The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 240 - NXT, Ryan Clark, Field Yates, & Legend, AJ Hawk... HELL OF A SHOW ON A TUESDAY. Let's Gooo

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

On today's show, Pat recaps his incredible match from Saturday night with Adam Cole at NXT Takeover: XXX and all the memorable moments, how it's been something he's thought about for the last twenty years or so, and how sore his body is after the match. Joining the show is Super Bowl Champion, Pro Bowler, 12 Year NFL veteran and current ESPN NFL Analyst, Ryan Clark. Pat and Ryan chat about everything going on with the Earl Thomas situation in Baltimore, why something doesn't seem right about it, how Ryan thinks Earl has been playing in a scheme that doesn't favor him in Baltimore, whether or not Ryan thinks Earl has lost a step, and he gives some interesting anecdotes about Ben Roethlisberger and why he isn't portrayed as elite in the eyes of the media (9:53-32:29). Next is another installment of McAfee & Hawk Sports Talk as Pat and AJ rehash Saturday night and have great of an experience it was for both of them, they chat more about the Earl Thomas situation, training camp fights and how common they are, Aaron Rodgers absolutely torching the defense at Packers camp, and AJ miserably attempts to dumb down and explain how to identify what the strong side is in certain defenses (34:11-1:15:48). Later, ESPN NFL Analyst Field Yates joins the program to cover everything going on in NFL training camp. Pat and Field chat about the financial ramifications of Earl Thomas getting released, where Field thinks he may wind up, whether or not Lamar Jackson's groin injury is cause for concern, and the issues with the 77 false positive tests coming from the lab in New Jersey, and how the NFL is preparing to remedy that situation (1:15:50-1:35:22). Pat and the boys also take some time to shine a light on the NBA bubble and give props to breakout and rising star, Luka Doncic, after his absolutely insane OT game winner coming on top of a 40+ point triple double. Don't forget to send in a picture of where you're listening to the show with the hashtag #ThisIsWhereImAtPat and make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow as we continue our climb to a MASSIVE giveaway when we reach 1 million subscribers. We appreciate you all for listening. Come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

hello it is tuesday august 25th hey this past weekend something really cool happened in my life we talk about that obviously i'm talking about the wrestling debut i took an l but we talk about it also talk to ryan clark and other great conversations with mr field yates let's have a tuesday if you enjoy this show when you're done with it go ahead and tell a friend if you don't just act like it never happened okay let's get to it the match at angsty takeover 30 against adam cole was something i had thought about potentially happening in my life since i was probably like 10 11 years old right 10 11 i don't i don't know the exact age i know there's there's a lot of those wrestling fans out there who can be like i remember

the exact match that brought me in and I was hooked. I just, the era that ran then, whenever, it was just insane. I mean, the Monday Night Wars were such a real thing with bringing the absolute best out of a lot of people. I mean, Monday nights were the best night on television for me as a kid by far. Monday Night Football was in there. Then you had Raw and Nitro during the fall, and it was just, it was beautiful. And I felt as if I always related to wrestlers more than anybody else because wrestlers had to be

athletic they had to have a personality had to be outgoing and they had to be a little bit fearless and for me i was always trying to figure out what i wanted to be as a kid right i mean everybody tries to do it all i wanted to be was rich that's all i wanted everybody asked me what i wanted to be when i was growing up when i was a kid all i wanted to be rich i didn I wanted to be was rich. That's all I wanted. Everybody asked me what I wanted to be when I was growing up. When I was a kid, all I wanted to be rich. I didn't care what it was. I didn't care how it was. I was like, I'm just going to be rich. I know that it feels like all the rich people have the happiest lives. It feels like all the rich people do this. So all I want to be whenever I grow up is rich. And there was a lot of teachers that told me that obviously I wasn't caring about the right things. So I would try to like, you know, I would try to see

a profession. And if I thought that they were rich, I was like, Oh, I want to do that. Like, I think I want to do that. So there was at one point, I wanted to be a professional soccer player, obviously, because I played soccer, but I would watch soccer. And I was like, I don't think I really relate to a lot of these guys. Then I want to be a professional comedian, because the blue collar comedy tour came out. I was like, Oh, I like these guys. I think stand up comedy could be something I could do. Then you kind of see everything I've accomplished in my life thus far is basically from at one point during my childhood, I looked at it and I was like, Oh, I think I want to do that just strictly because I thought the humans that were doing it

were very rich. But when I watched wrestling for the first time, it was the first time I really looked at something. I was like, I feel like that's the world I'm supposed to be in. I think that is where I'm supposed to be. And then obviously trampoline wrestling was like, I feel like that's the world I'm supposed to be in. I think that is where I'm supposed to be. And then obviously trampoline wrestling was massive, especially in the town that I'm from. I think there's a special group of humans that do a lot of trampoline wrestling and have trampolines and above ground pools. And if you're watching or listening, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That was our neighborhood, the same neighborhood that had poker games whenever Chris Moneymaker went on to win the World Series of Poker.

So all these things kind of went in there. So for like 20 years now, I've always dreamt of having a match, a wrestling match. Now, a lot of things have gotten in the way with my ultimate goal of becoming a wealthy man for me not being able to wrestle. I got into a match with a guy named War Pig in South Charleston, West Virginia after college. And that was supposed to be an autograph signing. Obviously, I get called into the ring and War Pig pushes me around and I put him to sleep night, night

with a super kick, one, two, three. Nick Morata, myself, CFO Phil, and Slarm Dog, we all sprint out of the building because we thought we were gonna get attacked by the 15 people that were there because we took out their guy, the War Pig. But then, obviously, football happened and a career happened

and things get going business-wise for my Pig. But then, obviously, football happened, and a career happened, and things get going business-wise for my family, my friends, myself, and we keep going. And that seed had always been planted. Like, okay, I'm supposed to wrestle. I think I'm still supposed to wrestle, especially after wrestling War Pig. I had a great time doing that. I was successful. Who's next? Nobody knows. But then the career continued and continued and continued. So I'd always had these seeds I was supposed to wrestle. I get to work with WWE where I met Mancuri. I start doing kickoff shows and pre-shows and commentating and learning a little bit more about the world that I've always been a fan of.

And even as an adult, my lady and I, we try to watch literally every single wrestling show that's on television just because it's such a combination of things. And I think a lot of people got a chance to see that whenever they dove into the NXT run that I had here for the last couple weeks, that wrestling is just so much more than just wrestling. I mean, it's emotion, it's drama, it's comedy, it's athletics, it's everything that I feel like I've been attracted to for my entire life.

So getting a chance to get into the ring this past Saturday. Now, the way the whole thing was set up, don't respect that. I don't like it at all. I don't like that my colitis-having friend, Ty, had to get pushed in the process. I don't like that Triple H had to disrespect, a man that I was a big fan of, obviously, disrespecting me on ESPN. But the fact that I got to get into the ring on Saturday was a moment that I thought about, like, hey, this is something I'm going to remember on my deathbed.

And this is what happened. It's as easy as this. When you wrestle on a takeover for NXT, it's the best wrestling shows that happen. So I understood that there was going to be a massive amount of pressure, massive amount of hype, massive amount of everything because takeovers, especially a monumental one like TakeOver 30 is a big deal i made a couple mistakes in there and i lost and a lot of people were thinking i made a lot of mistakes in there okay shouldn't have kicked steel chair or shouldn't have done that and by the way watching it back i got a chance to watch it yesterday uh he obviously baited me into oh yeah like that was that was that was a that was an absolute mistake i mean mean, I just blew his mind, obviously.

Back flip, leap up, superplex, which, by the way, I was jacked up about. I mean, I was so pumped about it because those are things that as a kid, when I was watching wrestling, I'd see people do stuff, and I'm like, oh, that looks awesome. That looks awesome. And I'd always been a good flipper on trampoline. So whenever he pushes me, I back flipip, land it, jump up there. By the way, didn't know if I could get up there.

I had no idea if I could get up there. We've done it. I've done it in my ring a couple times. But then whenever I got into said ring, I was like, I feel like this is a little bit higher than my ring. So getting up there, doing that whole thing superplex, I think he potentially had his mind blown for a second. Definitely baited me into kicking the stairs.

A couple other mistakes. I shouldn't have went up late for off the top rope obviously uh for the double act like what was i gonna do up there i realized when i got up there by the way there's really nothing i could do up here so then it kicks me in the face so a couple mistakes in there more than a few i end up with the loss but boy what a bucket list item to go and you know what and say yeah i uh i got a chance to do something i always thought i was supposed to do and i enjoyed the living hell out of it i did but i mean it wins a lot better and aside from this loss by the way i'm still an undefeated that's right yeah aside from this loss i'm still an undefeated wrestler here's the thing about home security companies most trappy with high prices tricky contracts and lousy customer So, while there are a lot of options out there, there's only one no-brainer.

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was the first time i've ever done anything when i was walking out there you know the boys were with me or whatever i I like looked at this. I was like, this is the dumbest life of all time. I mean, what the hell am I doing? My face was all over the thing. I had entrance music, by the way, which is an entire story in of itself, which will be told one day.

I had entrance music. I mean, it was awesome. I had a good time. Should have won. Should have won. But that's something you can just go ahead and check off the bucket list. You talk about the internet people, too. Not just the internet people, the other people in the building, too.

There were a lot of people in that building that when Pat walked out, they're like, why is this guy in there? Oh, yeah. Why is he in there over me? But by the end of the match, they were all standing, clapping, cheering him on, like genuinely clapping. Because they were booing you in the beginning, giving you a hard time, trying to get in your head. And then you just flipped it on their heads with that performance. And I got flipped on my head, by the way.

Hey, I'll tell you what. I watched that one back too a couple times. I woke up yesterday a little sore, obviously. Foot was really sore. I kicked the hell out of those. I kicked the hell out of those things. He definitely baited me into that too

I didn't realize it after the match Obviously when I was laying there Dead tired and dead or whatever I didn't even think And I go back or whatever And everybody's like Good show, good performance And I watch it back

Like look, he is definitely Just baiting me into kicking that there And that's a rookie mistake Those are some rookie mistakes right there That's going to happen But I enjoyed the hell out of it. Very, very thankful to check that off the bucket list. And, yeah, I mean, the body's still sore. I would like to let everybody know that I am still sore.

Okay? Neck, back, leg, foot. I mean, there is some soreness, but it feels good. It feels good to be back in the world of the body being sore. Call Sam. Yeah, back in the arena. Hell yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And gravity does work, by the way. Hey, remember Jeff Hardy came through our office and literally taught us the swam ton. So I don't know if anybody saw the tribute to Jeff Hardy. I even did the double guns down as if I'm Jeff Hardy had to do it into the dudes poor guys they were just with the underspeed there was wrong time wrong people had to catch 240 pounds of ass coming at you speaking of there is no 240 pounds of ass in this guy but he is one of the most entertaining humans I've seen talk about sports from the world of ESPN Super Bowl champ, ladies and gentlemen, Ryan Cole.

Hey, Ryan. Hey, what up, man? Hey, how's it going, Ryan? I got a hell of a sporty tank going right now. I know you see it. Bro, straight up, bro, you're freaking amazing, dog. Like, just, man, you do things, bro, in this business, and I ain't gonna lie. When you decided to give it up as being one of the best specialists I'd seen during my time, I was like, man, dude's stupid.

Like, he's gonna make a ton of money. And I was like, shoot. And he's kicking the ball. You could kick that thing forever. You know what I mean? But to see the transition you've made, man, whether it's sports, other forms of entertainment, dog, it's inspiring to a dude like me who actually actually i don't necessarily love media all the time man but you do it in a way where it's cool dog it's fun and you're showing people a different route that athletes can take but i think it's awesome it was amazing i didn't know you could flip like that so you're way more athletic than i ever thought so now i'm really

pissed off at you for giving up but now it's really cool bro man's really cool, bro, man. Thanks for entertaining us, bro. I appreciate it. Ryan, thank you for all of that, man. I really appreciate it. And you're a guy, by the way, that is not just the classic plug-and-place guy on television either, and I think that's why I enjoy the hell out of you and watching you. You're one of the fan favorites here from the office whenever you get on ESPN. We appreciate you.

So thank you for that. And hopefully, with the modern world, with the way the internet is paying and everything, a lot of players can see what I've done, hopefully, and be like, Hey, here's an option. Now, if ESPN or Fox or any of these mainstream networks,

don't think that you're their guy, which is going to happen by the way, that's going to happen. Not everybody is. There's another avenue for you to speak your mind and make money. And I didn't create it. Obviously the Rogan's the bar stools, the there's a lot of people that have done it,

but I think it is something where in the world that we're in, there's a lot of money to be made if you do it for yourself. So I am very thankful that you recognize that. And it's that's really cool to hear you say, but let's move on. OK, I appreciate you saying that. But let's go back. Earl Thomas situation over there in Baltimore. Now, we all saw in Seattle where he wasn't exactly thrilled to be there towards the end of his career. From the sprinting to the Cowboys locker room, asking them to leave, which they caught on camera perfectly and kind of built the narrative.

To the middle finger after getting hurt after not signing an extension with Seattle off the thing. He ends up at Baltimore now. And I thought they had a great relationship. Now, Earl Thomas' offseason was an interesting one, obviously, with the lady and everything like that. It was an interesting one. I mean, it was very, very interesting. But we're in a quarantine world. You know, things can happen like that.

Now he gets into a scuffle at practice, and they're basically pitching and sending the narrative that conduct detrimental to the team, which they're saying so they can hopefully get back some of the guaranteed money that they owe him later. But you said something smells fishy here. To me, it does, too. It doesn't make any sense because he's a seven-time pro bowler and they said that the senior leadership council on the team wanted him out of there too like what the hell happened over there and how did it happen so quick and also too pat think about how much information that is public right like uh when you start talking about the leadership council the people that you bring together quietly on your

team right you've picked these people you say that these bring together quietly on your team, right? You've picked these people. You say that these are the leaders of the team. You have meetings individually with themselves, with players along with coaches, but those meetings are closed, right? This isn't something that's supposed to get out. Like you've been on teams when you have stuff that you want to handle in-house and keep in-house, that junk stays in-house. you feel me yeah and so all of a sudden we know about the council warning him out and there's been early news out of there that a young deshaun elliott's playing well uh moving jimmy smith around i and when you look at the way earl fit into that defense last year he really didn't right earl's used to playing middle of the field in that

seattle deep cover three zone type of system where you have a guy like a camp chancellor who's a strong safety. Now you're asking him to play quarters coverage or asking him to play half, sometimes be in the box. And those aren't things necessarily that Earl's great at. And so he didn't play at that all pro level last year. And so now you move into this year, you kind of have the offseason that Earl has and you have some of those things away from the field and then now maybe you're not playing as well as some of the young guys and they start to go well shoot looking at last year the way it finished you know everybody remembers Derrick Henry turning him into a blocker you know in the playoffs now it's like

how can I get rid of this guy and and and pat you've been on teams bro how many teams can you be a decade-long starter uh possibility of being a hall of famer uh seven time pro bowler and a young guy who hasn't really accomplished anything in this league if you saw earl's post gets to throw his helmet down and berate you, show you up, because he's pissed off that you busted a coverage. Yeah, so I think it's very interesting because what you just laid out there from the secondary standpoint is something that I might not have recognized or other fans might not have recognized as Earl doesn't fit in, you think, in the Baltimore scheme.

So, for instance, I would assume then, because we've heard david sampson who's the former president of the marlins and although that's baseball and this is football i would assume executives operate the same way he said that they used to float out information about a player if they're about to trade him to the fans or float out maybe wrong information so that the the burden or the anger from the fans isn't as high as it could be so yeah whenever they started saying well he's i i started started seeing NFL Network reporters like, he shows up late, he does this. I'm like, oh, this is the team trying to be like, hey, hey, this is why we're getting rid of the guy.

But you're thinking that this all started as he's not as good of a fit for our defense as we thought it was. We owe him some money. Let's try to figure out how we can potentially get him the hell out of here. And by the way, in Earl's side of this thing, Earl might also hate that he wasn't a good fit for that defense either and maybe know that he's not going to be able to play it to both sides so it's very interesting though to kind of watch the politics behind it all well Pat I'm gonna tell you this man if you remember back when the Antonio Brown thing all started and and I was kind of ahead of it this is when everybody still loved this smile everyone in pittsburgh oh yeah you were a dog you're a bad guy i remember that you were yeah yeah i was a bad guy

right yeah but it's because i was there every day and i saw some of these things that we're hearing about where earl happened but you know who never heard about it the media right you know where it never got out to and never got out to the fans. Why? Because he was playing at such a high freaking level that it didn't matter what he did. You were going to keep him. And so I'm not saying that Earl wasn't late to meetings. I'm not saying that he didn't do some things within that building that didn't necessarily make him a favorite. But you know this, if he was playing like Tyron, Tyron Matthew, they wouldn't be getting rid of him. If he was a young Derwin James, they wouldn't be getting rid of him.

And so I think all those things come into play. But you know, and I know, bro, you've been around some bad dudes that were great players. And as long as they were great players, they had contracts. Be, hey, be who you can afford to be that yeah that is that is an that is an exact be who you can afford to be there was a couple coaches that said like hey listen listen if reggie wayne shows up to a meeting late guess what reggie might not get fined or cut as much as some of you who aren't Reggie Wayne, who want to show up late to like, that's just the way. Yeah. We'll talk to Reggie. Reggie won't show up late by the way, because Reggie was a consummate professional, but if Reggie Wayne does something,

you should not be at, Oh, I should be treated the exact same way because that's not how this game works. And now granted, there's some buildings that are like, Hey, Reggie will get treated the exact same way as everybody else. Now I'm not saying Reggie ever did anything wrong. That was just the biggest name that I could think of at that time. I should have said somebody different there for the metaphor. But it's very open. Like, hey, this guy can do some things. You know why?

Because this guy is going to get 7,000 yards for us this year. And this guy down here, you know what you're going to do? Probably get us COVID-19 with your beer. Are you kidding? That is the guy. here you know what you're gonna do probably get us covet 19 with your beer that is that is mike t mike t would tell us pat he said listen i'm not going to treat everybody the same but i'm gonna treat everybody fair and you know a fair man fair man if you have enough deposited in my emotional bank account i'm gonna let you get away with some crap and if if you don't, then you're going to have to find a new team.

And that's just part of it. That's part of our game, man. And Earl found out that that's part of the game for even guys who have a chance of being Hall of Famers too. Ryan, Ryan. Yo. Earl Thomas leaves Seattle with a middle finger up, leaves Baltimore in a very interesting situation.

Do you think there's any teams, no matter how talented you are, be be who you can afford to be do you think there's teams that are right now they're like should we sign this dude and how is this going to end up there has to be that conversation happening yeah no it's it's that conversation especially when you put the film on you know and and i'm not saying that now he's a bad football player right but you know how it is when you play at a certain level any amount of drop off when you're not that anymore is an issue oh yeah you see i'm saying whereas like you have these dudes who are kind of just who are just really good players like myself yeah just a really good player and when it slipped a little bit there were still so many things that i could still do because of the way i played the game that made me valuable to a team.

And on the other side of that, I was going to be early to every meeting. I was going to be the last guy out. I was going to organize meetings with the rest of the players. And so, you know, there was a medium you could find to try to keep me around as long as possible. But some of these dudes, man, that do it at such a high level that can't explain it right like i i try to sit down and have conversations with like ed reed about certain things that he would do and i'll be like hey i don't understand crap you saying bro like that don't man i know football you know i'm saying and so when they lose a little bit of that talent it falls off so much and so now you can't compound that we're not doing the right thing as a dude as a person that's like you know and also the contracts matter big your contracts are probably a lot

different now i don't i haven't dug into you know you're absolutely right yeah you got contracts that are affordable yeah that was a big deal hey that was a big deal for me so when i was negotiating my contract and i think the business side has to be maintained because the 10 million dollars guaranteed that they're already trying to position themselves to get back from Earl Thomas. That's a massive part of this whole thing. For me, when I was negotiating the contract, I was like, I would like to get rich. I would like to get money here. But let's not put me in a stratosphere where if I miss three balls and I shank three balls, all of a sudden it's like, we should get rid of that guy because we're paying him too much.

shank three balls all of a sudden it's like oh we get we should get rid of that guy because we're paying him too much there's like this fine balance of how much you cost first your production level first importance to the team and if your production level and importance of the team drop but your cost is still high they're going to be looking to get your ass out of there as fast as possible that's just hey that's the nfl baby that's just the way it is and that's how it works and they have young dudes that can play well enough when you know when you're looking at this isn't this isn't year six year seven Earl Thomas this isn't legion of boom Earl Thomas and when you have young guys who've been a part of your a part of your organization been a part of what you were doing and you want to grow with those dudes and you could grow with those dudes for cheap

that's what you do now hold on Earl or. Do you think if Earl gets back into a scheme that fits his style of play, he'll be right back on top of the game? You know, I don't think so. I think the top of the game has passed him by. Oh, Ryan. Ryan, you're going to catch some heat for that. You're going to be called a hater for that. You're going to be called a hater for that.

Well, you know what they're going to say. You were never good as Earl Thomas anyway. Leasing the boom was better than the 08 Pittsburgh Steelers anyway. How can you talk about Earl Thomas? Because I can. Because if Earl was here, me and Earl could have that conversation. He's already punched one Clark. What's two of them?

I'm good for that. You know what I mean? You're an idiot. You are an idiot. You are an idiot. Absolutely. But, you know, man, like, I think you look at the Tyron Matthews, the Jamal Adams, the Derwin James, the Minka Fitzpatrick, the Landon Collins. Like, these guys are now better players than Earl Thomas. And this happens with the other greats.

Thomas. And this happens with the other greats. There was a time at the end of Ed's career, at the end of Troy's career, where Earl Thomas was a better player than them. And listen, we watched both of those other two dudes. At the heights of their games, I've never been on the field to watch better football players, not just better safeties, but better football players than Ed and Troy. But there was a time in the league where they weren't the best two safeties in football. And Earl has gotten to that point. And so in getting to that point, it's like you said, bro, like you can only afford to act as good as you play.

And right now, I guess that's not adding up for the Baltimore Ravens. Well, Ryan, I appreciate you coming on and educating us. Troy was good enough to fucking ruin my dreams. Yeah, what's up, Diggs? Ryan, I had a question for you. You brought up Mike T earlier. I want to talk to you about another Mike T, and that's Mike Tannenbaum. This morning on Get Up, he said that Ben is the fourth best quarterback

in the AFC North. You work with this guy. How big of a big fat stooge is this guy? Bro, did you miss when we were on together and he said that no he said this before he said that this morning i didn't know he had said this before he said it on air with me and so like the segment before he was talking about giving ab a one-day contract like basically saying every day ab got to come in and prove it not a one-day contract but if you don't prove it this day you're out and i told I told him. I said, bro, after that, I want to give you a freaking one-day contract.

And listen, dog, I love Joe Burrow, right? Like, Joe Burrow bought my school a national championship. I think Joe's going to be a good player. I said Baker Mayfield should be the number one overall pick. But no way you watched Baker Mayfield last year and you go, whew, that guy. He's a freaking dude. You know what I mean? He got to work. You see what I'm saying?

He got two Pro Bowl All-Pro receivers and he stunk up the joint. He has to work. Joe Burrow still a rookie and still playing in Cincinnati, guys. I think when you look at Ben, maybe he's not going to be the dude that leads the

leagues in yardage like he did. I think that was, what, 18? But you got a defense where you ain't got to. You know, you talking about Troy ruining your dreams. Yeah, he did. Like, Ben ain't ruining your dreams. You know what I mean? It was about that defense.

Now he has a defense that's similar. He got three really good young receivers, a good tight end, a stable of backs that's good enough a stable offensive line he just got to be good he don't have to be great and i think ben is like you tell me and i love lamar jackson right lamar jackson to me uh was by far and away the best player in the league bro if ben and ben and lamar if you asking me in a game, right, in a game, down the stretch, I need y'all to throw me into a win, I'm going to take Ben. Well, I mean, that is very interesting way you propose. I need you to throw me in.

You think you're going to bring me on this show to say stupid stuff? Come on, bro. Cut it out. Hey, Roethlisberger is a lot more focused now. I think we did learn that this offseason. He's a lot more focused on football. He's in a much happier place, he said, mentally. And I think that year away getting to watch the team,

I think he said he's in the best shape of his life. I mean, to say Ben Roethlisberger, I always said this whenever we were going in to play Roethlisberger, strictly because the people on our team that were smarter than me said it, so it was like almost a parrot effect. Whenever we would prepare for Tom Brady, I guess it was like, hey, Tom can beat us, here we go. When we would play Aaron Rodgers, hey, Aaron can beat us, here we go. When we played the Steelers, it was always something else.

They were never like, hey, Roethlisberger's the guy that could kill us. And then we watched the game, and Roethlisberger hangs 500 yards on us just every single time. And I started to think about it. I'm like, why does Roethlisberger not get talked about the way all these other guys do, especially because what Ben – and it's always because Ben off the field. Ben off the field is somebody that is very punchable, I think,

in a lot of people's eyes. I think he's a guy that people are like, not a guy we want to hang out with, obviously. And he goes on local radio shows, and I don't think he means to do it, but he throws people under the bus without even knowing it. There's just all these things that happen outside of Ben Roethlisberger, who I think he's potentially maybe changing into a quarterback that doesn't do all that stuff or whatever. And maybe they were just stupid mistakes.

But I think that's why people don't respect what he does on the field as much, because the dude is just a killer on the field. I mean, he is just unbelievable on the field. Hey, Pat, Pat, I know y'all had these dudes, man. Like, I'm going to be honest. Ben don't look like much. No. You know what I'm saying?

Like, when you walk up on him, he's like, ugh. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. It's like when Killmonger you know beat up the black panther he's like this is your king you know i mean like like that's you know but being one at everything though like we had a offense defense softball game every year in training camp he was great at that we used to do like around the world basketball in the garbage can he'd win that you play ping pong with him he could do that too

like you know he was one of those dudes that went to a small school and was a four sport letterman like you know i mean like he's that type of talented it just looks funny and i think also too when you're talking about some of the off the field stuff leadership isn't natural to ben you know i'm? Like you got to have a certain level of like selflessness, altruism, uh, compassion to lead naturally for it to be organic. You got to care about like other people more than yourself.

You know what I'm saying? I think being from where he's from going to a small school, you never had to do that because you were the man, you know what I'm saying? It didn't matter how you treated people. They knew like, if i don't do and work with ben the way ben wants me to work with him then i'm not his guy if i'm not his guy i can't eat and so i think he's he had to learn those things but i will say this and i hope he doesn't mind uh ben and my son were really close you know the the weirdest relationship ever my son's a lot like his father uh he was really

young we're at the fashion we had a fashion show and still his fashion show his first time meeting ben he walks up to him and goes hey ben can you not throw the ball to the other team next week and so and right and this is my first year there you know i'm saying after they just won the super bowl so my first thought is i'm gonna have have to throw hands with Ben Roethlisberger, fire down, you know what I'm saying? And so I would bring my son to every walkthrough on Saturday. And so my son became like the team babysitter. He broke us down for the Super Bowl. Him and Ben got really close.

When Ben was suspended for four games, we had a walkthrough with my son at a football game. Ben goes to watch him play ball, right? You got to know what it's like to be the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback at a freaking Little League football game. Wow. so uh in off season my son had an encounter at a whataburger racist encounter and i get a text right i get a text from ben and it's like um rc man like and it had a little bit of bent to it you know a little bit of like hey man this is not about any perceived slight you've thrown toward me in TV. Like you had to get that out, you know? Um, but then he asked about my son and he sent me a paragraph.

He's like, you don't have to, if you don't want to, but I would love for you to send this to Jordan. I sent it to Jordan and Jordan is like, well, pop, do you think, you know, I could call him. I could, I could text him and tell him, thank you. I said, Ben, I'm not, I said, I'm, I said, I'm thanking you as a father, but I'm also going to have Jordan wants to reach out to you. And Jordan did. And, you know, like that's a story about Ben that people won't expect. That's a story about Ben that I think people necessarily don't care to hear, but that's growth, right? Like that's, that's compassion's compassion that's that's caring about other people and that's leadership because even though he may have felt that some of my commentary on him though like I told him

I only try to be honest has been unfair it didn't matter as much in that moment as reaching out to a kid that he had a great relationship with that's awesome so no one thought you, I share that. Would never, ever hear that story, by the way. Not a story that we ever heard. I'm very thankful that you told us, actually, because I'm actually looking at Ben just in my head while you're telling that story. I see, like, this smug face from Ben Roethlisberger.

And then it, like, comes around. I'm like, oh, good dude. Is Ben Roethlisberger a great guy? Radio, we are about to bounce out we'll see you in the next hour we have field yates from the nfl network joining us ryan clark great convo all right we're out that is that is a story that i would never hear about because the only stories you ever hear about ben off the field are um you know i don't want to get into it but the you all the stories i've heard especially being from pittsburgh the amount of stories that i've heard

about him is everything that you, it's probably from his younger age where he had to like kind of learn through this, but that's an awesome thing. RC, can I call you RC? Of course. You're my guy,

man. Ladies and gentlemen, our C with a legendary conversation. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Ron. I appreciate that,

man. I'm having a good one, bro. That was unbelievable. Look at this fucking Ben Roethlisberger. Good guy., man. All right, man. Have a good one, bro. That was unbelievable. Look at this fucking Ben Roethlisberger. Good guy. New guy. Don't sleep on him.

You really are right, too. The image in your head just pivots with Big Ben. As he was telling that story, I was like, Ben Roethlisberger's being nice to people like that? Because being from Pittsburgh and not living in Pittsburgh when Ben was going through whatever phase of life he was going through at the time, the stories that I would get texted or like, Oh,

listen to this. Listen, what Ben did last night or whatever. Or I would go back into town for a weekend. I'd go to a place and like, we'd know the bounce or whatever in the bounce bag. Oh, you should have seen blah,

blah, blah. I'm like, and I'd leave. I'm like, this guy's just fucking outrageous. This dude. And then you hear him throwing his wide receivers under the bus and stuff.

It's like, oh, this guy stinks. But, boy, on the field, he's fucking unbelievable. Then you hear this story. It's like, oh, maybe not that terrible of a guy anymore. Yeah, I'm glad it only took 16, 17 years or whatever. But I guess it could be tough. Like, you come in and you immediately go 15-1 in the AFC Championship in your first season.

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Bingo, bango, gonzo. You're gone. Is our guy on? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, this is no longer the Pat McAfee Show. This is McAfee and Hawk. Joining us, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah, A.J.!

What's going on? How you doing, man? How's it going? I know you've talked man? How you doing, man? How's it going? I know you've talked about your eventful weekend, but how you feeling? Are you physically all right? I feel good. Yesterday was tough. I'm going to be honest.

Yesterday was tough. Rolling out of bed there. Literally rolling out of bed there. I couldn't sleep Saturday night. Obviously, there was going to be an impossible sleep situation on Saturday night after that entire thing. Couldn't sleep. Sunday, I wake up. Neck sore, back sore, foot sore, leg sore.

It was the first time in a long, long time that I felt like that, though, so it kind of felt good. I thought it would disappear quicker, but this morning I woke up, foot still sore, back and neck still sore, but I feel like I could potentially, you know. I don't feel that bad. I did get dumped on my fucking head, though. You saw it.

That's good. I mean, that's a win. With all the stuff that you were doing, you were flying feel that bad. I did get dumped on my fucking head, though. You saw it. That's good. I mean, that's a win. With all the stuff that you were doing, you were flying around that thing. I think I told you afterwards, the fact that you don't have a career-ending injury or even an ACL or popping Achilles, that's an absolute victory. Anyone can handle a little soreness. Hey, when I'm doing that backflip through the air, I'm flying through the air right now. Because who knows what happens there with the legs, right?

Like I didn't even think about the potential. Cause you see that Luca ankle roll, by the way. What was that? He just went to plant and his ankle rolled. I'm flying through the air there. And there wasn't even a single thought of me landing and potentially nothing. Just not even. And that's what I, I always say this.

Me being stupid is so good for me. Cause I don't even think about that type of stuff. Like the thought of that even happening doesn't even think. And then as soon as we get done, we get over the loss. AJ's like, I'm surprised you didn't fucking blow out your ACL. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't need that in my head, AJ. I don't need that in my head.

I'm very thankful. I mean that as a compliment, though. You know that. Like that's what I'm saying. This dude, first off, i didn't know how anything was gonna go i'm i'm sitting there watching after i got escorted out and every move i'm like oh my god i'm like i thought it was over nine times too like i really did it was it was much longer than i expected too so i was worried about your air your conditioning was on point obviously yeah i

think it was an absolute i know everyone's been sucking you up on here today and on the internet and that's a good thing they should because you had a great thing But stop saying How about people stop saying For the first match For the first time Don't qualify it Just give you the respect you deserve

And say hey that was awesome I don't care how I don't know Hey you may have been wrestling for 20 years I don't know I don't have to sit here and give you a backhanded compliment And say hey for the first match that was spectacular on our way out on our way out right we're leaving we're all walking out and like a couple like equipment people like staff people were like hey for your first match not bad or whatever and i was like oh thank you so much you know and then we keep walking into somebody else like hey first match not bad and aj's like you

want me to fucking slap these guys i am tired of hearing that i was thankful you were there in my corner brother that jawline was obviously something that captivated the internet for good reason brother well it was uh yeah it was a fun fun experience for me getting to uh getting to sit there and watch and i saw what i knew was going to be real is after we get escorted out from all their guys whatever i get pushed out in the corner and as I'm pushed off in the corner, I just, I legit was still trying to scuff like I wanted to have some kind of physicality with these guys. And we held ourselves back.

But I'm getting pushed back. I look up and I saw you mid backflip on these dudes. I saw you like right there. But I was at a perfect angle to where I was lined up with your head. And I the security guys, I was like, and then I instantly almost felt like, oh, like I got scared seeing you in the air because I didn't know what was going to happen. Well, that's the same thing that happened when you were on TV,

Wednesday, NXT Live on USA Network, 8 p.m., whenever we went back into the arena and everybody was walking towards us. AJ's like, hey, we're about to fight these dudes. We're about to fight these dudes we're about to fight these dudes the thought of you just because you get pushed out of there get kicked out you turning around

just seeing me flying through the air you're going to be like what the fuck our guy's dead out there I appreciate you I was sitting there with I was with Darius and Nick and I was like

you guys I'm like hitting them do you guys see this yeah this is happening well we appreciate you coming you're awesome everybody's a big fan getting a chance to hang out You guys, I'm like hitting them. I'm like, do you guys see this? Yeah, yeah, this is happening. Well, we appreciate you coming. You're awesome.

Everybody's a big fan. Getting a chance to hang out with AJ, by the way, in real life, because he and I haven't got a chance to hang out in real life on a regular basis, so we're always via this. Getting a chance to hang out with AJ in real life the last couple weeks, maybe my favorite thing that has happened from all this. AJ Hawk is better than advertised. Better than advertised in real life. I got a text from our friend this morning.

I got a text from our friend. Telling me it was a good time. He said it was awesome. And I was like, oh, thank you, man. Did you tell him to text me and tell me congratulations for what happened on Saturday? I did not even know that he texted. I told you afterwards.

He reached out to me asking about, I think, your spray tan. Still on, by the way. I can't get it on. It does look, you still look, it looks solid. Whoever did that spray tan, you should go back because that one sticks. Bro, I can't get it off. I can't get it. You were there, everybody was at the house whenever I came back with this spray tan. I came fresh out of this machine and you know you have to let it sit for a few hours. Like, you have to let it sit. This was the first spray tan that I've gotten that immediately upon arrival on my skin, I was just pitch. I mean, it was a different level of brown and orange that I had on my entire body.

And I come back to the house, and I'm just standing there. And obviously, I take my shirt off, you know, as soon as I get back to the house. And AJ just looks at me and goes, are you going to wash that thing off? I come back to the house, and I'm just standing there. Obviously, I take my shirt off as soon as I get back to the house. And AJ just looks at me and goes, are you going to wash that thing off? And I just sit around for two hours, couldn't sweat, anything like that. And then I wash it off, and the entire shower obviously becomes red. It's like a red color or whatever. I'm like, oh, did I lose it all?

And then I go look in the mirror. It's like, no, no, I did not lose anything. And then after the match, I thought potentially because of how much i sweat out there i was expecting it to go quick i looked in the mirror i was like oh that has to be gone and i looked i'm like nope then i take a shower then i wake up in indianapolis the next morning i'm like oh that tan's got to be gone nope take two showers yesterday then this morning i wake up i'm like it's got to be gone it's like nope i Nope. I think this might be permanent. This might be permanent. I feel like I potentially got like the permanent marker treatment on a dry erase board here. What's wrong with that? I mean, that's a, that's a good thing then, right? Would you be upset if you were just the rest of your life? This was you, this color

right here. I think, uh, I mean, it's a very weird color. It's like tan for sure, but there's a little orange. It wasn't my standard, uh, spray uh spray tan place you know i have a standard spray tan place where it knows my skin tone and i like the machine it and i work well this particular one a little bit darker a little bit different uh scent a little bit different flavor on the skin and i think it could be here for a long i mean i wouldn't mind tans make me happy for sure but i would choose my spray tan for the permanent spray if i was to get one my place my place hey did you and did you and the ref drake did you guys go together because he is very natural or not hey drake and i had some interactions during that match i asked him a few times like where are these rules coming from like what are you i've watched wrestling my entire life the things you

were saying i have never heard of drake excuse me but he is notoriously one of the best tanned humans i've ever seen in my life he's from indiana by the way big colts fan oh nice yeah he did everything i watched that day he was running around all over the place backstage like those dudes they all work every person that is there has a job man and they're all over the place never ever stop by the way they never ever stop and i think he maybe drinks i don't know seven to eight energy drinks a day i think just watching that guy his heart's probably just um let's talk about our otama situation aj i can't wait to hear your thoughts on this the baltimore ravens have been framing this as a conduct detrimental to the team very much so his personal actions have infringed on the team like however they've been wording it

is basically setting up for a conduct detrimental grievance so that they don't have to pay him his $10 million that he is due next year. Now, he's been released from the Seahawks and the Ravens in the last 16, 17 months. Not in a good fashion either. But it's been funny listening to the Ravens obviously leak information that's bad about Earl Thomas so that their fans know like hey this is a guy we want to get rid of a la what David Sampson told us he would do whenever he's with the Marlins oh this guy's late he fights this guy he fights this guy they're like

trying to get everything out there the leadership council voted him down they're trying to leak all this information out there so that the fans are like yeah we should cut him we should get rid of him but this leaves Earl Thomas in a very interesting situation, especially with the offseason that he's had, the Seattle Seahawks departure, and now the Ravens departure. How do you see this whole thing working out? I mean, everyone assumes that Dallas is going to sign him, don't they? Didn't they free up some space last week with Tyron Smith?

They have room for him, I guess, if they need him. And you would think they're going to give him a shot, but wouldn't you want to really do your homework? I know McCarthy's even been quoted when he was asked about Earl, saying, obviously, we're always in the market for acquiring new talent to our team, but I always want to look at how they're going to fit in the locker room. And now, after all this, that's the question, because the Ravens, you know Harbaugh's a no-nonsense guy.

He runs a pretty tight ship over there, and they seem to have a pretty good culture going. And for whatever reason, Earl's attitude and how he carried himself just didn't seem to vibe with the rest of the team and the coaches. Obviously it's not just this one fight and this, this incident that caused this was a long time coming. I just wonder like if we talk to people within the Ravens, like was stuff brewing from the beginning from like when the first day Earl

got there, has it always been kind of weird and this has just been growing and growing over the time. The interesting thing is they always talk about being a raven you know and somebody in the YouTube comment section just mentioned that but that's like when a hard boss thing is like live like a raven like be a raven and I wonder yeah like the bird yeah quote the raven evermore that one as well and also the wrestler back in the day raven he used to wear jorts he used to sit on the bottom he didn't don't be that type of i don't think the ravens want to be that type of raven he was kind of like a uh a gypsy who kind of floated around and didn't

seem to care a lot yeah but the ravens the baltimore ravens there's a big thing like be a raven like that's how a raven acts and i think that is why whenever you publicly state about that and talk about that that's why whenever you start saying that he was late and he's gotten in fights and the leadership council, it's a lot easier pill to swallow for the fans, especially whenever you bring in Earl Thomas. And it's supposed to be this highly big time signing to bring him in there seven time pro bowler. But I talked to Ryan Clark this earlier this morning, RC, and he's known to be a hater, I guess is what people say. But a lot of things he says is just dead true just the way he delivers it.

That system was not a fit for Earl Thomas the way he plays. It was a very different style. Last year I think it reflected that. And I asked him, like, do you think Earl Thomas will be able to get back to form if he was to go to a place that has the same scheme? And he was like, he thinks that the top of the game passed Earl Thomas by and that just kind of happens to everybody. So now you have to think, who's going to sign him if it's not the Dallas Cowboys if Mike McCarthy's like hey I need a

good locker room and Jerry Jones like hey we need good players that'll be interesting to see who who ends up winning in that matchup or whatever but then what team knows that he would be a good fit there on the field as well especially after seeing what he did with the Ravens scheme I mean this is an interesting thing for Earl Thomas and what's going to end up happening to him. It's going to be weird wherever he goes because he's going to be plugged into a defense playing with guys that obviously aren't the Legion of Boom like they were back in the day to where those guys kind of came up together.

So they all kind of came up together and probably all had a really, really tight relationship from what it seems like. It was very competitive, I know, back and forth with all of them. But he's going to be dumped in. He's the veteran coming into a secondary. And a lot of guys weren't in the league when the Legion of Boom was running. And now he's got to find a way to fit in and play within the scheme.

I mean, that's what it seems like a big issue with the Ravens, like playing within the scheme and being accountable to your teammates. And I think the Ravens, whoever leaks all the information out, it makes it a lot easier, I guess, for the Ravens, the front office, when you let everybody know that the players are on board with this too. Like the players aren't out there fighting and saying, this is crazy, I can't believe we cut Earl Thomas, future Hall of Famer probably, and we let this guy go.

Like you don't hear any of that coming out of Baltimore right now. Maybe we will. Maybe in the future the players are scared to death right now. But for the guys that do support Earl, which they definitely will be, I guess they're probably scared of what you can say. You don't want to stand up there and stand up for a guy that just got cut, I guess, for conduct detrimental.

So I think we'll know more in the next couple weeks. I mean, Earl seems like he likes telling people his side of the story, so at least we'll get his side. Even some practice footage, Lincoln. I mean, you might as well just partner him back up with the Legion of Boom. Sam Fran goes after him. I mean, they have Sherman already.

He can get back at Seattle, who we know he hates, and they run cover three too, which Ryan Clark was saying. He's more of a middle of the field safety, and they have one guy roaming underneath. If I'm that defense, and correct me if I'm wrong, we're not bringing in anybody that could potentially mess up what we got going on over there in that defense side of the ball, right? I mean, because even Sherman even said that.

He's like, hey, when he gets back on the grass, he's going to be a problem. Sherman wasn't like, hey, we should try to get him here. If I'm the Niners and I'm that defense, we have something very special right now. Now, I don't know their safety situation. I don't know their roster as good as they should. But I would assume that the Niners defense is like, let's not. Don't change the recipe. Not that you wouldn't.

Now, I'm not saying that he would be bad everywhere he goes. Maybe, by the way, maybe there is some situations between Earl that are outliers with the Seattle Seahawks and with the Ravens that are just like one-off beefs, you know what I mean? But if I'm the Niners and that defense did what it did last year, the last

thing I'm doing is potentially bringing in a vet to fuck up anything that they got going on. We all know that fights happen all the time in practice and stuff like that. All the time. How often do they happen with two guys on the same side of the ball? AJ, you'd have to answer this more than anything. I'm not fighting Matt Overton alongside. This seems like this would have to be you.

I feel like there's a lot of yelling, bickering that potentially happens, but not anything real, right? Yeah, usually not real. It comes to the sideline all the time. Like you take your three or four reps, say the ones take three or four reps and you have a disagreement with somebody or guys in the secondary have a disagreement on a blown coverage. Yeah, that'll come to the sideline. They may get a little heated. It very rarely ever gets into an actual fight. Players will break that up because you don't want defensive guys fighting defensive guys. You don't want offensive guys fighting offensive guys. That's what I was

surprised about when I watched this clip that Earll put out at first i'm like because i didn't hear anything of who he thought what was going on and then i watched the clip and i'm like wait he's he's fighting his own his other safety he's fighting his own his buddy next to him like that that's pretty rare like i don't know you have disagreements with guys next to you like i'm a linebacker i mean we may have disagreements on how to fit something or whatever, but, man, I can't remember seeing a position group of two guys coming together and fighting. It's always like, hey, D-line fighting the O-line, linebackers fighting the fullbacks, running back, things like that.

Those are awesome, by the way, those fights. And it's always a regrettable decision by the people that get into the fight. Always. So tired afterwards. So tired. And then the coaches love it. They're like, oh, you got energy, huh? Oh, you got enough energy to fight?

That must mean our practices aren't long enough. Everybody's like, no, no, no. Practices are good. Practices are good. But I forget. There was one year. I think it was when the regime change happened where there was a lot of fights. I mean, there was a lot of because I think a lot of people saw a lot of opportunities.

There was a lot of adrenaline and things like that. There's fights, by the way. Two naked dudes there was a lot of, because I think a lot of people saw a lot of opportunities. There was a lot of adrenaline and things like that. I there's fights, by the way, two naked dudes fighting in a locker room. I've seen a couple of times. I mean, fights do hour. You ever see guys start to fight in the shower? Oh yeah. In college, there was a massive melee in the shower at one point. It was wild. How do you get them in a melee in the shower? Like I've been around a few times when guys have started to fight in the shower. And the one thing I always thought of was I will never, ever break this fight up. Yeah. Like I'm not jumping in there.

There was a hero in the NFL. There was a pretty noted fight that our friend Pat Anger got into where it was fresh out of the shower in locker room in towels. Something happened. Obviously, towels end up laying. But real, this was a real fight happening and then somebody got involved they were in a towel their tally they were trying to pull break people up so there was an entire i mean it was just a a comedy of errors happening and then there was a real fight that happened down there and then obviously anytime there's

a fight that doesn't happen on the field it becomes a big deal okay coach has to talk about it gm has to talk about it because now it's carrying outside of the lines of the football field and stuff like that i've i've seen a few naked brawls and it's been awesome the melee that happened in college though in the showers was wild i mean it was one group versus another group and it was very obvious that they were going to brawl at some point and all it took was just one person and then uh i i don't think i was in the shower no i wasn't i was in a lot but that thing carried into the locker room and there was not even a thought of towels happening oh my god what is going who's gonna break that up and everybody just kind of sat back and waited for everybody to fizzle out and get tired which i assume happens in most fights but earl thomas fighting his own

guy i think was something that was a little bit surprising well and ryan clark touched on this a little bit earlier but how rare is it for a younger guy to be going after like a very accomplished veteran like that? Like, it seems like anytime you see that I'm like hard knocks or whatever, it's like, okay, well that guy's going to get cut. Yeah. Yeah. Like, cause you're told as a young guy, like, Hey, be in the hip pocket of the older guy. If there's an older guy at your position, go ahead and just follow them around, see what they do and find out why they've been around a long time. Cause if you're around a long time, that means you're rich. That means you're successful. And it means you're probably doing the right things. So the fact that in his own room,

a younger guy is already at the point where he wants to fight him. I mean, I'm very intrigued by that. I'm very, very intrigued by that room and the toxicity potentially of what's going on and why they're leaking the information that the leadership council wanted him out there. He was late for meetings and all that stuff.

They had to kind of paint that picture that, hey, this guy was not fitting in with us. And who knows if he'll fit in anywhere then i guess he's had a wild off season but boy he was fun to watch play whenever he was balling not to go back to the shower bras but how the hell did that end if if nobody was breaking it up well i think a couple people within the fight decided it was enough like a couple guys yeah on each side get aroused or something and that just ended quickly what the hell's poking me i didn't see any any i didn't see i pat anger did say he thought the uh one thing that was in him had an elbow on it there was a couple of that but those things are always very interesting for me my job anytime fight happened was uh put helmet on show face

just because if there wasn't like our west virginia team by the way there was a lot of other teams that wanted to fight us. In like before games, like at the 50, there was always something that seemed to happen. And I will speak for, we never started it. Like we literally never started it. But boy, the guys that we had on our team though, if you wanted something, I mean, we had guys that were ready for it.

And I was always like, hey, this is going to be on camera somewhere. Helmet on. I don't want to look like a bitch in film. Here we helmet on i'll get right into it sometimes i'll stay on the outside but normally i try to get in the front line and then you just grab somebody on the other side and there's like a push away in practice same thing during a game there was a fight that happened over by the kicking net and i i'm sure we could find the clip somewhere over by the kicking net a scuffle comes over i don't have my helmet on i'm literally sitting all by myself over there by the kicking net helmet goes on helmet goes on the head i like oh i like go get in somebody's face and i think i get pulled back like what are you doing i'm like

well this is gonna be on a camera somewhere i want to let everybody know that i am not a bitch and i am about that if you need i am here if we are fighting i am in uh but those are always so interesting watching those things kind of boil over because it's such a combat sport and in practice you're like hey we're all on the same team it's like but uh uh in training camp are we on the same team because that guy might be playing for somebody else and i feel like he's being a little bit you know we're all at this level and this guy's doing a little bit too more and all you need is somebody to get i'm gonna be a little tired maybe extra push like an extra push on a guy when you're tired on the fifth play of a team drill. That'll set the whole team off.

Like just the O-lineman, just being a dick and kind of push him in the shoulder right after the whistle or something. It always is a buildup, though. There's very rarely does a fight happen where there's no beef at all. There's no underlying resentment or whatever, and then two guys just go at it. There's always something that happened that's been building up for beef at all. There's nothing, no like underlying resentment or whatever. And then two guys just go at it. Like there's always, there's always something that happened. It's been building up for years at times there.

And there's always been, um, not always, but I remember listening into like some defensive players walking out to practice and it'd be like a new guy on the team and there'll be full pads and they'll give like a rundown of the guys on the offense aside that like, Hey, this lineman right here, 60 blinds, is going to go hard.

So keep your head out for him. This guy's going to do this. This guy's going to try to start something. And I was like, oh, my God, like they're preparing for practice here. Scouting report. Like it's a full scouting report for like, hey, this guy's an asshole. This guy does this. This guy's pretty cool.

He'll be good with you. Because some of those younger offensive linemen, and it always it always normally not always normally that doesn't make sense but it sure feels like the offensive line is involved in a lot of the fights it sure feels like yeah because that is their thing by the way and they are a they are they are a collection and if and that's something in film where i just talked about me putting my helmet on looking like a little bitch if i'm not in there the offensive line room, if one offensive lineman gets into a fight and everybody else isn't helping,

I would assume that night in film is going to be a long day for everybody in the offensive line because that is how they kind of survive. The strength of the pack is the strength of the weakest wolf, and that's really how they feel. I did nail it, didn't I? How? Fucking nailed it, dude.

Well, I would say not even just, like, let's say O-linemen, one guy gets in a fight, of course. They're absolutely one unit. They better be. If they're any decent O-line, they're going to be like a big group of just meathead dudes that have their own language and they're just weird and different and they're awesome.

Most O-linemen are awesome. They're a lot of fun. But if one guy decides to not even show face in a fight, that's going to have a long, like an impact for a long time. That guy better be better never make a mistake in a game because I think guys will instantly, like they'll always remember

that. It'll be five years down the road, like yeah, he didn't come help me out in a fight though. I got with this D lineman. Like that's stuff that carries carries on so next time there's a fight so if that if you're if you are that guy i guess next time you just got to go into practice and just fight the toughest guy in the defense right is that the only thing you could probably do but then you're a lineman but he's like i'm not helping you out with that you're stupid we know who to fight you're not too you remember that guy he was the guy that didn't he was the only one that didn't get in a fight with us whenever we were in training camp. You remember that guy?

Yeah, I do too. Go sit by your fucking self. Got some breaking news at a Green Bay Packers training camp. Creed is being played at the practice. Wow. Huge. With home. I like that. Also coming out of training camp for the Green Bay Packers this past weekend,

Aaron Rodgers is on fire right now. I guess deep deep balls are in abundance deep balls are getting dropped into a bucket and suck it signs are coming out from aaron rogers to everybody i love everything about this everybody was wondering how aaron rogers would respond to what happened in the draft and everything like that he's taken jordan love in as a uh mentee apprentice an apprentice a mentee he's been being a leader over there and it seems like by the way if at training camp with all this covet stuff happening and we've gotten a chance to see how hard it is basically to even get into the practice facility in training camp or long days anyways, the fact that Aaron has this energy and this spunk and this deep ball and this suck it and everything like that,

this bodes well for Green Bay Packers fans. I don't know how they'll stop 186 yards before contact that happened in the NFC Championship game, but boy, I'm pumped for your guy Aaron Rodgers slinging the rock all the way around the field right now. He must be feeling good. Like you said, he sends you a text this morning too, right? Probably right before he went on the practice

field and threw another couple bombs. Do you think he also put Creed on the playlist? Do you think he would definitely put Creed on the playlist? I do take some real stock from that though. If he's running around doing this, that is

energy levels are high. You're not miserable in training camp. You're not just trying to get by. If he's running around doing this, okay, like that is energy levels are high. Okay. You're not like miserable in training camp. You're not just trying to get by. If he's doing that, he's happy. He's pumped. And you see the videos of him and Jordan Love, even though they're so small. It feels like, just like you said the day after, I believe, like, oh, Aaron's going to go on a war pass because of this.

It feels like that's potentially what is starting to happen over here. Yeah, for sure. A lot of people responded. I said something about he's going to win MVP this year, and a lot of people were saying how bad the secondary is, which is weird because the Packers secondary is actually pretty good. But how do they react to something like this? Obviously, it's making them better because you're not going to go against as many guys who are as good as Rodgers.

He might be going against twos. They might not have good on good. They did say rogers but he might be going against twos they might not have they did say that uh davante adams was going against uh gyre alexander who is their one yeah it's ones on ones so but like how does like what is the secondary thinking in that situation like does that even matter no they get got that's what practice is for like that happens you know what i mean especially it's aaron rogers the secondary is probably pumped that they get a chance to go against Aaron Rodgers. If you're, like, a real competitive person, you're probably pumped that you're getting a chance. Because ones-on-ones don't always happen, by the way. That is not something that – good-on-good is not something that happens.

I assume it's happening a little bit more now because there isn't preseason games where you can go against other people. But good-on-good doesn't always happen, especially in full practices like that. One-on-ones, you'll get some stuff. And you always see, like, the younger – you always hear stories about these younger corners who oh this guy wants to be great he signs up for the one-on-one against the one wide receiver like that's a big thing so i would assume you're going to get got that's the way it is especially when you got aaron rogers but ultimately aaron rogers is making them better too which is probably how they view it absolutely but you have

to be once you you get beat deep in practice by Aaron Rodgers and Devontae Adams, in the back of your mind you should be like, hey, I'm sure as hell glad this happens right now in practice when we don't even have open practice for the public to watch. And it's just us that see it. Yeah, is it embarrassing? Sure. But you've got to understand who threw the ball, who caught the ball,

how great these guys are. I'm like, hey, it's a lot better than happening on Sundays every week. I don't have to face this guy. This dude's on my team. And, Ty, you might know better than I do, but I feel like Aaron's done the suck it in games before. Has that been caught on film? No, he's big this

guy. He does the belt, but I feel like I've seen him do something similar. I've seen him do it maybe once or twice, yeah, for sure. You know who does the suck it? Oh, I don't want to say this about him. What does his name rhyme with? Sminitary. This dude. I always wanted want to say this about him. What does his name rhyme with? Sminitary.

I always wanted him to do it because every once in a while, like it'll be practice, but practice we're doing like we have to end in a field goal, like offense down two or whatever, and here we go. Like you try to practice all those situations in training camp, and Vinny goes out and like, you know, we hit like a game winner, a simulated game winner in practice, but it's real competition. Like it's offense is trying to beat the defense. Offense coordinator, defense coordinator,

you each have one timeout. Like it's a real thing. Defense coordinator calls a timeout on Vinatieri or whatever in practice, you know? So then immediately I start talking shit to the defensive coordinator. Vinny starts talking. Then he bangs it.

And then there's just an immediate like chop to his thing. I'm like, Vinny, do that in a game. Vinny, how do we get you to do that in a game? He's like, get out of here, dude. But whenever you're doing that, think about the mindset you have to be in. You have to be just so happy. Having fun. That is a real thing, you know?

Because in a game, Vinatieri is immediately to this, because it's like super business, and I would assume just whatever weird zone he goes to, this is just a natural reaction if you're out there fuck i mean you're i'm pumped about that that's why everybody was like uh uh your celebrations need to get dialed back a little bit it's like yo i won't let you know i don't know what the fuck's gonna happen after i do something awesome but i am pumped that it happened and hey i'm gonna let it fly i just want to let you know that it's i wish you get fine is is doing the socket a findable offense in the nfl now i would assume i would probably what does it say like i would if i got fined for

something like that i would want them to write i need like a very detailed description exactly of what they thought i was doing it appeared as if mr aaron hawk was pointing at his right groin and his left groin simultaneously hinting that he would like somebody to potentially look at his right groin and his left groin simultaneously, hinting that he would like somebody to potentially look at his baby maker. And that is, my friends, conduct detrimental to the team. They would use that conduct detrimental to the team line and just get you for 15, 20K for that, I would assume. Well, yeah, the league will find you. I mean, I guess your team's not going to fine you, but, yeah, the league.

It probably is $20,000, $25,000 now. Oh, yeah. James Harrison was getting, like, $50,000, $60,000 for what? He tried to kill a couple guys. He had $200,000 in fines in that CTE season where they were like, no more hitting at people. And James was like, I only know one way, bud. Bang, bang, bang.

It's insanity. You know what's a good example when you bring up James Harrison. So, you know, I don't know if you remember, you know, he was on the Bengals for a year. Oh, yeah. So James was on the Bengals for a season. They played a 4-3 and James was playing like outside, like a Sam backer in a 4-3, which he's an outside backer in a 3-4, which is he's basically a stand up DN. That's what he does best. Can we do a little education right now? Yes. which is he's basically a stand-up dn that's what he does best can we do a little education right now yes sam backer strong side linebacker uh not inside strong side linebacker strong side is the side of the strength which would be the tight end right on the offense yeah you depend most

defenses yeah uh on it depends different coordinators like i've don cabers we always the strength of defense was always the passing strength. Some people say the running strength, so it'll go to the tight end. But yeah, there's other calls that you make to the tight end. Can you just fucking simplify this for people? Goodness gracious. I can't. I've got too many schemes in my head.

Too many things coaches have said to me that I've tried to simplify for years and years. And I try to ask them to simplify it. And I can never seem to get a proper answer so I regurgitate it poorly as well okay so the Sam backer is the one that's on the strong side of the defense which is in replicate of the offensive strong side yeah usually on where the tight end Sam's always usually to the tight end and he's like an overhang player kind of on the line of scrimmage. But the thing is now in a 4-3, the Sam is never in anymore. Like you can play – he's only in if you're in a base defense. So when James was in Cincinnati, he didn't play a whole lot of snaps. Like he was – they didn't have the right position for him.

He wasn't in the right spot really. He was there for a year, and then I think he went back to Pittsburgh after that and he ended in New England. And he still was really, really good after that, but people could have easily written him off when he ended in New England and he still was really, really good after that, but people could have easily written him off when he was in Cincinnati and be like, look, this guy can't even get on the field for the Bengals. What's going on? I'm like, no, he's playing out of position here.

This is like Earl Thomas, right? The scheme for Earl Thomas was not good for Earl Thomas. Ryan Clark doesn't think that Earl Thomas will be able to get back to form, but if he can get back into a scheme that accentuates what he does well, that's probably good news if I had to guess. Strong side! Let's go! Strong side! Let's go! that accentuates what he does well that's probably good news if i had to guess yeah how would you describe the strength of an offense i don't know i just watched mike go like this and then i see the same go to that side like this or like this or like this that's what you should

do simplify man you just got to learn why he's doing this. Or like this. Or like this. That's what you should do. Simplify it, man. You just got to learn why he's doing this or this, and then you'll know it that much better. I just thought it was tight end. I always thought wherever the tight end's lined up, okay, that's a strong side. Here we go.

Sam's going over there. It is for a lot of teams. It is. Just not Tom Capers. Just not Tom Capers. Well, because think about how confusing it could be, Pat, if you said, okay, hey, the tight end is going to be, that's the running, the strength in the run game but wherever the the majority of the receivers are that's where

the passing strength is so you can't have like a passing strength and a running strength each play because you set that to the like you set your front always to somebody so you kind of is that the colts no i believe it's college okay and in college there's the same little overhang he's in a two-point. And that's because the fullback is offset there as a tight end. A little bit of H-back set up right there. So the question is, if that fullback goes into motion to the other side of the formation, does that Sam run with it?

And if he does, that means they're in man, right? Not zone. Yeah. He's going to bump that. There's another. Well. Look at you trying to figure out this fucking defense. No, that's a 3-4, though.

You're selling a 3-4. It doesn't work. So that graphic's wrong right there? I mean, there's a Sam. You can technically call a guy a Sam in a 3-4, which there is. But, yeah. James was playing a 4-3, Sam. I do not blame whoever pulled this up at all.

No, but I think we just made it worse for everybody. A little more confusing. What do you got today, AJ? Anything awesome? I don't know. I don't know what's going on. What about you? Well, I got to work out.

So I had my cheat day. Did you see my cheat meal yesterday? I did. Did you eat all of that? I'll tell you what. I put a hell of a dent in it. I should have taken a picture, but my lady and her dad were also there helping. So if I was going to take a picture, I felt like I would have had to preface like oh my lady my wife and her father are also helping because

the indy 500 happened and i decided to just fucking back out of it but i put a healthy dent into that thing and by the way the dominoes uh i don't know if you can see them the dominoes lava cakes were also those are the greatest they are greatest delivery dessert that you can possibly get are the lava cakes from dominoes the pizza was oh good okay average whatever below maybe but the the lava cakes from dominoes are fucking next level i didn't know they had them my kid that's good to know my kids love that oh jay welcome to the modern world i mean seriously the uh i mean if i order domino's, I order pizza. I usually don't ask them if they have exotic lava cakes for me to have.

The lava cakes are so good. Scroll to the bottom, my friend. Foxy has never had a lava cake in his life until, what, a year ago or something? Yeah, until you guys introduced it to me. The first lava cake Foxy had was a year ago, and it was from Domino's in what, Foxy? It's the greatest dessert you can order from any place of all time. It is unbelievable. Even if you want to get a little ice cream in there.

Oh, yeah. By the way, I did yesterday. Dairy Queen Blizzard. Oreo Blizzard. Extra, extra, extra Oreo, please. And make it a royal. So there's a syrup or hot fudge in the middle of it. I should have done yesterday.

Was it worth it? At the end of the night, was it all where you're like, man, I'm really glad I did this. I took one sprint back into the kitchen at like 10, 30, 11 last night just to get one last like couple. All right, I'll do a PF change real quick. Let me get one piece of pizza.

Let me get a bite of a cookie here. And it was, and that was, it was worth it, by the way. It absolutely was worth it. Because I'm trying to, yesterday I was trying to do what I was trying to do during the lockout. Because going into the the lockout I was in the substance of abuse program in the NFL which means I was getting drug tested eight times a month randomly and I couldn't drink anything I

couldn't be seeing anything I couldn't do anything so I had to stop everything cold turkey now there was a little run with spice I had but after that I had to stop everything cold turkey so once the lockout hits there's no more substance of abuse program so I was like all right this is what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go on a run right here and I'm gonna go so hard that I don't want it because I think I had like uh 11 months left on the other side of substance abuse program whatever and I thought that lockout you know what one week that thing went two weeks that thing went three weeks I think went four weeks that thing went a hundred and some days and I went on a run there I was like all right I'm gonna go so hard here that whenever I and it happened as soon and I went on a run there. I was like, all right, I'm going to go so hard here. And it happened.

As soon as we got done with the lockout, I was pumped. I was like, thank God. I don't have to drink anymore. I don't have to do anything. I'm completely back to being. That's what I wanted to do with the food yesterday, and I think mission accomplished. I'm very excited for a salad today.

How are your guts feeling after that? I imagine you dropped a new class tonight. Oh, yeah. A new toilet. We took A-bomb Don last night, and then this morning, there's been something brewing here. I'm about to go. guts feeling after that i imagine you dropped a new class oh yeah new toilet we took a bomb down last night and then this morning there's been something brewing here i'm about to go in before the show yeah i mean the body is figuring it all out right now because it had been a long time without eating something awesome i mean throughout my life that has not happened on many

of occasions i like eating shit food everybody knows the problem with doing that too after you've been on diet for so long as you can only like stomach has shrunk so much that you can only eat so much. Yeah. Yeah, well, I like to think that my stomach is in a little bitch. But, boy, yesterday approved, it was. It was. As soon as I put that pizza down, I felt something start, like, groggling. And I was like, oh, it's the grease from the pizza.

Is it Domino's or is it all pizzas? I was thinking about ordering another pizza. I like maybe i don't switch it up and then i went straight into the pf chang's general so's chicken i'm like oh now there's pizza and general so's cooking down there and then i just went ahead and did it give me one of those lava cakes just to kind of marinate the whole thing oh and then a sandwich i went after it aj you had some weird uh you had some weird like danishes on the plane right afterwards so you didn't even really want, and you took a couple angry bites and threw it back.

Well, the honey bun was unbelievable. The honey bun was unbelievable. That used to be my go-to, by the way. If we're going gas station treats as a child, I used to go honey bun. Then I would put that in the microwave like seven seconds. It's like you're living fucking high society, pal. Let alone whenever they put the glaze.

Not the glaze. The frosting. The frosting on top of it. That was a game fucking high society, pal. Let alone whenever they put the glaze, not the glaze, the frosting on top of it. That was a game changer there for a bit. But that other one I got was shit. So, I mean, I enjoyed the honey bun, but the other one, the cinnamon roll French toast yesterday was the surprise MVP of the day. That one was right in front of me there.

You saw the breakfast plate. There was a brunch plate in front of me there. Shout out to Sprite, by the way, getting it all down there. They did not pay for that, but that was the thing that kind of cooled the entire engines off

down there at the bottom. So are you going to have a cheat meal like once a week now like The Rock? I don't know. I'm trying to figure out is that what The Rock does? If The Rock does it,

I think that's what I'm going to do. What else does The Rock do, you think, to look like that? Just work out all the... Were you upset that The Rock didn't come at you on Instagram and give you a thumbs up or something?

Yeah, I am a little upset. I think he still might do it. Troy Aikman was like, The Rock at The Rock has to like this. I'm like, fucking Troy did it. Troy Aikman. You guys are co-workers. He's a fellow professional wrestler. Troy Aikman is or The Rock?

Dwayne Johnson. Oh, yeah, The Rock. You know TMZ? I was on TMZ last week, and they said, they're saying this guy is potentially the future Rock or something like that. And I was like, don't say that. Please don't say that. That's quite a bit of pressure right there.

And I wonder if his people relayed that message. Like, hey, there's this little Irish kid out in Indiana that they're calling the next you, so if he tweets you, just fucking act like that. And then that's kind of how it all went down. You know what mean caucasian rock i think he'll love it you look good i hope your tan stays for a while i i'm worried about this thing never leaving i am i would like it to be known that i am worried that this said spray tan is on my body right now will not give up this seems like the most relentless spray tan i have ever had in my entire life i did a full like

scrub like with uh the loofah thing, like on my, the whole thing. And it's just, it's not quitting. This thing is, they tell you it should stay on week, right?

Usually it's like four to six days. Like, you know, it's like normally four to six days, but it'll die off a little. I'm a spray Tanner. I have sprayed tan before. When you're Irish and you live in Indiana and you could ask to go do

something in Cali or something like that. Like, okay, you can either go in there translucent or you can attempt to be a little tan and I'm not above it at all. And then this thing though, this is the most relentless I've ever seen because normally it gets lighter as the showers go. This one has just almost gotten stronger.

It's like it's almost built a life of its own at this point. I'm like, damn. That's probably how you took care of it though. That's the problem. You walked in the house like 9 p.m.less and i was like yeah where's your shirt you got a spray tan bub can't take my can't put my shirt on so my immediate question was so every person that goes in there and gets spray tan just walks out shirtless like the do the females do that too yeah well i said that's like i assume so loose clothing if it's if you if you are going to wear

clothing has to be very loose well you say that and then we were outside in the little the porch thing when pat got back and he started to walk out with food to your lady and he's like i can't be out here i can't sweat i'm gonna mess this tan up and he sat in the doorway for a while and then he's finally he's like i remember i was like ah the fans are he's like okay i'll give it a shot and And then he walked. He walked from underneath the little covered patio, and it was like he got shot by a sniper. He's like, oh, it's raining out here. He's like, oh, my God, dang.

He's like, you've got to be kidding me. He was so worried the rain was going to mess up the spray tank. I thought I was going to have. So he walked around flexing for the next three hours indoors. I thought I was going to have. I thought I was going to have like drops on my eyes. I was like, oh, no, no, no, this cannot happen. Today is not the day to have a bad spray tan.

So I had to really take care of it. But now that I'm thinking about it, maybe too much. You're 100% right. AJ, I got to go to the bathroom. We talked about my day yesterday. I can't thank you enough, again, for being in my corner in my first fight. I appreciate you for that. The boys appreciate you.

And we haven't leaked the information about fall yet, but we will in the next couple of days. I thank you for that as well. Awesome. Can't wait, man. Thanks for having of days. I thank you for that as well. Awesome. Can't wait, man. Thanks for having me there. It was an honor to be there. I don't know a whole lot about wrestling,

but I respect the hell out of all those people that work there and the wrestlers. Everyone's super cool. Everyone's super cool, working their asses off too, and I think we put on a hell of a show, even though I took an L. Aside from that one, I'm still an undefeated wrestler. From myself, AJ AJ All the boys here We can't thank you enough For watching

It's been McAfee and Hawk The greatest sports talk show On the internet Cheers That's a show That's That's a show That

That is That is the show That Right there What we just talked about That was the end of the show. That right there, what we just talked about, that was the end of the show. Hey! It's McAfee and Hawk. It's McAfee and Hawk Sports Talk. AJ used to tackle quarterbacks, and he's a rust belt kind of guy.

That's the butter of the decade for the 2010s, kicking Pierce Missiles to the sky. It's McAfee and Hawk. It's McAfee and Hawk Sports Talk. It's McAfee and Hawk Sports Talk. It's McAfee and Hawk Sports Talk. Joining us now is a man who I appreciated everything that he was doing on the internet this weekend. A man who obviously knows his stuff, ladies and gentlemen. From ESPN, NFL Insider Field yeah what's going on my man hey I appreciate you putting some of those videos up there and also

not putting my loss on the internet I appreciate that a lot you put all the good stuff not the bad stuff that's good man right there let me ask you how much can i fanboy right now are you gonna try to play modest here you're gonna be humble or can i just like empty the tank on what i thought about saturday night hey go ahead and empty the tank go ahead and empty the tank i'm sure you guys did not want me to come on the show and just talk about saturday night but my apologies dude that was i am a huge WWE fan, a huge fan of sports entertainment, as you know. Have been for my entire life. We have done something at a pay-per-view in Hartford when people could actually go to events together for WWE Digital. Saturday night was the most impressive debut for a wrestler that I can think of in quite some time.

I was not nervous for it. First of all, they introduced you as 240 pounds. Either you're carrying that weight better than anybody I've ever seen or that was just something they asked for like six weeks ago. There's no way you're 240. It's all on the right. There it is. Hey, I was actually 265 like two and a half, three months ago.

I got real fat this fall, real comfortable. No pizza was safe. It happens. Anyways, first of all, the swanton that you hit, I thought that would be the apex. I thought that was your moment that night. But when you go backflip, back onto the top turnbuckle, and

superplex. Adam Cole, arguably in my opinion, the best pound-for-pound wrestler in sports entertainment on the planet right now. I was like, are you kidding me? So, huge ups to you. That was incredible. I thought the internet needed to see that. And I don't care if you are a fan or not a fan of wrestling.

If you didn't appreciate what you accomplished, man, that was really cool. I can only imagine the rush that you felt during any moment of that match whether it was the swanton whether it was the superplex even moves where you were ending up on your back but really cool man really appreciate it and i love what you do for wwe and i love that industry so it's awesome to see field i appreciate you man that means a lot i really appreciate. What I did not account for in the push-off, oh, my God, let's backflip here, jump up superplex, was, boy, that superplex, you don't read about how bad that hurt like a, I mean, that thing hurt like a son of a bitch.

You don't account for that. It was quite a ride there. I mean, last night watching Asuka taking one onto the apron, that was like, geez, I can only imagine how that one felt. But, dude, you're right. I guess I underestimated how it probably felt for you. By the way, great performance by A.J. Hawk, too. Like, really solid.

He's got a career there, I think. And world-class table tennis enthusiast Nick Moraldo. Let's not forget about him. Very impressive. Darius Butler was ready to go. I mean, it was a very very very cool Saturday I talked about in the first hour about how that's like 20 years of me wondering if I was ever supposed to be in there and I enjoyed the hell out of it I'm very thankful for

everything you just said there and for posting about it because that conversation especially with you being a part of it got massive so thank you field uh let's move on now let's talk about why whenever field Yates talks about something, a lot of people listen. That's because you're very good at what you do. NFL insider for ESPN, you and Shefty are obviously running stuff over there. Let's talk about the NFL's biggest story right now. It is Earl Thomas, but for me, the bigger story is this lab in New Jersey with 77 tests for 11 NFL teams that have all come back as a false positive.

And there was an entire cluster truck of everything that happened in there. How is the NFL? And I know the lab has come back and said, we figured out what it was. We got that out of there. How is the NFL handling this internally? Internally, I assume there is some people that are very, very worried about this happening in the middle of the season and causing quite a problem in a workflow for everybody. So Sunday morning was this really interesting dichotomy.

On the one hand, there are three players, three in the entire league, who are on the reserve COVID list. There are about 2,600 players on rosters right now, and only three of them are on the reserve COVID list, which either accounts for guys who have tested positive or have been exposed to somebody who may of themselves have been positive.

So that's a really good number, three out of 2,600. On the other hand, as you illuminated, there's a really fine line here right now. I know the NFL, there were some anxious moments yesterday morning and also Saturday because this did also involve the testing from Saturday. Now, it happened to be that there were a decent number of teams that had scheduled days off on Saturday, so it didn't necessarily cease operations surrounding practice or other work inside the facility on Saturday, but Sunday morning was a tenuous moment for the NFL. It was a reminder that as much progress as we've made

and as good of a job as the NFL has done, that there is no margin for error with it. It doesn't take a bunch of people acting irresponsibly or a bunch of people contracting the virus. It takes one person to contract the virus for a lot of things to go haywire. And it asked this question without actually intending to do so. What happens if it wasn't Saturday night before August 23rd? Oh, yeah. It was, what if it's Saturday night before week four or something of that nature?

And I think the NFL feels fortunate. Week 16. Yeah, totally. I mean, it could be the Super Bowl for all we know. I think the NFL feels fortunate that timing was maybe in its favor in this regard. And I do think as much as it's going to suck to have to go through a lot of these things, the NFL is probably going to find some silver lining

in sort of working through some of the issues before the season begins. Kind of a test trial without actually being a test trial. So if there was any positive coming from this, it's not just that all those tests, all 77 of them were false positives, but also that the NFL has a chance to refine its lab work and its systems and figure out some of the issues that might be diagnosed as errors right now. What was that word you used early? Dichotomy?

Dichotomy. Yeah, you like that one, huh? What does that mean? Dichotomy. It's sort of like two opposite sides of the spectrum, right? So like – Oh. Yeah.

Hey, hey. Dichotomy. Dichotomy. It's D-I-C-H, which is which is the tricky part oh you're like a spelling bee master as well huh is that you're you know hey some of us are made to be super you know w future wwe champions and some of us are made to be spelling bee champions i i actually enjoy my spelling capabilities but that one i would have got wrong okay so let's just go ahead and assume that there's going to be a season and let's act like even if the NFL and the players the coaches the

equipment managers athletic trainers uh the film people everybody that involves the football does their part let's assume that the scientists will also do their part who are testing people and they don't bring COVID-19 into the testing sites so let's just assume everybody does that and there is a season Earl Thomas the way it was phrased as his release from the baltimore ravens seems like the nf or the baltimore ravens are setting up to not have to pay him conduct detrimental to the team which is this shield that every team hides behind so they can find people however they want to the nflpa should not have let it into cba it's in a cba it's still in a cba it's a big deal it was probably meant for something but it's used for other things like finding people for tweets and for other stuff like that which i have learned about earl thomas

though now uh seattle and him did not end well baltimore and him obviously not ending well are there teams that are going to be interested in earl and is he going to get paid anywhere near what he was supposed to get paid next year anywhere else i don't think we can overstate how important that 10 million dollars of guaranteed money that the Ravens want back, that Earl says, no way, I'm assuming to, we cannot overstate how important that is and what's next for Earl Thomas. Because let's say that Earl, let's say there was a ruling tomorrow by the NFL and the NFLPA, and they said, hey, Earl, you get that $10 million. The Ravens case is faulty. It's all yours. Well, then Earl may say, you know what? I'm signing a minimum money contract with whoever

wants me. Because he could basically, I think almost every NFL team would examine a one-year minimum money contract for Earl Thomas as largely no risk. The problem is that if Earl Thomas right now in his early stages of looking for his new employer is saying, not only do I want to sign with you, the Dallas Cowboys, or whoever else might be in the mix for Earl Thomas, but I want to make 10 or $12 million this year because I'm one of the best safeties in football. How many teams are equipped to do that right now? Think about all the players that can't find a job and they've been free agents for months. Jadavion Clowney, Logan Ryan, Devontae Freeman, amongst others.

Well, not like teams are going to be moving mountains right now to pay for Earl Thomas given the circumstances of his release. As you said, basically two really well-run organizations have said goodbye to Earl Thomas in the past, what, 16, 17 months. So Earl Thomas' value right now, separate and apart from the fact that he's 31, he's coming off of a year which he had just two interceptions. I think there are people in the NFL

that just based off of the fact that the Ravens and the Seahawks couldn't tolerate him are already asking themselves, well, can we possibly fit this guy into our locker room? But I always say it's about what the player wants first because if Earl wants to just go somewhere to win, or if he wants to go somewhere to spite the Ravens, if he wanted to sign with the Steelers for a million bucks,

maybe the Steelers are injured. I mean, I'm not certainly not floating that. I'm just saying as an example, certainly floated it. I know the Pittsburgh side of you right now is thinking about, is thinking about it more and more. But my point is that like, if, if, if Earl wants to go somewhere that gives him the best chance to win,

is less concerned about money, then the market may bubble up in a way that it wouldn't if it's just about finding the right fit and also being paid commensurate with what he believes he earns. But I still think that all eyes go to Dallas. He's wanted to be there for multiple years now. It would be a homecoming. The Cowboys have been unafraid to make bold and audacious moves since Jerry Jones became the owner of the franchise. They've already added Alden Smith this offseason.

They have already added Dontari Poe and Gerald McCoy before he got hurt. The list of guys goes on and on, defensive side of the ball. Ha-ha, Clinton Dix. You might as well keep the overhaul going. So the ravens still have to pay him that 10 million dollars next year no matter what until they potentially fight it and then he what he has to pay it back is that how that would work yeah so as of right now the money is owed to earl thomas now the ravens are going to contend that a conduct detrimental voids those guarantees it's going to result in a grievance now the problem is that i'm sure Ravens fans would like for that $10 million issue to be

resolved right now, not just as it's saving the team cash, which isn't really what they care about, but it's cap space, right? If Earl Thomas wins this grievance, he's going to count $25 million against the salary cap this year to not play for the Baltimore Ravens. That's the largest cap hit they have on their team. The largest cap hit the Ravens would have would be Earl Thomas playing for somebody else. But that grievance is not going to be settled right away. Remember Antonio Brown being, obviously we all remember him being released after just, what, seven days with the Patriots?

His grievance was settled in, like, July. So it took seven, eight, nine months. These things take a lot of time time not just because they involve lawyers and you know minutiae and stuff like that but also because the world we're in right now with covid so i think there's a chance that this thing could drag for a while i'm not expecting immediate resolution for earl thomas field you just brought up antonio brown and you tweeted yesterday about the current wide receiver injuries for the san francisco 49ers oh there, by the way. Is there any news on Antonio Brown and who's looking at him, and is it the 49ers?

I think teams are not in much of a rush right now to sign Antonio Brown because he can't play for anybody until at least week nine of the regular season. So I wonder if teams right now are saying to themselves, season. So I wonder if teams right now are saying to themselves, we've already had to move on from undrafted rookies and other developmental players because rosters had to be cut down to 80, that we're already having enough of a hard time getting reps for players that we really don't know that much about, that we know what Antonio Brown is. Everybody in the NFL knows what kind of player Antonio Brown is. The problem is they also know what kind of person he has been for much of his professional career. I think that Antonio Brown will eventually find a team. I don't think any

of us are naive enough to think that he is not good enough or that there are not enough NFL teams that could use a wide receiver. I just would be surprised if a team makes any rush to do so, given that, like, although we've only known his suspension length for a few weeks, we've known Antonio Brown was available since week three or whatever it was of last year that the Patriots cut him. So my instinct is that maybe closer to the start of the season, Antonio Brown finds a home, at which point a team could sign him, not have to have him count as a roster spot,

and then allow him even though he can't be practicing with the team allow him to get up to speed a little bit uh with the playbook and sort of have him on the ready for week nine or week 10 if they have their buy in the first eight weeks of the season to come back and i mean unless you're signing with what new orleans and maybe atlanta you know arizona green bay he's gonna be the best wide receiver on your team uh he's gonna be the best wide receiver i'm not gonna say i haven't seen him play in a while he's just unbelievable and nobody ever talks about how good he is at football because of everything that's happened off field much like ben roth is berger let's talk about

another quarterback and a quarterback that is tight with antonio brown and a potential landing spot that everybody thought he could go to even before the suspension was handed out was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Mike Evans said we could be we could have an all-time great offense and I think us in the media and the people that have been talking about this team we saw that they could have an all-time great offense in 2020 so the fact that they know that in the locker room I think is awesome the fact that they're probably expecting a lot out of themselves. It feels like Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you just look at the videos that have surfaced, it feels like that team is gelling in a short amount of time. What are you hearing out of Tampa and how strongly do you feel about

their team being a great one this year? This probably shouldn't surprise us, but what I keep hearing is that no matter how great the expectations were within tampa for tom brady is that like it's everything plus more right that he's so incredibly uh perfection driven and so dedicated to being the best that and i understand that we've known that right like the tom versus time thing and sick super bowl should be enough evidence avocado ice cream yeah avocado ice cream still not sure i'm totally sold on that myself but cookies and milk though 10 a.m i'm here for sure yeah all the way in that's how you carry that 265 come on come on there you go good spray tan too you didn't tweet about it shouldn't be a surprise that tom brady is already making a mark on this bucks

franchise in a way that is already like that transcends wins and losses. Now, ultimately, the wins and losses will be what matters. And I'm not worried about the Bucs offense this year. I'm really not. But one of the narratives that I've heard a ton this offseason, how the Bucs were much better defensively than people gave them credit for. Now, I don't think they were like a bottom five or bottom 10 defense last year, but people have specifically pointed to down the stretch and how much better they were. And, and they were definitely improved in some ways,

but if you go back and sort of comb through the game by game log, there were some performances that were, that were impressive. I would also point to some of the quarterbacks that they were facing down the stretch and that I still want to see a little bit more from that Bucs defense. I like some of the individual pieces, but ultimately the Bucs are going I like some of the individual pieces, but ultimately the Bucs are going to have to account for something they have not maybe ever accounted for,

even during their Super Bowl run in the early 2000s. They're the hunted now, right? I don't care if Tom Brady signed with the Bucs or with a team in a different country. His team is going to be the hunted, right? I mean, that's the kind of cachet that Tom Brady brings. Every game against the Patriots for the past 20 years was the opposing team's super bowl basically right and patrick holmes tom brady lamar jackson the best of the best are going to have to carry

that responsibility with them and i'll see how i'll be interested to see how the bucks um face and handle that pressure even though i do do think Brady has already made a massive mark on that. Yeah, Tom's going to change the entire organization. I said that any team that signs Tom Brady, everybody's going to get better because Tom Brady's coming in there. You want to heighten your ability so that you can catch up to what he's at, but also he's going to have tips for people on how to make things better. I said, if you have a chance to sign Tom Brady, you sign Tom Brady, not just because of what he does on the field, but the leadership for everybody else. Last question before we let you go.

We're talking to Field Yates, ESPN NFL insider. Very thankful for you joining us today. Great setup, by the way. Are you in the ESPN building right now, or is this just your basement? I am. Yeah, so we do our show 10 to 11 here. We run live, so I missed the first hour, which bums me out that I missed the first hour of your show. Oh, I missed your show, too.

Don't we talk about how oh i miss your show too don't we talk about how we always miss you yeah so we get bummed about that as well field so know that it's both sides here reciprocated love you talked about lamar jackson the best of the best here and how you're the targeted at especially after being mvp he sees what patrick mahomes does mvp super bowl mvp 500 million dollar contract lamar said he's nowhere near done he's still got a lot to prove what is this groin injury seem to just pop up out of nowhere are they just being extra precautious because he's lamar jackson or is this a real problem potentially because by the way for the way lamar jackson plays all anybody's ever said is wait for him to take one

big hit one big hit one big hit he's elusive and has figured out a way not to do that and that's why he's special versus a lot of other guys that have maybe played in a similar style but nowhere near what he has done but a groin injury is something that could really hinder a lamar jackson performance is this something they're very worried about or is this something we shouldn't even think about yeah i think we should think about it but they're also not super worried about it i think they're being as you the abundance of caution to borrow your line is accurate here so uh he's back on the practice field today but this is going to be a theme around the NFL. Soft tissue injuries were one of the things that the players were concerned with

in this agreement they had to get back to work, which is why they had the acclimation period for about two weeks of no padded practices. So to your point, Lamar Jackson is a runner on top of being an outstanding quarterback, so you're always going to be a little bit more mindful of him having soft tissue or any kind of lower body injuries, but I'm not overly concerned. I don't get the sense that Ravens are either. At the end of the day though, as much as we have, we only have 14 padded practices. That's a fact. That's a limit. It's Lamar Jackson. Like at some point it's sort of diminishing return to the practice reps. Like you either he's, he's unanimous mvp if

there's somebody who does not need work on that roster like he may not be the you know there's certainly guys like mark ingham and calais campbell but like lamar jackson's one of those guys that if he gets 70 of his normal reps you're probably feeling equally comfortable and confident going into week one against the browns no issue here on on Lamar Jackson. Okay, that's good news for Ravens fans and for NFL fans in general because he was electrifying last year. And also, we saw Jetski take him out in the offseason. Let's hope he's not to groin.

Ladies and gentlemen, ESPN NFL insider and stud, I appreciate you a lot. Ladies and gentlemen, Field Yates. Thank you. Thank you for having me on, guys. No, thank you for joining us. I apologize for the interruption. I just have to tell you about a new sponsor alert.

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21 years old. When I when i was 21 very different than what luka's doing luka hits a step back at the end of overtime to give them a win over the clippers on a sprained ankle that caused him to be carried out basically two days beforehand he ended up having 43 points 17 rebounds and 13 assists 21 years old and it he's the luca he's the third player in nba postseason history with a 40 15 and 10 assist game uh joining charles barkley and oscar robertson who are much older than he was whenever they did this at the time so the fact that luca has kind of taken over the entire bubble at this point luc Mania has run wild on the internet and for good reason. His body control is something that everybody in our office talked about. I'm like,

why is this guy so good? Well, his body control is so good. He's gained the respect of the entire league. Kevin Love, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Lillard, Bradley Beal, Trey Young, D Wade, John Morant, and many others. As soon as they saw that shot went crazy for him it seems like he's well liked by everybody we saw this situation where he was called a bitch-ass white boy and then the next day there was an apology or whatever and by the way i enjoyed watching the internet go upside down for the bitch-ass white boy thing because of you know the world that we're in and trying to bring everybody together as opposed to push them apart so obviously whenever that happens there's a lot of people who immediately want to

go like, Oh, see, see, can't say that it's like, hey, actually, in relationships, in locker rooms, those types of jokes are made on a very regular basis. And to be honest, those types of jokes are potentially what bring people together more so than not. But in the world it's not a good look to ever judge anybody by that type of thing so i understand why there was an upfire or a fire started by the entire thing but if you ever go into a locker room where there's a lot of people gelling from different races and things like that those types of things are made fun of and poked i mean if you if a white wide receiver smokes a guy uh a DB or something who happens to be black, if a white wide receiver gets a deep ball, I mean, there is immediate conversation about

that happening. I mean, it's just the way it is. So I would assume that the world made old buddy apologize to Luka, but I assume Luka took no offense to that throughout what he's doing. But I'm happy they made up afterwards to show the world like, hey, that's not something we should do anymore. Okay, cool. But Luka on that sprained ankle, ankle the game he played and then it begs the question if you were to start a franchise for the next 10 years this is classic sports talk what do you do who do you take and i think i would have gave the answer

of zion immediately before yesterday i would have said zion williamson's my guy always has been my guy but i have no clue what's going on down to pelicans they might ruin him to be honest yeah guy doesn't play for whatever reason they say he's hurt the whole thing maybe he'll have to get out somewhere to really you know flap his wings i hope he does because that guy is explosive he's he's a good guy he seems to be liked he loves the game all that stuff so i hope they give him a chance but if you're looking at strictly what have you done for me lately which this show is a big thing and you have to be on a daily i think you have to pick the 21 year old luca who seems to be changing basketball with his style of play he's already knocking down massive shots he's well liked by everybody and he's telling his coach

no i'm not going on the bench he's a dog i mean this guy is an absolute stud and i'm thankful that we're getting a chance to watch him play the basketball. And he's not afraid of anything. He's not afraid of taking the last-second shot. Kawhi Leonard was covering him for the most of the third quarter, who's considered the best defender in the NBA, Kawhi Leonard. He was taking him to the whole, the entire game. It's wild to watch him play.

Now, the Clippers, by the way, they've got problems, right? Oh, yeah. Playoff P. Playoff P. He had seven points at half. No points for the rest of the game. I think he's the first player in NBA history to shoot under 25% in the first four games. Yeah, his last three games, he's got 11.3 points, 21% from the field, 16% from three-point line.

Did you memorize that or were you just reading it? Oh, I memorized it. It's actually on the inside of my glasses. I'm reading it right here through there. They're a problem. The Raptors have already gone on to round two in the eastern playoffs if the clippers were to not get past the mavericks which by the way who's hot mavericks are hot right now and that was out without perzingis right yeah so if the the

clippers don't make it past kawaii would have left a champion team in all of canada to go to the clippers for star power and more weapons and it's creating a new legacy, all for naught when the Raptors make it without him. And there's word coming out now that Kawhi actually wanted to partner up with Jimmy Butler, and he reached out to Jimmy Butler to come join him with the Clippers, and then they fell to Paul George. So I don't think Kawhi doesn't want to carry Paul George anymore, same way Russell Westbrook didn't want to. Well, PG, I believe he did have an offer from Oklahoma City. He decided to go to the Clippers, so I don't know if Russell Westbrook didn't want well PG I believe he did have an offer from Oklahoma City he decided to go to the Clippers I don't know if Russell Westbrook or oh Westbrook

got traded either way oh yeah but but I think at the time when he made the decision I think Westbrook and Paul George were tight I think like Paul George's house had a party they had a party yeah yeah they had a whole party but you're saying that he didn't want to carry him anymore no he didn't not at all I mean think about what Paul George does he sees Westbrook win an MVP okay fine i'll go join westbrook he sees kawaii win a championship okay fine now i'll go try and play with kawaii i think paul george is very much um like whenever he was at the pacers i got a chance to watch him obviously and meet him and everything like that whenever he wasn't the focal point he was awesome and i would assume if he gets cold a little bit everybody's gonna pile on him but hey playoff peak and come back and drop 42.

I mean, that is something that he could absolutely do. The Clippers are excited for that to potentially happen. He's obviously in a rough spot. The internet has been ruthless towards Paul George. All right, all right. That's the show. We'll be back Thursday. Be a friend.

Tell a friend about this show if you enjoyed it. If you didn't, once again, I can't tell you. I can't tell you and stress to you enough. Just act like this never happened if you didn't enjoy it. But if you did, please tell a friend. All right. Have a day. We'll see you Thursday. Ty Schmidt, please play some independent music. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.