The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 355 - Darius Leonard, Michael Lombardi, Rob Ninkovich, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: February 16, 2021

On today's show Pat and the boys chat about all the rumors floating around in the NFL including Gronk and Deshaun potentially going to Miami, all the stuff coming out about the Patriots and whether or not they'll find their way again, and Russell Wilson is staying put in Seattle.. for now. Next, 2018 NFL Defensive ROY, 2x Pro Bowler, 3x All-Pro, LB for the Indianapolis Colts, Darius Leonard joins Pat and AJ Hawk to chat about his season, his mentality towards getting better, his desire to get in a wrestling ring, and what he's got planned for the offseason (23:42-43:26). Next, former Cleveland Browns GM, host of the GM Shuffle pod, co-host of HammerDAHN, friend of the program, Michael Lombardi joins the show to chat about everything going on in the NFL, how a GM views all the misinformation going on, and where he thinks certain players will wind up (1:01:26-1:22:42). Later, 2x Super Bowl Champion, member of the Patriots 2010's All-Decade Team, and ESPN NFL analyst, Rob Ninkovich joins the show to talk about all the stuff being reported about the Patriots, Gronk going to Miami potentially, Karen Lombardi, and much more (1:24:51-1:54:28). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow and listen every day on Mad Dog Radio, Sirius XM Channel 82. 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 february 16th 2021 great show okay i think so at least if you agree be a friend tell a friend let's go ahead and gorilla market this thing let's grow as much as we possibly can hey shall we i think we're going to continue to try to give the best show we possibly can um some might stink today i don't think does not today was a good one today was a very good one i think today was above average had a lot of fun in in there. There's not much to talk about. No, that is something. We are running into a potential dryness of topics, but when the big topics hit, they are going to hit, I think.

Oh, yeah. They're going to get going. And there's some interesting suggestions out there today in this show. And we learned a lot today. We did. Great guests, above average conversation. If you like the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it lot today. We did. Great guests. Above average conversation. If you like the show, be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Let's get to it.

We got a great day. Michael Lombardi, former general manager of the Cleveland Browns and New England Patriots coaching assistant will be joining us in about 22 minutes to talk about all the things happening behind the scenes right now that we can't see. all the people that are lying,

try to move and shake their team to a better place. Then in the second hour, we have a man named Rob Ninkovich joining us from the New England Patriots, multiple-time Super Bowl champion. Now he works at ESPN. He said something the other day about Gronk and Deshaun Watson being down there in Miami. Who told him that? What are you shaking your head for over there?

First photo was not Rob Ninkovich. Who was it? I think it was Matt. Was it Matt Light? It might have been Matt Light. I didn't see. I did not see. Oh, come on.

Anyways, Rob Ninkovich does not deserve whatever treatment Foxy and the crew behind the glass just gave to him. This is a Mike Bibby, J. Will situation. Not all whites look the same. whatever treatment Foxy and the crew behind the glass just gave to him. He, this is a Mike Bibby, J will situation. Not all whites look the same. Foxy. Okay.

Not all fucking whites look the same. I defend myself right now. Then you guys were like, Oh, Foxy's point. Now who is it? Because I didn't make that package. Who was it? The guy that makes the packages every single day.

Not me. It was Bill. Bill McComas. Bill, you son of a bitch. But also, in Bill's defense, Bill McComas, most basic looking white. Okay? Bill, not every white person looks the same. All right?

Not every white professional athlete is the same person. Oh, he's got a patched jersey on and a beard. That's definitely not. That's naked, bitch, for sure. He has a beard. What do you mean? Anyways, if you're listening on SiriusXM Channel 82, Mad Dog Sports Radio, we do apologize.

There's pictures being shown over my shoulder, a la the Jon Stewart Daily Show back in the day where he would talk and pictures would be up there. I don't necessarily see them unless they go up on the full screen. I did not know that we completely spit in our second guest today's eye and face with putting up the wrong white whenever we were referring to him. Rob Ninkovich, multiple-time Super Bowl champ, will join us. He said Gronk and Deshaun will be down in Miami next year.

Who told him that? How does he know that? We'll talk to him about all the rumor mills happening. Plus, there are some things coming out about the 2017 New England Patriots team that we will talk about. I assume I'll follow up with him about that as well. Dov Kleiman did some deep internet diving and found some interviews and everything like that. It seems like the Patriots are potentially on a path of failure for the next 10 to 15 years. If the stories from behind the scenes that are coming out, being leaked, which is mostly bullshit, we do know that, is anywhere near true.

We'll talk about that today. That is actually a rather large story russell wilson isn't going anywhere as of a couple hours ago via jocena anderson's tweet that says hashtag current status there's a lot of drama potentially still popping off with deshaun watson down in houston since jj watt was released from the Houston Texans by Jack Easterby and the boys. A snowstorm has crashed down on Texas. Ice everywhere. Jack Easterby, a man of the Lord, seems like he brought hell's wrath alongside of Texas whenever he decided to get J.J. Watt out of there.

T's and P's to everybody in Texas and in the country that is battling this bullshit blizzard that is currently outside of our office as well. And in the third hour today, we have Darius Leonard joining us. And I cannot wait to chat with him. Darius Leonard is known as the Maniac. Just last week or a week before that, he challenged Triple H to a wrestling match. Triple H responded by saying, you come down here. We'll be a tag team.

Let's go the game and the Maniac versus whoever. We'll talk to him about his wrestling dreams and the indianapolis coach which are right in the middle of this entire quarterback drama with carson wentz and uh potentially russell wilson but he is currently not on the move he's not on the move but so we can't just continue to perpetuate an absolute lie like that Russell Wilson's allegedly not leaving anywhere but the Colts are looking for a quarterback Darius Leonard put out a tweet the other day it said he doesn't care how big your name is when you come to play for the Indianapolis Colts and more specifically he was talking about the defense because I think people are saying maybe J.J. Watt comes up to the Indianapolis Colts which would be awesome for the city the team and

the AFC South going back to Houston and playing against them twice a year. He said, I don't care how big your name is. When you come here, you work every day or something like that. Okay, he's setting a tone. Down in Tampa, they are not saying that, by the way. They're like, hey, you want off Wednesday? Fucking do whatever you got to do. Darius Leonard and the Colts have a great squad right now.

Cannot wait to chat with him about all of that. At-Tone Diggs is here. He battled the elements. I did tell him this morning with how bad the roads were. by the way, don't know where, how it is, where you are here. Highways are just covered in snow. All of our streets covered in snow. It is still snowing. It's only getting colder. I believe it is not great conditions told all the boys. Hey, if you don't feel safe, don't come in facetime with digs last night and i said hey digs you're too far stay home do not want you crashing me being the reason for your death i would

have to come out and say i love ton i love digs i told him to stay home he deserved to die he chose not to do that that's what i would have had to say didn't want to have to say that but all the people on the internet that are talking about this storm that we're currently living in they don't remember you and i grew up in pittsburgh hell yeah okay it is mountain either a lot of hills there it is very cold we get a lot of snow but whenever i'm taking a video at a red light and the entire six lane road that i'm on is completely covered in snow and there's people sliding everywhere the people on the internet that are saying that's a lot of storm where the fuck do you live and why do you live there i understand that what we are having right now is not maybe like you know uh greenland all right or or alaska

or wherever the hell you're at but i think anybody would say this is a relatively bad blizzard we got out here and there's gonna there's 300 some crashes this morning in indiana alone 300 some crashes this morning i assume it's only gonna get worse thanks for your service covet cowboy and coming down here for the good of the people yeah i mean we got 10 inches which is a decent show or snow um and show by the way and show it's gorgeous growing up in pittsburgh i mean where you gotta put it neutral going down the hills you gotta get a 40 50 mile an hour start going up the hills. Up the hills, yeah. Where it's flat here. Yeah.

I ain't missing the show for 10 inches. Okay. Maybe if it was 30 inches, we'd talk about it. I respect that. I mean, just bought a truck. Yeah. 20-gallon tank, but it's got four-wheel drive. Hell yeah.

Yeah, a little bit conflicting there. I don't know how that works, but your truck did look good out there with the snow and the tires. Thank you. 22 gallons. Oh, just got a baby tank. I love driving the snow, though. Unless you're like Buffalo or Minnesota or something like that,

keep your mouth shut. There was a lot of people snow shaming me. A lot of people snow shaming me. A lot of people were snow shaming me on the internet. I think that was a big thing. I guess that happens when blizzards pop off. I want to let those people know they have to battle through that type of shit every day. More power to you. This morning, i watched a sweet old lady in a honda civic try to get out of walmart parking lot and she just yodeling yodeling yodeling right into

the guardrail and she's probably still there if i had to guess probably probably still there if i had to guess now look what i've stopped and got her for sure did not know she went all the way there was obviously trucks and cops around, but that's happening everywhere. 300 and some crashes here in Indiana this morning. I assume it's like that where you are. Hope you're out in Florida. I'm getting messages from people in Florida. AQ's golfing down there.

I'm getting selfies of AQ and Blaine Gabbert golfing at some golf course in Tampa. Super Bowl champs golfing the sun. Something like that. Okay, AQ. I can't wait to deal with that for the rest of my life. I got Baron Corbin commenting under it. Down here in Florida it's good. Suck it, he says to me. So I think everybody

but Florida is potentially in hell right now. I won't let you know. Although we do love the state of Florida and we appreciate the state of Florida and potentially going to be in the state of Florida soon. We're on the side of everybody else that's battling through this. We'll continue to do the show as long as we have to. At Boston, Connor, what's going on, pal? Not much, Pat.

You know, all this stuff about the Patriots is coming out. I did have a mustache this morning just because I feel like I've got to switch the mojo up a little after all this shaming for Bill Belichick in New England. Yeah, publicly not looking good for the Patriots at this point. Got Amendola coming out doing his thing about his thing. You know, some people coming out saying Bill Belichick's still Bill Belichick.

Let's have a little bit of respect. Now the story that's coming out, and let's just get right into it. Dove Kleiman kind of found this whole thing. NFL Dove Kleiman, who I don't know if it's Dove or Dove, but we appreciate him. We utilize whatever is that a he or she? I'm not 100% sure. We utilize NFL Dove Kleiman stuff every day. we appreciate him we you we utilize whatever is that he or she i'm not 100 sure we utilize

nfl dove climbing stuff every day it's a incredible twitter account if you're an nfl fan and now granted chef d e and all of them really insiders palisaro and uh field yates obviously and mortensen and all there's insiders are insiders Dove does an incredible job of collecting and like finding things and tweeting out so we thank him immensely oh yeah the story that's coming out about 2017 New England Patriots of Brandon Cooks being traded for over there that was allegedly a move that the Patriots moved uh made to have Brandon Cooks and Jimmy G become the dynamic duo of the past like Tom Brady and Randy Moss. Brandon Cooks was brought in allegedly in 2017 to fit into the Jimmy G plan moving forward with the New England Patriots. That season, Tom Brady won the MVP

and they had to move on from Jimmy G. They send him to San Fran. And Brandon Cooks gets traded away after that as well, even though they had massive success. Now, looking back on that, the Patriots assumed that Tom Brady's style of football would not be one that Brandon Cooks would excel in the specific scheme or strategy they had. Now, just a couple years later here, Jimmy G almost got traded because he missed a deep ball

in a Super Bowl by seven yards and Tom Brady had the most deep ball completions he's ever had this season became a proficient and very efficient deep ball thrower for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers because Bruce Arians and he and Byron Lefkowitz came together and they decided to do that. So Bill Belichick, if this story is accurate, we don't know if this story is accurate. We have to say it. Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels thought Tom Brady couldn't throw the fucking deep ball. You know what I don't like about your deep ball? The damn thing doesn't get completed as a deep ball. That's what they said. Is their evaluation process completely gone? If they didn't know

Tom still had it? Bruce Arians, Clyde Christensen, quarterback coach for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, told us before the season started, he said I watched all the film, right? His arm still had tremendous pop. He was hitting holes. If you watched the film, you could see he could still sling it. And we will do that here.

And they did this year. What's going on in New england does this worry you that potentially everything in new england is completely broken going forward if they have no evaluation process not only for remember last year bill skipped the combine was that a division two players guy he didn't get drafted that guy i don't think and then the draft choice is not that great up there for a long time. The salary cap is over. Is this just something like, you know, they say some people in some professions, if they're the only, and some people get this, obviously, if they're the only person doing anything for the company, and after a long time of success, they think that that person's

creative energy juice has been completely drained from said person and the product is still suffering from it because that person is still in charge of every decision, even though there is a chance that that person has lost all of the it factor that potentially had this person at the top of the mountain for a long time. I think that can go in one particular business, and then in this particular business, you have to wonder, Bill Belichick, greatest coach of all time, greatest GM of all time as well because he was the GM of the dynasty. Has he just completely lost it? Is he broken? Is that a problem in New England? Are you guys worried at all as more of this Danny Amendola?

It's more like the Tom Brady way. Now you've got this. Does that not worry you going forward at all that maybe Bill Belichick is done and he just ain't got it anymore? Well, with Danny Amendola, you know, I choose to listen to more of Aqib Tlaib's take versus Amendola's take, so I understand that completely. There's two sides to every wheel, as we know.

But, you know, because everybody on God's green earth. The wheel just has one side, though. Well, you know, when you think about it, though, you're cutting in half. There's a top and there's a bottom. Well, so now you're cutting a wheel in half. It's not a wheel anymore. Well, yeah, half a wheel. It's kind of more of like the trapezoid you saw, you know, last night plowing all the snow.

You know what I'm saying? Very true, very true. But anyways, two sides of the story. Go ahead. But because everybody on earth believes the Patriots are dead and Belichick lost it and all that, it makes me feel better just because I like to fade the public. If everyone's thinking left, I'm going right. Oh, you're a contrarian.

Hey, look, Brandon Cooks, he signed a massive contract and then what? Less than a year later, he's out of that town too. So perhaps it did start with Cooks in New England, but hey, he got traded from New Orleans as well. What happened there? Yeah, he's been traded a lot, but all of his teammates have come out and said he's not a bad teammate, just hasn't been a good fit. Maybe it's contract-wise, and that's why they don't cut him

because everybody's a little bit worried about that. But I also, in Dove Kleiman's deep diving into the internet, I didn't even see this quote from 2017. Tom Brady was getting interviewed by Jim Gray I know he's a very notable person

And there should not be a room of six people In our age that follow sports I have no idea who that guy is That's the state of the times though baby Sorry Mr. Gray I apologize I know you've done great work Appreciate everything you've done Thank you Jim for what you've done for sport but

this was in 2017 and uh it is the milken milk what is it the milken institute milken institute global hell yeah conference conference i love this i mean this is some i mean this is some high level huh they got this great fella they got tom Tom Brady getting interviewed. What the hell does the Milken Institute do? Are they making the... Immunity pills? Are they? They might be. They're not milking. I don't think that is. It's Milken. I believe it's a name. Oh, it's E-N there at the end.

The Global Conference gathered the best minds in the world to tackle some of its most stubborn challenges. Nah, Steve Weatherford's doing that. The Milken Institute ain't doing anything. So, Dov Kleiman found this 2017 interview tackle some of its most stubborn challenges. Nah, Steve Weatherford's doing that. The Milken Institute ain't doing anything. So, Dolph Kleiman found this 2017 interview, and if you listen to the thoughts that Cooks was brought in for Jimmy G moving forward, and they wanted to move on from Tom,

but then Tom won the MVP in the 2017 season. Then you hear the story about him being called Tommy fucking Foxborough, and the lack of respect and everything. And then Mr. Gray story about him being called tommy fucking foxborough and the lack of respect and everything and then mr gray here asked him this question at the milken institute global conference and this was his answer in 2017 how did the sports i want to let everybody know if we were a show when this happened just because of the pettiness of our nature of our show we would have certainly covered this but i don't think this got a lot of traction at the time in 2017 and so when Giselle says feel

appreciated this brings to mind coach Belichick and mr. Kraft do you feel appreciated by them and do they have the appropriate gratitude for what you have achieved i plead the fifth whoa whoa so things have been terrible up there for a long long time i plead the fifth knowing people were probably going to hear that including bill belichick with the question of giselle is saying these types of things in 2017 i guess the writing was on the wall for a lot of people that this was going to happen. It's amazing that they had any success the last couple of years. They were together. Congrats on them both getting out of there, Tom getting out of there.

If we go back to that video to talk about something, though, as an Internet company here. Dove Kleiman, just putting his name right on the top corner because he's the one that brought it back. Gangster move. Gangster move. Dove Kleiman, I want to to let you know we appreciate the hell out of you i'm not 100 sure how the milken institute global conference feels about you just tagging that thing but i want to let you know keep doing it we appreciate you this leads to the potential narrative though that the patriots might be dead forever at this point yeah i mean when everyone gets treated the same when not everyone is the same because Brady is, you know, at a different level than everyone else,

that obviously grows on you, as it should have. That's the college football thing, you know? All players are equal. Yeah, all players get treated the same, and then whenever he gets the NFL, it's like, hey, this is a five-star matchup. This is what Bruce Arians actually, this is an actual game. For a game we were playing when he was the interim head coach when Chuck

was battling leukemia in the middle of the season. Bruce Arians, literally not a big talker. He talks a lot of shit, and he'll keep it moving, but pregame speeches, night before the meetings, things like that, team meetings on Wednesdays, he's pretty quick. He keeps things very quick. The Wednesday

before some game we were playing, the keys to victory were, our five-star players got to beat the shit out of their five-star players. You role players just get out of the way. Then another game later, he was like, hey, this is going to be a role-player game. Our five-stars cancel out their five-stars. Our role players are going to have to make plays. Just in that statement, by the way, what is he doing immediately?

Well, he's separating the team into a reality of what it is. Like, hey, our stars got to play today. And by the way, he's not the one that does that. You know who does that? The contracts that the team negotiated that are publicly broadcasted. So whenever you have a tier already built in, by the way, contracts are paid within the locker room, it's going to be very difficult for people to continue to buy in, to treated the exact same no matter where you are on that tier because the organization has already said, hey, this person is much more important to our entire process than everybody

else. Now, you would hope that in a team manner, the high-end players will be your hardest working players, the players that would buy in, the highest paid players would be the guys that are in there first and the last ones out of the building and and buy into everything which by the way tom brady by all accounts is but whenever people are saying like yeah everybody was treated the exact same there you could see how that could work for some players but then at some point tom brady after befriending peyton manning golfing with peyton seeing things that are going on and and tom's here and peyton say things you know and peyton's like i just one guy i really like so we brought him back on the team he was there for his name is Austin Cully like we brought or Tom Sankey or somebody that he liked him and Tom's like

I have favorite wide receivers too we cut him all the fucking time and he starts hearing these things you could see why he potentially want to get out of there but with all these narratives coming out that that's how it is up there who's going to want to go up there cam newton went up there okay he was a free agent for what 86 nights or whatever paid a million bucks matt stafford did not confirm nor deny he said anywhere but new england everybody's like that must be because matt patricia i don't think that's because matt patricia i think that's because much like me okay i'm 33 years old right now could go punt balls if i really wanted to but if i was to get back in the league i'm nowhere near matthew stafford's level okay i mean well at my position

i will say i potentially did a damage at my position nowhere near as talented as matthew stafford he's a quarterback i'm a punter it's very different but if i was to go back there's only certain places where you're like okay i would do this and. And now Matthew Stafford, going into his 12th year, if he's going to get traded out of Detroit because they've had such a long history of suck up there, now kneecap biting might change that entire thing. But you could see how he'd be like, okay, I want to go to a couple places. Maybe warm, too. Like, hey, I'm kind of getting older.

Like, maybe a little warm would be nice. So everybody was like, he's saying that because of Matt Patricia. But maybe he's saying it because he's like, I do not want to go do the way the Patriot way is. I have talked to Danny Amendola and I very, very tight. I just don't want to go do that entire. We're miserable.

Everybody's the same thing when it's been proven that other ways win as well. And I think that could be the biggest tough thing going forward is unless you can draft and create, which they have not proved that they can in New England as of late. Like, granted, obviously, 199 in the draft to Tom Brady. That's a pretty good fucking draft pick. But I'm just saying, they're going to have to build, I think, this thing from a young team moving forward.

You've got players that opted out last year. They're going to come back, hopefully. They play again, and they play well. But it does look like it's a potentially long, hard road for the old New England Patriots moving forward. Well, and especially when Stafford said, like, hey, I want to go to a team and I want to play in big games. I want to go to a team that's ready for a championship. And obviously we all know New England's, at the moment, not one of those teams.

There is a team over there in Green Bay that's potentially in the J.J. Watts sweepstakes. But J.J. has had a dozen teams reach out for him. And the one he's potentially most interested in says mary k cabot of the cleveland plains dealer bingo has been covering the browns for a long time mary k has given us a lot of breaking news over the years for the cleveland browns she said that jj watt is thoroughly interested in the cleveland browns now if he goes to Cleveland, the longest rival of the Pittsburgh Steelers, where his brothers are, does J.J. Watt hate his family?

And does J.J. Watt hate his home if he doesn't go to the Green Bay Packers? We can say anything about it. And also, thank you for sacrificing your body and driving into work after being told not to come, by the way, Ty. But J.J. Watt, potentially a Packer, pretty cool. This morning packer pretty cool this morning though report from florio says no no he might be a cleveland brown i mean i think there's absolutely no way he's gonna go oh well it's the browns hold

on i would assume hold on though cleveland browns are going all in yeah cleveland browns bring in odell they pay austin hooper they pay kare Hunt. Now, Baker Mayfield had his best year yet. Will he consider they're going to have to pay him probably? But the Browns, Miles Garrett, they're going. The Browns seem to be going all in on a win more than the Packers would be. Maybe that's why J.J. Watt, he's like, if I go to the Packers, they got Aaron Rodgers, who's obviously the guy. I guess they did pay some money last offseason,

but they're not going gonna go all in like the Browns potentially are a better football team I mean you have a better chance you know I mean the Browns gonna beat the Chiefs next year probably not you know but uh I think to your point too like the only thing that worries me is yeah typically the Packers don't make like a splash in free agency like this they wouldn't go after a guy like him but also like if he can go to Tampa or if he can go somewhere warm and you've been in Texas, it'd be very tough. I mean, yeah, he's from Wisconsin, but shit, it'd be nice to just go be in Tampa

where it's nice all year round. You know you're going to be good. You're not paying any state income tax. That's quite appealing. I was going to say, that really stacks up. Joining us right now is a man who joins us damn near every single day that we have this show for the third hour, national champion football player and Super Bowl champion, ladies and gentlemen,

A.J. Ha. A.J., how you doing, pal? Oh, I'm doing good, pal. How you doing? Not too shabby, thanks. A lot of things were said in our show today that has kind of had ripple effects across the Internet at this point potential gronkowski out of tampa bay maybe a three-year 30 million dollar deal is somewhere on the table i completely forgot that gronk was going to be a free agent potentially coming up the narrative has always been he's going to stay with tom

tom's his quarterback tom's his quarterback but rob ninkovich former teammate of his i would assume potentially friend of his i'm not 100 sure how often they talk. He's like, hey, Gronk has never been a free agent. He should at least listen to what the market says about him. Maybe a big-ass deal for Rob Gronkowski, AJ. Who said three years, $30 million? Well, Nink kind of said like somewhere between $10 to $12 million a year. If you get like a three-year deal, you start doing quick math there. 30 would be the bottom of that thing. I think in a third down in red zone league, which is what the NFL has become, and it kind of always has been, but now even more so with the way offenses can move,

it's just whether or not you kick field goals or score touchdowns. That's kind of the whole game. Rob Gronkowski is like the king of those two things. I would assume the open market potentially gives him an offer that he'll he will really test his tom brady's my quarterback theory i think i'm not 100 sure but i think so oh i think it could i guess i just don't know if someone will give him a three-year deal i think a one or two year and find a way to get the most guaranteed is what he would like but man i just don't see him leaving tampa though like so what what is tampa able to pay him even if it's a one-year deal, what can they give him?

Well, we're assuming at this point that Tampa Bay is going to be giving out smaller deals to acquire more talent, and everybody's kind of buying in a la the Patriot way that they did for years because Tom's there. Every kind of older guy's chasing a ring, coming to town, maybe taking a smaller deal. Who knows if Gronk will hit the open market, if they will be able to pay him, if Tom will be his quarterback. I'd assume there'll be other people interested. Offense aside of the ball has a lot of free agents. So does the defense aside. It's a JJ Watts, a free agent, allegedly, potentially Vaughn Miller's out there. I think

Justin Houston's a free agent, a man who is the guy who runs the defense here in Indianapolis, a team that is built for success, also a man who called out Triple H a couple weeks ago on Triple H's own platform, which I have a lot of respect for. All-pro linebacker of the Indianapolis Colts, the maniac Darius Leonard. Yeah!

How you doing, Darius? I'm blessed and highly favored, man. How you doing? Yeah, damn right you are. Hey, keep that thing going, too. It's fun to watch. We'll talk about everything going on in your life, but let's talk about what I was just referring to there

because you did put out a tweet about this whole thing, about, hey, big name free agents. It doesn't matter who you are. If you come to Indianapolis, we're a group that likes to work. We like accountability, this whole thing. So, obviously, inside the building, you guys know that there's a potential free agent market right now with teams and players that want to get to Indianapolis because the way your team has been built.

How do you view that? Your culture seems to be so strong inside of there. Is that why you guys are so comfortable with potentially bringing in big names? Or what are your thoughts on the entire free agency process? And by the way, congrats on having a team and being a massive part of a team that is now a place where people will want to go to. Hey, man, I appreciate that, man. But, you know, just thinking about, you know, I've been here for three years and, you know, Coach Frank been here for three years

and just knowing what we built. You know, a lot of people don't understand the culture, you know, of the Colts. And especially on the defensive side of the ball, what we're asked to do is a lot. And then you watch tape. There's so many guys who doesn't play as hard. And, you know, if you even think about coming to the coach, we're going to hold you accountable for absolutely every single thing.

And you've got to work hard. You've got to put the team first. You've got to be able to say, okay, I don't care about my own accolades. I'm here to help win ball games, win the championship, and that's the ultimate goal. Darius, was it like that from day one, like when you walked in, or did you try to bring that culture with you? I don't know. Coach

Frank, he had an offensive side of the ball, but our defensive coordinator, Coach Flues, when I say he is the most demanding defensive coordinator that I've ever played for, and it pushes you to be the best. Like he tell you, you will hate him as a coach because he push you so hard.

He's going to make you work absolutely as hard as you ever thought as an NFL ball player. So that's the culture. There's no such thing as a house guest. If you're on that field, there's no such thing as watching the ball. You got to get to the ball every single play, and you got to make sure that you're around it.

You got to hustle. You got to play hard. Talking to us now is all-pro linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts a man who has accomplished a lot in his very very young NFL career it's only going to get better it's been fun to watch the Indianapolis Colts culture the one you just talked about there do you think there's a chance that older players maybe don't want to come be a part of that or do you think that's something that is maybe like, hey, this is probably what the greatest of all time,

big name free agents would like to see, by the way. That's why they're coming to Indy is to win. Do you think there is potentially some people that just won't fit in with Indy, especially at that high level? Do I think that some people who won't fit in? Yes, of course. Because nobody does. Think about it.

You're a vet. We don't like Coach Fuse don't care what Longfield? Yes, of course. Okay. Because nobody – think about it. You're a vet. We don't like – Coach Fuse don't care what year it is for you. You're going to work extremely hard. Like, you know, we have so many guys who came in, and it was like a shell shock to them. You know, the first thing they say is, I ain't running to the ball. I ain't doing this. But then, you know, we all out there, we're holding everybody accountable,

and everybody's joining that, you that, jumping on the board. So, I mean, it's demanding, but I don't see a lot of vets coming in and saying, okay, I can do this year in and year out to win a championship. I would automatically assume that you give that style of accountability a lot of credit for your massive success here that you have had. Why do you think your transition from college to the NFL was easy? Because, you know, you had that game against Clemson where you had 17 tackles or whatever,

and the name The Maniac was born after that. But you kind of went to a smaller school, obviously. Then you make it to the NFL and have an immediate impact. Then you only get better and better. Why is that, you think? Do you think it's because the accountability? Do you think it's because you've, like, fallen in love with the process of it all? Or have you always been like that? Um, you know, for one, you know, like you said, being from a small school, I'm an underdog.

I always been the underdog, you know, when I got drafted, they saw, you know, the worst draft pick, you know, now, you know, doing everything. Who said it, Darius? Who said it? Who said it? Report, you know, they said I was one of the worst draft picks, man. That hurt my feelings. You know, I wanted to go out and just worst draft picks, man. That hurt my feelings. You know, I wanted to go out and just, you know, I wanted to ball out each year. And then, you know, now it's more so like how can I be at the top each year? You know, that's the ultimate goal.

When you play this game, you want to be at the top. So, you know, how can I be the best linebacker? How can I do this? So each year, you know, I try to get better. You know, you hear all the critics. You know, I think there's a lot of people out there, you know there who talk trash and never play a down on football in their life. Woo! I mean, it sucks that you gotta put everything on the line,

you still don't get the respect for it. So I mean, that's my goal, each year to get better and be at the top of the list each year. So I think that's why I don't get better and I love the process. And great people, well, great football players enjoy the process. They just don't enjoy the reward. They enjoy the whole process to get to that reward hey speaking of uh people i guess giving someone a hard time you came to the defense of uh nick sirianni after his uh introductory press conference hey that was a bad press conference yeah what what do you think happened and i know you you know the guy like I'm going to be real with Nick. Like, you know, each Saturday night,

offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, special team coordinator, they all get up there to talk in front of the team. You know, you can tell people who love to talk in front of people. You can tell people who don't like to talk in front of people. And, you know, me and Nick, you know, all three years, you know, Nick came up there, and his crutch, every time he said something, he said, all right.

So each night I counted how many times he said all right. You know, I said something to him. And then it just kept getting shorter and shorter, so he stopped using all right. So I knew right then he's about like me. I'm not a guy who will talk in front of a whole press and be fine with it. You know, so I knew that that's not him, but I know he's a great coach, and I know he's a great leader, so I had to step up and say something for him.

Hey, a lot of success happening with your team. That's why it is becoming a very hot conversation of what quarterback is going to end up being the quarterback there, and I think that's a massive decision for Chris Ballard to make, but I think the world, Bleacher Report thought you were the worst draft pick. Chris Ballard has been very good

at talent evaluation and building the roster and everything like that. But when you have success, you know, coaches get plucked, players get plucked. How do you have sustained success, you think, over there? And do you think it's just from the top down you'll be able to continue to like kind of next man up type mindset for everything um you know for you know you believe in the guys up front you know um the guys the guys in the front office they've been doing a great job of putting people in the building to help this team win and you know just speaking on you know the defense side of the ball you know it's always next man up mentality like our system isn't built for one player our system is built for all 11 guys to go out as one to be great so i think it's always next man up i mean we know that the nfl

team is it's never the same the locker room is never the same so when guys get hurt or anything it's always next man up mentality and we always talk to the other guys like the practice squad guys the backup or whatever you always prepare as you're going to start this next game. So whenever your opportunity comes, you come in and you do the right thing to help this team win. You going to get in the ring or what? I assume there's a lot of quotes. That's the plan, man.

I got to order me a full-size ring to put in my backyard so I can practice a little bit. I got a rental for you. Actually, you can buy it. I got one for you that has a great price. It's already put together right back here. We can get that thing moved if you would like, or I can send you in the right direction.

Have you always been a fan? I love that you're potentially going to get it. You play. You play. I think you can tell who watched wrestling growing up and who didn't when you see how people interact with people, you see how they handle themselves. I think it says a lot about you. way you play it is very obvious like okay this is a sports entertainer as well the

dancing the talking to everything you do it seems like it'd be a very natural fit if you were to get into wrestling I'm happy you're intrigued by it I hope you do get a chance to get in there me too man that's all you know that's what I dreamed of you know I've been no watching wrestling since I was a little kid so I mean that's that's where like you know watching wrestling that's my little kid in me you know that just brings back so many members of me and my brother just sitting there watching so i definitely i definitely want to so i definitely got to practice i don't i don't want to get in there and do bad so i want to be the best at it

so i gotta i gotta get in the ring of praise before i really just jump in there with him smart how do you think jim ursae would feel if you all of a sudden show up on his TV and you're in a tag team match with Pat? Brother, what is he doing? I think I might be getting a call. Hey, it hurts like hell. It hurts like hell, Darius. But I would assume.

And it's temporary pride is forever, man. Hey! Hey, and also, by the way, I didn't run my body into people like 50, 60, 70 times a day like you have in that entire process. What does the offseason look like for you? I know, obviously, the world we're in isn't as open as it would be in the past, but what do you do?

I saw you down there in the sticks with your Pro Bowl video out there. Where are you right now? How will you be spending your offseason? I'm in South Carolina right now, man you know being around the high school basketball team watching them and then watching a little bit of baseball up here

Hey how small is your town? How small is your town out there? Because when I watch on the internet it looks like you are out in the middle

of nowhere it looks like you're That's what it is we don't have listen we don't have a stoplight we don't have a grocery store

we don't have no restaurant we just have gas stations we have a gas station and you know that's about it I go eat at gas stations if I want something to eat something like that We don't have a grocery store. We don't have no restaurant. You know, we just have a gas station. We have a gas station. And, you know, that's about it. I go eat at a gas station if I want something to eat.

Something like that. I mean, we probably have maybe 1,000 people maybe. My graduating class probably was maybe 50 people, 50 to 60 people. Oh, that is awesome. How's the basketball team? We pretty good this year or what? Well, the boys didn't make the playoffs, but the girls are in the theater right now heading into the playoffs. So hopefully we can go in, go in and win us another championship.

Man. Okay, so what kind of shock was that going from your high school game to college? Not only, like, yeah, just having so much more around, like, the game of football. What's the town's name as well? Lakeview, South Carolina. Lakeview, South Carolina. But it was crazy, you know, coming from a small school and then, you know, heading to South Carolina State.

It was a complete shock, you know, and then especially, like, having 30 guys on your football team going to 100 guys on your football team. And then, you know, a guy playing both sides of the ball and never come off the field. I remember my first game, I come off the field, my helmet's still on, and I'm standing on the sideline while the offense out there and the defense making corrections.

Like, I'm so used to being in the game the whole time. It was a complete different vibe than standing on the sideline. That's something I don't like to do. What position did you play in offense? Running back? I was a receiver. Receiver and running back. Oh, you got good hands? Oh, yeah. Come on, man. I got

recruited as a receiver. When I went to South Carolina State, I was going to play receiver. Then they put me on defense my redshirt year, and after that I never touched offense again until my senior year. They let me catch a pass. You have some nasty picks. As you were talking about that,

I was thinking about some incredible plays you made that I could also see A.J. Hawk making. Same position. You know what I mean? I could see A.J. making the same play, by the way, with the cast. Yeah. I did that. But you've had some – are you friends with opponents?

Are you – like it seems like the modern NFL. All right, there's a lot of dapping up. How you doing? Hey, let's get a picture together. Let's do the jersey. Back in the day, it wasn't always like that. There was always guys that got along, obviously, but it wasn't as friendly. I think the world that we're currently in,

you're learning a lot more about people that you didn't in the past, so it probably makes you respect them a lot more than you potentially did in the past. Do you have an old-school mentality where the opponent is like enemy, or are you cool with everybody because now you're a pro bowler and you're at the top of the world probably meeting every single opponent that you're playing against now? I don't mean, man. Everything between the whistle, there's no friends.

Everything between the lines, there's no friends. But, I mean, after the game, yeah, we could be friends then. But, you know, during the game, you know, I'm talking trash. You know, I'm trying to get in your head. I'm trying to get that ball off of you. I'm trying to make you quit. So, I mean, that's just my mentality. But, you know, after the game yeah we can take

big we can judge this wall but during the game you know we we got to go at it hey you and aaron by the way i heard you guys had a conversation uh i heard you i heard you and aaron i felt so bad to be even a part of that entire thing i was like god no i don't like i hope you got do you by the way watching you rise in the nfl has been really cool, by the way. I had no idea you came from a town of 10 people. But, I mean, like just watching you. Because that first year you should have got Defensive Rookie of the Year by everybody. And then you didn't, obviously. And some people voted for the guy that howled down in Dallas.

And I love the way you responded to that entire thing. You started doing the howl, actually. It was like, oh, I love this dude. Like, I like this guy. And you've just, you've been a great staple in the Indianapolis Colts locker room, man. I think we're very lucky to have you. Connor, what do you have? Yeah, Darius, growing up, did you watch like Ray Lewis or A.J. Hawk perhaps

to kind of model your game after? Or was that just something that came natural? Man, to be honest, like I said, man, I was an offensive-minded guy. You know, I was a Deshaun Jackson guy. You know, just, you know, everything offensively. You know, I just thought I was going to go play receiver. And then once I went to college and, you know, I started playing linebacker, that's when I started looking at, you know, Derek Brooks, Ray Lewis,

and just watching how they played the game, how did they impact the game. Like, I think they were two different total linebackers. And, you know, Ray Lewis was a downhill, you know, hole plugger. And Derek Brooks, he was more so in the window let me let me pick this ball out let me make a play out there in space and I just try to merge them two two two together and try to become one. What do you work on through the season and I asked you earlier but we got off topic because you come from a town of if this census is accurate from 2010 800 people actually wow it just kind of came up we kind of want to but what do you work on at this point is it you have to stay physically because you're you fly around i mean you're very fast uh you have to be

able to maintain obviously durability and everything like that but in the off season is there like certain homework assignments you give yourself like okay i need to do this mentally film wise or what does it look like as you continue to do this mentally film wise or what does it look like as you continue to get better here in your young NFL career um you know just watching all my bad plays you know how like what did I do wrong you know how can I be better you know if you think that you're so good but you know when you really look at tape and watch your whole game and you realize that okay I stayed on this block too long okay I should have dropped back they high load me you should have known it was coming.

And just stuff like that. And then, you know, for a small guy playing a game, you know, at 220, and, you know, my hand's got to be good. I got to have good hands, so I got to make sure that my hand placement and all that stuff is good. So, you know, just taking bots in class, you know, working on your hand-to-hand coordination. And that's what's going to make me better, just, you know, my hand,

my quickness, and make sure that my striking ability is good. Hey, whenever you talk about a guy like Gronkowski, and he might be a free agent coming up, which I did not even think about until Rob Ninkovich, former teammate of his, said like, hey, he could potentially be on the move. But whenever you talk about Travis Kelsey, Gronkowski, George Kittle, these tight ends that are big and move. How does it help you being an incredibly,

and how do you go athletic guy, and how does the game go forward in covering if these guys are going to continue to happen, which feels like it's growing and growing? How does the defense have to adjust to that? What style of player you think is best to take out who's probably becoming one of the biggest weapons on any team that has a guy

at it which is the tight end position um you gotta have a linebacker that can cover you know if you if you look at the tape beginning of the season you know um coach coach looked at me he said you know i'm gonna have you playing more man-to-man coverage on tight ends and you know for me i mean i took it out as a challenge you know and man to man is okay who's the best so you know you just got to make sure that you got someone that can actually cover and who's not who's not afraid you know you got to you got to know who you're playing against you know grump he he loved contact so you know you got to make sure you don't don't be as physical with grunk as you would with you know someone else so you just got to make sure you know your opponent in and out when will he get a target

and then when he's going to just be a decoy. So you just really got to, you know, watch film and see exactly how they're using these tight ends. And like you said, now in the game, these receivers, you know, are so good. The tight ends are being open now. So you got to make sure that you have them accountable as well. Hey, we appreciate you so much. What are you going to do today down there in Lakeview, South Carolina? I'll probably get on the

ATV, ride it to the high school, and then just watch them play. Is this Dirt Roads? Are you hopping on Dirt Road to the high school to watch his basketball? Yes, sir. And is there a bunch of quads showing up at the gym? Are you the only one riding the ATV over there?

Well, today I'll be the only one, just because all my friends and everybody else at work. But, you know, on the weekends, all guys, we get together. Everybody go in their four-wheeler, side-by-sides, dirt bikes, and we all just get in, you know, grab a cooler, and just ride around all day. Hey, that's awesome. That's a life I aspire to live someday.

Ladies and gentlemen, the maniac, Darius Leonard. Thank you, baby. Thank you, Darius. Thank you, Darius. Man, what a fight. It's a movie, dude. He's living in a movie right now. It's not exactly Varsity Blues, but yeah. It's its own little version. He's literally living in a movie. It's like, hey, I'm going to go to high school

basketball. Anybody want to come? Yeah, I'll meet you. You grab a cooler. Let's get on these bikes. Let's get out of here let me just sticks to his roots bro they're just rolling probably through backyards and side farms and everything to get to like you think it's there's no way he had no stop signs right he said no stop lights i mean he has stop sign he have a guy he had to eat at the gas station respect wild that's a movie that is straight out of a movie and he goes back there every single off season that is awesome good for darius leonard he's gonna be good for a very long time i assume uh yeah he's super young and he's yeah he's unbelievable when you see his mindset too when you listen to him like yeah there's a there's

a reason he's playing so well and yeah if there's a guy that's going to be consistently elite at that position it's him yeah you you and him very similar players yeah are we yeah yeah yeah i think so both both started on the offense side of the ball yeah well yeah you were a running back we saw that photo uh great thumpers love to bring it cerebral on the field work hard in the offseason leaders calling out play i mean you two very similar flying around out there making big catches in place okay i was more thinking of like our body types like i i am. I'm like a shorter, stumpier version. He is long-limbed, super athletic, rangy

dude. Yeah, I mean, you do kind of have a little bit more of a spark plug build, but that is a different style of play back then. Different style of play back then. Coach's son. Not a coach's son, but yeah. Spark plug. I like that one. I haven't heard that in a while. I am a spark plug. That is exactly how I am built, but yeah. Spark plug. I like that one. I haven't heard that in a while. Well, I am a spark plug.

That is exactly how I am built, so I've used it. By the way, you should. I don't know if you are, actually. The last time we saw you, wasn't he yoked? Yeah. He's working out every day like 5 a.m. He's got like a rock type setup. He's a rock chicken.

Yeah, I'm sorry. You're not a spark plug, by the way. You've worked very hard not to be a spark plug. I am a spark plug. What do you got, Diggs? I couldn't sleep last night I was thinking about this and I'm not sure if anyone followed up on AJ saying that his his tractor or 4x4

that he had a plow on went over the hill into a fence were you on it at the time that it went over the hill down into the fence? True that had to be a wild ride yeah because I put a plow on the front of my zero turn and I plow my driveway with it but when your driveway is all ice and you don't have chains on your tires yeah i was you know i'm back

and forth back and forth spinning and i started going down my hill in the yard and then once i lost it it was hold on you have to have a seat belt on on those things as well if it's a commercial z oh so you just oh so you attach it and you sit on top of the seat belt because you like to dangerously. It wasn't like a super steep hill, but yeah, once it got going down, the only thing that stopped me was the post on the fence. Was it a collision when you bumped in? It was, wasn't it? Oh, yeah.

It was a full cushion? It was not that bad, but it had to stay out there overnight. I took the plow off and carried it up the hill into the garage. What if he started plowing? What if he started pushing the plow? Oh, my God. That would have been the most A.J. Hawk thing of all time if he was out there with his jaw in the plow.

Oh, man. Oh, that would have been absolutely awesome. I have one of those commercial Z-turns, you know, and you have to be seatbelt in because there's been a couple times where I want to go, you jump off, and you have to be seatbelt in because there's been a couple times where i want to go you jump off you have to have a neutral you jump off and you gotta go move something and then you hop back in and you want to go and it's like it won't let it's like ah son of a bitch and then there's been a couple times where i've had that thing on rabbit you know what i mean oh yeah and i started turning this thing and then this thing and it's almost like you get

launched off of there i could only imagine if i was sliding down a hill and i was strapped into that death trap what i'd be thinking they don't think about that when they force you to have a seat belt on by the way that isn't something they think about is potentially falling off a cliff while you're plowing the ice off it was wild out here dude there was like five six inches of snow on the roads like on it was crazy out here it was like you were driving on old back dirt trails almost it was insane out here it was like you were driving on old back dirt trails it was insane out here it's like how is it now because here in ohio it's another obviously whatever the snow day for my kids but yeah i was plowing today on my uh on my mower and under and i've been plowing multiple times like twice yesterday just to try to keep ahead

of it because we have ice build up on the driveway but it's crazy slippery everywhere yeah digs was out there with his snowblower last night and his shovel went out there a couple of times nick mickey mouse shovel great shovel i heard your shovel snapped in half that's because brute force that i was trying to dig up the ice with well so your shovel couldn't keep it might be a great shovel but not for the covid cowboy not by a heavy duty one yeah COVID cowboy shovel. The COVID shovel. I didn't do any of that. I just saw that there was potentially 12 inches on the way.

I was like, well, I'm not going to plow now because it's going to come right back. And everybody I saw that was out there plowing, it just came right back. Yeah, I talked to Diggs last night when I told him not to come into work today because he lives too far away. I said, what are you doing? It was like 9.15. He was like, I just got done shovel last night when I told him not to come into work today because he lives too far away. I said, what are you doing? It was like 9.15. He was like, I just got done shoveling.

I was like, why? He was like, well, I want to clear it off. I'm like, it's still snowing. It is not going to stop. It's like the people that blow off the leaves. It's like, unless you're bagging those things, those things are coming right the fuck back. And it felt like the snow was going to do that for at least the next couple of days. But I respect what you guys did. If I didn't have a brand-new snowblower, I wouldn't have done it.

I had to try a thing out. I want to deal with like five, six inches at a time, not all 12 at once or 10 or whatever. Well, the sun will deal with that. The sun, hopefully. Unfortunately, it is icy cold. It is freezing out here. It is a bad spot to be in.

I did have a neighbor, by the way, just came through my driveway on his ATV. He's got a little pile on there. be in i did have a neighbor by the way it just came through my driveway on his atv he's got a little pile on there good guy shout out to jesse by the way i'm not a good neighbor either like i there's no reason jesse's doing that jesse's a very nice guy i do not go to the gatherings i do not do any of the neighbor thing i just i'm pretty much just in my house at all times jesse every winter though that guy's a fucking hero comes through and gets the uh the snow off now i will say it does feel like every time he does it it potentially snows immediately afterwards sure but he will hop right back on that thing and come back out which is why i was saying to you digs why are you doing it's going to get filled again but we might be in this for the next four or five days i guess yeah the

meteorologists are right but don't you park your truck outside so you have to you have to scrape all that ice and snow off didn't you no i i warm her up i get that thing on the oven easy bake and then i started again i start that thing like four times so for 45 minutes before i get granted this morning i did not drive so i did not have to do this actually we carpooled in Nick's Jeep. It was a good time. Four of us were in there. It was bad roads, but I start that car like 45 minutes before I have to, and you've got to remember when you get out at night before, turn that thing on all the way to eat.

Oh, yeah. So that thing's cooking for like 45 minutes or so, and normally the shit has melted off. I am not, and this is, I understand I'm not doing my civic duty. I don't wipe off the top. And when I'm driving. Just blowing straight into the windshield behind you. I feel so bad.

I feel so bad. Every time I'm like, you know what, next time I'm going to get the top off. And then I realize as I'm going out there with shorts on, I ain't fucking standing out here getting the top off. People are going to have to deal with that. And then I get on the road and I immediately feel like a terrible person as the snow is just dumping on the person behind me so i'm kind of conflicted i guess i'm not a great neighbor at all so shout out to jesse doing that and i should probably start scraping off the top that's not that bad though so like you get some of these semis they're having like full sheets of snow flying off the top of them on the highway i mean it's fine it's crazy

out there yeah it really is i saw some two-wheel drive-having motherfuckers yesterday driving reckless, by the way. Oh, yeah. Normally out here in Indiana, people are very slow, and it's almost annoying. Yesterday, there was, like, one lane on the highway that had the road, like, the tracks on it, you know? So that's kind of where everybody was driving. You could. There was two other lanes, potentially, and you're going at're going at like 35 40 miles an hour in this one lane you could see how you could get tempted to go into the lanes that don't have any snow like removed at all because nobody's been driving on then you

see this honda civic come flying by and i'm like yo that is an aggressive move i don't know if that civic even knows and then i started thinking deeper you know i, oh, these are probably drug smugglers right now just trying to get to wherever they've got to get to. They know they're not going to get pulled over. Let's try to make as many as we can. There was this Nissan Altima that did like a dip move into the thing and just kept it moving. I'm like, how are you that confident in what you're doing?

You know, you've got something in your car that you want to get out as fast as possible. What does that do? And as a two-wheel driver, previous two-wheel driver, if you go less than 20 miles an hour, you are getting stuck. Like you have to keep up the momentum. Yeah, but out here in Indiana,

there's really nothing. You know what I mean? Now granted, I did. I got close to my house. There was just one little thing. There's people trying to push a car. Oh boy. So that means they're outside of their car okay in a downhill valley in indiana not that big but it's still a valley that is kind of there's people trying to push a car in the ice and snow so now you are standing in between

your car that you're pushing and the car that potentially can't stop behind you people and by the way that ain't gonna work and also how about the other side of the road coming down around there so i rolled down the window and said dumb and then just kept it kept driving had a lot of those this morning too oh yeah people were walking just roll down the window and nix your jeep dumb and then rolling it up just i want to let them know that somebody did let them know that they should not be doing what they did what you had to I did what just like you and just like you I'd like to be able to sleep at night if digs died this morning I did call him and tell him not to come in because the roads will be too bad

So if he at least I could sleep tie same thing just like those stooges trying to push that car Minivan, I think that was was never going to make it. Good God. Never going to make it. There was a cop that came down on the other side, which is good news. Turned the lights on and all that. But, I mean, who knows how that ended. Still haven't got an update.

Hopefully they're all right. Probably a fucking 16-car pileup by the time you get home tonight. That is a recipe for disaster. Good luck. Dumb! Hey, so how are you going to feel, though, if you four guys are riding home today, obviously you get stuck in one of these little valleys.

Do you want people to drive by and just yell dumb, or do you want them to try to help? No, we have too much weight in the car. Yeah, we'll be okay. We'll pick up Nick's Jeep and walk it up the hill. Yeah. We'll just be a part of traffic. Don't you worry about us.

Okay. Dumb! There was dudes this morning, they were just walking in the middle of the street on the right side of the road. If you're walking, you're on the left side so you can see what's coming at least. Right side of the road, just walk.

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You reached the five. Be like AJ. Be like AJ. For the next four minutes, next four minutes, we had to wait for the turn of the clock. There's a massive clock that just stares at me right here. It's really the only thing that is staring at me all the time in this show is this clock and i've missed a couple

hard outs obviously we have seen that which is weird because that thing is right there but whenever it's like five seconds to the next minute it's always like i should probably wait just to get it yeah there it is right there gorgeous clock hey shout out to that clock. Nice. Foxy, did you make that move right there? Yep. Wow. Foxy. Foxy. What a play. Moves the camera over there.

I'm usually not that quick. No, that's what we're saying. Look at that clock. Got his work boots on today. Oh, Paul. Oh, no. Foxy wore a brand new pair of boots in the office today. This office, you can't do that. You got to hold them up to the camera.

Please do it. Please. Yeah, please. Foxy, please. Zoom in on those. Oh. Man, those are dressy. Like, you're pretty formal.

Thank you, AJ. Yeah. I don't know if he was commenting. See, what happens is, he wears something in this office that the other guys in this office may not wear, like Pat will just stare at them. That's not true. He just stares at them.

That's not true. And then I go, just say it. Just get it out, Pat. Just say it. Just because you wouldn't wear it doesn't mean I can't wear it. No, that's not what happens. This is one side of the story. I stare at them because they're brand new.

And it's like, I actually said, nice boots. I complimented the boots. That's what I did. He got all self-conscious though because it felt like he potentially, when he put them on today, he was like, do I like this statement? That's your spits out because

there's snow on the ground. I'm going to wear my new pair of boots. And then you guys get all crazy that I'm wearing something new here. Let's not act like those are snow boots the ground. I'm going to wear my new pair of boots. And then you guys get all crazy that I'm wearing something new here. Let's not act like those are snow boots, pal. Those are not great at all. I actually said they're not snow boots, but they worked. Alright.

Let's get to a break. People are fading the boots. People are saying no good to the boots. They're probably saying with that lighting, they look incredibly uncomfortable in plastic. That is not the case. That is good leather. Is that not what... Great leather.

It is good leather. If the chat says bad boots, they are most definitely good boots. Thank you. Okay. Also, contrarian digs.

Okay. The chat's going to side with Pat 100% of the time. I didn't side with anybody. I actually like the boots. They're against me right now. All right.

We know how this goes. When you say you like something, you are very obviously lying right to that person's face. That is not true. I mean, hey, the fact that you sit there and just stare at his boots or if someone's wearing a shirt or some new pants, like that's the creepiest, weirdest, most Pat McAfee thing there is. That does not happen. Okay, the way you take it is obviously the same way a serial killer would take that sentence. That is not the way.

You showed us the look when he said, oh, Pat does just stare at his pants. That's the look. Like, I've seen that look. Not to me, I don't think, but I've seen you do that. When you showed up with your piss bottle, yeah, I mean, that was definitely, what the fuck is going on here? Yeah, yeah, when you walked to the back, you had your bottle of piss, your cigar,

and everything like that. Disgusting. Good sweater on you, by the way, today. Yeah, it is a very good sweater. I'm surprised we didn't talk about it, to be honest. You want to stare at it? It's a jacket. Well, everybody is kind of looking at it right now, by the way. And I think there's actually, like, a study that says like like the first thing people look at or notice for you is their shoes. You know why?

Because people fucking look at them, AJ. So when you come in with these goddamn boots out of nowhere, people are going to notice and go, oh, new boots in the office here. That's interesting. Good boots. They're nice boots. Good boots. Good boots. Nice boots.

I would wear those boots, by the way. So whenever you said, just because I can't wear them, you said, or something, isn't that what he said? I can't pull them off, is what he said? I would wear those fucking boots, pal. Most guys have tried a lot of different ways to, you know, try to last a little bit longer when making love. Think about your baseball team. That's a boring sport. That'll turn me off, right? Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, try to last a little bit longer when making love.

Think about your baseball team. That's a boring sport. That'll turn me off, right? Yeah, absolutely. Maybe you start listing off cities and states. Maybe you start doing the alphabet backwards. Whatever you end up doing, you need to not do it anymore. Knock it off.

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Shout out to you. Shout out to GetRoman.com forward slash Pat McAfee. Joining us now is a man who was a general manager in cleveland and uh also uh he was a pretty important piece of the new england patriots executive committee he is a man who will talk to us about you know this free agency that it is now is it anything like that in the past is Is this crazy? And how do you get people to come to Cleveland instead of, let's say, Tampa or somewhere else? Ladies and gentlemen, host of the GM ShufflePod and the Lombardi line, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Lombardi. How are you? I should be back again. How are you? Paisan, we miss you over here. Great haircut. You look fantastic. Let's get right into it.

J.J. Watt are are coming out mary k cabot of the cleveland plains dealer in cleveland says jj watt has legitimate interest in the cleveland bronze they're a great team i don't know why you wouldn't have legitimate interest aside from the fact your brothers are on the division rival in pittsburgh potentially go back to green bay because you're from wisconsin maybe over there in tampa when you're a gm like let's say andrew berry is in cle right now, and that team's different than the one you were currently involved in when you were there. How do you talk to these players to get them to pick Cleveland over L.A., Tampa, Miami, maybe these other places that are going

to become a bit appealing? But, you know, it's always about two things. It's about the chance to win and the chance to make the most money right so i think whenever these free agencies we hear about them all the time there's usually rarely there's more than two teams interested in any one player a lot of it is the agents driving up the interest to create a situation where there's this you know incredible market for a player he's got eight teams nine teams i've never been other than reggie White when he was a free agent, I've never been in a market where it had eight teams. Like, I never have. And this year, because of supply and demand, the supply is so much higher, the demand will be lower because the cap room don't know.

So, you know, Cleveland has an advantage because they have cap room. They can pay all the money up front, put a higher cap number on it than, say, a team like Pittsburgh who has no cap room. So it's all predicated on that. So I think as a general manager, you've got to kind of ignore the noise, focus on what you think the value is of the player and what role the player can play for you. Thank you for bringing that up. I mean, you alluded to a couple things there. Allegedly a dozen teams are interested in J.J. Watt.

Depending upon what J.J. Watt's looking for, I'm intrigued to see how this whole thing plays out. But whatever you just said, that you have to ignore the noise outside. You were a part of trading for a number one overall pick with Trent Richardson coming to the Indianapolis Colts. You were in the Cleveland Browns side of that thing. Get a number one overall. Get rid of an asset that you thought no longer was worth that or whatever.

And I guess hindsight, you ended up being an accurate, even though Trent was a good guy. OK, the whole thing, it seemed like you were right in that move. How do you know what's real and what isn't? Because that's a blind bid, right? When you're a GM and you're in a trade, that's a completely blind negotiation where you have no idea what the other people are offering at all, right? Then you have to, do you even listen to the insiders? Or is that all bullshit out there because people are trying,

agents are trying to get their narrative out there. Other GMs, I'd assume, are trying to get their narrative out there. Like, how do you pick and choose what's real and what isn't? Everybody has an agenda and you got to figure out what the agenda is. I mean, so as a GM, you know, like for the Trent Richardson, you know, I basically said, if we don't trade this guy now the what we know about him people are going to figure out sooner than later Jesus so the perception is right now the perception of him being a great player is the reality once that's

not the case then we won't get any value for him and then we'll really be stuck so you've got to maximize when the perceptions are higher when you know what the reality is. That's A. B, you've also got to know who your competition is. So, you know, yeah, there's a bunch of teams interested in J.J. Watt. Interest and putting money on the table are way different, way different. I don't doubt there's eight teams interested. I don't doubt that, that eight teams made phone calls to his agent, 12 teams. But I'm talking about cash on the table. I'm talking about a substantial offer

where you're getting this green in exchange for the player to sign. Those are about two teams at the most when you're competing. And when you're in this trade market, you've got to look through it and see what makes sense. Let's take Marcus Mariota, for example. The Raiders have him under contract for $10 million. He's due to make $20 million if he becomes a starting quarterback. So if you traded for him, you've got to count that he's going to be and operate under that contract, he's going to be $20 million. Okay, who's your competition for him? Washington was interested.

I don't think they're interested anymore. New England was interested. I'm not sure they're interested anymore. So the more work you do on the player, you kind of lead you to where it's going to go. And so you just basically know that the Raiders have to cut this kid because they can't carry 10 million and so you've got to wait till the perfect timing to swoop in to say okay I'm interested but it's only going to be for this interesting interesting so you have to scout for other teams as well you have to look at their cap

space as well for instance with Trent Richardson were we were the Colts the only ones that were in that conversation? Because, and was that conversation already finished when Jim Irsay was putting out tweets like, hey, something big is about to happen? He was tweeting like, hey, something massive is about to come to Indianapolis. And we in the locker room were like, whoa, what's going on? This is middle of the season. What the hell is going on?

Was that a part of it? Was that after the deal was done? Or was that something you were like, oh, pretty much. No, that's when it was done. So I'm in Los Angeles, right? And Joe Banner had a relationship with Ryan Grigson. So he's actually going through the trade. I'm at USC scouting players.

We're getting ready to play Minnesota that weekend in Minnesota. So I went out to L.A LA kind of do UCLA, USC. I wanted to watch the UCLA quarterback. I wanted to see some of the players out in the West Coast because then I could fly to Minnesota. So I'm out there and I parked my car right in the parking lot at SC. And so I'm in a meeting. I'm scouting these players. We're watching the tape and my phone beeps and Joe's like, I think I got it done. Because earlier in the morning, we were like, if he gives us the one, we got to make the deal, right? And I was afraid he was going to back out of it. So Banner says, he texts me and says, we got the one.

Make the deal. Okay, call the player. So I had to go find my car. I forgot where the hell I parked it. I was walking around that parking lot like I can't believe, right? So I call the security guard. I call the security guard. This lady shows up. She says, I'll drive you around. You'll find your car. At that moment, I'm in her car. At that moment, I am in her car. I give her $20. I said, man, you can't repeat what I'm about to say to anybody, right? You can't

repeat. She said, I don't want your money. I said, look, you take that money. You can't repeat. That's when we made the trade, and then I called Richardson to tell him he was trading. There's a GM lost in California. There's an NFL general manager lost in a parking lot. I couldn't find it. I'm walking around. So now, ever since that day, I'm walking around the park. He's getting a number one in return and winning the trade

while he's just stumbling around in a fucking parking lot. It's funny. My son was in San Francisco when we made that trade, and they were playing you in the next game. And all the 49er coaches are going over to my son like, your dad's dumb, man. He just got his ass ripped. He's stupid.

Ahmad Bradshaw ate that game against, and I think Trent scored a touchdown in that game too. He did score one touchdown. But, I mean, like that was really, look, when the strength coach came to me in August and said. No, no, no. We're not dumping on Trent Richardson. All right, let's move forward.

You made a good trade. You said enough at this point, okay? When you know inside the perception is different outside, that's when you've got to make a move. You made a great move. Let's talk about a perception that isn't great inside, apparently, or outside. And that's Carson Wentz. I know that there's a lot of NFL people that say, hey, he's still got good football left.

But coming alongside that is a massive contract. And he's coming out of an organization that seems to be the second biggest fire in the NFL right now somehow. But it would be the number one by far if Jack Easterby didn't pray his ass right into Houston. The Eagles organization seems to be on fire. Everybody knows that they want to unload Carson, but when you know that somebody wants to unload something, don't you kind of have them in the bag? And then all the media reports are just a bunch of bullshit, it seems like. For the last two weeks, he's been reportedly about to be traded within the next couple days then they said there was an incredible interest from chicago and indy and then the next day was reported no fair offers have been made it's like everything's kind

of bullshit coming out of there where do you think he ends up and how do they win that trade other than just unloading that contract and getting carson out of the building well there's a drop dead point right you know when you know, when you go to Japan, they don't typically negotiate with you to do contracts until you're probably two hours away from leaving for the airport, right? The reason that is is because that's really the only time you're serious when you've got to leave, right? Everything else is just posturing.

Long flight, too, by the way. Hey, I've done that flight. You ain't going. The Eagles are posturing, right? They're posturing, and they know that by the way. Hey, I've done that flight. The Eagles are posturing, right? They're posturing. And they know that on the third day of the league year, they got to pay $10 million in a roster bonus, which they will not pay. They're not paying that. Okay. And so they got to make a trade by that. So they've tried to create this illusionary market out there. They've tried to do it. They've taken billboards out with the worldwide leader. They've done

everything they possibly can to create this market that has come flat. Two weeks ago, he was supposed to get traded for a blockbuster, right? And that hasn't happened. So most teams are looking around saying, we're not in it. We're not in it. You in it. We're not in it. And so the Eagles at some point will realize two days before that roster bonuses do, either we make this deal or it ain't worth us to pay $10 million. What's the billboard at the Worldwide Leader? That's funny.

That means leaking information to ESPN? Yeah, basically making it seem like you've got a lot and people called your bluff. You know? Man. You know, that's kind of... They're saying, wait a minute, you know, we're interested, but we're not interested at these numbers. I hate that everything I think and everything that we've been told for all this time is just a bunch of bullshit.

You know, that's where you have to take what you read and then figure out what the motivation is behind it. You know, why is Russell Wilson upset? Well, yeah, he would like to have a better offensive line, but he's making $12 million less than Patrick Mahomes. Why is Aaron Rodgers upset? Well, he's making $12 million less than Patrick Mahomes. They don't deserve to make less than him. They're just as good, maybe not as good, but they should be in the same. So when you see a story, it may not always be what the story's about.

So, oh, man. So everything's a lie. Everything's pretty much a lie, yeah. Yeah. That's a heartbreaker. What about, hey, you got good Raiders. You started there, right? You started Raiders?

I started at the 49ers, but I worked at the Raiders for 10 years of my life without Davis, yes. So that's like 30 years. Me and the Raiders fan base, sector of the Raiders fan base is, you know, kind of going at it right now about my positioning on Derek Carr this season the day after Derek Carr had a snipe a Navy SEAL was on the roof of the stadium they're playing on Thursday Night Football against the Los Angeles Chargers and the Navy SEAL sniper the same one that uh I am the captain now on the back of the boat yeah they they shot

them the same sniper shot derrick carr right in his hip flexor or his groin in the middle of that game did you do you remember that whenever he went off yeah and mariotta that game really is what people is the raiders are trying to sell mariotta's career on basically okay okay hold on mike hold on mike hold on so the day after that game we talked about is that the last time we'll see Derek Carr as a Raider he's hurt we know the quarterback market the way it is we know that he and Gruden have not had the success I would assume that Gruden won it even though they've had a little bit of one we did this entire thing Connor took it the next step he's like say goodbye to your starting career Derek you're now a journeyman and I thought

you know probably at coming out of surgery because I assumed he's going to have to have surgery primetime game division rival you leave in the middle of the game Mark Sparrow I assume he played the next week so things changed drastically but now that we're at the end of the season Derek Carr is he on the market where's he going to end up at and I heard you're potentially in a beef with Raiders fans as well it's's not our fault. We're just telling you what we're watching. Ain't that right, Mike? Yeah, I mean, look, it is. You can be with a beef. I mean, if you say something bad about a team, you don't like the team. That's not the case. You're just trying to be objective. If you want to hear positive things, then don't tune in. You know, there's a reason why your team hasn't played very well the last three years.

I think Derek Carr's played really well. I think that Gruden started out not really believing it. He's gotten them a lot better. But the Raiders' issues are cap and on defense, and they've got some real issues. John, being the general manager, is problematic. But I think after they've gone through this, unless they've got a blockbuster deal for Derek Carr, I don't think

they will trade Derek Carr. I think they will end up trading Mariota or releasing Mariota because they can't afford him as the backup. They're in cap trouble in the sense that they've got to get below the cap, plus they've got to get Waller, who makes $6 million a year. He's underpaid. They've got to do something about his contract. They've got

to sign Nelson Aguilar. They want to sign him back. So they've got a lot of issues. And look, let's face it. Can they beat the Chiefs? Can they beat the Chiefs? What about Herbert and the Chargers? They're a quarterback away from being a really good team if they can ever get the quarterback situation.

They've been rumored to be talking to a lot of teams about quarterbacks. I thought they were going to make a trade last week for a quarterback, and one of the teams backed out. I don't know quite how that happened, but I think the Broncos will be very aggressive. I think the whole conversation about Drew Locke being the guy is over what was that well you just referred to there was a trade that was about to be made last week and then a team but i thought there was some action on on denver track was going to trade for a quarterback that i think that whether it was

wentz they say they're not interested in wentz whether it was somebody i don't know quite who it was but they were getting positioned to trade for somebody, and it just didn't go through. So I think my point here is San Francisco and Denver are both secretly active looking for quarterbacks. Well, hopefully one of them, Elaine Carson, wins. So you're saying Derek Carr, starter next year for sure, that's how you feel about the whole thing? And how will they do?

You think if they don't make the big jump, do they? Gruden's got to ask himself the question, how do I replace him? And it's not Mariota. Who do I get? Now, here's what he has to do, Pat. He's got to extend him. He's got two years left on the deal. He's going to have to extend his contract.

He's got him on a really cheap deal right now, and that's important. Well, hopefully it all works out for uh Derek Carr and the Raiders and everything like that I hope they win Herbert in that division as well by the way that's going to be a problem Patrick Mahomes in that division that's going to be a problem I mean they beat the Chiefs though last year by the way so they they they they can obviously compete is Derek Carr the guy in John Gruden's eyes that is a great question for us to have and if you have it you better make sure that you get ready. These Raiders fans are awesome.

I want to let you know they are a very loyal bunch, but a lot of them are stupid as fuck. Okay, Connor, what do you have? Yeah, Mike, allegedly Bill Belichick brought in Brandon Cooks in 2017 for a Jimmy Garoppolo offense in 2018, and then Brady obviously won the MVP. Is that something Belichick would do, and do you believe that report? And were you there?

No, I wasn't, but I mean, I know what was going on. I think that Cooks certainly was, you know, first of all, Nick Cesario loved Cooks coming out of Oregon State, so the organization always liked Cooks before he even became available. So there was always that, And I don't think they were building their offense around that as much as they were trying to get an outside number one receiver to challenge that part of the field that they needed to. So it gave them the option when they traded the first round pick to the Saints. And clearly there were conversations of what would be different from Brady to Jimmy if we change. Jimmy's different than Tom.

Tom's so good on third down, underneath throws. Jimmy's going to need guys. Jimmy's going to throw vertical down the field. So it needed to be a change of an offense, but it wasn't that dramatic. The reason for Cooks was the organization, especially Nick Cesario, loved Cooks. Okay, so let's talk about that after watching Tom Brady in Tampa for just like this past season, he still had deep ball. He still was good down the field.

Is that an evaluation issue from Bill Belichick? That was the overall question as this information was getting released about Brandon Cooks being in there for Jimmy G's offense moving forward and everything like that. And the offense always being dink and dump almost the entire thing, except for that year with Randy. Then he goes down to Tampa and the guy has his best year throwing the long ball he's ever had. Is that an evaluation issue in Bill Belichick? Because you guys didn't know that he had that in him still?

Or what do you think? Well, no, I think Cooks had one of his best years in the NFL when he played for the Patriots. I mean, when you go back, I'll look at it right here. When he played for the Patriots in his career, I mean, he played really well for them. I mean, that year for New England, you know, he started 14 games. He earned 16.6 yards a catch. He had seven touchdowns, had 65 catches. I mean, 16.5 per catch is pretty damn good.

I mean, I thought Tom threw him the ball. My point is, they needed an outside receiver. And was Tom always precise on throwing the ball outside? Not all the time, but I think when he had a legitimate player on the outside, like Cooks, he was much better. There were often times where there were guys that were playing on the outside that were not quite good enough. They're already tweeting about, per Michael Lombardi on the Pat McAfee show, the Broncos were close to trading for a quarterback last year. You're already starting to plot out there, Paisan. I don't know if you know that or not.

They were close. I mean, look, they're going to be active. I think they're going to be really active in trying to trade for a quarterback. I think the Drew Locke conversation is over. Von Miller's potentially out the door, too. I don't know who's reporting that, but there's rumors this morning on the internet that Denver Broncos are potentially going to move on from Von Miller.

It's like, okay, Von Miller's going to be out there potentially on the market. J.J. Watt's going to be on the market. I mean, there is, Tampa Bay Buccaneers could be nine deep next year. What do you got, Todd? You know, but we still don't know where the cap is. We still don't know that. And we saw some reports the other day about how the TV contract, they want to wait until they know exactly where they are with that before the cap. That's going to be critical. If this cap goes up to 195 as opposed to 185, that'll help a lot of teams and it will help some of these free agents on the street to try to generate more interest and more money. But we got to wait to see what that cap is. A lot of teams are waiting on the cap. I mean, we saw Sanders, the kicker, get signed by Miami today. The reason we haven't seen a lot of contracts done is because teams are

really uncertain about the cap and where are they going to go and what are they going to be able to spend. So until we get that, it's really you're dealing with blind man poker it's tough poker to play got to check the rabbit cam what do you got michael i believe you knew jack easterby when he was in new england do you think his perception has been sensationalized or is he really like actually an egotistical dickhead like the media makes him out to be and do you think they can be successful with him basically running the franchise you know the jack that i know the jack the role that jack performed for us when i was in from 14 through 16 was tremendous he did the players loved them and you could call a ton of players brandon cooks was was there you call a bunch of players

that that were around jack and his role as team chaplain and team culture builder was really good. And he did a tremendous job with that. Now he's taken on a different role. And I think part of the issue here is, you know, whenever you get into the green stuff, whenever you start talking about salaries and dealing with players in terms of their career, you can't have the same impact that you have when you're their prayer

coach. You know, you can't go John 13 into the financial statements. It's really challenging. So I think that's really the issue. And it's hard to separate that. Jack's very good at what he does. But in this role, he can't quite have that same impact because he's dealing with their salaries. He's dealing with their finances. He's dealing with their finances. He's dealing with who stays, who goes. And, you know, we could all get around the Bible and pray, but when you're dealing with people's future, that becomes a little cloudy, and you've got to separate.

That's why we keep church and state apart. Isn't that a rule, right? So I think that's the issue. And I think, obviously, he's become a lightning rod for them down there and what's happened. And it's become challenging, as I've said, for him to do the job to the best of his ability based on the perception. Jack, 15, 16, solemn four. the lord gave his rib for his wife and took a 50 pay cut in hopes of chasing a lombardi can i get an amen brother i got your brother ladies and gentlemen michael lombardi thank you hey so sorry to interrupt this conversation. That's cooking right now.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Rob Nickit. Yeah! How you doing, Rob? Yeah. What's up? I'm doing great. How are you doing? What are you doing? Working out over there? I did that earlier. You know what I'm doing right now?

Huh? Sometimes, you know, I like to polish my Lombardi. You know? I get the stuff here. You dip it because it tarnishes. Over the years. If you didn't know, they tarnish. Okay, all right.

Well, Lorraine Groves will be very thankful. Karen Lombardi will be very thankful for how you treat Lombardis and not that ex-teammate of yours, Tom Brady, who disrespects the silversmiths. Thank you for shining that thing up. She's very appreciative. You tell her that it is actually hollow and it floats, so you don't have to worry about it sinking, okay? It's like a Coors Light can.

If you threw it in the water, it would float. You know what I'm saying? Yes. By the way, she's not going to be happy with you comparing the work of her dad, who's a silversmith, to the silver bullets. That is not going to be something. You might have found yourself on the wrong side of Karen Silversmith, Karen Lombardi, pal.

You might have just threw yourself right into a fire that I don't think you want to be a part of. Okay, okay. Can we all agree here that when you win the Super Bowl, the trophy is a symbolic symbol of the accomplishment of the team? And when you win that, you are so happy that you want to share that joy with every single person. You want everyone to touch it.

Similar to the cup. Think about the cup. I think Karen Stanley would never say such a thing. That thing fell off a bus and got ran over. So you didn't see people going crazy. It's part of the celebration. It wasn't dropped. It didn't hit the water. It didn't fall. It was not damaged. I would think you'd be more upset with someone bunting a baseball with it than just tossing it to a teammate, correct? All right, let's talk about that real quick because you guys up there in New England, I mean, you know that it, you know, you know the ins and outs of the metal that is on the Lombardi at this point because of how many you have. Gronk is so comfortable with it. Edelman's throwing him

fastballs and he's like, yeah, we'll get another one. Fuck it. Bang. We'll do this thing. Tom's just hocking it off the back of a $2 million yacht. I mean, it is. You patriots, $3 million yacht, sorry. You patriots, okay? You guys are so comfortable with these Lombardis. I appreciate that, you know, because everybody else is hunting that thing. That's what they're looking to get into.

But her, you know, I don't know if her, her dad did an incredible job, by the way. It is a beautiful design, what her dad, like an absolute, but I don't know if her dad has passed away or not it seemed like in the video she he has potentially passed away I'm not 100 sure or not but somebody should ask them wouldn't you wouldn't you want your art your piece of work celebrated and enjoyed isn't that the biggest piece of what everything is especially when you're talking about a trophy that's a celebration is you would want somebody to enjoy that trophy to enjoy that. That's the entire essence of a celebration trophy.

So that just felt like there was a little bit of a lost narrative in her mind as you know, the, the entitlement was kind of spewing out the other side. You know what I mean? There was, there was real, no reasoning coming in. It was just a lot of, a lot of bullshit coming out. And when that starts happening, you know, that's great for the fucking internet. I mean, that is just great news for the air. There were some people that defended her, you know, those people shouldn't be on the internet either. There was no defending what, what happened, especially when you talk about Tom Brady, but let's move along. Um, but I would say this, let me just finish this statement by saying that the one photo from behind the toss. And I think it's just midair.

I think that's one of the best picks I've seen in a long time. It's just like pure joy in everyone's face. And it was caught. So come on, take it easy. I get it. The trophy's awesome. But anyway, we're having fun. Everyone's having fun.

It wasn't broken. We're having fun here. Let's move on. This is fun. That's what the trophy's for, to have fun, by the way. And that photo, greatest photo potentially of the Lombardi ever, that thing's floating through the sky. Everybody's happy.

Good call there. You know what I mean? It's this way. It's upside down. Okay. Will you please be taking it easy on that thing? You guys just tossing it around over there. Let's talk about real.

That's a real one, by the way. I lucked out because the guy was so into it and he wanted one. He's like, if you can get me in with Tiffany's and get me the real one, I'll buy yours. I said, okay, cool. That's why I only have one. I don't have two because I wasn't going to pay the 30 G's or whatever it is. Oh, so the family's probably been paid pretty mightily for this one. Oh, wow, wow, wow.

Isn't that interesting? I still want to the park. I mean, I understand it's not just about a paycheck. It's about love of the trophy and everything. All right, let's move on. Once you have one, it's pretty awesome. You know, after that, it's not just about a paycheck. It's about love of the trophy and everything. But, all right, let's move on. Once you have one, it's pretty awesome. You know, after that, it's cool. All right.

Okay. All right. God, you guys are going to be able to do that forever. I don't want to offend you. Come on. You guys are going to be able to do that forever, by the way. All those Patriots, like, well, I have four rings. Yeah.

It's good. I only have two. I only have two. But, anyway, I have a bone to pick with you. You have some pretty cool cars. I see your Instagram. I see your story. You guys got a foot of snow.

Your cars are sitting outside with about a foot of snow on them. I think you got a Ford GT out there or the 500, the Shelby. It's sitting out there getting all cold and wet. I think I see a Bentley. Bentley for a big leg guy. I know you can afford the Bentley. It's an amazing feat. But to let them sit outside like that, what are we doing?

They're tough, all right? My cars aren't soft, all right? They might come from a privileged background, but I'm going to toughen them up. There's a lot of important stuff in the garage, okay? So sometimes the cars need to stay outside. Now, that Bentley, I got it. By the way, I did a little pit my ride on that thing. That thing has 740 horsepower in it.

I got new engine put in that thing. Graham Rahal at Rahal Sports Performance, I believe is what it's called. He's a race car driver. He has like a performance and tuning thing. I got that thing upgraded because I thought it was a little bit boring to drive. You know, came from a little bit of a boring place. I want to go a little bit. 700-some horsepower.

The Shelby, 600-some horsepower. And now they also have grit. You know what I mean? So once you've got the ponies under the hood and you have a little bit of grit, you're always going to be great. Also, every spring I have to pay people to come refix the entire vehicle because they get ruined through the winter. The batteries obviously die. Everything else crashes. people to come refix the entire vehicle because they get ruined through the winter the batteries obviously die everything else crashes so it is a mistake but it is going to continue probably for at least the next 10-15 years if i had to guess okay okay but at least you got the horsepower

that's what it's all about you're a car guy you like cars yeah i got a little garage myself i don't keep them outside but i got a few i. Smart. I got a few. Me too. That was kind of my thing. I like the older stuff, though. I got a 69 Skylark. Don't confuse it with a Tempest from my cousin Vinny because it's completely restored and redone. It's like a Restomod. Two years.

I got a 65 Stingray. It's beautiful. 32,000 original miles. The one that I really like, though, is I got a Hellcat Redeye wide body. Okay. 800 horse. 800 horse. No, you ain't got more than my bet.

800 horse. No, that's in the engine. What's on the wheels? What's to the wheels? Yeah, you don't even know. Okay. It's probably about 625 to the wheel. You lose about 20% through the drivetrain, and it's automatic, so that takes a little

percentage away. I want to let you know, 700 plus in a Bentley at the wheels, too, so that's what I was referring to. Oh, at the wheels? So you're like almost 900. Yeah, you've got to remember, though, that car, 2,000 pounds almost. I mean, that thing is crafted like it's an actual yacht. I think that car's probably 5,500, actually. It's probably pretty heavy. Well, let's talk about sports, right? Let's get into sports. Let's get into sports.

Let's get into sports. You said something on Get Up, and I didn't see the actual quote. The boys just reacted to what you said, and it was a headline later on other shows. Rob Ninkovich, former teammate of Rob Gronkowski, probably friends with Rob Gronkowski, Probably friends with Rob Gronkowski says that he's expecting Rob Gronkowski and Deshaun Watson to be playing in Miami for the Miami Dolphins. Is that what you said, or were you close to saying that? That's what I said, but think about this. Hear me out.

Okay, Gronk is in his 10th year. He's never been a free agent. He has never explored free agency. He signed a six-year deal back when, I don't know, like 2012, something crazy long time ago, right? So think about this. He's never been a free agent. Why not go out there and test?

What is his market value? He's a big-time target. He can still make a lot of plays. Just scored two touchdowns in the Super Bowl. Two tighties? I'm telling you, I think that he's going to go explore. He's got a beautiful penthouse in the top of some building in Miami. So I think that that would be a good fit for him. He's got a beautiful penthouse in the top of some building in miami so i think that

that would be a good fit for him he's got a great relationship with b flow i mean that could be a landing spot if if the bucks don't value him the way that he should be valued and they say well he did state that he wants to play with tom and only tom let's offer him nothing let's offer him pennies if that's the case he might have a chance to go somewhere. And then on the Watson thing, Miami's got a third overall, I think a 16, and then like a 36 second rounder. So they could give you two first rounders and a top second round pick. That's a pretty nice combination there. Maybe another first round the next year.

So they have the actual draft equity to where they can go get Watson. How close are you? How close are you with B flow? Pretty close to B flow. He's a good man. They're going to be, they're definitely in the market for a quarterback. It was rumored that they were,

but in your eyes, they're definitely in the market for a quarterback. And is Russell Wilson, who Josina Anderson tweeted that he is not, he's not being traded, hashtag current status. But whenever you see Deshaun Watson, when you see Russell Wilson, and then weeks ago, Aaron Rodgers, but he's come out to sit. That three, two first rounders, a third, basically first rounder, early, early first.

That is very enticing, I would assume, to a lot of teams that are, hey, we need to build this team from within because it seems like nobody from outside is going to come in, a la the Texans, maybe Seattle if Russell gets out of there. That could be something that could be a bit of a lure other people into that thing, don't you think? Yeah, definitely. But you think about Miami, too. I like Tua.

I think he's got a lot of potential. But for Miami, if they want to win this year like right now if you go out and you get a Watson what does that make your team that makes you an instant AFC contender not only for the division I'm talking about getting to the Super Bowl so you put him with a defense that's young up and coming and they got some key pieces offensively I think that Miami is going to be a heck of a football team coming up here. So I like Tua. He definitely has potential. But if they want to go, if they put Russell Wilson or if they put Wilson on that team,

I mean, are you kidding me? You put Watson on that team, either one of those guys puts them up at the top of the AFC. So we'll see what happens moving forward. I know they're smart, and they're going to figure it out. And the Texans, if they were smart, they don't want to come. You don't want to go into this like, hey, I'm a bigger man. You're a bigger man. We're going to figure it out. And the Texans, if they were smart, they would, they don't want to come. You don't want to go into this like, Hey, I'm who I'm a bigger man. You're a bigger man. We're going to like drag this thing out. If it's not going to work, why drag it out? Did you pray with Jack Easterby? I prayed with Jack. Yes. I prayed with Jack.

Are those the best prayers of all time? It seems like he prayed his way up to running an organization over there in Houston. Hey, you know Jack, all right, from your time in New England. I've heard other people in the New England organization say, hey, Jack Easterby was good to us. We like Jack Easterby. We don't know what's going on down in Houston because it seems like it's a complete nightmare down there in Houston. Could you have expected that? And what is your relationship with Jack?

And how do you see this ending up for Jack? So I really really respect Jack I think that he is a great man he's got a good heart you know I think that he was put into a position that really was kind of just he went into a new team was in the similar position that he was in New England the head coach that brought him in obviously is not there. He gets fired. So then the ownership, the owner obviously likes Jack. Jack's a great guy. Then they move him up, and I just think that there might be a false sense of understanding of what Jack has done there.

I don't know what's happened with Houston. I really don't know the ladder and how that whole thing came to be. But all I can speak about is my time with Jack in New England. And when he was in New England, I mean, look, when I was in my last year and I was thinking about moving on to retirement, you know, he was a guy that I could, that I would talk to just kind of, if I had any questions or wanted to tell him like, yo, how I was feeling, I felt very comfortable with Jack. So the people that don't know Jack, I think that they're putting something out there

that they don't know the man. So all they know is the circumstances of what they see in Houston, and they see the head coach being fired, and they see Jack go into a role that they feel he's not, I guess, qualified to be in. So I don't know what's going to happen moving forward. I know that Casario, because I was with Casario a long time, I know that he's a smart man. He's a good, good GM.

It's going to be tough for them to regain the control if they lose their quarterback. And I know there's some great marriage counselors out there, some really good marriage counselors. I can't say that I've had counseling, but we've probably had recommendations for counseling from my wife. But anyway, I'm not going there. But if you get somebody in there, let's try and mend this thing.

Let's fix it. Let's try and get back together here. And how do we fix it? Because at this point right now, it doesn't look like it's fixable. But I know Billy O took a lot of heat for trading away Hopkins. He took a lot of heat for trading away their best player. Now, I don't know if that organization trades away a franchise player that's supposed to be there for the next 10 years.

I mean, that's tough. That's why Casario doesn't want to do it. Okay, a couple quick things. Is it definitely Casario or Cesario? Casario. Casario. Okay, Casario. Yeah, Casario.

That's good news. All right, Paisan, good luck down there. You walked into a fire, it does seem like. With Jack Easterby, did he do the one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish bit with you? I don't remember that. I don't remember that. I don't remember that. How about the crip walk? The only dancing was Robert Kraft.

He was doing all the dancing. So you're saying Jack Easterby, good guy. We've seen, listen, we don't know Jack Easterby. I feel like I'm a pretty big Jack Easterby guy. I know Jack Easterby. He's a great man to me. He was a good man to me, and I have respect for him. People that are saying they don't respect him or they don't like him don't even know him.

It's like me saying I don't like somebody I've never met before. It just doesn't make sense. It's like, I mean, who's somebody I – I don't know. Who's somebody that I just feel like – Peyton Manning. No, like – Oh, you have Manning. Big No. Oh, you've met him. Big deal.

Oh, freaking Baker Mayfield. I'd love to give him a sack. I'd love to just... I'd love to dig into him, but I don't know him. I don't know him. He might be awesome. We might be snapping cold ones back together. Oh, yeah.

A couple of cold ones. You never know. You never know, but I'm saying it goes off of what public persona is and it pushes the narrative to which side you want to be on. Jack needs to get out there and stop this one. It seems like this is what he needs to potentially get out in front of this, release some more footage of him giving different services, because as those bangers continue to come into light on the Internet,

I think he's winning over more and more people. We're big Jack Easterby guys over here. Let's talk about narratives, though. Because, you know, the team that you're shining Lombardi's alongside and everything, obviously, anytime you have that long of success and that top of the mountain, in all of professional sports, by the way, whenever people leave, there's going to be stories told. There's going to be conversations had.

Opinions are going to be given, whether they're in context or out of context. The entire Super Bowl week, the narrative was there's a team Tom Brady, then there's a team Bill Belichick. That's kind of how it was being painted because there was really nothing to talk about, Super Bowl week, to be honest, until Jack Easterby came in, and they were like, my God. Amen, Jack. Thanks for coming in there.

But the Tom Brady or Patri or patriot way you're on the defensive side of the ball akib talib a bunch of people that play defense darius butler everybody was like hey this is what bill belichick meant to us i'm not saying anything against tom but that tom brady bill belichick thing is going to be forever in your eyes how did it last as long as it did because those are two superior individuals to be able to work together the way they did for that long. And coming out of it, your thoughts on like, if it wasn't for this, we wouldn't have this. And if it wasn't for this guy, we wouldn't have this, if that makes sense. Yeah, well, I mean, that has been the question that I have to answer repeatedly.

And honestly, being there for the time that I was there, we wouldn't have won as many football games without Bill and the way that he prepares and the way that that he goes about his business with building a roster, getting people to see like this is another thing, too. He is the best coach I've ever been around at making a team forget about their success and move on to the next year. at making a team forget about their success and move on to the next year. So we would have a ring ceremony, and he'd have a team meeting and say, all right, guys, let's not make this a big deal. We're getting our rings today. Let's not make this bigger than it really is. And you're sitting there, you're like, I'm getting crazy.

I'm going to have a great time. But that's the way he was and that's the way he is. He's always about moving forward into another year. And what do I need to do to get better? What do you need to do to get better? And where is this team moving? And Tom, on the flip side of that, was able to be the perfect example of how you go about your business every single day. You get up early. You're in the building early.

You do your work. And when you have Tom, the consistency that he had year in and year out and the durability, because look, I mean, durability, I'll take durability over ability any day. If you're super athletic and you can do everything and you can have a 42 inch vertical, but you play five games or 10 games,

I can't count on you to be there. I want a guy that's going to be there. And Tom was the consistent guy that was there. So when you're a young guy coming in, whoa, that's Tom Brady. Look, okay. Every single day, he's in early. Every single day, he's working his tail off. He was the example. And I think Vrabel said it best. They asked him about him about the patriot way and he was like isn't that the address like isn't that one patriot way or something like he's like i don't even i don't when did that come up because bill's never like bill's never said this is the patriot way it was that was like a media yeah listen i understand that you guys from within there like i don't even

know what that means but everybody outside is like, oh, the Patriot way is, you know, situational football better than everybody else. You're prepared for everything. You're OK. What's that? That that is Tom and Bill. And those two guys together were able to create 20 years of amazing success. And they were able to I mean, 11 years of division championship. I mean, just think about 11 years of hats and T-shirts.

You get your hat and T-shirt. You throw it in the back of your truck. You give it to your old man. You say, here, Pop, here's another hat. It doesn't fit me right. You know, like it's the mentality that was there. These motherfuckers. You guys, what a life you guys had.

You know what I'd say? That, you know, the difference and now the difference is you don't have that guy. Look, when you go to negotiate your contract and you're like, hey, I'm up next year. This is what guys are making in my position. They look at you and be like, Tom, he's the best of all time. Where's he at in rank? Oh, like 15th.

So if you want to be here and you want to win, I'd suggest that you do what you got to do to yeah number one provide which yeah i was able to do when i was here in new england but winning i think winning is the number one thing because i could have went off at some point in my career and i could have tested for agency and went to to cincinnati or something and played a couple years and got cut because a new coaching staff came in. But I wanted to be somewhere and have some legitimate statistics behind my name, not just, okay, because there's a lot of guys that make money. A lot of people make money.

Did you ever say back, like, Tom Brady married a lady that's making $150 million a year or two? Did that ever come back in negotiation and them saying that Tom Brady she don't make that much tabloid ninky you want to dive in you want to dive in there but they did acknowledge that Tom Brady is the best of all time like in those

conversations that's interesting because it sounds like whenever you hear the narratives and the stories Tom almost now I've never talked to Tom ever in my life. So this would be very interesting. This is listening to the Howard Stern and then the articles that got leaked from people and everything like that. It's almost like Tom and his family felt as if they didn't appreciate how good he was or what he was. You never got that feeling up there?

Whenever you just said in negotiations, they would say, hey, he's the best of all time he's getting paid 15 they acknowledge that at least that he was the best of all time in your eyes and is that something that was real could you feel that in the building at all look look this they're not going to give you a hug and uh every time you throw a touchdown pass and you know tell you how much you're you know tell you how great you are. But I would say this. When you're in New England, it doesn't matter if you're Tom, myself, another player on the team. If you're doing what you're supposed to do and you're playing at a high level,

that's what you're supposed to do. So at times you might feel like, okay, this is a grind. Of course it is. I mean, that would be the first meeting of the year. This is going to be a grind. This isn't going to be the easiest, but we're going to win. So you say, okay, let's go. I'm ready to go.

So there could be a point there when you're younger. See, when I was young and I was a special teamer running down on kickoff, my first opportunity to get a little money, I was like, wow, they want to give me $2 million? Are you kidding me? Yeah, that's awesome. Where do I sign? Where do I sign? opportunity to get a little money, I was like, wow, like they want to give me two million bucks. Are you kidding me? Yeah, that's where do I sign? Where do I sign? You know, so that's what when you're a young free agent and then you start playing a long time and you look back and you're like, man, I really outperformed that one. It's all about being overpaid in the front and underpaid in the end. If you can always do that, you'll have a job in the NFL. If it's the about being overpaid in the front and underpaid in the end if you can always do that

you'll have a job in the nfl if it's the other way around you're looking for a job yeah and it depends on who you are you can be who you can afford to be or whatever and let's go back to your first point here i assume connor has a question for you as well diehard patriot fan loves the ninkovich he's been he's been actually he shaved the mustache in to look his best for you today actually that's right he's very puns up you put the dye in to look his best for you today. Yeah, that's right. He's very pumped up. You put the dye in there? You put the fiber? A little bit of, you know?

Nah, all natural. Natural. Now, he's built for a mustache. But before Connor's question, let's go back to your first point there where you said Gronk is going to be a free agent for the first time. That is wild to think about because to your point there where he said, I only want to play for Tom. I only want to play for Tom.

Gronk is potentially one of the biggest free agents about to pop off. Everybody's talking about a lot of other – Gronkowski is potentially one of the biggest free agent names out there. I didn't even think about it because I automatically assumed that he was just going to be with Tampa and be with Tom. But now you're like, hey, he's never got to experience this. Maybe he loves football again like he did way back in the day. His body feels good. He's experienced football

now in a different way. He got a chance to see what life is like post-football. He knows that's going to be a success. Maybe he'll want to test the waters. There's going to be people that want to grow. Like that Miami theory, Tua with Gronk is probably a much different Tua, I'd assume, right? Tua's biggest issue was

he never thought anybody was open, so he'd hang on the ball and then he'd end up, he wouldn't be able to let loose. Gronkowski is taller, bigger, and he has toilet seats, his hands out there. I would assume that that helps out every single quarterback. He's probably going to be a very hot commodity on the free agency market, I'd assume. 100%. And this is what I would tell Gronk.

If I was a GM or a head coach and I'm trying to get Gronk to sign on with my team, I would say, listen here, Rob, we're going to take care of you. Wednesdays, Thursdays, you can stay inside, you can lift, you can enjoy yourself, go in the hot tub, do whatever you want. Fridays, you come out, we're going to work red zone. Because from the 20-yard in, from the 20-yard in, that's go-to Rob Gronkowski time. We're going to use you as a red zone threat guy because nobody can cover him in that space. When he runs those sevens and the seam routes right there in that intermediate 15 to 20-yard range,

there's nobody that can cover him. The linebackers nowadays, I mean, they're 6'1", 220. They're not going to be able to cover him. You've got to put somebody that's at least 6'4 on Gronk. So that's what I think is going to be a best fit for Gronk. What's a team that can, number one, pay him because he's going to deserve this? This is the last bite of the apple. This is the last time he has to actually say, OK, I'm going to sign a three-year deal here. Maybe it's 10, 12 a year. That's the last, maybe more, because another team's going to value him so much more. So it's the last bite of the apple.

So if I was Gronk, I'd say, look, I got four rings. I just did it again. Let me go out there and let me ball out. Indianapolis would love to have him. He would love a lot of Indianapolis. Green Bay, I think, would be a great time for him. I mean, just something to think about out there, Gronk. What do you got, Connor?

Yeah, Rob, you just said that Bill would tell you guys, like, it's going to be a grind, but you're going to win. Now that he can't really guarantee the second half of that statement, does he have to change his way he kind of recruits players into contracts? Oh, I think that that was one thing that I said last year was when you lose Tom, it's going to be hard to get, like, a veteran, say, a veteran receiver, a guy that wants to go out one or two more years. And like just now you see Adrian Peterson says,

hey, I'd like to go play with Tom. There's a lot of older veterans that want to go play for Tom because they understand, look, he's only got one or two left. They just won a Super Bowl. And when you have Tom on the team, your chances of winning go up substantially.