The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 170 - My Life Is Dumb, Let’s Enjoy It. Pelicans Intro, Ryan Leaf, Lorenzo Alexander, AND The Voice Of The NFL, Rich Eisen, ALL LIVE IN STUDIO. Let’s. Go.

Episode Date: March 3, 2020

Today’s show is an absolutely loaded one. Pat recaps heading down to New Orleans to intro the starting lineups for the New Orleans Pelicans and helping the legend Red Panda during halftime. Pat and the boys also discuss Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, and Jimmy Fallon hanging out at a Syracuse basketball game where Julian Edelman said Tom Brady is coming back and Brady seemingly mouthed, “No he’s not.” Also joining the show is 2x Pro Bowler, All-Pro, a 13 year NFL veteran at linebacker, and current Vice President of the NFLPA, Lorenzo Alexander calls in to chat with Pat about all the recent developments with the negotiations between the NFL and NFLPA, and what it all means (7:37-22:28). Later, former #2 pick in the 1998 NFL Draft, Ryan Leaf joins Pat and the boys in studio. He and Pat discuss his falling out of the NFL, his descent into drug addiction and his long climb back, some crazy stories from his pre draft process, and who he thinks the top 5 quarterbacks in this year’s draft are (36:30-1:46:33). Also joining Pat and the boys in studio is one of the OG’s in the industry, the Voice of the NFL and friend of the show, Rich Eisen. Rich, Pat, and Ryan chat about the combine process, the unprecedented amount of great quarterbacks who are entering free agency this year, and Rich explains what happened behind the scenes with making the NFL combine what it is today (1:11:26-1:46:33). Keep sending tweets with the hashtag #ThisIsWhereImAtPat to show where you’re listening to the show for a chance to win some free merch. Come and laugh with us. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, hello, beautiful people. It is Tuesday, March 3rd, 2020. Just two days after I went down to New Orleans, the Crescent City, the Big Easy, and did a little bit of an introduction for the boys. Also tossed some bowls of Red Panda. You hear all about that. Plus a great conversation about the CBA, breaking down Tom Brady, you name it. We've got a hell of a show for you today, and I'm so thankful that you're choosing to listen. And I'm also thankful that you continue to choose to use the greatest ticket-buying platform on planet earth and the moon

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with our friends at mercari now let's get to the show obviously had a chance to go down into the blender the smoothie king center in new orleans and introduce the starting five i didn't get to intro zion last he went second which is where he's been all season because i learned a lot of things they don't want to put too much pressure on the 19 year old they want him to know that it's drew holiday's team it's not his team they don't need that weight on his shoulders last night was a massive game felt like a playoff atmosphere lebron james was standing about seven feet to my left the crowd was loud and i was having a good time i'm very thankful for the pelicans for the opportunity there and the hospitality and i got to throw bowls to red panda

that now i will forever remember getting to intro the new orleans pelicans last night i'll forever remember that as a moment but on my headstone on gravestone heads on my headstone i would like there to potentially be a line about me being a part of red panda's act on one particular march 1st 2020 what a legendary lady i got a chance to throw her some bowls while she's up there on that unicycle. She hit her five-piece last night. She hit her four-piece. I think she missed the three-piece, which the crowd, you just heard just the life get sucked out of New Orleans when that one bowl. But mentally tough red panda bounced back, hit the three-piece, hit the four-piece, and then bang, hit the five-piece. hit the three-piece, hit the four-piece,

and then bang, hit the five-piece, pulls from her shins and her foot to her head, which is one of the most incredible acts in history. It was a great night in New Orleans. Obviously, we, the Pelicans, Patty Pelicans, lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, led by LeBron James and the boys. What an awesome show.

They gave us good seats right in the middle of all of it i was talking to the coach of the uh pelicans gentry i was letting him know that his suit looked good i was letting the refs know that i didn't appreciate their inconsistencies on how they are reffing and officiating how zion is being defended because he's a big body so he's getting banged up underneath we would like him to get taken care of a little bit more i was letting the ref know gentry was letting the ref know. Gentry was letting the ref know. We were a tag team and a ref at one point. This did happen for an NHL game when I was going at the refs, and it backfired last night.

We actually got a call the next time down. So I feel like I did do my part for the Pelicans to get their win last night. The Lakers were just too much. Frank Vogel, formerly the coach of the Indiana Pacers, was there. Didn't get a chance to chat with him personally, but it was very cool to be back in the NBAba world last night because i'm a big basketball guy this big basketball show evan foxy uh traveled with me down to new orleans yes sir how awesome was it watching those humans that are just so much bigger and more athletic than us who are much richer than us by the way just doing their thing first off shout out pelicans first

class organization but pat me and you both are lebron guys through and through last night 100 was rooting for zion and the pelicans yeah i'm a zion guy i am a zion guy now granted was i a lebron guy for my entire life basically yes yes did i watch the lakers growing up yes so it was very difficult last night but then once you see Zion in person you're like this is an alien this is an alien of a human this is not how humans are 270 hitting his head off the rim basically it's insane to watch and he seems like a guy a kid who's very humble he seems like a guy loves his teammates loves the process got a few bad calls called against him did not even say a thing To the ref

That is wild to me And I think he's Going to be Obviously the future He's one of the only guys I actually watch When he doesn't have the ball Because you don't know

What he's going to do Yeah he is so explosive though His warm up He was kind of just Trotting around And then he would go And do layups on one side And you could hear the crowd

Be like God come on And then he'd come back And he'd be like Yeah And then he'd just back and he'd be like yeah and then he just like walked casually it's like man this dude is unbelievable and we witnessed the killer instinct firsthand kuzma uh zion went up for a layup kuzma had some good defense blocked it and said not here jogging by us he goes not here young fella or something like that and he

jogs by and i was like did kuzma just kuzma just said that because he said it in front of their bench which is right in front of us so he was trying to get people to hear that right but he didn't say it i mean it was an interesting situation next time down zion goes right at his head right at his head bodies kuzma jogs right by us i was like right here kuzma right i would like to think that at some point kuzma like gave a little chuckle to that yeah i would think so i like the way kuzma plays too by the way i he's done a whole dennis rodman i'm gonna become a brand new player thing with the dye hair i like what he's doing that was a great game last night ladies and gentlemen joining us now on the phone is a man who's the

nflpa vice president a man who's a legend for the Buffalo Bills and friend of the show, linebacker, Lorenzo Alexander. Hey, what's going on? Hey, sorry, our computer crashed. We weren't able to call you. We apologize for the delay and the tardiness here on this phone call. Yeah, no worries, no worries at all. Just got to get my kids to school here soon, but we're good.

Okay, all right, dad of the year. You also got a lot of other things going on with the nflpa and the cba negotiations now am i correct in saying this the strike or lockout if it was to happen would not be until after this upcoming season and the thought of a strike actually happening is insane due to the fact that 10 years ago there was a lockout which was on the owner's side not on the player's side. Is this something that is all potentially on the table right now? Yeah, I think everything is on the table. Obviously, so far, all the votes for leadership have been very close. I mean, the executive committee, which I sit on, was 6-5 against taking the deal.

The player reps were 17-14 with one affirmation for the deal. And so who knows what our players um collectively will vote for and so uh with that unknown you have to prepare for every situation that might occur they might take the deal they may not well we may have to go back to you know renegotiate after next season and then if we still don't like it there may be possibly of a strike and what you can see on Twitter people are as far as the players are gearing up as far as they support those guys that may feel the need to cross because of financial burdens that they have just from living life and having a family Marquise Pouncey

Mike Pouncey and I believe I forget who the third player was Russell Russell Russell Elkung are offering up $250,000 they said this will be separate from the already strike fund. That's $250,000. So the NFL PA has already put aside a potential $250,000 strike fund for players. And then these three guys are trying to organize a group to put together more money. This is something you guys must've thought about for a long time.

If there's already a $250,000 strike fund for every single player in the NFL? Right. Well, you know, that's kind of where our dues money goes to. That's for the, you know, pretty much our work stoppage fund, our war chest for a better term that we have collectively over the years, obviously paid X amount every year in dues. And that money sits in an account growing and growing for instances like this so if things come up to where we cannot play we can at least help our players in some sort of way and there's various ways that we have at our discretion as far as dispersing that money but if we do it evenly across everybody it would definitely be about 250,000 per player but you see guys in a leadership role like a Russ like the P pouncey twins like some other guys

that have made just a substantial amount of money won't need that money so they may forego that 250 that the union will be able to provide them as well as i think invest in other players as well by giving their own money just to help solidarity and really at the end of the day to help us be able to gain leverage in what we want when it comes to us having a strike. If you guys have the strike, by the way, I'm happy I could be a part of that. That happened. I'm pumped. Yeah.

I'm pumped that I'm a part of that. Good for the team there. If a strike happens, isn't the game for the NFL just a waiting game, right? Because don't they just assume like, okay, at some point, this money is going to run out, and then once once again we're back into a great point of leverage and is that what you guys are expecting to happen if you're to strike is that why there's a potential yeah that's why i think that's why you see some guys um like i said before that have made a lot of money that are willing to kind of step up and try to ease some of that financial stresses that some of our guys will have during that time um you know whether to pay rent, pay a mortgage, whatever they may need, groceries,

just to kind of help that from delaying as long as possible. Because let's be real, owners don't like to lose money either. And obviously, you know, with our premier guys, that's why none of the AFL or XFL is really taking off because they don't have the same premier players that we have in our league. And so at some point, it will start hurting them financially. And they always talk about, well, we're losing money. They're just not making as much as they want to make.

And so if you take away the premier players, really collectively as a player, they won't make the same type of money they want. They can say the fan base is loyal, but they're also loyal to the people that are out there producing on the field and helping their teams win. Agreed. Let's talk about that 17-14 to the one abstained vote for passing the CBA proposal along to the players to vote on this thing. Who was the one vote that didn't vote? Was that somebody just fell asleep?

How does that work? Yeah, I mean we in any uh you know democratic election i mean you can see this you know in um our u.s government you always see somebody who refused to vote you know either way and i mean i guess it's a safe play but at some point you have to stand up and and and put a yes or no i think in my opinion after you hear all the information you get all the options you get all the potential outcomes of whichever way we go, and then make a vote. That's why your players have put you on the board to make those decisions.

So, you know, the guy, I guess, you know, it is a heavy load because we are talking about 2,000 men and their families as well as some former players and their families. And so some people just have a hard time making a decision. Maybe he just needed more time to think about it. And then, because he'll get a chance to vote, too, as an individual player, then he'll make his mark then. But I don't know who it is.

But hopefully over the next couple of weeks, he comes to a place to where he can put a yes or a no. The NFLPA, and we're talking to Lorenzo Alexander, vice president of the nflpa just retired from the buffalo bills would love to talk about your incredible career and how much you did for the buffalo bills especially with the turnaround and everything that sean mcdermott had but right now obviously the topic of conversation is the cba what is something you think aside from the 17 games what is something else in that cba proposal that is not great for the players that

hasn't been talked about uh i mean i think the biggest thing is because you know when you do a cba you try to see how you can impact the masses and so i think the the biggest thing that we weren't able to change or get you know shifted was uh restrictions you know tags. So that's the main thing. And it really impacts, obviously, our top 20 guys, 20% of guys in the league. And then really, and then also getting, like, tenders, which is another form of a tag, getting that money guaranteed. So teams can restrict certain players from moving. You can get a high tender, mid-tender, or low-tender,

depending on what round you're drafted in. And then that money's still not guaranteed. I mean, I remember we had a guy, I think Mike Gisley, on the Buffalo Bills. When I first got there, they tendered him and then didn't end up – I think they ended up cutting him or didn't sign him. And so they were able to restrict his movement to where he may be and see if he'd be able to garner a couple of teams who wanted his services to obviously get the best contract possible.

But the team kind of restricted him from doing that, but then his money wasn't guaranteed. And I think that's something that a lot more players and people think, especially, you know, like that second-tier middle class and third-tier guys. And it's a hard pill to swallow. You restrict me, but you're not going to guarantee my money, so what are you really saying to me? Do you love me or do you not love me?

And so those are you really saying to me do you love do you love me or do you not love me and so uh that that's those are some i think the big some of the other issues that are kind of um pushing the 17 game uh issue as well because those are some big things that are very important to our men okay you're now a retired player um i am a retired player i know that we had five years of health care after retirement. From what I've been told is there's no change on that front. Has there been any conversation about retired players maybe getting all the money? So, well, all the money. So part of this deal that nobody talks about

is the pensions of 393 players that it's like currently I don't know the exact number, but let's say $200. And this whole concept of pension parity as far as raising those pensions up for those guys to $550, because a lot of these guys, we are benefiting from their sacrifices. And we have a lot of food today because of what those men did back in the day. And so we have a part of the allotted money that we've negotiated so far that is

going to former players to help their pensions come up. As far as current guys and really all former players that are on the other side of 93, there is this caveat of having access to medical facilities in all 32 NFL cities that hopefully we can broaden over time. And, you know, when we think about medical care, I think most people think about, you know, going to see your family practitioner, the dentist.

But I think also some guys say, I want medical care. You want to have somebody who can do treatment on your body, right, the molds, the ankle joints, the grasping, the things that we come accustomed to as far as playing this game and being able to play it at a high level. And so we will have access to some of those preventative care things in 32 cities for you and your wife, and then a petition that will grow from just preventative care services to some surgeries that our men have a high frequency of getting after they're done playing.

So there is a caveat. It's not your traditional health care, let's bump that five years out, but we have introduced a new benefit that will be accessible to all former players once they're done playing the game. That's awesome. I appreciate that. Last question before we let you go be Dad of the Year, and we can't thank you enough for your time here. Do you think the bottom half of rosters in the NFL

are going to agree to this current proposed CBA due to the fact that it's immediately more money in their pocket right there's a lot of the people that have come out and said I voted yes normally are people that are from the bottom of the roster that happen to be player reps or a team do you think this was set up by the NFL to get the bottom half of the roster to say yes to this, no matter what the top half does? Well, I think, I mean, that's the majority of our league. Majority of our league is 60%. And I will say it's not just a league thing. It's an NFL thing as well, or NFL PA thing as well.

And we're trying to make movement, obviously, for all of our players. But at the end of the day, you have to make a deal that's trying to impact most of the guys. And sometimes guys get left out of that. And obviously in this deal, the most significant changes was for those core middle-class guys that we have on our rosters. And so, yeah, it is very advantageous. At one time when I got in this league with one of those guys as well,

and I probably would have said yes. I even said yes in this deal just the way things structured and just thinking out long game as far as some of the cons against it. But when I go to my men, I'm not trying to get them to vote the way things are structured and just thinking out long game as far as some of the cons against it. But when I go to my men, I'm not trying to get them to vote the way I vote or the way they think they should vote. I want to present the information in the most unbiased way to make it clear. At the end of the day, you are playing 17 games. So my first question, because sometimes you can phrase things like,

hey, what's in this deal? Would you like to play 17? Have you made some movements? But guys really may not want to play 17th. So you have to ask them because we have a meeting later this week with just the Buffalo Bills guys that I've obviously played with. Do you want to play 17th? Okay, well, this is what our 17th.

If not, okay, that's a non-starter. But if you do, this is what the deal looks like. Is this good enough? And I think those are the kind of stages that you have to kind of talk about the deal because obviously I have a lot of influence. Our player advocate, Pat DeMarco, has a lot of influence. I believe he voted yes as well for the deal. And so we can sway guys, but I don't want to do that.

I want to make sure they understand everything that this deal entails. And then whether or not they want to play 17 or not, I think, settle on because that is an added risk to your life and will prevent you from being the best dad you want to be when you're done playing and so um obviously i'm dealing with that you know what the pains of playing football does as well and so sometimes all money ain't good money and i want players to really think about that before they go and put yes just because they're getting immediate gratification you voted yes though lorenzo i trust your brain you've been around a long time you were there

yeah i mean i did vote yes and i mean i obviously i'm gonna eat my boat really it just it's just giving my perspective as far as where we're at um i voted yes based on before even guys talk started talking my theory is you try to go through a strike and the guys start crossing and then you end up in a worse place and that's just one of the realities that you have to face um and i you know and it's hard for me that you know i don't want to go backwards because they the league can impose several different things on us um as their last and best final offer that is significantly less than the current deal we have and maybe even worse than the 2011 deal and walk back in a lot of different areas. And so for me, I have to say, can our men collectively go through a strike or hold out long enough to where we don't take something that's significantly worse?

But that was before I started hearing guys around the league that, you know, have been our top earners, the faces of the league saying, hey, I'll forego my 250 and I'll invest in some of these young guys for our team. And now, so we have to continue to flush that out. But if we can create the real movement with the top earners in our league to really want to invest and create a place where guys have resources for legitimate things, I'm not talking about funding somebody's trip or anything, but legitimate things for their livelihood

that's going to allow us to hold out and even get a better deal. Because if we're able to do a strike successfully, there is a potential of even getting a better deal. And so, you know, my mind is kind of shifted in that regard. And so I want to continue to flush out this new kind of proposed idea. And then maybe my mind shifts. But the reason why I say yes is based on every single outcome i've seen how history was strikes in the past have gone haven't been very good for us but they didn't have the type

of money we do now and we don't have the type of guys that want to step up so i may shift a little bit and then also i voted yes because you know talking to guys they were okay with 17 i'm not being a 15 year vet the way i played i couldn't see myself next season if i decided to come back playing a 17-game schedule. But I'm not supposed to vote based on my own wants. I'm supposed to vote on what my guys rest, some of the players that I talk to, their voice. And so I have to take myself out of it, which a lot of times is hard for guys,

and give just a vote based on what the man I serve in the Bills locker room and then obviously the greater body is in the players. And so that's kind of some of the reasons why I voted yes, but my mind can always change if things change from our men. All right. Well, Lorenzo, I appreciate you so much for joining us. I appreciate you going in there and doing your due diligence and also everything you did for the NFL.

Good luck out there. We're pulling for you. Ladies and gentlemen, dad of the year, Lorenzo Alexander. Appreciate you, man. All right, fellas. Appreciate We're pulling for you. Ladies and gentlemen, dad of the year, Lorenzo Alexander. Appreciate you, man. All right, fellas. Appreciate you guys. See ya. Michael Thomas isn't happy that Tony Romo signed for $17 million.

He said, this is why we can't sign a new CBA. He's making more money than 90% of the NFL. I would like to correct that. 97, 98% of the NFL. $17 million is a lot of money, man. Hey, that's a lot of money man hey that's a lot of money man and by the way michael thomas i don't know how to tell you this we are making more money than 90 of nfl rosters as well right now our business right here is making more money than 90 that's just the way business works mr thomas now you can't compare these two and michael thomas is 100 right in

thinking hey we deserve more money. We want more money. We want all the money we could possibly get. I respect that. But to compare and think that Tony Romo's contract has anything to do with the CBA is just a wild, wild scene. And I respect that Michael Thomas says that's the reason why he doesn't agree with the new CBA. If it was something along the lines of he deserves more money because he's obviously outplayed his contract, I would respect that. But what Tony Romo does has absolutely nothing to do what's going on by the way michael

thomas i would love to show you the books of a lot of businesses that revolve around sports and how well they're doing now and i'd also like to show you all the books of the people that have failed and how little money they're making that's a whole different ball game but i love what tony romo did i would like everybody to know that I, Pat McAfee, love Tony Romo's decision to not only flip the game on its head when it comes to payment of commentators and people on TV, but to do it in a way and get broken off to the tune of 17 mil, I absolutely love.

Yeah, I assume someone talked to Michael Thomas and said basically what you said because the tweet got deleted. Yeah, he was like, oh, this makes me sound dumb. And I'm not a dumb person. Michael Thomas, by the way, not. No. Very intelligent. Very athletic.

About to get broken off. Should get broken off because of how damn good he is. But I can see how you can see other people's money and get a little bit envious. But this is two very different worlds, sir. But as far as Tony Romo, I saw or something or read, it's like a three-year deal. But if the CBA deal gets signed, then it's a 10-year deal. Yeah, and even if it's not – no, it's not about the CBA. It's about the rights for the CBA.

Yeah, if CBS retains the rights to NFL games. Yeah, it's a CBS. If CBS gets to extend their rights to NFL, even if it's not for 10 years, even if it's only a four-year extension, he gets paid for 10 years. He signed a $170 million guaranteed deal to commentate football games. And I love everything about it. Now, Monday Night Football's gig is wide open. What are they going to do?

Are we going to do this dance again? Are we going to do this dance again? I honestly believe that I would add a lot to the Monday Night Football booth. Now, Andrew Marchand came after me for saying that I wanted the job of the New York Post, which, by the way, I can understand that that might be frowned upon in some businesses to not want to verbalize or speak into existence your dreams and goals. But whenever you've never really been given a full opportunity, these are things you have to do mr marchand these are things that you have to do i have said for the last three years that i think i would enjoy the hell out of monday night football i understand the nfl i have a lot of friends in

the nfl i know the game of the nfl and the fact that it could be a a show that has taken some hits the last couple years would be an absolute honor now will they make that decision absolutely not absolutely not they will not let me in there i mean i think we all very much understand that i will not get that gig but i'm all about trolling for it i'm all about trolling for it because i think i could add something to the nfl i honestly do believe that i could do that and if i don't get i'm not going to be upset because they've already missed twice without hiring me. And it's just one of those things where it would be very cool to get that gig.

And a lot of people tweeting that I would take a cheap contract. That is not accurate. That is not accurate at all. They're like, oh, you could probably just pay Pat $4 million and he'll take it. I'm like, first of all, you have no idea how much money I'm making. You have no clue how much it would take for me to do that. And also, now that Tony Romo has done that, we are in what we like to call a position of leverage this is what we like to call good news for everybody that come to i would love to see

peyton manning in there if they can get peyton manning in there i would love to see peyton manning in their big old brain i have no idea if he would do it or wants to get into commentating that's a lot of air time to fill three hours every single week live mike i think he would obviously be great in there i would enjoy it and i wouldn't mind learning how to do play by play i think that's something i could figure out rather quickly i'll say it so you don't have to because you're a good guy and you would never say this but the last two guys that they had in there doing color couldn't even have a job holding your microphone so jeez we gotta get to break. That is something I would like it to be known that I have never said that. The opinions of digs do not reflect that of their employer,

but I think anybody knows that there's not a single human on earth that can touch me on a microphone. I think that is something that is very much understood at this point. And the old whites might not like it, but there ain't nothing you can do. The train is coming through chew chew that's just what you got to do this man might be a billionaire before the all said and done in this weekend his trolling and trolling a free agency just continues to be mastered by this man for the first time in 20 years he's become a free agent and he is living

it up to the fullest ufc fights in ve Vegas, chatting with Mark Davis, lighting the world on fire. Rumors about him going to a school in Nashville to test it out for his kids. Everywhere he goes, there's quite a controversy. Tom Brady this weekend went to a Syracuse basketball game with Julian Edelman and Jimmy Fallon, and the internet was stopped once again tom brady mouthing after julian edelman with a fresh by the way completely different person with a shaved face

versus the bearded uh julian edelman handsome man but the beard is such an impressive one i would keep that thing full time but i understand if you want to see your face every once in a while julian edelman by the way massive come up for julian oh my god he's got like a gordon hayward type come up whatever yeah from kent state to now handsome man obviously good friends with tom brady at the syracuse basketball game sitting directly next to him they go to the camera shot julian edelman puts friend of his in a terrible spot by saying he's coming back back, he's coming back, and then looks at him like, maybe we get an answer. And Tom Brady either says, he's not this guy or he's lying.

All of it could have been said by Tom Brady. And yet again, spur of the moment, out of nowhere, Tom Brady is playing this entire free agency thing perfectly like a maestro orchestrating the entire conversation about his free agency. I think he might have said he's not. He said he's not. He either said he's not or this guy. If you have in your mind, he said this guy.

He potentially says this guy. Do you think he was talking about the waiter or maybe Jimmy Fallon? I don't think so, Zito. I like your optimism there. He could have potentially been talking about the waiter or the server that was down there in the seats that he was sitting in. He's not coming back. He could have been talking about Jimmy.

He's coming back. He's not coming back. Potentially. But boy, Tom Brady looked disgusted with Julian Edelman for saying that. Julian Edelman then launched a t-shirt sale, Tom for 2020 campaign. A Tomocracy is what he called New England. I mean, I absolutely love Julian Edelman trying to profit off his friend here, stirring the pot.

And I love that Tom Brady handled this thing perfectly. As a New England fan, seeing Julian Edelman and Tom Brady not only have that moment, but also FaceTiming old friend of theirs, Mike Vrabel, who is the Tennessee Titans head coach, who would be a perfect landing spot for tom brady the more and more we think about it the more and more i think about it that aj brown guy is all of a sudden quite a good and popular person to have on your team because tom knows that he has a weapon they have a great offensive line you pay king henry their defense is dominant you got mike frable who's a very very good friend of yours you're facetiming him while at a game this seems like it's potentially a

perfect fit for old tom brady as a new england patriots fan for your entire life connor campbell it has had to have sat in that this thing is over for the tom brady era in new england it's almost as if they're making a mockery of New England fans at this point. You're talking about a guy who said something that we can't even figure out what he said. That's how well he's playing free agency. And it's not even a scripted moment. That was a moment that came completely candid in Tom Brady.

I want to think that Tom Brady came in prepared with things that he could say that lip readers couldn't even figure out. If I say this guy, that kind of sounds like he's not. That kind of looks the same way. He has played this thing perfectly, and that's why he's the GOAT, not only on the field but off the field. I love everything he's doing. I'm starting to legitimately feel bad for New England fans, like legitimately.

Don't. I don't know, though. Don't. This is it. I mean, he is completely dragging them through the mud, and it's over. I don't think it's his fault, by the way. What? You don't think it's his fault for starring in that commercial?

I'm not going anywhere, he says. I'm not going anywhere, saying I'm going to still play football. I don't think him going to Nashville to potentially visit his friend Vrabel and everybody saying, oh, he's coming here. I don't think him going to a UFC fight that everybody wanted to be at, by the way. Conor McGregor was fighting. He goes there. He talks to Mark Davis. Hey, Mark Davis comes out. He's supposed to be a rude guy.

Bang, the whole thing happens. Maybe Tom Brady hates how big this has become. That's why he looked at Julian Edmund and goes, come on. Like, not now. But all he's done is just stir the pot even more. His answer on Instagram when they're saying, who's he playing for next year? He gives a look. I love it. And if he does leave, this will he playing for next year? He gives a look. I love it. And if he does leave, this will be received worse

than the decision was received in Cleveland. And I cannot wait for that. You could tell Julian knew he shouldn't have been doing what he was doing because when he was yelling, he's coming back. He was not looking at Tom. He was looking away because he did not want to see Tom's face when he was yelling. Julian Edelman knows that that's a massive moment, too.

Julian Edelman knows he says those two sentences. Everybody's going to be talking about it. So he played that thing perfectly. He looks over at Tom at one point like, maybe you want to give your answer now. He doesn't. And why the hell is Jimmy Fallon there? Have we figured out why Jimmy Fallon is there? Is it a little pick me up?

Just in case there's a blowout at the game or something. Snowstorm potentially in Syracuse. He's the guy who the king used to have come in and just keep him happy with jokes and stuff. Court jester. He's a court jester for them. I was told once by a person that was in power. You okay back here? Sorry, something in my nose.

So the, I was told once by somebody in power at a place I worked that don't be the jester. Don't stoop to these people's levels. That was an exact sentence sent to me. I was like, jester sounds like a pretty good gig. You just come around and make everybody happy.

That sounds like a pretty good time. I think that's Fallon's role here. The jester? His finger that he broke whenever he was hammered drunk. Yeah, almost ripped it off. Whenever it was on the table table that thing was just bend around like a banana thing around his ring his middle finger what a life jimmy fallon lives yeah sitting there tom brady and julian edelman basically get wasted and just as i didn't want to

say jimmy fallon's known to have a good time yeah so maybe tom brady julian edelman and jimmy fallon just had a great time in syracuse new york because that's where you'd want to go if you're doing exactly why are they at that game? I have no idea. It was all planned out. Get up there. This was all planned out. Hey, they do not report people for jumping on cars in Syracuse, New York.

I'll tell you that much. Julian knows that. Julian's a hell of a player. Maybe he plays quarterback next year. Nobody knows what's going to happen. Bill Belichick said, I'm not even doing the combine to look at quarterbacks. I got a defensive end down here at Middle Tennessee that I'm'm gonna check out in the middle of the rain yep i respect that belichick's trolling now too you got tom trolling belichick trolling what's gonna happen with the

patriots nobody knows is the dynasty over will one be able to survive without the other will one take a bet on himself to say hey the asterix next to me that i couldn't do without this man will no longer be because i'm going somewhere else. That is the conversation that we have to have because it's Tom Brady. He's the goat and it's the off season. So sorry for interrupting this incredible conversation. I'm so happy and thankful that you're listening. And I want to let you know that people say you can't put a price on a good night's sleep. That is true. But those people are wrong. Wow.bdmd did it with cbdpm and now they're doing it again with a brand new way to put you out like a light like a light like a light slept through the flight i think is the next one cbdpm soft gels are a quick and convenient way to

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Guy who does actual motivational speaking and crushes it. Ryan Leaf. Thank you very much. Ryan, I will say this. In real life, much more handsome and taller than we could have ever fathomed. Very, very attractive. Very, very attractive man right now. Did not expect this when you walked in this morning.

You know, I didn't expect it, too, when I walked out of prison. I saw that picture. Wow. This is, you know, I don't know. This has gone downhill in a hurry. And I never thought I'd get back to a place where, you know, it turns out you can go to a stylist, get a haircut. Okay.

You can eat better and diet and exercise. And those things translate into sometimes better looking, sometimes better skin, sometimes just, you know, more validated than where you were when you were in prison stripes, I guess. I've heard about all those things. Very difficult to stick with, though. Not the same.

Not the same. I just pointed at my mugshot for those that are watching along. I have a good one, too. I was about to say, if you don't know Ryan's story, what he just alluded to there was when he did 13 months?

32. 30. Oh, sheesh. Three years. That's a long time locked away. I've seen locked up and stuff like that. It's not like that. No?

No. It's like daycare for adults. You know, it's... So, okay. All right. So we've never talked to you about this. You told us in jail you were a miserable person for a long time, blaming everybody else for other things.

The guys even wanted to play catch with you one time, and you said no to them. And then you found fulfillment maybe for the first time in a long time in your life by teaching others to read in jail. It's an incredible story. You can check that out right now on our YouTube, youtube.com, forward slash the Pat McAfee Show. Just look up Pat McAfee Show, Ryan Leaf.

The conversation is necessary, I think think for a lot of people to hear but let's talk about it was not like locked up like I've seen um locked up abroad I've seen locked up I've seen 60 days in I I feel like everybody and a lot of people are intrigued by prison you were there for 32 months it's not like that yeah ours wouldn't have been a very good reality show oh man I I slept till like 11 noon. I woke up. I thought they turned the lights on at 8 a.m. That sounds awesome. Nah.

Sleeping until noon. That sounds great. Why do you think people keep going back? But anyways, very different than the- Yeah, very different than what you think. It's not a deterrent, right? We're the most heavily populated prison population in the world, okay? The rule is you get out, you go back.

Because ultimately, you have to do what you need to do to feed your family or maintain your high or however you go about things and commit criminal acts. But you know the spot you're going back to is this prison where you get three meals a day. You know you got a roof over your head. You got a a tv with 48 channels in the nfl red zone on the weekends no way yeah what jails awesome right i don't think we're allowed to say that i mean you can't i say it sometimes like like i sat there i i deferred parole for, you know, I probably could have been out in nine months. And I sat there for 32 because I was just so angry and so self-loathing. And it was such a selfish act because my family was trying to get me out. They wanted me to be better and happy and all these things.

I just sat there thinking, like, I'm doing everybody a favor. I'm doing my community a favor. I'm doing my family a favor. You know, I'm zero drama for anybody. And for you, now, whenever you went to jail, obviously, it was a big deal then. It wasn't social media era, but if that was to happen today, the story would be the number one story everywhere. Number two pick, one of the most promising football prospects in the history gets hit with an addiction problem, which leads him to doing wrongdoing to people, which ends up with a

32-month jail sentence. I mean, that would be a massive story. And I think what you've been able to do with that story and what you've been able to do with your mistakes by teaching others not to make the same is very noble. Not a lot of people could do it because a lot of people do go back to jail. And a lot of people say, you know, I'd like to make the world better, but they ultimately can't do that. So the fact that you're last night speaking to the minnesota gophers and telling the the great great state of minnesota and the pj fleck elite row the boat squad over there about what to do and what not to do i think that's very noble of you well i they all those kids in that room too they just knew me as like the espn analyst who picked them before the year started to win the big 10 west. Like, I was the first one on the boat.

Oh, they... They love you. So, like, PJ would stand by the door, and when the team would come in during the season, he'd be, like, getting them hyped up. He's like, hey, who besides us thinks we can do it? And the whole team would just scream out, Ryan Leaf! I love that.

I didn't know that was... They really told me the story, and I walked in, and the kids were telling me this. That's all they knew me as. And so when I started breaking into my story yesterday, some of the looks on their faces were like,

they didn't know any of that, right? Because these guys were born the year I got drafted. Oh. And they probably weren't told, like, hey, listen. They also weren't told that I was coming,

so it was a surprise last night. And they'll probably post it on social media here the next day, but the whole place went berserk when I walked in the door. That's going to feel pretty good. It does. It does. Yeah.

Absolutely. It's going to feel pretty good. Well, that's why I like coming here. You know, I get the applause. You did. As you walked in the door. Yeah. That's my Ryan.

You know, and for an egomaniac and a narcissist, that's always really important. Okay. Let's talk about the egomaniac and the narcissist and kind of setting that aside for a bit. Right now it's combine week. There's a lot of egos and narcissism in the city that we're currently in right now with the entire NFL here. But the combine is a big thing trying to figure out who is and who are the players that can figure out how to be in the NFL, right? A lot of meetings with teams here. Now, the on-field workouts and Michael Turk, the punter, busting out 25 on the 225. That's all beautiful. But I think here, a lot of the information is gathered by the teams with the interviews with the players

trying to learn as much as they can. You did the combine process. We're a very high prospect. How was that entire process for you? It wasn't good. It's a cattle call, as you know. Yep. I have never been the sveltest of men. That's a good word, yeah. So I didn't... Same. Back in the day, we had the big shirts, the big baggy pants. So we didn't... Luckily for me then, if we had to wear the spandex stuff back in the day, it would have

looked bad. Bad day for Ryan Leaf. Bad day. Bad day. I have what people refer to as love handles, but we say Leaf handles. It's a genetic thing my father gave me. John Leaf, shout out to you there. It wouldn't have looked good.

Let's put it that way. I weighed in at 268. That's very. That's DeMarcus Russell numbers. You're six foot what though? You're tall. Almost six seven, six six. Yeah. yeah yeah you're a tall six six yeah i should have been a tight end i think really yeah you're just too good a quarterback that they didn't let you find your true home

right that's a shame i know it is sometimes and it didn't and it's probably the reason why i wasn't successful in the nfl if i just changed positions that's probably it you, I'd be wearing a gold jacket right now. But at the combine, especially being a high draft pick, right now they're talking about the Redskins are meeting with Joe Burrow, they're meeting with Tua. And by the way, not saying that they're interested in those guys. Some people want to meet all these players so they have information on the players they're potentially going to be playing against

for the next 10 years. So a lot of that happens as well that doesn't get talked about. But a lot of teams meeting with a lot of people. Your particular draft, obviously everybody remembers, is it Peyton Manning or is it Ryan Leaf? So I would assume the meeting with the teams was a massive deal. Yeah, and Peyton and I both kind of talked to one another, and we really didn't care too much about who we met with

or what we did at that time. We were calling the shots. We were going to be the first or second pick of the draft so we both didn't work out here you know i was supposed to meet with the colts um the chicago bears had me go do an mri on my thumb that i had broken in high school and it happened to be during the time of the meeting with the colts jim mora really took that as a slight and it became this huge news story that we were trying to manipulate our way out of Indianapolis and go to San Diego. Like, who would do that?

San Diego's pretty nice. Yeah, pretty nice. Indianapolis, I just want to let you know, great city. Great city. The weather, though, just can't compete with said weather in San Diego. And I was thinking about that, right? So I had developed this sense of, like, you know, success is money, power, and prestige. And where is that going to fit in the most?

And it's San Diego, right? The beach, the babes, the money. I was just like, that's where I belong. And I'm a West Coast guy, and I had family there. So you skipped a meeting with the Colts on purpose. It wasn't on purpose. It really wasn't. We made it very clear that I wasn't necessarily interested in Indianapolis.

Now, hey, the only reason why I was even an afterthought here is because Jim Irsay was, you know, he loved the idea of me, the kind of gunslinger, the out-of-the-box, edgy kind of guy that kind of fits his persona, right? Brother. Brother. And even Hunter S. Thompson. I don't know if you guys love this. Jim Irsay loves Hunter S. Thompson as well.

Have you guys seen the letter that Hunter S. Thompson wrote Jim Irsay before the NFL draft that year? I saw he posted it. I didn't read it. What's it say in there? It's pretty much, Jim, I will loan you the $20 million to go get this kid. Ryan Lee. Do not get Peyton Manning.

He will be broken in half in the first day. Pretty much. Pretty much what he says. Hunter S. Thompson says this to Jim Irsay. This letter was unearthed about a year ago while I was sitting at a Dodgers game. I'm sitting at a Dodgers game with my wife. We're watching the game. Guy taps me on the shoulder.

Said, hey, I grew up with Jim Irsay. I'm his buddy. I'm like, oh, that's that's great oh you're sitting in good seats oh yeah we were i'm a i'm a i'm a live game snob i have oh yeah it's just i have to be right well and also there's a bunch of people you're a bigger man i mean it's hard not to be there right so he taps me on the shoulder he tells me the story right and he's like he's like so i was working for he was working for at&t or something like that i was overseas and and jim was sending me correspondence about um this draft and he sent me this letter that hunter s thompson had sent him and i go he goes have you ever seen it and i'm like no i've never seen it and he then proceeds to here it is right here dear james done by the way hunter s thompson doesn't call jim mercy jimmy

calls him james yeah hey by the way boss move oh yeah love boss move love everything about that hunter s thompson famed writer yes drug user that too he uh fear and loathing fear and loathing las vegas is is his story johnny depp dear james in response to your addled request for a quick 30 million dollar loan to secure the services of the Manning kid I have to say no at this time but the Leaf boy is another matter he looks strong and Manning doesn't or at least not strong enough to handle the welcome to the nfl business for two years without a world-class offensive line how are you fixed at left tackle or for the next few years james think about it he's like questioning jim ursa in the middle of this think about it

you don't want a china doll back there when the freak sap comes crashing in okay let me know if you need some money for leaf i expect to be very rich when this debt movie comes out your faithful friend hunter s thompson by the way he was right yeah about the he was right about the depth now peyton manning known gladiator in football i think he has like the most consecutive start. The ironic thing about it all is I missed my entire second season with an injury. So,

but he, then he emailed me this letter. Yeah. You know, and I saw, I went on the Rich Eisen show and I,

Rich will be here soon. Rich is going to be here too. I went on the Rich Eisen show and we broke it that day that, and we put this letter out there and it just went kind of like viral yeah of course and it's hilarious

I mean it's Hunter S. Thompson come on now so you skipped the meeting with the Colts on purpose that's going on because you wanted to go to San Diego Hunter S. Thompson was in your corner and you said no

but you really did miss the meeting with the Colts and ultimately you ended up going number two to San Diego right and at the time I was pleased with that and you and I thought it was the best opportunity.

I wasn't thinking clearly. I didn't realize that Marshall Falk and Marvin Harrison were in that locker room. Were you utilizing anything at this point or that had not started your- You mean drugs? Yeah. No. No. I was as morally against people who did drugs or drank

growing up than anybody that's why the that's why it's so ironic okay i have only the only drug i've ever used in my life is vicodin i was in i was in amsterdam traveling once and i used marijuana uh because when in rome right yeah you have to have to, you know, and, and I went and saw Batman begins and I freaked the, you know, freaked out and, and, and I never used it again. Batman begins,

ruined your entire relationship with marijuana. Same thing happened to me with Cloverfield. So I, you know, that had never been an issue, you know, drinking, you know,

I was a binge drinker in college where you just, you know what, you go out with your buddies and A to B. you know so it wasn't you know i went out to get messed up i didn't go out to like boy this mccarty 151 tastes so good and i can breathe fire with it yes this is awesome you know it was exactly what it's always been for me and it was a a way to self-medicate and i was introduced to the vicodin of course playing you know you are the doctors give it out like candy um and but i never abused it my you know my first drug of choice was competition i competed at everything so overly competitive you'd say yeah like uh like miserable to be around yeah yeah really uh was not you know you know the quarterback the star quarterback's

always usually the popular kid in school i was not not. My hometown disliked me greatly. When they came out with a vote during the Heisman Trophy ceremony, who do you want to win the Heisman Trophy? My hometown voted me to finish fourth, I think. Hey, you beat them, though. You came in second, didn't you? I came in third. You still beat them, though.

I beat Randy Moss, which is crazy. That was my favorite. Oh, yeah, we're happy. We're definitely happy for you. Hey, we're definitely happy for you. crazy. That was my favorite. Oh, yeah, we're happy. We're definitely happy for you. We're definitely happy for you. But Randy Moss was my favorite player growing up. Yeah. Well, he should have won the Heisman Trophy.

Are you kidding me? What did he do, a Marshall? Yeah. That year? That's tough, though. The thing is because he was probably at Marshall is why they didn't do it. But then the only defensive player ever to win was Charles Woodson, and he won it out of your pay.

I mean, if anything, Peyton comes back. He has a great season. They win the SEC. Peyton Man deserves the the Heisman Trophy there's you sitting uh with Charles Woodson and Peyton Manning you told Randy Moss to get out of the photo I said you're not going to finish uh ahead of us to leave that's why I showed up at the ceremony with glasses on because he was just like you know I can't be here let's get to alex in california real quick alex what's up bub hey how's it going pat hey life's good man feel good reason i'm calling in today is i wanted to talk about uh jalen hurts you know what a story right started alabama then uh enters the transfer portal after the whole two national championship fiascoco. Then, you know, goes to Oklahoma,

finished second in the Heisman voting, and then goes to the Comps. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, we know. We know Jalen Hurts' story. He ran a 4.59.40, which is, by the way, fast 40 for a quarterback. Quarterbacks are not training on running 40s, by the way. What did Cole McDonald run?

4.58. Okay, so I thought they said jalen hurts was the fastest quarterback well not that might have been the unofficial timing you know the unofficial the official timing remember those can be anywhere from point three off from each other right right i mean that that is real because you got some people timing it like i think mayock used to time it for the nfo network and then that was like the one that everybody heard basically because it was going out there and then they would find out like oh the official one was like 0.2 off or 0.1 off because that's not an easy thing to do yeah i was on the flight last night

at delta and i'm just sitting there with the thing and the lady next to me is going what are you doing and i'm like i'm a scout and i'm and these are official so when this flight attendant this one i'm gonna get her from the front all the way to the back and as soon as she touches that back well i'm gonna get it i'm trying to practice here for the front all the way to the back. And as soon as she touches that back wall, I'm going to get it. I'm trying to practice here for the 40. But it's real, though. Those things can be a little off. I don't think the 40 really matters for a quarterback much,

aside from if you're going to run an RPO-style offense. But right now, the quarterback. Who's the MVP? Lamar Jackson, for sure. And I think Jalen Hurts could be a weapon in that particular fashion. But the difference between a 4.58 to a 4.65, I don't think that's big of a deal whenever it comes to you know some stuff but the quarterback situation coming out of this draft class everybody says joe burrow lock it in as number one to the cincinnati bangles conversation

has moved to two like okay is miami gonna try to get him is detroit gonna take him uh and now there's conversations chatting about the washington redskins need to take him at number two when chase young who's potentially a generational talent at defensive end is sitting there and you just drafted a quarterback a year before but it's a whole new operation over there so that doesn't matter we obviously asked you about your quarterback picks and your quarterback thoughts going into this draft we had Jordan Palmer yesterday he's working with Love he's working with Joe Burrow he's working with a lot of them got to hear a lot of him chatting about it but I'd like to hear yours as a person who's not working with these players,

your thoughts on the quarterbacks in this draft. Who do you think is going to succeed? Who isn't going to succeed and why? Well, Jordan had me down last Friday to speak with Joe and Cole and Steven and Love and that crew. So, you know, I got a chance to work with them a little bit because I wasn't going to be able to be here. I'm normally here with the quarterbacks to mentor them with the nfl legends community oh that's awesome

but they moved it to prime time on thursday usually the quarterbacks went later in the week and i was like busy uh speaking this week leading up to it so i didn't get a chance to so i wanted to get down and see those young men talk to them see what they were thinking because you know they're exactly in the same spot i was, you know, 22 years ago. True. Right there. In particular, Joe Burrow. And so I wanted to kind of hear where his mind was. And he is so, there is a swagger to him that is special.

But it is not overwhelming arrogance. Like off the field, like in that moment, most, you know, big time quarterbacks when I go to their schools to talk, they look at me and think, well, that's a a great story but that will never be me got you so they don't interact where joe was simply notebook open questions and just same same way that uh patrick mahomes was and deshaun watson were when i mentored those guys three years ago here at the combine wow that's awesome to hear it is and that's why I I have a top five right now of who I think are at the quarterback position hold on ladies and gentlemen Ryan Leafs top five quarterbacks of this year's draft class well first it's Joe Burrow and it doesn't mean it's Cincinnati Bengals. If I'm him, and this is where he'll have the most leverage any rookie will have because of the rookie salary cap, right?

I mean, it's cap. You know what you're getting. You can't withhold your play for more money or something like that. So now it's about determining where you go. And I know it's home, but the Cincinnati Bengals systematically have proved to be not a contender. And if I'm somebody who has that kind of leverage at the top right now, I go to my agent. I say, you make sure I'm hiring you for a reason, right?

Make sure I go number one, but make sure it's to a contender. You figure it out. This is your job. That would be, by the way, because that has been a conversation that has been happening for the last few weeks. It's like it's seeked out, and Joe had to answer questions to it just a couple days ago where he said, this is all what other people have said. I will play anywhere. I am a football player.

I'm a player. By the way, great answer by him. He had to answer it that way. But now if you start thinking about it from an outside standpoint and you're like thinking for Joe Burrow, even though Joe Burrow might not be thinking this way, but if you're thinking for him, it's like, hey, if you think back to a couple of players that have made this decision, Eli Manning said, I'm not going to go there. I'm going to go over there. Philip Rivers goes there. And they basically, if you look at it, pretty similar careers. One of them has two Super Bowls though. The other one does not. And I'm not saying that it was a good decision to do

what he did. That team has obviously since left that city and gone to another place and i'm not saying cincinnati would ever leave the bangles would ever leave but i think being in an organization that and this is i don't know who said this somebody said it and that was related to joe said committing to winning like that's a real thing in the nfl there are some organizations that you know like okay there's winners winners here like whenever people would come to the colts and they get inside of our building they would say like oh like this is a winning or like it's just different in some places and the bangles although they had success there for a little bit haven't proved to be a contender a perennial contender which could that change with the talented joe burrow possibly could that change with zach taylor

maybe but if you're thinking for joe burrow you're like that place there's no indoor facility i mean it's just like that seems like such a petty thing but it's real it's like do they really care about winning in that place if they're not willing to invest in the actual product i don't know that'll be interesting to see what happens it will be and i'm interested to see how it plays out because uh after meeting the young man and then watching him perform all year long i want want, I just want the best for him. Hell yeah. I would like to see him a lot. He's a player. I'd love to see him in an atmosphere where he can be exciting and win right away. And, and,

and sometimes the best players go to bad spots, but then you've got generational players, the likes of Peyton Manning who go to a Colts place that wasn't known for winning at the time, but a guy can translate and turn a program into a winner where people now walk into that facility and go okay this this feels like a winning atmosphere which by the way Joe Burrow could do for Cincinnati as an Ohio kid we're not ruling that out I'm not saying but the conversation has been like man it would be nice to see him go to a good place who's got a number

two and number two I got Justin Herbert out of Oregon. Air Bear? Yeah, Air Bear. He is, well, he's somebody I've got to see very closely covering the Pac-12 for the last three years, and he's gradually gotten better. He came back. He spurned the NFL in all its millions a year ago. Probably would have been the second guy drafted a year ago.

He comes back. Not only does he lead his team to a Pac-12 championship, he wins the Rose Bowl and is an MVP. He goes out and dominates the senior bowl his mvp down there and a captain he comes to the combine and i always knew at the combine that guy was going to just just blow it away because he measures like crazy his arm strength is like a howitzer he does all the right things he is as smart as anybody won the campbell award this last year which is the academic heisman essentially he is oh so he's like a brainiac he's a special special young man he has that look anybody who won the Campbell Award this last year, which is the academic Heisman, essentially. Oh, so he's like a brainiac.

He's a special, special young man. He has that look about him, though. And I think I'm not the only person that says this. A lot of people, and by the way, I only got to see him in that Pac-12 championship game, which they lost, right? No, they thumped Utah. Oh, they won that game? Yeah, because Utah was going to the Final Four. Because you were questioning Utah all

year and then you've oh yes yes okay so that was but they were showing air bear close up and I looked at his face and it was like almost like his body language his face I was like is that guy the guy and I because I heard about him I didn't get a chance to see him all year but like I heard about him and I watch him put on a good like I watch him throw balls at good but I mean it's I was like I don't know if his body language is the guy. And then now that we've heard him talk a little bit, he seems like he's a little bit of a shy guy almost. Is that accurate?

Yeah, I think he's a little bit of an introvert, but when he's around his teammates. They love him, huh? They love him, and if you watch what he was doing with the wide receivers and the other players that were benching, he was in there firing them up. Great hair. Getting them ready. Oh, great hair.

He didn't get the memo from the likes of cole mcdonald and anthony gordon to do the combine cut they call it what's that the where you you get the clean cut tom cruise look you know they told me to do that for my court yeah they told me i just i went the other direction i went unabomber yeah just beer down to here air down to here yeah yeah i was like judge throw the book at me please i was i was like get me out of here man this is this world i can't live in it well i'm happy you came back on the other side of that so you got air bear at two i got air bear at two okay uh at three uh who do i have i had three i got jordan love okay from utah state 17

interceptions last year i but was forced to make plays jordan pal Palmer told us yesterday he was in a position where they basically told him, like, hey, you're the only draftable guy we probably have. You have to make plays. Look at the Wake Forest game to open the season. That's what will give you the best representation of what the young man is capable of doing. He had to try to make plays. Josh Allen, very similar to what Josh Allen had to do at Wyoming the year before. And he outclassed Allen in terms of statistics at Utah State last year.

So I think that he has probably the most upside to anybody of where he's at right now. His ceiling is much higher than everybody else's. And therefore, it's one of those spots where a team moves up to maybe 10, like they did with Patrick Mahomes. Andy Reid knew what he had. He saw it. He knew what was going on there. They moved up, grabbed him at 10, and away they went. Todd McShay is betting Mel Kiper $5,000 that love goes ahead of air bear. In your picking, you do not have that. You have air bear ahead of love. So give Mel Kiper the $5,000 now, Todd.

Who's for? These draft gurus, they think they know everything. I think Mel Kuyper had me as the best guy in the draft in 97. So what the hell? My draft story with Mel Kuyper. He tried to ruin my best day of my life. Yeah. He's going to be carrying Vinatieri's bags and all this stuff.

It was like, I'm getting drafted to punt. But did you do that? I did, yeah. Yeah. That's what we should do, though. We should be kind to our elders. I agree. Carry the helmets.

Carry the things. Bring the liquor for the plane, the whole thing you gotta do what you gotta do as a rookie Junior Seau came into my room during training camp and I couldn't, I was watching film and I was about to be the starter and he came and he was really, he was so sweet about it, you know not really, because he knew I was going to be the starting quarterback

I wasn't going to haze the starting quarterback like everybody else's rookies got hazed, so he came in and said hey, I was going to be the starting quarterback. I wasn't going to haze the starting quarterback like everybody else's rookies got hazed. So he came in and said, hey, I'm going to take the defense out to dinner, and you're buying. Give me your credit card. And so I gave him my credit card, and he took the defense out to dinner, and that was my rookie hazing. That's very nice of him, by the way, because you probably won over the entire –

literally, you paid him, but you won over the entire defense, I assume, pretty immediately. Yeah, Rodney Harrison was on that defense. The story got spun out. What's that? They go without you? They just took your credit card? Yeah. That's weird.

It was weird. You kind of got punked there. You should have at least enjoyed some food. Well, I was watching film. I was getting ready for the Buffalo Bills. By the way, I think that's something else you should have said. Like, hey, maybe we watch film instead of take my credit card to dinner. He didn't need to.

This was part of it. I wanted to be. The funny thing. No, I respect the fact that you did. The story spun out that he stole my card. Oh, that he came in and said, give me that. Stole it. No, like he came in when I wasn't there, took it,

and then surprised me with this bill. And then I was really, really upset because we got into it at practice later in the week after I think I threw a pick and he lit me up or something like that. Which it's just practice. Junior practice like a bat out of hell. Well, he's a great player.

So that was the story that got spun out and was there for years and years and years. And I just never, I always corrected it, but no one, I don't know if anybody, but I was like, that never happened. Well, I'm happy we cleared that air right now and i know that everybody watches this show so everybody will know that now well junior sale did not rob brian lee yes that needs to be said and when they got into a scuffle it's just strictly two competitive humans battling what was happening on the play not what happened a couple days ago when everybody else

ate on his dime and i i find that uh um find that he was probably one of the best possible teachers for me that I didn't utilize. Yeah. And that's something that I talk to these rookies about when they're coming into the league. I don't care if you're the first pick in the NFL draft. It starts all over. You go into that room, and you go find the guy that's played 10, 12 years

who's showed you how he can be a professional and get it done, and you go ask the guy that's played 10 12 years who showed you how he can be a professional and get it done and you go ask him how you did it and then you follow his advice verbatim that's a smart move everybody tells the young guys to do this and a lot of young guys don't i didn't i was very lucky to be with vinatieri yeah so i see vinatieri get in like the hot tub before practice i'm like oh it's because he's old and then like a couple years in i'm like probably gonna hit that hot tub before and then when you see him get in the cold tub after every single practice and then when you see him go through an entire stretch thing I'm like I don't have to I'm not as old as he's like he's old and then like a couple years into it reason why he's old and playing I should

probably do what he's doing so like I was very lucky to be under the wings of that guy I would assume if a lot of people had to go back to be like I wish I would have asked the OG a little bit more questions. So you're not the only one. Now let's get back to your list, though, because we do have to get to a break. You have one. I have one, Joe Burrow. Two, Justin Herbert.

Three, Jordan Love. Four, Jacob Eason. Tua has not been. We're at the fourth best one in a guy that nobody has talked about being potentially drafted higher than Tua. Jacob Eason, you still don't have Tua in this thing. Jacob Eason, by the way, congrats being on Ryan Leaf's top four.

I'm happy for you to be a great NFL quarterback. I assume five has to be Tua then? Five's Cole McDonald out of Hawaii. This is wild. Listen, I love the islands of Hawaii. Who doesn't? You were just there, right? Literally just there. I? Literally just there.

I'm getting married there. I got engaged there. I love the place. Great spirit, you know, everything like that. But I just, I'm not 100% sure that anybody would say that the quarterback for University of Hawaii is better than a quarterback from Hawaii in old Tua Tonga Valoa. And you're saying, no, not even top five. Why is that?

I just, I have reservations around him at the next level and it's nothing about his personality his ability there's something that i it's in my gut that i just don't think it's going to translate to the nfl and i hope i'm wrong i hope i'm old takes exposed i hope that this is what this is right five years from now the guys won a super bowl and everybody's like what the the hell was that Leaf? Leaf's an idiot. We've known that for a long time. We've been saying it for a long time.

We've been saying it for a long time, and now this is like actual fact to it. I hope I'm absolutely wrong. The inability to make it through a season in the SEC conference and the type of injuries, the surgeries that exist, with the best talent around him. Now, don't get me wrong.

There's going to be good talent, but if you go to the Detroit Lions and Matt Patricia, you're not going to be protected. Look at Matt Stafford. Just got broken back. Broke his back. That's something that can happen. It's the NFL, by the way. It is the NFL, and I just, I am.

That's why I have him. I don't know where I even put them because if I don't think it's going to be a success at the NFL level how can I like just throw them in there at five because maybe just but I don't think that's the case so for me it's it's a little different uh and I've gone out on a limb on this and I may be completely wrong it's a feeling that I have and I think it's a feeling that a lot of people have but aren't willing to actually voice it because he's just been so darn good he might be one of the most accurate passers I've seen in the NFL don't need to hear you back off this way I by the way I don't think I would draft two ahead of Burrow

but I would draft two to sit for a year and get healthy and watch a veteran play and see if he can handle himself but four surgeries in two years and when it happened even i said i think that is alarming who is that is that detroit to sit behind stafford for a year uh anywhere by the goes to miami sit behind fitzpatrick for a year you know i mean i think there's a lot of places where he could potentially do that i'm afraid if he goes to miami all of a sudden a year from now he looks like a beat nick with a beard like fitzpatrick so sorry to interrupt um we hope you're enjoying today's show honestly like we hope you are listening going you know what not a bad show here pretty good little show pretty good little show these guys are if you're enjoying

it please tell a friend or two if you're not enjoying it just act like it you know just act like it never happened just act like you uh fell asleep for the amount of time that you're choosing to listen to this. Don't tell anybody about it. But if you like the show, we would like a guerrilla-like marketing, boots on the ground, mission impossible, go tell a friend to tell a friend to tell a friend to be a friend to listen to the show. Now, it's time to talk about getting a little professional. The Black Tux believes every groom deserves a better experience when it comes to finding formal wear, a suit, or a tuxedo for their big day. Did you know that, Ty?

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the black tux.com code pat for 10 off your The Black Tux, formal wear for the moment. Making the pilgrimage to Indianapolis for the Combine Week, Ryan Lee, former number two overall NFL draft pick, and the voice of the NFL, a man whose voice radiates through microphones and televisions, and when he runs and speaks, the world gets better. Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Heise. Thank you so much. That was substantially a better introduction, the world gets better. Ladies and gentlemen, Rich Heise. Thank you so much. That was substantially a better introduction.

Just pointing that out. Yeah, but I was never the number two overall pick in a draft, right? I guess not. Not too many people have been, I think. There you go, Ryan. Hey, Attaboy. Attaboy, Ryan. If you could do the math about how many drafts there have been.

How many drafts have there been? 50? 67. There you go. So I'm drafts have there been? 50? 67. There you go. So I'm one of 67. You're one of 67. And later on, you'll be one of 68. That was not accurate.

You sure? Yeah, 100%. We do not have a stat. Did you just throw that out there? It sounds about right, though, doesn't it? Well, I mean, I'm trying to think here about common draft. No, there's definitely been more than 67 drafts. There's 100 years of football, right?

This guy. I mean, don't let him do this. Not 100 years of the draft. You cannot let that happen. I mean, I understand you guys. First one was 1936. First draft was 36? No, you're going to make it.

84 years. I was told there'd be no math on the Pat McAfee show. I think that's 84 years. I think that's implied that there's no math on the Pat McAfee show. I think that's 84 years. I think that's implied that there's no math on the Pat McAfee show. I just did great math, by the way. And who knows if there was drafts during World War II. So we got to think about that. There definitely was.

There was a draft. But anyways. NFL draft. Yeah, there is. Oh, guess what we did in the first hour? What did you do in the first hour? We showed the Hunter S. Thompson letter. How great is that story?

Incredible. Ryan came on the show, was that like two summers ago or something like that? Yeah. And you're like, I got this letter from Hunter S. Thompson that he wrote to... James Ursae. James Ursae. Yeah. Is that one of the greatest artifacts of sports and pop culture?

Awesome. He was right about the Johnny Depp movie making him a lot of money. I assume he made... No, they made no money. They made no money on that, actually. Oh, so he was wrong on everything and part of that. Wrong on the whole letter. Hunter S. Thompson.

Well, no, he was correct about Sap coming to wreck somebody. He was spot on that Sap was going to come wreck somebody. But other than that. But he'd already been doing that. So that was not necessarily being proficient in what was about to happen. He already established himself as the qb killer by that point as the combine this is something you're i mean deeply a part of yes i mean your voice is something that is talked over a lot of future superstars in the nfl's workouts in hushed tones no that's real it's like golf though the way you'd have to do it yes but

back in the day nobody outside the nfl network was even allowed in the building correct so your voice and what you were seeing was the only way people could see a lot of things. So you are part of a lot of history with the combine this year. Yes. Feels like there's more conversations about what could potentially happen in the quarterback world than of the past. Or am I wrong in thinking? Well, because I think you're not wrong, but I think it's because this is the greatest

quarterback free agency period we're ever going to see. Awesome. think it's because this is the greatest quarterback free agency period we're ever going to see awesome i mean other than peyton manning being up for grabs uh several years ago um but he had a neck problem as we all remember that might have tamped down his uh market and also he didn't want to go to an entire conference because he didn't want to be in the same conference as his brother, apparently. So all that together, you've got Tom Brady and Phillip Rivers and... Teddy Bridgewater. Well, Jameis might be in play. And Breeze was until he made the decision.

Right. Which made Teddy and Taysom potentially. And Derek Carr could be in play if the Raiders do go a free agent route. But Brady looms over all of this because you've got the GOAT saying, I'm open for all ideas right now, supposedly. And if the Chargers do get him, and I think they absolutely need him in the worst possible way

because they're opening up this beautiful new stadium that the Rams have paid for. And the Chargers, look, I've lived in Los Angeles since 2003. I've met one diehard Chargers fan. He's Dr. Bobby Katz, who delivered all three of my children. And I guess you're another one, Ryan? I'm a diehard Chargers fan. Okay, there you go.

So it's now doubled, the number of people that I've met from Los Angeles. That's significant. You doubled. And my three beautiful children have never asked me about a Chargers game once. But if Tom Brady comes, they'll want to go. They'll want a jersey. They'll want all of that. Billboards will be everywhere.

And for relevance in the Los Angeles market, as they're opening up this stadium, you only get one shot at it. We talked to Tom Telesco earlier this week. He formerly with the Colts, now obviously general manager. And what did he cough up? Well, he told us everything. I must have missed that episode of the Pat McAfee show. Rich, he told us everything.

He said, listen, not saying no to Tom Brady. He did say no. And then he even said like hey we got a backup tyrod taylor winning football player we're like oh so maybe him he's like maybe and then he said anything is on the table right now i don't think tom brady is out of play for the chargers that is a move i think they have to make when peyton was up the rams are going to la a lot of conversation was like hey new team in la right let's get peyton there they'll sell tickets that was a conversation of rumors that were happening he obviously ends up with Denver

but the Chargers need something and if it's Tom Brady it's immediate relevance if that is what happened well again the Rams were in the NFC and the word on the street

was that he didn't want to have to maybe prevent his brother from going to the Super Bowl I respect that and so I don't but I guess I get it

I don't know if it's true or not that was part of the rumor and he didn't want the Monday Night Football job because he wanted to talk about it. I love how much Peyton loves his brother, but it's like for the sake of the fans. Manning brothers, Peyton talking about Eli during a game, awesome, because he'd be emotional in there. Peyton playing Eli in a potential

NFC championship, awesome for the fans. Better if they played in the Super Bowl, too. Maybe he was thinking about that. Well, that's what he wanted to do. He wanted to, like, apparently. Although he did work out for Jim Harbaugh on the Niners at the time, too. So they were in the NFC. And look, I mean, Brady can go to Los Angeles. And that team, as we all know, destroyed the Ravens in the playoffs a couple years ago.

We're supposed to beat the Patriots. Before they got destroyed by New England. If it's not about, they finished 12-4. If they don't lose the tiebreaker to Kansas City, they're the number two seed. Correct. Sorry, number one seed. Of course, the home field advantage wouldn't be the same there in Carson

as it is in Arrowhead. But they had to go on the road. At the home of the Chiefs. I can tell you right now, the worst game I've ever played in my life in Arrowhead Stadium, okay? Third game of my career. In fact, I think my career was over after that game, but you were not told these things, right?

You're standing on the sideline. You are not told. It freaks you out, right? It freaks you out. It's like a flyover. You're like, well, where did that thing come from? And I literally looked at people, and I'm like, my focus is gone. Why didn't you tell me this was going to happen, people?

I agree. Right? Actually, the first Thursday night game we ever did on NFL Network was a Thanksgiving night in Arrowhead, where, by the way, Schefter had a big, huge-ass scoop before the game that no matter what Jake Plummer was going to do that night, Jake Cutler was getting the job the next week to the point where Pat Bolin

came and went to our trailer in the parking lot, our green room in the parking lot, looking for Schefter. And it was obvious to me that the future Hall of Fame owner of the Broncos had been scooped by Schefter himself. He had no idea that to me that the future Hall of Fame owner of the Broncos had been scooped by Schefter himself. He had no idea

that this was actually happening. According to my sources, no matter what happens tonight on Thursday. Pat Bowen like strode up like on it with his cool ass leather jacket,

his cool ass shades. Everything was cool. This guy was like literally looking for the horse that he probably just got off of driving.

He was like, I'm going come find us. It was amazing. But anyway, that night, Mariucci warned us. He goes, when they do home of the get ready for it, because he didn't know about it the first time. He was a coach there, and it freaked him out. They're an awesome fan base.

I mean, an incredible fan base. Like seeing them have success this year and success to come. They're about to break off Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes is a guy that you just talked about. Somebody, maybe a quarterback slipping to 10 or something like that, just like Pat. If you look at the top of this draft class, Joe Burrow, people now are talking about the number two pick with the Washington Redskins. They should think about taking Tua, even though they drafted Dwayne Haskins last year.

And they got Chase Young sitting there, a potential generational talent. There feels like there's a lot of potential moves in his top five to happen. I mean, Joe Burrow had to answer questions on whether or not he would play in Cincinnati. Well, he brought that on himself. Okay. I mean, he talked about the leverage part of it. And Jordan Palmer, Carson Palmer's brother's training him.

Well, I mean, let's take this one by one here. The leverage part of it. You're slotted. You know how much money you're going to make. You know how long the contract's going to be. The only word leverage comes into play is if you exact it to try and not go there. Oh, yeah. So if you drop leverage, we all get it.

We all understand what you're saying. The other thing, too, is that when asked about it, he goes, if they take me, they take me. Now, Pat. Now, he. No, Pat. You just got engaged, correct? Okay. Hey, good for me, by the way.

Congratulations, by the way. Right? Right? You just got engaged. Hey, hold on. Ty just got engaged. Hey. Thank you.

There's love all around in this room, man. Hold on. Diggs just got engaged. Hey. What about you, Slackers, in the back? There's love all around in this room, man. Diggs just got engaged. What about you slackers in the back? You can't even get a date. They're married to the gang. They're married to each other.

The reason why I bring all this up, and everybody out there in the Pat McAfee show listening and viewing audience, you all are getting engaged, right? Or you just got engaged. What if you heard secondhand through a friend of your fiance? Sam. Your fiance. Okay.

You found out through a friend that when it was apparent you were about to engage, to be married to this woman, her response to her friend was, if he proposes he proposed Not very pumped right well, I think that's not what you want Yeah, but what do you hear but what he said this week now? He had to answer a lot of these questions Yes, what he said this week was I don't want to presume that I'm the number one pick they have their process nailed it

Yeah, he did very well in his answer by the way great haircut too the mic stand that you guys gave him was right in the middle of his eyeball which was kind of tough to watch but he did not in charge of the audiovisual not in charge but i think he handled that very very well a lot of questions i agree he said the right things until you parse it all down of saying okay i just didn't assume I was going to be number one overall. I'm just a humble man. I'm a humble man. But then you parse it all down. I'm like, so then when you said leverage,

what are you talking about? It doesn't square. For those of us that don't remember, hold on, Ryan. For those of us that don't remember, the Eli-Philip Rivers situation is the most recent one. John Elway did it, I guess, with the Colts, the Broncos, but Eli and Philip Rivers. Was that something that was expected going in, or did it come out of nowhere?

Because I do not recall it. Out of nowhere. So that was not something that was even thought about before. No, it was planned, but we didn't know it. Because Archie and his family had called my father and wanted to know how they treated his son really and that was a huge part of it because even as poorly as I behaved like there was there was like there was no support you know and for the longest time I held a resentment around that but it was you know what was my part I had to finally take a stock in that. But, you know, he did his due diligence.

He called and, you know, like, what happened when things went bad? What did they do to help support your son, John? And I've known the Manning family for. Yeah, you're a part. You're a massive part of the Manning family history. And I've never heard that before. And now I understand why Eli Manning became a New York John. Yeah, that really is potentially the reason that Archie was like,

I'm not sending my boy over there. It wasn't the only reason, of course. He did, you know, it just, they were not known for winning. You know, they'd been to one Super Bowl in a year that the head coach was then, you know, ushered out for Kevin Gilbride in year two. What's ironic about the whole deal is, is Gilbride gets fired, my rookie year. He ends up in New York and wins two Super Bowls with Eli Manning as the offensive coordinator.

So that's an incredible – thank you for that, by the way. That's an incredible story that I'd never heard before. That's being gripped and ripped and tweeted out on at Pat McAfee's show right now. Oh, yeah, right now. That's what I saw the operation. This is a well-oiled machine. We got to do it, man. We had to build the show.

Nobody knew we existed, so we had to. But that conversation, you knew about it. Your dad potentially knew about it. But as the media, nobody was really talking about this, right? And we were talking about it on my show the other day that imagine, imagine what would happen in this day and age with Twitter, with social media, with somebody who's gripping and ripping video and tweeting it out on your platforms right now. And I use the plural platform. You're welcome. That if the Bengals choose Burrow and then 40 minutes later, the Dolphins choose whoever

the Bengals wanted and they flip it. Like, could you imagine if that happened right now? It would be wild. By the way, good for the draft, good for NFL Network. Vegas would actually have never seen something for the first time. It would be an NBA draft style, right? Exactly, where they get drafted, and the hat that they wear, they have no intention of wearing, and fans are totally confused.

But it's never happened since then and it's a risky play. Like, what if the Giants didn't get Philip? Joe Burrow, Ohio kid, Ohio kid, turning heel on the stage, not putting the hat on, refusing to put that.

This is all just like, if we're to draw this up as a movie, him walking on the stage, throwing the hat on the floor. And storming off to Spearmint Rhino on the spot. You see the picture of... Roger Goodell comes for the dab.

That's it. He does like a swim move on him. You see the picture of Eli holding up that Chargers jersey. Have you seen it and the look on his face? Oh, he knows. Yeah, I know.

But I don't think he even knew... What was about to happen. Well, he might have known what they were going to attempt to do, but it's a risky play. What if the Giants had not gotten Phillip Rivers? What if somebody had traded before the Giants to get Phillip? I mean, you're putting yourself in a situation.

There's nothing you can do about it, right? You're at the mercy of whoever's going to draft in that spot, and you have to – you talked about leverage. The only leverage that a rookie quarterback has this day and age is to simply say, I'm not going to play. But the reason you went pro is to play football. Yeah. And if you don't do it, what's the issue?

That's why that was, and I'll say it here, because I do know by my own clock we're probably way past your time to break. Well, we don't really. But no, no, look, this is what happens when you have me on as a guest. I'm very well aware of what you're in. But also, just to wrap it all up, that was the most impressive thing that Burrow said this week. I'm a football player. I play to play football.

So I thought that was his best line. By the way, incredibly handled press conference. Just like I think we all learned that Roger Goodell is a master at whenever you watch Rob Manfred speak. It's like, okay, here are people that can handle questions, which, by the way, as a quarterback, need that talent. That's a good talent to have. It's a learned talent.

Putters have it. That's for damn sure. All my press conferences. Nailed it. You did. Nailed it. Even if the microphone was in the middle of your forehead. No, I would never do that.

By the way, almost wanted to judge Joe for not moving that mic that was right in front of his face. But the way he handled it, I was like, well, that's not on Joe's fault. He's a rookie. Football player. He doesn't worry about it. That's right. He's just curious about football. Look around you.

His broadcast career won't start for 15 years. Don't worry about it. And with the checks that they're about to get, if Patty Mahomes gets $200 million, and then by the time Joe's ready to get re-upped with his potential, talk about these new billions and billions of dollars floating into the NFL. I don't know if he goes to the Bengals, if that second contract will be there, though. The ratings on the Combine are so good.

That's why I think it got moved to primetime because the amount of people that watch the Combine versus I think even the MLB World Series, it even has better numbers than some people's biggest days. When NFL Network started, obviously we were all looking for stuff to broadcast in between the playing months. So the draft was a no-brainer.

And then we would start doing, we did a show our first year about the schedule being out. Got so much grief for it and crap for it that we already knew who was playing who and we knew who was playing who where we just didn't know the when and on what network and at what time and we treated it like it was a huge to do because it is like you know um very forward thinking by the way because it is massive now. It is massive now. We got all sorts of crap. When I left ESPN, or when we parted ways back in 03, weeks before my... It's okay.

I know you've got to get up, Pat. I know you've got to get up. I get it. I understand. We both... It's all good. Our contracts are both up there. You guys were basically like, uh-oh.

Okay. It's fine. It's okay. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine. So before one of the last sports centers I was part of in early April, I left in May of 2003, we're sitting around there saying, what are we going to do?

We had enough time to do what we called a home-cooked piece, which was you could produce a two, three-minute essay or piece on anything. What sport would we choose? And we could just make it up and figure it out, and we'd figure out who would voice and narrate it. Long story short, ideas are being thrown out. Well, it's March Madness. Final Four is coming up. Well, you know, hockey playoffs are around the corner. It was right around that time we hear the terms

eighth and final playoff spot for both NBA and NHL. Baseball opening day. All of that was happening. Masters right around the corner. Somebody suggested doing a piece on the NFL and the NFL draft, and they were laughed out of the room because the draft was three weeks from now. Nobody's talking NFL.

Literally was what was said in the room. Now ESPN has a million live NFL shows. Reason why I bring this up is you talk about the combine. We suggested let's bring a camera in the combine. Your friend, Bill Polian, let's just say had an adverse reaction. Not happy. Yeah, not happy. Mr. Competition Committee had an adverse reaction to bringing cameras and broadcasting.

And then the rest of the NFL world was like, why the hell would you want to do that? Like, it's just guys jumping and running. So whose ideas are these? Because I always assumed that the NFL, because they are 12-month news cycle. Right. At any given time, the NFL, if they want to dominate the news, they can dominate the news. And I assume, and what I'm learning is it wasn't always like that. Is that the talent idea?

No, it was like that. That was the reason for NFL Network to be born, was to make sure the sport would be talked about 24-7, 365. Obviously, there was a monetary play involving rights holders and whether we could put Thursday Night Football on and get the old dual revenue stream model that aespn has with subscribers and add uh ad sales and just boost some money for a league smart long story short did well uh steve bornstein who is uh the longtime

president of espn he was the guy who launched nfl on behalf of the NFL. So smart, he's hired me twice. So he was like, hey, we were the ones at ESPN that went to the NFL years ago and said, we want to televise the draft. And the response from the NFL is like, why the hell do you want to do that? Now look at it. We could do the same

thing for the combine. Okay, but you got to stay out of our way. You can't get in our face you can just be like a fly on a wall and so i did the first combine in 05 is just the host of nfl total access the nightly news show paul burmeister and i i think mayock was there too and like uh you know folding chairs on the field with one camera on them and another one folding chairs on the field with one camera on them and another one just fixed on the field

and a handheld camera. It wasn't anything like what we've got now. At what year did they buy in, though? Well, when did Polian leave? It was like, I mean, seven years ago? It took a while, you know, and it took a while and it was just a lot of folks just like,

hey, we can do this. You can still do what you're here for. It will still be an event where agents aren't involved. Like, they want an evaluation. They want to know how players can be evaluated in a standardized way, but in the crucible of competition. Like, you know, the year Maurice Claret ran a terrible 40 and then essentially quit

and stopped running. Like, if there was an agent in the room, they would have pulled him aside and said, no, no, don't do that. Keep going. So they want, as soon as we could prove that you could still have it the way you want it and we can have it to televise it.

And it works for so many reasons. First, it's three weeks after the season's over. We are all jonesing for football with all due respect to the XFL. No, the battle walks. Come on! Excellent. Everybody's 0-0. Everybody's 0-0.

Last year's NFCc champion the 49ers at this point last year four wins second overall pick qb coming off of acl surgery anything is possible absolutely last two mvps of the nfl were at this event two and three years ago neither of them were the first overall picks in the draft all of us love playing fantasy football everybody's sitting at home playing fantasy gm i want that guy i want that guy my team needs a receiver gotta get cd lamb it's it works for so many reasons and then there's news popping with free agency right around the corner so it works they have completely bought in i mean it used to be under armor was a sponsor now new era has stepped up and made a sponsor right it's on tv primetime television now the bench press there's fans around them there's an entire radio row i mean this has become

a complete spectacle just like the draft just like anything that isn't football like activity related this has become a massive spectacle all 32 teams make news right now and it's been like what would you say week six week seven is when all 32 teams were relevant last, where they could still make a run for the playoffs. They could maybe make a trade. Who's in the trade market? Who's a seller? Who's a buyer?

All 32 teams are relevant in the NFL week six, week seven. Now they are again. So that's why it works. And this is the part of the month that does it, right? You go from this to the draft process, this, free agency, and then the draft. Free agency's pushed back a little bit this year, isn't it? Yeah, it was, by a few days. Yeah, we're hoping to get the CBA done in time for that,

which would be pretty monstrous. There's no – I mean, I think it's going to pass, by the way, with these guys. I think with what the NFL put in there for the bottom half of the roster, I think there's a chance that this thing passes strictly because the extra $100,000, the this, the that, it's all very good for a lot of people that are in the NFL. But boy, Marquise Pouncey does not like this deal. He does not like this deal. Who among us won't take their shirts off and rail at a phone while driving around?

Raise your hand if you won't do that. Nobody raised their hand, by the way. That's true. Ryan Leaf said. I did. Hey, Ryan Leaf's got a nutritionist right now. He'll be shirtless yelling in his phone in about a month or two, if I had to guess. We'll see how long this lasts.

I'm on the road for three weeks. I ate a large burger last night. Hang in there, man. Thanks. Hey, I gained 30 this fall. Yeah, I gained the freshman 15. Plus 30? 30.

Call games on the road, not exercising. Oh, tell me about it. It got hard to wear clothes towards the 30 this fall. Yeah, I gained the freshman 15. Plus 30? 30. Calling games on the road, not exercising. Oh, tell me about it. It got hard to wear clothes towards the end of fall. It was a very small closet towards the end there. And yet she still said yes. She's a good lady. This sounds like one of those places I look down at my watch saying, I should leave.

There's truth in that. That's our show. That's our show. Let's get to Chris in California real quick. Quick, Chris, what's up? Not much, dude. How you doing? You know what?

I think I'm going to be much better after this, folks. I think you're about to make all of our lives better immediately. I can already tell. Oh, yeah. I plan on it, dude. Just in the spirit of this week being a combine, I figured I'd remind everybody about quite possibly the greatest moment in TV history. And that happened four years ago, I believe, tomorrow. And that would be when Chris

Jones fell down during his 40-yard dash and his pee-pee came out. You know what we call that phone call? Additive. That was additive. Definitely, because it led to a conversation now that we didn't know we were going to get to. There are a lot of bad moments in said combine as well,

which, by the way chris maybe every vitamin in the surrounding cities that he was in you sure wasn't calling from maui i like chris a lot okay but the um the combine a lot of guys are choosing not to compete in it right a lot of people are choosing not to perform and i don't know why joe burrow said he hasn't enough time we talked to jordan palmer national championship He wanted to celebrate a little bit. Now he has a six-week plan, which leads perfectly to his pro day. Didn't want to do anything in the combine that could jeopardize anything. I feel like that's different.

I feel like more and more. I don't understand. Three years ago, when Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes and those guys went out and competed like that, it wasn't happening in our day. Peyton and I, it didn't even cross our mind. That was back when the quarterback challenge was something on TV. It was so awesome. All that stuff was back. It's a whole new world.

It's an agent-driven concept. Let's be honest here. I mean, Jordan Love Turn that pillow around. Turn your pillow around. Shabbat Shalom. Yeah, man. Come on. Jordan Love has a huge burst right now going on where you're hearing

how he could be a top ten guy. A couple times he hit cameras that were like five yards out of bounds. I mean, guys are air mailing throws, and scouts and evaluators understand not everything's going to be perfect. They just want to see, physically see, for those who didn't get to Utah State this year, what does it look like coming out of his hand? And they want to see that.

Can the kids spin it? They want to see it. Everybody can spin it. You get invited to the combine. I don't know if that's accurate. There's some terrible football throwers. In that gauntlet drill, you find out some guys that can't throw because they're ruining the gauntlet drill there there was a couple times where i've seen a

quarterback get pulled from the gauntlet drill because he's been off so much that is something that does happen because these top guys aren't throwing so i think they know they have to bring in more guys last year steve smith aired out one of the quarterbacks on live television for not giving the proper throw and and throwing too hard to the guys like we heard him off mic he said i'm gonna go say something the guy and we're like oh and he did he like aired the kid out but in a polite way but that's a real thing though right because these top guys aren't throwing the nfl combine i assume has to adjust to that so they're bringing in some guys that maybe wouldn't normally get there was a couple years ago where they brought in the Texas A&M quarterback

to come in. He wasn't there to compete. Just to throw. Just to throw. I mean, Burrow's not going to be out there. They wouldn't have him out there throwing the gauntlet anyway. No, but I'm just saying the drills

and everything like that for the wide receivers. Look, the way that this thing's going to go one day, I think we're going to see guys run 40s next to each other. I think we're going to see some sort of like around the horn type fake point system being awarded. Wait a minute. This is behind the scenes information. This is the man who was a part of pitching the combine

being on television. So whenever you say that there's a chance. I think we're going to see this one day, yeah. Oh, that's going to make people run faster, by the way. People are going to run faster. I think you're going to see this one day, yeah. Oh, that's going to make people run faster, by the way. People are going to run faster. I think you're going to see people compete. Yeah, we saw the ATN Isaiah Simmons race at Clemson that came out recently. Well, it happens in practice all the time.

Who's the fastest guy on the team? It's a conversation that happens in the locker room and at the practice field all the time. I'm faster than you. Bet. Here we go. Now who's fading who? Who's betting on who? It's an electric environment at practices. One of my favorite moments of the season, okay,

is when the Chiefs are playing. I think it was in Tennessee, right? And why did I just blank on the running back's name? Damian Williams. Damian Williams is running. He's scot-free. Oh, yeah, Tyreek. And Tyreek Hill runs him down

because he wanted to prove the practice conversations they have as to who's fastest. He wanted to show it in real time in a game. And in film the next day. Whenever they're showing that film. Exactly. What you're talking about actually burst

onto the scene in a real NFL game this past year. A real NFL game. You've been calling those the last couple of years. Yeah, man. Over in London town. And I called one in Tampa. Great moments where I called Winston Watson and Watson Winston for literally.

That was the 30 for 30, wasn't it? No, that was the week before. That was the week before. But that was the one where, and Winston was just coming off of some incredible games where I guess he had back-to-back 450-yarders. And unfortunately for him, though, in back-to-back weeks, Godwin and Mike Evans went down with hamstring injuries, and he was down to literally finding out who his new teammates were in practice.

That's what he was – and he was amazing. And then his – and coming in, he was really confident about everything, and his first pass was intercepted. Yeah, I remember that. To the house, right? It was pick six. It was called back due to an injury. I mean, due to a penalty.

But his next one was – actually, no, that one was return to the house. His next one was return to the house, but called back due to penalty. You are very good at play-by-play of games. Thanks, man. I know you texted me during that and i appreciate that i love doing it i would do that in a heartbeat hey by the way me too i absolutely love doing it you are great at it too not the sideline i hate the sideline let's go to logan i hate it absolutely hate it let's go to logan and mish i don't you're really good at it i'm not

a good i'm not a guy that's good at it thank you i keep them coming but the uh i'm not great at asking for permission to speak oh that's why I like you so much. Yeah. Because it's just, dude, when you went into the party zone in the bowl game, like you were at the club. Yes. The bottom pop. Yeah, for SMU.

That's the content I'm there for. I respect that. Okay. And we know this is a lot about me. Yeah. Let's go to Logan in Michigan. Logan, what's up, buddy? Hey, Pat.

How's it going? Not too shabby, man. How are you? Pretty good. I'm waiting for one person to say, not good. Absolutely. Not good. I'm waiting for that.

Just one day to be like. It's a bad day, Pat. Well, sorry. I'm sorry, Logan. I cut you off there. What do you want to talk about? I wanted to get your opinion on this. I think I have a wild card option for the Patriots quarterback.

He's already on the roster. Number 11, Julian Edelman. Love it. Love it. That guy's a diehard Patriots fan in the back. This has been very fun to watch him. His entire life, the Patriots have been good. His entire life.

24 years old. He's been around for all of this he's enjoyed it yes now that tom's potentially leaving which it sounds like if you listen to anybody speaking on tv it's inevitable this is a wild scene to watch in new england oh big time everybody's on the edge of their seat i just don't see them taking uh their best player at a very thin position and making it thinner by throwing them back in. And you never want to be the guy after the guy ever in anything. You want to be the guy after the guy who was after the guy. That's where you want to be. Because they hate that guy who came right after. It's very rare.

Aaron Rodgers did it. He's one of the rare examples of being the guy right after the guy. Andrew Luck had Curtis Painter, Kerry Collins, Dan Orlovsky, kind of that. You needed that buffer. Yeah, you need a little buffer to get Andrew Luck. You need the Curtis Painter buffer. Yeah, everybody does if you're that guy after the guy.

Kerry Collins got called out of retirement and got slaughtered. I think he might have had seven concussions in one game. I'm not 100% sure, But he came in there and he literally nice guy to me and to the team and at one point in the training room they were testing him and they were like, how you feel? You feel like you're back to normal? He's like, I don't think my brain has any more in me.

He's like, well, go home then. He just paid him $4 million to play a couple games. He got murdered and he went home. We did the Thursday night game here in Indianapolis in that disastrous season where um where the you guys had just won for the first time all year orlovsky and then the thursday night game where the texans had already clinched the afc south came in with good old tj yates but because the te Texans can never win here. They lost that game. I thought we were going to lose luck.

Reggie Wayne scored the game-winning score as he was going into a free agency period where we thought he was gone, too. He scores the game-winner. Everybody in Lucas Oil is going crazy, and me and Mooch and Marshall Falk and Irv looked at each other like, why

is everybody here so happy? Do you not want Andrew Locke? Hey, there wasn't everybody in the building was happy, by the way. The story that I have been told is there are some people in some pretty powerful positions that were not thrilled and they had to get almost talked into a motivational speech before they came into the locker room afterwards. They were being told, hey, remember, these guys, a lot of them probably aren into the locker room afterwards. They were being told,

hey, remember, these guys, a lot of them probably aren't going to be here. They are very happy, so at least act like you're happy when you walk in here. That was a real thing. We've got to get out of here in a minute. Ryan Leaf, where can people find you and everything like that?

At Ryan D. Leaf, theryandleaf.com is a good spot where we book our speaking events and anything or anything. On ES ESPN from time to time, talking about the game of football. Ryan, you're good at it. And Mr. Rich Eisen, people can find you at? Well, nfl.com slash runrichrun is the spot to go to right now.

Donate. Let's raise as much money for St. Jude. I'm making my run tomorrow. We're already over a half million bucks. let's go let's keep it going like let's we have a shot to raise maybe seven figures if everybody can give whatever you want just whatever you can give all right well that's the show uh we can't thank you enough for joining us still continue to do the hashtag this is where i'm at pat we. We got people, uh, that listen to us while they jog or walk.

We got people that listen to us while they're at work, while they're driving. We got people that listen to us while at work at the office. We got people that listen while they're taking care of their baby, which by the way, put the baby's ear up to the phone right now. Hey baby, here are some words you shouldn't say for a long time.

Fuck shit. Bitch. Bitch. God words you shouldn't say for a long time. Fuck, shit, bitch, bitch. Goddamn. Don't say that one. Yeah, apparently, yeah. You can't do that. But anyways, babies, do not say that. So if you're listening with your children or your babies,

let them know that old Uncle Pat and Uncle Ty said, do not say that. We can't thank you enough for allowing us into your ears, into your daily routine. You're the greatest. Zito will be giving away more merch for the hashtag.

This is where I'm at, Pat. We appreciate hearing from you. And Ty Schmidt, please play some independent music. Thank you. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបាូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់� Outro Music