The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1611 - Marcus Spears, Indiana WR Charlie Becker, Mike Greenberg, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

On today's College Football Eve Wednesday Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys get juiced up for FCS Football kicking off tomorrow meaning that ball is BACK! While they talk about everything ball, they discuss the SEC finalizing penalties for programs that violate its new professional sports eligibility rule. Joining them today, LSU Alum and NFL Analyst for ESPN Marcus Spears gives his thoughts about his alma mater and the controversy in college about eligibility, Indiana University’s star receiver Charlie Becker discusses his cause ‘Huddle for Help’ and partnering with Buffalouie's to raise money and awareness for ALS, also his outlook on the upcoming season after winning a National Championship last season, ESPN Legend and Broadcast Hall of Famer Mike Greenberg stops by as the boys celebrate Greeny’s 30th year at ESPN, his thoughts on Lane Kiffin and LSU, his beloved New York Jets and their woes while he’s been on a microphone covering sports plus more in the NFL world. Make sure to subscribe to ⁠youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow⁠ (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 of Boat. The Draft King's Thunderdom. On this college football eve Wednesday, August 26, 2020, this sports program begins now. Football! He is the greatest, and we have FCS football tomorrow. There are six ranked FCS teams playing football tomorrow night, starting at 6 p.m. on ESPN Plus. Youngstown State's one of them, and then North Dakota kicks off late night. So we got an entire evening of Super Dachans.

Super real FCS football tomorrow night. Then obviously this weekend, college football week zero starts, and then next week, week one begins as college game day will be down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as LSU starts its Lane Kiffin era with that boy Sweeney and Clemson coming into town unranked for the first time in his entire coaching tenure seemingly. So the kitchen is hot around Baton Rouge, obviously, in the LSU Tigers. Who's going to be able to play? Who's not going to be able to play?

who's voting for LSU whenever they're deciding on new rules of the SEC conference because last night it came out, just like what happened in the Big Ten, the SEC announces that basically a rule is being instated to their particular conference. If you're in the NFL, you can't play. The vote was 16-0. Okay? So that would mean every single member of the SEC voted yes to this rule.

That would include Alabama, Ole Ms. Texas Georgia Vandy Kentucky Arkansas Mississippi State

Missouri State Missouri Missouri And then who LSU LSU O LSU voted yes

to pass this rule Who's in the room saying yay or nay is that the president Dr. Wade Ruse we're learning about

and is he saying yeah I don't like this and then it's you all right got to talk to me I'll go have a conversation with me about that. So it feels like that this conversation we had with Lane yesterday, where Lane's like, which injunction are we going to go with, which injunctions are we not going to go with?

Feels like we're setting precedent on picking and choosing, which people are eligible, which people are non-eligible. And I actually was listening to Lane. I'm like, okay, I mean, if that's the angle you're going to go with, I could see how you're saying that. He also mentioned that other schools were also going to benefit from this, not just LSU, even though this injunction was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So we will find out if that's the case or not, whenever this is all said and done if any other schools other than LSU attempt to put, you know, pen to paper for any of these guys that potentially cut out of NFL training camps who've got the five for five-year injunction in Louisiana. If that happens, I think it is a different conversation. But if it is

just LSU benefiting from this, I think it's going to continue to grow louder. But yesterday what Lane told us was he inferred, you know, that there was other teams that are going to do this. Once again, we will find that out. Old Miss Walker Jones, who's the head of their NIL collective, he put a tweet out that said, fake news. That is, this is not real. We did, we did. Now, he is in charge of the money at Ole Miss. Now, is there a chance that Lane Kiffin, whenever he was negotiating for DQ, was he told maybe by representative of DQ that may be, hey, Ole Miss, you know, Ole Miss is potentially, or this, you know, is Drew Rosenhouse a seasoned vet whenever it comes to potentially negotiating? Lane Kiffin's mind potentially told Ole Miss. Ole Miss comes out, though, and says, fake this, okay, Walker Jones.

I believe he is somebody who knows. He was also a part of the bugging FBI search of Old Miss. I believe Lane actually, and he obviously worked together at Ole Miss for a long time. I think they know each other very well, but obviously this is the situation we are currently sitting in. So if no other players are going anywhere else, I think that's a big part of the story. But if there's dozens of these guys, allegedly, that are available for this particular 5-4-5 injunction that the Louisiana judge put in, if it's just LSU, I think it's going to be, I don't think it happens. No.

I think if it's multiple schools that end up benefiting from this, I think it happens. But if you listen to what these conferences are saying, just like in the Sorsby situation, which happened just a couple months ago, the conference was basically like, hey, we will do something. If the judge won't do something and the NCAA can't do anything and your school feels like they can't do anything or don't want to do anything, we will do something then. And I don't know if that is what everybody has been looking for or not, but conferences seemingly having a little bit of power. or over their own conferences, as opposed to worrying about the NCAA who's going to get sued to oblivion, would certainly be a more effective strategy, I think, as we go through the next couple, what the hell is going on era?

Now, that would have to take those 16-0 for the SEC. That would have to take everybody buying into the same agenda. And if everybody's able to do that, maybe we do have an answer. Maybe this Big Ten saying, hey, if anybody does that here, we're going to suspend coaches. You guys are in deep shit. We'll see how the courts go. We're willing. We're willing to see how it goes.

And then the SEC says, yeah, you know what? we'll do the same thing. You want to sue us sweet. We'll figure out where this court's going to be. We'll figure out what the court's going to be. We'll actually do that. If the conferences actually get a little bit of power here and get a little governance seemingly of their conferences, maybe that is the way this is saved. And maybe this is what the future could potentially look like as we're in the middle of a no guardrail chaos situation. But on that note, we're how many days away from kickoff down there? Eight. Yeah. Ten. So much has to happen before then.

I mean, there's so many things that are going to happen, and it is going to be a buzzsaw down in Baton Rouge. Yes, it is. It is going to be an absolute buzzsaw down there. College football kicking off tomorrow night for FCS. Obviously, the NFL has their final preseason week, and then there's rosters that are going to be pieced together, and there's going to be journeys and stories told over the next few days. Inevitably, once the game starts, nothing else matters. Nope.

You got the Steelers taking on on bills. Bill's favored by three. What's going on at the Pittsburgh Steelers? Good question. Who's water over there? You know, who's playing? Who's not playing? Is Mike McCarthy even know Joe Port Jr's name?

Since he's been a coach, I don't think the guy's been on the field. When's he going to get paid? That guy's really good at the football. They got a lot of drama. Then Patriots Browns, please don't even got to talk about what's going on. Cleveland. Don't even got to talk about what has been going on in New England. During football time.

Right, right. Cool. A lot of highlights coming out in New England. Yeah. A lot of highlights coming out in New England. It's getting even better. San Francisco 49ers, Raiders. Hello, Rams, Chargers, here we go.

That's also tomorrow night. So football is inching closer. Baseball has been delivering for us. And oh yeah, guess who's back? Back again. Schino's back. Okay. Tell a friend.

Throwing gas, throwing gas in San Diego. Struck a bunch of people out, hit 99 or 98.6 for the first time, long time. Felt like his confidence was at an all-time high, and Slam Diego's a good team. So it feels like Paul Skeens, whatever he had going on, either he fixed it, he healed it, or popped out of it. Whatever the case, we did send a video of congratulations. We would let the sports world, though, Schino seemingly back, and this is good for all parties,

including baseball, and we would like to let him know. Congrats, man. Go ball, Kino. It has not been fine. This is a All-Star game. That feels like forever ago now. He's been getting questioned and asked about his thing. He's getting ex-pitchers telling him what he's doing wrong,

and he needs to do this. He's shirtless next to his girlfriend on a beach. This guy's a fat, so this guy. I mean, he's been getting absolutely slaughtered, and it seems like last night we got a chance to see something that we've always known was in there, which is Paul Scheen's baseball. Shout to the Pirates, keep pushing him. And so we get to this, because a lot of people are saying need to sit him, sit him, sit him. That offseason would have been potentially terrible if he doesn't. Sports are delivering.

We're lucky to talk about him. The toxic table is here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer, Dad. Cowboys AP Tone is here. Hey, Draft Kings ran a DK Game Day commercial that was very obvious. Yeah, I saw that. What was that? That's a good question. We should probably ask them.

That's probably the right move. That's right, because how ominous it was. There was just kind of a car driving. Yeah, go ahead and run this thing a little bit. This is from our friends at Draftings. Nice car. All-school. Good music.

Come here. Go paint y'all. Of course, yeah. Strap. I like the song. I mean, it's kind of like a moment of send. What are the signs saying? Almost.

Must be a sign. Oh, Jeff Kings September 2nd is a big one. I think Jonas, Nick, and Kevin Hart are going on a road trip all 50 states. Seriously? Yeah. They did not say yes then, Kevin Hart saying. Was that whose voice that?

Yeah, I think that was a year. Yeah, here we go. I think, you know, what he was saying. Yeah, I think DK game day is coming September 2nd, 20206. That's cool. Do we all get those cars? Do I get them? That'd be cool.

That'd be cool. That would be nice. That would be cool to get one of the classic. That would be cool to get one of those cars. We're not betting on these FCS games. We're not betting on these preseason games tomorrow night. What are we? How are we going to view in the East?

I mean, if you think I'm not laying some money on the Youngstown Penguins tomorrow night, sorry, Youngstown State Penguins tomorrow night. Basically, you know, what is that, 45 minutes out of Pittsburgh, basically hometown. No, no, we're not claiming close to Pennsylvania and Ohio right now for the next week or so. No, we're not claiming Palestine, no, but Youngstown, maybe. East Palestine. Wait, what? There's two, there's a couple of Palestine.

Tony's claiming Palestine? No, just like there's, I just said I wasn't. The Middle East? No, no. New Mexico, Old Mexico, East Palestine's in Ohio. Oh, okay. There is a Palestine. Sorry, it's on me.

I had to explain geography. You know, okay? Mark Ruffalo is sitting over there. What is that mean? I saw you earlier on the internet. You look different. What you're talking about it's got one half of the hammer. Cowboys AP tone?

Mm-hmm. Boom. Oh, there he is. There we go. No, that's me. That's Mitch. Shout out. I believe his name is Mitch.

I couldn't get through the entirety of the video, but I did see this, and I want to thank him for how accurately he portrayed our entire operation. In tone, I think this is the best you've looked out of people that have tried to dress up like us and make us look like assholes. I agree, and I think it's the best I've looked ever even including me. Okay, sweet. So maybe we just kind of do that with the new modern technology. Cheap your beer. Nine-year NFL vet. There is Jay Butler is here.

Dee Bodge, what's up, man? FCC games tomorrow starting at 6 o'clock ESPN Plus. I know you're dialed in. Youngstown State Penguins are kind of prime to go on a run this. year you've been talking about. I've been talking more so about the North Dakota boys. Really? Yeah, they always bring it southern Illinois.

Yeah. Salute. He's up, baby. Yeah. Man, what a slate. That's tomorrow night. We're here. Yeah, we are here.

One more sleep. It feels like you're just now seeing what the schedule is. No, no. It's like an hour before. Yeah, you said Chattanooga, West Georgia is kind of the matchup. You see one of those two teams going for the rest of the year. That's not part of the rain. And then the University of McCarthy's playing?

remember? I didn't know that. Yeah, they're a pretty good team. You mad? Coach Mike? Yeah, you were talking about it. Oh, okay. Yeah, they're playing. They got a lot of decisions to make over there before they kick off tomorrow night. That's all on ESPN Plus. We can't wait to get in there. As many of coaches have said, if we're looking for games to schedule, if it has a Dakota in it, I don't want it. And there's North Dakota boys, to your point. They're going to be playing hard to. Oh, yeah. FCS guys, they don't wash their pads like DeBone had to it, D3, but those guys have an opportunity to not only win for their school, win for their team, win for everything.

You've got a chance to maybe go up. You know, at big time payday, you have an incredible season at any of these schools. So we might be seeing some real life-changing shit on a football field start tomorrow night. And remember, for those that didn't, weren't watching last week when we talked about it. North Dakota State, one of those North Dakota schools

has moved up to D-1. So they will not be playing tomorrow night. They'll be playing in the Mountain West. Vying for a chance to make the playoffs. Via Pac-12, I believe also. I mean, college football is upside. That's who I thought. Now, listen, the North Dakota fighting Sue are still a very similar color scheme as well.

They're tough. They're tough. The Sioux, I like the Sioux. The Navajo had a big week, though, in football. They did. They did. Down there with She. She has a Pete.

Right? She has a Pete down there. Mitt is Cherokee tribe. So obviously, what's that? Yeah, it helped me get into college, remember? No, his dad actually, what are we talking about? His dad was our coach. What are we talking about?

Oh, so it did come from a different source than just bit. Yes. Yes, very much. Okay, I love that you guys think everybody's lying. Based on what happened yesterday, hard not to. Still feeling the effects of that one pretty hard. We will get to the bottom of that. Somebody did take a dump and did not wipe.

Joining us now is a man who would never do that. Okay, this guy actually might be in the running for greatest parenting job of all time. I honestly don't know how you're able to accomplish. what he has been able to accomplish as a father, as a husband, as an athlete, and then also as a professional television personality all at the same time. He's seemingly managed to remain humble while also having an incredible amount of moxie. And he has to be stern as shit with those kids. I don't know how you get a number one player in the country in basketball,

a volleyball scholarship to Texas probably top 10 of the day, and then a younger who's going to do it again. He and his wife, obviously, kicking a lot of ass, cannot wait to join him on the road this year. Ladies and gentlemen from Monday Night Countdown and back-to-back Emmy Award winning NFL live, Swagoo, Marcus Speer. Yay, Swahoo!

My guys, what's up? Dude, congratulations on everything. Every time we watch a highlight of your kid, it's just like, holy hell, the amount of time, obviously, that has had... Bam! Yeah, and I like how supportive you obviously have been, and I love him, it's a chance to learn,

but he's got it, huh? This dude, this dude's got it. When did you know with the lad? When did you know with the boy? Probably 14. 14 hit that growth spurt after eighth grade. And he was a long, like a giraffe, and it started coming together. And now it's scary.

Yeah, he's really good. I can't wait for him to win about seven gold medals for America. We appreciate him. We all appreciate that for the next dream team type. And then your daughter's at the University of Texas. And I heard, we read on the Internet that there's a youngest, who also in volleyball as well. Congrats to you and your family.

Congratulations, man. Pat, it's all about the woman, man. It's all about the woman. I'm trying to, you know, I'm disseminating the messes throughout the diaspora. You better marry right. To the diaspora? If you marry wrong,

if you marry wrong, shit can go real left. Okay. But if you marry right, some really good things can happen for you. Things you get way right, you're saying. Yeah, it sounds like it. Yeah, and of course. I'm telling you.

Of course, having a couple professional athletes, you know, as parents, is a good start. That's good news. Well, I'm going to be real with you, Pat. She had to be fine and pretty, too, when I'm better. It's more than just being able to hoop. Like, you got to look good for, you know, my wife is, my wife is, I like her a lot. Yeah, well, that's good. I assume she likes you a lot, too, because seemingly everybody that's ever met you does.

Let's talk about this upcoming season. very honored to be joining you on Monday Night Countdown. Can't wait for that. It feels like this year... That's going to be fun, man. Hell yeah. I can't wait. I'm very, very excited to hit the road

and see what the Monday night football atmospheres are like. Obviously, I've been to a couple Monday night football games, but getting a chance to get to experience Monday night football is such an honor. I cannot wait to do that alongside you. It feels like the storylines in the NFL are obviously in abundance right now because of training camp. For you, what is your favorite thing cooking around these storylines? Is it Aaron Donald coming back alongside Miles Garrett and what the Los Angeles Rams could potentially be?

Go ahead. I mean, that would be. total pandemonium, bro. Like, I'm, like, I wanted to happen, but I'm so invested in thinking Dallas is good enough to actually make a run for the Super Bowl that I don't want it to happen based on my fandom. But to see Aaron Donner and Miles Garrett play together would be a first of his kind in the history of this league when you start talking about two dudes that could arguably end up as two top 10 defensive linemen.

I think Aaron Donald's still in his prime, too. I know AD act like he owed this shit and he, you know, but at the end of the day, he is still going to be a monster if he decides to come back. And when he left, you know, it was almost like, I remember talking about it like it was Barry Sanders leaving. Like, you know it's still there. You know that if he comes back, he can continue to do the same things that he was doing. That's an exciting storyline. But Pat, a little bit boring. I just love how quiet has been in Dallas this offseason. It's been my favorite part of the entire offseason because it just seems like a lot of maturity

has hit the building. The deals that were made, obviously, with Quentin and bringing in Vaughn and Roshan, Gary, who I think is going to be like a little, that could be a silent, big-time season coming from Rishon. They all work out here in Dallas. That's what a lot of people don't know. Big Dog B.T. Turner trains these guys in Dallas, and the guy that Moells that trains my daughter and my son, they all are in the same facility.

So a lot of these D-Liaming, they spend a lot of time in Dallas. So for Von, for Quinnon, obviously for Rashon, they have everything in place here. I'm talking about trainers, nutritionists, everybody that works on their body. And two, like a different change of scenery for these guys. Bun is used to Dallas. But I think this is going to be a really good team this year. And I like how quiet has been. The George Pickens thing in our history of watching football with the Dallas Cowboys,

it tends to get loud and it tends to carry the entire offseason. if something like this is going on. George quietly said, look, I'm going to play under the franchise. Dallas said, we're going to franchise tag and we're not going to extend. And from everything that I've been hearing, he's been bawling out in camp. So he motivated because he knows payday is around the corner. But just a lot of, like, business being handled and not a lot of drama. Yeah, I think that's a good read on what's happening down there from our perspective as well

because we got a chance to catch up with Shottie. And obviously, Shottie's been around football, what, since he's like 10 years old. Like actually, I think they have NFL films, has him as like a 10-year-old around the NFL. So it's, he understands what it is. He understand what it isn't. And I think the George Pickens thing was about to cook on draft day. That was about to become a massive storyline. I think all of us on TV were like, okay, here we go.

Number one wide receiver certified, who has some, I don't want to say antics in the past, but like some drama in the past, I believe baggage would be something that would be considered. And it's the Dallas Cowboys. And we're in a time where everybody's getting paid. the most amount of money in history. So this, and he has got Moologeta as is, as his agent. So whenever you start piecing that all together, it's hard not to be like, well, this is going to be an absolute nuke down there. Instead, we get the messaging. I assume you guys did as well. Muliggetta is like, some guys just want to play on the franchise tag. He's one of

those guys. He's completely cool with it. And now we're watching him miced up at training camp. The videos are like he's completely happy. He's enjoying himself. He's bawling. CD's doing the same. And the boys are running extra sprints because they wanted to do it, say, Shadi in front of the Rams. It's like, is this the Dallas Cowboys swag? It doesn't make much sense. It doesn't make much sense, D. but it is very different than what it has been.

I know it's been quite, man. Obviously, the players, but Christian Parker, man. Like, I'm excited to see him get this opportunity to being the youngest DC ever for there. He's obviously coming over with the hype from Philly. He's been under great coaches the whole time. And they'll have these players. You know, coaches, I feel like they're only going to be as good as the players out there. And you mentioned, Rashan and Gary, I think that move kind of has slid under the radar.

a top flight guy coming into the league and he's been productive since coming into the league. So I'm excited to see him out there too. So did Jerry, Jerry just didn't love the way Mocko was the Dallas Cowboy? Didn't like Michael. He's how we think? You think that's what we think now at this point? I think so, right? But sure.

It was more than football. I mean, shit, you look at the football play, you don't trade a guy like that in this prime. But obviously it was some, it was some not getting along in the building or not thinking that he would be the future in the direction that the team wanted to go. And I got to give Jerry credit because I'm on. Jerry asked all the time about things that he do. But I definitely got to give him credit for the aftermath of trading Michael Parsons. He's turned this into a really good pickup, a really, a lot of things he's done.

And this front office has done to, look, you don't replace Michael because we know him as an individual. But by committee, when you look at this group and some of the benefit that you were able to have by getting rid of, well, trading away, Michael, it's turned into pretty good. They got to go ball. Like, we're going to tear their ass up if they don't hoop this season. But based on paper and what they've done, you can see this team kind of maturing. Like, look at the names, right?

We're talking about a lot of mature football players, dudes that have played a lot of really good football, mixed in with some young guys. You look at PJ, obviously, you know, we don't, how is injuries and stuff going, D winners. I can't wait to see Demarion overshone this year coming on. injury. If you hear the camp reports about him, it could be serious top five linebacker situation with him and how he's come back from that.

What's everybody's saying? Everybody's saying, yeah, but that's always Dallas Cowboys. Everybody's top five at every position every single year. It does feel different this year, let alone the Caleb down stuff. Caleb's like a 10-year vet, allegedly, as soon as he got to the campus at Alabama, let alone transfer into a Matt Patricia defense at Ohio State

and having the success that he had. They've been saying gold jacket guys since he's like 16, years old. And now he's on the Dallas Cowboys in the most mature defense that they've had while having Well, I got, Pat. All guy Saban said he was the smartest

player he's ever coach. Yeah. I played for Saban. So I'm going to let's talk about that because I was super smart playing. But no, man, you've heard that about Caleb for a long time. Pat, let me ask there as a question

because it's one concern I have. Okay. I'm cornerbacks. What we got? I mean, that's the That's the big question. That's the big question. But you know.

Oh, you guys are going to get bombed on down there? No, who helps the question? That is a question. But Christian Parker, I would assume he's going to kind of bring in that quarter's type of situation. Vic Fangio, the defense, you're going to keep the shell back there. And then Fangio always had some dogs up front. You've seen they put the money up front, getting after the quarterback, making them uncomfortable.

And then you have an offense. So you were a part of this with the Colts when you were Peyton. You get that offense. You get up a couple of scores. And then you let them pin their ears back. Yeah, you don't want, they don't have the personnel to have the corners, in my opinion, just be out on the island, lock guys up. And I think Caleb Downs, too, he's going to help a lot.

Not only in that past defense, the run defense is well. Run support, yeah. So I'm excited. Now, we are doing the shit. The Dallas Cowboys shit every year, you know, hey, look this, look at that. It does feel different. Hey, let me, let me. Put Pat up there because, Dave, you're right.

But I got to let everybody know. This is not me every officer. season. See, so you're saying that you kind of get lumped in with everybody else that does it because you're funny. I get real more, I get grilled more here in Dallas for being quote-unquote negative about shit that I don't like that's going on. I'm telling you this off-season, now look, the reality is this don't equate the wins

or anything, but what it does is it feels like it put the focus all on football this this offseason and getting ready to play a season where you think you got a chance to win. They got the talent, though. The talent is there. Now they got to go put it together. Did Jerry get to that honey hole he was trying to get to? What was that? Three Miles Underground.

There's three trillion dollars right underneath our boots right here. I just need to get to it. You think I can give a damn about the Cowboys defense right now? I'm trying to get a rig three miles into earth. There's a honey. He said that. That is a direct quote from Jerry Jones last year. As the team was going through, whatever it was going through after he traded away Micah before the season.

And his entire quote about the trades, a couple of them there about Micah was they got what they got. They got Michael, we got what we got and we tied. And then he said, he said, I'd rather, you know, one player's good, one player's good, four players better. And he did. The guy got like. Maybe that's why it's been quiet. Pat, he's been trying to hit that honey hole. I'm telling you, I think he is.

I just, I mean, I almost try to figure it out. I got zero experience. There's how much money, three miles? I could get a shovel, right? I'm talking about come out the ground, but I'm in Texas. Y'all know, I see that liquid go. Everywhere you go, they got a pump going. So what do we do?

We just take a shovel to, like, how do we get involved? Pat, how you get involved is you send me one of them damn backpacks you give all your guys, and I'm going to go find us a hit, and then we'll get it pop it. Deal, that has no problem. Y'all just look at the mailbox. They call it mailbox money down here. Yeah, believe me, I know. I was down there in Texas Tech. I didn't want to pivot to college just yet because obviously you're going to have to speak for an entire institution here in a second.

But when we went down to Texas Tech and I was just kind of looking around at everything and I just see these things just, you know, out in the skyline. And I'm like, so that's where everybody's living. They're like, yeah, this is actual God. God blessed us right underneath your feet here. Right underneath. God, God actually blessed this land for us to be able to have one of the best rosters in all cultural. I'm talking about an oil roster. Yeah.

That's what you call Takes a Tech. That's a Liquid Gold roster. Yeah, and they're still maybe moving somebody in right now. Now, they're not doing it. Didn't y'all just have a kid, one of the Top Olimatman, commit to Tech? Austin Otala, yeah, 6-8-270. Yeah, he's, and he puts people through the ground to it. Cody Campbell, who is one of the Double Eagle partners down there at Texas Tech that is obviously a massive part of the NIL.

He was an offensive line in the NFL. So, like, you look at their trenches. Like, what David Bailey's doing right now at the Jets, he's investing heavily in trenches. Like, that is where he thinks, like, we win game because that is who he is. Turns out that's probably the right move. Probably the most important part of it.

Pat, what you got on your wrist, man? Which one? This one? No, the left one. Show me to watch. Okay. Give a damn about that bracelet. Okay, I believe, uh, this is my daughter. My daughter made this.

Oh, I care about the bracelet. Yeah. Yeah, okay. I never know. I never know. You might have dropped the bag on that bracelet. No, no, no, no. My daughter, my daughter made this.

Well, it's sentimental. I love the bracelet now. Thank you. Way to make me feel like shit in the middle of that. And you know, my daughter, my daughter is old enough to know that old uncle's swago is an asshole. I think she will run this back. And she will know that I'm joking. Yeah.

It'll change when she meet me. Yeah. So I, yeah, I agree quickly. And she is, uh, she's fun, man. is so much fun. How old did she now? Three, three in like three months or so. You're in the middle of it. Yeah, we got it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, starting to roll now.

Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah. A lot of guilt, though. She's learning guilt. So this season is going to be much tough, but she's able to travel now with me, I think, you know. We're fully, we're fully pooping and peeing in toilets. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're fully human at this point. A lot of ideas. Don't let us sit on them NASDA Stadium toilets.

No, no. We got to bring some. Yeah, you and wife would bring some cover guards for that, man. That's what my wife. See, hey, speaking of how you brought me into the show, my, my kids' asses have never touched public toilets. It's just, just one of the things, man. How about that? You did it.

You did it. You made it. You made it. I mean, that is a huge deal. All right, let's get, let's talk about LSU right now. Okay. Let's talk about LSU right now. Let's do it.

Where do you stand? Last night, 16-0 vote. 16 of the members of the SEC voted in all 16. of them said, yep, we're cool with rules being instated where you can't be a professional football player and then come back in play in college. That would mean LSU voted yes for this, okay, which is a very fascinating little wrinkle in this all because obviously LSU and Baton Rouge is the epicenter of this entire conversation. I have said, and I think it should be said, that if LSU is the only team that signs anybody like this, obviously it's going to be a lot.

But if there's a plethora of teams or a handful of teams that are doing this, I'll be intrigued to see how the convo goes. Now, you as a representative of LSU, and obviously you understand that you are in the middle of this entire story with Lane. Where do you stand and what are your thoughts on it? Well, I don't like dudes going pro and then deciding to come back. I don't like that. And it's a little bit personal for me. And then, too, like, I get the five for five and people want to use that rule. but when most of these guys went into college,

it wasn't five for five. The rules should apply to the new people that's coming in college. They are under that. That's the way it goes. Shit is evolved since you and I and everybody in the studio, in the Thunderdome, has left college.

Things have changed that would have been better for us, but we weren't able to take advantage of them because that wasn't the time we were in school. So I got that part out. Pat, you know with my kids, bro, I've been around high school sports, grassroots sports for a, for shit all their life.

And you see the impact it has on developmental high school players. Like guys, when we were coming in the school where a coach would say, yeah, he's going to be a red shirt, but we're going to give him a scholarship, and he'll turn into a player that we want to play. Now, I know money has become a part of college, and everybody wants guys to star right away. They want a production right away because of NIL, and I get that. but a large part of this high school segment has been affected by these age gaps.

And coaches saying, like, bro, I've had basketball coaches during my son recruiting. Be like, look, we only take one or two freshmen because everybody else coming out of the portal. And that's what we're waiting on. We're waiting on the portal. And to their defense, if you got a guy that has averaged 17 and 8 last year in college basketball, you're going to take that over a project coming out of high school. The problem is a lot of people like us who's in television, you guys do a hell of a job bringing these guys on that are getting recruited and signing.

But ultimately, people don't understand the impact that this is having on high school athletes, bro. Like, it's almost to a point. And my son, look, my son, number one player in the country when he was in high school, my daughter was the number one volleyball player, right? So it was a different path for them. But every kid not like that. Like, you got guys in high school basketball now that, regardless of how you feel about rank, that are ranked 30 and below, where college coaches are like, well, we're going to wait to see if we're going to offer you a scholarship. Well, if you was ranked top 30 in high school basketball last, like 10 years ago, North Carolina knocking at your door and Duke knocking at your door.

Now they knock at the top five players door and they hope they get one or two of them and then they move on. Like Texas this year with my son, that team is comprised of some transfers, a lot of juniors, a lot of sophomores. I think my son is one of three freshmen on the team this year. So again, like, bro, it's an impact that's being had. And then, too, like, once you declare for the pros, I've never had a problem with that rule. Once you declare to go be a pro, you're done with college. That's how I feel about it. So thank you for the transparency and also coming from the perspective in which you're coming from,

because your kids, obviously, number one, number one, but a lot of their friends and teammates, obviously, going through a lot of these problems. And from my perspective, this started happening with punters, with Aussies, like Aussie guys. Yeah, so they would come over as like 23-year-olds, 24-year-olds. They wouldn't have started their university in Australia because they were professional Aussie rules football players,

and they were punting their entire life. So it's like, would you rather have a 17-year-old American kid that is punted, I don't know, four or five, maybe months, six months, Or would you rather have a 24-year-old professional guy coming in with a family to be? It's like, you're picking that guy every single time. I'm picking that guy every single time. And the Aussies are awesome. Like, I think the Aussies are incredible.

Everyone that I've met, I've absolutely loved. But you saw, like, I thought about, like, a younger version of me, like, when I was 17 coming out, would I have been able to compete with a 24-year-old? No shot. Yeah, exactly. And now it's, then basketball started creeping in, right? The G-League guy started coming in. And then once this transfer portal became, like, a free agency,

every single off season, you can see, to your point, why the rosters at the top are like, we're spending money on improving guys. We don't have time to wait. But there's going to become schools that are just like freshmen, and then they're going to be the transfer. There's going to be two different. There's going to be a divider of how you make teams.

Because I think UNC. Think about this. Think about this, Pat. Everybody there in the Thunderdome right now. Bro, do you know what kind of man I was at 23 as opposed to 17 when it came to ability, physical strength. Like, bro, I, when we made the jump to college and we played against seniors that were 20 and 21 years old,

them some bitches felt like machines. They felt like, like, DeWain Pierce, offensive linemen at LSU, destroyed me every day. But it was because I was 17, and he was only 20. So imagine, bro, at 23, I was four years. years, I'm three years in the NFL.

Yeah, yeah. Like, I had a friend in college. For football, for football in particular, like, I'm not as stunt on it in basketball because once you reach a level in basketball, you plan against older people forever, right? Like, that's how you actually cut your stake. And that game just goes like that. But the physical difference between a 23 and a 17 or even an 18-year-old, bro, that is. night and day.

They show the pictures of freshmen showed up on campuses. Like, for instance, that Austin Atala kid we had just committed to Texas Tech. He's 6-8-270. In three years, he will be 6-8-340. That guy will be 6-8-340, 335 pounds, probably running a 4-8-49, too, somehow at that size. So, yeah, you're right. You're 100% right. Imagine you going, when I got drafted to Dallas, right?

Imagine me showing up at Sonoma Valley State. And I'm a freshman walking into not a big Division I, college, not anything, but Larry Allen is there and he's 23. It's going to be tough day. Come on, man. It's going to be tough. Come on, man. Hey, that's LSU.

Hey, that's not just, okay, I shouldn't say that should say. Everybody. Yeah, I think there's a lot of people that are exploring the rule to see what happened. but it feels like the conference commissioners are at a point where they're going to be able to regulate college sports a little bit. Feels like we're getting to the point where maybe the conference commissioners are saying

we're going to regulate this shit if the NCAA can't. Well, at some point they had to, bro, because if you ain't known everything to go to the Senate floor or legislate, bro, that takes years. Like, you won't have order. But, Pat, I do say this. And I don't want us to forget this when we have in these conversations about college

and the state of it right now. now because when the game started you said it earlier bro we locked in like we all locked in dude this is this is nothing but the answer from a NCAA committee that didn't evolve they never they thought that old archaic system that they had where you just come you get your scholarship you play and you go to the pros or you play and we we present to you that you got a degree and we pay for your scholarship they thought that shit was going to go forever. And then what happened was information started to go everywhere as far as how much money the tournaments were making, how much money teams make per game. You see coaches and all of that.

I went to war about this when I was at SEC Network. Like, Coach Sabin is, that's your dog now, but that's my guy, man. And I got so mad at him and Kirby Smart because there was a rule in college prior to where coaches could determine where guys could transfer. Like, they'll put a list of schools together that you couldn't go to if you wanted to transfer. And I was like, that is, that's crazy. But under the NCAA rules, you could do that. Yeah.

Right? Now, again, do we need structure all of that? We hit these damn conversations every day, bro. But if these, like Greg Sankey, the commissioner of the SEC, If they don't step in and just say, look, we're going to abide by these laws with our league, it's going to get more chaotic. But this is all an answer to what the NCAA was. Y'all were college athletes, bro.

Y'all know how restrictive that shit was. I remember Todd Gurley signing autographs for like three grand while he was at Georgia. Todd Gurley probably was going to win the Hizman that year, the way he was playing. This was when I was at SEC Network. He came back after two-game suspension, I believe. or something like that and tore his ACL. Now, I don't know if he would have toured, if he would have been playing those previous two weeks or the one week,

but I just remember that vaguely, and I remember all of that Tizzy being over $300,000, I mean, $3,000 for signing some autograph. Yeah, one ticket into a suite that's watching them play. Now, to your point, it's legit, to your point about it all, the NCAA did fight it every step of the way. There was like an injunction in California about NIL, and they're like, nope, we're not doing this.

fighting, we're fighting, we're fighting, we're fighting, we're fighting. And I think what you're saying is if they would have maybe tried to lean in a little bit, try to figure out how to do this, maybe we're at a stage of, hey, this is reality, this is going to happen. Do you want to be a part of it or do you want to get left behind? Feels like the NCAA because of the lawsuits getting left behind, but the conference commissioners now showcasing that maybe they can take care of it, hopefully. All right, Swigoo. Thank you, man.

My brother. Who's one in the Super Bowl? Hey, man. I'm going to pull up to Indie. We in Indy for Monday night this year. Come on, you're not a chance. Yeah, right. The Colts play here. I'm a season ticket.

Can they flex it? You need to stop. You need to stop. I mean, we were tired about it. Who play there? Who play in Indie, y'all? Yeah, okay. Every team wins, but them.

No, we were on that. We were the best team in ball. We're the best team. I would like to let you know, Swagoo. I, I am a season ticket holder. I am a season ticket holder, okay, for the Indianapolis courts at Lucas Hole Stadium. Pat, I see you there?

We, we, I see you there. We ain't never getting a Monday night. football game there. Okay, one o'clock. We were at one o'clock. We made a jersey, an alternate uniform called Indiana Nights. Okay?

Because she grew up tall and she grew up right with them Indiana boys on them Indiana nights. We didn't have a single night game on the schedule. We wore the one o'clock in the afternoon. Indiana Nights jersey was worn at one o'clock in the afternoon because we didn't have a night game. That's what your network says about the Indianapolis called Swagoo. You got a Sunday night football games, the chiefs.

Great. They got a ball. Yeah, we got a ball. Week two. We got the Chiefs number. It's going to be a fun trip, though, down the road. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. We're big fans. Cheers, dude.

All right, fellas, y'all take care of, man. That's Marcus. That's Marcus. That's Marcus Spear. Yes, Michael. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a man who's doing something incredible this season. He's a national champion. He came really into the spotlight in the Big Ten championship game

when he was just catching bombs on absolutely everybody. This year, he'll be raising money to help in hope, and hopefully cure ALS alongside the huddles for hope. Last year it was Fernando Mendoza who did this with restaurant Buffalo Louise down there in Bloomington. He'll be doing it this year with something I think a little bit added on top. Ladies and gentlemen, a national champion, an absolute stud. A man who there's a lot of DB saying, I know what he looks like. That is not how he plays, though.

Ladies and gentlemen, Charlie Becker. Hey, Chuck. How you doing, dude? How's it going, boy? Thanks for having me. Hey, thank you for joining us. And thank you for signing up to do something good alongside your football season.

We learned the story of your aunt and your personal kind of experience with the Lou Gehrig's disease ALS and why you're kind of driven to do this. Can you tell us a little bit more about your huddle for hope kind of initiative and what the plan is for this season? Yes, sir. So my family has always been super close.

And five years ago, we learned that my aunt was diagnosed with ALS and you know as a close family that affected all of us and you know I just I was in a spot where I couldn't really help and I really wanted to because there's not a cure and now being at Indiana I put in a position where I could maybe help the financial burdens because it costs a lot of money and I you know I just want to do as much as I can for my aunt and everybody who's affected by this terrible disease so we started a huddle for hope to try and ease the burden.

Well, I love that you're doing it. We're thankful that you're doing it. Obviously, we saw Chris Johnson just a few months back, and we're reminded of how terrible this disease is and how little we know, you know, because I think Chris Johnson's wife said in the interview with Strahan that it was sporadic. Like they thought maybe football was the reason,

but actually it was called a sporadic case, which is like 90% of the cases. And any time something's being called sporadic, it means they don't have a clue on why or how it happened. And obviously, it's so, devastating so quickly. So I appreciate you continuing to spread the word. Now I've heard potentially we're, we're, I heard you maybe take some N I know money and giving back as well. Is that accurate? Is that a little birdie telling me that you're going to maybe take some money that you have earned?

By the way, we just talked about it all and maybe help with the initiative as well. Yes, sir. I've been extremely blessed and we kind of said that for every touchdown that I get this year, I'm going to be putting $1,000 towards the foundation. I love that. I'm going to match. We will match you for every time. Hell yeah. Let's go.

I like that you're doing that. Thank you so much. Thank you. I like that you're doing that, you know, because obviously collegiate athletes getting paid is a huge topic of discussion right now across all college sports. I don't know how much you guys get to pay attention to, but it is very loud right now. And the fact that you're taking some of that giving back, also wanting to shine a light on something that we all will hopefully kind of buy in with. I love what you're doing. We will match.

We'll also call... I mean, like the ALS challenge, we should also call for... Mark Cuban, we'd like you to match. We'd like... Joe Buck. Joe Buck. We'd like Joe Buck.

I think Coach should match. Yeah, we'd like... Fernando. Fernando got that first overall pick money. We'd like him to Matt. And Alberto. No. Mad Max.

No. Mad Max. No. Mad Max. Mendoza, though. He's getting some podcasting money. And what we're saying is we would like anybody to join alongside of us. That's huge if you do.

How old are you? How old are you? I just turned 21. Dude, I love that you're doing this. There we go. Happy birthday. Thank you. We know your generation doesn't drink.

They're saying that everything is done in the alcohol department with your generation. So we would tell you to be safe, obviously, now that you're of age. And in Bloomington, we know have to be of age to have a good time down there. The rules are very, very strict. Can you tell me a little bit about life now as a national champion football player at IU versus maybe whenever the dreams were still there last year, there last year or the year before. Yes, sir. To be honest, last year is last year.

And we just got wrapped up with fall camp. So starting this week, we're going to be focusing on North Texas and the season that we have coming up. Yes. Who told you that? Is that, did Sig say, who said it? Was it Keg? Was it Sig?

Who said, hey, let's remember now. Okay. Last season, 16 and no, never going to happen again. Okay. Listen, that team's gone forever. championship last year's team we're zero and zero bottom and mountain everybody's got climbing the top one day at time one play six seconds at a time each play has a life of its own is that what you're hearing every day right now has that been the messaging from coach

sig to you guys I mean we got back and I think a week after the national championship sig had a team meeting with the new team and he's like guys last year's last year we're not focusing on that it's time to get it's time to go it's time to play some ball and you know we all bought in and I think we're really excited tell me a little bit about Hoover. Tell me a little bit about how the ball is coming out for you. Because obviously, we have your stat across the bottom there. Yeah, 20 yards per reception. Okay, and they were all over. They were in the big 10 champions. Rose Bowl is national. I mean, you're talking about the biggest moments Charlie Becker was getting big chunks in the biggest games. Can you tell me a

little bit about the ball coming out of Hoover's hands versus maybe Fernando's? Yeah, Josh was an amazing addition for us. I'm really happy that we got him. And he, you know, as soon as our national championship was done, he was texting me, asking me, hey, you want to go throw on Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings and, you know, just get this ball rolling and start this connection, which is a testament to how much of a hard worker Josh is. And, you know, whenever I'm in the facility, Josh is here. He's watching film. Him and our other quarterback, Grant Wilson, they're watching film 24-7. And they're great people, even better football players. And I'm super pumped to see what they can do. Love that. Can't wait to watch you guys try to run a backtone has a question for you.

Yeah, on that, Sig recently said that last year when you guys walked off to scrimmage field in 2025, that the passing offense was not great. And then you guys went on to win the national championship and Mendoza won the Heisman. He said this year he feels like you guys are in a lot better spot. How does that feel with you and Nick Marsh and Hoover? How's it? How's it different this year? And how are you feeling about it?

I feel great. I'm super excited. We had a lot of good additions, like you said, Nick Marsh, Josh, Hoover, Turbo Richardson are running back. We retained a lot of our O-Linmen. I was saying earlier, just, you know, we got dogs all over the field. From the starts from the O-line, they did a fantastic job of retaining. I think, you know, we only lost Pat Cugan last year to he's on the Titans now. And so we got studs on the O-line. And look at our backfield. We got Turbo, Lee, and Kobe, just some absolute dogs. And then, you know, receiving room, we added Nick, we added Shaz.

a lot of young guys. Davion Chandler, LeBron Bond, Jackson Woss, those guys are going to ball out. They had a great fall camp, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do. And, you know, Josh, he's really taking control of the offense. He's brought us all together, rallies the boys, and I'm so pumped. Okay, so what are the boys doing whenever we rally? We have, we hang out, we take the biz.

We play some. Maybe we have a biz that needs to be sunk. Maybe we play video games. We watch film. Those stories. We play chess. What are we doing? Because you guys are so you, I'm 39.

How old are you? 40. Yeah, we're old, dude. So what are you guys doing as a team, especially when new pieces coming in and having to build camaraderie as quick as possible? Yeah, I mean, outside of football, we just got done with fall camp. So we're at the facility all month 24-7. And so ping pong is a huge thing for us.

Like, we have tournaments. We have a W-W-E belt that's got ping-pong balls on it, you know. We got the championship of the ping pong table, and we got Cornhole going. So, you know, whenever we get some free time where everything here is about competition, and everybody's just trying to beat everybody and get that belt. How are you at ping pong? I'm nasty. You're the guy?

You got the title? I think Grant Wilson has the title right now. He's pretty good, but, you know, I'm up there. I'm getting there. How about Cornhole? Oh, I'm from Nashville, man. That's all we do in Nashville. Yeah, okay, I bet, yeah, I've played a couple people for Tennessee.

We smoke you, bro. You get absolutely, yeah. No, it's absolutely great. You throw on a pancake or you go end over end? Pancake. Yeah, okay. We air mail plus slide. Oh, you slide.

You fight defense? You set up? You got a strategy, or are you just out there trying to get as many points as possible? As many points as possible. Yeah, yeah, you're done. You're too young. We'd walk in there. Give away your game.

You young, you got no idea. You got no idea. I was, so I wasn't introduced to Cornhole until I got out here to the Colts, and I think it was when Chuck came over from Baltimore. They brought it in to our locker room. And obviously, kicker, punter, I got a lot of meetings, you know, but I got to be in that building. So, man, I became a pro-coranhole player for like three years.

I love that. My roommate's a punter, too. So he's on all those meetings there. Yeah, he's. Yeah. But you got to be able to, you hit two shanks, though. People really stop caring about how good you were at Cornhole. I learned, you know, that is something we got to do.

Okay, let's talk about you. This year is going to be different than last year. We saw you rise to prominence towards the end of the season, obviously, in the biggest moments. A little bit different this year heading in, it seems. Go ahead, D.B. Absolutely. The former DB, Charlie, not sneaking up on anybody this year. We know you're the deep ball threat. But what specific, I guess, improvements did you look to make in your game this offseason heading into this next season? Yes, sir. I'm really looking to just expand my route tree.

And, you know, people, like you say, just know the deep ball threat. But, you know, I'm really looking forward to being able to show all the other route trees that I can do and being able to get some yak. All right. Well, let's see how it goes for the Indiana Hoosiers as we don't even think about winning the national championship last year. Don't even remember it. Don't even think about, wow, what a time out there in a Rose Bowl, just absolutely pummeling Alabama. Was he the only underclassman there at the SB sitting in front of us? Was he the only one that could have remembered?

Yeah, I don't know Is there any other underclassman there with you? I wasn't at the SPs. I thought you were. Now it was all the older guys. How boozed up were you? Yeah, Tom's Brie. I'm sorry about that.

See, once again, he's not worried about defending the national championship. He's out there sinking base whenever he's not even at Knicks or whatever the hell it is. That was Matt Max Mendoza. Oh, yeah, you're right. That was Matt. Similar.

Both going 20. He's a boy. He's a boy. We went to Florida for a little break that we had and got to spend time with the Mendozas. and Max is a, he's a boy. Yes, he started. Trying to steal our beers.

Yeah, he was trying to steal our beers. Steal a lot of things. Got on the show, stole a microphone, stole the show. That's what Mad Maxman does. It does. When are you getting the title back for, when do we play? We play every day that's like a constantly evolving thing. Do you put that over the shoulder?

Do you wear it around the waist? How's Coach Signetti feel about the title at the ping pong table? I don't think he knows about the title. But every day, you know, it's a tournament. you know, whoever's on top gets the belt. Okay, let's say game day comes down there, you know, a couple games. There's two games, I think, that we're potentially eyeing to get to Bloomington and have a home game, you know, potentially.

That Ohio State game, I assume we're probably going to be Donner. Who knows who, what other game? Listen, you got to take care of North Texas, Charlie. Don't even look at the rest of their schedule, okay? Don't even look at it. Yeah, but on that note, there's a couple opportunities probably get down to Bloomington and celebrate the hell out of football and life. you guys play on Fridays as well

or what are the rules? We're throwing ball or do we hit out of hand like we're amateurs? Well, you know, Pat, in season, we try to stay away from ping pong but anytime you want the smoke, man, you let me know. What are the rules on serves? I need to know what the rule is on serves. Are you hitting it out of your hand like a child

or you playing actual table tennis? Come on. Toss it up. All right. Okay, listen, I didn't know you. You're new school dudes. You know, I don't know how it is. I don't know how it is.

All right, good luck this year, man. You're the best. Thank you guys so much for having me on. Thank you for donating, dude. That's cool. That's really cool to do. And we're excited to join you alongside Mark Cuban, Joe Bach, and everybody else. Oh, Barber, Schwarbo.

Yeah, Fernando Schwabell. It'll be awesome. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Ladies and gentlemen, Charlie E. Becker. Yeah. From Indiana. Let's go to a West Virginia press conference. We have a fullback named Caden Cowboy Luke, and he said his job is to knock people on her ass.

That's it. Yeah. I'm thinking West Virginia's back. How about that? And they're not in the FCSD, but. I can already tell that that was your next question. Are they playing tomorrow night? No, they are not playing tomorrow night.

Thank you for not mentioning that. I wouldn't disrespect West Virginia like that. We had our battles back in the Big East days. And look, Rich Rob was on that sideline, so I have no doubt that he can build a monster. But, you know, it's a different ecosystem. Yeah, I think college football is a little different, but don't worry about that.

West Virginia's in the game. Hard edge, but trust the climb. Yep. No, hard ed. That's actually... No, trust the client. That's actually coaching... North Texas. Indiana, week one.

And they just named... I used former quarterback. One of their former quarterbacks, their starter, so... Yeah, a lot of storylines. No, Taven Jackson. He was there when Curtis Rourke was... Centeregrove legend. He's from Southside, Indianapolis.

No, that's our... Yeah, yeah, I did. That's Curtis Rue. He's back here, I got to say Kid Canada. He started this, Kid Canada's little brother, actually. Remember, Curtis Moore's older brother was Kid Canada. So this is Kid, Kid, Kid, Canada. Also in football, Lolo Wayne.

Lola Wayne. He's a kicker. I'll tell you that. I saw him make a 35-yarder, and I forget the other distance, but I love the fact that Weezy F. Baby's boy, he's kicking field goals.

And I appreciate the... Okay, so he's a soccer player. I think he has a sweet tat on his left leg as well, where he looks cool. I saw him catching some punt snaps on a side of that. I don't know if he was just helping out his snapper. He's actually doing that. Stepping out there kicking, obviously, something sweet

for the brink. and I can't wait to hear Weezy make 35 to 60 metaphors about kick and field goals in his next one, which we are all grateful for. Football, we got to remember whatever we get onto the field is the best sport of all time. All this stuff that's been happening around it is about to go to sleep, hopefully. Now, I was firmly in the camp that the NFL guys who didn't make teams who are utilizing their fifth year of eligibility were going to be playing football this season. now that the commissioners of these conferences

are kind of coming out and they're kind of peacocking a little bit. And if we've talked about people that have power in college sports, the names always seemingly go right back to Petiti and Sankey. The Big Ten Commissioner Petiti and the SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. They were the last two to sign off on the Protect

College Sports Act. Now, was that because they wanted to showcase everybody? Hey, we'll let you know when this is good. Or were they actually worried about some of the things that were going to affect the two big conferences in all of college sports. Whatever the case, if they're going to start taking a little bit ownership, it's kind of like, you know, states have in power, conference having power. So maybe we don't have to worry about a national entity. If the conferences are able to come

together, this might be a good showcase of that. And maybe this is what we need for the future. Yeah, and it kind of just take up all the problems that we have with the NCAA, they just kind of get rid of them. And then the NCAA can just do their March madness thing because it feels like that's all they really have any power over or care about. And then the commissioners can just be those people. And there isn't a need for one, you know, commissioner to unite them all. It's like, hey, just treat your leagues as your own. And guess what?

If you are Petiti and Sankey, all the other commissioners, they're just going to say, yep, you're right. Let's do that in our league, too. Like the ACC and Big 12 have already started to do it. And Bevacua. Yeah, and Notre Dame. Because I feel like he. Would they spend a coach?

That would be huge. And would the coach sue them? And how would that work? Would the judge then just put in a suspension of the suspension? and then inevitably do you kick the can down? Which might be worse if you were suspended for the start of the next year. Or the judge says, yeah, he's your coach. You can do whatever you want.

And then what? Then there's inevitable court. Football starts. Yeah, right. We'll continue to talk about it all. On the other side of this break. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. It might change your life.

Take three. Mysteries unravel and stunning truths are revealed when 2020 investigates. Follow the clues. the evidence, the breaking new details. ABC's 2020 means true murder mystery. Shocking. If you follow true crime in 2020, then you've got to listen to this. Subscribe now to 2020 True Crime Plus.

Add free exclusive true crime content. Search 2020 True Crime Plus on Apple Podcasts and start for free trial. Terms apply. A new podcast series from ABC Audio in 2020 goes inside a case. that has captivated the nation. To many people, Luigi Mangione is a modern-day Robinhood. People were cheering. The demise of this person they'd never met,

who was a father of two and a husband, and had a life and was just doing a job. From the manhunt, ending in a McDonald's in Al-Tuna, Pennsylvania, to what authorities are saying about a possible motive. I'm ABC News legal analyst Brian Buckmire. Listen to Burdena Proof, Luigi Mangione, wherever you get your podcasts. Football!

He's the greatest. It seemed like we either had a false start or a delay of game by somebody. Nonetheless, we are pumped up that FCS football kicks off the college football season tomorrow night at 6 p.m. on ESPN Plus. Everybody from Youngstown State to North Dakota. Yeah. Nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler obviously jacked up about the fighting Sue out there at 8 o'clock. and the ESPN Plus.

The toxic tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. One half of the Hammer. Cowboys AP Dun is here. Look out for D-K Game Day. Yeah, that's right. September 2nd. I like it. There's going to be special promos and offers.

Yeah. Huge. If you're of age and agree to gamble responsibly, you should come join us on the best sports book on Earth, draft kings. Now, it's available in all 50 states, obviously because you can trade. So if you're of age and willing to be responsible,

And not an asshole. Two very different things. Yeah. Can't have you ruin it for all of us. Okay, asshole. Responsible is, hey, let's make us a little bit more fire while we watch these games. FCS games, you're rolling the dice. You've got to be super duper responsible.

We have no idea about any of these teams. Preseason football games? Yeah, right. Super duper responsible. With that being said, we've fared pretty well, actually, in this entire preseason. Will that lead to... best season yet. It feels like it.

Joining us now is a man who's really throwing high heat. He's representing the entire state of Ohio and everything that happens within its borders. It doesn't matter if it's in a trailer park or in a stadium. Ladies and gentlemen, to get to the bottom of it. College football national champion,

Super Bowl champion. Roder Cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawke. Yeah. Trailer, trailer, trailer. I do not speak for anybody that spent some time on the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, you know, maybe possibly point into a mobile home park.

That has nothing to do with me. Okay. Well, I understand that you were trying to defer that even to Pennsylvania at one point yesterday, but obviously- That's basically PA. We know that. No, no, it is Ohio. No state is basically another state.

That's why there's borders. True. Okay, that is why that kind of takes place. And Ohio certainly its own country, which is a much deeper conversation, I guess, you know, how are we all supposed to agree when you got like a country of Ohio that exists? and then they're supposed to all have the same opinion as somebody who's from Florida. Florida, man.

Louisiana, down there on occasion, down in a bite. And a little bit, California, southern part of it and northern part of it, and then the inland part of it. I don't know how we're all supposed to. Or not. Okay. So it makes it great. That's why sports are the best.

Exactly. Speaking of sports. Yes. What's that? Thank you, Darius. United States of America. United. That's right.

What are supposed to all think the same? thing and have the same opinions, but we're supposed to be able to respectfully disagree. There you go. That's right. And move about our day. But every once in a while, you've got to take a stand, don't you, right here? For instance, sounds like the commissioners, included Mr. Petiti,

who obviously represents the Big Ten, he's saying, hey, go ahead, do the little NFL thing, see what happens. You'll get, you'll be gone. Okay, we'll suspend you. You obviously will lose paychecks, you'll lose opportunities, your team, hopefully we'll

loose. You know, that is a hope that we are hoping that will happen as well. But you're going to say, then the SEC's coming out saying, okay, yeah, we'll do the same thing. We might be getting to a point, and he said, United States of America. I believe the states were supposed to govern the states, and then we're all supposed to come together and do the entire thing. And obviously, since 1776, 250 years later, it's certainly gotten a bit convoluted on how it all goes. But it does feel like the commissioners in the conferences, you go back to the Big 12 with what happened with Soresby. It feels like they're going to be the ones that are going to be able to keep us going forward, AJ, potentially.

And I'm excited about that, genuinely, because I was very worried about how this could all potentially blow up very quickly. We got gambling, we got pros going back, we got this going back. It's like, at some point, there's going to have to be a breaking point. But it's like the product on the field's so good. We need to keep it alive. Might be the commissioner's jobs, AJ. Yeah, I guess it could be.

So, like, what's going to happen in the next 10 days, 10 to 15 days? Another 31st something's coming down, right? There's some going to ruin. Yeah, I think what's going to happen is the commissioners going to tell. Seems like whoever voted for LSU said, we're not bad about it either. I mean, I don't know what to tell you. 16-0 vote is a pretty one-sided affair, and that would include LSU doing that. Now, are they doing what the NFL owners do, which is we're all voting for this, whether we like it or not? Okay, even if there's two people that are against it. I think

Mark Davis is really the only person that's ever been able to break through and be a one-opposed vote against things. Normally they try to show a united front. Now it does feel like maybe this is when these conferences and commissioners are having these conversations and saying, hey, we need to be a united front here on everything if we want to kind of keep this going the way we're going. Maybe this will be the answer

for the good of the sport. But what I do know, FCS games start tomorrow night. Youngstown State plays, North Dakota plays. Then we got this weekend, week zero. We're in Ireland. We're going to get a chance to see UNC play for the first time, you know, under this new era. And then we're off in running, AJ. It is a spectacular

time to be a fan of sport and to be alive. Whenever you look at this lake this weekend, obviously getting eyes on USC will be sweet because for how many years do we think Lincoln Riley has over there if he's not successful? And is this year going to be his best year, favored by 30 plus. TCU favored by seven and a half over there in Ireland against Bill Belichick's boys. How does that team look this year? They had a recruiting class for the first time. Remember last year they didn't have what are we hearing on them? For real, have we heard any like is it more positive than has been? There's investigations.

Definitely not positive. I mean, on the field, on the field, the product on the field. They named a starter. It would have to be better than what it was last year. Remember, and Paul Feinbaum, I believe, said yesterday that he is inching closely

to the worst college football coach of all time. He's what he said about Bill Belichick, especially if he's not able to, he said that yesterday. How could you even, like, break that ever? He's just saying if you look at the chaos, the controversies, the record, you name it, the expectations. There's an argument for it.

I'm like, there is certainly an argument that could be made that this has been a massive failure. Now, has it been a massive failure because the noise outside of the building? Yeah, I think the noise outside of the building was very, very loud. I think they were going to try to attack however they possibly could. They certainly have, and now there's been reasons, and they've been giving reasons to potentially be attacked. But we talked to Marcus Spears last hour about how when he was going through the recruiting process with high school kids, how the transfer portal was kind of taken away the high school kind of opportunity. they firmly believe in like recruiting.

Let's get these seniors in here. Let's develop them. They want to turn it into like a full development option. And last year they didn't have a recruiting class. This year they have a recruiting class. And they also used the transfer portal a little bit. I'd assume they think they're in a much better spot now. But I guess we find out this weekend against TCU is always good at football.

Yeah, I believe they have UNC. This is I believe they have 40 incoming freshmen and 30 transfers. So 70 new players this year. They do have some guys from last year. were good. Billy Edwards is a decent college quarterback. He was good at Maryland, not so good at Wisconsin. The injuries there. So we'll see. I mean, they bring in

Bobby Petrino at OC who scores everywhere and anywhere that he's ever been. TCU had some locker room issues, but they bring in Harvard quarterback, Jaden Craig, so that'll be interesting there. We will find out a lot in that first game there in Ireland. Yeah, we certainly will. In Hawaii, hey, I hope they play

really good this year. I'd like them to be able to host a game day. Maybe a couple. They might. Maybe a couple. Maybe a couple of them. This year? You're going to be a good team. Yeah, maybe two or three of them late in the season, just back to back. They got Timmy Chang back leading that team. Do they really?

Yeah. Head coach? What's that? Pac-12? They're in Pack 12? Mountain West is Pac-12, right? No. No, two separate.

But. The Mountain West makes, I mean, Park 12, North Dakota State is in the Mountain West. I mean, it just makes no sense. No, college makes sense, dude. Yeah, yeah, sure. And I also, you know, you want Hawaii to get a game day. didn't you say Andrew Luck is legitimately thinking that Stanford might win the national championship this year?

That was one of the most interesting, not national championship. He believes it. Not national championship this year. But that was one of the most interesting interactions I had in Canton that entire time. You know, literally the entire weekend. Come out of a bathroom. He's going into a bathroom. First time I've seen him.

A lot of people everywhere, you know, and not like doing this entire thing. Andrew, so good to see you, man. We got to get you out of there. We got to get you to a place, you know, because I think you're probably really good at what you're doing right now. Your dad obviously has managed teams your entire life. You've kind of seen it. You're super smart.

You obviously know that he ends and outs. You're passionate about it. I think you wanted to be a high school football coach at one point. It's like, we got to get you a place that can win. He goes, we can win. Like straight face. I'm like, yeah. And he was like, no.

Like he was offended by what you were saying. Yeah, yeah. Like he was very serious. Yeah, he was very serious. And I'm like, okay, he goes, we just got a guy. We just got somebody. from somebody we're finding our people again. I'm like, hell yeah, okay, I'm pulling for you.

So I'm picking Stanford to win every game until they lose. Okay. And I'm also believing in the four-year plan at Stanford. Okay, I think Andrew Luck's committed and I think they have a chance. This year, though, I don't know if game day's heading up there. I hope we get an opportunity to. It would be nice to kind of walk those lands, really tall

trees. Beautiful campus. Really big brains up there. But it feels like... Might take some time. We all kind of know what's going to happen. He made me a believer. Me too. He gave me the same. one or same oh no not you were you right before money have any money to give that's the question well they give the money to football but yeah exactly some of these super smart institutions

have money but it's like convincing these uh finance people that hey you get zero or a while than maybe a good parking spot your football team's good i think it's a tough sell for some of these people now there's other schools where they get these finance people and they're like hey you entrance in the back here. You give us $10 million. We'll get a couple of this. Big clap. What else your team will be good?

You'll be able to brag. Deal. Here's $30 million, actually. You wanted $10. Here's actually $30. Some of these places, I think it's tough to maybe get their money, people to fully buy in on. So this person can transfer at the end of the year,

and I still have to pay them, and they're not even going to be on the team, and this doesn't guarantee a win. And do I have any say anything? Or is there any? No, nothing. I don't have a percentage of the team? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Parking spot. Really, really, really. really, really good parking spot. It might be tough to get sand for people to do it. But one school did it that made me believe Northwestern. I don't think any of us would have expected Northwestern to be invested in a football team. They got brand new stadium.

Remember, they got Kelly wearing a little hard hat and the best out there. They got everything coming together. One of the most prominent alumni of Northwestern, a man who has been on your television for 30 years on ESPN. Now, we were not asked to send a video congratulating him on his show. Shout out to everybody over there. But we are very grateful

because he was the first person who put me on ESPN on a regular basis. Has always been incredibly kind to us. And his man that we've watched, I'm 39, since I'm literally nine years old, doing sports the right way. Ladies and gentlemen, a member of every single Hall of Fame that he could potentially be eligible for already, Mike Greenberg.

Yay, Greenberg! How are you, man? Thank you very much, hi, guys. It's good to see you. Yeah, we weren't asked to make a video. We were not. happy about not being asked about making a video. Every other employee of ESPN basically or anybody

that has ever been around you was asked to make a video. We're watching these videos unfold and we go how the fucks that guy getting an opportunity to say that? We don't want to get an opportunity. So we just want to let you know. We are very grateful for you. We understand the importance of you in our story as a whole and also sports

as a whole. So thank you for your service to sports, brother. Legitimately, we're very, very grateful for you, man. Well, you have more than exceeded my expectation. I was hosting what was at that moment a somewhat floundering new morning talk show and I needed something that might give it a jump start and I saw you speak at the NFL draft in Nashville and I said there's something there and that was where I got the idea to try it, the idea that you would then parlay that into not that long thereafter becoming literally

the biggest star I've ever seen in sports media. I don't know that I foresaw that, but I will gladly take all the credit for it. And whoever it is, I will get to the bottom of whoever it is that put together those videos today and did not ask you guys to be a part of it, because that's a disgrace. What's his name? Pete? Is that his name? I think we know. No, it's not

Pete's on vacation. Pete Fammle? No, it might have been. Hembo? Also, yeah. It might have been Hempbo. It wouldn't be Hempbo. Yeah. I don't think so. Hembo is too busy right now. They're working out the potential completion percentage of all of the quarterbacks in the National Football League for the upcoming

season. That takes him a little time. I do love the homework assignments that's seemingly happy or happen for Hembo. And then the next day, we get to reap the benefits of it as well because you'll text it over to us. Hey, did you know, boom, bum, bum, boom, boom. It's like, I feel like I just got a glimpse into Greenie's brain right there on what Greenie is looking for. He's a weapon as are you. We're

very grateful for you. Can we talk a little bit about the current state of sports as a whole? Obviously, we'll get to the NFL and everything good. College sports here. We're new to the game. I mean, I think we've been doing a live show now seven years or something like that. I think is the timeline, maybe eight. I don't know. Eight years. We didn't do it in a live show. So very, very young in this particular world. We were very NFL heavy for a while because it was what we thought people would want us to talk about. Why are we

going to talk about stuff we don't know about? Getting dropped into the college football world with Game Day 2019 and then yet again three years ago, it's like, wow, this is just an entire universe. It is a completely different world. It's awesome. The pageantry, the tradition, the environments, the spectacles, the story, it's, it is awesome. Pete Thamel, though, comes into us and says, hey, listen, if you want stability, you go somewhere else, pal. This is how this has been since the beginning of time. Is this legitimately what college sports has been forever? Is it just being spotlighted more now because there's money involved with the players?

Or why do you think we're at this point at complete chaos? And why is it just kind of understood that this is how college sports is from your perspective? The answer is both. Certainly for as long as I've been around, which is whatever it is now, in the business in general, 35 years, and probably long before that, there has been unimaginable corruption. The old expression that I think was originally attributed to NASCAR definitely applies, which is if you ain't cheat and you ain't trying, everyone was trying to cheat, everyone was slipping players money under the table and all sorts of things that were then against the rules.

So to that extent, there has always been that element of college sports. The part of it that, of course, is brand new, as you just pointed out, is that now there are no rules. There's a great line in the movie, Greece, which I love when they're going to have the race John Travolta's going to race in the car, and the guy says, the rules are, there ain't no rules. And that's exactly what is going on in collegiate sports right now.

There are no rules. We've got guys leaving NFL teams because it is more lucrative for them to go back and play in college. And I'm one of the very few people who does not think that is the end of the world. I know that the Big Ten and the SEC are now treating that as though it's the most terrible thing.

that ever happened. I actually agreed with a lot of what Lane Kiffin said on your show yesterday, which is if everyone else is going to, if anyone can be doing it, we should be doing it. I don't think he should be criticized for that. His job is to win football games. It's not to achieve some sort of state of morality that the sport has absolutely never aspired to. And second of all, it's not like Patrick Mahomes is coming back and playing for Texas Tech. You're talking about people who was sort of right on the fringe. Like, AJ, I'm looking at your face and trying to gauge what your reaction to this is. If you've got a guy who is an undrafted free agent, goes through the process in the NFL, does it make it?

Not DeKwan Wright, who sort of seems to have had this deal ahead of. Jack Plyber. So who just goes through the process and the very end he is cut. And now his options are, A, go find a career somewhere else. Go do something else for a living. or B, the colleges are offering you money to come back and play. I'm not 100% sure why we think it is the end of the world that B is an option. Now, I'm sure there are reasons I'm not thinking of why this is terrible,

but I'd love to hear exactly what they are. Yeah, I mean, I think as far as players, they're talking like it's supposedly unfair, right? If you're a player and you went through training camp and you do all this, and all of a sudden, hey, a week before the first game, an NFL guy that was in camp, comes back and takes your gig. I understand that part of it. But I don't know, Greenie. I would never blame the player. If you're a guy that's trying to play in the NFL, you're trying to continue playing. If you have the option to go back, yeah, I'm going to go to try to play anywhere. I'll go to the Arena League, the U.S.XFL, what we call it, I'm going anywhere.

So the fact that it's only possibly a one-year deal is why I think it's not a huge thing. AJ literally just said, you can't hate the player here. You got to hate the game. And that's kind of what you said about Lane Kiffin right there. Now, I think the way you chichetted about the way the conferences have come out and said like, hey, this is the worst thing in the world. I think the conference commissioners watch what happened with Soresby in the Big 12 and inevitably Texas Tech and Sorsby both kind of backing off of that decision. I think the commissioners are trying to figure out whether or not they can be the ones that can kind of maybe be the guardians, the guardians, the guard rails of college sports

as a whole. Like is it a big deal? Especially with, you know, we got guys playing eight years, nine years, six years, and all these things. When you talk about these five for five guys. I think back in the day a little bit more because professional amateurism status, right? That was always the thing. Now everybody's kind of professional. But I think this is the commissioners just being like, no, like this cannot, this cannot be what this is anymore. And I think we need more of that to be honest. Now, who will sue and what will the ruling say and how will the courts deem it all, I guess is what we've got to look at next. But to your point, like listening to Lane explain why he's doing it. And he's like, we're either playing with the guy or against the

guy. And my job is to win. And then players having an option to make like 350,000, 500,000, or go sell insurance maybe later, or play in the CFL for 75,000 or 100,000 or whatever. I understand why they want to do it. I can see why Lane would want to do it. But there's a lot of coaches that are saying, we're not doing it. And it feels like the commissioners now for the first time are saying, we're not doing it. It's an interesting time, man. It does feel like we're at a boiling point, old greenie. I know that probably happens a lot in this world thinking, how could it get crazy or how could it get could it get any bigger this feels like one though doesn't it greening it feels a little bit well sorsby was a breaking point so i remember i was on your show the day the brend and sorsby news

broke and you asked me about it and i hadn't really had a lot of time to think about it and i i went on tv the next day and i said i sort of regretted my response here because it wasn't forceful enough i hadn't had enough time to sort of think it through hey we apologize for putting you in that spot it seems no no no 30 year career we almost ruined it happened half and Not at all. Not at all. Okay. That's not what I meant. But I just didn't know it was even going on until I heard you talking about it. And so you know what it's like. You offer your first thought on something and then you have a little more time to think about it and you realize, damn it, why the hell didn't I say this? Gambling is something entirely different from eligibility. So gambling is a whole separate problem. And with the enormous rise in popularity and significance of gambling in America, that's something I fully understand why the teams, the conferences, the league. and everybody else need to be as completely steadfast in as they can. This is something entirely different. There are a million shades of gray to this.

So let's say a guy goes and he spends a couple of weeks in a training camp. Or let's look at a guy who makes it into the G League and doesn't make it any further than that in the NBA. We have a guy who was coming back to play also at LSU, who was a great player at St. Johns, played in some NBA preseason games, didn't make it to the league. he can make more money by going back to school. I don't think anyone is, yes, there will be some victims in this to the point that AJ just made. Someone has to lose a spot in order for someone else to gain a spot. But that happens in a lot of different ways.

So to me, this is vastly different from Sorsby. Eligibility is a different question. And I'm not 100% sure that when push comes to shove, they won't make some sort of ruling. there won't be some sort of rule in which players can go a certain distance into finding out whether or not they are ready to be pros before they go back to cops. The whole getting paid in college thing changes the entire amateurism thing. You know, because you used to ask the NCAA why you couldn't do something.

Hey, why can't this guy buy me 10 jack and diets? Okay, because amateurism. That's a word you made up. You can't, yeah, yeah, we did. And it's the reason. Hey, why can't I get a car? I just did some stuff over here. I want to get a car.

Amatrism. It'll ruin your amateur status. you guys made that word up again. Remember, that's a word that you made up as an excuse. It's like, yeah, welcome to the NCAA world. That used to be the answer for everything. Now, because everybody's like kind of professional, I don't know. Which once again, I think the commissioners saw this as an opportunity

because they saw how everybody has responded to it pretty much. I think they saw this as an opportunity to be like, all right, we can be the ones that kind of maybe have to regulate this entire thing. We'll see how it goes. Let's pivot to the NFL because obviously we are right around the corner. Your team, man, I don't know. I'm not hearing much. Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Green.

I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. I think you guys might be laying under the radar. You know, your New York football Jets, obviously. What's your thoughts for Aaron Glenn, Gino Smith this year, heading into the season? We know it kind of, it can be a roller coaster of emotions for you sometimes as a Jets fan. Yeah, he thought about cutting his... He said he might cut his meat off, yeah, back in the day, if they won it all.

It was a tow. There was a toe game. There was a toe game. I was willing to sacrifice a toe. I've rethought that, but I have very few appendages left at this stage of my life that are really of that much value to me. The Jets have not made the playoffs in 15 years. I know I'm not telling you anything you don't know, but maybe there's someone listening to this conversation who does not realize that.

I want you to conceptualize that. Think of all the things that have happened in 15 years. The Jets have not made the playoffs a single time. It is the longest streak in any of the four. major sports. So incremental progress, I think, is what we have to be looking for here. Here's the best thing I can think of to tell you about the Jets. I think the Jets have a lot more good players than most fans out there realize because by the end of last season, they were absolutely tanking. People talk about NFL teams not tanking. NFL teams absolutely tank. They traded away

their two best defensive players and they started the worst quarterback on their roster for the last four or five games to make sure they did not win, and they were during those games by far the worst team in the league. They aren't that bad. They have a bunch of good players on that team. And Dan Olavski said it the other day on Get Up, and I agree with him, the Jets have a chance to have a good enough year. And I don't even know if you measure that in wins and losses. They're certainly not going to be a contender this year. They have Buffalo and New England in their division who are way better than they are. But I think the Jets could make themselves a pretty attractive place for whatever quarterback it is next year that is looking for a spot,

whether that is someone that they draft like Arch Manning or Dante Moore or whoever it is, or if the free agent shakes loose a la Aaron Rogers once upon a time. They actually traded for Rogers, but you know what I mean. Some veteran who is looking for a new spot, maybe the judge decided to go that way. I think they could be a year away from being something of some consequence. In order to get there, they have to be good. year, not great, but good, and I think they have a chance of that. Baker Mayfield, fun conversation. I mean, obviously, who knows how it works out with him in

Tampa Bay. And I couldn't even fathom a 15-year playoff draft. Now, Grant, I'm in the middle of it with Colts. We're close. We have not won AFC South in 12 years now at this point. But I couldn't imagine being on microphone for 30 years, okay, talking about sports, talking about the NFL, and having your team put up these types of numbers. So I don't know if you know this, we look this up. Overall record during your tenure of having to speak to the world about sports, 206 and 279. That's a lot of else.

That's a lot of times getting on camera saying, look, the Jets aren't going to win a Super Bowl. But the NFL, a lot of that, you know, a lot of that type of stuff. Eleven head coaches, over that span, 30 years. Twenty-nine starting quarterbacks. Thirty years. Fifteen, obviously, he just talked about the playoff drought, and then you look right there at the end. It's

been beautiful. Zero Super Bowl appearances. Now, Rex Ryan did have four playoff wins, I believe, where there was also a good times and great hard knocks seasons so that was probably the best time to be alive for you but the jets have not really delivered for you as a man in front of a microphone in some time maybe this year with frank rike as the offensive coordinator and gino smith slicing and dyson in the last preseason game and erin glen keeping the information tight about the draft and not leaking that out nobody knew who the hell the jets were going to pick maybe this is the year that the jets

turning around for you for your next 30 years greenie i would absolutely love that like you look at all ways that they've tried. The jersey that I'm wearing there, I'm not sure, maybe we, I think that's an Aaron Rogers jersey. Yeah, it's an eight. We changed it to a zero. Yeah, but you guys did a very good job. Had a baby dirty. Good work, dirty on the thing. But on that note, eight Super Bowl appearances. Yeah, right. You would have never, you know what I mean? Zero is the number. Yeah. The jets, look, I mean, look at the different things that they've tried just in the last few years. They drafted Zach Wilson second overall. They drafted Sam Darnold third overall. And they traded for maybe the best quarterback of his generation and Aaron Rogers and nothing has worked. That has been the

really frustrating part. They just can't get the quarterback thing right for whatever reason. So Gino Smith hopefully holds down the fort, plays decent enough to make the jets an attractive place for whoever it is that might come in next year and be their quarterback. All right, I love it. Let's go to the other team, shall we, in New Jersey. Go ahead. Yeah, they'll make it worse. You had to watch the Giants win a couple of Super Bowl titles beating the Evil Empire. But what's your thoughts on the Giants this? First of all, hardball, second year with Jackson Dart. All accounts look like when league neighbors will be healthy.

What's your thoughts with the Giants going this year? I think they have a chance to be good. I think they play in a really good division. I think the Cowboys are going to be way better. I think their defense has a chance to really make a jump. And the Eagles have been the class of the division and one of the class teams of the league for a long time. So the Giants, here's the thing about the Giants.

They, and I wish I had the number in front of me, HEMBO would have it. Maybe you guys know it. I believe they lost four games in which they had double-digit leads in the fourth quarter last year, which was unprecedented in NFL history. They were a team that wasn't nearly as bad as their record for most of their year. And they did that with a significant injury to Malik Neighbors right at the very beginning. They did that while Jackson Dart was a rookie and was learning on the fly. And then they did it with obviously much less experienced and probably competent coaching

than they should have this year. So I think I'm one who thinks the Giants have a chance to be pretty good. They've got a ton of pass rushers. I love Cam Scadaboo if he's able to stay healthy. There's nothing about that kid not to love. And I believe in Dart. I think he has a chance to be a really good player. So I think the Giants have a chance if everything goes their way to be like a fringe playoff

team this year. The NFC is loaded with the Rams obviously being a super team. And I just mentioned the Eagles and Cowboys in their division. But I think the Giants have a team to be a chance to be a team that's playing meaningful games in December, which for them would be an enormous step in the right direction. Let's stay healthy. And how about today is the day where it actually, let's do a universe ball rule. Okay. I'm happy you're here for this because you are a football sports lord of sorts, okay, even though you were not to decide that.

This flag football championship football, which might be the best have a catch ball. I mean, you can kick this thing if you add to. The sizing is perfect. If you've got baby little carny hands, you can still grip this thing and kind of throw it. This is a good ball. Universe will tell us if this ball goes in a hoop right there, no more injuries.

The rest of the NFL season. To anybody, Greenie, to anybody, Greenie, no more injuries at all. Do you have anything to say before this ball gets tossed at the universe? Please make this shot. Well, it's not about me, Greedy. Once again, this is the universe doing this with this ball. It's not me.

I don't have a lot of faith in the universe when it comes to this having watched the sport a really long time but I'm hoping as best I can come on universe yeah oh my god what's close

what is that mean I mean it's not good injuries I ruin the season is what I mean so people are already saying I'm ruining sports I can't believe I just it was the universe remember it was not me it was the universe okay let's talk We're gonna have to do that again.

Yeah, way to go, man. Thanks a lot. The hoop got smaller out of nowhere. They should cancel all practices the rest of the day. No, the year. Son of them, bitch. No, okay, hold on. You screw us, dude.

You screwed us. No, I didn't. I didn't mean to, though. It wasn't me, remember? It wasn't me. It was the... The universe put a few more balls down there. Yeah.

Yep. Yep. They weren't down there five six ago. No, they weren't actually. Said hut. Yeah, got. Oh, that was good. It's been line. Oh, yeah.

Oh, my God. The universe normally works in threes. I was going to say that is a great. Okay, that was actually, that wasn't about that. The university said it wasn't about it. It was like, hey, if that ball goes in, talk about something good. If that ball doesn't go in, talk about something bad. Connor has a question for you, Grady.

Thank you, Universe. Yeah, Grini, Jr., Ian Rappaport said like, hey, it is impossible for the Falcons to start to a quarterback right now, which some people thought was a little egregious, but also hard to argue. And then he also mentioned that the door is pretty much open for Michael Pennix Jr. to go out and just kind of steal that job, take that job from Tua for Atlanta. What do you think about Atlanta right now? Do you have any expectation for them?

Do you think they'll kind of maybe fall off a cliff? It's Stefansky's first year. What do you thinking about the Atlanta Falcons and who do you kind of see taking over as that starter, maybe even long term for Atlanta? Well, I think their long-term quarterback answer is probably not in the building. And it's a real shame because they have so many good players. They have Bijan Robinson, who is certainly as much fun to watch as any player in the league. And people who know a lot more about the sport than I do will argue he might actually be the best football player in the NFL.

And they've got London and they've got pits and they've got all these other guys. And they just haven't been able to get the quarterback thing right. I don't know that I would say to a can't possibly start a game for them, but I would say if you had any better option, he shouldn't. And I just don't know that Michael Penix is going to be a long-term option. Look, the injury history on him, and you guys don't need me to tell you that. And obviously being there where you are, you saw him at Indiana, he's so talented. But the history of injuries, when Geyser is hurt as he always was in college,

the idea that you're going to get in for 17 games, much less five or six years of healthy play, I think feels incredibly unlikely. That was a pick that stunned me when they made it. Now you're seeing why. I'd love to see him healthy because if somehow he stayed healthy, then I think the Falcons could be a really interesting team, but it would pleasantly but very much surprise me if he's able to. I think they're one of the teams that'll be looking at quarterbacks in next year's draft.

It's being reported that Tua will start the final preseason game against the Miami Dolphins on Friday night. You know what that means? That means Cooper Cush is coming in. Okay, if Penix is, Cooper Cush is going to be coming in there. And then Jack Strand. Look out. It's probably maybe the fourth quarter.

Yeah. Nobody's talking about Jack Strand. Okay. We've seen this guy. He spiked the ball into our area. My daughter had to hand it back to the rest because of how powerful his spike was. After he scored a touchdown against the Indianapolis Colts. He is 6 foot five.

He's thrown for like 3,000 yards or something like that at Minnesota State Moorhead. I think he wants to be an astronaut, like an, I think. that is what he's looking to do, and he can spin it. This guy can spin it. Now, will he be the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons? That'd be a little. Maybe Yukon. No, we're not doing it.

If he doesn't make it, maybe, hey. Come on, Coach, Candle. Hold on. I can get him. See, Graney, this is what you're talking. This is the hell of- independent. Independent.

Do we want? No. Us in Notre Dame. No, Notre Dame. No, Notre Dame. They already said they will, they're a line. But you can do whatever they want. They're in their own company.

They don't have independent. Kind of a fart in the wind, though, right? If it's Yukon, I mean, they could take Aaron Donald, and it really cares. He can play quarterback and... Yeah, what's the point? How do you feel about that? You talked about being... You guys had that haunted hotel or something up there.

I remember a couple years ago. Jim Mora's out. They probably follow him. Yeah. The Hought. The ghost. Yeah, level up to Colorado State. Seems like they're down there.

Okay, let's talk about ghosts. Offensive linemen had been seeing ghosts since this guy from Penn Hills, got into the NFL. He's a monster, an animal. He's been out of football for two years. His words were, got to see if I have that fire again. And then all we've seen is workouts where it appears as if he might be faster than he was before.

So is he more healthy, more rested? Should we expect Aaron Dono when he comes back to the Rams, which we all kind of assume he will be doing in a matter of time? What are you expectations for him? And what about Miles Garrett being next to him for the first time in his career getting an opportunity to be the Avengers, actually, on the defensive side with two defensive MVP's. Here's what I think of that.

My son played AAU basketball for a very, very long time on teams that never had any players who were going to wind up playing Division I college or going to the NBA. I watched in my life a lot of games that I knew in the layup line should not be played, right? We're in the layup line. We got a bunch of 12-year-olds on this side.

On the other side, these guys are doing reverse dunks in the layup line. And I'm like, guys, why are we doing this? Like, why even start, they have to call off the press when it's a 20-point lead? Like, that's what lining up Miles Garrett and Aaron Donald next to each other is like. If you put Reggie White and Joe Green next to each other on a defensive line, the opposition would have just quit. And that is what we're looking at right here. If they are healthy, if the Rams, I mean, you just, you know, as the universe just reminded us with our football toss there.

I mean, injuries are always the great equalizer and everything. So the Rams, if they are beset by injury, then like any other team, they become very mortal. But if Donald, Garrett, and Stafford are all healthy and then some combination of Nakuha and Devante Adams and all their other good players, so long as they are not completely devastated by injury, they're as prohibitive a favorite as I can remember in the NFL in a really long time. What's the last time we had a team that

before the season started, you said if they stay healthy, they were superior to this. Their chances were better than what you would say the Rams are right now. I'm not sure what team we'd have to go back to. Okay, so the 2023 chiefs had the same odds to win the title at plus 600.

I believe that is where the Rams are right now. That's absurd. Obviously, there's 32 teams. that should be thousand, that everybody should be up near there. So plus 600, whenever you're talking about an entire field of NFL teams to win the title before it even starts, is an absurd favorite? Is that because the amount of money that's being bet on the Rams? So the sports books are just kind of catch up because obviously they want money on both sides of this entire thing? Or is it because they view the team to be as dumbed as they could ever be, just like the 20203 chief saw. And I think it's that one.

I don't think it's trying to catch up to the money. I think it's seeing what we're all seeing. Greenie, you hit the nail on the head there. Whenever you talk about Reggie White and Mean Joe Green, it's like, how do you get a first down on these guys? Because it's not just in the front end. The back end they load it up to. It's like if they're not going to get to the quarterback

or stop the run immediately, back end's got dogs everywhere as well. That's just the defense aside, let alone Maddie and Huka and everybody they got on the offensive side. I assume the pressure is crazy whenever you have that good of a roster because obviously you're expected to win.

But they've been living like that since they want a title anyways. It feels like they're all made for the LA lights with another Super Bowl back. Yeah, we always talk about when you look at these teams and these organizations, ownership, head coach, quarterback. And they got stability there. They got the reigning MVP there. And then you go to the other side of the ball. You have the reigning defensive player the year. I mean, this is for me, with or without Aaron Donald.

Obviously, Aaron Donald moves the needle, but you still have a very, very talented defensive front. Then you went and got Jalen Watson and Trent McDuffie from the Chiefs who already have McDuffey, a couple of titles under his belt. So not only his experience on the field, but in that locker room is going to be great, man. So, yeah, everything, if they stay healthy going into the season, like you said, 23 Chiefs, probably the 07 Patriots when you had Moss and Walker and all those guys. But yeah, they should be as dumb. But you still got to play the games.

You still have the reigning defending champs. Seattle Seahawks. We're getting a closer look with the hard knocks. And they got a lot of those things in place as well. So, I mean, we'll see. I love this hard knock season. Feels like I'm learning about maybe a coach that could go down as a great of all. time and McDonald with how quickly he won a Super Bowl with how young he is and seemingly his future

over there with Schneider as the GM who might go down as one of the greats of all time. Hard knocks do anything for you? That's hard not because we're watching Seattle and I'm loving it. I'm watching McDonald talk to his his leadership council which is like 15 people. That's a lot of people in there. There's a lot of people in that leadership council, him reaching directly in kind of the locker room monitoring the locker room. The practice the way he gets on people's ass, like he gets on people's ass, his theories, the way he brings in other coaches. Like I love watching. guy. That's what I'm getting from Hard Knocks. For you, 30 years in this entire thing, Hard Knocks had its run. Now it seems like it might be back as the Super Bowl champs.

How do you view? How do you watch that? And what are your thoughts on what's happening in Seattle? I love it. Seattle, I think, obviously, is if anyone out there right now feels like they could challenge the Rams at their best, they're probably the closest thing to it that defense is that level of good. I think Houston's defense is that level of good as well. But you look at the offensive firepower that the Rams have and neither Houston nor Seattle, can touch it. Here's what I think is the most genius thing about. So you guys who played, I think, have a totally different view of it because you've lived

this. All these things seem relatively familiar to you. And so you're seeing how this team goes about it. For people like me, before I got to ESPN, so 30 plus years ago, I worked in the local media. I worked in Chicago when I covered the Chicago Bears. And there are very specific times where we were allowed as reporters to go into the locker.

room during the week. There was an hour on a Wednesday and an hour on a Thursday and they would bring the coach out and the quarterback and a few players out for specific press conferences. And we could watch a little bit of practice, but not all of it. And I think reporters like me always were dying to know what is it like when we're not there? What do they talk about when we're not there? What does it feel like when we're not there? What does it look like when we're not there? And I'm sure they are cognizant of the cameras being around. So this probably isn't fully authentic, but it's so much closer than anything that someone like me would ever have had the opportunity to see. So I've always loved it.

Some teams are more entertaining than others. You pointed it out. The Rex Ryan Jets were definitely the most fun team because Rex, just as is the case now, didn't give a damn what he said. So they were the most fun team to watch. But I find it all fascinating because there's so much in it that I would otherwise never get a chance to see. Yeah, I really like this season more so than maybe a couple past training camp seasons. that off-season one with the Giants, the greatest.

I mean, terrible for the Giants. Yeah, not great. Yeah, never going to get approved again by any team because of it. But, boy, for us, that was spectacular because we've never seen that side. So just like you were talking about with the players, it's like we hear about what the conversations are. We can guess with what the conversations are. But actually being in there where you got a GM asking his kids, what would you do? You know, if you're in a thing, it's like, okay, we do got humans out here.

You know? The owner coming in. I will not be able to sleep. if this guy ends up on the Philadelphia Eagles. I'm just telling you this guy, he's got to be our most popular guy. Oh, my God. Worst case scenario,

my life is over if this happens. And then literally MVP Super Bowl. Yeah, lo and behold. For the Eagles right there. That's why a team will never do it again. Never, ever do it again. But I like whenever we get this shit. It feels like it's getting good.

Okay, let's pivot from, you know, hard knocks. And you just mentioned the Chicago Bears there getting a chance to be a reporter in there. That feels like a team that's going to, to have a lot of news coming out of it this year and for the foreseeable future. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Greenie, what are your thoughts on the relationship between Ben Johnson and Caleb? Because, obviously,

they take Caleb one overall. He's been good. He's been a great playmaker, but it still feels like Ben Johnson is not afraid to criticize him and criticize how he plays within Ben Johnson's offense. What do you think about that relationship in their future together? All right, I've been

workshopping this take. I'm dying to hear what you guys think. Oh, yes. This is the first time? This is the first time? Yes. So I've used it and like, you know, like guys will use it on the road and then they go on the tonight show and they actually get to finally. So I've used it in some other, you know, media. Yes. But now here we are, we are on the big time and I'm going to. Hey, good luck, kid.

Let's see how this thing plays. The history of football is defined more than anything by the great quarterback coach combinations. Right. If you look at the best teams in history, you go back to Lombardi and Bart Starr and Terry Bradshaw. on Chuck Knoll, and then into the 80s where he had Jimmy Johnson and Troy Aikman and that, excuse me, the 80s was Joe Montana and Bill Walsh. The 90s was Jimmy Johnson and Troy Eichmann, which should have lasted longer. And then you get to Belichick and Brady and Reed and Mahomes.

These are the greatest teams in NFL history. So if you're going to place a bet on any combination right now to become the next one in that line, If you're going to take any young quarterback and coach combination and say, I could see them becoming that. They're that good. I love the coach that much and I love the player that much. I think this is where I would put my money. I think Ben Johnson is brilliant. Now, I have been hearing that from Rex for a very long time.

I think you guys may know, Rex's son was an offensive coach on the Lions for many years. So Rex has been hearing about and thus telling me about Ben Johnson. Johnson, since before the whole world caught on to Ben Johnson. I think he's magnificent. I love everything about his attitude. He takes the job and immediately calls out the Green Bay Packers. This year, when the world is projecting that they're a candidate to regress, he's up there talking about breaking the all-time scoring record.

I've never seen a team run the ball as creatively and effectively as they did a year ago. And then you combine him with Caleb, who I think has the gifts of just about any quarterback I've ever seen. I'm not sure I've ever seen a quarterback who was just more naturally gifted. He's certainly on the very highest possible level of that. And he's a young man who seems to get it. I've never met him in my entire life. But he seems, while he kind of marches to the beat of his own drum, I actually think he kind of gets it.

So if you're going to look at the young quarterback coach combinations in the league now, there are a lot of them because there are a lot of good young quarterbacks. I think if I had to bet on one to become the next great duo, I think this is who I would bet. I would bet on Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams. What do you think of that take? Pretty good take, especially because you had the timeline, you know, all the way back to the 70s, that legitimizes your conversation immediately.

So I think the setup was good. I think the punch was good. I think the transition from that to there was also fantastic and certainly agreeable take. But on that note, Joe Burrow and Zach Taylor, right? Do they consider it's like a next group? They've already been to a Super Bowl of these two. Zach doesn't even want to throw his flag. What years are you going into?

Yeah, but they're in a Super Bowl already together. Would they not count together? Going into year eight? They're a Super Bowl. How young are we talking? I don't know. That's what I'm wondering. Greeney, we got to qualify this.

Siriania Hertz has been in two Super Bowl. McAfee, if you owned an NFL team, which candidly someday you might, and I gave you right now the option of Ben Johnson or Zach Taylor to coach it, which one of them would you take. Okay. What is that all about? It's not about me. You're going to have.

I don't have Joe Burrow. That's a good take. Yeah, I don't have Joe Burrow as my quarterback, you know. Now that's a question, I guess. What young quarterback would you draft? McDaniel's Drake May. There's another one maybe. Drake May, I mean, for sure, him and Vrable, and even with, you know, how loud it's been,

I mean, if they start out the season four, five and no, six and two, all that will be quiet. I think Sean Payton, Bo Nicks have a pretty good argument, too. There's a couple around there, which is why the league is in such a good spot because we have so many good quarterbacks. It does feel like younger quarterbacks playing better now than they ever have in the past. I think you would be able to state that clearer than anybody else. D'emico, C.J. Stroud, you could argue, too. A lot of people are out on Stroud, but he already has three. He's one in every year.

He was saying quarterback people, though, I think, right? No, no, quarterback head coach. Oh, okay. Like Siriani, Hertz, Herbert, Harbaugh. Like, if you were just, that's why I think Drake and Vrabel probably would be the one just because what Drake's already done. Because, like, McDaniel, let's say they have another great year, and McDaniel ends up getting a,

your McDaniel, excuse me, gets like a head coach opportunity. It doesn't leave maybe after this year, but leaves the year after. Like, at this point with Drake, man, it feels like we're already pretty comfortable and like how smart he is and how good he is that in OC leave him wouldn't be the worst thing ever. And Lamar, do we count whoever Lamar is with? Is that anyone think? Enter could be, right?

Monskin and Watson? I like your take, Greenie. Listen to what we just did here. This is what you've been doing for 30 years. You're pretty good, Graney. Hey. We're just stirring the pot. That's all we're here to do.

We're just stirring the pot. We're coming up with takes. I've been working on that one for a little while. I'm delighted with the way that it landed. Okay, I'm happy you liked it as well. We loved it. You liked it. Okay, let's pivot off of football.

Who's won in the Super Bowl right now, August 26. I don't need a big take. Just who's winning the Super Bowl? I mean, it's too easy to say the Rams. Plus 5.50. Hold on. It's not even better. I'm sorry, plus 550 now.

It's better than what the Chiefs, I believe, were in 2023 now. Shortest odds in a history. reality is it's very hard to look at any team and say they're as good as the Rams. So what you're betting on if you're betting, if you're not picking them is something bad happening to them. If there's a team out there that I think is greatly undervalued on that board, it's Denver. I remain very surprised at how little attention the Broncos are getting. That is a team that with no disrespect intended to the Patriots. That's a team that absolutely would have been in the Super Bowl last year if Bowenakes hadn't gotten

hurt and at the very end of that game against Buffalo. He played great in that game against Josh Allen. And I think they were at home. They wound up playing that game with a quarterback who just had no chance. And then weather came in unlike anything I've ever seen in my entire life. That's a team that's defense is totally legit, maybe not quite on the level of the Texans or the Rams, but not that far behind. And they've got, they added Jalen Waddle and they've got the coach who's been there and done that. I'm very surprised at how little attention Denver is.

Brand new facility, too. They're walking into a beautiful, beautiful place every day they go to work, let alone in the city of Denver. Everybody obviously sings its praises. So I said, you know, the Rams plus 550, you know, shorter than the 2023 chiefs, certainly. Not sure as odds of all time. 1994, San Francisco 49ers.

This might be a Hempo trivia question at some point. Their odds, I believe, are plus 200. Yeah, the year after that, the Cowboys were plus 300. Jerry Rice. Prime was on that team as well. Emmett. I mean, I was back whenever sports gambling was also like,

hey, I'm giving you plus 200, plus 250 on this for that entire thing. So there has been odds on favorites from the beginning. Go ahead. It was probably also back when there was about four quarterbacks instead of, you know, 10, 12 quarterbacks. No, 94?

You're talking about the quarterback club? Yeah, who? There was six of them. Have some respect. Just in the NFC, you got, you know, Steve Young, Aikman, Farr. I mean, there's three right there. All right.

Go to the other side now. Marino. I covered the Super Bowl. Marino Elway. Sorry, sorry. Grina was actually there. Hold on. Let's celebrate 30 years.

They played San Diego in the Super Bowl that year. And I think that was the least competitive sporting event I've ever attended in my entire life. My son's AAU team that played against a bunch of kids who wound up in the NBA had a better chance of winning than I think the score. Someone could look. I think the score was 21-0 at the quarter. It might have been 28-0 nothing at the quarter. They had Ricky Waters, Jerry Rice, running wild.

That was the Steve Young got the monkey off his back game. They obliterated them. That was at a time when the Cowboys and 49ers just owned the NFL. It was the year that Jimmy Johnson had left the first year after. The Cowboys had won the previous two Super Bowls. And then Jimmy Johnson left unceremoniously, as everybody knows. And that's where the Niners got in there. And they destroyed everything in their past.

that team did have Dion. They were as good as any team you'll ever see. 49-26, they win that particular Super Bowl. I assume there are some trash time scores. You talk about the Niners and the Cowboys, obviously, running rough shot during that period of time. Obviously, their fan base is still showcased that. Entire generations, obviously got to experience that dominance

and became massive fans of them. Are the Niners looking to move because that substation? Are they going to Ohio? I mean, they got a lot of distress. That's what they're looking at. Are the Niners looking to move to Ohio right now to get away from that substation? Is that what's happened? Nobody's talking out some land.

Merman scouting some practice. I mean, maybe might be able to purchase. Ohio 140s, I think is what they're calling them. Oh, no more 49ers. 160, I think. 160. No, it might have been 159ers.

We're not 100% sure what all it is, but are the Niners moving out of Santa Clara to Ohio? That would kind of change something. Scout and land. I don't know. Nobody talks about that. I'd be smarter. I have nothing to say whatsoever.

I'm just enjoying the conversation. Happy Thursday. 30 years at ESPN, Grady. Happy 30 years. Thank you. Hey, let me say something. Two very quick things, if this is you're letting me go. No, no, we've got to ask you about baseball real quick. Before we, let's go.

Go ahead. Yeah, Greeny, I did just want to ask, and I don't know why no one's talking about this. It's probably because the NFL season is right around the corner. But what's your take on the whole Mark Walter situation? Because Jet Passing's been getting fucking killed online because he basically said, hey, anyone could have done this. He said this a while ago. And then, like, yesterday basically said, oh, oh, wait, they actually do have a massive tax loop.

poll that gives them a huge advantage over every other team. And now we're basically staring down a work stoppage because this cheating, lying, fraudulent scumbag, who I hate saying it because he's from Iowa, he's an Iowa guy. Mark Walter essentially just destroyed baseball. Why is no one talking about this? And is that essentially what's going to happen? They're going to have to blow up this whole thing, right? The Dodgers can't keep doing this because they just fucking cheated for the last five years.

And now we are, we're not going to have a baseball season next year. They have an amount of money at their disposal that no other team does is what you're referring to. So Mark Walter is someone that I don't, I wouldn't say I know him. I have met him. He is not only is he from Iowa, but he is a Northwestern alum. And he is one of the two or three biggest benefactors of the Northwestern Athletics program. People made a very big deal when we built our new football workout facility. Pat, I'm not sure if you've ever been there to see it.

but people were saying it was literally the nicest facility that any school had in the whole country. It is called the Walter Sports Facility. So he's an enormously important person at Northwestern that's neither here nor there for the purposes of this conversation, except that I have been aware of him a lot longer than most people have. He was a person who flew very under the radar. I can't pretend I know anything about the situation that he is in. but what is pretty clear is that he needs a ton of money, right? He needs to liquidate pretty much everything.

He's sold the Lakers. From what I understand, he's going to wind up selling Chelsea and probably the Dodgers as well, even though he has said he's not going to. It's an interesting question as far as what impact that has had on the sport. They have backloaded all of these contracts, right? That's another piece of all of this. Like, Shohei Otani's money, he's not getting all the. that for

Benia. They got a bunch of Benia deals that deferred payments, deferred payments, deferred payments. But way more. Like Bobby Benia gets

like a million dollars once a year. Like Shohei Otani is going to be getting like 30 million dollars every year starting 20 something years from now when he's no longer paying California state taxes.

I don't know what's going to become of that whole situation. I think it has made everyone in the world root against them and especially when you consider that their biggest competition is the team that has every built-in disadvantage, meaning the Milwaukee Brewers, who right now by one game have the

best record in Major League Baseball, I think there are a lot of people who feel as you do. I wish I could tell you exactly where it's going to go from here. I've heard exactly what you've heard, which is that a work stoppage feels almost unavoidable at this point. I covered the last time there was one. I was there in 94 when they called off the season. I was at spring training in 95 because Michael Jordan was there with the White Sox when they had all these replacement players there. They had guys literally off construction sites and stuff

like that who were at spring training in Sarasota, which is where the White Sox used to work out. It was horrific. I mean, everything about that whole ordeal was horrific. And then of all things, a judge, this is a, I think a little remembered part of this story, a judge wound up ruling with the players and ending all of that. That judge was named Sonia Sotomayor, who was now on the Supreme Court of the United States. At that time, she was just known as the judge who saved baseball. But I really hope we're not heading in that direction again, but that does feel like the way it's going. That's Mike Greenberg.

Greenie, icon, legend. Amanda, we're very grateful for. We continue digitally as I believe Little League World Series continues from here. Goodbye. See, that was a hard out, Greenie. You knew what that was. Thank you for knowing that, okay, because there's maybe one last week where we, we, we, we didn't know, you know, we didn't know that there was going to be an abrupt stop to something else

where we would maybe take a hand off a little differently, you know, TV, hardout stuff. You're a consummate pro right there. Unbelievable work. Thank you for doing that and making us all better, brother. And on the baseball front, what if this causes no work stoppage? What if, because of all this, there's actually an agreement that's able to be put in? Well, there's not going to, the players are never going to agree to do a salary cap, so there wouldn't be a work stoppage.

That's never going to happen in a billion years, ever. He can't be the generation to do it. No. So the whole season's going to be gone or could it only be half maybe? Forever, dude. I mean, it could be. The sport? We might never see baseball.

Savannah banana. No. Thank you for the bananas. Savannah, but Jesse Cole is the guy who's got baseball for us. Thank you, Jesse Cole. Got the MLS. Thank you, Jesse. No.

No, we don't. MLS is not in the spring anymore. They moved to the winter during football. So next spring, Savannah bananas. Okay. That's what we're watching. And you're going to like it. because it's baseball.

Aaron Judge is going to be playing for the fucking wild things. He's a clown through and through. He's an Indianapolis clown. They're saying Swarbo potentially taking some big hacks for the bananas. Yeah, I bet. They're going to call him big banana next year. I bet. Paul Skeens.

Hawkins. Sergeant Clown. He's pitching for fucking second base now that he's got the juice back. He better lose that gut because, you know, I think you have to pitch without your jersey out with your titty. That is a rule. No, he's not. He's not. All the guys he's got to do.

That is not an investment. Everybody has their own gimmick. A lot of them have a shirtless gimmick. Paul's gimmick will be he'll pitch from second base because he's got his juice back. Do you know that? I hope so. That's just what Skeens needs, too.

You know, he's kind of starting to find it again. It's a great idea. Let's stop the season, you know. Skeins might never play again. What? If we don't have a season. He's going to play for the bananas. Jesse Cole's got a one-way ticket.

I'm not, yeah, I'm not sleeping on. I would throw up. Keene's heading over to some sort of war going on just to serve. You're right. I guess we can't put that past them. I mean, especially with the way the World Baseball Classic was going. It felt like he was kind of maybe in a cockman of a fighter.

It might be buzzing the tower in the straight-at-home moves in 10 months. Is that thing open? We know that thing existed. I don't know. That depends on the day. Greenie, we appreciate you, man. We really appreciate you, genuinely. And thank you for just going along with our bullshit, basically. It's a pleasure. I'm so

proud of what all you guys are doing every single day. And I'll leave you just with this one thought. I don't know if you're a fan of the singer Kenny Chesney, but he's someone that we got to know many, many, many years ago on Mike and Mike. And I never grew up with any country music or anything. I'm from New York. So I didn't know anything about him, but I started listening to his songs. And there's a song of his that I particularly liked and still like called Don't Blink. And I found myself thinking about that song today because, you know, one day you're 29 years old and you walk into this building and you're surrounded by legends that you have looked up to what feels like your entire life. I turn around and Chris Berman and Dan Patrick and Stuart Scott and

Keith Alberman are all working in the same trailer that I'm working in, which is where we were working out of when I got to ESPN 30 years ago today. And then you blink and all of a sudden they're handing you a little statue that says you've been here 30 years. And if there's one word of advice I would like to offer to everybody who is listening because I know a lot of younger people are with you guys every single day and to you in particular, McAfee, is try and remember that while it's happening. Like try while it's going on every now and again, not just to look at how much taller the mountain is that you want to climb, but look down at how far you've already come. It doesn't mean that you're going to quit. It doesn't mean that you're satisfied. It doesn't

mean that you're less hungry. It just means that every once in a while you really need to stop and appreciate the things that are happening in your life. Because if you had told me 30 years ago today what my life would be, I don't even mean this figuratively. I would have wept. I mean, I literally would have fallen to the ground and cried that my life was going to turn out this way. And I don't know that I've been as aware of that as I wish I had every minute of it. So those are my words of advice before someone hands you a little trophy and says, congratulations on 30 years. Make sure you enjoy the ride because don't blink. It goes by a lot faster than you expected to. We love you, man. That was beautiful. And thank you for the reminder and perspective. And thank you for the 30 years

that it seems like you have kind of been in locked in for all of us in your service to sport. And here's the next 30 years where you will, you know, not blink and enjoy the entire process. and we'll be lucky and thankful to be in your little, one of those calls, there's little, when you're under somebody's wing, coat tail, maybe. We'll be little baby birds under your wing, for the next 30 years, brother. Following in everything that you've done for sport

alongside the legends that you mentioned, and we appreciate you, man. Thank you for everything. Yeah, it's a pleasure. Good to see you, guys. It's a lot of fun, always. Let's talk as the football season get started. Have a great day.

You got it. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Greenberg. Yay, Greenlee. What's a good speech? What are this called? You put him on a wing. Is it a coat tail? What the hell you're talking?

Take another to the wing. You take somebody under a wing. Yeah, oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's what I was saying. And then there's coat tails that you ride, right? Mm-hmm. So it was all those together.

That's not I was trying to tell him, though. I was trying to tell him, though. I was trying to tell him. I thought you kind of, like, the frilly things that, like, macho man wore on his coat. Oh, castles? I don't mind tassels. Yeah, you take this as your tassels. We were his nipple tassels.

Yeah. At certain times, certainly have been. But coat tail and wing, he takes us under his wing with the coattails. Yeah, we'll ride behind it. Or Ramora. Isn't it called Ramora, the little fish that rides in the back of the shark? Sure. Yeah.

Maybe. Yeah. Maybe you have pilot fish, too. Ramora? I'll tell you what, if you pulled that name out right there. Jimmy Buffett. It's in a Jimmy Buffett song. That's why I know it.

Okay, let's hear it. I hope it's right. I can't even remember the whole song, but I remember. Back in the day, hearing it, like, what is it? I think he does say it in Cheeseburger in Paradise, actually. Really? Hans. Hey, me, everything.

Don't blink. It is. Yeah, Kenny Ches has got a lot. I think he's going to say boys of fall. Me too. Obviously, that's making it drown. I was like, we are the fucking boys of fall. Say it, Greenie.

And then he went a different way. I was planning on doing a fool. Yeah. I was pumped to be called the boys of fall. And then he gave like a real speech. Yeah, that was cool, too. It went viral in this week for a story. That was sweet.

That was sweet. Or why? Sean Peyton. Yeah, it was Sean Payton. Yeah, because AJ says. The common remora, also known as a shark sucker.

So I love that AJ obviously knows where a shark sucker is. Yeah. Give me that remora, babe. Yeah. Remora's got a necktorn mentality. You suck off the necton. Hey, um,

okay, so the balls didn't go into the hoop. No. No, no. We're fucked. You should see the amount of, guys,

the amount of injury news that's coming out is unbelievable. Like 10 different guys have been done for the seasons since you started throwing. those fucking footballs. That that is actually what happened. Oh, there's another one. Shit.

Jackson Dard just wanted to the medical tent. Did he really? Yeah, he did. Look at that. Jackson. No, no, no, no. Hold on. He's going to be okay. They're going to get him out there. He just went home.

Oh, that one was supposed to go. Jackson Darts just passed out. No, no, go in, please. Jackson Darts. Not breathing. CPR. Oh, my God. They're taking Jackson Darpian.

Right out of hospital. true. Not this is true. Jackson Dard is injured, though? No. No. No. Thank God. I actually believe. Yeah, me too. Thank God. Okay. There's another tent visit. Is that real? No, it's not real. Okay. Gee. What's going on? What's going on? I can't believe he's your own quarterback. Dude, he told me yesterday, okay? He said, my mustache, uh, I'm finding myself tough to take serious. Like he, like he, like he put a mask on. He's playing a character. And, uh, I do think we have a little different Bruce here, mustachioed Bruce. And I think it,

optically it should stick around. I am worried about the mentality behind the mustache there, where he says he can't take himself serious. He pops on the screen. He almost wants to drop into a character. I never feel very serious, but I feel less serious with the mustache for sure. Yeah, and when you see yourself,

I think is when you have a real problem with it, which happens to be like Zoom calls and stuff. So like he'll pop on a screen, and he just immediately goes like, holy foot, that's Bruce right here. He drops into a character. So he looks too cool maybe for himself right now, something we're dealing with.

Also dealing with rampant pooping and lack of wiping. You tell me we don't know. We still don't know. Genuinely do not know right now. Do we have like a handful of suspect?

How many suspects is it down to? Two. Two? Who's it? Two? I like this. In my mind, it's down to two. Stone cold, stonewall,

two. Down to one in mind. So Gumpy, Gumpy had his own opinion. Then we presented another option to him and he goes, that could be it as well. well. That could be it as well. And then we said, well, what if somebody thinks of another one?

He goes, no, it's either those two. So he is locked in on two. I think he's the only one that is certain that is certainly two people. There's just an added element of the non-wiping of the butter leads to there's no way with what that look like that you just go through your day and not know, you know? So you either got to have no feeling back there or did you hop in shower afterwards. So who works out and who isn't on the show? On in front of a camera. Yeah. And it's, so the walls are closing. I got to do the vent.

If they could hop in a shower though, it would be a, I would hope that it's a bit that they're messing with people, right? If they did, if it's a bit, then it is diabolical because I am so angry. That's not a very funny bit. It's not at all. Maybe it's because I'm the one that's open the stall both times, but like I was driving into work today and I remembered

and I was so mad, like just sitting out there before the show. I was like, I fucking have to hate everybody because I don't know who the one is. So I fucking hate everybody because of this one person. So if that's a bit, I don't know if you're a heel, it has

It has work. I just think that's the only rational like thought for like a while you're not dealing with a rational human being here, obviously. Or someone that thinks about it. The fucking person took a nasty ass shit and didn't wipe and didn't flush, which is why I stand by. If you do that, you

should be shot in the head. You should be fucking assassinated. Maybe start somewhere else and make it hurt, you know. Shoot them in the leg, right foot, left foot. Well, yeah, yeah. Maybe we castrate them first. No. Okay.

All right. Hot blades we got around here. We got swords and shit. Maybe we, you know, sharpen one of these on a wet stone, get it real hot, and slice their dick off like a knife-gold-through-bler. And then just their balls. Stick it in their mouth and shoot them in the head. I don't think we're going to do that.

I don't think we're going to do it. If you do it, please. We're not going to do that. I'll send it to you. That would not happen, but it does sound like you should maybe write some film because that was like kind of a saw type. You know, like you go watch the saw movie and you immediately think to yourself, somebody had to think of all those things. We should have eyes on whoever that was.

Feels like this particular situation has the toxic table in a very toxic place. You guys should maybe write out your thoughts right now. On that note, I don't think it's going to ever happen again. It will. Have you talked to him yet? It's the second time. Are we sure the first time that we found it was the first time it happened? Yeah.

So then we were told about another time that actually happened last year on a Friday where I go, ooh, what happened? And they go, oh, what, and run back in there and do it. I don't know. There's a lot of different defenses going on right now. So I just know that we need to stop it. Fucking hit it. That picture is disgusting, by the way. It happened last.

Picture. Allegedly it happened on a Friday when I was not here. I was just informed to that last evening as we were kind of diving into the evidence and trying to figure this. It became a fun little game last night. just because how passionate everybody truly was about this. And when new ideas were presented, we had no stone unturned last night. We really went for it.

And there was a new piece of evidence that was brought to the table that would have been good for the first time this happened, I think. This particular time, not really a similar situation. I think we have multiple. I think there's multiple. There's no way. I think so.

Did the suspect, when they were questioned, were they defensive, how did they respond? Uh, what, which time? Uh, this time, right? Like yesterday last night. Okay, a little bit more. So I believe it's, there's, it's down to two people for both of these. Could you do, like, a slight impression of them of how they responded when they were questioned? Like, can just a little bit? No, not going to give that away. But I do believe it is multiple people that are doing this.

And I think, oh, I think the non-wiping of the butt, I didn't know that there's this many people that do it. Okay, we, I didn't know there was one person that did it. I didn't know. It was one person that did it on the plan. It can be. Huh? No, I didn't get that information personally. I'm just saying, like, what we are learning here, first time, no, there was no wiping of the butt. There was no toilet paper in that first one.

Not that we saw, no. So it left this person wipe their ass and then ate it, which I'm starting to think we might be dealing with someone like that. There's a good chance. Yeah. That would be next love. I think it's multiple people, though. That's what we need.

Like the cone heads. The cone heads use the toilet paper. I'm telling you, I'm a little bit worried. What, you think they're like a team? here we go, this is what we're doing? No, I think independent contractors, both of them. He's two of the dumbest fucking people you've ever met.

Absolute buffoonery of the highest order. No one shits in that toilet. No one shits in that stall ever. And if you do, you shouldn't. There's way too many options. I don't know, Bill told me that's right. He's seen one person sitting there a lot of times. Yeah, I've seen people shit in there.

There's been a lot of people that have eyes on things all of a sudden, you know, quickly. Yeah, exactly. And a lot of people that always do this are always. go in this bathroom. One of those fucking people, too. Who is it then, Connor? He doesn't know. He's got his emotion.

If I fucking knew, there'd be one less person here today. No, come on. You guys can't be talking like that. You get killed him, but someone gets suspended. Like, you could get suspension.

Yeah, right. Everybody's got like six jobs here. We can't just be dropping people. Indiana law, you could kill them. I wouldn't do that, but I would make their life fucking hell they wouldn't be able to get to work.

I like that. Oh, we already can't. 60 to 90 days. 120, 240 days this roundabout here. We got full road closures, like a mile out each way, blocked roads, except for local. Just for the roundabout? Or is there other stuff? Well, there's like a bunch of neighborhoods in here.

The amount of people that are just driving through those things. I mean, that has to be in the thousands. Oh, yeah. In the blocked off area. And obviously with the four-way that's right out here, you have to go around. So these neighborhoods obviously have it is, it is crazy times. I guess there was an announcement on the Facebook. It's going to be by 60.

It's not showing up on, like, GPS apps either. That, like, there's a road closure. So people are just driving up here like they normally would and then just like, what the fuck is going on? And they have to, you know, cut through one of the neighborhoods or... Yeah, but it's going to get done easy. Now, I thought we had already been doing this a lot of time. We've already lost power in Internet multiple times.

They haven't done anything. That's what I'm learning. They haven't been doing anything. It's going to be quick. They're laying the ground work. They're going to, yeah, they're going to fucking blow through it. Yeah, you're probably right. You're probably right.

No, no delays. It's going to take fucking two weeks. We know the lads out there are awesome dudes. We've talked to the construction workers. Now, the planning from the top, Don, I think there's going to be some interesting timelines. Well, and the problem is it rains for about two weeks at a time. So when it rains, typically construction just gets delayed until it's done raining. And, I mean, we just got out of a two-week window.

So that's what I'm saying. We have two weeks here before it starts raining for like a month straight. Yeah, like two months maybe. Yeah. So they have two weeks to do that. Remember, we don't see the sun for four or five months. Now, if you're a free agent looking to sign with the Colts, you should see the palm trees out here.

It is. In the beach, awesome out here? We do have a beach up here. Yeah, we do. Right there in the water. No, touch the sand, not the water. Yeah, do not go in the water. There's E. coli in there.

But the beach is nice. Not just a little E. No, like a bunch. Like, you will get really fucking sick if you go in there. It's interesting. But you can hang out on the sand, which is what we had. Boom. Right there.

Boom. Look at that. Real? Yeah, that's real. And if you're a free agent, that can all be available to you. That kid is really close to the water. Yeah.

Oh, you'd be shocked how many people still just go fucking. Parents got arrested last week. That's how Mick got how he is. That explains a lot. Now he doesn't know how to flush a toilet. Whoa, that sounds like tone. They're Tony.

They're number one prospect. Okay. That's an interesting little, uh, now we got people on the record starting to say so. Yeah, but Mitt said that he only poops the woman's bathroom. Mm-hmm. And we've heard from sources, that's not true.

Yeah, so... What? Whoever did it is, I would assume, is feeling the pressure. All right, Tony, what source said that that's not true? And, uh... I was cleaning up dog shit on the fucking floor. Tell them, that. Do not say that I am the master shitter.

Everybody knows where I shit and when I shit, because it's honestly, I take too long. Yeah, I know. Because guess what? Kind of. Maybe I'm smoking a little bit. Oh! I have to be away from, I have to be in a certain stall. Drug testing him tomorrow.

Now, someone who is smoking in the bathroom all the time would be a prime prospect to forget to wipe their fucking ass. Well, I don't like that narrative. I don't like that narrative. They would be. I don't like that narrative. Now, with that being said, I've only ever seen men poop in the woman's bathroom. And if I ever did see him poop in the men's bathroom, it was the most disgusted, smelly poop you've ever smelled. but from the handicapped stall.

I've never seen him pooping the stall that was in question. Okay. Well, and also he was putting in that work yesterday. I don't think it was Mitt. And I'm not going out my voice. Just from hearing his voice, I don't think it was him. I don't think you know everything, though. I don't think you know everything that's been said.

You're right. You're right. I don't. Now, I do not believe it. Once again, tone is the only one who has said who he thinks it is. On the record. Yeah, he is the only one. I've gotten texts from a lot of others that agree with me, so. Oh, really? Off the record.

Yeah. Okay. Interesting. We'll get to the bottom of it. Okay. Okay, let's take a break. Let's come back on the other side. Let's hit all the headlines that we didn't get a chance to chat about.

I'll tell you, the college football craziness is absurd, actually. Like, that shit's crazy. Fucking don't. The school, me too. I would like football to start. And, you know, we've been pounding the drum that once football starts, nobody's going to talk about this. Go UT Martin.

Let's go Youngstown State. Yeah. But, I mean, if that kid gets touchdown first week and does some. Go up 33-0-0 on clubs? Yeah, that's going to immediately just be like, look at y'all. Also, how many tight-ins?

How many tight-ins is his lane need? What if he goes, guess who's back? Guess who's bad? What if he scores three touchdowns against Ole Miss? Oh. Fucking world's going to implode down there. They just gave their starting titan number seven. You know what that means at LSU?

They don't need another one. Yeah, I think you have kind of got to the point where you're like, is this worth all the shit that's going on right now? I stand with Kirby. He said, hey, these boys. been fight with me for eight months. I'm not going to give him some job to some guy I just got here. I fucking love Kirby.

Oh, Kirby came out. Oh, yeah. Okay. Okay. I missed that. Well, that's kind of where I'm at. It's like, I get we're doing like, hey, if they're not playing for us, they're going to be playing for someone else, but we're not hearing that from anybody else. We're only hearing it from laying in LSU. So until we hear it from something else, I'm thinking this fucking guy is orchestrating everything. He's the only one talking about it.

He's the only one who wants to do it because everyone is coming out and being like, yeah, it's not right. I don't think we're going to do it. But apparently, everybody's fucking reaching out of these guys. If they're not playing with us, you're going to be playing with somebody else. Yeah, well, you know. I don't fucking buy that until I see it. So, I don't, Lane is Lane being told by agents that other people are involved?

Maybe. Maybe. Is Lane doing the negotiating directly, or is that a GM that's doing this? And he's just kind of doing the talking and, you know, where the information is coming from. I think it is a very interesting piece of information. if anybody ends up on any other teams. Like if it only benefits LSU and the injunction was in Baton Rouge.

Which thus far. Publicly that's what's being stated. But we don't know what's happening behind closed doors, negotiations, and everything like that. We don't know who's talking to who. We don't know what players says. There's what dozens of these guys, allegedly, that could fall into these particular injunctions.

I think other states have them as well. But if it's only LSU, I think that's going to be real loud. I think that's going to probably have the, the SEC, because LSU already voting against this happening. I think it's going to get real out if it's just LSU. Now granted, the old Miss NIL, Walker Jones. Great name to be in the school. Walker Jones comes out and says, we didn't do any,

oh, whoa, we didn't do any negotiate. No, there was none of that from us. So that's them clearing their name with this particular player. But we have seen the SEC recruiting trail, potentially go through some muddy waters in the past. And I'm not saying, oh, miss. I'm saying, Lane thinks that other people are doing this as well. Will that happen?

We find out. And that's where the entire conversation kind of begins and ends. And some of the other examples was like Texas with that offensive lineman, but that kid didn't transfer in. That kid went to Texas, then went to a mini camp, that went back to Texas. They didn't get him from some other school. So that adds another layer, like the Indiana guys,

the two guys from Indiana who were trying to play again. they're just not transferring from a different school to Indiana. And those guys got hurt. So they're basically just getting like a medical red shirt to play another year. Kid from Texas tried out, right? There was two tryouts. Is that what they were considered? Yeah.

Yeah. Didn't make the weekend. Just going back to the college he was at the year before. Oh, man. Hoo. So I get hot in the kids. I am just kind of tired of talking about it. And I just want the season to start because it's fucking horseshit that this is all we're talking about right before.

Is Kirk doing it? No, they would never because he's. He's fucking got integrity, and it's college football. It's not, oh, you weren't quite good enough to make an NFL team, and why don't we fucking give you a million bucks to come back and play for us this year? It's college fucking football. You saw it. Big Tan's going to lead from the front.

We're not going to be fucking taking any bullshit from the back, okay? You won't play with these guys? You're going to get suspended six games. There's going to be institutional penalties. This is college fucking football. It's saying you played six months with the Cleveland Browns, four months with the Cleveland Browns. You're not fucking good enough to make the team.

come on back. We got you. Maybe you'll catch 15 touchdowns this year and be first-team All-American, and maybe you'll get drafted in the third round next year. Let's try it out. No, we ain't ever going to fucking do that. Kurt, Kurt, get a five-star freshman quarterback and sit his ass until his junior year just out of spite. Because guess what? We got fucking these guys who've been putting in the work that have been here. I don't necessarily love that, but that's just the way it is. And I'm good with that. I'll tell you what. People were saying maybe I was getting some of these NFL guys. Isn't that what they were saying? They were saying that maybe the Iowa Hawkeye.

No one is saying that. No one is saying that because we do it the right way. You got Raising Hecklinsky. Yeah, well, maybe. We still have a fucking name of the star at quarterback yet. Well, I thought we were raising Hecklinski. I think we're going to see him and Hank Brian quite a bit week one, and then we'll kind of go from there.

Henry. I like Hank hanging on. I like that putting up a fight. Consider me a Hecklinsky guy. I want to raise some heck this year, but, you know, I trust Kurt. Big Ten's going to lead from the front. I like landing his first coach that came out, right, and said, you're an NFL guy, you're an NFL guy.

Get the fuck out. Respect. That's why I'm wearing the O today. Because we're staying with them. How about you? Do you what? I don't stand with Mario Cristobo and Coach Candle. Mario.

Another guy who would not fucking welcome any of his guys back because do he know? He set them free. Pretty sure. Yeah. Crew in classes he's got. AJ, where do you stand? Stand with Ryan Day in the Ohio State, Buckeyes.

Okay, and if they sign a guy from the NFL? I side with whatever decision they make to make the ball club better. Trying to win games around here. We're trying to win games. We don't want to get fired. There's going to be a lot of that. I don't believe me. I think you guys are going to be all right.

If we got a couple guys coming from the NFL, my tune would change pretty quickly, but I know it's not going to happen. So I don't even need to go there. And I don't have a coach team, so I can stand on my high ground. Yes, you certainly can. You can grant stand the shit out of that because you're going to go low somewhere else. Yeah, yeah, big time. Balancing it out.

I get it. I get it. If it's just LSU, I think this is over. I think that's the other part of it is that I'm sick of Lane Kiffin being like, what are we doing? What do we do? Playing victim. And then also doing the shit that pisses everybody off.

Like, why are they pissed? Everybody could do it. It's like, dude, shut the fuck up. I'm sick of that shit. Bruce. Have been sick of this shit. It feels like Lane lost Conman a little bit over the last, I don't know how in the last 24 hours, because he was on the show yesterday.

I was listening to him. Like, all right, Lane obviously has his reasons, and that's just how it's going to be. I thought it was just going to roll on to the next one. And then the Big Ten is saying, I don't think so. The SEC's saying, I don't think so. LSU voting 16 O'Connor's like, this guy's literally just acting by himself or this is a... I'm sick of this fucking lost me last year. When he came on, he's like, hey, I got this documentary.

It's coming out. It's going to be pretty cool. and I watched it, fucking Wednesday night, E-60, awesome. All of a sudden, I'm like, I like Lane Kiffin. Then, I don't know, in January, he decides to leave his program. They can easily stay at, be like the most legendary coach in the history of the program. And then he's acting like, they won't let me coach. I don't know why.

I'm trying to coach. I don't know why they won't let me. But they won't. And it's not my fault because I want to be here for the next two weeks. It's like, dude, okay, playing victim. Then once again, we're doing this again, right now with all these. fucking guys. It's like, okay, you know what, Lane, I hope you go

6 and 6 and they fucking run you out of town. I hope it's a miserable experience. They got a $50 million roster down there. Exactly. Allegedly, I mean, who knows what's real, who knows what's real and what isn't real. But it's like, I don't think they're going to go 6 and 6 and that's why this all happens because Lane is going to win bowl games.

And that's why it'd be awesome. Because it wouldn't be the first time there's high expectations and it fucking burns down at the hands of Lane Kiffin. And I'm not praying on that. happen but if it were to happen I ain't fucking grabbing a hose and saying give this guy a break

and look at this fucking guy did to your team where's Brian Kelly you're gonna hose him down where's Brian Kelly bring Brian Kelly back yeah money we got a guy we got a guy and look who the agent the tax payer gonna pay that

Jeff Landry I wonder how he feels about all this he probably loves it yeah he is as long as they're fucking one and oh have you heard about the women's basketball team what happened? I guess there's been some news over the last couple days. Have you heard about this? No, about Peace Prize? Something like it? That's what they were going for.

Hoping for. Which I like, because sports do kind of, you know, unify and bring people together. People from different backgrounds have the ability to lock in. Can you turn that, the, yep, thank you. People from different backgrounds have the ability to kind of lock in. We're not going to take a break. We're just kind of going to go through this stuff. And then, you know, why would we? Sure. Go take five and then come back to do. No, no, no. We should do it right.

Right here. We'll test everybody's bladders. Yeah, and I have to piss real bad. Me too. I'm ready to go. Yeah. I got to piss pretty good, too. Legs are pretty deeply crossed right now.

I've got to save myself from myself. But I don't know if you heard, AJ, down at LSU, the women's basketball team. Obviously, the men's football team, big conversation. The men's basketball team, big conversation for similar things. The women's basketball team, Coach Malky actually, she had these visions of uniform. a war-torn territory. She thought to herself, if we can get somebody from both sides of this war

in the same locker room and on the same court, shooting at the same hoop, we can maybe bring two countries together that potentially have been a war for a... It seems like forever. Yeah, long time. You got to play from Israel?

Nope. No, no, different one. In Palestine. No. No. I don't think... Wow. That's next. She, mate. That's what you're going to. They might try that next. Yeah, we don't know.

We don't know where her scouts are. Different one. But we do know she had... Ruffalo assistant. She had a scouting Ukraine. They had a Ukrainian player. And then say, you know what? We can be the ones to do this.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Women's college basketball. We can be the ones that can enter over there. Brings in a Russian player. Okay, we got a Ukrainian player on team. We've got a Russian player on team now. This could be a shining, example to the world about coming together and what we are. She says all these.

Ukrainian girl quits and I ain't doing this. Dad's in the military. I'm not no way. am I doing that. She leaves the team. Yeah. Coach Malki has these grand ideas of bringing everybody together. I guess you didn't run by the Ukrainian. Didn't seem like that. Representation of the conversation brought to Russia on team. Ukraine said, get me out of here. I'm not doing it. Now, was she already going to leave the team? Was there a chance she had ideas before this? It wasn't exactly directly because of the country. of this, but it just feels like a lot of potential LSU happening back to back

to back to back. But the idea that she had bringing the world together, I like that. I like that a lot. I just think she's kind of misread the war, maybe. Yeah, maybe a tad. Although I'm reading here, Malki told the Ukrainian player she could not pass in a good basketball player just because of war between

two countries. But I heard it did work. I heard Putin's always like, ceasefire. Just for the moment? Yeah, for like extended time being. Huge tiger fans. We'll pick this up after March. So I don't know.

Let the girls play the basketball. So I'm not, you know, that might have been AI. That might not have been real, but I did see that. He did see that. Okay. All right. It's the first thing he said in the pallbear. And then he took off from the foul line.

Just poof. Oh, he said high-exam. Yeah. That's what he said. Wow. See, that's what Coach Malky was trying to do. It didn't last long, but at least it lasted. Right?

I guess we should be happy about that. And their men's team has about four guys heading into first semester right now because they got a bunch G-League guys. And this thing was like, hey, all those guys can't play anymore. So I think they got like half a roster at LSU for basketball. So just thinking about the future, if you want to take the under on their team total wins. That is probably a very, very, very good idea. For the LSU men's basketball?

Yeah, they added five guys from professional leagues. So you're saying because of what the SEC said. Yeah, they have like six guys on their roster right now. Wow. But. And it's August 26. Their head coach, Will Wade, serial fucking cheater. So he will figure it out.

What do you mean? He's just been caught up in some... He got fired at LSU initially for cheating. Had to go somewhere else. Went to McNeese State with, you know, Amir Khan, Mr. Ora King. Got them to the tournament. Fucked cut bait real quick. Went to NC State.

Got them pretty decent. Cut bait real quick. Let me go back to LSU. They're good with me being a cheater. I'm going back and... you know, use those resources. But how do he keep going up these jobs if he was getting caught up in things? You're saying he did cheat at one point.

Oh, yeah. That's why. Not at all the points. He's winning games. I'm kind of guessing, you know, like, you know, do people give a shit if he was cheating at McNee's State? Probably not. That's why he got fired from LSU.

It was like a big scandal. And then he left. And then he's kind of just, but, you know, it's kind of a college basketball. I feel like it's, you know, one's a cheater. Always a cheat. These guys cheat, get fired. Doesn't matter. They end up getting a big time job elsewhere.

time heals all wounds. Yeah, but maybe this, and to tie it back to what Petiti said, what Sanky said, and what the ACC said, maybe what we needed all along was these conferences to police themselves. And we found our way here.

Thank you, Lane, Kiffin. Thank you, Lane. And that's what I think Lane will probably say. Yeah, I care. You're welcome. Because there's now a coaching, when you can get hired, right? Lane Kiffin rule, I believe.

Shout out. Now there's going to be one for this. You got to change college ball. Trailblazer. You know, the distance between a villain and a hero. Uh-huh. Not that far. I heard that recently.

And that Lane Kiffin coaching rule thing actually a great thing for college football. Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. Because last year was, that was insanity. That was my first real like, this isn't real life. Yeah, it is. And actually, we're talking about it right now.

Yeah, but like this doesn't feel like, it's real life. Like, what do you mean? You're trying to win a national championship somewhere else. You're doing a decision to win a national championship. You're doing a decision to win a national champion. You actually, yeah, but that doesn't matter. We're going to talk about it. It's like, what the fuck? This doesn't seem real. How is this even real? And like, yeah, this is just way it has to be, man. It's got to start recruiting for the other school, man. Just can't be either. Got to get out of here. See you later right now. It's like in a middle of a playoff run. Doesn't feel like the timing's a little bit wrong. Yeah,

but this way it is. They won't let them coach. They can't recruit anybody. It's not allowed in the building. You got to sweep it for bugs. I mean, what a fucking wild world. College football. I mean, just that situation in and of itself. A little on everything else that's going on everywhere. Thank God for it.

Thank God for sports. Oh, yeah. Thank God. Summerall, he was doing the exact same thing. He had two lane, but he already had the Florida job. And he basically said, like, I'm doing two full-time jobs right now. So he's very difficult. I'm trying to get us ready to win, you know.

But I also, like, I got to build the team up in Florida. There's a lot of stuff that needs to get done there. Who do you bury? He buried Dano Summerall. Yes. Yes, he did. Yeah, he did. Yep. Yeah. To post a picture, Dano sniffing shoes. Yeah. Oh, that's right.

They were sniffing some shoes. Why did he do that? He said something about pedicures. Dano did. Like, guys who get pedicures or beirdos or something like that. Yeah, he's 100% against. Yeah. I remember. That one really big. It did.

Listen, you do what you got to do. I got a lot of people that I know that have to take care of their feet for a living. You know, like I think a lot of athletes at this point decided to take care of their feet. People in the past did not. I hate the feeling. Really? Really? I hate it. Great patrick you. You love the feeling. See, I get real uncomfortable. The bottom of my feet, I think, a little bit weirdly sensitive. The grinding of the, I don't like the feeling. I'm not against it.

Go do it. I've done it multiple times. But I only enjoy really a couple parts of it. At the end, I think they do the salt, the sea salt. The stones on the calves. It's a great part. I mean, that's an incredible part. But, When they're going to work on my feet, I don't really like the feeling of it at all. When they start doing the grading of shit. I tell them no files a lot. Yeah, I don't like it. I don't like...

Absim salt. I'm not against it. You do what you got to do, but I'm just saying, like, I don't really prefer the feeling. You big, you do petty, maybe? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think it's, I think a lot of people have started doing it. Yeah, I've never done a mani, but the petty, the best. Yeah, I don't really do.

I don't like the feeling of it, so that's why I don't do it. But I appreciate the people are taking care of themselves. Which takes us back to let's make sure we're wiping after we. poop. Yeah. Well said. Pete. Even just flushing. If you want to live your fucking life like that without wiping your ass, fine. Flush the toilet.

I think we would smell them. What else is this person not? That's what I mean. We would smell them. That's what that's, you gotta wash your ass, I believe, is red. We do, we share a thing, you know, we touch the sink. Yes, exactly. Oh my gosh. Like, you know, other things that we sanitize the whole place. We are

actually, things coming in today. Funny. Funny you say that. If someone doesn't wiped, then there's probably other things they're neglecting in their life. That's pretty agree. Yeah, I would think so. Yeah. Which kind of maybe opens up the, nope, not going to get into that. What's that?

Just sounds like Tone thinks he knows who it is. I did a private investigation. I interviewed a lot of people in here. And it's just where the evidence led. Okay. It sounds like you might have had a little bit of a... No, nothing personal. All right.

I don't know if that sounds real or not. Whoever is, has to keep, has to just keep going with it, though. Like, now they came back, all right, guys. It was me. Like, is that going to happen? I'll give them 100 bucks, actually. Wow. Okay.

I'll match. I'll match. I'll match. Five? No. Give me, give some sick head in here 100 bucks because they won't openly say that they're shipping in the toilet. It's a ploy. I don't care.

You just say you're going to give them money and then they say that they did it. And then we fucking beat the shit out of them. Yeah. Then sure. I will also match 100 bucks. You got it. You know what? I'll give them 100,000 bucks.

There we go, Ty. Okay, that's very kind of you. Thank you for the Thunderdome culture. Yeah. You could do the old lie detector situation. Like bring a legit light detector. Dude, great idea. Great fucking idea.

Yes. Yeah, I like that. Now, granted, you know, somebody will step on a attack. Somebody will step on attack here. Put a penny underneath their tongue. Anybody is doing that. Ain't that bright. Nope.

They definitely are. Anybody that's doing that will definitely swindle their way through this. No. For sure. I told Pat last time, we'd please not do that because my brain is so weak that my brain will convince myself that I'm the one doing it. Yeah, I think that's why they don't really let it carry into court, but it certainly has done talk shows great justice for a long time. Those are crazy days watching TV. You see a guy sitting up there.

And I guess at this point, you know, those weren't to work. No, it couldn't have been. No, it was 100% real. No, that was a shoot, brother. That was a shoe brother. with programs? All of them. All of them.

Mori, all of them, Maury, Steve, Jerry, you name it. Anyone that happened. Jerry's was definitely for real. Sally, Jesse, Raphael, Ricky Lake.

What a run. Ricky Lake. It was a run. Beast. Absolute beast. Those are good old days. And they would trot somebody out there just right in front of everybody to see.

Are you the biggest piece of shit that ever exists? No. That's a lie. This guy is the biggest piece of shit. And then guess what? The next episode somehow? They found a bigger piece of shit.

Yep. And they just kept rolling them out there. That was an unbelievable casting job. There's no way that was a work. Those were all shoots. Good work by them scouting out all those situations and getting them on television. What if we get O's in here to do some of his mental fuckery?

I don't think his shit holds up. I was going to say, isn't he a fraud? What? No, that was proven wrong. Was it? I don't know. He did something to me at the backstage of the espouse. I was really fucked up.

He had a... Whoa. He... He... He... You are. Okay. Let me rephrase that. If we could dump that from the record, I ran into O's back say,

and he did a little trick. He got a little mental trick. And he gets Chris Larmine's name, Slar Monster. I don't know how O's would ever know the Slar Monster. Legitimately, I have no idea how he would know that. So I was all the way back in. As soon as he did that, I'm like, this is exactly the shit. Just like when he got you.

I was about to say he did my phone. I got my daughter's nickname with an emoji. With the emoji next to it. There's been some videos on that one, too. I got to send me that, AJ. I need it because that'll make me. It's a long. You got a really long situation.

Hawks always been a disbeliever. He has. I'm not a disbeliever. He does unbelievable stuff. O's is amazing. But there's not wizards walking this earth, fellas. I disagree. Sure.

I'm just going to let you know on a little secret. Don't want to break your hearts. We don't know that. You don't know that? I do. I do. So you don't think there's aliens in? Percaso, he's a genius.

I don't say he's a wizard. He is kind of a wizard, I think, with what he's able to do. But you're not a believer in... I'm a believer in doing great tricks and illusions and all of that and magic tricks. I'm not a believer that somebody is reading my mind or your mind. Hey, I mean, fucking Chris Larmid. I don't know, that's a deep pool there. I don't know how he would have...

Like I said, very good at what he does. Amazing at what he does. He's not climbing into your little brain and figuring out what you're thinking, though. We don't know. Your big brain, son. No, a little brain. He got a little brain here. A lot of air.

A lot of air. It's got to get out. I'm pretty sure, AJ. It does. Yeah, there's not even open-minded. I thought you were an open-minded. Oh, I'm very open-minded, but this has been a thing for years and years they've been trying to. Look at Penn and Teller.

He gave, you know, they give a billion dollars if someone can prove that they're a mentalist or they can read your mind or whatever. Guess what? No one's stepped up yet. Yeah, but Penn and Teller have been fooled before. They get a big FU trophy called We fooled us. You ever watch that? You ever watch that? I have a good show.

It was a good show. Great show. I love magic. I really love magic. But I do appreciate the fact that somebody took an hour and a half to break down that as the mentalists. And I think if that's happening, you did good. I think your gimmick worked.

Yeah. And people actually watched it like, what the fuck? What? Yeah. You did good, Deros. And he's running like 27 miles a day somehow. He does a marathon every day. Yeah.

That's kind of crazy. So maybe. A little bit of a... No, maybe AJ is right. I guess he would have a lotto or something. Yeah. I have a tough time putting big night out out of my head. There's actually a rule for that if you like use it.

That a real tough time. I'll never forget that. Yeah, but he was. And they felt flatter in a fucking panache. Yeah, but that was a crowd full of drunk yinjurs. Drunk and yinjurs. Doesn't matter. The brain turns into a concrete wall.

He's a mentalist. No, it does. You got to fight through that. I wasn't drunk. It's true, Ty. I mean, him trying to do that to do that to an. entire arena of it was an aggressive move it was

I thought it was an aggressive trick those brains were barely firing at that point had the wasn't that late in the I mean I mean I'm drinking all day no it was like 47 different inputs into your iPhone that's a bunch of yeah that's the problem that was that of those people

what was trying to get you to spell boobs on your calculator upside down no it wasn't yeah that is what it was 8000 like Steelers go go steers boobs 5,800 like this. It was the worst thing I've ever seen.

It was the worst thing you've ever seen. I mean, as far as mental as stuff goes, it was basically David Wayne hanging in a harness with a bunch of balloons. Like, oh, what the fuck is going to do? No, that was way better, actually. All right, let's get to a break until tomorrow. We're on one o'clock tomorrow. One to four.

1 p.m. We are so close to, like, actual season. So, yeah. We are still off season. right now. Yes. You know, regular season hasn't kicked off. What an off season it's been. It's been a lot to happen.

AJ came a little bit of a wizard, a little bit of an alien here with the neon light behind his head on this particular graphic. So he doesn't believe in wizards. Debutt not gonna be here tomorrow. Debutt going back, hey, great work this week. My dad, my daughter got a buff match tomorrow too. Nice, good luck.

Here we go. Who? Sophomore season. Oh my bad, your daughter. Yeah, yeah. Who does she play? Is it just like a whole area? How's it?

Yeah, it's like six, four, the four or six schools, however many schools, and then it's a few of them on different T's, and they play nine. Well, Jambery. Yep. You guys got people moving balls like Foxy said he did in school, entrenching the greens, I guess.

I was alarming when Foxy put that, because, you know, my, this daughter in particular, she is by the book. She doesn't like cheat. She's very, and I'm like, hey, you know. They tell us we can't even as parents, help your kid find the ball. She has an app.

Well, actually, I don't do that. Yeah, you don't do that. Yeah, it's very kind of you. Play that close. I mean, I respect that, but also for the good of the team. In this case, cheating would actually help. No, Foxy, see, this is what we're saying, Foxy. But it could hit you, though, and go in the fairway.

Her drive hits you. Oh, yeah. Exactly. Oh, for sure. I'll take that one for the team. You're trying to Erling Holland. Bicycle kick. Oh, I didn't see that ball there.

Your foot just bops that thing in the fairway. Don't be doing that. We need the integrity of fucking golf. This is what they're saying, shrink the game. And then he need to teach her, like, you need to walk 30 yards. ahead of her group. She needs to walk 30 yards ahead of her group. Oh, my ball's on the green.

You mark that thing about 10 feet closer. No, my. That's a classic one. No way. This is disgusting. Don't be doing this. Just right there from the... Don't be doing any of this.

And don't be tackling anybody on the golf course. No. People don't like that. No, they don't. Since the beginning of time. Who does that? It's not good, good. I'll go.

Be a friend, tell her friend. something nice might change your life. We're in this thing together. Rest and peace, Dolly Parton. Yeah. Well said. Well said. Well said. But for I get out of love you, Dolly. Miss you, Dolly. Press in peace, Dolly. Thank you for your contribution to society. Very wide-ranging

folks. Morning. Dolly Parton's passing. Flags are at half staff, I said. Yeah. Yeah. Not just flags. Damn right. Be your friends, tell our friends, something nice that might change our life. That was a good one. That's pretty good.

Pretty good. Safe travels. Thank you, brother. AJ, get your state in order. Yeah, yep, yeah. Just like the commissioners are seemingly doing for their conference. Ty. Tomorrow's going to be a good day.

I hope so. Iowa's got a big game in the LLWS today. It's kind of all I'm thinking about. Cura County. Ohio dominated New Jersey. Cura Cia? Yeah. Cureka.

Thanks to you. We'll see you. Tomorrow one o'clock. AJ will be in stew. Wow. Team on me. Team on three. For the good of sport, baby.

One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.