The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 487 - One Week Until NFL Football, Ian Rapoport, Former Danbury Trashers President/GM AJ Galante, Ariel Helwani, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: September 2, 2021

On today's show, Pat and the boys chat about Pat going to war with Miami Dolphins twitter over questioning whether or not the Dolphins might finish 3rd or 4th in the AFC East, and what we need to remember betting wise as we approach the start of the NFL season, which teams are going to be reliable over the course of the first four weeks, and a look at this weekend's college football slate starting with Ohio State @ Minnesota tonight. Joining the program for the NFL Wrap-Around is NFL Network Insider, and friend of the show Ian Rapoport to chat about the NFL season approaching, the flooding in New York, Packers vs. Saints being played in Jacksonville, how much we'll see Trey Lance at QB the start of the season, if the Steelers are going to get TJ Watt's deal done before the start of the season, and much more (27:51-45:37). Next, joining Pat and AJ Hawk is star of the UNTOLD: Crime & Penalties, former President/GM of the Dansbury Trashers, AJ Galante, to chat about the Netflix documentary and how everything has kind of been a whirlwind in the aftermath of it, his birthday party with some of the biggest stars in the history of the WWE in attendance, how his dad is doing, and much more about his life growing up and running the team in an incredible conversation (1:02:43-1:21:28). Later, joining Pat and AJ Hawk is friend of the program, a man who left ESPN and now has 100 jobs, 9x MMA Journalist of the Year, Ariel Helwani. Pat, Ariel, and AJ chat about his departure from ESPN, how things are going now, working the Jake Paul Tyron Woodley fight and how it was one of the biggest moments of his career, having Drake reach out to him, what's next, and much much more (1:22:37-1:52:35). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow and listen every day on Mad Dog Radio, Sirius XM Channel 82. We appreciate you all for listening, come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, it is Thursday, September 2nd, 2021. Seven days away from the NFL season kicking off with a lot of college ball tonight and through the weekend. We're off tomorrow, so there's three days without us. I'm sure some of you and your significant others will be thankful, but I tell you what, today we bring some heat. If you enjoy this show, by the end of it,

please be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never, ever happened. Let's get to it. The NFL starts in one week. What? Yeah! Made it, man. The celebration from the Toxic Table at Ty Schmidt, Nat Boss, and Connor is needed and deserved.

We are just seven, seven, seven days away from the NFL kickoff with the Buccaneers and Cowboys taking place down there in Champa Bay, Florida. I cannot wait for it. Obviously, there's a lot of college football in the night, including OH. We're hosting the row in the boat, sons of bitches of Minnesota. I mean, football's all the way back, as are we. This is day 10 of COVID confinement. Here we go. Thank you. I feel damn good. All the symptoms are long behind me.

I feel like a much better person. I've learned a lot about me. I've learned more about my body. I've learned more about this company. The way you guys back in the office have been able to put this show together with me FaceTiming in every single day has been nothing short of amazing and impressive. I appreciate the fucking hell out of all of you back there. At Tone Diggs, the COVID cowboy, host of Hammer Don, the podcast. I hear Gumpy's still hot in his COVID cave.

How is the entire Hammer Don, the podcast. I hear Gumpy's still hot in his COVID cave. How is the entire Hammer Don show? Are we still riding an incredible heater into this NFL season, into this college football season? How much money are we making tonight? Do you have any good feels or tells on what we should be hammering tonight, Tone Diggs? Gumpy went undefeated again last night. Woo! Go, Gump!

Let's go, Gump. I have nine NCAA picks for this weekend, four leans, so 13 altogether. None of them actually come tonight. BYU, or sorry, Boise UCF is tonight as well. Two new coaching staffs, that's the other highlight game. UCF, a slight lean there potentially. Their offense is incredible. And then a lot of people were on Minnesota tonight, plus the

14.5. They have 20 returning starters, but those returning starters were 120th on defense last year and could not stop the run. So I'm worried about that. I'm staying away. I will just watch that to see if Ohio State does run up and down the field on the Gophers tonight.

Okay, thank you, Tom, for that piece of information there. I put together a nice little parlay. Ooh, yeah, what are we talking? Everybody that was minus 2,000 or bigger to win tonight, I just parlayed them all together. I got a 10-leg parlay at plus 135. Yes. And I feel really good about it.

I don't know anything about any of these teams I like everybody else will watch along and see where this journey to the top of the mountain for college football will go Coastal Carolina's playing tonight. Obviously last year they had a massive look at us and I'm mollets bitches here It was fun to watch them come into their own. I'm excited for college football happening all weekend. Herbstreet put out a tweet. I think there's like 15 games tomorrow as well. And then this weekend, there's a bunch. I mean, we are living fantastically. Hopefully, they're another kicker or punter. We'll have a performance like my dude Blake Hayes from the University of Illinois did this past weekend. Blake Hayes, I want to let you know, pal, I appreciate the hell out of you.

The performance you put on in that week zero college football game where you won the game for the University of Illinois will not go unnoticed, pal. Look for your locker in the next few days. There might be a gift from old Santa Claus, Granda Claus, old

Uncle Pat, maybe. I mean, I'm trying to figure out this name image like this thing without potentially having to tell people that they aren't worth a fuck a year from now or two years from now when their college football careers are over. But I would like to at least send my thanks to punters and kickers around college football who do a hell of a job with a lot of pressure on them as going to class and representing for the brand. Blake Hayes was the first one this past weekend.

I can't wait to see who does what they got to do this upcoming weekend. Let's talk about last night, shall we? Yep. So, Dolphins Twitter and I had a nice little rendezvous last night. So, one particular tweet started the whole thing and said, Is Dolphins Twitter dragging at Pat McAfee show yet for basically yesterday, I was questioning, um,

how the Dolphins are going to perform in the AFC East. This AFC East, by the way, not only the Buffalo Bills who look unbelievable and just resign or just sign Josh Allen to a longterm deal and Mick Dermott and bean and everything up there seems to be running beautifully, but also you got the big, bad fucking Wolf up in New England. They spent $150 million on day one of the tampering period of free agency.

Bill Belichick said, we ain't sucking again. All right, I ain't doing that, especially while watching Tom Brady go win a fucking Super Bowl. So you have to take into account that Bill Belichick's going to be able to win games. He was able to win games last year with no roster. And then you also got the Buffalo Bills who are a fucking wagon at this particular point. And I saw the odds that had Dolphins ranked above the Patriots in AFC standings. And with everything that has been coming out.

Now, I'm being told by Dolphins Twitter that it's all a bunch of fugazi. It's all fake. All these reporters saying that the owner Ross and everybody else is still interested in Deshaun Watson. They're all full of shit, by the way. But for me, as somebody who's been in an NFL locker room and is somebody that, you know, observes and reports, the thought that here we are seven days away from the NFL season kicking off, and there's allegedly some allegations that the owner of the team doesn't want the quarterback to be the quarterback that is currently the quarterback. The quarterback, by the way, that we have gone to bat for at this particular show since the beginning of this entire thing,

even back whenever Tannenbaum was saying that you can't draft Tua in the top five with his injury history. I mean, we've been, I feel like, a pretty pro-Fins show. Yeah, absolutely. We let Gumpy talk bingo the dolphins yeah no even though just like when foxy talks about the lions nobody gives a fuck we're talking ranking of the ratings so yesterday whenever i found out that the dolphins had better odds to win the afc east than the new england patriots i was dumbfounded almost and then it even led me to believe if there's that

much distrust going on with Tua from the owner Allegedly now the Dolphins Twitter did tell me that that's all bullshit. I need to pay closer attention to what's real. What is it real? It's like okay. Well when there's smoke there's fire in this particular case There was like five people reporting that there was smoke in this particular thing with a quarterback that has 26 Allegations and might get three life sentences in punishment if it ends up being a criminal trial as opposed to a civil trial, which isn't anywhere near over, whatever the case. I just thought to myself, it's really hard to win an NFL game whenever anything's going right, let alone when there's potential distrust going on. Now, I might have been wrong in that.

Dolphins' order did tell me that, but I got into it. And I did not know that the Dolphins fans had this much passion. I did not know that they had this much loyalty. I said that there was 10 to 15 Dolphins fans on Twitter that I was getting into. No joke. I undershot that a little bit. I apologize for that. We will be sure to cover the Dolphins on this show every game, every single week, to cover the Dolphins on this show every game, every single week,

and just see and hope that they prove me wrong in thinking that there's a chance they end up third or fourth in the AFC East this year, just one year removed from when it looked like they were on their way up. I don't know if that's necessarily a shot at the Dolphins, by the way. I think that's just mostly me thinking, like, Belichick's still built. Yep. Belichick, right? That's right yep correct he's he's got a quarterback that looks eerily similar to the previous quarterback when it comes to throwing we don't know what's in mac jones ears only the next 20 years will be able to tell us

if he's lucky enough to last that long josh allen still josh allen right yeah the bills are still the bills right so whenever you start piecing those things together, it looks like it's going to be a long road for the Dolphins. But they're fans. I enjoyed the interactions with them last night being 100% serious. And I did not know they had that type of fan base because it hasn't been since 1984 that they won the AFC championship. Wow.

1984. It's been a long time. I appreciate the fact that they've been this loyal and this passionate, and it was awesome getting to chat with them. But if they stink this year, we will cover it. And if they're good this year, we will cover it. I mean, that's what last night proved to me at Boston Corner. I had no idea the Dolphins fans were this passionate, this loyal.

I actually have the utmost respect for it, and I like a good give and take with people, but I didn't know the Dolphins fans had it like that. Well, that's the thing, Pat. They don't. I'm sure that the 10 to 15 of what you were referencing to were possibly the 10 to 15 that are that passionate. They come out of the weeds every once in a while because they won 10 games last year. They think, oh, we're on the up and up.

Last year, to your point, we were massive fans of B-Flow. Loved everything that he was doing down in Miami. They were actually in it until week 17, so it was something that we continued to talk about. But Polentua, all that nonsense, that type of thing kind of hindered our thoughts on what the hell is going on in Miami. And Charles Robinson actually came on this week and said, hey, if you don't want to believe me, don't believe me.

But this is real. Sorry, Dolphins Twitter. This is what Houston's doing. Miami is in this. So I apologize for breaking your hearts, but they is real. Sorry, Dolphins Twitter. This is what Houston's doing. Miami is in this. So I apologize for breaking your hearts, but they're looking at Deshaun Watson. I love that their fans have Tua's back, by the way. Tua needs that. I wish the Dolphins organization would do that.

You know what I mean? And by Dolphins organization, I mean allegedly the owner has come out and said, fuck this guy. I want that guy who might not be able to play for the next 15 years, depending upon what's happening. I just, I don't think I truly appreciated Dolphins fandom until last night. And I want to let you know, we will cover that team now. Okay? Yeah.

I don't know. Heavily. Heavily. And I hope, I hope they're good because I fear the things that I will say about this Dolphins Twitter fan base that I got into it last night if they show some signs of suck, especially after the success that they showed last year where it was almost their time. Hey, the 72 Dolphins popping bottles being the only true display of happiness that the Dolphins have had forever. They lost Finkel. They lost

Einhorn. They lost goddamn snowflake. The only thing I hope is for these Dolphins fans that the Dolphins are good this year. It's good for the NFL when Miami has a team that's great, but it's been a long damn time since that has happened. I think dumpy would even say it seems like there was a couple steps forward and then almost every single time there's a couple steps back maybe this is the breakthrough year for them but the afc is no fucking laughing stock at this point i mean we're talking about a very dominant division with the two at the top being a real problem at this point and listen it's it's it's tua for that that team he and a lot of people's critique of him is that he doesn't throw the ball down the field.

Last year he was 31st in the league in yards per pass as far as distance. But he's got Waddle. He's got Will Fuller. He's got Devontae Parker. He's got Kisecki. Like, if Tua doesn't do it, then, I mean, it's on Tua, I think, with this team. No, yeah, well, Tua, this is the first time he's really being handed the team, though, too, right?

Yeah. Last year was Fitzmagic's squad, and it was that way all the way through. He was a rookie. I actually enjoyed the fact that Tua had somebody to watch, like Fitzmagic, who's been on 15 different teams. So you can see how to interact with the coaches, with the GM, with your teammates, with the media, everything like that. Then whenever the transition happened, Tua was still playing.

I guess he won six and three last year, I was told, last night. But there was obviously those numerous times where he was pulled in key situations and they put Fitz back in there. I think Tua's going to be great. I actually at one point said that because of Tua, Alabama, you know, might have a chance against like an XFL team. You know what I mean? That's right.

Because of how impressive Tua was as a quarterback, so I hope he does well. But Dolphins, Twitter, and I last night had some epic moments. I mean, I fucking love it. You know, I loved it. It was like five years ago on Twitter for me, you know, last night. I got a chance to go in there. I backed off a little bit. I think they backed off a little bit, which was very nice.

I think we came to a common respect. Then this morning, all the Johnny come lately, Dolphins fans trying to hop back in there. I didn't give them the time of day of burying them. A couple guys got it last night, some ricochet shots. I do apologize. But I love that the Dolphins have a fan base. I do love that.

I mean, I absolutely enjoy the hell out of fan base i do love that i mean i absolutely enjoy the hell out of that well and that's what i didn't understand with like the maliciousness of it is because yesterday like that is what you mean you weren't taking a shot at to it was like hey the dolphins have kind of mismanaged him up to this point you yes like you know i mean they they go away from fitz magic too early he clearly still had something going on with his hip last year i don't think he was 100% healthy. And whether you want to believe the bullshit from the owner or not, he still has to wake up every day and see,

oh, okay, I thought I was going to be the starter this year. Now the owner's saying, no, we want to go get the guy who might go to jail for the next 150 years. So if they would have managed the situation a little bit better, maybe you go into this season with Tua and you're not thinking like, oh, Jesus Christ, it feels like the sky's falling already. I like, I just like,

I don't know, like I enjoyed the hell out of that last night. Yeah. I felt alive. You know what I mean? I felt alive in there. I was scrolling through random people's Twitter accounts

looking for photos. A lot of them didn't have photos of themselves. A couple poor slaps did, so I had to do my thing. It really was what I used to do on Twitter all the time. Can't really do it as much because normally, you know, the little bitches of the world go, Oh, this is real professional.

It's real classy. And to be fair, the Dolphins fans, I mean, it was good heel baby. I mean, it was good scrap last night on Twitter. I got nothing but respect for the Dolphins fans. Some breaking news for the Indianapolis Colts. And we do cover the Indianapolis Colts mostly because they have a roster that can really go on a run, I think, in the AFC. T.Y. Hilton got surgery on some discs in his neck. He will be out, everybody's saying, three weeks, four weeks, whatever it is, to start this season.

We don't have a lot of weapons, proven weapons, I should say. We have a lot of people that are playing wide receiver and weapon positions that have the potential to be great, and I have the utmost faith in Chris Ballard, Michael Strahan, Michael Pittman Jr., Paris Campbell is healthy, wearing the one. Hopefully they'll all be able to remain healthy while T.Y. Hilton gets back. But losing your best weapon at the beginning of the season or your biggest, brightest weapon at the beginning of the season, you just paid a $10 million one-year lease to keep in town.

Not good. He'll be back, they said, sooner than later after that surgery. Carson Wentz, who had COVID-19 close contact, he was out for a few days. He's back practicing today, 10 days from the opener. Ryan Kelly, number 69 overall player in the NFL, voted on by the Players Center stud out of Alabama. He's back practicing. And I mean, right now, Quentin Nelson's back practicing, I believe. All things are looking up, but the Colts have been an absolute roller coaster. But it has been some good breaking news this morning out of Indianapolis Colts land. Yeah, with the O-line, with the running backs, and the fact that Carson Wentz is used to throwing

to quarterbacks, it has to make you feel good that he'll be able to go get it done, even though T.Y. Hilton isn't on the field. You said Carson's used to throwing to quarterbacks? Yeah, I believe Greg Ward was the guy. Was that his name in Philadelphia who they put out there? Houston quarterback. Yeah, Houston quarterback. They put a couple different schlubs, and we can't forget he had a rugby player playing right tackle who apparently came on at the end of the season, but he's definitely not as good as Ryan Kelly, Quentin Nelson, the boys. I appreciate these fans losing their mind for, like, average players because they're, like, super loyal.

But if you're in the NFL, you're a good football player. Okay, let's never get that twisted. I have the utmost respect for everybody that plays in the NFL. But if you're in the NFL, you're a good football player. Okay, let's never get that twisted. I have the utmost respect for everybody that plays in the NFL. I think you're really good. But there are some teams that it feels like they are not even in the conversation or contention to make a real run. But right now with one week out, every fan base feels as if they got a chance. And that is not their fault, by the way.

Joe Thomas told us on this show that every year he bought in and thought that there was a chance they were going to win the Super Bowl that year because he had to. He won two games in a span of like four years. Greatest tackle of all time. So right now we're living in the most beautiful time to be a fan in the NFL. Everything is still out there. Hope, optimism. This player is going to burst onto the scene even though they haven't for the last three years. This player is going to become a superstar. This player still has everything that they had in them years

ago, what made them a household name. This is a beautiful time to be an NFL fan and that's all I could think of last night as the Dolphins fans are coming after me is, we got nothing but, Jesus. We got about 10 days. Okay, we got about 10 days for all these fans to have all this hopes and dreams and everything like that that first week can tell a lot but we have

to remember we have no idea what any of these teams are going to be until about week five week six and we got to remember that gambling wise too oh yeah we might take some shots early betting on some games and on some teams and get our hearts broken we just have to take those notes early in the season and then run with that shit for the rest of the season we're gonna find out who's real and who's not and it starts 10 days from now seven days from now with the opener but we won't fully know until a month month and a half into the season what teams are what yeah ideally i think believe we've said it on this show a few times you would you would wait until after the first quarter of the season to see what teams would like to start betting on them but none of us have that ability we will just go all in the first quarter of the season to see what teams would like to start betting on them. But none of us have that ability.

We will just go all in the first four weeks and lay the chips as they may. And a lot of us lose a lot of credibility those first couple weeks. Absolutely. Yeah, we do. Yeah, a lot of us lose a lot of credibility those first couple weeks. And if you hit a bet the first couple weeks, you're probably more lucky than anything. Yeah. At that particular point. The NFL, because you're dealing

with men and adults and strategy and scheme and coaches and everything, and there's millions of dollars being sent, normally you can find out what a team is, but it's going to take a little bit for them to find out who the fuck they are themselves. We have to remember that as we continue to get into this betting world here these first couple weeks.

Last year, I think we said, write this down. Zito spoke into his phone. Hey, let's remember, first quarter of the season is tough to bet. Let's remember that. We have to think about that and not get too down on ourselves or too high on ourselves if we hit early on a season. Everybody agree? Yeah, absolutely.

I do have – I think there are some teams, like, hey, we know who they are, like Bucs, Chiefs, Packers, Texans, maybe just the Texans down there. Everyone else, we'll know who they are. Like Bucs, Chiefs, Packers, Texans. Maybe just the Texans down there. Everyone else, we'll see who they are. So, like, maybe avoid betting on, like, Panthers, Falcons week two. Like, bet on the teams you think you have a pretty good idea because they've been the same for the last few years and their team is basically the same. Yeah, I think veteran teams you can normally count on, right?

But even the Patriots, they'll lose a game in the first couple weeks. This is back whenever they were the greatest team in the history of professional sports. And people would write them off. Chiefs, that Chiefs game with Alex Smith, that opening week, is maybe the best depiction of that. I mean, that year, didn't you guys go on to win? That was after 2016, I believe. So we went to the Super Bowl, lost to the Eagles.

But that's still made it to the fucking Super Bowl. And after that first week, everybody's like, oh, this team is the worst team ever. This is when the Patriots are dead. And they were writing off the Patriots, obviously, every single year. We all were hoping that the Patriots were dead every single year on 31 of the fan bases. But that's what we have to remember going into these first couple weeks. Like, hey, none of these teams are anywhere near where they're going to be, okay, or where they're heading. Both for good and for bad.

But to your point, Diggs, this is the first time it feels like there are two veteran teams that are very good. They were in the Super Bowl last year who have their eyes on a much bigger prize than just making it back to the playoffs and to the Super Bowl. It feels like that undefeated thing has been talked about a lot more. We talked to Travis Kelsey. Travis Kelsey says, like, who isn't trying to win every fucking week? And it's like, valid, okay? But whenever you phrase it as, oh, they're trying to go undefeated,

as opposed to, hey, they want to win every single week. It's just two different narratives, two different stories. But it feels like Patrick Brom's in the Chiefs, potentially on a revenge tour. First time they ever had to really, you know, stare down some criticism on them, maybe not being as great as we all think they're actually going to be. I'm not saying we did that. I'm just saying people did that. Then the Bucs, Tom Brady, he came out on a live stream on the NFL's platform and said,

I would give up a ring or two to have the undefeated season back that the Giants took. I mean, so you have to think about those two things whenever you got these two teams going into their first couple of weeks as well. It's like maybe they're fucking going for it. Maybe there isn't like, hey, we need to learn process. Go ahead, Ty. I can't remember if it was last year or the year before, but I think you were the one who said like, hey, you know, because don't really know what what you were doing is looking

at teams with veteran good veteran quarterbacks and saying hey this might be a team that like their team over in terms of points is like a good bet the first couple weeks of the season because you knew that like you know guys like Rogers and Brady and Russell Wilson guys like that they're going to put up points no matter what. I think my favorite bet, and I think they stopped doing it, it was a live second half over bet. And if you have a great offensive coordinator and a great offense and a great quarterback, I just always assume at halftime

they're going to fucking figure it out. So whatever the sportsbooks are betting and thinking they're going to fucking figure it out. So whatever the sports books are betting and thinking they're going to score in the second half, I'm betting on Aaron and LeFleur more than I'm betting on the defense in the second half. That's a bet that I love. That is a bet that you can look at. And I don't want to say like kind of cherry pick off of it, but there is a couple of cheat codes that we'll be able to find in these first couple weeks, especially without Fandle has 7,000 fucking bets yeah there's so many bets there and I appreciate the fact that

Gumpy has been in his COVID cave and he's still hot just like the reason why Hammerdown happened by the way is because Tone Diggs came out of the COVID cave as the greatest better of all time because all he did was just look through the sports book and find these great bets. And it's like, hey, Tony, I love you on this show. I enjoy our conversations together. But you're making us all a lot of money when all you do is just stare at that sports book. How do you make that a profession? Boom, hammered down becomes a daily show. I mean, that is literally how this business operates, by the way,

for everybody that's watching and listening. And now that Gumpy has that same situation potentially happening, I feel like we're in for a good one. We just have to make sure we find the bets that sportsbooks don't want or that FanDuel doesn't want us to find. And that's why we got the fucking Cowboy and the Dolphins fan, Canadian Gumpy, sniffing around, snooping around like Toucan Sam looking for fucking Froot Loops in that FanDuel Sportsbook.

Hey, Pat, think about the Bucs, because we talked about the Chiefs, and they have a new O-line, so we'll have to see what that is. But the Bucs won the Super Bowl, bring back every single starter. They have AB for a full season they didn't have last year, Fournette for a full season. OJ Howard comes back off injury. Vita Vey comes back off an injury. Has there ever been a Super Bowl team that's like, oh, we have everyone back and more? Yeah, and

better. Yeah. Yeah, that's the... I don't know how they did it. I mean, this is... When you get all these vets that understand what's going on, too. I think they all understand what's going on. We got Tom Brady as quarterback.

We're living in Florida. It's beautiful down here. We got's going on. We got Tom Brady as a quarterback. We're living in Florida. It's beautiful down here. We got no state taxes. We got a coaching staff that is also vets that have been around. They don't want to fuck this up either. We'll take a little bit of a pay cut. We'll slide the bonus. We'll do this thing.

They haven't figured it out. I mean, Tempe Buccaneers figured it out on paper. Now, will they be able to flip the switch like they did for that last half of the season after the bye week, after they beat Atlanta in the second half, then they go into that bye week, then they change everything and they get the hottest team in the NFL. The run game starts going when playoff Lenny gets put in there, when Ronald Jones had that foot injury or whatever. The defense started humming.

They signed all their studs back on that side of the ball. Will they be able to pick up right where they left off? Or will there be a little bit, because they are vets, understanding like, hey, football doesn't matter. You don't want to start out too high. You don't want to be too hot. You don't want to be the team that peaks early and not late. I mean, there's all that shit you can think about, but you have to assume that that team understands their shelf life. That team understands what they have the capability of doing. And I'm sure BA and that coaching staff down there are saying, hey, we have a chance to be something that no team

other than those 72 fucking Dolphins were able to be if we show up every single day. With Tom Brady in the building, it's going to be hard to believe that they won't do that. But, man, sometimes the game of football can humble. You know what I mean? Any given Sunday is a real thing. There's a chance that

some team could upset them. There's a chance that we could lose a bet five, six weeks in a row when you bet on the Kansas City Chiefs because the Chiefs just decided to flip the switch late and only win by one or two when everybody expects them to win by fucking 30. So, I mean, we just have to keep all switch late and only win by one or two when everybody expects them to win by fucking 30. So, I mean, we just have to keep all these things in mind.

Now that the world's opening back up, so many new thrills are on the horizon. Okay. And whether you've been in a relationship for years or just getting started, we're excited to get back out there and meet new people. Hell yeah. When the moment comes. Let's not come too quick.

Oh, here we go. That is not what they had in their copy. Okay. They should. That was, I think they're going in a different direction. So let's go back a sentence or two. Okay. Okay.

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and if you're prescribed you can get 50% off your first month of erectile dysfunction treatment. Make sure you're ready to have confidence and control this summer. Roman Ready. Joining us now is a man who has all the inside information that we need. Zito is actually calling him as we speak. He is in the area where there has been terrible storms.

So I appreciate him immensely for giving us some time today to chit-chat. We'll ask him about that, obviously, but a man who's an insider for the NFL.com, the NFL Network. He's a host of a show that's been canceled, Rap Sheet and Friends. We're not happy about it because we consider

him a friend of ours. Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Rapoport. What's up? Hey, so sorry about all the fucking storming over there dude i've seen some videos it looks crazy is everything all right with the fam and everybody yeah we got very lucky uh i would say like minimal you know probably minimal flooding in our basement some but our neighbors there's neighbors who are much worse we're just driving around a little bit now to go get something and there's a field that used to be a field it is now just a lake like it is i am not going to complain we are extremely lucky and thank you hey this is this isn't normal

right i feel like a lot of the videos i've seen coming out of the subway and then there's people floating around manhattan right now hitting bongs on rafts and there's cars that are being floated and you said there's field is that normal this is not normal right this is very out of the norm for the area you guys live in over there I mean I've never seen anything like this at all I mean we'll get like big snow storms but this apparently is like a once in 200 year uh once in like 200 year storm and you know it's it's also weird because you know obviously like i i have plenty of friends in new orleans and uh and other areas where you know they have hurricanes and i i feel for them and it's always terrible every every time it happens i've never

had to sort of worry myself for it uh and i i did not like. And I have much more empathy now for people who get hit with real serious storms. It is not pleasant, man. Not fun at all. Well, I want to let you know we're happy to hear you're okay. Please let your friends know and everybody that we send nothing but positive spirits to hopefully get this thing dry and quick on the other side of this and hopefully no more bullshit.

Ian, we are one week away from the NFL kicking off Tampa Bay and Dallas. I know that means that your golf season is over and you're actually going to have to do some work. What are some things you're keeping an eye on as we go into this last week before the NFL season kicks off? I think it's fascinating that GMs, scouts, and roster builders have an extra week basically to look at their team, look at the waiver wire and continue to mold their roster is that what you're keeping an eye out for at this point or what are

you looking at going into the week yeah i mean first of all you're right about my golf season it's you know sad but true i did play beth page black on wednesday shot an 89 i'm not bragging that's just what it was how many mulligans? No mulligans. The only thing, I would say, the only sort of, like, thing that happened was there was one time I hit the ball in the rough, so I knew it wasn't lost, and the rough was so thick, I literally couldn't find it. So I'm like, I would give myself a free drop because it's not actually lost. I just can't find it.

Is that cheating? I don't know. Now, who has the time? Who has the time? Honestly, if you know a ball isn't OB, if I know a ball isn't OB, but I know it's in this area, I'm not going to spend the next 12 minutes. I'm going to put a ball down.

Now, the real golfers, and if there's money on the line, they're not happy about that. Yada, yada, yada. Get off my ass. But I don't have the time. You shooting an 89 breakfast ball or no breakfast ball? No. No breakfast ball. You're a golfer. Good for you.

Look at you. I will say a lot of times I don't play that well, but this time I happened to. So it was a great day. Anyway, so much of what happens in the NFL season is based on precedent, like offseason. Okay, you know every March is free agency, every April is draft. I honestly don't know what's going to happen from here the next five days because there are still some trades that I sort of thought might happen

and didn't happen, some moves that I was looking for. Like, I thought Zach Ertz might get traded from the Eagles, and it sounds like he's not. The Saints have been looking for a corner. Maybe they sign one, and does the extra three or four days help them with that? Cam Newton is currently unemployed, as you may or may not have heard. Does this little extra window allow teams to do more research on him and maybe bring him in, even though he's not vaccinated? Because now you would have the five days to do it.

vaccinated because you now, you know, you would have the five days to do it. Like, it's a little more time to tinker and do some things. But I mean, I would say the best thing is, you know, we sort of talk back and forth about COVID. And like, there were some times that got dicey, like the season starting and we have made it. So all that is very good. Yeah, that's a hell of a celebration there. That last sentence you said, and we're all very happy about it, especially those of us whose lives depend upon talking about the NFL every day. It's nice that we don't have to talk about bullshit anymore, but we are still living in the drama bullshit world. There has been numerous reports, Yahoo Sports, Charles Robinson,

came on our show out of his car with two dogs in a backseat to tell us that there are teams still interested in the Houston Texans, including the Miami Dolphins, who I'm a big fan of all of a sudden. I'm a big fan of the Miami Dolphins. Is that real? Is there anything into that? Is that going to happen before the season starts? Or is that all a bunch of bullshit like the Dolphins' Twitter was telling me last night?

Well, I mean, there were definitely teams that explored trading for Deshaun Watson. I would say, you know, no one's crazy. The Miami Dolphins were one of them. I think there were several other teams. We've talked about this over the last couple months. Teams that explored, like, look, one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL is available in a time when, you know, rarely are 25-year-old franchise quarterbacks available.

And obviously the off-the-field stuff is the reason why somewhat Deshaun Watson vowing to not play for the Texans, wanting a trade, obviously a big reason as well. There are several reasons why he's available, but teams owe it to themselves to explore. If you could upgrade a quarterback, you have to do it. You have to look into it. So the teams we talked about, you know, the Eagles, the Panthers, maybe the Broncos, maybe the Dolphins. Like, yes, those teams had to explore. And there were times, I would say this offseason, where I thought, okay, maybe a trade could happen somewhat soon.

And, you know, then we got word, along with Tom Palacero, I got word that it was not going to happen before 4 p.m., the roster cut-down deadline. And then it's like, well, that was a big deadline. That was basically the deadline before the season. That means he's on the 53-man roster. Unless I'm crazy, I don't get a sense of what happened before the season now, I mean, barring some sort of dramatic turn. So then it's like, what do we do?

Does he do basically the Texans play with 52 players all year? He sits out, he makes 10 million. We trade him in the off season. Possible. Does he do an about face and actually want to play for them? That seems less likely. I would say he seems pretty dug in. It's honestly all really unprecedented and continues to be the most fascinating situation in the NFL. Let's bounce around some other quarterback situations that have a little drama in the offseason. And now that we're a week away from kickoff, let's get a standpoint of it. Seattle Seahawks, everything's kumbaya up there?

Everything's kumbaya up there? Is that how everybody's assuming it's going to go throughout the season as well, if there's success? Or is there still some questions on how that whole thing's going to turn out with Russ, Pete, and that whole entire operation up there? I mean, for this year, it's all kumbaya, right? Everyone's all in on this year, all focused on the field. And that is good. And the offensive coordinator that they hired, that was someone Russell Wilson had a hand in choosing, right? So I would expect him – they're always going to focus on running the ball,

but I would expect him to let Russ cook a little bit this year as well. Now, if it goes well, I think all is going to be great. If he's not protected, if he doesn't feel like the offensive line is great, if Dwayne Brown is for some reason not out there on the field when the season begins, then there'll be some questions. And then I think the focus will kind of be back on what is russell wilson's future in seattle they're all in on this year but it is i would say high stakes year uh in seattle but they're going to be good they're always good it's just sort of a question of how good i think a lot of people forget because it's been so quiet over there which is good news for seahawks fans and russell wilson and the seahawks obviously but at one point the chicago bears made a trade offer in the middle of North Dakota I guess

for Russell Wilson that was turned down they got bygones bygones just a couple days later Andy Dalton was signed to the Bears and the Bears fan base was obviously incredibly upset that they got Andy Dalton when they thought they were going to get Russell Wilson although Andy Dalton has played great football in a lot of places where he probably shouldn't have and won a lot of games then they trade up to get Justin Fields now the conversation revolves around what are they going to do with that? And Nagy and Pace have been very steadfast on the fact that they have a plan. Andy's our guy. Andy's our guy.

Andy's our guy. Fields is there. Fields' mania is happening. Fields is playing good football. There's a lot of conversation around the pundits now that Pace and Nagy must feel a level of comfort with the Chicago Bears organization if they're going to be this patient putting in Justin Fields. Because if everybody assumed that they were going to get fired at the end of this year, they would want to maybe go with the new guy.

Let's see what we can do. Let's roll the dice as much as possible. What are your feelings on the future for Pace and Nagy in Chicago? And do you get the feeling that this is not definitely their last year? They're going to be given some time here to kind of execute their plan that they've had all along well if you look at the record i mean it's really they seem to be under fire and locally they're under a lot of fire but if you actually look at the record they've been pretty good they've gone deep into the playoffs like they've been somewhat consistent it never because they didn't have the quarterback position right it

never felt just felt anecdotallyotally like a lot of success. But their record is actually not bad, and they're probably under more fire than they should be given their record. That said, there's nothing more important than the quarterback position. If Justin Fields is really good, then I think they are both going to be absolutely fine. really good, then I think they are both going to be absolutely fine. If this is a struggle this year, if they're losing a bunch of games, if they finish 5-12 or whatever, then yeah, it's a big year. They could be in trouble. I would say this about Fields.

Andy Dalton is going to start week one. Beyond that, I think they are going to put Fields in if he is ready. And we've seen him in preseason. We don't know what's going to happen when real defenses are there. If he's ready and when they need to. Like, need to. Right? Because that's what we've seen.

It's always a little earlier than we think. But I have a feeling, as a football world, we will know when it's time to turn to Justin Fields. Like, they start two and three with Andy Dalton. he's been up and down the fan base is crying for it it's like okay like let's go it's justin fields time so that's i think we are going to know when it's time and you know by all accounts he's been awesome in camp um i hope that continues because you know if the bears finally have their guy i that's – I think a lot of people will probably be happy, I would say. Watch Andy Dalton just become fucking Aaron Rodgers.

That would be crazy. It would be awesome. I'd be so happy for them. It would be great, though, because then you could actually allow Fields to just chill, just learn, maybe put him in in spurts. But, like, if Andy Dalton is Alex Smith when he was with the Chiefs, that's actually awesome. For those of us who want to see Justin Fields, I think you'd kind of be like, ah, we'll have to wait until another year to see him.

But that would be best-case scenario. And then Andy Dalton would go sign somewhere else to get a third-round compensatory pick, and they turn it over to the rookie, and everything would be good. to get a third-round compensatory pick, and they turn it over to the rookie, and everything would be good. Those of us that want to see Justin Fields, also probably the large majority are just Bears fans, and if they're winning and Andy Dalton looks good,

I don't think anybody's going to complain about that up there. Let's go to another quarterback situation of the offseason, Aaron Rodgers in the Packers. Him and LeFleur obviously palling around. He posted on his Instagram stories last night. They said we wouldn't like each other. Mark Murphy actually said, hey, Aaron, don't be the problem. That offense last year looked unbelievable. The interesting situation with the Packers right now is Aaron Rodgers is only

three and four or something like that when he plays in Florida. The New Orleans Saints decided to have the home game that they can't have in New Orleans in Jacksonville. That was allegedly taken into account. Is that real? And how do you go about picking a new stadium to play in if there's some sort of natural disaster? Like, was that an in-depth process where they had to call numerous stadiums? Or does the NFL all kind of have like a buddy-buddy system?

Like, hey, we got you if you need it. Well, basically what they do is they talk to teams and they say like, if something happens, would your stadium be available like which weeks basically so i believe and i have to go back and check the schedules but i believe their options were jacksonville miami and atlanta atlanta being willing to help out their um their old friends the new orleans saints was certainly a nice thing um but yeah you know i read the the article from Jeff Duncan, who is very good. And I believe all of it, you know, the fact that they considered flights to Jacksonville being more expensive for Packers fans, meaning maybe Packers fans won't make the trip to Jacksonville is honestly kind of hilarious. And, you know,

whatever. I mean, it should be a home game for the Saints, so they should get all the benefits from that. And if they made it a little hard for Packers fans to travel, like, whatever. I'm here for all the pettiness, I would say. Yeah, me too. I love gamesmanship. I love pettiness. I love everything about it, especially when you're dealing with billionaires trying to win over other

billionaires who have the ability to do whatever the fuck they want at all times i mean it is a wild world that we're living in but i can't wait for the season to start go ahead tone dicks hi ian help good to see you um question sealers aren't going to let tj watt play this season without getting a new contract right i don't know it is not done yet it has been a difficult negotiation um you know he's obviously going to be the highest paid defensive player in football if he gets it done uh it's not there yet and he hasn't practiced much i mean it is look that is a that is a difficult situation and i think everyone has been you know there's haven't been a lot of rumors about it there's not much to say. It's not done.

Does it get done? I honestly don't know. I mean, it is with that organization, the way they structure the deals without a lot of guaranteed money. I don't know. It is it's it's really tough to forecast these deals midway through because there are certain points from both sides. Like this is never happening. And then sometimes they happen. This is a tough negotiation.

So I hope for his sake they get it done and for their sake so they can reward one of the best players in football, but it's been difficult. So Colbert and Tomlin involved in that, right? Is that who is doing it or is that mostly Colbert? Mostly Colbert, yeah. I'm sure Tomlin wants it done, but when you talk about money at this level, this is Art Rooney and this is Kevin Colbert, yeah. I'm sure Tomlin wants it done. But, you know, this isn't – when you talk about money at this level,

this is Art Rooney and this is Kevin Colbert. Okay, so like Joe Hayden just came out and said last dance, you know. They weren't able to get a deal done. Are they not going to be able to get a deal done with any of those guys, you think? And then Minka's next on deck, right? And what if they strike out on all three of those? Is that a sign, like the Steelers are going to move on like they always have, by the way? The Steelers are just like, hey, we're not going to be the ones that are going to overpay people.

We're the ones that are going to move on. Is that what it's looking like, like that defense could be very different here in a year or two? No, I'm not ready to go there yet. I think for Hayden, he's an older guy, so I wasn't surprised that they didn't give him more guaranteed money. You know, Minka is a very good player and obviously very much in their plans, but I think the focus is on T.J. Watt first. Try like absolute crazy to get that done. If they can't, you know, maybe they adjust and see if they can get Minka done,

but I know the focus is on T.J. Watt right now, and I think they would love to get it done. They just have not yet. Go ahead, Ty. Ian, going into the season it seemed like uh kyle shanahan had basically already said that jimmy g is going to be the starter but then yesterday he told the media i don't need to name a starting quarterback and very early on it seemed like trey lance was really pushing to maybe start are we going to get just a two quarterback like a

two-headed attack with them all season or is it going going to be Jimmy G and then just a few packages here and there for Trey Lance? My guess, just guess, is it's going to be Jimmy G and then a few packages for Trey Lance unless something goes wrong or Jimmy G starts not playing well. Lance is also dealing with a little bit of a thumb injury, and the timeline is close, and I think Kyle Shannon yesterday admitted to reporters that it's probably a little more serious than the seven days they said originally. So, you know, we'll see if Trey Lance is out there for week one. If he is, we could probably see a couple packages.

But I haven't heard anything to tell me that it's anyone but Jimmy G as a starting quarterback. Okay, Jimmy G also. There might be a package where both quarterbacks are in there. I mean, let's not get crazy. Oh, who is it? You got any news? I don't know about news, but maybe a little insight.

I actually got to go do some TV now, my actual job, my other job. Well, we appreciate you. We can't wait to watch you. If you break any news, like minutes after you get off of here, we will have this urge inside of us to smack you right in the fucking mouth. Yeah. Just call me right back. Ladies and gentlemen, host of the canceled show, Rap Sheet and Friends,

on NFL Network right now, Total Access. Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Rap. Yeah! Rap-tee! Joining us now is an Ohio State legend, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Yeah!

What up, dude? What's happening, man? How you doing? I saw we have A.J. Galante. Good thing I finished that doc a couple minutes ago, actually, before I hopped on here for you. Incredible documentary, right? Obviously, yeah. The characters involved, everybody it's yeah that's real life that actually happened so yeah it'll be a fun conversation i think hit 130 with aj

it looks like a movie when you're watching it you gotta be like this is fake this is fake this has to be fake every five minutes it's like no way this is real one of the legit and foxy got upset at zito for saying this i would put it as the top five doc of all time that I watched last night, or two nights ago. And we get a chance to chat with the GM and son of potential alleged mob boss. I don't want to throw him under the bus at all.

AJ Galante will join us here in about 30 minutes. I can't wait to chat with him. He's supposed to come in the first hour. Rapaport can only come in the first hour. AJ is like, oh, good, man. I'll come in the second hour. I can't thank him enough. And I'm thankful that you watched it, AJ.

And I'm thankful that you enjoyed it. That's very nice of you. That's right. I saw some of it last night. And then I finished up the rest just today because I knew I wanted to. Yeah, you guys were hyping it so much I had to. And I'm sure people haven't seen it. And maybe it'll force them to see it or they'll just hate us talking about it.

But, hey, either way, that's what the show is. What you enjoy, what we enjoy, what we're watching, what we're doing. Yeah, I mean, as a host, I have to think about the masses that are listening and watching. That is something I have to do. I take a lot of pride in the ability to do that, by the way, better than a lot of the motherfuckers that go to school and learn how to fucking do it.

But whenever something captivates my soul as much as this fucking untold crime and penalties doc about the Danbury trashers has. It's hard for me not to spit my entire emotions into it for a couple days. And we'll have a quick conversation with AJ Galante. It'll probably go 20, 30 minutes. If you haven't seen the doc, you're not missing out on a conversation of anything. It'll be an electrifying convo, but you need to watch it. Now, speaking of needing to watch, are you going to the Ohio State game tonight? This is a big night., are you going to the Ohio State game tonight? This is a big night.

What are we going to do? Are we bouncing back? Is the Big Ten still run through Columbus? We'll find out tonight with the Gophers coming to town, A.J. Hawk. We will with Ohio State going to Minnesota to play the Gophers on the road. Absolutely. I will not be making the drive or the flight over there for the game, but I will be watching on TV like a lot of others here in Ohio.

I thought for sure it was in Columbus. Yeah, that's on me because I put it at first. No, no, it was on me. No, no, it was on me. I'm not expected to know where it is. I mean, a big reason I know it's not here is because I know people aren't going to the game. Everyone I'm talking to, they weren't talking about it. Also, I know my brother-in-law, Brady, is there.

They're doing their, you know, the big noon kickoff is posted up there, I guess, outside the stadium, I think. Did they have a show this past Saturday? Yeah, they did, actually. I don't know what Brady was doing. I don't think he was on it. Brady quit? Brady does whatever Brady Quinn wants to do? I don't know.

Maybe his schedule didn't allow it, or he said, No, I'm good. I don't need to go for week zero. How about Chopper going? Hey, Brady, don't fucking do it. Don't be doing fucking good. We don't do anything. It's week zero.

All right. I mean, I remember one time I was part of a conference call, corporate conference call. And one of the departments, one of the departments spoke and they said, we have completed phase zero. We are now on to phase one. And I have never asked a question in one of those corporate conference calls. That was the first time I ever said, can somebody elaborate that there's a fucking phase zero that we could? I mean, what does that mean?

What does that even mean? Never got an answer. Got a pretty good pop from the room. But week zero is done. Now we're in week one. Let's go and do this thing. The Ohio State team, they're going to be good. Should I be betting on them?

I guess they're minus 13.5, minus 14.5, depending on where FanDuel lays at. How do you feel about this team? Are all signs pointing to us hammering them tonight? I mean, they should. They have the new quarterback, C.J. Stroud, is stepping in. I mean, I feel like they have three or four, like four- and five-star quarterbacks on the roster. So whoever's throwing in there seems like they could do a great job.

The receivers, I guess they are some of the deepest receivers in the country. They have a ton of studs. So you would think they can score some points tonight. I don't know. I'm not sure about Minnesota. Who are they? What are they going to do? Who's that, Olive?

Yeah. Chris is about to have a massive year. He was a freshman last year? No, not last year. I think this is third year. I think he's draft eligible after this year. Who was – there was a guy last year who was a freshman maybe that made this insane – is that him?

He's the guy. Are you thinking Garrett Wilson or Olave? I mean, there's a lot of them right now. I'm not sure. I saw a catch last year out of a guy who I thought was a freshman. I might have been wrong. Maybe he's a redshirt freshman. Garrett Wilson is a sophomore now.

Yeah, I think it was Olave. Okay, so it was him. He's filthy. That dude's hands and feet are um the son his son is there too peyton's old target hall of famer marvin marvin oh marvin harrison's son is a freshman right yeah i don't i assume he's gonna play i don't know what the plan is for him but i know he's a stud as well does it feel good to have it like at west virginia i don't think i know any of the players on the team and i I don't live in Morgantown.

I wish I did. I wish I followed the process more. I appreciate if they're good. I'd be very thankful if they won a bunch of games. That'd be cool. They're in a conference that's about to fucking break, just like the Big East. I mean, now would be the time for West Virginia to win it, by the way, because then they'll just fucking tear down the entire conference.

But is it cool to know that your team is just always going to be a factory? That has to be pretty sweet. I mean, I don't feel like it always hasn't been like that. I don't feel like it was that way when I was there. I mean, we were good, yeah, but I feel like once – I mean, after I left, it seems like they don't lose to Michigan. They lose, like, one game every couple years. Yeah, they – once you start, I guess, winning at that level,

I think it doesn't recruit itself. The coaches will tell you they recruit their asses off. But, yeah, you should, Ohio State should be on, like, the top three or five of every big-time recruiter. I mean, Quinn Ewers has $1.5 million, allegedly, in name-image likeness deals. So the coaches can recruit their asses off. Okay, I appreciate that.

But whenever you go to Ohio State or Alabama or Clemson at this point, the recruiting is done by national television, right? I mean, they're on national TV every single fucking week. And everybody says, well, if you start paying the players, you start paying the players, it's going to hurt the recruiting process. It's like, well, what about seeing a team on national television every single week with behind-the-scenes stuff showcasing their entire locker room every single day? Is that not helping recruiting as well, or are we just kind of blind to that?

Like, oh, no, no, no. They earned that. They deserve that. It's like, all right, get the fuck out of here. I'm excited for where college football is headed, but I don't think any of us have any idea, right? Nobody has any idea what it looks like five years from now? No. I mean, it's so new, like the name, image, likeness stuff.

It was funny to see. I mean, I probably said it on here where all of a sudden, like there was no name, image, or likeness, and then they passed it. And then five seconds later, I feel like I saw guys selling tires on the internet. Like already, they already had the stuff in place. It was pretty quick. Hey, flipping O's. I'll tell you that.

I respect that. I got nothing but respect for that. The Colts activate Carson Wentz, Ryan Kelly, and Zach Paschal back onto the roster after being held away in the reentry process of being a close contact to somebody that has COVID. Seems like that team's all the way back in the Indianapolis Colts. GM Ryan Pace has talked about Andy Dalton being the starter. They like Andy. There's really no new topics coming out of the NFL right now,

except for the fact that we're seven days away, AJ. Seven days away. Yeah, is Conor still as excited about his quarterback Cam Newton being released? Are you still riding that high, Conor? Oh, man. You riding old Nudy, dude? You have no idea. I got a bath talk coming later on, and people are not going to be too pleased about it.

I'll tell you what. Hey, have you watched bath talk at all? Yeah, I have a lot of questions for Connor on that. Go ahead. It's better than you asking questions of fucking Mitt. That'll be later. Wait till after hours. Get Mitt all primed up.

So, Connor, on hashtag bath talk, do you legit take a real bath, or do you just get in there and get out? What is the process? Yeah, what do you mean you legit take a real bath or do you just get in there and get out? What is the process? Yeah, what do you mean I legit take a real bath? Yeah, there's not fake water in my tub. I hang out for a little while. Do you soap up and do you actually clean up or do you just waste time in there and sit your dirty body in the dirty water? See, exactly. Exactly to your point.

You shower first. You clean your body off. Then you fill the tub up. Then you lounge for a little bit, hang out, just kind of enjoy it, and then bath talk comes after that. See, I do the opposite. Every NFL locker room has like, you must shower before getting into the bath or whatever. You must shower before getting in there. I don't think I've seen one person do that.

I don't think I've seen one person shower. You get into the bath. You hope you don't get any fungus or viruses. Then you go to the shower to rinse off all the shit afterwards. Oh. You're supposed to rinse off before you get in. You're supposed to rinse off all that stuff on your skin and body. Even if you don't use soap, just rinse off at least.

That doesn't happen anywhere. I try. I tried to do it, but I'll tell you what. I just didn't have the same drive to get into the cold tub after the shower every single time. So I was like, you know what? I'm fucking getting in there. And they can take a little sweat. And I'm going to take this Gatorade towel.

I'm going to dip it into the hot tub because Adam Vinatieri taught me this. And I'm going to go ahead and put that on the caboodle too. So when I get in there, I'm going to put the rubber things on the toes so my toesies don't get too cold. And my balls are going to be good because of that hot Gatorade towel. And I'm going to sit in there 12, 15 minutes. I'm going to be back out of this thing tomorrow. I'm going to take a shower and rinse it off.

And that's all right. Okay? That's not the right way to do it, but that's what I do. I appreciate the fact that Conor goes shower, then bath, because that's what every NFL locker room is trying to make their players do. Gardner Minshew, now a member of the Philadelphia Eagles. He was traded out of Jacksonville to be a backup, I assume, for Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia.

He said the last time, and the only interaction he's had with Sirianni is whenever he was getting interviewed by the Colts and he and Sirianni ended up playing a game of horse where a shirt was lost in the middle of this entire thing. Minshew has said he's back for revenge. We've heard Sirianni say that he does rock, paper, scissors because he likes to see how these guys compete. Had no idea they were also playing horse. Your thoughts on Minshew,hew Sirianni and the legend of that coach in Philadelphia only continuing to grow with every passing day okay so where where were they having this game of horse this game of strip horse I guess right is that what they're talking about

why was this shirt removed I think it just got so competitive it got a little hot in there and I think it's in a room everybody has like their own like room conference room right I think or maybe they get a hotel suite that they empty out. So it had to be just like little, you know, almost like Nerf ball or like a... Fisher-Price. Yeah, Fisher-Price thing. And the fact that Sirianni's got a jumper, maybe we need to keep him in a little bit higher regards at Ty Schmidt.

What are your thoughts whenever you heard this story? Were you just absolutely psyched that you were going to unload some horse jokes into your next Sirianni impression yeah definitely but i mean i was actually thinking about it i can't remember if it came out yet but he actually said you know a lot a lot of people think that gardner is coming in to potentially compete with jalen to be starring he's not going to be on the 53 manman roster. I brought him in to hone my competitive edge by playing horse and stuff like that. And then it's just a bonus. I mean, he tops off.

He looks like a Greek god. He isn't Adonis. But I brought him in to help me hone my competitive edge and get those little intricacies and details down. He's not going to be challenging Jalen for the starting quarterback position this year. Gardner Minshew, what a fucking life this guy. He gets drafted, what, sixth round? And when he gets drafted, Doug Marone says,

we got our guy in the sixth round. And then he starts, has an incredible run. Obviously, the George, the mullet, the mustache, the headband. Jacksonville was all in. They were selling all this shit. They had a mustache day, didn't they? Didn't they give away fake mustaches one of the games? And I think they were giving away bandanas too or headband. Jacksonville was all in. They were selling all this shit. Didn't they give away fake mustaches one of the games? And I think they were giving away

bandanas too or headbands. The Minshew mania was a real thing and here we are a couple years later obviously completely moved on. Last year Mike Lennon beat him out for some spots but Minshew's a baller. Minshew's a player. Going to bring energy. Does that help the Philadelphia Eagles get over that hump of

disaster it seems like they're currently riding? I mean, I guess we're going to have to find out. I guess we're going to have to find out. Probably not. It'll be fun for the – I guess he can hopefully improve your defense because if he's running the scout to the offense, like Gardner is very dynamic, the dude can make all the plays, and he seems to be super competitive.

So I'm sure he's tough, can trash back and forth with the starting defense. So that could help your team. I don't know how much though. We'll see. AJ, have you thought about donating back to Ohio State to maybe get that head coaching role called the AJ fucking Hawk head coaching position? Have you heard about what Pitt did with Chris Bickle, class of 1997, University

of Pittsburgh? The head coaching job is now called the Chris Bickle of 1997 head coach of the Pittsburgh Panther football team. This is awesome. I mean, any way to get money, you've got to do it, especially with $20 million. I guess they say, you give us $20 million, you can do whatever the fuck you want. Can I name the head coaching job?

Yeah, yeah, you can do whatever the fuck you want and give us $20 million. You got it. I love this. Have you thought about getting into this donate and put your name on shit game that is happening all across college athletics? Well, it's normally for, like, buildings or rooms. Like, you go into Ohio State's facility. I know a guy, actually, who donates a lot of money.

What's that? Epstein. Epstein? No, no, this guy, you know, he's all legit. He's never been to jail, from what I know. But he gives a bunch of money, and his name is right outside the men's locker room. Or the men's bathroom, that's it.

Not even in the locker room. He's like i want my name whenever anyone goes in there to take a dump i want them to look at my name they don't know me but they know that name i was like hey man you give them money you can do whatever you want well i so when i went down to university of tennessee with peyton one time you know we drove down manning way and there was a picture of peyton that was huge and then the lockers and facilities or the Manning training facility or whatever it is with the amount of money that he's donated. But with Rocket Mortgage just deciding to take the name of the Spartans for the basketball team, this guy naming the head coach thing,

some other people have done it as well. These sponsorships are just getting to a point that I absolutely love. I mean, I cannot wait to see the shit that gets titled next. I could probably donate and just, what, make the kicking position after me? Yeah. The kicker for West Virginia. Like, that is awesome. I love it.

At some point. Okay, other than, like, the sign on the coach's office, where else will this be? Like, the announcers probably aren't going to say this, are they? Have to. I think so. Okay, how is it going to go? How is the announcer going to bring on the head coach?

What's he going to say? The Chris Bickle class of 97 head coach, Pat whatever, is not happy about what the coach is going to do. We're going to have to say that. It's like the Michigan Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage are up five. Now we've got 10 seconds left in the Michigan Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage. Have the ball.

They're dribbling up, running a little weave, man-to-man, for the Michigan Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage. Have the ball. They're dribbling up, running a little weave, man-to-man for the Michigan Spartans presented by Rocket Mortgage. That's what they're paying for, right? I believe so. In the articles, that's what it said. Man. That's Dan Gilbert. He went to Michigan State. He's the founder of Rocket Mortgage.

So he's like, yeah, screw it. I'm a billionaire. Let's just get my name in there, my company's name in there at least. Hey, Dan Gilbert's had quite a ride. Remember, he was racist for what happened with LeBron. Then he won a championship with LeBron. And then now he's naming shit after himself with the coaching staffs in the college.

I mean, I love that guy. He's the best. Isn't that crazy, though? He's a billionaire. He can pay players to go to Michigan State. Anything he wants. I feel like none of this is going to make any sense these next couple of years.

Yeah, he's going to need bumpers. Going to need bumpers. Big time. Hey, what about Chris Bickle? Who is this guy that can donate 20 mil like who i want to know that yeah and did he just potentially put himself into you know an investigation yeah because now we know that this guy has 20 million dollars just to throw at the fucking name of a coach you know like i think anytime you do anything like that somebody is

going to be like where did that money come from? And that particular people that are going to do the, where did that money come from? The IRS. Just like fucking Mark Davis. You see his new house he's building out there in Vegas, AJ. It is a master. I want to go whenever it's done. I want to be out.

I need an invite to the opening party. I hope his pool parties are like Bill Gates's. You know what I mean? I hope that we can really get after it. And Connor mentioned this earlier, but the IRS is auditing the Raiders for whatever it was, whether it's payment or hiding of funds, classic IRS auditing shit.

Mark Davis, he's a completely different entity. That doesn't mean he's getting audited, right? I don't think I know enough about it. He's okay to do whatever he wants with his money, hide his money however, until he getting audited, right? I don't think I know enough about it. He's okay to do whatever he wants with his money, hide his money, however, until he raises some alarms, right? Yeah, I would assume he is like a separate entity, but I'm sure the money is commingled between accounts. Who knows where all that money – I have no clue how any of this works, but I wouldn't want to be bringing any extra attention to myself. I'm sure he's not doing anything wrong But if you are getting audited

And they're spending all this money to audit you You would assume you're going to have a hefty fine at least to pay Yeah and when they audit you You know what you got to do You got to freeze them out Put the room's temperature down to as cold as possible Give them no jackets Fucking make them get after it

I learned that from a wolf one time Right now the conversation has to be had about the greatest sports documentary I have ever seen in my entire life. Untold crime and penalties about the Dansbury Trashers, a semi-professional hockey team in the UHL that really never got to see its brightest days ahead of them because of the FBI and such. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, general manager for that squad, and a man who runs Champs Gym up in Connecticut, A.J. Galante. Yeah! A.J.!

What up, dude? What's the deal? How you guys doing? Hi, Zahn. I want to let you know, I fucking love you. I don't know if you know this. I've been talking about it for the last two days. When I started watching the doc and the way you're being portrayed early with the hat flip and everything like that.

I grew up in Pittsburgh. There's a lot of folks like you and us around. I thought it was going to be a nightmare. You built a great team. You handled yourself professionally. That UHL commissioner ended up being a fan of yours. Job well done, my friend. I'm very thankful for you joining us here today,

AJ. No, thank you guys. It's just been a whirlwind. I'm just so humbled to meet you guys and thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, I know. Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you. AJ was forced to watch the doc last night

he's got like 10 kids and shit going on i told him hey you gotta watch this doc it's the best doc i've ever seen did you know while you were filming it and i assume for the last however many years in between that this story was going to be one that people were going to absolutely love and did you expect the reaction that it's gotten thus far, AJ? I don't know. That's a great question. I mean, when when the producers, the Way Brothers of the whole Untold series, they were. McClain was just like like a pain in the ass girlfriend in the beginning. He kept emailing me, emailing me, calling me. I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you. This is going to be back. And I finally was like, I got to gotta I gotta like at least give this guy the respect of a phone call and he's like listen you know he pitched it in like 30 seconds he's like where we

Netflix is making us do five stories they're big stories but we got to get the treasure story in there I spoke with my dad we thought about it and you know we said you know what fuck it why not right so we just um we just we just did it i mean i knew locally would get get some hype obviously uh you know but i've been overwhelmed to be honest i'm just very humbled by this whole thing and it's just it's insanity aj do you have any idea i believe i don't know it looked like maybe your 10th birthday or so when china the rock triple h who i believe sean michaels all of these wrestlers showed up to your like looked like a backyard birthday party do you have any clue what they got paid or how they got there so this is great because i mean wrestling was my first love and i still love it and as a matter of

fact it's my dream. You know, you know, you get to ask that questions. If you have five, you know, three dinner guests, who would it be? Vince McMahon is solidified number one on my list. But my father was friends with the old wrestler, Lord Wrestling, Lou Albano from way back in the day. And I guess I don't know how he did did it but this was like right six months before the rock triple h triple h wasn't even triple h he was hunter hearst homesley the rock was rocky maya via they weren't there yet they were like mid-card guys so what happened was there was a big show in new haven connecticut the day of my birthday party so i don't know how it was arranged

they came to the pool. It was insane. And then we went to the fight, you know, fight. We went to the show in New Haven later that night. It was just crazy. I mean, the kids in my party were like, it was just insane. It was, China was the best. When I tell you she ate nine hamburgers in an hour, that's not an exaggeration.

Dude, let me tell you something. I remember that vividly. It was my 11th birthday party, and I just remember being fixated on her, just eating and eating and eating. And it was like I couldn't get over it. But they were all unbelievable, unbelievable people. AJ, I grew up around too many italians okay in pittsburgh and there's been uh there's been a couple situations at weddings and other situations where i've walked into a room and maybe some things were being

chatted about and basically i was given a look by either dear friend of mine's dad or uncle that was like yeah go ahead go have a good time somewhere else, basically. You know what I mean? Like, hey, you need to disappear for a time. Yeah, take a walk. And I think the entire world is infatuated by the Italian mafia mobster lifestyle. And I think that being a part of this whole thing is one of the big draws to it, right? But it felt like you and your dad

had a much different relationship than every other kind of mob situation I have seen. It felt like you and your dad were a great tag team. Did you realize your whole life, because in the doc it says you hung out with your dad, you met a lot of guys, they treated you with respect. You were very mature, by the way, even though the way you dress, I think a lot of people said, oh, he was a child or whatever, but the way you handled yourself seemed to be very mature. Did you guys know what was going on with your, you know, what was going on with your dad the whole time? Or was there some shit that was kind of held away from you throughout your entire life? Listen, yeah. I mean, me and my dad to this day, I mean,

our relationship is, it's so different, you know what I mean? Uh uh one day he's your dad one day he's your boss one day you don't you just don't know i mean we've been attached at the hip since literally birth but i remember since um since five years old i used to go to go to his yard and i i used to hate going and uh i would be playing with my Turtles on his desk and just absorbing like everything that was going on. And, you know, you see things, but it was so normal, you know, and again, it's just a lot of stuff was so normal to me. And, you know, as this story goes on, there's so many layers to it. So many people are so fascinating, but it was just new in the life to us. You know, it really was for me, my sister, the people we were around, you know, good, bad, indifferent. It was just what it was, you know?

Do you ever, do you stay in touch with any of the, any of the players? I know at the end, I forget his name. You know, the old tough guy is hugging your dad and the guy's getting a little emotional. Yeah. Winger. Yeah. He, Winger. Yeah, I spoke with Pete. Yeah, he lives in Vancouver. I spoke with him yesterday, actually.

And, I mean, that's a guy, even to this day, you want in a foxhole with you. And I'll tell you, when we started the team, he was technically our, you know, legend has it it was Brent Gretky, who was our first player. But really, it was Wingfield. And, you know, he's just such a such a great man. You know, he's like a real man. And I remember, you know, the first offseason going into our second year. You know, he was rehabbing that horrific injury and he stayed at our house the whole offseason. I mean, he was like a big brother I never had. And we'd be sitting there playing like NHL 05.

And he'd be whining because I would be beating his ass. And he couldn't do anything about it because he was in that leg. You know, I could talk a lot to him because he was in that cast that he was immobilized. And we'd be playing PlayStation all day, all night. And if you're listening, Winger, you know what happened. We had a big 21-game series one weekend, and it was easy work. And to this day, he still – he knows the truth. We didn't have Snapchat and all that stuff to record it back then,

but in his heart, he knows what happened that weekend. Okay, so me and A. and aj both obviously very lucky to be on some great teams and i say this every single year going into the nfl season you can you can measure how fast somebody is you can measure how strong they are but that camaraderie of a team coming together is the x factor it felt like in such a quick time you were able to build a team that really it was like a family in there and i think obviously t-bone is a big part of that especially with boots on the ground that might be the most electric fucking human i've ever seen in my life but i don't think you're

getting enough credit for the way you build a team as a fucking 17 year old have you ever thought about getting back into general managing or team building or anything like that? You know, Pat, I tell people, and I'm not just trying to sound funny about it. To this day, anything I've ever done in my life has been total luck or fluke. Like, I always feel like my dad would. Hey, AJ, me too. Like, I just wake up one day, and it's like're the gm of a team uh i wake up one day and i'm in professional boxing i've never been prepared for anything um you know some people you know they they want to be a lawyer you go to law school you know that's you know obviously people change their

minds or careers but you know people at some point you have an idea what they want to do and they do it me i don't freaking know what i'm doing half the i wake up every day and it's like oh you're talking to pat mcafee i'm like all right i'm talking to pat mcafee i don't i don't know i just i just wake up and i just honest to god we just it's just like the trashes i i wing it every day i'm winging it I don't know where I'm going, what I'm doing, but somehow it's the ups and downs of life. As long as I get home and I could flop on the bed, it's a good day. Yeah.

Well, you're doing a hell of a job at Boston Connor. He was up in the area and he's part of our show every single day. And we, I don't think I've ever been more disappointed with somebody than after watching that doc and then telling Connor, like, how the fuck have you not told me about this team up there in Connecticut? Go ahead, Connor.

Yeah, I've been disappointed in my life many times and have disappointed a lot of people, but this is definitely the pinnacle of all of them. AJ, you mentioned watching the spectacle of eating that went on at your birthday party. Were there any other interactions with The Rock or Triple H that kind of stood out that you remember pretty well on that day well what i remember i just remember being in a fog you know seeing these guys and you know they were you know it was like they were i was just watching them on monday night raw like three days earlier and they're here at you know they're at your pool and uh i remember the rock and he wasn't the rock at the time, was such a sweet guy, but very quiet.

To the point where Triple H was like breaking his balls. He was like, Rocky, you're going to talk to the birthday boy? Like, say something. You know what I mean? And he was really quiet, but very sweet and nice. Triple H broke my heart. And I hope he's listening because I learned to respect. I have the most respect for this man.

And I've always loved wrestling to this day. I still watch. But I got the biggest reality check of my life that day. And what I realized that day was, man, wrestling is legit. I don't care what anyone says. I used to get into fights with people over wrestling. You can't tell me anything about wrestling. Triple H, you know, he's at the birthday party.

Great guy taking pictures, talking, funny, breaking balls. We go to the show later on that night. We go to the show. They leave like 3 o'clock. Bye, guys. You know, blah, blah, blah. So we go to the show. We're sitting front row.

It's me, my buddy Steve, Mike, my sister. And, you know, Triple H at the time is a bad guy. So, you know, all the guys are at the birthday party. They had their matches. They're coming out. They're slapping us five. They see us. They're all baby face, you know.

You know, I'm feeling like I'm the guy. These guys are coming up. So Triple H is probably the co-main event that night. He comes out with Chyna. You know, they're heels. And I'm just like, yeah, Triple H, yeah, my guy, come here. I was just with you at my pool. He comes over.

He stops dead in front of me. He gets this close to me. He goes, you sit your ass down. You already had your autographs and pictures sit your ass down and shut your mouth dude my heart sunk i was heartbroken and china china looked at me and she's you know she's bad too so she's looking at me i'm like china this broad just ate all our hamburgers dude i'm like i i was like as an 11 year old i was like what the hell just happened and my dad's sitting there laughing his ass off and and i'm just like dad can you believe this he's like aj he's like this is who he is when he when he goes into his business this is who he is. When he goes into his business, this is who he is.

But he broke my heart, and I'll never forget it. But he actually made me love bad guys. Because from that point on, I always cheered for the heels. Anytime a wrestler was a bad guy, that was my guy. I'd buy the shirts. I'd play with them in the video games. And so, in a way way he sparked a lot of a lot of trashers. He's he's part of the triple H might have some sort of root and seed with

the trashers because from that time he broke my heart and I wanted to cry and he's in my face and I'm 11 and he's like, you sit ass down and I'm like I was shocked and I was just like holy shit this guy's crazy and I'm I I've loved him ever since never saw him again since then but he might have been that that one flick of of a lighter that kind of started this whole friggin plane for all I know I will let him know and I'm sure he'll send a message to you, Andrew. Listen, my dream, I will cut a promo right now. I will face him face-to-face any time. Triple H, I will meet you at WrestleMania. We will talk about this shit because we're going to have a problem, me and you.

And you know what? In my backyard wrestling federation, I was the only two-time champion. Woo! Whoa. I was the only two-time HTV champion in Danbury. And I'll tell you what. We can meet anywhere you want, Triple H. I knew you before you were Triple H.

We can meet and talk about this. I'm a grown man now. You know what it is. Let me get it. Hey, I think I've pitched like six matches with Triple H as well to him, so I'm excited to hear if he will answer that. AJ,

watching that doc, you know, it's so captivating because the amount of people, obviously, John Gotti's getting referenced in this fucking thing, and then obviously all the wrestlers, and then your hockey team was legit. That UHL commissioner, you guys ever talk to him still? He was an electrifying figure in that documentary, dude.

After my father and my mother, no one's ever yelled at me more than Richard Broussard. And because all of our games were played on the weekends, whether, you know, you'd have a couple midweek random games, but it was all weekends. So I'd come home from college, whether it was home games, away games. And, you know, we do what we do. And every Monday I'd be on 684 heading back to New York, you know, heading back to college.

And I'd get the call from Missouri. He was in Missouri at the time. You know, his little, little squeaky voice. What the hell are you doing? You, you are insane. I'm going to suspend you. I mean, he fined me a few times. And I remember once, I don't know what I did,

but he said, you have to write an apology letter. And I remember, I remember writing it out as like a goof and like crayon, you know what I'm saying? And, and we, we fax it to him and he called me ripping. Oh man, we had so much fun, but don't let him fool you. He loved it. And I, I called him when the documentary dropped, I called him. I said, man, we got to take this show on the road. I mean, this guy, I thought he was the star of the whole doc. I mean, he was hilarious. And that was really him.

He was not putting on a show or embellishing. That was Richard Brousseau. He was, man, he's like a little George Costanza. He was so angry all the time with me. Last question from me here, and I know you probably have to go and I can't thank you enough for your time. What is your dad up to now? He didn't really dive into that. I don't think at the end of the doc is your dad still running the yard or what's he

got going on? My dad is going to be 69 this coming January and he wakes up 4am and he's on a heating oil truck every day. He carries the hose. He fills up people's houses every day. He's an oil truck driver. That's what he's doing. And I'm like, Dad, you got to take a rest. You know, I mean, I understand it's, you know, but he's never going to stop.

Never. He's the best, by the way. And I was so happy to learn about him as somebody who appreciates the hell out of the Italians. You know, I mean, you guys, great food. Great food, good culture. I mean, just the stories are forever. And learning about your family and what you guys were able to accomplish with that hockey team,

I'm eternally grateful for. Please tell your dad we said hello. Tell T-Bone we said we said fucking a guy can't wait need a guy like that on every team uh we appreciate you so much aj hey you you send me some sizes we're gonna get the whole team some jerseys you send me your last name hell yeah i'll take care of that for you guys hey i i didn't earn it okay i did not earn it but being a tras a trasher seems like it would be like a dream come true for a lot of people and myself included. Hey, you know, it was just two years, but it's a badge of honor. You send me, you tell them to email me numbers and names or whatever you want.

It's a done deal. Ah, you're the best. AJ Galante, we got SmackDown at MSG, by the way, in two weeks. I don't know if you're still in that area. Hey, listen, you tell Triple H I'm coming for him one day. I don't know, I'll jump the guardrail or something, but I'm getting my promo with him one day. Yeah, smack him right in the fucking mouth.

Ladies and gentlemen, the general manager of the Dansbury Trashers, star of the Netflix documentary, Untold Crime and Penalties, AJ Galante Thank you So sorry to interrupt But I want to let you know That if you're not gambling with FanDuel You're wrong

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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 now. 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 now, a man who is in the middle of one of the greatest runs we've seen in some time on media. He's the host of the MMA Hour. He works for BT Sport. He covers fighting. He covers boxing. He covers wrestling. You saw him at the Jake Paul Showtime fight.

Big shout-out to Brendan Schaub for allowing him to do that. Ladies and gentlemen, Ariel Iwani. Yeah! What's up? Can't do that! Oh, no! La, la, la, la, la, la! Sorry!

La, la, la, la, la, la! La, la, la, la, la, la! Sorry! Sorry! That is real. Hollywood Heel Wani joining us live with a bookcase in front of him and behind him. There we go. Hey, hell of and behind him, there we go. Hey, hell of a couple weeks, pal.

Yeah. We're proud of you, buddy. How are you doing? You feeling good? Well, first of all, how are you doing, Patrick? I'm very worried about you. It seems like you're in great spirits. I'd be lying if I didn't say I had a moment.

We were supposed to do a post-fight shoot at SummerSlam, right? If you recall, we were supposed to be in the same room. And then I find out that there's going to be a hurricane hitting New York City, so then I get the heck out of Las Vegas, and then I find out that you caught COVID, and I thank my lucky stars because Lord knows the people need Helwani in their life. I thank

my lucky stars that I wasn't in the hotel room with you because I wouldn't have done the Jake Paul-Tyron Woodley fight. Could you have imagined if Patrick McAfee would have been the reason for me not getting the biggest opportunity in my life? I would have never forgiven you. It would have been awesome. But to be clear, there was numerous people that were in that hotel room. I don't think I got in Vegas. I don't believe now. It seems like Vegas would be the place where I would have got it. But everybody I was with out there, in planes with, eating with, sharing cones with, did not get it. Oh, my.

Where do you think you got it? What's the scoop? Have you given the scoop yet? Have you told the story? We don't know. We honestly don't know. We were trying to figure it out. It might have been a delivery person maybe that came to the office, maybe some food, maybe somewhere else.

I'm not 100% sure, but none of the boys got it and i was with them monday tuesday after the summer slam my wife and her friend was in a plane with me after summer slam in the room with me and we smoked they didn't get it so it was just like i'm not in the pj they were in the pj with you and they didn't get it yeah neither the pilots so i mean it is it is a big question on where this delta son of a bitch came into my life, but it's great to know that I stomped it, just like I'll stomp you if you ever want to fucking run your mouth again. I will bury you

where you stand. I just want to know, most importantly, did AJ get it? I know he doesn't live in the same state as you, but I was just worried for his well-being. I'm in the clear, Ariel. Pat could not transmit that to me, I don't think, if he wanted to. Let me tell you something about AJ Hawk right here, okay? One of the realest mofos you'll ever meet. I mean, this

guy sent me one of the nicest text messages I ever received. I'm sorry for breaking kayfabe here, AJ, but me and AJ are teaming up to create one of the best and biggest and most dangerous super teams of 2021, alright? The feud is over. The mega powers have come together.

You will never hear a bad word out of this mouth about that man with that tremendous, tremendous ponytail. I think it's real. I'm pretty sure it's real just like his bookcase. Is that a ponytail? What is it? Is that a man? The jawline. What about his jawline, not the ponytail?

He cuts his own fucking hair. Every one of his kids has the same haircut too. That guy is real. That guy is a real mofo right there. So I just want to give a shout out to AJ. And it's just so good to be here. You know, Heel Wani running wild, probably the hottest gimmick in sports and entertainment right now. And you're lucky that you get me for a few minutes.

We should probably speed this up a little bit because I got to do the bump. I got to give those guys the rub as well. And I got some other things that I'm working on. Ariel, so for people that don't know what's been going on over the last 10 days, two weeks for you, can you let people know exactly what happened and what caused you to really just feel like the chains are off? Ariel, we're seeing the real you. Look at Edward R. Hawk over here coming out with the hard-hitting questions. Okay, this is good stuff.

Before this, you were on a run run then you just said mofo again it's like oh corporate hell wanting's back yeah okay cool you sound like a 12 year old cool that's great you don't want to you don't want to get crazy with the f-bombs you have the impact that i had yesterday with the f-bomb because i don't overuse it like some other people here okay you got to know when to pick your spots now look it's it's unfair if we're going to serious, it's unfair for me to say like, oh, it's just been a couple of weeks. It's been a few months. It's been a really hard few months for me. I felt like my soul was dying. I felt like I was losing my place in this media world that I've worked so hard to, you know, carve out for myself. I felt

like I was becoming irrelevant. I felt like I was being forgotten about. And then I leave. And then I took time off, which I've never done before. And then I went to Montreal to see my family, my parents, my sister, who I had not seen for over a year. And I felt like one of those video game characters who eats the, you know, the the mushroom and now I'm starting to get all my power back. And then I come back and I get all these jobs and all these opportunities. And they all started at the same time. And it coincided with going to Vegas for the first time in 18 months for SummerSlam. And then it coincides with the opportunity of a lifetime to work on Showtime for the Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley fight.

It all happened together. And, you know, I just feel, I honestly, I'll be honest with you guys. I'll shoot straight with you guys. I've always had bad anxiety. I've always been a nervous person. It got really bad at the beginning of the year. I started to talk to a therapist.

I just got off the phone with her. That's why I couldn't come on earlier. And she helped me understand that I should be proud of what I've done that there are going to be great opportunities working with her since February really helped me a lot I don't know if I have the guts to leave ESPN because again I want to reiterate they offered me a contract I don't know if I have the guts to do that without her helping me realize that there are other things out there that I could be myself that I could be happy and

all these things and so now I started these jobs and everything's going well. And I feel like I got my voice back and I feel like I got my smile back. Shout out to Michael Higginbottom, Shawn Michaels. And I feel like, you know, I'm able to be myself more so than ever. And if I'm being honest, I've been sitting back for the past 18 months and I've seen a lot of people take shots at Heelwani. And if I'm being honest, I was told time and again not to punch back. Well, guess what? I'm punching back.

And I'm not sitting back and letting anyone talk shit about me anymore because I'm tired of it. And especially, look, like I said yesterday, you could talk smack about me being a bad journalist, a bad personality, a bad reporter, a bad host, a bad this, a bad that, but don't lie about me anymore. I'm not going to take the lies. So yesterday I spoke about an individual named Brendan Schaub who was lying constantly about me. And it's kind of funny. I put out a little bat signal on Twitter the night before that some people on Reddit, shout out to those people, knew what I was talking about. And all of a sudden I get a text. I get an apology. And I said to Brendan, who I've never had an issue with despite all the shots, I said, cool. If you're going to apologize to me privately, I hope you're also going to do so publicly because that's where this started.

You smeared my name publicly and lied about me publicly and said I was a bad teammate and a bad colleague publicly. And you said that you got the job first from Showtime and I only got it because you turned it down publicly. So I want you to go on your public little show and I want you to apologize to me. And so once he does, the beef will be squashed. Until he does, we'll see what happens. We'll see what I choose to do okay well there's a lot that just happened there first of all congratulations i'm finding your voice we are happy because every time you came on this show you were just 10 to 30 times better than the

shit you were doing on tv i mean it was there was no question that you were going to have success in this independent world i think i told you that believe. I believe the boys told you that. I think in the middle of burying you, there was a lot of like, you seem to have everything that you could possibly need to make it yourself. I'm happy you bet on yourself, no matter how you ended up betting on yourself. I'm happy you bet on yourself, and we're all getting a chance to see it. I've got no issues with Brendan Schaub, but I do like the fact that you're sticking up for yourself in this entire thing. And I was given that showtime job, and I said, no, Helwani can take it. I love it.

I love it. Listen, I would be okay with that. I would be okay with that. You got skills. You got talent. Here's what I don't like. Whoa! Listen, here's what I don't like about what Brendan has done over the last – first of all, he repeated a five-year lie about what happened at UFC 199

that was 100% false, that was first spewed by Joe Rogan on his podcast. And I addressed that publicly time and again. For some reason in July, I'm in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, trying to enjoy a quarantine with my kids, and I see Brendan on hisTremblant, Quebec, trying to enjoy a quarantine with my kids. And I see Brendan on his little show sitting back and saying, well, let me tell you about how Ariel has to deal with the consequences of what he did. A lot of people got in trouble. It's like, what the hell is this guy talking about? This is a lie that I thought I addressed five years ago. So that was number one.

Number two, he starts talking about me sitting back in his little chair. I've heard from a million different people that this guy is the worst to work with. He is the worst colleague on the planet. I have heard this from all... Who are your sources, Brendan? Who are your sources? You don't sit around and talk...

You don't sit around and talk about someone's character like that. That's not how this works. You know, you could talk about, again, talk about me being a bad journalist, a bad host. But don't. Okay. All right, good. All right, well, I'm happy.

And then, and then he goes. What's going on? I mean, I think Breton Schaub's at my door. Breton Schaub just showed up at my goddamn door. Tell Fur the brand over there to pipe down. I'm shooting a promo here, okay? I'm trying to cut something on everyone, all right? Hey, listen.

You cut all the promos you want. You don't want any piece of Mrs. Batch. No, I meant the dogs. I meant the dogs. I didn't mean her. I meant the company. I didn't mean your wife. Upmost respect.

Anyway, then he goes on his little whatever it is, fight companion. Everyone's got a fight companion these days. I mean, for God's sakes, do we all really need six people talking at the same time while there's an actual professional broadcast going on? In any event, he goes, well, how do you think he got that job? You know, I gave it to him. And you know, I wasn't going to say anything.

I really wasn't. I was going to take the high road like I always do. High road Helwani. But on Tuesday night, I said, you know what? Rest in peace, high road Helwani. It's time for the Helwani. But on Tuesday night, I said, you know what? Rest in peace, High Road Helwani. It's time for the Helwani era, and I am not going to let anyone slander my name anymore. And so I just wanted everyone to know, if you come at the king, you best not miss.

Well, I appreciate you. I want to let you know, I appreciate the hell out of you sticking up for yourself. All right? That is a big-time move, and I have learned a lot about you as a human through this entire independent process, betting on yourself, sticking up for yourself. Hopefully you and Brendan are able to get past this and nobody else will talk any shit about you getting jobs that you don't deserve because— Can I— Go ahead. I just want to add add I have never said anything

about Brandon Schaub I actually think what he did going from a UFC fighter who didn't realize his dreams right utmost respect and then creating this like thing for him this orbit the comedy the I had no issues with the guy and that's why every time I'm like why does this dude keep lying about me

why does this guy keep making why is he even talking about me like he's sitting back talking about the media business and what happened to me at ESPN and the offer. I'm like, dude, you don't even know me. You don't even text me. I have no relationship with you whatsoever. Just keep my name out of your mouth. Stop talking about me and then clipping it off for clicks, which I don't even know if you buy or not. I don't know if they're legit.

But in any event, it's usually one of the highest rated things on your YouTube page. Stop talking about me. That's it. So I have respect for him and what he's built and what he's done. But enough is enough. I'm not as enough with all the slander. All right. Let's celebrate you now as opposed to the beef that you're in and hopefully you'll be out of soon.

And the fight gamer seems to be a lot of that. What were your thoughts on the Rocket Mortgage field? That place was electrifying. I thought you did a great job, by the way. There was a couple of different situations where you had to showcase your actual ability as opposed to just being a robot asking questions. I thought you crushed the weekend. I assume the Showtime has told you they're very thankful for everything you did. Yeah. Yeah. So it was an interesting situation. And I really do appreciate, you know, that how much your words mean to me and and aj said the same

and it really does mean a lot i've been dreaming of that role that specific role of doing that role since i was a little kid since i used to go to this this uh this bar in montreal called jillies a pool hall and watch roy jones and arturo gatti fight on hbo boxing um i love everything about a big fight week and the tension and the buildup and all that stuff. And I've been dreaming of being in that Larry Merchant role, that Max Kellerman role, that Jim Gray role, the announcer and also the third man in the booth and all this stuff. And I'm really thankful that they gave me this opportunity. It was unique because of Woodley and there was another MMA fighter on the card. And I just really wanted to deliver for them.

I have an interesting history with Showtime because I was supposed to work on the Mayweather McGregor World Tour for Showtime in 2017. I was a part of that broadcast team. It was going to go from LA to Toronto to Brooklyn to London. And I got the job. I was in LA at Staples Center, I got the job. I was in. I was in L.A. at Staples Center literally an hour before the first leg of the world tour. And Steven Espinoza, who's the president of Showtime Sports, sent me a text, said he needed to meet with me in the hotel lobby of the JW Marriott, if you know where that is, right across the street from Staples. And I said, sure. And he said, unfortunately, you can't be a part of the broadcast uh dana white

threw a fit and he doesn't want you a part of it and so we're really sorry we uh you know we fought to have you but it's just it's too much of a headache i'll tell you what we'll do we're going to pay you in full i wanted to meet with you face to face and do this the right way and i really respected that so that was my only interaction with that man. Now here I am four years later and I get a chance to work on this card. And so it felt really special that I got this opportunity and no one was going to take it away from me. And I have dreamed of being in that moment,

like Paul Woodley, the chaos of the boxing, post-fight, you know, melee, interview, all this stuff. I was like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe this actually happened. Can I tell you guys a story? Yes. This is how, this is, I'm sorry for going long here, but like, I can't believe I'm here. I can't believe this actually happened. Can I tell you guys a story? Yes. I'm sorry for going long here, but I'm so grateful. Hey, it's the Helwani show.

Let's go. And there's people watching this one. So who else do you have here? You have Ian Rappaport on for the ninth time this week, for God's sake, to make sure we switch it up. Where's Schefter at? I mean, come on. Schefter won't come on our show anymore because of your old employer, I think. That's right. In any event, I get to do this.

I'm next to Mauro Ranallo. Always answers the call whenever we call. Don't listen to anything this son of a bitch is saying, Ian. Don't listen to that. I'm sitting next to Mauro Ranallo, who to me meant the world growing up. Legend. Former WWE

announcer, NXT. Was the first guy to ever put me WWE, uh, announcer NXT, uh, was the first guy to ever put me on a show. November of 2007, he had a show fight network radio. I was a absolute. Nobody put me on as a guest called me the Titan of Twitter. I thought I had reached the mountaintop.

I thought being interviewed by Morrow, the voice of pride, um, at the time was the absolute highest that I could ever reach. And so to finally get to work with him was huge. And I'm sitting there right before the show starts, and we're doing our little intro at the desk. And again, I've been a part of the ancillary coverage.

And why, someone might be asking, because, as you know, the UFC controls production. So I never got to be on the actual broadcast, right? I couldn't be in the cage. I couldn't be at the desk. Even though I thought I could add something, I? I couldn't be in the cage. I couldn't be at the desk, even though I thought I could add something. I thought I could be good, not saying I'm better than anyone, but I thought that I could actually do something if given the chance. So here I was getting my chance. And this Drake line that I always reference to pump myself up comes into my head, which is,

someone told me I fell off. Ooh, I needed that from the headline song. I love Drake. He's my favorite rapper, artist, whatever you want to say. And so in that moment, I'm supposed to hype up Woodley. And at the end of my little thing, I said, you know, and if I could steal a line from Drake for a second, whose new album comes out tomorrow. Shout out to Drake, Champagne Poppy, Drizzy Drake, The Sixth God, The Man. Shout out. Shout out.

Yeah. Drizzy Drake, the sixth god, the man. Shout out. I said, you know, for the last few months, a lot of people have been saying that, you know, I said, no, this is what I said. Oh, no. I blew it. I blew it. I said, in this moment,

Drake is watching this, Ariel. Listen, I said, in this moment, cut it from here. I said, in this moment, in this moment, I am cut it from here i said in this moment in this moment i am reminded of a famous line from the lyrical genius drake who once said someone told me i fell off who i needed that and let's be honest guys let's be honest for the last few months a lot of people have said tyron

woodley has fallen off tonight we find out if he needed that. And I'm like, yes. Helwani, you're killing it. You're feeling good. So we go from the desk to ringside. And now I'm about to call my first fight ever. I've never been a part of the broadcast booth. I've never been next to Moronel and Albertine. I'm like, let me just quickly check. You know, are people digging my vibe? They like

the suit. Like, do I know what I... Can I... DM from Champagne Poppy. Whoa! DM from Drake. Literally five minutes after I said it. Thanks for the shout-out, brother. Love the quote.

What? Champagne Poppy with 90 million followers? At that point, I was like, I'm here. Let's go. It sounds like that gave you the confidence to carry you through the rest of that broadcast. But going to the fight, what did you expect coming into that? I expected Tyron to win. I really did.

I didn't know what. I know Jake is good. I respect what he can do in the ring. But was that how you expected the fight to turn out? Honestly, tyron did better than i thought he was going to do because um if you watched his last four fights you could see he was a little tentative um he wasn't fighting like himself he wasn't throwing as much in his last fight against vicente luque in march he was a little more aggressive which ended up

going well except for the fact that you know it ended up being part of his undoing because he lost in the first round via submission, which had never happened before. So I was afraid. Here's Tyron Woodley, who had looked out of his comfort zone in a sport which he is comfortable in, MMA, now going to a sport that he is not comfortable in. Is he going to look even more out of his comfort zone, if you will, is what I'm saying. And so I was afraid that he would kind of be like a deer in the headlights and not know what to do. In the end, there were moments, as I said, I thought I was fair on the broadcast. There were moments where he was aggressive. There were moments where he probably could have been more aggressive. I thought he won the fourth round. I think you can make a case for the eighth round.

I don't agree with the split decision. I don't know how you score that fight for Tyron Woodley. He had his moments. I wish for his sake that he was a little more aggressive at times especially when it seemed like he had jake on the ropes um i thought teddy atlas put a great on my show on monday if you've never had teddy by the way great guest for you guys if there's a big fight just said like he was wondering if if if tyron wanted to win or if tyron was just hoping not to be embarrassed and there are moments when you are trying to go in there and finish it up but you're also leaving yourself open and he was wondering if maybe tyron was skeptical about because let's be honest you get knocked out by jake paul like your legacy changes forever and i think he did enough to where it didn't tarnish his legacy i think it tarnished ben askren's legacy

i think ben askren will always be talked about absolutely it's not fair but the last act that we saw from ben askren was him overweight getting punched by jake paul and losing in the first round the way which it's not fair but that's just it that didn't happen to tyron and i don't think he wanted that to happen so i think he represented i think he looked good but ultimately i think jake is a pretty good boxer now is jake raw are there some holes did he maybe bite off a little more than he could chew? Yeah, sure. But can we just put an end to the whole Jake Paul fighter debate? Like this man just went eight rounds with a former UFC champion.

I don't care if it was a four-fight losing streak, down and lost in three years. Like Jake Paul is a fighter. And Jake Paul is good for boxing and he's good for combat sports. And those guys, every single fight on that card got paid more than they ever got paid in their entire career, including Tyron Woodley. So what's wrong with all of this? I don't get why anyone would be complaining right now ask these nuts um whenever jake paul was going through how much everybody's making more money and then that was that was great it was great that's another thing i know i i never got those those those spots and i've watched those moments i've watched those interviews I've watched those moments. I've watched those interviews. I've watched all of that and dreamed how would I do?

What would I do? Because you know, Pat, like you're in those situations. And sometimes you get a guy who wants to be the star, who wants to overpower the guest, who wants to interject and interrupt. I was happy to go 10 minutes without saying a word as long as you could kind of steer them. And I think there's a science to that. And so I was just really go 10 minutes without saying a word as long as you could kind of steer them. And I think there's a science to that. And so I was just really happy, man. If I never get to do it again, at least I got to do it once. I'd be lying to you guys right now if I said I don't want to do it more.

And I don't care if it's an MMA – like I think I could do that for boxing. Why not? I've been watching boxing longer than I've been watching MMA. Yeah, I think you did a hell of a job. And you're a great interviewer, by the way. I mean, you just, you just asked the hardest question and put people in terrible spots and they give you, they have to answer it. I mean, that's a, it's an interesting style, but you are incredible at it. I want to let you know your interview with Nick Kahn, fucking unbelievable, by the way, nobody ever really gets that amount of time with him.

But I mean, just literally asking him about every single hot topic takes massive gut sack. So I have the- They said I gave him softballs, the internet. The internet said I threw- Yeah, right, dude. You asked him about every hot topic thing. It was like, I mean, this is a very easy way to get clicks, but also takes a lot of gut sack when you're sitting across from somebody to ask that question.

I'm nothing but impressed with your work, sir. I'm very happy for you as well. Ty Schmidt has a question for you back in the studio. Yeah, Ariel, you were just talking about the previous time with Showtime and Dana White not being okay with it. I know you have the relationship with a lot of these fighters, but are you worried at all about your relationship with Dana going forward? Does credentials really matter for you if you're going to be working at these MMA events

or UFC events? Does that really impact what you're going to be doing going forward? That's a great question. By the way, is that t-shirt in honor of me over there? What's it say? It says heel. I mean, I'm heel-wanny.

Oh, that's Ziggler's, actually. You would try to steal somebody else's gimmick, though. All right. Interesting. I got some news on merch coming soon, so stay tuned for that, guys. Okay? We're doing things. We're doing things here.

Okay? We're doing things. AJ Hawk, realest mofo in the game right there. Okay? I love that man. If I was in the same room with him there, I would kiss him on the forehead. Don't do that with this COVID shit, please. Yeah.

Okay. I'm not worried about that. As far as I know, I'm not banned. I don't know that with this covid shit please yeah that's okay i'm i'm not worried about that as far as i know i'm not banned i don't know why i would be banned what did i do i'm i'm just out here trying to live my best life i'm not trying to be unfair or you leaked the brock lesnar news early didn't you ariel remember i heard i leaked it they told me not by the way that was five years ago and there's like some revisionist history going. You know I was unbanned 48 hours later, right? People seem to have forgotten that that ban only lasted for 48 hours, and then I've gone to a gazillion events since then. All that being said, one of the cool byproducts of this little free agency tour that I went on after leaving ESPN or knowing that I was going to leave ESPN was every time I was talking to people about what they wanted me to do, I would ask like, what about the events? What about

fight week and things like that? And they all said, yeah, we don't really think there's much value there. Like, okay, you like, what do I, what do you need me there for? So I could sit cage side and take a picture of the cage and be like my office for the night on Instagram. Like, what are you getting out of me there? Right? Like what everyone loves to do all the media guys like to take the picture of the field like not a bad office for the afternoon okay what are you doing you're not offering us anything you're not getting us any good content so i feel like with my shows monday wednesday and by the way yes we typically go head to head and i'm going to bury you the same way wcw buried um raw for 83 weeks it's going to be a great Raw.

It's a bad idea. I told you this. I said, why are you going in the middle of the afternoon, especially because a lot of our people are probably fans of yours. I was there first. Okay, it's my slot. You know how people forgot about that 48-hour ban because revisionist history? Ain't nobody know you fucking won at 1 o'clock on Mondays and Wednesdays.

Ain't nobody know that. In any event, i feel like i could do a lot of great work um from wherever i am i don't need to be beholden to the credential thank god maybe i uh you know it's it's a byproduct of success it's not that i don't want to go but there's just why am i going to leave my kids why am i going to leave my wife my family to go somewhere and feel unwelcome quite frankly frankly, be treated like crap, to be treated like someone who is not wanted and they go out of their way to make me feel like shit, to be honest, if I may. What do I need that for? And to get nothing, no access, no nothing.

I can have the guys on my show. And you know how I came to that conclusion, honestly? And I'll give a shout out. Is it a shout out? A shout-out? Shout-out! Yeah? To your employers.

And I'm sure this will make all the AEW marks crazy. Boy, what a sensitive bunch of lads those guys are. I mean, holy smokes. Wow. God forbid you do an interview with a WWE guy. Where's the AEW coverage? Anyway. I went to SummerSlam.

Shout out to WWE PR. They rolled the red carpet out. They made me feel welcome. They made me feel like they were happy to see me. They gave us great time with some of the guys and gals. It was nice to feel like a professional and an adult again for

the first time in a long time. So sign me up for experiences like that i'm not going anywhere i'm still covering the sport got my shows and stuff like that i just i used to be afraid of the credential thing i i'm not gonna lie i'm not but i just want to reiterate i'm not bad unless you guys know something that i do you guys know something do you want to let me know that did i get? We don't know anything, dude. We don't know anything about anything. All I know is I'm happy to see you doing your thing and seem to be incredibly happy. I think the MMA hour going at 1 o'clock, whenever that's like,

especially with us getting into football season, is a bad strategy move. But all good. We get a chance to watch it afterwards. And maybe I'm saying that selfishly because I want to watch the show, but I can't because it's in the middle of my show. So maybe that's the whole thing. But I'm so incredibly happy for you, man. Hell of a run thus far.

What's next? Next, we got our shows coming up. And I do believe SmackDown, September 10th, at the Mecca, at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. I will be there with my two boys. Perhaps we can meet each other from six feet because I don't know if there's any lingering

you know, I don't want any remnants on the boys, but Oliver, Walter Heelwani, we're all going to be there in attendance. I won't touch your kids. I will look at them. Keep your kids the fuck away from me. All right, but I would like to see you in real life though one time. Listen, don't be surprised if I jump over that guardrail

and hit Kevin Owens with a little stunner. Dang! I've heard about that beef. I've heard about that as well. We won't dive into that. We've already caught enough. AJ Galante is going to be there at SmackDown too, I think. The son of mob boss Jimmy Galante.

So maybe you'll find your P's and Q's at MSG. Is he really the – Yeah, he is. He was another low-rent NFL reporter that you guys have on way too much. Jeez. Jesus. All right. Come on, AJ.

Come on, AJ. You and me. AJ, can I move forward knowing in the back of my mind that you know if anyone kind of feels a certain way about the things i'm saying that you'll have my back when push comes to shove in the foxhole i can count on you aj can i yeah of course man yeah you can count on me i like your i like your you have a great mix of being like real and vulnerable mixed with your the character ariel and your i think you you're eventually getting to a violent altercation with somebody, and I'm here to watch that. What?

We were going down here. Hey, peace and love. I'm here for peace and love, but rest assured, if you're going to talk about me, there are going to be repercussions. That's all. Make sure you do that from the studio in your basement, though. I don't think you want to mix up.

You see me in that studio now. You can't make that joke anymore. You see me in that beautiful Vox Media studio in the heart of Manhattan, New York City, the Big Apple, the media capital of the world. Where are you coming to us from? Who's in their basement now, Patrick? And what about that promo I cut on you on the bump, SummerSlam? You didn't even respond. You had nothing to say. You were left with your hands in your pocket.

I was busy. I even got Heyman. I was running circles around Heyman. 10-7 Helwani all over all you WWE bums. I would run on the mic. MVP wishes he had skills like me, lyrical skills like me. He wishes that he could cut promos like me. You wish. I mean, Corey Graves?

Who is Corey Graves? What has he ever done in this business? Nothing. Although he did a good job filling in for you, Kevin Owens, great age of brone. Ladies and gentlemen, Ariel O'Reilly. Can't thank you enough for allowing us to penetrate

your ear holes. The fact you allow us to be a part of your day-to-day Monday through Friday, I am eternally grateful for. I don't get to say it enough. There isn't a lot of things in my life that, you know, I feel like are a two-way street of appreciation. I feel like there's a lot of things that happen where in life we question whether or not people appreciate our moves and our motives and our everything we've put into things. And I want to let you know the fact that you press play on this show, I will eternally be grateful for. I hope today was a show that you said, you know, not too bad. And if it was,

I hope you'd be a friend and tell a friend. If not, fuck know, not too bad. And if it was, I hope you'd be a friend and tell a friend. If not, fuck off, I guess. I don't know. Hashtag end of pod squad. Can't wait to chat with you on Twitter this weekend, maybe in the Instagram comments. And if not, have the greatest weekend of your life. I'll be back in studio on Monday morning. I cannot wait. Ty Schmidt, please play some independent music and propel these people into a beautiful label day weekend. We'll see you Monday. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye.