The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1485 - Super Wildcard Weekend MNF Recap, Mike Tomlin Steps Down as Steelers Head Coach, Bruce Arians, Peter Schrager, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

On today's show, Pat is remote on business while AJ Hawk, Darius Butler, and the boys are back in Indianapolis as they recap last night’s Monday Night Football playoff game that saw the Texans drub the Steelers in Pittsburgh 30-6, and the breaking news that Mike Tomlin has stepped down as the Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach after 19 seasons. Joining the progrum to chat about Super Wildcard Weekend, the coaching cycle, and what his biggest takeaway from the weekend is 3x Super Bowl Champion, former Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals and the Tampa Bay Bucs, Bruce Arians. Later, ESPN NFL Insider/analyst/pundit/, host of the Schrager Hour, Peter Schrager joins the shown to discuss all the different movements on the coaching front, which candidates are gaining steam, what he thinks is going to happen with John Harbaugh, Mike Tomlin, and many other situations. 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 tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Go, welcome to Pat McAfee show. I am not Pat McAfee, obviously. I'm A.J. Hawks sitting in for Pat at his desk. He is on business out of the world somewhere today. Football! It's what we're talking about, Pat. What's going on? Man, obviously Houston Texans take on the Pittsburgh Steelers last night.

30 to 6 decisive victory. What do you think, man? Is it how you played? You thought it would play out? AJ, I just wanted to let you know the way I think is that you look fantastic. Hell yeah. Okay, you look phenomenal. You look great. And thank you for holding it down here as I, yeah, I'm out on business for a good of program, okay, for a good program.

But I've got a chance, obviously, to watch last night's game as I was in Root. Starlink, shout out. We appreciate you so much for everything. But on that note, I think the reason why Starlink is going to be so good is because they got satellites everywhere. Okay, Elon's shooting these things up every, I think every day. We're sending satellites up there. So they're literally everywhere. It's like the Houston, Texas defense.

Okay? Swarm. This swarm. We got a special work ethic, okay? And then we have an attitude of resent relentlessness. And a mindset, I believe is what swarm stands for. There's an E in there too. They hide it. The E is hidden and silent.

But the Houston, Texas defense, I watched it live whenever they came and played. Indianapolis Colts. And we talked about how they bring the boo birds. And Pittsburgh Steelers fans aren't going to boo a poor offensive performance early because they're used to it over there. The stat is absurd. What's the stat on the amount of points early for the Pittsburgh Steelers? I think it's 77 straight games now that they haven't scored more than seven points in the first quarter. 77 straight games. That's so long to think about not scoring more than seven points in the first quarter. Obviously, that could be a Mike Tomlin thing where he's super conservative. But let's not give too much away. Let's not turn the ball over. First quarter, we're just sparring to get to the

second half anyways. But nonetheless, the Steelers fans understand that the games are going to start very boring on offense. They know it's not going to be great. But this Houston Texan's defense made their offensive boring all night. I mean, it was literally a situation where if you think the Houston Texan defense is going to give up anything, you're wrong. And there was a couple plays early where maybe D.K. dropped a ball and they kind of slipped or they gave up some coverage. and the demon picked up a third down late, Adam Thielen, and stuff like that. But the Houston Texan defense are just always there. They're always on top of you.

And they seemingly, and I think Schrager tweeted last night about their defense coordinator, Burke should be getting head coaching opportunities. Like, yes. I don't know how he does it in this entire thing. CJ was hurt for a portion. Obviously, you go to Doug E. Mills, he plays some football for you. But the only thing that's been a constant is that this defense is just no teams. They just killed teams.

They came to Indianapolis. We couldn't do a thing. We could do a thing. And they didn't care. And they danced in our faces. And they, I mean, it's just like a never-ending pursuit of greatness with their defense.

And yesterday I woke up thinking that Aaron Rogers is going to have a long day, guess his defense, because everybody's going to have a long day against his defense. And then I kind of talk myself into, Oh, Baba, I'm in fear for my life from the long.

They didn't even play it. That's how bad it was last night. I mean, AJ, you're talking about worst case scenario for Aaron Rogers, that offense is having to play that Texan's team in the wildcard. And for Mike Tomlin, it's another playoff loss. That's seven straight now. And, uh, age, it's bad over there, dude. But that Texan's defense, we knew that they could do that. I don't know why we forgot about that when we all picked the Steelers.

I think it's because we all thought maybe gunslinger Aaron Rodger. goes for another run here, knowing that the time is potentially short for him getting on the field. But that was never realistic, AJ, with the way that defense is. No, I mean, just look at these stats. Three takeaways, two defensive touchdowns. Also, C.J. Stroud turned the ball over three times, two fumbles and a pick. So the fact that you're able to win 30 to six when your offense has three turnovers, but you score twice on defense.

But it was more like, okay, they're only bringing four most of the time, and they're getting four-man pressure on Aaron all night. and if he does get rid of the ball, it's almost like a checkdown or a three or four-yard route. And as Debutt says, he is getting stapled to the ground as soon as you catch the ball against this Houston, Texan defense. They bought two there.

I think they brought two there. I think no one was dropping back. It was just two ends. Maybe they had three-covered or whatever. It was like maybe not this play. There was a play I was watching where they brought two guys and they got home. Two guys got home.

And now, I'm not saying that Aaron had a perfect game and that their offense could have maybe been able to do well, but it's just like they make everybody terrible. That's what they do. B-Butt, and in the secondary, nobody's open ever. How are they able to do that? This seems like they're cheating. I honestly, they might be cheating, this Houston Texan's defense, Debutt. Yeah, a lot of times we talk about defenses. We talk about exotics or lining up and tricky you, four guys over here, three guys, but they just line up and they do what they do weekend and week out. It starts with the guys up front. Obviously, they got two unbelievable guys

off the edge of Will Anderson Jr. and Danil Hunter. They're phenomenal, but then on the back end, when I was doing the All-Everything DB team, I said the whole, the entire secondary can be Texas, with Kamari Lasser, Stingley, Petrie, Bullock, like, they're all phenomenal. Bullock. He ended

the game with a pick six, but this defense are front. If you can't do anything, if you can't block them up up front, you will have no success in offense. There's going to be a few opportunities to beat this defense, and you better capitalize on it. Once D.K. dropped that potential touchdown, that deep ball, You kind of knew it was over right there.

You mentioned CJ Stroud. He had a tough night with snaps and all the type of shit. But this defense, man, this is a championship defense that can for sure carry this team to a Super Bowl. They're mean. They're big. They're fast. They're smart. They're physical.

I mean, it's just everything you want from a defense that can maybe win a Super Bowl. And last year age, we saw the run game and a great defense. But the run game really carried the Philadelphia Eagles. I think that was a superstar conversation about the Philadelphia Eagles. Granted, their defense was phenomenal. as well. But this team, if they were to go on a run, it would be like, Texan's defense won that Super Bowl. It'd go back to, like, Baltimore. You know, with, uh, whenever Trent, uh, Trent was the quarterback.

Shout to him going back to Lipps School Academy. We have to Mustangs have a great season. Hell yeah. That's right. We have to Mustangs have it. We love that Mustang's team down there in Nashville. But it's like, this would be first time, long time where it's like defense carries the way. And they could definitely do it, age. This defense, I think, after what we just watched last night, but we've been watching all the season with them, they could go win a Super Bowl. They can beat anybody. Josh Allen, obviously, and I mean, this goes into a full AMC conversation, which I guess we should slow down. But that defense can make anybody look terrible.

I mean, that is just a real deal. So if on the other side, you can do a little bit, which we know CJ can. We all have an immense amount of faith in him. Nico going out, obviously tough for them last night. That's not good. But like, I like the Texans more and more, more and more in tone. You have to hate what happened yet again at Pittsburgh Steelers. And now all eyes go directly to Christian Kirk, obviously incredible game.

The, all questions go to, is Tomlin going on TV? Did you hear that? That's what they were all saying. I did hear that. I did hear that when you lose seven straight, especially at a franchise like that, we saw what happened with hardball. That is the question, and it's a fair question at this point. Hey, has the message run stale?

Do you need something new? Do you need some new blood? I'm sure Tone has some strong fillers on that. Yeah. Yeah, and not just seven straight, like ass beatings. Yeah, this is bad. They've all been. You're saying all of them?

Yes, all of them have been. 106 points. The closest one was the seventh farthest one away. It was Ben, I believe. I can't remember who was against Patriots in the A. Yeah, I was New England. There it is. Patriots in the AFC championship game with Killer Bs.

So that's a long, that's a long, long time ago. And last night, 88 yards on the first two drives, getting some gashes here. I was feeling really good. up 3-0 and then I actually tweeted right before the game. Okay, there's only one way this game's going to go. It's going to be a Steelers win and it's going to be so ugly. Everyone's going to be so mad.

And that's how it's going. And that's how it's going. 7-6 at halftime. They come out, they drive down to start the third quarter interception in the Reds on. I'm like, oh, this is going perfect. And then they hit the 51-yard field goal to make it 10-6 and I just like, this game's over. The Steelers are not scoring again.

They're not scoring a touchdown for sure. Zuda Zappa all went through I was like oh, game's over, that's it because even if CJ gives us one in the red zone, we're not scoring a touchdown. We'll kick a field goal to make it 10-9. But no, I mean, it was ugly. Like the last four or five games,

run defense has been unbelievable. And you go up against the 29th ranked rush offense in the NFL. They forgot how to do that last night. Woody Marks went over 100. Nick Chubb was running over everybody. That was ugly. The offensive line,

who's actually been pretty good year. Now I know it's an incredible defensive line, but they, they had no idea what they were doing last night. Pat Friarmouth, who's probably the second best weapon on offense, they don't even put them on the field. I don't know. I like, ah, but here

we're going to sign up for it again next year. We're going to run back the same exact lineups, same exact coaching staff, and we're going to do it again. And I'll see you here on this day next year after another 25 point playoff loss. Okay, so that means that Aaron Rogers coming back is what you just

said there if you're going to run it back with the same group, same crew, same staff. That means Aaron's coming back. I did, I don't know, AJ, you know him a lot better than us, obviously. Definitely have talked to him more recently than us, I'd assume. Him saying, I don't want to make a decision in our emotions or whatever. In the middle, after his press conference, he said, I don't want to make that type of decision whenever there's this much emotion or something. I forget how he exactly worded it. But that means that he certainly is questioning it in my eyes, because I would have assumed that,

Now, granted, after how that game goes, maybe that changes his mind. 30 to 6, I can't go out like this. Yeah, right. Yeah, right, I can't do this. And then how about the camera person saying in his way? This is potentially his last walkoff, a little red... The swimmer. Red Penny there.

Please, excuse me, walk it off field, Bert Lawton, right behind him. Legendary Inzer, obviously, Pittsburgh PR guy. But, like, it feels like he doesn't know. I wonder when that started happening, because I think everybody just kind of assumed this year was going to be his off into the sunset year. And then him saying even afterwards, like, I'm not going to make that decision now. It's like, oh, okay, so he's certain, I'm not going to make any emotional decisions. That would have been easy for me to say the first time I got it wrong five times.

But, like, feels like he doesn't know that, right, AJ? Is that kind of what I should take from that? Isn't that how it's kind of been the last couple years, I guess? I don't know. Did we all just assume this was his last year? What did he say going into this season? He say, like, yeah, this is probably it. I think he told us that this is probably.

He did. Probably. He said probably. But then I don't know. Maybe he gets into, he gets into, he gets into pit. He didn't say probably. Connor asked him and he basically said like the way my contract is set up. If you look at this, like yeah, this is going to be my last year. And even last night, like the NFL Twitter account tweeted out just legend at Aaron Rogers.

And then they did the whole, you know, steady cam on ESPN following him into the locker room. It's almost like they made, they're trying to like make the decision for him. Like this was your last game. You know, and we're trying to kind of give you a hero sendoff, even though the game obviously wasn't much of a hero send off. Okay, so shout to the toxic table, by the way. Connor asking a question. Guy remembering it, that's good journalism.

Hey, hey, so all of the journalists that are a little fired up right now, we'll see who history says is more accurate, you know, with their take on how this whole situation is going to unfold. You know, like 10 years from now, let's talk about it. But on that note, I appreciate all your incredibly hard work for the good of sport. But yeah, him saying he's pretty short,

Put that back up, please, as we keep with it. I'm pretty sure this is my last season, and that's why we did the one-year deal. I've played 20 years, and I've enjoyed it. Okay, there's no better way to finish it than with Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh Steelers. All right, so let's break down his words, because words matter, especially whenever you're talking to Aaron Rogers,

you know, super, super, super sophisticated human being. I'm pretty sure there. And Gumpy, who posts these live clips on X, shout-out Gumps. He has to be very diligent with the actual quote. Boy, we've gotten into it a little bit. Missing word a little bit. You know, actual video of actual quote, but on X, the quote had like two words missing,

missed maybe the point. We get text from person at videos about like, I didn't say that. It's like, no, yeah, you didn't say that. What are you talking about? And why the hell is they say that? I said, okay, okay, we're sorry. We're sorry.

We're sorry. We do that. So words are normally very accurate in these particular tweets. Right, Jumpy? I don't want to speak for you, but that's a huge part of the entire thing. Absolutely, brother. We don't have to give away the names, but there have been people that have been certainly hot with the entire situation.

Do you agree with that? Yeah, asked for tweets to actually be taken down that were kind of word for word what they said. You say kind of word for word or word? No, they were word for word. But, you know, if somebody got something wrong, that happens. One person in general does it. What's it rhyme with? I'm not going to do that.

It was to the best of us, Hogger. They didn't say you misquoted me. They said, I just don't like what I said. Someone who's on the program pretty regularly. AJ, I have to. AJ, I have to like, me having to have that conversation with Gumpy was awesome. Like, hey, dude, so this is what person's saying. And Gumpy goes, that's what they said.

And I'm like, are you sure? And then he pulls it up, runs it in my ear. Is that not what he said? He said. He's what he said. It's like he did say that. So then I got to call person back and say like, hey, it's what you said, though. Like, there's nothing wrong with that.

I know, but I didn't want it to say it like that. I was like, okay. That's on you. Well, I don't know. I don't know who that's on. You know, I don't know who that's on. But nonetheless, we try to get everything up as accurately as possible, as quick as possible, because we appreciate the hell out of the people that maybe can't watch the entire show and are scrolling along.

And not Doom's scrolling, but hopefully just scrolling along with life. So we try to get as accurate as possible. But anyways, I'm pretty sure, okay, right there, right, age? That's what you're basically saying. That's almost like problem, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then at the end, there's no better way to finish it than with Mike Tomlin and Pittsburgh Sears.

It's like, okay. So back with the Steelers, and if that's the case, is what Tone said right, where they run it back, where Tomlin goes, all right, this will be my last year. And Aaron goes, this will be my last year. And it will be a retirement year. They had one year to kind of figure out what life was like together, you know, one year to kind of put these two first ballot hall of famers into the same building together, see how they operate, how a Tomlin building operates, how an Aaron Rogers operation operates. And then obviously, R.D. Smith, and he's not going to be getting a lot of head coaching opportunities in this particular cycle.

he gets another year in this entire thing and then they say, guess what? This is it. Okay? We're oh mama in right now. This is the oh mama year. Going in fourth quarter is the last one. And then you guys get a chance to celebrate these two careers

while potentially having your best season. No, you wouldn't like that? Yeah. If I had to predict this thing, that'll be year 20 for Mike Tomlin, and I believe that is the last year of his current contract. I believe it's the last year of Cam Hayward's contract. Aaron doing it one more year.

Those three walk off together every single game. So I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah. Well, just logistically, too, though. Who do they have in line? Will Howard's there. So there is respectfully one quarterback position looks like. There is respectfully one quarterback coming out of this draft.

And it's Mendoza. He's not falling to 21. So you're not going to probably get a quarterback that's going to make a difference in the draft. Any free agents? Ty and I just looked at the free agent market. It's Malik Willis and nothing. after that. He's played five games or whatever.

So yes, either you, you do. Tyler Murray might be available. True, true. Two might be available too. Do you want to go that route? No clear path. Like if there was a young, a young stud that was like ready to take the reins as a starter,

it'd be a much different story. But yeah, like, and Will was what a six round pick? So like, and are the Steelers going to, I would love to see Will for a year just to see what he has, you know, and see what happens or whatever. But I don't think that team's going to do that. So, no, I would not be surprised at all if those two are back for next season, and we run this back one more time, you know, nice little retirement. Let's go.

Mama year? Oh, my God. When did he sign last year? Aaron? Yeah, I remember Pittsburgh. Everyone was all picked off because he was whatever going to. I would imagine it was a long time. Whatever decision is made, it's going to happen sometime much sooner than last year.

Oh, you think so? I don't know. Is that what you think age? I would think so, yes. Before the draft? I would assume before the draft, something happens, right? Hey, now, the other conversation in there is Tomlin. Yeah.

Okay? Does he want to? Coach Tomlin, I, as somebody that was in the Pittsburgh area, very frequently with a lot of Yenzers during this Tomlin era. Okay, I don't want to act like I'm the authority on this. I'm certainly not there day to day and haven't been. But just, you know, experiencing Yenzers, experience Coach Tomlin while also being in the league and all that type of stuff. Like there's a lot of, you know, I feel like I have pretty good say, or pretty good feel on it all. Like, Tomlin is going to be a guy that's going to be welcomed in Pittsburgh everywhere forever.

That guy would go to Penguins games, go to Pirates games, you go to charity stuff. Like he, I think he really took on the, I should be Yenzer. You know, his kids, obviously, through Pittsburgh. He's been there a long, ass time. 19 years, a long, long time in one city, especially in a football town like Pittsburgh. but if he has a TV deal in his back pocket, like Mike Florio's potentially alluding to pro football talks, Mike Floreo, also Pittsburgh Steelers fan from West Virginia,

knows the area pretty well. I'm not saying he's plugged in with Coach Tomlin, but Jake Blazer, who we know is plugged in with Coach Tomlin, whenever he was talking about jobs going into week 18 of the NFL season, he said, what do he say, Jason Glazer? What would he say exactly about if he either wants to continue to coach for the Steelers, he can kind of make that decision, or maybe he wants to venture into TV. And I forget how it was exactly said.

Yeah, it was basically something along the lines of... He's going to make that decision on his own. The Steelers are not going to fire him, so if he wants to coach another year, he will be able to coach. But he also does have a potential lucrative TV career that he could fall back on as soon as next year, maybe with, you know, me and the boys at Fox. Okay, I don't think Jay alluded to Fox, but I think everybody else kind of assumed, No, he's definitely talking about Jay Glazer-Nell in that, but it's not just Spock.

I mean, Netflix is building a sports department, right? They pay to L. Congrats to L. By the way. Honnold, January 23rd, Honnold's climbing the skyscraper. Yep. Exactly. And Netflix is getting more and more in sports.

Remember, they were doing, like, the gimmicky tennis and, like, the gimmicky shit. Now they're, like, trying to get into actual sports on a regular basis. I think WWE kind of move them in that direction. Now we get the Christmas games. We assume there's only going to be more and more there, especially if they're hiring full-time Netflix. sports department. Congrats to hell. We're big fans there. But Netflix is going to want to get in. Prime's going to want to get in. YouTube's

getting in. ESPN, obviously still very much involved. They just bought Sunday tickets, so they got a lot of NFL interest. Fox's always going to. CBS always going to. It's like, there's a lot of NFL jobs. And we would like to thank the NFL for blessing us all with a profession for sure, but there's a lot

of places that can give a lot of money to Coach Tomlin, man. We've all seen him on a microphone. It dude's never lost in front of a microphone. Ever. I've never seen a Session from Mike Tomlin. Always some form of entertainment. Missoula's catching up maybe, though. Missoula. Illegal screen. He did last night, Connor.

Illegal screen. That was, that was outrageous. What was that? Johnny Furphy? Who hit the illegal screen? What was he so upset? I saw the Pacers beat the Celtics last night. Yeah, it was Siakum. Seacum set the screen, then got the ball back, and then, you know, layup game winner. But it was an illegal screen. It's impossible to argue with. Right here. Here it comes. Yep. This is after it. But still, yeah, that's how he got the ball. It's ridiculous. Spicy.

Back to house kind. Yeah. Yeah, well, I don't want to say it's a Celtics, but I will say Pacers, Harry Saliburton, from mine. What, that right there? A legal screen right there. That's illegal. That's an illegal screen.

All right? Learn the rules. That's what we did the whole press conference for. He's damn near dislocated his hip. Maybe we don't crown Mazzola for that. I like Missoula a lot. He's a West Virginia guy. They got West Virginia guys on their staff. Sounds like he's pouting. Rules or rules guys. Sounds like he's pouting. That's a crazy play for Missoula to do that. That's a big decision to do that press conference.

Like just every answer is going to be illegal screen. I love that there was one point where I think one of them thought they were going to crack them. Are you only going to say that? He sits. illegal screen. Like, yes. Okay, that was awesome. That was crazy. It was against the Pacers this early in the season with that particular play.

Shout out to Joe Mazzola. But Tomlin, anytime he's on a microphone, it's awesome. The amount of one-liners he has, I mean, his wife, who obviously another incredible citizen of Pittsburgh has done a lot of charity stuff, and Pittsburgh has done a lot of incredible stuff. She's built like a merch brand, because I think she's a fashion designer of sorts. She built a merch brand around like a lot of his one-liners. So think about him on TV with one-line.

I mean, the television entertainment industry is going to be very kind to Mike Tomlin. Very, very kind to Mike Tomlin. Can I ask you three a question? Okay. Yeah. So no one has pushed back on saying like, on me saying that Mike Tom was going to be back next year. What other coach in the history of the NFL or professional sports when you haven't won a playoff game in nine years and you've lost,

seven straight playoff games. Let's say it's playoff series in another sport. Would have the ability to come back, the decision to come back and losing like that every single year. Am I taking crazy pills? I mean, it's a good question, but it's one of one. That still is an organization. Obviously, Mike Tomlin and his record throughout, you know,

not, no losing seasons and all these different things. But yeah, how many coaches have you guys had in the last? last one. Yeah. So, I mean, that's, that's kind of place. Pittsburgh is special. Three since 69. It's one of one. Yeah, and different sport, but we just talked about basketball. Like, Tom Tibado went to the conference finals for the Knicks and then got fired

after they lost to the Pacer. So it does feel like it is a feeling. Shot and everyone went 14 and 2. Exactly. So you're talking about franchises, sports franchises. You put the Pittsburgh Steelers up here and the New York Knicks are probably like the standard or how you do things and I understand it from a fan. And I understand it from a

fans point of view like you want a new coach you want a new voice i mean yeah you want to win man i mean i mean six six championships there yeah so it's tough i i expect especially going out like that on that stage you expect a change but what we know from the stillers in their history probably not yeah okay follow up here now who would you take because you talk about how many coaches since when uh three since 69 19 yeah That's insane. Yeah, that is a... We're pretty good.

Whoa. Yeah. I mean, that would be, I guess, the only really answer. It's like, who has the ability at this point that you could forecast? Because Tomlin was young when he got that to 32? Yep. Yeah, he was super young. And I think he was at the Vikings as a D.C. for like a year.

Yeah. So, yeah, that was... It was 32, I think. I think it was 32 years old. And you talk about, they do love young because Kyra was super young when he got hired as well, but you talk about winning in front of people in a microphone. Like, no one thought he was going to get that job when they interviewed him. And he did.

And it's been an incredible run. But yes, to your point, who is out there? Great question. Yeah, I don't know who you would. Mike McCarthy going back to Pittsburgh. How would Mike McCart? The boy has changed. Signetti no longer on the high dive because basically everybody has said that's not real.

but if you're trying to hire a coach in football, it feels like I'd at least try to snooper. Not that he wants to, we have not talked to him. I actually texted him last week before the Peach Bowl, something, and he still has yet to respond. Locked in. I think he's walked in. His boys are deleting apps,

social media apps from the phone. Mm-hmm. Okay. So like the Indiana football team is locked in, we'll say completely. So I'm not saying Signetti is saying this, and we don't even know his agent. I think he just has a lawyer from my understanding of how that last deal went down.

I don't know if he has an agent in this entire thing. So I don't even know if that thought is even crossed his mind. He's a king in Bloomington forever. He'll have a statue. He's got a nice house. He treat him well. His wife, I think he loves the place. I think he is a college football coach.

I think that is what he is. Now, granted, does he want to be able to prove that he could also do it at the NFL? Maybe. You know, like there's a couple different. a thought there, but I think he just stays in Indiana forever, especially with the new deal that he has where basically it bumps up anytime it goes. So let's take him out of the picture. Arbaugh and the Giants feel like that's really heating up, right? Then he have dinner at Marr's house and Marr watched, uh, is this thing on in Harbaugh's movie? What was it? So Giants executive Chris Marr and told the athletic and he met John Harbaugh for lunch Sunday and had an informal meeting at Coach's house. People on both sides say Harbaugh remains very interested in John Schump. Hey, great. Uh, John, great. Journal. Luis Amino, Connor. Good work. Now, granted,

could we have found that out other ways, potentially, but we appreciate you finding it out. If we had to, we probably could have. But on that note,

Marbaugh and the Giants feel like that's a thing. I feel like the Giants is considered one of those big jobs, you know, by coaches. Like, yeah, big brand,

but also for like coaches, it feels like it's a bigger job. I don't know why, but I think, like, in college, there's always jobs that open up where coaches go. That's a job.

LSU, we just watched it. Michigan is one of those places. Like there's some of these places that are held in higher regard. Feels like the New York Giants are. And do you think it is just because of brand? What do you think it is? Brand location.

Jackson Dart, I think he would like it. Well, I mean, in general, I think for a reason why Harbaugh would like it. He loves the potential in Jackson Dart and what he's done. The history, though, is just like the history of it all? The history, brand, location, championships, all the all the things. And right now is that much better than the Jets brand? The Jans over the Jets? Same.

Yeah. The Jets are below the Nix. on the debuts. I'm just asking the question. It's true. Well, we all knew the answer. As those words were coming out of your mouth, you knew the answer for that.

But it's like it feels like Harbaugh's probably going to the giant. It feels like that is at least something. Now, maybe it's Atlanta as well. But Mike McCarthy, I think as this cycle and interview process goes on, I think he's going to do well with his jolliness, his useful spirit, his deep thinking, and his resume

when they start looking at the numbers. I think there's going to be a good argument for the nerds to kind of say, hey, he can be a guy. But Conman, you texted me something this morning. It's a pretty good point. A lot of these hirings and things like that are about to be completely changed whenever these teams that are still in it,

all their assistants and coordinators with no clear front runner other than Harbaugh. The coordinators that are still in this are obviously going to be highly, highly sought after, I think. McDainiels is what? The only guy we know that will probably stay in New England, even if he's offered the opportunity comment?

Yeah, bingo, like the Patriots and the bears are the two teams that don't really have any, you know, convos around their coordinators going other places. But if you do go from team to team with those, you know, last six, and I guess you could say Buffalo with Joe Brady maybe kind of off the table. But Sam Fran, you know, Sala is a hot name. Kind of goes to the Jets point about how big of a dumpster fire that place is because he's getting jobs immediately at least, you know, interviews. Kubiak with Seattle, he is also kind of the young, hot, offensive-minded.

feels like in this cycle, Shula with the Rams. He is a guy that everybody seems to basically dub him as the next, you know, defensive guy. I know the Broncos as well are getting some with Vance Joseph, but it does feel as though aside from Harbaugh, all these teams,

you know, at least the teams that are looking for head coaches, are going to be looking for guys from these, you know, final eight. I know for the Patriots, Zach Kor, the insider linebackers coach, who's now become the D.C. has kind of become a hot ticket over the last a couple weeks. You know, Burke, you guys mentioned with the Texans has become one of those guys.

Like, hey, why aren't we given the DC of the best defense? More interviews kind of makes a lot of sense. But aside from Harbaugh, all those teams should wait. Like what happens if down the stretch, you know, for instance, Seattle? Like Kubiak and the Seahawks defenses the conversation. What if Kubiak and the Seattle Seahawks offense becomes this unbelievable thing? And then you think if you're the Giants, sure, Harbaugh, of course, but do you not think Kubiak could come in and kind of guide Jackson Dart. Like there are so many, you know, things that still have to happen. And that might be the reason that all this is delayed for so long, too.

Like last year, Ben Johnson and Vrable, they were slated. They were getting jobs at this point. Like, it's January 13th. We knew January 13, 2025. Like two of the jobs that are open are going to those two guys. Now Harbaugh, you could say, is that one guy that's definitely slated for one of these jobs, the Giants we all can see. For all those other places and there's a lot of jobs open, it feels like they're going to come from these final eight teams.

AJ, I mean, there's a chance that there was a dumping situation at the house with Mara and Harbaugh. There's a chance. You know, it's been in the past. Yeah, Garcia McDaniels. Well, we don't know what all went down. We do know weak pipes up there in Massachusetts. Well, Jim Ursey just tried to drop a hog dyer. Yeah.

Can't flush towels, okay? listen he wipes his butt with towels rest and feast jim ursay he earned that okay yeah that's right we love that man but we don't know i am bummed out i never got to ask him the actual his side of that story oh my god him telling that story would have been barns what do you want me to do there's nothing didn't have any toilet paper no wives this guy i almost didn't want to give him the job brother just didn't have toilet paper that would have been single ply. What are we,

this is a bad decision. I would have loved to hear like his side of it all. But maybe Mara in the Harbaugh meeting doesn't go as well as we're just kind of reading this and thinking this. And Giants fans are assuming that it is as we all are. So let's say he's on a market. You got eight jobs open. That's core of the league. And how many coaches do we have to hire these people?

I'm very fascinated by it. Like William Cohen came out of nowhere last year for the Jacksonville Jaguars. came out nowhere. Late hire. We didn't really know him. And there was a worry that he wasn't, who are these people going to hire? That's like the Steelers.

They're just passing around these head coaches. McDaniel might get a job because the fansky's going to get a job. Harbaugh is going to get a job. It's like, okay. So it didn't work. These guys just got fired at the last place. But it'll work in this building. I just, it's also fascinating right now.

Because I think back to Carly, Galen and Casey, the big three of the Indianapolis Colts, deciding to stick around with Shane and Ballard. And I don't know what the GM front is. Who was the guy that just got hired in Miami? John Eric Sullivan. Greenback.

Congrats to him. We assume he's going to be great. He's out of the Packers organization, going down to the Dolphins. Now, I do have a wonder if you can win in Miami with all the distractions and stuff. And entire football team's bigger than a basketball team. You know, you got 50-some guys that have to stay locked in. Miami's got a lot of distractions. Maybe John Eric will be able to find the guys that can go ahead and navigate that entire thing.

They got to get like a BYU team down there somehow. And I don't know if that's going to be possible. That's my personal thoughts on it all. So like in the front office thing, we never know who's going to get the jobs because these people are kind of just like unassuming, not knowing people. But the head coaching stuff, normally we know the people a little bit. William, we didn't know it all. And he's done great.

It's like if the Colts would have moved on from Ballard, I think we would have found somebody that we don't know and they would have said this guy's super genius. He was there whenever or some good player was trying. It's like, well, was he sitting at the table or was he sitting in the seats over there? I would like to know, is he actually listening to the decision or making the decision? You know, these are all decisions that people have to make. The coaching one, though, like Shane Steichen, hey, Debo, I think we got a guy. I think Shane Steichen right now, if he was available, I think he would get head coaching opportunities.

I think Shane Stuyken would get head coaching opportunities right now. So that makes me wonder. Go ahead. Yeah, I like Shane a lot. We saw what he did with a healthy Daniel Jones. this year. They were off to a historic start. I think he was great. There is a name that's kind of been coming up more and more often

on the offensive side of things. We're all looking for that next offensive super genius and a lot of these guys have been connected to McVeigh over the years. Guy Nate Schillhouse past game coordinator. I believe he's like early 30s, 34, 35 years ago. Yeah, I believe he's already getting some requests.

Next big guy. Shield House. Yeah, he's a past game coordinator out there in L.A. Nate Schillhouse. Okay, so coordinator, L.A. had Stoner, right?

They just got Stoner. Yeah. And now they got Shield Hoss? Yeah. Liam was there a couple years ago before he, you know, he was the next hot offensive name. AJ, you said Yelp,

like you knew who he was. I just saw the story. They just did a whole thing on him about how he's like the next up-and-comer rising through the ranks, like offensive guru guy that has been grinding and cutting his teeth, you know,

where you should cut your teeth. Like if a country music star cuts their teeth in Nashville, you know. Sure. Sure. Yeah, but if you're from Texas, I think that's pretty south too. Oh, yeah. He was with Matt Campbell for a long time at Iowa State. He was the quarterbacks coach.

That's what they said, like his development of Brock Purdy and then Rocco Beck. Like he was there for a decent amount of time. But yeah, he is kind of the bell at the ball right now. Good for him, man. Good for a lot of coaching jobs open. and I guess somebody will hit somewhere, but a lot of these aren't going to work. There was also a report earlier. Remember when there was report that the Steelers were kind of looking at people just in case Tomlin decided to leave?

And I believe Marcus Freeman was one of them as well. I would not be upset with Marcus Freeman either. Okay, Marcus Freeman, I think he's getting a lot of NFL looks. I've heard a rumor of what he was offered to coach somewhere, the amount of money. That was a lot, huh? And he turned it down, you're saying? The rumor. I mean, I don't know if it's real.

You know, I don't know if it's accurate, but felt like it came from a pretty accurate source who would know it. But, like, I was told he was offered a King's Ransom. I already was offered a King's Ransom to go coach somewhere, and he didn't make that decision. Now, is that just somebody from somewhere else trying to feed that info to get to, you know? You never know where things are coming from. But it sounds like Marcus Freeman is very committed to Notre Dame as a whole.

And then you think about Midwest. teams and who represents a green bay packer situation is interesting AJ now what is policy's policy going to be on extending a head coach who has an incredible winning record a coach who if he was to hit that coach's pull right there

that we showed he'd be getting he'd get a job literally next day it'd be like a hardball situation but probably even quicker I think it'd be even quicker because he's younger and, you know, all that type of stuff. But it feels like the Green Bay Faithful are out on him. Who are they going to hire if you guys fire? Have you thought about that, Ty Schmidt? Who are you guys going to?

Mike McCarthy? Harkball? Bring him home. I guess those would be the two options. Who would you guys hire if you moved on from the floor? And do you think that you guys inevitably end up moving on from the floor? It's an interesting situation over there with that contract. and like, AJ, quick before Todd gives this answer here.

Yeah. Am I out of my mind for thinking like the coaches contracts already slated? This is what it is. This is what you're making. And you don't have an owner. So it's not like you have to debate with the owner for the amount of money. You just, you have like a vault of money, right? It's like this is what is required to pay this person.

This is what we have to pay. We have to justify it to a committee, I think. But you're able to get that, right? So like, Shepter saying the price they offered them is just much lower than what he can get on the market. because of what contracts are. So are they saying they don't want them by doing that? Like, why wouldn't... It's what it feels like to me, because you're right,

it doesn't count against the cap. It's not, you're not working against the salary cap. It's like a normal team is what is the owner willing to pay you because that, you know, that would be money that the owner could keep his profit, I guess. But when it comes to Green Bay, it's different. They don't have an owner. So it's like, what are they willing to pay?

But is it almost like, hey, yeah, we want to work out a deal with you, but we don't want to pay you too much. It's not like a weird... It's not like a good faith. Is it in good faith in negotiation? I don't get it. We like you at 10 million bucks, but we don't like you at 11 million bucks.

It's like, what's the cutoff number? And what does that mean? I don't think I've ever heard that. You know what Shepty said that? It was interesting when he said, like, he threw out the thing, like, well, what if they're thinking, okay, maybe we can get a few draft picks back. If they could, like, move Matt LaFleur, I'm thinking, like, if you don't want a guy and you can get something for him, then, yeah, obviously you'd want to do that, right? Like, if you don't really want to resign. John Payton won for a one, right?

Sean Payton went for a one, I think. Yeah, I think it was like a one and a four or something. I think they got two picks. If you wanted a fire guy or not re-sign him, that's ideal for a franchise. Like, hey, let me get some draft picks for this guy, send him away, and then we'll get to hire a guy. So Sean Payton, the Saints received the Broncos' 23 first round pick and their 2024 second round pick. Damn, that's a lot. And the Broncos got Peyton and a third round pick from the Saints.

Interesting. Hey, Ty, now your thoughts on all that because he's coaching jobs. Somebody would potentially give you guys a one for Matt LaFleur with how much he would be wanted in the market. Like, what is your thoughts on it as we sit today, a couple of days removed from another loss out there? Yeah, I mean, it's tough because the big thing is like you said, you can't really, you can't really fire him and just assume, hey, we're going to go, we're going to go hire John Harbaugh, because if you do let him go and then you don't get Harbaugh, you're kind of shit out of luck. And they, I mean, the belief is that they are close enough with this roster and a healthy Micah Parsons and

some of the other pieces they lost that they're close enough to win the Super Bowl. But, I mean, at this point, and this is kind of crazy to say, like, I almost feel like even a guy like Kevin Stefansky, like I think I would be, it just, it feels like the proof is in the pudding with LaFleur. Like, he just, he's an offensive guy. They need a head coach. He's a very good, he's a very good play caller, but the special teams has sucked for a long time.

And the defense has kind of just left to Jeff Hathley where it's like, hey, you figure it out. Like we've seen like a guy like Vrable, like you don't have to be a successful great head coach by calling plays. You can be the CEO and kind of just have your hands in everything. And I mean, I don't think that's going to ever have him. But it's interesting. Like you said, like it seems like the decision has kind of already been made. So I don't know why we're belaboring the point so much. Like isn't it kind of just a done deal when they say, yeah, we'd like to work something out, obviously.

But then that just means that they don't, they aren't comfortable going to the number that Matt Lafleur wants. and they're kind of just standing pat. And if that's the case, then yeah, like he's not going to sign an extension. And why are we waiting when all these other potential candidates are going to get hired elsewhere? Well, and that's the thing with the Patriots, and I feel like the Steelers and the Packers,

and you can even throw the Eagles in there because they're having the conversation about Siriani, even though that might just be strictly on the outside and on the inside. Like, if you don't have a guy, like, there's no point to move on. Because if Harbaugh is going to the Giants and, like, the Packers can't get him, why like pivot? Whereas like if the Packers and the Steelers wait a year and then pull the trigger on a guy like Mike Vrable because the Patriots hired Gerard Mayo and then fired him after a year. Like that never happens, especially with like the expectations of New England. New England wasn't supposed to be good. They're supposed to be one of the worst teams and then slowly get better with Gerard Mayo.

They were really bad and then instead of waiting they's had Mike Vrable and they said you know what? Let's get rid of Gerard Mayo. Who cares what everyone says? We'll bring in Vrable and then, you know, I think this thing will look different. They were right, but it feels like unless you have that guy, you're going to completely screw your franchise by getting rid of the dude that you currently have. Wow. A ring of honor member who's an incredible football coach just lingering around for everybody.

Yeah. Like if Bart Starr is going to run through that tunnel, then the Packers should pull the trigger and make that guy the head football coach. Unless not, like, it is so hard to find a guy who immediately knows the culture, who immediately knows how to turn the place around, who knows the ownership. Like, it's hard, I think, to look to not be comparative when it comes to, like, the head coaching cycle and bringing guys in just because, like, the Patriots were so unique. The Jags, they were very, very unique as well.

Like, it's so difficult to get that right. Luckily and very gratefully, the Patriots did. but there is a very real world where the Patriots get rid of Gerard Mayo, they don't end up with Rabel, and instead of winning four games, they win one game, and it's even worse, and you just completely change your franchise. It's a fascinating thing trying to develop a squad, hire the right people. I was so incredibly lucky that I have a chance to work with

the great group of guys that I work with every single day. The best in a biz, boys. Thank you guys for putting me in a position to not have to hire anybody else ever. Thank you, May. Thank you for the job. Hiring sucks. Okay? It's really hard.

Because if you bring in one shitbird can ruin everything that you have. You can ruin everything. And then if you bring in somebody that's not right for the job, like Connor just alluded to, you have to make another incredibly hard decision very quickly. And then you also have to restart. It's not easy finding the right person to lead,

a multi-billion-dollar organization. Joining us now as a man who was tasked with that multiple times. 47 years he spent coaching football in his life multiple times. Super Bowl champion. future Hall of Fame. Ladies and gentlemen, B.A. Yay! How are you, coach? I'm doing great, baby.

Great to see you. You look wonderful. I love all the trophies behind you. I love the magic. You look incredible. I hope the golf game is going well. Let's talk about hiring coaches. Because we're starting to have, it's almost like we are getting to a point of reason and logic in coach's minds as this conversation goes. Because like when Carly Erse makes the decision, Carly, Kaylin, and Casey make the decision, make the decision to stay with Shane and Chris Ballard, everybody goes, what are we doing?

Why are we doing this again? And then whenever the Steelers don't move on immediately from Tomlin, Steelers fans go, what are we doing? What are we doing? What are we doing? Who are they hiring BA? How many of these coaches, okay, just in your eyes, you've been 47 years coaching football?

How many of these coaches do you think are actually equipped to be head coaches? And is there like a trait that you've noticed that some good assistant coaches have? that would make them great head coaches. And like, what do you think is the biggest indicator on somebody being good? Because there's not, obviously all these names we know, but like eight head coaching jobs are up right now. There's going to be eight next year. That's a quarter of the league.

Like a lot of these guys are going to be ass head coaches, right? Isn't that kind of how we should look at it? How do they get it right? How do they get it wrong in your eyes whenever you're doing the hiring process? Yeah, I think it's very, very interesting to see who owners listen to. You know, is it the general manager? Is it buddies that they have business? with and sometimes have no damn clue what football is all about.

You know, they just sell cars or something else. But, you know, it's hard. When you look at these young coordinators, some haven't called plays. They're just quarterback coaches. And now you're expecting them to be the head coach and the play caller. I think that's extremely, extremely hard for somebody to do the first year. Some guys like go call plays for a while and then become a head coach. But I think this cycle is going to be all about.

about rehiring ex-head coaches. You know, because so many guys got fired a couple years ago that went back and are doing great jobs as coordinators, Robert Shala, a couple of guys like that. I think they're going to all the guys are going to get these jobs this year. Stefansky's getting an interview. McDaniel's getting an interview.

Harbaugh is getting an interview, obviously. Ann McCarthy, already a head coach in there. Just to wrap up my question before AJ and the boys have more for you, especially about that Steelers game last night. Jeez. Always. No renegade, B.A. No, they didn't play a shit. There's no old mama. No, nine. No mama. No mama last night.

They would have to play in the first five minutes. It's a good first five minutes, boss. Okay, but before we get to all that, what is the trade of being a good head coach, you think? Like, if you were hiring, let's say you were owner, you were the Glazer family, they call you. Instead of calling a car salesman around town that they're friends with her, their golf and buddy, what would you say is required to be a good head coach? What is the trait that needs a, needs to happen. I think first and foremost, the guy's leader of men. You know, it's not, it's a head coach. You're responsible for everybody, the staff, the entire building. So you have to be a leader of men and have a plan. Everybody said, what's your philosophy? I don't want to hear shit about philosophies.

Give me your plan. How are you going to do it? Show me on paper. Talk to me about how you're going to get just done day to day and get all the way to the season and through it. So to me, it's a matter of. experience. You know, I think you're high risk when you go out for guys that have no experience as being a head coach or, like I said, never calling plays and all of a sudden you're a head coach and you're going to be a head coach and call plays. There's just not enough time for a guy to get

that done, I don't think. It's very rare. The Sean McVeys, everybody wants to touch somebody from Sean McVeigh. And that's been the hiring cycle for the last, what, five years now, offensive guys. And I think there's a lot of teams looking for that young offensive guy who they can help with their young quarterback and get cheap.

But, you know. Steel hats. Chewoss. I mean, he's going to be, he's going to get a bunch of because he's, he's in that golden goose tree. And it used to be in, brother.

Yeah, back in the day, back in the day, if you were the quarterback coaches of Packers, you got a head job every year. When you go, Andy Reed, John Gruden, all the way through. I mean, that guy got a head job every year. Whoever's quarterback coach is a badger.

Now is anybody that touches Sean McVeigh. Go ahead, DeBite. Yeah, coach, on Nate Sherylhaus, not just him, but just a past game coordinator. Something you hear on the offensive and the defensive side of the ball. Can you kind of tell us what that is? Because I see Sean McVeigh is calling the plays. But what is like a past game coordinator? And what's the difference between that and then like an actual offensive coordinator?

Yeah, you're your response for just half the game. game plan, you know, you're putting up to passing game along with somebody else. You're not doing it all by yourself. You know, Sean's hands in there totally. And, uh, but for me, you can't have the word coordinator next to your name unless you're calling plays, unless you're in front of the room, installation, meetings, and calling plays. Uh, there are way too many titles out there right now that don't mean shit. I mean, it's just, it's just a way to get raised. And so it's just, hey, if you're not in front of the damn room, and column plays, you ain't the coordinator. Corporate structure has gotten into ball. That's what it sounds like you just say.

All the way. I'm executive vice coordinator of the offense. You know, well, what does that mean? I don't understand what that. Are you going to play? I'm assistant head coach. I'm assistant head coach offense offense offense offense, I'm a runner, but I'm calling the goddamn play. Good luck to all these people hiring things. Now, speaking of hiring, firing, when do you know the time is right? AJ has a question about, you know, Harbaugh, it was already made in Baltimore. Is there more? Go ahead, age. Yeah, B.A., we hear sometimes, like, when a coach is out of place long enough that their message might get stale.

Like, obviously, Harbaugh is an unbelievable coach, legendary coach, and he's going to get hired right away? But did his message get stale? And is that something as a coach you have to be aware of and try to always evolve what you're doing? And not your philosophy, but your plan. Does it change over the years? Yeah, I think totally, AJ, I mean, you've got to have a different message. You can't be the same one over and over and over. Now, game week, it is, to me, what I'm saying,

on Monday, I'm saying on Friday and Saturday. And maybe by then they've heard it. If I said five times, maybe one of them finally listening, got it. But I always check what my players were saying in the press. And if they were repeating the message, I know they heard it. Interesting.

Interesting. There's a little homework assignment whenever you're talking to the media. Has this guy been paying attention at all to what we're trying to say this week? I love that. What was your message normally, coach? Five stars. Other guys. I love that. That was my favorite one. That's the one I remember. That's the one I remember most, because that's my favorite of all time. Night before game, BA giving a speech to all of us, or actually it starts on Wednesday,

starts on Wednesday whenever we do the initial plan in the morning. This week, our five stars are going to cancel out there five stars. This game's going to be won by you motherfuckers out here. Okay, so let's make sure we, it was one of the funniest things I was sitting there just not expecting it at all. And I'm like, God damn, that was like maybe the most blunt way I've ever. I've ever heard somebody talk about a game, but it was right. You're basically, but, and then also all the other guys, they took on like, yeah, this is our week. It felt like a Super Bowl

almost for the role guys in the entirety. I love that. Was that always your messaging? What was your style you think? I didn't, I don't remember much storytelling. Yeah, I was never much of a motivating storyteller guy. I just wanted to tell the truth and what I thought was going to take to win or lose the game.

And keep it short and sweet. And that way I know they're going to hear me. And like I said, I never gave the elaborate speeches on Saturday night. It's just, hey, this is what it's going to take to win. Go do it. And then, hey, we want speakers next week. That's right.

What a run, dude. Were you there, Debutt for the BA run? Yes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That was my first year. First year here, obviously with Chuck. And then once Chuck went down, BA stepped up.

And yeah, that was pretty much the message weekend and week out. And him being in an offensive head coach at the time, he still kind of set the tone in practice with him talking shit to the defense. because, you know, luck wasn't that type of, I guess, quarterback. He went about his business in a different way. So, B.A. set the tone of that. But, yeah, when you lay out the plan, like you said, it's about being the leader of men. When you lay out a plan of action, a lot of times you're going to the game,

and certain things have to change. But nine times out of ten, coaches prepare you for how that game is going to go, how you're going to win this game, whether it's an environment, whether it's going to be a big red zone day, a third, whatever it is, they kind of lay it out. And then the best ones kind of adjust as the game kind of unfolds as well. But BA always had a clear message on who was going to have to step up and make that play. And nine times out of ten, it played out that way.

Hey, that's no BS, baby. No, AJ, you talk about a message getting stale or not getting stale. You mentioned hardball. Obviously, Baltimore thought that was the case. Pittsburgh now is the entire conversation. Go ahead, Don. Yeah, coach, obviously you were in Pittsburgh for a long time. A majority of it with Coach Tallinn.

You know him. You know the Roonies. You know the GM, Omar Khan. what do you think about the situation as a whole because a lot of people report and there's no way the Rooney's would ever just blatantly outright fire Mike Tomlin. It would have to be him stepping away.

Do you think he's someone who would step away? And do you have any thoughts on why they keep getting blown out every single playoff game? Yeah, I mean, they limped in and they're not a very good football team. So when you go up, especially when you get three turnovers from the quarterback at home, you would expect a whole dot different outcome that would happen last night. And like you said, you know, the last seven

playoff games have been down at least 21 points in all of them. So it's if that is the standard, then the standard bearer has to be held accountable. And nine and eight and getting blown out in the first round has been gone on for a long time.

And so I don't see the Steelers firing them because they haven't fired a coach since 69. So it's like same old thing. I'm fascinated by the Pittsburgh story. Also, the lingering messaging of Tomlin potentially having a TV deal, who's putting that message out, you think? Not Tomlin necessarily the direct person, but when we hear these types of rumors circling, that's an agent working? Is that an agent working? What do you think that is exactly? Yeah, I think it's politically people setting it up for, hey, don't piss him off because he'll leave. And so if you want to make a move, make a move. I don't know if art's going to do that. I doubt it.

But, you know, for me, it's time. Wow. That'd be crazy. Would you imagine Pittsburgh? I mean, Pittsburgh gets spent $30 million on a wide receiver that never played football for them before. So that was abnormal. There's been a lot of abnormal Pittsburgh Steelers stuff happening in this new generation.

I'm not saying they fired a coordinator in the middle of the season. That hadn't happened a long, long time. I don't know. That would be crazy. Pittsburgh would be upside down. All right. Let's talk about a place that seemingly got flipped upside down and then put right back into the same damn place, which is maybe a dynasty.

Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, B.A. You talked about playoff experience, Drake May. He finally got his first victory, his first game under his belt. How huge is this for the Patriots going forward that he now has kind of the taste of the playoffs? And where do you see them kind of going here

as the playoffs continue in Houston comes to town? Yeah, I think it was fantastic. He didn't play fantastic, but he played good enough. And that defense was just unbelievable that they put, They showed that defense put on as unbelievable the way they confused Herbert and had him running all over the place.

But yeah, Drake, his athletic ability shows up, and that ain't ever going away. You know, just played natural football for him. Josh McDaniel is doing a great job, putting him in very good situations. But again, Houston's defense, that's a whole different story, brother. That ball's going to have to come out quick, and they're going to have to run the football a little bit better. Coach, we got 30 seconds here before a hard out in the first hour.

What was the most impressive thing you saw? from Wildcar weekend. Was it that Texan's defense? I mean, that could be your answer. That's probably Josh Allen putting the Cape back on down in Jacksonville. I mean, he keeps doing it, man. I don't know how he's doing it, but he keeps doing it. That's no BS, baby.

That's no BS game ball. Josh Allen, how about the NFC? Oh, Robert Salah and the 49ers defense. I mean, the job he did with fourth, fifth, and six linebackers were just amazing in Philadelphia. We appreciate you, Coach. You're the man. Thank you for spending time

with this all season thus far. You got a brother. Love it. Hell you. Love you too. See you. That's Coach B.A. Yeah, Coach.

Football. It's happening everywhere last night. Obviously, Houston, Texans, beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 30 to 6 in a route. Pat, what do you think? B.A. had some interesting insight about the whole coaching situation. I don't know what's going to happen out there.

Yeah, it seems like Coach B.A. just said it's time to move on from Tomlin. I feel like that's a pretty big deal. especially as a guy who's been in that building for the Pittsburgh Steelers and a guy who's friends with every coach ever, basically. That feels like a big thing for him to say. But I think he's also coming from a place for like, hey, baby, I've had to go to a couple different places. You know, he went to Indianapolis, he went over to Arizona. He was done.

There was multiple times he was potentially done with football and then gets called back to the game and gets to rebuild, re-experience, reconnect with new people, I guess. Like, after Pittsburgh Steelers, he was done. Allegedly he was heading to the lake. Now, would he have got sick of dolphin and boosin and hanging? Maybe. But I think, you know, football would have come calling at any point. But let, let, maybe not. I mean, legit, maybe not. Allegedly the story goes is he was actually driving to get his stuff to go back to Georgia where he has a lakehouse with his wife. And Chuck McGahnham calls him and goes, what's up, because, like, any way you can come, B-by-O-C, we got Andrew Luck. And he goes, ah, fuck it, baby. Let's go. You know, instead of going to Atlanta. Or down to Georgia, he just turns right and heads, you know,

the Indianapolis, Indiana, as he does that. So then obviously that an incredible year comes the interim head coach. Chuck McDonough wins coach a year, B.A. win coach a year kind of together. Then he goes to Arizona, has to reestablish himself all the way out of Arizona. He goes Pittsburgh all right to Arizona. And he's done. And then he's like Tampa. He goes back to Tampa.

It's like he's gotten a chance to experience like, hey, a new building, new fans, new messaging. Like, Coach Tomlin, I don't know if BA knows if Coach Tomlin. I don't know if BA knows if Coach Tomlin's going to continue to coach or if he's going to do TV. But I think what he's trying to say is like, this feels like time. Not only for the Steelers fans with how they've experienced it, whenever you start lining up their stats, just getting your ass beat in the first round. Like, that's not a fun year. Hey, yeah, but you guys are above 500.

Are we at the end of the year? Because it feels like we're the worst team in football every time the season ends because the way the last taste in her mouth goes. So BA's saying that I thought was pretty big. I thought that was big for, I think he was speaking from both sides, though, too. Like, hey, Coach Tomlin, like, this would be good for you as well, you know, like, experience something new. And then for the Steelers, it's like, if not now, when? Like, is this just going to go on forever? Like, when do you kind of do it?

So I think that's what he was saying, but that felt big coming out of his mouth, AJ. Yeah, definitely did. And the thing about what we haven't even mentioned with Tomlin, for some reason, the Steelers move on from Tomlin, and Tomlin doesn't go to TV. He has every NFL job open for him as well. You put him in line with Harbaugh to where, hey, you pick whatever opening you want is yours, right? He's viewed above Harbaugh, isn't he? Slightly, I would have said.

I think so. I'm saying just like that's kind of, I'm talking about ownership and like national conversation. Yeah, I'd say so. I said it pretty cool. I don't know. Ten years younger. You think they're close? I think they're pretty close.

I think player-wise, but, you know, listening to AQ and people who've been in that building, they love Harbaugh. And I would say the same thing for Pittsburgh. When we were players, everybody talked highly of them, it feels like one coach, he'll probably be at the top of the list that players will, one to play for. But now I feel like ownership and even like the higher cycle, just football coaches in general. Like the football, if you view the football coach, I just pictured the NFL football coach 15, 20 years ago compared to now. It's a completely different landscape. But as far as like legacy-wise and all that, I would say they're pretty close.

I wonder how much Brable's hiring is going to affect this entire. Legit. Because what a perfect. Ben Johnson, too. but I guess these Ben Johnson's aren't just growing on trees. That's what they've been saying in the last couple of years, which is why everybody was trying to hire them. But like, Vrabel, Ben Johnson, super alpha's going into these buildings just kind of,

and Brable already done it before. He has so much experience for it all, basically. It's what a perfect hire for you guys, Con, man. Well, yeah, and Vrable has seemingly brought back, though, like, hey, you don't need to be the genius offense or defense play car. And you could argue this with D'Amico Ryans, too. but they are the encapsulation of CEO, leader of men, leader of the team, helping out every single aspect of the team, not just focused on one thing.

But Tomlin would then fall into that variable category of, hey, screw whoever we have. Like, let's go and get, like when we were just talking about the Packers and are they really going to let go of LaFleur just to let go and kind of move in a different direction? Whereas if Tomlin was available, that is where you would think, hey, 20 teams, 25 teams, teams, whether they kind of like their head coach or feel like it's going in the right direction or not, they're probably going to say, Tomlin is better than the current option we have, whether we went to the playoffs or not, like Mike Tomlin's a guy that we can rely on for the next, you know, 20 years. Because like to Ty mentioned there, he's 10 years younger than Harbaugh,

and they still do feel, you know, reasonably neck and neck. But yeah, to your point, Vrable does seem to be that guy and that higher that has kind of changed that narrative around guys that aren't just the genius offensive play caller. Yeah, I, MCDC did it with Detroit a couple years back. I just don't know who those. Siriani don't call plays, but everybody obviously shits on Sirianney. Yeah, he's getting fired every other year. Yeah, but he's been there two-sour-bowers.

Every other week. We're winning percentages up there with like John Madden or whoever else, their start. So I think he's a name, too, who's kind of in that, you know, CEO archetype because there's been a revolving door, offensive and defensive coordinators, you know, Vic is kind of locked down to defense, but offensively, they've been changing coordinators and play

callers damn there every year. Debutt just sent me a tweet from we'll send in the group. I don't know if anybody sent that to Bruce yet or not. Yeah, I sent in to Bruce. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, so. But it's very important,

I think. Absolutely. I kind of mention at this moment. Yeah, we're talking about it. We are definitely would need the audio for it to get the point across, but when Ben Johnson, I don't remember our initial reaction to him, you know, talking to the whole atrium and the whole building. But when you go into these interviews and obviously stuff we're not privy to, this is what the owners have to deal with.

Okay, how is it? Is this a leader of men? Can this guy lead the building? Because it's not just the players in the front office. And now looking back on this, a year back, I feel like Ben Johnson, this was like a 10 out of 10 from the jump. Thank you so much. My family and we were beyond excited. This is exactly where we wanted to be. It's exactly where we wanted to be. where we want you. This is going to be challenged. I am well aware of that.

I know what this division is about. And this is exactly where we want to be. We're going to go after this thing, and it's going to take all of us in this room. It's going to take this locker room. It's nothing more important than that locker room. And us serving that locker room in those players. All right?

They need to understand that. They need to feel that from us every single day. And if we do that, the wins are going to come. The playoffs are going to come. All right? Can't wait to get to know you guys. And thank you so much for the warm welcome.

Thank you. Hell yeah. Yeah, so obviously that's an awkward, very awkward spot to be in, but I felt like he handled it well and kind of setting that message early like, hey, the locker room, the whole building, everybody in this building,

it was another kind of piece of it. Somebody zoomed in or somebody in the back kind of making the face. Like, oh, shit, I kind of never heard that message before. And then obviously, will hire, you know, and if they make a move in Green Bay, like going to these places that kind of have a quarterback in place as well, like a talented quarterback, we knew Drake would be a guy, we thought Caleb would be a guy, we know, we'd see George Love to be a guy, like,

if you can go into these places and you have a nice mindset and a nice trajectory for the team and actually have that trigger man on the center as well, things can go well, you see it going well in Chicago. Ben Johnson being the belt of ball for so many years, I guess it all makes sense now, doesn't it? It all makes sense right now. But that was Detroit Lions were obviously reaping the benefit of Ben Johnson for a while alongside everybody else. They're about to lose their D.C. Did you see that?

Whoa. Yeah, he's interviewed for head coaching gigs, right? Calvin Shepard. Hell yeah. Shepton getting a head coaching opportunity. Now, we thought it's potentially the way the season ended. First year defense coordinator Calvin Shepard, longtime NFL vet, former teammate of myself and Darius Butler. We love this, dude.

We are big, big fans of the way this guy played. ball, the way this guy operated in a locker room, the way everybody felt about him, his energy, his aura, his passion for the game, you name it. We love Shep Dog. Fought with the way the season ended, there was no chance to be getting any head coaching opportunities. He was going to run it back for his second year as D.C., but now he's getting some head coaching spots, and I'll let you know this, Evan Fox.

If he gets in a room, he'll win room. He's good in room. Yeah, I believe that. A hundred percent believe that, but Shep's young, and I'm happy he's getting these interviews. he's going through the process. I don't see him going anywhere yet. I think he'll stay in Detroit.

And then we got Mike McDaniel right now in Detroit today interviewing for that OC job. So you got Shepdog on the defense. You got Mike with Danny on the offense. And then MCDC back to being a CEO. I don't want him calling plays. I don't want them only worrying about the offense. We had so many holes this year. And I think a big part of that was because MCDC couldn't oversee everything.

He was so locked in on that. So I'm hoping we get back to old MCDC ground and pound football. MCDC, he spread himself too thin, man. Ty, what did MCDC say about McDaniel and kind of how he operates who he is and how he'd fit in in the MCDC culture up there in Detroit? All right, first things first, man. I'm going to haze you a little bit. Turn around.

I'm going to give you a big wedgey and hang you up on where my coat goes on the back of the door. Okay? I don't want any of this pussy-foot-in BS wearing, you know, your high waters, the cool glasses. We're going to cut that shit out right away, man. So I'm going to go ahead and put you up there, rip your underwear. We'll head to the bathroom. I'll give you a swirly, and then we'll get the interview process, sorry. Okay, I figured it wasn't something like that.

And what was the interview about his offense or just mostly about him? Well, he pretty much right away, he was just like, sorry I didn't flush the toilet before the swirl. All I could, there's poop in your hair. Let's get you back. Is he so curly too? Let's get you back to the hotel, man. You can shower up. We can come back in tomorrow and we'll really dive into the football stuff.

There's a chance. We don't know. obviously MCDC is an incredibly deep thinking man. I think it's obvious one of you listed. Super meathead, but very deep thinker. And obviously a stud. But McDaniel and MCDC together would be much wanted. Just the sight of them too on the sideline.

That would be the best. Like McDaniel jumping on his back after a big touchdown and MCDC like going crazy. That would be all. You could probably put him both. Yeah. If you see my backpack, man. The guy used to be a head coach. That'd be incredible.

Dude, so he's in Detroit right now. What other interviews are happening? Stefanski interviewed somewhere, right? McCarthy in New York today, right? Is that right? McCarthy, I believe Luana Rumo also interviewing for the Giants. I'm not sure if it's today or tomorrow. Yeah, I know every single team has reached out.

Every team with an opening has reached out to Jesse Minter to want to hire or set up an interview with him as well. How do you guys feel about that with like the Giants? I guess you could throw the dolphins in because they just hired them. Who else? Cleveland, the Raiders, where the GM's already there. And, you know, instead of firing GM and head coach, like Spy Tech with the Raiders, he got hired with Pete Carroll, only head coach leaves, Andrew Barry with Cleveland. Like we just showed Ben Johnson with the Bears.

Polls already there. They held on to them. How do you guys feel about that versus some of the other spots where, hey, clean house, we're going to bring in two guys together. Two different mindsets going in. GM is who you're working for. If you go in there and GM's already there, that's your boss. Then GM reports to ownership.

You've got to have that mindset. You've got to know that's what you're signing up for. Usually it's a younger coach who's signing up for that who's thankful for the opportunity. You know, like thankful for the opportunity. I will work for GM. GM obviously reports the boss owner and that's kind of how this whole thing goes. But then if you come in together, you know, then, you know, you see maybe the power struggle is a little bit more like that.

That's kind of my mindset. It would be two different mindsets completely, AJ. Yeah, you just got to know your role. You got to know. And also, if you already have a GM in your interview and head coaches, that GM's got to be in every single interview and got to see, can you guys mesh? Do you guys think the same way?

However, also, you need to know what you're going to do. There's some places where the GM, they set, they pick the whole roster. Hey, I will give you the roster. I will show, here's your team. And then I will stay out of it. I'm not going to get into any football. You do whatever you do. I'm not going to push you to play.

to pay or to put players in if I feel like they should be playing, whatever, and the coach doesn't try to, like, get in the personnel side. So you kind of got to know what it is going in. It's different. It's always different. I mean, it's people, so it's always going to be shit that you've got to deal with, and things happen. I personally saw a power struggle with the GM and the head coach that came in together

as it went on. And that's tough because as players, you know players, you can't bullshit us. Like, we feel it, we see it, we know the decisions that are being made. We see guys that are maybe on a roster playing, and we know good and damn well they shouldn't be. So that definitely can be tough. And I came into the league. I was in New England. So Bill, he ran the entire show.

So there was no, you know, it was one accord. Everybody was on the same page. So it really just depends on the people. But it's working, I guess it's working in Chicago so far. That's what it made me think of it. Just like, well, respect to Ryan Poles for just basically being like, yeah, look, it didn't go well. You just tell me what to do. And maybe that's not how it goes.

Maybe Ben Johnson had similar mindsets. But it's just, it feels like that is a very tough dynamic. Yeah. Like, especially in Cleveland. Like, if Andrew Barry wants Scher to play over to Gabriel or Gabriel to play, however the hell that thing plays out. But if that is his mindset, then the coach has a different one, like, how does that even, how does that even work?

And then Haslam has them saying, well, Deshaun's healthy, too. You know, so there's a lot of different conversations there. They started pitching GMs and coaches together during the interview process. That was like the last three, four years during the cycles where agencies or coaches or GMs, whatever the case, whoever was a part of it, would tag team into the interview process together and say, hey, we can get along. We kind of see football the same. We understand what we want, what we don't want. We've been together this song. We've been through it.

You know, like Andy Reid brings over Veach, right, whenever he goes over to Kansas City. Veets working for him. You know, like into Neubut's point there, Chuck and Gridson is who he's talking about. He's talking Coach Fagano, Ryan Grigsson. Coach Bagan and Ryan Grigsden get brought in together, okay, as a unit. Then Chuck McGahnowna gets leukemia, his first season early. He misses basically a majority of the year, then comes back for last week of season. Unbelievable, he beats leukemia and comes back to coach last year, game of the season, by the way.

It was an insane story. All of it. Should be a movie. Chuck Awesome. We all love him and appreciate him. And then he coaches. Then Grigsen won executive of the year that year, though. Okay, chalk wasn't there.

So then all of a sudden there is already a lot of decisions that had to be made in the first year when you're set in precedent where GM's there present every single day, head coach is not. So then a relationship is built in a standard is set. And then all of a sudden it's like catch up is happening for the people that are supposed to be together. So it was, that was an interesting, fascinating thing watching that kind of all take place. It was very clear on, you know, what side those two. It feels like those two may pick teams at one point. was certainly a pick for one side. Definitely not a pick for the other side.

So that certainly felt like that. Since then, though, I had a conversation, you know, moved on, but there's a lot of problems in there. And I think that was the most amateur kind of part of it all. It's like you two have to get along.

Like you two have to, this, you two are very important to each other. And if you're not going to, it's like you can't happen. This is where every coach that is trying to get a job says, I want vertical all. I want, but, I want vertical alignment because I don't want anybody saw me off at the knees if we don't play

or coach, if we don't play well, because we have good players. GM gave me good players. I can't coach good. GM's selling out of that other things I'm a dip shit. I'm not really a political person. So I'm not going to go say, these players kind of ask for a system to kind of, it's always like it's always one of these kind of happening.

So you got to get it right. The egos, you know, at those positions, everybody has an ego. But when you're a head coach, you're a general manager, when you're an owner, like big, you know, egos, definitely become a big part of it as well. Managing those. How do you deal with those from the top? It's tough.

Speaking of really cool things before we move on, do you see the Pennsylvania hockey lads? Oh, yeah. The little guys? Do you see that, AJ? Oh, yeah. I see these guys just knocking each other out. What are they eight, ten years old? Intermission game.

Intermission game. Hey, just go skate. You're going to be able to skate on, I believe, is is this a baby pens? Whose game was this? Hershey. Yeah. Yeah, so just go get on the ice store on here. I love that kid coming in. What a rest.

Yeah, where are the rats? There's another one coming in, like, boom. Yeah, that's a goalie coming in saying, what are you guys? I don't think so. I'll think so. So allegedly, it's a Pittsburgh team and a Philly team. They're all throwing bombs. It's good to know.

And back here, there was almost going to be a one-on-one. Those two of the stars out there, you can kind of tell they're the goal scores. But the rest of the lad's getting after it. I appreciate the boys scrapping out here. and happy nobody was seriously injured, but I also like that maybe this generation still got it, still got it. And Pittsburgh and Philly, always going to do that. I appreciate old buddy getting a buck too.

Maybe somebody's going to go and going to go and going to go and the push back to the face. And it gets back in net because guys trying to score. Yeah, full chaos there. That is, I like that that happened in sports, and I appreciate Pennsylvania being the place to do that. Shout out to hockey. went in the fight from my understanding. Yep.

By the way, I just froze over here and I freeze over there. Yeah, it's the back in half a second, yeah. Good now. It's probably could you call it a hockey town. That's a lie. Well said, Dee. Well, said Dee, but. You saying it's Detroit?

What? He's kind of Florida now. Butte he pronounced it in Hawking Town, so it's Hockeyton. So is that what your problem? Yeah, we're hockey time. Yeah, I just repeat it. He called it hockey. which was a lot. That's why I got throttle. Hockey town was in Detroit.

Now it's off of Los Olas Boulevard. Perfect. To be fair, the Bruins did just beat the Penguins. One-nothing. One-nothing. Blanked them. So it's a good call by you, Deepwater. One-nothing. One-nothing. Siddy kid who? Who's the goat? They got zero goals. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen,

is the man who might have more answers on all the head coaching jobs that are coming. He's an Emmy Award winner, absolute stallion. Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Schager. Yes, Shregel. My hair here. Shragge, you look amazing. You were at the game in Pittsburgh yesterday. Your thoughts is that 30 to six ass beating happened against the Pittsburgh Steelers in front of their fans.

Yeah, I felt like that Sunday night game against the Ravens was a cool moment for Steelers fans. As much as now in reflection, they're like, that meant nothing. It was a cool moment to end the Baltimore Ravens season and to end John Harbaugh's time as coach of the Baltimore Ravens, essentially with that loss. last night they were hanging around, hanging around, and the Texan's defense was just too much and overpowered. What's fascinating to me is the timeline here with Tomlin. I've known Mike a little bit. He's going to be deliberate with his actions.

He doesn't speak in hypotheticals. We know that. I would think in the next 48 hours he's going to meet with Art Rooney and the two of them will come to an agreement or a decision of some sort. And we should know, I would imagine, by the end of the week. I don't think this is one of those where it lingers on. and I think it would be a mutual conversation. And then it's anybody's ballgame what he wants to do.

And he hasn't really told anybody. I think everyone assumes that he still can coach, but also assumes that he'd be great in broadcasting. So there are doors open for him. And I'm fascinated with the timeline here. It could be today, tomorrow. I would be shocked if we went into the weekend. And we'd have a word on what Tomlin's future is.

Interesting. This guy can be in the boot by the championship. We'd be excited to see if that's the case. If he was getting TV, we all believe he'd be unbelievable. He'd win every award that there is to do whenever you're talking into microphones and his football knowledge is absurd. Studio or game? What do you think?

Whatever he wants. I think studio is much better for him, but he could do game as well. Yeah. I worked at Fox for many years. Jimmy Johnson was an absolute legend and loved working with Jimmy. Then Sean Payton was in there as the coach. Fox currently doesn't have a coach. on that panel.

Jay Glazer. Jay Glazer is pushing. They're throwing so much money. Terry's getting older. Terry's getting a little older, but Terry's not. I'll say this. I have been with Glaze at the league meetings where there's the owner's meetings and no one puts a party on like Jay Glazer at the league meetings.

All the current, all the current head coaches kind of get together for drinks on that Tuesday. And it's all the neophytes, the young guys kind of like hanging around and like holding in that back corner it's Glaze and Tomlin just sitting at the top of the table and it's Tomlin just the king of the castle. That's a real relationship. And when you bring in the history with

John Lynch and Ronde Barber Fox makes sense. Not to that I'm playing the agent for Mike Tomlin or anything. Well, Jake Glazer's been playing the agent because he's the one who on going into week 18 and we watch Jake Laser on Sunday. Scoopage. Right? And that what he calls it?

Yeah, Scoopage. and he only he doesn't do the day to day anymore if he wanted to he could he waits for Sunday so he can break it on their countdown show and we respect it and they got him in this big screen now that he stands in front of

I mean it's this is the best glazer set up we've seen in sometimes so we're happy for him that it's taking place but the way you talked about Tomlin and Harbaugh two very different things he was like yeah they both been there a long time Harbaugh can certainly move on for him

Tomlin they won't move on and he might do TV and as soon as I heard Jay Glazer said I was like wait Jay Glazer and Tomlin are like very, very, very tight. And then the boys were like, the boys were talking four fox right there. He's saying he's going in there. And if that's the case, football will get better if Tomlin is on a microphone every single

week talking about it. And I don't know how the Pittsburgh people feel. Like, I wonder how the Pittsburgh people will feel if this decision is made in the next 48 hours where he stays and he's a coach and they're taking the tractor another round. So if you're boots on the ground, Aaron didn't give any definitives afterwards either. they didn't want to make a decision in the middle of the emotion, didn't want to make any emotional decisions, is what he said. So that means he's not sure either.

What are your thoughts after being around there what the future does look like for them? No, no, it's pretty reflective, though, right? Like, to do this thing again, I don't know. You know, I hate that his last pass was a pick six. I hate that he goes out as a wild car loser, but I do like the fact that Aaron, who is,

I think, the most talented quarterback I've ever seen play, talent-wise, just sheer throwing the ball, and we can get into that those semantics. I do like the fact that he had that Sunday night win last week. And I think it's okay if this is it for Aaron Rogers. Now, if he has a burning desire to run it back one more time and do it with the Steelers

or do it with somebody else that got, hey, that's his prerogative. But he left it on the field, played the complete season at 42, won a division, won a huge winning in game on Sunday night football with the world to see where he threw for 400 yards. Like, I think he could hold his head pretty high saying, hey, I didn't go out the way it would have gone out if it ended after those Jets two seasons. Congratulations to whatever decision is made, and congrats to the Houston Texans. I mean, what an unbelievable win, Shregs.

We talk, I'm saying glowingly of the Houston Texans defense since I watched them play against the Colts. They were so good, so fast. Our crowd was booing within the first five minutes of the first quarter because they knew our offense wasn't going to be able to do anything against them. They did that last night, and then some obviously scoring like 14 points within a matter of what seemed like two minutes in the fourth quarter to kind of change the entire game. But you mentioned Matt Burke as being a head coach. No shit. I haven't heard his name at all. That was a special defense over there right now.

They're on the path to be historic. They might win it all because of the defense traits. Let me tell you something about Matt Burke. This is a guy who has been around the league, has bounced around a bit with the dolphins, with the Eagles, gets to Houston. and this was before they drafted Stroud and before they drafted Will Anderson and Domeco's obviously defensive coach. This year, Domeco gives up play calling duties on defense

to Matt Burke, who very quietly has put together this season with Domingo, obviously a big voice in it. And these guys have been unbelievable all season. So week four or five, Orlovsky and I went out there and we called, and I was on that broadcast crew, that called the Seahawks Texans Monday night game. part of a double header, not a lot of people stayed up to watch it. But now you look at it, it's Seahawks Texans.

Seahawks won by 14 points. You don't think of it, whatever is it. The Texans defense absolutely dominated that game. And I came out of that thing being like, okay, I know they lost it, but this team is legit. Then they beat the snot out of Josh Allen and the bills. They eliminate the chiefs. They go on, they get to the playoffs. And then last night on national television just absolutely destroyed the steel.

offense, which was clicking the week before, top to bottom. And I give not only D'Amico and Matt Burke and the players a lot of credit, I give Nick Casario, the GM, a lot of credit, because a lot of it's homegrown. They drafted Stingley before Sauce Gardner. Everyone was like, you're drafting Stingley before Saw? Stingley at all injuries. Drafted Stingley before Sauce. Traded up to get Will Anderson. Petrie was a second round pick. You look at those different pieces, Bullock, draft pick, Lasseter draft pick. And then bring in Al-Shayr, right? Bring in Danielle Hunter. This is a loaded team, all three levels.

And it might be one of those years where everyone's like, anyone's guess who's in the Super Bowl, we wake up the Monday after the AFC championship game and we're like, holy crap, the Houston Texans are playing in the Super Bowl and they have the best defense since the Baltimore Ravens fielded in 2000. They're that good and they are that deep and they're that well coached. Sorry for this six-minute soliloquy on the Texans defense, but I've been wowed by them four different occasions. Seahawks game, Bill's game, Chiefs game, and this game, where it's like, holy crap.

Yeah, when you get eyes on them in person, it's even different because they're all big. They're all fast. They're all strong. And their gap sound. And Debut, you were talking, and Troy was talking a lot about it last night. They're like the old Seattle Seahawks defense, right, where they're just doing their shit. You just know exactly what it is. It's not like Aaron was going to have some sort of advantage by being able to pick apart what they were doing.

They're not disguised you anything. They're just playing football. saying let's go and get it, right? But what does that mean for like going forward? I mean, it just means basically everyone knows their roles. So everyone, and even the offense is coming in, they know, okay, this is where it's going to be. They're going to be playing this type of coverage.

It's how we can attack it. But everyone knows their roles. So if I'm playing with AJ, I'm always in a curl flat, and he's always in a hook curl. Like, we almost know how each other is going to play each down. And you talked about that Ravens 2000s defense, the L-O-B. They were similar. even at no-fly zone defense in Denver.

They kind of won that Super Bowl when Peyton was there. You knew what they were doing lining up. Their guys were just better, and they flied around. They were better coach. And I mean, the way that this team swarms, and even when you catch the ball, like you're going to get a headache every time you catch the ball. And that's if the quarterback can get the damn ball out of his hands.

Like, they are unbelievable. Kind of depending on how they finish this playoff run, can definitely go down as one of the all-time great defenses that we've seen. Pat, I love that AJ and Derricks are. here also. Daniel Hunter's got 115 career sacks. He's 31 years old. We never, never talk about this guy.

I mean, we're talking about an all-time legend putting a career together that is doing so anonymously, you know, back Minnesota and here just compiles the sacks. Should have been first team all pro. And yeah. Oh, that's rich. Huge season. I don't vote that. I voted for him as first team all pro, so.

Did you? Yeah. Can't say that. The Houston Sack station, brother. The Houston Sack station, Daniel and Will Anderson, listening to Will talk, geez, he's a 55-year-old man.

Yeah. You know, it's like, they got it. Not at all. How about the Miko? How about the Miko mic'd up right before the game? That's abnormal. Like the first good pre-game interview, too.

We always talk about how terrible those are. He was good, but he was on with Scott Van Pelt. He was on with, I think Ryan and Jason and Swagoo. Don't get that often. No, you're signed up for it. Now, granted, there's always an issue with the earpiece. Always an issue with the earpiece.

We have it there. College Game Day has it every once in one of those things. And then D'Amico had a little bit. I think it's because these new modern ears things are supposed to be bent around the ear. But nobody wants to get in there and really bend. You've got to really bend it. So then if you don't, that thing's sticking straight out the side,

you know, like this as it's on there. It's just not the thing I've noticed. Do you go molded ear piece on Game Day? I go. I use shirts. I got some shurs. S-H-U-R-E's. But they mold them?

They mold them to your ear, or no? No. No. I don't like that. I don't want to do the, what's that? They put in your ear where they do the mold. Feel like you're underground and it's like,

you're underwater. It's super, but like I have the molded lines. Yeah, I know. I like my loud. My shit's very loud. Too loud. probably. I'm going to be deaf whenever it gets up. I think those molded ones aren't

loud enough because I think they're trying to look out for my ears. So I need that shit pumped in there. I need that shit pumped in there. This is inside baseball for you viewers at home. This is how we talk about sports broadcasting. But when you're at a live event and the Pat's at these game day experiences and these guys are doing the alt-cast, there's different earpieces. Mine is the ball. Oh, man. Oh, loud. Was it nuts? That was the loudest pop I've ever heard. I was there for John Sina. where we came back in Fort Worth, Texas, I think,

in El Paso, Texas. That was loud. That was an insane pop. Stone Cold Steve Boston and Dallas, WrestleMania. Take it. Take it, mania. Oh, yeah.

Dong, obviously, is kind of a different pop, but that's real. Last night, or at the Peach Bowl, that picked six by Fons, first play. Because they were already loud and juiced. First play. They're already loud and juice, making noise because Dante's out there.

Oh! And then pick up. six. It was. That was the loudest pop I think I've ever heard in my entire life. I, that was impressive. But yeah, you're right.

I was in Seattle. Seattle for 2013 NFC championship game, Kaepernick versus Crabtree in the back of the end zone. And when that play happens, it's still the loudest I've ever heard of stadium in my life. Is that the one in the chain snatch? No, that was, that was Aaron Andrews. This was the Aaron Andrews.

the words where Aaron Andrew's interview Sherman's I don't know this Don't you ever talk about me? Try me the sorry ass I love that I like how Aaron handled that by the way like a boss Like a boss

Just like Laura earlier this year With Herbert like a boss Just like no big deal We're in a sports world Let's get back to the sports world Go ahead AJ AJ has a question for you Shreggs What about with this coaching hires in the NFL

Obviously is there any young Or like say people under the radar That's going to get hired B.A. came on earlier. He'd think it's going to be like the recycled coaches are going to get these jobs. Like who is someone that we're not talking about that's probably going to pop up and get one of these gigs? Yeah, I'm looking for your list. I don't see this guy. Nathan Schillow. Okay, yeah, we mentioned him earlier too. All of a sudden, you guys just make the decision. We're going to pump this guy up today? What's going on?

No, I've been talking about it for weeks, but I'm also, I'm also from the McVeigh camp, if you will, as far as talking to those guys. And they've been talking about him for several weeks and several years. So here's his story, 35 years old, quarterback at Illinois, four-year starter, quarterback in Illinois, then goes and works for Matt Campbell for a bunch of years at Iowa State. I'm sure Ty Schmidt got to see his eyes on the Shillhouse experience out there. And then he left and was like, I need to do more. So he goes to coach for McVeigh. The issue is this. He's never called plays. So he's not the play caller. He's the third guy on the org chart underneath Michael LeFleur and McVeigh. But everyone raves about this one. He's 35. He's got

three interviews. He's got the Ravens on board also, which is an interesting fit considering Lamar. And we're talking about guys like Jim Schwartz and different older coaches for Lamar. Well, here's a 35-year-old who might be considered a peer. Maybe he's the voice you want. So that's one to watch. Kubiak and Minter got interviewed by everybody, and Minter's going to interview with everybody. Those are sort of the young names. The wild card is this guy, Grant Udinski, who's 30 years old as of today. He's the offensive. Happy birthday.

Thank you. Happy birthday, Grant. 30 years old, but he was the O.C. for Jacksonville this year. And I heard you guys talking beforehand about Ben Johnson and what a difference that was. How about Liam Cohen? And one year ago, we were talking about this Moor Bunn franchise and why would you interview? Liam Cohen got one slip for an interview, one. And it was the Jaguars.

and they just had this wonderful season. So all it takes is the right hire and the right juice and the right energy. And things can change. They really can. And I know fans in Cleveland or fans in Miami right now are like, what the heck? Like we can't get this right. Like if you hire the right guy, things can change. All the guys that are deemed not the right guys in a lot of these places are going to get hired at new places.

Your thoughts? Meaning? Stefanski, McDaniel, Harbaugh, all the, if the floor, if they were to move on, from LaFlor. I guess they would probably trade them, I guess, is what people are saying, but they would get... That's what Adam was saying yesterday. If Tomlin gets moved on from, he'd be a head coach anywhere he wants. It's just like, all these guys,

like, hey, if you hire the right guy, if you hire the right guy, it's like, well, maybe it's a guy who just got fired from another place where he wasn't the right guy. There's a chance that happens a lot on this particular. It works. Like, you know, Andy, Andy Reid worked. I think Mike McCarthy worked in Dallas for the most part. Like, had a nice second run there. Gary Kubiak worked

in Denver. Like, it's worked. it's interesting because, you know, the Harbaugh stuff, the Harbaugh discourse is all over the map. It's like Atlanta interviewed him. And then I've never seen this before. Beat reporters from the Giants coming out and being like, yes, but the Giants had a meeting on Saturday. Like, it's all over the map.

And I think he'll end up somewhere. But I also would say hang tight on everyone, you know, Harbaugh being able to pick and choose where he wants to. Not every team wants John Harbaugh necessarily as their coach. Who doesn't want? I don't know. Who doesn't? want him, but not every team looking for a man who's been coaching for 20 years somewhere else.

And, like, you know, they might be looking for the first time coach and a young, you know, voice who we haven't seen. Like, every team is different. So Harbaugh, I believe, is the lead dog for the Giants. I would imagine that's a great fit, you know, but it's not necessarily the perfect fit everywhere. And just because there's an opening doesn't mean John Harbaugh is going to be the head coach of that team. The team that I would say, keep an eye on with Harbaugh.

other than the Giants, interesting. Tennessee Titans makes a lot of sense. Yeah, what happened? Why is this happening? I heard this. We need to keep him out. Did you hear this elsewhere?

No, yeah, well, yeah, I saw it on the internet. It might have been your tweet. I don't know if you posted it, but I saw like multiple people posting that for some reason, Tennessee Titans might land Harbaugh. I'm like, get the fuck out of the A. A.S.R.B.

What are we talking about? We got D'Amico Ryan's, Liam Cohen. We're about to John Harbaugh on the A.m. I don't think so. And why would he like Tennessee? Nashville is the sweetest city in America?

Is that, is that, he loves donkey thongs? It helps. It helps. Nashville's a cool city. I love donkey talks.

We all love honkintos. We all love honkintos. I love Nashville. Blank slate. Quarterbacks in place. Cool, good GM and Mike Borgonzi, who everyone respects around the league.

And an owner is basically going to say like, hey, here, as much as everyone thinks she's meddling, like they want to win. Like, here, here are the keys. Build it.

Like, build it. And they have a new stadium coming next year. Yeah. Yeah. Like all that stuff is exciting. It's cool place. Now, it's a great city.

Nashville is awesome. Nashville's awesome. It might be the best city in America. So you'd think about it like that. And then it's, you know, the Giants, GM's already in place. They have a young quarterback. Four Lombardi trophies on the wall. Like a lot of like, you know.

The Giants thing is like, this is a Giants type of coach. Tom Coughlin came in here. Parcells came in. The Nashville thing is a little looser if he wants to, and if he interviews well with them, I'm not even sure they're offering him the job. My point is this. Stefansky can interview for all these jobs.

He's got to impress him. Sorry. I'm sorry, Shregs. I'm stepping on you here. A couple of things you've said have been so surprised. Maybe the Titans don't want a hardball. And you know, for Titans, I don't think he do. I don't think he fits the culture down there.

I think we need to keep him out of there. I think we need to keep him out of there. As an NFC South man, I understand, I understand you saying that. I would add this, the Ravens, really interesting, right? They had their run with Harbaugh. It ended. It was time.

They move on. Whatever. There are going to be questions to everybody around the Ravens and everybody who's been around Lamar Jackson if you're hiring John Harbaugh, well, what exactly happened there, right? So there's going to be other sides of this. I'm just saying it's not Harbaugh having eight choices and picking. He's got to interview for these jobs, and it's got to be the right fit. He'll get a job.

If he wants to get one of these. But I don't think it's eight teams waiting on their hands while they're not meeting other people and not open to other ideas saying, gosh, will John Harbaugh pick us or not? I don't think it's that deal. Look, Bill Belichick interviewed with one team, and everyone when he was done was assuming he was going to have his choice, one team, and he didn't get the job. Interesting. So we'll see what happens with Harbaal. We assume he's going to get a job. But there's another guy that you talk about Baltimore, allegedly did. Did get an interview, not 100% sure. Didn't expect this name in the cycle, but it could get hot.

Diggs has a question for you, Shregs. Yeah, I do, Shregs. I did see that Cliff, I believe, did interview. Sorry, Cliff Kingsbury, O.C. for the commander's, former coach of the Arizona Cardinals, did interview with the Baltimore Ravens. Do you have any insight on kind of how that ended in Washington? Because it was kind of surprising as far as, you know, there was reports about they had a meeting, and then they decided part ways after the meeting.

And is Cliff someone who do you think could get a head coach? job or and will definitely get an OC job if he doesn't get a head coaching job? Well, he wants to work and I could tell you it would be just, I think he would be fine with me saying this. It would be an honor for him to be able to work with Lamar Jackson. That is something that's very exciting for him. I think for Cliff and Washington at the end of the day, they wanted to make a change and he was more than fine to no longer be the offensive play caller in that building anymore. And he loves Jaden and he loves Dan Quinn. I think it was just time. And they're moving on to David Blow, who's a 30-year-old, and they get their fresh new start

and excited to see where that goes. It actually ended on good terms with him and Quinn. Cliff goes on now. They don't like each other's strange. Why they don't like his system or scheme? Like, do they want him to run something that he doesn't want to run? I think that was it. I think they're looking to get more into a different scheme and really mirror what they did in San Francisco and some of that stuff that Adam Peters brought over there. And I think that's fair. What Cliff does is different. It's not what they want to run. So, they're going to move on. And again, both sides are cool with each other, happy,

and Cliff's going to get an opportunity. Now, what's interesting is, well, you know, DQ. Dan Quinn was like broken hard at first time. He's like the greatest guy in the world. So they have to be. It's fine. But with Cliff, he interviewed yesterday with the Ravens, did it in person.

And he interviewed both for the head coaching job and the offensive coordinator job, which I think is really interesting. And I think Mike McDaniel's going to do the same thing with Baltimore as well. They're bringing these guys in, and it's DeCosta, it's Sashi, and it's, I believe Bishati has input, but I don't know if he's in this round of interviews. And they just want to hear you talk because they haven't had a fresh voice in there

for 18 years. And they want to hear what your philosophies are. And they want to hear what you're going to maximize and do with Lamar. Because this doesn't come from the Raven side or Cliff, but, you know, Lamar, this is one of the greatest offensive talents we've ever seen. to this league. And that window, as huge as it is, well, with his contract, all that stuff, like, I don't know if Lamar plays the same way at the later part of his 30s. So right now, the next three, four, five years, like, we have to strike the iron. You have to make the

right higher. And there has to be a connection between quarterback, coach, and offensive coordinator. So what I thought is interesting is McDaniel, Cliff, they can meet in person because they're currently not employed by these teams. And they're interviewing for both positions. and maybe Sala's the coach and Cliff's the O.C. Or maybe Jim Schwartz is the coach and Mike McDaniel's the O.C. Pretty cool way they're going about this. They just want to meet and learn and hear about everything. And I believe Cliff has a request for Tennessee to interview for their head coaching job,

but that hasn't been scheduled yet. So Cliff's wide open. I think Baltimore makes a lot of sense either in that head coaching job or offensive coordinator. But if it doesn't go that way, he's cool, he's open. He wants to see what's next also. Fascinating interviewing for both jobs. good luck to all parties. McDaniel going over there would be fascinating. He's in Detroit today, right? McDaniel interviewing with MCDC. Is that accurate? It is. He's in there today.

Mike interviewed with Cleveland and Atlanta yesterday for their head coaching jobs. That would be interesting. You know McDaniel very well. Obviously, we've got a chance to chat with them a couple of times. I don't think if I was a fan of a team and they hired McDaniel as a head coach right now after what just happened in Miami, I'd be pumped. But hey, everybody can rewrite whatever. they want him being an offense coordinator though i think he's getting a parade in every place he gets hired so you know just two different ways to kind of look at it i have some um source says telling me that rather large news is coming in about 15 minutes or so it's 1.45 eastern i believe like 15 minutes out shrags you get the same information that i'm getting at

from text messages here in the last five minutes is it is it what i started the show with saying the next couple of days we'll know i don't know is it that topic i don't know I don't know, maybe. Maybe. I don't know, though. But yeah, I've heard there's going to be so, we're going to hear some news here relatively quick. I tried putting out some breadcrumbs when I came on, just saying, and gave myself a little bit of a runway. Whoa. Yeah, hold on, no. Don't be trying to take my take my take right now. Okay, don't be trying to take my take right now.

I did not say today. That's fair. Well, because I'm not saying, I'm not saying what it is. Okay. I don't know what right now. You guys are eluding. You're eluding. No, I'm not alluding to anything. You are. He's a looted. He's a little bit. I'm not. I have no idea. I'm getting butterflies in my tummy.

You should. From what I'm allured. What I'm not alluding to, sounds like you should get pretty excited from what I'm not alluding to. Good butterflies are, is tongue going to be happy or sad? I don't know. I'm not eluding anything. Am I going to need happy tissues or sad tissues? I don't want to put you in a position to have to celebrate something. Hey, Dwight. Hey, buddy!

Oh, hey, hey! Oh! I look like that South Park character, Canada with that thing crossed my house. Oh, yeah. Hey, buddy. How about your buddy, guy? Terinson.

What's what Territon? All right. Anyways. Yeah, there's, um... The hell. They're allegedly, according to my source, we're 14 minutes out.

Originally, from my source. Is there a presser or something? Is there like a presser coming up, or is there just news? I have no idea. And I think the person that texts to me is just hearing a room or two, but that person would definitely know the person that said to the day. Dude, just break it.

Just break it right now. Cuck the news. Just do it right now. I've heard about tweeting eyeballs. No, no. I'm doing the eyeballs tweet right now. That's what I do it right. I just send it out.

I just send it out for you. I'm going to do it. Okay. Thank you. That's my tweet, Triggs. I don't want to dive into the insider world. I don't know.

Honestly, like whatever, I have nothing. I have nothing. So this is all you, maybe. anytime I put the eyeball tweets out and then news breaks like 30, 45 minutes later

that's just me saying, hey, I knew it this time. You know, because I had it. You're doing the eyeball. You don't know what it is. I said it for you. You said enough. It could be like your news could be Fred Warner ran today at practice

and everyone's like, I told you I had the eyeballs. I knew it was coming. That's not an eyeball worthy. Fred Warner maybe. Fred Warner maybe. If we didn't know that he was potentially going to be back. The eyeball worthy would be there. He looks amazing. We love Fred Warner.

His recovery, if he was able to get back on the field, obviously, I'd be absurd. We have massive respect for him. The Niners being able to win without him and Bosa have been absolutely outrageous alongside Trent Williams missing a game. Brock Purdy missing some games, Cowishanehance, obese. Now, let's pull, go to a couple quarterbacks to their story. What do you know? I just got a text, too. I wonder if it's the same as mine I wonder if it's his name as mine All right

Hey, Debutz up, by the way, I think he's going back to Patriots fan base I don't know if you heard about this, he's hopping a bandwagon There are rublings I think that is I saw him in McCordy I saw him in McCarty hugging

in a photograph, lovely He's getting recruited Debut's getting recruited to take his bandwagon to other places It's insanity, but I'll tell you what Debutt got to get four teams in a hoster never know who's going to let you down Okay, let's move along.

A couple quarterbacks that their story is obviously potentially not a great ending, but could change massively. Connor has a question. Yeah, Shrakes, feels like next in line for a new home would be Tua and Kyler Murray when it comes to next year and where they're going to play. Do you have any read on what teams might be interested,

whether they're going to be traded, whether they're going to be cut? What is that situation with Tua and Kyler? and do you fully expect them to be starter somewhere next year? No. Tua, I don't know. I don't think Tua will ever, again, I have to say this with like a giant.

I don't think Tua is going to be the quarterback of the dolphins next year. Kyler, I don't know. Kyler finished the season hurt, obviously, and everyone's assuming they're just going to get out of that contract. But let's see who they hire as a head coach and what that head coach's vision is, because a lot of the conversations there in Arizona are going to be, what is your plan?

at quarterback because Jacoby Brissette played well, but they didn't win a game in the final, I think 10 weeks of the season. So I'm interested on both of those as well. Those are two of the names that are going to be like those veteran guys that might be out there. Mack Jones is another one. And then Malik Willis is another one.

Those are four names that are being circulated as like, who's your Baker Mayfield, who's your Sam Darnold, who's your, you know, reclamation project that you can get behind this year and say, hey, he's either a bridge quarterback or he's a guy that you could be a competent veteran starter that maybe isn't going to cost you 50 to 60 million.

What are some of those team strikes? Which kind of teams you just listed for? But what are some of the teams you would say, hey, they're not going to do the entire, hey, let's go get a young guy, let's draft a guy and build around them. But where would you kind of pin as a team that might do a bridge year for a quarterback?

Maybe, you know, Pittsburgh, any of those? I think Cleveland is a possibility. I look at Minnesota. I don't know what we have with J.J. McCarthy moving forward. I don't know if they were blown away. like, do you bring in a Tua or do you bring in a Malik Willis or do you bring in a Kyler Murray to Minnesota and say, all right, we're going to challenge J.J. McCarthy. It's year three and we haven't seen anything really that's given us the proof that this is the guy moving forward.

So interesting with all those teams. And of course, the Jets are on the board. But after the Justin Fields experiment, I think, you know, be cautious of them giving a big contract to one of these other reclamation projects. What about Aaron Rogers to Kevin O'Connell's offense like we almost saw this year? remember that. That was a potential possibility. And I was pulled out if, what's that? I just say I say bro because like that's not

a crazy thing if Aaron still wants to play and that roster still to this moment is built to win. Have you heard any rumblings between them? You heard anything about the out? No, there was rumblings. There was rumblings during the whole Rogers

wait and see and that was real. Like, you know, that Arnold going to Seattle was one move and then you were like well what's the other shoe that's going to drop and then there wasn't it was just JJ's team and then when JJ got hurt no offense to Max Brosmer but it wasn't

necessarily built to win you know Carson Wentz August edition come on Brausmer's a real Brosmer he'll be in the USXFL we know that and he'll do he'll be an NFL quarterback but you know

he wasn't it's not Aaron Rogers he's got a lot of wence in him I mean maybe Brasmer NFL quarterback. And at my eyes, he's got Birmingham stallions written all over. He'll be a... Learning under the tutelage of A.J. McCarran.

Kind of good. Good coach. Yeah, Ted Gino, Coach, maybe goes to the Battlehawks. Sure. Oh, Ricky Proll. Jordan Taillammy might still be. Is Anthony Beck? Anthony Beck still with the Battle Hawks?

Wasn't he the coach? Yeah, he's coach still. Yeah. He's entering his fifth season with the battlehawks. They're obviously under new ownership there as a whole. They're excited. They sell out at that stadium. Shout out to Rocco Beck, joining the Penn State Nittany Lions, I believe. Good for Rocco. He

feels like he's 27 years old. He's only like 23 or whatever. Unbelievable. There's somebody looking for seven years of eligibility the other day. Who is that? Somebody was trying to... UVA's quarterback. Can't remember his name off top of my head.

There's a couple of them. Okay, what else do we need to hit? No, Shredge, you have the answers on stuff. That's what I'm trying to make sure we make sure we get from you because you have the answers on all the shit. Okay, yeah, last question here from Conman. Yeah. Yeah, Shrake, you mentioned a bunch of different quarterbacks there

in different locations. What about Atlanta? Is Pennix and Kirk? Are they just rolling with those two? Are they going to be in kind of the quarterback conversation when it comes to, you know, new head coach coming in, possibly new frontman as well. So Atlanta's a really interesting deal.

So let's go through it. So Rahim doesn't think he's getting fired, gets fired after winning four straight games. And then we learn after the fact that, you know, the conversations informal were happening with Matt Ryan anyway. They go through this entire search for this head of football operations deal. They interview Brent Tillis, who's the man down in Carolina. They interview Mike Dissner, who's in Detroit.

Foxy might know that name pretty well. He's been part of that whole rebuild. Oh, yeah. And in the end, they're like, it's going to be Matt Ryan. Matt Ryan's doing his press conference right now, fine. But they don't have a GM yet, and they don't have a head coach yet. And there's also, you know, Arthur Blank, who's an owner in his 80s,

and Arthur's son, who's 29, Josh Blank, who's been working at the league office for years and is now sort of taking a bigger role. So there's a lot of voices in that room already of, like, what we're looking at, vision, and Matt Ryan's there to kind of synergize it all. I say all this because I don't think I could give you a valid answer on what their plan is at quarterback. because we don't have the head coach, we don't have the GM,

and Matt Ryan's voice is going to play such a large role in the vision of this team. So anything I thought would have been from the previous regime and before the last couple days, Matt Ryan's not coming in and saying, hey, Pennix is the guy or Pennix is not the guy. That's why you do the interviews.

That's why you meet all these people. Excited to see that. He said he's not going to pull a Philip Rivers and play football, but we'll see. Never know. We'll see you with Matt Ryan. All right, Shregs, we appreciate the hell out of you. T-minus five minutes from my.

I'm checking my non-watch. Yes. Let's go. That's a real one. That's a nice one. It's like Shepty, flauntis. Hey, press one button, car, automatic start.

Stand two, close car, alarm, my bark. That's what they're saying. You know, we got rolling out here. But this is also black and yellow, you know? Interesting. Oh, I appreciate you. Love you guys. Yeah, Shrek.

What was that little tip? That little nugget. I'm telling you, dude. This could be pretty big. This could be pretty big. I was getting a transfer portal quarterback. Tall, I hope. No, freaking Mace is re-signing with the Steelers.

Maybe. Oh, maybe Ben. Ben was on the Super-Dupertas last night, right? With Manning? Yep. Yep. I didn't get to watch much of it. Was he bummed out the whole time?

He was a bit bummed out. He also was... He loved the Steelers, dude. He loves the Steelers. He does. And we love him. And he was trying to get, like, he was trying to talk about the game. and Peyton and Eli just wanted to talk about goofy faces of quarterbacks and stuff.

So yeah, it was super enlightening. Fubber return happened when he was on to it. No, no, that's not a fumble. No. It was pretty good. Certainly, certainly was. And Rank is just picking that up just casually and picking that to the crib. After Bullrush the guard, too. Oh, beautiful play by this front.

Fell on it. AJ, I think there's huge news coming in four minutes. The Sports Center will obviously be on top of that here on ESPN. We'll continue digitally on ESP. P.m. Plus, YouTube, TikTok, and X. We can't thank enough for allowing us to do this for a living. I'm doing something right now, shaking some hands because the fact that you give us a chance to do this every day. We hope you come visit us tomorrow.

Be a friend, tell a friend something nice to might change your life. Goodbye. Bam. Got it. Can I hit it? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Perfect.

One of screws. This is, I think we should take a break. Should we wait? We should wait it out. We should wait it up. Okay. Silence or talk? Silence would be quick.

Okay. Like three and a half minutes of silence? Mm-hmm. That'd be sick. Like meditation. Maybe Mick could do like a... There was some breaking news while we were on with Shragues. What?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Offense coordinator for Los Angeles Chargers has been fired. Now, is it his fault that the offensive line couldn't stay healthy? Is it his fault? I think a lot of people over there are saying,

we don't care if it's his fault, we need something new. obviously Greg Roman and Jim Harbaugh close friends. They were living in an RV together whenever they got out there to try to flip this entire thing around. Now they will move on. A lot of great offense coordinators available. Justin Herbert DeBud is certainly something that would draw a lot of people's interest in a Los Angeles Chargers building,

I think. Absolutely. One of the most talented quarterbacks in the league. A lot of people were putting Greg Roman's playoff side by side along with Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert, the lack of success in the playoffs. So you kind of saw this coming. So now it's three jobs with quarterbacks and

with very good offensive weapons, in my opinion, the Chargers, the Lions, and the Ravens now who have open spots at some head coaching and some offensive coordinator spot. So I'd be interested to see what big names they get into building. Yeah. You talk about Baltimore, Detroit, and now Los Angeles. I mean, Cliff Kingsbury, McDaniel, this Heelhaus guy, I guess, because he's not calling actual plays in L.A.

He's available. Promotion. I got a name that no one's talking about that would fit really well in Detroit if you guys want to hear that one. I already know. I think Dan Orlovsky with his history with the Lions, former teammate of MCDCs. The guy knows everything about the Ben Johnson offense. He loves Jared Goff, accurate quarterbacks, all those weapons, St. Brown, Jamo, Gibbs, Monty, Leporto when he comes back. Can you imagine Dan Orlovsky on a pen and paper or in the VR?

writing up plays for the Detroit Lions next year and sending us to the Super Bowl. Dan Orlovsky, maybe to the Lions, that would be awesome. That would be the best case scenario for our show, for sure. Now, well, MCDC, now, we probably wouldn't be able to talk to Orlovsky after he gets up there. But would MCDC let Dano be Dana? Like, is he going to let Dano say Fudgeon and do all the tricks that he wants to be able to do? I think he would. Man, Dan Orlovsky back with the Lions to write the wrong of the O-N-16 season,

to write the wrong of the 11-yard end zone, to write the wrong of his story in Detroit and make it a better one alongside a former teammate of his to bring a title to Detroit. Oh, AJ! Oh, it writes itself! Get Dano up there. Foxy, that's brilliant. We've been talking about it for how many off-season now,

where Dano has he officially interviewed for any of these jobs? I feel like he used to, a couple of times he actually interviewed for a couple of years. He's interviewing every day, brother. And the other thing, too, with the Lions is, you know, they were boo-hooing because Skip was retiring. Guess he's not retiring anymore if Daniel's coming in. Skip. Good point. True.

I mean, what about Dano for head coaching opportunities? Why are we talking coordinator? Why don't you just go right to the top? Well, if Disney brought him, he'd probably be nervous that he'd be. Great point. Great point. He's a threat. Yeah, absolutely.

Hey, all the boys are asking for Dano would be head coached now that he's here. Foxy, Dan Orlovsky or McDaniel, offense coordinator for Lions. Yeah, so I put a tweet out and I said, Lions fans, who do you want to hire as your coordinator? And I got a lot of responses on that, not one Orlovsky one. So that might just be me, but overwhelming support for Mike McDaniel. So if he gets the job, I think Lions fans will be very, very happy. I like to hear that. It's 2 o'clock.

Have we heard anything? I don't know, man. I'm refreshing. Where's the news? just break it. I want to know so bad. I don't know if it's real. That's why we got to wait for this thing.

Like, you know, we need journalists. Go in there. Well, find out. Actually, Fox or, uh, tone, you should just call the people you know in the place that you know and see if anything happened within the last. Let's take a break. Let's take a break.

Okay. All right. Refreshing. I think it's pretty big. Still refreshing. Nothing yet. Who would, uh, can we just face?

time Muth from From back there What do you say? Why do you think it's from? What do you Because you said you have a black and gold watch? Yeah, black's gold watch Was one of the tidbits. I do yes Big story for the Pittsburgh Steelers Every time we go to break when something like this happens it breaks as soon as we go to break

We'll come right back up. Can we do like a fake like All right, let's go see you guys later? And then they'd be waiting And we don't go. Boom. All right, so we'll act like we're going to a break. All right, so See you guys. Go to bathroom. When we come back

We're going to cover all the sports stories That you need to know about So be a friend, tell friends Some nice might change your life Take five Bye See ya Update refresh

Update refresh Anything anything No nothing Nigel Seeley just tweeted But I don't think What kind of news Darts Darts

No it looks like He's retweeting A Mitch Michael's tweet about his chat With Lorenzo Mousette Oh yeah. I saw that. What do they say? What do they say? What do they say? It's a YouTube link to the Inside in tennis podcast.

Yeah, this is right. Can you read his tweet though? Can you read Mitch Michael's sweet there? In Nigel's. Oh, yeah. Here's the video of my chat with Lorenzo Mussetti. Remember you can watch every episode of the Inside in tennis podcast on a YouTube channel. It's y-o-u-tu-tu.b-e forward slash 3G-R-6. QY 2AK-9-0 question mark,

S-I-3 dots. You can get the rest of it at YouTube. Is Lorenzo Mussetti going to tell us why I could just sign up and go play in a pro tennis game? I would like to know that. He might. That lady that was in there. That's awesome.

That's one of the best sports stories I've ever heard. What was her name? Abdel Dekar, I believe, from Egypt. That sounds right. She wasn't even like an average tennis player. Fuck! That's what made it better. Three minutes. There's supposed to be something going on here.

Hold on. What kind of news could break when you say, like, whoever you're talking to your sources, source is? There's going to be a piece of information delivered to a group of people allegedly at 2 p.m. One of those people that are getting information will certainly roll over the info. It says that the Steelers have a team meeting that started at 2 p.m. local per league sources. You're alluding, alluding. He's alluding. Hashtack Tomlin watch Oh There's a Tomlin watch

What was that from? I don't know if that is a Tomlin watch All I know is my watch And my bladder I got to go to the bathroom So let's take a break Football Pat what happened

We took a 30 second break Something happened What's going on? We knew exactly how this was going to go As soon as we decided to take a break News broke Ladies and gentlemen Coach Tomlin

a man who had coached the Pittsburgh Steelers for 19 seasons, who led them with great success, never had a losing season as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, informed his team at a team meeting at 2 p.m. Eastern today that he would be stepping down as a Steelers head coach. Now, obviously, this is a gigantic decision that Coach Tomlin had to make. There was a lot of conversation and conjecture about whether or not he should be the head coach going forward. Or the Rooney's going to fire him. Would he ever not be the head coach unless he does?

decided he wasn't going to be the head coach. Well, it turns out he decided he didn't want to be the head coach anymore. He is stepping down. Did that come after conversations with the Rooney family, the ownership group of the Pittsburgh Steelers, potentially? Do that come after conversations with his family? That come after conversations with the fans? What led to this decision? We do not know. Hopefully we'll find out more as we go forward. But Mike Tomlin, no longer being the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is a insane thought. John Harbaugh, one week ago loses to the Pittsburgh tears in week 18, misses out on an AFC North championship and a home playoff game.

The Baltimore Ravens move on from John Harbaugh. And now a week later, after a wild park drumming to the Houston Texans, Mike Tomlin gone from the AFC North. It's a dawning of a new era, certainly in the AFC North, but definitely in football as a whole. And in Pittsburgh, this is wild to think about. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Don!

Cowboys AP tone. is that what you're getting butterflies in your stomach for about 16 minutes ago whenever you thought this was potentially going to be the news and now that's officially happened how do you feel and how do you think Pittsburgh feels about it? Yeah, I to be honest, had no idea how I would react if this happened. And at this moment, I kind of like, hearts racing because at first and foremost, obviously, thank you to Coach Tomlin for 19 years, one Super Bowl, two Super Bowl appearances, multiple AFC championships.

and what he did for the team and the city to carry it on from what Coach Cowher had done and Coach Noel had done, like an incredible job. And he will never, ever be forgotten in the city of Pittsburgh for what he did for all these years. To go 19 seasons and to be in the playoff race every single season and for a lot of those seasons to have Super Bowl aspirations. Like, he started when I was a freshman in college. So I've basically spent most of my adult life with Coach Tomlin as the head coach of the Pittsburgh.

So first and foremost, thank you to him. But when you go nine years in a Steelers organization without a playoff win, seven straight playoff losses, and none of them being particularly close, like it's just a situation where, yes, he's a great coach, but has it run its course in Pittsburgh most likely, probably. So, you know, I'm shocked.

I'm surprised. I didn't think I would, that this would happen. But like I said, when you go nine years and seven straight playoff losses, this does happen. So now I think the majority of the city is going to agree with this. I think they're going to agree with what he did in Pittsburgh was incredible. And the whole run was incredible. And he's a great football coach. But I think people will be happy with the move.

And I think people will be happy and now optimistic with what the future could bring. Okay, because it could be different than what it has been for 19 years. Now, Coach Tomlin, I think BA mentioned. it in the first hour where he said he doesn't think Rune will fire him, but it's time. And I think when Coach B.A. said that, that was a surprise to me that he actually said that publicly. But I think B.A. was also speaking from Tomlin's perspective.

It's like, hey, man, you've done incredible things for this place. And seemingly at this point, you got a stadium chanting to fire you right now. He goes out to go in public, obviously everybody's a fan of Mike Tomlin, but also there's immediate to his family, to him, hey, when are we going to win a Super Bowl? We just got killed again. Is this another year? It's like, that was his life.

Anywhere outside of football and outside of his family in Pittsburgh. That's what it became, basically. And what is it? You're the dire hero, live long enough to see yourself become the villain or whatever. It's like, that was Tomlin in Pittsburgh for sure. And in this modern age, being able to stay in the same place for 19 years is wild. That's a crazy thing to even consider. That's why what Harbaugh is doing in Baltimore crazy and what Tom's. So now you got one of NFL teams that are trying to call Tomlin and his agent to see, hey, is there any chance and he still wants to coach football or how does this whole thing work. And if he signs up to do TV, is he going to be in the booth this weekend?

Is he going to be on a kickoff show this weekend? Because obviously, this is the biggest time for all these shows. It's like, there's a chance. Mike Tomlo will have options with what he wants to do next. I cannot read the rest of that because the thing is cutting off. Still can't. He could put it in between me and AJ. Still can't. If you can put it in between me and AJ, maybe. But Mike Tomlo have options with what he wants to do. He can take the year off. He can have a job in television as an analyst. He gets to do what he wants, but it won't be coaching for the Steelers. Yeah, I mean, good for Coach Tomlin. Now that he has all the options in the world, he's worked his ass off to get to this moment. Good for the Steelers. Good for the faithful Yenzers, who obviously

have a sense of optimism and hope about, okay, we got some change. Maybe we can go win it. And who do you hire next, Dee Butt? I guess that's the question. Do you, with the model Pittsburgh Steelers have, they're looking for a lot of consistency, what you would think may be a younger coach. But Mike Vrable goes back to New England. The reason why he does such a good job there is because he loves the place, has a history of that place. He's in the ring of honor that place. Mike McCarthy was

born and raised about three miles from the stadium, four miles from the stadium. He's available. He would obviously, he wanted the Pittsburgh Steelers to win a Super Bowl this year so his mom and his family could have a good time, like the good old days back in the day. It's like who is the right answer now for the Pittsburgh

Steelers? I guess they have to find that out for the first time in 19 years, D. Buck. I definitely have to find it out long time. I mean, Tomlin's basically lived out a dream. Every coach's dream to stay at a place like the Pittsburgh still is for 19 years. We're getting old, you know, all these kind of chapters are closing Bill Belichick in New England, Pete Carroll in Seattle, Hartball, Baltimore, and now Tomlin and Pittsburgh. Based on his history, Kyle was pretty young when he got hired, too. This is his first NFL head coach job when he got hired? Yeah, and he was, I believe he was the special teams coach in Cleveland. Okay. So that I remember correctly. Yeah, so that was his

his first opportunity in Pittsburgh. Then Mike Tomlin got his first NFL opportunity in Pittsburgh. History would tell us it'll probably be another coach getting their first opportunity to take the team forward. But we shall see. It's a tough decision to make. It's an iconic franchise. Once again, you know, Tone being a fan, being from Pittsburgh is different.

But me being a fan of just football and, you know, physical, defensive football, championship caliber of football. So I have the utmost respect for Mike Tomlin in the job that he's done. And I like I personally, and this is me personally, I can't see him coaching anywhere else. This is just me so I can maybe see him going to TV. I can't see him with other colors and another hat or whatever on the sideline personally. But we shall see. We know how these coaches are wired.

They want to coach forever. So we'll see what's next from Mike Tomlin. Big part of this entire thing that's being talked about online is Tomlin stepped down. He wasn't fired so the Steelers still retain his rights. So this is what Ari Mirov at my sports update. former real estate guy, I think he was, and then he got into aggregating information for the NFL on the internet. I don't think he went to journalism school, but he does a great job of aggregating a lot of information on a regular basis. I don't know if he sleeps. He might be one of those guys that's

actually plugged in, which is pretty cool that we get to experience that. But if Mike Tomlin was to go do television with Fox, I don't like the photo he used to Mike Tomlin there, by the way. But if he was to go do television with Fox, it would be very similar to situation Sean Payton did with Fox where go do TV. I think Sean Payton crushed it. I think he did well. I think Tomlin will do by her name, buddy. I think Toml will be the best guy on TV as soon as he gets on TV. I think that'll be, like, a matter of fact. But if he doesn't enjoy it or for some reason, Doug,

yearn to get back on the football field, somebody's going to have to trade for the Pittsburgh Steelers to go get him. So to your point, B, but I think he's going to go do TV and become king, and he's going to feel respect and appreciation from the entire NFL, because the way you view Mike Tomlin is the way I think everybody outside of Pittsburgh Steelers fan-based views Mike Tomlin. This guy's cool. This guy's cool. This guy always wins. Must be nice.

Steelers fans that you're complaining about him not winning a Super Bowl. You guys are in the playoffs every single year. That's what the rest of the NFL thinks. So now that he's going to be able to speak to them, I think he's going to be a king if he does TV, AJ. I think he's going to live like a king, get treated like a king, and feel like a king if he does TV and get paid like a king if he does TV, AJ. Those are a lot of four royal things to kind of change your life a little bit.

Yeah, I'm not sure who mentioned it, but yeah, we could see him in a week or two doing playoff coverage sitting at the desk somewhere doing it. But I know Rapsheet said that he informed the team that he plans to step away from coaching, meaning one of the greatest to do it will take a break. So is Rapsheet know that he's not going to coach this next year? Jay Glazer is the guy we need to be following here. Yeah. I'm going to the glazer is the one that we need to be following.

He's, I think him and Tomlin actually like. You heard Triggs. Remember the video Jay Glazer put from the meeting? Like they're all sitting around kind of having a drink smoking a cigar. the end of the coaches, their owners meetings. Like, it was like a whole situation. Yeah. Tomlin and Jay are the guys, and that's what Schlegs talks about.

Like, yeah, these guys run this whole place. Yeah, and now that becomes the best, like, one of, at least the top jobs. I mean, the AFC North now, there's three coaching vacancies. And the Bengals are the only one that are keeping their guys Zach Taylor. And that might only be for another year. But I don't know how you guys would feel. But for a place like Pittsburgh, would this be a spot where you kind of have to bring in someone who understands it? Like, immediately, I was thinking.

and Brian Flores, because Brian Flores was there for a year, kind of got back into coaching with Tomlin. Now he's the D.C. of the Vikings, kind of very similar. Goes Minnesota to Pittsburgh. Like, would you, do you think they're going to go that route or more so do like the veteran like McCarthy? So the last two, I was wrong. Cowher was the special teams coordinator at the Browns, but then he was the D.C. at the

chiefs. And then he got hired to the Steelers. Obviously, Mike Tomlin was the D.C. at Vikings and got hired to the Steelers. if the Rooney stick to their ways, it would be a young defensive-minded coach who is a leader of men. And that's what they do. Biflow kind of fits that model. He is younger in that situation. Chris Schula fits that model. There's others that fit that model. I would, I don't know. Maybe they want to change the model. Maybe they want to have an explosive offense. Which they have recently. They've been doing things differently than they have in the past. So that could be something as well.

Do you think McCarthy's ties to the city to play a big role in this? I mean, like, you know, I guess Tomlin isn't from. Pittsburgh, but by the end of it, people who don't know, like, you just assume, oh, Mike Tomlin's from Pittsburgh, and then obviously Bill Cowher, like, does that play into it at all? I think so. I think it does, man. I don't know. Just once you start going through McCarthy stats and resume and everything. And with the way he were impressed in a conversation, which he certainly would. It's like, if he took that, he'd be so emotional with Pittsburgh, like, his opening Presser, his different, because he was, he'd get emotional speaking to the Green Bay Packers when I was there.

Speaking of things going on in Pittsburgh and growing up and all these different stories, if he was actually living it as the head coach of the Steelers, it would be amazing to watch. How would Jensers feel? Jensers would like him if he won, obviously. And he knows that if you become the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, you're stepping into a, I mean, that's a little bit of a Brees. High pressure situation. They would like, they would like that he's a Jenser first and foremost.

they would like that he's an offensive guy and has had success at two places. I think the only drawback is that he's in his 60s. So you're not getting a coach. 62. That can be there for potentially 15 plus years. Because I believe, yeah, Cowher was there for 15. Tomlin was there for 19. Chuck Knoll was there for 23 scenes.

I'm not saying that that's going to happen or whatever. 10 years is a long time, though. 10 years. Yeah, for sure. He's also like a legit quarterback whisper. He's also the only. only one who you would hire that I think Aaron would come back for

if that's something you want. Can you imagine Big Mike and Aaron reuniting? In Bedshburg? Oh, they might be roommates. They might just move in together. That'd be amazing. He didn't like what was being said about Tomlin. He didn't like what was being said about LaFloor. Aaron said, I don't like the way we're doing things

around here anymore. What is this NFL? It's like, it is a what have you done for me lately league? But for Tomlin, how many Super Bowls have you won for me lately? none get the hell out of time him stepping away from coaching as his messaging is interesting that means

he's on a microphone football just got better football got so much better that we got Tomlin on an open mic like I can't stress that enough just as somebody who has paid attention to Mike Tomlin speaking for a very long time just I think we used to run a segment just Tomlin speaking didn't we

yes Tomlinism yeah I mean yeah Tomlinisms or something like that yeah that's well Tomlinisms I think is what Tomlin's shit is called. But we used to run a segment, whenever we were just on YouTube, we're in the old office, where we would just pull a random Tomlin clip.

Had not listened to it. Let's just pull the shit and see what it is. And he would just drop some gem in there. It would just be some ridiculous TV-like, movie-like gem. And it's like, now he's going to be focusing on that and working on that. Plus, hang and chilling. It has to be

in studio. I don't think in the booths would be great. But, like, football got better today football got better today if Mike Tomlin's becoming a national you know kind of voice for the league for the sport as a whole that's crazy

can we put Sig back on the springboard now from Pittsburgh is this the job that guy's not leaving are you sure nope I'm not sure about anything I am not sure but man no that would be why we pay him

$25 million a year and try to lure him away from Indiana I don't know well like in Harbaugh Like, do they even, like we're talking about Harbaas if he's locked in, but does Harbaal look at this? Like, should, I've been on the other sideline for a long time. He can't do it. The Steelers are a place that they care more about football than damn near any other city.

No. No. But why not? No. I'm just saying. No. You're not going to bring in the guy who's a part of, uh, who's a part of the Baltimore team just to at least hear what he has to say and what they did over there and what he thinks that

you could have done better. because it's all about gathering information, right? All right, boys, I gotta go. I do. I have to go. You got business. We got you. It's 223. I got something, 2.30. This is the wall. This all happened. Congrats to the Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

Feels like you guys got what you wanted, right? Tone? Yeah. Not all of them. Yeah. I had majority. I think all of them. Really? Fresh start. Yeah. Especially after last night. Yeah, turn the page.

Especially after last night. I think it became a. pretty big. Okay. We're not doing. This is not what we're doing. You got to remember, Pittsburgh is a blue-collar time, okay, blue-collar people talking a lot of Italians, a lot of Irish people. These people are pretty emotional group. Okay, and they also hold on to grudges. These are people that will remember everything. Yet elephant brains all over the place in Pittsburgh, okay? A lot of that. This is just a demo of humans. So whenever things start piling, up, bop, bop, bop, bop, b. And it's like, oh, we're doing the same thing again. We're doing the same thing.

Doing a same thing. It's like, inevitably, everybody's going to buy in. It kind of feels like it got to that in Pittsburgh. Beating Balsmore with a missed kick kind of had a moment where it's like, okay, we're back. Holy hell, maybe this guy does have some magic. And then a swattering on prime time in a way. It's like, nope, just like we fucking thought it was. That's kind of, I feel like that is how it went. Do you think that's accurate? Yeah, I agree. A thousand percent. Yeah, I think that's kind of how it all went. So good for Tom and not having to deal with that anymore. Because if you're this person, it's all going this way against you. Like, good for you not having to deal with that anymore, too.

That's a life change that I think he's going to welcome. The sidelines will miss him, but the sport is going to thrive with him on a microphone. So I'm very pumped and thankful that that's happening. And congrats him on a hell of run. And thank you, Tom, and for all the happiness you brought my family, my friends, my own time. and then now let's see what's next that source was right though I guess

yeah yeah yeah good source keep that source around maybe we will I can't believe Joe Hadley maybe are we gonna start are we gonna start

being an insider too because of all these journalism people doing and what they're doing might not have joy good just the eyes

good gimmit I know All right, I'll see you guys. I appreciate you all. AJ, thank you for traveling. Hope you take this thing home in a beautiful fashion. Of course, man. Have fun over there.

I got to do one at ease. Hey, how you doing? Yeah, we love it. We love everything you're doing. We love what you're doing. It'd be great. Love it. You guys got great ideas.

I don't ever do this because I live in Indianapolis. So by choice. All media people are in New York and L.A. Not saying that's where I'm at right now, but that's where all media people are. and they all have happy hours and they all run into each other on such a regular basis, and I never do any of that. And I love it.

I do. I don't think anybody would necessarily say that's the right way to go about building a media business, but for me, I enjoy it. Every once in a while I've got to do it for the good program, for the boys. And today's a really cool day for Pittsburgh, for us, for the league. And the divisional round is set. I cannot wait for Saturday and Sunday. I cannot fucking wait.

Bill is Broncos. Let's go, dude. 430 on CBS. Number one, top five defense all time. Denver Broncos taking on Josh Allen. Is Josh Allen going to be an alien? Probably. San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks. Oh,

we've seen this a few times already. Have we not? Yeah. Seattle won. Oh, well, now 75% of the bets are in San Francisco early shot to Draft Kings for the numbers. Then Sunday. Texans, Patriots, Rams, Bears. Oh, wow.

And then national championship on Monday, Oh, hell yeah. Oh, boys, don't get too much nipper burn, okay? Don't get too excited. There's things happening. There's great things happening, and we're going to try to enjoy them all. All right, boys, I will see you tomorrow when I'm back in there. Sounds good.

Enjoy it. Enjoy it. All right, that game, I would still want to talk about before we pop off, Indiana, Miami. Debo, what's the final score? Why would we do this right now? I'm just asking for the final score. Wednesday. Before we, before I pop off.

Oh, Tuesday. Excuse me. You know what to tell me the final score. I got a similar. Okay, what's the line? The line's seven. The line's eight and a half, right? Eight and a half is moved.

Is that disrespectful to Miami? Very, I think. And everyone, all the bets are on IU. Yeah, we're nine and a half point dogs. Wait, they're nine and that point dogs and the bets are on you. Eight and a half. I'm saying we were nine and a half point dogs against Ohio State, and that's the common opponent recently from

just because Indiana's been running through everybody? What is the? Yeah, but after it's shalacking in the Rose Bowl and then what happened in the Peach Bowl. I mean, I guess, I get it, but I mean, you also see what Miami has been able to do on this run as well. Like I said, what I go back to is a common opponent, Ohio State in the Big Ten championship for Indiana and then Cotton Bowl for Miami.

And dogfight in Indiana, I feel like we were there. I feel like Miami kind of bully Ohio State late. So we'll see. We've got to play the game on the grass, but a lot of people are excited about this one. It's also interesting. We'll see what the split ends up being, but the line is set like this game is being played at a neutral site. He's still a Miami home team, you know, so we'll see how many.

Who's going to be there? How is anybody coming to the game? All these big games, Super Bowl National Championship. It's never as many things. The problem is it turns corporate because we've never seen it. We haven't had a team like Indiana in this. We're like people legitimately. We haven't had a home national championship.

Yeah, exactly. Both ways. So I think each school gets an allotment. I can't remember how many it is for each school. And then the rest of the tickets are out on the private market. I know IU has given out their allotment to their season ticket holders. Miami has not given out their allotment yet. I've heard...

I mean, offered them, offered their allotment at like face value? Yeah, face value. And I have a speculation why, but I'm not sure. I don't... They're worried that the Miami fan base is going to sell their tickets to IU fans. But, yeah, we'll see. We'll see how it shakes up. I think it will be weird if there's more Indiana fans.

I just hope is real college ball fans in there. I expect the Miami fans to show up, but looking at the prices, and I don't know how that all plays out, but I just hope both sides. I hope it's real fans in there because I comment and say, you get to the Super Bowl and national championships, and you get a bunch of corporate people. That have no rooting interest.

I'm just happy to be here. Yeah, it's not the same. I hope we get a real college environment down in Hard Rock. We have so far. Yeah, I mean, you would expect Indiana to travel. They've proven it. They went all the way to Pasadena. Pasadena, we know, is a shit show getting in and out of that place.

They went to Atlanta, packed it out, legitimately 95 to 5%. That was the biggest disparity that we've probably seen as we've done the college football playoff games for the past few years. That was the biggest Indiana showed up. So I would expect Indiana to be there, but I mean, $5,000 as the average. And imagine if you've been following them all along too. Yeah. Like this is your third game you're going to of flights, hotels, and then ticket prices.

Yeah, yeah. And we know how it is getting in and out of harbor. Rock. It's a pain in the ass. That's why I could see Miami fans not going just because it's like, look, that place is a fucking nightmare. Okay? I'm not, I ain't going in there. They're at home. That's their advantage.

They don't need fucking fans, too. And then same thing for Indiana. I would assume they're going to go just because of the fact that Indiana, they probably look at it as we might never ever get back to here for the rest of time. Whereas Miami could also say that, but. It's been a long time.

As long as it's a good game, dude. That eight and a half scares me. Do we know how it's work? So for Miami, are they going to go stay in like the team hotel and do all that like the week of like if they were on a way to? They're practicing their normal facilities and doing that stuff. But I would assume they're going to try to keep it as similar to a home game as possible. And as far as the fans go, if they can get in, they can afford it. The Miami fans are definitely going to show it because you talk about like hierarchy and sports. Miami. Miami football is up there to top. Miami heat obviously. you know, with the championships, they wons. You know, Panthers, you know, it's hockey still in Florida, so they're still growing, obviously, back-to-back champs. The Dolphins, you know what that is right now. But this is the game, to your point.

It's like, hey, the U's back, the U's back. This would be the one. Yes. If you're attached at all. If you have any kind of attachment to Miami, you're going to want to come back for this game, especially of these alumni. Like our age, like the last time that they were good,

like we were kind of very, you know, young. So you're getting back there. We're the, you know, kind of, group age-wise that have the money and the means to get out there, maybe bring your kid, bring your friends. You know, you got a chance to go up against the number one team in the country and your underdogs in your own stadium buy over a touchdown. Like all the, you've seen all the legends that have been coming back every week for the

hurricane. So I expect every alumni that can get in there will be down there. It should be a great environment. Think about that. Think if you're one of the, some of the Miami, I don't know, execs who are whoever working the ticket office, how many alumni you have asked them to come back? asking for free tickets, sideline passes, or just be able to buy tickets. Yeah, here you go.

$7,500. You can get a top row. It's going to be interesting to see the atmosphere once we get there. Like Connor said, I hope we just, because the game we had in Miami last year, Notre Dame Penn State, that was arguably maybe the best game of the college football playoff last year. So I just, I don't know. I mean, like, it was awesome at the Peach Bowl, but I mean, fuck, that game was over 10 minutes

into it. Yeah. So it's like, hopefully we just get a good competitive one that goes. until the very end. Well, it's your point to the Natties haven't been as close. Like you can say the Ohio State Notre Dame game was close, but it really wasn't for three quarters. And then,

you know, the year before that, Michigan rolled Washington and the year before that was the shit show. Georgia beat in TCU by 50 fucking points. So like, the buildup to the NADD has always been top tier. It's the natty itself. And it does feel like

this year's different. Like, I mean, everything we just talked about and just the teams in general. It feels like they... It's not the normal. It's not the teams we've been watching play. No. Georgia, Alabama and all the stuff.

Yeah. For both schools, like, this is a storybook finish or the nightmare finish. That's why it feels like the game is just, like, heightened even more than you. All the connections, too, like with Mendoza, going back to Miami, the, uh,

the, uh, Chris and the ball and his dad. Everybody is, all the different relationships. You're muted. Oh, no. Heatherman was Siggs' D.C. And SIG gave a huge compliment. He's one of the best football minds there is.

Yeah, yeah. Chris Ballade and Off for Mendoza Scholarship. This is round it up to be an amazing game. I mean, Ruben Bain Jr., I'm pretty sure, just put out a bunch of highlights of when they were in high school, of him sacking Mendoza when Mendoza played for Christopher Columbus High School. That was Albert. That was Albaugh.

Yeah, he was killing him. That was Miami Central against Columbus. I was elbow. Yeah, it was elbow. Elbow has kind of been just making his presence know. I'm excited about his future. Waiting in the wind. Hope he sticks around.

I hope so, too. I wonder how that goes, how those conversations go. I mean, Indiana's already got like the best team next year. SIG's got every good guy in the transfer. Exactly. Yeah. Just every day. Loading up on his guys.

Number two targeting the portal. Number three targeting the portal. Number five targeting the portal. Are you? Yeah. Where are they all going? IU. It's amazing.

Recruits itself. Once you win games, you recruit itself. That's how you recruit. you just win every single game. Don't look back, right? I mean, they'd be the first team ever to go 16 and oh, I believe. First college team. Yeah.

Because obviously, like football, a lot more games. Yeah. Like Yale from like 1800s. Oh, that was when they were playing like five-minute games and beating teams five-n-n-nob.

And every team was within, you know, two months. Didn't have a forward pass in the playbook, right? No black guys on the field. Yeah, well. It doesn't count. True. Be a different brand of football to watch.

But that being said, we will be on the call Monday night. Obviously, 730 Eastern is going to be awesome. Can't wait to get down. down there with you boys. That being said, we're going to wrap this sucker up. I believe Pat will be back here on this desk tomorrow. But yeah, man, Mike Tomlin, thank you for your time.

Thank you for your service, right, Tone? Yeah, that was, like, that's what I wanted to get across first. Yes, I'm excited for the future and stuff like that, but when you're a head coach for 19 years in a place, that's insane. You're doing something right. Yeah, they're 19 years. To be in a playoff race every single year, that's insane. Like, he, we never experienced losing.

I mean, you lost in the playoffs and stuff like that, but like, you never experienced We're never terrible. No. You never experienced season where it's like, yeah, ever until week 18. So that's awesome being a fan. The last however many years has been tough because you just kind of like you're tired of losing the playoffs and the jokes about the over 500 record get old or whatever. But overall, I mean, an incredible coaching career in Pittsburgh. Yeah, Mike Tomlin, yeah, we all appreciate your time.

19 years you're doing something right. It's really tough in the NFL. As Mike McCarthy says, like to win consistently in the NFL is. The stage is set, the heart thing to do in the NFL. It's very true. I believe him. I agree with them right there. All right, boys, here we go.

Bring it in. Everyone in the back. Here we go. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. See you.