The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 660 - Tom Brady To Sign A Post-Retirement 10 Year $375 Million Deal With Fox, Shams Charania, Ian Rapoport, Paul Bissonnette, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: May 10, 2022

On today's show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about the NBA Playoffs, the NHL Playoffs, and the breaking news that Tom Brady has officially agreed to a deal with FOX to call games for 10 YEARS AND $375 MILLION, all that fallout that comes from that, how it's great for the NFL, great for Tom, and what the timeline might look like, and if he could potentially be in the Super Bowl this year whether he's playing or not. Joining the progrum to chat about everything going on in the NBA playoffs, the Chris Paul situation, and whether certain injured guys are going to be returning soon is NBA Insider for Stadium and The Athletic, Shams Charania (14:43-39:23). Next, NFL Network Insider and friend of the show, Ian Rapoport joins the progrum to chat about the Tom Brady deal, the WR market and where some of these guys might wind up, what free agents we might see move around in the coming weeks, and what's going on with guys like Deebo Samuel, DK Metcalf, and Terry McLaurin (54:47-1:18:09). Later, NHL Veteran, co-host of the Spittin' Chiclets Podcast, Analyst for NHL on TNT, Paul Bissonnette, joins Pat and AJ to chat about the playoffs this year, what it's been like transitioning from Spittin' Chiclets to TNT, how the league has changed since he was in the NHL, and much more (1:20:54-1:55:33). 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

Beautiful people, it is Tuesday, May 10th, 2022. In this sports show, Chubby can... No! Yeah! Can't thank you enough for joining us here at youtube.com forward slash the Pat McAfee show. You all are the absolute best. The weather is turning here in Indianapolis, so obviously the moods and vibes are at an all-time high. We're in the middle of, you know of quite a run here in the sports world.

That doesn't really matter to us, although there is some NFL news today that we'll chit-chat about. We are currently sitting 120 days away from NFL football. Hell yeah. That's a nice even number. Yeah. Four months right there. 100 days is around the corner. Let's go.

Here we go, boys. Right there. Let's go. Here we go, boys. So that's exciting, as is today the corner. Let's go. Here we go, boys. Let's go. Here we go, boys. So that's exciting, and as is today's lineup. We have Sham Sharania joining us in about 10 minutes to chit-chat about all things happening around the NBA.

A couple injuries. There's a COVID case. Ooh. Steve Kerr got COVID. Hope he survives. COVID also took out Charlie McEvoy of the Boston Bruins the other day. What's COVID doing? Sneaking back in a little day. What's COVID doing? Sneaking back in a little bit. What's COVID doing?

No, it's not. You know, if we know COVID like we think we do. Which we do. They aren't going to miss the opportunity to make it about COVID. One last time. They're petty. You're right. Ain't that right, Ty?

That's exactly right. Well put. That is what COVID's going to do. Ian Rappaport will join us in the second hour. Can't wait to chat with him about potentially things that he's hearing or making up or isn't real or maybe is real. We've learned about more games being announced. Shout out to us on Christmas.

We get Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford Christmas Day. Here we go. That was broken today by the NFL. So now we know nine of the games that are happening this upcoming season. That's a masterpiece there. Now, obviously, we've got to hope that everybody that's in this photo is healthy by December 25th, which is always the issue when you're trying to project out games. And Thursday night football, for instance, is even more difficult because you can't flex that game like Sundays you can for Sunday night football

because who knows what games are actually going to be important in December because with injuries taking a couple people out, teams that we thought were great could be fucking gone. So let's just hope that all four of these dudes are playing and everybody else. But December 25th, the day that Jesus Christ came out of a virgin in a barn. That's right. We get a treat. We got a game.

Come on. At Tone Diggs, what are you excited about? I just did some research. Pretty exciting news. I think we're going to get some more games on Christmas. It is on a Sunday this year. Oh. So that's not that cool, then. We don't even get an extra.

Wait, what? Yeah, this is. The NBA is pissed. So the NBA is so mad. Not good. So mad. Because there's like an agreement, it feels like, with the NBA kind of just owning Christmas Day. LeBron's always on Christmas Day.

It's almost when the season starts in some people's minds. But now that it's on Sunday, the NFL is like, hey, sorry about it. Like, hey, we had, remember God had this day. God had it for a long, long time. That's right. Long, long time. And then we said, hey, sorry about it. Fucking this is our day now.

The day of rest, the seventh day, is now our fucking day. It is the NFL day. So NBA, sorry about it. Your day, Christmas day, fell on our day. They're probably going to have, no, they've already announced the international games. I'm surprised they don't have an international game. Like 9 a.m. all the way through, like 12. I'm surprised they don't have an international game at 9 a.m. all the way through 12. I'm surprised they're not doing that, but that's exciting news.

I'm pumped up about Christmas and I guess a full slate of football. This is on CBS, too. Nickelodeon, this is a 4.30 game. What's the Sunday night football game going to be? That'll be able to be flexed. That'll be a great game as well. So we have a good—all right. They'll stack the card on Christmas Day.

Cheese bills or something like that? Everybody's at their house. Or somebody's house. Just staring at the television. Crushing sports. Gorged out of your mind. Eating too much. Can't really go anywhere. The weather might be

something. All your friends that maybe you would hang out with, they're all at something. So it's a big-time TV day. Oh, yeah. Ratings are going to be through the roof. Gambling. Cowboys are going to be in the Sunday night game.

Let's talk about the Cowboys a little bit. That's from Ty Schmidt. Good transition here on this glorious Tuesday, May 10th. Because we have witnessed the final days of a mayor in an American city. That's right. You know, the mayors around the country and around the world were put into a position where they had to do a lot more than previous mayors had had to do. When old COVID, that rat bastard, came around.

Local governance had to do a lot more, make a lot more decisions, be a part of the process of affecting a lot more people's lives, as opposed to just ribbon cuttings. No offense to mayors, but normally it is all glitz and glamour, very minor things. The world became a mayoral issue all of a sudden. And everybody who was eyeballing mayors like hey you it really matters now what you're doing to my life my business the culture of our city

going forward indianapolis you know it's bouncing back but i assume there's a lot of cities that have a lot of different decisions that have to be made so the mayors have become much more important i think in recent history than they had been maybe forever. Yeah. Maybe forever. Probably. I'm not 100% sure. So with that being said, we thought a mayor maybe made a bad decision about COVID

or maybe misread some things was, you know, the loudest bad decision a mayor could make. Right. Mayor of Dallas made the worst decision. Not good. This mayor of Dallas and Mayor Eric Johnson, I mean, congrats on getting candidacy. Yeah, that's right.

Good run. Campaign, he won. NFL on CBS says, if the NFL announced a new expansion team, what city do you think most deserves it? Now, I think a lot of people, and I think we're playing serious maybe in our right ears. If we can turn that down, I think there's an echo in my right ear. And I don't like listening to me begin with, I'm only listening to this show one time,

and that's when it's live. There's too much me there. But whenever they project this question, a lot of people say, oh, maybe San Antone. San Antone's a city that gets thrown out there. There's other cities that have been getting mentioned. London's even being talked about as a team. Austin.

Austin, Texas, because they are now the home of space. Yes. So if space wants to come down, check out an NFL game. You got Texas Longhorns. You got NFL. Maybe that'll be a thing. A lot of people said the Lions should maybe move. You said that.

Yeah, to Montana. To Montana, because American lines are actually out there nonetheless the mayor of dallas had an answer and said the answer is dallas why we're about to pass that sorry sack of shit city chicago zito you do not deserve that uh zito's fixing a problem in the back by the way so he didn't get to defend his city he actually likes chicago chicago metro and become the number three metro in the U.S., which would make us the largest U.S. metro without two teams. Football is king here. Dallas needs an expansion team,

and we would be able to sustain two NFL teams better than L.A. or New York. Whoa. Interesting. So I didn't even know that Dallas was on the move up in the largest cities in America or whatever. Congrats to Dallas. Yeah, it or whatever. Congrats to Dallas. Yeah, it's huge. Congrats to Mayor Eric Johnson for winning the mayorcy of a city that might be number three overall in the entire country. And follow up, that's Cowboy City, isn't it?

I mean, America's team. You would think they would at least be Dallas's team. Mayor Johnson's like, nah, nah, nah, fuck that. We want another squad here that Jerry ain't got. And Jerry's walking into his office this morning, dumping more salt on an Egg McMuffin or whatever the hell he was eating there on Hard Knocks, and he's saying, Mayor Johnson it is? Is that his fucking name?

I will call this team the Arlington fucking Cowboys tomorrow. You tell Eric to delete his fucking tweet. You tell Eric to say thank you to the Cowboys every single day or I will call us the Arlington Fort Worth fucking Cowboys tomorrow. That is probably what's taking place. And I love the fact that we just

learned a lot about Dallas and Dallas being conversated about. But there's no way this guy wins mayorship again. If we know anything about Dallas is a Cowboys. I mean they're all in down there. We're talking about going, wearing the Dallas Cowboys jersey to a grocery store, getting like 20% off on most days.

It's like Jerry Jones has made that city buy into the Cowboys as much as possible, which has made the world buy into the Cowboys as much as possible. That was a wild take. He just wants to look out for the city. Two NFL teams, better than one NFL team. But if the one NFL team is like the most popular team in the world,

probably not the best idea to try to have the city be split on the whole squad. But, hey, to each their own. Seems like it's probably not going to work out. Do think we should hold a moment of silence for this guy's fucking mayoral career. Moment passed. This is dead. Yeah. By all accounts, Jerry Jones is

the mayor of Dallas. I don't know why this guy is acting like he's throwing the gavel down and making decisions. If Jerry wants to do something, I assume the mayor just basically says, yeah, go ahead, Jerry. He really wants to split up Cowboys Nation, the team that's going to the Super Bowl

every goddamn year. He wants to try and draw a wedge in that gap give me a break mayor comes out what if mayor johnson comes out and actually cuts a promo yeah we want a team to represent this actual city the greatness of this city not the false hype every year of this city we'd like a team that goes to the super bowl not doesn't make the playoffs or makes the playoffs and loses immediately for the last 30 fucking years with an owner who thinks he's a gm and a coach and a motivator that's what we're looking for here in dallas and we think our city can contain it i will take no more questions what if he walks off and says that for the most

electrifying mayor of all time 10 minutes later no no No, no, no. I can't even talk about that, I don't think. But there is a chance, I guess, that with the... I mean, we allegedly heard about a conversation from Papa John's. Yeah. Which, by the way, anything Papa John's says, everybody takes with a massive grain of salt. Snowball size. Yeah.

Maybe even snowman size. Sure. You know, not just that. Snowman size salt.. Maybe even snowman size. Sure. You know, not just that. Snowman size. Salt. Because who could take anything? A lot of the things he has said would warrant the thought like, oh, anything else that flows out of this mouth, we should probably.

Yeah. Maybe that. Although he did say the day of reckoning was coming and three months later, COVID started. So maybe Papa does know something was it a papa prophecy is this something that's just what maybe people were thinking is that papa knew covid was coming and he tried to warn us but he didn't now that was probably something to do with the yeast of the dough yeah i mean who knows with the better ingredients better pizza but anyways the way he talked about jerry calling him and wanting to make a move or whatever kind of a political game you're

the advertiser let's assume in the city of dallas jerry probably knows what every person that's anybody down there yeah the amount of marketing he's done for the city of dallas too i would assume that he is like hey have we not been a good relationship together why are you trying to tear down my fan base i that is as a wild move but i like the fact that the mayor put on for his city but there's going to be consequences everybody talks about freedom of speech and not being freedom of consequence. This dude had a tweet, probably had a promising political career. He went to Harvard, Princeton, and Penn.

Jesus. Harvard, Princeton, and Penn. That's half the Ivy League, this guy. Penn Law, I believe, is where he went to. All of that, Bruce said, wants all those schools just to piss off Jerry Jones and ruin his entire career. Which is potentially what's going to happen here. Whether it's intentional or not,

you can't offend Jerry. If he perceives something like this, and it kind of is. We're talking about splitting the entire... Whether he did it tongue-in-cheek and was kind of kidding. You joke about that, you cross Jerry in the state of Texas. You're done for.

I don't care who you are. Yeah, and maybe that's just our perception from outside in. Who knows what actual reality is? But, boy, this does not feel like the right decision. I'd like to think that. Hey, I'd love to cheer for the Dallas Command. No, I can't hear the Commanders. The Dallas Demons?

The Dallas Demons. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I was looking at the cities. Like, there's only maybe Jacksonville and the entire NFL where you can add a second team and potentially get more fans than the current NFL team. Like, there's no NFL city that wants a fucking second team. They're just going to root for another fucking team, right?

Yeah, and L.A. is a melting pot of humans. Everybody moves to L.A. from their town. So they always had a lot of, you know, there's like a Steelers bar, a Lions bar. team right yeah and la is a melting pot of humans everybody moves to la from their town so they always had a lot of you know there's like a stealer's bar a lion's i think i was even at a lion's watch party you know yeah lion's bar had there like because people move there you know i'm gonna go make it i'm gonna go do it hopefully everybody does i know there's a lot of locals in la as well from people that have moved in there or from way back or whatever the case so i think there is a lot of fans to be earned still in those cities.

Like, hey, you can sway them. If this is going to be their new home, like they're going to be there. How many new people are moving to Dallas? I don't know those actual stats that you're going to be able to get. Maybe like, hey, new home, new thing. But why wouldn't you join the Cowboys if you're moving to Dallas? It's the only time you're allowed to be a fan of the team that's going to be on primetime television every single day.

I don't know how you garner new fans in those days. That's a great question to bring up. Jacksonville, now their fans are going to get a little loud. They all dress like fucking clowns because they hate the way the team was run. But back whenever they were the expansion team at the beginning, and Brunel was there, and Fred was running all over the place, and they also had Brant Boer playing on special teams. Nobody's ever heard of him, but he's awesome.

MJD was after Fred. Keenan McCormick. Jimmy Smith. They had some fans. Yeah, yeah. They had some fans. So I assume they would come back if they were good. But if you go to a city and you're not good, you're not going to have any fans.

You go to a city and you're good, you'll get fans regardless. But it feels like Dallas is going to be a tough place to market against. Because the rest of the NFL hasn't figured out how to market against you. I looked up the stats. It's Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, and then the Houston area. Those are the two fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S. They both – Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington gained like 1.3 million people in the last 10 years.

Okay, so maybe you can pick up some new fans. That's what the mayor is saying. Fuck the Cowboys. We've got a bunch of people from out of town that want to be fans of an NFL team. They don't like the way Jerry operates. Overhyped, they say. Overhyped, overhyped. Hey, Jerry, you keep your fans.

We're just going to build a publicly funded stadium right over here. That's right. It's going to take a lot of money. It's going to be very big. It's going to be just as big as yours. Actually, we need to use yours now that we're thinking about it. Let's pivot to the NBA, to the association. Joining us now from the stadium and the athletic, an absolute superstar, insider,

not only of today but definitely of the future, ladies and gentlemen, Sham Sharanya. Yay! What's up, dude? Pat, what's going on? How was WrestleMania this weekend? Well, it was WrestleMania backlash. Please, learn the product. Come on, Shams. Okay, it was two different shows. Well, it was WrestleMania backlash. Please, learn the product. Come on, Shams.

Okay, it was two different shows. It was backlash from WrestleMania. Shams, it was great. It was great. Rhode Island, to find people of Rhode Island, it was great up there. Had a blast. Rem Raines and Bloodline still won. Of course.

Okay. Pretty usual. We the ones. Because you the twos, and we the ones. Hell yeah. Anyway, Shams, let's get to basketball. A lot going on in your world right now. COVID came back.

This son of a bitch. We thought he was done. So how'd this whole thing go? We remember Paul George, I think it was last game of the series, ended up getting COVID and missed the game. That was allegedly self-reported in this particular, from what we heard. Charlie McEvoy, Boston Bruins. Two nights ago, I believe, or last night?

Yeah, Sunday. Two nights ago, tested positive, missed the game because of COVID. These are very rare nowadays. Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors, the team that a lot of people think could potentially go on to win this thing, he's out because of COVID. How serious is this, and what was the process to get here, Shams? Well, serious enough that he had to get tested.

He tested positive positive and he's he missed last night's game and there's obviously an expectation that he's going to miss game five and possibly the remainder of the series if it goes beyond a game five in memphis tomorrow but steve kerr this is a guy that's in the public light right so he's going to be getting interviewed every day with the media media sees him he's around he's the one that's front facing every single day so it was interesting in game three of that, we saw him on the sideline with a mask. And masks haven't been regulated or really enforced at all in the league in the last few months. And so for Steve Kerr to be with a mask on the bench, that was a clear indication to a lot of people that, you know, either he was exposed, something happened.

either he was exposed, something happened. And Anthony Slater, one of the Warriors writers, he said last night that you could kind of tell Steve Kerr's voice was a little down, that he might have had some symptoms. And so to me, this is a case of a guy that is front-facing. He's one of the faces of that organization. And it was clear that he had some symptoms, maybe some exposure, had to get tested, came back positive. The Warriors are preparing right now to play without him for game five.

We'll see how much time he exactly missed, but the goal is to get him testing negative again before he can get back on the court. So they're not routinely testing for COVID, though, at this point. No, it's all by self. You have to self-report symptoms or have outward symptoms. I mean, in most cases, guys are all dealing with things, right? Allergies are a thing.

The cold is still a thing. And so guys are going to be dealing with things off and on. Once you feel like you have symptoms that rise to the level of COVID-19, you get tested. And Steve Kerr unfortunately came back positive. We'll see how long he continues to test positive.

Well, we hope he survives, too, you fucking asshole. Yeah, what are we doing here? Shams, I mean, don't be such a bad guy. Jeez, Louise, don't want to go from one dramatic situation, controversy to another, but let's do it. Unwanted hugs. Unwanted hugs in Dallas of Chris Paul's family caused the scene the other day in which we were told, like Chris Paul said, that somebody put hands on his family. Got hands on him.

Yeah, hands on his family. That's big. I mean, as soon as I read that, it's like fist to cuffs. Is there fighting? Is there punches thrown? Like, what are we talking about? And then, yeah, the statement comes out that the Dallas put out last night last night that i reported on they said unwanted hugs and let me clear something up i'm told this is how it was described by the paul family as far as listen i don't know if the words unwanted hugs came out

of their mouth that's a very forced particular way of phrasing it but clearly it was it was attempts by those by two what appeared to be kids really you know younger men uh younger aged people uh that were trying to deliver hugs to the paul family his mom uh his wife was also in attendance at the game on mother's day obviously nothing that those two wanted to endure from these fans and those fans have been banned until 2023 but i think there's a lot of confusion online like did the mavericks really do their research did they really. But I think there was a lot of confusion online. Like, did the Mavericks really do their research? Did they really investigate? I'm told there was a full investigation.

Security was involved. NBA security was involved. And that was what was described to them by the people on the scene. I think I added to the problem when I said it was a drunk white doofus that did this. Was it a team? Do we know who was banned until 2023? Because I that another alternate angle of a video looked young but nowadays everybody looks so damn young you know like

22 year olds look like they're 15 at this point and some of them and then some look like they're 35 i mean it is a wild time to be alive right now was it children that did this and how did all start did we find out uh the people that were there around the scene told me it was two younger uh younger younger people one was obviously a man i don't know if the second was a man or female i assume maybe a man but you never know um but definitely two younger uh fans uh as far as age so listen whether they were drunk or not it's not acceptable you shouldn't be putting your hands on anyone you You shouldn't be giving hugs. You shouldn't be tapping. There was some talk about – I saw Kenny Smith last night said that Chris Paul's mom said that she was being tapped on the back.

Maybe that was their way of trying to deliver hugs. I'm not sure. Either way, just not called for. To me, it's just really petty though. It's not like anyone was getting punched. It's not like anyone was was you know getting swung on is this petty and stupid for you know for for whether it's taps hugs that's just petty that's just stupid get those guys away give them a year to debrief and and hopefully be better fans in 2023 yeah don't be a nuisance in public i guess but it doesn't

sound anything like what we thought it was originally. No. And I think that is where most of the world is. We hope everybody's safe. But, I mean, I thought – because Chris Paul was about to go fight. Yeah. He was about to go fight. Chris Paul – And, again, I don't know if Chris thought something had happened that didn't happen. I don't know if the security that was there, his security or the team's security,

reported something back that might not have happened. I'm not sure on all the details. I wasn't there on that video. But what I do know is that exactly what was said to the security yesterday in the investigation was that it was unwanted. Whether it was taps, you know, try to hug the family members by those fans

that might or might not have been drunk. Choms, you need to keep a straight face when you're reporting this, okay? We're allowed to laugh at this entire thing. You need to keep a straight face when you're reporting this, okay? We're allowed to laugh at this entire thing. You have to keep a straight face while reporting the unwanted hugs. You hear me? Because we don't need unwanted hugs fucking running rampant. No, we don't.

I don't think I've ever heard that phrase ever, but, you know, first for everything. Ban all hugs. I mean, hugs would be a little bit uncomfortable if it was unwanted. I mean, I've been a part of an unwanted hug. Oh, yeah. Somebody's forced me in. Oh, my God. all hugs. I mean, hugs would be a little bit uncomfortable if it was an unwanted hug. I mean, I've been a part of an unwanted hug. Somebody's forced me in. Oh my God, there's nothing worse than that. What if they grab the head too?

That's a force. We do not know each other like that. What are you doing? I'm not putting my hands around you. Grab your hands. Alright, this is a forced hug. This is unwanted. Let's move on here. John Morant, is he all right?

He's become the superstar of this playoffs, and then he's out with a knee. That seemed to come from nowhere. How'd that take place? Was that when he was flying through the air? Because he said he ain't scared he'll go up on anybody. When do we expect him to come back? The NBA is going to miss his highlights over the next few days, if it's only a little bit.

He's been a blast. We've talked about it on this show. He's a must-watch on every night. He's become the NBA's top highlight on every night that he takes the court. But, yeah, I mean, the injury that he had, it looked tough. I'm not a doctor. I don't want to diagnose him. There were multiple plays that he might have gotten hurt on.

There was a play that occurred early in the fourth quarter of game four where he showed out on Clay Thompson, seemed to kind of hyperextend the knee. His knee kind of gave out a little bit. He was limping. He played through it, kept going. And then the Jordan Poole incident where Jordan Poole kind of, you know, I guess swiped at his knee. And that's a lot where the Grizzlies were focused on

and believing that that was the play that had the injury that made that take place. I'm not sure when it took place, but yes, he missed game four. And when you saw the video of him at shoot around on the bench, he didn't do much more than just standing, walking, had a limp, was in sandals during shoot around. That's not a good sign. Obviously, he did not play last night. That's's not a good sign. Obviously he did not play last night. That's not really a good sign for his status moving forward. I'm not sure whether he'll play in game five. It's not clear yet, but just the way he looked didn't give a lot of positivity. It's not like it's an ankle injury. Scotty Barnes on the first round had an ankle injury, had a boot,

ended up playing two games later. With with knee injuries whether it's a sprain um mcl hyperextension like these aren't injuries that just heal up did he have a sleeve on it'll take him some time if it is anything like that did he have a sleeve on sweats with his sandals what was it i mean he just had sweatpants on so i don't know if he had sleeve on underneath i mean he very well might have right right, because he wasn't wearing shorts, so we didn't see him in that realm. But I think it's unfortunate because the Grizzlies, we saw them battle all night last night.

They should have won the game really, and the Warriors took it in the last minute to two minutes, and that's when you need your superstar. You need John Morant. Yes, they were 20-5 in the regular season. Yes, they might even play a little bit more freer. The ball moves more defensively. even play a little bit more freer. The ball moves more defensively. They're a little bit more

sound. There's a smaller margin for error without Ja Morant. Within those last one to two minutes, when you need your superstar the most, they didn't have him. They didn't win the game. It's tough for me to see them winning this series without Ja Morant. You need a dog out there.

I hope Ja's back. He was so dog out there. I hope Ja's back. He was so fun to watch. I became a massive fan. I actually became part of the Grizz Nation. Is that what they're called? There's other nicknames on Twitter, I think. The Bear Cave. You guys are like the leaders of Grizz Nation, Ja Nation, Zion Nation.

You guys have it all. We really like that town in South Carolina. That's all. We really like that town in South Carolina. We really like that town in South Carolina. Let's move on. John, you don't know how long he'll be out for. How about Chris Middleton? This has become fun because you reported that he'll be out for an entire series.

Multiple ESPN podcasts and such have now reported Chris Middleton probably back by the end of the series. This is classic Sorsaw. Sorsaw! Sorsaw! Sorsaw!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!! All right, Sean, I'm source off here, pal. How do we feel about it? ESPN's reporting one thing, you're reporting another. What's going on with Chris Middleton?

I'm going to stand by my reporting. Woo! It is a great day. I'm so excited for some more. Another shot in a source off. Sean says, I'm right, you're wrong. This is awesome. Sorry we cut you off before you could legitimize your answer.

But we're pumped for you. You just won the source off, you feel. We don't know if you won, but you did. No, no, no. I'm not saying it's a source anything. I'm just going to stick by what I know. You know, Pat, I'm always going to tell you what I know in the real. So that's all we do here.

Facts only. It is a great two mcl spring for chris middleton he had the injury um about three weeks ago on on thursday it'll be three weeks these great two mcls are usually four to six weeks at minimum we saw kevin durant he missed six weeks uh earlier in the year anthony davis missed uh six weeks as well that's really the amount of time that you're looking at with a great two MCL sprain. He's coming up on three weeks on Thursday.

They're going to finish up game seven I believe by the end of the weekend. They play game six. Game five is tomorrow. Game six is Friday. If I'm not mistaken, game seven would then be Sunday or Monday. He's not going to

be available. Just logistically, math-wise, Mike Booneholder said last night on the telecast, Chris Milton's only just doing light shooting right now. So no, there's no plan for Chris Milton to return in this series. And that type of timeline with the grade two would put even his status in doubt for the start of the conference finals so you hope chris middleton heals up he's a big part of the of the milwaukee bucks we saw how much they missed them last night they need chris middleton back if they're gonna win a championship um but unfortunately i don't i think they're gonna have to get get by in this series without him um but this is a 2-2 series going back to boston they

have home court advantage now it's a best of three hey i heard people that spell their name the way he spells his name recover from grade 2 mcl sprains quicker than anybody else okay no yeah kh right that's right oh yeah that's it that's awesome this is new information this is new data then pat that i didn't i didn't apply to my well we've never seen we've never seen this will literally be the first kh chris to recover from a grade two MCL sprint. So this will have to be its own, you know, situation to situation. That's right.

We'll keep our eyes on all the coverage because people are saying you're wrong. You're saying you're right. We're excited about both of them. Go ahead, Ty. Shams, what's the deal with Ben Simmons? Like, did the Nets know that he was going to have to have surgery? And is there any way, like, post they could veto this trade? Or, like, what's going on with his mental state right now?

What's the deal with Ben Simmons? Yeah, the trade won't be vetoed. But, I mean, at the end of the day, there's clear, you know, I'm not here to judge Ben Simmons. Like, everyone's dealing with their own problems, right? Like, everyone deals with one or two issues. You know, when you talk about players, you know, a player could be dealing with players you you know player could be dealing with something mentally a player could be dealing with something physically they're all human so clearly in this instance ben simmons met with sean marks and the nets front office at the end of the season so that he still is dealing with

a mental hurdle that might have an impact on his back could trigger uh some some of his back issues but regardless this is a back issue i think you can't separate the two. I think it can be mental and it can also be physical. And in the physical realm, this is a back issue that he's been dealing with since 2020. Right before the bubble, Ben Simmons had a herniated disc in his back and the bubble and the hiatus allowed him to take some time off. He was able to play in the bubble. Then he had the knee injury. But this is a back injury that if you don't manage right, it could definitely sprout up. And even if you do manage it right, this is an issue that could continue to develop for you in your back. And so I think at this point, given what happened, he decided to address the matter

now. And the goal by all parties is to get him back on the floor. I think everyone wants to see a healthy Ben Simmons in body and mind. And I think he is taking steps toward that. I'm told he's feeling a lot better. And the goal is for him to be playing basketball in the 2022-23 season. When does the 2022-2023 season begin? Well, September is training camp. I think mid to late September is when training camp begins.

I think this will be a rehab process that will go anywhere from two to four months. And so the goal is, again, as September comes around, that he's going to be getting back to doing more basketball stuff. A guy that hasn't played at that point in over a year and a half, you're going to try to be as weary and precautionary as possible. So I think everyone is going to just hope that Ben Simmons can regain some of the form that he had when he was a three-time All-Star, two-time All-Defensive team member.

Didn't you say or somebody say that his mental was triggering his back injury? Was it potentially the opposite? Was maybe his back and his lack of trust in it making him have lack of confidence and going out there and playing and being good and being able to shoot. And are we not – are we ruling it out completely that he hurt his back learning how to shoot? Are we ruling that out completely? Because remember we saw this video. I don't think that's possible.

Kyle Corver. But what I will say is that – listen, I don't know. I mean it could be. The back could be a trigger to the mental. The mental could be a trigger for the back. I think it's clear that every time that the stress would occur in that back, there might be something mental. Either maybe mentally you're dealing with some, you feel like you're dealing with something more in your back. But I think this much is for sure. There were multiple consultations that Ben Simmons had, right? You're getting legitimate

doctor diagnoses, right? Whether it's the team doctor, whether it's the doctors in New York, he ended up getting surgery in L.A. So you're having doctors, professionals, surgeons tell you that this is an issue in your back. You need surgery on it. So once the medical field and the medical professionals tell you that this is an injury that you have to address and get surgery on, I kind of let go like listen the doctors are who the doctors are like yeah gotta take care of that yeah surgeons have never done never mind nope never no they wouldn't never wouldn't you

couldn't i got a lot of respect for them obviously the medicine department the medicine world the surgery world a lot of respect for them but i don't know how it's taken this long to get to the point that that is the – whatever. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Sean. That Simmons shit is wild. Hey, this Simmons shit is wild.

We've never seen anything like it. It's unprecedented. The fact that you have a guy 25 years old in his prime, didn't play last year, had to trade, request, wanted to get out. I mean, it's clear that the goal by all sides now is just get him right, body, mind, and get him on the floor. Well, he doesn't need to be ready by Christmas Day because the NFL owns that now.

Oh, yeah. Go ahead, Connor. It's on a Sunday. You guys got no shot. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Sean, as you can see, Ty's got green. Dig's got green. Pat's got a bunch of green on his desk.

We're all Celtics fans here. We're glad that they are finally back. I do not have a bunch of green. I got green tea. Green batteries. This is Bucks green. You got bunch of green. I got green tea. Green batteries. This is Bucks green. You got Green Bay green. This is fucking John Deere green.

You got some vitamins. That's AJ Hoffman. He definitely has that Celtic green on right there. Yeah. John Deere green. John Deere green. And the Celtics know a good deer. And that's why it's the same green.

I have next in note, in comparison to the other colors on this desk, not a lot of green. No, there's a pretty good amount of green. I see no green on your desk, Pat., I don't know. Not a lot of green. No, there's a pretty good. I see no green on your desk, Pat. Thank you. There's a battery right there, Sean.

Thank you. Look at that. Green Packers green throwback. They need to wear this uniform more. Actually, it's more of a box green too, though. That WrestleMania.

Is that a WrestleMania picture? I think that has more green on it. Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. A lot of green. Hey, largest quarter in the history of the company. A lot of green, a lot of green, a lot of green. Hey, largest quarter in the history of the company.

A lot of green. A lot of green in that one. A lot of green in that photo right there. There it is right there. It's right there in the middle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a lot of green there. AT&T Stadium, by the way.

That might be home of the Arlington Cowboys. Uh-huh. If that mayor keeps fucking. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, anyways. Is Bobby Williams coming back soon? He wasn't playing because of his knee. And then kind of a follow-up scheduling question,

because the Celtics and the Bruins are always in the playoffs, do the NBA and NHL have to coordinate when those games are because they play in the same arena? Yeah, the coordination is done across all leagues and also the arenas themselves, right? So Boston Garden, TD Garden, they got to coordinate the schedules for sure. I think they definitely deal with the NHL side and the NBA side. It sounds like they set the schedule based on the Boston team.

Get to Bobby Williams, Sean. As far as Robert Williams, I'm told he had swelling in that knee yesterday that came up, and anytime you're dealing with swelling in your knee, that he just had meniscus surgery about a month ago yeah and so you're hoping that it's not much more than cert than than than just swelling that the swelling goes down um i would expect them to continue to get re-evaluated and get treatment the rest of today um and they'll see on his status but ime udoka the rest of the celtics said last night that the hope is that he plays game five. But honestly, guys, the way that Al Horford looked,

I don't even – they might not need him. I mean, I think Rob Williams is amazing. Great player, great defensive player. But Al Horford really turned back the clocks last night. Al Horford. Dog it all over, Giannis. Dog. The same Al Horford.

Yeah. Shot 78% last night. 48-year-old Al Horford. Bro, let's fucking go. Yeah. Al Horford used to be a dog. Dog. Still is.

Still is a dog. Hey, good for Al. Go ahead, Tom. He wants to ring this, so you can tell. Hell yeah. This is his best shot at a ring right now. All right. Go ahead, Tom.

Shams, am I crazy to think that James Harden's 31-point performance was maybe spurred by him getting back to his roots? You know, a lot of cabarets down in Miami. Maybe he went back to get some of that old medicine. Tootsies. Yeah. Or is this because, you know, potential MVP didn't get the MVP and beat his back as well?

Let me simplify it for you. He made his three-point shots. And I think that's the difference for James Harden right now is what we've seen throughout rounds one so far you know in the first two games of the second round when he's not making his three-pointer it's just it's become tougher for him to create space it's been tough for him to get to the basket and he's getting to the rim at times and not getting foul calls that he was getting three, four years ago. I think all of that culminates, the injury last year, the hamstring issue that he dealt with, the first major injury of his career.

I think that all that has kind of led to he needs to be a 35-plus percent, to me, three-point shooter on a consistent basis to be able to score the ball 25 points or more on a nightly basis. He had 30-plus points in Game 3. If he keeps making his three-pointer, keeps making his jumpers at a high level, you're going to see the James Harden as far as scoring a bowl. I don't know if we're ever going to see the same slashing, cutting, getting to wherever he wants on the floor,

finishing the James Harden we saw three, four years ago. I think that he's going to need to change his game. I think we're seeing it all happen right now. He's in the second floor. Tucci's getting shoulder rubs. Shout out, Drake. Shout out to Drake for everything. Drake's doing everything right now at a very high level.

But he's getting shoulder rubs. He's getting back into the step-back. Doc Rivers was fired two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, Doc Rivers was the worst coach of all time because he couldn't close the door on Toronto or something like that. They wanted him out of there. Now Embiid's back. It feels like they're, that mask,

they're a new team. Do they have a shot here? Are they a team that's set up? They definitely have a shot. Tonight's game is the biggest game of the series. There's no question about it. Whoever wins this game, you have a really, probably the best shot at winning this series. No, you know, I'm not, you have probably the best shot at winning this series. That's not breaking news there. 2-2 series.

But let's give Joel Embiid some love. He's playing on a torn ligament in his right thumb and shooting hand. He's playing with an orbital fracture in his face. He had to fucking hate Ben Simmons. Keep going with all the injuries that he's playing through right now. He's one and a half weeks recovered from a concussion. He was looking woozy at times in game three and in game four at different points.

You can tell that playing with that mask, it's adding some extra sweat. It's making his face all scrunched up. So I think you've got to give him props for playing this way. You can tell he's on a mission. He wants to win a championship this year, and that's why he's playing through these injuries, injuries that in normal terms, orbital fracture.

He's out one to two weeks at least in the regular season. That torn ligament in his thumb, that's multiple weeks and surgery. So he's holding all that back until after the Sixers make a run this year. Well, I can't wait to watch the rest of the association's playoffs. It has been fantastic. Who's going to win it all, Shams? You're not going to get me on this. This guy.

Come on, dude. I think we can make a case. Phoenix, Golden State. I think that Western Conference finals, I can't wait to watch. I think Dallas still has a chance right now. And then out east. My gut, though, is that whoever wins out of the Eastern Conference, they're going through such a battle right now.

We're seeing Milwaukee and Boston. They're going through the ringer. Miami, Philly, that's a slugfest in and of itself. So, to me, whoever comes out of the East is going to be getting tested thoroughly before they play whoever comes out of the West. Battle tested. Battle hard.

Some Celtics are winning it all. It could be tired, too. Celtics are winning it all, Sean. It could be tired, too. Too exhausted. Very good chance. Very good chance they win it all. Could be. Boom!

Well, he just said everybody could win. Yeah. He literally just said everybody could win. Sounded like he said Boston. He said, how about that Phoenix team? What about Milwaukee? Dallas could potentially. He literally said everything. Thank you, Sean.

We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Charan. Yeah! Let's go! Ladies and gentlemen, Sean Charan. Let's go! Ladies and gentlemen, we have breaking news. Not only is Tom Brady projected to become the number one analyst for Fox Sports immediately upon retirement. When is that?

Next year, two years, five years from now. Who knows? They've already agreed to terms on him going right into the booth when he retires. You experience life as a retired player for six weeks. You ain't going to want to fucking do that when you actually retire. Let's keep you in the game. Let's keep you on the road. Let's keep you calling games and experiencing football so we can wean

you out of this life schedule that you've had forever becoming the greatest of all time at our sport. Ten years. $375 million. No way. No way. No way.

Andrew Marchand of the New York Post and also a sports business podcast. I forget the exact name of it. Tom Brady's contract to call games for Fox Sports is 10 years, $375 million. We don't know when this starts, but we do know that Tom Brady might be thinking about retirement a little bit more each coming offseason. He said there's a lot of work to be done

with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers still, and there's still a job to be finished. You know, he didn't like the way he got knocked out of the playoffs last year, looked to win another Super Bowl and then bounce into the booth for 10 years. $375 million. Wow. Thank you, Tom.

Congrats, Tom. Definitely congrats. Congrats, Tom. Definitely congrats. And thank you, Tom. And thank you, Tom Brady., definitely congrats. Congrats, Tom. Definitely congrats. And thank you, Tom. And thank you, Tom Brady. That is amazing news. That is spectacular news.

It's great for NFL fans. We get a chance to hear the GOAT speak. That is the type of money, obviously, that some guy who can go and do whatever the hell he wants, his resume is better than anything, is going to be able to command. Is he worth that much? Yes. Is he worth more than that? Probably.

But for a fan, I can't wait to hear his brain spill onto games every single week. Now, you start doing some quick math. It's like 21 work days a year. Yeah. Just about. Jesus. Good for you. Good for you, Tom.

Keep it going, Tom. After this season, after he plays this season in Tampa, he will have made $333 million on the field. So his contract is worth more than what he has done in his 23 NFL seasons. I can't wait. I fucking can't wait. Unreal. Good for him.

Hey, congratulations, TB12. Appreciate you, man. Thank you, Tom. Yeah. You're the best, dude. It's more than Aikman and Romo combined. No wonder they let Buck go, man. Thank you, Tom. You were the best, dude. It's more than Aikman and Romo combined. No wonder they let Buck go, too. They had an ace in the hole.

And now McVay's got to see that, too, right? It's like, okay. It's been real Stafford, but they're backing up. 375 million dollars. Insane. So awesome. I am so happy for Tom. After some research from the back room,

we have learned that Disney does own Fox Sports. So Disney is paying Joe Buck and Troy Aikman $36 million a year, and they're paying Tom Brady $37.5 million a year to call football games right now. Now, there's obviously a conversation to be had about what will the new bar be, who will be setting the bar next, what will Peyton, will Peyton see this and potentially get in there? It's all good for the game to continue to grow the game,

but the fact that Disney owns all parties is very interesting to me. Yeah. Genius also. I guess. I mean, now they get, what, two Super Bowls then? If we're talking about the four networks, they have two. Two. And then the rotation, every single one of them, CBS and NBC,

are battling against Disney in this entire thing. Old Walt's family is just taking money however they... $71.3 billion buy of Fox. $71.3 billion. Which, I guess, if you look at twitter at 46 billion yeah yeah i mean there is uh the going right for these things crazy what a wild time to be alive we're excited to be here the talk table is here at ty schmidt at boston connor tone digs one half of the hammer dad cowboys is sitting there looking you know absolutely radiant thank, Tone.

Thank you. I appreciate that. It makes me feel good. How about the weather being much nicer today? It's beautiful. You get out there, you get a little stuff done in the yard. You go smoke a cigar on the porch while you're watching the fans fucking destroy Igor. It's great. Yeah, it's great. Igor's dead. This guy, we got a goalie named Louis Domingue that we didn't even know existed.

Well, that's what I'm saying. This guy went from pauper peasant to King Domingue in a matter of a few days in Pittsburgh. This guy is a stud, and it is hockey season. But speaking of smoking cigars around the house, this guy does it every day, tries to burn his house. Died on a regular basis. Ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion,

Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup champion, COVID survivor aj hawk aj tom brady's making 37 and a half million dollars a year for 10 years straight to call football games for fox how fucking awesome is this for the nfl aj hawk i mean credit to fox credit to tom everything this is unbelievable and also back to, I know you guys were talking about Peyton Manning. If Peyton was offered anything near 10 years, 375 mil, and he turned it down, credit to that dude. Because even if I didn't want to do the job, how do you say no to this? Like, this is amazing. I think, and the cool thing is, too, like Tom has never,

has Tom even done like a practice game? Have we ever seen him do anything? And I think we all believe, like, he's going to to be awesome we saw him on the Manning cast right he was actually watching film during the Manning cast and pointing out a couple things told a story I think he's going to be amazing I assume he's going to be amazing every time he does one of those super TED talks or whatever he seems to be well spoken he's great at the game of football yeah and he's been there done that with literally every single situation i think the reason why tony romo became a uh you know a uh a fan favorite so quickly is

because his knowledge of the game and his excitement of the game but him predicting plays was almost like the thing tom brady literally does that every single game still trying to predict exactly what the next people are going to do he'll have that facet of the game his resume is insane and he seems like a pretty chill guy i sounds like a home run that's exactly what fox thought as well my interesting thought of this and that's why i brought up disney earlier so my assumption of how this goes if you're bought by a parent company or run by a parent company when you have to make an investment that large, you have to go ask for that money from parent company to make payment to get okayed. So, like, for instance, we've had to have a couple of those discussions

where we're talking to somebody who then has to go talk to somebody. So it's like, not only are you negotiating with these people, but these people are negotiating with these people to try to so it's a full process and you have to like coach them up on what they should also potentially add in there so both espn and fox have to go to parent company disney to get these types of checks i would assume not arms insure but i would assume it's hilarious thinking what they turned down at espn and then when fox came in with a $375 million deal, they were like,

Tom Brady, run it, fucking run it. Can't do it. So sorry. Can't have that happen. That's interesting, right? I wonder, like, the rippling effects that this is going to have, the announcement of this deal, the way deals are going to be done,

how talent and players and people that are on TV are probably going to expect some things. This is a massive ordeal. And in the end, everybody wins because Tom's going to be fucking great at it. And we're going to learn more about football than we ever have in the past. It's going to be a Manning cast live every single week with Telestrator opportunities. This is fantastic. You know the thing, too.

His play-by-play guy is going to be Kevin Burkhart, who I think is awesome. And I think will work very well with Tom. I think it's the perfect guy for him. But who's going to fill that role while Tom is continuing to play? So there was the rumors that they were going to trade Drew Brees from NBC to Fox. Not now. There's no reason now, though.

But how long is Tom going to play? I mean, even if he plays two more years, would it make sense to trade for Drew Brees now? When's Fox's next Super Bowl? I just had it up. Next? I'll find it. This year is NBC.

Was last year Buck and Troy? Yes. Yeah, so they probably have two more years because it's ESPN and then it's ABC. So we do have a finish line here for Tom Brady all of a sudden, right? Yeah. Hey, the year that we have the Super Bowl, you have to be back. It's the only reason why we're still in rotation because we're saying you're our guy.

Go ahead, Tone. So they have this upcoming season, which she's not going to do, and then it's CBS, and then it's Fox. Fox has this upcoming season? Yeah. And then it's CBS, and then it's Fox, and it gets in the Super Bowl.

What if it gets knocked out and it's done for the Super Bowl? Hey, they might trade for Drew. Yeah, how about, what if it is, like, if Tom isn't in this, Tom's going to be in the Super Bowl regardless. Yeah. He's either playing it or he's calling the fucking game. Yeah.

For real, that'd be awesome. Why not? That would be incredible. I wonder how that would work. Well, if they still have it in two years, if it goes Fox, CBS, Fox, then he's still. So maybe they still sign Drew Brees because they have the fucking Super Bowl and they're probably going to need to do something like that.

I feel like Greg Olson would be a pretty good placeholder. He's still pretty damn good at the job. Yeah, but why was there rumors that they were going to get you a breeze with Greg Olson in a job if they were ever going to, you know? They don't know if they were going to get Tom. That's why. Yeah, but they weren't expecting to have Tom this year, right? Yeah, ever, right?

No, there's no way. They knew he was going to play at least one more year. Did Sean Payton sign with Fox, too? Yeah, ever, right? No, there's no way. They knew he was going to play at least one more year. Did Sean Payton sign with Fox, too? Yeah, that's a studio guy. So both retired guys that were going to maybe allegedly go own the Dolphins are now at Fox? Yeah. Good play.

Fox also said Tom's like an ambassador, too, right, to the league or whatever. They're going to give him some other kind of titles. Yeah, he's big international, right? Tom's huge internationally. They probably have him. Yeah, that's good. Shake hands, kiss babies. That's a great gig, right? Tom's huge internationally. They probably have him. Yeah, that's good. Shake hands, kiss babies. That's a great gig, man.

I'll take it. Probably to get in, right, because the game's in Germany. Who knows where else to put the game. Which is entertaining. You're showing up to big clubs. Obviously, they wouldn't make Tom do many of them, but if Tom shows up to some sponsor event, if it's Rolex or some crazy deal, it adds a lot of value, obviously.

Yeah. Ask Martin. And Connor said this immediately upon the number being announced. Nobody is thinking like, oh, they overpaid for Tom Brady, by the way. They're all thinking, like I'm thinking, huge number. Holy fuck, that's a big, that's an awesome number. It's a glorious number. It's a great number that that happened.

But nobody's like, yeah, not worth it. Tom Brady's not worth it. You know, like that's the type of decisions that I like seeing be made, especially for the NFL. Like the NFL is a cash cow. All these networks know it. They're the only things that consistently bring ratings and only grow their ratings every single year. Everybody else is dying. This is where billions and billions and billions of dollars have been made in your past and you're forecasting in your future

like they might save some of these networks the nfl might why not invest in the entire product so you can continue to blossom it feels like this is a great move for fox sports going forward i i think it's i would i would like to know how long they've been working on it i'm sure there probably will be a big write-up about how this started right oh f1 it was not f1 we talked about we talked about it at F1. Pretty quick. They hammered that out pretty quick, didn't they? Yeah, well, one came from the Aston Martin store.

One came from the Rolex store. They met in the middle of Lewis Hamilton. It was right before that photo was taken. That's right. Exactly. And actually, Shanks from Fox was there. He was, hey, you guys do a bunch of goats here. This is awesome.

Hey, Tom, how do we get you in our booth? How do we get you in our booth? Tom looks at Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is jordan is like money money everything money yeah money and then david beckham was like lots of money lots of money and then lewis hamilton was like 36 million maybe and then tom's like 37 and a half million dollars and shanks like cool can i get a selfie like he might be him in the back right there. Might be him in the back, you know. Cool, let's go ahead and do it. Who knows how this came together? Where did the numbers start?

Where did it start is the big question. It started above whatever the highest paid guy is now, I'm sure. For sure. Did it start at $20 million, which is what allegedly Sean McVay was being offered by Amazon? We don't know if that's real or not. We don't know if that was being put out as leverage for Sean McVay to get a new head coaching contract. We're just saying what was being reported. Is that where they started?

And then they got to 37 and a half? Because I would like to talk to the negotiator. That is a fucking good move. That is a great move. It's like, hey, I'm not going to tell you what the market says that you should pay us. I'm not going to tell you what we think exact will be worth. says that you should pay us i'm not going to tell you what we think exact will be worth i'm just telling you what it's going to take to get tom to do this every single fucking week for you guys after he retires this is the number it's going to take there's not really much budget in here

like this is how it's going to go and you're either in or you're out well fuck we're in i guess if that's going to get us tom brady and tom's going to be fucking pumped about this it's great pr for fox though i know i know i cut you off but think about it now yeah of course he's not going to take the gig for at least one two who knows how many years but fox still knows it gives them a bunch of great pub they're going to promote it tom will do things for fox i would imagine why he's still playing like he'll do little remotes or whatever he may a little bit more media stuff so it's huge because you don't want to lose him to another network and then they get all this hype forget another network what if he just wanted to go make his own clothing line and do all this other stuff like he already is yeah that's what i'm saying but what if you want to go full invest

and all that stuff like i think it's good that for not only still do everything he can still do everything in call games that's the best part exactly but i also think it's good for the game that he's gonna stick around the game i'm happy the fox is keeping him around the game like very thankful for that but for him i think it's too, because when your entire life is one thing, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, this is what you do, this is what you do, this is what you do, this time of year, this is what's happening, this time of year, this is what's happening. Fall, this is what's happening the first week.

Like, it can be tough on guys transitioning out of the NFL who have played for a long time. Like, I understand the young guys that get cut. It's hard because they didn't make a lot of money in life, kind of told them they weren't good enough at being football. But for older guys who have become robots in their entire life has been just this same exact schedule pretty much for like 30 years straight and then automatically stops. And it's just like no more. And you're not around any of your people. You're not around the game. People get jaded. People go into bad places, even though they're rich. And you're not around any of your people. You're not around the game. People get jaded. People go into bad places even though they're rich.

It's like not great for a lot of people. This keeps Tom in a football schedule, football routine, still plugged into the game, still can break down film while having much less of a travel and work schedule that he would have to have to remain at the top of his game. I think it's great for us as fans. I think it's great for Tom as transitioning out of retirement. We for tom as transitioning out of retirement we already saw him for six weeks right we already saw for six weeks it wasn't great and also it's just this is fucking awesome i'm very pumped about today aj

i think too for tom like yeah i i think i saw a thing where his dad said years ago he's like i'm worried about tom whenever he's done like he is so into football i'm worried about what he could like put his passion into and you i'm sure you would agree it's a lot easier to have like to do fun things or say you take a little vacation or you have a little time in the offseason when you know you have something out there like you know you have a date like in football you know okay OTAs start here camp starts here so you can have this fun and whatever you have this goal you're still working towards I think Tom still kind of has that now with this schedule and it keeps with the football schedule too he kind of stays in rhythm joining us now is a man who might have more information on how this all played out behind the scenes but what a

massive splash by fox congrats to them and congrats to this guy may be in server for the first time since the draft okay uh joining us uh senior nfl insider at the nfl network and the league itself nfl.com. Host of the weekly wrap-up with Rap Sheet and Friends. Us being friends, he being Rap Sheet. Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Rapoport. What's up, dude? You look sober.

Cool, thanks. I am sober, thank you very much. Just working a little bit. Well, I guess you're working too. But anyway, I am sober, thank you very much. Yeah, yeah. We work when you're at Harry Potter museums. We work when you're at Pez dispensers.

As do you, by the way, though. You called us from both those places. We appreciate it. We're lucky to chat with you every single day. Let's dive right into it. $375 million, 10 years for Tom Brady to call games for Fox. We are incredibly pumped for him, for the game of football, for everybody, for all the things involved.

How did this come about, and did you guys have any info that this was potentially going to happen? This is big news out of the Fox Sports world. It's big news for actually a bunch of different reasons. The market for broadcasters has reached a place I never saw this coming. The value of who actually is calling the game. And obviously Tony Romo kind of started it. I think all the other guys looked around like, well, why can't I make this?

Why can't I make this? And they all kind of jumped in Tony Romo's territory. Brady's at, this is at another level. I mean, this is literally at another level. And, you know, I think for Tom Brady to one, well, I mean, God, there's so many things. One is like, he's not making a ton from the bucks this year. Right. Um, so maybe this helps sort of supplement that. Maybe this is part of the reason why he came back. Cause he knows he's getting that sweet, sweet Fox money whenever he's done. So it's all kind of worth it for him.

Um, you know, there's the fact that he's not going to be involved in ownership. Like I know there was all this talk about the Miami Dolphins and, and, you know, him joining the owners. This is obviously not that this is way, way different. And then there's Fox saying, you know what, whenever you come, whenever you come on, we'll, we'll be happy to have you. Just a non-ending deal. I mean, there's so much unprecedented here. Ian, do you know what Fox is going to do with that crew until Tom does get there? I know some of the discussions revolve around Greg Olson.

Let's go, Greg! Great dude. I asked him about it during the owner's meeting. He politely declined comment. They have not yet made it official, I assume, because they're waiting on this. You know, there is the thought that he would join Kevin Burkhart

and kind of hold the place for Tom Brady, which would be insulting on so many levels, except that it's Tom Brady. I don't want to speak for Greg, but except that it's Tom Brady. It's a great platform for Greg, though. It's great.

They get the Super Bowl this year. Greg gets to get good reps, too. That's exactly right. But here's my thing. So let's say Brady's team makes the playoffs, probably. Let's say they lose in the first round or second round. It's not your thing. It's not your thing. It's not your thing.

It's not just your thing. We had this conversation. Did I miss this? I was not tuned in. I was doing something. We wondered about whether or not he'll actually be in the booth. Yeah, yeah. On Super Bowl.

Tom's going to be in the Super Bowl one way or the other. He's either playing it or he's calling it. That's what we did. Is that what you're thinking? Is that your thing? Yeah. And I reached out to a Fox spokesman who declined comment. Some real journalism there.

Is that really your thing? You did reach out and ask that question? I really did. And they won't say. So, like, we are going to now speculate all season. No, we won't. We won't speculate. It's not that big of a deal.

What about his bye week? Maybe he does a game. No, I don't. Hey, bye week, though. Hey, he's studying. That's a good thought, too. He's changing the whole offense. Remember, he's studying. That's a good thought, too. He's changing the whole offense. Remember, he's literally changing the entire offense on the bye week.

Because I think Matt Hasselbeck did this when he was playing with us. When he was playing with the Colts. Yeah. He went and called, like, two games on, like, a false booth almost in the stadium for Fox, I think, for the future. I think Greg Olsen. I think Greg did this, too. Yeah. Greg did a real game, actually, during the season. Greg did this. Was he on IR or was he out for the future. I think Greg Olson. I think Greg did this too. Greg did a real game actually during the season.

Greg did this. Was he on IR or was he out for the week? No, bye week. That's crazy. Bye week and then IR the next year. Yeah, that's right. So then maybe Tom will do that. I just assume Tom Brady is like Tom Brady,

so he's not going to do anything like anybody has done in the past. But I would assume Tom would like some reps too, don't you think? Yeah. Maybe not. It's also amazing, you know, how everything leaks in this world and like media agents are way worse than playing agents because they,

everyone leaks everything. This didn't come out at all. Like it came out in the earnings call. It's crazy. So is Tom, who does Tom's business? Somebody that handles Tom's business that is with other people or are they only on Team Tom? I don't know who specifically did this one, but Don Yee does his football.

Dubin does his marketing off the field. I assume did this deal as well. But I'm not sure who specifically negotiated. Basically only with Tom Brady and Jimmy G and a couple others, so that's why. So that's why. Yeah, that's why they can keep it hush-hush. That's awesome. Alright, I like it even more. I like it even more because that means Fox didn't have any leaks either, right? Yeah.

I guess you would say no. This is terrible. We like leaks. No, you like leaks. We appreciate them because we get to report them, but I like whenever people, you know, say, not everybody needs to know everything all the time. You know, I everything all the time. I like that a lot. I enjoy that a lot. Let's move around the NFL a little bit.

Jarvis Landry, allegedly the Baltimore Ravens are interested. I assume a lot of teams are interested in Jarvis Landry. Am I wrong in reading this? Why am I reading this wrong? And why is he not a Colt? Welcome to the Colts, Jarvis Landry. You're not wrong. And I think a lot of people are interested.

As always, money is the issue. And if you look historically at this time of year, the amount of players who've got, let's say, more than $10 million, you can count them on one hand. Like Clowney did one year. That was one. But there's like almost no players get more than, let's say, $10 million, which you know.

Like had Jarvis Landry, remember he visited the Falcons? We all thought that Deshaun Watson was going to go there like that probably would have been about a 10 million dollar deal I don't know where he gets that now and you know I know the Browns offered him a pretty nice one-year deal where it would have been a pay cut but he would have gone back there for a nice sum turn that down and now it's like you, I would say the same thing for anyone who gets released this time of year. It is not a lot of money out there.

Teams are mostly spent. Gotta go to the booth. Go ahead, Ty. Rap Sheet, speaking of that, do you get the inclination that the Packers are going to be involved with any of these guys, or are they one of those teams where they're not really going to be able to give a guy $10 million, so they're probably not going to get one of these receivers? I think the Packers are going to be involved in this market. And this is actually a great market for them because let's say you're

Jarvis Landrieu or maybe even better for the Packers, let's say you're Julio Jones and you're not going to get $15 million. You're probably not going to get $10 million. The Packers would be one of those teams you'd want to join where maybe you make $3 million with some incentives, but you know you got a chance to make the Super Bowl. That actually is attractive. So we got Odell, who obviously had interest from the Packers last time. You had Julio, who I imagine will get some interest from there. Landry, who I don't know has gotten interest from the Packers,

but all those guys would make sense. Or Green Bay, who I would say might add another receiver at some point. Wow. Julio would look great as a Colt, too. I don't want this just to be a Packers-Colts conversation, but Matt Ryan's here. He's an Navy SEAL. He's an astronaut.

Jim Irsay's going to the moon and to Mars. I mean, let's go ahead and win a Super Bowl, Ian Rappaport. Is there any rumblings of anything happening around there? You've got a suit and tie. You've got a tie on, so it feels like there's a little bit of cooking. What's cooking right now? Nothing. Not a lot. I mean, Bradbury might sign somewhere. Oh, quick.

Quick turnaround there? If you look at the way that situation played out, the Giants, I know it seems like the Giants didn't have a lot of offers. They actually had a lot of offers. They actually had a lot of offers. They had several teams make legitimate, workable trade offers for them, but that new team couldn't then come to terms with Bradbury on a new deal because he wanted that $10 million, $12 million. He wanted more. Now that he's free, I would imagine you'd think his agents are not

allowed to talk to teams about contracts while they're still employed. So they would definitely not do that. But you'd think his agents would know what market, you know, what's out there. So if he's got it, like if he's going to make what he turned down from in those trade offers, like I could see it happening pretty quickly. Okay. All right, Bradbury. Welcome to the Colts.

Go ahead, AJ. Ian, what about Deshaun Watson and the Browns? Is he being deposed later this week? Is he going to be there week one? What's that mean? Another one? Criminal? No, not criminal. These are all the civil lawsuits that are still playing out, and there's some depositions this week, then there's some in a couple weeks.

And the way it's looking now, you're not going to have a trial until probably after the season, which sounds like a really big deal. But we don't actually know if it is because we don't know if he's going to settle. Because if you look back at, you know, last early, it was either early November or late October around the trade deadline, you know, it seemed at one point that he was going to settle only to facilitate a trade with the Dolphins. So if he was willing to do that then, might he be willing to do that now? And might his new team say, we know that you didn't do it.

We trust you because obviously they've come out and said they did all the investigative. Whatever they have said publicly, you know, there is a chance he settles now if he was close to settling before and maybe if he gets a suspension it would come before this season i'm not sure anybody wants it to drag on until next year either honestly roger dow just said they're going to be investigating indefinitely until all the pieces of information come out they're just waiting to see what other people what ends up happening in other like the civil suit and everything like that yeah i think they're they don't have to wait until the civil suit is done like there's precedent where they can do it you know issue punishment beforehand but they do not want to get in a situation like they did with josh brown the giants kicker where they suspended him and the new information

came out like a couple days later and then he i think he got cut after that so they didn't have to suspend him more but it was you don't that situation. We would like Justice to be served whichever way Justice is fairly deserved. Go ahead, Connor. Yeah, Rapsheet. The Debo kind of news has kind of fallen off. Are they probably going to get a deal done? And it sounds like DK is going to get one, but the only one that hasn't really been confirmed or not is Terry McLaurin.

Is he kind of the only receiver now left that might be on the move? The problem is there's no deadline now. So, like, for Debo or for DK2 and for McLaurin, like, the draft obviously has come and gone. So any draft picks you're going to trade for would be for next year's draft. You're probably not going to do player for player. That rarely happens. So, like, for Debo, you know, I'm sure that they will try to get to work on a new contract, but he's still not in a great place.

So now it's like the question is, does he show up for, or does he show up for mandatory minicam, or does he not? You mentioned DK. I know Seattle would like to get a deal done. The market is really well-defined. Like this is a... We know what receivers make now. So, theoretically, it should be an easy deal to get done. And I do know the Washington football... The commanders, whatever. I know the commanders... Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

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Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa. . Whoa, whoa. . give that the proper respect. I do like the name. Do you? Well, you know,

it's fine. So you just lied. You just lied. Look at you. No, I think Washington football team had like a nice kind of like international intrigue ring to it. We enjoyed WFT as well. We enjoyed WFT as well. We didn't understand, but I guess you can't if you have no like, you know,

mascot, I guess you can't really. There's a lot of avenues. I mean, mascots are ridiculous anyway. They just walk around the field and do dumb stuff. Listen, I concur. Okay, I concur on most situations. But there are mascots that make the game day experience much better. For instance, Jackson DeVille.

That dude bungee jumps from the top of the stadium every single game with the kickoff ball in his hand. That's insanity. That's good, especially down in Duval or anything. Blue here is an active part of keeping people alive. They're also a massive revenue stream because they go to events and represent the Colts. And they go to things like that.

You know what I mean? They're a massive. The Suns gorilla. How about the Suns gorilla that jumps off a trampoline and does flipping dunks and stuff? Yeah, Benny the Bull is in there. I mean, there's... The Patriots who shoot guns after touchdown. The Minute Men? Yeah. The way you balance the plate on her head

on the unicycle? You know her, Pat. That's Red Panda. I don't think she's anybody's mascot, though, but she should be. Oh, we've got to love Red Panda. It's amazing. I was in the SEC for five years. They were a staple at halftime. It was awesome. Yeah, I tossed Red Panda a bowl.

Whoa. Two bowls. No big deal. Alley-oop to Red Panda. 100%. What a run she had. Yeah. Bro, she had a streak for like 15 years straight of never dropping a fucking bowl.

And now she'll drop a bowl every once in a while. I'm like, get her out of here. I'm like, you have no respect. Show some respect for Red Panda. Yeah now she'll drop a bowl every once in a while. I'm like, get her out of here. I'm like, you have no respect. Show some respect for Red Panda. Yeah, she was on a unicycle, kicking bowls on her head in front of 13,000 people and hitting like literally

every single night. I mean, her hit rate was at like 99.9. Oh yeah. And then now she'll miss and everybody's like, get her out of here. I love that the camera just pulled out so we could see her legs doing the unicycle thing. Do you not ride a unicycle? You look like a unicycle guy. No, definitely

not. You know what? I was just thinking, though. Have you ever bungee jumped? No. It is so bad. One of the worst experiences of my whole life. Why? It was so I was like terrified. I don't get scared of anything. I wanted to. Tough guy. It was awful. i don't get scared of anything i wanted a tough guy it was awful you don't get scared of anything you're in your you're literally in your basement

all day every day you do a spring break off a crane or something i did it in uh switzerland off a gondola and i thought my feet were gonna come out which would have been bad that's awesome though right on the gondola over the Alps? Pretty sweet. It was over, like, a big lake or whatever. No, it wasn't awesome. It was awful. I thought I would never, like, start breathing again. Why did you do it?

What's that? Why did you do it, then? Yeah, I would like to do it. I would imagine I'd be very scared. Not fucking scared of anything. Well, that's the purpose. I thought it would be some great, like, rush and thrill. The other thing was, they don't tell you you're supposed to dive out like you're in a swimming pool. So I just jumped out. So you go all the way down

and then just... Oh, you got whiplash! Oh, man! You can't pencil in when you're strapped to the ankle. Bro, why would you ever think that you should go opposite end of where you're attached? Oh, my.

Nobody explain this to me. That had to be. Like you didn't break your neck. Yeah, snap in half. As you were jumping, they were probably like, no, no, no, no. Ah, he's dead. Too late. Absolutely done.

You're supposed to be scared, though. That's the purpose of it. You're like, what, 130 pounds, too? The rope is never going to break. That's what everybody fears, right? Is the rope's going to break. I mean, I thought my feet were in boots. I thought the boots would just slip out, and I'd just be like –

I'd be one of those things that people kind of write about. You know, like I was there when that got me. That's why you went feet first, right? You thought it would help you not slip out. Did you think you were going to pogo stick? Did you think – tell me. Please tell me, Rap Sheet. You thought you were going to jump down

and then be able to have a good enough base, and you were going to come back up with the bungee? Go all the way back up and land on his feet. Is that what you were going to do because the boots were so... Why doesn't everybody do this? It's a big pogo stick. Is that what you were thinking? I just wish that I had thought.

I know rarely does this happen. I had no thoughts in my brain i acted and i just was like why in the world would i do that but here we are i'm still alive though which is great hey check it off the bucket list i've uh i've done skydiving before so oh yeah i think bungee jump has to happen at some point but i'm heavy you know i'm heavy that's a scary thing whenever you gotta wait make sure you dive head first first. Listen, I'm going to let you know there was no fucking chance I wasn't diving.

I mean, you might be the only human that thought you could pencil your way through that entire thing. What a, hey, we just learned a lot about he would jump off there.

Yeah. That's a big deal. Hey, that's a big mental thing that not a lot of people could do. Like AJ said, you get up there, you're scared, you're supposed to be scared to death.

It's whether or not you can, you know, kind of break through that mental toughness a little bit aj one time yeah it's skydiving i would do i feel that feels more my speed see i did that one time never doing that again no i thought i was getting my groin sawed off by that strap that is attached to the thing it was one of the most uncomfortable and then the minute drop or whatever that you like fall for awesome that's awesome like earth is getting real close right now holy shit this is cool you're flying and then as soon as they pull the parachute and you're just kind of it's kind of boring when they're just kind of

bouncing around and my groin's just getting sawed you know what i mean so it's like we get done well we gotta wait for the other people that jumped away so you're like just kind of bounce around that's all boring that's what i say so i'll never do that again also once again i'm heavy so the weight limits on those things it isn't until like about to pull the parachute that like you i thought i was going to go right through the straps because i'm 240 or whatever supposed to be 230 and then instead it just ripped my groin to pieces so i mean it was a good time go ahead connor uh rap sheet i just asked him about oh. Oh, no, I'm sorry. Tom, go ahead, Tom.

Ian, you gave us a little teaser, but I crave sustenance, my friend. Who tried trading for Bradbury, and where is he going to go? I would say the team's interested. Oh, here we go. I know people have been talking about the Eagles could use a corner. I would imagine they'd have some interest. I don't think the Raiders will be interested. I know people are talking like Pat Graham, his defensive coordinator, was there. Raiders, I don't think so.

I know the Chiefs had a couple discussions. I think they would be a team to watch. The reason teams want to do this, though, before the draft is there were some teams that were interested who, I'm sorry, I will remain nameless, who drafted corners. Two in the top five, right? There's two in the top five, right? I mean that's a big deal.

There were definitely two in the top five. I would imagine both those probably would have had some interest in Bradbury. But you take a corner and you're probably not going to trade for someone and then pay him $8 million. You're probably not going to sign someone either at that rate. So the Chiefs and Tyron Matthew continue to confuse me then

because it's not about the money, obviously. If they're going to trade for another guy and pay another guy in the back end in the secondary, they brought in a safety read from Houston and paid him like $37 million, which is more, I think, than what Tyron Matthew ended up getting paid for the Saints. That whole situation still befuddling to everybody. Does Tyron Matthew know why it ended or how it ended or what are your thoughts on that? I don't think he knows, and he's probably never going to know, but I think it came down to this.

So the Chiefs as an organization are really good. They try to do things the right way. No one's perfect, but they really handle things, I think, in the proper way. Based on their value with Tyron Matthew, clearly they wanted to go younger at that position. They signed Justin Reed. That makes sense. I'm not sure if they were going to make a deal for him,

I think they would have offered him less than they paid him last year. That's insulting. Everybody loves Tyron Matthews. They did not want to insult him. So instead of making some BS lowball offer, it was more like, you know what? We are going to agree to disagree on your value. No crime here.

We just... We are going to give someone more money who's younger and rather than offer you less, we're just going to say clean break, not going to make an offer, which definitely sucks. And I feel, I'm sure it was not good for him, but it's better than some insulting offer where, like,

you ruined the last three years you just had. Yeah, and I think a lot of people are more confused by it because it's like if you can get Tyron Matthew on your team, you fucking get Tyron Matthew on your team. Not that Reed's not a hell of a ball player, but the Honey Badger's the Honey Badger, the landlord, for a goddamn reason. That's why I think a lot of people are confused, as is probably Tyron Matthew.

He's going to be happy to be back in Louisiana. Last question from us, and we can't thank you enough for joining us. Gunterkunz basically alluded to the fact that who knows where Jordan Love is going to be in the future. Now, does he have to say that because he has to keep all doors open for leverage, or what are your thoughts on his exact thing?

I think his future is bright. As far as his future with us, we'll kind of see how that goes. Brian Goontgoon says on Jordan Love. Is that because he's in the middle of trading Jordan Love right now, you think? Or what's going on? No, and I don't think they, I mean, I do think they had some interest. I don't think they had any offer that would make it so they had to move on from him. The problem is his value as a backup is like real. That is an important thing.

So let's say someone would have given him a fifth round. I guarantee somebody would trade a fifth rounder for Jordan Love. I'm sure somebody would trade a fourth rounder for Jordan Love. But is that enough for the Packers? God forbid something happens to Aaron Rodgers. Is that enough for the Packers? So you know what? We'll do this. We'll figure it out later.

They want the security of Love who knows their system, who they still like. We don't know if he's going to be what they think he's going to be, but they still like him. So, none of those deals would be enough for them to give up on their backup in case Rodgers gets hurt. Now, if someone's willing to give maybe a two, definitely, or a three, maybe, then I think they would say you know what we'll take the draft pick we'll sign a veteran backup and we'll deal with it's just the value hasn't

come close to meeting what they would do for sure sounds like that's exactly you just dropped like a hey anybody out there watching yeah it's a two maybe a three to get jordan love right now well just out you know the top of my head could be talking about anything yeah yeah yeah you're saying punditry not insider you're saying punditry, not insider. You're saying punditry, not insider. You brought the break news? What's on your phone right there? No, the Cardinals just announced some staff changes and some promotions.

Oh, who got paid? Sean Jefferson, associate head coach. Spencer Whipple, co-pass game coordinator. He was the guy who called plays last year when everybody had COVID. Is that Whipple's son? Is that Mark Whipple, co-pass game coordinator. He was the guy who called plays last year when everybody had COVID. Oh, man. Is that Whipple's son?

Is that Mark's son? Is that Mark Whipple's son? It is, actually, yes. Oh, wow. That's good. Hey, a guy knows football. Yeah. Guy's been a grown-up.

Congrats to them. Congrats to you. Another fantastic episode of the weekly wrap-up with Rap Sheet and friends. Us being friends, you being Rap Sheet. Good luck out there. Are you on TV today? Yeah, obviously. Yeah, I'm going to be on TV in about 22 minutes talking about the big news of tom brady making more than many many many many people hey make sure you talk about it in a positive light

it's good when people get paid ian i love it everybody should get paid including all of you guys including me it's great news for all of us by the way he just got 37 and a half million 100 yeah 100 ladies and gentlemen It's great news for all of us, by the way. He just got $37.5 million. 100%. Yeah, 100%. Ladies and gentlemen, Ian Rapoport. Thank you. Today's show is brought to you by the best ticket app on planet Earth and... The Moon! Did you say it?

Yeah, I said it. Cut me off, though. No, you didn't. No, you didn't. I can't speak at the same time. You guys know that it mutes me. You can. Yeah, you can. It mutes in your ear, but we can hear you. said it. Cut me off, though. No, you didn't. You didn't say it. No, you didn't. I can't speak at the same time. You guys know that it mutes me. You can. Yeah, you can.

You can try. It mutes in your ear, but we can hear you. Try. Oh, okay. Just check the tapes. He did not say it. The moon. There it is.

That's official. Just put it back in Z on the report. That was pretty good. That was pretty good. Good. Felt like your cadence went at a pretty proper rhythm there. Yeah. Good emphasis on the O there.

That was really good. Thank you. How far is the moon from where we are right now? 250 million miles? No. Wow. 208,000. 250 million is Mars.

No. I'm looking at Mars. Shoot for Mars. If you miss, you'll hit the moon. That's my saying. That's right. You're 100% right. Now, the question was moon, but I understand what you're saying. you're shooting for that when it comes to goals and aspirations in life and everything like that

Yes, well if there was to be an event on Mars or the moon You would want to get your tickets for that from SeatGeek. Yeah, hell yeah Yeah, so that's what we've been saying that so not only here on earth But whenever it goes to the moon whenever we get to Mars eventually which is gonna happen SeatGeek is gonna be the spot to get into all the sweet, dope events. Yeah. Because they have a grading system on their app that lets you know whether or not you're getting a good deal or a bad deal for the entire universe. Oh, pretty cool. So it doesn't matter if it's like sports or theater or a concert or a show.

I mean, it could be anything. They have tickets to everything, and they let you know whether or not you or a show. It could be anything. They have tickets to everything and they let you know whether or not you're getting fucked. And they never catfish you, which is awesome. Nope. It's planet Earth and space now, maybe.

What? Because including Mars, the moon is kind of... I saw there's a government thing going on this week. They're going to give information out about the alien situation. Really?

What? Some kind of hearing coming. From an alien? Congress is going to have a formal hearing. Is it going to be covered like Johnny Depp and Amber Heard? Will I be able to fucking see this and listen to this? Or is it going to be covered up enough? C-SPAN, right?

C-SPAN's covering Amber and Johnny. Yeah. Are they? It's a different thing. They're on break until the 16th, by the way. Who? Nick knows. They took like a 10-day break or something from the trial.

I don't know, though. I like the fact that he just tries to bring somebody else down into his shit. Reduce the batteries? Of course you know, by the way. Yeah, I know they took a break, yeah. They're not selling tickets to the court trial,

but if they were, we'd get our tickets from SeatGeek. Bingo. If I could get tickets to this alien thing deal, I'd like to get tickets through SeatGeek. And right now,

when you use the link in the bio, I believe you get 10% off your next purchase. It doesn't matter if it's your first time or not. SeatGeek is the best. Joining us now, absolute icon. All right, this guy, legend. A man that was dominating Twitter before anybody else was dominating Twitter. He has pivoted that into a rocket ship of a media career of Barstool Sports.

Co-host of the Spittin' Chicklets podcast, ladies and gentlemen, Paul Bissonnette. Yeah! Fucking right. That's a nice little intro there. It's been a while since I've been on. The team's grown. Hey, yeah, we got a whole squad. This is A.J. Hawk, by the way.

Similar mentalities, I believe, you and he. I'm a big Packers fan. I watch you play, man. Congrats on a wonderful career, and congrats on the transforming into this, man. Fucking rights. I appreciate it, man. I listen to all your stuff. You're awesome.

Oh! Hey! Hey, Biz, I just heard you. Biz, I heard your Fol Felino interview just came out. I actually just happened to listen to it. Felino, I live in Columbus, so I used to watch him play all the time. Yeah, we've had both the brothers on. We've still got to get the old man, but a great family,

and both of them still kicking in playoffs. Boston, I thought they were done for, but they're storming back against the Carolina Hurricanes. Hockey playoffs have been wild right now, boys, and I would imagine that's probably why you had me on. Yes, by the way. And also your coverage has been fantastic. I think this is big for the NHL going to Turner and to ESPN.

Obviously on Turner, you and Gretzky in there and so many others. I mean, the way they're covering it is awesome. For you, has it been interesting going straight into like the sports media world where you're like breaking down the tape and breaking down aspects of it versus the podcast in which you all are hilarious and have better conversations than the sports media people have you had difficulties bouncing back and forth and how have you enjoyed the tv aspect of it all yeah so i was born french canadian so like english really it's i mean i'm like 50 50 as far as how well i can speak it so and of course growing up in a locker room like i'm swearing every other word so transforming into you know to go into onto the national stage is very difficult

like normally i run things through one filter now i'm running things through two filters so definitely been a trans it's been a tough transition. I've been called in a few times and gotten pee-pee wax for a few things that I've said on the air. Regarding the girls' jugs the other night behind the Dallas Stars bench. Oh, that's what you guys were talking about. I didn't see that. I didn't see that, Pat. Yeah, you did.

You said cannons in the Dallas Stars. Yeah, we were talking about fucking from the blue line. I was talking about clap bombs, I thought. I told you they were bombs behind the bench. Probably the nicest set of tits behind an NHL bench ever. But, hey, it's happened a few times. I think the Leafs had a girl with these, like, the ones that the Leafs had behind the bench were, like, Dolly Parton-sized tits.

They must have been, been like triple Fs. And, you know, these girls are just out there promoting their only fans behind the coaches, basically. So, yeah, but it's been a little bit difficult. But luckily with the experience of some of the guys here in the helicopter. What did you say? What did you say? You said that lady's promoting her only fans right there behind the coach on Turner? No, no.

I was just making comments about basically her jugs. I commented on the DP and there's been a few other things that I've said where they've called me and they said, Hey buddy, this isn't spitting chicklets. You need to tone it down. So I appreciate them working with me and helping, helping with the transition, but yeah, you know, it's hard, right? Cause you're, you're, you're going from podcasts forum where you're able to articulate your thoughts and talk for, you know, two, three minutes, and then all of a sudden, you've got to get out your point very fast. So I'm not – I didn't go to any broadcast school, and I'm not the most polished speaker.

So with that French background and that locker room talk, I'm definitely easing into it. But as I mentioned, the guys have been great. Working with Wayne, talk, Anson and Liam have been great working with wayne talk anson and liam have been incredible and buddy after these broadcasts some nights we go to wayne's room till like four or five in the morning this guy is the biggest guy's guy will crush beers he will tell me all these iconic stories and bad stories god buddy it's a dream come true and that alone is is incentive enough for me to fly out here once a week or twice a week

and and do this gig just to hear these behind the scenes stories of of the greatest hockey player of all time that's awesome did you have any relationship with gretzky before you got on this show and like i didn't know you're getting to go hang out with the dude after shows and hear all these stories like is he what you expected but he's he's what I expected and more. So when I was playing in Arizona, I actually was buddies with his kids. And he was the head coach for the Arizona Coyotes the year before I got there. And the year I got there, they ended up going a different direction. I don't know how it all played out.

But because the market was down in Arizona, he kept his house in PV. He had this beautiful mansion. And his kids were going to ASU so both of his sons and their best friend Joey Superstein were living in this mansion and they would throw shakers every weekend so we would have home games on Saturday we would go to the bar and then we would go back to his place and let's just put it this way like I was batting a thousand at this place the girls were just everywhere it was way. Like I was batting a thousand at this place. The girls were just everywhere. So I actually ended up knowing his kids before I knew him.

So that was, uh, that was an easier transition than meeting him because they actually vouched for me and told him when he got the TNT gig, Hey, you got to make sure you get biz on. He does spit and chicklets. I think it'll help the broadcast.

So Wayne ended up putting in the good word, and then it all worked out. So as I said, everything I expected and more, he's been so kind to me. And I really got to thank his kids, Ty and Trevor, for the introduction and also for helping me get laid. Yeah, and Superstein. Yeah, it sounds like Superstein was part of that whole operation as well. Whenever you talk about spitting chiclets, though, being a reason for why you're getting

a job on Turner from Wayne and from his kids there, I think that's incredible because starting something on the internet at Barstool and then creating something that is relevant enough and impactful enough and puts a dent in everything enough that it is used as a reason for

why you should get one of the biggest jobs in hockey right now is really cool. Why do you think the NHL and hockey has been so poorly marketed, especially with how good are the personalities like you and Witt and everybody talks to on your show? Like, I feel like we're learning more about the NHL through spit and chiclets than we have from the NHL for the last 40 years, basically. Why do you think that is the case? and do you think this will continue to grow? I just think hockey guys are a little bit more reserved than maybe other sports. And, you know, you kind of follow the team concept,

and you don't really go off in your own way. And actually, when I ended up starting Twitter, I think a lot of people were, like, shocked at what was going on there. Keep in mind, I was a lot more aggressive in my early days than I am now. I've definitely toned it down as the social line has moved as well. So even when I started doing that, I don't think if I was with the Arizona Coyotes organization, I would have been allowed to do it. If I was playing with the Toronto Maple Leafs, they would have shut down my account in no time.

So I just think that sometimes guys kind of just fall in line and maybe don't show enough of their personality the way they would, let's say, in the locker room. And, you know, I just was always the type of guy to really beat to my own drum. And I think that, you know, once the Twitter started and I felt that the fans really embraced it because they're like, finally, you know, someone who's willing to just kind of let it fly online and represent the hockey world as to the way we are in the locker room and our normal lives. And I think that that just gave me the confidence in order to kind of keep it going and growing. And, you know, as my career ended, much like yours, you're like, you want to bring, you know, the fans that love the game and who paid our salaries

more enjoyment, because I couldn't bring it to them on the ice. That's why other than maybe scrapping. A lot of health bombs, a lot of healthy scratches, but, but, you know, we want to bring them these behind the scenes stories. We want to interview these players and show off the personality that maybe they wouldn't have been comfortable sharing on, on maybe a typical mainstream network and or just in general. So it's been a bit of a whirlwind transforming it from just starting Twitter to what we've created, much like you guys have done here and you guys are on planet Zoltan compared to where we're at.

No, no, no. But I think that it's just, you know, not many guys have been willing to do it. But, you know, now I feel like more guys will start to not only seeing the response from the fans, but maybe the bags that guys are starting to collect. And I know today was probably the epitome of that. I think, I honestly, are you talking about Tom Brady, $375 million? Yes, that is absolutely insane. Awesome, awesome.

Can we give him a round of applause yeah yeah yeah it's awesome we did earlier podcast for crying out loud no no that's what i was about to say like i feel like you guys you guys have gotten much faster than we ever did much faster than we ever did much bigger than we ever did because i think hockey fans, like you said, as a representation of the entire community, like as a genuine hockey fan, I was excited to meet and hear about these fucking dudes that I knew nothing about for whatever reason because it never fell into my world. But what you guys did with the Pink Whitneys, I mean, you guys, smart business, good business.

Like I'm fucking excited to watch you guys continue to grow and continue to go yeah and and you know i i love that type of stuff and that one what happened organically with the new amsterdam coming on as a sponsor and then you know wit just mentioned what his favorite drink was and then all of a sudden all these fans are sending us pictures and my business manager is like yo we gotta we gotta do this thing and i you know we went back to barstool and i went back to Witt. And Witt was like, buddy, we do a hockey podcast. We're not doing a vodka here. And with a lot of persistence and then finally them agreeing to do it, it happened.

And then all of a sudden college girls across America love this stuff. And, you know, we're selling 1.2 million cases a year of Pink Whitney. And that kind of took on a mind of its own. But the good part about that, too, is, you know, as the finances grew, it gave us more ability to hire more staff, you know, travel more, be able to get better interviews and just have more resources in order to keep growing the brand. So, you know, it's as I mentioned, it's been a whirlwind. So, you know, as I mentioned, it's been a whirlwind. I'm extremely grateful for a guy who, you know, was lucky enough to make the league and get to play in Pittsburgh and Arizona,

and I'm sure we're going to get to Sidney Crosby soon. I'm very blessed about where it's brought me. Before you get to Sidney Crosby, can you take some of those proceeds and maybe throw it to your old squad in Arizona? Are they getting kicked out of their arena for not paying their rent? Have they figured that out yet? It has been a bit of a gong show, boys. We will be playing at ASU in a 5,000-seat arena for hopefully only the next three to four years.

Long time. Next three to four years? Well, yeah, they haven't even started construction, so they're trying to lock down some land in Tempe, which I can understand why the league is tripling down on why they originally brought it to Arizona and why they want to keep it there because the market's flourishing. And if you're near that old town and that Viagra Triangle vortex,

people can go to the game and it might be kind of that Vegas feel too, where even, you know, fans from out of town watching their away team can come in, maybe get more affordable tickets. So there would be tons of success if they were able to have the arena in the right location. They ended up breaking ground in Scottsdale

and then Glendale came along and they said right before they started construction and basically said, we're going to give you the land for free and we're going to build this brand new facility. And at the time Glendale was one of the fastest growing cities in America, but nonetheless, not the area you want to be. It's 30 to 35 minutes from the action. So they did.

And just when the team hasn't done so well, they really struggle for attendance when the team has done well when i was there we made playoffs three years three years in a row the attendance would grow but not not a solution for long-term success so the new owners came in they got hit with covid and they've been battling with the arena there's been tons of conflict which i i can't get into details because i'm just a bagel boy for the organization, so I don't know that much. Yes, there were situations where they didn't pay their rent on time. So after all that conflict, they figured a solution for a part-time.

They will be playing at ASU near an area where they eventually may build the rink. So as of right now, they don't have the land locked in in order to build. As of right now, they don't have the land locked in in order to build. If they don't get it within probably the next 18 months to two years, there is a chance that the team does relocate. No! No! I know.

Because I love living there, and I still work part-time for the organization. I'm just trying to be as honest as possible about the situation. But I pray that they end up figuring out the arena situation and get it done at Tempe because, as I mentioned, it's a fun place. You get all these bachelor parties that come in. You get all this craziness in Old Town. It's a party town. There's 5 million people in that area.

You cannot mess it up. Hopefully they can get things on the right track and get that arena built. All right, let's go. Three to four years. Let's dive into the playoffs now, Biz. Hey, Sidney Crosby and get that arena built. All right, let's go. Here we go. Three to four years. Come on. Three to four years. Let's dive into the playoffs now, Biz.

Hey, Sidney Crosby ain't going to let this team die, especially if they got King Domingue in between the pipes. 7-2 last night over to fucking worthless Rangers. Fuck the Rangers. Yeah, agreed. Agreed. Agreed. There's a Rangers fan base. Worst fan base in sports.

Worst fan base in sports. Why is that? Why is that? Just so I can continue to bury Bruce. Mostly because of their fans online. So, I mean, you can't hold it against all of them, but they are just brutal. You can't be even the slightest bit critical of what they got going.

They were a run-and-gun team all year long, giving up way too many high-danger scoring chances. They relied on their young stud goaltender who's going to win the Vezda and Shusterkin. And I knew with the structure that the Penguins have, the leadership in that locker room with Sid, Gino, LePang, I was like, this might be their last dance. I think that they got one last run in them, and they're going to go all the way.

The only thing that sucks is they weren't able to pick up Fleury at the deadline or to bring the band back together. Oh, I would have had a full-raging hockey boner if they would have done that. But nonetheless, this is what they do. Even when they went on that second run when they beat Nashville, they had no LeTangville they had no latang they had no doomlin they dealt with injuries but they're so strong in the middle of the ice and they have that leadership from sid and that's why i think that they're going to go to the

potentially go to the promised land again although the parity in the league and the amount of wagon teams that are involved they still have a very difficult road ahead but but I love Sidney Crosby. He is the greatest ambassador of our generation, and I couldn't have more positive things to say about the guy. Well, let's have more positive things to say about him. I know you said Gretzky, best player of all time. I assume that's just all hockey circles. In my eyes, okay, Sidney Crosby, best player of all time.

Mary Lemieuxew number two right there Wayne close three though I mean those three those three right there in the conversation me specifically because I was old enough to celebrate what Sidney Crosby brought to Pittsburgh uh in multiple times in the way he wanted to do it so I think that is why I view him as the greatest hockey player on earth because there has been great times because of Sidney Crosby or whatever he is so good at everything right that's what separates him from everybody else right he's just good at the entire game of hockey and why is that the case with him as opposed to everybody else i i mean let's go back to the start he was this phenom and he had the the weight of the world on his shoulders, and he's ran with it.

He's never made any mistakes off the ice. He's so humble. All he does is continue to excel his game, not even during the season. As soon as the season ends, he takes a little bit of time off. He's back at it training two times a day, six days a week. As far as adjusting his game, sometimes when you come at a junior and these guys are collecting 150, 200 points, they don't necessarily transition their game well

to the NHL style because all of a sudden you're playing against guys who are just as skilled. And he was able to not only develop his game on the defensive side and learn situational awareness at the NHL level, but also on top of that, add that leadership to his game where he'll sacrifice at any time. You saw at the end of the game the other night when they were up, he could have easily took

the puck to the net in that last seven minutes a few times. What did he do? He took it. He went and ate it below the goal line, killed the clock, took short shifts, and then he goes off the ice, makes an ozone change so fresh bodies can come back on the ice, so Coach Sullivan can double shift them so they can solidify that win. To see his progression throughout his career and the amount of pressure he had coming in and what he's done with it

and lived up to every goddamn expectation that was expected of him, on top of not only the hockey side of it, but the ambassador side of it of how he interacts with fans and how he gives people his time and how he didn't get caught up in all the other bullshit. I know I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him, but the work ethic speaks for itself. And talking about him right now, I get goosebumps. Yeah, me too.

Because I was able to play with the greatest player, in my opinion, of our generation. And he was always so kind to me. And I pray that he's able to deliver, in his final years, one last run to that franchise and fan base. And I wish him the world, man. Yeah, me too. I wish him the goddamn world.

That was a major stroke off I just gave Sid. He better be coming on the pod for another interview after that one. Well, listen, That was a major stroke off I just gave Sid. He better come on the pod. He better be coming on the pod for another interview after that one. Well, listen, that was a great promo. But it is on this platform, though, so he should come on this show. Yeah. He should come on this show, too. I'll text him.

I'll text him, and I'll be like, you got to get on the Mac. I mean, you guys could probably get him anyway. I doubt it. I doubt it, honestly. We are not plugged like that. But Sid is the man. I've gotten very intoxicated because of him. You guys got the hockey podcast going with Ruppert now.

Ruppert played with him. Ruppert would easily be able to get you guys, Sidney Crosby. What are your thoughts on Ruppert? That dude is one of the most cock-strong-looking guys of all time. Just big, huge Ohio guy. He actually beat the shit out of me one time on the ice. I don't know how many kind words. No, he's an awesome guy. He actually beat the shit out of me one time on the ice. So I don't know how many, I don't have any kind words. No, he's an awesome guy. He beat the wheels off me.

He's an absolute bear. Had an incredible career. And we had very similar roles, right? So you always like talk to guys amongst the league. He was always liked. Every team he went to, you know, everybody has great things to say about him. Of course, when you're the guy who ends up protecting everyone, I'm sure they're going to have even more

great things to say about you. Happy to see that after his career and his Stanley Cup and everything that he did involved in the game, he was able to transfer it to the media side. He's crushing it with you guys now. I know you guys are growing that hockey pod as well. I'm drawing a blank on the name of it, but I know it'll keep crushing as well.

All right. It's very difficult. That's hockey talk. Oh, okay. There you go. Okay, I got it. That's hockey talk. Hell yeah.

Sorry. I got CTE from Rupert Boyce. Yeah. We just heard about it a little bit. But the hockey lingo, I think, makes any hockey podcast enjoyable to begin. Dummy, Muppet, this, that. I mean, you dropped something earlier that was clearly. Was it Shaker?

Shaker. Yeah, the Shaker. I mean, just the lingo is entertaining in and of itself. That's why I'm happy it continues. Oh, here's Zito did some work here in the back. Is that Rupp? Oh, yeah. He cut me open bad.

He's large, right? I mean, he's huge. Your size, how big are you? I'm 6'2". I was probably 6'2.5", 220 when I played. And then now that my playing days are over, I'm probably down to like about 210, 205. So, I mean, AJ, you could probably speak to it more from your position. I'm sure that you've gone down in weight since you retired. Yeah, a little bit.

I got light as I – my last couple years. But, yeah. Biz, he works out every single day as if he's in training camp. Yeah, like you talked about Sid. I think I'm naturally supposed to be what I am. Yeah, yeah, naturally supposed to be what I am every morning. He's doing what Sid's doing. You look a lot bigger. I mean now without you're doing the wrestling gig

did they tell you you got a pack on a few pounds no this is where I'm naturally at this this is just where I'm naturally are you but the arms look a lot more jacked come on that's cuz I wear tank tops every day have to you know what I mean have to do it this the tans help the chance help a lot I'll just break dance here you know a trip out there but hey when you're fighting people you're a fighter are you left jab or you right what is your style of fighting i'm enjoying watching people's different style of uh brawling in the hockey world so i when i came up i was a defenseman and and i never really fought that much i just realized at a certain point

that I just wasn't good enough to make the league if I was going to stay stubborn and want to stick to my original position. So they actually switched me over to forward in the minors with the Pittsburgh organization. And legit, the writing was on the wall. I came in for a game one time and I was fourth line left wing

and I was kind of like, okay, yeah, I kind of know where this is going. And I just decided, you know what? I'm just going to start scrapping and I I was not a hardcore fighter like some of these guys who are going to stand in there and chuck bombs I started doing that jersey jab quite a bit because I just didn't want to get caught so sometimes after doing the jersey jab you would have time to open up and cock a guy with your right. But you look back to some of these old fights, and I do the panel with Rick Tockett,

who actually led the NHL all time in Gordie Howe hat tricks. This guy was nails. They would stand in there, and it was just basically like an exchange tee-offs right to the face. So I didn't want to go in with that approach with all my rookiness in the fighting department. I kind of developed this habit of using the jab to keep the distance away, and then once in a while throw the right.

If you ask some old school fighters, they'd say, oh God, these pussies ruin the game of fighting. These guys don't stand in there like the old school boys. I just had to do that to protect my noggin because I was a bit soft. And as you can see by my beak, I think I got caught enough times where I had to learn to adapt. No, no, no, no. I mean.

I got a Chris Drury on my face. I got a banana hook. And I can't breathe out of one nostril. That's unbelievable. I'm a little fucked up. Hey, well deserved. Hey, well earned. That was earned. That was earned not being able to breathe out of one nostril. That's unbelievable. A little fucked up. Hey, well deserved. Hey, well earned. That was earned.

That was earned not being able to breathe out of one nostril. Good time. Biz, going into the playoffs, a lot of people were picking the Lightning as like the trendy pick to win it all. And then Toronto kind of, you know, hung in there a little bit. Are they going to choke again? And when is the next time that a Canadian team is potentially going to win the Stanley Cup?

Is that ever going to happen again? So I was riding with the Leafs and with Calgary this year. that a Canadian team is potentially going to win the Stanley Cup. Is that ever going to happen again? So I was riding with the Leafs and with Calgary this year. If I had to put my money on either team, I would definitely put it on Calgary. They're just built for that physical style of playoff game, and their goaltender is unbelievable. And, of course, if you look at the coach, he's got the experience, won a couple cups with the L.A. Kings. As far as Toronto is concerned, I like a lot of the guys in their team.

I sympathize for their fan base. They're much like the Boston Red Sox of MLB on how they've had this long period of time where they've dealt with all this pain and suffering without winning a championship. Oh, no. Not the Red Sox. The Red Sox have three. Four millionaires. But, you know, I just figured that the levy would break at some point.

I figured that this year was the year to do it. They ended up drawing Tampa Bay in the first round. Now, the good side of that is Tampa's played a shit ton of hockey in the last couple years with the runs they've been on. But they were able to reload with getting a few guys at the deadline, and they still have that unbelievable core group with their goaltender. So as of right now, I'm still riding with the Leafs, but if they end up choking, so to speak,

I wouldn't be surprised just at the fact that they had this difficult draw in Tampa Bay. But what's pissing me off about Toronto is that they show up in game one and they dominate, and then in game two they lay an egg, and then all of a sudden Toronto is that they show up in game one and they dominate. And then in game two, they lay an egg. And then all of a sudden in game three, they show up again. And then in game four, they lay another egg. So I'm just flabbergasted at the inconsistency.

What do you expect? These guys are the defending champions. In 16 tries following a loss, the Tampa Bay Lightning have followed by winning a game. Vasilevsky has not lost back-to-back games in the playoffs in 16 tries. So right from puck drop, show the fuck up. How do you allow them to score three, four goals in the first period when you guys have your heads up your ass? So I'm still riding with the Leafs. Pivotal game five at home tonight.

If they lose tonight, I think they're absolutely done. And I will be so pissed off at the fact that I rode with them all season long and believed in this core group to get the job done. So they got a lot of work ahead of them. But let's hope they get it done. But Calgary would be my Canadian team to pick to bring the Cup home back to Canada. You sound embarrassed about your Leaf fanship. You sound embarrassed.

That's what it sounds like for me. You're, like, bummed and embarrassed almost. Yeah, I mean, I've been talking a lot of shit online all year, and I think I get a little bit nervous. And I've lost a little bit of money as well. Yeah, well, that'll help. Over the years. Go ahead, AJ.

Biz, can coaches still coach hard in the NHL? Like, I've seen so many awesome clips of coaches back in the day How they would speak to players Coaching them hard, man It was no joke And of course, Torch trying to fight guys back in the hallways That stuff's amazing Can coaches still do that or is it like a new generation?

These younger guys are soft I don't know how it is in the NFL They're just a lot softer. You can't speak to them the way you used to speak to them. My favorite coach I ever had was a guy named Mike Stothers. I had him in junior and yeah, he would scare the shit out of us. Like he would come in with the video guy and he had a laser pointer out and he would go around just like ripping guys individually. I ended up having him in the AHL towards the end of my career, and we ended up winning a Calder Cup with them.

Hey, here we go. So I personally love the guys like Torrance. I like when coaches are holding guys extremely accountable. In the same breath, though, like him, just like Torrance, you hear about every guy loving him when push comes to shove. Yeah, they might have had it out with a few players which had poopy pants and they asked for trades and they ended up leaving. But for the most part, their players love them.

And I think that you've seen a major, major shift in the way that coaches have to approach guys at the NHL level. And even so much so where a few guys have been canned over some incidences. And even so much so where, you know, a few guys have been canned over some incidences where, you know, the way they, I mean, Babcock would be probably one example where the reason I didn't, the reason I didn't, the reason I'm really not on Babcock's side about it, though, who used to coach for Leafs is because I felt like there was a little bit of like mental mind game manipulation type shit going on as opposed to just like if a guy's playing like shit coming in the locker room and telling him to wake the fuck up and you know it's and and calling him out for his mistakes so there's definitely a fine line in my opinion but I love my old school coaches and I felt that they they taught me so much not only about the game and accountability it's transformed into real life I don't think that I would have had the success that I've had post-career

if not having those coaches instill those types of things in me. And I'm sure that you guys might have similar stories as well. Yeah, I think that happens in all sports now. In the new generation, I think they're learning differently. They just kind of are coming up in a much different world. The social world, with it all being right in your hand, I feel like you're much more delicate mentally than maybe in the past where we were just all doofuses i feel you know what i mean like hey whatever somebody tells you you're just like all right i guess and

you just got to kind of move along now with how intimate everything is every every terrible thing said about you you see i don't know it's just uh it's a different dynamic i don't think i could have made it in this particular one though i'm very thankful to be from the same one you just described. Yeah, yeah, it's gnarly. It is gnarly. Social media stuff. Like, yeah, I couldn't imagine if I was coming up in junior in my early career in pro, dealing with all this stuff and understanding it.

I was fortunate enough where I was introduced to it at a later age where I had a little bit more of an understanding of it. I still don enough where I was introduced to it at a later age where I had a little bit more of an understanding of it. I still don't really completely understand it all, but I completely agree with what you're saying. And I think that maybe it needs to go back to at least the middle. I think it's gone a little bit too far the other way. Let's just bring it back to a normal place where I think that most people in this world agree that it should be. You're going to get chewed out for even saying that. Yeah. What a fucking time.

Yeah, bad guy. I'm in the mix with you and Rogers. Bro. I was, hey, I don't know if you're kind of breaking up here. I don't know if we should call you back or not or if you'll get service, but like it's been a hell of a conversation thus far. We appreciate it. I was in the middle of like the political

wars in other countries, Biz. I don't know if you saw that. I don't even know if you're still there. I'm hoping that this – am I back? Yeah, you're always back, dude. Yeah, you look good. You a big Trudeau fan? Jesus.

Jesus. Connor, your question? Yeah, Biz, for the Bruins, Marhy and Pasta seemed a little horned up, if you will, in games one and two. After they go home to Boston, now the series is tied and Swayman's back. Are they one of the wagons you were talking about

who could go on a run here? So I picked Boston to win the series just based on experience. Am I struggling here, boys, with the Wi-Fi connection? No, you're good right now. Okay. Oh, shit. I just fucking hopped back on Wi-Fi connection? No, you're good right now. Okay. Oh, shit. I just fucking hopped back on Wi-Fi.

Sorry about that. How am I... I'm butchering the end of this interview here. How am I now? Am I good? No, you're terrible. Ladies and gentlemen, that's it. That's it. It's a shame we can't hear about the... Am I good? Am I good? Yeah. Am I back? Are you there?

Fuck you. Boo. Biz. I just got off the Wi-Fi. Biz. Oh! Biz. Am I back? Biz. Hey, way to work through there. Way to battle. Hey, that's that toughness from that hard coaching.

Coach Stothers, that's that hard coaching, getting through adversity there. That was through the Wi-Fi adversity. Fuck you, Wi-Fi. Yeah. brothers that's that hard coaching getting through adversity there yeah imagine if you grew up in the modern era you would have had to figure it out much quicker but you wouldn't be able to get to the adversity the adversity that you went through right there live on camera way to go way to go just the way that boston did in that series against carolina i had boston going in because of the experience and the injury and goal to Carolina. But they went back home and they got back to Bruins hockey. Physical, physical play. Execution from the top two lines, specifically Brad Marshawn.

So we've had Brad Marshawn on the TNT broadcast five times this year. And we call him Mr. TNT now because he scored six goals. So he was kind of playing like shit in the first couple games. He reached out to TNT. He says, I want to be on the broadcast beginning of game three before we go on. And we got him on. Sure as shit, he ends up burying in game three and four. They win both at home.

And now I believe they're going back to Carolina with all the momentum in the world. So as far as guys who are carrying around their balls in a big old wheelbarrow, Brad Marchand is probably at the top of my list as far as guys who are basically calling their shot

and have all the jam in the world to where they're going into a bit of a shitstorm situation, and they're willing to do it with a smile on their face. Don't have them on the show. We need Bruins. I don't know about that. These Penguins.

Who's going to win the cup? Who's going to win the cup right now if you had to make one prediction? Pittsburgh Penguins, you said? I would love for the Pens, if I was a betting man, it feels like it's Colorado's time. They got this kid, Kale McCarr. He's probably the best defenseman since Bobby Orr. I don't know how much you've got to see him play. The way that he moves out there, he's a video game type player.

For probably the next 10 years, he'll bury 30 goals a year. The way that he drives offense, I don't know how many of you saw that game, too, in Colorado against the Nashville Predators. He had 11 shots on net. This is coming from Wayne, too. He goes, that might be one of the best, if not the best, performances by a defenseman I've ever seen in playoff history. So when the GOAT's saying that, you've got to agree with them.

And then our buddy Nathan McKinnon, he's been with the organization eight or nine years. They have fumble-fucked their opportunities in playoffs before. I think that he is a man possessed, and I think that they are probably going to get the job done. If somebody held a gun to my head and said pick a team, I would probably say Colorado Reds. Well, hopefully you don't end up in that situation ever. Only good things happening going forward. We appreciate you so much.

Continued success with Spittin' Chicklets and everything else you have going on. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. Hey, all you guys in your whole team, you guys are murdering it. Go get your bag. Go get a bigger bag than Brady. And thanks for having me on. And I'll mention to Sid that we've got to get him on the podcast. Oh, merci beaucoup.

Merci beaucoup, sir. Merci beaucoup. Ladies and gentlemen, Paul Bissonnette, business. Yeah, it is! Let's go to Adam in Toledo, Ohio. Last call of the day here on the 5RNG phone line. Go to 5RNG.com. Use promo code MACFEE to receive 10% off your order of all the delicious 5RNGs that are possible at 5RNG.com.

What do you want to talk about? Adam. Pat, AJ, boys, how are we doing today? Hey, keep moving. Keep moving. Can you hear me? Oh, too easy. All right.

So, Pat, question for you. Yes, sir. I've noticed with punters and kickers sometimes that they like to wear two different cleats, one soccer, one NFL. Does it work? Would it work? Have you done it? Have you done it? Have you seen it? Also, bonus question.

You're doing this punt, the performance at the halftime show. You're going to come out with some special cleats. You're going to rock them, donate them, do something. How does this work? Hey, Adam, I appreciate you thinking ahead for us. That's real. Probably should do a custom cleat for that. Yeah.

I'd assume custom cleats for that from somebody. Good idea. Jot that down. Somebody write that into the Siri thing or whatever. Let's go ahead and write that down. The different cleats, I don't think it's – I guess people are probably still doing it. I think as cleats have evolved naturally, every single one of them has gotten them all more conducive to kicking. Even offensive line cleats at this point are so thin and for moving quick that you can feel the ball and be able to kick.

Now, it being a high top affects your ankle, which you need to have locked out or locked all the way up. So that's why you see all kickers wearing low tops. But the evolution of the technology of cleats has certainly helped kickers not have to wear the weird shit or go barefoot or do anything like that i wore um i wore the nike speeds for a few years you remember those the td speed glows oh yeah did you uh would you kick like kicking the same cleats or were you like i don't know do some kickers kick in the same shoe for 20 years or do you switch like everyone else? Yeah, so I change my cleats like almost yearly.

I would customize some Nikes. I had a Nike deal. I turned it down, which probably took the right stand on things for that while I said I don't want your money anymore. But then the entire NFL became a Nike league the next year, so I had to wear Nike anyway. So kind of fuck you no fuck

me almost in that whole situation but uh yeah I would change my cleats there's some guys though that still are very you know ritualistic about it and you know superstitious about everything they have to have but you're just looking for a little bit of leather between foot and ball you don't want there to be a lot that could potentially affect anything you're looking for good feel on the ball some guys I have a little bit of a wider foot too so i couldn't wear those super skinny like latex leather ones that some guys are wearing i wish i could wear those that's what i would choose to wear but my feet are too fat to do so so i had some nikes that i wore some tempos those speeds though those were football cleats those are the best cleats of all

time those things were so awesome and the football cleat is allowed to have a cleat in the very front so like in the very front you're allowed to have a cleat in soccer you're not allowed to have a cleat in the very front but now it's almost like every cleat is based kind of the form there's no more real front cleat other than baseball i think has the front ones everything else is kind of molded around the entire outside of the cleat as opposed to just parts which is what the cleats used to be so there's a lot of different things i just said there but the evolution of cleats has kind of changed everything for everybody in the kicking position no those aren't the originals i don't think there's like the mids yeah those aren't no i know the originals uh man they were they were

super thin if i'm thinking they're the same thing as you yeah those aren't the original those are like they actually change into those and i was very pissed i was very very pissed everybody i think everybody was i wore the low tops in college i believe yeah speeds with the uh there's no big swoosh yeah yes like always around the entire front of the the shoe basically was its own color it was awesome i fucking loved it and then they stopped creating they were super thin they were awesome super thin everybody loved them they were very comfortable they were wide too my foot liked how wide it was people claim people claim that guys were getting hurt wearing them they weren't supportive enough i know equipment people told me that because i was like why would they not make these anymore they were awesome yeah they were comfortable felt like

everybody wore them i wore them just because like i would have worn playing if i was to play soccer i would have wore those cleats if they didn't have the cleat up in the front like no do you have a do you have that buckeye hero uh thing there because i'm wearing what i think in that picture yep me and schleg see if that's what you're talking about aren't they what your legs are cut off oh are they they are aren't they? It's ripped. That's not that. Damn. Yeah, black and white, low top.

They were super thin, super flimsy. They were amazing. Yeah, Schlegel's wearing the other ones. Fuck. All right. A lot of ads for that Nike there. The people that are still kicking barefoot, by the way, you should mock them. Judge them.

There's no reason to do it. No reason to do it. I saw somebody do it when I was in college. It's still happening? Somebody's doing it in... Look what I'm wearing. They might have been Vapors. Yeah, I don't think those were the Speeds.

They were Vapors. They were the flimsiest they had. Yeah, fucking... That photo's awesome. Let's see if I can find them. Nike Speed TD1. Is that what they were? They were. I mean, I don't think someone would, like, custom make shoes to your foot.

I want to say it was, like, 2005. Yeah, that's when I was. Yeah. That was 2005, that picture. I don't know, man. I might be misremembering. I had them. That's why I. 2005, that picture. I don't know, man. I might be misremembering. I had them. That's why I...

Ah, fuck it. We'll have that for tomorrow. All right, we're out of here. Let's go enjoy the weather. Big guest tomorrow, actually. Yeah. Two. I think we have Singletary on tomorrow.

Yep. Mike. Mike Singletary's on tomorrow. Justin Thomas, the golfer, is on tomorrow, I believe. And we might have some breaking news tomorrow. Okay. So we've got a big Wednesday, May 11th. Be a friend, tell a friend.

We'll see you then. Hammer down. We'll have a direct link, I think, to watch that live. YouTube has capability to do that now, which is awesome. They'll start like 10, 15 minutes. If you want to wait in there, go take a piss, go eat some food. We can't thank you enough for joining us every single day. You all are the best people on earth. Hey, AJ, great show today. Tom, great show today. Thank you. Great show in there, go take a piss, go eat some food. We can't thank you enough for joining us every single day. You all are the best people on earth.

Hey, AJ, great show today. Tom, great show today. Thank you. Great show. Way to go. Everybody in the back, way to go, Lee. Hell yeah. Way to go, Pat.

Big thanks to Shams, Rapport, and Biz Nasty. We'll see you guys tomorrow. Let's enjoy the day. Let's enjoy life. Be nice to somebody. Bye. Bye. I'm sorry. Thank you. Thank you.