The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 239 - Colts GM Chris Ballard, NFL Insider Tom Pelissero, WWE Superstar Corey Graves, Plus Legends AJ Hawk & Darius Butler Join Us To Wrap Up #FightWeek

Episode Date: August 21, 2020

On today's show, Pat recaps his in-ring promo debut on NXT with AJ and Darius, and looks ahead to his fight on Saturday night with Adam Cole which will be live on the WWE Network starting at 7 PM EST. Joining the show is Indianapolis Colts General Manager and friend of the program, Chris Ballard. Pat, AJ, Darius, and Chris discuss how Covid has changed the day to day operations of the start of the football season, how they plan on having the locker room hold each other accountable, why the Colts ultimately chose to go with Phil Rivers and how he's looked so far, and what Chris has heard regarding the NFL considering a bubble atmosphere for the NFL Playoffs (4:53-22:37). Next, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero joins the show to chat about everything happening in the NFL with the start of training camp. They discuss the league's testing protocols and how very few players are on the inactive/Covid list right now, where he expects some of the marquee free agents left to wind up, how teams are planning on preparing for players to be missing time with Covid, if the NFL has discussed certain teams being able to have fan's in the stands and whether or not that will create a competitive advantage, and how the media's relationship with players is bound to change in interviews with everything being over zoom this season (24:51-49:28). Later, WWE Superstar, color commentator of Friday Night Smackdown, and friend of the program, Corey Graves joins the show. Pat and Corey chat about the match on Saturday night and what tips or pieces of advice he would give Pat to secure a victory, how long he's been in the wrestling business, if there have ever been times that he hasn't been comfortable calling something that happened in a match, and what he's looking forward to the most at NXT Takeover and Summerslam (52:06-1:09:35). Don't forget to watch NXT Takeover tomorrow night (8/22) at 7 PM EST to see Pat send a man's soul into outer space, subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow as we close in on a MASSIVE giveaway once we reach 1 million subscribers, and send in a picture of where you're listening to the show with the hashtag #ThisIsWhereImAtPat for the chance to win some free merch. We appreciate you all for rocking with us. Come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

hello it is friday august 21st one day till fight day got a great show for you and we cover everything if you enjoy the show please tell a friend if you don't just act like it never happened i appreciate you let's get to it it's a great day to be alive last night i made my in ring promo debut uh with the nxt on usa network and i was flanked by a fleet of incredible men the one sitting right to my right you saw him giving facial expressions as if he was ready to go to battle with anybody former super bowl champion mr a.j hawk at a boy a.j yeah what's up guys it was a fun uh. I'm glad. Thank you for letting me play a little part of it.

Yeah, well, you weren't just a little part of it, by the way. You were a massive part of it, especially with that jawline. A lot of people on the internet were talking about how could you not be intimidated if you see that jawline staring at you right in the eyes. And on the other side, a man who was wearing a sleeveless hoodie right next to me

who is potentially, that's potentially a little bit of an upsetting move but i feel good about my arm so i'm not even gonna talk about it uh you look jack by the way thank you thank you i didn't get a pump in here normally i wake them up you know i mean normally i wake them up before getting in i didn't get a chance to do that because i was out here uh tidying up some things last minute yeah you were out there yeah you saw what was going on yeah but darius butler absolute stud of a human was drafted by the new england patriots played for the coach for a long time now he is co-host the man-to-man podcast and everything db where he breaks down secondary for football fans who don't get a chance to hear it uh d but last night

there was a couple moments during that show uh where, I think you would, we would have, I think you would have jumped over the ropes and fought a person. Oh, yeah, I was ready. Yeah, absolutely. He was saying, hey, he did some disrespectful stuff to me throughout this entire thing. When he hit those security dudes, I was. Hey, little Jackie Chan, like, hey, by the way. Whoa.

Dead, dead, dead, dead. Right in front of my face. By the way, as I was standing around those security people, I thought I could potentially do that to all of them as well. So that is why. I mean, definitely shocked, but he was lucky that security was even there to begin with because if that security's not there and he's walking towards me,

there's a good chance I'd knock him out right there. We don't even get to Saturday. It's over. People forget about that type of thing. I'm never getting credit for that. Last night was awesome, though. Now we're two days into the fight with Adam Cole at NXT TakeOver 30. WWE Network.

I'll tell you what. I got a chance to talk last night a little bit. Obviously, that's what I do for a living. I enjoy the hell out of that. I cannot wait to get in the ring. I cannot wait to get into the ring with Adam Cole on Saturday. And I think people are going to be shocked by what they see here. Oh, yeah.

Because this thing's going to be over in potentially six seconds. I mean, I don't know how quickly I can swing the leg but all we need is a one two three that's six seconds probably seven seconds i'm trying to end this within a minute aj because my cardio is so damn good people know that if this goes the distance it's better for me than it is for adam cole right i guess but don't you think he knows like he's a vet he knows all these little tricks once again a circle try to tire you out you know hey just stay away from him like stay away from that right leg that right foot is probably what they're telling him what if this is a floyd mayweather conor mcgregor thing okay where everybody on earth okay knew the floyd mayweather was going to win

because if you know boxing and all it's like hey this is a different level of cardio this is a different level of conditioning even if conor is a great boxer and they said even if connor is a great boxer who has never boxed before by the way but even if he is a great boxer world-class boxer like floyd he just won't be able to last and then what 10 rounds he lasted and everybody was like well maybe he will be able and then all of a sudden 11th round i believe it started going downhill for him and then floyd just ended it that's what you're thinking adam cole was thinking well i want to let you know adam cole i've been on a stairmaster for six months straight okay i'm in the best shape of my life look i can hold my breath longer than michael phelps right now just know that so you

should try to get this thing over with quickly too because if it goes long it's not good for you ain't that right i guess that is i'll have to ponder that one for a little bit right pat can you hold your breath as long as david blaine i know he's out pubbing some air hot air balloon situation i think he said he can hold his breath for 20 minutes, 19 minutes or something. I have never been. Seems like he can do anything. I have never been built for a long time. Okay, only a good time.

That is literally the way it is. Get it over quick. That's why this has to be over quick. And I think he's going to want to tangle rather quickly as well, it feels like. We have hated each other for three years. A lot of people have made a lot of comments about this entire thing but literally since day one of meeting that man i've hated him and he has hated me it's just and normally by the way people like me after meeting me like not meeting me hate me that is just something that happens after meeting me they're

like okay so he is like that all the time that is just kind of how it is him and i first time maybe since like elementary school where i met somebody somebody, oh, I hate that guy. Well, he hates me too. Good, this is a very mutual feeling. I'm happy we both feel this way. Now we get a chance to settle it on Saturday. Joining us now, there's only 32 of these humans in the world. They are tasked to do real-life fantasy football.

They are tasked with building a team, a culture, an environment. And the man who is doing that for the Indianapolis Colts has a southern draw and a baby face, ladies and gentlemen, Chris Ballard. Yeah, Chris! Chris, how we doing? Hey, tell me this. No, we got to get it started with you. Are you ready?

Are you ready to roll? I mean, are you going to put the ass whipping on Adam Cole? Hey, Chris, you know a little bit about me now at this point. roll i mean we're just i mean are you gonna put the ass whipping on adam cole hey chris well i'm not going yeah you you know a little bit about me now at this point i think you've met my parents i i ain't no bitch chris yeah there ain't there ain't none of that in me you know there ain't none of that in me and uh i'm gonna put on a show saturday well i look forward to watching you put the west virginia ass whipping on him he deserves deserves it. Hey, now we're talking about. Let's get to the ass whipping that you are a part of right now,

training camp, trying to put together a team. For those that aren't watching on YouTube, right above Chris's head is probably $150 to $200 million worth of contracts he's going to have to negotiate. Stop it. Stop. Don't raise the price. It's Quentin Nelson and Darius Leonard.

That team that you've been building over there, young core, defense great, good offensive line, great offensive line. You've got this team that's set up for success. Last year, Jacoby gets hurt. Nobody expected that to happen on a hot run. You bring in Phillip Rivers now. In this COVID world that we're in, how's the team looking in training camp? How are you handling the whole thing?

Well, good. I mean, look, I mean, everybody makes the, you know, the excuse that, you know, we didn't have an off season, but the, you know, we're all playing under the same rules. Nobody's, nobody's got an advantage on anybody else. So the playing field's equal. And, you know, in terms of, you know, we're going into our, you know, we had our first three days of pads. It was good, normal padded practice. You know, the first two weeks was interesting. It'll be interesting to see how we follow this going forward because there's some things of the ramp-up that we liked

that we think that can be beneficial for us going forward. But so far, so good. Are you looking at this because we watch Hard Knocks, and that's really the only inside peek that I get inside a building now. I watch Hard Knocks, and I think it's a wide receiver coach was talking to the Zoom call, which was all the players, because Seth Ryan, Rex's kid, got a false positive or whatever, and he gave an entire speech about how,

I have to prepare everybody in the Zoom call to play. Everybody has to be ready to play, especially with this COVID, because people are going to get sent out. He said, you guys might have a new position, coach, because I might get COVID at some point in this thing. How are you preparing for that roster-wise? Do you just have a list of a bunch of humans? You have to, like, scout a bunch of humans and just be ready to pick and play some? So this Conexon device is very important.

It's tracing, it's contact tracing, you know, our proximity to other people. And if you're around, you know, a group for over 15 minutes at a time, it becomes an issue if somebody tests positive because they're going to be knocked out. So the way we've explained it, Frank and I do to our staff, both coaches and our scouts is look, every guy on the team's important. And you can't everybody even even your practice squad players that are usually a little more developmental you've got to think of them as starters because there's a chance during the season they're going to come into play now the good news for us is we've always I mean that's usually where our

first pull is from when we're bringing players in. We've been very active on our practice squad, something we've really sold to players, and we've had guys come from there. But it's even more important this year. We have got to be able to – those 16 players have to be treated just like they're playing on Sunday each and every week because you just don't know. And then we've got to have an emergency list ready to go um you know that's that's long and deep and you know our scouts will work on that what's the conversation about like accountability because we saw in that first hard knocks of

Spanos family uh father son there who's loved in San Diego but I got a chance to watch them uh on hard knocks talk to Chris Harris Jr. about how like hey we're going to need you guys to hold each other accountable and this whole bubble like thing. How has that messaging been sent from the team? And are you guys just expecting people to do that? And how do you see that going with all 100% reality of the humans, 21 to 25 year old guys, like it's going to be a very tough chore, I think. No, it's going to be very difficult. And our team knows it, not just our team, our staff. Yeah. I mean, I got five kids.

When I go home, you know, I got five children. And, you know, I can't ask them to stop living. I ask them to be careful. And I'm careful around them. Here's what, look, we're not going to focus on the problem. Frank and I, and Frank made a great point of this. You know, we're going to address focus on the problem. Frank and I, and Frank made a great point of this. We're going to address the problem at the start of camp.

And like we both told the locker room, if you want to win, and if you want to go where you want to go, it's going to take some accountability on each one of you. And you've got to hold each other accountable. And they know, Pat, you've been in that locker room. They know the guys that are doing what needs to be done. They know guys that are where i mean you can bullshit the media you can bullshit the fans but you cannot bullshit the locker room bingo and they they know so there's got to be a degree of accountability being held within that locker room for it to be able to be successful and it doesn't mean we won't have a a slip up um and it doesn't mean so and i

don't want somebody if they if they do get it, but they've got to be honest. They can't come in the building. They've got to be honest. And we've got to make sure we continue testing and doing the protocols that the league has asked us to do. Chris, A.J. Hawk here. There's been rumors.

How you doing? There's rumors floating out there that the NFL is exploring the options of going to a playoff bubble whenever that time comes. Seems like you may be getting a little ahead of ourselves. That's so far down the road. But would that be a competitive thing so a team like you doesn't lose Phil Rivers in your first playoff game? How does that work?

I'd love to have a playoff bubble here in Indy. We can put everybody in hotels and we can hole them up. Yes, we can. I can't lie to you though, AJ. My viewpoint right now is just on today um and i hadn't even i hadn't even thought that far in advance or have i heard anything from the league uh regarding you know some type of bubble what's up chris d buck good to see you man good to see you yeah same here a lot of people talking about the Phillip Rivers signing and Buckner on defense I'm I'm excited about uh Xavier Rhodes and uh I guess it's a two-part question first you know what was it about him that you saw that you wanted to bring

him in I was excited I talked about it before you guys even signed him and two um how's he fitting in with the guys I know going to more of his own scheme than what he's coming from how's that going um it's going good and look I mean we had two coaches here that were with Xavier in Minnesota, Jonathan Gannon and Alan Williams. So they had history with him. And guys, I mean, usually when you hit 30 in this league, that's kind of a breaking point. But there's certain players I've been around that just have freakish talent

and can extend their careers. And Xavier has that. He's got some of God's gifts that are hard to find. We think we can help him. We think we can help him physically with some of the stuff we're doing nutritionally and with our strength program. And so far, so good. And we knew, like, one of the things I really addressed

and wanted to address was making sure I added and we added a couple veterans in the secondary because it's such a young group. I mean, even Kenny, you know, even Kenny's young. You know, we forget, you know, he hadn't been in the league a long time. Yeah. And as great a player he is and as good a leader as he is, it's good to have a vet.

The year we had Mike Mitchell, you know, Mitch was unbelievable guiding that room. And I think, you know, Xavier, and then we added another, Tavon Wilson here a few weeks ago, and he looks like he's going to be a real good addition. And then also T.J. Carey. You know, I don't want to undersell what he can do he can play inside and outside and play safety so we think we've added three to the secondary vets that can help these young kids come along secondary is going to be a big deal on the afc for a long time with patrick mahomes and andy

reed over there in kansas city which by the way you came from that place and i think i asked you i believe it was last year or two years ago every time you come on by the way, you came from that place. And I think I asked you, I believe it was last year or two years ago. Every time you come on, by the way, I'm so thankful. Joining us now, by the way, for those that are just catching in, Chris Ballard, general manager of the Indianapolis. As big as you've gotten now, as big as you've gotten, we're just happy to come on. You do look good.

I mean, you look good, dude. You've been getting after it. Fight week. Hey, this is fight week. Hey, Chris, if I would have taken care of my body like I've been taking care of my body here going into my wedding and after it yeah fight week hey this is fight week hey chris if i would have taken care of my body like i've been taking care of my body here going into my wedding and then now into fight week i mean we're talking probably three four more yards on every single punt i mean we're talking big big you could have easily played another eight or nine years oh well

easily played another eight or nine i still think i probably could if i needed to but um oh man what was i going to ask you about i had a great question lined up oh they can't see chiefs last year two years ago you said that veach is a guy who's incredible at setting up contracts and setting up a roster we're watching them do that right now somehow pulling money out of a hat i don't know how they're doing this signing all their players but in the afc like is there ever a thought you're just focused on the afc south are you focusing on what the afc is for what seems to be the next maybe 10 years with patrick mahomes and chiefs like whenever you're putting together your team what are you thinking about well i mean the good thing is they're not in our they're in the afc but they're not in our division yeah um so that helps um and you know, in terms of Kansas City, no, Brett's outstanding.

And he's got a cap guy, Brant Tillis, who I'm also very close with from our time there, who's outstanding. But when we put our team together, we're – I mean, look, it's a passing league. I mean, it just – it is. It's a passing league. And you've got to be able to rush, and you've got to be able to cover on defense. And you want 11 guys that can defend the pass. I know, I know stopping the runs big,

but we'll rally and we'll figure out how to stop the run. But you know, you got to have 11 guys to defend the pass and we're always going to be, you know, that's always going to be our emphasis defensively. I think that's when you see at linebacker i mean we went i mean i don't know if we have a linebacker that weighs over 233 pounds we want them right that we want guys that can run and cover um and take space away and that's how you that's how you have a chance to defend you know the watson the mahomes the jacksons you've got to have speed on the field to be able to match him. Let's talk about your quarterback at this point. Phillip Rivers, as soon as you signed him, there was obviously a pop, a reaction,

either very good, really bad. Any decision that is made in the offseason, you can't judge immediately until you see how it pans out. So it's always hilarious to kind of do that and see that. With the first couple days here and with him being in the building, what have you seen out of Phillip Rivers that makes you go, yep, that's why we picked Phillip Rivers this offseason? Well, just, I mean, look, he's accurate.

I think he's 89% so far in practice. I mean, this dude can – he is accurate. Oh, come on. He is accurate. The defense is sorry out there. No, I mean, he – Phillip will get out of bed Accurate. Oh, come on. He is accurate. The defense is sorry out there. I'm joking. I'm joking. No, I mean, he – Phillip will get out of bed when he's 70 and be accurate.

I mean, their guys can get out and when they can throw it, that will never leave him. But just his – look, his energy, his presence, all of that just bleeds overconfidence to everybody else. And I mean, I think everybody knows. Let me tell you one of the cool things. Everybody knows what Phillip's done in his career. And players know.

But he comes out every day and works and wants to still earn their respect, which I think is, which I think is key. Well, I think that's why Phillip Rivers is Phillip Rivers. We got to go to a break on radio. Will you stick with us on YouTube for a little bit of another minute or two? Absolutely. Ladies and gentlemen,

the conversation continues with Chris Bauer to youtube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show. We'll be back on the other side, radio listeners to close out our one. And we're clear. What are you drinking over there? You got some, you got some men who explode. You fucking getting jacked up. What's that clear. What are you drinking over there? You got some you got some Meno Explode you fucking getting jacked up.

What's that? Uptime. What's that? Uptime. What is it? Oh, it's the best one. I found it. I mean, I got cases of it in the fridge. They should be they should be paying you for this, right? I never even heard of that thing right there. We tried. I had Cal. Remember

Cal came on? I had Cal call him. I said, call Uptime and see if we can't get them to sponsor the draft room. And they wouldn't do it because they don't sell it here. They only sell it on the East Coast. Oh, that's obvious. Oh, yeah. And they've gotten more. I mean, you know, if people watch the draft.

But, I mean, during the draft, these cans are just slaughtered all over the draft. What is it? Some kind of kind of like cognitive brain water it's an energy drink i mean it makes your hair stand up on your head it looks good by the way i was gonna say yeah it's good it's called orange this one's blood orange but they got lemon it's good hey listen it's better than it's better than all those other energy drinks it's what i I like. Don't take the bang. You will get hooked. That stuff is crap. No, no. I won't do the bang. Yeah. By the way, I did it there for a couple months.

I had to stop cold turkey. It was tough coming out of it. I'm going to be honest. It was tough coming out the other side of it. I'm happy to be on the other side. Let's talk about, can I ask you about Jacoby? Yeah. Because I assume that you have to answer a lot of questions about Jacoby.

Jacoby, you gave him a two-year deal last year, and you even said to the media, like, we don't know if he's our guy. That's why it's a two-year deal, but we like what he's shown us thus far. Last year he had a great start, gets hurt. Now you bring in Phil. He's going to get a chance to, I don't want to say sit behind, but he sat behind Tom Brady, Andrew Luck, and now Phil Rivers. That seems like that's going to be quite a weapon for Jacoby's future.

What are you thinking about Jacoby and his future? And I would assume this year is a year that you need to have a great backup because you have no idea what the hell is going to happen with the COVID thing. Yeah. Well, it's tough. I mean, I think it's tough one because of my, you know, relationship with him.

And I think so much of him, but bringing Phillip in was such a unique chance for the organization especially with his relationship with with both nick and uh frank all right so and but jacoby being who jacoby is you know of course he's pissed he should be but at jacoby's core he's as good a teammate as I've ever been around. And he wants the team to win. Sure, he wants to be the guy. And I wouldn't want a player on this team that doesn't want to start and play and compete. So Jacoby will continue at some point, like I told Jacoby,

at some point you're going to have to make a play to help us win. And he'll be ready. Hey, Chris, you mentioned Jacoby and your relationship with him. I'm always curious, being the GM there and your relationships with players and coaches, Pat and I have talked about this before. It almost helps if you're running a sports team to be a sociopath and not let your emotions get in the way of any kind of decision. I'm just wondering how you balance that between like, hey, this is what's best for the team,

but I also have personal relationships. Like, how has that gone so far? Look, I can't do that. I just can't. It's just not me, you know, and I can't change who I am. I'm going to have relationships. I do. I care about the play.

I care about our players. I want them to do good. I want to have them to have relationships. I do. I care about our players. I want them to do good. I want them to have successful careers. I want them to continue when football's over to have successful lives. It's tough when you're making that transition. So I can't sit here and say I don't have relationships that are close with them. But here's how I kind of explain to our guys. Don't take the business in personal.

And you do. Most of them are young. I'll say, look, at some point, we're going to have a discussion about money here. And you might not agree and I might not agree. And that's okay. If you do well and do everything that we're asking you to do, either we're going to pay you, either we're going to pay

you or somebody else is going to pay you and it's going to work out good for you and your family. I want to keep every player we can, but that's not realistic. It'll get a little sticky every once in a while, but I think at the end of the day, players know a few things. One, I'm going to be very honest with them about what's going on and how they're playing and what the expectations are. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, I want good for them.

I want players to do good. We're not in the anti-player, screw player business. This is a player's league. I don't think it's a player's and coach's league. You cannot forget that. Well, Chris, we're about to come back into radio here, so I think it's a good time to let you go ahead and continue to dominate your day and create that Colts team.

Enjoy the hell out of this process, man. I hope the nose swabs have been a lot of fun as well. I think I'm afraid. Actually, I came in today. I was running late to a meeting, and I forgot they had to remind me to go get it, and I think that was after 21 straight days of getting tested. I'm not as bad.

We're getting used to it. Well, hey, hopefully they all come back negative for the entire season, for the entire NFL. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris Ballard. Thank you. We're rooting for you. You too, boss man. Welcome back to the pad. Yeah, you too.

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obviously the work ethic uh nfl networks Inside Training Camp live coverage airs daily starting at 10 a.m. That's where, by the way, the Cam Newton footage came from. That's where you get a chance to kind of peek inside. If you're yearning for football like we are, not a bad thing to watch. Tom Pellisaro is an NFL Network reporter, and you can follow him on Twitter at Tom Pellisaro, P-E-L-I-S-S-E-R-O. Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Pelissero. Tommy!

Just to be clear, Pat, you're now pitching wireless earbuds, and I got a mug. Well, I will say this. We own that mug. We don't own Raycon. So we'll text Ray J. You could. Hey, I like that our mug made it in your office though hey thank you

for having us in there uh what is your go-to coffee in the morning you a coffee guy green tea guy i'm actually i just poured water into it for the first time and i'm thinking i should have washed it yes that's not on you that's on me and the fact i haven't left this basement in six months well let's talk about you in that basement making things happen uh you should have washed that cup for sure. We don't even know where that's coming from. So that is something to definitely think about. The NFL, we had Chris Ballard on with us in the first hour,

and he talked about how they have to treat basically everybody on the team as starters now. That's just how it's going to be, and they assume more and more is going to happen. Is there a plan in place for the NFL if a Marlins-like outbreak happens? Are they going to postpone games? Because you can't really shorten games in the NFL. You can't postpone games too much because what are guys going to do sit out like is there a plan in place for that have you heard any conversation on how they're going to figure it figure that out well first of all when it comes to you know changing a venue or

cancellation postponement whatever they're putting together kind of like a shadow competition committee they're calling it a competition advisory panel that will talk to the commissioner in season because currently the actual competition committee is active nfl executives and coaches and gms who their interests are going to be different based on what game it is what happens things like what happens if you've got to seed the playoffs and some teams have played more divisional games than others? How do you do that? Who wins the division if teams end up playing an equal number of games? What they're doing is they're getting former GMs, former head coaches, former players now to form this other advisory panel that will sort out some of these situations as they come up. But you also have to know the NFL has made a bunch of different changes to try to have more roster flexibility within the season.

The expanded practice squads going to 16 guys, that's one of them. Unlimited injured reserve, not just the reserve COVID-19 list, but unlimited IR. You have a high ankle sprain that in the past, that's four to six weeks. You'd have to make that decision. Okay, do we put the guy on IR, end his season, or do we keep him up and now we're down a guy for four to six weeks you'd have to make that decision okay do we put the guy on ir end of season or do we keep him up and now we're down a guy for four to six weeks well now you can come back from ir within three weeks there is no limit on the number of guys you can come back in other words they want and the competition committee signed off on this teams to have as much access as possible to guys

who know their scheme that they have actually trained so if you do have an outbreak within the team if there are ways that you have enough guys there, and if you don't have concern about other infections or a spread within a team, spread between teams, you're going to, when possible, find ways to play. What about the, oh, so it's just going to be field to team, however you can field a team if something goes down. That's just going to have to be out there.

In essence, I mean, yeah, if there's a situation where 25 guys somehow all have COVID-19, now you've got a problem especially because okay did those tests happen at the beginning of the week where you can retest guys and get them into protocols figure out who's asymptomatic who's symptomatic or do they happen on friday morning before a sunday game those are all things are still working out the in-season testing cadence has not actually been finalized yet that's going to be one of the big questions. I mean, things like the Matthew Stafford situation, where Stafford had one positive test amidst a bunch of negative tests.

Then now the Lions come out and say that was a false positive. How they're working through that, that's evolving here, where now you can come back, you have two more negative tests, you can return to the team. Here's what I know right now. The positivity rate on those covid19 tests is ridiculously low we're talking a fraction of one percent that are positive tests right now and based on some of the the activations today there have been 110 guys league-wide put on

the reserve covid19 list as of this moment there are six guys left on the list let's go it's early it's early but those are really good signs that all the protocols not just the testing but the contact tracing the education the behavioral emphasis and the social distancing in the buildings all that stuff you'd say at this moment seems to be working okay so let's talk about the teams and the players the first day of training camp there's always going to be injuries always that's just the way it goes first time you get back in ending this year there seem to be a lot more. There are players out there who are still great mug sell right there.

Great mug sell right there by you. There are players who are still out there on the market. If you're a veteran and you're on the market, I see next to zero reason to sign with a team until the end of training camp. Like right now, Jadeveon Clowney. His name is still out there. He will trend anytime anybody gets hurt, anytime there's an opportunity anywhere,

Jadeveon Clowney's name gets brought up. There's a lot of other vets that are still out there that could potentially sign with teams. Do you think there's a lot of let's wait and see what happens with our teams before we sign these vets, or are people actively pursuing Jadeveon Clowney at the moment or anything like that? Clowney could have signed months ago.

I mean, he's had offers, multi-year offers, one-year offers. He still has a really high price tag, talking $17, $18 million per year. That plus, you know, obviously he's got an injury history, a guy that you wanted to bring in for a physical. Well, nobody's advanced enough in terms of an offer to bring him in for a physical yet. Clowney's always been taking his time. That's one thing that I've heard consistently, which is he was just kind of going to take his time here,

push this as far as he could, come in right at the end, which is what he did a year ago too. The one thing to keep in mind is we're already getting to that point. We're already getting to the end here. Because remember, if you're a street free agent, you're a guy who has not been on a team through training camp. You're signing, whether that's Jadeveon Clowney, whether that's Logan Ryan, any of the other number of high-profile free agents. Clay Matthews.

Thank you, Shipley. Dante Freeman. You've got to pass three COVID tests over four days, then get a physical before they can even integrate you onto any kind of team activities. So really, you're talking about a week. Well, if you need a week to be able just to get onto the field and presumably even Genevieve and Clowney you'd like to practice for a week, by the end of next week you would be thinking some decisions are going to have to be made or guys just functionally,

based on how this is set up, are not going to be ready to go for week one. Hey, Tom, AJ Hawk here. I've heard we know the Chiefs are talking about having what, 22% capacity at their stadium. Different places are going to have fans. They say now some places won't. Do you think Goodell is going to come in? Like, is this a competitive like imbalance for some teams

that have a whole field if you do have 20% of your fans and some places have nobody? Competitive imbalance. Wow. The way that, I'll put it this way, the people making the decisions in those cases are the owners and they're thinking of the competitive imbalance of this guy's making money and i'm not making money that's where that starts out now obviously there's health and safety

protocols your old team the packers said we just we're going to not have fans in for the first couple games because we got to focus on making sure that all the protocols are working for the people on the field. And they've drastically reduced the number of people on the field. There's no more cheerleaders. There's no more mascots. I can't be on the field pregame. That was a crushing blow reading that in the final game day protocols yesterday. But they're limiting the number of people.

You still have, though, the testing protocols, where people can go, who can come in what entrances for the teams that are doing it and having fans in the stands uh there's some teams taking a wait-and-see approach there's other teams like jerry jones who's made very clear like i got so many suites in this place i can hide people all over here they're not going to be near each other he's going to try to have uh you know thousands of people in the stands from week one you know in terms of the actual football no no question. I mean, there's coaches that bring that up, GMs about the imbalance of, you know, the crowd noise aspect. It's simply different playing on the road than it is playing at home.

You know, the idea of artificial crowd noise has come up. There's nothing final on that. But it's certainly been something that they've discussed. I think we've all watched, you know, baseball games or whatever, and you hear like they're doing different things to make it sound and look a little bit more uh like an nfl game there's gonna be nothing normal about or you know a real game there's gonna be nothing normal about nfl games this season but uh they're exploring a lot of different avenues and just because one team's not having people in september or having a small number of people in september

doesn't mean that's going to be their plan for October, November, and beyond. You know, it's been a different, for me, it's been a different taste on whether or not I like the fake crowd noise with the sport or I don't like the fake crowd noise with the sport. Like, for instance, I think UFC early, I enjoyed it without the crowd noise because I was hearing punches landing on people's suckles and then I heard coaches talking. But now I think I've gotten to the point where I'm like, I think we need that arena gladiator- atmosphere and then for football i think you're gonna need

some sort of sound i gotta be real too you think well the zoom calls we talked to the nba players we talked to terrence ross yesterday orlando magic and he said those zoom fans are on like a three second delay so he said they'll do something big and then on the other side of the quarter yeah going like oh my god like the only thing that's been is the delay watching the nfl figure that out will obviously be a lot of fun let's go to new england tom what are you hearing out of new england we've heard clips from bill belichick talking about how hard working cam is and how much he's enjoying it we've seen clips from inside training camp live on nfl network of cam newton dancing and being

what are you hearing about that relationship up there tom because i think new englanders are getting very very very excited about the potential of this particular team right now oh it's still early in terms of actual padded practices in the course of training camp but it's also late because we we don't have pre-season games we don't have those usual metrics that you use to judge a competition what we do know know is Cam Newton is clearly the most talented quarterback that's on the Patriots roster. He's a guy who has had success in the league, but he's also had injuries over the past couple of years.

They drafted Jared Stidham in the fourth round. They thought he threw a really pretty ball. They liked what he did in terms of his work with the practice squad or with the scout team over the course of last season. Then you've got Brian Hoyer, who's the one guy who has actually played in this offense, you know, knows how to function in it. I would just say this, with the way that Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels look at everything with that team,

they're never going to marry themselves to one thing, even for two consecutive games, much less for an entire season. I don't think that they're sitting back and going already, okay, Cam Newton's the guy, we know that, and we're just going to set the depth card. No, they're going to be looking at this as things move forward here. And I'm not suggesting, you know, the platoon. I know that that was a big thing yesterday. Belichick was asked about the idea of rotating quarterbacks. And he said the same thing we've heard him say literally 100,000 times, which is, I'm going to do what's best for the team, whatever that is,

that's what we're going to do, basically ruling nothing out. But that really is how they operate. You could have one game plan where it's a run-heavy thing and a ton of zone read and Cam is running with the football. There could be another game where they think that they're better off chucking it around, that they need to do a spread-it-out passing offense, and depending on how Cam's come along in that phase, maybe Stidham or Hoyer is the best guy uh within that game i think it's just gonna

be fascinating to see this because we know so much about how bill belichick operates and how game plan specific he is uh the way that they are adaptable uh whether it's the defensive schemes or what they're doing on offense uh what we don't know is how adaptable truly is he at the quarterback position because you have to go back two decades to find the last time that we didn't know with 100% certainty the number 12 was going to be under center. Okay. Well, he had success with Castle. Castle, obviously, would go elsewhere or not, and Jimmy and Jacoby.

But those are all pretty similar quarterbacks there, right? Those are all pretty similar quarterbacks. Cam Newton adds a completely different weapon to that offense if you need to i'm excited to actually see bill belichick wrap his mind around what he could potentially do with cam and see what he comes up with he's always been the guy who has taken advantage of the situation the most i mean him and ernie him in that eye in the sky the guy who seems to know everything whether it was like little glimpses in a rule book that nobody else knows about that they've like broken down where they started moving offensive linemen out to wide

receiver before anybody else they had to add rules to stop them from doing it they seem to take advantage of things in the best fashion everybody yells that they're cheating but i think every other team in the nfl would do it immediately if they had the brain capacity to do so and i also say this you bring up uh the garoppolo and bursette which was during the deflate gates pension for tom brady i remember vividly that game the first time the bursette had to play because jimmy g had started the first two games and they had to play bursette in week three and i remember belichick after they won that game with just this big grin on his face there is something about finding ways to win when everybody's like well you don't have one of the best players in the nfl you have no chance and having to cope with a completely different plan

they did run as a little bit different offense with Brissette and coming up with that plan seemed to be something that Bill was very satisfied with after the game I mean this is this is a new challenge when you've won everything like Bill Belichick has what's left and the answer might be now trying to continue winning without maybe the best player in nfl history and we see a brand new bill i think we've been seeing a brand new bill i mean his dog nike was doing the draft i mean you just go through it it's a brand new bill belichick he's up i think you won an emmy at this point i mean it is there's a lot of us yeah with you guys i want to talk about you guys and reporters in general that jaylen ramsey give and take on hard knocks

i think is the epitome of why most players hate reporters okay i think that is you know what i mean like he was taking the high road he was being a veteran he was giving his answer and the reporter was like no that's not what i need for my article so i'm gonna i'm gonna keep prying and prying and prying do you think we're in a very different age of journalism and this is a little bit off subject i think this is tom pelissaro because you're a younger reporter you're you're a guy that is kind of wish you you you are though do you think it's a little bit different though like for instance i think a lot of people took jaylen's side in that particular case where in like probably four years ago maybe five years ago everybody's been like well jaylen's

an ass for doing that or whatever i feel like we're in a real different era now for your particular profession i appreciate that you're still calling me young pat that does that does mean a lot when i was covered aj in 2007 for the green bay press gazette that was me as a young reporter i've been at this way longer tom than you think tom aj does not remember that and i know that is absolutely certain and that is a heartbreaker but he fell of course i know big tom green bay press gazette at least you're in the biggest show in town you moved up quick too hey hold on though though, Tom. He fell asleep during Dan Wetzel's interview just one week ago. The eat pretzel.

This guy is the— I'm fully awake now, Tom. Appreciate that. Well, I would say this. With Jalen Ramsey. So I was watching that Hard Knocks episode with my wife, who also once upon a time worked for the Green Bay Press Gazette, has a journalism background.

And what struck me was, so Jalen, that whole scene plays out. They go back and forth. He walks out. Artists with the Rams talk him into coming back into the room. And then he gave this, you know, kind of longer answer of, here's why I'm not going to answer that question. You're trying to get this and that. This is how I really feel. He gave a much more passionate answer.

I turned to my wife and I said, that was probably the answer you're looking for. You were just looking for a little bit more color to it. I mean, there's always something difficult about this because when you don't ask the questions, when you get kind of a non-answer and you don't follow up on it, then you run the risk of everybody criticizing you for, oh, you didn't press for an answer. You just accepted that terrible answer. You didn't try to get more. And then if you go too far and you ask 10 follow-up questions and the person walks out, that it's, oh, the media's trying to do this and that. I really do understand it from both sides because we're taught as reporters to try to dig deeper, to try to pull something else out. But Jalen Ramsey, who I've talked to before, he's a really interesting guy. He's also really smart in terms of how he deals

with the media. He knows what's going to be a thing. He knows what's not, you know, he's careful with his words. In that case, he had a very clear, all right, I'm going to say my piece on what my agents do and what the team is doing. And then I want to talk football, but the storyline with him is going to be his contract. It's no different than Dalvin Cook up here in in Minnesota or any number of other players who have a looming contract situation that uh becomes high profile it's just that's I think the nature between the media and the players which is it's not our job to be their friends and nobody on our side of the table ever expects that they're our friends I mean you're interviewing the person it's a professional setting I don't fault Jalen Ramsey or any other player anybody else and nobody on our side of the table ever expects that they're our friends. I mean, you're interviewing the person.

It's a professional setting. I don't fault Jalen Ramsey or any other player, anybody else, from answering questions however they want. It's just our job to ask the questions. And I would give you this story. So Marshawn Lynch, who, of course, classic media case, right? Super interesting guy, unbelievably smart businessman, but just kind of realized that he could toy with the media and sometimes he wasn't going to talk. And then when

they made him talk, he'd come back and give the same, you know, one sentence answer. So one time, and I want to say it was after Marshawn held out the start of Seahawks camp, this was probably circa 2014, 15, somewhere in there, held out like the first week of camp, sitting in his locker. And a lot of the, you lot of the local media was reluctant to go up to him because they're like, we don't know what we're getting into here. The local media goes up to him. They're asking him questions about his shoes

and his business, just like trying to get him to open up. I'm asking questions about his contract and showing up. He's just staring at me the entire time. Every time i ask a question he just stares just stares waits for somebody asking a question about what something he wants to talk about and then goes back to answering that question so afterward you know the scrum breaks up everybody walks away i look over i see marshall looking at me and kind of

chuckling to himself i walked up and i just said you know hey you know you know i don't know if you remember me tom pelissero usa today or whatever i was at at the, you know, Hey, you know, you know, I don't know if you remember me, Tom Pellicero, USA Today, or whatever I was at at the time, you know, Hey, like totally, totally respect you. Not wanting to answer the question. It's my, it's, you know, I just got to ask the questions. And he looked at me and he, you know, reached out his hand, shook my hand, just goes, do your job, boss. That's the epitome of the relationship. It's just, we, we both have jobs to do and that's, that's kind of how I see it.

And both sides need each other. Both sides need need each other that is something that's taught every training camp it's like we need the media the media needs us this is a relationship there's always some sort of video shown to try to ease the tension between the two but boy it is just it is always an awkward you're i've always wondered this do they give you scouting reports on the reporters like this is the person you can trust that's going to be around every day and this is the person don't say anything to them because they're going to be a clickbait guy players know yeah we know the player yeah player they don't have the coaches by the way if the coaches want to give us we'll probably give them one back actually and funny you say

that because on twitter this is how they um you mentioned this last question i can't thank you enough for joining us i know you're a busy man dalvin cook melvin ingram the new holdout with the new cba is you show up and you don't practice is dalvin cook doing the same thing as melvin ingram because it is alleged that the contract negotiations have stopped with him he said he wanted a deal because if you look at the free agents for the running back market next offseason it's very similar to the quarterback market this offseason there is a lot of running backs that are very very good that are up next year dalvin cook's team saw that obviously try to get ahead of it when they get an extension it does not happen christian mcafree did get one but melvin ingram it's being talked about he's showing up but he's just not practicing because

if he shows up they can't take the money away there's a there is it used to be team-based now it's league-wide if you show up they can't take your money you don't practice how do you see those two situations going and it's an interesting new holdout if that is what the new holdout is well they're in two different situations this is an important distinction i'm glad you brought it up so melvin ingram is on a veteran contract it's his second deal so he can be fine if the chargers want to and they say you're not participating, you're holding in, so to speak, then they can at some point begin to discipline him for conduct detrimental. With Delvin Cook, because he's on his rookie contract, the same reason that he had to show up on time to camp is why he now also cannot hold in the vikings actually while those contract negotiations were going on held back delvin cook out of a lot of team drills gave him a lighter workload before the contract talks broke off yesterday but if delvin cook does not either report on to training

camp on time which he did which was not a surprise because he basically had to but also if he were to withhold his services not fulfill his contract for any material period of time which is what the language is in the cba then he can lose an accrued season toward free agency jeez if he says i'm not showing up the next three days or i'm not practicing whatever i'm not doing this because my contract the vikings then can go okay you are now going to be a restricted free agent next March, and instead of getting the franchise tag, which is going to be like $8 or $9 million, we'll just bring you back for $4 or $5 on a restricted tender instead, and now you're one year further away from being out from under team control.

That's why Delvin Cook can't afford to do this. I mean, technically you can do whatever you want, but it is virtually prohibitive under the CBA for guys on rookie contracts to not do their jobs. Ezekiel Elliott was a little different last year because he had a fifth-year option. He was a first-round draft pick. He could afford to lose the accrued season because he still had that fifth year on his contract to earn the accrued season and still be a free agent on time. Dalvin Cook was a second-rounder, so he needs this fourth year to get to free agency or, in all likelihood, a franchise take. Otherwise, he's a restricted free agent, which would just put him a year further away from getting what he ultimately wants, which is to get paid.

Yeah, well, they knew that, too, when they were negotiating with him, by the way. The Minnesota Vikings knew that exactly. Like, you want what? Nah, how about this? Nah, well, then you can just do this, then. You can just keep it around for another year. Okay, you can do it. And then when those contracts, whenever they use it. Don't take it personal. Hey, don't take it Nah, well, then you can just do this then. We can just stick you around for another year. Okay, you can do it. And then when those contracts, whenever they use...

Don't take it personal. Hey, don't take it personal, by the way. Whenever those contracts stop, the conversation stops, what does that mean? They just decided, you know what? We aren't getting anywhere. Let's stop wasting our time. And then how is Dalvin Cook supposed to not...

Like, I don't know how... How do they decide the conversation stops whenever they have another year here where he's could get extended how does that happen well the thing is certainly pat they could always restart the negotiation somewhere down the line but they have worked on this deal with delvin cook's agent for months i mean they have had months of conversations of negotiations of exchanging proposals on a long-term deal that would make delvin Cook one of the higher paid running backs in the NFL. But everything needs to come to a head eventually, which is exactly what happened yesterday. There was basically, all right, by this time,

we either are doing a deal or let's just play this thing out and we'll try again next offseason. It got to that point. Dalvin didn't take the deal uh which again would have put him on the higher paid running backs uh in the nfl uh he's betting on his worth in the long haul uh if he stays healthy this year and has a huge you know monster year maybe it pays off for him next off but basically the vikings got to a stopping point where it was okay we haven't gotten a deal done we're not going to carry this into the regular season we got to get you ramped up in camp we're moving on and that's where it stands now well tom i i don't know if we have that list of free agent running backs next year but it is like 12 deep and there is james connor he could potentially have that

franchise tag if the cap is only about 175 million is only going to be around eight point something million dollars that is a low low tag number that is going to make teams more likely to apply the tag it makes guys more tradable uh potentially and it also sets a lower bar for a contract extension uh negotiation than you otherwise would if the tag number were up upwards of 10 million like it was this year and that's a position where you get beat up any day could be your last day running back is at 45 minutes after the hour here, Tom Pellisar from the NFL Network. I can't thank you enough, Tom. Incredible stuff, Tom.

Anytime. Is he older than you? Look forward to the earbuds. Is he older than you? How old are you, Tom? 39. Yeah, a couple years older than me. I'm 36 right now.

Tom, you look like you're 12, dude. When AJ got into the league, he already looked like he was 30. He already looked like a was 30 he already looked like that's great ladies and gentlemen tom no sorry so sorry to interrupt i want to tell you about a new sponsor that we have and i'll tell you what this sponsor's got it going on all right hawthorne is the name h-a-A-W-T-H-O-R-N-E. And they are a company that literally takes care of you in the bathroom for everything you could potentially ever need or want. Deodorant, shampoo, body wash, face cleanser, cologne, lotion, you name it, they got it. And the beautiful thing about Hawthorne is they have you fill out a quiz. Two minutes. Very quick quiz. What type of skin type do you have? What type of hair do you have? What's a night out like for you? What do you, just a quick quiz so they can get to know you,

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I would say. Back to the show. Very different from that. Let's go to the wrestling world, because in two days, on August 22nd, I will be making my WWE debut with NXT TakeOver 30. SummerSlam weekend is coming up, and on Saturday night, WWE Network,

7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The show will begin. I have no idea when I go out there and punt Adam Cole's head, but I am excited to do it. To talk with us about that, commentator for Friday Night Smackdown, a man who's been in the wrestling business for a long, long time. Some people call him a scumbag. I say he's awesome. Ladies and gentlemen, Corey Graves. Corey!

How's it going, Corey? Good morning, gentlemen. How are you, Corey? Whereory where you at you hold up right now in a hotel or you uh am i in the the wwe bubble right now well i like that a lot i'll be getting in there uh here in the next i think 12 hours to lock in there for takeover i can't wait for it you've been in wrestling business since you were a teen is that right yeah way too long More than half of my life at this point. How old were you then when you got started? I was a freshman in high school when I started training, and I actually missed my senior prom to do a wrestling show

in front of about 21 people. That's commitment. That's got you to the top of the mountain, though, here. You obviously go from wrestler to commentator i'm two days out from my first match some things i should keep uh in mind mark henry told me no cocktails uh attack in watcher six because obviously the unspeeded error for you what should i be thinking mindset wise in preparation so you know i don't embarrass my entire family out there on your your wind is everything.

We talked about this. I've been trying my best to impart some advice to you. Whether or not you've taken it, I don't know. Thank God we've got Hawk there keeping you in check. Thank you, Corey. Because I think he realizes that you are way out of your league in this instance. However, as your friend, I am fully supportive. But you're about to step in the ring with one of the

best in the business. I'm very excited to see how it plays out. Is there anything you can do in two days that you've learned to really get your cardio? Is there anything that makes you a marathon man in two days? No. My cardio always sucked. I was never good at cardio. I was just saying

that to you so maybe you could do better. Also, never discount the value of a well-placed thumb to the eye. Ooh. See, there's something that I like to hear. I don't need to talk about the problems. I don't need to talk about the problems. Let's talk about the answers. Thumb to the eye.

Good answer there. Thumb to the eye. You've got A.J. Hawk and you've got D.B. He's going to be at ringside potentially. Teach him how to run a nice little interference, a distraction. Keep the referee occupied. Then you can operate. Now we're talking.

You're right, Corey. We know the referee, don't we, for your match? It hasn't officially been, but I have been pitching hard for one particular ref. Now, granted, my word means absolutely nothing in this entire thing, but I have been pitching hard for one particular ref who has a great tan. By the way, they wouldn't give me confirmation on whether or not he was the ref or not in this entire thing, but I have been pitching hard for one particular ref who has a great tan. By the way, they wouldn't give me confirmation on whether or not he was the ref or not because they know that I am very likely

to send gifts to him today, tomorrow, Saturday. Sunday. By the way, maybe even next week if he wants. All through 2020. Whatever he wants. People know that I am not above that at all. I am not above that at all. There's nothing wrong with a good bribe. I that's that's how you get ahead in this business i i completely support

it wholeheartedly um aj have you ever seen that many tattoos on a human being no i have not but i'm sure people have asked you which one hurts the most like does the adam's apple hurt the worst throat kind of sucked um i would actually say the side of my neck hurt a little bit worse but yeah i mean none of it's fun i don't get tattooed because i enjoy it i just i guess it's a bit of an addiction and every time i decide i'm going to add on to something about 15 minutes in i go what the hell am i doing why am i doing this to myself now because as i get older they seem to hurt worse um so i don't recommend it there's one like half tattoo there on your shin that I asked about.

And I said, what was the meaning behind that one? And you said you never asked the artist what the meaning was. Yeah, not really sure where he was going with it. I was working on a tattoo shop and decided to give him sort of free range to do what he wanted. And then the guy fell off the face of the planet. He just didn't show up for work one day and nobody ever heard from him again. And I'm not entirely sure what his plan was or where he was going, so I can't go to another artist and say, hey, this is what we're looking for.

It's just kind of like this weird outline of God knows what. Can you show it? Because this is potentially that artist's last piece of work. Potentially. It's based off of Superman Red Son, the comic book, where Superman landed in Russia instead of America. Oh, it might have got poisoned. It was just kind of interesting to me.

Hey, you can't go to Russia. No, not now. But that was many moons ago, and it will never be completed. When you're commentating on SmackDown, how do you view your job? Just to be as entertaining as possible, informative as possible what

is your mindset going in there it depends because i don't think people realize how long two hours is when you have to talk constantly a lot of times it's trying to my job a is to inform and let people know what's going on as the color commentator give it a little bit of depth but um yeah to talk and more so than just an episode of smackdown like we used to do these five six seven hour pay-per-views at wrestlemania and i'm calling the whole thing sometimes i just got to entertain myself i'm trying to make myself laugh trying to make michael cole laugh who which is no you know no easy task because he's a real life news person so he um you know he can remain stoic so if i crack him i feel like it was a success

yeah well i mean just like with our show some things are for me i've said like hey i don't care if the fans like it this is 100 for me at this point sometimes you got to get like that i mean at some point aj is very intrigued aj by the way getting baptized into the wrestling business right now like getting a chance to really experience it. I'm seeing his eyes get open to why people love wrestling so much. I mean, they're right, AJ. Yeah, I am. Hey, everyone is super nice there as well.

Yes. It's added like a nice. Except for Undisputed Era. Yeah, everyone else, like supporting staff, other wrestlers, everyone has been really cool. But, Corey, I wanted to ask you from your time wrestling and as a commentator, do they ever present any storylines to you

or anything out there that you didn't feel comfortable and you could look vince in the eye and say nah i'm good i'm not gonna do it i never really had any sort of issues like that also i'm i'm not too uh particularly proud in general so i have no problem making a fool of myself um i've heard stories of people that have shut things down because they weren't comfortable. How many people, though, really have the power to say no? Everybody has the power to say no. It's just a matter of whether or not you're in a position and you're going to get more opportunities based on what you – it's like any business.

When you're the new guy or you're getting your first chance, you may only get one chance. So it's up to you to knock it out of the park. If you choose not to partake in it, that doesn't necessarily mean you're not going to get another chance. But obviously, if you're a top-tier guy, you have a little more influence on what you do or do not do, as opposed to someone who's just trying to kind of make their mark. I don't know if you saw us last night.

Darius Butler almost jumped over the ropes and beat up a couple dudes last night. I figured DB was having flashbacks to his hockey watching days. Exactly. Hey, good call. NHL Darius. I completely forgot. Big hockey guy. We haven't talked enough NHL today.

We'll dive into that tomorrow, I guess. How has the hockey fanhood been? It's been a long time, obviously. How's your favorite team doing? How's your favorite team doing? You know, like you said, Boston. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just sweat. Go Boston. Gooston go yeah we'll talk about it tomorrow yeah yeah get into tomorrow all i know is i met db very briefly but the one thing that was for sure was i could feel

his hockey fandom yeah fading through the room uh is that a six overtime night or five overtime afternoon it was by the way that afternoon became a late night very quickly um you know you almost died from uh uh uh not a retribution not a member almost hit you in the head with a bat a couple weeks ago are you okay i mean we were worried about your mental health even though you weren't hit physically we were worried about your mental health, even though you weren't hit physically. We were worried about your mental health that somebody in a hoodie and all black almost literally ended your entire career. It is very difficult to run in dress shoes. This is something that I had just learned at 36 years of age. I never attempted to run anywhere in dress shoes.

I try to avoid running at all costs these days. But to do it in dress shoes while being chased by a psychopath with a baseball bat it was uh it was not a lot of fun and i i didn't realize how close it came to actually striking me in the head until i saw it back on that friday night hey i don't want to say it did you any favors athletically but i'm happy you got out of the way with that bat i mean you were very close to getting beheaded out there as if i'm basically neo in the matrix is what i learned about myself i didn't realize but i've got the ability to dodge and evade like a very tattooed ninja um you guys have summer slam this weekend obviously on sunday there's a summer slam weekend the second biggest weekend of or maybe maybe number one absolutely i don't

know i haven't been paying attention enough to the SummerSlam card because I've got a lot of problems myself that I've got to worry about. What should people be looking forward to? With Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era, before we get to SummerSlam this Sunday, also streaming live on WWE Network, I saw your read. It was very eloquent. It was very professional.

Thank you. We unveil or debut friday night smackdown in the wwe thunderdome uh which your follow-up questions i don't have answers to because i have no idea what it's going to look like all i can say is that there are people higher up much higher up than i am that i've talked to and asked about it from like the tv end of things and apparently it's going to be pretty mind-blowing they've taken over the amway center in orlando and completely overhauled the inside um they're touting this as a wwe fan experience like we've never seen before there's going to be virtual fans um so your faces will be visible apparently. Apparently it's similar to the way the NBA does things, but better.

Oh, wow. So I'm very curious to see what this actually looks like. And I honestly don't know, and I'm kind of excited in that you've been in this business long enough that you've seen everything and you've done everything. And it's just, you know, you're rehashing a lot of things. So to see people that have been here much longer than I actually excited just because it's new and it's just, you know, you're rehashing a lot of things. So to see people that have been here much longer than I actually excited just because it's new and it's different, I'm really stoked to see how it turns out tomorrow night. The Thunderdome debuts tomorrow night, Friday night, SmackDown on Fox.

That's correct, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, which again is going to be the first night of the big weekend where we see NXT TakeOver XXX30. Featuring Pat McAfee's untimely demise at the hands of the Undisputed Era. This fucking guy. This guy. This guy.

What a scumbag. Fucking worse than Adam Cole almost. I mean, get over it over there. And then Sunday is SummerSlam, obviously. Big night. SummerSlam. Drew McIntyre and Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. Can't wait for that.

I don't get to call it because it's a raw match, but I'm stoked to see that. Braun Strowman against The Fiend, Bray Wyatt. It's going to be stacked, man. It's a good weekend to be a wrestling fan. It is. It's a great weekend. Great weekend to be a wrestling fan it is it's a great weekend a great weekend to be a wrestling fan because you're getting a chance to watch the next biggest thing in the business make

his debut let me ask you this pat if you do manage to dispatch of adam cole on saturday have you made plans because if you knock off one of the top guys in nxt you can't just like leave you can't just go did it done gonna bail says who are there what i do i retired from the nfl after making another pro bowl and was like well 100 decades okay i'll stay corrected but i i will say this okay i you know have always wanted to be a part of this right this is something i've always and you and i have talked about this i think since the first day that we've met because cory is from three minutes from where my house i'm like literally right next to aaron donald is like right here in the east hills

of pittsburgh uh i'm like right here in pittsburgh and then cory graves is right here we're on this town that's just the east hills of p. It's very, very close over there. And ever since I got to talk to you, you know, I learned that you were like training in high school. I'm like, man, if I would have fucking known that any of this was happening, I think this is potentially something I would have done. And I've always wanted to do this, always wanted to do this. And to be honest, the only way I look at anything, and this might be the NFL mindset, it might

be because the way my brain is, I'm just worried about what's next. Okay. Like what is next for me? Like, okay, is it a meeting? Okay. That is all I'm worried about what's next okay like what is next for me like okay is it a meeting okay that is all i'm worried about i gotta be at this meeting at 7 30 then when i'm in that meeting it's done okay what's next oh it's a lift okay i got this i got this even in this world that i'm in right now it's like what's next okay we got a daily show all right i'm gonna fucking worry about the daily show right now then what do i got next and to do that i think that is the only way you can do a multitude of things and still feel as if you're in the present so i haven't even thought about what the fuck is going to go on all i'm thinking

about right now is i'm going to after this show i know that next i have an incredible cardio session back there in that gym that i have that i'm going to have to hopefully knock out so i'm not even thinking about the future and obviously i'm hoping to not even use my cardio i'm planning on this thing ending within the first minute or two i like it i think i think it's good to set the bar high set your goals i you kicked the kick this head off you know a couple weeks ago it was quite impressive you saw i'd be lying if i said i didn't watch it over and over again on twitter hey me too however i watch it over it's a different circumstance man it's it's live it's worldwide broadcast and you're in

there with one of the best and it's going to be i'm excited to see i might actually even show up i might just come and just just watch as a fan hey i won't let you know i walked into that nxt arena okay after getting booed out there by everybody i feel like that's potentially my arena now that i now that i think about it feels like you know what i mean it feels like it's my arena over there i'm joking no i like it i mean if what I mean? It feels like it's my arena over there. I'm joking. I like it. And if they won't let me in, I'll just roll in as part of your entourage.

Hey, it's hard to break into this group, okay? We've got 28 years of NFL experience, and then we've got an Italian who does not have much to lose, who will throw his hands, which are cinder blocks, by the way, if need be. And WWE just cut him out of all the photos. Corey, all the photos this guy nick i just cut out completely from uh we would love to have you be a part of our entourage i can't wait to see uh what you do in a thunderdome i'm excited for your brain to be on display with your mouth with a thunderdome what is going to come out of your mouth nobody knows no one knows

probably some bullet farm references a lot of mad max deep cuts and potentially michael cole with a mohawk excuse me that's that's all i'm saying i'm sure if there's any justice in the world michael cole will show up in the thunderdome in leathers with a mohawk hey does michael cole care about the show at all if he doesn't show up with a mohawk and in leathers that's a valid question i wonder i even volunteered to dress like tina turner uh just for like you know continuity purposes and we'll see how that works out i don't have high hopes for that one but if i show up dressed like tina turner in beyond thunderdome and he doesn't then i'm gonna look like a fool but that's kind of you know my role and i've embraced it hey before we let you go i would like to let you know yesterday

mark henry told us that he squatted a thousand pounds and deadlifted 924 pounds with no straps. Would you like to tell us any incredible feats of strength that you have accomplished, Corey? I have no feats of strength.

At one point, I was kind of strong and then I stopped wrestling and decided to give up on the whole fitness aspect of my life. So, you know, and now we see whenever i'm being chased by a man with a baseball bat i'm a step slower than i once was well almost lost

your head but you will never lose that wit of yours i used to be an all right baseball player there we go we'll leave it at that pittsburgh pirates stink dude take that hat off you should not be supporting them you should you're giving that family money they do not deserve money they should sell the damn team cory i'm not going to disagree with you i i'm just a fan i see i like to be a fan of of the players and the team and not the organization okay you know what i mean calvin johnson yeah calvin johnson that's what calvin johnson's doing right now he's a fan of the players and he's not a fan of the organization hates him okay good all right cory we'll see you in thunderdome tomorrow night can't wait for it and i appreciate you joining us brother good luck

on saturday man if you uh you need anything i'm just a text away i believe me there's gonna be a lot of text sent within the next one because right now i'm too dumb to even think about it i would assume night before laying my head down there's gonna be i don't know probably 7 000 questions like okay now we're here what oh what am i doing i think i can figure it out i'll if you want i'll send you step-by-step instructions on how to hide brass knuckles in your boot or your trunks bingo send that text now ladies and gentlemen commentator for smackdown which is debuting the thunderdome tomorrow night on fox and also summer slam on sunday which is following nxt Thunderdome tomorrow night on Fox and also SummerSlam

on Sunday, which is following NXT TakeOver 30, which I will be booting a man's face to the moon. Ladies and gentlemen, Corey Graves. Thank you, Corey. I hope you all have the greatest weekend of your life. Tomorrow, I'll be living out a lifelong dream while trying to knock a man's soul from his body, 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on the WWE Network. It's going to be a blast.

And hey, when I get that dub, I'm going to celebrate rather hard, and we're going to enjoy this thing together. I can't thank you enough for choosing to let us penetrate your ear holes. I know there's a lot of other things you could listen to. The fact that you allowed us to be a part of your day, we appreciate so, so much.

Be a friend, tell a friend. From all of us to all of you, thank you so, so much. We're forever indebted. We truly are. It's ridiculous, actually. Ty Schmidt, please play some independent music

and send people into the greatest weekend of all time. Ooh-wee! play some independent music and send people into the greatest weekend of all time. Another couple shots bout to get me right Surrounded by the ones that get me through it all Only thing we need more of is alcohol Ayy, I'm gettin' lit Ayy, you gettin' lit Ayy, who's gettin' lit Ayy, we gettin' lit Ayy, I'm gettin' lit Ayy, you gettin' lit Ayy, who's gettin' lit Ayy, we gettin' lit Now you can find me posted up, drinkin' out the bottle It ain't even sexual when I tell your girl to swallow

Push your hate aside, celebrate your life Don't you slay my vibe, cause we bout to raise the knife I'm talking good vibes, good times, one love Drink this, drink that, all night, sun's up This ain't that two-step group, dance, same music Just be that, forget my name, sprayin' champagne music Break it down. We just getting started.

Fill it up. Raise a cup. Welcome to the party. Top, bottom, top. That's how we hit the toast. Six, four hundred spokes. Yeah, that's what I call to go. People talking down.

Put the index to the lips. It falls on deaf ears when you flexing on the kid. Music won't stop. I see your anger ain't a danger. When it comes to singing twine, we got bankers in the chamber I'm in my zone every day, every night Another couple shots, bout to get me right Surrounded by the ones that get me through it all

Only thing we need more of is alcohol Ayy, I'm gettin' lit Ayy, you gettin' lit Ayy, who's gettin' lit? Ayy, we gettin' lit Ayy, I'm gettin' lit Ayy, you gettin' lit Ayy, who's gettin' lit? Ayy, we gettin' lit Ayy, I'm gettin' lit Ayy, you gettin' lit Ayy, who's gettin' lit? Ayy, we gettin' lit Started on beast mode Now I'm on feast mode

Hittin' numbers like them seniors in casinos Don't break them pre-rolls, too thick as weed smoke I don't know around me, yo, me, cause my speech slow We gon' laugh loud loud before we lash out. And when I kill the bottle, that's when I black out. Ain't trying to pass out. I need to cash out. Trying to find some smothered cover top. Ash browns.

Got our E.T.L. You know what's going down. Pop a top, do a shot, or you can blow an ounce. We trying to lift the mood. Make sure it ain't lower. That's why when we celebrate, we hardly ever sober. Wouldn't trade it for the world. That's just how I feel.

When you hear them drunken thoughts, then you know it's real. We ain't turning down. We only turning up. I told y'all it was real, but I don't think you heard enough. I'm in my zone every day, every night. Another couple shots bout to give me rice surrounded by the ones that get me through it all only thing we need more of is alcohol You getting lit. Who's getting lit? We getting lit.

Yes, sir. If you know, you know. And if you don't, you slow. It's all good, though. Just having time of our lives. It's your man, I'm just saying. And my homie Twine, we out.