The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1496 - Bill Belichick Not Elected to the Hall of Fame, Brock Lesnar, JJ Watt, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Tirico, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

On today’s show, Pat, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys react to the news that Bill Belichick was somehow not elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, calling into question whether or not it matters if you’re a first ballot Hall of Famer, and why there needs to be a change to the system. AQ also breaks down the trenches in the Super Bowl and why he thinks whoever is more dominant on the defensive line will win the game. The boys are also joined by several incredible guests including Brock Lesnar who announces his intentions to enter the Royal Rumble, JJ Watt, Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson to talk about his disgust of Bill Belichick not being a first ballot Hall of Famer, and lastly, Mike Tirico to chat about calling the Super Bowl, the Olympics, his conversation with Michael Jordan, and 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

Beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this Super Bowl season, watch Wednesday, January 20th, 2020, 26. This program begins now. Football! It's the greatest and there's so much drama surrounding our great sport at this exact moment. We have coaches getting hired in places. Congratulations to Todd Monkin, the new head coach at a Cleveland Brown. Yeah.

Now, there was a conversation about Schwartz Gym. the defensive coordinator with the Cleveland Browns being a package deal with the Cleveland Browns if you become the head coach. So if Todd Munkin is running the offense, which we know he is an incredibly elite offensive play design, play caller, you name it. He was with the Cleveland Browns in 2019. Then he goes into University of Georgia, wins back-to-back national championships, comes back to the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, leads Lamar Jackson to an MVP-like season. And some people would say greatest season Lamar Jackson has had. Now, this past year, obviously, the defense was what it was in Baltimore. but now he takes over in Cleveland with a place

with a question market quarterback, I think a lot of people would say, have a pro bowler though. That's right. Shador Sanders, that's a massive topic of conversation. What's the future look like for him in Cleveland Browns? Todd Monkin, though, if he's got Schwartz as a D.C. or a good defense coordinator with who's stacked up over there, maybe the Browns get themselves back in the big dance.

And he's talk about the AFC North as a whole. Coach Mike McCarthy was just introduced as the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach yesterday had a press conference. They didn't even get a word out before he started crying. Didn't even get a word out. Here's Coach Mike McCarthy, the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday in his press conference, before he even starts speaking. This is his first time he is about to speak as Pittsburgh Steelers head coach.

All right, here we go. Thank you, Ward. I think I thought at least be able to get started. You know, oftentimes coaches and players, you know, you put on new team colors, and it takes a minute to feel comfortable in those new colors. But to be blessed beyond any measure one day to put on the colors you wore since you brought home, I apologize. Right, I told you not to sit my family down here front. It's just so unfair.

You come home from Mercy Hospital. I do want to thank, I want to thank Art, Roney, Homer Con, Dan Rooney, and the entire Steelers organization for the trust they placed in me to represent one of the most stored franchise in all of sports. I understand and embrace the responsibility, the privilege, and the weight that comes with this stewardship. This city, this franchise, this fan base, uh, made the world to me. Because Pittsburgh's my world and Dodds, it's just awesome to be back here. Unbelievable. We got change in Cleveland, change in Pittsburgh. A man's emotional.

He'd back in his hometown. Let's head to Hammer. Dodd, Todd! AP tone, big Pittsburgh Steeler fan. What was the reaction from the Ingers after yesterday's press conference from Mike McCart? That right there is how you went over Pittsburgh. You put some tears on your shoulder, talking about where you're from,

the black and the gold, bringing another one home. That was chef's kiss, brother. Okay, we've got actual Pittsburgh dad now becoming the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, reminiscent of the Bill Caird Day. So Todd Monk and Mike McCarthy, the AFC North, a whole new fan. Jesse Mint, our head coach, over there at Baltimore.

He'll be joining the show, I do believe, tomorrow. Okay. So we'll get a chance to catch up with him. Congrats to all three parties. they're getting brand new teams and the AFC North looking vastly different going forward. But, you know, new head coach in Cleveland, certainly worthy

of discussion. Mike McCarthy being introduced as the head coach in his hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, certainly worthy of discussion. Jesse Mentor coming on a show tomorrow. Worthy of discussion. Yeah. There's only one convoy about sports. That's right.

It's about how these awards go about being given in these titles. Bill Belichick, officially not a first ballot pro football Hall of Famer is the Pro Football Hall of Fame because they like to carry themselves and we have met all the people that operate the Hall of Fame these people love Ball, they love the Hall of Fame

but it precedes the NFL, you know, so it's pro football Hall of Fame over there in Kent. It's a lot of things, the history of the game and everything like that. The people that do the voting for who gets in there, you know, it certainly feels like are kind of getting exposed right now for maybe, you know, holding some personal biases against people instead of, you know, just giving out a vote of who should be in the pro football Hall of Fame.

You know, Bill Belichick, if he's not a first ballot contributor, you know, because it's players and then there's like contributors. This is where coaches, GMs, contributions at a game. I think Madden won through this and also as a coach. Like, I think that is how he went through. So there's like different categories of how you get in coaches, GMs, and contributors, I think, are in their own kind of sphere of their own world. He could be two of those things.

He could be a coach first ballot Hall of Famer, and he could be a first ballot general manager, Hall of Famer. I mean, if you were the guy who drafted Tom Brady, a pick 199, who would go on to become the greatest, and then make the decisions that you make with your roster and the turnover and the ability to do salary cap gymnastics before everybody else, let alone all the Hall of Famers that he's drafted, coach brought on to the team had success with as a general manager alone,

okay? And he'll say he had people helping him. He certainly did, okay? Every building. Turns out it's not just one person doing it, but the general managers take credit for the team that they've assembled to be able to do this. he would be first ballot Hall of Famer

if you put his resume up just as a general manager and then you go for a head coaching thing that's what are we even talking about here he's the guy a lot of people have said you know the Lombardi is certainly a good title everybody's hunting to Lombardi Lombardi is an absolute legend

there's an argument to be made that that should be called Belichick there's a conversation about his name potentially being on the trophy that you win whenever you beat everybody else in the league it's been a fascinating thing feels like everybody in the ball world has the same opinion.

Feels like some of these media people hot horse in a little bit. Some of these people that have the power to write legacies, the power to change trajectories, the power to decide whether or not you're a first ballot or a second ballot or a Hall of Famer at all, maybe feel as if they're holier than thou. Maybe the way they see life is the only way to see life.

Maybe the way they want things to be handled is the only way for things to be handled because Bill Belichick was never really nice to the media. I mean, that was not a... No. Not his thing. What's your tattoo you have on your bicep? We're on to Cincinnati because they kept asking about the previous game that they lost very poorly against Kansas City, and he just responded to every single question.

We're on to Cincinnati. Yeah, and every other press conference that he had, he was very joyful with the media, right? You love talking to him. Yeah, he wouldn't eviscerate them. He actually just decided to completely render them indifferent and not even answer their question. And that was just local people, national? Who was that? I was across the board.

You could go from preseason week one all the way until Super Bowl media week. Okay, so that's basically, that's potentially who makes up a large portion of who's doing the vote. Because it's one writer from each city, I do believe. Then there's a select group of national reporters who cover the game that are selected to do the voting. And then there's like a senior at large where Bill Polly and I believe Tony Dungy, a couple others. They also are in on the voting thing. Now, there was some mixed reporting last night that Bill Pollyan was the one that was fighting against it because SpyGates. They did what we thought they did.

They did the unthinkable. And as a person I was in a training camp and Bill Pullian drafted me, so I'm very thankful for what Bill Pullian did in my life. He saw me as a punter when I didn't think I was going to be a punter, but getting a chance to kind of watch him operate in training camp whenever we were outside, there was multiple conversations that happened about maybe a plane flying a little bit too low or too slow. That's Belichick. Somebody sitting in the crowd, okay, with a hat on, looking a little bit too interested,

that's Belichick. There was an ultimate kind of fear that there was somehow getting hacked. there was something happening from the team up in New England. So whenever it comes out that Bill Pullian was standing on a table basically saying, we aren't letting him be your first ballot for our thing. And maybe others follow suit because you do that. I was fascinated, but I thought it was believable. Then there was an immediate report afterwards that said,

just talked to Bill Pollian. He said, absolutely not. That's totally and categorically untrue. I voted for him. Then there was another article that came out from Don Von Naughta Jr., who was at the bottom of this entire thing. And he says, Bill told me, man, I don't remember.

I don't remember. But then he also said 95% sure he voted for him. Bill Pollian, I will say, and I'm just learning he still does radio. He's a man drafted me. Obviously, I watched tail end of his career as well, whenever the whole thing there. Interacting with him right now, I don't know if Bill Pollian 100% knew that he was going to be on record whenever he was talking to Don Van Naught. Now, Don Van Nukeye, a good journalist probably told him he was going to be on him. But Bill Poller, I got, but 95% percent.

percent sure. I don't know if Bill polling knew for sure that everybody was going to immediately go, ah, bullshit. We know that you didn't do it. And then now the question leads, to get into the Hall of Fame, you have to get 40 of 50 votes. Okay, we know who the 50 voters are. That's been projected everywhere across the internet now. Yeah. Because everybody would like to know who doesn't deserve to have a say in this thing. Who are the people that get a vote for the Hall of Fame, which is a massive ordeal for everybody that plays in a sport? Who is mistreating or who is disrespecting their position in having the say in the matter. Everybody on earth seemingly is viewing it the same way.

And maybe this is how you actually enact some change. And Bill Belichick, whenever he was coaching for the New England Patriots, he came out and talked, I assume they're playing in the Hall of Fame game. He came out and talked about how his parents were from Ohio and he used to visit the Hall of Fame. Here's him talking about it. My parents are from Ohio from outside of Cleveland. And so we regularly went to the Hall of Fame. in Canton. And my dad knew a couple of the people there that, you know, he had known from his Ohio connections.

And we got out into the basement of the Hall of Fame, and they would show us their collection of books, which was other than the library of Congress. I think it's the largest collection of football books. You're talking about a guy who loves Ball. Yeah. Loves the Hall of Fame. And I think he understands the Hall of Fame isn't its voters.

The Hall of Fame is the museum that is kept by people who love Ball. But it's certainly an interesting thing. as somebody who loves history of ball, knowing that he's not going to be a first ballot. We reach out to Bill. Sounds like Bill is still a massive fan of the Hall of Fame, understands the history of the tradition. I think he didn't really say

that he was confused by it all, but he certainly wasn't, you know, he wasn't like, they were recruiting. He was out recruiting. He's just going to kind of move on. I think that's what Bill Belichick kind of does in this entire thing. But it has provided an opportunity

for a lot of people who have a lot of respect for Bill Belichick to come out and go to bat for him when maybe over the last, year and a half or so, they have felt a little shy to do as such. So this has really seemingly been the one where everybody's kind of like, man, they've been kind of burying this guy for a long time. And then all of a sudden, oh, he's not. So Bill Belichick's not a Hall of Famer?

Okay, it kind of feels like the one that kind of tip the thing where everybody's like, we need to stop the disrespect and the slander of Bill Belichick for what he did in New England. So in the end, I think publicly this might be a good thing for Bill Belichick that's happening because everybody's kind of rallying around it. But ultimately, legacy-wise. Bill Belichick, is he worth the damn? He's not a first ballot Hall of Fame.

He's going to talk to the table, at Boston Connor, that Ty Schmidt, con man, massive Patriots fan. Your thoughts on it all? I think it's cool to see what you just mentioned, everybody basically coming out and saying, hey, the Hall of Fame is not a crock of shit, but it is completely tainted.

I think it's interesting, the standard that they're holding Bill to. You know, Mahomes tweet there, LeBron James, I believe he also tweeted and basically said, like, what are we talking about? So seeing everybody universally agree on something, I don't know if we've had that, possibly ever, especially in the last

10, 15 years, 10, 15 months, but also just the two errors. You know, thinking about the coaching changes just between his first three Super Bowls to his last three Super Bowls. I mean, it's just, it's remarkable. And in the end, he will be in the Hall of Fame. I think he will be in the whole thing.

Hey, we are live, we're live, we're live, we're live. Is that boo? It might be. Yeah. Belcher. Are you, can I tell people who you just called me right now? Brock Lezner just called. Shit.

Hey, Brock. The boys say, what's up? The boys say, what's up? Hey, what are you doing, dude? It's not, okay. It's a show, it's a full show now. We're doing a full show all the day, yeah, all the time, all this time. What are you doing?

I'll just call to see what's up, man. Well, I'll hit you back sometime. It's great to hear from me. It's great to see you. What are you doing? You look like you're in great shape. Oh, you're in the Royal Rumble? You're in the Royal Rumble?

I'm going. Yes, sir. Okay. Are you prepared? Are you ready? We haven't seen you do much, right? Have we? Have we seen you? No. I might have missed. I haven't seen you do much. Are you ready? That's a lot of dudes. 30 men. 30 dudes. You being one of them. Are you ready to get your, uh, a lot of young bucks out there too, Brooke? A lot of young bucks out there, brook. All right. I'm in shape, brother. All right. All right. See you.

That's big news. What a legend. That's big news. Breaking. I've seen Brock's name pop up on my phone in months, maybe even, yeah, long time. So as yeah, and he had to, it feels like that had to answer. That's one of those phone calls. So great to hear from him. And then him just being like, hey, just call and say, what's up, dude, how you doing? Life's good. I think he was probably going to ask if I was good. If I had to guess, that was, that was, hey, are you, who's all do we know? I have seen some odds, some rumblings. For what? You may be making an appearance. No, no, okay. We can make sure we know that. That's okay. But Brock Lezzer going in the Royal Rumble. I think he was on the posters. I think he was on the posters. I think he's in the Royal Rumble, though, officially now that, that gets. that's why he just said he's going to go win it. Fantastic.

There's a Hall of Famer in multiple things. Now, let's get back to the task at here. Brock, Brock's going to win the Royal Rumble, by the way. He better win. I'm sick of Guthers. He better win this thing. Gunther's not in the Royal Rumble, I think. He's wrestling, AJ Stott.

I thought he was in it. I saw the list. Boat sent it in. No. Bonehead. Listen, let's have a little bit of respect and appreciation out here for what's about to happen. The Royal Rumble is the greatest event of the year.

If you just like nostalgia and pop and surprise and magic. And now that this, whatever his music is going to hit. Boom. Honestly, they should cancel it, though. Why? Because he, what are we doing?

Do you think Brock's going to lose? I mean, the only guy could maybe see him tossing Brock over the top rope is see him punk. So I hope it doesn't come down to those two guys at the end. But what are we even doing? Why would you even enter now? Yeah, if you have an opportunity to do the Royal Rumble, we suggest you opt out.

I agree. Right now. Maybe the other 29 just say we're not doing it. Maybe just do punk Lesnar. I mean, that'd be like a Rushmore matchup. If it was them to versus each other, that would be exactly what you want. That would be something to everybody would be looking forward to. Top four, maybe top four

out there in the history of the business. Let's get back to top four, top two, top one probably, whenever you're talking about. Congrats to Brock. That's good news for WWE. That's great news for ESPN. 2 p.m. on Saturday. Great news, Josh, too, yeah. 2 p.m. on Saturday. We'll certainly watch that. I'm excited to call him back to see what else is going on in his life.

He lives in the... Yeah, near Saskatoon, right? The sticks. Yeah, he chooses to do... Middle of nowhere. Middle of nowhere. Way out there. Skin and wolves. All right. Let's talk about top one all-time, Bill Belichick.

Darius, you were drafted by this man, this program, this franchise, the New England Patriots. Debutch, nine-year NFL vet. I consider you to be one of the smartest ball in hours of all time. I assume you attribute a lot of that to the time in which you're with Bill Belich and how they went about doing your business and then obviously developed in your own ways. there. But for this travesty to happening in a popularity contest. Now,

congratulations on getting in the Brad County Hall fame. Thank you. Thank you to the voters as well. Yeah, exactly. Anything that's voted upon. Yeah. It's always an interesting feeling. Like, for me, I never won these votes, okay? So I think all awards that involve people voting and the people that are

doing the voting normally hate my guts. Like, I didn't even win male athlete of the year at my high school. I had scholarship offers in three sports. I don't know how often that happens. And my school is not like pumping out athletes all the time. Voted by teachers. Okay, so that didn't happen. Ray Guy Award.

Okay, that's where I met this guy, 12-year NFL vet, AQ Shipley. The guy who won didn't even have enough punts to qualify, really, for an average on the internet. But it was just no way is that asshole winning. So, like, I have been on the wrong side of a lot of these votes. So it kind of makes me feel like, who cares? Who cares? We've got to judge the people that are doing the voting. But getting that honor bestowed upon you for your legacy is obviously something that is very, very special.

Yeah. So I've kind of always been indifferent about these titles that are voted on by people that I don't think understand what's going on in the reality of the situation. But this particular predicament, it feels like everybody's kind of viewing it the same way. And it's like, how do you think you are too good to put in the greatest of all time? There has to be a flaw in the system of some sort that makes sense. This is an absolute joke. You've heard people, you mention anybody who knows Bob, whether you hate the Patriots or you hate Belichick, Tom. everyone has come out and said pretty much the same thing.

I grew up a dog fan. I'm a Don Schula guy, perfect season super, all that. Don Schuler is obviously one of the goats. But when you talk about coaching, GM, a contributor, there is no one who tops the list. It's even really a debate when it comes to Bill Belichick. The same way it is with Tom Brady and quarterback, in my opinion. So this is a joke. And then the part of it about how much he respects and love and how much reverence he has for the game of football.

We all remember like the top 100 when he was sitting at the table in NFL films and him just doing, just going through all the football. I remember being a player, probably my rookie year, we were going to play either the Packers or the Lions. And this dude had on film from like the 1950s, you know, Ed talking about, I believe it was a Packers, talking about the evolution of the forward pass and the history of Lambo and all these different things. So this is the type of guy that he is the coach. We always felt more prepared than the other team. I can't this and that I thought the rules were changed for Bill Belichick to be able to go into the Hall of Fame earlier like literally I thought this was this was why it was changed same thing with craft as an owner but Bill being left off first ballot we've seen it happen with players Terrell Owens is the first one that comes to mind like he was

I thought a no-brainer first ballot but we know his relationship with the media so we thought maybe it will be some of that but this is this is a joke it's an absolute joke it's a sham it's a mockery yeah I think there's a lot of words that you could use to describe it and they'd be accurate, especially if it seems like it's a fraud. Like, and now everybody's question the Hall of Fame as a whole, which is not good. Because the Hall of Fame is a special place. The Hall of Fame

is a special jacket to wear. 12-year NFL vet, Super Bowl champion player coach, Jackie Moon of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, AQ Shepley. A-KUsh, obviously, you were seventh-round draft pick as well. You did win the Remington that night. Congratulations. You deserved it back there whenever we were doing the ESPN College Football Awards on

Orlando. Great time. Your thoughts on Bill Belichick not getting in there. And now the conversation that's surrounding the Hall of Fame as a whole, because that did seemingly become the thing. When the voters aren't the Hall of Fame, though, the voters are just kind of handed the baton of who gets in and who doesn't. There's a lot of olds in there that have been around a long, long time, that I wonder if they start to think that it's their Hall of Fame as opposed to the Pro Football's Hall of Fame, kind of an ownership-type deal because we've been here so long, and this is kind of our world. I think they kind of get excited about that type

of power. I think there are certainly some people in those positions that have that. Yeah, certainly, and I think my thoughts echo everybody else's sentiments. I mean, listen, Bill Belichick's arguably the greatest person, not just GM, not just coach, the greatest person that's ever been involved in football. And I know every single time I played him as a player, never beat him, always went into those games, think, yeah, we're going to beat him. Then you come out of the game and you lose 49 to 7. It's like, of course we weren't going to beat him. He was going to take away our best player. He was going to bracket this guy. He was going to make us play with our left hand. And there was no chance. at us beating him. But again, you just look at his record and you look at his time in New England. It seemed as if they were in the Super Bowl every other year. And if you look at the numbers, it basically comes down to that. I know it doesn't work out that way, but I think it was 10

Super Bowl appearances or Super Bowl ATSD championship. You get what it is, right? But I mean, I think whenever you think about Bill Belichick, it's not just the greatest head coach. It's not just the greatest GM. It's not just the greatest contributor. He might be the greatest person that's ever been involved. DC, offense coordinator. He met with Tom.

We're talking special teams, obviously, had great knowledge. 16 conference championships. There is a three as a coordinator, 13 as a head coach. That was a Hymbo. Great trivia. Here's another stat from Hymbo. It's insane. Bill Belichick has an above 500 record against every NFL team in the NFL. Yeah.

Yeah, he beat everybody. And I mean, the list goes on and on about accolades, but also just topical references. We would meet a new head coach that got a job somewhere in our immediate reaction would be. That guy's going to beat Belichick. That was literally that guy. guys going to beat Belichick. It was almost like Bama.

It was very similar to like Bama is in college. Everybody gets a big wins like we want Bama. That's what it was. We're saying. In the NFL was like they're going to be New England. And Bill was the general manager and a coach. And sounds like potentially partially D.C. whenever he was there on the entire. This is wild to think about. But remember, people of these ilk are voting on a lot of things.

So we got to remember that. Quarterback coach, too, I don't forget that. Tom Brady always talks about how, like, how critical he was to him, his evolution as a quarterback. And then obviously drafting him, but they're making that decision to go from Drew Bledsoe, who was the top pick, one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league, to move on and go with the young time.

We never get that with 90% of the head coaches that have been in that position. And there's a story, you know, we talked about him being coordinator and, you know, head coach because that's the two of the main, two of the three main jobs, GM, of course, being off the field up in the booth, but on the field. When Lawrence Taylor, when he was with the Giants before he became the DC with the Giants, there's a story about how they hired Belichick.

And he was either a defensive assistant or a special team's assistant. And Lawrence Taylor went in to the front office. He's like, hey, what the hell are we doing? Like, I'm not going to be, you know, taking my orders from this young Bill Belichick guy. Like, why the hell would I do that? And they told Lawrence Taylor like, no, the defenses that you've been running the past two years, this guy is the one that's been making them, giving them to the defensive coordinator. and you've had your most successful seasons.

Like, it's not even just when he is in those positions. So you really can't even fathom what he does contribute and that goes to what Debutt says. Like, he can coach any single position. Joining us now, ladies, ladies, gentlemen, is a man who had the same thoughts as us. Can't wait to hear him depict it because he's a future first ballot hall of him.

Maybe. Well, I don't think so. I don't think so. That's right. Maybe if you're lucky enough to have similar mindset and ideals as the people who are voting, you in to a fraternity that they are not in,

but act as if they own, ladies and gentlemen, JJ Watt. Yay! Jage, one day you'll get into this media run Hall of Fame, not the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the media voter Hall of Fame, maybe you will. Maybe you will.

You're tweeting a bit too much. You get a little loud on Twitter. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. Did I tweet a little too loud? Did I upset the Apple card a little too much? I mean, what are we doing? Okay, so you have the same reaction as everybody else.

Whenever Don Von Nata Jr., DVN, Jr. reported it, I think, I thought it was fake. I'm like, well, how's you know? Do we already know who it is? Next Thursday night, I believe they'll be naming the official Hall of Famers. We might have them on program Friday morning for a game show, actually. Now, do we have a spot reserved, you know, just in case there is a change of opinion before now and then we shall see so them reporting that he wasn't in there early i was uh thought it was a lie but then as it was getting picked up and repeated it was like how is this even possible jage this does

feel like the one that felt like a sure fire lock that goes the other way and it sometimes you need that type of situation to kind of drive a little change in something do you think there's any way to fix this change this or what is kind of your thoughts of the current reality of the pro football Hall of Fame. Yeah. No. Like you just said, there are literally like two,

three people in history that are absolute no-brainer locks whatsoever. Bill and Tom being two of those. And I saw something where one of the voters was like, why should the votes be released? What are you going to do? Because you shouldn't have a vote. If you have Bill Belichick not making the NFL,

the Pro Football Hall of Fame, you should not have a vote for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The guy has eight Super Bowl titles. There's only been 59 of them. He's got eight rings from 59. Like, what are you doing? What qualifications do you want? How do you tell the story of the NFL without Bill Belichick? Yeah, if you didn't have him on your ballot, and I get this whole like, well, there was three spots and you can only put, like, I don't care. If there's only three spots, Bill Belichick is spot number one. Point blank. period. You figure out who fits in the other two. No other matter should happen. He is in the Hall of Fame first ballot no matter what. The guy beat me left, right and center multiple times. I should have every reason to hate him. He's a first ballot Hall of Fame or without question.

It's stupid. It feels like all the ball is coming out and saying this right now. You know, because there's a lot of people, obviously, for the last year and a half or so, even the final years, maybe at New England, who started to feel a certain way about Bill Belichick and how, you know, the way he did handle the media and the way he operated in the public eye versus the way he operated with his team, it seems like very different. But in the public eye, he didn't want anybody to like him. He didn't care if anybody liked him. He's here to do a job. Let's keep it moving. Whenever you're not winning as much, whenever you act like that, people throw that in your face a lot. Like, hey, look at this, look at this. So people have really celebrated and danced on the

downfall almost in their eyes of Bill Belichick. Now, Bill Belichick will say that he's building something in North Carolina. It's going to be great. He was literally on the recruiting trail this morning. They tried to run him out of that job a hundred times. I mean, there was multiple different things about that. Obviously, his personal life has talked about very, very loud. It feels like this is the first time where all of Ball has come together and acknowledge Bill Belichick for what he is. Do you not agree with that, Jage? It's hands down the best PR that he could have right now at a time where obviously it hasn't been the greatest PR forum the last year or two here with everything that's going on. And

it is a galvanizing. I mean, have you ever seen Twitter come together? anything 100% altogether at one time. It's been incredible to watch this reaction because it's such that's, it's such a no-brainer. This is, I mean, it's the stupid thing. Now, for Bill Belichick, I'm happy he's getting a chance to get his flowers. Yes. You know, and I hope he does get to experience that,

which is basically why I wanted to call this morning as they were on the recruiting child. I'm like, hey, I just want you to know, like, everybody is going to bat on your side for this. Like, I don't know how much you follow it. I don't know how much you know. but literally everybody in ball, including Hootie, including Hootie, is coming out. He's a Dolphids fan. He's coming out on your side.

It does feel like he's getting a lot of flowers right now that maybe didn't get. Because there's that documentary. Well, yes. There's all the other stuff that kind of have. It's been a very negative post-leve of New England for Bill Belichick. And that's why after the documentary, like, which was two years ago, like not that long ago, after that documentary came out, everybody was basically like, hey, Robert Kraft, what the hell are you doing?

Like, why did you guys decide to paint Belichick in this light? And a lot of people in New England had a lot of qualms with Bobcraft for years because of how they painted him. So you'd assume that maybe they learned something from that, just not even, you know, the crafts. Because the crafts did. They basically called their mistaken hour Mike Vrable. But you would assume other people would say, hey, everybody who tries to bury Bill in the end inevitably loses because all the football people know how much he means to the game as a whole. So the fact that they still came out and did this is ridiculous.

And now if the reasoning, which maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't, if the reasoning is, you know, spy gate and the flake gate, what is that set for next year with Tom Brady? Like, what's the president there? Because he was a part of it. I think he's two years, 2028, actually. That was me from earlier, misquote. But it will be fascinating how the precedent is set now, you know?

How is the president said? Can they let in 20 people like a couple years ago? Yeah, post-CO. Yeah, because of COVID. And then there was a guy because there was a backup here. like a class where there were 20 people going in but Bill Jell L. Belichick's not in. Like what? I mean, like

if you got in or like if you're in there, you're like, well, hang on a second. Should I even be here? Because Belichick's not here. Like, do I deserve to be here? No, because I don't have eight rings. Like if I... Oh, James since there's a chance he's not making it now. Jage is like, hold on now.

Well, he was using that thing. Oh, the biotic arm. Yeah. I am curious, though, for like guys like JJ who like you should unequivocally be a first ballot hallfamer but after something like this comes out like does that even matter anymore like it seems like the whole idea of being a first ballot hall famer like that doesn't mean shit anymore well that's what this does like that starts this conversation where it should never be a conversation like a first ballot hall of famer should be the most highest honor biggest thing and the guys that are no brainers should be no brainers

and now all of a sudden it's completely switched this whole mindset and it's turned the entire thing upside down. And to your point of how do you fix it, I don't know because what? Now we're just going to wait a year and they're going to have a vote and he's obviously going to get in next year. And then you're going to do a ceremony like nothing happened and he's going to go up there and he's going to act like these people didn't screw him the year before. And I'm sure he's going to do. He has such respect and reverence for the Hall of Fame that I'm sure he'll do it. but like we're all just going to act like oh yeah like no you go back tomorrow and you say okay commissioner's decision we screwed up i don't know how you fix this this is absurd well and that's why like bill pollions taken on the shins but it wasn't just bill polion like i am under the

assumption that uh if you needed 40 out of 50 votes there were 10 to 12 people who had qualms with bill and they thought like i'm going to be the only one i'm going to be the one that doesn't vote him first ballot so that when it comes out it wasn't you know you unanimous first ballot. Heroes. Yeah, heroes, exactly. And then turns out 12 people ended up having a qualm. And Bill Pollian's taking it, and

that's because he's the only one with his name on it, and that has done an interview and stuff. And, you know, sure, if he didn't vote for him, whether he did or not, that doesn't matter as much. Like, he doesn't know. Yeah, he doesn't know. But there are 11 other people. Change. Please.

Conner's in the middle. We don't know. He doesn't know. He's 95. He's pretty sure. He doesn't know. He's 95%. sure. Okay, is that not enough for you people? He maybe shouldn't be voting anymore if that's the case. I don't think you should be voting if you don't know who you voted for. That's fair.

He was 95% sure. The guy woke him up. He was in the middle of a nap. Just had some milk. He's 83. Ovalteen. He's 83 years old. We've seen this guy at these games, these Colts games.

It is news to me that he's doing a radio show. Okay? I'm very grateful for it. It's news to him. He voted for all. All right. They might have to. They might have woke him up from a nap and be like, you like Bill?

I mean, I'm going on. I can tell you that. Clearly, I'm off his ballot in however many years. I assume. Maybe not. Maybe he'll forget. See, the issue is, though, like any personal biases getting in the way of a job that you're not supposed to utilize those is certainly just a reality of humans, I think. Which is why, like, we can't be having you right there, say, hey, just even matter anymore if your first ballot hall effect, we can't have that happening.

It's already starting to happen to the Pro Bowl. It's already starting to happen. That's been done for years. And, Jage, I will say as somebody that was in a Pro Bowl with you, Jage, known for taking Pro Bowl, I don't want to say seriously, but treating it for what it is, celebration of ball and sport, won a truck. Wanted to win the truck. One in the truck.

Still got it. And defensive end, pass rusher is certainly a position in which, if you were to go, you could steal a truck at Pro Bowl every single year if you really wanted to, so I respect that. But, like, the Pro Bowl is, That's Tuesday night flag football. And I saw, was it Sean Merriman maybe that put the post out about what the Pro Bowl used to be? That was real from Sean Merriman.

I grew up wanting to go to Hawaii to go to the Pro Bowl thing because of how cool it looked, how awesome it looked. When I make it to the NFL, I'm like, all right, I just want to get to Hawaii to do his Pro Bowl thing. And then obviously make it, first time I make it, it's in Arizona. And we had to drive out in the middle of the desert. It was pretty cool. Love Arizona, but it just didn't even have the full hotel. ran out. Jay J.J. couldn't even hang out because there was another convention happening in the hotel.

It's like, this is not what I thought this was going to be. And then everybody's like, well, the players aren't taking it serious. Well, it feels like the NFL's not taking any serious either. We can't even sit at the lobby bar. Because there's a there's a t-shirt convention happening at the same exact time at the same of the hotel. So, I feel like everybody contributed to the Pro Bowl become an ass. I think everybody

contributed to that. We can't have that happening to the whole thing is how I feel, Jage. That's how I feel. Yeah, I agree. I agree. I mean, my, I'm hopeful to be in it one day and I'd love for it to hold the prestige and value that it's held my entire life and because of all the unbelievable names and legacies and legends that are in there. But that's why this is so blasphemous because if Bill Belichick is not a first ballot

Hall of Famer, no person in the history of the NFL deserves to be. Jimmy Johnson said, I don't want to hear it. Yeah, he said Bill Bolian was telling him how to cheat before as well. Well, say that's what it is tweet, please. Okay, let's make sure we get the words right. If they're using the excuse, he wanted to emphasize that, of SpyGate, that's ridiculous. Many teams, including ourselves, I'm in the Hall of Fame, tried it. Howard Mudd at Kansas City, who later coached for Bill Pollian and Tony Dungey,

gave us the idea. He was the best, rest in peace, by the way. We didn't get anything and stopped, but many teams gave it a try. Jimmy Johnson will be joining us, I believe, in like 30 minutes or so. A little bit more about that. Do and do some journalism, but that is a fascinating thing, because whenever this was all coming out publicly, media-wise, I think fan-wise, the spy gate, all the gates, gets very loud with these people.

And then everybody in Ball was like, oh, not that big of a deal. Still got to execute. Still got to execute. Let's keep it moving. Let's keep it moving. Even a Connor Stallion stuff. Yeah. It was very much like, let's keep it moving.

Let's keep it moving. And I'm not saying everybody is cheating, okay? But there are certainly a lot of people that were potentially trying these things. They were like, let's not look into this too deep. Let's go ahead and just keep it moving how we're doing it here. So the spy gate felt like that from within a building. But I do know there was people that thought it definitely. definitely crossed the line. So I don't know where the Spygate thing falls in all this.

I assume it's certainly held over his head. But isn't that also the part, like, you're just grandstanding if you're one of these voters? Because like the only people who truly could be pissed about the SpyGate stuff would be other front office, executives, coaches, stuff like that, guys who, what, maybe two or three of those guys were actually in the league at the same time of Bill that have a vote? Like, it's all these other people who are saying, like, this isn't right, this isn't right, who weren't in a football building. and I guess would be the person. Yeah, right.

In that particular instance. Jade, your thoughts on that as we talk about like the football culture as a whole, they're treating the spy gate scandal as like a punishable scam. That must be the reasoning, the logic that they're utilizing and they're voting, I would assume. There is no logic. There is no reasoning. Like, I don't get it, man. The guy has eight Super Bowl rings.

Like, what are we doing here? Like, this is... Jimmy Johnson's going to tell us he's been doing it the whole time, though. Howard Budd got a serious stray there. He wasn't expecting to wake up today being pegged with some. Wow. Jeez, James. But like, I mean, rest and peace to John Howard Mudd.

I know. Oh, sorry. Yeah, actually. I will say that Howard Mudd and his family would laugh at what you just did right there. Yeah, so that is, don't feel terrible. But he's rolling over in his damn grave, that Bill Bill and Jay. That's how great. He's all right.

I was off. He said, hang on. Was that my name being thrown around? Howard is tough enough to do that. Everybody knew about Coach Mudd. Really? Oh, yeah. On the sideline, you was getting all the signals. Coach Mudd. I mean, everybody was trying to do it, which is why. Everybody is doing it, man. They're literally spy reports for every single team. You're doing everything. But now I don't know how far went.

Don't say this. Don't say this. You're still up for votes. Now is not the time. They didn't even win the Super Bowl during the SpyGate year. the other gate is the flight gate and they came out and that happened in 2014. And then in 2015, they did a study of all the footballs in the cold weather and said like, oh, this happens every single cold game. Like even the flight gate was basically passed out of the Whitchardt. You would assume that they've been doing that.

Yeah, you definitely have no ties to the situation, Connor. Like you're, you're lost. Yeah, I got Bruins. I have the pad's helmet all this. But still, like, even the deflate, yeah, I got my helmet right here. And the Hall of Fame helmet. And the Hall of Fame helmet. Oh, no.

But even, yeah, actually, that's a great point. The Canton Police, they're good people, I think. They're still up here somewhere. But seriously, the deflakeate, like that entire study about the footballs comes out after the fact. And they say, like, yeah, actually, what's crazy about air pressure is that when it gets colder, the air pressure, you know, goes down. Any punter or kicker or catcher or thrower would be able to tell you that about balls whenever it gets colder. but the original report came from Bill and the Science Guy, bro. Yeah.

Bill not a science guy told me that it's too much, that it doesn't move that much. Yeah, and you know his middle name is? Anybody with a car that lives in the Midwest or anywhere cold will be able to tell you that because when it's cold outside and you get in your car, it beeps at you say in your tire pressure. And you drive around for a while. Hey, hops right back up. I'm going to be honest, mine's down like 28, 27 right now. Me too, but you know what you got to do?

You just ride it out. By the time we go home tonight, it'll be back up 30, 31. You'll be fine. We have a couple non-car cover people in the office. Tough morning. The other morning. Yeah, geez. Jeez, Louise.

We're talking a foot on the hood, driving a whole way, clean out one side. It's not moving. That thing's frozen. It's like, can you see on that thing? It doesn't even worry, but we got a couple of that. And need that thing to get warm. Need the car to get warm. It is unbearably cold rate.

And it's only starting. You're not in it anymore. a minute here and there it's been cold we had snow days so you're not in your log cabin up in Wisconsin don't worry about where I am

don't worry about where I am don't worry about where I'm you're not in your log cabin up there in Wisconsin I know that because those were the good old days whenever you turn on JJ what lives in a log cabin this guy's an actual fucking lumberj Ice bass in the lake in the lake yeah I'm like holy hell I love this guy

Paul Bunyan we got Paul Bunyan And then I saw the, the, look. I saw you bundled up with a nice scarf yesterday to go outside. What were you doing? Had to go clean a little thing off or two, you know. Blue, the dog that we have, his energy doesn't wait. You know, he ain't got the time. So you got to get him out there and run a little bit.

So I had to get him out there and run. Snot frozen. That's where we're at. Oh, yeah. We're at snot freezing time. And there's another one coming. And I don't have a lot of cold weather stuff because I don't really get cold. So that was everything.

Yeah, you don't live. What's that? Yeah, you live in a place. that you wouldn't need it for sure. James, I don't get cold. Get some cold weather stuff, brother. Get some car heart on you. Holy shit.

Yeah, I know. I need a little car heart on me. Okay, I need it, but I don't get cold, really. And if it's not, I just put a hoodie on. I got some gloves. I'm good. That one, face had to do the full-on scarf. That was from Travis Kelsey.

I believe you sent me a gift back here. Thank you, Travis, for doing that. Pulled that out of a box. I'm like, do I have one of these things? What can help me? Oh, Travis. Super fashionable, did that entire thing. Yeah, I felt pretty good.

about it. But it's cold as shit, Jim. It's cold as shit out here. I believe that. Hey, you're hiring an American, I heard, for your team, Español. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. What do you mean? We'll see. Diego Luna deserves a spot. We're working on a few different things. We've got some ref issues going on. We're trying to figure some things out here. Been some questionable things happening. And we're trying to make sure that everything is on the up and up. And we're not, we're not getting little club syndrome here we're we're gonna stand up to it what you're getting you're getting little broed by the

refs you got what's we're not we're not taking that we're not taking that we're looking for some answers we'd like some answers what they're they're saying hey excuse me espanuel why don't you uh shut up i don't know how they say that in spanish uh ha shit a cayete is that what they're saying to you i mean it's just there's just been some questionable calls lately that uh we'd like some answers to We don't like just sitting there and taking it, so we're hoping to get some answers and some understanding of why things are happening the way that they're happening. So we'll see how that goes. Who do you meet with the commissioner? New territory.

New territory here. This is very new. Are you guys sitting at a desk? Like, are you doing the whole, are you guys going to be across the table, like litigation type situation? Or are you being a Zoom call? It's an early, it's an early process. It's an early process. And we'll see how far the process goes.

Yeah, but Manolo had his thoughts, and I appreciate him sharing them. Ownership backing, Espaniel coach, Manolo's thoughts in which he shared in which he says, seems like there's one club that always gets screwed and nothing ever happens. We'd like to know how this works. Jage, I'd like to say, as somebody that's been around you a few times, your presence in the room is certainly worthy, I think. 6'7, J.J. Watt walks in to meet with the commissioner of La Leliga. I think that's not a bad play. Maybe do a little, you know, a couple of these on the desk.

Hey, so how is this work? You're saying same old as Spaniel, okay? They're good people down there. They don't want to do this? I'll snap you in fucking hair. Yeah. Is that what you're going to do? Is that what ownership is going?

Our boys are working. Our boys are working. They're putting in shifts. They're trying. All I'm asking for is a fair opportunity for him to go out there and play. That's all. Nothing wrong with that. It's good ownership.

Hey, that's good ownership. That boy, Gage. Way go, Jake. Signed American now. Don't be. I saw you got to see Mike McDaniel yesterday. cool. Yeah, it was nice to give him a nice send off. He deserved that. He was

awesome. I liked him. I wish it would have worked out genuinely. How do you feel, Jage, about him going to L.A.? That feels like a great hiring. Also, best hiring in DeButt's eyes is actually in Tennessee. Yeah, my favorite right now is Brian DeBowal, O.C. for Cam Ward down there in Tennessee with the defensive

head coach Robert Sala. So I would be interested to know, Jay. What's your favorite hire so far in this cycle? They built a good staff there, man. Tennessee has built a nice staff. How crazy is it? I was thinking about this

right before I came on. How crazy is the NFL? We just had two championship games on Sunday. Everything that comes with that, we know who's going to the Super Bowl. We have head coaching hires going left and right,

and those things are pushed down, down, down the media ladder because we have a bigger story on our hand. Like a bigger story than the championship games, bigger story than the Super Bowl upcoming, bigger story than these head coaching hires.

But in terms of who these head coaching hires, I mean, I saw today the Browns obviously hired Monkin. Jim Schwartz, in my opinion, then seemingly would be available because I believe he interviewed twice for the Browns head coaching job this cycle and didn't get it. It has been reported. It has been reported.

He's out. So, I mean, there's another guy available right now for people looking at D.C. And obviously, it's been a very successful defensive coordinator in this league. So that would be a hot name to look out for. Who knows where that ends up? But this cycle has been. really, really interesting to watch. I mean, obviously the Buffalo situation just happened there. They were looking for a new vibe after everything. And I think Joe Brady's a great coach. I think he has

potentially be a great head coach. A lot of people on his radar, but I just don't know if new vibe is from within the same building. I don't, I don't. We will have Joe Brady on tomorrow. I believe at like 1.30 Eastern or so. I think he has a presser and then he's going to join us. I've been told immaculate vibes. Now, what does that mean? He is great. I've talked to him a bunch this season because we had a bunch of their games. He is great.

There is no doubt that he, A, he's been a head coach in candid for a long time for a reason. He is great. But what I'm saying is when you go out and do a press conference about the reason that you fired a coach being going in the locker room and seeing the vibes being down and feeling you need a new energy. Like that you can just see how optically that's just an interesting. Well, then there's another optic to it as well, Connor. Yeah, not to mention, Jay, and the owner comes out and says like, hey, the coaches, they liked Keon Coleman, not Brandon Bean.

And you think, well, Sean McDermott's a defensive head coach. So the coaches that like Keon Coleman will probably be the offensive guys, which would then lead you to think, well, the offensive coordinator is Joe Brady. So Joe Brady loved Keon Coleman. So Terry Pagullough just once again throwing his guys without even knowing it under the boss. No, it's just a master class out of, hey, I'm just going to shoot from the hip up here. And you're allowed to do that if you're an owner, especially if you got a new stadium coming and everything like that. But Joe Brady with his great fade taking over up there in Buffalo, I think is potentially special hiring.

If he can get it right, like we've seen some of these, Liam Cohen, what we've seen Liam be able to do down there in Jacksonville. Now obviously, they're not playing for the Super Bowl, but still what Ben Johnson was able to do. And I'm not saying that that's an exact comparison because Ben Johnson was Bell of Ball for Head Coaching role for like three, four years. Everybody knew he was going to be a guy. But if Joe Brady can bring a little bit of fresh energy, a little bit of a reset with Brain and Bean still doing his entire. everything. Maybe the bills win it all. Maybe the bills won't at all. I've heard Jim Leonard's name thrown around for DC. I think Jim Leonard's

going to be a phenomenal defensive coordinator in this league. He obviously Wisconsin man but that's a guy who whoever hires him as a defensive coordinator. I'm very much looking forward to watching their defense play. How'd you feel about Pittsburgh yesterday? Big Mike McCarthy getting emotional before the first words even come out of his mouth.

Obviously, T.J. Pittsburgh Steeler, obviously J.J. Watt has attended a lot of Steelers games, called a lot of Steelers games. massive turnover first time and longer than 19 years McCarthy takes over. Got emotional, say love the city, and it feels like he won over some people in the city with his emotion and raw, authentic love and passion for the Three Rivers. What are your thoughts on Big Mike McCarthy getting the gig in his initial reports?

Yeah, I mean, I've seen everybody's reactions to the initial hire and the understanding of everything that's going on from that standpoint. But I'm with everybody else, but when you watch that press conference, and we know it's not about winning press conferences or anything, but the man had some moments. The man had some great moments in that press conference. And it was, I mean, the hospital line is just as good as it gets from an opener. And then he finishes it with, we're going to start the championship parade at my childhood house or whatever, 1137 Greenfield Avenue, I think it was.

And he's got the entire McCarthy family tree there, which is a large tree. Irish. I don't know, he crushed it. It was a really cool press conference. It was great. I think people are starting to come around down at a bit. Obviously, the offensive coach, that'll be cool to watch in Pittsburgh for the first time. I haven't really seen that. So he did as great of a job as you can do at that press conference to get people on board. How do you feel about Pittsburgh Steelers' chances in a very new AFC North? Jesse Mentor will be joining us tomorrow, new head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. they obviously have high hopes and everything they have cooking up there move on from harbaugh.

You know, Munkin just gets hired in Cleveland right now. Schwartz is going to be out. The big bad wolf potentially for that Cleveland defense is leaving the city. Very new AFC North with Zach Taylor and Joey B still sitting there in Cincinnati. What are your thoughts on how it kind of looks from this point of view as we know nothing about the actual rosters? Yeah, that's the ultimate question. I do like I understand the qualms about Mike McCarthy and I complete. get it. I also think that in the desire for somebody new and somebody exciting and somebody huge,

there is a little bit overreaction in the fact that Mike McCarthy is a good football coach still. It's not like, oh my gosh, how could we possibly go with that guy? Let's not take it that far the other direction. But it's the quarterback. Like, are you going to go with Will Howard? Are you going to go? Is it going to be Rogers again? Who's going to fulfill that position? And how do you build that for the future. That's the only pertinent question there is the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers, how that goes. In Baltimore, you've got Lamar Jackson. So you add Jesse Minter on the defensive side. The defense would imagine to be shorn up, see who the offensive coordinator is, but at the end of the day, you have Lamar Jackson. That's going to be great. Cleveland,

they've got to figure some stuff out. Obviously, their defense is going to be great. They have Miles Garrett, but, I mean, they have work to do. Pro Bowl quarterback, please. Hello. Jerry Judy, too. Yeah. And then you got the Bengals who are running it back and weren't able to make it obviously, but Joe Burroughs back, healthy and ready to roll. One of the best in the absolute business when he's healthy and running. So it's going to be a great division per usual. And I would imagine I'll probably be covering a lot of their games like we were last year.

J.J. Watt North. You know, I can't wait to hear it. You also had some AFC South stuff as well. Obviously, a lot of Texans games. They were undefeated with JJ on the call. Maybe we should look into that. Maybe the Hall of Fame voters will do some actual digging into things. How come all JJ's teams win whenever he's on the call? We'd like to get to the bottom of that. You know, you talk about the Cincinnati Bengals there with Joey B

being one of the best in the world. They want from outhouse to penthouse. Joey B gets hurt his rookie year, comes back. They end up going to the Super Bowl, almost win that thing if Aaron Donald doesn't wreck the game. The Cincinnati team kind of gave hope to a lot of different fan bases. This year feels like that's been even more emphasized. Go ahead, AQ.

Yeah, both teams in this year's Super Bowl did not make the playoffs last year. now they're in the Super Bowl. What team or teams do you see that didn't make the playoffs this year? Maybe having that same success next year? That's a great question. It's definitely one I wish I had time to prep for. Oh, JJ, wow a little bit. I mean, I would say that the Ravens are certainly in that.

I would say that the Kansas City Chiefs are obviously in that. I mean, you're immediately looking at those types of teams that didn't make it this year, but are stacked and ready to roll for next year. But it also speaks to this league, It speaks to this league that this is what's capable of happening. And we talked about it with all the head coaching turnover. Like, everyone expects you to win now. And if you don't win within your first two years, sometimes your first one year, you are gone and they are looking for somebody else.

It is, I think it's great to watch. And from a fan standpoint, somebody who's a fan of the game, I love watching this. But from somebody who also took some time to develop myself. And if I was on this type of timeline, would have been kicked out of the league, like, it's so damn. hard to develop coaches, to develop players, to develop organizations properly when you are doing things on this fast of a timeline and the expectations are this high, this quickly. Fernando Mendoza with the Raiders, you know, might turn them completely around. Who's the coach?

Who knows? Maybe the Arizona Cardinals. Maybe they go on a Super Bowl run next year. Nah. Yeah, maybe the Arizona Cardinals. The Jets, they've hired offensive defense coordinators, obviously. Don't see it. First year, coach.

Tennessee Titans, Cam Ward. Possibly. Maybe has an opportunity here with Dayball calling the place. Jackson Dart, New York Giants. Sexy Dexy. Sexy Dexy. Goin very hem on the internet at the moment.

They got Jackson Dart. They got Harbaugh. Do they have a complete culture shift to make this thing? Bruce is nod in his head. Yes, says a Zufaholic. Eleven Windsor bus. Can you show your hat to the camera?

Zufa. Zufaholic, baby. Eleven Whizzer bus. They fight Sunday night. So maybe the Giants make a run at this thing. And then Washington commanders, obviously, you think Jaden Daniels? Shock came on at the end of the season.

Boom. That's the one. Shock eventually goes crazy down there in New Orleans. I mean, that's parody of the NFL. Shoddy, Cowboys. Dallas. Dallas has a chance. Baker,

Detroit. Easy. Quarterbacks. It's crazy to look at this graphic because I'm like sitting here thinking like, all right, who's their offensive coordinator, who's their de-coordinator, and the guys they got, like, you can't even do that right now. There's so many teams that don't have everything in set,

or there's so many things that have changed. crazy to look at this and try and figure it all out right now. And not mentioned here is the Indianapolis Colts because we don't have our pick for the next two years. That's right. And there's a chance we make playoffs next year. Well, let's... There was a one team that nobody agreed upon, which is a shame because JJ's got great history there. Ty has the last question for you about an open coaching job still. Yeah, JJ, just curious. I know you've played there for a little bit and I guess this would be partially to you and AQ. Do you think Arizona's ever going to be worth the shit again? It kind of seems like the last couple of times. Well, I'm just saying,

they're kind of that team you're circling. It's like, boy, does any coach want to go take a head coaching job there? Because chances are two years, he's going to lose a bunch of games. Then he's going to get fired, and they're kind of just going to run everything back. They don't have a quarterback. The area is beautiful. Beautiful. The stadium is beautiful. It seems like it'd be pretty easy to get people to want to go there. But what does Arizona need to do to kind of get back on the right track. Yeah, I mean, right now they need to find out what their quarterback situation is for the future. When you're a head coaching candidate and you're sitting there and you're looking at

opportunities, the number one first thing you're looking at is who's the quarterback of the team and is this somebody that I can build off of and am I going to tie myself to this and my personal success knowing that this might be my only shot at the Apple, can this be my future? And then after quarterback, you start to look at the organization as a whole and if you like how it's run and if you think there's potential for them to add an influx of cash, and and everything to help build this roster to be as good as possible and the staff. But number one comes down to quarterback. And right now, they don't have that solution for what their quarterback future is going to be.

And so that's what makes it tough. But everything else, I agree with you, man. There's a reason I went out there. I thought we had a chance to win. We started out 7 and 0. We were very successful. Everything was going great. And then it kind of fell apart.

But like you said, it's a beautiful place. It's a great place to go. And when you get the players right, everything can happen. but that's why it's still vacant in my mind right now, and that's why it's not necessarily super attractive at the moment because you don't have an answer for what that quarterback future looks like. Maybe J.J. Watt becomes the head coach of the Arizona Carlin. Maybe.

That's a lot of time commitment. I do not want to be head coach. I really enjoy my current work-life balance. It's beautiful. Okay, I'm happy to hear you're happy. Now, some places need a little change. Sounds like La Liga is one of them. Jage, get to the bottom.

of the officiating. You'll be doing it for the good of sport as a whole. We appreciate the hell out of you. Are you going to be out to Super Bowl next week? No, I will not be.

Will you? Yes. It's part of the answer. It's part of our, it's our whole thing. We do Radio Row Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Friday. You don't know.

You're going to be at the Royal Rumble too, huh? Nice. Congrats. No, Brock Lesner is going to be in the Royal Rumble. There are rumblings. J.J.

I thought that you were going to also take that big jet of yours and pop it over this. and go with him. No, no. Brock Lesnar is officially in the Royal Rumble.

We learned that at the beginning of the hour with a cold face time from Brock Lesnar. Okay? I, not, Brock. Yeah. And by the way, Brock's going to win that thing. Is JJ in it? Oh!

We'll see it. Are you? I don't. Nobody's told me. All right. I don't see you next hour. Goodbye. At Desjardin Insurance,

we know that when you own a cleaning company, things need to be tidy and organized at every step. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejjardin.com slash business coverage.

Football is the greatest. We got Hall of Fame controversy. We got a Super Bowl matchup ahead. We got new coaches in different places, and we got optimism around the league that maybe next year could be the year that their team goes on a Lombardi hunt. This year, it's only he going to be the New England Patriots fans or the Seattle Seahawks fans who are going to spend all offseason prancing around peacock and party to party saying we are the world champs. Will it be McDonald and Donald? Or will it be Drake May and Vrable? it be the return to a dynasty for the East Coast or one for the left coast.

It's a magical matchup. It's a magical time for ball. Todd Monkin just got named a head coach of the Cleveland Browns. They enter another rebuild of sorts in Cleveland. The Brown's fan base, the dog pound. How! How! A lot of barking up there.

They got a little lepricon. Okay, a little mascot named Brony. Mm-hmm. Right? He's a little lepricot? Right about that, yeah. is that what he is? I believe he's an elf.

There it is, an elf. I couldn't think of the other word. I knew it was similar to a leprechaun. Brani, the elf, in front of the dog pond. They sell out their stadium. They fill that place up. They have had zero continued success since I have been alive. A lot of quarterbacks have obviously come through there.

Some have had success. They immediately get shipped out of town. Seems like there's a multitude of curses that could potentially be on the Cleveland Brown's football team. but it does not turn the Cleveland Browns fan base away from being fans. Mike the Miz, Mizanin, W.W.E. Superstar, former real world legend, he has belief every year that the Cleveland Browns are going to win Super Bowl.

Even in the middle of the season when Shador Sanders was playing football, winning a game there or two. And although his stats weren't saying he was doing great, they had some sort of magic that was kind of running through them and they were winning. Miz thought there was a chance they were going to win a Super Bowl last year. These Browns fans are die hard. Hopefully Monkins able to bring them. them something that's special on the offensive side

with Miles Garrett on the defensive side. Hopefully they're able to be great and it would be cool for those Browns fans if the Browns were good. But let's head to Hammer, Don, Tom. Is that ever going to happen, Tone, with the Browns? No. No. I mean, I don't, I don't, and this is nothing against Todd Monk and he's

a great offensive coach. Obviously, they have great pieces on the defense side of the ball. It's most likely a good hire as far as coaches go, but I mean, there's just something in the water up there. I think it's poop, to be honest with you. chance. That is, it's just never going to work up there. And we all know that. There's not poop water

up there. I mean, there's four teams that have never been to the Super Bowl. Browns are one of them. Lions. Titans and Jags are the other two, just in case people didn't know that. Titans have been to the bowl, Tony. Sorry, sorry, Jags and Texans. I get the stupid AFC South confused sometimes. But no, I just, I just don't think, you know, it's ever going to work there.

History would tell us that it's never going to work. That's Pittsburgh Steeler fan. Tone Diggs. We appreciate. Let's go to the top of the table at Bossa Conner at Ty Schmidt. Ty, how do you feel about the new hires? Ten coaching changes this cycle to still remain, Arizona

and Las Vegas. Monkin being the most recent. Your thoughts from Harbaugh to Monkin, all the hiring in between? Which one gets your most excited? Is it Big Mike back in Pittsburgh? Honestly, I think it's Jesse Minter going to I mean, Big Mike is the easy one

because that's kind of a close personal connection. Personal one. Exactly. Exactly. Because, you know, still have quite a bit of affinity for him from when he was the head coach of the Packers. But something about Jesse Minter to me just kind of screams. I really like this guy. The bigger question, I really, like, again, I kind of just asked JJ that. Like, the Raiders, I guess, you know, they have the first overall pick and you have Tom Brady there and everything. But boy, who wants the Raiders job and who wants the Cardinals job? Because like even like Clint Kubiak, we were talking about him and the timing of things,

I think, is going to make it. So he's probably not going to get one of these jobs. And I think I said it out there just kind of thinking off the top of my head. I was like, you know what? I could see Clint Kubiak sitting this one out waiting until next year. Bengals shit can. I can't even. Zach Taylor.

And then Clint Kubiak is the Bengals head coach. But like he was the guy we were hearing about all year. Like, hey, it's his time. It's his time. Look what he's done with Seattle's offense. I just, I don't know who wants the Cardinals job. Phoenix is a great place. It is.

He's a nine-year NFL vet. Derrish Jay Butler. A lot of coaching jobs these days seemingly getting turned down by guys. Guys very rarely did that in a past. It felt like whenever you got a head coaching opportunity, you would certainly take it. It's a bigger paycheck. It's a chance to run your thing. You don't know when this is going to ever happen again.

With now with no coaching salary cap for these teams, it feels like assisting coaches, coordinators can get paid a pretty good amount of money and then kind of pick and choose. Ben Johnson turned things down a lot. We heard this year a lot of people turning down head coaching interviews and staying in the coordinator world. It's a fascinating little development as we move forward about which job's a good job. because we've seen so many jobs be shite jobs for people in the past. Yeah, and it's much more, I guess, reporting around it too. So we get much more insights of who's getting interviews,

who's taking their names out of the hat, which, like you said, you don't really hear that in the past. And a lot of coordinators, I think, in coaches, they're going to stay with, like, winners, because winners, they will always be plucked from. So if you have good alignment from the top, down, from the ownership level, from the coaching level, and then it all revolves around the quarterback.

All these turnarounds that we're talking about, They are all connected to young, talented quarterbacks, and then you get the coach in there. So, like, I'm looking at this list, like Harbaugh, Jackson Dart. We saw some glimpses. We saw some flashes. If he can stay healthy, they have some other pieces with veteran players who have played well in this league that they can go and make a run. We know the NFC East is always a tossed up year and a year out. So these coaches, they want to find the right spot from the top, but also that quarterback,

you got to have a quarterback that you can build around and go all the way. So Joe Brady would have, you know, MVP winner. You're obviously in a great spot. You already have that relationship there as well. And the Steelers, Mike McCarthy, they don't know what the quarterback situation is going to be. He was open to Aaron Rock. Definitely would love Aaron Rogers, but that's an Omar Khan situation. Love Will Howard, love Mason Rudolph, whatever the future is.

Sala with Cam Ward, there's obviously a chance there. Monkin, I don't think they know. Half lead down in Miami, I don't think they know. Stafansky in Atlanta, I don't think they know. You know, it's a fascinating little. Mentor, you got Lamar Jackson. Great news. And then Vegas, I think you have Fernando.

For sure. And I am a believer in Fernando, not that I'm a believer in Fernando. Not that I'm an NFL scout or anything like that, but I think he's going to be very good in the NFL. I think he has the traits to be great in the NFL. I think he loves football. I think he's obsessed with film. I think he likes breaking down plays.

I think he's big. I think he's athletic and he throws darts. So I think he has the NFL qualities, and I think he's built for it. For sure. But looking at Fernando, in my opinion, he is a quarterback in a prospect, and this goes for 95% of prospects.

You've got to have the good shit around them. You've got to have a good offense line. You got to have play. He's not like, I felt like Cam Newton, for instance. Cam Newton was going to be successful. Damn there anyway he went. Andrew Luck. Like those guys were going to be successful regardless of where they went if you just weren't totally incompetent.

But mostly the other guys, you need the other pieces around. We've seen him, Sam Darno, Baker Mayfield. We've seen him with all these, Jared Golf. He was good. But then once he got, you know, in Detroit, even though you had McVeigh, once he got in Detroit, different pieces, different play action. They played his scheme with Ben Johnson. you saw him kind of elevate his game.

I would put Fernando Mendoza kind of in that same vein, but he can definitely be a piece where he can have your team in contention year and a year out. So I think that's a nice piece there. Arizona, you have no idea. Now, 12-year NFL offense alignment, also King of the Wedge and Super Bowl champion, player coach for the Buccaneers. Akew Shippley's here, Akew.

Some of these places have terrible offensive lines, too. We talk about the quarterback not having a chance. A lot of places that means it has a bad offensive line. We saw a quick turnover for offensive lines in multiple different places. It is possible, right? It's very possible. You just have to get one or two pieces. Sometimes a lot of these teams have three guys,

and now all of a sudden you get them one or two extra pieces. You get somebody through the draft. You get a guard through free agency. You have two bookend tackles already in the center, and all of a sudden you've got a great offensive line. Yeah, and I think if you have a good offensive line, you have a chance. Joining us now, ladies, gentlemen, the men is a college football national champion,

Super Bowl champion, rider cup winner, and the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, AJ Hawock. Hawker, obviously we just won three. all the coaching hirings, we'll certainly have a lot more time to chat about that. Let's talk about the main story of the morning, and I'm excited to get your take on this thing. As somebody who was also in the NFC North

with Brian Erlacker at middle linebacker. All time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, but I do believe whenever it comes Pro Bowls, all those other nods, you certainly were not getting the votes for your particular division because Erlacker was also there when you were playing, so I don't know what your mindset is towards any popularity

vote-type award to begin with. But Belichick getting kind of slighted here in every buddy's eyes has certainly taken the entire sports world by storm your thoughts a j on how this whole process has turned out yeah so you just said getting kind of slighted i don't know if anyone even someone that hates bill belichick like the most would say kind of slighted it's not kind of slided it's no question no-brainer first ballot hall of favor bill bellichick is when you look at the the body of work this guy has produced i mean come on now just check the graphic out yeah i mean i i guess j j

This is the best PR you can get because this happens and all of a sudden everybody comes out even non-Patriots people and they say this is nuts. Like what is this even like this doesn't mean anything anymore when you do stuff like this? Yeah, it kind of questions the credibility and legitimacy of everything whenever you have this big

of a flub for a process as a whole. Obviously Bill Belichick knows that he's supposed to be a hall of famer. You know, Bill Belichick respects the game. And to your point about people that aren't just Patriot people coming out and support of Bill Belichick, one of the goats, a hall of famer himself, A man who's a two-time Super Bowl champion,

a national champion coach and player in college. Living Legend TV icon, ladies and gentlemen, coach Jimmy Johnson. Yeah, cool. How you doing, coach? Ben, how are you doing? I'm fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us. So we put the request in to talk to you

because we thought you were obviously perfect for the moment as a Hall of Fame coacher, but also with what you said last night on your Twitter account where you said if they're going to be using SpyGate as an excuse for this entire thing, they're going to have to dig into basically everybody's stuff who is potentially trying this. Could you elaborate a little bit more on how common this type of thing? And why did it make you so upset that they left Bill Belichick off the first ballot Hall of Fame?

Well, first of all, I think this tarnishes everything in the Hall of Fame. All of the inductees, everybody in the Hall of Fame, just because of 10 or 11 or 12, ignorant, jealous, assholes who did not vote for him. I think it tarnishes everything about the Hall of Fame. As far as if they're using the excuse of the spy gate, you know, before they had the electronic communication between the sideline and the players, everybody was trying to steal signals. You know, a lot of people would not admit to it,

but every team had an individual trying to get the signals or doing one thing or another. And then one of the scouts for the Kansas City Chiefs talked to us. they said, hey, we've got the system. Howard Mudd is the best at doing it. They had a camera and they would film the opponent's signal caller and match it up with the film, and then they would get their signals. And we noticed, we watched the Kansas City huddle, the offensive guard would look to the sideline,

and Howard would go ahead and give them a signal whether or not it was, you know, man coverage or zone coverage, et cetera, et cetera. Now, Howard Mudd left Kansas City, left, and actually went and worked for Bill Pullian and Tony Dungy. Now, I'm not accusing them of doing it, but there were a lot of teams doing it back then before they put the electronic communication from sideline to the quarterback and the linebackers. And so if they're using that excuse to not put Bill Belichick in the Hall of Fame, it is absolutely ridiculous. Okay, I appreciate you coming out and saying that. And by the way, we tried doing it. We couldn't get a whole lot out of it.

We weren't real good at it, so we stopped doing it. We're wasting so much space and energy on these films that we can't. Does anybody know what this means? No. The thing about it, it happened so late. You only had, you know, a few seconds to get the signal in. Like I said, we really wasn't very good at it, and we were spending more time on it than we needed,

so we said to hell with it, we stopped doing it. But I appreciate you coming out and saying, like, hey, this is much more common than we would believe, because I feel like I've been an NFL fan my entire life, growing up in Pittsburgh, playing for the Colts, and I'll talk about it every single day. I don't think until I saw your tweet really how prevalent it was, and I knew Coach Howard Mudd, rest in peace.

So I think I appreciate you saying that, being transparent about it, but also explaining from a point of like, hey, if that is going to be the reason why you hold this guy out, you might need to look into some other people that are potentially in here. What is the precedent you think going forward here, Coach? Because you said this diminishes all this with how it is. Like, does this change going forward? What are your thoughts on the Hall of Fame as a whole?

because there are a lot of people saying the Hall of Fame is like fraud now, which is kind of what you were scared of happening as a Hall of Fame or yourself and that's all understanding what it is. Well, I talked to two or three of the voters today, and of course every voter is going to say, I voted for him, you know, which is bullshit. You know, a bunch of them are lying. You know, the thing about, I guess the process, they had five candidates and they could vote for three.

And I think some of the voters probably say, well, it's a slam dunk. You know, Bill Belichick's going to. get in. With all of his accolades, eight Super Bowls, six of the head coach, on and on and on. And so they assumed, you know, that he was going to get in. So they voted for one of the candidates that they liked. And, and then it's fell through the cracks that he didn't get in. But it's a real, it's a crying shame. Because one thing, I know Bill personally, and no one knows the history of the NFL more than Bill Belichick. No one loves the NFL more than Bill Belichick. And it just pissed me off that it wasn't a slam dunk, him going into the Hall of Fame.

He'll go in next year, granted. And everybody says, well, oh, hey, he's got Tom Brady. Well, very few Hall of Fame coaches, you know, go in without a great quarterback. I had Troy Aitman. So to use that, well, it's, you know, it's Tom Brady. Hey, Tom Brady needed Bill Belichick. Bill Belichick needed Tom Brady. Yeah, I think those are all very valid points.

And for him going in next year, we're not, We're just going to act like it's his first ballot next year, Jimmy. You think we should all just agree to do that whenever we talk about it? First ballot hall of fame are here, Bill Belichick, as we move. It ought to be. I saw him at the national championship game, Miami and Indiana. By the way, congratulations, Indiana, and Miami had a great year as well. And Bill, you know, I walked away and I was talking to him, and he said,

hey, I hope to see you in the hall this year. And, you know, I thought it was going to be an automatic. So I chartered a jet. I was going to go up there. To hell with it, I'm not going this year. Jimmy! Yep. This can't be what this becomes.

We need to stop this. We need to correct this. Okay, AJ has, we can't have Jimmy Johnson not going to Hall of Fame. You are, Jimmy, you are football, brother. You are just a part of ball. College player national champion in Arkansas. Coach, national champion, the you, we're doing the entire thing. Two time for America's team.

You are a part of ball, okay? So we need to make sure that you are not getting turned off by this entire thing. We've got to make sure we fix this, Jimmy. We've got to fix this thing. make it right somehow. I love football. Now that I've retired from Fox, I've got four TV set up.

I've got 12 hours on Saturday, 12 hours on Sunday. No one comes in the room. I only leave the room to get a little bit of food. I love football. And I appreciate, you know, greatness. And that's what you had with Bill Belichick, greatness. I'm a coach.

You know, and if some of the players don't get in, it doesn't bother me that much if a player doesn't get in. but for a great football coach not to get in first ballot, that was wrong. All right. Well, hopefully they make it up to you. AJ has a question. Coach, have you and any of your fellow Hall of Famers, have you spoken to anybody? You reached out to anybody at the Hall of Fame and tried to, I don't know, kind of wrap your head around this whole situation?

I've talked to a few people. In fact, you know, Troy and I text back and forth a little bit, and everybody is just shocked that Bill didn't go in first ballot. But I haven't talked to a single individual that's even on the borderline. Every one of them saying they're shocked that he didn't go in. Look at all the accolades. Look at what he did. You know, that's really the reason why someone goes into the Hall of Fame.

And I just don't understand it. All those things that you're looking there are earned, you know, on the field. The accolade to get into the hall is something that other people are going to judge upon. obviously there's some personal biases or lapses in the process that they miss it. Hopefully they're able to get it right because just like Coach Jimmy Johnson, Living Legend is saying, there's a lot of people saying, well, the hell

with the Hall of Fame as a whole if Bill Belichick is not considered a Hall of Famer. And we can't have that. We've got to preserve these things. Pro Bowl has to remain. The whole fame is we needed something, Jimmy. You know, we lost this Pro Bowl. Pro Bowl's gone forever, Jimmy. Pat, I know that Bill at times, you know, he

wasn't the most friendly guy to some of the media. And so maybe some of them voted against him, you know, because they didn't get an interview of him. I don't know. You know, maybe there's a little tension between Bob Kraft and Bill, you know, and maybe there were some lobbying there. I don't know the reason for it. I don't need to know the reason for it. But it should not have happened.

Yeah, pro football Hall of Fame feels like it. Coach, can we pivot to a couple other football questions now that we have one of the greatest minds in history of ball on? What you got there? Yeah, you got it. DeBone has a question for you about ball boss. Hell yeah, coach. Thank you, first of all, for your service. Growing up in South Florida as a Miami Dolphin fan, Miami Hurricanes fans, thank you.

We got a new hiring cycle now. Eight new coaches hired four first time head coaches, four coaches now that I've already been on the job. What are you doing day one on the job, whether it's a press conference, reaching out the teams, putting your staff together. What are you doing day one? And it kind of a second part of how the hell do you win in Miami as a head coach in this environment? Well, I think Miami's got their work cut out for them because of the salary cap and their quarterback situation. I think for every new coach, well, first of all, it's ridiculous that we've got 10 openings. There's not that, you know, there's not 10 bad coaches in the league.

You know, but anyway, for a new coach going in, the number one thing he's got to get his players all on the same page is set the stage. Here's what you can expect from me. This is what I expect from you. I think a lot of these owners are saying, hey, I've got to change the head coach because our fans are upset and I can't lose our fans. That has a lot to do with it. But the other thing is, is hiring the right staff. You know, I was fortunate every place I ever was in University of Miami or whether or not it would be Dallas Cowboys or Miami Dolphins. I had some outstanding assistant coaches.

And that's the reason I went in the Hall of Fame. I had great players and I had great assistant coaches. But, you know, they've got to put together the right staff. And that's very difficult to do nowadays because coaches are under contract. You can't talk to certain ones. But putting together that staff and getting your players on the right page, that's the first order of business. Good luck to all these parties who have to win within the next 12 months of their asses are going to be on the hot seat. Yeah, Jacksonville Jaguars made to playoffs.

Chicago Bears won on a run. Mike Vrable first year. They had four wins last year. You're expected to do the exact same, whether the situation is similar or not. It's a crazy time in the NFL, but it's a good time in the NFL. We talked about, you know, you being a legend in football. A lot of us remember you from your time with the Dallas Cowboys, obviously. Miami looks cool.

Great tan. The hair was remarkable. You know, it looked great. But with the Cowboys, where you did so much damage and left so much history, you know, obviously you still keep up with everything going on over there. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, how do you feel about the state of the Cowboys? It feels like Shottie got in there in his first year.

you know, had success, but injuries hurt him a little bit, and they got off to that slow start. But where do you see the Cowboys going? What do you think of, you know, Dax, CD, hopefully George Pickens again. And also just wanted to say, miss that hair on TV, Coach. It is remarkable to see it.

It was such quick notice I didn't do my hair today. No, you did. Yeah, you woke up like this. That's kind of what we're talking about. It's unbelievable. But as far as the Cowboys, you know, you know, Brian Schottonheimer did an outstanding job. in a difficult situation last year.

They were just horrible on defense. And I think if they could make some corrections on defense. In fact, I talked to Jerry Jones not too awful long ago after the season. And I said, you can make some corrections on that defense. And, you know, it may not be that you're going to be dominant, but if you're just good, just so-so, you're going to be so good on offense if you can keep pickings. If you can keep him and get the running back situation going,

you can have an outstanding team. You can make a run at it because you're that good offensively. But they've got to make the corrections on defense. How do you feel about the Micah Trade? I don't think we've got a chance to chat with you. Now we've seen how it works out. What are your thoughts? I didn't like it at all.

But, you know, of course, him getting injured me on maybe it was the right thing to do. But, you know, because he's a little bit undersized. He's had a couple of injuries. I just don't think you get rid of game changing. players. Somehow, some way, you find a way to keep them. And he was a game changer. He really could dominate the game, just him individually. But without Micah, you know, they picked up, you know, some draft picks. They got a lot of salary cap money. You know, they're going to be able to add some players. So Jerry, Jerry made the right move, you know, for what it was, because they were

at an impasse as far as Michael Parsons. Like I said, if they'll make some improvement defensively, The Cowboys can make a run at it. Obviously, your relationship with Jerry is very publicly documented, I think. You know, in the Hall of Fame, there was a moment there, and there's been more. What is it? How is it the day? I don't know. That's what I was about to ask.

Like, how is, do you keep up with, Jared? Do you talk to Dallas? Are you just locked in your room with four TVs and only a stupid? How is that? Jerry and I talk on occasion, and we're fine. We're good. Every time I talk to him, he said, man, I need to talk to you. you more.

Hey, I'll love to hear that. My number. Yeah, well, he's got to act. He's in Landman, you know, he's got a, I think there was a natural gas. Yeah, he's searching for it down. Honeyhole that he thought he found. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's got that Comstock.

I've got a little bit of, I've got some stock in that myself. We would like to see him. So I hope he does well. We would like to let you know that the Johnston family does hope that Jerry does find said honey hole that he has. by everybody, that natural gas price is going to go up. That's good information to have, actually. It's got to write that down.

Let's dump that so nobody else hears it. Let's take advantage. Let's talk about the Super Bowl before we let you go here, Coach, Patriots Seahawks. Obviously, Vrable comes in, turns that culture so quickly. McDonald's, just some defensive mastermind with Seattle. Your thoughts on these two teams, and how do you think the game goes? Well, you know, I think just like everybody, the edge is going to go, you know, to Seattle with McDonald.

He did a great job defensively, and I love the way Sam Darnel played. I mean, it's so good to see Sam Darnel, you know, with all of his travels and being cast off three or four different places to play as well as what he played. And so, yeah, I'm going to give the heads to Seattle, but you look at the two coaches. McDonald just did a great job coaching there, Seattle, and Mike Brable, hey, Brable did a good job at Tennessee, you know, and people may want to criticize him there, but if he had had the quarterback situation in good shape, then he could have done even better at Tennessee, but he's an outstanding football coach. Some people are going to knock them a little bit for the schedule this

year, but hey, they're a good football team. They're well coached, and they'll have a shot at it. Jimmy, thank you so much for taking time with us. You're awesome. You're an inspiration right now, honestly. All right, I hope my hair turns that Bob Barker White. Yeah. You know, that Jimmy Johnson white that radiant white that if you get a good tan you know with our Caucasoid skin that thing pops out like that we appreciate you coach you're the man okay talk to y'all later he's as coach Jimmy Johnson yeah coach 82 years old the goat not getting that jet not taking the jet up I'm booked a jet to get out of this island I live on an island it is great this is what you work for by the way

I scheduled a jet to go up there to celebrate Bill Belichick, greatest coach of all time. We're going to do this for the coaching community. Cancel that, I'm not going. I don't like that this is already happening. I didn't expect Jimmy Johnson to be like, I saw people on the Internet being like, the Hall of Fame's not worth a damn thing.

Okay, that's why I see people on the Internet saying, because they're like attacking, obviously, because how stupid this whole thing is. Now we've got Jimmy Johnson there being, I'm not fucking going. You think I'm going back to Canton, Ohio? Nope, not doing that. Come on.

How well, am I even supposed to put my jacket on? am I supposed to even put it on? Do I even? Should I even wear one? If Bill Belichick... Tom Brady said something similar. Tom Brady said, okay, so no coach is allowed to be in the Hall of Fame then. If Bill Belichick's not allowed in Hall of Fame the first time he's available to go in the Hall of Fame, what is this even mean? I don't think I fully understand.

It has been the same exact point of view from everybody in bowl. That's awesome. Hey, that's awesome, actually. Great. Yeah, that's very rare. Very rare. I think that's a good thing. You know, there's always like there's situations where very bad things bring people

together for the first time, long time. like funerals I think about this. Friend passes away, a celebration of life takes place. I see people for the first time in like 10, 15, 20 years. There's positive that comes from the very negative, from something that you didn't wish would happen. The positive from this entire situation is ball has come together. Ball has come together.

Yeah. And it does feel like there is 50 names, okay, that represent an entire thing that kind of everybody has turned against me. Like, who the hell do you think you are, actually? And that's very rare. I think that is a very rare thing to happen. And now, Ty, you might be disagreeing. No, I agree.

It's just unfortunately, like, five years from now when we talk about this and, like, all this stuff kind of floats away, like, it's still going to be Bill Belichick wasn't a first ballot hall of famer, you know? And it's like, it'd be nice if either the Hall of Fame or, like, the commissioner could come in and just retroactively be like, you know what? No, like, he is. But you also can't open that Pandora's box because then where does it stop? You know, the next time someone who we all believe should be a first ballot Hall Famer doesn't get in, does the same thing happen?

Like, that is what should happen. Today, someone should come out and be like, hey, I understand that we do this, but like, this should have been a slam dunk. David Baker should come out. Exactly. But I should knock on his door. He should. And say, hey, I'm taking this one for me. Yeah.

For a ball. He's going to look down at Bill. Mm-hmm. Congratulations. Bill. He's going to do the entire thing. That's what we need in this moment. Because you're right, everyone is coming together, but eventually, once the media cycle passes and we get past this in a couple years from now, like, that won't be the conversation anymore.

Joining us now as a man is going to be in every Hall of Fame that he is up for. We think. Who knows that more? I don't know anymore. I mean, honestly, who knows? Guy is going to be calling the Super Bowl, obviously, and then he's going right into the Olympics. And then, oh, yeah, every human on earth is going to hear him and see him. And how is he going to handle it?

Perfectly. Smoothest guy on television. I have no idea how he's capable of calling every single thing that he does. He can host a talk show while calling speedwalking, then a primetime football game, give you the most energy and juice, and then wake up in a morning and break down an entire political affair if he had to. One of the greatest on the mic ever. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Tarrico. Yeah, Mike.

Thank you. Morning, boys. How we doing? How good was Jimmy? Dude, 82. Oh, my God. He's 82 years old. I'm like, well past me, keep going with Jimmy.

I don't care what I have to say. This is too good. Well, that's interesting that you say that because in my mind, I was thinking we got Jimmy Johnson and Mike Tariko in the same hour. Somehow, we are so, so thankful. You need to know that's how we view you, brother. That intro that I just gave you. I tried to hit you with like a bevy, a bang, bang, boom, boom, boom. Because it's real. You are incredibly smooth at what you do. What do you think is like your main focus or the reason why you're able to kind of be in any situation. Can I give you what I think it is? Please, come on. I think you listen. I think you're actually listening. So whenever you and Chris, Collinsworth do the Open where you talk about a team. He's giving an answer and you are always appearing to actually listen so that you can pivot

off of what he says to go into something else. Whenever you host the Olympics, I think there's probably people that know more about the individual sports than you do. You listen to what they're saying. Are you always listening? Do you think that's your secret weapon? And why are you so confident being able to do that as opposed to force shit that you want to get out?

I'm kind of glad that you said that. Thanks. Because I do like to listen. I don't know. I don't know stuff. I just kind of gather it and share it. And I love to hear what people think. And for me, listening is the number one tool in this business, even though we make a living talking.

So I love that you pick that up. I do love to listen to people who are smarter than me. That's why I love listening to you guys. Can I just bring up something, by the way? No, no. You know, I can't? You know, I'm going to do it anyway. You know a part of one of the great moments of McAfee on the field, right?

No, which one? tackle the golf swing oh yes yes yes the golf swing in charlotte i believe panthers game yeah yeah it was rain i i blew you up for about 20 seconds and you delivered with it inside the five punt and the golf swing that that was me that's that's my first maccophie that's my second my first one was your first backyard brawl oh first one freshman year it was negative 10 or something like that that's exactly right and morgan d can you name the announcers for your first backyard brawl.

You and all people you know. Me, Herbie, Aaron Andrews. Yes, because you guys are spending Thursdays with us. There was a little bit of run on Thursday now on ESPN where we were kind of like the Thursday night special, I think. Yeah, we had the legendary crew back then. I forgot you were the play-by-play guy, though. That's kind of, hey, that's on me.

That's how good you were. That's how good you were. That's all right. That's all right. I just, every time I see the golf swing in the little tees, the little open, the little thing it runs. I'm like, that was us. That was us on a Monday night.

I remember that. And you were delivered because I think I said something about how good you were, pinning people, not just inside the 20, but inside the 10. And then you did it on cue. And then you gave us the Selly. And yeah, so that's why I've always had McAfee real close to the heart the whole way. Well, I want to let you know. Me too.

Yeah, put me over. I appreciate you doing that. It's very, very kind of you. That is abnormal as you've come to realize with people in your position, and normally how I am. But let's talk about why I think you are also great, not only listening thing. You talk about putting me over for Inside to 10. You seemingly are always prepared.

You know, and you pulled me aside. You were the only play-by-play guy that pulled me aside out of the networks and be like, hey, see you're doing directional punning here. What are you trying to do? What is the aim? What is the target? It feels like you're always prepared. Do you do that with everything?

Do you feel like you're naturally more inclined to do that? Do you feel comfortable doing that? And how much is that kind of different you think than what other people do? I think everybody does it. I think our business has gotten a lot better in the 25, 30 years I've been doing it. Just like kicking has gotten to become a science, just like doing shows like this have changed and evolved. I think we all do it in our own different ways. I've got a curiosity for special teams, so I want to learn more. And fortunately, you find out real quick that special teams

coordinators and kickers and long snappers, they're like offensive linemen and defensive linemen. They may give you the best stuff of anybody. Because nobody comes, everybody comes, to talk to the quarterback, right? Everybody comes to talk to the star receiver. Everyone comes to talk to the sack guy. But when you talk to the meat and potatoes people, they tell you everything. And And I've always found that to be the most interesting and enjoyable conversation. So I didn't know much about kicking or special teams. So I started to take an interest in it and talk to guys like you and coordinators around the league.

I love doing that. That's fun for me. So I do love to dig and find stuff. But this job isn't that hard. We all kind of do the same thing in different ways. And I love the fact that our business, our part of the business has never been better, more good people doing great work on a regular basis. just a nice time to be doing this.

Yeah, but there are separators, brother, and you're certainly one of the one that separates your story. Yeah, you're nice. It's an enjoyable viewing experience. How much are you thinking about that while you're calling it? And how much are you trying to read like the moment? Because obviously we saw a game winner, I forget which one was the most recent. Maybe Chicago, Caleb?

Yeah. That Caleb call with that play, you lose your mind. And it's like everybody else is also losing their mind. But you also don't go over the top and sound like caricatury. It feels like you have a great sense of feel. How much are you thinking about that for people at home, or is that your natural reactions that are taking place? I appreciate you saying that. That means a lot.

It's still fun for me. I'm still fan. I still like to go to games. We live in Michigan. I go to some Detroit Tigers games. I don't cover baseball. I love going in a ball cap and having a beer and still being a fan. And when I'm in the booth, I'm play-by-play guy, journalist, but we're still there as fans.

And that's what I love about being with Chris. I love hearing a great play after a great play. Collinsworth laughed. Stop it. We both love the game, right? And I'm still into the game. Now, I'm not a fan of a team. I'm a fan of the game.

And I love when people make big plays. And I think, Pat, like our business has changed a little bit. People now want you to be in there with them and excited and be in the moment. So, like, I'm right there with you. When Caleb Williams makes that play, it's like there's no way he can throw the ball that far back pedal. And he does. What are you going to say? Touchdown?

Oh, that's like amazing. Right. So if in any way it's being genuine, I just, I've stopped thinking about how is it going to sound and just try to do it and just try to react the way I would when I'm sitting at home watching the game on TV. So if that comes across, look, you got a thousand things with your thumb to go watch, right? You can go watch some show on Netflix. you can watch something on peacock, you can watch something on Hulu. We have to be, and you guys are the kings of this, we're fun and be entertaining along the way.

So if you feel like you're along for the ride with us, then we're doing the right job. I think you do an incredible job at all of that. You're hitting the mark on what you're trying to do. Last question for me, for the boys, I'll have some. You're a legend in our eyes, Mike. You need to know that. You are beloved amongst the Thunderdome.

Like, actually, so when you make your move to go over to NBC, and they talk about how, oh, he's going to be doing more things. The Olympics, he's going to be doing golf, I think hockey was potentially on the horizon of conversation. But you were certainly not doing football anymore. We all knew that as NFL fans as football fans. So we were bummed out about it.

You took the decision to work on everything else, I guess, and then we'll get football whenever Sunday night football opens up, which is the biggest show in town. How was that time whenever you were waiting to get back? And we are thankful that you are back in bulk. Well, I'm thankful to be a part of it, too. I'll give you the straight answer here. was 25 years of ESPN, 10 years of Monday night, and I loved it. And I didn't want to leave

a big chair in the NFL doing Monday night. But NBC had a lot of things that were items and events that I hadn't done before. And part of the deal was I was, at that time, NBC was doing Thursdays and Sundays. So Al and Chris were doing like 31, 32 games a year, Thursday night, and then Sunday night. So part of the deal was I was I was supposed to do Thursday night for a bunch of different reasons that I don't exactly know the real answer yet, but it didn't happen. So I ended up doing some Thursdays and Sundays. So Al didn't do all 31. I did 24 and 5 and I did maybe a half dozen.

But I got to do Notre Dame football in that stretch. And that was one of the great experiences I have ever had. Like going to South Bend on those home Saturdays was awesome. Like you guys know what Morgan Town is like. AJ, you know what the shoe is like. You know what special places. I live in Ann Arbor. I know what Michigan Stadium's like to go to South Bend.

And ESPN wasn't doing games there because there. It was just the NBC contract. To have five or six years of doing games in the cathedral of college football, Notre Dame Stadium was awesome. And then along the way, we did the NFL studio show, got to work on the Olympics. Bob Costas stepped away from the primetime hosting of the Olympics earlier that I thought was ever going to happen. Pat, I'll never forget. I'm on the road in Foxborough, that one lane one driving into the stadium there.

And I got a call from our boss, Mark Lazarus, and he said, hey, Bob's going to step away from doing the primetime Olympics we'd like you to do it. And I'm like, I'm driving a Route 1 here in Foxborough and I just got the Olympic job. Like, what the hell's going on here? So that happened before I ever thought it would happen. And that's become like a huge part of my life.

Like the stuff behind me over there is all pictures from the Summer Olympics places that we've been. We've got a Paris and a Tokyo and Rio over here. You can sing it from me now. Oh, yeah. Those are life-changing experiences. And we got another one coming up here right after the Super Bowl in Italy. So I love the time I spent at ESPN people like Herbie, like Fowler, like Reese Davis.

Those are people who are some of my favorite, Sean McDonough, those are still some of my favorite people and still friends. And I cherish all that time. But there's 10 years that NBC has been off the charts and, you know, like a month like this with the NBA and the Super Bowl and the Olympics. Like, nobody's ever had a month like this. So I'm just blessed to be a part of it. You're getting a chance to showcase that range, brother. You're all over the place. And obviously, we miss you in the NFL.

We're thankful that you're back. You never talk down to anybody. It doesn't feel like you're talking down to the people that are watching. It's an elite ability to be able to talk about anything and have everybody follow along. AJ has a question for you, Mike. Yeah, Mike, I know you have a huge Super Bowl Sunday coming up on the horizon. Can you explain a little bit what your day is going to look like, obviously, before, during, and then after the game.

I know you have plenty of work that day and could be on TV a little bit. Well, one of the cool parts, AJ, that I can't wait for. It sounds crazy is I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night and watch see if Lindsay Vaughn can win the downhill. Because the women's downhill is like, I think it's 4.30 in the morning, West Coast time, but I'm waking up because if that happens,

that might be the greatest thing that's ever happened in the Olympics. And it sounds stupid to say that until you start thinking about it's 16 years after she started competing. She's 41. She has a titanium knee. Four years ago, she was on the set with me at the Super Bowl at SoFi talking about the Olympics. And then she was working as a commentator for us on the Beijing games. And now she's back and she's winning.

And if she comes back and does this with a titanium knee, it's one of the greatest things we've ever seen at the Olympics. So I'm going to wake up in the middle of the night, watch that. Get to the stadium, obviously do the game, hang with Chris the whole afternoon, soak up every second of my first Super Bowl to call. And then as soon as the game's done, go right down to the field and be a part of the Olympic primetime show. We're going to host the Olympic primetime show from the stadium. So as the confetti is on the field and people are reuniting with families and all that, we're going to do our primetime show, which is the best of what happened that day at the Olympics.

And maybe it's Lindsey Vaughn winning gold. Maybe it's something else from figure skating. But we do that right afterwards. And then when we're done with that, hop on the plane to Italy and be there for the last 13 days of the game. So it's going to be a cool, a cool super sun. I keep thinking about it, and the closer it gets it still is a fuel real. It's going to be a blast. Yeah, it sounds like a great 24 hours there of sport, you know, for the good of sport, for the love of sport, which we all have.

You obviously clearly have as well. Is Nathan Chen still skating or do we know if he's out there? That's nice pull by you. He's not. He's not. What? He's the rainy gold best. However, I've got something even better.

Okay. Ilya Malin. Do you know Ilya Malinanin's name, Pat? No, I do not, but I'll never forget it. It sounds like... Dude, he's known as the quad god. He does, now, it's not just his quads, okay? It's not like a Sequan-Barkley quad situation.

Hamstrings. It's the rotations. He does the quad in figure skating as many times as anyone has ever done it in his program. So he could, a program, sorry. So he could fall. He's so good he could fall and still win. that's how difficult his program is.

He's amazing. Okay, so is there an Elium what? Ilya Malinen. He grew up in Virginia. Yeah, yes. He's one of ours. You've got to watch the quad god need to know. I mean, Matton, quad father out here.

Yeah, yeah. So he got it. It was like, uh, Simone's was so. Simone Biles. Her thing was so difficult, right? I'm trying to, I'm trying to remember her stuff was so difficult.

So like her points, even if she didn't hit anywhere near a perfect one would still outscore everybody else. You're saying this about Mr. Ilium. Ilya, Ilya, Malanin. Oh, there he is. There's my guy. Watch him.

Oh, shit! Ilya! Yeah. Go, go. He's doing backflip. He's unbelievable. He does kind of look like Blades of Glory here. Ilya, Illia, Malinanin.

Sheldman. Yeah, Shalman. Great dude. Great dude. I've been around him. World Championships in Boston last year. year event in D.C. Met him a bunch of times.

Such a great, great young man. America will love this guy. He's the favorite to win gold and figure skating. Okay, so he's, yes, I love this man. Yes, that's my first time seeing his face. Ilya, let's go, dog. Let's go. We need join that ice.

We need gold coming home. On that note, there you got it. 127.7 million, I believe, is what last year's Super Bowl was. I assume everything's up into the right. Don't get nervous out there, Therico. Don't get nervous out there. Super Bowl, don't get nervous. What is the thought of something that vast?

And what are the Olympic numbers? Because I know we all watch, everybody does. But what are like kind of the numbers you're about to head into here? Yeah, the numbers are in the 20s on a regular basis for primetime Olympics. But like it's, are you going to do a different show if you know the audience is 50, 80 times?

No, you're a guy who knows if I'm just myself, then that's what I need to do. I'm not going to sit there and go, oh, my God, Chris, 120 million people watching, don't screw up. Just kind of talk to people. The only person I'm thinking of on the other side of the camera is my mom. My mom's sitting home. She watches every game. She's sitting on her couch watching the Super Bowl. I talk to one person. I always tell young people along the way. So I've got to take my own advice, I guess, at some point. Like if you're anxious or there's more adrenaline flow,

which there will be, you know, until you get that first hit, until you call that first play, you're going to be thinking it in your head, unless you just kind of just chill and just say, I'm talking to one person. So I, look, the audience numbers are great. We were doing $52 million at the end of the Bears game, Bears Rams game. It didn't affect for one second what either one of us said. I think maybe you're just more prepared, more careful, but I don't worry about the numbers.

I hope we break a record. I hope next year at Joe and Troy and the ABC ESPN show breaks a record. The more people in the football tent, the better off we all are, man. And I think football nation has proven that this year for sure. Good for ball. You're great for ball. But you're great for sport as a whole. Ty has a question for you about that.

Yeah, Mike, you just mentioned how no one's really had a month like this. Like, do you even get time to really, like, catch your breath? You go from the NFL season to the Super Bowl to the Olympics. We know you're doing stuff with the NBA now. I know you said you don't do baseball, but I believe NBC just got like a Sunday night baseball package. So guess what? Yeah, maybe keep your, keep your son. summer open. And Pat talked about your preparation. So I don't think you can really kind of just

turn your brain off during the week. Like, do you get a chance to kind of just sit back and relax or is it kind of always preparing for the next thing because it seems like you work nonstop? This was my half hour and you guys screwed it up. Hell yeah. Thanks. I appreciate that. Hell yeah. We're not going to be a part of your rest. If you want us all just to chill, we'll take a nap with Yeah, sleep with Tariko. Okay, that's what we'll do. That'd be great. Come have a salad with me.

No, yeah. You know, Ty, this week, honestly, this week I've hunkered down at home and I'm just doing prep stuff for all three events. Because we've got the Lakers and the Knicks on Sunday. We start our Sunday night basketball. So, like, Sunday night football's over. Now it's going to be Sunday night basketball until the playoffs end for us in late May. And then it's going to be Sunday night baseball on NBC.

So, like, every Sunday night, we've got some big game. on the network. So being a part of that is really cool and fun. So I prepared for Lakers Knicks, then doing some time on, like, today is the Seahawks offense for me. The Seahawks defense yesterday. I'll do Pat's defense and Pat's offense the next two days. And just try to plan it out and all that stuff and Olympic stuff along the way. So it's not, look, we talk about sports on TV. Like, we're not. Yeah, but you can't sound like an asshole, dude. 120 million people watching. And in the Olympics, you're representing sports that feel like they don't get the proper coverage year round.

So if you were to, for instance, I on game day, you know, get dropped into this cult society, which is college ball. You say somebody's name wrong. It's like, why is this asshole allowed to have a microphone when we got literally 100,000 people in this building right here that know how to pronounce this guy's name?

It's like, though you can disrespect people just by not having information. So like the amount you have to prepare, especially for these figure skating, skiing, outbine skiing, all these things. You have to know a lot of shit because if not you'll be like get this guy off of our TV

he's not worthy of the microphone. Don't you agree with that though? I do agree with that but I think you kind of know what you need to know, right? I mean, AJ probably spent hours and hours and hours studying opponents,

but there's a point where you're going to get diminishing returns and you're going to stop yourself from doing what you do best. So over the years you'll learn what you need to take into the booth, what you need to take onto the set. We've got like the greatest

team of researchers. You know what the researchers are like at ESPN with Game Day. Pat, we've got an awesome research team for Olympics and Super Bowl and they provide your stuff and then you figure out how do I fill in and fit in along the way. And you just be smart about it. Like you said, you nailed it before. I can't go on the air and tell you that I know exactly what you need to do in the bobsled or the luge or the skeleton. But we have people who do know. So you read about it, You ask them a question or two as a curious person, and you just try to bring it home to TV. Like I said, like we're not going to a little crazy.

They ever put your ass in there? You ever do any of these things? They ever throw in that bobby? No, I've curled. Have you done curling before? I've seen it, obviously. I loved one. Curling Maddie Hamilton took down, you know.

Did you ever go with Green Bay? Because that Green Bay Curling Club was right across where you guys practice. Yeah, there is a Green Bay Curling Club. A known player on the squad actually got drunk and got a concussion. curling at one point in that club. So I, Oh, no.

Yeah. Curling is dangerous, Cole. Pat, you should, you should take the whole Thunderdome to a curling. There's got to be a curling club

in Indy. You got to take the whole group. I think there is one up here because whenever curling Maddie Hamilton and the boys were doing it, we certainly got all in. And we have a Canadian here in Gumpy. So whenever we beat them in curling,

we really wanted to kind of hammer home that the hammer is really ours. It's a hammer. Yeah, so we, I love curling. How were you? Were you good at it? Were you a good one of these? I was good at that.

I was a very good sweeper. I was very, very good at that. No, it was fun. Actually, we got the hanging in our Monday night group when we would do a game in Green Bay, our producer at the time, Jay Rothman, we would rent out the Green Bay Curling Club. We would do brons and beers and curling, and it was pretty damn good. It was fun. Gruden was with us at that point.

That was the all-time great. Gruden curling. It was classic. Okay, quick, Grud, because there is another question or two. that need to come so we don't need full answer here. Gruden not being back in ball is crazy. I thought he was going to get hired. I thought college or NFL, somebody was going to hire him.

I personally thought that. Did you feel the same way? I'd love to see John back in coaching. I know that's what he loves to do. I think John with the right college team would be something crazy, right? NFL knowledge and would see more NFL stuff. It's become like the NFL because your team has changing every year. And, you know, a lot of football now is NIL recruiting, you know,

getting a group of people behind you. Like there's no person you want to kind of be in that arena of a winning football team with who's any better at connecting a group than John. So I'd love to see it. I hope it still happens. Man, he was so good. I got a PhD of football those years with John. He taught us so much.

He made our group so much better. And he still remains a friend. I get text from him all the time. There's nothing like time around John for sure. You guys are a great booth. Great booth. Now, speaking of booth, we thought maybe somebody was going to be in the booth this year with you guys. Debutt

has a question for you. Absolutely, Mike. Before I even get to that, you mentioned Columbus, Morgan Town. We got Akew Shipley here to Happy Valley. Obviously, you don't remember those nights in the rent, special environment out there in East Park. 20, 30 people watching. Relax, have some respect. Go Huskies, man.

Right off by 84. Let's go to the rent. Come on. I love hearing that, especially from former Syracuse alumni. But pivoting back to the NBA. And Michael Jordan, obviously that was a huge part of the announcement. And I grew up, I mean, I was born in the 80s, big brother forced me to sit down and watch back to all that time. So I remember MJ, and we're going to hang on to every word that Michael Jordan says. How did that all come together?

What's been your favorite part of it? And have you seen the reaction of it kind of being that one long interview being chopped up? What's kind of that whole? That's a big question. But what you got from, Mike? No, no problem. A lot of people thought it was going to be something that. that we never said it was going to be, which is fine, because that's the way things happened.

That was us. That was us. That was 100% on it. We were a part of that group, too, yes, we're saying. I was trying to be, I was trying to be passive-aggressive there. Yeah, I heard you. We heard it. Yeah, we heard it. We owned it. We owned it. Oh, listen, listen, so, of course, Michael, anytime he talks about basketball is going to make people stop and listen.

Michael's above the day-to-day, hey, Shams said Janus is going to be on the trade-block. that's not Michael Jordan, right? Come on. So Michael was interested in doing this because of his connection and legacy with NBC. If Michael's going to do anything, it's going to be different and special. Michael's not going to throw himself into the ring to be one of the seven or eight guys making comments.

That's not who MJ was, is, or probably will be. So the chance to go down and get Michael really wanted to talk about where the game is and where it's going. And he had some feelings about that he is not expressed publicly. and as I said, look, of course we do that, right? And the thing is, every time we do roll out a new piece of it, people are like, oh, Michael said this, this is interesting, and talked about it. Clip.

So it makes sense. So was it great? It was awesome to hang out for a couple of days and talk basketball and life and all the stuff with Michael. Off the charts, good. But I think what I got out of it personally, other than being able to hang with Michael, you showed the clip, I've got great Jordans out of it. Are you on Team Jordan now? What a move by you.

I'm not on Team Jordan. Look at my shoes there for a second. My kids will tell you that is not dad at all. And it's great. So now I do bring them to almost every NBA game I do. I wear my Jordans and kind of walk around. You need to get multiple pairs for a long time. You've been rich for a long time now.

Get some new shoes. But also, you should have been pitching Team Jordan when you were there. Actually, that should have been. You would potentially be perfect Team Jordan. member actually is the only people that would make it there. Did you guys golf whenever you're down there for a couple of days or was it all hanging? We did not. The golf course was closed.

The golf course was closed. They've changed and adjusted some stuff for the golf course so we didn't. But I hope to get an invite back at some point and go back down. I will tell you honestly, hanging with Michael is just so cool and so normal. And just talking about his NASCAR team, talking about the NBA, talking about those Bulls days,

talking about TV stuff. It's just, there are very few people who you're around and you go, this is really cool. And that's still the way it is when you're around Michael. He's a pretty special, special dude. That's how we felt with you the last 25 minutes.

So we appreciate the hell out of you, man. The goat on a microphone, potentially, when it's all said and done. Hey, Bill Belichick didn't get voted in. Do you have a vote? Are you going to stick up for your Syracuse grads that did the voting? I don't think any Syracuse grads are on. I got to check the list. Yeah, that's wrong.

Like everybody said on the show today, How do you not have a Bill Belichick as a first ballot Hall of Famer? If you want to go to SpyGate, that's fine. There's such a body of work above that. And like Jimmy said, I thought, when now Pat, that they have people on there who have played or have been a part of the game, it's not just media members. I didn't think something like that would happen.

It's, I'm going to assume it's true. Nobody's confirmed it from the Hall of Fame side yet, but. That's true. Yeah. That is something. They can pivot me. Nope. No.

I was never. I did go to Syracuse. I'm a journalist. I do have to point that out. Just to keep my journalism card. There we go. But it's, look, it's not right. The guy should be in there.

He's as good as it gets when it comes to coaching in the history of this league, period, end of statement. That's not an arguable fact. We can't wait for you to get into all the fame. We appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you, guys. Appreciate you. Grazie, got on.

Go-a-a-e-Grazi. Go-go. Yeah, he is so good at everything. Yeah, legit. Everything. And he talks about just talking. sports. Yeah, sure. I know the fourth fastest speedwalker in the world from 1989, but yeah, researchers are telling me that this is what I should know. It's like, yeah, people get information

to people all the time. It's the act of retaining it and keeping it and studying it and taking the time to do it. It's like that's a work ethic that also matches a skill level that the goats have in sports and other facets. It's like he's got, he can do anything. That's the big thing, because you could really look like an asshole if you're covering the Olympics. Oh, yes. Big time. You know, he's not watching downhill skiing. every day of the week. But he has to act like it. And he has to pass the test.

Well, we pass the test of you coming back tomorrow. Who knows? Goodbye. Did not know we're that close. Nice. I think I got it in there. There's a little thing that's been staring at me all show, though. It's kind of an interesting.

There's a thing. A. Q. Sounds kind of weird. You've noticed this too, right? I have. I thought it was a wrestling dummy, but it's a little small. It's like a little voodoo doll's just been sick down here. Oh, no.

It's like a little, just two practicer. Yeah. Yes, it is. Yeah, but it's way too small, right? I mean, it's like a, is that for ants? Who is, who is fighting? I actually offered it to AQ's son. I said, hey, does Quay want this thing?

Maybe, you know, practice a couple double legs, couple single legs. Listen, you know, Iowa wrestling team sent me a little gift box, okay? And, you know, I said, well, this thing's pretty heavy. I don't think it's going to fit on my desk. I got a bunch of other bullshit up here. So where am I going to put it? I got put it down there. And it's pretty cool.

but, you know, I'm willing to... To Penn State? You're going to give that to a Penn State? Yeah, I don't know if you should do that. It feels like you guys gave the Big Ten wrestling to Penn State anyway, so I don't know if you should be doing that. From what he's been saying, AQ, it sounds like young Quay maybe needs it. What?

This kid. It's too small. It's too small. This kid's really got to become a lot tougher if he wants to do anything in life. This is your boy? Oh, yeah. You're a little worried, huh? A little worried?

nice life. He's got a built-in trampoline in the backyard. Got a beautiful pool. The shipyard there, full thing. Pudding green in the back. Is that what you're saying? I'm worried about this with my children as well. Is this what we're staring down here? I'm not worried about it for all my kids because my girls are, they're dogs, they're animals. This kid, hey, just go cry to your mother. Get away from me. We'll talk in five years. Come on. Go cry. Go cry to work. Get away from me.

He's three. He's three, and he's the softest three-year-old I've ever been around. Okay. You've got to guide him. these moments. You can't be giving up on it yet. This can't be happy to do. Go to mom. I did one of these the other day. You know, like when you do like the wrestling,

you put your hand on their head, right? Like I did that. And he just goes, get away from me. Hey, you need to start guiding this. I'm trying. Lending here, you say you don't cry from the, now granted,

maybe this little voodoo wrestling doll that it's been staring at me all fucking out of nowhere. Yeah. I literally didn't notice it until maybe 15, 20 minutes in. I'm like talking. out of y'all doing a thing. What are we doing? Am I even looking at anything right now,

potentially looking through people? And then there's a little fucking human down here. That's what's going on down here. Yeah. It's kind of weird. Jimmy Johnson, I think, was given an answer. And I think, like, bobbed a little bit.

I'm like, the little fuckers moving. Okay, because it's got a little arms down there. It got the whole thing. It's been quite a day. So I want to let the Iowa wrestling club know. Easy. Iowa wrestling club is saying some fucking interneural slap dick. Okay.

What's insane on there? True. I mean, technically, yeah. It says Hawkeye Wrestling Club. But the way you... It's been staring at me. The way you phrased it was like it's some fucking slap dick thing that mid-30s guys do on the weekends, okay? It ain't fucking that, all right?

So show maybe an ounce of respect to it, okay? I understand it says Hawkeye Wrestling Club on it. That's what it is. It was wildly, wildly disrespectful the way you phrased it. Some intermural old man's league or something? Yeah. Akew's basement buddies. I hit me in that way.

Basically. I should take that. I did not know why I bet that. What I meant was the Iowa Hawkeye Hockey Wrestling Camp. There you go. Okay? That's better.

Them sending us little voodoo wrestling dolls, we do appreciate it. I like the fact they're showing you love because you do show them love on a regular basis. I think this is maybe like one of ten. This is a 1972 Olympic gold medalist. You can see it there. And it looks like, I mean, I don't want to say it.

I might sell this thing on eBay for 100K,000k, 150K. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what we got in that. I take it to Ponsars, Rick. Yeah, exactly. We don't know how big the market is, obviously, how long that'll be sitting. But there's a chance you're holding gold right there on your table.

And it's also dented, so it does look like it's the original. Well, the package was, I don't know if it was in transit. There was actually a Gable, a 12-ounce beer in there because Dan Gable has a beer that, you know, a brewery around there does. That fucker was popped open. Everything was soaked in beer in the box. But I'd have it no other way, you know? That's just Hawkeye Wrestling Club.

Exactly. This hat, which is also Hawkeye Wrestling Club, this thing was fucking soaked in beer. I'm going to be smelling like a brewery when I get home, but that's just that's the cost of doing business, that's the price you pay. Certainly because of that hat. Now, whenever you go to the Hawkeye Wrestling Club, they've been doing it since 73.

Training the next gold medalist is the name of it. So you got some like, I think, pretty elite established stuff here. I don't, I still don't understand what that little thing is supposed to do. Me neither. I've seen full-sized ones. AQ.Q. I'm you've seen the full-size ones. Yeah, yeah, the full-size one.

It's for like, uh, yeah, that's what I thought. Boom. Can AQ show us some moves on them, like some holds or submissions? This little, like, what are you supposed to do with this thing? You got to,

you got to straddle it. And then you got to do the little, the prank for it. What are you fighting a toddler? Like, why the fuck would you prank? Why would you practice the best thing? This thing's been staring at me. It's a weirdly sized thing.

It's because you're looking for precise blows when you're in the ground of power. Okay, yeah, you can have a full-sized adult. What do you think is going to happen when you're, aiming for a quarter inch space on someone's forehead. How old is this thing? Ames Small and Miss Small.

This is what a two-year-old? It's not a human being. I mean, it's a fucking training. But what am I training to five? A two-year-old? That's what I'm doing. My country's like this right here.

What am I doing? That's what I'm saying. You're looking at precise spots. And then that way, when you actually get in a fucking match or you get into a street fight with somebody, you're cutting open someone's forehead big time with those 12 to six elbows. Oh, you're not going to think you're doing it to a toddler, though, whenever you're actually doing it to this size thing.

Bill's back there with a camera right now. Bill, Bill probably has a couple of these at home. Yeah. Something to think about. What is the size? Is this like your toy? What do you think this is, Bill? I don't know, like, I get that it is a gimmick in this situation. I don't

understand where the gimmick would have originated from. Like, who was going to make a one-fifth scale this for any reason? So this is what is this? Because guess what is Bill? Dumb fuck kids in Iowa start wrestling when they're two years old, when they're that big. Okay, so this is a kid's training tool.

I don't fucking know I'm just saying that would be if you just use a little bit of context clues and think about it a little bit they're not sending that to 18 to 25 year olds and thinking, I said it to you, I want to you! I got kids!

Oh, okay. Yeah! Yeah! Christ, man! Fuck, dude! So are you going to take it home? We'll see. I mean, that thing's kind of heavy.

I don't really want that thing. How heavy is it? You said it's heavy. Is it heavy? I don't want that getting swung around and, you know, my 14-month-old, you know, taking one off the, off the head. So we'll see.

The leather, though, would be good chew for dog, you know. No, absolutely not. I know we're not going to do that, but I'm just saying, I think it would be. This is a crazy-sized little human that you're supposed to beat up. This is a hard thing to comprehend. It takes sweet. It's cool.

It's been staring me all fucking day. I know. Think about his little arms. Paint a little face on them. Put a little face on them. Someone should paint something there. Yeah, you're right. Thank you, Hawkins.

wrestling club. We are fans, but we just don't know, I think, what this is. Let's take a break. Where are you going to put it now? I mean, that's... Just hold them. We do like elf on the shelf with that. Just kind of hide it in different places around the office.

And you fight and you beat the shit. You just beat it down. He was bound it right in this fucking little mouth. Yep. Give it to AQ for when he wants to beat his son for crying. He can just wail on that thing instead. This is what my real son should be acting like.

Okay? You get the fucking traps on that thing. No emotions. Steadfast. You need to start guiding the child. Combat Sports International Legged grappling dummy, 35 pounds, 50 pounds, 70 pounds, 120 pounds.

There's any of those. Those are the big ones. So this is like a toy version of one. Yeah, because imagine trying to ship that thing to tie. You got to get a whole crate problem. Okay, so this was just like, hey, there's a bigger one on the way. This is the child. Well, it looks like.

There's a dad on the way you can beat up. Maybe. Hey, didn't you used to train with these? No, I never, no, I never really did in my extensive MMA training. Open a couple of gyms this guy. Yeah. This is weird. This one's weird.

Well, once again, I ain't fucking looking a gift horse in the mouth. You know, I was like to get on here and fucking bitch and moaning by it. They sent it to me. It was, you know, free 99. I was very, very, you know, happy about that. The hat's sick. I do like the hat. A lot.

The hat is sick. Fucking Russell Town, USA. The little guy is weird and how to think about it. He's saying like a merch box with this little person in there. Yeah, I mean,

it's literally like right here. I mean, it's happening. You know, this is just, trying to help you. They should get this to high schoolers, maybe, whenever they're thinking about going,

you know, letting the swimmer swim. Just saying, this is what your life is. Yeah, it's good. Yeah. Okay. Well,

all right. You're doing this one. No one ever accused wrestlers to split in the atom. So let's, uh, Let's keep that in mind as well That's no reason for that

What I'm just saying, you know It's a good point This is awesome toy though It is cool toy It's a hundred percent of leather I mean it's genuine leather I actually you know I didn't want to say it I might fucking

Strip that thing off and You know Put a fresh layer on my baseball glove I don't know I'm bad Good idea We'll see Get that snowblower

I know, no, no, no. I'm going to wait a little bit for that one. Price might go down. It might. All right. We'll be back on the other side. This is the greatest. That's one of the best things we've ever been sent to the Thunderdome.

Especially because it's a little toddler drenched in beer when it gets here. Yeah, bingo. That was a weird thing, age. It was literally just sitting there out of nowhere pops up. I thought I was tripping balls. I'm like, what is that? You didn't know about it until it showed up on set? No, I didn't know about it until I saw it on set.

You looked at me five different times throughout the first two hours. Like, what? What is that? Like, that's not normally here. That's what my brain was thinking. Like, that, that is abnormal. It's what my brain was thinking the entire time.

That's new. I can see it. Yeah, and it was, turns out. Yeah. Put it there yesterday after the show. Yeah. Little baby gable. Mm-hmm.

Little baby gable. That's right. 100% of leather. Exactly. Genuine. For a low, low, low cost of 100, how many, would you get rid of the, the bubblehead? I'd consider bids starting at $150,000.

What if this was bundled with it? Well, I saw that that was, you know, retails for $399.99. No, that was triple the size of this one. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what I can get out of it. Good hat, though. It is good hat.

And also, we love wrestlers because their commitment to sport is insane. Bingo. Remember they're going to get rid of wrestling. When was that a couple years back? Yeah. In the Olympics. They should get rid of Iowa's wrestling after Penn State beat them. to six earlier this year.

They do that to everybody, though, Ikew. You're right. They should maybe actually look into that. I'm not so sure we don't, you know, we got a bunch of fucking Dagestani guys, you know, just coming over here, don't speak any English, don't know anything about anything.

And they're wrestling at every fucking wait for Penn State. You're talking about the Penn State wrestling club? I am. And that's undocumented. I'm almost positive. They don't have any Dagestani guys on their restaurant. I would say pull the roster. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they don't have any.

The Dagestani guys are the guys that took over the UFC, right? Correct. Just in better shape than everybody. Yeah. Actually training in frozen rivers with bears and shit. Correct. Like coming out, like, yeah, we, this is all we do.

Yeah, well, they do other stuff too, which is well. Yeah. All right. Yeah, I don't think we're checking the roster. We don't see any Dagestani wrestlers for the Penn State and any Lions wrestling club. Yeah, I know. There are none, yeah. These boys are winners, though.

Yeah. wear that one. Hey, this is the one. Cal Sanderson, yeah, Cald-Sanderson. Yeah. What state did he come up in? He went to Iowa State, right? He did. Oh, he's Iowa State. He's a cyclone. Yeah, undefeated. Never lost. Oh, yeah, and then he came as a coach and did the same thing, right, with Penn State?

He's in Iowa State for a long time. That's why we got our football coach from Iowa State, which we had a team on back together. Cyclone coming to Happy Valley. That's it. It's a cyclone of success. That's exactly right. The other side, we got good seg.

Good Seg on the other side. Super Bowl trenches. Trench is in the Super Bowl. Trench Super Bowl warfare. Trench Bowl Fair. Try to name it properly, but it's the trenches basically in the Super Bowl. What did we land on? Do we remember what we?

Super Bowl trenches. Smart. Okay. There you go. Got a breakdown of the offensive defense alliance from both sides here. The Patriots and the Seahawks coming from AQ Shippley. We also got to wrap up all the other sports stories happening around the sports universe. College basketball had a lot.

great night last night. A lot of comebacks. First time, long time for the amount of comebacks from the ranked teams. And sports are incredible. We'll continue to talk about it. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Take Faye... Faye! Fawpaw! It's the best. That's A.J. Hawk.

The toxic table is here at Bossetconnor and at Ty Schmidt. A man who's a nine-year NFL vet, an absolute stallion of a Yukon Husky representative. Darius J. Butler is here. Hey, what are you wearing there, man? Is that son? Day red. Yeah, I don't know if you've been reading the internet. Up until the right. I have heard that the Sun Day Red brand is up and to the right with Taylor Made, ain't they right?

Yep. Tiger, what do you expect? Who else? Exceeding expectations, right? Exceeding expectations. Of course. Yeah, I mean, Justin, Nuclear Golf reported, Tiger Woods clothing brand, Sun, Day Red is growing faster than expected and is exceeding all revenue targets. Taylor-made CEO

David Abelis tells Front Office sports The brand is now looking To expand with a full roster of athletes To wear its product In competition. Sunday Red's starting to get into the action A little bit more

I've never seen anybody actually wear it Outside of the Thunderdome You know you don't golf more Me either You're busy I don't really get out out there much I guess but I don't see like a big wave of Sunday

Red in my feed with golfing stuff that happens out there too How many of us are in the building? Right. now there's like 14 13 13 okay out of 13 we got one two 30 and then tone over a hammer down time yeah so that's four out of 30 that's pretty about a third of the thunder them wearing it but i think you guys just read it or war because of how we all reacted to the pricing of it right isn't that kind of what happened

nobody's wearing it pat this is a lie there's no way people are wearing it i've never seen one person in the wild wearing it you go to their website you look at just a standard sweatshirt and you go holy shit that is way overpriced. I ain't wearing it. You see a golf polo. I ain't wearing it. It is incredibly overpriced. And like you said, never seen anyone wearing it in the wild. But on that note, Tiger Woods is a part of it. So, still want to kind of have a piece of it. Yeah, I love Tiger. Yeah, exactly. We love Tiger Woods. And it's his brand or whatever. AQ, you live in Arizona, a lot of golfing out there. How much Sun Day, Red? Well, I'd say about 70% of my closet is, uh...

Sun, day, red, of course. And my shoes. Got some shoes yesterday. Great shoes. Sunday red shoes? Are they two grand or how much? Great shoes. Not sure. Like golf shoes or regular? Or both? Golf shoes.

Golf shoes. They're fairly, they're fairly bright. Take down. Got it in the arm bar? That was a DDT. That was a DDT on the chair. A bit of a tornado. Just had to get it off of the chair, you know.

It didn't even know. I don't know if anybody's doing that. A kid's dead. Or a hot guy wrestling club. Oh, boy. Sunday Red though. Congratulations. I love that. Tiger going to continue to grow his business and brand. I didn't expect Sunday Red to be what Sunday Red was, though, whenever it got launched. I thought we were like, I thought it was actually going to take over my golf closet. Like, I'm like, all right, I'm going to definitely do that. Tiger Woods is shit. Amen. That is what I'm going to do. That's why everybody started wearing a fucking red. That's why everybody started wearing Nike. That's why everybody stopped wearing collars because he launched it. He basically was the influencer of golf wear, basically. It was pretty obvious to tell from outside looking in. So as soon as he starts his own shit, I'm like, hell yeah, I'm going to do that.

And then just like Foxy, I go to a website, go, get the fuck, Tom, come on. I can't do that. I can't. Hey, it's Ty was saying. This ain't a fucking soup kitchen, all right? Ty would say that. Ladies and gentlemen, there are sports happening around us right now that we need to start appreciating more. Because there's one football game left.

Yep. 12th your NFL vet. Until we got the Pro Bowl games on Tuesday. Have we come around to how we feel about it? Are we going to give it an opportunity? Are we going to be open-minded? Shador Sanders is about to get. for four or five touchdowns on Tuesday night

flag football Pro Bowl, okay? Who's all playing? Do we have anybody? Do we know who's playing? Do we know what's going on? What the coaches are? Who the coaches are? Are there any other events? Are we doing a tug of war at any different time? Are we jumping off a diving board? Remember we were trying to make this entire thing what it was? We were catching water

balloons. Do you remember that at one point for the Pro Bowl? I don't like what has happened to the Pro Bowl. I don't want to be old man yelling at Claude's, but we obviously learned too much about the potential risk of injury from these Pro Bowls. We started paying too much money. We started finding out things. Then obviously opt-outs started becoming just a normal part of the process because it's good for

business, can't blame people. Then the NFL, I think, stopped caring about the Pro Bowl. I talked about us going to Phoenix and having to split a hotel with some conference and they, you know, it used to be in Hawaii. So I think a lot of different people wanting to make into making the Pro Bowl, not what it used to be. But we need to make sure we take care of that. We need to figure that out somehow, you know? I feel like it's dead and gone, but I would like to figure that out. And maybe Tuesday night's awesome. Maybe Tuesday night's awesome, AJ. We've got to think about that. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to give it a chance for sure, but what is the flag advisor there, that role? What does that person do? Well, obviously, they come from the flag football world. So they actually know the rules,

know the game. When I got a chance to be a part of the Pro Bowl games a couple years back, it was in Las Vegas, I do believe. There was like flag football people that were there on site to be of assistance for the game of flag football because it's a little different than regular football. But I do remember them never getting asked any questions. Sure. And I do remember them being like, we could certainly, you know, like, hey, there's a couple things here with the refs and like this type of thing that we could go through. I think they did end up getting a chance to speak.

But I don't think they were being consulted with nearly enough, in my eyes, whenever I was like, hey, this is a different sport, these people with the reffing and what looks good, what doesn't look good. But I think obviously over the span of the last couple of years, it's probably become a little bit more, hey, flag football is a different sport. Maybe we should try to learn some things if we're going to try to play it, especially with how prevalent flag football is becoming in like the world of football. You know, it's a whole thing. So maybe Tuesday's bigger than it's ever been because flag football matters now. Yeah. Maybe this is this. Maybe we need, maybe it's perfect timing for this.

Maybe it does need a little bit of eyeballs. Maybe it does become a content creation place. But all we need to know is can we can we find a way to celebrate the best in the AFC and the best in the NFC every single year because it does matter, I think. Especially whenever they judge people going into the Hall of Fame. But if you accomplish everything there is to accomplish, will you get into the Hall of Fame? What's real? What is it? Oh, no, AJ. I don't want to get in that rabbit hole.

I know. AI. Could just announce the All-Pro teams and just leave it at that and keep it moving. Who votes on the All-Pro teams? Tony. Tony Romo? No, Tony Dix. No, but I'm saying, you know, who votes on the Hall of Fame?

Yeah, I wonder how much overlord. Not me. I'd like that to be. known. I'm just sitting there staring at the camera. Just would like this to be very much understood that AP tone does not stand for anything with the Hall of Fame. Or college football either. Just strictly AP awards in the NFL. NFL honors is his night to shine. He doesn't get invited to it, but it's his votes that are certainly happening with that. But it's always media, right? The old pro is all media. I usually get it right, though. I'm going to tell you for my position, they don't. So like, I think, you know, offensive line, I think people would say they don't get it right.

You know, it's like positions you don't really know about. It's kind of hard to get it right because then you've got to pay attention to like every single snap. I'm not saying me in particular getting screwed out of any all pros. But it's like who's voting for the best punter, you're just going to whoever you know. Yeah. Like whoever you know is going to be an offense alignment, it's kind of the same thing. Yeah. So it's like what. So what matters? Get rid of them all. No, because we should celebrate the great. Yeah. I agree. Do we just use PFF? Is that just our goal? You know what? Oh, no.

Every play, every snap, every game. That's the end all be all. And then they're ranking at the bottom, actually. That really matters. They don't get rid of it, actually. They promote it even more. This is all we got. They should make a committee.

Former players, every position. Make a committee. But do all the foreign players watch, though? No. And also, a lot of former players, I'm not going to just bury all former players because we are certainly in that department but there is a crew of former players

that don't necessarily like the next generation that maybe being considered better than them so you got to make sure you get the right how do you make sure that you get the right a lot of haters out there especially when we get on this and it goes real big it's like oh wait a minute

I can do that again so if I say these group soft oh fuck There's an angle. Okay, I'm just going to do this for a living. That has happened in the past. Not with everybody.

We're just saying we have seen that in the past with sports. So if we were to get the right, my immediate thought is like, how do we create something that becomes something that actually means something that matters? How do we do like a football for the good of football museum or something like in Las Vegas where it's like actual you get put into it? But the amount of time it would take for it to become credible and respected

is just way too long. I don't know if you have enough time to build that. Because like the pro football, Hall of Fame, the reason why it's so impressive is because the vault in the basement actually has like the original documents from, we thought, we saw Clark Cotton had his own shit in his office, I guess. But down there, it's like the history of ball is there, which is why it's so sacred. So can you just create something new? I don't, you know, that's like an interesting. I thought about that last night for way too long. I would say I thought about that for about

an hour and a half, about like, could you create something that actually matters? But then how do you make it matter? Well, you'd have to have the right people. Would you ever have the right people? That's the hardest part. And you never, I don't know how you do it. That's why it was sacred that we had it. And then now we can't have, we can't have this ruin the entirety of the Hall of Fame. Yeah, I think they could do it. I think it's just Bill and Tom.

If Bill comes out and says he's going to start his own kind of museum, Hall of Fame like you're saying, and then Brady opts for that one instead of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. I feel like that would do it. Like Dion, we've heard before talking about how like there are tears, there needs to be tears. He went in different halls. Yeah, tears to the Hall of Fame. Exactly. And if Bill was like, you know what, you're right.

and this is going to be the one that is only for the, you know, Brady's and Belichick, which there are none. But still, that would be the standard. Like, I feel like that could gain legs, but Bill has too much respect for the pro football hall of fame, so he won't do it. Exactly. Like, I think even Bill, I doubt we're going to hear a single negative thing from Bill Belichick about the pro football Hall of Fame. Because how much he respects it. We will not hear a single negative thing about that because he knows it's a set. These current voters aren't the pro football Hall of fame that's been there for it.

These are the keepers of who gets in at the moment. So he won't hold it against it. It's like that's why it's sacred because everybody's like, it's the pro football thing. Have any no, have any of the no voters come out publicly and said, I voted no, and this is why? No, in, you know, Jimmy Johnson said they're all full shit. You say everybody come out and say they didn't do it. Ignorant and jealous. Assholes.

Assholes. Jimmy threw heat today. Right away. I loved it. I read his tweet, and I'm like, wow, Jimmy's got some real fucking passion here. But he really does. So we send out Hail Mary, you know, like Hail Mary to Jimmy Johnson. getting to connect. Shout to, I believe, Shregs, helped in this entire thing as well.

Shregal. I believe Shregs. So we're very grateful for the most interesting man in sport, Peter Schrager, making the connection there. But yeah, we get him on. And I'm like, as he's talking, I'm like, fuck, I forgot how awesome Jimmy Johnson is. Like, I forgot how awesome he was, which is not good. And then as he keeps going and he, like doing it and still having the juice, fire, complete, no flubs. Like, hey, how you doing, keep it moving? Like, how old is this fucking guy. 82 years old, he pulls up on him on.

I'm like, galley, 82 years old still throwing it. Plus having this much passion and talking shit. It's like, this guy, this guy's got to figure it out.

It feels like. Jimmy's a legend. Absolutely. Yeah, and his hair looks unbelievable. And when you think about the Fox show the entire year, it's like, how was Jimmy Johnson the one that got the boot when they were at

and people? They were, four, I wouldn't say four. There are three guys up there that Jimmy Johnson blows out of the wall. What do we do? I believe, if I recall, and that was a very emotional.

I remember those videos. They did the AI. Oh, my God. I got like emotional for the guy and I don't even know him. I'm like, hey, thank you for your commitment to sport. And I think we forgot he was 80 years old, how much he spent to and how much he committed to ball. And I mean, if today was any indication, like, if he wanted to, that's why I think it is pretty clear that he just, he was like, fuck this. I'm going to retire.

I'm going to walk away now and do what I want to do. But like, he could do that for another seven to ten years. With us, we would certainly That's what I'm saying He's still as sharp as a fucking tax So, you know Ian O'Connor Who's been on top of everything

From the Giants News Despite this column I wrote on how Eli Manning deserves to be in the Hall of Fame Word is the Giants QB Didn't make the cut this year What? How's it getting out on who made it Who didn't make it more specifically?

Hopefully Eli will go in next year With his old friend Bill Belichick Who I'm thinking will get 50 out of 50 votes The second time around. Ian O'Connor said They'll me get it right because they were publicly called out, and those types of cowards usually don't get called out,

so that's why they're able to do what they want to do. And then once somebody calls them out, then they grandstand complete the opposite way. And that's just like natural behavior by these particular group of people, I would assume. But Ian O'Connor, they're talking about Eli Manning not making it. We assumed multiple Super Bowls is a Manning. Just, we assumed, you know, that that kind of would be the case.

So he's out, Bill's out. Who's in? How many years is this for Elon now, too? That he's... Yeah, this would be a second. time. Okay. So he's not first ballot or second ballot. When do they stop saying the ballots? This is like for kids with months of age.

Oh. When do you stop saying it? Like, dude, you're after first. You know, because I was nominated, I was nominated three times. So I could have been the third ballot, I guess. Mm-hmm. Then I just cut me off. AJ's first ballot still. Well, second ballot next year. Yeah. What do you say?

18 months. Is that when you stopped saying months for kids? Year and a half feels like, yeah. That's probably the right time. Mm-hmm. You've had 10 kids. When did you stop doing it? I don't even know now. Probably 18 months. Yeah, I'd say a year and a half.

Did you ever buy any of the kids? One of these little... Stop once they start walking. Whatever month you're at. Then you hit one or you hit, you know, a year and a half. How long would this thing survive in the hawk house? My kids would love that thing. Are you kidding me?

They would try to rip its arms and legs off, no question. Day one. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Mm-hmm. Wow. So what we learned was this is for kids to take to get autographs. Oh, okay. They pull up in a house.

I don't know if I 100% buy that. Who said that? Zito, Zito said it. Yeah, I know, like, it says that on there. If that's just an autograph thing, like, why is it that weight? Why does it look like that? I mean, because you know what you could do to get autographs? Like, get like a pennant or like a hat?

Yeah. Well, there's a pennant right in front of you there. So. Do you think anybody's signing the arms Like somebody that has a really good left arm drag Signed left arm right here Maybe, maybe That's me

Now these things pretty, I mean, you know Stable, very high quality here Yeah I think that was That thing is built for young Axel Hawk To just roll with that thing all day long Think so small I mean that's for an 18 month old kid

Pretty much It's when you start Oh easy Power bump! Oh, this is in a plank position. Jeez. Unbelievable. Never gives up.

Getting back up, yeah. Oh, yeah, I got. Still up. Yep. Not out. You don't know what to beat me now. Yeah, I did kick out. Yeah, I didn't see that.

Yeah, I mean. Oh, shit. There you go. No, no. Two, two, two. Good kick. Still up. I'm defeated.

Yeah. It's unbeatable. It's unbelievable. Maybe you should take that to little baby Quay. There's go. Oh, geez. What are you doing? Welcome home, son.

Stop crying, little boy. Okay. So that's what you did in the basement. That would hurt. That was cool. Did you guys have full size those things? Oh, yeah. Full size.

Okay. So that's what's for though Maybe you do take that to the boy So you get your full size one You get the one for a boy And you guys are hopping and elbow dropping All over the place You're next

Yeah and then if he doesn't want to You can say oh get out of here Send one of your sisters in here to beat the shit out of this thing That's exactly what's going to happen Last night college basketball I had a big one No lead was safe Is how it was being reported

Cream Abdul Jabar Do you remember him Oh yeah Indiana State legend whenever he now goes to St. Louis. Yeah, he transferred with his coach whenever his coach moved on from the miraculous run. He had a few years back. Well, don't you worry, he's still doing it in the specs for three. Bang!

We win! Shout out to Avia getting a huge, huge dub. Six AP rank teams overcame double-digit deficits. That's the most in one night over the last eight seasons. This is really starting to pick up. I see Michigan State up there, Foxy. This kid, incredible story. I believe he got shot and now he's back playing balling Michigan State's for real.

Yes, sir. That's Jeremy Fears. I believe it was two seasons ago. He got shot in the leg, was out for the year, and now he is our best player. Last night, we're at Ruckers. We are down 12 with 10 minutes ago. Jeremy Fears had 27 second half points. Takes us to overtime and we win that game.

He's an absolute dog on a long list of really good Michigan State point guards in our history. He's up there at the top. Okay, Arkansas, I see them getting a big win last night. That's Calaparri's boys, right? How are they as a squad? Pretty solid. I mean, the SEC, I don't think this year is quite as good as it has been. Holy shit, I'm going to sneeze very badly here.

Looking at the light. Looking at the light. Yeah, look up. Look up. What does that do? I don't know. It either makes you sneeze or makes you not. No, it stops it.

It stops it. But yeah, yeah, Coach Cal's big thing as of late has basically been like he's trying to preserve. Like, I'm going to recruit high school kids. Okay, I'm sick and tired of these 27, 20, year old kids coming in. I'm going to continue doing what I'm doing. But, I mean, we know Coach Cal come tournament time. Arkansas, you know, the Razorbacks, they're always going to be a threat. Nebraska was undefeated until last night. They were 12.5 point dogs or 10 and a half point dogs going into a game against Michigan as an undefeated squad. They lose by three, but get the cover.

Congrats to Nebraska on an insane start, I would imagine. Yeah, it's crazy how good they are. Like, if you just watch them play, just by the look of them, you'd be like, man, this team, it's just weird. They shit, like, Michigan has been just beating the shit out of everybody for the most part. But offensively, they just, I mean, Fred Hoyberg's got those boys really, really playing well. And, I mean, they'll be one of those teams we're talking about come March. Connor, what's the first half point scores of these games? I mean, Nebraska, Michigan was ridiculous. That was the first college basketball game I've watched all year. And I're not really a college ball guy until March Madras rolls around.

And it was like 50 to 44. All of a sudden, I thought, okay, they learn how to play offensive in college. Maybe I can't buy into it. And the teams are so good. Well, they're getting ex-pro players in there as well. You know, that'll certainly change it. Virginia gets a huge win over Notre Dame, and Miami preserves its undefeated streak, right? Miami of Ohio. Miami of Ohio.

They get a win over UMass. UMass had a chance to win it at the end. Talk about a massive upset over the undefeated Miami. No good. No good. UMass, Minutemen lose again. Some people are saying they're not impressed by Miami because they only got by UMass by two.

I heard that into Thunderdome. I hear people trying to diminish what the University of Miami of Ohio has been doing on a basketball court because they haven't played in. I hear a lot of that happened at a round time. Not to mention the UMass Minute Men, there hasn't been buzzed like this since Marcus Camby is walking to campus. Okay, this team is legit. I would look out for UMass as a sleeper when the tourney comes around. Best season start by any program in Mack history, the Miami Red Hawks.

Congratulations, that's a good basketball team. That's right. We might talk to the coach here in the next coming days or coming weeks or whatever. we can't wait for that. College basketball is going to happen, which remember we got to enjoy that. We do enjoy that, especially when nights like last night happened, first time in eight seasons. And then we look ahead to 11 days from now, the Super Bowl, the Patriots and the Seahawks. Just like any big game that matters in football, it's going to come down to who can control the line of scrimmage. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time ago. Super Bowl trenches with Akechoo!

Hey, Kew! Hey Kew! Let's talk about these trenches, shall we? And what we should maybe be paying attention to on both sides of the ball. who has the advantage who's potentially going to get God? Yeah, we're going to break down both sides. And I do think, I know we say this all the time, it always comes down to the trenches. It's cliche to say,

but I do believe this game more than any other game is going to come down to the trenches. And when you talk about New England, you have to talk about Drake May's legs. He is part of the run game. So right here, he's pointing out, obviously this backer to the right side, but the big thing here,

you're going to get a quarterback draw. Garrett Bradbury has been fantastic. Watch him get skinny. 65 climb up on a linebacker and then he sees a butt and he finds the end zone. We got one more run on the next run. We got Jared Wilson take a look here. This all rookie

left side. Guardian cap. Guardian Cap on. Smart likes to preserve his brain. This guy's got a big brain here. Yeah, it doesn't look so cool but let's take a look at him, climb on the second level. Now watch you stop it right there. Now watch him get his head back to the front side, run his feet and bury him in the ground.

Okay, it seems like a little holding maybe. No. Oh, that's good technique. Yeah, it seems like he was holding a little bit. I like the big shot coming in here from six. You're saying Drake May in the run game for the Patriot's certainly a problem. They got two back here. They got two back here that they use.

I think the big thing, yeah, their fullback's fantastic. And whenever they get in their two-back run game, that is when they're at their best or multiple tight-end sets. And that is going to be key. But then we're going to take a look at Seattle's defensive line. And this is how you have to block them. You have to block them by taking care of this five-man. front. Do we see five guys across?

Point them out. Bam, bam, bam. Like the burger joint. There it is. This is what they're going to do. Five guys. Hey, I want that thing double snack. Give me a little bit of fries there. I like a little cheese. Maybe I had to bacon. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. It all starts with Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy.

That's their two studs, but I got Byron Murphy circled. Leonard Williams gets all the hype. Let's watch three clips here of drop knee technique. Look at this. See that little drop knee? ricochet. If we can rewind this one more time, this is so good because if you watch this, he's going to drop knee, pause it when his knee hits the ground, keep a little bit more, right there. Now, the double team, the whole point of the drop knee is to get the double team off. You see the double team, the guard coming down to hit him? It's to get him off. So when he comes off,

now he's supposed to ricochet back to the right, but then the back scoots out the backside, still has enough wear with all to get off to the left. So he hits the drop knee to make that guy think he's already blocked and he's out of it. This is a faint of some sort. No, the whole reason for it is because now he knows the double team is. And so you do it to the main guy, which is the post guy. Now the double team guy comes in. You get lower than him, so now he can't move you. That's how you hold your ground.

And then you wait for him to come off because he's climbing. He's climbing to Ernest Jones, the linebacker, and you wait for him to come up, and then you ricochet back off to make the play. So that's an insane play right there. Insane play. Now I thought taking a knee back in the day was bad for D-Lyman. Now it's being weaponized, is what you're saying? It's being weaponized.

And now there's a couple more clips we got. You'll see they do a good job of taking the center. I think this is the clip right here. He's going to motion down. So there it is. There's the five-man front. This is how they handle the run game. There it is.

And now we let this thing run. And then watch him do what he does to the center. You see that? He posts the center, ricochet pulls him through, gets him back on the drop knee. So watch, watch him pull the center through right there. Now there's the drop knee, gets back in the gap, and is still able to climb and get in on the tackle.

So he's an animal. Byron Murphy. They draft them in the first round out of Texas, and they pair him with Lender Williams. We got one more. Here's not the five-man front. This is when they go true nickel, six-man box, four up front, two linebackers. And again, we get another drop knee. Let's watch this. There it is. Knows the double team's coming. Get off. Rick-a-chae, get back in on the play. Jesus Christ. He's a fucking guy. They're sending like faints in here, and then bang. Yeah, I'm down. No, I'm not. I'm gone. How much is he way? Do we get a weight? Dames on this guy? He's not huge. He's actually a twitchier guy. He's like a six-season.

300-pound guy. Kind of reminds me, I know he's out of the league right now, of Christian Wilkins. That's who my comp was of him when he was coming out. I mean, it's unbelievable explosion to be able to get down that quick, get up that quick, while still not getting buried by professional offense alignment. The reason I wanted to show this versus New England's run game is a fact.

Six feet 305. There it is. Smaller guy. There it is. Smaller guy. 305 pounds, drop into an E, hopping right back up? Most nose guards are 350. So when you see this 300 guy, he's a great pass rusher. Like, this guy's a twitchy guy. But the reason why I want to show this, New England's run game is heavy double teams. So you're going to see this

double team. And I think the key is if you can get him moved off the ball, get low on him and move him off the ball, move Leonard Williams, you can get a little run game started for New England. Okay. So you think Murphy good for what New England does? I think he's very good. I think it's going to be a problem trying to block him. And I think if they can find a way to get low, because the key is right there, if we take a look at all those ones on the drop knee, the double team, the second guy coming in, always hit him in the shoulder. The key on a double team to move him, you got to get low and hit the hip.

See how he's up on the shoulder? If he can get low, see how low he is and get the hip. That's how you move the guy. And that's the thing is I'm watching these. None of these O. Lyman are knocking his dick in the dirt. And that's what the Patriots I've been doing all year to de-tackles. Dick in dirt, and that's how you bury him. And maybe that's just the Rams' ammo.

I expect Vrable to have the trenches a little more ready. I mean, what a play, what a move, though. How long has this take a knee move been going on? knee's been going on for a while, but this guy's one of the best I've ever seen. When I saw that, when I was watching this film, I was like, holy shit. Most guys can't get up like that, Pat. Yeah. Like people do it, but most guys can't get up or they take that knee and they get pushed,

you know, two, three yards into the linebackers. So this is something that is very rare, I would say. Absolutely. Absolutely. In this clip in particular, that exact clip right there, because if we watch this here, if I stand up here. Yeah. So let this run a little bit and rate whenever he gets the ball in the handoff.

Oh, yeah. Okay. So right there. This ball's supposed to hit here. That's why the double team's coming there. So once he comes off, you're supposed to ricochet back here. But then we talk about what? Juicy is cut in footballs this back side.

Backside A. There it is. So now he goes to hit that juicy cut and still, so he ricochets one way and then gets back off this. This guy's like a whiplash on her. That's the crazy part getting off of it. Yeah. Because usually if you can get down there, I've seen big fellas get down there and just hold on and keep the double team. So now that backer can get over the top and make the play.

When you can do that and get back up and make the fucking tackle that. That's elite. I mean, what a beast. How old is he? He's young. The second year in the league. That was from that Texas defense a couple years back, right? Tone, how many guys on that defense from a couple years back?

I remember the big bodies were definitely talked about him being one of them. Yeah, it was him. It was Devandre Sweat who went to the Titans. That whole front for them was awesome and it's been awesome in the NFL. Yeah, he, 23 years old that guy. Yeah, sweet neck tats from this photo that I'm seeing. Oh, he's a stud man. Sick necktuck.

If that photo is accurate. I mean, we're talking to abs. If you can do a drop, and you're like, yeah, I'll tell you what. You can do whatever you want, can't you? He's a stud. But I do think whoever performs better on the defensive line is going to win this game. Let's take a look at Seattle's run game. Kenneth Walker finally gets his opportunity to be the guy.

Look at this combo block. Graze Abel. I know we've talked about him. Gets the rookie trenchy this year. Charles Cross paid it left tackle. We get him moving. Now we get the little hand off. Okay, so if we rewind that one more time, right when he gets to the old?

It sounds like he just got body right there. I just saw who was blocking who here. dude he's getting set i mean he just took him nine yards across that's incredible the cut back off of him it's incredible you're saying what he did was good right there hold of who one it's a good block it's a great block because it just gets a great block they just took it they just took the detack on nine yards and the cutback went right off it yeah that's incredible that's a double team brother i like that didn't that way out of it but it appears if he's this is able right that's able yeah they're pushing him left so is he so he so he's getting blocked out of the hole the rams guy just said you know what fuck it

I'm just running into bodies, whatever I got to do. So, okay, so it's funny that you think that that, but the whole key to offensive line play in the NFL is horizontal movement. We're not trying to take guys 20. This isn't high school football where we're taking guys 20 yards down the field. His gap, so go back to the very beginning. This defensive tackle's gap is right there, right there, hold right there. Let's watch where he finishes.

He will be on the other side of the road. Yeah, I know. Look where Zayboy. ends up at. He's a long for the ride. He's still part of a double team. That's a good double team. He just took him 10 yards.

I like that. If they're going to just get people to go run willy-nilly like that, I mean, that's a great win. That's a mental fuckery as well. But the key is Kenneth Walker. Let's take a look at Kenneth Walker. Right when he gets the ball and comes to a little Stanford.

Michigan State, Goldgreen. For one year. He was way for us before. He was so good. Yeah, and then he goes to Michigan State, and he was unbelievable. He's been unbelievable for the Seahawks, too. Did you hear that?

Yeah, yeah. It's the chant. I can leave me hanging. What's the chant? Foxy, what is it? Go green. Go white. Thank you, D. Buck.

It's crazy. Watch. That's crazy. All right, perfect. Look at this. Oh, holy. Look at that move.

Come on. I mean, and there's nothing else to say. 48 under. Especially how he, look how he turns his shoulders to the sideline to get you running early. Watch this.

Watch his initial move. he gets the linebacker open up oh see ya take off and you're already like out of balance terrible. There's nothing else to say I mean that is just let that clip do the talking it's incredible what Kenneth Walker does he does both Michigan State guys too

let me on a little bit there little patience in the back patience makes the extra guy miss in the backs that's what the special ones do that obviously you know a lot of most backs in the league can run when it's blocked up well but when you have free hitters and you can make them miss make them look silly like this

This is James Cook. All the great backs do this. But that's, I mean, it looks like a not a huge play. That's a big time running in the NFL. Congrats to Kenneth Walker coming back. Huge. That's huge. But again, we talk about this all the time.

I like this group up front. I like both groups up front. But they both have had some guys that haven't played their best in the playoffs. Anthony Bradford's supposed to get to that linebacker doesn't get there. Number 75. I sent a clip to Connor of a pass rush play during the game. That guy, if they can take advantage of him, he's the weakest link on row line. And then Will Campbell needs to step up too. But again, they don't have edge guys like

Will Campbell seen the last couple of weeks. So the interior defensive line on both groups is the problem. Now let's take a look at the Patriots. Interior defensive line starts with Christian Barmore. Starts with Milton Williams right here. Look at Christian Barmore on the back side here. First of all, they're going to slant the line to the left. There it is. Handling line movement is key. But there is no movement. If we look at that group, just watch them. If we can pause this on contact, a little bit more. Keep a little bit more. Right there.

Okay? Look at Milton Williams. Look at Barmore. Look at them. They're all extending with two hands. No movement. That is the key. Defensive lineman.

Got to play with extension. Boom. Stalmate. There it is. And then get off the ball and make a play. Where you go? This Patriots group is as good as anybody at doing that. Bove's Blaine fill in the gap too.

Holy shit. Little later in the game, obviously second half. We got the elements. Question. Yeah. Offensive line like the elements. Offensive line like the elements in terms of pass rush. It's tougher in the run game because of the footing.

So the pass rest, now you've slowed the defense down. They can't get the get off. But in the run game, it probably benefits the defensive line because you can't get your footing. And that's why I think this is super impressive. We got good on good, Barmore versus Quinn Miners right here. Watch him not give up any ground. Right there.

Just extend, get off, make the play. That's one of the best. That's your first team all pro guard going against Christian Barmore. He just gets off, two-hand press, extend, find the ball. get off, make a play. We got one more clip. Big Tonga. We love Big Tonga.

We love Big Tonga. By the way. He's a weapon as a foolback. He's a great foolback, but he's a great nose. Okay, so he's going against Luke Wattenberg, who just got paid at center. Center reaching his front side shade by himself, nightmare. Yep. Get pressed three yards in the back field.

This defense is a problem, too. Fourth quarter, less than seven minutes left. First and 10. Denver's on New England's 33. Could be driving. Nope. Let me actually stop you right there. Miss field goal on this drive.

Unbelievable stuff. I love watching just like freak athletes do freak athlete shit. And this is one of those. And this is, and this is an absolute nightmare block. And again, I don't know if you guys remember Brandon Mebain. He was a hell of a noseguard for the Seattle Seahawks. But this block versus Brandon Mebain, this block versus any good noseguard is a, it's one of the hardest blocks in football. Well, you talk about the run game in the snow, not easy for the offensive.

line. Tonga had a better get off air. Had to leverage immediately and then just like get him a snow ride. 9-7 right next one, Williams. He did the same shit. Right to his right. This guy's unbelievable. Unbelievable. And that's the thing. They're fresh. You know, you don't see Barmore

on there. Yeah, you don't. Because right there it's Leonard Taylor, Tonga and Milton Williams. They got Barmore. They got another guy Durden, Corey Durden, who's been unbelievable. Like the dudes they have up front, they rotate in out and they're always fresh. All right. Well,

sounds like we got a great trenches warfare coming up in the Super Bowl. We sure do. It's going to be fun to watch. But again, my prediction, whoever wins the defensive line, whoever plays better on the defensive line will win this game. Okay, and who is that? Don't tell us. We'll see you next week. We'll go down to Super Bowl.

We appreciate you all for allowing us to do this for a living. Thank you for spending your Wednesday here in Super Bowl season with us. AJ, what's a big takeaway from today's show? What did you learn from the day? I mean, just just some reason to see bias. I feel like obviously the D-line thing, that was great to see, but how square that Patriots defensive line is,

like their shoulders square to the line of scrimmage, that's so impressive to me, because then everything behind you is very clean and there's nowhere to go and just like, boom, boom, boom, just bullets, filling gaps. Yeah, it sounds like they're technically sound. That's what they said about the Indiana defense. That's right.

Like the Indiana defense is always where they're supposed to be. Seattle Seahawks defense doing the same damn thing. Debo, what was your big takeaway from today's program? Just the trenches. I love just getting schooled up on the, trenches watching it from usually from zoomed out so zooming in and then the edge guys always get all of love on the d line and these are two of the best interior guys on the d line on both sides so i'm interested to watch this match up i like that you're teaching a lot of people a lot of things here

from the superbo trenches uh tie how about you what's your big takeaway today uh other than having a little voodoo doll thing uh jimmy johnson doesn't fuck with the hall of fame anymore fuck i don't think i think a lot of people aren't i think he's out permanently he can be one back until he decides yeah to go back but But as of right now, where we stand right now, he's fucking done with him. I don't like that. Fans are already saying they're done with it. Yeah.

Yeah, it's bummer. Oh, yeah. Connor, what you learned today? Anything? My biggest thing is goodbye, Nathan Chen, hello, Ilya, whatever the hell's name is, the quad god. I mean, we got the guy again. He's doing four rotations and backflips and front flips and all that cool shit, with all that pizzazz.

And the way he looks is awesome. So I can't wait for the Olympics. Shout out to JJ, shout out to Tariko. Shout to Jimmy Johnson. How about Tony Romo yesterday? Shout to Brock Lesnar. Brock Lesnar. I called him.

Yeah. I should call him back. I just calling him back. How about him? Hey, what's going on, man? What are you got going on? Just doing a show, man. What are you going?

You mind if I, yeah, sounds. Hey, I'm going to Rioad. I'm going to go win that thing, yeah. All right, boys. I'll talk to you later, dude. All right. Just such a casual. Hey, yeah, I'm going to go win the world.

Royal Rumble. I don't think he knew that we were on necessarily there. Probably not. Good time to tell the world, though, he's in Royal Rumble. Perfect. How do you stop him? You don't? I think we're probably going to talk to them. With a gun. Yeah. That's it. A large gun. Yeah. A large, I could see, you know,

Bronbreaker sneaking one in and his singlet. Shoots him in the leg and throws him over. Mames him. Yeah, maims him a little bit. Is that enough? Is that enough to stop him? Does it have to be between the eyes? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. That's a really good question.

I have no idea. We'll find out Saturday, 2 o'clock Eastern. Boom. Brock Lesnar is in the Royal Rumble. All right. And he's going to win it, he said. Yeah. Easy.

You think Brock Lesnar is flying all the way of real and Saudi Arabia or not win the Rumble? No. How far is that flick? What? 18. 0.2 hours? 22.

I could see Triple H winning. I'll tell you what. Is he good? That would be a good gimmick, actually. Yeah, I'm hoping. Vince McMahon, you know, whenever he was running. and shit. He blew both his quads running down to fix the Royal Rumble. Yes, he did. He did.

I don't know if he ever booked himself to win the Royal Rumble, but there was a time there where he was in charge of everything and running everything both on camera and off camera, where him winning the Royal Rumble would have been right on for it to happen. Was he in first battle of the Hall of Fame? I don't think he's in the Hall of Fame. Really? I do not believe he's in the Hall of Fame. He also didn't allow anybody to say his name.

during their Hall of Fame speeches. That was like one of his things. And he did win the Royal Rumble in 1999. Okay. So that would make a lot of sense. Thank you, Nick, for that information in the back. Yeah. Me.

Yeah. That's great. Who's winning? Who's winning? Me. Who's the last one throwing over? Your ass. Yeah, that is just the thought of that.

99. That's good wrestling, buddy. Yeah, exactly. So if Triple H was to win it, I would be excited to see where they had with it. I'd be excited to see because, you know, entertainment. Yeah. And real sport.

Yeah, for sure. Be your friend, tell him something nice in my chance. Tone! We know if the Miz is in there, if he's going to make it? They're saying he might win. Yeah, he's plus $200,000 right now. Apparently they love real world season, whatever that was in Saudi Arabia right now. It just came out.

Good to see you, Tom. Hammer down is going to be great today, huh? Always is. Be a friend tell friends something nice If I change your life We're in this thing together AQ anything can say to team Great work today buddy

Hey football season never disappoints One more game to go boys This is one of my favorite things to do Every single week Come here Spend the time with you boys I appreciate the opportunity Let's go have a fucking week next week

Huh boys Yeah we'll see it's true I like that a lot Debaugh great work this week Oh you too brother All right hey thank you for battling Yeah Snowd out

Made it No place I'd rather be maybe war would have been okay this week thunder them did have do some battles he's still battling on now what was that? Oh is that whole fame coin Just fell yet

A little doll I think it actually was yeah I was working Oh it's yeah It's all challenge Look at a doll down there This is his arms up Entrant number two

That's what I looked like Whenever I fucking broke my neck He was entry number two Vince McMahon Threw over stone cold It went Your ass That's exactly That's good bucking

That's exactly what happened me who's concerned you god damn team on me team on three one two three team goodbye