The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 495 - Aaron Rodgers Tuesday Reactions, Coach Us Up With Chuck Pagano, Minkah Fitzpatrick, & AFC Special Teams Player Of The Week Evan McPherson

Episode Date: September 15, 2021

On today's show, Pat and the boys chat about the fallout from the first Aaron Rodgers Tuesday of the season, including former teammates saying he's lost a step and isn't a great leader, and everything else being said across the sports media lanscape. They also dive into ESPN's post week 1 power rankings. Joining the program for Coach Us Up Wednesday's is former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach, Chuck Pagano. Pat and Chuck chat about how a coach responds after a blowout loss or a massive win week 1, if he ever watched film with Andrew Luck like Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins are doing for "the first time," if halftime adjustments are a real thing, his thoughts on the rumors of Urban Meyer being 1 and done and going back to USC, and what is being said to the team amidst all the overreactions of week 1 (28:54-50:55). Next, 2x All-Pro, 2x Pro Bowler, 11th overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft, one of the best young players in the NFL, Pittsburgh Steelers safety, Minkah Fitzpatrick joins the show to chat about playing in Pittsburgh, his relationship with Mike Tomlin, the process of being traded by the Dolphins and his thoughts when he got to Pittsburgh, his thoughts on TJ Watt getting paid, and much more (52:58-1:07:20). Lastly, AFC Special Teams Player of the Week, rookie kicker for the Cincinnati Bengals, Evan McPherson joins the show to chat about his game winning kick in overtime in the first game of his NFL career, why he loves the special teams unit for the Bengals and how much they've helped his game, why he's the most confident he's ever been, and more (1:07:22-1:17:18). 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 Wednesday, September 15th, 2021. Massive show today, huh? Following up Aaron Rodgers' Tuesday. Obviously, a lot of people chit-chatting about what was said yesterday. Can't thank you all enough for being friends and telling friends about this show, which I would recommend you still do

if you like this thing by the end of it. If not, if you hate this show, just act like it never happened. Quite a lineup today. Evan McPherson hit a game winner, obviously, for Cincinnati in his first ever game. Chat with him a little bit about his mindset. He's only 22 fucking years old in the NFL, changing games. Minka Fitzpatrick, how you doing? Keep it moving. All pro safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was

an awesome conversation. And coach is up Chuck Wednesdays. Chuck Pagano stops by to give us some insight on what it's like to be a head coach in the NFL, especially after week one. All the boys are fantastic, and we can't thank you enough for allowing us to be a part of your day-to-day. Let's get to it. What's the news of the day, you ask us, and we're asking the same thing because I believe most of it revolves around the reaction to what old Aaron Rodgers said just yesterday on this particular show.

We'll have to talk about that all. We'll have to remind some people of other things that happened in that conversation as opposed to just the clips that get pulled out of context and potentially get talked about and painted a narrative that's completely bullshit. We'll do all of those things. Jermichael Finley has come out, former tight end for the Green Bay Packers, and said, you know, I don't see the same work ethic on Aaron Rodgers.

Whoa. Now, is Jermichael Finley hanging out with Aaron Rodgers in the offseason? I don't think so. I'm not sure. I don't think so. Is he currently on the team so he can see what he's doing on his day-to-day? No. I don't think so.

He's not. He's not getting his fucking haircut, though, is he? Oh. Aaron Rodgers is not getting his haircut. I see that. And remember, I asked the same question whenever he joined us the first time after the match. It was actually while I was battling 104.5 degree fever due to Uncle COVID stopping by my fucking house. And I didn't love it at all.

I said, hey, were you sandbagging all of us? The only videos we saw of Aaron in the offseason was Waterfall jumping, Taylor Swift singing, living his life. And then we saw him at the match and his calves looked like fucking basketballs. All right. His shorts were incredibly tight. He looked like he was yoked up. If you can get past the free-flowing hair where he looks incredibly comfortable and relaxed,

the first thing I saw at the match was like, let me see what type of shape this fucking guy's in, literally. Because I'm a guy who can go from like 270 to 225, and it is very apparent what I did in the offseason, my first day back in the training camp. You could see it. You could literally see it. This son of a bitch was a little bit lazy and eating in the offseason.

That's literally what everybody would say. Bill Pullian shaked my hand, slapped my entire body just to see what I was doing. I'm like, are you body checking me? Yeah, I was a little fat. I got a little comfortable. I'm going to have to get in shape. Aaron looked like he was in great shape at the match. I believe at the training camp he was dropping balls into the net.

I think he was working this offseason is what I'm saying. I don't think he was loud about it, though. But Jermichael Finley has inside sources, maybe. I'm not 100% sure. He's come out and said this. Other people have judged Aaron being relaxed on yesterday's show. I asked him about that. I actually told him people are not going to be happy about that.

And he says, it's just one game, man. If I get upset right now, what are we going to do next week? What are we going to do the week going forward? I'm very thankful Aaron stops by. Can't wait to see what they do this upcoming Monday againstay against the detroit lions speaking of the detroit lines they're in the news we'll talk about that calvin johnson who is now a robust cannabis grower hell yeah a successful dope business operator a hall of famer has also come out and said you know i ain't working 28 hours for the

Detroit Lions to get the money back that they owe me from fucking 15 years ago. I'm not going to do that. He now has come out and said, you're going to pay me $1.6 million, however you're going to figure it out. If you want to make this right, you don't have to pay me, by the way, but the Lions have come out and said, we want to make it right. Calvin Johnson

probably all along was like, okay, we can do this. You stole money from me earlier. Now, your contract said we could take the money back. Okay, I feel like I outperformed my contract. I ended up in the Hall of Fame and I retired early. And you don't have to be an asshole owner. I mean, Jim Irsay literally gave $25 million to Andrew Luck. I think that was just to keep him on the good side just in case Andrew wants to come out of the woods and play football again.

We're not 100% sure. But Calvin Johnson came out, went to a practice, I think, with the coaches. Oh, yeah. He was going into Hall of Fame, so there was a lot of story talk about the Detroit Lions days. He talked about Matthew Stafford

on this show and other shows. Thought it was the right time to get back in there, and then the Lions made it. They say, hey, here's an offer. All right, you get your money back. Remember, that's what you want. This is the whole thing.

You've got to work 28 fucking hours for us. You've got to come to one of our terrible games, five hours. We hit every single suite, and then you've got 23 more hours of us you gotta come to one of our terrible games 5 hours we hit every single suite then you got 23 more hours of shit you gotta do we might need to go build a god damn playground that's only gonna count for 1 hour though we need 22 more of those things throughout Detroit

and Calvin Johnson's like you can pay me to do all that shit you can pay me another contract on top to do whatever the fuck you want me to do I'm just talking about the money you owe me from a decade ago, and now it's coming out. Calvin Johnson said, I ain't doing shit for it. You're going to pay me this, or you're not going to pay me this.

In the Detroit Lions, I assume we'll handle this in an accurate fashion. We'll hit up some of the boys at Evan Foxey. You've got to love when the Lions are back in the news cycle, especially for something like this. Yeah, it's pretty simple, Pat. This is why we are the worst organization, not only in the NFL, but all of sports, and that's all I got to say. Well, you guys still, that football team's fighting until the very end.

Hell yeah. You guys are done. 45 points. This team plays tough, man. And MCD, I'll tell you what, man. They're fighting in that thing so much so that they covered. Yeah. Bullshit.

Absolute dog shit. That's gambling, baby. That's going to happen. But that team's going to fight. But the organization, I think, does have some things they got to work through and figure out. I'm not sure how this pans out with Calvin Johnson, but we are a firm believer in this particular studio that the Calvin Johnson curse is an actual thing. The Detroit Lions will forever stink because of the curse that has been put in there by the team's billionaire owners

taking money out of their Hall of Fame player who decided to retire early and literally never come back to football because of how bad it ended over there. All right? Not only him, though, Barry Sanders, same thing. Hey, need the money back. Yep. Barry Sanders. So I think we all saw Ted Lasso.

They had an athletic training room that was allegedly cursed. Whenever he showed up there, something happened. They went in there. I think they did some sage. They did some other shit. They smoked out the curses. I think Lions need to think about just writing that guy a check, not only for 1.6,

but hey, tax him. He should probably put 175. Might as well. 1819. I mean, if we're talking about interest and how good Calvin Johnson is at investing, that $1.6 million is probably $15-20 million at this point. So, what I'm saying is, the Lions should want to make this right. Calvin shouldn't have to come out

and answer questions saying, I'm not doing anything for that. Because Calvin Johnson isn't the one saying, hey, you owe me 1.6. He's saying, hey, if you want to make this right. Calvin shouldn't have to come out and answer questions saying, I'm not doing anything for that. Because Calvin Johnson isn't the one saying, hey, you owe me 1.6. He's saying, hey, if you want to make this right, this is probably what it's going to take. This is how I feel. Even though he is comfortable money-wise and financial-wise, whenever somebody takes money out of your pocket, especially somebody you feel like, I've done a lot for you, I don't think he's out of line at all No And the reason The fact that he has to Come out publicly

And say this is all I'm asking for So that the narrative Doesn't get painted Against him You know by people It's like This is beautiful

NFL PR at work The Lions have somehow Been able to slip past This for so long Now it's getting Brought back in there And guess what We ain't gonna let it die

Calvin Johnson was very nice to us I'm a big fan of Calvin Johnson. And also, for the good of the fucking Lions, get the curse out of the building and just pay the guy, Foxy. How come every single person on Earth knows he deserves that money and yet they still won't do it?

I honestly don't understand. It's embarrassing. Stay with me. Because it's the goddamn Lions. They stink. And it won't be the year until we pay Calvin Johnson. I honestly...

Hey, I read The Alchemist, okay, and I believe the universe tells you stuff. Absolutely. I feel like the universe has tried to tell the previous owners, now Sheila Forher, I feel like the universe has tried to tell them, hey, listen, this got brought back up at perfect timing. Brand new owner.

Hey, the Hall of Fame's happening. We can just make this thing just go away. Brand new owner. Hey, the Hall of Fame's happening. We can just make this thing just go away with the new ownership. The universe was trying to drop that into their life. Like, hey, here you go. We're just going to make it right. He's going to the Hall of Fame. We want the practice.

You guys, this is kind of your thing. You can make it right. And still, somehow it's like, yeah, we could make it right. But also, what about the community? 28 hours of community service. A year. it was three it's because they were going to give five hundred thousand dollars and three different payments yeah so they're going to make them do 28 hours each year during that time and by the way people that work 40 hours a week and say like hey that's a bunch of bullshit for that amount of money we

agree hey i completely agree if you were just to talk 28 hours for the amount of money they were going to pay him or whatever you're it's an absurd thing and i think calvin johnson would even say it's absurd but calvin johnson saying is i'm not going to work for you okay if you want me to work for you we can negotiate that contract right what this is all about is what you owe me from a decade ago yeah this is a whole you're talking about two different things and i assume she beforehand was going to have because hey mcdc said she's awesome she's a she's awesome. She's giving them everything they need, everything they want. Get rid of the curse. Pay the fuck

pay that man his money. Okay, that's what I think should happen. Ty Schmidt, what's going on? That's what I don't understand is Dan Campbell came out and said like we want to make this right and if he is super tight with Sheila Ford Hampt like when you first read this, it's almost like like I thought Calvin Johnson was asking for

$150 million. Then you look a little closer and it's like, he's asking for a million and a half. They're fucking billionaires. That's a drop in the bucket. You'll never see that money again. It just makes no sense. Also, shout out to Uncle Sam. You know what I mean? Uncle Sam's going to get a pretty

good penny on that whole thing. I think right now, it is literally just and that whole thing. I mean, it's just, I think right now it is literally just principle for Calvin Johnson. Calvin Johnson, by all accounts, hard worker, great guy, incredibly intelligent, just all these things. A class act, great businessman.

I think all these things. And him just looking at him being like, that's not right. I'm not, I love it. I just want to let everybody know, I absolutely love everything about it. And this will be the most we talk about the Lions for some time unless they somehow gnaw the kneecaps right off of Aaron Rodgers on Monday Night Football. Hey, right now would be a good time to give Calvin his money, by the way.

Monday Night Football is about to happen. Lions don't give any primetime games other than those Thanksgiving games. Now would be the time to get that curse out of your building, I think. Absolutely. Maybe that'll be what they do before the end of the week. That'll be the Friday news dump. Hey, by the way, we have decided to pay Calvin Johnson. That's $1.6, but we did give him $750,000.

Whoa. That'd be a massive win. That'd be a big-time positive spin maybe for the Lions. Maybe go ahead and do that. Will you also look at this? I don't know if paying him is just like then everything that they've done and like how they've treated him for the last decade or so just like gets him off the hook. Like, yeah, we'll pay you.

He's probably thinking like, well, I don't want to fucking come and like put on and act like, you know. No, you would have to wear a Lions polo. Exactly. He's got to be, you know, just like a good old boy and we'll pat you on the back and parade you around and make you do everything. It is like he's a pet, okay? Exactly. And he's like, you know what?

Yeah, you guys can pay me, but you owe me that. I'm not going to forget the way you fucking treated me for the last 10 plus years. Just make that thing go away. Let the Lions win. Please. Just let the Lions win. MCDC wants them to. Jared Goff wants them to.

Yeah. Pay him. I want them to. Put his jersey in the rafters. I mean, you want them too depending upon at what point of the season it's in. That's right. We falsely accused Boston Connor of maybe becoming a diehard

Tampa fan last year when after the Patriots didn't make the playoffs and he just was like, I guess it would be nice if Tom was to win. But Foxy actually took his entire Detroit Lions uniform off and put on a Pittsburgh Steelers uniform. Week 12? Week 12 of the season.

Hey, we're past that, though. This is a Motor City Dan Campbell era now. So we're way past that. You're right. But think about Jim Irsay and what he did for Edger and James and Peyton Manning for the Hall of Fame stuff. I guarantee he paid more than $1.6 million just for that weekend alone for those two guys. The party.

The parties, I guess. Buying Edge a Rolls Royce. Bingo. He's buying Edge a Rolls. Brother, Edge is getting a car, man. The plane. The glove box. Check the glove box.

There's going to be a little something in the glove box. He cut a promo into Edge and James' Instagram or whatever. He was like, Lamborghini, Rolls Royce, Bentley, whatever Edge wants, man. It's like, think about that type of ownership versus what's going on in Detroit. And listen, I understand every building is run differently. And we are having an AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in his rookie year after his first game, 22 years old, kicker from Cincinnati Bengals. Evan McPherson will be joining us in about 15 minutes.

I can't wait to chat with him. He was smiling before having to hit another kick or whatever. I love that. There was a guy on the other team coming up and talking to him almost. There was a situation there with kicking happening where McPherson just showed up and balled out. He hit a 50-some yarder in the fourth quarter. He hit a game winner there.

I can't wait to chat with him. But every time we point something like this out, whether it's like the Bengals not having a facility, okay, it's not for me to be funny. This is me saying, like, hey, the fans in the NFL deserve better than what is happening here. Like, there is people out there that if they were to run these, they would dream to run these. Their dream is to run these teams. If they were to have them, let's assume that they'd be taking care of their fans better,

their team better, and ultimately the fucking league better. The league doesn't want to deal with Calvin Johnson, one of the greatest players of all time, coming out and saying yeah, this team, I think in my eyes, robbed me of my money. You think Roger Goodell wants to hear that? You think Roger Goodell wants to hear that? You think Roger Goodell wants to know that there is a team in his league

that's worth billions and billions of dollars that doesn't have the same exact shit as most high schools potentially have in the same state? I mean, in different states. It's just like that is not something they want. So every time I bring it up, because Evan is coming on, a bunch of Bengals fans,ofuses tweeting me like oh he makes an indoor practice facility jokes like it's not a joke dude like this is me this is actually

me trying to help you out motherfucker like hey I think your owners should be doing more for your team and for you as a fan because of how much you have dedicated them blind loyalty to these people which I appreciate I respect that whole thing you need those types of fans but also whenever i say something like this i'm saying it because like hey the league deserves better and not just league the fans deserve better everything like that just like bezos getting into the league yeah i heard some people say we're billionaire bootlickers for fucking talking about bezos being good for the nfl it's like hey richest dude on earth getting into my favorite league good news yeah okay i'm not gonna become a fan of that team but a guy who has two percent of his net worth would be what it takes to buy an nfl team let's

assume he's gonna be giving a lot back to the league into the game and everything that we love that's good for the that that's the type of shit that i think that we talk about that kind of gets kind of misconstrued just like the pittsburgh pirates fans are coming at me for telling them to sell the team. It's like, yo, team fucking stinks. And all the people, if you tweeted me talking about, oh, you don't even know anything about baseball,

I don't. You know why I don't? Because the team has stunk for so fucking long I decided not to be interested in it. And also, go buy a ticket. There's only 100 people at the goddamn game. That can't ever happen. You're hurting the team more

by not buying tickets and the MLB looks terrible. Pittsburgh looks like a terrible sports city with that entire thing. I feel like a lot of people that end up fighting against us, it's like you're an idiot because we're actually on your side in this entire thing, but you're just blind loyalty. No, no, we know more than you. We know about the prospects.

We know where they went to college. We know how they hit in the minors. We know more than you, Pat. I know you do, you Pittsburgh doofus, and i appreciate that you are a fan of the pirates but the thing that i know is the players that i do know none of them play for the pirates you know why because maybe they're great in minor leagues but if they're good in the majors if they're good for the pirates they're fucking running away from pittsburgh or they're selling them out of pittsburgh it's just like all these things that we talk about on a regular basis,

the Calvin Johnson thing, the indoor facility, this shit, it's like I don't think we're saying like, hey, your team is bad. Your players are bad. Your fans are bad. All I'm saying is the leagues deserve better. The fans deserve better. That's a real thing. The fans of Cincinnati are a diehard loyal group.

The AFC North ain't fucking around, has never fucked around. That is going to be a good group forever. You are dealing with four seasons in Cincinnati. It gets cold as hell over there. Let's assume your team will do more, work harder, do extra reps after practice, do a hangout if there

was an indoor practice facility there. So whenever we mention that, it's not us mocking the team. We're mocking the owners dealing of the team it's like you guys deserve better calvin johnson just pay the fucking guy like you make the whole league look bad whenever you do that you make lions fans probably miserable and upset because they have to re uh kindle the entire conversation about it being bad and then the pirates thing they should be dropped down to fucking triple a as a whole they should be somebody else's triple a squad

yeah i mean not to change, like the Pirates, when they saw 130 people showed up, the commissioner should have called them and been like, hey, you guys, this can't ever happen again. You need to sell the team right now. And I think it was Zambelli Firework Night. Oh, Jesus. No way.

You couldn't even pump in the Pizan fireworks to get people to come by. Jackie Moon had more people come to the Flint-Michigan Tropics game. That's right. Indianapolis Indians were definitely getting more people than the Pittsburgh Bucks. Which is unbelievable. But when you talk about the NFL, too, like all these teams, it's not really like the haves and the have-nots.

Like all these guys are billionaires. They all have the resources to do this type of shit. Like granted, Jerry's team. And there's loans I think they're allowed to get from the NFL for different things. Exactly. So it's not like you can't really say like, oh, well, you know, like the Bengals, they can't do this they don't have like the the resources or whatever to

do this i mean shit look at mark davis he's one of the only guys who's not a billionaire they just i mean granted you know that's the taxpayers are paying for that big time but i'm sure their facilities are top notch like all these teams are owned by guys who have enough money and enough resources to make sure that the competitive advantage isn't massively different in a different city well and it's it's clear that some decisions are being made decisions are being made strictly for the cash right of the humans who own the teams yeah like that's happening in pittsburgh i think that's happening in cincinnati absolutely well that we talk about the coaches that's why they they don't why they won't even consider firing guys early

Because then they're going to have to pay him and pay someone else And they don't have a scouting I mean it's just like you The who dat No who day Sorry about who dat is clearly a K I mean that was clearly They do do the whole

Who day But the who day fan base is a loyal one. Loyal, loyal fan base. And I respect and appreciate the hell out of it. And I think their players are tough as hell. But you can't look at that thing, that whole thing, and just be like, oh, they're saving money so they all make more money at the end of the day. Like, it's obvious that that is what is happening.

It's like, I feel like if it's not us, then who? Yeah. If not us talking about it, then who's going to talk about it? Because to be honest, it's just like EA Sports. It's in the game. We're the only media outlet that does not have a deal with them. We don't give free codes. I'm not even in the fucking game.

They've asked me to do it. I've said no. I don't want to be a part of it. I mean, that is legit because I've never played, to be honest. I'm not part of it. But we're the only ones. Yeah, you guys have played. There's a lot of it. I mean, that is legit because I've never played, to be honest. I'm not part of it. But we're the only ones. Yeah, you guys have played. There's a lot of guys in here that have played.

A lot of fans have called in and played. We're the only ones that aren't really on an EA Madden payroll at this point. So it's okay for us to come out and say, like, hey, y'all need to stop fucking over your fans. You need to help them. I feel like that's a good thing of this show. I was attacked today by Bangles fans, though, whenever Evan McPherson was announced he was coming on the show. Well, that's bullshit because you're not the one who started to go fund me for them to build a goddamn indoor practice facility. And you mentioned the fans.

Two years ago, a guy had to sleep above his bar until the Bengals got a win. It was like December 10th, and he was still living up there. I mean, it is ridiculous what they do. And clearly they don't give a shit because they would have built it. Now, if they come out on Sunday with a Bengal CGIgi walking around the stadium that's a whole different story at least trying to take us down for that really really yeah i think i mean billy's gonna have to yeah but i think it was fox sports gave us a strike for the bow for the panther for carolina panthers i believe wavy davy also gave us a strike yesterday Whoa Now who's that about? I don't know

Our fucking whole show Just got taken down yesterday though I mean us and YouTube had full Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa We were told we were live Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa They don't own that I literally got a text from the creator

Of the fucking Panther Slow down Thanks for the love We also ran it on the TVs And the Jumbotron in the stadium I was told by said creator Of the fucking Panther yesterday Thanks for giving us the love or whatever.

And then Fox, I think it was Fox trying to take us down. I think. That's bullshit. Well, if they own it, I don't know. I have no idea.

Is that what we need to do? But every Fox show is using stuff from Aaron Rodgers Tuesday. Yeah, but only for 48 hours. Remember, we use their thing. So for those that don't know, there's this, you know,

rights game that happens. Okay. I guess in the real, you know, network that happens okay i guess in the real you know network on the internet it's like hey you give credit to somebody and then you just move on like hey this came from this person this is why we're doing it and we are an internet show it's awesome so whenever people would like send us an email asking us to use a clip or whatever we'd be like yeah fuck you just hey just give it courtesy your credit or whatever sounds good and Sounds good. And we had built up, I think, a pretty good relationship. Do whatever you got to do.

Hey, you guys reacting to us, us getting a chance to react to whatever you say, which we're going to have to do today. This is all good. It's all good for the sport. We don't care. Just give, obviously, hey, this is from YouTube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show, and we'll be thankful. Then we asked for permission to use one of Fox Sports one time,

and they sent us this legalese thing back. Can't have it for this amount of time afterwards. This has to happen. Can't do this. So we're like, all right, I guess this is, hey, we don't want to do this, but this is going to be the game. We're going to go ahead and copy and paste this thing and send it back. And I feel like everybody has talked to us.

Nobody's going to listen to the legalese we sent back. There's no way our copy-paste sent back to people is going to be listened to by anybody else. I mean, yeah, we'll see. They did a good job today, but we'll see. It was fantastic. It was very nice. They did a good job. Now, granted, there were a couple outlets that didn't ask and just ran it.

Which, by the way, I'm cool with. As long as you give courtesy. And they did. And they did. I do not care at all. I actually told a couple people on the internet that were emerging as uh pretty big people and i once again i must say this there are people that are much better at the internet than i am okay i'm not saying anything i just happen to be on the internet a lot for a long time and i i said i'm like hey

just make sure you give credit to people like hey with what you're doing just make sure you give credit to people like that's a that's something on the internet that you can just fall into a nasty hole. Like, it's just not something you've got to give people credit. Like, even if you don't like what they said and you're about to bury them, like, I think it's an honorable thing to do is just give them credit. Like, hey, this is where this came from, blah, blah, blah. It's kind of the way it works. But these networks, the way we have to deal with it, like, it's obviously coming from a lawyer. And then it's, what, me and Ty typing the message back.

They just treat us like a couple of slap dicks, which is fine. You know, I don't have a law degree. So, I mean, I don't I can't parse through the legalese, but we'll see. I mean, like I said, it was a good start today, but I think you're right. As the season kind of drags on here, we'll see what I'm sure that there's a – I appreciate – like, that's what we're doing, by the way. You create stuff and hope that it drives everybody. You know, like, that is kind of what it's for. We're very lucky that Aaron is comfortable enough to come on the show every single week.

And I appreciate everybody at those networks, by the way. I'm not saying that. But there's a department at all these networks that is to obtain rights. And I wonder if Fox literally – because i think there's what lad bible they remember they were running this oh yeah for a long time they were just buying up viral videos yeah like two weeks after they had been released they bought come to an agreement with whatever uh that's called ugc by the way right user generated content there's a lot of platforms that are ugc based they take other people's videos they put them on their cool caption the whole

world gets to see it laugh comments that person got famous on that platform they're happy about it boom boom boom but then there was a time on the internet where people were buying these going directly to the and then they were sending cease and desist and then lawsuits back to people that posted it like two viral hog was a big one viral hog lad i think glad bible was a big one lad bible was a big one there was a couple others and big one. There was a couple others. And it was like, that was a time on the internet. And I think everybody on the internet was like, hey, come the fuck on. This can't be how this goes.

And now the networks, they all have their departments that are like, listen, you can use our stuff, but make sure if that thing's on for 47 hours after it originally aired, we are fucking suing you for everything. We will come find you. We will bury you. It's like, alright, dude. We'll use it. We thought it was pretty cool. We're just trying to use it or whatever, but it's a wild world out here.

And everybody's talking about the Aaron Rodgers interview yesterday, obviously, because Aaron Rodgers had a wild offseason. Then they go and play the Saints down in Jacksonville and get the doors blown off of them. Bad. Bad. What will Aaron Rodgers do?

A lot of people said Aaron Rodgers ain't going to show up on Tuesday. I got texts from people, friends of mine, they were like, no way Aaron shows up on Tuesday. I'm like, I think he's going to show up on Tuesday. Just like last year after they got blown out, he showed up on Tuesday. Just like any other situation that people thought maybe he wouldn't,

he has shown up. He came in. I think he took all the blame, but he wasn't as fiery as people wanted him to be. Of course. I think that is what it was. He wasn't as upset as people wanted him to be. Now, there's still 16 games left. There is still a lot of things that will be sorted out on every team,

not just the Green Bay Packers. But I think a lot of people said, oh, he looked a little bit too relaxed or whatever. I actually told him while we were talking to him, hey, people are not going to be happy about how relaxed you are right now. Like, is that something, am I out of pocket for telling you this? But this is going to be a reaction that you are, you know, not taking any accountability, you're relaxed. And this was his actual answer yesterday.

And somehow this did not get chatted about really by anybody what that we're saying he looked like he was too out of it not competitive or whatever uh no i mean i think it's it might be a freak out outside of the facility uh i think it's just to you know it's a good learning lesson for us you know we can't we can't play like that we can't start a game game like that. Like I said after the game, our energy level was a little bit low before the game. You know, we've 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've got 16 more to go. So, he literally addressed me telling him exactly how people are going to react. Hey, he's got to move on. What do you want me to do? You want me to cry about this? Spilled milk? What do you want me to do? Dude, there ain't nothing to go.

I got a chance to chat with him a little bit last night as well. I disagree with what everybody's saying about him not caring or anything. Yeah. I felt like there was some real fire in the text that I had with him last night. And I'm so thankful he comes on. But man, they'll take one clip that we put out and then they won't listen to the rest and then they'll just completely go, look how

relaxed and calm he looks in there. It's like, when has he ever not, just for future reference, when has Aaron Rodgers not really look like that? I'm not 100% sure there's ever time other than when he's yelling at a ref, maybe. Well, and last year when he came on and he was acting like that, people were praising him because, you know, he was lighting the world on fire. He was playing MVP football.p football not that i mean like he's going to

do that again but what i've also realized too that like and maybe i mean i'm a little bit biased but like it seemed like there used to be like a little bit of a gray area there isn't anymore people either love him or they hate him and whether that's because of everything that happened in the offseason and then how he played on sunday like there really is no one's like kind of ambivalent towards him anymore. It's either like you love him or you hate him. At least that's kind of what it seemed like, which I'd never really seen before. What did you just say?

Ambivalent? Yeah. You know, like people don't have – like you have a very strong opinion on Aaron Rodgers one way or the other. He's a heat-seeking missile. Yeah. Absolutely. He is getting heat regardless. People don't have, like, you have a very strong opinion on Aaron Rodgers one way or the other. He's a heat-seeking missile. Yeah. Absolutely.

He is getting heat regardless. And maybe it was always like that, but I don't know. I feel like the last couple weeks especially, it's, like, really highlighted, like, oh, like, no one's just like, yeah, you know, Aaron Rodgers. It's either, like, I fucking hate this guy or I love this guy. And a lot of people I see on the internet going to bat for Aaron is, like, have you heard him actually speak him actually speak and do this whole thing? Because the narrative for so long was that he's a prima donna prick. And that's because a couple of players, the teammates have come out and spoken about him in a certain way. But it seems like for a long time,

those particular teammates got a lot of hype for what they say. And by the way, I would never doubt what Jermichael Finley is saying or Greg Jennings, I think, whatever. They have their reason to say their thing. But there's been, I think, like 50 other teammates that have come out and been like, yeah, we love this guy. Yeah, he's the best. Yeah, this guy just quiet, chill, just kind of does his own thing.

Not quiet, I'm sorry, but stays away from the media and does his own thing. So kind of pick and choose. I guess you got to do what you got to do. But it'll be nice whenever they get a win over the cursed Detroit Lions. Hell yeah. Made both those guys a lot of money, too. That's crazy, right? A lot of money. How did you come out?

That's right. Joining us now is a man who's always Roman ready, dude. Hell yeah. I ain't never seen a guy more Roman ready than this guy at all times. He coached in, I assume, high school at some point, college, the NFL. He was my head coach. He was defensive coordinator for the Bears, the Ravens you name it, he's been everywhere I can't thank him enough for joining us

each and every week, can't wait to hear the insight and information he drops on us from his home in beautiful Idaho with great internet ladies and gentlemen coach us up segment with head coach Chuck we're going let's go let's go hey look how good you look i see you rocking that nflpa collegiate bowl

too that you got back into coaching right coach those college kids coached them up a little bit 2018 went in there and stomped the American team or the national team. Yeah, no big deal. Either one, whichever one you were representing. Coach, great to see you. You look amazing. How was the weekend watching games? It's your first weekend as a retired coach, watching games. Did you get antsy? Did you hear the national anthem? Did you want to get back out there? How was it? It was awesome, especially with no stress. I could just sit back and pick apart everything that everybody was doing. Watch my brother's team. My little brother coaches at the Broncos had a huge win over the New York Giants. So fired up about that. Amazing weekend of football.

Absolutely amazing and so much good stuff there. But again, you know, I miss the relationship part, the competition part of it. But it's awful nice not having that stress. Okay. So Sunday morning I woke up and I was going to hit the anvil and I went in my backyard. And the trees were blowing sideways from the wind. And the flag was just straight out like this and i was like man i am so thankful that i don't have to wake up on sunday mornings open the hotel window and try to

find a flag on top of a building and seeing that thing straight out and be like well today's gonna be terrible okay i think that those stresses those little anxiety moments not being in your life so much better i don't think anybody understands what a Sunday's like whenever you're just like, I'm a fan all of a sudden, you know? No, it clogs arteries, you know? It takes years off your life. Especially, you know, when I'd get, you'd open the blinds, you know, and check for a flag to see what the weather was doing, and I'd get a call from Pete Ward, and it'd be like,

Chuck, I know it's raining and sleeting sideways, from Pete Ward and it'd be like a truck. I know it's raining and sleeting sideways, but you know, taxpayers, you know, paid for that roof to be open. And you know, Jim's going to have the roof open. And I don't think it's a competitive disadvantage. Nobody does. So that's what we're doing. You know, the other great thing about that stadium is my first home game there in preseason, one o'clock game, right?

Sunshine and it's a thousand degrees outside and the sun's glaring down on our sideline. Oh, yeah. And our and our opponents, our opponents are in are in the shade. And I asked Don, I asked Johnny Scott, I said, what's on here i can't see i'm blind i can't see the field why are we on this side and they're in the shade oh man did you get an answer i'm telling you did you get an answer i remember you were trying to move no it's only a hundred it's only 106 on our sideline and we check the temperature on our opponent's sideline, and it's 75 degrees. So we're good.

I said, hey, boys, hydrate up, man. I remember, and by the way, we had to have the entire, we had our equipment managers holding things over the bench. I mean, and the other side is literally just tossing sunflower seeds. And I remember, I think, and this might have just made its way into the locker room and it might not have been real. But I think Chuck had asked, like, that should be our sideline. It feels like that should be our sideline over there. And then obviously there was a massive business conversation about the people, the amount of money that's being paid to be behind ours. Our bench as opposed to the opponent's bench and this whole thing.

And I think that was immediately when you knew, like, okay, being a head coach is there's some shit that you got to deal with I mean the pre-game music the sun the entire situation the roof I mean it is just a completely different ball game let's talk about some head coaches in the NFL in this past weekend anything you saw that you were impressed with like any coaching decisions from any young coaches that you thought was pretty good or is everything you kind of you kind of expected for instance urban meyer they got their asses beat down there by coach dave and immediately afterwards it's like oh he's leaving the nfl he's going to go to college how do you view that whole situation and how does urban you think get that narrative away from him and would if you were urban meyer and you were asked about this situation would you say, no, there's no chance of me going to USC as well,

knowing that there maybe is a chance? Or do you think he's actually all in with the Jaguars at this point? Well, the key there is when they asked him, you know, in his press conference, and any time you drop your eyes and you answer like this and you don't look straight in there, your eyes and you answer like this and you don't look straight in there yeah he's totally committed to building that organization and rebuilding that program jacksonville um you know there hasn't been many guys in college football successful coaches as successful as urban meyer i mean historically he's got the best record ever of anybody in college football.

But history tells us that a lot of those guys don't succeed in the National Football League. Nick Saban, the best of the best, the GOAT, won't be anybody like him, win more championships. Steve Spurrier, you can go on and on and on. So he's going to have this narrative around him for as long as he's down there until he gets that thing turned around. Why, Chuck? Why is it so hard?

Why is it so hard to go from college to NFL? Is it strictly because in college you can control everything? In the NFL, it's a much different ballgame. You coached in college at the U when the U was the U with a lot of personalities. You've been able to make the transition into the NFL and have success. What is the big thing you think on why some of those top college guys can't make it in the NFL from your perspective? Well, there's a salary cap, number one. You know, salary cap at some of those universities.

I'm just kidding. No, I just think dealing with everything that you have to deal with at the professional level, especially the players, you know, you can deal with college athletes probably a little bit different and communicate with those athletes a little bit different than you can maybe the professional athletes. Again, you mentioned it, Pat. There's a lot of things that are out of your control. I'm sure There's a lot of things that are out of your control. I'm sure there's a lot of things that are out of Urban's control. You've got to be tight at the hip with your GM. You guys got to be in lockstep. You know, the three pillars that Jim always talked about,

the owner, the GM, and the head coach, they all got to be singing out of the same hymnal, all those kind of things for that thing to be successful. And there's going to be some bumps in the road. So whenever you think about Urban Meyer being uber successful in college and coming to the NFL and maybe losing and maybe not sticking around four or five years to build that program up, do you think about some of these teams that had high expectations

and then just shit the bed week one? And how do you, we don't think Urban has any expectations in Jacksonville. Like, honestly, we led off with this in Urban. We know everybody's uber competitive and everything like that, but people are like, he's not going to want to lose or whatever. It's like Jacksonville, nobody's expecting Jacksonville to be good for three, four years. I think personally now they probably have different expectations in the building, but I think from an NFL-wide, nobody's really expecting it. There's some teams, though, that came out and laid an egg this weekend. For instance, Green Bay Packers. We talked to Aaron Rodgers yesterday.

He's very relaxed. Hey, listen, one game, we got to look forward. He can't overreact because he knows if he does, one game leads to two. What's your message to the team whenever you lay an egg like that, especially opening week? It's not easy to do that opening week, but it's a long season still, Chuck. Yeah, no question about it.

And, you know, overreaction Monday, right? It's week one in the National Football League. It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. We shouldn't sit back and judge all these guys and say, well, shoot, Urban Meyer, he loses one game in the National Football League. He is out of here. He's going to have another meltdown.

He's going to get sick. He's done. That is not happening. Aaron Rodgers, if I'm not mistaken, he's last year NFL MVP, the National Football NFL MVP. Excuse me. And now all of a sudden Aaron Rodgers can't play. What the hell? He's exactly right.

Just take a chill pill, everybody. Relax. Okay. Bury the ball. You've got blown out. I've been there. Take the ball. Get in the backyard.

Get on practice field. Bury the football. Burn the field. That is not us. But really, you know, realistically, is not us but really you know realistically everybody was looking at you know where are we are we this good are we this bad boom boom boom somewhere in the middle is where reality lies with all these teams so everybody has a has a benchmark now okay where we're at where we need to get better because i'm telling you all the teams that won those head

coaches are put like saving they're putting a thumb down. We stink. We ain't that good. Quit writing all that nice shit about us because it ain't true. And all those teams that lost and got their ass kicked and they're writing all that negative shit about them, that ain't true either. Yeah, and I think that's a fascinating thing from a coach because all you, your job is I have to make this group of men the best they could possibly be. No matter because in the NFL, you've got turnover of roster. There's a different thing in college, too, by the way.

Not only salary cap's different, but you might lose half your roster literally from one year to the next, and you have to continue to build that culture, and you have to do that whole thing. I love it, though, just like the reaction outside because fans are supposed to react the way they react because they spend their entire lives pulling for a team. And then you get a chance to see them for the first time, especially with fans in the stands after this COVID thing. And they stink. It's like, oh, I hate this team. This team is the absolute worst. It's like, well, oh, no, you're starting to freeze a little bit in four weeks. Five weeks will be a much different ballgame. I think so.

That whole set in the baseline thing is fascinating because that is probably how you coaches look at it. What is the meeting like the day after the game amongst the coaches without the players? Is it a very true, like, hey, this particular group didn't play that great. How do we get them better? How do those conversations go the day after the first game of the season amongst the coaches that we can't hear and nobody else really hears? I think you just got to keep it real and

you got to be 100% with each other and say, okay, look, you know, a lot of guys will go in and protect their guys and say, hey, such and such played really good. And you're sitting there going, was I at the same game? Did I watch the same film? Can we go back and watch it together? Because we can analyze every play, but just be authentic and be real and say, okay, this is where we're really good. This is where we stink. This is what we have to clean up. And you have to have honest, forthright, up-front conversations about your team and about your players and where you're at.

And it's up to the head coach to set the culture of that staff and of that room that when we come in here and we evaluate, look, no one's getting fired tomorrow. We're not making any changes. We're not going to throw the baby out with the bathwater after one week. You know, we see four, five, six weeks of this. Yeah, the heads will probably roll. There's going to be some change. You know, it might be the head football coach, depending on what year you're in. But, no, you've got to get in there and you've got to call it like it is.

You talked about watching film together with the other coaches. There was just a report that came out. Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins are watching film together for the first time since Kirk Cousins had joined the Minnesota Vikings with Zimmer. Zimmer, obviously a defensive coach. Kirk Cousins, obviously the quarterback on the offensive side. This comes after an offseason where Zimmer and Kirk have been on two very different sides of a very hot topic. So maybe this is them kind of mending fences there.

I always assumed that the head coach and the quarterback are always on the same page. Is this anything to be alarmed about, that they haven't watched film together since 2018? Or is this something that should be a conversation? In your experience, your thoughts, thoughts your idea Chuck Pagano I know this that besides you know the GM head coach relationship the most important one you always hear this you've heard it a thousand times a million times is the relationship between the head coach and a quarterback that is paramount and so whether that's true or not I find that hard to believe because I always tried to find the time and we all follow Bill Belichick's model of you know he

spent you know one day a week talking with Tom watching the film just given his perspective you know on the next opponent's defense given his perspective perspective on, okay, on third down, situational stuff, red area. This is, when we get in third and seven plus, the guy you need a key on is the nickel. He's going to tell the tale of the take. If he's down low and there's somebody backing him up, expect a nickel pressure, okay? If he backs off early, all right, and the safeties start to rotate over and he's got a little bit too much depth.

Expect four a week. So Bill set the model for all of us years and years ago. I tried to emulate that with Andrew in the quarterback room and go in there and share, you know, the nuggets that I could share. Don't overwhelm him with it. Obviously, you know, because of what's transpired, you know, there was probably masks on in that meeting, I would you know zim probably had one on i'm sure kirk had a mask on yeah um with that whole you know deal that you talked about we're not going to get into that you know we don't have enough time to talk about that but that relationship is very very important okay so i always love by

the way and the boys have some questions for you and i can't thank you enough for joining us chuck you're fucking awesome always have been this is only going to get better as the season goes. I don't know how, but I always love whenever you would come into the team meeting, you know, and you would let everybody know that you're still watching film. You know, there would be like, you would do exactly what you just did about some situations, you know, like, hey, their defense does blah blah blah and then when they blah blah blah what are we going to do and you would ask a question to somebody and they would normally end up getting all the way back to either darius butler or pops adams or to quote jackson

you would ask a couple people would go through the entire thing but i always enjoyed whenever you came in and let everybody know like hey i watched my fucking film too like let's not get crazy in there because you got hired as a head coach because of how good you were on the defensive side of the ball and I think some guys maybe I'm not sure what Zim does I have no idea what Zim does but that type of brain being added to Kirk Cousins his thought is like good for everybody I think I'm happy to hear that you and Luck did that because I wasn't 100% sure or not it only made sense to me and obviously I'm pretty pumped that you did that go ahead Ty Chuck I don't know if you saw Peyton and Eli on Monday night, but they were basically talking about how realistically there are no such thing

as halftime adjustments, that you just don't have enough time. Do you agree with that? And how were things different in terms of adjustments or how you approached halftime for when you were a coordinator and when you were a head coach? Yeah, I didn't watch that. I was watching the other ball, you know, live feed, whatever it was, and I heard it was outstanding.

We all know how brilliant and bright and funny Peyton is and Eli is, and I heard it was phenomenal. But, yeah, there's a short window Pat can tell you, and he's probably told you a million times that, I mean, you're in and out of there. Sometimes you have the entire defense, the entire offense. Sometimes you're not. If a guy needs an IV, if a guy's getting shot up, a guy's got this, a guy's got that, whatever it is, you may not have the full complement of guys in there, 12, 13 minutes max,

and it takes you three or four to get in from some of these stadiums. So there's still adjustments being made. You know, a lot of those guys, you know, Peyton was probably making all his own adjustments on his own with the backs and receivers and the line and things like that. But, no, there's still adjustments that have to be made because you can clearly tell, you know, at halftime, if a team comes out, they just got throttled in the first half, and now all of a sudden the other team just can't do anything,

can't piss a drop, can't get a first down. They obviously, you know, saw something maybe in the first half they didn't see, maybe a scheme run, a gap scheme. You got pullers, you got this, you got that, and they go in and say, look, you hope you don't have a bunch of adjustments. you got pullers, you got this, you got that, and they go in and say, look, you hope you don't have a bunch of adjustments. Like if you've got like six runs and five or seven pass concepts and you're just getting blistered all over the place and that's bombs over Baghdad and 20 plus yard runs, you certainly don't have enough time to fix all that. You better just go in there and get on your hands and knees and do the prayer over again and say a couple Hail Marys.

But, no, there's things that you can do, and there's enough time to make enough adjustments. Hopefully, again, you don't have too many to make. But it's not a full overall because I think the thought is, and sometimes it's, oh, they change their entire scheme coming into the week at halftime. And I know Bill Belichick has a couple different games that it's noted where he had a first-half strategy and then a second-half strategy,

and it worked to complete plan. But I think what Peyton and Eli were trying to debunk almost is, like, we're not changing our entire game plan at halftime. Like, maybe there's some adjustments or things like that, but that's not happening. It's nice to hear, like, the head coach, though, say, Peyton was probably doing things a little bit differently than everybody else because you're right on the sideline his ass was on those papers and it was hey this can't this we can't be

doing this anymore so by the time they got a halftime I assume some of the guys were like I'm gonna go to the bathroom and maybe just rest for a second get the hell out of the way there but some of those halftimes are awesome though you, like when Vontae just retired in the middle of it from Buffalo? How about Vontae? That's the most legendary thing of all time. I couldn't even imagine what the head coach, especially because we know Vontae. Love Vontae. I'm a big Vontae guy.

You're a massive Vontae guy. The thought of him just being like, it's a young man game, dog. I'm out. And just bailing in the middle of halftime is absolute insanity to me. That's crazy. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Chuck. The Cardinals absolutely beat the piss out of the Titans this weekend, and the Niners were also blowing out the Lions for a little bit,

but they let them back. How do you keep your team motivated when you are blowing a team out and versus when you're getting blown out to kind of stay in the game and not just completely quit? out to kind of stay in the game and not just completely quit so i think there's enough uh video evidence if you go back in history to where you can show your team you know prior to a season in the off season go back to the super bowl atlanta's up 28 to 3 all right new england comes back and and beats their ass we're down uh we're 38, I don't know, a million to Kansas City. And we come back.

We come back and win 45-44. So there's enough video evidence out there that you can show your teams. Because when you're up, as head coach, you're scared to death. Don't let up. Don't let up. Keep the foot on the throat. Put your hand down the down their mouth down their throat and rip their damn heart out. All that shit.

That's how we motivate them. And look, you let these sumbitches back in this game, alright, no more pizza and wings on Fridays. We're going back to all the vegan food. All the healthy shit. Salads, all that. And then when you're behind, you know, you see all these miraculous comebacks. You know, Frank Wright, we always talked about Frank Wright. He's got the two best, largest comebacks in the history of football, both in college when he was playing in college and the NFL, right? So anything can happen.

And we know Dan Campbell, and we heard it firsthand. His team, you knock us down, back up. We're going to have shit in our mouth. It may be your thigh. It may be a kneecap. I don't know, but I love Dan Campbell. And I've talked to a ton of people, and I've got friends that coach for Dan Campbell. They love Dan Campbell.

You know his team is not going to quit. And so as a head coach, you've got to make sure, okay, I'm showing that pressure to my team before I go over there, and we may get up on this team and everybody says Detroit ain't worth a damn, you know, and it kind of looked like that for a long time in that game, 41-17. But then you start saying, okay, the head coach is telling the position guys, hey, take so-and-so out. Get this guy out.

Get this guy out. We don't want to get hurt because if you're up 41-17 and then you lose two or three starters on either side of the ball they will fire you so i'm so you so you have all those components you know but then all of a sudden they come firing back at you and then you're like on i'm on the headset talking to the coaches hey get that son of a bitch back in the game these guys are coming back i mean they're fighting for their lives at the end of that. They're going to score and probably get a two-point conversion. They're going to overtime.

Yeah, it's insane. The NFL is crazy. It's hard. That Kansas City night was awesome. Hey, that was an awesome night. We had an onside kick that the whole world knew we were going to potentially do. And I checked out of it because it wasn't a look or whatever and I felt like such a coward.

I was like, ah, we're down so much. Should have went for it. And then the team, by the way, Andrew and the boys just rally and smart play after smart play after smart play and you just keep chopping wood, Chuck. Hey, listen. Keep chopping that fucking wood. Hey, let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, that's it for this week.

We can't wait for next Wednesday. We appreciate you so much. The internet's been fantastic. Please tell Tina we let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, that's it for this week. We can't wait for next Wednesday. We appreciate you so much. The internet's been fantastic. Please tell Tina we say thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach is up, Chuck Host. Coach Chuck McGonigal. Yeah, Chuck!

Now that the world's opening back up, so many new thrills are on the horizon. And whether you've been in a relationship for years or just getting started, we're excited to get back out there and meet new people. Hell yeah. When the moment comes,

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you can get 50% off your first month of erectile dysfunction treatment. Make sure you're ready to have confidence and control this summer. Roman ready. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is the man who has the most tackles for the number eighth ranked team in the NFL

via ESPN's power rankings. A guy who was traded from the Miami Dolphins to the Pittsburgh Steelers. He was a first round draft pick for the Miami Dolphins. Just one short year later, they traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Mike Tomlin said, hey, we lose Ben Roethlisberger. Our offense might not be able to score any points, but as long as we can put six to seven on the board, we can stack a defense that can stop everybody from scoring at all. Give me Minka Fitzpatrick out of Miami, get him on this defense, and he hit the ground running. He, Joe Hayden, TJ Watt, Cam Hayward, you name it, the crew, Melvin Ingram's now there.

That defense is reminiscent of the glory days for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The steel curtain. Whenever you talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers football teams, you always know that the defense is going to fly around. You know that the secondary is going to hit people. You know the plays are going to be made. And whenever this guy got traded

to the Pittsburgh Steelers, he didn't just have to buy in and change that thing. He lifted the culture immensely. Mike Tomlin will say nothing but positive things, I assume. Colbert, after the trade, should be getting some sort of award or trophy. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, All-Pro Pro Bowler Minka Fitzpatrick. Yeah, Minka!

Minka, you got to unlock. Hey, are you on an iPhone right now? Yeah, am I crooked? Yeah, yeah, you're going to have to unlock the thing and let that thing turn real quick. And by the way, I was giving you like a 45-second intro because I heard there was all hell was breaking loose over there. We appreciate you so much for joining us, Minka. Hopefully, you'll be able to figure out the portrait mode. Hot dog, hamburger time.

Oh, you're late! Oh, yeah! Hey, you look good, Minka, hopefully you'll be able to figure out the portrait mode. Hot dog, hamburger. Oh, you're late! Hey, you look good, Minka. We appreciate you for joining us, man. How's the body feeling? How's the team feeling? You go into Buffalo, get a big win. You have 10 tackles, lead the team. Things have to be great in Pittsburgh right now.

Nobody thought you guys were going to be able to do what you did this past weekend. Yeah, you know, it was a tough game. The Bills are a great team. They had a whole lot of talent. It was a hard-fought win. It was a win that we needed for sure. But, you know, we're moving on to the next. We've got a great team in the Raiders. They're coming off a big win, too.

So, you know, they're going to come into Pittsburgh with a chip on their shoulder. They beat an in-division team in Baltimore. So, you know, we've got our little bumps and bruises from last game, but we're learning from it moving forward and focusing on the Raiders. Minka, I know we want to focus on the Raiders, but I would like to take a trip back in time. Whenever you find out you're getting traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers,

what is your initial thought? Because this came immediately after Ben Roethlisberger basically being announced that he's out for the season. You get first-round draft pick to Miami, traded to Pittsburgh. What's your immediate thoughts? Are you a little bit upset with Miami doing you like that, or are you excited to join the organization? And what were your immediate thoughts in that situation?

I mean, at first I was a little upset. It was bittersweet because, you know, my family there in Florida, they had moved down to Florida and I got drafted down there. You know, I liked it down there. It's a great place, had great community down there. But, you know, business is business. I had to do what was best for me. Dolphins had to do what they thought was best for them. When I found out it was the Steelers, I was excited because I remember meeting Coach Tomlin in the pre-draft process, and I was like, man, that's a coach

that I really want to play for one day if I had the opportunity to. When I found out it was Pittsburgh, I was like, dang, like, you know, it's kind of crazy it worked out this way. And, you know, when I got here, they just said, just play ball, do what you do, don't overthink nothing. And I was like, that just took a hold off my shoulders. And I was like, look, I just got to go out here and show, you know, the Steelers why they, you know, picked or used the first round pick on me.

You know what I'm saying? So I went out there and just did what I had to do. Pittsburgh loves you as a player for everything. I just have to ask real quick, were you, you felt a little intimidated because my chain was a little bit bigger and it was out? Is that why you had to move your? This look puts it up.

I didn't know if it was maybe like an alpha situation. I don't got the big money yet like you, man. I don't got the big money yet. We could talk about that, but we won't because you're middle of the season. Let business be handled elsewhere. That's a way over your head. When you see T.J. Watt get broken off, though, that has to make you feel good. Like, hey, the Steelers take care of their own. You come in and ball out like you have since day one joining Pittsburgh, by the way. Immediate defensive MVP candidate as soon as you hopped in that defense, and they're saying, hey, fly around.

It's got to feel good. I saw Joe Hayden congratulate TJ. I saw everybody congratulate. That's great for the organization as a whole, right, when things like that happen? Oh, yeah, for sure. Because you see that they're taking care of players, and they even did some untraditional things with TJ, you know what I'm saying? So seeing that happen is definitely, you know, puts a smile on my face,

puts a smile on other players' faces. It's good when you know that the owners and the guys upstairs are taking care of the players. So, you know, he was smiling, but I was smiling even bigger. I could imagine. And good luck in that entire process. It'll be handled exactly how it's supposed to. The universe always seems to find a way.

But whenever you talk about Mike Tomlin, because I got a chance to chat with him in the draft process as well and meet him. And he was electric. I mean, just absolutely electrifying. Seemed like a guy I would not only want to play for, but also a guy I'd want to be friends with. When you compare him to other coaches that you had, whether it's Gase or whether it's Nick Saban, what is it about him that it seems like he always wins?

And people always just kind of take that for granted in Pittsburgh, I think. They're like, hey, we just win here. That's what we do. But that culture has to be built. What is it about Tomlin you think that he always seems to find the best in the team that he has? Yeah, I think, one, his adaptability. You know, he doesn't get stuck just doing one thing. I think week to week, our game plan, if you look at it offensively,

defensively, special teams, the way that it changes to who we're playing against. He's mature enough and he's been through enough to realize that it's a league that changes week to week, it's a team that has a different team you see week to week. And we gotta adapt to it, you know what I'm saying? We're always gonna stick to our fundamentals, but we're gonna adapt to what we're gonna see. And also just his love for the game. Like, it's unmatched.

Like, he's always watching football. He has sons that play college football, so he's always watching that. And, like, anything that's happened in the last, like, 20, 30 years of football, whether it be NFL, college, he knows about it. You know what I'm saying? So he's always watching film, preparing. You know what I'm saying? Just making sure that we're in the best possible position to win.

That's the thing that I really respect the most is that he's never going to put his ego or his pride before his player. You know what I'm saying? He's going to say, look, we got guys that can do X, Y, Z. So that's what we're going to do. You know what I'm saying? We're not going to try to force something that I want. I'm going to use my personnel, my arsenal, and go in and attack their best qualities.

That's something that I like a lot about this team. That makes a lot of sense, by the way. You would assume that every coach does that, but that is not the case. People have their system. This system is one. This is what you need to do. This is this whole thing. The greatest coaches can bring out the best and make the best out of what they have.

It's been awesome to watch Tomlin work. Let's chat about you for a little bit, a little bit longer. Ten tackles this past weekend. You fly around out there. Has any of the ex-Steelers secondary, Ryan Clark, Ike Taylor, Troy, that whole crew, there's always been a lot of pride in Pittsburgh about the secondary flying around and hitting people. Have you got a chance to chat with them?

Because it feels like the Pittsburgh Steelers organization is most similar to a college organization with alumni kind of being apart coming back around and it's very beautiful thing have you heard from any of the OGs and what are their thoughts on the defense that you guys have now because you guys fly Cam Hayward had 15 pressures or something yeah in the middle of the day I mean it's insane that defense you guys have have you guys heard from any of the OGs oh we haven't we haven't heard from so many of them, but I think what's real big around here, we have a saying, the standard is the standard. We watch a lot of old film on some of the guys that were Charlie Palamalu defense and

Ryan Clark, those guys. We watch a lot of that film because we run similar schemes and concepts and stuff like that. So we watch those guys and I grew up watching them and and you know saying man i want to play like him one day you know what i'm saying so i think we just kind of keep that standard of of excellence honestly and we just watch them we see what they do you know i'm saying that's just how we learn here when i got here i watched i watched cam hayward i watched joe i watched tj tj what and i seen what they did and how they move, and that's how I kind of, you know, took a little bit from each one of their little routines and how they played on the field, and it's how they navigated their daily walk.

So, I think it's just, you know, and they learn from, you know, those guys that you mentioned earlier, so it's just that standard is a standard to hold each other accountable. It's all cliches, but cliches are a cliche for a reason, you know, because most of the time they're 100% true. And one guy on your team actually played with those guys and is still there, Ben Roethlisberger. And there's been a lot of turnover, new offensive coordinator. Ben has a new elbow, new life routines, you name it, everything like that. How has he looked this year?

Because in the second half, it looked like that offense started clicking. Was there any questions in the offseason by the defense like, hey, this offense doesn't look like what it used to look like? Was there anything like that or did you guys know inevitably Ben Roethlisberger is going to be Ben Roethlisberger and things are going to start going? Yeah, exactly what you said.

We knew at the end of the day Ben's going to be Ben. I say that all the time. I've been asked this question in media and when I'm walking down the street. I think Ben has been a guy that's been slept on since he's been in the league. He's a great player. He has a great arm. I think he looks even better than what he did before the surgery. You know, in practice, you can tell, especially when he's angry and he's playing with that chip on his shoulder,

there's nobody that's better than him. So there's nobody I want to have back there besides him. And, you know, we have a young offense. But, you know, the reason why we're out there as a defense is, you know, want to have back there besides him. We have a young offense, but the reason why we're out there as a defense is to get them back on the field. We're going to do our best every single game to get them out there, get them more opportunities to get the ball. We're going to try and score with the ball. We got

it, but we're going to try and get it to them as well. You shit talk a lot or no? You quiet? Nah. It depends, man. If you give me anger, I'm going to talk. talk i'm gonna talk a lot but i try to do most of the talking with my gang i'm gonna talk a lot you say yeah you get you what do you what do you go deep do you uh do you have research done on people you're potentially playing against and know some things you do some research i do a little research i do a little research because

you gotta know where to hit people you know i'm saying but also got to know who you can and can't talk to. Because there's some dudes you talk to them, and then they kind of flip that switch too. You know what I'm saying? Oh, you get caught. That's probably somebody you talk shit to, by the way. That's probably somebody you talk shit to. Like, hey, let me ruin this.

That's amazing. Who is somebody you played against in the NFL that made you, like, open your eyes and realize, like, oh, this is the men's league? Because playing at Alabama, obviously you guys just churn out pros. Is there anybody in the NFL that maybe you saw and you were like, hey, this guy, this is a different level here now. The NFL is much different than even the SEC? Yeah, it would be my rookie year.

I was kind of moving between nickel and corner. And it was like maybe week eight or nine, we played against the Colts. And it was Andrew Luck and T.Y. Hilton. And I was kind of shadowing T.Y. all over the field. He's playing in slot a lot, so I was covering him. And I was doing a pretty good job. And then he ran a seam route. We call it a chop route, seam route, slot fade.

And I was hip-to hip to hip great coverage with him and andrew luck just put the ball like right on the right on his hip i i'd like turn i look i was like there's no way he's gonna put the ball right here i went to the sideline i was the coach i called upstairs i was like hey like what can i do better he was like look there's just sometimes just can't do nothing about it man and. And I was like, I guess so. That was just one of those moments where I was like, dang, man. This is the league. This is the league.

This is the real deal. Welcome to the NFL. And T.Y. and Andrew, by the way, did that to basically everybody, not just you. And I think when Andrew retired, I think T.Y. was maybe the most disheartened human on earth for that whole thing. Still an absolute stud. We appreciate Minka Fitzpatrick joining us right now go ahead Ty Schmidt Minka a lot of the guys we talked to last year said one of the hardest things about the COVID year defensively specifically was like you guys had to bring your own juice to get up for the games without the crowd being there going into Buffalo

first week obviously with a hostile environment their fans haven't really got to experience you know them being really good again like did it feel like i mean could you feel like you were going back to normal a little bit like was it just easier to get up for that game than maybe some of the games last year the energy in that stadium was was nuts there there was there were series where we're on defense and i'm talking to people i couldn't even hear myself talk we had to change we had to go to hand signals because we couldn't even hear anything. I'm talking to guys and I'm like, we're on defense and they're screaming like that.

It was definitely good to have people back in the stadium, even if it wasn't our fans. We were feeding off them as well. Once they got quiet towards the end of the game, it was even more of an energy boost to us, for sure. The Yenzers are going to be outrageous in Heinz Field.

I mean, it is going to be. I can't wait to win. I mean, the Yenzers are going to be coming out of every hill in Pittsburgh, rolling into Heinz Field, ready to just absolutely lose their fucking minds. Last question here from Connor. We appreciate your time here, Minka. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Minka, obviously you guys had a lot of rookies playing on offense,

but I believe you had a few on defense as well. Are you already at the point where you can kind of help guys, you know, adjust to the league and learn in the defense? Oh, yeah, yeah, for sure. We have a couple new guys, you know, Trey Norwood, James Pierce, a tier two guy that played for us a little bit last year that's playing for us. A couple of just new guys we got in camp. And, you know, I think I'm definitely at the point where I'm taking them

just under my wing, you know, all the I'm definitely at the point where I'm taking them just under my wing. You know, all the DBs, me, Trey, Cam, are just taking them and telling them, look, this is just how we move. This is how we do things around here. Teaching them the scheme, you know what I'm saying, and just coaching them up, you know what I'm saying. And most of the time we just say, just watch. Just watch and learn, you know what I'm saying. And that's how we teach around here. Hey, we appreciate you so much for joining us.

I'll let Colbert and Tomlin know that he got to fucking pay you. All right, you deserve it. And we appreciate you so much, man. Keep crushing it out there. Have a great week. Appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Minka Fitzpatrick.

Joining us now is a man who's going to make a lot of money. Hell yeah. In his first ever NFL game going to make a lot of money. Hell yeah. In his first ever NFL game, he had a walk-off. Some people are calling him Mr. Walk-off. This guy only competes in NFL games if he has the opportunity to end the damn thing in overtime with his right foot. Absolute cannon of a leg. Coming out of Florida, I got a chance to watch him kick some balls, not only in games where he was just clearing uprights in college games, but also some work.

I mean, he murders the ball. Him going to Cincinnati in the AFC North is going to be difficult, but I think his leg strength will be something that will continue to carry him and help him. Ladies and gentlemen, 22-years-old youngest player to ever win a Special Teams Player of the Week. Wow.

Evan McPherson. Yay! What up, child? Hey, you're a child. 22 years old. You are a kid out there, and you look so calm, cool, and collected bombing that ball at the end. I am so incredibly proud of you, man.

Congrats, and welcome to the NFL, dude. Thank you. I get reminded by my age from Kevin Huber and Clark Harris all the time. They tell me that they could be my dad, and I think it's pretty fun. Yeah, Huber and I got drafted same year. He's still doing it, obviously, and Harris is an absolute G. I absolutely love that guy. And I like that they snapped that thing and kicked it after Zimmer called a timeout.

Was that a plan? Did Huber tell you guys, like, hey, even if a timeout goes, if that ref doesn't come, we're going to get a rep in there? Or was it like a little bit of a miscommunication there? No, we planned that 100%. We know going into it, if they call a timeout, we're going to take

a little practice kick. Absolutely. I'm sure y'all might have done that at Indy. A little practice kick never hurt anybody. You make it. You just know you're going to stroke the next one. You miss it. You kind of learn from it and come back and nail the next one.

Yeah, I think a mulligan is always good. I mean, it is always great. And so much of it, they actually made it a rule, and that's what Zim was so pissed off about. So the refs, it depends on when they call timeout. That might be his fault. Hey, get it in earlier then. If you get it too close to the snap time and the ref can't get in there, you can get a practice kick.

How did you feel? You were stroking the ball. It seemed like you were so confident, so comfortable, so relaxed. Has this been an easy transition into the NFL football and the NFL game for you? Yeah. No, I mean, I think it's been a pretty easy transition. I mean, the uprights are the same width as college uprights um hashes are moved in makes it a little easier for me honestly and uh the operation is just it's so clean with uh with kevin and clark they just make they make my job a heck of a lot

easier than than it really is what did you do you played soccer you have a cannon and there's i assume you've gone to a lot of kicking camps and there hasn't been a lot of fields that you've been on where anybody could touch you right that that has probably been your life I don't want to say I probably had a similar situation but when I see a ball explode off your foot I'm like this guy murders the ball have you just always had a massive leg is that was that your gift in soccer and did you know you're going to get into football or did a football coach see you slam a soccer ball? Hey, Paul, you want to take three steps and make a bunch of money? Or do you want to run 10 miles and make a bunch of money? How did that whole process come about? Yeah, no, I mean, I probably like a lot of kickers started out playing soccer

super young age and played it my whole life. But I didn't really start kicking until my older brother. He started kicking when he was in ninth grade so i was probably in fifth grade and i thought it was pretty cool uh and then he got a scholarship offer to louisiana tech to go play and so that's kind of when i really saw um that there was more i guess after high school if if i wanted to work hard and and really train and get good um at kicking and so that's whenever really i guess you could, put my head down and started working to get as good as I really could. And I'm just super happy

that I picked this whole kicking thing up. Yeah, yeah. I couldn't imagine a better, I guess, spot to be, honestly. Yeah, it's working out thus far. I mean, there's going to be a bunch of adversity that you're going to have to get through and there'll become, you know, mental toughness tests all the time.

You pass the first one. I'm excited for you to continue to go because you are so incredibly talented, dude. The ball, if you want to know what a big leg looks like, from the time he kicks the ball, see how fast that thing gets to the fucking net. There's guys around the league that they'll hit the ball, and that thing's hitting the net quicker than everybody else. It is just the way it goes. That ball seems like it is hitting the net immediately after leaving your foot,

and that gives you a lot more space, by the way, because if the ball is going faster, you have less time for it to get off trajectory. You're an absolute weapon. I'm so happy for you. I'm so happy for the Bengals, and congrats on winning the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week. I want to ask you about a couple of your coaches real quick. Colt Anderson,

has he ever said anything fucking stupid over there or what? No, I love Colt. He'll mess with me every now and then, but he's one of the guys that kind of hypes me up. He's kind of my hype man and every time we talk about somebody he's like, how do you think this guy is? I'm like, yeah, he's pretty

good. He's like, you're better. He's been good to me. For those that don't know, Colt Anderson was my PP on my punt team for like four or five years, I think. He's the Montanimal, this guy. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he's the Montanimal. He's an absolute legend.

And Darren, still special teams coordinator over there? He's still doing it. How's the hair? Probably the best to do it. How's the hair? Probably the best to do it. How's the hair? Hair's slicked back, perfect, not moving. No, Darren's been great for me just learning from him. I'm sure he's probably the – probably, what,

you say he's doing it the longest out of anybody right now? Yeah, he's been around a long time. Yeah, so just learning from him has been great. I mean, we'll see how long he's going to be in this coaching thing, but I hope he's still here when I'm still here, hopefully 10 years from now. My first conversation with him, he told me to never punt a football again. And if you want to remind him of that, obviously since then, he and I have built up a great relationship because we played the Bengals every year in preseason but at the senior bowl I'm there

as a kicker has anybody ever been able to do both in the NFL Pat he said to me I was like uh I don't know he said no they haven't okay you're at the senior bowl to kick field goals if I were you I would never punt a football again I said thank you sir very nice of you and then he said I'm gonna try to get you in a combine I didn't get in a combine he runs the combine thing and then I obviously get drafted to punt we run into each other every single year great guy big ass fucking brain I love that man I love Colt Anderson as well and I'm so incredibly happy for you and the boys the team over there uh Evan I know you're new but kickers get a chance to observe a lot team meetings practices you're in the building you feel it what's the vibe in there what is Joey Burrow like as a leader of that team meetings practices you're in the building you feel it what's the vibe

in there what is Joey Burrow like as a leader of that team it seems like he is the picture perfect guy that you would want to be leading the Cincinnati Bengals over there yeah I think uh just a good way to I guess uh judge this team is you know Clark and Kevin says it's a different feeling than they've ever had uh they feel like this group is as close as they've ever felt. And yeah, I mean, we're just a lot of, we're just a bunch of guys that love hanging out with each other, competing on and off the field. And yeah, I mean, we got a whole lot of weapons with Joe, Jamar, Joe Mixon, I mean, T. Higgins. I mean, I I could go on and on We've got a lot of talent on this team And I think the city of Cincinnati

Should be really excited For the first time in a while Because I think we have a pretty good chance Of making the playoffs And hopefully making a run for the Super Bowl Alright now continue to try to get you guys An indoor practice facility I'll continue to try to give that thing a go for you.

Evan, chill. You're not allowed to laugh at that. You're too young, all right? You'll get fucking fired for that. Go ahead, Todd. Evan, playing in the SEC, you obviously went to some pretty crazy environments. First week of your NFL career, the Bengals have a rabid fan base. Did it feel any different when you were going out there in overtime to kick that game winner?

Or when you got kicked, does everything else kind of just fade away? Like, could you feel how big of a moment that was? I'll tell you what, I feel like I feel more confident in my kicking than ever, I would say, right now. I know I saw, I guess, kind of a replay of the clip, and it kind of caught me, I guess, smiling before the kick. Yes, chilling, smiling before the kick. Yes. Chilling, chilling. Yeah. And so honestly, I feel,

I feel the most confident I ever have kicking the football. And so just running out in the field, um, I, I kind of knew there was no doubt it was going to go in and, you know, we're going to start the season off one and all. So. That has to feel so good, man. Hey, good for you, dude. I'm so incredibly happy for you. Congrats on the Special Teams Player of the Week in your first ever game. I have no idea what next week's going to look

like, but I'm sure it's going to be a little bit of a downfall. Unless you get another game winner and just keep doing this thing, maybe 17 straight games Player of the Week. I appreciate you for joining us. Good luck over there, boss. Yeah, I appreciate it. Hey, tell Kevin and Colt and Clark and Darren and

everybody that we said hello over there. A lot of friends of mine in that building. I've heard nothing but great things about you and your work ethic, brother, so I appreciate you. Yeah, well, for sure. I appreciate you all. All right, ladies and gentlemen, Evan McPherson. Am I saying that right? Is it McPherson? McPherson.

Yep, that's it. A lot of people get it wrong. They say McPherson. A lot of announcers McPherson? McPherson. Yep. That's it. A lot of people get it wrong. They say McPherson. A lot of announcers, but it's McPherson, yeah. As I was doing the video of you kicking that thing, you know, and in my head I see your name. That's how I, like, speak. Like, I see things written out in my head.

And I saw your name, and literally there was a full, like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. fool like i think it and i went with fearson i'm very thankful that it was right could have very easily got it wrong too i don't want anybody to think that i was like smarter than anybody else but i'm happy to know that evan mcpherson absolute legend we appreciate you do you identify as crypto curious if you thought about entering the world of cryptocurrency but felt a little overwhelmed or confused, Coinbase makes learning to buy and sell simple. If you've been looking to level up your financial portfolio, it's always good to diversify. Why not think about

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access crypto markets, start today with Coinbase. For a limited time, new users can get $5 in free Bitcoin when you sign up today at coinbase.com forward slash pat. That's C-O-I-N-B-A-S-E dot com forward slash P-A-T. Sign up at coinbase.com forward slash pat for $5 in free Bitcoin. Coinbase.com forward slash pat. Shout out to Coinbase, by the way. Making the crypto world easier to understand and maneuver through. Also, I believe if you're a Pittsburgh Steelers fan,

tomorrow we got a pretty big one. Yeah, pretty big. I think Mike Tomlin's coming on the show tomorrow. Whoa. He doesn't do media. Well, every once in a while we'll see him on ESPN when he has to address something or do a show, you know, and he had a great interview with Stephen A. Smith last week.

We enjoyed hearing that. Mike Tomlin. So Tom Telesco, current general manager of the Indianapolis Colts, he watched me warm up at the Monarchy Car Care Bowl and told Bill Pollian, hey, there's a guy with a massive leg. They were looking for a punter at West Virginia. He kicked for two hours before the game, and I was literally just fucking around my friends who got redshirted, and they were, this was our last game together. They were going to play another year at West Virginia. We were just kind of enjoying the moment over there. Tom Telesco, allegedly the reason why I got

drafted to the Indianapolis Colts. Mike Tomlin, definitely the reason why anybody came and watched me at my pro day. He led the charge from the indoor facility to the stadium, and then he was the one that actually put me through the workout during my pro day. I am nothing but thankful and grateful for that man. Cannot wait to chat with him tomorrow. Before then, we have one of his studs on his defense that has been unbelievable ever since Tomlin got to Pittsburgh. Minka Fitzpatrick, I cannot wait for that conversation with Coach Steademore. Yeah, very excited

for that as well. Allegedly, the way it all went down with Coach Tomlin who does not do a lot of media, allegedly the PR asked, because we've been sending out our own emails to some people to potentially start booking. You know what I mean? We want to know about the lack of success. Now, the Pittsburgh Steelers have always been sending out our own emails to some people to potentially start booking. You know what I mean? We want to know about the lack of success.

Now, the Pittsburgh Steelers have always been very nice to us. Oh, yeah. I think a lot of them listen to the show over there. They've always done that. But we've started sending out emails to some teams saying, hey, what's the deal? How come you won't send any of your guys on our show? We just kind of want to know. We sent that email to the Steelers with a list of people requests.

They sent one back. They're like, we put people on your show all the time. You're like, all right. I mean, it was more of a general email. Yeah, it was different. You guys kind of people requests. They sent one back. They're like, we put people on the show all the time. You're like, all right. I mean, it was more of a general email. Yeah, it was different. You guys kind of got caught up in it. Sorry. Yeah, we do apologize.

We do apologize you got caught up. But we do appreciate what you have done for us. And then allegedly the story goes that, you know, since we did put Coach Tomlin in there, that through, I mean, the head coach has so much shit to deal with on a daily basis. And allegedly Coach Tomlin was presented with the idea of potentially coming on to Pat's show. And allegedly, Tomlin goes, McAfee? Yeah.

I'll fuck with McAfee. And that's how it all went. So I appreciate Tomlin so much for coming on tomorrow. Appreciate Minka Fitzpatrick. Appreciate all of you for listening and watching wherever the hell you may be, whether it's on Sirius XM, Channel 82, Mad Dog Sports Radio, or youtube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show. I think this season is going to be a hell of a ride. It feels like we're building up the right connections

with the right people to potentially have some magical conversations for the next five months or so. We are very lucky to do this. We're also very lucky to be the people that judge the judges. Whenever people put lists together, you have to immediately judge the people

that put the list together as opposed to the teams that are on the list. Now, when the power rankings come out in the NFL, and there's a couple different ones. There's one on NFL Network from Matt Money Smith and Dan Hanses. He puts his together. Okay, that is something that ESPN has put out their first power rankings, though. And we tried to do research on who created this. I guess it's 81 writers and TV personalities that have a vote.

This is the current going into week two of the 2021 NFL season. The current ESPN power rankings, which we must judge. And not just the teams, but the people that put the list together. The power rankings, please. At number 10 in the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens almost won against the Raiders this past weekend. They have lost a lot of people on that team. A lot of people have gotten injured.

They still have the anomaly that is Lamar Jackson, that quarterback. And even after being a half a yard away from losing a game in overtime, they cause a turnover and almost get back in that thing and win. Fuck-ass fumbles are the problem for why the Ravens did not get a dub. They will be in every single game strictly because Harbaugh and that defense and special teams are always good, and they got Lamar Jackson on the offensive side of the ball. He's going to be – they're at number 10.

Okay, the Raiders beat them. I don't believe the Raiders are on this list. Number nine, New Orleans Saints. Eight, Pittsburgh Steelers. Seven, San Francisco 49ers. Eight, Cleveland Browns. Or six, sorry, Cleveland Browns, five Buffalo Bills, four Los Angeles Rams, three Seattle Seahawks, two Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and number one overall team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now, we had to look into whether or not this is projected end-of-season rankings or the rankings that it sits currently, because there's obviously some question marks if you're looking at this just as a week two power ranking. How could you have the Pittsburgh Steelers at eight, Buffalo Bills at five, when the Pittsburgh Steelers literally went into Buffalo and got a win in week one? Is this a projection for the end of the season or is this right now? That's a question that needs to be answered and I don't think we were able to find the

answer, right? No, it's right now. This is going into week two. This is post into week two. This is post-week one game. So ESPN polled 81 writers and people that are prominent in the football world, and they ranked the Buffalo Bills three spots ahead of the team that beat them just a few days ago. Then, obviously, the Kansas City Chiefs at number one,

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at number two, and the Seattle Seahawks at number three, and the Los Angeles Rams at number four. If I was to be ranking this just strictly off of week one performances, which I think is what they are ranking this off of, I mean, Seattle, Los Angeles, the Niners, except for the fourth quarter, there's a lot of movement in my eyes. Kansas City was down 10, but they flip a switch

and come back and win whenever they want. Tom Brady had that moment where he saw the other team take a lead and he was pissed off, knows he's going to come back and win this thing. The Seahawks and the Rams, though, and the Niners, I believe, for three quarters of that game, appeared to be the best squads in the NFL. These rankings, and the Saints at nine is absurd, by the way, especially with what they just did to the Packers.

So we have a lot of question marks, but I think everybody would agree, top ten seems like that's probably the bundle everybody's going to pick from, unless the Raiders deserve to be in there, especially if you're going to have the Ravens in there. Well, even the Cowboys. I mean, I feel like the Ravens weren't the most impressive team that lost this weekend, or at least one that doesn't warrant the 10.

I thought the Cowboys looked just as good as the Ravens, if not better. The AFC West and the NFC West are all 1-0. Okay? So everybody in the AFC West and the NFC West is 1-0. Only a couple teams from each in there. I think that is a fascinating thing as well. And the Packers aren't even in top 10.

So that tells us that they're judging strictly on week one performances if the Packers aren't in there, unless they're predicting that the Packers are going to stink. I'm fascinated by this whole thing, and it's obviously great fodder, but there's some outright bullshit on this list that I'm not necessarily happy about. Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, Houston Texans need to be on here.

They looked unbelievable week one. Granted, they played the. I mean, Houston Texans need to be on here. They looked unbelievable week one. Granted, they played the Jaguars, but they beat the shit out of them. Everyone thought they were going to go 0-17 this year. I think they're at 11. Okay, then they're at 11. Cardinals should definitely be up here. They absolutely dog walked a team who won their

division last year, and everyone thought they were going to be better this year. They absolutely embarrassed the Titans. In Nashville, they should definitely be in better this year. They absolutely embarrassed the Titans. In Nashville, they should definitely be in the top 10. And I have a question. How do you rank the Kansas City Chiefs above the Super Bowl champ, Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Now, much different time.

They played against each other, obviously, different offensive line for Patrick Mahomes, but the Kansas City Chiefs were down double digits. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, I guess they had to come back and win that thing in the end. But also, I don't know how any of these things work out. And we always must remember, everybody gets upset about things, about lists and rankings

and everything, as you should. You always have to remember who's doing the voting and do we really give a fuck what said person thinks. Now, I would assume in those 81 people that are voting, we do have respect for at least a couple people. Oh, yeah, for sure. I would say that. But there are some outcomes on this particular list. Just the first NFL power ranking that we have seen

in the middle of the season. We will judge these every single week, by the way. It is a beautiful thing, and we thank ESPN for putting this together to be completely transparent. But there's some shit in there. There's people that have no idea what they're talking about when they're talking about football. Makes me feel how I felt when I was watching

Monday Night Manning. I was like, oh, I didn't know anything about football. I just realized. Chuck, by the way, needs to get hip to the Monday Night Manning, I was like, oh, I didn't know anything about football. Yeah. I just realized. Chuck, by the way, needs to get hip to the Monday Night Manning. Big time, yeah. He will love it. Football people will love the Manning thing.

It is literally a fire hose of football information coming right down the gullet from the Manning brothers and whoever their guest is. I absolutely enjoyed it. And I would like to see the Manning brothers put together a power ranking. They should. They probably wouldn't, by the way, because they have no idea what the teams are going to look like four weeks from now, five weeks from now. And that's kind of how we all feel that has ever been in a locker room. Like, oh, some teams might completely flip the switch and be great. Some teams might check out and stink. You have no idea what a team is going to become,

especially if you don't know what the culture is. But there are some things on there. I mean, the Steelers being below the Bills just can't have it. They already competed for who would be higher on this thing. A lot of people were picking the Bills to win or go to the Super Bowl this year. By the way, still might. Still might. Steelers go into their house.

But if this is just ranking where we currently stand, I mean, literally they had a scoreboard up for the eight and the five team to figure out who should be ranked higher, and the eight team scored more points than the five team. And I'm not saying any i love the believe me i love the buffalo bills and i think they could change and continue to only get better through the season they have a bunch of studs i believe in josh allen i believe in bean i believe in mcdermott but if you're just looking at this list for what it is it's like

they already competed yeah they just they literally just played again the games don't matter is it just what you think and predict, I guess? Is that what we're... The 81 people are just smarter than the actual game itself? Because the game itself is what we're talking about, I thought. Yeah, I mean, I don't understand, but it's got to make you feel a little bit better about the Colts knowing that the number three Seattle Seahawks were the team that took them out this week.

Hey, I was thinking the number one Seattle Seahawks, by the way. That team looks unbelievable. Now that I'm a big fan of Russell Wilson, too, after his Monday Night Manning performance, I like to see the Hawks up there. The 12 of Russell Wilson, too, after his Monday Night Manning performance, I like to see the Hawks up there. You know, the 12s deserve it, too. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah.

The 12s deserve it. They're at home this weekend against Titans. Yes. They're at home this weekend against the Titans. I'm going to bet on Russell Wilson until further notice as well. He's one of the people that I'm betting on until further notice. Arizona Cardinals, also a team I'm betting on until further notice. They're minus four and a half at home with the Vikings. Mike Zimmer and Kirk Cousins

allegedly just watched film for the first time ever together. I think the Cardinals at home, that seems like a right bet. I did not know it was going to be like that with the Vikings though because they still got Dov and Cook. But Chandler Jones and J.J. Watt got the boys buzzing up there. I completely forgot they got a brand new defense. Chandler Jones five sacks, J.J. Watt got the boys buzzing up there. Oh, I completely forgot they got a brand-new defense.

Chandler Jones, five sacks. J.J. Watt out there eating as well. Kyler Murray and Cliff Kingsbury seem to have a different attitude, different tone this year as they did in the past. A.J. Green, DeAndre Hopkins. I mean, that team is eating over there. Buda Baker. Yeah, in the back.

Yeah. Oh, man. Okay, so we've been on Seattle Seahawks at home against the Tennessee Titans. I believe that's four and a half as well? Yeah, five and a half. Five and a half? That's very small. I mean, there's no tiny.

There it is. I got LASIK, but I don't know if they're that good. Five and a half seems to be a lot, but the 12s back in the building for the first time in 18 months and the way Russell Wilson looked, and maybe that offseason did bring them more together. Maybe they were forced to have real conversations with each other about how things are going and what needs to happen and how things need to go I just believe that the Seahawks after Russell Wilson's performance not

only dunking on the Colts a couple times which I believe they have a great defense and would also transform here but also what he did on Monday night Manning that's a guy I want to bet on yeah but you got to think that Vrabel's got the boys working this week and fired up. And you've talked about before how Peyton would say, like, I love when my running back's angry. You got to assume Derrick Henry's pissed the fuck off. Do you?

Yeah. I mean, we had, what, nine rushes for eight yards at one point yesterday? I would hope, at least, that the guy who rushed for over 2,000 last year is like, hey, you know what? This is bullshit. I'm going to just put it on myself and run through these fucking people. If tone wasn't back in his COVID cave because of a close contact, teasing piece of Tony COVID cowboy back in the saddle again,

by the way, had a couple of close contacts around him. Obviously he'll stay away from the office for the rest of the week. Hopefully he'll continue to test negative through the weekend. He'll be back on Monday, but digs would be very loud screaming in the microphone. That's why you don't pay running backs. Now he'll leave out Christian McCaffrey,

obviously having a massive game, and Dalvin Cook continuing to be a massive part of their offense, and other running backs that have continued to have success after getting paid. But that is the big take is that a running back can't get paid because once they get paid, things change. You don't necessarily want to take 20 hits to the ribs and to the knees once you make a certain amount of money because the running back position gets battered as as it is but maybe derrick henry

turns it up and i think for derrick henry to turn it up offensive line's gonna have to start yeah for sure julio also probably hopefully has a little chip after last week and also i do think derrick henry this is his last year with guaranteed money because didn't they do the extension? Two-year, $50 million or something. Yeah, right, and this is the second year. The D-line, though, for Seattle, we're not getting enough credit or praise. The offensive line for the Indianapolis Colts

is a good one. I think everybody agrees with that. Missing a left tackle because Casanza retired. Allegedly, Eric Fisher's coming back off an Achilles this weekend. I hope he's all the way back. It's going to be tough. That D-line for Seattle caused hell.

A lot of problems. For Carson Wentz and that offensive line. So, if the Tennessee Titans can't figure out the block game, I think Seattle Seahawks will continue to eat. But you're right. How about the Rams at four? I guess that's good because they're top five. But who's going to stop that team?

Who's going to be able to beat Jalen Ramsey and Aaron Donner the way they're playing right now? Who's going to be able to stop Matthew Stafford being able to make every single throw and Sean McVay being able to make every single throw? I'm not 100% sure of anybody. That's why this season is so awesome. That's why the power rankings are so beautiful because there's always going to be a debate because there's always these, oh, if this team was to play this team right now, that's what these rankings are. My biggest issue is the Steelers have already beat the Bills. Yeah.

So what do we even – Change them. We don't even have to act like, oh, I wonder if this team was to play this team right now, this would be happening. But I guess this is what we've got to do whenever we don't know who's betting and who's picking and everything like that. Well, and they do all 32, and I know the Raiders were at like 23 or something, and they just won the game.

So that means there's at least like seven teams in front of them who lost so it's hard I assume not to carry in for preconceived notions going into the season and then carrying those at least into week two week three week four but if this is supposed to be for right now who is in you have to at least look at what happened week one and adjust accordingly the Raiders get a tough win almost shot themselves in a foot a couple times. Derek Carr, I have learned from watching Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson and Eli Manning talk, has a lot of room to potentially continue to grow

and continue to get better in that offense. I believe that was pretty evident in there. And they got Incognito out. They got Denzel Good, who's my guy. He's out. That team maybe continues to get better and continues to win games, but I don't think anybody's ever going to give the raiders enough respect for what they actually deserve because everybody knows

inevitably in the end it's probably not going to work out because they're in the same division as the chiefs the chargers and the broncos right now which are all incredible squads well and even if you do go by that preconceived notions i mean every single one of these had the packers in the top four before the season i'm not saying that they deserve to be after getting embarrassed like that, but then that is just feeding into, like, hey, these guys fucking stink now. Get them out of the top ten. But the legitimacy of the list is that the Packers are not in there. True.

Right? So the Packers not being in there, it's like, okay, this list warrants a little bit of credence, a little bit of respect. And then you go right to eight and five. Well, New Orleans just beat the hell out of the Packers there at 9. And San Francisco, I mean, almost blew the game to the Lions. They blew a 20-point lead at one point. Shouldn't they be flip-flopped?

Yeah, but I think a lot of people would say that the Niners, if you don't just watch the highlights and you actually watch the fucking film, when their starters were in and whenever they were actually playing, they were just dog-walking MCDC. Now in, I don't want to say garbage time, but MCDC's boys leaning in. I don't know if they should be at 32, just strictly. I think we learned more about Detroit than maybe we did at the end of the Niners or whatever. But I think you're right.

I mean, the Saints look like who's going to fucking stop them. I don't have no idea. At defense, and the Lions, by the way, they're at 31. Yes. Yes. Who's 32? Jags? I believe it was the Jags.

It might have been the Jets. Can't thank you enough for allowing us to penetrate your ear holes on a Monday through Friday basis. It's fucking really cool, man. Really cool. If you hate listening all the way to this point, shout out to you. I don't know how you do it. Shout out. But if you like this show, which I appreciate, and I have no idea how, to be honest with you.

I get sick of me a long time ago. I've been with me a long time. I've been sick with me a long time. But the fact that the boys crush you listening, it's a beautiful thing. If you enjoy this show, please be a friend. Tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Hashtag end of pod squad.

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