The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 578 - Coach Us Up Thursday With Chuck Pagano, Peter Schrager, Jordan Poyer, Shams Charania, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 13, 2022

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about the news around the NFL with all the different coaching vacancies and GM searches, the Colts not committing to a future with Carson Wentz, and the continued formation of the Same Game Parlay Holiday with Wildcard Weekend a few days away. Joining the show to shed light on the Giants situation after Joe Judge was fired and some other things we should look forward to is NFL Insider, co-host of Good Morning Football, friend of the progrum, Peter Schrager (19:11-47:18). Later, Safety for the Buffalo Bills, Jordan Poyer joins the show to talk about the game this weekend against the Patriots, the Pro Bowl snub despite being on the #1 ranked defense in the league, the mindset of the Bills going into the playoffs, and much more (1:09:29-1:23:35). Later, for a Thursday segment of Coach Us Up Chuck, Chuck Pagano joins the show to chat about all the different coaching changes, the mindset of a team when the season ends, what he's been up to, and more (1:24:44-1:59:35). Lastly, Senior NBA Insider for Stadium and The Athletic, Shams Charania joins the show to give an update on everything going on in the NBA including Kyrie's status, Zion Williamson's possible return to play, who the best coach in the NBA is right now, and which teams are going to be able to test the Nets in the Eastern Conference (1:59:37-2:20:55). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow and listen every day on Mad Dog Radio, Sirius XM Channel 82. We appreciate you all for listening, come and laugh with us, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, it is Coach Us Up Chuck Thursday, January 13th. Chuck Pagano will join us today. Obviously, Peter Schrager joins us today. Oh my God, Jordan Poyer is also on the show. Sean Sharani is on the show. AJ Hawk, all the boys were loaded. Let's get right to it. If you enjoy the show, by the end of it,

please be a friend, tell a friend. If not, just act like it never happened. Thursday, January 13th, 2022. We can't thank you enough for joining us. This show begins after that beat drop right there. We can't thank you enough, wherever the hell you may be. The fact that you allow us to be a part of your day-to-day, we are eternally grateful for.

All the boys are here. The Toxic Table at Ty Schmidt at Boston Corner. Rounding out the Bugle Boys. One half of the Hammer Don Cowboys at Tone Diggs is here. How you doing, Tone? How you doing? How's Hammer Don doing? Good. Oh, no.

Foxy's hot. Hey, Foxy, we just started making that graphic for them yesterday, right? Win, win, win, win. You're not going to see it today oh no as we predicted that would be the death sentence gambling god so that is why you guys have pushed that off for so long because i've asked a couple times over the run here of the heater that the hammered down boys have been on like hey can you guys just make some videos so we can just show them during the show like hey commercial you know we got commercials we got to fill time with. Why don't we just have, like, you guys hitting every night,

which is what you've been doing. Yeah, okay, we'll do that. We'll do that. So then, you know, like two months later, I'll be like, fuck, weren't we supposed to have, are you guys still on a heater? Yeah. Can we get some videos? Please.

Like, as a couple, please. We need them. We're running the same way. And then I think it would be good for the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll get on that now, actually. Okay? And then they know that I'll get into some other thoughts, some other conversation.

Life will go on. I'm just expecting it to be done. And then we go three months later, and it's like, okay, I would like some fucking winners in the videos here to help push this thing. And Foxy, actually, he's been cutting cameras for this show for like a week now. foxy was like yeah let's get this done actually i'm like hey thank you foxy by the way foxy goes in there gets it done now they're cold oh boy foxy's arrival into hammered down and then me continuing to ask them to you know kind of tempt fate with the gambling gods i would like to say we are sorry if you guys turn into the coldest cold streak of all time. It is me

and Foxy's fault. Yeah, 100%. I'm actually hot right now, so I want these videos to go out so people see I'm winning bets. Yeah, you're in there every single day. Hey, you're in the Thunderdome. You're in the hammered down Thunderdome, and you're giving out picks every single night, and you're on a heater that nobody's ever seen before,

and that's why I'm happy you're on my team for the same game. Game party holiday. I'm pumped you're on my team, Foxy. Let's go. Well, football is a different sport than basketball, Pat. Let's remember who Foxy has been in the past. I'm not saying.

For those that haven't watched Hammer Down over the last few days, Foxy makes bets every single day with the Hammerdown boys, so they have to pick college basketball, which is on every night. NBA basketball that is on every night. So football is just during the weekends, especially for the same... Game. Holiday.

Holiday. Ah. It's a cute little jingle. It was stuck in my head all day yesterday. Oh, yeah. It's a good one. The weird thing was we did it in the first hour. Then in the second hour, third hour, I forgot what it was.

Yeah. Got out of the show, though. Was sitting, maybe taking a grumpy, maybe not, you know, doing the whatever you got to do. And in my head. Am I fucking Jimmy Iovine, dude? I don't know. You tell me. I'm not 100% sure, but I am super excited for this weekend

because Super Wild Card Weekend has gotten even better. If you're in a state in which Fando is available, come on in. The water is fine. If not just watching along, you're going to be able to see the best of the best in the NFL compete. I mean, there's different ways to look at it this weekend. As a fan, as somebody that's in the game, I've gotten a chance to play in the Super Wild Card weekend

knowing that you either win or you go fish. Oh. Don't want to be doing that. And I'm not talking a card game. I'm talking about actually heading to the lake for the next couple months all by yourself, loser, watching everybody else. And you get no more paychecks, no more playoff bonuses, no more success, no more legacy, no more, you know,

hey, in 10 years we'll come back and have a reunion. That is what happens when you lose in the playoffs. It is a nightmare. Losing in the playoffs stinks. I mean, granted, last night on Hard Knocks, I only got to see the final 10 minutes of the show because my wife and I went to an RV expo. Whoa, how'd it go?

Did you get anything? I assume EXPO stands for something. Yeah. Right? Exponential sometimes. Not in this case. I don't think so. Whatever. Grand is what you think, right? Oh yeah, a lot of RVs. Not so much.

Uh-oh. A lot of RV pamphlets? Oh, man. I don't know. It just wasn't as... We're going to get in... I think I'm going to get into the bus RV game. I think I'm going to get in there somehow. I enjoy being away from everything,

but also need Wi-Fi and water. Of course. Sure, sure. You know what I mean? I think I would enjoy camping, but also need walls. Need a satchel. Need air conditioning.

I run hot. Need this entire thing. So my wife and I were like, you know, let's go to RV Expo. Maybe pick up a bus or something. You know, turn it into a studio ability thing. So if we ever have to be on the road for anything, let's go do it. I mean, I feel like I've driven past parking lots with more RVs. Wait, no.

Yeah, I mean, the people that were there were incredibly nice. Okay? Obviously, a lot of people in the, we shout out to all the incredible vendors that were there last night that did take the show on the road to the expo, but it seems like a lot of people decided not to come to the RV expo. You're telling me the RV expo at the Indiana State Fairgrounds didn't have a rock star tour bus equipped and ready to go? Well, what's this guy's deal?

I thought that's what was going on. I honestly thought there would be one there. I thought so. I thought Expo. I was fully ready and prepared to walk into that Indiana State Fairground, find a bus, and say, I'm driving this one home. Give it to me right now. I mean, there was a couple of nice ones, a couple of really good people. I did not.

I expected, I think, something to be grander. I was told, oh, wait till February, February, we got the RV and boat show. That brings in a little bit more because the boat community and the RV community, sometimes people are coming in more. You need to come to the RV and boat show. Whatever the case, it was a nice little date night for my wife and I to go walk around, meander amongst a lot of great people. Not a lot of RVs, but a lot of great people there. Got to chat, see the world. Had a corn dog. Oh, really? State Fair

corn dog. You could, because actually the State Fair, I think when the State Fair's happening, different corn dogs than during the expo. Winter corn dogs. People selling corn dogs still awesome. And you gotta remember, State Fair, carnies, people along this,

awesome to talk to. They made some decisions in their life that landed them in this spot as opposed to it being the number one agent or salesman or saleswoman of anything. They can talk. So people, so is Corn Dog. Great people. Said Corn Dog, though, half-assed Corn Dog

in comparison to State Fair Corn Dog, one of which you go to the State Fair to actually get. You know, big son of a bitch. Oh, yeah, full on. Full on corn season. It's a hot dog on a stick, dipped in batter. Line them all up. Put it on a platter.

Delicious. Give me five to six, your boy's getting fatter. Because it's a hot dog on a stick, dipped in batter. I love corn dogs. Last night they mailed it in. But people were great. People were fantastic. Nice date night with the wife. Get home. Have a good time. All of a sudden

I look at my phone. Holy shit, it's 10.33. Okay? Hard Knocks. Keith Cosgrove's program started on HBO at 10 o'clock. We turned the thing on. This was like one I wanted to see. I wanted to see how the team was going to respond to being knocked out of the playoffs in clon time jacksonville florida oh man so i turned it on at the exact time where darius leonard was crouched down on the field during

probably a two minute warning or a timeout or something just saying man we we fucked this one up basically like the acknowledgement of everybody that they stunk and that they blew an opportunity that is not always going to be there. And Frank gave a lot of speeches about how, hey, this is going to carry into next year. There's going to be 30 new guys on that team next year. That team is going to look similar with the big names, I guess. Probably similar with the big names. Who knows the quarterback position?

I mean, Chris Ballard speaking right now. He scheduled his presser at the same time as our show. Okay. Come on, Chris. If they could one hour earlier, maybe we'd be able to talk about it, get a little bit more answers. But Frank was talking about the future of the team, and the sub-stars will be back. But in the NFL, the teams change drastically.

Free agency happens. Guys get paid. The bottom half of the roster, who might have been some glue guys who were able to perform well in role positions, absolutely said they're going to probably be be gone there's going to be a new batch it's younger cheaper and they're going to be moved that group is never going to be the same again and i think that is the thing that is most difficult to take whenever a season ends and it kind of slaps you right in the face too it comes out of nowhere just like we are just realizing that it's that it's weekend super wildcard weekend already this kind of came up on us quick in the game especially for a team like the colts who are on a run they were expecting on gun for a while keith

cosgrove hard knocks was expecting go for a while then it shows up out of nowhere boom your schedule just opened up dude you got You got fucking nothing. You're not going to probably see a lot of these dudes ever again. You're probably never going to talk to these guys face-to-face ever again unless you happen to be in the same city at the same event at the same time. And I think that is the finality of it all, is

what is so beautiful about this weekend. Because you don't really realize it until the night before the game. You have a team meeting. You're like, oh, shit. Hey, this could be our last team meeting. And then when you go get a snack and you're hanging out, it's like, hey, this literally might be the last time you and me ever fucking eat something together ever again. Hey, this might be the last time you and me get to just ask this dude who's an incredibly nice guy named E, who's the head of the FCA, just a bunch of hilarious questions that he never. Like this is the last,

this could be the last time, and then boom, you get bonus football. Then you get it another time, and you kind of start grasping on to how much, you know, you appreciate the practice and the walkthrough, not only because it's bonus money, which is great. More checks, always good in the football world when you're utilizing your body for your business, and you don't know how long your body is going to continue to maintain so picking up bonus checks for your body always good but also you just you know the finality of it all kind of starts creeping in and

i'm so excited that we're here last night though the colts that was interesting watching you know frank you have a great speech i I thought, in the whole thing. The team meeting was a great delivered speech. I don't think he bobbled one word. I was like, holy shit, this is a very good speaker. This is a very good orator. And I did know that he went to boot camp to be a priest. Oh, yeah.

A preacher. Seminary, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Is that a priest or a preacher? Priest. But he's married with kids, so he wouldn't have been able to do that. Yeah, so probably, yeah. Probably back that.

I don't know. I mean, is he Catholic? I don't know what. I don't know. Depends on the denomination, I believe. Yeah. So that's like Mennonites, Amish. There's like a bunch of levels to this shit.

Might be like a deacon or something like that. Whatever the case. I knew he wanted to get into the Lord's word. Sure. But him delivering that speech, which is a tough speech to give, I thought was delivered well. The messaging, though, I didn't, you know, because he and I, and we all know that that team is not going to be anywhere near the same next year.

No. You just got to hope. You just got to hope that your studs come back. You got to hope that the people that you bring in for the fill-in spots, you know, they're able to buy in as much as you need them to buy in to hopefully take the next step. Last year, losing the playoffs. buy in as much as you need them to buy in to hopefully take the next step.

Last year, losing the playoffs. This year, not make the playoffs because you lose to Jacksonville Jaguars. I just think getting an inside peek at all that was pretty cool, and I had to relive the loss to Klontown yet again last night. Well, and that's why it is, because it's hard to look at that, and it just fills you with that disappointment again with how well they were playing. Part of that, too, to your point about Frank and the messaging, I'm sure a lot of those guys are just sick to their stomach because four weeks ago they were thinking,

hey, if we get into the playoffs, we're going to be an actual threat. We could be one of those teams that goes on a run to the AFC championship or the Super Bowl, and then, like you said, it's just super disappointing that the season ended the way it did. Yeah, I get it. Sad. Very sad.

Okay. All right. Okay. Hope you guys all do well in the playoffs. Okay, hope you all do well. Hope you do better than what Ben's expecting. We'll get to that in a minute. But my wife watching, you know, she grew up in Indiana here.

She's a Colts fan. On the way out of the building, they showed Carson smiling or whatever. And Sam's like, he shouldn't be fucking smiling. I'm like, Sam. I love his life. What if he was just with somebody in that building for, I don't know, six months every single day, and they're about to not see each other for about a month or two?

What if they were like, hey, fuck off or whatever. Don't die on the the bobcat what if that moment is what happened they can't have any inside jokes or any moments of like nostalgia about the year as the season's ending and in sam's eyes it was like no i can understand why they put him in slow motion like smiling on the way out as if it was a happy ending it was like i don't know if that's how carson exactly felt about the team which is what the show is kind of depicting or he maybe felt that about somebody who just said something or something that's going on there but whatever the case it is miserable yeah and uh you learn

a lot about who's you know like who do you want to continue to go with in those moments where loss happens because it's like i've been on a plane where we have lost bad and not a single person said a single fucking word on the trip home maybe there's like a stand-up walk how you doing all right yeah well that can't happen anymore just go back and sit down everybody miserable and i've been on a plane where we have got our asses handed to us and somebody was coming on with uh one phone on their ear one phone on their hand and a shout out across the plane to somebody that owes them money from a dice game and then sitting down and other people laughing alongside and just being like oh okay so we fucking stink yeah oh this team this team stinks like does he even realize that we just

got murdered and we should not be getting murdered and you only have so many opportunities to do this? But then you've got to realize also that not everybody is 100% playing in the NFL just strictly because they love the team, they love the game. They're there because it is a business.

They're there to make money, which makes you even more realize like, hey, if we lose, we don't make as much fucking money either. So no matter what your reasoning is to play, and I think people should not be as hard on folks who don't necessarily love the game as much as everybody else.

You know, there's some people that get motivated in different fashions. There's a lot of people, believe it or not, who come from absolutely nothing, who have the mindset that, hey, I'm going to do this because I'm going to make money. This has been my plan. And this is, I don't give a fuck. Like, hey, it is my job to make money for my family, my community. And they might come off as a little bit more selfish than everybody else. And if you're a coach or a teammate, it's like, cool, that's what motivates this dude.

Let's just get him to do that and be better for all of us. And whenever you lose and money stops coming, the wins stop coming, the legacies stop coming, and that's why playoff football is the fucking best, baby. Yeah, nothing better. Only 13 games left. Sorry. Hey, you got to put a number on it so you can enjoy every single one of them. No, so you put a number on, like, conditioning. You got 20 sprints, okay, because you want to get through it.

Yeah, sure. You don't put a number on good things. I needed a number on it. Okay. Because last week, out of nowhere, halfway through our Sunday in this office watching games, I said, Oh, shit. There's only like four or five games left in the whole entire regular season. Then what?

What do we got next weekend? We only got three games on Sunday. Yeah. Sorry about it, guys. I need to know. Because I want to savor every single one of them. All right? That's on you guys.

You can't handle 13. Listen, going into Sunday, I think I've seen digs with a tweet. I sent a tweet. Numerous other people. Hey, this is a full NFL Sunday slate. Let's enjoy this. It's our last one. Exactly.

Where were you? Yeah, but we don't need to spin it with a countdown. Well, it's a countdown to the biggest game on earth of the season. Hey, you only got 13 meals left in your life. Exactly. So you'd probably chew a lot more if you knew you only had 13. Yeah, but what if one of these games is just dog shit? What do I mean?

I expect one of those. And unfortunately, I expect it to be possibly the Patriots-Bills game. It'd be a little bit of a... Speaking of that game, Jordan Poirier will join us in hour two. He's safety for the Buffalo Bills. Did not make the Pro Bowl because their defense, although number one overall scoring defense and number one overall defense,

scoring means the amount of points they give up. Yeah, the Buffalo Bills are the first team since the 2012 Steelers to lead the NFL in total defense and scoring defense without a player selected to the Pro Bowl. How does that work? Well, they fucking stink. I'm going to tell them that too. I'm going to say you and Hyde stink, dude. If you were good, you would have made

a Pro Bowl. That's true. You guys might given up the least amount of points all year average, least amount of yards as an entire defense as a whole throughout the entire season. But none of you are in the name of the Pro Bowl, so fucking maybe call back next week, dude, if you make it. Who cares?

Think about just as we talked to him last time. He's a chip. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then he has tweeted a couple times like, oh, just adding gas to the fire and all that whole thing. I'm excited to hear his take on the entire thing because that might be something that McDermott's using.

Like, hey, you all stink. None of you made the Pro Bowl. But who cares? Right? We're trying to get to the Big Bowl. The Big Bowl. The Super Bowl. Uh-huh.

What's the rules on that? Are we not allowed to – you're not allowed to promote the Super Bowl if you're not the NFL? Is that why? I think it depends on how you say it. Like, if you're saying it like Connor says, how many games are left in the season, you can't say Super Bowl.

But if you say it in a happy way, you can say Super Bowl. Oh, so it's all in the narrative. Yeah. That's like people that rip our show and then put it up on their own pages or whatever. And we don't want to send cease and desist to anybody because people do that to us with our own content

whenever they re-air our shit on their shit. we understand it's a business but if you're trying to make us look like a bunch of assholes like we have to like gotta do it yeah we can't just be using our stuff and making us look like assholes if you want to use our stuff stop judge us call us assholes cool different game but you cannot make our entire show look like assholes i mean a little respect out there. Yeah. You know? I mean, I thought there was honor in this game. Is there not honor in assholery, dude? You know, apparently not.

I thought that's what we're doing. Joining us now is a man who is nowhere near an asshole. No. No. Such a good guy. Yeah, great guy. He's Emmy nominated. What?

He's an insider to the insiders. Really? Whoa. Guy who absolutely crushes it every single morning on NFL Network with Good Morning Football alongside an incredible cast and crew. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the show, Peter Schrager. What's going on, Den?

I'm doing great. I love you guys. Thanks for having me on. No, thank you for joining us. We love you as well. What's the hat there? Are we going down to the harbor? This is Sag Harbor. This is out in Long Island. It's where all the fishermen live. This is where Billy Joel sings about. Sag Harbor. We love you as well. What's the hat there? Are we going down to the harbor? This is Sag Harbor. This is out in Long Island. This is where all the fishermen live. This is where Billy Joel sings about. Sag Harbor. We're showing some love to a little small town in Long Island.

Let's go. Hey, Sag Harbor. All right. Thank you, Sag. I thought it was like a bunch of actors hanging around water there. I thought that's what that was on your hat. I was excited to hear it. Screen actors go. I thought this was like an Illuminati thing you were hanging out at.

Okay, Schrags, you may win that Emmy next time. You jump into those harbors. Let's do that. All right, let's get to the inside information that only Schrags knows and the conversation

that you can hopefully enlighten us on a little bit. Was Joe Judge going to be fired before Aaron Rodgers said everything he said on this show, or should we feel a little bit of guilt

about the future of Joe Judge and him having that house party with 700 bears let's burn this shit down is that aaron rogers's fault on this show or how do you think they got to that point what's next for them i think i think joe judge is a great dude, and I feel like the shame of it all is that the New York market never really got to experience what kind of person he was because I've gotten to know him, and I think he's a good guy. He's a good father. He's got kids, and they're in high school, and they're in middle school, and at the end of the day, if he got fired or not, it was going to happen. But what was a shame was sort of the way it all went down, that on Monday he shows up to work thinking, I might have a job tomorrow, I might not. He meets with the team.

He leaves Monday night as the head coach of the Giants. And Dave Gettleman, the general manager, had this fantastic victory lap around the stadium on Sunday, gets to shake hands, and he gets to retire from his job. Judge on Monday goes in, thinks he's got a job. Maybe, who knows, but then the story starts coming out that they're going to be doing GMs and the GMs are then going to decide Joe's fate. And then one thing leads to another.

And I think when the Giants ownership started reaching out to some of these GM candidates, they're like, if we're going to be the GM of the Giants, we'd like to have some say in the coach. And if not, tell us whether the coach is going to be there or not, so that we can work with them. We've seen that work before, where a head coach is already there, and then a GM comes and joins them. And I don't think a lot of those GM candidates loved how murky things were looking as far as, oh, wait, so you're going to hire me. But then my first week, I've got to decide whether I'm firing this guy or not. And I don't know him. Like, it was a shotgun marriage, if you will. And I think the Mara family at the end of the day was like, all right, it's easier just to rip the Band-Aid off and let's get out of here.

But if you want to make the case for Joe Judge, and I don't think the third and nine play that Aaron so publicly joked about on your show did him any favors. If you want to make the case for him, he inherited a roster. He had Saquon Barkley for like five games when he was healthy they had a terrible offensive line and the worst salary cap in football and it was almost like you were digging out of a hole and two years in a pandemic it's a shame that Joe Judge uh never really was able to succeed in New York and it's kind of like the end of an era and it never really began okay well I appreciate you saying that I assume you have a a pretty good relationship with Joe Judge as you explained there early so I like you going that. I assume you have a pretty good relationship with Joe Judge, as you explained there early. So I like you going to bat for your friend as well,

because none of us would look into that. We would just look from the outside and say, oh, this team fucking stinks. And you can't stink and be a head coach for long, especially when there's moments happening where you're doing a 3,000-word diatribe about yourself and the team and the organization and the culture. And then there's push-ups happening in full pads and then there's calling out of other organizations that then beat

the hell out of you on the last week it just from a national side not following a day-to-day it just looked like an epic side they blew them out here like the media was it was you guys nationally are one thing you have no idea what it's like on the local radio in New York. They kill him, huh? They kill him? Yeah. So that's why. Hold on. Hold on, Shrinks. So they kill him.

So that's why he comes in and says, OK, here is boom to basically tell everybody to go fuck themselves. I actually respect that more and more because from the national side, the 3000 word thing look like, oh, this guy's trying to explain why he doesn't stink when he clearly stinks. thousand word thing look like oh this guy's trying to explain why he doesn't stink when he clearly stinks but you think it's potentially pent-up frustration from him telling everybody to go fuck themselves in a manner in which you can explain maybe is that what you're thinking no i think that he legitimately thought that there was going to be another year next year and gosh like let's let's take a deep breath here and let's see how this season ends and then look towards next year or maybe we could do a reset and i think he came into that that monday afternoon meeting hoping he still had a job with the giants went to bed that night telling his family probably i think i'm good and then tuesday you know middle of the afternoon it's like all right you're gone and i don't know

gettleman was a gm there for many many years retired at the age of 70 he's been much respected in the league um but their roster and that team never really had a shot with all the injuries they had and where it was going. So I'm not going to cry any tears for Joe Judge as far as being able to be an NFL head coach, one of the coolest honors in the world. And he would be very disappointed if he saw someone out there being like, Joe deserves better because he's got too much pride for that. But I also don't think he had the best situation and the deck wasn't exactly full when he showed up. Okay. And by the way, i appreciate you saying that and i will view joe judge's existence as a head coach in a different manner as opposed to all the other new england

coaches that come out there and also he's a special teams guy and he threw a banger immediately yeah so i think i am hey joe judge level of respect is much higher but from a national standpoint what are they going to do are they going to from a national standpoint, what are they going to do? Are they going to be able to turn that around? Are they going to hire an agency to hire somebody? How's Mara and the Mara family going to fix this thing, you think, when they've proven it's not easy to make these decisions in the NFL, especially for the New York Giants?

All right, so the Giants have a long history of hiring from within when it comes to the general manager position. George Young was their Hall of Fame GM for 20 years. They went outside the building with Ernie and Corsi, but who had done it for years. And then it was Jerry Reese, and then after Jerry Reese, it was Gettleman. All these guys had Giants roots aside from Corsi. This is the first time ever the Giants are doing, like,

a wide-net, huge interview process for the general manager position. I'm talking Adrian Wilson, safety for the Cardinals for years, who's been in the Cardinals front office. He had an interview yesterday. Today, Ryan Poles, who is a 36-year-old in Kansas City, he's interviewing for the GM position right now. Joe Shane up in Buffalo. They are looking at all the top organizations,

and they're picking and plucking and bringing them in to meet with them to have a GM. Then the GM will then start lining up the coaches. So even to have a coaching conversation now is premature. What they want to do is first find the GM, and you can start making connections. So they're interviewing Joe Shane, who's up in Buffalo and has been Brandon Bean's number two. And by the way, Pat, awesome dude. He works with Brian Dable for years up there in Buffalo.

So that would be like a natural connection. Like, all right, the Buffalo offensive coordinator, the Buffalo GM, go. With the Ravens prospect, this guy Joe Hortiz, who has been in Baltimore for 20 years, if he comes in, okay, well, then is Wink Martindale a good connection because they've worked together? You start playing those games about connections and who's been where. But for the Giants, general manager will be the first thing they hire, and then the head coach will be what's after that okay well good luck to the giants can't wait to hear and see who they pick daniel jones is dead there right i mean that new

gm new coach that is not the case no way that's not the case not the case new new coach new gm daniel jones has as much a shot to be on that team as any player on that team, and I'll tell you why. This quarterback draft class, it's nothing special. There's no young guy there. This free agency crop, yeah, there's some guys. But to me, Daniel Jones, how could you make an assessment on Daniel Jones after having three different head coaches, four different offensive coordinators,

6,000 offensive linemen? Let's at least get another look at him with the new head coach before you say let's go draft somebody else yeah but i mean the new head coach and the new gm whenever they dreamt of these positions of being gm and head coach they've already had in their mind what style of quarterback who the quarterback would be i i just think i don't know if daniel jones is quarterback for the giants next year with his fourth head coach or whatever, and however that plays out, like good on him for continuing to impress.

But I think everybody would do some favors of like, get a fresh start. I think Danny Dimes deserves maybe a fresh start. I'm not saying it'll work out, but geez, that guy from draft day all the way through basically, he has just been getting absolutely pummeled. Hope all works out for him.

He's absolute stud. Let's move around a little bit. Catherine Raich, Philadelphia Eagles VP of Personnel, is getting an interview with the Minnesota Vikings for the general manager position. She would be the first woman since 1983 to hold a general manager position in the NFL. Catherine Raich is not a name that I think a lot of us had heard of before this announcement. Is that on us? How stupid are we for not knowing this? This feels pretty big.

No, it's a huge deal. And it's not just, hey, let's do it to check a box. This is a legitimate candidate to be a general manager right now. And I assure you that. So the last person to hold her title in Philadelphia was Andrew Berry, who is now the GM of the Cleveland Browns, and went from that job to interviewing with the Browns as a young, promising candidate to now being one of the better general managers in the league. And what Catherine brings in that role is scouting, but also, I'm told, a heavy analytics bent too. She's one of the rare candidates that has done a lot in both fields,

the business side as well, talking about salary cap and dealing with agents. She was an assistant general manager at the Canadian Football League and was getting a lot of buzz because when you go and you scout at these college bowl games, everyone's out there from the Argonauts to the Blue Bombers to the New York Jets to the Minnesota Vikings. And in this case, she made the connections necessary to get an interview with the Eagles. Howie Roseman brings her in, and she's been outstanding for two years there, that the Vikings want to meet her and pick her brain and then say, hey, if she is the best candidate, she will be the general manager of the Minnesota

Vikings. But her resume, though different, and isn't one of these 20-year scouts who's been living in a car looking at the East-West Shrine Bowl game, is very impressive in that she has worn a lot of hats for a lot of organizations and in philadelphia they've been churning out gms joe douglas andrew berry they have a nice system there where they set these people up to succeed and she might blow the doors off the minnesota vikings when she meets with the will family in a couple days uh i mean given giving the Eagles credit for Andrew Barry is fascinating. Colts guy. Colts guy. Yeah, I mean, I heard you do it.

Shout out to Catherine. I mean, shout out to Catherine, for real. But as soon as you started being like, Andrew Barry, Philadelphia, he's like, ooh, I mean. Pumped the brakes. Hey, he is a Colts guy. He's a stud. We would like a little bit of credit.

I mean, you'd think he was sleeping on somebody's couch in Indianapolis at one point. And not mine, not mine. But I'm saying he was sleeping on a couch in indianapolis at one point he was with a harvard degree in his back pocket isn't that insane all right isn't that insane to think about that literally and i think about that with ryan fitzmagic who would just run his face into like 10 people i think a harvard degree automatically gets you like into at least one vc or two of them and they just figure out, we'll figure out how to make all this money just filter into your pocket somehow.

But instead, when I watch use check on the weekend, holding for kicks and blocking, I'm like, that dude went to an Ivy league school. Good for him for wanting to do this. Yeah. And I think it's like him proving to everybody that I can be like,

just like Andrew Luck. Andrew was so much smarter than every human he talked to in the football world. And he knew it. We knew it. But he was still able to just be incredibly tough. I think that's like a whole part of it. And Juszczyk was unbelievable.

Let's bounce around a little bit some more. Dude, before we go on, Robbie Gold. You got it. No one's ever talked about Jimmy G. Robbie Gold goes and is thrown in to punt two 45-yard bomb punts in the clutch like I thought of you right away like what a performance from Robbie yeah and he had a swing like a kicker too I don't know if everybody saw that like and it's like such a it's like such a

you know a minute group of people that see that but when you kick obviously you're opening up like this and you're coming through like a golf swing when you're punting everything is supposed to be like in a straight line like straight ahead so when he did like his warm-up he was like swinging i'm like oh that's gonna go fucking four yards robbie like you need to figure it out but i thought he did beautiful that's what robbie gold does though he's just like you know that's why the bears cut him that's right he's just too calm too calm come on too good get him out of chicago let's talk about chicago right now what's going on up there they're interviewing everybody they're like literally every human is on a graphic that zito has made because he's a chicago bears fan to potentially be the head coach for the bears or

the gm for the bears they hired bill polian who i'm sure you know he knows a lot about football does he know anything about the current landscape not 100 sure i guess we will find out how much say he has i'm excited for him to be a part of the conversation piece again but how much of these interviews are bullshit trying to get information from people and how much of them are like everybody has an actual shot in getting in there and how many realistic head coaches are kind of in this group of people you think as we go forward yeah and i think you go to different buckets you go into the former head coach, you know,

bucket where it's guys who have been there, done that. And it's like, Hey, we need some stabilization here. And I'm gonna give this guy another shot, whether it be, you know,

anyone from Dan Quinn to Marvin Lewis, who might get interviewed, you know, and you're hearing Jim Caldwell, like those names are legit. Jim's your guy. But then you get the young upstart coordinator and it's like certain franchise might just want

a fresh start with a fresh face and that could be anything from brandon staley to sean mcveigh to one of those or you get the guys who year after year have been banging on the door whether it be eric b enemy or or several of these other you know brian lefwich or some of these other coordinators that have said hey i've had the interviews before it just hasn't clicked yet now is my time. Each team is going to be different. I think each GM is going to be different with who they prefer and who they want to bring in.

But in a lot of cases, here's how I would connect the dots. Where are your connections? Where are the people that have worked together before? Because time and time again, it'll come out and it'll be like, hey, this guy worked with this guy three years ago, and they can just open up the suitcase and say, hey, let's just start unpacking things right now because we speak the same language. And we've been there and we've done it before. I find that

that could be looking like an old boys club, but it's not necessarily that a lot of that is just, I trust this person. I've been down this road. And this is my first opportunity as a general manager. I want to be able to go do this or I'm'm a coach, and gosh, I want to work with a guy that I know I've been through the trenches with before. Hey, we just did this like four years ago. We all got fired, but we can fucking do it again. Let's do it again. We got to do it again, bro.

We can do it. Let's run it back. Hey, we got a taste of it the first time. Now we get a chance to actually do it. That has happened before. Bill Stunk in Cleveland. He goes up to New England. He's absolutely great.

You know, Pete Carroll, Stunk in New England. He goes up to Seattle. He's great. There is a, hey, let's run it back and see how we can do the second time. But it feels like a lot of these cases, it's like, oh, these are all the same people and they all stink. That young upstart offensive coordinator getting an opportunity like Sean McVay, your friend, kind of changed the game completely is wild because I assume there's so many different emotions that go on in those interviews. When somebody like McVay comes in and is like, okay, we're going to use the rules, okay, and we're going to have these guys flying around. And we're going to be doing all these. We're going to be doing all these.

That energy is probably like, oh, shit. Like, all right, this is the future. This is what we need to be doing. And then immediately following following a young offense coordinator who has that type of energy, you have Jim Caldwell come in. Jim Caldwell comes in just very matter-of-fact, calm. Listen, we're going to show up every day. We're going to work.

We're going to do this process. It's going to be a build. It's going to be a climb after wins. We're going to be happy, but not too happy. This is a very calming thing. That has to be a ride for those owners that have to make those decisions. Because I assume you get caught up because you're a human. You're like, oh, I love that.

And then somebody else comes in, this person, I don't know about this. Hey, you're too much. It's got to be tough. It's got to be very difficult to make those decisions, Shrigs. It's great that you say it. Because, okay, let's do last year, for example. You will not find two different personalities in the room than Arthur Smith and Robert Sala.

Robert Sala is going to knock you out and is going to be, let's get in a phone booth and wrestle. And Arthur Smith and Robert Sala. Robert Sala is going to knock you out and it's going to be, let's get in a phone booth and wrestle. And Arthur Smith is, let's talk about the philosophy behind why the zone read works, you know, like all that stuff. And yet those guys were interviewing for the same jobs and Atlanta saw Arthur Smith as the right fit for them. And the Jets for what they needed was Robert Sala. Now there are two wildcard candidates that I've seen getting interviews that I think

are worth mentioning as far as young upstarts go. And I haven't seen him get interviewed anywhere else. But Mike McDaniel getting an interview in Miami is fascinating to me. So he is off the LeFleur Shanahan McVeigh tree. And he was with Kyle Shanahan in Atlanta. He's been in San Francisco. He's the run game coordinator right now. Of course.

In San Francisco. And now is their offensive coordinator in San Francisco. Okay. So think about their run game and that whole scheme. Mike McDaniel is one of these masters of that. He's like 36, went to Yale, wears glasses, and is hilarious. And is like a wise ass and is funny and is one of these guys that the players love. And Miami's the only team i see but if you watch that run game now yeah it's kyle shanahan's baby and that's of course because

kittle and use check and trent williams are damn good and debo but like the mastermind the quiet one in the background is mike mcdaniel and i'm curious to see if he gets more the other one is a guy who was in indie for a bit and went with Sirianni out to Philly as the defensive coordinator of the Eagles right now, JG, Jonathan Gannon, who is another high-energy, high-octane, and you've got veterans on that defense. The Brandon Grahams, the Fletcher Coxes, and the Darius Slays, and these guys love him. So first-year coordinators, really rare. Like Brandon Staley was one.

Sean McVay was one. Really rare to see them get opportunities as head coaches. but those are two that are really intriguing to me jonathan gannon and mike mcdaniel if mike mcdaniel is the next ernie uh watch adams need to make that higher stat is he gm or coach he's going for coach the coach bro go go find mike mcdaniel when he first did his opening press conference when he was announced as OC to San Francisco. He basically gets up there and he's like 5'9". Maybe I'm being disrespectful. Maybe he's 5'11", and he's skinny, and he's like,

Hi, everybody. I know you probably haven't met me before, and I'm so physically imposing. Like self-deprecating, and they were like, What is this guy? Like hilarious dude. You would love him. Okay, cool. I'm excited. Hopefully he'll be able to have a press conference every single week.

That'd be great for Miami, Don. Yeah. That'd be much different than what two just went through. That's right. And then I can't wait for you. I'm JG. You can call me coach. Like, I can't wait.

Maybe he gets an opportunity. I'm excited for that guy. I love high energy people. Go ahead, Tom. Triggs, you tweeted yesterday that Dayball and Leslie Frazier are interviewing with the Dolphins, I believe, on Sunday. They got a game on Saturday night. yesterday that dayball and leslie frazier are interviewing with the dolphins i believe on sunday they got a game on saturday night are they not preparing for the patriots and they're preparing for their interview with the dolphins what it's one of the quirky deals with this scheduling stuff

so if you have a buy this week and that's you know nathaniel hackett who is going to be interviewing for several jobs this week with the packers he's the offensive coordinator they're allowed to do it if you don't have a buy you can't do week, but you can do over the weekend and early next week before the divisional round. Now, I just got word before I came on with you guys, Leslie has asked and has had it pushed back to later next week. So he won't be Sunday morning, but win or lose, Brian Daybold is interviewing for the Miami Dolphins head coaching job. Now he's got the biggest game of his life this weekend. They're playing the patriots in a rubber match and it's saturday night in the zero degrees i can assure you he is grinding for the patriots right now and preparing for that

but this is time and time again that this is how the nfl is built it that yes the next morning regardless he needs to get ready and whether it's on zoom or in person he needs to be ready to go meet with stephen ross and chris greer and sell them on why he's the next coach of the Miami Dolphins. Hey, I could just go win a Super Bowl and say that's why you should hire me, but also let me put all this work away and let me tell you why you should pay me to come to the 305. That is interesting. I know they were trying to change rules there for the final two weeks of the season and maybe do that whole thing.

That is just enough. Because I guess if you wait until after the Super Bowl, everybody that whole thing that is just enough because i guess if you wait till after the super bowl everybody else has already there just has to be some sort of guidelines there'll be a tampering period no matter how i remember um and you guys will roll your eyes and you'll laugh at it now because he's since been fired but i'll remember that there was a crazy sunday night game or sunday afternoon game between the colts and no the chiefs and the titans and mariotta threw a pick and, and Darryl Revis had it and it bounced off him and Mariota scores.

And it was his heartbreaking loss for the Chiefs at home with Alex Smith, probably his last game. And literally 12 hours later, Matt Nagy interviewed for the bears and got the job like 12 hours after that. And the whirlwind was so crazy. And I'm like, you had a game, you know, 12 hours ago and you're interviewing for the bears and then to get the job and naggy's the man he was coach of the year so it's not like he didn't have at least that good first year but that's how crazy this situation is that these guys put their their heart and soul into everything into this playoff game and then

in less than 12 hours they need to interview for the job of a lifetime and they just have to be ready and ready to go yeah these coaches interesting how they can do that kind of give and take also general managers as well go ahead connor yeah shrakes have you talked to your pal mcveigh about uh kelly stafford's comments regarding the away games going on in their home stadium and how there are more 49ers fans and how stafford had to use a silent count at home jimmy g did it and jimmy did not yeah jimmy did uh i watched that game great quote from ke, by the way. I fucking love her. Kelly, hey, I'll tell you what.

You guys have a little empire over there. Kelly Stafford's pretty darn good behind the mic also. She is a really good host at that podcast that she does. And it's an interesting perspective that she has, and she's not lying. And, you know, as much as I love McVay and the Rams organization, that place was a sea of red on Sunday. And it couldn't be denied because the broadcast made all the audio and all that, so her

saying that, I'm sure it wasn't a press release they'd put out from the Rams organization, but she's spitting the truth, and I think they're going to be fine Monday night with Cardinals fans, whatever, but moving forward, I think with that building and that stadium when they play the Niners coming in there,

that's going to be a thing to watch because that Niners fan base travels and that Rams fan base is still being built up What is it? So you're telling me like Larry David and LeBron and all them are selling their sweets to the opposing team Is that what they're I don't think they're worried about the sweets, dude I think that's all sweet talking about sweet and all that those Niners fans travel Yeah, it was awesome. Actually. I was pretty proud of him. Oh, yeah, I was excited about. Enough ice receipts and all that. Those Niners fans traveled. Yeah, it was awesome, actually. I was pretty proud of them. I was excited about it, actually.

Last question here, Shregs. We can't thank you enough for joining us on this morning. We know you're Emmy-nominated and have all the inside information, so we appreciate it. Thank you, Shregs. Go ahead, Ty. Shregs, what the hell's going on with Russell Wilson? He's giving everyone this mumbo-jumbo that he wants to stay in Seattle,

and then he's posting the cryptic pictures at the light at the end of the tunnel. Is he out of town? I mean, all the news coming out about him maybe going to the Giants. Have you heard anything like that in New York, or is Russell Wilson going to end up staying put? I'm very interested to see. Now, here's the one thing that is being kind of disregarded with a lot of these conversations about Pete Carroll's future

and John Schneider's future and Russell Wilson's future. Nobody knows anything because the owner right now is Jody Allen, Paul Allen's sister, and she doesn't communicate with the reporters. She doesn't talk to the media. And if there is a Woj or a Shams or a Schefter who has a plug-in with Jody Allen, please let me know because Jody Allen is worth something about, I don't know, $10 to $50 billion. And if everyone is worried about Pete Carroll being – they wouldn't want to fire Pete. He's got a contract through 2025 and he's – do all this money. Money is not an issue. OK? So money is not an issue.

So whatever she wants to do it hasn't been made public and it hasn't really been made uh obvious so i don't know what russell's intentions are i also don't know what the owner is looking for i love this i love that she she didn't tell anybody shit i love it she's telling shit and it's and she also owns the blazers now and i think they're going through some of that too in portland where it's like people are speculating on lillard and all this stuff and it's like this owner does not deal with the media. She's the late Paul Allen's sister, and she's there. And maybe they know internally what's going on with Russell Wilson.

Maybe they don't. Maybe they know it's with people. But anyone who's coming in here as the expert trying to tell you they know what the Seattle Seahawks' future is is probably blowing smoke up your ass right now. Because Russell, he's got a no-trade deal, but he also was under contract for another two years. So let's see how this thing plays out. But I'm not rushing a judgment on anything, and I'm certainly not attaching him to any other teams.

Shams, by the way. What did I say, Shams? I like his work. Well, you just said he's a sham. Yeah, whoa. Call the guy a sham. You said, hey, look at this guy. All the shams.

Shams. Shams. Shams. Shams. Call the guy Sham. You said, hey, look at this guy. Sham's basketball guy. Sham's, Sham's. The hoops guy. Hey, he dabbles in the NFL every once in a while, too. He'll come over. I know, I remember. He's breaking draft picks.

I'm like, dude, we're not allowed to do that. Stop it, because I could do it, too. Get out of my head. Don't come in here. I'm not here breaking, you know, Cam Reddish was traded for Kevin Knox. I don't try that shit. Stay in your own lane. He broke some politics shit, too. He got into the politics. Knox. I don't try that shit. Stay in your own lane. He broke some politics shit too.

He got into the politics. Yeah. I don't know. Does he have thoughts about Dr. Joe Rogan or no? I don't know if he broke any news on Dr. Joe Rogan or not. We should look into that. We'll ask him. I think he's joining us in the next hour.

Bro, AJ made me laugh so hard. I was watching the interview and he starts talking about Alex Jones. I was like, AJ's good. Very funny. Bro, yeah. Well, you think it's funny. Try it. You know, because he is just all AJ does is sit in his little attic in Ohio and just toss grenades in.

He's like, go ahead and have a good time out there. I'm like, Jesus. There's people I don't even know who he's referencing that are incredibly toxic. And I'm like, we can't be doing that, AJ. But that's what this show is all about. And we thank you for joining us. We appreciate you for giving us information. You're going to be at the Super Bowl, obviously.

I assume they're going to have. Oh. Hey, your set is going to be, oh. Oh, baby. Oh, I bet you guys are going to have something delicious out there, huh? We'll see. I'm not so sure about the set where it is our show airs at 4 a.m pacific let's see how much money they're putting into our set i'm not so sure about that my friend oh no i mean 4 a.m is very early i mean 4 a.m 4 a.m to 8 a.m might as well plug it we be on. We're doing East Coast time. I'm actually excited.

It'll be fun. But I don't know if we're going to be out on the Santa Monica Pier at 4 a.m. Let's just say that. I would like to let everybody know we will be on Eastern time, too. We're going to do our thing. Really? What time are you guys doing? Well, 9 a.m. to 1.30-ish.

Are you going to have guests? I know you're going to have, like, here's Hall of Fame legend from the 1984 Cincinnati Bengals. Can I come on one day? Well, listen, we ain't doing no 1984. Maybe Cincinnati Bengals because they're back. Maybe Cincinnati Bengals because they're out there. But we're trying to figure that all out now and what we're going to do down there.

Because FanDuel is, they have a little real estate in the radio row and it looks amazing. But also, I don't know what all the rules are going to be. Does the show quality dip because we're going to be in the, I don't, you know also i don't know what all the rules are going to be does the show quality dip because we're going to be in i don't you know i don't know it's very interesting it's very very interesting i don't know i don't know covid rules i don't know guest rules but two years ago miami it was on and then the pandemic hit and i don't know what super bowl is like this year i just know this if you are having guests or if you're having a party i will stand six feet apart from all you but i would love to hang in person. Okay, yeah, we'd love to have you, by the way.

You need to stop by, need to see you, need to chat with you in real life. We appreciate you so much. Ladies and gentlemen, Emmy-nominated host of Good Morning Football, Fox Sports Football Insider, ladies and gentlemen, Peter Scherker. Thank you. Yeah, Pete!

Joining us right now, a Super Bowl champion, college football national champion, Ryder Cup champion, COVID survivor, Aaron James Hawk. Hey, A.J.! What's up, dude? What's happening? How'd Shregs do? Shregs did good. Shregs did good. He talked about you mentioning, he called Sean Shams. He called Sean Shams, gave us a bunch of information. Was he joking nope no no no we he was on a run actually he was in the middle of it so we didn't want to necessarily interrupt him but also hey don't disrespect our guy like that his

name is shams we don't need people he also said stanis lane yeah and he also said like that hey hey hey shams we're not allowed to break the draft picks okay we could all be doing that shams is what schrager said but he also said that he respects his work and he appreciates him. So I didn't know. There seemed to be a lot of compliments. But it's the insider game. He did mention that he enjoyed your Alex Jones reference the other day.

So shout out to your toxicity getting a pop from Peter Schrager. Oh, with Aaron. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Peter. What's your problem? What's your problem? You all right? I was trying to think what I made in Alex Jones' comment. What do you mean? Oh, with Aaron. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, Peter. What's your problem?

What's your problem? You all right? I was trying to think when I made an Alex Jones comment. What do you mean? We do a lot of shows, man. Yeah, I know. We make a lot of comments. Believe me. Yeah, I know that.

Yeah. People say, you remember when you said blah, blah, blah? I'm like, I'm going to have to check the tape. Yeah. I'm going to have to check the tape. I don't know if that's what I said. Oh, you did. You did.

I'm like, really? Things have changed then. I can't say that. Things have changed then since then because let's dive into some things that have changed. This Carson Wentz narrative is getting more and more interesting by the day. And I know we live in Indianapolis and we're the only show really based around this area. And we're probably the only people other than Hard Knocks that talk about the Colts on a regular basis this particular season, because the run that they were supposed to go on was going to be glorious. Chrisard had his presser gear and presser here that started like an hour and four

minutes ago a lot of quotes coming out basically about like hey we made a decision at the time much different now we embarrassed our city we embarrassed our owner we embarrassed our team I think Jim Irsay's letting them know like hey this is not acceptable and I don't know if that's the case I've not asked Jim Irsay if that's the case but it feels like through Chris Ballard's tone or Chris Ballard legitimately pissed off that the roster he thought was a great one did not even get to the playoffs I mean don't you think Chris Ballard like absolutely is pissed off I mean he's getting heat from the owner and Jim Irsay I was thinking of him too because we went to that national championship game on Monday it's at his stadium he's there what hosting Peyton Manning.

And, like, do you think Ursa can really even enjoy that huge experience because it just got blasted by the Jags 18 hours before that? I think Jim Ursa has an ability to compartmentalize some stuff to have a good time, you know, and take in the moment and what it is. But I believe Peyton did allude to the fact that a lot of the conversation he has had with him has been about what happened, you know the Colts and Ty brought this up last hour the reminiscing you know Edrin James goes into the Hall of Fame they're riding around in drop tops on 24s and giving Bentleys a read they're running highlights of those teams and Reggie's about to go in and Robert Mathis went

into the Ring of Honor and Freeney was around, and Vinatieri. It's like the glory days are happening, and Jim Irsay's fully invested again in the team around. He's getting more and more popular. I think people are starting to learn more about Jim Irsay, the human, as opposed to Jim Irsay, the narrative that they have heard for their entire life. There ain't no way he's necessarily thrilled that in Clonton, the Colts got knocked out.

You know, like Jim, around here, and this is going to sound so like grandstanding, but it's real. This team hasn't been around for anywhere near the amount of generations that other teams have that have fan bases that travel incredibly and, you know, like four generations deep. Like, hey, this city runs on the happiness of the Colts. But this city has a different thing. like hey this city runs on the happiness of the colts but this city has a different thing this city knows good football has seen great football and is used to great football they once stunk then a guy came in from tennessee and an entire team came in and they went on to have the winningest decade in nfl history and that's when a lot of indiana and indianapolis became colts fans

so when luck comes in oh here's another fucking baller dude and then he's out and then all of a sudden now it's trying to figure it out we're paying 30 million which is probably more than what they paid Peyton at some years and this guy's making this money and he's out it's like the expectations are real and Ursae knows that you know Ursae has those expectations as well Ursae has done a good job of doing that so yeah you have Peyton Manning come in completely changed the whole franchise. Like, we're so used to the Colts being dominant for so long. And then they draft Andrew Luck, number one overall.

And this dude is – it's like going from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers almost, like how Andrew was, how great he truly could be. And then, obviously, the dude is so reckless and doesn't care about his body, he gets banged up just because he's playing. He's such a tough guy. But he is such a stud, and they had that. I guess they're trying to figure that out now. How do we get to a bridge person to our next Aaron Rodgers, our next Peyton Manning?

How about just the thought of Jim Irsay saying to Peyton, brother Pat talked about he sprained both of his ankles at one point. I've been around the game my entire life. I've never – and that's the most important position. I'm paying this guy $30 fucking million. And this guy's spraining both of his ankles on one throwaway play with Aaron Donald draped around him. You can be tough.

You can be, you know, no play left behind. I think everybody respects that. But that is a microcosm of what everybody thinks about Carson Wentz. He's so reckless. Reckless with his body. Reckless with the ball. And whenever you have to call into those moments where he's got to find and make the layups, it's like nothing really feels like a given with him. And I don't know, you know, if, and you said the

narrative on Carson Wentz is out. We've seen him. You said he stinks, basically. I don't know if he stinks because there are some moments where he looks unbelievable and he got a hundred million dollar contract. So it's but the greats, right? The greats are able to eliminate all that bullshit that makes you just sleep terribly at night whenever you think, oh, our franchise is in the hands of a guy who doesn't care, seem to care about his health at all. Whenever he's out there, get dying, doesn't really care about the ball is going to make a play. But he is going to give us his all and his energy is high. It's like such a fascinating thing. And when you've got a guy, you have to keep him.

I think that is what is the narrative and the story of this whole thing. Well, and I think for me, I mean, a lot of Packers fans, too, you get kind of brainwashed a little bit because I have been watching Favre and Rodgers for my entire life pretty much. And it's not that he stinks, but you just know, like, is his best going to be able to win you a Super Bowl? I don't think it is. Do you trust

that in the Super Bowl or in one of those big games where defenses are the best in the league, they're flying around, there's a lot of film on you, you just got to be able to execute. Is he going to be able to make that play and not just make... Not turn it over. It's the biggest thing. You don't want to turn it over.

Yes, turnovers. An extra possession for somebody else in the playoffs is so big. Even if it's just jabbing, if they're sparring. Like, hey, three and out, maybe a first down or two, and you punt it back, and you're doing the whole thing. As soon as you just give up one of those possessions, the tide turns. I mean, it is just a very natural thing, especially when you have you

know the best in the game with that being said Tom Brady threw like three picks in that NFC championship game against uh the Packers and he still won some yeah so you can get by with I guess quarterback play not being perfect but I wonder if Chris Ballard who's staring down probably some scrutiny from Jim like hey you've built a great roster but we need to get going but what hey but don't you think Chris Ballard too classy of a guy would never do it because he's such a team guy but Chris Ballard's like hey I I gave you seven pro bowlers and a pretty solid roster you would think we'd make the playoffs so Chris Ballard could say I'm not involved in football day-to-day now obviously he would never say that because he's he's a team guy and team guys never would but

that has to be somewhat of the case, correct? Well, and this is when GMs and coaches start to – Yeah. This is when it starts happening, right? When one outperforms the other, potentially. I'm not saying that is the case. Like the offense or defense. Like, hey, our offense is awesome, our defense sucks. Like, there can be some animosity when that happens.

And by the way, if one person is tied to the other person, and one person is maybe not the other person and one person is maybe not holding up their end of the bargain you could potentially see in a position where there's only 32 of them with a lot of money on the line that there's a little bit of a hey what the fuck is going on but frank and chris have been very very like i mean almost unexpectedly amount of hey same chemistry same chemistry, same synergy. Do you think they're on the same page when it comes to Carson Wentz? Seemed like it, right, with what Frank said, the way Frank answered that.

I'm not getting into why, and then I'll get into a bunch of else. Feels like that was a PR. That was a decision they made PR-wise. This is what we're going to talk about whenever this is asked. This is an easy answer. You don't want to get into this whole thing because Chris did the same thing. He said, I'm not going to get into every single player. But he didn't say anything glowing about Carson, which is kind of what Frank did.

Yeah, but Ursae doesn't give a shit. Like, we're talking about these Peyton Manning teams. They won one Super Bowl. And at the end of the day, if you don't win the Super Bowl, who gives a shit how good your team is? Like, if Ballard and Frank are buddy-buddy and, you know and they're evaluating Wentz, Schrager just came on here and said Dan Jones is going to have his job next year. How does that happen? Because there's no working

quarterbacks. Look, Russell Wilson, yeah, sure, he might be up. Do the Colts have a first round pick? Do they have players they want to trade? You can cut Wentz and pay $15 million, but are you bringing back Jacob fucking Eason to play quarterback? No, you're getting Aaron Rodgers. Sure, you're getting Aaron Rodgers.

Aaron's going to go to Green Bay and come down to Indianapolis and play without Devontae Adams. Aaron's coming to Indianapolis. That's what he's doing. They're in a terrible position. Like, no wonder he's embarrassed. He knows how hard it is to win a Super Bowl. They have seven goddamn Pro Bowlers, and they don't have Peyton Manning.

And Peyton Manning only went to two, right? And they didn't make the playoffs. And they didn't make the playoffs. So, I mean, we can talk about how great the team is. They are dead. And how awesome the Peyton And they didn't make the playoffs. So, I mean, we can talk about how great the team is. They are dead. And how awesome the Peyton Manning time was in reminiscing. They only reminisce about how many more Super Bowls they should have won. Not on how good the goddamn teams were.

You've never been in that reminisce room. I have. Sure. I have. And Ursae promised two Super Bowls this decade. And Peyton Manning isn't walking through the fucking door. Well, we can hope Andrew Luck is, though, because he was back in the stadium. Sure.

Need to get him on a workout program. Is Andrew Luck better than Peyton Manning? Man, how awesome would that be? If we saw Andrew like two months from now and he looks like he put on 15 pounds of muscle, I'm like, wait, we floated a rumor out there he's coming back to the Colts. That has happened. I've seen Andrew Luck 150, maybe

170 looking like very, very small. And then we see a picture of him like four months later, and he is the most yoked specimen of all time. When he is full, hey, I'm going to probably eat 15 tackles today. I'm probably going to get beat up. He is an avatar of a man. Drum balloon sandwiches, Paul. No. What are you talking about? He's natural build, dude. today i'm probably going to get beat up he is an avatar of a man i mean he is alone sandwiches paul no no what are you talking about he's natural build dude he was towering over rg3 at that

champion he's an ox he's huge he is a good program his head is gigantic he's a big human he is and he used to be able to move so fast and so he was a dude and we talked to Schrager about this with Juszczyk, you know, being a Harvard guy. And there's this, yeah. I mean, yo, yo, dude, just fucking yoked, bro. Yeah. Helmet on, though. Yeah. Is he retired?

Is he retired? No, this was when he was still in the league, I believe. Yeah. I think was this this was before the season before he retired, I think, because we saw a picture like two months or three months before that, and it looked like he weighed 170, and then we saw this, and it was like, oh, Andrew's going to win the MVP. He's all the way back. He's loving ball.

This guy loves to be working out, and he's all the way in. I'm intrigued by it all because the super smart dudes like Andrew, Andrew has disappeared completely. There's been speculation, but there has seemed to be no short of happiness in Andrew Luck's life from anybody that you've talked to

that talks to him. It's like, oh, he's loving life. He has a family. He's out in the middle of nowhere. Then he shows up at a football camp. It's like, whoa, is he missing? Is he missing the game a little bit? Getting back out there,

throwing the ball. You know what? This is still fun. And the salary cap's at $202 million. You automatically go, like, maybe he's thinking about it. Maybe he is thinking about it. Then he just disappeared again, by the way, for two months. Didn't see him again until he's going into the College Football Hall of Fame

with an incredible mustache. Absolutely incredible mustache. Seemed to be very happy. And there has been zero conversations at all that he's coming back into football or looks like he's coming back into football. I have the utmost respect for somebody that can just flip the switch and then flip it off as well and be like, nah, I ain't doing it. I'm moving on.

I'm one of the best engineers on earth if I really wanted to be. This is not a problem at all. Is he an engineer or architect? Yeah, sorry, architect. Either one. Probably both. No, no, architect, architect. I think architect.

Well, not all. Not all. Probably both. No, no, architect, architect. I think architects are architect. Well, not all. Which one? Not all. Is this square rectangle thing? An engineering of architecture. I believe he was an engineer major from Stanford. I think it was architect. Yeah, he's an architect.

I think he's an architect. But it might have been architectural engineering. Yeah. There it is. Holy shit, we're all right. Cheers to us, dude. Cheers. Cheers to Andrew, by the way. That's a lot. That's a lot

for his brain to take on. It is architect design. Architect, while also making it into the College Football Hall of Fame for how he played football. He was able to do all that shit while also playing football. Finished his degree, missed some OTAs, came back, knew more of the

playbook than everybody else. That is awesome. You know, good for him. more of the playbook than everybody else. That is awesome. You know, good for him. Just good for a brain on that guy. He also happens to be an engineering major. Boom. Okay. We were all right.

We were all right. Okay, so he knocked out an engineering degree, an architectural degree, almost won a Heisman, number one overall pick, College Football Hall of Fame. That is a next level human being. Not bad. Zito, I understand you're trying to prove you were right. I assume Diggs could do the same thing. It's Engineering College. Oh, it's within the

engineer. So square rectangle. So all architects are engineers. Not all engineers are architects. Nice. Thank you, Zito. We did it. Oh, right there on top. Let's go! Look at us. That's why we did it. All right there on top. Yep. Let's go. Look at us.

Good work, Zito. I feel like we're very smart. I feel like we're very intelligent. Not as smart as Andrew Luck, though. True. Which gets us back to the entire point of this thing. If he was to just come back and play football here in Indianapolis, Jim would put a statue up right next to Peyton.

Yes. Hey, thanks for coming back, dude. We fucking need you. And he was at the, I don't know if he was in the suite. I never, you know, stopped by Earth Day Suite. I don't think we were invited, but it seemed like everybody else that played for the Colts was. And Andrew was in there.

Peyton was in there. Jim's in there. Is there a little bit of a, we can start that room right now. Jimmy from the Colts maybe stopped by and said, hey. I think the four families sat down together and reached an agreement. You think that the Urses, the Mannings, the Lux, and whoever else was in there sat down at a round table while the boys of the George Bulldogs were living out a dream in Indianapolis.

80% of their fans were there. 20% of Alabama fans were there. That was really a dog walk there in the second half late. Yeah. You play football, go to what? We can start this fucking exercise and dieting program right now. You look way too small, obviously. We're going to have to put some weight on you.

I don't know. That'd be crazy. And I think that's the only way, right? Who do the Colts get? Nobody. It's a nice fantasy to say Aaron Rodgers. Great point Connor brings up. Don't you think, Pat?

Like, it's true. Like, all right, when we say we want to fire coaches all the time, college coaches especially, okay, cool, you want to fire them. Do you have two or three other candidates that you think are better suited for this gig? That's kind of the deal with the Colts. It does sound like they're ready to move on from Carson, though. I think the thing about everything is when you question something

and you don't have the answer, the immediate response is, oh, that's nice. You have no actual things that can fix the problem you just have a problem and in this particular case i guess with what everybody's been telling us we should have been thinking that and by we i mean me if we do move on from carson or frank who are we getting who who who are we getting that's probably what jim's doing right now in his office with his guitars and drums and stuff yeah realizing they have nobody and even for luck like it is impressive you can turn that switch on and off. Peyton Manning watches Monday Night Football,

and he's basically playing in the game. The difference between Luck and Peyton and those guys is that they can never turn the switch off. They only are the most competitive and want to win more than anything. Andrew Luck was great, absolutely, but he went to one AFC championship game, and you guys got fucking smoked. Yeah, if the balls are flat. Yeah, of course, if the balls are flat.

I'm not trying to be a prick. I mean, I didn't feel the same balls, but I do believe, you know. I mean, I was rookie too. I was rookie Andrew Luck. Yeah, very good. I met a rookie quarterback going in Foxborough against a team that was using deflated balls.

And the weather was being controlled that night as well. I thought a blizzard was coming, and against a team that was using deflated balls. Sure. And the weather was being controlled that night as well. I thought a blizzard was coming, and then all of a sudden it was rain and wind and warm. But Colts players did say, you know, probably could have got beaten with a beach ball. But again, either way. Well, what Colts player said that? This doesn't sound like a concerned citizen of Indianapolis. Yeah, he wrote you a little letter.

Well, I'm not concerned because he responded, and they're embarrassed. He did write a letter back, by the way. Hey, he did write a letter back're embarrassed. He did write a letter back. Jim did write a letter back. This guy said Andrew doesn't love ball. No, he loves it in a different fashion. We talked about this earlier. There's different levels in how people love ball. I think Herbstreet

jumped right into that the other day. I think Andrew enjoys football. I think he enjoyed football the game. street yeah that's right he jumped right into that the other day oh yeah but i think andrew enjoys football i think he enjoyed football the game i think what a big story that would be if he came back i mean it can get teased every single i'm just saying it because i want him to somehow get wind of it and start doing push-ups or something i could put on 20 pounds in 30 days see i wonder if andrew heard us talking about it that he actually would go the other way he goes oh wait i'm gonna fast for the next 40 days right until they see me the next time.

That would be awesome, too. I would respect that more. Yeah, me too. I would respect that a lot more, too. And maybe that's why he did show up looking the way he did. I'm not going to have anybody. Give me the smallest shirt we got. I don't want anybody to even think that I'm doing it.

Did his body transform a lot when you played with him? He would just go from whenever he would get yoked up, it was like, holy shit, this dude is huge. But I think he was like that when I was with him his entire career. Then there was the injuries that happened where in the offseason he would be training and going through that entire thing, and then he would come back. He's just a specimen of a guy.

I think he could put on weight pretty quick. Gronk said he could put on like 30 pounds or something like two weeks he gave me like 17 days i could probably put on about 17 18 pounds of muscle i could do oh muscle muscle muscle muscle i i put on 16 over that uh four day break we had that's right it's easy it was awesome you really put on 16 pounds yeah it was cool it's pretty cool i was up to 260-something. It was good to be there. What's up, dude? What are you waiting at?

You look good. No, no, no. Not great. I'm not there yet. I had a bad couple days here. I was at the RV Expo yesterday. I had a corn dog. Yeah.

What? I had one corn dog. What? I had a soft pretzel. What? Yeah, I did that whole thing. They had a cherry. Soft pretzel's good.

They had a cherry Coke option there. Oh, give me. You did it? I did, and I passed, actually. Really? Wild cherry Pepsi you would have taken though no see that stinks that absolutely stinks let's talk about some other stuff going on in the nfl here before jordan poyer joins us of the buffalo bills number one defense in the nfl zero pro bowlers first time that has happened since 2012 cannot wait to chat with him about his feelings on the people that are making a lot of these decisions for awards and how the Bills feel going into the

trilogy against the Patriots for this big playoff super send game parlay holiday weekend. Big Ben Roethlisberger cut a promo talking about how terrible the Pittsburgh Steelers are. And I loved every second of it. This is one of the most Ben Roethlisberger moments in the history of Ben Roethlisberger. I don history of Ben Roethlisberger. I don't want to say he was self-handicapping times 10, but he did become an MD of self-handicapping

in this particular promo that he cut about the playoffs and what he's saying to the boys in the locker room. We haven't discussed it, but I think, you know, I would assume as a group you understand that, you know, we probably aren't supposed to be here. We're probably not a very good football team. Out of 14 teams I think are in, we're probably number 14. Sounds like gigs. We're a double-digit underdog in the playoffs. So let's just go play and have fun and see what happens.

Yeah, I mean, we're probably 20-point underdogs, and we're going to the number one team that's – I know they're not the number one team, but they're the number one team that's won the AFC the last two years, arguably the best team in football. We don't have a chance. So let's just go in and play and have fun. Hey, boys, honestly, nobody expects shit from us.

No? We're dying. What, we're going to lose 30, 40 points? It was double digits and then it was 20. He said in the same answer. I mean, if they would have asked him one more time, that thing's probably 25-30. Hey, we're supposed to get our asses beat out there.

I love good self-handicapping Ben Rawls. Thank you, Seven. I love that. It's a scary team, isn't it? A team that's playing with nothing to lose. It's like they tell you when you're a kid, don't ever fight somebody with nothing to lose. They'll take you to the death.

Yeah, because they don't care is what it seems like. They know they shouldn't be there. It's house money. How you doing? Keep it moving. They're in the't be there. It's house money. How you doing? Keep it moving. They're in the playoffs. The Colts aren't. How do you think the game goes?

I don't know. Everybody in here is putting like $5,000 on Steelers' money line. Yeah. After Ben Roethlisberger does. Worth a shot. Yeah. I mean, there's big odds. There's massive odds on that.

I haven't really thought about that game because I've been trying to put our same game, ball, and holiday energy together for the Eagles-Bucks game. But that Steelers-Chiefs game is certainly fascinating. 12.5 is a lot of points for a playoff game, but could the Chiefs turn into the Chiefs of old whenever they just become a buzzsaw whenever they want? The answer is yes. Will Jackson Mahomes be on the field? Yes, he will.

Playoffs? Oh, same game, holiday weekend? Oh my. That Mahomes is going up. Oh my God. I'm so excited to watch and see who shows up and who doesn't. Pittsburgh Steelers always have a great defense, which is why they can be in any game. Speaking of great defenses, number one in scoring defense, number one in total defense,

zero pro bowlers because they stink individually. Ladies and gentlemen, the highest rated pass defensive safety in the NFL. Minimum of at least 35 attempts. Ladies and gentlemen, Jordan Poyer. I'm a favorite guy. Appreciate you guys for having me. That's why I held the intro, too. Hey, thank you.

You stink, dude. No pro bowlers in that defensive meeting room. Number one total defense. I think the lack of respect for what you guys have been able to accomplish on the defensive side of the ball, not only as a team, but specifically on the defense, just continues. And I know you hear all of it. Why do you think it happens?

What do you think it is? Just because you're up in Buffalo? I don't know, man. I don't know. It is what it is. I don't know. You tell me. You tell me.

I mean, golly. I have zero idea. It's don't know. You tell me. You tell me. I mean, golly. I have zero idea. It's kind of unreal to think about it. But we just keep our head down and keep working. Use it as fuel. Use it as energy. People think that's corny or whatever, but, you know, it is what it is. Go ahead, AJ.

Sorry, Pat was trying to, you know, some kind of sound going on behind you. Pat was trying to, I think, get into some rhythm there. Are you guys working right now? Are we out at work right now? We got what? Oh, no. Can you hear us? Is it our side? I can hear you. I can hear you all right. Is this a full work

day today for you guys? Yeah, it is. It's a full work day for us. I don't know what the hell they got going on. Truck's moving or something like that. That's probably what you heard in the background noise. Hey, can you be quiet? I'm on the interview right here. Yeah. Now tell them, hey, they got to do what they got to do. We do not want to be a part of the blame

of why you guys either succeed or lose. We don't want any of that. Go ahead, AJ. Jordan, do you guys care? Obviously, third time playing these guys in a short amount of time. Do you care what they do? Does it matter to you offensively what they do? Are you worried about them coming and showing stuff they may have not shown before? Where's your mindset on

defense? I think they'll probably have some wrinkles that they haven't shown us. At the end of the day, seeing a team, this will be the third time that we've played them, obviously in the year. Neither one of those games really mean anything when you think about it. They beat us at home.

We beat them at home. Both extremely hungry teams. We both know each other extremely well. We'll probably see some sort of wrinkle, but I'm just saying we've got to go out there and execute. We've got to go out there and play well. They're coming in hungry. We're coming in hungry. It's a playoff game in Buffalo, New York. As NFL fans, what else do you want? It's going to be a pretty crazy atmosphere. Yeah, we can't wait to watch it. The Bildos will be flying, of course, and you need to stay away from those

because we don't know about this Omicron or anything like that that are flying around on those Bildos. But whenever you think about super wild card weekend and the fact that it is the playoffs, and if you lose, obviously you're done. The finality of the thing is so quick. You guys are going to be judged. Last year you got a playoff win over the Colts, and then you lost. Your entire season is going to come down to how you do in the playoffs

on the overall grand scheme of judgment. Even though none of you made the Pro Bowl, which is a bunch of bullshit, your team is being heralded as this is the Bills team. Like, hey, we're going to go on a run here. Is that something you guys think about, talk about, or is it just, hey, we've got to do what we've been doing all season, just keep getting better? 100%. You know, that's kind of cliche, exactly what it is.

You know, we got to keep getting better all season, understand, you know, who we are as a team. And, you know, we don't back down from nobody. You know, we understand what type of game this is going to be. You know, all that outside noise is hearsay. You know, obviously you hear it, but you can't, especially this time of year, man. There's so much outside noise. You've been in the playoffs. There's so much outside noise.

You've got to figure out ways to block it out and be able to go out there and execute. We had a hell of a week of practice this week, man. We're extremely excited for the opportunity to go out there and play in a game that will go down in history. It's going to be one of the legendary games, Saturday night. It was Patriots. I heard you guys talking about it. You guys are excited as hell, too. I heard you the other day talking about it. We're thinking about trying to get a plane, actually, to get

it there because of how it's going to be awesome. Bill's Mafia. I got a couple of sweet tickets if you need. If you need. We'll talk. If you need. We're going to recall you back to reset the connection. That is not good. This is not good. I just got off the tickets.

Ah, shit. So now if I don't go, it's on me. Is there a window on that suite? Because the high is three. No, no. We want to be outside. We want onesies, overalls. Yeah, we want the full thing.

Feel that air. AJ's coming in. Yep. Why? Oh, your build-up. Yeah. Yeah. What? Is that what I'm throwing throwing bildos no i was talking about the good energy good vibes it's a good energy you know what i mean you're talking about what's that dude what are you shaking it i don't know i i seen the armadillo one time and i assume

it could become the arm of bildo that thing was wall to wall at one particular place I walked into. And I congratulated whoever had accomplished that feat, but I never got an answer on who it was. There's no wall of fame,

but I did see it and go, holy shit, there's some people into some interesting shit in this world. That Bills Mafia being spotlighted on Saturday night

is going to be spectacular. Jordan's bad boy, Jordan. I'm bad. I'm sorry. The Wi-Fi, I don't know what happened. No, you're in Buffalo. I mean, we're in Indiana. It's probably our fault Jordan! I'm bad. I'm sorry. The Wi-Fi, I don't know what happened. No, you're in Buffalo.

I mean, we're in Indiana. It's probably our fault too. I mean, who knows how it all goes. How has the buzz been? I mean, you've mentioned it a couple times now, and I think we all are looking forward to it slowly as we continue to think about it here. Bills Mafia, we assume there's going to be snow.

It's going to be on primetime. Have you guys talked about how electrifying that stadium is going to be in meetings or in the locker room or anything like that? Yeah, just amongst ourselves. We understand the Bills Mafia has been waiting a long time for this moment right here. Obviously, understanding the circumstances, it's absolutely going to be electric. RVs have been parked out there all week ready to go. The Bills Mafia is excited for this.

Like I said, it's going gonna be one of those nights that you know the legendary NFL nights man Bill's versus Patriots on Saturday night okay so let's dive it we can't wait for it and thank you for the offer I might actually have to fly up there I mean that'd be electrifying we'll see what's it's very nice of you I listen sweet tickets are expensive playoffs too in Buffalo I mean that would be amazing. But let's talk a little bit about, you know, you're in the middle of your work week right now, and we appreciate you taking time here. No Wi-Fi, trucks in the back, we don't care.

We're appreciative that you stopped by. From Mac Jones, the first time you really watched him on film, to the second time, to now, have you seen actual growth in the rookie quarterback, and is that something that you guys have to, like, actually fully invest in because it's a new player, a new opponent, and you don't have a lot of film on him? Yeah, I think as he's gone throughout the season, his confidence has gotten a lot better.

His ability to manage that offense has gotten a lot stronger. And, you know, he's a really good football player. He's smart, you know, and he can make all the throws. You know, we're going to have to play well. We're going're gonna have to play well. They got really extremely good offensive line, really good running backs that come downhill. So, like you said, it's a cold weather game. I think single digits is gonna be, so the ball is gonna be a little bit hard, be a little bit slick.

It could change the game plan, could change the way the game's called. So we're gonna have to be prepared for everything. And so they've got some really good players. Hey, does that help defense or offense? Cold. Cold as hell. Does that help defense or offense? Because I know a lot of people say, those Florida boys on defense, it gets cold.

That ain't the way. That ain't the way. That whole thing goes. I know that is a statement that is said, I think. Do you think it helps or hurts the defense if it's cold? I mean, Buffalo is much different, but in normal football, you think? You know, I think it could be a little bit of both ways. You know, the football is extremely hard. You know, as a kicker, I guess, you know, how would you like the ball is extremely hard.

It's cold. You know, that's the same way, you know, quarterbacks throwing the ball, running backs hanging on to the football. You know, it's kind of the same thing. So the only thing that makes it a little harder on the offense, you know, obviously as a defense, you come in thinking that you'll be able to, you know, try to force more takeaways because the ball is a little bit more slick, a little bit more cold. So, you know, just coming in with the right mindset this weekend, man.

We've got to come in with the right mindset, ready to play, ready to execute. How excited are you guys to watch your offense and Josh Allen play? Like, I feel like, especially if you guys get rolling in the playoffs, this is really going to be fun to watch. Like, I think people underestimate how athletic he really is. Obviously, he can sling the ball. But is your offense, like, I would assume their confidence seems to be at an all-time high, too. Yeah, I mean, I get so excited when our offense goes out there.

I get a front row seat to watch Josh Allen and Stephon Diggs go to work every single week. I mean, it's absolutely crazy to see the kind of stuff Josh is able to do. I think last week when he was basically falling off of a tackle and he made a sidearm throw to Diggs in the end zone.

I mean, it was just unbelievable. Some of the things he's able to do. So yeah, I'm excited to see. It's been so cool to see Josh's growth since he came into the league and even to now. So, I'm excited to see our offense go to work. This is definitely going to be a team effort win. You know, we got to come ready to play. Hey, he's big something, bitch, huh?

He's a big. He's a big. He's big as hell. Yeah. I mean, he runs fast as shit, too. So, I mean, he's a hard dude to bring down. I'm extremely happy he's on he's big as hell yeah yeah i mean he runs fast as shit too so i mean he's a hard dude to bring down i'm extremely happy he's on our team because i see so much stuff he does and i'm just like man like i mean how do you stop it um you know there's not really many answers you have hey they were running like powers with him too a couple games ago it's like yeah because

he's the size of a defensive end too right, right? He has that Cam Newton-like presence of quarterback, right? Yeah, a lot of quarterback runs with him. I mean, why not? I don't like seeing him take some of the hits, but he's so damn big. He just be bouncing off of them. I'm like, okay, Josh, good shit. Stay together. Yeah, stay in one piece, but let's keep running these people over.

Go ahead, Tom. Jordan, I'm a big weather guy, so all week I've been thinking about that temperature that you mentioned earlier. Have you been sleeping outside at night to get acclimated to it? Have you guys been freezing the balls? Have you been practicing outside? How are we getting prepared for Saturday night? We practice outside, freezing the balls.

I'll go outside for about 10 minutes every night and just kind of hang out just to kind of get acclimated. At nighttime, it's freezing out here. It's so dang cold. So the temperature definitely drops in the, you know, in the high teens, single digits. And so I'm just trying to get acclimated. So going out there on Saturday night, it's not the first time that I breathe that cold,

you know, one degree air. Cause you don't really get that a whole lot, in a lot of places. Do you go full sleeves? Are you? We were talking about that earlier this week because you know guys I guess back in the day It used to be a things where if you wore sleeves you were definitely considered But You can call me a bitch. I might have the sleeves on this weekend.

I'm going to stay warm. I was one of those as well. I debunked that. I debunked that the entire time, and I was just a runner kicker, so nobody really cared. But I had friends that were offensive linemen and stuff. You're putting sleeves on. I'm like, fuck it.

You're from Pittsburgh, man. You're from Pittsburgh. You're supposed to like. Fuck that, dude. Fuck that. I don't know. I'm staying warm. Can you toughen my skin up? You want me to get mentally tough?

Right. Yeah. That ain't happening. It's not happening. You going to wear the grease on the sleeves too, like to cut the wind that they have there? I never was a big fan of the grease. I tried it one time and I just,

I didn't see any difference other than I just looked like a big mother effer out there on the field. You know, that grease gives you an extra three, four pounds, so you kind of look real swole out there on the field. Hey, how's the body? It's good. You hit a lot. Is the body okay? This is 17-game season, so this is the first time.

It's definitely been a grind for sure. It's a grind for sure. You know, the extra game definitely is a grind. But the body's been actually holding up extremely well. I feel like I've usually found ways, especially now that I'm year nine, to find different ways to take care of your body to stay healthy and be ready by Sunday. But you know how it is. These things are a grind, man. It really doesn't matter how you feel. You've got to go out there and still be a thing on Sunday. So that's just what it is.

Well, Saturday. Jesus, come on. Saturday. Yeah, well, I mean, you do. Hey, Sunday, Saturday, though, you probably change the entire schedule. I get it, football. But we appreciate you, man. Good luck on Saturday. I will definitely hit you up here in a little bit. Let me know. Let me know.

Let me know. I got a great family. They'll be in there hanging out. So they would love you. They would love to have you and AJ. Come on out. Oh, AJ! AJ! Hey, we appreciate you.

Good luck this weekend. I would like to introduce you, you know, on the way out here as Pro Bowler, but. Man. You guys' team stinks, dude. You guys got no Pro Bowler. Embarrassing. It's embarrassing, isn't it? Hey, first time since 2012.

The first time since 2012. How did it happen in 2012? And then how did it happen again is the big question. It's like Aaron came out the other day with that whole Hubbard-Kush situation. And then Lombardi came on afterwards, his longtime GM and coach. He's like, this entire system of awards is flawed. And we just need to recognize that. And when we empower these awards,

that we question how it's even making it, we kind of build up this shit. I assume that it doesn't, like at your core, you wish you were getting recognized, but it probably just pisses you off more and motivates you more to continue to play. If your teammates love you, who cares? Exactly. You said it. You hit it on the nail. I need to be headhunting.

You guys are all going to be headhunting Saturday night for sure. Yes, sir. Ride down. Ride down. Yeah, earn a little respect. Hey, earn a little respect. You fucking Patriots fans, get the hell out of here. Oh, he's wearing it.

Is that it? Oh, he's okay. Okay. Oh! I'm telling the team you're headhunting Jordan. I didn't fan him out earlier. Hey, to hell with that guy. I didn't want him to ask a question.

I didn't want to put any bad vibes in here, but, I mean, he's in here. I was going to say. It's all good. Ladies and gentlemen, Buffalo Bill Safety, Jordan Porter. Thank you. Yay! Yes, sir. So sorry to interrupt, but I want to let you know that if you're not gambling with FanDuel, you're wrong.

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Shout out to FanDuel. Shout out to you. Let's get back to the show. From Manatee, Ohio. Just a little bit of a news break to keep everybody updated maybe that isn't following along as closely to to the ab watch as maybe some of us are uh just yesterday he was in a room uh sitting next to floyd mayweather who was sitting next to madonna who was sitting next to kanye west who was sitting next to his new uh girlfriend julia it appears if they were having

some sort of house party there is a Drake song playing in the background Antonio Brown was with Will.i.am he's with Kanye he's out there with Madonna and Floyd AB is about to drop a fucking heater yeah and we all just need to be ready for he's not from the pit from the palace he's from the pit not the palace everybody everybody hears just a little bit of that wait until you hear what this room creates is that madonna right there in the white yeah yeah she's getting it floyd you know i think floyd did have some questions on why he was in the room at numerous times throughout the evening why am i here but also having a good time how did this come together is the other question well these are a lot of questions i mean immediately watching this video you have to ask is this for a music video

is this just them hanging out saying hey donnie looks happy smiling there donnie's having a time they're all wearing gloves i mean they're just there's a lot of you know it's awesome i don't know if i'll ever be invited to one of these i wish that had been you i wish we pan left and you're right next to a b and you're wearing so we actually talked about that earlier like this is the type of thing that i would somehow get invited to and actually bet quick sorry to catch y'all uh i know you superimposed yourself into that james harden uh clip you need to put yourself in this yeah oh yeah zito thank you straight out of the zito playbook zito is very good at that we appreciate that uh but this is something that i would happen to mosey into somehow and just be like okay let's start paying madonna is sitting next to floyd mayweather who's

next to uh antonio brown and by the way kanye west is here with julia fox who used to be something with pete davidson who's now dating Kanye's ex-wife, who's legally single. I mean, this world is hysterical. He's got to kind of take it all in. Who's shooting this? Who's shooting this? Yeah, good question. Is that Danny Boy?

It could be. Is that Danny Boy Hustle Hard? Hey, cheeks. Hey, cheeks. Talk to him. What if it is Lebanon D out there? Dude, we have no idea, but I can't wait to hear more of the trip that Antonio Brown is out in LA for I assume he's gonna make a fucking smash

and I cannot wait to hear I'm just happy he got out of New York I thought he would never get out of New York you've seen Julia's work Uncut Gems she's uh Sandler's girlfriend in that movie yeah oh that's what it is yeah yeah that is yeah so it what that is. Yeah. So it's wrong cut gems. It was hard for me not to just be like, dude, just sell the shit and get out of debt the whole time. Sure. Yeah. So it was hard to like feel the bad form because it's like, hey, just, just, but he had no problem.

Okay. He ran into the wrong group of people and no spoilers, but it does not end well. No, it doesn't. It does not end well at the end of that whole thing, but I think I have. Did you like that? Huh? Did you like the movie? Well, I was actually being judged judged that's all i need to know that's all i need the pause is all i need to hear i'm a sailor i liked it i didn't it didn't blow my socks off like a lot of people act like it was they were a new person after watching yeah well that's because adam sandler was fucking leonardo dicaprio all of a sudden you know this wasn't a

happy madison production he was a hired gun to play that role and he absolutely crushed it. So I think as a Sandman fan, I was pumped for him. You know, getting to dive into a little bit deeper roles and characters and somebody else wanted him in the movie. But also, I think I wish it was a happy Madison production. I think

it would have been a little bit better. Joining us now is a man who is living his fucking best life. He was just on the slopes two days ago with Dana. Fresh pound. And by the way, the ski looked amazing. I mean, wide open mountain. He probably had a log cabin at the top of the mountain.

First track. Probably his own lit. I mean, it was unbelievable. A guy with so much information, and we can't wait to learn more about the life that has been lived by this legendary coach, ladies and gentlemen, Chuck McGaughan. Hey, Chuck! Chuck, what up, dude? Oh, yeah, Chuck.

Chuck, right here, dude. What up, guys? Hey, how was that ski? How was it up there on the mountains? Looked like you guys were having a blast. Oh, we had so much fun. I think 30 plus years for Tina and I, since we've been on the, had a set of skis on, been on the hill. So we're a little bit nervous, stayed on the small chair, stayed on the bunny slopes, but we had a blast. Is that something you guys are going to get into?

It looked like, I thought you guys were just regulars. You know, I got some photos from you. Thank you for sharing. I love that. living vicariously through you and tina living your best lives right now look like you were naturals was it not the case you guys were right back in there like let's go to the purple diamond uh triple threat let's go right up there i couldn't i couldn't talk her into uh we were on the greens you know and so they have blue and then of course you know you got the black square and then the black diamonds and the double black diamonds. And we were on the little slope and doing really well. And we both grew up on skis. So it's kind of like riding a bike.

Once you, you know, get your ski legs underneath you, so to speak, you know, it came back pretty quick. But I couldn't talk her into getting on a different chair and going a little bit higher up the mountain. Probably the smartest thing we did. No, especially with your Peloton legs now. You got new legs for that knowledge that you have on the skis. It's just like riding a bike. I thought maybe we'd see you on like a cliff.

You know what I mean? I thought maybe that was what the video was coming next. We're happy you're alive. We're happy you're enjoying life. And we're happy you're joining us right now. Let's talk about what's going on in the coaching world. The Chicago Bears are interviewing like 400 people for their head coaching job. Joe Judge just got fired on a Tuesday.

Who knows how that's going to go? They're hiring the GM first. Whenever you're a coach that's doing these interviews, and I know yours is different because of what happened with Baltimore to Indianapolis. And, you know, you've told us that story but what are you trying to showcase in to these owners what is it you got to have a game plan going into these interviews you think like who's most likely to get these gigs because we chatted about McVeigh doing an interview and then like Jim Caldwell doing an interview immediately afterwards do you just have to be yourself or what do you think

these guys mindsets are going in yeah I think number one is is you got to be yourself, or what do you think these guys' mindsets are going in? Yeah, I think number one is you've got to be yourself, because whatever you've done to this point has caught the attention and the eye of these clubs and owners and GMs, if they have GMs. So just be yourself, and then I think you just be prepared to answer any and all questions that could possibly come up. I mean, obviously, it's an opportunity for them initially just to get a feel for you as a human being, what your philosophy is, leadership qualities, you can get into schematics, get into schematics, roster mechanics, you know, building a roster, your yearly calendar,

you know, so really, you got to be prepared, you know, A to Z on any possible question that can come up, you know, and, you know, it's crazy the things, you know, that, that, you know, you get asked and can come up and like, on my interview in Indy, you know, that, that, you know, you get asked and can come up and like on my interview in Indy, you know, towards the very end of it, legal counsel came in, Dan Emerson, and he says, got to ask this question, but have you had any, you know, legal problems ever? Have you ever, you know, whatever? And I said, well, it depends on how far back you're going to check, you know, you know, so you got to be prepared for anything and everything. A lot of posturing going on. You see a lot of the same names, you know, coming up at a lot of the same places. And I think that's just, you know, again,

whether there's a GM in place, a president of football ops, an owner's involved. They're all looking to see, okay, who's the hot guys? Who's the hot coordinators? Who are the retreads? The guys that had head coaching jobs have been successful and had coaching jobs, Doug Peterson types that are out there. So I think a lot of those guys are are all getting interviewed uh by each and every one of these uh organizations that that have openings and and i think also that the teams that have you know gm uh jobs open see like the like the giants and the bears you know pretty much status quo is is like you get the gm in place first uh because he's going to be making most of the decisions moving forward and then he's um you know I heard Peter talking earlier on the show

he's got probably a list of guys and guys that he has worked with in the past um has a relationship with because we all know how important that GM head coach uh relationship is and um you know we probably have heard you know through the grapevine what happened at Miami it seems like um you know Chris and and B-Flow started maybe to butt heads uh down there over whatever the quarterback uh could be a multitude of things, but that relationship is huge. And so I think part of that, Pat, you know, talking to guys and bringing guys in, it's going to be harder for teams that don't have the GM in place just as far as, you know, communication. Is this guy relatable?

Is this guy I want to hang out with? Because on the day-to-day, it is. I mean, literally, you don't go a day without being around your gm okay so let's let's expand on that a little bit because in a place that you know well which is jim ursa's building uh obviously chris came out today and he was talking about how we embarrassed our team we embarrassed our owner we embarrassed our city they talked about you know wanting to have a quarterback in place but it doesn't always work out that way.

The future of Carson has not been locked in by Chris nor Frank. Do you think there's a chance that Jim Irsay is like, hey, what the fuck? And do you think there's any way that maybe one side of that could be like, we have seven pro bowlers, our roster, and Chris looks at Frank like, hey, what the hell is going on down there? Because those two have been cemented together very well, it has appeared. Is there anything you think that could drive them apart, just like natural, hey, our livelihoods depend upon each other? I don't think so.

You know, Jim, as well as I know, Jim, yeah, upset, understatement, right? I mean, that was, I mean, none of us saw that coming. right? I mean, that was, I mean, none of us, none of us saw that coming, but yeah, devastating, devastating loss because, you know, you start out the way they start out and then you make this push and you're rolling and you win two huge games. You go to Arizona with absolutely nobody left on the roster and win there. And then, you know, the last two weeks of the season and culminating with the loss down in Jacksonville, you know, you know, Jim, I know, Jim, I, you know, he's pounding that fist, you know, on top of that desk on, you know, what the F what, how, how does this happen? You know, and, you know, you hear about the conversations that they had post post game, a two hour meeting,

whatnot. I'm sure it extended, you know, way past that because you're going to get called in and you're going to, okay, where are we going? How does this happen, number one? And then how do we avoid this, you know, moving forward? You know, and then they start going through everything A to Z after, you know, probably take a few days off, a week maybe, then get back in there and say, okay, what's the plan, you know, probably take a few days off, a week maybe, then get back in there and say, okay, what's the plan, you know, moving forward. But I don't, you know, they both just signed, you know, five-year extensions,

I believe at the beginning of this season or last season or whatnot. So both have done a phenomenal job. You got two really good football men in there. You got what seems to be a great relationship between a GM and a head coach, which is obviously, again, very, very important to the success of that organization, that football team. Yeah, but yeah, and that's the owner's, that's his right, you know, is, you know, you got to answer, you know, the tough questions. And I'm sure, you know, I know Jim very, very well. And I know there were some tough questions there.

And, you know, there's going to be tough questions moving forward, in particular your quarterback situation. Yeah, speaking of that quarterback situation, they've come out. I'm sure – I guess my question for you would be when they – before they speak to the media and they both – so Chris Ballard, Frank Wright kind of had the same message about Carson Wentz and what his future may hold there in Indy and sounds like yeah they don't really know but they didn't give him a big stamp of approval like he will be back is that something that they have to get together and talk about behind the scenes to make sure they're all like

putting the same message out and is jim a part of that messaging you think yeah there was conversations you know well before you know it's hard for for frank because you know right after the game you got to speak to the media and then you got to speak the next day and you know the hard knocks thing so he's on he's got to be on point uh you know so they probably talked about okay if this does happen here's uh you know here's what we need to say, but head coach and the GM, PR director Conte, Paizan Conte, they're going to get together, Jim, okay, and say, hey, look, this is what we need to say about the quarterback situation and any other situation that may be coming to a head and be one of the things in the offseason, because you want to get in there and have, you know, your head

coach say one thing, yeah, you know, Carson's our quarterback moving forward. We're extremely pleased with where we're at. And then all of a sudden GM comes on and says, no, that's not the case. You know, we'll see. So those two, you know, definitely, you know, you're on the same page. You want to send the same message out there. It was very clear when you listen to both of them talk, pretty much the same answer. Hey, look, we're not going to get into a lot of things right now about this player or any other player. We've got a lot of work to do. We've got to dive into the film. You know, we've got to dissect the entire, you know, season, go through our self-scout, all those kind of things.

And we'll be able to get back to you, you know, at a later time on a lot of this stuff. But they certainly left the door open because you don't want to paint yourself in a corner either and say, hey, yeah, he is the dude. You know, because it may not be the case. Yeah, because if Aaron Rodgers becomes available. Well, I mean, who's going to roll the dice and say, you know, it was mentioned earlier on there, why are you going to leave Green Bay or if you're Chris Bauer or Frank Wright, say, okay, we it was mentioned earlier on there, why are you going to leave, you know, Green Bay? Or if you're Chris Bauer or Frank Wright, say, okay, we're going to move on here and we're going to get, you know, Aaron Rodgers because we're going to hire whoever. We don't have a head coach in Jabo, but you can't roll the dice like that and say we're going to, you're not guaranteed Aaron Rodgers.

You're not guaranteed Russell, you know, Wilson, any of those, you know those potential free agents. And we all know the quarterback group coming out in this year's draft. I guess the experts, all the pundits are saying it's not very strong. But, you know, time, it's like the college recruiting. We name all these five stars, right, every year. This guy's a five star. Let me see these guys, you know, get on the field and get two, three years into their career before we start.

Hey, Chuck, they're having full press conferences on ESPN, these kids. I know some of them are going to go on to be great or whatever, but I'm seeing some of these kids at press conferences. I'm like, God damn, how do you remain humble? How are you supposed to remain humble at 18 years old? You have your own press conference on espn you're picking up programs and throwing them you're being told to do this type of stuff you haven't made a fucking play yet let alone anything like that in your it's uh it's a wild thing because anybody a fourth rounder could be a stud corral who got hurt i believe

he could end up being a guy and he could could be a complete bust. Who knows? Nobody knows shit about anybody. No, and with NIL and all the media attention that these guys are getting out, I don't know how these college coaches, you know, do it. And, you know, if you're in a program like, you know, Bama and George and those things, they're going to keep getting those guys. And, you know, they tell those guys straight up, those guys want to be there, but, you know, they're going to say, look, you're going to have to come in here and work. We got nothing but five stars here. So don't come in here and think this, that, and the other. So you got to be careful on what you tell these kids and what you promise

these kids. But yeah, managing, you know, the egos and keeping these kids humble. I mean, it's extremely difficult but it's an eye-opener too once you get on campus nobody gives a shit about that okay it's like okay you better run fast you better block this mofo you better catch this pass you better cover this dude that runs you know four two and gets in and out of breaks otherwise you know they'll be talking to you about you know medical red shirt and trying to find a way to run you out of there. So I think that's my favorite. One of my favorite speeches you gave to the team.

It was early when you were there and you're talking about everybody here has ability, but you're going to be known as the guy with a cup of coffee in the NFL. Are you a guy that was actually in the NFL? There's levels to this thing. It was one of your first like kind of layout of how you view things and how you're going to be like coaching up and your expectations. It was a very real thing because do you want to be remembered as that press conference in high school or do you want to be a guy that actually goes on and has success in the history of the game is a real thing. And I don't know how you find the balance. You just got to hope that the competitive stamina kind of kicks in and people keep going. Let's talk about the NFL in which you had

success coaching in as well. College coach and NFL coach. Super wild card weekend. Same game parlay holiday. Chuck, what's the mindset of a coach going into this weekend knowing that it's win or go home, knowing that the entire season will be remembered upon this game,

knowing that there's only one person that ends up with the fucking Lombardi and everybody else doesn't. How do you think the mindsets are going into these coaches? And does it vastly vary between the Basaccia's house money of the world and everybody else, you think? Yeah, some of those guys have the pressure, weight of the world on their shoulders.

If you're the Rams and you're McVay and you're Matthew Stafford and them, You're the Rams and you're McVay, you know, and you're Matthew Stafford and them. I guarantee you probably can't get a needle with a tractor and chain out of Matthew Stafford's ass right now. You know, just because of everything that's out there. And, you know, Richie Passaccia, you know, those guys are playing with house money. You know, they are, you know, the Las Vegas Raiders and they've got nothing to lose, you know they are you know the las vegas raiders and and they've got nothing to lose you know at this point and and you know all the walk-off home runs that they they've had you know this season six of them game winner i mean it's it's crazy so um yeah they should go bingos should take care of business but you got them uh coming to town

you know on a really short week you know they, they played, you know, on East Coast time, I mean, 12, 1230, you know, whatever time it was for them. And then to have a short week and then to have to travel tomorrow. Today's like a Friday for them. They're going to have a walkthrough tomorrow and then get on a plane and fly down to Cincinnati, play on a short, short week. So, yeah, since he's got all those weapons, they got George Burrow, everybody's talking about all these dudes

and Jamar Chase and Higgins and company and Joe Mixon. But look out, because Richie, plenty of gobble-goole is going to be handed out at that team meeting. You know? We used to say, you know, let's give these guys a scoff.

Give these guys a scoff right here. You know? And, yeah, so I'd be super nervous We used to say, you know, let's give these guys a scoff. Give these guys a scoff right here, you know. And, yeah, so I'd be super nervous there and really looking forward to, you know, like Big Ben coming out and throwing all that out there, you know, about. We stink. We stink. We suck. Nobody's picking us.

Can they win, Chuck? You think they can actually win? They just beat the crap out of us. You know, all that stuff. Can they win? That's what AJ wants to know. Do you think they can win? This is the playoffs, Pat. So you were just talking about it, right, before I started talking.

It's one and done. So you know when we made the playoffs, I mean, the energy level, the juice, the enthusiasm, I mean, practice enthusiasm, practice, everything picks up. You don't have to necessarily do anything different. Schematically, guys are going to have a wrinkle here and a wrinkle there for each of these teams. You are who you are, but the energy level, and it just takes, like you always say, the play doesn't care who makes it. And there's going to be four or five plays in most of these ballgames that are going to determine the outcome of these games.

And, you know, a turnover, you know, weather's going to play a huge factor in some of these games. So anything can happen. Yeah, I mean. T.J. Watt dancing. Nobody. T.J. Watt gets a great. Who picked, you know, down in Climbtown. All right, I mean. T.J. Watt dancing. Nobody. T.J. Watt gets a great. Who picked, you know, down in Clontown.

All right, all right. We don't need to bring that up. We're talking playoff football. We're talking playoff football. We're talking playoff football. You know what I mean? So, I mean, guys are going to be inspired, and you're going to get everybody's A game.

Everybody's A game because all the vets are telling, all the OGs are telling all the young dudes, okay, there is no going out. There's no video games. There's no nothing this week. Extra film, extra sleep, extra prehab, post, this, that, and the other. And everybody's going to give, you know, everybody else their A game. And it's going to be exciting. And, you know, anything can happen in these ball games.

Ty. Coach, when you look at Joe Judge in that situation, do you think a guy like that is going to get another opportunity to be a head coach somewhere? And also, like, if the Giants do end up getting a first-time head coach, do you think guys look at kind of the dysfunction of their franchise and realize, like, oh, the last however many guys they've hired have been run out of town very very soon after they

were hired does that impact you guys at all you think going into that or is a first-time head coach going to take a job anywhere no matter what yeah yeah ty i think you what you just said you know there's only 32 of them uh in the world um so yeah guys are going to go in and um because the giants are going to sell whoever uh and whoever the new gm is going to go in because the Giants are going to sell whoever and whoever the new GM is going to be. They're going to sell a guy on, hey, this has got to change. We're going to do this. We're going to give you all the resources. We've got a storied franchise here.

We've made some mistakes. Mara's come out in front of the public, and he's been very upfront and forthright about the mistakes that have been made. But no, you're going to take that job. And Joe will get another chance. He'll have an opportunity to rebound and, you know, jump on a team coming up. He may take a year. He's a young guy, so he's probably not going to want to take a year off.

He's going to try to do whatever he can to go be a special teams coordinator again, you know, whether that's back in New England or anywhere else, you know, go jump right back in it and then, you know, have a chance to hopefully reflect, you know, and sit back and say, okay, you know, this was good and this was not so good and learn from those mistakes. And if he can look himself in the mirror and say, hey, yeah, I made some mistakes along the way and I should have, you know, been better at, you know, ABC and I can do, you know, not do the things that I did, you know, late in the season this year and all those kind of things. He's going to be able to look back.

He's going to have plenty of time to look back on all that stuff. And hopefully, again, he's a young guy. He got a great opportunity, you know, a volatile, really, really hard market. That takes a special, special dude. You know, they always talk about Rex. And when Rex got the Jets job, I mean, Rex was perfect, you know, for that market, being the Jets head coach and going into New York and being able to handle those guys.

And obviously having the success that he had early really helped that. But he had the personality and broad enough shoulders, as you like to say, to handle anything. But hopefully he'll get another opportunity and learn from his mistakes. Okay. Do you enjoy the fact that Joe Judge threw a fucking banger for the boys, you know, when they got fired? I saw like six, seven cases

of Michelob Ultra coming into the house. Some pizza coming into the house. A Bud Light. A vodka. Tequila. They were literally backing them up on dollies into the house for a little go away. Hey, I appreciate all your hard work over here, boys. Do you appreciate this?

Is this normal when coaches get fired or have to move on no I think I think that's pretty cool I wonder if the guys that had to run stadium steps and up downs and push-ups went to the park but that no that's a that's a you know I like that and I you know sometimes you know things happen where hopefully you have an opportunity to get your crew together, and hopefully he got his guys together. We always tried to get together right before training camp. Right as OTAs ended, Pat, we would have a little golf outing and then a party at the house for all the guys and get everybody together, kind of the beginning of the season, end of the, you know, OTAs and things. But, yeah, that's pretty cool. Hey, that golf outing you guys used to have, you know, those stories would make their way through the golf places. Okay.

You know, through the building. They used to really tear apart courses. Really? I mean, terrible fucking golfers. Wow. I mean, that's what I've heard. I heard just terrible golfing out there. Is that accurate, Chuck?

Pretty much. There's some guys, you know, Clyde, that's all he did. When you have Peyton and then you have Andrew Luck, you can leave the office at 3, 3.30 and go golfing in the spring.

No, I'm just busting Clyde's you-know-what. But, no, it was good competition. A lot of boos. I was riding with Boyer one year, and we just teed off. We were on hole number one out there at, what's the one out by me? GCI. Yeah. And so it's a scramble format, and I think he's already, I don't know.

We've had a few pops before. And he goes to reach, you know, you're driving really fast. You go down to grab your ball in the fairway without nothing, right? So he goes like this. The wheel goes like this. And he's doing somersault stuff, number one. Whole world. This is OTAs?

These are the stories. Aaron came out, Burrell looked him over, put him in the tent. He was fine, finished the round. It was a lot of fun. Those things are awesome. I mean, the damn job is so freaking hard, playing and coaching a national football league. And so anytime you have an opportunity to get away from it all and bring the families together and and and the wife because it's a time for all the wives to get together all

the boys to get together and and yeah and not worry about this the the stress and and all that stuff that comes with that job it's it's pretty neat to be able to do that stuff brant boyer was like a uh special teamer for 12 years in the NFL when wedge busting was a thing. So I don't think any fairway was going to take him out on hole one. He's a legend. He's doing well, by the way. He's doing very well as his own special teams guy.

I'm very happy for old Boyer. Very, very proud of Brant. Because it was year after year after year. Because he was living living in Salt Lake and we were together at the Browns. And you talk about he was a great special teamer, but he also was very, very brilliant guy. He knew the game inside and out. So we were a 4-3 back then. So he was the backup Mike, the backup Will, backup Sam. So anybody got hurt, he could go in there with zero reps and go play and execute at a high, high level for us.

And so he always talked about the coaching thing, but he needed a few years, you know, once he retired, to really say, okay, yeah, I'm ready to do it. And fortunately, you know, when we got to Indy, you know, we had stayed in touch and saw each other in the summer times and hung out because coming in Boise, just being from Salt Lake, we had stayed in touch and saw each other in the summer times and hung out because coming in Boise, being from Salt Lake, we were close. So he decided, you know, to dip his toe in it with us at Indy, and the rest is history.

He did a great job, got an opportunity with the Jets and has done a phenomenal job there and continues to do that. AJ, massive head. We're talking he would throw his – I know who you're talking about. I don't know him personally, but I know of him for sure. And he had some incredible confidence as well. We're talking next level confidence.

Huge swag. In Cleveland, you could hear him getting ready and getting dressed, you know, for the games. And he'd be like, he'd be putting his pads on. You know, some guys take just hours and hours age i don't know how long you took to get ready you know pat unless he was you know getting introduced he could get ready in a heartbeat you know and didn't need much warm-up and stuff but grant would come in that lock and and he'd put his pants on and he'd be like, this ass, these pants, get your tasers out.

They're going to be coming over the wall for me. And Bobby Monaco is our equipment guy in Cleveland. So you know how they put the jersey on the pads, right? And the jerseys are like 10 sizes too small, you know, so that nobody can grab and hold you and so tight fitting, right? So they put the jersey over the pads. So getting in those things is extremely difficult, right? Getting them off too.

You've got to have somebody put it on and get it off even harder, right? So equipment guy Bobby would come over. So equipment guy Bobby would come over. So Brant would load up his arms all over with balm, with the hot icy stuff. And so Bobby Monick would come and start putting them on him. And Brant would have his head in between his arms going, no, a little bit more over here, a little more over here. By the time Bob, the equipment guy, was done, he had Bob all over the back of his head. His face would be bright red and be burning from the hot ice.

It's classic Boyer. A lot of fun. Boyer was the man. I really enjoyed him as an assistant special teams coach. And talking to him about after his career ended, you know, you've got to peek into what a lot of guys experience, right? Because the game has given so many guys so much. And if you're in the NFL and you play in the NFL, you've been good for a long time. And then some point the game either passes you by or

somebody tells you that the game has passed you by and it all ends very quickly. So there's a little bit of, you feel jaded by the game and you feel jaded about the situation. I think he went out to Salt Lake, he was doing fishing. Like he was guiding fly fishing tours out in the middle of like, I think Salt Lake, am I wrong in that? I think like even like they would go out on horseback and shit. Like he was way out there. And then he went back to a game. A friend talked to him to go to a game. And I don't know if this is a hundred percent the way he would tell it or not, but this is the impression I got from talking to him. He went to a game for the first time in like a couple of years and he was in the stands.

And when the national anthem played, he got like a tear in his eye. Like he like missed like football. Like he missed that moment being back. And I think that is what kind of led him back to the game. And I'd assume he is very grateful that you gave him an opportunity to come coach. And he has done nothing but make the absolute most of it.

I fucking love that dude. I mean, there is a guy that should be on a direct path to a CTE study. Being a wedge buster for like 10 years back whenever it was not, that's what football was. Just incredibly tough, incredibly cool. I'm happy he's having success. Go ahead, Tom. Coach, I was watching a NFL Films, I believe it was like a Mic'd Up,

and it was with Coach Richie. Why do you think that he is at just a foregone conclusion that he's not going to get the Raiders job? Because it feels like the Raiders players love him. Isn't that half the battle? No question about it. And I think just because of that, it might go the other way. I mean, he's done a phenomenal job in some crazy, crazy, to say the least, circumstances.

After all that they've been through, you know, with John and then with Henry, you know, and keeping that team together, making the playoffs, there's no reason that Mark Davis shouldn't seriously, seriously consider, you know, elevating him to full time as the head football coach there in Las Vegas. Again, he's done a great job. And like you said, Tone, the locker room believes in him. They trust him. He's a really good football guy, but he's authentic. He's real.

He's honest. He's going to tell the players, but he's authentic. He's real. He's honest. He's going to tell the players the truth. A lot of these guys want to hear not what the truth is, but they want you to say things to them, what they want to hear, but you've got to tell them what the truth is. I didn't say that very good. That's the truth, though. You just told us the truth.

He's not afraid to tell those guys that. He's not going to belittle them. He's not going to demean them and degrade them and things like that. He's going to coach them and tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. That's what I was looking for right there.

We'll clip it. Again, there's speculation on, hey, is Mayock going to be around? If Mark Davis feels like, because he's in Vegas, he's got to go make one of these splash hires, that could backfire in a heartbeat. And a lot of times that happens because, you know, these guys think, hey, we've got to win the press conference. We've got to go get, you know, this dude, this name, you know. Jim Harbaugh, who was there, right? Jim Harbaugh would be one of those guys. He's been in the National Football League. He took the 39ers, you know, to the Super Bowl. So he would be one of those guys if that's what Mark

Davis wants to do. But you got a chance with a good football team and a good roster and looks to be a really good staff out there, to keep that continuity, to keep that in place. Because you can change that whole thing and you can set yourself back another two, three years. Yeah. And Chuck, we win the press conference every time you come on and we're very lucky for it.

We can't thank you enough for joining us on this beautiful Thursday. Happy to see you survive the mountains. Can't wait to chat with you next week after this hanging, boiling holiday. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Chuck McGonigal. Thank you, Coach. From the world of inside the National Basketball Association, senior NBA insider for stadium and athletic, but not for long.

An upcoming free agent in this business world that is booming. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Chiron. Yeah, baby! Hey, we're pumped for you, dude. I am so happy for you. Carpe diem. Go do your thing. I hope you understand your worth and your leverage right now.

My man, Pat, I appreciate it. I might have to hire you as my agent, though, so just be ready. I might have to give you that call. I just want to let you know I'm doing interviews with Bloomberg now, you know. I'm doing Bloomberg interviews now. CFO Phil is going to be quoted in Bloomberg. Wow. Look at you.

Look at you, Pat. Well, I don't know how he's going to depict me, to be honest with you. I mean, there's a chance. Anytime somebody else is telling your story, especially from a world that you didn't even know existed. Like, I didn't even know Bloomberg existed. I learned a lot about it. What a place. Oh, yeah.

They actually have at business on Twitter. So they've been around a long time. Damn. They're not in my silo, though, so I did not learn about it. I did learn about it. This guy could ruin me, could do all that stuff. But it's great to chat business with you because you are about to become a very hot model. And I want to let you know that we are very thankful for all the things you do for our show.

Every time you come on here, you break news that rattles all of Twitter. And we're very appreciative. And we can't wish you enough luck, pal. I appreciate it. But listen, you know me. I'm locked in right now. Tunnel vision. I mean, just the two companies I'm at now, Stadium, The Athletic. enough luck pal appreciate it but listen you know me i'm locked in right now tunnel vision i mean just the two companies i'm at now stadium the athletic i'm happy that i'm with them they're

hungry and i think we're only going to keep growing the new york times acquisition obviously to me it's it's only up from here i think it's only going to make the entire brand better so i'm excited man i'm excited pat but this is a busy time of year right now there's not much time for me to focus on anything beyond just my day-to-day work. Okay, well, you should give it a thought. You should give it a thought or two. Okay, we're all busy, but you should give it a thought or two at some point. We're all incredibly proud of you, happy for you.

We'll watch along. And I'll probably do a little snooping behind the scenes to break your news, too. I mean, we'll try to give that a go. Let's dive into basketball world right now. Saw last night Nets and Bulls, number one in the East versus number two in the East. Kyrie Irving was back. I believe the Nets got a win, but the Bulls looked incredible. You were there from what I heard.

Kyrie Irving being back not only for away games, also home games, I guess, because there's like a fine that they're paying to the city so he can play as well. Is there an exemption now for Kyrie Irving, and is this happening for all athletes in New York as we go into the playoff run here? Yeah, so Kyrie Irving can right now only play road games. So that I don't anticipate changing in the next day or two. And there's been a lot of talk about the Nets possibly paying a fine to the city to allow Kyrie Irving to play home games

and just take the violation of the law fine. But I'm told that is not really an option because the NBA did send out a memo to all the teams several months ago in September that basically said, if the local law says that you can't play, if you're not eligible to play due to local laws, the player or the team can't just not abide by it. So as much as the Nets, I think, would love to possibly try to finagle their way in getting Kyrie Irving back on the floor, I don't see that as far as paying the fine as a viable option. Now, what I could see is twoer athlete like Kyrie Irving,

for that aspect to be lifted and letting him play. Because, again, he is a New Jersey resident who wants to play basketball. And there are, you know, we saw Antonio Brown show up courtside to Barclays Center a couple times last week. And I don't know about AB's back status. All I did was read, you know, Ian R rapaport and others put out there that he had i guess a fake card and and then maybe he got vaccinated later so i don't know the full story on that one but i mean it's just interesting the rules that are that are i guess may be bended maybe maybe making it more viable for other entertainers but for kyrie irving obviously

there is a blockage so either the mandate gets slipped or kyrie irving gets vaccinated i think those are right now the only two pathways to him being on the floor in home games this season. But yeah, I was at the game last night and clearly the Nets, we haven't yet seen this group together with these three guys. This is their third game this season with Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving all playing in a game. And so far they're two and one with those three guys. I think it'll only get better and the chemistry will only increase. But they've got to be on the floor, and that starts with hopefully eventually for the Nets, Kyrie Irving being able to play home games.

Shams, are you surprised at all at how Kyrie is able to get back into it right away and seem to not miss a beat? And also, yeah, like you mentioned, how cohesive they seem to be too. Yeah, I mean, I think a part of me is surprised that he's logging so many minutes. I mean, we're seeing him play 25, 30, 35 minutes or whatever it is. Like he's doing that consistently. And so already three games in, I thought they were going to have a minutes limit because, again, he hasn't played organized NBA basketball. So in that way, I'm surprised.

But as far as his level of sharpness, I'm not you know he's been doing two a days he's been working out with with people you know whatever whatever his training staff is and he's been staying uh very active in the gym uh so he was doing two days at one point in his hiatus from the team and so he looks sharp you can see his jumpers fluid as long as he keeps getting his rhythm it's only going to get better and i think kevin durant james harden kyle roberts they still need to find their rhythm and how they play because His jumper's fluid. As long as he keeps getting his rhythm, it's only going to get better. And I think Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving, they still need to find their rhythm and how they play because James Harden's coming from a, you know, in Houston, he was able to really dictate the offense on a play-by-play basis

where as now in Brooklyn he has Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant to share that responsibility with. James Harden averaging 28 points over the last eight games, I do believe was a stat that I heard. He's getting hot. If Kyrie Irving, who was running two days, is all the way back, this is just like the Packers getting back all their players from the playoffs. The Nets might be

poised to go on a run. And is the mayor or the mandate lifter a fan of the Knicks or a fan of the Nets? I mean, that is going to come into play there. There was some chatter that him and Joe Sy have a relationship and that they're close. But at the end of the day, if you're City Hall, I've talked to City Hall on several occasions since September, since training camp started because this became a bigger than basketball issue.

This became a city issue. And the message I've got from them is, at least prior, is that if we're going to lift this mandate, we can't just lift it for one athlete. We can't just lift it because of Kyrie Irving as much as the borough of Brooklyn would probably give Eric Adams all of their vote if they did this, I don't think they would just lift it for Kyrie Irving. Could they lift it for all entertainers, all athletes? I think that is an avenue that they've got to pursue. Can't wait to hear it. Go ahead, Ty.

Shams, any update on Zion? I know he's been kind of off. Not doing two-a-days? Yeah, not doing two-a-days, apparently. We see his Duke teammates reuniting for the Knicks. Are we thinking maybe Zion eventually there? Or are they also worried that a lot of cheap slices of pizza in New York? What's that all about, Sean?

We don't need all that, guys. No, we do not, Ty. What is that all about? Hey, listen. Fair question. I want to see the guy play, okay? I want to see the guy fucking play. It's a clown-friendly program, though, so I know it comes from a really decent and family-friendly place in Ty's heart.

It's not ill-intended. It's not ill-intended. It's despicable, and you shouldn't say it, but it's not ill-intended. It's also true. A lot of good, cheap pizza joints in New York. Oh, it's so good, too. That's true, too, though. You can get it for a dollar.

You can get a slice of pizza for like a dollar out of it. Good pizza for a dollar. Think of how much pizza Zion could get. Really, really big slices of pizza. Like, you'll pull, like, that's your full dinner. How many slices he could hold in his hand that's so big, too. Well, listen, this is anybody, not just Zion. But we are saying there is distractions in potentially every place.

But we saw the move of the Knicks reuniting some duke players what is going on with zion is he playing is he on the move is he trying to get traded at this point what is the deal down there and why have we not seen fucking zion play basketball shams because that foot fracture that he has just is not healthy i mean that's the bottom line they felt that that foot fracture was going to be much more further along than it is right now he was the hope was that he would start the season uh in the lineup on opening night and so that was all the way back in october we're now in january almost in february and there's not a return to play timetables i was and is away from the team in port in Portland rehabbing that fractured foot. So as painful as it is, you guys know,

I don't think that that return is coming anytime soon. But, you know, everyone I speak to around the Pelicans, they still want Zion to play this year. I think the expectation still is around Zion and the Pelicans that hopefully he makes his return. Because at the end of the day, he's got a max extension possibly looming this offseason. The team and Zion will want to see, listen, how do we feel about each other?

How do we feel this will work? How does this team look with Zion healthy in the lineup? Because I think last time I checked in the standings, they were really a game, two games, three games out of a play-in spot. So they're not that far off. They need Zion Williamson. They might be playing for a playoff berth the way that brandon way uh brandon ingram is playing if zion williamson was healthy so that's the part to me that i think is to be determined but listen every day that he misses it makes it it's got to make it a little less unlike so is it a bone thing a ligament thing

in his foot can't don't they just tape it up and the bone heals itself yeah it's a bone and he's had different processes that they thought would speed up he had an injection at one point that they thought within four to six weeks weeks would allow him to to ramp back up and be able to move pain free that injection obviously did not work because then they ended up shutting him down uh you know indefinitely i just want to see z. I just want to see Zion play. And I think it all started when that fucking shoe blew out. That's right. Is that when this whole thing started?

You can make that argument. And when... What? Yeah. What? First picked up a nice spoonful of gumbo. All right. Do you have a basketball question?

I do have a basketball question. Please, all right. Sean, first of all, Peter Schrager called you shams, and he told you to stay in your lane. He just wanted you to know that. Who would we be if we didn't tell you that? Exactly. We have to, hey, fair?

I'll take it. I'll take it. It was coming from a good spot, but he said whenever you dabbled in the NFL draft pick breaking news, he said, we all know, Shams. Okay, we're not allowed to. Sham, sorry. He said, we all know.

We're not allowed to do it, although he respects your work. And then he called you Shamzy. I don't know. I don't know what the insider waters are like. Watch out for that guy. Yeah, just keep an eye. Keep an eye on the strength. I got no ill feelings toward anyone.

You do, though. You have to hate people, I'd assume. And wait until you get into the offseason here for this free agency. I'm excited to hear about all the love, Shams. I love that. Go ahead, Paul. Yeah, water's bloody. But, Shams, are the Warriors going to win now that Klay Thompson is back?

That return was sweet, and it sure feels like that's team destiny. I'm going to see them tomorrow, so I'll give you my full opinion hopefully next week or the next time I'm on. But I think that as long as Klay Thompson is healthy, it's obvious that this team is poised to possibly make a run in the finals. I mean, I look in the Western Conference. I see really a few teams. The Lakers just don't look like that championship favorite

or even championship contender as it stands right now. We'll see once Anthony Davis gets back, but I thought there were going to be more in the picture. They're not. So really you're looking at Golden State, you're looking at Utah, you're looking at Phoenix, maybe the Clippers, maybe not. But those three teams right now look to me. Denver could also be a player of Jamal Murray Michael Poore Jr. somehow find their way to coming back this year I do think

there's a hope that Jamal Murray can play at some point this year maybe the final 15-20 games this year so if Jamal Murray's back in the lineup that changes things for Denver as well so I think there's a handful of possible championship favorites, and Golden State clearly is head and shoulders above all. And, guys, they're still hoping to get James Wiseman back closer to February. The All-Star break and maybe after that. So if James Wiseman is back, that's just another weapon, over seven-footer, athletic, young guy. So this team is only improving, I think, as the year goes on.

Hey, Shams, quick follow-up here. I saw Ja Morant utilize a trampoline the other day on the court. Is that just in Memphis, or is he the most explosive athlete to ever exist? And how is that Memphis team? Do they stink? Because we could get Ja, Zion, and everybody in New York, and we get them on TV a little bit more. We see Ja jump over backboards

we see Zion take off from foul lines at 300 pounds we see these boys really put on a show in New York, is Memphis a squad or what? I mean they're real they're competing for home court advantage everyone's eyes are on the league when Memphis comes to town and that's a lot because Ja Morant

like you said, I mean listen to me it's obvious that there are, you know, it's clear that – sorry, I just got this stuck. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Zion's back. Zion's back. Nothing urgent. I understand.

Zion back. Zion back. They could even make a trade. You know, they have's there are a couple assets Kyle Anderson they have a first round pick there are a few players out there in the trade market Jeremy Grant like we'll see if they end up being

active because they do have the assets to do so I think their GM Zach Klein has done a good job just bringing in the you know first round picks and young young talent to that team so if they want to make a big move they can but right now they're going from within. John Morant looks like the most versatile

as far as athlete guy since maybe Derrick Rose. The way he leaps on the floor, that reminds me a lot of the way Derrick Rose used to leap in Chicago. Yeah, it was awesome to see. And that Chicago team seems to be all the way back. Oh, yeah. DeMar DeRozan out there playing a little basketball. The more he plays, the more he looks better.

Hey, and Zach's flying around. I didn't know that dude's still doing that. I saw him take an alley-oop finger roll from, like, the middle of the paint, and then the next time down came in. I was like, is that Caruso? I thought it was Caruso, our guy who smokes gas. Dude, Caruso smokes gas. Stinky.

Remember that? Th Through that airport. My respect for Caruso grew immensely that day. But that Bulls team might be real. The Bulls team feels real. No, the Bulls are real. The question is, are they going to be...

The first year when a team gets put together and they're making a playoff run, the last time... Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City maybe, maybe Golden State, where you saw that immediate playoff success, maybe get into the conference finals. I think this team can get to the conference finals, but can they beat the Nets? We saw what the Nets did last night.

They're just a lot more experienced. They've all been to NBA finals games. They won NBA finals. Kyrie Irving and Cleveland, Kevin Durant and Golden State. They've been there, done that. So can the Bulls get away from the norm, which is that young teams need time to develop.

They're clearly a threat to get to the Conference Finals. My question is, when you play a team like the Nets, can you really get past that three? I think it's going to come down to, can you really get by Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden in a seven-game series? I don't know if there's a team in the East that can do that. I'm excited to watch.

Hey, that's the NBA. That's the association. That's right. We're excited about that. Go ahead, Stone. Sean's in my house down here in America. I like watching basketball with fans in the stands. When are we going to get the Raptors down to Buffalo or somewhere

so I can watch a Raptors game with fans in stands? With a great environment. I mean, with a great atmosphere. Yeah, I mean, I'm somewhat surprised that, again, every market's different. So every local ordinance is going to be different, and Toronto is buckling down until the end of this month. So as of right now, no fans in Toronto. Are they better humans than everybody else up there?

Are they smarter than everybody? We've seen some stuff from Trudeau. We know they're not better humans. I don't want to dive into that whole thing. But how come there's an invisible line? We're connected. What happens? I guess you would know.

You call City Hall and shit. I don't get it. It's all local ordinance, Pat. Even in the NBA, like in Boston, in Massachusetts, local athletes have an exemption. That's right. There are vaccine mandates there, but athletes have an exemption. It's just not the same case.

Samson's going out the same case. So these are all based on local ordinance and local markets. They care about people more than everybody else. What were you going to add on there, Nick? Shams, what's Devin Booker's problem? Oh, yeah. Listen, Devin Booker, I think he realized in the moment that maybe he should have maybe let that go.

I don't know. But he felt a certain way. Respect that. But I think he really leaned into it the next day where you saw him change the profile picture. So, listen, I love Devin Booker's game. I think the way that he plays, he wants to compete. He wants to win.

So, listen, I have no problem with what he did. And I think he leaned into it the next day, putting the Raptor mascot in his profile picture. Yeah, and I'm okay with wanting to smack the mascot right in the mouth too. I'm okay with that. Like, hey, sometimes, you know, maybe that's just how we got to handle said things. AJ, you got any final basketball questions here for Shams?

I want to know, Shams, who's the best coach in the NBA right now? Oh, shit. AJ? That's a tough one. I mean, I'll just go with, you know, I think Billy Donovan. You've got to give him his love this year. I don't think people thought that this group would just mesh as quickly as they did. Monty Williams in Phoenix, the way he's able to –

there's always going to be things that go on around the league, but he's able to keep his team focused, prepared at all times. Quinn Snyder in Utah has always done an excellent job. Tom Thibodeau, obviously, in New York. So that's probably off the top of my head right now. So you're saying Frank stinks. Frank who? Frank Bogle? Oh, Frank who?

Who are you talking about? I don't know. You're talking about former Pacer great coach Frank Vogel. I actually like Frank. The way that he... Pat, I remember when he was coaching the Pacers and they were playing the Bulls. I remember being a fan here in Chicago

back then. The way, how confident he was and the confidence he projected, like I remember looking and watching him on TV. I'm like, yo, this guy, this guy just does not give a, like he is saying whatever. Hey, don't ruin your free agency. Don't ruin your free agency. Don't let fuck slip out. Coach, Frank Vogel, I got nothing negative to say on Frank.

I'm happy he won a championship down there in the bubble. People can say whatever they want, but it still counts as a ring in LeBron's history, so it's going to count as a ring in Frank's history. Frank was awesome, though. I saw him at a couple local charity golf tournaments. He was just like a cool guy, like a super cool guy. When he went out to L.A., I was super pumped for him, but you got to win in the City of Stars. That's what you got to do.

He knows it. There was a couple tweets that Zito wanted to chit-chat about. Foxy actually wanted to ask about this. Lunchtime. Two's time to have lunch. Went three to one in the court door in two. Time to have lunch. Two more periods till lunch.

Just had lunch. This is awesome. Hashtag lunchtime. Lunchtime. Lunch more periods till lunch. Just had lunch. Hashtag lunch time. Lunch time. Lunch time. Lunch time. Hashtag lunch time. Went three and one on quarter to two. It's time to have some lunch. Lunch in ten minutes.

Love it. Live on four. Just had lunch. Two more periods until lunch. Lunch was awesome huh You fucking loved it I loved lunch I mean

What's wrong with that What's wrong with that I don't see anything wrong with that It's just back then That was my breaking news For everyone That I'm about to have lunch guys So you know

Take that for what it was So that's high school then I loved lunch Yeah how old were you 2010 I was in middle Yeah high school Yeah

Sophomore junior year of high school Could be a lot worse Shams I'd be okay with 2010. I was in high school. Sophomore, junior year of high school. Could be a lot worse, Shams. I'd be okay with that if I was you. I was giving people an update about my lunch status. What was I thinking? There are some other tweets coming from high schoolers you're saying, AJ, I think is what you're talking about. I'm saying most high schoolers in my generation should not have had Twitter,

and it's a good thing they didn't. Ohio. This is Ohio, obviously. Anyone's brain, anyone's 15-year-old brain doesn't really have a whole lot of great things to say. It should be there when you're 30. Did you have periods of lunch? Was it numerous lunches or one lunch? No, it was usually periods.

Yeah, yeah. Did you guys have, like, days, like genre days? We had Mexican Pizza Day, which was nachos, cheese, Mexican pizzas. That was Wednesday, and I'll tell you what. People were putting out tweets, if they were able to, about Mexican Pizza Day on Wednesdays. Is that what you guys had?

Yeah, Mexican. You got burgers on some days. You got pasta on other days. It was a mix. It was a mix at all times. But I'm glad that I was able to tell the world about my love for lunch. Well, we're appreciative that you're still doing the breaking news game. At one time, it was just your lunch.

Now it's everything happening around the association and the world. Shams, we appreciate you so much. Can't wait to chat with you next week, which I think is what you told us you're available for, which I'm pumped about. Senior NBA insider for the athletic and stadium, but but we don't know what the future holds.

It needs to be hard work and we'll figure it out as it comes. Ladies and gentlemen, Shams Sharani. Thank you, Shams. Thank you. Can't thank you enough for allowing us to penetrate your ear holes today. Hashtag Endapod Squad. Ty's still giving away merch to people that tweet that, where they're at, where they're from. we're looking to get on the road by the way so we can't wait to hopefully see you in person in the near future uh we'll be back tomorrow for a feel-good friday

that should be electrifying be a friend tell a friend enjoy the hell out of tonight and remember same game ball holiday it's just hours away let's enjoy it cheers Thank you. Thank you. I'm out. Thank you.