The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1519 - March Madness Rounds 1 and 2 Recap, Coach K, Adam Schefter, Seth Greenberg, Iowa Head Coach Ben McCollum, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

On today’s show, Pat is on the ESPN campus in Bristol attending a few meetings, while Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys are back in the ThunderDome, as they recap the round of 64 and the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament, as the Sweet Sixteen is officially set. They also recap the Fanatics Flag Football Fest that saw Team USA absolutely destroy a group of stars from the NFL, chat about Jaxon Smith-Njigba signing the biggest WR contract in history, and everything else happening in the sports world. They are also joined by several incredible guests including 5x National Champion, the GOAT, Coach K to chat about the tournament so far, ESPN Senior NFL Insider Adam Schefter to give an update on Jaxon Smith-Njigba as well as anything we may have missed. Next, ESPN NCAA basketball analyst, and former Coach with 34 years experience, Seth Greenberg joins the show to give his biggest takeaway’s of the tournament and look ahead to the Sweet 16. Lastly, Iowa Head Basketball Coach Ben McCollum joins the show fresh off knocking off #1 seed and defending National Champion Florida to send Iowa to their first Sweet 16 since 1999. 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’re off the next two days for March Madness, we’ll see you on Monday. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Pat McAfee's show. I am not Pat McAvey. I'm A.J. Hawks sitting in at Pat's desk today. He'll be joining us from some big-time meetings in Bristol, Connecticut, boys. Sports! It's what we do. We have ball over, Pat. Obviously, your name is on the show.

This is what you do. You're in Bristol. What's up, buddy? How are you doing? AJ, thank you so much for traveling out to the Thunderdome. Obviously, the boys love when your big-ass dome is into Thunderdome. The energy you bring is immaculate. it, especially on this overreaction Monday where there is so much to talk about.

And this show is absolutely jam-packed. We got Coach K, 12-15 Eastern. We got Adam Schaefter joining us. We got Seth Greenberg. He'll be here live with me. They got me in a bunker down here. Oh, nice. There's a bunch of studios here at ESPN.

Got some super-duper meetings up here. Okay. Good luck. Yeah. That's important. And to them. Yeah. And to them.

Okay. Good luck to all parties here. Good luck to all parties here, but good luck to them. Come up here. It's a wonderful thing. And then who's around us, Seth Greenberg? He's been incredible for our show. Does he want to come on?

We'd love to remember he called Texas was going to go on. He called a couple other teams. We're going to go on, so we'll have magical conversation with him. We also caught up with Coach Ben McCollum earlier, head coach of Iowa. You saw him almost want to fight the national champion, golden head coach, as he was talking to the boys. We certainly addressed that with him. And then in the third hour, we'll be joined by Logan. Paul. And when you think about Logan Paul, and why would he be coming on this show?

Well, he won the fanatic super duper flag football challenge where the NFL players got their asses beat by actual flag football players. Now, I would like to say a team that had Logan Paul, who's obviously W.W.E. Megastar. And I believe a former amateur wrestler as well. And deflected that pass and caused interception for Luke Keeley Hall of Fame. Hall of Famer, who is retired, by the way, in the booth Hall of Famer. Law are retired guys. Okay, we had I Show Speed out there. Okay, he was doing his thing against DeVonte Smith. Obviously, Jalen Hertz drops it.

And that's Logan Paul getting a sack, sorry. Jalen Hurst, so drop one on I Show Speed, okay? Great coverage. Just, you know, Jalen Hertz and Devonte Smith kind of doing their thing. So whenever you think about the fanatics flag football thing as a whole, my take, the boys are bamboozled. I don't think the NFL guys retired or currently playing had any idea that these guys got the whoopty-whoop-moos. They dropped that shit.

They're on hydraulics, these dudes. These dudes are on hydraulic. They're making the car bounce these guys on the field. How the hell is Luke Kinkley at least five years into his retirement? Supposed to be dancing with this guy who's on the top floor. and then drops his ass down to the lobby in the snap of a finger. Did the boys know that that is who they were playing? Was this team USA ever?

Were they supposed to go to Saudi Arabia and beat the hell out of us over there in front of Turkey? And God bless him. Is that what this was supposed to be the whole time? Did Joe Burrow know he was going to be playing against the greatest flag football team of all time? And also, we say a lot about like, Joe Burrow ended up on the ground three times. At least. Joe Burroughs taking hits in flag football.

Joe Burroughs, I saw Joe Burroughs' butt cheeks. I saw Joe Burrow was on the ground. Did Joe Burrow know he was playing against a bunch of guys who had been telling their family and their friends for so long how good they are at football? And then a couple years ago, whenever flag football got announced as an Olympic sport, I see too much of Joe Burrow here, I see too much of Joe Burrow there. I see Joe Burrow on the ground.

I see him getting hit. These flag footballers, though, these flaggers, okay? These guys have been telling, I told you I could do it. I'm going to football too. I'm better than these NFL guys. The Olympics come around.

The NFL guys are going to be in the Olympics. They're going to do flag football. These are the best we got in the flag footballer. Say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We've committed our entire beings to this. We know the rules inside now. We got the hydraulic system going to you can't tackle us. Now, granted, if we would put pads on,

you would demolish all of us because they got tiny little legs these guys. Tiny little leg, I think they would all get absolutely crushed. but these flaggers knew that they would cook these NFL guys, especially the retired guys or the influencers. And it's like, I feel like Rubin knew that was going to happen as well with Fernandez. And did Tom know that this was going to happen? And did all the boys know that they were running into a juggernaut of flag football talent? I don't think they did.

And if they agreed to put that on TV, that's just, I'm kind of confused by all. I'm kind of confused by all. But on that note, I feel like Team USA flag football is on. good spot. I think we're going to win the Olympics. I think these guys are good. Now, granted, one game with some influencers only lose by 10. Hey, Robbie. Magic Gronks playing the whole game. It's how he slips and falls on the outside, pulls his hamstring. Things ripped forever, eh? Caught two-point conversion was wide open down the middle. Maybe

it's different. Tom Brady gets absolutely smoked and killed. He has one incredible play that reminds us all of why he's Tom Brady. Scores a touchdown. obviously. Whoopty, whoop. I'm still doing the avocado ice cream. Spins it. Touchdown to Diggs. Good to see Diggs doing that.

Tom could play. Tom looked good. They wouldn't score in a touchdown this game. They would go on to lose. 73 to 8. Jeez. What the score would be. The flag footballers just smacked

face, belt, ass, foot, butthole. I mean, the flag football guys killed these retired.

in NFL legends on TV. And I don't know if the NFL guys knew what they were signing up for exactly. Because I don't like seeing Sequin Barclay on the losing end to somebody, you know, frankly cannot hold Sequin Barclay shoulder bets. Yeah. Okay.

But on this particular day, on this day, they killed them. And then RG3 comes out afterwards and says, hey, I'm trying out for the team. It's like, good luck. Good luck. These fuckers are good. He's doing it the right way. He's trying out.

I thought he already made it. I thought he already went through the process. He's doing it the right way. No. I didn't know. This tweet, I think, kind of made us all think he was on the team. And maybe he is on the team. Because he would be great at it, by the way, I do think.

Then he followed up with saying, they don't pick it in the team yet. Okay, nobody's on team. If you want to make the team, you have to do what I did. No trials. Just like everyone else. Prove yourself and get selected. I'm doing it the right way. I'm not afraid to put it out there that I'm dedicating my.

my energy towards being a part of the flag football community like I have for the past four years and beyond. If NFL players, okay, these assholes, want to make the team, they have to put in time, energy and effort like I will, and like the countless great flag football players are doing. No one is too good to go through the process. No one is too good to come out and compete. Respect the flag football players and their knowledge of the game. Respect the flag football coaches and show them you want it.

God bless them. Now, I agree, RG3. that's why we're all so confused after watching these guys just beat everybody's ass on a flag football field you say you're on the team it's like rg three if you're making that team i'm pumped about that because it does feel like he might have the skill set to do it but i don't think the guys that were playing in that fanatics flag football game knew what they're running into dbut is that something you would have signed up for and how do you think you would fare at uh flag football against that they were able hey yeah you're dropping that shit till mid run hey full run see you're back

I didn't know how they do it. I don't know how they do it. The tendons, the joints, it's a different game, D. But it's a fully different game. Completely different game. This is why the flag football guys are so confident. I forgot the guy who came out a couple years ago saying, like, hey, I'm better than Patrick Mahomes. I will be Team USA's captain.

Who is? Was he there? And that's why. I mean, these guys, like you said, trust me, they feel a lot better than those NFL guys do. And look, I see a lot of wide receivers. I see influencers. I see retired players. If you had some active DBs out there, you gave them a training camp and get ready for this, maybe two months or so to get ready for this.

They would have been good, but this is a lose-lose situation for the NFL guys outside of their bank accounts. I'm sure everybody was compensated well. They showed up. And cool parties. It was cool parties, cool people, but good gimmicks out there. I think this was good overall for flag football, though, especially the guys that have, you know, committed a long time, just like RG3 said in that long statement. The guys committed, respect them. No show up, and I think we're in good hands.

But for the NFL guys, I hope they had a good time. But this was, I mean, a lot of people were looking sideways at them now. I don't like what it did for the brand. I don't like. These boys are in their off season. These guys are supposed to be going on these good parties. OBJ earning a camp right there, right there. Boom, still got it.

Fingertip catch, right on the tip. What a phenomenal. OBJ had a big time. I think he won. I think OBJ won Fanatics. I think he won Fanatics. football, congratulations to him. I think he's heard.

Dee Hop, obviously. He's been saying a lot of positive stuff about Kyla Murray. Is D. Hop going to end up with the Vikings? He's D.Hop going to end up with the Vikings? Well, it looks like he can still one-hand catch and tell flag football there. We'll go on to win by a thousand. He's too small. Too small.

And I saw Jalen Ramsey a couple different times. He said, I got, and he, you know, he was going, and he just got and drop a guy. Obviously, it's a penalty. You can't do that. It's like, are we playing football? Are we not while we're playing flag football? It's a little different. Let's get off of flag football.

Let's go to the story of the weekend. March Madness is spectacular. Let's go to the toxic table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Conman, there was a run of favorites. Like 21, 22 straight, right? I don't remember the exact, but the weekend was kind of carried by the favorites doing their thing. What is the overall combo you think coming out of this weekend's March Madness? I think the biggest thing for me, at least, and to your point, I think Friday, the favorites went 16 and 0.

It was something where if you did a parlay with all the favorite money lines that, you know, You know, it would be like plus 5,000, something ridiculous. But the real thing for me is Saturday, Sunday the games were unbelievable. I don't know. The whole NIL Cinderella conversation, that does stink. And I was bummed out about it as someone who is betting on every single underdog and losing every single bet. But with that being said, the basketball, as these rounds go on,

is just getting so much better. Kansas, St. John's was great. But, I mean, this was the story. Tie's Iowa team coming in hot, winning over the defendant champs, Florida. that was kind of the biggest, you know, upset, if you will, even though it's still Big Ten school, still number nine seat overall. But for the entire weekend, especially looking ahead, I believe only the teams left our Power Five conferences. So although the Cinderella's might not be as big of a story, these are the games that we're going to see, and it's just

only going to get better and better from here on out. I feel like that's kind of what we were talking about. What a call by this guy, by the way. I think Coach Patino will be joining us tomorrow, obviously, the Johnny's move on, beat Kansas. That was that guy's first bucket, darling, right there, as he has the first buzzer-beater to win it in the March Madness run thus far. There was a buzzer-beater to tie, I believe, North Carolina, that there hasn't been a buzzer-beater to win it, and this was, I believe, the first one,

and also this guy's first bucket of the night, and he called the play himself to Petino. Patino had an incredible quote after he asked, or after this guy asked for the play, because I'm thinking to myself, this guy hasn't scored a point, hasn't got a single bucket tonight, And then he think, but there's Bells, this guy.

That's Bell. This is Coach Patino talking about the enigma of the situation he had with Bells and who was going to try to win this thing. But here's the amazing thing and the funniest thing I've ever been involved with. So we're going to run a play, but they've got fouls to give. And Bells comes up to me and says run power, which is a high back screen pick and roll. So I walk away. I said, okay, Powell, I walk away and said,

wait a second he hasn't scored a bucket and he wants to run a play for himself and then I'm thinking as I'm walking I said but he's bells and not only did he do it he went with his right hand so real proud of him

because to want the ball when you haven't made a shot is unbelievable so both of these guys had a major impact in us winning tonight I'm so happy for St. John's and the fans we had great fans out here and we get to go to D.C.

And I'm just so jubilant, so happy for the fellas. We've taken another step now. So it's just awesome. Proud of our guys. And now it's just starting. The fun's just starting. Listen, I'm so happy for the fellas. You know, hey, the boy's been having good times.

They have, you know, we got cards, we got drinks, we got camaraderie. And, you know, bells, let's say, we call him Bellsie, you know, because he's actually all lefty and he's fucking calling these shots for himself. The reaction out of Petino there was absolutely beautiful, AJ. It's like everything that we have seen out of March Madness has seemingly been the best of sport. Even the super passionate coaches doing their thing. Now we got a player who's had a rough night still having a belief in himself and a coach giving him an opportunity to do as such. It's like this March Madness teaches so many life lessons and has so many moments.

And this is certainly one. Are the Johnny's about to go on a run because Belze took it with the off hand off of power, AJ? That's what we have to ask right now. Well, I think in basketball, I think you need to have, like, delusional confidence. I think in all sports, it helps to have delusional confidence. Like, hey, yeah, I don't have a bucket yet tonight, but let me have the game winner on a national stage and the biggest game of my life, most likely. So, yeah, why not?

The Johnny's are on a, I said, they've got to ride this high for a while. And Coach Patino, as he said, he's so jubilant for the boys and the fan base. So, yeah, why not? I think these guys can still go do it and make a run. But this was, March Madness has absolutely lived up to the hype, I feel like, with so many games coming down to the wire and ending. like this. Yeah, I agree. There was a couple blots, but that's about it.

Everything else felt like who knows who's going to win, and then inevitably the favorites seemingly were. And there was a couple of stars that won absolutely off. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Don! Cowboys, AP Tone. Obviously, the favorites were a good bet. How about the over-unders?

How have we been trending this March Madness ever there as we tried to beat Draft Kings' ass? Obviously, the story and the graphic shows, like, it was the favorites and it was the most. Sick hoodie. That's my first time seeing that. Thank you. Thank you. Got that on Saturday night. Went down to PBR, watch some guys ride some bowls. That was electric. But no, the favorites were the story all week, all weekend long. Most 20-point wins, I believe,

in a tournament. And it's the second straight year, the second time it's ever happened. Connor mentioned it that the major conferences, they make up all of the Sweet 16 teams. So yes, the Cinderella may be dead in the first round of 64, but those round of 32 games were awesome. I believe the unders went a little bit more than the overs. Maybe because of the ball, maybe because of the inflated ball. We saw that happen at the one of the end of the games. A lot of people saying that ball would have went in for Tennessee in that situation. But no, as far as the public did really, really well.

Because when you do, when there's a lot of money line parlayes on that Friday and every single favorite hits, the public did really, really well on that day. And as far as the tournament goes overall because of the favorites. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. A drafting, suck it. Ain't that right, Dibight? Damn right. The crown is ours.

The crown is ours, isn't it? It feels like it is. And I'll tell you, every time I put a bet in for the favorite, I always go, wow, the gambling people are going to mock me for this, you know? Must be easy just to go chalk, chalk, chalk. People are going after Jay Will a little bit. Jay Will, look at his brackets from the last two years. It's like, hasn't everybody kind of told us that the good teams are going to be

gooder? And that kind of what everybody has said with this NIO and the trans report or stuff, like we'll kind of know who the teams are. Joining us now as a man who kind of gave a pretty good preview of what we should see over the weekend. Now, his school, his beloved school, couldn't come close to cover in 28 and a half. I mean, we almost lost that day.

I mean, I put out a tweet saying, we are definitely not a jinx. We are definitely not a curse. Because people were saying that with Team USA losing in Venezuela. No. They were saying. Whoa. And I didn't like it.

That wasn't on us. They were saying it in different languages. They were saying it to be in different languages. I had to translate the post. And they were saying, this guy's the reason they lost. I'm like, well, now that we got Coach K on a program, Duke, number one outright team, they got to go on and just demolish everybody. Turns out, plus we got Bone dressed like he's literally in ninth grade.

Ninth grade outfit costume for the days. We're watching Day 1 of March Madden. He'd been dressed like this since 6 a.m. he said. I got up and I dressed like this since 6 a.m. And we almost lose to Sienna, but we continue to go on. And now we're still alive. And joining us now is a man who might be able to give us

more information about college hoops as a whole, March Madness as a whole, and certainly life as a whole. A guy who's been halfway decent on this show thus far. We'll see how today goes. Ladies and gentlemen, five-time national champion, Coach Chishacki. Yeah, Coach. Thank you guys.

How you don't cook? I'll try to do better. Yeah. Hopefully you have same attitude. You can do better. Yeah, I'm trying. Every day, I wake up. I read a bunch of Coach K. Scripture. You know, all the things you say, all the super duper stuff that you... What is your... I'm not, I should know that. Next time. Next time we'll talk to you. I'll go through all your quotes. I cannot wait to go through all the quotes of yours that are obviously going to motivate, inspire me to be a better human, but you certainly have made us a smarter college basketball group. What did you take

away from the first couple rounds of March Madness? Because there was a conversation about the halves and have nots. And there was a conversation about maybe the Cinderella stories being something of the past in this new NIL transfer portal era. There was a long run of favorites winning this weekend, longer than ever basically in March Madness. How do you kind of view what happened this past weekend? And what is your takeaway where March Madness is right now, Coach? Yeah, well, it's been so damn exciting. You know, both are beaters.

Florida getting knocked off was a big surprise to me. and it wasn't like that big of an upset if you watched just that game. That's right. Because Iowa was more physical than Florida. A cool thing about Iowa, Ben McCollum, their coach, he won four national titles at Division II, Northwest Missouri State. When I coached, we had. two exhibition games you could play. They've changed that now. And we always played the Division

2 national champion from the year before in an HBCU school. And so I coached against Ben twice. He brought his teams here and they gave us a run. So, but a 10 and 10 big 10 team making it. I think one of the most impressive performances for me was Iowa State, especially with Jefferson getting hurt. And then Kentucky blitzed them right at the start of the game. And all of a sudden, boom, you know, defense, character, depth. And then they kind of ran them off the court. But they could have been knocked back.

And, you know, how the coaches do these interviews during the game. T.J. Otsaburger, he was the first one interviewed, I'd say eight minute mark or 12 minute mark maybe 12 minute mark and they were down and he was poised. He just said, hey, they did some shots. We've missed ours. You know, we're going to stop them from shooting. And damn, they did. Yeah, they did.

And Arizona really impressive. I'm really proud of our Duke team. You know, they had. a hiccup against Sienna. But we got Pat back, our big guy. We're hoping to have him still around

and hopefully we can get Caleb Foster back this week because we don't play until Friday. The other team that really impressed me was Michigan State. Although Tom's teams, Isos teams, impressed me all the time. The kid fears

was amazing. I think he had 16, 17 assists. And he just made play after playing that kid who just dunked their car. He's had, he's been a solid, unbelievable player for him. But he's now taking it up to another level, not just in jumping. He's hitting his shots. I think for me, he's made a big jump. And he's already a really good player.

That'd be so much fun to be able to be able to. do, Coach Kay? You know, back in my younger days, I used to be able to do that. Take off from, like, the elbow to a big whoop in, like dunk. Back in the day, that's what I used to do, coach. Before I started punting balls in the NFL, that's what I used to do. But I do think,

because, like you chatted about, teams are getting older. It does feel like I'm feeling more physical basketball, seemingly a little bit more, I don't want to say explosive, but it does feel like it's a little bit more of a man's game when you watch some of these teams because of how old they are, not saying they are.

And there's certainly some young studs. But I've loved the quality of basketball that's been happening throughout March Madness. Yeah, I think it's been good quality basketball through it all. They're older. I assume you. There's so many international players playing. I don't have the exact count. But, you know, Arizona has eight.

Not all of them play. Illinois is playing outstanding basketball. They have, I think, five international players. And so the international influence, and those guys aren't coming in as 18-year-olds. They're coming in at 21, 22, and whatever. So it is more of a man's game. And there are more good teams, I think. Really, yeah, I don't know if there's a clear-cut favorite right now.

you know because Purdue Matt Painter's done an amazing job his three seniors have done an incredible job so they're old and they're playing I think their best basketball and you know how about the the Big Ten having six teams I mean

hey and they're also who's the national champs in football last couple years yeah uh uh oh You southern. You southerns are about that. You can start dealing with it.

Well, no. What we do know, what we're saying is last three years, it's been Big Ten. Three different teams in the Big Ten have won the national championship. Even Indiana, which obviously you know very well because it used to be just basketball school. Now it's a football school. It's like now Big Ten with basketball showing up the way it's showing up. And coach, we asked Coach Saban about this, and he had an incredible line. He obviously coached at Michigan State at the beginning of his career,

so he understands the Big Ten culture a little bit at some of the places. But the Big Ten has money. The Big Ten has money. A lot of business schools, a lot of alumni, a lot of people in. So I think this whole modern era for the Big Ten has been great because their alumni can be a part of the sports and the athletics. And I guess I'm finding this out right now. And I should know more. I understand I should.

I'm a football guy. I guess it's carrying into basketball. I mean, the Big Ten is looking to win everything. Hey, Coach Kay, I don't know. The ACC. They have a lot of. They haven't won a national championship in basketball in over 20 years. Whoa.

They're not exactly knocking it out of the park. Nothing against the Big Ten. Okay. No, of course, yeah, of course, of course. AJ from the Big Ten has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, when I watch these games, you see a lot of them coming down to the wire and you see coaches drawing up, you know, plays to get their guys open to get a shot four or five seconds. Also defensively, you've got to figure out, like,

situational basketball. How much of that do you work on throughout the year? We talk about it in football at the time. Bill Belichick's great at. Obviously, Mike Vrable. They, situational football, they're great at. Is this a thing in basketball that you're spending a bunch of time on situations like this at the end of the game? Yeah, amazing amount. You know, end of game situations, ATOs after timeouts. You know, to me, that's like one of the hidden gems in watching a game is after a timeout, what a, what a coach does, side out of bounds, under out of bounds, magical. I think our guy, John Shire, does an amazing job with that. And when he was a player and we won our national championship, ECC won the national championship in 2010.

And I think seven times in the last 20 years. Anyway, my mind was wandering in that. Be in the moment, coach. Be where you feel, coach. No, let me finish what I said. Shire in the Butler game, he scored, I think, four times, made reads four or five times on under out-of-bounce plays that we scored on. And we won as a result of that. Not one play, but he put together about five of them.

And the thing with that is you can draw up a play, are your players good? enough where can they make a read just in case that they see something new. That's what I like. And when John was a player, he did that for us numerous, numerous times. I think Israel gives fears that latitude. He has confidence in them to make those reads. Empowers him. And obviously, it paid off. You have to have a high basketball IQ, I assume, for a coach to want to go ahead and hand over the keys. Speaking of handing over the keys, you just brought them up. And John, he's doing it now with Duke.

And you talked about the hiccup. Ty actually has a question for you about that. Yeah, coach, throughout your career in games like that where, you know, Pat was mentioning, like, we were all saying, like, oh, Duke's, they're covering 28 and half. They're going to beat the hell out of Sienna. How quickly into a game can you realize or did you maybe realize throughout your career, like, oh, boy, like, we're actually, we're in trouble here.

Like, does that happen quickly or is it, um, and like, is it at, how? halftime maybe, and how do you kind of get them out of that when, you know, when they, when they start to feel that and then the pressure mounts and it's like, oh, boy, now this is, like, we are in a prime spot to be upset here. Well, no, you sense it right away, I think, from, one, if your team's playing well, you know that, it's gone. But like the Sienna game, John Shire knew right from the get-go that his guys just didn't. They looked sluggish.

They didn't have good faces. And I think he let them have it in his way. And that still didn't work. That's what's scary, you know, when it lingers. You know, like I've called timeouts, you know, a minute or two minutes into a game, if all of a sudden I sense that. I don't wait for a TV timeout. The other thing, I mentioned the timeouts,

sometimes a coach makes a mistake because of the TV timeouts of letting a run of another team continue. You know, like, you know, there's 845 left in the game and the team's on the run. Call a timeout. You know, timeouts, not at TV timeouts, are also big decisions that coaches can make. I tried to, I thought I was decent at that.

Hold on. So you're telling me that most coaches just rely on the TV time. out instead of wasting a time out of New Jersey? Not most. I'm just saying. Can get trapped in that. Somebody is that doesn't. You know, when the, you know, put water on the fire, you know, like, you know, stop it burning for Christ's sake.

And what a coach does out of that time out then, sometimes a lot of games are won between five and nine minutes. not necessarily the last two minutes. Everyone knows something's going to happen in the last two minutes, but what do you do when, you know, under double-digit minutes in a game, when you call timeouts, that type of thing, how you sub, that's what makes the game so beautiful. And, you know, football's beautiful too, but you have time in between plays.

You know, basketball favors the continuous thinker, the continuous worker. You know, you can go offense, defense, offense, and 12 seconds. And so being able to call a key time out is huge. Yeah, but it's 45 minutes for your final 40 seconds of your game. Okay, so I don't need the whole. In our game, we just keep going. You don't. Okay, you guys take forever.

You guys take absolutely forever. Great game, great sport. We respect it. But also, let's not, you know, let's not do the way. I didn't know we were going to have a fight between football and basketball. You started it. You said, I know football. I love football.

I just mentioned that you were pounding your chess about the Big Ten. The football championships, I have to remind you that there's no chest pounding for the basketball national championship. championships. We'll see, I'm in a big world. West Virginia's on its... Okay, okay, you got it. Big 12 is about to win it next year.

West Virginia's finding a new NIL person, and we are off and running. So everybody's in deep shit whenever that takes place. Let's talk a little bit about the SEC. They got a stud. Tone has a question for you about a superstar. Yeah, coach, I do. Coach Cal down in Arkansas has...

It feels like he always has an incredible guard. But Darius Aikoff is going for in postseason play. He's going for over 30. he's going for over seven assists and is shooting close to 50% from three. Is this one of these kids that can lead Arkansas single-handedly to a championship? And if you're facing them, like, what do you do? Well, they also have another freshman, Thomas, who, you know, their two freshmen are averaging, geez, like almost 40 points a game.

And the A-Cuff is one of the top two or three players in the country. and he's got a man's body. He's got a NBA. He's NBA ready. You know, and he loves the pressure. You know, he can put that team on his back. They have a tough draw, though. Arizona.

Arizona lost two games in February. They've won 11th straight. But I love Akoff. And John, Cala Perry is a good friend and a great coach, but he has produced more NBA guards than anybody. You take a look around the NBA how many Kentucky players and star players are playing. And so he gives them freedom and personalizes an offense around the guards. And Aikoff has been fantastic.

But they're going to have a tough time, I think, against Arizona. Arizona, you talked about all the international players. They also got Coa Pete, freshman stud. His dad, I believe, an offense alignment. He committed Arizona on our show, Coach, big college basketball show. Obviously, that is going to be a very difficult match for anybody with that Arizona team, with how dominant they have been. Let's start talking about some more of the Sweet 16 matchups as we go ahead.

Yukon grad and Yukon Great Debutt has a question for you, coach. Absolutely. Got Michigan State. coming up, so to be an in-office battle with me and Foxy. I know you know both of these coaches or both of these teams very well. How do you see these teams match it up? I know Caraband two-time champ carried us last game, and then there's great weapons on Michigan State side as well.

How do you see these two teams matching up? Well, Connecticut got their point guard back. You know, the Mary played, I think, 22 minutes in the last game. He didn't play the game before. So that's a big plus. I think Michigan State's hitting on all cylinders now. And this kid fears is special. I mean, and he runs to show.

To me, it'll be interesting how Danny Hurley defense fears. Like, do you deny him the ball? Do you make it difficult for him? Because the Michigan State players, as soon as they get the ball, give him the ball. And so denying him. him the ball would be one thing, making it more difficult for him. I've known Danny since he was a high school kid and both these guys are really good friends and great coaches. To me, physically,

this watch this game, they're going to go after one another. They both play outstanding outstanding defense. I think Michigan State has a little bit of an edge because they have more than one big guy. Although the kid read for, how about his performance in their first game for Connecticut? He had 31 points and 27 rebounds. Yeah, a lot.

I haven't watched Connecticut that, you know, every game or whatever. They may be changing their offense a little bit to take advantage. of that and getting him the ball more. He's probably saying, why the hell didn't give me the ball more? I got 31 for you at the last game. But that's going to be a big-time match-up. Michigan State has a couple bigs, so they can combat that. Terris Reed, to your point, ends up with 41 points and 40 rebounds over the weekend.

He's the first player to go 40-40 over the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament since the big fundamental. Tim Duncan in 1997. Yeah, I think it's pretty good. Hey, Hurley, why don't we get him the ball? Fucking Tim Duncan's here? Let's go ahead and figure out how we could do that. I got nothing but faith, obviously, in Coach Hurley doing his thing. All right, last question here for you, Coach, as we appreciate your time, just making us so much smarter and better.

I'm up here in Bristol, Connecticut, you know, shaking hands, got big time meetings up here. I'm letting them know. I think maybe you could do TV. You know, they're saying, is that Coach K. worth a damn i'm like i think so guys i i think he i think he's worth the damn so i'm going to back i'm i don't know i have a tv face you know i'm more of a a radio face but uh with my big nose and big ears say that i take up join the club brother join the club brother we're all in there your hair i think is what everybody has been kind of because no i don't color my hair i don't color my hair i'm 79 i that a lot of

people accuse me of that. I don't have much hair to color. What about your eyebrows? You color your eyebrows? You color your eyebrows? No. No. I'd be weird to pick just your eyebrows, wouldn't it? I don't use any color up here. You don't color your eyebrows or you're, I'm looking at those eyebrows right now. You're telling me there's no, there's not more gray in those eyebrows?

Oh, natural, bro. There's maybe one gray hair. And quit looking at my damn eye. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Well, I'm just saying, I don't know why you've got to die that. I don't know. What's wrong with this guy? I don't know.

Especially, I mean, it'll be weird to dye your eyebrows, but not your hair. Does he do this on Mondays? He's remote, coach. He's remote. He's a great weekend. He can't really see you. The next thing, he's going to look at your hair, you know. And let me tell you, let me guess.

You don't shave that either. You don't grow it. How does your hair stay perfect? Because I remember whenever you were coaching and you were super, you know, and you've been doing it a long time. So you immediately go to the hair. You're like, This guy's got to have the grayest hair of all the time.

And you just stayed Superman jet black, basically. So that's unbelievable. You did, way to clear the air. You do not dye your hair every single week to make sure that thing is always flexed black. Never, ever. You don't go to the herbal essence, intense darkening kit every single morning when you put that thing on your eyebrows in your hair. I don't even know what the hell you're talking about. Okay, hey, that's what somebody would say.

But I just want to let you know it looks unbelievable. and I'm hoping for the bottom. Obviously, my eyebrows look great. Yes. I'll tell you what, brother. We just spent three minutes talking about them. So you need to know that they are absolutely fantastic. All right.

Now, let's talk about spending time, shall we? Let's get back to college hoops. As we just found out, that Coach K might be aging better than any white in history. Like, this is actually a potential. Congratulations, Coach. Well, you're great football. Basketball. You're also aging.

maybe the greatest any watt has ever aged in the history. It's unbelievable. Okay, let's talk about spending time here. Conman has the last question for you, Coach. Yeah, coach, over these next couple days, you know, these players and teams are going to be preparing for their biggest game, you know, of their lives, basically. How does a coach, you know, when you were doing it,

when some of these vet guys who are still out there, Hurley is O'Cal Perry, how do they schedule these next few days? It's a lot of travel, of course, and, you know, you've got to factor that in. But how do they kind of do that? and then also how do you keep your players locked in? They're coming off one of their biggest weekends of all time. You know, Iowa upsetting Florida, some of these other teams. And, you know, do they get kind of in their feelings as far as, oh, I'm the best?

This is amazing. You know, we're going to go on. We already won the whole thing. Like, how do you keep your team locked in? And also, I'm just going to say it as a conspiracy theorist. I don't believe you. You definitely dye your hair and your eyebrows. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. You have to. Look at that. Look at that hair. I believe you, coach. You wouldn't lie, that. Yeah. Well, first of all, you can't, don't overpractice this wig. All right.

You know, I stay away from real physical drills. You know, make sure that, one, if you have some guys that have been injured, like Duke has, you're trying to bring them back. You know, a big thing like for Iowa State to get Jefferson back from his anchor. ankle injury that don't over practice and do not over practice. And during this time, as you progress, you find out you have more friends and relatives than you've ever knew in your life. And everybody wants a piece because everyone's into March Madness. And the player is a March Madness. And so limit your activity. Focus on what we're doing. Don't focus.

on what everyone else wants you to be talking about. You're very popular during this time. And let's stay within the group. Let's keep our heads. Let's stay in our lane. Don't get out of our way. And I think you watch a lot of tape during this time. And you get healthy.

Make sure you're as healthy as can be. And the other thing with this is don't overcoach with scouting reports. You know, don't you have a lot of time, especially for this round of 16, the sweet 16 game. You can give them too much information. Make sure they're instinctive, healthy, and focused. You got a shot. Did you have to figure that out, coach? Was that something you figured out?

Did you overcoach at one point in your career and your long, a luster. Yeah, you can, you know, like, I've always laughed when if you're in a locker room before a game and a coach has the whiteboard completely filled with things. I said, holy crap. Is this an exam or what the hell are you doing? I would like to put down words like courage, enthusiasm, fight, or, Like this is what I want you thinking of.

You should already know your damn game plan by that time. Now you're in execution phase and instinctive phase. Don't have them think too much, but have them think a lot about a few things that are going to be necessary. And have fun while you're doing it, man. Have fun. Fight like hell. And let's see what the heck happens here. So fun, fight, and fantastic might be like three key words for each game.

Are you changing those words each game into basketball season or is there a season mantra? Like, hustle law to your respect. John Cena has three words. He's a lost his career. Okay. That was his mantra over there. Are you changing those focus words for each game? Well, I'm not going to be like coming out with a book on three word pregame talks.

And I have a list of about 153 word groupings that I'm going to put out. And will you write the forward to that book for me? Absolutely. I'll write three words for you. No problem. No. It is important not to give them too much. It really is.

It's not what you know as a coach. It's what your players can do under game conditions. that that's and sometimes you you try to show them you know too much when's the book coming out do you know as soon as I get my forward from you yeah

okay so this is very soon no I'm not putting out a goddamn book yes geez maybe you should yes you're the absolute greatest hey I want to let you know

maybe you put out a book about you know, the shot with Leitner in 1992, which Patino just came out and said he's trying to get some revenge for, you know, as his boys take on Duke in the Sweet 16. Do you feel like maybe you're motivating this St. John's team to be a Duke team that you're no longer coaching? Do you think you're maybe a distraction because of what you guys did in 92 with that play call for Leitner for the shot, something that we remember forever?

Oh, no. Is this going to be on you if they come out super motivated? Coach, are these things that you've thought about? because it sounds like patino has. It happened 34 years ago. None of these kids, including the international players, were born yet. All right. So I'm sure Rick is really smart.

He's one of the best ever. I'm sure he brought that up just to get it out of the way, just to get it out of the way. But I will tell you this, one of the most impressive things. he ever did was the way he handled that game, not just coaching the game, but what he did afterwards, and how he celebrated what was a devastating defeat.

I've always admired what he did with that game. Can you tell me about the play, how we came up with that? How often did you practice that? No, we practiced that. Yeah. What a pass. Interesting. About a month before this game, we're playing Wake Forest at Wake.

And we tried the same play. And Grand Hill threw the ball. And he hit a lady on the side. Not that it was long. He threw it a curveball. No, I'm not lying. He threw it and it went into the stands on the side. And so we practiced it.

And then during that time out, I asked them, Can you throw the ball 75 feet? And he said, I can do that. I said, well, I didn't say this, but I'm thinking, well, the last time he threw it about 60 feet. So don't say those things that don't say a negative during that time. But he'll tell you that once he said he was going to do it, it was easy for him to do it.

Waitner during that time timeout said, hey, I'm going to bring you up from the foul line, to the foul line from the baseline. And can you catch it? And he was so damn cocky and good. He said, coach, if Grant throws a good pass, I'll catch it. And I'll do something with it. And he was 20 for 20 in that game.

Damn. 10 for 10 from the free throw line. 10 for 10 from the four. That's why they didn't double him. that's why they was able to get the past they were afraid to follow him okay and he got it and then he dribbled a damn ball and then shot it and 20 for 20 a lot of people don't don't they just remember that shot but when it when he shot it's gonna go in for crying out loud he has it clean too splash it sound like the hoop was gigantic they're they're coming out

talking about him being like one of the biggest menaces in the history of sports. What was it like coaching him? The best. No one believed in me more. A lot of guys is the same amount. But Christian was easy to, you know, like you never had to worry about fire from him. Every once in a while, you had to make sure the fire wouldn't burn the house down,

that he would really get on people. I loved him. He's one of the ultimate winners, you know, four final fours. I think his teams were 21 and two in the NCAA tournament. You've got to be kidding. I think he's the leading score in the tournament history, you know, a number of points scored. Not bad.

Not bad at all. coach, I'll tell you that. There's a lot of those guys through Duke. Obviously, the shot is legendary, and Petino is never going to forget it. Hey, have you thought about the room in which you're putting the goats? You remember last week you omitted LeBron James from the room? No, you didn't tell you. Don't say that.

That's a lie. You, like you do with the guys on your team, they're in the midst of saying something really profound, and you interrupt them. And I was going through a list of people in that room, and all of a sudden, you spout off. You left LeBron out. I didn't know you as well then as I do now. I would have told you to shut the hell off. You keep having me on the show.

I'm going to start coaching you harder. Okay. I love good coaching. Hey, everybody that, you know, wants to go on, do great things, loves to be coached. So you keep them sending them this way. Just keep sending the coaching tips this way. I want all 153 words.

Three words. Go get them. You know, like, let's have fun and hustle all the respect. Send those. Send all those to me so I can be motivated every morning, coach. We appreciate the hell out of you. Yeah, well, I've never questioned you, your motivation.

Sometimes what you what you say is not the smartest but you're definitely motivated. I am motivated coach, I certainly am and you know what else I'm motivated to do? Win a bet on Duke so why don't you fucking tell him that this isn't a cakewalk? Okay, so when these guys come out and say

we thought Sienna was going to be a cakewalk, I don't need to hear that. Okay, I don't need to hear it. Why don't you send him a text? Why don't you write, send a pigeon letter, whatever you need to do. I don't know how you olds do it. Can you get a message, please, to the team and sell, we're not cake walking. Okay, Patino's not a, he's not, what's a good tying cake? What's a good time?

Canola. Tarramisu. It's ain't Taramisu, boys, okay, just because Patino's there. We need to really go. Okay, we need to go, coach. Okay. I'm not going to do that. Go on.

to go. Period. Shire's the only one who should be talking to my Tartie. Whoa. Yeah, yeah, I heard what you said. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, that's Coach Kay. You're the goat.

Yay, go. Okay. I'll tell you what, Coach Kay is getting comfortable, isn't he? Yeah, he is. He is getting, I'm excited for the book, even though it sounds like he made it up on the spot. Maybe he's going to have to have to have it. It's going to be a good book.

How about that? Did he just make up the fact that he has $150? 53-word mantra is that he's going to write a book if I'll write the forward to it, just out of nowhere, just as a gimmick, and then says, I'm not doing it. Go fuck yourself. Unbelievable. That was all Todd. Coach Gay, you had me, bud.

I was excited. I was so proud. Three-word things, I can read that book. That's like a tweet. Old tweet. I can read those. I can do that all day. What a legend.

Feels like he thinks Duke's going to get healthy and they're going to continue to go. Feels like he thinks good coaching matters. It feels like that has been a constant through the conversations with him. And I'll tell you what, Tone, the big. conference schools having money and shit, certainly paying dividends here in March Madness, Stone. Yeah, especially when I looked at it in second year in a row that it's all

major conferences that make up the Sweet 16, and that's the second time, all time. So the last two years, NIL is definitely showing its teeth for these teams that are spending money and getting to where they are. There was even a coach, I think it was Utah State, maybe they were like, what's the difference between last year you losing in 64 and making it to 32?

This year he said about $2 million. on the roster. And Mick Cronin said, I need $5 million more for my roster. Everyone's talking about the money. They had a good game yesterday. But no, it's making a huge difference.

And I think it's making a huge difference and Connor said it first. And like, yes, maybe the Cinderella's aren't going to be a huge thing anymore in the round of 64. But like, that was one of the best rounds of 32 that I've ever seen. Because there was so many close games,

so many buzzer beaters. And it was like the basketball was really, really well done. And I think that's kind of what you're seeing with the NIL this year and last year. But it's real madness in March right now. Yukon's still cooking. Good for you guys. Yukon is still cooking.

I can't wait for this matchup. This would be a real good one. I feel like the years that we won the chip and it's something that kind of goes unnoticed. But like at the free throw line, like you talk about all the late games and the coming out of timeouts and obviously defense, but like rebound and rebounding in free throws. I think we're 90% last night. So we can keep shooting well from the strike. Obviously dominating in the inside with the bigs.

I think we got a chance to run it. And I forget who said it. I'm not sure if it was Coach K or not, but it's no really a clear-cut favorite this year. But March Maddenance, it always delivers. Everybody in all the sports we watch, the playoffs are great. But March Madden's always going to be a surprise story,

a superstar, a play, or two, or nine. So I can't wait for this one, man. I do hate when I just fall asleep in that first half, though. That's a real bummer. It's a real bummer. It's a real bummer. When you fall asleep during the first half, and then all of a sudden.

Everything's, hey, it's a blowout? Okay, oh, this game matters. Okay, nice, perfect timing, brain. Thank you for waking me up here. There's been some electrifying moments already. I'm excited to see who takes it. And will the Big Ten win for the first time in 20 years? Nice little stat there from Coach Kay. How about Jackson Smith and Jigba, AJ, just became the highest paid wide receiver of all time with the Seattle Seahawks.

How do you feel about it? I mean, I feel good. I know the Seahawks. This was expected, I think, right? I mean, obviously we knew he was going to be the most likely the highest paid receiver ever. the numbers we weren't sure exactly where that would come in, but he's averaging 42.15 mil per year. Damn. That is.

I guess, is there a ceiling? Does it stop? How much guy? Like, what's going to be a contract? Eight years from now, what's going to look like? Yeah, indeed. That's the thing. Jackson Smith and Jigba obviously has gotten better and better, but this past year, like,

clear-cut guy, right, with Sam Darnold. They keep Sam Darnold. They have to move on from Kenneth Walker. They win the Super Bowl, so they're going to have to move on from some pieces that are probably going to be a bit too expensive, but you got to hold on to your guys, your pillar guys. Feels like JSN became that quickly out there debug. Yeah, this was a no-brainer. Obviously, you reset the market now, but when we look at this contract a couple years from now,

they're going to look like geniuses when he's sitting at 42 a year, which sounds absolutely nuts. Pooka's on deck. Pooka will probably get somewhere close to this for sure. But Seattle, this is the problem, the good problem you have when you draft good players, especially these first rounders. Like, they're going to reset the market when it's their time. But what he did for Seattle last year was unbelievable. Obviously, he led the league and yards,

offensive player a year, and Seattle was near the bottom when they came to actually throwing the ball. So when they was throwing the ball, it was 2-11, and he was making big plays. But on defense, they got another young stud who's in the same draft class, Witherspoon, their cornerback, who will probably reset that market as well when it's time for him to get paid.

McDuffie just reset it for corners at 31 a year. So I expect him to get somewhere around that. But, yeah, this will be two cornerstones. own pieces for the defendant champ, Seattle Seahawks. But this is a no-brainer with Jackson Smith and Jake, but he is unbelievable from the slot from the outside, short routes, intermediate route, deep routes. He's unbelievable. He's going to make your quarterback and your offensive coordinator better week and week out.

Straight out of Ohio State, they continue to just, you know, create wide receivers that are problematic. One thing before the first hour ends here that we got to talk about. Shout to the ESPN people. By the way, Decorated is West Virginia Stock. Yeah, sweet. Go work on a graphic bone. You know, it's been incredible.

I'm very thankful for the space here. And this campus is beautiful. You know what else is beautiful? UTSA kicker. Jaffer Murphy, 447-7-yard fieldball, absolutely shredded. That's what I'm talking about, Japper. That's what I'm talking about. Okay.

He won the weekend. Draft him in the first round. Yeah, should. I love what he's doing. To kick off. Hey, kick it off high. Kick a pooch and go have him go kill people. Yeah.

Be a part of the company. Yeah, I mean, 11 men covering is obviously good, especially when you're running 4-4. Shout out to him doing that for the brand. We'll see you on the other side. Goodbye. From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Patta, senior defensive lineman from Miami, gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian.

A hour before he died, he was on the phone. This might be a hit. You want the truth. Biggest one of conviction being placed in arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place.

The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional calls. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up, then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all the BSPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. That's what's going on, Pat. How do you think Coach Kay was? He was pretty amazing.

Obviously, you're very shifty, too, to show us what the flag football guys were doing the other day. Well, I don't know what their drug testing is for the Olympics, but I am going to work on the little penthouse outhouse move where they drop their hips, you know, and they make it impossible to get tackled. This guy right here needs to be on a team stack. Yeah.

I don't know if he's... I mean, he's slithering through. I don't like it. Could you imagine Canada trying to tackle this guy in the Olympics? Yeah, right? You think Canada's going to be able to get their mitts on these flags? I don't think so. Who else is a big-time flag competitor?

Take a look at what you're going to see in the Olympics. Whoop, whoop, who, down to the ground, up into the sky. He's a bird. He's a plane. He's a touchdown man. He's Brown Jr. He's USA flag footballer who. I'm not sure these NFL guys.

Luke Keekely just got in the Hall of Fame. to get into Hall of Fame, you've got to be retired for at least five years. I don't think Luke had any idea what he was signing up for. There was one time where he grabbed the guy's entire pants and just pants the guy. It was like, did I get the flag? I don't know the guy's naked. So I don't know the entire thing. It felt like we didn't really know the ins and outs, maybe got bamboozer,

but I do know the flag football team that we're going to put on the field in L.A. in 2028, and ain't going to be no ray gun operation. No, no. We're going to be out there doing it. We're going to be out there doing it big, and it was a great weekend, AJ Hawking. I need to start working on the little dippity do, you know, because when McKenzie wants to get into flag football, you know what I mean, here's the ranking, USA, Austria.

What? Wow. Okay. Arnold. European power. Austria won silver in 2024 and 2018, and then Mexico got silver in 2021. It feels like it's a three-team race with the U.S. Austria and Mexico as far as metals are concerned. Italian.

This is by far the best, that's the best screen we've ever put on TV just right there. Just old school spelled rankings wrong Two G's in rankings No No decoration Not even a single flag On this thing

I have no idea What website this is from They want to go daddy.com And said fucking give me The lowest level I just need to be able to put the numbers in And they're like, do you want a title Is you sir? Do you want to like at least to be able to do a title

We guess Do you want to spell it? right? You want us to spell check it? No way. Two G's in rankings, because this is a different game. It's flaggy football. I can't believe we lost to these guys. I can't

believe we did. It's all, yeah, we know that. I think like you said, we got bamboozled. We went in to, hey, we got some nice coverage beaters. We'll get, we'll work guys open. No, it was just dink it down and have a guy break 55 times. Why do we have so many retired guys? You guys. You got. You didn't expect wins.

dead incredible. Logan Paul is against the NFL guys. He's sat Jalen Hertz, but he stunk against Team USA. Well, you want him to do their professionals? What's he doing? On the field.

chasing these old guys around. This is fanatic football. That's fanatic football. That's what it was. It was a white party on a football field. It was bullshit. Well, okay, all white party. You mean, not just a white party.

Yeah, geez. A little bit different. Everyone do what I was talking about. No. Jeez, Louise. You know, the little thing they do. who's they everybody everybody that weird old party they all go to well it's not weird it looked like it was a good time they're sharing game yeah they had one after two is a movie

bruh they did say that scenes fam i don't like that we're getting her asses kicked in football ever and i don't like that i didn't like that i didn't like the team usa was winning i didn't like that they were named team usa yeah it's confusing you know i'm like u s a u s a u sssss kind of dunking on us right you know and then you're like well who owns flag football going forward it's like oh is there potentially a little bit of investment in this from some people that would like to see the flag football people look really good in the future did the NFL guys know that they're about to get fucking smacked in the mouth in flag football on TV I'm not sure you're saying they did you think they knew if they watched the other guys practice at all

or play at all they're probably yeah there's no way because if you watch we're never being told about this when they're like signing up for it. Do you think they knew that no way. Not like that. They got smoked in every single game. Were the rules going to be different in Saudi? I think for the losers. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Every place has different rules. It's good point. I don't know if anybody was Zinnan in there. I don't think so. I don't think so. Let's move along. Come on.

Aaron Rogers is playing a flag football game this weekend. It looked like he was doing well. Did you see his no look throat? Did you see him in Will Howard bantering? Did you see him appear to be in great shape? AJ, I know the people of Pittsburgh would like to hear it. Aaron Rogers playing football again next year. And what are your thoughts of the videos coming out from this past weekend at his annual charity

flag football tournament, which he does? Yeah, it's good to see this tournament. I think this is the same tournament. We saw he throw the ball back at the little kid who picked him off at one point, right? Just a little friendly competitive banter back and forth. I don't know, man. No joke. I've been sending him texts telling him, hey, and you've got to go back.

You need to go play for Pittsburgh. You need to play for Big Mike. Thanks. Yeah. I love that. He'll say shut up or nothing. So we're good. And so I've been saying the same thing.

I mean, I haven't, but I'm just going to say publicly that I did because he won't come out and say that I didn't. So I'm just going to say I'm doing the same thing. I've been texting him and saying, hey, Jensers would love to have you back they'd like to know right now. Do we know where they stand? Because last time, whenever you talked to us, and I know everybody just kind of shoot it away, but he was like, I've not heard from Pittsburgh either on what this looks like in this entirety.

Do we know if they've talked to him? What is kind of the standing where they're at? And I'm going to say this. I know Aaron's trying to stay in shape so that he can go to Ponton. That's right. And it's working. He wants to go to Ponton. He wants to move in there for a couple hours, it seems like, especially at this stage.

That is what he's in shape for. But he does look. He does look very good. Like, he looks very good. And obviously coming out looks good. He looks like he's in great shape. And the way last season end could definitely see him coming back. What are the people of Pittsburgh thinking and what are you hearing?

The people of Pittsburgh are thinking were being held hostage. Okay? That's what the people of Pittsburgh are thinking. That's not what I'm saying. And it was nice of QB1 to invite Aaron to that flag football game. That was cool to see Will Howard did that. But no, we would like to know sooner rather than later if Aaron's going to come back, preferably by the draft, which is 30 days away.

I don't know if an offer has been made. I assume Aaron knows he's welcomed back. But no, I don't know if any other, if there's any other players in the league who are waiting this long to decide if they want to play again this year or not. But he's one of them, so we're just waiting on that. Well, good news. Yeah, I think before the draft would have to happen, AJ.

Sorry, I stepped on you there. And where's the draft at this year, AJ? I believe it is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, home of the Steelers. That'd be pretty sick. Wouldn't that be pretty sick? Oh, yeah. Football time. What if he came out and announced it right here? Like, excuse me, at the beginning of the first round.

He's like, I'm bad guys. And he pumps the crowd. And then they draft a quarterback right in first round. That'd be sick. Yeah, just like Clay Matthews. Clay Matthews did that last year. Right in Green Bay came out. He read a letter from President of the United States of America.

Yep. And then he said that the Bears still suck. Bob Les, I believe, is what he said, a place one crazy. Yeah. Imagine if Aaron does walk out there and say, I'm coming back. And my new teammate is

Ty Simpson. What? Can you imagine? That would be great. Hopefully someone would let him know before that. Dan Orlovsky's out there, AJ, saying that, you know, Ty Simpson's his favorite quarterback

in this draft class. A lot of people tying Dano to his agent, to the Thai agent is. A lot of people saying there's a lot of different conspiracies going around. I genuinely believe that Dan Orlovsky, through the first eight weeks of the season, because remember this is where he started.

He watched Fernando through eight weeks. He watched Ty through eight weeks. This Indiana team was a wagon. This Indiana team was unbelievable. Fernando didn't have to play his absolute best ball until the end of the season. Dan, who came out publicly halfway through the season and said, yeah, Ty Simpson's Bernard and Fernando first eight games.

He got killed for it. And we all know whenever you get attacked for something, AJ, what do you normally do? You normally double down. Bingo. S-O-B. Dan Olofsky's been quadrupling down here. He goes, you know what, it wasn't just the first eight weeks.

How about this? He's better as a whole. I appreciate that. I respect that. I think Ty Simpson does have a chance to be a good football player in the NFL. Fernando Mendoza won a national championship with Indiana University. Indiana University, the Hoosiers of, once again, Indiana University, just won a national championship because of this man in his team. It's like, and I've said this a couple of times, if he had an LSU all.

on his helmet like Joe Burrow did. And Joe Burrough's offense was a little bit different. I think Fernando could have ran that offense, by the way, with the way he spins it and how he can break down defenses and everything like that. But I think it still is like the IU thing. I still think, you know, Cal to IU. I still think there is a little bit of a, it's hard to believe that somebody who could be this talented would end up at Indiana.

And it's like, well, I think what you're going to see over the next 10 years is that Indiana is about to become a very regular conversation in college ball. So I think it might be a little bit more digestible for people five years from now, four or five years from now, whenever they run it back, run it back. But we were talking, I forget who it was here, we were walking through. And they're obviously college football fans. And they say something about like Indiana's dead now, right? Like they're dead. And it's like, no, no, they're just getting started.

More money's flooding into that program. Kurt Signetti, the man who is able to evaluate talent and get people in there in certain positions that you need, he's only getting started there. So I think the IU on his helmet is still holding him back, and I think Dano can't get over it. Conman, what are your thoughts on why Danos doing us? Because we got respect for Ty. I think Ty Simpson's good leader, good athlete. Obviously, Sabin likes him. I think he's a good player.

But, like, this dude won a national championship for Indiana University. And he was third down best in the country. Red zone best in the country. Fourth and five, to win the Natty. Six foot five, 245 pounds, running, scampering all over the place. Rose Bowl, extending plays, it's like, feels like he's a Sunday guy, clear cut, but obviously film and everything else can be held against him a little bit, con man. Yeah, and Ty Simpson is a tough son of a bitch.

Like, I have to say that too, just because he was playing injured in the Rose Bowl. But the whole entire thing with Mendoza, it just doesn't make sense to me, to be honest with you. You mentioned Joe Burrow and LSU. The SEC in 2019 was, you know, the top tier college football. But today, it's not, like the Big Ten now is what the SEC was when Burrow was there. So for that whole entire thing It's three straight years, Big Ten Shagp. What was the last time?

What was the last time in the SEC won it? When was the last time in the SEC was in it? I can't even remember. But that is like the entire thing that I don't understand. Now with Dan, I do think Dan just kind of chooses the things that he wants people to get pissed off about. He says, in my opinion, you know, Ty Simpson is the best QB in this draft.

I don't know if I believe him, but I do believe that he's doing great internet by doing this. When it comes to Orlovsky, though, I mean, he does know quarterbacks. There's no doubt about that. He understands everything they're trying to do. It's just when you watched Mendoza, like, not just his, and you can say, hey, Indiana was better. Like, Mendoza leading the team down at Penn State when they were down and they had that toe-tap catch from Omar Cooper. Like that moment in itself, let alone all of the big moments in the biggest stage is winning and dealing on every single play.

I mean, they blew out Oregon in the semis. and then even in the Natty, they had a pretty big lead. And then he answered for them to kind of put the game away. It just, it doesn't make sense to me. But shoot, I hope both of them, you know, hopefully Simpson and Maddoza go on to be unbelievable. But it just feels like how would anybody even know who the best quarterback in the draft is if it isn't the guy who won the Heism and the National Championship?

Yeah, it's pretty wild. It's been Indiana's coverage all year. And obviously there's a lot of different graphics about how everybody has selected Indiana's games this past season. And I rode with Indiana because we were forced to kind of watch their highlights because we live in Indiana. But it's like Fernando's special. And his growth is a leader amongst his teammates.

It's like to be able to rally that group, he has beers with the boys. He's six, five. Every throw is a perfect spiral. Even during warmups, it's like, all right. I don't know what we're looking for, but I do appreciate the fact that Ty Simpson also NFL quarterback. I like that for the NFL debut. Yeah, I love it for the NFL.

And I love it for both these guys. And I believe Dan O wholeheartedly when he says the shit that he says, especially when it comes to these quarterbacks. You know, he does the NFL every day until that stops. And then he kind of dials into these QBs. And I think a part of it not with just Dan O, obviously we watched them much closer. But Fernando Mendoza wasn't really that guy until the height, like late in the season when he won the Hizman. If you even look at the draft odds, I'm sure he wasn't the number one guy, you know, halfway through the college season. So it's a cart for people to look at that guy

and say, hey, this is a Cam Newton or Andrew Luck or a guy that's going to be good day one on the next level. And then some of the things that Dan said as far as making the layered throws and intermediate throws, it was an RPO heavy offense. There's a lot of deep balls. But he did everything that was asked of him.

And not only you to win, like he dominated through the playoff run. Like we were there. They had the biweek. The storyline or narrative of all the teams that had to deal with the biweek. I think this was the first team that even won a game in the biweek. And they made it out of the buy week.

Alabama quit, and then they beat the dog shit out of Oregon, and then beat a very, very good Miami team. So we saw our close-h boots on the ground, so it's easy for us to see it. But for everybody looking out and then watching the tape, you don't get the same feeling as like being in the building and watching the guy operate. And he's like Coach Casey and these game conditions. I feel like he makes the right decisions. And then even if it's close between him and Todd Simpson, me and Tony Jones, just talking like the Dems. Like he's 65 to 35, 25, like, so you go with the traits for sure. but I hope both of these guys are successful,

but I'm of the opinion that Fernando Mendoza is still the clear-cut number one quarterback in his draft. And on that note, Daniel Jeremiah does not have Ty Simpson in his most recent mock draft of the first round. Will anything change as people continue to look at film? And remember, all you need is one team that needs a quarterback to like them. And then all of a sudden, you can be top five. I mean, it doesn't matter. If you need a quarterback and you like a quarterback, you go and get them. Does it work out?

Who knows? Not everybody's a home run. there's going to be a lot of bus in this draft, just like there is every year, but maybe a couple Hall of Famers. Joining us now as a man who will be in every single Hall of Fame that revolves around broadcasting and newsbreaking.

Friend of the program, Senior NFL Insider, Michigan man, ladies a gentleman, Adam Schaftier. Yes, gentlemen. What's going on? Okay, so Mike Tannenbaum, as you guys call him, Mike Tee. Now, Mike Tomlin is Mike Tee in my world, but in your guys' world, Mike Tannibam.

Former General Manager for the Jets, Also, one of the founders of the 33rd team, which I think was doing great things there for a little bit. Now, Mike Tannenbaum obviously great on TV as well for ESPN. Dan Rolowski said he thought Ty Simpson was the best quarterback in the draft. Mike Tannenbaum said, I've caught around. There's other people that are saying the same thing. What are your thoughts or early hearings about what this draft looks like coming up in Pittsburgh? And is this really crossed your radar yet, or is this all just kind of fodder happening early in a smokescreen-filled world?

Well, I would say this, Pat, that these things always evolve as the draft moves closer. And again, I think back to the last year at this time, everybody, everybody had Chador Sanders going in the first round. Couldn't slide past Pittsburgh in the 20s. Wasn't going to happen. And lo and behold, on draft night, all of a sudden, he's not taking the first night. He's not taking the second night. I got people in all walks of life that I've never heard from texting me draft questions. When as Shador Sanders going, it captivated the entire football world and country about where he was going to go.

Again, I think back to the draft of 2018, I always remember driving to the airport early in the morning, I get a call. They're like, hey, you're aware of the fact that Baker Mayfield may go number one to Cleveland? I'm like, Baker Mayfield. How often have we had a draft where a certain player never has been connected to the number one pick and then actually become? the number one pick on Thursday night. So I remember filing a story, Baker Mayfield is in serious consideration

for the number one pick. And I remember I fly to Dallas and my own father text me. And he says, hey, did you hear about Baker or Mayfield possibly going to Cleveland? I'm like, yeah, I reported it. And he goes, yeah, that's fake news. And I really appreciate that.

So again, these things, they change and they evolve. The one thing I can say confidently right now You're talking to front offices is I believe, and it's not going on a limb, Ty Simpson will be a first round drafting, a first round draft. That's all I'm comfortable saying right now. We will revisit this topic many times as the draft marches closer. We're one month out exactly. The draft is one month from today. And again, I think that'll probably be one of the central focal storylines of the first round of the draft.

where does Ty Simpson go? All I feel comfortable saying right now is I'm confident he'll be a first round pick. Yeah, it's a quarterback position. If he's by far the second best quarterback coming out of this class, he has the athleticism, he has the leadership. Obviously, Sabin will sing his praises to these NFL teams, which obviously matters. Why not take a shot if you need a quarterback,

especially if you're a team that has been looking like ass for a while. I'd like to see Ty get drafted in the first round. I'd like to see him go on to have a great NFL career. but this is pretty wild what's going on with old Dan Orlovsky, your CAA counterpart doing what he's doing to help a CAA client get a little bit more rub going into the draft, Adam Schifter. I don't think that has anything to do with it, but that's fine. People can believe that.

I don't even know who Ty Simpson's agent is. I have no idea who is agent even is right now, to be perfectly frank with you. Who is it? I don't know, actually either. I know it's no it's in your world. I know it's in your world. I know it's in your world. I know he's texting you right now, probably saying,

yeah, keep it up. Say you don't know me. Say you don't know me. Also, Ty Simpson runs fast, runs fast. He wipes twice after he poops. He picks up people's jackets whenever they drop him. He helps old people across the street. Yeah, he does everything.

Is that what's happening right now in your phone? Is that what's happening? Yeah. Yeah, that's, I can look up who his agent is. I am curious right now. It says Peter Webb, and I looked it up. Oh, Pete Webb? Peter Webb.

Is he CA? P3 sports reps, it looks like. No, he's not even CAA. Dan Olobski's doing this for no reason. This also could just be his NIL agent, so I'm not sure. Oh, I forgot. We got an agent, assistant manager, dietitian, strength coach, cardio coach, coach, buck coach, likes coach.

I understand that. These guys are obviously superstars. They're all in there. Okay, let's talk about the huge. NFL news as opposed to just Dan Orlovsky giving his opinion. And we appreciate Dan O. We'll obviously have Dan O to join us in the next couple of days to chitchat about how he found himself in this particular predicament with Ty Simpson being the number one quarterback.

Let's talk about a brand new highest paid wide receiver, Adam Schaefter. You broke the news today. Jackson Smith and Jigma reaches an agreement for $168.6 million. $120 guaranteed. Congrats to him. congrats of his family, 42.15 per year. How do we get here? And did we expect this when Kenneth Walker leaves and other people leave?

They had to pay him? Oh, that's definitely a part of the Seahawks planning. You know that you're going to be resigning and retaining Jackson, Smith, and Jigba. And you also know that you're going to be resigning at some point this offseason, Devin Witherspoon, two players that have worked out great. And you know you have to budget for these others. What I find interesting also is that you see the big money. involved in a deal like this and the Seahawks are for sale. So it's kind of interesting to me that

this team that's in transition that is essentially moving or changing hands this offseason, um, by the up getting ticks about Ty Simpson stuff now. Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we all are. We all are. We all are. Um, that they sign off on this. Like John Schneider, the Seahawks GM has the authority to go spend tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars on Jack Smith and Jigba, on Devin Witherspoon, on free agents to do what he has to do to keep that team humming along. Like Jackson's Smith and Jigba was as good as anybody in the game last year, the offensive player of the game or the offensive player of the year and performed unbelievably well was as good as anybody at that position. And they paid them like that today. It's record marks for a wide

receiver. Pooka Nakuwa is still out there right now. You see the money right there. You know, $42.15 million. Jamar Chase, Justin Jefferson, C.D. Lamb, D.K. Meckhev, Garrett Wilson, also on the list. Pooka Nakua. Soon we'll be joining that list. A bunch of running backs are going to get paid this offseason. Every year, there are certain positions that get taken care of. Last year, it was the pass rusher. It was the offseason of the past rusher. This year, I would expect that there'll be at least a couple of these receivers, Jackson Smith and Jigba, and of course, Puka Nakua, and I think you're going to see a bunch of running backs get paid this offseason. Bijon Robinson, Jemir Gibbs, get paid this offseason. So we got offensive skill players getting paid.

Wide receivers, Jemir Gibbs, Bejohn Robinson. I'm sorry, you were going to say somebody else. I couldn't hear you. Go ahead. Devon H. Devon H. H.M. H.P. Hell, yeah. You pronounce his name, right? Very kind of you for doing that.

there's a couple, D-But was going to ask about who's next in line at the wide receiver. It sounds like you just mentioned the guys who are going to be next in line. Are they going to topple that number or is it going to be around that number, you think? Well, we depend on who's answering that question. It's going to be right in that range. And we'll see whether or not it's just south or just north. Agents typically don't like to do deals for players of comparable skills that are less than the deals that got done, but I don't know where the Rams would be willing to go on Pooka Naku.

So that's a battle that Puka and the Rams will be engaged in here these coming weeks. Situations are situational. You know, Schneider has now found himself in the general manager sphere of being like, yep, that guy knows what he's doing. So I assume the next owner will be grateful for the decisions that he's making currently with future owner's money, okay, that is currently happening. but if that team remains great and Jackson Smith and Jigba remains the guy

and they got Sam Donald on a good deal new owners are going to be pumped with what's going on Seattle let's talk about some of the OG talents go ahead AJ yeah chefty what about like Stefan Diggs D. Hop what's the timeline looked like and where could they possibly be going well I think that'll be gay

OBJ obviously after if you saw him in the flag football game he just ran he just left confused he's back you know I saw him I saw OBJ at the Super Bowl and we talked and he definitely wanted to play and he feels healthy, feels like he could help a team. There are certain places I think that would appeal to him.

The Giants would make some sense. That would be an awesome reunion. There was some way that could happen. But he definitely would like to come back and play and he feels like he could definitely help somebody this year. But there's a lot of guys out there right now, whether it's Debo Samuel, Stefan Diggs, Joan Jennings, some of the other free agents, some of the other positions.

The problem we get to now is if a guy is sitting out there, he obviously hasn't gotten his price that he feels like he's worthy of. He's holding on to get that, holding out to get that. You get the draft coming up. Typically, I mean, there can be a deal done today, but typically you see veterans added a week or two before the draft. These teams are making their final draft preparations and really assessing the position in the round. They're like, you know what, let's go get this receiver right now and kind of fill that need going into the draft. So I think we're in kind of quiet period for free agency. That doesn't mean that something couldn't happen with one of these players. Of course it could.

But this is not typically a time where you see deals get done. We saw a dig scored touchdown this weekend with Tom Brady. Obviously we saw OBJ do some OBJ shit. We also saw D-Hop kind of hi-he, a guy, you know, one-handed Tud. He's come out very, very positive about Kyler Murray. And then Minnesota made some moves. Connor has a question for you, Adam Schaeffter.

Yeah, Chef. Carl Wence, back to Minnesota, we remember last year. He basically laid his life on the line going out there and ripping his arm off his shoulder, still playing absolute beast. What does this mean for J.J. McCarthy? Now it's Kyler, Wence. J.J. McCarthy is Wentz going there to basically kind of help JJ learn a little bit more grow as a quarterback? Or are we kind of near the territory of is J.J. McCarthy's time in Minnesota maybe, you know, done?

I know people have raped that question. It's not how I'm viewing it right now. Like, this is a team that has gone through so many different quarterbacks. And maybe there's something to the Wendt signing that would dictate or influence J.J. McCarthy's future. But I don't view it that way. I view it like they've got guys here. JJ has struggled to stay healthy. Kyler hasn't played there yet.

They've got to see how that goes. And Wynce is somebody that knows the offense is comfortable there. They're comfortable with him. you can never have enough quarterbacks. That's how I view it. Now, let's see if it's something different. But to me, it's just a situation of when's having an opportunity to go there

and give them more depth at that position. Let's talk a little bit more about veteran quarterbacks. Tone Diggs, Pittsburgh Steelers, don't have a quarterback right now. That's a veteran. Go ahead with your question. Well, they do. Mason Rudolph. Yeah, Mason is technically a vet. And Will, I guess.

And Will. Yeah. And Will is old. And will. But no, Aaron Rogers. is the question. We just saw him and Will Howard this weekend at their flag football game that Aaron hosts. Aaron hasn't made a decision yet. Has there been an offer to Aaron? Because when he was on our show, he said that there wasn't yet. Has there been contract talks?

And is Kirk Cousins potentially waiting on Aaron to make a decision? I don't think Kirk Cousins is waiting, but I do think he's following and watching because I do think if Aaron decides that he doesn't want to play, that Kirk Cousins would be a logical pivot for the Pittsburgh Steelers at that point in time. I don't think Kirk Cousins is any rush to go do something. I think he's going to wait for the right opportunity. And if that happens to be in Pittsburgh, that would be great for Kirk Cousins. But Pittsburgh wants Aaron Rogers back. And when Aaron Rogers said that, that they hadn't even had any contractual discussion, that surprised me a little bit because Pittsburgh's been pretty clear about its intent to

want him back, all the players want him back, everybody wants him back. So what's the delay in a contract. And it just feels like, I don't know, like they want him, he's interested in them, and it shouldn't be that hard to figure out,

especially after the last year. But I don't know whether they've actually started it. I think everybody's just waiting to see what the deal is with Aaron, whether or not he's going to actually come back or not. If he wants to come back,

the job's waiting for him. If he doesn't, then... Why don't you text them, Shafti? There you go. What's that? Why don't you text them and ask him? we've tried that it hasn't worked out very well

go on if you could remind me it because you know sometimes I would have to be respectful like I don't want to like you don't want me to text him I'm not going to text him it's not a problem how'd you know he didn't want you to text them well you know why he came on your show and he said to lose to lose his number

oh he was mad you don't actually delete it I forgot about that you know since like I'm trying to think of the last time that I've been told to lose a number. He's in a better place now. He wouldn't do that. Yeah, it's a different error. We're in a good time.

Remember, he's super happy right now. He is loving his life. He's having it. It is great. Probably miss your text. Because you didn't delete his number. There's no way you delete. You still got it in there just in case.

You know, just in case Adam Schaeftor football, we need it. Now, if he blocked you, that's a whole other story. Now, that's a whole other angle. That pops up a green text, which he might be anyways. 100% sure, then you know you've been kicked out of it. But if you get to the bottom of that, I think all of Pittsburgh would be appreciative. Let's go from Pittsburgh side of Pennsylvania to the Philadelphia side of Pennsylvania. There's a lot of questions still about what's going on over in Siriani squad.

Ty has a question for you? Yeah, Shepty, has there been any kind of update in, you know, A.J. Brown potentially getting traded. I know we had a couple other names that were kind of rumored out there. Has there been any movement on this, or have things kind of been mum? and then maybe it'll pick up around the draft or post-draft? Like, what do we know about this situation? Again, my understanding recently was such that the Eagles weren't in a rush to make a move that if they made the move, that it would come after June 1st.

Now, a lot of people have connected the Patriots. That's a logical landing spot. But what we don't know is what's going to happen with New England from now. until June 1st. New England could, for all we know, bring back Steph Diggs. They could go sign some of these other wide receivers that are out there. They could go draft a wide receiver. And if any of those things happen, then that would probably take them out of the AJ Brown market. New England, New England has been through a lot with the league in recent years, you know, deflategate other things. They're not going to bend the rules and take chances and do handshake

deals under the table. Like if A.J. Brown works for them in June, they'll make a move. If it doesn't, they're not going to do that. You know, other teams, I think, might be willing to look the other way and say, okay, yeah, okay, we're good. Philly, we're good? Yeah, okay. We'll revisit this in April, but we're all set. New England is not going to do that. I'm just telling you right now, they're not going to sign off on something that would be against the spirit of the NFL rules. and if A.J. Brown is still available on June 1st, and they still have a need on June 1st, that becomes a very logical destination. But there's no under the table, to my knowledge, and shake agreement between the two sides to get A.J. Brown to New England, despite the rumors.

Okay. Yeah, it sounds like that. How dare you? And that what it sounds like con man, it sounds like the block is hot for the New England Patriots because the flake gate, he said, without the recent years, that's the long time. It feels like the flakeet gate was a long. I'm watching the quarterback at the flakegate to flag football players on my TV at this particular standpoint of life. But I do, I like the fact that Schaeffield has said

the NFL is not letting the Kraft Patriot family get away with anything in this stage. There's none of that. Is that what you're basically saying there, Shepard? I'm just saying that the Patriots are going to go out of their way to abide by the rules. Piz and Q's. Okay.

That's nice of that. Thank you, Patriots, for doing that. They also, about time. They proved that the flight game wasn't real, Chefty. Who? Who? Bill Nguer. The gourd on you to bring that up on a Monday in March.

You son of a bitch. Lose my number. How about that? Hey, Shepter, tell you Bill, not the science guy and O's. O's did? All right. Shepter, last question here as we go into draft talk, just if you're hearing anything from general managers from D-But.

Yeah, chef, you mentioned some of these big-time running backs getting paid shortly here, Bejohn, Gibbs, Gibbs, those type of guys. So obviously you look at the draft at the top running back with Jeremiah Love. What are you here? What's kind of like his ceiling as far as how high he can go? What's the floor as far as you'll be shocked if he gets past this pick? Another great storyline heading into the draft. Another reason for people to tune in to all the draft coverage.

But to me, he's a top 10 pick. I know a lot of people have had him going to Tennessee. Again, it's just not what I'm sensing right now. And by the way, it's very. March 23rd, the draft is a month from now. There are a lot of teams that go back and forth on these things. And just because they're not in a spot on March 23rd doesn't mean they won't be in a different spot on April 23rd. So it's hard to say today, as we sit here today, my guess would be I don't see them going to Tennessee. I don't see them going to the Giants at number five,

although that would be an interesting spot. And I think he'd have a lot of support there. To me, A place that makes sense today, a month out, would be the Washington commanders. They've added to their running back room. I could see Washington being interested in a player like Jeremiah Love, seven would be the spot. If we go back to other years and other great running backs, Bijon Robinson went number eight to Atlanta. Christian McCaffrey went number eight to Carolina.

New Orleans just spent on Travis A.C.N. Jr. Well done, Chafty. Great job. Nailed it. Thank you. Wee, we, we, bonjour, sava. Mercy, beaucoup. So, and Kansas City just spent on Kenneth Walker.

So to me, Washington, I know they went out and they added Rashad White, and they added some depth at the running back position. But I still think that if you could pair Jeremiah Love, and Jane Daniels, that would be dynamic. And they've been in need at that spot. So to me, that's a spot that I'm watching a month out. Although, look, he could turn up at four, he could turn up at five, he could turn up at six.

I just think seven is interesting to watch. That's me. Sure. Schefter's got his eyes on the Washington commanders and Jeremiah love, love story potentially. We are huge fans of this dude and also player excited for that draft. What city is that draft in, Adam Schaefter? Pittsburgh, PA. That's right, brother.

Hey, city can't wait for you to get into. Yeah, you're going to be there all week. Okay, I have an event that I'm doing on Wednesday night at the Cayman Science Center. Okay. Need you there. What's the event? It's an event that you need to go to. You'll see.

We're going to be showing. We're going to be showing the. The Football Time, which is the NFL Films movie about the city of Pittsburgh and its history of football and everybody that's been drafted and how the football community actually ties together the entire city of Pittsburgh. It's done by NFL films. It's in a sphere-like thing that our Science Center has and it's a full production. And it's, I was lucky enough to voice it over. But Wednesday night, the night before the draft, I'm kind of making an announcement right now. The night before first round, I'm going to be inviting everybody that's,

going to be on camera talking during the draft to come check this out so they can learn about the city of Pittsburgh and how much it loves football and how many legendary football moments and humans have come from the city of Pittsburgh and it's a beautiful. We'll raise some money. We'll watch a thing, maybe a couple cocktails. I know it's not your thing. For some weed down your lungs. I don't know if you do that either, but we'll have a little night celebrating Pittsburgh and then you go on to cover the draft. If that's something that you'd be cool with on Wednesday night, we'll get your confirmation. I figure out the schedule.

Wednesday night is usually a fairly intense night. I have to see how to be. But yeah, I would love to come. I'm interested. I will definitely try to make it down there. I never want to disappoint my friend. If you need me there, I will certainly make my way to stop by for a little bit. Wednesday night's usually a busy night.

Are you going to launch it? Jeez. Yeah, I mean. I'm not going to stop by for a little bit. Yeah, you said no in a hundred different ways, asshole. That's a pretty good no. I said, we're going to figure out. it out.

That's all. But also on end, I'm going to be there, but not really. You guys will see how I'm here. I'll drive by. I fucking came. Okay. Thank you. Now, back to who's drafting Ty Simpson?

We understand that. We appreciate that. We appreciate that. And you're the man. Have a good one, Shepty. Thank you guys. Appreciate it. Enjoy Bristol, Pat.

What is that? What's on your buddy? Bristol, Connecticut. You're there right now. Yes, I am in Bristol. What's on your hoodie? What is that? Mad.

What is on your hoodie? Mad happy? What's on your shirt? Do you know what? What do you use? It's a fucking... Yeah. What is that?

What is that? L.A. Kings. That's one of my hockey teams that I'm tracking. Oh, wow. Oh, Kings guy. Great playoffs. I like the Kings. Hey, they've got good people working for the L.A. Kings.

We got a chance to really enjoy in L.A. Kings game out there. A lot of great people. You're a hockey. You're a hockey fan. You love the hockey? I like trades. I like when they make friends with the LA Kings are involved in big trades. Have you done any other sport trades that have pissed other insiders off?

No, but we reported on that trade with the... Panarin, right? Deadline. Me and Emily Kaplan. We did that. Jack Hughes was stunned by it. Remember he came up to you at the convent? Yeah, he said, how did chef?

Yeah, he walks up and asked him, how did you get it? get that information. And, you know, sometimes, but Shams broke the WMDA news and there's people pissed that it was Shams that ended up breaking the news. I think if I was reading the tea leaves properly. But it's like, how do you as an insider decipher what information is your, like, how does that whole thing go? Well, you know what I mean?

What people reached out to me about the trade, I said to them, I said, the only way that I would do it would be if I could include Emily Kaplan because she's our hockey. And I don't want to do, I didn't want to do anything disrespectful to her. So I included her on the byline Because she made calls and she did work as well That's all That makes me mad happy dude That makes me mad happy

That makes me mad happy whenever you do stuff It's right there on your chest Right there next to your heart I appreciate that actually turns out Your heart straight in the middle of your body Very popular sweatshirt brand according to my daughter Pat Madhapp very popular Very popular

You need yourself a mad happy sweatshirt pat Yeah that's wicked dope. Maybe I'll think about a mad happy thing. That'd be lit. You're the best. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Shepard. Mad happy is so sick, dude. Maybe he'll be mad happy someday. Lydia's gear.

AJ, you're going to be mad happy? I mean, yeah, I'm just having, I've said no a lot of ways and tried to get out of things before, but his like 45 second no was amazing. About Wednesday night. Yeah, I'm going to introduce somebody on this side, so if you could take it away for a moment and then I'll be back in two minutes. Yeah, of course I can't wait, but yeah, so you think Shepty's coming Wednesday, Conman? I mean, my early

read right now is no. Yeah, maybe I'll go, yeah, I should go Wednesday's really busy. I'm, yeah, I'll go, I stop by, maybe I'll be there, yeah, we'll see. We've seen how Schifty gets when he's in really busy mode. What does he get like? I haven't seen. The dog fucking bites. Yeah. So really. Yeah. We had to put signs. Can you

imagine Shifty coming after you? Yeah, we asked Bruce. He came after Bruce. What'd you do, Bruce? Bruce, I wouldn't, fool. Well, Bruce Bruce has a professional boxing match as well. I respect the dog and the bark and the bite. Shefter, he's got a lot going on, you know, you got to respect it. And to Shafter's credit, I mean, when Bruce is coming up to you Monday,

a free agency asking when Pat Ricard signed him with the Giants, you know, with all this other stuff going on, you can understand. Yeah, he said, hey, Bruce, shut the hell up. I'm working. I can imagine Wednesday night for Shafti before the draft. Yeah. But, okay, how many people are he texting, though? Yeah, that's what I mean?

And what do you say? 400. A thousand. And every single GM, scout, front office person, all are they texting me. Players? But that's what I don't understand. They're texting him actually asking Shephti for info.

Hey, what are you hearing? And he's trying to relay to other teams. I mean, so, like, I do his podcast with him. And on just like a random Tuesday, like, we will have to stop recording multiple times because he's either getting calls or he's got to respond to something. So I would imagine the night before the draft, yeah, it probably is like. People are coming to him, don't you think? Oh, yeah.

Teams are coming to him. for info. What are you hearing from this? He's got a, he's kind of in a weird spot, and neither because he has to, he can't tell him exactly what other teams are thinking. Yeah, it's kind of like a proxy, right? I feel like, it's almost always just like, well, let me make a couple calls and then, you know,

I'll get back to you. It's just, you know, he's a broker of information. Hey, are they interested in trading, you know, pick number eight or number 12, you know, like, I feel like, because originally I was like, this guy's full of shit, he just wants to get to bed early because it's, because the drought's the next day. But now,

thinking about it. Yeah, like, GMs might call him to see if another GM is open to a trader. What do you hear it? Yeah, we had trades with us last year. He's not even an insider, but you were with him more than we were. Like, he was on the phone all night long, but I think Shafti will, he'll show face on Wednesday.

He will. Maybe 10 minutes. What he said, like, he'll show up for Pat as a friend now. Granted, will he be there for 15 minutes? Perhaps. Perhaps that's all. But still, he's there. I mean, still, I think he's nice to show up for him, especially in the drafts, His absolute pinnacle, the Super Bowl of what he does, I guess.

Kind of his Super Bowl. Well, I think free agency is his Super Bowl. Trade deadline. Trade deadline, free agency, I guess. I think we might have a special guest with Pat back in studio in Bristol. Pat, what's up, man? You got everybody? Ladies and gentlemen, living legend, coach at Greenberg.

Coach, I appreciate you, man. I just had to run and go to the bathroom. I'll tell you. More information than I need. No. Which one? Yeah, that's my hands are wet. My hands are wet. My hands are wet.

It's from washing my hands. Coach, you did an incredible job for us. Predicted some things that were going to happen. Did you know that the first two rounds were going to go the way they went with all big conference ended up stealing the day? Did we understand this was going to be the case? Yeah, I did because it's a cost of doing business in college athletics. You guys understand that.

And like the mid-majors are going to eventually not be extinct because you're going to have a guy that does a great job. And developing players have them for a year or two. And they haven't had a chance to do maybe what High Point did, get a bunch of guys that were all. older guys, but the reality is that if you're a really good mid-major player, you're going to end up using that as a springboard to get you where you want to go and make the money you want to make. Good job battling that wire. Yeah, we're losing a pretty good job there.

Not as nimble as I used to be. Yeah, well, you know, yeah, that's on us. Because it's kind of over here, but it's over there. You're kind of doing it. The players getting plucked. They have a good Thursday night during a regular season. Teams are looking for them on Saturday already. Is that kind of what's happening in college basketball?

Guys are being recruited, and they don't even know it's being recruited. All these guys have agents, even in the major guys have agents. So guys are literally, you start to get off and make plays and do some things. That agent's on the phone and saying, like, do you need X, Y, and Z? You know, this kid's interested, but here's the number. And what they're doing is the agents are smart. They're playing everyone against each other. But if you're trying to rebuild your roster, especially guys to think over new jobs,

where they've got to get 13 guys, those guys are really valuable. But we're finding out you also got to get culture guys. You've got to have some type of continuity. you've got to have some type of retention long term. And the guys that have done it the best, have found a balance between retention, recruiting, and basically the portal. I'm seeing some ex-coaches, mostly Dan Dockich say,

how can you lose with that much money in Kentucky? I guess Kentucky has, like, the most expensive roster that's ass, I guess, in the history of college basketball. Do you have any thoughts on that? Is that real? Coach Ms. Saban said it right on your guy's show. If you spend money on the wrong guys, you shit out of luck. Exactly.

I mean, like coach said, and it's 100% right. Evaluation, people understand it. Look, you played. You guys played. This why Signetti's so good. Yeah. The most important part of recruiting is evaluation. Don't like, and I don't want some dude that writes a scouting service to tell me who can play for me.

Like your assistant coaches got to know who can play for you. The guys that understand your system, they got to find fit guys, guys that can play in your system, buy into the good of the group are all about winning competitive and also can, are dudes. I mean, in the end, you need a couple of dudes. You need real athletes. Real players. So tell me about.

why great coaching probably matters and all this, because the evaluation, like Tomazo, we assume January, February, is so. Okay, because they were saying booze are there. We're out the way here, right? They were a little behind a, well, they were worried Boozer was going to get set there instead of Zizzo, but it feels like good coaching really matters in March Madden's because they know the players they have or because they know how to handle the game. Well, it's a lot of things. Tom's been able to retain guys. Like, guys don't leave Michigan State. They leave Michigan State maybe to go out early. And his culture and his identity. I just talked to them right after they won the game the other day. Oh, that's cool. And I told

it is, like, how you win is because your identity and your culture is the best in college basketball. Those guys understand. They're playing for those guys to play before them. I mean, it's like real. When you have all those former players around when they come into Grind Week, when you have all those players around when they come in the summer and work out with those guys, when you have magic coming in and out and all the great players they've had, there's an expectation, this is who we are, this is how we win, this is how we act, this is how we compete. And they understand, like, is nuts. He's demanding.

There's a standard. He's not going to, look, he's going to outlast you. You're not winning that battle. Like, oh, I'm going to take, no, you're not. You want to play? And, like, that's just the way it is. So there are certain guys that Hurley's been able to do that. There are certain guys that have been able to do that.

Cal's in a lot of ways, been able to do that. I mean, what Cal's done at Arkansas is a joke, because Akoff, like, he's a joke. Like, that guy is just different. Right. 30 points a game in the last two games. And at the end of the game, you give him the ball. But, like, Cal coaches him really hard. like really hard.

Like if you go to one of those practice, you go, hmm. But that kid wants to be great. And when you have Shea Gildes or Alexander and Tyrus Maxi and all those, there are grows and all those guys before him, it's easy to buy into like, hey, this guy's going to help you get me where I want to go. We started the conversation there with Izzo. And I think a big combo right now is 16 from the Big Ten make up the final 16.

And obviously it's all the big conferences. Iowa knocks off the reigning champs. Ty has a question for you back in studio. Yeah, Coach, what do you think the likelihood that Iowa can, you know, continue this run here? Obviously, they've already beat Nebraska this year. They split in Big Ten. And they don't really strike me as the kind of team who's going to come out flat after, you know, they might not make threes, but the way they play defensively, like, I don't know if being flat kind of plays into that.

But how much of a chance do you give them to, you know, kind of continue this run and maybe make, you know, an elite eight or a final four? I give a legit shot. I mean, they're a mistake-free team. They don't make mistakes. Those guys, they don't beat themselves. They're going to keep you in front. They're going to play in the gaps. They're going to force a contested shot.

They're going to live you to one shot. Like, that's the art of the upset. Can you impose your identity on the game? That's exactly what they did to Florida yesterday. All right? They imposed their identity on the game. They took Florida's length and athleticism. And plus Florida, like, everyone said, well, what happened?

That last play. We can show that last play again. That was absolutely brutal because the last play in that game right here, All right, he catches it around. Why do you have a man on the ball? It's eight seconds left in the game. It's not a long pass. You have a man on the ball.

They're playing four on four. And actually, if you're front of them, you see right here, they're front of him. The game's over, right there. Because right there, Boogie Flant is trailing that play. Watch when the balls gets passed out. Now you're four and three. Now you're three on two.

You can't leave the corner because that's the only thing that could have beaten you. The corner three is the only thing that could have beat you. A layup tie game, we go to overtime. So what are we doing? Golden was all worked up trying to fight McCollum. Yeah, Those guys were frisky, weren't they?

Yeah, they were starting to dance a little bit. Call him, he's no joke now. I mean, he'll tell you, too. I mean, he ain't afraid now. Yeah, it looked like they were going to fight each other, especially whenever there's a little bit of his craft. Who would you take in that one? Who would you take?

Come on now. Call him, like lower, good base. Range, range with Golden. I don't know Golden's coach in history. Was he D2, four-time national champ D-2 guy? No, he wasn't, but he has a thing called a national championship in a very big batter. Yeah, but we're talking fighting.

I want to know the Grinch. I agree. I agree with you there. I agree with you there. I think McCollum would be in this shit out of him. He's an Iowa guy, right? Wrestling's big in Iowa. I bet back in the day he was not as big as it is in Penn State.

Congratulations, Penn State. That's right. It's a basketball state now. That was a good lead by you. Anything I could do? I saw Penn State up there a second ago. I said maybe lead back to that. You're an gentleman.

You're an absolute gentleman. Penn State wins the national championship in the March Madness, the Matt Madness. They are legends. They're doing something that's never been done before. They weren't even on the sports books. You couldn't even bet on them.

That's that good. Yeah. I pick of a favorite. And they go on. That's amazing. Yeah. A lot of people probably pissed off. They couldn't bet.

Yes, me. I'll hammer a minus 1100 any day just to see one go through the hoop. Congrats to them doing that. Let's get back to the basketball now. Obviously, top dogs still around. DeBud has a question for you about maybe falling off somewhere. Yeah, you're just talking about the art of the upset.

I want to know who's highest on kind of like your upset watch list. You got Duke, Arizona, Michigan, R1Cs with pretty good big spreads, and then Purdue as well. So who would be highest on that list to be on an upset watch? Coach K's not going to like this because I know he was just on. He's a friend of the program. I mean, you got saved in Coach K and Greenberg.

I don't know how I fit in this mess, but I appreciate the page. And we have Belichick too. Valcheck, I mean, it's unbelievable. Thanks, Coach. Good to be here, brother. Yeah, not only. I think Duke, I think Duke because if you think about, again, style play, Rick Patino, what are they can do?

They can extend their defense, they're going to press, they're going to wear you down with numbers. They're going to be physical. They're going to make it a rock fight. They're going to get up and underneath. Caden, Boozer's been great. They only have one point guard. They don't have a backup. Their backup point guard is Camboosers.

So you've got Caden Boosier. They're going to beat the crap out of him. If he gets in foul trouble, he gets worn down, they've got to come in and actually run their offense for Camp. So style of play, styles make fights. Style of play and the physicality of the game, how it's officiated. The more physical, the better it's going to be for St. John.

You saw it like yesterday. It was like a rock fight. Like, I mean, it set basketball back about 10 years. But the ending was great. I mean, the ending was absolutely spectacular. But, I mean, like, that thing, there were more shots in the first half where they missed the whole rim than that balls that went into basketball. Yeah, including our boy, Darling.

Yeah, it was. Darling was right, right, right, right, left, short. And then, like, Church Bells just went and won the game. Yeah, well, that's Bellsie. That's what Petino said, you know, it's Bells. You said it last year, I think, about Petino's team being tough. Yeah. It's all about how the refs decide to officiate it.

We saw that college football playoffs. It feels like we're going to see that with Petino anytime. they play. Maybe Duke is in trouble. Let's talk about maybe who can get it all. AJ has the last question for you here, Coach. Yeah, coach, with all your expertise, who's your favorite team, I guess, left as of now, standing here and looking at the future? I think Arizona, and the one that's obviously favorite, they have eight starters. I mean, they don't have five starters. They have eight starters. Every guy that they bring off

the bench impacts winning. Delorso, he had like 26 in the Big 12 tournament. He's absolutely a killer offensively and defensively. Toby O'Walka should be a tight end in the NFL. Might be. All right. And he might be. The guy averages double double in 10 minutes. And like Arristae makes shots.

Jaden Bradley's the best finisher in the game. Burries is another one of those dynamic freshmen. And like we watch and we say, well, what does Kreevis do? Well, he protects the rim. He rebounds the ball. He does what they need to do. So like the piece is fit. And Tommy Floyd, he's incredible.

He's just like this. Like, they were down like 14 points to Iowa State in the Big 12 tournament. And like I was joking when I said, like, you were down 14. And he was, yeah, and my dumb ass didn't call time out. And he just kind of worked with his team, worked with his team. They fought through it. And that was like a shot maker's delight. And like every shot went freaking in in that game.

But I like Arizona. But that other team, Iowa State, they actually surgically removed Kentucky's heart. after five-minute markers. Yeah, I mean, they didn't use a scalpel. They just removed it just when they're grabbed it. Oh, with a hand. Yeah, the hand. They just went and grabbed it.

It was a little. They play so hard. Iowa State plays so hard. It's ridiculous. And T.J. is great. I don't know about the Smedians. But besides that, he's a monster.

Okay, so let's talk about you say, they set basketball back yesterday. What are your thoughts on the first two rounds of March Madness? You feel like you loved it? Obviously, the favorites have done very, very well. Yeah. There hasn't been as many Cinderella's over the last two years. What do you?

your thoughts on a style of play in a tournament that we have the game's going up and down is more scoring the better teams are winning yeah the mid majors are getting beat up a little bit but we still had look we still had high point we still at Miami Ohio we never have a zillion of those guys everyone's all no to midma how many mid majors really

make it deeper yeah loyal made it deeper on that was rest in peace by the way to her uh... Sister Jean uh... sister Jean she should be sainted if that lady hasn't been sainted I don't know we have no chance

well I don't know. I don't know. I'm about Greenberg. Greenberg's jacobos. I'm worried about you, Patty. I know you got a nice family and everything. I don't know, but she should be.

But yes, obviously, a hundred two-year-old an incredible lady. She's a lot. But you're saying there isn't a lot. I just, I don't look. The economics is what it is. So, I mean, like, there's never a zillion of them.

We overreact to everyone because it's such a big thing. But the middle range of all these conferences that are getting seven, eight, and nine bids, they're good teams. They're not great teams. They're not the top three. So, like, a team can go nine and nine or can go eight and ten. But, like, they got, like, five or six, seven good wins. So, like, they're just beating the crap out of each other. So, you know, to me, that the mid-major and mid-low majors,

you've got to get lucky by getting a six-year guy. Like, Highpoint had two six-year guys, two-fifths-year guys. I mean, that team was older than the Oklahoma City Thunder. I mean, and they were good. So, I mean. All right, you got five seconds here. Who's going to win it all right now as you stand? Arizona.

I like Arizona. I think they're the deepest, most complete team. But, and maybe next time I'll give you a couple of picks for this Sweet 16. I'm still digesting. Goodbye. We'll see tomorrow. Yeah, you know it. Yeah, we're still live.

If you say bye to everybody back into Thunderdome, we're still live. People can still watch you too. You're still on the, we're still on. Hey, boys. Thanks for having me. And love to come back and we'll talk about before the games and kind of give you guys a couple of picks. Yeah, we have enough. We didn't need them.

We didn't lose it. You have? Yes. I lost every bet on what was that, Thursday. I lost every bet. You didn't have Alabama? That was an easy one. Okay.

I had Arkansas, I think, in Vandy. And then I forget which one was the- It went south after that? Yeah. Yeah, everything's bad. I'm back to this week. Duke, Troy. Hey, will you give us a speech here before we go to a break?

And then we'll come back on the other side and get to wrap every show. Team on me, boys. Team on me. Coach, go ahead. Oh, I'm giving a speech? Hey, guys. Break up. Hey, we might be edit in this segment right now, but here's the deal.

When we leave here, your career best effort. I like, we don't punch the clock. Each and every day, I want your career best effort. Like, no shortcuts. All right, you are your habits. Every single day, you guys make a difference, especially you guys on the right over here. All right, because I'll tell you what, you've heard a lot better speeches that I've given. I mean, you had Cheshefsky here.

You've had Saveskyy here. You've had Belichick. Screw those guys. I'm telling you guys right now, we need our very best effort every single day. Let's go. That's right. Hell, hell, yeah. Team on me, team on three.

One, two, three. Team. Come on. See on the other side. That was good. That was good speech. ESPN is now the home of MLB.com. If you have the ESPN Unlimited plan, you'll get a $15 discount on the 2026 seasonal MLB.tv package.

And if you don't, no problem. When you sign up for MLB.com, you'll receive a one-month free trial of ESPN unlimited. Cancel any time without losing your MLB. TV access. Get in on the action at stream.espn.com slash MLBTV. ESPN Unlimited, Ottawa News at $2,99 per month after free trial unless cancel. Backouts and other terms apply. 9-1-1, where is the emergency? It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point,

Nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Jiu Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. It's what we're doing. Pat McGee join us for a beautiful set down in the bowels in Bristol, Pat. What's going on there? Greenberg out here is doing a sports center hit like right?

now already. Yeah, Seth Greenberg pooped his pants, sprint out of here as quickly as possible. He's got to get to another building. Okay, for a sports center, he's in the A block of the two o'clock. He's probably already been on SportsCenter. Didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, but did tell me on the way out.

He'd like to make some picks for us going forward. We like that he wants to win for us. I'm not sure he's going to get sainted. I've been thinking about that a little bit. I'm not a hundred percent sure how that works, but maybe not for him. Probably not for anybody, but it has been a fantastic Monday up here in Bristol, Connecticut. You know, this is where

sports are king, you know? Up here where it's 14 fucking degrees. It is for reason up here. I forgot about this New England. Let's go to the Toxit table at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Conman, it's cold as hell up here. I mean, it is windy, rainy, cold.

Wednesday's stop. Punks and Tony Phil said we're close. They do not, Conman. Yeah, I don't know about Punks of Tani Phil. I already shoot that little road in the head, but you're just lucky it's not snowing, dude. They've gotten some of the worst snow since like the 70s up in New England. I think they've had over like 40 total inches throughout the entire winter.

They had a span of like three weeks where they had three feet of snow. So the cold, awful. I think it's probably maybe turning the corner. This might be their second winter or third winter. They get three up there. Yeah, well, it's an honor to be up here, obviously. Walking through the building, you see so many greats. Got a chance.

Mike Foss, obviously peacocking around. Oh, yeah. Running the town. Oh, you should see him. I mean, he is. Shoulders back, obviously. We're doing the entire thing. I asked him where a bathroom was.

He said, right this way, sir, walked down four wrong hallways. Nice. Had to turn around, go all the way back. I thought they might drop the S in SVP out of his name just because how embarrassing he was with the directions around the building. Who moved the bathroom? Exactly. Place is gigantic up here. You kind of forget how, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I walk back. There's a newsroom out here. I'm sure there was about a thousand anonymous sources out there, probably very positive about me, so I'm very appreciative about them out here. But you forget about how many humans kind of piece this whole place together. It's an honor to be here. Saw a couple Emmy Award winners walking around. Whoa.

Shite. Just kind of walking around out there. Miss Laura Rutledge. Miss Laura Rutledge was walking around. Obviously, NFL Live Emmy Award winner. You see these super set Greenberg just bumps in me, puts his pants, prints out of it. You know, it's like it's a Disney World for sports. media here at ESPN's

campus and it is gigantic. It is gigantic. Can't wait to get down to the little cafeteria, steal some of their food and enjoy it all. It's a great overreaction Monday here, AJ. Yeah, it is. I guess when's the first game this coming up?

Oh my gosh. The lineup, that's the only thing with March Madison. I'm glad you just said that. On Thursday it starts at 7 and then they just have like four games. Yeah, here it is. They got 10.05 kick. Exactly. It makes no sense. is in Central and that was the biggest problem in the last two days. Saturday, Sunday was ridiculous. They have a game at 1215 or 1240 or whatever, one at two and then six games between five and eight.

What do we do? Come on. They're playing to the West Coast, right? Wake up, man. What are we doing, man? I'm sick of the timing of this bullshit. Sucks. Sick of it. This feels like when I got to watch Scott Hansen bounce back and forth between two games,

whenever they had 17 in the other window. It's like, allow me to watch it with my life happening. Now, I do like whenever there's a score up on the top of the screen, and I can maybe get baited in to go and do another game because the game that I'm currently watching is absolute shite. Or you learn that a game's on, then you try to get a multi-view, and all of a sudden you have a women's first round game on. Yeah, because you didn't know if it was men's first round

or women's first round when you build a multi-view, and all of a sudden you start looking here, like hold the phone. We got some badasses in the women's college basketball tournament happening as well, and Iowa State lost. Oh, no. What? Already? I thought it was March.

She dropped 37, though. Artie Crooks dropped 37 points. Okay. She had 37. She had 37. And we thought they were about to get cooked by Audi Crooks. And they did. She dropped 37.

The team just couldn't stop. I mean, it was a tough loss for Iowa State, but we certainly can continue to follow along with the women's college hoops. At Darius J. Butler, who's going to win that over there in the women's college hoops in your eyes? I know you've been watching. Of course. if we still have the odds, it's the long favor. It's the Yukon Huskies, I believe, still undefeated long.

Obviously still undefeated, I believe 36 and 0 now. We'll be back in the Final 4. We'll win it all. Sarah Strong, Fudd. They'll lead the charge again with Gino, the Godfather still doing it. Minus 250 right there, draft king. The crown is yours. I mean, that's easy money.

Damn near guarantee. The crown could be ours. Crown could be ours there, it seems like. Could be Yukons, especially with the men and the women. When was the last time that happened? Did you guys ever do that? Yeah, we did it a few times. I know the year, 2004.

Yeah, it was like 10 years or something, right? And maybe 14. 14, 24, did they do it? And how about, how about this? Let's continue with women's basketball. I retweeted it, wanted to showcase it. New deal done for the WMBPA and WMBA. That's right.

Right? Yeah, how to go. It's good for a league. Big time bonuses. And then I think from, or big time upgrades to what they're money was $1.4 million now max contract. There's a bunch of other stuff up like a hundred and seven thousand percent or something. There's like the amount of money that they are now agreeing to with the WMBA A, I think is a

beautiful thing. Hopefully they're able to continue to run it up and hopefully WMBA survives because I want to let you know, McKenzie did soccer again this weekend, scored a goal. Nice. But she does have a natural tendency to grab that fucking ball and throw it into things. So I'm thinking she might, you know. I don't know if she's a lefty too, I think. So, you know, that's, you know, there's a lot of those going on.

So we need all these sports to continue to thrive, and we're very grateful and pumped that they got that deal done. Shams Sharanya breaking that deal really pissed off a lot of people. When they're stole it. Son of a bitch. Who was supposed to break? I mean, some poor lady was out of camping out of like 17 hours. Why did she break it?

Really? She's getting the information gathering. Shom just swoops in, does this thing. Scoops the scoop, bro. Yeah. I guess so. do is John. And that's what Tom said. Exactly. I love show. That's what Sean says. Sean says, is this hoops? Is it the same ownership as the NBA? Okay. Yeah, that'll be mine. Thanks. Where have you been? Outside the court? Well, I've been living on my phone for the last 20 years. I don't have any friends. So that's how I got here. And I eat my oatmeal with a fork. And I like lunchtime. And I know everything going on in basketball. WMBA is going to continue. We're pumped up about that. College Hoops. Also going to continue. Let's go to one-hap.

half of the hammer. Cowboys AP Town. We just learned that the Yukon women are favorites to win the women's NCAA tournament. Who are the favorites to win the men's March Madness Tournament? Arizona, Michigan and Duke are still your heavy favorites to win it at Arizona being the favorite at plus 330 with Michigan right behind them. They looked really, really good against Bob Avala's boys of St. Louis on Saturday. And then Duke at plus 370. They were your tournament favorites to start the tournament, but they, you know,

they had the run-in with Sienna, and then with TCU, they hung around for a bit before they pulled away. But those are your three largest favorites right there. And no surprise, they've been the best three teams in basketball all season long. Ty, how do you feel about that plus 12,000 down there, Ty? That seems like a pretty juicy little odds for the Iowa Hawkeyes. Yeah, certainly. I took Iowa at plus 20,000 before the tournament started. So, you know, and you kind of just do it because, hey,

hey, I got to. But now we're in the stage where, you know what, don't be late to this train. If you're good with plus 12,000, you take that. Hawks got a team that they've already beaten coming next. So, yeah, I really like that number. That is very juicy. I may put my mortgage on, you know, I might double down, put my mortgage on, you know, plus 12,000 as well. I don't know if you heard while you mentioned a plus 20,000 for Iowa, there was a Canadian. Ha, ha, ha, ha, Gumpy, you love that. Yeah, it's good. I like the old firm too. Johnny's in Arkansas, great odds.

Those coaches, they know how to win at this time of the year. The old firm, what do you mean by that, pal? Calparry, Patino, they've been around. It is funny. What about Izzo? Yeah, January, February, iso. We know how it goes. It is kind of the old firm

owning college basketball still as we carry on. Okay, so Arizona, old firm? Not quite old firm. Michigan, old firm? Newer firm. In new school, dude. Duke? New school, dude.

Houston? Boom. Old firm. It's kind of half and half here. Purdue. Purdue, old firm? Old firm, yeah. Illinois?

Middle firm, older firm. Iowa State? New school. New school. Newer. Yeah. Did you? Dan Hurley?

Old firm. Old firm, Dan Hurley? The oldest of old firm? Old school dude. How about Michigan State? Obviously is old firm? I tell you what, I feel like the dogs are going to be barking in this Sweet 16 here. You look at those, you look at those lines.

There's a lot of good teams there. Yeah, the favorites. saying we're the best and we have been for this entire tournament and I've lost a lot of money and if Gumpy says something I'll certainly ride with it blindly AJ I don't know if you do that as well but I ride with old Gumpch blindly

and I was in a plus 4,000 something 181 that ended before it even started that was Ohio State right off the hop yeah thanks Buckeyes I was going to win 20 grand on the first day in March Madness off of Gumpi's big brain but instead the Buckeyes just couldn't make a fucking basket

Why didn't you tell you you didn't answer either? We facetimes you. We facetimes you four or five times. I wanted you to get in there or motivate you. Yeah, Dickhead. Yeah. I was on five times. My plan was to facetime you guys back once they won the game. They didn't.

They didn't. Unfortunately, that was the problem. I thought I was going to call boys. You guys were all hanging around. Like, hey, look at this. You guys thought they're going to lose. Oh, well. They did.

Well, we did actually. Everything you guys thought was accurate. Everybody that I know that had a team that was losing. a bet for me, got a face done. Everybody. Coach Kay, he got two of them. Coach Kaye got two of them. And that first half, yeah, right. We're losing. We're losing, coach.

Okay? And then immediately after the game, Coach, we can't cover 28 and a half against CNN. How can I believe in this team at all? And then he goes into an actual basketball breakdown as if I'm being serious. And I'm like, coach. I was just fucking around. He was talking about getting healthy, though. Like the way he started breaking it down,

he was like, well, because we don't have a guy, Boozer has to do more. Boozer's getting beat up. Then we get this guy. If we just get one more guy or two more guys in there, healthy, it should help everybody. It's kind of how he started talking. So I go again, Hammer Time, and obviously it goes how it goes. So it's like I appreciate this March Madness, but it does seem like it's a bit unpredictable.

And there's zero perfect brackets. How many was there in total? Do we remember what the number finally got up to? I think they're, oh, in total, I'm not sure. I know going into yesterday, there were two. And then Tennessee beating Virginia ended completely. Yeah, but what was that, like 30 million, 40 million? How many?

Oh, how many? How many brackets? Oh, geez. I don't know. When we almost filled it out, there were like eight, I think. We would have a perfect for me too. I haven't checked my most crime. I saw you guys.

I saw it brewing too. What? That we didn't do it? I saw it brewing the last 12 minutes. Like, no, no fucking way they're going to do a bracket. We did the one. What do you mean? What do you mean?

What do you mean? No way. Riddle me this. What are you talking about? You're talking about how everybody was making a mockery out? of it. Everybody was basically telling me, let's not do this. Everybody was kind of pushing me.

Yeah, I was ready. You were pretty hype. We ended up doing the Super Duper 8 team. It's the college basketball crowd. Yeah, they tip off in like three months, so it should be sweet. Drafts. Draft came sweeted that there was 26.6.6 million brackets. 26.6 million brackets, nobody's perfect. And maybe one will have a perfect bracket for a super duper college basketball

crown that West Virginia is going to win. Yeah. And that's what it's all about. They got the Toronto Blue Jays in the semifinals. that might be a tough team to beat, but Oklahoma, Colorado, Baylor, Minnesota, we're comfortable against all of them.

So West Virginia, Toronto will battle the winner of Oklahoma and Baylor if we had to guess, and that's coming to you in May. And you can get your time at vividseats.com. Back to the March Madness. We had a chance to catch up with a coach earlier today in the middle of his travel.

He is currently plus 12,000 to win it all. Well, your thoughts change, on those odds after listening to him speak? We think so. We got up with Coach Ben McCollum this morning. Here it is. Wow. Yeah.

Hey! Congratulations, Coach. How you feeling, brother? How are you feeling, man? Thank you. I'm good. I'm good. Just get ready to get on this plane

and head back to Iowa City, God's country. Hell. Well, we appreciate you taking time here quickly to join us in-root in the middle of this chaotic March Madness. Obviously, You have won everywhere. Okay, so now you end up at Iowa and you get this gigantic win over the reigning national champs. How can you compare it to maybe in the past?

How do you kind of describe your feelings having this big win at a new school at Iowa? Like, how do you kind of describe where you are right now and how you feel about your program? Yeah, you know, I think it's, we wanted to make sure that we brought some of that back to the state of Iowa and Iowa City and University of Iowa and have them take pride in what we're doing. So I think that's, I think we're doing that. I think we're trending that the right direction. For me personally as a coach, you know, I think in 2017, we won our first national championship and division two. And I got done and I'm like, man, this is what this is supposed to feel like.

And it didn't necessarily feel like you would think it would because we're so process driven. Like everything's process. Everything's next game, next play, next thing. and that's how you sustain success. So it felt good, probably not what you would think, but I'm really happy for the state of Iowa and the University of Iowa. Yeah, and we have Ty Schmidt here.

He'll be asking you a question in a second. I mean, he was erupting last night. I mean, yeah, yeah. He always looks good, too. He's always got that Iowa gear. He is reping it, isn't he? And my understanding, because I actually watch your show some, he's from Waterloo.

That's right. is that right? There you go. And when did you graduate Iowa City? 2013. 2013. Yeah. So, you know, hey, I was there for the licklider era.

Like, I've seen some dark days. You're a real fan. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Big time. Coach, yeah, like you said, that was the, I think that was the most excited still coming in here just like floating this morning. That is maybe the most excited I've ever been after a sporting event.

So the state is behind you. They appreciate it. This is awesome. I'm curious, looking ahead, is it more difficult playing a team like Nebraska who's in your conference, who you've seen twice? Or is it, you know, because I feel like Florida and some of these other teams, like they're maybe not used to Iowa style of play in terms of, you know,

playing really slow and like the defense. Like, how would you look at the next game and, like, how difficult is that as opposed to playing, you know, a number one ranked team like Florida? Yeah, I think it's probably conference. driven a little bit, meaning obviously they've seen us, we've seen them. The Big Ten isn't necessarily a slow league, but it's a little bit slower than the SEC, a little more half-court, a little more physicality, more just X's and O's driven for the basketball purist, if you will, and the SEC can just,

they're physical, they overpower you, they can get downhill, they score a lot of points. And so, you know, specific to Nebraska, I think just having them seen us and us seeing them, it, it, does make it more difficult probably to score, and it probably makes the scores go down quite a bit, just because we know each other so well. What matchup do you want? I don't know. There's only 16 teams left. I don't think there's any good matchup at this point. I think it's just, hey, what? How about in coach fighting? How about in coach fighting? We saw you almost do that. Is there any coaches like, Patino probably good right now, but he might sneak you, you know what I mean? So I don't know if you thought about that. He might outlast me. Petino's tougher than hell. I wouldn't

with him. He might outlast me. And I can guarantee Fred a former NBA player. You don't want to mess with him either. So I'm just going to stick to my own bench at this point. Would you like to chat her a little bit about the passion here? This is a part of March Madness that we love. I believe the Maryland women's coach was shown, obviously coaching her player up hard where she was saying, I believe in you, but you got to want this. Hurley gets a lot of stuff because he's obviously a maniac and a psycho. Same with you. Mick over there in UCLA, but like, I think it's a part of college sports and a part of college hoops as a whole is the passion.

You obviously get caught up in that yesterday. Your team has a huge win. What are your thoughts on it all, how people talk about it, how it's perceived, and kind of how you handle all the type of situations that pop up in a very emotional time here in March Madness? Yeah, I grew up in a time, in a time. I mean, I'm still young, I feel like, but I grew up when we would go play pickup, and you play against your best buddies or your teammates.

And if there wasn't a fight, it wasn't fun. Not an actual fight, but you're competing against each other, right? Like, it's not even, it's not any fun. Like, if I'm just going to go, you know, be nice to each other and stuff like that, that's the beauty of competition is you can do that and then it's done. And you leave it there. So they say, leave it on the floor. That's what it is.

Now, do I make a habit of that? Absolutely not. I didn't know what was going on, to be perfectly honest. I was like, what? They just started yelling at our bench. But it is a part of it. Like,

it doesn't necessarily need to be a constant deal. You know, those guys were going for 50-50 balls. They got into it. There was a little scrum there, but it's nothing. It's competition. It's fun.

It's, it brings out the best and the worst on occasion. But once the game's over, it's over. And that's, it's hoops, baby. That's why sports are the greatest.

That's why sports are the greatest thing on Earth. Sports are the greatest thing on earth. And what you guys are cooking right now with this March madness is obviously electrifying. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, I guess you've had a ton of success as a coach, not really, I guess, on this stage at this level. Have you talked to anybody, any other coaches about how to handle the rest of this tournament? Obviously, the rest of this week, like you said, you're flying back home. Now, like, what does the rest of the week look like for your coaches and your players?

Not a lot. You know, I think it's probably actually more, I think that the noise is different at this level. So you've got to get that corrected with your team. Like, hey, we've got another game. We actually want to continue to win would be the first part of that. The second part of that is at Division II, you play the next day most of the time. So you'll play the next day or you might have one day break. You don't change locations.

At the high major level, you get your private jet. It'll fly you back. It's a two-hour flight. you eat the best food ever, you get asleep in your own bed, and then you get back on your private jet, and you go to your hotel. And I don't know, it's pretty easy from what it is at Division 2 where you're taking six, seven-hour bus trips.

I mean, we're pretty spoiled. So if you can't get up for this next game or you can't handle it the right way, then I think we've got bigger problems. That's a beautiful thing, Coach. We can't wait to watch you the rest of the way. Good luck. And if you continue to fight coaches,

just know we're on your side. Hell, yeah. Well, those ties there with me. He got my back. Oh, yeah. I'll die for you, coach. Know that. Love it.

And then with a bottle of Jack, and with a bottle of Jack emptied in his soul, he'll be ready. Yeah, he'll be ready for whatever. Ladies and gentlemen, the head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes basketball team, Coach Ben McCullum. Thank you, Mike.

Guys, a winner, AJ. Guys, a winner. And I'll tell you, I love the fact that Ty gets a chance to say that his coach is a dog. Ty, is that your biggest takeaway there from our conversation with the fourth time at D2 National Champion? Yeah, without a doubt. And I wasn't kidding when I said,

you know, I would die for that guy. I'll go in a battle for that guy, take a bullet for that guy. I mean, Iowa basketball for the longest time, like had a lot of success, but it was one of those things were more often than not. They would go to the tournament

and be a higher seed, win the first round, like squeak by, and then get upset in the second round. It was kind of just like a rinse and Pete type deal for him to come in in his first year and he's doing it with a bunch of like mid major guys who were with him at you know the d2 northwest Missouri state then went to drake with him then came to Iowa for them to be in the sweet 16 in his first year where they haven't been since

1999 like this man can do no wrong I wasn't kidding when I said last night was maybe the happiest I've been in like 20 years it was just I mean just unbelievable and I'm still just floating today I cannot wait for Thursday. Let's go Hawkeyes. Congratulations to Utah and to Coach McCollum, who him making time for us was sweet. That was in between travel for him to join us. I think we got Coach Patino tomorrow.

We will obviously continue to try to contribute to the sports world as much as we possibly can. AJ, great work traveling every area of Thunderdome, all right? Oh, shit. Oh, no. Good save. I just had to Justin Timberlake microphone. You remember when he had

Oh yeah that he used to kick down and like catch it and then bring it back? He had a great weekend. He saw some videos to him. Yeah. Great,

I don't know why they come out in that. Great fucking internet. Wait. Great delivery. I don't love that they're doing that to Justin Timber. These guys already been through it 100 times. And then they show them like dancing. Now they're doing it again.

We already want to do this whole thing again. Yeah, I mean, it's gonna be, may. People will never forget it. That's Justin Timber Lake forever in its entirety. But AJ, Anytime we're on this show going forward, we need you to stop making any jokes about concussions in football players. Yes.

I don't. I know what are you trying to get to, but I don't really mess around with that. You share the same sentiments as some players. What's that? I joke about helmets. Cam Scataboo had to apologize. Cam Scataboo had to apologize for making a joke about CT and asthma,

saying he doesn't believe in both of them. What is the same? Asthma. And he says, just. He said, just breathe, man. He said, just breathe. Asthma's not real. And I will say, I've met a few people in my life that do have similar beliefs to Cam Scadaboo.

I used to not believe in headaches because I never got one. Now, on that note, I've been told that that is not real. On that note, we will continue to try to bring awareness to the dangers of football and concussions to the future. But we've got to be able to joke about stuff. Come on, come on, come on, come on. Football players are a lot of jokes. People that aren't like Cam Scataboo. AJ Hawk, you know, guys like this,

have to be able to joke about it, obviously, to get through. Sometimes that's the only way people can really get through stuff is by making jokes. I appreciate him coming out and saying, I'm sorry, offended you, and I think Webster's son came out and was like, hey, this has affected a lot of people's lives, you know, in a negative way, so we appreciate you acknowledging that. We would like to go and say,

we certainly understand that the future of some players because of concussions with CT is not great, but on that note, I don't know how we're supposed to not reference it in some sort of way that is. you know, real, you know, in the reality of a situation. Happy Cam got through that. I love Cam Scatibu. I hope he plays football good again.

We think he's going to? Yes. Yeah. He only knows. Yeah, I think so as well. But I did find it interesting how many times Chefty mentioned love and the Giants at five, even though for a month now, that would be pretty cool. Pretty cool.

Scataboo and love? Yeah. Dart. And Jackson Dart? Oh. Highard. drawn hardball. Ricardo Scataboo

with love behind him. Yeah. Jordan stout ready to punt. Yeah. Neighbors back. Jesus. Bruce, the Giants not suck anymore? I don't think so.

I think we're going to be all the way back. We're definitely going to be pounding the rock. Neighbors seems to be a little bit more behind in his rehab than Scataboo is. Scataboo is going to be good to go for OTAs, but neighbor's knee, apparently. He was pretty fucked up. All right. Well, hopefully everybody gets healthy over there. We'd love to see the Giants have a good team. And Cam Scataboo, keep living your life, dude.

Keep living your life, brother, doing wherever. You dominate that taco, Cam. That's right. You dominate that taco every single time. You just keep it moving. Congrats to Matt Fitzpatrick. Huge putt on 18. Huge.

He was so close a week ago. Obviously, Cam Young gets to win. Fitz has a chance to finish it here on 18. And now you're done. Gets excited. the quiet, I'm an introvert, but I want to do a fist bump, lose my mind thing. And I appreciate him doing that. Congratulations to him, getting a big win.

Foxy, PGA's doing it. We like the Valspar championship, and how do you feel about Fitsy getting the win, Fox? Yes, sir, PGA's doing it. Fitsy's on absolute fire right now. He's one of those guys you look at because the Masters is pretty close. And then over in the live golf league, Pat. Thank you, Foxy. Bryson D. Chambot has won back-to-back tournaments.

He just won in South Africa. The scenes were unbelievable after. he said that it was the best live tournament they've had to date. So look for Bryson D. Chambot, who won in a playoff against John Rom in that tournament. Look for both those guys at the Masters as we get close to that. Okay, so first place and second place or first place and runner up or first place and last place. Two tones point whenever it comes to what the live is at this point. We love the alternate option, don't we, D.

Whenever we find it on a super duper D.W channel, we turn it on and we say, wow, Rombo's playing, Dishambeau's playing. We got golf in its highest form, right, Dibu? I think they kind of figure it out with the international scenes. Whenever they go to Australia or South Africa, I know it was Rom and Deschamboe in the playoff, but it was a South African. I'm not sure of his name, but he got a huge pops, huge R. Roel. But this shot, this finished, like I think he was like $290 out, shot two, got it up on the green for like a 15 footer for Eagle, end up tapping in for Parr to win. This is his top tier, Bryson.

I know after the win, he was pretty emotional. I guess he's dealing with something in his personal life, so T's and P's there for Bryson. But it was a great scene. And then post-match, Calvin Harris, still bringing it out there in front of 100,000. So yeah, they'll be back in South Africa in 2007. But those of you in the office who have been to a live tournament live, I think they kind of have that downpacked even over the PGA tour. But PGA, you know, that's still the cream of the crop right now. But when we get these guys on the same field when the master's coming up, I will definitely have a nice ticket on Bryson.

The crown will be mine. Okay, I like that you're trying to get the crown, and the crown might be yours. We'll see if the crown's yours or Disham, Crombo, whatever the case. I like that he's getting emotional, big wins, especially the stuff going on in his personal life. D. Bo, what's your favorite Calvin Harris song? I mean, you know, they kind of all sound the same. That's not true. That's not Calvin Harris, you know, Diplow, freaking Rufus.

Diffel played the after party of the flag football situation. He did. He did. You know, all of them, they bring it. He's bringing it with all of them. Let me hear just a little melody. Let me hear what that one sounds like that. You got to start on beat guys.

Most of his songs usually start with lyrics actually. So it would be, if we gave you the beat, it's like half a song. Yeah, match you in the summer. That's not real. That's not real. I feel so kind of. How about they found love. a hopeless place.

Yeah, there you go. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do that song, yeah. That's Calvin Harris right there, I think. Butsy, do yourself in favor? Diplo. Go ahead. Sorry. No, no, no.

I just say, look at Calvin Harris's glow up. Research that on the internet after we're done here. I look on X. Yep. Well, yeah, he's doing live tournaments, bro. He's fucking at the top of the world. He's that, dude. Shit that fucking crap.

Yeah. Who do they have at Valspar? Who do they have out there? At Valspar? Look at this shit. Better watch it, man. I think Darius Rucker was playing Valspar. I know I brought up, but Liv stinks.

Stead. Let me make one thing clear. I brought it up. This is on me, but it still stinks on TV. They got to figure that out. All right, let's think about things that stink but have a pretty good show coming. The UXSFL has, have you seen the halftime performances? Oh, yeah.

You stacked? No, who? We got Nellie fucking playing somewhere. We got Russell Dickerson. That's right. Somewhere. We got everybody out there. Yeah, Gucci, Maine.

Boom. Gucci Main. TV Myers. Wallet. TV Myers. Which one's the Columbus one? I believe it's Ty Myers. I was thinking the same thing.

How did they get him? Of course. TV. Well, Bring it. He's still bringing it. Wale is going to fucking murder that. Okay, we love Waleigh.

We appreciate Wally. We assume Gucci's going to do his thing. Gavin's been doing it forever. TV Myers, I apologize. I cannot wait to watch. Nellie in the St. Lunatics going crazy. DJ Callet, I just watched him jump off a yacht.

Okay, and then he, while he was swimming to shore, he said, new muse comes soon. Okay, so he's going to drop some of that. Russell Dickerson had the song of the fall, obviously, and then Luda. Yeah, right. That's 100 bangers. I don't know how they're going to have. Is that halftime going to be 45 minutes?

Maybe. Maybe that's the new UXSFL thing. I'm not sure, but I love that they're coming out with some bangers for halftime. I would certainly be paying attention, AJ. Which one here are you most looking forward? Are you looking to get back to the M? I, Crooked letter, cooking letter. Oh, you are.

And nobody know I better hate. That Nellie St. Lunatics is good. That's good shit. Gavin de Grohl had a good run for a long time. I'd say, I mean, T.D. Miners slash Ty Myers. I'd say Gavin DeGraw. I don't know. I can't name any songs right now. Let me hear.

What is this song? Tell him, start singing that one. What was good one? Do you don't know Gav? I know Gav. What is Gavin DeGraw? What is that? Come on.

How's he go? I'm not a good singer, but... That's okay. Speaking. What is it called? What's the one? It's the one. There is anything other there was I'm going to be late.

Him and Jason Maraz, like, had a good run, you know? He's early 2000. He's playing? He'll do it. He should. He's doing the Super Bowl or whatever they call. Are we worried at all that the USXFL may have spent their entire league year budget on getting these guys to perform? Maybe. You got to remember, last time they played, they lost $60 million.

So picking up Nellie and the St. Lunatics for halftime is nothing in the middle of that. What's it going to look like, though? Go ahead and charge it to the games, says Rappole. they can fill the stands because you know how it is, it's tough to play anyway at halftime with the state. Russell Dickerson's filling the stadium. You think I can fill the stands.

Smart business moved by him. You're right. Let me. Yeah, make it two minute quarters. I like that they're trying to make it in an event. I have no service. I can't look up a Gavin. What is a Gavin song?

I don't want to be anything other than what I've been trying to be late. That's all I have to do. And then what is the other one? Oh, Cherry. Oh, yeah, that's a banger. All right, now, Ty, do TD Myers, what's he got?

I've never heard that fucking guy, but I'm excited to watch him. Ty's got his, he's U.S.XFL opening weekend. Exactly. Hey, Ty Myers is going to bring it. Hey, what's that Russell Dickerson song? I listen to it at Game Day. It's a hit.

He does this one here. He's got good, he's got good, he's got good. Something about girls. A couple trucks. Nothing. I'm being seniors. That's cold beers, too, or? Nick knows the song in the back

Nick looks like the guy Nick what's this song from Russell Dickerson What's that sound like? Why do I know the song? Happened to me? Driving down the mud road What? Is it?

Happened to me, I think that's a song Sing it. Let's get a little. Go on, Dibon. I have no service. You know it. Dee Buck, hit the Russell that's his song he's been singing.

It is my guy I don't have my tea. Yeah. Russ Dick brings it. He does. Every time. Russ Dick is what it is. R. D's a dog.

He was on the Thanksgiving Macy's Day parade. That's right. Isn't it girls just want to have fun? Isn't it a remake? Yeah. Girls. But like a country version?

Yeah. It's a country version, though. I'm watching. Fuck it. I'm going to watch all these things. It's not just watching for the halftime show. I'm watching the football. I don't think any of these quarterbacks can complete a pass.

We're talking about the 100th ranked quarterback in the country playing for the U.S. NFL. I got faith, especially if D.S. DJ Callet's coming out there and blessing them up, especially if Nellie and the St. Lunatics are coming in with, Give me to her. I need to.

And if Wally's coming in? Yeah. Who knows who Cal is going to bring out? U.S.X.S. X.L. coming out with a bank. What's that, D.B. I said, who knows who DJ Call is going to bring out. We take it over remix the entire crew. Yeah, Drake.

I heard Beyonce's maybe coming out. Her Beyonce's maybe coming out. She's big Houston Brahma, Renegades. Yeah. She does like the Brahma's To your point Who's in Colon?

No, I think they're They're calling them the beehives Ted Gensy comes Yeah, I know That's that's, that's, that's, we care about ball I don't know, do they show, does it say where each one's performing?

Yeah, they're sure, I'm dominant. We're talking. We promoted ball, we did. I like the baller on on how we're ended shows.

This is good. Yeah, I'm dominant. Yeah. Five minute quarters, I'm definitely one. I'm definitely one. Four point 60 point field goals.

Boom. That's right. Is team USA. flagging him being his league? No, I don't, that's the first team USA I've ever wanted to see Luz so bad and I don't ever want to see him on my TV again. But on

that note, they're very talented and we need to respect them and hopefully they'll go win us a gold medal. But if they lose to Austria, oh man, can be hell to pay. Don't sleep on Italy. Yeah. The Italians are flippers. How do you not just tackle those? Has anyone bought that espresso machine yet?

Then there's not espresso one? I got one for the It was a cur again. I said, nope, I needed an airstrike, a no espresso. That's right, because that's what. Do you see that Pasquitino? Oh, yeah. Soaking what?

I don't know why it was at some. You see him as six flags? Yeah, I went solo. Mickey Mouse six flags and not, you know, Kenny would, but whatever. He said he set the record for the three-point challenge. I thought the hoop was built so you couldn't make shots at these things. I didn't know you actually go in there and knock it down.

The Big Pyes on, the Pascwatch is certainly on quite a run. DeBos, have you ever saw the record it? one of these? Absolutely not. I've never seen one as fair as this one. Usually they are a gimmick, pretty smashed in from the front, so you got no chance. But yeah, this is on repeat, but I thought he's smart.

No. It's a lot. All right, let's get out of here. Please, get out of here. Debutt, you're the man. Be a friend, tell a friend, something nice of my change your life. We're in this thing together. I got a chance to watch that movie yesterday.

That was crazy. The movie I was in? Hell, yeah. How was it? You like it? I don't, it was insane. I don't, I don't know what I'm allowed to say, what I'm not allowed to say. I think there's a lot of money involved in all these things.

But me and Gumpy were in a sweet theater in Beverly Hills with what appeared to be kind of tired. Didn't they seem a little tired, a little edgy? A little edgy, a little edgy. Yeah, a little edgy. One of them in particular. Can't stay up late. Yeah, a little bit of. Don't go like they used to.

Yeah, used to have, from what I've been told, they used to really have it. Really? Now it's like, 9 a.m. God go to bed because I got a super duper bed to laying in the morning so I live forever.

You know, there's a lot of that, but the movie was, uh, the movie was all, it was awesome. It's a fucking, hell yeah.

Yeah. I can't believe I'm in a movie. It's a war movie though. That is a war movie. It was sick. Yeah. And I haven't watched a war movie in a long time.

So it was very cool. Yeah, I was in there. I mean, we were in there, in there. Just, I think that movie's going to be really good.

I think people are going to think it's very good. It's the best genre of movies. I agree. I'm very excited for that. What, war movies? Yeah. My car are the best genre of movies out there. Yeah. I mean, I was fucking in war last night for an hour and 40 minutes. Me and Gumpy were in war. That's what I felt like as we were watching this movie. It was like, it was a reminder, you know, of like what war actually is, like, you know, especially because where we're at right now and everything that's happening today, it's like, hey, this is what happened in World War II. Like, actually you feel like the way it was shot.

Peter Berg, obviously a fucking genius, the way he does stuff. And it's like, it was, it was very intense. It was very intense. Very lucky to be a part of it. Tells a wonderful story. And, you know, you're crying at the end of it. I guess that's, that's good. That's the goal.

Yep. I don't like that I'm a crier now of a sudden, though, because I have a daughter, you know. It's all right. I start crying and stuff. Happens. You cry when you're happy, not when you're sad. Or both.

Oh, sad. I was sad during this movie. Well, it's like a sad, happy thing, though. Yeah. It's your test. Yeah. It'll be good to him. Yeah.

Use that. harness that. I didn't even think about me fucking just being able to cry like Vernon. Yeah. All right. What's everybody laughing about? Fucking take it easy, boys. Huh?

Okay. Buy in. Let's be professionals. Be your friend, tell a friend something nice if might change their life. We're in this thing together. ESPN people, thank you so much for the hospitality here, honestly.

Thank you, ESPN people. Appreciate you guys. Really appreciate it. Weeks was on the lead for this entire thing. And I'll tell you what, the bald guy did some magic in here. There's a guy named Tyler here. He's got great hair.

Yeah, weapon, of course. Beast. Huge fucking hookas on. This guy. Love it. He's walking around on Clods. This guy's really doing it. I mean, it is a fucking, it is the time. All right. We'll be back tomorrow. Be a friend. Gumpy, way to go, Gump. Way to go.

Hey, girl. That is a giant. I'll have you guys know. Gumpy's sleeping these days. I don't know if you know that. What? Catching Gumpy's sleeping. I don't believe you.

Uh-oh. I'm telling you, fuck, there's no way. What do I hear? I hear a little snorri elf from Canada.

He's losing it. I was lost. I'm getting old. Be a friend, tell her friends up next to my change life. We're in this thing together.

We'll see you guys tomorrow. Team on me, thank you everybody at ESPN for being kind. I washed my hands three times when I was in a bathroom because I didn't want

any anonymous sources to say that Pat Magnapp didn't wash his hand. So a new person came in. I had to say it loud. Like, I'm washing my hands right now. This is what I do every time I piss. You know, all right. Be a friend to the friends. I'm nice. Change your life. We're doing this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

Team. Goodbye.