The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1573 - Pete Thamel, Mark Schlabach, USMNT Center Back Chris Richards, Carolina Hurricanes Head Coach Rod Brind’Amour, Wyndham Clark, Dana White, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat more about the World Cup fever taking over after the stars took over and Lionel Messi had a hat trick last night for Argentina, plus they cover all the news in the NFL, and check in on the College World Series. They are also joined by several great guests including the Authority on College Football, Pete Thamel; ESPN writer and golf columnist Mark Schlabach to preview theUS Open; Crystal Palace center-back and USMNT member Chris Richards; Head Coach of the Carolina Hurricanes and 2x Stanley Cup Champion Rod Brind’Amour; former US Open champion Wyndham Clark; and President of the UFC Dana White Make sure to subscribe to http://youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you, we’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our Humble the Boat. The Draft Kings Thunderdome on this Sports Cup fever Wednesday, June 17, 2026. This sports program begins now. Sports are the greatest, and I'll tell you what, we got a little World Cup fever. And when the stars of their sports dominate their sport and do what we are all told that they're supposed to do, That is when sports blossom into superstardom in places that they aren't normally at. Baseball had an entire run where Shohei and Schino and all the boys that we think and judgey, everybody that we know was performing at its absolute peak.

It's like, that's a healthy league. Soccer? You ask any average American dipshit who doesn't know soccer, a couple players' names, just if they were to exist, tell them they would not be able to go any further on with their day. if they weren't able to name five soccer players. They would sit there and they would have to go very deep and they'd say, what's that guy from Hansen, brother?

Mbapay. Yep. Okay, imbop, that's one of them, right? There's another one. It looks like an actual Viking. They've got him on TV all the time. Every single Saturday morning, he feels like he's a, he's a country.

Is it Holland? The guy, Holland is the guy? Oh, yeah, early. Oh, Holland. Okay, here's the name. And then what's that one? He plays down in Miami. He's the best player in the world, the best player of all the time.

What's his name? Louie. Leo Messi. Yeah. And he's all right. You can go about your day. Yeah, those are the ones that you should know. They fucking crushed yesterday.

Yeah, they did. Just absolutely crushed. Two goals, two goals. And then a hat trick for Leo Messi in Kansas City in front of Patrick Mahomes, who obviously those two have met before whenever into Miami, I believe, had a scrimmage over there one time. And he was at the game. last night, but nonetheless, the best

player on Earth, who everybody, including us, said, hey, when Argentina plays against Algeria, you just need to watch the little one. There's a little one out there that's wearing the number 10, and he's just walking casually. You'll see him just like scrawling around. Ten other guys, including the goalie from his team,

will be running at one point, and he will just be walking around. Okay? And then as soon as the ball gets in a 10-yard gravitational radius of him, it is going directly to his left foot, And then the whole place is about the light up on fire. And he did it.

Last night he had insane, even when he wasn't scoring, nasty, filthy goals. His first goal, he just ripped it absolutely dominated a goal. A goalie thought he had it, yeah, right, I don't think so. Had one called back early. Supposedly he should have potentially had four goals. Instead just has three absolute crackers, casual goals, lights up the whole place, beats Algeria 3 to 1, and the entire world says, yeah, that's what he's supposed to do, right? I don't know if that's what you're supposed to do.

But it's seemingly what this guy always does. They're the reigning World Cup champs, Argentina in the prime time spot, in the middle of the country, sold out stadium. Lou Messi, who's obviously taken America by storm. Every stadium he's walked into on this ground has been sold out to watch him play soccer, and he has delivered. I don't know if there's anybody that has done more for soccer and the history of soccer. And I guess Pele is a massive name. Everybody will obviously remember Pele. And there's a run where David Beckham goes from being Manchester United Youth Phenom,

over to America and they give him a percentage of a team. Now he has an entire team. Obviously, he's done great things for the game. And all the people that cover the sport, obviously, a lot of legends covering the sport, which I appreciate. We see Tierra Henri. We see Zlatan Ibrahimovic, one of the biggest stars of all time covering the game. So there's been a lot of big names that have done a lot for the sport.

Messy coming over to America for the sport, he is delivered. I mean, he's been must watch, must see, and has performed at his peak seemingly every time he's on TV. There's been a couple games where he's missed or whatever because he's injured and everybody gets scared to death and he's never going to play again. And then he comes back and he's better than ever. Last night, what a gift to sport to have that happen. The NHL crowned their Stanley Cup champs. Congratulations to Carolina and the Hurricanes.

Rob Brindamore head coach that team will join us today. Hell yeah. Can't wait to catch up with Rod the bod, who's obviously a beast and is flipping Lord Stanley into a hugging position. Now he's won as a captain of the Hurricanes and as a head coach of the hurricane. So it's like we'll definitely talk to him. but they've crowned their champs. NBA, they've crowned their champs. Shout out to Big Body Brunson, Perk, Q Rich, Emon, NBA,

for allowing us to be a part of that. They've crowned their champions. They're done. College World Series, West Virginia is part of the Final Four. Let's go. We're into college baseball. Okay, we're big into college baseball because West Virginia is in it. But now I think I'm falling in love with the entire thing

that kind of takes place over there where there's magic over in Omaha, Nebraska, and now West Virginia might win a national championship. MLB is happening right, but a lot of the conversation is, going to stop playing baseball? So soccer right now has kind of captivated us. It's king. And whenever your stars, Umbop are coming out and absolutely destroy, he got a goal call back as well. Holland scores immediately upon the game starts. Baligan and America goes on and dominates. He should have had a hat trick. He got one called back as well. That is good for a tournament. That is good for sports. That's good for a daily sports talk. So we are very, very grateful

for soccer. We are very, very thankful for the goat of their sport, just doing it. And now today we get a chance to see the guy that's been doing it just as long as he has in christiana rinaldo obviously a worldwide global sensation i think he has i don't know he has the same amount of followers on social media as elan has money and he's a trillionaire now yeah yeah he has a trillion followers right yes this guy has a trillion followers on the internet everybody knows him he's been around this is his sixth world cup with portugal he's still incredibly shredded he he's a flash he's a flashy player yep ridiculously handsome i mean outrageously handsome has been his whole life, and then also hits rockets and nukes and flies and score.

He's like a, he's a human highlight real of this guy. Him and Messi, though, have been kind of the same exact times. Both of them playing in Six World Cups, both being talked about his greatest of all time. Two different styles of play. He just watched Messi take over the entire world last night. Ronald was going to answer. I'd say. And then Eric Kane, which.

Oh, Eric. Eric. Errie. Errikine. Every kind. coming home. You think he might, he would have to be 55, 60 years old. Yes, we've known him forever.

Has he been playing for England since he's 12 years old? Maybe. I mean, that might be the case. I think he's only in his early 30s. I think he's got another World Cup in him. I think Eric Kane's got it. Yeah, it's 32. Every Kane's got another World Cup coming after this one.

But obviously, England's always going to be trying to bring it home. And I don't know who Gumpy's pulling for. It's going to one half of the hammer. God! Cowboys Bubba Gumpino. England's playing today. but you've been wrong pretty good with America, and I know, you are Canadian.

Trying to make your pick, son. So what is kind of the feel here, gumsch? It's coming home. It's England. It's always been England. It was my boys. We get in here. This is what we do.

Major tournaments. We sing it's coming home until it doesn't. Yeah. We'll see how they do against a very experienced Croatia squad today. And you got Ghana and Panama, Uzbekistan, and Colombia. Good luck to everybody. Thank you to soccer for carrying it through. There's some news in the college football world.

The toxic table is here at Boston Connor at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Cowboys AP tone is here. Brendan Sorsby will be having a pro day on July 10th at South Lake High School. Sorry at Carroll High School. Sorry about that. He will be working out, obviously, for teams. We've seen these types of things in the past

where a player is either trying to get back into the league or obviously missed a workout that everybody else was at, so they make a special one for him. I assume there will be a large turnout. One half of the hammer, Cowboys, a man who has a vote on all the AP awards in the NFL. We're thinking if they do open up the supplemental draft, which the NFL will still have to do.

He applied for the supplemental draft, the NFL, I believe the commissioner is the one that says, Let's do that shit. I think. I don't know if that's how he says it. I'm never been in there. I might. So, Mr. Commission, what's it going to be?

And he comes in and says, I've reviewed the footage. I've scanned the documents. I've tested the waters on how many teams would be interested. I've looked at his projections. I've studied the tape. Supplemental draft. Let's do that shit. We don't know if that's how he says it.

No, he should. There's a chance he does say it that way because commission, if you've seen, he's had a lot of open, open talks. Oh, yeah. We're not doing the ties anymore. And we do know the peanut M&Ms. Oh, he's close.

And we know the leather chair from the COVID draft. So we know he's potentially delivering the message. But he has not decided that the supplemental draft has been open yet. So we assume now that the supplemental draft will be open. And if it is, I mean, somebody will be very interested. AP tone, this workout. What does this mean? Is this going to be treated as a?

a combine because he didn't do the combine. Will there be people working them out? Will there be scouts there? What do we know at this exact moment before Pete Thammel joins us in a matter of moment? Yeah, I'm sure Pete will be able to fill in the blanks. But as we talked about yesterday with DJ, there will be the workout. It will be like your typical pro-day workout where all the scouts and teams can go down

and take a look at him, make sure, you know, everything checks out. He will be throwing to his guys. Just like this is about as abnormal as it is. Who are his guys? hand selected guys hand selected guys I know but I'm just wondering like who is Cincinnati guys

is Cody Campbell run out there because Cody Campbell and Coach McGuire was definitely his guy his guy until the end I don't think it's going to be his Cincinnati guys I don't think it's going to be his Texas tech guys so hand selected guys

so it's going to be the Carroll High School guys it could be yeah boys of fall good boys I mean that's basically a college program so and I would expect scouts or some sort of representation from all 32 teams.

All right. Well, I can't wait to see the story. Let's see what Pete Thamel has to say in about 10 minutes or so. Let's go to NFL. We got big news around the NFL. Huge news around the NFL. Ladies and gentlemen, there's been a lot of conjecture around the size of a bison that is placed in front of a Buffalo Bills brand new stadium.

Now, we all assume that the budget for these types of things is never ending. Okay, we understand that everybody is trying to build some new modern Marvel. They all look like spaceships. They all have some absurd thing. Every new stadium somehow tops the one before it with new technology, new experience, new everything. And that's what you're going all in for, is to draw fans and to get the money back, not only at taxpayers, but as a business. When the Buffalo Bill has announced that they were going to be building a new stadium

directly across the street from their old stadium, legendary Ralph Stadium, where everybody has had some sort of NFL football history. And everybody was excited about the idea. And then they said, we're going to put some bison out front. and all anybody reacted with was these better not be little baby bitch ass bison these things need to be big

huge and we're not talking like hey there's an elephant in the thunderdome named saki right there we're not talking like hey you can get it somewhere shipped no if we're going to be putting bison out front of a stadium a brand new stadium in 2026 with everything that we have access to these things are going to need to be

strong Because if not, oh, this is an eyesore on a stadium that you have out front. Well, we got eyes on the first bison. We believe there will be three. There will be a daddy bison and a mama bison and then a baby bison, which is a calf, I do believe. And the calf, we think, got delivered yesterday. Now, we have not been told exactly which one of the bunch this is. We believe this is the calf.

And I would like to say this to the people of Buffalo and to the designers and architects and engineers. If that's the little one, you guys did it. That's an incredible draw. That is a great. That is a great. If there's a daddy and a mama come in around the bend here, now I cannot wait to see the fleet,

the herd, the crowd, the gang. Yeah, probably heard. A bunch of buffalo. A herd of bison? What is a crow? A murder?

Yeah, murder of crows, yeah. A squad of squids. A school? Mm-hmm. It's a school of bison. It's a herd. Fuck. Yeah.

That was the easiest one. It was sitting right there, but they all have so many cool names. Yeah. Why aren't they all just kind of, you know, herds? Because they have so many different, what's their names? What's a gaggle? Gaggle of monkeys?

Is that what it is? The geese? Gaggle of roosters? It's a gaggle of geese. And we just need to get rid of them. How come? Nope. No, monkeys are a troop.

There it is. This is a good. that we should keep doing it. That's what I'm saying. Group of throws is called a murder. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

The murder is the one that kind of really expedites the conversation into it all. Anyways, the bison, the herd of bison that is going to be arriving outside, I think we'll set the tone for a weekend as a Buffalo Bills fan. And they said there's smoke coming out. There's going to be lighting coming out. I like what they did here, Ty. I like that they're getting creative with the Buffalo Bills. But also, I appreciate that places are building new stadiums, strictly because with the technology that we have right now, in the amount of pain it is to get to the point of building a new stadium.

I mean, look what's happening with Chicago Bears. They're moving to Indiana because of this. Kansas City Chiefs moved from Missouri to Kansas. Nobody really cares because it's Kansas City and Kansas is part of it. But there's a lot that gets to getting a new stadium. I like the fact that they're doing it like this, and I appreciate the fact that they're making it big tie. Yeah, I mean, it should be like this.

And we kind of, we joked about this in the entire time with Bino and some of the other bills brass where it's like, hey, if you're doing this and these are too small, we're going to kill you for it. we're going to give you hell. But part of it is like, if you're building this new stadium and you're spending billions of dollars, like it should be a massive attraction. It should be something where people, when they go to that first Bill's home game or when they have the ribbon cutting ceremony and people are there,

they should look up at these things and be like, holy shit. This is unbelievable. It should almost take your breath away. That's kind of the whole point of these new stadiums. And I'm glad that the bills understood that the entire way. And they didn't have to unveil it and be like, oh, man, we really messed up. Now we got to redo this. They did it right from the get-go.

And I think that bodes well for everything. We've seen some unveilings in the past. Remember the bat break? Yeah. Just a couple weeks ago. E. Turro. Sean Taylor. Yeah.

Rest in peace. Remember that entire situation? Chrisiano. A lot of these things. Dwayne Wade. Yeah. When teams go for it, normally not good, feels like we got a great start here.

Good luck out there, both. Good luck. Let's say in the NFL, looks like there's some contract disputes down there in Tampa Bay between some known names. Now, they're moving on from Mike. Evans or Mike Evans moved on from Tampa Bay. Baker Mayfield, pillar of the Buccaneers. It doesn't sound like that if you're reading the internet con man. Yeah, kind of a tough situation. I think he signed a three-year, a hundred million dollar

deal two years ago. He got 50 guaranteed and now he wants another deal. He is at camp, not really missing anything, but Vita Vaya is kind of the other part of this that is probably affecting Baker. Vita Vaya decided not to participate in a mini camp at all. He wasn't there. I don't believe he didn't do anything. And he's kind of, of the guy that we've talked about when it comes to Tampa Bay, like, hey, nobody else has this guy. Like Vita Vaya is a one-on-one. He's the dude who can single-handedly stop the seemingly undefendable tush-push. And now they're both kind of holding out pretty tough since both of those markets are huge. But anytime this stuff comes up, it's like, well, the L.A.

Rams are basically paying like eight different guys, $200 million. So how come they can't get this done? But this is why a team like Tampa might be a sleeper for like a sort of. be to bring it back to their. Like those teams that have that quarterback who might be going into this last year of his deal, because we even talk about Sam Donald, you know, that deal that he's signed, three years, 100 million, have enough money to go around for everybody, which is what they had with Baker. And they've had success with Baker. I think Baker actually came out and said, like, hey, I've started every single game for the last three years.

I don't think the durability or me being there is a problem. I'm going to be there. But now that this whole entire contract thing in Tampa has become a storyline, not great for everything they got going on and that's why hey Brendan Soresby is supposed to be a top 10 pick. You're telling me Tampa Bay isn't going to go ahead and say hey it's one of the places. We might be able to use

a first round pick because hey we have Baker we're going to have a pick in the back 20 why not just use it. Yeah okay so let's move away from Tampa Bay who might be in the market for a quarterback. Anybody could be in the market for anyone. If you can get a first round pick for a third round price I think there'll be a lot of teams that'll say

yes just because that is their natural don't care what position it is. If they think a kicker is a first rounder and it's still around in the third round, just out of spite, hey, for the good of the board, we got to be able to do that. So wherever the people had him on their board going into this, with however long this supplemental draft goes, if a supplemental draft gets approved. Yeah, true. We're putting cart way before horse here.

Yeah, until we hear we're doing this shit. This is 18 games. It doesn't matter. Come on. You don't think the NFL wants news? They're going to do a supplemental draft. This is an 18 game conference. conversation when it went to 17.

I don't know, man. You got to remember, like, there's going to be some olds that are like, yeah, right. Agreed. Chicago Black Sox, Pete Rose. There's people that have that type of mindset about anything. Now, Soresby didn't do what they did. Okay, he was not playing in the games in which he gambled.

That is electronically tracked. And it is, he did not have any snaps or games in any of the things that he bet on. What did he bet on and knows? There's been, who knows? There's been a lot of things that have. been there, but nothing that he's ever played in. Okay, so that is what I think the Texas tech people were like, this isn't what you guys are lumping this into or whatever it is.

But the olds and a lot of us were like, still though, like that is still not what we need to be doing. I think if Gidella is the one saying we're doing this shit or we're not done his shit, I think he's getting a lot of people that are potentially telling him, yes, we think this guy's really good. But there are certainly some powerful people, I'd assume, around the NFL that are like yeah, right. That is not, is he number one overall pick? Is this guy really going to be, or are we going to let this happen? And I don't know. I genuinely, I think yes, supplemental

draft is going to happen. I would like to put my vote in. Supplemental draft is going to happen. But I think there's going to be some people around football that are like, yeah, right, just like everybody in college was doing the same thing. I think there's people in the NFL that are going to grandstand on the same thing. I agree. And I was one of the people that said he should not play college football again. Like if you bet on that, you did that. You should not be able to play college football again. On the other side, I don't think it should completely ruin his entire football career.

There is a lot of other things in the NFL guys on rosters that did worse things than what Brandon's horseby did. Obviously for the state of the game, maybe not. You can't have players betting on their own team and their own game, stuff like that. But it's in the grand scheme of things, what he did, pales

in comparison to what some guys on teams are doing so, right? So yes, I don't think you ever should play it in college football ever again. Do I want his future ruin in the NFL? No, absolutely not. Let's see how that works. I think a lot of us feel that way. But I think there's going to be... There's going to be some people that are alive. I've seen on the internet. They don't want him to play in the NFL either. Exactly.

UFO. He can go play in a small CFL or something like that. There's people that are like, not in the NFL. You can't gamble on game in which you are a member of team in sport and play in our league. And I'm not saying that they are going to win out. I think that there will be a supplemental

draft. And I'll be happy for Soresby to have his opportunity to kind of write his entire football story, if you will, and he could become a face that could help it. But I think there are going to be people that are like... Agree. Not about it. Yeah, definitely.

I think the quarterback thing comes in, too. Like, you know, if this is a receiver or a linebacker or something, like, maybe it changes a little bit, but, like, this guy's got... He's going to be the CEO of a billion-dollar franchise. Like, we have to be able to implicitly trust this guy with everything exactly, and I wonder if that impacts it at all. Yeah, but maybe he's the perfect guy for it because he's already hit his rock bottom.

Could be. And maybe he is calloused more than anybody. else. And maybe he's on a redemption tour to save his name from, you know, the addiction problem that he clearly had. But also, he crossed the line, I think, that a lot of people are going to have a tough time letting him

back. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a guy who probably has a little bit more information on that. Plus, the July 10th Pro Day at Carroll High School. I keep saying Combine. Basically, you know. They need that guy from Pittsburgh. Yeah, this guy. I can't remember his name. That's not good. You forget

his name. You're a bad guy. You're a bad guy. Nick, you're a bad guy, too. You don't remember his name in the back. That's for Pittsburgh. You too, Foxy. You don't remember. Come on. I don't know who you're talking about.

You're talking about Mark, bro. Caboli. Who's Mark? Is it? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is not the man who's going to know the official 40s starter for the NFL Combine, but a man who's going to know everything else around this Sorsby situation. Ladies and gentlemen, the authority for college sports, Pete Thammle. Yeah, Peter.

Hello, Pete. Mark is the gentleman, De Jensar, who starts the 40s in Talje. You got to be pause for a second there. Just get back in there, get comfortable, fucking go ahead and get it. Now, Pete, let's talk about this Sorsby workout July 10th. How many teams do we think will be represented there? What do we think this looks like? And how did we land on July 10th as the date for this workout?

So, Pat, we'll start with the teams. I called a few teams today. And I'd expect all 32 to go. And every NFL team, because it's a quarterback, because there's some ambiguity around him. And because the supplemental draft is like a blind pick. So I think you'd be foolish if you didn't put everybody puts in a blind bid. So even if you have a quarterback, you may put in a fourth round or four.

So everyone has skin in this. So I'd expect all 32 teams to be there. I talked to Ron Slavin from Lyft Management, who's Sorsby's agent today. He said he's talked to 23 GMs already. He expects all 32 to be there. I talked to four or five teams. It's more of like how many do we? send, then are we going to send anyone to see Brendan Sorsby? Look, Pat, quarterbacks are the engine of a

multi-billion dollar business, almost a trillion dollar business at this point. And look, how many NFL quarterbacks can win a Super Bowl who are starting on Sunday? And these teams have to determine, could this guy be one of those guys? And, you know, it's a huge franchise altering decision if you're going to do this. So everyone is going to get every single last bit of recon they can on Brendan Sorsby. I appreciate the fact that teams are going to look into it. And also I appreciate the fact that they're seemingly allowing him forgiveness for anything that had happened in the past and maybe allowing him an ability to rewrite his future or his football story as a whole. Have you heard from any teams that are maybe tough pill to swallowing what's going on with him in college, if you will, if you will, P Thamel. If you will, Pat.

Look, the NFL is a forgiving place, if you can play, right? We've seen it countless times, legal situations, et cetera. So there will certainly be a deep dive and a focus on what Brendan Sorsby did. And look, these teams all have contracts through different security firms and stuff like that. They will get all the information. But I do think the focus is soon going to shift on what kind of player is he, can he be a starting quarterback in the NFL? Can he be a franchise quarterback in the NFL? in the NFL. I have gotten no vibe that teams are like, well, we're not touching him. You know what I mean?

I think all 32 are going to be there and they're going to dig in to what they can do. The thought I got from calling some teams today, Pat, is it isn't just the teams that, you know, we know the four or five teams that need quarterbacks, right? But also what this Surgery situation does, if you have an aging quarterback, it gives you a chance to maybe, you know, use some draft capital on a guy if you don't normally pick in the top 10 to get a talent like this, right? Because I think if he stayed, there was a good chance he could have elevated himself into that top 10, top 15 conversation. So if you have an aging guy, can you redshirt him a little bit?

Do the Jordan Love situation. Put him in your program. Get him up to speed. He does need to develop. I don't think there's any question about that. But the raw talent is real. So I just think this could go a lot in different ways. I wouldn't niche his future to like, oh, these four teams need a quarterback.

and we expect one of these four teams to, I think the conversation, people are going to have time to get a little bit creative with this. And look, the vibe around the league that I've gotten is that someone's likely going to use a two on them. And I would say this as we sit here in mid-June in this supplemental draft. Again, he's applied. He hasn't been accepted yet. They haven't set the date on it, but it's probably going to be about a month from today, maybe five weeks from today. And one thing in my history of just doing this for a long time in covering the draft is, when there's a quarterback and people are like,

oh, he's a second round pick in September, you know where he usually ends up going? Usually it's going the first round. So just don't be surprised if this position gets overvalued if the background stuff clears because the talent is clearly the talent. Yeah, and the background stuff obviously pretty well known, but the human of Sorsby,

from our understanding from everybody that has known him and met him, they love him. That's why Texas Tech went to bat for him so much because they enjoyed him as a human. I got a chance to meet his family at game day. They're a very humble, very kind group. In the way he plays ball is electrifying. And then you started talking about the Jordan Love situation.

It was like, who's the older quarterback that was there? I believe it was Aaron Rogers, Pat. Where's he at now? Where's he at now? He would be the quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is set to be his final season as an NFL quarterback from what he has said and what I've gleaned from our friend, Adam Schaefter, and Brooke Pryor. So what you're saying is the Jordan Love situation could actually be the Jordan Love situation just in a team in the AFC that is kind of a similar situation.

I'll take Brennan under my wing. I'll make sure he stays on the straight and arrow. Got a drafting's hoodie on. Sitting out of drafting's death. They got their guy in Pittsburgh already. Will Hard. Yeah. We love Will Hart.

Drew out. Drew out. All the boys. We love all the boys. See what sticks against the wall. Now, I will say the Rooney family certainly has a soft spot. in their heart for the gambling gene. Yeah.

Okay, I do believe that. A bit of horse racing money, I believe, is really what started this entire thing. So I don't want to say that they would potentially enjoy the fact that they are maybe a part of a responsible gambling operation, which I think Sorsby is taking into the next level. I think that will be something that he will always be attached to, which I think is good as this entire generation now is just growing up in the world where sports gambling is very accessible. I mean, there's just something that is different from nowadays versus what it was back in

today. But I think with the nowadays technology, and even though I guess it's because he was gambling so small, but the amount of bets he was making, I assume there was some alarm somewhere that were going off, but they can kind of save you from yourself, you save yourself from yourself, as opposed to what it was in the past, but there certainly can become problematic gambling. And it's like Sorsby will always be able to kind of talk about his story. And the fact that he's seemingly, if they open up the supplemental draft, going to be able to change it all. I think is good news. I think it's good news. But I think everybody would have hated if he would have played a Texas Tech this year because of how it all went down. On that note, Connor has the

final question for you, Pete. Yeah, Pete, when it comes to the other ADs banding together in the Big 12 and basically refusing to play Texas Tech, did that get any traction? Was that actually a realistic possibility, especially because, you know, sort of he was going back. Then a week later, he decides he's not going back. Was that something that other teams were considering and actually, you know, going to fall through with? Connor, I think that was discussed. I don't know if it was formally discussed. I think that was more like talk at the bar kind of stuff.

You know what I mean? Like people were angry and they wanted to find a way to manifest that anger. And look, give Big 12 Commissioner Brett Your Mark credit. They legally outmaneuvered Texas Tech and enforced their hand to get what they wanted, right? The ADs clearly and the coaches clearly didn't think Brenda Zoresby should play college football. The Big 12 president said that in the wake of their meeting on Monday. They didn't feel like someone who bet on his team. team's own games should play college football.

And what the Big 12's legal filing in federal court in Dallas did late Sunday, early Monday, was it just created uncertainty around Soresby and Texas Tech in his camp. And they decided ultimately that they couldn't push forward without the certainty that he'd be playing. And that aura of ambiguity that surrounded his future ultimately pushed him to the supplemental draft, which the deadline to apply for it was. was a week away from that, from that filing. So that was the clear tenor shift to Connor more than the threats to not play. The aura of ambiguity.

Mm-hmm. Is that what you said? Oro of ambiguity. Ambiguity. Is that how you pronounce that word? Man, if I would have saw it right now, because it's AM, B, I, G, U-I-T-Y-Y-T-Y, right? I believe so. No ding right there, Mina Kimes.

Ambiguity is how it's not. It's ambiguity. Ambiguity. What is it? Ambiguity. And what does he kind of have around him? It's an aura of, it's kind of an aura of an ambiguous nature. And if you had to describe what that man, what would that exactly mean?

There's really no way to know what's going to happen there. Could it happen? Sure. Could it happen? Maybe not. It's very ambiguous. We just don't know. So you think that was potentially the reason on why Sourcesby was like,

what do we do here? We've got a deadline coming up. Is that what you kind of found himself in? Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, I mean, Pete would like this, you know, an ode to Nathaniel Hawthorne. I was wondering, you know, would he have been maybe wearing a scarlet letter for the whole season, regardless, you know, had he been able to play? I don't know. It's a fine ode to literature, tie.

I just really don't like the impression with a Yankee hat on. That's it. Oh. Sorry, you guys are the Scottish Red Sox right now. They actually were at Yankee Stadium last night, too. The Scots were. The Scots fell down to the north. They have their way down south.

Norway is actually. fans jump them too. Okay. All right. You're the man. We appreciate that. That's the authority, Peter Thammel. Hey, Pete.

I don't want that fight. He did have an aura of ambiguity. Wordsmith. Unbelievable. Of the highest order. Yes. So was he a writer? Of the highest order.

Peter Thammell was your writer? For who? Who was she a writer? Penman Pete. I want to show a movie like the Boston Herald, potentially. I think Pete has maybe won a Peabody Award. Peabody's a great movie

that dog takes his kid back in time if you're seeing a movie. I don't think I don't think he has written for S.I. The New York Times. He has Japan. Jesus. Okay. I like that. We're just all getting our proper voices. Is that what we're doing? You're talking about Mr. Peabody and Sherm? Ah, Peabody and Sherm, of course.

That's a good movie. That's a good movie. That's very different than the Peabody, I think. Yeah, it is. But a great film nonetheless. Peabody's the award for writing? It's one of, I believe. Politz, yeah. Pulitzer would be another one. Ladies and gentlemen, a man who's won both of those things.

Guy's been writing at ESPN for a long time covering college sports, college football, and golf. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe he is the biggest writer at ESPN, a man that we found from his Twitter's been deactivated since fucking 2023. I don't know if that's him or not. What's he do? Is he just write on ESN.com? Yeah. Let's have him on here. Who is he?

Well, he's go dogs. What else? seems to be pretty miserable and hilarious. Ladies and gentlemen, Mark Shlava. Yeah, Mark. What's going on? Boys, no ambiguity here. You're not an ambiguous guy at all.

It feels like you tell us exactly how you feel. And I'll tell you, every time we talk to you, you're around a different group of rich folks. Hey, now you're in the Hamptons at Shinnacock. How's the vibes? And how do we feel going into this U.S. Open? Other than the traffic, I'd never pay $100 million to live here.

It is absolutely glorious. going to get a lot of wind. The course is going to be the big story other than Scottie Shephler trying to complete the career grand slam. But the USGA just had their press conference, their course setup guys say they wanted to roll the greens about 11.5 or 12 on the step meter. They're going to have to go back to the tens because of the wind on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, 20 to 30 miles an hour. We saw what happened back in 2004, in 2018, when Phil Mickelson was swatting balls off the greens, he was so pissed off. Guys, this course can get away from the USDA about as fast as the Brendan Soresby situation got away from Texas Tech. So they're going to be really, really cautious about it.

Hey, that's why you're a Peabody Award winner right there. You know, that's a good time. Peabody's a dog thing, by the way, Pat. Grady School of Journalism. Go dogs. I did not know. I still don't know what you said there. I still don't understand the situation,

but I assume you're a Peabody Award winner multiple times. I just assume that it's something you do. Is it like an Emmys? Is a Peabody like an Emmys? It's a M-E-Body's for journalism. I've never been, I've never even been nominated for football. That's bullshit. That is ridiculous.

No, I don't believe in it. I don't believe it. My alma mater. I'm a Grady fellow, though. I will say that. Ooh-hoo. It just means you're an old white guy. Okay, so you are an old white guy, Grady fella,

or A, I guess you would add in there as an old white man who follows the game of golf. I couldn't even fathom the amount of smug you're supposed to have. But let's follow up with some of the words you said there. You talk about the stint meter. Can you explain that a little bit more? You said 12-11. They're dropping it down to 10 because Scotty said something

about being able to work the greens a little bit, actually. And then I think he also said it looks like a lynx course. It looks like a British-style Ailes, but it's not playing like that. Is he talking about the greens? And is it because they're going to have to keep it soft so that the wind doesn't just kick everybody's ball off of the green? Yeah, I mean, and step mirror, it's just how fast they're rolling.

I mean, most PGA tour courses 12, 13. I think the USGA guy said this is the first time since 1995. They're going to be rolling this slow in a U.S. open. But, I mean, Scotty, you know, it's definitely a link-style course. It's about as close as you're going to get to something you would see in Ireland or Scotland in the U.S. But the difference is there's elevated grains. There's a lot of false fronts. There's a lot of severe runoffs.

There's very small landing areas on the greens. You know, you go for the middle of the greens this week. You can't get real aggressive coming off the fairways. But, you know, it's, again, it's one of the top five courses in America. And it should be because it's in the hampt. But, you know, the putts here kind of like houses around here. They're beautiful. They're expensive.

And they're gone before you know it if you hit it too hard. that's a greatie fella right there that is an old white digging deep into his back pocket okay let's talk about the style of golf that you were referring to go ahead tone yeah mark obviously they talk about the you know you get into the whiskers here but the fairways i believe it they're the fourth widest in the last 20 years maybe or something like that who does that benefit um and are they so wide because they're so little rough before you get to the wispy stuff they're wider than they were back in 18, but it's kind of deceiving because you've got some blind T shots, but as you can see there, you've got the native area too. The best queue rough is about five inches,

so it's penal to a real severe extent. Rory said, look, you should be able to hit these fairways. If you don't, you should be really penalized. You know, at the PGA, everybody came in saying we're going to shoot 20 under, which is why I said it was going to be a rip. and in grip course. The PJ of America heard that and made the greens diabolical. I mean, that's what you're going to get here too. The holes are going to get harder the closer you get to the hole. So I think it's accuracy off and see, you know, guys that can hit grains,

guys around the greens, guys with soft hands that can be creative. Scotty Schaeffler, who's my pick this week. Again, he's kind of like curvy. Just keep picking them. Eventually, you're going to be right. But, you know, those kind of guys. Matt Fitzpatrick playing like one of the best iron players in the world again. He's a U.S. Open champion.

Zandr Schaftly's played in nine U.S. opens. He's got nine top 25s, seven top tens. His putting worries me a little bit. Tommy Fleetwood Golf. Jesus was the runner up here back in 2018 behind Brooks. He doesn't have a win yet this year, but he's playing really good golf. Russell Henley, Pat, you know, really good chance to be low dog of the week. the UGA guy.

He leads the tour in driving accuracy, number one in scrambling, picked up a win a couple weeks ago. And then P. Reed, who's kind of been out there in Gulf purgatory, hadn't played since the PGA championship because he's in timeout until August 25th, I believe it is, when he can come back.

But he's another guy that has a really fantastic short game, has won twice in the Middle East earlier this year. It's had some success in the U.S. Open. But look, if Scott, he dials in the ice, just a little bit. I think he's the seventh guy to complete the career grand slam. All right. So it sounds like you will be on the same page as us as you rattled off the names.

I think we're trusting the stars here, right? Is that what we're doing? I think we're trusting the stars here, especially because, you know, how hard the course is going to be? So we're putting this out. Okay, this is Foxy, Evan Foxx, who runs a golf fantasy league and everything like that. He wanted to piece this together. Scotty Sheffler and Rory McElroyd, both to make top 20, minus 115. That's the best bet.

going to be able to get with Scotty and Chef, Rory, whenever you're talking about straight up as opposed to like, you know, each round scoring stuff. I think you like this, right, because the good players are going to have to play great. I mean, that's basically what's going to have to happen this weekend in Shinnock? Yeah. Yeah.

No, go ahead, Foxy. Oh, sorry, yeah, 100%. And since 2020, Scotty, top 20 finishes is 20 of 24 in majors, Rory 17 to 25. So they're going to do that pretty much every single time in these major events. But not definitely, though. If you're 21 plus and you're responsible, you can certainly join us, but this is what we are riding with for the U.S. Open as a team ride.

Go ahead, Mark. The only thing that worries me about Rory a little bit is the driver. He hasn't been his actor with the driver. That's his big weapon. I don't think power is really going to be a big advantage here. You've got to hit the fairways. You've got to hit greens. But, you know, he's clearly one of the two best players in the world right now.

So hopefully he'll figure it out. Foxy, I wish you good luck, sir. This first time Foxy's come out with like, hey, I know golf. Got a good one. This is a good one. Minus 1.15, good odds. You know what else is good odds? What's that?

Then we'll see him again, ladies and gentlemen, that's our golf expert. Go dogs. Hey, make sure you get yourself a frozen south side and go sit outside on the terraces. How are you feeling about the Mountaineers tonight? Both all the alma mater's face in eliminations games in Omaha. So I feel good about our team. I feel good about the mountaineers answering. Now, I'll tell you this,

UNC feels like a professional baseball team. Just like... Good problem. I was around that Owen Hall guy, and it was like, this guy is clearly a professional, and then turns out he was like the star of the team. So I like the way UNC has pieced together their squad,

but I like the way the Mountaineers fight. You know, we're a... And Gavin Kelly, that felt like a big take the top off the lid there for him. He had been getting on base and obviously playing well, but he hadn't really had an explosion type thing. So yesterday against Troy, that's a big deal. He's a Yenzer from Central Catholic, now dominating for the Mountaineers.

But I think the boys will answer. winning two in a row against UNC is obviously going to be tough, but we're in the final four. I love that. How about you guys, Georgia Bulldogs? You got some beasts on the mound. Yeah, got some beasts. I mean, they've relied on the home run all year. They need to get the rhino, Daniel Jackson, going a little bit. Trey Phelps picked it up last night. The pitching's been phenomenal, which is not a surprise

because their coach, Johnson, coached Paul Skeens at LSU before he took the Georgia job. The only thing I know, Pat, is this Father's Day, as one of my buddies mentioned this morning. If Texas fans aren't sending a Happy Father's Day cards to Kirby Smart and Coach Johnson there, the baseball coach in Georgia, it's wrong. That's Mark Slavall, ladies and gentlemen. All right, we pivot from Mark to the World Cup, ladies and gentlemen,

one of our legends for the United States team, Chris Richards joined us earlier today for a great combo. Hey, thank you for joining us. Obviously, we were very lucky to announce you as the U.S. soccer male player of the year. and I would like to let you know since that moment until now I have followed you very closely, everything that you do. And first of all, thank you for representing you over there in England,

is Chris Pouselis. Whenever we get a chance to see an American do great things over there, not only is it a great showcase of where we are as a country, but it's also good to see America, you know, doing it over there. Now let's talk about the American team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What you guys did to Paraguay was beautiful. Did you know those going to happen? Did we

expect that? Because it felt like a completely different style of U.S. on the field. As opposed to being like defensive and scared, it felt like we were confident and attacking at all times. It felt like we had more talent on the field than ever before. Kind of your thoughts on the team that you have right now in the game against Paraguay that everybody is calling the greatest in the history of U.S. men's national team play. No, I mean, I wouldn't say that we expected necessarily that kind of game, but I think we wanted to go out there and show what we were a host nation and why this is a World Cup we want to make a

statement in. So, no, World Cup, you know, tensions can be a bit higher, performances can be different, but we kind of set a baseline for ourselves, and hopefully we can follow that performance. But I think everybody was happy with how it went, obviously, but we also feel like we have another gear that we can get that we can get into. Okay, so you're not playing your best soccer, you guys don't think, because this felt different. Did it not feel different than normal U.S. soccer? As somebody that just watches the U.S. soccer team and used to play soccer, so I understand, yeah, we're on 4-4-4-2, we got 3-5-3, maybe 4-3, and it's all that type of stuff conversation from whenever I was a child. But it did feel like we were

playing a completely different style of soccer. Is that punch that's bringing that in? Is that the style of player we now have? Why do you think the game looked the way it did for U.S. from a casual fan's perspective as opposed to what we are used to watching with the U.S. national team? I think we've got a team full of dogs. Everybody want to go out there and win.

Everybody want to go out there and make a statement. And, you know, I think especially after how the game went in the fall, I think, you know, this is our chance to kind of have our get back. So me personally, you know, I wasn't involved in that game, but I just know that everybody was on the field. no, wanted to show that we're a host nation for a reason that we're not here to just participate. We want to win games.

I love how much talent we have. It feels like everybody can cook the other thing. Like we got guys that can cook people all over the field. Now, Reamer, I'm not going to say he can cook people, but he's got a good brain. There was a moment where he slipped, fell, hit you the ball, I think, and then you step up and then you ping that thing back at

him. I mean, it was, and he was still on his knees, I think. I think he was still on his knees. We happened to be at the game shout to cameraman and FIFA for doing that. You ping this back. He was still on the ground. And the old dog hopped up, trapped settled it, no problem, kept it moving. Can you tell me about working alongside Ream and what he means to your team as the captain? Thirty what, seven or something like that? I'm 39. We played kickabout yesterday. We did have a kickaboot.

Pull my hamstring on my right side. Yeah, I'm 39. This guy's 37 and he was on the ground. That might have been a 70 mile an hour pass. You hit to him while he was on the ground. He hops up and does that. Can you tell me about the Reamer and what maybe we should know, about his leadership style for your team? Yeah, I mean, I think he's 38. If I'm not wrong, but he, you know, he doesn't move like it. It's pretty impressive, you know. He's like a coach on the field, but also, I mean, off the field,

we kind of call him like the grandpa of the group because he's just a lot older than a lot of guys, but he's a guy who has a lot of wisdom, obviously, but also on the field, you know, he's a guy that you can look to for leadership, you can look too for making the right pass, you can look too for playing the smart pass. Maybe I fit into him a little bit faster than what I was expecting, but I knew that he still had a few legs in him. So I was glad he got up and received it. Yeah, perfect 83 for 83, especially whenever you're in the back. Obviously, one mistake is like a pick six late pass out to a corner going the other way. So unbelievable amount of pressure, incredible amount

of talent and skill. Now, it's not just, you know, you mentioned the dogs and the skill that we have. It feels like paunches a little bit of a different creature than we've had at United States soccer, I think, for a long, long time. Here's what Burrhalter had to say yesterday about one thing that really Pontchitino has tried to hammer home to your team. Yeah, I think one is that we're American, we don't take shit, and I think that's someone that he really put in. And he's, even though he's Argentinian, he has that mindset of like, look, this is what we do, you know, and this is who we are and this is what America is about.

So I think he just, you know, even from outside perspective, he showed, you know, us, Americans what we're about. And, you know, he really drills that into us. And I think that's someone that, you know, has helped us this last, this last cycle. Okay, can you tell me a little bit about that? Americans who watch soccer, you know, like football fans that are American football fans, don't want to disrespect you or your Crystal Palace lads or the soccer crowd that is watching us now. But football fans, whenever they see the flopping, it's what turns them off from

basketball and it turns them off from soccer. We ain't doing that shit. It can't happen. Can't happen. Can't have that type of human doing anything. I think it does turn them off. So when the U.S. team, I think the last World Cup did seemingly have a little bit of a flop fest happening on a regular basis, I think it did turn off some Americans. Then we're watching some of your guys as friends friendly since Ponce comes on her. We got some scruffs going up on the side. It does feel like we have a new attitude. Is that message something that has been like Punch from day one? How does he kind of deliver it? And it feels like you guys have taken that home. And I want to let you know, we are thankful that your

entire team is starting to represent for us like that because it makes us feel even as dumb soccer fans like, yeah, those are our dudes out there. So like thank you for doing all of it, Chris. No, of course. I mean, I think it's definitely something that when Ponce came in, it's something that he mentioned, but I think also we've spoken about, we want to be the team, like the American team that people can relate to that people can look at and see themselves in. So we go out there and we just do it. We do best, which is be American, you know, it's all we know. So we go out there. If they want to scrap, it'll be a scrap. If they want a clean game, it'll be a clean game. But, you know, I think it's just something that we've taken on. We kind of like that bad boy kind of energy.

But also we're obviously you can tell we're a team that has a lot of quality and that can play through teams as well. Tell me about Coach Ponch a little bit because Grella came on here, and Grella started a lot of shit with Australia, which we'll certainly get into here in a little bit. And I knew Grela as a child, obviously he does a lot for the sport of soccer with CBS Sports and Galazo and everything like that. He loves the sport. But he said that, you know, the Pontchino coaching mindset, who, and Ponch came on our show and said he did watch Miracle with Herb Brooks. Is maybe a little bit of like, hey, I'm not trying to be friends with you guys. Like, I am your coach here.

Can you describe Ponch's coaching style and how you guys have? seemingly taken to it? Yeah, I mean, he's tough, he's intense, he demands a lot, but you know, he demands a lot because he sees a lot. He wouldn't do it if he felt like we didn't have the quality for it. So he's definitely a guy who came in with a lot of, you know, a lot of, I guess, credit, but also he has a lot of aura to him. I mean, he's coached some big teams, he's coached some big names and himself.

He was also a big name. So he comes in with a very reputable kind of coaching, coaching status. So for us to know, we're very grateful that he's here. We're happy that he's kind of instilled these policies in us, but ultimately it's up to us on the field to get it done. So, you know, he can do so much for us, but, you know, we've got to go out there and perform. We're not allowed to run any highlights. Okay, that's becoming a topic of discussion, especially with the timing of our show and when broadcast starts for the World Cup on Fox, which is his main. What is he showing you there?

What is he showing the team there? And this feels new to soccer. The hydration breaks feel like you kind of got quarters now. I don't want to say that's what it's supposed to be. It's obviously for safety and health and all that. Also, let's get a commercial in or two. A couple bucks. Let's get a little bit of this.

And honestly, I as casual soccer fan don't mind it at all. And it feels like for you guys, maybe it saves the flopping rolling around that was used as a break. You know, some of those rolling around was kind of used as like, hey, let's all breathe a little bit. So maybe the hydration break kind of gets rid of that. But what is he showing you here? And what are your thoughts on the hydration break, which seemingly is brand new to the sport? Yeah, I mean, it doesn't kind of make it feel like it's four quarters now. You know, he's shown us just some ways that we could do better on, you know, in the buildup or defending.

But, no, for me, I think, I mean, I've lived in America almost my whole life, so, you know, I know how hot it gets. And for me, I feel like it's a disadvantage for us because, you know, we're used to playing this kind of weather. You know, when you're playing European teams, they're not used to playing in this kind of weather. So, you know, sometimes it could be tough for them. But, I mean, ultimately, I understand, you know, where America, you know, where America, you know, We like commercial breaks. We like things like that. You know, everything's really the business.

I get it. So I don't quite mind the hydration breaks. But, you know, I think sometimes we need to flow of the game. You just want to keep going. I like you. You're saying, yeah, we're the host nation. And we're being very hospitable to these people that might have a little bit of a problem with our air.

Yeah, our air over here, a little thicker. Yeah, a little hotter than what they're used to. Because I think over, I mean, in England, they don't even like, sorry, England. That's just one country. I don't want to take a shot at the country. And obviously, you have to do your thing. thing over there. But over there, I don't think there's a lot of air conditioning

shit right now. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, you see. If people die when it's like 83 degrees there. Yeah, they have like, yeah. And they're all traveling over for the games, which we are certainly welcoming. Yeah, love it. But if we get a heat wave through here, geez, we might see some of the most burnt skin that we have ever seen in the history of white people becoming tomato red. There's a chance that's around the corner. cannot wait, watch it. Take it easy. Okay, let's talk about the atmosphere and the environment. Go ahead, Tone.

Yeah, Chris, I'm not sure if you guys know or have seen. I think it's like 28 million people in the U.S. watch the opening match against Paraguay, which is just an absolutely huge number. And then there's watch parties in literally every single city across the country, let alone all of the fans of other countries that have come in and taken over. It's been an awesome environment. Have you guys seen the support and how much does that matter to,

you know, a sport in the U.S. that isn't always the top, sport, but right now it feels like everyone has World Cup fever. Yeah, I mean, I'd say I'm chronically online, so I definitely saw a lot of the watch parties. It was cool to feel all the love, but I mean, even in the stadium, you know, I think I've never felt in a pro-American crowd like I did the other night. And, you know, for me, it gave me goosebumps just walking out for the warm-up, you know, it was an amazing feeling. I'm glad that, you know, there's just buzz around the sport now in this country. I think it's overdue, but I'm glad it's come now. And, you know, for me, I want to be able to

help inspire the next generation. And I know a lot of the guys in the team, that's our goal as well. So if we can do it one game at a time and keep putting in performances that people are proud and happy to watch, then it'll be a successful summer. Yeah, I got to be in that SoFi Stadium after the first goal and the first one that was called back. So I missed an own goal and a call. Three courses. That's fine.

Yeah, but I saw all the other ones. Okay, got there. Saw all the other ones. So time proves. Mm-hmm. Yeah, how we do. Saw a luchador Basque with America, flag on it cheering for America in Spanish.

Love that. I thought to myself, this is incredible. This is, this is, this is utopia here. This is everything that is awesome. And then you guys were just pummeling, just pummeling Paraguay. I mean, it was so cool to see and it looked different. And then now Paraguay's coach has come out and said, it was different. And we had no idea what to do.

Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Chris, Paraguay's manager base said like, they had this Pentagon in the middle of the formation. And I don't know where the hell it came from, but we had no answer for. for it. What is this kind of Ponch Pentagon? Is this something that's new? Is you guys master this during training? And how long did it take to kind of get to where you guys are? Because like you said, you have a team

of dogs. Was there a moment also in training where you looked around and realized like, oh, we're getting this and also we got a real chance here? Yeah, I mean, I think we looked around and, you know, I think we really saw that, you know, we have a lot of guys playing at top teams and playing in top competitions. And so, no, I think one message that pops is really stressed to us is why not us. So that's exactly the mindset we went into the game with.

And I think one thing he really gives us this fluidity, able to do whatever we want on the field. And maybe it felt like a Pentagon. It was just guys moving. You know, everybody was finding the spot where they could. So I think it made it really tough for them to kind of just man mark or to just stay in the same position because everybody was just moving. So everybody's replaceable, except for like you, in the back, in Ream.

Is that accurate? You said it, not me. but yeah, pretty much everybody, everybody up front can move into any position that they want to. So did it take us a little bit to figure that out, though, like how we're going to play like that? Is that something that you, like, kind of have to learn about, like in feel and kind of start to kind of get?

Because I think the triangle offense, right, is Chicago Bulls. But I think it takes a little bit to learn what now you're supposed to do. Was there some growing pains you think for your team? And then do you guys think, was there, like, to Connor's point, like an aha moment where it was like, okay, now it feels like we do it. And was it Paraguay? Was Paraguay the game where you're like, okay, it feels like we do kind of got this thing? Yeah, I think Paraguay was the game where we were really like, oh, this is smooth, this is how it should work.

And I think it's just a matter of getting the right people on the pitch at the right time. You know, I think this was the first time and a long time that this 11 had been on the pitch, if not the first time. So, you know, I think we, after that game, we really look at each other and say that if everybody does their job right, we're going to be a very tough team to play against. Hell yeah. Last question here for you, Chris. We can't thank you enough. Yeah, Chris, obviously going in, you guys said, you know, hey, we don't want to be participants. We actually want to kind of make some waves in this thing.

But after that first match, when it is that dominant, and you have all these casual fans who, the expectations have skyrocketed now. Do you feel a little more pressure going into the next one? Or is it kind of just, hey, if we kind of repeat what we did against Paraguay, like, we're going to be just fine? Yeah, I mean, I think Australia is definitely a different opponent. You know, they're very good defensively, and so we have to find the solution to that. but ultimately, you know, we set a really high bar, a really high standard for ourselves, and the world's finally being able to see that.

You know, we've had those same standards for the last few years, but it just felt like it just started to click. So for us, you know, obviously we want to put in another good performance like we did the other night. And again, you know, if we can just keep setting the bar higher and higher and higher, and we're going to have a long summer. Yeah, we're nowhere near our best. Nope.

Let's go. No way near it. Nowhere near it. Wait until the next world. And then the next will come. We're not worried about that. Let's win this one right now. I'm talking three feet, though.

Oh, okay. Okay, sure. You know what I'm talking three feet? How old are you? How old are you? 26. Oh, yeah. J.O. B. Reamer.

Two more. That's what I'm saying. He's got at least two more. Everybody else has four more. Everybody else has. In Pontchitina, we need somebody to just donate a salary. He's saying, nah, he ain't going. Come on.

Hey, if this goes in, you'll give us an autographed World Cup jersey. Deal, deal. You're close. Oh my. Yeah, hey. Hey, that was close. All right, good luck on Friday and the rest of the way. We appreciate you. Ladies of gentlemen, that's Chris Richard. Hey, Chris Richards. He was incredible. Yeah. genuinely phenomenal. And he said he's chronically online, so he sees all of us.

I think he knows our show as well. Allegedly he does watch it. So we appreciate him taking time out of his life here in the middle of a World Cup, the biggest game and the biggest stage of his life coming up against Australia on Friday, 3 o'clock Eastern in Seattle. And then the following Thursday night in Los Angeles against Turkey as the opening round, the group D battle continues. The United States of America looks like they can win the entire thing.

Chris Richards is an absolute stud. There's been a lot. made about the hey how much are we talking about the World Cup and I think there's some shows that don't follow at all and don't really get into it and everything like that we've tried our best because we appreciate the hell out of what's going on we know that the world is excited

we know that America's excited we can't show anything no no just photos can't show anything cool photos can't good Ken Burns we appreciate Ken Burns we're doing a little documentary stuff but we enjoy the hell out of it we'll be back on the other side stores are the

greatest. We're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about them for a living. And nobody could have guessed that college baseball and soccer would carry us through our day-to-day in the sports world, but they're certainly doing just that. West Virginia has made it to the final four in Omaha for the College World Series. Only problem is they're going to take on a team that did beat them just a couple days ago, but that is Omaha, that is baseball. They're going to have to beat them twice to get to the finals. Good luck to all the teams in Omaha that are still battling. Oklahoma and Georgia, Georgia obviously, a knockout game is well. Well, West Virginia backs against the wall.

North Carolina, Oklahoma, have the ability to kind of sit and have to lose two in a row before the finals happen to see who is the best in the country. Steve Sabins, Mountaineers, boys are A-OK. They bounce back after making mistakes because they're tough. They're from the hills of Morgantan, West Virginia. And they have absolutely lit a fire behind a fan base that I don't think was ready or knew that they were going to love baseball, but all of a sudden go, you know what? Yeah, we actually like the hell out of this.

We like the way the boys play, and we like that West Virginia's on a big stage. Whenever they're facing elimination, these boys are tough. Steve Savings? Coach Savans. Every time they say it, it is tough. It is. It is very.

You know, because it's very similar to... Yeah. You know, it sounds like there's multiple Nick Sabins. That'd be cool. Out there. Coach Sabins, Sabins. It's an interesting... Coach Sabin's defense.

But there is a chance that it's in the name, especially at West Virginia. Where's coach Nick Sabins from? I believe he's from West Virginia. Where's coach Steve Sabins coaching? I'm guessing, well, he's coaching at West Virginia. And that's the thing about it, is those country roads take them both home. Yeah, they do.

And it's heavenly, almost heaven. But it's actually turning into heaven quickly with this baseball team. So don't you worry about Coach Sabins bringing the boys back here against a UNC team that is packed and loaded and star-studded. Eric Church obviously is out there watching. How do you think the boys feel? No, and Eric Church is just kind of hovering right over their left shoulder. They didn't deal with that the first game. Yeah.

Fresh out of what, that commencement speech that everybody says is one of the greatest of all time with a guitar. It's always been sitting there. Five strings of a guitar coming together for life. Just immediate sensation. He's sitting there with his sunglasses on, just staring at the boys. Chase Rice is probably up there too. Boom.

That's what I'm talking about? And what, the MVP finalist? Yep. I wonder if Belichick makes the trip. I think I saw it. Coach Malo. Yeah, so the boys are ready. The first time there might have been some lights.

There might have been some, oh, no, you know, some mistakes that they don't normally make, but they live through it, they callous through it, they move on. Now they got UNC again, excited for that. And then soccer, World Cup fever, for sure. The talks tables here at Boston Conner, and at Ty Schmidt. Conman, you're watching every minute of every soccer match that's taking place in the United States of America. I love that for you, but I also love that for soccer as a whole.

Yeah, it's unbelievable. I mean, the beautiful game, truly, is something that feels like we're all ingratiated. And the other thing that has been talked about, we took the bet earlier in the tournament and unfortunately it's not going to come home but a goal in every game. There's only been one zero zero game. And that is kind of my, that's always been my biggest problem with soccer is like, am I really going to sit here and watch an hour or 20 minutes of just nothing? Just zeros. Hour 30 minutes.

Yeah, yeah, but you know what I'm saying. With halftime, with the intros, like the game starts at one today, kicks off at 110. So, like, really, you got an hour and 20 minutes of what you're watching. but every single one of these. Look at that. I mean, four goals total, five goals, three goals, and it's messy, so you're going to watch that, whether it's one nothing or not. Four goals in the midnight game. Every single game has delivered huge moments. Like, we had the entire thing about those guys. Just go multiple goals. Dude for New Zealand, I think Timmy Just or something, he's got like arguably the goal of the tournament. Yeah, it was unbelievable. And that ended up being two, too.

like on all fronts this thing is coming home for us because we are all champions while we watch and I'm just excited for it to get going like these are just the first games like when we really do get into the teeth of it as Mr. Grellis said the other day when we're watching the United States take on Argentina in the quarterfinals like I wonder if Messi will bow out of that one I don't know if his legs will still be available I want like he's not talking about that that is an American strategy that has been used in a past and we are not necessarily proud of that but that is certainly something that is in our history. Shout out Tony. Yeah, there is something that we don't like that. Okay, we do not like that that was part of our history. But we're not going to do that

because we respect and appreciate Mr. Messi, especially for what he's done for the United States of America. He boosts the economy in every city that he goes to in the United States of America. We appreciate him. But I think we have showcased him. We appreciate him. Yeah. So maybe if it does turn into Argentina, USA, which I have no idea if that's possible, Messi says, I can't. I can't do this to my fellow country, man. I'll tell you, if he's going to do what he did last night in every single game. Argentina's going to go back to pay. He wouldn't even come close to doing that against U.S.

Yeah, Chris Richards in front of him. Try getting a shot off, bitch. I, okay, I like that. You're right. I mean, what are we even talking about? Try it. What do we, yesterday, Ty Schmidt said that Messi might not even get on the roster.

If he tried that against the U.S., kick him out of the country forever. That's one half of the hammer. God. Cowboys AP 10. Let's remember that his opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of others that are on the mic. for Argentina? No! No, we're not kicking

him out of the country. You're nuts? Dude, he would sell at Lucasol Stadium if he had a game right here. That's cool. Or that doesn't bring us a World Cup. No, I agree. I don't think we have to kick him out of the so he would still be playing for Argentina though. No, no, no. We deport him before the game. Oh, from our country as a whole.

Or just put him in like a holding cell. That would work. Put him in a shit box. I forgot we had the puck because we're the host country. Yeah. We can kind of do whatever. We could holding cell for 48 hours. That's fine. Yeah, because they have to look into something, but he can do the whole at his house. Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

House arrest. Yeah, that's fine. Bracelet and all. I don't think we're going to need that. Remember, we're good. We're very proud. Very good. But, just in case.

But messy, you look at this picture right now. I don't know if you saw it or not in real time. We cannot show you unless we do a thousand Getty images back to back to back to back to which we need them to potentially do. Would be awesome. It would be awesome if we saw an... Like a flip-up. Yeah.

Yeah, we'll get that for future times. But it would be awesome if we could show this to people that maybe didn't see it. Not their numbers are gigantic, so we don't say it. But like maybe people just happen through like an airport right now because it's on ESPN. And ESPN is on every one of those TVs, which we're very thankful and lucky. And they did that long before we licensed our show to them. Maybe somebody missed it and they just like could see it right now. Boom.

Yeah. And then another one. And then a casual right there. And then people for. Oh my God, Messi's doing it. It's like, yeah, but we can't do any of that. Okay, that needs to be talked about. I don't think that's being chatted about nearly enough

that that is, that's a huge part of it. Huge. And the people that have the rights to it have sent us numerous. So many. Season days before we got anywhere near. It's been on our own video. Oh, yeah. On our video.

That's not cookies and donuts. That's season desist. No. Cookies and donuts are pretty sick. Got donuts with Dad coming up first. Yeah, yep. Super pumped up for that. Let's go, boys.

Hell yeah. Your school does it in the morning. Mine does in the afternoon. I don't like that. Morning would be nice. Oh, an afternoon, don't know. Okay. Sounds awful.

Yeah, hey, Dad. Let's go in there with some good vibes. Okay, but morning donuts is proceedingly a little bit more the rule. Joining us now is a man who's done a lot of donuts with that. He doesn't eat them, though. No. He's actually in there batting him out of kids hands. Yep.

Which I respect. You know, my daughter wanted ice cream at 7.30 a.m. I said, can't do it. That just cannot be how you start today. That cannot be how. you start the day. You got to do that a little bit later. Donuts with dad with AJ turns in. Let me tell you why you shouldn't have donuts with one dad. Ladies and gentlemen, a college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl champion,

Ryder Cup winner, AJ Hawks. Yeah, Hawker. Boss, whether I eat it or not, you know, I think you guys would admit I am never someone to tell other people what they should or shouldn't do. What about your kids, though? This is the next generation. Oh, yeah, my kids, they're young. The kids got to figure out. You can't force, you can't force them to eat healthy. I think they got to figure that on there. That's a journey.

That's a journey for them. You're definitely giving nasty, disgusting. Donut. I order donuts. Do not eat that. I go to Tim Hortons on the way to tournaments, and they get donuts all the time, right? Eat two sprinkled donuts, go out there

and hopefully score some goals on the cross field. Oh, I like that. A little bit of a sugar bump, and then, you know, afterwards, probably pass out pretty good. That second half, late in the second half, there's a chance that that thing starts bringing it done. That thing starts bringing down with the modern science. We know that.

Back in the day, I had a teammate. He was chugging Mountain Dew at half time. Maybe he was ahead of the time, actually. Maybe he had to figure it out. That was Augustine Dalla Sala. That was the two leader. He was chugging that thing. Now he makes pizzas and smokes.

And he was smoking then too, so it's a pretty impressive fact. Okay, let's talk about the soccer, shall we, AJ? Are you just as impressed with the sport taking over the world as everybody else before we move into other topics of the day? Yeah, I was not expecting this whole World Cup fear. I wouldn't expect it to really catch the fever. And I tell you what, Messi, I did, like, I started watching that game last night. And then all of a sudden, Messi scores, what, a couple of minutes. it's into the game, it gets taken away for some garbage

offside situation. I don't understand. I don't get it. They're using the technology to show it. Just let Messi have the goal. So he said, all right, I'm just going to go score three more for a total of four that they only give him credit for three. But yes, this guy, yes, watching him walk around like you always talk about, is just amazing. Then I saw one time he's

all the way back in front by his own goal and he decides to challenge a dude for the ball and how he like chopped his feet and went out of the dude and just snaked it right out of bounds. it was crazy to see like whatever he wants to do, it seems like he can do. Never in a rush, never caught out of a spot. Now, he did hack the hell out of a guy.

He got the calf of a guy pretty good. And I didn't see that live. This was around, you know, McKenzie going to bedtime. I mean, there was a little bit that I missed. AJ was actually the one that texted into the group first and say, Messi just got screwed out of goal. It's like, AJ did not expect you to be the one that was kind of all in. But it's kind of done to all of us.

I guess he hacked the hell out of somebody. Yeah, a lot of people saying it should have been a red card. Yeah, there was a lot of people saying that. And I would like to say those people, get out of. Wait, God. Wait, God. Get the hell out of here. Geez, Louis is messy.

He deserves a little bit, please. He deserves a little bit. And I know. Does anyone else play like him? I'm sorry. Does anyone else walk around like he does and then just turn it on? So the amount of like, yeah, he's allowed to do that that has had to happen, you know, by coaches. Because everybody, like, if Pontiano is his coach, I would, I would have been excited to, like, see the first couple days if this wasn't.

already a made man, Leo Messi. Like if this was when he was in the middle of his run, wasn't known as the goat, but was just like, yeah, I'm a walk. Listen, I know where this is all headed. I'm going to head there on my own pace. And then once I get it, I'm fresher than everybody all the time. And as soon as I get it, electricity's about to happen.

It's so, because literally, I think I saw for a little bit, their goalie was running. Okay, so Argentina's entire team, including the goalie, running on the field. Leo walking by himself up at the top, just like kind of from one side to the other, kind of forcing a little bit, which is like, let me force you to pass the ball.

But if it goes the other direction, who cares? It's unbelievable to watch how much control he has, too. It's just like never out of position, always seemingly around it, never given, like, never sweating, seemingly never tired, and then it's just always making the right decision. It makes so, Gumpy, he is the,

this is the best of all, this is the greatest player of all time? Is that real, or is that, modern society talking about it. Yeah, without debate, people will argue for Cristiano Ronaldo, but performances like that, like last night, you're just, you're never going to see this again, man. They called him,

people were saying his World Cup career was over, and then he went to the last one and finally won it. And now that he's won it, this feels like the one where he's like, he's taking this in, he cried after his first goal, like, he's really enjoying himself out there, and it's so awesome to see. He looked very cool,

leading the boys out. It was a topic of conversation. A photo was a topic of conversation. This is a pretty sick photo here. This has to feel. And then he goes and has four goals. At 38. Yeah, good for you, man. That's, uh, congrats to soccer having a moment and their goat representing Christiana Renato can answer today as Portugal kicks off their World Cup, his sixth World Cup. Now, to perform in six World Cup, you have to be an incredible shape. That's right. To be absolutely strapped, you know, AJ slapping donuts out of kids' hands. You don't get on the right path. You know, he is committed to fitness as well.

There is a coach in the NHO that actually has a nickname, the bot, okay? People talk about him just being an absolute shredded warrior. And then you look at the team in which he coaches, you would say, well, are they taking on the personality of their coach? Yeah, they are. And will it lead to? Oh, a Stanley Cup.

The first one since, oh, this guy was the captain of the team 20 plus years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, head coach of the Carolina. hurricanes leader of the cany acts down in raleigh stanley stanley cup champion two times rod brindemar how are you rod thanks for having me guys i appreciate that intro pretty nice well it's pretty real too and we saw you taking your shirt off and shit after a couple dubs we appreciate the uh yeah oh and a little you little more yeah let him know let them know that it's still in there i i can respect that hockey guys conditioning cardio is absolutely outrageous this time with stanley lordo you you decided to lift it overhead, casual.

First time you got it as coach, you took that thing, immediately said, you'll just like the old days, flip that fucker, and then you in air, boom, and then give it a big time hug. What was it like as you grasped Lordo for the first time after achieving this goal, obviously that you've been hunting since the last time you had it, coach, especially with this group of guys that I don't think anybody was expecting to go on and win this entire thing? Well, I was. I was. I can tell you that. But it's, it is, you hear guys talk about this, and it's hard to put it into words.

But, you know, as a player, you're showing that there when I won that thing 20 years ago. It was super special. It was something I dreamed about as a kid my whole life. So I wanted it kind of for me the first time around, but seeing it from a different view, coaching these guys, you just want it for them because you know how it changes your life. That's what it was so special about it. And then when they kind of tapped me on the shoulder to grab the thing, I just looking at all the players looking at me.

It was, you can see how happy they were for me right here. Like, that's what I'm looking at. It's just, it's hard to put into words, to be honest. There's just so much work that goes into this. And that's why I'm just so happy for the group, because they deserved it. If anyone deserved it, these guys did. A lot of games, long playoffs into the Stanley Cup finals.

You guys were making quick work of a lot of teams. It seemed like it was a collision course between you and Colorado. How do you feel about your journey through the playoffs? Are you having some days off? We were wondering, is it going to be rust or is it going to be rest? How much were you managing that on a day-to-day with the boys? And how did you feel about the playoff run? Wow, it was great.

I mean, listen, we were able to sweep a couple of teams, and that's huge because playoffs is about this war of attrition, and we were able to stay healthy. I mean, we've done this a long time. Had a real good group for a long time, but we've always hit a snag where guys are dropping. You know, like we would be getting to the conference farm, and guys, oh, you can't get through that.

Well, we're missing some key pieces. Like, that's just hard. And this time around, I had, we missed one guy, missed the game. Like, I can't even believe that when you think about how hard it is. And that's, you know, one of the big reasons why we were able to do what we did. And having all that time off just helped them. When we had a week off between one series, then we had 12 days between another. Like, that's never happened before.

So, and credit to the guys, man, they took care of business. You know, why do we need to play extra games, right? So I give the guys a lot of credit for that. Absolutely. I think rest is certainly something that can help everybody, especially in a grueling sport like hockey. Is it health, luck, or do you think it is the physical fitness of your team, maybe continuing to develop and getting to a point where you can just dominate people

and sweep people so late in the year? Well, it's a bit of both. You got to have everything on your side to win this thing. You got to have health. You got to have some bounces. We got some balances finally. You know, you can call it luck, but, you know, we always say you work for that. So we definitely, I think, combination of everything, but it was our time.

And you talk about, you know, warriors and this and that. Like, ours captain is an absolute beast. And, you know, I'm so happy for him that you guys that watched this, got to see what I've seen for 14 years with this guy. An absolute warrior. and he was not going to be denied, and he just put the whole team on his back. And there he is right there. That's the kind of leader you want to have. I don't care what sport you're playing.

This guy could do it. Stalsy, he did it for the Penns to in 2009, so we obviously appreciate the hell out of him for doing that. All the stats that were popping up about his old ass, and then him winning the Kahn Smyth is spectacular for sports. Also, Raleigh and the Caniacs getting a chance to celebrate this with everything that you guys have built down there. Sports are special and bring incredible moments

and telling incredible stories. Yours is going to be one of them. Gary Bedman, popped a stat in there. Oh, yeah. Drop the stat in there. Really did a good promo before the Lordo got passed over. But I appreciate you saying it was just our time. Like maybe the Stanley Cup does choose whose time it is and when.

What a time to be a caniac. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Coach, I wanted to pivot to your physical fitness. Obviously, it's well talked about online and everything. What are some of your favorite, like, foundational lifts and how has that changed over the years? I've been watching you, I've been seeing clips of you doing these, like, like dumbbell side shoulder raising, you kind of release the dumbbell at the top

and then catch it again, little stability type stuff. What's that all about? And like, how is your day-to-day physical fitness and what are you doing? Well, I'm on the executive plan now, right?

Like, my workouts are not like that. I, you know, I was training back then for a reason, right? I was trying to be badass. I had a job. Now I'm just trying to stay alive, you know?

I'm trying to just hang. I'm trying to hang with the boys. we do physical testing every year. We're pretty renowned for that. And if the old guy here can keep up and keep, you know, I'm not saying I'm the top of the food chain and testing. But if I can do it, there's no reason why these guys can't do it. And so that's been a big deal.

And I just think it's a mental edge. I don't think it really, everybody's in shape. This is pro sports. Everybody works hard. But when you think that you're the top of the food chain in that department, it just gives you an edge. And I think that's kind of part of our group. And I guess you saw Gordo there.

Like that guy's 37 years old. You just had to talk about messy being 38. Like it's just a number. If you stick with it and Jordan, Jordan Stahl, every day comes to work and just says, hey, I'm doing what the best I can. Good things can happen. So that's, I don't do anything special. To me, you get up in the morning, you start your day the right way.

and that's get after it. That's kind of how I've been since probably 12 years old. And, you know, no reason to stop that. Because I know if you don't get up and do it, you're not doing it. I'll tell you what, I need to take it. I need to do it. I'm getting closer. As I'm getting older,

I'm finding myself getting more committed to not dying and, like, trying to take care of myself. But I still, and there's still that laziness that pops in every once in a while. Because the snooze button is right. It's easier to turn the alarm off. I got to slide it. Yeah. To hit the snooze, it's just, I just got to touch it.

And it's like, hey, you want nine more minutes right now? No, it's not an option. It's not an option. Probably doesn't know that it exists. It's right there. Do you have an iPhone? It's right above the thing. It says right there.

It basically says you, you're so comfortable right now. Yeah, right. You probably just got into your deep sleep. You need another nine. It's only nine minutes. You can't do it. Can't do it. Can't do it.

As soon as you do it, then you know what happens. You start. Next day you do it. it again and again. So you just don't let it happen. That's kind of the mentality that I've had. And, you know, it's not, it's not slowing down farther time, but

it's allowing you to enjoy the time you have a little better. I like the fact that you said, it's just a mental edge, it's not an actual physical edge. Some guy was giving an interview, one of your members of your team, he got traded in there. He was in the middle of the season. He had played for somebody else. He was like, I thought I was in shape. It took me like two weeks to catch up to these guys. And I assume you

were in practice skating around that. Hey, hey! I've been retired for 15 years. Let's go ahead and do this. It's a wonderful culture whenever you can get everybody working. Congrats to you being able to put that in. And congrats to the boys seemingly continuing. Go ahead, Conman.

Yeah, Rod, speaking of the workouts, can you tell us a little more about the cinder block? Because we saw this story about, you know, every day the guys coming in either before or after the workout, raising the cinder block one time and just thinking about, you know, blue-collar jobs. Can you talk about that a little more? Can you talk about also how it was the same weight, basically,

as the Stanley Cup, so they were practicing that as well. Yeah. Well, yeah, five years ago, my strength coach, I got the best strength coach in the league, Bill Bernstein. And our medical guy, Doug Bennett, they went into Home Depot. And they were trying to figure out to finish off your day, you know, with the lift. And they put it on a scale, and it ended up being 35 pounds, this Cinderblock. And they just hit them that that was the same weight of the Stanley Cup.

So they sent me a picture of it. And I'm like, you got to bring that in. Bye, there's Bill Bernstein. This guy's literally the goat of strength coach. So, you know, we said we're going to finish every day. We're a big detail team too. Like everything's details. Everything matters.

And we prepare for everything. And so, you know, we didn't tell the guys for five years. We had this thing sitting there. We finished every day. We lifted. They thought it was, you know, it is. It represents the blue collar worker, hard work. You know, remember somebody in your life that, you know, has put you here.

that's what you're lifting it for. And I was kind of holding this back about, it's also preparing you for the day that you raised the Stanley Cup. So five years, we've had this thing sitting there, and I'm like, you know what, Billy, Billy comes to me and says, you got to tell them the real reason. That was kind of going to wait until after we want,

but we hadn't want. So I'm like, we got to throw the chips in the table here. And so I told the boys, you know, the real reason that we have this is because we prepare for everything. And so you're a day, you're lifting that is because when your day comes, you'll know exactly what you're doing. with it. And so that's kind of how that came about and it got leaked out

because, you know, you can't hide anything anymore these days. Especially when it's incredible. That's an incredible story. It's cool because now I can say it actually worked, right? You wouldn't be talking about it if it didn't work. So anyway, meat little story. Yeah, definitely

a neat little story. And also the boys never find out that it's the same way to stand in the cup if it never works. So, you know, you had a pretty good feeling that it was going to work in the end. And I love the fact that from a player's perspective, becoming a coach, that's deep level motivation, storytelling that coaches have to have.

Did you always know you're going to be a coach? Obviously, captain of a team. Did you know you're going to, because that's deep coach shit, which you just did right there. That's like multiple layers of motivation and preparation and perspective.

That's like a lot of coaching points there in one move. Is this something you always projected yourself to be? No, no. I didn't want to get into coaching. I had done, played 21 years in the National Hockey League. The grind was like, wore me down and I wanted to spend time with my family because you miss everything doing this job,

right? You're on the weekends, you're missing the games. You get all that. But, so I wanted to do a management job and, you know, and then I did that for one year. And it was the best job. I was, I went to the practices with the guys, helped them out and then coach my son, right? I just, it was perfect. I should have kept that job. But then, you know, then I became an assistant coach for like half the time. I didn't have to travel. That was great, but the problem of that is you have no impact. You know, unless you're all in, you're not all in. So it kind of drugged me back in and, you know, got into it. And then, you know, it's the next best thing to playing. So you talk about, you know, the body, you obviously can't play forever, but I mean, you're behind there with the guys. I'm not

taking the blows, but I feel them for them. So it's the next best thing being in the fight with these guys. And I'm really grateful to have the group I have. I can tell you. Yeah, and they're grateful for you, brother, because I think they all obviously respect you. And now you're a Stanley Cup champion, Gaffer in the NHO. Tone has a question for you about a big thing that took place this playoff run. Yeah, coach, after game one, you kind of, I don't know if it's called out your top line, you know, Jarvie and Ajo and the boys, but you said, you know, they need to step up and play better. Is that something you can do just because you're in the fire with them all season long?

you know, they can handle that? Or how did they react that? What was the behind all of that after game one? Well, we're, be honest, just keeping it real. That's nothing. That's nothing you guys weren't saying. You know, like, it's pretty obvious. They're our best guys.

And, yeah, they're working hard and doing it. But if we want to win this thing, they got to contribute. You know, they're playing all the special times out there. And they love it. These guys, what's special is the good players want to be. They want to be pushed. They want to be told real stuff, not sugarcoat stuff. So that's just how we operate every day on a daily basis,

which is what makes our team special. We don't have a 120-point guy. We don't have, you know, I don't think we had a guy in the top 20 and points. We didn't have an all-star. We didn't have. You go down the list, there's nothing, right? Like, guess what we have is we got a team. And hockey is the greatest team sport going because you rely on everyone.

And, you know, you know, it's no knock on any other sport. I'd say football is probably the next closest thing because, The best players in football don't play the whole game. They're playing half. Hockey, the best players are playing a third of the game. And so you need everybody if you want to win in hockey. And that's kind of the way we always do it. So we treat everyone the same.

If you're dogging it, you're going to know about it. And everyone likes that because, you know, listen, that's just getting you better. And I think that's just how we roll here. And obviously it worked this year. It feels like the hockey culture is much more receptive to that. But it's also the goats seemingly are much more receptive. to that. Everybody talks about Tom Brady, you know, and Bill Belichick's relationship,

how Tom would get chewed out just like everybody else, and that kind of set the tone for everybody. If Tom's willing to take this, and Tom wants to get coached, you have to do it. So when your best players are taking it, I assume that helps out everywhere, and you probably saw that as a player. I would assume that was something you saw as a player. You're right. It is in the culture. It's part

of it, but there are, you know, our top dogs, I mean, you talk about Jordan Stahl, for me, every day, if a guy just comes in and he does it right, and you know exactly what that means and it's hard to do that every day and i've never seen an athlete that i've been around do it right every day but when your leader does it right every day it's easy for a coach right i just every time we got like sebastian aahos shows up as a rookie we just sit him right beside

you know jordan stall for the last whatever it is 10 years and the guy you just watch and they go okay well if he's doing it this way that's how i have to do it and so that's the kind of group that we have and the kind of culture that's been created. But it all starts with you got to have those guys in place. Because if that leader's not doing that, you got trouble. You better out, you better out score all those issues or whatever because it's not going to happen. This is not the full size version. Okay, I am not a eight foot tall person.

But I have heard that inside the top of the full size one of these, there is the founding of youth, they say. Mm-hmm. They say they find a founding youth in the top of those things during a celebration. So maybe Stalsy's got another five, ten years of leading a pact. down there. Now, you talk about everybody contributing and everything like that and tough decisions having to be made and everybody buying in. You made a big one. Go ahead,

Ty. Yeah, coach, how difficult was the decision to go to Brandon Bussie after Freddie Anderson had been so good all year? And up until that point, you know, the Vegas, they looked like they had a lot of the momentum and then once he gets inserted, the entire series kind of flipped on its head and you guys

just dominated from there on out. How difficult was that and why did you ultimately decide to go that way. Well, it's funny. I've been asked that a little bit, obviously, because that is probably the turning point of the whole thing. And, you know, Freddie played, listen,

during the year he didn't play much. And he wasn't, like, great. Busty was our number one goalie. Like, I don't think he lost but six games. So it's like, we started the playoffs. We went with the guy that had the experience just because that's a big deal. And it matters.

And it did. Freddie played great. There was no reason to switch him. I was planning on kind of rotation. them initially. And Freddie didn't give us a reason to. And then, you know, we made the move. It was mostly, Freddie got nicked up. Freddie got a little bit hurt in whatever game that was. And so you're not going to put a guy in there that's not 100% when you got this other guy that's been sitting here and, you know, ready to rock and roll. So it was an easy decision.

You know, I'm not putting Freddie in there when he's not 100%. And then bus just stole the rest of the way. Made it easy. Good team win for the hurricanes down there in Carolina. You're a great leader, brother. You should take that in sometime. And anytime you want to write a book about leadership, make sure you voice it over. Yeah. Okay, because I would like to hear it coming out of your mouth

which is how you are maybe the most deferrent coach I've ever heard in my life in a, not an angry manner, but a hard edge manner. Stoic. Yeah, just a, we appreciate you and how you operate and how your team operated all playoffs. Thank you so much. And good luck this off season.

Thanks for having me. on, guys. Love your show. You're the best. Take care, guys. You guys watch our show in the hockey world. Oh, everybody watches your show. You know that. Come on. I don't know that, actually, because we say some dumb shit sometime, and then I find out. You say a lot of dumb shit. But, you know, you don't have a lot of hockey stuff, but it's, you're just, you're good at what you do because you're real. That's, to me, that's what it is. You know, you say what you think and you, most of the time you're right, right? The most of the time you're right.

You're the best. I appreciate the hell out of you for watching. We are honored to hear that. You're the mayor. Ladies of gentlemen. Take care, man. Two times, Robbrennobon. Yeah, Rod.

We do got to remember that. That is the thing. You know, that is the thing. Yep. Tend to forget that. Yeah. And I think people, like, get mad at us sometimes for some of the stuff, but it's like, we are coming from a spot where it's like,

come on, man, we expecting that reaction. Like, we don't, come on. You know, like, there's no way. We are trying to get through this together through this entire thing, but it is crazy that people hear us. And that hockey, I mean, the ratings came out, the best they've had. Highest ever, like 2.2 average. Yeah, so insane numbers for all of sports right now.

And then the NBA playoffs, the most. So 98? Yeah, which is, is that Bulls era? That's been Michael Jordan era. That's peak, right basketball? Yeah, 98 Bulls. Whenever they're talking about that. And Braves.

So in the Braves, also MAB will be having a great run. But, yeah, they're talking about like golden era right now of sports. It's happening. We are in the middle of the golden era of sports. sports and I don't know what the ratings are for everything seemingly just bigger than ever. I don't know how this is kind of started to happen, but I do appreciate the fact that it might be accounting for digital streaming and people catching up and how this is working, maybe more modern technology and giving what people are actually watching because on the

internet, I mean, people do bought and buy views. I think it's pretty obvious whenever people do that, you can kind of see it happening in real time. But on the internet, there's like a scoreboard on how many things are watched. And linear television was always judged off this Nielsen rating with, if you have a cable box, and then they projected out to how many people would be watching and say, well, who has that? Nobody really ever knew.

But then the internet was being judged off these numbers that are happening right in front of Verizon. And there's a set of rules on how it all happens. So now it feels like there is a combination of digital numbers. Who has to share what numbers with what, when platforms have to do, with linear television still being a real thing. it feels like there is an evolution of reporting of the numbers as opposed to maybe, I don't know,

because it feels like the numbers are all big for everything. And it's like, is that just a more accurate number for what it's been for like the last 10 years? Or is this actually right now a big time boom for sports? So I think maybe big time boom for sports, but also I think maybe a little bit more accurate accounting maybe of what's happening around places or maybe a little bit easier to tell who's all watching where?

Yeah, I mean, it's certainly a big time boom for sports, but I also forget all the time. Like I have YouTube TV and like that's not considered cable, but I always like in my head when I turn it on, it's like I'm watching cable, you know, but it's not. So it's like I don't know how, yeah, it's weird. And I don't know how that's accounted for. I just assume kind of everyone has YouTube TV at this point.

But like you said, how many people are, we're watching, you know, the Stanley Cup finals on like streaming it on ESPN or like on Hulu or on Disney. You know, I mean, there's just, you can watch it anywhere. So it is hard to kind of understand how they play. pull that all into one. If they're reported accurately, which is a big if, if people aren't fudging numbers, you would think it's a lot easier these days because of the technology.

Like, you would think YouTube TV knows exactly who's watching what at what times. ESPN Plus knows who's watching what at what's time. All these things, all these streaming services. Like, back in the day, you filling out a questionnaire, hey, do you watch this program and then mailing it back in? Like, I would assume things are a lot more accurate. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Like, I think there is a big sports boom.

Yeah. But I think also modern viewing experience is being accounted for, as opposed to maybe not being accounted for before. Whatever the case, sports is just holding up the entire torch. Oh, yeah. And guess what, AJ? You know why those numbers are so big? Why is that? Because it unites people.

That's people from all over watching. No bullshit. That's what it's all about, AJ. That's what sports are all about. It's happening in real time right in front of our faces, AJ. Yeah, it is. Quick question. Do you know or know of any?

that had in one of those Nielsen boxes where they, you know, tracked what you watch. Has anyone ever heard of anybody that had one or knew anyone? I don't know. Tone was pointing to the back. I thought Nick did, maybe. I know that we were looking for the black box to steal pay-per-views. Sure. I know we were looking for that.

Why? Yeah. And then who, I just watched a video of, what was his name? The commentator back in the day. He was with NWA. He was giving a. speech to people before TN.S. Sorry, not NWA, TNA, he was giving Mike, TNA, yeah, Mike Tenae, yeah, Mike Tenae was giving a speech about how, don't steal our pay-per-view.

Sorry. Okay? This is from back in like, 1990s or something. He was looking directly at the camera. He's like, there's camera people, there's producers, there's hard worker people that just, please don't steal our pay-per-view. And I'm going to be honest, in real time, I did not see that, because all we were trying to do was just steal all that shit. I get it. It's still very clearly, I remember stealing multiple WrestleMania's several years in a row. Big parties to a lot of people coming to them. Because one person had a black box.

Exactly. Kenny's house right down the street, in the basement. They got it. Shut up, Mr. Fesick. Yeah, exactly.

Uncle Greg, and Angela down there. We appreciate that down in the basement. Everybody kind of hustles in. We're all packed in there, just watching Sable. Okay. It's an incredible time.

What we're doing here. Yeah, we got two words for everybody. Yes, we do. We're having a time of our life. And then Mike today on the other side was dying. My kids can't eat because you're doing that. I was like, well, sorry. Yeah, sorry.

We're actually in here because normally we can't either. So that's kind of a part of. Was there anything else on those besides sports? Yeah, you know, HBO and stuff like that too, yeah. Oh, I never did that. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who I would certainly try to steal an opportunity to watch him play. Former U.S. Open winner and a man who's not scared to stir it apart, especially whenever he's in Canada, just going up there. Good move.

And then puts on a Jack Hughes jersey. He's tailing a bit. Just healing a little bit. Walks in there, they boo him, obviously. And he goes, Bertie. Ladies and gentlemen, a man who I would say is on fire as an American heading into the United States open. He tees off Thursday at 136.

Ladies and gentlemen, Wyndham Clark. Yeah, Windham. What's up, boys? Okay, tell me about the sweater, the decision to be made to do this, and the instant reaction. And then the understanding that I need to do something sweet here and not get a double or triple bogey.

on this particular hole for the good of my entire country? So it all started Wednesday. We're playing on that hole. And my managers out there with me, I'm like, why don't we have a USA jersey? This would be perfect. So we tried to overnight a jersey and couldn't get it in. And so on Friday, on planes on my 12th hole,

I look behind and there's a guy with that jersey. So I finish out my put, I be lying to him and say, hey, can I buy that jersey off you and wear it on the rink? And he goes, hell yeah, man. I was like, all right, meet me after round. So sure enough, he showed up. bought the jersey for $200, got his address, his name,

I'm going to ship it back to him. We had it in the bag. We had a little tunnel before we get to 14. I put it on, instant booze. They even got an FU Windham chant going. And my caddy goes, all right, you got to stuff it now. So we stuff it,

and we're like, hell yeah, and I put the jersey back on. Well, we get up there, and I have a five-footer. So the most nervous I was was on that five-footer because I'm like, if I miss this, it's going to be even worse. Oh, yeah.

Embarrassment for the entire country window. You know, in Canada, would have slotted out as a big-time dub. Back. Yeah, to be clear, yeah. There would have been some questions asked, I think, certainly with Freedom 250 around the corner, you know, with all the decision-making that could be taking place there. Instead, you get a birdie, okay?

So let's talk about the confidence that you certainly have in your game if this is what you're willing to do in the middle of a PGA tournament, especially in the lead-up to a major. Tell me about this weekend what we need to expect, because we just talked to Mark Schlaubbaugh, who obviously is golf extraordinaire, go dogs down there. He said that the wind could obviously change this entire thing. The stint meter, what they're trying to do,

the greens might be softer because they're scared the winds will blow balls off the green. What is your kind of read on the course, and how should we be viewing you guys as you attempt to take this thing on? Well, I just got off the course, and honestly, it was like borderline benign, just because the wind's not super bad today. It's a little soft, but I think they're prepping for, you know, 20 to 30 mile an hour wins tomorrow. I say that now and I'm in the afternoon, who knows, it could be absolutely miserable. But yeah, I mean, Chinnecock's tough and the weather's supposed to be hardly any rain.

So if that's the case, the USDA can make it however they want. It could be rock hard and firm and fast. So I think the first two days is just kind of get yourself through it and battle the wind. And then I think on the weekend they'll let it go. And then you'll see Shinnecock really show us to you. Okay. So if we make the cut this weekend when everybody's watching, Shinnock and the U.S. Open and the U.S. PGA or whatever,

going to try to let everybody know that we still got it. Yep. Yeah, we still got the opportunity to embarrass these golfers if we would like it. I think Brooks won at plus one in 2018 at Shinnock. That was the winning score. Obviously, we very rarely see that. We all get reminded that the U.S. Open is trying to beat you guys when you're out there. And this is when we see the duffs.

Oh, yeah. In the throws of the clubs. The patent. And a lot of patent. A lot of puffs. gotten at U.S. Opens because you guys look like us for the first time. Now, granted, us on that course, 200. Minimal. Maybe 250. So I'm not saying like you guys get to our level, but it does,

it is the most relatable tournament every single year. It feels like. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, we know the whole course is very difficult. We hear everyone talking about it, but can you point to one or two holes or an area of the course that us as fans watching can tune in to kind of see, you know, the people separate themselves for guys, that have a chance and guys that probably aren't going to make that cut? Yeah, you know, this course you'll see guys miss greens, and it almost sometimes could be intentional. Obviously, you want to hit every green,

but if you get out of position, the guys that I think will really thrive as they miss it in the correct spot, which is into the wind. You always want to have into the wind or in putts or chips. And I think any guy that gets out of position, you know, they're going to be downwind, and then they have to make the decision. Do they try to pull off a shot?

could result in a double or triple couple, you know, slamming clubs. Or do they just take their medicine, hit it far away from the hole and try to get up and down? So that's one thing to look for. And then as far as holes to watch, there's two par threes that are just absolutely diabolical and epic out here, which is seven and 11. And if you, if a guy misses in the wrong spot, I mean, you could watch someone make a seven on a part three like, you know, like that, really easy. Not you.

It's going to be a fun course of life. Not you. No, no, no, not me. I'd never do that. Oh, no. We don't want to be a part of it. Dump that, dump that. Let's not have that out there anymore.

Let's talk about the game and the scores that could come out of nowhere. That's why golf is so important. You could have a great day and in one hole, par three. Yeah. Just completely everything for you. But that could also be a change in a gust for out of nowhere for a moment in time. Go ahead, Conme. Yeah, Windham.

With the weather, how much does your game have? have to completely change depending on the time. Like if you're on the front nine and, you know, there's a decent weather, 10 mile an hour winds or something, but then on the back, it ramps up to 30 mile an hour winds. Like, do you have specific clubs that you have in your bag just in case that weather comes? Or like, what is the strategy there just because we know, you know, weather is weather? No one knows what the hell is going on. So how do you kind of approach that? Yeah, so I typically play, I have a four iron and then I go five wood, three wood driver. Well, this week I'm putting in a two iron, especially for the first few days because we're going to have some dead into the wind.

And if you don't, you know, if you hit it high, you never know what the wind's going to do to the golf ball. So you want to keep the ball really low. You know, fortunately, we play quite a bit of golf over in the UK and Lynx golf. So you get used to the wind. You get used to hitting it low. So yeah, that's one specific club. And then you got to be able to hit your driver a little off the tee. You hit high shots.

You know, let's say if you're normally hitting driver 300, it might go literally 270 or 260 into this kind of win. So you've got to be able to fight the ball. And then the toughest thing, honestly, for us, is downwind. Downwind it's easier to hit straight, but it's way harder to hold the greens. So if you're coming in downwind, you've got to be really conservative and not get aggressive. Okay. So if it wasn't for the wind in my face, I wouldn't.

be able to fly, says the plane. Now, as a punter, I hated the wind in my face, but it made the ball turnover better, turnover easier. If I was able to get it to turn over, it would happen. When in my back, tail end pushing it, couldn't really control it. It would kind of get out of sorts. Is that what it is for you guys? Just it kind of just blows the control out of the ball, basically. Yeah, so into the wind, if you miss hit it, it exaggerates your misses. So yeah, you can look stupid, but you can hold the green so much easier. So you can control where it's going. Then downwind, you don't hit it offline as much because the wind just hits it and it goes straight.

But it's really hard to control your distance. And so that's, especially on greens like this in the U.S. Open when it's firm, you can land it on the front of the green. And everyone goes, oh, that's a good shot. And it hits and then just goes over the back of the green. So that's the challenge. All right. So why don't you try not to do that? Put it in the hole.

Yeah, I just don't. Yeah. That's what I'm saying. Why are we even doing more Let's do less shots Because it sounds like the shots are going to be harder Simple game Yeah

It's definitely not a simple game Do less shots Says who It sounds like the problems are when you have to do shots Right? Yeah Do less shots So let's go for a whole story of my life

More Yeah and also at bars Okay we can potentially Do less shots Okay so it's just like the bar You know kind of do the same there Windham Whenever you're living it Now, you talk about a lot of the weather and decision-making in the real moment.

It's kind of becoming a discussion with top player in the world. Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, when we saw a couple weeks ago, you know, Scotty and his caddy kind of had a mix up with the wind. And Scottie thought he hit the perfect club, perfect distance, ends up putting it in the water. And there was a, you know, a lot of people talked about it. When the conditions are like this, how important is your caddy going to be when you're kind of relying on him to have a lot of that stuff, you know, dialed? and you kind of just have to go out there and produce based on what he's telling you. So, Ty, first off, I got to address the YouTube TV and cable.

I am one of the very few souls that has cable still. So not everyone has YouTube TV. Old school. There you go. Old school. I never said I was going to cut the cord. Old school. I did.

So, yeah, it's really important. Like, my caddy will carry a compass. And with the compass, we'll, you know, let's say this week we're going to have predominantly southwest wind. We'll find out exactly where it's coming from. And let's, I mean, this is getting technical, but it could be coming at like 220. I mean, on the compass, it'll have the degrees. I love that.

And every hole will point that where we're going and we know exactly where the wind's coming. And then as I'm walking into the ball, I'll still be talking to him and have him look to see if it's going to gust. And so, or if it stops. So if he feels like it's stopping, he'll call me off and say, hey, back off, wind change. And so you'll have to wait. And it's, there is a lot of luck when it comes with wind. I mean, like what happened with Scotty is he probably hit a great shot, wind died down or hit it.

And next to you know you look stupid. And it's not really the caddy's fault. It's just wind doesn't always stay predominantly the same direction or the same pace every time. Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. Yeah, me too.

Yeah. It's the absolute worst. It's, you know, and in stadiums, I don't know about for you guys, stadiums you can normally try to find where a jet stream will be. But if it's like, what's it called wherever they're the same on both sides? Some of the same symmetrical. Symmetrical? When a stadium's symmetrical, how the wind is at top, it's the opposite

on the bottom, obviously. But whenever there's an open in it, then on one half of the field it's going, you got to like, there's different winds on the field and then up in the sky. There's different winds in football stadiums. So when you're punting, you've got to kind of like figure those out beforehand. For golf, is it

I don't know. How are you reading? Is there different wind gusts and are you trying to find where it is? Like, how do you kind of judge all that shit? Yeah. So it's honestly the same thing in golf. Like if I look at a course that everyone would know at Augusta, like hold 12, because the trees cover the first 100 feet of the golf ball, it doesn't get hit by the wind and then it gets above it and it could, you know, the wind might be something different. And so a lot of times you try, you know, you know that. hey, the first half's not going to get hit by the land, only last half. The one good thing about Chinnicock is there's no trees on the golf course. So it should be the same at all times. And they have a huge American flag. I'm actually looking at it. Huge American flag right where the clubhouse is.

So you can see exactly the wind's blowing at all the times, which is quite nice. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation. God, invisible with liberty and justice. Hey, good for us. Good for us. Every day for a while.

Hey, Wyndham, we went for a walk right there. We did not know if we knew. Golf tournaments need national anthems. That's what I just remembered. What's that? Golf tournaments need national anthem. Maybe just pledges of allegiance. And you know what?

Windham will do it up in Canada one weekend. Okay, we need it every other weekend everywhere else. Okay, let's talk about the U.S. Open. Obviously, third major of the year. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Wyndham, obviously you've won this thing. so the highest of highs, and I don't want to say the lowest of lows, but obviously Oakmont is not what you wanted.

Pat and I live in Plum, or grew up in Plumborough, Pennsylvania, which 90% of Oakmont is in. I caddy to Oakmont. You destroyed our course, man. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But how excited are you to move past that? Because that was a story last year and just get Shinnecock, like do Shinnecock and then put that in your rearview,

Amir. The course destroyed me, so maybe it's, I'm just kidding. You know, yeah, I'm glad it's behind me. It was obviously a terrible moment for me, probably one of the low lights in my career. But, you know, I've kind of turned the page, and now I'm on to this season. I'm playing good golf, and I feel like, you know, maybe this is the last tournament where stuff will be brought up, and I can kind of hopefully move forward.

But, yeah, I mean, every time I hear people chirp about the locker room, I just, it's a good reminder. for me like, hey, I got to realize where I'm at, how fortunate I am. Don't let this game become too much and let it affect, you know, your temper and the things that you do on and off the golf course. So I'm definitely glad we're a year removed and I'm hoping I can kind of win back the hearts of the American fans that I had, you know, before that incident. Yeah, I mean, just the people in Plum probably going to be the last ones to jump on board, as you heard from tone there. But on their note, things like that can obviously change perspective in helping free you almost from everything

because the worst thing that could happen is people say you're a terrible person, you're disrespecting the sport. Once you feel that, and it's on to like, let me get on the other side of this, let me write my wrongs. That could be a freeing feeling. Might be why you're playing such good golf right now, and we can't wait to watch you at Shinnecock, brother, legitimately. Nellie Corder told us that all golfers are psychopaths too.

So if you're going to freak out every once in a while, I think golf has done that to a lot of us. So don't you worry about a damn thing. We appreciate the hell out of the way you represent United States of America and play golf. Good luck this weekend. let this course beat the shit out of you because it sounds like that's going to potentially happen with the weather it's going to be a uh shinnock jab and then mother nature going yeah

boom to bang uh and i think you're going to be able to dodge and weave in there good luck this weekend yeah thanks boys appreciate it you're the best ladies and gentlemen windham clara yeah tone i mean hey he messed up a locker he didn't kill a kid like it's not that big a deal Tony used to cat. He used to loop in those locker rooms. It's basically like wind them going into Tony's living room and taking a shit on his couch. I basically slapped my mother in the face. Yeah.

I don't think that's like, Ms. Diane, if he did do that, I would certainly be okay with us reminding him forever. Okay. Mrs. De Giulio. It came up this week. I'm not the, I just, oh, I. Way to go, Tony. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable.

Completely. Completely. Completely. He's having such a good time. But on that note, thanks, man. Just reliving my worst day of my life. Okay. Yeah, I'm hoping to really...

Actions don't have consequences around here. Nah, just there's no reason. There is. There was consequences. Everybody killed him. Yeah. And now he's on a revenge store for you go to golf. He's playing great golf.

And then all of a sudden, he's got to be like, just... You plan on sucking it up this year at Shinnock like you did last year? Because where I fucking caddied, yeah, we have some thoughts about everything. You don't think the people that actually are at Oakmont had this conversation with him, Second week in a row, I got to remind you guys,

life's not all gum drops and blow jobs. Thanks for being that prospective putter for us. You're certainly the one that we're looking for it to do that. Okay, as we wrap up today, I like Wyndham playing. I look where his head's at. Yeah. It's got wind in his name. That's got to help him a little bit.

And win. Telling a big fan of two irons, I'm sorry. If anyone heard when they didn't sit out, put a two iron in play, I said, oh, yes. You can hear him like, not on care of that. Nothing I love more in golf than hit a nice two iron stinger off the tea. I mean, we were talking the other day about Scotty, if his driver wasn't in control,

get rid of that thing, put a one iron in there. Yeah, Tiger did it. At Chinook. Just go ahead and start banging putters maybe, you know, just get it out there. Get it in the fairway. If you're in the fairway, if you're in the fairway, it sounds like life is over. And we get reminded that at U.S. Open every year. Things that we did not talk about today.

George Pickens says he's going to be playing basically on a franchise tag and he's okay with everything. They're going to go off without a hitch. He gets a chance to chase another bag. And I think George fell in love with Dallas and the Dallas Cowboys last year. Certainly his favorite year in the NFL, his most productive year in the NFL. He said, yeah, they're going to be paying me a bunch of money. I'll do it. And then we'll figure it out after the year, basically.

Now, this does not mean that a long-term deal doesn't get done, which could possibly happen. But I do think this is something that Jerry Jones will absolutely be appreciative of, AJ Hawk. Don't you think so? Oh, no question. I think they hope to keep him around a long time. But I think he, George Pickens, loves having Dak Prescott throw him in the ball. and Dak obviously loves having him on the team there.

They're going to, I think, do even better than they did last year. Shout at the GP, finding a home there seemingly very happy about that. Today's FIFA World Cup games obviously will carry the show. Portugal and Congo won one. England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama, Uzbekistan, taking on Colombia all throughout the day. Three-hour increments, we can't wait to catch up with it all. Remember, America plays on Friday. We're back tomorrow.

On the other side of the break, we will have Dan. White joining us digitally to chit chat about Freedom 250 and also what's going on to Philadelphia. Yeah. That should be great. We hope you will join us there. If not, you stay here on ESPN Sports Center. We'll be taking it from here. Sports are the greatest, AJ. Is that not accurate? That is absolutely true. And we are so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about it every single day. We couldn't do this without all of you. We love you and we'll see you. Tomorrow, goodbye. Feel like we nailed. All right, let's take a break on the other side. We got

no white. We can't wait to catch up with him about Freedom 250 and his thoughts and all the other things happening around sports. Be a friend, tell your friends something nice. It might change your life. See you in five. This episode is brought to you by L'Oreal Group. Beauty is a powerful force that moves us. That's why L'Oreal Group has built a business that is inclusive at its heart with 100% of its brands, championing diversity. With 25,000 professional opportunities for people under 30 worldwide.

and 54% of leading positions held by women. Diversity is a strength that helps L'Oreal group create the best beauty products for all people. Visit Loreal.com to learn more. Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to our Humbley, the Draft King's Thunder Omer. On this magical sports cup fever, June 17, 2020, 26,

however three of the program begins now. Sports! Our spectacular, and that's A.J. hot, ladies and gentlemen. Wow. College football, Hall of Fame nominee. Yeah. You got a call. Are you got any updates on this? Have you done

anything to solidify the fact you're going to get in there? I don't know anything. Yep. Just hanging out. Does there been a Zoom call? Have you gotten a chance? There's not. There's not been a Zoom call. No, who would be putting that together and why? I assume it would be all

the heads of college football, you know? They want to interview you and you got to make your case. Is that how it works? I don't know. Have I been put on a referral list to talk to about maybe whether or not you should get in there? I don't know. They asked me for referrals. I'll send them your number.

And Bobby Carpenter and also the toxic table. I have Boston comment. That Ty Schmidt comment. What would you say to the college football Hall of Fame people that say, why does A.J. Hawk deserve to be in the college football Hall of Fame? He deserves to be in the college football hall of fame because no one loves college football more than A.J. Hawk. He lives, breeze, and dies with the buck guys.

when he is dead in the ground. You know what they're going to say about AJ Hawk? He was a good Ohio and he was a damn good Buckeye. Really? On his tombstone. You know, we can say that we know that for a fact because we're there with him when the Buckeyes were losing. And I'll tell you.

Shut up, Gumpie! Shut up! It was half time of Ohio State Miami. The amount of- I don't consent. It refused to be. Foxy's... I was not pouting, but I don't want to have a camera stuck in my face

at any behind-the-scenes moments, let alone when Ohio State is getting beat at halftime. He started sucking on those buck guys that he keeps in his pocket for good luck during the game. Remember that? He was using his mom. He's using his tongue to slop him back and forth. Pass him. Bingo.

One nut to the other. Popping him up in the air. Pooh, pooh, pooh, pooh. That's what he was trying to do. Doing a little spinner, a fidget. Yep. Yeah. That is a good reason for why he should go into Hall of Fame.

Let's go to one half of the hammer. Dye. Cowboys AP tone. You have an AP vote for NFL stuff, not for college stuff. But if you had to vote for the college football Hall of Fame, Why would you vote yes for AJ Hawk? I mean, no one encapsulates the game like AJ Hawk. I mean.

So Dana's not connected yet. I assume we're just buying time for wait. Can you shut up? If Dana's connected right now, I am sorry, Dana. Don't be an asshole or we won't send you the really cool gift that was sent to this office. Okay? Just let us. There was a very cool gift sent here, which could be a reason why you might get added to the college football Hall of Fame, to be honest.

I don't know if you know, somebody sent some wood to the Thunderdome, and it's for the Hawk Hives. I don't know if you have a name yet or not, but the hawk hives? We got a little deep, deep brood box there? A bee company said that. They said they want you to look professional. You know what hawk hive sounds like? Huh? Buckeyes.

And he is a damn good. It kind of does, yeah, that's sweet. Buckye running a damn good hawk hive. You really are. In the hawk house over here? He certainly cock-khan in the morning. Okay, as we wait for Dana to join us, So thanks for being a hero, AJ.

Sorry if you had to hear that, Dana. Sorry, man, we're wasting your time. It's not wasted time. It's college football hall of fame, bro. Jackass. I'll call you after the show, and I'll tell you all the nice things I was about to say. Very cute.

What were you going to say? Yeah, go ahead. Just that he encapsulates college football, bleeds, scarlet and gray, was a leader of a program that, you know, kind of changed the sport. He was the face of the sport. Big face.

Sports. sport. Click clack. Click clack. On the all-time team on the college football and C.L.A. 2K team for Ohio State. He's the middle linebacker. So if they're, do they know what they're doing? Let me think, yeah. You ever seen those like build a quarterback things where you use like

Tom Brady's brain and someone someone's arm? They did that. Yeah, they did that for linebacker. A.J. Hawk, everything. Really? Yeah. Especially heart. Miles and miles of heart. Okay, so I didn't see below the heart Because to your point, I saw, they said we'd like the hair. Bingo.

Jaw. Cranium depth. Thickness. They said that for age. I'll take that one. You can give me that one. I'll take that one. Had that whole thing.

And then the heart, it literally had AJ. Yeah. That's right. Popping out of it. I didn't see the rest. You said the rest was also just him? Except for somewhere like the groin section, but other than that, who they usually who's dog they pick?

Antonio Holmes for. Yeah, good choice, guys. I thought they used other fuck guy legend Greg Laibackers, live backers, Laibeckers, Laibeckx. All right, let's take, good acting. Boom. That's what they put up there, actually. Hair as well.

They put the hair up there, too. Of course, absolutely. They, uh, yeah, and the swag, you know, always had good swag. For somebody that doesn't like all the nonsense, you know, did always have a little bit of swag on. Love this band. Had to do it. Had to do it.

He's good, Senatorville, this guy. Oh, yeah. And we think he deserves to go into the college football Hall of Fame. Where'd go, AJ? Do the right thing. That was AJ Hawks to the College Football Hall of Fame segment that we had planned out for definitely weeks and weeks and weeks as we hit that from all different angles.

We still await the president of the UFC, fresh off a Freedom 250 event that captivated an entire globe. Even a G7 summit. That was cool to see. That was cool to see. Because I assume there's a lot of disagreeing going on in that room a lot. Okay, especially with the world we're in right now with a lot of things happening all over the place. So for them all to be like, cool, right?

Yeah. Yeah, pretty cool. Last two guys? You see that right hand from Sugar Land? Pretty good. Pretty good. I don't know where they're from. I wish they would have given us a little bit more info on who and how important this is because could be the most important of all time.

And they're like, that was awesome. Like that was a good. And then, oh, wait, are we finding common ground in sports? Are we potentially changing world with sporting event happening in the front yard of the White House? Maybe. Maybe we're breaking the ice. Maybe we're finding common ground. Maybe we're doing spectacular things that are very, very expensive.

Ladies and gentlemen, the president of the UFC, a man that just put on a historic event in the White House lawn and also in the White House. Ladies and gentlemen, Freedom 250 Brain. and inspiration. Dana White. Yeah, Dana. How you doing, man? Good morning, boys. How are you?

Hey, good morning to you as well. Thank you for joining us. We know you run a very busy life, so we appreciate you taking some time, especially fresh out of Freedom 250. Here we are. Expensive as shit, which I think is awesome

that a publicly traded company has one part of its company, one of its biggest company's president coming out and saying, lost our ass on this, okay? Absolutely lost our ass on this. but it was awesome. So shout out to you all, Corpo and business folks,

being transparent about what you wanted it to be, what you wanted to become. We saw your face, okay, as that was happening, standing next to the president on the front porch of the White House. And it was the biggest smile I've ever seen from a human. I think you understood. Yeah, look at that. Pause that. Pause that.

Look at that face. I mean, if they were to draw a caricature of somebody living their absolute best life, next to the president at the White House, watching an 11. a fighter jet flyover as Zach Brown is singing the national anthem. 90,000 people are in a park across the street.

You got thousands of military members in the front yard. You got weather clear somehow and everything that you thought it could be, it was. Was this the greatest moment outside of obviously family? Is this the greatest moment of your life?

And in this moment, what is going through your mind that made you react this way? Yeah, before this, the biggest thing in my career had been going through COVID. This is by far and away. the check so there's so many things so check this out so we're we're every year for the i mean uh for the last

20 years we've gone on a saturday saturday ends up being incredible like the most perfect weather ever and uh i'm like jesus we should have went on saturday and at the way ends we have 60,000 people at the way ends it was just it was and the day before the images from you know the the the Lincoln Memorial for the press conference. Look at this, right? There's lightning and a rainbow. It's like, this shit was biblical. Like, every day felt like biblical.

People were thinking that that was AI, which it's not. That's real. Then, you know, we have every 15 minutes we're being updated by the weather on Sunday. Because it's absolutely positively going to rain from six to nine. So we had this reception that the president threw in the east room of the White House and everybody's in there. And drinking and hanging it's a great mood. You know, everybody's fired up for the event. And I'm getting up to the date weather.

So what we're going to do is the rain's going to hit. And we got the team. They're going to go out there and clean everything up real quick and we're going to get out there. The flyover is canceled. The flyover is canceled because we can't go till nine because it's going to be dark. They can't do it in the dark. The planes are too close together. So the planes are going to turn around and they're going to go back and, you know,

we're trying to figure out how to cut stuff out of the show. The storm, no bullshit. You're going to ask the media. The storm's coming. It breaks in half. Goes around the White House and the ellipse and keeps going. Are you shitting me? Hold on, hold on.

So outside in D.C. area, there was still a storm. because we were watching along and we know that the weather was going to be a big part of the story. Too hot, too humid, too wet, and obviously the bugs that you learned about whenever you went out there was going to be a big deal. How's the wind going to affect everything?

Obviously, that was the huge storyline, especially for people that were hoping that it didn't work out. They were like, this is going to be one big failure. The weather's going to come. That was the storyline. And now you're saying the weather still did come. It just kind of opened up for your event.

That had to feel pretty fucking good. Greg, what's the story goes, you're not going to believe this. Oh, Moses. The storm came to the White House, broke apart, and went around the White House and the ellipse, and kept going. Crazy. Yeah. Oh, you got it.

You guys know what I'm talking about it. That's the first time I've actually seen it on the radar. Yeah. So, you know, we had military meteorologists we were working with on this thing. So it breaks, and Craig says, the storm just went around us. I said, go. Get everybody out of the White House. Get them in their seats.

and let's go. Ding, ding. So then we get up there just in time. We had two minutes. In two minutes, the planes were going to turn around and go back to the airport. Wow. So when you think about me up there smiling with everything,

I mean, knowing what we just pulled off and that these planes are actually flying over, you know, the White House and the ellipse, we were literally that close to it not happening. And then just from then on out, everything just came together.

and worked out perfectly. Now the weather, the night before was a lot mugger. It wasn't muggy that night and there was just enough of a breeze to cool you off and to keep the bugs away. Okay, so it ended up being absolutely perfect. Literally perfect. Yeah, literally a perfect night, a perfect environment for what the setting was. And you staring at that flyover, in the moment knowing that you were two minutes away from having to cancel that and having everybody set this whole entire thing up thinking to yourself, holy shit. We pulled it off. We absolutely. Absolutely put it off. Little did you know at that point, though, it'd become the only card I think that you've ever had where every single fight ends in a knockout. Little did you know that the live band, I assume you did know from rehearsal and the live singing would be spectacular.

Little did you know that the shot of the fighters after winning going across the street to the stage to the ellipse park looked like Coachella for those guys coming out there. And little did you know that even your biggest detractors will come out and say that was a pretty cool event. That was a spectacle. That was spectacular. And I think it was both parties were like, that was a pretty dope thing that kind of took place. I think you heard that a lot more afterwards than before I assume that. And you didn't even know that in the moment in which you got lucky as fuck with the flyover in that mode.

So good for you, man. You know, my guy, Gary Breka, he was over here yesterday telling me to get my shit together. I'm out of control and I got to get my eating and my everything back under control. I got yelled at yesterday, but he was telling me that when everybody was pouring out into the streets in D.C. After the event was over, he said it was this crazy vibe and feeling like people were hugging each other. And it was just this huge, I don't know, he said it's very hard to explain. But everybody who was there live at the event says, I mean, even, I don't know if you saw Volkanowski's explanation. He's like, I'm not even an American.

And there was just this feeling and this energy at this thing that was, you know, hard to explain. And people, it was, it was incredible. It's the most incredible thing I've ever been a part of. Well, congratulations to you, man. A lot of work, a lot of money. But you were supposed to be there too. You were supposed to be there. No, yeah, hey, fucking A.

If I would have went there or would have rained, brother. I know that. So don't you worry about any of that. We were very lucky that we got a chance to chat with. Eelia and Justin. That was spectacular. Yeah. Sugar Sean was on yesterday. He's giving himself the title.

So once again, Sugar Sean is just like after his first loss where he said, well, that doesn't count. I'm still undefeated. He was forcing you and UFC to say he was undefeated. He's doing the same with the title now, so I don't know if you know that. But we love what your business has done, what you've continued to do, the opportunities that you create. And you are just always yourself. You know, you are never ever, what's I? Unabashedly, I believe, is the word, yourself and your company is like that. It's obviously very refreshing.

You find yourself in a lot of shit. I think you understand that, but I think you're built for it. And no other person would have done this. No publicly traded company, no company that has access to the funds that it costs to do this would do this. So, like, shout to you for pulling it off and seemingly bringing everybody together around incredible fighting. You know, like that is a, that's a really cool thing that you did, Dana. You should take it in sometime. Maybe don't continue to be a fat-ass drunk, you know, Gary Brackus saying.

But you should take it in. a little bit that you pulled off something spectacular in our nation's history. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, it's good. We're going to have a great summer, man. Now's International Fight Week with McGregor and Max and then we just keep

brought up. Then, you know, we're coming to Philly. We got Islam-Machchev and Ian Gary and, you know, we got a great summer slated, so I'm looking forward to it. And, you know, one of the things that blows me away about this event in our fan base. Our fan base is

Just so awesome, man. These people bought tickets, you know, plane tickets, hotel rooms and everything to go down, knowing they couldn't get into the event to stand in the lawn of the ellipse and watch it on big screens. And, you know, even the ellipse was a huge success. And it was a lot of fun being there. When I went over there, the day of the wayans, everybody was just so fired up. And, you know, people came to celebrate America's 250th birthday. and you could feel it.

You could really feel it there. It was just, it was really something special. Yeah, and not just celebrate America's birthday. Obviously, yes, we're doing that, but your sport, man. You got a passionate group. That was like a festival. You guys had a festival for America's 250th birthday that had your sport in the middle of it, your league in the middle of it.

Congratulations on that. It's hard to build something that impactful, that influential, and also that awesome for America to experience. We're all tuned in. It was late as shit, I must say. It was late as shit. And, you know, some of us had fucking day jobs, you know, Dana. I understand.

It was late out there. Well, we would have gone earlier, but, you know, we thought we were going to get murdered with a rainstorm. But the thing I wanted to point out, I forgot when you said it, the president's own band is the name of that band. They were so incredible that, like, the red hat chili peppers would come on. And people thought it was the red hot chili peppers. Drake, you know, one of the fighters walked out to Drake. and it was the band. It wasn't them.

So we had an executive meeting yesterday. We're talking about putting together all of their music that they played at the White House and Zach Brown's rendition of Star-Spangled Banner and putting it together in like, you know, an album format for Freedom 250. Yeah, definitely. I mean, live from Freedom 250.

I assume you guys have all of that recorded into their own... Yes, definitely need to do that. And leading up to it when you were saying, and you know, you probably didn't know how good. Craig Borsari was telling me, wait to you hear this band, wait to you hear this band. And the day that they were out there rehearsing, the first day, I went out and listened to them saying Thunderstruck.

And it was incredible. I mean, the band is so off the charts I had to. The president leans over to me. I didn't tell him this yet. He's at the G7 summit. So he was calling me after the event, but I haven't talked to him since he landed in France. But I'll tell you this.

The president leaned over. to me and said, I'm going to give the band a fight bonus. I'm going to give them a bonus tonight. And Mr. President, I'm going to match your bonus that you're going to give the band. Okay. I like that. I like people getting rewarded whenever they don't know that it's coming, you know, and just kicking ass without it. And then on the other side of it saying, hey, you did an incredible job. We appreciate the environment and the vibe that you set for the entire night. They were awesome. The live music intro was a great idea. I think it did feel classy.

Yep. But also, if they were ass, like that would have been terrible. They sounded. Superstar came on for Sugar Sean. It sounded, at your point, it sounded perfect through it all. It was spectacular. Good for you matching that bonus to all the, to the band into singing. Pipes.

Fantastic. Incredible. I mean, really good. Pipes. A wide range of songs had to be sung there. So good for them. Good for America. And shout to the heroes that came alongside the fighters.

It felt like every attention to, detail was actually meant. So congratulations to you for that. Now, you said a couple things there. Islam and Ian Gary, UFC 330 in Philadelphia, that feels like a big, is that announced? Is that known or no? Is that something that we just learned? I don't know if I were.

We're coming back to, this is the first time we're back in Philly since like 2019, I think. So I love, you know, I'm a Celtics fan, right? Yeah. So everybody talks about like the rivalries with New York and that. LA. I love going to Celtics games in Philly. The Philly fans are awesome, man. Every time I go in there and I got my Celtics shit on there, you know, the Philly fans are like, you got some balls wearing that in here. UFC sucks. That be the entire game. And the greatest thing that can happen for me is that the Celtics win in Philly. And then when I walk out, it's just, it's the greatest thing ever. I love Philly. I love Philly cheese sticks. You heard me, Gary Brecker. And I can't wait to get back there. And the fans are. the best. That's August 15th, Philadelphia, an incredible sports city. Incredible

shit-talking city as well, obviously. Very, very good. Very good. The best. Yeah, I assume the fight crowd is going to be... Oh, yeah. Oh, the amount of Johns and fuck it. Oh, yeah, it's going to be electrifying. Great fight for a title. I think also on that Cardo,

co-main event, Strawweight UFC Women's Strawway Championship, McKenzie Dern and Jillian Robertson. Gillian Robertson. As well. Yep, yep, that's a fun one. Hey, Philly's coming a live. Can't wait for that. AJ has a question for you, Uncle Dana. Yeah, Dana, going back to UFC 250, the incredible stage you built the claw, as you called it. And we heard you talk about it where it's made and shipped and railroaded in, all this stuff trucked in.

I guess can you repurpose that? What happens to it now? Like, is it going to be a monument somewhere? You're going to put it out there at apex? Like, what happens? We don't own it. It goes back to Belgium. But we actually, Philly.

We flew it into Philly and we didn't fly it into Philly. We boated it over to Philly, however the hell that worked out. We built it in Philadelphia, tested it, then put it on track or trailer trucks and shipped it to D.C. But no, that goes back to Belgium. So they're going to use it, are they going to use it for something? I have no clue. So the U2, you too did use something like this structure, and Craig found out that you two had done that. So he had that company build one for us.

So my hotel is like two blocks. from the White House. And every night I would go out in the middle of the street. And this thing is bigger than the White House. It's above the White House. And when we would test it, it would light up the entire sky in D.C. And like I told everybody leading up to this thing, if you were a UFC fan and you'd never been to Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C. is such a great city to walk around

every day and everything that's there. Obviously, all the historical stuff. Georgetown is incredible. It's just, it's, it's, it's, it was an incredible experience. Yeah. In every way, shape, and form. Yeah, all the drone shots, helicopter shots, the fireworks. I mean, it was a showcase, a spectacle of Washington, D.C.

It was in every time we go, we get captivated walking around because like so much shit has obviously happened there. I mean, so much stuff has happened there. But it is meant for you to be a visitor in the city. It is meant for you to do that. The happy hour is obviously incredible there because it's a working city. Obviously, people getting out of their office. It's a good vibe there.

I like that D.C. was being sure. showcase. I like that the White House being showcased, man. I didn't know you guys are going to be walking out of the fucking Oval Office right into the game. I had no idea that was an option in this entire thing. How does that come together? How badass is that? Justin Gachey's walkout might be the greatest

television moment ever. And when we go live to him in the Oval Office, he's staring at the Declaration of Independence. The President has the original Declaration of Independence hanging on the wall. And it's got like curtains that you close so the sun doesn't hit it in the daytime. And

And Gaitie was just like staring at it before he walked out. He said it was incredible. He said he couldn't read a word. Different language. He said, I'll tell you what. I don't know what fucking language that was. We certainly are appreciative of that thing. We certainly are appreciative of that thing.

All right, Dana. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Thank you for taking the time. Love you, boys. Thanks for having me. Hey, Connor back. Big deal. Congrats on that deal coming together.

Yeah, thanks. International Fight Week. So, yeah, everything in Vegas that week will be UFC. you know, it's going to be like, you know, doing D.C. over again. It's going to be International Fight Week. We have all kinds of things planned for fans. It's going to be fun. July.

Power Slap is that week, too. Sold out already. Hell yeah. Power Slap already sold out. I think you could sell that out at any UFC event the night before. You know that. Joe Rogan kind of did that at the beginning. He was obviously Trailblazer and so many things. He was doing shows the night before UFC events in cities and selling out the fucking arena.

It's like, Jesus Christ, you're a genius, Joe. You're an absolute genius. Speaking of Joe being a genius, he was in between. Max and Connor, obviously, for a question press conference of sorts. Connor McGregor's back on his shit fully. Does it feel like that? Does it feel like Connor is all the way. Yeah, yeah.

He's back. He's ready to go and he's fired up. Love it. So it's good to have him back. And, you know, him versus Max should be fireworks. So we're excited. You're the man, ladies of gentlemen. That's Dana White.

Yeah, Dana. Here's the photo. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Dana. Here's the photo of Gaichi staring at. at the Declaration of Independence saying English? That's what that is? Fascinating.

No. Anyone I'm speaking. AJ, you ever read through the Declaration of Independence just on a spare whim or a couple free moments of time? I mean, honestly, Gachie kind of inspired me to want to do that. So I will probably eventually. I think maybe we should all kind of get a look at that. Yeah, absolutely.

I saw a U.S. soccer fan took a copy of one to the England training ground and had them all sign it. Yeah. mock the shit great gimmick them signing it they're basically sign it in the way they're stupid country

okay that's the angle yeah because I was thinking the people that signed that pretty fucking notable yeah we're just letting every cane sign it I know he's good on the pitch I don't know if we need him on the declaration of attendance

because different time obviously one if I land two if I see Paul Revere let us all know that's right that AJ Hawks going in a college football thing yes All right, there's a tornado coming for Indianapolis, so we're going to go get our kids and get home. So everybody be safe out there.

Obviously, we are in that time of year. Indiana, very flat place. This happens across the Midwest and obviously over in the west, southwest as well. Tees and peas, everybody battling the weather. We'll be back tomorrow. We can't thank you all enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life.

We're interesting together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team.