sit there and and they take them that happens you know you know to most every team I'm sure it's definitely happened to us those are some of the ones you're like man should I have traded up five picks and secured that guy and that's that's kind of why my history of being a trader is like I'll tell myself, listen, at some point here I'm going to be mad if this guy goes. I know some people are going to say I shouldn't trade up but I just want to go to bed tonight and know I got this player.

So those are probably the biggest, you know, right after the draft. Now listen, two years later you're always studying and the guys that worked either on your team or another team and the guys that worked, either on your team or another team and the guys that didn't, and you're trying to evaluate your process. Did you, why did you, if a guy's doing better than you thought, what's the situation? What did that happen?

You're always trying to learn from it. And so there's also separate of the immediate kind of self grading how the draft went. There's always a couple, two or three years down,'re like man if I had if I knew that now I would have taken that guy you know or something like that. I respect that how did I miss this? How did I confuse one with the other and then trying to figure that out for future drafts? That's the part that I never even considered. That's the most important part of the entire thing, it feels like.

How does it feel like the team did? Were they morale high? Everybody take a break? What is the scouting department? What is, after the draft happens, what is the scouting department do now that just their Super Bowl has ended, right? Yeah, so we send the college crew back home

for a few weeks and then we meet up. Go live, go see your families. Yeah, go live their life. Hug their live their lives and all that good stuff they got about three weeks off and then we kind of restart getting ready for the 26 trash back out there you got about three weeks and then we're yeah just Nick yeah okay we need to find we need we're chasing greatness here in a new stadium too yeah Connor one more year what do you know what do you mean?

I heard and this is just through the grapevine that the Buffaloes have been shrunk down to the bison the bison have been shrunk down to five foot. No, no way Yeah, they're gonna be tiny. That's not the case. People are gonna be able to ride them. No, you're not riding by Yeah, you put a quarter in and it'll move No one said you're putting the quarter To radio host said How are where are we in the we're a year away from that and have a year away yep, you have the bison been started of construction because

If they have we need an update if they't, I assume there's gonna be updates. Because- Believe me, I've been lobbying. I've been lobbying hard to make sure these things are big. I told them I put my name out there with you guys. So we're still working on it. What size are we looking for here? We have 20-

Body is 30 feet. We have 40, 50 feet. I don't, the dims, I think you guys are at 18, right? Isn't it 18? Yeah Yeah, the stomach is 12 need to be over 20. The head is 18. Yeah, I think if you could say it was a 20-foot bison Yeah, I think that is the goal. Don't you think yeah stories? Oh, yeah How many of them are there three of them to are they like running right? They're doing a run Yeah, I think there's three of the herd. Oh my god a heard a 24 bison. Well, there's a little baby daughter

So the baby the baby, I don't think that's a photo of a family. Yeah, that's fine I don't think yeah the tube I think the parents the parent bison mama and Papa Bison if you would we if we get these bison to size Are you guys coming for the unveiling of this thing or oh, yeah? Yeah, only if that happens. Yeah, we're getting a house. No, we would come. When's it gonna be? The stadium opens like next July, July 26th. Walk it in! We'll play a round of golf with you too. Yeah, let's go. I would like to go to the driving range with you too the night before.

Okay, you host us for dinner the night before. Mm-hmm. Okay. July 4th at Buffalo. You host us for dinner at your house. A real handicap. Yeah. I'm in, I'm in. Let's go. Get up here. July 4th at Buffalo, can play.

Yeah, right there on that lake. Lake Erie? And then I'm getting golf lessons from Bean, who's a stick. Mm-hmm. Are you playing now? Now's the time you're playing, huh? I gotta get going.

I got some events coming up, so I need to get my swing going. Events. Got to go shake some hands. BJ championship. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time, man. We really do. Congrats on a great draft, we assume. We'll tell you that in two or three years. You're the man, General Manager of the Buffalo Bills,

friend of the program, Brandon Bean. Thank you, man. Good man, Bill. See you. See you. What a dog. Legend. As we were in the middle of the program, Brandon Bean. Thank you, man. Thank you, man, Bill. See ya, see ya. What a dog. Legend. As we're in the middle of that conversation, I was like, oh yeah, this is a great conversation

to have right now. This is the conversation we should be having with him. Your entire draft process. Because I feel like I just learned a lot about the Buffalo Bill's draft. Oh yeah. They got three weeks, and then we're, guess what? Back in it.

26. Who's gonna be the next Yeah, cuz we got bison coming in 26 20 feet bison, I think somebody play have to do it have to do one of them has to crack 20. Yeah From early morning workouts that need a boost To late night drives that need vibes a good playlist can help you make the most out of your everyday. And when it comes to everyday spending, you can count on the PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard to help you earn the most PC optimum points everywhere you shop.

With the best playlists, you never miss a good song. With this card, you never miss out on getting the most points on everyday purchases. The PC Insider's World Elite MasterCard, the card for living unlimited. Conditions apply to all benefits. Visit pcfinancial.ca for details. The all-new, all-electric Can-Am Origin motorcycle takes you everywhere. Sleek power for the streets,

deep adventure routes for the trails. Discover your origin today. Learn more at canamotorcycles.com SPORTS! Listen, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. And there's a chance you're gonna get your ass kicked. But if you don't do it, who are you? A coward.

So, my friend got attacked. I stood up for him. Guy got banned. I asked for the ban to be lifted. Shout out to Nick Aldis He lifts the band I got a match with Gunther who bullied the greatest commentator in the history of wrestling Michael Cole right in front of my eyes. I

Don't like it one bit. He also threw me around here. I I will say there's a lot of wires Oh, yeah, but wires and chair trip and has a lot of stuff and I mean those boots You know, I'm in those boots and how it all's slippy. Thank you for you didn't know but nonetheless, he's an intimidating man He's a strong man. He was world champion about a week ago Guys, yeah, I mean it would attack to when you're looking at me if he was that sure Yeah, you're right. I mean his aura is certainly one of intimidation though I'll tell you I've been in the arena a few times with him and when you see him He's certainly to buy a listen, bub

I ain't scared come get some got new tariffs on Austria Couple hundred percent No, I've been working I've been working I've been running I've got a lot of things going on I even got a special treadmill I've been running. I've got a lot of things going on. I even got a special treadmill Anti-gravity treadmill so I could run again, you know because I've only had like four surgeries five surgeries on my knees You know, I kicked a ball against the side of my house for a hobby as a kid I didn't play video games. So the amount of kicks of balls of things Is is high played soccer obviously for a long time.

Then obviously I kicked and punted in college and then I punted and kicked off in the NFL. So I have a lot of surgeries on these. Had a dislocated patella the last nine games of my last year of my season. May Pro Bowl, May Pro Bowl that year would be a set. Knees though have a lot of missing stuff. I'm not the only one.

A lot of people have this issue that are athletes in this thing. So they make this treadmill that basically gets you back on there. 85% of your weight, take a little bit of the weight off so that the meniscus that is missing from your knee in between your joints and your bones, it can kind of be softened a little bit.

I'm back to, I feel, I'm back to jumping. We were jumping the other day and Coach McCarthy's born. It's like I feel very, very good about where I stand as a physical being at this point. It's a fun little place to be. I feel like I'm Darius Butler. That's why I feel like I'm Darius Butler. Not as jacked obviously.

I'll be there I think in maybe a month or so. I'll be there in a month or so. A month? Yeah, I think so You got I'm talking about being jacked, you know, I'm having some padding for good There's shots coming, you know, I got a ash maybe even think is about Boking a little bit up maybe the next couple. Yes. okay to take on the maybe I wear what if I wore

50 tank tops or football pads Maybe the maybe the flag Those ones had padding yeah, then we can even put some on yeah here like a metal plate right there or. Yes, I don't know if that would be legal I think that would be is this a no-holds-bar you baby. It's just sanction match up Because I asked it is fight safe, you know, it was sanction match at WWE ring I think I should layer up. I think I should layer up up on top now that just hit my mind I think we should have been thinking this sweater's not a city street fight That just hit my mind. I think we should have been thinking of a sweater. It's not a city street fight

It's in st. Louis. It's not st. Louis Street fight either, but thank God it is just a sanctioned W St. Louis take Street fight the Arch City Street fight. Are you talking about in am I? Crooked letter crooked letter. Oh you oh, I don't want to do it better. Hey, yeah You can find me What a run Nellie ad and st. Louis. Yeah Unbelievable. They love their force ones. Yeah, they did still do Boom. Thank you to the st. Louis ticks, you know for the introduction Oh, yeah to the all-white Air Force one's joining us now ladies and gentlemen is a man who? Is gonna give me motivational speeches every single day

until my match next weekend in St. Louis. Let's go. That's the type of guy he is. That's the type of friend he is. I'm thankful for him. He's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawke. Hey, can't wait.

AJ, now is your time to kind of deliver your positive message for me. Just, you know, less than two weeks away from a big match with Gunther. Well, I did see it first off. That was great. You know, standing on the desk, great promo to the whole arena and to all the WWE universe, that was, that was the thing of beauty. It's not easy to do. That's for sure.

But I don't think you need any motivation for this guy. You know, like he's like the big strong Silent type that wants to slap your chest tie was right get a metal plate with some spikes underneath your tank top He goes to chop you once that's the last time he chops Yeah, you said spikes underneath Yeah, I probably catch it maybe a stem maybe I do put a little ice and stim in there Yeah, I know something here. We warm it up. Those from when I was warming up. He doesn't just chop you there though, too I mean, he's got kicks. Yeah. Yeah

He's got an arsenal. Yeah, he's got an arsenal that he can attack you with it flies through the sky. He does Fly through the sky big man fall hard though. He's so big. Yeah, you're right. I got it. I got it. Yeah, we got a move This is classic I gotta move I gotta move This was with the jab and get out Job hostile I have to hire him out Maybe I throw some sweet signs and you know what I have to I've to say Michael Cole. Yes, you do Cole got to do it for Cole. Do it for Cole. Do it for Cole. Are you gonna wear maybe his singlet?

Singlet? Yeah, as kind of a tribute. I don't know afterwards. That might be one of the layers. What are you talking about? You think I'm going out there with one layer on? That can hold it all together. Was Cole supporting you after?

What do you mean? He was like, he was kind of questioning your decision making. Yeah, well I think he was, cause I talked to him afterwards, I'm like what is your problem? Why are you doing this? Yeah, bingo, that's what I thought. And then afterwards he said, I don't want you to feel like you have to do this because of me. No, he's worried. Yeah. Yeah. Seems like he is a bit worried. Don't be worried, Cole. We know what we signed up for.

How's he gonna call the fight? I mean, I know he's done it before, but it's gonna be tough for him to call that fight. He's a non-biased journalist. Yeah, he'll be right down the middle. He's not making a pick before you. He's got a Syracuse University degree, brother. That's true. You'll go for that thing right down the middle. It's like Herbie calling Ohio State game. You should have seen me running last night. I'm running on this thing, smacking the shit out of myself.

Got to get ready. Smacking the shit out of myself. Just like this. I mean, that could take your breath away. I was in a War Games match with the entirety of the undisputed era if you do recall, of course And I got hit with a chair there. Oh chair right to the back. Okay Holy fuck that that one, you know, and then I turn and Kyle O'Reilly Go goes. Oh, yeah

And I oh, yeah, he gives me a left kick to my gut Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He gives me a left kick to my gut. He got me out of here. Yeah. Caught the wind out of me. And I was like, oh, we're. We're fighting in here. I did. I did not know everything. We are we are. Yeah, we are fighting here. And it was it was war games.

I put somebody through a table through there. Hit somebody with a chair off the side of a cage. And I think I went off the top of the cage. Hit that thing. I think they fell from the rattle from me hitting the mat clean. I saw another video similar to that on the internet. I think the rattle from hitting the ground.

Big bumps. There's some big bumps going around the internet now and this wrestling world, man. Yeah, the algorithm has tapped into the wrestling world and that dude doing a Swanton front flip. Geez Louise. Geez Louise. Yeah.

Off the moose down there, AJ Francis down there, I forget the whole group. There's obviously, that's a lot of- Pop Dollar? Yeah. Pop Dollar damn near ripped his arm off. Yeah, I mean that's a lot of top dollar. Yeah. Yeah. Ripped his arm off. Yeah. Cause I mean that is a clear, that's a devastating. Well, that's what he was trying to do to him. He was trying to rip everybody's arms off. Yeah. Like that gorilla, like that gorilla. Have we slept?

We've slept on it. Yeah. We'd win. I think I'm on, I think I'm on team humans. Me too. Yes. But I think I'm just watching. I don't think I'm one of the a hundred. No, no, no, no. What? Yeah. I don't think I'm one of the 100. No, no, no, no what? Yeah, I think you're not signing up. No, no, I'm gonna watch but should be I think the humans win about 75 die. Okay, so 76 with the gorilla gotta be done. Okay, so how do you select to the first? Is there a random drawing? I mean the first the first 50 might as well just be complete Don't give up they're all getting they're all getting sacrificed. Don't give up 50 I think we give up 10 first now. There's a 10 good men

Okay, and we appreciate their services to the human they're on a death mission those first 10. They're gone They're high we watch them. Yeah, we watch everybody's gotta be on Yeah, we watch everybody's gotta be on meth all the I think you go to a pen. No, you need a hundred guys say hey you want to get out early whoever can get What you say Fox whoever can get the eyes whoever get the eyes they have to go first you got to get the eyes first What's the eyes are? You gotta get the eyes first. Once the eyes are eliminated, you go. That's why you need a tactician in there. You need a high flyer.

You need someone that can jump on the head, get the eyes out, and then you keep moving after that. More, which I love, my favorite thing here is the more humans think about it, the more humans are all in on us winning. Hey, shout to us. Team on us, team on us. Yeah.

One, two, three, team. Team, I'm not on us. I'm not with them. You're I'm not with what's your gorilla No, come on. Now you tell the first guy runs up there gets his arms and legs ripped off And then everyone else turns and runs someone did you know we got the hunter right man? Like the old Mike Tyson fight yeah until someone gets their arms ripped off in front of you That's good. Those people know that's a part of the play Okay until it happens in front of you

I think it might be a little different than in theory and how it feels like it might okay I'm gonna just keep going no matter what I'm fighting blinders Execute you can also send a guy with no arms. Yeah the night before by the way, guess what? They're watching for high videos people getting their arms and limbs ripped off. Well, you're gonna see you tomorrow Also, so get mentally prepared gorillas are only five foot like four hundred pounds. It's basically like fighting Jay Glazer, okay which People verse Jay Glazer Speaking of yeah, we have a trailer for a fight movie

That I think is going to be unbelievable. Debuting in October, trailer released this morning for Smashing Machine. Probably looking at my eyes. How did that happen? Well, have you ever heard of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the UFC? That's the bloody thing they're trying to ban.

This guy is the best he has ever seen. Do you hate each other when you fight? Absolutely not. How do you know Mark Kerr? We go way back, but he's a buddy of mine. Come on, baby. Too much? Never. Please welcome in his Octagon debut...

Mark Kerr! I'm not. Winning is the best feeling there is. It's 40,000 people. And they're cheering you on. There's no other high like it in the world. No contract, no money? No money.

Do you have any stronger pain medication? Advil. Advil? Advil? Yeah. Don, would you like some? No. Handing them out like candy. Let's all get in. Let's would you like... No. ...handing him out like candy?

Let's all get in. Let's all... everybody get in. Yeah, Don, could you take this picture for me? Yeah. What are you thinking at the beginning of the fight? It's simple. Am I going to hurt him before he hurts me? Never lie, I'm sure you will This ramped for you to crown the greatest fighter in the world

He has come back from the brink Let's see if he can pull out a victory over Mark Coleman Have you spoken to either about fighting such a good friend for a life-changing amount of money? I just need you to let me in. Always about you. Only about fucking you! It's about you! Let's fucking go.

Let's fucking go. My big strong man, I love you. Big game, watch your autograph. Sure, no problem. No fighting. October 3rd. Hey, that's like a real... He's got... Because he's got this mob movie coming up as well. That feels like a super serious acting for the Rock. And the amount of commitment I heard behind the scenes,

working out the whole buy-in for him from WrestleMania season all the way through, I think like eight, nine months or whatever. I mean, it was like a full life commitment from the Rock Emily Blunt obviously but from what I'm watching there this is gonna be like a power like a power movie it feels like yeah for sure I mean you can obviously still tell it's the Rock but like in all his movies like it's Dwayne Johnson on the on the poster like that's kind of the point of it is like hey you want to see the Rock and like a big action movie like he's kind of un point of it is like hey you want to see The Rock and like a big action movie like he's kind of Unrecognizable there especially in some parts of like that trailer It's like wow like he you know he like the amount of makeup

He probably had to do and then you had 824 the studio that's doing it They put out a lot of like kind of prestige Type movies Benny Safdie the guy who wrote it and directed him and his brother They did uncut gems and they've they they've done like movies like that that are, I don't want to say awards fodder, but you can tell that like this is completely different than anything The Rock has been in up to this point in his career. So he's got a Godfather movie coming out and he's got this movie coming out. Moana is going to be good forever. Yeah, live action. Live action, Moana is good forever. Terra Moana. Why? Delightful.

Eat some now. Papa Too. Papa Too is unbelievable. Zoa. Zoa. Oostoos. Yeah. Why?

Got a new line of work out here. Project Rock, why? Yeah, boo. Shoes. Why? Geez, Elise. Still bringing it. And his social media.

Still got it. Yeah, still bringing it. And his social media is the, what, he's the big. Biggest. Most followed American male. Well I see the announcement it's absolutely wild. And he's the final boss. He's the final boss. Truly. And high chief. And high chief. Most important. For now. Hmm? Oh DC? I don't know. I don't know. Did you see what Seth freaking Rawlins was doing last night? I did. Alright let's talk a little football. George Kittle got signed three four-year

76.4 million dollar deal 19.1 million per year AJ your thoughts on George getting paid in the bus and with the boys boys Breaking the news. Yeah, I did. I like will you know taking Ian for a walk like he does That was nice to see him to get his get the recognition they deserve. Yeah, was this. I like Will, you know, taking Ian for a walk like he does. That was nice to see him to get his, get the recognition they deserve. But yeah, was this ever a question? No, like this seems like common sense to me that they would get George signed like this. Uh, I don't know. He missed something and there was a conversation.

It wasn't happening. There was reports that there was maybe a little bit of a thing happening contractually, but yeah, I feel like George Kittle is the San Francisco 49ers kind of heartbeat. And I think he's beloved by everybody over there from what we understand. We know the NFL loves him and then you looked at his we looked at his stats for the first time since the season. Yeah. Did you know he was first in yards per game? I didn't.

I didn't until all this. It does so much that doesn't necessarily show up on the stat sheet too. Like he's like an extra lineman in the run game. And whenever he's the only thing that has ever gotten in his way is health, there's some injuries. But as long as he's been healthy, he's always been in the conversation as the best tight end in the league.

Obviously you have Travis Kelce and what he's been able to do now in the regular season, but post season been able to step it up, huge Super Bowl moments. But George Kittle is unbelievable in both phases of the games. And you know, obviously he's a great locker room guy as well. Oh I forgot about him being a pancake-er. Oh yeah. And laughing about him. From day one. World-greater. And any Shanahan

offense is gonna need a runner you know so that's a big deal. AJ George Kittle is a easy you easy you hmm I was gonna say. You can almost say that for real a guy that can block as well as he does but also is such a threat And has it's so productive in the past game. Yeah, man. They don't they don't make them like this very often and his vibes He's old school, but so upbeat saw him at WrestleMania a few times so much fun the job the beer soon as he gets on there still absolutely jacked and shredded got chance to hang out with him and Claire and a couple of their friends after mania. Good vibes.

That's great vibes. Immaculate vibes comes from Kittle. I assume he's like that in the locker room and that is a gift whenever it comes to a long NFL season. Yeah, a gift for Purdy too. So now they're saying Purdy is next up in the $50 million range and it wasn't expected until they traded Debo because there's that conversation last year hey they have all these guys coming up they got to make a couple decisions they move

Debo kiddles first and now they're saying Purdy should get done within the next few weeks in the 50 million dollar club okay so congratulations to uh all the quarterbacks. Congrats. Brock Purdy too, Mr. Irrelevant. They did, it's nice to revisit that. And did you see they brought out, it was a celebration, the Mr. Irrelevant. I don't know what company it was, should've. It was definitely a sponsored thing. Oh yeah, cause it was for New England too.

I forget the company, shit. And they said, come out and see us in somewhere in California. Cause I think they have a parade for Mr. Irrelevant and give him, I think he gets a watch. I was, have a parade for mr. Irrelevant and give him I think he gets a watch I was I Was I and mr. Irrelevant so Ryan suck up kicker, South Carolina Got drafted to the Kansas City Chiefs. I think I don't know I

Think potentially They were thinking about it is from what I was being told So I was learning about this Mr. Irrelevancy as the draft was rolling on. Parade, I think you get a ring, a watch. I think there's like a full on community, like if you wanna buy into the entire thing. So that was back whenever I was coming out.

So then, you know, you go through the years, I'm like, has that died off a bit? And then when Brock Purdy got Does such a good job it almost gets overplayed then. Yeah, all right, Mr Relevance overplayed now one of the best quarterbacks in the entire league was picked last we get it which goes back to the point of The draft it doesn't matter where you get drafted. It just matter what you do when you get there It's just that you're in a building. Yeah, it's the only thing that matters joining us now as a man Who's picking who's coming and going from his building.

General Manager of the Los Angeles Rams. Ladies and gentlemen, Leslie. Yeah. Good. Good. How's it going, guys? Is there a drawing? Is there a drawing?

I can't see. Is there a drawing over your shoulder? You know what? You know what? Hold on one second. I'll leave the screen. It's right here. There we go.

Okay. I thought I caught it. But we took it down. It was, it was, you know, the building said, you know what, we've had enough. Take that one down. Go back to the DL. You know what I mean? I like that. Celebrate. Who needs a has-been punter on the wall? Amen, brother. Put that D line up. That's incredibly young and is an absolute problem for the NFL for the rest of time. We would assume how do you feel coming out of the draft and Before we get into that shout out to you guys for doing your draft at a firehouse

I believe they're in Los Angeles and I assume that that was a very cool interaction for everybody for all parties and Anytime you can showcase some appreciation to the badasses who are serving our communities especially firefighters I have family members that are firefighters we're talking about sprinting towards you know the flames you know that flames are natural run away from her for everybody every are repellent everybody runs away from flames firefighters run towards them at all times. So mad respect, especially with everything going on out there for you guys to do that. How'd that idea come about?

And what was it like as an experience? You know, it was very, I think living it, it was the ideas on paper was like, wow, this is really cool based on all that Cali's been through, not necessarily this year, but in but California is used to this. Like, as you said, Mother Nature throws its best pitch and these first responders run right toward it. But going there and living it with them, I can't even paint the picture of how really, really cool and emotional, because they really appreciated it. They do some all, like you said, when you, we think Sean and I did that that that video and there was a whole

thing about making that call. And I think at the end of the when you when we dial that number to call them. We're not we're not calling them to say you know what we appreciate all you do. We're calling them to go Oh my mother nature is coming at us. We're gonna run the other way but we need you to run into it. So that's an important call. They are badasses. Badasses. I think, you know, I don't think I've ever been for an air fire department. Never been there. A lot of good chefs in there, you know, because they're all cooking. Some of them cook for each

other. Our draft room, obviously it's a fire station and it was a big hanger because it's where the helicopters, it where they go fight fight the fire. You know, the let's call it the the Wildfires or whatever we call them out here. So big hanger, but there was a kitchen right there And you what was it? They were always cooking they were they have a weight room. They're kind of like you They you know, they're wearing some tank tops look a little buff I love the boys and then what was really cool was at the end of the night All of them did the cleaning like all of a sudden we were leaving the firehouse. That was one of the moments like, wow, I think I am spoiled. Because as we were leaving, everyone who was there fighting fire by day,

on call at night, you know what, they're mopping the floors, they're cleaning up. Really, really, I think we could all go to spend a year with the fire department and get better. Hell yeah. Be better people than the other side of that. Hell yeah. Thanks for your service. Hell yeah. Thanks for your service.

Give them, give them. Okay, we'll talk about your first pick that you made from the fire department. You go with a tight end. Why was this your decision? Was it best available in your eyes or are we trying to load up even more on an offense that is already successful? Little bit of both. I think we went into the draft, especially where we were positioned Back in the late part of the first round and often call it the cost of winning sometimes Because you're picking you're always picking a little later than you want

But we did have some positions that we thought would help us more And if the right player fell at those positions, let's go attack. And I think obviously we have a really good tight end room. We have a lot of veterans. Everyone in our room right now has played football. Tyler Higby's been with us since Sean's been here. But I know there's an element of Tyler being at the end of his career, who's going to replace him and then just adding another tight end to the field. I know there's an element of Tyler being at the end of his career, who's gonna replace him.

And then just adding another tight end to the field. I think when Sean McVeigh came to us from Washington, they weren't the commanders then don't know if I could say their own nickname. The football team. Well, they did a lot of 12 personnel. So maybe we will add a little bit of that to our repertoire. But end of the day, good position, we like the player as well, any person. I love whenever you think about getting even more dynamic,

especially whenever you're talking about a Sean McVeigh offense and Matthew Stafford there for yet another year in that offense. They seemingly know each other inside and out at this point. Get him another weapon. Go ahead, AJ. Les, I believe you guys traded up three times on day three. Can you talk us through like what kind of, I guess, how that happens and continues to happen throughout that day. And is,

is that pretty chaotic? I would assume that kind of keeps your attention. It keeps you locked in on every single pick. It definitely kept our attention. I think it was a draft. It's cool. You made that point, AJ, that we went into draft thinking, you know what? We're going to probably trade back. That's probably a scenario that's very probable. But we also felt like we would be gaining picks in this draft.

It was just fortunate for us that the Falcons really wanted to move into the first round. So we delayed our gratification when they gave us that future first round pick. So we delayed gratification. We passed a little bit of the marshmallow test and we received the pick for next year. But we lost a pick this in this year's draft and we had already been a one short with the pick we gave for Fisk last year.

So I called this draft once we were down a pick. It was like, oh, our boards a little thinner. If it was a baseball game, I would tell you this, AJ, you know what we were going to do in this rap, we were going to hit a single, we were going to have to steal a base, we were going to bunt the guy over the third and we were going to sack fly him in. It was just one of those drafts where you really had to work and maneuver to, to, to grab the players, to attack the players that you felt like could come

in and contribute in, in a, in a role, in a vision that we have for them on the roster that we currently have. Okay, so I didn't play baseball, but the metaphor that you just gave seemingly was, all right, we're going to give up a little bit here, but we're going to get some, basically, right? Yeah. Giving up two outs there, but you just got the guy home with one hit. Okay. I can't believe I confused everybody. No, I'm not a baseball player. I confused everybody and you just, you know, cleared it up for everyone. No, I was really, I was hoping that I was right. Is that what he said?

I'm not a baseball guy at all. I know Paul Skeens sliced up the Dodgers when he was playing them. Tell your friends over there in Los Angeles, from what I've been saying, from what I saw, at least, I don't know how great it was. Yeah, I don't know baseball that well, but that was a great, like, indicator. Is it like that every draft or just because of these specific players? And big boys seemingly getting rewarded more in the draft. No doubt, I think I mean that big boys, it's Bill Parcells,

you said it's a big man's game, right? But I think not every draft's like this. If we would have had more picks, sometimes you can allow the draft to come to you. You can wait on it a little bit and your boards a little thicker instead of thinner and You can pick off players that right there's a lot of buy-in because you every time you go to pick There's there's always you know more players on the board than one but based on the nature of our board this draft What positions we wanted it was a little bit thinner so we did feel like okay We need to,

to score runs in this baseball game. We're going to have to give up something. We're going to give up some outs to score runs, but you know what? We're going to count on our pitching to hold the other team down. Hey, AJ, if I was a defense coordinator right now, you'd be like, you know what?

Can you just tell it, give us something simple. Let us go play football. You've confused the heck out of us. That's a home run. I think we got it. We got it. We got it. Let's no worries. We got it. We got it. We got it, Les. No worries. We got it.

Trust your process. This is good wood right now, everything that you're putting out there. Speaking of good wood, how about Stoner down there in Jacksonville? Did you hear his promo whenever he introduced Travis Hunter and why he made that decision that he made to trade up to two and give up what he gave up?

He said, you know, football is built to have its boundaries be tested and belief and everything. And he said Travis Hunter is belief. Travis Hunter is all this thing. And the way he sold like it was a move. It was a statement to all of Jacksonville. Amen. Did you expect that? Did you expect that from him? You know what? James is really gifted.

Definitely with with let's call it a monologue, a prologue, whatever you want to call that. Did you expect that? Did you expect that from him? You know what? James is really gifted. Definitely with, let's call it a monologue, a prologue, whatever you want to call that. So he's gift for Gab. He's really good at it. I mean, I would come on this show and if I could, what did he say? I forget what he, if I could embody my James Gladstone, I would. I just don't have that in me.

Mom, dad, God didn't give me that gift to Gab like James did, but he really did sell it. He's always been a very articulate human being. So, and he's been passionate. So when he says something, he believes it. How do you feel about him moving up the two and making that play for his team? You know, I think that they were passionate about that player. I think they wanted to not only add a football player, but

add competitiveness to their ecosystem. So they felt like, right, you know what, we got to go attack. Let's go, let's go grab this player. Just don't let the draft come to us. Let's go get the person we want that we think can not only help us on Sundays, but also add, give an edge to the culture they're trying to engineer down there. Okay. Let's talk about somebody you added.

Go ahead, Conrad. Yeah, Les, Devontante Adams, you guys added after losing Cooper Cup and you know, Pukka Nakua gives up his 17 for Devante. Did Stafford have anything to do with that and Devante or what was that process like bringing him in for your squad this year? Yeah, Sean always, let's call it collaborates with Matthew on some of the skill and

he was definitely all for it. So interesting, I think Puka was gonna give up 17 for 12 before Devontae got in the build. Maybe he should have held that secret a little bit and maybe gotten Devontae to give him a tip for that number. But he was already in the process of going to 12 based on a family history of that number. So it was perfect, right?

Oh man, we got Jersey 17 open. What NFL player can we sign who wears 17? Holy cow, let's go Devontae. Oh really, that's how it all worked out, huh? That's how it all, you know, it's not always as complex as you think. Yeah, I actually got a box arrived from the people at Los Angeles Rams facility over there in LA.

I have a Pukka Nakua autographed 12 jersey. The letter said this might be one of the first ones, Zeus, from Pukka. So shout to the 12. Looks nice. Looks real nice. I'm not used to that yet. I'm just not used to it yet. Going to need to see him catch some balls in there.

How's it going to be weird for you training camp? 17. Just a little bit different. You know, Cooper Cup went from 18 to 10, so we had to get used to that. So I think that, you know, we're gonna have to get used to 17 to 12. Tone has a question for you, Les.

Yeah, Les, I do. Jay Glazer reported before the draft that teams, you know, normally have columns or things for an injured player or potentially off the field issues. But he said this year a lot of teams became more prevalent that they had to add a category for doesn't love ball. Is that a real thing that's happening in this NIL era because guys have already been played? The teams are now more focused on finding guys that just love football?

That would be interesting if we added that because of NIL, maybe it's come to life a little more because of NFL and all the, right, when you make a change. And I don't wanna say this, I think Sean McVeigh would say a good story. I think one time when he was a young coach and he went to maybe interview I forget which tight end and the guy ended up being a really good player and it might have been Niles

Paul who played tight end for them in Washington all those years and Sean says I was trying to ask him if he loved football. You know what I mean? And basically got down to money and I think now I was asked Sean, hey, would you coach for free? So I don't want to ever make money that you don't love football, but I do think we're always trying to find out if someone truly loves football.

Because if you truly love football, if you truly love something, whether it's football, whether it's you Pat in this show, if you love something, if you're passionate about, you're probably gonna suffer, right? You're gonna go through stress and drudgery, right? To have the Pat McAfee show be one of the best that it can be.

That's cause you love it, you're Pat. Same for football players. If they love the game, if they love their team, they're gonna suffer, they're gonna sacrifice, they're to give a little, and that usually then compounds over time with all the behaviors that go into right being a pro and not just being right on the depth chart or not just, you know, hanging around if we call it right, eating food, but not producing. Yeah. Waste of laundry detergent.

The whole, how do you know if a guy's a dog or not? Yeah. That's a, you know what? That's a great quick, what is even the definition of dog? We even say sometimes, hey dog, is it a D-A-W-G or a D-O-G? And if you're in football, if you're in a football locker room, you kind of know it. And I do think there is this blend of a dog, right? A positive dog, a net positive D-A-W-G.

I think there's an element of their behavior, Monday through, let's call it Monday through Saturday. But a lot of times you do see that dog come to life. I think someone mentioned on your show, Jared Verst, right? You, hey, when you watch Jared Verst, when we were playing, right? The Vikings at Arizona in that playoff game because of these fires, right? I think anyone who tuned in that game go, wow, Jared verse that defensive line, there's some dogs on that line.

And I give that net positive. Yeah, I think that's a net positive as well. You saying D.A.W.G. or D.O.G. if you've ever been in a building, you know, the answers to these things. I'll see a graphic every once in a while and they'll say DOG on it. And I'm like, we're not talking about the right, we're not talking about the right. You know, every now and then we say,

you know what, someone's just a pup and they're growing into being, you know, and they're not quite, they're growing into their feet. Let's talk about your dogs on the D line. AJ's smiling right now. He's going, you know what, I remember this guy, he got highly drafted back when we were the Packers and you know what?

He was just a pup. He wasn't there yet. We still had him on the lead. You could just, you know, I could see his smile. I'm not going to ask you to say who came to your mind first, AJ. Yeah, who was it? Who was it? That's a good question, actually.

That's a great question. I don't know. I couldn't tell. I have a hard time telling if someone does love ball or not, but it's, I think sometimes people can oversell it verbally that they love Ball for sure you can tell by their actions and how they care themselves less less Did you know that AJ Hawk and coon the fullback? For what how many years nine years?

By yes, yeah eight or nine eight or nine years in the CTE era Okay, eight or nine years AJ middle linebacker him fullback, eight or nine years. AJ, middle linebacker, him fullback. For eight or nine years together as teammates, not one time did either of them say, hey, today we don't have to go full go. Geez. Wednesday, Thursday, I assume Fast Friday, you guys weren't doing that though, right?

No, we were smart, we took care of each other. No, you didn't, that's exactly what you said you didn't do. Wednesday, Thursday, eight to nine years straight every single week. Think about that. Inside run, no thanks. And that's what they do. Look at John Kuhn's head.

You can't brother-in-law John Kuhn. Look at his head. Like there's no, he knows one speed. But whenever you say people can sell that they love ball better than they can show it, it's like eight to nine years straight running your head into a guy who's got love's ball. You know, you are looking for dogs that love ball.

And you talked about that D line. Hembo just sent over some stats here to put you over. Most sacks, including playoffs. From the 2023 draftees, number one, Will Anderson has 22 and a half sacks. Number two, Kobe Turner, 20 and a half sacks. Number three, Byron Young, 17 sacks. Well, how about the 2024 draftees?

This is most sacks, including playoffs. Braden Fisk, 10. Jared Verse, six and a half. Nobody else near them. So four out of five there are your picks. Feels like you got the D-line figured out. Feels like that is, which we talked to McCarthy during draft night, Mike McCarthy. He said, you need four ones the D-line figured out. Feels like that is a, which we talked to McCarthy during draft night, Mike McCarthy, he said you need four ones at D-line.

You need four ones. You need to be able to do four seven. Obviously that's what the Eagles were able to do on defense. D-line very important, obviously, and why do you think you have such a high hit rate? We've always valued defensive line. We knew we needed to continue valuing especially when Aaron did when Aaron Donald did decide to retire. Think I mentioned it the last time I was on this show that with those guys you

just mentioned, we spent five top 100 picks on four players. So whether they're ones, twos, what we do know is, you know what, they're our type of guy. They're T-A-W-G's, they get up the field. They definitely try to create a little stress and drudgery on the QB. But we do think philosophically the way the game is, that if you can, especially as the game goes over, if it's 60 something plays that each team usually gets, and especially when you play against these elite QBs.

If you can have some players up front that causes that QB, that offensive clock to maybe get a little bit discombobulated, you got a better chance of beating that team than you don't. I'd say so. Yeah. You know what I talk about love and football though? Think about Kobe Turner.

Kobe Turner goes, I'm gonna walk on at Richmond. Okay, we're not University of Virginia, not Virginia. I'm going to Richmond. Beast. And then he does what he does at Richmond He says I'm gonna go to Wake Forest and then then that he's not even gonna get invited to the combine So oh by the way, we're gonna make the pick but that's someone who loves football that he didn't have to play No one paid his education to play. He decided I love it so much

I'm going to Richmond to walk home and you can every one of those defensive linemen, and even the young man we drafted from Michigan the other night, Josiah Stewart. They all started at a, let's call it a lesser level of football. Whether it was Versa at Albany, whether it was Fisk at Central Michigan, Western Michigan, I'm gonna get that wrong. Whether it's BY at heck, at Georgia Military. Whether it's Josiah, Acosta,

they all loved it enough that they were gonna not, let's go to the power fives to start. They didn't have that up. Let's go somewhere first and then let's transfer up. So that's one of the positives of the transfer portal per se. I'll tell you what, that might be a good trait to be looking for actually at certain positions.

Yeah. You know, like having to grind through that and wanting it, that's a want to type thing there. That know, like having to grind through that and wanting it. That's a want to type thing there. That's a great trait to have, especially if you're looking for people that love football. It's working for you. Kobe Turner walked on it. Richmond, you said? Now 20 and a half sacks, okay, in his first two years. Pretty good. How about Zero Star Cam Ward? I don't know if you saw him either. He can sing pretty good. I think he did.

Yeah, you gotta go back to Mads Singer, go pull up the Google highlights. That's where you get your highlights. Did he win? He dominated, but he's got an opera voice. This guy could be, I guess we call it in New York Broadway. So he's got a Broadway career after this. He's a dog with Broadway pipes. Yeah. Yeah. He won. That's it. I tell you what, there's not many of those humans on the planet.

No, like the AWGs that can do Broadway too. That's, that's rare. We're at rarefied air. Yeah. I mean, that's why you do the research before the draft. Exactly. It's a hell of a combo. Just him and Tom Cruise or my lot of, yeah, Tom Cruise, Jordan, my auto, sure. Did he win? Did he win? I'm pretty sure he won, yes, in 2023. Yeah, at this point.

I should know this. But he, you know what I mean? Whatever. I don't know if I'd have dressed up like this, but you know what? Like 90%. He did a Lakers national anthem at the Lakers game and that I that that's worth the listen Okay, I mean if y'all sit there and you're on your show and you're like, oh geez We're an hour however many and this thing's getting a little dull

Pull out a Kobe Turner national anthem from the Lakers and you know what? Did you get a little ratings bump there? Do you watch the show? I Do not watch the meds. Oh, no. This show. You know what? The interesting thing I don't necessarily tune into it, but you get a lot of clips from it. Yeah, so and it's own in the building at times. So you'll pass by. Yeah, you're not just hey must see TV for myself. Yes. Okay. No, I understand a lot of people send me clips of you.

No, no. But when you say like when you have the downtimes that you need to fill, sound like you were a watcher. Yeah, because there are times. It's coming up. Yeah, we're staring it down, brother. We're about five minutes away from it. So that would be a perfect time. I mean, if you want to add EP, executive producer to your title, you can certainly do that. Not a bad thing. Maybe we do salute the United States of America with Kobe Turner whenever there's a downtime. That a brilliant idea a brilliant concept. I appreciate you bringing it I can't wait for the first time we all stand for Kobe Turner Guy who has 20 and a half sacks over the last two years. All right last question for you here Let's need we appreciate the hell out of you. Go ahead D

But I think less is watching too much too much TV that man singer. Yeah, he's locked in but I believe this is your 14th year Now in charge of personnel over there with the Rams winning this GM and Rams history. Is there any particular lesson or book or maybe anything early on that kind of stood out to you in your tenure that you took me you kind of hold on to now? Oh man, there's plenty of the lessons I've learned on the job are usually let's call it mistakes. So you got to figure out why there was a mistake in your plan.

I'll bore you. This is probably not a McAfee subject. Probably the one book that I've kind of lived by. It's called Good to Great Jim Collins. So Jim Collins was a professor at Stanford, but he was a big business writer back then. They wrote this book, Good to Great, studied a lot of companies that had a really good run, let's call it, in terms of stock. And let's say maybe, I forget how many years. And they had a good, let's call it a decade of good company.

And then somewhere along the way, they took it to great. And so what he tried to research is the lessons of how you go to good to great, which we all know those are now you're now in the margins. So that's that's harder to do. You know, it's probably easier to go from average to good than it is to go to good to great, which we all know those are not, you're now in the margins. So that's, that's harder to do. You know, it's probably easier to go from average to good than it is to go to good to great. So that's probably the book that, that I've always held on, try to re-read once a year.

Been fortunate to get to know Jim, mentor of mine, but maybe not McAfee content. Don't want to, you know what I mean? Jim Collins and W3D doesn't really- Greatness. It's not really level five leaders Yeah, we had we had the second largest book club maybe on earth behind Oprah. Congratulations her She had a great book club. We had Aaron Rodgers book club for numerous years

Greatness is not a function of circumstance greatness. It turns out is largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline Jim Collins That's a bar. That's a bar right there. I bet you AJ's got a copy of that on the bookshelf behind him. Pull it out. Whip it up. My college coach Jim Trestle actually had us read that when I was in college. Great book.

I just have Ayn Rand back here. Atlas Shrugged, Aaron Rodgers recommended it. Oh, that's a great one as well. You're an avid reader, huh? Have you ever read, oh, Atlas Shrugs, Pat? You know, that's a good summer read. I mean, I bet you... Yeah, I...

I've seen the Instagram when you were doing your Kauai vacation maybe. I bet you had, oh, Ayn Rand there laying beside you. Yeah, yeah, books. Me and books have a tough relationship. Yeah, Sun Tzu, rest and books have a tough relationship. Yeah, Sun Tzu, rest in peace. When I found out that Sun Tzu was dead, I was devastated.

What a book, Art of War. You know, and I've only seen excerpts out of that thing, but the excerpts that I've seen, I get it. I get what he's saying. Rich Paul's. Rich Paul's book. The memoir. A memoir.

Memoir, if you will. Bill's book, coming out. Bill's book. And also, let's not get it twisted. Have you ever read anything from? Memoir a memoir if you it was book Let's not get it twisted have you ever read anything from this have for Margaret Heffernan Well, I don't think so. Okay. Well, let me teach you something about books. Yeah, let's go Uncharted here. Okay How to navigate the future by Margaret Heffernan.

Okay, he's a great book. Because every day we're thinking about the future. You know, every day we're thinking about the future. The future is uncertain, so. It certainly is. But uncertainty brings anxiety, let's go. Oh, but also decisions, you know, uncertainty brings decisions. Flip to that page.

And then if you really dive into it, it's just figuring out the whole life. The issue with me having this book is I thought it was this book You see the art of winning by Bill Belichick So I was sent to roll the wrong book with the wrong cover just yesterday and I'll tell you what I would have never known About Margaret Heffernan, but she makes some good points. Yeah She's done. She makes you know, you got a gift for a publishing company credit for pulling this off You know everybody's order in the bill Bel publishing company credit for pulling this off. You know, everybody's ordering the book, the Belichick book,

and you get Margaret's book. I mean, that if you think I gave you a good idea with the Kobe Turner national anthem, somebody deserves a raise in that publishing company. We need to put start putting sleeves around Harry Potter's. There you go. Cool. You know, not a bad idea. People thinking that. How did this happen? I don't you know, People thinking that, uh, how did this happen? I don't, you know the book world well.

How would this have happened? Does this happen? I don't know. I think that's intentional. Let's go. Let's give them credit. Gary Vee marketing plan probably. It's a left hook.

All right. We appreciate the hell out of you. Great draft. Can't wait to see what you do this season. And thank you for taking time. Always. Appreciate it. Enjoy being old.

The ladies and gentlemen, the general manager of the Los Angeles Rams Leslie shout-out less need yeah that thing in the fire department was cool very cool I wonder how that had to be pretty chaotic yeah it set up a little room yeah cuz like these war rooms we're getting a lot of photos from these giraffe rooms we're getting a lot of video from the giraffe rooms the conversations obviously a lot of big-time decisions are being made millions of Dollars billions of dollars at stake yada yada yada, you know it having all that going on around him I wonder how that did go for them the Los Angeles Rams less need and Sean McVeigh they've been fun out there in Los

Yeah, that's right. They've run houses They've kind of moved their draft stakes around town and to honor and pay tribute to the fire department who has obviously been serving at a Large rate. I don't know how they ever beat it. There's never I don't know once one's done It feels like another one comes out out there So for them to you know recognize and then go to their place of work chit chat I assume great conversations were had I assume there were some photos taken to Sean McVeigh's a legend and superstar and Great conversations were had. I assume there were some photos taken

because Sean McVeigh's a legend and a superstar. And I hope there was obviously some inspiration given to the Los Angeles Rams by the firefighters who are absolute badasses. Shout out to everything out there. But I wonder how they, because, you know. Any favorite War Room picks this year, this draft? Favorite or least favorite?

I saw the Colts had one. Did you see everybody was wearing the coral color? Yeah, sweet. So that was uh in honor of the wife of a senior scout for the indianapolis colts So there was multiple I guess she passed away. I don't know very recently. I'm so sorry Uh to the family. I forget the coach's name matthew Coach our scout matthew somebody's with the colts been with the coach's name, Matthew, coach or scout Matthew, some of these with the Colts, been with the Colts. He's senior scout, college scout maybe.

His wife passed away recently, so they made these coral shirts. I don't know if it was for a cause, but you saw some other rooms were doing it as well. So it was nice to see some of that happening there. We're getting a lot of access to these. So Carla was sitting on like the, uh, like the boosal ball. Yeah. Getting workout.

Nice. That ball is good. Oh, yeah. Cool. True. Core strength. Yeah. Good core.

Whatever happened to those seats, those office seats that had the kneel and then the butt, do you know like, yeah, you, it was like, it was, uh, office chair. Yeah. It was like a little, your knees are bent, right? And you're, you like sit with your knees in front of you know yeah like right on you're like sitting like this you never seen it no sounds ridiculous that was changing the world I walked into a place seeing that I was like why this is the future sat down wasn't terrible felt unsafe sure felt unsafe

because you do bounce around so there's a chance you can move out there. But yeah, Squatty Party Change Game. A mother's love deserves a gift like no other. Celebrate her love, strength and style with heartfelt jewelry from Pandora. From our iconic charms to sparkling necklaces, rings, earrings, and more. There are so many ways to say, Thank you, Mom. So on Mother's Day and every day, tell her how much she means to you with a gift from Pandora. Visit us in store or online at pandora.net.

When you're a forward thinker, the only thing you're afraid of is business as usual. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people and money today so you can transform tomorrow. Workday moving business forever forward. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a guy who is the voice of a generation for a sport that I think is having a resurgence. He's at Monday Night Raw last night.

In the home of the Chiefs. Kansas City, Missouri. Ladies and gentlemen, MLB insider for ESPN, Jeff Passan. Thank you, Jeff. Gentlemen, how are you? How are you doing, Jeff? Thank you for coming out to Monday Night Raw last night. I hope you and the fam had and friends had a good time

Dude, it was awesome Pat I gotta be honest. I am terrified For you and backlash you have to take Gunther chops Yeah, yeah, it's not gonna be great. Yeah, I mean I had to do what I had to do here Yeah, I had to do what I had to do can't just do that Oh me sit there for everything that I'm about can't have it happen So, you know and it did settle in a little bit last night as I was traveling home. Oh great. Oh great Here we go. But you know, I appreciate your kind words and

Yeah, good to laugh about I don't know what that's all about. Okay. I don't know what that's all about. Yeah ready Yeah ready. He's just a He's just a jobber anyway. Come on now. Boom. That was Jeff Pass and I was like, you have everybody know that I do not say that. I grip it. You come to a lot of Monday Night Raws and to WWE events.

Last night felt like a electrifying crowd, legitimately. The Kansas City crowd, I think was electric last night. Oh yeah. It was awesome. And listen, your promo, I mean, you were born to do this Pat McAfee it was phenomenal and everything you said loved it. Loved it, loved it, loved it, top to bottom. There was two words I could have left out. Maybe we're on Netflix though. You know a lot of things I didn't even think you know and it wasn't until you know shortly after

Was I reminded by Cole? You know he just wrote it down on thing Hey, I go oh Hey, it just felt natural so I do apologize for that but nonetheless Yeah, I had to get some things out. You know a lot of people don't know a lot of things about me I just wanted to remind some people not only them but to but to myself who I am, what I am, you know, had to do that. And especially if you're going to challenge a guy like Gunther to a fight and you're going to call out general manager and say, Hey, listen, lift the band.

Let's do this thing. Okay. All right. Did you forget Nick Aldis his name? Because you just called him Smackdown Adam Pierce, right? Yeah. Nick Aldis is a good man, former TNA champion. Okay, he's very handsome.

He totally forgot his name. No, no, no, no. Do you know my relationship with Adam Pearce? Yeah, he's middle manager. Bingo. So you think I'm going to give credit to middle manager from others though? That's fair. That's very fair. I think I even own him. I will say this, Pac. I was sitting right in front of Quentin Lucas, who was the

mayor of Kansas City, who was there last night. And when the when the bombs were dropped, he was like, Whoa, like he was all of a sudden, it got him going a little bit like he was into it. He didn't know the background either. And so when he learned the background, it was fantastic. Oh, so the mayor says, hold the phone over there in Kansas City. Okay.

In the home of the chief. I'm happy they went with me. Happy they went with me. I did not know if that was a

good way to start the entire thing. They did. Let's talk baseball. Baseball, last time we chatted about it, we're having a great start, great season. Superstars are playing well. Haven't talked about it in about a week. What's going on in the baseball world? Everything's still going great? Everything's always going great in the baseball world. No, that is not true. You know what I'm talking about. Fair enough. Fair enough. Look we can talk about Paul Skeens. You know what I'm going to do first? I'm going to fix my camera because it is about to fall apart and that looks like it's much better right now. All right so in the base. Oh, that did not help at all. Oh goodness, no, come on guys.

Who's the finger painting? Come on, Jett. Oh, there it is. There we go. We'll see. That's better, right? Maybe. Sort of.

Yeah, I think you look good. I think you look good. All right. Seven-twenty. Yeah, we got all kinds of things happening in baseball. Paul Skeens doing Paul Skeens things. Aaron Judge looking like Babe Ruth. The Los Angeles Dodgers still a machine.

The New York Mets look like the best team in baseball right now. And we're a month into the season. And typically in baseball, I don't take a whole lot out of the first month. It's a long season. I mean, it goes six months. And so that first month tends to give you a little insight

into what's going on, but you can't take away too many things from it. Right now though, I love what the New York Mets are doing. Like, they've just got good vibes around that team right now. They're doing it without Juan Soto playing a $765 million player. They're doing it without Sean Manaya and Frankie Montaz. They're doing it because Pete Alonso, the polar bear, is off to a red hot start right now because they're starting pitching top to bottom has been incredible. And because Francisco Lindor, their captain is there, hit and walk off home runs and just

bringing great energy to the team. And the thing is the Mets want to be like the Dodgers, Pat. That's the goal at the end of the day to take Steve Cohen's money and leverage it into something great. And they're not there quite yet, but what they're building right now Mets fans have a lot of reasons to feel good about this team going on. Are they the Are they the You said they want to be the Dodgers a little bit out of focus, but you still said it Everybody automatically thought they're trying to be the Yankees. Are they though? Are they New York's are they?

Are they the Kings in New York? No Yeah, we're the best team in New York right now, but like you said yet We're you know, 30 games into the season. So I'm not gonna break. Yeah, exactly How you how you think that the Yankees at the end of the season are going to be better than the Mets? I don't know if I'd necessarily say that. I mean, the Yankees, their pitching is enough to just drive me insane. But if the Yankees get to the playoffs

and Judge performs better than he has in years past, I mean, you said it. Judge is, he's fucking unbelievable watching this guy night in, night out. and it's very frustrating that You know, they have about two other guys on the you know in the lineup that are batting over 200 But I mean no, I it worked for 29 games into this thing You know, so I'm not ready to say that the Mets are the the Kings in New York yet But they have been hot Aaron judge is batting over 400 still?

Yes. That's high school stuff, right? Yes. That's what people in high school do? Like good players in high school are 400? Yeah, I mean, yeah, maybe great players in high school even. Pass it, you were holding up your high school, you were batting 400 at high school?

No, this is not. This is Pembroke Hill School, where my son plays and where I believe there are five players in the lineup, including my child right now, batting over 400. 14 and three, go Raiders. But nobody's batting over 500 on that team though? No, nobody is over 500. 400 is absurd at any level of baseball.

It is, but like Pat, especially in the big leagues, and especially for a guy like Aaron Judge who's striking out a career low at this point, 20% of the time. But think about it, when you take away that 20% of play appearances that you're striking out in, right? That means you have to essentially bat 500 on all of the other balls that you hit in order to have a 400 average. So I don't think Aaron Judge is a threat to hit 400 necessarily, but if you go back and look at the last calendar year for Aaron Judge, he had a bad April last year, so let's go like beginning of May to the end of April this year. Aaron Judge is batting over 360.

He has hit 60 home runs. He has driven in 156 runs and he has put up 13 and a half wins above replacement. Now war is a statistic that tries to encapsulate everything a player does. His offense, his defense, his base running. And it's useful because you can compare over generations how players are doing. And so last night I went and looked, what is the best war season in baseball history?

Of course it belongs to Babe Ruth. He put up 14 wins above replacement one year. Second best year was 13.7 wins above replacement. After that, there has not been a player in history who over a calendar year has had 13 and a half wins above replacement like Aaron Judge. So what we're looking at right now, we give Shohei Otani all the love,

but the truth is Aaron Judge is so good as a hitter, so much better than everyone else as a hitter, that I think he's a little underappreciated and taken for granted because he is so damn good at what he does. Well we appreciate the fact that Aaron Judge says uh yeah I'll just take a yard and I'll have the highest batting percentage you know I'll hit the furthest and the most often and the most consistent because there's people that just bat for average right they're not hitting dingers yeah and he's hit for dingers and his average is better than everybody

Yeah, and his on base percentages over so he's getting on base over half the time which you know like Jet would I mean it hasn't really been like that this year because the guys batting around him haven't been great But like when Barry Bonds was in his prime like there would be times where he would maybe get like one good pitch to hit Like an entire series and he hit a home when he That's exactly right. Yeah, and that's kind of what just like judge He he had the hot start he hit a bunch of homers and he's been he hasn't been hitting homers at the same clip over like the past like two weeks but he like he just he's not getting very many good pitches to hit and when he does like

He's either hitting homers or he's getting base hits and it it's just, it's remarkable to watch night in, night out. Speaking of homers, D-Bud has a question for you, Jett. Yeah, casuals like myself were kind of enamored early on this season with the torpedo bats. Are they still a thing? Are people still knocking them out of yard? That's first question. And then secondly, are we sure about those numbers

as far as war? You sure Jackie Robinson didn't have a? Jackie Robinson, Josh have Jackie Robinson Josh Gibson yeah Jackie Jackie Robinson was awesome Jackie Robinson never put up a season like Babe Ruth and Barry Vons man sorry in in terms of the tour in terms of Jackie Robinson was the most important player in baseball history so not taking away anything. Ted Williams. Maybe United States, maybe United States. Todd VanBle. Maybe.

Anyways, in terms of torpedo bats, that's a great question. I actually dug in a little bit on that too. Looking at the Yankees opening weekend when Cody Bellinger and Anthony Bowlby and Austin Wells, you know Going a jazz chism going off and hitting home runs since then they they've been terrible Now that doesn't mean that torpedo bats don't work, you know Cal Raleigh for example, the Seattle Mariners kept it uses torpedo bat He's a switch hitter, but he uses the torpedo on the left side, been cranking home runs all over the place.

You know, Stephen Kwan with the Cleveland Guardians batting 350 right now, uses a torpedo bat. What it is, is it's more a matter of comfort for guys. Like, how are they going to find the tools that allow them to be the best baseball players? We got to get you a torpedo, Pat. I agree, because I think I'm a Torpedo Bat hitter. Sure. You are.

You would hit absolute nukes with Torpedo Pat. I felt like I broke my thumb on that jam that old buddy gave me. They just moved that thing down to here, you know, just a big skinny top there. Yep. What's that, Sal? Go on. All the way down.

Exactly. Yeah, just this area, this whole area. Just make that the Torpedo and then just thin that side out. So then I'm literally just throwing my hands at it. You know what I mean? And then that's torpedo right there. It's gone. That's what they do, right? That's what they do, right? Yeah. I mean, you were saying a lot of things there where I'm like, as a non-baseball person, I do want to understand what's going on in your conversation, but I don't fully comprehend it I thought the torpedo bats fixed baseball Why the fuck can't they hit with the torpedo bats anymore?

Why are we not I thought that was the game changer and then all the people that know baseball were like they've been around for a Long time. It's just a fat Why is it is baseball and is it like always changing like are there always like little intricacies always changing? Is there like because we've learned about all the sport and everything, you know, the stickiness the hat stuff the Traditions that we've learned about all that. Is there just always like little things changing like the ball I remember we've changed the ball now like juice balls Yeah, we spider-tack we can't have spider-tack, but we're allowed to lick and we're allowed to have rosin But if you lick the rosin at the same time can't do that and also you're going to get full body pat

Oh now we're going to have a smaller pitch clock You can only step out one time unless it's two times like there's always like a little thing I felt like the torpedo bat was the new one of those Okay, we just move the wood to where the ball is going to be Is there any more of those down the pipe and is there a chance that the torpedo bat does come back and make a run because like D-But I enjoyed thinking that they were walking out there with wiffle ball bats and they were just hitting bombs every night. It reminded me of the summer. Yeah. Yeah. The summer of bombs. The summer of... McGuire? Yep. And Sosa.

That's right. Summer steroids. Things, Pat, things are always changing in baseball. And it's one of the things that I love about it. It's that, you know, in a game where everyone has the same type of information, what they're doing is looking for these tiny little minuscule advantages, because that tiny little minuscule advantage could lead to an extra win or two, which could lead to a playoff spot, which could lead to a World Series.

And the curiosity of people inside of baseball is, to me, the best part of it. They're always looking for something, and it wasn't just torpedo bats, you know. There are guys out there with knobs on their bats that are shaped like hockey pucks and they feel like they swing better that way They're always testing and iterating and trying to figure things out. So yeah torpedo bats aren't going anywhere They're just not gonna be the thing that changes the game permanently. I mean we're in a state right now Where pitching is so far ahead of hitting because of the technology, because pitchers in the off season can go into a lab where they have these units called Trackman and Rapsodo that they track pitches and essentially tell you

down to the RPM how they're spinning, the angle at which they're spinning, how fast they're going to the tenth of a mile per hour, and pitchers going into these labs and designing new pitches to try and get swings and misses and to try and become better pitchers. And hitters just haven't had that thing to even things out. So that's why the batting average in baseball right now is below 240. That's why offense is kind average in baseball right now is below 240. That's why offense is kind of stagnant at this point. And so baseball is always looking for something to get offense better because fans want to see where it's scored. Okay. So they should let them bang on garbage cans then. And on that note, I guess with

everything you're saying, what Aaron Judge is doing right now needs to be lauded and applauded even more so. and let's talk about the pitching in the exciting pitching that we got to see firsthand AP tone is a question for you jet yeah jet let's talk about the pitcher mr. vogue mr. GQ mr. Paul skeins we all know Shohei Otani who we're just cut so nasty oh nasty he is the face of baseball Aaron judge is the face of baseball. Aaron Judge is the face of baseball. But as far as Paul Skeen's going goes

with the GQ, with the Vogue, I just saw a trailer for about his four hour warm up, which I believe is coming out of a documentary. I think you might even be involved in it. Is he the next face of baseball? And is just is there even a ceiling for Paul Skeen's at this point? And when is he leaving Pittsburgh? You know what? I hope the answer is not soon. I agree. I, I just, I want to see a team like the Pittsburgh pirates.

I want to see a fan base like the Pittsburgh pirates fan base be rewarded and get to see the brilliance that Paul Skeens brings on an every start basis and Like Skeens right now. He's just getting better Like that's the terrifying thing for hitters that this is a guy who throws six different pitches Can throw them in any count in any situation? You see the high fastball there, you saw the slider to Otani, I mean, right down the middle there and Freddie Freeman can't catch up to it. And Paul Skeens right now is finding out the kind of pitcher that he can be.

And it was interesting, after that start against the Dodgers, you know, he goes 100, I think 107, 108, 109 pitches. After that game, he talked about, I feel like I can go 140, 150. And I wrote a story about schemes a couple of weeks back where, uh, you know, I sat down with him during spring training, talked to them for like almost an hour and a half, it was great conversations and really thoughtful, interesting, intelligent guy. And, and he was telling me about the conversations that he has with players,

who he respects and how important it is to try and learn from them. And one of those was Randy Johnson. And Randy Johnson's a guy who would go and throw 140 or 150 pitches in a game. Nowadays, if a guy gets to 120, like there's panic. And I personally don't think that's right. I think there are too many restrictions placed on pitchers who are held to a standard of average when they are exceptional. Paul Skeens' body might actually be built to handle 120 plus pitches regularly, but because of the fear of injury, I don't think we're ever going

to get to find out whether that is a reality for him. And that's the problem right now with pitchers. Front offices are scared of the elbow. Front offices are scared of the shoulder. They're scared that these incredible assets that they have that bring so much value to their team are just going to get run over, like pitchers of generations past. But we have so much more knowledge right now that I think if the training is proper, if

the pitcher understands what his body is capable of doing, maybe we need to listen to him rather than hold him to some strictures that are put in place because we're obsessed with round numbers. Like, if a guy gets to 100 pitches, it's not necessarily danger zone if the guy is conditioned to throw 100 plus pitches. I love everything you're saying right now because we are a analytics are good show, but they're not necessarily the final boss or final call on everything show,

which I think is the right place to be. And I know you wrote a book, I believe you wrote a book about kids and how much they're throwing and whenever you talk about restrictions professionals yes obviously gotta have the conversation but we need to put restrictions on the younger kids because the kids as they're growing up through baseball they're the ones that are putting so much damage on their elbows and on their arms through wasted reps almost whenever they're growing up we

know because he's been on a program and told us and I think you've obviously reported this numerous times, Paul Skings didn't start pitching until what? High school or something. He was a catcher. He didn't start pitching until late. So his arm is literally kind of young in the entire pitcher baseball world,

no matter where he's at. So it's like, you look at how big he is, you look at the history of his arm. Obviously, you would think this guy could go. If he wanted to go, You should let him go. They're saving him for years like they want him to be able to throw for years. What would a successful career look like for Paul Skeen's if the saving him for the future worked, like them saving him for the future.

How many years is that of Paul Skeen's as Paul Skeen's in the MLB. Pat, the problem is that there's a fallacy that the less a guy throws, the healthier he's going to stay. That has not proven true over time. And so it's why we need to look at the individual and what he can bring as opposed to the history of, you know, all of the arms that are in graveyards everywhere. I we go back and look at guys who are like paul scenes carry wood and mark prior for example with chicago cubs they were supposed to be the ones who led the cubs to glory they got overused they got hurt didn't work out for them their careers were cut short accordingly but. But this is you know, I feel like you got to give some autonomy to the players and if Paul Skeens wants to go more then let him go like this is his career and I

Get why teams are hesitant? It's just not backed up by any data or any science and that's the frustrating part about this Paul Skeens is like the scary part with him is that he throws really hard and and there's the frustrating part about this. Paul Skeens is like the scary part with him is that he throws really hard. And there's an extreme correlation between hard throwers and elbow injuries. It almost feels like an inevitability with some guys. But there are outliers. And for me, what does a successful

Paul Skeens career look like? It's not so much the number of years he throws, it's not the number of strikeouts he has, it's not any of those counting sats. It's does he stay healthy or does he not? Because if he stays healthy, Pat, he is going to be in the Hall of Fame. He is going to be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

That's how good he is. But it's just a matter of trying to keep him healthy as best you can. And the reality is, I wrote a book called the arm I spent four years studying this researching it trying to crack it and Unfortunately at the end it was a dissatisfying conclusion I didn't know a whole lot more than I did when I started reporting the book There's just there's nothing out there at this point that anyone knows that for certain

is going to keep pitchers healthy. You're saying situations are situational. And human bodies are maybe constructed differently. And elbows are a little bit different in ligaments and torque and tear. And it's more so if it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen type thing as opposed to, hey, let's only let him pitch 60 times tonight

because he might have to pitch again in the future. And we talked to Randy Johnson, I believe, and CC, I believe. And both of them were like, I didn't wanna give up the ball because like just competitor too. Like who am I giving this ball to? You know Paul has that.

Like Paul definitely has that. So I'm excited for him to hopefully get a chance to experience that. And you said you hope he's at the Pittsburgh Pirates long-term man. It's like, we all know, dude. The whole arena knew at big night out. The whole arena knew.

Everybody in there knew. And unless that happens, we got no shot, brother. We got no, and then Michael Cole comes out and goes, you need to get a real owner like Steve Cohen up in New York and everybody booze him, but it's like, yeah, that would be what it would have to take to keep Paul Skeens in Pittsburgh. What, three years from now?

When's he due to make a decision? Two years? Oh, he's got, the Pirates still have him under control for a while because he didn't start with them in the big leagues last year. Now, he won Rookie of the Year, which gave him a full year of service. After this season, he's going to have two full years of service. You get free agency after six years.

After this year, they've got another four years left. Generally speaking, if you don't feel like you can design a guy longterm, you're probably going to trade him after that fourth season, just to try and maximize the value. You know, the difference between a one year rental and a guy that you've got for a couple of years. I hate, I hate talking about this stuff. We should not be having this. I know, I know baseball should not be the sport where a star gets built up in a small market and it feels like an inevitability that he's going to go somewhere else. And it's not always the case.

I live in Kansas City. Bobby Witt Jr. signed an 11-year, $288 million contract to stay in Kansas City. Why? Because John Sherman, the owner, stepped up and said, we are going to pay you what you're worth. And frankly, the fact that the pirates have not done that with Paul Skeens yet and there's no sign that they have any intention to do that, it's a shame. It really is.

It's a nodding difference baby. Well, nodding has learned of our program I have been told. Oh has he? I guess. I don't know. There was conversations about- Is he a big fan? Yeah. I don't think he likes it. Yeah, I know he loves it. Well normally he just reads news papers normally. That's conversations about- You a big fan? Yeah. I don't think he likes it. Yeah, I know, he loves it.

Well, normally he just reads newspapers normally. That's pretty fair, too. We talk about the Pirates. I'm pretty fair. We talk about the Pirates. Well, that's the thing about skeins too, right? It's like CC and Randy, like at least when he passes the ball on,

they're not like blowing his starts or anything. Bingo. Yeah, that bullpen, he knows what's common. Scoreless nine all against the Dodgers, so. You tell me maybe the Pirates bullpen is hot right now. That was the only game they won though, right? Yeah, I think they're not serious. Yeah.

The Dodgers are a good team. They are. The Dodgers are a good team. I saw a payroll tweet. The Miami Marlins? Yep. 40 million? Is that their number?

We fucking stink. Sounds about right. 69 million. 476 million for the Dodgers 69 million for the Marlins Rockies might be 40 million that's why no the rock I'll tell you what the Rockies are playing like a 40 million dollar team but they actually are spending I think 128 this year like they the Rockies spend money they just don't spend it well so the Rockies are on pace to be very, very, very historically terrible, right?

Worst ever. I didn't know it was that bad. Yeah. Last year we saw the most futile team in major league history. The Chicago White Sox lose a record 121 games. Their reign as the worst team in history might last one year. All right, Colorado, go get it. Go get it, Rockies.

They've got this. Beautiful ballpark. The farmer's hand. It's the right place. Might as well just be the worst instead of second to worst. Yeah. Everybody's just going to, four and 24. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

That has to be a miserable place out there in the Rockies. What is that, 50 cent tickets on Seakee? Probably yeah, Larry Walker can't you know, you know what though? I give I give credit to Rockies fans. They still show up man They're still putting 30 plus thousand people into that ballpark. How much how many? Yeah, 30,000 plus a night. There's no way that ballpark is beautiful unbelievable Yeah, 30,000 people are going to Rocky's games. They're four and 24. Yeah. I mean dollar tickets to drink ice cold beers at mile high. Yeah. Right now. There's a 31. Mounds are blue brother. Yeah. Of course. Light Stadium, right? Shout today. Sponsor Seatgeek, the greatest ticket buying platform

on planet earth and the moon. Right you use pat 30 that is pat 30 to get $30 off any type of ticket whether it's for the NBA playoffs the NHL playoffs concerts comedy maybe a Rockies game to celebrate the beautiful city of Denver and and watch a team definitely lose 4 and 24 Historically terrible start you can get a ticket to get in 14 bucks. It's also a bo-go hot dog night tonight That's a big one buy one get one and they might even add in an extra one just because you came to watch the 4 and 24 Rockies now I will say that $14 ticket you cannot utilize or the the 16, or the 19, or the $17 ones, you cannot utilize the code PAT, the number three, the number zero,

PAT30 for $30 off any of the tickets. Restrictions do apply, like for instance, if the ticket costs less than 30 bucks, it could be new or repeat purchaser with our friends at SeatGeek. Over 30 million downloads now. Wow. You're at 28 million.

That's good growth. Good growth out of SeatGeek. Can you get Savannah banana tickets on there? 81,000 down there at Clemson, watch the bananas do their thing. Watch them before the Rockies. I saw it. I think I would too.

And the Pirates. The Marlins. And the rest. I saw, did you see the second at bat? Hit it the length of a football field, outfielder. Has it, has it, punches it up in the sky with the glove. Takes off the hat, catches the ball in the hat. Flips it up, puts it in his hand, throws it back.

They're the real deal. It's entertaining basically. That's in front of 81,000 plus. That's the first inning. Wow. Think about the Moxie. Think about the Moxie on that. Show me.

Jed Hazel. Absolute showman. Have you been to Savannah Bananas and are any of them going to get signed to the MLB before playoffs? They better. Still Sky. What?

Still Sky. No. Still Sky. Still Sky throw down. They are, I believe for the most part, like they were good college players, but if they were great, they would probably be with an organization at this point. Okay, so what is the baseball thoughts of the Savannah Banana business? Because I'll say this, great business. 81,000 people watching them play baseball. Pat, if anybody inside of the baseball industry

is hating on the Savannah bananas, they're wrong. They're absolutely wrong. I don't, just because it's not major league baseball, just because it's not, you know, playing to win necessarily, doesn't mean it's not great. They're not packing stadiums if it's not fun and if people don't love it. And frankly, anything that brings people to baseball,

even if it's a different brand of baseball or a different style of baseball, I'm all for it. Love what the Bananas are doing and love the passion that they have from their fans. I mean, it's impressive what they do and the way that they are able to pack these big league ballparks and in some cases, football stadiums.

Well, in this case, Clemson, 81,000, so many people, that's their biggest house that they've had thus far. Is this it? No, it's the top of the ninth. They are. Do these umps get called up? This dump behind the plate. That's a big out.

That's a huge out right there in the top of the ninth. What a play. What a play up there, road 25. Yeah. Legit, you can't be hitting that foul ball into a place where it looks like there's some athletes out there. Snag, how you doing? That's an out, see ya.

They're definitely playing to win. Yeah, you think spongebob's a loser? Party animals are. Party animals don't go around. No, the bananas are playing to win. This is the top of the ninth. Do they switch teams or they're always on the same team? Always on the same team.

You think Hoseley's gonna to put on a party animals joke? What a pitch. What was that right there? That was curveball? Yeah, a little slide piece. What was that? Another slider. OK, so this is his pitch.

The slider is his pitch. He's junk baller. He's feeling it. He was college pitcher that probably did well, but wasn't MLB speed. Three straight pitch. Wow. I'm nasty. What a dog.

We have the hat catch too from the outfielder. I mean this is the second at bat. You think about maybe a little bit of nerves. Sure. A little bit of oh no. I don't want to mess up. This guy's backpedaling in the middle of the sun in front of 81,000. Big shot.

Big shot. Length of the football field. Couldn't hit in the worst spot. Oh, field. Yeah Right. Yeah good spot there. Yeah big time. Yeah Who's winning the World Series Red Sox? Not the Red Sox come on, But the American league is wide open right? Of course. And Connor can I say something?

They're doing it. Connor you look good today man. I'm digging the jersey. I sound so bad. But thank you. You might sound bad but it's a good look for you right now. Thanks brother. And look the socks are playing some ball this year.

Christian Campbell is the real deal. Alex Bregman has been absolutely fantastic. They need some pitching, but I agree with those odds. To me right now, it's still the Dodgers. And look, they are banged up. Blake Snell, $182 million signing on the injured list right now. Tyler Glass now, signed $136.5 million extension

when he got traded there on the injured list now. Oht now, $136.5 million extension when he got traded there on the injured list now. Otani still not pitching. They've got Yamamoto in the rotation, Roki Sasaki and Dustin May. But this is what the Dodgers do, Pat. They value depth so much to the point where they have Tony Gonsolin who hasn't pitched since 2023 because of an injury finally coming back this week. They have Ben Kasparis, the guy who was in the bullpen, up to 99 when coming in after Tyler Glasnow came out of the game. He could be in the rotation, they could go with Landon Mack, they could go with Justin

Rubellsky. They just got so much depth that even when they have a dozen pitchers on the injured list, they still have guys who are better than most teams pitchers. And it's that depth, I think, that at the end of the day is gonna carry the Dodgers. No pirates on her. I thought that's on bottom right.

Yeah, it's a pirate. I haven't looked twice. Of course. Pirates beat the... Pirates just dominate the Dodgers though, so. Beat Dodgers run through the Cubs no problem Cubs have actually had quite the start Yeah, wait till they see the Paul schemes training the hundo boys Yeah, you know they're hanging in touch. Coach is getting after its big pitchers duel tonight Actually Mikey Managa against Andrew Heaney and that's the teams they play for our Buccos the Cubs he's actually got a 1.9. You're

He's fucking been dealing dude, hey schemes has the Cubs number that's one of the only teams he got to play twice last Year, I think if I recall from talking to Paul skeins He got to play the do he got to play the Cubs twice because it was one of the first series he had Whenever he got in then he had you guys late and he talked about how he remembered how batters were the first the second time that he got a chance to go against him that's why whenever he's taking on Shohei I don't know if that's the first time he's taking on Shohei but like Paul Skeens is like calculating in there on Shohei and I'm assuming he's doing the same thing to Paul we need them in the offseason just to do a one-on-one. Who's Shohei and Skeens?

Yeah, just give them a stadium. Against you? They've had a pretty good, Shohei took him deep last year. After a short. He obviously, he fared much better this year in his first start against them. Would they ever both be full go in the off season?

I know their off season is so short, but would they ever both have a day where it's like, I'm doing a full hitting workout today and Paul schemes would be doing a full pitching workout that day 100% yes Paul schemes takes off three weeks in the offseason and just does nothing doesn't touch away Nothing like that three weeks down and then he's back after it. We're doing it. So yeah, gotta make that happen. In Japan.

A hundred pitches. It'll be, I don't know, what is the normal workout? How many pitches does he normally do? Depends if he's throwing a bullpen. Like a typical bullpen session's like 30, 35 pitches. Boom, 30, 35. But if he's working on something, you know. Give him a metal bat too.

Shohei, get him a metal bat. Let's get 30. Yeah, and skeins will be behind the L the L the net and schemes are pitched on the edge I like where we're at in the brainstorm. I don't want to bring an umbrella, but let's make sure we're letting the boys be the boys here Let's get a gorilla out there, too. Okay? How do you feel how do you feel jet about the gorilla? You know we could have the gorilla sure why not You know, we could add the gorilla. Sure. Why not? You don't know. No, I don't know. What's the gorilla?

Well, it's it's it's it's got a problem. It's 100 dudes from my perspective. Oh, the 100 guys versus the one gorilla. Yeah. Oh, the gorilla loses against the high. Let's go. You get it. Yeah. That's it. Us on three. Us on three. Humans. One, two, three. Us.

Humans. Us. Humans. To be clear, I didn't know what to say. All right. We appreciate you, man. Ladies and gentlemen, senior baseball insider for ESPN and pundit,

Jett Passant. Hey, baby. Jett. Hey. I like when we talk baseball with Jett.hmm get like my update know what's going on Check in quarterly if I just so happen to be scrolling or see something on late night Oh the Yankees are playing sweet Aaron judge is batting better than any human in history of baseball at any level He's got t-ball like average right now

Batting in the big leagues when everybody else stinks because the pitchers are so good Maybe I should check out a Yankees game. Oh, we're at a different part of the order though Aaron judges and hitting for two more fucking hours. That is what it feels like Doesn't if you accidentally get there right after right after he went like all right I guess I got another hour and a half until the big guy of a break in baseball Right now though you have your your opening a few weeks where we're all super excited Then the NBA and it should have their playoffs and then you know then baseball seeding kickback Yeah tonight big night for both leagues actually con man. Go ahead. Yeah, here's for NBA. It's kind of the three one night bucks can

Sorry, the Pacers can close out the Bucs. That's at six the Knicks can close out the Pistons Celtics can close out the Magic and then Clippers Nuggets 2-2 Kind of the game of the night and of course it starts at 10 o'clock So probably see most of that game tomorrow, but Bucks Pacers Magic Celtics on NBA TV Unfortunately, well, yeah, they have four or five You know and had a chance to be on late night the other night and it was fun to watch Yep, Pacers are electrifying whenever they get on to national television. Hopefully after this series you should check them out Yeah, they have to win too because the Cavs already won

They're already through kind of get some rest and make sure the Cavs don't rest too much Same for the Pistons Knicks and Celtics magic is winner of those two series play each other. John, the brush healthy Who knows? Yeah, oh, he's definitely playing it. Yeah, he'll get banged up and then Magic is winner of those two series play each other. Jalen Brunson healthy? Never. Who knows? Well, is he playing? Yeah, oh, he's definitely playing. He'll get banged up, and then he'll get a new ankle in the locker room,

and then he'll be fine. Jalen's a dog. Jalen Brunson is a dog. Big body Brunson. That next game was legit. Sorry, that Warriors game last night, I didn't plan on it. I stayed up to the whole thing, watched it all, because I was hoping I'd see like a bench clearing brawl eventually.

This game was very chippy all night. It was awesome. I love that Houston and Golden State are getting going and I think Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green on the same team, we assume it'll get chippy in- Yeah, Dylan Brooks. Yeah, Dylan Brooks. I mean they play, Steph has to work so hard. Steph has every guy in the arena guarding him every single play.

Like it's unreal how much this guy has to get up, like to work just to get open. His cardio is a part that doesn't get talked about a lot. And I love the atmosphere. I like the NBA playoff games whenever they're good. I don't love when the Miami Heat are playing playoff. Well, we don't have to worry about that anymore. They got out in the way for the Panthers. Yeah, they did. Good on them. What's going on down there? Pat Rollie don't know bull. They got out of the way for the Panthers. Yeah. Good on them. What's going on down there? Pat Riley don't know bull.

He's out of town apparently. Riley's got a lot to figure out. You guys are moving on from Riley? No. I think he's earned the right to step away when he's ready to step away. And he's building a new team because I think Bam said they have a lot of new faces. He knows how the guy with the white hair operates so he expects a ton of changes this off season. There are some big fish potentially out there, Greek Freak, KD, so hopefully.

Luke Garza? Oh, is he available? They're not letting him. I mean, no, but if you guys put together a decent package for him, I'm sure you might be able to bite. We have 25 there, right, against Lakers? We can't give up enough to get him. I'll tell you, that Lakersakers team gotta be exhausted. Yeah, how many games in a season?

Okay, so we got those done Everybody start I assume sure beat up joints We got a lot of ice backs rack wrapped around knees and ankles and everything like that Traveling to overnights back-to-backs different cities You know got to move Midseason find a place Los Angeles brand new spot moving stinks, and then you get into the playoffs. It's like hey everything's cross 40 40 plus years old you know who else played the entire second half who's that and Edwards he looked tired He should he did he looked awesome. He's young boys fun to watch. Yeah. He is very fun to watch. I hope they become like a very good team too. Yeah. Just because Ant is uh, he's old school. Yeah.

He is an old school player and does not care like that is who he is. There's clips of him talking to President Obama. You know telling him he needs to recognize basically what's going on here in front of him. I mean it is an awesome amount of confidence, cockiness, arrogance, and then showing up. And that's good for the NBA. That is good for the NBA. All characters welcome, especially if you're going to be great at what you do. I'm worried about the Lakers. I'm worried about the Lakers. I'm worried about them. I think this one's gonna be a tough one. Yeah, they better start hot. And I think they could. I think they could. Could. You're a hater though. Reeves got a... Foxy, he's a... I am. Tones notoriously. Yeah, if any of these teams that are down 3-1

could come back, it's going to be the Los Angeles Lakers. We all know LeBron's gonna be the one that's gonna do it. What's going on with the Pistons? Nick, you guys still mad? Well, yeah, I mean, we're over it at this point. We're in New York tonight. So let's assume that these refs are going to close it out. Gentlemen, sweet. But I mean, the Pistons, they're the youngest team in the league, Cade Cunningham, young superstar.

They'll be okay next year and then they'll get better and better. Why is he so down? And why do you say the refs are going to win the game tonight? I'm okay because the Pistons last year won 14 games, the first team in NBA history to triple their wins in a season. So this season was a bit of a surprise to everyone. So they made it to the dance, they've learned some lessons and we're just going to build on this one.

This is the Lions of a few years ago. Bingo, exactly. So now this is the expectation of the Pistons. Yes, exactly. You guys had a coach, you paid the coach, the most money in the history moved on from the coach now You're in the playoffs. Yeah, we're in the playoffs and we actually hired the Cavs old coach And so he's done a fantastic job and then it's weird because the Cavs hire a new coach and they've done a fantastic job That's a sick NBA is just weird. So you guys just fight people, right? Yeah, we're literally we're back to the bad boys Pistons

The 04 Pistons and now we got this new generation of fighters and this has been a big problem in the series beef stew our Fiercest guy has been out the whole time with injuries Need beef stew. Yeah, they beef stew. How about how about uh, Nick's fans? Are there any Nick's fans back there? How do you feel about the toughness your team has shown fighting the mighty mighty Detroit Pistons? I know it was a great test to sort of survive the physicality. The Knicks are sort of at a different place in their build. Obviously, they were third this year, 51 wins, that's great. But didn't really have a signature win.

So going into the playoffs, it was hard to really believe that we were a true bona fide contender that could take down the Celtics or the Cavaliers. Or. In seven games. But no, Brunson is an elite playoff riser. He's the clutchest player in the NBA and behind him and anything's possible. If you're down 12 in the fourth and he just rattles off eight straight, you're back in every game.

Yeah, but what about the refs on your guys' side? Foxy's been telling me the refs are on your guys. You still have that clip, Foxy? Yeah, actually, I think I did. Yeah, pod that up. So- Pod that up, pod that up. Yeah, on the rebound, you'll actually see Tobias

Harris foul Josh hard and then step out of bounds before passing the ball to Tim Hardaway. So if we want to, if we want to go, if we want to go back through it, that's the footage. Foul out of bounds. He's out of bounds and passes the ball to Hardaway. Let me reiterate, this goes back to the Mickey Moss New Yorkers. That's what you're saying. Hold on, hold on, Foxy. Go back, go back.

Bruce, you're saying it should have been blown down. Josh Hart's fouled. Go box. Where? The box out was kind of weird. Right there. And then Harris is out of bounds. Ball goes to Hardaway.

There's got to be a better. That was a double-handed shove underneath. I don't know if they'd call it. And then you're saying he's touching ball while sitting out of bounds Yeah, no, I'm just talking about you know missed calls So you could go back and say they were probably cause that's not a this is what we're dealing with right now boys This is exactly what we've been dealing with Bruce said that if the refs were

Normal if they were just straight up and keep in mind the Pistons got screwed But if the refs were normal that the Knicks would have won every game by 30 points Yeah, I love the fact that coaches are saying it's bullshit. I think JJ came out and said it I think other teams coaches have come out and said it the NBA is currently in the middle of a people Kind of being done not saying that these refs are making some decisions LeBron came out. Mm-hmm thought the hand was the ball I don't know. He told me he thought the hand was the ball. They said well the thumb is technically a part of the wrist up

at the top of it. When does the wrist become hand and hand become wrist? That's new to me. I've been using that hand part of the ball for 30 plus years at LA Fitness. Hands part of the ball. Hey, to break to you. Well, you hit me right here on my wrist Touch the ball your hands touch your wrist. So if I got you in a forum, I don't understand what you're saying But wrist kind of is the transition process in the hand there. Sorry. That was a big call you This was a huge Lakers getting ball going out. Yeah instead Lakers getting ball down three after aunt makes two shots They would have been down one. Oh, we need to lay up and let's assume that guy at the bottom 77 would have made something he is so good at basketball still not defense aside people don't give him a lot of positive vibes they're playing the whole half exactly they go they're playing a

whole half we want to smack the wood make excuses for sure yeah 77 yeah or anybody that don't play on the other side of the court It was a couple times. He's cash He said I'm not gonna stop this guy If I was to really good Don't move dude Live with that if he hits a three at the other end of the court he's gonna score 40 It's all good exactly if you're expecting him to play the entire half every once in a while. There's gonna be a alright. Yeah, okay

It's also just a group of people it should to say that Nico Collins might have been right. It's always name What is it yeah, whatever he was wrong, you know We won't you could have got nine first round picks for Luca Mikael bridges went for what Bruce five five first Rudy go pretty yeah, you could have gotten nine first round picks for Luca We don't know the only people I got more than you got the only people I knew about it was Shawn's Yeah, they would have told other people that it was potentially Available maybe shop that don't do this. No not don't do this. But also somebody will came around What are they giving you Anthony Davidson, huh? Shit? We'll trade our whole team for him. You've got a percentage of this

Yeah, you guys own two teams now congratulations Down three one Luca and LeBron come back in the first round. That's 1100. Come on. Wait a minute. AJ, what do you think? I would I wouldn't count him out. That's for sure. I'll be watching. He will be watching. I'll be tuned in. I've watched more basketball than I have in the bike. Definitely in the last five years, I've watched more recently. It's been like it's been legit fun even if I don't really care about the two teams playing. Yeah, it's just on. There's nothing. What is on? it is on. So I start watching.

They play hard, man. Like these dudes play super hard, super physical. And there's gonna be a highlight at some point in the first 30 seconds of me watching. There's gonna be something that'll captivate me. And then it's not bad for background too, if you're scrolling or doing anything else in your life, good sound.

Whenever there's obviously something big, good replays coming, you can check it. It has been a good watch, I agree. Late night though, late, late, late. They didn't play late. I mean the only good game tonight's at 10. And I say that all the games good. Those Clippers Nuggets games have been unbelievable.

Clippers Nuggets tonight, 10 p.m. Eastern, on TNT and TruTV, the home of impractical jokers and lizard-lick towing. Impractical jokers still bringing-lick towing. Yeah. Hmm. Impractical jokers still bringing it? Jokers going on still? No, they brought it too hard. Okay.

What does that mean? The impractical jokers were on every single 30 minutes on True TV, I think they're from. Yes. And then what was the lizard-lick towing? They had their run? Yep. And then there was, what else was over there? They do a lot of jobs's a low wasn't JLo part of this show. She produced it or something like

Yeah, she she knew stars. She knew stars immediately if she had if she thinks she was she had a golden eye for talent I think she would have wanted to get on board with this for sure was live PD on true TV My PD had a little bit of a run things in my neighborhood. What's the F is what would you do? Come on. Sorry, what would you do is on ABC? That's a great show. That's a great show.

I like those shows. Hey, that's real scene in there. Yeah, there's some really put some people in some real pickles. Hey, let's see what that human you are real quick. 45 cameras. You're the bad human. If you're you end up being the bad human and not you know doing the right thing You don't want don't sign that waiver. Don't let them show that don't marry that episode

Yeah, let them blur your face if they have to do you need you need to get you need to survive that one yeah, I mean that is a What a spot but also good human yeah, yeah a lot of good humans on there. Mm-hmm does bring you a little bit of hope What was I watching last night? There was something? Oh, yeah a lot of good humans on there. Mm-hmm. That's bringing a little bit of hope. What was I watching last night? There was something Oh, yeah, brah breaker Spearing Sammy's a half. Yeah They should feel good with Sam so paint that makes you feel good I say it's real good Sammy could have just want to smack down a chance at the title good

He said no, I'm not running from anything respect. Yeah, teach him a lesson. I think Bronco go one-on-one With the gorilla, yeah, I thought about that last night when I seen town I'm like what if we got 40 of him? Yeah, you know Yeah, there aren't 40 of him right big pop a pump offered me some help for my match against good there I was all that take it. I Want to let him know I don't think I got enough time I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. I would say. Today tomorrow's a big one too more GM's. Yeah, huge day more GM's tomorrow AJ will actually say hashtag Cuz you can't really do the apostrophe there who would be yeah And the hashtag who will it be any clothes? We won't give me clothes General Andrews of football teams. Yeah

That's good call We've said to me already tinger are young see now you're doing the whole What's it rhyme with Huh? What's it rhyme with their name? Lanager owner, it's two GM's that weren't today's GM's Hashtag who will they be? Get them both right. Ooh.

You want some free merch. Boom. A Subway gift card from me. Holy shit. Wow. Sweet in the butt. Okay. Slow down.

He's got one last week for Easter. Oh. Oh. It's got 50 cents on it. Could not wait to re-gift that. Slow down got one last week for Easter Could not wait to read this is first opportunity he saw to read it Some free merch and a Subway gift card that's at least 30 bucks. He's 25 30 buck. You might have used it 25 bucks. Yeah 25 so yeah, I have used any of it? No.

Don't want to. Because they don't have $5 full-longs. No, they don't. They have completely changed their business model, which I don't love. Well, they kind of had to. Had to pivot. They had to pivot.

Yes, they did. All right, we'll see you tomorrow. Tomorrow's a big day. Hashtag, who will they be? If you get both of the general managers correctly, you will be automatically put into a pile of people to be randomly selected to win some of our merch and one lucky winner randomly selected will win a subway gift card from our friend one half of the hammer done cowboys ap tone you all are the greatest people on earth thank you for allowing

us to do this for a living aj great work great work today. Boys in the back, great work. Boxing table, yeah. Way to battle, way to keep battling over there. There you go, battle. Tom, good job today. Thanks, you too. Look at you showcasing the philanthropical side. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Philanthropic tone. Donating back a gift that you got just a week ago.

I was inspired by your promo last night, talking about how much you give back. So there we go Oh, you don't see it every day, but Was cool seeing those lacrosse kids How sweet was that that was dope that was really cool I got me choked up. Yeah. Thank you Pat Thank you Pat. No problem. Lucky to do it now Pat Kavanaugh, you know, obviously a little bit of slice of dice and Liam Entenman Liam Entenman. Liam Entenman. I knew his last name was Entenman because cookies, I forgot.

Liam, I apologize, like best goalie in the world or whatever the case is. That was an awesome thing to watch. I see some future dogs with some sticks in their hands. I'll tell you what, lacrosse is a sport. Lacrosse is a sport. Physicality, got to be fast. Obviously a lot of strategy. I think it bodes well for the American athlete. I

think great schools that's why everybody says it could be future future future sport because I think that our country would do good at it if more people played it ain't that right Conrad? Yeah no doubt and it's in the Olympics now so hopefully that does kind of bring some more eyes give you more of a path and reason to play. They all said thanks Pat which, which was cool. One of them had one microphone and the kid just screamed in it. I like that kid's mom. He's probably a long sticker.

Probably a captain, yeah. Yeah, probably got a seal on his chest. No problem at all, lucky to be a part of it. And yeah, it feels like, you know, if you tell people that you give back, people say, well, you sound like you're, why'd you even give back to begin with? It's like, well, maybe I could inspire other people to want to give back, you know, like this is available.

You can do this. You can give 600 lacrosse sticks to kids around the city of New York City and I assume many other places and hopefully spur a dream or spur an opportunity or introduce a game or a sport that could change a life forever. You can do this and we're lucky that we get to be a part of so many cool things and the only reason it is because people like you watch us and we will see you tomorrow we got a big one be a friend tell a friend something nice it might change their life we're in this thing together team on me team on three one two three day rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a kingmaker. He had wealth, fame, and power.

What's up, welcome to New York! Until it all came crashing down. Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. I'm Brian Buckmeyer, an ABC News legal contributor. As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall, and what could be next. Listen to Bad Rap, the case against Diddy, a new series from ABC Audio.

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Brad Milky. You may know me as the host of ABC Audio's Daily News podcast, Start Here, but I'd like to add aspiring true crime expert to my resume. And here's how I'm gonna make it happen. Every week, I'm gonna unpack the biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about. ABC's got some unique access here.

So I'll talk to the reporters and producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years. We're bringing the latest developments and the larger context on the true crime stories you've been hearing about. Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best.