The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 564 - Tuesday Night Football Recap, Ian Rapoport, Dalvin Cook, Shams Charnia, Coach Us Up With Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: December 22, 2021

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about last night's Tuesday Night Football games, whether or not the Eagles are a real threat moving forward as they're beginning to play their best football, the Rams rounding back into form and if Cooper Kupp has a realistic shot of breaking Calvin Johnson's single season receiving yards record, plus everything else going on with the current protocols and who is potentially in and out for this weekend's games. Joining the program to chat about all the different things going on around the league as we prepare for week 16 of the NFL season (14:55-41:19). Next, Shams Charania joins the show  to keep us updated on all the biggest stories around the NBA (43:20-58:52). Later, 3x Pro Bowler, Vikings Running Back, Dalvin Cook joins the show to chat about this season thus far, how much the Vikings have to play for still, and his relationship with guys like Kirk Cousins, Justin Jefferson, Mike Zimmer, and more (58:52-1:14:49). Later, former Indianapolis Colts Head Coach, host of the Coach Us Up segment, Chuck Pagano joins Pat and AJ Hawk to give his thoughts on all the pertinent stories around the NFL as we head into the most important weeks of the season (1:35:31-2:12:04). 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 Coach Us Up Chuck Wednesday, December 22nd, 2021. 12, 22, 21. That's a palindrome. Okay, same forward as it is backwards. Today's show, I think, is a pretty good one. We'll be off the next two days as we celebrate the hell out of Christmas and the holiday as a whole. This is the first time we've ever done this, and we might have gotten soft, but we can't thank you enough for allowing us to penetrate your ear holes

on this glorious day. We'll be back for Overreaction Monday, but boy, I hope you enjoyed today's conversation. The boys were on fire. AJ Hawk live in the attic. Ian Rappaport, Sham Sharania, Dalvin Cook, Chuck Pagano. Let's have a good one here as we head into an incredible weekend to get away a little bit. Can't thank you all enough. If you enjoy the show, by the end of it, please be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Let's get to it.

Beautiful Coach's Up Chuck Wednesday here at YouTube.com forward slash The Pat McAfee Show. It will be the last show of this week. Ah, man. Long weekend, extended weekend. The boys are getting soft. We're having tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to celebrate the holiday Man, long weekend, extended weekend. The boys are getting soft. We're having tomorrow, Friday, Saturday, Sunday to celebrate the holiday that is Christmas and the holiday season as a whole. It's more so the spirit of getting back with the families, having a good time, relaxing,

and then coming back on Monday after an incredible run of football is about to happen. Thursday night football should be absolutely electrifying. Then whenever you think about, I mean, that's Niners-Titans. I mean, that's playoff. Here we go. Implications. AFC South football being represented there by the Titans. Will they win?

The AFC South, will they get cold here with a hot Niners team? And the Colts are about to go on a run. They're playing on Saturday night against the Arizona Cardinals. Packers-Browns Saturday afternoon. Then an entire slate on Sunday that includes the Steelers and the Chiefs, Washington and Dallas, and numerous games in between. We're about to hit an incredibly impeccable time of all of our lives. So, as Foxy and Zito figure out what's going on behind the glass

with the microphones on, which I appreciate, boys. I know you're working very hard. We should look forward to great days ahead, and we can't wait for it. Yesterday's games were fantastic. The Philadelphia Eagles, holy hell. Whoa. Boys to run the football. They can.

They had a 130-yard rusher in Miles Sander and a 130-plus-yard receiver in, I think, Goddard. Dallas, yeah. I think Goddard. First time, I think, in Eagles history or something like that, I think, Goddard. Dallas, yeah. I think Goddard. First time, I think, in Eagles history or something like that, or first time in a long time in Eagles history. I mean, they're running the ball. Remember, at the beginning of the season, everybody's saying,

hey, Coach Sirianni, why don't you run the fucking ball, dude? All right? This isn't seven on seven. Then Sirianni kind of settled in over there, it seemed like. And we had weekly press conferences, and although he does speak much differently and he doesn't give the candid answers that all other coaches do, it feels like he's got this team ready to go. Jalen Hurts is balling right now.

He's basically a rookie also. I mean, that should be talked about. Last season, clusterfuck of a season, just like Tua's season last year with the Dolphins. It was a lot of complications, obviously a lot of drama. Numerous people end up leaving the building. Nate Sudfeld was replacing Jalen at some point last year. I mean, there was a lot of drama, numerous people end up leaving the building. Nate Sudfeld was replacing Jalen at some point last year. I mean, there was a lot. So this is his real first

year. And everybody knows of Jalen from Alabama and the situation, then going to Oklahoma, doing his thing, getting drafted late. But everybody said they loved him. He comes into Philly. They said all he wanted to do was work, become a starter. He is the starter. At one point in the offseason, they said, we're going to build around this guy then they walk that back like two days later just a complete clusterfuck and it seems like they have found balance we thought the philadelphia eagles were going to be a dumpster fire we said hey houston good chance jacksonville good chance and then the philadelphia eagles might be right up there whenever it comes to dumpster fire situations as people were firing and departing and leaving and drama.

And this guy's an idiot. An accountant's doing this. This whole thing. And they have found a rhythm. I mean, this team, Jalen Hurts was throwing seeds. Devontae Smith was making some plays last night that are absolutely filthy. He's young. He's only going to grow.

The defense was, now it's Gary Gilbert. All right? Okay. Fair. Yeah. Okay. Fair. Yeah. Fair. Fair. But if you look back the last, like, eight games, seven games,

the Philadelphia Eagles, don't look now. Coach Sirianni's got a squad joining us, obviously fresh off a massive victory on a Tuesday early evening. Coach Sirianni is here. Coach Sirianni, thank you for joining us today. We're right next to App Boston. Connor, what has been going on? When did you know that the boys were going to get going?

And I was watching you last night. A little bit different demeanor than at the beginning of your stint. It feels like you've really settled into your role here. Yeah, I mean, a lot of people like to poke and joke and laugh and that kind of stuff. Make fun of me. I'm one of the best fucking coaches in the NFL. It's as simple as that. I mean, we've ran for over 150 yards like seven, eight weeks in a row.

I'm an offensive genius and guru. It's kind of taken a little bit for people to finally notice that. And we were talking about the Gardner Minshew era a couple weeks ago. Jalen's our guy. Jalen is a really fucking good quarterback. What about Flint Minshew and Gardner outside? Yeah, that was a great story. It warmed my heart quite a bit.

But we're trying to win fucking football games. And Jalen Hurst, he's a guy. He's a dude. So, yeah, you might see my mannerisms and whatnot. And I'm not saying as many grow in the soil. I'm not doing that. As much as I was winning, granted, you know, I've gotten some good faith around the city.

We got a good football team, okay? You know, there's a fluke interception last night off the shoe. I'm thinking, you know, if we lose this fucking game, people will never, ever let me hear the end of it. But, you know, we settled in a little bit, and, you know, that's all you got to do. You run the football. Jalen still can't really beat anybody with his arms.

Coach, last night I saw him on the run, back shoulder Devontae. Now, I guess it could have been a little tighter spot, you know, because he threw it. Devontae made an incredible catch, but I thought to myself, this is a rookie quarterback base. Now, second year, and you weren't there. It was a clusterfuck before you got there, Coach. Obviously, you have turned this entire thing around somehow,

some way through all of your incredible speeches and quotes. But I thought Jalen could throw the ball a little bit. He looked a lot better than I thought he was going to look. He looked unbelievable. And again, the key with Jalen is you give him 10 to 17 carries every single game along with the running game that I basically just ignored for the first six, seven weeks of the season.

I don't want to say not tipping our hand a little bit, but we let people know that, hey, listen, we're going to run the football, we're going to run down your throat, and we're going to win football games. They'll never give it to me, but I am the coach of the year. They'll never give it to me. But, hey, Eagles might make the playoffs. We're going to make the playoffs, baby. A big Sunday night football game in the NFC East, by the way,

with the Cowboys and the Washington football team. That will have big implications because the Cowboys are currently 10-4. I understand the Eagles are trying to make a run, and they definitely are doing that. Congrats to Coach Sirianni, obviously, and thanks for stopping by. Thank you, Coach. Thanks for stopping by. I'm assuming whenever the jawline from Ohioio joins us coach sirianni is gonna have

to come back on the horn so if you could potentially uh wait around that'd be great they they're offensive linemen like kelsey and the boys yeah lane hey they get moving now right so sirianni now has the opportunity to draw up some uh you know outside shit some draw some some screen games some you know outs like they're running they're pulling three offensive linemen yeah and they're all in front of running fast 15 miles an hour i i mean i think we're all trying to guess how fast everybody's running because we see the laser and we have this pedometer on everybody now afterwards because hashtag stat that, dude.

Okay? Stat that. So you're trying to figure out how fast people are going. And normally whenever you see an offensive lineman out there, his block is normally scaring the shit out of somebody from getting in the way. So there's not many big-time collisions, especially with the new rule where the guys can't go low or whatever. So everybody, I think, that doesn't know football is you know it's like not a die-hard football fan they'll see those big guys go out there and they won't hit anybody and they're

like oh they didn't do anything what do they even run out there for it's like well somebody decided not to come right to the area because it was there so it actually did work with how fast those fucking offensive linemen are it feels like they can get out and really get going and that happens for a extended period of time oh yeah it's a weapon for them and kelsey's he's been around a long time doing this i feel like he's still got it that kelsey family travis and jason not enough conversation about coolest dudes to come from the same sack on earth yeah top five incredible athletes too from over there in ohio i think they're from Cleveland. I think they're the – Went to Cincy.

Westlake is Cleveland. Yeah, I think they're from Cleveland. They went to Cincy. Obviously, we see Travis Kelsey still outrunning people 10 years into his career, and he's going to be one of the greatest of all time whenever he's done conversation for greatest of all time because of how much he's changed the game and how many Super Bowls they can win here at the end

will be a part of that entire conversation. But that was awesome to watch. any Super Bowls they can win here at the end will be a part of that entire conversation. But that was awesome to watch. And then the other game, you know, the fucking Super Bowl's hit, boys. Yeah! The Super Bowl's hit, boys. Hey, listen, don't look me up.

All right, I don't want anybody to get too excited. Let's not overreact too much. Okay. That's for Monday. Well, there was games yesterday, though, so today could technically be a Monday in the NFL world. You know, because if you're playing on a Saturday, everything gets moved up a day. So we are potentially on a Monday to the games that happened yesterday,

especially with the Superboos hitting for the second time in a row. Welcome to Overreaction Wednesday. We fucking did it, dude. Solved it. Did we figure it out? It certainly appears as if. Equation is beat. I think we figured it out.

We did two in a row. Now we've got to go for three. That'll be tomorrow night, obviously, on Thursday Night Football as the Niners travel to Tennessee to take on the Titans in a matchup that has playoff implications. And the Superboost will hit for the third straight time. But let's talk about this Rams squad. Now, the Seahawks, you know, that's interesting.

Because you watch Pete Carroll and you have an immense amount of respect for that man as a football coach. Yeah. And you see Russell Westbrook. See him too. I'm not playing there. They need to start playing a lot better over there. You see Russell Wilson, though.

You see Russell Wilson and you think, man, I'm used to them playing really good football. I have a lot of respect for them playing football. Then you see their record on the screen right next to it, and you see, like, the game that's being played, either on the defensive side of the ball, I know they're without Jamal Adams on the screen right next to it, and you see the game that's being played either on the defensive side of the ball. I know they're without Jamal Adams on the offensive side of the ball, and they're without Ty Lockett. I get it. Everybody has injuries, though.

This is something that happens in the NFL. That's why you see the teams that go in to win load up in those positions so that when injuries inevitably come, they still have people on deck. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Leonard Fournette potentially not playing the rest of the year. I don't deck. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Leonard Fournette, potentially not playing the rest of the year. I don't know about Mike Evans,

but Godwin and Leonard Fournette out for the rest of the year. Antonio Brown, Gronk, Scottie, they still, you know, that would normally take an entire team out. We don't have enough weapons. Buccaneers, Mike Greenberg down there, Bruce Arians, and Jason Light have done an incredible job of loading up in those positions. So I guess it could be corrected. But the Seahawks have injuries at some positions that have made them look very terrible.

And you think about what happened in the offseason and now going forward for what this season and what the future could hold with more potential landing spots for Russell Wilson to go. What's Pete Carroll going to do? He wants starters in return because he doesn't want to rebuild. There's no way. What are we looking at in Seattle? That is a conversation that's going to be very loud in the offseason and the Seahawks fans aren't going to be happy about it. We're going to get attacked for it because the only time we talk about

the Seahawks is when something bad's happening. They're like soccer, baseball, or basketball on this show. So we do apologize for that. We would like to talk more positively but those days of you guys just dominating were before we had a daily show. True. So I'm very sorry. And they're way the fuck up there.

Yeah, exactly. Probably late. Way up there. You guys are so far north-left. I heard it's beautiful. I heard it's beautiful. Well, it's very cloudy and rainy. Ted's better actually.

And the fans are loud. I have a lot of respect for it, but it does feel like drama is circling that potential destination franchise program coming up here in the offseason, just something to think about. But when you talk about the Rams now, here we go. So we were doing some math here. Cooper Cup is now 340 yards away from breaking Calvin Johnson's single- season record. Okay, this year there's 17 games, obviously,

so there'll be an asterisk next to it if he breaks it. But he has the chance to do that in the next two weeks, which will be 16 games, which will be able to be comparable to Calvin Johnson getting it with Matthew Stafford as his quarterback as well. So Matthew Stafford could account for, and probably will account for, the two top receiving years in the history of the NFL. So that should go part of his resume whenever he's judged later for everything that's going to happen. They're going to have to win a Super Bowl. He's going to have to win some playoff games to get in conversation of the goat talk.

But there is a lot of people who have a lot of respect for him who, you know, are pointing out some facts that are, and he was able to do it in Detroit and now Los Angeles. Two very different places. Matthew Stafford still delivering the ball. But when you talk about Cooper Cup, they're using him in every fucking play that's become in the Cooper Cup show. He was tight end, running back, slot, wide out, X, Y, you name it.

He was everywhere and they were getting the ball. It felt like there was two series or so where every play Matthew Stafford was just looking for Cup. And I wonder if McVay, like Odell Beckham Jr. is on the field. I wonder if the thought, since OBJ is now seeing how Cooper Cup is being used in that offense, if they add OBJ, and I have no idea, and everybody said OBJ plays a much different position than Robert Woods and Robert Woods went down the same day OBJ went there

so they're not going to be able to just completely replace them. But it feels like what Cooper Cup has, OBJ has the ability to. And I think a lot of people actually say OBJ is tough. Imagine if they just had both of them doing that because right now Cooper Cup is must-see television. He's like Tyree Kill on the field for the LA Rams and it feels like McVay knows that. And it's like, hey, we are going to this guy.

Everybody on the field knows he's getting the rock, and they can't stop him. It was a very boring game last night, but the Rams get a win over the Seahawks in a big division game. Matthew Stafford's on track to have the two highest receiving yards in the history of football. I mean, that's pretty fucking good. Everybody said he stunk a couple

weeks ago. At-Tone Diggs. At-Tone Diggs. Congrats on beating the Seahawks and the Jaguars. Oh, yeah. That was the problem in Detroit, wasn't he, Tony? Well, he was the quarterback, and that's the most

important position, and he lost every single year. It was fascinating. That is tough. People will bring that up whenever the conversation happens, but if he has the two highest receiving yards and they win in LA, I mean, I think all that goes aside. Yeah, Pat Stafford. They're winning in the hardest division. Alright, joining us now

is a man who has the inside information on all of those things. I wonder if he could tell us a little bit more about Matthew Stafford. Not Pat Stafford. That was a great cartoon. I thought it was wild. They just took a shot at him. I mean, there was a lot of artists.

There was a lot of time invested in him. You know, we're going to bury fucking Matt Stafford. And I laughed. I mean, I laughed. I enjoyed it a lot. It was incredibly clever. Joining us now is a man who is also that. And you can't spell comedian without this man's name ladies and gentlemen senior nfl insider

at nfl network nfl.com and for the league as holy and rapple what's going on dude how's it going hey shout out to that new orleans meat and sandwich shop down there dude i can't wait to stop by yeah super bowl is there in three or four years, I think. Oh, man, you got to take those things out again. Oh, no, hold on. Take them out. Thank you, Rep. Thank you. Thank you, Ian.

Thank you, Ian. We're just trying to hear you. He's just being a joker. Oh, now we got to call him back. This guy. Look at him. What is going on with this guy? What the hell?

That's a shame. Sometimes with him. I mean, what is the deal? He takes the suit off you know it's just like a day at the park and then you know i feel like whenever he calls us he goes yeah he calls for the internet there's a lot of people that are watching this i had no idea what that is that used to be what it was like to get online oh yeah your your computer had to call somewhere and it didn't just call like quietly or subtly. It was so loud to tap into the fucking internet.

Ian just got done doing that again over there. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Richie. Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, no. It's working? No.

I mean, we can hear you. Plug into the NFL secure line. Can't you do that? I mean. He's a good friend of the show, Ian. Yeah. But what he's doing right now, this A.J. Hawk tech stuff, it's not happening.

Maybe someone else was calling while he was online because that will kick you off of online. Oh, and then also earlier whenever we called him to ask him if he was able to stop on, again, a lot of Ian lately. But there's a lot of NFL news happening. We're in December football. Come on. We're in December 22nd football, actually.

I mean, so this is big-time stuff. We need to know what the hell is going on. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us, Ian Rapoport. Thank you, Raffi. There it is. Now I'm holding the phone. Does this work? Yeah, you look good, too.

Somehow the lighting's even better. It makes those – you know how they said Apple had all the money in the world and none of us knew what they were doing with it? And then they just put 8K cameras in every fucking iPhone somehow. That's where they spent all their money at, think i mean as they should you don't even people don't even need real cameras anymore it's used a stupid phone yeah that's what we use for a lot of our stuff now and it's uh you don't have to look as much of a douchebag with a camera person following you you know i'm talking about me like whenever i walk in somewhere it's like oh we should document this

because this is really cool you know foy used to have to hold a camera. Why did they do that? What's that? When you're walking in where? Just like the office? You walk in and you're like this, and then they take pictures of you just strutting around? No, no. I'm talking like WrestleMania, Madison Square Garden.

What? I'm talking like Super Bowl, National Championship. What? That you know i'm talking like uh super bowl national championship that's what i'm talking about you know ian so like you know i go to some of those events too and no one's ever caught me just kind of like strolling around maybe maybe this year if you guys are at super bowl have your people just watch me like walk around the field for a while okay that's where we'll start we're trying to figure out the super bowl right now because you know radio row and all that. What is the thought?

Because I've heard some cities are shutting back down right now because of Omicron, and I would assume L.A. might be one of those. And what are the – is there a chance for anything? Because last night that stadium was packed. I mean, that stadium was absolutely packed, but I'm hearing these horror stories of cities potentially shutting down again. Is there any thought – we asked you this before, but now that we're speeding and there's a lot more happening now and leagues are you know moving is there any conversation there at all that we should be

thinking about or no so obviously i'm wondering the same thing i haven't heard anything about changing anything for the super bowl you're right i mean there's fans in the stands i haven't heard anyone talking about rolling that back. You know, is it possible that you might have to show proof of the vaccine? Is it possible you may have to wear a mask? I would say that's all possible. One thing about L.A. in general is it seems the city has been able to function without shutting down. Right. And so, like, I think I mean, same thing with New York City, like you're going to have to have to get into a lot of indoor places in New York city, um, proof of the vaccine, proof of the booster, you might have to wear a mask. Like I feel like

now as a society, we can live and function without shutting down. So like, let's say Superbowl, there are a lot of parties planned radio row. I don't know for sure what it's going to be like, but I haven't heard anything being canceled yet. So is it possible that all those events are outdoors instead of indoors? We'd be good outdoors. There might be masks. I don't know, but I just haven't heard anything about shutting down. Okay, January 13th, too, I think Chicago goes into January 3rd.

January 3rd, they go into the Vax card access to whatever and everything. I wonder... So that affects basketball players as well. Oh yeah, to get into the building. Kyrie Irving. But we're not just going to learn about Kyrie. And I think we're talking to Shams here in about 20 minutes about the NBA before we go on this four-day hiatus or whatever, the daily show.

There's a lot of rules that are potentially being created to find out who is... Not to find out, but we are going to find out a lot about a lot of people. Let's go to the NFL now. Let's talk about the NFL. The IQ VIA thing that you dropped it. By the way, we learned from Jordan Poyer yesterday. He said he learned about it from this show, from this clip, from you.

Way to break the news rap sheet. Is that is there any chance that's changing, or is that just how it's going to be throughout, and that's what the NFLPA and the NFL agreed upon? There's, what, 15 players out from the Jets. The Chiefs, I guess they have no more positive tests, but they have a bunch of people out, including Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelsey, and our guy Kyle Long.

There's a bunch of people out. Is this just going to be the way it goes with the spot testing IQVIA for the vaccinated players who are still testing positive, but they don't know it because they're not sick? And is that how all these people are? Well, a couple things. First of all, it seems like a lot of – I don't know 100% the timing on the spot testing,

but it's not that many people, a handful, four or five or six maybe, a week for a team. So it really is spot testing. And some of those guys who are asymptomatic and fully vaccinated, Travis Kelsey would be one. Those guys could come back soon. And, you know, if they test positive, they go on the list. But there were I know there were some questions about how seriously would nfl people take symptoms would they report them like there was a lot of self-reporting of symptoms today today's wednesday right so a lot of self-reporting of symptoms yesterday

and some of those guys like tyreek hill for instance some of those guys who self-reported ended up on the coven 19 list so that's annoying because you prefer people not be on the list, but it's also good. Maybe those are people who could have infected more of their teammates. Yeah. And I think I was actually the one, whenever you said that that would be how it would go, I think I was actually like, oh, okay. Yeah. I'm sure that'll happen, you know, because of December football. And if you're on the bottom half of the roster, this paycheck is something that could change your life, actually. You know, so I thought about that.

But it's nice to hear in what you're reporting, I assume, is breaking news. I don't know if you've reported that. I don't know if I've read that earlier about Tyreek. But if that's the case, that's setting a standard. You know, that's setting a standard for everybody else. Like, hey, we have to be able to handle this because if not, we've got to go back to the bullshit we have been doing if this continues to kind of break now let's talk about jc treanor's answer uh in a press conference i don't know if it was this morning or last night he said that the nfl which i assume this was at the league meetings down in irving texas that you called us from thank you thank you for that ian and as we're

covering that covid conversation that was only scheduled to be a 20 minute meeting by the nfl side from 10 20 to 10 40 they had had to go talk to the NFLPA. J.C. Tretter said that the NFL wanted to cancel those games completely and not have to pay anybody. Is that because there were star players missing and they didn't think the game was going to do well? And did J.C. Tretter say, we wanted to reschedule it? Was that the only thing that they talked about,

or was it all part of the testing and all-encompassing thing as well that we didn't hear from J.C. there? Yeah, I have a lot of respect for J.C for jc treanor he really has done an incredible job despite unforeseen and absolutely astounding circumstances i definitely have not heard that and i would be you know the want to cancel games nobody wants to cancel me i mean the teams need the game well because he would like to play them and also they would like to make money and the players need the games because they would like to play them and also they would like to make money. And the players need the games because they would like to play them and also they would like to make money. So nobody, I've not heard at all that anybody wanted to cancel games. I thought the most, the biggest complaint as far as what the NFL wanted was they wanted to keep the games there.

And I believe the players wanted to move them. In the end, it made a lot of sense to pause, get an idea for what we're dealing with, figure out the protocols, change some things, and then play them. And I'm honestly not even sure moving them had that big an effect. I mean, Von Miller came back, but none of the quarterbacks did. So it really didn't matter that much, except I had something fun to do on a Tuesday night, which was great. I mean

hindsight's obviously a beautiful thing I think everybody knows that when they delayed it they were hoping that all the stars and coaches would come back in time and be able to test negative I think that is all a natural assumption but what you're saying here and I mean why would Ian who works for the NFL not speak for the NFL in this particular conversation so we have to take that with a grain of salt while we listen to that. Yeah, we have to. We have to because we know who's right. Hey, we understand where you're coming from, dude. Alright, we understand where you're coming from, who you work for.

We have to because we have brains, honestly. By the way, the fact that you work there is the reason why we have you on the show. Also because you're incredibly funny, but you have credibility. You have a lot of credibility because you and Dan Zeus, you know, you guys represent the fucking league, dude. I cannot believe you had hands on the show giving that guy a platform oh my dude we got a big danzu stay today we made a whole new graphic

for the guy let's not put it up yet hold on let's not debut that i mean we're you know do you know that i've known dan hanses since he and i were part-time high school reporters at the journal news in new york wow 20 years I've known him. Real beef. Great job. So you've been watching that incredible brain go to work and judging and ranking and being the authority on the top 10, top 20, top 32. We'll dive into the Dan Zeus power rankings later in the show, by the way.

I can't wait for it. Shout out Dan Zeus, even though this guy said terrible things about him. Yeah, shout out Dan Zeus. Shout out Dan Zeus. Love you, Dan Zeus. He's got those stone-cold blue eyes, too, whenever he was on, just staring. I was like, holy shit, Dan Zeus, what a charmer. Yeah.

He's got a lot of pressure on him, though. He's ranking for the NFL, just like you are, breaking news, for the NFL. So whenever you say that you didn't hear anybody wanted to cancel any games, and J.C. Tretter comes out and says that the NFL, not you guys, sorry, but the NFL wanted to cancel games. We want to reschedule because now you have to think like, how did that get lost in translation to JC Treader? And who's trying to say that to make themselves look better or potentially

for the deal to be sold a little bit better to the players or to JC Treader? Because somebody would say, Hey, they wanted to cancel games. I gave my play. We thought about, we'll move this or whatever. You know, like that is, that's the conversation is a deeper level that we shouldn't have right now. But some players that are listening should think about how the fuck that is potentially getting lost in translation because that is only benefiting one particular person or a group of people.

Anyways, let's move along. Who's hurt? Who's not, dude? All right. We got a big weekend this weekend. Steelers Chiefs, dude, is happening on Sunday. That's a massive game. Tomorrow night, Niners, dude. All right? We got a big weekend this weekend. Steelers-Chiefs, dude, is happening on Sunday. That's a massive game. Tomorrow night, Niners- Titans. I mean, that's a massive

game. There's been a couple weeks here where there's been some dud matchups. Now we're getting into it where we got some big-time games happening. In 27 of the 32 teams, shout out to the Gumpy Nuke. I think he's the one that told me this earlier today. 27 of the 32 teams can still make the playoffs, Rappaport,

can still make the playoffs. Who should we be looking at to potentially not have their big-name guys? Well, first of all, you showed that list. All I keep thinking of is last year the Bucs were nowhere, and they kind of started playing a little bit better right around now and then caught fire and won the Super Bowl. There is going to be someone on that list. Maybe the Saints. It would be a pretty good one.

I just wonder, who is it going to beat? Talking about the Titans. Alright, so let's talk some injuries. The Titans are on Thursday. They got A.J. Brown back at practice. Julio has a hamstring injury, so I don't know if he's going to play, but it doesn't seem great. But A.J. Brown might. Coming back from a

chest injury, more of like a yeah, like a sort of, it's kind of a weird anyway, chest injury. He's looked good at practice. He might be able to play. Oh no! Is that Roger Goodell saying, what are you talking about the IQVIA for with McAfee? Not Roger Goodell.

It was a Browns person, which I will... J.C. Tretter. Hi. Yeah. Don't you fucking lie on my name. Like Braybill did to ref? Yeah. Oh, my God. What if J.C. Tretter's the next one?

Oh, get that guy off my phone. When Braybill can't. I thought that Braybill had canceled the interview after he kicked me out of practice. Oh, that's awesome. That was really one of the best moments of my life. So great. We love Braybill canceled the interview after he kicked me out of practice. Oh, that's awesome. That was really one of the best moments of my life. So great. We love Brayboy around here. Oh, yeah. We're going to get him on the show, I hope, one day in the offseason.

And really, we'll hopefully get his thoughts on everybody, you know, like you and others and stuff like that. I can't wait for that. But let's go back. All right. So, AJ Brown, my gut says, probably returns. Elijah Mitchell seems like he's heading the right direction. He's been really good for them when he's been on the field. He's got a shot.

I know that's a big one. A lot of COVID stuff, though. So the Chiefs, they got Kelsey. They got Tyreek. They got the kicker, Harrison Butker, who I don't think he's gonna play oh he's good so may not have your you know superstar kicker there which i know you're a big kicker aficionado so that hurts well i'm a football fan so i understand that the kicker fucking matters yeah ian thanks go to your next one please harrison butker being out is not good for the chiefs we're not out yeah

i would not have explained like that that. That's another one. I think for another one to pay attention to, the Broncos who have really good defense, really good run game, some quarterback issues. Bridgewater's probably not going to play. That means Drew Locke is going to take the field and have his first start with

everything on the line. You'd like Bridgewater to be in there, but that's kind of fascinating since Bridgewater beat Drew. And Drew can show up too, right? He's a guy who can show up, like, for a big moment. We'll see how much he's learned, I guess, and grown and everything. It felt like they did not want him to be the starter at all, even though they drafted him.

And there was a couple games where he showed up and made some big plays, and then you watch an entire season of him, and you're doing, like like week 10, week 11, and all I heard from the Broncos fans were, we still don't know if he's a guy or not. It's like, well, if you don't know this far into it, I guess, do you ever? And I think that's where the Broncos got, and now they get a chance to see him in a massive moment, I guess.

It's huge. I mean, and if you like Drew Locke, if you think he is going to be a really good quarterback, you could watch him pick out moments where you say, all right, this is why I know he is going to be a successful starter. And then he has other moments where you're like, okay, he is not. And I just, maybe this is what he's going to be. Maybe he's going to be a backup who can flash,

but absolutely massive opportunity for the Broncos and then just his career on Sunday. So that's a really big one. Hey, good luck, Drew. Good luck, Drew. Good luck, Drew. Swing it on. Hey, go ahead and let it eat out there. Nothing to lose.

Well, a lot, I guess. Go out there and capture the moment. Yeah, there's a lot there. Go ahead, Ty. Rapshy, what about the Packers on Sunday? Is Kenny Clark off the COVID list? I know MVS tested positive. Is there a point where, I i mean hopefully it doesn't happen

and obviously you wouldn't know but like what when would be the cutoff for them potentially moving that game on saturday and also is that what the browns call was about is that uh nick mullins is going to start a quarterback on sunday uh saturday um that was not nick mullins that was not the problem they're supposed to get they're supposed to get Baker back, so you would think at some point he would come back. I would be surprised at this point if any other NFL game was moved. That was a situation last week where you had many outbreaks, Rams, Washington, Browns, obviously, and a Omicron variant where people didn't honestly know as much as they do now in the NFL and NFLPA going through protocols and just being like,

how are we going to attack this? How are we going to adjust? They adjusted the protocols two times between the game, and now they're kind of getting a hold on it, and they've changed the way they're testing. So I don't foresee any games being postponed, which is good, assuming you don't want to spend Tuesday night watching two games simultaneously. But it also means you might see a situation where, like, Kenny Clark has not been activated yet.

MVS hasn't been activated yet. You might not have those guys on Sunday. Well, Bakhtiari not coming back on Christmas Day either. What the fuck's going on? Hey, quick question. Are they – the NFL's medical team has kind of operated independently as their own operation since the beginning of this COVID thing, right? I mean, I remember Fouch was saying something way back before last season, and Dr. Alan

Sills said, hey, relax. I think that was actually the memo that was sent out. Hey, relax. We are, we're doing our own testing. They're spending a lot of money to get through the season. We need to have a season just like everybody else. Do they know more about the homey-omey Omicron than we do? Do they think that this wave of Omicron is just going to come and then go within the next few weeks? Is that what they're thinking for this because of how quickly it's spreading? And then people are getting past it, right? People are testing out of it after getting the homey-omey. So is that what they're thinking for this because of how quickly it's spreading and then people are getting past it right people are testing out of it after getting the homie homie so is that

why they're not changing the protocols indefinitely for the rest of the season more so we don't have to deal with this as literally the games get at more important than they've ever been yeah that's a very good question uh and i would say the the one thing i've learned about dealing with covid for the last two years almost, it feels like I've been in a vacuum, but anyway, is you literally don't know what's going to happen next week or two weeks from now. So basically they go week to week. I mean, they change the protocols twice in three days, right? So this is the way it's going to be probably through the rest of the regular season.

If things need to change for the playoffs, then they will they go in you know intensive protocols and virtual meetings for the playoffs maybe but this is going so insanely fast like i was i was seeing like i guess in and i'm not a south african expert so forgive me but i guess in south africa where it originated the numbers are already going down. That would make you think that this is going so fast where it might hit now and in a month not be as bad. So no one's going to know

what it's going to be like in January or February, really. So you did your research into South Africa. That's smart. See, that's next level thinking. That's something we would never do. We would just say,

remember, it started there, then it came here. We wouldn't put the pieces together to go look how it ran. What's the focus group like going on? I feel like Diggs would be on that, no? Nah, Diggs is – Ian, that's a good thought. I mean, it made you look a lot smarter probably.

No, no, you are big time brainy. Underneath that cowboy hat every single – I always go back South Africa. Go ahead. Ian, huge AFC North matchup in Cincinnati. Is it going to be Lamar Jackson? Is it going to be Tyler Huntley? What's the Bengals injuries like?

And is Huntley going to get traded immediately after the season is over because of how good he played the other night? No. Hold on. They should hold on to him. I'll get to your question in a sec, but I think they should hold on to him. So his contract situation is this. He's an exclusive rights free agent next year, which basically means a one-year deal at not very much money. Then he's a restricted free agent after, so they have him for two more years at least.

And I think they'll get a deal done with Lamar Jackson. I think that makes a lot of sense. Lamar is awesome and an MVP and should keep him at all costs. But Tyler Huntley is not a bad guy to keep around to be like, hey, if God forbid something happens, this guy is somewhat similar and almost as good. And it looked like they'd get along,

by the way. It looks like Lamar was genuinely happy for Huntley. That's a big deal. You know what I mean? It feels like genuine happiness, even though Lamar is known as the like, the coolest dude of all time. So why would you ever expect that?

I'm just saying in other quarterback rooms, that could be a fucking problem. I was going to say, like, it's not. I was watching Lamar, too, because I don't know. Like, you never know. If you get replaced, you really even if you're awesome, you have no idea what it's going to be like. And someone's going to like the other guy better, who knows? But Lamar is an awesome guy and was so happy. And I think that was a really cool, I kind of in a weird way kind of wish that that win had gone through

and they had got the two-point conversion because it would have been a very cool moment. But keep him around as insurance. You get to a point where at some point, if he's a restricted free agent, maybe somebody wants to give a first-rounder for him. Then maybe you do trade him, but in a couple years. Well, you're saying, everybody's saying that the draft class quarterback's not that great. I mean, Kenny Pickett probably got one or two overall. That's why he's sitting out of the bowl game, obviously.

That's right, him and Matthew Corral. Yeah, they can both sling that thing. But everybody's saying it's going to be a veteran quarterback market, and there's going to be a lot of teams that want quarterbacks. It seems to happen every offseason, and it seems like the owners that want quarterbacks are ready to go and get it. I think it's going to be tough with how good he played, but

let's talk about that game. Is Lamar back against the Bengals, and what are you thinking going in there? I don't know a firm answer. I don't think they're on the practice field yet, right? I don't think so. I don't think they're on the practice field yet. You got a hard one.

All right, I'll text him. So they signed Josh Johnson from the Jets practice squad. Usually you do that if you have a multi-week injury, and Lamar was not close to playing. So I guess it's possible he's back at practice but would I be surprised if it was another week of Snoop Huntley uh no I would not and honestly like as well as he played don't rush Lamar at all you don't need to yeah this guy was great and he was almost Lamar like that's that's good enough and they almost won that game anyway I mean thanks

for Huntley that that's how he's being talked about, you know what I mean? Because, like, he's very good. And we're complimenting him in all these things. But this is like, I'm happy because they're within the same team and they're friends with each other. But remember, DK was being compared to Calvin Johnson. Yep. And he got, like, upset about it because, you know, I think he didn't.

I mean, they got along afterwards and everything has made up. but whenever you're in it and you're competing at one of those positions like you have to have like that drive like to be the best and Huntley's unbelievable and he's going to be compared to an anomaly when it comes to Lamar Jackson and it's like that is just something they're but I'm happy they're both dealing with it in a way that is so cool like I think that is why you and I watched it because we've seen situations like this in the past that could have potentially been dramatic and drama filled more than any people know like and i know everyone sort of thinks that all these veteran quarterbacks are like mentoring the young guys like no no no no no no no no hey i'm not i mean i'll give you you ask questions i'll give

you answers but i'm not coming out of here and i'm not i mean i'll give you you ask questions i'll give you answers but i'm not coming out of here and i'm not going on the dry erase board and breaking the entire guy and by the way and if anything comes out that they're not but that remember ben roethlisberger terrible guy because he wasn't telling mason rudolph every single thing he had learned in 15 years or whatever it wouldn't help him bad coach or whatever no i'm just saying oh you're saying hey go ahead yeah rapt, another massive game. Bills, Patriots. What are the COVID injuries or players looking like? And then with Aguilar in his head, is he playing?

And also, did the IQVIA send a test to Buffalo immediately to get Cole Beasley as soon as they got their new job or no? Random Cole. Yeah. Cole Beasley is in a different category because he is unvaccinated. What? Oh, yeah, yeah. I heard a song. You didn'tvaccinated what oh yeah yeah he had a song about that yeah he had a song an album no way I mean he went hard okay he's not bad right so I haven't someone told me he's as like a rapper he's not bad great flow

Cole Beasley got a great flow now what are you saying potentially offending people but go back through the history of like kind of rap music. That was almost, it's a thing, I think. I mean, so now I'm not comparing Cole Beasley to Drake. I don't think anybody's like, Hey, you know what?

Drake, Jay-Z, Wheezy, Eminem, Cole Beasley. I don't think anybody's doing that type of thing, but it is. Uh,

what? Big bees. No, I forget what it is. I don't know. Soul Cole. Anyway, that's not, I haven't, I. I don't know. Soul Cole? Cole, bro, dude. No, I need to listen to his diss track on COVID.

No, so he is, because he's unvaccinated, he gets tested every day no matter what. That's one of the rules. He's got to wear a mask around the building so he gets tested no matter what. He tested positive for COVID. He has mild symptoms. He is out on Sunday for the biggest game of the year for the Bills. Oh, no. Because he tested positive and you know,

that's just, it sucks. And I know it sucks for the bills and everybody, everybody wanted him to get vaccinated. So because for health reasons and also play faster, but he did not. And now he's out 10 days and, uh,

Hey, not great. This happens in a rap game though. You put our dish track, you know, the person might answer. That's right. It's true. COVID waited, laying in the weeds, and waited for the biggest game of the year and said, what was that? 16 bars, here's some back, dude.

Gotcha. And he's out. That's a shame. Cole Beasley, we hope you survive, obviously, just like everybody else that is battling through the either Omnicron or the Omnicron Delta tag team at the moment. Ian, we can't thank you enough for joining us. Have an incredible holiday. We'll chat with you next week, sir.

All right. Have a great holiday, guys. Take care. Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Rappaport. Now that the world's opening back up, so many new thrills are on the horizon. Okay. And whether you've been in a relationship for years or just

getting started, we're excited to get back out there and meet new people. Hell yeah. When the moment comes, let's not come too quick. Here we go. That is not what they

had in their copy. They should. I think they. That is not what they had in their copy. Okay. They should. That was, I think they're going in a different direction. So let's go back a sentence or two. Okay. Okay. When the moment comes, you want to be ready.

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roman ready us now is a senior nba insider from the stadium in the athletic. Last week had the Kyrie Irving is coming back to play basketball four days before everybody else had it. Not getting enough credit as he deserves. Comes on every single week and lets us know what the hell is going on in the Association of the National Basketball. Sean Shirai. Hey! What's up, dude? Woo!

Oh, no. What's going on dude? Woo! Oh, no. What's going on? Oh, Nick. COVID. COVID. Get it on the record. Hold on. Hold on, Sean.

I am so sorry. Nick had you muted. Nick didn't want you to step on any of the celebration we were having for you there. It's all me, Sean. But we would like you to know we're proud of you, Sean. Proud of you, Sean. $50 million, man. Can we first get that confirmed? Do you have any confirmation to my sources? Okay, so this is such an interesting thing because, you know, Sean,

the last time he was on before the deal was announced, you were trying to get the information on me. I was trying to get it. I was trying to get you to give it to me on the record in the interview. I know. And then you text me day of and you say, hey, this is what I have learned. And you said, do you want to confirm? And I didn't want to be a guy that was going to do that because I just didn't think it was the right news. But immediately upon reading it, I was like, fuck, Shams is close, dude. Shams is close. Shams is close.

Amen. Amen. Of course you have sources in that world. That's because you are dialed in, and we know that it is a boots-on-the-ground operation over there. You're always hammering the phone. So we appreciate the hell out of you, dude. Thank you, Shams.

Appreciate you guys, and congrats again to the whole group. Thank you, man. Hopefully we'll be able to continue to do what we do on a regular basis alongside the best insider in basketball. Oh, that's probably going to be a hot take, Sh Sean's I don't want to throw you into the fire there but let's talk about a couple uh basketball stories that are always going to be around first things first the biggest name in basketball okay LeBron James space jam the man that saved the universe the man who alongside his best friend Rich Paul I think has completely changed the entire dynamic of the NBA and everything.

There's a lot of things being said about LeBron, how the Lakers are doing. Shaq came out and said, hey, Staples Center is me and Kobe's thing. The crypto can be this losing Lakers. I mean, it is all hands on deck in burying the Lakers, who are currently 500, I think, at 16-16. Now I'm reading LeBron might get fucking traded. Is that a real thing? What is going on over there? Is all hell just breaking loose because it's LeB16. Now I'm reading LeBron might get fucking traded. Is that a real thing?

What is going on over there? Is all hell just breaking loose because it's LeBron James? No, Pat. And this is why I'm here to inform you guys. I mean, that is not a real thing. First of all, I didn't even know anything about it. I don't really pay attention to random Twitter tweets and comments and stuff like that. I spoke to LeBron's agent, Rich Paul, and he that talk is in itself is just ridiculous and it's totally false lebron davis isn't leaving

the lakers he's gonna be on the lakers now the question is how can the lakers get better this is their team this is the hand that they've been dealt they had russ you know they made that trade for russell westbrook in the summer and they just it hasn't paid dividends this team doesn't look like it has the young legs that they need to have and that's why I've heard that they have been active in in trade in the trade market when you look at a guy like Ben Simmons they'd love to get their hands on a guy like him Jeremy Grant those are the types of guys that they need on this team young 6'9 6'10 athletic wings can handle the ball, can score, can pass. They need guys like that. They don't have enough of them that have the young youth

in their prime type of experience. But, no, LeBron James isn't going anywhere. I spoke to Rich Paul, his agent. He said that stuff is just totally false. So I'm here to set the record straight. I appreciate you doing that because, you know, I'm a big – if I see one person – I assume a lot of people are thinking that. Yeah.

Because if one person is thinking it's a big world out there, other brains are thinking, and I've seen it out there. The fact that you just casually dropped that you talked to Adele's boyfriend is really cool. By the way, I'd like to let you know that. Are you got any scoops on Adele's music or anything like that? Are you dabbling in it? Because every once in a while, draft night in NFL, Shams will come dabbling in. Oh, by the way, NFL folks, with the fourth overall pick, ooh, Shams is shutting it down.

Now, I think you broke some presidential news, remember? Oh, yeah. He broke some. Are you dabbling in the music field as well? Is that why you and Rich Paul's relationship is growing the way it is? Listen, I can never say never to any field. I feel like I am very versatile. So, Pat, I'm never going to close any doors now hey

what's rich paul like is he awesome i mean listen for me it's about having you know the the fairness you know the fairness is the biggest thing right it's like you know i'm never going to report anything that's not accurate not not not true about about people so you know having those relationships uh you know for accuracy's sake is definitely important. Hey, incredible businessman. What LeBron and his friends have done is incredible. It's like trailblazing, you know, when it comes to athletes. Now, LeBron James has been famous worldwide and, you know, pretty well paid since he's like, what, 12 years old?

I think they were putting him on magazines when he was like 13. Hey, this is the next guy. He had to Hummer, obviously, the whole thing. The way he and his crew have handled himself through this entire superstardom since he was you know younger than most people even knew how to you know do drive do anything i mean listen his whole career i mean if you look at it he's shattered all the you know there was a lot of uh i think pressure built on him from starting a lot of guys don't succeed and don't find and don't find that level of success and what we saw with lebron james is

he reached that level of success if not surpassed it four championships he'd love to get one more ring it just right now this team guys i don't think they have the it factor right now anthony davis is out for four weeks i mean it could be even longer than that. He could be in that span. So not having Anthony Davis, I think, was just a Band-Aid for what really ails these Lakers. And Anthony Davis, as much as people want to rag on him this year, he did average 20 and 10, and he did provide some level of Band-Aid for this team that's mostly, you know, they've got starters upwards in their 30s. And so they don't even have anyone that's in that 20-year-old range,

guy that's coming up the pipeline, someone in their prime, starting for them right now. So that's the part that makes it difficult where you don't have these young, fresh legs, guys that are in their prime that you can lean on. You're leaning on LeBron James and Russell Westbrook, who's 32. You're leaning on a lot of these older guys. Listen, I do think this team can make a run at some point. Do they have a championship run in them?

That I'm not so sure about with this roster. So they've got to get to the playoffs whenever they know how many sprints they have in the cardio. When you walk into a workout and you know exactly how many 110s you have, it's like this is a lot easier than getting all the way to that point. So maybe in the playoffs they'll all flip the switch, although it is said to be very difficult in any sport. you think about the lebron level of athlete right right now we've seen a couple documentaries the last dance with jordan very obvious that jordan hears what

everybody says and uses it as motivation man in the arena tom brady same thing it's called man in the arena because of the skeptics outside they would never understand uses it as motivation does lebron hear what everybody's saying? They're calling him washed right now. There's people calling him washed. Does he listen or hear any of that shit, or does he somehow stay above it all? I couldn't see how you could in this modern world right now. They're literally saying that on TV right now.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know how you could not see that and notice that, but at the end of the day i think you know you've seen him in the summer where he'll tweet like you know i think even last summer he said like bring that same energy remember in the summer when they went and got russell westbrook and carmelo anthony trevor reads that everyone was saying that they were washed and lebron james came out with a tweet and said keep that same energy well they haven't looked like they they fit the bill this year it's tough for me to see how a guy like LeBron James doesn't read and doesn't use things as motivation.

But I do think that this team, he's got to have some level of tunnel vision with this group because they're really all over the place. They've had a lot of injuries. They're dealing with COVID scares right now. They've got four guys in protocol. That's why they had to go sign. Isaiah Thomas last week, they had to go sign a couple guys out of the G League. So this is

a walking wounded team and i don't know why people are saying lebron james is washed i mean he's i think i don't have six seven games in front of me but he has multiple multiple 30 plus point games i think he had a triple double in that stretch so yeah i don't know if lebron james himself is washed if anything he's proven to be probably the only bright spot right now. 2006, they were saying that the dynastic run that the Patriots were having and Tom Brady over, dead. That was 2006, dude. It is 12-22-21 right now.

Still Tom Brady, still fucking running. That's unbelievable to think about. Excited to see what LeBron does. Let's go back to the news that you broke before anybody. Kyrie Irving coming back to practice and be a part-time player. There's people that are upset about this because, you know, they are not happy with how Kyrie has handled it and his stance and what he believes in.

So they are going to get very loud and mad about the Nets allowing him to come back to work, as opposed to losing all of his money, all of his opportunity, all of his spotlight because of the decision he has made about the vaccination, and him knowing that that was going to happen, and even some of his teammates who maybe didn't want to get vaxxed either because for whatever reason, they did it because it's team sport, we'll dive in. Now Kyrie's coming back. There's a lot of people that aren't fans of Kyrie.

Kyrie has a lot of supporters too. And I think the people that are on both sides should realize that each other exists and just fucking move on. But that's neither here nor there. Kyrie is back, I think, part-time playing. What does that mean? Because Chicago, he won't be able to play right

with this Vax card. LA, I think, maybe has a Vax card thing in some of their buildings. Is there going to be places he just can't play? Is that what they're expecting? The only place Kyrie Irving, if he doesn't go and get vaccinated, the only place he can't play is New York City. So those games at the Garden and the Barclays

Center. If he goes and plays, if they have a road game in Chicago, he can play. If they have a road game in LA, he can play. If they have a road game in San Francisco, he can play. If they have a road game in Philly He can play. They have a road game in L.A. He can play. They have a road game in San Francisco. He can play. They have a road game in Philly, which is also coming out with its own vaccine mandate at the beginning of the year. He can play there. It's only residential. But the crazy thing about Boston is, and it's interesting, the city of Boston just came out with its own vaccine mandate that comes out at the beginning of the year.

And they have made an exemption for athletes. that comes out at the beginning of the year, and they have made an exemption for athletes. So my question is why haven't either New York City or some of these other markets done the same thing? Andrew Wiggins, he went and got vaccinated because San Francisco had the same mandate, and he wanted to play basketball. So unlike Kyrie Irving, he went and got vaccinated.

So Boston, the Celtics do have a couple players that are not vaccinated who would in theory be impacted by this new rule. But Boston has a mandate. So Kyrie Irving right now, he is coming back to the team. He's returning to the team, but he's also pat in health and safety protocols. And that means that he has also registered a positive test. positive uh test and so the fact that kairi irving he just got back just rejoined the team and within his first couple of covid 19 tests already had a positive uh result because the player doesn't get moved into protocols just to get moved into protocols you're not you know he needed a couple of negative tests just to start practicing with the team but you don't get moved

into covid protocols just for that so there was a reason they moved him into COVID-19 protocols, and that's because he had either positive or inconclusive tests. So that time that he's going to become, you know, the return time, as now it's even more up in the air because he needs to isolate for 10 days. And so that will cut into his return time as well. I always looked at January 5th or January 12th in Indianapolis or Chicago on the 12th as a possible return date for him. I thought that this road trip that the Nets were on,

which their game just got postponed against the Trailblazers for tomorrow. It is really up in the air if they even play on Christmas Day against the Lakers because they have at least 10 guys? COVID-19 protocols, Pat. At least 10 guys. That's most of their team. So I don't know how they're going to be able to field the team and also the product. I mean, who are you going to have leading your team there? You're going to have Blake Griffin, Paul Millsap.

I mean, no knock on those guys. Not KD, Harden, Kyrie Irving. So it'll be interesting to see what the league does there. But I think overall,en, Kyrie Irving. It'll be interesting to see what the league does there. I think overall, yes, Kyrie Irving's back. At the end of the day, they know that they need Kyrie Irving to win a championship. That's why they went and brought him back. That's why

the players on the roster, it started with them from Kevin Durant on down. They wanted Kyrie Irving back in the fold. You have to bring a guy like that back if you feel like you can go one step closer to winning a championship. I saw Steve Nash in a suit dribbling still on the internet.

He almost influenced me into buying some shoes. And he's still got the handles. And I got a chance to chat with Steve Nash. Legend. Yeah, good guy. Legend. That was on me. Steve Kerr, Steve Nash.

Yeah, all Steves. I mean, that was on me. I'm not a basketball guy, but Steve Nash absolutely. Last question here before we let you go, and we can't thank you enough. Your hair looks fantastic going into the holiday year here. Thank you. I mean...

Spit it out, Pat. Zion Williamson. Yeah, yeah, Zion Williamson. And I'm not letting the toxic table even bring this up it breaks my heart you alright Zion Williamson are we going to see him play he's not playing this year huh

I mean listen right now he's out for at least the next 4 or 6 weeks after getting this injection in his foot he already has not played this year he's had multiple setbacks. So listen, you read all those tea leaves, makes it seem like he's probably not going to be back. But

from everything I've been told, the Pelicans do want him to play this season. I think Zion Williamson, in his heart of hearts, does want to play this year. So you have two parties that clearly want him back on the floor. They're not going to do anything that's going to rush the health of his foot because at the end of the day, that's what comes first.

But there's a lot on the line here for Zion Williamson as well. He's got a max extension possibly looming in the offseason. He needs to also prove that he can play and be healthy. This team, the Pelicans need to see how this roster will mesh. They have Willie Green, who has looked like an excellent coach, guys.

I don't know how much any of us have been watching the Pelicans. Are they on TV? He's going to be an excellent coach guys i don't know how much either any of us have been watching the podcast they're on tv they're on tv they don't play on tv excellent coach in the league but you got to have players and brandon ingram is playing like an all-star but they don't have the bodies right now that can really help this team make a playoff push they're hoping that zion wilson can return at some point this year but at this point he has had multiple setbacks and that was going to get equated in all of this. You know, whenever I would travel out to L.A.

and I'd stay there for a few weeks, I'd see myself start eating a little healthier, you know, and the sun is outside, so you start working out a little bit. Maybe we could zile into a city that, you know, is like Milwaukee. See, that's what I'm not thinking about. I'm not thinking about Milwaukee. And welcome back. By the way, we're on Radio Hour 2 here.

We kind of powered through that with incredible information from our guy, Shams. We can't thank him enough. We'll talk to you after the next week, pal, if that's okay, going into the new year. Yes, sir. Appreciate you guys as always. Have a good one. You're the best, dude. I want to know how you found out the number.

Who's leaked? Because loose lips sink ships. And were you high or low on your number? Never going to reveal my sources, Pat, but trust me, I had good ones on that one. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Ferroni. Hey, Sean! Joining us now from his attic in Ohio, an absolute superstar of a human. I mean.

The leak, probably. Yeah, it's guaranteed. Oh, you think Sean's hit up AJ? Yeah. Did AJ? AJ knew. AJ. AJ knew within the last couple days.

It was AJ or Mitt. I know it. Yeah, but on their side, too, there's a lot of people that, you know, I think. True. Dagan and Diven. Hey, guess what? I did not expect it to be Shams, but Shams did text me the morning of and said, is this where I was like, oh, this son of a bitch.

He's good. He said, I cannot confirm, nor deny. Well, I actually didn't respond until after the announcement, and then I said, thanks. You tell me, Shams. Mitt did have that tweet right respond until after the announcement, and then I said, thanks. You tell me, Sean. Mitt did have that tweet right under Sean's. He did tweet. What did he say?

It was a gif of a scene from the town. It was his best tweet of all time. Joining us now is a man who's in an attic in Ohio, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, A.J. Hawks. A.J. Hawks. Hey, a lot to chat about today. We're taking the next two days off. We apologize we're a little bit late to you. We powered through a hard out and a hard in there.

It's a really good radio show host there on Sirius. We do apologize to everybody. A.J. Hawk joining us wearing an incredible wolf shirt going into the holiday. How are you feeling, A.J.? I feel pretty good. How are you guys doing? We're so thankful every time you join us. You know, that first hour we had a lot of conversations with Rappaport

talking about a lot of things happening around the NFL. He tracked back to South Africa, and he said he's no South Africa expert on the homey-omey Omicron, but he said now they're talking about cases going down. That's like five, six weeks right now, four or five weeks. This is around Thanksgiving, right? So if you track the same curve, because remember we're trying to flatten the curve. Yeah, we're trying to drop it down, flatten those things out a little bit. That's what we're trying to flatten the curve we're trying to drop it down

flatten those things out a little bit that's what we're trying to do drop them down if you look at the South Africa one and that's how we're supposed to be we're looking at a month and a half here maybe that's important football time and if IQVIA is kind of picking and choosing who they're testing only 5-6 people per team I guess is the thing if you're

vaccinated per week or per day well he said per week but I don't we'll find out you're vaccinated. Per week or per day? Well, he said per week, but I don't... We'll find out more. Joining us now is a man who is in the building. He is playing great football right now. They showed stats in the last game that basically said he should be in a conversation with maybe one of the greatest football players of all time, running back

for the Minnesota Vikings, Pro Bowler Dalvin Cook. What's up, dude? What up, Pat? Hey, how you doing, man? What do we got? Where are we at? We in the office right now? We watching film right now? What do we got going on? I'm down here in the equipment room.

Oh, nice. You say you're secluded away from everybody because you got to wear a mask everywhere in the building right now? Is that accurate? I'm isolated. Yeah, smart. Hey, has anybody gotten spot tested yet over there and tested positive? Has Omicron been in the – have you experienced any of that right now? Because the Jets just got 15 positives.

Boom. Out of nowhere. Just like this on one day. The Chiefs got like 10 or something. Boom. Out of nowhere. Is that something you guys are talking about in the building? And how the fuck do we keep it out of here?

Last week we had a bunch of guys but like we didn't have that many i don't think so like we was all taking the protocols that they put out that day of of what we had to do but you know we just got in bigger meeting rooms and stuff like that but other than that yeah we just been standing apart smart i wanted to pivot quick to to what deon sanders is doing I know you're at University of Florida State. With the Seminoles, you think they would offer him the job? You think he would take it if they really wanted him to come back and be the head coach?

He better take it. He getting the number one recruit, taking him from his school. Come on, Deion. All right. But, yeah, that'll be big. You know, Dion always bring that hype, bring that energy. And it's Dion, so he going to bring everything else. Are you guys – is the Florida State alum as tight as some of the other

Florida schools? Do you guys all keep in touch or is now – has it kind of fallen apart? Because I remember there was a little bit of something with, I think, Jalen with DBs with Jimbo. I think there was something that happened in that whole thing because he left, obviously. Is the Florida State alum still tight like Deion? Is he, you know, in the Florida State community,

when the number one recruit leaves, I saw you react and go, come on, Deion. Like, is that how everybody feels or does everybody understand that he wanted that job, he didn't get that job, and Deion is Deion, so he's probably going to have success wherever? Yeah, it's basically how I take it. Like, Deion is Deion. Like he's probably going to have success wherever. Yeah, it's basically how I take it. Deion is Deion. He's going to have success.

I don't know about the situation if they offered him the job and stuff like that. I don't know about that situation. The Florida State Alums, we real tight, but we know it's a down time for us. I know Coach Novell is headed in the right direction, so I like where we're going. It's just a matter of time before we start winning more games.

That's good news for, I think, all the Florida State fans who potentially thought the world was burning down when they're losing. Out of Florida, we're talking to Davin Cook of the Vikings. Let's talk about the Vikings, man. Obviously, Justin Jefferson has continued to just grow and get better off of an

incredible rookie season. Adam Thielen out. Kirk seems to be vibing, but there's a dude in the backfield, Double Three, that when you get going, that team's going. And I feel like everybody knows that from the outside looking in. What has it been like as of late here as you guys have kind of turned a corner and got a little hot here going into the most important part of the season? Yeah, I know the type of guys we got on the outside.

You know, Adam, Tyler Conklin, Justin, all those guys, KJ. They can make plays, but I just want to keep it honest, you know, bring it out of the box, you know, make sure the running game is what the running game is supposed to be for those guys to get the right coverages. You know, it's been kind of going how we thought it would go down this road. We just got to keep winning to stay in this seventh seed to get in the playoffs. It's going to be crucial if we pull these last three off

so we don't have my destiny in somebody else's hands. Hey, how's Mike Zimmer doing day to day? I worry about him at times. He seems to be frustrated with different things that have happened. I know this past offseason was a bit rocky at times. I saw him get very excited, actually, during your last game, which was very, very good to see. How was he going through the season?

Is he pretty much the same guy day-to-day? Yeah, we can't keep taking Coach through that. He's going to score games. These last-minute wins, we can't keep doing that, man. But Coach Zim's been good, man. We've been making sure he's all right, man. You know Coach Zim's going to be Coach doing that, man. But Cozum's been good, man. We've been making sure he's all right. You know, Cozum going to be Cozum, man.

What's Kirk on the day-to-day? And I think we ask you this a lot, but it feels like now we're a different stage of Kirk Cousins because this is end of contract that was massive, beginning of contract, big run, big win in New Orleans for playoffs. Then, obviously, the year happens. It's last year. This year going on a run right now. Is Kirk just always focused on ball?

Is how he goes, how you guys go? Is there a different sense of leadership with him? Or is he always like the same guy? And who kind of, are you the vocal leader around there? Is Kirk? I don't think that's kind of in his nature. I don't think I know him at all actually now I think about it yeah it's kind of funny like a lot of people like don't actually like know like who he really is but like yeah you know he's like you

don't know when his jokes come in so like they're always funny and like that's just how he is but like as far as being the vocal leader like these lad like year and a half like he's been more vocal like talking and stuff like that but you know Curtis Kirk and I feel like he's been growing into that position and just accepting like you know I'm the quarterback of his team you know I'm gonna lead it and you know that's what he's been doing so you see his numbers been been proving that and you know it just you know he get the credit the criticism that nobody else get and you know that's why i love playing next to him because he just block it out and he's just gonna play ball yeah it seems like he always puts up good numbers and then there was oh he can't win

in prime time then he goes down to jerry world wins in prime time wins a playoff game in new orleans and then there's no real other side conversation about him you know like there was always that oh i can't win prime time That got debunked. Then there was no conversation on the other side. Like, oh, the nerd is actually pretty fucking good at football. That seemed to never catch on, but good for Kirk, man. He gets hot. It's electrifying to watch your offense go.

Go ahead, Tom. Hey, Dalvin, can you remember a time in your entire career from Pee Wees until now, the game where you got the ball and it was just like the biggest holes you could ever imagine? Why was it two weeks ago against the Steelers? I don't know. We had, like, to be honest, like Monday, Tuesday, like the game plan that we had, like in the meeting room

and I was just looking at the board, taking notes and stuff. I'm like, you know, I like this game plan. Like I had a good feel about it the whole time. And, you know, my O-line was in the walkthroughs. You know, they felt good about it. So, you know, that was part of, you know, the success we had, just feeling good about that game player. When you do see, you know, just like a 30-yard hole,

is the thought immediately like this can't be real? Or is that just like a 30-yard hole. Is the thought immediately like, this can't be real? Or is that just like dream come true? Is there a sensation that goes through your entire body when you see a massive hole that you don't have to do anything? Or do you get back in the huddle and you're like, hey, boys, fucking awesome what you just did right there. Is that on a day-to-day or on a play-to-play type situation there? Yeah, I definitely acknowledge my alignment when

like the holes are you know tremendously big because of the nfl like you don't get those holes like them holes closing whatever seconds it is like they close fast and you know having those holes open up like that it just goes to show you know the whole line's working and doing their job so you gotta you know tip your hats to them and let them know you appreciate them. Is it a sense? Because there's some running backs that get into the league and they end up fizzling out because they have a great college career. There's a lot of great running backs in college.

There's a lot of great every position in college. But you make the NFL, it's a little bit different. It feels like some guys just have a natural – is it like a natural instinct to cut or to see a hole or to wait? Because some guys, they'll have that with that sky cam now. I mean, it is going to expose people's decision-making, especially at the running back position where they put a circle on the player and they go like this basically,

but somebody doesn't hit the hole that you continue to hit. There's also the bad side of those potential pictures where guys cut and it's not supposed to be. Is it just a natural instinct over years and years and years, or is that something you have to work on, or is it just something you've always been able to figure out like i always like to be honest like i always had like good eyes like i always had like a good feel for finding finding like holes like i always had a good feel for that and you know i was fortunate enough to be blessed with you know a pair a pair of good eyes, I guess, and a pair of good instincts.

And, you know, those holes was real big, but it's just a matter of what you do with them. Like what you do after the fact the hole is big, you know, what you do at the next level. You know, do you break the next level tackles? Do you take it home? Or, you know, it's just the next step that you take as a runner of how you're going to dictate that run. Hey, do you think vision and instincts as a running back is like one of the top things that you need? Because I'm sure you know plenty of guys that are super fast. They may be built. They may look good, whatever.

But they just don't have that vision. They run in the back of their linemen all the time, which I know linemen get super pissed. Yeah, they love that. I feel like vision is so huge for you is that something did you realize that early on at a young age like all right man like this is i feel like i can see things different than other people yeah it was really like like you know literally like i'm just faster and bigger and i was making plays and stuff like that but when i got in high school and in college you know i started to see like you know i see this thing is like real slow down for me.

I'm seeing the holes, I'm seeing the backside cuts. I'm seeing that the safety is how far it is if I want to take it back. And it's like, it was just something that I caught on to early. But as a runner, I think the top three things as a runner, your vision, your instincts, and being a smart player is the attributes you need to be a good player because you're gonna be a good player because you're going to be fast and you're going to have the physical attributes but you know matching those three things with it you're a good player yeah you have to find holes you have to be able to feel

things you also have to be able to protect the most prized possession your organization has right next to you on stunts and blitzes that maybe offensive linemen or the quarterback can't even pick up you have to clean up it's a it's an incredible position that had been devalued for a long time, but now we're watching almost the cyclicalness of the NFL. The run game is now becoming pivotal conversation. Now, Jonathan Taylor is in MVP talks. He's like third highest odds right now because they're feeding him the rock. They're talking about teams being able to go on a run

on whether or not they can run or they cannot run. Do you feel any change in the culture of football? Because it used to be just a few years ago, everything's opened up. We're throwing it. Any running back can kind of come in there. Now it feels like the judgment upon teams on whether or not they're going to go on a long run is, can they fucking run the ball and can they stop the run? But that's probably how football has always been.

Did you feel like it ever got away from that? And did you, have you experienced that in the, like the thought process of the strategy going into each week's game? Yeah, I feel like for like a short span of probably like two or three years, like the league was, I thought it was becoming like more of like a, like every, like we were just, they were just airing it out. And I was like, I'll probably start catching more football. I'll probably start catching more football. I'll probably

catch more balls. And then we brought Kubiak in here, we brought Kuba here and then he bought the system and then it was just like, that was perfect. You know, Coach Zim is a defensive coach. He want to play deep, keep that ball on the ground,

play action and I'm here in the right spot with this purple on. Well, they also are very happy that you're in that equipment room right now down in the basement talking to us because some of the stats they show about your career thus far, it's like, damn, this guy should be in a conversation that is much different than he currently is. It's awesome to watch, and you run. You look like you're so casual while you're running.

It is awesome. It is just absolutely awesome to watch go ahead ty dalvin a couple weeks ago when we had uh ian raport on the show it was before the steelers game and you were still dealing with like i think it was the collarbone or some sort of upper body injury and he was making it seem like you know you might only get a couple carries that night you by the way and then you went off yeah and rushed for 200 yards does that when you have an upper body injury like that, I mean, shit, you got 28 carries last week.

You know you're taking hits. You're catching the ball. Does that alter how you have to play at all or not really? We were told you weren't even playing. There you go for 200 fucking yards or something. Well, we would have changed a lot of bets if we knew this guy was playing. Was it a question going into that game? And that was an unbelievable performance, by the way.

Yeah, nobody knew. Like, it was the thing where if you wake up feeling good, then I'm going to go. Like, if I woke up feeling – like, if I felt any type of shortness, like, I wasn't going to go. But, like, I woke up feeling good, and I told Shuz, I was like, I'm ready to go. And then it was on from there. But, no, I don't alter my play. I don't do that.

Like, you know, if I tell myself I'm going to go out here and I'm going to play ball, like, I know the rest of what I'm doing. Like, I know I'm out here and I have a physical sport. Like, this is one of the physical sports. So, like, I have no regrets when I go on the field. Like, whatever comes with it, it comes with it, and I deal with it later. What was it? Was it a labrum?

I don't remember what it was. No. I had dislocated my shoulder. It came out. Oh, did they do the pop back in thing? No. So I was laying there for a minute, and then I just had to calm down because I was in a sense of panic.

And then once I kind of set up a little bit, it just went like that. It just went like that. It just went back in. Does that happen a lot for you? Nah. Uh-uh. That's why I was in panic mode like that. Like, I was like, hold up. Like, y'all put this back in right now.

Dalvin, we appreciate you, man. Good luck on the rest of the way. Good luck with all the protocols. Thank you so much for stopping by. Appreciate it, fellas. Ladies and gentlemen, Dalvin Cook all the protocols. Thank you so much for stopping by. Appreciate it, fellas. Ladies and gentlemen, Donovan Cook. Thank you. Calling from the basement. We're in the basement down there.

He runs so casual, it looks like. He's just running straight up and down. So fast at the same time. That's what's scary. So sudden, too, when he makes his moves. He is a dude that would be scary. Those tackles you showed that Minka made in the open field when he's playing the Steelers,. Like those tackles you showed that Minka made in the open field when he's playing the Steelers, like those are the tackles.

There are very few humans on the planet that can do that. Coming out of Florida State, remember, hey, this guy. Oh, yeah. There's a guy. There's a guy. And then he gets going. Okay, let's talk about it. Thank you for him for stopping by, chatting from the building and the facility.

Great conversation. Good luck to the Vikings the rest of the week. Good luck in the playoffs. I mean, fuck the Vikings, but I like Dalvin Cook. Dalvin Cook just spent his time with us. Who's the last Packer to come on for us? Raj is on yesterday.

Aaron Jones is on last Friday, too. Yeah. A lot of Packers. Big Packers. We are calling the Packers. Go Vikings, though. Good luck to, Vikings. Good luck to the Vikings. I will see everybody win.

Good luck. I will see everybody win the Super Bowl. Some more than others, but everybody win the Super Bowl, man. Get a billion dollars. Let's talk about last night's game, dude. Coach Sirianni, don't look now. Eagles are hot. They're flying together.

E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles. Might have a guy in Jalen Hurts and Devontae Smith making incredible plays. Let's go. 130 yards rushing for Miles Sanders. 130 plus yards for Dallas Gardner. First time the Eagles have done that. Jalen Hurts and Devontae Smith making incredible plays. Let's go. 130 yards rushing for Miles Sanders, 130-plus yards for Dallas Gardner. First time the Eagles have done that. Jalen Hurts looks like a leader. He looks good.

He looks like the NFL game. He's adapting to it in a much better fashion than we could have ever imagined last year, especially while he's going through all the shit. The defense, Cox, obviously. I think he punched somebody last night. That's awesome. I mean, the Eagles feel like they're a team that is, I don't want to say getting hot at the right time because they have been hot, but they're playing good football.

They could catch a team. They could get you if they get into the dance, I think. Especially if Jalen continues to play like he does and he's hot. And also, like Devontae Smith, you mentioned him making plays. Also, things that he's doing, not showing up on the statue. He had some good blocks downfield too. Devontae? Yeah, oh, yeah.

Blocking on the perimeter multiple times I saw. He's too small they said. Yeah. They said he's too small. Yeah, they said Kelsey's too small too. And he's 85 yards down the field out running the running back. Getting pissed when they don't cut off his block too. I don't know if you know this.

We talked to Coach Sirianni earlier. He has to be pretty excited after the big win, right? That stadium, first off, that stadium seemed to really get going late in the game when they knew that they were going to win. And Sirianni was bouncing around the sidelines. He seemed to be really enjoying himself. He was feeling it. Well, he was getting flowers thrown at him a couple weeks ago.

Yeah, that's right. You know, not too long ago. It was the rollout of the press conference, coming out of the dumpster fire that was the offseason. Doug Peterson's gone. Carson Wentz is gone. Last year, rolling into the fourth quarter, the press conference, coming out of the dumpster fire that was the offseason. Doug Peterson's gone. Carson Wentz is gone. Last year, rolling into the fourth quarter, Seidfeld's coming in.

I mean, the whole Jalen Hurts era had been littered with chaos, basically, in Philadelphia. He was the guy. He wasn't the guy. We're going to trade for Deshaun Watson in the offseason. Jalen's our guy. And I guess with everything that happened at Alabama and him going to Oklahoma

and being this constant professional, it only helped him to become an NFL player. And everybody in the building said, hey, he showed up ready to work. I want to do his thing. Sirianni, it feels like you might have struck gold over there. Jalen was making some throws that I thought, holy shit, I did not expect that out of Jalen Hurts. I think in the NFL, in the men's league, you league, I just think it's a little bit different than college. You've seen a lot of people have success in college

and then not be able to translate into the NFL. They're winning football games, and he is an actual threat, real threat on the ground that they have to respect, which opens up everything else for Devontae and for Goddard that they picked over. I mean, that pick was bullshit, obviously. But Coach Sirianni is back with us. AJ, if you have any questions for him, he has rejoined us in studio.

Thanks to Coach Sirianni, 2X appearance today. Oh, yeah, Coach, I appreciate you coming on again, I guess, for the second time today. What did you do after the big win with your family at home? How did you celebrate? I got fucking shit-faced because, you know, obviously I went down to Go's and Pat's, spit in both of those, went to Dalsandro's,

then went home and got shit-faced with the family. Like I said earlier, I am the coach of the year. They'll never give it to me. But my coordination was last night pretty much. Wow. Coach, I know this show, I feel like we didn't give you guys much of a chance going into this season because the offseason was so rocky and all this stuff. And a lot of other people kind of echoed the same thing.

Does it feel good to kind of throw it back in people's faces now, you guys, 7-7 with a chance to make it? Yeah, absolutely. I think if you go back and you watch these weekly interviews, my tongue has changed quite a bit. I'm not the laughing stock that i was maybe the first five or six weeks like i said we we slow played our hand the entire season everyone say hey look at this fucking doofus talking he doesn't know what he's talking about he's talking about weird shit in press conferences and then we just run football down people's throats week after week after week after week after week after week.

I mean, you know, like I said, dog mentality. People wanted to make fun of that, too. But guess what? We are dogs. We don't bark. We just bite. And Ron Rivera found that out last night. He did, didn't he, Coach?

And it's not just the dogs, you know, mentality. How about your offensive line dogs? Those dudes run four fours at local. There's three of them getting out on the edge, basically. And both, like, for Jay... Hey, we talked about this yesterday, didn't we? That's a threat, too, if they're trying to block the corner. Those DBs can't go low on them, so they know, like, all right, we're going to win this block. I was talking about this in the first hour, because some people who maybe, you know, haven't played the game or seen the game, and I've been very lucky to be just front

row. I've never actually played in a lot of the positions of importance, obviously. I mean, I was quarterback a couple times, so I guess that's the most important. But you get the other ones. When the offensive line gets out there and they're pulling, there isn't always a massive collision because there's a lot of people trying to run around the offensive lineman. That's a block. That's a win.

That's a win for that O-lineman. That's a loss for that defensive player. Bingo. So whenever you get two offensive linemen that can run, it seems like they're like 50. Kelsey's running like 15, 16 miles an hour, I think. And he's fucking 285, 290. He's still doing it, too.

He was doing that. I remember watching Kelsey on film for years and years of him so far down the field blocking guys like 50 yards downfield and running so fast. And I've always thought, like, at least as an inside backer, when a center can move like Kelsey can and they can get out to the second level so quick like if you think they're undersized it doesn't matter like those guys are so difficult to handle Jason Kelsey can pound a beer too I absolutely love that man as a human and as a player and it feels like with what

we're talking about with playoff football especially this year we just got done talking to Dalvin Cook about it the only judgment on all these teams that are good, that whether or not they can make it or not, is, hey, can you stop the run game whenever it shows up? The Patriots proved that they can win a game with just the run game. They proved, hey, if we have to just run, we can do it. We can stop the run. They were able to prove it.

The Colts, the Colts can run the ball no matter what. It doesn't matter where they are. Actually, if the weather gets worse and they're not in the the dome it might not even benefit them because of the way the offensive line can move and it's interesting that the bills are not built the way or constructed the way the colts are with the two different homes that they have both teams very good but that's the conversation beginning and end for the playoffs it feels like this year hasn't always been this way but this year it feels like can you run the ball and can you stop the run is going to inevitably be what makes you go the eagles can fucking run the ball yeah hey the eagles can run the rock if they sneak in now cowboys 10 and 4 they're taking on the

washington football team sunday night football they're obviously in the driver's seat for the nfc east in a home uh playoff game, there's a lot of football still to be played. Who knows what's going to happen? We don't know shit about fuck about any of these games, especially with how the season has gone. But the Eagles, they're on a run. They're 7-7. 27 out of 32 NFL teams are still alive right now.

That's a team that can continue to win, and they're 10-7. I mean, they're in. They'll be in on the NFC side, and if they can run and get hot, look out for fucking Siri. Scary team to face, don't you think, Philly? If they really put it together and they're playing with a ton of confidence because their head coach has manifested that culture down there and bred confidence throughout that whole organization and that building, yeah, I'd be scared to face it.

Well, and also, I mean, they did play Gary Gilbert yesterday. That's right. Okay, so let's not lose our minds. I'm thinking more of defensively trying to stop their offense with what Jalen Hurts can do with his legs and when he throws the ball. Like, yeah, they have weapons and they're very athletic, and I love how their offensive line can be. Lane, like, tackles aren't supposed to be able to move like that.

They really are not. Well, they had three guys. I forget what – I saw one play, and maybe because it didn't have the sound on when I was watching it because it's streaming at the same fucking time. Yeah. What are we doing? What are we doing, dude? If we're going to do this, let's actually do it.

But I think I saw three guys. Like it was like a – you know how Jim Kong-Nguyen had those guys run next to his limo? Oh, yeah. I think that's what I saw with three offensive linemen. Like five, six, seven, ten yards down the field. I'm like, how do you stop that like if they i guess you got to create a pile that's the thing with the old rule you got to go and create a pile hopefully take at least two of them out low and create a pile so where the back

either has to stop or like you know change directions go around you now you can't do that so penetration right is the only way to stop that so you got to pick them off when their shoulders are parallel to the line when they're turned sideways running to get outside you gotta go pick them off then before they get their shoulders turned and come downhill so what is that the zone uh what did pat white steve slayton read he ran a zone read right the outside zone read basically and he would he would do you know to steve or to noel later he's reading one person this is 15 years ago by the way whenever we're doing this beating everybody except for a fucking game we should have won I mean god damn it that's on me but the whole thing was hey you're gonna you're either gonna give it or you're

gonna take it and Steve's fastening everybody and then he's gonna throw it maybe to Darius Renaud that's out there the only time we lost is when somebody got penetration through the, like it felt like that was the thing that killed everything. If somebody got penetration in the direction in which Pat was looking, it was a, it was game set match because he's reading the end. But if an inside guy gets through, it kind of fucks up the whole thing.

I feel like that's the only way you stop whenever there's three guys pulling is you've got to get to them before that ball even gets out there. Cause once they get out there, that's 15, 20, just like that out of nowhere right that's a lot of a lot of uh beef pulling around the edge there that's really creating uh creating a nice pathway for for a good running back behind them okay let's talk about the other game matthew stafford cooper cup continue to be the cooper cup show and matthew stafford fresh out of detroit dude detroit rock city yeah He's up there for 100 years. Never got a chance to really win

many games, but put up a lot of records. Has the top receiving year in NFL history with Calvin Johnson. Now, Calvin Johnson obviously holds the record. Legend Hall of Fame. Congrats, Calvin. Congrats, Calvin. Pay that guy back his money. But Matthew Stafford was the quarterback

for that year for him. Now, Cooper Cup is 340 yards away. Now, granted, this is the 17-game season, so it'll have different records going forward. But technically, he could get 340 yards in the next two weeks. It would be 16 games. Who knows what he's going to be able to accomplish with 17 games. It'll probably only go Matthew Stafford, also his quarterback. But there was a time in that game where it became the Cooper Cup show it was just like when Tom Brady and Antonio

Brown in that game against the Dolphins where Tom for that first drive was literally just looking for him and Sean McVay had Cooper Cup in every fucking position every position last night just trying to get him the rock I don't know if they're trying to get the record but he is electrifying to watch that eastern Washington kid fucking flies, dude. He's awesome. And it seems like every game now this year, there's a time when it's just, okay, here we go, Cooper Cup. We're going to just feed this guy.

But I would guess McVay wants to get him that record. I would guess Stafford wants the record, and McVay is going to call the game to try to get him that record. And, by the way, I think there's a good chance I think there's a good chance they get it after a while. He feels, he pulls away from people. He has like a natural instinct, it feels in those zones to drop in there.

There's little whip routes too that he does where he'll put Edelman. He goes back and forth seven different times. I'm like, how do you cover this dude? So those are like the Edelman routes. That was when Edelman came in. He would just run like six, seven. He's going to work off your leverage. Like whatever leverage you're showing, he's going to work off of it.

And I don't know if that's what Cooper Cup is doing. I haven't watched you all at 22, but I only know what Edelman was doing because Griff Whalen did it against us in practice. He was imitating Julian Edelman, and Hasselbeck was the quarterback. And Hasselbeck and Griff had great chemistry, and everybody knew that, hey, Tom and Julian, they don't know which way he's going. It is depending upon where Griff had 14,000 yards that week.

Yikes. Should we not just maybe implement, like literally watching, it was like, should we not? Should we bracket this guy or something? No, not also that. Should we not put this in our offense? Should we not put this in our offense, it feels like. And I think Cooper Cup and Matt and McVay kind of have that same,

you know, like I think there's a lot of reading. There's a lot of trust, too. We talked about before on the show, like, when you listen to Cooper Cup talk about what defenses are doing, like the dude seems like a genius. He's reading every single thing. He's reading all 11 guys in the defense, it seems like, as the play is going on.

So I'm sure Stafford has tons of confidence in him. I think Tone said it this morning. He said he's like another quarterback on the field. That's what they say about Cooper Cup. He has to know every position, though, for every play, just like the quarterback, because they have him everywhere. That one drive, I think he lined up at five different positions. And it was like, oh, he's still just a wide receiver.

It's like, yeah, but he has to learn to play probably for every fucking one of these things. It's just like a quarterback. And then him and Matt have to be on the same page. That's a team with how much, you know, firepower they got on that team. Super Bowl's in so far. I mean, we got a lot of questions about that team. We got a lot of questions about that team.

Put him in the backfield. Tough to cover Cooper out of the backfield too. He did. Yeah, he was. He was right. He did. That's what I'm saying. I think they had him at fullback one time last night.

Every game, I would imagine they'll do more and more of that. Tight end, he was like the basically block and check release, you know, check down if he needed him, and he threw it to him. They do say he's a great blocker as well. That's why he can do stuff like that. So they have Odell there, right? Odell is just the rest of this year, or is he a free agent? Yeah, just one year.

Because I wonder, like, they say Odell, and by they, this sounds like I'm not saying it, but I haven't watched year. Because I wonder, they say Odell, and by they, this sounds like I'm not saying it, but I haven't watched enough film. I don't know. Odell, tough, actually. People think Odell not tough. Odell, actually tough. Now, he misses games

because he has potential muscle injuries or whatever's going on because he is a, you know, he's like a Lambo as an athlete. I mean, we can all agree with that. Whenever he's fucking flying around, there is not a lot of humans that can do what Odell Beckham do.

But they say he plays through injuries. They say he blocks people. He can fly around. His football IQ is high. I mean, what if they have two of those? Could that be the thing that changes Odell's career as opposed to just being the outside guy? Will he, after seeing what Cooper Cup does, be able to be like, hey, why don't we just do this whole thing? And then, I mean, that could be the next step for that offense because that thing's tough.

Like Tyreek Hill, who's out, by the way, I guess he tested positive. He said he felt symptoms, got tested. He's in a COVID protocol now. We don't know how long. We hope Travis Kelsey also in there. But what they use with Tyreek Hill in Kansas City, it feels like Cooper is kind of doing the same type of stuff. And I don't know what would hold Odell back aside from not knowing every single fucking play in the playbook which is probably not as easy

to do but it feels like they're only going to grow on that Woods comes back next year as well Van Jefferson's playing Matthew Stafford another year comfortable so I don't know if they're going to win this year but I remember watching last night and thinking to myself man think about like a year into this offense what they're going to be able to do I mean even Rob she'd saying earlier though like the Bucks didn't really get hot till now like the Rams feel more like that type of team Man, think about like a year into this offense, what they're going to be able to do. I mean, even Rob, she'd say earlier, though, like the Bucs didn't really get hot till now. Like the Rams feel more like that type of team where Odell, by the time playoffs come around, he knows the entire playbook.

Kind of the guys who've been banged up like Darrell Henderson, who played last night, but he's still not playing every down like he was. Kind of gets his groove back to like, it still seems as though the Rams can go on a run. Von Miller gets a little more comfortable in the defense. They have the players to do it. Still have Aaron Donald. And Stafford too.

If you need to go on the road in the playoffs and win a cold game, Stafford has done that. He's not scared to play in the cold. Ramsey made an absurd play too yesterday. He floats through that. It's insane. How about whenever, and this was brought up I think by you, somebody got

COVID and they said thank you. Eckler. Austin Eckler gets on the cover. He goes, thank you everybody for reaching out. Jalen Ramsey goes, I got COVID. Don't fucking hit me up. I like that he is. He's awesome. He's an absolute stud. He's unbelievable. I agree.

I love it. All right, let's get to a break. We'll be back on the other side. We got to talk about the games that are to come. AJ, we start with Niners-Titans tomorrow night. Okay, big-time playoff implications. Good game. Saturday, Packers-Browns, Colts-Cardinals. Sunday, Steelers-Chiefs, Washington-Daps. Pats-Bills.

I mean, there is. Bengals-Ravens. There's a lot. Bengals-Ravens is massive in this thing. There's a couple duds. Okay, Jets-Jags. Jets have 15 players on the COVID list. They're hosting the Jags. There's a lot of Bengals. Ravens is massive in this thing. There's a couple of duds. Okay. Jets, Jags,

Jets have 15 players on the COVID list. They're hosting the Jags. Yikes. That is a massive who gives a fuck bowl. Yep. Yeah. Really bad. The Lions Falcons is really the only two.

I guess. It's probably why Bob Sala got COVID. He was like, ah, fucking, I don't really want to coach against the Jags. He did self-report, I guess.

I'll be glued to that Bears Seahawks game. Hell yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. There's a couple of games that are going to be duds, but with 27 teams still in it, with 27 teams still in it, it's great to be an NFL fan. It's great to be an NFL show.

And on the other side, we'll have to address some of the reactions to Aaron Rodgers Tuesday. A lot of non-misleading journalists. People who would never do anything like that. They know. Attacking, you know, the show. It seems to be a thing.

Oh, good. I'm excited. I didn't know anything about this. Great. Oh, that's good. But also, they are just as, you know... Stern but fair. I don't think they're fair, though.

That's what I'm saying. Like, I don't hear them saying anything to me, you know, when things are saying on the other side, you know, and I'm just like, Hey, I would like our place to be a place where if you want to come speak your side and after you've been attacked,

come on in. Like, Hey, I'm here for conversation. The world should get a little bit more of that. Yeah. Like, Hey,

and now it's like when you vote, like when I tell you when people remember when, when the elections are coming and everybody on the planet is pushing the vote. Hey, come on, come on. You got to make sure you vote. Okay. Well, what if I, who are you voting for? Okay elections are coming and everybody on the planet is pushing the vote hey come on come on you got to make sure you vote okay well what if I who you voting for okay with I'm voting opposite of you do you still want me to vote well and also I think we should

relax on the the push because like I think there's a lot of people who think when they look at me like that dude shouldn't be allowed to vote and that's a fair that's a fair yeah it's a fair that's a fair assessment you know but but also we're back on the other side. So sorry to interrupt, but if you have ever wanted to make your home feel safer, there is no better time than now. This week, our friends at SimpliSafe are giving our listeners 40% off their award-winning home security. We love SimpliSafe because it has everything you need to make your home safe. Indoor and outdoor cameras, comprehensive sensors.

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Coach Us Up Chuck, segment host, Coach Chuck Pagano. Yeah! Oh, you look good. What's up, guys? Yeah, you look good today. You look great right now.

You're glowing right now. It's Christmas. Let's go. How's the gabagool? Let's go. We've got a chartreutery board with tons of gabagool on it. Oh, I love that. You've got to make sure you've got good crackers for the basic-palated people like myself.

Sometimes the crackers get a little bit too high society on those charcuterie boards. You know, I want to try the gabagool, but I like to mix it with the Ritz. You know what I mean? I like the Ritz as opposed to the other stuff that's there. What type of crackers and carbs do we have on the charcuterie board, Coach? You know, we've got a vegan family here, so we've got, like, gluten-free. Like, we made – I'm doing meatballs and pasta for Christmas Eve for the family. We're going traditional on Saturday, but I've got to bring gluten-free.

We made gluten-free meatballs, gluten-free crackers. You know, you make breadcrumbs are like gluten-free, smashed up whatever. I mean, not what I'm used to, but i tried one of them it wasn't too bad but anything for the family hey merry christmas merry christmas merry christmas uh this is big time football time coach december football obviously very important there's 27 out of 32 teams still uh basically in it to get to the playoffs. It's insane. Have you ever seen this type of parody around the NFL? And what do you think it's because of?

Yeah, no, I don't ever remember a season, my 18 years in the National Football League, none quite like this. And, you know, it's what the league wanted. They wanted parody. That's why the draft is set up the way the draft is. And they have a salary cap and so forth and free agency, this, that, and the other. So, yeah, no, it's exciting as hell. It's great.

It's great for all of us fans. You know, I'm glad I'm on this side of it watching as a fan now. But it's super exciting. Chuck, do you ever think defensive coaches will eventually become as valuable as offensive coaches have, I guess, as of late with McVay and all these guys, these young gurus that want to come in and they want to hire them to become head coaches? Yes, I understand there's definitely defensive guys still getting hired, but it seems like they always look to the offensive guys first when they interview. Yeah, great question, AJ. I think it's all cyclical because, you know, everybody's looking for that needle in the haystack.

And the next Sean McVay, you mentioned his name and sure would be nice if, you know, guys like myself did better. You know, we're defensive guys. And, you know, if Robert Sala could turn it around, you know, in New York, then then it might come back, you know, full circle. And it just takes a couple guys. Again, I think, you know, you're hiring the CEO we talked about at Ad Nauseam, you know, the leader of the organization. You need to hire a leader of men. So, to me, if I'm an owner right now and I own a team, I'm going to go get the best leader of men. And then together, you know, we're going to put together an all-star staff

and guys that know how to call plays like the best play callers, you know we're going to put together an all-star staff and guys that know how to call plays like the best play callers you know and in the National Football League on both sides of the ball a special team. We've asked you about how long you think it takes for a culture to be built and obviously Jacksonville is going to be on another rebuild of a culture somehow here this upcoming season and you know you we've all joked about how you know your take on the Omicron is not very strong kind of weak like the Detroit Lions I mean that is your actual words there but then whenever you see them get a win and then you see that locker room afterwards isn't that the easiest way to tell whether or not a team is on to something after a game or how the players look

at the coach and interact with them isn't that a thing that is very noticeable, you think, as an outside source now as opposed to being inside? Absolutely. You'd have to be blind not to be able to, you know, recognize that and see that. It's just amazing. And you watch what he's done and kept that group together. That, to me, is the biggest tell. You know, it's been so easy for that group to, you know to pack it in and say, okay, we'll just go

for the number one pick. It's your first year of a six-year deal. We'll get it next year. But he just refused to let anybody in that organization, the coaches and the players, give in to the circumstances. And they just kept playing and kept swinging, and he stayed true to himself, you know, kept, you know, you know, just plugging away and shoot. What a great win, you know, against the Cardinals, and then, you know, to see coach in that locker room, to your point, Pat, you know, and those players, I mean, that's genuine, man. That's real, you know, that's like we talked about, you know, last week, you know, those relationships. You can tell there's great trust and respect within that locker room between, you know, the head coach, the assistant coaches, the players across the board. Huge.

How about Coach Sirianni? I mean, the Eagles just played yesterday and he, I mean, he stumbled out of the gates. I don't know how else to explain it. I mean, with the building he was going into already on fire, then his press conference being what it was, and then some of the quotes not being just the standard coach and having a different way of looking at things and the way the team went and how everybody kind of visioned the Eagles turning out versus how they are right now with Jalen Hurts,

basically a rookie quarterback at this point now. I know it's his second year, but last year you can call it a wash because of what a nightmare it was. how they are right now with Jalen Hurts, basically a rookie quarterback at this point now. I know it's his second year, but last year you can call it a wash because of what a nightmare it was. They get a big-time win last night over a very depleted Washington football team. But still, it's the NFL. They're able to get a win and make some magic happen. They had no film on Gary Gilbert. They could have never expected what was coming from Gary.

But what do you think about that team, and what do you think it is like being a young coach and kind of finding your rhythm and finding your way and finding how you're going to do things? How pivotal was that of a moment as a head coach you think it is? Yeah, that's huge. I mean, we joke about it. You guys joke about it with Ty and everything that, you know,

coach of the year, you know, it's either Belichick or Sirianni or whatnot, but I'd give it to him right now based on just how he started this season. You guys can only imagine the magnitude of, hey, you're the next head coach. You know, he probably is like myself and like, you mean to tell me you're giving me this job, number one. And then number two, when you step into that role, and then number three, you got to start talking not only to your team. That's easy, but to the media and where he started, you know, and where he's at today as a head football coach, as a guy dealing with the media.

I'm sure it's everything now what we're seeing, what, you know, Jeffrey Lurie and Howie Roseman saw in the very beginning when they interviewed this guy. You know, one, two, three days, whatever that interview process was, and he was just himself. That magnitude of that title and then putting you, you know, as the face of a franchise, that can get you sideways, you know, and you're sitting there walking into every presser and thinking you've got to be something that you're not. I think he's just found his groove.

That team's found their groove. Kudos to Nick and that coaching staff and those players. They're playing fantastic ball right now. And to me, if they keep doing what they're doing and they get in the playoffs, they're a dangerous, dangerous team because they've got talent and they've got playmakers. And Jalen, you know, he don't know what he don't know. He's scary. You know what I mean and and he doesn't know he's not supposed to be playing

this good and uh as well as you know uh Devontae and the rest of those guys and they got it they got it everything you need in December right run the ball stop the run you protect the program you know affect the quarterback protect your quarterback, all those kind of things. And they can do that. And they play good defense. They fly around. I mean, everybody was on Gannon, too, you know, as a young coordinator, you know, coming in the league.

And you look at what they've done over the last, you know, six, seven weeks. Those guys are playing really good football, man. And I just think Nick, you know, know needed to find you know his his groove and and kind of get comfortable in his own skin and and it sure helps when you're you're winning games you know that makes that a lot easier hey congrats by zon thank you very much coach for saying that chuck when you uh like when you become a head coach and you're interviewing other candidates for coordinators position jobs all that what are you looking for when you become a head coach and you're interviewing other candidates for coordinators, position jobs, all that, what are you looking for when you're talking to those people? And also, do some of them you know, hey, before they even shut the door behind them that this isn't going to work out?

Get the fuck out. Yeah, to be honest, that's just part of the process, I think, for anything. Not only interviewing football coaches, but anybody in corporate America probably goes through those things. And you like to always give a guy his day in court, as we say. But, no, you're looking for – I learned from my dad who was a high school football coach. And then the great mentors that I have is you want guys that aspire to be head football coaches. And they're not just satisfied with being, and not everybody can do that, but not just satisfied with being, you know, a coordinator or position coach, but they've got goals. They're hungry. They're going to go about it the right way. They're, you know, guys that have humility, guys that have empathy, guys that don't

have egos, you know, guys that, you know, are very, very smart. You know, I wanted guys that were, you know, a lot smarter than myself and put them in those positions and then, you know, then let them go. But, and guys that could communicate, you know, you got to relate now and you got to be able to communicate. You know saw the dumpster fire that happened down in Jacksonville. You mentioned, Pat, they're starting over again. You've got to have guys that can relate to these players and communicate with these players and get them to buy in. Who are they going to hire, Chuck?

Who do you think Jacksonville is going to go after? What could it be? That's a great question. You know, there's the hot names out there. You know, everybody, you know, they were talking Kellen Moore early in the season for one of these jobs, coordinator at Dallas. You know, he's kind of cooled off a little bit. You know, Byron Lefkowitz, you know, and Todd Bowles, I think there's two dudes,

you know, right down there, right down there in that state at Tampa that definitely are going to get interviewed. Todd's definitely going to get another shot to be a head coach. Hey, they re-upped Todd's deal because they knew he was going to get a head coaching gig, right? Is that normal? Like, hey, we know people are going to want you to be a head coach here. We're going to re-up you to hopefully kind of handle that and take care of that is that something that is done on purpose you think for the good of the future of the program no question about it and and Todd may

he may not want to be a head coach again you know you do this is that real is that something that happens you think three four years and five year whatever and then you can go get a deep coordinator job and then they offer you, you know, rip up your old deal, which we're making two and a half, 3 million. And now they're paying you four and a half, 5 million a year just to run one side of the ball. And, and, you know, when the game's over, you,

you get to grab your hoagie, you know, and pop a cold beer and drive home with your family or whatever. Do the media. So hell yeah. That, you know, so they around and do the media. So, hell yeah. You know, so they like to, you know, tie those guys up and show how much they love for them. But, yeah, that's a great gig right now. But I think those are some of the guys. I can't wait to hear who they hire.

And, you know, Trevor Lawrence, will we ever know? That is an actual question. Will we ever know? Just like the Sam Darnold conversation at Jets. He's playing some this weekend, I guess. Cam Newton will be the starter. Sam Darnold's going to play some this weekend. Matt Rule came out and said that.

The Carolina Panthers are still alive. I mean, hey, I feel like it is vital to know who the guy is. I honestly believe that. I might be wrong. I am just a punter kicker who observes shit. I was very lucky to see a lot of things but I think knowing who the quarterback is and organic uh granted cam came in middle of the season there's pj there's sam there's uh we had teddy he's out we're doing all

this there's a lot of that they're trying to figure it out and they're still in the hunt so good on them for figuring that out but I feel like it's pivotal to know who the fuck the guy is at that position. Am I wrong in thinking that, Chuck? No. Are you kidding me? You can't get two or three guys ready. You can run a guy in like Vegas does with Mariota. You can run him in. He's been running the zone read option forever, play here or play there, but you can't get a couple guys ready to win a game in the National Football League. And, yeah, everybody needs to know, specifically, the guy that's starting, the guy that's going to be the guy, that you've got absolute faith and trust and confidence in them, and all the players on the team

have to know that. You know, when we walked into the stadium and we didn't have our trigger man, you know, we loved all the other guys. I mean have our trigger man you know we loved all the other guys i mean great great dudes right we love them but we're like god damn everybody else cut your asses off on special teams pat we need we need inside inside the 10 yard line we got to play field position we got to take care of the ball, defense, we gotta take it away, we gotta give these guys short fields. Yeah, no, you gotta know, and that guy wants to know,

you know, who that guy is. And, you know, the roller coaster they're on down there, and, you know, and let's make a deal, and whatever they're playing with the quarterback situation. I mean, it can't be fun. I mean, it's hard enough to win, let alone going through all those deals. I wonder how Matt Rule feels now, because at Baylor, he was just crushing.

I mean, he's 3-0, right? And they got this Phil Snow's the D coordinator. I've known Phil for a long time. Long time college guy, really, really bright guy, really good coach. You know, people weren't gaining anything on them under 200 yards a game. I mean, they were ready to anoint Matt at week three, right? I think they were 3-0. They started the season coach of the year. You know, and Tepper, you know, gave him this, you know, $70 million contract,

all this stuff. And, I mean, he's doing okay just because i mean every time you start feeling sorry for yourself just say hey open up go to your mail go to one of your old you know pay stubs and say okay honey we're going to be okay things things are going to be okay we're going to have a nice little christmas still We're going to be okay. Things are going to be okay. We're going to have a nice old Christmas still.

Kids are still going to get their gifts. I know AJ and the boys have a lot of questions for you, and we can't thank you enough for joining us. And I was just going to talk about, like, Urban Meyer fails as a college coach going to the NFL. That is a story that will be told forever, right, just alongside Petrino, Saban, you know, a lot of college coaches. Pete Carroll started in the NFL, I think, then he came back and then he went there, just like Matt Rule, started with the Giants, then he went to Penn State, and then he went to Temple, I think,

then he went to Baylor, and then now he's back in the NFL. But to the old NFL, and you were a college coach for a long time before you got in the NFL, do you feel as if the NFL coaches, you know, don't mind seeing these college coaches who are very good in college come to the NFL and maybe not have as much success because, you know, it kind of proves the point that it's the men's league and it's a different fucking level up here. Is that something that is real, you think, behind closed doors deep down when they lay their head down at night, the NFL coaches? You know, across the board, I don't think so.

I think, you know, they want guys generally to be successful. They're happy for them to get the opportunities. I think there is a group out there that loves to pounce on these guys when they don't do well. I think everybody basically convinced and manifested. Aaron always talks about manifesting things into reality. Aaron always talks about manifesting things into reality. All that stuff, as soon as Urban got that job, all the narrative was, and granted, he made a few major mistakes early on in his tenure there to help this out,

but it was talked about so damn much. It's like, shit, I don't think I'm going to make it. I might as well just, you know, hire this dude, you know, not fly home, do this, do that, and just get this thing over with so they quit talking about me. But, no, I think generally they want to see these guys, you know, do well. You know, if a guy hasn't, like, paid his dues, you know, and have a resume, there might be some guys that, you know, say, God, you know, why this guy? You know, what has he done? Whatever, you know, and have a resume, this, that. There might be some guys that, you know, say, God, you know, why this guy? You know, what has he done? Whatever, you know, like that.

But I think generally, you know, guys like to see guys do well regardless where they come from. Chuck, could you take us through what your day looked like when you were the head coach of the Colts, say like a Wednesday in season, what that looked like from start to finish? Sure. I was always early, early morning guy, AJ. I'd like to get up and get my workout in early, you know,

because if I didn't get that in early in the day. At the facility? What's that? At the facility? Your workout always is at the facility? Okay. I have my Peloton there set up right next to my desk. So I get in there and ride that thing

and you could put you could put the film on get on the peloton you know ride for 45 you know type a get a bunch of things done at once you know and then uh you know rest of the staff comes in you know the first team meeting we had special teams meeting was like at 730. And then, you know, around eight o'clock, 815, we have our first team meeting. Wednesday, Wednesday was the first and second down day. And so we introduced first and second down. I would go in and start that meeting. And all the coaches and players, you know, really love that meeting. And I could tell you all the coaches in the back, you know, looking at their watches, and I'd be going on and talking about,

here's what we've got to do, special teams, offense, defense. Then we'd break up from that. They'd go to position meetings. We'd have a walkthrough, come in, eat lunch, go back out, have a couple-hour practice, come back in, have a 45-minute to an hour meeting with the players, kick them out of the building. We ate dinner as a coach and staff in the pavilion there. And then we'd go to work on third down that night. We'd go back and break up offense and defense and

start game planning for third down and two minute and maybe get a jump on red zone. And then, you know, somewhere, you then somewhere late in the evening, sometimes early evening. We got to be pretty efficient, so we weren't grinding until 2, 3 in the morning, nothing crazy like that, but that was a typical Wednesday. 2, 3 a.m., yeah, that's crazy. Tom McMahon, I remember walking in, his ass had his little pillow and his little blanket for him because he's kind of elf on a shelf size,

so it was like, are you sleeping here? Yeah, I was just at your last night. We've got to fix a lot of that. I'm like, I don't know if just sleeping here is going to fix that, dude. I don't know if the person who was supposed to get a block that didn't get a block. I don't know how much film you can watch that make that fucking guy get that block next time.

But hey, who am I, Tom? I don't know who the hell I am. But keep doing it, Tom. We appreciate you. Chuck, we have appreciated your service as a head coach, I think, as a team. We should have told you guys more, I assume. That doesn't happen. But I think you know from the respect level of all your players as you kind of go forward.

And Hour 3 is wrapping up here on this beautiful Coach's Up, Chuck, Wednesday. Remember to enter on Twitter, hashtag PMS100K. Say something nice about somebody going into the holiday. You could potentially win one of 10 $10,000 things. We'll see you on Overreaction Monday. Have the greatest Christmas of all time. Cheers. That's the first hard out I've hit

today. The last two we've just powered right through. Chuck, it's been bad. It's been bad hosting, but we did send it off on the right way. Ty has a question for you, Coach. Yeah, Coach, we've talked about the Packers special teams ad nauseum this year, and I'm pretty sure Coach Drayton was on your staff. At what point during the year does the head coach kind of –

what are those conversations that LeFleur is having with him on a week-to-week basis when you know we have a team that can win the Super Bowl, the special teams is clearly our weakness? And at this point in the season, is there really anything that can be done to shore things up? Yeah. I mean, they're, they're watching that tape, obviously, together and going through whatever, you know, good stuff, the, the bad stuff, looking at the mistakes. Yeah. Mo was with us, you know,

Pat has talked about Mo a lot and I've got great, you know, admiration and respect for Mo. He's a first-timer, you know, running the whole thing. And Pat could tell you firsthand just how difficult that job is, you know, because you touch everybody, you know, on the roster. So, and that's not easy, you know, jumping into that deal. But more than capable. Him and Matt are talking and, you know, just like that deal, but more than capable. Him and Matt are talking and, you know, just like Tommy and I would have come together and go through the game plan prior and

try to say, okay, we can eliminate a lot of this stuff, you know, before we ever get to Sunday. You know, the game plan can be tight. It can be simple. Identify, you know, the opponent's strengths. You know, do we want to kick to this guy or do we not want to kick to this guy? And if we don't want to kick to him, kick the son of a bitch 45 yards, you know, down the field on the sideline out of bounds, you know, and don't kick it. Who was that little speedster? You know, was it Denver? Trinden Holiday. Yeah, that was supposed to be a touchback. Denver. Yeah, that was supposed to be a touchback. Right. Denver? Yeah. That was supposed to be a touchback. No, right before the half.

And he should have kicked the thing out of bounds. And we kicked it to him. He picked it up on his own three-yard line and housed out, right? That almost got me run. So that's the kind of conversations that Matt and Mo are having. And he's talking to his group. And like Pat said, I mean, those guys, there's nothing that Mo can tell a gunner. You know, running down, they drill it and drill it and drill it and drill it.

That to run slap into the damn returner and not have some awareness of where this guy, some spatial awareness, you know, Mo didn't physically run down there and knock the hell out of that guy, you know, and cause that to happen. You know, and guys, they, I, I know they preach and they talk about fundamentals and technique and hands inside and we can't have double team blocks and we can't hold, we can't grab, all those kind of things. And guys panic, you know, out there. Players panic and are worried about, especially on special teams,

you might be bottom end of the roster, you know, and just hanging on for dear life and you don't want your guy to be the guy that makes the tackle. So they're going through everything, heading into this next week against the Browns and talking about the struggles that they have. But I'm here to tell you, Mo's a hell of a guy and a hell of a football coach and a bright guy. So they'll get things short out.

It was awesome on those Wednesday meetings. You know, we go through the three keys to victory. And the number one key to victory would be, Pat Pat can't have any return yards from this guy all right thank you we can settle that number two Vinny make all your kicks okay can we do that and on the return team let's keep on let's hold on the ball let's win the field position right if we do that it was like that is the easiest task of all time and you and you and Tom are basically like this is what we have to do this is all we have to do let's figure out how to do it and let's get there and that was almost on repeat but it's real it's like if you can do just the boring at a high level

in a special teams department you are slaughtering and in the end it'll pay dividends but you got a lot of guys that aren't playing special teams ever in their life showing up and being taught how to do a pass set shed without doing a penalty, running down, keep good leverage, all at like 20 miles an hour and make a tackle that they're not used to tackling that has to happen. Special teams, it could be, I mean, I think the Packers are living on that edge right now. That could be a detriment to an entire fucking year of work. You know, just one play, one person out of the lane. It's like you just got to remain boring almost. Like it stinks, but that's a real thing for special teams. And how about all the guys, you know, that they're having to work with now?

You've got 10, 12 guys on COVID and you bring a bunch of guys up from the practice squad or you have to sign a bunch of guys off the street, you know, that don't even know your terminology, you know, your verbiage, the techniques, and you're throwing those guys out there and they're getting an opportunity of a lifetime and they may just say F it, you know, and throw caution to the wind and go do whatever the hell they want to do to try to make this work. I'm going rogue! I'm going rogue! I'm going to make a play. I'm going to be around here for a long time. Oh, shit.

That guy's faster than I am. This thing right here, you can't. This posture, leading with the top of your helmet, and spearing a guy, you can't do that anymore. Where have you been? That's out of the game. It's a great way to miss a tackle, too. You always know if somebody's off balance and they're running

and it's full speed, they're like, oh, I'm going to make a play. As soon as you put your head down, the person that is about to potentially get slaughtered also sees that you can't see anything. So you're just flying by, hoping for a block in the back, I guess. But that can turn ugly, especially with all the talent at returner now. It used to be back in the day only one or two teams had a guy. Now everybody's got a 4-2, 4-3 guy back there,

and at any moment can change. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Chuck, Mac Jones said after the game they had a bad week of practice. What does that kind of entail? And as a head coach, how do you kind of not let that snowball to the next week and kind of get back on track as a team? Yeah, that's crazy. That even came out of Mac's mouth. I'm sure it'll be the last time he ever

talks about you know practice up there okay hey so that's how you took that because he is a rookie i assume he was just echoing what bill said after the game but you're right that has been a take by some people like hey what are you even saying out there like that has been what some people have thought i'm i'm intrigued to hear that you think that as well. Yeah, I don't. Again, you never hear any type of laundry, you know, in the media. And so I don't think other than just the normal, hey, you know, I didn't play well. I've got to do this better.

I've got to take care of the football. I can't throw interceptions. I missed these reads. I've got to get us in the right play, and then that's it. Less is always more, but, you know, I'm sure again, you know, he had to sit down. The head coach is the guy that talks about the injuries and whether we practiced well or, you know, we played well

and all that stuff. And, you know, so like Bill always says in a game like that, hey, we didn't coach well, we didn't play well, we didn't do anything well. So they'll go back and, you know, so like Bill always says in a game like that, hey, we didn't coach well. We didn't play well. We didn't do anything well. So they'll go back and, you know, fix things. I mean, they got a huge game at home against Buffalo. And, again, I was surprised that Mac said that, you know, about – because usually nobody really says, hey, you know, that's just an excuse to me.

It's like, okay, we had a bad week of practice. And it wasn't the fact that, you know, Indy played their ass off. You know, number one, they don't ever want to give Indy any credit, you know, where credit's due, you know, and they can't stand the fact that they lost to those guys, anybody, you know. And, you know, so certainly it was because, you know, Jonathan Taylor didn't, you know, run through them like shit through a goose. You know what I mean?

I mean, they ain't going to give them any credit, so it must be practice. But in all seriousness, you can say what you want to say, but I tell a young man, don't talk about how practice went this, that, and the other. I assume Bill is telling him those things, I tell a young man, don't talk about how practice went this, that, and the other. Let's just keep it simple. I assume Bill is telling him those things, and Bill has been through all of this before, droughts, and he'll be back on the other side of it, that team. But I think the standard, even if it's a faux comment from coaches,

is got to give a lot of credit to that locker room over there. You know, they tried. They worked hard. Good coaches, good team. Today just wasn't their day. Like, I feel like that is something that is said on a regular basis. You know, got to give credit to the other team. Even if you just fucking killed a team, there's always, like,

give credit to that team. They worked hard over there. It just wasn't their day. Or if they win, got to give credit to that team. They played incredibly late. We did not. So, I guess in that standpoint, it was a little bit interesting to say, like, try to diminish what the Colts accomplished.

But he's Mac Jones. I don't think he's going anywhere for a long time guys what was that deal i saw a short clip where bill was apologizing to the media uh yeah because he said he snapped or something he said he was a little bit too short basically yeah he said like they asked him kind of a similar question a few times in a row and he basically just said like all right i'll say it for the 20th time i don't know what happened. And he was pissed off at the media. Yeah, but Bill never talks, right, to anybody. So I think him recognizing the media,

that was a little bit too hard. Yeah, or he never apologizes, especially to the media. Has he ever done that in his career? Have we seen him apologize to the media? No, it's a new Bill. That's right. No, it's him. To your point, you said, you know, I was a little short.

Well, when's he been long? With those type of things, but if you ask him like about a long snapper and he went into this diatribe that was, you know, 15 minutes long, you know, the manuscript was this big on it, you know, he loves to talk about know, talk, you know, about specific things like that. But he's never, he's always been short with his comments, win, lose, draw, tie, whatever, especially after a game. But I was a little bit surprised when I saw that. What do you think?

The Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day? Is that what you thought? Or seeing a little turning of the page here from old Billy B? Is that what you're saying? No, I was kind of wondering, like, did somebody say something to him? You know? And, like, hey. Linda?

You were really short with these, you know, whatever. Hey, would Tina say that to you? Would Tina say that to you? You do a bad press conference, Tina come up and say, well, you sounded like a fucking idiot up there. Did that happen or you were a little bit too hard on this? Is there a sounding board? I assume there has to be, right, through the whole coaching year?

Oh, hell yeah. Jesus Christ. I was scared to death. Walk into my office after the presser and meet the wrath of Tina, whether it was thumbs up or thumbs down or what are you talking about? She goes, can you hear the questions they're asking you? Because sometimes your answer isn't even close to what they ask. You should let her know.

You know, that's selective hearing. You learn it in marriage. Go ahead, Tony. Coach, speaking of the Colts running through a team like shit through a goose, the Cardinals are a bottom five team in stopping the run. And obviously they know the Colts are going to run the ball. Like as a defensive coordinator, what can you do defensively when you know the other team is just going to come at you

and that's your weakness? Yeah, hope and pray. I mean, just keep adding guys to the box. So Vance will, like they say, they'll load the box and they'll get one extra guy down there. They'll have to put an extra safety down there, maybe come with versus 12-pack and maybe come up with a different personnel group

where you get bigger and thicker, if you will, across the front line. But again, everybody's tried to do that, and this kid just somehow, some way figures it out. I think, you know, Frank and the staff over there do a great job with the scheme runs and scheming up some things to get this guy loose. And with a guy like JT, again, they're going to drop guys in. So I think there's going to be things on the outside, you know, for Carson because the middle is going to be closed.

You're going to have those corners on islands. They're going to be on one-on-one situations a lot. So the play-action pass, things like that to loosen those guys up, you know, over at Arizona. But, you know, you can play great run defense for, you know, a bunch of snaps, you know, and when you look at it and you see the 79 yarder, he probably was only averaging

29 carries. They've got to stick with it though, Chuck. This happened in Cleveland the other night. Chubb was only averaging 1.2, 1.2, and they had him on the sideline. He was the only healthy superstar they had. Everybody's like, well, he's not getting anything. When though?

Like 24 is coming, boom out of nowhere. Like that is just, I don't know why people don't stick with it. I assume defensive minded, you'd feel the exact same. No, we lose our mind over there. He's averaging seven yards a carry. Put him, get some water. He's obviously tired. Let's just start throwing at every snap.

You know, it's idiotic. You scratch your head. When you see, I saw the same thing, Pat, when you brought Chubb out. I mean, he's the only guy. Get full Chubb back in the game. Let's go. And keep handing it to them, you know, until they prove they can stop it. Because, again, you play great run defense,

and a guy's averaging 2-8, 3-0, 3.1, which is awesome, you know, per carry. And then, boom, he splits the defense, you know, and you've got everybody at the line of scrimmage and he breaks that last line of defense and a guy like JT can go to the house, you know, from there. And so now, you know, you look at the stat sheet and it looks pretty bad. But, yeah, I don't understand that, you know, guys get, you know, they get impatient. We used to say that all the time in defense, and AJ's probably heard this a bunch. You know, they don't have the patience.

You know, their egos at some point are going to get in the way of just sticking with the run. You know, touchdown check, like the checkdowns, checkdown. And we always told Andrew, don't turn down a profit. You know, if it's not there don't force it down the field just just take take the check down get it into his hands and let us you know run for six seven eight or whatever it is but defensively we just always felt like make them go the long hard way because at some point they're going to screw it up they're going to put the ball on the ground you know they're going to get impatient. They'll force something. Quarterback will force something. You know, we create a turnover.

We'll get a red zone stop, what have you. But I don't understand that. Stop the run early, right, Chuck? There's a lot of teams you would go into knowing, hey, if we shut down the run early, they're going to go away from it. They're not going to come back to it. So we just got to make sure we stand up in the first quarter. Like, did you see that happen sometimes?

Yeah, no question. And then if you answer, you know, you stop the run early and get a couple, you know, three and outs, you know, and then you put seven, ten points on the board. You know, you force teams because a lot of them, you know, still will get away from the run too early, you know, and you'll make them one dimensional that way but no you you have to uh you have to show up early and and that's where the good to me the good coaches the good coordinators they'll stick with it and keep plugging away and keep plugging away and keep that thing close and you know again it only takes you know it only takes one you know to hit you and uh you know that kid can can go the distance i can't wait for that so sad that's a christmas day game saturday night after Packers-Browns, too. I mean, we get Aaron Rodgers and Devontae Adams

potentially breaking a record on the same ball. 4.43 for Aaron and 66 for Devontae, which would be the most between a quarterback and wide receiver in Packers history. It would pass Jordy Nelson and Aaron Rodgers, who are at 65, on the same ball. That could happen. And then Colts-ts Cardinals at night.

I mean, it's fucking awesome. Christmas is awesome this year. We hope you have an incredible Christmas. We can't thank you enough for this entire year. It's been awesome chatting with you. We're very, very thankful for you, Coach. Likewise. And Merry Christmas to you guys.

I appreciate you guys. Now, I don't know if there's any vegan gobble-goo, but good luck with everything else you've got cooking over here. Hey hey so i don't ever get asked to do the super boost but the super boost to me i don't know what you can get it up to is is that that uh history making you know throwing cash between those two dudes that that's happening believe me they worked on that yesterday they worked on it you know today they're they're they're thinking about their dream Aaron's manifesting

like a mofo right now so is Devontae that's happening for sure okay so Chuck here we go

wow saddling up a super boost on Saturday let's go we appreciate you having an incredible Christmas tell everybody we said hello we appreciate you

ladies and gentlemen Chuck Pagano thank you Chuck thank you all so much you're the fucking greatest humans of all time remember hashtag end a pod squad e-n-d-o-f-s-q-u-a-d tweet where you're listening from you might win some merch ty has been given away a shit ton of those and if you listen this long you're the best dude the absolute best we owe you

so much we're forever indebted and uh you're the greatest we'll be back monday please be a friend tell a friend hi please play some independent music and propel these people into a beautiful incredible amazing majestic holiday weekend cheers Holiday weekend. Cheers. សូវាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់� Thank you. you