The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1435 - Watt Wednesday, In the Trenches with AQ Shipley, Everything DB with Darius Butler, Shams Charania, Stanford Steve, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

On today’s show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys wrap up week 7 of the NFL as AQ gives his biggest takeaway’s, and his top five offensive lines of the week as we go In the Trenches, while Darius Butler goes through the best and worst defensive back play of the week in Everything DB. Joining the progrum to chat about last night’s electric start to the NBA season as well as a LeBron James injury update and to preview tonight’s games is ESPN Senior NBA Insider, Shams Charania. Joining the progrum to chat about what he noticed throughout the NFL this week and preview his game next week is future Hall of Famer and current color commentator for the NFL on CBS, JJ Watt. Later, ESPN legend, College GameDay stalwart, co-host of SVPod, STANFORD STEVE joins the show to preview this weekend’s college football slate. 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 of the Bo, the Thunderdown. On this watch Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025. This program begins now. Football! It is magical, and we're lucky to talk about it every single day, but I'll tell you what, the NBA brought it last night, the NHL brought it last night, the MLB is obviously cooking with fire, and we're about a little bit over 24 hours away from week eight of the NFL season kicking off. We're in the middle of a great time for you live.

We're appreciative of the fact that we get to do this. We'll have Sharm Sharania joining us in about 15 minutes or so. Can't wait to catch up with him about all the NBA stuff that we need to know after an exhilarating start for the association yesterday. I mean, they had a double overtime thriller and then into the late, late night. They had Steph Curry and Luca putting on a show. Now, granted, that Lakers team certainly looks a certain way without LeBron James on that particular court. But Luca looks a little different too.

40 plus points, obviously one rebound or assist or forget away from a triple double. And they look great. but Hymie Butler and Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors appear to be the real deal. But nobody, and I mean nobody appears to be able to topple this Oklahoma City team and what SGA was able to do in that first game. This whole Houston Rockets with Kevin Durant dynamic is certainly awesome. And I love the fact that Kevin Durant gets to experience a new city

and do a new thing with a new team and earn his rank. He's still an absolute dog. They got big Turk on their team too. They got this big Turkish fella. Sengun. Sengu. San Diego. Big Turk, I'm sorry. Buller. This guy's an absolute baller.

Houston Rockets are a good team. Young team, they get Kevin Durand. He's obviously a weapon. They're going to be good this year. They losing a heartbreaker to this Oklahoma City team. And at one point during this game, Alex Caruso, yes, that guy you're talking about, tried to go over top of three dudes in overtime. Okay, in a two-point game, Caruso's going for it. They all got maximum confidence over there because they obviously just won the title. The Dorcher Chamber is still locked down.

and an SGA can get a bucket whenever he has to. The NBA had a hot start. They got a lot of games today. We appreciate them doing that. And then in the NHL, there was a magical moment up there in Boston. Now, we'll obviously chit-chat about that in a matter of moments. We have a 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion, player coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jackie Moon of the NFL, if you will, ladies and a gentleman, Akewish.

Yay, Q! How you doing, Akewsh? Great boys. You're a big NBA guy. I know you were all excited and jacked up. You've always been a big time Jordan's Bear and LeBron guy since. the beginning of time, and since the beginning of that conversation started becoming a daily conversation on sports television channels all over the world. Last night, he debuted his commentating stuff.

Now, that was alongside an entire NBC package that I think did a fantastic job in the rollout. It felt big. Talks the tables here at Boston Corner, at Ty Schmidt. Ty, Torrico's voice on it makes it feel big. And then Maria Taylor is obviously synonymous with massive moments. She comes from, like, College Game Day. Now she's on Sunday night football, football night in America host. She feels like she's a part of something big.

Then you got Mello up there. You got T-Mack up there. You got Vince Carter up there. And in the booth, you got, hey, Crawford. Man, he's good on the mic. Torrico calling this thing. And then obviously, Reggie Miller, who's been on a call for games like the last 30 years, it was like NBC really did well last night.

I thought, and that was a big takeaway, I think, from a lot of the sports community after watching last. Yeah, without a doubt, I think, you know, like for me who, like, I'm a casual NBA fan, I will watch the games. but like the actual double overtime game to start, like that was just the cherry on top because if you remember, like when we were younger, like I had so much nostalgia and like deja vu almost watching that NBC intro last night. Like I was eight years old on my couch watching the Bulls again. Like it was nuts. And then yeah, just everything down to like the scorebug, every little detail.

And that could just be because it's something new. We're not quite used to it or used to the previous stuff on ESPN and ABC and all that kind of stuff. But, yeah, Turner, exactly. But, like, it just, everything about it felt like they gave attention to detail. And the cast is incredible. And it was only the first night. Like, I think we can assume that, okay, hey, this is a great launch. These guys are going to get much more comfortable and much better throughout the course of the year.

Nine-year NFL vet, D. Butler, you're good to see you, Dee Lodge. Your thoughts on the coverage on NBC. I like, obviously, Bannan, give me, give me the ball, because I'm going to talk it. Yeah. Love that. Yeah, I'm right there with time. As far as that being nostalgic, I remember watching the Bulls game

and my big brother Mitch forcing me to watch the intros and that Bulls music, but I obviously wasn't the Bulls last night, but that game was great, came down to the wire. I probably want to take back some of my tweets. I won't delete them because I'm not a bitch-made cat. But, you know, I was a mark riding along some of the bets because that is one of the most exciting parts about the NBA two betting alongside it as well.

But the Star showed up. You mentioned SGA, just stepping up in the MVP. coming off the title run. You're always wondering about these teams. How will they show up to start the season? We saw the banner night. We saw the ring. And it was no doubt he was going to make that shot.

That's just what he does with that shoulder to shimmy. You mentioned Shingoon, absolute dog. They were calling Baby Joker a couple years ago, and he showed why pretty much their best point guard right now, great lineup. But the Thunder got it done. That attempted dunk from Caruso is absolutely electric. So there's the Oklahoma City or down to.

Kevin Durant obviously had an opportunity to put them up three. He missed a free throw. If he would have made that free throw, I think SGA makes a three instead of a mid-range. Then it goes to overtime after SGA makes a shot. That was one of the most matter of fact shots that we've seen in some time. SGA has the ball dribbling down. He's in the paint. He's mid-range. That's definitely

falling. They go to overtime. Overtime gets electrifying. We mentioned Caruso trying to absolutely yo-yam in this entirety. But all of overtime was pretty... There was a couple like five-point leads, and then they would come crawling back. This thing would end up going to double overtime to kick off the entire NBA season, to kick off the brand new relationship or

re-relationship with NBC. I think Adam Silver was out there like, yeah, it's more ball. They did have to make a decision, though. They put the Lakers in Golden State. Okay, so you're putting Luca and Steph Curry on Peacock only. Okay, so I thought to myself, like, ooh, if this goes to, what will they end up doing? We get over to the Lakers' Golden State game. It's like 32, 31 already. And I think to myself, this actually worked out for them perfectly. We got through the first, like, bullshit, let's figure out who we are as a team game of the NBA and we got right into it it was almost like a better setup for them when that could have been a problem Michael Jordan you know sits down with Michael Terrico I don't think

that's what I thought was going to happen no definitely not I think I didn't think that was it now granted we got Michael Jordan yeah love that we got Michael Jordan he says paying for he's giving back to the game you know that's what this is all about and everything like that he sit down with Torrico I and it's my dumb brain and maybe because I'm too simple I thought he was going to be Wayne Gretzky up her. I thought there was a chance we were going to see him in studio. That's not you being dumb because that was the bill of goods that we were certainly sold for a while there.

I feel like it was only on Sunday night football when they first introduced this that it was like, oh, actually, never mind. This is what he's going to be doing. He's not going to be doing any of the studio stuff. Yeah, it's insights, excellence. He's just sitting down with Rika, Diner at the Crip. They're just kind of having a little conversation going to go through some stuff, which is obviously great to get more content from Michael Jordan.

Anytime you get in Michael Jordan talk, it's great. But that's why I was excited for him live in real time. So on that note, does that change the way you view anything after last night? Or did you feel like to sit down with Michael Jordan, especially in his long-form interview style, which Tariko, we think, is incredibly talented. Tariko's on the Olympics. Tariko's on Sunday night football. Tariko on an NBA game is going to feel big. Awesome.

And congrats at Tariko. Yeah. King, it feels big whenever he's on it. Nance feels big. Yep. Our Michaels feels big whenever he's on the call. Michael Cole, you know, when he's on the call. Always.

Bingo. It feels very big. Who else? Buck. Buck is on the call. It's big. Let's see. Anybody who are missing, we do apologize.

Oh, McQuate. Fowler, Fowler, Fowler. Fowler. Furby. McQuid. Well, herby's not a... He's got, you know... He's not play-by-play.

Sure, but yeah, you're right. So I'm talking play-by-play only. Not color comments. Please, we are not... No, yeah. Okay, I don't even want to get into that. Everybody that does it, we are big fans of, okay, except for some people that aren't fans of, you know,

whoever. But Michael Jordan last night. Was that a big deal for you as a diehard Jordan guy to be able to see him just do something with the common game, with the live game? It was good to see him, but I was with Ty. I thought he was going to be on the desk. I thought he was going to be like you said like he was going to be Gretzky, give some analyst. But I will say, when you think of NBC basketball, all I hear is Alan Parsons project. Six, six, from the University of North Carolina.

All right, and that's the moment. They showed the intros last night, too. My Michael! Yeah, they were crazy. Yeah, they, the marketing, the branding was good behind that. Was that, who was the GM that you, oh, you Bulls fans hated? Cross. Cross, was that him directing all that?

Was that him piecing that whole thing? Probably. Yeah, he is. He should get a little bit more credit to this guy. He's also the pregame activity. What's going on, comment? Well, like, it sucks that it was only three minutes, okay? Three and a half minutes, for sure, it blows.

But, like, I was locked in on that three and a half of the entire time. although the first one was just kind of generalizing, hey, this is what I'm going to be doing. When they do ask them about specific players and stuff like that, and they do throw in the little three-minute clip, still definitely disappointed. But that three minutes is going to be talked about no matter what, because what he says about a Sangoon or about a SGA,

about Katie, when they get to a Lakers primetime game that's actually in L.A., and they're talking about LeBron, and you really do get unfiltered MJ on LeBron with Tariko. Like, that's going to be incredible. And the logo, too, not sure if you notice on the logo, the little VI on the bottom being golden highlighted for the six championships in the MJ inside. Oh, the details.

It's a nice little touch. NBC's kind of hitting all the little details. Yeah, I'll be excited to see what their coverage is. Yeah, that is. That's very nice. I didn't either. Wow, that's a minisides of the excellence. Yeah, there's a little bit of the difference.

Now, the sit-down interviews will be captivating. He told the story about Airbnb, you know, shooting a free throw. In front of the kids, hand-touch ball fell a lot of pressure when everyone goes through. He feels good. Tarika goes, did you make it? Yes, brother. He was nervous, though. Yes, brother.

But I do like the fact that he felt a little alive. You know, I think that's why the whole gambling on golf thing happens. Because these guys are in these biggest moments. I mean, you think of Michael Jordan. You think of all the big moments. We're doing all the shit all the time. Think about an entire arena. The entire league is on your back.

Everything. is on your back at that point, the amount of pressure and exhilaration that you have to feel whenever that shit falls, okay? So now that's a dragon, okay, and that thing's out there. How do you feel that? Well, this putt needs to be worth $150,000. Yeah. This, this three foot, like chasing that thrill, I assume was what maybe started him into that particular world. And then nowadays, it just seems like it's status quo to learn, like my thoughts are Michael Jordan is competing on a golf course right now. He's obviously taking over business. And the fact that We're getting a sit-down interview with him that was already recorded.

Are they going to update this thing at least? That's what I'm worried about. Can we get some updated, Tarek? Hold on. Tarique, we need you to travel down there. We need that to happen each week. So are we thinking this is just one long interview? They're going to just microdose throughout this.

I think we're getting episodes, brother. I think last night was episode one of podcast. So, like, we will get, you know, like him talking about, like, LeBron at some point, but I don't think it's going to be topical as to what is actually, like. We don't know this. We don't know. But my impression from last night was Tariko went down to his house before the season started during the summer, sat with him for two and a half hours, and they're going to cut that up into little splices throughout the course of the season. Yeah, but just like the Roman numeral six at the bottom, they always keep us guessing.

I agree. I hope so. We thought he was going to be on the desk. Well, we got this. We got the six. We got that. We're all excited. We're all into it.

We're all listening. And I do appreciate him saying he felt obligated to give back to the game. At this stage, why is he choosing to do it now? I think you have given back to the game. I mean, we're all wearing it. Yeah, basically You've given back You've given back a lot

Your name and your dunking Has really changed everything But yeah, I'm excited for it I thought he was on the desk though I felt like a mark Whenever I saw him That's what I thought When I saw him sitting down at his house

Yeah How fucking stupid am I Like he's gonna be Go to Oklahoma City And stand on the court tonight Before the game What a moron That's what I was doing

That's what I was doing That's what I did too That might just be the first one I was so embarrassed by myself I know I was hard to look at it was hard to look at You Annie you know the business What if Michael Jordan

Oh yeah he's gonna go down there It spent his whole night Oklahoma City yeah I bet he will Fucking idiot Why do we think I don't know I have no idea

And it seems so simple now Looking back on it It's like Of course he wasn't Gonna go down there Why would you Yeah they They rolled out the red carpet

and came to him of course. Why would he? He just got done. Yeah, exactly. Oh, yeah. Just got done. You know? He could have done opening night. Yeah, okay. I don't think he's going to any arena. It's like, if they do a doubleheader on NBC and then maybe, you know, they're just doing studio show, maybe he pops into the studio show. Maybe last night they won from Oklahoma City because it was like first game.

Let's go ahead and be live from here. Maybe it will be a studio like Football Night in America with a couple of people spread out because you start looking at the lineup of all the I don't want to say the cast of characters, but you get what I'm saying here. A lot of people for NBC, Amazon Prime's got... So many. They got a lot of legends working over there.

I'll be excited to see how they kind of disperse everything that they got going on. But it feels like the new rights deal that Adam Silver has negotiated with all these different platforms is going to provide a lot of opportunity for a lot of OGs to kind of tell their story

and give their takes on it. I'm excited to see all the drama that kind of just starts. I mean, there's going to be so much shit. You got a lot of players saying a lot of stuff at a lot of different places. And there's a lot of things that are going to go through the season,

You know how, like, normal players right now, how they feel about the OG players. So now you've got a lot more OG players potentially saying things. That's why we asked Steve Nash yesterday. Like, hey, Steve, what are you going to say about the current players, you know? Like, how are you going to – he goes, I'm always going to be me. It's going to be – I'll be excited to see how they all balance that. Because I think Shaq and Chuck obviously get a lot of heat because it feels like they're bearing the modern day, but they're just pointing out from their eyes what they see in ball.

It's like, how do all the other OGs see ball and how are those conversations go? I think it's good. I think it's great for the conversation. It's great for us to kind of keep up with. And if last night is any indication of what the season's going to be like for NBC, congrats, you guys nailed it. If it was like, Michael Jordan,

we thought he was going to be there. Yeah. Why would you guys think? Yeah, I don't know. I wear the shoes. The guy's got to hunt all the money in the world. Okay, what do we do? You want me to read an A block?

Okay. Is it my turn to talk now? What do you think Michael Jordan was doing? I was honestly shocked at the story. I couldn't believe he actually shot the free throw For the, I'm assuming billionaire that owned the house, I would have thought he'd say, I'm not your fucking puppet, not shoot the fucking

three-throat. But he shot, that shocked me. On a note, I'd like to buy this house and tear it down. The family's just, like, it's an Airbnb, and he gets there and the family's just there, and they're like, hey Michael, can you just shoot one place? Think about them seeing the order come through.

Yeah. That's like that commercial, the Michael Jordan guy who get trying to get to reservation for the restaurants, and then shows up, Michael Jordan's right in our house. That's not. That's ain't no Airbnb either. Yeah, exactly. Right.

It's not, it's no way. Yeah, I'll be excited to see how much that would cost a night if you were able to rent it. Maybe, Ty, maybe you rent that thing. Yeah, we'll see. Hey, start working on your free throw. I know. You're right.

That's all it takes. That's all it takes, quick, 150 grand for the weekend, no big deal. A night. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might have more information on why the hell did we think that Michael George, Jordan was going to be sitting in a studio talking about basketball throughout the season on NBC. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean, we feel so stupid. Last night, while we're sitting there watching Michael Jordan at his house, it looked beautiful, by the way.

He's got a lot of those different rooms, and we saw his house in Illinois. That was for sale, still for sale, everything like that. Beautiful place. He's earned it all. Congratulations to him. He's built a lot of different businesses for other people. I think Chicago Bulls, the NBA would say this, the Jordan brand would obviously say this. jam potentially. I mean, you start naming things. This guy is obviously an earner. I think for everybody that he's ever really worked for, gatorate, everything. So I appreciate how nice of a

setup it is for him. And why did I, in my brain, when I heard this, think that Michael Jordan was going to be doing anything other than sitting in his house having a podcast? And on that note, how does the NBA, Adam Silver and people you talk to around the league feel about all these OGs getting an opportunity to cover the game with the new rights deals? Well, I think one, your heart would have been broken. If you had reached out to me yesterday, I would have told you Michael Jordan is not going to be. Hashtack Sean's do. Hashtag Sean's there.

You might as excitedly. So I'm happy you didn't. And, you know, I'd rather you get your dream shattered. But you still get to experience the Michael Jordan, you know, mentality, the, you know, the aura that that is MJ. But, I mean, I enjoyed watching that. I think it was like a three minutes. interview. I believe half of it was talking about when he went to the, I think it was a Rider Cup owner's home and he got challenged to shoot a free throw. He said it was like years

ago or something. I know Brandon Miller was drafted by the Hornets in 2022 in high in the lottery. I think he was a number two pick in Charlotte. He told a story at the time that he was shooting free throws with Michael Jordan and he was trash talking Michael Jordan. So that was three years ago. we do know that we do know I don't know how long ago this was but at least three years ago Brandon Miller and Michael Jordan I think Brandon Miller the story goes he saw Michael Jordan

Airball of free throw so shout out Brandon Miller no I don't want to hear that listen that's a lot that's a lot I want to hear you don't need to say everything that comes into that brain okay you can get filter something I'm just refreshing

memory so I don't know how long ago this was was this after the Brandon Miller was it Several years after. We got to do some. Now, how could it be several years? It was like a month ago. But he says in the interview, like I haven't picked up a basketball in years.

The last time I picked it up was insert story. No, no. We got to figure out the years. He said he hadn't picked up a basketball in years whenever he was asked to shoot the free throw. That's why he felt the pressure. So Pat, me as a listener, I'm hearing that. And I'm like, what's years? Is years five years, six years?

I know for sure he picked up a ball in 2022. So that's probably There you go The air ball and free throw He said, I'm never doing that again I'm gonna go golf And then he did it And then he made it

So the ending The other let's just For our fantasy purposes We'll just No For reality Remember the camp too Where the kids

It was like If he makes every shot Or if he misses one shot Yeah How many years ago is that? That was 2020 2019 That feels like it was a little longer ago

Yeah if you make every single shot If he misses one of these shots Everybody in here gets Free George's up there Yeah yeah right I don't think so. I will say, though, Pat, I think the return of, like, players, you know, whether, you know, at Amazon, NBC, we're seeing a lot of former players, you know, up there. And I love it.

I mean, back when I was at Fanduel TV, worked closely with Chandler Parsons, Lou Williams, we had to Marcus Cousins on, you know, Imman Schumper, Evan Turner, guys that would come on. And, like, from my purposes, I know what I'm, what I do. And it's always refreshing to hear the experts, the people that were in it, that lived and breathed it. I mean, you guys, you, D.B. AJ, the other A.J., like, you guys have that experience that, the expertise that I think the fans hopefully can get and absorb that. Yeah, me, AJ's into D butt. Always try our best to just kind of give our perspective. But we think everybody obviously is a good voice to be heard. Now, when some people take themselves a little bit too serious and have never done, they're going to get buried everyone. once in a while by some people, but that's a game that we're in. That's the world that we live

in. And we appreciate what you do because we obviously can't do that, but I'm excited to hear the former NBA legends commentate all year long. Now, let's talk about a legend that's currently not playing but still in the league and has played against all the guys that are currently on TV now. LeBron James, okay? So he has a sciatica, okay, in the back there with the Los Angeles Lakers. Three to four weeks is what it was being said. Obviously at this stage of his career. This might be beneficial for him long term if he misses three to four weeks worth of games here at the beginning whenever obviously at the end of the year is whenever you're going to need LeBron James at his absolute best. Last year he's flying around like he was a 29-year-old

still. They were expecting him to do that. Luca obviously brought in to be the future of the franchise. Are we about to enter LeBron James sit in the corner, let Luca cook? Maybe LeBron James save the legs a little bit, still be able to dominate. Is this a new era of LeBron James basketball with the Lakers? And when are we? we expecting him to be actually back with the Los Angeles Lakers? Watching the Lakers last night, I think they need LeBron James who's going to be there, have the ball in his hands, whenever Luca doesn't have the ball in his hands, and Austin Reeves is either off the court playing off the ball.

They need LeBron James to beat LeBron James. That's what I saw last night. I mean, a top 15 player last year, he was on an all-N-B-A team. And this sciatica that we talk about, right, on his right side, it is important to note here, Pat. I'm told he first had this back situation occur late July, early August in an on-court workout. I'm told he was working out with Tyrese and Zach Levine, and he felt something in his back. And then he ends up getting tests and things of that sort.

And so this is an injury that's been described to me. And I think Draymond Green spoke about it last night that it comes and goes. You feel it. You don't really have like a set timeline. It's not like there's a treatment that you just do and it just heals. It's time, it's how you feel, and I think there was maybe a notion that he'd feel better by now, but obviously he needs time because all of the off-season, he didn't have an off-season. So all that time that he missed, you know, we're usually accustomed to seeing LeBron and August and September post these 6 a.m. workouts.

We only saw that really for a couple weeks this summer. So he didn't have that routine normal LeBron James off-season. And so I think this training camp, I think right now is a lot about him getting back into basketball shape and being able to go out there and play with the proper conditioning that we're accustomed to seeing him play because he's not a guy that's going to come in the game and just stand in the corner. I don't see that from LeBron James this year. Never say never where that could be next year or if he keeps playing or how the second half of the year goes if he's not able to be back physically.

But I am told he's doing more and more on the court. But sources tell me he's going to be very, very patient with this injury. and I'm told the Lakers and LeBron are looking at mid-Novemberish for him to make his debut. So we're still looking at some time here before he's going to be able to be back out on the court. There's still some boxes he's got to check. And in the meantime, you know, he's sitting there watching this team. And, you know, I think back, Rich Paul told me the day that LeBron James opted in that they just want a realistic chance. LeBron James just wants a realistic chance at winning a championship.

And I think we're going to see how this team looks. and, you know, watching this team, I can only help, but reread Rich Paul's statement to me back on, I think it was June 30th. And kind of that message that they had was a cry for help. Like, we want this team to be as loaded, as stacked as possible so we can have a chance to win a championship. And, you know, we'll see. I'm not going to panic over one game. I'm sure Laker fans are panicked. But we'll see how this team looks as the next few weeks go on.

DeAndre Aiton, right, was brought in for the Los Angeles Lakers. now, they're getting an opportunity, obviously, see what the roster is without LeBron playing. You talked about him not being standing in a corner guy at this stage, and June 30th text from Rich Paul about wanting to win a title. It's like, if LeBron can continue to be the freight train that he has been, he's a modern marvel this guy. Like, he is an actual, and then we don't even have to go back to the Olympics. What's that?

It's insane. It's insane. He's about to be 41 in December, and the fact that he's playing at this level, that's all, like, I can never picture him standing in the corner. If LeBron James has to, I think a lot of scouts, a lot of teams would agree. These Lakers need LeBron James to be LeBron James for this team to have a chance to really contend and compete for a championship. So if he is a stand in the corner player, I think that's going to shift. What?

I'd say. The balance of powers a lot. Yeah, LeBron James on your team on your roster, need him to be LeBron James to win. It's like I'm excited to see how long that can last. Because remember, it's been like the last three, four years where they're like, LeBron James can't just be the ball dominant run heavy at the age of he's going especially they're running on hardwood think about how big it is the joints everything like that they talk about the travel schedule the lack of rest all the shit that NBA players talk about this dude's 41 years old and he's bigger than everybody he's somehow still doing it all the guy is a absolute physical specimen and I can't wait to see him back so what it sounds like you're saying is his sciatica might not be still hurting right now but he needs to get back into game shape is what we're hearing and through this process the sciatica might pop up a little bit because it's kind of a sporadic this sciatic is a little sporadic

that's pretty that's pretty good couple bars there actually so so that whole thing to think about certainly going forward in my life but it is a sporadic thing so it might pop up but mostly this is him training to get into season shape at the moment is how your kind of feel your feel is for the situation he went a little over a month before september 29th which was media day and training camp He went over a month prior to that. So we're thinking late August, mid-August, he went that far without touching a basketball, like real live basketball action. So you're already behind the eight ball when you're starting training camp.

And you haven't really done live basketball. You haven't been your routine normal offseason. So he is playing catch-up in a lot of ways as far as his conditioning. And I'm sure he's looking great in his individual workouts. He's got to get to the point where he's feeling like LeBron James is able to move. like LeBron James. But listen, in the meantime, and even as we move forward, I think a lot with the Lakers changed once they got Luca Dantage. Like, Luca Dantych has been the guy. He is the guy for this team. He is the new face of this franchise. And so, yeah, they need LeBron James to be

LeBron James. But Luca Dantych is 20, I think he just turned 26. Like, he is supposed to be that guy. If you're asking for, you need LeBron James to be LeBron James, which is, you know, probably on this team having the ball when Luca doesn't have the ball, probably being the 1A, 1B option, but you need Luca Dantez to be the face of your franchise as well. We saw that last night. He was absolutely brilliant. He played great basketball,

didn't force the action, and the numbers he put up at the end, just unbelievable. Yeah, one assist away from a triple double. He goes for 42, sorry, 43, 12, and 9, okay? And Lakers lose to the Warriors. The Warriors improved to 27 and 8 when

Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, and Dre on Green all play, including regular season and playoffs. Jimmy Butler the third, sorry, 31 points, his most in a regular season game since joining the Warriors. And Luca Donchus, 43 points, most in a season open by a Lakers player since Kobe Bryant in 2007. So obviously

Luca comes in in great shape, playing his best ball. Are the Lakers poised to go on a championship run? And if they're not, what does that mean for LeBron? Oh. San Antonio, San Antonio. Oh. Oh.

Oh. Is that what you're saying about that June 30th message? That sounded like a meteor, you know? Like, I think that's what that would. The sound you guys just made is like a meteor hit. The meteor might hit. You never know. Oh, he's saying that thing.

It's buzzing. It's buzzing. We know when LeBron James says on the court, we saw what the message from Rich Paul, like, they want, like, he, in his mind, he's about to be 41 years old, year 23, it's never been done before. It's about having a realistic chance to win. And only time can tell.

You know, one game isn't going to decide the Lakers season. Oh! All right, there's another trade. We're not talking about LeBron being traded this moment. We're just saying, hey, these things are all obviously being chatted about. There was a trade last year that obviously rattled the entire industry, rattled the entire sports world. On the same night as the Royal Rumble in Indiana,

Indian. There was a trade that sent Luca to Los Angeles to become the face of the Lakers. He looks better than ever. But at the time, it was earth-shattering info that maybe not everybody had. Go ahead, D. Bud. Yeah, absolutely. Talk about longevity LeBron. First player to play with his son. And his son is making rounds now on the internet. See some internet reports. I want you to clear this up for me. Did you text Bronny James to break the Luca trade? Or how did this, how did this work with him sending that into the Lakers group chat, Shams? Can we pull that tweet up? Sure.

Can we pull that tweet up? Boom. What's the tweet? I can't even, I can't see it. We have it up. So he put my tweet. See, some people hit me. They're like, yo, why are you,

why is it coming out that you were texting players? I'm like, what are you talking about? It says right there. So they're saying that Brony posted my tweet in the Lakers group chat. That's right. That's right.

You told them to do that. Yeah, you told them to do that. I think I had time. I don't think I had time to text anyone that night. I had time to pick up like five phone calls that night. You being one of them, Pat, you being one of the, my hands were shaking. They were like literally, literally. Hey, I was sweating bullets.

I was like, I don't want a typo. This is, you have typos and tweets. This is not the tweet for a typo. Yeah. You know, this is not the tweet for a typo. You got to make sure you're on it. You can't have any detail wrong. and the only people I was texting were my sources on the story.

So about five people I was talking to the last call I had. This is exactly how the call went. I picked up. I said, did this really happen? And the person goes, yeah, I did. That's it. Hung up. I didn't even have to say what it was.

They didn't have to say what it was. We knew it. And I put, you know, maybe 20 seconds later I put it out. How about it self-censoring there in the, in that big of a moment. Yeah. Yeah. This is just a family-friendly airways.

You know, I can take advantage of the platform. Yeah, but you're senior NBA insider. You need to make sure you watch your mouth. Yeah, you need to watch your mouth. And I'm about sick of your mouth, too, the way you've been talking about these stories. Okay, so you need to slow it down, Shams. Yeah, that's obviously the tweet heard around the world very quickly.

Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame tweet. Yeah. Hall of Fame. break and uh so no i didn't i i to clear up db i did not uh text ronnie james anything about anything that night or or really any night but uh uh you know that night was was five people i was in constant communication with over a seven minute period and then my phone started going crazy the sources picked up my guy tom de cordy's call sports center producer shout out to him

you obviously called so there were a few there are a couple gms i picked up a couple other people but yeah that there it is there it is yeah this doesn't even count for people that screenshot it and posted themselves I mean this thing's over a billion obviously no typos great capitalized letters there

I think you really pieced it together well and thank God I will say his his hands were shaky strictly because I did FaceTime him and it was like he was in that moment of like holy shit like it just happened you know and I was telling him he got hacked I think everybody's probably telling you that

and you knew I was woefully unprepared because what did I had glasses on? You've seen my you're one of the few people that have seen, you know, the hair without the hair. Shams looks very cool without it all kind of, you know, buttoned up. Just like whenever he's not saying words.

Yeah, exactly. You know, like, Sean's got a little messy hair and he's not doing the king. You know what I mean? He is. There's two Shams is here, and we appreciate this Shams, obviously. I'm fooling us. I expect the Shams to be a wake up and make the bed type of guy too. I know you're in the hotel, but these, Shams. The best mate.

What are you talking about? No, right there on, over your left shoulder, brother. It's right there on the... Made poor. Oh, man. You kidding me? What? Are you four years old?

That's a maid. Am I true? What are you putting it on the counter for? What's it on the side table for? What do you, what's that? You might have a little straggler on the side, but it's a made bed over here. Who made it? Helen Keller?

Oh, jeez. Come on, Shams. Helen Keller would have felt that on the side. That's a good point. It would have felt better if I had to get it. Because that was, right? Yeah. That was her entire.

Yeah. Def and law. That's wild. The amount of patience. Oh, we don't have to get into that. We don't want to get into that. Let's talk about patience. There's going to have to be some in New York, you know, because we're all figuring it out.

Go ahead, come, man. Yeah, Shams. As a Celtics fan, I just try and rob Bruce up as much as I can because he loves the Knicks. And he actually is kind of pissed off today. because Carl Anthony Towns, one, is questionable for tonight, and two, said that he doesn't really know what his role in the offense is with their new coach, Mike Braun. So what's going on with the Knicks? Did they kind of build a team for Tibido's style, and now they're realizing that they have to completely change the team because Mike Brown's style is different? What do you kind of expect the Knicks to be this year?

And am I wrong in thinking that the Cavaliers are going to win by 50 tonight? No, I mean, the Knicks and the Cavs have the pressure going into this season to be the, you know, coming out of the east. I mean, they're, they're, Orlando, Atlanta, Detroit, you know, Philadelphia, if healthy, Boston's going to always be competitive. And we'll see Jason Tatum the way he looks. I'm sure he really wants to come back this season. But yeah, I mean, those, that's the pressure that they have. When you fire Tom Thibodov to make to the conference finals, you know, you know. know it's championship robust. Mike Brown is entering

a championship robust situation. The Knicks roster knows it. But even the players in Cleveland know that this is a championship type season, championship robust season. That's what's on the line, at least getting to the finals. So what comes with that, of course, there's going to be growing pains. Like I think Jalen Brunson, Carinthie Towns, Ogeyannovi,

McHill Bridges, all trying to figure out exactly how Mike Brown is as a coach, his offensive systems and all that. But honestly, BC, the thing that I'm more worried about than anything is the fact that this team in New York right now is so, you know, like they're dealing with injuries. Like they're banged up already in the season hasn't started. Mitchell Robinson is out tonight.

Josh Hart is out tonight. Those are, that's your starting center and essentially your sixth man who basically can be a starter for your team. So you're already starting the year. And those two guys, I'm, I think there's a very real chance. They're missing real time to start the year. And Mitchell Robinson, it's been touch and go with him all throughout the last couple couple years. He's had ankle surgery, ankle surgeries. He's had time off. He only played, I think,

17 games, 18 games or whatever last season. So this is a team. They need to be healthy. They need Mitchell Robinson. I'm more concerned right now about how banged up there. Even Kat, he's dealing with a quad strain. We'll see if he plays tonight. I would expect him to try everything he can to play. He's been playing a ton of pain throughout the last few years. So I'm more concerned about their help. I watch Cat run up and down that court against the Pacers with these eyes right here. I'm happy. I'm not that tall.

Yeah, he's lugging. I mean, it was boom-b-da-bum-bba-bom-bub-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bo-bub-a-bub. After about 40 times of that, I don't know how a body that large kind of continues to go. He was a weapon for him whenever he was bowling them. Oh, yeah? Big Per was killing it for the next thing for a while. Big games, obviously, tonight.

And last question, obviously, comes from Ty, about an ex-big man. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Shams, we need an update. New seasons officially started. Zion looks absolutely jacked. He's no longer a fatso, which everyone absolutely loves. What does this mean for the Pelicans?

I feel like we've been doing this, you know, the last five years early, ever since he's drafted, and now, you know, it's kind of, they gave him the keys, okay? And is he going to be able to take him to the playoffs? What's going on with Zion and the Pelicans? I'm looking at their injury report, and all of their, main players are healthy. Kevin Loney, they're back up big. He's out to

start the year, but everyone else that matters is healthy, and that's the only thing that matters for the Pelicans. When Zion Williamson's on the court, we know he leads to winning and he leads to success. The problem is he has not been able to stay on the court, and then when he misses time with soft tissue

injuries, he obviously he looks different than before, and he also... Smoothie care. Sets him back conditioning-wise, his basketball shape, and it prolongs his time period and the pelicans trying to look out for him set these expectations and set these ground rules but they do have a new management in there joe dumars is a new president of basketball operations there david griff let him play

let him play he's one on one two on two three on three four on four five on five well let's hope it doesn't get to that point this this season with him but joe dumars i will say this he's a guy that's won a championship. He was a champion with a bad boy Pistons. Then he was the GM of the Pistons in the 2000s when they won a championship. Then he's been a part of building cultures, building teams. And he's holding Zion Williamson accountable. I think this is for the first time in his career, he's had a voice like this really hold him accountable. And so this is a pretty make-of-break season for Zion Williamson, for the Pelicans, see how this team looks. So when he's on the court, we know what we get

and he looks like he's in shape this year yes he is we appreciate let's go Zion let's go Zion respects the art of being a chef okay so he dabbles every once in a while

and he just doesn't do as much working out as he's supposed to do and then all of a sudden everybody says with his style the way he is built he says this guy's fat then he goes on a court

he has a quadrupled bubble somehow okay and that's just the Zion Williamson story everybody looks at him says he can't do it and then down there into Pelicans are like well We need him to be able to run 45 winsprits.

It's like, can we just get fucking five minutes out of this guy? Because he puts the ball on a hoop, and then he finds somebody. He's electrifying whenever he plays. He is dominant whenever he plays. So if we get a Zion Williamson, we've been pulling for this for like a half decade. Long time since I started seeing him dunk. I've said this numerous times. So I think this.

Boom, he's been doing that on little tiny white kids in South Carolina on the internet since I'm what, like 25 years old? For sure. I'm 38 right now. So he's been doing that a long time. I have followed Zion's story. The shoe blow out the whole thing. I love how he is so explosive. He is such an explosive athlete.

They don't make a lot of humans in the history of the world that are as explosive as Zion. To be able to be as big as he's always been and to be able to do what he does at the effortlessness that he does it, it's like, this is a special talent. Then he gets some pelicans and they all of them on a court. And he has good vibes, too. Like he's a jovial guy.

Yeah, that's why it sucks. He's got himself into some stuff off court, No doubt. Because it's, hey, yeah, exactly. You know, so it's an interesting dynamic down there with him. And then they pay him a bunch of money. And they're like, yeah, we're still not going to let you play, though. He got to be able to, we're going to see more out of you.

I don't know if I'm ever going to get that. They got a new fucking chef right down the street right here. I don't know if you want that. Now they're going to let them out there. I hope it happens. Let's go, Zion. Look him back on it. It's crazy, like, how him and Jha went one and two

and, like, how their careers have both, you know, gone. They've both been paid. They've both been very successful. like very two different, like controversial, number one and number two overall picks now. And they can wrap it up in the whole thing. That's right. And that's what's all about. That's the thing is like both of them have a chance here, still have a trajectory line here to make a great second, you know, I don't know, second half is the word.

These guys are still so young. Like it's scary. These guys are like 25 years old talking about like how they're going to finish their career. They have their whole, you know, 26, however old they are, they have their whole career. but I think everyone in the league would love like even fans of his other players they'd love to see him put together

a 70 game season you know he's the way he's dunking he should be in the dunk 82 try to lead this team to the playing playoffs like that's what everyone's been waiting for my son let's be real I mean how many don't they play 82 we just saw the goat last night

82 games well 70 be great let's get Zion to play 35 yeah yeah right before we run let's put him on a court That's what I'm saying. I'm saying it sound like what I'm saying.

Listen, I'm a big Zion guy. First of all, I liked fat Zion, so I don't know if I love new Jack Zion. We'll see if he's the same guy. Connor said, he's very jovial. Being very jovial is a fat guy trait. That's not really like a jack guy trait. So we'll see. Bingo.

Yeah, living breathing embodiment right here. Yeah. So I mean, we'll see. AQ and AJ. Yeah, but you know what? To be a dog, maybe he has to be a little miserable, a little hungry. You're right. Maybe that's the new Zion.

Wait, A-Q or? What's that? AJ? Okay, all right. All right, I forgot about that, yeah. That was you, Shams, Insider, but not for football, obviously, or the program. Last question here from D-Butt for you, a big debut tonight. Oh, yeah, going from one, Duke number one pick to another one.

Cooper Flagg, what should we expect from his usage? Heard some reports about him being a point guard for the Mazz. what should we expect from Cooper Flag? I think he's going to spend a lot of the early part of the year at point guard. We'll see what the final starting lineup is, but the way they finished the preseason was DeAngel Russell coming off the bench, Cooper Flag as the point guard. I mean, this guy does everything.

He's able to impact the game on every single level already in the league. So I think it's going to be very interesting to see now the playmaking game so early in his career. They're kind of experimenting with it. Kyrie Irving will see when he's going to be back. Obviously, that's their point guard when he's healthy. But in the meantime, I think they're going to put him in position pretty early. Jason Kidd says we got him. This whole them getting number one overall pick with his Cooper flag main event,

generational type talent after the Luca trade that we just talked about having at least a billion views in becoming the topic of conversation. It's certainly some conspiracy fodder, and your name is involved in all of them, including group techs. We appreciate the hell out of you for joining us, Sean. Have a great NBA season. Appreciate you guys. Happy NBA season. We'll be talking soon.

Let's see that bed real quick one more time. Can we just so we see that can't happen? Hey, hey, look at this. Look at this. That's a made bed. No, it's not. Look at the pillows. Why are the blanket?

Hold on. So look at the blankets on the left side, too. It feels like this is like your thing. You put them up on the side tables? It's no, no, no. We have some stragglers here, you know? It's a big bed. I love my comforters.

Maybe I got double comforters here. The pillows are up. Oh, double comforters. Okay. Double comforter This one's on the table Oh yeah, on the left And it's over here too

On your right choms On your right choms This one's over here It's on a table right Didn't it chomps? Maybe the comforter is so big You can't tell Well get a comforter that's big enough

For your bed That fits the size of your bed But I also How do you not know When you're making the bed Because you have to be pulled Oh no I got an extra six feet here Actually there's a chance

that shams does you ever see those people jump in the pool feet first and they like go all the way yeah shams actually goes in the top under the under the yeah you might be right so he doesn't even have to pull them up on it I think this is a seven seven and a half rated make the bed moment right oh my seven and a half you are disrespectful out of a lot of made beds right now seven you're out of control ladies to have a shams from all anything yeah so he pulled those up right had to unless he did this which he could have or from the bottom yeah bottom slide yeah couldn't what you could have done right through that just yeah he'd all right that's what he did right for sure and that's what that's what he might do too when he gets in bed he might just throw them up as fast as possible in there's a chance

yeah I mean there's a chance with shams he's so dialed in into uh you know having conversations building relationships getting inside information. Outside of that, I don't know Shams, you know. I don't know with them. No. I never know with Shams. Yeah. But that's why we love it. Bingham. Well said. The water alarms. What's that? Drink water alarms. Yeah. Lunch. The oatmeal. He put fork and oatmeal. Yeah. That's certainly a move. That's a decision that was made. Wife had a little potato soup the other day. It was thick, though. Didn't know if I should go with the spoon or the fork, you know, because there was a little bacon. bits on top as well.

One was spoon. I am a fork user though. I think I would rather fork than spoon basically nine times out of ten. I think I'm more of a fork guy. That is very interesting because I've been having the same debacle with my microwave meals and I have learned

that I am a spoon guy no matter what. Really? Yeah like I've been eating like just steak and rice little you know pre-made ones. So you'll go down in a corner and use it as a shovel. Bingo. That's where I come in and I have problems because my guys, you know, pitchforky, they can't get it all. So I got to turn this on this sideways. And I'm trailing this way.

You see, you guys are doing a little bit of this, it feels like. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I still use. I'm going to buy. Sporks. Yeah. Boom. What's that, buddy?

I still use sports. Okay. So you used to another marriage of school. You go into your kitchen. Mm-hmm. Oh, that's a pretty good day. Let me go ahead and get a paper plate for sure. That's my house.

I'm big paper plate. Come on. Paper plate for sure. Let me pull that out. Let me go ahead and open this drawer right here. Spork. Yep. knives, forks, sports.

Metal. Silverware. Sport? Metal, metal, metal, or metal forks? Custom. One of one. Always available.

If you have sporks, I'm so jealous, I haven't been jealous like this ever, I think. Silverware sport? If you have metal sporks, yeah. You only think of spork being the plastic or the sh- Exactly. It took months to come in. KFC, right? They're the only one.

KFCs, the plastic sporks, right? That's the model we used, actually. Say, hey, we need to say actual match the rest of the set. Going to cans. That's like a little chipper on the side of the green. You know, it's just like perfect for the occasions. It's nother. It's the unduffable.

It's the unduffable of silverware. That is exactly. Ice cream, suit. Spaghetti. It doesn't matter. Oh, what the hell? That is the right move. I don't have a sport.

Ice cream cracking through. And then don't worry, I got it. It says the spoon. Oh my God. Everything. Spaghetti is. I mean. Boy, because usually you get the big, you know,

serving spoon with the fork to kind of twist if you want. All in one. Fucking, that's for the birds. You get a spork. Yeah, you get both of them. Yeah. You guys use scissors while you're eating. Sometimes.

Sometimes. I'll see that. I think I'm out on spaghetti. Just as a whole? Yeah, I think I'm a Peté guy. Yeah, I think Peté pasta is fantastic. I'm my little linguine. Sure.

I'll do that entire game. I agree. Spaghetti is my least favorite of the pastas. But boy, do the Italians. love having a good spaghetti. Like, you go to an Italian's house? Yeah, no thanks. Are you trying to spaghetti?

I would much rather the thicker one that has a little bit more. Like, no, you got to try a spaghetti. It's like, okay, I'll definitely do that. But the other ones, I think, are better. You guys should maybe take a little bit more broad-nosed ones than you do spaghetti. Nick, why is the spaghetti always the one? Why is it just the orig? It is the ridge.

It's standard. It's just the best option. It goes with everything. See, and that's what we're saying. We don't agree with it. Yeah. We think the other one is much about all the, the penny one, the rigatone, not bad either. Both ties.

Yeah, the both thighs, not bad. Tortolini. There's so many different options. I can never be out of spaghetti. No, that's because the tradition of it, I think. Right. Is that what you're doing? Yeah, I mean, it's just, it's got just.

It's always there. It's tough times. Go a long way. It's good. Goes with everything. Like, yeah. And also, you can get a little Parmesan on top of it. Yeah.

Don't even need the sauce or the gravy, whatever it is. For me, though, I don't like the... Yeah, I don't like sucking it up. Yeah. I don't like, I don't want to eat my food through a straw like you are with spaghetti. But you got to eat my food. to be able to do the hang and that's where the scissors come in because you do the twisty twist and then you do the scissors now all of a sudden guess what that is that's a fat ass rigitone

all of a sudden rock your fork and it's like yep i got to the final game that i was looking for here thank you for letting me do that none of less shout to the italians you guys got forzoles the only place you can eat spigettes fuzzoles baby it's the only place they do it right everywhere else it takes like cologne okay that's not what that's not real the only the Italian houses. I've been wearing his spigets. Mm. No, thanks. Not good. No.

Yeah, right. Terrible. Let's go to Hammer. Don, God. Anthony De Giulio, what the hell is going on out here with this conversation about bad skets out here? And Fazolini's being the only good spaghetti. Sounds like a bunch of Irishmen talking about Italian food. Oh.

Scottish, too. I'm a rigatone. Okay. Me too. We're, okay. So we're all on the same page even the Italian? No, me and you are not on the same pitch, ever. Well, rigatine, you guys are pretty on the same time.

Oh, what, you don't like bad, eh? Okay. Whatever. Guys eating steak with a spoon. No, a spork, actually. No, that was D-Buts. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. When it's cut up already, you know, he's getting a pre-made meals, obviously, which a lot of people are doing now.

They're so good. Feels like the chefs are getting good at distributing good food for people to get into, like, shape. I think that's a good advancement of society that we have right now. Nothing, nothing makes me more mad than whenever they don't, they don't pronounce the vow at the end. Prejute, mozzarella. Who's they? Who's they? What the fuck?

What is they? Marcelle Loh. It's mozzarella. No, it's mouss at a. Technically, it's prosciutto. No, it's gabagool. It's moussela. No, I hate it.

Brachute, yeah. Pronounce the vow at the end. You are, this is the Jodon-Oro. Disgusting. This is a part of the problem. I didn't know this was the game. Let's go back to Hammer. Don, Don.

Anthony DeJolio, this is disgusting out here. I'm sick. Anthony DeJule. Why don't we just call me Anthony DeJule? We do. We do. We actually do call it. And there's an EO at the end, like EI, EIO.

So you would have to hit the E, at least, at the beginning. Anthony DeJule, I don't like what's going on here amongst the stage. I want to let the Italian conglomerate know that I am 0.01% Italian in the documented. And we love you. And gratin prego for that. I'm thinking about going to rent and dying club and joining the pepperones. Sure. The pepperones.

The Irwin pepperoni. You should think about joining Coach Diggs's team instead. He's got a great team name for his boys. What's the name of the team? As Tony. Tony, what's the name? I can't remember. Isn't it the fight in the fight in dangnabits or something like that?

No, I don't think that was the name. But they are a tough squad on that botchy cord. I don't like playing on the rocks they got over there at Penn Hills, but we'll certainly get it figured out. Tone, we appreciate you, buddy, for sticking up for the Italians, because it got it disgusting out here. Yeah, that was gross. I love the Italians.

Thanks a lot. I love the Italian food. Appreciate it, AJ. That was outrageous. The AJ's. Yeah. That was good. Well, you should be going by a fake name anyways with what you just said about the Italians.

It might be smart for you to lay low for a little. I think they just need to pronounce the vow at the end. That's it. Peparon. E. You're talking about a botchy team name. That's a brand. That's a brand name.

Yeah, you're right. They don't cut that shit. We probably shouldn't rile up AQ Shipple anymore just because he might blow a gas. All right. Let's talk about some of the news that happened around the sports world over the last 24 hours. The NHL did hit a home run. The NHL had a magical moment. The NHL did something in the Boston Bruins and the Boston Bruins fans did something that happened.

You know, I don't want to say very rarely because it does happen. You know, like it feels like sports do try to pay respect to the people that have given to their team, to their cities, to their franchises. Now, everybody does it differently. You know, Jerry Jones said, when Emmett Smith came back, of course, we fucking, come on. For Maka, there's enough to say thank you. We said thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, okay, we're getting out of here. There's none of that. Here with the Colts, I got a chance to see Edron James, who obviously meant so much to the city and team.

He got an entire video. I think Jeff Saturday did as well. Obviously, Peyton Manning did. So this does happen. This is something that does take place. But the way teams kind of do it and how the fans, buy-in and how the player receiving it kind of operates certainly makes the moment great or makes the moment bad.

What Marshawn returning to Boston happened, that was some of the most beautiful shit I've ever seen in the history of sports. Yeah. Damn near saying. Now, obviously, there's breakthrough moments that have happened in sports that made the world a lot better. There's championship moments that'll be icon. Immortalized forever.

There's the word I'm looking for. But it's like this moment right here, I think everybody's going to be trying to chase whenever they're trying to pay tribute to somebody who means so much for their city. How long was Marshie up in Boston? And on that note, you as Bruins fan watching this? I mean, I got teary-eyed watching this. I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. I assume you did as well.

Yeah, he was there for 16 years. And it was his whole career. It's not like he started somewhere else. He started in Boston, stayed in Boston. You know, was the rookie young kid making a name for himself. Was awesome right away, too. He's been the same player the entire time. And that's the stuff that, like, really get you.

Like him and his kids. you know because when he first came here he didn't have an entire family and his kids grew up here and he talked about it after the fact like yeah it was very emotional for me driving into the stadium or the arena because then i started thinking about everything my kids have sacrificed and my family just to go from boston to florida you know in that sense too but also just supporting him through his entire hockey journey i mean the thing is too no one will ever wear the number 63 again in boston and boston is an original six hockey team it's a historic franchise he He's one of six players to ever score 1,000 points for the Boston Bruins. And you look at that list, and it's Bergeron, it's Bobby Orr, it's Ray Bork, it's legends of the game. And, you know, he's in that category. And I'm sure for him being a undersized NHL player, you never imagine when you're starting out, like, yeah, I'm going to be a 20-year vet with my jersey retired in multiple places.

And now he might be that. And he did leave the door open after the game. Like, I do see myself possibly coming back if the situation, presented. Florida Panther, Marshie, did you, how did you feel watching that all take place? I mean, that was awesome. I love when places just celebrate their legends for sure. And now it took me back to last year when he was traded.

The one time in however many years we were working together that comment legitimately wanted to fight me. I came in after the trade, hit him on the back and he like, look at his eyes, I was like, okay, this is real. Watching that, experiencing that, it took me back to them. Okay, they really loved this guy. And we love him too. And he loves them. I like that he got emotional out there. Florida gets the win off a terrible, terrible.

The NHL was awesome. The NBA was incredible. The NFL is about to cook. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it.

I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this? Oh, yeah? Way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply.

it's time to level up your game introducing the all new ESPN app all of ESPN all in one place your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments the electricity is palpable step up your game with no annual contract required it's the ultimate fan experience level up for more on the ESPN app or at stream.esPN.com sign up now football is magical the NBA tipped off its regular season last night the NHL had a magical moment with marshy returning back to the Boston Bruins and tomorrow week eight of the NFL season kicks off we're in the middle of a great time to be alive we thank you all for allowing us to do this for a living the toxic tables

here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here what are you wearing there I'm a clearing fit nice hoodie you know two drivers trying to get their championship this year is that the one that vander stoppins on uh no vander's for stabbing for stabbing max oh oh oh oh oh max for stopping he actually is driver for red bull oh really who's on mclaren is that uh that is let's see if you got i think you got that's mr lewis hamilton and not sir hamilton but he did just set the records for all All time points, scored over 5,000 Ferrari. That's got to be either Oscar or Lando.

Both of them. Boom. Boom. I will say I got assist on Lando. Come on, bro. Oh, come on, bro. I feel pretty good that I pulled Oscar out. Yeah, Pistorius.

And I tell you what? No, no. That's not his name. He's from South Africa too. I don't think that's down under. Yeah. Poor little thing, thing, too. If that whole thing wouldn't have happened.

I know. I mean, who knows where we're sitting now. Truly. Nine-year, and our 12-year NFL vet Super Bowl champion, AQ Shippley's here. Thank you.

Thank you. We're about to get any of your takeaways, but please let me introduce a man who was a Hoffnom this year, but did not make it to the semifinal. But this is a kind of standard operating procedure from my experience. You know, I was off-norn three times.

AJ, I think, is going to go on to make the Hall Fame, and he should. This guy's the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. He is a college football national champion with the Ohio State Buckeyes. He's a Super Bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers.

And this man has a tree on a campus named after him. And it's not just a redwood, Taylor. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawke. Yay, Ha, hey. Is it more of a Japanese maple or is it more of a redwood, the tree that you have on there,

AJ? It would be a Buckeye tree. You know, Ohio State Buckeyes, that's where I went to school, so that kind of makes sense. What does a Buckeye tree look like? Is that thing... Like the chocolates?

Pretty sweet. Look them up. They look pretty sweet. You know, Buckeyes, you know, they grow on them. They're very hard. You could throw them with people if you want. Nuts. Yeah, it's what we're talking about.

So what is the bill? Is it a, what is the build? Is it a rounder? Is it a little Christmas tree? It's got a trunk and then it goes up like that. Oh. Like an apple tree. I think I could take your little Buckeye tree with one of these.

I don't think that's exactly a Buckeye tree right there. I think I could take that thing down with a shin kick. I think I could potentially get one of those right there. Is that AJ's tree right there? Do we just look up actually, AJ Huck's Buckeye? Do Buckeye trees normally sit amongst their friends? Is it normally like a wood? In the wild?

I don't know how it works in the wild. It's called Buckeye Grove where they plant them, so they are amongst their friends there, for sure. You're telling me that I couldn't go shin kick that thing in half right there that I just saw? That thing on the Internet that you pulled up, yes. You could definitely kick that little baby tree down. I didn't pull it up AI. On that note, AI is cooking for these sports books in the NBA, okay?

We need to know that they're going to be throwing a hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot baseball in this basketball odds world. Now, Gumpy, obviously, one half of the hammer. Down Cowboys, didn't even know there was NBA action. He was actually betting on Kuso last night. It was some conference USA and then maybe some footy. But there are people that are noted basketball gamblers, and what we would like to let people know is they know what's going on, okay?

These sports books know what's going on. What was some of the bets that you had last night on Kevin Wayne Durant? I had him to go over his prop, which I believe was at 20. 23 and a half, well, I know, at least in the book that I bet on, it was at 23 and a half. He ended up with 23 points in a double overtime game in opening night, which is tough. And then Steph Curry, I believe his was maybe 24 points, and he was one short as well. So, you know, you bet on two all-time greats, open night. And, you know, they're right there.

And they give you hope early because their shots are falling. Oh, yeah. Shots are falling. KD. He came out hot, first half. Yeah. And they're feeding them the ball. Mm-hmm.

Of course. Big Turk and KD. It's like, wait a minute. These guys are the new, this is the new duo. Yeah, I think I made a decision to just bet on, especially after the conversation yesterday with the great Steve Nash. I think I'm just betting on the international guys going forward. Okay, because they're going to block the wood. Lucas Schengoon, Joker, Janis, SGA.

Yeah. I think I'm going to go with those guys. Okay, not a bad idea. Let's go international heavy on the prop betting for the NBA. Just to kind of reiterate the fact about them knowing what the hell is going on. You mentioned a stat about the sports books last night. Yeah, points and rebounds for KD was 28 and a half. He had 20 and 8 going into overtime, got one rebound in overtime to get the over 29.

And then I guess in the double overtime, he hit a three as well. So, I mean, without the overtime, a lot of bets don't hit last night, especially with Kevin Durant prop. SGA, too, just looks like he's shooting at a bigger bucket, AJ. This guy's special. I don't know how much of the games you got to see last night. The Oklahoma City Houston Rockets game in Oklahoma City on Banner Night. shout it to the boys that are currently on Houston.

They got a chance to watch the banner fall and them get their ring. The rings were very ingenuous. Yeah. A lot of ingenuity in their rings. So you're able to just pop off a ring and then basically get a smaller ring that you can wear out in about in public because nobody can wear Super Bowl rings except for Bruce Ariens when he comes in here. And he puts this thing on.

It literally looks like he's got, I don't know, some caricature of a ring on his hand. And it just makes noise. It's sitting in the safe. Akeush needs to do that, but it's so big. I think a lot of people talk about it. There was even a multiple tweets about, like, how a lot of people say these Super Bowl rings and championship rings are getting too big.

So for them to think past that and be like, oh, it's actually get a little ring inside of it. We can put all the stuff. Then the boys can wear that whenever they want to go out and about. And then obviously, whenever we want to flex our shit, we can go ahead and put the bigger one on. This Oklahoma City team is special, AJ. That's what I think I watched last night.

They're only going to continue to be that. Yeah, I'd actually like to attend a game there. I bet it's one of those places where if you, go in person especially, you feel like the atmosphere and how they rally around the squad. I watched the whole pregame situation where they're getting their rings and all that. Man, Oklahoma City seems like the center of the basketball universe right now if you watch. Well, I mean, let's not get crazy, okay? Because we got the fever here doing all these big magical things.

Great year. Pacer is obviously about to go off and do something magical with Rick Carlyle. But on that note, we all watched as Pacer fans last year during the finals like, damn, that place is awesome. That place is cool. And the people like watching their style of play. Now SGA was called a foul merchant and all these things. He's just so much better than seemingly everybody on the court of just getting buckets. The guy will get a bucket whenever the hell he wants. They needed a two because Kevin Durant missed a free throw. Everybody's like, he can't miss that. If he would have made it and they needed a three, SGA's knocking down a step back through. Like that is just

kind of who he is at this stage of his career. He's fun to watch, man. His mindset too is deadly. Yeah. And I've been loving watching some of the clips from the starting five that he has kind of behind the scenes, just his whole vibe and his mindset. I think a part of it, he was like, they asked him about a 30-point game, and he was like, that's a below-average game for me, because obviously he averages more than 30 points. He is one great guy to bet on on that note. But yeah, he's a walking bucket. He's a clutch bucket.

He can get it on all three levels. He can get to the rim. He can hit the mid-range, which is kind of a lost art at this point in the game. I love everything about SGA's game. And then here other great scores kind of talk about him. James Harden was talking about. about how kind of easy the game has become fresh yet at this point in time. So love watching him play.

Yeah, and that's the other thing about some of these props, too. Like the big guys, like me and Dee Butch were betting on KD, you're never going to go wrong doing that. But if you were to bet Sangoon, a guy like that who's always been good, but now is starting the year super hot. The two. Yeah, the two, exactly. Like his odds are massive.

And then there's another European guy playing for the Bulls, Mattias Buzellas. and he actually is one of those dudes people think are going to be really good and like his odds to score are high and when I say international I mean he's from Illinois but his name is Mattias Buzellas.

Okay so it sounds like at one point potentially family was not from here which kind of sounds like everybody wait hold on wait so we bet on everybody now we're not getting into it we're not doing that here's some stats from Hembo about last night's

Oklahoma City Houston game SGA has scored 20 plus points in 73 straight games. Jesus Christ. This guy's unbelievable. I don't think you can bet on him to score 20 points. Won't even get an odd on that. Passing Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan for the fourth longest streak in NBA history.

People have done it more. Okay, we shall see. Thunder out scored the Rockets of 26 to 12 and points off turnovers. Kevin Durant took only three shots in a fourth quarter in O.T., which certainly made Darius J. Butler pumped about betting on his over there, including zero in the first overtime. He's passing a lot. He was deferring a lot to others.

I found that interesting. Obviously, new team, they'll kind of work through it. And then Sengoon here, the Big Turk fella. First Rockets player with 35 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists in a season opener and franchise. History of Rockets, their starting lineup had an average height of 82.2 inches. The tallest for any starting lineup in a season opener since starters were first tracked in 1970, in 1971.

So, hey, Hembo, come on, bro. America. We need to know what that is. Yeah, and that's going to get broken tonight by the Mavericks, just for the record, for tallest lineup ever of Cooper Flags. playing point card. Well, and then Wemby has an opportunity to potentially break that with any teammate that they bring in on any given whim. But on that note, 82.2 inches, 12, 24. 610. Now that is us just saying what a high number would be. in our mind.

We didn't do the actual math there, right? Well, I just did, you know, 72. 6, 10? Yeah, 12 times 5s, you know. I was just saying a number that would be a big average. That's literally all like to do. So 610. 72, 6, yeah, so 7 feet is, yeah, 84 inches.

Yeah, it's a tall team. They're playing a different altitude, AJ, that anybody since the 1970, 71 stat was created, AJ. That's a tough team to handle, especially in the good thing. I mean, is that always a great thing? Can they get back on D? I don't know. I mean, they lost. You're worried about them.

You know how tall, you know these big tall. You know what you watch in person. These guys are stopping and starting to get him back. Like it's, they are freak athletes. We know that for being 610. SGA put Kevin Durant in a little bit of a blender actually to get him to foul out. Kevin Durant fouls out of last night's game. He was bummed out too.

I appreciate it. He was great team. He was on. Yeah. Effort. Max effort. That's overtime too. That's a lot of max effort on there.

And then I think he was in SGA's head. He's like, oh, he's going for it right now. SGA goes, I don't think so. and then gets him bang and it's like you watch Kevin Durant damn like that's not good he walks out obviously team needs them and SGA just knocks those down

I mean that's just what's going to happen What did you think about how to Thundercrow Buda Kevin Deerey he kind of It seemed like he loved it And you kind of spoke about after the game saying like You know it's kind of in chess That's just them I love me

Obviously started there long time ago Long time ago A lot of teams ago Great run there obviously with Russ and Hardin And obviously everybody's had their own careers now Since you're kind of like the Shield aren't they? A little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Colleen Shield, Roman Reigns.

That's somewhere he might go back. Like, we were talking about LeBron's, the era where he might, you know, sit in the corner. Like if KD were ever to be in that era, it feels like, O.K.C. would be the place he would go back to do that. SGA? So Kevin Dress is sitting there? Like, it's a practice drill? She was 60%

in three. Think about that line up with, you know, it'd be Chet. Haruso dunking on dudes in the fourth, too. We know that. In OT, AJ. That was in overtime. That was the best. If you would have made that dunk, it would have been an earthquake in Oklahoma City. Like, this was so awesome. I mean, honestly, in his head right here, y'all, I'm going.

Don't care. You know, Caruso, we love it. We absolutely love it. Caruso has certainly found quite a home out there at Oklahoma City. They all have joining us now as a man who's found a home in the booth on Sundays. He's getting comfortable showing different looks, showing different styles. Ladies and gentlemen, a first ballot Hall of Famer whenever the time comes, a member of the bull ring of honor for the Houston Texans.

Oh, my God. Right, the last man. Hey, down there. Jeez, Louise. Not into that ring. JJ Watt. Jay, Jay, Jay, gosh. Holy shit.

You look so cool. I was prepared to come on and talk all nice about the Colts. I'm ready to talk nice. And then you just want to come in hot. Hold on. Speaking of coming in hot. Yeah. Get up.

Jeez, Louise. What? I had to look at the TV up here. Just get a closer look. You look so cool right now. You understand how cool you look right at what is going on here? Because I saw the glasses in the booth. Obviously, we've seen the hair come through a couple different things.

You said you were trying some stuff. Appreciate you guys having a good time. What are you just enjoying life right now? That's why you're doing it? I'm just messing around, man. I love it. These were $5 on Amazon. I've just tossed them on.

Just messing around, having some fun. And look at the hair. You got strong hair. I'm trying to Connor. Nice. Don't worry about the back, brother. The flow on the top is your strength, dude. Yeah, let's keep this look right here.

This is really good. You might even be able to take that son, bitch, up a little bit. You might be able to take that thing right over top. They're just, hey, you explore the space. You're doing a great job. We appreciate you. Let's talk a little bit. Did you watch any of the NBA games last night?

Do you have any takes on that? I watched a little bit of it. My son was rustling around a little bit in the bed, so I was bouncing back and forth. I saw the end of regulation. I unfortunately did not see the end of two overtimes. Monday night really buried me staying up till three in the morning watching the Texans game. That was tough to stay up and watch.

And we won't have to talk about the Texans anymore. I don't want to make you feel bad, especially with how good you look. But let's talk about the AFC South. Indianapolis Colts. I saw your tweet. I retweeted it. I don't know when you tweeted it, but I don't know. I just saw it.

And your breakdown is everything that we have been kind of thinking as well from watching this team at the Loud House. but I do appreciate you having a chance to learn about them, talk to them, watch a game, call the game, especially against a team I think we all respect in the Chargers. What are your thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts other than just this tweet? And they're for real, right? It feels like they're actually for real, Jage.

It's pretty incredible. You know, having heard about them all season long and finally being able to call one of their games, the offensive efficiency. I mean, I just sit up there in the booth and I'm watching as a coordinator. Let's say you're a defensive coordinator. like, okay, what's my game plan going to be here?

I have to stop Jonathan Taylor. No question. Number one priority. Okay, I'll stop Jonathan Taylor. Then they're going to run these play action schemes. They have Tyler Warren, who's just wide open all the time because of some of these schemes. Okay, so I got to stop Jonathan Taylor.

Now I have to stop Tyler Warren. Okay, well, Danny Dimes is also firing balls into Alec Pierce. He's got Pittman. He can do all these different things. Then they open up the screen game. The offensive line is blocking at an unbelievable level. AQ's talked about it already. They are just opening everything up for this team in the run game and the past game.

Daniel Dimes is not taking sacks. He's not even fazed by pressure in his face. He's delivering efficient throws when he has to and also crazy clutch, tough throws when he has to. This offense, I said it many times this week, this offense has no weaknesses. It is truly, truly impressive to watch. Yeah. Yeah. James!

Love what you're saying. So the AFC South is obviously the Indianapolis Colts. The entire AFC might be for the foreseeable future. But whenever you learn about this team, you know, we're going to have to pay Danny Dimes. And hopefully Danny Dimes understands that he wants to be here as well. You know, and hopefully that is how he feels. I assume he's enjoying his time here. I know the city loves him.

I know there was potentially a gathering this past weekend between maybe Pacers and Colts players. and I believe Danny Dimes was having beers with the boys which we like we like to see that we like to hear those types of things and it's like all the pillars that you're talking about all it. It feels like the vibes of this team

just vastly different. What do you think for the talking to them during the week that was a major theme so like these guys the offense gets together on Monday nights and watches Monday night football together all the position groups do their Thursday night dinners which a lot of teams do

but you could just tell like this team likes each other they hang out a lot they find time to get together Danny made a great comment about it's a little easier to get together in Indianapolis and it is in New York City

but he just talked about Tyler Warren came in and he's a guy's guy he just wants to be part of the hang he wants to be there and be around the guys and Boris Buckner was telling us about the Thursday night dinners

and how attendance has been 100% this year whereas in the past it hasn't always been that way the organization top-down, you can just tell everybody's loving it. Oh. Love to hear.

It stops playing a lot of us. Very. It stopped to play in a lot of us. Especially when you look that stinky. What did you think about those Charger jerseys? You know, I always got to ask you your thoughts on jerseys. What did it look like boots on the ground? All right.

All right. Let me break this down for you. So in the stadium, the end zone, the branding around the stadium. stadium, unbelievable. We all know the Chargers have 10 out of 10, some of the best uniforms in sports history. These are not it. These were not it. We made the Savannah Banana's reference. There's, it's just, it's off. There's too much yellow. They have so many great uniforms, so many great colors. That charger power sign in the background, awesome. The uniforms, unfortunately, were not it. I guess tomorrow night they're debuting a throwback on you.

Yeah, like the filthy old-school, dark blue, like bolts on the shoulder, Ladanian Tomlinson and all the highlights you see of him, they're wearing those tomorrow night. That's the equipment staff. Those will be good. That's the equipment staff in the charger saying the blue light from Men and Black. We got our fastball, dude. Don't worry about the minion shit.

Okay, don't worry about all that. And we lost in this entire thing. Oh, yeah. We still got, but us as fans think you guys got this in a chamber, What the hell are we looking at these yellow things for? Like, we hold the charges, I think, in such high regard when it comes to all these things. When they roll that shit out there, especially as a Colts fan, I was like, I was kind of looking forward to what you guys were. Yeah.

And you guys, dude, can't have this. We were in a facility. Remember they had all the, you know, all the different units, different areas? Fire, fire, fire, all. And they're proud of it. They took a lot of pride in that, as they should. So them rolling that. I think even white pants, like if they just went white pants, you just got to break it up.

You can't go full mustard bottle, you know. Let's got a hammer. Dot, what you say, Tom? Yeah, I just want to get ahead of this right now. Sunday night's going to be an absolute disaster class as far as uniforms are concerned. Steelers are going with a throwback with like brown, tannish uniforms with a yellow helmet against the Green Bay Packers and their yellow helmet. What? Sunday night's going to be horrendous.

I just want to get ahead of this now. I know. Trust me, I know. Yo, Packers, Steelers, why not have two of the most iconic uniforms ever on Sunday night football? Nope, we're going to go with the worst uniforms of all time. See you Sunday night. Okay, well, you know, the Packers hadn't won since 1970 in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. That's ass.

What are we doing here? This is what we're putting out there. Why are the Pittsburgh Steelers doing that? And then there's a chance that the Packers go out there looking like this. Yes, blood ball game for the Packers. They're going to wear the old leather helmets. I think they have like the brown leatherish tint helmets that they might be going out there. maybe with the Acme Packers uniforms,

but that just, you know what, that's the way Saturday Night Football should be. I guess most people are watching, let's put our worst uniforms out there, but nonetheless, Packers, Steelers, big deal. Also, Bears Ravens this weekend. You have that particular game. Ravens got rid of cornhole, ping pong.

They got rid of all... Video games. Allegedly, via report, they got rid of all fun. Cacuzi. All team chemistry building things. Get them out of here. A lot of distractions in the building.

Allegedly, this is a report. We do not know how much of it is exactly. real. I will say this as a person that was on a team that Chuck Pagano was the head coach of, and he was from Baltimore, and we bring big number 90, Corey Redding over from Baltimore.

They tried to turn our locker room into more of a Baltimore-style locker room. That's where I was introduced to Cornhole. So the Baltimore Cornhole thing with the Ravens, I think he's a big deal. I think it has been for a long time. You had never heard of cornhole? No, but

on that note, I never lost either once I learned about the game. So just, I don't know if that was good for the Midwest, that I learned this game in the locker room because you guys got a lot of meetings. I don't. Yeah, you got a lot of time. A lot of time.

Yeah, and once you get that little pizza toast, you know, that little turn that song bitch sideways, you can really start gauging that thing. And then once you start playing a little defense and then we're running this thing, oh, I got a climber two on this. You want me to go ahead and Larry Bird this thing? We can do that as well.

I got real good, too good, someone would say. And I didn't want everybody to know that because maybe they take the cornhole boards out of our locker room. But the Ravens are at the point where they're taking shit out of the locker room. Okay, that's not good. That's never a good news. This is a player's only meeting stage of things happening over there.

And then on the other side, the Bears, whoa, are they a real team? Good, better best, never let a rest till you're good as better and you're better as best afterwards. They're going crazy. What are your thoughts on the game you're about to call right now? Yeah, I mean, I think we're all waiting. It should be happening right now that Ravens practice

to see if Lamar is out there. I mean, before the bye week, it sounded very confident that he would be back out there for this game. Now you hear the press conferences at the beginning of this week. does not sound nearly as confident. So we're all kind of waiting to see what practice looks like today if he's out there because that's, I mean, we all know we've seen what that product has looked like the last few weeks without him out there.

He's former two-time MVP for a reason. Like, they need him back out there badly. And on the other side, the Bears, four-game winning streak, they're starting to look like what you would imagine Ben Johnson's vision is for this team. They're running the ball really well. Their offensive line is playing together. there. The running backs are seeing it, hitting the holes. Dennis Allen has that defense humming. They have turnovers on turnovers, on turnovers. T.J. Edwards comes back, plays really

well. Honestly, if they even continue to elevate Caleb's game to another level, there are much more things that can be unlocked for this team. So you look at it as a four-game win streak and you think to yourself, wow, they're playing really well. And then you turn on the tape and you're like, these guys could be playing even better than they're playing right now. Sound football, though, is what you're talking about whenever you say, like Ben Johnson. like tough sound football is what you're seeing from film i think there's a lot of run game he's really implementing that run game kind of that detroit like do take advantage of what you know you can control well i mean they have some really condensed formations they run a lot of shifts in motions

they have i believe it's the number one most explosive plays in the nfl the guy just really knows how to scheme and you can tell that the players are picking up on what he wants them to do and as you saw by the locker after the game, they're also buying in from an emotional standpoint. How about him the mic'd up of their score

and a touchdown, fourth down, he doesn't even... Psycho. He's awesome. He is a psychic. He's a psychic. Yeah.

That is exactly what he is. And I don't think we knew that. I mean, obviously we knew he was very good. He was the bell of the ball. We did not know he was a full football psychic. No. Had no idea.

Yeah, he had no clue. His walking into the Bears thing. Exactly. Us watching that now with what we know. Yes. Because we see his office. Gimmicks, people run all over the place.

This guy might be fun. This guy must be a good time. Now what we know about him, looking back on his first speech to the entire building, Jesus, he hated everything about it. Yeah, he hated every single thing about that. And we'd like to let Ben know, you might be the perfect guy for Chicago, brother.

And I think if you continue to win, they're going to love everything about it. They don't need you to be doing all the bullshit. We just want to win football games for the first time, long time. And if Caleb's bought in, there's a chance here. We've got something special brewing in the midway. Good for them. Thankful for them.

In the NFC North now, I was done. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, Ty. Uh-oh. Best division in football. It might be the best division in football, but now it also makes more sense looking back on maybe, like, his relationship with Dan Campbell and why it worked.

Like, Dan Campbell was like, this guy's a fucking psycho, man. I got to stay away from him. Like, you know, he's not a big tough guy like me, but I'm not fucking with this guy. Serial killer, Rod's over here. Serial killer guy. I respect this guy, man.

You can do whatever he wanted to do. Yeah, you can see they get along. Yeah, exactly. Chicago, interesting, you know, because they haven't had that, I think, for a long time. Him doing it. It's great. I can't wait to see you on the call. Jage, you've been doing great work in the booth, brother. We're not just bullshit, not just the funny photos in the Ash, JJ. You've been doing a great job calling games. We appreciate you. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Jage, you were mentioned the explosive offense that Chicago has, you know, a pivot to an offense that isn't been as explosive.

The New York football Jets. I don't know if you saw Woody Johnson, their owner had some comments. He was trying to defend the head coach Aaron Glenn. I don't know. You may, some people may, people may, say he kind of threw his QB under the bus, even though he may not have been lying when it comes to stats and performance, I guess. But how would you handle that? How do you think that goes in the locker room, I guess? Yeah, that was, it was interesting. Just because we all have eyes, we know what's kind of been happening up there. We know it hasn't been great. But for an owner to just pretty much explicitly say that the quarterback has been bad in the way that he did, it was that's not something you see very often and Justin Fields whether been playing great or not like he is very well liked in the locker rooms he's been in the players like him so it's when your owner says something like that it definitely is disgust I mean it's definitely something that people see and you just around the league people see that oh wow that's like even though whether he's bench whether he's not bench who knows what that situation is that is that is something that I don't I can't quite remember

member an owner saying something like that in the middle of the season while the guy's under contract, can you? No, no. I mean, Woody does a lot of Woody stuff. You know, it's pretty cool. Just as him, I mean, our coach is good. Yeah, the guy, 20 million a year up eight socks a quarterback. Yeah, so. Might be a Bill O'Brien situation.

Antoine Staley. Oh, yeah, that's a, my little fight to coach. Antoine Staley, New York Daily News reporter, says Aaron Glenn, when he was asked about the quarterback situation, we will have a quarterback. They will have a quarterback position. That's good. That's good for the sport. Good move.

That's good for the team. I think that's good. You kind of have to have somebody there at some point, even if it's the punter, you know, because the punner lines up, I guess, technically in the quarterback position every once in a while. And Aaron Glenn's letting you know,

we will take the field. Love that. With a QB. Aaron Glenn's trying to change. You talk about Ben Johnson. Obviously, they both come from Detroit where if you think about Aaron and Ben, oh my God,

and then MCDC, think about everybody thinking the same exact way about everything. Now you get dropped into a new building and they don't think like that at all. And it's like, got to do not just the team, not just the locker room. That's an entire culture shift. You got to do it a little building. Ben being able to do it as quick as he's been able to do in

Chicago and then what Aaron's going through in New York, do you think there is success on the other side with Aaron Glenn? It's really hard to say, man. I mean, I having been there, we did their first game of the year. We saw him in the preseason. I mean, we said he says all the right things. The buildings seem to buy in. He wants it to be football first. He doesn't want it to be the fluff, the media, anything outside the building. He wants it to be people. you're football first, they've had a really, really tough go of it here. There's no question about it. And yes, the quarterback play hasn't been great. Some of those first half, end of the half situations have been pretty wild. I mean, you have Garrett Wilson kind of questioning your own

decisions on your team. So that's where you start to see some cracks where you're like, oh, hang on a second here. Like, there's doing everything the right way and making sure we're doing it. And then when it comes time to implement it in actual game situations, if it doesn't go the right way, and you see players, captains, leaders start to question it. I've been in those before. We've all been in those meetings where coaches go over those situational situations where it's like, hey, at this point in the game, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're using our timeouts, and this is how we attack it.

And then all of a sudden you get in that situation, and they don't do it. And you're like, wait a second, why do we have that 45-minute meeting? The guy can't throw. We're trying to get to halftime. That's, let's see. So you got Garrett Wilson throwing everybody under the bus whenever he said out. I didn't know what the plan was. Then once I found out what the plan was,

I was bummed out about it. I was bummed out that was the play. Then he got the owner coming out saying, coach isn't the problem. You guys are looking at the wrong guy. That quarterback sucks. I mean, that's the best of the team. That's like the most.

It's a tough place to play, man, because it's just there's a billion eyeballs on you at all times. The pressure is so high. You have to win immediately right now. Otherwise, everybody gets pissed. You don't have time to develop or build that culture. So I have sympathy for that. but it's certainly been tough.

I also know if you win there, you're top of the world. Parades forever. Somebody's going to figure it out at some point. We hope there's more of this. We hope there's more of this over there for Aaron. Because that Jets job has sucked a lot of happiness out of humans and a lot of emotion and a lot of soul out of people. We hope that doesn't happen to Aaron Glenn.

Good luck over there, AG. Yep, good luck. Calvin Shepard's having a good old time in Detroit right now. He's running up and down the sideline yelling, and Aaron Glenn's over there like, my owner won't and a quarterback and a wide receiver, Jesus. Yeah, we have a quarterback. Yeah, we will play with a quarterback.

Tough spot. That's a different world. But hey, you're a head coach now. Now, let's talk about another pressure position. Being a Philadelphia Eagles player, just in general. Now, this Eagles team obviously has a lot of drama. But maybe they got a leader coming back. Go ahead, Con, man.

Yeah, Jay's Brandon Graham coming out of retirement and rejoining the Eagles. Last year, he was the one in the media, actually, that accidentally said something about Jalen. hurts and AJ Brown. So maybe there's a chance he's coming back in there to maybe, you know, heal the locker room and get them back on track. What do you think about this move? And now that you are, you know, this far away from coming back and all that shit after the first couple of years you were done, can you tell us what the closest time, your closest team you were to coming back,

if there is any at all? Yeah, I think this is great. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it. I'm happy for him. I mean, I know exactly how it feels. to be out and watching and like having that itch so i'm really looking forward to seeing him play and him getting that experience and just there's literally nothing like playing NFL football man it is the coolest best job in the world and no matter what you try and do in the real world you can never replicate that locker room that adrenaline that feeling of that competition there is nothing better so i'm happy for him i can't wait to see how he does i do think that they're you know the eagles are like it's crazy like you see him start out the year so well and then you see

him go through all this stuff and the media and everything and there's still a very good football team like we can pick them apart and everything but like there's still a very good team so maybe he's bringing it together and is the ultimate glue guy um but i'm just happy for him and then from my standpoint i mean it was never actually legitimately close the two teams i was watching always were the texans and the steelers um because it would have to have a real true significant meaning for me to have come back, and it just never came to fruition. Both those situations needed you, and you chose not to do it, I think. If I recall, if I recall, both those teams did need a possible path rusher named JJ Watt.

I think because we got real excited every time one of those situations popped up, hated that somebody got hurt, didn't like it. Actually, we thought there's going to be no injuries this entire season. Turns out we were wrong. You're going to be wrong whenever you're on daily sports talk or whatever the case. But we thought maybe you were going to go back to the Steelers. I mean, it was, it was like storybook shit was happening. T.J. and JJ and JJ getting introduced last as they're coming out on to Accruc Field.

I mean, doing the entire thing, doing all of it. I mean, that was like a potential possibility there. We thought with the way the roster was kind of constructed. And then the Texans, same exact thing. You were in the building, too. You're in the building. You're in the building. So you, I think, mentally, didn't want to deal with the Monday after the game.

I think I've heard you talk about that. Yeah, yeah. And I was very conscious of, like, the retire on retire thing for me. I made the decision to retire, I took a lot of time to think about it because I knew that I was most likely going to be a retire once and be done guy. So I didn't take that decision very lightly and I knew that it would take something unbelievable to get me out of it and that situation ever rose. I was always ready. I truly believe for two years I was fully ready at the end of two years I could have still gone back out there and played. Now this is probably the first year where

I would be like, you got to give me a legit three, three months to get ready if I need to get ready now. Okay, so you finally stopped training like an asshole? Is that what you're saying? A little bit, yeah. I mean, I still train like an asshole. I still train like an idiot. But I'm definitely taking an off day here and an off day there a little bit more off. Yeah, I remember when we were talking your first year retirement, it was like, what are you doing?

This is not what it's supposed to. No, yeah, yeah, I need to be able to walk in everyone, beat up everybody that I walk in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that whole line. And we thought you were a psycho. We're happy you're at the point where maybe you sleep in for a day or maybe take a day off, let the body recover. And we're also excited and thankful that you did a retirement and then you said, you know what, I did my shit.

And now we're just awaiting on the Hall of Fame. Because if you were to want back, that delays the Hall of Fame. Yeah, exactly, yeah. At the Lays the Hall of Fame another five years. BG, John Clark of NBC Sports over there in Philly is reporting that it's his understanding that Brandy Graham has been working out regularly over the last month or more to get ready for a possible return with an original playing, and possibly returning for the Green Bay game after the bye week.

It looks like it's been sped up. I'm told he's been ready and is in great shape. Okay. Bruce Brown's shaking his head. He thinks there's a little conspiracy cooking up back there, it feels like. That's New York Giants fan, Bruce Brown. Yeah, I haven't dug into how it works with the dead cap and the salary cap and all that, but I just know that Hallie Roseman's pulling some bullshit here.

Planned all along, all offseason to have him to show up after the buy. But, you know, Jackson Dart beats him and they got to speed it up. Oh, no. That is potentially the case. Let's get back to a team that obviously you know a lot about. You said you would have went and played there if that was the case. We are going to stay away from questions about the Houston Texans because of what I did early. But A. Kusch actually has a very good question about the dynamics potentially behind closed doors down there.

Yeah, the Texans defense is playing at a high level. Obviously, we saw that the other night with four takeaways. Is there ever a worry or a concern that there's some division between offense and defense in that locker room? I don't think there is in this locker room. I do think that there are teams where that's certainly been a part of. I think with this team, there's almost, it just seems like on the offensive side, it might be more like not 100% sure of exactly who they are, what they're trying to be, or what they're able to accomplish.

CJ was just under fire this past game. I mean, every single time there's guys coming right up the middle. he's running out he's running all around obviously he had the one where he ran back in the safety no safety situation but the offense just hasn't found their legs and whether that's joe mixon not being out there and not being able to establish what they want whether it's nick cayley not quite running things the way that everybody envisioned because like we've talked about before this offseason everybody was crazy excited about this offense they were really excited about the install and about what they would be able to do and it just hasn't happened whether it's laryn Tunsell being traded away.

There's just all sorts of questions and not a lot of answers. And I know it's very frustrating because people down here in Houston especially remember that rookie year for CJ and had big, big visions of what that was going to become. And switching offensive coordinators was supposed to be the thing that springboarded this team into the next stratosphere of legit Super Bowl contender with that defense they have. And it just has not happened. Yeah, it was tough to watch. I don't like what's been going on with the Texans,

even though, obviously, it's the Colts division now, but I don't like, because we were big fans of CJ and everything they were grown. We love D'Amico, obviously. Cicero's been very good to us. Obviously, the Houston fan base is fantastic. So we thought this was a time where the Texans were about to be great for a long haul,

for whatever reason they haven't been able to do it. We have some updates on some news that we have discussed here, especially for the game that you are going to be calling. Adam Schaefter's reporting that Lamar Jackson is practicing today, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, is practicing. And we also have, from source

cities, within the building, the report that it was the coaches or the coaches pulled out the toys from the locker room is false. Okay. That's huge. I was not looking forward to asking that question

in a production meeting. So I'm glad that we already take care of that. Seth never fun. Did the players do it? Yeah, were their moves, do? So the wording is, we got a text from the building. Okay, it says report it to was coaches that pulled out the toys from the locker room is false. So I don't know what the hell if that was the actual sentence.

Well, that whole article, I don't know if that was the same article or a different one, but there was like an article that came out that said like we talked to 25 players in or 25 people inside the Ravens organization during the biweek and this is what we came up with. That's, there's a lot of things there. First of all, 25 people in the organization singing like a bird is pretty crazy. Not good. I don't know. that's never good second you never know what kind of agendas are going on here because i think

part of the report was like we blame the offense more than we blame the defense and there's all sorts of so there's there's a lot to digest here now that being reported false which you never know with those types of things sometimes they're like we took it out for cleaning uh you know there's we forgot to put it back in this is this is the type of stuff that comes out when you're an expected super bowl contender and then you end up sitting there at one and five well and like if it wasn't the coaches and the players did it, that changes it, right? If the players made the decision to do something like that? Or is that the same? Anybody making the decision? It's terrible news. I mean, if we feel like we got to get to cornhole boards out of the locker room, that's

not. Because there is somebody in there that loves those cornhole boards, and they're now pissed, and then they're getting their group together that's like, hey, man, that guy's an asshole. He thinks that's why we're losing. Maybe he should cover somebody a little tighter on any man. Let alone the politics of who's voting to keep what in there. But also, Also, this is where people gather. Yeah. You know, there is shit talk happening in these moments. There is, let alone me, punter kicker, whenever everybody else is studying film.

And I've really, I've gone through every rep. You know, I got some time here to do it, let alone that whole aspect of it. But these things, these little places in the locker room or in the building, this is where people gather. You know, this is camarader. This is where people become humans. Ping pong table, even if you're not a ping pong player, there's a couple people playing. You'll stop by for 30 seconds, 45 seconds. have a little moment, keep it moving.

Even maybe potential gather entire team. It's like these are just little moments to provide moments. You know, mini hoop. Yeah, mini hoop is huge. Time to compete together. You get to compete, like, it's just more. It's great. It's, yeah, it's that thing where everybody's always like,

you need to be locked in on football. It's like, okay, you do not watch film or study your playbook for 24 hours a day. When you're in the building, not every single moment is in the meeting room. There are times where you are resting and relaxing in between. That's some of the best memories are those where you got guys dropping 20 bucks on who can make it into the garbage basket with their tape after they take it off. Yeah, 20 bucks. Those are the, yeah. I kept it low.

I don't know what the threshold is for whatever it's supposed to. Yeah, whatever it's going to pushups. Yeah, yeah, yeah. M&Ms, yeah, yeah. I've lost a lot of push-ups in my day. Yeah, I didn't expect somebody to make the Gatorade bottle shot that they certainly made. right there. Lost about 600 M&Ms on that particular

shot. We got another message. It was the veteran leaders that wanted all of the games out there. So it is out. Yes. So it is out. So the message was that the veteran leaders saw it was going on and there was too much I think the young players are abusing it or something?

Like, how's that work? I wonder. Too much chocularity going to. God damn kids in the video. Yeah, trying to play Fortnite all day in the locker room. It's like, hey, why don't we, you know, look at a coverage or something? Yeah, why don't we watch the film? Why don't we, man, that's tough because now you got leaders

and then now you've got a little segregation in the locker room now. And I saw a pretty important leader. Then do you have somebody saying, well, I don't agree with the leaders and then you're undermining leaders. Yeah, yeah. A lot of vets on their team, too.

It's not like a, you have obviously young players that play. Pagano might have been cooking everybody on the ping pong table. Was he cooking? Hey, they call him ping pong Pagano actually because of his ability to do it. they go out and dominate this week

and then every team is just firing ping pong tables out of their locker room. Everybody get out of here. See you later. Do the dolphins have a ping pong table? I don't know. Not enough of those to get out of the locker room, brother. I don't know if that's going to help them. They Steak

at football down there in Miami. We don't love that. What are your thoughts on that situation? Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, I mean, now that you brought it up, Jage, and you know, you're thinking about retirement, man, wouldn't that be a great place to go back for you this year? maybe come in, save the dolphin season. Listen, it's not great.

It gets worse every single week. They've said, hey, listen, we're not going to fire Coach McDaniel anytime soon. It's not imminent. Stephen Ross doesn't really care, it seems like. And boy, he's going up to the podium post game and saying, um, a lot. And that's really, people have kind of met their threshold with that, too, is throwing people under the bus. He's throwing two under the bus.

Just kind of what's your, what's your whole view of this entire dolphin situation? this is this is far past ping pong table territory um when you are doing it as publicly as they're doing it and and hiding it as little as they're hiding it uh it just makes you wonder what it's like behind the closed doors um because it's pretty wild how much stuff they're saying publicly and when you sit there and watch it and you just think to yourself you didn't have to say any of that like two didn't have to say what he said the other day the coach doesn't have to say what he says at the podium I'm like, you can stand at that podium and give coach speak and players speak answers. People do it all the time.

And you can handle stuff behind closed doors. So when it gets to the point where you are discussing these types of things in public, generally that means it has been pretty bad behind the scenes for a while. And clearly, it has to be at that point there. I mean, we all saw this team as a legitimate playoff team a few years ago and potential for bigger, bigger things. and unfortunately, it just seems to have unraveled quickly. Yeah, I think it has unraveled pretty quickly, and their fans have certainly witnessed it all kind of unravel in real time

alongside Gumpy watching this team. Will anybody ever be able to win in Miami? Why not? Because have you been, I mean, obviously you're JJ Watts, so I think you probably live and move a little bit differently than some people, but whenever you talk about a football team and the sum of its parts and everything that is available in Miami. I think it's a tough,

I think it's going to be a tough place to win. You're 72? I mean, that's true before the merger. Yeah, you're right. 1972, I didn't even think about it. But you can say that about, like, L.A.? L.A.'s got a lot going on. No, I don't think so, actually.

I think that's a little different story. Like, my aunt. Florida and California. This never sleeps. Miami never sleep. A lot of opportunities. Yeah. A lot of opportunities.

And a lot of places you think are nightclubs. They're not nightclubs. They're actually adult ballets. And then you walk in there. They're also serving you steak, and they're telling you he can be here until 7.30 a.m. And guys are like, well, I don't got a meeting until 8 a.m. So why don't I? Why don't I do?

I think there's just a lot of options down in Miami. I don't know. And I know the Miami Heat have been able to win. And obviously, we've learned Gilbert Aranis just gave a great quote, the neon, I believe, about what the lifestyle is of an NBA player and everything like that. Talk a little too much. A little chatty. Oh, I got to see that.

A lot of stories, a lot of stories coming in. It was a lot. He said a lot. I'm sure there's a lot of people. You, yo, yo, whoa, whoa, whoa. stop man he's just telling us we're learning from outside looking in i think miami's going to be tough to win and then we go back to what tyreek hill said after the season last year tyreek was done with this shit last year yeah and everybody like kind of buried tyreek for

it and then now the season's happening and tyriek's like that's what i was saying this this place sucks it might be a reverse dan campbell situation too i mean obviously they never knew what he was going to turn into but like he was their interim head coach a couple years ago like he was in their building they could have i mean if he gets that job to things change, you know, and do they stay the course a little bit more, but they were like, this guy's a fucking dip shit. Get him out of here. I don't know, man. Detroit

and Dan Campbell were the perfect marriage. I agree. I agree. I agree. I'm everything. Like, I don't know if it, maybe he does, maybe, but I do think you have to have the right mentality and infrastructure for that to happen. And we always have to remember what happened in his first year. Like, you had to be able to weather

that storm. And I just, I don't know if it's the same situation in Miami if he is able. to do that. You mentioned Miami and the Miami Heat in particular. One of the first things you think about when you think about the Miami Heat is Pat Riley in the heat culture. And that's

why even being so opposite of what most NBA franchise at least from the outside of the end, it's like, hey, I mean, shit, ran LeBron out of town because of some damn cookies, you know what I mean? Like that's Riles. We heard U.D. talk about him every time he came on the show. So that type of structure, obviously what's going on

with the Panthers, obviously a very different culture just in hockey in general. But that style of leadership from the top down, Coach Murray, Zito, all those guys. So you definitely have to have the structure from the top down. And you look at coach, once again, we're not in the building day in the day out. But you hear a lot of people that have been around football for a long time. The way they talk about Mike McDaniel, they'll be like, hey, that's the complete opposite of what you need, especially in a place like Miami.

So, yeah, it's a lot of, it's going to be tough to win down. He would have had to have won a lot. And they were starting out good, but all your shit that you do that they love whenever you're winning, hate whenever you're not. Which brings us to Russell Wilson. Greatest tweet he's ever sent. I mean, let's ride, uh, Mr. Unlimited. You're talking about a guy that's giving us a lot of catchphrases. Okay, he's giving us a lot to the internet. His greatest work might be a tweet that just had no context, was just sent out there saying, hey, you know who I'm talking about. Okay. And I think this is potentially Jackson Dart, Scadaboo, maybe even dayball. Say, hey, listen,

you're, we can't just be sitting here letting this shit happen. Like I, I, I, I, I, I understand that you are like super good guy all the time and high road all the time. You're Russell Wilson, bro. Super Bowl champ. Get the hell out of here with this whole thing. Then you probably got Jackson Dorp push him a little bit. This guy is a bounty, remember, and Scadaboo's like, you fuck this guy. You know, there's probably a little bit of a motivation happening.

And Russell Wilson says, yeah, you know what? Send it. First time, we have seen Russell Wilson do this, legitimately. And I want to let him know we love it, Jage. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I mean, I'm great with defense. yourself against a just seemingly out of nowhere

unnecessary shot. So yeah, nothing wrong with that. What I'm focused on right here now is that's a weightlifting glove type look on the right hand there with the fingers cut off. I had never seen that before. It's thicker. It's thicker. Dangerous.

Yeah, it's thicker. I had not, I did not know that we were operating in that wet bandits. Love. Yeah, that type of character. That is wet bandits. That is a good call. Yeah, because you need those fingertips. you have a control, but, you know, you need the thickness of the weightlifted account to keep it warm. Now, granted, it is certainly going to be a different feel of the ball than what you're used to

because there's a layer of warmth there in between. Maybe that was the reason why him and Sean Peyton really didn't get along. Sean Payton saw the glove say, this guy sucks, his fingers pulled. We were just talking about, like, when stuff gets public, how, what it must have been like behind closed doors. Like, I mean, this is a, your team's doing great. They just won a big game. like they're in just a shot out of nowhere towards new york city like why like there had to be some stuff going on behind the scenes for that to still be in the back of the mind after all that

i love russell welson responding love hey russ if this is the new you we're happy about it keep it going and jage if this is the new you with the glasses and the hair just know that we love it brother keep going we appreciate the hell out of you thank you i appreciate the hell out of you What's behind you there? What do we got behind you? There's a lot of stuff, like, perfectly placed, it seems. That's the cleats from the game I played after my son's, my son was born, two sacks. Not a big deal, co. Right after he was born. My wife, this is a book from, well, family vacation, all of us, the ball. My son got me a father's day gift. I can't figure out the point for my life.

Over you. Yeah, you did it four times. You got the wrong side. No idea what's going on. I didn't close. Ladies and gentlemen, JJ Wong. Hail to James. You know every once while you put those glasses on, you kind of lose your sense of direction.

Yeah? That is something on a camera, though, whenever you're trying to. You'll see me just get, like, kind of caught in the middle. I'm trying to go up into the right. Is it that way? Well, in me, it's actually up into the left here, but on the camera, it's up into the right.

Jage had quite a moment there. Before we get out of here on ESPN, we need to do some takeaways, okay, from week seven of the NFL season. Age, this is. some great segs, is it not? Great, unbelievable sags, we've been having, yes. We haven't had an unbelievable

segs, have we not been? Great segs every week. Yeah, we've been doing a lot of segs around here. Best segs in my life. I love good segs. Me too. We do love good seagments. You're talking about segments. Correct. That's not what it sounded coming out of here about. You need

to know that, AJ. So, let's talk about your, wide shams do that to you. I don't like it. But let's take your big three takeaways coming out of week seven of the NFL season from AQ Shipley. Let's start in San Francisco. Block party in the bay. Oh, it's a party, it's a party, it's a party.

Love that. Let's just talk about Kyle Eusecheck and George Kittle being back on the field together for the first time since week one. And let me tell you, Kyle Shanahan had all his toys back. Would you ever use a foolback to block a five technique defensive end? No. No, never, right? Let's send Kittle out.

Eusecheck cut off the defensive end. Christian McCaffrey right up the middle. Damn. Big time play. Big time from him. Yeah, I get him to a third and short there. That's pretty good. Pretty awesome, right?

Let's take a look at this one. Kyle Eustack here on the left. Look at George Kittle on the backside. Chasing down the backside safety. Look at Trent Williams. Use check out in space. He got all his toys. The operation was up and running.

All the shifts, all the motions, all the eye candy. Take a look at. Use check again. Fake? Nope. Bring it back. That's nasty. That's pretty sick.

Now he's able to run his full operation. First down there for the San Francisco 49ers. CMC got 63% of the yardage for the San Francisco 49ers, the most by any player of the NFL season. That was a Hembo stat. They're special over there when they can run the rock, obviously, and George Kittle and Kyle Eusecheck helped that. There was a time in the off season, I think this got brought up the other day,

where they weren't going to bring back Eusecheck and then to get the deal done. He's a vital piece of that entire process. He's everything. That's the whole reason why I brought this up. With him and Kittle there, they can do everything. And sometimes it's opposite sides, sometimes it's together. but the fact is by having them there they're interchangeable they can do all the shifts all the motions

all the things I mean I remember a couple years back you said if you want to know where they're running the ball you got to follow use check use check is literally going to take it to him that's why they do the pump fake on the what's that called an orbit motion and he sold it with the tilt like hey I'm called yeah well you can kind of call it that orbit would go behind the quarterback what's that one called

it's really just a fake like he's just selling like he's going across it and if you notice can we run this back real quick absolutely when he goes when he goes like he's going across the formation watch what it does to the linebackers and that sets up the block for Trent Williams. Leverage. Bingo. Now Trent Williams has leverage.

That's an easy block. Anytime you snap the ball while the player's in motion, it always mess with the defense. Because the conversation a couple weeks ago, like leverage. Everybody's trying to get and win. Start the boss over. Exactly. Oh, no, Bo.

We got a bow, actually. Bo means like reduced. And then Trent will punch a guy in the face as well, which is always good, AJ. You're off balancing and he's going to punch you in the jaw. That's good. Welcome to Football, Baby. What's your second takeaway coming out of week seven of the NFL season?

money time Micah and here's why he is the closer every single time in the fourth quarter you need a play it's coming from him they were supposed to chip there he recognizes it does the old Reggie White hump move inside gets the pressure

this is in the fourth quarter guess what next very next play let's get the sack let's go up and around Jonah Williams tough day I know I saw it watched it live push pull gets that it's 20 to 20 right now in the fourth quarter they're driving on the eight yard line

need a touchdown they don't They get a field goal, and then Green Bay goes down, scores a touchdown, and they win the game. What you say, AJ, slingshots himself? Slingshot push, pull. Like the AQ said in the last one, that was a great dip and rip there. Punch him and then use his momentum and throw yourself into the quarterback. This is why you paid him in Green Bay, right? I mean, this is literally the reason.

Watch your match for the last sack. That's exactly what. That's why he trade for and pay this guy. Help me. He single-handedly won in the game. Like, I remember, you know, and I was texting a little bit with AQ, and he just said, like, yeah, once he moved over, to Jonah Williams' side. Like, it was blouses.

All right, let's go to the last takeaway from AQ shipping coming out of week seven of the NFL season. Stafford's still spinning it. Yes, he is. This time in London, AQ's quickly. Yeah, let's look at this first one real quick. We are going to get hit in the side of the head. Let's just sidearm it to the back of the end zone touchdown.

Damn. Go to the next one real quick. We've got to fade to Devonte Adams. Incredible what he's able to do here. Just one step. Throw it perfect. Only he can catch it. Wow.

Matthew Stafford got drafted the same year as me A. Q. Shipley and Darius J. Butler. He's in London at 9.30 a.m. spinning it all over the place. I'm worried about maybe getting a hemroy while I'm pooping. That's the difference in lives. That's the difference in greatness. Matthew Stafford is elite, brother. And that was incredible. Hey, thank you for your takeaways. We'll be back tomorrow as week eight of the NFL season kicks off. You're the greatest people on earth. Goodbye. I just had it. We had like 34 seconds here. I think you did a great job of Justin. You could sense the urgency. NASCAR. NASCAR, NASCAR. You kind of did your thing.

Waving the towel. We were coming in. You did a great job there. Running straight off the field, not trying to get in everybody's way. Because you don't want to hit the kick or you want to get the hell out of the way. Don't go at an angle. Because they're coming at an angle. That's situational football. Let's go back. You said bow is something. What is a bow? What is a bow call? What is that? Like, if you boss, your boss and you're all like take it your stepping strong. Okay, we're moving over strong or say, say the safety comes down here.

We want to boss, boss this way. Like watch. Okay, boss, boss, boss, oh, here we go. No. Actually, we need a bow back to where we were. Okay, so actually... But look, it does. AQ said, I'm sorry, again, like, there's a lot of good things on here, but it does. It sets up these guys' blocks,

so they just got to... It takes those linebackers. It already gets them out leverage. Boom, you're setting up the box down the field. Yeah, and we started seeing this in the last few years of offense coordinators designing plays to set up blocks. And Niners are the biggest proponents of that.

They use their shifts in motions to set up plays down the road. So that right there, you think he's going across, and then he runs the crack toss. And then later in the game, they're going to do that, and they're going to stop. He's going to cut. defensive end. Kittles coming as the second puller and they're running two tight end counter.

Then the next time they're going to start like that. They're going to stop them and then send them the other way. Like there's a million and then there's a play action off of it. There's so much they build off of it. And then AJ, if you put the clip back up there, the boss, the S and the boss is that to the run strift and the bow is to the weak side. Yeah.

Okay. Usually boss strong bow week. Yeah. So you don't have to say it. A boss boss, Bobo, Bo, Bo. And he already tells you which way you're going. Gotcha. Yeah. And S strong bow, it obviously doesn't anything strong. Strong side, weaks, legs, arms, strong side. You guys doing all that type of stuff. And all Shanahan and you checker doing is just big brain and the shit out of you, just puppeteering. God, we need you all to shift this way. Thank you. It's going to be hard for us to get you if you

just stand there. Thank you. Let's go ahead and do us. And we got Christian McCaffrey is more explosive than all your guys. It's amazing what this- You've got to work it though. Sorry, you've got to work it and you've got to be good at it because if not, it looks like poop. If you're trying to run all this pre-shift motion, shift all and then all of a sudden you're getting TFL's every play. Oh, cool, nice. Why don't we just line up and play, buddy? So, yeah, you have to be very, very good at it.

The timing of it, all you're saying, very well rehearsed. Oh, they've repped that a billion times. Like how many times have they repped everything? I would imagine walk through his practice, everything. This is why it's so good. And you can ask BA when he's here next week because most teams around the league, when they get to Thursday, when they get to Friday, it's mostly passed because it's a passing league, right?

Every single run period, every single pass period, doesn't matter what period they're running in practice. they're getting eight out of ten of them as runs and they're constantly working on it that's why it looks so good. And that's something that like we do forget right now with Miami. Like McDaniel revolutionized the whole motion thing

when he started doing that sprint out and maybe that only works the players like Tyree Kill and Jalen Wadle but that's another thing with those motions that just completely changed the game like you mentioned like setting up blocks. It felt like Miami was unbelievable at that for a while and you know it started in San Fran. They started blur in the lines with the motions.

Big time. The Miami Dolphins offense started blurring the lines. And that's why there's so much promise. So much. And so much hope. And so much optimism. Oh, man, it's going to be impossible to stop.

It's also impossible to learn as a quarterback. If Tua goes down, we are fucked. Oh, yeah. Completely. And if Tua ends up not playing well, we are fucked completely. And our culture, boy, it's splintering quickly. And our head coach just,

Get me out of here Yeah, he doesn't give a fuck What? He cares? Not anymore. He's done. You don't think so? No. Side-eye and Quinn Eurs, is it for you? You think that was it when he was cold? It was rainy. He was 60 mile an hour wins.

Quinn Eurs is playing the game. Okay, great. And he does ass and he jogs off and he's side-out. You think that was the moment where McDaniel sound dumb is? That was part of it. I think it might have been after the game when he had the presser and that person put out the super cut of him just saying, uh, and he, I mean, he knew what kind of. of questions he was going to get asked and he was like fuck it

I'm just going to go up and say on a bunch I don't care or the internet does that wasn't AI we don't know there's a chance there are a couple you know doubles in there yeah they could double them up when I rewashed there was a couple double ups but it was still accurate yeah good at it I mean especially

with how similar they all signed exactly there was also a moment in the game where I think two or through a pick and like the offense is kind of like kind of you know moseying off the field he's like fuck off the field yeah here's a clip, actually. It's like a half a second here after you got to wait for it. Not yet.

They'll show two a first after the pick, obviously. Not good. It's 24-6, fourth quarter. Things have not gone well. The weather stinks. Too is not, get the fuck off the time. You're done. He is not happy. He's not happy. So he's still invested. He cares.

How do those team meetings go? AQ? How do you think like, how do you bring the juice as a coach for team meeting? It's really tough to sit up there every single week and be like, boys, hey, this week, we just got to be one and oh. week one and oh you know it's tough it's really tough i mean i don't know especially when you're starting to lose all these games especially when you lose a bunch of games in a row you lose the locker room and then you start to see what's happening outside of the locker room in the press

conferences it's tough they need to get at kennywood yeah they're a bad idea sure yeah you see this it's always a good time oh i see the shirt did uh it was Kelsey's company investing in kennywood or what no bruce brown had all wrong okay Bruce brown said yeah why would they There's no way they're putting any money in that place. Seems like Travis Kelsey's saving Kenny World. Shut the fuck up, Bruce. It's Kenny Wood. It's not Kenny World.

But Travis Kelsey, I believe, is an investor in Six Flags, and he's looking to make it almost as good as Kenny Wood, right? Is that kind of what you read, Bruce? Yeah, that is correct. I believe they purchased a 9% stake in Six Flags, and the stock was up 18% on the news. Yeah, I believe his focus on the Cedar Point location, to kind of restore it to his childhood

glory. But I just figured, you know, they would just, you know, maybe acquire Kenny World and in the aftermath of the deal and get that shit going, you know, as a six flags. That's a good idea. This motherfucker. Don't believe it, Bruce.

Now, this is very cute. That's very cute. I love that the Kelsey family is classic Cleveland family. I like that they are going to the amusement pork. I like that they're doing the six flags. I like that they're doing the entire thing. I love that he's invested I appreciate the fact that Travis knows

what's good for a community and what's not good for a community. I appreciate that he's trying to make things better and also be a businessman going forward. With that being said, you're saying Kenny World as natural as you've been saying it and he's a fucking stop. Okay, that's a great name actually.

They should have potentially named it that. We don't need everybody to know that Kenny Wood's not the right name because Kenny owned the Woods and it's Kenny Wood, you know, just like the Italians drop the final sound there, just get rid of the S for the Woods and just keep it as Kenny

would. And just know that Travis, Kelsey, he might have invested in some other amusement park dump that needs saving. Kenny Wood's just fine. Okay, Kenny was just fine. We had that cinder block underneath that one roller. Yeah, yeah. We don't have that picture up anywhere can pot it up. That was really good. Oh, you got to. OSHA certified, no question. Definitely. It's a strong cinder block. It's from Pittsburgh. That fucker's ready for it. That thing is built for it. Don't you worry about any. Did you hear about the racers? No. I was on them this summer, though. Oh, buddy. Brave men. Should I have not been on?

It's Kenny, well, you're safe everywhere. Of course. This ain't one of those a high places. But yeah, they put a center block

underneath one of a roller coaster. Somebody found it took a picture. It looked certainly sketchy. It certainly looked like it was right around the bend. But they said, don't you worry about it. We got the mechanical engineering

all figured out. These things are taking care of themselves. That thing's not feeling any pressure. And I went over the potato patch and I fucking believed them. Then I want ever to know his arc. I said, well,

this thing's just the same as it was whenever I was growing up. It's amazing. I rode the Jack Rabbit. and I took my seven-year-old daughter with me, and I told her, I said, hey, listen, this first little dip, we're going to go down. It's going to go up. We might lose you.

So just, we're going to hold on real tight. I mean, I had her in a full-tailed head look, and I thought I was going out too. You're talking about the whooom-de-win of the Jackdove? That's the whole purpose of the Jackdrow. You're hop, hop, you know? I do appreciate it. It was cool when I was 12. As a 39-year-old man holding a seven-year-old daughter, I thought we were gone.

See, that's a kind of difference. Also, this was fond. Okay, this was fine. Oh, Facebook log out. Geez, Bruce. Bruce just got booted by, is that by Zuck? Just kicked you out. Here it is.

One Berg's post here. No way. What's wrong with that? Really, really sturdy. There's a lot of hills in Pittsburgh. What the fuck do you want these guys to do? That's how we were thought to fix stuff, bro. Exactly.

What is that? You know, whenever you're at a restaurant and the table's a little wobbly, you obviously put Splenda under one of the fucking corners. That's exactly what you do. That's what they do with a roller coaster. Smart. one burg knows they appreciate it now I don't think they should have let humans on the outside see that

no definitely not that was their mistake they obviously put up a board here nobody can see it anymore and we move forward and on that note Kennywood doesn't need saving because it is thriving has QB won Ben to Kennywood yet he was at the Penn's game last night

it's a hockey night in Pittsburgh obviously Keith's kind of great promo Will Hires out there with the boys I assume Aaron Rogers want an experience Kennywood I don't think you really go to Pittsburgh and not do that I don't know. Hard to imagine that.

What are you talking about? The swings, the best swings in the entire country. I mean, these things go fucking way out there. They hit up Phantom Fright Nights after the game last night. I talked to. Okay, so they went by Fright Nights, which is obviously a legendary time to be at Kenny Wood, which could also be called Kenny World,

because the entire world of happiness kind of resage right there. So let's get to a break on here. I would do another college football convo with Stanford Steve. Oh, yeah. Just reminding you that Kenny Wood is getting more expensive and they're not really adding many things. need you. Now more than ever. Bad.

Just for maintenance. Free parking and food. Deep milk. No. No, no. Oh, that's done? From what I've been told. It was an expensive day. Okay. Like 15 bucks? As it should be. The whole day was expensive. I think whenever you pay,

you don't really know how great it's going to be. So you often wonder, well, that's a lot of fucking money per person. What is this place? Is this Disney World? Even better. It's kidding. Yeah, if we're paying that much, I want to kick Kenny Kangaroo in the dick. You could do that. He's around. Boom. Do you see him? Do you take a picture with Kenny Kangaroo?

I didn't. He's a little creepy look. He kind of looks like a tube sock a little. Yeah, he's got a little bit of that in. But there might be a new Kennyaroo. Yeah, you don't know. Because Kenny would? Brand new. I'm John Quignores.

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Shipley is here. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. No, I've been seeing up. Allergies, though. Allergies are they come for everybody. I'm taking allergy pill this morning. Yeah.

See your night. Can I get a heads up whenever it's time to do that? I'm new to this entire thing. I told you you can't miss days. I said you've got to start it and you got to ride that fucker through December. Yeah, but you know I'm not used to this being my life. So maybe a ride. reminder every once in a while, especially on a day like today where it sounds like it was

pretty obvious. And I got big time sneezes, happened in the middle of hour threeses, starting it with Stanford Steves. I don't like anything about any of this. I get it. See, but personally, mine's more towards the sniffles. You know, I'm not going to be sneezing from the allergies. I'm just going to be... Which is even worse. Exactly. Exactly. So if I, if I sense that tomorrow morning, boom, I'll text you at 5.30. Please. Let you know. Internet doctors actually told me that's bad for your immune system. We can take all that vitamin C in medicine. Really? Yeah, that's what I was...

Now, I heard immunity is what you're talking about here, bud. Okay, but you're allowed to add some PEDs to your herd if you want, like we've been seeing up over there. What are you, you're telling me that that's been a waste of mind? I'm just relaying the message that was given to me. Don't listen to that. He doesn't know fucking shit. Does anybody?

About anything. Yes, there's one man, two men, actually, that know about college football. And we get a chance to chit chat with them every single week. One of them is live from Hammer, down, time in AP Town, who's a published college football author multiple time. And another is Amat, who's on the Game Day set. He's also with SVP every single night whenever they have a show.

Four nights, well, when do they? It's a good question. Steve's always on a road. Because always on TV. Yeah. Always on the road. And always keeping us updated on what games we need to be paying attention to coming into the weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another college football convo with Stamford.

Steve. Steve, like you take your allergy medicine? I guess it's that time of year, even though Ty's keeping that shit tight lip. I don't know if I'm on the same medication as Ty. I don't know if I'm in that tear. But yeah, the runny nose dripping like a faucet season is here for sure. Yes, it is.

And we will survive. We will certainly get through it. But I've been vitamin C in to try to combat against this. And then all of a sudden we got a Yukon educated man coming over here saying, that ain't doing nothing for you that's actually hurting you. I don't like that one bit. drink your water and get the rest. Yeah, I understand. Ice and Stim. I get it. We will certainly figure that out, okay? I will hammer the water. Let's talk about this weekend. We have the

incredible opportunity to head down to Nashville and celebrate this Vanderbilt University football program that has obviously come through the ashes and now is a powerhouse in college ball, not just in the SEC. They're hosting Missouri. What are your thoughts on this game and how should we be viewing it before heading down there? Fired up to go down to Nashville. And after watching Vanderbilt for our lives, they had never been favored over an SEC ranked team until last week. And now this week there again. So after never being a favorite, two weeks in a row, they're a favorite. After that impressive win over LSU, obviously Pavia is the story, the face of that team. He's fourth in the Heisman rankings now around 10, 11 to 1. But, you know,

Missouri played their first road game last week, looked a little vulnerable. Didn't run it as well as they have in their home games. Still good against the run. Both these teams are top 12 against the run. So to me, it's whoever shuts down each other's run games. Pobby's just been insane on third downs and keeping his offense on the field. And that was in full, full vision last week against LSU with him converting third downs, fourth downs. They're over 56% on third down, which is top two in the country, I believe. So that's the story to me is what the defenses bring to this game in what should be a hotly contested ranked matchup in Nashville. Tone, whenever Vandy LSU was on the board, Nick Sabin said,

I know that Vandy's good and their favorite for the first time in 575 games or whatever the case is. It is just hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that LSU is going to lose the Vand. That's literally what Sabin said. Sabin said, I've just been around too long. I am sorry. I have respect for their team, yada, yada, yada. I just can't see it. This team not only last year, obviously, had a big time run with the NIL transfer portal.

They got even better this offseason feels like Vandy feels great. Now, they lose the Bama. Obviously, people are going to talk about that. But another opportunity to prove that they're for real tone. Is that what you're thinking as well? Yeah, last week with LSU, I disagreed with Coach Saban. That was strictly because LSU does not have an offense at all. And I was favoring Vandy because Pavia is going to score points.

They're going to get rushing yards. Steve talked about these two teams. They both can stop the run, and they both can run the football. The difference here for me is Pavia over Pribula. And it's not that Bo Pribula is bad. Pavia is just him with a little bit more moxie in my mind. And Mizzou is definitely better than LSU in my mind because they can score points and LSU cannot.

And the defense is really good. But I think the difference in this game, Steve talked about being in the top five in the Heisman race now is Diego Pavia and Tim Beck, the offensive coordinator of Vandy. It's his second year here. He came with Pavia. So second year for everyone.

in this offense down here. So I think they're going to continue to get better on offense. But Pavi is a difference for me. AJ, special story in Nashville, dude, these last couple years for this Vanderbilt team. It changes everything, literally. Like, they're talking about the projections and expected people that are going to come through game day. And obviously, there's multiple sites visited and everything like that.

And there's people in South Dakota State that are pissed off about us not going out there. And I just learned from the internet that that was actually six years ago this weekend that I had the opportunity to be the guest picker out there in South Dakota State. That place was fucking awesome. Go big. blue go jacks but down there in vandy obviously anytime our show is mentioned as something that people want it's a big deal it's like hey this is the biggest game of the weekend this is conversation about your program this is spotlight of everything you're doing because of how the football team is

last year could have been just a kind of a you know a flash in the pan and said they've continued to build on it great for the university AJ I think it's a beautiful thing when sports can do this for somebody or something oh it's awesome yeah their team is awesome I mean it starts with Diego we know that it's unbelievable when you think about the impact that one player can have. And I understand, like, the others, there's studs all over the place. But when your quarterback is a guy that plays this well, but also has that kind of personality, I think, that makes them very, very easy to root for. It's, it's ridiculous. If you think about the money that he has brought into that universe, just by being a great football player and seemingly a great

person. Now, Vandy, obviously, good school, everything like that. Pavia alluded to that in his interview with us. Like, everybody thinks he like, high academics, yada, yada, yada, yada. He said, we're a gritty group down here. We are a gritty group. And their coach seems to be the perfect fit for the guy to be the head coach of this particular team. Ty has a question for you, Steve, as we wrap up this particular game. Yeah, Steve, maybe this is out there, and I just haven't seen it, but why isn't Clark Lee's name being mentioned for a lot of these, like, open jobs, you know, he's obviously got a pass with Elko. He was the DC at Notre Dame. I think people are finally starting to realize, like, oh, wow, this guy is actually really good. I know he played

at Vandy, but, like, why isn't he right up there, you know, being mentioned for, like, the Florida job or the Penn State job or any of these other big jobs that might open up. Well, I think with the Penn State job, tied, they don't want to look at another Vanderbilt head coach coming. Fair. Franklin came. And I think there's a little bad taste in their mouth right now

there in Happy Valley. But no, I agree with you. I just think he's made it known how much he loves his school and what he's built there. I mean, people are going to bring back the old press conference. I think it was from 22 when he said the goal is to have the best football program.

in the country and I think there's just a lot of stability there's a lot of foundation he's built you know with the stadium being redone and he's made it known that I mean you look at what Signetti did and putting his boots on the ground and getting you know extension after extension

I think Clark Lee is more than happy to take one of those to stay at Vandy in a place that he loves so much you think about Dillingham out of Arizona State too you kind of think the same thing like this guy just loves the program loves the area loves everything about it so there is still some you know love of program, love of sport

happening in this massively business world because if, you know, some of these schools come in with an offer, like, hey, $96 million was just paid by Indiana to Signetti. So now there's a comp. Like on what, to not go to Penn State what the deal is, you know? So if some of these places can't keep up

with those big checks, push comes to shove, love the place, love the school. Do you love them? $30, $40 million difference? Do you... How much do you... You know, that's an interesting dynamic for a lot of these guys.

And players, too, are having the same exact situation at a smaller level for the amount of money going different places. It's a wild time. Now, we had two undefeated SEC schools before this past weekend. Texas A&M now, the only undefeated SEC school. Ole Miss loses the Georgia.

They got a big one this weekend, and so does Oklahoma. Your thoughts on this matchup, brother? Yeah, I know AQ talks about. leverage all the time, Pat, and we got a playoff leverage situation here with this looking like an elimination game for Ole Miss in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a little bit of favorite. You see that four and a half. But the probability of these teams right now is below 50% to make the playoff. With a win, the numbers, the math, the analytics, whatever you want to call, the stuff

I can't comprehend, says both teams get over a 60% chance. Oklahoma's got a tougher remaining schedule. But this is a monster spot for Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin, you know, being that close last week and then just getting a given to them in the fourth quarter. You know, they only had three possessions. I don't even think they had a first down in like 13 yards. It didn't go well. And you saw, we talked about last week about, you know, this game, the Georgia game against Ole Miss. And I talked about Georgia being more, having more depth amongst the line of scrimmage. I felt like you saw that in Old You know, they weren't the same team in the fourth quarter as they were, the first three quarters.

And on the other side, you got Oklahoma who had to go to South Carolina, get a much-needed win. Mateer looked a lot better. The defense is as good as it gets in the country. So this is a test of good, I should say, very good on very good. When you talk about Ole Miss's offense against that Oklahoma defense, that's the matchup that everybody wants to see. It's a matter of what Ole Miss defense looks like going on the road and going against Matier. who got things back on track after looking rusty in that Red River game. Ton, what are your thoughts on this matchup here being a playoff decider,

basically here going into week nine of the college football season? Yeah, I agree with Steve, especially for Oklahoma. They can't lose anymore because their schedule is still so hard going out. Ole Miss with two losses, if they lose this one, their schedule is actually pretty easy going down the stretch. So I think they still may have a chance with two losses at the end of the year, depending on if it's an SEC championship game or not. But I love Oklahoma's defense, and this is by far the best defense

that Ole Miss is going to be playing so far this season. They played LSU's defense, but it was at home. They scored 24 points, which was their lowest total of the year at that point. And Oklahoma last week, for the first time all year, ran the ball. They ran for 170 yards. Ole Miss has the 100th ranked rushing defense in the country. So with Mateer and running game at Oklahoma with that defense, I tend to lean towards Oklahoma in this one.

Let's look at the Oklahoma Sooner's schedule just got pulled up here by Bruce. They got Ole Miss and then they got number, number, number, number down the stretch here. Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri, and then LSU. Now, a lot of people are saying, well, just because there's a number next to a team, does that mean they're actually good or is there an SEC bias? You know, because the Alabama stat that they won four straight ranked games for the first time in history, I saw everybody from outside the SEC go ranked teams.

Yeah, they're ranked teams in this entire thing. So I think a lot of people are wondering who's who in this entire college football world that we're living in right now. But nonetheless, Oklahoma has a lot of opportunity to win their way back into the college football playoff conversation if they were to lose this game. But if they lose this game,

they got a lot of potential Ls around the corner as well for Venables. Yeah, it's week nine, so I put a little bit more respect on those numbers now. It's not like that number that was next to Penn State before the season started. I respect it a little bit more, but what do you think about the number next to Oklahoma? That minus four and a half, Steve. I guess it's for Steve in a tone.

What do you think about that number? Good, or what do you think? I thought it was good, and then I looked at this stat. Listen to this one. Top 10 teams are 2 and 15 against the spread when an underdog against a lower-ranked team. This was Ole Miss last week against Georgia, and that to get them again this week. It's 0 and 6 this year when you look at that. Top 10 team is a dog to a lower-ranked team.

Oklahoma versus Texas, Illinois versus Indiana, LSU against Ole Miss, LSU against Vanderbilt, Ole Miss last week against Georgia, and Texas at Ohio State. That's a trend that's not good being on the wrong side of. So I like Tones' call there, the defense being at home in Oklahoma getting that ground game. They have some young guys, some freshmen on that offensive line. They got it going against a good defense in South Carolina this year. So that makes me lean Oklahoma. All right.

Let's go to the next game that we need to be watching this weekend. You know, the slate, interesting, okay? Slate's interesting. We got a lot of good teams. We got a lot of good storylines. This weekend, not as many massive games, but ball will show up for us. And this game could be special. This game could be Texas A&M reminding everybody once again, like, hey, we are for real, dude.

Like, every week that passes, that Notre Dame win looks better and better and better that they go into there with Texas A&M. only undefeated team left in the SEC. They're taking on an LSU team with no offense, Steve. Is that the story of the game in your eyes? Yeah, also the history. LSU is 12 and 2 against A&M. A&M has just not had much success against LSU at all. You go back to last year, that was the Marcel Reed coming out party

where he ran all over that LSU defense. If A&M were to win this game, I would think they would be wary of a number one ranking, Pat. When you look at what that win is that looks like now at Notre Dame, and now you go to LSU on a Saturday night in a place that's just been wretched to you in years past, I think it has all the goods. Marcel Reed, those receivers, against that great defense of LSU is an awesome, awesome matchup. You got everything you want in this game as a top-ranked team coming in, you know,

as a small favorite against a team that's great at home, hasn't lost at home this year. And the key to me is Marcel Reed in that offense because in these two road games, they've played. They've gone to Notre Dame and scored 41, and they went to Arkansas and scored 45 last week. So that's the matchup. LSU's defense at home against Marcel Reed and a guy who continues to climb up those Heisman polls and odds

and all that stuff. What happens in that matchup when A&M's offense is on the field? Operator, won't you put me on through? That I said, my love, on the bedroom. Hurry up. You got to put me on a line. You got to stay my daughter one more time.

I'm calling them. Brian Kelly lives down there. Go ahead, Deb. Yeah, he does right now. Is this kind of a must win? It may be crazy talk. Maybe a crazy question. But is this, are we entering must win territory now for Brian Kelly?

Absolutely. Absolutely. When you look at their schedule, the remaining way, they're going to be underdog a bunch of more times. If chalk holds up, I believe they're going to be seven and five. I don't know if Brian Gilly makes it to that. They got road trips to Alabama. They have to go to Oklahoma or they get Oklahoma at home.

And then also you got Arkansas and a rivalry game. At Oklahoma. Yeah. This is a monster, monster spot for L.SU. At Bama. At Bama next. At Oklahoma. Now, they got Western Kentucky there.

Hilltoppers are no joke. Hilltoppers are good. Yeah, huge, huge. obviously middle of the week football is good for all of us. Let's go to Hammer. Don, Don, Don, what's the story of this game that maybe we haven't hit yet? Yeah, I love this A&M team, and I love the A&M offense because they are so balanced. They can run the ball with that running back room.

That's incredible. They can run the ball with Reed. They could throw the ball with Casey Concepcion and Craver on the outside. The defense, Steve was talking about how much the points the offense has scored on the road. They are on the road here at LSU. The defense gave up more than 40 at Notre Dame and more than 40 at Arkansas. So we'll see, I mean, the LSU offense has not been good, so they should be better on the road here. But, I mean, they got a guy on defense for A&M whose name's Cassius Howe.

He's got eight sacks. He's going to be a first round pick next season. They're the number two third down defense in the country. I love A&M. I think they should win this one. It would be a huge upset for me if they did not. I just, I mean, I think as a team, they're just very, very well-rounded. All right, so we like A&M.

They're undefeated. We've liked them since the beginning. We really like Ohio State. We really like Indiana. Okay, so we start piecing these teams together. Alabama, we all really like, right? Really like Vandy. Really like Vandy as well.

Because we really like Bama. Yeah, yeah. So it's like it's one of those situations. It feels like the cream is starting to kind of rise to the top, but also it's college football fucking anything can happen. This weekend is one of those. weekends where absolutely anything can happen. On that note about anything happening, James Franklin joining the Game Day set, Steve, your thoughts? I thought everything I told James

Franklin on the set is exactly how I felt about it. I just want him to know about it. I want everybody to know about it. You sitting up here is fucking wild, okay? I wasn't able to say that, but I do appreciate you just getting into the pocket here and just sitting right in the middle of what could be incredibly awkward because he has no idea what we're asking. I was not given a question asked. I was not told now, do I want to bury a guy that is spending his Saturday morning with us with an asshole question? Probably not.

But he did not know what was going to happen there. It's live television. Anything can take place. If you listen to the Penn State people they're like, well, it was really nice of you guys to do for James Franklin. How come we didn't hear a lot of stats being said? I saw the graphics of a lot of these stats. Didn't hear you guys

saying anything about, hey, you never won one for us, even though 2016 Big Ten championship there. So I think Penn State people a little emotional. What were your thoughts on James Franklin joining us? And what were your thoughts on him saying, yep, we're just going somewhere else to win a national championship? It feels like he's even more energized for the future of coaching.

Is that your takeaway from our convo with him? And what did you think of it as a whole, Steve? First off, I thought it was extremely brave to do. Agreed. People, you know, to your point, he's still getting up on the desk. He's still getting to Athens, Georgia, you know, in the middle of nowhere. When you're talking about Big Ten country and all. that and to show up and do what he did is not an easy thing to do. I don't care what the

questions are. To be, you know, humbled like that and fired, you know, before a team meeting, you know, the Sunday before and to go through those losses, you know, at UCLA, at home against Northwestern, to see him walk off the field, you know, would look to me like he knew that was the last time, like it was going down, to come back the next Saturday. and stand up in front of there. I mean, you're in the middle of the interview. I'm on the side. I'm trying to take it all in.

I mean, there wasn't a, you could hear a pin drop in that thing because I think people were really that interested in what he had to say. And coming out of that, him, the want of him to coach again was pretty evident. So he's going to have, I mean, the list is only going to get bigger and longer for him to possibly be a candidate of. So I don't think he's going to be out of the coaching for a long time at all.

I think he's going to jump right back in. Massive respect for him going out there. You guys got to even think that's incredible. Like, AQ Shipley, Penn Stater, okay? I saw your name on the wall there a couple of times whenever we were there. How did it look? I thought it looked great. Especially the Remington Award trophy that's up there, really, you know,

symbolic of greatness at Penn State, which is how I think the Penn Stater is viewed, right? Like Penn State people are sick of being third, fourth in the Big Ten. We want to win national championships. We are putting the money up to win the national championship. We want to win to big games, let alone losing it home in front of a $700 million-dollar renovated stadium that somehow still has $112,000. It feels like the expectations that have placed are to win a national championship,

but you guys haven't been there in a long, long time, which I think a lot of people are saying on the counter side of that. It's like your guys' expectations aren't really realistic. So what is your kind of takeaway? I think the biggest thing was, first of all, yeah, it was very admirable that he went down there. I mean, obviously that's not an easy thing to do. But I think whenever you look at what Penn State is expecting,

I think five years ago pre-NIL, free transit. pre-transfer portal you're sitting there in 10 and 2 you probably accept that and you feel pretty good about it right but the fact is is that they put the amount of money that they put back into this roster and kept everybody from going other places i think that was the issue the expectations were preseason number one so many people had them preseason winning the national championship and okay you lose the game to organ that's fine but you got to you got to come back the next week and you lose to UCLA who hadn't won a game all year and then you lose to northwestern which you just can't accept.

That's what the Penn Staters were saying to the entire segment on Game Day. I don't know if you kept up with the internet reaction. Obviously, I do. I live in that world. It's a tough world to be in, but I have to be in it for the gig. And it's like the reaction from the Penn Staters were like, this is real fucking nice, you guys just, well, yeah, let this guy just let him come up here and redo his entire image.

It's like, I don't think we were doing that. We were just kind of getting an opportunity to talk to a guy that's in a very unique situation. I mean, this guy, very good football coach has built, I think what I said to him about you guys, like 10 years from now, you will look back on James Trent. I said that to you last week. I mean, I think everybody will be very grateful for what he did for that program and where it was when he took it over and where he brought it to. But in the moment right now, we're not in that time. We are not in that time right now. We will be in the future.

But who do they get, Steve? Who's the right fit? Obviously, everybody says Matt Rule. Matt Rule was on our show last week. He's like, we can build a power house here, which obviously, you know, it is. it is at his college ball. But it's like, that's really the only name now at this point. Sig signing and then other people, is he a fit?

Are they not a fit? Other people potentially not wanting to leave. Like, it's a pretty crazy time right now in the head coaching search, I'd assume for multiple people, including adding Florida into this. Yeah, I just look at Penn State. If they were going to pull the trigger there, you have to think they have a plan, right? I mean, Pat Kraft's too good and been around too long to not have a plan. I mean, you hear Coach David talk all the time.

He talks about getting, you know, coordinators leaving. He always had a list. He always had a couple guys. I've heard athletic directors talk about it. So after the Oregon loss, you could sort of feel this, you know, hey, we missed a monster opportunity against the, you know, top 10 team, which has been the crux of Franklin's tenure. So I don't know. It seems like it's pretty tight to the vest.

With all that's going on and all the money that they're spending, there has to be a plan that they are keeping pretty tight to the vest. Yeah, we shall see it. It'll all work out, you know. Or it won't. What? Or it won't. I think if you have that much money for a roster that they're going to continue to have,

we will assume. They're always going to have good players, I think, in this modern world that we're in. They will. A lot of NFL talent. I think they'll always have good players. So does that make them like a champion? I don't know. But I think they will be like, I think whoever gets in there will have a good team.

Like, I think they will be a good team. I don't think they're going in a shitter. They've been a good team. They've been a good team. They need to win a national championship, don't they? Yeah, like next four years between Michigan, Oregon, Ohio State, and Penn State. Who do you think is out of those four? Like, I have more faith in bingo.

I'm not even including Indiana because they're already going to win the 90 this year. But like at Indiana. Other than Indiana. Yeah, other than Indiana. Or you can add them in here because I forgot about them for sure. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. No, you never forget about Mendoza.

Mendoza for Hives and baby my jersey is in the mail. But still, like, out of those schools, like, no doubt about it, I would ring Penn State last. and then the other one's having a better chance just the next four years. And that's because of what has happened over the last 10 years. That is what you're going with. And obviously all those places have cash as well.

And they're losing every recruit right now. Every recruit is decommitting. So Terry Smith, his job as interim, is, hey, how can we get this culture back to where at least a semi-was and how do we keep some of these recruits? Or you've got to make a splash higher to tell these recruits, hey, let's come back.

I would not be worried about the decommitments because whatever coach you get, you're going to get there. Those guys flip. Yeah, it's like, none of this matters right now. It's totally different now to NIL. It's just going to be money. I really believe that.

When you look and hear what coaches talk about, as long as you have the money, you're going to get the players. Which goes back to, they're going to have a good team. Always going to have a good team. Yeah, always going to have a good team because the alumni are like,

we would like to fucking win in Nashville. It would be cool if we were able to go to these places and just kind of, flex our shit to everybody. But instead, you started rattling off the thing. What if I, you... All those schools have money. I get money is a thing, and Penn State

has a lot of money. Indiana has a lot of money. Oregon has a lot of money. Michigan has a lot of money. Ohio State has... Like, everyone's got a lot of money now. Sorry, not everyone. The top billing teams have a lot of money. And so, like, sure, you can. It does come down... Like, I completely agree with you, Steve. It does just come down

to money when it comes to players. But at the same time, if everyone's money's kind of similar, then what's the next best thing chance to win a championship and Penn State is not in the top three when we're just talking about the VIII. Think about this. Think about this sales

pitch. You could be the one that brings the national championship to Penn State. True. You could be a hero here forever. And I think they're top three in draft picks by the way. Putting people in the NFL and the James Franklin era by the way. They put people in the pros and they all are killing it in the pros. Good players, yeah. Why don't you guys just sign John

Gruden and get over it? I hope they're still Jim Moore from... I wouldn't hate that. I said, Mora would be an awesome hire if he was to go to Penn State. I said John Gruden on game day, and I was not planning on saying that. Like, that was not like a planned line. Just in the moment, I'm like, fuck, doesn't Gruden want to coach again? How come we're not saying Gruden's name? He would be a great college football.

Guy with a pulse. You mentioned Jeff Brom. He's coaching soon, too, by the way. Who's that? John Gruden. Where? John Gruden versus Jay Gruden in the Hulah Bull. Oh, sweet.

Excuse me. All right. Maybe that's an audition to get back. back in the game? Can we go? I just see him in the SEC. John Gruden. I don't know why, but I just see him as an SEC coach. Him in Lagway? But then down in Florida, there's a lot

of names that are associated with that Florida job. True. Not names. Steve, who ends up with that job? Oh, put me on the spot, huh? We know who they want. Tim Tebow? Oh, yeah. Reading stuff this week, I thought it was interesting. They know Lane is the guy that everybody wants.

People have talked, you know, he's the modern-day Spurs. and you look what Spurrier did there, and he's still the God. So from what I read, they're going to make Lane say no twice. So that just means more millions of dollars. I mean, he's up there, but now you're talking about $11, $12 million, and he's going to say no, that's a tough deal. That's not the big separate. Obviously the millions for him is obviously a big deal,

but the finances for the team, right? Like that is the different ballgame. Like everybody says Florida has big NIL, right? Yeah. Yeah, I just, I feel like there's, I don't know if they're aligned correctly, if that makes sense. Yeah, makes sense. You know, you got 80s, you got donors, you, whatever, like that, they just need to get

on the same page. And that's, when you have a school, that monstrous and cares that much, that's where I feel like their problems have come. So alignment and obviously money. The, why. Swaps getting redone too, two year project. Why did Governor DeSantis, who's he trying to pluck? What's he doing?

There's something. He was trying to plug sick. Yeah, he was trying to get sick. Degh. Governor DeSantis quote tweeting things saying, Hey, Sig, you love Florida down here. It's like, hey, Gov, we don't need that. He doesn't like Florida.

Then he signs $93 million deal. He's like, no thank you to Florida. I like the fall up here. But whenever you talk about the governor's getting involved and trying to figure out the fucking state school team, it's like, hey, they're going to figure it out down there at some point. I hope they do because this bad boy is awesome, whatever it's like kind of been.

And it's special time. All right, we appreciate the hell out of you, Steve. I'll see you down in Nashville. Sounds good. No pressure for A-Q, but Colts are the best offensive line in the league now. Okay. This is an accumulative rankings that we do those. Thanks a job to stay for Steve.

You will see in the trenches top five performing offensive lines tomorrow. You also see everything DB, good, D, bad D tomorrow. And for us, we're going to head to hell out of here. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. for a living. AJ, great work today. The hair looks phenomenal. Yep, I don't know, but yeah, appreciate it. Great job by you. I do appreciate the fact that you had to change

your entire hair because they said it was starting to look like a yarmika. That's what he's doing right now. No, that was in the process of it, I think. The yarmulke came as I was growing now. Oh, really? I thought it just for some reason your hair. I don't know, maybe. Maybe early. I don't know. But yeah, I think that's when it came up. Hey, it's okay. Mazzle, dude. It's all good.

I'm all right. Jeez. It's been months and months. It's a month Yeah, it takes a long time, right? I think it looks good, though. I think your hair looks good. Good haircut, too. Face is shining.

It is. It's really warm up here. I can't regulate this attic very well. Sometimes it's super hot. Sometimes it's super cold. We're in that time of year. Not only do you need allergy stuff, you also need to know that if the sun's hitting your windows,

well, it could be a thousand degrees inside. But then as soon as that sun disappears, we're in the desert now. It's cold as fuck in there. And then do you have the heater on? Do you have the AC on? Why, I have auto on? Well, my fucking auto has no idea what's going on either.

It's tough to kind of adjust. So we're in that time of year. You know, we're in, oh, the house is 78 degrees. All the way down to, oh, the house is 61 degrees. That is where we are right now. It's a good time to be alive. It's football season. Ton, why don't you come out of hammer.

Don, ton. Let's go ahead and get the hell out of here, shall we? Hope you're good, buddy. Hey, hope you're good. Do you want to do a giveaway? Sure. Ooh. There we go.

You know, Debeating threw one off a wall. He did. About the luckiest. fucking think I've ever seen. It's pretty sweet. Divine and adventure. You son of a bit. It was unbelievable. Here it is right here. We're fast forwarding it alive on camera, I believe. Is this feed

to show right here that we're showing? This is it. Okay. Got some time to get to it, I think. And DeBone got a motivational speech from Bruce Arons. He steps into the D-Bone spot. He says he is a U-Ball pioneer because he does that shot

right there with a throw. Off the wall. Nothing but changed. Hey, that's De Bone U-Bone U-Ball right there. He's calling himself fucking Magellan of U-Ball. He's calling himself Christopher Columbus, Lois and Clark, if you will. He is a U-Ball pioneer because he throws it like this when everybody else was doing this.

And I want to let you know, AJ started to mock him yesterday before he did the throw. I mocked him because I'm like, it's like the Dr. Pepper thing you're supposed to throw. I don't be doing chess passes. The throw might be the right move. And D-Bone's doing a lot of this. I'm a pioneer.

A lot of that Christopher Columbus is a good comparison Just fucking lost out there Good luck I think that is a good comparison For team D bone and butts Because That is my partner though

Ever since that first day You guys haven't had a lot Oh yeah Sorry D Block did have one win I think the D boys though Certainly he started stacking some else And uh Rough going

There is a champion of the office AJ I know you I don't know if you can see it As tone is made his thing Damn it Where is this ball reside You know where it resides Yeah, with me and Foxy.

Foxy, good work yesterday, buddy. Yep, good shoot. Here we go. Who's a Q's partner? Tone. Oh, okay. Did you cancel me? No.

Tone just found that out. Tone will get rid of you as a partner. He's my partner last week. Yeah, Tone will certainly say this ain't working. It's not you. It's me. See you later. And kind of get out.

This is my partner on Wednesdays. Bone is my partner on Thursdays because Bucci isn't here. Yeah, but you fired Bone. What was that last week and the week before? No, Bruce. Byrd. Bruce, yeah. Me and Bruce.

now are a unit. Pretty good little team. We got a lot of good teams kind of brewing out here. Dirty, actually, good player too. Dirty's been working on his shooting. He's going to end up being teammates with somebody and they're going to steal a win.

Dirty Mitz. Dirty Mitz was, they were just trying not to get shut out yesterday. And they didn't? Got potential. Got two points. They were out there. Yeah. They can stand on the court.

Thank you. What do you want to do? It's football season. Come on. It's U ball season, too. But where do you want to throw this one? football okay this hoop right over here um if you're able to bury this particular football for the brand baby duke into that basketball we staring on jaw before that job will beat your

oh like this i'll let you know jabba don't play no games bubub the job a job will hit you with a higher higher i don't know if you should be messing with job whenever you're trying to win some people with some money that's a good point a j actually has a motivational message for you to go ahead and make some people happy on this glorious watch Wednesday. Yep, I sure do AJ. You know, hey, do this one for James Franklin. Win it for him. Boom. There it is. For James.

This one. And Shams. For James. A. Q. Shipley, 25 winners of $500 if you're ever put that football into that basketball hoop right over there. The chain net is obviously all busted because of too many splashy splashes into that particular hoop. Not a lot

by you, but I do know right now could be the time. for you to win 25 people $500. AQ for the good of Penn State. Not a lot of wins over there recently. You could do it for the people. AQ Shipley, Whip You a Hall of Fame, steps up wearing khakis, and a hoodie.

Oh. Man, good ball, though. Good ball. I think that went in. Might have. I can't tell. Yeah, I can't tell either. There is a chance. Not I heard the splash. What? What? What? I don't know what everybody's talking about.

net on that side. Yeah, I think it went here. It clearly did not go in. I would like to let everybody know that that did not go. Me and tone, we got pretty good eyes on that. I'd say you were four feet off. It looked good. It looked good. Best I've had in a long time. All right, well, let's go. We're off on that one. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Anything you say, AQ? Hey, let's have a better week next week, huh? Yeah. Let's go. Get better every week. Yeah. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.