The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1494 - The Patriots and Seahawks are Going to the Super Bowl, Adam Schefter on the Coaching Carousel, Pete Thamel, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 26, 2026

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap the AFC and NFC Championship games that were two instant classics as the Super Bowl is finally set with the Patriots and Seahawks ready to do battle again, over a decade after they last met in the Super Bowl. They also chat about the crazy weather that has rolled through pretty much the entire country, and Alex Honnold free soloing Taipei 101 on Netflix on Saturday night. Joining the progrum to give the latest updates on all the different moves in the coaching carousel including Mike McCarthy being hired by the Steelers, Jonathan Gannon getting the DC job in Green Bay, and what the four remaining teams with vacancies are going to do is ESPN Senior NFL Insider, Adam Schefter. Next, the Authority on College Football, Pete Thamel joins the progrum to chat about the tampering case going on between Clemson and Ole Miss, what that means for college football as a whole, Arthur Smith becoming the OC at Ohio State, the current state of college basketball, and much more. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, we’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our Humbley Boat, the Thunderdum, on this Super Bowl season. Overreaction Monday, January 26, 2006, this sports program begins now. Football! It is the greatest, and we've certainly enjoyed the hell out of this football season that has been up and to the right for the numbers of people that have been enjoying the greatest sport on Earth, which is football. And now we find out who the greatest team on Earth is. It is officially Super Bowl season, as the New England Patriots. are back in the Super Bowl as underdogs to the Seattle Seahawks. Congrats to both of these teams, franchises, cities, programs, humans, you name it.

And it is now an exhilarating time of two weeks where most of the conversation will just be about how great these two teams are. Obviously, Seahawks fans, we hope you take it in. Obviously, there was not a lot of hope for your team to be the team that ends up representing the NFC in the Super Bowl. A lot of people didn't even think you're going to make it out of your division. That division is incredibly difficult. What you proved, week in, week out was that you were absolute doves. You go on a road, blow out the Pittsburgh Steelers early.

That's how you got on our radar. We started talking about Seattle, Seahawks, immediately after that particular game. We go, wait a minute now. Hey, that's a long flight. That's an early game. That's a long flight, early game, tough place, tough state, pounded.

We're talking about absolute drumming, took the soul of the Pittsburgh Steelers and their fan base. Maybe it was a part of what led to the firing of Mike Tomlin, actually, whenever you think about the entire reality of the situation that ended up being the Pittsburgh Steelers season. Then you think about them being not only road wars, but at home, and then the 12 showing back up. And McDonald's culture being a stupendous one. Him and Kurt Signetti have a lot in common whenever I hear

them talk ball. Obviously, Signetti, overseer of things, McDonald, defensive coordinator, calling the plays, reading everything that's going on. Him and McVeigh and Kyle Shanahan and whoever the hell the Cardinals hire are going to be an awesome thing to watch for the next 15, 20 years over there in the NFC West. But they have proven multiple times, just yesterday, yet again, that they're the best team in the NFC's best NFC West, and now they're going to have to take on a team that's very comfortable with the spotlight. Team that very much understands the importance of the game is through the Super Bowl. It's where people around the world potentially lay their eyes on ball for the first time ever,

definitely the first game of the season, and who do they see? The New England Patriots. With a brand new look, Drake made 23 years old, calling his own shot for the first down to win the game. calls his own try at 23. Josh McDaniel's offense coordinator, been there, done that with everything. He's seen every single defense, literally getting a chance to mold a next goat. And then Mike Frable, the head coach, fired from the Tennessee Titans just a couple years ago. sits in Cleveland on the Brownstaff for free, basically.

That's kind of Tennessee Titans still paying me. I'm just going to come up here, hang out. My hometown, I love this place. Love the Browns. It would be cool if the Browns are good. You see them running in practice with James on the offensive side, defense aside, fully invested. going through so many lippers in that building while he's trying to make the Browns maybe worth

a damn. He doesn't get that head coaching job. Obviously, they keep their head coach for one more season. He gets fired. Now he's down to the Atlanta Falcons. So the Cleveland Browns are maybe without a coach. This guy was in there building last year. He was kicked out of the Tennessee Titans building and now he's going back to the place he's in a ring of honor has made the team incredibly relevant yet again in his own way.

Coach Cower, front of the program, Yenzer Hall of Famer, actual NFL Hall of Famer as well. He said he spoke to Mike Frable and whenever he was talking to him, he said, you know, defensive coach, young quarterback, kind of Bill and Tom kind of in Braille. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is different. This is different. It's a different area. Did not want the comparisons of the goat.

I don't think Vrable is scared of any of those expectations, scared of, you know, trying to build it in the same place because obviously he was a part of building it. But he also doesn't want to just be, hey, we're not Bill and Tom. This is a very different environment. We want people having fun whenever they come to work. We want these guys too come to work. And he's a part of the entire culture every single day in the locker room.

It's a special story. A coach in his second year at a place, coaching his first year at a place. There's so many storylines that we're going to have to talk about for the next two weeks because the Super Bowl is not this upcoming Sunday. That's right. No. It's the following one, which I think because Sunday is technically the first day of week.

That is correct. Okay, so next Sunday would technically be this upcoming Sunday. So we could say it's Super Bowl is next next Sunday. Yes. But in reality, it's not this upcoming one. It's the following one sounds a lot better than next next Sunday. Because for how long that is, two, three days. games getting talked about.

Yep. And that's one of the benefits of making it to the Super Bowl if you're a fan. Is everybody on TV has to say, we're wrong about this team? Or, you know, I said earlier negative things. It's kind of like an answering of all of the opinions at Super Bowl Week. In these fans, Seattle Seahawks fans, we're happy for them. New England Patriots fans, we're certainly happy for. Mostly because we have one amongst us.

Ladies of gentlemen, let's go to the talks at the table at Boston. Ty, Conner's glowing. Yeah. He FaceTime me immediately after that first down pickup, I was with baby girl McKenzie, hang out, having a good time. Huge laugh right in another thing. Just so, so joyful, so happy, so vibrant, so everything, waving to McKenzie, hey, Patriots are back into Super Bowl.

All is right with the world. It does feel like that is kind of your guys' take on this entire thing. And congrats for the next two weeks being a holy hell, the Patriots were able to do this thing that nobody else has been able to twice somehow. That is kind of what we're at the beginning of for you guys. Yeah, exactly. And what I've realized as I've kind of bounced around this building

this morning is this not fair. You know, it's not fair to you. It's not fair to you. Tony is not fair to you. All the guys in the back, it's not fair to them. It's not fair to anybody who's a fan of football. But, hey, sorry, I don't make the rules. Okay, nobody does. The New England

Patriots are once again the cream of the crop. And it's not one of those things where it's, hey, you know, this is just a one-off, you know, maybe in the future, you know, that Mahomes and these guys will be like, no, no, no. Mays 23 of Rables in this first year. It is the type of stuff that you envision in January, if you will, but also just throughout the offseason as what would be the perfect season. And this is exactly what you would write down as a New England Patriots fans. Now, it's a bummer. It really is. Bo Nix, who knows? You know, Boonex goes in there

and plays, who knows how that game goes. But we actually will never know. And it does. Doesn't matter. The Patriots are back in the Super Bowl. The Broncos, unbelievable. Number two defense. You know, this is the first team ever in the history of the NFL of the New England Patriots to win nine straight or, yeah, nine straight and nine total road games in one season. Road Warriors. Road Warriors. And what is that? In some movie, I don't know.

I love it. Allegedly, yeah, who cares? Also, Drake May, we hear about this schedule all the time. Drake May and the Patriots are the first team ever to beat three. top five defenses in one playoff front. I mean, granted, Seattle would be four, you know, and that is something that we'll look to. You know, we got a lot of time. We don't have to look to it today. We can look to it tomorrow or the day after or the day after, the day after, the day after, or the day after, until next Friday. Right now we can just kind of bask in the glory that

the Patriots brought. I mean, it is awesome, especially the players in the storylines on this team, the kind of the stuff. You mentioned it, Vrable, cast out by Tennessee, then unwanted in Cleveland. That's one thing. Drake May, a guy who after his first year, people still didn't really know if he was good. Number three overall pick, let's not act like he's out of nowhere, but nobody thought he was going to be MVP caliber. He is.

Stefan Diggs washed up. He's not. That was cool watching him get emotional about that. It felt like he's really had a lot of buying. He talked about Coach Vrable, treating everybody the exact same and having the culture be established very quickly. And then there was a clip from a couple weeks ago where Vrable actually tell Stefan to shut the fuck up.

Right on the sideline and then talk shit to him immediately. And then Stefan Diggs talks shit back. It's like what a culture of, you know, I guess you could kind of have the same Indiana University thought of castaways, you know, misfits, whatever the case. Now, they paid Milton. Oh, yeah. A lot of money. A ton of money.

Reset the market changed free agency frenzy because he was going to the Carolina thinking about the Panthers with him, maybe. Oh, my gosh. I'm sure they have. I'm sure they have thought about what that team would look like if they were able to land Milton Williams. Instead, the Patriots overpay because they had a grotesque amount of money because they were rebuilding entirely, basically, around a

rookie contract quarterback. So they overpay, is what people say. Is there any overpay? And now that we're sitting here two weeks from the Super Bowl? Absolutely not. We've got to remember that whenever we're judging some of these off-season moves, that we have no idea how any of it's going to work out. If you win the Super Bowl, it's the only thing it matters. People talk about the

Los Angeles Rams whenever they traded away all their picks and everything like that, one all in, bringing Matthew Stafford, pay people, Andrew Whitworth's coming at, bang, bang, bang, we're doing all this stuff. We're paying, we're paying, we're paying, we're playing. Jalen Ramsey were trading in, bum, bum, boom, we're doing all that. They won a Super Bowl. Nothing else matters. Yep. Like, oh, you blew it for the next, no, well, we'll figure it out when we get there.

We're going to win a Super Bowl, which is exactly what they did. That is how you judged as an organization, and the Seahawks getting back to? Come on now. Schneider, pulls a trigger on Pete Carroll, kicks him out of the office. See ya. See ya. Don't want you. Bye. And I do believe that. Thank you. I felt pretty good about that one. I did, because one leg there, not my plant leg.

Better balance on my point leg. I was 90 degrees. Thank you so much. Schneider, though, does that to Pete Carroll says, hey, we're moving on. Pete Carroll goes on a little bit of a media run where he's like, I wanted my job. They basically fired me. They kick me out of here. Your immediate thought is, oh, this guy's a super genius. Okay. This guy's got the ownership on his side. So he's super genius that was able to kick Pete Carroll out of here. Because something got stale, passing a buck to us like, nope, this guy saw the writing on the wall maybe that was happening in his building and said, we need something fresh.

Interviewed McDonald and said, well, this guy seems like he's perfect for the place. They build this in an entirely new way. And it's not just the Seattle Seahawks are doing it in a brand new way. So Sam Donald, baby. That's right. Hey, Sam goes for over three hunch, three touchdowns in the NFC championship game.

In week 18, whenever they were playing for the number one overall seed, there was moments where Sam Darnold could have showcased that he was tight or wasn't made for the moment. Instead, he delivered. And I thought to myself after the last game of the season, whenever they win the number one overall seed, I said, Sam, hey, he made some plays in there that I think as a kicker, punter, a person that has been in a situation

where it makes you feel a little tight. Like there's certain moments that like you can't just get through if you are not made for the moment. And there was a couple of things where he was just casual. It felt like it's like, wait, this might not be the same Donald. This might be brand new Sam Donald. And it looks like it. He's been empowered. Obviously, the play calling is helping him out.

Kenneth Walker goes crazy behind him. Being able to run the ball is great. And then they're weapons. I mean, Jackson Smith and Jigba. Is he always open? Man. And then Tom Brady on the call? Spectacular.

Brady is doing really good stuff in the booth. He is taking it very seriously. We appreciate the hell out of him for doing that. He was talking about Jackson Smith and Jigba's shoulder plane. He's like, what's so good about Jackson Smith and Jigba is his shoulder playing never changes. So you never know we're able to get a beat on whether it's a deep ball

or if it's a shore, if he's cutting out, he never changes his shoulder plane. Next play, Jackson Smith and Jigba, right here, boom, wide ass open into back of the end zone. It's like, well, that's because he thought he was running out. He ends up running the post. That's because the whole thing. It was like perfect timing. Tom Brady breaking it down. so understanding why he's so good is a cool thing. It's all those little tiny details that separate the great from the good.

Now, if you're in the NFL, you're obviously good, but there's things that the greatest do that are just a little bit different, and it feels like Tom Brady's pointing those out. Feels like Tom Brady's pointing those things out, which we respect and appreciate. It was an incredible viewing experience. What a game for the NFC Championship. Let's go to one half of the Hammer. Cowboys AP tone.

Okay, so where do we sit with the numbers for the gambling? Did we beat Draft Kings this weekend? the public beat Draft Kings? And as we project ahead to the Super Bowl, what are the numbers saying there, too? Yeah, so the public went one-and-one this weekend against Draft Kings. The Broncos did not win, but they did cover. And so that was a loss for the people there.

But everyone was on the Seahawks. They were minus two and a half. They did win and cover. So they went one-and-one this weekend. And then we opened up Seattle minus four and a half against the Patriots. I think that line makes sense, and I think it makes sense that 79% of the public is on the Seahawks. They've watched what the Seahawks have done through this playoff run.

And people react to offense. And the Patriots defense has been incredible, but they haven't scored a ton. So I think a lot of people reacting to, you know, Sam Darnold and how good he's looked and how good the Seattle team has looked, why 79% of it early is on Seattle. And if you want to not believe in the Patriots offense, there's certainly stats that will justify that. I mean, in that game, Drake May only goes for 86 yards to the sky 65 yards on the ground. Now, obviously the weather was terrible, but if people wanted to buy into what you are potentially saying right there, certainly justifiable things on the other side for that entirety.

Now, you talk about the Seahawks, this team, on a historic run for the betters. Seattle is 14 and 5 against the spread this season. The best record entering the Super Bowl since the 2016 Patriots who were 15 and 3. It's cover margin plus 148 and a half, which is the highest entering the Super Bowl since the 2015 Panthers, who were plus 161. obviously more games to keep tally on to the cover margin there, especially if you make it to the Super Bowl like the Panthers did in that particular season. That means nobody really thought you had a chance.

No. That's what that means. That means the books and the betters thought you didn't have a chance. So if you're covering and beating like that, obviously you would assume next year maybe you're not going to come out of nowhere for folks. But I have a funny suspicion that as soon as this Super Bowl is over, whether or not the Seahawks win or not, they are not going to be the main topic of conversation.

No. And the Seattle Seahawks fans know that. I think that's why they're basking in this particular week or two weeks of celebration as they should, and so should that guy. Sam Darnold answered the call there, Con, man. Yeah, big time. And just watching him kind of out dual Stafford. But, you know, it wasn't as if the defense for Seattle showed up in a big way.

Like, there were some huge mistakes from the Seattle defense and kind of Sam Darnold almost covered up for him, which is the opposite of what you're expecting damn near, especially with how Darnold had played versus the Rams. But that shootout was one of the better conference title games that was. we've seen, I feel like in recent memory. Like it really did come down to the wire and that fourth quarter was just basically two long, massive drives, one ending in a great stand by the Seattle defense and the other, you know, kind of giving the ball back to the Rams, but giving them a massive, you know, field to work with for their defense and make it impossible. Like this right here, that's the whole entire season in a nutshell for Seattle. Their defense,

basically, winning them the game, getting the job done, and then Donald's taking care of the football. It was amazing. Yeah, I think people are going to really enjoy learning about this Seahawks team over the next couple weeks. A lot of great storylines in there. And then the defense did a sit-down interview and preview of the game. And another one of the talk. Like, yeah, we're not doing a lot of talking. Because I think they feel very disrespected that they're not a topic of conversation in every NFL conversation, which they are not, by the way.

Until late. There's been a lot of people saying, I didn't know, I didn't know. And a lot of people pushing off the Sam-Darnold narrative as, you know, it was justified, which, I guess it is, especially after what happened last year with the Minnesota Vikings, whenever he is with the Minnesota Vikings and they can potentially get the number one overall scene, he plays his worst football, it's easy to throw it right down a pipe. Say, hey, listen, this guy did it again. And then for him to show up in a way that he did, happy for him.

I'm so happy for him. Balled out. Good for Sam Darnel, man. Honestly. And now you think about the Minnesota Vikings, I guess they're in the same boat as the Cleveland Browns, who had Mike Vrable in their building and just kind of let him sit around through a bunch of free and then get the hell out. Then you fire your coach ball six months later.

Okay. That's an interesting thing. What about the Minnesota Vikings? Yeah, not good. Not good. Not good. Could they have paid Sam Donald? They could have, right?

Yeah. We kind of know Sam Donald's money, right? Because it was similar to the Gino Smith offered contract from the Seattle Seahawks that Geno Smith turned down. Sam Donald took the opportunity to go up to Seattle. We don't know what all the guarantees were, but we think it was in the same vein. And now people are even talking about like, hey, Sam Donald, this offseason can definitely go to Schneider and say, hey, don't you think I deserve a bit of a raise here?

so you wonder if the Minnesota Vikings were able to afford Sam Donald and bring him back and try to get into contention for the number one overall seat again? Or did they just think they couldn't afford him? I think that's kind of where, because they definitely could have afforded him. And they could have franchised him too, if I remember correctly. Yeah, multi-old. Yeah, could have had kind of another year for JJ as well because wasn't that the whole thing with his injury?

That's tough. Every moment that passes gets tougher for that decision to be made because he was in the building. Yeah. And you experienced him. And you rode the ride. And then whenever it comes time, you're like, I don't know if we can do that at a quarterback.

And then some other place says, we got you. They take a bite and say, we believe in you. We think we can build. And that head coach is predicting all of this in his first ever team meeting. It's like, oh, Seattle Seahawks got a lot to be proud of, I think, over there the way they're running. Yeah, they're amazing. Not to mention, like, their defense having that kind of entire mindset

and the Patriots defense having the same mindset. Oh, yes. They're both, both these teams are just so similar in the sense of coaching and stuff, but also just the mindset of the entire like, hey, we've been looked over. People have basically made excuses for why we're good instead of just talking about the reasons that we're winning football games. It's more so about the other story. And, you know, it's the same thing today this morning. You hear people talk about like, did Sam Darnold prove it to you? Like, did the Seahawks prove that they can go and win the Super Bowl?

It's like, what the hell are we even talking about? This is, we are in the Super Bowl now. And again, that's the same thing with New England. They're going to face that. You only score 10 points, May only has 140 total yards. Like the conversations, not being the actual team, just feeds into what their entire mindset's all about. It's kind of hilarious to think that the expectation level of great

is like a Hall of Fame expectation. Like, how many Super Bowl stay with? I need to hear how many Super Bowl is just like, really good team, though. Like, really, this is really, yeah, but how about, then you went a Super Bowl? It's like, NFC championship game. You just played maybe his best ball.

I don't you think that's pretty big. Championship, probably the most amount of pressure you can feel. Oh, yeah. If you haven't played in a Super Bowl, right? That's the biggest game. How much more anxiety can you feel in your body because it's a Super Bowl than it is the NFC championship? So don't we think that that would prove that maybe he was able to handle it?

Or is it just the Super Bowl is going to come in? Oh, the big bright light's going to get Sam Darno. Just threw for 3.46 or whatever, three touchdowns in the NFC Championship against Los Angeles Rams' defense. It's very good. Very good. At home, bang, boom, boom. Putting in in a bucket if he had to, making decisions, checking shit out of it.

obviously had a running back in Walker who not only out of the backfield could also catch the ball. This guy's unbelievable. So good. He's so much fun to watch. Obviously, Charbonnet goes down, worry a little bit.

Kenneth Walker, a couple years back, I remember him just scoring touchdowns all the time. And then he go back to Michigan State, and it's like, oh, yeah, he carried that entire institution. Absolute dog at Michigan State. He's a beast. And you start thinking, it's like, wow. Seattle Seahawks team special, man.

So good. It is. And congrats to the Patriots as well. Hell yeah. There's other NFL news that took place. And ladies of gentlemen, there's a new head coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He's a man. He spent his whole life coach, and we're not having them on.

Ladies job, Coach Michael Parker. Hey, Coach! He's not on, yeah. That would have been cool if we would have brought him on right there. Obviously, he's focused on turning around and doing what he has to do for his hometown of Pittsburgh. Now, I did potentially hear about this before it was announced publicly, and I would like to say that we are incredibly pumped for Coach McCarthy. We think he's been a joy to work with here. You know, we get a chance to work with a lot of people, a lot of chances to interact with a lot of people.

and what Coach McCarthy did every single week for us was stupendous. I mean, he was prepared, ideas, sending him in. He was going duck hunt with his ribbon-winning dog, and he's like, hey, I'll be up in a cabin up somewhere. We're going to make this work, though. Obviously, we'll like do show. This is what I'm thinking. Watched every game was very prepared.

It felt like he was dialed in. And this dude quoted Galileo when he was talking to us that math is the language of the universe or something like that. He dropped that in just a casual conversation. I think what I learned from my experience with big Mike McCarthy, it's hard because he has a answer accent and he's from Pittsburgh and he's a big guy. It's hard not to get the immediate first impression of somebody else that you know that potentially looks like this person or acts like this person or is this person.

It's hard not to just get past that first wall. And I'm going to let you know. I've met 1,000 people that sound and look like Mike McCarthy in my life, literally, exactly. From Pittsburgh, I know this human. I was blown away by how unique Mike McCarthy was whenever it came to speaking about things. I'm very, very appreciative of him joining our show this year. He came to the draft, had notes on the top 100.

He was even getting in the middle of reading him, he saw him. All right, all right. He go, what, they're not good notes? I got good notes on these guys. Then he would have the reasoning behind things. He talked to us. He talked to me. I don't remember if it was on air or off air.

I think it was on air about how windy days, you know, sometimes on third and long, have a conversation with the quarterback like, hey, if we call a shot and it's a bad weather, like, hey, arm punts good here anyways, because punter with the wind, probably going to be problematic anyways. He would go out with the kickers and punters in the pregame to get the wind patterns. I mean, like the little attention to detail things because he's been around ball for so long, and it seems like he's a very observant individual, it feels like.

I think he sounds different because he's from Pittsburgh and still talks like a yinzer as opposed to changing how he speaks. But he's now been the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. the Dallas Cowboys, and now the Pittsburgh Steelers. I mean, there's obviously something that those three organizations have done right over the long haul of the NFL. And all three of them have said, this guy deserves to run our team. And we put trust in this man to run our team. And I would say after our experience with him, I would trust his ass too.

Now, the answers aren't happy. No, they aren't. No, boy. There's a lot of bad insers, yeah. What are we doing here? They were saying some stuff. You're saying some stuff. Internet was doing its thing.

Comparisons to past head coach, current head coach. Is this kind of a lot of those? What are we doing here? So we're just going from one mediocrity to the next media, sorry, above mediocrity to the next above mediocrity. And the insers aren't even thinking, it's an offensive guy. This guy has a little different mindset. This guy's been in a couple of different buildings. Maybe you'll be able to bring a fresh attitude.

It seems like his teams do win. Now the defense getting pounded in the playoffs, a couple of the ones. years back whenever they had DAC in the best offensive season that he has ever had rolling down there in Dallas. People kind of forget about that. So you would assume in Pittsburgh going to have a good defense, what's the future look like? We don't know. But on the offensive side, going to have to get some pieces. Is Aaron Roder staying out? Because of his relationship with Mike McCarthy? Is he sticking around? Is he retiring? What's going on there? What's the future look like? I don't know. But it's hard to judge, I think, personally, a head coach signing day one, even though we have done it

multiple times. Yeah. Yeah. DeVal. So when there's manure, you put a seed in manure and it grows through the manure and then a flower comes. And what we want to do is less thinking, more athlete takeovery. That's right. Tell you what, man, we're not kneecaps. Yeah. Okay. And then we're going to get up and then you're going to knock us down.

Then hell yeah, you got another Patel over there. We're going to eat on that thing too. So like day one hirings have certainly been something that we have judged heavily. But I do think every time we have done that, it has gone on to potentially go a different direction strictly because we have no idea what's about to happen behind closed doors. We have no idea who they're going to sign. We have no idea who his staff is going to be. You have no clue any of these things. So I think it is hard in good faith, even though we do it all the time, to necessarily rule a hiring of a head coach as a bad hiring of a head coach.

Signetti, worst hiring of all time. McDonald out there in Seattle, worst hiring of all time. Siriani, worst hiring of all time. Dan Campbell, worst hiring of all time. Liam Cohen, worst hiring of all time. So it feels like it's hard to judge immediately, but boy, it's fun to. Because the things that were being said about Big Mike McCarthy, unless you're his family, obviously. Very impressive.

Yeah. Very impressive and good interneting, I would say. Yeah, the internet was very, very active on Saturday afternoon. Jensers and Steelers fan. You brought up a lot of good points on why you should like Mike McCarthy and the hire. we loved him on here this year. He was definitely more of a deep thinker than we thought he was going to be. He was always very, very prepared, offensive guy, all that thing,

great quarterback developer. I think the reason why Jensers and Steelers fans were so, so, so, so angry was for the point that you brought up that the reason they've been angry for the last eight years is because it's, you know, win nine, ten, eleven games or whatever go the playoffs and lose. and that's basically the M.O. that Coach McCarthy has had recently, very, very similar records to Coach Tomlin, very similar playoff results to Coach Tomlin. So they kind of thought of this as a lateral move,

which is not what they wanted, including me. I mean, I wanted it. When they first fired Tomlin, I was shuling shielhast, tweeting about it, making memes, stuff like that, because when we made the change, the fan base wanted some, something new and exciting. And a lot of people were mad about the process that they only brought in three guys for in-face interviews, for in-person interviews, everything, everyone out.

They did hire, or they, sorry, they did interview Shula in Shilhouse and Clay Kubiak from the Niners virtually. I heard from some sources that those guys, their interviews were underwhelming, is what I was told, so that's potential. Well, that's because they were so bummed out about the facilities. Maybe. I mean, that could be. I mean,

uh... No, that's what people on the internet are saying, people on the internet are saying, well, the facility is so asked that they just got to kind of take whoever they can get at this point, which is why they saw McCarthy.

And it's like, I mean, maybe. Maybe somebody doesn't take the job because of the case. Remember, we've seen head coaches agreed to jobs, get on plane fly to go to press conference that has been set up for job, and then think,

remember that whole towel dumping situation? Oh, yeah, disrespect. It's turning a plane around. Yep. Not like, allegedly. That guy. Now. So there has been, yeah, he's back in a good spot.

But there is, you know, like, there is little things like that that anytime somebody is taking a job that can certainly sway some things. So is that potentially go like, oh, I have a hamstring like your James Hardin or whatever because you don't want to get the job maybe. Who knows? But it was interesting to hear that you heard, not me. I'm not, hey, right here. Correct.

Goes in here, it goes out there. So I try to keep myself away from any information that is whatever privy. You don't want it out. Don't tell me. Okay, it's going to, I'm on this thing a lot. So I'm going to do it at some point. It's not going to be good. But you hearing that it was, you know,

underwhelming or whatever, I do wonder what they're comparing to because all the fans are doing is comparing to Coach Tomlin. Coach Tomlin, like maybe one of the greatest speakers of all time, right? Yes. Coach Tomlin is like one of the greatest speakers to ever exist. Which is why we think whenever he gets in a TV,

he's going to be stupid. LaFleur is still the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. Yes, he is. Got a new DC, though. That's right. Who's that? Jonathan Gannon, former head coach of the Arizona Cardinals. So let's just say I got a fresh fire in my gut this morning.

It would have taken the bus to work had the bus has been running today. But yeah, I mean, I know we're talking about Mike McCarthy. I think you could argue that this is the smash hit home run hiring of this entire cycle. Head coach, defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator, you name it. As D.C., he had success. Yeah, correct. 2021, 2022. Eagles, D.C.

21.4 points for game. 11th in the NFL. That's top third. Mm-hmm. That's pretty good. Yeah. Now it's Cardinals, a different story. Yeah, he wasn't, you know, he wasn't calm plays.

But was he a part of it? Is the question, or is he just eager to get back into the headset to start dialing and up and not having to worry about all the other stuff that comes alongside being a head coach, which we have certainly seen before. McDaniel, by the way, getting introduced with the Los Angeles Chargers, he looks cool. Always. He looks so cool. Think about the Los Angeles Chargers' colors and gear and everything.

McDaniel's got his glasses. He's got, oh. So cool. Come on. I think we put this one together. There is, I think he did some sort of photo shoot for him as an introductory to the Los Angeles Chargers that they just posted. Chargers social team with McDaniel. I mean, we're talking about some real magic this off season.

Oh, yeah. Oh, look how cool he looks. She's so happy to be in Cali. Oh, my God. Think about the time he had down in Miami. Remember, he was heading down. They're super genius. This guy's future of the NFL.

That hangs 70 on this Denver Broncos defense that we just watched. Not too long ago. 70 of them. They pay Tyree Kill more money than anybody. That's why Tyree Kill went down there. He was at the Chiefs, was looking for a bigger contract. Andrew reading him said, we can't do it. We're so sorry.

And he goes, all right, well, get me out of here. He goes to Miami does the whole thing, gets paid more than anybody, resets the market. They are unstoppable. This guy's the guy. Cool shoes. Tags on them. Joggers, sweet glasses.

Funny, swaggy. So swaggy. Supposed to be the future. It's the next one. Then just completely unravels at the Dolphins. They trade away all those good players. Okay? Seems to be tension that has brewed in the locker room.

Is that his fault or is that? Now he gets another shot to be an offensive coordinator of the other guy drafted in that particular draft class. And if he does well here, he's going to have multiple head coaching opportunities and people saying that it's justified. So whenever you think about McDaniel having a great situation and a setup here, I think Los Angeles Chargers are certainly in that conversation, Ty Schmidt. Yeah, without a doubt. And I think, you know, a lot of people, like, he's obviously a brilliant offensive mind, but I think the big question kind of after they had that hot start and they were doing all the motions

and their offense was just going gangbusters against everybody. It was like, does his demeanor really kind of lend to being the head coach of a team? How does that work in a locker room? Well, now there's no questions about that because guess what? You got Harbaugh, who is a supreme leader. that guy, I mean, yes, he's going to be handling the offensive room and everything like that, but not everybody is kind of marching to the beat of his drum. They're marching to the beat of Harbaugh's drum.

So maybe he will flourish in this situation. I think it's a good match. I can't wait to hear Harbaugh talk about McDaniel and vice versa. I can't wait for any of that. And on that note, Dolphins hired Bobby Sloick as their offense coordinator. He also interviewed for the Eagles OC job. Shout to Shafter, he'll be joining us here in a few moments, breaking that news. Eagles offense coordinator thing.

Interesting situation. Now, Bobby Sloak, a couple years back, C.J. Stroud's rookie year where he took over and did something that we didn't think any rookie quarterback should be able to do at this stage of ball with how sophisticated defenses are and how hard it is to kind of adjust to NFL football, especially at the hardest position in the sport like quarterback. We all were taken back by Bobby Sloak, who's this super genius, got some interviews, didn't take any head coaching jobs, and he gets fired from the Houston Texans when it doesn't work out. now he's back as an offensive coordinator for the dolphins. Congrats to him. It felt like he was also one of the next super geniuses there. There was a crown put on Bobby Slowick. Now he's down there in Miami.

Obviously, also had the Eagles offensive coordinator job available. So what's going on over there for the Eagles? What is going on over there for? It makes no sense, right? McDaniel was potentially in it but not in it, right? It was his name ever mentioned. I don't recall. I believe it was, yeah, but I don't know if he ever even took an interview with him.

And there's people like rescinding interview. I know McDaniel did that for the Cleveland Brown's head coaching job, which a lot of people are doing, which is crazy. But the Eagles offense coordinator position feels like that's a good job. In my mind, but I guess you've got to deal with the potential stuff from outside. You've been watching the last couple years where maybe it's just part of the culture. I don't know. That's an interesting thing over there in Philadelphia, not having an O.C.

Yeah, it feels like there's a couple jobs that would possibly be better than being a head coach at Cleveland. I mean, basically any job there. But as far as OC for a team goes, Philly would be, like, you got premier wide receivers, you got a superstar running back, you got a great old line, and you have a Super Bowl MVP quarterback. Like, where else would you possibly want to draw up your offense? Like, especially for a guy like McDaniel, who's, you know, very creative and things like that, sure, you know, you might want to go and play with or go and coach Herbert.

But when you're just thinking about like a Sloick or really anybody who would hopefully want to get their first head coaching opportunity, Philly would be like one of the top five jobs that comes to mind when it comes to just complete offenses. So there has to be something very serious, but not like legally or anything, but serious behind the scenes within the locker room that is wrong or not to put anything on Siriani, but like why wouldn't would Seriani be the reason

why you wouldn't want to be a coordinator? I don't know. Yeah, all these things are potential reasons. I mean, I wonder if they just haven't offered it. Like, I don't, what if they haven't found anybody they like? And this is a whole, you didn't fire me. I quit. life situation that is happening, you know, because Brian Flores signs an extension with the Minnesota

Vikings to be their D.C. if no head coaching roles come. It feels like all the information and news to people is seemingly breaking in a weird manner this year. You know, like the signing the extension as coordinator if no head coaching jobs come, that's strictly because if you don't get a head coaching job, you would also like to know you're okay and not completely out of the loop, like Nagy. Yeah. Matt Nagy for formerly of chiefs, then the Bears he was head coach before, then I think the Chiefs before he was with the Chicago Bears. His offensive coordinator role contract, I guess, just kind of ran out.

Then it was announced that he's a potential candidate for head coaching roles. You know, hey, he's getting head coaching opportunities here. And then now they replaced him in Kansas. Right? Is that not what happened? That is correct. That's a series of events. They just kind of like, yeah, go ahead.

So the contracts that are happening right now, are they indicators for who's going to get head coaching jobs? who's not? Do we kind of know who's getting what now at this point? Does anybody have a clue? Because there's still a lot of jobs that are open right now. Yeah, I think the most recent thing I've heard in terms of openings still is that they've basically said that Clint Kubiak basically has the inside track in Las Vegas. And now it's kind of a formality. They're just waiting until now after the Super Bowl to kind of bring him in and wrap that up. But like we heard the Browns this morning. Like they have all these candidates coming in and very rarely does it seem like, especially for

first-time head coaches, guys are just withdrawing their names. They're turning down second interviews because they don't want to be the head coach of the Cleveland Browns. My bad. Sean McDermott, we got reported yesterday that he's done for this year. Rap Sheet said that he's going to take a year off, so he's not a candidate. I know Arizona was thinking about it, but it's weird. I like that he's doing that.

Congrats, dude. Yeah. Congrats. Take a year, man. And just kind of take it in. Because, I mean, Coach Pagano, McCarthy, you can have calls with the leagues each week, with the league each week. They have representatives that do that. Keep you updated on what the rules are, what the officiatings happen,

maybe statistics of what's being run, why things are being run. Like, I think the league takes care of the old coaches. Or like the Doug Peterson thing where you kind of just bounce around to buddies you have in the league and you're in Cleveland for a week and then you're in Jacksonville for a week, just that kind of stuff. You have updates on jobs? There's just like kind of T leaves of kind of where guys have been rumored, like the cards, it feels like Anthony Campanil is kind of the league.

in the clubhouse. He's the D.C. for the Jaguars. He's. He's one of the guys. Jersey Pisoner. Yeah, he's a Pison genius. He's talks like it as well. Tide talked about Raiders and Kubiak and then Browns. It was reported this morning that they're meeting with Shoehouse today, I believe, in L.A. So that's kind of where the tea leaves are right now. And then the bill's one, who knows? Who knows what's going to go down?

Phil Rivers has what's wrong his name. Okay. What is he doing? He said, not this year maybe. want to take another, maybe he wants to go bounce around different training camps. Kind of see how people are doing, just like we're talking about. Garifalo of the Insiders on NFL Network says, Phil Brothers has withdrawn from the Bill's coaching search. After his interview, say, you know what, I don't think that's for me, actually.

Dadgum it. Not enough room for two 17s, I guess, in Buffalo. Well, you think that was a little bit of the issue? Maybe sitting in on the interview, there was some... Belly to belly, maybe. Yeah. You know, got each other's face a little bit. Hey, when 17s talked about around here, guess what's going to be?

Hmm. me Josh Allen says Look at his hand size brother And also guess what I can do Move you ever done it You think they fought in the interview And then Phil Rivers said something So

So mean But without any swearing Yeah like he's with a couple bad gums Yeah And just sawed him down And then Josh Allen went right back Because remember he was voted Yeah

Best Trash Talker Most Trash Talker Josh Allen was voted By the players Phil Rivers I assumed they weren't doing a vote back then I think he would have probably been Imagine if it did just turn into them right in front of being

and the entire operation. Terry Pagool is in there like, trying to get a word in and they're just sawing each other down the entire time. And that's kind of turned for the other. Let's go settle this on the field and Phil Rivers out through him. Did he really? Yeah, I guess Phil Rivers threw a football in 95 yards. Phil said, I can't.

He went to this team unless I play. Yeah, he was like, they, you know, they brought in Riley Leonard to throw the Hill Mary for me against Seattle, but in reality, watch this, Josh. 90. Phil, good luck in any future endeavors, even if it's high school coaching or NFL coaching and your family. I believe there's, like, good luck. We appreciate the hell out of you, Phil.

Okay, all these headlines are obviously awesome out of the weekend, but we felt that there's top five headlines that need to be talked about separately. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to continue a segment that we started this year. Top five driven by RAM. Now, whenever you hit the gas pedal in a RAM truck, it's going to be big, it's going to be powerful and it's going to sound like this. They're getting back in the truck, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. They are? Yeah. And they've signed that first driver already.

Who? Smok Stewart. Never heard of him? Yeah. Tone? Yeah. I have heard of Tone, Stuart. Bingo.

He was just racing the... He was racing these drag mobiles. The drag race mobiles. Funny cars. The funny cars, yeah. And nothing funny about this speed. No, there ain't nothing. Over here in eastern Indianapolis, there's actually a track that I used to live by.

They used to get after it over there. That's where Tone was. It was burning rubber over there. Real fast. Coramol. How you doing? It's got wheels. He's driving it. Yeah, exactly. He's racing it. He's not scared. Even jet skis, too. I think he said, I'll even do the water. What? Yeah, he's going to be in that Dodge truck. I think it's good idea to have smoke in there.

I think so, too. All right, let's get to the top five headlines. Number five, weather is happening. Did we know that the snow was going to be coming sideways over there in Denver? I think Fike told us there's a chance of a little pre-sit maybe over there in Denver. He said, I haven't looked in. It seems like that is covering. there's a graphic covering Denver on the map in the forecast. But boy, this became one of those snow globe games. This became one of those games that would be remembered forever.

This becomes one of those games that Adam Venetary kicked a field goal in. This is eerily reminiscent of that Raiders game where there was a tuck or a no tuck. And I don't know if either coach had any idea at the beginning of the game. You know, a lot of people talking about Sean Payton going forward on fourth down with a backup quarterback who came out like gangbusters. I mean, it was steady, city. there for a little bit. I mean, he's calling things. He's checking out. He's doing everything. He's calling the tunnel screen motioning people out. He'd been there, done that a thousand times. Hits a deep shot. Wow. Holy hell. I get a FaceTime from AQ Shippley. I get a facetkae

says, I said he was Joe Montana. I said he was Joe Montana. AQ was all jacked up. He thought he had a re-that was literally because he phasedime me and told me this whole thing. Then on a fourth down, they go for it. They don't pick it up. They don't kick the field goal. Now, granted, kicking it was going to be a problem for both teams this entire evening. of people are asking, did Sean Payton know what it was going to become, which was an absolute blizzard and snowstorm at mile high? I assume it was windy as shit. Did Sean have any inclination that the rest of the game was going to be very difficult to score? Or did he have any inclination that the two best defenses, I guess you've got to add Seattle in there, so I can't

just say that. Both these defenses are the reason why your teams are here. Points are going to be at a premium. I think that question can certainly be asked. But as a whole, I don't think we knew that's what that weather was going to be. That was awesome to watch. There's people that hate it though gone there. Yeah, of course, and people are always going to hate it, especially if the Patriots are winning. But I didn't think we were going to get this much pre-sip. NFLweather.com right before the game, I checked it at

245 Eastern. And it said there was going to be snow every single quarter. So when the first half happened and there was no snow, I damn near thought, oh, no precept. Fike just lied to us like a jack wagon. There is not going to be any precept. This is just going to be a cold game,

maybe a little bit of wind. That third quarter, I don't think anybody expected it to be like that. Sideways in Sean Payton's eyes, obviously kicking being very difficult, which why Adam Venetieri's kick back in the day, even more so. I think we should think about it. He also has a kick against Buffalo a couple of years back that moved a full upright in the middle of the snow. Talk about just being locked in, laser focused, and him being there for all this to happen as they block a kick as well. I mean, special teams, defense, not turning the ball over, and huge plays by your quarterback, whenever you need it. Feels like we're back to the good old

and that leads to number four headline. What's the play? Drake May. His bootleg bucks the Broncos out of the tournament. Drake May called this himself. Nobody else on the field had any idea that he was going to keep this thing himself.

Everybody thought it was a run to the right. Drake May says, actually, I'm going to keep that thing. And I, Drake May, who led the North Carolina Tar Heels in rushing and passing I'm going to do my thing to get a first down to win this game. He was miced up. NFL films has inside the NFL on X, and they're doing it right.

Okay, inside the NFL for NFL films has been a legendary show for NFL films for a long time. They have realized what the world is and what they need to be. They've moved strictly to clips on X, and we get this beautiful clip of Drake May miced up for the entirety of the game-winning bootleg out to the left for the first down in a trip to the Super Bowl. That's how you do that! That's how you do that!

All right, calm down. Calm down. Yep, we did it. We did it. Yeah, what a moment for him. Now, granted, how many people did not know that that was coming? How many people did know that was coming? Whatever the case, Drake May showcases something that they don't rely upon heavily with,

which is his legs, and sends them to the Super Bowl. What a moment for you, Patriots con man. Yeah, that's how you do that. That's one of those plays that will live on in Patriot lore. You know, hopefully we complete the mission next Sunday and go on to win a Super Bowl. When you talk about moments, this is the first playoff win in Denver for the New England Patriots.

Like, when you think about games in the future, because Drake May and Bo Nicks, both very young, should have many battles in the future. This is one of those plays that will come. kind of stamp Drake May's, not legacy as a whole, but when you think about Super Bowl appearances, yeah, you're going to go back and remember Drake May calling

his own number and keeping the ball for the first down to win at all. Unbelievable performance. Can't wait to see the 23-year-old in his Super Bowl. Not this upcoming Sunday, the following one. He'll be taking on number three headline. Not the same Donald. We talked about this ad nauseum already. Sam Donald could have

folded in the NFC championship and everybody would have been dancing on his grave. Everybody would have been saying, we've been waiting for the pumpkin. We've been waiting for water to find its level. This is who you actually are, but instead he has a three touchdown, 340 plus yard night where he's spinning it all over the place. Jackson Smith and Jigba obviously outrageous. Cooper Cup does this thing. Kenneth Walker, more like Kenneth Runner over everything. They're unbelievable. They're fun. Sam Donald, congrats to you, buddy. That's a huge monkey you get off your back. Number two headline coming out of the weekend.

Listen, Alex Honnold is must watch. Okay, this is not in Championship Sunday. This was on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern. It was supposed to be on Friday, 8 p.m. Eastern. Had some rain. Can't do, obviously, the pre-sip, whenever you're talking about climbing glass and buildings. They move it to Saturday. It was windy, but no pre-sip. And my man, Alex Honnold, of Free Solo fame, which obviously won an Oscar and changed all of our lives and how we view everything. after watching Free Solo, we were mesmerized by the fact that this is how some people,

this man being the goat of it, spend their full lives committed to this, working out, training, traveling, climbing things that are seemingly impossible with no rope with a chance of death at every single movement. I watched for an hour, they said hour 35, I saw hour 31 whenever he got to the tip of this thing. I watched every single moment of it. I just put baby girl down to bed, perfect timing to sit down and kind of settle in. And I watched this dude scale this. That was the most tense, intense viewing experience that I've had.

That's what it's supposed to be when people are doing death-defying stunts. I appreciate the hell out of Honnold doing this. There was a couple obstacles. This is a dragon. I think there was another one. Music, I know, or something. I forget what they were calling it, that he had to get past. Could it just want around it.

Could it just want around it. Any given time could have won around it. Instead, says, I've got to conquer this thing. Climes up these things that are on the corner of this building. Leaps a couple different times. Does incredible upside-down shit on the edge of this building. hangs off it with no arms. Yeah, I'm just going to lock my legs up here at the top.

1,667 feet is how high this thing is. He's doing this live in real time. I saw a lot of people, you know, trying to downplay a little bit, like watch Free Solo. All Capiton's a real deal. And it's like, of course it is. And I was very impressed then. My palms were sweaty whenever I watched it.

I loved everything about it. This is live in real time. The other option is death. This guy potentially going to die. He gets to the top of the mountain, just like he does every time, takes a selfie. There's people with cameras of his face in the building. Did he know that was going to happen?

Him going, wow. There's people right here. Hey, how you know, I try to give a high five to about 1,500 feet in the sky. I try to give a high five of this guy, but he wouldn't put his phone down. You know, kids with his phones. This is what this dude's saying while he's doing this. Not a care in the world seemingly. And what they were saying is because how prepared he is. How much

he works out? He's got a 10-packed. Saw his house. He's got little training things he does. This was must watch. This was a very different experience than I've ever had watching anything. and I'm grateful for Honnold and Netflix, good idea with that entire thing. Now, I'm not sure they knew it was going to be like super tense.

You know, I think they might have misread like the vibe that it was going to be whenever he was that high. But on that note, congrats to Netflix on a definite, successful live event here on Saturday. I loved it. I loved it every moment. I couldn't turn away. I could not turn away from this man

scaling like fucking Spider-Man the Taipei 101. Yeah, and we talked about like when they did the stuff with the Wellendos, how that kind of fell flat because there was no, there's no stake in it, really. It's like, hey, nothing is going to happen. And while it is highly unlikely that Netflix was going to broadcast him fall to his death, like, that is still very much possible. Like, you, I mean, when he is on the very top of this thing, an extra strong wind gust comes and guess what, it blows him off the top and he's fucking dead. Every time he's hanging on that and he would

take one of his hands off to get a little chalk. Like, I, I just, did it here. Like I had to look away. It just, it really is, man. You'd be hard-pressed to find something more tense to watch than this. It was awesome. I'm very appreciative that that was happening this weekend. We appreciate that. And the number one headline coming out of the weekend, ladies and gentlemen, happy Super Bowl season. By far, number one headline. To talk more about it being Super Bowl season, a senior NFL insider for ESPN, friend of the program, Michigan man. Ladies and gentlemen, happy Super Bowl season two, Adam Schefter.

Thank you. Happy Super Bowl season. Happy Super Bowl season to you. What does this mean? Obviously McCarthy gets the Steelers job. We got some jobs going around. Arthur Smith goes back to Ohio State. You got some O.C. is getting filled.

What is Super Bowl season for you entail as we only have one game left of this magical NFL season? Well, Pat, we got one game and four head coach openings. So there's more of an emphasis on the fourth head coach openings right now than the one game that's 13 days away. and obviously it's the biggest game of the year, and there'll be plenty of time to that. But I would think that we would have all these head coaching jobs filled this week, probably sooner rather than later. I wouldn't be surprised if by Wednesday there are no openings left at this point in time. Okay, so that's every all four jobs.

Is there one domino piece that kind of sets it all off, or all of these acting individually? No, I think the candidates on the Raiders and the Bill's radar are pretty similar. have essentially the bills feel like they're going to go offense. They feel like they're going to go offense. And it feels like Davis Webb, Brian Daibald, Joe Brady, Grant Udinski. That's what it feels like to me in Buffalo right now. The Raiders, it looks like it could be Davis Webb, Joe Brady is there today, Brian Daibble, like the same names in both places.

Now, I would think that obviously Josh Allen is going to be more of a drawing card than the Raiders situation. But if you love Fernando Mendoza, then go take the Raiders job and spend the next decade with him. Like, that's certainly viable. Rookie quarterback contract, hold on, Schefter. Can I expand on the Bills and Raiders a little bit here? Rookie quarterback contract as well for at least the next four years, maybe five years. Let's assume Fernando works out. We think he's going to be generational.

Do these two teams know that they're talking to the same people? when you say this on this show or tweet this, that's when they find that out. I think everybody has a pretty good idea what other people are doing. Like, you know, Joe Brady's there today. He was with Buffalo over the weekend. Brian Dayball interviewed with the Raiders on Saturday. He's been with the bills. Both sides are talking to Davis Webb, the Broncos, past game coordinator, and quarterback coach today, today. And I just think that they both know that they're employees. on basically similar guys. Buffalo has a former MVP to offer. The Raiders do not. They have the

number one pick to offer. So again, Buffalo would appear to be closer to having a Super Bowl caliber roster right now. So that's kind of those two teams. Cleveland, I think when you look at it right now, Grant Udinski pulled out on the Browns this morning. They've got four candidates left. the commander's run game coordinator, Anthony Lynn, the former Ravens offensive coordinator, Todd Monkin, and the guys, the two guys that I believe this job is coming down to, which are the Rams passing game coordinator, Nate Shieldhouse. Oh, hold on a second.

Hold on a second. Bill's might be making a hiring, actually. They have an MVP candidate. You can mute him, please, Nick. We muted you. We muted you. So I think the Brown's job, in my mind, they've got four candidates left, and I think it comes down to, in the end, the two guys out front are the Rams, past game coordinator, Nate Schillhouse, and their own defensive coordinator, Jim Schwartz. I think those are the two choices.

Okay, for the Browns, what's this deal with homework and a quiz and all this stuff? What's going? There's been reports of their hiring process maybe being a little bit different. Sleeper NFL is all over it. We do not know how accurate it is, which is why we ask you this question. Is there anything different going on it? Like maybe the Browns kind of interview process than anywhere else or just people don't want to go to the Browns, maybe?

Well, Tone, Connor, Ty, they told me that they had to take tests to come on your show before they could be hired full-time. I mean, that's important. We're on the street with your show, Pat, that you've got to pass a quiz. I know I failed the quiz, but you were kind enough to grant me immunity to put me back on the show.

I'll tell you what. I feel like that was a situational failure there more so, and you're just a part of that, you know. If I had kind of described the situation more accurately, I would say that. But yes, so the tests, you're potentially saying this is a normal process. A lot of teams do a lot of different testing. Now, I think the Browns has been a bit more intensive this cycle. You know, whether you have homework, you know, term papers, I don't know about all that stuff.

But it certainly seems like they are taking it to an extreme. there are teams that do psychological psychological testing profiles they do all kinds of things on these guys but it does sound like it does sound like the Browns have kind of gone next level on it it does sound like

sit on exactly worst thing it's ever happened to you think about it oh you're already thinking about it I already ruined your day didn't I how are you going to come back from that got a meeting right now let me see it oh man it was a bad day

yeah but we need you to bounce back on the other side Is that what the Pittsburgh Steelers did? Tone has a question for you, Shephti. Yeah, Shephti, I don't know if you've seen it on the internet, but Jensers and Steelers fans aren't exactly thrilled about the coach McCarthy hire. They kind of said it's a lateral coaching hire. But the big part of the reason is they're mad is because they only brought in three in-faced interviews. Do you have any insight into their hiring process and, you know, potentially how it shook out?

Yeah. The other two finalists for Anthony Weaver and Brian Flores. all three, including McCarthy, were brought to Pittsburgh for interviews. And I think if we go back to Art Rooney's press conference when Mike Tom wanted to step down, and he talked about the fact that he didn't want to rebuild, and they've got a veteran team, and this is a team that won the division this past year. They won the division. They're not ready to shut it down and rebuild.

And so they felt like a guy like Mike McCarthy, who's got the experience he does. who's familiar with grooming quarterbacks could be helpful either growing Mason Rudolph and Will Howard or whoever they draft or potentially even helping to lure back Aaron Rogers. Now, they didn't hire him. They did not hire him to bring back Aaron Rogers. But I guarantee on their checklist of things like, well, this is one little bonus. He's got a relationship with Aaron Rogers. And if Aaron decides that he wants to play again, he'll know the coach.

know the offensive system, and maybe that will help make Aaron's decision. But they didn't hire Mike McCarthy to bring back Aaron Rodgers. That did not happen. They just felt like here's a team that won the division last year. We want to maintain our standard. The standard is the standard in Pittsburgh, right? And they were trying to achieve that standard by going and hiring the oldest coach they've ever had. The oldest, like they've never had a sitting coach older than Mike McCarthy is right now. Yeah, and they hire in the 30s. That has kind of been the move of the past since 1979 or 69. 69.

So, you know, the organization has hired good coaches for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the past. We assume that Coach Mike McCarthy will do great things because we agree with them. Pittsburgh Steelers fans are going to have to see it. They're going to have to see it. Just like everywhere, you're going to have to earn it. And Mike McCarthy knows that more than anybody. He's from the city. So I think he's excited for the opportunity.

I'm excited to see that veteran crew continue to run it back. And we'll follow along on your Twitter account for any of the city. breaking news over the next couple days for these head coaching vacancies. We appreciate it. It's going to be busy. What day? You know, I'm sure there will be some things today, but again, like, again, by Wednesday, I believe the majority of those jobs, if not all of them, will be filled. Big day tomorrow. Hey, gentlemen, that's Adam Schefter.

Yes, Jeffrey. Football is the greatest, and we are officially in Super Bowl season. Congratulations, and we hope you have an incredibly happy one. The toxic tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys AP Tony's here. Done.

Feels like we're going to have a defensive struggle potentially in that Super Bowl. What's the over under projected for the Super Bowl right now as we sit 13 days away? It's not this following Sunday. It's the next one. 46 and a half. That means 24, 23 for that thing to cover? It's a bit high the way that the Patriots games have been going. Those have been lower.

but they've also been in snow in Denver, in snow in New England, and then they scored enough and just dominated the chargers in the first one. The Patriots defense has been unbelievable. So has the Seahawks. But, I mean, you never know how these. I am very, very eager because you talked about it earlier, about weather. And, like, I love seeing the weather in the AFC and NFC championships. One place where we don't love seeing weather is in the Super Bowl.

Like, that's the one place where it should be on an even playing field. We need to watch that in San Francisco because that could be a sleepy track out of there if we get some moisture, some precinct. Yeah, who knows what the weather is going to be on. out there, I guess, because easy come, easy go. We assume it'll be a great vibe, great electric kind of atmosphere out there as the Seahawks, take it to Cali, you know. And when you think about the Patriots traveling out there, it's so crazy that this is 2026. Yeah.

It's so crazy, Seahawks, the Patriots are back. Legion of Boom, Dynasty. Crazy. Bill, Tom, Ross, Shirm. What? Ladies of gentlemen, joining us now. He's a guy who's going to have the utmost amount of respect for the. defenses they're about to play in this Super Bowl?

And does the defense actually win the Super Bowl this year, potentially? Sam Donald balls out. Drake May might win the MVP, but across the board, it's been a lot heavier hitting on the defensive side. Join us now as the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. He's a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, ladies a gentleman, AJ Hawke. Hawker, Seahawks defense, obviously Matthew Stafford is going to be able to do some things.

Parkinson, six, seven, dude, do we know that that guy is six foot seven? What a monster he is. alone all the other weapons. Devante Adams still doing it. Puka showed up looking incredibly cool, always does Puka stuff. And I guess the Seahawks defense is going to get the Seahawks defense, Patriots defense. This is strength, strength of these teams, AJ Hawk. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you can watch these games. Obviously very different games because of the conditions that they were played under.

But yeah, what a fun game. I mean, both these games were awesome to watch. And Stafford and Darnold kind of going back and forth was cool to see. and anyone that's not a Sam Donald fan, you would have to feel pretty good for what this guy has done in his career and how he has kind of revitalized everything and changed things in Seattle. But, yeah, we're showing these defensive equipment. You've got to be kidding me. They have so many studs at all three levels when it comes to Seattle.

And then, of course, New England, we know that they can do defensively. But they just kept coming, man. Like the Rams had many different opportunities, I guess, to find a way to win that game. In Seattle's defense just said, no, it's not going to happen tonight, not in our house. I appreciate what you said there about Sam Darnold, though. I mean, he's still got his hate us.

Oh, yeah. He's still got his people that are still waiting and seeing, is what they're saying, until the season is over. I guess that's actually a pretty good angle, you know? I learned that that was won against Dak, Prescott. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see, we'll see, we'll see. So you just pawn off the debate for 15, 16, 17 weeks.

You say, well, my entire angle is whenever the lights get bright. Well, it's like, well, what are we going to do in your eyes? It's an NFL game. A lot of people watching. Lights pretty bright, I think. It's just standard NFL game. Is it for number one seed NFL game? Is it for playoffs?

Is it for NFC championship? What is the thing? I guess you could just kind of pawn it off and only one person can really win each season so it's not bad. But it's like, for the number one overall seed, I thought that was a big night that made some place. For the NFC championship, a huge night, he goes for over 300 plus with three touchdowns.

It's like, I'm happy for Sam Darnalcom. I am happy. And also, Drake May. Drake May with how young he is. Can he do it in a big game? I want to see him doing a big game. That was an argument against Drake May this year. He's having an MVP year.

We'll see. We'll see. When will we see? Playoffs. What about what he's doing right now? We'll see. It's like, well, he's obviously able to do it, especially with we're hearing that he calls his own shot for the first down.

It's like great storylines coming out of both these quarterbacks. Yeah, and Drake will still deal with it. I feel like, you know, the schedule thing was one thing. and then every single game basically throughout the playoffs. It hasn't been about him taking care of the football and just getting the job done and winning the game and getting the hell out of there. It's more so been about no-bo-nick, C.J. Stroud stinks

and Justin Herbert doesn't have an offensive line. So no matter what that's going to happen. But when you talk about Sam Darnold, is Sam Darnold like the greatest comeback story in the history of the NFL? Of course, Kurt Warner, American underdog, that is one thing. But Sam Darnold as a top three pick to go from, the New York football jets to this guy seeing ghosts absolutely stinks, to backup quarterback with the Panthers,

to getting benched with the Panthers, to them back up again, then to Minnesota getting run out of Minnesota. And now in Seattle to, you know, going to the Super Bowl, it's remarkable his career arc. Yeah, and him being chosen by this Seahawks team. Okay, this is McDonald saying,

hey, we need you. Here's McDonald immediately afterwards about Sam Donald. Can't talk about the game without talking about our quarterback. I mean, he just shut a lot of people up tonight. really happy for him. What do you think got you in this form? If you can key out tonight, what it took? I don't know if anybody could hear me afterward, but the power of 12 is one is real, you know?

Just synergy. People buying in doing it together. I love the way this guy has come in there and got the entire city to believe in. Because remember, and I hate that we have to bring us up, but we have to. It wasn't long ago. Other teams were coming into their stadium, AJ. They didn't believe in the turnaround, you know? And I think 12s would say, we believed we just,

there was a price for these tickets now. You know, and you know how the economy and everything like that. We just let the Buffalo bills come in and take over Lumenfield, which is never happened. I mean, the 12s are like historic and legendary. We thought maybe they had lost their fan base. Instead, it feels like they rekindled a relationship with their fan base about how you will love this team.

This team works hard. This team doesn't talk shit. And our quarterback is an incredible underdog story. And our coach is a full. football computer. I'm listening to him. Talked. He has a lot of Signetti in him. He is a football computer, AJ Hawk. Yeah, he is. If you remember when he first got hired, like a lot of people weren't really sure who the Seahawks head coach was after Pete Carroll. Like, McDonnell was almost not a, not in Seattle, obviously, not in coaching circles, but for the casual fan. He was like

an afterthought. They weren't really sure who this guy was. So that's the thing when it comes to hiring coaches. You don't know when you hire a coach if he's a good hire or not. You need to wait a couple years. Shitty for them, just right for us is what he said in that first meeting and it's like he built a team built on that vision. They got a real culture out there of dogs already and being able to establish it this early in your head coaching, what a run.

Rable is able to do it in his first year up there in New England. Isn't that crazy age? I mean, if you think about it, it's really not the success that he had in Tennessee early on, the success he had as a player. This guy wins wherever he goes. He's the guy that knows how to build a team and to get him all going the right direction. Also, having McDaniels there is the O.C.,

that guy is an absolute mastermind when it comes to offensive football, too. Yeah, I, um, Vraibs, what a perfect, like, football coach. Yeah. Sounds like from the way I appreciate it. Accountability very high, but he's going to be all in. He's all in. He's in the locker room, and he's the chief commander of the locker room. Yeah.

He's talking to the boys as if he's a guy, but everybody in there understands his resume, everybody understands what he's been through. And I assume he says things that legitimize him as somebody that can make them be the best version of themselves, which is what every coach has to prove to a player for a player to buy in. That entire locker room has bought in to Mike Vrable. And him screaming, Warriors, what is that?

You explained to me earlier. And it was part of Mack. Mack came in with glass bottles on his fingies. And obviously he was barefoot for his return to the action. He made a couple massive plays. Congress of Mac Holland's doing everything he's doing up there in New England. And so he showed up with these on his fingers. I would be worried they'd be stuck forever.

Yeah. Because we have gotten a finger stuck maybe on a ball before you. You never know what's going to happen. I'll bust this thing off of me. He didn't worry about any of that. And then I heard this Warriors thing said, what is this, Connor? So I'm not sure exactly what the movie references. The movie is some post-apocalyptic

scenario. Classic film from the 70s, called Warriors. Call Warriors, and that is one of the main characters. They have bottles on their fingers and they're yelling warriors. I know their thing all year was Road Warriors. He yells it right here. I don't know. Yeah, come out and play. That's like from the movie itself. So I know Road Warriors has been

their thing and that kind of maybe led to the movie Warriors itself. When you talk about Vrable though, is he one of the one most obvious things that was going to happen? Not Super Bowl, but I think we all kind of thought even before Vrable got hired like, hey, wherever this guy goes

they're going to win. And the team meetings are incredible to watch too. And Bob Kraft kind of at the end here gives him a game ball and just gives it over him giving basically the team to Vrable in the offseason was amazing. But Don't you guys kind of think while we're doing the hiring now, especially with the new cycle? Like, Vrable was the one we all kind of thought he's going to get the job done.

Ben Johnson was expected. Yeah, sure. Okay, New England Vrable, I don't know how quickly everybody thought it was going to happen. We had high, high hopes because I think we think we know him a little better because of your relationship with him. There was no chance he failed up there, huh, age? That kind of feels like Vrable football, a nutshell? Yeah, I didn't think there's a chance that he would fail. I just, we didn't know it would happen this quickly, I guess.

said, hey, he takes these guys to the Super Bowl year one and has them all by. And it just seems to have like, yeah, we're looking at another Patriots dynasty run here, it feels like. Yeah, congratulations to the maceholes. We're certainly enjoying it all. Thank you, guys. Thank you. And I will pass that on as well to everyone else. I saw Portnoy just laughing at his phone.

It's like, this is where we got to live now. This is it? Mm-hmm. This is what it is. Whole new generation, too. I think a lot of people were worried about the one to seven-year-olds in New England. as far as fandom goes. When it comes to football,

we've won an NBA championship just two years ago. It hasn't been that long. I just got to text. We have some breaking news. Yeah, this is in the vein of things that we would break, I think. Okay.

Definitely is. I could tell already. It's very different than what we were just talking about. It's in the vein. It's breaking news. Journalism. Breaking news. For the first time in two decades,

ESPN will carry live coverage of the PGA tour on its flagship, linear channel, during the farmer's insurance open from noon to three on Thursday, January 29th and Friday, January 30th, with the opening round broadcast

coinciding with Brooks Kepka's return to the PGA tour. Wow. Brooks! Brooksie baby! Yeah. Bringing golf to ESPN on Thursday and Friday. Now that means we're getting booted.

I was just going to say, okay. So we're getting booted over to ESPN too. For good reason, though. Brooks Kepka back into PGA, we are pumped about it. we are excited about. We think it's good for golf. We think it's great for golf.

And I'll tell you what, if Scotty Sheffler's just going to continue to win every single tournament? Scottie's just going to. This guy's a machine. And then we got Blades Brown now? Look out. Oh, Blades. Brown is about to be a real weapon.

This guy's rock, paper, scissoring people on his way down to the green to make a 35-foot pot. This guy's 18 years old. Graduated high school goes to a corn fairy thing, goes the Bahamas thing, comes over here, drives over this place, guys ahead and shoots a 60 should have shot a 59, missed a putt by about an eighth of an inch or whatever. Blades?

Brad! Is the future golf, and his name is Blades? I mean, what are we talking about? Is this the one? Could be. Scottie Shephler is obviously... We got the one. We got the one.

Because I was kind of thinking the same thing, and then all the stats are coming out, and we tend to forget. Scott Shephler's not even 30 years old yet. So he's got quite the... runway left. So, I mean, we'll see. It was pretty sweet seeing what Blades Brown did, but did anyone go into Sunday thinking, oh my God, Blades Brown is going to unseat Scott. He's 18, Ty. Hold on, excuse me. We're on attacking Scottie Sheffler. I know, I know. I'm just saying, we got the one.

We do got the one. His name's Scotty fucking Sheffler. You're right. And we are very thankful that we are alive and on microphones during the Scotty Sheffler era. We are very, very thankful for that. We think he is awesome for sport. We think he is awesome for golf. He's also getting a lot more comfortable on a microphone. We think we have noticed over like the last year or so, developing into his own superstar and how he wants to handle being the greatest golfer on Earth. But yeah, as soon as Scottie's name is even on the board.

Oh, he's winning. Oh, that's so sick that Scotty's blessing that golf course. That's what I think. Oh, Scott, he's playing this weekend. Good for this tournament. They must have some real people running this tournament. They've got Scottie shit. That's how I view it.

And it's like when he's on there and out there, which I think he's out there every weekend, he's winning. He's unbelievable. Brooks coming back, though, is good for the Scotty Schaeffler legacy because they were starting to have that conversation about like, well, Scottie's not playing against all the best players like the guys in the past half. You know, I'm saying the negative people have been saying that.

Brooks comes back. Potential DeCMbrough return, right? There's a potential couple others that might come back from Live to the PGA, which Brian Rolap, new head of the PGA kind of extended in all of the branch, saying, hey, you have this amount of time. If you did this, you can come back to PGA, but you won't get any equity in the PGA over the next few years. So there is a penalty, financial penalty for everything.

So I'm thinking Scotty Shephyr's air is awesome. And Brooks Kepka going back to PGA, great. Starts on Thursday. Oh, it's huge. Can you imagine a final pairing, Scotty and Brooks, like 18 holes? Like, say they're both, yeah, that would be, that's going to be amazing. Yeah, Blades, I don't know. What?

Maybe he can continue. I mean, the guy is hot. We know that. He is absolutely hot. And I think it's great. Can you imagine being 18 out there competing with these dudes, like, threatening to win a tournament? He doesn't even know what it feels like. No.

This guy's got no idea. He's just bopping around. on a golf course making incredible shots. It's unbelievable. He's at the you don't know what you don't know stage of golf it appears. But also, do you ever know what you don't know? This could just be who Blades Brown is

and we might be getting introduced to a new one. That was fun to follow him this weekend. Yeah, exactly. I mean, because you, I mean, you know Scotty's going to be up there, but like having a nice, fun, exciting, almost 59 coming out of an 18-year-old is insane. Brooks playing in this week's tournament, Scottie is not so the first time that they have a chance to be paired together

is AQ's tournament that he hopes. the waste management open next week, Super Bowl weekend. They'll be in that tournament together, I believe. Okay, so Scott is not golfing this weekend? No. Brooks golfing, though. Yeah. Okay, good news. Watch. Is Rory in 80s?

BCGC tonight, actually, TGL need him to come through. I know Boston, excuse me, BcGC, Boston Com and Golf Club. They're going up tonight for TGL, yeah. So I don't know if Rory is as focused with TGL going on. Okay, TGL certainly taking a world by storm. It is worthy of a watch. I think you will be entertained. There's chips, there's puts, there's things that happen in there that are good golf,

and obviously getting a chance to watch them just absolutely nuke one into a screen. Yeah. He's a good time golf is always going to have that. Let's go to college football. AJ, you know there's some drama. You know some drama? I have seen some clips. Yes, there definitely seems to be some drama.

So that boy, Dabo Sweeney, head coach of the Clemson Tigers down there. He is a guy who I think he's been known as a great football coach, but somebody that wasn't the most pumped for this modern era of college football. The NIL era, the Transfer Portal era, he very rarely, at the beginning of it all, used it at all. A lot of people were saying Dabo's got no idea what he's doing. He can't coach in this era. He refuses to coach in this era, which is why the Clemson Tigers have kind of fallen out of relevance. Then he dabbles with the transfer portal a little bit, kind of does his thing,

understands the business, evolves. I think Dabo is just kind of late to the party, but I do think Dabo is a great football coach, so I think he'll figure it out once he's all in. and I just think he was being a bit stubborn about something that was happening around him. Now, on that note, he was being stubborn because he feels like it's not good for the sport. I think he was trying to hold out in hopes that maybe others would. They are not. And even more so, they're going above and beyond.

And Davo swinging laid it all out to us. Davo said, let me tell you what's going on in this college football that we're in right now. Everybody wants me to evolve to this college football. I don't want to do this college football. I want to do the previous college football because this college football has this stuff going on. Guy commits. Transfer portals over. Signs, contract. Head coach of another team. He's sending pictures of a million dollars. Ask him how much a buyout is. How is this not tampering? Who should enforce this? How does this go? And then the coach that's being accused of it. Here's about it all. Goes to his ex-account. Just post a shark, baby.

Obviously, Ole Miss has the sharks. I do believe that is a part of their entire branding and everything. but a shark would also be sending text messages to other guys, players with pictures of a million bucks saying, hey, what's the buyout to get you out of there? Well, how ironclad is that contract that you just announced that you signed and everybody thought was all over? Joining us now, ladies a gentleman, is a man who's going to get to the bottom of it. How normal is this? What are the rules? Who would be enforcing the rules if there was rules to enforce them in college football?

Ladies and gentlemen, the authority, Pete Thammell. Yeah, Pete. Pete, you look awesome. Thank you for joining us. Did I accurately lay out everything that kind of happened there? And can you give us a bit more detail and kind of where we go from here in this situation? Yeah, absolutely, Pat. Thanks for having me.

So I think the most important part of Davos-Sweeney's direct calling out of Ole Miss and Pete Golding is just how rare it is in the modern landscape. A, you don't hear sitting head coaches, especially those who've won two national titles. I think he's one of two guys who's won two Natty's that's active right now. just get in front of a microphone and lay out, you know, piece by piece allegations of tampering, giving specific examples of evidence in how the tampering went. That is like the wow in all this. That just does not happen in an environment in college football right now where tampering is par for the course, man, tampering is first and ten.

It is rampant. It is out there. And one of the reasons why it's so rare that coaches call it out is a vast majority of them or their staffs are doing the same thing. Dabo is one of the few coaches. whose backyard is clean enough that he can come and say, hey, look, like, this is happening. This should not be happening.

Have you talked to Group 5 coaches, FCS coaches, people like that? I mean, they could give you examples. And what's happened is generally on the landscape pet, coaches have become cavalier about this. They have not been careful. Like, they used to use burner phones. They used to kind of be, you know.

McDonald's bags. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there we go. There we go. And, yeah. Now it's. just as Dabo alleges, you know, pretty blatant. The head coach is texting, allegedly, the linebacker, who's very good, by the way,

in sociology class to say, hey, come here and here's what we'll do and here's how this will, here's how this will go. So around the industry, Dabo's move was like wildly applauded because in general, people want rules, right? Like in general, people want paradigms, guardrails, however you want to say it. Like people want, people want rules. they want them to be followed, but college football, as we know, college athletics in general, have a rich history of rules being made and people finding ways

around the rules. And it is the least surprising development in the history of college athletics that this iteration we're in right now has followed along with that, with now the CSC and the NCAA. Like, people thought it was the NCAA that couldn't enforce the rules, but the reality that we're learning is nobody wanted to follow the rules. So they're not going to until someone forces them to do it. So this specific case, Pat, is going to come to the NCAA. I was told by NCAA officials on Friday that they processed 90 tampering cases in the last year.

Now, that could include tennis or ping pong or whatever else. There have been in the last, since the NIL era started, I would say there has been a distinct lack of high profile tampering cases, considering how rampant it is in the environment. Seaton Hall basketball had a case where Kevin Willard, their former head coach, was suspended. and Chene Holloway, who's now the head coach there, who's at St. Peter's at the time. They had to serve a couple games suspension each. They do say, but, you know, that is the one example where I can recall a sitting head coach in a prominent sport actually serving time for tampering because they were caught that red-handed. So this is going to be a fascinating test case going forward, but let's be real, Pat.

Say Pete Golding gets caught here. Say he did what he's alleged and the NCAA finds evidence to charge him. Is that going to stop an environment? where I would estimate 90% of the schools are doing some kind of tampering. My guess would be no. So ideally, what Dabo did, people were applauding and they were behind. And, you know, there was a wave of enthusiasm for that. But until that changes the reality, I don't know how much of an impact it's going to have.

Thank you for the breakdown. So Dabo Sweeney is a fish trying to swim up a waterfall right now, is what you're saying in the entirety. Certainly morally correct. and potentially has the right angle from the entire industry side, but it's going to be tough to change anything with just this one particular case. So sociology actually a pretty good class to take for studying how this all kind of turns out. Anyways, shout to Professor Feather. I appreciate the hell out of sociology was a fantastic class.

So you're saying 90% of the people aren't really pressing this type of issue because they got skeletons in air closet doing the exact same thing. So how would it stop? and are they going to go back and punish people once rules are made? Like, if there's a harsh punishment to Golding here, who I don't think, does he even know that he did something wrong? He's very new head coach. This is the world that he was kind of raised in. Him just putting a shark tweet out there.

It's just like, yeah, so what, so what, so be it. I'm going to go ahead and do that. Like, he doesn't know what the punishment could be. Kind of a lame move. What is the punishment that could happen to coach Golding? And is the punishment going to be strong enough that it stops everybody from doing it? Or how do you stop? Like, what is the right answer here to stop all of it?

So it is not all going to be stopped. I'm convicted on that. I do think if there is a punishment to be golding for these allegations, and again, they are just allegations, it could curb or maybe change behavior or de-incentivize that kind of behavior, or they could have third parties do it, et cetera, et cetera. The rare part of this is the allegations are that the head coach was, you know, this direct in the tampering allegations. Now, look, Dabo laid out pretty clear these things. What we don't know is, Do they have copies of the text messages or with those just verbally articulated? Is there actual hard evidence of this? And that's ultimately what it's going to come down to from an NCAA standpoint. You know, can the NCAA go interview Luke Ferelli and say, hey, did this actually happen? You know, it is certainly going to be uncomfortable for Ole Miss and Pete Golden going forward. That is, that is certain.

Can I sit here watching the impotence of NCAA enforcement for the last, you know, quarter century that I've done this and say, oh, they'll get this, you know, they'll just hammer them to the wall here. No, of course not. It just simply hasn't operated that way at any point. So I don't know why we would think this would, you know, be a paradigm shift or paradigm changer. I think there's optimism in the industry. It could curb some behavior or maybe alter some behavior. But I don't know that we're this deep in this path where it's just, you know,

everything's going to go full stop. Okay. Thank you for that update. Sounds very positive. AJ has a question for you. Yeah, Pete, do you think we will see more coaches possibly doing this, especially if the NCAA does not come down hard on Pete Golden and what they have done? You think other coaches might feel comfortable calling other teams out for tampering? Well, I think that was the point of Davo doing this is to basically say, and he even said it, you know, on the record in this.

He just said, hey, look, like, we need to do this to save our industry. We need to do, we need to call out this type of behavior. Usually what happens in these cases, AJ, is a coach, out that some assistant recruiting director is tampering, and that coach calls the head coach that says, hey, cut it out. And typically they cut it out. That, I've been to have heard countless, countless examples of, of that happening. But look, if you stop tampering, you lose a considerable competitive advantage. And to have 100, 136 of these schools, you know, let's say 120 of them doing it, right? Do you think all 120 are going to give up their competitive advantage or they're

going to find another way to create the competitive advantage. Now, I, like, certainly appreciate Davo doing this. I mean, it's, from a content perspective and from an idealism perspective, it is, it is absolutely rare. It is honorable what he's doing. And I think it comes from the, from the right place. But again, you cover this industry long enough, cynicism develops. So I can't, I can't come on and promise this is going to be the tipping point that changes, that changes everything. But it is a fascinating snapshot, fascinating moment in time, and we'll be very interesting to track. The thing I would caution here, Pat, is right now in the middle of January, everyone's hot and heavy on this story. We do know that the NCAA process for enforcement is reputationalally historically really slow.

So could the NCAA process this case with appeals by opening day, you know, September, whatever, this year? Historically, zero chance. Maybe they can change. Maybe they can expedite it to make an example. Maybe they can do anything. But we'll remember when Connor Stallions happened, Ty's favorite case? No, what? Not just Ty.

In November of that year, people were like, well, they'll adjudicate this by the end of the, you know, 23 season. It really didn't get solved until, what, three months before the 25 season, right? That was, it was June maybe when that came out. You tell us, Pete. Sounds like you were on top of it. Yeah, right around. Bucking, Pete, if you do regardless. Yeah, you were...

Greasy, Peep. Greasy, Buckeye, Pete. You were an informant for Ohio State reporting all the terrible news about Michigan as it was unfolding in real time. The block got hot for you, Pete. Block got hot for Pete Thame. I remember that as you're doing your journalisming.

But yes, your point is certainly made. The NCAA takes forever to kind of rule on things. It normally a lot of impudences. Sure. There's usually a lot of impudences. Impudence. The effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to alternating current

arising from the combined effects of omic resistance and reactants. That's a good one out of you. That was a good one out of you. Of course. It was more impotence. Yeah, impotence. Oh, impotence.

Oh, like, you're not pota, P-O-T is what you're saying, which is a lack of... Your swimmers don't work. Bingo. Oh, you're impotent. So you're saying their brain is like the seed of man.

That's right. what you're saying. Suck. Got it. Not able to forecast a conclusion. Bring it home. Well, Pete, I love the way you're talking about it. I appreciate the hell out of that.

And hopefully, the impotence of the NCAA is no longer, although it appears as if the accountability remains the same as they all just kind to point to other people having to do this. The government's got to take care of this, actually, because that's got to be some sort of law that they're breaking there, just texting millions of dollars is IRS on top of this. That's what they will say. They will say, because they're all scared to get sued, right?

Because if you suspend anybody, then you're taking away employment opportunities for these people now. So now the NCAA is scared to death to really do anything because they don't want to get sued by every single person that they do anything to, right? And that kind of a part of it? Yeah, it's fair to cast this, Pat, as a giant Spider-Man GIF. Oh. Point at each other. Yes. I mean, it was telling that last week in the Charles Bettyaco, Alabama basketball case, that the NCAA said, yep, this is why would you,

progresses help. That was kind of what this, what the statement, what the statement said. So they don't have a lot of faith in enforcing their own rules. And in that case, quite frankly, the NCAA said, no, you cannot play. And then they just went and found a judge to say something different. On that note, Connor has a question for you about college basketball. Yeah, Pete, can you take us into the nebula of college basketball a little bit here? What is kind of the big storyline? Is it the G-leaguers coming in and kind of playing in college again now. I saw Tennessee's X account actually

added the G-League's team that that player was formally of. Is that kind of the biggest thing right now? And do you see college basketball being hindered by any of this at all? Similar to what Dabo is saying. Well, Connor, it's a nice thing to be coming to you from the

city of champions today. He said it. 18 and a half inches of confetti falling outside my window here. That's good. Boom. Boom. God celebrating the pages. And none of it's orange.

They love those in the can and day. Yes. It's great to have you guys back. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. As for college basketball, Connor, a great question. Saturday was one of the best days of college basketball I think the sports had in recent years. There was just a flurry of electric performances by freshmen all around the country.

And it really as the focus of the nation starts to shift off of college football to college basketball, and eventually after the Super Bowl, it'll be in full force. We're really bracing for an electric college basketball season. You know, this weekend game day is going to be at Kansas, BYU. We have A.J. DeBans of pride of Brockton, Mass. I'm sure he's probably the Patriots as well. He's BYU, likely number one pick in the draft. Obviously, Derek Peterson for Kansas is in the thicket of that conversation.

They're going to play each other in Lawrence. but there are seven or eight freshmen all around the country that have just delivered and redelivered, you know, scintillating performances. There was one after another. It was almost like an accordion on Saturday afternoon. So I do think while Betayako's situation took up a lot of the headlines and kind of became a cause-seleb for a lot of the modern issues, the sport itself is in a pretty healthy place in terms of on-the-floor product right now. And I'm really excited to see how this is going to push forward and conclude here. Cause celeb.

That was good. That was a good tie-in. Hey, it's a big storyline that everybody thinks is a great depiction of the world we're living in currently. Let's go ahead and talk about it. That's a cause-celeb. I think I just piece together the context clues there. Co-A-Pete, one of those guys going crazy, right? Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. Arizona's been a juggernaut. Co-A-Pete's been, you know, electric. Arizona could have three or four players drafted. They kind of remind you of like an old-school 90s basketball super power. Michigan's a wagon. They are excellent. Dusty May really has them playing at an

extremely high level there. There are eight teams where you could really easily say, you'd make a compelling national title case. Texas Tech, our friends in Lubbock, Buddy Beach and company, Pat, were fired up for Houston coming into town on Saturday. A game day was there.

Did you go get some meat from Buddy Beach? Did you go get some meat from Buddy Beach? I did not go to Lubbock this weekend. What? I did set, I don't travel for game day to start the season. I will, will in the future, but I would have gone to Las Bresas, Lubbock's finest steakhouse if I was there. The weather was actually so bad that our crew, recent everybody, were planning to go,

but they couldn't go. Lovick got shut down on Saturday. I think some of our crew is actually still in Lubbock from Saturday night. Godspeed, Godspeed, Godspeed, the weather is crazy, obviously. Weather is crazy. I forgot that you guys get right into college basketball game day. Yeah. I did see the Texas Tech signs and stuff from their basketball.

basketball setup. I love that Buddy Beach and the boys are still down there doing it for that area. That place loves sports. And obviously they come together behind Texas Tech. It looks like they're in it for the long haul. Speaking of the long haul, not a lot of changes were made, but one big one was made to the college football playoff. Last question for you here, Pete. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Pete, last week we found out that there will be no changes to the amount of teams going, at least for this next year for 2026. 12 teams will be the college football playoff format, but some changes as far as who gets in. So now if you win the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12, or the Big 10, you were automatically

in the playoff field. For those that don't know, Duke won the ACC this year. So they would have been in the tournament. And then if Notre Dame is in the top 12, because they are not in a conference, they worked out a deal. And I believe all the commissioners and ADs agreed on it, that they would also be in the playoff if they were in the top 12 rankings for the CFP committee. is there anything else that I left out and how did that all come to do? Tone, good points. I think that the simplest way to synthesize that is that both Duke and Notre Dame would have been in this field.

And Miami would not have been in this field if these current rules were in for 25 as they're going to be for 2020. As for the macro for the sport and for potential playoff expansion, it's a bit of a quagmire, Pat, to use one of your favorite. one of your favorite words. You know, the SEC and the Big Ten essentially have control of the CFP. The SEC is open to moving to 16. The Big Ten is only open to moving to 16 if there is a ladder within two or three years to move to 24. Both sides were convicted of this and neither really moved. And there was never really any significant discussion pushing forward because neither would move off those stances.

So it will be interesting. Interesting to see going forward. One of the Big Ten's big criticisms, guys, is the CFP committee, giving too much of the CFP committee. So how will they handle the SEC? Now that the SEC has nine conference games is one of the big things in the weeds here that people are going to be, people are going to be looking at pushing forward. So the drumbeat of this conversation will continue. It will likely continue through next season. And come December, we'll be in some beautiful CFP location.

and we'll be talking about this on game day again, Pat. Yes, we certainly will, and it feels like dog chase tail for college football. There's always going to be some ripple effect of a problem that's going to come from some other decision that has made. Let's keep it at 12. So they both agree they want to get to 16 right now, but Big 10 wants 24 at least in the next couple of years. SEC says 16's good enough. Okay, shut up. Come on. You two.

You're both, we're way too early in this process to be making back-end guarantees on a deal. If you both want 16 right now, we're still evolving. Let's go ahead and get there and then figure out the 24 later. My personal opinion, not that anybody needs to listen. This is just a take on the situation. We are, what, three years into this version of the CFP we're about to be? It's awesome. We don't need back-end deals being made for progress to be made on something that is still evolving into what it is.

That's me, and I love Petiti. I'm sure he has a reason for that. And Sankey, I'm sure he has a reason for that. But it's like, come, we're not at them. If this was 30 years old and we're trying to, to lock in something else. Like, let's do that. But evolution to make it however they think is better.

Not that 16 is the right answer, but if you both want to get to 16, let's not let something that might be five years down the road affect something that could change right now and make it much better than it already is potentially. 16 games would be sick. Would that add a champion to the mix? Miami not being in this year would have been crazy.

Would it change the outcome of a lot of different things? So hopefully we're able to get it right. The Notre Dame situation, let's talk about it, Pete. My name is Patrick McAfee. Okay, sure. I am Irish. My father Catholic, we did not practice growing up, but obviously Irish Catholic in Pittsburgh is a thing that certainly exists.

I understand that what Notre Dame has been able to do as an independent is certainly incredible. I think you have to remain relevant, you have to obviously remain good, you have to be able to be your own entity and not rely on the rest of your conference pals to get deals done and stuff like that. Now, them just automatically getting a bid if they're ranked in the top 12

of the college football playoff committee is certainly attackable for like, yeah, right, why do we continue to change and bend the rules for this team and university that wants to do something different than literally everybody else? If they want to do what we're doing, tell them to do what we're doing.

If they want to make it, they have to join a conference is what some people are saying. Why are we better? On the flip side, Notre Dame says, top 12 is like our auto bid because you guys are giving conference champions auto bid.

So if we're top 12, that's our automatic bid, even though we're not in a conference. And then people say, well, get in a conference if you want an automatic bid. Like, that's how you have to work if you want to earn in that large bid. I think if it is going to all come down to how they're ranked, don't you think they're going to have to rank them properly? Like, if they beat an ass team by 15, it's like, all right, you're 16th in the country. Because I think the biggest deal with Notre Dame this past year was they were ranked, what, 10th or 9th or something early? And then all of a sudden, for the last one, it gets flipped on its head. And then all of a sudden, they're like, we've been

ranked above Miami this whole time. We've basically been competing. with Alabama for this entire thing, and then you flip us for the last time. I think the college football playoff committee and everybody else is going to have to rank them for what they actually are against the actual teams that they're playing. I think it has to be a little stricter ranking.

Do you not agree with that, or do you think that is the only answer? And how do we kind of get through this entire Notre Dame thing without it looking like everybody is just changing everything for one particular institution? Sure. So from the macro, Pat, like Notre Dame is a brand,

is really a juggernaut. And they have existed sort of in this unique space for, you know, more than more than a century. And until they are like clubbed to the wall and forced out of it, which would basically have to be by no one's scheduling them, they are going to, they've made it very clear they want to exist in that space. I do think there will be an additional layer of scrutiny on their schedule. Now, look, sitting here in January, it's always hard to say, we just don't know who's going to be good and who's not, especially in modern college football, how it, you know, How much changes in the off season right now, right? But yes, is there a, oh my God, that's a top five matchup on their schedule? Probably not.

I mean, the Miami game obviously looks good, and I'm scanning this. I haven't studied this, but I'm scanning it now. They have some very good games and how Wisconsin and Michigan State and Carolina ultimately end up looking in BYU, I guess, are probably, you know, is going to determine whether that schedule is tough or not. They do always play a lot of power conference schools. It's funny because Notre Dame for years almost was criticized for playing too difficult of a schedule because they would come out and play Michigan. And the world has changed and evolved a little bit.

So, I mean, they don't, you know, no one's forcing the CFP to do this. But look, the CFP understands the unique role of Notre Dame. They are ratings juggernaut. That's a big part of this, right? People care. We're sitting here talking about Notre Dame's 2026 schedule on January, whatever it is. Like they are part of the star. system in the sport.

And like nobody, nobody came in and said, hey, you need to include them. They're including them because they consider them a vibrant part of the landscape. And the TV partners obviously want Notre Dame in there. That'd be hard to argue that entire narrative. Notre Dame obviously a part of the college football season. Everybody's college football season, Notre Dame is a part of it. If they want to remain independent, I guess in their eyes, they had a good enough argument to say, hey, we should still get an auto bid if we perform well.

I think it makes sense. If they're ranked in the top 10, they should get in there anyways. Like that's how we should be doing the make it thing anyway. Now there's one at large. So hopefully they'll just do real ranking through it all. Now, AJ has last last question for you because there's a big move happening in Big Ten. Yeah, Pete, Arthur Smith, Ohio State Buckeyes, Ryan Day is bringing him in as the offensive coordinator. Is this something I guess that had been in the works?

Did you think this was not like a possibility? And how do you think this is going to play out? I was a little surprised at this, to be honest, AJ. He's not a guy who, he was linked to the North Carolina job last year and he had some time early in his career at Ole Miss. But he's really not a college guy per se. Arthur Smith has always kind of come up through the pro ranks. I think this can be looked at as part of the trend of the professionalization of college sports where taking these college jobs now have a little bit less of a stigma than it used to because the recruiting demands aren't what they once were. And if you're going to coach a place like Ohio State, you are going to have superior tax.

to a, you know, overwhelming majority of your schedule. So he can come in. He can coach Julian Sane. He can coach Jeremiah Smith. You know, and Ohio State's going to return a really good offensive line. They're going to be very good. So you put yourself in a position to succeed, much like you watched Matt Patricia go,

and I think completely overhaul his on-field coaching reputation after what happened at the Lions by coming in and leading what was for a vast majority of the season. The number one defense in college football was historically good, you know, up until the up until the end of the year. So I do think some of these high, high-end college jobs where you're not hauling around for a month, you know, kissing up to some 16-year-old linemen and really, you know, going through the grind of recruiting, if you can kind of have these jobs where you're going to sit back, you're going to be the play caller, you're going to run the offense, and everything else can go work around.

And AJ, I think this comes to pass because recruiting now is tied to buying players, right? there's really no other way to say it. The facilities don't matter as much. Everything that, like, the players come and they say, how much are you going to pay me? And so that necessitates a lot less text messages, phone calls, a lot of the performative parts are. Yeah, voice memos, baby, baby, oh.

You remember that? That was when my eyes were. Yeah, jump in pools, too. Remember you got jump in a pool with a recruit? Oh, yeah. Jump in pools. That guy, de committed. Yeah, you want some of else.

You don't even get them. Yeah, let alone flying three hours out of your way in a helicopter. Not that that's a bad life, I'm just saying. Taking your entire life, going down, doing a full parade for this kid, doing a whole thing, song and dance, photo shoots, yeah, all the money, and then them going to your rival, literally. Saying thanks, but no thanks. We're going to move on.

Turns out you don't have to do that much anymore. How much money are you going to pay me? You like me more than the rival? Yeah, I do. Show me. This is what we're going to pay you. And some sharks out there will say, I don't matter how much they paid you yesterday. How much can I pay you today?

ladies of gentlemen, that's Pete Tamwell. We appreciate you, buddy. Yeah, Pete. Thank you, Pete. Go Pats, Connor. Go paths, Pete. Pete gets it, man. That guy's the goat. I'm really happy for you guys. Honestly, getting to experience that.

Sounds like there's not a lot of optimism, though, for a couple of the parts of the conversation. Ty, what was your big takeaway there? Yeah, essentially, the NCHET at Double A is never going to fucking figure it out. You heard Pete Sheaitt, they're impotent. They're shooting blanks. They've essentially castrated themselves. They've sliced their testicles right off because they take. so much goddamn time, you know, so institutions don't believe in them.

All these college football coaches are essentially looking at him. And Shane, look at this dickless ballish bastard. We don't have to listen to this guy. You know, he's impotent. He can't shoot a big load. So why should we listen to him? That does feel like what he basically said about that at the beginning. Because it is like all these NCAA problems.

Davos 208 and a half minutes talks about the entire situation calling it out, big time. Crazy. Is this thing on? I have some stuff to say. Good run. Really? Really, yeah. Sits down. Let me lay out my case here.

As if we are the jury, the people that he is speaking to, and we all watch and go, eh, that's fucked up. That sounds like that's not how it should go. But, hey, Dabo's laying out a pretty good argument here for some scumbaggy behavior. And then Pete Dan was like, all the other people are doing it too, basically.

They're not the only ones. It'll be 90%. Is that what he said? Yeah, about 90%? I'm what, 120 of 134 institutions. to give up that competitive advantage? I don't think so. Tampering is quite a competitive advantage.

We all laugh, yeah. Yeah, that is... The point of it. That is cheating. Cheating normally is a competitive advantage, which is why it's deemed cheating and not allowed to do it. And it's like, well, everybody's just tampering now.

So everybody's cheating. Is that what you're saying? Not dabbo. Davo said, there's a window. There's a window. I get it. There's a negotiation. I don't like that I even have to do that now.

Correct. Okay. But when that thing's done, signed, sealed, delivered, okay? We're ours. That is how this thing goes. Now we got guys head coaches. Might I add you.

Head coaches. Sent pictures of million dollars in brink trucks coming your way. Hey, coming your way. Come in your way. You like this? It'll be yours. Think about some of these college coaches just going. How fucking bored are you at that school?

Sending pictures in downtown, sending picture of team, all that stuff just constantly working at. Burner phones he brought up. So Golden just doing it from his main phone. Love it. Don't need burners anymore. They don't care.

They're not scared. Yeah, that's what's stupid, though. Put my name on it. NFL has the blueprint. Why are we screwing around by not just having a legal tampering period? Like, you've brought up a couple of times. A couple big things have gone on, you know, with the Super Bowl contenders being named. Congrats to their Broncos.

Congrats. Or congrats of the Patriots, sorry. And the Broncos for making it that far. Hey, congratulations. AFC championship and sucks bo-nicks got hurt like that. I wish. I wish we could have found out. Congratulations of the Broncos.

And then the Seattle Seahawks getting a huge win. Also, congratulations because I was lost in the Honnold's sauce on Saturday. Gachie. Yeah. Holy-Hawley-Lightway champ against Patty to Badi. And they, I mean, they're pounding each other. Patty's face. Yeah, bad.

Gae, walking out of that octagon. Vasily different. Dude, it's insane, AJ. It was a hell of a fight, hell of a night. He's interim lightweight champ again. And what a beast. He's never had a bad fight on TV. believe. No. If you want to

watch fight, if you want to see people fight, I mean, we see that right there a little eye poke, but if you want to see people fight, you want to watch Justin Gachie fight anybody because he, yeah, either he's going to kill somebody or he's going to get killed pretty much every fight he's in. And Patty said, I'm a scouser, we don't get knocked out. That was

tested. Turns out that was true. Yeah. Turns out that was absolutely true. Sat in there and banged with Gachie. I guess this is the second time Gachie's been right on the jaw there. And Patty, just looks right back at him. What's going on? I think good night for Patty, all the way from the entrance to the entire war that they go through

in there. Gachie, though, second time he's interim champ. I guess the first time he wasn't really impressed with it, you know, like the classic, you win the AFC championship, you win the NFC championship. I appreciate if Rayble not just throwing that thing like we've seen in the past, like still a good thing. I guess Gachie, first time he wins the interim title, he's like, I don't want to win this, I want to win a real one. Loses, doesn't actually enjoy it. I guess now, you know, enjoy the hell out of it. 37-year-old. And on the way out, as he was walking down the tunnel back to his locker room,

he said, I wish you didn't have to feel this way to feel that way, but it's part of the job or whatever. It's like him describing what it's like to be in the middle of the arena. Literally, man in the arena, fighting in a cage. That dragon that I assume they're all chasing, the walk into the octagon, the standing and banging, proving your toughness in the middle of it, imposing your will on another dude who is trained.

It's like, what a feeling for these guys? I don't have that, you know, want or urge. But I think the guys who do, I appreciate the hell out of them. And Gaichi's willing to, it does feel like Gaichi is willing to die in there. You know, it does feel like that is the case. So certainly worthy champion for the UFC. Can't wait to see what Patty does next. And congrats to Sugar Sean.

And a huge win back in the limelight. Obviously, first fight on Paramount. I don't know if I figured it out. yet or if they've figured it out yet but they certainly will and uh if these fights are gonna continue to go the way that these two fights went and also big derrick gets big derrick lewis i mean knee right to the mouth song your dong stood in there took him down a couple times too thought there was a chance that yodong was getting that win sugar shon gets a dub happy for him uh big derrick lewis loses and it looked like he got his face like kind of washed like just like a quick little slow shot

actually lands clean whenever they show the slow motion. UFC provides a slow motion shots of faces moving more than anything else. The best. I think they do. So I thought it was a good fight after Alex Honnold dangled from 1,700 feet, AJ. I know that Alex Honnold thing. I didn't see it live. I watched the next day, so I knew he didn't die, but it was still unbelievable to watch.

Like, I still sat there and watched it with my kids. They had five trillion questions, and I didn't have any answers. Like, why didn't you using ropes? I don't know, because he's awesome and he doesn't need him. That's his thing. That's his entire thing. thing. The little rope, the little rope chalkholder's hilarious. Like, you can easily get a little thing with a little clip probably, too. He's got the little tied rope around his waist.

And watching him, like, tighten it, too, was cool. You know, like, I'm assuming- he had to pull his shirt out from under it, too. Every time he was stopping, he got to pull a shirt back down, I'm like, man, this is so uncomfortable. It seems like he's probably been doing it since he was a boy with this exact chalk holder. Awesome. Comfortable out there. Obviously, can't have much of that weighs. There was a guy that knew rock climbing that called, like, a smear technique he used, and then they're canvassing. He did at one point. of it and then, you know, just watching it live. It was must watch.

Foxy, you and I, I think, watched it live. I don't know any, I watched all hour and 31 minutes. It was immediately after Kenzie goes down for bed, I go downstairs. I'm just sitting down, basically, and it starts immediately upon me sitting down. I'm like, all right, let's see what this is about. I couldn't look away. I couldn't. This guy's dangling off of a building.

And then, you know, obviously we get a chance to hear from him every once in a while. It was the time where he was talking multiple times. where he was talking, they had other people's voices talking. Can't be doing that. You know, we can't be doing that. We had him in a small screen. He's dangling from a building, okay? That's what we're here for.

Okay, let's make sure we do that. Don't want to judge other people, but there was multiple things that were happening in there where I'm like, oh, I don't think you guys are understanding what we're feeling at home right now. Like, what we're feeling at home right now is like sweaty palms. I was feeling sweaty palms yet again. When they were shooting down the building.

Oh, yeah. Okay, shooting down the building. It's the same thing as when I watch Free Solo. It's like, oh my God, this guy's for real. One cramp. What if his finger just cramps? Sneeze? He's dead.

I sneeze, anything. You talk about anything that could happen that is out of normal. And it's over, actually over. It's like, what a thing. Am I crazy to say it was the most unique live event in our lifetime? Am I being dramatic by saying? How old are you? I'm 31 years old.

Okay, so I don't know when the real. crazy stuff was happening. Like, Jim Cantor mentioned the guy walking the Grand Canyon. I think that was without a thing. I think. I don't know how long it was. On a wire. Yeah. Yeah, I think he was walking on a wire, but I think he was without a, I think he didn't have the... There was something underneath. Yeah, but I think it was a long time ago. You're talking 20 years, I think. I think long time ago. That was my biggest takeaway. My biggest surprise is that Netflix did this. They allowed this legally and all of that stuff. I just couldn't believe it. That's why I was so mind-blown the entire time watching this absolute animal. And I didn't watch the documentary. So I had no idea what to expect. And this guy made this look so easy.

That was the huge takeaway. And that's what, and he was casual throughout. Yes. I mean, he was just casual waving at people in the bill. Oh, man, they got their cameras out. Good to see you guys. I'm kind of getting tired. He said at one point. I mean, this part, he kept doing this. I'm like, that's not a flat surface. That's a little like, yeah, I mean, that thing, when he was doing this part, that's what made me the most nervous, honestly, when he's standing up here at the end. And the guy that's filming for him, shout out the legend, Brett Lau or Lowell? Awesome. This guy is one of his closest friends, obviously, long-time climbing partner.

A member of Yosemite crew is what we learned. I guess there's a Yosemite crew that does a lot of climbing together. He was also a massive piece of the free solo filming. I assume you also have to be of the same ilk to be the film crew, which also, shout out to the finicular goats. Finicular is the cable, I guess. That kind of goes up or the core or the ropes or whatever it is. So they're the funicular goats as they're bouncing around on cables to get us all the insane shots that there were.

That was a good piece of business. That's a good name. Obviously, great name. Obviously, I had to Google what funicular was. I had no idea. I thought they were like. Makes sense, though, because goats are really good at climbing mountains. They are.

And walls, which is what this guy climbs up. Now, there was a couple times you think to yourself, okay, if he falls here because he just hit another landing, maybe he doesn't die. Right. Hopefully. So you get a, but he breaks a leg, though, for sure. There's certainly a bad thing. going to happen if he slips here. And that's kind of the conversation you're having a little bit.

And then he get back into it. And the former NASA scientist is doing a Q&A with somebody that I've ever heard of while old buddy's talking to me about not dying. I can't wait to see how many people watched it. And I hope they do it again. And I don't care what he climbs. He can climb the Eiffel Tower. And that might be so easy to him.

But I would love to watch it. Yeah. And that number is going to be gigantic. They have to be. If people knew about it, real time worth a watch. I don't want to sell something that, you know, we have no affiliation to. and I think, you know, could certainly, maybe second time around, you know, things like that. But, but like the experience was awesome.

It was great. It was absolutely incredible. I'm very happy they did that. To your point, I can't believe it got approved. Can't believe it got approved. Let's see. Anything we miss so far? No, I don't think so.

Last message, what I wanted to say. Obviously, on this particular Monday, we're celebrating two champions, the AFC champion and the NFC champion who are headed to the Super Bowl. Obviously, Alex Honnold conquering a feat that is insane UFC champions happening. But what we really want to do as a sports show and as a program is bring people together. You know, that's kind of our goal. And I know we don't always, you know, get it right. I certainly understand that my mentions, my DMs and things like that. I think everybody kind of feels that.

But we believe that sports are the greatest because it brings us all together. And we're excited to celebrate the hell out of that. We hope that the world can emulate what sports are, what sports buildings are, what sports facilities are, what sports stadiums are. and we hope to see more of that in the world as opposed to everything else that is certainly going on. We love sports. We're very lucky to talk about sports. We appreciate the hell out of them,

and we hope you, no matter how you view the world, feel welcome and comfortable in our world. The world needs more sports, less division. Let's go ahead and celebrate the shit out of what sports bring us all. We're lucky to do this. We're thankful to do this. And if you'll join us tomorrow, we will be back.

It should be a good week to celebrate and all that sports happen. The NBA is happening. Big time. The N. Joe's happening. Yes, it is. College basketball. is happening. The WMBA's happening. TGL is happening. And the Super Bowl. It's just 13 days away. Wow. We are so incredibly thankful we get to do this. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Let's never forget it. No matter where you're at. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Have a good one. We'll see you tomorrow, ESPN. Goodbye. All right, let's take a break. On the other side, we'll come back, and we'll cover everything that we haven't dove into enough. And then maybe we'll try to get home in the ice and snow that is currently sitting outside and will be for the next week because it's negative degrees for the next foreseeable future. Yes.

It's crazy, age. A lot of snow. I don't remember seeing this much snow, honestly. I really don't. I understand we talked to Fike and we talked to Jim Cantor. I was not paying attention enough I learned to the local. to the local weather. Sure.

I apparently missed, and it's 100% on me, don't be like me. Everybody's saying, don't go out, don't go out. Sunday morning before championship, you know, Sunday, don't go out, don't go out. Everybody was reporting that. I didn't see it. I missed it, 100% on me. I went out.

I want to try to get a cake pop for my daughter. She wanted a cake pop. Okay? Yeah. I went out there. there's nobody out there great it's really nice going out window and out there I love it you got truck

eight nine inches of snow on the road in the back roads of Indiana it wasn't until about four or five minutes in where I realized man there's no way I'm supposed to be out here right now and at that point I was pot committed in my closer to the cake pop for my daughter who she definitely wants a cake pop

definitely earned a cake pop they always do Disney on ice was incredible the day before she was awesome going to bed waking up, she was a sweetheart. She deserves. DoorDash obviously shut down. Oh, yeah. That should have been.

That should have been the clue. I'll go, hey, cake, pop, this dasher don't want to go get it. I'll do it. I shouldn't want out there. I should not have been out there. It was. Oh, yeah. Got stuck.

Got stuck out there. It wasn't in my truck. I was in wife's car. But truck, truck, I think, would have been stuck, too. This shit was, I mean, it was the most snowed that Indianapolis had one day since, like, 1970-something. Yeah, a long time. It was.

insane, man. If you didn't have some sort of large vehicle, you had no shot of getting through it. You know, and I was just out there, just out there. Then I go to Starbucks, they're closed. Oh, gee. Weather's too bad, no cake pops. Yeah. No cake pops.

All the way out there. Damn. That's a real conversation with myself. You fucking idiot. You got to be the dumbest. Now I got to get back. Then the roads are going to be worse than they weren't coming out here.

Mm-hmm. Don't be like me. Pay attention to your shit. Okay? That was bad idea. I'm happy I got back. Happy cars, all right. Listen.

I mean, you couldn't even... I mean, there was a couple. Drop that thing into neutral, obviously, so we don't have power going to the wheels. Oh, it does not matter. Nope. It's fucking really frozen out here. Oh, we're on top of ice.

There's not, Papa. We're ice skiing with a car right now on top of this. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. A couple of those. Then like a slowdown. Holy fuck, man. How are we getting back?

We got to get back now. I saw a couple of spots a road that got me on the way out to the closed Starbucks. Coming back, I had a forethought, out of vision. Not going to let them beat me again. So I went a different way. Got me again in the same fucking spots. Seems like they had me out.

All those years of training and on those hills of Pittsburgh, they got you home. Exactly. I did feel like Indiana is much easier to drive than anywhere else I've ever lived. No doubt. But whenever it's icy snow and you're just on top of it, that's a crazy. You're ice skating with a car.

It's not going anywhere. No, for the long haul. Everybody be safe out there. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. Might change your life. Here's me being a friend to you guys. If they say don't go out there, don't go out there. Sure.

I didn't know they said that. Especially in like a Toyota Corolla. Don't be going out there. No. Definitely. Door dashers are in a tough spot right now. All their cars, not built for this. But we appreciate what they do.

And this weekend, I tried to be like them. It was scary. And the place is fucking close. I would get no stars. Yeah. That's what McKenzie would have given me. I went to my dad and mom's house on the way. I stopped over there, grab cookies from them.

Oh. Brought back. Consolition. Good pivot. Made sure Pat, Pat, got this, and Grandma got you. I didn't want to stolen valor. But on that note, it was a smile. And that's all we needed.

Dad almost died trying to get you a cake pop. Got cookies instead. Learn more at Adobe.com slash do that with Acrobat. Football! He's the greatest. That's A.J. Hawk. He's a champion at all levels of football.

Wow. Even you go all the way back to pee-wee football. Yep, that's right. This guy had bigger and thicker cranium than all the little kids, little lads that were running around on the pee-wee football fields. Over there in Centerville, Ohio. He utilized his jaw on his forehead as a weapon and wanted pee-wee. He wanted super-pewee.

He wanted junior high high school. college football national champion and a Super Bowl champion. This brain, this skull, they win at football. We're at Super Bowl week now. Bring back any memories. Are you being a champion, AJ Hawk? Any championship mentality that kind of rekindles in your heart and in your mind as we

look ahead to crowning the world's best here in just 13 days like you were crowned once before, AJ? I was lucky enough to be a part of a Super Bowl and win it back in the day against the Steelers. But I guess when we do finally get the final two teams, that are going to be squaring off in the Super Bowl.

It makes me realize, damn, it's really tough, long road to get to the Super Bowl. These guys have done a lot, and things have gone the right way, and they've done all that you need to do, and now here you go. Let's see who can finally win it, but, man, think about, like, how starting your off-season workouts, and then to now, how much has happened and what you have to do, and what has to go right for, yeah, just football's the best. We know that. You mentioned beating the Steelers there, obviously, we have to ask.

Big Mike McCarthy. It's going to be the head coach or the Pittsburgh Steelers. from Pittsburgh, obviously has a lot of pride in Pittsburgh, never changed the way he spoke from your stories and others ever in Green Bay. I assume Dallas would say the same. He has a lot of Pittsburgh references in Pittsburgh memorabilia around his office and the way he's built, has always felt a great sense of pride being a Yinzer. Your thoughts on him getting the head coaching job and how do you think he goes about doing his business over there? I think it's awesome. I know he was super, super excited about the

possibility of becoming the Steelers head coach. I mean, it's something, didn't we joke about this last year, like a year or so ago? Like, hey, for some reason, Tom was out of there. Like, you could come, you can be the next guy. Now, that's actual reality now. The fact that he is the coach is, I think it's awesome. And I think for people, if people are pissed, if they're not pissed, whatever, Steelers fans, like, I don't know, give the dude a chance.

We don't really know. A lot of times the head coach gets hired, and a lot of people don't know who the hell the guy is. They don't know a whole lot about them. Well, we do know a decent amount about, Mike McCarthy, we know he wins. He develops quarterback selects. Give him a chance.

I'm excited to see how he does. Now, if you listen to the way Schaefter was talking, basically they feel like they got a veteran culture, a veteran roster, so they don't need a full rebuild with a young guy that's going to talk to a younger generation with the X's and O's. So I'm intrigued to see how long this is for. Is it a four or five-year deal? How many of the same players are going to be there?

Are they going to retool, rebuild? I think there's a lot of things that still need to be figured out from my perspective. as fan outside looking in on how we can judge what it's going to be. But ultimately, if he wins, he'll be loved. If he loses, he'll be booed out of the city again. That's basically how it'll go for Mike McCarthy in Pittsburgh as he endser as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, I agree with the AJ when he said, you know, maybe give him a chance.

That was kind of my sentiment this weekend was like, you know, this organization has only hired three coaches in the last 50 years. Maybe we trust them on their decision making as far as the coach is going. but to your point there, I think in a lot of people's said this, it is hard to ask a first-time head coach to come into an organization with a lot of older players. Oh, and you don't have a quarterback. Like when you're a young first-time coach, it's a lot easier when you have an established quarterback,

and you don't have to worry about that. So maybe in this situation, it's a better higher when you have someone who's running. The fuck, are you fighting to get these words out? Are you okay? Are you trying to sell yourself on this right now? No, I'm just making sure I say the right thing. Because earlier, you know, I said that Mike Tumman was fired. He wasn't.

He resigned or whatever. So I'm just making sure the words come out of my... Are you being attacked for that, I assume? No. No, just you felt bad that it happened because he was not fired. Correct. And he stepped down. Now, granted, you know, how do we get to that answer?

You know, is certainly a part of it. But you heard Ryan Clark talk about it. Obviously, Ryan Clark, part of that Pittsburgh Steelers organization, winner for the Pittsburgh Steelers organization. He said, you know, whenever Tomlin leaves, you get a lot of people very bummed out. They're talking about people crying in a meeting, you know, people crying around the building.

So you bring in Mike McCarthy. It's a fascinating move to bring in an older, already established coach in there, as opposed to a new coach that might try to prove himself to the building. I think McCarthy being a Yenzer, he understands completely why and how Pittsburgh people are going to react to his hiring. All he's worrying about now is winning ball games. And that's going to be his message to the locker.

him, right, AJ? For sure. I mean, so like, you talk about not known a coach. When I got to Green Bay, I got drafted in Green Bay. He was Mike, he got hired a month or two before that. So not a whole lot of people knew who Mike McCarthy was. And I think I knew from the very first team meeting, like, this guy's a dude. Like, he has a presence about him. And then from probably within 15 minutes of meeting him and hearing him speak, I was like, this dude loves Pittsburgh as well. He has referenced it nine times in his team meeting. So, and that continued throughout my nine years in Green Bay. So yeah, dude loves Pittsburgh, loves ball. Let's see what happened.

I don't know what all I'm allowed to talk about from my conversation with Coach McCarthy immediately after he finds out he's getting the gig or whatever. But he's chasing holding at Lombardi 7 for Pittsburgh. That is, his Christmas wish was that

his mom and his family could experience a Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl because it took him back to the glory days whenever he was growing up. It was like his actual wish was to see his family and his friends back in Pittsburgh, see the Steelers win again. And so much so that I think he's like,

all right, I gotta go do this for him. I gotta go, I would like to be the person that does that. That's an incredible story if it ends up coming true. You know, if it ends up coming true, it's a phenomenal story. If it doesn't work out, though, the Yenzers are going to do it. I mean, they've already been doing it.

They're expecting it not to work already. And I think I have faith in McCarthy because we know them. But winning in the NFL is hard, man. It is very hard. though they're already the AFC North champs still. Yeah, very hard, but also, you know, as much as the Lombardi is a massive deal, and that is, of course, what you are

trying to do. Like, Pittsburgh, Tony, and you can let me know if I'm wrong, but, like, you guys are just looking for wins in the playoffs. Yes. Even if he goes and they win, you know, a wildcard game year one or two, and then a divisional, yeah, and then you make a conference title, like, even that is a victory. And when

you think about Dallas before Big Mike got there, it's kind of similar. Like, Dallas was just kind of stagnant with Jason Garrett, the Clapper. They weren't, you know, terrible, but they also weren't great. I don't think they made the playoffs in Garrett's last couple of years, so definitely different there because the Steelers have. But like, he is kind of used to taking a team that isn't too different than what he is, you know, going to do and then just making them better and winning 12 games. Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh. Three legendary cities, Ty Schmidt, the coach.

Yeah, arguably the three, I mean, maybe the 49ers when you talk about the, you know, totality of the NFL, but that's arguably the three most famous franchises from the inception of the NFL. Obviously, the Patriots come along and do what they do. But that's the other thing is like, he understands the expectations. Yeah, the people in Pittsburgh maybe go about it a little bit differently and how they would, you know, voice their frustrations. But like, he understood the stakes when he took the Packers job. Like Brett Farve was, had already won three MVPs when he got there. It's like, hey, you need to, you need to go win Super Bowls with this guy. and then obviously Rogers and then Cowboys, same deal.

It's like, we all know what happens if you don't win with the Cowboys. The expectation is that they win a Super Bowl every single year. So, yeah, this Steelers team, like the roster might be a little bit different and they might not be in the same spot. But, like, he is fully aware of what happens when you take a job like this with a franchise like this and if things don't go well. The one thing that the Yenzers were happy to hear is that he's intrigued and high on Will Hart.

So, because everyone wants, listen, I love Will Howard. We saw him first hand. We thought he was really, really good in the playoffs. He's a sixth round draft pick, so a lot of those times those guys don't get shots. But the Yenzer fan base, the Steelers fan base, has wanted to see him get a shot. Fifth round pick just made Pro Bowl. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Bang. So, so Fancy got, he got fired for having a Pro Bowl quarterback. Yeah, how's that work? Guy, got basically. Guy had a rookie get to the Pro Bowl with a quarterback. fifth rounder. This is kind of like the Browns' M.O. They went a playoff game, get the quarterback out of here. Coach gets a fifth round rookie quarterback to the Pro Bowl, get them out of here. Oh, reverse the curse, perhaps.

Because the first time it kind of... Oh, so this is like a... Yeah, double hijinks. Like a get-back. Yeah. I understand what you're saying. Like the sacrifice. The Baker started a curse, and this would be a sacrifice to make that right. Do we think the Lions did their sacrifice in that with that tub of whiskey?

Bobby Lane. Yeah. I also think trading Matthew Stafford, which he asked for, helped all the good mojo in that building. Which he asked for. You hear him drop that. Just need to make that clear. He wanted to leave. We didn't want it.

Now that we know what we know about Matthew Stafford at the Rams, think about how bad the lions were for 12 years that they couldn't win with that guy. They were cursed. And Calvin Johnson. Yes. Yeah, I mean, Barry, you want to go a way back? You guys ever want a Super Bowl? Yeah, we'll win one eventually. You think?

Yeah, we will. Oh. How many teams have not won a Super Bowl? So I don't know that, but I know there are only four teams that have never made a Super Bowl, and I know the Lions are one of those. Vikings? Never made a Super Bowl? Yes.

Shefti reminded me that this weekend in one of his tweets. Okay, so you guys just haven't even had the opportunity to have this 13-day period of everybody celebrating your team talking about your city. That's correct. In your entire franchise's history? Yeah, that's correct. So we've won a bunch of championships, and then when they went to the Super Bowl era, yeah, they've stunk ever since then. Don't say championship.

So it sounds like the Red Wings a little bit. No, no, no, no, hockey town's fine. Pistons, they've won as well. Tigers, they haven't won a world series for a while, but they've been there twice in my lifetime. So the Lions, yeah, we stink. Never made it to the Super Bowl? No, 24 to 7. That's why you go back two years ago when it's the NFC championship.

They had a football. And we're kicking ass in the first half, I believe it was 24 to 3. And then we had the worst third quarter collapse in the history of the sport. That was a bummer. That was definitely a bummer. Yeah, because it was right there. You had it. And then last year we go 15 and 2.

We'll probably never go 15 and 2 in the franchise's history ever again. And we have all of those injuries. We get the bye week, by the way, and then we lose to the commanders. And then this year we don't make the playoffs. So, yeah, it's definitely a bummer, and it just shows how fucking difficult it is

to make it to that goddamn Super Bowl. Oh, yeah, they had like 90 active players last year. Listen, this guy. 90. Connor, back for another dynasty. There was a time for 20 years where every other year they were in the Super Bowl

and then every other other year they were winning the Super Bowl it's like what the Patriots accomplished for 20 years this guy's life parades he's going to him he has hope for these 13 days basically his entire life

they fall face of the earth they're back already you have her one time and then Carter's like these guys check this guy out yeah I mean that's what I said it's not fair that's what I said right away

it isn't fair what I get is not fair I wish I could actually I don't wish I could split it because I want it. But I wish you guys could just feel it. I wish that there was a like a junior league. And maybe that's what the Lions should do.

They should, they should stop playing. Like an NIT? Exactly. They should stop playing in the NFL and they should say, hey, guess what guys? We're doing this other tournament. It's for the teams that are shit. And I've never. XUFL? Yeah, sure. XUFL. X NF. Maybe. X NFXFL,

maybe the National Fun Football League, where it's all about fun and, you know, ribbons and holding hands. And the Lions can do that and then maybe they can win. This is what comes with it. Foxy, you've never got a chance of experience what he is doing right now. Watch your mouth, Connor, first and foremost. But this is why all those

years I said 10 and 6 in a playoff win, because I'd never seen a playoff win. I didn't even know what that was like. And then two years ago, they won two playoff games. In my entire life, they have won two playoff games. I don't even think Connor can count how many playoff games he's won in his lifetime. 40! Not in my lifetime,

but we actually just became the first NFL franchise in the history of the NFL. Fun fact. That's what you just brought up right there. To reach 40 wins. We have officially 1.40. I think that was my 37th. This little fun bonus game thing, we call the playoffs. Yeah, we've won the most in the history with 40.

There's actually been 12 teams that have never won a Super Bowl. Beals, Vikings, Bengals, Falcons, Panthers, Cardinals, Titans, Chargers, Bryans, lions, lions, jaguers, and Texans. Now, lions haven't even made it to the Super Bowl, one of only four teams. But boy, the Aisi South there. Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville, Jaguars, Houston, Texans. Colts haven't won a division in 11 years, 12 years. They got one of them bowls, though.

We do, but I'll tell you what, 12 teams not being able to enjoy this ever. Oh, that's tough. And then these guys. Dude, I mean. And the Seahawks being back, too. Let's talk about that. I mean, the Legion of Boom had a little run there, we're seeing them in a big one a lot.

Them being back is crazy. And there's just some franchises, I guess, that would never get to experience it, AJ. Ever. What's that all about? I mean, imagine being an owner. Imagine being like an owner for 20, 30, 40 years and not ever getting there. No wonder the Pagula's, you know,

no wonder Terry Pagula goes up there and he's like, the fuck do you want me to do here? Trying to get to the big one. I can't get to the big one with the guy. I got to make some change, right? This is my golf partner here. Yeah. This guy's good, Brandon Bean.

I like this. Listen to him talking. He's got a cool accent. Sean McDermin, he's got nothing. And I don't get his pregame speech. Nobody does. That's like Mara when he came out a couple years ago. I'm sick of telling my friends why we lose all the time.

Yep. Those 12 teams got to go to those owners meetings. How's it going up here? We vote, but does our vote even matter? Yeah. Do you think they sit their own table? Like a no. Like a kid table that has never got that?

Just go ahead, please. Place only, no bowls. And then it's not she, the Ford Hams phone, obviously. Potentially. Plastic. She and three others are at a different table. Oh, yeah. That's even worse.

And Kraft is just walking around, no pants. Dick out. Yeah, for sure. What's up, everybody? You also can't do that because then, you know, you got Mark Davis who's sitting at the big boy table on a booster seat, you know, in a high chair pretty much. Because of what happened in the past.

Because of his dad. But, hey, that's just, that's a lucky, lucky, lucky. It's the way it works, baby. Club. I saw him scout in his future quarterback. He was doubting. You did. And he did say just win, baby.

to someone. The Bruce. Yeah, Bruce. It was awesome. What'd you say, Bruce? I said, go Raiders. And he just immediately without skipping a beat.

Just win, baby. It was perfect. Did you fist bump or anything or just keep walking? Just that. Just the just win, baby. Did he look at you or just say it while looking straight?

He maybe like turned a little bit. Just win, baby. And then just kept going to go watch Fernando. Man, you could have got a fist bump right there. I think you could have stole one. He would. And you might have grabbed your hand too.

Like, oh, turkey. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. Oh my God, what a moment. A dream. All right, next time, let's remember that. Yeah.

That's how we see it. Remember, you got a fistball. All right. Speaking of got to get, let's get to the thoughts around X. This morning, you know, normally it's an overreaction Monday, but it feels like the overreactions have kind of simmered down because not as many teams are active in the NFL season. So we wanted to celebrate the Super Bowl season.

So I put out a tweet that basically said, hey, use hashtag PMS Super Bowl season. and let us know your thoughts on the Super Bowl being 13 days away. Just one game left, AJ, we're already here. We're here. I guess we need to enjoy it, right? Yes, we do. I mean, obviously, we're going to enjoy Conner's time leading up to this game, but yeah, we all need to enjoy it as well.

Yeah, Conner's going to have a good time. Man. Can I have a good time these next 13 days. Let's get to a couple that Ty Schmidt picked that need to be read. First one here from Braden at B. Howard 11. Patriots were on historically the hardest playoff run in terms of defense is playing are still being dotted. We got the MVP, the coach of the year,

and the assistant coach of the year. Keep the dots coming. Pats by a million. The pats are back. Hashtag PMS Super Bowl season. There's no doubt about that, Braden. Congratulations, and we're all pumped for you. Ain't that right, Connor?

Yeah, we are. But look, this is the last fun season, quote-unquote. You know, expectations going forward. We talk about this all the time. You win football games. Expectations change. This year it was, hey, let's get better. Granted, our getting better is going all the way to the bowl.

Good, better, best. And we're probably, we're good right now. You know, going forward, we'll get better. I cannot wait for these next 13 days, and it really is a miracle that the MVP, this guy who's at the hell is only 23 freaking years old, man. Congrats to you and to Brayden. Let's get to Todd Villarreal, Mr. Villarreal 32.

Hashtag PMS Super Bowl season, what a shitty Super Bowl this is going to be. Sorry, Connor, but your Patriots don't stand a chance against the Seahawks. The Patriots walked the yellow brick road to the Super Bowl and are going to get blowing out. Seahawks by 30. Hope the commercials are good. That's a good call there by Todd. I forgot about that.

Ty, how many people were saying this about the Super Bowl that it was going to be a blowout? I did not expect that. A decent amount, I think, a lot of Seahawks fans pretty much. They watched the AFC championship, saw 10 to 7, you know, maybe not the most explosive offense. And then they saw Sam Darnold, you know, throwing for 370 yards and three touchdowns and thought, why are we even playing this game? We're going to beat the shit out of it. of this team. So in terms of confidence, it seems like Seattle fans and Seahawks fans, and really

kind of just everyone who doesn't want to see the Patriots win, they're kind of on that side of the coin. And the commercial is being good. I forgot about those being a thing. There is one commercial for the last few weeks that has been tough. I don't know if it's won over anybody, but I do appreciate that they continue to run it. The food one? All right. Let's move along there in the next one. Let's go to Zane Leslie here at Zane Leslie 2. Hashtag PMS Super Bowl. season, it's time to bench the narrative surrounding Donald and big games. Hell yeah, that conversation is over. Sammy D slammed that door shut last night.

Seahawks taking their revenge now 11 years in the making thanks to Donald. Contract looking better and better every day. They're not paying Donald a lot of money, AJ. They got them on a great deal. Going forward, I guess Sam Donald could say I want a little bit more cashola for what has happened here. But congrats of him taking a shot on the Seattle Seahawks and them in return doing the same, especially how the Vikings tenure ended, AJ.

Yeah, and they win this game. They get to the Super Bowl, not like in spite of Sam Donald. They win because of Sam Donald. He's a huge reason why they're getting it. That's why it's, yeah, I mean, it has to, for him, yeah, he's not like, he's not satisfied, but he has to be a little bit relieved that he played so well that he does this at home and beats a great Rams defense and just, yeah, goes head to head against Matthew Stafford and finds a way.

And, you know, the biggest game of his life leading up until the Super Bowl, that will be the next, that will be the biggest once he plays in that. But imagine if he comes out on fire and completes a deep ball, like, early in the Super Bowl as well. Like how this Seattle fan base is going to go crazy. I think he will. I have a lot of faith that all Sam Donald. I think he's bon-and-I-law. I also think Jackson Smith and Jigba is incredible at football.

I think their offense is fun. And I think they've got a great running game. And I love what's around him. Now, on that note, the entire culture seems to be in a great spot as well. Let's go to the next overreaction. It's from Jello Christ at Jello underscore Christ or Chris, depending upon how it's pronunciated there by Mr. Jellet with a great mustache. Hashtag PMS Super Season. Erect the statue of Mike McDonald in a middle of Pikes Place market.

His hire will go down as one of the best in Seahawks history. His Seahawks defense is going to make Drake May feel like my mother after a second divorce. Hopeless, go hawks. Hope your mom finds some hope. Obviously, that's a tough run. Pikes Place where they throw to fish, it does feel like if he's able to turn this thing around this quickly for Seattle, they can't help but fall in love with this guy. He's special.

He is a football computer, I think, AJ. And the boys obviously believe in what he's pitching. Yeah, he is. I think it's good to see. We've got two defensive-minded coaches in the Super Bowl. That's something that, you know, I think they, those guys have almost been devalued over the last few years. So here we go.

We've got two defensive guys. There's a stat on that because two defensive head coaches. Remember, normally offensive coordinator, offensive type wizards are in the spotlight during these coaching hiring cycles. Two defensive coaches in the current Super Bowl, and that is... It was the last time since... Patriots Falcons when Dan Quinn was with Atlanta where both coaches were defensive. I thought there was another one Bruce might have had, but I know that was the one we went back to.

Yep, a defensive head coach has not won the Super Bowl since 2018 when Bill Belichick beat Sean McVeigh. That 2016 was the last time that both teams had defensive head coaches. All of the coaching cycle hiring became offensive guru, offensive guru. Feels like we're getting some tough culture football back. And, you know, last year with the Philadelphia Eagles, Obviously, we saw a run game and we saw defense kind of take the way and carry the load for that particular team. Now you're starting to see a little bit more tough football. Now not only Siriani is in this thing, now you got two alphas in there leading the squad.

McDonald's still calls the defense, though, so I don't know if, you know, play caller, non-play caller conversation still exists strictly because he's not on the offensive side. But he leads that defense. That's unbelievable. Yeah, now that we're saying this as well, is 2018 the last time one of the head coaches was a defensive head coach in the Super Bowl? because it was basically after that every single year it was Mahomes and Andy Reed in the AFC or Zach Taylor with Burrow. And then

it was Brady McVeigh or Bruce Ariens, but yeah, same. McVeigh, Siriani, Shanahan. Like, I don't know if there's been the defensive head coaches, Bellichick. The boys are back. Congrats to them doing that for that side of the ball. Congrats to you guys, AJ. Congress of a defense.

Hey. In Ohio, guys. You couple of solid offense with a great defense, you've got a chance to win it all. And you have great offense and great defense, good luck. That's the Super Bowl. We're going to watch. That's what we're looking for.

And normally only a few teams have it. This year, a lot more good defense. Feels like we're coming around to some big old good D. Hell of year. The next couple of years. Ain't that right, AJ? That's right. I can't wait for Darius to break it down for us.

What do you mean? What segment? Whenever he does the good D, bad D segment. I know right now he's not going to do that today. I assume that he snowed in. Is the Florida getting any snow where he's in? No, he's south Florida. but didn't, I heard the Panhandle got snow.

He was snowed at, actually. So flights in the Midwest where all the snow is, obviously, it's going to be tough for people to travel in and out. There's been delays, cancellations, movement, everything like that. Debuck got canceled last night, canceled this morning, canceled again. So he's actually snowed out of Indianapolis. I believe he's in route, but safe travels to everybody out there. The storm is obviously affected a lot.

I saw there was definitely a line of demarcation. I think Baton Rouge was like 25 degrees, and then New Orleans was 70. So there was definitely like a line where it was like, hey, Colefront. Normal and then shite. Hey, that's, we saw what they took the hurricane plans out there. They actually got the systems aligned.

Then I took move north a little bit. Drop those planes. A lot of eyes down there. I'm talking to Jim Cantor about what's going to be on the ground. And I just get out of my car and just go. That was a bad idea. We had weather people on the show. That's how bad the weather was going to be.

We wouldn't have the weather people on if it wasn't so bad. so I should have just been paying attention. So one thing leads you another, she wants a cake bob. I'm getting out there. They lied about Denver. I mean, they did not tell us. Fyke said precept, but the wind. Cantor did say it might be some second half snow.

Yes, but not pre-ship like that. Might be some second half snow versus, hey, it's going to be blowing fucking sideways. Hey, on that note about the AFC championship and the offensive performances there, great defenses obviously across the border everywhere, but certainly in that AFC championship game as well. this is like when Texas A&M played Miami down there and the wind was like 30 miles an hour people that weren't there couldn't feel the wind

like you can't play football in this it almost feels like yesterday especially whenever that shit was going sideways that feels like a tough environment to play football in not that it was great before the snow was coming which was later in the game I'm just saying I don't think we should necessarily be judging everything that happened late in that game

because I think it would have been tough to play football regardless with the weather. Yeah, and clearly the Patriots changed everything they were doing on offense. I think they threw the ball maybe twice from the start of the snow until the end of the game. One of them being a flea flicker. And I think a lot of people's lives flashed before them when they did that. But you could tell that they were just, all right, we're going to hold on to the ball, run it, and just hope Jared Stidham doesn't drive down the football field, which he didn't.

All right, the Patriots are back. Here's from at Boston Sports Ball. Oh, hell yeah. Boston sports guy. Hashtag PMS Super Bowl season. After years of agony, the New England Patriots are back into Super Bowl. Mike Frable walked in, built a team, built a culture, and did it in one year to show the entire NFL that it can be done quickly. Patriots reigns supreme over the AFC again. We're back with a dab down there from Braves. You guys are back. Okay, you are back in. Expectations are going to be crazy. I think J.J. Watt talked about how Signetti has only been in Indiana for a couple of years. McDonald's only been in Seattle for two years.

Vrable has only been there for one year. Expectations of quick turnarounds are certainly going to only increase what if this massive success that everybody's having. Vrable in year one, outrageous, AJ, up there in New England. Yeah, it's absolutely outrageous. What he's able to do, we've documented on this show today, like how tough it is to get to the Super Bowl, especially your first year in the building as the head coach.

But is this going to cause other owners here in the near future to fire guys even quicker than we have in the past? I'm not sure. We got a lot of consistency over here in Indianapolis. Okay, we like our guys. You're right. We like our guys. Right.

You should. It's hard, though, to keep the faith after years and years and years of not having success. And then you watch another place build it twice within the time in which you haven't had it. That's difficult, especially when New England was like the clear cut kings of the NFL for a long time. Like clear cut. Conspiracies being made about them. Actual rules being exposed. Different gates.

The entire world hated them. I mean, it was like clear cut. The New England Patriots are the king of the NFL. Like, that was a long time. Everybody knew that. That's why everybody hated them, because people throw rocks of things that shine. Tyler Swift said that.

Chiefs were starting a little bit, but literally the Patriots were known as that. So to watch them get back to potentially being that again after having to rebuild and lose everything. Lose everything. Yeah. Lose everything. All of it.

And then you watch them build it back, it's like, what the fuck is my team doing? Mm-hmm. I assume the lions and the three other teams that have never made it to the Super Bowl are certainly questioning that on a regular basis. I'm starting to think, does any of it matter? Because the lions aren't going to get there, and the Patriots are just going to get back there anyway.

So does it matter. Well, when you talk about mattering, it's like in the NFL knows the script anyway, it went September. Yeah. You put that graphic on. You're right. Yeah, week one. Do you see that age?

Oh, isn't that fucking convenient? Yeah. And so we're always going to have this, right? I mean, with the Internet, we're always going to have it. Zoom in, please. I wish I could. I realized that that was a big shitty on me right there. Okay.

So Foxy immediately upon putting it on screen, realizes that there's no way for us to zoom in. Just now up in the front there? Who's there? Drake and Darnold. Oh, is that right? Up in the front. Yeah, first two, basically,

if you were to count it in a certain line formation. That was in September. So, okay. And then Sequin, Barclay and the Eagles obviously have the year they have. Oh, man. Who's controlling all this? You tell me, age, you're probably, on. I'm asking. Number five overall pick

in the past. Super Bowl champion. It certainly benefited you, hasn't? Whoever's controlling his order. This goes way above me. Did Rayble with a hat on throw anyone else off? Didn't even look like him, in my opinion. That's like President Mike from the office. When he puts a hat on, he just turns

into more of like a jovial guy. If he's not in a good mood or getting a trophy, don't even try to put a hat on that head. It is too big. How did you say his back pocket? Yeah. Was there a circle? maybe the most defined one is. It looks like a pint.

His head is... He's got an Ohio head there, just a gigantic cranium. I'm not supposed to have hats on. It's a flat bill, nonetheless, but right out there across the top, it says champions. Has he been clean-shaven all year, too?

No, he had the Movember run, where we went 5-0 defeated with the stash. But clearly, yesterday morning, he took a clean race. Their home's Gillette Stadium. I'm going to assume he's got a clear. best razor. I assume he's got a clean face if he's up her.

A lot of clean faces up in New England. A lot of clean faces. A lot of young faces, clean, just beautiful, really. Just beautiful man faces. Just championship quality. Yeah, look, it is what it is. Let's get to that next one, please. This is from Evan Trazazasasus.

Yep. At Trazazasus 14. It's a favorite number. I remember when they said the Broncos O line was so good, it would allow Study to thrive. Why don't we give the Patriots defense? credit for causing absolute chaos on opposing QBs. Hashtag PMS Super Bowl season. I think we have now.

We're going to have to you for the next two weeks. Let's get to the next one, shall we? Shout to Evan. If this is all, Derek Miller here, hashtag PMS Super Bowl season, beating the Rams is always going to be harder than winning a Super Bowl. Hawks by a million. Jeez, Louise. The NFC was favored in any matchup that the Super Bowl generated with the Denver Broncos or the Patriots heading to the Super Bowl. The NFC was the favorite regardless. and I'll tell you what, a lot of people thinking the Seahawks are just going to handle the New England Patriots.

And with the way it started yesterday was Stitty, I thought maybe the Patriots had finally run into the day in which they won't be in a game, in which they won't be able to make it ugly, in which they won't be able to keep up. And then all of a sudden those clamps came done from that defense. And the weather then starts to change. Everything starts happening. It's like, oh, no, yeah, maybe they did a little something in that first series that they weren't expecting, and maybe they didn't know he was going to be able to do this, and maybe they made it too easy for Stitty at the beginning.

Then they just dialed it up. And then all of a sudden we got guys shot putting the ball backwards while trying to throw it forward because they're getting tackled backwards so much. So, you know, like that's Patriot football, basically. And then Drake May just runs it in. It's like they're just like a boa constrictor. It's just always applying pressure. It's just tightening up.

And I thought Stitty City was coming. I thought for real. I thought he was the mayor. I was like, holy shit, this guy's going to get paid $40 million a year going forward as a starter somewhere, maybe earn his way. and then as the Patriots D locked down, obviously kicking was difficult for both teams. And then Drake May and the New England Patriots offense

is able to get enough done and not turn to rock over and have explosives to whenever you need it. It's like, that's Patriots football in a nutshell. And they're all the way back. They're all the way back. All the way back. And there's in...

Blocking kicks. I mean, everything. Yeah, but everything going the way that they needed it. And again, it's his first year, dude. Like, it's Mike Brable's first year in Drake May's second year. Like, this really is something and everyone needs to stare down the tube for a long time.

Now they missed a couple kicks, you know, which might have led to a couple decisions that were made earlier. Here's the last Super Bowl season thought from Jake at Jay Dogg. He's out of Texas number four. Hashtag PMS Super Bowl season. This is a bit of advice for both teams to get to play one more time for this season. If you're in field goal range, you've got a fourth and short, don't matter.

Take the fucking points. Sean Payton certainly going to be thinking about that all off season. He's not the only one. There's a lot of games that were decided by a mismanagement. of a situation. And obviously, if you pick that up there, you're a superhero. You're the smartest person on Earth. You miss it.

You're the dumbest person on Earth. That's always going to be ball. That's always going to be the beauty of hindsight. But on that note, he should have known that it was probably going to be a KG affair with both those defenses. Will Lutz, veteran kicker. I know he got one blocked and he missed another one yesterday. But you think he probably knocks those through 10-7 early. Wait a minute.

Does everything change? We'll never know. What we do know is we'll be about. tomorrow. You guys are the greatest on earth. AJ, you're the man, buddy. Thank you for joining us. Thank you guys.

Hell of a play by Patriots D on that fourth and one. Obviously, you can question kicking or not, which I would have loved to kick it if I was the Broncos, but man, Patriots D stepped up huge when needed. Yeah, they brought it there, huh? Look at that. Yeah, no chance. Nobody didn't matter. Like, the Broncos had no chance.

Like, sorry, pal. We got you. That guy right there, too, who makes the pass breakup, Craig Woodson, rookie. He has been so good all year. He's the reason Kyle Dugger. and Jabroo Peppers aren't New England Patriots anymore at Rookie Out of Cal. He doesn't get as money, you know, headlines as the defense just hasn't in general, but he is someone who will be very good for a long time.

Such good defense. And then obviously the Seahawks defense outrageous. Sam Darno, Ball and Drake May, second year, 23-year-old in the Super Bowl. So many storylines. We're going to talk about them for our next two weeks. Yes. So awesome. You've got to get a Braves tattoo on the other tricep.

I think we might be able to cover this one up. We'll see. We'll see. Let's go get one. Let's go get one done, let's not celebrate too soon start thinking about tattoos. You're covered up six Super Bowls?

Oh, no. Covered that up. He's joking. Be a friend to tell you. I'm nice of my children for this thing together. Be safe out there with the weather. And let's remember, we're in this thing together.

Yeah. I don't like us battling each other. It's not good. Sports will bring us together. Oh, yeah. And we're thankful for that. All right. Team on me.

Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Bye!