The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 397 - Pat's Up to Somethin, Michael Cole, Daniel Jeremiah, and AJ Hawk

Episode Date: April 16, 2021

Pat has been up to something and he finally unveils his secret. Pat and the boys do the show from Tampa today as Pat prepares for his new gig announcing WWE Friday Night Smackdown on Fox. Co-anouncer and play by play of WWE Friday Night Smackdown, Michael Cole (23.42-46.34) joins Pat to discuss what to expect from tonight and going forward, as-well as the latest in the world of wrestling. AJ Hawk later joins the show to discuss the latest in NFL off-season news. Daniel Jeremiah (1:12.35-1:33.11) comes on to close out the show and discusses all of the latest headlines leading into this years NFL Draft. Make sure you subscribe to YouTube.com/thepatmcafeeshow and listen every day on Mad Dog Sports Radio, Sirius XM Channel 82. We appreciate you all for listening, come laugh with us, cheers.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, massive day. Happy Friday, April 16th, a day that we will remember forever. Obviously, massive news was broken this morning. I have the incredible opportunity to be joining Friday Night Smackdown live on Fox, 8 p.m. Eastern. I'm not talking Fox Sports 1, okay? I'm not talking Fox News. I'm not talking Fox Ocho. I'm talking basic ass, standard ass.

You got antennas on your TV, cable Fox. Cannot believe I've been asked to do this. Cannot wait to enjoy the hell out of this ride Obviously very thankful for all of you Choosing to listen to us on a daily basis This show will not become a wrestling show Okay, that's not what this show is This show is a sports show

And anytime some big announcements like this happen Gotta talk about it, obviously Michael Cole stops by for a great conversation. He's my commentary partner that you'll be able to hear us, you know, in your homes. To be exact, I think it's a few million homes every single Friday. This is big time. Listen, I can't be fucking swearing on there. All right. There has to be a little bit of that, but I'm pumped up. I'm excited. Thankful for all of you. Thankful for the boys. We're going to continue doing this show every single day. Continue talking about whatever the hell is going on in the sports world. We can't

thank you enough. I hope this show propels you into a beautiful weekend. If it does, please be a friend and tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Let's get to it. And if not, just act like it never happened. Let's get to it. I am an Indianapolis resident. This is an Indianapolis company. It is where we are based. It was where I was very fortunate enough to be drafted to, to kick balls for,

in a position that I didn't fully understand whenever I got drafted. But I learned in Indianapolis how to punt a football well and also how to become an adult. Now, it was no easy road. I mean, Indianapolis saw me change from an immature guy out of West Virginia, Morgantown, West Virginia, kind of grow into a man. There were some lumps, but the city of Indianapolis always backed me. The state of Indiana was always my biggest fans. And the state of Indiana is one that if you learn about, you'll actually be mightily impressed with.

They're the hospitality kings of the world, I will say. There's an event every year, aside from this COVID year, obviously, called the Indy 500 that has 300,000 to 500,000 people travel to the city of Indianapolis to not only watch a race, but a spectacle, a concert, a everything. And the city of Indianapolis to not only watch a race, but a spectacle, a concert, a everything in the city of Indianapolis handles it. No problem. The combine final fours, you name it with the conventions that come through Indianapolis. The people of Indiana are a great people. That is why I will remain in Indiana. That's why I choose to have my home in Indiana.

My wife's from Indiana. My family has moved to Indiana. Very proud to be born and raised in Pittsburgh, but Indiana has become my home and our company's home as well. Now, Indiana is trending for something that seems to be happening far too often these days, especially in the last few years. There was a shooting in the FedEx facility, I believe, near the airport of Indianapolis, Indiana. My brother actually used to work at that FedEx. My brother used to be in the building that was across the street from where the shooting happened. So when I read about this, it very much struck close to home. I had beers with people that worked alongside my brother in that facility. I have

seen that place work. Anytime you drive to the Indianapolis airport, literally there's a FedEx operation that is almost the same size as the Indianapolis airport, and it's always operating efficiently. It's always doing great, and I got a chance to meet the people that work there behind the scenes through my brother working there years ago, it's a great group of people it is indiana so whenever you hear that eight people are confirmed dead i believe with numerous more people injured i was heartbroken i was saddened for everybody involved but also the potential way that this could be or it could make out Indiana to be. Indiana, in my experience, I know it's not the same for everybody, is a place that is welcoming, is a place that loves people from everywhere, and is a place that will mourn and grieve this mightily

because it is something that should never happen. I'm incredibly sad about it. I hope everybody's okay. We love Indiana. We love the people in Indianapolis. And it's a fucking, it's an absolute shame. stop this type of bullshit. We need to celebrate this life, enjoy this life, come together and understand that there's might be some days where you don't feel great. And there might be some people you don't get along with, but we're all in this goddamn thing together. We're all in there. Hopefully. And I feel in the end of the day, it will win. I think happiness and love will outweigh

the, the hate that seems to steal the headlines at all times when it happens. I truly believe that. I hope that. And to everybody in Indiana, our hearts, although we're in Tampa, are very much with you. We'll be back tonight. With that being said, we are down here in Tampa Bay. At Boston, Connor's here. Ty Schmidt is here.

Zito, Foxy, Mansoury are behind the screen there. And this morning, I made are behind the screen there. And this morning, I made a rather large life announcement. Yeah. This morning, we had been leading up to this moment for the last few weeks. Yep. And to be completely clear, when I started saying I'm up to something, I wasn't 100% sure what I was up to but it was you were up

that's how it actually that's how it actually started and we've talked about my lack of filter all right everybody's we've talked mightily about my lack of filter which is potentially why this show does well by the way because if it's in here it's coming out now I don't think everybody should act that way I do believe that's how I've been my entire life, though. It's just kind of that whole thing. So whenever I say, like, to AJ, who's not in our office, but we talk to every day, and I consider him, you know, at least sort of a friend of ours.

Yeah. Sort of a friend of everyone else. Sure. When he doesn't know what's going on, and I'm like, in the middle of talking to him, I'm like, oh, AJ doesn't even know. And I'm like, hey, AJ, hey, hey, hey. All right, I mean, we did stop the show here. I got to say something. Hey, AJ, I'm up to oh, AJ doesn't even know. And I'm like, AJ, hey, hey, hey. All right, I mean, we did stop the show here.

I got to say something. AJ, I'm up to something, dude. And then that just starts leading into it. And the conversations did start then, but there was never a direct route to Friday Night SmackDown. Obviously, people know that I've worked with the WWE in the past. I mean, I won Rookie of the Year, okay? No big deal. I mean, I won Rookie of the Year. No big deal.

I mean, that's an award that matters. That's an award that if they gave me a trophy, I would hang this thing somewhere here in the FanDuel house down here in Tampa. But I've always loved the business. I've always enjoyed the hell out of sports entertainment, professional wrestling, literally my entire life. I've been very open with,

if it wasn't for the Attitude Era and wasn't for the Monday Night Wars and for me being dialed in to these larger-than-life personalities and characters, I would have never probably had the aspirations that I had. You would probably not see or hear the same person. I assume it shapes part of my personality. I think it's pretty apparent now at this point. So I've always been a die-hard fan and there's people that hate it and I understand

you hate it okay you probably watch some bullshit that I hate too but everybody's got their own taste but for me it was always something that I like this show could kind of take a mental vacation alongside like obviously what's happening here is something that doesn't happen in the real world. Let's go ahead and enjoy the hell out of it. Let's go ahead and escape a little bit. I assume this is how people feel when they watch soap operas, when they watch other things. It was always what captivated me and interested me. So when I got a chance to do the kickoff show, like four years ago now at this point, five years ago, maybe four years ago, when Michael Cole called me out of nowhere and said, hey, do you want to do

maybe a kickoff show for us, WrestleMania weekend? I'm like, fucking WrestleMania weekend? That's a big deal. As a wrestling fan, I understand that WrestleMania is a massive weekend. I thought I hit the lottery. I'm like, absolutely.

I didn't even know what the fucking kickoff show was. I assumed it was like the football thing. I had no clue what it was. But they're like, do you want to do this absolutely had something planned for wrestlemania weekend actually i've got to go cancel that i am going to go ahead and go do this thing down here i go down there i get a chance to shake hands with vince mcmahon that first day it was a two second interaction let's not he does not remember we're breaking bread with he does not remember us but i like got a chance to meet him.

He was very nice. Had that incredible cadence and octave that I've never, you know, I was like, oh, so that's real, right? Because I've always heard it on TV. I was like, oh my God, his voice is real. Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, everybody was just so nice and so friendly. I'm like, I felt like I was a little bit starstruck, actually.

It's the first time in my life where I've met somebody and I'm like, was a little bit starstruck, actually. It's the first time in my life where I've met somebody, and I'm like, holy, holy shit. Everybody was so nice, so hospitable. Then, obviously, that kind of parlayed into doing more kickoff shows. And then as the business and what we were doing and the schedule started going, we continued to try to thread the needle on how we could work together. And then, obviously, the NXT run starts

because Adam Cole comes into our studio and acts like an absolute asshole. Scumbag. The worst. thread the needle on how we could work together and then obviously the nxt run starts because adam cole comes into our studio and acts like an absolute asshole scumbag which by the way we've known all along yeah still is always has been always will always will be right so then that obviously leads into like a hey this could potentially lead to so then i get in the ring i got a chance to now experience being in the ring i got a chance to main event a pay-per-view okay in my second match in war games and that did not like that was not something as a wrestling fan i was like there is fucking no reason i should be in the match that's going on last year this is a big deal in the history of wrestling the marquee names the main eventers they're the ones that are carrying the company they're the ones that are selling the

tickets selling the merch so my second match in Games, now obviously I was alongside seven other incredible, sorry, six other incredible athletes and everything like that inside of a WWE steel cage and Adam Cole was also there. But that was something that I was just like, holy shit, I cannot believe I'm doing this. Afterwards, after the match, my team and I, although we lost, we're up in the locker room

and the refs are in there and uh one of the refs looks over at me and he goes you just fucking you're just in a WWE steel cage match and I was like I you're right I had not even thought of that I was just in a fucking, I was, I main evented a pay-per-view. I was in a WWE steel cage match. I think everybody would say, okay, handled my own in there.

And then it was just on the flight home. I'm like, this is a joke. Like, this is just a dream. It really just continued to feel. And at my age, 33,

you know, I'm an old man been around the world though. There's not a lot of things that happen. And I'm like, I cannot. What is? And you get this full moment of exhilaration where you're like, there's no way that I thought this was actually going to happen. not only the Monday Night Wars, but then also getting the DVD set of the history of the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and all the way back to Bruno Sammartino and all the runs in between and all the documentaries I'd watched and everything I've kind of invested in that wrestling world.

When I got a chance to experience it, I was like, this has to be a simulation. So then whenever there's a conversation to reach back out and they go, hey, we want to kind of try to do something a little bit bigger, you know, and I'm like, I don't know how it could be bigger. I just did a goddamn did a backflip of steel. I don't know. I don't know how it could be any bigger. I honestly have no idea how it could be any bigger. And then once they started talking, well, maybe we do this, maybe we do this. And that's kind of how I think they operate. I'm not 100 percent sure. I do not know enough about the insides of their business just as a

fan from what I know it's like a very creative place you know so the the the ideas whenever it started just a few weeks ago there's like a couple ideas like hey maybe maybe and I'm like oh that would be that would be really dope if that like that'd be very cool I would love to do that now if we do this i'm gonna have to figure it out business-wise because i mean this is not something i don't want to sound like a dick where i say this but there's a lot of people's livelihoods that depend upon this show being a good show okay we're not just the guys you see on camera and the but in the guys you see off camera but the ladies the houses that are bought, the everything that's the weddings that are being planned, everything that is happening with our company.

We are very lucky to do. And I'm not 100 percent sure I expected this to happen either. But for any decision I make, like the company has to be able to has to be able to in the in the WWE was so incredibly hospitable to that idea. So whenever there was an idea pitch, could you do this? I'm like, let me see that. Let me see what we can figure out. Yes, I could. They're like, okay, cool.

Could you do this? And I'm like, couldn't do that. They're like, all right, let's get out. So there was like ideas being thrown around. And when we landed on the Friday night SmackDown analyst role on the commentary table where legends have sit in the past. Legends have sit where I am getting a chance. There's only two people that do it on that show.

Legends have been there. Now, there used to be three mans and everything like that on SmackDown, but I'm just saying I'm getting a chance to do something in a place that a lot of people I've looked up to for a very long time have gone to alongside Michael Cole who is the internet wrestling community doesn't want to admit this ever but the greatest of all time it is now listen I grew up in the attitude era okay so I understand the arguments that people have or whatever but you're talking 20 some years of rarely ever flubbing a word a word word. Like you hear football commentators

and play-by-play people, and they'll get a name wrong or something like that. And that's just happening in like, Michael Cole has to remember 700 things that are going on, has to get everything right. And the guy is an absolute machine. So me getting a chance to sit next to him, knowing that he was a pretty pivotal part of the decision as well into you know like would he almost like give me the okay like that's

kind of how it would have to be because it's his career as well kind of how i felt when i had to go hold balls for adam venetieri by the way like okay if anything goes wrong it's gonna be it's it's definitely not michael cole it's not adam venetieri okay it's definitely me. It's not Michael Cole. It's not Adam Venteri, okay? It's definitely me. So this is just a really cool opportunity. Fando helped us out immensely, obviously. They're like, how do we make this happen for you guys? It's like, is there any way we can, you know, just maybe get a house down there in Tampa?

They're in Tampa, at least for the foreseeable future. Who knows how the world's going to go? Fando's like, you got it. Bang. Here we are. Let's fucking have a blast. Yeah, hell yeah. We are excited.

I can't thank the boys enough for not only being able to not leak this. Oh, yeah. By the way, that was tough. I do not know how, but us yesterday after the show ended, us like having a little bit of a celebration. Yeah, we did it.

We did not we did not leak it somehow okay because i'm staring by the way at a beach okay so like whenever you see something happen it is very difficult not to be like a squirrel climbed a palm tree that's right like yesterday i was i almost i was like uh the house like it was it was very difficult not Not really our thing. But I'm very proud of you guys and thankful for you guys. And to all the boys back in Indianapolis, can't thank them enough. We're going to try to be as nimble as possible.

This show cannot suffer at all because of this. And I know that. Because there's a lot of people that, the fucking enough analytics that we get shown. There's enough people that spend a lot of time with us every single day on YouTube. And the fact that you choose to spend your time with us, like I am eternally grateful for, like there's a lot of people commanding attention around here. There's a lot of great content out there. The fact that people hang out with us on a daily basis, I would never want to

disrespect your decision of doing so by making this show a shitty one now it does stink the show will continue to stink but the investment of money into hopefully giving you guys a product that you'll continue to enjoy it was paramount and is paramount in almost all decisions we make we learned that from the box truck yeah it wasn't always like i want to let you know that wasn't always the first thought but now it's like everything that happens have to be like okay how do we make this comfortable because we're an energy show so it can't be dead how do we make this comfortable how do we make this work and with partners like fandle and with you guys and your guys's incredible work ethic in our entire company not just here but everywhere i very, very thankful for today. Well, man, I mean, congratulations.

Yeah. I mean, you just talked about how, you know, the WWE helped shape, you know, who you are. Think about the generation now who you are. I have thought about that. Yeah, yeah, I have. I have thought about that. And, I mean, that kept me up a little bit last night.

Yeah. You know, because there's a lot of, I don't want to say, you know, like I have, the way I go through things is I like, I don't have a slotted schedule. But I'm like, okay, tonight I got to put some time towards thinking about this. I got to put some time towards thinking about this. And I think this is why, like, The Rock and Wahlberg and all the super whatevers, they live by, like, a strict time schedule. I could never do that in my life. So I just have, like, hey, I need to think about this later my life right so i just have like hey i need to think about this later i need to think about this tonight

i need to think about this smackdown i've obviously watched all of the episodes that have led up here so i know what the fuck's going on i know a lot of the history of um a lot of the the wrestlers on there and everything like that but when it comes to like the full picture thinking of it you know because we're so run and gun set up the house okay need this deal to be done do i am i potentially interested in this in the future how will this play into this uh how do we get the tech done well we got zito fucking hill who's gonna build the walls off tim will do that okay there's just been a lot of moving pieces here sitting down and thinking from like a zoomed out high level i didn't do until last night what a fucking wild hour and a half that was in my just in my thought shop up here dude it was it was wild thinking of like me in my tiny

bedroom with a tv that was just like basically a foot and a half from my face where I was laying. Just listening and watching in the old promos. There is a lot of that that I had not really thought about until late last night. And you bringing it up, by the way. I should probably have a couple more thoughts about that, I guess, before we go live today. But I'm pretty pumped for who those kids are going to become. I think we could potentially, if I am a part of influencing, which we are now in a world of influence, I think they should, I think those kids should hopefully take a little bit,

but leave a lot of the stupidity behind, you know? Well, and that's why like Connor and I were talking about, like that's also why, I mean, it's super cool that you're going to get to do that. But it's also like, this is going to be a success because of how much respect you have for the business and how much you actually love it and how much you are a fan. You're a wrestling fan too.

I am too, yeah. And I was about to say, we always say on here, dumbest life of all time. We're in the dumbest situations of all time. And I think people really think that's a bit. But you look at all the stuff we've done, it's like, what the fuck am I doing here? we've done it's like what the fuck am i doing yeah like you know like pat okay what the fuck am i doing here and now just like like you said

growing up on wwe and being able to be associated with second hand like it's wild and i'm just i'm so excited for the next you know however long this lasts i'm very very thankful for you guys and uh i'm thankful for you saying that because it's real like me being in the nfl was dumb but i always i i will always have that mindset i think you know like and maybe it was me getting completely humbled a couple times like in college missed a couple kicks in a big ass game basically was thrown to the trash by everybody i thought was potentially my friends outside of the football team yeah you know wanting me to die and things like that you really learn a lot about yourself in those moments you know it's hard not to change through those things and then whenever i get arrested for a public intoxication and i didn't even know at the time but the story

that was going around was just like i was maybe the biggest doofus of all time. It's like, it's hard not to just get like, you know, kind of, I don't want to say kept on an evil level playing field, but I think I've had a couple of things that have kind of like put me, put me into my, they're tough mentally at the time, but kind of put me in my place.

And I think I will always have the, I am so lucky that I'm getting to do what I'm doing. This is so stupid and i think that's why we kind of um gravitate towards each other and probably people that watch this show or listen to the show or the same thing it's like there's a really cool shit in this world you know what i mean it feels like a lot of people kind of bury a lot of stuff and i understand i've done a lot of more ridiculous things but i think we should try to search for that those types of moments where it's like and this is obviously one of them yeah this is so so

stupid but there's been parties i've been at where i looked around and i'm like everybody in here is having a good time this this this is the dumbest thing of all time like everybody like there's just those things those moments happen this is obviously at the top of that scale but it is it is a difference between like trying to enjoy life instead of like trying to you know maybe dissect it everything and it's pretty awesome to think about you know the future of punting think about all the kids who are going to be watching this doing wwe promos like shit if mcafee was punting i might as well pick up a ball and start swinging is that the blueprint on how so you do this you do that that's how you get to the WWE. Sure. We gotta get to a break.

I believe music is playing. There it is. I had to turn it up a little bit on here. You know why? Cuz it's our guy Nick, obviously Frank, another massive wrestling fan. Yep. We're using his thing, his playlist, his thing. Okay. So whenever he uses his privately,

like at night or whatever maybe puts it on like shuffle sure or something like that or mutes it even maybe he'll even mute it and like turn it off next morning i know what nick did last night don't know until something happens i'm like oh fuck there it is there's a lot of pressure on nick too nick doesn't even know nick nick came into one day whenever it happened he was like uh, hey, man, I think everything I do, you see, basically. Oh, that's on me. We got to get to a break. Michael Cole will be joining us on the other side.

Then after that, hour two, we'll have A.J. Hawk will join us. The boys in Indy will join us with some of their locks. And also, there's a lot of news to talk about. Oh, yeah. Aaron Donald potentially saved this dude's life. And now he's getting sued for it. Exonerate him. Get him out of this lawsuit.

Now, granted, with that video, there might be some other people. Yeah, right. They might be in trouble. Aaron Donald might have been the only one that shouldn't have been. Right. But it's a wild time to be alive. We're thankful to be here. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, futurewe hall of famer michael cole

pat i'm gonna teach you a transition a segue for get to get you ready for the show tonight okay you just did the fan duel spot right so guess what pat the wwe is betting on you to help friday night smackdown see that's hey that's the type of thing by the way that my brain would have never thought of and i think that is why you and i are going to be a good team now we could be the shits here obviously we could be bad but i am very excited to work alongside of you michael i am very very excited to work alongside you well first off are you going to come to work today i'm like ready to go into the big meeting for smackdown and i'm wondering if you're going to show up at some point well i do appreciate how we kind of set this up i do appreciate how we

kind of say i'm not a big meetings guy okay no i'm not good at them we kind of navigate that but i uh i got my spray tan too I don't know if you see it. It's kind of cooking. I will progressively get tanner as the day goes on. But I'm pumped to work alongside you. That's like, hey, for shoot, brother. I am very pumped to work alongside you. Listen, Pat, I'll tell you, we are so excited at WWE to have you part of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox.

It is going to be incredible. WWE to have you part of Friday Night Smackdown on Fox. It is going to be incredible. You and I have talked for years now since you first got involved in the company of potentially doing something together one day. And we finally get our opportunity tonight. I don't know what to expect. I just want you to be Pat McAfee and I'll be Michael Cole. And we'll go out there and try to make some magic together. And we will give the platform to our incredible superstars the only way that we know how yeah I can't wait to put people over alongside you by the way because I very much understand like the and I went on this impassioned speech to start the show because I think it's worth noting not only for my listeners and my viewers uh or ours obviously but i'm just talking

about me specifically maybe on twitter anything like that and also for your fans too like this is something that is maintained in my life the longest of anything ever wrestling i mean this is just this is something now the nfl as well which i do a daily show of and i grew up in pittsburgh so obviously it's a football n town, but it is something that I have been looking forward to my entire life to do this type of thing. Very thankful for it. And I know I could stink, but I know there's some rules too. And they're like kind of, I have not been told these, obviously.

I guess I probably will whenever I get over there. What happens when I fuck this up inevitably? Is there any type of thought for that? You're the greatest of all time. How are you going to make up for that, you think, whenever I ruin this entire thing? Okay, so first off, you're not going to mess up because I'm going to help you and I'm going to carry you.

We're a team! We're a team! Okay, that's good news. Secondly, if you do mess up, I'll be heading to a very early retirement. I won't. I appreciate you. I'm honored.

Seriously though, in all seriousness, you're going to kill it because you have a passion. You have intensity. You have emotion. We saw that at NXT from your early days of doing the takeover panels to actually cutting promos, to getting in the ring, to having some hellacious matches. I think you now understand the commitment of what our superstars have to go through to get to this level. You also can talk. You can cut a promo. You've done some commentary in the past. So I think when we add all those things together and just you as a person and knowing how excited you are for this, I think this is a recipe for success.

I just don't know how it can go wrong. I really don't. I've been racking my brains for the last couple of weeks since we started talking about this because I know you, Pat, and I know how you are and I know how emotional you are about everything you do in your life. And I keep racking my brain about how is this going to blow up in my face because I know it's going to right but I can't find the reason I I just I can't I can't decide in any way how this is going to fail I just can't hey I want to let you know I appreciate that I have the same mindset but I do like the fact that we both pretty much understand that this will blow up in your face at some point at some point of course it will yeah and as long as you you know i'm not even gonna say it well i

just want to let you know thank you for all those kind words by the way can i talk about you real quick though can i talk about you real quick you know i don't like that but whatever i know that's why i'm gonna i'm gonna by the way wait till tonight oh oh wait till tonight i cannot wait i just i'm gonna give a little tease i'm gonna give a little tease i assume just every time i've kind of gone through potential scenarios you know and you know people like the vision like tiger woods visualize big visualize guy you see drew breeze was out there on the fields like visualizing i think i think peyton did a lot of visualization they talk about it i am a massive visual like that is i go i try to go through every situation so i'm ready for it or there were a lot of them end with me going shut up cole i mean a lot of them end with uh a lot of that and i can't wait for it and you

know i'll take it because i'm there to put you over. Don't put me over, Cole. No, we're going to listen. How many years? That's been my job for 25 years. I've worked with some of the all-time greats in our business. And I understood a long time ago that my role as a play-by-play guy is to make my analysts stars. And if I can do that, I'll become a star myself. Because you guys are the entertainment. You guys are what people are going to tune in to watch. Listen, Michael Cole's the all night gas station, right? I'm there

every week. I'm there when you need me. I'm there when you want to hear from me. I'm there when you don't want to hear from me. I'm there to make you guys stars. And that's what I'm going to do. And we're going to be a great team for it. And if I can make you a star, it's just going to, you know, hopefully solidify how good I am at what I do. Yeah. I mean, you're going to have to work hard for this one, pal. I mean, you've done that for a lot of people, but good luck in this. And that's, by the way, a lot of good hosts.

You know, you're obviously play-by-play commentator because that's what you're doing. And in the sports world, that is exactly how that would be titled. But you're a host, too, man. The way you drive traffic and what you just said about passing the ball, I mean, that's like Greeny, right? Mike Greenberg, I think he's in like four Hall of Fames. He is just a – he is Allen Iverson.

He is just a ball distributor and do that whole thing. I like to think of myself whenever I'm interviewing somebody, I'm trying to do that as best as possible. And that's why I say that you're the greatest of all time, because you've done this for so long while there is also potential absolute chaos going on actually in your brain while you're speaking via a headphone from somewhere else. I don't think there, I don't know how I'm going to be able to do with that whole thing, by the way, because I got to experience it a little bit with the way because I got to experience It a little bit with the kickoff shows and everything like that

But you having to manage potentially four different voices including your own in your brain while maintaining Without flubbing like I assumed that you would have to you would have to fuck up like you would have to at some point You might know but you might have won on a run for like four years where you did not skip a word somehow. It was impressive. Now, recently, hey, you've made a, hey. Now, recently there has been a couple conversation starters. But, I mean, 25 years, your work is unbelievable.

I'm fucking pumped about it, and I can't thank you enough. I think the boys have a couple questions for you now, though, too. Connor, what do you have? Yeah, cool. Obviously, you know, I'm a stooge with a mustache so my question for you is you know when did you decide to go soul patch was it always something in your mind or did that just naturally come about i i used to wear a goatee i mean if you look back at the old michael cole days i had the frosted tips and the goatee and i just trimmed it down to the soul patch i don't know why i still

have it i'm a 55 year old. I should probably grow up someday. But I guess it makes me feel young at least a little bit. Well, Andrew, in the wrestling business, I mean, you got to. What do you have, Ty? Cole, I'm sure you've answered this a thousand times. But what made you ultimately want to come to WWE? Because you have legit journalism chops. You know what I mean?

You followed presidential campaign trails embedded in a war. I mean, shit, you could have been a chief of staff if you would have stuck around doing that what made you ultimately want to you know switch things up and go to the wwe and have a soul patch at 55 so so a i've always been a wwe fan of course but more importantly i was working in radio when i did news and i needed to get some tv experience and w WWE had an opportunity for me to go in and do some TV. And I thought that when I started this job, I was going to be here for a year or two. And that was it. And that I was going to get TV experience and I was going to go back and I was going to be working at CNN or Fox or wherever covering the world. And I got here and I fell in love with it.

And I got a great opportunity in 1999 to become the voice of smackdown and um like they say the rest is history and i'm you know gonna retire in this company and um i just really enjoy it and bringing in guys like pat gives me the opportunity to stay young um to try to stay at least somewhat hip and still enjoy this job yeah well you do an incredible job and i've completely forgot about like his legitimate journey weren't you in a river that was on fire what was it you were you were somehow in a you were like basically on the titanic of the new years and you were covering what was it what happened there was a fire uh on the in the ship channel in houston uh and uh i hired i paid a guy like 50 bucks to take me out in his little rowboat and we got caught in the current, uh, and almost burned up the other way.

But there's a great picture, uh, on the front page of the Houston Chronicle from that year, uh, of this little boat and these huge flames. And I was in there, but yeah, I mean, I enjoyed doing that stuff, but, um, I think I was born to do what I'm doing today. Yeah. That's a, that's all friday night smackdown i would say eight o'clock on fox let's say maybe promote the show you're on okay maybe you know maybe like eight eastern fox tonight the debut of pat mcafee the universal

champion the head of the table is going to kick off the show tonight yes he hey that's breaking news by the way we We have tag team champions Dolph Ziggler, Bobby Roode defending the championships against the Street Profits, the former champs and a lot more in store tonight. A lot of WrestleMania fallout and of course, the world is talking

about the debut of Pat McAfee. No, no, no. Just a couple of stooges on Ian. That's all that's happening. Cole, I can't thank you enough, man. You're the absolute best. Go to that meeting. So, you know, maybe we don't fail tonight. So can you give me a heads up on something?

So I'm prepared. Yeah. Are you going to wear shorts tonight? All right. Listen, you know, got to keep you on your toes. It's fine. I just want to be prepared for that. No, you know, we got to try to keep you young and hip.

You know what I mean? Trying to keep you young and hip. You know what I mean? Try to keep you on your toes. You know, I've got to do what I've got to do. That was, I mean, you'll see tonight, I guess. But, boy, that was, I was staring it down. I was staring it down. I want to let you know, it was a good 20 to 30 minutes of me and the costume staring at each other.

And then a decision was made. So, you'll find that out. And I can't thank you enough for this opportunity. each other and then a decision was made so you'll find that out and i can't thank you enough for this opportunity if you could tell um uh mr mcmahon i cannot wait to uh tell him thank you for this later should i talk to him like what how should this how should i what do i do here you know oh i'll bring you in to meet the big guy thank you that's very nice of you kind of bring me in behind you the whole hey how's it going thank you this opportunity. I do not want to fuck up a company that you took from a territorial operation to a globally beloved billion-dollar worldwide publicly traded company, sir.

So thank you. All right, and that's where I've been trying to figure out what I'm going to say. That's where I fell on thus far. We can obviously brainstorm later. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Cole. Hey, thanks, man. Can't wait to see you. See you. Hey, nice car, by the way.

You're 25 years in WWE. You're going to have some fine leather behind you. Gorgeous. He's a cool guy. I mean, when Ty said he literally has done everything. I think he was in Waco. Wasn't that one of the stuff? Yeah, he covered. Yeah.

Koresh. There's women and children in there, brother. Yeah, he covered that. Desert Storm. He was out there. Yeah. Like, he was on an entire campaign tour. I think it was Clinton, right?

Yeah, that. And I think, yeah, Dukakis, Michael Dukakis before that. And then I think he also covered, like, the Yugoslavian Civil War as well. He's done some crazy shit. And then he gets into the WWE. And he's like, what do you want me to do? I've got to remember how many hours worth of stuff? No problem.

As long as I'm not going to get shot. People aren't shooting at me. No burning rivers. Sounds good. I think I can pull that off. I think that's no problem at all. Zito, why don't we call the Indy office, and they can give us their locks for later today.

Okay. That'll be something we can get from the Hammerdown boys now. We potentially are going to do that in the second hour, but should definitely do it now. There's some things happening in the world that we should talk about, aside from tonight on Fox. Not, hey, not Fox Sports 1. No.

Not Fox News. No. Not Fox Ocho. Nope. I'm talking about antennas on the TV, basic ass, Fox. The Fox. Millions.

And millions! Of people watch that show every single week. Oh, yeah. Thought about that last night, too, for the first time. Yeah. You only got six channels. Fox is one of them. That's it.

Yeah. That is what you're, it's right there. Mm-hmm. It's going to be crazy. Belichick has been talking a little bit about everything going on in the world. Uh-huh. He gave a couple answers about, you know, at their pick at 15, he alluded to the fact maybe he'll go up to 13 14 if

somebody they thought was maybe six or seven is dropping maybe at 12 13 he's still on the board and you really thought he'd gone in the top six seven picks then your question comes do you try to move up and try to get that player that's falling a little bit or do you kind of wait and see if everybody else will drop or is somebody else going to move up so did he give away anything here or did he literally say absolutely nothing just basically talked about basic draft strategy yeah no he said absolutely nothing i mean yeah if one of the players that was ranked in the top five might drop to the 10 yeah who isn't going to trade up for that guy so no he's just stirring the pot and also happy birthday bill belichick happy birthday and a half years old today. Looks like 30. Looks like he's fresh off of his, what, first two Super Bowls.

Oh, yeah. Looks good. How many rings does he have now? I believe he has eight. No, I think he has more than that, doesn't he? Because he had one with the Giants, one or two with the Giants. Oh, yeah, he has eight rings is the name of that, Bell, right? And then six with New England, yeah.

Got a few. Happy birthday, man. Happy birthday. The best. He also talked about the quarterbacks being interesting in this class. And the thing about the quarterbacks being interesting is, does he say that about everything?

Like, he's being forced to answer questions. This is like when quarterbacks are asked if they think they're good or not at football. And they say, yeah, I think I'm the best quarterback. And then all of a sudden, they're like, this guy says he's the best quarterback in the NFL. Joe Flacco. What is he? He's the best quarterback. And then all of a sudden they're like, this guy says he's the best quarterback. Joe Flacco thinks he's the best quarterback. He thinks he's the least.

What is Joe Flacco supposed to say whenever he's asked that? What is Bill Belichick supposed to say for these things? Well, that's the thing. I think all the quarterbacks in this draft stink. We're not trading. I wouldn't even take Trevor Lawrence at 15 if he dropped that far. If they drop down, I'm not trading up to get it. You know what I mean?

It's a joke. But it goes back to everything is bullshit. Everything. And also because of the fact that Fields is now back up top. Who knows? Next week, Mac Jones might be back up top. Anything the Patriots do depends on who picks who. Orlovsky just said that the best film in the draft is from Mac Jones.

Mac Jones, yeah. What does that mean? Where are we? What are we doing? Is Trevor Lawrence still in the draft is from Mac Jones. Mac Jones, yeah. What does that mean? Where are we? What are we doing? Is Trevor Lawrence still in the draft? Are we talking without Trevor Lawrence? Because if that's the case, is Trevor Lawrence potentially in jeopardy down there in Jacksonville?

You already got the playbook. What are we doing? Do you think we're going to end up seeing where, like, the first five picks are quarterbacks? I feel like it's starting to move towards that, where it's going to go, and then someone who didn't think or thought they'd be able to get someone else is going to panic and they're going to have to move up to five and it's just like all right fuck it we'll just take

whoever's left yeah i wonder if the outside noise is trickling inside at all i wonder if it's a similar thought by us that's happening with them you know like is everybody thinking if you don't go get a great quarterback now you won't be able to get one. Is there a chance that every team that was potentially in an alleged massive quarterback market, although only a few moves really happen? Are they all going to go and make moves? I don't know. It feels like every year there's a bunch of talk. Every year it feels like that potential this year, even more so hyped.

And we talked about this because the more eyes and people that are covering the sport, the more the speculation and the more moves that are potentially happening with maybe more active and younger GMs. There's more speculation of what else could happen. But I will maintain if you like a guy, go fucking get him. You have no idea what those future draft picks are going to become. If you think they're a good player and you've got to sacrifice a two and a three next year, who cares? If you think you got a guy, go get a guy. But I'm not a big you build your team through the draft guy anyways. Go get me a free agent that is proof he can play in the men's league.

It'll be interesting to see what happens with Mac Jones, too. Yesterday, you know, his odds go down after Justin Fields' pro day. Today, Orlovsky says he's got the best tape out there. Like, is he maybe going two now? By the way, are we, you know to now by the way are we you know i think the reason why we get so upset with people saying things that aren't necessarily the smartest it's because like we look upon them like orlovsky we look upon his gospel hey listen we're gonna watch the film that you're talking we're gonna i listen to what orlovsky says and i go okay that

makes sense to me you know what i mean like okay that makes sense some of them i'll watch and i'll be like dan stretching here yeah you can't do that makes sense. Some of them I'll watch and I'll be like, Dan, stretch in here. Shut up. You can't do this one. But a lot of them, I'm like, oh, that actually makes sense. I respect it. So whenever he drops in with this type of thing,

it's like, what the hell's going on, Dan? Where's this been all along? And why didn't he say this yesterday? And why haven't we got this like two weeks ago whenever we were in a... It's just... Dan Rovsky's got... He's probably evolving and learning as well.

Yeah, sounds like it. Speaking of learning and evolving, let's talk about a learning as well. Yeah, sounds like it. Speaking of learning and evolving, let's talk about a show that is live every single day at 4 p.m. at youtube.com forward slash hammer Don. Joining us now back in Indianapolis, the Hammer Don boys with some locks for us to look into for this evening. Fellas, what do you got going on back there?

Pat, first and foremost, congratulations. Long overdue Smack Don smack don thank you can't wait um so you know i was looking at some things this morning and i was like tony you went five and one yesterday in baseball it's pretty good 33 and 18 on the season plus 12 and a half units is that good yeah it is but then i was like i was like enough about myself pat gumpy you're the fucking best footy gambler in all of the land can you do me a favor and see what your record is since the beginning of august when footy started the season, he bet on 600 games and is plus 40 units. So if you bet $100 on each of Gumpy's games, you'd be up $4,000 since August.

And I was like, let's not worry about me, Pat. Gumpy. Gumpy's the real story of the show. Hey, you're a hero, Diggs. Thanks for that. Thanks for all your effort. You're welcome. Hey, Gumpy, the plus 40 units, okay?

Over 600 games, you said? That's a lot of games. That's a lot of gambling. We got to talk, maybe, potentially. But we appreciate your service here. This is a big soccer weekend for you, right? Isn't the Hammerdowns going to be giving out a lot of soccer picks, right? Yeah, we got a bunch Saturday and Sunday. He's's got 16 i believe right yes sir which one are we

eyeing early yeah go ahead digs okay so there is there's a there's a theory in england that you always stay away from the early game the first game on saturday but i ain't doing it this weekend boy you can get you can get west Ham Moneyline plus 110 against Newcastle West Ham's fighting to get into the Champions League so I'm hammering West Ham tomorrow Pat okay I appreciate you doing that we will well we can't in Florida yeah I will have my wife do it from back home yeah I believe we'll probably have you know significant others or whatever we'll hammer that we'll get more of your picks four o o'clock, hammered down. Diggs, what were you going to follow up with? I was going to follow up with,

we touched on it a little bit yesterday, but the hashtag FanDuel hammered down rollover that we do every single day is up to $2,000. Wow! All you got to do is win a 10-leg parlay of minus 30 odds or worse. Minus 130. Minus 130.

Minus 130. Did I not say that? You said minus 30. Minus 130 odds or worse. So, yeah, two grand up for grabs today. All right, we appreciate you guys. Can't wait to watch 4 o'clock. Thank you, boys.

Hey, boys. Boys, I'm going to be honest. I watch every episode today. Not going to see it. You got bigger and more important things. Yeah, but it will be available to watch on the plane ride home. That's right. And I appreciate you guys making everybody money.

Ladies and gentlemen, Hammerdown Boys. HDB. HDB. I can't thank them. That show is very entertaining. It is. 600 games, though, Gumpy. Take it easy.

Take it easy, it easy pal make your money though that's not even counting the 450 mlb games he's already bet on this year too in two weeks yeah we're bad people i'm a bad person for them doing that show because gumpy feels as if that is what he has to do now am i empowering a man who obviously should not be doing what he's doing he wouldn't have it any other way he would he's in the green gumpy's winning he's investing he does he's not gambling no he knows he's gonna win okay now if he had bet that many games and we're talking minus 40 units by the way still very impressive yeah If he was. But if we're talking minus, you know, you got to watch yourself.

Right. And we will let Gumpy know whenever the tide has turned because we're hearing all of his bets now every single day, which might also be a part of the selfish reasons why I was pushing hard for them to go daily because, you know, Gumpy, he put them out on his Twitter. It was kind of hard to find for me. Yeah.

Now live every day, I'm like, okay, we're riding with the Gump. Here we go. And Diggs, 35 and 18, he said. Not bad. Not about me, he says. This is about somebody else. Shout out to them. I love that show.

I appreciate them. People go through many changes as we get older. Isn't that right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. For men, one of the less fortunate changes is that testosterone production begins to naturally decrease in the body. Did you know this, AJ? I am aware.

For most men, it begins around the age of 30, and testosterone production declines by roughly 1% per year. My God. So if you live to 130, you ain't got shit left. No. Minus 30. Well, if it starts around 30 this is one of those questions on a test where you know begins around 30 in the testosterone production declines by roughly one percent per year so does it start at zero or does it start at 30 that's the thing this is where they can get

you it's one of them damn word problems this is one of those ones where you're like well wait a minute uh which can i ask a follow-up anyways i was good at those tests because i always viewed This is where they can get you. It's one of them damn word problems. This is one of those problems where you're like, well, wait a minute. Which, can I ask a follow-up? Anyways, I was good at those tests because I always viewed it as me versus the fucking teacher. That's right. I don't know what's going on, but this is me versus you. Fuck you. That's how I view it.

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When you go to GetRoman.com forward slash USA, get $15 off your first order plus free two-day shipping. That's GetRoman, G-E-T-R-O-M-A-N.com forward slash USA. That's good news. Let's try that stuff. Okay. I've been looking for that type of stuff. That's good news. That's what I want. Now we know. Hey, Roman. Thank you, Roman for that type of stuff. That's good news. That's what I want.

Now we know. Hey, Roman. Thank you, Roman. Thank you, Roman. Thank you, Roman. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, A.J. Hawk. A.J., how you doing, pal?

I'm doing great, man. Congrats on your whole situation. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You did send me a text this morning congratulating me. I tried to FaceTime you back immediately. You did not answer. Geez.

Par for the course. So I appreciate that, obviously. Thank you for the congratulations. I don't think you ever guessed this one, did you? I kind of did because I actually knew that. I didn't guess it to you but in my head i thought it's possible i knew i knew adnan burke took the monday night gig like i don't know why i knew that but i did so then i started thinking well who does the other stuff and then there you

go why do you got to bury adnan burke like that how would i how do i bury him i don't know why i knew that he did oh because normally i'm saying not, I'm not talking about Adnan, but normally I wouldn't know if some, if they changed announcer positions in the wrestling world. Got it. Okay. Yeah. Because Adnan Virk, by the way,

comes from the outside world, comes in, does play by play, which Michael Cole has done for years. Tom Phillips did for a while. Vic Joseph does it now. Mauro Ranallo did it for, it's not an easy position at all. You have

to know wrestling. You have to know sports entertainment inside and out. Because anything could potentially happen. It's live entertainment or whatever. Adnan is one of the first completely outside voices who's been brought in,

tasked with that. I'm excited to see how he, you know, I don't want to say evolves, but yeah, like evolves in this whole thing. I thought you were burying him, but yes, that was announced on Monday. Thought it was potentially going to ruin our announcement. So had to do the kicking one on Monday. Had to distract quickly. You know what I mean?

Had to distract quickly. It did that. I wanted to almost tweet a congratulations to Adnan, but I didn't even do that. And I hope Adnan understands. Now he does. Now you understand. That's why I didn't tweet him a congratulations or whatever.

I tried to stay. Even WrestleMania was kind of quiet. It was not easy. That was last weekend. So I tried to do my best to cover it up because there's nothing anymore in wrestling really that isn't known by everybody before it happens which kind of kind of fucks a lot of things up and nowadays with the world that we're in you know it's it doesn't happen as much and then it's just i thought it was going to get leaked for sure and it did not i'm very thankful it didn't how does uh so cory graves now

is on monday night with adnan right yeah so cory's like cory's the man by the way cory what a what a cool just awesome dude and not just awesome dude like maybe the coolest looking dude of all time and also i'd put him top three commentator in wwe history like that is and i'm by the way i'm technically replacing him on SmackDown. Cause he got met now the wrestling idiots. They, they think I'm replacing somebody else, but that's a different show.

I did not even know that wasn't even, I'm not even a part of that, but I'm replacing. What are the, what are the idiots? There was a lot of releases yesterday and it was, I, I'm not,

I don't like seeing that at all, but it's like, it's kind of how the business works. And I don't like, by the way, I'm a big fan of a lot of the people that got released, both as humans and as that whole thing. But we didn't know that was coming either. Then that goes out, and it's like, oh.

But also, I'm living my fucking dream too. And I feel like they understand that as well. You didn't make the decision. It is the business. That is the wrestling business. That's what it is. I think that's a missed opportunity by you. Maybe you'll take advantage of it tonight.

But you can mention, like, hey, I told Vince what the number was, and he said I'm going to have to lay off nine or ten people to fit you in. So here I am, guys. Hey, as I was tweeting up the tweet this morning, there was a thought just to go full nuclear heat. But I didn't want the people like there was a chance there was a draft in the brain that was like had a but i would have felt bad towards the people who i have a lot of respect for who yesterday was not a cool day you know what i

mean so like i i had to have that fine balance there like yeah what do i do here because they know it's the business too but it's like i don't want to so you're you're right it's it's not cool but it is the business but cory he's incredibly quick incredibly i think he's been in the wrestling business since he was like 16 or 15 or something like that in from the area i'm from it's just that is almost now when the news yesterday happened in a way some people were talking i guess that kind of shifted my like oh that is going to be a tough thing to do but that was a lot of thinking there for me it's like i and i might even address it very early in the show like listen the guy that used to do this much quicker than i am knows a lot more about this

whole thing he's much more handsome but we're gonna go ahead and take this thing to a much different place i think you know what i mean and that's that's genuinely how i feel aj so how many days a week will you be down there at that office i'm not sure you know it was it was dependent upon how well it worked down here you know like do they like how early does do they need you in for i know the show's every friday night how early are you supposed to be there well that's a fascinating question because we actually just talked to michael cole. He's got to go to some meetings here today and I am incredibly bummed that

we can't tag team those things too. Me and Vinatieri, by the way, used to sit together in all those terrible meetings and it was a team effort to get through them. All the meetings, it was a team effort to get through. So, I do feel bad about that. But they were very adamant about not interrupting anything that we have.

Because I think they have, you know, because that company, family business, although it is globally billion-dollar, publicly traded, has become, you know, this whole thing. There's few people making decisions. It's a relatively small business. You know, like it is a, now granted a lot of employees, big production, everything like that. But really at the heart of it,

this is a family business that has made it to this whole thing. So I think as they learned about what I had going on with the boys and with what we are building, I think there was an actual, I don't want to say respect. It felt like there was an actual respect though that was like, okay, we understand what you're doing.

We appreciate what you're doing. And they've tried to make that work. So I'm going to try to give back as much as possible, though, because I feel like that is a massive opportunity. So I should go above and beyond. But I do appreciate what they're thinking. Now, we do have a house down here. It's only like there's only a, it's going to be a a drive but it's only a little bit i'll head over there afterwards but they had a lot of respect for that through this whole process and i'm very very thankful for

it well they're because they're smart they understand you have a weekly you have a daily show five days a week why would they want to interrupt that when both the things can help the other did you see uh in the press release it said internationally streaming there you go big time it was awesome you know because other people talk about us they're like uh you know small regional show crush that region man i just i don't know why but i just noticed your spray tan oh just now you could tell that is did you get your face a different tint than your body no you just got to remember my face is always a different tint. And the issue I think is the particular bed I got in, it did feel like it was spraying a bit light.

And then when it got to my face, it sure felt like a lot more than the rest of my body. It was like a every single time. Like the top of my back, I think, is going to have a dump on it. I had to go to like three different tanning places, though, this morning because they're all packed out and I couldn't get the tan yesterday that would have given it away so i had to get the tan this morning we had to get me and ty had to go drive to a couple places that are packed i get to the final location that yeah could get right in yeah he get right in it was very nice you know

what i mean but it did feel like a much different spray than i am used to so what you're observing there is probably going to be accurate for what the next two weeks now with how heavy the spray tan is yeah well it doesn't really matter though you're not you're not taking your shirt off are you to be a commentator who knows am i just commentating oh by the way there's no reason for me to start well but you're right there's going to be no shirtless me tonight there. There is no chance of a shirtless me tonight. Let's talk about some things happening in the world, shall we, AJ? Let's do it.

Did you see the Aaron Donald video? Dude's been exonerated. I mean, it seems like it, right? From that video, he absolutely looks like he helps the dude. Did he knock the guy out off the camera or something or what? Well, so I think, you know, what had happened was, is old buddy did get beat up. Now, this video. Dude was getting kicked in the head, it looked like.

This video is good for Aaron Donald. There's potential some other people that might catch some ricochet bullets from this whole thing. Now, I don't know how they'll be able to clearly depict who's who in this whole thing. We should also talk about the guy that was able to pull Aaron Donald away. Yeah. Colts should fucking hire that guy. Yeah need a left tackle and if he can just pull aaron donald off a guy but i think aaron donald potentially in that video is the only one that should not have gotten sued but speaking of being sued this is the south side of pittsburgh

in in an alley behind the south side of pittsburgh.m. So I think a lot of people immediately think, like, there's a chance this type of thing could happen. But this guy getting kicked in the face, punched in the face, very, very scary situation, obviously. Hope he ends up to be okay. It looks like he is. His eye was hidden for probably the next month or so or whatever, and his arm was in a thing.

But I feel like Aaron Donald was the only guy that should have got sued. Now, there might have been more. There might not have been this whole thing, but it feels like somebody was like oh that was aaron donald's crew and he's like oh well in one eye i guess yeah it was him i saw him and then he hit me so i don't know how this is gonna end but wild time to be alive aaron saves a life he probably felt like in the car ride home after that and i I think, I don't know if they still stay in Penn Hills, which is, he still was a Pittsburgh,

but probably a 10 minute drive outside of probably where they were. 15 minute drive outside where they're on the car home. People, Aaron was probably like, man, I had to, you were trying to, I had to,

why you got like, Aaron was probably telling like, you guys can't, we can't be doing that type of whatever. And then he wakes up the next morning. He's getting, so he's like, I fucking told you, we can't be doing that. It's and then he wakes up the next morning he's getting so he's like i fucking told you we can't be doing that it's like i i feel like i'm happy that the entire

world is under surveillance now at this point though yeah i think the video yeah who knows what happened before or after but that poor kid got junk he's getting kicked in the head and hit by multiple people what a scary situation for him they're saying i'm not even gonna say it but it's being reported that this potentially lingered from somewhere boom boom to somewhere somebody wasn't happy there was a potential and then they're saying there's there's always going to be more and who knows which one is right but whenever i heard that the initial report was that he bumped into him yeah and then aaron donald snaps yeah and then now i don't know how that would have pretty clear that was not and it was not at the boom boom room it was on the street i want like so i don't know you know i wonder if that guy is learning just now of what actually happened

could be yeah like thank you to aaron donald like because without him like that those guys might have just kept going 3 a.m okay there's a chance that old buddy does not remember, especially with what happened. I wonder if that video came out and he was like, oh, I was talking about this. There was actually another. So, you know, there's probably going to be more that comes out of this whole thing. But once again, I can't stress this enough.

Pittsburgh Southside, 3 a.m. There's a chance that's going to happen. And if you ever travel, you just got to know that you got to keep your head on the surface. I'm not saying it's right. Okay So I'm not saying it's right. Okay. I'm not saying it's right. I'm just saying you were in an area where there is a lot of booze and a lot of people that are very like-minded and that's just kind of how it,

how it happens in that game, but happy the guy's not dead. And it feels like Aaron Donald's a hero in this whole thing. Hope he gets that thing dismissed soon. Bill Belichick talked about his moves in the drafts. Did you read this? We talked about it earlier. It's Bill Belichick being forced to answer a question

and giving absolutely zero information, but people quoting it and running with it. Everyone quoting it and running with it. Like, when I click on this to read, I'm like, oh, Belichick, did he say something? Me too. I'm like, no. No, he was Belichick's.

Okay, this is what I expected. Normally something will happen, and there will be a player. Okay, this is what I expected. Normally something will happen and there can very well be a player that you don't expect to be there. Maybe there's a couple spots, maybe a 12, 13. He's still on board. You really thought, I mean, you really thought he'd be gone in like the top six, maybe seven, eight, maybe nine. Then the question comes, are you trying to move up

and trying to get that player that's following him? And that's basic draft strategy, I think. And what I just told you is a bunch of sentences that player to follow him. And that's basic draft strategy, I think. And what I just told you was a bunch of sentences that absolutely mean fucking nothing. That's basically what he did there. That's basically what Bill Belichick did. The only thing that went, you know, that got a lot of traction was him, what, telling the guy that we don't

care about your feelings or if you don't feel good? I didn't see that. Oh, yeah. We don't want to hear your complaints anyways. To who? To this reporter. He's like, hey, how you doing, Bill? Bill said, good, how are you? He's like, yeah, I can's like yeah i can't complain bill says yeah well good we don't want to hear sitting on that why do people always say can't complain we don't want you to nobody like even if you can complain why are you announcing that to me don't got time for it he's had deep thoughts about how people answer like how you

doing oh how you doing good how you doing like that he probably has entire theories on all of those answers now how many of those has he sat through oh it's like before the season answering questions about stuff where he's gonna give no answers oh he popped himself big time with it too he started laughing like right after did he grab the water or did he? I don't think so. I think it was just like a. Let it eat. We have an announcement from the ever-evolving NFLPA NFL situation with the virtual off-seasons that happened last year due to Uncle COVID coming around and forcing everybody into a virtual off-season and veterans got a chance to experience life even more so away from the facility with their own personal trainers that they probably pay six figures to in some cases,

at least a good amount of money they've worked with, they've worked alongside. The schedule is differently. Now players want that offseason to become the regular. There's no CBA negotiation for like another seven years at this point or eight years at this point. So now they're trying to figure out how to come to an agreement the nflpa has made statements on behalf of five teams thus far i think the sixth maybe seventh team just like bill belichick six maybe seven they are the pittsburgh steelers so after the tampa bay Buccaneers recently come out, now the Pittsburgh Steelers,

one of the most storied franchises in the history of the NFL in a city that revolves around blue collar hard work and also in Pittsburgh, a lot of unions. So whenever the NFLPA comes out and says we should not be made to compromise our health and safety with the current pandemic still affecting our communities and country and the lack of clear protocols and protections regarding returning to work at full capacity the players of the pittsburgh steelers have decided to exercise our right to not participate in voluntary in-person activities they say a virtual off season helped us keep us safe last year they go through all the things we are professionals and are committed to being in the best shape possible our team holds each other accountable to the highest professional standards and we will prepare as we always do to be the best

for Steelers nation okay so this is just uh the most recent team the Pittsburgh Steelers coming out and saying we ain't doing it now the Pittsburgh Steelers the players of the Pittsburgh Steelers have decided to exercise our right to not participate. This is April 16th. The draft's April 29th. What's going to happen with these kids that get drafted, you think, AJ? They're definitely going in for OTAs, aren't they? You would think, right?

And the Steelers is different than, I don't know whose announcement yesterday said the majority of their players will not be going back to Steelers. The players of the Steelers. So that's saying to me, like, hey, we don't want anyone going in. Did the Raiders? I don't know. The Raiders didn't come out, did they? I forget.

Yesterday we read one. Are you talking about the many? They said many of our players? Yeah, many or a majority of our players will not be attending. Yeah, and I thought it was going to be, by the way, a little bit of a spiral into softening the announcement by every team to join part of it when it said many, then some, and then the majority of our players. Pittsburgh Steelers just came out and said this is the first time in a long time

we have a chance to potentially have a little bit of say in some things we should think about that accordingly I've been told that by a couple different places by players that say like all the teams are talking to each other and they're like hey there's been some real guys that have come into the chat maybe we're sitting quietly during either the Zoom call or whatever, and then have just dropped in and been like, you know, we should actually think about doing this. We should actually think about this. So this is potentially something where the players, I don't want to say are feeling empowered,

but maybe this is the first time where players actually think that they can all rally around something. History has told us that's not probable but maybe this is the thing that'll get changed it'll be for the betterment of everybody i think you're right it's it's the players union thinking that they i don't know are doing something to to kind of further what they can do and solidify themselves as a union and try to take some power back but i mean i don't know if they would ever the thing is like would you ever jeopardize regular season football games i don't know that's never no they always have that though

the owners know that players are not gonna miss games it's just not gonna happen they're not gonna strike like other sports have done like football did what 87 i think there was a strike yeah it's just not gonna happen what is there is a 30 for 30 on the um uh the scabs right the scabs oh yeah? The scabs. Oh, yeah, there is. We checked out ESPN Plus last night here at the house because we have no cable. We have no TV, so we can't really watch anything.

So my TV is completely broken, actually, in my room, so I can't even turn it on. We tried to attach a couple things to it. It didn't work. It just wouldn't connect. So I had a long night, obviously. But out here, there's a TV. Peyton's places is awesome it's great the best yes it now i will say this we should have known that because we've seen clips from earlier and it was awesome

obviously everybody sees the marshall lynch peyton situation with the tour doll no no no i'm talking hennessey that whole situation you know that's gone out there but those are very fucking well done yeah they're incredible they're like documentaries being his letterman did you watch his letterman episode no we checked out uh last night marshawn we watched bill clinton with like the invention of the forward pass at the university of army or whatever the letterman episode is good i went on and watched it and i i've always had a ton of respect for peyton but how quick peyton is he was going back and forth with d Dave on all these little bits and things

they were doing at ball States football practice. I was like, there's not, I can't think of another athlete anywhere that could hang with Dave Letterman like, like Peyton could like he's super quick. Yeah. And also the thing about him is he's so good at football. He was so, so, so good at football, right? So good. So everything he says, his name is synonymous with the nfl so it's like okay this is peyton fucking manning doing this right now and literally that's what people called him in indianapolis he was so sure to like it's peyton fucking manning dude like

that's that's kind of you do it so i should have expected it to be good but then you watch an episode executive producer first name peyton manning that's what surprised so it's like okay so this is actually like his ideas like he's actually putting the storyboards together the clips from NFL films by the way Peyton goes to NFL films so I'm not 100 sure if ESPN had a relationship with or not and maybe they do they probably do because they have some of the rights or whatever and they pay a lot of money but I'd assume when Peyton shows up at NFL films at the vault like Peyton hey Peyton whatever the fuck you want yeah let's go ahead and do it the clips they have the because that that nfl films vault from what i've been told

by the people that have seen it they're basically like if you're a football fan that is football heaven it is every single game every clip you could ever and they they show them by the way in this thing it's like you're learning the history of football. It's a fantastic show. We were forced to watch it. Yeah, right. So I kind of feel bad that that's how it all happened. But I'm happy it took place because, you know, this place has no cable or whatever.

You know, we're paying a pretty, pretty penny for it. I think the TV would be able to work in the bedroom. You need to get that fixed. We'll figure it out. It was a quick turnaround. It was. They didn't think we were going to be in here, obviously. Which is kind of crazy, though, that they would think,

like, oh, okay, we can just clip the cable line with some garden shears and we'll be okay. Anyways, great show. Yeah. Unbelievable. It's a great show. And then all the 30 for 30s, you scroll through in the ESPN Plus app or whatever,

which people can either buy or not. I have no bearing on whether you do. Do not care. Now, Peacock, there's a lot of WWE stuff that's going to be in there. You should download it. plus app or whatever which people can either buy or not i have no bearing on whether you do do not care now peacock there's a lot of wwe stuff that's going on there you should down there the espn plus though the 30 for 30s you scroll through you forget all the with the rick flair one was on there then the the scab season's on there i'm like holy shit there's a lot of stuff i did not know existed over here should we be surprised though that Peyton is so good on there? He's far and away the best athlete ever to host Saturday Night Live.

Like, his SNL whole deal was awesome. Should have seen the clips that didn't make it. Yeah. Ooh. I know. Yeah, you did see those, right? Yeah, yeah. It was pretty cool.

That was the clips that did make it. He was all in. You could tell, like, Peyton probably got there on Monday, week of, and he's like, hey, this is going to be awesome. If you're not with me, get out of here. Me and Eli have thought about this for like 15, 20 years. Wouldn't it be cool if he probably just was like, and they were like, yeah, we'll take it and punch it up.

Listen, I'll punch it up. I'll do that. I'll punch it up. Okay, listen, this is what we need to do. I've seen it in practice. Everybody pops. Everybody laughs. Okay, I know what works and what doesn't work.

The segments that didn't make the show that's another moment where i was rather high sitting in his living room you know with his family watching clips that didn't make snl and i'm like dumbest fucking life of all time dude am i doing why am i here what the hell happened and by the way they were hysterical yeah i'm sure they were that has that'll be released at some point i think so so sorry to interrupt but i want to let you know that if you're not gambling with fandle you're wrong okay fandle sportsbook is available in uh seven states i believe at this point uh six seven eight you get it if you're not gambling with FanDuel Sportsbook, though, you're completely wrong. And if we're not in your state yet, we are coming to your state.

We have better odds. We have a much easier to use app. The convenience is next level. The people at FanDuel actually refund people when they shouldn't refund people, giving back hundreds of millions and millions of dollars to their users. FanDuel Sportsbook is the best sportsbook going for a lot of reasons, most of them what I just said. We are very thankful for our partnership with FanDuel, obviously. You know, there was a little bit of a miscommunication last week between myself and FanDuel.

We worked that out. That's kind of how things operate whenever you're in a business relationship with each other. But even if we weren't in a business relationship with FanDuel, we work that out. That's kind of how things operate whenever you're in a business relationship with each other. But even if we weren't in a business relationship with FanDuel, it'd be hard to say that we wouldn't use the FanDuel Sportsbook app. There are so many different ways to win. There's more things to bet on.

Their boosts seem to always hit, which is just fucking themselves over time and time again. We love the hell out of FanDuel Sportsbook, and you will too. If you haven't used it yet use it nah also there's fantasy on there daily fantasy and free to play games where you can win money shout out to FanDuel shout out to you let's get back to the show joining us as always and the man that was with us last hour ladies and gentlemen AJ Hawk. Hello, baby, AJ. How you doing, AJ?

I'm doing great. Good to see you. Oh, we got to turn you up. This happened yesterday as well, and it's just one of those things while Zito is balancing and juggling another guest that will be joining us. AJ, can you hear us? I can hear you.

Can you hear me any better? I got to turn you up a little bit more. My stuff's turned up as much as I can. Oh, we didn't even think about you potentially ruining that whole thing Well, Zeke did mention yesterday that one of the issues is, you know AJ's got the Mickey Mouse set up, so a lot of static was coming in Definitely his fault, not Zeke's fault

How do we have two studios very far away from each other And a box truck studio That seem to never have the issues that AJ has on a daily basis at his only studio, you think? Because he's a cheapskate. Oh, is that why, AJ? He's got an old computer from 10 years ago. I mean, I said it last, you know, AJ, buy a new computer, dude. You can afford it.

It'll help out. Hey, by the way, we'll buy one. We'll send it over to you. Computer is not the issue. Computer is not the issue, bud. First off, we didn't have any issues until you guys set up this auxiliary studio. Shut up. That's what Zito just said.

Shut up. I have no idea why that happened. I mean, that was mid-conversation there. Welcome back, AJ. That was Zito and Foxy just hit a tag team menu where they said, enough with that, AJ AJ go ahead and talk you got me now guys sound good

if you notice I did not touch anything we don't know you went off the screen we don't see you all of a sudden you sound much better on the other side you tell us is that a coincidence or not pal you're right guys that's on me I know Zito zito's the man i know i've seen his setups foxy there so you're right i am not uh it was me guys it was zito

zito's a little accountability as you know with a little accountability which uh really helps this entire company by the way whatever that happens around here And it's a trait that is not, you know, talked about enough. It's a big deal. And it might be one that's kind of disappearing in some places. But got to have a little accountability. Thank you for doing that, Zito.

I think we're going to have a guest. I have no idea if they're joining us yet or not, to be honest with you, because it seems like there is chaos happening right behind those cameras over there in front of the ocean that we get a chance to. Well, I guess it's not the ocean. It's the Gulf.

The Gulf. Okay. So it's beautiful or whatever. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, the host. I got a thumbs up earlier. I thought we had to hang up on AJ. To do the FaceTime. No, because we have multiple FaceTime machines.

Oh, that's right. It's AJ's fault. We got another one. Remember, we got another. No, this particular one is that the fact that our guest is not on right now, we cannot logically blame AJ for it. Well, in my mind, I don't think logically. So that is that guy, Hawk's fault.

I don't know how AJ is potentially eating up all of our, you know, our connection. I can hear it ringing. I can hear him calling him. Okay. All right. So maybe you should give us a heads up. Okay. So there we go all right ladies and gentlemen joining us now the host of the move the sticks podcast he's an nfl network analyst and the color commentator for the chargers on the radio ladies

and gentlemen man is going to tell us all the things that we need to know about the draft and what's bullshit and what's real ladies and gentlemen move the sticks daniel jeremiah what's going on man i don't know oh no i can't hear you oh oh no you're back you got me now yeah you're good you're back how you doing man i'm good i do have this weird thing where like one airpod works and then the other one doesn't work but it works with my computer but doesn't work with my phone. I don't know. I think it's like the iPhone like stops working after a certain amount of time

because they want you to come back and buy another one. I think they're doing the same thing with these things. Yeah, it's one of these things. You know, it's worth the ride, but then as soon as it just, you know, they get you, you're done for. We've all been stuck in that Apple wave for the last 15, 20 years.

The chargers, the new iPhones, the AirPods, you name it. We appreciate you battling through the adversity that was built in by the company that you purchased your shit from to talk to us here because it's real. We all understand that. Daniel, should I call you Daniel? Jeremiah, Mr. Jeremiah, move the sticks.

What is most, what is best here? Usually people just call me DJ. My grandmother used to call me dj my grandmother used to call me danny she that was the only one that ever rocked the danny so uh you could either join my grandmother or everybody else dj danny may not call me danny as well awesome that might be a gm yeah hey danny so whenever you look at all the things that are being discussed in this draft, nationally, it's just the quarterbacks because there's a lot going on.

There's a lot of stories. There's a lot of behind the scenes. Then it felt like there was a little bit of a run where Kyle Pitts was the best player in the draft. Is it going to be a lock for the All-Pro? Do you think that this draft, the first 10 picks in specific, do you think this is going to potentially be fireworks? Do you think there's a lot of questions on who's where? Or do you think it's pretty much locked in at this point?

No, I think it's like locked in pick one and two. I feel really good. Obviously, Trevor Lawrence is going to go one. Zach Wilson is going to go two. And then with the Niners, I mean, I think that's where we don't know. I mean, everything is kind of pointed towards Mac Jones. You kind of, the people that, it's always the people that know people, right? I don't have it directly.

I just know people that are tied in there and that's what you keep hearing is Mac Jones. But I've also, you're told it's not done. Obviously they're continuing to go through the process here. They did it with, with Fields. They're going to continue to do it with Trey Lance. So I don't think that process is done there. So really it's like, we don't know what's happened at three. At four, it's like a three-way go for the Falcons.

They could take a quarterback, they could take a position player, or they could trade out. And then with the Bengals, the same thing. Are they going to take an offensive lineman for Burrow, or do they go with one of those pass catchers with Pitts or Jamar Chase? So, yeah, I think the first two picks are kind of chalky, and then after that it's wide open. Daniel, do you ever go back from, like, drafts that happened previously

and look at all the misinformation that was put out and everything that happens before the draft and compare and try to, like, build a trend on what teams do? Yeah, more than anything else, I kind of do it personally just on where you get your information from. Like, you know, the evaluation parts, the fun stuff. But where you get your information, like to put together these mock drafts, which is kind of a necessary evil, I guess. You start cross referencing kind of where you got good stuff and where you got bad stuff.

Like I talked to a guy this morning who was like locked in, knew this one team inside out and told me who they were going to pick. And that's exactly who they picked. So you can rely on those type of people going forward but then there's all other stuff that there's you know people don't know hey dano they're they're i like dano yeah dano's good let's go ring to it yeah aj that was you just by the way i love that you just slip it in there straight face as if you're just, you know, create a new nickname for a man who's lived however many years and only other than his grandma

has called him a different name. So I like that we're doing that here. Dano, whenever you hear that information, you know, like, hey, this is who we're picking. This is where they go. There's a chance that you potentially have sources inside of buildings and they even are misled, right? Like everybody's playing aside from the two.

But in in our in your experience of the draft, does it feel like everybody's potentially gaming everybody at all times? Is that kind of how it has to be viewed in this whole thing? Well, yeah, I think the circle has shrunk over the years used to be like in the draft room. You had 10, 15 guys who were kind of a part of the process. It was healthy. And you had the good debate and discussion. You were in there together to stack the board. Now, when the final board is stacked, it is a very small circle for these organizations. I can remember like a classic was I had a bunch of buddies on the, on the coaching side and in the personnel side with the bears um at this time so i i was like hey i keep hearing a lot of buzz that they're that you guys are going to take trubisky you know i'm on

the on the desk for the draft coverage like i'm not ever going to like put it in a mock draft even or or say this is a done deal but i would like to mention it as a possibility on the air when you guys are on the clock that hey this could be trubisky just to keep it as a the mix. And they were like, dude, I'm telling you, we are not taking him. There is no chance we are taking Trubisky. It's not happening. And I'm like, okay. So then they end up taking Trubisky, and then I'm on the desk at the draft,

and my phone is blowing up with apologies like, dude, I swear I had no idea we were doing that. I was not trying to lead you astray. No clue. Hey, so if you had to guess like the the average team how many people truly know who they're gonna draft kevin costner that's it yeah exactly i would say it is a small circle i would say on average i would say three to four people uh and that's usually like you're talking obviously the owner is gonna know uh where you're

leaning the general manager the head coach those three and then maybe a fourth guy whether that's usually like you're talking, obviously the owner is going to know where you're leaning, the general manager, the head coach, those three, and then maybe a fourth guy, whether that's a coordinator, whether that's a director of player personnel, but it really is tight, man. It has to be, I think, especially with how big the stakes are now at this point, it feels like every draft pick is being, you know, made out to be the next face of a franchise for 20 years.

And odds say say and stats also tell us that that is not going to happen that is there's going to be a lot of busts here and not because it's I mean it is technically their fault because the way they play but also the situation they're going into is potentially a no chance of success operation I mean that's just the fact of the matter of what the NFL is but a lot of these guys are not going to work out in the NFL long term. They're going to have careers. But when you're talking about memorable, successful, long-term careers, stats say it's not going to happen.

Who's somebody in this draft? Is it Kyle Pitts? Where if you had a gun to your head, million dollars, and said this player right here will be a Hall of Famer. Is there anybody that you – now, nobody's going to hold you to this, by the way. It's a hypothetical. Let's say a million dollars on the line.

What player do you think out of your scouting of this draft is like, you know what, guaranteed Hall of Famer basically? I would say I would put it in the language of if I had to say the most likely player in this draft to be a Hall of Famer would be Kyle Pitts, I wouldn't hesitate and say that would be the guy. It reminds me so much of when, when Quentin Nelson was coming out, you know, and it was like, Oh, you can't take a guard this high. I'm like, I don't know the guys that he's the best player at his position that I've ever

evaluated. And he's a great kid, everything else that you want, you know, with the intangibles. So I don't know, I guess I'd, I'd be okay to sleep at night knowing i just drafted a hall of fame type player and pits is the same thing at the tight end position you hear the same thing you can't draft the tight end that high but yeah he's the best tight end i've ever evaluated it happens to also just be an unbelievably great kid so i don't think there's uh i don't think you can go wrong however high he goes just take him so if something happens in the top 10 to throw things off like let's say mac jones goes at three what do you think happens from four to ten is

there any is there anyone outside the top 10 that you think tries to get up there like what kind of chaos are we looking at i think the chaos uh aj starts at four so like we all know that the 49ers taken a quarterback and we assume that right. 99.9% where it changes is at four, because if the Falcons take a quarterback at four, I think we end up with five quarterbacks going in the top 10. None of the quarterbacks really fall. If the Falcons stay at four and take say pits or, you know, whoever, then now I think it changes because I think at least one of these quarterbacks

is going to end up falling so you have three go three quarterbacks go one two three but you've still got two other guys if the falcons don't take one of them um and the fact i think carolina's is good with sam i don't think they're going to take one at eight um then i think you start seeing one of the quarterbacks drift and that's where you get the excitement because the quarterbacks drive the draft in terms of the trades usually talking about edge rushers and quarterbacks that's the currency people are aggressive to go get we're talking to daniel jeremiah move the sticks founder uh you know it goes by dano and danny as well as dj you could potentially hear him making the rounds draft expert on nfl network uh analyst and this entire thing do you is part of

your is most of your job scouting these guys or is it trying to figure out what teams need what like for instance the broncos everybody's like and they're at nine i think they're at nine i believe like they're gonna take a quarterback right is that are you trying to figure out just as much what everybody's potentially gonna do with their pick or are you just trying to figure out the players and learn about them i think my my biggest priority has always been to study the players myself and have a firm opinion on them and evaluation on them that i can share so i always tell people like they get so upset with mock drafts i'm like mock drafts are based off what i'm hearing i'm not going to get offended because it's just what i'm hearing i don't care if you

like it or you don't like it it's not my opinion it's just what I'm hearing. I don't care if you like it or you don't like it. It's not my opinion. It's just what I'm hearing. When I put together a sequence list or my top 50 players, that's like my legitimate opinion and I'll defend that. But the other stuff's kind of based off what you're hearing. But I do think in this role, the responsibility is, you know, when you're sitting there on draft coverage and when the team makes the selection, I feel like they say, hey, this is what I think of this player, when the team makes the selection, I feel like they say, Hey, this is what I think of this player, but here's why this team took him because they see him as this and that,

and he's going to fit into what they do. So you got to understand what, who the teams are, what they need, and how these players fit. So the long answer, I feel like my responsibility is to have an opinion on these guys and then to be able to explain why the teams made the decisions that they made. Okay. So now we know how to evaluate you though, you know, like in what you're made. Okay, so now we know how to evaluate you, though, like in what you're saying. We'll know how to, you know, we'll fairly evaluate what move the Sticks is putting out there.

Like, this is what he's focusing on. This is what he's doing. So whenever you speak about that, I feel like a lot more people should be like, okay, this guy, this is what he's investing in. Draft is huge, man. It's so big. It is so crazy.

You're going to be competing against us that first night. I mean, good luck out there, obviously. But I'm so pumped for it. I think it could be very exciting. Connor, what do you have? Yeah, Dan, you said there's a possibility of five quarterbacks going in the top 10. Do you see any of the 22 teams after that taking a quarterback? And if so, who's the sixth guy off the board? Oh, that's a good question.

I don't think we see another one in round one. And so to me, I think that the sixth and seventh guys for me, I know Kyle Trask has some love out there, but I think it'll come down to Kellen Mond from A&M or Davis Mills from Stanford. I like Davis Mills. He's only started 11 games. But, man, he's just – everything he does, he's just got real pure motion

and he's a better athlete than people thought. You get to the pro day, he's just everything he does he's got real pure motion and and he's he's a better athlete uh the people thought you get to the pro days not wearing the big knee brace and he moves around pretty well so um i think those guys go but there's kind of you know you look at the starters in the league and there's not many guys that were picked on day two those second third round picks um you have almost as much luck if you were to wait just take one in the fourth round so i think we see five go in round one. And I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a little lull there in round two and then we saw those other quarterbacks come a little bit after that.

Dano, do you see the receivers in this draft class faring like the receivers last year did coming in and having an immediate impact? Because it seems like right after the season ended, a lot of people were gushing over all of them. And then now it's just everything everything's quarterbacks and it feels like a lot of that steam's falling off. Well, I think it's a good group. I don't think it's as good as last year. Um, and some of it is just like the styles last year, we had a, we had some really good, uh, receivers at different sizes. I mean, you had like those power forwards that went outside around one, you had Pittman, um. You had Mims with the Jets.

T. Higgins. Like, these guys were all – Claypool obviously had a huge year. This year, there's not as many bigger wideouts. So, it's a good group, a little bit undersized outside the few guys. But I think when you look at the top four, those guys are going to step on the field and have an immediate impact. I just don't think we'll see as many guys outside the first round be as good as what we saw last year.

We're talking to Daniel Jeremiah, NFL network draft analyst, as well as other things caused the chargers games and everything like, how is the, what's the easiest. Somebody's going to come out of nowhere. Do we just judge that off of speed? Like who ran what?

Like, how do you try to predict like studying somebody that's potentially going to show up out of nowhere aside from the people that we all kind of know about coming because somebody's going to get drafted that none of us have ever heard about that aren't in the draft world how do you know is there like a buzz around is do you do that from your own film study like oh this guy just showed up out of nowhere he potentially has a chance how do you how do you find that shit yeah usually you start hearing some some buzz from talking to teams and then actually give away a little bit of the secrets here usually you call the colleges and find out like who who

have teams been calling you about a lot and who have they been asking about and you might hear some names that maybe you're like really like that guy i don't know why there's quite as much interest in him i didn't really personally have a big grade on him but it gives you an alert that like okay that there's some heat on this dude um that the teams are really calling the schools to get more and more information on some of these guys so that's how you find some of them and then you know you get the pro day workouts and so you just kind of comb through those and you see some crazy numbers on the pro day you're like okay this guy somebody's gonna fall in love with this guy because just the the testing was so freaky raiders you know there's there's a couple gms that at times you know not anymore i don't think the raiders are like that anymore but

there for what like 15 years it was like al davis wants the fastest guy in the league on his team would have been awesome to be a punter there oh everybody ran four fours everybody ran everybody ran four threes it was like you draft them high they have to be on the team they can't play on offense or defense what are they gonna do they're gonna play special teams okay we'll get we'll get six guys that run under four three to cover kicks it would be like oh like for instance this is gonna be going a tangent but i didn't get a chance to address this so i'm gonna address it right now if i'm jake bailey next year and this goes against everything Belichick believes, with Slater and Justin Bethel as his gunners,

I would punt that ball 95 yards every single time, as low as possible, and just say, yep, I got the best two fucking coverage guys of all time. Just go ahead and go get that thing. With the fast teams, I always love that whenever somebody pops up out of nowhere, they run like a 4-2. It's like, remember, he ran a 4- a four two it's like speed does kill matchups but can it necessarily catch

a ball i'm not 100 sure i guess we'll find out aj what do you got we we used to have guys though there were there were kind of like players on the board where we would say okay this is a raider like the raiders are definitely taking this guy um i remember when heath miller was coming out uh ozzy it even says with the ra Ravens and Ozzie Newsome was like, this is a Steelers are taking Heath Miller. Like, I mean, they didn't pick the like the later end, but it's like this, this guy was put on planet earth to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Like that's where he's going. Wow. Hey, speaking of the Raiders, I know we talk about Al Davis and how he drafted, but John Gruden catches some heat for sure on how the different drafts that he has had. I know your old colleague Mayock is the GM there. It seems like Gruden makes the final call. Do you think Gruden will ever change the way that he does draft players?

Well, I think it's changed, you know, kind of from year to year. There's been some years where they kind of went on the height, weight, speed guys. And then they had a lot of success. You look at some of the players they've hit on. You know, look, Josh Jacobs has been a really good player. Hunter Renfro, you know, is not going to be the first one ever off the bus, but just like really good football players. Max Crosby, again, not a first-round guy, but somebody that they hit on,

kind of focusing more on just the instincts and the ability on the field versus maybe some of the testing. And then some of the misses they've kind of fluctuated, just kind of going back on just the instincts and the ability on the field versus maybe some of the testing. And then some of the misses they've kind of fluctuated. It's kind of going back and forth between that. So, man, if they can lock in on what they found in that draft, as opposed to some of these others, I think they've got something. But they've kind of just drifted a little bit with their philosophy. Daniel, we can't thank you enough.

You might have seen me look at this computer and be surprised. The whole thing just crashed, and then I had to. While you were giving an incredible answer there, I just had to recode this thing. No big deal. Don't worry about it. Big tech guy. You're a big draft guy. We can't thank you enough for joining us in this incredibly busy time to,

you know, help spill your brain out a little bit of your mouth so we can understand what's going on in this world. Well, I appreciate you guys. My right ear really enjoyed this. My left ear got nervous. It's kind of like my right leg was worth a damn The left wasn't worth a damn thing Ladies and gentlemen

Daniel Jeremiah Can't thank you enough for choosing to listen to this show All week All week You guys spend time with us You allow us to penetrate your ear holes. I hope we give you an above average product every single day.

Some days, not so much. Some days are home runs. Today is a day, it's a celebration. And I'm very thankful for all of you being a part of this journey with us. If you like the show, please be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened.

From all the guests, thank you, or to all the guests, I mean, thank you for your time and conversation with us. To all the boys, thank you for your passion, loyalty, and incredibly hard work this week. And to all the listeners that spend time with us, you are the fucking best. Hashtag endapodsquad. We'll do some more giveaways. Ty Schmidt will be tasked with that. Ty, please play some independent music

and propel these people into a beautiful weekend. If you like this show, be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Cheers. We'll see you Monday. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to the next one. I'm going to go to Yeah Yeah Yeah Hey, what up? Hey Question, boy, question

If you're tired of me Thinking good for you Thank you. Good boy. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning, good morning Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.