The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 576 - Aaron Rodgers Week 18, John Cena, & College Football National Championship Recap With AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 11, 2022

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap last night's thrilling National Championship game between Georgia and Alabama with Georgia capturing their first National Title in 41 years, how fast both defenses were, what it was like watching the game live from the ESPN suite at the game, a continued conversation about how NIL is going to change the landscape of college football moving forward, and some of the bigger NFL stories floating around as we head in Super Wild Card Weekend. Joining the show as he does every Tuesday, is the reigning, defending MVP of the NFL, Quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers. Pat, Aaron, and AJ chat about the "trusted source," who said Rodgers is prepared to boycott the Super Bowl if the Packers were to make it, his thoughts on this last season as a whole, how nice it was having David Bakhtiari back, his thoughts on the playoffs as they have one more week to prepare, and much much more (25:36-1:12:01). Next, 16x World Champion, future WWE Hall of Famer, star of the new Peacemaker series on HBOMax, John Cena joins the show to chat about his career in the WWE and why it's still special to him, how much fun he's been having acting, how excited he is for Peacemaker, and more (1:13:11-1:31:04). 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 Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, January 11th, 2022. Can't thank you enough for allowing us to be a part of your day here. Big show, big show. Not only is Aaron Rodgers here and completely transparent for a long conversation as he awaits his bye week this weekend. Also, John Cena. Yeah, that John Cena. AJ Hawk, all the boys.

I think you're going to enjoy today. If you do, please be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Let's get to it. Before we get started, how about them dogs? Congrats to the Georgia Bulldogs on becoming national champions for the first time in 40-some years. Get that thing back down to Georgia.

Kirby Smart said he didn't get a chance to taste that trophy when he just gave it a kiss. Not just yet, but I mean, what a night in Indianapolis. We got a chance to be there. Gumpy and Appaustin Connor sat two rows behind the Alabama bench. One wearing a Tua Tonga

Valoa jersey. The other wearing a Mac Jones jersey. And all they were saying all night was, Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Hey, Roll Tide. Roll Tide now. Hey, Saban coaching?

Yeah. Is Saban winning? Yeah. Roll Tide. Roll Tide. Listen, we were saying that, okay? I didn't follow the college football season enough. This particular season, there was real no requirement for me to pay attention to college football. So I only watched the men's league.

But I'll tell you what. Once it got to the college football playoff and I seen my boys, the Cincinnati Bearcats, get in there and then they play against Alabama. It's hard as an ignorant to college football person in this particular season not to go, is Saban fucking coaching? Roll Tad. Roll Tad. They're getting points in the national championship.

I just assumed that Bryce Young and the boys would be able to do what they had to do. And I got a chance to be in the building alongside. Tony Diggs was there, a diehard college football fan in the office. I think really the only one. And A.J. Hawk was there, flew in for the game. We were sitting in the ESPN suite. Whoa, whoa.

Okay. Some big heads. Heavy hitters. Right on the fucking 50. Dad. Hey, by the way, thank you to ESPN for allowing us in your suite. Thank you, Espen. That was very nice.

That was very, very nice of them. Jimmy Pataro. So that's Espen. That was very nice. That was very, very nice of them. Jimmy Pataro. So that's like the... James! That's the guy. He gave away $300,000 last night to educators and everything like that. And literally four minutes before he did that, we were having a full conversation in the suite.

He was hanging out, having a good time. Very thankful for them allowing us in there for the invites and for the hospitality. The food. Oh, I can imagine. Top notch. Hey, these meatballs. Yeah. Whoa.

Hey, these meatballs. And they had this shortcut bar. Oh. Jesus. Top of the line. It was up here. Up here. Everybody was very nice.

Everybody was very friendly. It was very cool. We were very appreciative of that invite. You know, was that a business conversation in there? Oh. That was actually just a good time to get. Okay. Just having fun.

Shooting the shit. Hey, just having fun. Just having fun. Loving ball. And I will say, when we were in that suite there and we walked out to the front

where we just sat, it was almost like we were all by ourselves, by the way. Nobody was really talking to us. We were in our own suite basically on the 50. It was unbelievable.

Had a great time. I had a great time. Got immersed in the SEC again because it is different down there. And I'll say being in the building, 75% Georgia Bulldog fans. Oh, yeah. Loud. 75.

Maybe 80%. I'm not 100%. The dogs traveled. The dogs traveled. The dogs were barking. And potentially the dogs knew this was their chance to win a natty. And the Alabama fans said, is the national championship going to be in a warm city next year we'll go to that one we i don't know which one it was because it was nine degrees eight degrees and seven degrees around here very chilly walking

over there so maybe that was the thought but i was nothing short of impressed about the fucking bulldogs fans that showed up they were loud they were packed out all the way to the top. Long travel up here. They took over the entire city. They were doing their dog roll call. What is it? Roll dogs? Go dogs?

Call dogs? Something like that. One of those. They were saw dogs. It's an entire dog call. Yeah, maybe. They were doing their dog call. Call the hounds.

Call the hounds? The bump is hounds Hans the bump is Hans the bump is Hans running around all over the place brother not as much as the Georgia Bulldogs

Hans running around here but anyways there's like a dog roll call or something where I guess if you just go to school there you automatically learn this pledge of allegiance

it sounds like they do hey hey hey hey one person says and then the whole crowd goes hey hey hey hey hey and then the whole crowd goes, hey there.

And then the end, it went, who? Who's that? And then every adult that you have seen who is in our area, so they had to pay a pretty good amount of money, be pretty successful people, dressed up rather well with Gs all over them, but dressed up in their sport coats, full barking. We're talking grown ass adults, successful adults going full bark in there. And I'll tell you what, the fact that any other team ever wins, I find impressive. That has to be intimidating when an entire sea of humanity is just barking loudly at you. And once that thing started going, now it was a kicker's paradise national championship.

And I told AJ this last night. You know, he was lucky to be here. Yeah. Because they picked the right stadium to have a kicking national championship because that's a kicking track. That's right. Hey, the ball explodes off that track, got it. So that's a good kicking track.

So I'm happy we're getting a chance to witness that. A lot of Sunday legs last night, by the way. Very impressed with the warm-ups of guys. I got a chance to see them and see the height of everybody else. It was awesome. But once those dogs started rolling, I know that roof is removable or whatever. It seemed like there was about to be some hounds that were going to maybe make that thing go crazy. Congrats to the Bulldogs.

Congrats on all the success. Don't love that Kirby Smart decided to quote an old coach about property damage in our city. Okay. Immediately afterwards. And then Reese with a follow-up. You heard what Kirby said. Referencing old buddy. Tear this fucking place down.

Okay. We don't need all that. We can have a good time without tearing the whole place down. And I understand it was a reference to a callback, a throwback. I get it. But I think the Georgia Bulldogs fans have put on a hell of a show in Indianapolis. We hope you felt

like welcome. We hope you had a great time here. We're not speaking for everybody, obviously, and we did jack shit when it comes to like in the restaurants. It was an incredible hardworking group of people down here that run all the cities. But we hope you enjoyed this city. Congrats on the national championship. It was awesome to be there.

I'll go right to Ab Boston Connor. You were two rows behind this Alabama squad. Yeah. And more importantly, two rows behind the Bama band as well that got a chance to perform. What was your biggest takeaway from last night? And I'll tell you what. It kind of reinvigorated, you know, my college football like.

Sure. I don't want to go to love. Okay. But my college football like. Yeah. Like I enjoyed last night a lot. And much different when you're in the middle of that and that's what they always try to describe is the pageantry and everything like that and when i was at west virginia i got a chance to be a part of some celebrations alongside the fans never really got to sit in the crowd obviously should probably go experience that one time it was always like big but when you're in the middle of that and you're experiencing it,

and there's people barking on my left and my right, and you're kind of just – it was magical. I don't know how it was where you were. You're behind the Alabama team. That was all Dawgs fans though, wasn't it? No, we were with like a lot of Bama family. So it was a lot of, yeah, experienced vets, not too much. It wasn't as loud from the Bama fans.

Like you said, theia fans were the ones that really brought that place to life a lot more student their student section probably quadrupled what alabama student section was so i mean they were getting after it it was truly an honor to be at a national championship but more so the last football game of the 2021 season in lucas oil stadium you know it's a bummer that no one else will be able to play there until September. You don't have to be a meme all the time. No, I'm not being a meme.

I'm just glad. Thank you, playoff football. I saw it all over the internet, dude. Yeah, it was awesome. Clown emojis were sending that to me. You know what you look like right now? Clown emoji. That's a pretty good stat, though. Yeah, stat that. You Yeah, that's a stat that you're left.

You can stat that. But also, I don't think I've ever really experienced a college football game that massive in general, let alone a national championship. So the atmosphere, the experience, it was unbelievable. So Foxy and I got to experience the SEC championship two years ago. With Burrow. LSU, Georgia. Yeah.

Joe Burrow. So we were in there very early because I was down there with game day. And you just got down early. Just got down early with game day. We went and had some brunch. We walked through a couple tailgates, had some beers. I mean, we had a pretty good time, actually. It was a great day. A lot of walking.

A lot of walking. We did that. We got in there early, though, into a suite. Shout out to the Coonan family. Shout. We did that. We got in there early, though, into a sweet shout-out to the Coonan family. Shout-out. Shout-out. Shout-out to the Coonan family. We get in there early, and I'd never been in a stadium that early before. Never been in an SEC game at all.

Remember, we were talking at the time. We're going, it's different down here. Yes. Like, that's all there is. It's different down here. Like, how fucking. They open three hours before kickoff. How different can it be?

Yeah. So, we get in there. We were kind of testing it. Like, it can't be that much different. Get the fuck out of here. We go down there. We experience that thing. It is different down there.

Way different. And we met the commissioner of the SEC, Greg Sankey, last night. Said thank you to him for saving football. Nice. What did he say? It had to be done. No, he deflected that, obviously. Sure.

He deflected that whole thing. But he basically said, yeah, I wasn't budging. We were going to play football. It was the moment of the night. And I was like, my guy, hey, we appreciate you. Because we were sitting there, and there was guests coming in and out of the whole area up there. Very safe conditions, everybody doing the whole thing. But it was everybody was coming in and area up there. Very safe conditions, everybody doing the whole thing. But it was, you know, everybody was coming in and out there.

And he walked in, and we were standing at the shortcut board, I think, at the time. We were standing at the shortcut board. And by the way, me, AJ, and Tony did not leave each other's side, by the way. There was never a moment where we were. But we're at the shortcut board, and we're watching the TV, the game's on. There were six different, because there was all the different simulcasts. So figuring out which TV was live,

because you hear celebrations, and then which one is a simulcast that's either like half a second behind, two seconds behind, five seconds behind. That was an entire game. Then old buddy in a suit walks in behind us, and we all look. Who's that?

Who's that? Because he just goes and immediately has a good conversation. And we quit. Oh, that's that commissioner guy. So then Tom Diggs is Googling it on his phone. We're standing three feet away from digs is googling it on his phone we're standing three feet away from this guy he has on his phone turns it to me here it is it is turns it to aj hey that's him think this guy's gonna turn around and potentially see us doing that

so we were thinking about maybe going and uh leaving at this point sure we would be remiss if we did not thank this man for saving football. He saved the football. Cause AJ, if you do recall, AJ, the big tens commissioner, AJ,

the big tens commissioner said, we ain't playing football. And then this guy who's right here said, no, I, we're playing fucking football. That's why we need a general Bob on the, on the front,

on the North. That's right. Greg Sankey in the south. Well, see, there was levels, though, because Greg Sankey was already at a presidential position. Yeah. He was a four-star general. General Bob was running a coup.

That's right. General Bob, he was like a general. He was general at the time. He was the patriot in the woods. Yeah, he had to lead a bunch. He had to show up at the offices. He was storming the offices. He was.

General Bob Carpenter was pounding pavement in the north. Yeah. The south president, the SEC president, had it already locked down in the war against football. It's all right. Hey, don't you worry. Once this Mason-Dixon hits, we're playing football down here. And so we thanked him for that. He was very nice, very cool.

He knew of us. Let's go. Really? Yeah, he knew of us. He said he appreci, very cool. He knew of us. Let's go. Really? Yeah, he knew of us. He said he appreciates our work. I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means, but he did say that he did enjoy our stuff. And it did appear as if he knew who we were, if that makes sense.

Like, AJ, I think he even recognized Tony a little bit. Tony Dux. At some point, someone had to show him like, hey, they're saying you're saving football right now. Look at this. Check this out. You're saying you're saving football right now. Look at this. Check this out. You're taking a lot of heat right now. Okay, science community is coming after you. Probably everybody else is coming after you for, oh, this guy thinks he's smarter than everybody else.

Here's at least a group of idiots that are thanking you. They still don't know if you are killing people or not, but they are complimenting you for saving football because it's saving their lives or whatever. Yeah, that's probably how we get introduced to this. Hell yeah, I am saving football. They're right. It was a cool game, man. Atone Diggs, you're on the dogs all the way. And we are openly...

I was roll-tied in the middle. I was the only person it felt like pulling for Alabama in the area where AJ was also on my side because AJ and I I think watch college football in the exact same fashion where we don't know shit about fuck about it so Saban sure

okay he's getting points sure so we were pulling for a roll of time everybody around us though big time dogs fans digs fit right in had the cowboy hat had the cowboy boots on he was doing the dogs i mean he was all in uh tone what a night for you uh thank you for coming i hope you enjoyed it and is that the coolest photo you've ever seen in your life thank you for having me it's in the top

two of coolest photos that i've ever taken in my life the other one potentially is the one you took of me and my father at the sealers game in a similar situation. Oh, yeah, looking on. Thank you for both of those photos and both of those situations. I severely overestimated the number of cowboy hats I thought were going to be at the game. There was one, and I was wearing it. I thought the Dawgs and Bama fans might have more cowboy hats. There's more just khakis and polos and stuff like that. A lot of cowboy boots, though. Yeah, a lot of cowboy boots.

A lot of cowboy boots. A lot of cowboy hats. It was awesome. Dawgs Dogs defense was flying around. The boys were tossing out jabs back and forth in the first half. Let's feel each other out. There were some big plays. Kicking wins national championships

and we know that. There were some big plays, but both defenses were flying around and they started to open up in the second half and Stetson Bennett said, yeah, I'm a walk-on. Okay? Walk-ons never done this before ever. I went to JUCO. I've never started a season as a starter, but here I am.

National Championship. Guy throws a pretty ball. Yeah, he does. It is beautiful. It was hard not to make comparisons, just strictly because we're caught up in the moment, but we're like, oh, this guy's got a little Drew Brees in him. Look at this guy.

Look at this guy with a little Drew Brees. He can move. Seems to be an incredible leader. Got a lot of grit, a lot of fight. And he throws a pretty ball. I mean, it is a very pretty ball. And I don't, once again, I will admit,

and one Alabama fan actually said it to us on our way out, you guys don't care about this game at all. We did care about the game. Yeah, that guy does. Because it was happening in Indy. That's right. And it was the national championship.

But we didn't know. I didn't know enough about either team. I did not. And I think I said that as I was saying, hey, Saban's getting points. I'm doing that whole thing. Stetson Bennett's been getting killed, right, for like the last month and a half. Yeah. Is he good enough?

Is he good enough? Is he good enough? Is he good enough? Is he good enough? Is he good enough? Is he good enough? Is this guy going to? Is this guy?

Is this? He stinks. He stinks. He stinks. If he has a couple incompletions they're gonna be booing and pulling for somebody else to come in

that was the conversation that happened all the way up to this game right oh yeah and it feels like Stetson Bennett heard it all and has got to a cool

point where he didn't give a fuck right and that's a sweet that's a talent in of itself to be able to do that and not kind of get bogged down by the thoughts or

the future fear or the the lingering shadow over your shoulder of being replaced or being booed out of a stadium like getting to that mental standpoint is really impressive in my eyes even as you know somebody that would never ever be able to do anything that he does just the respect that I have for the fact that he had to battle against it all the way into the natty. And I thought back to how happy those dudes were when they won the national championship and those big, and I thought back to like whenever we were in school and how devastating

losses were for me. I remember when we would lose and it didn't happen often. There was one big one, obviously, but when we would lose, it was like devastating. And then when something good would happen or but when we would lose it was like devastating and then when something good would happen or we go win like it was we used to really celebrate that i couldn't even imagine what it would be like to win a national championship for the first time in 41 years and be a walk-on like stetson bennett was on good morning america this morning i don't

know how the fuck he was able to do that either yeah like that is good for him good story but that georgia defense man hey they're fucking massive massive very fast oh yeah so fast and full i mean just fly around are they all old are they coming back is that's because saban the way he addressed his team was different i think than any we've ever seen saving you know You know, they say coach them hard when it's good and love them up when it's bad or whatever it is. And he was doing a lot of that kind of afterwards. You know, like he's proud of this team, doesn't want this team to be defined by this.

The SEC championship is still a massive ordeal. You can never take that away. Like listening to him talk about it, because Bryce Young has at least another year. I'd assume that Saban knows going into next year they got a team. Is that Georgia defense still around, or are they graduating? The stud linebacker, N'Kobe Dean, he's gone. Jordan Davis, the D lineman, is gone.

The other D lineman is gone. I mean, obviously they're Georgia, so they're going to fill those spots. But, no, they're not going to be as dominant, you would think, as they were this year. Do they have future odds, Gumpy, on Ro Tad to win the Natty next year? I'm just assuming that that is going to take. What was that, minus 400? I believe Georgia and Bama are going to be the favorites again next year.

That Bama. With Ohio State. Hey, when they come out of the tunnel, you know the things that you get to see when you're at a game on TV? You forget how many people are on a goddamn college football game. You forget how many people. on a goddamn college football game. You forget how many people. And for the national championship, I think they probably dress everybody so they can say that they dress for a national championship,

no matter if they play or not. I don't think you see as many people in street clothes on the sideline unless they're famous like Alvin Kamara and Ingram. A couple other guys. Hot Rod was on. But whenever they were running out of that tunnel, you just saw like oh there is 150 nfl guys just talking about that that is what alabama it's like holy shit and then georgia comes

out there just is deep it is it's different down there and that is why i think everybody was talking about when brian kelly left notre dame to go toSU, there's a lot of people who I respect their opinion saying he was never going to win a national championship in Notre Dame. And why is the common question that's asked. He's like, can't get the dudes that you need to win a national championship to go to Notre Dame over one of these SEC schools where there is hundreds of thousands of people in most stadiums, all primetime games, all other NFL guys,

and it's close to their homes, so they don't have to travel as far away from family. I mean, you've got no chance up there or whatever. I'll be excited to see as this NIL deal starts happening because, I mean, there's rumors that basically, I don't want to put percentages, but a lot of these dudes are making bank. Yeah. Making bank to go to these schools. Even if they play or they don't, it is a recruiting tool. Now the recruiter, it was a name image like this,

which is exactly what we thought was going to happen, which is why I think we, um, projected early, like look for schools that have a lot of money around them to really do well and start turning this whole thing around as this name image likeness goes. Like University of Houston, where Dana Holgerson's at, they got so much money around them there. They got so much money around them in Houston. There is, I guess, a lot of money down there. I don't know what it's from. Is it from just the oil, you assume? I assume so, yeah.

It's just there's so much money. So look for them. And then I thought Georgia Tech, because they got Coke and Waffle House and Chick-fil-A and all these people right around them that want them to be successful. And I think it was pretty apparent that it was going to become a recruiting tool. And whenever you are in Alabama or Georgia or any of these other schools that are always in the conversation, they might be six players deep at quarterback,

and they're all getting deals because they're getting deals to go in there. That transfer portal is going to continue to light up there's another potential pay i mean this is going to be i think college is going to get interesting like i think college is there and saban was talking about how he thinks it might be a shift in power which a lot of people say well that would mean away from you right because saban is the entire thing but i think saban's going to be able to adapt to this better than anybody else Saban's going to be able to adapt to this better than anybody else but it is going to be interesting to watch how these power fives mold and change into who has the the boosters to back hey let's go again like I think Texas has like four different booster funded funds just for NIL deals for nil i think they have like four or three or four of

them i think they have four different ones like hey these two guys got together uh or these this group of people got together and put their money this is how much we'll contribute each year to the fund you guys spend it however you deem fit for now there's like four of those so then obviously we saw eastern michigan has charlie batch and a couple other people like one million dollars to uh cj or whatever out of oklahoma uh that caleb williams they're giving him like a they offered him a million dollars so you're gonna see like which schools do that and which ones don't and i think it's gonna be very obvious like i think it's gonna potentially start even more so and i i'm excited for i think it's good

for the sport but a lot of people think the complete opposite a lot of people think it's complete opposite i think it's good yeah but a lot of people think it's going to be the complete opposite well and that's why you know like i was completely wrong about you it's very easy to just get intoxicated by like alabama because it's just saban and like you said they're six deep at every position and but to your point like a lot of these guys like if you can still go to Alabama and are okay with, you know, sitting behind a guy for two years, probably going to end up playing in the league and still making, you know, like some of those guys are probably making a million bucks,

one and a half million bucks a year. In college. Yeah. Think about a million dollars in college. I got $40,000 out in loans. Yeah. And I was on full scholarship. There was like 30%, 35% interest rate. rate really good deal but i had a good time and if i didn't make

the nfl all right i'd be in debt like everybody else if i made the nfl i'll just pay that off no big deal it worked out i'm happy a little bit of forethought i guess that is chess not checkers but going out with four hundred dollars at night in a college town, you're a king. Yeah. The drinks cost 50 cents. Yeah, they're good. These dudes are living, man. Yeah.

I'm happy for all the, you know, guys coming out of college that are getting an opportunity to make this type of money. And I'm pumped for the, I'm really excited to see the power, like what happens. Because I think these schools that have, Eastern Michigan is offering a million dollars. It might not land Caleb, but some player will be like, all right, here we go. Let's go ahead and do this thing. I mean, there's a chance. And then you factor in like Deion, what Coach Deion's doing with Jackson State.

The recruits he's getting in there. I mean, hopefully he stays at jackson state and does whatever the hell he wants to but i assume he's going to be getting offers big time offers very quickly very very quickly i just assume that's going to be the case is it every all his guys move in like is it i mean there's a chance that this could really i think it's good for the sport but once again we don't i don't cover the sport as closely as everybody else who thinks it's going to be bad for the sport. And ultimately, does it really even matter that much

if it's just going to be basically Georgia, Alabama, Ohio State, and then maybe a fourth team every year? It's good for the kids. I mean, I don't think it's really going to change who's going to be there in the end necessarily, but it gives a lot of people a lot of opportunities that you're never going to get elsewhere. And give Reggie his fucking Heisman

back! USC, that's one of those teams that will probably come back. They got these kind of boosters. And Lincoln Riley now. Remember their boosters? Their boosters were paying like $500,000 to be on a water polo team.

Just let them in the school. Just go stand in the shallow end of a pool. Mm-hmm. You know? That's it. They were like this high out of the water. Oh, yeah. Just a little photo shop.

Great vert. Great vertical. Might be the most explosive water polo player of all time. I need that kid. What was that called? The academic admissions scandal? Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.

The side door, the back door, the front door. Yeah, but what was that uh the documentary about it yeah it was about mossimo yeah we gotta get to a break we gotta get to a break uh there was a guy running all these ivy leagues in schools that were just getting people's money to get their kids inside doors just taking photos of perfect this thing was frozen for a little bit too so i didn't know if it was working or not. Classic. This thing's a piece of shit.

AJ spilled an entire can of Celsius on it. A whole new deal, too, and here we are, still. Hot sauce, Celsius, everything spilled on it. Mountain Dew. Poop. Poop with poop. I'm sure AJ's hands were crushing. All right, let's get to a break.

Let's get to a break.'s get to a break Good college football talk there boys Good season Good college football season Congrats to the dogs It is the reigning Defending Undisputed MVP of the NFL

A man who's staring down a bye week here because their team is seated so high. They got home field advantage and a week to chill to maybe make the toe, which is no longer an issue. Even less of an issue around the rest of the team. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk and Aaron.

A.J.'s gone? No A.J. There's full panic in the back. I didn't know where he was going. A.J.'s poop in the back. I didn't know he was gone. AJ's pooping right now, I think. Oh, my God. I hope he goes to the bathroom. Ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers.

Is he okay? What do you think is going on with AJ, Aaron? Oh, I don't know. He's usually constipated. And if anybody that knows him well knows that he can do multiple segments in a show with, you know, 64 ounce,

uh, soda drink underneath his desk or whatever he's doing and piss, you know, four or five times probably. So I, yeah, I didn't, is he actually doing that?

I always wondered and assumed that that is the case because he has made the joke before. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us, the man who is probably peeing underneath his desk as we speak. Atta boy, AJ. I don't know what happened, man. That was my first call, Zeke. Atta boy, Aaron. Hey, AJ. Welcome back, dude. Aaron, are you mad when you...

I know you've had private conversations where you told me that Ben stole that from you. Are you upset about that? This is his attempt at a comeback. Can't get me, though, bro. No, can't get him. Can't get him. I'm like Chuck Berry, man. You try and hold me down, you can't get me, though.

Oh, jeez. All right. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah, you appeased AJ there with your answer. Obviously took that a little toxic, had to do it. Let's dive right into the subject that everybody wants to hear about. Okay. There was a leaked piece of information from an

inside source that Boomer Esiason and Gio, Boomer, by the way, the hardest working human on earth. I have never seen anybody like it or anything like it we can only hope to one day work as hard as boomer assize and anyways he and geo broke some news from a trusted source is how it was described that aaron rogers is ready because his 90-day window of not getting tested comes back right before the super bowl aaron rogers is ready to hold the nfl hostage unless they change the rules going forward. He has already told Jordan Love to get your ass ready. Hey, I'm Aaron Rodgers.

I worked my ass off this season to get to a Super Bowl, something in which I'm judged about every single day. Once we get here, hey, Jordan, you're the fucking quarterback now, dude. I'm going to get out of here. That was read on air. That took over the entire internet you answered obviously in the way that you answered my question is this why do you think that is even something that is believable to them to read onto air legitimately what do you think it is do you

think it's because there's people with an axe to grind against you do you think it's because the narrative for so long why was that something that was even like hey this could be real you think i mean you have to bring all the possibilities into place uh ratings we need more ratings it's become you know fairly standard mention me in the same sentence and use tag words like doctor or Joe Rogan or ivermectin or COVID or fill in the blank, COVID toe, you know, and you're going to get some ratings. And like I said, you know, I've given a lot less fucks the last couple of years. But one thing I do give a major fuck about is narratives about me. Especially ones that are so ridiculously off base.

And this one was pure comedy for me. But when pure comedy turns into more reputable, and I say slightly more, but slightly more reputable news outlets who then mentioned that to where it becomes even a bigger story.

I just felt like it was time to end that. And we had some fun. Kurt jumped in, Kurt Bankert, and then J-Lo jumped in. We had a good time with that. Matt Flynn jumped in afterwards. But, I mean, look, let me just say this, and I know he used direct circle instead of inner circle. Maybe there's a delineation between the two.

No one in my inner circle, okay, is talking to the media. No one that I trust and care about and have conversations with is talking to any media member. It's going to leak anything. I told AJ this too. I like to have a good sense

of humor and joke around and stuff. That topic that was brought up is so ridiculously stupid. It's even past the point of you would even joke about that like do I have an issue with some of the protocols of course but I would never even joke

about this the dumbest fucking thing it's so dumb I wouldn't even joke about it that's how dumb it is there couldn't be anybody in my inner circle in my direct circle in the circle after that, who would ever have any bit of information to go, oh, this one time. You may have been joking about it.

Remember that one time he said COVID till on the McAfee show? And then we wrote about it as being true. Same situation we can do here. What if we just say he's going to boycott the Super Bowl? I mean, how fucking stupid is that? How could you possibly imagine? Like, you know,

and I told J-Lo, hey J-Lo, by the way, in five weeks, you know, if we make the Super Bowl, you know, and have this amazing run, be ready. I mean, it's like it's the dumbest shit I've ever heard luckily we had a blast with it

we had so much fun, Kurt was amazing J-Lo jumped in, Flynney jumped in but come on now, I mean that's just ridiculous, they didn't even go in the air with that that's what I'm saying it was believed, it almost seems like they wanted parts of it to be true

it's unreal. I mean, come on. But how do you know which ones you're going to address and which ones you don't address? Because you can't go after all of them. And you know there's always asinine things out there. I don't want to go over it. But to say some asinine stuff like that

deserves a response. Have you reached out to try to see? Couldn't you reach out to him and say, hey, who is this source? I think I would like to know who it is so you know you can't trust this person. Who is it? I mean, I'd love to. Say the source. Well, that never happens.

I mean, that's not how. Except for you and Dr. Joe Rogan. I'd love to know who this person in my direct circle was. Alex Jones, probably. Or Joe. Maybe it's Doc. Maybe it's Doc. Okay, cool. I'm happy we addressed it.

Obviously, what I'm saying, though, in the way I asked that question was, I can't believe that somebody believed it enough to report it, though. And that is an issue, I think, in the grander scheme. Like, people at some point, even after two years. There was multiple sources, Pat. There were multiple sources in my direct circle. I'm like, come on, man. Why would I play to the majority of people in a meaningless Week 18 game?

Oh, yeah. And then what I care about and train for in the offseason and focus on during the season and manifest thoughts to my teammates to have this on our mind, winning a Super Bowl. You think I would do all that and play in a meaningless game to most people in Week 18 and then boycott the Super Bowl? Yeah.

You don't know me. And that's my hope. Whether you're Pornhub or whoever this person by direct service is, you don't know me. You don't know me. So stop talking as if you do know me or you have some sort of idea. Hey, all right, dude. Hey, I'm happy you got there.

I had to feel pretty good. I had to feel pretty good getting out there. And whoever did this or, you know, as maybe a false narrative about you, about preconceived notions from years ago before listening to you. Literally, hey, we just finished another season of you stopping by every single day off for like an hour every single time. We appreciate you, man. Thank you, Aaron. Love you, Aaron. And there was a lot of people that went to bat for you that probably wouldn't have in the past before the show. And they said, do you not listen to this dude ever on tuesdays because you have been a pretty open book with

us i think honestly i'm not 100 sure if any there's always been weekly interviews that people do with either local radio we're very lucky that we get to do it on the internet with a broader audience of people that are around the world this has always happened i don't know if those local radios or anywhere else and there's a lot of very talented people i'm not sure but it's on the player to do the other end of it you have been very transparent with us like this entire time and i think a lot of people have learned a lot about you so uh we appreciate the hell out of you dude and i'm happy you just told somebody to go fuck themselves without even knowing who it is you know because i like that too you know i like doing that every once in a while go fuck whoever did this whole. Let's move on to this Week 18 meaningless game.

Hey, the big draft was back out there. Mauling. Bakhtiari's back traveling. He's making interesting, awesome videos to announce he's Bak. And how do you think he fit in? Were you happy for him? Why did you choose to play as much as you did? I mean, you played a lot longer, I think, than some of us thought.

There was other teams that had like one series and went back one play and went back so they could keep this consecutive starts going uh that was kelsey shout out and there was others that did that as well for um incentives why did you want to continue to play and what was it like to have the big draft back out there at left uh tackle it was great having him back it's fun's fun to run out on the field with him. He's got a very recognizable jog slash, you know, lope that he has. But it was so fun being back out there. We had a conversation midweek last week, and he was really on the fence, maybe thinking he was going to play. And I said, look, I'm going to play. Josh is going to play. What if he went out there and you felt good Thursday at practice? What if he went out there and played some plays? And I think he kind of wrapped his head around that

and hopefully didn't feel any extra pressure from me. But I'm so happy that he got to play in that game. He played, I think, 28 snaps. Seemed like on the field, in-game, and going back and watching, he played really well. We were laughing because last week he was telling me, early in the week, like Monday or Tuesday, he was saying, when I was like, man, you've got to play. This was before I kind of pushed him.

He was like, yeah, you're playing so good. You're getting the ball out. I don't want to come back and you to think you can hold on to the ball now because I'm in there. so good. You're hitting the ball out. I don't want to come back and you to think you can hold onto the ball now. I said, I won't be, you know, I won't be a hundred percent myself yet. And I said, I said, okay, okay. And then, you know, I had a play where I kind of look left, look right, ran left, ran up to the right, got some yardage. And I was walking back to the huddle and all I see is the big giraffe just shaking his head at me. And I know he's thinking, what are you doing? What are you talking about?

Just get rid of the football. So it was good having him back. But it was good having Josh out there for the first half as well. He's been out a number of weeks with his knee injury. That's why I wanted to be out there. I mean, not just to, you know, be out there with Tay, get him the record. But those, you know, having Josh and Dave back, I needed to feel kind of the urgency and the energy on the field.

And everything picks up as the season goes on, and the tempo kind of picks up a little bit as we get into the playoffs as well. So I think it was great for Dave to play, great for Josh to play. They both came out healthy, it seems like. And, you know, they both played well. Hey, what do you think of two of your offensive coaches being interviewed by the Broncos for head coaching opportunities? You happy for these guys?

And are we trying to say, all right, they're trying to clear the path to get you to Denver? Oh, geez. There it is. I knew, you know, we talked last night. I knew you were going to say, you know, some sort of speculation. But I also talked to Marquez yesterday about his Gatling, and he gave me, you know, a few of my teammates dabble in the fashion industry.

They've got their own clothing lines. You've got Alan Lazar with the ATT. I've worn the Bobby Tunyon, Big Bob Tunyon, his construction sweatshirts, Tunyon family. And Marquez gave me this hat. He has a brand called Successful Innovative Kings, S-I-K. Oh, that's sick, dude. Sick.

And I told him I would wear the beanie on the McAfee show and try and say something really controversial to get the most amount of attention. So if you wonder what that brand is, has a little thank you for him being a friend and a great teammate. I'm not going to with my answer to this question, but I did want to give a shout out to Quez and the Sick brand. Oh, so now's the time to give the answer, right? Now would be the time in your brain the way he's on his team.

Aren't you happy for these guys getting an interview? That's what I'm getting to, bro. I'm very happy for these guys. I'm happy any time we get guys on our staff with opportunities. We've got a great staff on both sides of the ball. I'm really happy for Nathaniel. I mean, I think he's – this is a little overdue, to be honest. I mean, I think he's been around is a little overdue, to be honest.

I mean, I think he's been around the game for a long time. What he did in Jacksonville I think was pure magic. Getting them within a quarter of the Super Bowl was incredible. He's a great coach. I love spending time with him. He's a fantastic teacher. He's incredible in front of the room. And I'm really happy for him.

And Lou Getze as well. You know, he's about a month younger than me, so that's pretty awesome, you know, for him getting the opportunity. But he's been around the game for a long time. He was, you know, in the QB room, in the receiver room, back in the, you know, they went down to college and was offensive coordinator in the SEC and then came back. He's been in our room for three years now. He's a fantastic coach. He's a really good teacher of the game. I'm excited for

him as well. You know, it's great when our guys get opportunities. There's other guys on the staff that probably deserve opportunities too, not just for head coach, but for coordinator positions. So the most important thing is to have a stable of coaches where if you have a guy that gets an opportunity, you can have a guy fill in. And i think we're starting to get there with some of the guys we got in assistant positions the guy that wears no gutches you know in the offensive line room i think i caught him as an opportunity to he definitely does an opportunity to you know lead a room at some point revel martin former player uh and teammate of mine is is uh you know helping out in the receiver room. He's a fantastic young coach. Connor Lewis as well, who's done analytics for a long time.

Now he's helping out with special teams. He'll get an opportunity at some point. So that's the key. You have to have coaches who are ready and waiting when some of the established guys get opportunities. Hey, Aaron, it seems as if LaFleur has just done a fantastic job as a head coach. And when he was hired and everything you do is speculated upon, it became a big story. And obviously the first year, Don years for you, are career years for other people.

There's an audible moment in which they're saying, Aaron's not letting LaFleur do his job. Or Aaron has played quarterback at this place for a long time. Maybe he should say, like, hey, maybe if I could change something, we should do it. You guys have that Zoom call where you want in the offseason or numerous Zoom calls where you all got on the same page. And you say that he's incredible at delegating work alongside his assistants. And he has this incredible record win-loss,

but he doesn't really get as much credit because he has a goat playing quarterback for him actively. What do you think it is about LaFleur that makes him a good head coach? And how do you think, like, Getsy or any of these other guys will be as a head coach? Because I think you just went in there, they can lead a room and everything like that. There's a lot of bad hires that happen. How the fuck did, you know, the Packers strike gold with LaFleur, you think? And what has he done as a young coach in his first job that has really made it an easy transition?

Because a lot of people stink whenever they get in their head coaching jobs. Well, a lot of that is that, you know, it's the one-off of nepotism. It's, you know, it's a who-do-you-know business so often. And if you have on a, you know, kind of a list of people who can vouch for you as being a good coach, and they're all close friends who've been around the game forever, your reference list, that can evoke some of this nepotism that exists to get guys who still get jobs, who might, the word is kind of out there,

but not out there enough to where it stops them from getting these opportunities. I think what we did was we went out and found a guy who would fit, who would fit in the region, who would bring together a good staff, who him and I could get along well. And, you know, it's obviously worked out really well. He communicates well. He delegates really well. He's got a great mind. I think the most important thing for a head coach to do is work

and put in the time, and he does. I mean, he works his ass off, and he's a very creative mind. But you have to have balance balance but you also have to have that work ethic and you know matt leads by example in that in that uh department nobody works harder than he does nobody spends more time it's not it's not this bullshit you know oh i was in there till 7 30 last night and you know, some of this, you know, stuff gets out there. No, when he's in there, he's grinding. And he's got some good coaches on the staff to balance him out.

You know, Stinovich and Hackett, who are wound a little less tight. But he's a grinder. And he deserves a lot of the credit. And I hope he wins Coach of the Year because that put a nice little bow on three incredible years. Yeah, I think so too. And his eyebrows, I mean, you wanted to boycott him. I don't know how you could ever boycott something that perfect.

You know what I mean? Those things properly placed right above. Like, hey, how are eyebrows supposed to look? Boom. Coach Matt LaFleur every single game. Yeah. Is that every day? things properly placed right above like hey how are eyebrows supposed to look boom coach matt lafleur every single game yeah somebody's that every day a lot of guys got to pay for that kind of look that's every day he woke up like this he wakes up like that yeah wow good for him good looking guy hey good a lot of credit a lot of credit to brie though. I mean, his wife. I've mentioned her before. A lot of credit to Bree.

You know, so many coaches, age knows this, so many coaches are, you know, incapable of doing just about any task other than coaching football. And that's why you got to have a, you know, stud at wife behind some of these guys to help them out.

So you're saying LaFleur can't, you know, cook, do laundry? No, I'm not saying that. I just want to give Bree her due because she's an amazing woman. And being a coach's wife, I'm sure, is pretty tough. But I know she probably dresses him. She probably is the one that plucks his eyebrows. So big kudos to Bree. Hey, shout out to Bree.

Shout out to Bree. You're doing a great job. Hey, you're on display in front of 27 million people every time. Her work is seen by a lot of people. She's crushing it. Go ahead, Ty. Aaron, you kind of mentioned it a little bit earlier with the tempo increasing as the weeks go on. Now that you're in the playoffs, does your preparation or how you're going to prepare for games,

does that change at all or not really no i don't think it should it's kind of the answer after week one when the big freakout happened oh what's going on you guys gonna be the shits this year and it's like if the preparation isn't good enough when shit hits the fan it's never going to be good enough and if the preparation has to change oh now we're in the playoffs. Now we've really got to fucking amp this shit up. Then you're probably not preparing the right way. So it stays the same.

I think the tempo naturally just picks up a little bit. And I think that's just due to every team is now good. You know, it's the NFL, so there's great players on every team. But the teams that are left, and when we play, there'll be eight teams left in the divisional round, four on each side. It'll be the best of the best. And when you're playing against the best of the best, naturally, the tempo picks up, urgency picks up.

The difference between winning and losing shrinks even farther. And I think that's just natural progression. But as far as preparation goes and the approach, you have to use what got you there. And if you're not, then you're admitting without admitting that you're freaking out. And we're not going to freak out in Green Bay. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.

How do you do that, though, for the playoffs when, like, okay, like it seems like you're smiling, having fun. You've been doing it forever, but maybe some young guys that don't have as much experience, how do you make it to where, yeah, they understand how important it is, but you don't like, oh, we're holding on too tight. We're not playing like we did all year. That's a great media question from you, AJ.

Thanks for asking. Hey, boy, AJ. Thank you for the misinformation you've been spreading on this program. Not on this program. Please. Jesus. Appeals in comparison to the disinformation that people have been spreading about me. Jesus. It pales in comparison to the disinformation that people have been spreading about me.

Oh. Disinformation and misinformation let you look that way. But I think you have to remind these guys. Are we back in it? You have to remind these guys the importance

of preparation preparation the importance that this is win or go home but then you just have to model you have to model what uh you know confidence looks like model what a lack of freaking out looks like model what stability and consistency looks like and if you haven haven't, I mean, our guys, our best leaders, have been doing that all season long. You know, you don't ride this roller coaster wave. You try and be the same guy day in and day out. You try and be consistent.

You try and, you know, look for opportunities to lead and to speak up. And just remind guys, you know, if they're lacking in confidence or their anxiety is picking up, just look at, you know, look at me. Look at Devontae. Look at Big Dog. Look at the Big Giraffe. Look at Kenny Clark and Smash and Preston and Rasul. And look at these guys who play with that confidence and that consistency

and tap into some of that energy and refocus. Yeah, Green Bay, you know, is going to be quite an advantage for you guys too all the way through. Is that, you know, obviously you expect that, you hope it, hope for it, but people having to fly into Antarctica, Wisconsin, you know, and play

against not only you and that turf and the weather, but those cheeseheads. Oh, boy. I mean, they're going to be drunk from the ace hard why shirtless with overalls jugging brews in the freezing temperatures

and then Bia Bia is going to be in there for her 97th straight year of not missing a Green Bay Packer game I mean that is a massive ordeal as you have this bye week this weekend that has to feel pretty good that you guys aren't going to have to travel the rest of the way

until you get to Los Angeles. That feels incredible, and that's our advantage. Last year we hosted a couple of playoff games, didn't have any crowd, and didn't have our green bay weather. So it would be nice to have at least one of those. This year we do. We'll have close to 80,000 strong, and maybe we'll have some weather as well, which will be a little bit cruelty.

But, yeah, playing at home is a huge advantage. It is. And it's a bigger advantage with our crowd, a bigger advantage even than that with our weather. So we're going to make the most of it. We're going to have a good week of practice outside this week. It's been really cold. The wind chill was minus 8 yesterday.

So we're going to embrace the next three days out of practice and enjoy that. And then get ready for whatever opponent comes through this weekend. Obviously, if one of the lower seeds wins on Sunday, we'll play them. If not, we'll play the winner of the Monday night game. A couple of NFC West opponents. So three of the four possibilities are all NFC West opponents. We played the NFC West this year. So we have a lot of familiarity there with those teams other than with the only team we don't is Philly.

But we'll be excited about whatever team wins and gets the opportunity to come up to Green Bay. And we'll be ready for them. You do know Coach Sirianni, though, pretty good from our show. I do recall if you – we have Coach Sirianni every once in a while. Coach, the only knowledge he has of your team is just of you on this show. So shout out to you, dude. Thank you. Just a heads up, Aaron.

If we do end up playing you guys, the recipe is very simple. We're going to try to run down your throats every single play. Okay. Is that that dog mentality? Yeah, we have dog mentality. Again, for several weeks now,

I've been saying we bite, we don't bark, and we will be barking and biting if we have to come play at Lambeau in the sub-zero temperature. It's very cold, dogs. I don't know how you're going to be able to do it, but those dogs hunted a few years ago. They'll be able to figure it out again. Go ahead, Tom.

Aaron, what do you think about, what do you say to the people who actually thought two NFL teams were going to kneel it out so they could both get in the playoffs? They probably thought, same people that thought i was going to boycott the super i i will tell you it did get a little interesting there though right two minute warning happens run by vegas no timeout run by vegas no timeout i will say there was an article that uh i think the name is bill barnwell wrote for espn That was a good article I read after the game because there were a lot of theories about what was going on

and people were blaming L.A.'s Coach Staley for calling a timeout there even though the play clock was way down. You know, Herm Edwards said once, I think, you play to win the game, right? I don't think anybody wanted a tie, but there were a lot of us who love football and also love, you know, the anxious moments who were kind of, when it was 29-14 and L.A. scored and got the two-point, you started thinking, what if they tied it up? What if it went to overtime?

What if it got under five minutes and team was in the minus territory what are they going to do you know all kind of the scenarios that were going through their their minds because both teams knew hey we get we tie we're both getting through then all the yinzers back in pittsburgh were losing their freaking minds going can somebody just win this gd game you know yeah uh so that was that was exciting uh sure. But I think it would have been, you know, a real shame to see, you know, three kneel downs there. And I don't necessarily – I saw there's an awesome Eckler clip about, you know, maybe asking if they were going to kneel a down.

I don't know what the reference was to, but I do know on third down before the timeout, I believe that the Raiders were in the gun, probably going to run some sort of inside zone handoff with maybe an RPO opportunity, but they weren't going to take a knee in the gun. So any of those theories should be kind of wiped away and not given a whole lot of credence to. But that was a great game, I thought, with Herbert.

The throws that Herbert made were pretty amazing. I think he had a fantastic year. Big play by a former teammate of mine, Casey Hayward, you know, in that game. And then I'm happy for Derek. I've known Derek for a long time, and I enjoy, you know, keeping in touch with him. Yeah, you texted him, huh? You texted him, said, go win a ball game.

That's all. I didn't know you were tight with Derek Carr. I don't think any of us do that. Yeah, you know, I huh? You texted him saying go win a ball game. That's all. I didn't know you were tight with Derek Carr. I don't think any of us do that. Yeah, you know, I've just enjoyed our conversations. He kind of reached out through Devontae a few years ago in the offseason, and we had some conversations. And I think he's a really respectful guy. I think he's been through a crazy amount of adversity this season, you know,

with what happened to John and all the moving parts. I just sent him some encouragement before the game just because I do enjoy the person and I enjoy the way that he handles his business. Did you see him come out of the tunnel on that one side shot?

Oh, man. He was humming. There's this 8K shot from the side, either running alongside of him on the other side of the tunnel where he comes skipping out at full speed. It looks electrifying. He wins a lot of games. That Raiders team, Richie Bisaccia, how's your family?

How's your family? They're in the playoffs. I think just like you on that third down play, they gain any yards, they're probably going to kick a field goal. If they get stopped there, maybe kneel it out, maybe the game's over. But I think they had to get a stop on that play regardless, either with a timeout or without a timeout. I mean, Staley said that he wanted to get Linville Joseph on the field,

you know, who's a big behemoth of a run stopper, and that's why he called timeout. I think if they get there, what are they at there? They're on the 41. 39. They're on the 39-yard line? Yeah, that's why he called timeout. I think if they get there, what are they at there? They're on the 41. 39. They're on the 39-yard line? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. 57, I think it would have been.

That's a long ball, I guess. I don't know. I mean, they're still going to do it if they get stopped or maybe get a yard. They probably call timeout with a couple seconds left and, you know, kick a field goal, and they make it. They're in. They miss it. They're in.

You know, this idea that they wouldn't have kicked it because of getting it blocked. It's just, look, you play to win the game. I don't know. Nobody wants to be a part of that. You want to get the playoffs? Of course, nobody wants to be a part of kneeling the shit out to take a tie. I would lose my mind. You know what would make me lose my mind almost as

much as that? Third and nine on the minus five. Let's go in goal line personnel and run a QB sneak. Yeah, you would call timeout there? We'd audible? Call that one in, Matt, and let's see what happens.

That shit ain't flying. Oh, that would be awesome. Fourth quarter. Unbelievable. The breakdown that Orlovsky had on that was pretty amazing. So, shout out to Big Don. Dane's his name. Dane's his name.

But you're right. You're 100% right. And there's an aptitude, it seems like, in a lot of places. Players got to execute, Pat. Well, by the way, everybody is man for man there. Hey, there's 10 on 10 there. There's 10 on 10. Quarterbacks just got to make one person miss.

They weren't able to do that, obviously. That is a shame. Making some space for the punt. You talking about the strategy and, you know, you're such a deep thinker. And obviously the media thing as well. If this guy was to coach, he'd be a great coach. The year that Peyton was hurt and we had Curtis Painter quarterback and Dan and who was that? Kerry Collins.

Yeah. Kerry Collins died week one. J.J. Watt picked him up and dumped him on his head. Kerry Collins was called out of a hunting stand in Tennessee to come play quarterback for us. And then immediately after he got hurt, regretted it. Get me the hell out of here. Hey, Kerry is a great guitar player, I believe, right? And then immediately after you go, hey, dude, regretted it. Get me the hell out of here. And then Kerry.

Hey, Kerry is a great guitar player, I believe, right? Oh, is he? I will later. He's a singer-songwriter, I'm pretty sure. He was a nice guy. Always had good conversations with him. We enjoyed a lot of that. But as Curtis Painter was playing quarterback, he's doing terrible, terrible, terrible.

We played at Cincinnati. Peyton was there with us. On the sideline, one drive, he was looking up at the Jumbotron, and he was calling the offense. He was signaling it in to Curtis Bainer of the year. He was out. Okay, so he was actually calling it. We go right down the fucking field.

I mean, boom, boom, boom, boom, touchdown. I assume that's because Peyton can see and has called a game and been there, done that, through that hole. You put the headset on the other day and I saw a picture literally 16 seconds later there was a touchdown the next play it was that were you calling plays what did you call and is that something that intrigues you at all to do later in life no I didn't call any plays. I had nothing to do with that. I just think that there's times where I had the earpiece on and I didn't want to put the headset on until the fourth quarter just because I wanted to give it a little bit more time

until I chimed in there and just see where we're at in the fourth quarter. Matt, there was some conversation on the headset. I could feel Matt's blood pressure was rising a little bit. I can be kind of a calming force on there, I think, as I've realized in preseason at times. So fourth quarter hit, I told Pat with the headsets, I said, all right, it's time. Give me this thing.

Get strapped in. We've got to level everybody out a little bit. But, no, I didn't call any plays. I helped out in the two-minute with some ideas, but I didn't call any plays. You enjoy it? We doing that for the future or what? No, man. I'm going to be away from the game when I'm all done.

What are you going to do? Hey, five years from now when you retire, what are you going to do five years from now, when you retire, what are you going to do? 10 years from now, when you retire, what are you going to do? Probably write a book. Nice. About what?

About COVID? I'm going to write down all the crazy ass stuff you used to do and put me through drinking those lipids. Come on. I cheese and who knows what the hell and all the and all the great wisdom you gave me as well. You know, I would have liked to come from Ohio and be fucking real tough. You know about Centerville. That's right, man.

What about any level? Would you coach in high school? High school I think would be fun. I really do. I think what Phil's doing, that's got to be a blast because you're still a part of it. You can have a big impact on the kids. I play at every level, including junior college,

which is a fun level between high school and big college. But you can still have an impact on the kids, I think, in high school a lot. In college, a lot of times it's this weird authoritarian setup. I'm the coach and I'm this genius and you're just a, you know, shipboard scholarship player.

Listen to me or I can bench you and put another scholarship guy in there. High school, there's a different – and junior college as well. Junior college was such a fun year. And I obviously had the greatest of coaches ever probably in the history of junior college and Craig Rigsby. Shout out to Coach Riggs. But I had a great experience. But high school, you can have a big impact on the kids.

And I think what Phil's doing, he's probably having a blast coming up with plays and being able to kind of speak into those kids' lives and give them hope and also give them a great experience. Because there's nothing like high school football where you're, you know, you're just playing with your buddies and going to campus, wearing your Jersey and, uh, you know,

Friday nights, uh, college or high school football is pretty special. Okay. So retirement, you've thought about it apparently, huh? Is that something that just happened there?

You would high school coach. You just had a pretty in-depth answer. Holy shit. I mean, you've obviously thought about this whole thing writing a book hopefully doing you know some maybe shows yeah yeah maybe maybe maybe doing some shows with some people uh that you said last year i think that you see you're on the back nine or something you understand that then there's always these rumors you know he was thinking and contemplating this and i don't know if that

whole thing whenever you're having this good of a year is it even possible to think that you're never going to experience this again you're probably in the middle of this wave you have to feel put up that record of touchdown interception ratios in the history of football minimum 500 literally you have the top six in the history of the game when it comes to being a touchdown thrower versus giving the ball to the other team and keeping them in the game. You are playing at your absolute best right now. When you think about the future, what do you think? Do you just think, okay, if I take care of myself well enough,

if I get in and I continue to do what I'm doing, I should be able to play forever, especially with the new rules that are being put into place for quarterbacks and protection? Is that your thought process? Do you ever get into it? It's about quality of life and enjoyment. And if it's still fun and I can still play, then there's a lot more reason to play. But if it doesn't have the same type of enjoyment, if I can't mentally commit to it fully, then I think you need to think about doing something else.

I don't want to be, oh, this could be my last year, this could be my retirement. I want to trust how it feels and where I am mentally. This has been a really, really fun year. I've loved so many different parts of it. I think the adversity has made it even that much sweeter because I've gotten opportunities to stand up for what I believe in and also meet people and communicate with people that I never would have actually gotten a chance to talk to. I also have got incredible support. And then being able to have all those different things coming at you

and still be able to compartmentalize and go out on the field and play your best. I mean, I take a lot of pride in that, for sure. And the connections with my teammates and to help inspire them, you know, listen to them, help them with their issues, you know, communicate my own mistakes and failures and try and help them do better. I love that. I love that opportunity to be a leader and to, and all the other parts of my job that don't involve me going out on the field and playing on game day. But, you know, it's a commitment. I think every year is a commitment. And, you know, I think I'll know where I'm at

when I see zeros on the clock in my, in our last game this season and, you know, take some time

to contemplate and have the right conversations and then, you know, make a decision without wasting too much time.

Hey, that confetti's going to be falling, huh? Yeah, please don't leave. Hey, that confetti's

going to be falling. Zero, zero, zero. You know what I mean? That's what we're doing. We're going on a run. Right?

My team's out. Indianapolis is out. We're going on a run now, right? We're going on a run. Let's go! Hell yeah! Hey, I have one final one. Hey, AJ!

Hey, Jay! What? No, don't do that. Put that baby belt away, bro. That's the title. Okay, belts hold up your pants. Stop doing that. Hey, Ben's going to send you a cease and desist for that hand signal.

Stop saying that. Do you think, Aaron, let's going to send you a cease and desist for that hand signal. Stop saying that. Do you think, Aaron, let's say a guy goes out and they win the Super Bowl towards the end of their career when they're old. Do you think they're more willing to walk away after you win a big Super Bowl like that or if you suffer a devastating loss? Which one would cause someone to retire, I think? That's good journalism. I think winning probably.

Winning would probably feel better, but I think that if you still can play at a high level, it's way harder to hang them up, regardless of how your last game goes, win or lose. I think if you're still playing at a really high level, that makes that decision to do it, because you're thinking, you know, we're lucky in this life if we are excellent at multiple things.

I think that's true. And that's not a knock against anybody. But for most of us, we're really good at, you know, maybe one or two things. And you think for my profession, there's a finality to it. I've been really good at this sport for a long time, but there's a finality at some point. You can't play until you're 70. So you have to start thinking about what else am I really good at

that I'd want to keep doing or start doing more of that would give me the same type of enjoyment. So that obviously comes into play. But there's also the health stuff too i mean guys have retired still playing pretty good because of concussions or being banged up or you know like andrew was on the broadcast last night i mean he's been banged up for like three or four straight years and that takes a toll on you so if you can be healthy and win and still be able to play that makes it really really tough to uh to move on i think if you're banged up you're tired of being sore at rehab and you're worried about head injuries or cognitive

brain function down the line or cte or getting multiple you know fake knees and hips and different things you know if you keep on going then that would that would impact you but if you can still or getting multiple fake knees and hips and different things, if you keep on going, then that would impact you. But if you can still play and mentally commit 100% to it, then it makes that decision, regardless of win or loss in your last game, it makes that decision probably a lot easier. We're excited to see you figure out your own happiness, pal. The world awaits, obviously, as this playoff run that goes through Lambeau shall be

electrifying. It's a bye week, so there's no book, obviously. We hope everybody decides to read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by old Mark Manson. This is last week's book and all the books beforehand. What's that? What was the title of that? Yeah, it looks like you just held up a book there real quick.

Oh, you have a book? I was looking at the old... This is not a part of the book club. Whoa! I think it's kind of a book club. Ladies and gentlemen, though I did not know this was going to happen, it is a post-season, first round buy,

book of the Aaron Rodgers book club. Remember all the way back, this thing started with The Alchemist. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck was last week. There was a couple Bible-length books in between. And now the first playoff book of the Aaron Rodgers Book Club is... This is a bye week. I said I'm not doing it.

I was going to cue up AJ because AJ said he had a book. Nobody's going to listen to AJ Hawks' he had a book. Now, nobody's going to listen to AJ Hawk's book. No way. This is not – I mean, no way is that something. Not my club, man. This is all your thing. The Aaron Hawk Book Club. Aaron James Hawk Addition to the Book Club.

Oh, a guest picker. Hey, how many books do you think in your book club have you actually read? In my book club? That you have put out. How many of these like 17, 18 books have you actually read and not just looked at the cover? I've read all the books in my book club. Okay. All right.

Fair enough. I believe you. What is this guy's problem, man? A lot of books. I'm not sure. It's a stupid narrative. I haven't read these books. Well, you need to read. I was just asking, Aaron? A lot of books. I'm not sure. You're going to describe this stupid narrative. I haven't read these books. Well, you need to read.

I was just asking, bro. Stop being so sensitive about it. You guys okay? You guys want to talk about it? You guys want to talk out loud? You have read the books. Aaron and John Kuhn like to argue about who's more sensitive. Oh, let's talk about John Kuhn.

You saw John Kuhn on the sideline. He pointed across the field, and you did a kicking motion. Is that old friends? It felt like a preseason game and you did a kicking motion. Is that old friends? It felt like a preseason game almost there for a little bit. I'm just trying to give John a little shine. He gets a little upset if he's not on camera on a big Fox camera now and then. But, no, we were running. It was halftime, right?

It was five seconds on the clock. They kicked a short field goal. And some of the guys took off, and I There was five seconds on the clock. They kicked a short field goal. Some of the guys took off. I realized there was two on the game clock still. Nate, we're a long-time trainer. He was fucking out. He sprinted. He got to the end zone before he realized there was nobody else

behind him. I was kind of over there and I saw Johnny standing there. Johnny does our sideline reporting for the radio network. The guy that does it for the Lions is TJ Lang, an old teammate of ours. You know, one of the toughest dudes I've ever been on the field with, also one of the biggest, stoutest heads in the whole business. And so I was asking Johnny where Teej was because sometimes they'll be on the same sideline from time to time,

and so we were laughing about where big Teej was. Is that something that the Packers look for? Hey, do you have an enormous cranium? All right, we've got A.J., we've got Coon. You see this T.J. Lane fucking head? Get that guy in our building. All right, let's grab. Hey, Bokhtiar, you seen this thing? He's got a gate that he looks like.

Bring that massive, gigantic head in the green bay. You think that's something? I think, you know, back when Mike was with us, he wanted some fighters, too. And, you know, TJ is an old-time bar fighter, so he had those big old meat hooks, and I think it was a no-brainer. You see this big dude with a big old melon and great jawline

with some big old meat hooks who doesn't mind scrapping at a bar every now and then. That's the kind of guy that Mike wanted. Hey, that's a yinzer through and through. We appreciate that. TJ Lang, also hilarious on Twitter. Deserves a lot more followers than he actually gets. Ladies and gentlemen, first round buy, but the Aaron Rodgers Tuesday delivered yet again.

We appreciate you. What's the shirt? I saw the sick hat from MVS. What's the shirt? You've never seen Caddyshack? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course, of course. Yeah, the... Carl the Greenskeeper.

Oh, Bill Murray. Can't believe you didn't know that. Well, let's get the Greenskeeper. Oh, Bill Murray. Can't believe it. You didn't know that. Well, let's get the guitar out. Let's sing about it, dude. Let's sing about it. Let's sing about our old friend Bill Murray. Still alive, but deserves to be honored for sure. Burn down.

Go ahead. TJ just texted me. He's probably mad I mentioned maybe the size of his head. But big shout out. Shout out to TJ Lang. You know what I mean? Setting that jaw, keep punching. That's his motto.

All right. Well, ladies and gentlemen, Aaron Rodgers. Thank you, Aaron. Thank you. Appreciate you. So sorry to interrupt, but I want to let you know that if you're not gambling with FanDuel, you're wrong. Okay?

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actually refund people when they shouldn't refund people giving back hundreds of millions and millions of dollars to their users Fandle sportsbook is the best sportsbook going for a lot of reasons most of them what I just said uh we are very thankful for our partnership with fandle obviously there are so many different ways to win there's more things to bet on their boosts seem to always hit which is just fucking themselves over time and time again uh we love the hell out of fandle sportsbook and you will too if you haven't used it yet use it nah also there's fantasy on there daily fantasy and free to play games where you can win money shout out to fanduel shout out to you let's get back to the show

now not just aaron rogers on this particular tuesday ladies and gentlemen we have a surefire hall of famer icon joining us as well 16 time world champion He's been a rapper, he's an actor, and on Thursday, premiering on HBO Max, he is the star of the series Peacemaker, a show in which we got a chance to screen a little bit here for the first time in our show's existence. Good for us. And it's going to be legendary. I think everybody's going to love it. It's going to be a smash hit, ladies and gentlemen, John Cena. It's going to be legendary. I think everybody's going to love it. It's going to be a smash hit, ladies and gentlemen, John Cena.

Yeah! What's up, dude? Mr. McAfee, I don't know what was better, the introduction or that tank top. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Hey, you know, every once in a while, you got to throw it. That was on Tuesday, man. No, every day, John. I do it every day.

I'm doing the same over here. Oh! If I was you, I would never wear a shirt, though. You are one of the most yoked humans to ever exist, and you've had to do that on TV for like 20 years. I spent 20 years with my titties out, so I'm pretty sure you're in a good spot. I think you're in a great spot. You crushed it with the WWE.

You carried an entire generation. Depending on who you ask, but thank you. You crushed it with the WWE. You carried an entire job. Depending on who you ask, but thank you. You obviously lean into a John Cena bias. I appreciate that. Well, no problem at all. Okay, so let's dive into it. Let's talk about wrestling before we dive in. Let's not dive into it, but no, let's do it. Okay, let's go head first. We'll go head first right in. We'll go head first right in. No, what? Damn it, Pat. How you doing? How are you? You know, I'm pretty good, John. How are you, man? Everything good?

You've busy, very busy, I assume, with the Peacemaker coming out on Thursday. Yeah, but I mean, you know about being busy, too. We try to, you know, I would be speaking for you, but I think you're probably one of those folks that just try to stick one thing at a time, do the best with what you got in front of you and move forward, right? Is that how you've been able to do so much, you think? Is it because you focus so much on the present? Like, you crush WWE so much.

Listen, as a fan, and I know you catch heat probably, and that's why you cut me off earlier and said, depending upon who you ask, you were fucking great, dude. You should always remember that, and I hope you understand that. What time is it where you're broadcasting, and how much have you had to drink? No, no, no. I don't drink anymore.

I just smoke, but it's 1234 12 34 eastern you obviously are on another planet no i i appreciate it uh i am on another planet usually but it's a real thing and if i'm on another planet all the time while i'm watching it my uh rating can be the exact same you were great your promos were unbelievable getting to watch you live and listen to that audience give you the love and the buzz was fucking cool dude so i appreciate you uh kind of coming back doing the run when i was there it was an honor it was it was really cool to fucking watch again you got you got a uh a very um adjusted view so i'm i'm probably at the point where i could be deemed a nostalgia act and you

got to see that uh pretty firsthand not not to say that i didn't uh treat it very seriously i love every single time i step on the canvas but man had you showed up a little before that it wasn't exactly all of the same reaction as it was for a summer scene a summer scene to me i was caught by surprise every single arena i went to because it's usually a lot more as michael cole would say uh polarizing than that so that was kind of my first experience where um i would say a majority of the audience appreciated my presence there because normally it's weird you try to go out and play a character of virtue character with a virtuous foundation and people tell you to fuck off and that's and i mean they

really would tell me that and that's a that's an interesting combination and that's i think that's what makes wwe beautiful and the live audience so special is because they they decide how they feel about characters you can you can be a virtuous character and you can be a character built on hard work uh loyalty uh respect you can embody you can embody that and the audience can choose as a collective hey this isn't what we're into right now we'd we'd prefer somebody more in the gray or we'd prefer somebody more flawed. So I'm glad you actually got to see that reaction, but being out there for more than just that period of time,

I need to let you know that it certainly wasn't always like that. And I was actually really grateful for the fact that it wasn't because it challenged me every single night. If I'm going to play this virtuous character, I better do a damn good job because not only do they want to tell me to f off but they were waiting for me to slip up and they all the audience themselves always kept me at my best and i'm very thankful for that well i think your promo is why not only because you're physically capable you're an incredible athlete and you adjusted your move set and skill set even though you will never get credit for it

but your promo is something that is made you a goat right put you in a mount rushmore because of how you could talk and it's interesting to hear you say like well if i slipped up at all they were going to fucking bury me being your motivator are you just you couldn't you you had to take that personally i guess huh even on wrestling you're probably told don't you don't you can't but at some point you have to take that personally i'd assume no the secret is uh just drink 20 ounces of bodily fluids every day but that's that's the secret uh no no i just um it wasn't it it wasn't that i wanted i didn't want to get eaten alive i just i'm as passionate as the people on the other side of the barrier you know um

it's WWE is that weird zone where it isn't pure sport it's not he who runs fastest wins it is an it is a participation event with every person involved if you're up in section 313 you are still in the act and you know when the red light is on, all of us are on TV collectively and all of our voices are heard. I can only imagine what your perspective is calling that action as another piece of the puzzle to the viewing audience at home. I don't cater to that audience a lot my ethos has always been if everyone in the arena is having a good time the audience at home is having a good time

you're right by the way, you're right, you are right when we turn into sporting events why are we on the edge of our seat? Because the audience is going crazy and there's tension in the air and that's palatable and we can feel it so I always just wanted the arena to be rocking and everyone expects and shows up with high energy.

And for me to go out there apathetic or wanting to be somewhere else isn't fair to all those fans. And hell, I've been a fan. I was in WrestleMania crushing beers before I got waxed by The Undertaker. So I've been a fan. And that was one of my favorite experiences of all time because i got to sit out there and normally i'm peeking around from a curtain i can't sit and watch a wwe show i remember when they're like yeah we want to put you out there from like uh like 806 to 817 i'm like no i'm going out when doors open and i went

out at three o'clock and i watched like three hours of wrestlemania it was so cool because they're like you're gonna get mobbed i'm like i'm gonna get mobbed only for as long as it takes to meet everybody and i literally i met like three sections of people and then everybody's chilled and watched the show because we're watching with john yeah watching the show yeah like hey man and then i i made great friends with some people who travel from australia some people who travel from across the U.S., buying each other beers. Like, literally, I crushed, you know, three tall drafts before they told me Undertaker was there and I had to hop the barricade and go and go wrestle the Undertaker. But it was that was a great experience for me because I got to to be something I admire and something that I am.

I got to be a fan. I got to watch it from the seats. So I guess that's what that's what kept me on it every night. Earlier performers like like Undertaker, like Eddie Guerrero. Those guys really leaned into the fact that people paid to see them and they would give them of all of themselves to make sure that you got your money's worth. And I learned that that message very early. OK, the way that's awesome to hear and i think that is what every fan would hope that uh you know the top big guy the top guy would uh have that type of passion so after all those years of pouring in every single night as if it's wrestlemania every night and every promo is your last promo everything you have to reprove yourself every single night that's a chip on the shoulder that elite athletes have you you just got exhausted with it you were you excited for the next chapter and at what point did you realize like acting is probably going to be the natural move here

because i'm great at speaking i'm already having to do uh shows and i am absolutely fucking yoked dude like at what point at what point did that whole thing kind of creep in you know and was it because you're exhausted we we are i i'll give you all the time you want today man this is absolutely the most fun i've had an interview i've been waiting to do this for a long time and you have exceeded expectations let's go thanks for coming on john thank you no you know i um in in playing a character that, you know, like I said, a character of virtue, a character that started as a generic wrestler and then morphed into this hip-hop persona and then morphed into this character of virtue, to play the same character for a long time, that's a challenge.

I loved the challenge. I really loved it when, like, early on, a challenge. I loved the challenge. I really loved it when like, uh, early on, you know, I remember Vince toyed with the idea of possibly turning me heel for the, for the rock, the rock one in Miami. And I told him, I'm like, Hey, no problem. A hundred percent. I'll do it. But just remember that this is so, um, we're so deep in at this point, we can't do it and then jump back because we'll be sunk at both ends. So if we do it, I have to be the opposite of virtue. I have to be pure evil and we have to go all in.

And from a believability standpoint, I've always, you know, people always see me in uniform. Go figure that. If you didn't see me in a suit in WWE, you saw me in a ball cap, T-shirt, jean shorts, sneakers. You saw me in uniform because I want, yeah, wristbands because I want people to know that what they see is somebody they can relate to. And he decided against it. And at that point, he was like, listen, I don't think we're ever going to do it. So that's me getting, OK, you have the luxury of playing this character but you always are going to play this character which was great because it got me to dive into nuances that kind of spawn the

creation of like the firefly funhouse match where like yo what if i went on a meta experience through all of my my flaws and through all like my timeline so you know you can do stuff like that um but it's really fun to be able to be like, you want to be this weird dude who thinks he's a superhero and murders people in the name of peace? Yeah, that sounds like a great time. I'd like to do that as well. You want to be this weird, conflicted boyfriend and have awkward sex with Amy Schumer on camera? And like, yeah, that'd be fun. I can tell some jokes during that.

That'd be fun. So it's not that I thought I would be any good. It's when you do something for as long as you do it, what brings me back to WWE isn't the falling down. It isn't the improvement of physical skill. It's the storytelling. I like being able to tell a story with Roman Reigns that I don't think he's a worthy champion,

and for people to buy into that and not because he's not uh not because of the value of the belt let's say it's because of who he is as a human being and point out what I believe is his character flaws and then we go back and forth there you go right on then we go back and forth about that um I love the challenge of telling a story and acting is literally just being able to change characters whenever you want and tell a new story I found that pretty intriguing so let's talk about this peacemaker character because yeah i'm not a big superhero guy never have been okay and i i do feel bad because a lot of my friends are i what i've learned here you're in the dc world okay you

are in the dc you're an outcast though they don't like you and you're for adults after watching a couple of the episodes we got sent. I think the show is going to do very well. I'm not a superhero guy, but early reviews have to be great, and you have to be pumped that this is going to be something that's going to be around for how long? Everybody's a superhero forever. Multiple seasons.

You could potentially be the same character, just like Vince told you. You could be the same character for the next 20 years. It's awesome it seems like. Pat, they hired the right guy. And you may not be a superhero guy, but I gotta hear you say it, you gotta be a peacemaker guy. Hey, I'm a peacemaker guy, dude.

Hey, I'm a peacemaker, hey, I'm a peacemaker. All right, I'm a peacemaker guy. I am, I'm in, it was cool, it was awesome to watch. And that's not something I would ever go and check out, but got a chance to see it you were in it right I'm a fan of yours you always seem to create great shit I mean Ferdinand dude are you are you kidding me bro and I got an audience pop too I appreciate you got a hell of a studio in there oh yeah the boys yeah we're all big Cena fans I mean there's gonna be questions all around here we're all big Cena fans. I mean, there's going to be questions all around here. We're all big Cena fans. I think the first time I met you, and you meet so many people,

and you did like however many make-a-wishes with the WWE, your days were filled with nonstop work. There was an NXT event I was at with Michael Cole. It was one of my first times. And you walked in, and I was sitting in a comfortable chair, and you sat behind me in a bad chair, and I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like this, I should not be here. So I go to get up. I'm up i'm like you want the seat and you're like no no sit down and i literally said hey ferdinand's a fucking banger dude and then i just turned back around like this and cole

goes uh what you say i was like i told him the ferdinand's a fucking banger dude that was a great movie you do you have a history of making bangers and selecting great movies. You don't have... You've seen some of my early amateur work, I see. I assume that's the case. You have that in every movie you're in as well. But this Peacemaker is going to be a hit. It's going to be a smash.

And I hope so. It's like going into a main event where people are interested. We have good reviews. There's a lot of buzz around the character. Everybody's excited for the show to come out on HBO Max. We're two days away from it. I'm in uniform, which means people relate to the character

enough for me to... They gave me the uniform. It's not even mine. DC owns it. So for them to lend out the Peacemaker IP, I'm very happy about that. It seems like we got something that's interesting on our hands, and it's that feeling of going into that main event with a little bit of buzz,

going into that championship game with a little bit of buzz, and now all we got to do is deliver, and I really hope we can do that to audiences around the world in two days. Well, I think it's going to crush. And HBO Max has such a large platform, people are going to be intrigued as soon as they see James Gunn. That's a big-time name in this entire game.

In the writing, it's just... Man, I got to tell you, I love the posse you got in there. They're like Team Harumph. Like James Gunn? Yeah, Harumph. That's because I get a lot of shit wrong. Unlike you, you know how you're like, hey, if I get things wrong, they'll crush me for it. I get things wrong on a daily.

They're much smarter than me, but they do have questions actually. Ty Schmidt was in a Smackdown commercial from the Wrestlemania in which you sprinted from your seat when Undertaker came back and you ran. He was up on his chair right there and did a full boom

and it ran in the Smackdown thing. Ty, one of your biggest fans question for you. Yeah, one of the best moments of my life, first seeing that. John, speaking of the creative process, I know you're a producer on this as well, but James Gunn, obviously, like Pat mentioned, very respected, and he directs it and writes it. How much were you involved with shaping the season,

and how much of the character did you get to play around with as you were getting ready for the show? That's a great question. I think I probably could have taken more leverage, but I didn't want to. I think the the the invite to be a producer on the show was Warner's, was DC's, was HBO Max's way of saying we are invested in you and we're invested in you so much that we'd like to include you in this process what i did do was uh open my ears and keep my mouth shut i'm around people who make good television i'm around great storytellers and james puts a great production team around him people that know uh how to get shit done so i learned a little bit about budget i learned a whole hell of a lot about COVID protocol, you know, daily schedule.

I was in my first postmortem meeting like I learned about their game plan. And I got to pretty much sit in the coach's corner, so to speak, and learn from people with a shit ton of wisdom. So I really think it was their way of saying we're investing in you, which made which made me feel great. really think it was their way of saying we're investing in you which made which made me feel great but in no way did i take that title and abuse it i realized i'm a rookie and i got a lot to learn and uh i got a chance to learn from some pretty wise people and that's exactly what i did well we think you did a great job after watching the screeners you went all in too and i can't thank you enough all all in all all in. Hey, you might win some awards. We're not putting the tip.

It's the whole piece. All in. And I think you might win some awards, and I can't wait to see your career continue. Ladies and gentlemen, star of Peacemaker, which comes out on Thursday on HBO Max, John Cena. Thank you. Yep, man. I love talking to you. I hope I can come back.

Oh, that's John. In costume, out of costume, whatever you want to do, dude. Just before we go, I want to congratulate you and your team on all your success, and I also want to congratulate you for your candor upon your announcement of that success. It shows who you are as a person and that's a damn class act, so hats

off to you. Man, thank you, John. We appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, John Cena. Thank you. A man who got a chance to experience a national championship in the national championships future forever home

Indianapolis last night man who traveled in by plane then by vehicle by me driven downtown then we walked to the game experienced it in the suite

walked back across the city to where Connor's car was, drove back and then flew. Had a night of his life, a night that he will never, ever, ever forget. One of the greatest nights of this man's life was just one night ago. We will talk to him about that and also being a Super Bowl champion and a college football national champion. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hall. Yeah!

What a night. What a night, huh? What a night. What a night. Is that true? Is the national championship in Indianapolis from here on out? Should be. Should be.

That's what everybody on the internet was saying. Hey, J., and you got to experience it. Go ahead. It's a fast track, man. It's a fast track. The stadium is really sweet. Where we met Connor, I don't know what you call that area, the open area, where you can stand and watch the game from up top.

Like, it's a pretty cool spot. Yeah, it is. It has a nice little open. You can go on and talk about other stuff, too, that you experienced last night other than just the last spot as we were leaving. You know? He's leaving. You can talk about how loud that –

But we're that place loud with all those dogs there. Hark, hark, hark. Hark, hark, hark. A lot of dog fans. A lot of dog fans in that stadium there was a little doubt by you you know ohio state guy well i doubt they're not gonna sell this place out that's all really okay okay you're not gonna sell this place out come on dude hey by the way they did not say that for the record no he did there was a lot of like me him, though, some comparisons to Ohio State and stuff like that.

Because I think the SEC is just a bunch of Ohio State. There's a bunch of cults. Now, I learned last night, Ohio State has 50,000 undergrads. So it is huge. So whenever they graduate and go on to wherever they are, Ohio State has, just by math, they have a large fan base. So they're able to travel. just by math, they have a large fan base, so they're able to travel. And I feel like in the SEC, they all have the similar cult-like feel as all those people of Ohio State have because it is different down there.

And were you impressed by the dogs, that fan base? I mean, it was 75-25, 80-20 almost. And there's a lot of reasons. Maybe the Alabama fans said, hey, we're going to be in this thing again next year. We'll go when it's a warm city. Maybe they think, and maybe the Georgia fans went because they knew this was the year where they potentially had a chance to really do it, especially

with Stetson Bennett and their kicker who was balling out. Were you impressed with the Dog fans and the SEC fans yesterday, AJ? Oh, yeah. I mean, leading up to the game, I was impressed with the Dog fans and just Alabama fans as well, but we kept seeing videos of them calling the Dogs on airplanes, in restaurants, everywhere around the country. And then Alabama fans as well, but we kept seeing videos of them calling the dogs on airplanes,

in restaurants, everywhere around the country. And then when we got there, yeah, we got to interact with a few of them, a few guys that may have been over-served a bit, made a long walk with us, too, from one area to meet Connor. I don't know still exactly what was going on, but he was actually an Alabama fan because Alabama was still winning at that time. And Alabama had a small area, and that guy was asking us a lot of questions. That guy was asking us a lot of questions.

Not to remember any of the answers. No way. He was so drunk, and he had two more beers in his hands. Oh, nice. But they looked like they were both half-drank, so I don't know if it was because he spilled them or if he did feel like a guy who could potentially just scoop two people's beers that are kind of down and about that are already half-drank.

He also struck me as somebody who maybe takes a sip of wine and then thinks, I got to take a sip of this one. I got to take a sip of this one. Hey, one for me. What? Two for me. What? Three for me.

What? Holy shit, is that A.J., huh? A.J., you don't even care about who wins this game, huh, AJ? You don't even care. That's what this guy was saying to AJ. You don't even care. You guys don't care who wins? He knew.

Like, what are you talking about, dude? We absolutely care. I think it's cool you don't. It was awesome. It was great seeing, I mean, there was a lot of fans, you know, a lot of Southern accents in there last night. Got a chance to meet a lot of people that knew the show. That was very cool. Got a chance to experience the greatest stadium in all of sports, Lucas Oil, from top to bottom, from ramp to ramp.

Jeez, we did. We explored the bowels of that place. Why did we walk every inch of that place? We walked seven ramps, and we were still at the 300 level. And we never saw anybody. We walked on a ramp for 15 minutes, and we didn't see one person. I was like, are we walking to our death? Hey, I led off the show thanking ESPN for the hospitality.

That was very nice of them. Absolutely. Yeah, they were awesome. I mean, 50-yard line suite at the National Championship. Okay. I've never even walked by one of those before, so it was cool to get to go in and watch the game there. They were awesome. The whole experience

was amazing, man. I appreciate you reaching out and giving me the ticket. That was exactly my thought, by the way, what you said there. Hey, Pat, Mr. Pataro of ESPN is wondering if you would like tickets for his suite at the national championship game. Mr. Pataro, who runs ESPN?

Yeah. Is the national championship on ESPN? Yeah. Oh, my God. He's going to have, what, the second best suite in the entire place. Who is it? It's Mr. Ursae, who is in there with Peyton and the boys in there. And then it's probably this

guy right in the next week i would absolutely love i'd be honored to i'd be honored i'd be honored to be in there just like to see how it goes you know and i've never met him before i never met him we talked on the phone but we had never met in person i felt like it was a good reach out and it's in indianapolis we have to be there you know like yeah as a sports show that is hubbed in indianapolis if the national championship is going we have to be there so know like yeah as a sports show that is hubbed in indianapolis if the national championship's gonna we have to be there so it was like a lot of things it was like okay yeah let's do it it was so nice that we were sitting on the i mean 50 yard we had our own section aj that was unbelievable ten digs was ever looking all his dogs he was calling the dogs from up there dogs

minus two and a half what a night night. That was really fucking cool. That was really, really cool. It was awesome. I mean, I think I had 14 pieces of grilled chicken in there as well and 12 pounds of cheese. So, believe me, they said, hey, you got to eat. You came in here. You got to eat. And I didn't let them down. Well, you know, Jimmy Fattaro is.

Oh, yeah. We had a lot of talk with Jimmy. About the cop and ghoul. You know, eat, eat, eat. It's cop and ghoul. Eat, eat, eat. It's your skin and bones. Eat, eat, eat. They had the entire – hey, how about that dessert spread that they had? They had an entire – this shit was nice, dude.

This shit was nice. Maybe we experienced the national championship different than a lot of people, but I think it should be here every single year. I think we should do that every single year. I think there should be an opportunity to do that. Is that what Ohio State's like? Is that what games are like, though? That type of – that level of –

Of, like, buy-in. Yeah, that level of buy-in from all the fans. And, like, they live and die with how the team goes. Yeah, that's what college football is, I feel like, at awesome programs. And we saw two of them, two awesome programs last night in that stadium. Still impressed. Okay, going to the talk on the field quick. programs and we saw two of them two awesome programs last night uh in that stadium still impressed like okay going to the talk on the field quick i don't know how much you guys have talked about it but those guys like every guy in the field i feel like is so damn athletic so fast

and they all are unbelievable tacklers too like the defense is how fast they close distance was just it freaked me out there was a couple there was like a shoestring tackle that looked like the guy just like pulled the rug out on so i mean there is aj had i heard a murmuring to himself a couple times and he was very happy he did not grow up in this era of football just because while you're watching these guys from the 50 and you're just seeing there's like a linebacker getting to the outside aj there was a 16 made that massive hit. 16 had a shot. Georgia linebacker 16. He killed somebody early on Bama's sideline. 17. 17, yes.

No, no, no. 16. This was 16. It was 16. I forget his. And A.J., as soon as he makes the hit, A.J. goes, oh, I was watching him pre-snap. You should have seen what he just did or something like that.

And then they show the highlight. This dude sprints like 30 yards reads it perfectly and hits a guy square they had the field was filled with it it's they were running out of the tunnel i said earlier and you see alabama they got like 200 deep but just like oh every guy's going to the nfl that's cool good for those guys and then georgia did the same goddamn thing it is there's levels to this thing, man. There's levels. Yeah. I think I was, I was super impressed by like the level of football played out there and

how, how like you think, okay, cool. There's, this guy's got a little bit of space. He might, he may pick up a first down here and all of a sudden seven defenders closed so quickly. And it's a one and a half yard game. Like that's what the game felt like to me. Well, and also like some of the catches that were being made. Like in college football, I feel like those big-time catches that we see on Instagram by guys don't happen in the game for whatever reason.

It's a bobble or they're out of bounds. Last night there was like two or three that were like highlight reel. And this is what Herbstreet said to us. What was that last week? He said back in the day the level of football and IQ of football in college might have been lower, and there was only a couple guys that are good. He said, but now with how the NFL and the college game is kind of intermixing, there's a lot of masters almost that are out there,

and the intelligence level of the football that's happening is at a higher level. I was never able, and I am nowhere near as athletic as anybody that plays D1 football, okay, in an actual position. I mean, maybe, to be honest. I had some big-time tackles. Just pure athletic ability you're talking, right? Yeah, but I'm talking about importance to the game, okay? I would never.

I understand my position, kicker, punter for college. This is nothing but. Hey, Jim Trestle, punt, the most important play in football. Yeah, and he's a genius. That's right. He does his thing. But after watching thefl and being in it from an nfl city pittsburgh and watching the nfl and then you watch what old school college was where it was like kind of nfl football but just like a watered down version of it and after i got a front row seat to watch

great football and that's one of the benefits of the punter position is I'm literally in the meeting I'm sitting in the front row I'm in the locker room I'm friends with basically everybody I got to experience it and learn why some people were doing what they were doing and watch it every single day come together at a very high level it was tough for me to watch some college football because it's like hey these these dudes are terrible football this is this is bad football this is not good football. Coaches have no idea what the fuck they're doing. Time management-wise, this is bad.

This is like if I wanted to go watch bad football, I'd go watch pickup somewhere and do that whole thing. Now after watching last night, and I think here as of late with how the game is becoming younger in the NFL, you're seeing a lot of younger guys in skill positions blossom early and do that whole thing. The game has has last night was electrifying that game was and the kicking was so good kicking was so good wow huh because of

the kick and track yeah it's fast kicking track it's known it's known in indie there yeah you got a chance to see it congrats dude i got to see it firsthand yeah normal like i think the last time i was in that stadium was when i was in the bangals and we played you in a preseason game. That's the last time I was there. That place holds up great. It still looks really good. Fast track. Fast kicking track, I should say. No, good kicking track. What's your deal? Let's get to some NFL news.

So your kickoffs would have been garbage anywhere else is what you're saying? I don't know, man. I have the highest touchback percentage in the history of the NFL. I don't know. You tell me, dude. Not a lot of slow NFL. I don't know. You tell me, dude. What's that mean, AJ? You tell me, dude. Not a lot of sluts, Jack.

Is that good? Is every stadium a good stadium for me? I don't know. You fucking tell me, dude. All right? Philadelphia. Philadelphia, I think I average like 14 yards a punt. So, Cleveland, same thing.

Would I have had the same career I had in Indy if I was in any of those cities? Probably not. Thank God for that. But the kicking tracks were good around here. Hell yeah. Kicking tracks were good around here. Where's the national championship next year? Do we know? Indianapolis.

Indianapolis. Indy. It's right here. Okay. How many years do they have it? Eight. Fifteen. Twenty.

Yeah, extended. Hey, I told – we talked about thanking Commissioner Sankey for saving football. Did you talk about it? Yeah, yeah. We talked about it. We went into it pretty in-depth as well. Probably too probably too deep but we did that was a big moment last night we remember we were waiting on leaving we were waiting we were when you did it when you made the decision i saw you actually go up to thank him for saving football i didn't think you would do it as quickly i didn't think you were actually going to do it

because we we brainstormed about it for about 15 20 minutes about three feet away from yeah and i talked about how digs had to google the man make sure and we were looking at his picture literally three like less than two feet away from him yeah i think that's him and sound travels i'd assume so he had to have heard us potentially talking behind him but once he sat down and i saw maybe you, that he has a little break in the action here. Sir. I know, Commissioner. Thanks for saving football, dude. He stands up.

I'm like, no, no, you don't need to stand up. You save football, dude. That's literally what I said. And he said, no. And he knew who we were. It sounded like, didn't it? Didn't it sound like he knew who we were at some point? I don't know. It did exactly like he did.

But he was very, like, he didn't want to accept it. He didn't want to accept the compliment. Can we explain what you meant by that? AJ goes, I can't hear a word he's saying. I said, well, he just mentioned Ohio State to you, so he knows who you are. Yeah, he did. He said we brought the SEC championship up here to Big Ten country or something, which is very nice of him to do that.

Good guy. Hey, it was so cold. Oh, God. Yeah. I mean, they didn't have a whole lot of outdoor activities like at a Super Bowl, did they? Like surrounding the game? What are you doing here?

What is your question? It seems like you're leading into a stat, that narrative you're trying to build. Is that what you're doing right now? No, no, no. I'm not leading to a stat. There was a lot of conversation last night about how maybe the – We said it was eerily quiet outside the stadium for some reason. It was dead quiet.

Yeah. You can't do a whole lot when it's negative 50. It felt like it was extra cold when we left. So then we talked about the players, you know, like if we were on one of the teams. Now, AJ did get to experience this. I never did, mostly because it's, you know, my fault as well. But, like, the bowl weeks always were, like, special.

Bowl weeks were special. You go out. We went out to Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl. That was, like, a special were special you go out we went out to phoenix for the fiesta bowl that was like a special week where you kind of get away you know we go down to jacksonville go to carolina we went down to atlanta you know experience atlanta a little bit it was a little bit warmer still cold like those bowl weeks were like super bowl weeks you remember forever i mean it was cold as shit here in india man yeah i don't know freezing and maybe that's what they'll remember hey you remember when we went up to Indy and it was nine degrees?

Nine degrees. I wonder what they did. Was the convention center just set up for a bunch of shit? What do you mean? A Sam Hunt concert down there at Circle. Yeah. So pregame show. They threw it down to Sam Hunt.

He performed his whole fucking album. Right here? Yeah, in the Circle. So they really packed people in down there. Oh, so they were doing 15 in a 30. I ain't got no worry. I will take it slow just as fast as I can. Come on, Indy.

Was the halftime show who you thought it was? Yes. Was the halftime show who you thought it was originally? This was garnering conversation last night as well because katie perry and avicii did not perform it was right there though it was a less so yeah less so but i didn't even see it was it there it wasn't live no it was just on the uh espn broadcast they just played a music video it was pretty sweet though kind of like they used to do with the halftime. Yeah, it had some

feeling of the Genesis halftime show. I'll tell you what, Katy Perry still got it. Yeah, I didn't hear the song. Was it good? Oh, yeah.

I didn't watch that part. It was a Katy Perry music video? Yeah. Did we not see that? We went to the bathroom. Was it Firework? Was it Firework?

No, a new song. World premiere. It sucked. I like Katy Perry. It sucked. Whoa! I like Katy Perry. It sucked. Well, nothing to do with fireworks, so quit making music. Wow.

They had fireworks in the building, though. Remember during the national anthem? Yeah, they got us. That was a pretty big pop because the roof was closed and there was boom, boom, boom, boom. The in-stadium entertainment, what's that? What? There was quite a deep breath that was just had there by you. No, I dropped my thing. No, you didn't.

You didn't drop a single thing. So, did AJ just have an absolutely terrible time last night? Yeah. I'm sorry. He had a great time. No, listen. I get this. He was judging everything.

Don't say. He doesn't like it. Okay, no. This picture, you act like I'm mad or something. I barely knew you were taking this shot. I don't know about you, Pat, but I had a great time, laughed a lot, had multiple different situations. But, yeah, for some reason, I get painted like I didn't have a good time

just because I'm a curious person and I ask questions throughout the night. I know your problem, AJ. I have similar sentiments. Yeah, we had a great time. I mean, we had a great time in there. There was a lot of laughing, but there was a lot of, we're waiting for an elevator for 35 minutes here. I mean, what is going on here?

There was a lot of that. There was a quarterback who met me and did not look me in the face one time because he just kept thinking, what the fuck is this guy wearing a cowboy hat for? Oh, you're talking about Peyton Manning? Yeah. The sheriff? Yeah. He was the only guy in is this guy wearing a cowboy hat for? Oh, you're talking about Peyton Manning? Yeah. The sheriff? Yeah. He was the only guy in the whole stadium wearing a cowboy hat.

I actually feel bad because I kind of said, you're wearing a cowboy hat. I think I asked in a leading fashion. It was kind of because I didn't know what the decision was going to be. SEC, you know. Gotta do it. Georgia, definitely decision was going to be. SEC, you know. You got to do it.

Georgia, definitely known for their cowboy hats. Well, a lot of boots. A lot of boots. Not a lot of cowboys. You may have been the only cowboy hat in Lucas Oil. Oh, yeah. It was. Not me.

Oh, man. Just blocking a lot of people's view, too. Absolutely. I'm late behind. Sir sir can you take the head off oh dude i'm so sorry even because you're probably asking yourself and then when i asked the question you're like well maybe we should do this well in proper moments i would take it off to show respect like i wasn't an asshole yeah he did he had it over right over his chest. That a boy, Tony.

That's awesome. Dude, he was like clapping it off his heart, too. You know, yeah, he was doing like a pat with it, too. Yeah, boy. It was. Oh, man, what a night. Thank you, cowboy. Thank you, ESPN, for letting us in your suite. You probably missed the third quarter.

Like, hey, Jimmy Pataro, the head of ESPN, how did you like the crazy things that happened in the third? Well, I missed actually the whole third. The COVID cowboy was sitting in front of me. I saw the replay of it. I didn't get to see it live because there was this cowboy hat right over the 10-yard to about the 30-yard line from where I was sitting.

They were too nice. Very, very, very nice. Let's talk about what's going on in the coaching and general manager vacancy world, AJ. There's a lot of requests being sent out around the NFL to interview numerous people. The enemy's on some list. Darryl Bevel is on some list. There's a lot of, lot of people being asked about around the NFL

for head coaching jobs and general manager jobs. There's a lot of people in the media also promoting people to different jobs. For instance, Michael Lombardi said, Hey, I don't know if Michael Lombardi is an inside source. I don't know if Michael Lombardi thinks this, or if he just thinks it would make sense in his eyes, which I think would make sense to a lot of us, including Tony Dungy, who even went to the campaign trail for him on Sunday Night Football. And I'll take this time to do it yet again. Jim Caldwell was awesome to play for.

Jim Caldwell led our team to a Super Bowl. Granted, Peyton Manning was our quarterback, so it's the same thing as Matt LaFleur with Aaron Rodgers. Then Peyton Manning has a broken frickin' neck or something like that. He gets a surgery. He's out for the season. We lose. We go 2-14 or whatever we were, 3-13.

He gets fired alongside everybody. He goes to Baltimore as the offensive coordinator, wins the Super Bowl, goes to Detroit as the head coach, wins in Detroit. They fire him, and then he's just kind of been golfing ever since. So I don't know uh if jim caldwell is willing to take any job but michael lombardi is saying that look for jim caldwell to be under strong consideration in miami is that because they need a calm uh og who's probably going to bring a great staff in there and has been there done that or is it just because he

knows somebody uh down there you think aj i mean maybe – I'm sure he thinks Caldwell would be a good fit. Maybe he knows like people in their front office that he would have good relationships with. I don't know. They've said pretty much, right, Flores isn't there because his relationship with – is Greer the GM? Yeah, he's been there since 2000. Has he been the GM since then?

No. Doubt it. No, he's only been GM like last five years, I think. Because they have like Tannenbaum and stuff, right? Yeah. Okay. So, and Tua. So, you've got to have a good relationship.

He feels like Caldwell could have a good relationship with Tua. Is that part of it? Yeah. And does this mean that Tua is the future? Because in the media release, now granted, we have no idea about the media releases out of the Miami Dolphins program. Because there was a time where Tua missed games and they said, no real damage, actually. Yeah, he's just choosing to miss.

You remember that? And then they also rolled out the starting job for Tua instead of having the team. So media-wise, we can't really understand any reasoning behind why the Miami Dolphins would leak any information that they leak. Allegedly, the owner was looking in for a new quarterback, but now the most recent release of information,

which is either from a source or made up, is that Chris Greer and B-Flow didn't get along anymore. Tua and B-Flow didn't get along anymore. That, including the constant turnover of the staff, deemed him unfit to be the Miami Dolphins head coach anymore. So that would make it sound like they sided with Tua and Chris Greer. So it's Tua, the quarterback of the future. And is that the first time we have heard that ever, Gumpy?

Is that the first time we've ever heard that from the Miami Dolphins? So they also requested Brian Dayball, who was his OC and quarterback coach at Bama in 2017. Hey, so we're going to a robust downer. Hell yeah. One more ride, my friend. Spend all the money and get an O-line. Give this guy a shot. Hey, let's get two out there.

Two again, baby. AJ, what would you be looking for in a head coach, honestly? I don't know. So when they interview all these guys, right, don't they usually, like the initial talk is over Zoom, or they do like a virtual interview, and then they, what, narrow it down and bring down the guys and whoever back that they think has a chance?

Is that how they're doing it? I guess. What would you ask? I don't know. I just want to hang with them. I would definitely want them to go over their whole – they all have like big binders full of all like what they would do on certain situations and how they would build a team.

I would want to see that, yeah, but I would just want to hang out and talk to them, watch film with them, maybe walk around. I wish it would be nice to be able to walk around a practice somewhere and watch it with them. You can't watch his team, but maybe like the college senior, they already have guys by then. You have to make your hire by then. Yeah, you've got to assume that the football IQ is there

if they're going to be your head coach. The whole, hey, we've got to hang around each other, this person, you know, is a. Interact all the time in very high-stress situations where it's a lot on the line. So you have to be rock solid with those people. What's Darren's last name, special teams coordinator for the Bengals? Simmons. Darren Simmons told me at the Senior Bowl, he said, whenever we're, you know, looking for who we're going to pick up or whatever,

we're also looking into, like, who we can be around for eight hours a day if we had to be there. If you're doing Zoom calls and FaceTimes, how do you have any idea if somebody's going to be able to be somebody that can get along with others? They're down there in Miami saying that B-Flo didn't get along down there. That's why they have to fire him even though he won eight of the last nine. He's immediately getting looked at everywhere. I think people are people are like hey this guy is going to be highly sought

after how do they know that that isn't going to happen again and do they just shape it around beeflo as opposed to shaping it around chris greer and then that makes you go to the new york giant situation where it was reported that joe judge would have input into who the next general manager would be and that garnered big attention who the next general manager would be. And that garnered big attention because, obviously, the general manager coach role is two different roles, unless you're Bill Belichick, which is where Joe Judge came from. And Joe Judge doesn't have the resume to maybe do that,

just like Bill O'Brien down in Houston had this similar power, and he was with Belichick, and it did not work out. So that, obviously, why are we giving Joe Judge more power is how everybody reacted. I heard Maz Yohana this morning on ESPN say that Joe Judge will not be making the decision. They do want to know whether or not Joe Judge would probably get along with somebody though because that's a pretty big part of them.

If they're going to stick with Joe, if they're going to bring in a general manager, they have to be able to get along. If they hate each other, that shit ain're going to stick with joe if they're going to keep a general or bring in a general manager they have to be able to get along if they hate each other that shit ain't going to work so maz was like anybody saying that he's going to be deciding who the general manager is that is not the case they just want his opinion and then i think he went on to say like the general manager that they hire whether or not he likes joe judge as well like that's going to have to be something that is kind of fluid but i think that's smart to like hey are these two going to have to be something that is kind of fluid. But I think that's smart to like, hey, are these two going to be compatible? Are these two going to be able to get along?

Because that is a massive ordeal. There's a lot of places that have both spots open, general manager and coach. Like these are vital decisions that have to be made here early. Think how ballsy you would have to be if you're coming in to interview for the Giants GM opening and you tell them they they go okay so how would how would you move forward what would you do and say first off I'll get rid of the head coach I'm gonna bring in he gave us like a list of like five candidates I'm gonna interview each one of these guys I'll tell you what I like and dislike about these guys like do you think any of these these uh candidates

may do that is that possible yeah would you because that's the whole hey you gotta be pretty confident that you're gonna get more interviews that you have chances past this and maybe that's the whole, hey. You got to be pretty confident that you're going to get more interviews, that you have chances past this, and maybe that's what you need to do to separate yourself. I don't know. It depends how close the owners are in keeping Joe Judge, like how much they like him. Rest in peace, Sun Tzu. Yes, of course.

Art of war. I learned, just like you are right now, he did pass away. Unfortunately. A couple thousand years ago. That's right. But there's a lot of like, hey, be where they don't think you'll be. Do what you don't think. Be up when you're down. Be down when you're up. Like there's a lot of like hey be where they don't think you'll be do what you don't think be up when you're down be down when you're up like there's a lot of that type of stuff

going into an interview with Joe Judge in the room I'm firing that guy immediately that guy right there nobody else is doing that and Mars might be like holy shit I don't like this guy that would be wild that would be absolutely insane

Frank Reich had some things to say about, or things not to say about Carson Wentz. This is becoming a full conversation now because I guess at the end of last year, as reported by Joel A. Erickson of the Indianapolis Stars, shout out to Joel, last season he said, as I sit here right now,

I want Phillip Rivers to be my starting quarterback next year. Obviously, Phillip Rivers is going to retire. He's now a high school football program coach down here in Alabama. That's right. His team's really good. Oh, yeah. Ball players. He led that Colts team to the playoffs and obviously lost to the Bills,

but still made one last run there as Indianapolis Colts. Yeah, he did. One last run. And that's what Frank said. Frank said, you know, I would like to think this year, a little bit different answer when asked about his quarterback who is a veteran from another team. We love the team we had this year.

We knew everyone we brought in this year. We expected to play winning football, Reich said. Next year's roster will be next year's roster. I don't want to open it up about one player and then start talking about all of them. He said, you asked me about Carson, then who are you going to ask me about next? T.Y.? That's a guy that's beloved by everybody, but his contract is up.

And then you're going to ask me about anybody else that we could potentially have to do negotiations with that we have a lot of love for? Maybe that's why he answered the way he did. But I think he could have given a little bit more. He likes Carson, and the internet thinks this as well, while also putting the bet about not talking about anybody else so fascinating shit here uh and then T.Y. Hilton obviously does something on Twitter that garners a bunch of attention even though T.Y. and Luck are best friends and Luck

was back on TV last night with a great mustache back in Indianapolis going into the College Football Hall of Fame congrats to him uh Darius Butler put out a tweet you know of uh this is a superhero yeah wolverine wolverine obviously is that cena x man doesn't play that no dude thursday hbo max huge jack i'm gonna go back and how was it i gotta go watch that really continue it was a cool conversation actually oh good cut it a little short but carson though is now his future is in jeopardy or a question mark the Colts future is in a question mark Jim Irsay is gonna you know stay a steady person with the team and the franchise in the program to see what they go but that's a big time decision there because that could be a domino in the offseason of veteran quarterbacks you know because the Colts pretty

good position I think if they were to get into the market. Or if they're keeping Carson, they've got some money to save and kind of go on because they've only got to pay him $15 million. Well, and the difference with Phil and Carson is Phil signed there in free agency, and they actually went to go get Carson that contract, and it ended up costing them a first and third round pick. And it wasn't only Reich, but Carson is Frank's guy. That's why I feel like it's much different between Phil and him

because Frank was the one like, hey, let's go get Carson. I know who this guy is. I was there with him at North Dakota State. He's the guy. And obviously sitting outside the playoffs now, it's a much different situation. Well, they took a car ride, remember? Oh, yeah. And they had the same Bible verse on his phone that Frank read

that morning. Which one was it? It was that one about love and stuff. You know, you remember. Amen. Amen. Amen. This is going to be awkward on Sunday. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Peter 315. Boom. About being a man. Take me to church. I'm on the line. I'm on the line. Peter 315 boom about being a man Peter 315 says what what what

five verses what what but Austin 316 says I just whooped your eye I was on the spot allegedly that's pretty good allegedly allegedly I don't know I mean he probably thought about it at least one time Austin 316 says, I just whooped your eye out. Smiler. That was on the spot, allegedly.

That's pretty good. Really? Allegedly. Allegedly. I don't know. I mean, he probably thought about it at least one time before. Like your B-Flow, Chris and B-Flows yesterday? Oh, hey.

Yeah, with the comedian, you got to bring your best shit. Yeah. True. Ian Rapport. You know what I mean, AJ? When Ian Rapport's on, you got to bring your best stuff. Oh, yeah. He's pretty good.

But hold on. Going back to Frank Reich real quick. Oh, Jesus. Come on. don't you think he could have so the gm what andrew berry and cleveland said we fully expect uh baker mayfield to be our starter next year couldn't frank have said at least like hey i'm not going to open it up and talk about individual players but of course i love carson i want him to be here next year well fully expect does give you an out too right well we expected that and then we didn't realize that i don't know a, Aaron Rodgers was available. Even if you say, we want him back as our quarterback, we expect him to be back. You're not – like, if he's not there, they can't say, like, oh, you lied to me.

But also, let's remember, Frank is a human, and he was probably rather upset that he was doing this interview. So maybe this isn't his most clear-minded day about everything. He's probably just as pissed as all of us, even though he'll say stinking instead of fucking right he is stinking pissed is it possible he's just trying to maybe light a fire under carson's ass too like hey it's maybe not we don't need to continue just like coddle this guy and like act like he's the best quarterback ever like maybe we light a fire under his ass and see what he's really all about as opposed to you know never pushing him and and all that kind of stuff

never pushing him what do you mean well isn. Never pushing him? What do you mean? Isn't that why he left Philly pretty much? Because he was like, I don't want Jalen Hurts in my locker room while I'm quarterback. That's because he didn't want to compete with him. Then he got here and he was like, get rid of Haka Beeson right now. Trade him to Seattle. I don't want this guy

nipping at my heels while I'm trying to prepare us to win on Sundays. This is all alleged and we fully expect the true story. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe alleged. That is interesting, man. Sometimes coaches do try to motivate through the media like that.

Oh, yeah, for sure. And every time a coach speaks to the media, he's speaking to his players as well, and everybody in the NFL understands that. And I hope and I'd assume college is the exact same way. I think there was an interview done somewhere where I read it where Frank Reich admitted that he was coaching a little harder on Carson or something like that.

I forget who did the article, and I apologize for not remembering that, but I do believe he did start coaching a little bit harder. And he also gave an answer that was interesting about why Carson maybe didn't perform as well. And we've got to remember that Frank Reich is a quarterback. So Frank Reich is always going to side with the quarterback. In hard knocks, he actually said that he has a theory, always trust the quarterback, because the quarterback's out there.

The quarterback knows everything about that. But him coaching him harder and recognizing that he could get better is fascinating because what if Carson played bad football because of it even though Frank said that the reason why he's playing bad football is because it was hard to get into a rhythm because of the run game we were so run dominant and Carson's a different quarterback than that type of quarterback I think he also alluded to that there's levels to this you have no idea what side Frank completely resides on you know like maybe he is yeah but if that's true though at all,

where Carson, it's tough to get into a rhythm because their run game is so strong. Isn't that him saying Carson's not the right guy then? Because we have Jonathan Taylor. This guy's an MVP candidate. We're going to continue to run the ball. But play caller, who's Frank Reich, I mean, he was making decisions to get Carson into a groove

on a regular basis. And it's like, what are we doing? Beginning of that Jacksonville game? The beginning of that Jacksonville game. They were throwing. It was a throw. What are we doing? Jacksonville D-line came out ready to play, though.

Did you see? Yeah, and Roger Goodell better had been on the first thing smoking down to Duval Clontown with a bunch of piss tests saying, hey, you boys are unbelievable. Okay? It almost seems like that is super strength that you haven't had all season. If you would have played anything like this all year, you probably wouldn't have the first overall pick all of a sudden.

But I understand you had the whole Meyer problem. But that team was flying around. But I think, you know, even the strategy going in wasn't like, hey, we're just going to feed the number one rusher in the NFL. The number one rusher. Maybe they're trying to rest his legs a little bit for the playoff run. AJ. AJ, we're not in the playoffs.

Yeah, that's, you know, it's a byproduct. No, it was a playoff game, AJ. Next theory. Maybe. No, I don't know. Interesting note here from Charlie Clifford at Cliff Wish 8. Hey, Chuck Cliff. Oh, man.

Top of his game. Yeah, he is right now. He's in his prime, especially at Wish TV here in Indianapolis, Indiana. Shout out to Anthony Calhoun. Interesting note. Frank Reich said he was more critical with Carson Wentz and ultimately coached him more harsh this season than ever before. Reich acknowledged his deep connection with Wentz

and made sure to check himself in that department as he does with many players. So personal feelings aside, okay, let's put Peter 315 back in the Bible. You and me, I'm coach, you're player, I'm going to coach you the exact same way. That's impossible to do, I think. The only person that's been able to just go ahead and shelter their feelings and just be the same person is Bill Belichick. Yep. Everybody else is a human, but it's also the quarterback position. So how do you coach quarterback of an NFL team? Probably pretty similar everywhere.

It's quarterback coaching quarterbacks in the NFL has got to be so difficult, I think, just because it's such a confidence game, too. So, yeah, you've got to be hard on him. You've got to hold him accountable. But you also have to empower them to make the right decisions when they're on the field like you need to give them like confidence to where they can recover if they do throw a pig six earlier something bad happens because it's something bad will happen like how do you respond and not have like a crazy amount of fear for that coach in the sideline where you're scared to pull the trigger and make those throws and you also have to be able to deal as a human with somebody who is a super type A personality probably.

Like their entire life they've been told. So, like, there's a lot of quarterbacks that have been put on a pedestal their entire life. Yeah. Right? In a lot of high schools and a lot of towns across. So those kids, hey, this kid can throw a pigskin. This kid right here is going to be our guy.

So that happens. I don't know if it happens as much as it used to. It still happens, though, where the quarterback is treated, you know can throw a pigskin. This kid right here is going to be our guy. So that happens. I don't know if it happens as much as it used to. It still happens, though, where the quarterback is treated a certain way. That quarterback, if they're lucky enough, nowadays even, they're getting offered millions of dollars to go to college. And by the way, when they get to college, they're wearing a different color jersey. They're doing different stuff.

They are still putting this. And then if they're able to get through and succeed somehow and still have a work ethic while everybody is treating them, everybody is treating them then if they're able to get through and succeed somehow and still have a work ethic while everybody is treating them everybody is treating them as if they are actual gods basically then you go and you make it to the nfl you have been treated in a certain way literally since you were a child now there are some guys that have been overlooked and had to come out of nowhere you know the stetson bennetts of the world the the everything else like that there's been but the a quarterback is naturally going to have a much different view on life

than a lot of other people from how their entire sport world has gone. But they also have the capability to withstand a pressure and an amount of expectation that a lot of other people don't probably have at their age as well. So it's a fine balance when you're talking about the human that is a quarterback as well. And that's day to day. Remember, Clyde Christensen told us Peyton Manning would text him at 1130 at night, 430 a.m. in the morning.

He better have an answer. It better be right because he needs it now and he wants to move on. That's an interesting thing, you know. There's so few, like, great elite quarterbacks, too, like on the planet. So they're all searching for him. Like, everybody's searching for your Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers, whoever that may be. It's not a perfect process. We know. That's when you draft

quarterbacks. You never really know. So much depends on what surrounds them. Also, there's a lot of guys that have rocket laser arms, but 90% of it is mental and what you can do, how you see defenses, how you're able to recover if bad things happen. Like, all of that stuff.

There's so much that goes into it. Hey, Stetson batted a lot of Drew Brees on last night, huh? I mean, that dude, he's a gamer, man. That dude throws a pretty deep ball. That first deep ball that old buddy reached out and caught, that was awesome. We literally were talking – we talked about it at the beginning. Like, hey, Stetson throws a beautiful rock. And especially with the white on the college footballs at the end,

you can tell easily how the ball is. I was watching the punters in warm-ups. I could see, okay, not good, not good. Because you can see literally every single thing. Stetson throws a mesmerizing, hypnotizing tight. You know his defense, too? And he had that fumble, almost lost the game. Everybody's been doubting him.

Came back in, jumped the rock, put it on a on a dime no big deal he's got that mental capacity who knows now that he's a national champ on tv probably hung over his fuck we're still drunk what's up digs i haven't seen any other shows talking about did you see the article uh that was talking about how carson was late for the team play and was up the entire night before because of the ice and stuff last week and he tried clearing that off his driveway with his bobcat, but his bobcat got stuck in the driveway. He couldn't get to the plane. That was low hanging. Low hanging, dude.

Not good. Not on this program. How dare you. If he had a deer, he would have been good night rest, would have made it in time. There it is. Should have thrown some salt down. That would have gotten rid of some ice.

Hey, just real quick. That ice came out of nowhere. It just got me. Oh, yeah. I don't think some salt down. That would have gotten rid of some ice. Hey, just real quick. That ice came out of nowhere. It just got all over the place. Oh, yeah. It was slippery, too. I don't think anybody expected it. Man, this new house I'm at, too, has got some stone that I... Oh, home alone situation almost.

Yeah. Nice. Dude, I was doing a full... Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Get yourself some ice melt. Oh, shit. Yeah. Make sure it's pet safe.

Yeah, pet friendly now. Oh, yeah. Yeah, of course. Is any of that Lake frozen? Yeah, I was gonna get skates yesterday. Oh, you gotta do it triple-d. Oh That'll be so sweet. Think of the video of me get him foxy show. You got filming did imagine me And then boom all of a sudden disappeared under the ice boom he fell through so I actually have fallen through ice before That right where like a life jacket or something.

Tie yourself to a tree. It'd be good too if you fell. Yeah, I've done it before. Remember, digs through a brick. Cinder block. Throw a cinder block out in front, test the ice, and then tie yourself to a tree. This dude's on the middle of a river

and he's throwing bricks into the ice that he's standing on just to see if he should continue going forward. Genius. That's when the Allegheny was the Allegheny. Back in 2011. You forwarded the river.

Real life. Doesn't get that cold anymore. Something's going on. Can't thank you enough for allowing us to be a part of your Tuesday here. You're the best. Use hashtag end of pod squad. Tweet out where you're listening from. Might win some free merch.

Ty has been bouncing through there over the last few months. It's almost like a year at this point and handing out free merch to some of the folks who listen all the way through the end. We appreciate the hell out of you. Ty, please play some independent music and repel these people into a beautiful Aaron Rodgers Tuesday evening. We're back manana with a big one. Maybe. Cheers. Thank you. សូវាប់ពីបានប់ពីបានប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្រាប់ពីប្� Thank you. you