The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 651 - DRAFT SPECTACULAR EVE, Matt Ryan In Studio, Shams Charania, Joel Klatt, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: April 27, 2022

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys sift through all of the smoke screens as we are officially one day away from the DRAFT SPECTACULAR which will be live on youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow at 8 PM EST tomorrow night. Joining the progrum to chat about the NBA Playoffs, to break some news about Steph Curry, why Ja Morant is such a DAWG, where Brooklyn and Ben Simmons go from here, and chat about who he thinks is going to win the NBA Championship is NBA Insider for Stadium and The Athletic (29:14-47:24). Next, Fox Sports Lead College Football Analyst and Color Commentator, member of the NFL Network Draft show, former Colorado Quarterback and Minor League baseball phenom, Joel Klatt joins the show to chat about who to trust this time of year, what he's been hearing about the top of the draft, and which player might surprise everyone and go earlier than we thought (1:01:12-1:08:59). Later, 2016 NFL MVP, 4x Pro Bowler, #3 pick of the 2008 NFL Draft, Quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, Matt Ryan joins Pat in studio to discuss his career in Atlanta, when he knew he was probably on the move, the homework he did on the Colts and their roster before deciding on them, how the Super Bowl loss still drives him, what he's learned throughout his career thus far, and much more in an incredible interview (1:35:46-2:23:13). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show, and listen 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 Wednesday, April 27th, and we are currently in the eve of the Draft Spectacular, and life is good! Yeah! Can't thank you enough for joining us here at YouTube.com forward slash The Pat McAfee Show. All eyes, all eyes are on tomorrow night's Draft Spectacular. We know it's going to be a six-hour show. We have no idea what's going to happen during it. We have special surprise guests. We have big giveaways.

And we have been prepping for this for at least the last 48 hours. Yeah, at least. This is big for our show. This is big for our company. We've actually started looking into this so we can enjoy this Draft Spectacular as opposed to the social experiment that the D spectacular has been in years past normally the first year we did the draft spectacular two years ago um we didn't know well i never watched the first round of the draft i realized as we're live and the show just dragged on for six hours we were not prepared no no a lot

of people watched we appreciated everybody watching but it became almost like a uh car crash train wreck situation why people watch last year we were in the living room at tampa bay that's right that thing we prepared a little bit more for but once again we forgot food right and we also forgot how long the fucking draft is yes and what time it actually starts this year we are pros this year we are veterans of the game that's right this year we know that we have been prepared for a 10-hour show if need be because this particular draft it sounds like and this point was mentioned yesterday every single team is going to take the maximum amount of time available which is 10 minutes because it sounds like every single team is looking to trade out of the first round so that means every pick is going to is 10 minutes, because it sounds like every single team is looking to trade out of the first round. So that means

every pick is going to be 10 minutes. You do some quick math. There's 32 teams, let alone a 20-minute build-up. That's 320 minutes plus at least another 30 on top of that. We're looking at 350 minutes tomorrow. Wow. Six hours, just about.

Let's go. It's a marathon. Big giveaways that we're going to be giving away a lot. You know? Come on. Big giveaways, though. We're going to be giving away a lot. And also, we are going to introduce something this year that we haven't done in years past, which was just sitting there so obvious. This year, we will introduce the PMS FanDuel Fan Cam, which will be reactions around Twitter from fans of their team's draft picks. If it's good enough to make it on the show, you get $500.

Wow. Here we go. We have other big giveaways. We're going to be giving away things like massage chairs and Oculus. What? Yeah, like things like that throughout the entire evening. You know, whenever things get a little dry, which happens a lot during the draft. Boom, let's give something away.

We got shit on deck. Hell yeah. We obviously announced that Aaron Rodgers is going to be on. That's right. We announced this yesterday that Chris Ballard is going to be on. Sure. That's right. I'm here to announce another one of our guests.

Okay. Whoa. No, because then they're not surprise guests if I announce everybody. Yeah. Because you've got to announce everybody. Half and half. Half and half. Half and half.

Okay. Maybe. Maybe more than half. We're going into a couple different war rooms, though. And everybody needs to be pumped up. I'm very pumped up about that. Darius Butler will be live in the studio. AJ Hawk will be in his attic in Ohio because he didn't prepare for the third straight year to be on.

Per usual. He's the worst. What's his problem? I don't know. He absolutely blows, probably. He's not a champion of the draft spectacular at all. That's right. He's a bad gambler.

He's almost like he's embarrassed of the draft spectacular. That's why he wants to be over it. It does seem like that. He doesn't want to be with us and celebrate with us. We'll ask him about that in the second hour. First hour today, we got Sean Sharanya. Second hour today, alongside A.J. Hawk, we got Joel Klott from Fox and the

NFL Network's draft coverage. He calls games all fall alongside Gus Johnson. They are great in the booth together. College football is college football. It's a much different game than NFL football. Obviously, the much different game than NFL football. Obviously, the atmospheres are electrifying. Gus and Joel call it great college football.

They do. Oh, yeah. I would assume they do great in the NFL as well. I don't think I've ever heard them. Heard Gus on the NBA. He crushed it. Gus and Joel are a tag team that the football world is very thankful for. And Joel makes his PMS show debut today.

Yeah. There you go, Joel. I've never met this guy. Okay. I've never met this guy. I've had zero interactions with him. I'm not even sure he knows who I am or I know anybody that he knows. I assume we've encountered a couple people, but I know nothing about this guy. I can't wait to chat with him. I'm excited for that, too.

Like you said, I think they're one of the few booths that actually do enhance the product. Especially when you're watching the Big Ten. I'm juiced up if Joel Klatt and Gus Johnson are calling an Iowa game. Bingo. That means it's a big game and it'll feel like a big game. Right.

Which is really the only thing that matters. And then in the third hour live in the studio right there, Matt Ryan. I guess this is not his first interview since becoming a Colt.

Obviously he had his press conference and some other things, but I have not heard him speak much, so that's 100% on me for not doing enough research. I got a lot of questions for old Matty Ice.

That's going to be sitting right here. The first thing I'm going to let him know is how thankful I am that he's an Indian. Thank you, Matt. That's right. I'm going to make sure he feels the love immediately upon walking in this studio. Nice, man. Like, hey, thank you for wearing that suit. Thank you for acting the way you act.

Thank you for being the way you are. And thank you for taking this cold seat in this suit, boy. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. Now, with you for taking this Coliseum to the Super Bowl. Thank you, Matt. Appreciate it. Now, with that being said, let's talk a little shop here. Yeah. Jonathan Taylor, what did he tell me about him? But I am excited to talk to Matt Ryan.

There's a lot that has happened in his entire career. At what point did he know he was done in Atlanta? You know, that's a big decision, especially somebody that was that deep into the trenches of the community and the city and the team and the fabric, basically, of Atlanta. Matt Ryan was kind of weaved into all of that. At what point did he realize it was over, and how often

did his wife ask, like, what is Indianapolis like? Like, are we going from Atlanta to fucking Indianapolis? Is that a conversation or not? Just all those things I'm excited to hear about. Also, your phone calls on the 5RNG phone line, 1-833-4MACFE. We'll chit-chat with everybody. Tomorrow's show, noon to 2 here.

YouTube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show. Then we will all get home and continue or get out of here and continue our preparation for the Draft Spectacular, which is our biggest show every single year. It would be cool if it wasn't, though. Yeah. Like, if tomorrow does terribly, that'd be great because we won't have to do a fourth one.

That's awesome. Here's Zatone Diggs, one half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys, you love the draft, have always loved the draft, look forward to the draft, actually pumped up about the draft without the draft spectacular being a thing. You. Yeah, before I came out to Indy, prior five years previous to that, I attended a draft night spectacular party with coworkers for the five years previous to that.

It wasn't spectacular. It was just a draft standard. Getting boozed up. Yeah, yeah. Ours is a draft spectacular. That's right. There's a draft standard party. Draft standard party.

So, yeah, I mean. Standard draft party. Standard draft party. It was probably a lot more fun than ours because they're not on camera the entire time. We are on camera. Not performing, just enjoying the event. Yeah, we are being watched. As if we are in a zoo.

Love the draft. Why? I don't know. Percentages say these guys aren't going to work. Probably first and foremost, it's an NFL event. So, like, automatically checks a box there. I enjoy, like, I like college football, so then this is the next step there's fucking

glitz there's glamour you get to see everybody and there's Rogers there you get to be happy for everybody everyone's positive every team well not every team because you know could trade up like for a quarterback when you have like a Hall of Famer and MVP and so not everybody's

happy but a lot of people are happy like a lot of people have optimism I like that it's a feel good affair the draft spectacular has been terrible for Taj Schmidt you just referenced it like personally professionally it's been great I want to let everybody know time might have his best performance yet by far might much I mean we'll

see we'll see we'll see find out tomorrow this has been fun though this has been like enjoyable I. This has been enjoyable. I was actually up rather late last night just thinking about the draft spectacular because there's been a lot of other stuff going on in our world. Obviously, our show, everything is just like day-to-day. Let's just do what's in front of us.

I've talked about this. I'm not a chess player. I'm a checkers player. What's right in front of us, let's go ahead and accomplish it. I try to live in the moment as much as possible no matter what I'm doing. If I'm doing business, I try to be all in in in that particular call let's go ahead and make this thing happen if i'm doing wwe i try to be all in wwe let's enjoy this moment as much as possible let's give it everything when we're doing the show same exact thing so the forethought is not necessarily my bread and butter it's like i

want to be right here it's draft spectacular i feel like we've really put some thought into and that might be to our, you know, demise. Because we never do that. This might be like the Halloween party where all of our cameras crashed. Oh, yeah. Right? Just, what was that?

Ten minutes before the show started. That was brutal. It was the first thing we ever really prepared for in this show's history. And it went down. But I think Draft Spectacular is going to be pretty neat. Ty, you've got to be looking forward to this, pal. I mean, I've already seen some of you from draft spectacular,

and I'll tell you, you've got to be looking forward to tomorrow night. Oh, yeah. Always am. I mean, like you said, we don't really – I mean, the show is every single day, but we don't really have anything on the calendar where you circle year after year where it's like, okay, you know exactly what you're getting into. You know what the expectations are. You know what you have to do.

And then actually having your team potentially have an impactful night in the draft is kind of just a little bonus. So it really is. It's kind of like a performance at the start, and because the Packers are usually back there, then your butthole tuckers up a little bit, and it's like get ready for the pick, and you just hope they don't just rip your heart out, which they kind of have the last two years. Last year, not so much. It was more so Rodgers leaving. But, you know, and then already we're hearing, hey, Waller's not going to be going there.

Debo's probably going somewhere else. So it's like, all right, well, let's lock in on the draft picks. It was just like four days ago. Yeah, exactly. Four days ago, Darren, Waller was maybe coming in. Debo was maybe a packer. Life was so good for Ty. And then this morning, new sources.

Well, Debo's probably going to the Jets. If he is going to be moved, he's going to go to the Jets. They are going to put a very aggressive offer on the table because Bob Sala loves the guy, and they need him. They absolutely need somebody like him, so they're going to get aggressive, especially in that AFC East who's been making all the moves. And then Darren Waller, holy hell, this guy's going to be moved for a second round draft. That's it?

He's going to be a backer for a second round draft? Can't wait. And then Derek Carr says nah, and then more reports are coming out. Darren Waller's not going anyway. Raiders are disinclined to acquiesce that request. Tony. I've been reading the dictionary.

Spectacular week. Jeremy Fowler used acquiesce and I only know that because Captain Barbosa said that to Elizabeth Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean. Shout out Johnny Depp. Johnny Depp's really putting his best performance forward right now. He is.

That is funneling through everybody's social media accounts right now. At some point, you have seen Johnny Depp make a hysterical comment while under oath testifying about himself. That's right. In the last four or five days. Or laughing at her lawyer for objecting his own statement. Or fucking with her lawyer for being, yeah. Absolute doofus. Here's that.

Absolute. Go on. Objection. There it is. The witness on the stand, too. A couple of him looking, saying, well, he did tell me. Objection. Okay, thank you.

That lawyer, he's normally these television lawyers that get on TV and do a case. Their careers go like this. Oh, yeah. I feel like Amber Heard's lawyer. Probably. This is his last case. Is this the first guy that's ever lost an entire he lost his entire bar he is there he objected himself yesterday i mean he is just stumbling and fumbling all over

imagine being a lawyer though jumping into like that like legit shitty situation like they lost they lost already like that lawyer has no chance. Well, you know. The jury loves Johnny. Well, the entire setup. I mean, you got to remember, Johnny Depp's life was just completely taken. Oh, yeah. What seems like is a complete lie now that we're watching it all unfold.

And that lawyer, he was coming in guns blazing, probably telling all his lawyer friends going in this trial, wait till you see what I do. Oh, just bury him. Wait till you see what I do. Oh, it's a barium. Wait till you see what I do. Jack Sparrow's fucked. That dude's going back to like, what's the lower level of legalese? What are those?

Paralegal. It's no bad to be the paralegalist guy. Anyways. Good luck out there. Why would they trade Darren Waller? They have two years left, 6.8 million and like 7 million or whatever, two deals.

And although Darren Waller can't be happy about the amount of money he's getting paid, especially with how big of a focal point They have two years left, $6.8 million and $7 million or whatever, two deals. Although Darren Waller can't be happy about the amount of money he's getting paid, especially with how big of a focal point he's been on the offense. Of the offense, for the last couple years, every primetime game, he gets the ball every single game. The Raiders probably are like, hey, we're not moving on from you yet. Hold on. If we had one year left, maybe. Now we're not going to do it, which stinks for the Packers,

stinks for the Colts for sure. But once again, it feels like everything we're hearing this week is all fugazi. Yeah. And we have to remember that. Everything's a lie. Two days ago, it was allegedly reported that the Jaguars aren't thinking about Aiden Hutchinson or Trevon Walker. It's actually icky.

At NC State, they're thinking about taking a tackle. It's nothing that we have heard. You know, it feels like it's going to end up coming true. And this is the last two years of the Draft Spectacular we experienced is where we were like, hey, next year we've got to remember. Like, everything's bullshit. Yes. Next year we've got to remember everything's bullshit.

Mack Jones is going three overall. Yeah, should have been. I mean, that was locked in since literally Alabama Pro Day when John Lynch and Shanahan traded all the two first rounders and another one to go up to number three overall. Zach Wilson was already locked in. Trevor was already locked in or whatever. It's like Mac Jones is going to three overall to San Francisco.

What happens at four? That was like the conversation. For two months, it was just locked in, basically. Boom, month and a half, Mac Jones going to San Francisco. Then literally morning of, we're the ones that change the entire, like, no, that's not the case. And that changes everything for the entire draft. And I think we're staring at that yet again,

especially with all the unknowns of this year. Connor, this year, I mean, we don't know any of the fucking people in the draft. I mean, Mitt is going to put out his 5.0, his fifth and final mock today. We're going to go through that at some point. And he's got $20,000 on the line. If his mock is more accurate, and we did find a scoring system if his walk is more accurate than the other main mocks make its 20 grand Wow okay this is a big couple days here for mitt yeah this is a big deal for mitt

obviously he just bought a Mustang probably looking to buy another one right maybe a couple more fancy Jays for sure yeah he's gonna be he'll spend that 20 grand before he even gets it but he would like to earn that he has quite a shake-up in his fucking mock draft as well and it's like mitt who are you talking to and he's just trying to get a read of everything there is nothing concrete it feels like about this draft at all no i feel like all three of the top picks like no matter who it is one of uh one of them is going to trade back like if everyone's trying to trade back you got to think there's at least one once again we don't know if that's true no yeah everybody's trying to trade back that could mean that everybody's trying to

trade up yeah this is like we're watching a poker game play we're watching people and we don't know the cards we're watching people make plays leverage plays that might be a month and a half in process like now seattle hasn't even talked to anybody allegedly seattle hasn't talked to anybody and they're doing and it'll come out on draft night like they actually did that on purpose because they didn't want anybody to think that they were interested that's why they took blah blah blah like there's a chance that that happens and it always makes sense afterwards but leading up to it it's tough to get a good grasp on things. Yeah, before the show, I was like, what if just no quarterbacks get drafted in the first round?

What happens if every single team is like, you know what? One of these guys is going to be there in the second round. Let's just keep passing on them, keep passing on them. The Panthers, this whole entire time, have been talked about like, hey, they're a lot. They're going to take a quarterback. And now in the past couple days, it's like, actually, they're probably going to take a tackle

and then see what falls to them later in the draft. I mean, the three months since the season ends or since January when college football ends has just been all this talk about these top guys. And now we have no idea the day before because everybody might take the exact opposite of what we thought they were going to take. If no quarterbacks were taken, by the way, that would be exactly what they were saying like two months ago.

Exactly. Two months ago, all these quarterbacks were terrible. None of them are that physically imposing. I guess some of them have good arms or not good experience. There's no reason to waste a number one overall on any of these quarterbacks. And then free agency comes and goes, and there's a couple teams that still need a quarterback, and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

Yeah. All of a sudden, this guy, he's got a little bit more vascularity than we thought. Put this fucking ball in your hands. Hey, he's spending that pigskin, boy. But if none of them go, that would be what was said two months ago. And I think as we continue to roll into Draft Spectacular 4, Draft Spectacular 5,

we have to continue to remember when is the most accurate time of the entire draft process. Is it a month and a half ago before free agency? Is it immediately afterwards? When is the most accurate draft analysis happening? And when does Fugazi start? Or is that immediately happening as soon as the season is over? You would think that would be accurate,

like soon as the college football season's over. Which Thibodeau, right? Yeah. Thibodeau is number one overall in January. I'll tell you what, I've been watching some tape on the guys just so I have some information. Thank you for that, by the way, because there will be 18, maybe 20 picks probably tomorrow night where not a single one of us will know the person's name, position, or where they came from.

No clue. And that won't just be me. That'll be AJ won't have a clue. Darius does a little draft analysis. So Darius might know. You guys certainly won't fucking know. Nobody back there will know. So we automatically all kind of look at Ton like,

Ton, do you know who this guy is? And sometimes you don't have a fucking clue. Sometimes, yeah. But like Thibodeau and Hutchinson, I think they might be better players than Walker. It might go number one. Who knows? But looking at the quarterbacks i

saw a graph this week that the first quarterback taken in the last 20 years was either in the top three or there wasn't a quarterback taken until like after 18 i think like tony analytics so if like if history suggests anything if they don't go in the top three they're not going to go until the bottom half of the first round the first first quarterback. I can't wait for the drafts. Yeah. That's right. Detroit. Detroit's in the best position.

It feels like they can take a guy at two and then they can wait to see who falls at 32. Yeah. And they could trade out at two too. Yeah. They can act like they want a quarterback or want somebody. They can trade out of there. Or they can take Hutchinson and bring the Michigan guy back home.

If he's not taking number one overall, which he was by the way, number one overall for two months straight. Yeah. Yeah. So none of it. Why is everybody? Why you always lie. If he's not taking number one overall, which he was, by the way, number one overall for two months straight. So none of it. Why is everybody? Why you always lying? Why you always lying?

All these NFL team bullshit and lying. Why is everybody lying, Foxy? I don't know, but that feels like the only no-brainer of the draft. If Hutchinson is available at two, the Lions will take him. I think we can all agree on that one. Yeah, you've got to keep them guessing. Hopefully. If MCDC does the predictable thing, is he still MCDC? That's a good point.

And what if someone else loves ball more than anybody else in the draft? Then they go, too. There's been a lot of people come. Aiden Hutchinson's athleticism has been questioned. I think mostly because he is a white. Yeah. A he's everybody's just kind of put a cap on his athleticism. And that has been a thing that the Aiden Hutchinson camp has been trying to combat. I think that's why you heard Harbaugh come out and say his three cone is literally faster than any other human that's ever done it.

Then you hear some other people like this guy is a freak specimen athlete. I don't know why it's being talked about that. Aiden is hearing all this as well. And if Aiden's going to be the guy that Bobby Carpenter said yesterday he's going to come in for 10 years, if you can get a guy that you know is going to be a lock, is that who you want to spend your first round pick on? Yes. That's what I think so too, but I guess Balky has a big upside.

What's upside? We can get the best player potential and we don't have to pay him a lot. Especially when you're the Lions and you've fucked up past draft picks. You just take the guy that's a lock and you keep it moving and everyone's happy. Well, that's what you're saying, but the Lions. Yeah, and with the Jags, if they take a D-line and they already have Josh Allen on the other side, how great does the guy have to be immediately? So if they are looking for a project and if Walker is technically that guy,

you already have another D end on the other side that can make plays and you don't have to be the guy. I feel like if Hutchinson goes to Detroit, he has to be the guy on the D line right away. And Mick can echo this sentiment because he grew up in a coach's house or whatever. Potential will get your ass fired. That's like

the biggest disagreement between the coaching staff and the biggest uh i think disagreement between the coaching staff and like the front office of nfls because the front office of nfls are normally the ones making decisions on drafts and they're like uh the coaches ask questions like hey why do we take this guy this guy well he has the potential to be uh blah blah blah and then one year passes hasn't hasn't clicked yet two year passes hasn't clicked Well, that coach hasn't got this player to the potential that the front office thought it was. We can probably move this coach out and let's get somebody else in there.

Where a lot of these coaches are like, can we not get a guy who's maybe a good football player already and then we can make him a little bit better? And it's that fine balance of who has the zoomed-out view of five years from now what this player could be, where the coaches are trying to save their job this year and be the best they can be this year. That's why the draft adds so many extra elements of emotion and drama

because it's like there's going to be pissed off fans. There's going to be pissed off coaches in buildings. They can't say shit, by the way. They'll say, hey, we'll give you the players. We will give you the players. Even though the coaches say, you're not going to ask a chef to cook with ingredients that he doesn't get to pick. Why are you asking us to coach players that we have no say in or whatever?

And it's like, well, you just got to do that. There's so much drama in the draft, so much drama. And just like I mentioned Tony analytics earlier, stats tell us that all these dudes, most of these dudes are going to stick. Most of these dudes are not going to pan out, which is tough. We don't like that. We don't like that that's the case, but that is the case. And when you just look at like previous drafts where like that was kind of the thought like colin farrell was the fourth overall pick to the raiders and he was all you know potential and then they picked max

crosby in the third round and he blows everybody away because he was kind of a guy and that's also why it's awesome being a patriots fan because you know you know if they're drafting someone he's either a guy or he's going to come in and get unbelievable coaching by bill like kyle duggar who was the d2 safety who got drafted in the second round they traded out of the first round for had like a okay start in the first season but like by season two you know he's going to come in have all the knowledge be kind of more experienced and be very good which he was this year like if you're one of those teams in the top three how are you going to get like draft potential when you need to get a guy immediately or else you're going to be picking in the top three next year again that is so interesting because your team stinks right now Patriots don't think they got time yeah exactly

Patriots got a roster that hey we can develop some guys we can hope that this guy will be able to take over this legend that we're going to force out all right that's what the Patriots think once this legend we're going to force them out. Only with quarterbacks, not with any other team. No, basically every other team. Bruski, Vinatieri. I mean, there's a long history. No, no, no. Don't even get into it.

There's a long history of running people out of town. Bruski needed to call it, okay? Everyone was worried about his health. I think that was, you know, a team. I mean, the Patriots own the media network that you guys are hearing all your news from. Richard Seymour, Vince Wolff, Randy Moss. Willie, I think. Willie got pushed. Willie. McGinnis. This is what you guys are hearing all your news from richard seymour vince wolf or willie i think willie got pushed willie mcginnis this is what you guys do really didn't get pushed out why ain't nobody pushing willie anywhere by the way i see no motherfucker he's still as big as that goddamn door that's right and a lot of times it comes down to the money because these

guys you know they have their best years in new england and they deserve to get paid but unfortunately you try to trade them gronronk, I mean, he retired. So you guys force out everybody. But you guys have the patience, though. I'm going to get this player. We're going to coach him up. We're going to make him better. Then whenever this player, who's really good,

who's done a lot for us, and we're not grateful for it all, but when this player gets to a point where he's like, you know what, I'd like to get paid, we're going to go, oh, cool, because this fucking fifth rounder, boom, will kind of take over your spot. That's what the Patriots have been able to do.

That's why 20 years of success happens, by the way. That's why the dynasty happens, because they have almost like a feeder system. The teams up in the top who have been there, Jacksonville has picked number one overall two years in a row, and there's no sense of that slowing down. No, yeah, it really does seem like the philosophy should be flipped around. It's the same deal with the Packers or the Steelers. Most of the time when they're picking a guy,

I mean, you don't count Jordan Love recently, but that guy is going to end up probably being an impact player or he's going to see significant snaps the next year as opposed to where he could go somewhere else and be a guy the entire year, but they're projecting it like, oh, well, this guy, he has the potential to be incredible in the next two, three, yeah, three to four years.

But all those guys in the back half of the draft typically are guys who are making an impact right away. So a thing I learned my rookie year with the Colts, and West Virginia, we didn't haze anybody. I don't think. No, there was like no hazing. Like nothing. I've heard stories like no hazing. Like nothing. I've heard stories about other hazing situations in football.

I did not grow up in the football world. So when I heard these stories, I was like, all right, is this going to happen to me? Like, you know, I had to have my eyes dotted and my teeth crossed. If this situation arises, how am I? You know, I had to think about it. No hazing. There was no like none of the shit that you hear.

Then you get to the NFL and you see see, like, people shave people's heads, and they do all that shit, and you got to do this. And you have to carry pads and do, like, the natural young, like, earn your stripes stuff. But Peyton Manning and the boys up there, they were adamant upon, like, hey, we're going to need these rookies to win a fucking game. Like, we are going to need seven to eight of these rookies to play meaningful minutes for us, whether it's teams,

whether it's on defense, whether it's on offense i don't think anybody expected any of the rookies especially ended like hey this guy's gonna come in and be like our star like we don't need right but we're gonna need this class to perform well for us if we're gonna want to go and win because injuries happen and it's the salary cap with how cheap people are it's just how do you pick and choose who's gonna be good and who's not going to be good? I have no idea. But if you're number one, number two, number three overall, you would assume, give me the guy that's going to be a guy. Yeah. Because if you want to make your team right now better,

which should be your goal, I guess, but everybody thinks long-term, whatever, if you want to win right now, you should pick the player that's ready to be dropped onto the field right now. Right. But if you just want your resume to say that you drafted you know this player in five years he's gonna become remember bulky drafted blah blah blah but although like the first three years they weren't worth the fuck they turned into it it's like what are you sacrificing in return because the ultimate projection of your resume will be like, oh, this guy drafts great players.

That's all a philosophy that I'm happy I don't have to fucking deal with. I'm happy I don't have to get in that conversation because give me the guy that's going to be a guy right now is who I want because I want to win this year. And some people just don't think like that, and I guess you're not supposed to in some positions. Well, and that's why when you look at the Jags and they're talking about the alignment, it's like, hey, you just drafted a quarterback last year.

You might as well build up his offensive line and see if he's an actual guy before thinking about we need to get our defense good. Five years from now. Yeah, exactly. It's like, come on. You have Trevor Lawrence. Let's see if he's a very good quarterback or if maybe you've got to think about in the next few years when you're the number one pick next year

if you want to take C.J. Stratt or not. They restructured or they extended the tackle. Yeah. I believe right tackle. Cam Robinson? Yeah. Left. Left, yeah.

Left tackle. He was franchise tag. He wasn't going to sign it. They ended up making a deal with him. He has been long-term for the Jags, left tackle. So they are working on the offensive line. The Jaguars and franchise tag offensive tackle Cam Robinson have agreed to terms a three-year, $54 million

deal, $18 million per. We don't know what's real. Nope. Nope. We don't know what the deal's worth. $18 million. Congratulations. That feels like a good price for a left tackle. Yeah. Very good. Especially if they're paying Christian Kirk what they're paying Christian Kirk. Yeah. Eh, good for Cam.

He's probably happy. He's getting a lot of fucking money. Hopefully. We don't know how much money he's actually getting, but hopefully he's getting a bunch of money. So maybe they are investing in the offensive line. Does that mean they're going to try to get a right tackle? Are they going to try to get somebody else to protect him at number one overall?

Is that where you go? Are they trying to trade out? I have no idea what the fuck. I looked at that because, you know, just because he got signed a left tackle doesn't mean you can't take one of these guys to play right tackle. Their right tackle is Jawan Taylor, who was the number 35 overall pick in 2019. So I assume they're probably going to see what he can do for another. Is he good?

I don't know. To be honest, I don't know. Yeah, I assume everyone on that team kind of fucking stinks just because they're the number one pick again, even though they beat the Bills. But it was only 9-6. They didn't score a touchdown. They did beat the Bills. But it was only 9-6. They didn't score a touchdown. They did beat the Bills.

That was the wildest thing in the past. 9-6. Well, besides the Jaguars. And they beat the Dolphins, right? Yeah. In London. They beat the Colts, too.

Yeah, they did. I mean, but... Clontown last week. Urban wasn't there. They were playing for a different coach. Not Carson Wentz of Washington. Bill's win was post-Chop House. And Urban was still there.

So that was more embarrassing, I think. Yeah, because they rallied around the finger guns. They didn't go. Let's pivot away from the NFL and the draft spectacular, because we'll have a lot of conversation about that for the rest of the show, as we are excited for tomorrow night, 8 p.m. Eastern, youtube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee Show. I believe we have a new Foxy flick debuting right before that at 7.50.

Yes, sir. Same stream, youtube. Same stream. YouTube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee Show. Surprise guest giveaways. We will talk more about the draft spectacularly with Joel Klatt. Matt Ryan, maybe. AJ Hawk. But right now joining us, a man who covers the association.

Hell yeah. And I want to let you know, last night, I seen my favorite basketball player. I seen a basketball player who's only 22 years old. Whoa. Wow. 22 years old. Jesus. Take off and have one of the most devastating posters in the history of NBA, in the history of the playoffs,

maybe the dunk of the century over top of a dude. Then just later would knock down a three to take the lead. Everybody thought that was a game winner. No, no, no. Answer from old Edwards, cuz, who had made a hell of a play and made Jada look bad, kind of, in that moment. A little bit.

But then with three point something seconds left. This silky son of a bitch, uber athletic freak show dog takes a left-handed layup to get a win. The association is hot right now their playoffs have been spectacular joining us to chit chat about it all and maybe some behind the scenes tales to help us understand everything going on senior nba insider for the athletic in the stadium ladies and gentlemen sean sharon yeah pat I love that introduction, man. Like, John Morant, he's just, he's insane right now. He's insane.

He's an absolute dog. He is. He's a football player playing out there. It feels like he has that competitive nature that I absolutely love. He's not scared of the big moment. He's only 22 years old. The future of the league feels like it is in great hands. And these playoffs have been awesome, Sean. I assume the league is very it is in great hands and these playoffs have been

awesome shams i assume the league is very pumped about it yeah no question i mean the way that they're i mean every every night like these games that are being played and even just this lot this matchup right this two seven matchup between memphis and minnesota i mean these are two young teams that don't really have identities in the league like neither has been a championship caliber organization as of right now but they're these young hungry organizations minnesota of course carl anthony towns anthony edwards d'angelo russell they've got talent all across that lineup and then you look at memphis john morant jaron jackson jr uh uh dylan brooks uh desmond bain and like i just love the fact that for john Morant, his teammates love him so much.

We just saw when he won the Most Improved Player of the Year award, which in his mind, probably he shouldn't have won it because he's a guy that's an all-NBA guy. He's a guy that's an MVP type of guy. What does he do? He gives the award to his teammate, Desmond Bain. I don't know if Desmond Bain is going to keep that trophy, but that camaraderie, the youthful exuberance that these guys have, I mean, it's fun to watch, and it's fun to see these guys grow in the big moments in the playoffs. Well, Desmond Bain was born in the dark. He was. So him getting out there is obviously incredible.

Yeah, his teammates love him. It was very obvious because there was a lot of different situations where his teammates were looking to him to gas him up almost in the middle of it all. It feels like the city of Memphis loves him as well, and he's not scared of anything. Him shit-talking Patrick Beverly in the middle of that, and Patrick Beverly's known to get in everybody's head. He is—I love Ja.

He's my favorite player. Let's go Grizzlies. Here we go, Grizz. Let's bounce around a little bit. Obviously, the Celtics got like a week off. They're going to relax. Is there anything that we need to think about for the Celtics going forward? Are they going to win this whole thing?

Well, they're going to have a great shot because who could they play next round, right? It's Milwaukee, and they're down. Chris Middleton, we're not sure how long he's going to be out of the lineup, but if he's down, that's an all-star player that Milwaukee's going to be without. So, yeah, Boston has all the ingredients. Marcus Smart, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Rob Williams, we talked about on the show last week. He came back after a torn meniscus surgery three and a half weeks after the procedure.

Like that's unheard of in the NBA for a guy to come back that quick. And he was right there. He played 18, 20 minutes in the first game. He's back in the fold. This team is as deep and they're championship ready. There's no question about it. They dispose of the Nets really, really quickly. But, yeah, I mean, the Celtics has what it takes.

We'll see what happens with Milwaukee. Can they get Chris Middleton back and healthy? Okay, and because we're talking about the Celtics and you talk about old Bob coming back in three and a half weeks after a meniscus, it's hard not to talk about the Nets. Kevin Durant is awesome on Twitter right now. Yep. Okay, I love Kevin Durant.

I'm a big Kevin Durant guy. Obviously, Kyrie Irving is Kyrie Irving. He's his own person. If Ben Simmons would have played, everybody assumes that that is not a sweep. It's a little bit more maybe competitive. They could keep up on the defensive end with Ben Simmons helping them out.

Maybe open the court up a little bit more too because of the way the defensive end with Ben Simmons helping them out. Maybe open the court up a little bit more too because of the way the Celtics were able to lock them down. Now hindsight might show that the Celtics are able to do that to everybody for how good they are at defense and at playing. We don't know yet. But at this current moment, the Nets are being buried by everybody. More importantly, Ben Simmons is getting killed by everybody what is this guy's deal he there's no way that he just is the softest dude in the history of competitive in the history of competition right he has to have some sort of story is he scared to play basketball again because he doesn't have the confidence that he can play is he real is his back like so fucked up that he he just puts on a

good front when he's sitting there there's zero laboring zero pain expressions on his face what is it about ben simmons you think and what does his future look like at this point it's it's all mental with ben simmons and he's got to get to the point this offseason i mean they have they have four or five months here the nets ben simmons people around ben simmons that care about him to make sure that he gets on the right track. This is the most important offseason for Ben Simmons' career. This is an offseason. He's at a crossroads of his career right now because the way it went in Philly, then he gets to Brooklyn. And, yeah, there was – we talked about it on the show, Pat,

like there was an expectation around that organization that at least he'll be in uniform and available to play for Steve Nash. You know, I'm told that even if he was in uniform, there was a chance he might not even have played in game four, but at least he was taking the effort. He was at least in uniform, at least being able to be present around the team. And he just could not get there.

And so whatever he's dealing with mentally. So is it, he's scared, Chomps? Is that what it is? He's just scared that he's going to embarrass himself? Like, isn't he at rock bottom already publicly? Like, I don't, it's hard for me to embarrass himself? Isn't he at rock bottom already publicly? It's hard for me to say, like, is he scared to play because of what happened last year in the playoffs? But what I do know and what I'm told that he told the Nets and their front office on Monday was that he feels like there's a mental block that's created that dates in part back to last summer in the playoffs last summer where we saw he he passed up that layup um in that game seven it was a tough playoff for him but that mental block is creating a stress that's also triggering the back now i'm not a doctor i've seen some tweets

out there from doctors that saying yeah this could be a thing you know the mind controls the body so listen i'm not here to say one way or the other that's how he feels but it could also be true in the same sense that the nets the players there's lot of frustration. There's a lot of confusion. There's a lot of like, what more can we do? At some point it becomes, you know, Ben Simmons is going to have to take ownership and it's going to have to take a level of accountability to, if there is this issue, like, let's deal with it. Let's get through it. Let's work with the right therapist. Let's work with the right people. Because at the end of the day, everyone around Ben Simmons, the Nets, they all want him to succeed.

They all want him to get back on the court. He's paid to play basketball. Like, that's his occupation. And so how do you get him back into that mode? I think it'll be very interesting. You know, does he stay in Brooklyn? Does he stay at the facility all year? Or does he bounce around to city to city?

Like, if I'm the Nets, I try to make sure he's staying in the facility all year or does he bounce around to city to city like if i'm the nets i try to make sure he's staying in in the facility he's staying around the team re-ingratiating re-ingratiating himself around the roster um but this is this is going to be a very important summer for ben simmons to get back on track you know mind and body uh i know a guy who when he was a kid his household spoke sp Spanish and his friends spoke English. His family's from Cuba. And at his house, they'd all speak Spanish to him. And then when he'd go in public, they'd all speak English.

And his Spanglish became so bad that nobody could understand what he was saying. So they actually had the great idea to take him to a hypnotist and a hypnotist actually cured his brain from being able to speak Spanish. He was only able to speak English, but he could understand Spanish. That is an actual thing that happened in the real world. Is there any thought of him like going to a hypnotist or going to like a sports psychologist? And if that was to take place, that would mean Ben would have to admit that there was something going on, right? Which I think is what you were alluding to there with the accountability and the ownership of this entire thing. No, I mean, I think he has admitted it, right? Hey, no, he has not. If he would come out and say like, hey, I am, I do not have the confidence to

play basketball. I am so sorry. I wish I did. Like, I think people would be a lot nicer to him. I'm so sorry. I wish I did. Like, I think people would be a lot nicer to him. Right now, it's just like a herniated disc, sore back, this, that. It's like a bad image for him. I feel like he should get in front of this. Don't you think, Sean, as soon as you come out and be transparent?

Or is he scared to do that and he doesn't think that would be cool or whatever? Yeah, I mean, listen, I can't speak for that. I think that, you know, I think he has made all the efforts. I think he has. You know, at some point it just becomes a thing where, you know, you just got to get to that point, you know. And I think the goal was to try to get him back out on the floor this year. And the goal was to try to get him playing and get him on the floor. I think, again, everyone's rooting for Ben Simmons.

When we've seen him, Pat, on the court, he's the perfect fit. When you talk about Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, to have a guy that can play all five positions, can guard all five positions. He's got everything. And so the goal was to get him back. But I think he has taken the steps to try to address it. He's seen different – his own therapist, his own psychologist to try to get there. And again, I'm not an expert on – that's how he's feeling. You know what I mean? And so you have to try to get there. And again, I'm not an expert on, like, that's how he's feeling. You know what I mean?

So you have to listen to that. You have to understand that. They need to hypnotize him. Try to work with that. They need to hypnotize him. This has happened to him. Do you know one? If you know of one, let me know.

I might be able to make it happen. Well, Zito is actually the Spanglish-speaking guy that I was referring to there. That happened to Zito here. But this has happened in the past in sports. Like, people have done this before to get over a mental block or something like that. It feels like that would be the natural next step. But hopefully he figures it out because he is getting murdered by everybody for how this is all paid. And also, I mean, when you're making $40 million, you know, that type of shit is going to happen regardless.

And sometimes you just got to grow up and admit that as well. Like, Hey, I'm being asked to do more because I'm being given a lot of money to do stuff. Now let's move on, uh, on the West. It feels like golden state is an absolute wagon right now without pools playing without Thompson's all the way back. Jackie moon stroking staff coming out as a six man of the fucking century almost coming out there. What do you see happening with Golden State? And do they feel just as good as everybody else feels about the Golden State Warriors potential playoff run

here? I mean, Golden State, I mean, them, hopefully Devin Booker gets back healthy, but Golden State, Phoenix, and then you look out east, Miami, Milwaukee, Boston. I mean, those are really the five teams i think you got to give dallas a puncher's chance as well i think lucas lucas is back in the fold dallas can be very uh frightening for playoff teams so i would look at really those six teams

is like legitimate threats uh to win the championship this year and there's no question like golden state i don't expect steph curry to be a six man much longer um but they're gonna they're in a position now where they have you know with him jordan pool clay thompson andrew wiggins draymond green they have the most lethal lineup uh potentially in in these playoffs and so we'll see what happens and and how they manage that situation. What'd you say there? You said something there. It kind of fell out of your mouth there.

I don't know if you realize what you said there. You don't see Steph Curry being sixth man for much longer. That normally means something when an insider says something. Yes, it does. What does that mean, Sean? What are you – I mean, listen, listen, listen. Steph and Curry will be starting as soon as tonight in game five. Oh!

Put it on the ticker. I don't expect the sixth man train to roll much further. Okay. Congrats to Steph. Yeah. Because Steph said a couple games ago, I'm fucking back. Yep. Now he actually is.

Good. Hey, good on you, Steph. Go get him, Steph. Thank you, Sean. That's good news. That's good news, Sean. I'm here to deliver the news. God, you're the best, Sean. Put it on you, Steph. Go get him, Steph. Thank you, Shams. That's good news. That's good news, Shams. I'm here to deliver the news, right? God, you're the best, Shams.

Put it on a ticker. Tell Ben Simmons to go to a hypnotist. Let's save the association. Go ahead, Zone. Shams, they won, so it's kind of a moot point here because Vic Oladipo played very, very well last night. But did Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry, who are both we consider dogs, did they sit out last night even though they didn't really need –

are we resting players in the playoffs? Oh, man. Listen, I'll say this. Jimmy Butler, the competitor he is, it was a real issue for him to be sitting in a playoff game. I don't think it's a serious injury. I have not been told that it's a serious injury. I think the Heat are hopeful that game one comes around of that series

between Toronto or Philly that he'll be ready to go for that game. Kyle Lowry, on the other hand, guys, he's got a hamstring injury. So, like, those things can be – Pat knows. I mean, those things can be a few days. It could be a week. It could be two weeks. You never know with hammies. But the goal is with him him try to get him back for game one of the next series too but we'll see that series toronto philadelphia it's three i believe three two now going back

to toronto um for that game six i believe that's tonight like philadelphia is gonna have to get their stuff together get their act together, and get one more win because Toronto is making this very difficult. But Miami will play one of those two teams. There is hope. There is optimism that both Jimmy Butler and Kyle Lowry can be back in the lineup. Hey, Doc and Harden are getting killed right now.

If they don't close this out after 3-0, they are going to get murdered. Hey, it doesn't sound like – I mean, it doesn't feel like hamstrings and shit happen like that often in the NBA. With how many games they play and how much they run, it's almost surprising to me that we're hearing about a hamstring from the NBA. Normally, an incredible, like, good warm-up, good hydration, it feels like that's a big part of it. Hamstrings can linger forever, not only physically but mentally. When he gets back, it's going to be in the back of his mind, like, oh, if I open this up or if I do something mentally when he gets back it's gonna be in

the back of his mind like oh if i open this up or if i do something there's a chance it's gonna go hamstrings are a nightmare that is no fun yeah hamstrings hamstrings and calves like the moment you pull them it becomes a nightmare because you're dealing with it and even when you play you're thinking about it but luca dodgers had a calf he missed about i think 12 13 days he ended up coming back fine um But Devin Booker, he's itching to play right now, but you've got to make sure that that hamstring is 100%. Hey, Luke is

a dog. Dog. He's a dog. He's a dog for sure. He is a dog. He's a player. How old is Luke? What? 23? What? He's only 23? He's super young. He's younger than Tatum. That's crazy. Holy shit. So Ja?

23. I was right. I was right. Out of action. That's right. I mean, you covered the fucking league. He's one of the biggest stars. You should know how old he is, Shams. But I am happy that you know that.

Ja, 22. Yep. Luka, 23. Yep. So I'm enough of the, you know, Tatum's only 24. Well, Tatum went to two. He went to two Eastern Conference Finals by the time he was 22. Celtics fan Connor, your question.

Yeah, Sean, who gives a shit about all these other teams? One of the Celtics is going to play next. If the Bucs win tonight, are we looking at like a Saturday, or do we have to wait for the first round to be completely finished before they start the second round? All right, so I would look at anywhere from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday. That's really the range. I don't think it would be Saturday.

I would look at anywhere from Sunday to Tuesday for that game one against, you know. They're going to cool off. If the Bucs win tonight, I would look at it. They're going to cool off. Celtics are going to cool off. Yeah, right. Fresh legs. They're going to cool off.

Fresh legs. Giannis is going to have to score 80 points a game to beat the Celtics. Tatum's going to be sleeping in the backseat just like Deuce was. Tatum don't sleep because he's taking care of his son and he's taking care of his game by the way i do appreciate how good of a fucking father it appears as tatum is yep but it's been hard can we give it up to jason tatum like he thank you shot you finally taking the next step yeah yeah like he's taking the next step in his career defensively the way he played on that end of the floor. And, you know, he learned a lot from Kyrie Irving

as much as that breakup happened. Like, he learned a lot from Kyrie Irving. He learned a lot from Kevin Durant playing with him at Team USA last year. And you're seeing him. He's blossoming. He's shining right before our eyes. He is yoked. Shredded.

I mean, he is a massive dude. A couple years ago, I seen a clip from him. Said, well, I'm going to hate this guy forever. Let's get it. But then I had to remember he's 22, 23 at the time. He's getting older. Father. He is fun to watch.

He's a dog. Worried that the Celtics might be good for too long of a time. Last question here, Shams. We appreciate you. Go ahead, Todd. Shams, you going to be tipping picks again this year for the NFL draft? Or what's your plan for Thursday night? A couple people have asked me that.

Listen, I'm not saying anything on that situation right now. If it happens, it happens. Hopefully I don't have any NFL people upset at me if it does. Well, I think all the NFL insiders, what have they said about Shams? We could do this too if we wanted to. Yeah, Shams, we want to break every NBA. That's what they always say. They couldn't though, Shams.

They couldn't do it. If they could, they would. Listen, people always have excuses, you know? I just got my head down. I just got my head down. I'm staying busy, man. What is he at? He's had big NFL leaks.

Huge NFL leaks. He had presidential. Yeah, political leak. Political leak. He knew Biden. I'm just doing my job, Pat. I'm just here to do my job. I'm just here to do my job. I'm just here so I don't get fined.

Well, we appreciate you, man. You do a great job. You might get fined for breaking the Steph news on this show. But we appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, senior NBA insider for the Athletic Stadium, man who knows all things happening around the association, Sean Charania. Hey!

association. Sean. Sure. Ronnie. Our will obviously have the toxic table at Ty Schmidt at Boston Connors, beautiful brain spilling into the microphones. Glad to be here. Hey,

great to see you guys. Can't wait for a draft spectacular tomorrow night, 8 PM. Can we, and obviously this hour will feature a cowboy of sorts, a man who loves the draft, whether or not we had the spectacular or not, a good gambler, a championship gambler. One half of the hammer.

Cowboys, 10 dicks. How you doing, Tom? How you doing? This hour we also have a first-time guest who will be joining us in about 10 minutes, Joe Bamba Klatt. Let's go. Rude boy. How about it minutes, Joe Bamba Klatt. Let's go. Rude boy. How about it?

Shut up, Joe Klatt. So I was trying to figure out how to say his name there before he went on air as we're coming live, and I think this is a Pam Pan thing. Sure. Plaza Plaza thing. Yeah. And I couldn't really get it right. Is it Bamba Klatt or bomba clat?

Ladder. Clat. Clat. Like just make it clap. Yeah. Make it clap. Just make it clap. You guys didn't do it right. That's the wrong clap. I don't know if I've ever heard that. Just make it clap. That's it I believe. I've never heard that fucking that's a

song that was a good song yeah it's great it was a great song back in there buster rhymes had a run where he was fucking sure yeah he used to go then he got all roy not roy sorry he started working out super yeah and then kind of slowed down didn't have to do it anymore then you start hitting remixes on everybody but there was a time where buster rhymes was just making bangers. And that was one of them. How come Busta Rhymes gets forgotten about

in the whole conversation? It's kind of bullshit. It's a good question. He stinks. Wow. Yeah. Wow, yeah. That man was Zeta.

What happened? Zeta and Busta did have a run in there but that's... Fucking T-Pain running? Threw him through a wall. A little worse. He got physically touched

by his... Whoa! But Buster needed security because how big Buster was. That's right. Big boy. Never gets talked about enough. Buster used to put out heaters. Anyways.

So, clack. Clack. Where's Gus? Are the Island Boys going to fight one of the Pauls? Or maybe a tag team Pauls? I've seen them throwing their fists. Absolute bombs. Bombs.

They need to not fight anybody. Did you see the kick, though? Yeah, the little kick to the knee thing. They cut their hair. They're doing their stuff. They're getting into boxing. People will pay for them to fight somebody. People will pay to watch them fight somebody.

Maybe they're sandbagging. That's why they're putting out those videos. I thought they might have been sandbagging. I honestly believe there's a chance that a lot of this generation has no clue how to throw a punch. I believe there's a lot of Twitter fingers. You know, there's a lot of, hey, we're not doing this in real life stuff, especially with the entire world we're at. I think there is a large portion of society nowadays that has no clue how to throw a punch because there's no way you put that video out if you didn't know that you didn't know how to throw a punch while putting it out there. But the Island Boys are chess

players. That's right. What's that, Foxy? We cannot give them that much credit. Why is Foxy such an Island Boy? We cannot give the Island Boys that much credit. They're not that smart. This guy thought that the Will Smith smack was fake and now he wants to come at the fucking Island Boys

for throwing a bomb? I never thought it was fake. I will say, Will Smith can throw fake, and now he wants to come at the fucking Island Boys for throwing bombs? I never thought it was fake. I will say, Will Smith can throw a better punch than the Island Boys. Sure. I do know that. Well, he played Ali. I mean, he has to be able to. Which is why I wondered about his front foot in that smack, because he was not utilizing any sort of –

All I said is it could be fake. You thought the Johnny Depp trial was fake. He also thought Amber Heard took a shit on his bed just to get this to trial just so they could fucking get some shit riled up. Hey, it's good work. It's good work. It's a long rib. Good shit right there. Life is WWE. Yeah, life is wrestling. I agree.

But there's some things you have to just think. Well, maybe they're just doofuses. And by the way, this has been a wild development for me too, Foxy. Because I viewed the world just like you. And then I'm like, oh, you did it on purpose to make yourself look stupid or whatever? No, no, I was lit, right? What are you talking about?

Okay. I misread the whole situation there. You are a fucking doofus. The Island Boys, though, I think they're working. I think that is sandbagging. They're getting somebody to get comfortable in the fact that they don't know how to throw a punch. And then somebody's going to show up to fight them. And then all of a sudden, Island Boy's going to be pop high.

Pop high. You know what I mean? That's what I'm thinking. I think we should send Mitt to fight him because Mitt would beat their ass. Do you know why they were in that hot tub? Because they were recovering from their fucking boxing workout. The cold tub. Everyone knows that.

That's what they pulled right next to it. It was cold. They were actually flushing. They were trying to distract themselves from their entire muscle flush to get the lactic acids out of their legs because of their boxing training. They were like, I love my... Very much. They were tired, exhausted from the workout they went through.

There's a chance that's true. There's literally nothing you can say. Why aren't they in the studio, though? They should be in the studio making bands. I've never seen them in a studio, right? Have we ever seen them? I've seen them in a shower. I've seen them in a hot tub.

I've seen them boxing on a patio with a new haircut yeah they already have crushed the music game i think they're on to the next thing they're boxing yeah dominate every industry one after the other well i do think they should have had a couple remixed to the island boys i agree did ab on the track they did do that remix, the Goofy Boys. Just fucking Goofy Boys. There's three of them. On their cameo? Oh yeah, they added in a third. That's their boxing trainer. Yeah, and he's yoked. I think they're on Iron Chef next week too. That'd be sick. Fucking Fridays maybe?

Are you serious right now? I don't know what's going on. You never know. Joining us now is a man who won the Iron Chef. He also beat Bobby Flay one time. A college football champion. A Super Bowl champion. A Ryder Cup champion.

A man who has zero respect for anything we do around here. He's missing his third straight draft spectacular. The biggest fucking show we have every single year. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hall. Yeah, AJ. Champion of saying fuck you to us, huh? Champion. Good to be here.

I mean, I'm glad I can slide into this Island Boys conversation. It was pretty riveting there watching online. There was no way that was real. Those weren't real punches from that guy. Oh, yeah, they're setting a trap. They're setting a trap. They're just waiting for a big name to walk in there and get knocked out. I think so, too.

I think this is all sandbagging. Vander Holyfield, they're probably going to challenge soon. He just had a fight like a year ago. Vander Holyfield, did he come on this show? He was on this show. He's pretty good. Yeah. Pretty good conversation.

Fan of the show. Yeah. Fan of the program. Why is Gumpy looking the way he's looking in the back? I don't know. What's he looking like? Gumpy. Gumpy. That was fake, though. the backpack? I don't know. What's he looking like? Gumpy. Gumpy.

That was fake, though. Those weren't real punches out of them. And you know the younger generation better. Bob's. I mean, Bob's. If he gets you into the corner. Oh, oh. Hey, it looked like the old school, like, hey, I'm going to do this.

If you fucking get in front of me, you're in trouble. How is the person not laughing who's filming? Because that's their trainer. And he knows that they're just fucking around. Like hey, I'm gonna do this. Oh you fucking get in front of me. You're in trouble How is the person not laughing who's filming because that's their trainer and he knows that they're Yeah, wait for the kick bro, he'll throw them though look here comes the kick I think yeah show him thunder I think is what it says. Oh uppercut like fucking Thunder show them thunder He didn't even telegraph that. That came out of nowhere.

What? He's broke my fucking hand, he said. That's what we do. Yeah, we fight around. Yeah, you can cut a promo after. Not even out of breath. No, meth will do that. What?

Hey, we don't know if Island Boys are doing meth or not. They are in great physical condition and meth does make you thin so maybe that is accurate they threw that dude just threw 200 punches yeah they got a promo afterwards in a kick yeah the core strength on those guys is absurd I mean that was

has Dana signed him yet to the UFC Jesus I don't know if Dana's ready it's gonna cost 25 million a pop what if Serrano Amanda Serr, after selling out Madison Square Garden this weekend, she decides her next fight is going to be both Island boys at the same time? I'd be sweet. I'd take all my money. I would pay for that.

I would pay for that. Jake Paul is already cooking that up. He's like, if these fucking idiots keep posting these boxing videos, I'm going to go ahead and have Serrano take them out one at a time. Boom. Full entrance for them both. Yeah. Full entrance for them both. Get to the ring have Serrano take them out one at a time. Boom. Full entrance for them both. Yeah. Full entrance for them both.

Get to the ring. Serrano, bang, dead. And then the next one comes. Island boys. Bang, dead. I would buy that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

You sold me already. That sounds amazing. Okay, so that's what the champs are doing. That's what's going on. Now, Teddy Taylor, Madison Square Gardeners. I mean, now we have something to look forward to in the offseason. Fucking Island Boys versus Serrano. Hey, Island Boys, you better keep swinging.

Yeah. Keep fighting. All right. Let's talk about some of the news that's happening today, AJ. This guy sucks. Go ahead. Well, that's the thing. There's really nothing.

It is. AJ, it's been tough, dude. It has been very tough. All eyes are on the drafts for Tackler tomorrow night. And obviously, it is not a show you give a fuck about or care about at all. Okay, yeah, my bad. Just when I get super active on social media, the only time of the year. So that shows you how serious I am.

No, we have to pay you to post those. Yeah. Hey, by the way, I need that graphic because time is ticking. I've got to put something together. Throw it in the draft. All eyes on the draft spectacularly, though. Aaron Rodgers will be joining us, AJ. Yeah.

Sweet. Okay. Chris Ballard will be joining us live from the War Room. Oh, here we go. Tom Telesco will be joining us. Oh! Chargers! Chargers. Chargers GM live from the war room.

Okay. This is the big thing this year. We're making bigger asks. You know, we're asking for more from people. And in the past, it would feel terrible doing that. Normally, in the past, this is how asks would go. Hey, I understand you're very busy and you've got a lot of other things going on. It would be much better to do something else with your time than whatever you would be doing with us.

But is there any chance you could join us just be five seven minutes of your time and everybody's like yeah dude no big deal come on chris bowden came on every single year this time i'm like how do i frame this we're letting them know that i think it's ridiculous that i'm even asking this i think it's ridiculous that we're even at a point to be doing this but i do think this would be super cool if you were to do that so that's basically the message i sent to everybody hey this is what i'm thinking can you go live from the war room and we're probably going but I do think this would be super cool if you were to do that. So that's basically the message I sent to everybody. Hey, this is what I'm thinking. Can you go live from the war room?

And we're probably going to ask you about what the fuck's going on in there as opposed to what's going on in the whole draft. And I think there's more, by the way. Those aren't the only three. I mean, there is more joining us. But it is. I'm very excited for it, A.J. Hawk. I'm very pumped for tomorrow night. Yeah, the fact that two active GMs that are going to be in the middle of the first round

are going to call in, yeah, it's unbelievable. It should be fun. I want to see where their minds are at the time, too. Yeah, us, too, because we'll probably be a couple hours into it whenever we get in these people's war rooms, probably a little loosey-goosey, maybe a little boozy-boozy. What? I mean, who knows?

What if we bully one of these GMs into making a trade? Ooh, that'd be sweet. Come on, do it. Hey, Tom, come on. You know how cool it would be to trade out of there? Trade Keenan out of the package. Trade him to the Colts, Tom. Come on.

Yeah, tell them you look like a genius because this is obviously going to be out there forever, this footage. So you're going to look very smart. What? Oh, AJ, see, that's the part of the message that I send to them. Like, hey, you know, our show is filled with idiots. So we apologize. You're going to be associated with this forever, but we do think it would be pretty cool content, and we have more guests lined up, and big giveaways.

Feeling around the league is that the 49ers are listening to offers on Debo. Now, granted, Debo just put out a tweet, and I'm not 100% sure what it means or who he's taking a shot at. Might be taking a shot at us and all the people in the media world. He put out a tweet basically saying that people are talking about his situation that don't have a clue what they're talking about they're just talking about what other people are talking about there's basically nobody knows anything and then he's saying have a good one basically have a good one because the conversation today is that the jets are ready to make a very aggressive offer to the san francisco 49ers to get Debo Samuel. Allegedly, Bob Sala, you know, big-time San Francisco 49er,

you know, like roots, knows Debo, knows how impressive Debo is. In the AFCs, they were in on the Tyreek Hill trade, even though Tyreek ended up going to Miami. Akash Anavarathan is reporting that the feeling around the league is that the 49ers are listening to offers on Debo Samuel, and the Jets are going to put together such a massive package for Samuel that they won't be able to turn it down. And that comes from Tony Pauline of Pro Football Network, I believe. So shout out to Tony Pauline who's been in the news a couple different times. We

don't know if it's real or if it's not real, but Tony Pauline speaking that good shit. The Jets are going to go all in on Debo Samuel. Definitely a player that's worthy of such a thing. Will the Niners listen? John Lynch just said the other day he can never imagine getting to a point where he'd want to move on from Debo. He's such a good player. Is that him negotiating publicly with teams like, hey, you're going to have to bring a deal that is going to be worth big?

We will not know. But good on the Jets if they end up getting Debo, I guess, AJ. Yeah, okay. So do we have any time frame on when this may happen, worth big we will not know but good on the jets if they end up getting debo i guess aj yeah okay so do we have any time frame on when this may happen when this trade could happen and are there other teams involved because obviously you want multiple people trying to bid on this everybody says that the draft is the reason why a lot of things happen because there is active pieces to be able to be gained quickly so everybody's assuming this is all going to happen during the draft time but everybody's assuming that the baker mayfield stuff was going to happen during the draft or before

the draft, and then reports are coming out, wait until you see what happens in the first round. They might do this later in the week or next week or something like that. None of us know anything, and I'm sure Deebo Samuel is just reading alongside of it all and listening to his agent, Torrey Dondi, who also reps A.J. Brown and D.K. Metcalf. It is quite an interesting situation the draft always brings magical

moments magical memories in big time blockbuster moves speaking of big time blockbuster situations joining us for the first time ever a man who

is alongside Gus Johnson in the booth during the fall and their booth is absolutely electrifying their booth makes the game feel bigger than the game is,

and whenever they're calling a game, it is tough to turn it off. He will be on NFL Network all weekend like he always is as a draft analyst. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Bamba-Clart. What's up, Joe? What's going on? That was quite the introduction. I appreciate it, man. Hey, this is my first time getting to chat with you,

getting to meet you, and having you on the show. Big fan of your work alongside Gus. You guys are an electrifying booth, a great booth. And I don't know how many how often you get told that, but you guys fucking kill it, man. We appreciate it. Man, I first of all, I appreciate it. It's unbelievable working next to Gus. I love what we get to do. We get it. And last unbelievable working next to Gus. I love what we get to do. And last year was epic, man. We had so many great games, right? So it was fantastic.

Well, you do a great job. And now that we're at the draft, it feels like you get quite a head start, right? Because you get to meet with all these teams during the year. You're watching film all year. You're in it. You love college football, huh? Favorite of all time? NFL also a fan? Or are you mostly just a college football guy?

I love college football, favorite of all time? NFL also a fan, or are you mostly just college football guy? I love college football, man. I mean, like, listen, the NFL is great. The bottom line for me is that my dad was a high school football coach. I just loved the sport. He was an ex-Marine. I've been around him my entire life. Yeah, thanks for saying that. There we go.

I love that. I just love the sport. So I love coming to do the draft. I would love to do NFL games. I'm calling USFL games. I mean, listen, you get a game going in the park, I'll probably call it. Gus always tells me, he's like, you call games for free. And I was like, I probably would. And he's like, don't tell anybody.

Bad business, Joel. But it's infectious, by the way. we can hear that in your voice go ahead aj joel when it comes to the draft this year obviously i feel like not a whole lot of people know like too much about all of these players in the top five top ten do you see like what do you think is going to happen now we've heard a lot of different things happen like in the top three picks what do you think what are you hearing right now? I'm hearing a lot of momentum for Trayvon Walker at number one, which I think sets up perfectly for Detroit to go like Aiden Hutchinson at number two.

And then I think what's really interesting is I've heard a lot of buzz that Houston might go Derek Stingley. I don't know how real that is. That might just be thrown out there because I think Ahmad Gardner is probably the best corner in the draft. But Stingley, a couple of years ago, guys, Stingley would have maybe been

the number one pick in the draft a couple of years ago in the 2020 draft after the 19th season. He was definitely the top corner and that was a freshman year that he was the best corner in college football and just couldn't come out into the draft. I think that's a fascinating deal. He's had the injuries obviously and that was a freshman year that he was the best corner in college football and just couldn't come out into the draft. So I think that's a fascinating deal. He's had the injuries, obviously, and that was why, at least in my estimation,

he struggled so much last year with that Liz Frank injury. But the fascinating part for me is if the Jaguars really take Walker at number one, Detroit's going to run the pickup to the stage. Are you kidding me? They get Michigan's favorite son at number two detroit's gonna run the pickup to the stage like are you kidding me they get like michigan's favorite son at number two to stay home dan campbell's like favorite player yes i i think that that could be an interesting scene okay joel how do you pay attention to what's real and what isn't like because i assume everybody out there is having the same conversations that we're having what do you hear and what are you hearing what are you hearing how long have you

been covering this and what should we be looking for that's real and what's mostly bullshit you think okay so yeah that's that's a great question yeah i go to people that i trust first and foremost it's it's all about the people so listen like peter schrager's a great friend of mine jay glazier's a great friend of mine those guys have accurate information those guys have the most up-to-date information and they will tell you exactly what's going on about a pick whether a team is trying to create a smoke screen or not uh well you know any of that and generally what i will tell you is that the closer to the draft we get the more outlandish the scenario that's just smoke that's just smoke so even though i just brought it up this huge stingley i just don't buy it i just don't buy it because it's

like it hasn't been around the entire time during this whole process and now all of a sudden we're going to get to vegas i'm sitting at caesar's we're sitting out i'm looking over the pool right now and now all of a sudden stingley is going to be the third pick. Like, come on. Hey, that looks beautiful out there. I don't buy that. Well, it's been difficult for us because we don't have any of the sources. And if we do have sources, we refuse to text them because if we do,

we potentially jeopardize our friendship with them. And they know that anything they say to us is going right into this microphone every single day. But every single draft. I love it. I love it. Thank you, Joel. Hey, you got to start texting me, man.

I'll just give you whatever I got. Here we go. Joel, I didn't know we were going to become texting friends. I'm pretty excited about this. There you go. Yes. I can't wait to send you a text during the fall on a Saturday and be like, hey, really bringing the juice today. Really bringing it.

Legit. Legit story. My friends always say one of my favorite things to do is text my buddies during the game. You text me during a game, you're getting a response. No doubt. Wow. Okay, I'm going to get inside information. We're going to call you back right now, Joel.

Our side just kind of dropped off internet-wise a little bit there. Joel, how long has he been in the draft game? How long has Joel been in the draft game? He's been calling games. Hey, God loves ball, by the way. Loves ball. I do it for free. High school football coach's dad who's a Marine. Oh, my God.

He popped up right when FS1 came, like, was invented, basically. I think that's when he started doing TV, maybe. Are you talking about, like, when Regis Philbin and them had that show? Yeah. They had that show, yeah. No, no, no. No, that was smashing success. Yeah, ABC.

Because he played at Colorado for 2002, 2005, and then was with the Lions and Saints a little bit. Yikes. Because he played baseball, so he was like 28 in college, wasn't he? What? I think he was older. Yeah, he got drafted, I think, in like the 12th round maybe and played minor league baseball.

For a while. Joel's a dude. Of course he's a dude. It makes sense he's a dude. He's not on it. Fox is giving me a big thumbs down. I thought we had him. We don't have him. He's out at Caesars living life by the pool.

Good for him, man. That looked beautiful. Did you see that backdrop? That looked very, very nice. Oh yeah, I've seen all the other media members that look sweet. Is that the same hotel Rapport's in? No, he is at Cosmo. They need to hide the booze. Yeah.

How's Rapport going to be in Vegas for five days? Especially in Cosmo. That's a great place. Cosmo's where we stayed. Oh, yeah. Cosmo's a good time. We were there when a shooting happened. Yeah. Really?

Yeah. We were told to stay. Everybody was told to stay in their rooms or whatever, like right around brunch time. We weren't allowed to leave our rooms. Obviously, a bunch of outlaws didn't do that. Went down the stairs and then through the kitchen and got out of there. But there was a full act of shooting in the hotel.

Damn. It was wild. Oh, not the big concert one. No, no, no, no, no. Where was that? That was outside next to what hotel was that? I don't know. Was he in Mandalay Bay maybe?

Yeah, I don't think that was the Cosmo. No, it wasn't. Mandalay Bay. Sad situation. Yeah. Vegas. Back to Vegas. The man joining us who played, you know, minor league baseball.

Then he ended up playing at Colorado. Absolute stud of a man. His dad was a head high school football coach and a Marine. Wow. Ladies and gentlemen, this man will call games for free, but he should get paid a lot more than he already does. I don't know what he gets paid whenever he's next to Gus Johnson. This week, he'll be covering the draft on NFL Network.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joel Klatt. Here we go. The goal. Oh, it's worse. Oh, no. Oh, no. All right. Well, that was a good call.

I mean, we had a good call with Joel. I mean, we had a good call with Joel. Yeah, he's the man. Hey, he told us Derrick Stanleyley's happening and then he said also probably not yeah it's bullshit probably not i like that i like that in real time we got to see it yeah i enjoy that as well because if you like we try to cover this accurately because we have to speak about it but everybody knows we're going to be wrong because whenever you do a daily show you have to ride literally the waves of information that is breaking on a daily basis.

Kind of a, you know, an interesting life turn because I used to do Twitter a lot, used to do Twitter a lot, still do Twitter a lot, but I used to do Twitter a lot. And, you know, like the old takes exposed thing. Yeah. I used to love this. I used to love this. Like what a doofus, what a fool. Now that we do like the daily show thing where we speak for three and a half hours and we're choosing to do this, we're lucky to love this. I used to love this. I was like, what a doofus, what a fool. Now that we do the daily show thing where we speak for three and a half hours

and we're choosing to do this, we're lucky to do this, boy, you can get caught up. You can get caught up because what is happening right now might be vastly different than what's happening just an hour from now because the insiders and the information that gets leaked is so much bullshit. The draft is filled with it. The most amount of bullshit is around the draft because there's billions and billions of dollars at stake for each franchise.

And if they really like somebody, they're going to try their absolute best to get that person without everybody else getting it. And that might call for some terrible stories being leaked about the person. That might call for some lying about who they like. that might call for some lying about who they like. They might actually stay away from somebody as long as they possibly can so that nobody knows that they're interested, so that nobody else will take them. It is just, if you start overthinking it, which I assume some of these teams do,

there's just so many levels to all of the bullshit that the draft brings. And usually, at least most teams, there's so few people that actually know what your plan is or what you're going to do. Yeah, like the GM will have the scouts put all the reports together he'll listen to them they'll talk but then the scouts usually don't really know there may be if you're the gm how many people are you going to tell pat like how many people do you think you could trust that they're not going to say something to somebody so kevin costner told nobody that's right and that's

really the only example i have who was on the show yesterday that said if a billionaire comes in though on draft day and says I want boom guess what that's probably Charles Davis yeah yeah Charles Davis said if the if a billionaire walks into the room and says I don't know what you I don't know what y'all been doing for the last four or five months or whatever

and I don't really care I think this dude's highlights on NFL Network just yesterday give me fucking Thibodeau months or whatever and i don't really care i think this dude's highlights on nfl network just yesterday give me fucking tibido no like that changes everything that changes literally everything just like that the whole first round the whole draft that's what's cool like a guy some wild card owner could change what the whole draft looks like or just or general manager just gets one wakes up with a bad feeling it's hey, we need to change what we were thinking. We're actually going to do this now because of my final thoughts or whatever.

Like when push comes to shove and a decision has to be made, I assume the people that are making the decisions might not even fucking know what they're doing until like, hey, let's do Belichick with Mac Jones. Everybody's going to say they planned that. They did that on purpose. They knew that Mac Jones was going to be available. If you watch on purpose. They knew that Mac Jones was going to be available. If you watch the video, Bill did not know Mac was going to be available. I think he's like folding up a piece of gum or candy.

And he's like, Stanley, if I remember the video right. And he's like looking around the room. He's like, I guess we got to fucking. I guess we got to take this guy. Nick loved him. Billy O'Brien loved him. I mean, literally everybody we've ever worked to take this guy. Nick loved him. Yeah, I love Nick. Billy O'Brien loved him. I mean, literally everybody we've ever worked with loves this guy.

We don't really have a quarterback. He caught a pass at his pro day. Fuck. Then Patricia co-signed, and they did it. Well, that's what I'm saying. He has Kraft first. Did he ask Kraft first, then McDaniels, then Patricia? I think it was McDaniels, then Kraft, and then Patricia. And that old guy who sits in the box.

Ernie. Hey, he's not just an old guy who sits in the box. I forgot his name. He's one of the founding fathers of football. He's a genius. It's the only way I know how to describe him. You remember Ursae, too, giving Bauer that little suggestion. Oh, about Jonathan Taylor.

Don't you love Jonathan Taylor? Don't you fucking love this guy? Yeah, you loved that guy, didn't you? What are we waiting for? And then Bauer trades up to go get the guy. Like Jim Irsay's just sitting there. Because they have that, with the next pick, I believe, is what their series is called.

Somebody else's series is called On the Clock. Every social media department is putting together great footage of their team and their scouts and their GMs preparing for the draft and also live in the war room, which I think is why maybe we're able to do it with a couple people because and also live in the war room which i think is why maybe we're able to do it with a couple people because they have filmed in the war room in the past but they gotta blur out yeah they gotta blur out all that shit but jim ursley just sitting there casually uh just hanging out and then all of a sudden i think jim just realized like hey i

fucking love that jonathan taylor guy too he ran all over my stadium whenever he was in there hey chris what are we doing and then chris, we're just waiting on the right guy. We like a guy. And then he moves up. When the clock is on and there's a player on the board, anything can happen. I think there's some places that are much more calculated than others, and they probably go about their decision-making process differently

where they probably have it like tonight or tomorrow morning, here's our four, here's the order of our four whoever's available we're just going to take and they're done i like the thought though of it being fluid i like the thought of like in that room coming alive and be like we did not know this person was going to be available i know we like this person but we had no idea they were going to be available how do we compare them i like the thought of it being like a wall street trader you know like yeah like and i don't know if it's like them being surprised or shocked like say you're you're the 15th pick and all of a sudden 14 does something that you really didn't envision you didn't have like a fake mock draft where they took this person or they did something

or some trade happens and then all of a sudden you have 15 minutes and you're not really sure okay we have a couple options but someone's got to pull the trigger and i'm only saying 10 minutes because we reported 15 minutes yesterday like 45 times and we realized yesterday after the show that it's only 10 so you're not wrong we're all wrong but we realize it's 10 and that helps us especially if jacksonville doesn't take a hutchinson and dc runs to the thing that saves us 10 minutes on the draft spectacular you remember this thing is six hours i'm happy to be wrong that it's not 15 so are we by the way yeah that was a big zito it used to be 15 yeah zito actually came he said uh 10 and we said uh excuse me he was like uh 10 minutes in between drop picks everybody was like yeah yes all right that's good news it feels like it's 40 sometimes though go ahead uh to your point

about how gms and coaches and they all do it differently or whatever, Tomlin and Colbert were saying the other day that they stopped doing mock drafts. They stopped trying to mock what other teams were going to do. And they said they just have 20 guys. And whoever is still left at 20 when they're still there, that's who they're going to take. Fascinating. That's smart. There's a lot of guys.

And they showed a video of Rule trying to do that. And he wrote, like, and this was last year, Grant, when they still didn't get a QB, and they wrote Mack Jones or Trey Lance at three. And they almost like ruled those guys out, it seemed like. And by the time it got to them, obviously Fields and Mack were still there. So there's also stories of having your pick ready

and then the pick right in front of you takes the person. And I think that's why Jim told Chris, like, hey, if we like Jonathan Taylor, he's going to be an MVP in two years. If we like Jonathan Taylor, why are we even waiting three picks? Why are we even waiting four picks? If it's only going to cost us a fucking seven or something to do this, let's go do this now because the amount of times that people get their heart broke with the pick before,

I guess there's a couple rumors floating around the Colts building a couple different times that when we drafted T.Y. Hilton or whatever, I guess he was not going to be the pick. The team right before, though, drafted who they had, and they were ready and excited like, hey, this guy is going to take it. Allegedly. I don't know if any of this is true. Didn't hear from anybody in the room.

This is just what was talked about basically around the building by people that have been around a long time. So take that out of you. Right before that pick they take who it is and it's devastating. Everybody's like, oh my god, oh shit, we're fucked. And that's the first draft for that regime or whatever.

And I think it was Bruce Arians or something. Bruce Arians said, how about that T.Y. Hilton guy down there? We can fucking fly around with him or whatever. And they drafted him and nobody expected him, I think, to get drafted that high or to the Indianapolis Colts. And then like that next year,

dominated year after that. He's in the Pro Bowl, I think. Year after that, he's in the Pro Bowl. He's in the Pro Bowl. So it's like that whole, the thing of somebody being available that you didn't know was going to be available, certainlyuring the thought of a team just losing the guy that they had though just 30 seconds before and what if that person goes on to become the greatest player of all time

you're like oh my fucking god you were on him and you were on him from day one like they knew two years before hey if we get a chance this is our dude we're gonna take him then boom they take him right in front of you maybe maybe even someone you know on the team in front of you just did it to spite you because they didn't like you that much. They knew how much you loved that person. And you could have traded a seventh rounder next year to move up in front of that team and get that person, and instead you didn't. I think there's a lot of those stories as well around the NFL.

And then like you mentioned, the other side of it is like when a couple years ago the Eagles don't take Justin Jefferson. And you see the guys in the Vikings war room just basically scrapping everything they were doing because they didn't think there was any way Justin Jefferson was going to be there at, you know, 22 or wherever they got him. And then didn't fill it. Somebody. Yeah, they laughed at Philly. Right. They laughed.

They took Rager instead. Yeah, they laughed. It's on foot. Oh, my God. We get Justin Jefferson here. What a day. They laugh. It's on foot.

Oh, my God. We get Justin Jefferson here. What a day. I hope as we continue to be in a very transparent era, it feels like we're seeing more than we ever have in content. I hope those situations continue to happen. Because think about what NFL films will do with all these when they go into the Hall of Fame like 20, 30 years from now. All the footage that we have now from different team shooting stuff,

film shooting stuff, us having interviews with Tom Telesco, like the amount of content that's going to be able to be curated later is just amazing. It is unbelievable. It's so much different than the past. To your point on the missing out on the guy you've wanted forever and stuff like that, DJ, when we had him on last time,

he was a scout for the Ravens. He's like, we knew exactly who the Browns were going to take. We knew exactly who the Steelers were going to take because they played the same defense, the same schemes or whatever. So, like, and you'll see it in the draft because I pay attention most. Like, the Ravens will always, like, jump one or two ahead of the Steelers or they'll do the same thing because they always want similar guys and they don't want that guy to go in the division and stuff like that.

I wonder who the – so the Colts traded up to pick 222. They had, like, pick two not that many far after because there's not that many picks afterwards. I was staring down Mr. Irrelevant, allegedly, potentially to Kansas City, by the way. I wonder who the Colts thought were going to take me, why they traded up for whatever it was to pick 222 with the Eagles. That's because nobody I had heard from was in that area at all.

So I literally just thought about that for the first time, and that's probably not good. That's probably – What was that, 2009? Jesus Christ. That's Telesco tomorrow night. Yeah. Yeah, because he was a part of the entire process.

Yeah. And we're talking about sometimes teams who are back-to-back just like, you know, they have two guys like Telesco with Tua and Herbert. They're talking about sometimes teams who are back-to-back just like, you know, they have two guys like Tolesko with Tua and Herbert. They're like, hey, who gives a fuck? We're going to get one of them. Whoever gets picked before, we'll take the other one. Yeah, that's like the Tomlin-Coburn thing. Go ahead, go through the –

Houston was sitting at 223. Maybe they didn't want to lose you. No, Houston went ahead at the time. They had Matt. They had this young Turk. San Diego was 224. Then Denver. Then Denver and then AQ went to Steel Diego was 224. Then Denver. Then AQ went to Steelers at 226.

Maybe Pittsburgh. They might have thought Pittsburgh. Yeah. We had to settle for the big, bald stooge instead. Who? AQ Shibley. AQ Shibley. Oh, I thought you said big, bald stooge, like a different punter.

Hey, Andrew Brandt told uh story of you getting drafted in an article is that right nick andrew brant told the story yes the article was written years ago yeah something a piece he did for si but he resurfaced he re-quote tweeted it because he was like hey to those who are new to the andrew brant train basically here's something i wrote for fucking sports illustrated years ago which is pretty cool i did not know he was a writer for sports oh yeah oh he's talented every time we talk to him seems to be an incredibly cool guy something I wrote for fucking Sports Illustrated years ago, which is pretty cool. I did not know he was a writer for Sports Illustrated. He's talented. Every time we talk to him,

seems to be an incredibly cool guy. And on the internet, he goes about his business in a respectful fashion, I think. Doesn't seem to, you know, be too alarming or ridiculous. He wrote about your draft story about how, you know,

normally the first round picks, they get flown out. He said, upon landing, you got a realtor and you bought a house within like four hours of being there or whatever. And the whole thing got done he did not mention you had to drive an hour and a half to the airport to fly to green bay flying uh coach and in the middle seat he did not mention that but you when you look back on your draft day dream come true everything went exactly how you

expected and planned and did you buy a house the same day you were drafted on your first flight out to green bay no it's funny how those stories i know you that reminds me of that when people said that but no my wife came with me okay and i was in the facility for a day and a half whatever so she went and looked at houses all around and then we didn't buy a house we found one that we definitely wanted and we got one pretty early because then we took off and got there uh pretty quick but yeah i wanted to go to green bay like that was the team i wanted to pick me honestly so you didn't answer that question so you yeah what we did not buy a house four hours in okay but we definitely found one that we're i'm i'm very decisive my wife is too she went and looked at a bunch while i was in the facility for a day and a half and then she said okay i know

what you like. We narrowed it down to three. I said, that one. She did too. We bought it eventually. Well, congratulations. Holy shit. Was the first piece of art in that house the split jersey?

Yeah. It's never been in our house. Bullshit. Bullshit. She told me it was in the basement. I'd put it up, yeah, in her mom's basement. Not ours. That is amazing.

I love that that obviously triggered you right there. No, I would put it up. No, I'm not talking about the jersey. The jersey triggers I believe your wife, so I apologize for that. Oh, yeah. For this entire thing. The other day, what were we talking about that he got all pissed off? Food.

He was all pissed off. And then Bobby Carpenter comes on the next day. He's talking about he got all pissed off he's all pissed off and then barbie carper comes on next day he's like for the last 20 years we've been on about oh yeah yeah we could tell by that whole thing this whole you bought a house four hours into you've heard this story before because it was in sports illustrator and you're like that that is not true andrew funny how these stories yeah you you're tired about a house quick though it was quick and your wife designer at the time, too? No, not really. She started a few years after that.

Oh, was that the first house? Was that the genesis of the mogul that was interior designer, Laura Hawk? No, I don't know. I'm sure. I mean, she did the whole house. Yeah. Hey. Maybe that planted the seed in her brain.

Is she, like, one of the top in the world? I don't know how you rank Maybe that planted a seed in her brain. Is she like one of the top in the world? I don't know how you rank people. She has plenty of work. Well, her role in that's right. That would probably be. I think her role in that's the people that we have heard of that she's worked with is very. Top tier, right? Yeah.

Your wife might. Have you ever thought about that? Do you guys talk about that? No. Is she one of the top interior designers on earth right now? No. I don't think there are interior designers on earth right now? No. I don't think there are ranking systems. I think she is.

Yeah. If I bought a house, I would have her do it. HGTV has power ranking. She's probably on. Think about this house. Think about this family. I mean, Brady Quinn. Yep.

AJ Hawk. Top interior designer in the fucking world almost. Yes, Chopper. The goddamn Chopper Bobber building houses. Just got a new need, by the way, two days ago. Probably working today, Ben Simmons. Chopper.

Six hours after he woke up, he was doing deep squats and kicking his leg. Exactly. He'd be on the court tonight if it was game four. Anyways, the hockey dudes in this family. Gymnast. United States Olympian. She's a medalist. anyways the hockey dudes in this family that's right Alicia Sacramone yeah gymnast United States

Olympian yeah Olympian she's a medalist she's in the family what the fuck is going on over there good for your family pal

yeah and Brady's sister was like Gatorade player of the year in high school soccer player played at Virginia but she tore like her ACL nine times

nine times she can't play what a savage Ryan Hawk tear your ACL nine times stand up times? She can't play with a savage. Ryan Hawk. Tear your ACL nine times, stand up ten. That's what his

sister-in-law is doing. That's right. Which is unbelievable. Wow. Just read a couple articles. She is top notch. Laura? Yeah.

No, she is top notch. She perceived as That's what I'm saying. No article. Just read. He read a couple tweets. Yeah. Hey,

really short articles. About 140, 280 characters. Really, really. I read like four articles real quick. Hey, what's Elon going to do with Twitter? I saw a fake tweet that Elon, it was an Elon tweet. It was a fake tweet that said, I bought Twitter so I could delete it. Go outside and enjoy your lives. And I was like, fuck, what if he did? Oh, no.

I was like, what if Elon? I know it showed up on my timeline. And, you know, with everything on the internet, you always assume it's bullshit. But there has to be a little bit of like a little bit. I did it like a little recently. I'm like, wait a minute. What if?

Because what if he did? Too expensive. 46 billion to delete an app. It's like the tweet. Did you see it, though, Pat? What's that? I thought you were one of the people that said, like, oh, instead of spending $44 billion to buy Twitter,

he could have solved world hunger or something like that. I'm thinking, this wasn't a $44 billion donation, bud. Like, he plans on making money from Twitter. Yeah, it's a business decision. It's a business decision. And, you know, there's different buckets of money and it is hard to comprehend sometimes why this amount of trillions is in this bucket

and then there isn't an equal amount in this particular bucket. But whenever people say, well, take that and put it here, it's like, well, there's an entire allocation of money system and bucket. It's all bullshit. It could be expedited,

but that is vastly different monies. It doesn't make sense though that whole thing what you just talked about when it comes to like the government's monies yeah you know what i mean not to mention the government's debts as well well yeah but you know the government's so good with our fucking money listen okay i don't care which side of the plate you were on in this entire thing you You should not be pro taxes, okay? You should not. Everybody should pay their fair share.

Everybody should absolutely pay their fair share. And the people that don't, fuck them. They're much smarter than us because I feel like I'm helping out. I would rather be forced to donate that money myself, though. Like, if you're pro tax, not pro tax, I feel like there should be, like, buckets in which you could pick where you give the money to.

Like, I feel like that would be something. Instead, you know, the government takes it to make their own decisions. And, yeah, I'm sure it's going to the right place. It seems like it's going to the right place all the time. You know what I mean, AJ? Yeah, it seems like it would be an easy system to put in there, right, though? If we get to pick where our money goes, where our tax money goes, like, we could allocate it all? Yeah, it'd be no problem

at all. I'd love to have everybody's opinion. Yeah, that'd be great. The world would be such a much better place, though. Each individual choice of who you donate to or where it goes to, you're making that individual thing better. It's like, hey, why don't you guys deal with the money that you're printing off for the military and shit that we can't figure out?

And anything else that you want to do? And let us figure out where we're donating this money to. But then the issue becomes, obviously, you know, the super billionaires who have all the incredible lawyers and accountants, they'll just start opening those things. Those will become things that you can donate to

and they'll be forcing people somehow to donate into theirs and they'll be getting other people's taxes along with their own. That's right. Because humans are the fucking worst. Why does that have to happen? Everything has to be so goddamn confusing. It's not fair. Which leads me to the draft.

Let's go to the phones. What is going to happen tomorrow night, AJ? Chaos, for sure. Maybe. What did you say? Last night I was torn. Couldn't sleep last night. I was torn on this.

Hey, do you think a quarterback goes in the top 12? I don't know. Diggs had a stat earlier. If he doesn't go in the top three, he won't go until like 17 or something. Yeah, I forget the exact, but it was either top three or bottom half. Yeah, 20 years. That's the first quarterback taken, yeah. Yeah, okay.

Yeah. Half a dozen, 12. Actually, perfect metaphor for that situation right there. Shout out. Give a fucking sports Emmy to that the um 17 half though yeah thank you yeah I feel real good about that quick yeah yeah I feel sorry about that but anyways if they don't go top three they're going to go late allegedly but then if they go late we have to remember that what was being said a month and

a half ago is the most accurate information as opposed to what's being said after a free agency. Because remember, these quarterbacks were not first roundable. They were looking at these quarterbacks, that's a fucking third rounder right there, that's a fourth rounder right there. Who the fuck are you? Why is a Liberty guy being talked about right now? Then now all of a sudden it's like, well, maybe four of them go. guy being talked about right now then now all of a sudden it's like well maybe four of them go maybe desmond ritter and corral and malik and kenny pickett and carson strong of course maybe

they all go because there's a quarterback uh driven league it's like i i honestly have no idea how this is going to go the last night and i try not to overthink anything and i think it's pretty apparent whenever you hear me speak or operate i try not to overthink anything, and I think it's pretty apparent whenever you hear me speak or operate. I try not to overthink much. It's just like, hey, what's the right move? I've been thinking about this draft spectacular a lot the last few days. I am so intrigued on how it goes because this could be a fucking boring six hours, boys.

Oh, yeah. Because there's a good chance we don't know anything. We barely know the guys that are going to go top five. How the hell are we going to figure out the other 27? A guy was said yesterday in Mitt's mock to go to the Packers or the Patriots or something like that. Never heard of the human before in my life, AJ. I had no idea this person existed.

Going in the first round, pick 30. There's going to be 15 to 20 of those for us tomorrow, I think. I think there's going to be a lot of learning about guys tomorrow night from about all of us. And I can't wait to see the bullshit that comes out and what we learn and judge about each one of these. Because that's what happens. People judge the draft pick immediately upon it happening.

And it's like, we have no fucking clue. Who won the first round? Like, that'll be out by 1 a.m. And it'll be taken seriously. Yeah. And then you can argue with your buddies on which team won the first round. Like, oh, we didn't even have a pick, so we didn't lose, bud. Sorry.

It's beautiful for hypothetical situations. Oh, yeah. I mean, the draft has a hole. Six hours. What are you talking about? Dude, it's going to be 350 minutes. You just start doing the math. Well, how many?

Okay, what is it slated for on, like, ESPN? What does it say on your guide or whatever? They actually just put, like, the dot, dot, dot thing. It's 8 o'clock until 8 a.m. the next day. So question mark at the end of a party? Yeah, yeah. It is indefinitely, it actually says. It's actually blocked out into Friday.

They don't even have get up on the ESPN thing on Friday morning. It is still first round of NFL draft. Because there's, you know, never know what's going to happen. Well, I think they did used to block it like 8 to 11. Yeah. And then like the first time they did that, it was still going on at like 1.30. They're like, hey, we can't fucking do this again. All right, we're just lying to people here.

So I think at the very least, it's probably 8 to midnight. But yeah, it might just 8 to 8. Do you remember how startled we were year one, three and a half hours into that thing, and there was still 16 picks left? Rattled. And who the fuck decided to do this? Like, that is all I'm thinking about is this is a lot of airtime

we're about to have tomorrow night. I remember about halfway into that first round, or maybe even a little over halfway, I'm like, okay, this has been really fun. This is cool. All right. It's kind of winding down. And then I started thinking, I got a little over halfway. I'm like, okay, this has been really fun. This is cool. All right. It's kind of winding down. And then I started thinking, I got a little bit overwhelmed,

thinking this is absolutely not winding down at all. Middle of the marathon. I mean, CFO Phil's got an actual marathon this Sunday. Good luck. Go get him. That's this Sunday. Phil's been training for a long time. He almost died in Hollywood when we were out there for the Super Bowl

training on the mountains. He was out there with the mountain lions. Dog bit him, too. Yeah, he got bit by a chihuahua. Yeah, little fucker. And we all know what happened last marathon CFO Phil ran. We did not have to revisit that because it's positive vibes only. That's right.

But we are excited for CFO Phil to finish his first marathon. Good luck, Phil. Good luck, Phil. Go get him, Phil. Let's go, Phil. You're going to finish it. Hey, you don't need to win it, Phil. No. No. Jeez. Everybody send a tweet to CFO Phil at Phil. Let's go, Phil. You don't need to win it, Phil. No. No.

Jeez. Everybody send a tweet to CFO Phil at Phil Manning's and say, hey, you don't need to win the fucking marathon. I'd like to track him. Can I track him? Yes, you can. And actually, the last time he ran a marathon, he had a friend in Indiana that was tracking him. And then all of a sudden, there was no more tracking. And there was no response for a couple hours.

And it was, oh, my God, this guy fucking died. Yeah. Where is Phil? And and turns out he almost did it was like the guy was way ahead of schedule though because i was talking to him before the marathon and i'm like what's the pace where you're going to be at whatever and then you can watch along on the internet and it's like he he is taking a vastly different trying to win he he was like i think he had like six minute miles like going into like i think he was still like at seven minute miles like probably 14 15 miles in or whatever and it's like what are you who's this guy what are you trying to prove your body's going to shut down oh and it did yeah i believe it did yeah yeah he got the whole thing so this time he's going he's gonna fucking beat pittsburgh hell yeah let's go phil hell yeah we can't i'm so proud of phil i'm excited for phil he's put a lot of work into this i'm assuming what he's going to fucking beat Pittsburgh. Let's go, Phil. I'm so proud of Phil. I'm excited for Phil. He's put a lot of work into this.

I'm assuming what he's going to do to his body Sunday night, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, maybe into Friday is going to be fantastic after marathon training. But I'm proud of him. Our marathon's tomorrow night. That's right. Boom. It's where our jaws are and our mouths. Although it is not going to be 26 miles running

or walking, it is going to be 26 miles running or walking, it is going to be 26 miles of talking. And we have to remember that. And we don't know where the road's going to go. No. There's been no training course for this. No. We could have learned the players' names,

but who knows if they're the players that are going to go in the first round. So why would we be studying fake names, AJ? It might drop. Makes sense. I just remembered the first drafts were definitely true. I think we started at like 7, maybe even 630. That's a bad idea. So this one starts at eight, right?

Goddamn right it does. Yeah. What time did it end last year, 1230? 1230. That was last year. I remember I drove to the Derby right afterwards. Oh, yeah, you psycho. Oh, my God.

That was tough. That was a tough one. Well, it ended at 1230, and the first four picks took like 20 minutes, I think. Are you going to the Derby this week or no? No, is it this week? No, it's next week. No, I'm not going. It's Mother's Day weekend, which I believe is next week. You're not going? No, Mother's Day is this Sunday, I think,

right? No, next Sunday. Are you sure? Jesus, come on. I'll check on this. I'm positive. Why are you not going? No, because Father's Day is coming up too. That's in June. That's in June. What are you talking about? So you're telling me this Sunday is not Mother's Day?

No Just check my calendar That is May 8th May 8th No wonder you couldn't get here for the draft dude This dude's a week Week in advance prepared for Mother's Day What a fucking guy Same weekend as the Derby.

Coming into his 15th season in the NFL, his first as a Colt future Super Bowl champion, ladies and gentlemen, quarterback Matt Ryan. What's up, boys? Hey, first of all, need to let everybody know this. Matt Ryan walked in with two four-packs of Stone Cold Steve Austin's beer. What? Cheers to you, Matt. Thank you for bringing a brew haul in here.

Cheers, boys. Cheers. I got to say congrats on the WrestleMania deal. It was cool. Thank you, man. And a little shout-out to my guy, Stone Cold. Got to spend some time with him last summer, shoot a commercial, so I thought it would work out perfect. Hey, cheers to you.

Cheers, boys. This is a great way to make some friends. Sorry, AJ. My bad, dude. I didn't send you any over. How you doing, man? Good, man. How you doing?

Are you excited about being there? I am. Yeah, excited. It's going to be a lot of fun. And, you know, obviously 14 years in Atlanta, a long time. It's hard when it ends there, as you well know, playing in one spot for a long time. There's also a level of excitement that's coming with this. New team, new guys, really good locker room. It's going to be a fun year.

At what point, because of 14 years in one place, you're obviously pretty deep in the community, whether it's philanthropy, I assume some business ventures, and your name has just become synonymous with the Falcons organization. New stadium over there. I mean, like, at what point in this entire process did you, like, you had to battle with that, I assume, right, leaving there? And at what point did you finally get to, like, all right, maybe it is time for a next chapter and kind of, like, convince yourself it'll be a good move? like, all right, maybe it is time for a next chapter and kind of like convince yourself it'll be a good move? Yeah, I think it was definitely hard, you know, because, you know, for 14 years, you know, since I got drafted with the draft coming up, since I got drafted for 14 years, every day I woke up, it was what can I do to help this organization win a Super Bowl?

And, you know, the whole thing went down with, you know, the four teams looking for Deshaun Watson and Atlanta being one of them. And, you know, going through that time frame, I had to take a look, you know, around too and see what was out there, if something were to go down or whatever. Did they tell you directly or you just had to hear about it? No, I talked with Arthur Smith, head coach, before. He was, you know, it's not stuff you want to hear. Yes, you were bummed about this.

This was not something that you were planning on happening. Because when the turnover happened, right, and new GM, new head coach, with your contract, with how long you've been around, I think the natural thought was like, oh, they're going to move on. But then you ball out. Like, hey, you played your fucking ass off, it felt like. Like, honestly, you kept going, and they kept you around. It was like, oh, did you assume, like, honestly, you kept going and, and they kept you around. It was like, oh, did you assume like, okay, I'm going to be in this new regime as well.

It's like, I'm with the Falcons as opposed to organization or was the writing on the wall? Like how did that whole thing work out? I, you know, I really finished up last year thinking that there was going to be no movement, you know, and, and, um, you know, I'd be back there and we keep moving on. But as, as you know, like the off season goes through waves where it kind of, you know, I'd be back there and we'd keep moving on. But as you know, like the offseason goes through waves where it kind of – you finish up, you know, last season and then, you know, you take some time, you get away, and they start to make plans.

And, you know, as we were getting closer to getting back and that kind of went down, you know, I got the sense that, you know, maybe it is the right time. Maybe it's time for me to move on. And, you know, it's bittersweet, you know, like you're sad that, you know, maybe it is the right time. Maybe it's, maybe it's time for me to move on. And, and, um, you know, I, it's bittersweet, you know, like you're, you're sad that, you know, that part of it is over because you invested so much in it. Um, but at the same time, I'm not mad about, you know, it was such a good time. It was 14 years. It doesn't, it doesn't happen for many guys. And so, you know, more, I'm just proud of, of what we accomplished we accomplished there and, you know, proud to have been associated.

Thankful for, like you mentioned, like being involved in the community, doing a lot of things from a philanthropic standpoint. And also getting to meet all the people that I met. Atlanta is a, you know, thriving city. It's booming right now. It's changed so much in the 14, 15 years I was there. And I made so many good contacts. That'll be lifelong, you know, contacts for me, which is great. Now I'm excited for this next chapter.

So do you feel like you got – by the way, thank you for saying all that. That was very transparent there. And, you know, you are a quarterback, so. Yep. You guys are like held up in this. Oh, the perfect human beings. So I appreciate that. But do you have like – you talked about human beings. So I appreciate that.

But do you have like, you talked about a fresh start and everything like that. Does it feel like you're almost going back in time? Like is it, there's a fresh energy because you got to prove yourself to a lot of people now, right?

And I assume that's how you feel about going into a building with your teammates and your coaches and these fans are pumped for you. But I assume you're like excited to give them a dose of what a Matt Ryan-led Colts team could be as well, right? Absolutely. You know, I kind of, I'm good

buddies with Matthew Stafford. So when it was all going down, you know, I kind of called him and said, hey, what can you expect? You know, what are some of the things you're going to go through? And he was like, dude, it really feels like, you know, you're 14 years old and you're going from like eighth grade or whatever. And you're going to that first year of high know, you're 14 years old and you're going from like eighth grade or whatever. And you're going to that first year of high school where you're a little bit nervous, you know, you're trying to show out, show off a little bit, you know, whatever, trying to, you know, fit in all those different things. And honestly, it does feel a lot like that. You know, you're getting to know new people, you meet new friends, you, you know, you're trying to get along

with. Yeah. So, I mean, that part, you know, that part's exciting. You're a little anxious, whatever, but you also have that feeling of like, yeah, I need to go prove myself too. You know, I need to go prove that, you know, Mr. Ursae and Chris Ballard and Frank, you know, made a great decision in making this trade. And for me, that's exciting. I think all athletes, you know, to some level always have that chip on their shoulder or whatever, or always trying to prove something. And this is certainly one of those things you want to prove. Go ahead, AJ. How many systems did you play in your 14 years in Atlanta? And like, how big of a deal is it for especially a quarterback to digest a whole new system so I think I had six six different coordinators in the 14 years there which is

you know looking back on it you're like there's a lot of transition a lot of transition luckily most of them went on to be head coaches which was uh it's not like they're getting fired and we were playing shitty offense or something like that. You're like, good luck, Chuck. Yeah. Well, at the time, yeah. But it was probably really two different systems. You know, I think the biggest change for me was the end of 2014 going into 2015 where I had been with Mike Malarkey and Dirk Cutter. And it was the same terminology for, you know, my first six or seven years, whatever that is. And then Kyle came in and it was like, it was like a completely different system, totally West Coast, old school, long play calls, you know, took like three minutes to get out of

your mouth. And that was a hard transition. So I probably played in two, those two systems, most of my time there with different play callers. And then know this i liken it a little bit to that transition back in 14 and 15 so how is the you know transition because this team is built hey matt listen i i chimed into kyle who you've probably got to meet uh by now athletic trainer yeah yeah i was i was it kyle and eb were telling me a little legendary group they were telling me a little story about you this morning come on about a trip to uh i think it was pittsburgh for a penguins game or something like that oh yeah had a good time they said they had a real good time hey that's a good group there that whole building is a very good group of people like they know how to win too they've been around like you know what i mean that whole group it's a cohesive building right like everybody's rowing in the same direction

uh which to me it's so hard to win in this league uh when everybody is going in the same direction, which to me, it's so hard to win in this league when everybody is going in the right direction. But when there's different parts of the building that might be pulling in different directions, it's damn near impossible to win. And so it's good to come into a building where it feels like that. You would know better than I. I haven't been there for a long time. But you even get that sense the first couple of weeks in the building that it's like, oh, this feels good. These guys have a good setup going here.

Was there anywhere else that you had to look at? Because this is a super quarter. Hey, if you're a veteran who knows how to play football in this particular offseason, you're maybe on the move. It was a great time to potentially be there because everybody's understanding that if you don't have a quarterback, you need a quarterback. For you, whenever you came to that point where, hey, it might be another chapter going somewhere else, how many different places did you look into? And what was that process like? Was your agent telling you places that may have been? Like, how do you even know?

Yeah, they kind of put together a little rundown on, you know, what the landscape of the league looked like. you know, what the landscape of the league looked like. And to be honest with you, you know, you go through it, and trust me, there were a handful of spots that, you know, might have been interested. But as you look through the rosters, to me it was like, there's one spot, you know, that really piques my interest. But it's a two-way street, you know.

You can look at it and say, hey, you know, they, they look really good and I'd like to be a part, but they gotta, you know, they gotta feel the same about you. And, um, so I kind of laid it out to my agents that, Hey, if, and when this happens, you know, I'd like to talk to them first. This is, this is the spot that, that I'm really interested in. What'd you guys zoom FaceTime? They travel? We zoomed. So it was a Saturday night. Uh, and I had never gone through any of this stuff guys Zoom, FaceTime? They travel? We Zoomed. So it was a Saturday night. And I had never gone through any of this stuff before. But the hoops they got to jump through to make these meetings happen are not easy. And so initially I was supposed to do this thing at like 1 o'clock.

I had a T-ball. So I've got twin boys. We've got like the T-ball opening day parade. And I was supposed to go at 1. Have to be there. Have to be there. So I'm like, guys, I'm free any time after 1 o'clock. They're'm supposed to go at 1. Have to be there. Have to be there. Have to be there. So I'm like, guys, I'm free any time after 1 o'clock. They're like, all right, it's going to be 1 o'clock.

And then whatever hoops they have to jump through, I'm like sitting there waiting from 1 until like 6.30 waiting to get a call. No! Jesus! This is a Saturday afternoon. No, no, T-Ball parade day. We did it. We kind of, I mean.

What happened? Colts. Conti. It wasn't the Colts. It would, you know, I'm not going to, it doesn't matter how, you know, how I'm going to pin myself in that corner. But it worked out. We were on a Zoom call that Saturday night. Spent, you know, a couple, maybe two, two and a half hours with those guys.

And I came away from it. I was up in my office in my house in Atlanta, walked downstairs and told my wife, I said, I think, you know, I think that's it. I think, you know, we've got to make a move. We've got to make a transition. Were you interviewing them? They've been interviewing you?

Both? I think a little bit of both. You know, I think they had certainly done their homework going into it, as had I. And then, you know, you kind of get going, you get talking and, you know, they start talking football, Frank starts going with it and I'm, you know, listening and then asking questions about, you know, in my head saying, okay, that's similar to a concept that I ran before.

What do you guys do versus this? Oh, so you guys are talking like high level football right there. You guys are trying to say who's smarter football brain right now? I wasn't. I'm just saying, you know, are we know there's only a couple we're gonna have answers are we gonna have answers i gotta know uh and frank was able to keep up that's great news and chris i know and i want to let you know this town whenever there's not no moves made you know by free agency with how much money the colts had and everything and then the quarterback position

we ship carson wentz out of town, and literally there's just no quarterback. And it's like, what are the Colts doing? What are the Colts doing? And all Chris Ballard kept saying was just be patient, be patient with his Southern accent. Whatever the hell he says, you know. And he is incredible at his job.

I think it's very apparent with the roster and everything like that. And then whenever it was announced that you were coming here, man, they would have had a fucking T-ball parade for you here. Honestly, this place is, like, very excited for you to be here, man, because I think if you look at the roster, and let's talk about the roster because you said you looked at some other places, that roster, with the offensive line, you have pillars standing in front of you, like literally Colts pillars organization. And behind you, in Jonathan Taylor, like I texted Kyle to ask ask you like, Hey, what do you know about Jonathan Taylor? Like,

Hey, this dude is different. I got a chance to see him. He can go. The defense is stacked. I don't know what Chris Bowers got in store for the draft, but when you look at that Ross, is this the best Ross? No offense to any roster in Atlanta. This is not to be taken that way. But when on paper, it feels like this roster is maybe one of the best you've ever been on, right? Yeah, I think it's one of them. On paper. Yeah, it's one of them. You know, I think I was fortunate.

I played on some good teams, you know, there in Atlanta. I think of, you know, 2012, we had a really good football team. You talk about skill positions. You throw out a Roddy White, Julio Jones, Tony Gonzalez, Mike Turner in the backfield. We had some guys you know but I do think this roster is is built to win. There's no doubt about it. Nothing's guaranteed. We got to go earn it and that's what I'm excited for but it's good. I mean you talk about the offensive i'm i'm in there like we're lifting weights this time of the year and you go in and i'm like holy shit these guys are big like not that like you know big and soft they're like big and and like ripped yeah and uh two top 100 players in the nfl on that offensive line i know that that that that makes me feel pretty good yeah it makes me feel real good it should record Ralph Quentin Nelson is he is just an

absolute game changer since he got on our team it changed everything he's a beauty he um so my cousin uh plays for the San Francisco 49ers my my cousin played at Notre Dame with with Q and uh so I've kind of followed him for a long time from afar, just watching my cousin being like, oh, man, Mike, you're playing good, but this other guard's pretty good too. You guys got a nice little offensive line here. And he's nasty, you know. But like that genuine nasty, you know, like not the fake tough. And I think he just, you know, I haven't played with him,

but, you know, watching from afar, it feels like the guys feed off that energy, you know, I haven't played with him, but, you know, watch him from afar, it feels like the guys feed off that energy, you know, and that level of finish and not putting up with anything and kind of protecting the guys around him. I think that's huge. Great to stand behind. Go ahead, AJ. Matty, you're so, like, well-spoken and put together. Like, what a franchise quarterback.

I think you make people feel good in Indianapolis. I know you make Pat feel good, Indianapolis. Now you make Pat feel good. You are under center there. But you ever you seen these guys get monster contracts to do TV. Have you thought about future TV gigs you may do? And also, I bet your kids would love if you bought Tony Stewart, I think, as a $30 million house. Oh, yeah. It's a Cabela's.

Yeah. Well, I'm not getting a Cabela's up here. Maybe something slightly more modest. But, you know, a little bit about, you know, what's next. But I don't feel like I'm there yet. You know, honestly, I still feel really good. You know, my body feels really good. I still feel like I can play at a high level.

And so, you know, from that standpoint, I feel like the competitive fire is still there. And this is still, you know, since I've, you know, can remember, this is all I've ever wanted to do. You know, like literally all I ever wanted to do was, you know, play quarterback in the NFL, wherever it was. And I still feel that way. And, you know, I'm sure, you know, hopefully in, you know, a number of years, you know, that'll be a decision we have to make. Like seven years, I'm sure, you know, hopefully in, you know, a number of years, you know, that'll be a decision we have to make. Like seven years, I'm saying. Yeah, seven.

How old are you? I'm 36. But I'm saying, you know, right now you look at some of the older guys been playing that play similar to the way I play. You know, I think there's different ways to play. I know you guys have Aaron on here all the time. And I think those guys who are pocket guys that get the football out, I think there's – So you envision yourself. With all the rule changes too.

It's different from when I first got into the league and you're protected much differently than we were at that point. So I think there is, if you take care of yourself, you do the right things. If you want to and if you're playing at a high level, there's an opportunity to play longer than ever before. So we have brainstormed numerous times, because you're talking about Aaron coming on here, with what Tom's doing, where he's eating avocado ice cream

and stuff like that. And by the way, you look fantastic. You brought in some beers. That's amazing. You're a human. That's unbelievable. But if you look at what's going on with the rules changes, everything you're talking about, we've always talked like,

if you're Aaron, Aaron could play another 10 years if he wanted to, almost with how good a shape he's in. You are having that exact same conversation as the world is changing. I find that interesting that you're acknowledging that and being like, yeah, I think I can play a lot longer if I can just keep my body together. Do you hear any weird shit? And how do you feel about how you've transitioned in treating your body? I've been lucky you know i i haven't you know i haven't had many nagging things you know and and so um you know and the big ones are like knees back neck those kind of things and

and i've been fortunate and and hopefully i'll continue to be that way yeah yeah absolutely yeah it's good thank you found some yeah i found some wood to knock but uh that's fake yeah i you know i i work hard my belief on you know is is everything in moderation including moderation so you know it's oh that's a next level yeah yeah yeah so it's okay to have beer every once in a while or 10 you know whatever sometimes so you same diet you've always done you haven't gone through like a full no i've changed i mean i've changed a lot since you have a body guru you have a body guru i you know i not not really my wife you know she's russell wilson pays a million dollars a year we saw a post russell wilson had an arm guy a leg guy a foot guy a wrist guy a cardio guy and an upper body guy and then the peloton guy

was putting an air force mask on yeah that's right he has an entire team they talk about it lebron james i think he has an entire team like these the tom brady has an entire fucking company yeah that goes around it you don't you don't do any of that uh not quite to that extent i like hearing this this is good for the coach my belief This is good for the Colts. Good guy. My belief is, you know, I went out to see Adam Dado, who's kind of in that Tom House tree. So I went and saw Adam and Tom House. Who are they? They're like throwing arm care guys that kind of help you train the way you do.

Shout out to Dado and House. Yes. Awesome. Right? And so they're great guys and have helped me a bunch. But I went to them in 2015, and I've stuck with that program to maintain kind of – maintain your shoulder, maintain your elbow, maintain your low back, maintain kind of those throwing muscles. And I'm pretty religious about that. And then, you know, from a training standpoint, I've always been in two places. Like in Atlanta, we had really good, we had a really good setup, you know, and people who took care

of your body really well. And then you come here and you know it, like you walk into that building and you start to spend time with these guys and you say, I don't have to go outside the house. You know, we've got really good people in the building here uh in the sports science department you know uh here in indies they're pretty awesome too i mean yes and like i i've never seen this thing note meal or whatever that they have that you have to order your meals on but it it like does the macros of like your breakdown on exactly what you're eating and i'm like shit i could be a little tighter than that's some information i never heard before yeah yeah yeah so uh i think that that that stuff's really going to help me

out as well i told you about this as we were walking in but i feel like jim ursa wants to win a couple super bowls for the grandkids you know and he made a promise to this city that's right two multiple in the same decade but i think jim ursa like you're talking about with these note meals and sports science and the building and everything jim ursae is going all in right now and i think you are another signing stephon gilmore they just like it feels like the ownership all the way have you met jim ursae what have your interactions been with him and he is a beauty that guy yeah he seems great so i have not met him in person but i've talked to him on the phone and we've had kind of a handful of back and forths and you can tell everything in the building is done with the mindset on winning

right there's there's nothing that they're doing that's just for show or for uh there's a purpose behind everything they they do and as a player that's really all you can ask for. You know, I don't need like the bells and whistles. It doesn't need to look great. And the facility looks fine. I'm not saying that, but like it needs to be set up with winning in mind. What are the things we can invest in that are going to help us win? And I think, you know, from my short time here, I feel like they've done a really good job of keeping the mindset on what's going to help us win. You heighten everybody else too, by the way. As soon as you walk in the building, there's people that are going to step their job up because it's like, hey, Matt Ryan can get there and win.

And I want us to have a great relationship, you and me. But I have to bring something up that is terrible. And I have terrible memories in my sports career, and they are awful. You have one that gets referenced all the fucking time. And it has to be very, very... I'm going to take a big sip of this. Yeah, yeah. Cheers.

As we dive into this, this is where we become better friends. This is where we got to get in there because I'm intrigued to hear your thought process behind it all because I've had to deal with a terrible situation in sports where the backlash still continues to haunt me to this day, both on Twitter, social media, and in my mind. In that situation, a lot of decisions were made, whatever. How do you use that every single day? And is it something that you think you'll ever be able to fully move past?

Well, I think it's always somewhere in there, right? I think it's always somewhere in there. And I don't see that as a bad thing, right? Like, obviously, would have loved for that game to have gone differently. There's no doubt about it, but didn't, and there's not shit we can do about it now. And so, uh, you know, if, if, if you don't use that as a learning opportunity, like as a, as an opportunity to be better, uh, and to be better the next time you're in it, uh, then it's wasted, right? It's, it's one of those scars that you, you know, accumulate throughout your life. That's wasted, right? You don't learn from it. And so I do think, uh, it makes you like, I don't know the

right word to say, but like harder, you know, like callous, callous, callous is perfect. That's why you do what you do good with the words. Um, but it does make you calloused. And, and I think that's good because I think that in order to win a playoff games, in order to win championships, it takes a hard mindset. It takes a calloused team. And I think that, you know, as a result of going through that the last time, whenever, you know, hopefully we can get that opportunity, I think you have that calloused mindset of going in there and saying, no, no, it's never over, you know, either way. And we got to find a way to get the job done. And, you know, I'm thankful in a small way, you know for that you think you still have the same competitive fire now if that doesn't happen that's a good question uh

i don't probably not you know because it hey i want to let you know what happened every you know frank started the the team meeting off last week he was talking about you know the end of last year and kind of summing up the last year and that being the last time we talk about it. And he was like, you know, can't change it, wouldn't change it. And because it's brought us to the point where we're at. And in my head, I'm like, well, there are some things I would like to, you know, some things I would like to change. Just one, just one, you know, just one small thing. But, you know, he's not wrong. You know, I think there are things that happen in your life that get you to the point where you're at. And, you know, I think they make you into the person you need to be to be ready for that next great opportunity. And I'm excited about that. Hey, we're pumped for it as well. And cheers to you answering that. Cheers.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I was trying to figure out how to ask it, but, you know, you showed up with Stone Cold's beers. Right. I just assumed, like, we should just ask it. But now that you are, you know, in a position to make a run again in that building, you've been in there meeting. How has it gone? Introducing yourself to everybody. Who are some of the people that, you know, you've been kind of taken back and surprised by?

Like, oh, leader in the locker room. Are you a vocal leader in the locker room? How have you found, like, making new friends? Because this is probably something that's different. Everybody was coming into your locker room before. Now you're coming into somebody else's. Yeah, for sure. That part is definitely different.

You know, even when it was new teammates coming in, you know, there was still that sense of, like, hey, I know how the operation runs around here. And if I see, you know, doing something that either goes against what we were doing or whatever, you're in that position to say, you know, Hey, that's, that's not how we do it. Your resume warrants respect. Correct. And just the time spent in the same building, right? There's, there's always those guys that have been around that building for a long time.

And regardless of what their position is, there's a level of respect that comes with that because they've been doing something right. Yes. Right? Like if you're staying in the same place for a long time, you've been doing a lot of things right. And it's different for me coming into that building. But, guys, you know, I've been surprised by, you know, like a DeForest Buckner to me. He's massive. Big dude.

There's no question about that. But just like, you know, we're in the training room or whatever getting treatment in the morning, and you hear this guy talk, and, like, he's like a special human, you know, like a really, really good dude, you know, as professional as they come. Great mindset. He spoke in front of the team the other day about what the objectives for the offseason were. And you were like, wow, that was like, you know, and some of those things. You've sat in those. Terrible, yes.

Some of them you're like, oh, my God. Choose it. I feel so uncomfortable. Why would you choose him, right? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, but he finished up. And you're like, man, that was really good. Like, that was well done.

So he's been impressive. All pro, by the way, too. So not only all of that. I mean, great player, great player. And that only adds to it, right? Yeah. There are certain guys, we've all played with them, that, you know, are unbelievable players, but not necessarily like, they're not the leaders.

You know, it's not always the guys that that are the best players that that are in the leadership positions uh but it's it's awesome when your best players are the best leaders yes like that that to me is is when you've hit it um and and he's one of them Darius Leonard awesome I mean loud I get in the locker room music's going he doesn't shut up they're playing cornhole they're doing all that stuff and he's pretty damn good at cornhole, too. Yeah, I've heard. That whole locker room. The whole locker room's good. They were like, you want to play?

I was like, let me see you guys play first. I'm good right now. I'm going to have to practice this summer. Hey, you will get hustled in a locker room, too, in cornhole or any other game that happens as well. Not you. I'm just saying. No doubt. In an NFL locker room.

Anybody. You are trying to get got at any point at that time. So that's why I didn't play. Let me see how this is going first. 14 years in the NFL. Yeah, a little bit of experience. But it's been good. On the offensive side of the ball, we got to throw yesterday.

I threw it with Naheem Hines. Backflip and full pads. Unreal. That guy. I mean, crazy athleticism. Super fast, really good hands out of the backfield, a worker. The one thing I have been really impressed with coming in is the way the guys work. You know, there is, and I always think that's the best combination is where you can be loose in the locker room, you can be loose walking out onto the field, and then the whistle blows

and everybody locks in and you go. And, you know, I think they're young. You know, they might need a little bit of guidance in certain directions. But the culture part, like that part of it, has been really cool to see coming into. Go ahead, AJ. How fast into that Zoom meeting with the Colts, like, executives, did you know, hey hey this is my spot uh pretty quick oh yeah pretty quick 10 15 had to play hard to get there for two hours and 15

minutes yeah i should have been like guys let's save each other some time this is gonna be good i knew pretty quick you know chris i one of the things I loved was the zoom meeting started and, and Chris kind of, you know, gives a bio of his time in Indianapolis. And the thing I loved was it wasn't a highlight reel. You know, he's like, here, here's, here's some of the things we did well, here's some of the things I screwed up. I wish, you know, and to me, me like that is the stuff that sells you it it is the self-accountability you know the the not being scared to make a mistake if we do we correct it um because that stuff happens and and i think one of the things that you know can hurt a team is sometimes when you don't acknowledge some of the mistakes that you made you kind of hang on too long long. And, you know, that part to me, he said that,

and then Frank started talking and going through, you know, his beliefs on how they could get better and so on and so forth. And I was like, okay, cool. Sounds good. Oh, you guys want me to talk now? Yeah. I played Atlanta a long time. Hey, Frank, let's see who's smarter in football.

I like that that definitely happened, by the way. That 1,000% happened. You know it. I know it. You two going out. Who can out football IQ each other? Because there's only a few of you guys that can have those conversations these days. I mean, he can go toe-to-toe with anybody.

He started going, I'm like, shouldn't have asked that question. That's like whenever people watch the Manning cast, you know, and another, like Russell was in there talking to Peyton. And Eli was chiming in, but he's not really, doesn't dive into all the conversations. But Peyton and Russell, you could hear them both trying to out-football each other. And it was like, oh, this is awesome. I love when this is happening. Some guys you have to defer to, though, right?

Like there's a handful of guys that when they go, you're just like, yep, yep. I like Peyton. Yeah, Peyton, Tom, those guys have, you know, they just, especially the guys that were before you, you know, and that's one of the things I respect so much about Frank, too, is like having played the position, having come in and played in a backup role, like greatest comeback in the history of the NFL. And college.

I know. I like, maybe it's the second greatest comeback in the history of the NFL, you know, like, maybe it's the second greatest comeback in the history of the NFL. You know, like, which is, which is. It's fucked up. A little. Yeah, a little bit. You know, but when he goes, but then having played with Jim Kelly for so long, like there's just, you know, there's a level of respect that you have for that position.

You know, and I think all the guys who really, you know, love football, who love, you know, playing the game, you hold the position, like playing the position in a certain regard. And it was cool to hear Frank, you know, talk that way. And, you know, I have so much respect for how he goes about it. When Tom Brady comes to AFC South, did you have a relationship with him prior to that? Obviously, you went to BC, and he was probably up there at the same time. I don't know if you guys ever met them, but you just put, you said Tom and Peyton. Is there guys that you looked at that inspired the way you play?

And was there people that you were learning from while still in the league, even here in the later years, or anybody like that? Yeah, those guys were the guys because they were like that. I saw him playing college. I saw him play in the NFL before I even got to college, you know, and so you have this like, man, that's what I want to be like. Yeah. And then I got to know both of them. I got to know Tom, not while I was at BC, you know, we didn't have that great of a following, like fan base or whatever. It wasn't that big of a deal, Boston College football. And I love it.

Matty Ice. Yeah. The biggest deal with Matty was there. Yeah, yeah. We had a good run. We had a good run. But, I mean, it's just – it's a professional sports town. So I got to know him after I got drafted.

And it would be, you know, text message here or there, kind of a little bit of back and forth. But he was always super helpful, super helpful throughout my career. If I needed something or text him about something, he would get back to you. And then he came to the NFC South, and I was like, really? All the other divisions, like, really? And then a retirement home happened down there basically i know and and so they've had a good setup um so he was one of the guys you know

i looked up to drew was another you know and i had to play against drew breeze you know every year for for 13 years i mean it was uh i mean just as good as they come man just a competitor never out of it always knew regardless of what team he was rolling in with you always knew you had to go out there and and and you know put up points because he was going to find a way do all quarterbacks get along with each other you know it's one of those positions I kind of think they do yeah I have to right because you guys are the only ones that really understand. Yeah, for whatever reason, there's just a lot of the guys that I've met along the way. We're all kind of cool to each other. You're closer with some than you are with others.

Yeah, exactly. We all golf. You're going to golf today, it looks like. Yeah, maybe. I told you this story before I came on. I was saying a wise old coach, coach Keith Armstrong was our special teams coach in Atlanta for like 11 or 12 years and uh one of the days he was you know it was early on in my career and I asked him I'm like Keith you going golfing this afternoon you're in a polo he's like

Matt Matt Matt he's like let me give you a piece of advice he was like you dress up in golf attire every day so that nobody actually knows how much golf some genius to that you don't want to be the guy who's playing too much you know whatever so if you show up in it every day uh but in fact i am i'm gonna i'm gonna go play with some of the teammates this afternoon good player you good player i'm okay yeah i'm okay you're real good i I'm okay. What are you shooting? 73? Yeah, I'm usually low, mid-70s, something like that. That's pretty good. You have so much fun when you're golfing. That has to be so much fun.

What's that called? You're like a plus handicap? At times, I have been plus. I'm currently not. Yeah, I'm currently not. Oh, so you're really fucking good. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm okay. I'm okay. Oh, shut up. I'm okay not. Yeah, I'm currently not. Oh, so you're really fucking – No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm okay.

I'm okay. Oh, shut up. I'm with you. Oh, shut up. Well, here's the thing, though. There's levels of good, right? So I've gotten to play with some, like, really good players. Played growing up?

No, I didn't. I played football, basketball, and baseball all the way through high school. Started when you got in the NFL. Yes. So, I mean, you've got to figure out what to do with the off-season time, right? And in Atlanta, I was saying it a little bit before, you have beautiful winter weather, right? And so you're golfing.

Whenever you finish up, you're golfing. I'd work out in the morning. And at the time, I was only dating my wife. But at the time, she was working. And so she wouldn't get home until like 6.30. I'd be done at like 9. I'd be like, all right, I got to fill this void. And let's not fill it with something that's going to, you know,

get my ass out of the league real quick. Golf was a good choice. So you said whenever you play alongside people, who do you play? You play against like Tiger? Well, I've never played with Tiger. Oh, man, what's the deal? This guy stinks. That's amazing. I've played with Phil a handful of times.

Recently? I haven't talked to him recently. This is prior to all of this stuff. But he was really cool to me. But I've gotten to know some of those tour players. And then you play with them and you think, oh man, I'm getting better. And then you go and you get, oh, my God, get dusted. I mean, they're good. They're just a different level of, I mean, you know,

people probably tell you all the time, I could do this. I could kick. I could put. And you're like, oh, yeah. And then you see them do it and you're like, you suck. Yeah, that's valid. That's a valid point. That's what they think of like even decent country club golfers.

Isn't it just you versus the course, though? Bullshit. I think it is you. To me, it's all about the bet. What's on the line? What do we got? Yeah. Are you a Wolf player?

What do you play? Am I what? Wolf? In the game Wolf? I like Wolf. I like Wolf. We play some Wolf. We play this game Hammer.

We play... Hammer. That'll cost you. Yeah, it will. Especially when Hammer... Die! Die! Yeah.

I have a buddy who plays this game. We call it Vegas. I'm watching. It's like a cumulative team score, and there's a dollar amount to whatever you're playing. Whoever's down can kind of alter whatever the dollar value is. Why don't you do you play any of these celebrity tournaments or anything like that how do you do i did okay i played in that american century tournament like my first four years but the timing is tough uh when

you're still playing and you're on the east coast the timing was tough because it's like a week or two right before training camp and it's you know it was kind of hard to get to and so when i got married and then um and then had the kids it kind of cuts in at a hard time where you're doing some of that family vacation before you get to training you think you could compete in that though well i don't know it's been probably 10 11 years since i played i'm a much better player now than i than i was then get his fucking ass in the tournament get him the time i'm not going quarterback when i'm done when i'm done i'll go when I'm done playing.

I mean, you could win. You shoot in low 70s. I mean, you could compete for sure. Yeah, you've been out. I mean, that one's about – it's like don't make any double bogeys and make some birdies. This is my first year there this year. You're playing?

Yeah, man. You're going to love it. AJ, I mean, it is an awesome time. I used to go out so my younger my my younger brother and my older brother would go with me and um we would we would fly out to vegas for like three days beforehand and then go to tahoe after that dialed in that's good idea smart i think that's what you need to do that was my typical routine boom and yeah we'll be tired at all how old were you you were 20 something though i was my typical routine. Boom. Yeah, won't be tired at all. How old were you?

You were 20-something, though. I was young. I got a funny story from when we were out there. So I don't know if I'll put names on it, but my younger brother, he would caddy for me, and he was in high school and college at the time. And so I went like, they asked you, would you like to play as an amateur or professional? And I'm like, well, what's up? And they were like, well, if you play as a professional, you get whatever money, you know, whatever place.

I was like, I'll play as a pro. And so I would tell my younger brother, he would caddy. And so he and my older brother would alternate days. And so my younger brother, I said, hey, whatever, you know, whatever I make, you know. You're a pro golfer. You'll get it. You'll get it. Not anymore. I think I've got my amateur status back. But it's been so long. you know whatever i make you know you're a pro golfer you'll get it you'll get it not anymore

i think i've got my amateur status back but uh it's been so long but so anyhow we're at this dinner they have like a welcome dinner or something one of the nights and so my younger brother's like he's like 18 years old or 17 years old and we're sitting at this dinner and there's this legendary head coach who was retired at the time who had like a winery and we're sitting around talking and we're drinking wine and all this stuff, and they're going around the table asking everybody what they do. And they get to my younger brother, and they're like, so, John, what do you do for a living?

And he's like, well, I'm a senior in high school. Hammer, John. Hammer. Just smashing their wine, drinking it like it was beer. Yeah, it was funny. Golf trips are awesome. I can't wait to go out there. Good luck this afternoon golfing. The boys have some questions for you. Is it was beer. Yeah, it was funny. Golf trips were awesome. I can't wait to go out there. Good luck this afternoon, golf. And the boys have some questions for you.

Is that all right? Yeah, let's go. Go ahead, Ty. Matt, you mentioned having a chip on your shoulder, too, like every competitor does, and that you want to play several more years. Does it piss you off at all? I feel like these last few years,

your name doesn't really get mentioned with those really elite guys. And as a Packers fan, I've watched you fucking gut them time and time again. Does that ever get to you at all? Or is it one of those things where you've played for so long, you know what you're capable of, you know what you can do, so you really don't give a shit what the media is saying? Yeah, I think the older you get, the less you care. There's no doubt about that because –

Callous. Yeah, exactly. I do think that. And I think you stop worrying about what other people say uh you start valuing more the opinions of the people you trust uh I know what I'm capable of I know what I can do uh and I'm confident you know in my ability but you know it's always nice to prove those people wrong too you know there's there's still you know that part of you that's like yeah you don't really know what you're talking about and i'm gonna show you yeah

drew brees said give me all of that yeah i think i think you know it's it it's it's so different now too because it's it's just constant you know even even my first couple of years it wasn't as constant you know whether it's twitter or it's you know people coming at you or anything, I think it's just more constant now. So you become numb to it to a certain extent, but you also – it's not bad to prove people wrong. Hey, you and Julio still get along pretty well? No. I was just –

To y'all. To y'all right now. To y'all. Just slid it in there. Just slid that in there. That was nice. Well, you know, I was just proving people wrong. I think he's got a lot of...

Yeah, that's right. Julio, like, too. A lot of people say bad things about Julio. Yeah. That guy was a distraction. Bad for the Titans, they said. Young Widers. Yeah, he's got so much to prove still.

Yeah. Sounds like it. He's an absolute specimen in my eyes. You still talk to him ever? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good relationship. Yeah, very good. You know, I love him.

So we played 10 years together. Is he free agent? Yeah, he's available. Really? Yeah, he's available. Drafts for Tagler tomorrow. Would be cool right before then. Chris is on.

Chris Bauer knows. Anyways, go ahead. Yeah, 10 years together. Awesome guy. Awesome dude. Great player. Great teammate. I mean, nobody impacted, and I played with some great players,

but nobody impacted my career as significantly as he did. And I really enjoyed it. He was one of the best players you'll ever play with. Also an excellent card player. I was about to say. Big on the back of the plane. He was one of the guys I played Tonk with all the time on the flights home. Oh, Tonk, good game.

Good game. And not many people know it. Tonk, great game. Good game. And not many people know it. Tonk, great game. Great game. Yeah. Cash changes quickly. Quickly. Which is good because you just got to get hot late.

As soon as that flight's coming down, you need to get hot. And then roll. I saw Julio playing, and I was about to say, I saw him playing blackjack in the Bahamas at a resort or whatever. And I saw that it was at the pool. And I saw this human. He was wearing a white cloth tank top. And he was playing every single hand or whatever. And his shoulders like ate up the next seat over in the middle of it.

And I was like, God damn, that's the biggest motherfucker I've ever seen. So I get out of the pool. I am rather intoxicated. And I just like do like a peer over and I look. I'm like, fuck, that's a wide receiver in the end. I am rather intoxicated. And I just, like, do, like, a peer over. And I look. I'm like, fuck, that's a wide receiver. That is Julio fucking Jones. He is massive. The sheer size and athleticism of him.

I mean, what a prototype for a fucking wide receiver. And he was a good dude. That's great news. Yeah, great dude. He was an awesome teammate. But, yeah, he's, I mean, as physically, like, gifted as anybody I've ever seen. Yeah. He should be a Colt, yeah.

Go Colts. Yeah, yeah. I don't know about that. But you mentioned talking to Matt Stafford. Did you reach out to Phillip Rivers at all just because he did the same thing and came here to Indy? I did, yeah. I talked to Phillip, you know, as the process was starting to get going,

just to pick his brain about coming in, about Frank, about Chris, about his time here, what he thought. You know, another guy I played against for a long time and have so much respect for. And he was great. You know, really insightful, really helpful, really honest. And, you know, he's one of the good dudes. Tom.

I don't know if I just noticed it more last year, specifically the 49ers game. You were just putting your head down and trying to run through people. I feel like at 35, 36 years old, and I feel like I saw you bleeding a few times last year, more than a few times last year. Was that just because you felt you had to make plays more with that roster or situation?

People calling you soft? You're trying to prove yourself? I'm quite comfortable with my level of toughness. I'm good with that. Yeah, I don't know. I think you do get a feel for the team you're on, um, how you're going to win games, what you have to do to help the team win games. And that's, that's different every year. Uh, I, you know, I love the, the guys on the roster I was with last year, man, they,

they, they played hard. They, they gave you everything they had. Uh, but we had to, you know, we had to find ways, um, to, to to to do the job and and that was one of them you know in in certain situations you know you've you've got to get out and you've got to try and make a play i'm not trying to run people over often but sometimes you got to i got smoked on the one end that was a bad mistake i went in and then i was like oh no yeah let's not hey we need that not happen yeah yeah you know that yeah last year we had a quarterback spring That was a bad mistake. Hey, hold on. I went in and then I was like, oh, no. Yeah, let's not. Hey, we need that not happen. Yeah.

I just want to let you know that. Yeah. Last year we had a quarterback sprain both of his ankles one play. I know. Who did that? From afar, I was like, how? Yeah. Yeah, it was painful.

And guess what? He got right back out there. He tried to do it again. And that was almost like the, it was scary to watch him play because his highs were so high. He was so good. Sure. But then he was like, he literally did not care about his body at all. it was scary to watch him play because his highs were so high. He was so good. Sure. But then he was like, he literally did not care about his body at all.

So as I'm hearing you talk about wanting to run people over. No, no, no, no. Oh, my God. I think you've misheard. No, I don't want to run people over. I'll run them over. Oh, my God. Yeah. Well, we appreciate you stopping by, man.

Absolutely. Thank you. A couple quick questions, though, that we have to get cleared up. Okay. You walk into a store, okay, that we have to get cleared up. Okay. You walk into a store, okay, and it's like a farming store. Oh, man. Okay? This is new to me.

No, no. I think you'll get it right. Hopefully. Tractor supply. Tractor supply. There's a John Deere tractor right here, and then there's a Bobcat tractor right here. Which one are you more likely to purchase matt john deere my dad had one growing up oh hell all you need to know that is all you need to know

oh yeah all right that was the only question perfect that was the most important part of this whole thing super bowl for sure yeah yeah Do you want to guarantee a Super Bowl or anything? No, I'm good. Come on. Ladies and gentlemen, I can't say thank you enough, dude. Thank you so much for coming by. Thank you for being cool. Thank you for the beer.

What? What? What? Steve Austin's American Skull American Lager. What? Also available as an IPA. What? I drank 55 of these

they were delicious uh they are pretty good man they're really good yeah it's pretty good first one bad friend you said you're friends with steve you didn't i know this is bad steve my bad i'll get on it no we're past it new chapters new beginnings that's right my body my body guru told me like like, tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, the new quarterback of the Indianapolis Colts. We can't thank you enough for your time. Good luck with everything. Matthew Ryan.

Thank you, guys. Appreciate it. All right, we're back tomorrow at noon. We'll go noon to 2 tomorrow. Then, obviously, Draft Spectacular starts at 8. New vlog at 7.50. Same link. We'll launch that tomorrow.

Thank you to all of our guests. Thank you, Matt Ryan. You are the best, dude. Thank you, guys. AJ, you're the best. Everybody, cheers. We'll launch that tomorrow. Thank you to all of our guests. Thank you, Matt Ryan. You are the best, dude. AJ, you're the best. Everybody, cheers. We'll see you tomorrow. Big day tomorrow. Everybody get rest. Here we go. Tomorrow's a big day. Drafts spectacular day. Cheers. See you then. Thank you. Thank you. so Thank you. Thank you.