The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 612 - Aaron Rodgers Is Going Back To Green Bay As First Reported By This Progrum, Russell Wilson Traded To The Broncos, & Franchise Tag Deadline Deals With AJ Hawk

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

On today's show, Pat breaks the news that Aaron Rodgers is officially going back to the Green Bay Packers, although no deal has officially been signed, plus he, AJ Hawk, and the boys react to the other massive news that Russell Wilson has officially been traded by the Seattle Seahawks to the Denver Broncos for Drew Lock, Noah Fant, Shelby Harris and a slew of picks including two first rounders, what else is going to happen now that the two biggest dominos in Rodgers and Russ have fallen over, Davante Adams officially being franchise tagged by the Packers as well, what other guys we're expecting to be franchise tagged, why Calvin Ridley is extremely thankful for Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson, what domino is going to fall next in terms of free agent Quarterbacks and much more. Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show, and listen everyday on Sirius XM Channel 82, Mad Dog Radio. We appreciate the hell out of all you. See you tomorrow, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people. It is, oh my God, there's earth-shattering breaking news. Tuesday, March 8th, 2022. This show begins now. Can't thank you enough for tuning in here at youtube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show. Today is a large day. Today is a day that the entire sports world had looked forward to for months and months, damn near even maybe a year. Last year when Aaron Rodgers went into his offseason, he wasn't 100% sure if he was going to return to the Green Bay Packers, and the Green Bay Packers knew that. There were some conversations happening behind the scenes with nobody knowing about, about Aaron expecting some different things to happen with the Green Bay Packers

and how he was being treated by a team in a program that he had been basically the face of for oh so long and whenever he heard how other teams were potentially treating their superstar quarterbacks whether it was just being heard or your opinions mattering and everything like that he had the absolute right to say hey I would like to be a part of some of these conversations that happen now nobody was supposed to know about this potential disagreement the entire thing was just supposed to be behind closed doors like gentlemen would do business for the past thousands years or so oh yeah then there was an accumulation of information dropped by adam schefter on the day of the draft that went out into the world all of a sudden aaron rogers was not only a prima donna asshole, but he was potentially on the move.

The Denver Broncos were going to make a strong play for him, and as he was jumping into waterfalls in Hawaii, completely removed from the world, there was an entire fire around Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers, so much so that some of the Green Bay Packers fans turned on Aaron Rodgers. Even though Aaron Rodgers did not say a single thing, did not want the business out, people turned on him and said, this fucking asshole, you're lucky to be in the NFL.

Inevitably, he returned to the Green Bay Packers. They had decisions and conversations were made and everything seemed to be kumbaya. A decision was made to return with the idea that if he wanted to be traded this year, he would be allowed to do so. If the Green Bay Packers and Aaron Rodgers' relationship didn't showcase any change from years past this past season, he was able to move on and go elsewhere. He also sat at a podium for like 45 minutes and explained everything, and everybody was like, oh, that's actually probably the more mature way of doing things as opposed to airing out your laundry publicly like Murphy was when he was sending emails. This past season, we were able to chat with Aaron Rodgers as he went back to back, back to back in NFL MVPs.

And it felt like if you heard him listen and chat about the wants and hopes that he had for the Green Bay Packers relationship with himself, it seemed like there was change. Him and Gutekunst had a meeting day one, good handshake. And he actually compared that to whenever he shook farve's hand years ago and welcomed farve back into the packers family so all season randall cobb comes back there's other decisions going on and it felt like aaron was in a happy place the season ends

obviously very quickly and early and too much of a letdown for everybody that was involved in that packer season including us. The team should have won further. He looked back, he came on the conversation with us, and he said, you know, actually, all the things that I kind of wanted differently and changed, it seems like the Packers did work on that. I don't think we're perfect yet, but I do believe there has been real change, real action in making this place maybe a 2022 NFL program as opposed to a 1980 NFL program, which is kind of how the rules were behind the scenes at the Green Bay Packers.

So then this offseason was going to be highly sought after because just a year ago, it almost seemed like it was a last dance. What the hell is Aaron Rodgers going to do? Then there was multiple reports that came out about what people thought he was going to do. Anonymous league sources were leaking information to everybody. All basically narrative building that Aaron Rodgers is an asshole. And although all he's ever asked with the Green Bay Packers was a little bit more say, I would like my opinion to be heard.

I'm a Mount Rushmore quarterback. He didn't say that. We all know that to be the case, as do you watching, whether you like him or not. I just think there's a little bit more, you know, things that can get handled. So then the narrative this offseason became that Aaron's going to go somewhere else. Aaron's holding the Green Bay Packers hostage. Aaron is demanding and commanding to be the highest paid player in NFL history by a wide margin. That then led to another narrative of this guy's an asshole. This is a selfish prick.

That turned some Packers fans against Aaron Rodgers. It also made other fans around the NFL who maybe didn't listen to him talk to us an hour every single week the last two fucking seasons. They all had those previous thoughts about him. This dude is a terrible human being. And then this morning, after two weeks of hearing from the internet that Aaron Rodgers was going to come on this show and make his decision, even though I had not heard from Aaron Rodgers, I had not chatted with Aaron Rodgers, he's having his off season. This morning, sources called me.

Okay. Okay. Whoa. For the first time and said, how you doing? And I said, we keeping it moving? Or what's going on? I said to the sources, I said, you want to come on the show? He said, I don't think so you know still in the middle of working getting the whole thing together the source says said but i would like you to let

the world know that after a lot of contemplation and after a lot of thought and meditation and a lot of sleeping on it and talking to a lot of people. I have decided that although retirement was, by the way, the sources did not say I. They said that I. Right. You get it. Yeah, so Aaron told me. I'm not good at this. I'm not good at the inside news.

I don't have the anonymous sources. Aaron said after a lot of contemplation of potential retirement, after a lot of contemplation of what the future looks like, this morning he felt he was ready to make the actual announcement. And he said, hey, why don't you let the people know that I am officially returning to the Green Bay Packers. So Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers are once again something that we can look forward to next NFL season. Obviously, you heard Ty Schmidt celebrate there. All Green Bay Packers fans celebrated.

And the internet reacted, obviously, to my insider, to the insider news tweets. But I wasn't the only person that was, you know, breaking news in the Aaron Rodgers front. I wasn't the only person, allegedly, I guess, with sources. Ian Rappaport tweeted out, two minutes, three minutes after I put out my tweet, by the way, everybody else is crediting NFL Network and Ian Rappaport, even though I don't know how the insider game works. I mean, we're in it every single day.

We try to give proper credit. That was three minutes before. I'm not an insider. This is how Rappaport makes a living, whatever the case, but still believe if we're doing like, you know, a little journalistic integrity and no misinformation on a program,

I don't know how the hell this has become the storyline of Aaron Rodgers going back to the Packers because in my tweet, go back to my tweet, please, I put, break it, according to my sources, Aaron Rodgers will officially be returning to the Green Bay Packers. There is no deal in place currently, but there is said to be a cap-friendly deal on the way. Retirement was a real consideration. And in the end, he is back with the pack. Not enough characters in the tweet to add, according to my sources again at the end, because that is real insider stuff. So literally in there from the information I heard from my source says there was no deal in place.

A cap-friendly deal is something that they are both going to work towards. And when Ian Rappaport drops a tweet three minutes after I do, it says the Packers and MVP QB Aaron Rodgers have agreed to terms on a four-year, $200 million deal. That makes him the highest paid player in NFL history, sources say.

He gets a whopping $153 million guaranteed, and his cap number goes down. A monstrous commitment by Green Bay for years to come. So then that automatically becomes the headline. That becomes the source. This becomes everything because this is Ian's game. This is his world. Categorically false. Yep.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Was actually talked about in my conversation with the source. Says. was actually talked about in my conversation with the source says maybe that deal was presented and maybe just like for the last two years all the way back to the hippies singing taylor swift in hawaii that's right and jumping off waterfalls maybe just like we tried to debunk just a couple weeks ago when it was being reported he

was commanding and demanding maybe this isn't about being the highest paid player in the NFL maybe this is about Aaron just wanting to have a little bit more respect in the building and his ideas in the football world and maybe it is a cap-friendly deal that will nowhere be $200 million because he wants maybe his friends back who are also up for deals. And the narrative now with the $200 million, $153 million guaranteed being the headline is, oh, Aaron wanted all the money,

so he can't bring it. Nope, they're not going to be able to build a team around him. They're going to have to cut guys now. His friends are, oh, sorry, but not going to be able to have this guy, not going to be able to have this guy, not going to be able to have this guy. Ultimately, in the end, the selfish Aaron Rodgers chooses all the money in the world instead of what he's been complaining about. False.

Like, that is not true. And Ian Rappaport might have had sources that told him, hey, this was the contract that was being offered. But our sources are saying, yeah, just because it was offered doesn't necessarily mean it's true. And everybody will say that, oh, he's a bad businessman then if he's doing that. He might be a bad businessman in this particular case, but I think he's done just fine elsewhere. And his happiness is all this guy cares about. His universe is all this dude cares about. His universe is all this dude cares about.

He has an entire book club. Every book is about like enjoying the moment, being right here, your universe being all in sync and everything like that. And you might not agree with that way of thinking. You might not think that way, but all the narratives that are being pushed about this dude

just feel like it's a bunch of bullshit from somebody that has been very lucky to have conversations with him publicly he goes back to the packers the contract has not been done who knows what it's going to be but it is definitely going to be a cap friendly deal because he would like his people back to go on another run with the green bay packers so congrats to the pack congrats to Aaron. Thank you, Aaron. Love you, Aaron. Hey, Aaron. Hey, thank you for that. By the way, let me be the source. That's very, very cool. I mean, I'm not getting credit. You know, I'm not getting credit. And

there's no deal in place, but the deal is getting projected and other people are getting projected as a source. Jay Glazer said, hashtag Pat New. That's all that matters to me. That is all that matters. That is all that matters to me. That is very nice. Let's go over to Ty Schmidt at the Toxic Table sitting alongside at Boston Connor. Ty, Green Bay Packers shareholder, diehard fan. You actually told Aaron whenever he was going into his decision-making process,

once he got out of PK, you actually said, Aaron, hey, man, if you don't come back, there's a chance I'm going to be looking for a building. Yeah, take a header off the roof. Yeah. No pressure. Nope. But now it is official. He's going back to the Packers.

It's going to be a cap-friendly deal so they can continue to make moves. Whether he went back to the Packers or not, the Packers are going to have to figure out their salary cap because I think they're still like $21 million over the cap, depending upon that situation. Ty, just your initial thoughts pal knowing that aaron rogers is back with the pack yeah i mean i'm fucking ecstatic obviously and i don't care about the the length i mean i think through this whole process and especially last year where it

was constant i mean there were some dark days there you know constantly like the you're enjoying what's going on during the season because they're playing so well but then you also have that in the back of your mind the entire time. Like, well, he hates the franchise, so he doesn't want to be there anymore. Front office, front office. Yeah, exactly. Loves the franchise, hates the front office, hates some of the guys that he has to answer to,

and they're not giving him his say, which he's obviously earned up to this point. But then as things start to get better, you know it it's just like it was still tough because then you start hearing about retirement and it's like the more we talk to him and listen to him it's like okay i don't know if i ever really bought into like the hey he's gonna get traded especially with how well things went this season winning back-to-back mvps but i mean he's different dude what else does he have to prove in terms of like you know you went two mvps in a row he he seems mentally like he's in like the best spot he's ever been he's different. What else does he have to prove in terms of, like, you know, you win two MVPs in a row. He seems mentally like he's in, like, the best spot he's ever been.

He's really enjoying his life. He doesn't need football anymore. Like, I really did think for a while there, like, hey, retirement is definitely a possibility. And nothing against Jordan Love, but then you watch that game against the Chiefs, it's like, oh, shit. Like, I'm staring down, you know, where the Steelers are right now with, you know, you got Mason Rudolph. And it's like, oh, shit. I'm staring down where the Steelers are right now with you got Mason Rudolph. And it's like, I just had Aaron Rodgers.

I had Brett Favre before that. And we got this guy. I don't want to. But I think I always thought he was coming back. But it did. And then you hear that the decision is going to get made. Last week his decision was supposed to get made, by the way. Exactly.

And it didn't happen. And it didn't happen. Oh't happen oh the longer this goes what does that mean exactly and then those reports come out that like hey he's he's very torn actually and then so i started you start going back like okay maybe he is going to retire obviously there are definitely teams out there who probably want to acquire him but i think deep down like you said like he he talked to us all season about how much he loved his teammates how much he loved the guys that are around him. It was never about the money, and that's why. He's going to get paid. He's going to get paid no matter what.

His business is business. He's a back-to-back MVP. He deserves to get paid. But that was the narrative that every insider had, and I think that's why they're running with it so hard right now. For sure. It's like, look what we reported earlier. We were the ones telling them, I was told that's categorically false.

So then all of a sudden, maybe that's why we're not getting credit? Well, because I assume just like if you can attach like 153 million highest NFL player ever, like that, you know, that headline. Deep Bunks, the entire theory that he wanted to do this for more say and a better team and a better building. Exactly. Especially when some of your colleagues are saying, hey, I have sources too, and I've been talking to them. And that is absolutely like, hey, you know, it becomes like almost like a dick measuring thing where it's like, well, I have sources. Check what your colleagues are saying, hey, I have sources too, and I've been talking to them, and that is absolutely like, hey, you know, it becomes almost like a dick measuring thing where it's like, well, I have sources.

Check what your guy's saying because I'm good with mine. I know what mine is. And when that number got reported, you know, it's like, okay, people are going to run with this or whatever. But honestly, I think most Packers fans too, like you're not even worried about that right now. Like he's back for next year. You take this one year at a time.

He's won two MVPs in a row. They're in a great spot. Obviously, things did not end the way we wanted them to last year, and I think that is also part of the anxiety going into the offseason. If they would have had some storybook run where they win a Super Bowl, he retires or wants to go elsewhere, I think that would have been easier to swallow. But this was supposed to be the year, and then that happens in the playoffs. I'm ecstatic that he's back, and now we actually finally like address next season and get excited about for the next

season our source says told us that you know completely removed himself this year actually during the process of trying to figure out what he wanted to do wanted to really like get away and just figure out what he wanted like Like, what do I actually want? And I guess retirement became a real thought. And then the, you know, he had heard in, because he does have an agent and he does have things like that. He had heard that there's potentially going to be other teams interested. I believe from my sources, not my source says from my sources though, I believe those other teams were very interested.

I believe there was more teams than just the final three teams that we heard about that were interested and in play and already like, hey, we are going to go. Now, my sources said that completely removed himself from this all and went into like a deep state of like meditation, trying to get like his feel on what his body wants to do. How much, you know, does he want to continue to commit to football and to this and feels like he can do a lot of other stuff in his life and wants to experience it all?

Because once again, when you talk about money, a guy has made a lot of money and his business decisions off the field also sound right so like whenever that narrative continues to get built about it being about money i think our source says could potentially get pissed off like you are not only lying to try to fill your narrative but also you're going against everything that I stand for currently as a human. He's going to get paid. He's going to get paid. That's the way it works.

He's the back-to-back MVP, but very clearly our source said that it would be a very cap-friendly deal because friends bringing back, building what they wanted, and making that team, you know, the best they could possibly be. Because I don't believe, you know, winning a Super Bowl wasn't a thought. Another Super Bowl wasn't a thought as well. At Boston, Connor, I mean, I guess there was a chance that the Packers couldn't be led by Aaron Rodgers in there. You have Mac Jones for the next 20 years, so you have no thoughts at all other than what about the NFL now that Aaron's back?

I mean, I think now no matter what, Green Bay's got to be the favorite in the NFC. It's pretty awesome because now I don't have to watch Ty go through this every single day because some days he'd come in here and I really would have to, you know. It's going to be all right. Tom Brady left once before I've been through this. No bull. No bull. You'll get to the other side brother

But even that didn't really help him So I'm glad that this is done for him And with this deal sure you can bring back all The other guys Aaron's friends and stuff Not just friends I think like make the team Yeah who says they can't go into free agency now And get like another weapon Or another guy on defense to help them out

They're 21 million over And his current cap hit though is like 40 something. 46. So that puts them 25 under naturally. You get rid of that. He will be paid something. It'll probably be put. And by the way,

I don't even know if the years of the deal have even been like rapid reported, reported like four year deal. I saw somebody else go after I said, this is false. Hey, that's all I tweeted by the way. That's my new thing.

Kurt Benkert yesterday said that like 10 years from now, sportsbooks and players are going to have deals. And I just wrote, you're wrong. Nope. I don't want to get into it. I don't want to get into it because neither side of there wants players involved with that entire thing. But then Rapaport said, this is false.

That's going to be my new thing, I think. And it's all love, like with Kurt and with Rap. It's all love. But it's like, hey, I just want you wrong. This is false. That's going to be my new thing, I think. And it's all love, like with Kurt and with Rap. It's all love. But it's like, hey, I just want you wrong. This is false. Because I don't even, there was other people after I said this is false said maybe it's a three, our sources have told us it's a three-year deal. Who knows? I don't even think that's been figured out yet.

I don't even think that has been chatted about how it will go about happening from my source. Says. No deal is, like that is not even maybe. And this is because rap does have good right. Rap has good sources. Yeah. Maybe that deal was presented to Aaron or not even to Aaron yet. Maybe Aaron had heard about it, but Aaron allegedly told my source that that is not what this is about at all, and that is not true.

So this is a big deal. I know the Pittsburgh Steelers were in the middle of it all, I guess, publicly. I guess privately we'll have to find out. I don't know who will have those answers. Probably the people with the sources that are at the teams will probably have that information. But allegedly the Steelers were in this thing the entire time.

Now you guys got Mason Rudolph as a starter officially. So your thoughts at tone dig? Super pumped. I don't know why the Steelers would give up three first-round picks for a 38-year-old quarterback. Oh, come on. I'm pretty happy that he's going back to the Packers. As the Steelers of the NFC, I am happy for the Packers fans.

You know, one of the few organizations left that are actually a real organization, stick to their roots and stuff like that. So I'm happy for the Packers. Happy for the Steelers, too, that we didn't have to mortgage our future. Oh, just real quick, though. I think that's a good comparison, by the way. The Packers and the Steelers, vice versa, being each other's sister teams in the AFC and NFC or whatever. But this is a very new Packers, right?

Because the Packers stick to your roots, old school team, fan base is very loyal, diehard, they travel, you know, that whole thing. They don't normally let players have any say in any conversation. Aaron was pushing for that, right? He was pushing for that. They've, I think this past year, have changed. Listen to them, let that in. In the Steelers, old school organization,

they were potentially going to have to trade. That's not something the Steelers would do at all. So I think you're seeing teams evolve into the modern world. Welcome to the modern world. I think that is currently happening. And I think, I can't wait to hear like the fool you know who all was in what all was actually being offered i'm assuming we'll never know but hopefully at some point somebody will let us know all the information i would love to know from your source says if they

were actually and i assume they were and i actually he doesn't doesn't – I honestly – I'm not 100% sure he – Well, I mean, because – Because I – His representation, I mean, have they been leaking stuff? Who knows? But I am, to your point, happy because it does seem like even in this situation and in the free agent market and stuff like that, that the Steelers are, like the Packers, potentially changing their ways to a more modern way of thinking as well as you

know sticking to their to what makes them them all right let's get to a break okay we'll be back on the other side with some reaction to all this I can't wait to see what the world is saying I see Rappaport has quote tweeted my thing you know he's I guess he's questioning you know um my journalistic integrity because I just said, so Aaron told me. All right. Which in the middle of that thing he did, I thought I was going to be able to maintain the sources thing.

Well, everybody knows. I think it was assumed either way. This is two times that he's given me information, and I've said, Aaron told me my sources. I'm not supposed to be in the insider game. That could be strategic, though. People don't know. That's my style.

Yeah. Mislead you a little bit. Oh, I'm not going to tell you who told me. Classic. You should have a little bit of question on whether or not you should believe what I'm saying or not. That's right. And then if you're even doubting, it's the, oh, actually, boom. How about that?

Huh? Tank top stooge. Huh? Why die? Hockey's such a prick. That's all I can think about Yeah I mean he knew For what weeks Do you think he did

Yeah I would guess so I don't think so My sources Have said To me Like it was a real Like down to the wire here

Process I don't know about down to the wire I think like There was no wire right No I just mean until up to... They were still negotiating up through this week and everything. It's not like this was a done deal. No, I don't think they even have a deal in place.

I think Aaron's decision-making process was like... I don't think it's come until very recent here. Maybe it was because how good AJ was at that wedding. Maybe. Maybe it was because how good the wedding was. That kind of, he's like, you know what? Yeah, this is family. What am I even thinking?

I can go back. How happy LeFleur was there. I can go back. Yeah, LeFleur was out there boozing. Right, having a good time. Dancing. You think he looked into Bakhtiari's eyes while he was giving the sermon or whatever? Look at me, talk Atari.

All right, I can't leave. Did he say Mr. and Mrs. Talk Atari? Isn't that what aj and all them called i believe so what a j would have said what a day man we're in there oh yeah selfish of these other networks by the way that's misinformation on their program they were attacking us for that what's that all about oh because we're the one that countered their inside information a couple weeks ago so then whenever our information doesn't match that information but there's another one that does match the information they were

telling they're going to go with that yeah ah that's the game still false the game yeah wrong still misinformation on your programs it's can't be having that so we're thinking like 25 million they're frauds sues lawsuits? Lawsuits? Or what he's going to get paid? What do you got? Yeah, I don't know. I didn't dive into that. I was just thinking because Tom was a free agent, but that's what Tom got, and Tom wasn't off back-to-back MVPs, but

But also the entire narrative now is that he's a selfish prick on money, so like he, you know. You should do like $1 million a year. Be electric. Bro, that's what I said. That's what I said I said that to AJ AJ and I were talking because you know that whole narrative of him demanding and commanding the money was like

so false from what I was what I understood of the whole situation and from my source sis and that was the biggest one outside of here oh yeah like that was a massive narrative builder though for everybody about him being a fucking asshole. Right.

Very convenient if, you know, you don't know what's coming either and you want to be able to talk about it for the next three, four weeks. Like, that's just... Oh, we can bury this guy. Yeah. Passage pre-made. Everybody thinks he's a selfish prick. Right.

We can make this up for sure. And then that becomes an entire thing. So I talked to AJ. I was like, he should just take Vet Min. He just took vet men he said uh oh so you think you should you think you should turn down like what if he takes like 20 that would be a very minimum deal right 20 you think he should just say no to 20 million dollars a year just to say fuck you to people i'm like wow that's a lot of that is a lot of money but also i mean pretty cool. Can you imagine four years, two million?

It would be unbelievable. I don't know the years. By the way, the years is an interesting thing as well. Right. Because they probably will have some sort of voided. Yeah. So they can salary cap gymnastics. It's interesting. It's all very fascinating.

Anyways, it's Cool Tuesday, March 8th. Congrats to the Packers. Get your MVP back. Hell yeah. And congrats to all of us. We're getting a the Packers. Get your MVP back. Hell yeah. And congrats to all of us. We're getting a chance to watch that dude play football again. Hell yeah. Right?

Oh, yes. I forget who commented. Somebody commented on my Instagram and was like, the game needs him. And that wasn't a fan or a media person. That was somebody in the league. They're like, hey, we fucking love watching this dude play football. He's the lowest of that generation with Brady and Ben gone. Like, he really is kind of the last one.

And you don't hear, by the way, you don't hear any player not say, like, Aaron Rodgers is a fucking savage. Yeah. That's how everybody talks that he's at an elite level athletically, competitively. They're like, this guy. This guy's the guy. I think that has crossed all sports, by the way.

I forget who we had on. I think we had a basketball player on or something. Aaron Rodgers is a bad dude. And it's like, oh, okay. So he's like a, I think all competitors enjoy him. Oh, yeah. I'm happy we're getting a chance to see him come back. Just his hippie-ass shit on the field.

In the middle of nowhere, in the middle of all the pressure, he's just chilling as if it's like, hey, how we doing, huh? All right, here we go. Come on. Taking his thing off and then just slicing and dicing. Just like surgery down a field. I'm excited to watch him play football again. He's obviously been incredible

forever, but he really is arguably playing the best he's ever played in his career right now too. It's unbelievable. You know it. You've seen what he's done for the last 16 years and he's legitimately playing better than he's ever played. Just watch a game. Yes.

Just watch a game. If you hate him, which there are people out there that still do it, and I'm assuming all these narratives don't help you change your mind, even though he's – I don't know how many hours this dude, I guess. He's had to have given us over 50 hours of conversation. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. Easily. Over the last two. If you just listen to that i think you do watch him play well he doesn't put up as many numbers you know what because he is literally just slicing and

dicing a team apart turns it over yeah you're slicing it guys you also have two unbelievable running backs like he's not scared to get the ball to you exactly just like off the top of my head too like to throw against the niners over fred warner's head to give the ball to. Exactly. Just like off the top of my head too, like the throw against the Niners over Fred Warner's head. The throw to Tanyan against the linebacker. What was that one in the end zone where he had, I think that was, was that the Niners game? In the end zone, two guys

crashing on him. Colts. Chilling. Chilling. Fucking chilling. Just drops it and then gets fucking smoked. Yeah, down the middle MPS. And then just stands up and does his little jog with his little thing. Yeah. He's different than anybody else on earth. That is a fact.

I will agree with you on that. For sure. But every motherfucker that's at the top is. Joining us live from an attic in Ohio. Super Bowl champion. College football national champion, Ryder Cup champion, COVID survivor, and a man who probably knew all along what was going to happen.

A man who has not swayed from his opinion on where Aaron Rodgers will end up has said for the last two years Aaron's going to be with the Green Bay Packers. This past weekend he was at a wedding with Aaron Rodgers. What did he learn and how did he keep it in yesterday? Big time news being broke this morning by me. What? Why?

Such a selfish prick. No, I mean, shit. Who, Aaron? It's pretty cool. Imagine big, earth-shattering NFL breaking news this morning from me. Aaron Rodgers is returning to the big, earth-shattering NFL breaking news this morning from me. Aaron Rodgers is

returning to the Green Bay Packers and I know this dude is going to be incredibly excited. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ. What's up, dude? Did you hear my news I broke this morning? Yeah, what was it about the Russian oil ban? Is that what you're talking about? I did hear that happened.

That'll obviously have ripple effects. Excited to see what's next. Hope everybody's okay. T's and P's to everybody, by the way. Yeah. T's and P's. T's and P's. Except Putin.

Yeah. Except for him. With that being said. Has Bull. Has Bull. I think he's okay. There's still some more videos. No, I said no T's and P's.

Don't. No, no, no. We're not getting into it. Not getting into it. Now's not the time. That's what you wanted No, no, no. We're not getting into it. Not getting into it. Now's not the time. That's what you wanted us to do, AJ. We're not doing it. How long have you known he was going back to the Packers? And when I got

the call this morning from my source, Ciz, letting me know that returning to the Pack was what was happening. There was no deal in place. A deal is now to be figured out that will be cap-friendly, and retirement was a real consideration did you know all these things did you think all these things and uh why do you

think everybody runs with the narrative that this dude's an asshole all the time i mean i don't know i mean we we truly don't really know anybody that we watch play on tv now i think aaron coming on the show the last couple years you definitely know a lot more than we did before how open and honest he is, whether people like that or not. It's up to them to have their opinion, whatever. But, I mean, I told you two years ago when all this started, Aaron's going, why would he leave Green Bay? And here we are today. So, sorry. Look at this guy.

You're a prick, dude. Take a victory lap, pal. He didn't tell me. I never asked him straight up. Okay, dude. I don't care that much I never asked him straight up. AJ. Okay, dude. I don't care that much, but I would just tell him to his face, you're going to Green Bay. There's no other place. There's no better situation.

You know you're going to Green Bay. You're an idiot. That's our conversation. So that's the only way you would really talk about it with Aaron? No, we would talk about it. I've talked about it over the years with him and everything, but it's not every time you talk to him you try to bug him about all of that and what's going on. And ultimately, hey, there it is.

He's coming back to Green Bay. The contract situation, I know you have disputed that. So I think that will be fun to watch how that all plays out. How about them having to retract it now? Have they actually retracted it? Couple. Couple people have. They're still going to run with it.

I think they're still going to run with it. Oh, yeah. They have to. Hey, we got a good 15-minute A block on this. It's over. It's gone now because people saw that pop up first. So no matter what happens, that's his contract. Well, and that's kind of my issue with the entire thing.

Because in the breaking, the actual news, like, hey, no deal. There is no deal in place currently. But there is said to be a cap-friendly deal on the way. How? Where did Ian get his numbers from? That's the question. So that's what I'm thinking. Like, Ian Rappaport then reported three minutes afterwards.

I mean, who's looking? The Packers and MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers have agreed to terms on a four-year 200 million dollar deal that makes him the highest paid player in NFL history sources say he gets a whopping 153 million dollars guaranteed and his cap number goes down a monstrous commitment by Green Bay. Congrats, Ian. But if you look at the final line, I think you know where you're getting the information from. A monstrous commitment by Green Bay for years to come. And since Ian's been in this insider game for so long,

everybody ran with it. But I hate to break it to everybody. Like, we just learned we could do the x thing today so we are we are going to use it uh more often i assume zito had a baby's eat uh but the whole thought i i actually asked source says very close to the situation and that deal might have been presented but that doesn't mean that that is the deal that was okayed. Because I believe from my source, like taking a cap-friendly deal to bring people back was always paramount in the decision-making. That's why a few weeks ago when it said he's demanding, commanding to be the highest-paid player in the NFL by a wide margin, and then all the narratives started building. This guy all year says he just wants a little bit more respect and to be heard.

He wants to do a bunch of karma, really, at the end of the day. He's a selfish prick. And it's all for negotiating tactics. And he's trying to cripple the Packers with the contract that he's getting. So I just sent him a text. First time I texted him, I don't know what we're talking about. Hey, just real quick. Are you, like, demanding to be the highest paid player in this entire thing?

Categorically false. Okay. Thank you. Perfect. All right, I'm going to go, and I'm going to explain to people how this narrative gets painted. If you remember, that was Journalism 101 Day. That's right. Where I'm not a big J journalist, but I said, boom, here's a report on Rich Eisen's show.

Bang, that clip is taken over to here. Look at the headline at the bottom. Here's what this person says. And by the way, hook, line, and sinker, it works. Here's what people in the Packers fan base are now saying about Aaron because of this. Boom, and it just continues. And the next day, bang, it just continues to go. So whenever Ian Rappaport reports the four-year 200 million dollar deal

alongside talking that he's going back to the package for them it's like justification we knew this was the entire thing and it's like that is not what my source says have said in our saying today it's just a wild game isn't it i mean it's a wild game aj yeah it is and it's just like anything like that once the headline is out there like old school newspapers when the people used to read those things like whatever's on the front page if it's a headline and it's not true it doesn't matter and 85 of the people saw that headline and that sticks in their brain forever even if there's a retraction on the front page the next day which the retraction is always on the 10th page or whatever so is it just how it works isn't it awesome the retraction on the front page the next day, which the retraction is always on the 10th page or whatever.

It's just how it works. Isn't it awesome the retraction is, no, he's actually not getting fucking $200. Which is kind of a big, it's a big part of it too, because as you've been saying, the narrative that they're painting, that he's selfish and, oh, he's going to take all the money and you're not going to be able to re-sign all these people. No, that's why the fact that that's not a done deal is a big part of this story. Okay, so you just confirmed. Did you hear that from your source?

That what? CIS? What, that he hasn't signed this four-year deal that's out there? Yeah. Yeah, I definitely don't think he's done anything with that. Okay. Hey, my source says it's the same. So multiple source C told multiple people around the media landscape that that's all bullshit. Isn't it amazing? That's amazing to me.

Yeah, it is pretty amazing, I guess. And it's still out there, though, right? I don't know. We're going to find out. We'll watch it today. We'll see. I guess the thing is, whatever he does sign, whatever the deal looks like, will they compare it to that deal that we put out there?

And they're like, oh, well, it's basically the same thing, right? No matter what it looks like. Well, and that's what we had to always say. Because whenever the demanding to be the highest paid player, that's a narrative. He's going to get paid. Are people serious, though? Are people serious that they feel like Aaron's number one priority is money? Oh, yeah.

A lot of people think that. Okay, whatever your initial, whatever your opinion may be from the outside looking in or watching him on this show or interviews, if you don't like him, if you were able to step back for a second, you could tell like, all right, in his list of priorities, I don't believe money is the number one priority by

any means in any decision he ever made so in my eyes the reason why you know that narrative is probably something that he doesn't love it's not just because he looks like a bad teammate with that narrative being pushed like his friends aren't going to be able to get paid and stick around and his teammates aren't going to be able to make money and they're not going to be able to build a roster around him that obviously is something if i was the source says i would not be happy about like hey that's not what i'm about i feel like i've talked ad nauseum about that not being the case but also the human he is now right like he's like saying he's only about money is like a direct shot at the soul you know that he is like right i think like

that's a double his hippie vagabond lifestyle now you're right exactly yeah that's what i'm saying so that's why i think like all of this stuff going out there it's like you're taking a shot at him as a teammate and then you're also taking a direct shot at literally who he is as a human right now and you can see how he's that would would have went too, by the way. This show doesn't exist. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it would have kept going. PFF Brad, I mean, he heard that there's no deal in place as well.

Wow, okay. There we go. I saw that on a tweet. Okay, can believe it. PFF Brad heard that. And shout out to Schneidman as well. But I guess that wouldn't have been... Hey, what if, though, Pat,

what if all of a sudden he signs a four-year $260 million deal? It's like, no, it's actually bigger than that. I'd be so happy for him. I'd be so happy if he got 260 M's. But also, yeah, I would have to come back and apologize to everybody. No, you're still right. You're still correct that that deal wasn't the deal.

As long as it's cap-friendly. And was it $200 million or was it a little more than $200 million too? Yeah. They might be setting up a Bobby Bonilla situation where they're going to give him $600 million and pay him for the next 55 years. AJ, they are still $21 million over the cap with his $46 million cap hit. So if you change that down to zero, obviously now they have $25 million, which is much, much greater than where they're at right now. His deal, he's going to get paid money. He's going to get paid a lot of money, I would hope.

Yeah, he's going to get paid money. But the entire narrative about him just demanding the most amount of money. Most situations like this are about money. What's that, buddy? When people are having sit-ins now as they have them or holdouts or hold-ins whatever's going on or they're having issues they're not showing up it's always about money it's usually never about anything it's always like all right they need to pay me what i think i should be paid and the team says this is what we think you are like with aaron it's never been about money i feel like and if you listen to the hippie because ultimately though

because aaron has been paid a ton of money already, too. Like, I've heard people back in the day criticize older players, like old guys that have made a ton of money, and they want to criticize a younger player for holding out or something when they're coming off a rookie deal. And people are like, well, that's easy. That guy's been paid. Like, that guy's made $120 million. What's he saying to me? I'm on my rookie deal still. Yeah, and if you look at, like, what Tom Brady did and, you know and other OGs around who have been very wealthy.

Now, I think Peyton's always been about that business, Bows. I think. I'm not 100% sure. Hey, are we making money? Is somebody making money off of this? Yeah. Okay, I'm making money as well then. I do understand and respect that.

But the ability that you can change your entire roster at the quarterback position is real, depending upon your contract. That's why you see rookie contracts really make teams excited because they haven't had to pay their guy yet, which eats into everybody else's kind of meal almost. So I was pitching for a long time. The quarterback should have their own cap. Like, hey, just have them in their own world.

And that used to be a thing, the quarterback club. Now it was the high-end profile quarterbacks kind of fucking over the rest of the NFL making their own deals and stuff like that but hey good business I guess you do that but I do believe like quarterbacks should kind of be away from the salary cap that's conversation for a different day it should be like a tiered thing almost you can put them in this tier this tier or like the new deal tier if you want, and it doesn't eat at everybody else's contract. I'm sure some lawyers could figure that out in the next CBA. They won't, but I'm sure they could if they did. But if Aaron does take a cap-friendly deal, that helps the Packers out immensely, bringing people back, signing new

players, going on a run, continuing to build that environment and culture in Green Bay that the next 20, 30 years should look like because of Aaron taking a stand last offseason. It's just like this is all good for everybody, I think. And that whole salary cap thing, I don't know why it happens. It makes no sense to me. It honestly makes no sense to me why you would hate a guy so bad that you would do that. And that's what it is, I think. I mean, yeah. I guess people have opinions.

What's that? People have strong opinions on the vaccine. Ah, you're saying the immunized son of a bitch. Well, and that's why it doesn't surprise me that they're still running with this. Because it's been two years of saying how this guy sucks and that's why it doesn't surprise me that they're still running with this because it's been two years of saying how like this guy sucks and he's selfish. And just because now it's coming out that, you know, that he's taken a contract for four years, 200 million. It fits exactly what they've been saying for two years. So it doesn't surprise me that they're running with it because of that.

And at the same time, in 2027, I think Patrick Mahomes is cap. It is like $70 million. Like, are we going to say Patrick Mahomes is super selfish when that comes around because he's taken up damn near a third of the cap? That might be the quarterback number. Yeah, by the time the salary cap goes up. If it goes up 10% each time, it's locked in at $207 million. I think $208.2 million maybe. Yeah, it was locked in at $208.2 million.

They say it goes up 10% each year. $228. $240. $266. $300. $300. Does it ever end? Is it a ceiling ever

for salaries you feel like? Apple's looking at using some of its $200 billion into buying a Sunday ticket and everything like that. They should. Yeah. Yeah, here's a scoop from AJ Perez. Shout out. Apple is considering using some of its massive $200 billion

of cash on hand to acquire. By the way, they just got fluid. Yeah. They got $200 billion fluid. What are they doing with all their money? Oh, they're putting 8K cameras into their newest model of their phone for everybody to have.

Even though the phone fucking stinks, the camera is unbelievable. And when Tim finally uses some of that $200 billion cash flow to make the phone and the camera kind of be good, that'll be a great day, Tim. Yeah, absolutely.

Hey, Tim, why don't we get that to fucking happen okay i appreciate all you're doing and you know moving forward in the the cinema version cinematic version on the phone is fucking electrifying but also the phone stinks this phone is worse than your last 10 phones combined yeah maybe spend 50 billion on the fucking ios because the goddamn thing doesn't work ever with that being said tim love that you're getting into the nfl 200 billion on hand to acquire nfl's available rights like nfl sunday ticket along with an equity stake in nfl media sources tell front office sports story via mike mccarthy rev and oh yeah i hate that guy remember who is this guy i don't like mccarthy one yeah i think so right he's he works at front office i knew. I knew front office.

I didn't know which guy it was. What did he do? I forget what it was. I just remember not liking him, which is sad because McCarthy's a good name. Especially Mike McCarthy. Yeah, Mike McCarthy's a good name and all that stuff. He said something. I actually thought about buying front office sports, if you do recall.

Oh, yeah. Yes. Yeah. I believe I told Mike, I could buy your company. Your company couldn't buy my company. Shut up. I believe is what my tweet was. I think. I believe I told Mike, I could buy your company. Your company couldn't buy my company. Shut up. I believe is what my tweet was. I think.

I'm not 100% sure. I mean, I was on one that day. A couple days, those do happen. I do apologize. Mike just so happened to be on the receiving end of it because he said something I thought was disrespectful. So, fuck off. But it does appear that he had a good piece of information here. And he's probably a good guy.

Hopefully, we'll meet one day and we'll get past it. But Apple's coming in with big money and there'll be a bidding war then that starts right because amazon's gonna want more shit you'd assume they get thursday night football they lock in kirk herb street they're allegedly gonna pay 20 million dollars to sean mcveigh yeah so there's apple does apple have a competitor they are amazon right yeah apple amazon google samsung facebook no who are those big ones the trillion dollar ones yeah there's like a name for the there's like a uh alphabet isn't that all of google or something though they call it alphabet or something yeah but there's like some um

there's something the metaverse it's all under no yeah the metaverse is obviously facebook which is up there but there's something that says all the company's names. And the business people right now that are watching are saying it because this is something that is very much. But it's like Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook. Is Microsoft on there or not? No, I don't think any. The Illuminati?

What are we talking about? All right. What is wrong with you? We're talking about the most powerful companies on the planet, right? Yeah, we're just talking about the companies that are acquiring everything. They're getting into the everything business. What's it called? Fang?

A lot of people that are in the chat right now are saying Fang. Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google? Two A's. Two A's, sir. Apple. There it is. Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google. So they're all in competition together to own the content space.

Amazon obviously has a head start on delivering food and being a part of that entire game but look for all of them who have a massive amount of money a lot of platforms that they need filled with content and want people to stay on their platforms look for them all to get involved

that's why when Amazon got involved I was like alright well that means that all these other motherfuckers are going to get involved as well in the money that they have aj these dudes are just shitting out billions i mean you said apple has 200 bill in cash just sitting there waiting for them to use it for some thought mlb rights yes who did five minutes ago yeah so that was like 24 bucks or something like that jeff Passon. Hey, shout out to Jet, by the way. Atta baby, Jet. Good luck out there, Jet. Jet on the player side in arbitration for the first time in the history of arbitration

with leagues and players. Atta baby, Jet. Good luck, Jet. Stop swearing, though, Jet. You can't be saying shit. Watch your mouth, Jet. Come on, Jet. Anyways, Jet Passon's reporting Major League Baseball's newest TV partner, Apple. At the company's event today, it announced a deal

with the league to carry a Friday night baseball doubleheader on Apple TV+. Starting this season, games will be exclusively broadcast on the streaming service. Shout out to MLB negotiating deals with platforms when they don't have a league yet. This is good news for the league, though. Fans think that there's going to be something to

at least barter, or they punt it to be something to at least barter, or they punt it down the road to at least another year. But Apple's going to get in the sports game big. Amazon's going to get in the sports game big. Netflix, probably going to get in the sports game big. Why not with how much money they have? Netflix is the only one that doesn't have live stuff, though, right? Yeah.

Didn't Apple buy rights to another league? I don't think Apple. Does Apple have live stuff? Oh, I don't don't know everybody's gonna get live stuff uh yeah yeah that's weird because spotify just launched a live audio thing they're probably gonna get a live show in my eyes and this is not necessarily from my sources but kind of my conversations as somebody that owns and operates a rather large live daily show that is in the digital world. My gut instinct from the conversations I've had, everybody's going to get in the live game. They can't figure out the tech. Everybody's trying to figure out the tech.

YouTube's able to do it, obviously. That's Google's arm being able to do live. Twitch does it for Amazon. Look for everybody to figure out a way to get into the live game and into the platform game to keep people on there. So I would assume the Fang with the AA will all get into the NFL, and they just signed for $110 billion, I believe. That is able to be ripped up and redone, especially with these new companies potentially coming in. That salary cap is only going to go up and up and up and up and up and up, I think, personally.

Well, live sports are king. They are what people need to acquire because people, it's like appointment TV. You'll come watch, right? Bro, we will be doing this on this show. Let's have a moment of silence for ESPN. They lost their live rights for all sports to Google. It was a great network.

It's fucking dead. Let's have a moment of silence for CBS Sports. They lost all of their live rights to fucking Netflix. They are now dead. Rest in peace to Fox Sports. They lost all their live rights to Zuckerberg's metaverse. They are now fucking dead. That is what would happen, I think.

Honestly. That is what they're scared of, too. Don't you think? Those old school institutions. Oh, yeah. Well, they need to be scared of it, but they ain't got dudes just hopping into spaceships, going out of space,

because they have so many billions, they don't know what the fuck can do with themselves you know like that's that's what amazon is yep amazon's they're sitting in a pretty good spot i would say too when they have all this money to use and the nfl is bigger than it's ever been and it looks like it's going you know continue to grow and grow like it's a good time i guess well it's a great time it's a great time to be in the digital world, AJ. Great time. Great time to be Al Michaels as well. Well, great time to be Al.

Great time to be Al Michaels. Great time to be Al Michaels. He's going to get what? 25 million a year? Yeah, he can do the Kevin Durant thing and just sit in a house and then just basically have people come and battle for it. I have told one particular company that I'll wait for everybody else to get into the game. And then hopefully whenever they get into the game, it'll be a little bit different for all of us. And then that is great negotiation, I believe, and leverage.

Because they all know that everybody's going to get in. Yeah. All the people that have so much money, too much money, they're going to get into the biggest thing on earth, which is the NFL. Because it's a big flex, too. You've got to remember, the people making decisions are all executives and they have friends and they mingle with other executives and it's a big time flex oh look what i did look what we did look who we signed look what we got that's a big time getting nfl rights i would assume amazon is peacocking around in a lot of conversations they've been in relationships though with the nfl for

years the nfl is normally a hey let's crawl before we walk type partnership maybe that's why apple's like yeah we'd also like the media like we'll just buy into the media what's the value how many billions oh cool cool yeah we'll buy the whole fucking thing yeah well we're not giving that away we're only giving them 15 let's take it easy all right well still we're in that game so it's a whole process all of these things If Amazon really wanted to make just like a huge splash, why wouldn't they just make the most competitive offer for like Sunday ticket too so that if you were going to watch – like you almost have to go to Amazon. Like there's no way they can – I mean, I guess you just hear these other companies are getting in,

but like they're viewing that as there's no way they can lose that to Apple, right? What do you think? Well, all the fame. Yeah. Well, true. Which one? They're you think? Well, all of Fang. Yeah, well, true. They're all... Everfinger's watching the other. What's that motherfucker doing? Son of a bitch. When can they come bid on those

packages? Whenever. Sunday tickets up right now. Okay. Which is, Sunday tickets huge. That's what DirecTV has, right? So if they lose it, they're dead. Yes. By the way, they lost it. That's the only reason people are DirecTV has, right? Yes. So if they lose it, they're dead. Yes. By the way. That's the only reason people go to DirecTV. Yeah, they are dead.

Rest in peace to that. I'm in silence. Sorry. Are they even making a play at it? Probably, but they're literally shitting out billions at these other companies. Why are you laughing in their face, dude? They had a hell of a run. Good run.

Fucking dead, though. Yeah. See you later. Hey, too much money ain't enough money. That's what Fang thinks. These are blind bids that Amazon, Apple, they don't know what anyone else is bidding, right? Initially, Amazon was trying to get Sunday Ticket.

So now Apple is trying to get Sunday Ticket. I would assume there is a current, you know, on the baseball bat thing happening currently. What if you're the NFL? First offer comes in like, here's $1 billion. Then the next one

comes in, Amazon's like, we've got to make a splash. Let's go $15 billion. They up them that much. That could happen. Like war dogs. War dogs that are 300 million or 400 million under the next closest. God damn it. Yeah.

I don't think they care. I don't think any of these people care. I know AT&T doesn't have Amazon money, but they have to have some money for DirecTV. They ain't going to fucking keep up. They don't have Amazon money. Apple money. I know. That's what I started with.

That's right. Google. Yeah, but you were trying to debunk our moment of silence. You were saying we shouldn't have had a moment of silence? No, no, no. They're not dead yet? You're saying AT&T Direct TV is not dead yet? I assume they make some money.

That's all I assumed. Oh, no. And then we're Scott Hanson? What? Well, that would be a victory for all of us. Tony. Tony. What is happening?

Let's get to a break. Is he the Direct TV guy? Let him cool off a little bit. Is it Siciliano? Yeah. It's Siciliano who's getting the act. Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Cutting him down on his knees. Yeah, cutting him down on his knees is right. Bring him a bigger chair. This is a tiny little. Hitting him on the head like a nail with a hammer.

With a hammer? Guys. Damn. Are they still doing that to him? No. He looked awesome at the combine. Yeah, he did. He looked like he was six foot nine. Shoot. Damn Are they still doing that to him? No He looked awesome at the combine Yeah he did He looked like he was 6'9

Shoot He looked awesome He was alphaing I think Sirianni Oh yeah Sitting on a King James Bible What is your problem? We do not know if that's true It was the desk

The desk was covered He looked great He looked unbelievable Yeah I don't know if we'll ever get thanks for that, but because how rude. No way. Well, I mean, he dunked on AJ's face,

so I think we're even. Yeah, you're right. That's true. When? When you guys, when you did the interview. He went on with him. It was maybe the most awkward interview in the history of TV.

All time. Yeah. All time. I have, shockingly, when things with Aaron happen, I get texts and calls that people want me to come on their show. A lot of them actually right now during our show um orlovsky called me in the fucking open okay i'm doing an open pretty big open that you know cutting her like uh here we go trying to describe the entire situation my left thigh is vibrating i'm like oh who would be maybe

this is aaron yeah that's literally what i was thinking. Oh, shit. This might be Aaron. So while I'm talking, thinking, doing my entire thing, I'm like, Orlovsky, what the fuck? Orlovsky. So I literally text him, what the fuck are you calling me for as my show? I just want to say congrats, man. It was awesome. You're very nice. Thank you, Dan. You're very nice, Dan.

I want to let you know that that was not what I was thinking of saying to you whenever you were calling me. Just a nice guy, man. Good for Dane, too. He's going to be a free agent here soon. Yeah. Hey. Don't talk about it. Yeah, he said he didn't like that he talked about it.

He felt bad that he was talking about it publicly. I'm like, Dan, this is business, Dan. They need you more than you need them, Dan. Dan's on TV for the next 10 days, 10 hours straight. Yeah, I was asleep at the studio. Make sure you're fucking with it, too, Dan. That's on TV for the next 10 days 10 hours straight. Yeah. I was asleep at the studio Make sure you're fucking with it too Dan. That's right. You got a midnight sports center hit tonight and you better bring the fucking heat. Okay you get to be on there

You get to be on there. Okay Don't you ever forget that Just got a signal from Tiggs It's like a Batman single Oh it's a big one. Oh really Blockbuster. After weeks of negotiations in one of the largest trades in NFL history, the Seattle Seahawks and Denver Broncos have agreed to terms on a deal involving Super Bowl winning quarterback Russell Wilson.

The trade is pending a physical and Wilson's approval. You would have to assume that the Denver Broncos with Nathaniel Hackett as the head coach, former offensive coordinator of the Packers was eyeing Aaron Rodgers to become a Denver Bronco. Our source says, did not tell us this, but there was enough smoke around the NFL that Denver was in on the Aaron Rodgers deal. Now that Aaron goes back to Green Bay, the Denver says, fuck it. Let's go to Seattle.

What do you need? Give us Russell Wilson. Nathaniel Hackett gets a new quarterback in Denver. The Broncos get a new QB. Is Drew Locke going to be the starter for the Seattle Seahawks? Allegedly. It'll be multiple picks and players is what the Seattle Seahawks want for Russell Wilson because Pete

Carroll ain't doing a rebuild. This comes just hours after it was reported that the Seahawks were interested in multiple weapons for the offense. Was that to appease Russell Wilson or was that to rebuild the team that they knew they were going to have to build after sending Russell Wilson to mile-high Denver, Colorado? AJ, this is a blockbuster. What a Tuesday, March 8th. Aaron Rodgers back to the Packers. Russell Wilson traded to the Broncos.

I assume one domino led to the other, but this is a monumental day in the history of the NFL. Yeah, it is. So because this happened so quickly after we hear of the Aaron Rodgers news, I would assume this has been in play for a while where they've been working on the back burner saying, hey, if Aaron doesn't come here, we want to set this up and get Russ to town, right? So the fact that this is already being reported, I would assume they've already been working out their legwork for a while. So let's think about it because Ian Rappaport, who, yeah. He fucked up.

Yeah. He did. He fucked up. He painted the entire wrong narrative. Yes. That wasn't real according to our source. Sis. But I believe every insider has said that the Green Bay Packers had plan A

and plan B. Plan A is if Aaron comes back. Plan B is if he does not. The Denver Broncos probably had similar conversations. We have plan A if Aaron Rodgers, the man who knows our offense and we have a great relationship with, wants to come to Denver, we will do this. Plan B, if he goes back to the Packers or retires, we're going up to the fish tossing city

up there in Seattle we're getting Russell Wilson this is via Adam Schefter there's another tweet coming from Adam Schefter Denver acquiring Russell Wilson has nothing to do with the Aaron Rodgers decision to return again Denver general manager general George Payton initiated trade talks with Seattle for Wilson at least two weeks ago, per sources. Sure. Of course. Yeah, of course. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Wow.

We wanted Russell before we wanted Aaron is what they're trying to say here to Russell Wilson. This is not because you were plan B for us. You were always plan A, Russell. It was always Russell for us, pal. But we all can kind of, you know, assume that maybe there was two deals on the table. One for Aaron, one for Russell. Whatever the case, the Broncos get a stud at quarterback if Russell Wilson says, yes, I will go. And this day is going to be talked about forever.

And if we look across the studio at a guy who told me to look at my phone for the Adam Schefter breaking news, Tone Diggs is now staring down the reality. Aaron Rodgers ain't going to Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson can be traded. He's not going to Pittsburgh. And there's a lot of other teams probably around the NFL that feel the exact same way as Tone Diggs. This one hurts.

Aaron's awesome, obviously. He's a two-time MVP. Four-time MVP. Back-to-back. Sorry. Back-to-back MVPs. But Russ is five years younger. You could still get eight years out of Russ.

If Russ was available, I hope there was a play made, because if you were in on Aaron, I think you should have been on Russ, too, clearly as the Denver Broncos were. Yeah, now I'm stuck here. Okay, so this is interesting because Mitch is still out there, right?

Mitchell Trubisky, we don't know what he's going to get paid. People are saying at least $10 million. He is now probably an Indianapolis Colt. Wow. Congratulations. Congrats, Mitch. But with that being said, Russell Wilson, if he was on the trade block, you would hope that your team would have been involved.

Yeah. I think is what we are both saying now. Yes. Now that it's singing in your fucking head, too. You guys have no chance, though. The Colts had no chance. The news happened. They didn't have first round.

The news happened. It was like, holy shit, holy shit. As you were talking about it, it sunk in. Steelers aren't getting a quarterback, neither do the Colts. Now, Russell Wilson has to agree to this. Denver's a beautiful city. Obviously, anybody that's ever been there has said that they absolutely love it. I don't know if that goes into it.

He is in a tough division. That's what people are saying about Aaron. Aaron won't go to that AFC West. People think Aaron Rodgers is scared of fucking anything. It's interesting. And the fact that Russell Wilson's coming out of the NFC best or whatever, going to the AFC West, fascinating. One year ago, AFC West quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert,

Russell Wilson, Derek Carr. Insanity, says Ari Mirov of Pro Football Focus at MySportsUpdate. Once again, via Schefter's tweet, Russell Wilson has to agree to this, but you would assume he had already agreed to Denver if Seattle was going to do all the legwork to get a deal done with Denver. Because one year ago in Fargo, North Dakota, the Chicago Bears and the Seattle Seahawks met. And they were offered, what, three ones or something like that to get Russell to Chicago. This came after Team 3 expressed disinterest in returning to the Seattle Seahawks because the offensive line wasn't good enough.

The offense wasn't Russ-oriented enough. I want to win Super Bowls. I want to be a, sorry, not I. Russell wants to be a top five quarterback. Russell wants to win Super Bowls. Russell needs a better offensive line. Russell needs a little bit more say. Russell needs a better team. Russell Wilson never said any of this. This is all team three, team three, team three. Then when the season got back, hey, we all love each other. Remember? John Schneider, I think, or Pete Carroll or Russ, I forget which one. Pete Carroll was doing a press conference.

Josh Schneider was there, and Russell Wilson poked his head and he said, hey, we all love each other. I was like, well, team three doesn't. I mean, the people you're around, they seem to not love what's going on. They go on to have not their best year, and we thought that these talks would get loud. Last week, Pete Carroll said, we're not shopping our quarterback. And Russell Wilson told an interview in Washington to J.P. Finley, I believe, of NBC Sports. He said, I'm in Seattle right now.

It's where I'm at right now, and I love it. Both sides had to know that he was potentially on the move. Both sides had to understand what cities were available for him to move to, and the fact that he's going to Denver changes the game immediately for Seattle and for Denver. A team that everybody talked about, if Aaron was to go there, would be Super Bowl contenders. Let's assume that's the case again with Russell Wilson in there,

but that division is going to be tough, A.J. Hawk. Yeah, Denver has to be super pumped to get this to happen because, yeah, like we said, they have this whole team around Russ. Now you bring in Russ, bring a ton of hype, and also a guy that's an absolute stud. So I think that's a good point, Diggs. Who knows how much longer he will play, but he has plenty of great football left in him.

But I start thinking about the Seahawks and what they're going to do. Pete is, what, 70-something years old? He doesn't look like he looks great, but who's going to be their quarterback and what's their team going to look like? Call that bitch my bodyguard. Yeah, that's my bodyguard. Drew Locke, come on.

I like Drew Locke. Gino? There is players involved. They're going to be shit. I mean, we can just say it. They're not going to be that good. Those other three teams are very, very good, and now the Seahawks are my best that good. Those other three teams are very, very good. And now the Seahawks are my best player.

And those other three teams are very, very happy that Russell Wilson is no longer in the NFC West. You think Josh McDaniels turns the fight around now and just comes back from Vegas and says, fuck it? Cliff even said, remember? Oh, yeah. Would love for him to get traded out. Would absolutely love for Russell Wilson to get traded out.

But it was always so much like it's happening. We said before, though, remember before this season when all this stuff was happening with Russ and the team, I think we said on the show a couple times, like, all right, yeah, Russ will be there this year, but I don't see him in Seattle after this year. We said that months and months ago. I would say a lot of shows say that they say those things,

but I do believe we had at least the conversation that, hey, this story of Russ wanting to leave last offseason after having a bad season is not going to go away. It's not going to go away. That is going to only intensify. But everybody thought, with how old Pete Carroll is, he's not going to want to move on because who's better than Russell Wilson?

To build a good franchise in a program, to knock them into full reload, you would have to get another quarterback. The most important position has to be fulfilled. And they said Pete Carroll ain't going to, you know, just accept anybody. Drew Locke's ready to fucking ball. He likes Drew Locke.

I mean, now do we start the Tom Brady to Seattle rumors? Oh. Pete Carroll loves competing, especially up there on that bay. And if he could just get Russell Wilson's house, which already has a field in the back of it, he's potentially trading out there. Jay Glazer now reporting,

Russell had a no trade clause, but Broncos were one of the teams he said he'd waive it for. That's hashtag Jay knew. But we would assume that if there was a deal that was met, Russell had already agreed on it, because why would you even waste the time? A little bit of irony there too with the Broncos being the team that they

beat the pants off of in that Super Bowl. Oh yeah. Yeah. A defense. Legion of Boom. Oh yeah. How involved do you think Pete Carroll was in this? Because this literally is contrary to everything he said he wanted to do and I thought he had actually

quite a bit of involvement with Schneider in the decision-making process. I'm intrigued by it all because we're not shopping the quarterback. As soon as he said that, we were like, does that mean he's letting people come in? You're not shopping him, but you're going to listen to offers. Yeah, are you letting people come in? We're not going to go out and pound the pavement,

but if they want to come into the store. It's not like it's an official. It doesn't start out like some super official memo that they send you. It could easily be a call from a buddy on the other team, the other front office. Hey, what are you guys, is there any chance, you know, you guys would think about moving on from Russ, and then you can kind of gauge it, and then you go from there.

The Gumpy, let's make sure we give credit to Adam Schefter for that one. You know? I have to. Congrats, Adam Schefter. I wonder what the committee is. I mean, I'm in the insider business. That's right. Zito just said, there's more breaking news.

Von Miller. Oh, no. Zito. Okay. Zito said, just wanted to add to the conversation in my ear. Von Miller. Von Miller was talking about yesterday about coming back there. So, Von Miller.

You're talking Von Miller, Russell Wilson,son that entire team and i don't know enough about him and i do apologize to the broncos for not knowing enough about you but i guess now the whole conversation has to be the dude who was in the west coast and maybe suffered from a little east coast bias now moves into mountain time that's right that's good that's they got what did von know did von know that r Russ was already set up to come there? Was it yesterday that Vaughn put out that Photoshop of him and the Broncos? Yeah, and I thought maybe Vaughn was doing that to maybe get Aaron to go there. Personally, in the moment, I'm like, oh, is this Vaughn being like, hey, Aaron,

if we go there, maybe it's, hey, Russ, let's go ahead and do this thing. Sierra and Mile High and Russ, imagine those events they're going to have. Oh, my God. You can play for the Rock they're going to have. Oh, my God. You play for the Rockies, too? Yeah. Oh, shit. Thin air? Yeah.

Think about his training. He puts that mask on to try to get the thin air. He's going to be so good. Now he's going to wear the mask, and he's actually going to be in thin air as well. Double. He's going to be trained at 25,000 feet. Yeah, he's in space.

He's like that guy from Red Bull that was up there falling out of the sky. Felix Baumgartner. Baumgartner. Baumgartner. So it is now being reported that Drew Locke is going to Seattle. Tom Pelissero is reporting that the Broncos have informed quarterback Drew Locke he's been traded to Seattle as part of the Russ and Wilson deal per sources. Pete Carousel, I like the way a guy ain't dancing or something.

You know what I mean? Hey, Drew Locke still might be okay. We don't know. I mean, that's what the Broncos fans have been asking. For him, though, I'm actually happy for him being a part of this. He's going to get a new, like a change of scenery. I'm sure it'll be fun. Everyone talks when you get to Seattle with Pete and the whole system

how much energy, how much positivity is around. Maybe it'll be a good change. Hey, listen, I love Drew Locke. Broncos fans have been asking for two years, they're like, is this our guy or not? Is this our guy? No, it's not our guy. Is it our guy?

It's not our guy. It's not our guy. We can't go through 33 games wondering if this guy's our guy. At what point do we have to decide whether or not he's our guy? He could have got a new start with Hackett. Instead, he goes up to Seattle. Will Ferrell will be there. They'll be on the water.

They'll be shooting hoops. They'll do the entire thing. Maybe it'll be a perfect fit for Drew Locke. And maybe Drew Locke's story has yet to be told in the NFL. The story today, though, Aaron Rodgers back to Green Bay. Russell Wilson to the Mile High City. Blockbuster trade. Massive re...

Recon Configuration? Recalibration? Reconfiguring? Realignment? Rekindling. Rekindling. Aaron and Green Bay. Sports news is going pretty big right now.

Yeah, it is. Yeah. So Aaron Rodgers goes back to the pack. Now there's an entire source off going on. Oh, yeah. This is awesome. Because I guess this is going to be the biggest news of the offseason, is what everybody's saying?

Yes, without a doubt. Unless Russ gets traded. But, yeah, probably this is. I mean, Russ gets traded. Also, massive. Yeah, that's huge, too. That is huge news. Massive news right there.

But doesn't seem like it's going to hit. Well, it sounds like the Seahawks are actually looking into adding more weapons for Russ in Seattle. And Pete Carroll said, we ain't shopping, Russ. But there continues to be some conversation for whatever reason that Russell Wilson is maybe on the move. So I guess that would be huge. This was something, though, that all eyes were on.

And I know people tweet me and they say, you should just call this show the Aaron Rodgers Show or whatever. And by the way, I hope one day there is an Aaron Rodgers Show because I think it would be pretty good. I mean, I have no idea what he would talk about. I think that would be fascinating just in and of itself. What are the topics that this dude is going to hit on this particular day? But he has been the news.

Like, it's not just us, ESPN, NBC, Fox, everybody. Literally, the conversation was Aaron Rodgers. And every new insider information painted the narrative differently for everybody. There's a lot of people that are saying some very mean shit about Aaron Rodgers on the TV just as of yesterday. This dude's selfish, prima donna.

Obviously he's asking for all the money, but then publicly he's asking for the team to be built around him so they can win. Like there was a lot of shit being said. And now, as we're learning from our source... Sizz. It was like, yeah, I was just... I was just trying to figure out what was honestly the right move.

What a selfish prick. Complete asshole. Is he not? Is he not just a big asshole? I'm surprised he didn't, you know, allegedly ask for $400 million. That's still going, by the way. Oh, yeah. That's all still being talked about.

And I think it's because nobody has any respect for our insider news. Yeah, probably. I think it's because nobody has any respect. But in this particular case, I feel like the sports world knows, like, maybe does have source. Yeah. Has talked to sources like 75 times in the last two years. Publicly. Yeah, publicly.

The whole world has. 75 times more than really anybody else, too. So it's fascinating because once you take that narrative out, the guy's going back to where he wants to be, to a place he always wanted to be. Two years ago draft night before they traded up the draft jordan love after they lost in the nfc championship and decided not to make the team better let's think about the future actually which by the way i do

not think was the only reason why anything happened i think there was a litany of shit that has happened through his decade and a half long career at Green Bay. By the way, most of them not to him. A lot of them to his teammates that he cared about. Coaches that he cared about. How the Packers have just kind of always gone about doing business was something that Aaron, I think, felt like, I'm going to change this for future generations. For actually, by the way, Jordan Love. Jordan Love ends up being, I'm going to say, hey, this ain't how this goes anymore. We're in 2022.

I am obviously a guy that people are going to put on the Mount Rushmore of football. I deserve a little bit of say. And also, you don't have to treat people, you don't have to kick people out the door. You can take care of people on the way out. You can pay people. You can keep people around.

You can make competitive offers so at least people feel as if there wasn't a complete waste of time or energy in Green Bay. And I'm not saying that's exactly what it was this is all just from our sources and our source says and then that as that kind of evolves and change it's like green bay i feel like going forward is going to be a much better operation for the modern day of football i think with the modern athlete and the way things are going in the roster construction where players are going to play with people and like, hey, we're actually trying to put teams together.

I think it is good all around that Aaron's going back there. But the narrative of him being an asshole has just been for so long, I guess people can't get off of it. Yeah, and you know, whether that, like a lot of times too, you know, they probably can't stand half the stuff that he said off the field or whatever, stuff that has nothing to do with football.

But it is interesting because you mentioned it like the Packers really are. I mean, like never before, like they usually don't. I mean, they draft and develop. They don't go out in free agency and get guys. They definitely don't do stuff like this where it's, you know, kicking the can down the road and and basically selling out for a small window of time when you have one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time on your team. It is amazing that that narrative continues to get pushed, too, when you kind of see the relationship between him and the front office,

which is where a lot of this stuff stemmed from. That has basically already been resolved. All right, let's bounce around the internet to the reaction to this whole thing. Here we go. There was a tweet by Sports Center that says, Aaron Rogers has decided he will return to the Packers for the 2022 NFL season a source told Jeremy Fowler

ESPN. Okay. Pat McAfee and NFL Network were first to report the news. Wow. Look at us! Sports Center! Who knew? Wow. This is obviously after ESPN had bottom headlines for all their shows. Oh, yes. Talking about the deal and everything like that. Oh, yeah.

But it is something that everybody probably was trying to figure out. Every insider was trying to learn what was going on in this. I think even like a young Sham Sharania-like insider in the NFL game was trying to learn what was going to do because this is a story that is, you know, going to garner headlines all over the place. And then you think about Aaron's life, everything he does is talked about. Everything he thinks about doing is talked about.

Everybody, everything that people think Aaron is doing gets talked about. So the fact that everybody was, like that's what I'm reading whenever I see, oh, this person was a source, this person was a source, this person was a source, this person was a source. It was like, oh, everybody was like that's what i'm reading whenever i see all this person was source this person was source this person was source this person was source it was like oh everybody was trying to figure out what the fuck was going on and i want to say this with a very straight face i was not i was literally just i did not reach out i did not do anything that's his time his world this is a i mean this is a massive decision for aaron rogers yeah his legacy will be talked about for

this thing is he retiring that would be an entire i mean that's five years from now he's going to the hall of fame now we got to look back on the entire thing if he got to the point last year where he wasn't scared of retirement anymore after the break where he you know kind of removed himself completely from the football world wanted to see what life was for his mental health to figure himself out a little bit more. What if he retired? That would be huge news. Oh, yeah.

So what he has obviously been going through to figure out what the fuck he wanted to do and what the future holds, and everybody else had a timeline for him, I honestly believe he was just trying to figure it out. I tried to respect that. I tried to stay out of that entire thing. But, man, everybody on earth was trying to get this i

guess that's what i'm kind of realizing on the oh yeah for sure and that's what i was gonna say especially like coming off the combine where like how often is it where like all of these people are kind of around and gossiping about the nfl and it's then there's like one story you know everyone is talking about roger so obviously there's probably a shitload of people who think they have a source or someone close to it but i mean i i don't know it's just it's bullshit you know yeah that's awesome well it's awesome that this is the world no yeah for sure i'm pumped i'm pumped that we are able to be a small part of the no that's not fucking real like i am i'm pretty pumped about that because if you think about the modern world welcome to it welcome to it by the way we say that because a parking lot attendant

at 3 a.m in pittsburgh with a rat tail who's about 50 years old fingerless gloves told me he needed my phone number ty's phone number and foxy's phone number to park our car in a parking garage at the hotel and i said that's not gonna happen he said you think I want to do this? Well shit it's not my idea welcome to the modern world! Very much an inside very much an inside this office thing but every time modern world is said it's a home run for all of us so I apologize. He had a good point too. No he did not no he did not because he was telling us about the 90s. He was also watching porn in his office. I would say parking lot attendant at 3 a.m. in the basement,

probably not able to get many other jobs. Right. Anyways, not giving this dude three phone numbers from our group. What are we even talking about? But in the modern world that we currently live in, it's vastly different than what it used to be. Even whenever I was in the NFL, before social media became the biggest thing,

and as we all grew up, and I know the youngs probably don't remember this time, so let me try to paint this image for you. The TV networks used to decide what was the story, how was the story, who's a big deal, who's not a big deal, and who will never get talked about and who should get talked about. So that's why whenever you think about Pro Bowls and all pros from back in the day, they're normally the most popular players, mostly because the media decided, hey, these are going to be the most popular players. I'm not saying none of the most popular players didn't deserve it, but there's a lot of other fucking players in the NFL that are very

good, probably pretty good personalities and never really got an opportunity to showcase that because some executive suit chose not to put them in a chair. Now, with that being said, the people that got put into chairs, whenever they would give takes, their opinions would then become gospel. So if somebody would say something bad about a player who necessarily wasn't in the media, it automatically became church. Hey, this is who it is. And unless that player was to whine and complain to a network to change the narrative, which, by the way, then they would probably be pitched as an asshole, whiny bitch because they're trying to change the narrative. There was no other story getting out except for what they were saying to the masses.

The game coverage was a big deal. That's why the broadcasters are so important, because they were educating people on who was good, who was not good, and nobody got any information from anywhere else. Obviously, as social media has evolved, players were able to say, hey, I am somebody that has a story as well. And I am a person that can say what this has been saying about me

or this person has been saying about me is not true at all. Here's examples. We can watch film on social media. We don't have to go through the networks to tell us what play is important, what player is important. I think that is a massive deal

and i believe in this particular case it might be viewed like 20 30 years from now as a positive for social media and people being able to do their own thing in the world in the modern world that we live in because if that's just reported and we don't have a source says all day just like we thought takes the biggest deal he draws this out he was holding out for negotiation for leverage he's an asshole he's an asshole he's an asshole now people are starting to retract their stories which is very nice of them to do i guess that's journalistic integrity but the fact that that became the running point and we were able to potentially put a little bit of a pause to that like hold the fuck on i think it's pretty cool in the state of media i honestly believe no that's very cool but and also like you said going back to it like like you there's a reason you weren't seeking out i mean

no one else is talking to him like this show and a like kind of this universe the pmi universe but you weren't that guy who was constantly saying like, hey, you know, you're supposed to make a decision today. Throw me a bone here where I feel like even if he doesn't know who's saying stuff, like he knows people are digging. He knows people are digging around him. It's like trying to figure out what's going on. And that is a credit to you that it's like, you know, it's never really been about that.

I'm not an insider. Yeah, exactly. I'm not an insider. I don't like being in the insider waters because when you're in the insider waters, you have to get pissed off about people not giving you credit. Hey, listen. I found this pool we're swimming in right now. Yeah, that's right.

Okay? Don't be talking about the second person that jumped in or the third with false information. Sure. Misinformation. Pee in their pants. Exactly. That's basically what happened. Bob Domofsky writes an article credit to the

nfl network for breaking us down he said he did not put that in there espn sports center gave us love there but all morning paul and cowherd nfl network the nfl network obviously doing that entire thing all running with the 200 million 200 million 200 million 200 million 200 million because they know in that particular vein of take world you can oh asshole yeah selfish prick took way too much money crippling the franchise crippling a franchise held out all the way to the last day for the franchise tag day to see if they would do devante or not i mean it's just this guy continues to one up himself in selfishness and now they're gonna have to cut four of his buddies oh how about it you feel good about it way to go aaron Aaron Rodgers. Brick. That's literally.

Oh, yeah. That's how it is. I can't wait until the afternoon block of shows today. We'll get some grade A takes during that time as well. Well, Orlovsky will hold it down on NFL Live. Oh, yeah. Yeah, he will. People might be talking about him throwing games, though, just so you know.

Who's that? Maybe he should have warranted more money. I should have said Calvin Ridley was throwing throwing game so i watched that highlight about calvin i think he was a joke right he was joking no he was not you think that that guy who put out the tweet was joking he was not joking i thought i was joking well yeah you would think i watched those clips he fucking he was making people miss Because any normal person would be joking if they put out that. But no, that was... Dead serious.

Ocho was dead serious. No way! I think so. Swear to God. I think so. Because remember, he got a pass, had a first down, tried to make a move, actually went back. Yeah, but that was a joke, I thought. First wide receiver in the history to go backwards to try to get more yards.

Yeah, not a joke. Very real. I am so – there's no way you guys are right on this. No. He actually, I believe, doubled down. 100%. A lot of people were like, dude, come on, dude. No way.

Swear to God. Swear to God. He said – if I do recall, the tweet was basically like, I'm not saying Calvin Ridley was throwing games, but here's some footage that's very damning. This is damning evidence. And it was very obviously edited by him. It was terribly edited.

I think it was a quote from someone else. Oh, really? Terribly edited. It was like an OBS. It was an Odell Beckham senior clip, basically, that he put out. It was a couple clips of Calvin Ridley trying to make people miss where he potentially ran backwards. One was for a first down. He had a first down.

Comes back three yards, gets tackled. A follow-up would be, did they get the first down there? I mean, that would be a good follow-up piece of information. Then there was another one where he cuts like a seam, and then he's off and running with two guys, and the guy on his right seems to be catching up to him, so he decides to cut back, make a play, another cut back. He feels like he's a very fidgety runner, which I didn know much about calvin really by the way he had to be joking no

it was dead serious that was all right let's dive into that because we didn't get to yesterday and um the aaron rogers news we'll talk about that again in about 10 minutes with aj hawk what did he know yeah how much did he know you know that whole thing and congrats him being a good friend and not letting anything out i guess He's a steel trap in there. Calvin Ridley yesterday was suspended for at least one year by the NFL because he had been caught gambling on NFL games this past season. Although he was away from the team with mental health situation, which sources have told us very real.

There was some real stuff. The Atlanta Falcons excused it. Calvin Ridley was going through some real things. We don't know what exactly happened. Just sources have told us that it was something very serious. So hopefully everything is figured out in that particular department. He was back in Florida, and it was the weekend that the Falcons were playing the Jacksonville Jaguars. And he made bets up to $1,500.

He had a three-team, a five-team, and an eight-team parlay. He bet $1,500 total. If you listen to his tweet that he came out with afterwards, he doesn't have a gambling problem. I only gambled $1,500. And he made these bets on the Hard Rock Sportsbook app, which I completely forgot about yesterday because, you know, Fando was literally the only one that I even think about. When people say, like, sports gambling is legal, I'm like, oh, Fandle is literally the only one that I'm, I even think about,

when people say like sports gambling is legal, I'm like, oh, Fandle is legal. Oh, mobile sports. Oh, okay. Fandle is legal. Fandle is legal. And by the way, I think a lot of people think like that

because of how damn good Fandle is and what they do. Now their Twitter account, they fucking perpetuated the lie for me and Rappaport is breaking news as well, which is fascinating. Can't be having that. Very fascinating. Bold move. You know, that's very very fascinating um but the entire the entire

thought that calvin ridley put these bets down a company called genius who was hired by the nfl to track basically all the gambling sports books and if any player's name pops up i'd assume i'm not 100 sure i don't know the ins and outs of genius if any player's name pops up i'd assume i'm not 100 sure i don't know the ins and outs of genius if any player's name pops up they are to immediately report it to the nfl then the nfl with because sports gambling is legalized on the hard rock seminal thing down there you're able to track all of that you're able to see exactly what he did how he did uh everything that he bet on for how long he bet on that as well. We assumed it was a bookie. He was gambling with some bookie.

The bookie got caught up and kind of threw him under the bus, like what happened with Pete Rose back in the day. Turns out he was actually doing it regulated, and it was legal, and everything like that. We do not know if he won. We do know that he bet on the Falcons to beat the Jaguars' money line. Smart. Good call.

Good gambler. Smart, smart. We don't three five and eight team parlays uh three okay cool five all right eight is hilarious because he put an amount of money in there 500 600 bucks on it 700 bucks on it and he saw that the payout was 150 000 or something he's like oh my god that's the easiest thing of all time that actually explains me this was his first time doing this. If he does a three parlay, five parlay, 18 parlay, I feel like this was his first time and he was getting his first experience of,

oh my God, I know this is going to happen. It takes 500, I get this. I personally, just from outside looking in. With that being said, he knew he wasn't allowed to play on that. I assume the NFL told him they had this genius app working that if your name pops up on any of these things, they will be flagged, tracked, and sent to the NFL immediately.

And remember that if you gamble on NFL games, you will be punished very, very harshly. There's a lot of people saying because the NFL has a deal with sports books and because how sports gambling is becoming more legalized, there's still 30 some states that don't have sports gambling legalized. Wild. Okay. So you got to remember that back in the day, not so long ago, like four years ago, five years ago, players weren't even allowed to speak for alcohol. Alcohol was legal everywhere for a very, very, very long time. So whenever you think about the NFL with sports gambling, they were profiting off the alcohol for a long time, by the way.

The players weren't able to do it. So whenever you think about the NFL with sports gambling, although it is growing and although they're doing business with it, which we all have seen in the world, we've seen enough commercials to drive us all fucking insane and by the way all the ones that we thought were terrible commercials and weren't working they weren't you know yeah whenever you're watching them and going like oh does that would that make me want to gamble on that particular sport probably not i guess it's a nice piece of entertainment there but i don't

know if i'm gambling there we were right that people were not gambling on a lot of those sites i mean that is how that whole thing goes but i do not believe there is a time in any recent near future 20 30 40 years that you will find any league okay not just the nfl any professional league okay with their players being associated with a sports book or gambling or anything like that I know a lot of people are saying like take it easy a year suspension is so much longer than other wrongs that have been dealt with by the NFL and by the way I agree completely with what you are saying there's a lot of things that have not gotten the harshest of punishments that it has deserved. Justice has not been served in the world so many times in the NFL as well. But any time you think a player is potentially gambling or associated with gambling, it's going to ruin it for everybody. The people that are gambling, the people that are playing, the leagues don't want it. The people that are gambling the people that are playing the leagues don't want it the

people that are gambling don't want it that integrity and the thought that this is clean sport clean competition battling it out with zero affiliations to anybody will always be what the NFL will grandstand upon to ever allow a player have a deal with any sports book I just think that is going to be the case for a long time. And I know a year, a whole season sounds absurd, 17 games, $11 million. But we all know that in the fantasy land, we don't want people to be made examples of. In fantasy land, we want everybody to be punished exactly on what the crime that they did. But in reality, Everybody would be punished exactly on what the crime that they did.

But in reality, examples are made. In reality, things take place to set precedent that, hey, if this ever fucking happens again, this is what's going to take place because the NFL wants nothing to do, nothing to do with the thought that the players could be compromised by sports gambling, which is going to become a massive business. Now, I saw a great tweet from DeMario Davis. He said, oh, so now the integrity is being questioned because Calvin Ridley, who wasn't playing in the games, was gambling on sport. He was hired by an NFL team, though, and he's in the NFL.

There's some things that for a long time you had to wait until you were retired that you could do. Smoking weed is one of them. Now, I don't know what the rules are. Obviously, guys probably aren't smoking still, but there are things you're not allowed to do whenever you're a professional athlete, when you're in the NFL. Sports gambling just so happens to be one of them. And he was away from the team, so he could have forgot about that. He could have been getting loose, trying to get his mind back right and everything like that. I am not, by the way, as somebody that started sports gambling when I retired, I i love it i thought my brain was great

for it in the nfl i've made money it's awesome demario davis though came out and said so players are suspended whole seasons for betting on games but when there are rumors about a team's owner paying coaches to lose games we supposed to act like we don't see that somebody help me i'm asking for a friend valid yeah very very valid which is why the brian flores situation was so big because god damn if we got teams tanking in the nfl in programs trying to lose then it's not fair sport it's not fair competition especially with the billions billions of dollars that's being wagered upon every single game. So I think the integrity of the league will be something that the NFL will grandstand upon forever. All leagues will grandstand upon, by the way. Tim Donahue almost killed the fucking NBA.

People still bring it up whenever something happens in the NBA. Oh, it's rigged. The refs are doing this. The refs are doing this. And all those things are going to have to continue to get looked upon, looked into. But Roger Goodell is making a statement here. That's exactly what this is.

And as the world continues to turn in the sports gambling world, he's just got to hope and pray. Refs, coaches, players. This is something they've been scared of. There's signs all over every single facility.

And I believe that's why the year-long punishment was made and why the year-long punishment probably by a lot of people was like, yeah, that's going to stay a problem. Yeah, you have to do it almost because if you you don't make an example of this guy this is the type of thing where like that it could be compromised quickly like if they if he gets a

two-game suspension suspension like who gives a fuck you know i mean like you could get games compromised that way because guys like if they see that this is what happens if you do this shit it's it's not gonna happen again or if it does it's going to be far less likely now aaron has tweeted hey everyone just wanted to clear some things up yes i will be playing with the packers next year however reports about me signing a contract are inaccurate as are the supposed terms of the contract i. I'm very excited to be back. Flex, hashtag year 18. A little hard. A little hard out there.

You know what I mean? He's doing this one right here. I love you guys. Love. Love you, 12. Love you guys. Once again, this prima donna put out a tweet explaining his situation.

What an asshole this guy is. By the way, very nice of him to allow me to break the news earlier. Do you think now are people going to start retracting this stuff officially or no? Like more people? Nope. Or do you think it's still, eh, fuck it. No way, dude. No way.

And the general public, like AJ said earlier, that number's already in their head. He's making $50 million, no matter what it is. People just hear the number. Aaron Rodgers is getting $200 million tomorrow. That's all they hear. And even the people who aren't necessarily against him getting that, like the business people out there, like, hey, good deal for Aaron to get $200 million.

And then that leads to somebody else going, but I thought he wanted a better team around him. That conversation just happens now. Everywhere. Yeah. leads to somebody else going, but I thought he wanted a better team around him. That doesn't sound... That conversation just happens now. Everywhere. Everywhere. So even the people that don't necessarily talk about hating the deal or anything like that,

they're still talking about the number out there because it is huge. And by the way, probably worth more than that. Yeah. If you start looking at the numbers that people are getting, the amount of money that's dumping in

to the NFL, with Apple about to get on board, Amazon already on board, Facebook's probably going to get in game. Why wouldn't Netflix or Google get involved as well if the other members of Fang are getting involved in the biggest league in the world? It's probably worth more than that. But the whole narrative is that this is all this guy wanted. And that narrative is one of an asshole who is literally holding a franchise hostage with his decision.

That paints that entire image. I'm done with it. I don't like it. Yes. Do I view him as a friend? I think so. I don't think we're like the closest of friends. I'm nowhere near as close to him as AJ. But I think we're like the closest of friends. We don't talk. I'm nowhere near as close to him as AJ,

but I think we're a friendly, positive. If this was happening to your friend and from the person, you know, and what the person did for you and you saw this and it was all blatant bullshit. Would you not want to, would you not want to say like,

Hey, this is bullshit. So like, I feel like that is something that I have to do. Like I have to do, I have to say it because I just don't think it's – I think it's bullshit. I honestly believe it's bullshit, AJ. Yeah, I think it's good.

I mean, obviously you're saying it's a lot better than Aaron coming out and trying to defend himself. And I think you definitely are affected more than he is by all of this chatter. I think he's used to having that surrounding his whole life at all times. But going back to the deal. Hey, being friends with this guy is exhausting right yo listen you fucking ass stop talking about this dude like that he is he not proved he's not like that i need to just kind of figure out how to bury i've always naturally been that human i think need to bury that and suppress that and just understand that

aaron's a different beast for whatever reason. That's all right. It's all right. You can keep it. It's fine. I think it's justified what you're doing. But when they talked about this supposed contract that he was going to sign, they were hyping it up before saying, oh, a potential market-altering QB deal is going to change the QB market. Well, yeah, of course, any deal that a quarterback signs is going to be a market-altering deal, correct?

Like that's the next highest paid dude. Yeah, unless you're getting drafted, that's it. And we talked about this earlier, how the rookie contract is such a weapon for teams, for the quarterback position more specifically, because once you pay, if the guy is good, you don't have to pay him as much because you just drafted him. You're going to have to pay him in a couple years, and it's going to be hard to build a team around him as you go forward, having to pay him whatever percentage of the salary cap.

I actually thought whenever the Los Angeles Rams had Jared Goff on his rookie contract and they first went all in with players all around Jared Goff, I actually started openly talking about how, oh, this is the new model. This is the new model. They're going to get a rookie quarterback that can complete the passes, just complete the passes, and then they're going to spend all of the money around the quarterback. And then when that quarterback's up for a new contract,

all right, thank you for your service. Go into free agency. We need to find another young guy that can complete passes for us, and we'll be able to load with vets around. I thought that was going to become like a thing because every quarterback that is good in the NFL, once they hit their contract, they're going to take a big old bite out of your salary cap.

It's going to be the biggest bite because they're the most important position in the NFL. Aaron's going to get paid. It's going to get paid. But the announcement of the number and the narrative of the number is building that that was strictly what he was looking for when he did an entire book club aj an entire fucking book club basically you know about like it doesn't matter though you know anyone what you have it's about anyone that wants that narrative though they probably haven't checked into it a whole lot they haven't really they just see read headlines or see little clips here and there which you can't exactly blame

them for. I mean, that's how, with different things that's, everyone's guilty of that at times. But if you have like a super strong argument all against it and you haven't looked into everything he's been saying and doing, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. I gotta suppress it though. I gotta stop. Yeah, that is

how. By the way, Connor, I want to let you know, if somebody was saying that about you, it's the same thing. Yeah. They'd how. By the way, Conor, I want to let you know, if somebody was saying that about you, same thing. Yeah, they'd probably be right, though. But I do appreciate that. Well, yeah, depending on what you did, too, by the way. If you did something, I would be like, well, actually valid. Valid what you did. Aaron Rodgers Tuesday was birthed that way because you were like,

hey, why don't you ever want to get any sort of. Gumpy put out the live video whenever I did the journalism 101 thing. And Gumpy tweets out all the videos. Anytime I'm live on a screen, Gumpy is the one that's a part of the ripping of the clips and tweeting out the clips of the process. So I always

enjoy looking back and seeing how he describes what he is putting out. I enjoy that a lot because sometimes it's a quote directly. Sometimes it's like an overall gist of what's being put out there Like, I enjoy that a lot because sometimes it's a quote directly. Sometimes it's like an overall gist of what's being put out there. And Gumby, by the way, incredible at the internet.

Very, very lucky that Gumby does that. He says, for far too long, narratives about Aaron Rodgers have gone unchecked. That's the perfect way to describe it. It's like all these stories have basically gone on for like a decade and a half,

completely unchecked, just like, yep, let it go, let it grow. And just like a snowball, those things, they just continue to grow. And that is literally what I told him while we were getting rather intoxicated at a golf course in the Bahamas. It's like, yo, can we not just like, I don't know if you've, have you always been an asshole and like recently you're not just like, I don't know if you've, have you always been an asshole? And like recently you're not an asshole. But whatever the case, we need to let people know that either all the way from the beginning you're kind of getting bamboozled with the stories.

Or like, I feel like people would love Aaron Rodgers. And I think that has happened. But there's still those people that want to fucking bury them every time. And this is a cool decision he just made going back to the green bay it's going to be a cat friendly deal like i want to do this this is kind of something i've been talking about for a year and a half but obviously with the situation maybe i didn't want to play anymore like is that something i'm allowed to think about or i'm not allowed to think about that or you know you know you have to do it exactly how

people think you should handle the situation. Alright, I'm done with it. I'm not talking about Aaron Rodgers ever again. I'm done with it completely. Russell Wilson traded to Denver. What a fucking day! Team 3 for sure, dude.

They're not going to change the team. Who had 3? Drew Luck. Trading 3s. Team 3 in Seattle, stick around for team three Drew Luck. That makes sense. That is... Was that part of the deal with Denver? Team three needs to be welcome everywhere.

Or probably, by the way. He probably gets his own little... They'll probably build him his own little area for team three to be in. Just like Tom had with TB12. That'll probably happen. That was a closet, though.

What if Seattle Seahawks were like, hey, Russ, we'll trade you, but Team 3 has got to continue to work for us. I don't know if that'd be the case. I think he would have vetoed it. True. Team 3 goes where 3 goes. And 3's going to where our previous 3 just left. The Denver Broncos.

Hell yeah. What a wild Tuesday. Cheers, see you tomorrow. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Outro Music សូវាប់បានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបានបា Thank you. Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah

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