The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1616 - DK GameDay Wednesday with Peter Schrager, Malika Andrews, and Ryan Paganetti

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

On today's DraftKings Gameday Wednesday Pat, DBut, AJ Hawk, and the boys celebrate the MASSIVE boosts dropping all day on DraftKings Sportsbook as college football kicks off this weekend, we have NFL football in 7 days, baseball still swinging a hot bat, and the US Open bringing some electricity into the sports world. Joining the progrum today, NFL Analyst for ESPN Peter Schrager to talk about his new show titled ‘Big Day with Peter Schrager’, Rams owner Stan Kroenke buying the Los Angeles Angels, and everything ball, ESPN Tennis Correspondent and host of ‘NBA Today’ Malika Andrews reports live from The US Open to give insight on what’s going on in the tennis world. Super Bowl winning NFL Strategy & Analytics Coach Ryan Paganetti who discusses the normalization of analytics in the NFL, kicking field goals at Gillette Stadium, the Tush Push, + more! Make sure to subscribe to ⁠youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow⁠.com 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 abode, the Draft Kings Thunderdom. On this DK. Game Day Wednesday, this program starts now. Football! He is the greatest, and we are just one day away from college football week one kicking off. It's season to the national championship in Las Vegas. Tomorrow night, we have Colorado and Georgia Tech. Tech as six and a half point favorites at home. New quarterback, obviously, down in Georgia, as Haynes King went on to the NFL.

We saw him in the Hall of Fame game earlier. And then Dion Sanders in the Colorado Buffs, haven't heard much, having her much, Ju-Jew Lewis, I believe, is the quarterback for Colorado. I've seen some speeches to the teams. I've seen a couple videos, but it's been much quieter out of Colorado. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? We find out tomorrow, UMass takes on Big Ten's Rutgers, and UAB takes on Big Ten, Illinois. Now, there's some big spreads, not only tomorrow night, but throughout the entirety of

the weekend for college football, but we're back in this thing. And don't look now, unless it's at a flight tracker website. Sure. The San Francisco 49ers are in route for their opening week NFC West division game against Los Angeles Rams. We are actually in the air on the road to the NFL at this exact moment. So life is beautiful. The toxic tables here at Boston Connor and at Tone Diggs.

Ty, we love your buddy. Oh, yeah. Absolutely love you, Ty. There's Draft King's Game Day going on right now, Tone. And I think whenever we heard Draft King's Game Day, we wondered to ourselves, are the employees of Draft King's going to be playing against each other? That'd be cool.

Are they going to be doing stuff, and we're going to be able to potentially trade on? That was not the case. What, Draft Kings Game Day is a nice fun game where you're on Draft Kings app, and then all of a sudden, new boosts and new odds are getting pushed, and new things are getting put in front of your face to maybe win a little bit more money,

take a little bit more money, maybe match a little bit more money with Draft Kings, and it's all been popping up sporadically. This is what has already popped up throughout the, day as more will be around the corner, we assume. This is happening all day to day where you're able to get draft kings. And we're going to want to do that before the season starts because we got a funny suspicion that they're going to be winning some.

Now, we have to let everybody know, obviously, anytime we talk about draft kings, that you're never going to beat them, okay? There's been like one or two people in the history that have become professional sports gamblers and made a living off of it. This is just to make games a little bit more fun. So if you're of age and agree to be responsible about it and not an asshole, we'd love for you to come join us on the best sports. on Earth, Draft Kings, and today's been a fun day, Tone.

You open up the Draft King's app and all of a sudden, you look at the top, boom, 50% boost on something in tennis. Okay, I'll go sprinkle a little bit over on tennis game. I think I'll venture into the U.S. Open. Home run boost, that's fun, future boost, that's fun, yards boost, that's fun. Everything has kind of popped up in a manner in which I feel good about, tone. Have you ever seen anything like this? And what do we compare this?

Have I ever seen, no, no. I would compare it to Christmas morning for gamblers and then also Pokemon, you got to catch all these things. You got to get all of these boosts. You got to snag them all up, take advantage of everything you can because, you know, there's just an inherent minus 110 built into a lot of bets

where you're, you know, you're betting 110 to win 100. So that juice, let's go to the books. You claim these boosts and you're getting 50% boosts, 100% boosts on things like that, and you're winning. You're just, that's just good math. That's just good economics, my friend. So to do this would be not do this, would be stupid.

And also, got a win on the other side. Well, you do have to do that. these odds. I just assume that's going to happen. Which is likely. Remember, this is sports gambling. Nobody knows what's going to happen. It's why they play the games. So that is. But the game today is Draft King's Game Day is getting in there and jacking. Jack and Draft Kings are these booths that we can potentially have.

Now, some of them you have to place the bet within the next 24 hours, I believe, or at least by the end of the day. Some of them you can hold on for later. So Draft King's Game Day has been a lot of fun for us to figure out what they're giving to us. And we appreciate the forethought out of them thinking, you know, before the season, Let's go ahead and give some shit away here. Let's go ahead and give some boost away to get everybody active. Let's go to the one-half of the hammer. God, Cowboys Desk, 9-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler.

DeButch, big day, not only in Draft King's world, also fantasy football world. You got a big-time draft. I don't know where you got slotted in the draft order. I heard you guys were racing ducks online earlier. How do you feel about where you're at? And what are your thoughts going into fantasy football draft game? I'm a fantasy football kind of noob, so obviously I want the more overall pick. Now, big time leagues, big league.

We got 16 people. So that would be number one. And I got to wait until it gets all the way back to me. So that would suck. I ended up at 10, which I've been told. Isn't a terrible spot. I'm at 10 right now. So I've been putting together the board for the last hour and a half.

I'm excited about this afternoon. 16 team league. Dirty Drew 16. I don't know. He must have slow-ass duck out there. Nonetheless, I'm excited to see what you boys do. How many teams are in that league, Commissioner Connor? 16 teams.

I'm surprised there is it maybe 17. Does Cronkey own a team in your league or no? Not yet. But allegedly he reached out and wants to be a part of it. Yeah, well, he is, he's going everywhere. And I'll tell you what this cronky team does, this cronky family does. They win. Not only do they just buy teams and utilize it as investment.

And obviously, live sports, money is the money in sports right now. Everything else is kind of fallen by the wayside whenever it comes to ratings and relevance and everything literally in life at this point. So him having a team and their family having a team in every league basically is absurd. But what you need to know is, like the Anaheim Angels, I believe they've had a losing record for 11 straight seasons. Yikes. Okay, it's second to the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1993.

I was six. Okay, I was born 1987 in Pittsburgh. 1993 to 2012. That's when Barry left. Okay, so that is the longest streak in baseball of having losing seasons consecutively. And people get mad at me for one of the wild baseball fans. Like, we had a pens and Steelers in there. Okay, so it was hard to necessarily pay attention to losing ass Pittsburgh pirates.

Pretty good. Okay. As the pirates weren't really in baseball fans. investing in it. Now, obviously, my respect for baseball has grown mightily. I appreciate the relationships we've developed in MLB, and I respect the hell out of what baseball is. On that note, the Angels might have been asked. Okay, Angels fans should be very excited that their consecutive losing seasons and with this family getting involved. The Pittsburgh Pirates people are wishing that would have happened back at 1993. They wish that would have happened a long time ago.

And what happened today? He invests in his teams, from my understanding, everyone in America, I assume the European people like him as well. I'm not sure how he dabbles in the soccer world. over there. They invest, they know how to run the company. It's like they truly understand ball and they love it. And they, Anaheim Angels have been asked, but you look at what happened with the Dodgers. Okay. And what's potentially going to take place there is a lot of money owed to a lot of people and how's that all going to work out, especially now with everything happened with Mr. Walter, who was potentially just, that's insurance, mind. We'll do that. We'll do that. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. Hey, we'll pay you until 2040. Of course, yes,

no problem. Boom, bang, boom. They're doing what anybody to do. Turns out couldn't do that. Nobody else because they didn't have the ability to rob Peter to pay Paul while also not saying anything. So what happens with the Dodgers? Who knows? Anaheim Angels, what happens here? I think what we know is going to happen. And if money can win you things, Cronky will invest.

I mean, he has proven that time and time and time again, built SOFite. Okay, so that is literally his stadium. The chargers are kind of renting in there, let alone everything he's done in Colorado. From my understanding, there's potentially a helipad on top of the beach. building the potential. Yeah. I mean, like he is, they invest in their teams. They want to win and they do well from our understanding. So congrats to the Angels and also to baseball. 3.9 billion, about $4 billion. That's obviously a huge price tag for a team that has

at 11 years of consecutive losing seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers right in the backyard who have every star on planet Earth. Mike Tratt might be the one who's potentially driving up this entire thing. Maybe Angels in the outfield also has helped the evaluation of this. But I assume Cronk is going to get in here and do exactly what he's. done everywhere else, which is win. Congrats to baseball. Congrats to the Kronki family. And I'm thankful that we're in the time

where this family is investing in sport. And we assume multi-billionaires are going to continue to try to do this as we've seen more teams go up for sale. They've got to figure it out at this point. And boy, boy, why couldn't they buy the pirates for $3.9 billion instead of the ass-ass-angles? In this particular case, that's what every team

that is at the bottom of the MLB salary cap conversation is wondering at this point, because they won't anymore with this guy here. Yeah, which is tough. But Lesney, we just had him on to GM of the Rams and he said, hey, we're way over budget. And if it wasn't for the Kronkis, we probably wouldn't have the super team we've assembled. For the Angels, especially their fans, they're probably

still kind of regretting and still in that mental, I can't believe this happened when Sho Hay Otani left their team to go to the Dodgers and now getting this owner, this is the perfect encapsulation of a guy that wouldn't let Show Hey, Otani out the door. So if you are an Angels fan, you got to be

pumped. If you're a fan of any of these teams, like, Hey, jump over, just follow Kronky. I wish I had an owner where I could just be a fan of his team, no matter where he live. I'm a supporter of one of his teams. One of his teams, you won't go all in. Arsenal. Yeah, Arsenal.

Premier League champs. But once again, there it is. I didn't even know that. They're the Premier League champs over in England. Is that the best league in Europe, they say? Correct. It's not better than the MLS. Obviously, we understand that we assume he'll venture.

We just saw Leo in those four goals he scored. Against Montreal. Yeah, Montreal. And we know what happened in Montreal and Manchester United. Yeah, they won. Yeah, we think that game happened. I see that footage. Well, it's like the 100-and-some point game.

It just never see it, only hear about it. We've heard about it. I don't know if they've heard about it over there. Nonetheless, of course he wins, Premier League wins. I think his players, everybody in his buildings understand that the Kronky family is going to give us everything we need to win. And that's all you're looking for, I think, in sports. That's all you're looking for owners.

And a lot of times, staying out the way. You know, staying out the way letting people run the show. My introduction to the National Football League was the Patriots, you know, so getting the call from Robert Kraft, then getting on the phone with Bill Belichick. And then getting in the building, you wouldn't necessarily know, you know, who was signing whose checks. You know, Bill clearly ran that show from top to bottom. And Kraft just, you know, gave him support, gave the team support, anything we need it.

And that's all you want from the owner. A common man mentioning when Les Snee said, hey, we're blew through that budget. That's what you want to hear when you're in that locker room as a player or as a coach trying to build your. Your staff. Joe Pompilano, who he and his brother are always on top of the business side of things. Stankan's $4 billion angels purchase makes a lot more sense whenever you look at the fact that they own a stadium, 153 acres around it. And they ain't paying nothing.

And because of the high cost of everything, the city's only made about $415,000 off of this in three decades. The Angels can also leave in six years. Okay, so 2032-ish, they can kind of get out of town, which means the city will then be left with an empty venue. It needs hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs. or they can sell the stadium surrounding land to stand Cronkey. That would give Cronky hundreds of acres in Orange County for a mixed-use development at a huge discount. Okay, and he will.

Pretty good. Yeah. Genius. There's some of these people that are at the peak of business, and they haven't figured out. And then there's a lot of deefaces that are holding chairs in pretty powerful positions of business that are just holding chairs, and literally anybody could do what they're doing.

Feels like the Cronky family is doing good. And for them, we say thanks for your investment in sport, Cronkies. Work, Crocky. Okay, let's talk about some other stuff happening around the football world. Tomorrow, huge day. Massish. The conversation that we've had about college football over the last week and half has been, are guys that we've seen in NFL uniforms going to be able to play in college

because the five-for-five eligibility and then the injunction that followed in Louisiana it says this one draft class has the opportunity to take advantage of the five-for-five, even though they tried out for the NFL and did not make it, they can come back and play college? it's been cooking down in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Lane Kiffin came on this particular program and said, these guys were kind of robbed of an opportunity that was obviously given, and that's what the judge said, that state court says,

and the NCAA has always had to follow what state courts say. But just like in the Sorsby case, where state court said that he was able to play in Texas Tech, the conference commissioner came out and said, nah, we're not doing it. Petiti, the Big Ten, said, And if you are in NFL or professional, you cannot play. Signs, you'll deliver, that's it.

Now, would that hold up against a state court thing? We don't know. But it seems like the Big Ten hasn't had to deal with it much. The SEC with Lane Kiffin and its LSU football team and the Texas injunction that says a couple of other softball players and obviously basketball players as well. Taking advantage of this. Certainly a little bit heavier whenever Sanky comes out for the SEC commissioner and says, you're not allowed to do that in our particular conference. So is that right?

You're going to go to court? Well, tomorrow. SECs, I believe, I believe court has happening tomorrow. I believe that is I believe, yes. I believe now I don't know what that consists. I have no idea what that looks like, but I believe tomorrow there is a

court thing happening. And then the rosters need to be put in place on Friday. And it's like this is all happening in Baton Rouge. And then we got college game day Saturday morning in Baton Rouge. And then we got LSU Clemson 730 Eastern down in Death Valley. So

it feels like the next three days are about to be a loud buzz saw of chaos heading into the biggest and best season yet. But what does tomorrow look like down there is SEC has its lawyers taking on, I assume, a judge that made the ruling down there. And what does that have to do with the effect of what happens on Friday? It's like there's so much chaos happening and football is right around the corner. This feels like college football in a nutshell happening right in front of our eyes. But I think this is a big precedent setting setter for the few.

future con man. Yeah, need to know, especially just going into the season. But like that's the other thing is that since it is just a one year type of deal, like the future of college sports feels obvious. Hey, this is five years. You can play when you're 19 or when you graduate and you got five years to play. That that's it. For this year, it is just kind of interesting, you know, especially because the football and the softball, because you mentioned the softball and the basketball and the basketball players. And it feels like that is kind of the angle of the teams that want to use the NFL guys for their football team. But like that just doesn't, it doesn't hold the same weight as the football. Maybe it's because football is so, so much bigger than other college sports around the country. And that's why everyone's just focused on that. But you wonder if the basketball players will cause enough of a stir to allow the football players to play. Pete Thammer reported last night that Tennessee Chancellor, Don Palman, president of the SEC's executive committee, tells ESPN the legal enforce its rules regarding NFL players trying to return to college. We are prepared to defend our rules and our authority to defend our rules.

she has this is not a rule we will budge on all right sure it so tomorrow's gonna be a little bit of sure it feels like everybody's kind of rallied the same side in this case yeah yeah yeah so just like with the texas tech situation yes okay everybody seemingly publicly on the same side even i mean and i don't want to say this because drew rosenhouse is an incredible agent for his clients yes who he works for him even saying like this is not a desirable like everybody kind is like this is not good but then you start thinking about the other angle which is you're going to and taking employment opportunity away? Remember, because there's money to be made down in his college.

So you're taking away money opportunity, financial opportunity for somebody, even though court's saying that your lap, it's like, okay. And then the lawyers are going to lawyer, man. I mean, who know? Oh, yeah. Lawyers are going to lawyer heavily. So the fact that this got in on Thursday, hilarious, first of all. Friday rosters have to be determined and deemed 105 players per roster,

and that would be, I guess, the real tipping point of if a roster spot's taken up at LSU by one of these guys. but I guess tomorrow has a big part of it. It's just we're all ready for football to start, I think, but this is a huge precedent-sending thing for commissioners to have power over their own conferences. Huge, and it's reached a point, though, like for the fans that it's gotten so ridiculous.

Originally, like the five out of five-for-five in Colorado was like, okay, you can pay attention to that. Then it was the Louisiana injunction based off of what Colorado did. Then there was a Texas injunction, and then there was a Tennessee injunction where it's not like where the NCAA is losing every single one of them. They're winning some of these, and then there was another injunction,

yesterday. So it's reached a point where it's impossible to keep track of, so that sucks for the fans. And then also just, you know, the whole NFL coming back to college thing. The fans hate that as well. So hopefully tomorrow we have some answers. Yeah, hopefully tomorrow we have some answers. I'm sure we will. If you want stability, don't look at

college football. Shaghanes, Pete Thammel. And whenever you talk about the on-field play, LSU has reported that there's been more media celebrity credential request than any time in the history of LSU sport. So whenever you talk about what football has the capability of doing and what the season is going to do,

we think it's going to be the biggest and best season yet. And we're lucky to be a part of it. Now, speaking of biggest and best season yet, ESPN just hit a grand salami. Moonshot. We're talking out of the park. Yeah. Out of the world. Ladies and gentlemen, it was announced this morning.

Thought for sure we were announcing on this particular show. but obviously that would never happen in the sports media world with how many people know things, but we are incredibly excited. Roll the footage, Foxy. Let's go! Yeah, with Peter Schreger has officially been announced. Congratulations, Shregs.

We're happy for you, brother. Pat, you're the man. I had not seen that before, so that was surreal for me. This whole day has been surreal, but yeah, it was announced formally on this show just now, and those are the graphics. That's awesome, but it was leaked earlier today. One of the more vibrant reporters in sports media that I'm going to be having a show of my own on ESPN,

and it's with the whole team. And Pat, I'll be following you Monday to Thursday during the football season. And then Monday to Friday outside the football season, I cannot freaking wait. Dude, this is awesome. Lifelong dream. And we're going to kick-ass doing it. We're incredibly proud of you. And obviously, said reporters always going to get cheese.

That's how that works. It's part of the business. And if Peter Schragher is getting a show, I think it should be leaked and treat it in a big way, as it has been. I think everybody's incredibly proud of you, buddy. So what's this going to be? What's a big day with Peter Schreger going to be? We're going to get a little bit more of Peter Schreger breaking down the day's events. Topical.

Are we going to have debates? Debates is a good sports type of conversation. Are you going to have guests on? How do you expect this to go? Yeah, the expectation is we're going to have a regular crew of analysts that are going to come through here in New York City. And Monday to Friday, we're going to have different groups of guys and gals, and we're going to hit all sports. And I know that sounds pretty generic, but we're going to do it. in a special way where we celebrate the sports and we celebrate fandom and we do it with a little

deeper analysis maybe that we can do and use some of the best reporters in the business that are on this network. My vision is using the leaping off point of your show in your audience and then kind of bridging that to the rest of the afternoon and think, let's bring the same energy, the same joy. We're in New York City. As you know, I've got a pretty strong roll of decks here and the hope is that we're going to have a constant flow of in-studio guests, and we're going to talk NFL, college football, NBA, NHL, golf, all of it, and do so in a way that is upbeat, enthusiastic, and maybe it takes a little bit of the piss out of it too,

and we can have a couple laughs about the sports world also. I like having a little bit of a pisser out there, man. It's Big Day with Peter Schrager, Monday through Thursdays at 2 p.m. Eastern during the football season, Monday through Friday during the off season. Okay, let's talk about it. about today's big day? What's the big day, big news with Peter Schrager on this particular day? Cronky buys the Angels, obviously that's gigantic. We just covered that for the opening 10 minutes.

Never thought I would do that, but I am so happy for the Angels fans that get a guy and a family and an operation that wins, literally everywhere they go getting there. I wish that the Pittsburgh Pirates would have done this a long time ago. That's kind of my take. What is your big day, big Shrags, big news, big stay, big play, big, big game? name big big say big sway big big say what is uh what is your big day big news big shrags you know I love the use of puns and this is a great way to use it so this would be the story of the day obviously and I think what's cool about it is I've got insights on this organization and the Rams and the cronky sports and I would tell you that this wasn't necessarily supposed to be announced yesterday and this was been in lock and key for a couple months in the works and no one knew about it

But words started to spread, and now it's going to be official. What's interesting is the empire that the Kronkies are building. It's not just Stan. It's his son, Josh, as well. And you mention all these different touch points, whether it be the Rams or Arsenal, or, of course, now the angels and how they can all come together and work off each other with learning experiences. Now, from the Rams side of it, Kevin Demoff, Tony Pastors, Les Sneed,

those are the three big names that are running that point. The Nuggets, they have a day. different org structure than the Arsenal guys have a different one. And yet, I'll tell you, McVeigh, this summer spent about five days with the Arsenal folks all the way through the Champions League stuff. And he was learning from their manager. And they were doing all these thought exercises. I think it's exciting from a point that here's Stan Cronky, this billionaire owner, obviously we know he's got all this going on. But the coaches and the leaders beneath him, how are they going to lend each other's expertise off of each other and how are they going to use stuff

that maybe one organization uses that the other one hasn't seen. So it's kind of an open book, and it's exciting for baseball as Cronky is obviously a championship builder. Yeah, quite an umbrella to maybe learn from or share ideas with. Actually, Arsenal has this recovery process

that they've been doing. Oh, really? And then all of a sudden, Mike Trout's learning about and he gets somehow better. That guy's been the Joe Thomas of baseball, right? Yeah, and Mike. Oh, yeah. Banged up a little bit.

Unbelievable, but played on the poopiest teams. Yes. And we talk about stars in baseball, and it's like, it's always Otani and Judge and Skeens, and it's like, hey, Mike Trout's still playing, right? Like, this is the Matthew Stafford of baseball, if you will. And it's here is his opportunity and obviously the cronkey connection there. But to me, I think of Mike Trout is like, all right, that's a guy that's always as consistent as anybody. Yet when I think of Angels baseball, I think of Garrett Anderson and I think of Tim Salmon and I think of, like, Wally Joyner.

So I would love to see the Angels go back to being one of those relevant teams that we're talking about and not just guys from the rap. Valley Monkey days. Yeah, I concur with the angels going back to Angels in the outfield as well. Phenomenal movie. Danny Glover, fantastic. Oh, sure. Joseph Gordon-Levin.

Oh, yeah, great player. A young, JGL. He was very young, but he got the job done out there. It feels like he had a certain calling that really helped him out. Rookie of the Year or Angels in the Outfield? Where did you go as a kid? What was your preference? Garden Hoser every time, bro.

No questions asked. Yeah, I'm rookie of the year. Same. Same. Yeah, I mean, just the whole entire, no, you're not, your angels in the outfield? No, I'm, I am fully Rowan Gardner, and I think that, you know, Daniel Stern, some of his best work was in that closet being trapped while he was trying to break out of it. Like, just a fantastic physical comedy at a Stern. And these are the things that we'll talk about on Big Day in wake of a team being bought by one of the richest men in the world.

Yeah, changes a lot of lives over there. I can't even imagine after watching Rookie of the Year what this life will be like now as it gets. It's kind of sad. Yeah, I thought he would be more of a few. Field of Dreams guy as a kid. Field of dreams, great show, great movie as well. Obviously, they're still paying tribute, and I like watching that. Schwabo hit, what, two home runs in the cornfield there?

They're still walking through those cornfields. They love that bit. That's big day. I thought it's more of Hardball, guy. Remember? I told you, I felt like it is. I love Harbour. Great, too.

Major League, perhaps. Is you, G, baby. You know you, G, baby. You got me crying. Hell you. Hardball's great. Major League one and two. I'll even take back.

to minors three, not terrible. Yeah, I love them all. It's great. Okay, so you started going in. What was the one where the guy was the pitcher? He's old. Dennis Quinn. The love of the game?

Love of the game. Or the rookie? The rookie. That's what I'm thinking. You don't call me a rocket anymore. What's the Bull Durham one? Oh, Bulldorm's great. Bull Durham.

Yeah. Baseball's got a lot of. They got really good movies. Summer catch. Summer catch. So talk Campbell. Okay, let's move off. Money ball, man. Yeah.

Great. Shout out for a pit. I mean, they're doing that in a couple of brothers. Bad news bears. Oh, man. God mentioned sand loss. You ever mentioned San Luis? Major League.

The bench warmers. Bigger League, too. Okay, everybody loves Sandlot. I remember that. That was a cool thing. You're not a sandlot guy. What? Betty the Jet.

That's literally number one. That's when America was America. Yeah. Smalls. Yeah. What about baseball? That little ball. Oh, that's good baseball.

That's a lot. That's a good baseball move. All right, let's move along. It's a big day. Wait, I'm going to show you something. I'm in a conference room in New York, and this is the original picture of what ESPN looked like in 1979 when it opened. And I'm going to get artistic here. I'm hoping we can bring the energy and the youth and the stuff that we're doing over here with your show and all the other new stuff that, you know, Pate and Compton and Luwant and all the great stuff, that we can combine that era, which I grew up on with, was like, I worshiped,

Burman and Craig Kilbourne and Tom Meese and Stuart Scott and then kind of melded all together and we're like, all right, this is awesome. All day you could put an ESPN on and you're going to get that same feel that you felt as a kid and nostalgia, but also we're going to move it forward and we're going to be in 2026 and do things that way. Yeah, of course. I am excited to watch you take on the task of a daily show. You know, that is a lot of fun. Obviously, you've been in this world for a long time. Good morning football Emmy Award winner. Now you're on all. Are you still going to do the morning rotations or what's going on full-time big day shrinks? I think so.

We're hoping I could still make appearances on Get Up First Take NFL Live and I'm hoping you'll have me on as often as you'll have me. I mean, I love being on those shows and they're great. And the truth is, I think I speak for Greenie. Nah. We're done with you. Yep, sorry.

Good run. Yeah, it was fun on here. We'd love to have you. We'd love to have you anytime you are available. I am pumped to see what your daily routine becomes, you know, with a daily show. Well, I'm a little nervous because you do this. Like, I'll watch you on

on a July 6th day. And it's like we've got the hot dog eating contest and we've got, you know, Mets versus Nationals and you guys do two hours and then the third hour on YouTube. And I'm like, I have no idea what I would do in this situation. But we're going to try to figure it out.

So Shreggs, there will be those days. There will be those days. And I don't think you're doing, are you doing commercial breaks or no commercial breaks? I think so. I think commercial breaks. Yeah, this is standard ESPN, so there will be commercial breaks.

And I could fill an hour for sure during football and basketball season. We're going to have to cross the bridge when it gets to, hey, Savannah Banana highlights are starting off the show today. On that note, Ty's going to be pumped up about that. Ty, uh, getting back as soon as possible. I think next

spring's going to be a lot of Savannah Banana baseball. Yeah, look out. I think we're going to see a Savannah Banana baseball team, maybe called the Proeys or something. They're like, Ozies. They're like an Australia team, the proeys. And it's going to be, skiing's going to be pitching. Aaron Judge is going to

They'll have them. What do you mean if they'll have them? Harper's going to be... I'd be throwing 88 by then. Gaines's on a bump last night. It was rough. He had a tough night, yeah. So people start seeing baseballs every once in a while,

and all of a sudden, Paul Skeens is having a... We get it. It's been all year this year. Not every once in a while. Not all year. Friend of the show. What are we doing here? Not just friend of the show.

Love schemes. How? Love skis. You got a 3-9, all right? It's not the worst. We're not just going to rub his back. We've got to shoot you straight. Yeah.

You stay right now. day, Shrags. You got to be able to say the big things that nobody really wants to say, especially when you got daily programming, dude. Yeah, especially with 2026, which I think you're referring to whenever you're pointing to that picture of your shoulder. How many people do you think worked for ESPN at that time in that one building right there? What do you think? Probably a couple hundred, right? I mean, you hear the stories. It was 1979, and it was like Chris Berman, Tom Meese, Bob Lee, and they got this thing off the ground in a way we went. Robin Roberts. Like, I feel like it was a small crew,

but they were a unified bunch. I feel like that's us right now, dude. Yeah, family biz, you know, kind of a small business operation to celebrate sports. How many people you think work at ESPN now? Cool. I don't know. That's a big number.

What do you think? Too many. That's the answer. No, no. I think people having jobs is a good thing. Like, I hate that we get attacked for that because I think, like, working is something that I hope I'll be synonymous with whenever I get older and having job and striving and working towards it.

So I hate whenever that's said about us, you know, but I guess there is a sell. salary cap okay i don't think so because there's like 140 billion in the company behind it and there's a lot of money being spent in a lot of places but i will eat certainly the blame for a lot of things i think it's like 4,500 or something like that's a lot of people yeah that's a that's a giant and then that building turns into what like a full city of things the campus is awesome beautiful sick i mean you walk by you walk by like baseball tonight's uh set from what our early 2000s or something like that and it's awesome like you walk through there and then you walk through another building

and there's like, oh, there's the original Sports Center. It's like, that's awesome. Here's the original production room. It's like, man, this is a sweet place to kind of walk. Can I tell you? And her cafeteria is unbelievable. I'd never been to Bristol until last year. And like, you have to understand.

Sports Center in the morning, yes, like memorizing every line from Craig Kilborn and doing all his bits as like a kid. But Chris Berman and Tom Jackson with the primetime music and the nicknames and doing those things to walk into that building and know that, Like, that's where, like, it was a, it was a surreal experience. It was like walking into, you know, like I'm going into the Vatican or something. It was crazy for me. And then to now be able to do it on ESPN, obviously, it's unbelievable.

And I pinch myself. But that juice is still there in that building where it's like they still revere those days. And I so appreciate that. Yeah, they certainly revere a lot of things that aren't, you know, potentially new in a lot of those buildings. Yes, I understand completely what you're saying there, maybe more so than anybody in the history. But we all feel this way about ESPN, like all of those. us, even the people that are going to inevitably roast you for having

time on ESPN, because if they had time on ESPN, what they would do for sports is how they view it. And I think everybody's massive ESPN fans, sports fans, and I think all anybody wants is for the best of all parties. And I think you're going to do a great job, Shregs. We're very, very proud of you, man. We think

it's so excited. It's cool thing. There's not a lot of these spots obviously. Now, people are going to hate that you have an hour or two. I don't know what is it. It's one hour? One hour. They hate it. I'm sure. I'm trying to Well, you're taking some agent, some agent's, clients' time, you know? Yep. And I was pretty naive to this whole thing, let alone, you know, having 10 hours a week that you have creative control of.

You're taking a lot of time away from a lot of people that would want that. And they seemingly have a lot more friends, you know, that do a lot of this stuff than maybe you do. And you won't be painted as this, but taking up any time from somebody else, there's always going to be people that are upset about it. Stay in a pocket. we appreciate the hell out of you and you're going to nail it. You're meant for this. You're built for this, actually. But I'll tell you, the shins will get busted pretty good.

Yeah, and look, like, just to be quick on it, like I, you know, I worked 10 years hosting the NFL Network's morning show. Before that, was at Fox for 10 years, schlepping out to L.A. every weekend working on the pregame show, I've worked with the best of the best, and I've watched some of the best producers and then to be a part of your family the last couple years and see how you guys operate. And you might want to attack the fact that I'm the one being chosen, but I've ever. earned it and I'm excited to do it and I want to do it in a way that's going to celebrate and take the best from all of that. So I'm not running away from this. If anything, I think it's

going to be a fun show and I think you're going to want to watch it. So anyone who's upset with it, that's fine. Just give it a shot and you'll see. Amen. Can't wait to watch it. I don't know if we'll be able to live. We'll have to watch it back, but we appreciate that you are following us and we love you, Shrakes. We have some breaking news out of Las Vegas. Kurt Cousins has been named the week one starting quarterback Fernanda Mendoza officially starts a career as a backup. Now, this felt obvious in the second preseason game when Fernando Mendoza got the start, but they didn't have any of the ones offensive line and Kirk wasn't even in shoulder pads. Felt like they were probably going to have Kirk Cousins be the starter for the regular season. They continue to say, no, no, no, we're not making any decision. They finally do. Congratulations to Kirk Cousins.

And I think it's a good situation for Fernando, obviously to be able to watch and learn. The whole combo is when does Fernando get his first shot? Will Kirk have to be asked for that or is there a plan on how many games? Because we've seen fits get upset whenever it was handed over to Tua because he was not told like kind of what the plan was. Will Kirk be explained what the plan is or do they have one at this point? Shrags, you might know a little bit more on this particular case than we do, but I think they don't have a buy to like week 13 or something like that. That's a long time to wait if the number one overall pick back there, especially if the team isn't great.

But if Kirk does great, we're waiting a long time. Is that what you think? Yeah, I do. And I think I came on last week. I said as much as this, that like Kubiak and Janoka, who is the one's running the offense, they have a history with Kirk Cousin. And so he had a huge leg up on Mendoza and that he actually can come right in and it was plug and play. Mendoza's been great this summer.

They love what Mendoza's been. But when you have those two and the familiarity with cousins, they're paying cousins real money, not minimum money, real money to be there. It was his job all along. And Mendoza's been aware of that. Now, when do we see Mendoza? I think these things usually happen rather naturally. And sometimes it's after the by week. And other times it's, hey, we're a two and six team.

Let's throw the kid in. We think he's ready and he's mastered the playbook. But as long as Tom Brady was a part of this, and I'm told this year he has been very vocal and it's been a part of it, they weren't going to rush their first overall pick to sell some extra tickets or to sell a jersey. They were going to make sure that he's ready to go.

And in the meantime, cousins, the hope is healthy, competent, can maybe compete and give him a chance to win a couple games. Yeah, and he's perfect for Fernando. Just like we think Signetti was a perfect head coach for Fernando in college, just with personalities and how they kind of gel. It feels like Kirk and Fernando have gotten along very well, very quickly. I think Fernando understood that this was going to potentially be a reality from the very beginning. He gets a chance to watch and learn, which we know he loves to do.

And they've got some tough teams obviously on the schedule, but it is the NFL and it is the AFC West. Now let's move to the NFC North, made some moves this morning. And last night, go ahead, Con, man. Yeah, Shregs, last night, Patrick Fernarren of the Vikings, they bring in Kyle Van Nuoy on defense. It's a huge get. Let's go, Kyle. Two years ago, basically everyone in Baltimore said, hey, this guy is a fantastic team, man, fantastic. But speaking of the Vikings, how do you feel about their expectations?

Feels like everything in the NFC North has been kind of so-so for a lot of teams. You know, the Packers are dealing with Micah being on Pup and some other situations with Josh Jacobs. The Lions, their starting safeties are both out. They start on Pup as well. The Bears have their center retire kind of out of nowhere a little early. And the Vikings are quietly just bringing in Kyler Murray, no real expectations. We'll see what happens.

Do you think they're a playoff team? Because it feels like there's a chance the Vikings go on this sneaky, quiet run with KOC, just dialing it up left and right with B flow on defense as well. Yeah, look, they had terrible quarterback play last year and still won nine games. So the hope is you get an elevated quarterback situation with Kyler Murray in there. And the Kyle Van Nuoy edition, it seems like that's all right. He's a piece. He's a Kyle Van Nuoy had some amazing seasons with the New England Patriots under Brian Flores.

So he comes in and he doesn't need this huge ramp up. he knows that defense and he can play. I actually think the Vikings are one of the more fascinating teams this season. Lions, new offensive coordinator and a ton of new players on that offensive line. Packers, you mentioned. And then the bears, the expectations are through the roof. Here are the Vikings, very little buzz, very little talk. And yet if you get a great version of Kyler Murray and you get Justin Jefferson

and you get this defense under B-Flow, who has always been good, why not? Two years ago, they were the team. They went 14 and 3, and then the quarterback situation was in flux. I love that division. I'm going to do my predictions probably next week. Seeing the Vikings as such a distant fourth, that doesn't seem to add up with how I see them doing. I think they would be much improved this year from last year,

and they weren't that bad last year. And we're happy B-Flow in Kyle Van Nuys seemingly back on good terms because all the magic they were able to create together up there in New England. And I'm much like you. I think B-Flow is always going to have a good defense. And if Kevin O'Connell has an opportunity to be able to complete passes, I think the offense is going to be good as well. Yeah, Justin Jefferson's still good?

Yeah. Is Kevin O'Connell still going to scheme him up to be wide open somehow? He had 180 yards in the first half. Think about that. They're going into the game. But you would tell me better. Game record, who is it? 18.

Yeah, you won't miss him. He's got a grill, massive chain. He's going to be the guy that everything's going to go through. He is not going to – he's not the one that's going to ruin his game. Can't beat this. 180 yards, two touchdowns in the first half of a game. It's like, did you even know the guy was on the team? And it's like they do know and what KOC is able to do with him, unbelievable.

So if Kyler can be anything towards what he was when he was playing great. Plus 450 over there and the NFC North does seem nice. Right. Let's stay in the NFC North. Go ahead, Joan. Yeah, Shreggs, there's just been a couple things this week, kind of with LaFleur as a play caller and a quarterback coach. I heard Malik Willis say yesterday that LaFleur taught him out to be a great quarterback and taught him, and you don't have to make a huge play every single play.

and that triggered something to my brain. Daniel always talks about how he kind of doesn't have constraints on Jordan Love, but tells Jordan Love to be very, very careful with the ball. And then Jordan Love was an OC and scored 400 points in the fourth quarter of the final preseason game. Is this the year maybe that, you know, LaFleur lets Jordan Love spread his wings a bit and that Packers offense can take them to places they have not been yet recently? Look, it's going to rely on a lot of different factors. He said the obviously the Jacob situation's in flux. We'll see about that.

but they lost two receivers that they really liked and Dobbs and Don Tavian Wick. So now you have to see Matthew Golden step up. You've got to see other guys step up and then Kraft have to come back healthy. This Jordan Love story, it feels like we're in year 20 of saying he's knocking on the door of being one of those guys. And then he gives you these glimpses. And then there's other games where you're like, oh, he's at next year. That's fine. The hope is with the floor, who is the only offensive coach he's ever worked for.

The hope is that in year seven or whatever they are right now, Year 8, I don't know, he's 2020 with the draft, so year seven, is that this is the year and that he shines. I've picked love to win the MVP multiple times prior, thinking that that was the year. So his last game we saw him, he played great against the Bears in that playoff game. He didn't do anything wrong. He played fine.

The issue is, can they do it week to week, and can they do it without two of those reliable receivers who he had grown to love? Let's pivot away from the NFC North. Let's go to the AFC North. Joey Porter Jr. had this to say yesterday, whenever he was asked whether or not he was going to be playing football at the beginning of the year because he hasn't done anything yet and it hasn't become a massive story but if this carries into the regular season this is going to be gigantic for the Pittsburgh Steelers

I don't know I got to talk to the guys upstairs to my evening about that one thanks man appreciate you thank you okay so are the guys upstairs and his agent gonna say hey no deal's getting done you should play or is that the guys upstairs and his agents getting a deal done and then he's going to play. Omar Khan, Pittsburgh Steelers general manager, has come out and say, we will still continue to be how we've always been, which is we don't negotiate contracts during the season. Steelers have been pretty stingy, I would say, in contracts whenever you ask for it during the season. They have done some things that they haven't done in the past. They pay DK Metcalf 30 million a year. He's never been a Pittsburgh Steeler. Obviously,

that surprised a lot of folks the way that got handled. They bring in other players on the defensive side. They've made some trades. Omar Khan certainly operates different. than Colbert, who was the GM for a long time. But it feels like, is this getting ugly? Shregs, what do we know about that? Because that sounded like, if I don't get a deal, I'm not playing. But it could also be they telling me no deal is going to happen and I'm playing. So how do you see it?

It doesn't sound great. Doesn't sound great. But you still have a situation in New England, you know, you still have players that are viewed as different level caliber corners at the moment than then him. So there's other things that maybe have to happen that Khan is kind of waiting on. Look, you'd like to think with this team and how they're built with so many veterans that everyone's on the same page. But I'll tell you, eight days before the start of the season, nine days before, you know, they kick off, whatever it is. This is not the headlines you want to be talking about. Not when you've got a quarterback who's 42 and you've got Cam Hayward and you've got T.J. Watt and the other guys you're bringing in are not just rookies.

You're bringing in guys like Jamel Dean, like champions who have been there and done that. This team is built to compete this year. So when Porter, one of the bright young stars, seemingly unhappy, it's not ideal. Not ideal. I don't think it's a desirable situation for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but if they're able to figure it out, obviously that's good. Mike DeFabo has a video from training camp practice moments ago,

Omar Khan and Joey Porter Jr. at the beginning with three loops, you will see a Dap up. Boom, they shook hands. Done, done deal. Okay, then he said, hey, what are you doing? He's got his helmet, got his sleeves rolled up. It does appear. They're doing special teams practice

that appears on the field. So the fact that he's not doing something right now does not mean he won't be doing something later. How do you kind of read this, D-But? Do we think a deal gets done? Joey Porter, Jr., talking to the media and being present and being there, makes me think this is good news, okay?

Like something positive is happening where he says, I'll talk to the guys upstairs and my agents. Maybe they just say, like, hey, no deal is possible. But, man, it's hard not to think, like, are they still going to have to give Joey Porter a Jr. a deal? Are they going to have to trade him and get a deal somewhere? Like, what is going to happen when Joe,

Port Jr. is their best corner. Technically has to play because he's under contract for this year. All right. You hear that? That's a Yonzer right there. And then he can also be tagged next year as well. But you did mention Cam Hayward and T.J. Watt, two of the veterans on that defense, they have done this in a similar situation in the last two years and got paid right before the season.

So it could be a similar situation to that. But you talked about Jamel Dean and Asante Samuel Jr. has been good. But you want your number one corner out there to go with those guys. And then Jalen Ramsey and Brisker, who they brought in on the backside. yes, you would like all these pieces to start week one of the season so we can just play. And you're naming veterans. Like these are not young guys. So when you're talking about Ramsey and Brisker comes from the Bears who's not as, you know,

season to player, but these are guys who are built for 2026. Let's make a run at this. You know, we have Rogers for this season. Let's make a run at this. And tone, I think you said a little something we were talking about like, well, he's under contract. This is not a fan base that historically has been pro player in these situations. No, never. Cam Hayward's dad, just like Joey Porter.

Cam Hayward's dad, legend in Pittsburgh. Obviously, legendary family in Pittsburgh throughout the entire, even the brother. So in Cam Hayward, after making all pro, I think he was all pro. He was. And he was like 15th or 16th highest paid interior defensive line. And maybe 17th to 20, way down there. Once again, he has given millions of dollars back to the city. His family has been a part of these.

The whole thing, the whole thing. And then he didn't show up for practice. What was the reaction? Okay. You're pretty lucky you're in Pittsburgh Steel. Get a mind. You're a little long in the tooth to be doing what you're doing right now. Pay your corner, man.

Les Needs just gave you guys a playbook. You play passers, past catchers, past rushers, and cornerback ones. Pay this guy. He's going into his prime. He's done everything right on the field and off the field. Take care of. Let's play some football. Yeah, that's tone said.

Let's just get to the season here and play football because this has been happening in the off seasons for the Pittsburgh. dealers the last few with a lot of their veteran players. Let's assume it gets figured out. Joey Porter Jr., though, his name is becoming one, I think synonymous with being a really good player, which is good through this entire process, having to be like, hey, actually, if you look into it, he's nasty, he's worth it. He's got really good.

The market is set, too. There's been a lot of deals already done. Cornerback deals. Could probably figure it out. Pay him all. Pay him all that. I want every player to make $1 billion. That is where I stand.

Put on the ticker. I don't know if that's how big day Shrags is going to be talking, but. We have to, everybody. Let's talk about older player, kind of earning his stripes almost yet again. Go ahead, Deb. Yeah, talking about earning it, New York, OBJ. You talked about it a couple, maybe last week, maybe the week before that, about him potentially making a 53-man roster, and he did.

He was definitely excited about it. But what do you think his role will be with this Giants' offense? And the rest of that wide receiver room as well, obviously Malik neighbors, Dary Slayton, and the rest of the guys. Well, it's interesting because when I was talking two weeks ago, they had just gotten back from West Virginia and all I heard about was how low maintenance and amazing leadership that Odell Beckham showed 14 days at the Greenbrier with those young guys and kind of being that senior leader.

And I'll tell you, I've been around Odell. He is a superstar like no other in New York City, even in 2026. He can go to Europe and there's 100 people who are going to follow him and take paparazzi shots. For him to just get his lunch pail, show up to camp and say, I'm going to earn my spot on this team and I'm going to do it playing whatever role you need. It says a lot about him, but also about Harbaugh and what they're building there. Now, you look at that wide receiver

room, this isn't some novelty act or some feel-good story so they could sell a couple jerseys. They need him to be good. Like, he needs to perform. And the fact that he might end up being the three, maybe the two at some point, makes me a little concerned about

the wide receiver room that it's like, no, no, that's a negative way to look at it. You know, but he, but let's see if he can be that guy because for whatever you want to say about Wondale Robinson, he played a role last year and that Dable's offense so much so that Dable paid him, Dable and the Titans paid him $18 million to come about. Isaiah Hodgins doesn't make the team. They have him.

They still have Darius Slayton. Like, they still have guys that are there. But this is basically Malik neighbors and who else wants to come aboard? Who else wants to step up? Because I'll tell you, in the preseason and training camp, one of the best stories was Malachi Fields, who's a rookie third-round pick, and I'm not sure they're ready to put him at that number two spot just yet. I like that

Odell Beckham Jr. has worked his way back into a roster spot in the NFL. I think at this point of his career in life, I think he has a real excitement about every single day. You never know when the last day is going to be, where you're in an NFL building amongst greatness, which is what the NFL is. I may

or may not have run into O'Doebeckham Jr. at a wedding. Oh. How was he? It's kind of coming back to me now. Long night, good night. He said, I got something. I feel good. It was like super positive interaction.

It was like a super positive, super, felt like he was going to work his ass off. Like, I don't remember the exact words, pretty loud. I think Paul McCartney, I'm joking. But I do think... I can't believe Bruce's wedding was so elaborate. You had Odell and you had Paul McCartney there.

Good stuff. Yeah, it was interesting the way it went. Bruce actually did film a movie in Croatia for his wedding. So I don't know. You have seen, have you seen a magazine? I think Vogue Croatia did an entire cover of Vogue. Yeah,

literally, I think it was Vogue Croatia. And then there was, their Ryan Seacrest E. E. Croatian thing over there. And they're like, look how nice this wedding could be.

And I'm looking at it. Bruce has got like a full... That Bruce? Yeah, full pose. I'm like, damn, Bruce. No,

he's going to inherit a billion dollars. Yeah. I'll tell you what, the person in the family he's going to inherit from from my understanding? Legend. I need to get around that lad.

as soon as possible. It's a long flight, though. Certainly a long flight. We'll have to pick it up on a jaunt someday. My question for you, Shrakes, is who's going to win Super Bowl? Good question. So I will say this. Okay. Don't pick. Don't pick your buddy. Kind of a big sway

there, wasn't it? It was kind of a big get out of the way. Get out of the way. Say this. I have never seen a team have the hype and the bandwagon as full having lost two of three games to an opponent in their division in the history of this sport from the year before. The Rams hype and bandwagon is out of control,

it's spilling over with whoever and whatever. The Seahawks are sitting up there very quietly in their Pacific Northwest haunts, watching as everyone else talks about the Rams as they bring back JSN with a happy extension, and they bring back Devin Witherspoon with a happy extension, and they bring back Leonard Williams and Shaheed and Hall and bringing a first round running back

who they're very excited about. So as everyone is going and everyone assumes I'm just going to be, what's the term the kids use, glazing Sean McVeigh, I don't love any bandwagon where we're doing segments on the morning shows. The Rams or the field. That doesn't feel right with the NFL. Let's not forget about those Seattle Seahawks

and they're madman of a coach, Mr. Mike McDonald. Yeah, I've been watching Hard Knock. we all have and I actually picked up to see Hawks as my NFC team yep I am there my NFC team after watching hard knocks just because the way McDonald operates you're talking about a being a mad scientist on the X's and O's on the defensive side and obviously before his leadership's awesome I mean awesome in the way the boys respond to him is I really like their respect oh turns out I run this fucking practice to the player and the player just like come on man like they're a call a star

player like he does that and they all respond yes they respond it's not like disrespect, the relationship you have to have with your players to talk to them like that has to be real. Like a lot of people see the videos of like coaches being hard on their players or whatever. It's like that doesn't happen if you don't have a like a working relationship with the person. So it takes a lot of investment. It takes a lot of energy. It takes a lot of empathy. It takes a lot to get to that video of him saying, oh, is that right in front of everybody? You know, because that could be considered embarrassing somebody, disrespectful, especially with all this shit, especially after winning a Super Bowl, egos get out of the control.

Richard Sherman was talking to coach McDonald about that to begin with. After they won a Super Bowl, Legion of Boom, quarterback Russell gets money, who gets money, McDonald's like, I don't know what that means. Yeah, we're just, we're just doing football. Bro, he's so dialed in. I talked to him yesterday, and it's like, he's just like, I'm ready to kick off right now. And, you know, he's, he, because this Hard Knocks has been a great, a great visual of what he brings to the room. Now, I don't know if you saw this.

I posted it on Instagram because I loved it. you know, everyone else listens to music going to high school as a kid. He downloaded old episodes of America's Game, which is the documentary the NFL films used to put together of all the different Super Bowl champions. And when everyone else was listening to like Eminem or Little Wayne or Blink 182, whatever the hell was popular when he was driving to high school, he would listen to episodes of America's game that he would memorize word for word knowing Mean Joe Green and Tom Brady and like that's what his hobby was.

He is football obsessed, and he didn't play college football. He played high school football and then batted around for a long time trying to get into this coaching thing. And he was this close of being an accountant and not an NFL head coach. And he got a shot from Mark Rick at Georgia and then, of course, Harbaugh. His story's awesome. And those guys, he's so transparent and honest and authentic that it's hard not to want to run through a wall for him. He missed a lot, man. Get Richard Dye Trying was in that era.

Unbelievable. 50 Cent had such good music. in that era and he was listening. So Kanye graduation. I mean, you talk about that area. You mentioned William, Lowell Wayne. I mean, Weezy was on every song. It was amazing.

T. Payne had a run through that entire time. T.I definitely went crazy. GZ one absolutely crazy to probably play college ball. I'll go booth with the fur flow rider had a couple hits. I mean, this was a good air. Still bring it. Now, hey, we want to a state lunatic. Dude, M.I.

Crooked letter, crooked letter. Come on. Yeah. Some 41. Mike. Who? Blink 182 was back then. Bingo. Eric Willoughby. It's a whole other.

McDonald needs to figure it out, though, that he's allowed to listen to, like, iconic music. I think you worked out. Yeah, I did. You don't want your coach doing that. He's listening to Johnny Unitas, talk about Super Bowl. I mean, this is what we're talking about. I guess it makes sense.

It makes sense what he is. We appreciate the hell out of you. Good luck with Big Day. We appreciate that. Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Schreger. Yes, Shregel. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now. Live from the US Open.

She's the host of NBA Today. And also an analyst of tennis and many other sports, an absolute weapon. Ladies and gentlemen, Malika Andrew. Yay, Malika! How you doing? Making my debut on the Pat McAfee show today.

This is a big day. Joining you from my hotel room in New York City before I go out to the U.S. Open. I'm good. How are you guys? Great. Okay, so let's talk about that hotel room. I mentioned this earlier. I said I talked to some people at E. and there's living in a hotel for 22 days for this U.S. Open.

You were that human. Okay, so thank you for your commitment to the U.S. Open living in a hotel that long. Can you tell me about the tournament thus far? And let's act like I don't know much about tennis. I watched the big stars playing like Coco last night. Hey, let's go, Coco. Let's go, Coco. Ben Shelton two nights ago.

I saw that. Roger Federer, obviously doing some trick shots. What are the storylines that are kind of developing over there at U.S. Open from a little bit better tennis perspective than what I can deliver. Yeah, let's start right there with Cocoa Gough, right? Because she was awesome last night, Pat. I mean, this was just an incredible match to watch, and she looked like she was already informed.

But on the women's side, this is a really exciting tournament because essentially we could have a new world number one after the U.S. Open. So there are four women right now that are competing for you for world number one, and Cocoa Gough is one of them. Right now, the world number one is Arena Sabalanka. She's been world number one for 98 weeks. that's a long time. And she has to win the U.S. Open in order to stay number one.

She's won the last two. So she's going for a three-peat here at the U.S. Open. Cocoa Goff, if she wins the U.S. Open, she is world number one. Jessica Pagula, another American who just won a little bit earlier today. If she wins the U.S. Open, she's world number one. And then there's a fourth Elena Robocana. You can see right there. She's actually on Arena Sabalankas heels for world number one.

But she has an injury that she's been dealing with, calf, Achilles. she doesn't look quite right. Andy Rodick said yesterday, he doesn't think she'd be playing in this tournament if World Number One wasn't up for grabs. So on the women side, it's not just winning the U.S. Open. You could be world number one walking away, and there's two Americans that are in the run for that

in Jess Bagula and Cocoa Golf. I really like the way Coco's playing. Like she has a real chance of winning the U.S. Open. And remember, so she won the U.S. Open in 2023. She won Cincinnati in 2023, the lead-up tournament, and then won the U.S. Open. This year, she won Cincinnati. So could history repeat itself?

Yeah, it feels like that's a good indicator for me. If you win Cincinnati, you win the U.S. Open, I like that storyline for Coco. Is Pagula, that's the Buffalo Bills family? Yes. Okay, all right. Exactly. So we got Buffalo Bills.

That's just Pagula. We got potentially the Buffalo Bills is number one women's task partner. I like that. That's the good news. They just put those bikes in. Okay, let's go to the men. I saw Ben Shelton the other night. Obviously, he gets cooked in the first set, six one.

Then he comes back set two and wins three straight. It got late, obviously, for him. A lot of people said it shouldn't take it that long. Maybe he started bad. What should my realistic expectations be of Ben Shelton? Because I met him in Atlanta with Trinity. Great convoy. Love how competitive he is, like his aura.

I heard him saying some mean stuff to himself at the end of this particular game when his backhand wasn't working. He was like very mean to himself. What are the expectations from the men's side? And can Ben dance a little bit here at the U.S. Open? No, Ben's got some power. I mean, he was clocking 140 plus mile in after. serves and that's the thing with Ben Shelton. It's the power, but sometimes I wish, okay,

could you take 10 miles an hour off of it in order to maybe have a little bit more control? That's what we are seeing in the first set that you mentioned and then he really settled in. So Ben plays a little bit later today. He's coming up in any minute now. He should be taking the court against her cause, who's another huge server. Ben has the opportunity to win this tournament. Ben Shelton is the number one American man. Taylor Fritz is another American man that I could see sort of being one of the last standing. He made the finals here a couple years ago. But Ben Shelton, he has the

weapons, right? He just, we've seen him do really well in some of the lead up tournaments. He's got the weapons to win. But we haven't seen an American man win since Andy Roddock at any major since 2003. So that's what the American manner can be able. Yeah. In 2003?

It was Pete Samerson. The American man has not won a major since 2003. Malika wasn't even alive. Malika wasn't even alive. I was rocking kindergarten. Come on, man. That is. Okay, Ben, let's go a lot. Let's go Fritz. Oh, three. Okay, let's get going.

Francis Tiafo as well is sort of in that conversation. But here's the thing, Carlos Alcarez is back. And Carlos Alcarez looks good. We were wondering how he was going to look. He hasn't played since mid-April. We saw him the other day. He's going to be playing tonight under the bright lights at Arthur Ash. Carlos Al-Garez, I believe he should be the favorite to win this tournament.

Sasha Zverev's going to have something to say. but yeah, 2003 is for the American men. It's been a long time. Zverev is the world number one. Learned that, obviously, in real time as I was watching him battle late into the night last night. Alcaraz has... So he's the number one seed. Oh, number one seed.

Yeah, it's kind of gets a little funky, right? Because Yonik Sinner is the world number one. He's hurt not playing. So this is the first time we've seen Zverev play as the number one seat in tournament. You can be world number one, but not be the number one seed. It gets a little funky. Okay, so he's interim number one right now. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay, okay. We got an interim number one right now in Zverev, who had a late-night battle. Obviously, if you're up at night, there's tennis happening, and it is electrifying. It's why I caught Shelton. It caught this one late night. I saw World Number One interim playing late into the night, obviously, not expected this early. I think it's the first time, a number one seed has gone that long or that late in long time, whatever the case is.

Long time. Okay, so Alcraz, we like him. Obviously, we love him. But there was a name that we all know that kind of had a moment. Go ahead, Tom. Yeah, Malika, we were watching in the first round. It was very, very disappointing. We saw Joker go out. What has been the reaction to that happening and just the overall vibes after Joker went out? That was tough to watch. I thought we were going to get a little, you know, a little boot and rally because who hasn't had a good one of those. But Djokovic was throwing up early in that match. And I thought that he was going to get back to himself. But he just, he never found it. That one went the distance, five sets. The fact that he's 39 years old. And he's He's still playing at an incredibly high level. This is the first time that we will have none of the big three in terms of Novak Djokovic,

in terms of Rafa, in terms of Federer since 2006 that is continuing to play on in a major. So this is sort of showing a new era of tennis. I was bummed to see that. I was out just outside of Arthur Astridium when that was happening. And there were fans that were all out in the courtyard. And you could hear an audible gas because I don't think anyone was expecting him to lose that match. We haven't seen him lose ever in the first round of the U.S. Open. He'd been 19 and O coming into this tournament.

So now the question's turned to what happens next for Novak Djokovic. He'll probably take a little bit of time. But there is the question, okay, was this the last time that we saw him play at the U.S. Open? I tend to hold on to belief based on no inside information, just knowing Novak as a competitor that that's not going to be the case. But at 39 years old, you know, we're seeing someone like Gail Monfeest retiring at 40 that's up there for a tennis player. Monfis, 40-year-old, jump cross. Yeah, we watched him. Got the win? Yeah, on his 40th birthday.

Okay, happy 40th birthday to Montfiz. So he's been doing it a long time. I wish I would have seen him early. 20 years ago. Yeah, I feel like I could have had a hell of a ride alongside this Frenchman who certainly has a little bit of a flare for the theme. A little flare for the theatrics there. And then he gives a full all four sides.

Yep, let me hear it. We, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we. we, we, we. And you're welcome. Okay. And he turns, he does a full four, even to his opponent side.

I mean, I love this guy. I wish I would have seen him 20 years ago. But I understand what you're saying about 39, 40-year-old, especially for tennis, when speed and everything is such a big deal.

I don't know how their joints hold up. I don't know how. You got to stretch the back. And erotic last night, you know, we were not even, he wasn't playing. We were just watching the five-setter that Zvera was playing.

And he's like, I've got to stretch my back, just watching this. Because, yeah, it takes something out of you. By the way, Gail Monfis married to Alina Svidelina, who is a top 10 player on the women's side, vying for a title.

So they are a power couple in tennis. Do we think they play table tennis at the house? Like, did these? They made pickle ball. Yeah. Maybe a little pickle. A couple of things. Real thing.

Is there anything like me, though? I mean, you can't be, you got to go all out for it. You can't go easy on your spouse. You got to try to, you know, you got to, Gail's got to try to win. Levin's got to try to win. Oh, you're burying David at the house? So what are you guys competing at?

Are we playing hoops? I mean, he's winning in, he's winning in horse for sure. He's, yeah, he's off there nodding to say he's winning in horse for sure. Hey, I need you to keep winning there, okay? Sounds like Malika's going to try to kill you and everything else. Let's pivot to the NBA, shall we? D-Butt has the last question for you, Mel. Great job, everyone covering tennis.

I can't wait to watch the finish. But NBA, obviously thinking about that a little bit over a month away. A lot of big moves this all season, which I guess duo or even trios, are you most excited about Lamello, A.E, out of Minnesota now. obviously all the guys down in Philly, Miami, big fan here. Bam, Greek, Freak. Who are you most excited about going into this next NBA season? Yeah, I mean, it's got to be LeBron in Philadelphia.

I mean, I'm really excited to see how that's going to shake out, especially because I don't think that is a move that necessarily means you're 100%. It's not, when Kevin Durant joined the Golden State Warriors at his prime, it meant that a title was coming. There's still a real road here in front of the Philadelphia 76ers. and the question mark about how much is JoL&B going to play? How is he going to look alongside LeBron, alongside Jalen Brown, not to mention Tyrese Maxie and BJ Edgecombe.

So I'm really excited to see how the East shakes out, particularly because, like, I feel like the Knicks, they're the real deal, and the Indiana Pacers are coming back and healthy with Tyrese Halliburton, right? So I think that the East is really going to be a different piece. No, Celtics mentioned. Love it. No, no, no, no.

That's your spirit? Hey, listen, that is, this is the ESP. Just being in him being caught. It might be dead. What? No. It sounds like this is a top 14 to be. City love.

It might be above 500, maybe. Let's see. You know, LeBron, it's crazy that the big decision was that he went to Philadelphia. He could be retired and throwing oops or receiving oops on a yacht like Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. I don't know if you saw this. Life is pretty good. Good for them. They'll be doing that on a yacht near you.

Relax, guys. CP got up there too. CP was on the other end of the lob. He was, look at this. C.P. Go. Yeah, we like that. He's 6162. Against, next to the giants, he looks small. Malika, we appreciate the hell out of you for joining us and have a great stay at that hotel for another month or so for the U.S. Open. Yeah, 29 days to go.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's Malika. Yeah, Malika. 22 days. It's a lot. Ran into her at the hotel. Malika, how you doing? We've been seeing you doing tennis groups. I'm here for 22 days. You saw her whole wardrobe behind her. She really said. Like, it's crazy. I can't think about. anything but they yacht. What's that? You kid? A yacht. Good size.

Do you think CP used a wave? Like, you know how a wave lifts you up? That's how he dunked? Oh, no. Double jump. What are you talking about? He's been dunking since high school. Hey! That he's living. Congrats. They've earned that. We're back on the other side. Be a friend to have,

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Gigantic, basically across the board. Six and a half tomorrow night, Georgia Tech and Colorado is actually a pretty short line for what we see for week one here. Yeah, especially because of some of these kind of week zero type games happening in week one, like teams are always talking. about, hey, we could kind of shorten the college season if we don't have, you know, Indiana playing Neil Brown's North Texas team. And granted, sure, should Indiana be favored by 50 points? Yes. Is it going to be tough to actually bet on a team to win by 50 plus points

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bothers here. Dibbutch, great to see a huge fantasy draft. Obviously, you're going to do great there. NFL news. The Niners are on their way to Australia to kick off the NFL season. Your thoughts with how close we are, but yet how far away we still see. This is kind of that weird time where it's like, all right, what do we, what do we talk about today? What's important? What's the big news? And it's not a lot of things, but we are so, so close to NFL football.

Obviously, college football is already here, week one right here around the corner. So now it's just about for team eye and your players, okay, who's going to be healthy for week one. Who's naming starters? Vegas Raiders. They just named their starter. What other quarterback situations are going to get figured out? What other players are going to get contract situations figured out with JPJ?

So there are a bunch of important things, but until they actually happen, then there'll be news. But I'm excited football is finally here. Yeah, it is finally here. But not before a court case tomorrow. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who, I mean, I don't know how, like, if Ohio State goes through something, does he also, because he's former president and he is Ohio state legend if he has to sign up for all that type of style.

For sure. College football national champion, Super Bowl Champion, Ryder Cup winner, former president of Ohio. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawke. Yeah. We think football for you. I don't know if you guys have to deal with anything. I mean, Ohio State related, I'm not 100% sure, but obviously what's that?

No, just, you know, we got for game one, you know, that's all we're worried about right here. Why? What would you worry about? What are you thinking? I don't know. I just read some tweets and stuff. I see stuff that you guys seem to be gaslighting all over the place. I don't see really anywhere else. Like what?

Washington Post, bro? Okay, so we're the only ones. It has enough to watch. Sure feels like it. It does. All right now. All right, let's dump it. Football is so close.

We don't need to be talking about. Sorry we care about national security. Thank you. Nobody ever talks about that with us. Okay, we have a real range in here. Ohio State Buckeyes, though, it has come out. Underdogs against the Texas Longhorns Week 2. They are not the favorites.

Texas is favored over Ohio State. That line has come out. That's crazy to think about it. especially with Ohio State being the number one team in the country. But it's down there in Austin. It's going to be hot. It's going to be tough conditions. And Arch Manning potentially does what he did last year,

which play a little football and maybe end up getting shut out by Ohio State Buckeye defense. What are your thoughts on the Ohio State Buckeyes this year as we enter the season, AJ? Well, I mean, I feel very good about where they are. But this is a thing, like especially in college football. There's a lot of turnover on some of these rosters. There's definitely some guys that are stepping into defensive roles that haven't had full-time starting situations yet. So we will see how they respond.

But I like where they're at and talking to everybody around the program. They seem to be very excited to get this season, you know, going. Julian Sane with another year of experience as well. Arch Manning with another year of experience. Everybody's talking about that. So we think football is going to be fantastic. The first few weeks are obviously loaded. And, yeah, can't wait to get on the road.

We've got a full football tour this fall. Lucky for it. Can't wait to get down to Baton Rouge and get started. They're saying it's going to feel like a hundred or so, I guess, at some point during the show. and it's going to be hot in the kitchen down there. Got a court case tomorrow. We assume a lot of lawyers are going to be showing up in Baton Rouge. That's going to be a pretty big ruling on precedent

and what the future looks like for being able to regulate your conference. And then Friday, the rosters have to be placed, 105 active rosters. Who will be on LSU's roster will be the big conversation, especially with what happens tomorrow. So we still got some drama and we still got some off-the-field chatter. But Deb O'Sweeney says, it's embarrassing. This is even a conversation. And he's unranked for the first time, long time.

and he's maybe going into a bus saw that I certainly have not experience in my college football world. And I don't like talking like the deep history of college football because somebody will tell me how dumb I am and I don't know what it's like to be a part of it. This is a lot of noise heading into a city and into a state, I think, that could potentially have a bunker mentality feel. And whenever an entire group is rallied like that, that can be quite an environment. That aura alone can kind of provide enough of a daunting task for a team. to maybe fold or crumble. But then if Clemson walks in there because the amount of distractions and gets a dub, college football season starts with the most chaos it could potentially have.

I mean, yeah, these guys who talked about, Greg came on yesterday and said they don't have any pressure on them. So they don't, you know, you're coming in there, no pressure, all the pressures on LSU to put up a bunch of points and to have this big debut, Elaine Kiffin, everything else that's going on. So there is no pressure. And the standard, the standard is still pretty high. I'm sure if you are, if you sign up to go to that Clemson program,

Davo, he's been a winner. He's won multiple national championships there. So he's trying to get back on the map. I'm sure he feels disrespectful. So you talk about the bunker mentality over there in LSU. They have that same bunker mentality over there in South Carolina with Clemson. So I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be shocked if this is a game in the fourth quarter. Westgo, more two wide receivers.

Very good. Very, very, very good tandem. So can Visina hit it? We shall see. Joining us now, ladies gentlemen, as we pivot away from college football and the storylines to the NFL in deep storylines. I want to make sure I get this right.

The man joining us right now is a Super Bowl-winning NFL analytic strategist and game management expert who has spent over a decade with the Eagles, Jaguars, and the Raiders. While he was on the headset with the Eagles, he was in Doug Peterson's year, their Super Bowl winning year. They want for it 25% more than everybody else in the NFL on fourth down.

Obviously, others would follow suit with the strategist in the ear of the head coach. This man could potentially be one of the trailblazers in game management and weaponizing of analytics. And over the last couple of weeks, if you live on X at all, you've seen him breaking something down that nobody's ever thought of. Ladies and gentlemen, I believe an asset and a weapon to the football community and to sports media as a whole of this upcoming NFL season. Ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Paganetti. Yeah, Ryan. How you doing? Appreciate you guys.

Ryan, I know you always do TV interviews. I know this is something you're very, very comfortable with as you've been an analytics guy and a game strategist for the NFL for the better part of a decade. Cape Cod hat looks good. Okay, is that lobster up there? That's a lobster. We obviously got Cape Cod lobster. Okay, Paganetic, you tell me a little bit about the game strategist,

the game management in the analytics department of this whole thing because now it seems very normal that somebody has somebody in their ear up top. kind of talking to him. When you were getting into this, how did it start? And how does Doug Peterson be a guy that says, you know what? Yeah, I would like your ideas in my head. So, you know, Doug learned from Andy Reid. He was, you know, Andy's offensive coordinator.

And Andy had a guy named Mike Frazier, who was a beast who kind of helped him out with that stuff. And so when Doug got the job with Philly, I was already there, you know, he offered the job to me to basically be that guy that was sort of helping him out during the game. And it was really super beneficial that both Howie Roseman and Jeffrey Lurie were very supportive of analytics. So they wanted to use the data at the time there was a lot of research that team should be going for more fourth downs. And because Doug was not sort of an established head coach, like his attitude on it was really good because some of the established guys are like, what are you talking about? We're not going for fourth downs. So, you know, I think that that was a really

big positive. And then we started having success with it, you know, in 2017 and it got a lot of attention. And, you know, we had the Philly Special and everything. And after we managed to win that game, a lot of the owners and GMs around the league were like, what are we doing? Like, why are we not, you know, implementing this as well? So you really kind of see that season has sort of been a turning point for analytics use, at least, with, like, the game management, when you go for two, when do you call timeouts? But it was really cool to be a part of that. And even, you know, in the current era, like ones that were controversial, maybe 10 years ago, like those are basically standard. So it's really changed dramatically.

Yeah, I'd say it changed dramatically. And I'll say your war on punning is certainly something I don't love. Okay, Paizan. I don't know you were the driver behind it. But going forward on fourth down, obviously we had heard the story of the high school coach, I think in California. They literally went for it every fourth down,

kicked an onside kick every single time, one for two every single time they scored. Actual war on kicking in special teams as a whole, but he had success with it in high school. In the NFL, obviously, field position is such a massive ordeal. When you start piecing together that we need to be going forward on fourth down, there's still some field of that, or are you strictly, hey, the numbers say 62%

of the time you're going to pick up the first down, we should go for it? How do you kind of view it? And did it go astray a little bit? And is it finding maybe a little bit more level now, you think, after like a 10-year run? It was always a battle. And a lot of the defensive coaches in particular really don't like it. You know, you go for fourth and one at your own 45-yard line. There might be a 30% chance the defensive coordinator is going to be faced in a 45-yard field. So, you know, in particular, even after winning a Super Bowl, I've sort of gotten in a lot of battles with different guys. But what I would say is that I liked letting when I worked with Doug Peterson,

I worked with Pete Carroll. Like I liked having the head coach kind of feel like he had ownership in the sense that, you know, I'm going to provide data. But from that data, they can kind of nudge in either direction. Like, hey, I feel really good about our O-line versus their D-line or our center is getting crushed by this guy. But what I tried to sort of communicate is even if you think we absolutely suck on offense,

a lot of these fourth and ones and fourth and twos are still strongly in favor of going for it. So that was really kind of one of the starting points is really those fourth and very shorts that we were sort of going for particularly over field goals. And now you see like Ben Johnson went for a fourth and five from his own 32 yard line in the in the playoffs last year in the second quarter, which I've never seen anything like that except for in Madden. And you know, it didn't work. They actually came back in one. But the it used to be, you know, you do that five years ago, 10 years ago. Like there would be a lot of people calling for you to get fired if you lost that game. So it's pretty cool.

like how things have sort of changed. Now, in some cases, they're still going to be very controversial ones. Dan Campbell had one a couple years ago against the 49ers. I think it was fourth and two. I actually, my numbers were very slightly in favor of field goal. I think one message that would be useful for the people listening is like there's actually

variation in the models. And some models might actually say go for it. Some might say punt. Some might say field goal. So, you know, I think there's actually, just like there's nuance and like who's the best coaches, who's the best,

you know, who's the best player evaluators. I tried to say like, you know, there was actually talent in the analytics world and you want to have the best possible people because you don't want to necessarily go for a fourth and two at your own 38-yard line, but, you know, there's some book told you to do it and you do it and then you look like an idiot and, you know, you get criticized relentlessly. So there's definitely a balance there that kind of has to be factored in. I like that you say, like the stats person has to have some feel as well on what matters and what doesn't matter,

because the numbers can present any story. I mean, you just said it right there. You can literally utilize stats and analytics for any argument. I don't want to get too much into your world, but it feels like in sports, there's a stat or some sort of something for every argument, even if they're completely against each other. And then definitely in the politics world, we have seen, they have a stat number for everything on opposite sides. It's like stats is on every team. What you're saying is being able to read the stats are a huge ordeal, knowing ball is

a huge ordeal. You want to know when I found out that you were a football nerd that probably knew ball a little bit. You posting what you did last night about what they do up in Gillette Stadium with the just slightly off uprights. Now, the natural reaction is these are NFL kickers. So, like, obviously they know which uprights are the right uprights. But just, why not? Just a little bit of a blur. Just a little bit of a subconscious type distraction potentially. Some places we've seen it before, they zoomed in on Vinatari's face. Okay, so like zoomed in tight on Vinutari's face and they put that in the back

back thing. I appreciated you doing the research on this and then explaining about how this evil empire yeah they might have been evil but there also no stone was left on turn in trying to win the damn game and then you look up some stats on this which I assume you did. Hembo says including

playoffs visitors have only hit 77% of their field goals. The hell? Okay now weather obviously terrible they used to have that wind tunnel too because it was wide open so that's certainly a part of it but maybe there is a little optics head game happening and I appreciate you pointing that out. Is this something that we should expect from you, Paganetti, as we go forward? And how did you kind of dive into this one? Yeah. So like when I took over my role, you know, on the headset, doing the game management stuff in 2016, I studied every single

team. And I'm like, I want to be the best at this. And the first person to go to or the first team to go to was obviously the Patriots to sort of study because, you know, they had been doing it for really two decades. I'm from Massachusetts. That's why I got the Cape Cod hat. I'm in Massachusetts right now. So I went to a lot of their games. I had seen this to some degree during the games, you know, just from attending the games in person, but I never really had put it all together. And then I would watch all the TV broadcast each week to try to pick up on anything obscure to communicate that to Doug Peterson and to our Jim Schwartz or whoever our coaches were. And I just came across it one day and I'm like, this is like diabolical. Like this is, it just looked so perfect in terms of like creating this optical illusion.

And there's there's been this whole, you know, mystique around the Patriots. just thought like this clearly seemed intentional. You know, I pulled up to all the copies of when the opposing team or when the Patriots were kicking field goals. This, you know, this visual was not present. If you look at the numbers, you know, in that time frame that Belichick was the head coach, the field goal, you know, conversion rate of the opposing team in Gillette was the lowest in the entire NFL.

So, you know, I think there's definitely something tangible there. And, you know, I really studied them for everything. Like, you know, we, everybody talks about the Eagles and the sneaks. The only reason they ran the sneaks is because we meticulously studied what exactly New England was doing with the sneaks in 2016, 2017. And we tried to implement that. And one of the analytics messages from that, you know, research that I kind of did, I work with Jeff Stoutland, Jason Kelsey, you know, Doug Peterson, was the Patriots are going for these sneaks when there's an open A gap. But the data actually supports just doing it every single time. So in 2017, if you go back, we actually just started sneaking on like all these short yarders ones.

We're like, we don't care what you're in. we have the cadence, we're just going to go first. You know, I put out a tweet recently that got a lot of attention that no team since at least 2000 has been stopped on four straight sneaks. And actually, no team has been stopped on three straight sneaks on a set of downs. So, you know, what people don't necessarily factor in enough is when the sneak fails and it's on a first, second, or third down, you just have more downs and you avoid that nightmare situation. And I think the perfect nightmare representation is that game, if you remember, Ohio State versus Texas

a couple years ago in the college football semi-final. They had second and goal at the one. They tossed the ball out. They lose seven yards. And then they went incomplete on third down. And then fourth down was the strip sack for the touchdown. You know, it was at the end of the game. But when you run a quarterback sneak, the bad outcome,

even if you don't convert, is almost always zero yards or, you know, maybe a half yard. Like Tom Brady had the most sneaks in NFL history. He's probably going to get passed by Jalen Hertz or Josh Allen here shortly. But Tom Brady's entire career had one sneak that was for negative. of yards. And that just sort of shows you if you're looking at it, this attitude of like multiple plays. So, you know, we would

approach that. This is what the Eagles have done recently. You see they get to the one yard line. Everybody in the Lincoln Financial Field knows they're going to run a sneak. Like they're just going to do it. If they don't get it, they're just going to do it again. And I think that the sequencing of the sneaks is something that people aren't talking about enough. Are you one of the founding fathers of the Tush push?

I actually was not particularly involved in that aspect of things. I ended up moving to the Jaguars. But from my understanding, Stelton was kind of, you know, an anchor on that one. But interestingly enough, Bill Snyder is the first guy I've seen do it. Back in about 2015 and 16, I'll send you guys the video if you guys want to post it. But they, yeah, Kansas State, they were lining up. And I think they called it the clown car or something. They put three guys in three-point stances right behind the quarterback.

And they would just smash forward. And they got it like almost every single time. And I think that was that was a little bit of the inspiration for the NFL version. of it probably that came out about 2021. Snyder's sitting out there in Kansas State going, okay, anybody going to... I did that.

Touch push, clown car. Okay, clown car is the godfather of the tush push. I love that the... Oh, there it is. Wait, that was on a video game at one point. I think that was a potential option for a play.

Brought it back this year, by the way. Way back in, okay, so it wasn't option. Did it West Virginia do something like that? Yeah, fat. Yeah. That's what Rich Rodriguez called it. Remember he... that it was people heavy attack touchdown or something like that.

We call it our fat package, but I'm saying I'm not allowed to say it. It's a pH, of course. But yeah, he said everybody on the field will be over 250 pounds, 260 pounds. And if you can't pick up a yard, what Pizzon here is saying is just do it again. Yeah, line up. Do it again. Do it again. Those types of things that are happening behind closed doors to become the best football team really put in emphasis how any distraction could potentially put you. behind. Conman has a question for you

at Paezan. Yeah, Pags, you said that you're a Massachusetts guy. Actually, no, you went to Belmont Hill. You're a milk and cookies guy. I'm a BB&N guy. Go nights. But I don't love that you're giving away all these New England Patriots, kind of direct our attention elsewhere, maybe, but something you tweeted

about was kind of sacks are on more of a quarterback's than anything. A lot of times when a quarterback gets sacked a lot, it's like, okay, so those teams have the worst offensive lines. Can you talk a little bit about kind of sack situation in the NFL and, you know, what that is reflected upon when it comes to quarterback play versus offensive line play?

Yeah, you know, I think I heard from a lot of offensive linemen on that one, which was kind of entertaining, but really one of the great misunderstandings in the league is just the old lines get crushed every week. These guys don't even compile any stats and they still get blamed for like, you know, maybe 70% more sacks than they really should be responsible for. But if you look back at so many of these top tier quarterbacks like Dan Marino, you know, Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Tom Brady. If you look at the year prior to them getting there, when they start, you know, when they're there and then when they leave, there's almost always, you know, significant movement in the sack rate. So like, for example, I think Dan Marino had like six years in a row that he was number one in sack rate, which was like crazy.

But like, you know, Peyton gets hurt with the Colts. The number jumps straight up. You know, Peyton leaves the Denver that it goes, it goes up. Peyton arrives in, you know, in Indy, it goes down. Tom Brady, you know, has an incredible year in 2007. He gets hurt in 2008. The sack rate jumps dramatically. He comes back in 2009.

It's super low again. He leaves the Patriot Sack rate jumps dramatically. He goes to Tampa. Tampa had like several years in a row with very high sack rate. Then it drops dramatically. And I think the idea that ultimately the quarterback has way more ability to impact if a sack actually occurs than people are really, you know, categorizing there. And, you know, I know you have JJ on the show all the time.

he mentioned that, you know, he only got Brady basically one time in his career. And to think of like a first ballot Hall of Famer that really just could not get to the quarterback at, like, you know, for however many times they played each other, it really is the quarterback can, you know, understands the protection, knows the weaknesses. He needs to have a clock. And a lot of these quarterbacks, I think that, you know, are sort of underperforming a little bit. You know, they might have decent counting stats like yards per attempt or completion rate, but the sacks are just way too high. And I think that that's something that people need to consider, like the full sort of encompassing of how the quarterback is playing, is that some of these guys that are going to start this year

over 10% sack rates. And that's just like not sustainable both for winning games and also just from like the quarterback health. So as soon as you put that out, did you hear from every offensive alignment in history saying, that's right? Thank you. That's right.

Go ahead and say it, Packet Eddie. Yeah, it's you saying it. Not me. You're a super genius. Yeah, this is on the quarterback, the guy we're paying 60 million a year. Thank you. I appreciate that, especially whenever you got Aaron Donald, Miles Garrett, Fiske, and the boys on the other side.

What Paganetti is saying, the good quarterbacks see that. And they say, I got to get this thing the hell out of my hand as fast as possible, where maybe the quarterbacks aren't as good. I think they can extend a play, then take a sack, loss of yards, loss of down. And you're hurting your team as opposed to just saying, we'll do this the next day as we move on. I love what you're doing, Paganetti. I absolutely love it. And you talk about, you know, the quarterback sacks that being a little bit of a misconception. I think you nerds have some of those as well.

AJ has a question for you. Yeah, Ryan, I guess what's like a common misconception casual fans have towards the analytics department when it comes to the job that you have held, you know, wearing the headset and the sideline and all that stuff? What do people get wrong, I guess, when they think about it, talk about it. Us mostly. Yeah. Well, you know, I'd say there's some nuance in what the actual roles are. You know, like I was with Pete. I was with, you know, Coach Peterson.

And I actually sat in all of the game plan meetings. Like, and I was, I was even assistant linebackers coach in Philly as well. So, like, there are some cases where these analytics people are actually coaches as well. Or they understand the X's and O's. And I try to disassociate myself with the guys that are just like, know it all nerds. And they say the coach is an idiot and should have done this and should have done that. Because oftentimes they are missing some kind of context. And I think that that's, that is definitely like where I've tried to differentiate myself is like, I want to be.

pretty good schematically. Like, no, I'm not going to be Belichick or Jim Schwartz or Sean McVeigh. But the more that I know schematically, I can sort of help the coaches and understand like, okay, they're not running this play because of this front or, you know, we can't do X, Y, Z. We can't run play action, you know, under center play action against this edge pressure. Some of these nuances, I think, help me be a better analyst. But I continue to see stuff on Twitter where they're just like pounding the drum saying the coaches are really stupid.

And like a lot of these coaches are really good guys. and they put in an incredible amount of time. And what you see on the field is a lot of times like protecting their players and trying to do what's best, you know, to win the game. And I think they don't get enough credit when they do that. That's like the PFF rankings and ratings. You know, the big complaint from all the players is,

you have no idea what my assignment was on that particular play. Well, this is cover two. It's like, yeah, but our cover two for this week was a little bit different because we had a guy who maybe was 80% to your point about protecting players. This guy actually can't do that this week. So you're going to have to cover here. Nobody knows that. So I like to and appreciate the, hey, we need a little context on these numbers as well as we go forward.

I think that's good for ball, Pags. Hey, I think you're good for ball, Pags. Now, I'm going to let you know this. As soon as we read your tweets and what you're breaking down, we immediately thought to ourselves, how can we take advantage of what this guy is telling us? Okay, how can we take advantage of what this guy's telling us? And we're not the only ones that are going to be thinking that. Let's go to one half of the Hammer.

God Cowboys AP Tone is a question for you, Pags. Yeah, Pags. I love the way you're breaking. And I love the way that you break down the game and you talk about schematically and analytically because that's just the best way to do it. But immediately my brain went to how can I benefit financially off of this information? You know, big betting show here. It's draft Kings Day. It's a great day to bet.

But is there something like in your research? I'm not sure if you've tied it to gambling or anything yet that people maybe should look towards or certain statistics that you think are more beneficial when you're breaking down game lines and stuff. like that. Yeah. So what I'd say is like on the team side, obviously you can't touch any of the betting topics whatsoever. So like it's a it's a sensitive topic. But I use the spread every single week because like I would generate basically a fourth down game book. And it really would be dependent on like, are we an underdog? Is our quarterback in a place? So like that spread was factored. And I'm very familiar with a lot of the numbers. One of the number one things that I think you guys could take advantage of is like taking a look at the consensus from these joint practices. And the idea being is that

Nobody cares about preseason anymore. I think like John Harbon, a couple coaches try a little bit. But for the most part, you get these guys just mailing it in. They line up in two formations and run a couple plays. You know, it's mostly backups. But joint practices are one v ones. And you get a lot of teams. They feel like the film is not being shown to the rest of the league.

So they might game plan that stuff. And I basically took like 15 years worth of data on essentially what the sentiment was out of joint practices, mostly from beat writers, sometimes national writers, sometimes in these open practices, the fans are watching. And when there was a clear winner in a joint practice, like that actually did have some, you know, useful power that season and how that team did against the spread. Really? So, you know, if you look at, so if you look particularly like, you know, it usually correlates a lot of times with these teams that are pretty good on the O line and D line. A few years ago, the Eagles were kind of, you know, they were getting blown out in preseason, but the lines were looking great in these joint practices.

And a lot of the consensus there was that they were doing very well there. and then they kind of came out and did a great job. But there's a few, you know, some of it, there was a number of joint practices this year where there was like some kind of interesting nuances, like the Saints kind of beat up on the Jaguars on one. The most of them were relatively logical sort of matchups like, okay, the dolphins were really struggling in joint practices. And, you know, there's some of the expected ones did occur. But when there also was like a few cases that were a little bit unexpected in terms of, you know, okay, like the, you know, the chargers kind of beat up on the 49ers. Now, was that just because the entire 49ers team has hurt because the substation or whatever else is going on?

Whoa. I'm not, I'm not implying anything, but, but like the chargers looked pretty good in the joint practice setting. And like, you know, the, you know, the Rams did a great job in theirs. And, you know, there's been a number of kind of interesting matchups that I think some people who just blow off joint practices and to consider them like sort of useless. Like, I wouldn't necessarily be in that attitude. Like, I know the Texans were so dom. prominent on their defensive line in some of these joint practices that like it almost like ruined the practice. And like, yes, we kind of knew they were going to be good, but that's just like another confirmation that things are pretty promising there.

But if there's like anything to use, you got to think like the market maybe isn't totally pricing in like how these teams have done, you know, how they made the right improvements in free agency and the draft. And like, you know, I think it's something that you can maybe keep an eye on. I think joint practice is a good call because that's one's on ones there. You know, that is everybody's going. It's the reason why it's going to be a big part of the next CBA negotiation. I think you're going to have one preseason game. It's going to be a bubble game at the end. And then I think you're going to have teams forced into joint practices.

And I think the joint practices will be incredible television. I mean, if you just did an all-day March Madness-type setup of the joint practices, people would be able to cover. I think coaches should be able to say, hey, we don't want this covered, we don't want this talked about, we don't want this kind of on the live thing. I think that's where we're headed. And I think the players know that that means it's going to be a much more physical camp. than it has been with a preseason game model. But I also think we're going to be able to get a lot better intel potentially on the teams

and how they're doing because if you're asking to the joint practice, you're probably going to be asked in a regular season, but maybe you'll get hot. Let's certainly utilize that information early. Now, you talk about the Texans D line kind of wreck in practice. Defense is a fascinating thing in 2026. Last question for you here from D. Bud. Yeah, Ryan, we've been talking a ton about the office side of the ball.

I'm interested in here your thoughts on the building a defense and kind of the modern NFL. When I was playing, I feel like that slot defender position specifically kind of evolved throughout my career. What's your thoughts on that position? I know Caleb Downs, we thought he was one of the best players in his draft. He went 11, I think, because of positional value. But what's the thoughts on that slot? Did you look at the last two champions, Cooper Dejean, Nick Eman Worry, Devin, with us when they all played in that slot.

So what's your opinion on that building that through that position in the modern NFL? Okay, so interesting stat. Three of the last five years, the Super Bowl champion team, was number one and two high presentations before the snap on early downs. And that's including if you just look at the first down. So that's Mike McDonald was number one. Vic Vanjia was number one in 24. I think Rahim Morris was number one.

But it's created these worlds where it's like the light box. That player is going to have to get involved in the run game because that's sort of the way that you can get them out of these two high looks is to really be able to kind of thump the ball. And if you look at the Rams, they've been one of the teams that have sort of had a good counter to that because they're like very heavy with the doing. run game, it's duo insert. I'm a little bit of a myth buster on the on the Rams 13 personnel stuff just

because I think they ran the same exact plays from 12 or 13 or 11 and it really was just a matter of like what the injuries were. I think Stafford was even interviewed last year and said or interviewed recently and said they didn't even practice 13 last off season and it was kind of just something they did because of the injuries. But I think ultimately the counter to this too high thing, whether they start in too high and staying too high or they start in too high and spin down to one you've got to be able to get like north-south in the run game and sort of threaten that and get them out of it. And the nickel is going to be involved in that. And, you know, there's been a really big jump with different teams.

You know, Belichick used to do it, of course. Schwartz would do it. You know, Mike McDonald did it this last year. But what I would call is like big nickel is like these three safety nickel packages where you're a little bit better in the run defense than conventional nickel. And you can also handle like 12 personnel, 13 personnel a little bit better versus some teams just like line up. and their pure nickel defense with like a legitimate small nickel cornerback. And if I'm in 12 or 13 or 21 or, you know, I saw some teams were playing 22 personnel in the preseason,

which is kind of interesting. Like I'm looking to try to take advantage of that, make that guy tackle. And I think, you know, just assuming that those players have to be good coverage players is like totally incomplete, just, you know, for what they have to be able to do now. You talk about 22 personnel. You think about the Giants right now.

You got Scataboo and Ricard in the back. And then two tight ends, including likely who can sneak out and do his entire thing and then Jackson dark can run the ball as well let's see if these nickels and safeties and corners can tackle right now that Jackson's another guy Jalen Petrie plays in their nickel a lot was basically saying yep hybrid cover blitz oh let's see if they can it's because he's got the biggest helmet the league yeah yeah right he's gonna have to throw that thing around speaking of protecting melons we hope you do that brother yeah we

we need you nope not gonna say because it'll be taken a wrong way we need you protect that brain brother you're good for sports so we appreciate you so much a j's first response to learning of your tweet about the field goals was uh good luck kickers this is happening everywhere now isn't that what you said a j isn't that kind of your reaction i'm just wondering like are other teams other stadium operations are they looking at this saying yeah why are we not taking advantage and doing this as well well some stadiums just have tiny jumbotrons that's a problem true we live in a city where that exists couldn't do it i i was digging on this recently but there there was some kind of game operations update in like 22, 23, where they, they did something to kind of limit

this. There's definitely a gray area. And if Belichick was still in the league, I promise you, he would have found like a way to capitalize on this. But I was reading the rulebook and I'm like, I don't even understand necessarily what is, what is exactly allowed. I'd love to see more colleges do it because it's like awesome. Like somebody had Squidward on the screen. I think like Tarleton State the other day, but just like doing something wacky, there's probably like a psychological study you could do of what would cause the most confusion that is legal. I was kind of thinking if you actually have like a large target on the screen, but it was like not in the center that that could really kind of optically really mess with somebody.

But, you know, I'm sure there's a world where people are maybe, you know, getting some of checking out this tweet and coming up with some ideas of things that they could do. There's a response to your tweet actually of like Oklahoma State and they put on their Jumbotron, just a bunch of yellow lines. So you legitimately, it was like an optical illusion. You couldn't. I mean, I hate it. for the kickers and the punters, but I love it.

It's one of those things about competitive people is if there's an angle, they're certainly going to find it, love it, love everything about it. That's awesome. All right, Pags, we appreciate your bro. Hopefully we talk to you soon. You're great for sports. We appreciate you opening up your brain to all of us. Really appreciate, you know, thanks for having me.

I thought you did good here, man. You know, I know you were a little bit worried about potentially having to do this. I thought you nailed it. Great hat. The lobster hat. Yeah. It's a good idea. Great touch.

Might be AI. He didn't look at us. Yeah, well, it's screen's down, so it's below, you know, it's first time. I, yeah, I've got some, some ideas that I think are better than what the Patriots did, but maybe that's for another episode. Oh, he's teasing shit. Okay. We appreciate that, ladies and gentlemen. Ryan Paganetti.

Yeah, Pags. That was awesome. I saw his last couple tweets. I've seen him, and then I read his bio, what he was. I was like, this is fascinating. And then the field goal one, I was like, I like what you're doing. here, but and send him a message. I'm like, thank you for doing what you're doing. This is incredible for sport. And I was like, would you want to come on the show to talk about this?

Get his phone number, talk to him. Live television interview. I can call in. So, can I do a phone? It was funny just to like go through that process with somebody who's certainly going to be a pretty big figure in sports media. He is going to do very well for us this football season. For us, I'm talking not in our show. I'm talking football as a whole because he's literally been a part of all the analytics conversations that are inevitable here with decision-making processes literally every single week. So I'm very thankful that he took time. And I'm appreciative of whatever he figures out this season. It makes us better fans. I love the way his brain works because it's like it is a perfect

combination of the analytics and he thinks about literally everything. But then when he's talking about duo insert, which the Rams did a ton last year out of 12 and 13 and then being like, yeah, everyone made a big deal about them going 13 personnel. That was just because there was injuries and stuff like that. So it's not just analytics. It's also being very, very smart. X's and those wise. And that's just an absolute stud. Yeah, I came talking about how it's not as if there are 32 analytics people and they all come from the same school. Like there are there. Some analytics people are much better than others. And, you know, some analytics books are different than other books. Like I don't know why. But I also thought that that was just kind of like a

bland, maybe one, maybe two different books. But him saying like, yeah, that MCDC going for it on fourth down in Niners territory. Like my analytics said to kick it. Whereas someone else's would have maybe said, hey, go for this. You know, MCDC made his money, made his hay on going for it on fourth down. That was you know, Motor City, Dan Campbell. He was just

risking it all the time. Like, that was interesting to learn about. Yeah. Being able to read the stats in which stats should you present as gospel, you know? Like, there's a lot of power in the numbers and which numbers are heard, in which numbers are not heard. That's just like when people's selective, you know, information for anything, it's like, well,

what's being left out here. Well, normally the context. So having somebody that understands ball while also being able to dissect the numbers is huge. And this is why Mina Kimes does well in the sports media world because she does know ball clearly with what she presents and how she presents it. And it feels like her number, which is why she has been put on top of the stats world. I think because she likes ball and knows the numbers. It's like Paganetti feels like he's that those two need to happen. there's a lot of people with rocks for brains football-wise that are getting a hold of numbers and having people make decisions that shouldn't necessarily be happening.

It's a very powerful thing, not just in sports. Obviously, if you present a situation and leave some key things out, it can certainly be taken one way versus maybe a complete opposite way. Stats and going forward on fourth down, certainly real. It has to happen like right now. It's a lot of power that headset has, AJ. Yeah, head coach has to have a bunch of trust in that person, especially they weren't a headset that they're talking to him throughout the game.

I would just like to see how many times like head coach, like, I understand what your stupid book says, but, you know, we can't walk there are three techniques, so we're not going for. Like, I would imagine there's some, there's some give and take there. I'm kind of mad we saw his face. Like, he should be kind of faceless. We should have, like, an animation, maybe. Masked.

He doesn't want to be on camera. He likes being behind the scenes. Maybe we should workshop that for next. Well, there was a shade over top of him. You know, it was like a little bit darker. I don't know if he left something over top of the camera that he's never used before. Like, maybe there was, like, a film. or a screen on top of it was but to your point as he was talking i looked over there and i was

like if he was like a deal or no deal banker silhouette yep that would actually be pretty i mean how do we know if that was his face though you know that that's the other thing is how do we know that that's actually what it looks like or if he was yeah because these things got big brains big brains they know how to program stuff they know how to kind of make things look differently than they actually things super genius smart people i thought you're calling him a hybrid like he was Pardon. I mean, in school he went to, it's no joke. Got some big brains over there.

Who's that, Vanderfield Yates, right? Vanderfield Yates is from there, too, but I'm talking like... Ah, shit, I should ask fantasy questions. Oh. It was a Zoom. Can't call him back. And also, that might be the last time. He just destroyed that computer.

There's a few. There's no way. Destroy the chips now. We're ever going to see from him. I thought he was great. That's a good piece of information. Tone Diggs did not write a book this offseason. What?

You didn't write it. Did you? The Gambler's Guide? I did, but it sucked, so I just didn't bring it up. Okay, so I appreciate you putting the effort in to write it and then not publishing it or whatever. There was a couple of potential lawsuits last time we did this as well. I love the previous ones. Me as well.

There are some people that wasn't happy with it. Yeah, there were some people that were just did not know they were going to be in there or have pictures in there and use their imaging in there. so we had to take that thing down pretty quickly last time. But we would say potentially New York Times bestselling author of college football. Tone Diggs put out his first bracket. And ladies and gentlemen, here it is, as we said, just on the eve of college week one, kicking off tomorrow night with Colorado taking on Georgia Tech. Here's what Tone's college football playoff prediction will look like.

G-16, probably Memphis, if I had to guess, could be Boise. There's a couple other squads that could slip in. there. Take it on Miami. LSU taking on Texas. That's a good one down in South. Oklahoma, Texas Tech. Now we're talking Cowboys taking on Cowboys. Ole Miss and IU round out the field. Quarterfinals end up being Miami, Oregon. Oregon gets the win, takes on Georgia who beats Texas. Notre Dame beats Oklahoma and Indiana beats Ohio State again. Sorry, AJ. Final four, Indiana

Notre Dame. All Indiana semifinal is Georgia takes on Oregon. All big 10 national championship. Oregon takes on IU with IU going back to back, says tone digs. Tone reports out a camper that Hoover's spinning it. Yep. And is that why you like the IU Hoosiers? Is it because you like Cignetti? Why do you have Indiana going back to back with all these other fantastic teams on the docket?

Yeah. It's crazy, like, because you talk about IU and, you know, they talk about how perfect everything was last year. I think the roster maybe besides men, because we don't know yet about Hoover could be better because they bring back four of their offensive linemen. They lose Pat Coogan, but they bring in an offensive lineman from Wisconsin who was really, really good. They have a ton of their entire defensive lineback plus more additions that they got in the portal, plus two more that they may get back with an injunction in a certain state.

I think the wide receiver room is more electric, more explosive. So we'll see in that instance, like, but they retain all their coordinators, all the Brian Haynes is coming back. Shanhan's coming back as their OC. I just think, like, yes, I had them as the seven seed because I don't know, their schedule is tough. We'll see what happens in the regular season. But I figured, like, once it gets to the playoffs and the rubber meets the road, I'm not betting against Signetti. It's just not something that I want to do right now. Hard to do.

And he enjoyed last year's national championship and a negative amount of time, you know, like, I think even whenever he was up on the stage and the confetti was flying, he was holding the trophy. He was probably in the back of his mind going, we got to do this all over. going next year, like right in that moment. And then he obviously has a chance to kick off the NCAA video game with his speech and how people are talking about his old speeches being maybe one of the greatest leaders of our time and how he goes about doing his business. He's going to have the boys locked in. And we talked to Charlie last week.

He didn't even want to talk about last year at all. Yeah, right. We're on to this year. We're on to week one against North Texas. And that is how we're going. Seems like the right mindset to have if you're in the middle of building a dynasty. DeBott, how do you feel about Miami losing in the quarter final? I hate it.

Because of it, I hate this entire bracket. It all stinks. But, yeah, I mean, I don't like you. I mean, them winning games, you know, against the group of six team and then losing to Oregon, hate that. I think Miami. It's going to be a close game. I think Miami got a lot.

I think Michael not losing to Oregon, dude. Not at all. They got better. He's been there. He knows what Oregon's about. I got better at quarterback. I mean, I think we obviously lost edge with Messador and Bain, but I think we got better in the trenches offensive line.

the weaponry outside with Malachi and the boys. Fletcher came back in the backfields. Well, I don't like that. I like them to be a higher-seated as well. Well, that's an 11-1 Miami team, and they're only at five because they, you know, they lost to Notre Dame in the regular season. So, I mean, they could be, you know,

an undefeated team if they win at Notre Dame. The one through seven, good luck to the committee, okay? Good luck. You think that's going to be craziness this year? The one through seven, I am very, very high on Georgia. I got them as a one-lossed SEC champion. Notre Dame undefeated.

Notre Dame undefeated. Congrats to them. A lot of people say, now the Notre Dame people aren't happy that that's being talked about, but their schedule is rather easy. They're not the only ones, though. Team you didn't bring up Penn State, they obviously are allegedly have a good schedule as well. Rocco Beck, very experienced quarterback. Matt Campbell is obviously a winner.

Goes into Penn State. You don't have them making the playoffs. No, so it was. It was do I put the 11 as another SEC team or a fourth Big Ten team? And I just, it is year one with Matt Campbell at Penn State. And the schedule is nice. But I like that I like Oklahoma's team better than I like Penn State. Ohio State doesn't even make the final four, AJ.

Whoa. They won the Big Ten championship. It's just, you know, it was a, it was a slobber knocker in that Big Ten championship. And they're walking wounded going into that game against I. But they have two months. until the game. And IU does it again. Wow. I can't believe that happens. Julian Sane again.

Yeah, Big Ten champions. They won the Big Ten championship. AJ, are you okay with how this is all going to unfold? It's exactly where we want to be. We want people doubting here. Come on now. What are we talking about? This is it's all speculation. Everybody feels great about their team. Everyone got better in the offseason. Good luck. We'll see.

One seed, four seed, three seed in the semis. Only one team's one off the buy and that was IU last year. So that would be much different. three teams winning off the buy. So, Ton, we appreciate you putting your bracket out there. If you hate this at Tone Diggs with a Z on that thing. We appreciate the amount of commitment that you put the ball.

Thank you. Genuinely, thank you for that. As we wrap up here on ESPN and continue digitally, we can't help but thank Ryan Paganetti enough. Hey, Maliki Andrews. Shregor announced Big Day today. Did you see that, AJ? Are you excited for Big Day?

Yeah, primetime with Shregs at 2 p.m. or something? What's it called? Big Day. Hey, asshole. Big play Shrek. On, man. Big day Shregs. Big day Shrekts.

Two o'clock. They'll be following us every single Monday through Thursday this football season, Monday through Friday in the off season. I think everybody's happy for Shricks. And also, Draft Kings game day, age. I don't know if you've been in there. New boost popping up every hour, every half hour. Obviously, we're playing alongside trying to take as much advantage of them as we possibly

can because if you're of age and agree to be responsible and not like an asshole, we'd love you to come join us on draft Kings. the best sports book on earth as we take on another incredible football season that week one of the college football season kicks off tomorrow night. Teams are already in route to an NFL game. Life is great. That's A.J. Hawk, the boys are here. Great work this week, D. Bud.

The show at Raskiller tomorrow, not happening. Be later in the fall. We continue. Goodbye. It'll be later in fall. This is a crazy week to speak for that. Yeah. You may be moving parts to try to do it right before you leave.

Later in the fall. A lot of stuff. Later in fall, I think. you're going to have time to do those rehearsals. You got to sound check, right? I'm sure as the season goes on, you'll get more and more. Okay, so let's go. Probably spring.

It's probably going to end up in the spring, if I had the guess. That makes worse. With the amount of talent, like, the musicians that were going to be playing. Yeah, yeah. Obviously, they would, hey, we're doing a rehearsal? It's not like, we've done this before. Have you ever done this before? It's like, actually, no.

Like, I haven't even sat in. Like, rock band, I did that. 2, 3 a.m. You know, I've done that before. It's like that. They're like, well, we'd like to, like, at least run through each song, like, maybe once or twice, maybe. It's like the practice or walkthroughs, yeah. Mini camp, OTAs, training camp.

Yeah, and I didn't even think about that. I was just like, all right, I'll just, you guys got song. I'll sing the thing, you know. There might be a little tactic. Yeah. How do you even start it? Yeah. Honestly, I did not think about any of that, okay?

Obviously, I don't think about any of that. I'm like, rape for football kicks off. We just go ahead and do this. all the incredibly talented musicians from Nashville that made the songs that were phenomenal what they do. They'll come on up. They did. They all agreed. Like, yeah, we'll definitely come on up. You got it. No problem. We're very grateful and appreciative of the opportunity. Thank you. I'm like, I'm very grateful and appreciative. We got to perform this one time at least. You know, who knows if it's ever going to happen again? That was my thought.

And then as I was getting closer, it was like, okay, so we're going to have to do a rehearsal, sound check probably. Where or when is that possible? I'm like, that's a good question. That's a really good question. they're like Wednesday night we can come up through rehearsal whenever we get back Wednesday night I'm like sweet let's do that that sounds good couldn't need you probably I mean we gotta do each song at least twice right so we get comfortable

we should do at least twice and then there's probably going to be some work on it it's probably two and a half three hours probably Wednesday night is that good we'll probably get it around 830 at night I'm like so it's like 9 to midnight on Wednesday we can move that to Thursday morning as well it's like we got a show on Thursday I'm like oh no I've grossly underestimated I have grossly on a live show

with all those musicians like what it takes. I have grossly underestimated this to think about it yeah I guess I assume like yeah when you now it's like oh sweet

you can perform and then I never thought about it either about all of what goes into it we got college game day on Saturday this is the first one of the year and then we're going on tour basically for the next five months I mean imagine you going through each song

twice too like the day before I think we got it I think we got it Yep. Yeah. That's tonight when we got on your vocal cords right before. So that's the thing though, now that I know how to direct the air through my vocal cord muscles, okay? And it's obviously a work in progress. But now that I know how I do that, it actually should help me this season whenever I get to the losing voice time a year, which is inevitable around week three, week four, as the Paul in and traveling from the south back to the north, let alone with Monday Night Countdown coming into play there. So normally, you know, we try to stay seed up. Seed up. Try to stay seed up. Let's all remember that, by the way.

We are entering seed up time. Let's remember our vitamin C as we go forward here. But I believe Coach Guyton, shout out to her down there in Nashville. With what she has taught me, I should be able to find something in there somewhere throughout football season just as a speaker. Which I would suggest everybody try to figure out and learn how to sing. I think it is an incredible control over like your body. I obviously can't do it every single time. I think my conditioning of being able to do it longer

will hopefully continue to grow as we work through all the different drills and messages. But it is something that I think we should try to figure out because we all lose our voices. Because there's a lot of talking. There's a lot of shit. Yeah. You should practice together, guys.

We should. I'm more of a soloist. I'm a shower guy. We're fucking course. I get after cool, like warmups. Yeah, we should do that. We'll do that on the road. We'll do that whenever we get out on the road.

Everybody will do a breathing exercise. Sure. Sweet. What I was told, though, is that, you know, whenever I get going and you can see these going, that's a complete opposite of what you want. Okay. We don't need everything. What do we do?

We would like everything to be relaxed around the vocal cords that are in here, because if not, you're kind of straining everything. Oh, it's like when you see a runner, like a track star, it should be like relaxed. Yeah. So whenever you're seeing this, when I'm yelling, whenever this Saturday, just that's not at all what I'm supposed to be doing. We'll let you know. Coach Guy and say,

unless you're ruining your vote courts right now. You should relax that thing, let those things kind of cook in there, you know, direct the air through there, you know, and then kind of let it eat. But to be clear, I thought for sure just going to be showing up. Let's play these songs, okay?

Have a good time. Turns out that's not the case at all. So we're going to have to punt that to later in the fall, maybe spring, as you pointed out, probably not possible. But I do think there'll be time for me to get down to Nashville during the football season. Go through it with down.

I think if I get down to Nashville, then I'm able to do it. So in my mind, rehearsal slash practice slash sound check potentially doesn't happen. Sound check has to happen at the place. Rehearsal and practice happens at some point, then show later down the road. So in my head, I have to get down to Nashville at some point, as opposed to them all coming up here, have a hotel rooms. Sure. Hey. If anybody could do it, you can do it.

Good luck, brother. Godspeed. Thanks, me. Football season. We got a great. Countdown. Game day. Come on. Rehearsal?

You know? Rehearsal? You got to do that. I'm like very excited. I had this wave of excitement that hit me last night while I was laying in my bed. I was like, man, we are literally just a couple days away from being in a full college game day. Buzz saw down there in Baton Rouge. And anybody that comes out and hangs with us on Saturday morning, obviously, we appreciate you. I think there's some sort of tropical storm potentially in the area down there.

There's one. There's three out in the Pacific. So watch the total for the Hawaii. game on Saturday night. There's three hurricanes going on in Pacific. That's awesome. And then there's one in Texas, I believe, hovering around right now as well. I don't know if it's going down the bayou or not, but maybe some residual. Maybe some residual rainfall. I know there is obviously. We're fully in El Nino right now. What's that mean? I don't know exactly, but I know we're in it. I thought El Nino was the name of a hurricane. El Nino is the name of a weather system.

Okay, so we're currently in El Nino right now, which is potentially hurricane season? Our hurricane season is now, yes. So is El Nino. weather system saying it's hurricane season? El Nino is a weather system that will also go into the winter and produce snowstorms and stuff like that, I believe, as well. I think I'm right, but I could also be wrong. El Nino is a climate pattern that causes unusual warming of surface waters in the central and eastern Pacific. What happens during El Nino? Well, that's good question. Weekend winds. Trade winds blow weaker than normal from east to west. Warm water shift. Now this is the one. Warm water slashes towards the coast of South America instead of pooling near Indonesia, which has global weather changing

implication shifts in heat and atmospheric pressure disrupt normal weather systems worldwide so i think you nailed it pretty cool who's our weather guy this year can't troy every year is can'tori still the guy that had the thing in his melting on the back window yeah got his name jim storm chaser the guy troy always jim just he just celebrated four years yeah so he just celebrated four years yeah so oh adam with the yeah yeah oh that fucking guy no he's a good guy yeah yeah but no What's wrong with him? It's Cantori. This is football season, boys.

We can't be messing around with the weather guys. Thank you. All right. Jim Cantorri is an arena league. I saw Max Velocity still doing it. That was something to think. I'm thinking Max Veloclesies. No, any of those YouTube streaming weather people,

no chance I'm listening. Hit the fucking road. What are you talking about? No, they're all lying and they're scaring everyone. That's not true. They're all like tornadoes are coming. Welcome to weather, bro. The news has been doing this forever.

Hey. hunker down actually go to the grocery store first then hunker don for about two weeks the worst insert name of some sort of weather is on the way and then it doesn't and then it's like the boy who cry wolf because at some point they do say hey they got it right this year it's actually coming and it does come so it's not just like the the youtube influencing weather people are unbelievable those guys are the worst can't dory don't miss illinois set a record for tornadoes this summer and they were on top of all of it and the rain uh here in the midwest i think they were on top of So I think you need...

And the snowstorm? I'm not saying her Joe DeNardo, bro. Nobody's true. They're not Joe to Nardo. They're not L. Roker. His two week of... Al-Fucking Roker. Whatever fake Hires Nardo around...

If we all talk on top each other... Oh, no. You didn't know that? No, I didn't know. I think that's good. I think if everybody just talks at the same time, we'll get it all accomplished. You're talking about when Al Roker shit his pants?

No, Al Roker got it right is what it happened. And maybe he did poop his pants. I'm not 100% sure, but... I didn't see that. Al Roker can do it all. He can read the weather. He can obviously read a Doppler. He can walk a parade.

He can do it all. He's a host. He's an interviewer. Yeah, he's great. Outeroker's a goat in the world. Yeah, a dog. Versaic though. Outerker's still alive.

He would celebrate those people that are like 100 years old, smuckers. Is that the real Al Roker? Remember that being a kid? Still. He lost a lot of way. What you mean? I remember I saw him on TV one time.

One time. He lost a lot of weight. He just froze for like two minutes. That happens. All right. Out Roker? Reboated. happens me all the time.

Yeah, unless I'm getting them confused. Arrow was black, right? Yeah. Ball. Yeah. Glasses. He's lost a lot of weight. That's out.

So a lot of people. What's that? There's many people that are like, holy smokes. You see them 10, 15 years ago, and they're 220 pounds heavier than you are now. Oh, you're saying they've gotten fatter. We're saying,

they were fatter and they've gotten smaller things. Sometimes you forget that people were much bigger. Oh, yeah. I guess when you see photos from the past, first maybe now like you're oh i forgot i forgot there's there's a whole another person with them back yeah literally bigger person and then you tell them like you look good you know and then somebody comes in and talks to you and go it looks fucking weird it's like whoa they've worked their ass off on this it's like yeah but that's no there's some guys look you got to work too if you just lose a bunch of

weight you're not working then you do look out you got lift some weights yeah because then you come bag of leaves yeah yeah you don't want to be you don't want to be looking at looking like a bag of leaves. It's certainly possible in this modern day and age. Yeah, unless you're a big orange bag of leaves and you got a jackalander face on him. That's nice. Oh, you're talking about because you're in a spooky season? Yeah.

Well, no, close. We're close. We're getting there. It's a little too fucking hot outside. Yeah, I guess there is a heat warning here in Indianapolis for the rest of the week. Obviously, tropical storms coming through. That means heat down there. South Florida, you know more about hurricanes than us.

Are you guys in hurricanes than us? Yeah. It hasn't been a rough one yet. But as the fall, as we get into the fall, that's when they start to. Because I was usually away for football, you know, at post high school, and then you have to see it on the news and feel like a fucking asshole because you can't help. Is that post, is it beginning of football season? Throughout kind of, yeah.

That's scary stuff because that's a lot of, that's a lot of bully who cried wolf type stuff, right? A whole lot of it. And then you have, like, you know, certain ones that actually show up, you know, maybe category three, then it turns to a four, then it hits like a five. And you have some there out in the water that say, oh, by the time it hits land, It'll be the worst sense whenever, and then, you know, it will knock over a couple of cheers. But that's why you have your old people, your grandparents who are like 80 years old, you're like, hey, I should have been. I ain't fucking leaving.

I ain't going to where. So it's scary, though, especially when you're not, like I said, boots on the ground. You got to watch it on TV with everybody else. But it's always a wild time. Mother Nature, you know. Crazy. It's crazy. Scary.

Mother nature is a crazy, crazy lady. I mean, beautiful, obviously. I love when that sun comes out. I love a nice 72-degree day. Oh. Oh, it's 69, maybe 69 to 72 in that window. Light breeze, sun. He's starting to change.

Oh, oh, did we just all went there, right? Oh yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. They're constantly. Close. Do you really? That's incredible. In my brain.

That's good, man. That's the best thing about the Midwest, for sure, the fall. Agreed. Spring I like as well, but spring has kind of become summer. Fall now feeling like summer as well. I do wonder if we're just gonna power through these transition seasons. A week or so right.

How do we power rank the seasons? So if spring was actually spring, I would go spring first. I was born then. And also the weather I think is good. It's like 74 or 75 supposed to be. You know, under 80, I think is what spring is supposed to be. But spring as of late has just been winter and then 100 degrees.

I agree. Winter and then 100 degrees. And then winter and then 100 degrees. And then we're in summer for the entire time. So I think I'm kind of out on what spring is. Fall still has it. So your spring, fall, summer, winter? Yeah.

There's a place for each one of them. Each of them has a time. Because we live in Indiana. Winter definitely drops a good bit because there's nothing to do. There's no skiing or snowboarding here in Indiana in the winter. Winter's still sweet, though. I don't like the winter. Do you have stuff to do over there?

I mean, yeah, go out in the yard and throw snowballs and roll around on the hill and do that. I don't go. I've never skied. No, it's not my thing. You know, I got a side-by-side, pull my kids around in that. That's a good little game, play in the winter. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think I'm fall or spring.

If spring was supposed to be, if spring was spring, I would have spring at one. Spring doesn't have ball, though. Yeah, I agree, but it did have the best weather. Spring in college was the best. By fall. Oh, yeah. And it had like Southern California weather for like a month and a half. It was like perfect.

It's not like that anymore. Fall feels more like spring. October, it might be the best. Yeah, I like Halloween. I like heading into Thanksgiving Christmas. Yeah, I think fall is number one for me. Same. Fall, spring.

Just because it's football, obviously, so football wins. But if we're talking strictly weather basis, I think fall still. Those crispy evenings, golfing, there's leaves. You guys got a big fantasy dream. You didn't get that growing up, D, but you realize. No, no, it was. How cool fall was. Summer, summer, summer, growing up.

Spring, summer. Hot, hot, hot, hot, hotter, hotter, hottest. Holy shit. nobody go outside. It's too hot. Back to hot or hot, hot, hot, hot. Shout to South Florida living, baby. But it doesn't snow that much.

Winter's great, too. I like winter yet, because I run hot. So I'd rather it, you know, be very cold. But you don't see the sun throughout winter. So that kind of bums me out a little bit. I like snow. I don't like freezing bitter cold, but I like snow. I like seeing snow.

I'm okay with that. Snow feels warmer. When it's cold and it's snowing, it feels warmer. Very much. When it's cold and, not snowing. Yeah. Ass.

Because there's no sun, normally windy. If it's rain, sleet shit, oh. Cold rain is the worst. Yeah, I think so,

especially because that thing's probably going to freeze. You know, and everybody's going to be... We had some nasty ice, didn't we this past winter I remember? We had a huge ice.

Black ice. Polar vortex. We had polar vortex come through, I think, this past one. El Nino normally indicates warm winter. Okay.

From our understanding of what the internet's telling us. with the farmer's almanac, tell you. That's good call, because that thing was predicting the future, right? That's what the farmer's. That's what people claim, yeah. Who writes it? I mean, Farmer. Michael J. Fox, maybe, I think, right?

He did, yeah. Yes, you are right. He did right. Him and the professor. Back to the show. That's what that movie, Pressure is kind of about the World War II, how they figured out Normandy. Precious? I don't know.

Pressure? Pressure. Pressure? I don't know. Gabrielle. Big Gabby? I met her multiple times. Let her know. I was a huge fan.

That was a big deal. I got a selfie with her, two of them. And I feel very proud of that. Nobody's going to talk about it, but I'm a huge fan of hers. We got a live look at Ben Shelton right now at US Open. Taking on Hubert Kichez, a Polish lad, who's two and nine in career majors. Shelton up 6'3 in the first set, 3-3 now, battling a little bit. Break point.

Oh, I like that. He put a little backspin on it. Hercas had no shot there. Advidot Ben Shelton. He's on to return. Mick Jagger. What's that? That Mick Jagger right there?

I think it's probably Hunter's coach, maybe. Yeah, I looked like a coach. But it might be Mick Jagger's well. McJagger still has it. Hunter obviously understands that this is very important right now. Advod could turn 4-3, could swing the entire. Oh, what I serve. 138 mile hour painting the corners.

DeBott, how much do you know about tennis and the ins and outs? Oh, not much at all. My sister used to date a guy who was big in junior tennis. As an athlete, you think, oh, I can get out there. I can do anything, especially tennis. I couldn't, I mean, I couldn't even get close to touching a return to serve, which I thought I could do it. This kid was 140 pounds, maybe.

So, yeah, I have a huge level of respect for them, but I know nothing about the actual game. Love Coco. It's a neighbor. Love Serena. Obviously, growing up, Federo and a doll, Joker, all those guys. But I like watching. It's cool.

That's a good point. This is a great rally right here. Yeah, a little backspan, little ping, pong little shoot that thing across the table there what a play by ben shelton as the crowd gets a chance to celebrate the hell out of the american boy take an advedot over hunter horcast this is a great shot that ESPN's been using for the replays feels like you're actually in the game against ben shelton i wish they had one on the other side and they had the ability for us to just kind of have a split screen with both from as if we're behind him like a video game what a shot by ben

shogden useful cut shot little cut shot little size spin on it a little dropper maybe i'm not a hundred percent short. Now, he did fault on the first serve here. So the second serve should be much easier for Ben to kind of handle. That's why the first serve not going in is a big deal because this is a layup probably. Oh, actually attacked a double fall to lose. And that's the that's why the first serve is such a big deal because they're going for it there. Broke them. That's it. Once you have all today. Congratulations Ben Shelton. Good win, Ben. Guy double faulted to walk his ass out of the U.S. Open. That's what Ben Shelton's doing to people. All right, scoring real quick.

Tennis, one-on-one. Like, what's the score? How many sets? 15-30-40-win. So, one. So, okay. 15, 30, 40, win. But then you got the deuce and all that, you got to go into it.

If it ties at 40, then it's, then it goes to extra. Deuce. Yeah. Advid-Ad-Advadad is advantage or up one, trying to get the two-up. Isn't Bruce our tennis guy? Yeah. What's love? Love is zero.

So it's 15, love, 30, love, 40-40, love. 40-40 is deuce. And then you go add-in, means, means. the guy serving has the advantage and add out means that the return player Ben Shelton in that instance has the advantage. That was a massive break for Ben Shelton. He's going to win that match.

And you've got to go two in a row whenever it gets the deuce. And break is when you win a game when the opponent. Guys got to win three sets, girls got to win two. You want to win every game that you serve. And then if you can win a game in the return, that's where you really take control of the set and then the match. Different rules, men and women? Yeah, three and two.

leave is what AJ just said. Yeah, best of five, best of three. Huh. It's one by two in the sets, right? So if it's like six, five, you've got to get to seven. Yep. Yep, and then six, six, tiebreaker. And then the tiebreaker rules vary from tournament to tournament I've found.

I'm kind of fucking confused with the tiebreaker. And when I was playing growing up, you'd go to like a random away game, and it's like, what are we playing for the tiebreaker? Are we going to seven? Are we going to 11? Nobody ever fucking knows. Okay, tell me this. Tennis, we talked a little bit about this beforehand.

The people growing up, tennis as in general, country club sport, right? Just happens to be the most athletic kid at the country club normally dominates tennis because he can't do that in golf against everybody else. So where I grew up in Connecticut and on Long Island, there are a lot of clubs that are just pool tennis. And then there are super nice country clubs that are golf, pool tennis. And those are usually nicer pools, nicer tennis, but also have a golf course. my club was a swimming pool, a big field where we played baseball, and football, and shit, and then clay tennis courts. So it was just pool, playing water pole, swimming, and then go over and play tennis.

Yeah, I, I... Is it a country club or is it a public situation? That would be a swimming tennis club. It was a private club, but, like, you know, it wasn't like hoity to hoity. No, you signed up to utilize the facilities. It was like my mom would drop me off at 8 a.m. picked me up in the summer, and that was like, school. replacement.

Got it. That's a camp. And you were good. You played Waterpull and you played tennis because it was there and it was available and you were good at it. Yeah, I did it all. I would like to let you know that you should have maybe got into basketball a little bit more. Hey, Bruce's been knocking down shots out of him.

Lefty and righty. Sneaky high. NBA 3s lefty, like kind of cross face and then just floater right hands. He's been knocking them. It's been outrageous to watch. But Bruce has kind of found an NBA three point shot amongst the, the game of seven returning it's been fun to watch bruce yeah it'll it'll disappear completely i'm the worst kind of ambidextrous where you're not really good with either one but you're somehow

capable of doing a lot of stuff both i like that's not the worst kind yeah because the worst kind can't do shit with either yeah they got neither true that's no dexterous that's exactly that is no dexterous that's who debone was the national chain i didn't say that yeah he's using a smaller ball yesterday he can shoot a bit too actually he's he's always competitive in seven yeah good shooter. He's got really good for him. He watched like J.J. Reddick's tape and said I'm going to shoot like that guy because he's doing that. Yeah, he's got really good form. Yeah, with

Juergens. The only, he did potentially lotion himself down whenever that was happening. He, um, so he has to step right into a shot. We talked about this. So I think like actual basketball could be tough for him, but he has to step into every single shot. In Game point

yesterday in seven, he was still in it, and he actually decided to go behind elephant, step back, to shoot, had to make it. Low IQ play. Was nowhere play or? Decision. Player.

Shot. Okay. Low IQ player. In and out. He stepped behind the one defender on the court. And fade away from the, from the, not the side that's shorter NBA 3, from the point, which I think is the furthest three point shot that you can. Why would he choose that? We don't know.

We still don't know. He said, I just wanted to be natural. I just didn't want to think about the moment. And it's like, all right. We appreciate that. And I like that he was locked in seemingly. But he lost yesterday. A couple big times.

games obviously basketball has helped carry us through this off season we get tennis we got in tennis today tennis yeah we did tennis simulator carried you through like an hour or two not even hour what is that was a magic shot two shot too shot how fast that thing got out of here one shot don't miss your chance to blow it's a good shot though man you to fight it opportunity comes once in this thunder go you know and it did but with that thing still around just doesn't get property on the court if you're not going to work. Yeah, right. That is not how

from my understanding that thing was going to fucking shoot a golf ball up to be on the tee. Yep. And he was just going to boom. And there's another one. Boom. I was going to be able to hit 100 balls maybe 10 minutes. Easy. Because they were just going to be

loading them up for me. Like a bowling alley, that thing's going to get your balls. Kind of put it back in there. And it's like, wow, this is the future. This is how I'm going to get good at golf. this is what it's going to be. And they say it works because the worst thing about golf similarities, they never fucking work.

I don't know how it happens. That was the best shot I've ever hit. Yeah. That might have been a 330-yard drive. Too good. Hit it too hard. That's what they said. Frozen.

Sleeping, man. It wasn't up. It was up. It was on. I saw it. Fucking had its eyes open. If it was sleeping, then, okay,

I see in that thing. He was up and at him. Golf will have to be another day. Shout to Kevin Hart. He's only going to get better. Love what he did. 132. All right.

All right from here. Hour and 12 minute video, him playing golf. Over a million views. He shot at 132. I liked that he's respecting golf that much. I like that he's going to stick with it. And I'm excited to see his growth.

Golf does not necessarily mean you're going to get better if you play more though. Like that is a part of the problem with the sport. You can actually get worse if you practice. That happened to me. I had to hang up with clubs for a while. I was almost back. I'm potentially thinking about it.

But AJ, the ability you have on a golf course should not be understated. be understated. And that's why alongside your football capabilities, your basketball capabilities, your fathering capabilities, you're named President of Ohio. You have one final opportunity here to talk about that Washington

Post article yesterday. First off, I have not read the Washington Post article. You probably have to pay or subscribe to it. I would assume if you click on the link. I did read certain things about it, but you know what? I'm not hearing anything about it. Other than you guys, take the one shot out of here. We get it. We understand. But we know that you guys are the only people

keeping this thing alive. I don't I don't hear anyone talking about it. Okay. We're not keeping it. We're just trying to do a little journalism. You're president of Ohio. We'll have the other president on Herbie. I'm going to ask him on game day.

Maybe you're issued. Yeah, you should. I'm going to ask him on game day. We're talking about the big Ben. I'm going to say, I think there's some. It's crazy, man. Some international assistance potentially happening for one of these teams here. Wow.

Who? You. Washington Post told me China's in her in a lot of state, basically. Just kind of watching film for Ryan Day. Is that what I? what they said. That's his problem. He's listening and putting his ears to the ground in English. It's in Mandarin, brother. You got to change your settings. She, she, me, you do got to change your settings. And they got apps for that. Just something to think about. Washington Posts saying

not good, but hey, we'll continue to be fans of the Ohio State Buckeyes because of how great they've been to us, how great they are for ball, and they produce you. So we obviously have to like that. Before we get out of here, we got to celebrate the President's Cup roster, the United States. Let's go, team. Come on now, boys. I need you here. Obviously, top-ranked Americans make the team. Scotty Sheffler, Cameron Young, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns, Russell Henley, Colin Moracow. The stars of the playoffs and of the PGA Tour, they make the team.

Who are the captain's picks? Good question. How about Jacob Bridgman? Patrick Cantley, Chris Goderup, incredible video on social media. Zander Schoffley, Justin Thomas, and the lad. The Auburn, War Eagle, man. Jackson Coivin makes a squad. These guys are going to be very pumped to play for America.

If Chris Goderup's video tells us anything, It's like the lads are very excited to represent our country. And obviously, after getting our asses beat in the Ryder Cup, we need to make it 12 straight President's Cups. They got a good team, though. Now, granted, there's some people saying, out of the top 18 ranked players in the President's Cup, only two of them reside for the other team.

Okay. Okay. Now, they got a Canadian on their team. I didn't know that was a part of this. I didn't know Canada. I got a chance to sign up for this, two Canadians. I knew this was Asia. I knew it was Australia, New Zealand.

I knew that entire stuff. I did not know that Canada was also trying to get us. So once again, boys, let's keep the Chris Goddrett spirit up. Let's make sure we're representing for the country, and we cannot fucking lose. Cannot. Okay? Cannot lose.

Not an option. They got a good team, though. Ryan Fox is he said he just wants to get out there. He's got it. Pete, that's all he wants to do. Min Wu Lee, unbelievable. He'll do it. Adam Scott, no problem. Hideki Matsiyama.

Yeah. He's a winner. Siwu Kim. Those were the two. Yeah. We got problems, potentially. If we don't come out with our best, and we need to play our best.

So we have the best President's Cup yet. Let's get the hell out of here. Be your friend, tell our friends. I might change your life. Debuck, good work this week. Very work, brother. Whenever you come back, guess what we got. Football.

NFL week. True. AJ, you're the man. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. It is because of all of you. Then we get to live the dumbest and great life that we do. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Football season is here. Let's enjoy the hell out of this season. And let's be assets to society, which is all we're trying to be. Hell yeah. Literally, all we're trying to be. Not asses. It's very close. You know, the line between hero and villain is pretty close.

I've been saying that a lot lately. And the word asses in assets, very close. Let's not be asses. Let's be assets. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice. Might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me.

Team on three for the good sport, baby. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.