The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1491 - JJ Watt, Indiana Linebacker Aiden Fisher, Indianapolis Meteorologist Adam Feick, In the Trenches with AQ Shipley, Everything DB with Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

On today's show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat more about this weekend's Conference Championship games while AQ goes into the Trenches ranking the remaining teams' offensive lines, and D But breaks down some of the best plays from the defensive backfield from the Divisional Round. Joining the progrum to chat about Bills owner Terry Pegula and GM Brandon Beane's joint press conference today, the 18 game season, and looking ahead to the Conference Championships is future Hall of Famer, 3x DPOY, Houston Texans Ring of Honor member, and color commentator for the NFL on CBS, JJ Watt. Next, 2x 1st Team All Big Ten Linebacker, and now National Champion for the Indiana Hoosiers, Aiden Fisher joins the progrum to chat about winning the National Championship, his expectations when getting to Indiana, what Curt Cignetti is like on the day-to-day, his plans before the NFL Draft, and more. Later, Indianapolis meteorologist Adam Feick joins the show to chat about the massive cold front and winter storm hitting up to 30 states this weekend, and what impact that will have on the Conference Championship games. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, we’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our Humbley Bo, the Thundergo. On this Watt Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, this sports program begins right now. Football! It is the greatest, it's always cooking, and obviously we got championship Sunday coming up, where we will find out who the kings of the AFC are and who the kings of the NFC are, and who will be traveling out to beautiful Santa Clara, California, to see who will hoist the Lombardi this year, the Patriots, the Broncos will do battle in the AFC championship at 3 p.m.

And then we head out to the NFC West, the NFC's best, the NFC championship between the Los Angeles Rams may be led by the MVP of this season, Matthew Stafford, and the Seattle Seahawks. The stingy defense that can certainly be a problem to anybody. Have they been to the Rams at times? Have the Rams been able to beat the Seahawks at times? Kind of a split. What's going on in the NFC West?

They're all great. And they're going to decide who represents the NFC in the Super Bowl. Now, championship Sunday is special strictly because we've got the four best teams in ball play. Hell yeah. We get a chance to see if Rable and Drake may take the field and see if this Patriot season that is improbable can continue. Can it go all the way to Santa Clara? And then how about Sean Payton and the Broncos as well? Bo Nixon, his second year, is certainly taking massive steps.

The offense has certainly got better. Now, throughout the season, they weren't blowing people out. But in the biggest games and the biggest moments, Bo would make a play, and the defense was absolutely swarming. I know Houston tries to claim that word, but going into the season, and the Broncos defense was the one that we were talking about, potentially leading a team to the Super Bowl. They might have to do that again because Jared Stidham,

a man who hasn't played football in forever is going to be their starting quarterback after Bo Nix broke his ankle on a play that looked very routine towards the end of it. Stood on the field, did interviews, didn't say a word, and then Sean Payton came back out after his press conference and said, Bo Nix did surgery, broke his ankle, he's out forever. And we go, whoa, anyway, championship. What a terrible time for that to happen.

Nonetheless, it is a game of attrition in Los Angeles Rams and the Seattle Seahawks. Ready to do battle. And we find out who is going to field the biggest game of the mall. Super Bowl and Santa Clara should be special. We'll be out there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from Radio Row. Have no idea what the setup is, but we do know on Friday might be a bigger day than most. Friday we might start the show with a different show, actually.

That is all TBD, but there's a chance we got a collection of people that are all going to have new jackets on coming in at the same time on that particular morning. and then obviously throughout Radio Row throughout the week, there will be massive pop-ins, huge celebrity conversations, and people that we've certainly made fun of or talk shit about seeing us in our face for the first time. Hope so. Those are fun times.

The talks to the tables. Oh, also the other way. People have talked shit about us when we can see for the first time. Oh, you fat nerd. Good to see you. They have shots for you, dude. Mm-hmm. You fat, lazy bum.

Fat idiot. Look at you fatso. Have you been outside of your basement all season? I know that's cliche to say, but Jesus, the sun is allergic to you? Look at how bad you look. A lot of that, to a lot of these sports media people are running their mouth all season. And we see him at Radio Row and he all go, oh, it's good to see you. Thank you for everything.

Hey, Fatsso, I remember what you said about me. You remember when you said that? We need to, that's not the energy we need. Okay, I need to get that energy out right now. You do too. You started jumping in there quick calling these guys that don't even exist yet. Fatsas. We don't need to know.

No, I said fat idiot. And you don't get many opportunities to call someone a fat idiot. But Radio Roll is filled with those. A lot of fat idiots there. The Toxie Table is not everywhere. No, of course not. We're just saying people that commit their lives to eating terribly and writing very mean things about sports all day, every day.

They do end up happening upon Radio Row. There's a lot of great people at Radio Row, too. Radio Row is special. ESPN licenses this show. ESPN licenses this show. I'm lucky, have been lucky for the last four years to be part of college game day or whatever. ESPN for some reason chooses not to go to radio. Radio Row is the Super Bowl.

It's kind of the only reason to go out there. It is the Super Bowl. Yeah. Like what's the Super Bowl? Well, it's the game. It's the events at night. But during the day in the city, the Radio Row is the Super. That is where, you know, like that is.

Everybody congregates there. All the ball is in that room. You know, not always a good thing. You know, like we just mentioned about the, thought idiots, but like there is, there's a lot of, it's amazing. Like, honestly, Radio Row is the place to be if you're going to go to the Super Bowl. So the fact that we have a spot in there, we're very grateful for, the fact that we're going to be back there is we're grateful for, and then all the guests that will swing by trying

to sell some bullshit. We can't wait to hear about. The Talks to Steeb was here at Boss Conner and that Ty Schmidt. Common, your team might be out there for the Super Bowl. What a different week that would be for you as opposed to the last couple of years. Yeah, big time, especially right now. Like right now is where the nerves of the highest. We talk about all the time.

I won't say that just because it's been a while for you guys being in the conference title game but for me and Ty, me and Ty talk about it all the time. The nerves this week are always bigger than the nerves next week. It means more to win the conference championship it feels like just because then you get two weeks of talking about your team. Right now, you know, both sides. Everyone's kind of saying, hey, if the paths don't win, they stink,

which I mean, they say that even after we win, so it doesn't really matter. But right now that is the fodder with Jared Sidham. but the two weeks after the conference championships, those are the best weeks because it's only, hey, let's puff up these two teams. These are the two best from each conference. So the nerves are huge right now, but just envisioning that, you know, the Patriots being there, I'm not going there yet. Because I live through the Nick Foles backup quarterback come take your soul. Okay. So acting like Jared Stidham is some bum, we can do that.

I'm not there yet. Who's we? Nobody's doing that up here. Who's doing the Jared Stim is a bum? it's basically everybody may be but here. I think it's kind of, hey, Jared Sidham. I mean, the bats are five and a half points. Are you potentially in the trenches right now

looking for everything that's negative to the Patriots? And are you recording all these descendants of Rable to utilize his motivation? Or are you using these shows as an opportunity to tell the boys in the locker room? Hey, boys, people are saying Stidham's a bum. He's not. I don't think anybody's... I think the low expectations are that Stidham hasn't played.

I mean, Sidham hasn't played football a year. Sean Payton immediately comes out and says, hey, R. Number Two, I like R-R- Number Two. I don't mind them. And then Jordan Palmer, quarterback expert, you tell me, I'll learn this from you and from nine-year NFL vet Darius Jay Butler. He said Stidham's on par with Drake May. Is that know what he said, Conman?

And he said he's on par with Drake May. That's what he said, but he's irrelevant. Like, I'm even just talking about the actual books, like the sports books that know everything. They're five and a half-point favorites on the road in Denver, and Devers never lost. I believe this year. I think they're undefeated at home this year.

So I think it's more so about that aspect of it and just the knowing what. the fodder will be. I mean, everyone picked the Texans to win. New England beats the Texans, and then the Texans could have beat the Patriots with 31 other quarterback. Shout out Dan O'Aulovsky. He wasn't the only one with that sentiment. It'll be the same thing with Denver. It'll be more so... That's crazy to say that. About, yeah, yeah. And everyone picked him. Everyone had the Texans winning. And I'm saying everyone, again, outside of people in this room... I think I picked the Patriots. Yeah, yeah. And AJ, and I think everyone in here felt really good

about the Patriots. I'm just saying outside of this place that feels like watches actually football and most people don't. But again, that is kind of why winning on Sunday means more than actually, you know, thinking about the Super Bowl. To your point about that, if you're in a Super Bowl, it is like you're a team on primetime. You know, prime time games, they spend the entire show, the entire talking about your team. Hey, here's the stars that you're about to watch on our prime time game. That's why primetime games are so important to brands. They're so important to teams. That's why Thursday night football, every team in the league was supposed to get a Thursday night primetime game because every team deserves, you would think the NFL ownership would say this.

Don't we think that our team should be talked about in a state? And then a couple years back they go, we're not doing it. Amazon just paid us billions of dollars. We're not putting every shit team up. We can't do it. There are some teams that have no prime time games. Yeah. Colts.

The first year you were not forced to have a prime time game. The Colts were one of the three teams that did not get a prime time game. Yeah, we're not going to do it. So the Colts aren't even talked about really for an entire thing. There's no pieces on Jonathan Taylor, how good he's been. Quentin Nelson's been a pillar of this thing. There's none of that conversation. Primetime games are just a brand builder, a commercial for your team,

and then you hope the game lives up to the hype. The Super Bowl, though, to your point, you get a two-week period where it's just like, what are you talking about? Well, is this team going to Super Bowl? Is this team going to do? The amount of Drake-May stuff, we would see. Sean Payton's super genius if they make the Super Bowl is the story and that defense and how it's going to go.

And then the NFC side, Sam Donald wins the big game, goes to the Super Bowl. Is he going to be able to do it? Or is Matthew Stafford and Los Angeles Rams going to be able to win in two different airs? There's so many storylines that can develop this weekend. Great storylines, and I know what Connor's saying. You know, he's kind of doing what coaches do

when you're pumping up your team. Hey, it's a good team over there. Hey, it's a good quarterback. He's been a league for a long time. Remember what he did here? Remember what he did there? If you lose to Jared Stiddem at quarterback, with him playing quarterback,

great team, great coach, you will never hear the NW. You can't do it, especially with Drake May having an MVP-C caliber season. He's just as worthy as the award as Matt Stafford is. You have the defense, which nobody talks about for whatever reason. Probably the best, one of the best defenses left, and he's top fours, some great defense up here with Seattle and Denver as well. So, yeah, you can't lose this game.

Five and a half point number, I think that's a good number. It is on the road. Patrons have not had a ton of success there historically. But, yeah, got to win this game than the other side. Ram, Seahawks, they go back and forth, I think two and two in the last couple of years. Offensive, defensive head coached on. both sides and both games. It should be some interesting matchups.

But yeah, Patriots, we got to get it done. Oh, you're back on now. Okay, so he hasn't made an official announcement on what teams he's going to bandwagon going forward because his bandwagon teams are now ass, which is not the purpose of a bandwagon. Bandwagon is supposed to be a good time. I'm not supposed to be a bad time. I already got teams that are bad for me to be an actual fan of. My bandwagon needs to be put on places that are good times.

Not a bad time to join the Patriots. Okay, so remember we had a BS or no BS with BA. That's right, baby. Where we said, that is right, buddy. We said this is the year of defense is winning a Super Bowl again. This is the year of defense winning a Super Bowl again. You look at these, these are four great defenses here, but also two MVP quarterbacks still remaining.

M.A. said, that's BS, baby. You need a quarterback to win a Super Bowl. It's like, obviously it would be great to have both. All these teams do, except for Broncos with Stidham, which, you know, King of Friday Night Lights. Good pro. We know he's been around a long time. time, but in a lot of buildings. Maybe this is his second opportunity to kind of go ahead and do his thing.

There was a time in 2020 where Connor thought Stidham was maybe going to still be a Patriot right now, and it was all going to continue to work out. Oh, yeah. So he's still in a league. That's a long time. And then Rams and Seahawks, it's like quarterback, Sam Donald. He didn't have to do much against the Saints, or I mean, the 49ers. Hold on, though. Do we still wonder if Donald can do it in the big game? He won the number one of all seed. No doubt about it. Forty wins back to back. I still wonder. But he's the first guy, first guy, first guy, in forever to be able to do that. They got them in Tom Brady-type caliber conversations.

We're still wondering if he can win a big game. Is that what you guys are doing? I think so. I mean, they returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown last week, and the game was over. They won 41 to 6. He didn't have to do anything. Now, that's not saying that he didn't play okay, you know,

but we'll see, especially going against the Rams, who they've played twice already. I don't know. And 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion player coach, Jackie Moon of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, just center and king of wedge for the Cardinals, the Indianapolis Colts, the Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles,

and Pittsburgh Steelers. Akew, please here. Hey, what are you shaking your head about for Sam Donald? You don't think we've seen if Sam Donald can make a big play? Number one, see it on the line. I couldn't agree more. I literally couldn't agree more with what Ty just said because the minute that that opening kickoff

gets run back, that place explodes and you are just fighting an uphill battle. And we all know the San Francisco 49ers can't play from behind. so that was over before it even started. Instantly the crowd gets into it. Sam Darnel throws a seam ball early in the game. It was 20 yards short.

20 yards short. Oblike. Yeah, yeah, bad oblique. But then he followed it up with a pretty good throw to left. But I am still questioning whether or not they're going to do it against the Rams. And the Rams always play them tough. The Rams always kind of had their number. But the other thing that's interesting about that,

three of those four teams were in my top five-o lines and all four of them have fullbacks. Just saying, run. the football. Okay, we'll get to that later whenever you want to suck yourself off. But let's talk about the quarterback still, which is the conversation we were having. So Sam Darnold, you're not sure. I'm not sure. Jared Stidham,

we obviously have literally no idea what he's going to look like with Sean Payton. Second game I called in the booth this year was the Cardinals at Denver. Jared Stidham looked like Joe Montana. He started 15 to 16, threw for 200 yards. He started back at his own four-yard line. Three plays, touchdown, big play to Evan Ingram to start the watch out.

Okay, so do you believe in Jared Stidham? There was three moves that Sean Peyton made on the first day of free agency. Two O linemen? Jared Stidham. Okay, so back to the answer. Do you believe in... Yes, I believe in it. You believe it more than Sam Darnold?

No. Okay, so you don't believe in Sam Darnold. You don't believe in Jared Stidham. We obviously have seen Matthew Stafford now. He's getting to the mountaintop. He's about doing it. Do you believe in Drake May? I believe in Drake May.

You think in the big moment, Drake May will be able to make a big... 1,000%. Okay, so we believe in Drake and we believe in Stadham, you believe in. Stidham, you believe in. Sam, Donald, you don't believe in. Okay, so that's where that's coming from. I believe in them all. They all got here.

You're in the final four. Well, Justin, him didn't get here. But if we're ranking, if we're ranking. Yeah, that's true. But he looked like Joe Montaena the second preseason game. Preseason game championship weekend. I mean, just close your eyes and envision it. Like, Seahawks are down by four, 2420.

There's four minutes left. Do you believe in Sam Darnel driving down the field against the Rams' defense score a touchdown? Oh, Jackson Smith and Jigba just did something so cool. Then he missed them. Fuck. We got second down. I believe it's damn. I also believe in that defense, like, so much.

Now, granted, that's not saying that the Rams defense isn't insane because they certainly are. I mean, all these teams are so good. But it is interesting that, like, the two MVP quarterbacks still around. In the year in which the defense was, like, definitely much better than the offense across the board in the NFL. Scoring different games were different. Defense kind of came alive this year.

It feels like they might have got a better grasp on what offenses are doing, or maybe the game has changed. into the fact that defenses can be a little bit better. Maybe the RPO and all the gimmick stuff that had a little bit of a run, five, ten years or so. Defenses are catching up. Maybe a generation of football that has been used to this style of offense

has gotten into the NFL. Whatever the case study says on why defenses has gotten better, feels like defenses have gotten better. And then you look at it, it's like, well, also, the two MVP quarterbacks are still around for good reason. It's crazy how football works that way. Absolutely. And both of these quarterbacks,

the MVP caliber quarterbacks, and we talked about it, they've had good defenses, great defenses at some point. The Rams were the best defense in the league for a while up until kind of the end of the season. They kind of fell off a little bit. And then the Patriots as well, Patriots had some great things. I think their red zone numbers was the only thing that was bad. But Zach Corey's been doing an unbelievable job, especially in this playoffs.

When you have, we always talk about the D-line. Their D-line is great, especially on the interior. And then they have great cover guys on the back end so they could do a bunch of different things. So, yeah, you got great quarterbacks. But to your point, the defenses are, the board, I feel like we're better. They made it a lot more muddy on the back end as far as for quarterbacks. It's hard to tell.

Is it quarters? Is it two? Is it man? Is it zone? Is it matching? So it's a lot of different things like that. And that's why we heard a lot of conversation from quarterbacks about, is it pure progression? Do we go to this thing?

Do we go to that thing? So I think at some point, offense will start to figure it out. But defense is won. And defense is won this past weekend, too. The weather played a rolling that. But defense is across the board. Spoiler alert, the good deed did today. It's all good D-D-D-D-day.

Oh, Slinging a good D-A. His game balls, two good D. I mean, yeah, two great defensive plays. McMillan and Camp Currell. So, yeah, they showed their ass this past weekend. I think they'll continue to do so. I mean, obviously the weather was insane up there in New England. Both teams had to play with it,

but five turnovers forced by the New England Patriots, which is bananas to think about. It's like that's just the expectation. Now, if you want to be good in the NFL, your defense has to be unbelievable. I think the four ones up front is where, the conversation kind of started, especially with how the Philadelphia Eagles one about winning is they just had four number ones, basically, rushing a passer. And if you can get home with four,

D-Boe, what's that mean? I mean, you got seven in the back end. How many eyes is that? 14 eyes. Fetty Wops out of jail. Shout to him. I just thought about, you know, make sure. I don't know if, I think every secondary memory. Actually, when I said it, we don't know. I haven't seen a patch or anything, but, you know, I think it was a bunch of third eyes. We know combine, combine draft time. We should have. Didn't even think about the third eye that's on a couple of these guys. For sure, they seem to know what's going on.

Join us now as a guy who certainly had that third eye and that's six cents, didn't he? Oh, yeah. He had a size comparison against everybody else, too, that was just some bigger. Stronger than you, smarter than you, more handsome to you. I end up being more wealthy than you. All right. And I'm going to end my entire thing owning a professional soccer team in every country that has one. Yeah.

When's you getting an MLS? I don't know. It's America, maybe. Ladies of your gentlemen, join us now. JJ Watt. Yeah. What, what up, blah, blah, Blah,

Wednesdays, here we go. Well, he's coming and jacked up. I like it. You know, last week you had a nice two-hour appearance. It was kind of on you. Too long. Yeah, way too long.

On me. Big time. Big time too much. Ha-ha. JJ, big mistake. Okay. All right. I like the juice that you're coming in with.

Obviously, championship week. Hey, championship week. We just had national. champion crown on Monday night. Now we're going to have AFC and NFC championships. Crowning happening on Sunday. What we're talking about here is basically how this year became almost like a defensive year, it felt like.

It felt like defenses across the board got better. We started picking teams strictly because of how good their defense was. Now the Houston Texans defense, which obviously you got fired up in a round of playoffs and then chose not to cut a promo for them for their next game, which maybe was the reasoning behind it all. But what the Patriots defense was able to do, what the Broncos are able to do on defensive side. What the Rams are able to do on defense side, with the Seahawks obviously are able to do on defensive side. It feels like it is a defensive run year, and then you look

on the other side of that's like, well, both MVP quarterback still alive as well. What is kind of your synopsis on the state of ball right now? Feels like it's a better defensive unit across the board in the league. Do you agree with that? I would agree with that. I mean, I think, I think obviously when you're at this stage, you're going to have good defenses involved, but I do think that there's some very strong defense being played, and it's a lot of fun for me to be able to finally see the defense is getting some shine. I mean, the Broncos, Vance Joseph's my D.C. in Arizona was also with me at other stops. Seahawks defense, Mike McDonald, unbelievable. Ram's defense, great. Patriots defense played

so well against the Texans, unfortunately, for Houston. But, yeah, I think it's good to get some defensive shine. I think there's some guys here, there's a lot of underrated players in here. Some guys starting to get the hype that they deserve. Zach Allen, obviously being one, makes first team all pro this year. Rightfully so for the Broncos. Benito, phenomenal. You got the two inside-de-tackles for the Seahawks who are awesome, and I think completely underrated, even though they are getting a little bit of shine.

But a lot of really good players on the defensive side of the ball. Happy that we're putting some light on this. It does. It felt like it's been a defense a year. Hembo sent us over stat. We just showed a few moments ago. The scoring per game this season through two rounds of playoffs is the lowest. it's been since 2017.

Feels like defenses have done well. Offenses are going to have to adjust. Because it felt like defenses were adjusting to offense for the past whatever 10 years. Now it feels like offenses are going to have to adjust the defenses. It's a cyclicality of ball, and it's a beautiful thing. Also cyclicality.

We're seeing it. I mean, you're seeing the three tight ends. You're seeing a lot more of the big personnel's offenses bringing in the exiled offensive linemen. We went to those, I mean, the conversation's been had many times, but you started to go smaller linebackers and more shell coverages to account for these receiving tight ends and everybody spreading it out and throwing the ball around. So now as those small linebackers and shells have been implemented, now

offenses are going back to heavier personnel and running the ball at them to take advantage of that size. So we're just going to keep twisting ourselves around and around. Hmm. You should be right now. Maybe run, right, right, right, round. Is that? I believe that is blow rise. That is the flow rider. Oh, yeah. Before we dive into more football questions, have you ever been to a flow rider show?

No. Oh, I have a good feeling. Big fan. Big fan. My house. He's got 15 of them, Jage. He goes. Bangor after banger, dude.

Yeah, he needs the halftime Super Bowl conversation. I would like to officially announce official flow into the halftime Super Bowl conversation, just strictly because we drove almost an hour to get to the. this event. Almost an hour. Signed up for 35 minutes. It ended up being 55. It's Miami football. Shout out. And even the people in Miami tell you the original time.

Hey, how long would it take us to get there? 25 minutes. Okay. How long will take us to get there? 40. What's actual time? Probably an hour. That's probably going to take you about an hour or so. But it could take you 20.

Like if there happens to be nobody else moving in the entire city at the same time as you, there's a change you get there. So we signed up for a, timeless voyage, basically, to get to this particular event. And it was all strictly to watch Flowrider, just strictly because we hadn't been there. He lived up to the hype. We had talk up on a stage. Talk was singing with him.

Talk delivered as well. He might be on tour. But Flo Rada needs me in a conversation for going right round, round, round, whenever we're talking about Super halftime. Okay, and you didn't get to a show for Flo. Let's get into some ball talk now. You just mentioned Van Jocenev, where he played for him. I don't hear his name a lot for any of these head coaching jobs.

Has anybody really talked about that? His name has been out there, but I think they're still alive, so he can't really, he can't interview or, you know, do anything until they're actually done. Yeah, I'll be excited to see how many coordinators here from these four teams end up getting poached or interviewed or become the bells of the ball for this coaching cycle. Jade, you put out a couple of tweets about the coaching cycle, which is fascinating. Nearly a third of the league is looking for new coaches. Each of the last two MVP winning quarterbacks won a two-time winner,

both in their primes looking for their new head coaches. one of the most historic franchises with only three head coaches since 69, also looking for a new one. Didn't mention the MVP's down there for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but certainly a lot of consistency being turned over. You also put out another tweet about, you know, Mike Vrable, Ben Johnson, Liam Cohen set the bar extremely high in turnovers and turnaround. Liam Cohen is certainly one to look at this.

It's just like late in hiring cycle, didn't know if he was going to be able to hire staff. Is Trevor Lawrence a guy? We don't know if he's a guy. And then in one year they turn him into a juggernaut, AFC South champions. Now, I ask you this, JJ Watt, as you look around at the current hirings that have taken place. Got Harbaugh at the New York football giants. I thought he did well. Shane introducing him, very interesting. Shane should probably not be on a microphone, I guess.

Is that probably what we... Yeah, never. They actually, I think, cut off his lips, so he can't speak anymore. And it felt like they kind of, like, had his lungs in a rear naked, too, where he's running out of air. Hard to breathe. I got a couple interesting press conferences the last couple days where it's people that aren't always up there, tossing out some stuff that, man, you got to be this. Yeah, Jayge, we will get to Pagula.

Today's been wild. Yeah, we will get to Pagula for sure in a bill situation. That's certainly another job opening that you certainly talked about there. But let's just talk about the hirings that have happened already. Harbaugh is a New York football giants. Stefanski goes to Atlanta. Sala goes to Tennessee. Halfley goes to Miami.

When you think about what these hirings are saying, do you think the best guys have gone off the board? And, like, who are you looking at now to potentially fill these other jobs? because to your point, Baltimore, gigantic. I mean, that's a gigantic job. They were supposed to win a Super Bowl last year. That same roster basically going to be there. Josh Allen, supposed to win a Super Bowl.

Who's going to be the one that's going to figure that whole thing out? We'll dive into Brandon Bean and Pagula's press conference, which incredible. We need to get Pagola on a microphone all day every day. Let's get him streaming like he's eye show speed. Let's get him like he's streaming like he's Kai. I need to hear every thought that comes out of his brain because if you give him an opportunity,

it sounds like it's going to come. You know, it sounds like he's just, spit those things out. But when you look at these jobs, these jobs, there's some massive jobs, Jake. Who the hell is going to get these jobs? I mean, that's what's interesting about, you know, this whole coaching thing, and the way the rules are set up with the coordinators in the championship games, because obviously, I mean, Harbaugh was, he was going to be up there from the beginning,

and you knew that somebody was going to jump on that, and it seemed like them and the Giants were going to line up. But then you start to get into this cycle of, like, okay, we don't want to wait because we don't want to lose out on a guy, but we also want to see these coordinators for the championship teams, whether it's Shula, whether it's Kubiak or whoever it may be, Vance Joseph. So these, you have to like, you're playing this dance of bird in the hand, too, in the bush type

situation. And it's also, I guess the coaches were also playing that a little bit with the bill's situation that pops up after both Harbaugh and Stefansky get their jobs lined up. So now you sit there and you wonder like, man, are they pissed they didn't wait? Are they happy? But back to the tweets that I had put out there. I think this year, when you look at the situations that have come up, and I'm talking specifically about the Ravens and the Bills,

where you have these guys who are legit, bona fide already won MVP's in the National Football League, and you look at what Vrable and Ben Johnson and Liam Cohen and then a year before Mike McDonald were able to do with those organizations. Don't get me wrong. Those teams all have quarterbacks that were drafted high besides the Seahawks. They all have quarterbacks that were drafted high and have potential, no doubt. But none of those quarterbacks have won MVP's. So there's nobody out there saying that any of those quarterbacks were on the level that

Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were at that same time last year. So I look at those two jobs and I think you just fired two coaches who did a really good job for a very long time. No, they didn't accomplish that ultimate goal in these last few years with those quarterbacks, but you're not here to rebuild over time. The new coach there needs to win immediately because there's clearly been proven that what's happened recently isn't good enough. So now it's time for this to turn into a Super Bowl in the next one to two years, and that

is very hard to do. John Walker, the fourth year, there had been three prior, fodder, father's fodder, father's father, fodder's father. He was John Walker walking around at the beginning saying there'll be three more of me, hopefully four or five. He says, remember now, don't look too far back whenever these teams are absolute ass. Texans 3 and 13, 3 years ago,

Patriots 3 and 14 and then 2 4, 4 games last year. Yeah, 4 and 13. You got it. Yeah, sorry, a lot of numbers there, you get it. Three years ago, the Broncos 5 and 12, Bears 3 and 14, Rams 5 and 12. It's like, it is crazy how quickly you can turn things around. And if they were to put the Jags there,

you would just say laughing stock for a very long time, even though they have players. And you talk about Liam Cohen going in there, and not only the Duval thing, but the actual combo was he wasn't going to be able to hire enough coaches. Remember that? He wasn't going to be able to field of staff because it was too late and he burned too many bridges and yada, yada, yada.

It feels like he did just fine down there, and now everybody else is going to be expecting the same damn thing. Well, the other tough thing with those teams, though, too, if you put that back up, like all these teams, right? Texans, number two overall pick. They get C.J. Stroud, Pat's at three, Drake May. Denver at 11 was it, or 13 with Bo Nix. Bears number one overall, they get Caleb and then the Rams.

You know, three years ago, I guess they already had Stafford. But still, like, there is the argument you need to have either that top pick or, you know, you go like the Rams and you sell the farm and you bring in even that upgrade from Goff to Stafford was enough to get them over the hump. Like it is very difficult too because all those teams have very good quarterback. Yeah, and if you just go nine and eight or whatever, to your point, You're not going to be able to get up to the, you know, to get, that's where the Steelers were kind of living for a long time,

which is why Mike Tomlin stepping down is both a breath of fresh air, because if they're asked next year, maybe you're able to get a high pick, or maybe a new voice comes in and does a thing. Coach McCarthy, I do believe, getting interview with the Steelers. Very, very, very, very real interview with the Steelers today, coach Mike McCarthy. Obviously, he's a Yenzer.

We've enjoyed getting to know him. But, like, I wonder how Coach McCarthy feels about this particular coaching pool with how many jobs are open. I'm sure he's pretty pumped up. It's like, hey, I got a lot of experience, I got a lot of success, stepped away from the game for a year, maybe got to see it from a different angle, and there's a lot of jobs open for Coach McCarthy right now.

Pittsburgh would obviously be one. I think he would hold very near and dear to his heart as he turns it around. So, you know, old names, new names, they got a lot of jobs still open. And Buffalo, who's going to get that gig? Brandon Bean and Terry Pagool at their press conference today. They sure did. Bruce Ariens yesterday on our show, and we are, we would like to say,

Brandon Bean's been very good to us, like very good to us, maybe the nicest GM in all of sport to us. We appreciate Brandon Bean. We like what Brandon Bean does and how he operates. Great golfer, everything about it. Talk shit. Yeah, he's a shit talker. Like, we like Brandon Bean and being as the person.

Now, granted, the conversation is certainly warranted to him. He also like Dan Roloski, you got no problem going at him, so you got to have no problem going at your friends. Love it. Love it. That's what I'm about to do, yeah. McDermott gets fired Bean gets promoted

that's a weird turn of even for us liking him like that's a weird turn of events to happen when the same outcome happens every year yeah I think you're also kind of intrigued by it so then being in Pagola owner Terry Pagula have a press conference and Pagula takes it upon himself basically

to be like let me set the Rex chair there's no power brand of being coming and say Sean McDermott can't get job done that's on it if he was a power plate guy I'd sniff him out I'd get him out here It's like, okay, you're going to continue to talk here and make us believe that you certainly have a clue on what you're doing. Then he continues, you know, he continues this kind of unraveling. But he also didn't pick the draft pick, but it's not a power play, but he did, yeah.

Yeah, the revenge things are coming out like, actually Keelman Coleman, everybody said it's on Brandon Bean. Turns out, Sean McDermott up on table for this guy. I think his staff wanted him. Pagoola, Sal was actually there. This guy got up on the table and said he wanted. going to Keyon Coleman, he guaranteed he'd be good. He said, if he's not good, you can fire me. Now you know, that's

why I fired him. That's basically what Pagula did today. Nothing being did was bad. It was all on the people that were out of here. I appreciate him going to bat for his guy. Obviously, he just promoted him and everything like that. Then the immediate counter argument it was like, well, which ones the bean like that didn't work out? The McDermott was maybe like, uh-uh,

I don't think that's a good play. Can we get more context on all this? But it is fascinating because Greenberg, and you said this as well, Mike Greenberg puts out a tweet that says somehow a team that has Josh Allen as a quarterback just made their job less desirable this morning. I don't think that's necessarily true because Josh Allen is an MVP and you get a chance to be his head coach. But it's a fascinating place that you're kind of walking into right now, especially after that presser, JJ. Any coach looking at these situations, and there's not many that have carte blanche to choose whichever job they want.

But any coach looking at situations going in with current GMs who have been there previously, I mean, you look at what happened in New York there. Like some of the, obviously the discussion was around. Who am I reporting to? How is this whole thing going to work? Who is telling the main boss, the owner, about my performance? I want to be the one talking directly to him. That seems like what the conversation in New York was around because we see what happens here.

When the coach reports to the GM and the GM reports to the owner, well, The person sitting next to the owner in the booth every single game and the person reporting to the owner, generally that information is going to get sifted up a little bit differently than it actually is playing out. So who do you think is going to win that power struggle 90% of the time? It's going to be the person giving the information because they can give the information they want. So it's not lost on anybody that the GMs stick around a whole lot longer than the head coaches stick around. And if you're a coach looking at situations, I think you can't look at this one any different. because you still have Josh Allen.

But you certainly are like, all right, this guy just got promoted when his coach got fired. What does that mean for my standing already starting out? If you're a young lad who shouldn't be a head coach, but getting an opportunity to be a head coach, having a GM who like oversees you and kind of decides what's happening, I think you'd be much more likely to do. But Harbaugh goes into the Giants and obviously there was no, it's on paper, but we're a collaborative. Shane comes out and says, Harbaugh reads that thing.

The contract. Somebody reads it to him. He goes, hey, you're going to report to Shane. Shane then reports to the Mara family. Harbaugh goes, I don't think that's how this goes. No, I'm not. And John goes, yeah, just change that for sure. And the agent goes, okay, you got it.

Agent calls back over to the Giants. And yeah, line four here, clause two. It says that Harbaugh reports Shane and Shane reports tomorrow. Yeah, just go ahead and get rid of that. Everything else is good or whatever. And then the Maro family repose. Okay, we'll call Shane to change that because he's actually, his team is actually writing up the contract.

right now. Okay, call Shane. Hey, you need to get rid of the whole Harbaugh's reporting the U thing in there. That's kind of how this building run, though, doesn't? Oh, let me call Harbaugh. Then that person has called. So Shane says it's just on paper. It's not that big of a deal. That's just kind of the chain of command. So then the agent doesn't even tell Harbaugh that. He goes, yeah, we're not going to do that, though. Harbaugh's still hanging out. Harbaugh thinks that thing has been removed. We're not going to do it. That goes on for what, like a day.

It felt like that took like a day for that to take place. And then inevitably, in the end, Harbaugh is like, am I going up? there and he just like hold gets called back. Do we remove that? Yes. Yeah, you're the guy in charge by the way. Go ahead. Go up there. And then he walks up there and then... What happened in Jacksonville last year? Is it not? Am I, am I... I remember

that correctly, right? Wasn't that a Jacksonville type thing last year? Well, the Jacksonville, yeah. The Jacksonville thing was Cohen Wentz didn't take the job because allegedly he wanted Trent Balke out. Then they fired Trent Balkee. Cohen comes in. Gladstone guitar. Remember Kahn, I believe in an interview

with Balkie on the call. Because I will certainly move on from that guy in the Zoom call. Like, it was the Brady Bunch. We need more owner press conferences, is what we need. That's what we were trying to do to Bishotti, like making that song. Like, bro, we need you out here. Do we have a song for Pagola? You're going to lose her with Pagula.

I mean, that was just the first. Pipe down Pagula. Yeah, I mean, pipe down. Yeah, we could probably make the couple for Pagula there. But it is, you know, because all of these coaches, All you hear him talk about is alignment. I want alignment. I want alignment at the top with the GM and with me.

And a quarterback too, that would be great. If we could just have alignment at the top, that's all we really care about. All the people that have been head coaches before and have been fired and then they're going to be a head coach again. Hey, why did it not work at the first spot? Well, we didn't really. Second spot, why did you get alignment?

Everybody was together. So that is such a, it's a thing that you would think as a fan of sports is the most obvious thing in the world. We are all doing whatever it takes to get our organization the best possible situation at all times. People just don't understand or, I mean, it's the fact that everybody is covering their own ass at all times. You have to look at when contracts are coming up for GMs, for coaches, what needs to happen for them to keep that job into their next contract, how they can spin it or manipulate or make a certain move so that they can secure that next contract. It might not be what's best

for the team right now, but it's what makes it looks like you're doing what's best for the team at that moment. There's a lot of that going on. Has to appear as if it's good for the team and also has to definitely be great for my ass. That is not just a football thing either. Almost has become a societal issue as we lack accountability amongst humans, but

that is not for me to forecast about because I'm a dufus who potentially falls in the same problem because I'm going to be looking out for us at all times, boys. I just know that. Let's talk about a higher that happened that got me jacked up jage is like special teams shout out danny smith just got the job down down there at tampa bay love that he got hired that does get me jacked up not what i was going to talk about but good time to bring up great ins are danny smith getting a job down there at tampa bay how old

is uh danny smith 72 years old that's what i'm talking about acts like he's uh 35 though he'll be down there for the next 20 years they move on from coach tom more who retires they bring in danny smith need a senior with a lot of juice on the roster. So I appreciate them doing that down there in Tampa. I think there was a couple teams that wanted to hire Danny as their special teams coordinator. So Tampa Bay getting him obviously great news. But that was not what I was referring to. What I was referring to was something that's going to boost the ball as a whole next year.

Harbaugh has a new human he's going to have to talk about and describe out there in L.A. Go ahead, D. Bud. Yeah, it's about a couple of teams wanting this guy, I believe he removed himself from consideration for the Brown's head coaching job and then got the job for the O.C. out in LA. We had Dan O. on last week, and he said the charges would be the spot he would pick if he was an offensive coordinator. What's your thoughts on Mike McDaniel to L.A.? I think it's great. I think it's great from a fit standpoint.

Obviously, you got Herbert out there, and there's so much you can do with that offense. Their offensive line gets healthy. They have untapped potential still. Obviously, everybody kind of expects them to be something better than what they have. have been recently, and I think this has a chance to help unlock that. But I mean, from an entertainment standpoint, and like you guys are alluding to everything that comes along with this, I would just, could we get hard knocks there tomorrow? Like the conversations, like the inside information, like that would just be glorious to

see those guys interacting. Well, Herb, too. And McDaniel. I mean, that relationship's going to be spectacular down. Oh, yeah. You're not kidding. He's going to have him Jack. He's going to be like, all right, all right.

going to get you jacked. McDaniel's going to come out next year just yoked up because I heard. There's a chance and also out there in L.A. There'll probably be some signs. You know, shout out to McDaniel getting a chance just to go back to what he probably wants to do, which is just offense. But the way Harbaugh is going to describe McDaniel's brain

in offense is going to be spectacular. Like this is just the first thing I thought of Wizard of Ball. He's going to be saying so many different things. He's going to refer to him as a little guy, which is so much. Yeah. Point Dexter maybe. There's so many things he's just going to talk about. What if he walks into those off white air forces with the tags on there, Jim just,

this guy's got tags on his shoes. So cool. Like just everything Jim Harbaugh realizes about McDaniel is just going to be like an epiphany seemingly. And then he's going to carry it right into the press. I was just outside. Guy got tags on his shoes, pants, shirt, and hat. I've never seen that four tags.

You ever had a guy with four tags still on his clothes? That's what we got around here. They're not franchise tags either. These things are forever from what I've been told. It's not just one year deal. like just the thought of Harbaugh sitting with McDaniel and being like this is the guy Imagine if he brings some Cuban coffee

to him and he starts drinking the Cuban coffee brings over from Miami and I'm like Wow you guys have read this stuff this is great I like this cafe sito he said I sito yeah absolutely like there's just so many opportunities especially if they're good okay need them to be good their ass yeah if their ass

Harbaugh is going to be beating the shit out of him by about week 12 take the tags off your shoes yeah or he just put some regular khakis on. Put some khakis on. Okay. We don't, we're not wearing, what do you call them jogger? I'm a runner. Okay. You put your runners on. Take your joggers

off. Like there is that also possible outcome. Whenever MCDC said it wasn't a good fit, right? Allegedly, that's what we're hearing for Detroit with McDaniel. Correct. That was fascinating for us because of all the weapons that Detroit has, almost feels like a better suit for McDaniel in his offense. A lot more speed, seemingly. A lot more weapons, a lot more options. So for Los Angeles Chargers to be the ones that are like, yeah, we want them. I'm pumped up for it.

I mean, did you see him dripped out in the airport? Like, I feel like that outfit alone. I think you had a Botega leather tie on, which is, like, I think walking into the Lions building with that on alone might have been like, all right. I don't know if this is the fit for the grit organization. L.A. though. I'll tell you what, man. The fuck is that tie? I'll tell you what, man.

Is that a cow on your? What's going on here, man? We're going to wait until later, but we're going to have to head to the bathroom right now. It's swirly time. I'm getting pissed just looking at you. There's a chance. Yeah. He had that fit on, man.

He had the two Botaga bags on top each other, fit it out. He had those headphones that nobody else has. They're from, like, they look like they're old, but they also look like they're from the future. You can't really tell. Yeah. Yeah, I mean. Good fit. Just look at that.

Him walking into MCDC's office. Coach, what it do? Yeah. Get out. Get the fuck out of here now. Hey, it's all about the right fit. That's what we've been saying this whole time. Exactly. It's all about the right fit.

Now, there was a fit in Cleveland that was seemingly out of sorts, even though they went to a playoff game and one playoff game. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Jage, what's your take on the whole Baker, Kevin Stefanski situation? Everyone kind of knew about this? Okay. There we go. So, yeah, I mean, like, I don't know.

I don't know. I feel like everyone did know about this when it first happened, but now we're just kind of getting more information about how this shook out. And now Bate gets to play him two times a year. And I'm guessing you never had anything like this because you're going to be a first ballot hall famer. Like, you fist fought a coach in practice. Yeah. But you know, you know what I mean. I mean, like, no denial. We still have yet to get the full story. We're beyond, we're beyond that. We're years beyond that. No, but just what is your take on this whole? situation as we get more information coming out. I absolutely love this.

This, the Ben Johnson thing with the Packers, anything where there's like legit, real animosity, and it's being, like, this is the National Football League. This is sports. It's supposed to be competitive. You're not supposed to like each other. We're not all supposed to be friends at the end of the day. Like, this is awesome.

And this is going to create some great television in this fall when they play each other twice this year. This is what it should all be. And I like that we're kind of swinging this pendulum back a little bit to some of this hatred, to some of this animosity where people don't like each other. Like we have the jersey swaps. We have all the pictures on the field after the game. We all have friends on other teams because everybody trains together.

But there is nothing better when two teams absolutely hate each other. And it's like a deep down actual hatred. And you can see it play out on the game. the field. Can't wait to watch it. I like that it's getting public. That's where you're talking about with the pendulum swinging. Like, I like that we know that there's dislike, that there's disinterest, that there's distaste for each other. I appreciate the Ben Johnson, Matt LaFloor stuff. I love that the whole entire McVeigh family tree thought to himself, this guy's attacking all of us. He's not just chopping down one branch. He's attacking the whole tree here whenever he's

doing that to LaFleur. Publicly, this is all coming out. It's like, yes, yes. And then for this particular situation, I don't know if we ever heard from Baker, right on it? No, not really. I don't think we ever heard from Baker on it. And now I don't think we ever heard directly from Stefansky on it other than what his actions were. Last game, Baker Mayfield was there. He had a, what, torn labrum and a fractured left shoulder. Correct. Both of them in his left arm. And Stefanski went out there against the Pittsburgh Steelers, had him throw the ball 60 times. How many times? Exactly, 38 times, okay? Had him, throw 38 times. And in the game, he got sacked nine times. So you're talking about boom,

boom, boom, chub, best running back maybe in the game, off the field, playing against a team that has a great defense regardless. So it was like, Stephancy's trying to kill this guy. That's what we were thinking while we're watching the game live in real time without even knowing what was about to happen where they basically run them out, then their shit behind the scenes happening with, you know, O'Dell Beckham Jr.'s dad cutting up videos, and then nobody really from Cleveland saying, we want to keep him around here, even though he's making commercials in a stadium saying it was his house. It was like very ugly. It was very Cleveland Brownie, if you're from Pittsburgh. It's like, Cleveland Browns are doing everything that Cleveland Browns would do. This is the first time we've

really heard Baker come out and say like, yeah, I don't like him. I don't like him. It's like, all right, now we understand exactly what the situation was over there. I think Baker has come out though and said that he's matured a lot since that time until what he has become now, both at Carolina, out at L.A., he's got a chance to kind of learn and have a different perspective and all that as he was growing through it. But yeah, it sounds like Stefansky and he did not get along at all, Josh. No, not at all. And, you know, now you're kind of starting to get the thing too where people who are, either were in the building with the Browns or taking Stavansky side and kind of saying, like, you know, Baker was a,

he was a pricked, you know, support staff and people who worked there and all that kind of stuff. And like you mentioned, that is when Baker was kind of like, hey, I had to kind of go through all that stuff to mature and become a better pro. And I mean, I don't know, I love it too. Anytime a player hates another coach because everything is so either no comment or I got so much respect for this guy. Like it's refreshing when a starting quarterback in the NFL will come out and be like, you know what? Fuck this guy. Can't wait to play this guy twice a year and shove it up his ass.

I got shipped off like a piece of garbage. He said, sorry about that. No, no, my bad. Just to add to the rivalries as we're going through them all, Liam Cohen and Bob Sala twice a year now because of that whole entire feud after the Niners game. You know, we're- Cheap my name after you mom! that's going to be incredible.

I hope they keep it going. I hope they don't like, nah, that's old news. It's squashed. I hope they're like, no, yep, now he's got to see me twice a year. That would be awesome. We're in a little different positions now, aren't we? Jacksonville Jags, King of the Castle. What are you, Sala?

Oh, you're in Tennessee Titan learned. Okay. Good luck over there, buddy. Did Sala say, like, too, like, I will fuck your world up, Liam, in that little ex. Like, that little exchangeer. I'm pretty sure that was his verb is. Yeah.

And we put a tail of the tape up, and we had Liam Cohen's height wrong, you know, and he said when he came on the show later, you guys were trying to make me look bad on the tail of the tape. It's like, no, we put, I thought we put a lot of respect into that tail of the tape. Just in case you two were actually going to brawl, which we were maybe getting to the point where these coaches are actually going to fight. And I like if the family trees are going to start taking offense to other family trees. You know, because then the leader of the trees are going to have to have a meeting. Yeah. You know, at some point and kind of say, hey, this is the territory.

This is what we need to do. you can't be doing this, you can't be doing that. And then you've got to go tell your coppo, which then goes and tells everybody down the line. You can whack this guy and then we'll whack that guy. You can't whack this guy. This guy good, this guy not good. Can't do it.

They're going to have a meeting of the minds here. And 6-1 versus 64- 220 versus 250s a little bit. You know, that's potentially problematic. Now, with that being said, head coaching records, if it comes down to that, Liam Cohen's going to be in a good spot. This was at the very beginning, obviously, 3-1-0, he's continued to win.

I was trying to figure it out. I was very confused there for a second. This was the tail of the tape that we put out. It has not been updated. We did not expect to bring it back up in this exact moment. Good find back there. But with that being said, Liam, much better head coach than Robert Salah. Right now. Right now, I were supposed to talk.

It's a lot of weight from just looking at that photo. Liam Cohen looks much better than that depict. And we don't know if it's stress that he hasn't been getting or, you know, potentially. Liam Cohen. Or this battle. Maybe he was like, I got to get in the gym now.

Preparing for Salah. Go ahead, James. Sorry about that. I got plenty of insight into Liam Cohen's weight loss. I mean, it's a ridiculous topic to have a lot of knowledge on, but I do. We had him multiple times this year, and it came up multiple times. It was Besseli, when he got there, like the very first day that Cohen got there, Bessali was like, you got to get in shape. It's ridiculous.

It can't look like that. Love that. You look. You look like a fat idiot right now. He got him in the gym with him in the mornings, and he was like, they went through like a gym routine and like nutrition and stuff, and then Cohen just, he switched it to the afternoon because he was doing, he was working in the morning, but he worked out all year long.

And yeah, I think he said he's down 40 pounds. God damn. Dog. Sala, I don't know, bro. You're coming into a different AFC South jungle down there in Duval. Sala is a brick shit house. Yeah, and his head. Yeah.

He's on. Also got a number one quarterback. I mean, if you're looking at last years, again, we go back to that last year's. You got, you had Lawrence, you had Caleb Williams, and you had Drake May, top three picks. Saul is now working with the number one overall pick. Those guys were able to turn things around unbelievably quickly with those. You got to turn things around quickly in this world. I like Cam.

We've gotten a chance to chat with him a couple times because he's come to the Miami games. Looks like he's excited, you know, bought in, just ready to play ball, basically. It feels like he's just. It's all going to come down to the OC there. I mean, he's got to get a great O. see. Like if you're going to go defense coaches, I don't hate, obviously, I mean, I think they're trying to set a culture, but you have to get Cam Ward

a great offensive coordinator. If we go back to Hard Knocks with Sala, Sala's entire thing is like his defense was great, the offense was ass, right? And then I think the hard knocks, he actually finally just said it. Hey, we're going to be good on the defensive side. You guys, right up there, just kind of circle the offense, offensive line in particular.

You guys are going to decide whether or not we're worth a shit this year. So could you please? Now, let me tell you a story about an eagle and a crow. Okay, and then he did the entire thing, ready to a couple lines, and then got up to where the eagle can soar and the crow can't. That's what I remember from his opening.

Yes. It's like the Vince Vaughan, the John Favro clip where he's like, nobody's pointing fingers any, but you're a problem. I like that he was that blunt about it, and at that stage of his head coaching career, it was pretty obvious.

Like, hey, if this group right here could do anything, I didn't draft him, I didn't get to pay him, I am the head coach here. Our defense is going to have our shit right. if you big guys he wanted to say he did not though he was straight you big guys can get it together we can might have a good team here like that would be great if we were able to do that

he probably learned from that the first time around oh yeah we assume that is going to be main focus for the second time around my brain the what i am good at we are going to have a good defense we have to have the offense figured out i assume is what he's yeah now he doesn't have the same talent i would say that he had on that jet's defense with tennessee right now Now up front, you obviously have Simmons, and that's a great piece to build around. You got some other pieces that haven't quite worked out that they brought over, but you assume that he has a good evaluation of defenders.

And then him coming from, well, he was in Shannon's tree earlier. So hopefully he has another offensive mind. Maybe a guy we know, maybe a guy we don't know that he does bring over and kind of bring the best out of Cam. Well, we saw flash from Cam Ward. And like JJ said, you get a great offensive mind around him. Obviously, pieces. Can Ward can be one of the best quarterbacks in the league, we think.

Think back to C.J. Stroud's rookie year, offensive coordinator is Bobby Sloick. They get rid of him. He goes to Miami. He's without a job. This makes all the sense in the world to go get him right now. Okay, so Slovak goes down in Tennessee. Don't love that. Back in the AFC South causing us problems. The Titans currently right now, if you were to look at their win-loss records since Vrable, they're the worst. Yeah, they're the worst and everything.

They're just the worst and everything since kicking Vrable out of town. And Vraib's now in the AFC championship. How's he doing? Yeah. Very far and good. Get them out of there. All right. Last question here for you, Jage. Big topic of a discussion around the NFL,

and it will be for the entirety of the offseason. It feels like, go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Jage. Bob Kraft was on W.E.I. Afternoons, and he basically said, hey, the NFL has three priorities right now. One of them being an 18-game season, moving the preseason to two games, and then also an international game for every single team every year. What do you think specifically about the 18 games? It feels like we've talked about this for years,

basically since the 17 games became a thing. But do you think they also have to change, you know, buy weeks? What are kind of some of the things you expect to see once that 18 games is implemented? I don't know if we have enough time between now and getting off the air on ESPN to go through all of this. But there... You got three minutes. Okay? The value of the 17th game was never given back to the players in a proper manner.

And that's because of, we all know, know the pat especially debut like the guys of ake that know the cba negotiations everything didn't like you have to fight for what this is worth do not give this 18th game up for less than it is actually worth and unfortunately that's just looking forward the way that it's all going to shake out they're going to give a second by week they're going to take away preseason a preseason game to an 18th game is not even remotely close to the same thing a preseason game nowadays people don't even playing them at all so now you're taking zero plays and you're replacing it with 65 plays

of the highest intensity, most difficult. Oh, no, they're throwing them. Did I freeze? Did I freeze? Somebody's trying to silence me. Yep. Who's doing it? Who's doing it?

Could have been correct. Are you now in their pocket? Are you now in their pocket? I'm on your tell. I was giving you a whole floor. I said you had three minutes. Do your thing, please. They're going to try and get you with a second by week.

No shit. If you play 18 games, yeah, you better have a second buy. That shouldn't even be, don't let them use it as a negotiating tool. That's a non-starter. It needs to be financially equivalent to what it's worth to you. It wasn't the same for going from 16 to 17. You have to find a way to make it right going from 17 to 18. The players get screwed in every single CBA argument in negotiation ever,

have one of the worst. Figure it out. Yeah, well, the good news is the last NFLPA president was really using his time officially. That's what we learned. 1961 through 1977. It was 14 games, six preseason games. So it had 20 games there. Then it went 16 to 4.

Now it's 17 and 3. 18 and 2 is probably what's next. I asked Roger Goodell about that at the draft. And for you, it's a funny thing that they are trying to make that an argument. And he was like, I think I speak for everybody. We'd much rather have a regular season game than other preseason game, right? It's like, yes, certainly. In the negotiation, who knows if it'll be treated the same?

and you talk about players losing all the time. I agree. I think they're bad negotiators in there, but I want to let you know whenever we get an extra guaranteed cold tub in every building for that 18th game, people's knees are going to feel better. That's what I'm saying.

Two at a time. Two at a time. It's going to happen. Jay, you're the man. Why don't you go be the president of the NFLPA? Ooh. There were many deep discussions had during the last CBA, and I understand completely the issue at hand

with why it's difficult. to get every NFL player on the same page because of the length of the contracts, because of who's been in for long enough, who understands the dynamics of it all. It's very difficult. You know, who also knows that? The owners, which is why they win every single negotiation ever. 30 billionaires and their lawyers negotiating against you is going to be tough. You got to stand on business.

That's right. And JJ would do that. That's why he's future first bout hallfamer. We're back on the other side. Be a friend, tell everyone. Nice. Hello, beautiful people. And welcome back to our Humble of Bo, the Thunderdown.

On this, what Wednesday, January 21st, 2016, our two of the program begins right now. Football! It's the best. It's just the best. So much drama. We've got billionaires speaking for the first time, long time. We're incredibly entertained.

We got new jobs opening up. We got new hirings happening around the NFL. And, oh, yeah, we still haven't figured out who the champions of the AFC are or the champions of the NFC are. or the champions of the NFC. Well, we only have to wait just a few more days. The New England Patriots back in the AFC championship. That's beautiful.

It is. Taking on the Broncos back. Yeah. In the AFC championship game. You know what teams haven't been in the AFC championship game since the last time these teams were in the championship game? Who? A lot.

85% of the teams have not been in the championship. Chip game, basically, since the Broncos, but more specifically, the Patriots. They've done it again. These people are primed to have another 10, 20, maybe with modern science, 30-year run at the top of the AFC. And I'll tell you, it's a different vibe coming out of all the mace holes. At Boston Connor is a great depiction of that because they're still at the moment of saying, oh, they don't believe that we're back. They don't believe that we're good.

So they're still fighting chip-on-shoulder all-known. And that's going to be for the first three, four years of this thing. And then after that, they're going to be the... We are the Kings. We are, yet again, the Kings. This is all possible, unless the Denver Broncos with Jared Stidham at quarterback, are able to topple them at home as five and a half point dogs in the AFC championship game. And then the Los Angeles Rams take on the Seahawks in the NFC Championship.

630 Eastern 330 local over there. The 12s will show up in a huge way. We expect both these games to be out. Absolute bangers, and the storylines coming out of them are going to be spectacular. But that's not where the storylines end. Storylines are everywhere in football right now. You know, the transfer portal opens up, basically, for Miami and Indiana for five days or whatever. So we still see mega moves happening around college ball.

Coaches are being hired. Coaches are being slandered. Players are getting made fun of, and owners are saying whatever they're thinking, because they're billionaires and they rarely have to face any punishment for any of their actions. That's right. I make the game. So what are you going to say? One bad call.

All right. Change it then. You're the owner, right? That ref contract is up here in a couple months as well. So whenever you talk about the state of football being a constant flux, we're in it right now. We're also in the best time to be alive where we're just a couple weeks removed from the Super Bowl, which is going to be the best week out in Santa Clara. Cannot wait to get out there.

Cannot wait to celebrate ball. And cannot wait to talk for another hour or so with these fine gentlemen. the table. I have boss of Connor and that Ty Schmitt. Ty Packers aren't in there. No, no, no, no, no, they're not. And you know, hey, maybe next year. We'll see. You got to hire a good defensive coordinator. Debutt, the Eagles, the Chargers,

the Dolphins, and the Colts, and the Panthers are not in there. You're a Panthers fan. I did play there, but... You were kind of starting to ride from a little bit this year, too. You know, Cam came back, beat the drum. I like, you know, what Young did. Yeah, but I... They're not on my left.

No, but you're a fan of the Colts right? Absolutely. And you've hop on the Patriots bandwagon. I will always be a fan of the Colts. I will always be a fan of the Dolphins. No, but also now the Patriot's... My bandwagon, that's different. But you put it on the Patriots,

play for the Patriots, play for the Colts. You would assume he also a fan of the Panthers, right? Because he played for them as well. Absolutely. That'd be the third team of his three team playing career. So you'd think he would just get on board with Panthers. So you're saying, yeah, definitely good for Charlotte, but no, not a part of the...

Yeah, I didn't get a text from Bill. he shipped me out of New England. So I almost want to send him one of those Baker-Mayfield tweets right now. Essentially like a piece of garbage. You should. Ship me out. The Patriots being back. Outrageous.

The Rams still there. Crazy. McDonald, being able to turn over the Seattle Seahawks. I guess I should point that out. Seattle Seahawks back in the NFC championship game. We're not really giving that any love. That's a potential return to real greatness for them. And then obviously the Rams or the Broncos being back,

It's a huge kind of what is old is almost new again in this world of football. Yeah, just huge for everybody on that graphic and more with just legacy. Like these are true legacy games. We always talk about the regular season is the regular season. Then you get into the playoffs. Then you get into these championship games to punch your ticket to the big dance. Then once you get there, whatever happens for coaches, for players, for quarterbacks, specifically like this is going to live on forever.

So we only got three more. We got to enjoy them. We talked about the storylines. There will always be, you know, NFL will always, you know, dominate the story. It'll be the combined. It'll be the draft. But we got to appreciate these actual football games, meaningful football games that we have left. You talk about legacies.

Sean Payton, we assume Hall of Fame coach, right? Yep. Brable, we assume Hall of Fame coach, right? McVeigh, we assume Hall of Fame coach. So it's just got McDonald out there. And guess what? I think Brable got to win one. Has to win Super Bowl as head coach.

I think so, yeah. I think so as well. I think that's accurate. We assume he will. Yeah. But no guarantee. No. True.

There's no guarantee. We got to remember that too. With great quarterbacks, we're great, Josh Allen hasn't been to one yet. And, you know, everybody on TV says he's the greatest, talented, most talented quarterback we've ever seen, touch a football field. And I love Josh Allen as well.

But it's not promised that you're going to get back to this point. Her Ben Johnson in the press conference, somebody said, hey, how do you build off this year? He was like, look, we start back at Square 1, just like every other of the 31 teams out there next season. And we know every year it's a different group in their locker room. We see now with owners speaking up more some of the shit that goes on behind the scenes and why teams are bad year and a year out, decade out, not the bills.

The bills are obviously a good team. But it's a lot that has to go right. Injuries for you to get to this point when you're playing on championship weekend with a chance just to get to the Super Bowl. There's no building off of this. We go back to square one, Ben Johnson says. How do you build off this? There is any. We got to.

I don't think you got. You should actually. you guys haven't been here. It's so hard to get here. And then think about getting there, like you're the Denver Broncos. Starting quarterback breaks his ankle right before the championship. It's like that's a heartbreaker. Crazy. That is.

And it happened to the Niners, I guess, when I played to Philadelphia. A couple years ago, was there six injuries in the first half? Yeah, like second play. Brock Party couldn't throw a football. Then somebody got leg whipped, got Bosa, I think. Botha did, yeah. Bosa, shoulder, Fred Warner. Went down.

There's like four injuries in like the first quarter, first drive for the San Francisco 49ers. It's like you've got to get so lucky injury-wise. We're not talking even at this day. You're talking for an entire season you have to get lucky injury with. And comment mentioned earlier. When Carson Wentz went down in that kind of MVP-calibur season, and Nick Foes thankfully stepped up and played great,

and it did go right for them. You went on and won a Super Bowl. Like so many things just have to go right for you to actually get it done, and then people are going to talk about it forever. And a lot of times, a lot of that context is left out. Obviously, quarterbacks are different, but you can lose a star pass rush. Michael Parsons, like that go.

you use a star receiver or tight ends banged up or your best guard is playing with a messed up injury. So a lot of things that got to go right from the coach of staff and the players. On Micah Parsons. Hempbo sent us a stat on Micah Parsons. You know, do you think you guys had the lead whenever he got hurt or something like that? From his injury on, you guys want 0 in 4. Yeah, let's see. The Packers were leading Broncos 23, 21.

We're talking about the Broncos. When Mike went down, they never won another game and had four sacks in their final four games. I mean, you talk about an injury just completely right. Everything for a team. That was the Michael Parsons injury. So back to the point of getting to championship weekend, so much has to go right on every single play for you to be able to get to a point to get here

because the way salary caps are allotted, the way teams are kind of pieced together, you lose one or two pieces just accidentally for three, four weeks without a night, let alone a flu comes through. Something like that happens. That can derail everything you have going on. A flag. Oh, a terrible flag.

That changes the whole course of career. people have to move their families because of bad calls, which goes to Pagoolah's point, want bad call. Yeah, exactly. Let's get these reps out of. Who's in charge it? Me?

They're going to listen to me? Yeah. All right, I'll say something. Okay. It's like, thank you. Go in there. Let's go ahead and make sure we do that. You've got to get so lucky to win.

That's why what the Patriots did for 25 years, insanity actually. Well, that's the thing about losing one or two pieces, and then some of these teams that are not even close to our radar gaining one or two pieces, like the Patriots and Drake May. They weren't in this conversation. last year when we were forecasting

or the year before or the year before that. We talk about Mendoza a lot and who knows because a lot needs to happen in Vegas. But like Mendoza goes to Vegas, are you that surprised if they become a legitimate team in the next three years with Mendoza? A lot of these teams, yeah, I guess for Vegas, maybe it is a little different.

Definitely with the Jets you would think that too. But like some of these teams come out of nowhere. The commanders. The commanders weren't good this year. But if they're great, next year would Jay and Daniels and he stays healthy. Like, nobody's that surprised because they just went to an NFC title game. And that's the whole, you know, conversation about Burrow and the Bengals.

Like, if you look at the Bengals from when they went to the Super Bowl to now, it isn't a full-blown collapse, but it's pretty damn close. It is, it's pretty close. Even the Lions. The Lions were the kind of class of the NFC, not the top, but they were up there. And then they missed the playoffs. Like, every year is so different. And that's why it's the greatest league on.

earth. Like NBA, all these other leagues, you kind of know who's going to be there. Wow. The Pacers, obviously, championship pedigree. And that's a perfect example of a team kind of coming out of nowhere. And also enjoy it. And yeah, enjoy it while you have it because you never know. The next year it might be absolutely awful. But also, who knows because no one watches the NBA. But again, that is the end of war. Now, on that note, I heard the numbers were up. Were they not up?

Yes. I think their numbers were up. I don't know. I haven't seen them. I mean, to be honest. So I saw last night it was Lakers Nuggets, I believe. I turned on in the middle of a Luca. Luca was getting... A bit of a score, sure.

Yeah, I think he went from 26 points maybe to 33 points in like a minute and a half run or something like that. And it was like, okay, Luca's still doing it. LeBron had a cool pass. Price. Okay, and then I changed the channel. I want something else. I should have stuck on that because I basically just did an internet clip

on the actual TV. Yeah. So I think I gave him a rating, but that is what NBA is. It's hard not to just digitally take it. the NBA. Show me the three highlights that happened last night. Come on, guys.

I'm telling you, it's hard for me right now, man. Maybe once football's over, I'll dive in. Last year was easy because it was like, Tyrese is in there. His gray's shoes are by far the best ones he's had.

I had him on yesterday. I should have wore him today. I didn't know I was going to shout him out because obviously everything is scripted in this particular show. But whenever you watch just like highlights and get the score, who's in, who's out,

that's really all I'm doing with the NBA right now. And I don't like that because I think we should pay attention to these sports more, but... But the playoffs. I think everybody's doing the same thing I'm doing, I think, that I know. If you're flipping through the channels and you

laying on an NBA game and they don't have starters in, it is an absolute certainty that I will not be returning to that channel, unless I'm watching the Celtics and Luca Garza is just fucking out there. You got to have a personal connection? Yes. CKD, locking down Wemby?

Yes. Yeah. Now, all of a sudden, I have a personal connection to that. Yeah. It's like, wait a second. Kevin Durant was originally the potential full NBA changer. Too tall. He's too skinny to be how tall he is. He's got pulling weight.

Slim Reaper said, I don't think so, but actually, I'm just going to go ahead and do all this other shit. So for him to now have to face the next, hey, this guy's going to cheat his is the game changer in this. And then for him to take it upon himself, love that.

I love everything about it. KD. still got it. I like that everything's happening. And this isn't a playoff game. This is middle of January. Him locking it down. It's like there's always good highlight. good storylines, and the NBA will get us through a time whenever we need them.

We need to remember that the NBA will do that for all of us. The playoffs are incredible. That run when it is like NBA and NHL playoffs every single night, multiple games, those are great. The only problem is like in the NBA especially, it's typically one, two, three, four. As far as seating goes, that's going to be in the, you know, quarters, then the conference finals, and then the finals. Like there is never really a surprise seven or eight seed making a massive run. In the NHL, you can make an argument.

All eight can go and win it. At least the eight seed can at least go and win it. That's how the Florida Panthers basically started this entire run. A seat is kind of stupid, too. That's one thing I don't, you know. I love hockey. About the NHL? Yeah, I don't like the seat.

You're from hockey beach. I am. A. Hockey Town. No, no, the town. A.K. Hockey Beach. You're a hockey beach, yes. You're not a hockey town. He's got to get to dance this year.

Sorry, Foxy. Yeah, playing like a bunch of hockey beaches. Oh, little baby back hockey beach. I just saw Bobby come out of the neck and start throwing him things. Now, I don't... It was sick. He didn't get the best of the other guy. I liked it.

I loved to see. I didn't know that happened. Goleys? Yeah, I've never seen goalies crap. Yeah, it's usually pretty dramatic situation because think about the crowd. The crowd's all back. They could see the entire... You see a lot of pads in movement coming from one side.

And then obviously you see the other one agreeing. And it's like, everybody immediately gets excited about it. The least amount of fighting experience, these people, you know, probably the most to lose if they were to hurt themselves, right, in this situation. Them getting after each other is a beautiful thing. Yeah, this is good for hockey. Obviously, rips the helmet off. I'm going to keep my helmet on, obviously.

Nope. Boom. Boom. Bang. With all those pads, it's going to be tough. And when you lose these hockey fights, which we are fans of, we are fans of the hockey fights. We like that in 2026, a sport has. as fighting still has a way to handle business amongst each other.

Like, hey, what you just did, we don't like, we're going to have to fight for that. Then let's move on. If you're losing those, I feel like, you know, I'm boxing how you just, like, kind of hug. Hockey, you've got to get that thing to the ice. Yeah. Because as soon as you get to the ice,

normally help is on the way. Now, I have seen a guy getting his ass beat, like, oh, we've got to get this to the ice. Guy picks him up off the ice, continues to fight. That's, that's the worst case scenario. I think. And some of these fighters, not these goalies, obviously. And once again, we can say thank you enough to both

these over there in Sharkskaj, and down there and hockey beach. I think that. Goleys kind of get after it, you know, anytime that's happening. But some of these hockey fighters, I think they could have been professional boxers if they wanted to. And then they're like 6-7 as well. What was Zadano? Charo on skates, I believe, was 6-9. I think he

is 6-7 or 6-6-6-off skates. And he was a professional fighter. Could you see him in the business? Unless he was 6-9, and then 6-11 on skates. Without skates. There it is. 6-9 without skates. He could have him with him, yeah.

And he was an actual professional fighter. Yeah. He's tallest ever. Tom Wilson's like 6-4-250, right? Yeah, and he's a menace. He's a problem. That whole capitals team is just so mean. Ryan Reeves.

Revo got his bell wrong. I saw that. Ovi will run you, too. Ovi will run you. The Russians aren't scared to kind of run you. Gino Malkin will get in a fight if he has to for the penguins. How are the penguin's doing right now? now. How do you think, Pat? Pretty damn good.

And I've seen Malcolm get called kind of a crybaby. Oh, not as much as mix it up. I'm in, look, I'm a fan of the bad news B. So all we do is throw down. Granted, we got our freaking shit pushed him by the Dallas stars last night. That's because we're a throwdown team in Texas hockey. They're finesse. And finesse wins, you know. In a seven game series, finesse wins three times, you know. But that's the thing about one of those teams. Ruin for a team who actually is trying to just beat your ass is one of the best parts of being a fan. True.

That was the Florida Patriots. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was like audio coming out from the bench from the coach just saying, hey, listen, we're up four. But let's make sure we're getting bodies on these guys. Game six, game seven. Let's see if their bodies can handle it.

It's like everything is a spar basically, every extra little shot just trying to make them survive. In the NHO, the injuries, they'll tape you together. Oh, yeah. They don't care. flip you up, put you on the ice and kind of just shove you out there and say, do it, go, you go, you're doing it. I'm getting paid less than every other sport. You're lucky to do it, right? Oh, yeah. You got a broken spine? Cool. Let me tell you about Mario Lemieux. Guy had cancer and a broken spine. Scored two goals and head and assist. So,

so I have a broken mouth either. Go ahead and get out there and do it. That is kind of the hockey culture. Beautiful thing. We can't wait for full NHL time and NBA time. Is Big Ten basketball happening? Full swing. right now, baby. Is Big Ten the Power Conference in basketball? Yes, it is. Really? Who won the National Championship last year? Florida. Yeah, that's right. Okay, so that's the SEC,

obviously. They had, what, how many teams were in there, 13 or something? Yeah, they were the conference last year had a bunch of teams. Normally Big Ten. Oh, so this year, Big Ten's back to being on top whenever it comes to hoops. Who are the teams I'm hearing about? Because there's some Blue Blood Basketball schools up there in a Big Ten that I'm excited to kind of watch take March Madden. Sure. You know, you're always going to have your Michigan

Michigan this year is arguably one of the best teams in the country. Nebraska. Purdue. Yeah, Nebraska Purdue as well. You know, the Iowa Hawkeyes are pretty solid. But if you're watching Big Ten, the only team you're probably going to hear about is the UCLA Bruins because their head coach, Mick Cronin, won't shut his fucking mouth. All he does is bitch and whine about everything. Any opportunity he gets to, they just beat Purdue.

Number 14 in the country the other night. And how does he spend his time at the podium by going at the Big Ten and bitching about their schedule and pouting about how they got to go on the road and all this kind of stuff? Let's everyone deals with it. Okay? The Big Ten wasn't asking for these fucking schools

from the West Coast to be in the conference. But guess what? Their moron of a commissioner basically said, like, I want this anymore. Okay, Pac-12, no more. And they folded the whole league and the Big Ten said, you know what? UCLA, you're a blue blood.

You're a blue blood. Oregon, we'll take you for football. We're going to need you for football. So, yeah, we'll give a home for you guys. They come in, you don't hear anything from Oregon. Complaining about travel. Because guess what? That's kind of just the way it is when your commissioner decides,

hey, you're not going to play schools around you anymore. You're going to start flying the Piscataway, New Jersey, and shit like that. But for some reason, Mick Cronin, that little sought-off sucker, he's the only one who's got any issue with it. And he complains all the time. And if it's not that, he's complaining about his players, or he's complaining about NIL. He's complaining about, you know, that it was 68 degrees in Westwood in L.A. instead of 75.

This guy's the top five highest paid coach in NCAA basketball. Quit acting like you're a fucking garbage man, pal. Okay, your job's not that difficult. Okay, just shut up. Do what you got to do, especially don't be bitching after you beat the number four team in the country. I hope Todi Petiti calls him today and he's like, listen, you little rat bastard. You like coaching the Big Ten? Okay, do you?

Because guess what? We'll toss your ass out of there We'll bring in Cal State Northridge To the Big Ten All right, so let me I sense a little bit of I'm sick of it I've hated this guy since he's at Cincinnati

Okay And whatever That's fine UCLA is you know John Wooden The greatest to ever do it Statute Downtown Statute Downtown

He'd be rolling over in his fucking grave If he knew Mick Cronin was Coaching the Bruins If you are a Big Ten basketball fan You hate this guy You just do. Everyone does. And I'm sick of it.

I'm sick of hearing it. I'm sick of all the potten. This guy lives in L.A. And he's making like $7 million a year. Shut up. Okay? Just shut the fuck up. I've been wanting to say that for, I don't know.

What is? 2026. I've been wanting to say that for about 10 years. Yeah. It's probably well prepared. Yeah. I want to let you know you nailed it. I don't know how many times you practice that.

Oh, I've said that verbatim to, you know, anyone who will listen. many times over the course the last 10 years. So why we waited 10 years for this exact moment is because now he's attacking the Big 10 and you're like, excuse me, sir. Yeah. Shut up, pal. Just be happy with your seat at the table.

Okay. Okay. And again, if you want a bitch and, like if they played five out of their first seven games on the road, you lose all five of those or four of those, sure, you can bitch and want a little bit about that. You just beat the number four team in the country last night. Maybe, you know, and he's a self-serving prick so he'd never do this. But maybe, you know, shout out your players.

Say, hey, congrats to my guys for fighting their asses off and getting the top five victory. But what does he do? No, he pats about how much they got to fly on their private planes and, you know, all that kind of stuff. I'm done with it. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is another Big Ten hero. He's a college football, national champion, Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner. Big Ten, human of the century. Yeah.

Ladies of gentlemen, AJ Hawke. Yeah. Did you know this? Have you caught this diatribe before about Coach? Mick Cronin. Cronin? Yeah, a little bit. I actually talked to Ty about it, I think, on the trip,

because the Ohio State Buckeyes had beaten Mick Cronin in the UCLA Bruins a couple days prior to that. So, yeah, I got to see a little bit of him on the side. He's a fiery coach, I would say, on the sidelines, no doubt. Yeah, he's not just fiery. I guess what Ty's saying is he's miserable all the time. You win a game, you're whining. You lose a game. You're whining.

You don't have a conference. You wind. You end up in a conference. You'll whine. It's like, hey, you're UCLA, dude. Like, let's go ahead. Let's go ahead and do this thing. I do remember that he, in Ty, I think a lot of things you said,

I do not know Coach Cronin well enough to know if I... I don't know him at all. Okay. This is just from outside looking at him. Yeah. All right. This is your thought. Until I meet him, I would like to reserve judgment.

Sure. It does seem like he is a bit negative on a regular basis. All the time. Yes, he buries his players a lot, right? He does. And that kind of the thing? Yeah. That might be his style of motivation.

He's one. Yeah. Yeah, he was good at Cincinnati. I mean, he's never one. No, no, you never won the big one. You kidding me? Guys, 5'3. Saut awful little fucker.

Do you think these guys want to listen to him when he's getting under their asses? I don't think so. And you have a team that fought everybody at Cincinnati? Cincinnati and Xavier gotten a big-time scrap. I can't remember if he was there at that time. I think he might have been, but I just don't like it.

You can be like Sig. SIG is, I mean, he's a boy, he's a hard ass. You know, I don't think he's having too many lovy-dovey conversations. with his players. You know, it's probably not that easy being on like a SIG coach football team. You ever hear one of those guys say anything negative about him?

Or any of those guys who wouldn't run through, you know, a hail of bullets and bombs to play for that guy? No, I don't think. No, he wouldn't. You don't hear too many guys defending Mick Crowan. That's all I'm saying. We'll see if he wins, if a natty or not. He won't. He just beat the number four team.

He won't. He just beat the number four team in the country. Number one team right now, you know who? Who? Arizona. Cole Pete. Oh, we like Arizona. Number two team.

Yukon Huskies. Michigan. Men? Men's? Yeah, men's. Number one in women's. Undefeated. 18 and one men's.

13-game Wednesday. So you guys stay independent because of basketball? They're in the Big East. Oh, so they're not independent? Just football is independent. Just football. Yeah, no one wants them. Unfortunately.

They're recruiting in the Northeast. You guys keep all that money. That's why, right? Yeah, if they make the playoff. I've got to figure it out. But, you know, coach the playoffs. You get a lot of money. Yeah, you do.

If you're an independent like Notre Dame and you make the play off and everything, it's really good for you. But if you're an independent like Yukon, it kind of stinks, I think, being independent. Yeah, they're saying the San John Candle is pretty much an ex-signati, though. So he's gone then? No. He's going to build. He's going to bring his-in-Gyndel? No.

It's Coach Candle, all right? I mean, did your last coach went to where? He's relevant right now. He went from Yukon to Colorado State. We're both wrong. I apologize. Jason Candle. John Candle.

Hey, sometimes, come on. We're talking to Mike a long time. Sometimes you make sure. To your point, Johnny Candle, I believe in Johnny Candle. Jason Candle, I don't know.

Yeah, Jason Candle is a good one. It just makes you think of Jason Campbell, and then my first thought is why isn't Jason Campbell the coach. Well, it would be cool if that was a situation. Jason Candle, though, I heard, he's from Wachita. Oh.

Every once in a while you speak in on Mike's wrong, get some things wrong. I think he's true. Proud of Wichita. Debutt said he gets people daily that come up to him and say, Wichita, how'd you do it? I believe it. I believe. It's on the video.

It's on the video game. Yeah. It was the only game. Signed on the game. The business. It's the business, kid. That is the business. I was lucky to be a part of the WWE Unreal on Netflix, AJ.

Sweet. That debuted. yesterday. I appreciate the fact that it exists so I could show like, you know, McKenzie when she gets older and if baby boy, you know, and everything, and hopefully their grandkids, it's a cool thing to kind of remember and have and keep. When I originally heard about the WWE Unreal on Netflix concept, I like everybody else, I think that's like wrestling fans hated the idea of it, just like, I don't like that we're doing this. Like, I understand that now we're in the world of having to make content, having to keep up, having to evolve.

of having to see all this other stuff. I just thought I don't like it. I like the suspension of belief. I like people thinking that what they're seeing. I like whenever the wrestlers live their gimmick full time. I don't like hearing other names other than what I see on TV. Like that's just kind of what I grew up on, I think, as a wrestling fan. So as soon as I heard about this WWE Unreal, and I'm not saying anything that anybody else hasn't said.

It's just like I hated it. I did not like that it was happening at all. So then he watched season one. And it's like, all right, is this going to ruin it for future generations? like are fans going to stop being fans of wrestling because now they legitimately know. There's obviously always everybody had an inclination. Everybody kind of maybe knew,

but once you see it, then it's like an actual reality as opposed to just in theory. Because you always want to have a little bit of belief of what's going on is actually naturally happening. Like when Adam Cole came into our studio, that was a shoot, brother. Yeah, that's right. That was a shoot.

It was. Shoot means for real. Work means work. It feels like they're making everything look like a work and he can't feel as if there's a shoot happening, strictly because of this WW Unreal. That's where I was worried about, because you want people thinking a shoot's happening, even though it's a work.

And you can't work yourself into a shoot. If it's a work, it's a work. You can't let it be a shoot. So whenever I thought they were given away Unreal, I thought they're giving away the work for shoot. But instead, what I learned is it was pretty cool to see how the sausage was made in the storylines. And I think learning a little bit more about this business that I'd been a fan of my entire

life was cool because even though I was able to work there and lucky enough to be a part of some of the things they had going on, I didn't know all the other stuff that was. still happening up in Connecticut or in behind scenes or anything like that. I wasn't even handed script whenever I was commentating. I had no idea what was about to happen. I knew like carryover from last week. I knew the storylines.

I thought what was could happen. And maybe I'm the first commentator ever. I don't, I'm not a hundred said sure. You would have to check with that. But I legitimately had no idea for most things that were happening. Now, if I was involved, obviously would have to be because there's a lot of pieces.

But like, I enjoyed the thought of like, this is, this is entertainment. I'm going to disappear. after watching on rail, it was cool to watch. And then when I was asked if I wanted to be a part of it, I immediately said no. I said no. They bring camera in here.

I say this is my building. Turn a camera off. Camera guy, I'm good friends with. Everybody basically at WWE behind the scenes, we get along very well with. They're all hardworking, good people. Guy puts camera somewhere else, hides it in there, tells me, you know, afterwards like,

hey, we did get some stuff just so you know that. And I was like, Joey, I appreciate. you doing that, but also why'd you do that? I don't like that. I'm a part of this. He said, you're going to like it when in the end, though. You're going to want to remember this. You're going to want to remember this. And that's how I feel after watching it. Like, I hated that I was a part of it. I didn't want to be a part of it. Obviously, there's other people in the wrestling world that I think representing the wrestling world as opposed to me, outsider who just had an opportunity to do some things with them. But after watching it, I'm like thankful that they documented it. You know,

like, I'm very thankful that I have a chance to relive it if I have to, you know, later in life. and I think it's only helping the business after learning how people have become fans at the business because of the show. So I didn't even really think of that angle. I thought you're going to lose people. I didn't even think about the people that became fans of wrestling because of that show.

So lucky to be a part of it, thankful to be a part of it. It's available now on Netflix. I think Jelly Roll has a seg on there somewhere. Seth Rollins and Becky Lynch were a part of the episode, the first episode, and yeah, it was interesting watching it all back. And then that interview, that camera was really close to my face.

Did you guys know how close that camera was to my face? It didn't look that close when they set it up up there. That lens was... My face ain't supposed to be like that. That's the first thing I thought to myself, geez, Louise, you can't be that. That's not a good thing. And then it was the whole thing. I was like, okay, good.

Let's see how this. Do the wrestling marks, are they appreciative of the series? I don't know. I think at the beginning of the hailed them, but now it just all adds fodder for them on the internet. So I think they like it because it adds more stuff, you know? I think it's cool. It shows how much, like, goes, how much. how much everybody cares.

Like, that's what I take from. Like, I think it should bring more fans on that maybe are casual or don't really watch much wrestling. They would watch that and be like, yeah, okay, I'm going to check out the product now because these guys are, like, they are so all in and just there's so many moving pieces too. I think the effort and the thought behind every decision that is made is showcased in there, which I appreciate.

Because, like, once you hear about all the things that are going into one particular thing and how many opinions and ideas and thoughts and breakdown, it's like, wow, there's some really deep thinking. and stuff happening right here in front of our face. Changes, too. Yeah, and on the fly. Injuries. You talk about injuries, travel, all that type of stuff that changes on the fly.

I think it's overall, it's good for the business. But, boy, at the beginning, I hated and I did not want to be a part of it. Thankful that I was lucky and honored that I was. Yeah, as a fan, growing up as a huge fan, huge mark, and then kind of getting away from him and getting them back into it when you were into it. And then when Paul Heyman came on the show, I think the unreal stuff had just came out. And I forget who asked him, but I feel like he gave him. a great answer. And that kind of was like, okay, it may be cool to see a little more behind

the scenes and talking about, you know, being in 2026 now with all the access and all the different, you know, shoot sports as well. So it is interesting to see. Yeah, it was, it'll be a cool thing to show the later lineage of my life, you know, to say, hey, this is what this was, you know. There was, I mean, Bruce Pritchard pitching I was win. Shout out, Bruce. Yeah. Appreciate you, Bruce. To shoot sport, though, you know? It's a real sport. So how could you have somebody beat somebody in wrestling that's not supposed to do that? And that's why I'm out on it for now.

That was crazy. There were some things that were sitting there. I was like, oh, it's interesting to do that. Like, Chelsea Green can't beat these. It's like, why? Why not? Anybody can beat anybody. And I think that, it adds that, too.

I think it adds to that whole thing with Unreal. It's like, what is a ranking system? Like, who, it's wrestling. Yeah, exactly. Oh, we're down on ESPN, completely down on ESPN. Oh, yeah. It just came back, it looks like. And five, four, three, two, and...

Interesting. Still blue screen. Wow, I still see blue screen over there. I'll talk about the business. I'll tell you a little, listen. Jeez. Lishin, you put a blue screen up there. This could be good.

We could act like we're doing it on purpose. You know, we could act like we're doing it on purpose. And we're back. Boom. You know, back in the day, what's his name? the guy Andy Kaufman. Yeah, he would put in static

into the actual show so people would have to stand up and hit their TVs. Like just trolling as he's making TV. Awesome. Only had like three channels were forced to watch this thing. This guy puts in the middle of

a, he starts going like this, everybody in their houses gets up. Come on! Starts hitting the TV. Then it goes back to work and make him sit down just on purpose. So we'll act like that was on purpose. A lot of people still don't know

F-bom's muted on ESPN and they think something. is wrong with the audio. Because it is muted, I think, far too long. It's like a good three to five seconds when it drops when I'm watching on like ESPN. I'm not on the show. A lot of people, hey, what? Something's wrong with the audio. No, just watching on YouTube if you want. They're very long. And I have, uh, multiple times I've said, like, can we shorten that or whatever? We should shorten that. And they go, well, you know, this is just a safe buffer. Unless we were to hire somebody that did it on this side, I don't think they are ever going to

agreed to shortening it from my understanding from what has happened. But with that being said, live and uncensored right here on YouTube, baby. That's right, baby. We always have been. Now, speaking of being live, we got to do a segment that we do every single week live. You know, AQ Shipley travels out from the desert. This guy's number two color commentator around the NFL via some poll. Yeah, that's right. A poll certainly happened. He said he was good. He's also a guy who loves ball. He's a Super Bowl champion, obviously, and a guy who watches every single minute and every single play of every single game of the big boys, the offense

alignment. Ladies of gentlemen, it's time to go in the trenches with AQ Shipley. Yeah, you. We cash you this week with ranking the four offensive lines that are left for championship weekend going forward. You came back to us with this list right here. Seattle Seahawks, number one

O-line. What the hell? And the championship weekend, Rams, number two, the NFC's got the big ball. That's right. Then the A-AFC championship teams. The Denver Broncos come in and third and then dead last or third runner up. The New England Patriots offensive line is the lowest rank offensive line of championship weekend. AQ, would you like to explain your rankings or how do you want to break this down on how you got to this point? Yeah, we'll start with the worst of the weekend and the worst moving forward. It starts with just one guy.

It was Will Campbell. He's been struggling a little bit recently ever since he came back from his injury. But the other, the rest of the group, I texted Conman. I said, not bad. Pretty good group. But you can't give up all the pressures and all the sacks off the left side. I really like this group. But if you take a look at this particular play, they need to do more of this. They need to run behind Big On Wenu. We've talked about him a bunch this year. This is a cross dog blitz.

If we can run this back real quick, AJ knows a lot about this. He ran a lot of this in Green Bay. So the first linebacker to the right, he's going to blitz, and they're going to get someone over the top. Look at Onwenu. Transition into the double team. Get that. Get everybody down inside. Bounce it outside.

You get a huge run off the right side. Okay. What is his dims? On Wanoo, I believe he is 6 feet 3.30, and I believe he's about 3 feet wide. Yeah, that guy is like an actual spark plug there. What a body mover. This against Houston Texan's defense, obviously incredibly heralded. Now, you're saying Will Campbell's struggling since returning from injury?

What is it? Power, finesse, technique, everything? Well, the big thing is he, I thought this whenever he was coming out of college. I thought he struggled a little bit against the bull rush in college. Early on in the season, he's getting a lot of finesse guys off the edge. good job, but anytime he gets pressed, anytime he gets the long-arm bull rush, which Will Anderson ate his lunch in this past game? What is the answer to that as a tackle?

If he was going to his shipyard, Will Campbell shown up at the shipyard every single morning, what's the answer to potentially stopping that fire? Because that's going to continue as long as people know that that's what you are going to do. No, I think the biggest thing is you just got to anchor quicker. When you watch him, he walks his feet back, you got to anchor. So once you feel the bull rush, you can see it. they're up the field and they turn into you.

That's the bull rush. Immediately, get your hands on, anchor, get both feet in the ground, and then we start rolling it. Then we start rolling the head. There it is. That's called Bull Hop Press right there. That's a perfect technique.

It's great reps. Perfect. A couple good reps. You see, and also in the same, he, just there's right, hold on there. That's it.

Hoping backwards. Is that why the arms are a big deal with tackles? Yeah, that's the other thing. They questioned his arm length, and I know a lot of O-line coaches, have questioned that. But again, at the end of the day, he played against a lot of these guys with long arms in the SEC. So I don't necessarily fully attribute that. I think he's just a young guy that's got to, he's got to figure it out against these guys who are studs when they turned

into a bull rush. So the bull hop drill is the one that would make his offseason better for him next year? Absolutely. We got bull hop press. We've got to get a little stronger. We've got to get a little stronger. We've got to develop a little bit. And Vrable will do that certainly in the office season. I'll see what Will Campbell would do. And once again, there's only four offensive lines left. So saying they're the worst rank is. This is just, championship weekend. So this offensive line got the Patriots to the AFC championship. Obviously, you wouldn't make it without them.

They were also my number six. I know we only ranked the top five throughout the year, but I showed Conman. They were my number six throughout the year. Good offensive line, just whenever it comes to championship weekend, all good offensive lines. Let's go to number three. Yeah, let's take a look at the Denver Broncos. Here, I got a two clip sequence here. These are back-to-back plays.

The reason why I want to show this. Take a look at number one. Evan Ingram. See him right there in the wing? He's going to go out. This is an RPO. Look what it does to the linebacker. That's how you get the big gaping hole. Okay, cool. We did it to the left. Let's go back to the right on the next play.

Evan Ingram, send them out again. They must have had a tell on Buffalo's defense. Again, another. Big gaping hole. Need to do more of that. Need to do a lot more of that because they kind of abandon the run a little bit. They wanted to get the quarterback involved in the run game, which obviously ended his season.

I wish they wouldn't have done that. But just hand it off. And there's a possibility that J.K. Dobbins is back this. week. We got to play some zone AQ. We can't be chasing guys of the flat and they're running right behind us. We've got to play some zone now. So that's what you meant by Tell, AJ. You think is what AQ said? They knew

that that was man-to-man coverage. If we just flare this guy out, we should remove a body from the box, AJ? Yeah, you don't have to block them. I've been a part of that early on in my career. We're matching up tight ends, and they come out with 12 personnel tight ends on the line, both sides, and just run us to the flat, and our two outside backers are gone. We're on the sidelines, and the guys are running right

behind me. And you guys are just married to your assignment, so you have to go there. Even though probably your intuition from the way people talk about the way you played ball was telling you you need to be inside to make a tackle. Yeah, but then you peek inside and make a tackle and he pulls it and throws it to the guy in the flat and he turns up for fourth. That's the other pass option. And who's that on?

Yep. That's on you. You got both. That's all you. Your number one responsibility is that guy in pass coverage. But hey, I'm like, all right, the guy's almost knocking me over running behind me. And do you think that's why every coach says, do your job. Just do your job.

Because something might feel stupid. Like, for instance, you're definitely just getting run to your own sidelines. right now. But if you don't, there's a chance it's on your ass. Right now, it's on everybody else's ass. We need this to just be on do your job. Just do your job. That was obviously on Sean McDermott. That's why they kicked them a hell out of the building. And then as

a pro, you got to sometimes just got to massage it. Sometimes you've got to show the quarterback one thing. Maybe you can't get back in there. You know, got to play it. Got to play the game. Let's go to the NFC. The two best offensive lines remaining in AQ Shipley's eyes. Los Angeles Rams, what do you think about their offensive line? I love

their offensive line. But here's, here's a big reason why. Look what they do with Pooka Nakuha. Nobody does this. They motion him across. They use him as a fullback on the front side in an ISO scheme. Then we take a look at the backside combo. Coleman Shelton, the right guard, Kevin Dots, and they get him back from injury for the playoffs. And all of a sudden, you get movement and there's another big gaping. Oh. I love everything about that. The Los Angeles Rams able to run the ball. Everybody talks about Sean McVeigh is this offensive wizard. A lot of the good. goes through the ground. A lot of it goes through the ground and they completely switched. I know

I've mentioned it at nauseam this year. They've switched from an 11 personnel team to a 13 personnel team. The other interesting thing that they do is even when they're in 12 personnel, they can use Pukua as a tight end or a fullback and it becomes 22 or 13 personnel and what they're able to do with him. I mean, he inserts as a ISO fullback on this play and it's incredible and gets the kickout. It's incredible. Yeah, they were doing that with Malachi Tony Dunner in Miami. It's an interesting little new wrinkle day. If you have a skill position that can be added into your box, basically, you've got a new big body.

Okay, let's go to the number one offensive line you say for the rest of time this season. Seattle Seahawks won in the Super Bowl. That's what they can say. Let's start with their fullback, Robbie Oots. I love this guy, and ever since they got him back, Robbie Oots has been fantastic. He was a tight end. He was a tight end at Alabama.

They make him a fullback, and they love to go eye formation. Look at Cooper Cup, setting the edge, get this thing, start. on the edge, pull some guys around. You get Oots out in space, outrun. And what a fullback does, we've talked about it over and over again, is it creates leverage. It allows the offensive linemen to work back. Gray Zabel, another phenomenal game.

This rookie's been outstanding. Cooper Cup in the run game, outstanding. And this is one of the last plays you'll see if Charbonnet this season, but Kenneth Walker's a dog. Yes, Kenneth Walker be walking three touchdowns, obviously. Oots in the fullback position, they're the nickel of the offense. You know, you have to be a linebacker and a corner. The fullback has to be an offensive lineman, a tight end, a running back, and oh, yeah,

he has to know everybody's play. And don't be too slow to get in the way. What Oots is doing there is special. Oots' Boots going up and dime. I mean, look how fast that guy is. Oots is Boots all over the field. I mean, I love that his name is Oots. That's a perfect fullback name.

How do you think you spell Outs? Can I get country of origin? I would guess, I would guess, Czechoslovakian. I guess, oh, oh,

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-T-Z. O-O-S. O-U-S. I think it's O-U-S-T. That's wrong. Okay. That sounds like, something like that.

Country of origin would have helped. I think we would have got that. Definitely would have helped. That's the top four. Oh, yeah, yeah. Congratulations. Number one overall offensive line in the trenches is the Seattle Seahawks.

defense is outrageous too. Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles, Rams, Denver, Broncos, Patriots. I guess we lost signal sending to them. They lost signal. Bruce was telling me in the middle of that why we want to a blue on the thing. So there's a little transmission issue. Maybe it's because of the cult. Hey, listen.

They're saying it's about to get so cold, trees are going to exploit. That's right. What? Yeah. So it's awesome. Wait, what? The trees that have been forever and ever, never, ever.

Yeah. So these trees have been able to weather storm. in the past? Forever. All of them. From what we're reading, there's a chance these trees say, hey, I can't do it anymore.

Boom. Max velocity. Okay, exploiting trees are possible in the Midwest and Northern Plains on Friday and Saturday's temperatures are forecast to fall below. 20 degrees below zero. So, Explained tree risk is right here

across the top. You see most of Michigan's really in trouble. Minnesota. The Dakota's really going to look out there and Illinois misses it, Wisconsin, I'm sorry. So good luck as you roll over there.

Is that Saskatoon? Saskatoon is up in Congo. More north. That's Calgary. But on that note, I would have thought that these trees in this particular part of the world could have been through cold weather before. But they're saying, now's the time. Historic.

We got messaging from the trees. They said if there's one more, one more, cold day we've had it saw a video of a tree blowing up in Iowa you did? Yeah that's what I want to see

Had a lot of smoke This one has 87,000 views We have no idea So cold in Iowa Trees explode Just so happen to have a perfect camera shot On this particular tree Okay

Okay That's what happened No human interaction there right No None But all I'm saying is It's about to be cool Okay

Obviously the things I've just been reported reported by those people and not by us. Just look out for the trees. Maybe go have a talk with your trees before it gets a little bit too cold. I'll cut them all down.

I'm like I cut them all down and get them away. That's a thing. I got to cut them. My place is tree line on three sides. I've got a long couple days ahead of me. And I'm not laughing because I think this is all bullshit. I'm laughing strictly because I've never heard this before.

I'm 38 years old. I feel like it gets cold all the time. So now just this popping into my life is awesome and I appreciate where we are as a society. Joe never told you that before? Joe Nara, say, let's go on a bundle up. going to get cold out there. Them trees?

Boy, the bark's been through a couple. It's about to go through another one. I think it's the only time trees are mentioned. Maybe smoke some was dropped by the door out of there. Every once in a while. Hey, we got Blizzard coming. Hey, let's go to Hammer. Dine, Todd.

What year was that, Blizzard? Where they told us basically just got out and lock it down for about, I don't know, two weeks. You know, I don't have school. Was it the one in 94, 95? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah, I think it was 94, 93, maybe? It could be early 90s.

I think it was a 93 blizzard Joe Lois. I think you're right. 93 blizzard. I think so. The blizzard of the 93. Do you remember? I do remember.

Just nothing for like two weeks. Joe Nora basically gone on TV and was like, hell's coming from this guy. Everything's shut down. Nobody leave their house. There was another one in, I want to say, 2009 through 2010. You would have been down in Morgantown,

Snowshoe, West Virginia. It was a big one, too, that Joe talked to us. Russia's getting 100 feet or something. Yeah, they got 80 feet of snow. How do we believe that one? People are jumping out of their building. What's that? Propaganda.

I mean, we question everything. We question the moon landing, and we're not going to question 80 feet of snow. Okay, so the Grock put together the 80 feet of snow. What we hope happened. Oh, you think this is like a race between Russia and America? I don't trust anything that comes out of the USSR. Okay, so this is a rekindling of the Cold War with what the coldest. We got 80 feet of snow.

They beat us. Is that what you're saying? Are those trees exploding? I mean, you would think that's much colder. than here. The smell is keeping them bundled up their war. They don't have crews in Russia.

All right. Joining us now, ladies of gentlemen, is a national champion who needs to stay away from any cold trees because this man's future is incredibly bright. Obviously, what we've seen him do

over the last couple of years where he transfers from JMU goes to Indiana with Coach Signetti becomes a multiple time all Big Ten player. Now he's a national champion. We can't wait to see who's drafts him in the NFL.

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us, I'm backer, Aiden Fisher. Yay! Aiden, how you doing, buddy? Good, how you guys doing? Watch out for these trees, Ed, I don't know if you've heard. There's a chance these things are going to be.

I'm hearing on. Yeah. Well, don't. Don't even. Up north, man. Okay, all right, stay south. Go train down south. Congratulations on winning the national championship.

You made some huge plays, obviously, in that game down there, but your team seemingly always perfect, fundamentally sound. That's how we talked about your defense. You guys obviously heard the outside noise about how perfect and attention to detail your defense was, and did you take pride in that? Why do you think that was kind of your guys' MO throughout the entirety? Yeah, I think for us, you know, everybody talks about, you know, the misfits thing and nobody's really the fastest or the biggest, the strongest or anything. But, you know, we just do all the little things right.

And then when it comes down to those little details that you talk about, I think that was kind of like the separating factors in a lot of these games where, you know, we came out, you know, on top. But, I mean, yeah, it's just a bunch of guys that just really wanted to win. even when I first came here, just a really good mix of guys that just want to win and are hungry for wins. We just kind of got the intangibles that were made up of the right things. Yeah, it was fun to watch your team. I like the way you guys celebrated together. I like the way you played together. I love the way CIG operated.

I think you guys got a celebration coming on Saturday down there in Bloomington, excited for the city to kind of show you love and your state show you love. Can you talk to me about, you know, Fernando wasn't able to really go as much as he had the previous two playoff games. felt like it was going to have to be the defense that answered the call. Did you guys take that onus upon yourselves before the game? During the game is there a moment where it's like, hey, offense obviously not going to be able to score 50 today. It can be us.

You guys get a blocked punt for a touchdown. You make crucial plays whenever you had to have stops. Is that happening during the game you guys are having that chat saying we can win this? Or is that the mindset of the defense for the entirety of the season? Yeah, I think a little combination of both, you know, those close games that we knew, we were going to be, you know, points were going to be scarce. You know, it was going to be a lot harder to score a lot of points versus, you know, great teams like this.

And then we kind of knew a half time going into that third quarter, you know, it was just going to be a war and that we need to, you know, tighten down. And when it came down the stretch, you know, we're going to have to make some plays. We're going to put some points on the board for us. You know, we've got to eliminate, you know, a lot of their points. So obviously Miami was a great offense. You know, their O line was great. And they have, you know, guys all over the field.

They're going to play on Sunday. so we knew that we were going to have to really lock in for the last couple possessions. And I'm glad my guy Jamari Sharp was able to get that pick to seal it. Him taking off his helmet was spectacular. We were right there, you know, we were standing. Did you see us? Do you not see anybody?

Can you guys know that we're there? It feels like we are a bit distracting. It does. Now that I'm looking back on it. I mean, Connors, when that kid misses that 50-yard field goal, Connor's in the end zone going like this, right next to the ref with his Adidas jumpsuit on. And when Sharp gets that,

pick, he runs two yards in front of us, basically. And I see him contemplating on taking off the helmet. And then you see the moment where he goes, ah, fuck it, yep, won the national championship in my hometown. Can you talk about that moment and what you guys did and what you guys said immediately after this, knowing that you guys just won the national championship in Miami Stadium? Yeah, first, I spotted you early with the jacket on. So I was able to see you behind the goalpost.

But, you know, just seeing Sharp go up and get it. that's a guy that he's just as humble as ever. You know, I'm so happy he was able to do that. And, you know, his hometown against his home team. And then once he did it, it was kind of just like disbelief. You know, I think if you would have told me two years ago transferring from JMU to here that we were going to go win a national championship, it would have been hard to believe. But just an unbelievable feeling, you know, these guys, there was an emotional moment for, you know,

everybody involved. And then we finally got sick to, you know, crack a smile for longer than five seconds. so that was good to see. Yeah, and it seems like he's still a little joyful. You know, he's going to have a busy couple days here. Oh, yeah. At the state of college football, he's got a busy couple months. Actually, we're just right back in it for SIG with the way college football is.

Tell me about his demeanor a little bit and how you guys feel about him. Because we love it, obviously, outside looking in. We don't have to play for him. But it feels like he is an accountability-driven coach, but he isn't an asshole, it sounds like. So, like, how does he kind of balance it? And why do you think the outside world is saying he might be the, the greatest coach in ball, and do you agree with that particular sentiment? Oh, 100% agree with that.

You know, SIG does a great job. Not only with the, you know, the football details when it comes down to the schematics, you know, practice, scheduling, everything like that. But I think the way he communicates, you know, he'll get on you quick. He'll be yelling. He'll say something to you to kind of get you to, you got to check your temperature a little bit. But right after he's going to come back with a smile and a wink. So he knows the way he that he communicates, it's all out of. you know, love, and he just wants you to be your best.

I know a lot of guys talk about it. He just demands your best and want you to be the best out of love, not only for the game, but for you as a person. And I mean, that's just SIG to a T. He just wants to win. He wants the best to have his players. And he just wants to hold more trophies up. Go ahead, AJ.

Yeah, Aiden, I've seen where some scouts have called you a supercomputer in human form. I don't know if you have heard that compliment that they have given you or not, but obviously it's a very high compliment. Like you're speaking of what you can do as a leader on the field. and seeing things and your instincts. Is that something you always had, or did you develop that over your time? Yeah, I think it's definitely something I developed.

In high school, I played a quarterback, so I'm a little familiar with how, you know, some offensive things work. But then obviously, getting with Coach Haynes and the coaches I've been around, it's been more so learning about football instead of, here's your job, go do it. I think that's really helped me a lot.

And it's just been great to, you know, learn football, not only just the exes and those, but, you know, what is that? everybody looking forward from specific players and kind of what they like to do and things like that. And, you know, having Coach Haynes makes my life a lot easier. Aidan, they said there was a milk check on you. They didn't know that Blitz shake was coming, you know, in the national championship. That was stupid. I mean, you quadruple deeked them. I mean, you want Gloveside. Then you want stick side. I mean, you're all over the place,

and that was beautiful. Now, you transfer obviously from JMU. D, but has a question for you. Yeah, but speaking of Coach Haynes, what was this game playing going against Miami and how did it change? have a perfect perspective. We can see you guys are very gaped disc. I know Fletcher had the big run. You guys are always kind of on the same page. What was the specific game plan going against this team? Yeah, first of all, we just had to stop the run. You know, their O line is huge. They do a great job, you know, getting people off the ball. And then the running backs were elite and, you know, great weapons on the outside. So our whole plan was really just stopped the run. You know, and then when it came down to obvious passing situations, we were going to have to show a lot

of disguise. We're going to have to hide a lot of blitzes. And I think that's something our defense has really been built on all year. A lot of looks we give you, anybody can come, anybody can drop. You guys have seen Coach Haynes. He'll drop a noseguard. He'll drop a detackle. It doesn't matter for him. He just wants to do some crazy stuff and the exotics. Are you all right? It's been crazy. I'm getting choked up, just thinking about it. Yeah. It happens to be all the time, too, especially after, you know, potential good times were available, you know, the last couple days. National Championship good times. Let's talk about,

yeah, amen. I heard you guys have been celebrating. You don't have to out yourself for any particular place, but can you quickly, we got 30 seconds before like a heart out here on ESPN. We'll continue on digital. But can you tell us a little bit about Fernando Mendoza, the teammate? Because I love the fact that he drinks beers with the boys, let alone the fact that he's a super nerd. Can you tell us a little bit about him, the human that maybe the rest of us don't know? Yeah, I mean, I think what you see in the media is really what you get with him. He's such a good person to be around. He makes everybody not only better, you know, obviously players, but better people.

He is, he really is special. Just being around him, I mean, the dude's hilarious. I would love for everybody to just have a conversation with him at some point, instead of just hearing him speak in the media, like the dude is funny. You know, he cares about everybody. He will do anything to learn everybody's name. I'm pretty sure there's a story that everybody's walking in for a team meeting one day and his little brother has the roster up

so Fernando can look at the person and say their name to him just so they think like, okay, he already learned my name. So that's just the type of guy he is. Special stuff. We continue digitally. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Hey, you nailed that.

Holy fire. That's a supercomputer. You saw the countdown on the screen there? I was working on it. I saw them for 20 seconds. I was like, do I got speed it up a little bit. I got to get going. Yeah, but you chose to tell a story there.

That was a good decision because some people panic. I think NFL people should be looking at what just happened there. Impressive. With the hosier right there. Yeah, exactly. And also forecasting, you're like, what's a good story that I can get in this short amount of time that is kind of on the same note that I'm telling?

I mean, the catalog of shit that you had to cipher through there. Pretty good, because could have one, let's go, what he did at Kilroy's with the boys? Could have done like, as he sunk the biz at Knicks? Could he done that? Hey, we were potentially at 11 the other night he did this. Instead, not the right story, not the right time. What's a good one that I can tell quickly?

Oh, the gimmick with his brother holding the roster. Bang, then he made decisions. Personal one, there it is. Yeah, that was a little. Yeah, that was good. Hey, Aden, that was, that was good. Appreciate it. Yeah, no problem. You didn't choke all over yourself. But on that note, you said he's hilarious.

Also incredibly hardworking. Was that your guys' culture, you think? And that's just like the only guys that come to Indiana? And will that be able to maintain? We saw a lot of turnover, obviously, from last year to this year. We're about to see that again. I mean, yourself kind of moving on. So what do you think the Indiana culture is going to be able to remain?

And is that one of them? Like, you've got to work your ass off? while also being a human or kind of how do you guys balance that and think of the culture? Yeah, honestly, I think that's what it is right there is, you know, just guys that come in and work extremely hard. But I think even Coach Seda kind of talked about this team was so close and so special that it was like once football was over, you know, we're going to go kick it with the boys, you know, we're going to go do something. Like if we're just kicking at the house, watching a game, you know, really doing whatever. And it's like just be a normal person, you know, we're cracking jokes, you know, playing board games, like just doing anything. anything stupid that we can get our hands on, like, just having fun.

But I think this culture and this program is kind of built on, you know, hard workers. And I think it's going to be like that for, you know, the rest of time, at least for when SIG's here. But I think the guys they brought in are all guys that just want to win. You kind of look at where people have come from with the Michigan States, the TCUs, guys that are hungry to win. And I think they're kind of like minded like the guys that are here right now. I love to hear that, especially if somebody who lives about an hour and a half north of that place, would like see that place to continue to have celebrations on the weekends. I like that there's a little national championship celebration taking place.

You choose to go and follow Sig to Indiana. They were the losingest program in the history of programs or whatever, whenever you guys get over there. The recruiting pitch, I guess, was something that was either easy or hard, not sure the exact story. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Aidan, a lot of times when we hear these coaches taking bigger jobs and guys go with them, it's always a glowing review of the player talking about, hey, this guy's the best there is. He's going to fit in great at this new place, even if it's a level of. up or whatever the case may be.

And I don't know if this was exactly how it was, but the phrasing was basically like when Sig was pitching you to come, he was like, you know, I think you could be a pretty good player. Like you said something like that, which obviously isn't exactly what you'd expect for someone who went on to, you know, be an all big 10 linebacker a couple years ago. How did that go? And like Pat said, like, did you have any expectations when you came here? Like, were you aware that Indiana was like the losingest program in the history of Division

1 or how did that entire process? go. Yeah, it was wild. I had no clue that Indiana was like losing his program. I just knew they were in the Big Ten and, you know, I knew kind of historically they weren't great, but I didn't know they were as bad to the degree as the most losing program. But talking to Sig, when I was getting recruited here was, you know, all about, you know, stick with the development, stick with the growth of the coaches. And then we sat down and went through the schedule, you know, one by one. And he gave me every single reason why we're going to beat this team, this team, this team, and this team. And we went down, you know, 12 teams doing that. So at that point, I was pretty convinced

that he was going to turn this thing around. You know, if I could have predicted this two years ago, absolutely not. But, you know, I'm glad I did. Coach Sigg is the man. And it's unbelievable what he's been able to do here. It's unbelievable. Okay, let's talk about Coach SIG a little bit more. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, and congrats getting on the Natty. When you think about Coach SIG and even, you know, the D.C. Brian Haynes, like, did they change anything at all when they went? went from JMU to IU? Was there any sort of philosophy or even just, you know, demeanor team meetings?

Anything like that that you would say like, yeah, JMU, those first couple of years, might have been better at IU because of the change? Or was it more so, hey, everything was the same start to finish? And that's why, you know, the continuity was a reason you guys wanted all. Yeah, outside of like schemes growing, you know, these coaches growing as people and, you know, the way they've been able to level up what they do.

everything's been the exact same, which is crazy to me. Like, team meetings are always the same. Our schedule for practice is the exact same it's been since I got to college as a freshman. Like little tweaks here and there, but like other than that, it's been identical all four years. So even coming here, like, they're like, so I was practice, look, do you think he's going to change it at all? I was like, no, Thursdays are going to be red zone, Wednesday, third down, like giving them the whole rundown. And nothing has changed about it in four years, which is crazy. He's been given a lot of speeches about his philosophy.

I mean, maybe not a lot of them, but every one of his speeches that he's given publicly about philosophies have been ripped, clipped, and posted in, like, leadership councils and business councils, like, hey, this is how this guy thinks. And a lot of it revolves around, like, being efficient, I think, like most of his quotes. Yeah, like my practice is really quick. Team Ming's four or five minutes or less. If it's over an hour and wasting somebody's time, don't want to waste kids' time, don't want to waste my time. I like to be quick and efficient with every single second I have. Is that accurate? Is that what is actually happening inside the building from what are you saying in these, uh,

speeches that go very viral and being like this guy gets what 2026 is maybe more than anybody? Yeah, that's exactly what it is. I mean, we are in and out with practice team meetings. He comes in. He gives us the all right. And then he starts and maybe five minutes and he's out. So everything is just so efficient and quick here. He just values your time.

And I think a lot of players are really appreciative of that. Okay. Does he, so it appears, this is good. We're sorry we're just trying to learn as much as we can about this thing. That is Signetti because, boy. What an insane run from whenever we're at JMU. And he goes, do we like the NCAA? And they just boo.

They boo it. It's like, this guy has now become the person that, like, in my world, like, billionaire business people are like, hey, who is, what is the story about this guy? And we just so happen to have known him for a few years. So I think everybody's kind of learning about him as we go right here. He delegates a lot of the communication with the players to his assistant coaches. Is he talking to you? Like, how does he kind of manage that? Because we'll see the timeouts on the field.

And him smiling, shouting out his dad too, rest of peace, Frank, and who was a football coach, definitely what he's doing right there. God, Jesus, everything. And also his dad's saying, hell yeah, massive smile. Then the Gatorade bath that he's been waiting for what his whole life right now. I mean, that is legitimately what that is. That's a special moment. But how is that whole process with SIG?

Like, what is he, is he, is he, do you? Does he coach you directly? Does he coach his coaches? Because the timeouts, he's standing there looking. We don't know where he's looking. We've seen it every game. Into the void. He's looking either at the stands, he's listening to something.

We don't know what he's doing. He's got good pose. Obviously, the face is what it is at the time. But the huddles behind him. He's not like interjecting himself in there. Unless it's wait, we're not kicking a field goal. We're going for it or something comes upon him. How does the day-to-day go?

It's the coaches. It's him. What is your relationship with him, if that makes sense? Yeah, most of the time, it's really just the assistant coaches are kind of giving us the day-to-day stuff. Say we'll do the team meetings and he'll kind of give us the rundown of the day. You know, he'll break down the opponent a little bit. But it's mostly, you know, our assistant coaches kind of going through the thing. And then during games, you know, he'll, like timeouts or TV timeouts or anything.

He'll kind of come up and give us the situation. You know, even when we were in this last game, you know, this is the situation you're in. This is how many plays that they can probably run, including timeouts. And then he just kind of gives a rundown. But I think the, you know, play-to-play, everyday coaching is more so, you know, Coach Hayne, Shanahan, and then the assistance as well. What are your thoughts on the Paison's eyebrow that he drops on a lot of things? Is that every day of practice as well or just in the games?

Oh, it's every day. I think it's hilarious. I think Fernando does it the best. See, that's what I'm talking about. Fernando's a dude. Sounds like Fernando's a good. He is, yeah, okay, good. All right, last question.

Let's talk a little bit more about ball and what you have planned. Go ahead, Ake. Congrats again on the national championship. I know we're going to have to turn the page like we always doing football. Celebrate quick, move on quicker, right? And so what are your plans as far as training, All-Star Games, moving into the NFL draft? Yeah, I'll be starting training next week. I'll be down to Fort Lauderdale training, Bomberitos.

Hell yeah. You know, taking it from there. We'll kind of see how it goes. I'm excited for it. No, no exploding trees down there, I don't think. No, it'll be all right. It was cold. Hey, that was not like a warm national championship, though.

It felt like it was perfect for ball. Exactly. Yeah, you had a little breeze going, too. Roof open, it was nice. How was the grass? Slick, not slick? No, it was good. Compare the grass that we played on a couple weeks ago,

and this grass was great. The Rose Bowl. Oh, yeah. We were sliding everywhere. You guys demolished Alabama, man. That had to be so, that flight back had to be spectacular. I couldn't even fath it.

It was a good time. It was a good time. I mean, because Alabama, like, obviously you played at JMU, but like throughout all of our lives, yourself including your younger than us. So it's like, Bama, Bama. People in other conferences are like,

we want Bama. Like that was always the statement. And you guys being counted out, underappreciated all year, I was very lucky that I saw you guys on a regular basis because I live here. So like that Oregon prediction, I've never been more sure of something in my life

whenever I pick the guys to beat Oregon. It's like, dude, that was sick. Hey, thank you for winning, dude. That was a big fucking dude for me too. Obviously for you guys, it's good. But these people in the college football world, some of them hate my guts.

So when I get something like that, right, it is. Hey, and way to speak with us this past week and you were the only one, so we appreciate that. Okay, when do you see that? Afterwards, afterwards? Before the game? Yeah, afterwards. Yeah, because that's happening right before kickoff, basically.

So you guys don't know until afterwards. The Oregon one that you guys saw before the game. I think some of us did see it before the game because that was the later slate, wasn't it? Yeah. Yeah, so we got to see that one, yeah. Okay, because they talk about how much motivation, this generation, your generation,

uses from this shit. How much outside noise do you guys like kind of accrue and utilize as motivation? Shoot, in this program, not a lot. A lot of these guys don't even have social media, but seeing things like that, just, you know, when you turn the TV on, that's pretty cool, get you motivated a little bit. Yeah, I think Saban says this generation, more so than any generation in history. If they can build up any disrespect, it's like, let's find it as much as we can. Oh, yeah, we'll find it. SIG says, donate it. Here's disrespect. We're just. We're just, We've never fucking won a national championship. His school had 2,000 people in the stands last year.

Let's fucking keep this thing going. Congrats on turnaround Indiana. We appreciate you coming out here and doing that for the state. And enjoy the hell out of this national championship celebration. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me on today. It's been awesome. What are you waiting?

What are your dims right now? I'm like 235. Solid. How tall? 6-1. That's not bad. Perfect. Not bad.

It's a perfect type. your projected run. You don't have to give like an exact, but you'll run not embarrassing, right? I don't think I'll embarrass myself out there. I'll think I'll be all right. Yeah, and then the fucking, I'm going to hit a six for a sack in the backfield. Let's go, Aiden, the computer. Let's go get the computer. Absolutely. Appreciate you guys, man. You too, lazy gentleman, Aidan Fisher. Hey, yeah.

All right, he says not going to embarrass himself running. That would be the question, right? Yeah. Just natural. Those rookie, that's why you always talk about the rookie wall and how long the rookie, like, just got off a natty. Going down in Florida, start training next week. Combines are what, a month? Yeah. Training's not easy for you.

That's like some of your hardest training of your life. Oh, yeah. Life goal is about to happen right here. Oh, yeah. You're trying to get your body, obviously in the best shape because you know how they're going to pick you a part of the combine. Whatever injuries, which we all get injured,

especially if you're going through a 16 game season, which is insane. And then you try to get a little faster. You're trying to shave off, you know, whatever tenths or hundreds off your 40-yard dash and all the different, you know, 22-25, all the different shit, man. And then you've got to go

and actually learn the playbook, try to get on the field, probably play some special teams. Like, it's- never done that before in Newark. Yeah. Although at IU. Yeah, this program. There's a chance he did.

That's crazy to me. I mean, Charlie Becker, we thought he was a bad, bad spot. Thank God he wasn't for Indiana. Yeah. Thank God. Play his best ball after that in that game. I wonder if they gave him something because he looked like that was not good.

And maybe it was his fear of what it could be, more so than actual injury of what it was. Because sometimes something feels real bad. and they're like, oh, no, oh, no. And then you get to the sideline, it kind of all figures itself out, which is probably what happened here. But Charlie Becker ends up getting,

obviously, a fourth down catch, and a later third down catch, does a celebration, just does contested catches, which is what he's been doing since November. Tone, is that the date? What was the date? November, like, first,

he only had seven catches, I think, on the entirety of the season. Is that accurate? Yeah, it was. And then he, obviously, when Surat got hurt for those couple games, he had 100 yards in each of those games, and was like, oh, this is a guy.

We need to go at him every single game. Is he coming back? Yeah, he's a true sophomore. He'll be back. And then they got wide receiver from Michigan State who's really good, right? Very good. Yep, Nick Marsh. And then they also got a kid from Tulane who's really good at Wide Out.

And then their – Cooper was an outside guide last year. He moved in the slot this year because their projected starting slot got hurt early in the year. So they'll be fine at the White Out position. Oh, Cooper's back? No, no, no. I'd say the guy who Cooper moved into the slot for it was hurt all year. he'll be back. Cooper, I think, he is a redshirt junior,

I think, so he could be back, but I think a lot of people were expecting him to go. He felt like a Sunday guy, the way he runs his sprouts, catches. Had a little nuke to him. I had a little de-hop to him the way he was moving. I really appreciated the way Coop played. I like it. And then Sarat, I mean, he just makes basketball. I like him a lot.

He's outrageous. Yeah. Indiana. Indiana. Noah Kowski. Noakowski. Don't sleep on him. Touchdown. Touchdown. And, Han, off touchdown in the national championship for one yard.

He, I mean, he was in motion in the Rose Bowl and the Peach Bowl like 65% of the place. Not a lot in the national championship of Nowakowski motion. No. I wonder why. Would that have mattered, I guess? Mix it up. Switch it up.

Cooper Jr. had some big plays in motion. Yeah, he did. Big conversions. He's their best separator. Like, he'll create separation with the guys. The other guys, they're just going to go up and make tough grabs. Alec Pierce. I can't wait for that play

because I've never seen that in the NFL where they send the guy in motion make it look like it's going to be like a tush push and then he basically helps the center on the combo to C85 or 65, whoever that is in motion. Yeah, that's actually their starting left tackle that they put in motion. He goes behind and then it ends up being

like a three-on-one double team essentially. What's it in the middle? Like duo? Yeah, that's basically duo. It's just a quick inside dive. So it's duo blocking, but it's just a quick handoff. I dropped a duo during the national championship. Was that accurate?

Do you know? Yeah, you were. Okay, good. So I think that's a duo right there because it was center and guard. Yep. I felt real smart on that. You guys make us smarter. Let's get smarter on the other side with everything DB.

Hell yeah. We don't even got any bad D. Nope. Only good D, AJ. Go. Wow, so you just couldn't find any bad D, is that right? You know, just so much good D out there, Paul, that just had to run with that. He just loved that good D.

Okay, good. He was gobbling up all the good D. Was watching film. Good defense was played out there. Putting bad D. They said hungry, hungry hippoing all the good D of divisional round. That's Darius

Butler football. Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of good D slinging around there. Oh, yeah. I mean, that D was here. That D was in the east. Yeah. That D was in the West. That Dvot said that D was the very best.

No bad D. Just great D all over the place. Mm-hmm. Let's get some of that D on the other side. Jeez, Louise. So, problem. Jeez, Louise, he said. You got to relax on X, too.

The games are going. I'm trying to focus. Post replays. Well, the first couple times I did it, I didn't at you. I needed you to also experience, you know, the immediate response. I was, I added somebody.

I've been adding people into my tweets just so they can experience the ride and the mentions. It's been one of my new things. I'm like, the person that I'm talking shit to right now needs to experience what's about to happen. Because I'll send these out into the void. Okay, out into X.

And I don't, I mean, it's good that I don't think about it. I should a little bit. I don't even think about people like taking some of these things serious. Like, hey, you should pick through what you should take serious and not through. That's putting a lot of pressure on people that are on X. So there'll be people that see this and just. No idea what the seg is. No, no idea.

That's probably. Yeah. So I would like you to take the. So now I'm adding to people that I'm doing the inside jokes with just so you can kind of experience what I'm going through as well. Yeah, I mean, you could have been like, wow, Denver talk about an all-you-can-eat-good D buffet. I mean, you could have said that, but you didn't, you know. Maybe this week. Yeah.

Hey, holy shit, with that Seattle defense is capable of? Mm-hmm. Oh, top-notch, West Coast D coming out. There's a chance. Good defense is out there. And Bruce, is that you using light mode? If people still do that? Yeah. Oh yeah.

That's you too? Yeah, I do light mode too. Yeah, that's what the app is. No, you're not. You're not in the minority. I think a lot of people use dark mode. Yeah, I'm dark mode. Okay.

Yeah, I was flustered that people did do dark mode though. Really? Yeah. I didn't know as many people did dark mode that do. Like right now there's gonna be people call me a serial killer because I don't do dark mode. That's what I've been called over the past, but this is what the app is. Like this is what the app has always been.

So like in my eyes, this is the app. It's just how I feel. And also I use it as a flashlight all the time. Okay. That makes sense. It's got to turn down the brightness, though. Because at night, that thing. Oh, a lot of blue light.

A lot of blue light. So we were really worried about that for a bit. We're not anymore. Yeah, those glasses work. They just work really well. Yeah, and people fell for it. I mean, we got new shit. We got trees exploding out here.

Exactly. We got a key point. Hey, Jay, have you heard about these? trees. I hear there it's not just a cold weather thing from what I'm hearing. What? Check the chat. Check the chat. Yeah,

you mentioned that Aiden wasn't going to have to worry about that. Training down there floor, it turns out they do explode in heat as well allegedly. Trees are exploding in heat. Is that from the same source? From Max Velocity? Yeah, if it's max velocity, I'm out on this guy after reading this tweet

right. Whoa! I lived in Michigan for a long time. I never heard of exploding trees, Max. Well, I think that's why I kind of wanted to bring it up is because I've only lived in cold weather climates. People have wondered why, you know, a lot of different people that don't. You hear Nick Saban's thoughts. You got paid people go to the north, brother.

It's cold. I never once hear a tree explode. So whenever Max's velocity thinks of a different angle to describe the fears of what could come from cold, I get jacked up about that. This guy's reinventing a world. world. This guy's reinventing the universe. I appreciate that. Now, if Max Velocity's right, and all of a sudden, we just got a... That's not good. If that's the case you need to go board your

house up right now. No. Bored? We don't want... Yeah. With all the wood from all the trees cut down. Well, that's what I'm saying. Bored up just as in like cover your fucking windows. We got trees explode. That's what I'm saying. We need steel because the wood on your windows could potentially. Well, pipes can explode too. That's a good point. Oh, yeah. Wood floors. because the boards are... Well, I just assume the boards that I'm putting up are treated.

No, and watch your paper, too. Shit. Yeah, with no one safe. What is this dude for oxygen? Paper is good. We already killed the tree for that. I can't wait to smoke some of that, whatever. If they get one of these redwoods somehow

to... Somebody use a bottle of that shit. Put that thing into one of those volcanoes. Get one of those bags? Back that thing around. The Iowa video said that the tree filled up with ice And then it's got nowhere to go And eventually it just exposed

So who's dumping water down these trees? How would it blow up like that thing? I can understand like just cracking all over But to blow up and look like there's an explosive charge to it That's a bit far fetched for me Yes Max Velocity says it might be far fetched That's why I'm giving you a warning

Did Max velocity build the graphic that said Exploding Tree Risk? skinny, shade it? Is that his graphic? We have done nothing to Max Velocity's work, strictly because we do not know Max Veloc. Can we call Jim Cantor, please? I would like to know if this is real. I think I'm with Foxy.

Fuck this guy. He doesn't know. We're going to find out. Yeah. We're going to find out. We need to call Weather Paison, Jim Cantor. There's no way we're going to get a hold of Jim Cantor right now. That guy is in a fucking eight foot snowdrift. Ten, do you have his direct number?

I'm looking. He's in Russia, right? Can you FaceTime him? No, he's an American hero. He's not in Russia. You never go to Russia. You never know. For the weather?

To discover weather? 80 feet? No. Yeah, I think he'd go to Antarctica if he had to, if it was a new weather thing. Okay, so I was about to rank places there. Antarctica or Russia. Which one you head into first? Just for like vacay or for?

You would only go there for seemingly work. Let's say you're filming. To find the aliens and all the special bases that they have. build up in Antarctica. That's where you're going. And a portal maybe and everything like that. Antarctica's got great conspiracy theories. Yes. Great ones.

Russia too. Russia's not good ones. Yeah. Like, because what's real? What is it? Whatever now. 80 feet snow. They get their yachts back? I know why their yachts got seized. That's a cool question. So I actually read a story about somebody's yacht.

I think Larry Ellison got a yacht. and the name of the yacht. Did you guys see this story? No. No. It's crazy. Not great name. The name of.

Coupey pants or something weird. The name was bat in reverse. So he would have had a... Sure a little pig latin move. Whenever he looked at it. And I think it read out something that was not really good. Did he change it? Change it to Ronan, I believe.

R-O-N-I-N-I-N. Oh. Great movie. That's cool. He changed it too. Sly. Yeah. Speaking of Sly, you know, he was...

Miami Hurricane grad? Yep. Learned that. How about the list of names of people that went to Indiana and to Miami? Unreal. That was crazy. That was really crazy.

President of Ireland. Yeah, four-year president of Ireland went to Miami. No, Indiana. Sorry, Indiana. He looked like he was 120 years old. He probably is. That's the Irish. Yeah.

We age. He might be 47. He didn't look 47, but he could be. Let's get to a break. On the other side, we'll uh what will we be doing watch good defense

why do you rename his yacht I don't understand did you look it up I am looking at it right now I don't understand the just read it backwards I think not publicly but did he not know this when he bought it

yeah that that was my big surprise Larry Ellison he's worth founder of Oracle I think 400 some billion I think he came out on like an actual tabloid thing let's get a break

got to be for what you're buying. You can change the name, too. Not ships. Ships. Ah. I think Ships isn't interesting. I can see why you changed it.

Yeah. I think ships have a thing about like name changes in ship. If you name that. Yeah. Why would that person name it that ship? That's what I'm, yeah, whatever. I don't know. Especially when you look at the country of origin.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I don't know. So that's an interesting story. Might not be real, but. Bet the knee, though. That's interesting. Let's keep an eye out for everything, shall we? Let's take a break.

Exploding trees, new topic of discussion. We had a polar vortex a couple years back. That was a sick thing that came out of nowhere. All right, we're going to rain, and then guess what's coming? Polar vortex. Go freeze it. Like it's fucking Jack Frost birthday. Exactly.

That's what's coming to your front yard and your driveway and your sidewalk and your streets. I want to leave the house about two weeks. And now, do you live in a place where there's trees? And it's cold? Yeah. Fucking watch it. These things are sick of it. Sure, you might have heard of previous cold temperatures in northern Minnesota.

But these trees now, fucking done with it. What they say? One more time. Yeah, one more time. And we're fucking done. Self-destructing. Source. says

from the trees said we're not doing anymore we're fucking sick of it they're killing themselves no they're sacrificing themselves they said for the betterment I mean either way

yeah I guess this is a square rectangle thing what if one of us does get killed by an exploding tree in the next two weeks there's chance I've talked a little bit too loud about it I have started to think it'll be a good clip good clip to put out hopefully we get it I guess I would

what's that hopefully we get the clip yeah I mean talking and then yeah, maybe you'll have footage. Oh, hey, like you pick up security footage of one of us walking and boom. We're just disintegrate because the tree decided to explode. I think we all do happen upon trees. Yeah. I'm not anymore.

I'm taking a wide berth when I see the next tree. What do you think the radius? 100 feet, 100 yards maybe from every tree. That one we saw exploding wasn't that big. Yeah, a small glass radius. But I think it was kind of a smaller tree there. I got to start hearing fairways. Yes, you do.

Yeah. too. If you're golfing, I guess there was a heat wave. Major winter storm is coming. We hope everybody will be safe Friday through Monday. It's about to be very cold. Large Arctic high ushers in cold air. Upper level disturbance pools and moisture. Sprawling system tracks across the south. Significant ice in snow for 30 plus states. All right. So hell is coming from the winter. We agree with that. It's going to be hard for me to believe trees are going to explode, but I'll tell you what, let's keep an eye on. Yep. to keep an eye on.

Max Velocity. He's out there. He might know some things. Did Jim Cantor answer our cold FaceTime? I don't have his cell phone number. I sent an email. Call the other guy on the morning show.

It's been there for 200 years. Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll just call some other guy. No, the man. Yeah, Al Roker. We got to get the guy who interrupted the football game a couple weeks ago. Oh, my God. The local guy is. Who was his name?

Yes. What was his name? What was his name? He's from Pittsburgh, I think. Yeah, he is. He wore the suspenders. Yeah. I know you want to watch the game.

We're legally obligated to be on the screen right now. Again, don't know why they have me up here. It doesn't look like the storm cell is that extreme. But again, you know, we can see it over here, kind of forming, kind of forming. There's a chance if there was to ever be anything. It would certainly be in this area, but there isn't. Shout to that guy. What was his name?

There it is. Adam. Adam. Fike. Yeah, Fike. Weather. All right, we're going to try to get a hold of him and see about these exploiting tricks.

Be your friend, tell friends I'm nice. Might change your life. Take Fife. Fife! Fife! Five! a template with your timeless cools flex those tools drive design deliver make it sing AI builds the deck so you can build that thing do that do that do that with acrobat Learn more at adobe.com slash do that with acrobat

Hello beautiful baby Welcome back to our humble about the thunder down on this journalism Wednesday January 21st, 2006 hours of the program begins now Football is the best of the best of the That's AJ Hawk, and obviously we got championship weekend ahead of us. Denver Broncos will be hosting the New England Patriots. The Seattle Seahawks will be hosting the Los Angeles Rams. The Tox Tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt.

Nine-year NFL vet. Host to Everything, DB, Who Wants Good D? There's Jay Baller. Yep. Everybody, Jimmy much. We'll get to everything DB, slinging Good D from DB here in a matter of moments. Host of In the Trenches, ladies a gentleman, 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion. A guy who looks like a lot of people on the internet that they say don't like a lot of people.

AQ. Shipley. Thank you. Don't you think that is the biggest comparison you get it? Because there's always somebody that kind of has this version of white that is saying or doing something that, you know, and everybody doesn't like. I'm a happy person. I like a lot of people. Except for whenever they steal your skeletons. Then they're dead.

When they come back, do some push-ups, you know. Then they're back in the good grace. Put them back together. This guy hold out from 190 yards out. What? Just Rose? Like Justin Rose, yes. He was in the actual.

Real life. In real life. Good shit. What club? Seven iron. Who? One 90, seven iron. Yeah.

Jeez. Guys, piping the golf ball. Are you golfing a lot right now? Are you like good golfing? No, that was the first time I've golfed in a long time. I was feeling pretty good. I was feeling pretty good. What hole is it?

14. Uphill. A little drive. Bunkers left, bunker right. You guys will see it on the Phoenix Open. shortly. 14. Oh, okay.

Up the hill. Up the hill. And there's a little bank off the back right. You'll see it. One hop into the bank, up the hill. My caddy says,

oh, that's going to be good. We started jumping. Luckily, they ran down the fairway because I did not want to run 200 yards. So you were walking there? No, no. Had the carton, but I was in the middle of fairway. Music,

music playing? Music was playing. You're boozing a little bit? Boozing a little bit. So you're boozed up. You're banged up. This is a 14th hole. Yeah, I was feeling good.

Yeah, I bet you were. Yeah. Maybe you get into that tournament, Phoenix Open. I think I should get an exemption. Okay, what is it for Waste Management? You're playing on the course? When's that tournament happening? Just next week, right?

It's Super Bowl Week. Same week as Super Bowl Week. Yeah. That's impossible to get to. Kepka's playing too. Oh, shit. Yeah. Kepka's back what?

Next week? I think so. Tori Pines. He'll be back next week, I think. And then he's playing in the Waste Management. He's going to get a huge pop at that par three. Yeah. Sheffler's playing in it.

I think seven of the top ten are in it. Really? Yeah. Where are we at Santa Clara? How far is that? Hour and a half light? Come on. It is. I think you guys have invited us every single year. Every year?

Which we are very thankful for the invitation. We would love to host you. Well, that's what I've heard. I've heard it's like, and it was, we saw it. I didn't know what I was walking into. We just got done with our show. We're in Arizona because of the Super Bowl being there. We're talking to a man who owns a lot of golf courses in Arizona,

not the one that we are necessarily in. The goat. Yeah, Doug goat. Yeah, Doug goat. Bob Parsons. So we head over there and right into the par three challenge. Yeah, the shot of glory. Yes.

And it was end of show. You know, who knows what's being. Somebody gave me a lollipop, I think, like some other snacks of some sort. And they might have a little bit higher, whatever, THC, that I thought there would be none in there. Turns out there was probably like 100, maybe 120 combined in there. Walk into that shot of glory, I had no idea what I was doing.

Then we got a chance to look around. That seems like the greatest golf tournament to go to if you were to go to a golf tournament. It does feel like the best one. it's just always during Super Bowl so anybody that goes to the Super Bowl cannot go to the Phoenix, the waste management open. It's tough. It is tough.

The perfect setup is one. Why don't you move that? Why don't you move that? I know. It doesn't end Sunday, does it? It ends Sunday. I'm not kidding you when I say this. Last year, Thomas Dieterry was the winner.

He makes the putt, hand the check, a drive home, and literally walked in the door as the ball was getting kicked off. Oh, so it's perfect timing for you. Everybody else came out there. Phoenix is the best. That place is the best. Love it.

How long have you lived there? know? 2014. 11 years. Crazy. 12 years. You're a full-time Arizona, brother. Yeah.

I'm there. A Phoenician, if you will. A Phoenician. Yeah, you are. You're a Phoenician, aren't you? Crazy. Crazy to think. Maybe one day you could be a Phoenician, AJ.

Joining us now is a man who's going to describe something that I don't think any Phoenician would ever have to experience. Ladies and gentlemen, this man is a weather extraordinaire. He is a meteorologist G. He is a man who interrupted a football game just a few weeks ago and understood that there's going to be a lot of people that weren't happy about it. And he's just telling him what he's legally obligated to do right now. Man from Pittsburgh, Yenzer, now out here in Indianapolis. Ladies and a gentleman, Adam Fike.

Yeah. I mean, you hit the nail on the head right there. I have to. Yeah, I was legally obligated. And I appreciate the fact that you were telling us because everybody was mad for sure because we're looking out our window. And anytime anything's interrupted live sports-wise for weather, if you're, you're not going to be. weather, if you're not the direct area that's being affected, there's nothing more infuriating. Okay? Like, you're talking about two hours away from here, and right now, I can't watch

the game because of what's taking place. What you were trying to tell everybody is like, hey, this is the rules. I don't know what to tell you. This is naturally... Watch it on your phone. This is what has happened now. So we appreciate the reality of the business. Now, let's talk about the reality of the business. There's big cold front snowstorms coming to 30 states in the United States right now. Is this the winter storm from hell that we're going to have this? season. How can you describe what's about to take place? And do we have to worry about trees exploding in the northern areas if it gets colder than 20 degrees below zero? Where do we stand with all of this right now, Adam, if you could kind of be a weather expert for us as we watch ahead for a cold-ass weekend.

Yes, exploding trees are weird. I haven't gotten to experience them, but it's when you get those huge temperature swings. It goes from warm and then temperatures drop rapidly. But to not be a complete nerd because no one wants that. No, we do. And that's why we called you. Yeah, we did. We actually said we need the suspenders guy on the program. And then we got to, oh, shit, yes, we do.

Adam Fleeck. If you could be a complete weather nerd, that would be cool. Because then we can ask you what the hell you mean if we don't get it. Okay. So, in easiest terms possible, there's basically two low pressures that are going to work through. One is just this weak little Alberta clipper. What this does is it brings in this really cold air. So you can go from temperatures above freezing to your as cold as negative 20.

These bring very little precept, but it brings very rapid temperature drops. So that's what you're going to see with that exploding tree risks. So basically you got moisture this in your trees. You got sap. When that gets really cold really quickly, anything that's liquid when it freezes expands. So what happens is your sap that's in the bark is moist. It starts to expand like an ice cube. Like when you put water an ice cube tray, it expands.

as a little bit starts to overlap over the top. This is the same with those trees when it freezes so rapidly. What happens is it expands. It sounds like a gunshot goes off as the bark is exploding a little bit. Okay, so it's not the inside, the inner working of the tree explode, because we thought potentially... It can be. It's more so the sap that's underneath the bark and in the tree as well. Okay, and you said not a lot of pre-sip whenever it comes to this particular drop in pressure.

It goes from warmer to colder and then all the moisture that's within. in the tree right now expands and boom all of a sudden we got boom boom that's what you just said it just these air masses are so dry think of this no present no precedent no precinct what stays over the north pole most of the year it's so cold it's so dry it's that dry that your lips are just constantly chapped for like a week straight there's no little to no moisture with it okay and that's what we're getting this weekend they're saying they're predicting how many states and where from so that's going to be north. That's going to be your southern Canadian provinces. That's going to be the Great Lakes

as far as the northeast U.S. And that's sort of what's clotting with the warmer air that's to the south towards the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Valley. And that's why you're going to get this large area of heavy snow. You're going to get that large swath like it's showing of the freezing

freezing rain, sleep, all that fun stuff as well. But with how strong that low pressure, well, the high pressure and that cold air masses with all the warmth and moisture is, well, it's just going to be a large swath of every precept. Even light precept, you can see through the northeast, through the central plains, still could see some snow showers as well, even here in Indy.

It's, I mean, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, temperatures are going to be well below freezing. It's easily, you can see high temperature stuck in the teens in some spots overnight, very cold, but, I mean, it's just going to be crazy. I don't think it's going to be some big historic big event. Everyone, you see on social media all the time. Everyone's trying to hype up everything. Trees are exploding, yes, trees are exploding. Yes, Adam. That's what we're talking about right now, yes.

But, yeah, it's going to be crazy. Okay, so you think it's going to be crazy, but it's not going to be generational is what you're saying. So let me just try to, if I can maybe try to understand what you just said there a little bit. So we got the North Pole dry cold, okay, hitting some southern cold. We got no pre-sip in this one, okay? We got no pre-sip. But the South, especially around Mississippi Valley area, you got some pre-sip there. So when those meat, those are going to.

the entangle and all of a sudden you got that cold and you got that precept and then we got bullshit all over the place. That's what you were saying is about to happen. Now, on that note, when it's warm and cold air and you're not saying the south pressure is necessarily warm, it's still cold, but is it vastly warmer

than the cold air? Enough. Are we going to get a tornado? Isn't that how tornadoes start? And then warm and cold air hitting each other creates a tornado is that, that's what I've learned? I mean, you're correct there. There's different ingredients you need for tornadoes. This is a, since it's a low pressure, you don't get tornadoes that form in the low pressure.

Okay. You get tornadoes that form along some sort of boundary or front. So you have your low, let's say, your low pressure is far to the north. Your cold front's going to sag through. You're going to get storms that fire along the cold front. This isn't necessarily going to be a cold front driven storm. It's a very strong low pressure that this moves through. So it's a large area rather than a small, narrow area.

Hmm. Thank you, Adam. How long is this going to last? we know? Are we 100% sure how long this could last? Or could this be forever? Is this the rest of our lives? I mean, it depends on how long do you live. Okay, that's a good call, Adam. Yeah, that's a good call. Let's assume we live normal.

Never know when you're going to die? Yeah, you're 100%. We have no idea what tomorrow's going to be. Wow. You're 100%. That's what I was alluding to as well when I was like, hopefully, you know, if we were to live normal length lives, if I was to live another six months or so from this exact moment, which we all hope we will. Hopefully longer than that. But just say I am, though. We're going to get out of this thing.

How's this winter going to be? Because I don't know what the Groundhog, I don't know what... Ponsa Toney Phil. I don't know what Pungstonny Phil said. How long is this going to be in? Are we expecting a very cold-ass next couple months? What's the projections, Adam?

So right now, it looks like the rest of the month, even to start February. It's just going to continue to be cold. It's... Like this low pressure we're seeing moving through to the north, this little clipper system that's going to bring the cold air. It's just going to be clipper after clipper after clipper.

It just continues to bring shots a cold air. Doesn't mean it's going to be cold the entire time. It will get warm at times, but it's just going to continue to be these shots of cold air, especially through the end of the month. But at least in terms of the storm, it's more so just going to be a Friday through Monday once we get past Monday. We see this specific storm out of the area. That's what I was talking about there, Adam, mostly, is when am I going to not have to deal with this particular clipper coming in now? You say, no precept here. This is that area. Boom, we got up here, a little Saskatoon, a couple the decodas, they certainly go to deal with problems, maybe some exploding trees up here.

You know, because the sap gets into the bark ake, and when it gets cold, just like an ice tray, you know, the water boils over a little bit because it's a little expanded. Boom, it's sound like gunshot, but really it's not that big of a problem until it is. Okay, and down here, you got a little precept coming here. You see these arrows? Banga-boom, the boom, but a boom, but a boom. Right here, we got a lot stuff coming. Now, where is that going to go?

Is it going to go here? Is it going to go here? Is it going to go there? Is it going to go there? We're not exactly sure, but what we think is low pressure, not a lot of our stuff coming through. just going to take a big air. Going to take a big air. Everybody's going to get affected to 30 different states. It's good to this entire thing.

Up here, you know what it is. Okay, it's football time. Weather sucks. In here, you know what it is? It's cold and going to be shitty. But we got no precept coming from the north. So your face is going to be dry if you're looking north. But your asshole, going to be moist.

We appreciate you, Adam. Thank you for the breakdown, buddy. That was great. Thank you. Hey, face the camera a little bit more when you present. Don't leave your back to the camera. Yeah. Come on.

I was taking the same thing. Okay. Okay, Fike. Are you currently chasing a storm? Yeah, what are you out there right now with this low pressure right now? I'm in the wind in an unclassified location. Are you looking for some exploding trees? Unclassified?

Nope. Okay. You can't know. Sick, fucker. What's on your back window? Are those gun mounts on your back window? What is that? Yeah, for Gatlin.

Those are strobe lights. Oh. Storms. You're chasing a storm right now. All right. All right now. A couple months down. the line probably will see me chasing a couple

tornadoes. Nice. Maybe one tornado becomes two tornadoes becomes Jim Cantor looking in his heels. Wait a minute. Boom. This is Adam Fyke. Is that fun? You're the man. We appreciate you, ladies of gentlemen. I'm fighting. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So that middle

area is where it's going to be a lot of dancing. Yeah, where we are. That Alberta clipper, it's coming. Well, they got a couple different clips coming. Clipper after clipper. A lot of pre-suit. So get back to them. Ask what Denver's got going on to home game. Can we call him back? Where was it? He's on.

There he is. Mr. Fike. Holy Fike. Mr. Fike. You know what? Pat, I'm impressed you got my last name. Not a lot of people get that right. Thank you.

Thank you. I appreciate it. I'll get flick, frick, fick, some other words, but you hit the nail on the head. You got it right first try. I didn't even know country of origin either. No. We do normally try to ask for to pay our respect. People call me McCaffee all the time.

And then I have to go. It's McPhee, and then they say, like the antivirus? And then I have to say it's not just an antivirus. They're actually full scam detection. And John McPhee rest in peace, I think. Everybody's saying at this point, they're a great app. But anyways, hey, where's Denver at? And what are the Denver Broncos have to deal with?

They're hosting Sunday massive AFC championship game. Massive AFC, massive AFC championship game. Mr. Fike, the microphones here, though, or this one. And they can't. the camera. That's the rule. Me to the camera. Yeah, me to the camera, but what about the buzz to the ears these two things? What's going on in Denver, Fike? Okay, can he please? Can we talk about Denver? I would help if the graphic didn't cover up Colorado, but... Oh, right here. For them, it's likely snow. Low pressure's basically going to form once it gets past

them, but still can deal with some snow showers, especially since they're into higher elevations. All right, Fike. We appreciate you, man. Ladies and gentlemen, got all the answers. might be the next Donardo, which you know what that means. Don't, don't. Easy. That's a tall task. We don't want this guy climbing ever since, you know, today. I know, but he's taking, say, he's got stroblights behind him. That's right.

Denver's looking like. I'm nowhere close to DeNardo. You can't compare me to him. That do's a legend. See, that's how we know he might be on his way. Exactly. He might be on his way. And there's many more Pittsburgh meteorologists like Dennis Bowman as well.

They don't sniff DeNardo's jock, Mike. Okay. They trained under him. Ladies gentlemen, Adam, Mike. Donato has his first time on the show.

He doesn't know us yet. He can't be doing what you just did. No, but he gets it high of 26 on Sunday in Denver. It's not bad. Well, after a storm comes through

he's going to be in no pressure zone, but before he might have chance for some precept. Yeah, the question is how much precept? I like that we just got up with the modern lingo. Yeah.

Clips coming in. Mm-hmm. What coaching tree is to fight from? Donardo. His pets, no, he's, I don't know if Donardo's got a tree. You're from the same hometown as him.

It's got to be Dennis Bowman. Is that what he said? It's got to be Dennis Bowman's tree. Oh, for sure. Who's Dennis Bowman? I don't know. I don't know why he just mentioned. Well, you hate DeNardo's.

No, dude, I'm on the train. Come on. Don't start that. You just told us you went back to Moon Township and pissed on his grave. He didn't say that? You said that? Did not say that. Oh, boy. I waved to his water tower as I drove.

into town. That's very nice of you to do that. There's no snow coming to Denver. It's just going to be chilly. Just going to be chilly. See? Not from Denardo tree. Fucking knew it. Whoa. Jeez. Miss you, Joe. He said he didn't have a map in front. He said he could have seen. Well, De Nardo would have had a hand-drawn one.

That was the difference back in the day. Could you imagine back in the day the technology? De Nara just literally got out of bed. Maybe someone to see. Watch the blow. that was about 10 miles an hour Donardo waking up in the morning every morning smoking a sig

looks like it's going to rain out there doesn't it yeah it does about 20% or so go right to this we fucking can feel it I think that's what he did love you Joe he was the greatest that guy was batting a thousand

just strictly off of eyes and fever. The game has changed. He's got arthritis in his knees. He knows when a storm's coming. Yep. Allie. Gotta be a storm coming.

Headache. Massive headache. Yep. Got a change in the atmospheric pressure for sure. I'm going to add a little pressure change on that thing. Rest of peace, Joe. Weeper. Joe said it would.

You done good, Joe. And it did. 2026, drive around with gimmicks on the back. Don't know the fucking weather. Yeah. He pulled the people over? These coach you up, though. Yeah, you did tell me I need it.

I almost, I didn't want to get too deep into it. It's an interesting microphone situation, Fike. Okay. But on that note, this one always sounds, yeah, there it is. See? And we're back to this one. Yeah, two different ball games. And every once in a few, akew's microphone,

we get in there, especially if the person's sitting there. Yep, yeah. What she does. Yes, he does. You like to bat that thing around, don't you? I don't. You like to bop that thing all around, don't you? Speaking of Joe Donardo, he'd be what we like to call a great D.

Great Donardo. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to get this some good old D. With everything, D.Bs. D.B. Darius J. Butler. Like I said earlier, we had some great defense from last round last weekend. This is the New England Patriots. Once again, a defense that's not talked about enough, in my opinion. This is Carl Davis III.

Great job in quarters coverage. Just having a great feel, having vision on the quarter. quarterback seeing the route develop in front of his face. You run it back to the beginning. This is a route, especially throughout this year, we've seen ran more because you kind of find a weakness in the quarter's coverage. You pause it here. The slot receiver, he runs like a little hitch route.

Once he does that, he kind of belongs to that quarter flat defender. The corner can get ran off by that number one receiver that's in his face. But when you have vision, you trust your safety. You can see the route develop a little bit of pressure on strout as well. Helps this. And then he sees the player and makes a fantastic. catch along the sideline gets his knee down, adjusting his mouthpiece while you're doing it.

Just an unbelievable play by seven right here. Yeah, it feels like your guys' defense has been special for two years now, right? Don't you think last year even before Vrable defense was good or no? It was okay, but not like this. It wasn't dominant. Like, this is one of the better defenses in the entire NFL. Obviously, you saw that kind of play a factor in the preparation with them getting zero credit. Again, play amazing.

Still don't get any credit. It's Stroud's fault, not the cause of the, defense. That's why Sunday, like Sunday, especially with that temperature, like no matter what, even if Bo Nix was playing, it feels like it was going to be a massive defensive battle. It can't wait for Sunday. Patriots D in the playoffs thus far via HEMBO, nine sacks, six takeaways, one touchdown allowed. Only four defenses had ever done all three in a two game span in the playoffs. The Giants, the Bills, the Bears, and the Steelers.

You know, still curtain conversation talk back there. The Bears obviously celebrated. 1992 bills. I assume that's the legendary one of the four falls defenses. And then 2,000 Giants, who led that one? Stray ending them? Most of it.

Was that the record? I wonder. They also are the first defense since the 1885 beers in the playoffs to allow less than 250 yards in both games, 16 points in one of the games, four yards per rush, and have three sacks in both games.

Sorry, less than 16 points in both games. Is that a bit? The Nums right there. He had a couple other ones as well. There's a lot of stats coming out about this Patriots defense that is like, hey, we were talking to the Houston Texans defense for good reason. Because like what they were doing and winning games, and we saw what they did to the Pittsburgh Steelers 14 points literally within a minute and a half, flip that entire game open in Pittsburgh and an era for Mike Tomlin. It's like, holy shit, this Houston Texan defense is unbelievable. And then we talk about how this year there's been more great defenses around the NFL as opposed to like one or two.

we never really brought up the Patriots, you know? Never really brought the Patriots defense. Because Drake May MVP season was the conversation. The schedule. Or, I mean, the negative was the schedule, but the Drake May MVP season was the positive push for the Patriots. Normally only one per team, you know? Yeah.

Trying to find. Dominating storyline. They're in a good spot, though. What a great spot for that defense. So defeat, like they definitely feel disrespected by the national media, and no one talking about them. So they're going to continue to roll. Yeah, definitely feel disrespecting because it wasn't even a chatter about it.

And then, oh, this is the number one defense in the world, huh? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, and that is exactly the message that got sent was, okay. And it's like they can win the Super Bowl. It feels like just by them damn cells. It's going to be hard to get a yard against him going on. 1,000 percent.

They got a couple of young safeties in there. And Gonzo, which isn't talked about a lot because, you know, he doesn't get targeted a bunch. And when he does, he doesn't give shit up. Not a lot of ball production with picks and things like that, so you won't see a ton of highlights of him. He had a great force fumble in this game, but he's phenomenal. But we talk about defenses, especially great defenses.

We all know it always starts up front. And Milton Williams in the middle. He has been dominant. Barmore has been great as well. But this player right here, this pick six, it started with Milton just dominate, penetrating, trips up the tight end, trying to come across and be in the flat. And if he's in the flat, he's kind of like an outlet for CJ Stroud.

He could just dump it off. Instead, Stroud makes a terrible decision. First and 10, just eat this or throw it away if you can. He just throws it up for grab. And Marcus Jones, he is dynamic. Every time he gets the ball in his hands, he has a chance to score. And he did right here.

And this kind of changed the game. It was a back-and-forth game with a ton of turnovers. Houston, they obviously caused a bunch of turnovers as well. Great defensive battle, but this is a big-time play when you're able to not only stop an offense, but turning it to instant points for the defense. That's the first time I've been able to see his front-face shot, there whenever he was running with the ball.

He doesn't see a damn thing, and he's just running as hard as he possibly can, blind, and ends up running into the end zone. He can't see anything, just legs just doing the job. We need to head this way. Incredible touchdown. Just an absolutely incredible touchdown in finish right there. And then obviously a nasty face mask. Could have your neck broken potentially there.

Instead, get up and do your dance. Yeah, dogs everywhere. Yeah, he's unbelievable with the ball. How many touchdowns in total this year? I believe that's his fourth touchdown this year. With punt returns, interception returns, he's unbelievable. This was another big time play by this defense. Milton, you know, causing a disruption.

Highest paid patriot of all, defensive patriot player of all time. Across board, all patrons. Highest paid Patriot player of all time. We're supposed to be a Carolina Panther on Free Agency Frenzy Day. Instead, Vrable comes in. At the time, people said overpaid, paid attacks to get him to go up to New England. And then the big dogs make big plays. I forget the big dogs show up in January, I think is what Vrable and the D-Lines say to each other.

And he certainly has. I mean, every game, he's wrecked the thing. I mean, him and Barmore. I mean, I think that was a big disrespect from last week that they took from it because all the talk was Anderson and DeNeil Hunter, whereas Barmore and Mill and Williams, by far the best duo in the middle across every D-line. You know, Jared Verst, of course, he's great. And to what you said about the May being the conversation, the Rams had the same thing. Rams defense, amazing.

But the conversation, Stafford, you know, like the MVPs do hog those, you know, headlines, rightfully so. And the teams want those conversations to be the headlines, too. Yeah. Because the team would, like, Drake May to win the MVP. So it's like the more conversation about Drake May, the MVP, better. But I think what is getting missed is, I mean, they might have the defense. Yeah.

Absolutely. If you go back to the clip, you don't even need to run the play, just pre-snap. They play a ton of nickel. They almost don't care. Like true nickel, not even like big nickel. Obviously, Marcus Jones is the biggest guy in the world. And you're only able to do that if you have some dogs up front that can kind of handle the run game.

So Marcus Jones right here, this is 12 personnel, one running back, two tight ends, and they're in True Nickel. And I believe earlier in the season, Dano, which he had to kind of pick something, like an Achilles Hill for each team. And he said, there are a number of nickel snaps. Nickel reps could come back and bite him in the ass at some point. He had to pick something. So I'm not trying to point at him and say he was wrong, love Dano.

But when you're able to do this with the dogs up front, then obviously you can keep a playmaker like Marcus Jones on the field. It will definitely help that defense. Unbelievable that they're able to do this so quickly. Absolutely. Flip it around and be known as a defensive genius squad through and through. Dogs everywhere and shut down, locked down corner and Gonzo's back. Oh, they got Revis Island at one point.

Now they got Gonzo's just locking it down. Nobody's talking about it. New England Patriots love it. Their fans are getting mad at everybody. And now they get a chance to prove there may be the next 20 years of dominance is happening. I don't like they even thinking about that. Milton's got to retire after this season. No, he's very...

This is his first deal. Gonzo is 23. Gonzo's retiring too? No, he hasn't got paid yet. He hasn't even played his best ball. I got two rookies. Just playing safe. No, they're retiring.

If they went Super Bowl, maybe they're done. I just one. Forayable retires, goes out on top. Yeah, says I never had to cut off my... He might. To win another Super Bowl. Yep. Yeah, their defense is all young.

What? Yeah, they hit on legit. legitimately, I mean, not even including free agents. I guess if we include free agents, they hit on like 15 different signings. Like half the guy, I mean, the guy that pressured right there, KC, chase on, I mean, that's a one year, $1 million player. Like every single person, 44 right here, every single person that they've brought in has made a massive impact.

Arguably the best signing on offense is Morgan Moses to play right tackle. Yeah. And he's a aging vet. and that they bring in on a low deal. Let alone Garrett Bradbury. So now they're doing good deals. Yeah. Frable.

They're young. Kind of ruin that you can make the argument. We basically broke the bills. Pagula needs to keep talking. Yeah, Pat and Terry Pagula. Exactly. Pod Pagula. Yeah.

That guy broke him. McDermott, see ya. Being promoted, though. Being promoted. And by the way, I checked back in on that since the show started. He's getting better even more. He said some interesting things. We like Brandon Bean.

He basically said unless Jesus Christ is up for getting drafted, we're taking Keon Coleman tomorrow. No more bus. Did you hear a buzz? Small. I heard the bus. It wasn't that small. We're kind of buzzing about the bones on the jumpsuit.

Yeah, buzzing a bit. That could have been what it was. It's back. Buzz, you hear a bus? You heard a bus? I do not. Let's get to some good, dude. There's a bad buzz, though.

Do you hear the buzz? I don't hear it Do you hear buzz? The fuck man Not right now Not currently Is there some good thing Speaking of beating the bills

I heard the buzz Sorry Is it like a quick Yeah and it's a weird one This one's coming from somewhere else It's like Truman show like we're hacked It's like a deeper It's like a deeper fight

Out of fight could have tapped our systems Oh fight off Was a low pressure system though So no pre-sip Got a couple clips coming through my ears right now Yep One wave after another No pressure

Fike is going to be a perfect way to say fuck on ESPN by the way Oh my God, I didn't fiking thinking Holy Fike There was a show from Ireland I think Mrs. Thomas's boys Browns There's yeah there there this Mr. Browns boys And instead of saying

Fuck they say I think they say Might be Fike That could be And with the, what's that, AJ? I didn't say anything. Is it better than fudge? Fudgeon?

Yes. Obviously, I knew the answer. Are you going to drop, Mrs. Brown's, what fecking is what they say. F-E-E-E. FEC. Yeah, yeah, feckin, yeah. Mrs. Brown's boys is a great show, I will say.

I got introduced to that on a computer one day, and the internet just popped up. Unbelievable idea. That guy runs shit over there, I think. Sorry, Mrs. Brown runs shit over. All right, let's get some good D, which he had to. Right. Yeah, it was interesting.

Absolutely. Talking about killing the bills. This Broncos defense, another great defense coming into the year. Obviously, the pressures, the sacks. One of the things were they weren't creating a ton of turnovers, and they have been doing that. That was the story of this game, a bunch of turnovers from Josh Allen, caused by this defense. This one is kind of like a some type of quarters look. So if you see Hofanga up on the offenses left, he's kind of going to pass this off.

and you'll see PJ Locke come out of the middle of the field and just B-line, undercut the receiver, and pick this off. Great job reading the quarterback. Now, Josh Allen, it kind of looked open. If you can see it from the back copy, kind of looks open at some point if he throws it, if he leads him kind of over who funga's head,

but it's all about angles and where you throw this ball. And when you're a DB and you have the opportunity to undercut it, you better put two hands on it, and PJ Locke did. This was a big-time deep throw to turn it to a big play by the Broncos, was big time played by PJ Lott. Josh Allen just off? Or what do we? Yeah, he was off this game.

He was off this game. I don't think he completed a pass that had like over 20 air yards. Didn't he have a broken thumb or something? What happened to him the week before? Yeah, he did get hurt. I don't know if it was a broken thumb. Finger? Yeah.

The same might need foot surgery, right? What's that? Yeah. I read Ray's game. He might need foot surgery, correct? Stafford had the thumb and finger because he hit it on somebody. But Josh Allen, his knee got twisted. right at the goal line as well.

Like he had a couple different little things. But I do believe Sean McDermott made him throw that ball. He pulled him. And Hufanga been there, kind of forced him to put a little more air on it. And it's just a great read and a great play. And I mean, it didn't look like anything was physically, in my opinion, wrong with his throwing mechanics per se,

but just a great play by the Denver Broncos and been a little sloppy with the ball. This ball right here, this is obviously you've seen. this clip a ton of times now with Joaquin. McMillan in the slot against Brandon Cooks. Man-to-man coverage, basically third and 11. So you're bringing pressure. You're going to drop like two robbers, spies in the middle of the field because always

his legs are a threat. You hear it all the time with Tony Romo on the call. So great job and great position. And once again, if this ball is put out there a little bit more, Brandon Cook's even now, still has the speed to get behind defenders. He kind of got to stop, go up at a high point. It does a great job. Just doesn't come down, finish the catch.

McMillan does. Great job finishing his play for a fantastic interception. Okay, interception says D-Butt. It's actually on good D. AQ Shipley, what do you think this was? I think it was a tie as they hit the ground. Tie goes to the offense. Final answer?

Final answer. Still, at this moment, interesting. You believe that the Buffalo Beals got screwed right here. based on the language in the rulebook yes a j hawk do you agree with a kush or do you agree with good d's db i agree with uh db i believe this was an interception okay so defensive people in this particular setup are saying that was not a catch he never ever caught the ball the ball was definitely not on the ground i'd finish it through if he rose over and his ball just goes out and rolls on the grass

It's an incomplete place. I don't think anybody's head. That's a catch. He had it going when he went down. You could say that about every tie ball in the history of football. I'm saying remove McMillan from the pitcher. Let's just say he rolls over. As he finishes the roll over, the ball is just out.

I get it. I'm just saying every single tie ball where the defense comes away within the history of football, you could say. But you're saying it's a tie ball. They're not saying it's a tie ball. A tie ball would indicate that he ever had it. They're saying he never had. Yeah, like the tie ball, the tie ball where they're like both on the ground ripping at it and stuff. Yeah, that goes

the offense, but that's not what this is. Yeah, they're saying the situation. Right there, he's got the ball. Right there, he's got the ball. He's rolling over. Right there, he's down. Hip was down. But you've got to possess it to the ground for it to be a catch. They survive the ground. You could say that on, again, every single tie ball

in the history. So you're saying you're 100% sold, not just a screenshot. Based on the language of the rulebook, yes. Interesting. Because I thought Cook's never officially had possession of ball, but I guess while falling has it in his hand. And then hip touches.

Yeah. And then what would count as a catch? Hip touch. Surviving the ground. Exactly. But what would they call it? Like, did he have a possession enough of it before the hip touched down for them, or hip touched down for them to call it a cat?

We saw this call to interception, too, what is it, joint possession? It was called a catch for Devante Adams. The one Otten, Otten. Lions. Yep, Lions. And it happened another time, too. Browns, Bengals. Oh, you're saying.

Ward, T. Higgins, the next day. You're talking about the other one that happened this weekend where... What about with this angle, AQ's? Catch, hip down. That's a catch. The ball's moving. It's a catch.

All right. This is a microcosm of the internet. Yeah, everybody has to move. Also, that's a subjective call. Because clearly if AQ or somebody like-minded AQ was calling done, that's a catch. Think about where we would be in this. moment. Think about where we would be in this moment right now. If that was a catch.

I assume more people were pissed that they just didn't review it. They just called it an interception on the field and then just ran with it. Yeah, but they're definitely, I mean, that is 1,000. We bring up one tweet where one guy decides with that. What about the other 9,000 tweets? And also, we got a guy that drives a fucking Batmobile to fucking practice.

Wait, what's talking about? We haven't shown the tweet yet. Foxy put this tweet on the back just as a, hey, do we want this? is AQ, you actually called for this to be shown. You called for this by bringing it up. The amount of people that don't understand what it catches is in a rulebook flabbergass me.

Talking to you. And it's not the officials. The two plays yesterday were not difficult calls. And they got them both right, Joe Burrow says. That's an offensive guy. I didn't even know Joe Burrow's tweet. That's his first suite in over two years. Yeah, he's going to go hybrid.

He felt very passionate about it. Okay. All right. Well, you don't like Batman? You don't think Joey Burrow has a right to have an opinion on a catch? I do. I'm just saying. There's a nine billion other tweet saying it was a catch.

Those are all Bill's fans. You don't like fossils, AQ? That's good. Bones? Love. You want any bones for a Christmas gift? If I got a fossil for a Christmas gift, I would give up a sack the next week. Love it.

Yes. Just don't take the gift. That's what they did. I thought. I figured. All right. The spite runs deep, I guess. Oh, man.

What if it was a T-Rex? Little baby T-Rex. Didn't they have a little baby wrecks in there? That was kind of what people called me. I'd take even more of a fucking slight. Oh, you'd be upset about it. Oh, this guy's... Miss a cut block.

See you, good luck. Thanks for the mammoth tooth. Let's go to some more good teeth, shall we? I don't believe you. You'll have it right in your house. As soon as you walk in, we see that. Yeah, of course. Agreed.

I'm on your side. It's a dinosaur. Quay would walk in and break it immediately. What the fuck is? It's not breaking that. It's not legos, dude. It's about millions of years. Yeah.

Anyway. That's not true. Chris Shula's defense. What's that? Dinosaures? How many years? How many years dinosaurs? I don't know.

It really just depends on your beliefs, I guess. That's what I'm wondering. How many years ago would dinosaurs be? Carbon dating would indicate 300 to 400 million years ago. Yeah. That's a hell of a run. They're still getting bones for gifts? That's a good gift.

It's a great gift. You're remembering 300 million years ago? I can hear the in your voice. What's that? the disdain. No, no. I think it's awesome. Now that I'm learning it's 300 million years old,

I'm even more excited about that. I was changing week to week. Hubble telescope, discovering new stuff all the time. Yep. We're at Mars. I think I saw some Mars, I think. We're out there. They were doing some time conversation there,

but how long that place has been dried up in their expectation. They did that with the moon, the moon dust. And then you look at it. It's like, that's Arizona. Doesn't it look pretty similar to what we got here? that's so far away. How'd they get that thing all the way there? And what's it talking to?

Good question. Fucking great astronauts at NASA in Houston. That's who they're talking to. You need to have respect for fossils if they're gifted to you, though, is what I'm saying. That doesn't need to be something you're holding against Joey Burrow. I'm not. What Joey Burrow was thinking is I'm giving a 300 million-year-old gift. Yeah.

And these guys don't know that I just went and bought these at the local toys or else. They have no idea. They think I. They're big, dumb idiots. They're linemen. They don't know shit. 3D printing. Chat GPT, how do I

make a fossil? What do you fat people love? Bones, okay, bones. Let's go some more good D's, shall we? Here we go, direct, cover two. And as it underneath zone defender, a lot of times you are the defender in conflict. A lot of times you have high-low routes.

You've got routes in front of you. Usually you have routes behind you. This one, Loveland, he's going to be the number one right receiver. He's going to run, we used to call this a China route. Some people call it an indie route, but it's going to be an D7 concept. So he's going to go inside, corner sees him, and then he's going to sink back and play hot or low. Now, on the broadcast, I forget who was calling this game. He said the receiver, Loveland in this instance, should have probably set down.

If he sits down, he holds the corner. I'm not sure we're not in those meetings. So he goes inside, makes it much easier. I will tell you from a cornerback's perspective, makes it much easier, much. easier. I'm sorry. Once he vacates my flat and I can just sink back. We kind of saw it with Jamari Sharp in the national championship game. Once you don't have a threat in front of you and you're a flat defender, you can keep sinking back, have vision on the quarterback, go up high point and make a big time interception against Caleb Williams.

Caleb's not expecting him to be there or? I mean, you kind of, from my perspective, if you see him drop back and if Caleb knows the route concept, you should know that this tight end is going to keep moving. If he does sit down once again, then it becomes an easier. If you see Durant go high, you just throw it to 84. If you see him sit, you throw it behind them. So you can kind of see him. And even in his next interception, it'll be something similar.

You see him there. A lot of these throws are anticipation throws. You're throwing to a spot to beat the zone coverage. Durant does a great job reading it, filling it. I don't think Williams did a great job filling it in this point. Okay, so that's the development of a quarterback. Yeah. That is exactly what we're referring to.

You want to take that profit right there. Now, it is tough. But also knowing that that guy's going to drop off. of his responsibilities. In theory, he's supposed to be out here, but we don't have a wide receiver out here to eat up his time. So he's probably going to drop back. That is like the development of understanding defense. Yeah, so not only for

Caleb, but for Loveland too, because he's a rookie. Once again, these routes, a lot of time, these routes, it's dictated on what the coverage is doing. So sometimes if you have a zone defender sitting there, quarterbacks just want you to sit in the space. Like, instead of continuing to move, you kind of find either

the first hole or second hole. So you've got two underrouts here, two indie routes. So if he just sits here kind of on the numbers. Once again, I'm not in the meetings. I don't know what he's being taught, but if he sits there, you give another option to Caleb, because a lot of times, especially NFL at this point in season, you can see the pressure in Caleb's face from his right side. It's a lot easier to make these reads and decisions when you're sitting on a microphone looking at a screen than it is when you have big D tackles and the D-ins in your face. But it's not only the development from the quarterback position, but from the receivers as well. And this is a young,

you know, great tight-in. I think you'll be great for a long, long time, but I think this is a learn experience for the quarterback and the tight end. Fernando said it's like a puzzle every time. This is kind of like what he was referring to exactly and what you have to learn when he get to the NFL. It's like, hey, yeah, they're in this. You should know that he's not going to do this because we don't have a route for that.

It's like, okay, what do I got to know? Well, I got to know my play perfectly. I got to be able to diagnose what they're in. And then I got to remember what everybody's roles are. And if we have somebody to occupy or not, that's like the quarterback position that like whenever you talk about Tom Brady, you talk about Peyton Manning. Drew Brees, Patrick Mahomes, these guys. It's like not just knowing what your team's doing,

also knowing what they're doing and what the right answer to what they're doing is. And that's why you rep it so much. That's why you have walkthroughs. That's why you have meetings. And these quarterbacks, especially all the veteran quarterbacks that we've been around, these are things you'll hear them. Hey, I want you to, when they give you that, I want you to sit right here. Like, this is exactly where I want you to be.

And that was a perfect example in the game. This is second and long. You hear us all the time say, like, during games, hey, get back on track, make it third and manageable. If you just take that duct checkdown, now it's probably third and eight, you're in a situation instead of a turnover, just trying to force a ball into a place

that you want to be open. You're expected to be open, but the DB does a great job. Not only thinking back, taking it away, but going up and getting an interception that was critical in this game. Man, quarterback's got to get a lot. It is. And this is another example of it right here

with Cam Curl, making pretty much the game winning interception to set their offense up in overtime. Empty formation for Caleb. He reads it. DJ Moore is up top. It's going to be two end-breaking deeper routes. DJ Moore, I think Caleb expected him to come flatter across the field

and maybe run a little harder because a lot of times with these throws, their anticipation throws. And once again, the windows, if you run it back a little bit, you look at the zone coverage and you look at all of the underneath droppers. And if you pause it right here, you can see that when you're throwing deep or kind of in the intermediate parts of the field, you have to layer it and get it over the underneath droppers, but you also want to beat the deep droppers.

So when you play good zone coverage, you guys on the same page, everybody's getting to their space and to their spots. We saw it with the Indiana defense and national championship. And then you have to anticipate these throws. Good protection up front. So you had an opportunity. Once again, it's second and eight. If it's not there, tucking and run, pick up a first down,

do all these different things. He's different, you know, he can break it out to his left. We see him do it all the time, maybe up the middle, maybe just throw it away. But instead, he wants to take the big play. Once again, this has kind of been the conversation around Caleb, since coming out in the draft, and Cam Curl makes a great read and a phenomenal interception, once again, fully extending, turning around, holding on to the ball.

And these conditions, you know, throwing is tough, obviously, but catching the ball is tough, especially for D-Bs. And this is a big, big, big, big time play by Cam Curl. Man, that's it right there. Yeah, that's it. Chicago Bears fans have their heart basically ripped out of them. What did you see, Ake? Q, I saw you pointing early on the wide copy. Yeah, so as you said, you wanted them flatter.

They always say like between 18 and 22 yards you want this deep kind of overrout. He continues to take that angle up here. If he goes 18 to 22 much clearer. That's exactly where he threw it. I have a question for AJ. The linebackers all drop to the sticks.

You guys just have like three yard drops, four yard drops, six yard drops, two yard drops that you all know? Or is that just strictly feel right there? Well, you got a second and eight, you've got another down distance because you know you're dropping like just beyond the sticks most likely, stay square, keep your eyes on the QB. You can let them. A lot of defense have like a five-yard, no-cover zone they call them.

They'll let you catch it within five yards, and we want to come up and smash you and staple you to the ground. Do you have, how often are you at sticks? Is that basically all the time? If you're in a zone, yeah, if you're in zone, absolutely. You need to be at the sticks. Every single down. No, I mean, it depends on down the distance.

Obviously, like second and medium to short, yeah, you need to be at the sticks. It doesn't do you any good to let them catch it at five and fall forward to seven yards to get a first down. Like, you need to know. First and 10. Where do you drop? About the sticks, yeah, depending on what they're running, you know, off the route combination. You're like, you got to initially push out, get to your drop and then get square,

and that's when you break out of tensions, and you've got to pass everything off and everything. Then you have different droppers have different keys. So like you can see like, independent of formation, too, if it's a three by one, if it's two by two, you know, in a team that you run. Some teams are like just sticks based. Like they're going to get someone at the sticks damn there in every concept. So sometimes if you see like if I may and cover two, Cover two carry, and I'm carrying my number two receiver, but I can see vision.

I can see number one sit down. I know instantly I can drop down and settle in my drop because I know my safety doesn't have that same stress from number one so he can squeeze and relate closer to number two. So all these different things are happening in different downs. And then in this defense, it's more of like a spot drop defense. We just call it high school zone. So a lot of times in NFL you'll run zone, but it looks like, man, because you're matching the route that comes to your zone.

But this is more of a spot drop. So we get into our spots. see once Caleb gets ready to throw, those two interior droppers are kind of rallying, about to rally to that running back right on the sea. So if he catches that turns around before he even turns around and get square, he'll get vice tackle and it'll be third and short. But they're not breaking on that until they see the breaking intention. So it's all these different things that go into different coverages. And then when you're back there, you have that depth as a deep safety. You can read and see and feel what's going on in front of you. And then you're just going, you know,

be an athlete, make a play on the ball. And that's what Cam Crue did right here. So much going on, dude, all the time. The NFL is awesome. You got to rep that a thousand times, and that's like breaking, like you get your spot and you break, you'll do that every single day. You have to be lightning quick.

Like you say, break on tensions. I'm not waiting for him to, like cock the arm back and throw. Like, when I see that he's committing, he takes his hand off the ball, boom, we are flying for.

Like old school Chicago Bears with Erwacker and them and Lance Briggs and those guys, they were unbelievable at this. So you were a very explosive athlete, you would say. Linebackers have to be very explosive because they're from a full standstill

to full quick burst of speed. I mean, you would hope, yeah, it's all relative to... How much did you weigh? How much did you weigh? I wait 248 at the combine. What do you weigh now? I mean, I drank water. I thought I needed to be heavier,

so I was chugging water before weighing. Eating bananas? Smart. Peanut butter? Just chugging water. Just water weight. Yeah, just before the way. Yeah, you put on about six, seven pounds.

I mean, those body... You hold those junk. Oh, yeah. We can transfer this? Yeah. Well, you can't hold the jug when you're on the scale. Okay. With my hands, you...

Yeah. And most guys are trying to go the other way, you know? You got AQ drinking down whatever they give the night before colonoscopy so that he can just dump out everything in his body. Oh, because of way in. Magnusium citrate. There it is. Oh, see, that's once you get in. That's right.

For the combine, I was trying to... I was drinking, too. Water? Oh, yeah. I played at 295 in college. I think I waited in 308, 310 at the Combine, something like that. So I was trying to get out. During your best years, what were you weighing?

305. During your bad years, what were you weighing? Pushed 320. It's going to happen. The job requires different things, especially on the different jobs that you had. King of Wedge, we need a little padding. Yeah, I had 11 kickoff returns against New England. in the AFC championship.

11. Oh, score. I think it was 49 to 16. You were on it. You were on the team. You told me I think it was 49 to 7. Yeah. His bonus, what was that called?

Player performance. Player performance bonus is huge because there's kickoff return. Yeah. This guy's getting extra reps all over the place. I don't know if it's keeping up with the brain trauma, but certainly a little bit more money in your pocket. Still sharp. Let's head to Hammer

Todd, Todd, don't you head on over here, brother. We'll do. All right, he got ready for hammering down. Don't's giving out winners, right? Hey, Gump, are you guys on a winning streak or losing streak? College basketball was pretty good last night. We got another full sleigh this evening. Okay, college hoops is where you do eat.

You are a good gambler giver, I believe, during college basketball, right? Because you're betting on the teams we've never heard of. Yeah, like Miami, Ohio, we're getting two points last night. They're 20 and O. They have lost all year. And every game, they're like a short favorite. It is insane. There's a chance we talk to their coach pretty soon, I think.

Yeah, I think there's a chance. That's a good story coming out of hoops. Finally got ranked this week, first time all season. I mean, if there's a coach we should talk to, his name's Mick Cronin. Jeez. Fuck, Mick Cronin. I hope he gets that clip of time. He definitely will.

Oh, yeah. Is there a way to change that around, do you think? you think maybe a meeting of the minds between you? I don't think so at this point. Isn't he from Iowa? No. No. Maybe. I believe he was born and raised in Cincinnati

and then coached to Cincinnati. He's a bit of a hometown hero there and then they obviously got sick of his shit and he went out to UCLA. He's a good coach. That's the thing. He's a winner. He's a good coach. He's just a sought-off little fucker and I haven't liked him for a long time.

And I'll see that change anytime soon. You guys need to meet each other. That might just be his entire gimmick. You say he's a good coach. That might be his whole gimmick. Could be. Never satisfied. Always miserable. Players need to get better. Big Ten stinks. You know, that might just be his motivator, his driver.

I just don't like him looking a gift horse in the mouth. The Big Ten? Bingo. What's a gift horse? It's a horse that shows up with a gift. Yeah, what? Have you ever met one? Many times I've looked a gift horse in the mouth and said, no, thank you.

So I think we all have Yeah There we go You have to You have to at some point You have to Yeah Gift horse

I mean it's not always a horse Hey That was some good D Appreciate That was good D bunch That was good trenches That was good Thanks for you

Same thing too Seattle Not ring offensive line Don't trust the fucking quarterback Yeah It feels like the Eagles From a year ago Everything's kind of the same

as it was in the past. Interesting. Except for this weather. You've got trees blown up. Yeah. Let's keep our eyes out. Yeah, be careful.

Thank you for traveling out here, AQ. Thanks for having me, boys. You too, brother. Great work, boys. Town, good to see you. Be your friend. Tell your friends. Something nice.

It might change your life. Team all meet. Anything say to the team, AQ? Hey, it's championship Sunday. Every single ounce of effort you put in since April shows up this week. 60 minutes, all you got. Bring every fucking thing you got. because the Super Bowl is on the doorstep.

Let's fucking go. Okay, so you were talking to the teams that are playing the games. And me and Connor. Bring everything you got. Yeah, always do. Super Bowl's right around corn. That's right. Hell, yeah.

I feel like I nailed that. You did. You did. I think the boys are going to actually just listen to that right before you game. Perfect. Cronin might turn that thing on. He might. Team on me, team on three, one, two, three, two, three.