The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 494 -Monday Night Manning Recap, Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, Michael Lombardi, Matt "Cass Dogg" Cassel, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

On today's show, Pat and the boys chat about the inaugural episode of Monday Night Manning, and how incredible it was to watch Peyton, Eli, and the bevy of guests they had watch the Monday Night Football game, dissect the defenses, and give everyone who watched the game a true education in Quarterback play in the NFL. Joining Pat and AJ Hawk for the 2nd installment of the season, is reigning NFL MVP, Super Bowl Champion, Super Bowl MVP, Quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers. Pat, Aaron, and AJ chat about the Packers performance against the Saints in Jacksonville, what the mood in the locker room is like, when Aaron and Coach LaFleur will chat about what happened and fix what they saw, if it's even worth addressing all the people who were going to pile on after everything that happened in the offseason, how he thought the offensive line played well, and what they need to do to get back on the right track (27:14-57:00). Next, 3x Super Bowl Champion, former GM of the Cleveland Browns, special assistant to the New England Patriots coaching staff, author, and host of the GM Shuffle Pod and the Lombardi Line, Michael Lombardi. Pat and Lombo chat about the rumors he's hearing from a credible source that Urban Meyer is going to be one and done in Jacksonville and is going to take the vacant USC job after the season, if Packers fans should be worried at all about their performance on Sunday, how we should prepare for gambling week 2 in the NFL, and his thoughts on the Raiders and Ravens game from last night (59:04-1:13:53). Later, Pat and AJ Hawk welcome 14 year NFL veteran at Quarterback, Pro Bowler, and member of the Tom Brady Kentucky Derby party, Matt "Cass Dogg" Cassel, to chat about his thoughts on week 1 of the NFL season, why things are different in New England from everywhere else, he tells a hilarious story about one of his best friends, Mike Vrabel cutting him in Tennessee, and what some of the worst and best places to live were during his time in the NFL (1:34:03-1:55:27). 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 Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, September 14th, 2021, years after zero. Also my mother's birthday. Happy birthday, Sally McAfee. We have a massive show today. The cast dog, Matt Castle, stops by. AJ Hawk is here. The boys. If you enjoy the show, by the end of it, please be a friend. Tell a friend. If not, just act like it never, ever happened. That'd be cool. You know, two ships passing in the night. Let's get to it. Let's have a goddamn Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, huh? Coming off, obviously, not a great game this past weekend.

And Duvall playing against the New Orleans Saints, losing by 35 and having one of his worst football games we have seen. What will be on the mind of Aaron Rodgers? Well, Aaron Rodgers won't talk about maybe Monday Night Manning. mind of Aaron Rodgers. Well, Aaron Rodgers want to talk about maybe Monday Night Manning? Ooh. Hey,

we are at the point of life where we are a bit jaded because of how much sports media we watch. Sure. Yep. Okay? We are tough critics,

I believe, but I think it's just because we appreciate whenever good things happen as sports fans ourselves. So, whenever some things happen, we go, oh, how things happen we go how'd you fuck for instance joey chestnut when he ate his 76th hot dog in 10 minutes on the 4th of july in the world in america needed to see that obviously the

production froze and everything like that and we're like hey listen espn we understand you're the worldwide leader you have the rights to everything you got disney's bank behind you we appreciate what you have done, not only now for sports, but for our entire lives. But there are some things that need to be tightened the fuck up, we think, during some of the coverages, right? Yeah, for sure. They got it right with this Monday Night Manning.

And I don't know whose idea it was. I don't know if Omaha Productions is the one that pitched this idea to ESPN. They had to green light it, so that is still a massively good decision. A lot of things get said no. Whoever's idea this was, however they ran it, absolutely unbelievable. There was one person that tweeted me the gif of Kurt Angle with, it was like a beer hose, but he had milk shooting out of it from back in the Attitude Era WWE when he and Stone Cold Steve Austin

were going at it or whatever. It felt like it was football information coming out of a fire hose. And you were literally just sitting there taking it all in, going, holy shit, I knew nothing about football, I realized. At one point, Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson, who I love, I would like to take back everything I said into a microphone, just a couple days ago in front of a crowd of 70,000 people in front of this man. Russell Wilson, Peyton Manning, and Eli Manning talking about decisions that were being made and plays that were potentially coming and coverages that I didn't even fucking know what everybody's role was supposed to do.

While they were talking about Derek Carr's performance was unbelievable piece of content. I mean, it was an unbelievable piece of content. It was amazing. Russell Wilson called a couple plays that were about to happen. Peyton Manning was calling out what the defensive coverage was immediately as they were coming out of the huddle. Peyton was in the game yesterday. You remember when Urban Meyer was working with Fox? Oh, yeah. On the sideline.

And, by the way, Urban Meyer might be – I mean, if rumors are true. Whoa. We'll talk to a gentleman named Michael Lombardi, who is a former NFL general manager and part of the Patriots coaching staff and advisory and everything like that. He's won three Super Bowls. He's an author and everything like that. We'll talk to him about a tweet that he put out yesterday,

which was basically like, hey, my sources are telling me Urban wants to go back to college. And then his USC firing happens. Something's brewing here. Oh, wow. We'll talk to him in like 25 minutes about his tweet about Urban. What does he know? How does he know? And USC coach did get fired after a few years of being terrible.

So we'll see how that whole thing pans out. But you remember Urban Meyer, whenever he was doing the big noon kickoff and they do an Ohio State game or it was the national championship game and Fox was on the sideline. It was literally as if Urban Meyer was still – I think he had a fucking whistle around his suit on the sideline as he was watching the Ohio State Buckeyes. It's like one of those things that if it's in you, it's you. Watching Peyton watch that game, I think this is what he

did. And I'm not 100% sure. I might be wrong. I've not asked him. But I think he watched film and got the strategy from the offense. I think he watched film for both quarterbacks. I think he broke down both defenses. He said he had personal relationships with every coach, by the way. If Peyton Manning calls, everybody's going to ask you. That PB&J story, Jim Harbaugh, whenever Peyton was working out for the 49ers or something. This must have been whenever he was potentially going to be a free agent. And it was

Marty, or Wink, who's the defense coordinator for the Ravens. It was Peyton, that Duke quarterback coach, Cutcliffe, and then Jim Harbaugh, I guess, were at the workout. And they were working out somewhere, and I think it was Cutcliffe. Cutcliffe, and then Jim Harbaugh, I guess, were at the workout. And they were working out somewhere, and I think it was Cutcliffe's wife maybe or somebody asked on the way out, like, hey, do you guys need anything?

Want anything to eat or drink? And Peyton and Eli were like, she was clearly not – it was just the right thing to say. Yeah. And Peyton goes, I said no. Cutcliffe said no, thank you. Winch said no. And Jim Harbaugh goes, yeah, I'll no. Cutcliffe said no, thank you. Winch said no. And Jim Harbaugh goes, yeah, I'll take PP and J. Peyton said that he had been waiting nine years to tell that story.

He said, I've been waiting nine years to tell that story. And I think those moments where he had the helmet on, he was even in the game, and they did the John Gruden, Derek Carr situation, and they were trying some shit out i think early the best part about it was when you were watching peyton watch football for a game that he prepared for to play him breaking down the defense oh this is cover zero here we go they're coming now in this particular coverage you do not want to throw the ball out why the fuck did he basically is peyton saying about this he that's where they want you to throw but it can't be

where you go then another uh a missed pass will happen. Like, targets. Like, Peyton hates targets. I think the fact that targets is a stat he absolutely hates because last night Darren Waller targeted 19 times. And Peyton's like, what's his targets? Like, targets. Like, he was the person that the ball was supposed to go to.

Why is that a stat? And I think he was saying that because some of the balls were uncatchable. And it almost seems like, hey, the wide receiver can say, that the ball was supposed to go to? Why is that a stat? And I think he was saying that because some of the balls were uncatchable, and it almost seems like, hey, the wide receiver can say, they can tell the wide receiver, you were targeted this many times. It's almost like so they don't get pissed off thing, but that was fucking awesome.

It was a home run, and congrats to the Raiders getting a massive win. They won one game. Peyton predicted after the first play of the game that they're only going to win five more this season. That was amazing. There were so many moments through there. I'm very thankful that whoever green-lighted it, green-lighted it. It was awesome. I think they need a pre-game

show a little bit. I think maybe that's where you can get a guest or two out of the way there. And then I think, because I think watching him kind of get into the game for both quarterbacks was awesome. And there's going to be people who say, hey, don't cut off – he cut off Russell Wilson a bunch.

Russell Wilson was awesome on there. But, like, that intensity of Peyton, I think we need to see that every week. It's like he's playing the fucking game almost. That was amazing. And Eli chimed in a couple good liners. I mean, it was a beautiful production, great game. Congrats to everybody. At Ty Schmidt, your thoughts as a studied film critic.

Yeah, I mean, it's Peyton's show. Like, people are going there. I mean, and last night just reinforced it. game congrats to everybody at ty schmidt your thoughts as a studied film critic yeah i mean it's peyton show like people are going there i mean and last night just reinforce it it's not like eli was bad or anything but like you can tell like peyton does he's preparing like he's playing in the game and just i don't i mean i don't know some of the stuff like you that you could nitpick uh with like the audio mixing where sometimes it would cut off them and you'd get like uh you hear the game. I assume that's just first week they'll clean that kind of stuff up. Fire alarm.

Fire alarm, exactly. Hey, that's going to happen. Right. Hey, that fire alarm's going to happen. You don't have any control. All you need is one little beep, beep, and then all of a sudden the whole place is insufferable. There ain't nothing they can do about it.

But to your point with Russell Wilson, I feel like there maybe aren't that many people who can kind of disarm him like Peyton can. Like, he acted like a human being last night for what I feel like the first time in, like, you know, since he's been the Seahawks quarterback. He usually is just so – Oh, by the way.

Yeah, I decided no more of that. No, I'm paying him a massive compliment. Yeah, but you kind of did your little thing where you – Jab. Yeah, you know. of did your little thing where you – Jab. Yeah, you know, a little – Most people would agree with me. Every time you see a guy, you know exactly what's going to come out of his mouth before it comes out of his mouth.

And, like, last night it wasn't like that. I was, like, you know, waiting, like, oh, I'm actually very interested to, like, see what – like, that conversation was incredible, and I wish we'd get more of Russell Wilson doing that and less of Go Hawks. Go Hawks, dude. I don't like that they go Hawks all over the Colts though. I mean, they go Hawks all over the Colts.

Colts will be back. Kenny Moore wished my mother a happy birthday this morning. Speaking of, happy birthday. Happy birthday, Seth. But that Monday Night Manning is a, if you love football, like you're going to love that. Got to be there.

There was a couple people that said they couldn't do it because it was too much or something like that. It's like once you catch up to the flow of what they're saying and how they're doing it, though, it's an unbelievable experience. Legit, I feel like I learned more watching like two quarters last night than I have in maybe 34 years of existence in football because there's only a few quarterbacks. And I think that's why the Russell Wilson, Peyton Manning thing was so cool because I'm not saying Russell Wilson wanted to do this.

I'm just saying it provided him an opportunity to showcase, say, hey, everybody talks about how smart everybody is. I just want to let everybody know, like, hey, I can call plays too if I have to. I know exactly where a ball's supposed to go. Me and Peyton are about to chat about what we see whenever we look at coverage. I mean, it was just strictly ball almost. And then Russ Dangerous Wilson, by the way, I mean, he knew I took back ways. He was just trying to rally the troops right there. Because he had a blast talking ball with the sheriff and easy on Monday Night Football. Mr. Unlimited absolutely dominated

last night. I mean, I loved it. That was a home run. Congrats to ESPN. Congrats to Omaha Productions and congrats to Peyton and Eli, I guess at this point, because he hasn't been around as long for crushing everything you do in retirement. I fucking love it. It's awesome. Last night was a game changer for sports media at Boston. Connor, your thoughts? I mean, I loved everything about it. Ty's mentioned the production a few times. You heard the producer come in going, hey, Peyton, we've got to go to break 5, 4, 3, 2. And I mean, you can't have that, although

I could rush to the bathroom real quick so I wasn't missing any of the game. Ray Lewis came on and when he came on, him and Eli talked about Eli calling Ray Lewis the mic and Ray Lewis saying back to him on the field, I'm not the mic, Eli. And then Eli telling his whole team, all right, Ray's not the mic and Ray Lewis saying back to him on the field, I'm not the mic, Eli. And then Eli telling his whole team, all right, Ray's not the mic.

Listen to Ray. It's the other guy who's the mic. I mean, the stories were incredible. And like you said, when you listen to those guys who are so cerebral and just like incredible at football. Six hours a day of watching film on top of practice, they're going to be much smarter than you are at football. Yes. And the way they can break everything down, I mean,

Peyton legitimately I think could call every single play for the Raiders by just watching what formation the defense was in. It was incredible to watch. I loved it. I feel very, very, very bad for Steve Levy and the boys on ESPN because the ratings come out at 4 o'clock,

I believe. I'm just going to tell you now, they got slaughtered. They got absolutely murdered. I'm sorry. Listen, remember, we thought this about, I think it was on ABC as well last night, right? Yeah. I think it was on ABC as well. So ABC is on. Ratings will be massive. Ratings will be massive for that.

Just like, remember, we thought the Nickelodeon one was going to be much higher than it was. And we thought, maybe, is CBS lying about what the Nickelodeon did? Because our entire world, last night, my entire world was watching the Manning one, except for Mitt. Right. True. I had no idea that Mitt was literally the only person that I have ever encountered, I think, in the history of my life that watched the regular Monday Night Football.

And I like Steve Levy, okay? I love Louis Riddick. I love Greasy over there. I love everybody over there, as human. I do. I enjoy the hell out of them. But you're not... Nick, stop looking at me like that, dude.

Come on, Nick. You can't be staring over Ty's shoulder. Your eyes that large. What is your issue? What did I... I love Greasy. I love Greasy. I never met Greasy as a human,

but I would assume I would enjoy him. Louis Riddick has always been cool to me. Steve Levy has always been cool to me. That's what I'm saying here, okay? They've always been very nice. But you're getting to watch the Mannings do Monday Night Football. You're gonna at least flip over

there. And then once I started seeing what it was gonna be, I think once again, there was a couple things they tried that maybe the timing didn't work out or maybe it was too rushed, too quick, however the case, whatever it is. Early with some of the skits, it might have turned some of the people off, I guess, if you want to watch. But if you were listening to words being said, it was stupid.

And the story's incredible. That Eli Manning with a 0.0 QBR against Ray in the first game and then bringing up footage and clips because they have that shit from way back and the ability to do that. Absolutely incredible. There's a couple follow-up great stories to the interactions that you just referenced right there. So obviously, Ray told Eli his rookie year in a couple games

that Ray was not the mic. Okay, so Eli looks at Diva, 52's the mic. And Ray, uh-uh, Eli, I ain't the mic. And Eli would go, all right, Ray. And then he would just point at somebody else. And that was it. And he ended up going 0.0. Worst game he said he's ever had probably.

It was a nightmare, obviously. And Ray just laughing in his face on the Monday Night Man. I think there's a payback story that Peyton did not recall, but I think a lot of people know. There was a game, Colts versus Ravens, close to the end zone. We're driving in. We're in the red zone. And Peyton is literally telling Ray Lewis, you have 12 on the field.

Ray, you have 12 on the field, Ray. Ray, you have 12 on the field. Ray, you have 12 on the field, Ray. Ray, you have 12 on the field. And Ray Lewis goes, like, starts looking around. Time out. We did. We did. It is like that type of thing.

I did not know that there's, like, hey, a mutual respect. Yeah. Ray was fucking with Eli, obviously. But I think, like, the fact that Ray told Peyton, once I saw how much film you were studying, that changed the way I completely prepared.

The respect level between, because they're competing against each other. Everybody tries to ping quarterbacks against quarterbacks. It's always normally Mike versus quarterback, unless you have savage safety or something. You get it. But normally it's Mike is calling plays on defense, the side of the ball, making the shifts,

making the motions, everything like that, reading audibly. Normally this could be different now with different teams. And then you've got the quarterback trying to do the same thing. And them pointing out, like, oh, Derek made an audible. And then the Ravens' defense made an audible. And then they caught Derek Carr. All happening in six seconds, by the way. Listening to Peyton be like, oh, Derek just saw this was cover zero.

And then basically Peyton, I think Peyton or Ray was like, Ravensall knew that they audibled that and they checked it as well. And then Derek had to roll out and throw it out of bounds. It was like, normally the analysis of that is, oh, they had everybody covered.

This is the perfect coverage for this. This is a good call by whoever made it. Listening to them be like, no, no, no, Derek just made a check. And then immediately upon hearing that, the linebacker made a check and changed what they were and it was like you're seeing they always talk about chess game between coordinators and Peyton I think was always a guy that people considered as a coordinator which they should have but what we actually got to see in real time and get pointed

out by two of the best to ever do it was like no there's a lot of shit happening very quickly that even though it's mic'd up nobody fucking knows what's going on other than the people that are in there. That type of shit is what I live for. And I think that is why I just thoroughly enjoyed last night. It was a fucking home run. Well, that's also why we see why ESPN was like, hey, we'll give you $85 million to do Monday Night Football because when he's on, it is can't miss TV. I mean, it's fucking awesome.

Like, you know, to Connor's point about feeling bad for the other booths, it's like, I mean. It's Monday Night Football. It's Monday Night Football. Like, hey, this is fucking Monday Night Football. If we can get the Mannings on there. And part of it, too, like the game was great last night, so we got to, you know, I mean, who knows how much it'll change if it's a blowout or whatever.

I mean, I feel like they'll loosen up and maybe tell some more stories. But they were both, I mean, they were invested in the game, and the game goes into overtime. And, you know, it was just a great night. It was awesome. I'm more worried about when, you know, the seven games that they're not doing Monday night football, having to go back, because they're not doing every single Monday night football game.

No, no, I think this is business here. Like, hey, look what happens. Yeah, yeah, I think they gave each other – I would assume it came from the Manning side in this negotiation. Yeah. I would assume they said, well, let's do a certain amount and have a mutual good faith conversation on whether or not, you know, like we opt out, you opt out. Or maybe we just make it 10 and then if we revisit it there for later. Because what's going to happen if this keeps steamrolling?

Imagine what that check will be for. And I don't think I'm saying anything out of pocket here. The Mannings do the business. Uh-huh. They do the fucking business. Yeah. They do the, okay, go, let's make this work. You know, let's figure it out.

They do a lot of that. So, I mean, that's well documented. That's public. That's everything. And there's a reason why, you know, the the payton's places now has an entire portfolio yeah okay and i assume college bowl will have another host we assume that will continue to be omaha productions i assume there will be more they are going to build a fucking media empire they're making eli's places yeah he's getting his own that's one of the part of the yeah so

there's also i think big poppy's getting one the only reason why i know this because omaha productions tweeted me telling me this thing starts at 8.13 p.m. stat or whatever. They were. And I was like, because at 8 o'clock I go over there, because on the guide it said Monday Night Manning. I go over there at 8 o'clock, and it's, no offense, I love these guys, but it's Levy, Greasy, and Riddick on my screen.

I'm like, what the fuck is this? Like, hey, by the way, Levy looks good. Oh, yeah. Levy looked good. I assume the open was good, but I'm like, am I missing? I thought I was missing something. They tweet. No, we're starting at 813. I go to their Twitter account. Their header or whatever is the Peyton's place is like

umbrella umbrella. Basically, I think Wombat Abby Wombat is getting. Oh, yeah. I think she has one. There's a couple others, I believe. So they're going to build a streaming service, pretty much. Yeah, and then for the game itself, I mean, fucking incredible game. Couldn't have asked for a better start. Free football, huh?

Free football. Free football on Monday Night Football. I mean, there was a lot of things happening in that game last night. Darren Waller was getting a lot of looks, and John Gruden, after the game, was asked why. He got so many 19 targets which is a fascinating stat now that peyton has pointed out that like target what does that even mean like because there was one play where they actually overthrew josh jacobs and somebody else

and peyton was laughing about the entire thing and like immediately upon seeing that he was well who was targeted there you know because, because who was targeted there? How was it targeted? I think that whole thing. But John Gruden came out and said, Darren Waller is the best football player I've ever seen. Or Darren Waller is the best football player I've ever seen. Watching him just run routes, he's so smooth, so silky.

He's a rapper. His story is incredible. He's come on this show and crushed it. And it was his birthday. I'm incredibly happy for him. I'm happy for the Raiders. And I'm happy for my bet of the Raiders and the Oval. Hell yeah. Now, we do have a gambling show that happens from this office,

and they happen to be the hottest gamblers on earth for the last four months or whatever. It's been unbelievable to watch. They've been giving out their picks publicly and still winning. That is against all gambling gods, basically. At some point, maybe the gambling gods will find out about this little show happening out here in the middle of nowhere, but hopefully not until at least the end of the season. Yesterday, at Tone Diggs, who's the host of Hammered Down, alongside at Bubba Gumpino, he was forced into giving a pick for last night's game.

Oh. And I didn't know that was the type of fucking operation we're running. I thought first Monday night football game, Monday night manning, I thought there was no reason we had to bully you into picking a loser last night. What's that all about, Tone Diggs? There's five things I care about in my life, Pat. Okay. Faith.

What? Family. What? Football. What? My job. What? And my goddamn gambling record.

Okay. Okay. I'm not going to put my record on the line for some Mickey Mouse Monday night football game. That game, great game. Exciting. There was five total fumbles, an inter game. That game, great game. Exciting. There was five total fumbles, an interception. It went back and forth. Ravens were 81-0, up 14 points under Harbaugh.

81-1 now. Like, I'm not putting my fucking record, which is all I have in my life. Well, you have. Besides faith. Beautiful wife, Tony. Beautiful family, Tony. That's family.

Family's number two right there behind Jesus Christ. Thank you, Jesus. I'm not putting my record on the line for a game like last night where I had no idea what was going to happen. And you got bullied? I got bullied into taking the fucking Ravens. Yeah. 14 points.

81-0. Came back and lost. I mean, I'm just not going to do it, though. I'm not going to get bullied again. Okay. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Can't get fooled again.

Fool me three times, can't get fooled again. I was trying to remember which one it was, but can't be getting fooled anymore, huh, Dix? I can't get fooled again. I was trying to remember which one it was, but can't be getting fooled anymore, huh, Dix? I can't. Because a lot of us were saying, hey, Raiders seem like the obvious pick here. There's no such thing as that. That's not a thing. Well, in this particular case, we've said that in a lot of cases,

and it was not. But in this particular case, the reason why we thought it was an obvious case was because the Raiders are always surprisingly good early. They always win games early, and then all hell breaks loose, and then we all at the end of the season react the same exact way. Are they going to blow that whole fucking place up or not? And we completely forget about how good they are at certain points on the season.

For whatever reason, though, they just haven't been able to piece it together. Now, they were in Oakland. They moved to Vegas. There's this going on. There's that going on. Get rid of this guy. Whole new offensive line. Denzel Good was a locker made of Vegas. There's this going on. There's that going on. Get rid of this guy. Whole new offensive line. Denzel Good was a locker made of mine.

He is an absolute stud. Great guy. Massive human being. Him getting hurt last night is just another problem that they have. I mean, they completely turned over with incognito still there. I mean, there's a lot of things they got to do. But they always seem to win early. And they win games that it's like this.

And I think it's because they're in the same division as the Chiefs. I honestly believe that. And I think it's because everybody kind of writes them off. But I thought that was a pretty obvious one last night. I was trying to bully you into helping that number five. Yes. I was trying to help you. Thank you.

Not in your faith. I mean, I'm probably going to test your faith a little bit every once in a while with some things we've got going on. Your family, you work long hours, so I do apologize for that. Football, we do a lot of that. Your job, I mean, we're lucky that you're here. But that last one, that record that you love, I was trying to help you out with the Raiders.

I thought this was something like, hey, I've been in that stadium. Okay, they're not going to be able to serve food to anybody after the first quarter because their entire BTS machine or BFS machine or whatever it is can't operate well i mean i was out there for summer slam that it was not great those fans are going to be pissed they're going to be loud oh yeah derrick carr had to quiet them down you know they couldn't fucking drink or eat anything yeah probably couldn't even operate and they're gonna have to to leave that place six to seven hours of traffic getting out of there i mean that's why they were loud i mean they're probably gonna be loud all the time we got to remember that going forward i kind

of knew that though is what I'm saying. We tried to help you out. Well, yes, the Raiders, home puppies, which I love. Dogs killed it this weekend. They are always good at the beginning of the season. It was going to be electric in that stadium. But then on the other side, Harbaugh was the best week one against the spread coach since he's come into the league.

The Ravens haven't lost a week one in five years. But then they had all their injuries. So I just wanted to stay away. I just wanted to watch Mannings commentate on a football game and enjoy my Monday night. Instead, I was fucking pissed. Hey, Peyton said that quarterback position is a position where you can't be

upset, can't be mad. That's right. You've got to be kind of in a zone. He wants his running backs mad. Hey, love when a running back's pissed. This is awesome. Let's go ahead and do that. Quarterback can't do that. They've got to go to go sideline, get a deep breath, do the whole thing. You can't be making picks when you're upset, pal. Can't do it.

Bailey McCombs did bully you, though. He did. And that is a situation that will probably be. That's why I have him muted on Twitter. Tony. Can't be muting people in the office. That's unbelievable. Well, I blocked Foxy last year because of what he did to the Steelers.

But you guys have reconciled. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've made a deal on that. How about the Ravens, though? Lamar Jackson's still Lamar Jackson. Yeah. Marquise Brown looked real good. He had a couple great catches there.

That Kyler Murray-like play, the Madden-like play where he threw the touchdown there across the back. Lamar Jackson is absurd. I mean, that's literally the only way to describe it. He's, at this age, still going, still faster and more athletic than everybody else on the field. Maybe not Max Crosby, though. Oh, my gosh. How about that?

He's a great move. A lot of tweets last night from Raiders fans saying, like, hey, is he not the perfect Raider, by the way, this guy? Like, a lot of people are saying, like, Al Davis would love this guy. So, he's also sober, I believe, for a year. Darren Waller, he said, was inspiration to him. They're now teammates leading the way on both sides of the ball. Whenever he, you know, he had to set an edge.

And usually with Lamar Jackson, that's going to be impossible. But he flattened out and chased Lamar. That was incredible. He had a couple sacks on the hold. He goes straight to the. Oh, yeah, Bonera. What is this thing? Quiver.

Quiver. Yeah, he went to the quiver. Interesting about him. In 2019, they had the fourth overall draft pick. They drafted a D end. He was a healthy scratch last night. They drafted him in the fourth round. He's a captain. He's incredible.

Like, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm so happy for him. He looks so fast. Very good. What's up, Foxy? How about them saying that halftime adjustments are all bullshit? What was that all about? Yeah, I love that.

I loved hearing that, specifically because most people would think that Peyton would be, like, the biggest halftime adjuster of all time because that's, like, his thing. So for me, I never really knew what happened at halftime because kickers and punters, snappers, we go in, go to the bathroom if you've got to go to the bathroom, grab, like, a protein bar or something like that, and then we're back out. So it's literally, like, I'm in the locker room for as long as I need to be because I'm trying to get back out on the field because there's a full field so I can actually hit some balls and see what the winds may be doing,

how has it changed since the beginning of the game, which was two and a half hours ago. So, like, I'm trying to get on the field. At halftime, though, I always knew the offense gathers in one, the defense gathers in the other. There's guys out in the middle maybe getting an IV or whatever. i never heard like fool like hey they're doing this so we're going to start doing this and this entire thing so i i never really knew but i love that peyton and eli were like there ain't enough fucking time i mean i guess we can change a couple plays but you to

really change everything i guess you would need a a extended Super Bowl-like halftime, I guess. That was fascinating to hear, though. I mean, I've made a lot of adjustments to halftime, personally. I mean, that wind could be going complete opposite direction. Hey, by the way, Tom, we need to be fucking punting that way. I found a jet stream. It's right up there. That is where we need to go or whatever.

But I guess on offense and defense, not as much as we would have think. What does that call it? Well, with the surface pros now, aren't they kind of making adjustments like drive to drive because they can go back and look at what they're doing on each possession instead of, you know, wait until halftime to make these adjustments. So did they give him money? You think

the hey, we got to get to a break. The thing's called surfaces. Yeah, Microsoft. They're a sponsor. Did they give Peyton money? You think that's what the services are for? He literally Microsoft. They're a sponsor. Did they give Payton money, you think? Payton did. That's what the Surfaces are for. They literally did. They're doing this. They're doing this. And then that's what it's for. And it was cut

off half. And then he literally just like had to have. It went back. Yeah. I was like, oh, Microsoft. Smart. Yeah. Because that would be a... And then he had the Exos controller. And they weren't cutting to that sometimes. There were some times where he had the actual game instead of the replay. He was talking a couple times over the regular thing.

They'll figure that all out. Right, hopefully. I can't wait to watch. Joining us now, though, ladies and gentlemen, a man who is the reigning MVP of the NFL. A man who started a book club just one week ago. Obviously did not have his greatest football game this past weekend, but there are still 16 games to go. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. What's going on, bub?

Hey, I got the light working. That special thing you sent me is working. I'm illuminated now. Let's go! That's what you wanted. It's not what I wanted. Okay, I just wanted you to be able to rest your arms because on Tuesday, especially late in the season, you were holding that thing and it looked like, you know,

I don't want to be the reason why anything happens to your arms or anything. We just thought, you know, you deserve a chance to take a load off, sit back, have a conversation with a couple of guys. You know what I mean? Thank you. Thank you so much, Pat. Appreciate that. All right, let's get right to it. You see AJ, he's in a hotel in Los Angeles. He just got back from the Met Gala thing and he'll be, his, his wifi will be terrible. I just want to let you know, and it has been already, but we will figure it out as we go. First question, let's get right into this thing. What the hell happened, do you think?

If you had to just go back and analyze what happened, I know we probably buried the ball, but what the hell happened down there in Jacksonville from your eyes, Aaron? Buried the ball. I know that's a reference to you. That's a great reference. Thank you. Thank you.

I feel good about it. Yeah, man, it was one of those days. You know, if you're long enough, you're going to have one of those. We had one of those last year, too. So we've had a couple rough ones in Florida, unfortunately. But, you know, I got a few. The few text messages that I did get went something like this. Hey, there was a team that lost 38-3 last year to the Saints that won the Super Bowl.

It's like, okay, thanks for that. I don't know what kind of lining that is. You're just trying to make chicken salad out of chicken shit there. It was a rough one for us. Offensively, we were bad. Defensively, we couldn't get off the field. You turn around there, wely we couldn't get off the field. You turn around there, we had a minute nine left in the first half and we 17 nothing and we'd run 12 plays. So it was weird games where it seemed like the clock is just running

the entire time and on offense we weren't in the rhythm at all. And we came out second half and had a good drive together and then I throw a pick and that was basically the game right there. everything just kind of turned at that point hey what do they do what's the saints defense do to make it like that to make it a rough day i'm from watching it a lot of times and i asked we had matt castle the cast dog on before you cast on he said he i asked him like hey is there times when like guys just legit aren't opening those windows are tiny it felt like that watching the game. What do teams do to do that where they can find a way to kind of take windows away

and also put pressure on you? Well, kind of the opposite of how they played last year at the Superdome. Last year, without Devontae, it was a lot of pressure. Malcolm, I feel like, blitzed a bunch of times off one edge. Davis was blitzing a bunch. I think there was almost 50% total pressure. This year it was very, very minimal pressure. So they just kind of sat back and a lot of too high stuff.

And then some disguise, some good disguise too high, where they're kind of shading the safety to one side of the field. And the backside safety is kind of inserting for three going vertical or doubling a lot of times Devontae backside, if the opportunity presented itself. So it was a good job, you know, nice job stopping the run with the front, you know, front four, front six-ish, you know, it was a light box most of the day.

So when you're stopping the run with the light box and they're covering you on the back end, it's gonna be, you know, a tough day if you can't find those tight windows. I've said this a couple times. I think I actually heard, and I don't know if you said it aloud or not, but whenever you were in your end zone and it was that second one that was caught by the other team,

I actually heard, I think, fuck it. Did you say that into a microphone? Or how did I hear that? Was that in my head? I heard you say that. Or was that actually you? Because I think that was a pass that a lot of people looked at and they were like, that's not, that's not what Aaron Rogers do.

Were you just trying to take a shot seeing if MDS was down there? Or did you know, maybe this was like a punt. If this thing gets picked off anyways. And did you get to the point where it was like, fuck it in that game, which would have been understandable? I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't have said fuck it at one point in my mind. But I don't think it was on that play. No, like I said, they were playing the backside safety there,

low kind of backside. Devontae had a corner on the backside. I was thinking he was going to kind of stay with him and kind of double Devontae. And when I took my eyes off him, he did a nice shot and went back to another field, and I obviously overthrew Marquez on that one. I do want to talk about the first one, though. Okay, yeah.

There's have to be multiple ones. But for those of you who went back and watched it or will go back and watch it, I don't like to make a lot of excuses for interceptions. There's some shit ones. There's some ones you wish you had back. There's some ones that really aren't your fault. That one was entirely due to the double nut shot I took.

I'm going to go back and watch it. But I step up in the pocket. I was going to throw across my body to Devonta. He was on the shallow cross. And, you know, it's a ball I've thrown in practice before. I didn't feel bad about that throw. And right before I'm throwing it, I took a left kind of clothesline that, you know, A.J. Hawk or Brady Papanga clothesline,

and somebody on the right, you know, with a right kind of cross, double nut shot. I guess I've got to overcome that and throw a better ball. That was a painful one. They got their money's worth on that one. Okay, and my last question before A.J. and the boys get into this beautiful conversation. There's going to be people with Aaron Rodgers, which is obviously you've been with Aaron Rodgers the longest out of anybody, but anything you do is going to get speculated, criticized,

and everything like that. You coming on this show and being this relaxed, people are going to talk about, oh, he doesn't care. The game, obviously, with everything that happened in the offseason, oh, this guy doesn't care. Is there any reason to address those things by you? And if I'm out of line for even asking the question, obviously tell me to fuck off, but

that's things that are being said immediately after a performance like that with that offseason. What are your thoughts on that, and what was the locker room, you know, afterwards around you? We saw Bakhtiari, obviously, but what is the team like? Is this a bunker mentality situation, you think, now? No, I mean, I think it might be a freakout outside of the facility. I think it's just But what is the team like? Is this a bunker mentality situation, do you think, now? No.

I mean, I think it might be a freakout outside of the facility. I think it's just a good learning lesson for us. We can't play like that. We can't start a game like that. I feel like I said after the game, our energy level was a little bit low before the game. We got to do a better job responding to adversity. So, look, there's not much to say we got our asses beat, you know, by 35 points.

We're all frustrated about it, but just move on. We got 16 more to go. You know, we can't dwell on this one and let it impact this next week. We got to have seen what the farm we got a Monday night football game. Any any great competitor, you know, is never okay with losing, but I think the response has to be, you know, the thing you set your mind to where, you know, this is Tuesday already. You know, Monday, yesterday, you know, you watch the film, you flush it, and Tuesday you start moving on to the next opponent.

Hey, what about halftime adjustments? You hear people, especially commentators, say, oh, this guy's great at making halftime adjustments can you really do a whole lot you have what maybe two and a half minutes with your coach during halftime after you take a leak and who knows what else you're doing you're attending to your double uh ball shot you got to get that fixed now hey he's asking this question i don't know if you saw this because peyton manning and eli manning last night on the monday night manning basically said like everybody talks about these halftime adjustments and peyton and Eli were like,

who has the time to do that? Like, is that even a real thing? And I think that's why AJ, who didn't get to see that because he was traveling to that yuppie affair that he's at right now, obviously, black tie, this whole thing, but is that real, or is there some more work you can get in, depending upon what stadium you're in and how long that walk is?

Is AJ at the backup Met Gala? I didn't see him on the back. Probably. Probably. The backup. Look, I think halftime is interesting. I think there's opportunities

for conversations, but a lot of time it's the coaches huddle at one point and the players have conversations. I don't think you get massive wholesale changes. I mean, a lot of teams might have a first-half plan and a second-half plan. But I think for us it's just about what little conversations can be had about things that happened that we can adjust to better in the second half,

or what did we see from a protection standpoint, from a pressure standpoint, that we have to do a better job? They hit us with a pressure in the first half a lot of times. They're probably trying to hit us with the same pressure in the second half. So I think those are the most important conversations to have. But massive wholesale changes, I think that's one of those, you know, sports talk things that, like Peyton and Eli said, is not, you know, doesn't really happen. Did you watch that at all last night? You know, per my usual, I had it on mute to start.

And then I realized that Peyton and Eli were doing that over there. So I clicked over and enjoyed that a lot. Those two, I mean, they've been trying to get Peyton on there forever. And it's nice to see those guys. They got a good rapport with each other, and it was good having, you know, those guests on there as well. Peyton's going to be watching film like he's you for this upcoming Monday Night Manning. That's what it felt like he did.

He watched film. If he was the Raiders starting quarterback, he even reached out to a couple of the coaches to hear what plays we were running. Then he did the same thing on the Baltimore side. And watching him go through that game, I assume it's pretty similar to how you watch a game is that accurate like it's hard to watch games as a fan once you become like this incredibly cerebral successful quarterback is that how you watch every football game the same way Peyton does there I think so and the thing that I enjoyed was actually from Eli when he was commenting about

the people in the crowd I mean that's him... Him and Peyton talking about, you know, some of the folks in the crowd, like the guy, the big dude had the shirt off and stuff. Like, that's, you know, that's kind of how I watched the game, too. But I feel like they dispelled some myths of watching the game, I'd have to think about. But it's the moment they were saying things that,

you know, some sports analysts will say things a certain way to, you know, make it seem like they know what they're talking about. But watching those two guys, like that's how we watch games, you know. It's ball. It's not that, like, crazy up and down. You're kind of looking for similar things and thinking about the same type of things like Peyton was talking about, you know, getting the ball to a big tight end similar things and and thinking about the same type of things like Peyton was talking about you

know getting the ball to wall you know big tight end and and marveling at the way Edwards came through in the fourth quarter in the red like that's how we watch a game like you're watching individual players and situational stuff and I thought it was it was brilliant and if if you know I'm around and watch Monday Night Football again I'll probably watch those guys I think a lot of people are going to, and I think the Mannings currently have the ESPN in quite a predicament, money-wise. I mean, that's going to have to be something,

and I can't thank you. Obviously, Aaron Rodgers joining us right now. Ty, go ahead, pal. Aaron, you mentioned a couple people talking about the Saints beating the Bucs last year, 38-3, and obviously them going on to win the Super Bowl. The last time you threw two picks in a season opener was 2010. You guys ended up winning the Super Bowl.

I assume you knew that, and that's why you decided to throw the two interceptions. Is that the case? And also, you mentioned getting hit in the nuts, and you took a couple shots. How do you feel physically today? I feel good. I don't think I took that many shots. I don't think I took that many shots. One of my first days playing football in eighth grade, I wore a cup.

Now, that was my last day wearing a cup. I don't think I'll be doing that again, but definitely a thought about that after that. Hey, big one. Get a big one, you know, obviously. But I'm just saying. The Duke. It's called the duke it wraps all the way around but uh to answer your question i didn't know i didn't remember that at the top of my brain until i also was texted that by a friend so you know i got about six texts i think two-thirds of them had to deal with something around the 38-3, you know, Bucs-Saints game or the fact that I threw two picks in week one of 2010.

Hey, this is positive people around you, though, hey? I appreciate that. You know, and they say, you know, sometimes you've got to go through rough times to find your treasure. That's what the boy had to do. And obviously we'll talk about, you know, thechemist at the end of this thing at the end we've got some more questions before we get to the aaron rogers yeah you ready pat read it all for sure are you kidding me dude it's about finding your own personal legend why don't you

fucking do it aj huh why don't you read a book and maybe find your own personal legend i'll do it i'll read let me get the cliff's notes like you send me your cliff's notes and your outline that connor or ty gave. Never heard of Cliff. Never met the guy in my life. I want to let you know, I actually, excuse me, it's right here. I mean, if we're going to have this conversation, let's have a goddamn conversation. Look at this. We got pages folded with arrows in there.

I don't know if you're going to be able to see it. I got arrows in there that were obviously done at a different time. Can you see? Look at that. That was my favorite paragraph. Look at that. I said, hey, let's read this one. You can't see it.

Yeah, yeah. He ran his fingers slowly over the stones, sensing their temperature and feeling their surfaces. They were his treasure. Just handling them made him feel better. They reminded him of the old man. That gave me chills. You know what I mean?

That gave me absolute chills. And we'll talk more about this at the end there's still some more football questions but thank you for recommending this one got my nose into the book you know that's right it was a real page turner some people told me they were staring down a midlife crisis after fucking reading this thing but i uh i'm excited to continue to live my life we'll talk about the end go ahead connor yeah aaron yesterday during that manning cast uh ray lewis and eli manning talked about this time where they actually had a little conversation uh back and forth at the line of scrimmage about who the Mike was. Have you ever had those with any players on the defense?

Or is it usually just after the play you'll just talk shit and told them, yeah, I told you I was going to score a touchdown here? Brian Derlacher and I had a number of conversations. I love playing as brian he's a fierce competitor a great player and the funniest guy on the field i mean he would intentionally make up dirty checks so they had to do with you know reference to slang about the parts or whatever you might your mind could go to that's where he would go for his adjustments. You got me here or am I fucking glitching again?

Yeah, well, you're glitching, but you were good, and you were in the middle of a great story. And this is A.J.'s fault. We do know that. And it's nice to know that A.J. Hawk probably was doing the same things as Erlacher to keep you prepared in practice. But those little moments there. He just puts people off.

He's his coach. Yeah, of course. Yeah, he's a scumbag, obviously. I mean, bad reputation little moments there. He just puts people off. He's his coach. Yeah, of course. Yeah, he's a scumbag, obviously. I mean, bad reputation for the kids. I mean, what are you doing? That's not for the kids, AJ. That's what the NFL is. There it is.

Look at this guy. Derping. Unbelievable. But that little give and take between the quarterback and the mic, that's happening. I think last night during the game, Ray Lewis and Peyton talked about this. Derek Carr made a check because it was cover zero, and there was only like six seconds or seven seconds left on the play clock,

and the defense made a check immediately after his check. Derek Carr rolled out, threw the ball away. Is there a lot more of that than we are ever told? I did not know that was happening like that. I knew, obviously, coordinators, and Peyton's a coordinator, you're a part of the play clock. I didn't know it was happening like that. Like check, checkmate almost happening every, is that every play? And is that with all teams, a lot of teams or just some of the teams?

Maybe some of the teams. Yeah. Not all the teams. Some of the teams will do that. It takes all 11 being on the same page. And I think a lot of the coordinators maybe worry about the checking to a, you know, against a check and what that does to the, you know, the communication for everybody. But Chicago used to do it all the time. I mean, we'd be in our two-back set, and I would check to, we'd be in a, you know, have a run on. I'd check to a pass, and Erlacher would check to Tampa too.

I mean, it just happened. And then I'd throw a check down. Then we'd come back. They'd bring, you know, they'd line up in, you know, 59, bring the free safety down. I'd check the, you know, double Puma, which is a pass. He would check the Tampa 2. I'd throw a check down. It was like this thing.

So I started having to dummy check, and then he would dummy check, and then he would say some crazy shit, and I would laugh, and then all of thisobulated, man. It was a good time. That's awesome. Hey, the floor is the guy in your helmet, right, in the speaker giving you the plays? Yes.

And so that cuts off at 15 seconds on the game clock. Is it, like, common for every team to try to break the huddle with at least five, ten seconds before that so he can give you some info at the line? I mean, I don't know. I mean, I know that they were doing that at one point in L.A. when the system went in there, but I told him on day one I didn't want that.

You know, 15 seconds is there for a reason, but once we break the huddle, I don't need any insight like that. I don't know if some guys are still getting that. Some guys want that. Some guys will, won't they? Hey, it's cover two now. They got two higher. They'll make it right before the 15 seconds

cuts them off. I don't know. You have to ask those guys. I'm not asking for it. Is that too much for you? You don't need that in your ear at the line of scrimmage because it was 15 seconds when you figure out what you're doing? Yeah, I don't need that.

I can read a defense. Hey, a lot of people can't though, right? No, and college ball, by the way. College is insane. It's insane now. There's no cadences for most teams. The quarterback is not involved in any type of protection schemes and they're looking over sidelines to get you know in you know during the play adjustments

it's different not every quarterback's like they're like you know that's why you've seen certain guys be able to step in and play well in the first few years but it is different okay so whenever you're talking about protections and shit like that i think we all saw that you were you know, potentially not in the best spot, most protected spot. Is that something you and LeFleur will talk about this week and be like, hey, we obviously don't have Bakhtiari for numerous weeks. Maybe there's more question marks than we had thought

with a young offensive line. Will that change how you guys – now, obviously, MCDC is listening to this and everything like that. But is that a conversation you and LeFleur have? Are you and LeFleur comfortable enough at this point, three years into this thing, where you guys can like almost, I don't want to say tell the truth because Russell Wilson said tell the truth Mondays, but is that conversation happening

immediately after that game? Are you guys, when do you and LaFleur kind of meeting of the minds after a game like 38-3? I mean, right away and then, you know, conversations yesterday and today. By the time you get to Tuesday, you've got to start to put that thing to bed. I mean, you've got to move on. Now, Tuesday, today was like a Monday for us because we're playing Monday night football. So we had to revisit some of the things as a group.

But, you know, at some point you've got to move forward. So him and I have different conversations probably than some of the other guys just because it's important that we're on the same page all the time. I feel like the offensive line played really well. I feel like Elton played really good left tackle and Billy a right tackle. And the interior guys, the two rookies, played well. Lucas Patrick, I felt like the protection was solid. I gifted him one sack and that was it, know on a on a keeper and other than that

there were a couple you know nut shots and a couple hits and you know i feel like the protection is pretty good all right hey that's an incredible leader there by the way because the rest of the world is burying the offensive line right now you probably know that you're a very observant human being i appreciate what you just did for your boys there go ahead tone aaron i believe you've told us in the past you don't really go out early for pregame anymore. Will that change this week? Because I assume you're going to want to have a conversation with Motor City Dan Campbell and kind of

get a feel for who he is as a coach. I might have to wear some knee pads. Some of the statements I've heard. No, I don't think I'm going to go out. I did. I used to go out a lot and just kind of stopped doing that. I didn't feel like I needed to.

Then when I was injured, I needed to warm my calf up for a couple of those years. I would go out a little early, especially when it was cold. But no, I don't feel like I need a lot of throws to get warm. And a lot of times when you go out and you're trying to just warm up, it turns into, you know, a hangout session, which is fun sometimes if you really know, you know, you're really close to somebody on the other team. But then you're like, man, I've been out here for 20 minutes. I've thrown three footballs.

What am I doing? You know, I'd rather just stay inside, go through am i doing you know it's like i'd rather just stay inside go through my process you know zen out get some stretching you know text aj all the good stuff oh man that's awesome aj is a part of your pre-game routine i don't know if you did that on sunday fucking knock him out of the list if that's the case after what happened down there in duval uh after your off season obviously and when you came back, you seemed to be in a great headspace, seemed to be very comfortable with who you are, where you are, what you are, everything like that.

After that game, a lot of people thought, you know, like maybe this whole thing would change. It still feels like you are in a very good spot. Is that accurate, or is there any reason for any Packers fans to think anything differently or worry about anything? You have the utmost confidence in this team, this roster, and yourself still, right? Yeah, I do.

I mean, that's why I'm back. You know, I love this team. I feel good about everything that we've done in the offseason, training camp. You know, I feel like, you know, it was solid. We had good practices. I know that, you know, a game like that allows all these speculations to come into play. Should we have played in the preseason?

You know, should we have done this? Should we have done that? And we got to deal with it because we just got our asses whooped. That's fine. You know, but, you know, what's going to happen down the line is going to happen. And we know how this thing goes. It's a cycle. And right now we're taking it on the chin, which we should.

And pretty soon it will be flipped. Hell yeah. But me personally, I'm doing great. I'm confident and happy and excited and love these guys competitor like i said frustrated about my performance and our performance but this game is uh is about how you respond to negativity usually more than uh how you're uh hailed for your successes hey that's a great quote and And by the way, this ain't no cupcake conversation, by the way.

Just put your feet to the fire there. You've obviously handled it in a beautiful fashion. We can't thank you enough. Last week, you started something that I never thought my name would ever be a part of.

I got quote tweeted by like one of the biggest authors in the history of the world. I actually opened up, you know, a book. And hey, sometimes the universe is going to send you some things you really have to think about

moving forward, you know, and you just got to read those omens is going to send you some things you really have to think about moving forward, you know, and you just got to read those omens and live your entire life. The Alchemist was amazing. What do we got for this next week? I cannot wait to dive back into another batch of pages of stuff, dude. What are we doing? This one might be a little more dense for you. I love The Alchemist.

It's an easier read than this one. Great read. But not necessarily a better one. And I thought it was fitting here for a couple of reasons. One, we just had 9-11 a few days ago, a 20-year anniversary of that fateful day. I think all of us in our age group kind of know where we were and what we were doing. a fateful day. I think all of us in our age group kind of know where we were and what we were doing. My good friend who's it looks like he's writing as I'm looking

here. You're my great friend, Pat, but AJ, many people maybe remember this or maybe don't, but I believe this is true. You grew your hair out with your fellow linebackers as an homage to Pat Tillman.

Is that correct? Correct. Yes. That's awesome. So the book that I've chosen this week is one of my legitimate all-time favorites by an author who I've read many, many of his books. He's a fantastic author named John Krakauer. And this book is called Where Men Win Glory.

Awesome. And if I can get this here where the lights yeah yeah it's called we're men win glory I like that look there but it's by John Krakauer and it's it's a it's about Pat Tillman and Pat Tillman is definitely an inspiration to me and so many of us a man who walked away from the NFL and a multimillion dollar contract after 9-11 to serve his country with his brother, became an army ranger. I'm not going to give away the entire story. There's multiple things I love about this book. One, much like Krakow, who also wrote Into the Wild, which was turned into a movie, Into Thin Air, about Mount Everest, Under the Banner of Heaven as well, which I've read.

He gives incredible historical context in his books. So if you love history, he does a great job of telling you the history of Afghanistan, and it's very relevant today as we've just pulled out of Afghanistan, obviously. He talks about the 70s and the 80s in the USSR and their attempt to kind of take control of that region that's so resource dense and not just, you know, opioids and poppy fields. But it's actually has a ton of, you know, trillions of dollars, I believe, in resources. And Krakow does a great job of breaking that down in his book. But more importantly, the story that really hits you.

And I know you want to jump in there, Pat. I'm sorry. Well, Charlie Wilson's war I was going to refer to. Charlie Wilson was a part of that whole thing. I was going to really look smart because a lot of smart people are going to see this. So I wanted to put myself over. But you were in the middle of a great thing. So I shut the fuck up.

The best part about it is learning more about Pat Tillman. And Pat, which I didn't know, he's a deep thinker. And he, like myself, kind of grew up in and around the church, but at some point really dove into Eastern religions and meditation and philosophy and journaling. And he was a very curious guy and he had a lot of interests outside of football, but also a very loyal patriotic person as well, which is why 9-11 hit him so hard, and he realized, I need to do something. So he went to Afghanistan. His death, there's a lot of, I think, cloudiness around his death.

I'm not going to, again, spoiler alert. I want people to read the book. It's a special book to me. I know A.J. has read it as well. Actually, I've given it away so many times because I love it. I had to go to Barnes & Noble to pick it up again. I'm thankful for that. I gave them a heads up as well about Where Men Win Glory

and also a little sneak about what next week is because I've already picked out next week's book. But anyway, big shout- out to John Krakauer. Love his writing. Shout out to Pat Tillman's family, all the great work they've done at the Pat Tillman Foundation as well. And I'm glad that you say you read, but I know there are a lot of people that hit me up during the week

thanking us for talking about reading and for talking about the author, including the author. Hey, shout out to you, by the way, for bringing eyes to reading again. And I think the reading community seems to be very thankful. The alchemist one right up to the top. I cannot wait to check out Where Men Win Glory. Is this a, last week was a fiction, a fake, right? This is a not fake? This is a nonfiction? This is a nonfiction this is a nonfiction yeah nailed it okay hey i got a real quick question for you pat aaron is this i mean it's amazing obviously this book is great crack out all those books that you mentioned are really good but i just hit me is

this are you throwing shade at lavar burton and you want to be the next reading rainbow type guy because you're eventually going to take over for jeopardy and you don't think he should be the host hey you don't want that smoke i don't think i mean i'm a big geordie reports fan i'm a big reading rainbow fan so no i love lavar burton if he got the jeopardy job man that'd be awesome all right well hey if i got the job that could be cool too That could be really cool. We appreciate you for joining us, chit-chatting about an incredibly difficult day, and also framing it for all of us what the future will look like. Can't wait to check out Where Men Win Glory, book two of the Aaron Rodgers Book Club.

We are selling shirts at the store. All proceeds will go to a reading advocacy group or program that Aaron chooses at the end of the season. Let's continue to build this thing. Let's continue to enjoy life. And we can't thank you enough, Aaron. You're the best, dude. All right. Chuck Norris and me say thank you, and we love you guys.

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Roman ready. Ladies and gentlemen, a man who has his own podcast, his own email. He's an author. He has three Lombardi Super Bowl rings. And his last name is the same as the Super Bowl trophy.

Ladies and gentlemen, Paisan Michael Lombardi. How are we doing? Is the lighting better? I appreciate it, Pat. You make me look good here. Yeah, you look amazing. We didn't do anything, obviously. This is all you.

You look absolutely unbelievable. We can't thank you enough for joining us. Let's get right to it. You had one of my favorite tweets I've ever seen in my entire life, Lombo. You saying, hey, I've got some sources down there in Columbus, all right, that I trust. They're telling me that Meyer might love going back to college. The timing of this move for USC tells me there's something brewing.

Not sure what, but something. Obviously, everybody reads that and goes, oh, is Lombardi saying that Urban Meyer's going to take this USC job? Is that what you're hearing? And how did this come to be? Because this story, not just from you, but it is hot on the Internet streets right now especially after watching urban meyer fail on sunday with jacksonville yeah i mean the urban meyer he he needs to read my book about the middle eight he violated that but let's talk about that tweet so i'm just minding my own business yesterday watching tape and i get a text from somebody in the league and they said, urban to USC. And I said,

no way. And the guy says, you want to bet on it? And when he said that, I'm thinking, wait a second here. He knows way more than I do. He's asking me the answers to the test that he already knows.

So I said, well, tell me why. And he said, look, everybody in Columbus and this gentleman's from Columbus, knows that maybe pro football may not be sitting well with Urban. Now, they're going to deny all this.

We all know that, right? They're going to say, oh, no, Urban's loving it, all that. But when he was working for Fox, everybody in Los Angeles and Columbus thought he was going to take the USC job. But Clay Helton is the ultimate survivor. And I found it interesting that for all the times Clay was going to take the USC job but Clay Helton is the ultimate survivor and I found it interesting that for all the times Clay was going to get fired after Stanford was the time they decided to fire him like they were not going to give him a chance to recruit this season right like that makes no

sense it's only the second game of the year right like he could really come back he could come back and win all the rest of his games like you pull the pull the plug now, that tells me there's more to it. It's what we call, again, second-order thinking. There's got to be more to this than just meets the eye. And that was the tweet. It was an incredible tweet. I mean, it set our office ablaze. Because the students were like, we're like, Lambeau knows people.

This isn't like, Lambeau's not just sending this out there to get clout. Like, this is not Lombardi. They go, wait a minute, here's a little piece of information I think the people will enjoy. If he was to leave Jacksonville after everything that has gone on down there between he and the Khans and him and Trevor Lawrence and everything like that,

what do they do? Do they just act like the Urban Meyer era never existed? Do they clean house? Do they hire from within? What do you do there? Well, act like the Urban Meyer era never existed? Do they clean house? Do they hire from within? What do you do there? Well, I mean, look, they've got an attractive job. They've got a marquee quarterback, and they're going to rebuild their team. Now, you know, I mean, I think they've gone through a little bit. When you just look at the staff he's assembled,

I think he's got a lot of people that maybe he needs to figure out how he wants to run the staff. He's got Darrell Bevel, Brian Schottenheimer, you know, two ex-coordinators. I don't know how that works. Joe Cullen, the former defensive line coach for the Baltimore Ravens, never called defenses before, never been a coordinator. Now he's the coordinator.

Special teams has gone through a change. I think this, I think Urban is a really great recruiter. But when you enter the National Football League, you have to be a strategist. You've got to be somebody who understands the game all the way through and it's no longer about recruiting it's no longer about understanding we're going to just out talent people it's about outsmarting people i mean the perfect example was sunday you know he's down 20 to 7 pat he's down 20 to 7 with 59 seconds left to go. They send Trevor Lawrence out on the field.

Houston has three timeouts. He calls three straight passes. Houston gets the ball back. It's 27-7 when halftime starts. Like, that's just no awareness to the game. Like, you can go out and run three straight passes when you're playing Illinois or when you're playing Northwestern, right? You can do that. That's not a problem. This is the National Football League, right? You can't do that. You've got to be really smart about what you're doing. And I'm not saying Urban's not smart.

I'm saying there's a learning curve. You've got to really understand it. It takes some time. It's just not, hey, baby, I'm showing up. I got this down cold. Don't worry. I was winning all these national championships. It's a hard league. Hey hey it's the men's league right i think that's how we all have kind of viewed it it's it's the all-star game of all-star games and if you listen to the manning broadcast last night you could hear the brains that are in the nfl and no i don't want to say that once again no offense urban meyer okay this is no offense urban meyer but in the nfl all the smartest coaches are coaching there. Okay, now there's a lot of doofuses as well.

But all the smartest players are playing there. So it's not just like, hey, our best players are going to win. You've got some teams that aren't as talented that are much more intelligent and have better schemes. They're going to win some games over other people. I mean, it is a vastly different sport, college football and NFL football. I mean, those are two different sports. If Urban leaves after one fucking game, that would be so awesome.

I would be so pumped up about it. A couple of the boys have some questions for you, Lambeau. Go ahead, Ty. Lambeau, after the Packers game on Sunday, obviously everyone went crazy and said that Rodgers should have been there at camp. He wasn't prepared. You can't do what he did in the offseason and come out and perform like that. When you're looking at something like that, does that matter at all?

I mean, or is that just the kind of thing where you just kind of say, okay, whatever, season starts next week, we're going to be fine? I mean, LeFleur was there the whole time. They're one for ten on third down. They got 228 yards. You want to blame Rodgers? I mean, they couldn't block them. It was a classic example. They put Billy Turnover at right tackleback.

Their offensive line struggled. I mean, look, you can blame the quarterback. He's going to take all the heat. But the reality of it is, is every time LaFleur and the Packers play against a really good coach like Sean Payton, you don't see the emphasis. I mean, think about this. LaFleur got the head coaching job at the Green Bay Packers.

He was 0 for 10 at Tennessee on third down against the Ravens. And he got the head coaching job still without performance. I mean, at some point, you've got to rally up to the big games. And I just haven't seen the Packers rally up to the big game. Heat and humidity were going to be a problem for the Packers in that game, right? You know, they had to figure out a way to balance their team. You're just not going to go down there and throw 50 passes against the Saints when you're playing on the road and it's hot and you and your and your receivers are tired I thought it was really

I think it was a total team embarrassment in terms of their execution their planning their strategy and their and their readiness to play in the game it has nothing to do with the offseason it has nothing to do with the I mean Russell Wilson had nothing to do with the – I mean, Russell Wilson had an offseason. He was getting traded 17 times. He had a list of demands. He played pretty good the other day. That's just a joke. Russell Wilson played too good.

He needed to take it down a notch or whatever. Were you a part of the team with the Patriots up there? Chiefs come in opening night, blow the doors off the place. Alex Smith was there. Were you there or were you just watching as a fan at that point? No, I wasn't there for that one. I mean, look, Andy reads 16-0 in the month of September. No, no, no.

Yeah, I agree. And Patrick Mahomes has 11-0 and he has 35 touchdowns, zero interception. I'm not talking about that. What is the message after that game, though, from like Bill Belichick, you think? Like Matt LaFleur, what are you telling – because Aaron big thing was hey I played bad whatever let's move on we got 16 more games how do you go about saying like hey we just played the worst football we played a long time it's our first game we got a lot of time to go like what is the messaging you think like how did Bill handle that how do you think the floor should handle I could tell exactly how Bill

handed a bill which said we go into the team meeting on Wednesday or Monday, whenever they had their first team meeting, and said, look, fellas, we've done it your way, okay? It doesn't work. We're going to do it my way from now on, okay? We're not going to turn the ball over. We're not going to have eight penalties. We're not going to be two for five. All the things we talk about we didn't do, we're getting back on the bike, and we're going to start doing it my way now you know i've listened to you guys long enough that's it and i think really if lafleur is a leader he walks in his team room on wednesday and says look fellas that was a bad job by me it was a bad job by getting you ready to play it was a bad job on our execution we all stunk let's start this thing and let's prepare one game at a time don't think about anything more than the next team we have to play, which is the Detroit Lions.

The NFC North is all 0-1 too, so they literally can all say, hey, season starts next week. Because everybody in the division is at the same place. That's what you need to win to get in there. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Michael, it seems every single year this happens with the Raiders and they start out hot and then kind of fall off. From what you saw last night, do you think they're kind of more of a complete team

and they're taking on the identity of Gruden? And also, what the hell happened at the end of the game where he walks out the kicker and then brings him back? Well, I mean, look, that was a comedy at some point. I mean, I have no idea what was going on. But let's go back and talk. I mean, I think when you watch the Raiders, I don't know why the Ravens were watching Bill and the Wave at right tackle

and they didn't put somebody else in the game. Like, were they watching a different game than I he couldn't block he couldn't block Crosby at some point you got to help the player out right and if the player can't block a guy you got to help him out I think the Ravens from a tactical standpoint really made a huge mistake you know they kicked the winning field goal they took the clock all the way down as far as they could when they didn't get the first down and they kicked the field goal there's 36 seconds left to go now the raiders had two kickoff returns in the game for 33 yards total so you have to kick that ball inbounds you got a high kick it you got to kick it inbounds and you got to make them return it you got to make them return it that's a play

so now if you could pin them inside the 20, or even if they get the ball to 23 or the 28, who cares? There's 29 seconds, maybe 30 seconds on the clock. You just let that thing slip away. They let the ball go through, and now they have the ball to 25, and they've got a chance. And I just think to me, you know, I think the Ravens got exhausted. I think the heat, the humidity the whole essence of the game

they got tired but the Raiders defense I think when they play against a good passing game they're going to have a lot of troubles because you can protect against them and then I think you're going to be able to throw that Ravens passing game to me still needs a lot of work Hey just a quick follow up about the kickoff

thing with the time that is a brilliant thought and brilliant take because you are wasting the clock away. And if it's six seconds, probably down to 30 or whatever. The only thing is what? If they house call that, you're an idiot? Is that what everybody's saying? Right. But, I mean, look, they had two other returns.

And for two other returns, they combined for 33 yards. And the Ravens have a great special team. I mean, the Ravens have a great special team. I mean, look, guys, we're going to go cover this kick. We're going to pin their asses back. They're not going to come out. We're going to win the game right here. I mean, if I give you the ball to 25 and you've got 36 seconds, right, if I were doing the TV game, I would say, okay, we're six plays, guys. We've got six plays we've got to defend. 36, six in the third. Last time I

checked, six in the 36 was six, right? So you've got six plays, all right? Two of them are going to be spikes. So we're going to have to defend four plays here. So how are we going to do it? If I can cut down a play, that clock is meaningless. All that clock tells me is how many plays are left in the game. Okay. So, and by the way, they got, for the Raiders,

they got two massive legs kicking for them. Not that Tucker isn't. Tucker is a robot, a machine. Daniel Carlson, though, hits that 55-yarder to put that thing in there. If they back that thing up and they're inside the 15 on that kickoff, that's a different game, right? I mean, granted, the routes will be run different and everything like that, but he's got a massive leg.

You make him have to hit from 60, though. That's a much different mental game. I think he still makes it, but there's a lot of that little shit that happens early in the season you hope to get cleaned up late, but I'm impressed by that Raider squad finishing him off. Hey, this guy was bullied into making a bet last night. I know you're not going to love this. That tone digs. He knows.

He had to do it last year. He didn't love making picks on Mondays or Thursday all the time. He gets it. This upcoming weekend, Bengals-Bears, Rams-Colts, Broncos-Jags, Vikings-Cards, Titans-Seahawks, Chiefs-Ravens. These are all matchups of teams that looked good versus teams that did not look good. How do we go about in a mindset looking at week two as far as looking at some of these games where one of the teams did not look good versus one of them did? I think you have to really watch the tape.

I think you can watch the Atlanta-Philly tape. Everybody's going to say Atlanta was terrible. They were bad. Atlanta drives the ball to the opening kickoff down the field. They stumble you can watch the Atlanta-Philly tape. Everybody's going to say Atlanta was terrible. They were bad. Atlanta drives the ball to the opening kickoff down the field. They stumble in the red zone. The next drive, they get too many penalties, and then they fall apart in the second half. They really did. It was a

7-6 game that kind of got away from their penalties, their mistakes. They weren't as bad as that score, right? So you've got to balance that. Like, Cincinnati wins the game. I mean, Joe Burrow, I'm watching the tape right now. Joe Burrow had a fight for his life. I mean, he was getting run over.

He got sacked. Like you've got to take the games and divorce yourself from the score, you know, and say, okay, here's what really happened. Like the Washington football team, everybody says, you know, they're great on defense, Pat. They're great on defense. They're the most incredible defensive front we've ever seen in football. They gave up 73% of the third downs on Sunday.

They gave up 470-some yards. I mean, how are you a great defense when 73% of the third downs get converted? How are you a great defense when, you know, you give up 470 yards? I mean, you can't use those words. Their fans were getting poop

water raining on them in the stadium. So maybe that rained on the entire play. Speaking of the Chargers and Washington game, how about that five-minute drive at the end? Beautiful. I mean, four-minute offense there to take care of that game. I mean, what the Chargers were able to do is whatever they want to do.

That team looked unbelievable, I thought. It really did. And Washington didn't look like they were in great shape. I mean, what the Chargers were able to do is whatever they want to do. That team looked unbelievable, I thought. It really did. And Washington didn't look like they were in great shape. I mean, they're coming back now in a short week. You've got to worry about them. The Giants beat them twice last year. I will say this after the Monday night game. I don't know if either Raiders or the Ravens are going to be.

It's a little bit like Frazier and Ali in Manila. Either fight are going to be ready to fight the next fight. I mean, that's going to be a hard one yeah especially after five quarters of football in the desert Raiders come to Heinz next week that's a long road but this is what the Raiders do by the way they'll win this game

somehow and no not again I mean Mike Tomlin's still coaching alright ladies and gentlemen we appreciate you so much Lambeau thanks for the insight. Thank you, Pat. Appreciate being back. Talk soon. Maybe. Maybe we'll talk soon.

Maybe. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Michael Lombardi. Yeah! Lombo! So sorry to interrupt, but I want to let you know that there's big news from our favorite home security company.

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this is the one to get. Now with the outdoor camera being wireless, it's an unbelievable thing. Shout out to SimpliSafe. Shout out to you. Let's get back to the show. From one of his yuppie events, ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, and legitimately might have been at the Met Gala last night,

ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Is that where you were? No, I'm on the wrong side of the country. I was not at the Met Gala. I didn't even know it was around until I saw AOC's picture popping up online. That was not my thing. The Met Gala does not seem like it would be my event. She wants to tax you and everybody else that was at Met Gala at a different level,

but they'll all find loopholes, and the people that were once broke and got rich will end up getting fucked. Son of a bitch. Dirty sister. Because we don't know the games that they all know. Everybody wants to tax, tax. Hey, tax. All right, I'll pay my own fair share.

But these motherfuckers saying take 90. You're not taking 90% from everybody. I know that. Yeah, I assume AOC was also just backstage saying, you see my address? I'm just fucking with you. I'm not going to tax any of you. Don't worry. I don't know.

I've sacrificed a lot of my life to hopefully make it. And I do not love this. I take every fucking dollar that person has. It's like, all right, fuck off. What are we doing here? I thought we were all trying to get rich. Is that not what we're all trying to do here? But they'll have to.

Anyways, why'd you have to do that? Why'd you have to do that? Why is that how you wanted to start this whole thing? Well, I didn't even think of the Met Gala. Honestly, that was never a, I don't know. You bringing it up. That's all I know of the Met Gala is the picture I saw of that. So I'm like, oh, the Met Gala. Honestly, that was never a, I don't know, you bringing it up, that's all I know of the Met Gala is the picture I saw of that. So I'm like, oh, the Met Gala happened, I guess.

Well, and then Kanye unfollowed Kim, but Kim and Kanye were allegedly together last night at the Met Gala. Yeah, my wife was keeping up with Lil Nas X in three outfits. Yeah, one of them was a robot outfit. Really? And then he took that off, and there was another one underneath.

He won video of the year on Sunday night. Did he really? MGK almost ate a Conor McGregor left there, but it didn't even blink. No. That's good pop culture talk, and this is the Pat McAfee Show. Let's talk about some sports. I know you're a little yuppie affair, doing whatever you got to do, okay, politicking, shaking whatever hand.

Did you get to see Monday Night Manning last night, and what were your thoughts on the weekend that was Since we missed you yesterday I was actually flying out here I got to see the game, but I didn't get to see the alternate broadcast Of Peyton, I saw you guys Tweeting about it, I saw a lot of people tweeting about The Manning broadcast and how awesome it was

Like was the whole thing great, like how was the setup I saw pictures and some clips like this It looks amazing, but like how did it go I guess from start to finish Well there's, I think you should just view this as an internet it's an internet show that's happening so there's going to be some things that maybe don't go great there's going to be some things that are fantastic there's a lot of time that's potentially there was some there was some downtime in the third and fourth quarter actually while you're just you're literally just watching a football game with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning and in the way Peyton Manning

watches a football game much different than me I don't know how you watch a football game with Peyton Manning and Eli Manning and in the way Peyton Manning watches a football game much different than me I don't know how you watch a football game but the way they did was much different the amount of shit we learned I assume you know all this shit that they're talking about you can understand but the way it was all chatted about it was just very fascinating AJ I felt like I took a trip inside your brain a little bit middle linebacker all-time leading tackler for the Packers while watching a game Ray Lewis stopped by they were talking about a lot of shit that I don't think ever gets talked about by anybody else. I love watching that stuff because I learn things every single time.

I watch a guy like Peyton talk or Ray Lewis, or you just see, I guess, how they watch a game. And isn't that the point of that broadcast? Like, hey, it feels like I'm just sitting on the couch watching a game with Peyton and Eli and all of his famous Hall of Fame friends that want to come by and join on the phone. So, yeah, I think they – I guess they accomplished what they wanted to do, right? So now they're going to do 10 games.

So it seems like this one was a pretty big hit. Yeah, and it feels like that 10 games might get renegotiated, I assume. Unless Peyton does one. They were up until, what, like midnight, 1230 or whatever. Who knows? And you have to – they probably have to change their schedule, by the way, to be as awake as possible for that game as opposed to during the day. So who knows

how long they'll commit to it, but I think it was a incredible delight, as is having you join us, A.J. Hawk. Big takeaway from last night, obviously, Raiders get a win. Ravens and Lamar Jackson look like Lamar Jackson. The Ravens have so many injuries, though, they're going to have to figure that out. They were still in that thing. Felt like both

teams were kind of trying to give it away towards the end, which a big takeaway on the Raiders. They're going to win some games this year, just like they do every year. Then something catastrophic is going to happen. Let's hope not. But what has happened is something catastrophic happens. They lose a bunch of games. Everybody's like, oh, this is the Raiders.

Should they blow it up? And then we'll get back in the next year, and it's like, there's zero guaranteed dollars for Derek Carr next year. Who knows what's going to be happening to Mark Davis' house. What was your big takeaway from the game after watching it, Adrian? It was good to see Woodson up there. I know Woodson's got a new whiskey bourbon he's got going on with Mark Davis. The cheers, it seemed to work out perfectly for him.

But I read something afterwards. Didn't they tell Derek Carr, hey, there's like a microcosm of your life in the NFL, your NFL career. Like, started out, was a bit shaky, and then found a way to get a win. So, yeah, it seems like a Raiders kind of win. I know Gruden made some comments like that afterwards, so he doesn't like to play like that. But they have some studs, Darren Waller.

I love that dude. Darren Waller's so good. You cut out right in the middle. What are you laughing at? What are you laughing at? Well, you cut out right in the middle of your answer. I mean, your internet stinks. Surprise, surprise.

It follows you. You're in a Motel 6, and you were at the Met Gala last night. My internet is way faster here than at home, by the way. Your what? Internet. Internet. Well, I'm talking about the background set up in that. You know what I mean?

That's what I'm talking about. It's a wall because I don't want to give the window here. How long are you in this? It kind of looks like you're in a hostage video right now. It kind of looks like. I mean, pretty good lighting. Are you in Guantanamo? Are you okay?

What are you doing? I'm scheduled to fly home tomorrow morning very early, so we'll see. If I don't get back to Ohio, then you guys know, send help for me, please. Okay, when you get back to Ohio, since you haven't been there the last couple days, we can't really ask you because Michael Lombardi just told us that he had a source from Columbus in the NFL tell him,

like, hey, Urban USC. And I don't know if this was punditry. I don't know if this was, like, guessing and, oh, it makes too much sense because they're saying there's no reason for USC to fire this guy right now. There is no reason at all for them to do this. They've let him survive much more than this. Them saying, hey, you you're gone is that them like all year getting a chance to kind of search and find what they want or michael lombardi is

suggesting that they did it right now because they think there's an opportunity right now that's what he's alluding to you're in columbus normally now you're in a hostage video what is your thoughts on this and what are you hearing in columbus especially from maybe within the building from a good friend of yours that you shared a cereal box with. Is there any truth you think to any of this or is this all just kind of coincidental? I'm not hearing anything about this or that this is like a real possibility. It's definitely interesting that the firing of Clay Helton, but I definitely have a couple of buddies that I could send a text to to see if there's any real truth to this. Like if Urban, the question is, would Urban ever want to do it?

Would Urban leave? When would Urban leave to go take this job if he goes to this. The question is, would Urban ever want to do it? Would Urban leave? When would Urban leave to go take this job if he goes to USC? When does that happen? End of the season. I don't know if it's end of the season. I don't know if it's right now. That'd be awesome. Saban did this, right?

Didn't Saban just get it? Petrino did this as well. Petrino left early. Yeah, Petrino left early. Saban didn't leave early. Petrino left before the season ended. I thought they both did. In my head, and it's wrong, and I will get it corrected for future times, Petrino and Saban both somehow, in my head, the way I envisioned it

and just kind of dreamed up at this point is, I'm fucking out of here. And then just leaving almost. Like Belichick did to the Giants. Jets. Jets on the napkin. I thought that's what Petrino did. I thought that's what Saban did. So I guess this wouldn't be like the first time ever.

But after one game, after everything that's gone on with the cons saying, hey, we're going to build up all of downtown to become basically Jaguar City down here. I mean, that would be a lot of investment. I need new buildings. I need to do this. This is what we're going to do. And then he just leaves. How's the contract work, though?

How's the six-year contract work, I think, that he has? Hey, we'll pay you $80 million to get him out of that. How does it work? You know how much money USC graduates are paying to get their fucking dumbass kids into school? If they can get Urban Meyer and get USC back on top, they'll pay whatever. Mossimo will go sell two million tank tops and say, let's get fucking urban in here, pal. I think that is, that type of power of bringing a school, which some of these alumni, yourself included, and I wish I had this, this would be cool, but some of these alumni, Chris Bickle, okay, 1997 at University of Pittsburgh.

Name somebody other than him. Rocket Mortgage Guy. Dan Gilbert. Dan Gilbert, like the Cleveland Cavaliers. him rocket mortgage guy dan gilbert dan gilbert like the cleveland campus some of these very wealthy individuals have a lot of pride in like their alma maters or whatever like i was created here i was created and whenever they gather around all the other successful fucks i would assume if you don't go to like the smartest school the only thing you can really say is like hey our football team fucking just kills your football team you know like i think that is a big thing that happens in these events that you're probably

going to tonight and uh last night or whatever i feel like that's a real thing if you get the right person who just so happens to be from a school who just hits it rich and gets a bunch of money and they're like i want our team to be good oh and i can buy every recruit and our coach now yeah we're gonna be good that's what we to do. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody from USC to get Urban... I'm not saying this is going to happen, but I'm just saying if this was to happen, I would not be surprised if Mossimo and

some of the others that we learned about in that enrollment, backdoor, side door... T-Bone Pickens? Yeah, whoever. Are you looking up? I was just thinking of guys that I knew. Can he die? Yeah, I think he's dead No, I was just thinking of guys that I knew. Oklahoma State. Yeah, he was the biggest one.

Can he die? Yeah, I think he's dead. But I'm just saying, like, USC. Snoop Dogg. What if you hired Snoop to be the head coach? That would make waves. Hey, Snoop Dogg has been a coach. I've seen him coaching.

Yes. Coach Snoop. Friday night. Deion. Hey, the doors are open for Deion. Oh, at USC? Hey, imagine him. You're telling me that dude can't bring all the celebrities back to the sidelines? If anyone can do it, Deion. Oh, at USC? Hey, imagine him. You're telling me that dude can't bring all the celebrities back to the sidelines?

If anyone can do it, Deion can. He can recruit, man, for sure, especially at USC. What if Mike Bone, who? Mike Bone. Who? Mike Bone, the current athletic director for USC, was at Cincinnati, was the one who brought in, obviously, Coach Fickle, right? Mm-hmm. I didn't know if it was Bickle.

That's Chris Bickle. Yes, Chris Bickle, class of 1997. Luke Fickle. Yeah. I think Luke is class of 1997 from Ohio State, if that counts. Okay, so Fickle and Bickle there, Cincinnati and Pitt. But at University of Cincinnati, Mike Bone, he was the guy who brought in Luke Fickle as the athletic director

and also fought off a lot of other schools that were trying to get Fickle and built up the University of Cincinnati. Now, I'm not 100% sure what he did with all the other sports, but he told us, hey, I used to be all clipboard quarterback. I played catch with him, seemed like a cool dude. He gets the athletic director job for USC immediately after that, and I automatically assume, hey, this guy's going to make a move. Like Mike Bone is going to make a move.

He seemed to get it when I talked to him, if it makes sense. Like it seemed like he got it. I don't know how old buddy kept his job for so long. But I feel like Mike Bone is a guy that would go in there and say, like, I'm sick of this team stinking and trying and hoping to make the right decision. But I guess all eyes are on USC right now. If Coach Prime goes there, I'm fucking pumped for USC again all of a sudden. I think because of their previous relationship too, as of right now,

I believe Fickle is the favorite to get the USC job. Oh, no. The betting favorite at least. They get into the Big 12. Would he take it though? I'm not 100% sure he would take the job. Hey, why don't you text him? Text him.

Yeah, find out. What are the odds on Coach JB? He is a California, USA guy. That's who he needs. He's got all these fucking quarterbacks in my backyard. Yeah. Coach JB was not happy about that Florida State kid proposing. Oh, man.

After losing to Jacksonville State. By the way, I don't think I am either. Now, he probably couldn't wait. He was excited for forever in his fairytale moment, but, I mean, Hail Mary to win that thing against your team. You can't be... That's not what you want to remember forever, I don't think, but I guess their love conquers all.

They say love conquers all. Not that one. Love would not conquer that for me. I do not think I could continue to propose after that kind of game if I lost. Bro, imagine when they talk about it. You were the guy that proposed. Yeah, my game. We lost last second to Jacksonville State, but she did say yes.

Yeah. Who cares? Especially, I think it was an offensive lineman, too. I'm like, offensive linemen are not supposed to be happy ever. Like, from the offensive linemen I know, they don't tend to be a happy bunch. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like a, hey, here we go. We're loving life. Especially after a game or losing. You know what I mean? It's not like, hey, here we go. We're loving life.

Especially after a game or losing. That is... What if one of Saban's guys did that? You think he'd be on the squad still? No. What's Norvell going to do? He's a big family-oriented guy, though. Norvell loves having a family.

He's in a tough spot. He's in a terrible spot. You're right, because if he tries to get upset, he's just in a bad spot. He can't do much about it, I think yeah coach jb said i'm not offering full scholarships until they pass my test yeah what's my test are you going to get fucking engaged after we lose like i think that is fair enough to ask but norvell's got that guy on his roster i assume he knows that that's potentially going to happen i think that's a bigger personality trait as opposed to just that

moment right not listen congrats to? Now, listen, congrats to that guy he loves. Hey, congrats to you or whatever. I just don't think that guy would ever be really my friend if I was a teammate of his, but hey, everybody, the locker room has a lot of differences in the size of people, I guess. Well, and that's the thing. You just said it. I'm blaming the rest of the offensive line for not grabbing him immediately

after the game and saying, hey, don't you fucking propose to your girlfriend tonight? We fucking lost, pal. You're in college. She has no idea you're actually going to do this. You can do this next week. Yeah. Okay.

Win a goddamn game first. Okay, you're not blowing a surprise. Nobody's like, hey, he's actually going to propose to you. You're in college. Nobody's really expecting that, especially at Florida State, I don't think. Yeah. No offense to him. I don't know him at all other than the picture I saw of Jacksonville State

in the background. That's all I could see, that could see that whole thing but man what a scene there coach jb though is in la i wonder if mike bone will give him an interview and what if jb goes in their suit you know plays the game yeah sir bind up i just don't see jb buttoned up ever if that's even ever happened for him that's a hey why don't you go get that job, AJ? No, Coach Prime needs that. Yeah, that'd be perfect. It's got to be a big time. You have to hire a big name to try to bring the relevance back.

It has to be almost like a quasi-celebrity. And if you don't make a splash hiring, I think a lot of the people, now you could still become good. I'm not saying you won't become good if it's not a big splash hiring, but I think you'll lose a lot of people immediately in L.A. if it's not a big splash. And that might be a broad-brush stereotype of L.A., but it seems like they've got to be interested.

There's so much shit going on out there. You've got L.A. Chargers and L.A. Rams out there. Both teams are fucking unbelievable. Lakers just added all these guys. UCLA has been good. The only thing you have is your alumni that just hold usc in such high regard and you have to win you just have to win every game like you really do and you have to create some some kind of buzz some kind of like la buzz that makes people want

to go there that was i don't you were probably too young pat but when they were rolling like i'm the same age as liner and reggie they were all we ever would hear is that oh yeah these guys are going recruiting they were recruiting visits and will ferrell's popping up and these celebrities like they just they used la for what it is and that's how they helped like build that mystique around them now i know p carol may have left with some questions going on the program but like they were rolling for a long time and they were the place that people wanted to be yeah some guy i think he either took a visit to usc and then he was at West Virginia the weekend I was there. And I was having a blast, man.

And this guy said, Paris Hilton was out with us last week at USC or whatever. And I was like, oh, cool, man. I think they got 50-cent shots down here. I don't know if they got that. He did not come to West Virginia. He chose USC. Yeah, but those USC stories were legendary. I'm slightly younger than you, obviously, but Ray, Clay, Cush,

I mean, that entire crew right there was same exact class as me, you know? Taylor Mays. Remember Taylor Mays? Yeah. Killing people. I got to hang out with him at the Senior Bowl. Cool. Incredible. Oh, yeah. Feely Moala over there. Fucking love that guy. He got to hang out with him at the Senior Bowl. Cool. Incredible.

Oh, yeah. Feely Moala over there. Fucking love that guy. He got drafted to the Colts. I mean, they were a cool group of dudes, and the stories and folklore around that thing was huge. And then it came out to what? Pete Carroll was just paying everybody?

Yeah, just cheating. Just a fucking cheater. Yeah. Trojan War. Hey, chewing that gum, giving great interviews, cheating. Yeah, bullshit. What's he doing? Taking McDonald's bags, which is what I was

looking for earlier? What did come out of all that? Because he left, he didn't get any sanctions on him, right? Yeah, Reggie loses his Heisman, and Pete Carroll goes to Seattle, and then they just stop. You can't ever coach down here again.

Sure, Bob. What did he do? Did he work him too hard? Was it an Allerson? I think it almost was all recruiting

violations, wasn't it? Was it even him? Or was it outside boosters? Did they just find a lot more players were getting benefits?

Was he facilitating all this? Hey, we never got to the bottom of that, I don't think ever, huh? It was just always the same.

Oh, he cheated. He cheated. He's a genius. He's a genius. Why not? Hey, if things are getting a little too hot let's just get take an nfl gig and if i win at this nfl gig people aren't really going to mention what would happen at usc it's a little hot in this kitchen i think so i'm gonna go and get my own culinary chef right over here i'm gonna go big or bad or better here i'm gonna get a commercial kitchen all of a sudden. Guy Fieri, yeah. Triple D. Hell yeah.

I saw Guy Fieri. Batali's around. I saw Guy Fieri down at the Kentucky Derby one time. And Guy Fieri told me right to my face he'd make me famous. Wow, he had a camera on me. And it was a hell of a night. And shout out to Guy for, you know, trying that night. It was years ago, and we haven't made it yet.

But I still think there's a chance. And that type of thing is the only thing that can happen down there at Kentucky Derby. You know, it's magical. There's this incredible positive energy. Everybody's having a good time drinking an absolutely dog shit drink called mint juleps. I mean, it is a party from beginning to end.

AJ Hawk is there normally with Aaron Rodgers in joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, another frequent Kentucky derbier. A man who, just in stating that, you can immediately understand probably a fucking legend. Ladies and gentlemen, quarterback in the NFL for a long time, Matt Tassler.

Yeah! What's up, dude? Dude, it's great to be on. I know you guys have been trying to get me on this show for a long time, and I've been sidetracking. Let's be honest. I had to call your show and ask if I could come on. Thanks for having me, boys.

It's an honor for us to have you on, and I hope you did not call us to come on because that makes us feel bad because we have legitimately been telling AJ, hey, we need you to tell Matt Cassel to come on the show. And just like every other thing, AJ tells nobody shit. Yeah, did he we need you to tell Matt Cassidy to come on the show. And just like every other thing, AJ tells nobody shit. Yeah, did he ever say that to you? Anything to you?

No. No, he didn't tell me that at all. I mean, unbelievable, AJ. I thought we were boys. You know, speaking of the derby, I see you yearly at that derby, and it's a blast. We have a good time. But no phone calls after that. I'm dead to him.

Yeah. So, I mean, it's all good. It's all good, dude. That's AJ Hawk, by the way. That's AJ Hawk. Yeah. Hey, McAfee, I heard it's all good It's all good dude That's AJ Hawk By the way That's AJ Hawk Yeah Hey uh McAfee I heard it's your mom's birthday

Happy birthday to Mama McAfee Right Happy birthday Sal Happy birthday Sal Hey AJ AJ you've been on for Fucking 25 minutes Nothing to Sal

Shout out to you Matt Thank you Matt Yeah Matt Happy birthday Suze Happy birthday And then we got Is Boston Connor there

Is Boston Connor there? Matty! Let's go, pal! Hey, buddy. First, don't take any crap from anybody, all right? The hair flow's sick. And let's be honest. Mac Jones is going to be a beast.

Hell yeah. Let's go, man. Let's go. Hey, that doesn't happen often. That's a big deal right there. Both AJ calling my mother the wrong name. Her name is Sally. Okay, and she is insane. And also you putting over Boston Connor.

That never happens. Let's dive right into this, Matt, if you don't mind. By the way, we appreciate the hell out of you, and you can come on anytime you want. We'd be lucky to have you. But let's talk about your time at the Patriots right there. Bill Belichick, widely regarded as greatest coach and GM of all time. Whenever you leave there and go play elsewhere, is there any

noticeable difference, or what is really the it factor? Is it just his big-ass brain and the way they operate, or what is it you think that has made New England so successful for so long? Oh, hell yeah. There's a major shift when you go from the New England Patriots. Just that system, the protocol, how they go about things,

they're so meticulous on every detail. Even going back to offseason, You know, I went to Kansas City my first year. I'm thinking, OK, everybody does kind of a similar regimen. You're you're going out on the field. You're running two minute drills in like the middle of March. You're doing all these different things and watching breaking down opponents that you might face early in the season. There's nothing like it. And then all of a sudden you get to another organization. You're like, whoa, that's not what we do. We go through basic install. You kind of get there.

I'm like, are we going to start watching like week one opponent at any point? No, we'll get there when, you know, we'll start that when we get there. It's just, it's a machine and it's the preparation that they do and how they go about it, man. It's, uh, it's pretty incredible to be part of that organization and actually be in that building and then go elsewhere and understand that not everybody does it the same way. Hey, Matt, why is Belichick able to, I guess, how is he able to do that? Why don't other teams do that? Or they just can't be as successful?

Like, was it obviously he and Tom together kind of built that thing, but why can't other teams duplicate that? Well, it's hard because, know what not everybody has like the leadership and also when you have tom brady for 20 years right there's there's a standards of excellence he's there obviously but the way that belichick goes about the week like on tuesdays they used to call the quarterbacks in and i wasn't privy to these like these meetings early on but he used to go in and then he allowed me to come in this meeting and he'd sit there and break down every db that they had on their defense, right?

This guy's strengths is he's got long speed, but he struggles in quickness. This guy has tremendous quickness, but you can throw the ball up on him. He'd even break down safeties. Like if we had a shot with Randy Moss one-on-one on a safety, just throw it up. Give him an opportunity because he'll go make the play. Or even talked about the dynamics of Kevin Falk on a linebacker and doing stuff like that so it was an incredible meeting and then what by the time you got to like that Wednesday and you went in and you started actually putting in the install you understood how you

wanted to attack a certain defense so the preparation was far far beyond and above anywhere else I'd ever been you ended up at the Titans obviously and I got a chance to witness your legendary self and warm-ups, your mustache, just everything. Your aura is a beautiful one. I mean, it is really a positive one and an awesome one. I could even see it from across the sideline there. But Vrabes, I mean, what the fuck happened? Hey, Tennessee Titans have a great roster right now.

Is it the Arizona Cardinals are that good? What is Vrabes, you think, saying as a head coach to his team? Because we've obviously never been in a team where Mike Vrabel is the head coach. We can imagine what it's like. We can appreciate that. But what do you think he's saying to the team after what happened against the Cardinals this past weekend? He's saying, thank God we don't have to block Chandler Jones again. It's the number one thing he's saying. Cause my God, did that guy,

whoever did his bicep surgery he came back strong boy i'm telling you the cardinals came out and they just could they couldn't get anything going offensively for the titans and then chandler jones was just wreaking havoc all day long and then on the other side of the ball you got kyler murray just dissecting that defense for the tennessee titans he went out played well deandre hopkins i mean they had it just rolling all day long. So Braves, it's one of two strategies, right, as a head coach. You go in and you completely lambaste your team, let them know how awful they are,

make them feel worse, or you kind of taper that back a little bit and you go in and you say, look, we've got to make these corrections, and you've got a lot of corrections to be made, but then you've got to basically bury the tape and move on and move on to your next opponent and say, this was the first game of the year. We never want to look like that again, but we've got to immediately make adjustments to get ourselves back on track. So you played with Mike Vrabel,

and then you played for him when he was the head coach at Tennessee. And I've known Vrabel forever, been around you guys together. You seem to be very, very close. What was it like playing for a guy that you're buddies with? I've heard stories. It's funny you say that because I was planning on playing for Vrabel, so he got the head coaching job

the year before he came out to Tennessee State at my house. The year he came in, guess what they did? They released the cast dog. Are you kidding me? I go in, it's off season. I'm going into year 14, fired up. My best bud, who I was in New England with.

I'm in New England. We get traded to Kansas City. I've known the guy forever. I know his family was next door neighbors with him in Kansas City. So I'm like, okay, I'm in a pretty good position here. I'm thinking to make the team. Obviously, I've got to go out there and perform, but nonetheless off season gets there.

And I get a phone call from John Robinson, go in, guess what? By the way, you're, we're going to release you. We're going to go a different direction. And Brable was nowhere to be found. So at that point I walk out of the meeting and I'm like, where's Mike Brable right now? Am I supposed to go find him in the thing? So I get in my car and I'm like, where's Mike Vrabel right now? Am I supposed to go find him in the thing? So I get in my car and I'm like driving home.

I got to make the call to the wife, honey, change of plans here. We just bought that house, but we're still, we're going to go to another team. And then he calls me. I'm like, where the hell were you? Why didn't you do it? I was so pissed off at him. So I never actually got to play for Vrabel. That's a great story.

Thanks for bringing that up. Oh, wow. It stung right story. Thanks for bringing that up. Oh! Wow. It stung right here. It stung right here. I won't. A couple quick things, AJ. I mean, we have to address a couple things.

Yeah. Okay. The cast dog, is the cast dog what your friends call you? Yes, that's what the friends call me. So, I mean, I did kind of, you know, throw that out there. I apologize. I'm not usually a self-promoter. No, no. No, anytime you have a name

like Cast Dog referenced alongside yourself, you should let others know that because in the middle of that incredible story of, you know, a lack of loyalty. Uh-huh.

I mean, I don't know how that'll think. I mean, Braves said first things first. Listen, you got to cut that fucking guy. He's my name. I'm trying to win some games. All right. I mean, Braves said first things first. Listen, you got to cut that fucking guy. He's my name.

We're trying to win some games. He knows too much. He knows too much. If you got to cut the cast dog so I can rally in the locker room, that's all right with me, but I appreciate you doing it. I did lose track 15 to 20 seconds, though, thinking about just the cast dog in different situations, like the Kentucky Derby, for instance. I bet you the cast dog is electrifying.

Oh, my God. WMD. It's cool. It's a good time, that Derby. And, by the way, Guy Fieri was there one year, and we went out, and all of a sudden he asked me one of these times after the Derby, after the mint juleps and all that stuff, to go cook with him. We go, and he finds a restaurant, and and we go in and we're cooking risotto.

And I thought these professional chefs, right? I'm sitting there going, Hey, what do you want me to do? And he's like, we're putting in like all the ores and all this stuff, right? And he's sweating in the pot, like, let's go serve this up. And I'm sitting there going, what is going on right now? I'm sitting here cooking after the Kentucky Derby for a bunch of people with Guy Fieri. I'm just going, this is insane.

Brother, cast on. Yeah. Only at the Derby. What time was that? What time was that roughly in the day, you think, if you had to guess? Oh, I'm guessing 9, 930 at night. I was holding on for dear life, boys. Right? Oh, what are we doing? I'm guessing 9, 9.30 at night. I was holding on for dear life, boys. I was holding on.

Right? All right, what are we doing? Okay, this sounds like a blast. Add Boston Connor, please. Yeah, Castog, first of all, you know, thank you for one of the greatest 11-5 seasons in New England history. It was fantastic. But we saw a photo of you with Coach Sirianni in Kansas City. How is he as a coach, and are you a big fan of him and the Eagles

and what they got going on over there? Oh, I love Nick Ceriani. When I was with him in Kansas City, he was basically our first-year assistant coach, and it was interesting because that year I come in and Chan Gailey's our offensive coordinator. Well, guess what they decide to do? Literally right after the last preseason game, they fire Chan Gailey. So we don't have an offensive coordinator. Todd Haley comes and takes over. But Nick now gets pushed into the spot of being our quarterback coach for the season. This is a first-year guy, so we're working through it.

But he's a smart, smart guy. He obviously has grown up in the league, whether it's San Diego, Colts. He's learned his craft. He's ready to lead these guys. It'll be great for Jalen Rhodes. I like to say Jalen Rhodes. Hey, just a quick thing here.

Jalen Hurts is who you met. Jalen Rose is Barbara Cut My Hair on Friday. High and tight. Dr. Authentic. Yeah, he did this. By the way, he was going to work. Jalen Rose. So you actually helped us out there. I'm sorry, yeah, he did this. And by the way, he was – Yeah, it was pretty good.

Jalen Rose always – So you actually helped us out there. I'm sorry, AJ. Go ahead, pal. Dr. Authentic, shout out, dude. Shout out. Shout out. Hey, Cast Dog, were you surprised at how the Patriots handled the Cam Newton situation? Obviously, Matt Jones played well, but did you think he was going to get released?

No, I didn't think he was going to get released. That was the thing. I wasn't shocked by it, but at the same time, I thought that they were going to start the season with Cam Newton and let him kind of see if he could go out and perform with these new weapons that they had. And it kind of looked like it was going that way. Obviously, I was there at camp and doing all that, but it really was that last week when Cam missed time for the misunderstanding

that took place. And then all of a sudden, Mac Jones, I guess, went out and tore it up during practice against the giants and it kind of gave him an opportunity to open the door and at that point when they got the season finally said we can win with this guy now and they made that decision i i it had to have come down to the fact that having cam newton in the building a personality like that his leadership quality if if if mac j struggled at all, I don't think that they wanted the dialogue to be, hey, should we go back to Cam Newton, right?

Instead, we're going to give him the keys to the car, let him ride or die with this guy and see what happens and see how he develops this year. And I think that's really what it came down to. But I was pretty shocked that they said, you know what, we're going to cut bait and we're just going to go with big old Matt Jones. Who? Who? Cast off old Mac Jones. Who? Who?

Cast off. Mac Jones! Who? Hey, cast off. Mac Jones! Who? Cast off. Mac Jones!

Who? Okay, cast off. A lot of the conversation was whenever you're a starter and then you have to go to a backup, in the same locker room there's a chance you're almost like cutting a guy off at the knees almost, especially with Cam as the leader. I forget how, like five-star admiral or something going down to a general. I forget the way it went, but that factored in potentially to the entire thing that like who knows how Cam would be as a backup,

especially how beloved he is in that locker room as the starter and in the building as a starter. Your guy obviously has seen both sides of it there. Is that something that has to be clearly defined? Like, hey, this is the backup, this is the starter. AJ and I believe it's right for the entire locker room. It makes everybody's life a lot easier if you clearly define the two. For instance, it's going to get loud in Chicago with Andy Dalton and Justin Fields.

Lance and Jim is going to get loud. How do you feel like is the proper way to handle that? And is there a lot more to that? Or is there not as much as we're making out to be like this big dramatic bullshit no i i completely agree with you there's a lot to it and being clearly defined that this guy's the star this guy's the backup but if you ever muddy those waters it sends an interesting message to that team and also it allows them to have the comments of hey is this guy really our guy he's struggling right now should we go back to cam and so i i think having a clearly defined starter is the way to go about it and i think that's what the patriots were able to achieve i've been on the

other side right i've been a starter and then all of a sudden went into that backup role and it's one of those things that you know you always want to play right that's what we're there to do we're out there to go out compete and and play but at the it's a much different mentality when you're the backup you got to show so much support for that guy and you got to let him know that you're in his corner because you spend so much time you guys all know every every day you walk in you see the same faces you're in those meetings room with your position group so they've got to know that you've got your back and then you're not actually trying to come up, one-up them, and take their job back. I completely understand why

the Patriots went the way that they did. We're talking to pro bowler Matt Cassel. Obviously, he's been around the NFL a long time. Now he works for NBC. He is nicknamed the Cass dog. We'll be called nothing other than that probably for the rest of our friendship, which hopefully is one

that will continue to grow here. Me, you, and Guy Fieri will sweat all over people's food. Just sweat. It added a little salt in there. It added a little salt. That's triple D. All right. What do you have there?

Cast Dog, being an alumni and one of the biggest USC boosters currently, whose name are you going to throw into the ring for the job opening? Or maybe like just you and Leinart and Carson go in there and maybe coach for a few years, win a couple national championships? That would actually be pretty sick to go back to my alma mater, USC, and go coach those guys up. That would be a lot of fun. But let's be honest.

Urban Meyer is going to be one and done in Jacksonville. Then he's going to go out to USC where he's comfortable, where he can manhandle all the kids. It'll be great. We'll go get Urban Meyer is going to be one and done in Jacksonville. Then he's going to go out to USC where he's comfortable, where he can manhandle all the kids. It'll be great. We'll go get Urban Meyer. How do you know? Have you heard this from anybody other than Michael Lombardi in the Internet? Because this is a massive allegation that Urban is going to quit on Jacksonville.

He had Nick – not Nick Kahn, sorry. Mr. Kahn and Tony Kahn, he had them build up an entire city and build up new buildings and everything, and it's good for the Jaguars long-term, but that felt like that was going to be a relationship for a long time. If he was just to be like, ah, fuck this. I'm going back to USC to go to college. That would be a massive, that would be a huge ordeal.

Do you just want that as a USC alum, or is that something you actually foresee coming, Cass? I don't know. I mean, the USC will throw out whatever they want. The whole kitchen sink into that guy to bring him in. And let's be honest, it reminds me a lot of Saban, right? Saban went to Miami, coached for a year, and then finally was like, all right, this isn't for me.

I'm going to Alabama. I'm going to go make all the money in the world and be the most dominant coach in the history of collegiate football. So I'm sure Urban Meyer with his, I'm not saying his ego, but I am saying that, look, he's got a reputation to uphold and he is going to Jacksonville. It's a rebuilding process. You can already hear the grumblings inside the building amongst the players, maybe even coaching staff, that it's going to be a hard task for him to swallow that pride and just say, look, I've got to battle this thing out for the next three years before we finally get the team that is able to go out there and compete

week in and week out and put some division titles on the board. Hey, Castog, so we're having Aaron come on later. Aaron Rodgers will be on. It's Aaron Rodgers Tuesday now, coming off a rough start to the season. I don't know if you watched that game or not with the Packers-Saints. The Saints looked great. Their defense looked great. Packers offense couldn't really get anything going. Are there times when you're playing quarterback and just nobody's open? Like they just blanket your receivers and it's like, hey, the windows are much tighter than they normally are and we just can't get anything going? Hell yeah. That's the only time I ever had

bad games when our receivers didn't get open. I mean, are you kidding me? We've all, I mean, as quarterbacks, you go into these games, right? And you could have the best laid out plan, particularly that opening day game is a beast, right? Because they have six months to prepare and dial up all different types of blitzes. They don't show you anything in preseason. You go back, you watch the film from the year before, but things are just different in that first game. You're never truly prepared because you don't have that all the different film that you can go back and watch week in a week out and watch the matchups and so sometimes you get in those games and you're like

it's a grind for four quarter just trying to get something going and then all of a sudden you know bad plays usually happen when you're trying to make a play for the team especially at the quarterback because you feel that sense of urgency. Like, if we don't get going now, we're going to get blown out of the building. And I'm sure there's part of that as well for every quarterback that you go through. Yeah, he had a fuck it throw. We saw the fuck it throw.

I mean, you almost heard it coming out of his mouth as he was throwing the ball from the TV copy. And it ended up being a 65-yard interception or something like that. I mean, what a moment. And I think back to Tom Brady on the sideline. What was that two years ago? I need you to be faster, more explosive. Just get open.

Like I need it. And last night, the Manning broadcast, I don't know if you saw it. That's all there. Like Peyton was celebrating Darren Waller. Hey, that a way to make a fucking catch for your quarterback right there. Like that type of stuff and people getting open was – it was interesting listening to a quarterback watch a game because literally it's all in your hands, Castog.

You got a head time? Always is. Castog, you played for several different NFL teams. I'm just curious, what was the shittiest place to live in and what was the best place to live in? Gosh, you know, every time somebody asks me that, I'm like, oh, man, do i shit on the city i don't want to do that no no no just one okay under my circumstances the toughest place

to live i'd say was buffalo okay i move in my wife's 34 we are 32 weeks pregnant at the time we move into this place story short, there was bad circumstances that happened with the previous owner that we didn't know about. I won't get into the details of that because it was pretty ugly. Then we had a mice infestation. Then I got traded two weeks later. Oh my God.

I get traded. My wife's 34 weeks pregnant to go to Dallas. Then we had to go live in a hotel for a few weeks. That was awesome. Dallas was a good place to live Minnesota was outstanding just cold as hell I mean I got in the car when the first snow came in and then they had like two weeks in a row where they didn't have highs above zero look I'm from California I lived in some cold weather environments but that was absolutely insane like the weather there

I'm like what the hell do you the kids you have to bundle these like kids up and it's all on you you're like god they're gonna be frostbite it's gonna be awful um but minnesota was a good place to live kansas city i really enjoyed my time there boston was a heck of a city because it's such a sports town man i mean everybody and we had boston red sox winning the world series we had the Red Sox winning the World Series. We had the Celtics winning the NBA championship against the Lakers. That was a long time ago. Yeah, a long time ago. That was a long time ago. Long time ago.

That was a long time ago. The cast I know wasn't. Yeah. Look how old Castog is now. That's a long time ago. Oh, no. Nashville had to be awesome, though, huh? Nashville is great.

We actually ended up staying here. I mean, that's where we live now. We live in Nashville, and it's awesome. We've got a little bit of lamb. We've got 11 chickens. Are you kidding me? We've got 11 chickens. Can't count them.

Can't count those before they hatch, though. You know what I mean? No, you should see the eggs that we get. It's delicious. There's nothing like organic eggs from your own farm. Guys, let's go. Let's go. I never expected that from the cast.

Yeah, right. Best friends of color. And then my wife's deciding that she wants to get pigs and goats. your own farm guys let's go let's go and then we got that from the cast yeah right and then my wife's deciding that she wants to get pigs and goats i don't know why and then i'm i've got the task of setting up like the fence for a pig i don't know how to set up a fence for a pig are you kidding me i mean i'm sitting there going what am i doing right now i mean we're we're homesteading kind of kind of bro, he's fucking kidding. He has no idea. Hey, I appreciate you as a human. All of a sudden, a lot more than I could have ever fathomed. I knew you were a legend.

Thank you so much for gracing us with your presence today. I hope you will come back on a more regular basis. You're the best, man. Thank you for your time. Absolutely, fellas. God bless. Have a great one. Ladies and gentlemen, the Cast Dog.

Oh, yeah! absolutely fellas god bless have a great one ladies and gentlemen the cast dog can't thank you enough for allowing us to penetrate your ear holes so happy that aaron rogers tuesdays are back fucking love it actually getting a chance to have that type of conversation with that type of human in this type of environment it's a beautiful thing we're incredibly lucky and we're very very very grateful for all of you once again if you with that type of human in this type of environment. It's a beautiful thing. We're incredibly lucky. And we're very, very, very grateful for all of you. Once again, if you enjoyed this show, please be a friend, tell a friend.

If not, just act like it never happened. Hashtag end of pod squad. We're continuing to give away free merch. I think we've given away over 400 pieces of merch, t-shirts basically. But we appreciate you all for listening until the very end. If you hate listening, cool. If you you love this show thank you so much ty please play some independent music and propel these people into a beautiful aaron rogers tuesday evening we'll be back manana cheers សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Thank you. សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Outro Music