The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 843 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, AFC/NFC Championship Recaps, Royal Rumble Recap, Adam Schefter, Drew Garrison Of Cincy Jungle, Michael Cole, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 30, 2023

On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about both the NFC and AFC Championship games, how bad the officiating was this weekend, the amount of people who think the NFL is rigged after the weekend, and they look ahead to the Super Bowl matchup of the Chiefs and Eagles. Joining the progrum to chat about the league’s issue with refs, the injury status with different players in the Super Bowl, his thoughts on where Aaron Rodgers is going to wind up, and who he believes the next Head Coaching shoe to drop will be is ESPN’s preeminent NFL Insider, Adam Schefter (28:59-52:48). Also joining the progrum to chat about how pissed Bengals fans are today and where he stands is a writer for the SB Nation Bengals blog, CincyJungle, Drew Garrison (1:09:43-1:17:10). Later, the voice of the WWE and Vice President of Announcing, Michael Cole joins the show to chat about Pat’s surprise return to announcing at the Royal Rumble this weekend, the genuine excitement and shock he had for the return, his thoughts on the current state of the WWE, and much more (1:43:19-2:16:17). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you tomorrow for Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to our Humble Abode, the Fan Duel Thunderdome. On this overreaction Monday, January 30th, this show starts now! Had an incredible Sunday, did it? Or did it? Is the question. Obviously the first game was an absolute blowout. Congrats to the Philadelphia Eagles getting a massive win over the San Francisco 49ers who ran into a buzzsaw named Murphy's Law where everything that could go wrong did go wrong. Fred Werner, I think he had his arm pop out of socket.

They had to put it back in. That was on, like, the first play. How about Bosa literally getting a dude on a punt team, ragdolled and then cleated in his fucking calf-shin area, bruised him, I think, pretty bad. He was not the same player he had been for a long time, and that's because of the first quarter punt that took place. Let alone Purdy losing feeling in his

arm because he gets hit whenever he's in the middle of a throw. He's out. Josh Johnson, how much of the offense does he know? He wasn't able to really do much. He gets hurt. Christian McCaffrey could throw a ball. Didn't see that until about the fourth quarter. Everything that could go wrong went wrong for the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.

Now, that leads to an entire new batch of questions this whole offseason is going to be asking. Is Purdy the guy? Can he hold up? Is his body the right body to be an NFL quarterback? He takes one shot in the biggest game. You see him on the sideline. He's able to throw the ball five yards.

He's not able to throw the ball ten yards. Is this a problem that they're going to see going forward? Remember, the only reason why Trey Lance was traded for is because Jimmy G missed one throw in the Super Bowl. Jimmy G makes that throw in the Super Bowl. Jimmy G is our franchise quarterback for the next 15 years. Talking about that deep one that he overshot by like five or six yards. Now we have Purdy playing quarterback.

He's the future. We thought that. Now everybody's wondering, are they going to trade for Aaron Rodgers? Is that team ever going to be able to do it? Is Shanahan ever going to get over the hump of being able to get past this incredible misfortune whenever the moment is the biggest? Remember whenever he was with the Falcons taking on the Patriots? Obviously everybody sees about the play calls and let's run the rock

and let's wind out the clock so that they can't come back from 28-3. But how about the incredible shit that was happening on the other side? The misfortune that has been thrown at Shanahan, I think, in some of the big moments is incredibly disappointing if you're Shanahan. Yeah, it's a bummer. I will say, I thought he'd be a little bit more creative. Yeah. Sure.

Whenever we want two, three, four full quarters, and, I mean, we're not the smartest batch of humans on earth. Definitely not. But the Philadelphia Eagles had zero worry of a forward pass being attempted in the NFC Championship game, and you've got a bunch of vets around there. Brandon Graham, there was one play where they were setting up for a screen. Graham, as soon as he saw Purdy drop back, was like, well, he can't throw the ball further than this.

I have a big fucking brain. He tackled him for like, he can again, it was, they had no shot. So I thought on the sideline, maybe Shanahan would draw up some stuff where Christian McCaffrey could throw. I assume he could throw a football pretty well. I'd assume that IU can throw a ball. I assume that George Kittle could maybe swing. Debo could throw a ball.

There wasn't much creativity. Now, I understand that they were just getting punched in the face with bad luck. So maybe you kind of get lost in the sauce of, no we can't do shit and you don't really want to drop anything or do anything but i thought there'd be a little bit more creativity with when you're completely fucked without a quarterback you can throw a ball how do we at least make the defense respect that we can throw the ball because if we're going to have christian mccaffrey who's able to score a touchdown somehow against a 10-man box pretty much i have no idea how he's able to do it shout out to the offensive line.

But when there's no fear of a fucking throw at all, you're going to get picked apart, and they did just that. Now the Philadelphia Eagles blow out the Giants, and they beat the fuck out of the wounded Niners, and they're going into the Super Bowl probably pretty swagged out, feeling damn good, and they should. That environment in Philadelphia. Oh, yeah.

They greased up the poles. It doesn't matter. Dudes are climbing those things like a stripper on a Tuesday and a Saturday. They get all the way up to the top of it. They're standing on top. The Philadelphia Johns are going bananas, as they should be. They're back in the Super Bowl just a couple years removed from them being the biggest dumpster fire in the NFL.

Yeah. Old Howie and Lurie and the entire squad over there, bravo on turning that whole thing around. People are calling it the easiest road to the Super Bowl in history. They've certainly made it look that way. And is that because the opponents aren't that great and obviously the Niners are hurt? Or is that because the Eagles are a bunch of doves? And is this what the future is going to look like in the NFL

with Jalen Hurts doing his thing? He is electrifying to watch. He can make every throw. He can make every run. He's powerful. And he is so fucking cool. He was doing an interview before the game with Michael Strahan. The way he was talking, I'm like, oh, this guy's a guy I'd like to be friends with.

And I think that's what all of his teammates have said. This is our guy. Dad, obviously a football coach, has grown up in the football world. He is perfect for the limelight and for the NFL, and we're lucky to watch him going forward. Now, Devontae Smith obviously didn't catch that ball, and as soon as he stood up and started doing this, I like that they have a signal for that.

I like that they've instituted that. I assume a lot of teams have this. Whenever you catch the ball, it's rule to catch. You don't know if you caught it. Go ahead and give yourself a fist bump over your head. Give a fist bump. It's like a little fist bump. Maybe some rock, paper,

scissors throws. Just a fist bump over your head, maybe, and then everybody's going to repeat that. And then what that means is Lane Johnson, with your fucking torn groin and everybody else, we need to hurry up, get on this ball, and we are putting a playoff. It's not going to be a spike. I think they probably already had a play involved. Whenever this happens, everybody on the team knows the next play, what we're running, how we're running it, when we're running it,

which is right now. And I think Shanahan should have seen that. I think anytime humans start acting in a way that they don't normally or wouldn't normally act, you should sense that something is afoot. He did not, did not challenge that. That's obviously a massive play. They get on the board quickly thereafter and the game just unravels from there. If he challenges that and they overturn it, does that change the outcome maybe i mean yeah probably not though very early in the game could have changed the tide and could have changed the momentum but it felt like philadelphia was going to be able to do whatever philadelphia wanted on

offense which is kind of a weird thing to me because that niners defense had been what that niners defense was but it's almost like the niners d you saw what was taking place on the offensive side of the ball and said we can't throw a fucking pass. We're in the championship game. Playing a great defense, we are fucked. So there was obviously a couple mistakes in that particular game. Not nearly as many mistakes that took place in the AFC championship game, though. Over there in Arrowhead Stadium, just days removed from the mayor of the other town in the game, talking an immense amount of shit

from his desk proclaiming a proclamation of who day and how joey burrow is the father of patrick mahomes and arrowhead is now named burrowhead in the city of cincinnati and it wasn't just him it was eli apple was everybody on that team mike hilton everybody on the offensive side and i think a lot of the shit talk was caught in the competitive atmosphere the mayor doing his thing really put it to a point where i was like this is getting real loud especially with patrick mahomes and travis kelsey and the boys on the other side of that then you get into that game we start watching we're like here we go this can't see chiefs team is who we thought they were and we saw a stat on friday that patrick mahomes whenever he has to throw 90 of his passes from within the pocket, they were 10-0 going into the weekend. So everybody thinks

it's showtime. Patty Mahomes' magic is something that Mahomes needs to be successful. And I think stats and our eyes from this past weekend prove that that is not the case. If Patrick Mahomes has to be a boring-ass quarterback and just go through his reads and stay in his pocket, and if that offensive line is able to protect the way they were able to protect last night, which Patty Mahomes had nothing but time, nothing but complete opposite for Joe Burrow. That offensive line that was retooled and put into place for that Buffalo Bills game with a bunch of snow on the ground, so the D-line, who didn't have Vaughn Miller, didn't have as much, you know, maybe traction or get-off.

That offensive line was exposed quickly. Five sacks, I think, in the first two quarters of that game last night. That's not a winning recipe. That is obviously problematic. On the flip side, Patrick Mahomes had all the time in the fucking world to do what he wanted to do and he's obviously able to make every single throw with a full ankle or not a full ankle he did have some moments where he was limping around he did extend some plays and make some incredible plays including that last one where he ran in Osai who is obviously out of Texas in his second year last year he gets drafted in the third round. Tears his meniscus in the second preseason game.

He's out the entire year. This is pretty much his rookie year. He has done great things for their team for this entire year. He did great things in that game last night. That was definitely a late hit out of bounds. The most impactful late hit out of bounds in the history of our sport probably, especially when it's Patrick Mahomes and with the way these refs have been calling the game all game which is a lot of flags that was an obvious call now Osai also

hyper extends his knee and rolls his ankle at the same exact time and kills a guy on the sideline who was a part of his team all things went bad there for Osai in a matter of I don't know what 1.8 seconds probably look at his ankle ankle and his hyperextension of his knee. That is disgusting to watch. That ankle turned sideways. The fact he was even able to walk out of there, he is very lucky. He was clearly out of bounds. They call it even if you're still inbounds. Quarterbacks are still inbounds, and they're looking to go out of bounds.

So I saw some people saying, he hasn't stepped out of bounds yet. It's like, you don't watch football then. This is how it's been all year, especially with a quarterback, especially with how that crew had been calling the game, which is flags everywhere, which leads us to our next point. Congrats to Kansas City Chiefs. Congrats. Here we go.

Talks and tables here at Boss Corner at Ty Schmidt. One half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys turn digs this year. We'll be joined by Adam Schefter in about 19 minutes. Ian Rappaport traveling to the Senior Bowl. We'll catch up with him later this week. We're also talking to Drew Garrison,

who is a blogger for the Cincinnati Bengals pretty much. He's been on the show before because he cut a promo in his basement or in his room. I forget what it was. That was electrifying. Cincinnati Bengals fans are calling the NFL rig louder than everybody else that has been calling the NFL rig. And this is going to become a problem, especially when all eyes are on a championship game. That first game, the NFC Championship, obviously everybody had plans on Sunday to watch both games. They lose both their quarterbacks.

That game gets it going how it is. I think a lot of people kind of drifted away from their TVs and they thought to themselves, Joey Burrow and Patrick Mahomes are going to be playing. I'll get retooled for that particular game. I don't know what the ratings are going to be. I assume it's going to be bananas. I assume it's going to be near 50 million people. 50 million people

started watching and questioning every single thing those refs were doing because that's how poor the fucking refs were now obviously you talk about the way the game ended with a punt and there was a potential block in the back with a big return then the late push and that's 15 more yards and then the third nine that they had to redo because there was a back ref in a wide 22 version that you see definitely come running in moments before the ball is snapped like moments before the ball is snapped because his job is keep an eye on the clock to see if the clock is right or not. So he comes running in, doesn't blow his whistle. Hmm.

Come on. Interesting. Because the NFL and a lot of people are showing that he definitely ran in. He definitely ran in. It was like, did he, did he blow? Too cold for a whistle. Did he blow his whistle? Yeah.

Is it, did the cat get your dunk? What, what, why didn't you blow your fucking whistle then if. Did Cat get your dunk? Why didn't you blow your fucking whistle then if you're going to do that? I don't know what the proper procedure is for that. We'll be talking to Gene Steratore tomorrow. Here we go. On this particular program, we will certainly ask all the questions about procedure and protocol for that whole thing. Because could you not, after the play has already been run uninterrupted with no whistles, and they're not able to pick up the first down, now it's fourth down,

which is a fucking pretty meaningful thing, turn of events there. Could you not fix the clock afterwards because you didn't stop it? Instead, Ron Torbett, who is not necessarily the greatest ref in the history of the NFL, he was in the Super Bowl last year when the Bengals played against the Rams, and Logan Wilson in the fourth quarter late gets a phantom P.I. from that crew. I don't think it's the same crew as Ron. Ron was certainly the head ref of that crew, but it all kind of ties in together. That 3-9 situation certainly warrants a lot of question marks about why the fuck

is this how you guys decided to figure this out. But on the flip side, it feeds. It absolutely pours gasoline onto the fire of the NFL being rigged and wanting Patrick Mahomes and a new dynasty back into the Super Bowl. Andy Reid taking on his old team, the Philadelphia Eagles. The Kelsey Bowl happening. If you start thinking about how great it is to have the Chiefs and the Eagles because the Eagles had already been decided,

so if they're just booking this in real time once the Eagles go in, boom, we need the Chiefs to go in. And they're purposely fucking the Cincinnati Bengals. You can start putting some things together where you're like, I could see how that could be the case. With that being said, the amount of people that would have to be in on it and the amount of money that all these people would have to be paid would have to be so astronomical that they wouldn't tear down the entire league there's only like 20 states or 17 states that have legal sports gambling and that's where everything revolves around all the people that don't maybe gamble all the people that just know of legal sports gambling or what sports gambling used to be their first thought is oh

this is crooked this is corrupt this is this because you have the black socks that happen in baseball. You have college basketball things that have happened throughout the history of college basketball with one or two players being in on the take. And you have the ref, Tim Donahue, whenever he was reffing for the NBA, who was in on it. So there is certainly examples of this in the past. But the NFL, if they wanted to just throw away their league when there's only like 17 states that have legal sports gambling, when there will be at least 47, I think, Utah is never going to get it.

Nope. California and Florida are going to be tough. It's going to take a long time. But I think that's... Kind of open season everywhere else. Yeah, there's like 46, maybe 47 states are going to have it. So you would have to think that the NFL was so good at business that they would want to rig the games to have their big superstars in the games. But you're not giving them credit to be good enough of business to have the forethought to maybe wait a couple years whenever there's a lot more money on the line.

I just think the amount of people that would have to be in on it and the amount of money that people would have to pay, and obviously this is too reasonable to even say this to anybody on the Internet, that's just an absurd way to think. I do think, though, we have a massive officiating issue. I think refs suck. And not all refs. There are some refs that suck. And they shouldn't be in playoff games. Why are they in playoff games, especially when there's only two games

and there's going to be 50 million people watching? That's a great question. We've been talking about the officiating stinking for a long time. I got tweets from a lot of Ohio fucks over there in Cincinnati or diehard Hootie fans and Bengals fans. Why don't you use your platform, and why don't you try to make the NFL better for once? Why don't you not candy coat it, not dance around it,

not be the fake funny guy that you are, and why don't you call it the NFL for officiating? So this morning I dove through our Twitter account, and we've literally been talking about this since 2018, about how full-time refs optically would just look much better to everybody. Because you got part-time refs and they're not full-time refs, there's a chance that they could be maybe swayed by somebody outside the NFL. Since they're not completely committed to the NFL, there's a chance that somebody outside could get a hold of them. Now, I think they get paid well, but what is well? What is the line? Especially with how much money is potentially being made off of these games and off these deals and off these advertising deals and the sports gambling

and everything like that. What is good money in comparison to? So you make them full time, boom, we can eliminate that distraction of potentially getting swayed elsewhere, like all politicians, because they don't get paid enough. So they're easily swayed by big pharma, big gas, fucking alcohol, tobacco, whatever. You can get named into it. That's where all the money comes from, because they're able to be swayed because they don't make enough. Compared to who? They don't make enough in doing their job. So they're easily swayed. So it's like kind of a little bit of a battle optically to watch and say, yeah, that's real. Yeah, that's not. With the NFL, the officials not being full time and the officials being terrible at what they're doing. And the way these games are being scrutinized at a different level because how big the fucking league is and how many eyes are on there.

And with all the money coming in with us putting our actual money on these games now legally, it's going to get called into question. Tone Diggs, you put a tweet out last night that I loved. I didn't just enjoy it. I fucking loved it because it was a hilarious take. question tone digs you put a tweet out last night that i loved i didn't just enjoy it i fucking loved it because it was a hilarious take and obviously you got attacked and bamboozled about it but we will talk about the reaction to your tweet afterwards but your tweet is a very real thing what tone digs tweeted was he understands the fact that there's people that think it's no you said that you love the fact that there is people that think that the game is rigged you

also love the fact that as soon as you read that, you can tell that the person who wrote it has no idea what the fuck they're talking about. Could you please elaborate on that a little bit, Tone Diggs? Basically, what you just so eloquently said is what I was thinking, too. You have to for the NFL to rig a game, everyone has

to be in on it, right? You've been in a locker room, AJ's been in a locker room, AQ's here, D-Bud's here. None of you guys have ever heard anything about any rigging. Coach Pagano. Coach Pagano. Who's up top. There's no way that you could rig an NFL game and make sure the outcome that you want happens strictly by a ref or two.

There's no way that can happen. And to your point, there's so much more money to be made in the future. Why would you do it now? So you're saying they're great business people. That's why they're rigging games. And they're classified as entertainment. I don't think that's happened since 2015, but they were classified as an entertainment. And that was their way, being good business people, to get out of having to fucking pay taxes.

So, like, people are, all the claims about it are that they are good business people. This is Vince McMahon. This is WWE trying to flood the numbers, trying to make the best games possible. It's like, okay, so you're saying they are good business people. This is Vince McMahon. This is WWE trying to flood the numbers, trying to make the best games possible. It's like, okay, so you're saying they're incredible business people that only care about the bottom dollar. Well, they haven't been able to be the tax-exempt crew since 2015. That whole thing changed.

And if they were this great of business people, why would they ruin it now as opposed to the big fucking cash cow that's coming? But with that being said, the reason why it's being talked about is because how bad the fucking refs are. And I don't want to go through every take we've ever had about officiating in officials.

We think there's a couple easy fixes. Make them full-time. That sky judge that they're using, but are they? I mean, no. How about whenever they – the Devontae thing, obviously, quickly that gets going, should have certainly been stopped, and there was that one view where it was clear that that ball was moving.

Should have been stopped in real time. It wasn't. But there was also a time where Zach Taylor challenged something, and then they, before he challenged, we had further discussion, and we don't think it's there. Bengals fans don't remember that, that the NFL actually stopped them from using one of their challenges. Yeah, whenever he did the little pitch thing.

They stopped the Cincinnati Bengals from using one of their challenges and just overturned the rule in real time. I think they should be doing more of that. Oh, yeah. I think that should be a part of it. And I don't think that fucker should be in New York. I think that person should be on site and set them up with a place where they have all the reviews.

Put them in a truck. Have them have their own fucking up with a place where they have all the review. Put them in a truck. Have them have their own fucking truck in the back where they have all the cameras. Make it be somebody that's young. No offense to the olds out there. I think the youngs are much more used to using things quickly, whether it's video games, cell phones, fast forward, rewinding. We're using those on our phones every single day. No offense to the olds. I didn't think you had the opportunity to do that. Although you do have things that you are better at. I believe when it comes to modern

technology, a lot younger people probably better at using it more efficiently, quickly, and in real time without choking, because this thing all has to happen within 25, 30 seconds if it wants to go right. I think the XFL had a great version of it. They had a guy on an Xbox controller up in a booth looking at the review, fast forward, slow-mo, zoom in, able to control it. Perfect. In real time talking to the ref, hey, that ball was actually out of his hands. It's going to be a turnover. Ball is on the 34, first down Dallas or whatever.

And we heard him say that. And then the ref literally said, okay. And I don't know if they alluded to what everybody just heard. And maybe the crowd in the stands couldn't hear it but the ref said uh the ball was out it'll now be first down whatever it was just like so quick so efficient it's like here's the answer allow technology to help these refs because we all see something in what 8 000 frames a second is what 8k is multiple times is that what it is 8 000 frames a second is that what 8k means that's times. Is that what it is? 8,000 frames a second? Is that what 8K means?

That's a good question. That's what I thought. It might be 16,000. That's pixels. Not frames. Whatever it is. Yeah. 8,000.

We get to see something picture perfect in the slowest of slow motion. Human eyes can't do that. When they can, I will attempt to get the surgery.

I assume everybody else will. But what these cameras can do and the angles these cameras have, the humans on the field with whistles in their hands cannot keep up with. So let's marry the two. Let's allow there to be a net for these refs to fall upon. Let's have a sky judge that is young, maybe X players. Make this a pipeline for X players to get into. These are all things that we've said in the past, but now the 50 million motherfucking people all saw the same thing last night. In the NFL, hashtag NFL rigged was trending on Twitter with 27,000 to 28,000 tweets about it last night like this. NFL Twitter was live until 1, 2 a.m. this morning

because everybody was talking about how bad the NFL's reffing is. Now they're using it in a version of which the reffing is so terrible that it has to be fake, has to be cooked. And I just, I feel bad to tell the people this. Some of these refs just suck that fucking bad. And I think that's a tough thing for everybody to kind of get over. And I think that's reality. Now, we had a bunch of tweets that got that got sent to tone digs after tone said like

come on if you actually think it's rigged you don't and the reason why we're leading off of this because this is a real thought yeah and it's a real problem the nfl has wow and i don't know if the nfl knows this and i know there's some people that watch the show in the nfl offices and we're being accused of a lot of things by a lot of people on the internet for not talking about this even though we have hammered this home a lot. This is a real problem the NFL has to fucking fix. Cannot have the people thinking the NFL is rigged because of how terrible their officials are. Fix it. Here's somebody responding to Tone Diggs after Tone Diggs said, like, you don't know football if you're saying the NFL is rigged. The entire internet was saying the NFL was rigged. Here's B Park.

LOL, you guys make millions of dollars by getting your fans to gamble on ship that's scheduled and set up and produced like a Marvel movie. Of course you're about it, big tone. Here's another tweet that came in. Here's from Summers. Freemasons and Jesuits clearly been fixing games for decades. Y'all just too lazy and gullible to do any research on. Clown is what Summers says to you, tone.

Here's another one. NFL has already stayed in court. They're in the entertainment business, the sports business. It also doesn't have to be everyone in on the rig, just a select few people. Okay, so a select few people have to be at every single game and every single team and every single official crew,

and then no select few people have to be quiet, what, forever? Oh, yeah. I don't understand how that would happen. Here's another one from Lance Rothger. Kelsey Brothers and Andrew Reid facing his old squad. Players are in no way involved but the nfl and the refs know when to make the right calls complete opposite i think lance they don't know when to make the right calls because they don't ever make the fucking right calls i think everybody's saying these things because they're giving the refs too much credit you guys are acting like these

refs would understand how to fucking rig a game and i know tim donahue was able to do it in basketball it's much easier because literally in basketball, you accidentally boom, boom, bow, two shots. There's two points. You're literally putting two points on the board. And there's a couple calls that you can miss. The Devontae Smith one is certainly one that we can look at directly. And I guess the offside was actually a good call. Yeah, that's a penalty.

That was like a clear penalty. And that puts him in field goal range. So I could see how if that was was closer if he was still in like still in the field of play and he pushed him and they called it which they probably would have that that crew was flag happy they thought everybody was watching them not the game you know they wanted to be a part of the game it's championship game and we got to remember not all these refs are built for the moment either no not all these refs are built for the big stage you always talk about players showing up or not showing up and we i literally watch a video of me saying this from fucking three years ago nobody ever talks about

the refs like getting nervous and choking in the big moments and accidentally throwing a flag whenever they probably shouldn't have thrown a flag but they throw a flag now we got to stand on it because they're not ready for the big moment there's just so much that goes into it all if we were acting as if it was rigged we'd be putting more faith in these refs competence and i don't think we should be doing that it's the complete opposite end of the spectrum tony you took some shrapnel last night on the internet as did i because we're corporate sellouts we would like to remind everybody we pay the nfl yeah.5 million to be able to use footage from their games so that we can run it during this program. The NFL does not pay us.

They used to, didn't they, when I was kicking those balls? Damn right. Insurance is out. I found that out in the middle of pregnancy with my wife. That's great. It ended. So before that. The NFL is actually fucking me, too me too i mean with this five-year

insurance thing uh it kind of stops in the middle of a pregnancy that's a that's an interesting that's an interesting pr thing that if i really wanted to i think we could probably make some noise about about what how big of a joke that is but everybody was accusing us of being in in bed with the nfl we literally fucking we we started the PAFL this year because we were battling against the NFL. We pay the NFL. They don't pay us shit. Now, we do cover the NFL and that's how we make our living. So we're very lucky for the NFL.

But to act as if we would not be ones that would call out some bullshit, I lost every fucking bet yesterday. I lost every single bet yesterday. You don't think I'm fucking pissed off? But the reason why I'm pissed off is because of how bad the refs are and I think that's our different view as opposed to a lot of people on the Internet, and that's mostly because of all the people we've got to meet and be inside of it and see operate and chat with some of these refs who are fucking up these calls.

Connor, I'm sorry. I went on quite a long rant there, but the Internet was alive last night, and I didn't think it was possible for me to respond to everybody going, possible for me to respond to everybody going, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how, how. I would have to do that 27,000 times. How, how, how, how. Tell me how it would be set up. And then think about any human that you've ever met ever on them being able to keep a secret for the rest of their fucking lives. Maybe some people would be able to. Hey, maybe.

Maybe. Maybe. And I'm not saying that there hasn't been these types of situations in the past in different professions. But with 50 million eyes on the product, if you were going to run a racket, do you know how tight and dialed in everybody in that piece would have to be and you don't think that maybe there'd be other money options for them to go tell their story about everything that's going on it's just it's wild and it all revolves around the nfl's officials fucking being terrible some of them not all of them some of them a lot of them majority and aaron talked about this all the good refs get fucking plucked to tv

because they get paid more money because of money which is exactly what we're referring to for making full-time make it a job that's worth you know being desired almost and wanting to have so we don't have to do this every single time but honestly the officiating sucks and it got put into spotlight last night and hopefully it'll lead to change and be an advocate for change well and it has to be talked about it's not like we could you know do this show and not address the massive elephant in the room that is you know those refs did kind of steal moments of the game i mean the third down was the big one a lot of people talk about the unnecessary roughness at the end of the game but that was a clear penalty but you're mentioning 50 million eyes there is billions of dollars being you know

gambled on these games so that's a huge part of it and then to not disrespect but like the idea that these players on teams that are helping rig these games would you know willfully go out there and lose on purpose like if you're telling me that they're just telling the quarterbacks or the head coach of this like how can you process the idea of the most competitive humans probably on the— And maybe we just don't get it. But granted, the man that's speaking right there thinks birds are fake. Exactly. And I think a lot of stuff is fake.

So we are open to conversations. Yeah. We are open to thoughts and theories. But in this particular one, business-wise, makes no sense for the NFL. Why wouldn't you wait until you get 40-some states on if you really want to?

Like, why wouldn't you wait? And also just logistically, logistically, how does it work? And then once you start thinking about that, I would like to see, because maybe we're wrong.

Maybe we're completely wrong. Maybe. But logistically, it would be so much trust, silence, and execution. And I think you're giving humans way too much credit for all those things. Also, I mean, realistically, like if it was rigged, like they would set it up so that the Cowboys were in the Super Bowl

every single year. Like they have the most fans. Oh, they tried, didn't they? Yeah, exactly. But also, to your point, like these are supposed supposed to be all-star crews for these games. They don't have enough good refs where they can even pull together an all-star crew. It's ridiculous. Again, going back to this, if you try to argue with anyone,

if someone lands on this line, you're yelling into a void. Nothing you ever say is going to change. If you come to the conclusion that NFL games are actually rigged, it doesn't matter what anyone is going to say to you. You're not getting off that point. Now, my question was, if you know the NFL is rigged, why does it make you so mad? And why don't you just gamble on the side that you know it's going to be rigged for and make all the money in the world?

Yeah, so then we'd be working a worked system. And joining us now is a massive clog of the entire system. Oh, yeah. And has been for a long time. Excited to get his take. Ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL insider for ESPN. I think a few months back he signed a big deal. Big old deal.

Future referee deal. And that's because he's a big deal. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. Hey, Schefter. Hello, Pat. Hello, man. How you doing? Hey, Schefter.

Go ahead. I'm a little off center here. Do I have to adjust the count? Oh, no, no, no. You're Pat. Hello, man. How you doing? Hey, Chef. Do I have to go off center here? Do I have to adjust the camera? Oh, no, no, no. You're right. There we go. There we go. Okay, there we go.

Hey, we had this with Lou Anrumo last week with the camera centering thing. Nice to hear that the Cardinals are interviewing him. We will certainly get to that and other breaking news. But I'm going to wrap this one up from your standpoint of it because obviously you've covered the league for a long time at many different levels, and you're connected to so many people there. You know, the NFL has a real issue right now, and it's what they're officiating. So much so, especially with sports gambling coming into the world, that there's a large –

hey, we don't like covering every conspiracy theory. We're an Internet show, so that's where a lot of these things cook. 28,000 tweets last night, I think, within the first hour after the game. Hashtag NFL is rigged. NFL rigged is trending or whatever. And it's all because of how bad the officiating is. Shafter, your thoughts on this and how they can make it right? And is the NFL rigged, Shafter?

And don't lie to us. Well, Pat, breaking. It's not rigged. No! No! Put it on the ticker. Yeah, put it on It's not rigged. No! No! Put it on the ticker. Yeah, put it on there. Not rigged.

Adam Schefter's reporting it's not rigged, okay? Now, that doesn't mean there isn't an issue. There is an issue with the officiating. And when you speak to people around the league, they believe it's as bad as it has been in a long time, maybe ever. And if we go back to the one game that I think of is the Seahawks-Rams game, final regular season game, where the officials missed multiple calls

that potentially influenced the outcome of that game. Now, Seattle won. Seattle deserved to go to the playoffs and good for the Seahawks. This is not a knock in any way against them, but we basically outlined all the calls that the league missed in that game because it shaped the way

the playoffs came out. And if they had made some other calls and the Rams had won, it would have gotten the Lions in. And I can tell you this. The Rams were not happy. The Lions can tell you this the Rams were not happy the Lions were not happy other teams were not happy

and guess what I think the league office themselves if they were being honest was not happy with the calls in that game and after that story ran and we ran it on that Saturday countdown on ESPN.com I can't tell you how many calls I got

from people on other teams saying, you didn't go far enough. Yeah. Hey, Shefty, what about our game whenever this, what about our game whenever this happened? It's a real problem, Shefty. Everybody's got their own issues and complaints with the league. They've called the league. And so what do you do? Honestly, I don't know that I'm smart enough to tell you, like that would be a better Dean Blandino question, but I can tell you, I've't know that I'm smart enough to tell you. That would be a better Dean Blandino question. But I can tell you I've heard a lot about training the officials, the pool of officials, the way they're assigned. I mean, there are all sorts of issues here that they need to go over.

And this sport, there's so much money involved. Somehow, there has to be a way to have these officials, who by the way, Pat, have a very tough job. Very hard to do what they do. People think they just see these calls and it's amazing that they get so many calls right. But there's a lot of things that the league needs to address there. The competition committee needs to look at. And I think that that area is going to get some very close attention this offseason. Okay, that's big news, actually.

That last sentence you said, certainly big news, and I think NFL fans will be happy. They have to do something. They have to. It's bad. Hey, NFL is rigged. It's not a good thing for anybody to see on their Twitter as soon as they open it, especially after the biggest day, Championship Sunday. Now, first game was obviously a blowout, a lot of injuries.

We'll ask you about all that here in a second. But Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes game happening, this is 50 million probably is what the number's going to be. 50 million people watching. And then what's the reaction to the game? It's not all Patrick Mahomes is unbelievable. Travis Kelsey's unbelievable. How about

the shit talk between both sides? The talk afterwards is these officials have to be working in unison with the nfl and the sports gambling companies to rig these games like that's not good at all for anybody business-wise hopefully they will be able to fix this for a long time i've been considered a hater of the official community and some officials do not like this program because how much i have chatted about it now I think there's great refs out there. A lot of them have retired and moved into TV.

But it is a real – I think anybody that's ever played the game, and these are people you talk to, played the game, coached the game, or been in there, have seen it like, hey, these refs have a lot of say. There's a lot of plays. There's jobs. People are fired. There's players that never have a career because of some calls. Like, these refs have a lot of power.

We should treat that as such, and I hope thefl is able to do that especially with what took place yesterday shifty there's a lot riding on their calls you're right it impacts careers families cities franchise it's really it's it's it's incredible and it sounds overstated and a little bit dramatic but it's true it's real yes like these guys make calls that have that much influence. And so it's really important that the league does everything it can to try to make it the best possible situation. Why don't you tell them to do that, Shefty? I got a bunch of people tweeting me saying,

why don't you use your show and use your platform and try to make change? Pat, the league knows. The league knows it has an issue on its hands, and the league knows it has to be addressed, and the league knows it needs to do better. Look, this is a league that's always trying to do better in areas. It's always trying to find other ways to make money, to make the game more popular, to make it. You think they're just ignoring the fact that the officiating in many instances has been

substantive. There's no way they're, they know it. And if they're being honest, they really know that something has to be done this off season. Now, I don't know that they can correct it just like that. Like take complaints are an age-old issue. I remember when I was working in the league office, like Monday morning, every head coach calling, complaining. Everybody's upset about something.

It happens all the time. I didn't know you worked in the league office. Of course you would say it wasn't rigged. Of course you would say it wasn't. No, we're joking. This is literally what people would take from that, though. That is what the Internet is. But it's because the officiating is such an issue. No, we're joking. This is literally what people would take from that, though. That is what the internet is. But it's because the officiating is such an issue.

I, just like you, agree it would probably take three to five years. I mean, that's a full. You have to get people in there. You have to turn it over. You've got to be able to do your thing. We've brainstormed it a lot. And all year, it hasn't been as terrible. There's been, you know, last year, maybe two years ago,

every time we came into this studio on Monday, it was a cook of some referee, some officiating crew. This year it hasn't been like that. But in the biggest moment with the most eyes, it shows up when it shows up. It certainly happened last night. Let's move on. Chef D, let's talk about Patrick Mahomes' ankle. Obviously we saw some moments there where he looked as if he re-aggravated it

or injured it. He finished the game. I think Hembo and ESPN stats department had a stat on Friday that when Patrick Mahomes has to throw for 90% of his passes from the pocket, they were 10-0. Probably make that 11-0 now. I haven't done the stats. He's unbelievable. What do you think this two-week period does for his recovery? It feels like that Chiefs team needs it bad. Oh, yeah. No, did you see the way he was limping off the field at the end of the game last night if they had to play the Super Bowl next week I don't know that he'd be a full participant in practice all week long the way he was this last

week but look he's going to be out there for the Super Bowl he'll be certainly healthier than he was in this game I think although he certainly looked like he aggravated it a little bit during the course that AFC championship game and Matthew Hasselbeck made a great, great point on Sunday Counting yesterday. He said Patrick Mahomes has to play like he's 40 years old, not 25. He has to just sit back there and rely on his abilities to make these throws, not try to run around and make things happen, not try to be Superman, but to beat Clark Kent when he's out there. And I think with the way the injury has been, he's going to have to probably continue to do that.

Now, it's possible 13 days from now he feels a lot better, but I don't know that that'll be the case. I think he's going to be struggling with this whole thing going forward. I just texted you back. You said you needed five minutes. Yeah, I saw that, Pop. I just saw that. No, no, no, no.

We had agreed 1230, and I was on the phone like that. So I was texting you back. You said you needed five minutes. Yeah, I saw that. I just saw that. No, no, no. We had agreed 1230 and I was on the phone like that. So I was texting you at about 1227. I'm like, hey, can you give me an extra five minutes here? All good. Hey, well, I apologize. I didn't see it until now. I just want to let you know. Saw it. Gave him a thumbs up while he's talking. But it was on my fault, Shifty. I assume that was an important call.

We're texting as we're talking. That's really, truly multitasking on both ends. Hey, this is the future here. This is the future of the world, the planet, and hopefully programming. What was it, breaking news, or are you trying to find seeds for news? Just basic conversations, everyday conversations, Pat. Connor has a question for you, Mr. Schefter. Yeah, Schefter, how did the K kellen moore to la uh kind of job

come together was that always assumed he was immediately going to get hired as either an oc or a head coach or did that just kind of happen overnight after he got like uh you know i think they had something in place for a while and my understanding is is that when you know mike mccarthy talked about kellen moore's future last week, this was a mutual kind of thing where Kellen Moore, I think, was looking to break out on his own as much as the Cowboys might have been interested in making a change. And I think he just felt like it was time to make a change. And obviously, the Chargers have been out there looking for an offensive coordinator, need somebody to help groom and continue to improve justin herbert made sense

for both sides and so when they officially part ways uh yesterday which was coming anyway then obviously it sets things in motion and paves the way for him to go to los angeles did he interview anywhere else or was it always going to be the chargers well he was officially let go so i don't know that he actually interviewed anywhere else. They were talking to other teams. There were other teams they were involved with, but I think the Chargers were the ones that he was most interested in. Ty Schmidt, yeah, I mean, it'd be nice if we had a coach. If we had a coach, maybe he becomes coordinator for our coach here in Indianapolis.

Speaking of Indianapolis, Ty Schmidt has a question for you. Yeah, Shefty, you reported on the Rodgers situation, and I know you have a lot of sources, obviously, but I didn't know. You guys have a really good source there. Hey, on one side. I feel like you have the other side. Exactly, and that's why I didn't know how much of that is kind of your just own personal thoughts on it, punditry, if you will,

how much of it's inside information. As it stands right now, we heard that the Jets, I think it might have been in an article you posted, the Jets, in terms of looking for a veteran quarterback, have their eyes set on Garoppolo, Rodgers, Derek Carr, they're going to do work on all three. But as it stands right now, what do you think the percentage is that Rodgers actually does get traded, potentially, to the Jets? Or the Colts. You sound a little bit like all the Jets fans that surround me

that text my phone all the time asking, are we getting Rodgers? Are we getting Rodgers? Are we getting Rodgers? That is a question that I answer all the time. Here's what I would say to that, I think. I do think that the idea of this trade is a real possibility. Is that punditry?

Hey, is that punditry? Because anytime you give an opinion, this is how we have to view it as the rest of the world. Schefter knows everybody. So when Schefter gives an opinion, whether it's a source, like, hey, breaking sources, tell me, or if you're giving an opinion, which you're great at, by the way. I think you do great. I think you do both very well. You should maybe look in the mirror and congratulate yourself on that because you're not just a fucking plug robot.

I think you do. But whenever you say some stuff as a pundit, I believe, especially with the way some Internet and some Twitter sites work with aggregating information, we all assume, boom, that has to be coming from a very solid piece of information because you're adam schefter so it's almost like your resume affects your punditry a lot because we assume everything you say pundit wise is coming from the resume that you've built with direct information if that makes sense well yeah i appreciate you saying that thank you i guess look here's the thing we we don't know how the rogers situation is going to play out all i can say is there are enough people who think that it's a real possibility that he's going to be traded this offseason i mean there are people who do think that that's going to happen now again for all we know the two sides are going to sit down and they're going to figure out

something and they're going to discuss a way for both sides to move forward together and he stays in greenback like that's possible but it's also possible that they sit down have the talk both sides are open and honest with each other and both sides decide you know what uh there's a window here to make a trade happen with the way the contract is structured it would take place this year and this would be the time for everybody for as much respect as both sides have, to move on. Now, again, when you bring up the Jets, I believe, I believe, like I said this on Countdown last week, and all of a sudden it becomes a report. Adam Schefter's reporting the Packers will only trade Aaron Posse in the AFC. Like, I'm talking just like I'm talking to you yes right and so i said

that i believe and the reasons i believe that it would make the most sense for them to trade him in the afc that would be the more likely path if that's what both sides decide. And I still believe that. So if we go through and look at the teams in the AFC, what would be potential landing spots for Aaron Rodgers? Raiders, Colts, Jets. And I'll throw another one in there. Where's he building a home? Well, he has Raw Land in Nashville, Tennessee. Oh, he does.

That's interesting. Oh, everybody has wrong land in Nashville, Tennessee. Oh, he does. That's interesting. Oh, everybody has wrong land. This happened a year ago, Shafty, but you're right. So in the punditry thought, you said you have your reasons. Is that just because competitive football reasons? No, no, no. So again, I just think the AFC makes more sense. Let's go back to what happened with Favre.

The Buccaneers were interested. The Jets were interested. They preferred at that time the Packers to deal him in the AFC. I believe the same thing. If they go that route, if they go that route, it would happen again. So what are the places that would be in play? And I think that all those places that you just outlined all need a quarterback, all need to upgrade the position all would be in the market for a veteran why would any of those teams not have a discussion with the green bay packers about trying to make a trade happen okay so let me just act and i know you only got a few minutes left so we appreciate you taking time out of your monday very busy

monday to join us you're the man that, and we should remember that going forward. I hope everybody does. Shefty has zero reason to do what you're doing right now on this particular program. So those four teams from all the sources, let's take Ponditree hat off. Let's take Source Breaking News hat back on here. Do you know anybody in those organizations, and are those organizations gearing up potentially for an aaron rogers on in the trade market world well i i guess i would say this uh if you are a team that needs i see i like

i like to just kind of be very uh you interpret this how you will if you're a team that needs a quarterback and you're not doing your due diligence on Aaron Rodgers, then your team is being negligent. Okay, so every team is at odds. I heard Colts are in. I heard Colts are in. Carolina may be in. NFC can't do it. But he said that's just thinking.

You don't know how that whole thing goes. Last question here as we let you go, and we can't thank you enough from Tone Diggs. Chiefs are very banged up with the wide receiver position after yesterday. Is there any early indication of what's going to be Super Bowl status? And Lane Johnson and the Eagles, just as a whole, Super Bowl injury situation.

I just generally operate like if the guy finished the game yesterday, he'll be good to go. Lane Johnson, that guy is a warrior. I can't imagine that anything would sideline him,, he'll be good to go. Lane Johnson, you know, that guy is a warrior. I can't imagine that anything would sideline him, so he'll be out there. Juju was questionable return. I would imagine that'll continue to be the case. Tony was ruled out rather early.

McColl Hardman, was he ruled out? I don't remember. But look, I don't have specific answers on the wide receivers right now, other than to say the extra week will probably be very good for everybody. It'll go a long ways towards helping them to be able to play on Super Sunday. And anybody who can be out there in 13 days is going to be out there. All right, real quick roundup here. Panthers hire Frank Wright.

Kind of came out of nowhere. It's happened. Let's move on cardinals bringing in lou anarumo after a full day with sean payton sean payton allegedly out of the denver broncos sweepstakes and he tweets i think i'm still in the denver broncos sweepstakes colts don't have a head coach as well houston texans allegedly with domico ryan's what are you hearing and when does the next shoe drop you think well? Well, D'Amico's the most logical guy, and that seems to be on a path to happening.

That's up to the Texans to close that out, right? His wife is from there. He played there. That's their preference of where to be. For Houston not to get that done would be, again... So Texans. Yeah. Well, again, it would be an upset if they didn't get it done.

So he is the frontrunner there and has been the frontrunner there. And it's up to them to close it out, which I don't know why they wouldn't. But to your point, Pat. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pundit hat, pundit hat. We got pundit hat. How about Cardinals and Broncos? And that leaves us with Indian Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's pundit hat, pundit hat. We got pundit hat. How about Cardinals and Broncos? And that leaves us with Indianapolis, Denver, and Arizona.

Arizona reached out this morning to Lou Anarumo. So that would tell you that they probably don't believe that they're going to be in a position to close on Sean Payton because they wouldn't be making other calls and reaching out to other candidates at this point in time if that were the case. Now, where they wind up, I don't know. I think Brian Flores would be outstanding. I think Aaron Glenn would be outstanding. Luana Rumo would make a lot of sense. They have some guys that obviously would be pretty strong there in Arizona.

Indianapolis, my read on this, my read, Pat, I'm not reporting this, but my read on this is that the owner really loves the interim head coach, my former TV colleague, the guy that I love, Jeff Saturday, a just tremendous guy. They just keep bringing in more and more people to see if there's anybody else that the owner would like more than Jeff Saturday.

So, hey, Jim, let's try Shane Steichen. Hey, Jim, let's try Earth Enemy. Hey, Jim, let's try Wake Morning. This guy can play the guitar, Jim, let's try Shane Steichen. Hey, this guy's cool. Hey, Jim, let's try Wake Morgan. This guy can play the guitar, Jim. Hey, Jim. Looking at Giro Averro. Like, look at all these guys, Jim.

Like, we got some really good guys. But I really like Jeff Saturday. I really like Jeff Saturday. Ring of honor, brother. He's in there. One and seven. The guy loves the show. Right.

And so, now, Pat, now where that's going to wind up, you tell me. I don't know where that's going to wind up. They don't tell me shit anymore either because I get on this microphone and give the Colts the most amount of exposure, which also means when things go terrible, have to talk about that as well. So they don't tell me shit about it, but it does seem as if everybody's talking about Jeff Saturday being the frontrunner for that job.

The Broncos' position now, it was fascinating because they have Russell Wilson. Now, league sources have told me, okay, and I am not Adam Schefter, but I have some league circles. League sources have told me that a lot of people are not blaming Hackett for what happened in Denver. They think that Russell Wilson was nowhere near the Russell Wilson that Russell Wilson is normally, whether that means he was out of shape, out of sort, whatever the case was. Nathaniel Hackett didn't really take much heat in league circles

for what took place in Denver this past year. That's why he gets that job so quickly in New York, because a lot of people around the league are like, that was not Hackett's fault. With that being said, who's going to be able to come in there and get the most out of Russell Wilson? And do you think that they'll utilize the fact that they're the wealthiest owner in the nfl and there's no salary cap on coaching that's why everybody thought sean payton was going there immediately and then that kind of cooled off what are your thoughts there uh well the first thing when you bring a packet is first thing that pops into my mind is uh uh hackett's good friends is good friends with your good friend. And so there's a lot of good friendship going on between a lot of people there.

That's number one. Oh, you're saying Aaron to the Jets because of his good friend. I'm not saying that. Oh, there's a pundit hat. Pundit hat. Pundit hat. Pundit hat. I'm just saying that, you know, I know everybody loves that.

They hired Hackett because they wanted Hackett. But Hackett is good friends with your good friend. So there we go. So whatever that's worth, it's just pointing that out. Now, what the Broncos do, Russell Wilson, look, Russell had an off year. I don't know why that was. He was not what he wanted to be. He was not what they wanted him to be.

And that is the biggest issue for this franchise going forward, making sure that Russell Wilson can get back to being a great quarterback, which he wasn't last year. So that's going to be on everyone. We have a coach they hire. Money, yeah, I thought that this team from the outset would be ultra, ultra aggressive and take big swings. And let's look at all the people that they spoke to. They spoke to Sean Payton.

They spoke to Jim Harbaugh. They just reached out to him again, right? That's what I heard. They met with him again last week, again, in Ann Arbor on Monday. Uh-oh, Michigan. Uh-oh. Yeah. The facts are the facts.

They met again, and I think no deal materialized, and both sides went their own way. But they hadn't met in person. They just did a virtual call the first time, and so they wanted to meet in person, see what it was about, and for whatever reason, they decided not to get it done. And so I think Denver's shown that it's willing to swing big. I think it will continue to try to swing big, whoever that is.

We'll see what they're going to do, Pat. No, you have an answer. It's right there. I saw it. It was sitting in your mouth. It was sitting right there in your mouth. You think Sean's coaching next year or no? You know, I'll tell you one thing.

If the Colts can bring in Jeff Saturday, why can't the broncos bring in pat mcafee to coach all right chef appreciate you man we can't thank you enough thank you for joining us have an incredible monday you're the man thank you guys i appreciate having me we'd like to let the world know that i texted him in like 11 40 just like an hour and 14 minutes ago saying hey will you stop by you said you got it we appreciate the hell out of you man thank you guys i appreciate you hey get the officiating fixed, Schefter. Here we go.

Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schefter. Figure it out, Adam. You've made your feelings known. I think they heard you, Pat. Good. I've been doing it for four years, though, Schefter. It's been me yelling for four years. Running up the line.

You know what I mean? You used to work here. Someone's listening. I got kicked out. I got kicked out. You know, that's the way it goes. That is the way, especially when we start to pause a little bit. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Schaffer.

Yeah, Schaffer. Ladies and gentlemen, it's college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, NFC champion, Ryder Cup champion, COVID survivor, father of 10, A.J. Hawk. Yeah. A.J., congratulations on having the right on the Philadelphia Eagles. And although we weren't able to go back to back with the Super Boost, it leads up that we're due to hit in the Super Bowl Super Boost, which we are excited for.

What are your thoughts on yesterday's matchup? And obviously, everybody in Ohio is thinking that the NFL is rigged because of what took place last night against the Kansas City Chiefs in Arrowhead, not Burrowhead, like your Cincinnati mayor was proclaiming in his proclamation, AJ? Oh. Yeah, I mean, I would assume, I don't know as much rigged as people think they got screwed.

I haven't heard as much like, hey, this is rigged. It's all set up against us, but they think, why does this have to happen to us at this moment and all of that? Okay, just the internet. Okay, okay, John, nodded. Hey, noted noted jot that down in the uh in the ticker in actual ohio not a lot of talk about rigging no internet ohio very much allowed yeah good to hear yeah yeah i don't know if rigged is if they say we got screwed is that the same as it's rigged no well screwed means that somebody it could mean you're getting bamboozled.

It could also mean that somebody fucked up and screwed you. So I think rigged is just one particular way we are getting bamboozled. We are getting hoodwinked. We are getting worked. We are everything like that. I think that is in the rigged world as opposed to the screwed world, which is a more broader description. Nonetheless, the refs suck. They've sucked for a long time.

This year, they didn't suck as bad as much, I think. We didn't talk about it as much. It wasn't an every-week convo. But with 50 million eyes on Joey Burrow and Patrick Mahomes, that was a lot of people's takeaway afterwards was the NFL has such bad officiating that it has to be good. They have to be doing this on purpose. The NFL is rigged.

Obviously, we covered this in the first hour for a lot. You were not here. If you'd like to give your take on that, The NFL is rigged. Obviously, we covered this in the first hour for a lot. You were not here. If you'd like to give your take on that, feel free. Our big take is how. Just tell us how. How would that be happening? And also, that would mean that the refs are smarter than I think we should be giving them credit for what we watch every single time. AJ, your thoughts on this whole thing?

Watch every single time. AJ, your thoughts on this whole thing? I think a lot of time we give too much credit to humans and their ability not only to keep a secret, but also to formulate a plan and somehow execute that plan that it would be to rig an NFL game somehow. It's 98, 99% of the time it's usually just incompetence or ignorance. Someone makes a mistake. They're human beings. So that's what I always point to instead of saying, hey, they had this master plan.

They're a genius. This is a TV or a movie right here. And this guy is just such an absolute genius pulling all the strings behind the scenes. Okay. So here's the deal. We just pulled off a little bit of a kayfabe. Yeah. We just pulled off a little bit of a work on Saturday with the Royal Rumble.

Okay. And now obviously there was speculation. A lot of people talking about it. A lot of people thought I was going to be in the Royal Rumble. A lot of people thought that I was going to be there. That was not figured out until late last week. I mean, that really came together pretty quick. Not that there was any bad relations or anything. It's just like my schedule for the last five months and everybody's schedule, especially in WWE, is great.

My wife's pregnant with what the schedule was. There's no bad beef or anything it was just like i don't want to have to train enough to be able to go into that role do you see what logan paul and ricochet did do you see what do you call that move do they call that something i think it was supposed to be a springboard double cross body kind of is what i was actually as it was happening and that's not necessarily my angle in the commentary world is like being the guy who knows every move and everything like that but after it happened

I said what the hell just happened and then in my head I was trying to answer I was like well it was a springboard and then I believe it was a double cross body but one was going for a clothesline I think Ricochet was going for a cross body so it was a little bit of I think Ricochet was going for a cross body. So it was a little bit of a, I think that's why the hit was as impactful as it was.

Nonetheless. Unreal. Fucking unbelievable. I thought it was the Iron Lotus. It was so sweet. Basically. Yeah. Sounds like Logan's going to announce a UFC fight as well, too, coming up. I saw that with Joe and Dana White just did something, and then Logan reposted it.

Logan is an impressive. I don't know if everybody was watching the Royal Rumble. Obviously, not everybody on Earth was. I don't know what the numbers were. It's not going to make a billion. But as Logan Paul was being talked about, he got a little bit of heat whenever he came out. He had just come back from a torn ACL,

because unless that was a work, I don't know, that would have to be a big secret. Wait, how long was he out with the ACL? I don't know, four months, maybe three months. He heals fast. He heals fast. He heals fast. He's got that Wolverine blood, man. Well, like my homes, he thanked God for healing him fast.

Look at this shit. That's got to hurt, man. Yeah, because I think Ricochet was going for the crossbody. I thought he was dead. Foxy? Yeah, he certainly was. Let's do that one more. Let's do that one more.

Is that something you could ever even practice? I don't know how or why you would. They certainly probably – they didn't know it was coming, first of all. Now, there might have been a thought that Logan Paul, while he was training – Like, would this ever come up in a training session? I'm not saying they practice it, but say they're training and they're sparring. Would it come up? Are you insinuating this is rigged, AJ?

Yeah, that would be disgusting. You always want to practice what you're going to do when it comes to these big championship moments. Piper's not out there yet. Piper came out of the Women's Rumble. Thank you, Foxy. They could have trained. Logan Paul has

a couple slingshot type things that he does and springboard type stuff. He does a slingshot clothesline that Hangman Page does, I believe. Hell yeah. It's awesome. I got to see it. He did it. Logan Paul did it in the Royal Rumble, literally directly across the ring from me.

So I saw the entire thing take place. Just like how perfectly landed. Impressive athlete that dude. Bro, so fucking impressive. I mean, like, shoot unbelievable to kind of watch him do his thing. He was a college wrestler, though, right, they say? Yeah, he's got a background, right? I don't know about college.

I think he went to college for a year. Good high school wrestler, for sure. I thought he had college looks or something. I don't know. Ohio high school has some good high school wrestling as well. Well, I could imagine. Everything we know about Ohio, we would assume that a sport in which you win by dominating another human being would be beloved in the state of ohio we think that is certainly something there nonetheless very fucking impressive but after i saw it happen in my head i

was like yeah smart move not to fucking get in there you know what i mean like there's no way i was trying at the beginning of the season to stay in shape because there was obviously a convo. You know, whenever I had the college game day opportunity literally just kind of pop up in the middle of a week and being such an incredible opportunity, I had to talk to WWE. I'm like, hey, I'm very thankful for our relationship. I'm very lucky to get to do this. Like, this has been fucking dream come true.

You guys have been so cool to me. true you guys have been so cool to me like literally have been so cool to me so like I'm really but like in my world in our business you know that is growing literally at the same time as my relationship two very different demos too like I think our people there's some that go fuck around but like whenever

I started with WWE I wondered what our show would like if wasn't a lot of like there was a lot of wrestling people coming to our sports show you know what i mean so literally it was two different it was like two different veins almost happening at the same time in college game day to the wrestling people i don't think fully understand what game day is like this this show in the sports world in football world like this is fucking everyone like 30 emmy 27 emmys or something like that yeah this is the show in sports so like for our sports business that we run here getting an opportunity to go on game day stupid stupid absolutely stupid to begin with that's why

i did it in 2019 but to have like an actual role in said show, it's like, I have to do this. Like, this is something that I have to do. I got 13 employees. This is our world that we're in kind of have to do it. And WWE was so incredibly cool about it. And I don't want to burn any bridges. Like, you know, I, this is just something. And I think like Nick Khan, who used to be a part of the sports world, him being over there, especially at CAA, where he was the head of caa he he basically hired every single fucking network pretty much i mean that's nick if nick he runs a lot he's he's done a lot in the game in sports media world i don't think the wrestling people know this like hey nick is a dog dude like one wheel of fortune one wheel of fortune really one wheel of fortune. Really? One wheel of fortune. You know that? To pay for his law school, goes to law school, becomes fucking the guy in the sports agent world.

Beast. He's a dog, dude. Didn't grow up with, you know what I mean? This isn't like. Different kind. Self-made. Yeah, this isn't like, Nick is a dog. And Nick, I wasn't, you know, here's a little shot at Nick.

I wasn't popular enough to get to work with Nick. Sure. Whenever he was in the sports media world. You know what I mean? He had the Herb Streets of the world. He's big. I think Greeny. Wow.

Michael. Yeah, we're talking about, so in the sports world, obviously he knew Coonan and the boys that we got the chance to work with they were in his business but obviously they all reported to him so he had heard about me once he leaves we kind of or towards the end of his run there we kind of befriend each other start chatting and i'm at the same time aj this show and me are kind of hey we were kind of on a rocket huh for sure i mean yeah pretty quickly oh yeah i was looking back on it all i was looking back on it yeah they don't come equipped dude but it was all happening real quick

so like me and nick got to know each other really at the end of his run at ca before his run at the wwe but like quickly there yeah quick it was in like a lot of time and i'd already been in the wwe at this time. So it's a really fascinating, interesting thing where who he, you know what I mean? It's an interesting thing. But whenever I talked about game day, I think he got it. He understood it. And I think it was a little bit better. So I appreciate Nick Khan for everything that he has done for me and for that.

And they said immediately, Hunter and everybody and Nick and Stephanie at the time were like, you know, Rumble, that's like a perfect, you know, that's like a perfect time to come back because that's when people come back. And it's after college football season or whatever. And I was like, perfect. All right. I actually need something to keep me in shape. I always get fat. Like, I actually need something to keep working out for. And then I tried.

I mean, everybody saw me. I was fine. Hey, I was getting after it there. About week nine, though. You could have done it. You don't think you could have gotten there and rolled around for four or five minutes? I think I could have, but I don't want to disrespect anybody. Dude, there's only, I mean, there was only 29 guys that came out because Ray, where the fuck is Ray?

Is Ray okay? Where's Butch? Is Ray Mysterio okay? Great question. Where's Butch? But, like, there's only so many spots. And when you're in there, like, there's a lot of fucking danger, you know? There's a lot of shit that can happen.

So it's like I didn't – so I told them, I think, like, I don't know what week it was. Maybe week 14, week 13 of the season. I'm like, hey, just want to let you you know the season's been a grind this year with game day being an extra work day because saturday became an extra work day out of nowhere aj that be a big old big old work day too earliest work day too i'm waking up fucking earliest of the morning like it became the that was my only sleeping day really on saturday yeah and then it became my earliest and also and travel. Yeah. And have full days work. Watch along sometimes too.

And then the mega cast tonight. Lucky to do all of this. Not like, this is not a complaining at all. This is just like reality of what the season was. So I told him, I'm like, hey, I'm not going to be able to be in good enough shape for Rumble. Don't want to disrespect Royal Rumble or anything like that. I'm just letting you know where i'm at right now i am not waking up an hour earlier any day of the week to work out i am not staying up an extra hour every to get an actual workout in that's needed so it's kind of one of those combos and they're like we'll chat later we'll chat later we all good

all good with us we'll chat later so it was the goal royal All good. All good with us. We'll chat later. So it was the goal. Royal Rumble was a goal. I wasn't able to keep up with it because of the game day getting dropped in and what that schedule became. So I was bummed, but there was a lot of speculation that I was going to be there. And I think that's because the convo we had, I'd probably talked to a couple of people in the company about and said like, yeah, this is it. Those people probably talked to a couple of people in the company. Those people probably talked to a couple of people in the company about and said like, yeah, this is it. Those people probably talked to a couple people in the company. Those people probably talked to a couple people

in the company. So like the speculation around me going back at the rumble was very easy because it was real. And also, you know, like one person is going to tell one, if one person tells one person, so let's say you have a good judgment on, on who is a good person that can keep a secret. If that person doesn't have the same great judgment that you do on who they can tell, you didn't tell one person. Nope. You told fucking everybody. And that's how humans are.

That is literally how humans are. And I am a person, you know, for certain things, I'm like, don't tell me. I do not want, like that thing, don't tell me. Like with wrestling, things would be, they're like, hey, tonight, just a heads up. And I'm like, don't tell me. I do not want to know. I'm better in that whole thing. But humans are terrible at keeping a secret.

Terrible at keeping something from somebody else. Everybody wants to be a person. I guess not everybody. There's been people that have been able to keep secrets. And I think Michael Cole being surprised on Saturday was fucking awesome. Was fucking awesome. I don't know how that happened, but shout out to everybody over there.

KD is a fucking legend. The internet says a lot of things about Kevin Dunn. Kevin Dunn's been really fucking good to me and he's the one that set this whole thing up. Had a plane malfunction day of. Plane. Almost didn't go. Supposed to fly. Had a plane malfunction day of. Plane. Almost didn't go.

Supposed to fly. Three hour flight. Oh no. Three hour flight down to San Antonio. That's a long way down there. The plane that we're supposed to take off on malfunction. Wing doesn't work. Have to find new plane. Holy shit. Now we're in an ordeal. But if it doesn't happen it wasn't supposed to happen.

So no big deal.vin dunn while putting show together while doing all this thing texting with me his travel crew finding planes hey this one you need to do this this one you need to do this we'll do this whenever you get here we'll put you in the back of this car it'll have a cop in it we'll be able to get you to a place put you in a bus completely uh this then we'll put you in a uh underneath a curtain basically on a go a golf cart we'll roll you right up to gorilla boom we'll intro you bang you're out it's like okay i landed 28 minutes before yep i was seen at the rumble because the plane delay so So literally, plane, cars on runway, to arena, stop at bus, have a water. 6.45 by that time.

Oh, okay. Here we go. And then bang, right into a golf cart, straight over there, thing off. A couple people go, hey, Xavier Woods. A couple, I think I saw Corbin. He's like that. I see Miz. Miz is like, what are you doing here you in the

rumble you know ms and i'm like i'm commentating i'm commentating it he goes okay and i said i'm gonna bury you ms he goes do it fucking do it i dare you i dare you i'm like all right because i don't have time for this literally go in chat with uh triple h thank him it was a big obvious pat pat a lot of people behind the scenes, audio people, video people, tech people, production people. It was a full on. Then I hadn't seen the arena obviously at that point. So when the music

hits, I have no idea what's about to take place. Kevin Dunn told me it's a long walk. It is a long walk out there. He told me, take your time, take your time, but it is a long walk. Do whatever you got to do. So I go through one curtain. I'm like, here I am.

No, that was not a curtain. I had to get another curtain. And I didn't know what was on the other side of the curtain. I thought maybe we're going to go into another little tunnel area. I opened that thing. Oh, we're here. Oh, shit. Oh, fuck.

Holy hell. A lot of people. Here we go. And then obviously, you know, it's's an amazing and i'm so thankful for everybody but that brings us back to the whole point it is impossible to keep a secret especially in this world that we're in right now for the nfl to be rigged there would be so many people that would we would have to trust that could keep a secret or the nfl would have to trust that keeps a secret and the fact that i even said we makes people think that I'm working alongside the NFL.

I would like to remind people we are paying them $4.5 million this year just so we can have some video rights to their games or whatever. So it is just something that I think would be very difficult to believe on how it logistically would work out. But the officials are so bad, it's a real conversation that's taking place. Joining us now, rights for the Cincy Jungle for SB Nation. Obviously a big-ass Bengals fan. We saw him earlier this season on Overreaction Monday because he lost his mind. It was fantastic. Ladies and gentlemen, Drew Gehrs.

Yeah! Boys, how's it going? Drew, sorry I made you wait there a little bit. It was wrapping up a story that kind of tied in perfectly to what's going on with the nfl are you uh one of the 28 000 strong that was tweeting about the nfl being rigged last night and how does cincinnati feel about what took place in burrowhead uh kansas city yesterday i am actually in the minority i've been taking bullets for like 15 fucking hours because i was not blaming the officiating for the the game being lost um oh no i i i said you can

acknowledge bad officiating and you can acknowledge the bengals missing opportunities those are not mutually exclusive ideas and people lost their shit on me for it now i'm a fat bitch that shouldn't like the bengals and i should go a Steelers fan. I'm getting fucking killed over here. They're slaughtering me. Well, it's real though and it's like, I think it's an actual issue. If you think about this from a reasonable

human beings mindset, I think obviously you're not going to be able to. But now that people are able to bet on it, AJ, and now that people have their actual money on it, especially in the state of Ohio, which I think is going to be a big-time state for sports gambling, because not only the amount of teams, but the way the humans are constructed in

Ohio, I think are going to love having a little bit of extra work on the action. I think that's going to be something. The NFL's got to get it fixed. Cincinnati's probably going to be the face of it this particular offseason. Are you proud of that or not proud of that? I think you guys had a fucking... Just like in the Super Bowl, we're right there. We're right there.

And if it's rigged, Drew, if it's rigged, the NFL's done pretty good for Cincinnati or no? See, I took a lot of heat after the Super Bowl because I personally feel that the NFL wanted the Rams to win the Super Bowl. I don't know if it was rigged, but I think that that was the result they wanted. And that hold on Logangan wilson was horseshit but when you look at it this way i i'm not proud because we're all crying raf and this and that but what i am proud of is the fact that it's going to shed light on the fact that nfl officiating needs fixed i watch this show every day you guys have talked they need to be full time we need an on-site field uh sky judge i i agree with all of that i just think this is one of the worst instances of the officiating being so bad on such

a huge scale that they're gonna have to really dial it in and if the bingles are part of that that's great but at the same time i just you talked a whole lot of shit for a week and your mayor upset that was your mayor. Go ahead, AJ. Hey, not my mayor. I don't live there. Oh, shit. Mark. I live in Miamisburg, Ohio.

I'm about 45 minutes north. Oh, so that isn't your mayor. You're on the outskirts not having to deal with that mayor's particular problems, except for in this particular case. Yeah. Well, it's some intern wrote that shit is what happened. Some intern wrote that. That dude didn't know what we were talking about. No, this is part of the problem. Hold on.

We can get into this problem about the olds. He still read it. Yeah, well, the olds trusting. This is a big thing. This is a social media person, right? Oh, yeah. We've talked about this. The social media youngs, okay, who go to social media degrees.

Of course. They tell these olds that are scared to death, right? Scared to death, but understand it's a necessity. Don't want to waste their life getting to understand it and learn it. Although I think they should and could pretty quickly and easily, especially these super, I don't know about this mayor, but they're super successful people. This is happening across the board. Here's a great example of in politics. Somebody said that was younger, smarter, understands the game, probably the way that's the way it was being presented oh yeah we were talking about this and do you think i should do this yeah i mean did you see some of the numbers that some of these crazy

engagement i mean it's good engagement and the people of cincinnati are going to feel like i'm one of them it's very relatable this is what other people are saying like the way that whole thing was presented is a great depiction of the issue that is currently taking place with social media and olds who have a lot of say but don't want to have the time to invest in social media nonetheless he fucking he got dunked on by travis kelsey oh yeah and why are we mad at that we shouldn't be this is my thing i love are they mad who's mad nobody's no oh fucks are mad. People were pissed at Travis Kelsey. People were pissed at Travis Kelsey last night.

No. A.J. What's the guy supposed to do? Michigan. We talk about irrational. People have irrational fandom, so how do you expect them to be rational in moments like this when you lose a big game? Okay, I can respect that, but

I guess we'll give them a couple days to see if we'll give them a couple days to see if they respect their action. I want to ask Drew, though, for real, how pissed are people at the mayor? I understand the Chiefs didn't need any extra motivation, all this. They get paid a bunch of money. They're going to have a chance to go to the Super Bowl. But it does do something. It does feel pretty damn good for a team like the Chiefs to be able to do that as the game goes and looks like you're going to win the game. It does kind of bring a team together

sometimes when they do have a mutual hatred for something or a storyline that is out there. How pissed are people around Ohio, I guess, at this mayor? I've seen a lot of people really pissed at him and I've seen a lot of people saying he didn't line up and play. It doesn't matter. But my whole view on this situation is mayors chirp from differing cities before the super bowl hey blah blah your barbecue sauce sucks hey your chili stinks that's cool that'd be fine we've got an elected officials talking about grown man being another grown man's daddy like that's where it becomes far and that's where it gets too loud i mean pretty pretty i'm pretty good shit talk from, like, business owner in Cincinnati. Like, you know, if this was Mattress Mac coming out.

Right. Or Ruby. Is Ruby? Who's that? Is Jeff Ruby? Is that the steakhouse guy? Yeah, yeah. Jeff Ruby's steakhouse guy.

Great steaks. Great steaks and a Herb Street roll was a great sushi roll there. But that's from Cincinnati. Is that guy not from Cincinnati? Yeah, Jeff Ruby? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's Cincinnati to the core. He's got a big bus that pulls up before every game Yeah, Jeff Ruby? Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's Cincinnati at the core.

He's got a big bus that pulls up before every game. You know he's there. So if he stands on top of that bus in front of his steakhouse and says, Patrick Mahomes' father is Joe Burrow, like, I think we all go like, oh. Got it. That was sweet. Completely different. Yeah, I think so.

Completely different. The mayor, though, is like, this is the mayor of the city saying that. And if you win, though, then once you come into the NFL, this is kind of how everything is in the NFL. Welcome, Mr. Mayor. If you win, all good. He knew it. You lose.

He's the mayor for life then. You lose. Oh, the worst. He's going to have to resign. Forever it's going to be like that. That's the NFL. You might have to get impeached. Well, I don't know.

Hey, I don't know if you can do that from out of town, but somebody in there is going to have to write a strong petition letter. He did say, yeah, deserve that. Congrats to Kansas City on a well-fought win, and good luck in Arizona. Proud of our fans and our bangles for the energy all year. Hootay. Hey, shout out. That a baby, Mr. Mayor.

Good luck, Mr. Mayor. I appreciate you, Drew Garrison, writer for Sports Nation. Do you have, or SBison, writer for Sports Nation. Do you have, or SB Nation, do you have a podcast we should be promoting, or are you all written word? I do a lot of written word and a lot of just being a complete dumbass on Twitter for 12 hours a day or so. Sweet. Yeah, you can find me at Drew Garrison.

I say a lot of shit that you'll probably not like, and we'll have a lot of fun. There we go. Old heel, Drew Garrison. We appreciate you, ladies and gentlemen drew garrison so i thought he was part of the whole i mean i love talking to him oh right here yeah that was a miss i mean he's a good conversation though i like him but he's speaking very reasonable he is i thought we had a chance to get somebody on there to turn our – you know what I mean? Maybe an injury.

I was hoping to – you know what I mean? You can see, though, can't you see how, I guess, people can come to that conclusion that, hey, something's up here. Something's up. We talked to Schefter. He actually broke the news on this show that the NFL is not rigged. He said breaking. He actually did the full thing.

But, all right, let's move on. Let's talk about the teams that are in the Super Bowl. Let's not talk about the things that are hopefully going to get fixed this offseason and have been a problem for a long time. And I'm happy they're getting spotlighted because the game will be better when it gets fixed. And that means more fans, more money. The new salary cap has been given. Okay.

224, 228. Four. 224, 228. Four. 224. Holy shit. I think. 224.8 maybe? 220. Wow.

224.8. Yeah, there it is. 224.8 million dollars is the salary cap moving forward. It was projected to be at 20, 220. It was previously at 210. COVID had a little bit of a plateau. But the NFL is doing what every other part of the NFL is doing with their seller cap and taking that son of a bitch this way.

And that's why whenever you're able to sign a contract for fucking 10 to 15 years for your star player, you can just kick that money down the line because 25, $30 million cap hit means a lot more right now than it will 10 years from now when this thing's up over 300 million dollars which is certainly coming in the very near future congrats all the players and the nfl aj hawk yeah so last year what was it i believe is it up 16 mil from last year is that right yes 210 i don't know for 208 yeah i think it was right so if people don't like any let's say

someone doesn't know anything about football. Teams have $16 more million per year, right, to spend on their players. Bingo. Now you would explain it to people. So, yeah, that $16 million, you can work a lot of things if you get $16 million extra, let alone when you have to go back and restructure things and put bonuses in and take it out of salary. So it gives you some more wiggle room to continue to kick that can, as we always say. Bingo.

Cash over cap where you do a signing bonus, and then that signing bonus is prorated over the duration of the entire contract. So if you want to pay somebody $150 million, you give them $100 million up front and put that thing for 10 years to be split out. That's only a $10 million hit each year as opposed to what it would actually be with whatever if you were only to put that in as a salary. It's just, it's a little bit of a, it's an ability to work the salary cap. Some teams are doing it. Every team is going to have to start doing it going forward, but it also means how much money is in the NFL and coming

into the NFL. Speaking of this particular thing, and you talk about contracts going up and $16 million more for teams to pay players, I think the NFLPA, who your brother-in-law is seemingly attacking in every single fashion, which I respect. I would like to let you know I respect. Please tell him I respect it. I do not have a good relationship with the NFLPA. I don't think I know anybody that has any business sense that has a good relationship with the NFLPA, but they have a tough job. They got to do what they got to do.

I've never been there. I've never been in a meeting. I've sat through their meetings for us, but I've never been an active participant in the NFLPA. I think Adam Vinatieri nominated me one time, I think, if I do recall, because he knows how much I hate it. And they asked me, like, in the team meeting, it's old school union stuff, if you'd like to nominate a representative now, please. And somebody goes, I'd like to nominate. And then they say it.

And then he asked, do you accept the nomination? And then that's when the voting process happens at the very end. I think I was nominated one time. I said, no, I do not. I do not. I do not want to do that. And that's in front of the whole – that's quite a scene. You know what I mean?

That's quite a – that's an awkward moment there, AJ, isn't it? That's a very awkward moment. I've seen some big-time players say absolutely not when they've been nominated in the room with everybody there. Okay, good. So I'm happy to hear that that happens on a regular basis, it sounds like, in your case. And then they usually use that platform in that room to stand up

and tell you what they dislike about the PA as well. So I would do that in the question-asking part. And I do know that asking questions in these meetings, normally not the right play. But I think there was like three times I asked questions, good, hey, I'm not wasting everybody's time here. I just would like everybody to hear you know what is happening and why this is happening i didn't sign up for the nflpa last i think two years of

my uh my career just because i didn't want to go in the fucking meetings i don't want to hear the bullshit i don't want you doing my shit i don't like stop they gave away like my fucking um there was a boomstick run that was happening here in indianapolis and obviously kyle athletic trainer and the whole room while i was training it you know they were talking about when they knew i was healthy again was the sound of that's how we knew when you're healthy how how far along you were in your rehab process and that was the goal we were looking for because we're obviously working inside because the way the weather was so you can't the ball hits the roof so they were judging off of like sound almost like hey oh we're close we're close we're back or whatever and the name boomstick got dropped and

i believe this was before baseball guy was using it it came from that movie fucking uh way like uh there's a movie where a guy says this is my boomstick it's a double barrel shotgun it's fucking huge or what army of the dead army of the dead there it is so that's i think that's where it came from or whatever so like boomstick like is what i started referring to my right leg ass right boom boomstick and a peg okay this one ain't worth a fuck this one is the reason why i'm here you know what i mean like that just became a thing there was boomstick merch and then the nflpa just sold the rights to me boomstick and everything this i was selling this off my twitter and working my own merch company sold it to fanatics i believe whenever they first came into the nfl and we were

making like i was making like four bucks a shirt or three bucks a shirt or something that they were selling and they were marketing it in like if they were i think 30 25 30 bucks or whatever and they were i think it was like three bucks or two dollars and 50 cents a shirt or whatever and i didn't even get asked about this this this shit just started getting marketed on my like i started i'd open my phone and then boom get this and assume you'd be happy they thought you'd be happy hey pat we got some extra money to to put in your wallet that's what they thought yeah but that's a terrible deal for the players to agree to they didn't expect the player to say anything obviously let alone like me doing my own shit and having my own merch company and that whole thing you know and just kind of doing the internet because that's what you do on the internet it's like if i was to agree to that deal

with my own company like i would hope that my employees would say hey pat fucking quit making decisions for us and so that was like my first look at like, why would you even agree to that? Like, that is a bad deal for the players. That is a, I've, I'm in the merch game. I'm getting fucked in the merch game right now because I'm new to the merch game, but I know that that is not a good deal. Like that is, that is a bad deal. So then that made me start like actually looking into other things, deals that were being made just for deals to be made almost, it seemed like. And I'd just been pretty against it for a long time.

And your brother seemingly hates them. Brother-in-law seemingly hates them as well, publicly attacking them. And I think the thing about it is like putting a cap on how much of the percentage of the cap the quarterback makes is probably going to be something that they should look into because whenever they raised the salary cap and there was a floor level that you have to spend this amount of money, that just meant that the quarterback salary got bigger and everything else kind of adjusted too.

I think they should look into that going forward in the next CBA, but I assume they've already thought of that, AJ, over there at the NFLPA. So you're saying the quarterback contracts can only have, like, a maximum percentage of the cap per team? I think they should be in their own world. I think you should get slotted in your own world. Like, hey, this is the new number that the best guy – now, their agents can negotiate what that number is,

and that would be different, I guess, for the world. Every other quarterback that doesn't have Mola Geta as their negotiator will be happy if he's in there but i think there should be like they should be in their own like almost like coaches like hey whatever the fuck you want to pay a quarterback whatever you would like to pay a quarterback don't even count it go ahead and do it you know what i mean it's going i mean you're right like when owners are sitting there and like hey what do we what do we think like a top three quarterback is going to get paid 10 years from now? It has to be crazy to think what that money is going to be. But that just, if you're the NFL PA, you should be thinking, oh, there's also 52 other guys on the roster that are also going to have to get paid.

So maybe we should. They say, eh, we can fill them in with anybody. We don't care. It's hard to find stud quarterbacks. You know what? You guys kind of have a point. Agreed. The NFL is saying that.

We completely agree you got to look at from their point of view like yeah they're gonna hey we're gonna pay a quarterback whatever the fuck the quarterback wants to help the rest of the players there should be some sort of you know if you're looking out for the rest players i guess you could say well they're trying to they're trying to limit how much money quarterbacks make it's like no no no we're trying to unlimited yeah we're trying to mr for you guys i think that's something you got to do oh and when they do make those changes like you're talking about for the other players like they tried it with the vets it was like okay hey we'll raise the vet men but instead of that helping any of the veteran players it was just like nfl teams decided well okay i guess we'll just sign rookies instead of vets because we have

to pay more if we have to do that for vets. So it really doesn't make any sense. And to your point about Brady publicly saying that, Brady Quinn, remember Tom Brady, after the CBA was signed, actually put on his Instagram story because they signed the CBA, and then the next day was the announcement of the media rights deal for $100-something billion. And he put, at NFLPA, NFL players are ignorant. Like they don't understand how this works.

Well, and also, I mean, Tom obviously has his own business, he runs his own thing. It's like I think the modern athlete, though, is going to change it. Yeah, sure. Especially NIL too, right? I think the NFLPA is going to change. I think it can change. I think it will change.

I think it has to change. But business-wise, I think it has to change but business wise i think it it should and honestly if you get smarter business people in there at more places yes i think things like this cap stuff gets figured out better and the next cba should be better for the players than this previous one was that's what you would hope at least because you can lay out a pretty good pretty good project that the players have held up their end of the bargain. The product that the players have put on the field when every other rating thing is going this way, AJ, everything. The greatest shows on earth, the greatest minds with the most creativity putting things together,

they end up going like this or disappearing. together they end up going like this or disappearing the nfl every year regenerates new characters new stories and the ratings just go like this this is all they're doing in a world where ratings are being lost the nfl is just continuing to climb now obviously people will say well the ratings in 1994 when there was five options yeah there was five options of things to watch. Hey, you either watch this. You want to laugh? This is what you watch. You want to do news?

This is what you watch. You want to do politics? You either watch this one or this one. And they give you all your thoughts. You can yell at your friends and watch the other one. And then that's basically it. Now it's like there's so much shit, so much shit to be distracted by, to take your attention from, to take your fandom from.

And the NFL has only done this. Do you think that's because the logos? Or do you think that's because of what's happening on the field? I think the players have a good pitch that what we're doing is good. Hopefully the salary cap is only going to continue to grow and grow and grow because with sports gambling coming in, which is obviously a big part of the conversation today, and they're only in 17 states, 20 states.

Yes. It is business in the NFL is about to be ridiculous. If you're a football player, fucking go. Go work your ass off. There's about to be a lot of money available for a long time, I think, in this sport that we call home. Do you think the worry about having the QB being slotted into its own is that that will eventually lead to a wide receiver and tackle

and pass rusher like all those high-paid corners? How long has the league been around? 103 years? Yeah. 103 years. Super Bowl what? 50. 57?

Do we take it for granted that the league just continues to get bigger and bigger and the viewers continue to go up? Are we taking that for granted? I think so. I think we all are. Yeah, because think how difficult that really is. And obviously the play on the field is a huge part of it. That's the biggest thing.

But I guess how the NFL packages all this stuff. There's just nothing else on the planet like that. Nothing. Like the NFL to where it's appointment TV. You're going to tune in and watch it when it is on live. And there's very few things in the world like that, like the NFL, to where it's appointment TV. You're going to tune in and watch it when it is on live, and there's very few things in the world like that. Now, to be clear, I think there are things that have happened in the NFL that have driven fans away for a bit.

Yes. There has definitely been things that have driven fans away for a bit. Saw a lot on the internet last night. I'm boycotting. I ain't watching this rigged NFL anymore. I saw it. All right. We'll see. Ty, I saw boycotting. I ain't watching this rigged NFL anymore. That's it. I saw it. Alright, we'll see. Ty, I saw it out there. I mean, how many people are going to watch the Super Bowl? Every person who said

this is rigged will be watching the Super Bowl, even if your fucking team got screwed over and they're not going. You're going to watch the Super Bowl. What else? What else? You're going to watch fucking Family Guy instead? On Super Bowl Sunday? I don't think so. And to your point about the to marry you guys' points together about the quarterbacks and having their own thing, I don't think they'll worry about it because in five to

seven years, like, it is going to be commonplace for guys to be making $500 million in quarterback contracts. Like, receivers aren't all of a sudden going to be making, you know, $350 million. Like, they're bent over a barrel and they know it, but the NFL also knows that, hey, if we don't keep having good quarterbacks come in, then the ratings will go down. If we're just seeing a bunch of shitty quarterback play, that's really the only— Now, to be clear, this year a lot of shitty quarterbacks. For sure, for sure.

Ratings still. But I think there's enough. You look at the guys who played really, really well this year, and they're the younger guys. That's the next generation's reel. Exactly. So people are kind of like, yeah, Rodgers didn't have the type of year that he typically does,

and Brady didn't have the kind of year that he typically does. But last year, everyone's saying Jalen Hurts stinks. And then you look, he almost wins the MVP this year. So people kind of realize, hey, the league is in good hands in terms of these young quarterbacks kind of taking it to the next level for the next 10 to 15 years. That was my big takeaway while I was watching that Philadelphia Eagles ass-beating of the Niners, which we haven't even dove into.

We need to do that. How about right now? It's like watching Jalen and then even the pregame interviews. Like, the interviews of him sitting down. Oh, yeah. Him talking about the amount of money that's left. There's a lot of money on the table. There's still a lot of money left on the table, you know.

Strahan asked him about that. He said, how much? He said, a lot. There's a lot out there. That's like this dude's mentality is that of like a savage, bro. Like this is his dad obviously being in the football world. He just seemingly has it all. And then as I was watching that, I was like, you're just saying this about joey burrow just a

few days and patrick mahomes holy shit huh oh yeah the next generation is good yeah the next generation is here the next generation is great and then i immediately thought of all the the dollar signs that the nfl has to see whenever they see jalen hurts in the big moment fucking delivering and the swag that they have. And then whenever you see Joe Burrow be Joe Burrow, whenever he's talking about the windows my entire career, you can hear somebody fucking at the NFL offices going, yes, Joey. Yeah, you're damn right it is, Joey. Carson was supposed to be you, Joey.

Joey. Yeah. There's a lot of people that were supposed to come in and be Joey. Thank you, Joey. And then Patrick Mahomes, we all just act like he's Tom Brady already. Tom Brady at least got some sort of shine for a little bit, I think. A lot of people talking about how good he is. Patrick Mahomes got shine for like two years.

It's like, oh, this guy's unbelievable. Now it's like, well, we've seen him do better. Yeah. We have seen it. It's like, god damn, the guy's in his fucking fifth year. I don't even think he's anywhere near the type of player he's going to become. And if he has to become a boring fucking football player, we saw yesterday he could do it. As long as there's a dropback passer, which Joey Burrow is certainly going to keep alive.

How about his fucking wiggle yesterday? Dog, absolute dog. But if he has to get back into the drop back passer he'll be able to kill it if joe burrow has to do it he'll be able to fucking do it if jaylen has to do it jaylen will be able to do it it's like the future of the nfl dollar signs everywhere aj it looks great it's like when uh this tends to happen where people think like a certain generation is out of the league oh how are we going to replace these superstars the The NFL continues to find a way to keep replenishing. I think it's only going to get better and better, too.

I mean, I know football is in a weird spot for kids. Some people don't want their kids playing football young, whatever. Maybe they start them later. But there is way more like high school spring ball around that's a big deal, all these seven-on-seven things. So, like, players are better equipped at a young age, I guess, to kind of make that leap. Wide great young in the nfl db is great young in the nfl pass rushers great young in the nfl quarterback great young in the nfl that's i mean are we biggest position make

some money there i mean there it is congrats to the nfl go ahead connor well especially with jaylen and the nfc because like we're talking about burrow and mahomes then obviously josh allen herbert uh lamar like the age at least in the nfc isn't even nearly what it is in the afc so there's still a bunch of room for growth and you can argue like dac danny dimes for sure they're also good but they're not at the level that that afc side is yet too so there So there's still room for more guys to come in. And that's why it's rigged. Let's go to the phones. The 5-Hour Energy phone lines. 1-833-432-3663.

Or 1-833, the number 4, The Dome! AJ, do you not know the number? That's so sweet. So you guys, did you specifically get that? You asked for it? Yeah. Well, we had to search.

We had to search through. What were some of the other ones? I want to know some of the other ones you threw out there. Thunder was the first one. Yeah, that was the easiest one. What? We tried a lot, man. That was taken?

It was a full brainstorm that we didn't do before the season started which should have immediately told us that this was not going to work for the entire fucking year yeah right good point because we assume we were just going to keep the same number when we built studio we certainly paid and built for phones to work in studio because of course not only because it's incredible for the show we've had some of the most legendary moments from callers and it's great to get another voice in there yeah and i like giving an opportunity

for people to get some shit off their chest or say something that they need to say i think it's a cool thing and also five hour energy has been with us yeah good people you know what i mean five hour energy like good people for us haven't been able to do a single thing for it because the phones have not been able to work now now that we've befriended the crows right and we think we have the internet thing figured out allegedly there was a little bit of uh uh kink in the straw that had the uh the currents running through oh okay how's that happening or is it damn sure how's that happen i mean it a dam? Sure. How does that happen? I mean, it's a pretty new program, too. How does that happen?

Brand new. Yeah, yeah, brand new. But anyways, we were able to get new lines in because of a man named Jake, who's a local guy. And as soon as he was close to getting it done, he's like, hey, we need a number, by the way, we've got to put in here. So ZD, myself, Connor, I forget who else was up there. We were just, like, literally standing. Like, I was standing like this

for like 10 minutes. It was a major letdown for Thunder. That was like our first win. Real excited. Thunder. That's it. And then right back. Boom. Has the right numbers and everything. And then we check it and Zito goes, nope. I'm like, why? It's perfect.

It's taken. I didn't even think about. Since the history of numbers starting. Toll-free numbers, 1-833-1888-1888. Since the beginning of those happening, we have to find a new. Someone had thunder. Oh, this is going to be something here. I think it became a full.

There was a lot of type in. Nope. I mean, it was like rapid fire. Nope. Thunder. Nope. Nope. Nope. became a full there was a lot of type in nope it was i mean it was like rapid fire nope thunder nope nope nope how about yeah how about uh thunder one or or how about under uh or something like thunder with a three as the e but actually the e is the three in the number system and then we have full combo like that's gonna be tough to explain to everybody yes that's gonna be tough to explain to everybody too so that's how we landed on it aj thanks for asking didn't know we're gonna have to spend 10 minutes doing it good to know good to know the whole the whole background of this thank

you welcome to the program by the way anybody that's watching i'll get still 1-900 numbers where people pay money yeah there's a thing sexy voices on the yeah i got the porn hotline you call somebody calls you talks about your dong makes you feel good yeah my brother and his friends did that whenever we were growing up and i didn't know they were doing that i didn't get to enjoy the herd yeah you know yep and uh i immediately got blamed immediately got blamed for it jason and his friends all just pointed right at me i guess that's classic i got fucking called in because allegedly i guess our parents found out about that very quickly. Phone bill. Phone bill.

$200. It was very expensive. Those ladies were getting a lot of money for their voices. They're the original voiceover independent contractors. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, they were fucking dogs financially, I think. They were really raking it in.

But I don't know if those still happen. I assume it's a different game now. It's all the... I think it's big OnlyFans. It transferred OnlyFans. Yeah, it's everything. Corey Graves, man. You got a video now, I'm guessing, right?

Wait, Corey Graves has OnlyFans? No, he made a line about something that Cole was on his company phone. A site that was on his company phone. Oh, yeah. Got a big pop out of me. Seeing Michael Cole again was fantastic. Corey, I mean, I didn't even get to hear what he was saying during the intro there. He was saying a lot of stuff.

He was not pleased. He said he'd rather get a root canal. He was barking. I watch that back. I laughed so hard. So hard in numerous parts there. There was talks in the transfer from plane to arena after finding out full entrance maybe backflip off top rope you know what i mean yeah

when i come in do the hey how you doing maybe go up to the top hit a backflip to see if you can do it you know what shoes connor cowboy boots was ultimately why. Until I got into the ring was when I started slipping. I'm like, yep. Yep, can't do it. All right, probably shouldn't do that. Probably shouldn't do it. And Conor goes, when was the last time you did that? I was like, SummerSlam.

I said, but before SummerSlam, the last time I had done it, WrestleMania. That's right. So, you know. Two for two. Batting 1,000 here. Yeah. Yeah, the one before that, NXT didn't really.

So. And the ropes weren't slippery either. Yeah, SummerSlam, a little bit of slickness up there. How was the Alamo? So big. Yeah, the place is huge. Did you remember? Well, I didn't stop by the actual Alamo.

You don't have to remember if you never forget, Tony. Thank you. You're right. Thank you. Well said. You're a true patriot remember if you never forget, Tony. You're right. Thank you. You're a true patriot. 51,000 people. Yeah, what they say is the biggest live gate for the Rumble ever.

Jesus Christ. How long was the total show from start to finish? Seven hours? Seven to eight hours? Wasn't one of those. Nine, ten hours? The post match. I was giving out, post uh i was giving out dude i was giving out i was i had i was trying i didn't know i i think you know first conversation thought it was just men's rumble i'm gonna call i let off the night then like offered to then i was offered

to call the whole thing i'm like like, yeah. Like, fuck yeah. I haven't done this a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Gotta commentate the fucking Mountain Dew pitch black match. Oh. First ever. Gotta do it.

Yeah. Who ended up winning that one? I didn't see the end. Who ended up winning that one? LA Knight lost. Yeah. That's his, he lost to. What?

How do you have, how does he lose? Dude, because Bray Wyatt's a sick son of a bitch. I'm not 100% sure how LA Knight ever loses. Do you see the way that guy looks? Oh, yeah. Get him on the mic, too. Are you kidding me? The way he talks?

Mm-hmm. I thought he would maybe never lose. He lost bad quick. And then afterwards, I mean, there was a table blew up in the middle of that match. Our commentary table did. I think LA Knight's dead. What? We haven't heard from him.

Hoddy, Uncle. Yep. Uncle Hoddy. He's a scary son of a bitch. He is. I don't know. I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is.

It appears, I don't know where, up over Bray Wyatt's fucking shoulder with his sweet top hat. Yep. Had to be, I don't know, what, 200 feet up there? Yeah, at least. I didn't know he could fly. Dude, fucking. For Stinglitz. Elbow through.

Blows something up. LA Knights rolls into the fire. Yeah, dead. Dead. Not to mention, I mean, it lasted so long, too, because they just wouldn't stop fucking beating up Kevin Owens. That's Ty's guy. It's tough to watch.

Hey, bro, that was uncomfortable in there, man. It was. There was 51,000 people like dead quiet. Come on. People were crying. I wouldn't doubt it. Oh, no. There was a very, very audible fuck you Roman chant happening.

And Connor obviously caught that on tape or on, not on tape. Yeah. On tape. Yeah. Big VHS. Conor caught that on the cloud. You know what I mean?

Conor caught that on his cloud. And it was a moment. And joining us now is a man who I believe was surprised as fuck. The voice of the WWE. This is quite a surprise. As was to him, I believe me being there on Saturday. Ladies and gentlemen, future Hall of Famer, former war correspondent.

Now, voice of the WWE, Michael Cole. Hey, guys. Clap for yourself. Smart. How you doing? Always. I have to sometimes. Yeah, surprises. Dude, that's Smart. How you doing? Always. I have to sometimes. Yeah.

Surprises. Dude, that's the understatement of the year. Yes. I mean. Come on. I spoke with you a number of times throughout the day on Saturday. In fact, you sent me a couple of pictures of you and the Stooge, Boston Connor, sitting in front of the golf simulator.

You asked me who the big surprise was for the rumble. You asked me if rock was coming. You asked me if it was going to be a great show. I text you back. It would be an unbelievable show if you were there. And you were like, yeah, maybe next time or whatever. And that was it.

And then I never heard back from you. And then the next thing I know, I sit down at the desk, and Corey and I do our on-camera to start the show, and your music hit. Do you have it, Foxy? Do we have it? Yeah, we got it. We should run it. Do you want us to run it, or do you want to explain first?

What do you think is better? Yeah, you can run it if you want, and then I'll explain all the feelings that were going on after we see it. You're legit surprised here, though, right, is what we need to take away. Honest to God truth. I usually know everything going on in our world today because of the position that I'm in. This is the first time probably in a decade

that I've legitimately been surprised at something happening in the show. All right, here it is, ladies and gentlemen, the moment to make Michael Cole. I didn't know that beer, 27 years. I didn't know that was coming. This is from Saturday at the Royal Rumble. I think the lead off, this is how the show started, which is an incredible honor. Thank you so much to everybody over there, Paul and Nick, and obviously everybody else that is being involved in the conversation of how the show is being run.

So incredibly nice. Wait till you hear the numbers. Wait till you hear the numbers. We'll discuss that after all this. Wait till you hear the numbers. This is lead off for Royal Rumble on Saturday from San Antonio. It kicks off right now. Let's go.

You're not registering for shit. What? You've got to be kidding me me you didn't say anything about this I didn't know anything about this my year's ruined already are you kidding me McAfee's here I'm done

McAfee is here you should have told me about this Cole I didn't know I'm done. McAfee is here. You should have told me about this, Cole. I didn't know you were going to be back. I FaceTimed him earlier today. He was at his studio in Indianapolis. Coming back, goose, scooch, Boston Con. He's playing that stupid golf game he has in his Thunderdome. That's it. Cancel WrestleMania.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Pat McAfee! How the hell is McAfee here? Right there. Huh? Huh? Not flipping. Too sloppy. right there not flipping too sloppy I still get goosebumps it was sick this is ridiculous

nobody even don't you come over here go outside don't you think about it you better not don't Good for Corey. Don't you think about it. You better not. Don't. No.

Brother. McAfee pulling the Joel Embiid here tonight. He's pulling the Joel out of my heart. This is completely begrudging. Welcome. Welcome. That was awesome. Shout out to Frosty for setting it up. Shout out to you, Michael Cole.

That was amazing. And shout out to the people at WWE that did know. I think like three people keeping that under wraps. It's impossible to keep a secret. Happened late in the week. I fucking enjoyed the hell out of it. What a night that I'll remember forever. 51,000 some people.

That place was huge. I hadn't been in there, obviously. I landed 27 minutes before the show starts. I go right in there into a bus, into the back of a golf cart, into Gorilla. Hey, how you doing? Boom, through the curtain. Through the curtain. Holy fuck.

There's a lot of people here. This is a long walk. It was amazing. I can't thank you all enough for allowing me to do that type of shit. Did you tell the story today about how you almost didn't make it? Yeah, we mentioned it in passing, but yeah, we did. There was a plane that could not take off, and then we had to find another plane in the Midwest.

There weren't many. Just day of, tough to do. I did send a text to a billionaire here in town that owns the Indianapolis Colts and they were going to look, they looked into it and before they even got it, Kevin Dunn and the travel team over there had it fucking figured out without anybody knowing still.

So it was unbelievable, Cole. It was a fucking great, and I appreciate your legitimate, genuine excitement to have me back. That doesn't happen everywhere. Like my dog Valerie will shake her tail when I come home. You seemed actually happy, and I appreciate you, man. Well, Pat, honest to God truth. Listen, you know how I feel about you, and you know how I feel about our relationship

and working on the air together and how I feel about AJ and all the boys there. I legit didn't know if we were ever going to see you again in WWE. I know that we talked back in September that you'd be back after the football season. A lot in your life has changed since then. A lot in our company has changed since then as well. And I legit did not know if you were ever going to be back. And if you noticed, I haven't said much to anyone publicly about when you were coming because no one knew. So when I sat down that day, Corey and I had prepared all afternoon to do the Rumble as a two-man booth like we always do. And when the music hit,

because I still, when I think of Pat McAfee, I still think of White Stripes, right? Yes. So when the first couple of bars of the new song hit, I didn't immediately recognize it. And then Hunter, Paul Levesque was in my ear. And he said, are you gonna sell it and i mouthed to him in his spy cam sell what i'm like sell what and then i looked then i looked

up and i saw your video board and i'm like oh my god you're ribbing me and then the music hit and you came out and first off i didn't know what to say because i wasn't sure if you're coming out to be an announcer or you were coming out to actually be the number one entry in the Rumble because we were starting the Rumble match. So I didn't even know what to say. And then when I saw you wearing your blazer, I'm like, oh my God, he's coming out here to be an announcer. And I was legit like so excited. Like my wife actually watched. And the funny thing about it was my wife doesn't really watch the product at all. And she had texted me a few minutes before the show started. And she said, hey, what are you doing?

I said, listen, put on Peacock. We're about to start the show. You can see how many people are at the Alamo Dome. And we live in San Antonio, so it's home for us. So she actually put the show on. And she thought I was texting her to tell her that you were coming back. I knew nothing about it. She texted me and said, Pat, right in the middle of your entrance.

And I said, I knew nothing about this. It was craziness, dude. And the people, you should have, if you look up close in a lot of the videos when you came out, the people that were sitting like in the front row behind us, the smiles on their faces and like the genuine excitement of everybody to have you back in the building. It was absolutely incredible. I text Kevin Dunn and I text Paul. As soon as you sat down, because one of them said in my ear,

well, Pat's joining you on commentary tonight. And I'm like, well, no shit. And so then I text Paul and Kevin and I text them and I said, you fuckers. I can't believe that you guys ripped me. And they just laughed. LOL, great stuff. And again, very few people in that building knew what was happening. It must have been a thrill for you to come out there and hear that response after you've been away for so long.

I talked to, and sorry, Edge, I know you were going to get your question in there, but it would be dumb for you to answer that question from Cole. But I didn't know. I was talking to Nick. Nick was the one I was talking about. And we had kept in touch, obviously, you and me, me and Nick, numerous people around the company throughout the season, a lot of well wishes and best wishes.

I had a lot of people, whenever I did the moonsault into the Tennessee River, a lot of picture perf, you know, like a lot moonsault into the tennessee river a lot of uh picture perf you know like a lot of support and love from the wrestling world who necessarily or might not necessarily be into the sports world but there was a lot of conversation about am i coming back when i'm coming back you and me talked about that a lot and i couldn't stay i couldn't stay committed to working out because how tired i got by the end of the season. So I knew Royal Rumble participating was probably out of it. Wanted to be a part of something meaningful. You know, wanted to be something.

You know, I don't want to disrespect anybody at all. So whenever it kind of came together for me to commentate, like Thursday, I think it was like Thursday, Friday maybe. Thursday or Friday. And Nick was being so kind. And Hunter. Because you and I, sorry to interrupt, but you and I talked on Thursday remember yes FaceTime wise and I don't think at that point you had any idea yeah I definitely did not yeah definitely did not because I'm terrible at that whole thing there was a moment somebody called in I think it was on Wednesday somebody called in and they asked

me about the rumble and I said oh I'm trying to figure out how to how to say this because at that point I had nothing but the internet was cooking that I was going to be there, I'm trying to figure out how to say this because at that point I had nothing, but the internet was cooking that I was going to be there. So I still wanted to give a little, you know, a little, like I don't want to shut down the door that I'm not going to be there right now. That would be a very dumb play. You know, that'd be a stupid play to do on the internet

because also it's just like kind of hilarious to see what people say and see how it goes and what are they thinking I'm doing or what's being leaked, maybe from behind the scenes of ideas that are coming. Because I think we're very much in a conversation like if we can figure something out that works, let's do it. So I was like kind of fascinated by the sheets and what they were tweeting and talking about. And the dirt sheets are the media for wrestling. Always been around, right? Why is it called dirt sheets?

Because the actual sheets that it was on was like, I yeah back in the day yeah like that's why like so i was i was watching it all and what was being said and everything like that and i was like i do no i do no it was like funny for me to be like i do not think that is accurate but i'm not going to throw myself in because if i do everybody's gonna say well that's what somebody who's going to the rumble would say and it's like i'm just gonna kind of watch this thing go. So it wasn't until like Thursday or Friday it got locked in. And yeah, I told Nick, I said, should you announce a commentator though? You know, like before every live show, before every live show that we did for, I don't know, 16 months, 14 months, however long it was.

Before every live show you get introduced, but it's not on camera. Right. But it is to the house. It's a full, in the, 14 months, however long it was. But for every live show you get introduced, but it's not on camera. Right. But it is to the house. It's a full in the houses. What? 13,000. That's a lot of fucking people to walk out and it's not on TV. Then we sit down, then the show starts and the whole thing goes.

So I, I, you know, they mentioned like, we'll give you a intro and then we'll start the rumble. We'll do this whole thing. And I'm like, intro on, on the show. And they're like, yeah, I'm i'm like ah for a commentator and nick was like pat don't be stupid yes we are introing you or whatever he was like uh i was like man what if you know what if it's like uh fuck this guy and nick's like come on come on and then i thought to myself this is literally what every wrestler says whenever they're away and come back i almost felt like a wrestler for a second because you watch those documentaries stone cold like the biggest of all time they're like I just hope they remember me

you know like I just hope these people remember me is the big thing so when I go out there and that place said hello I was like man this is pretty fucking sweet I i think you see me like get like super pumped about like because i did miss that place i missed the wwe universe and they were so incredibly fucking kind i couldn't have been more thankful cole i couldn't have been more thankful dude you're listen you're a megastar seriously you are and and not only in our world but in so many different places and it would have been silly if we didn't do that it's not like like introducing michael call at the beginning of the rumble 50 000 people would have moved me out of the building right but nonetheless um it was a moment that we needed to have and i'm so glad they did and you know a lot of people have asked me did you feel disrespected that you didn't

know you know you've been in this business 26 years did you feel disrespected that pat didn't tell you that no one told you about this and And I said, hell no. Yeah, we're working on you. So first off, I don't play those games. But secondly, I wanted a genuine reaction. I think even if I knew I'd be able to pull it off, but that was as genuine a reaction as you can get. I mean, listen, I'm happy my buddy's back. You and I made magic together for a year and a half on network television every Friday night. There's no doubt about that. So many people were happy to see you.

I was just so glad to just be a small part of it. I thought that me, you, and Corey Graves killed it. I don't really talk much about my work, but I thought we had a great four and a half hour show.

I thought we told stories. We thought it was seven hours. We thought it was maybe seven hours, eight hours. It seemed like it. Hey, by the way, you didn't get enough to go to the bathroom at all in the entire four and a half hours. How'd you pull it off? How about that? So I thought about that.

When we landed on the plane, I was like, I'm gonna pee here because I don't know if I'm gonna get a shot to pee next, you know? And it's cause I was going plane literally right to table. Like that was, so while we were sitting on the plane, kind of, I got dressed on the plane. I was like, man, this is kind of my last moment of like, everything's about to be about 7,000 miles an hour for the next, however many hours, five hours of my life, six hours of my life. So we kind of pieced that together. So I pee on the plane.

Then we're able to get to bus, though. We have like four minutes. We've got to wait. We're too early. We've got to wait just a little bit. This will be too early. So I pissed again on the bus. So those two pisses I would have probably never done in any other time.

I think that's the right play. I need to squeeze two pisses out of me before long programs because that is a problem of michael my bladder is active they didn't and they didn't want you so i always hang out as you know i always hang out in the gorilla position right on the other side of the curtain the stage before the show really up to show time and um so obviously they had to keep you in the bus because they weren't sure how long and i was hanging out at gorilla to like you know quarter to seven local time and um then i finally decided to saunter out to ringside and bruce kept like saying to me bruce pritchard kept saying to me like for the last 10

minutes hey you're gonna go out the ringside soon when are you going out the ringside you're gonna go out the ringside and i'm like oh yeah okay i guess i better go to ringside so i went not having any clue what was going on it was pretty cool how How about old Brucey boy getting in on the action? Appreciate that. Hey, how about these numbers, by the way? Okay, let's dive in. Royal Rumble this year, right? We had the highest gate in the history of the Royal Rumble.

Hell yeah. At the Alamodo. Hell yeah. Congratulations, WHWE. Highest gate ever. And this was the most watched Royal Rumble in history. Last year, we set the record, which you were a part of last year's Rumble, not the match, but the actual broadcast.

Hell yeah. Last year, we set the record. This year, we beat that record by 50% in viewership for a Saturday night Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Holy shit. Massive, massive numbers. Business is good, huh? So all those people saw you come back.

That's great. It's awesome. Yeah, business is good. And we had great stories, Pat. I mean, we really did. I mean, those of you who don't follow the product, I can't tell you how much you're missing because this Roman Reigns, Kevin Owens, Bloodline, Sami Zayn storyline is probably the best television we've done in this company in a decade.

And it's Emmy worthy in many ways. The last 15 minutes of the event Saturday night, Pat, we didn't say a word. We did not utter a sound for the last 15 minutes of that show. 51,000. Yes. 300. We did not utter a sound for the last 15 minutes of that show. 51,300. No, yes. 300. And they were chanting, fuck you, Roman. And they were, when Sammy Zane turned on Roman Reigns and hit him with the chair, that pop was enormous.

Yeah. And if you go back and watch it on, you know, watch the video clips, it was amazing. It's going to be a great story. I'm just glad you were there to be a part of it. Tonight, Monday Night Raw, USA Network, I'm at home, but I get to work with the announcers tonight on the show, and I'm looking forward to it. Cody Rhodes is going to be there. Cody won the

Royal Rumble. Big story. Rhea Ripley will be involved. She won the Women's Royal Rumble. They're going to pick who they face at WrestleMania for the title, so it's a big show tonight. So we're getting into WrestleMania season. And, Pat, you were part of it last year.

You had a match leading up to it. You know what WrestleMania season is like. Undefeated. Undefeated. This is WrestleMania season. No, actually, you're not. You're not. I'm still undefeated.

You're not at WrestleMania. Sanctioned matches, Cole. We don't count fake matches, dude. That was it. Right there. That's it. Right there. That's WrestleMania. Look at how hilariously dumb that is. That is not a fake photo. Shout out to whoever took this picture, too, by the way.

I forget the photographer's name. Thank you. Great work. What a joke. I got really fucking drunk that night. I'm going to... Yeah. That's every night. So we... Listen. I'm going to bring you to test every night. But so we listen.

So we're so I'm just going to ask the question to get the elephant out of the room. Right. Because I know the answer. You know the answer. But what is next for Pat McAfee in the WWE? You know the answer. Well, the last we spoke is we don't know what's next for. Yeah. That's the answer. Well, the last we spoke is we don't know what's next for Pat. Yeah, yeah. That's the answer. That's the answer. Before everybody starts blowing up the phone lines and wanting to know what's next for Pat, no one knows.

I was excited to hear. Yeah, I was excited to hear what you – I was like, oh, you know. Me. This is awesome. Well, the last time I came on the show back in November, I said you were coming back after college football season, and the entire world held me to it. They weren't. Hey.

Yeah. We did it. You were right. We did it. Pretty much. It was football season. Yeah. Go ahead. Well it. They weren't. Hey, we did it. You were right. We did it. It was football season. I can promise you one thing, though. No matter what Pat, whatever he does, he will have a role in our company. Thank you. He will always be welcome

in our company for the rest of his career. Whatever that is, whether it's a match, whether it's doing some commentary, whether it's selling merchandise, who cares? Who knows? Pat will be a part of this be a part of this i appreciate that you guys have always been very cool to me it was great to see the whole family behind the scenes as well as i tried you know because i go in there so fast afterwards i get to chat with everybody pretty much that i haven't seen in a long time camera people obviously tech people audio people crew hands stage hands roadies fucking uh makeup people uh interview like

literally every department security that bald fuck you know what i mean you know what i'm talking about he's a reiner yeah he's the man it was great to see him it was like cool to see everybody you know like it was cool to see everybody and everybody was so nice during the rumble it was uh you know because there was a lot of people in the rumble that are formerly on smackdown that i got to know pretty good they were potentially in it as they would walk by to exit the rumble which was right next to where i was sitting there was a hilarious exchange between me and pretty much every single person that went through, whether it was a blown-off fist bump from that jerk Bobby Lashley.

Oh, Moss? I thought he was going to kill me the way he looked at me. But then Elias, my guy Elias, I gave him a little, it'll be better next time. And then that scumbag, the ex-con Dom Mysterio. I told him, hey,

you need to get out. I thought he was going to slap me in the face, and I didn't know if I was ready or not. But it was great Oh, man. I told him, hey, you need to get out. I thought he was maybe going to slap me in the face, and I didn't know if I was ready or not. But it was great to see everybody. I appreciate it. How about Brock Lesnar almost killing us with steel steps? That was real close, wasn't it? Yeah, very close.

And then how about when he was walking back towards us? What was that all about? Yeah, I don't know. But he was coming at you, so I just made sure I went over to you. Oh, no, fuck that. Yeah, I am not around. I almost broke my hand the Friday before WrestleMania. Broke my wrist.

Almost. Because that was when Brock was beating the fuck out of everybody with a chair. You remember that night? Yes. Yeah. And he was walking back. We still had, because I heard the countdown in my ear, we still had another 25 seconds on live air. And Brock was nowhere near stopping what he was doing.

He had already hit 10 people with a chair, I think, maybe just killing people. And he was walking back towards the commentator table. And I'm like, no, no, no. So I actually, you remember, we ran through the ring bell area. Yeah, really fast. And a cord, a cord was being pulled by a camera person, like trips me through my shin. I go down. I laid, I go down.

I catch myself. That was on pavement. I get up. I'm like, oh, did I? Because I was so fucking scared. Could you imagine, could you imagine accidentally fucking with that guy? No way. No, not at fucking with that guy? No way. No, not at all.

He's the strongest individual. He's hit me with the F5 and taken me out and stuff. He is the strongest man on the planet. Dude, he slammed those fucking stairs like Bam Bam. Yeah. He lifts my fat ass like a feather, so that's telling me something. People are saying you look pregnant. Oh, yeah, thank you.

This big heartfelt moment, coming back, hugs, can't wait to see you. My guy, the first thing you say to me is, hey, you look pregnant. No, I said people on the internet are saying. I was examining. I thought you looked good. That's a long story. I don't even want to get into all that. But anyways.

It was an old suit from back in the day. Food's a long story. As don't even want to get into all that. But anyways. It was an old suit from back in the day. Because as you know. Food's a long story. As you know, it doesn't matter. Because, you know, Boston's just going to make, Conor's just going to make fun of me. Bingo. It already happened.

You didn't get to hear it. Bingo. AJ has a question for you, though, Cole. I apologize. Mike, you mentioned that your wife doesn't watch a lot of the product. Are you going to have to throw the singlet on and get the old aquarium back and getting that in the ring and actually get in there and mix it up a little bit to get her back in? Aquarium. WrestleMania is the last time because of the match that she's ever watched wrestling ever again she was she was completely embarrassed until she saw the

wrestlemania paycheck then she was like hey might start watching this no no you know the thing is listen it's i've been doing this 26 years it's taking me away from home taking me away from my family and you know she appreciates everything that this company is has given to me um you know shit it gave her a kidney transplant you know paid for that and put two two of my kids through college and given us everything we ever wanted in our life um you know the McMahon family and but she just she can't But she just can't bring herself to watch every single week because she knows I'm not home.

So it's tough for her sometimes. Mike, do you ever take time to try to explain the storylines of what's been going on in the industry? Does she sit there and listen? I would imagine that would be tough. Hey, Yoli, Uncle Howdydy is this you had to do that he had to do that to me aj did you hear that at all i didn't see that what is so what what's going on here what is so that was classic that's pretty much played it to you on the air yeah it's playing

it to you on the air it was great it was good no but we don't we don't really um she's real interested when pat's involved um just because she knows I have a friendship with Pat. I think it's healthy, Cole, that she doesn't have to hang on every word you ever say. She is. She's interested in my work with Pat and my work with Corey as well because I work with Corey so much. And she's interested in that type of stuff like Wade Barrett who's doing SmackDown now with me. Wade's unbelievable. I mean, he's really stepped into that role and did a tremendous job.

And, you know, so she's interested in that type of stuff. But as for the story and stuff, she really didn't get into it. Wade's unbelievable. He's really stepped into that role and did a tremendous job. She's interested in that type of stuff, but as for the story and stuff, she really didn't get into it. You've got to stick with it, I think. That's what I realized whenever I was in the Rumble because I'd watched for so long through my life, and then I'd miss a chapter or whatever through season, and then I'd come back and I'd see it in the offseason, and I'd be able to pick it right back up.

But when you're commentating, you've got to fucking know. So there was a couple moments during Royal Rumble where I was like, well, I'm not saying a thing for the next probably four or five minutes because I have no idea how we got here. I have no clue how we got here. I tried to catch up as much as I possibly could. But without watching, like, that was the thing about SmackDown, and that's why I was kind of able to go in there by design your mind also Vince and everybody else kind of keep me out of the loop

on everything but since I was there I was watching every single episode so I was like able to see everything able to see what potentially like little detail why did happen so I was just able to kind of speak freely about what I had seen what I thought was happening why I thought it was happening and I was just kind of carefree. A couple times during a rumble where I was like I have no idea how we got here. Like when Piper came back when Piper came back

Piper Niven. Was that the first time we have seen? Yeah since NXT days NXT? No no no Yeah she was Piper in NXT. I think, wasn't she? I don't know. All I know is Doudrop.

That's Doudrop. She was Doudrop on the main roster. I do know that. Nonetheless, whatever the case may be, it's the first time on the main roster we saw her as Piper Niven. Okay, but hold on, though. I'm a massive fan. Isn't Doudrop anymore?

No, exactly. AJ Massif. No fan. Isn't Doudrip anymore? No, exactly. AJ Massif. We are massive. No, it's not Doudrop anymore. Yo, she's hilarious. Hey, Piper is a hilarious individual. I've got to meet her a couple of times behind the scenes. Awesome girl.

Fucking awesome. And in the ring, fucking great. Like very good. So whenever she comes out and there's a thing underneath that says Piper Niven, I'm like, who? That ain't fucking what are we and me and cory are making jokes and you have no idea what we're joking about i heard your dude but i i didn't know if it was her first time back or like i didn't know if she

had been piper niven for like two months or if that was the first time so that was like a balance i'm like like her name's piper i think i like I think I was very surprised but very pumped. So it was kind of awesome. But that's why the three-man booth on Saturday worked, Pat. And that's why you're so smart as a broadcaster. Corey and I live this, right? This is our lives. This is like you do with the NFL, right?

We live this and eat it and breathe it and we know everything about it. So you let us do our thing. You let us talk about the statistics and everything else. You came in and just do what you do best. You're a fan and you had fun, and that's why it worked. If you tried to come in there and be an expert over and hadn't watched in five months or whatever it's been, you would have been fooled.

I've seen it. Hey, I've been trying to. But apparently, I shall say, there's a couple of finer details that I did not know. I did not know. That pitch black match really came out of nowhere. Oh, my God. I had no idea that was happening. Unbelievable.

Wait a minute. We got black lights everywhere. Where are these? This is incredible. The crew that you guys have, getting a chance to watch them work again was awesome. See them obviously. What up, doe? What up, doe?

What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe? What up, doe?

As they're doing their thing was awesome. But watching them work again is just... They changed the entire ropes. They re-taped the entire ropes for that blackout match. Mountain Dew. Pitch black.

There it is. The pitch black match. Mountain Dew pitch black match. dew pitch black match there it is they're wrapping all this thing while a video is running okay while a video is running that's counting down like 30 seconds they're still fucking and doing it so i'm like geez these folks i forgot how good they are i forgot how like great the whole operation is over there so it was cool to be back and i appreciate you guys welcoming connor got to be front row at the show yeah loved every part of it i'm calling yeah it was incredible both the rumble matches i

mean the alexa bliss match was also you know sublime but also you uh mentioned with them setting up the ropes and everything they also built a stage for the performance yeah for hardy so like seeing how that all operates was absurd i don't. I don't think that crowd appreciated Hardy enough. He brought the house down, didn't he? In a bad way, which is bullshit. What's this guy's deal? It was really good. Cole put him in a bad spot.

Yeah. Cole said, you did. You gave Hardy no shot. You said, hey, before you guys watch, maybe the conclusion of the greatest storyline we've done. So I didn't say that. Oh, you didn't? I thought that's what you said hey before you guys watch maybe the conclusion of the greatest storyline we've done so i didn't say that oh you didn't i thought that's what you said anyways i'm a massive hardy fan that he was the one behind the uh he was the guy i depth that's first time i've ever met him in person i've listened to his music and i think of a lot of those people in san antonio listen to

the lyrics of that guy probably become a fan of his but i dabbed him up or whatever you know and i saw him i was excited for that then i was told i didn't even know he's gonna have a fucking concert i'm like when's this gone did i miss the concert was it before and you're like right before main event i'm like not great time come on hardy's gonna have to bring the house down right before main event there and i don't know if they gave him a shot had to time my life out there though hey he was genuinely excited to see you you know you mentioned the production team. I say this all the time, and I know I've said this to you, Pat, on a number of occasions, but we have an all-star team

at WWE. In every facet of what we do when we're producing a show, whether it's Monday, Friday, or a premium live event, our cameramen are the greatest in the world. They've covered every sport imaginable, and now they're doing this. Our referees trained for this, our TV people, led, of course, by Kevin Dunn, our creative, led by Bruce Pritchard, of course, Paul Levesque handling everything. We have put together an all-star team of writers, production people, obviously athletes, to make this just an incredible and incredible place to work.

And when we call it sports entertainment, dude, that's what it is. You know, it's such a mix of wrestling and sports and entertaining people. And there is no show on this planet that will be able to do what we did this weekend. We were in Laredo, Texas on Friday. So the crew came in on Wednesday to set up that Alamo Dome. They all got in cars and buses and drove down to Laredo on Friday to set up an entire arena for SmackDown. Then they tore that entire arena down Friday night in Laredo, put them back into trucks to drive it back up three hours to San Antonio

to get in at four o'clock in the morning five o'clock in the morning to spend the whole next to the rest day to get us on the air by seven o'clock at night that's pretty damn good yes no there's no production company there's no network there's nobody in the entire planet that does that yeah nicky and the boys are incredible what they do and to go back to your point just that's all year round it's wild so like you know people go on tour and there's going to be other people that have stage designers and i assume people roadies that put it together and all that stuff i assume people do that and i got respect for all those people wwe we're talking two shows a week live tv inas, the biggest stage of all time

with so much difference, smoke, pyrotechnics, lights everywhere. Lights all have to be rigged the exact same, all on the same schedule, the amount of network, everything has to be on the same down, up, in less than 24 hours. That's just one particular case. Oh, there's going to be

51,000 people in here too. They can't break anything. We have to have it all all figured out and everybody has to have a good view it's unbelievable it's year-round never stops and a lot of them have been doing it for fucking like 20 30 years it's unbelievable it is i gotta have a i got to drink one of kevin dunn's uh bud lights took two drank one took one for the? Almost was late to the plane. What? Almost missed duty hour time. What?

Almost didn't make it home. What? Because I had one Bud Light. What? Grabbed two Bud Lights. What? And got to have a conversation with a couple of the camera people, obviously Stu and Rico and Grogan and everybody there. It was just nice to catch up with everybody.

I can't thank you enough. You guys are fucking first class, and I appreciate the hospitality always. You're the man, Michael Cole. Hey, Pat, we're doing Evansville on the last Friday of February, so I'm planning on coming to Indy and spend some time on that Thursday with you all if you'll have me. Yeah, wear socks. I think you're back.

No, dude, flip-flops is the deal on this show. You know that. And this time, I promise I'm going to make a pot. I doubt it. Yeah, we'll see. You're good with the mouth. Not so much with the... I'm going to go get ready for Raw promise I'm going to make a putt. I doubt it. Yeah, we'll see. You're good with the mouth. Not so much with the... I'm going to go get ready for Raw. I'm going to go sit in my pool, have a little Bud Light.

Right. And be ready to go. You're the man, ladies and gentlemen, Michael Cole. Yeah, Cole! I did not know Cole was coming on. I did not know we were going to spend 42 minutes talking about the Royal Rumble on this particular Overreaction Monday. Happy we did.

It was a cool moment, AJ. I mean, believe me, you could tell. You really came back with a vengeance, with a bang, obviously. Come on. It was a long walk, bro. It had to be cool. It looked like the walk. You reminded me of hockey players when they do the Winter Classic

when they have to just walk on their skates like six miles to the rink. Yeah. From the dugout. I saw it. I was planning on just walking, you know, and I miles to the rink. Yeah. From the dugout? I saw it. I was planning on just walking, you know, and I saw how long it was. It was like, okay, all right, we don't need to be doing all that. Can you do those like running back handsprings? Can you do that?

I used to be able to. I don't know why I would try it now, though, but you're right. I should have maybe brought that out. Oh, the boots. It didn't have much trash in the boots. Those things are – We can scuff the bottom of those boots up or maybe put some like – No, they boots up. Or maybe put the bottom of some Jordans on your boots. Get someone to make them special.

Oh, get some J-Cowboy boots. That's a good idea. Maybe a good feet store. I bet Chuck Norris has that because he's always wearing boots. He definitely had to have good traction on his. Oh, no. Batteries are dead. He said Chuck Norris has that for sure.

Shit on his boots. Chuck doesn't need that, though. And batteries are dead. He said Chuck Norris has that for sure. Shit on his boots. Chuck doesn't need that, though. And we're back. Okay. Here we go. I didn't hear a word you just said. I want to let you know that. Don't need to.

Hey, those Lucchese's that I rock? Mm-hmm. They have no grip on one of those things. There's none. You can moonwalk from here to fucking San Antonio if you had enough conditioning, cardio. They do look good, and they do make you taller, though. Well worth it.

I'm a big fan of cowboy boots. There are, like, heavy-duty ones, though. There's ones for the job site. They got big, thick rubber soles on the bottom. I think they have a lot more grip. I had my show boots on. I had my show boots on. Makes sense.

All right, let's go to a couple phone calls, and then let's wrap up this glorious day. Let's go to Caden in Michigan. Caden, what's going on, pal? Holy shit. Okay, I'm not going to say any bad words. I did not expect to get on here. I've been waiting for about an hour now.

But I would just like to say I know you guys are talking about it all the way in the beginning of the podcast today, but if any team has gotten screwed more by rest, and Foxy can agree with me on this, it is the Detroit Lions. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I knew that was coming. Brandon Pettigrew.

Brandon Pettigrew mispassed interference against the Cowboys in the playoffs. I mean, there's just been way too much. So I think Caden's saying that the NFL's rigged against the Detroit Lions. I think the Detroit Lions fans have been thinking that for a long time. Of course this is what's going to happen with the Lions. If there was a team that the NFL was out to get, it would be Detroit. And the people of Detroit have probably felt that way a long time. Yeah, definitely.

There's such a long list of things. I mean, we even talked about it today. Rams-Seahawks, the Rams freaking somehow lose that game and we're not in the playoffs. You could add that one to the list, but yeah, I mean, Lions fans have thought this forever. Oh, that's what a second generation get fucked. Oh yeah, exactly. So used to it too. Like, I didn't even mention it to you guys

that day when we were in LA because I'm so used to it. Like, honestly. That's just par for the course for the Detroit Lions. Seriously. Yeah, but it's a brand new Lions. Maybe the NFL wants the BNL to fucking do their thing with MCDC. We don't know. We shall see. Don't like when people say how long they've been on phone?

Fucking hang up then. Yeah. You know? Think about it. I've been here too, dude. All right? That's what I like when people don't swear. Yeah, you can swear too.

You can do whatever you want, honestly. Unless you, for your family, for the respect of your family, you do what you got to do. But, like, just hang up then. You get it? Mm-hmm. don't eat up a line you know what i mean aj all right i hear you it is it is a bit jarring for that to be your first comment if they're upset and frustrated by the way this one and i didn't remember it that that is a thing that we had to answer that was a good little reminder yeah it was right there as soon as he said it i immediately was like but you would get it i don't you think if you call it into a show and you're like oh i'd really want to get on this show i really want to do it after a while you'd be like okay i'm gonna hang up right i am a

person that is very patient people know that i'm like a super patient person yeah if there is a two-person line in a place no way hey uh is there a wait? Not how long the wait is. Is there a wait? Yes. Sweet. We will be back next week. Hopefully there will not be. I am out of here. I can't. I'm not a big waiter arounder. But if I'm going to call in, I got something that needs to be said. You need to assume you're not going to get on the media. It's not like this is not an open phone line. It's not a telethon. No, you're not just coming. We don't have people just coming in there. So there might be a little bit of a... That's good. This is smart. I'm happy

we got here. When you call on the 5 Energy phone line, 1-833, the number 4, DAGOME! We can't wait to chat with you, but also, you might not get on immediately. Oh, we had to start dumping the lines every 30 minutes. Remember, that's what we had to do. Okay, never

mind. You might have to wait 30 minutes. Nothing longer than that. Now, if you do call and wait 30 minutes yeah remember that's what we had to do yep okay never mind you might have to wait 30 minutes nothing longer than that now if you do call and wait 30 minutes and you don't get on that does suck we apologize that you wasted your time but after probably four minutes or five minutes you can also dip off or a minute you can dip off as well hang up don't have to do it we're just fucking put that thing on speaker and set it somewhere and do something else while you're waiting we have a lot of that yep we have a lot of people that we'll give a nice little weight to as you get better hold on hold on and they're running to a bathroom because they're back at their office job yep who knows if that's still happening a couple years ago we had that person used to call in to the toilet had to sprint to the bathroom hold on one second and then

it would be a hey john and then they would get into the toilet all right i'm taking shit all right yeah and then it'll be a question good gimmick but also reality right understand that let's go to matt and have you walked in before you get to matt have you walked in a bathroom you're taking a leak and some dude's having a full-blown super loud conversation on the toilet you can hear him from the stall? I think I've done that restaurant this weekend, I think, because my wife and I got brunch on Saturday. Got brunch, did our thing, had a full morning, you know? And she was in on it too.

Shout out to Sam. Kay Fabin putting photos up of me at the house doing her thing. Shout out to Sam buying into the surprise. She's fucking kicking ass right now. This pregnancy thing is crazy that is it is a crazy thing you're not that far off are you bro like 24 25 weeks 24 weeks bro she's really pregnant like yeah there's stuff like happening in there like a human it's a kid growing in there yeah yeah. That's wild. Kind of amazing, isn't it? It's wild.

Funny how it works. Like aliens. Bro, I thought this is, there's a human inside of, like it's a crazy thing. Starting to see the shakes from the movements. Yep. You know, it's like, hello, you know, excuse me. You know, will you move a little bit, huh? And then Sam has to deal with all of that. Sleeping.

Oh, what a nightmare. I haven't even, you know, another human not only sleeping inside of you. Yeah. That is a wild. But she posted photos from back in the day of me on her Instagram story. We did go to brunch. She posted it, got my hand in there as well. I was like, oh, he is there because there were some wrestling sleuths on the internet

do their thing. But it was a fucking shot. I told Sam, uh, let's go to the crate. Pregnancy is wild. Big time. Should be talked about more. Yeah, I'd say so. I mean, if you haven't never been through it before, I can understand why you would.

I mean, you have no idea until you actually. No idea. No. AJ, obviously you've been through it 10 11 times right it is a just four but yeah each stage two has its own deal and then there's obviously how it affects you i can't yeah i can't imagine it'd be you can't imagine what it does are you talking about being for me to carry a baby is what i'm saying carry a baby full term I'm saying. Carry a baby full term. Whichever God. Honestly.

Thank you. That was a real luck by us. It's not like the baby comes out and you're all of a sudden snapped back to normal either. There's a lot of like after you have the baby too. Like, oh, hey, not only do I have to take care of this baby, you got to physically and try to mentally and physically become like a human again as well. Shout out to the ladies. Shout-out, ladies.

Good work. Appreciate you, ladies. Let's go to Enrique in Texas. What's going on, Enrique? Hey, Pat. How's it going? Hey. Not too bad.

How are you, Enrique? Keep it going. I'm great, man. Honestly, Pat, it was a dream to see you on Saturday I was at the Rumble loudest pop in the crowd from all night I was seeing you come out man I was extremely hyped

had a couple butt lights alright shout out to him that was very nice it was the beginning of the show everybody was already yelling they made noise though as I when I thought I was out and I was in that little was already on no no it made noise though oh yeah i was gonna say you could tell it was really as i when i thought i was out and i was in a little uh purgatory area between curtains i did hear i was

like oh nice oh did they pump that in and then i heard like one kid like a loud murderous yell right over here and i was like man this is really cool really nice and then you go out there so many fucking people including enrique everybody's very nice i can't thank him enough all right let's uh let's wrap up the show here there's a couple things we have to talk about aj brett kern got fucked by fox why wouldn't they show it because they knew it's their fault it's their camera i don't get it okay so i don't know which camera would have got it. That is the thing. They could have shown the sky cameras. You could tell the ball was flying.

Something hit it. Yes, and also, not just that, we like to judge humans on this show, don't we? Humans, how they act, interactions. That's why we thought Shanahan should have thrown the challenge flag. As soon as Devontae Smith gets up and does this, it's like, wow, he's not acting normal something has to be up what could he be doing oh that's clearly a call everybody else is doing it i

should think about this boom throw a challenge like first half you might lose a timeout you lose a challenge okay but also huge momentum swing fourth down yeah that's a huge huge down there he also decided not to block cassandra with anybody which was also well he had george kiddo in motion and then he had uh iuk no he had uh jenny yeah joan jennings had the that was wild to think about but they had a lot bigger problems going on too they couldn't attempt a forward pass with either people that were designated as quarterbacks that were on the roster now didn't you think they would have gotten a little bit more creative? Yeah, I mean, they were scrambling, trying to figure it out.

Like, what a weird – so Brock Purdy said he couldn't throw over five yards, right? He said there was a pain, a shooting pain from his elbow to his hand, and I think it was a nerve thing. And we saw whenever the Jets played the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday Night Football a couple years back, Michael Cole was actually there. Shout-out to our guests. It just happened that we didn't know it was going to happen before the show.

Mike White, first drive, walks right down the field on the Indianapolis Colts. Then something happens with his elbow. He's not able to grip a football. He's standing on the sideline, full pads. Full pads, didn't really know. He went inside or whatever. And then immediately after the game ended,

he was able to pick up a football and throw a football. I is how it went down we beat the hell out of him who knows if mike white's playing what happens there but i guess nerves you can't predict the return date and he couldn't feel his hand he couldn't get a grip on the ball and if he did anything with any explosive motion it caused a shooting pain down there that's terrible terrible to happen, obviously, in the biggest stage. And there's a lot bigger conversation that's taking place around Brock Purdy now. Can this guy be an NFL quarterback full-time with his stature? It's like this seems like a very uncomfortable shot right to the fucking throwing arm at the worst time. The bow and arrow is basically fully at the time.

And then, bang, it's kind of like broken. That would hurt anybody anybody but they're talking about his future now so i guess that's what happened aj i think if i was to break it down how i understand i believe it i believe he was in crazy pain i would imagine like when a quarterback when their arm is in motion they get hit it is i think it's the worst thing for him i started to get worried after they they hit josh johnson in a very similar fashion and they they had to go check him out for a concussion because of the back of his head. I instantly thought of the NFL changing the rule and trying to take care of quarterbacks.

Like, hey, you can't go for his arm if you're in front of him. From behind, you can strip. I'm thinking if you're coming and you can see face-to-face, you can't go after his arm. I sure hope that never happens. Head, neck, arm. Can't touch. And knees and legs. And knees if you're too low yeah head neck arm hand

knees legs certainly thumb keep your helmet out of the way yep they would do that wouldn't they go ahead connor you wonder if they did have a lot of creativity but with purdy and then once he got hurt it was like okay we can't run these i'm talking about i'm talking about putting christian mccaffrey at quarterback like they did i think to start the fourth quarter yeah i think he was a at quarterback he did a handoff there was an end around then there was a pitchback flea flicker and he threw it to john lynch yeah exactly yep he's john lynch right nobody else was around but actually john lynch standing there hands in pocket. What the fuck? How does this happen in the NFC Championship, basically?

I expected more of that earlier, but I assume they were just trying to figure out what was going on with Purdy. Or just a wildcat. Yeah, anything. Debo in there, maybe? At that point, if he can't throw it five yards, I get it, and you're being tough, but if he can't throw it more than five yards, you've got to get his ass out of there, and you've got to try something else. Because, I mean, the game was over.

They conceded and they just lost with fucking eight minutes left in the second quarter. Once Josh Johnson went out and it was like, yeah, Purdy can't throw it farther than five yards. It's like, okay, well, they can't win. No fear on the defensive side of the ball at all of a deep threat.

That is tough. That is going to be tough to move the ball, especially against a defense that's good, let alone a defense that's average that has no fear and can pack the box and everything. A great defense that has no... You're fucked. Terrible situation. Obviously a very difficult situation,

but that Christian McCaffrey play, I thought there would be like... I thought that would be much earlier, quicker, and more of, but i was being attacked for thinking of that and i i've never been in the situation so i can't tell you how i would act if i was actually in it but that was my immediate thought watching while pretty vitamin duck you know what i mean but also at the same like i would i would imagine they don't have an extensive package in for christian mccaffrey as the quarterback you saw him on the sidelines

they're looking at they're looking at different sheets and stuff, trying to say, hey, this is where we're going to line up. This is what you do. So yeah, you would understand, yeah, okay, Christian's our emergency backup if we need him, third string guy. But I mean, they should have had a third string quarterback dressed in there. So I was the emergency quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts. I had like 10 plays to the right, 10 plays to the left. Could switch them. They were the same. Never mind. 10 plays to the right is what I had.

Could flop sides, though. So I got 20 plays pretty much. And there was like probably two out of the 10. So eight runs, two play actions. One was play action, you know, down right side. And then one's play action like back door to the tight end going the opposite direction. We worked on all that stuff, though. Like worked cadence, worked ducks, worked under center,

worked the communication in the more. Clyde Christensen and Frank Reich were my quarterback coach. Like that was every Saturday I was taking snaps from under a center. Not necessarily Jeff Saturday. He actually was never on. Jeff Saturday, okay. They gave me like the practice squad center, but running backs back there. Joseph Adai was back there a couple different times,

throwing the ball, a couple different guys are on field. Cauley stuck around a little bit for me to throw to. So, like, actually work that type of thing. And before me, it was Hunter Smith. I assumed they had that. You know, I just kind of assumed that that took place. But they're already on their fourth quarterback of the year. You know what I mean?

Yeah. They're already trying to figure out how do we get the rest of these guys going. So, yeah, I don't know. I mean, that sounds like that's more than I assumed you would work on being the emergency quarterback every Saturday once a week. Yeah, it was pretty cool. I don't remember if it was the full season or not. It might have been just like the first like six weeks seven weeks you know what i mean yeah like let's make sure yes i think each team is different how

they do that like what they do with that emergency quarterback i don't remember peyton was like an iron man too so i was always but i was excited to do it i felt like oh i get to learn something here you know what i mean like this is i was like excited to learn something i was playing quarterback against our defensive practices too i was like like, I was having a great time. I was having a blast. We were really good. I was loving the football. I was having an episode. And then this new regime came in. I was throwing the ball. They were like,

we got guys that throw the ball. Alright, thanks Chuck. Fuck off, dude. Chuck actually took one of my jobs as a thrower for the DBs. He has a great arm though. We've all seen it. True, true. They were like, we don't need you over here. I'm like, alright. I mean, I did it for the last three

years. They're pretty good one-on-one games. What does San Francisco do, too? What do they do now? So now the conversation is, is part of the guy long-term. Can he withstand the punishment that comes with being an NFL quarterback? It's like, I think anybody that was in that position would have got that, but that is what's going to happen. This is the same thing that happened when jimmy g missed the throw by five

yards he's not the franchise this guy in the future well we'll hear too like what if he needs tommy john he's out all next year like i don't know what the injury is but like you know it was hey done deal purdy's the guy next year if he needs tommy john like you know he's not yeah geez well lance too right they still kind of have to see what they have like he played a game and a half. No, Aaron Rodgers is going, I heard. And Tom Brady's going home. He was there for the catch.

Him and Boom. Tom Brady? Mm-hmm. With that jacket on? Mm-hmm. Uh-huh. He looked really cool in that. You think Tom Brady's going to the 49ers?

Maybe. Can't rule it out. Who said that rap sheet, right? On game day during wildcard weekend oh wow especially now trey lance another year to kind of learn under tom brady sucks for trey i mean he got very unfortunate injury quick early into his entire run he could have went on to be incredible i mean who knows honestly he didn't get to see a lot of him. Did not go great on some of the games, but he's a fucking brand rookie. What do you want

from the guy early? Tom Brady in there. If Purdy's hurt, I think it really does, like, long-term, you know, if he does need Tommy John, I think that does open the door for any of these guys to potentially go there next year. Yeah, a lot of Aaron Rodgers in 49ers

gear, because he's also from Butte, obviously, California, which is up there in 49ers Bay Area. Faithful, I think he's in that area. Do you know where it's at? I mean, I don't know if it's not like Bay Area, but yeah, NorCal. NorCal is so cool to say. Where are you from? NorCal. It's a different place, man.

NorCal and Southern Cal are a different spot. And inland, right? And there's like a lot of farms. NorCal, like my buddy Spencer Havner went to his wedding. They all live like on mountains. Like you're driving up and around the mountains, and they're all big outdoors guys. Like it's a different world.

A lot of people that go to Oregon from NorCal. That was the thing that I remember from around the campus. I mean, hey, where are you from? I'm from NorCal. Like 30%, 40% of the people here are remember from around the campus. I mean, Hey, where are you from? I'm from NorCal, like 40, 30%, 40% of the people here from NorCal or whatever. And I'm like,

Oh, it makes sense. Close. It's pretty, pretty similar landscape there. Josh Allen's from NorCal and he's from like a big time, like farming community. Fireball.

Hey, Shannon, Josh Allen just made me think of this. Cause there's people saying Josh Allen, never going to win a Super Bowl. This guy said it. This guy right here. I'm not the only one.

Yeah, there's a lot of people saying it, but this guy just said it. There's people thinking Shanahan's just never going to be able to have the football gods be in his favor. I mean, he has to sit there and be thinking like, man, are you kidding me? Right? You saw him. He was going crazy on the refs, obviously, and his quarterback. Like, yeah, it'd be tough the whole year, everything.

It was like a magical year, and then that's how it ends that's what sucks so bad coach's ass off four-string quarterback yeah it's tough mr irrelevant the hottest team in the nfl uh the eagles i guess same same all four of those teams but just so hot at the end of the sea nobody wanted to fucking touch them yeah nobody nobody wants a piece of this defense nobody wants a piece of this offense we got mr irrelevant slinging this thing more efficiently than anybody else in the league right now shanahan's got to feel good and then obviously first quarter full destruction of my team first drive obosa gets hit with a cleat from a gunner what yeah he bruised is not gonna be able to get off as fast. What do you mean? Yeah, he was standing there like every other human that has ever played football does. This particular time, our guy picked the guy up, tossed him.

It was actually an incredible, incredible block move. And the way it hit Bosa's leg, it wasn't like, this is not merely a flesh wound. No, it actually fucking gouged him pretty good. Hit a tendon in there, a little bit of a bruise. It's like, how does all of this just happen in the first fucking quarter? I mean, that is a nightmare to think about if you're a Niners fan, more specifically, Niners coach, more specifically, Kyle Shanahan, who saw 28-3 right in front of him.

Like, what the hell? You know what I mean? I'm sure he's thinking about that. You know, like, when you've been there, and he hasn't won the Super Bowl as the coach yet, but he's been there, and he knows, like, okay, we've got to restart this whole thing over again, offseason, everything. And then you even know, like, yeah, the regular season doesn't really matter.

It just puts us in position to where we want to get to in the postseason. It's just tough. It comes at such a fast end. And it shows you how truly difficult it is to actually get there and win a Super Bowl. Easy come, easy go this league is. That's why if we're in the middle of a dynasty run for the Chiefs or the Bengals that could potentially build a dynasty,

or the Eagles just starting one. I mean, there is so many things that could take place. You've got to enjoy it when you have it. And when you've got to restart it, pull. What a daunting task that stares down Kyle Shanahan, who will fight relentlessly for that grasp of the Lombardi. But at moments when he lays his head down, he has to think, what the fuck did I do to you, to the football guts?

I would assume at some point he has to think that. It's so easy to be like, well, they'll be back next year because they'll still have a great defense. And same with the Bengals. They'll be the same exact team. Both those teams are losing so many guys, or at least have contracts they have to figure out if they don't lose. You've got to pay T.

Bengals are. I mean, Jesse Bengals. There's no guarantee of anything. Those guys don't know. Andrews, dude, look at the first quarter of that game. You lose two quarterbacks. That happens in any game you're fucked. Let alone championship game. Right.

You had the Eagles covering. Congratulations, AJ. 1-1, 1-2. I'm a little bit of a snide. A little bit of a snide. But nobody could have predicted Philadelphia Eagles by 24. What's that? You know they are now, what, three sacks away from the all-time record in a season?

So good, dude. Postseason doesn't count, though, does it? Including postseason, they're like three away from the 84, 85 Bears. They have like 78 or something. But, you know, postseason stats don't count for a lot of these. It's dumb. Very. Vinatieri has the all-time leading points. None of the playoff points count.

And he's the all-time leading scorer in playoffs as well. So, like. Yeah, it would be quite the widen that margin quite a bit. I would assume, yeah. It would be tough to get. I'm like, oh, so the most important points don't count? Hardest ones to get, yeah, exactly. It doesn't make any sense.

He went 5-for-5 against Baltimore, 15-9 win or something like that in divisional round game or whatever. He was on all those teams. He was on all the teams that went far into the playoffs for over a decade and a half. That's going to be tough to do, but none of those playoff points count at all. People forget that he won

the Raiders game on a kick. People just watch the overtime one and think that's the winner. Yeah, you're talking about the tie and then win as well. Exactly. When we watched it, I completely forgot. That the winner was easy? I totally forgot about the tying one. Exactly. Yeah, when we watched it, I completely forgot. That the winner was easy? That's how he described it. I totally forgot about the tying one. Same. Now that we're in the kicking vein, let's talk about

Brett Kern getting fucked. Can we? Hell yeah. Absolutely. Brett Kern, longtime punter for the Tennessee Titans. I got a chance to watch him work for a long time. I learned from Brett Kern. I tried to mimic Brett Kern in some of the things he did. Not my entire motion or punt, but what he did whenever he catches snaps, he used to lock in like you were almost pulling back the trigger of a

gun. He just pulls that thing back or whatever. Hammer lock. The hammer of a gun. He kind of had that, so I wanted to mimic because he was a robot. So whenever he got signed to the Eagles, I'm like, of course, they get one of the greats of all time. Brett Kern, one of the greatest of all time. Had a poster

on the side of the Tennessee Titans stadium. Only like six players get it. Brett Kern was one of them because of how fucking good he was at punting. I guess he just chilled and didn't want to join any other team. He lost out to a rookie who was obviously much cheaper and murders the football down there. So Brett Kern goes to Philadelphia.

I was excited for the Philadelphia Eagles and for Brett Kern because this is a team that can go on a run. And in the NFC Championship, Brett Kern is the latest victim of positionism. These refs, these production companies, these networks hate kickers and punters. They want to abolish you from the game. They get commentators to talk about how dumb kicking is, how dumb punting is.

Get rid of the extra point. Get rid of the kickoff. Get rid of the punt. Now they disguise it in the vein of safety in players' health, but they don't go out against Thursday night games. They don't go out against other things that are certainly discouraging for players' health. They hate kickers and punters. We can all agree on that.

Yeah, absolutely. Only time you're getting run on any highlight is when the highlight's happening against you. Okay? Punt return, against you. Going to be on a highlight. You pinning somebody at the one, never going to be on a highlight. Never going to be talked about. Networks always want to bury it now there's a

physical altercation between a football and a sky cam cable just because they wanted to take brett kern down a couple notches fox in the crew that runs this sky cam heard about that poster that's on the side of the tennessee titan stadium they heard that brett kern was popular they heard that brett kern was a game changer and they said not on the biggest stage. We're going to fucking kill you. How are you going to be able to kill a punter? They said, we're going to do something nobody's ever done before. We're going to purposely get our Skycam cable in the direct trajectory of the punt, break it up and make it look like he shanked it off the side of his foot. Well, job well done, Fox. Hope you're happy. And Hussey said,

we weren't able to actually see, which is very fair. Very, very fair. This is really the only thing we have. Let's look at it. Brett Kern is this man right here. He's the guy

that has the poster on the side of his stadium. He hits a ball. Great the poster on the side of the stadium down in Tennessee. He hits a ball. Great drop, by the way. Nice short steps. Holds on to the ball almost until his plant foot is down. Younger punters, why don't we look at that? Hold on to the ball a little bit longer.

You can control the drop better whenever you do as such. That ball is still touching his hand. He doesn't let go until about right there. And that's incredible for him. Okay. Just for you future punters. Then he hits a rocket. Now he was breezy. So he had to hit a little bit lower. Look at the trajectory on that ball. That's a nice spiral. Nice tight spiral. Gorgeous. You know why it's a nice tight spiral? Because Brett Kern works his ass off on getting a tight spiral. If you and your friends were to go in the backyard and punt a football, it's not going to be as tight of a spiral as often as Brett Kern,

because all Brett Kern works on is his drop and his swing to get a nice fucking tight spiral. You might be able to throw a football, though. When a ball has that tight of a spiral, what's it probably going to do? Turn over. When you hit a fucking nuke like this, low one, his first punt was a low liner that ended up bouncing into the end zone as opposed to going out of bounds at the one which it could have and then

you clearly see that thing stop what it's doing wait a minute turn sideways and then take a duck hook dog leg left turn directly out of bounds and then you see this guy who's probably a part of the special teams team, probably a special teams assistant, or maybe even the special teams coach immediately go, Hey, Oh, Hey, excuse me. That fucking thing hit something there. And there's another person saw the same thing pointing at the sky cam. And then Brett Kern says, excuse me, hit the sky.

Jake Elliott, probably best friends with Brett Kern, punter for the Eagles. He's probably watching the punt because afterwards they're going to talk about the punt on the sideline, about what he did, what he could have done different. Jake probably watching his drop saying, hey, I saw you maybe drop it a little bit because you can help each other during a game. Jake Elliott says, whoa, hey, that fuck. Anybody that was on the field that was watching the ball because it's their job to watch the ball, it a little bit because you can help each other during a game. Jake Elliott says, anybody that was on the field that was watching the ball because it's their job to watch the ball,

all pointed up at Skycam Cable. So that led me to believe it probably hit Skycam Cable. Now that thing goes out, very short punt. The Eagles win. Niners weren't able to take advantage of this, but Brett Kern's stats, forever affected, forever affected. And there's probably some Johns over there in Philadelphia who think this guy might stink at punting, but I do believe he was attacked by a Skycam cable. Not the first, won't be the last, and this is just the most recent addition of positionism happening within the NFL, AJ.

Well, I have a couple questions. My first question that just popped into my mind when we started watching that, they told us, what, last week or two weeks ago, we found out that they have chips in all these footballs, right? That track every single movement. What if they dialed up the chip? They said, oh, this thing all of a sudden was traveling at 85 miles an hour and all of a sudden does a left-hand turn and is traveling 32 miles an hour.

Does that give you enough evidence to tell you? Somebody should ask Hussie about that. I like Hussie as a ref, okay? I like him. I think he's a good ref. I think the way he explains it. Everybody back to the sidelines. Back to the sidelines, please. Back to your sidelines. Not a bad idea. Let's

go voice of God here. Let's let everybody know what I'm thinking and what they're watching is not what we want to be happening. We're not just going to blow our whistles aimlessly and nobody's listening to. So I think he's good. Now some of the people on his crew certainly fucked up. You know, certainly have made mistakes. He's made mistakes, but I think he's good now some of the people on his crew certainly fucked up you know certainly have made mistakes he's made mistakes but i think he handles things well him saying with certainty we couldn't tell that's also okay but i think we should just maybe think about those

sky cams uh getting the fuck out of the way you know like maybe supposed to be aren't they supposed to be about right behind the punter and follow follow the ball after it goes? Yeah, and I assume. I guess the cables are kind of, yeah, I don't know. How many times has this happened? So I hit one in college. I hit one in college. I roll right, punt, rocket, beautiful. Hits that thing, breaks up, loses probably 15 yards, but stays inbounds.

I mean, it was still, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Still a great ball. Still went like 40 yards probably 41 yards so it happened this year me bitching about it like nobody really nobody's watching the ball like it's not really something happens commentators sometimes will see the ball so like i think there was a chance maybe olsen could have saved it olsen could have been like, I watched it. Nobody's really watching a ball, though. You know, you see the punt go, ooh, and then if it hits a little tiny – those things are supposed to be see-through, right?

You're not supposed to see them. It's just – it's a tough thing. I just want – I wanted to be on the record letting Brett Kern know that. You know. We know. You got screwed, Brett. You got screwed. It was pretty apparent.

Was anyone saying, no, it didn't hit it? Hussie. Yeah. You tweeted it. Any fans? Are any fans saying that? I think everybody's on his side.

This is just me to leak. You know what I mean? Why didn't they do the Skycam angle? Just a little bit of a vibration. I was going to say, you'd assume that, yeah, that would always show up on there. Well, the Skycam doesn't want to be on the record as being in the way of a game.

And these Skycam people are incredibly talented. Oh, yeah, no question. And it has added such a great dynamic to football. Shout out to the first XFL for bringing in the Skycam. I am a Skycam fan. That being said, get out of the way. Punter's working. Is that an automatic repunt, or do you get the choice?

Yeah, so I think whenever the Jerry Jones scoreboard thing came in and they hit it and then they had to make a rule it's a redown, I think if there's any sort of in-sky something, I think it's how it's worded. I swear it's happened this year before. Maybe. It's happened. People alleged that it happened to Mac Jones earlier in the season. He threw a pass that came down like a duck,

and a lot of folks online were zooming in trying to say, hey, it was Mac hitting Scott Cain. Did you see how fast Zeta started shaking his head there? Nothing. As soon as Nick started talking, not the case. What was it? That was just the sky that beat up Mac Jones? It was a bad ball or good defense?

Some bad hands on that kid. Oh, geez. We don't know that. Apparently bad coaching. Did you hear that Albert Breer report out of the New England Patriots is that Bill Belichick, on the record, documented, was a part of the offensive play calling and offensive scheming this year. I think we all assumed that was the case because he's Bill Belichick

and he's the head coach. He might be paying attention more to the offense side of the ball. Albert Breer wrote it today on the Monday Morning Quarterback presented by Sports Illustrated. Albert Breer said that Bill Belichick was a part of play calling, and that's why sometimes the plays weren't getting down until very late. So now this is being reported, and then there was a report last week that from within the building said Bill Belichick completely fucked us this year.

There's also a report that Bill was getting involved in play calling because he acknowledged that the Joe Judge-Matt Patricia experiment was not working. So all signs seemingly pointing to next year. There's also a report that Bill was getting involved in play calling because he acknowledged that the Joe Judge-Matt Patricia experiment was not working. So all signs seemingly pointing to next year, having correctable things that you guys don't suck again on offense and aren't a laughing stock. Connor, when you hear this, what are your thoughts? It's kind of the same as last week. It's you know, never good when you go into the offseason, you don't win the Super Bowl for any team. But now that Bill O'Brien's back, it's almost like, hey, last year was the fluke year. Like, that was something that we've never experienced. It's something that hopefully we never experience again.

And also, all the words out of the East-West Shrine camp is that Bill O'Brien is legitimately the most vocal guy with all the quarterbacks and with the offenses as a whole when they all come together. So, he came back in as an alpha, huh? Yeah, Billy O'Bee coming back is legitimately going to completely change the New England Patriots. AJ, I think we had assumed that Bill Belichick was calling plays at some point or a part of the offense.

I think this is the first time we had heard about it officially or no? Am I wrong in thinking that? Yeah, people assumed that he was. I don't know how – yeah, I would like to know how much input he has, and I can understand them having some hiccups getting calls in late. The more people you get involved in that process you're gonna have some issues i would imagine yeah i think so too congrats to the patriots fans you guys are back oh yeah it's gonna be a tough afc though joe burrow josh allen and patrick mahomes who's still that

motherfucking guy and people need to not forget that yeah we got an incredible show this week coming up i think a couple of them here we go. I believe Aaron's on tomorrow. Here we go. He's just getting traded, huh? No. I don't know. What did Shefty say? Shefty had his bonded hat on. Shefty said, yeah, he's gone. Shefty said real possibility, and then he also said it's a real possibility

he's staying. A couple of real possibilities. Great. There's a lot of real possibilities if you think about the world and just the history things have happened that none of us could have ever expected so anything potentially real possibility when it comes from Schefter though feels like the real possibility is the lease in a hypothesis situation because it's educated a little bit by inside sources and a lot of AFC teams need quarterbacks I just don't buy it and also the A AFC thing. Like now, I could really see, like if he were to get traded, I think he would be pining to go to the 49ers big time,

given the uncertainty with the rock party and stuff like that. I don't think they'd do it because the Niners have been pretty much if Banksy went from the Hawks to the Mighty Ducks. But I don't think they'd do it because the Niners have been their kryptonite. But if he has any say in the matter, I think he'd much rather go to fucking San Francisco than the Jets. Yeah, but what? They got no first.

What about a? They could send Colts. Yeah, if they fucking shoot Jeff Saturday from a cannon into the sun and hire someone else, then maybe he'll come here. What is this guy's deal? Did you hear Schefter this morning say that he thought that the reason why the Colts were interviewing so many head coaches candidates because they were trying to bring somebody in that Jim Mercer

would maybe get his eye off of Jeff Saturday? So that's what Schefter basically said. Schefter said that they were bringing in, hey, this guy knows how to play guitar, Jim. Hey, Jim, this guy knows how to play guitar. And Jim's like, is he in our ring of honor? No. Okay. All right. Hey, Jim, this guy knows how to play guitar. And Jim's like, uh, is he in our ring of honor? No. No. Okay. All right. Hey, this guy, great defense.

Also, also, poet. This guy's got some. Pretty cool. Like you. Love his work. I'll read some of those. First. I don't do haikus. Like, allegedly, that's what's taking place, AJ. That's what Schefter alluded to in his punditry hat, dude.

So, Jim Irsay just really loves Jeff, and he wants to bring Jeff Saturday back to coach. What if it works? Jeff has all the traits of being a great head coach in Jim Irsay's mind. Jim Irsay is the owner, 100% of the team. So, in Jim Irsay's mind, he sees somebody that he thinks could be the next great head coach of the NFL. The Lombardi might be changed to this Saturday, even though the game's played on Sunday. Sure. That's what Jim Irsay's thinking.

That's what he's sold on. I've known Jeff a long time. He did the deal for the CBA. This guy knows. He understands. Like, everything. And allegedly, Chris Ballard's like, I'll do my due diligence. And Cliff is like, this is a bear upside down with honey.

Maybe. Huh? We like it? Get that out of my fucking face. All right? These are some CBD gummies. They're great. And Jim's like, get those useless fucking sugar things out of here.

He's like, yeah, what about this? This thing's got one gram of carbs. And Jim's like, I need zero. Get that the fuck out of here he's like yeah what about this this thing's got one gram of carbs and jim's get i need zero get that the fuck out of here that's what's going on that's that's wild i would love to be behind the scenes and watching the whole process happen that would be really fun i would like to own it i'd like to own it i'd like to own a team outright sorry what were you gonna say ballard trying to sell these coaches to j? Yeah, so I think these coaches, it's very different than an actual interview with Ballard. Guys come in who are obviously talented.

Wink Martindale was in for an interview. Chris goes, listen, I'd hire you today. I need you to arm me with things that could sell Jim Irsay on you being his head coach. For instance, what is your favorite album? What is your favorite? If that's how this is going. Did he tell him things to stay away from when you meet Mr. Irsay?

Like, hey, he is not a fan of the Rolling Stones. Does he tell him things he doesn't like? He does not talk about him. He's a Beatle guy. Hey, listen, when you go to shake his hand make sure you lock in he if you go out early jim will never respect you look him in the eye he's paying attention and do not i repeat do not sneeze or chew gum in that room you need to sneeze you have an aneurysm before that thing gets out all right for the both of us fucking good luck, Wink. Chris is just sitting outside the office.

All right, two. All right. All right. Shit. Let's bring in the 18th coach. Is that what's taking place? We're never going to – when are we going to find out? It could be months.

It could be years. I mean, I feel like once the franchise really tanks into dust and then there's going to have to be an explanation of, like, how did we get here. I think that is when we find out, oh, that's why we were that bad for 50 years. All right. Well, let's be a little bit more positive. Let's assume Jeff Saturday is exactly what Jim Irsay thinks. Jim Irsay has been in the NFL longer than you've been alive.

That's right. I agree. And Jeff Saturday also said, if I'm not good at this, I'll say goodbye. And then he went one and seven and said, I want a 10-year contract. And you're being a mark. You're judging the results, not the process. Maybe the greatness was on the other side. Have you seen a rookie head coach maybe come in and suck completely? And then finally the culture settles in and they turn it completely around all the time.

So maybe you need not be a mark, dude. I agree. If there's a Joe Burrow in this draft class and I'm somehow missing it, then yes, there is a chance. Well, Aaron Rodgers, he's available. True. What if we get Aaron Rodgers here in Indiana? I think you need to get that thought way out of your head.

Far out of your head. That would be very strict. I think you need to start falling in love with Bill Levis. Yeah. Or else you are going to be... I love Will Levis. Guy puts mayonnaise in his coffee. That's right.

He eats bananas with the peel on. I like that he's an independent thinker. Yeah. But I think the reason why I like the fact that he's an independent thinker is because there is another independent thinker who's gone on to become a Mount Rushmore quarterback in the history of the NFL that we've got to know. And I'd rather that one than the new one. But I'll tell you what.

Oh, yeah. Aaron would love Indianapolis. There's a $35 million home right out of Italy, right in downtown Indianapolis with 15 acres and a lake on it. Oh, that's right. Thank you, Smoke. Aaron, you can live in a museum. Yeah.

Oh, is that old buddies? No. Tony Stewart? No. No, no. Tony has no idea what he's talking about. Yeah, that's a different one. Tony has no idea what he's talking about. It's a lake a different one. Tone has no idea what he's talking about.

Tone Lake. Tone lives. Smoke Stewart. He's got a hell of a house. He has a Cabela's house. He does. Actual waterfall and a fishing pond. I've seen him on YouTube.

It's awesome. $40 million or something they're trying to sell that for. Oh, yeah. It's an hour and 15 minutes or an hour and a half south of Indianapolis. I'm talking right in the middle of downtown Indianapolis. There is a museum that is for sale that has a house that has a full lake. It's beautiful. I'm sure they would let

Aaron stay in it for free. I'm sure of it. I don't know who owns it. I don't know anything about it. I'm sure they would just let him. Right, AJ? People do that all the time. It's downtown Indy, so all the guys that con man is spying on with his binoculars are going to be roaming the ground? Just like any booming city there's places you know around every city okay that's what makes

a city a city in that particular place it's its own area plus around it all so many there's uh it's like an arts basically district there you're talking about five-star restaurants everywhere. They just have them in there every single day. Always 70 somehow. They got a little bit of a dome over top of it over there. It's perfect. Team's ready to go. Aaron's a Colt next year.

What are you talking about? Get it out of my mind. I mean, I just don't want your heart to get broken when you got fucking Jeff Saturday and Bill Levis, you know, at that press conference, and that's the new Eric Colts. How's the team ready to go? I thought they were ready to go this year. And the year before.

Yeah. Why are we talking about this when Matt Ryan is still under contract? That's a good point. Good question. Yeah. All right, AJ, how much money are you giving away on this Every Action Monday before we get out of here? Oh, man.

What do you say? 12 people, 500 bucks? Okay. Boom. From you? Yep. Put it on the Oh, man. What do you say? 12 people, 500 bucks? Okay. Boom. From you? Yep. Put it on the tab, Phil. Nice guy.

Well, I'll just take it out of the check. There we go. Put it on the tab. Yeah, we'll do a deduction. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we'll deduct it from your check. You got to let me write the check, then I can write it off then, right?

No, it's like the NFL. We take it and we tell you. It's going, you know. That's amazing. It's a charity. How they've been able we tell you. It's going. You know? That's amazing. Go to charity. How they've been able to get away with that for so long is fantastic. You know, everybody wants to get mad about the rig thing. That's because of how bad the refs are.

They think that the refs are so bad that it's on purpose. That's awesome. Let's start going after other stuff that we don't necessarily, you know, with the same. Yeah. Because we might be able to change officiating. Let's do the fine money goes to charity. Which ones?

Let's see exactly where those are. Yeah, and can the player not get the donation? Or the refs? Does it just have to go? It's an interesting thing. That's been a long time. I was just talking about this person's been fined $150,000. That money will go to charity

and then just move on to the next one it's like why don't they announce how much money they've donated from terrible deeds on a football field no kidding feels like that would be a good you know what i mean the nfl and its players with their fuck-ups have donated 27 million dollars to boom various charities or whatever, you know? Pretty cool. That would be. That's a good thing. How come they haven't done that? They don't care.

About the PR, they just want to give to give. Yeah, exactly. Either that or those executives, that fucking year-end party at Dave & Buster's, and that's what all that money's going to. Oh, the fines collected do not go to the NFL, but instead are donated through the NFL Foundation to assist legends in need. Programs are mutually agreed upon by the NFL and NFLPA and the CBA. Since 2011, about $4 million a year has been used to assist former players.

Oh, yeah. Okay. All right. That's when Drew Brees got the other $20 million. Yeah. Okay. All right. What is that?

Don't hit Bill. Do not hit Bill. Billy Picks looks good, doesn't he? Hey, he's been doing two or three. Hey, Billy. Go on, Bill. Do not hit Bill. Billy Picks looks good, doesn't he? Hey, he's been doing two or three. Hey, Billy. Go on, Bill. Hold on, Bill. I've got to take a picture of you taking pictures.

What's that, Tony? What's that? He posts a picture every day on the internet just to make sure people know that he's working out. Who? He's holding himself accountable. What do you mean? Yeah, that's good. You want other people to hold you accountable as well.

That's like speaking something into existence. It puts more pressure on you to execute the task. Tone. That's not how my brain works. Fuck you, Tone. Right back at you, Bill. Hell yeah, Bill. Good job.

Aw. Ooh. Not bad. Kind of slipped out of my hand there. I think I got the bounce back. Oh! Here we go. Come on hand there. I got the bounce back. Oh! Here we go. Come on, AJ.

It's the one. It's a big old ball on a tee over there to your right that I didn't, or your left, I guess, I didn't see earlier. Yeah, it's a new one. Jeez. Pretty sweet. This thing is new. This thing's brand new.

This thing. Can you kick it? So, I don't believe it is mobile yeah can't get it oh no this thing's big though huh pretty sweet yeah dude look at that terrible tea this is like a tea out of the 90s or whatever and the reason why is because you just fucking bang if you want to hit the ball you're gonna fucking pow i want to punt pass and kick with this tea though so i've got a little bit of nostalgia history but this thing thing's awesome. Pretty sturdy, Samba. Oh, yeah. It's nice. And it also got

all the indentations. Yeah, they must have one. Yeah, have to. Look at that. They're hard to get. Exact replica. I'm being told that the people that created this also built Peyton Manning's statue down there outside Lucas Oil Stoves. Really? No shit.

Shout out to, I believe the man's name on the card was Armando Lanucci. Oh. Oh. I looked at it one time right before we went live. This thing just got here. We moved it. Pies on like us. Lanuti.

Lanuti, not Lanucci. Oh. Armando Lanuti. Hey, shout out, dude. That's cool. That is sweet. I just kicked the shit dude. That's cool. That is sweet. I just kicked the shit out. I kicked that pretty hard. Sweet.

Still good. We don't need a bunch of statues, though. That's about it. Let's make sure that is not a... Jesus, we're going to get a... Everybody said nice. We appreciate it, but don't. You need a Joe DiNardo statue.

That'd be sick. Now we're talking. Okay. We could do that. Right out front. That'd be awesome. Now we're talking. Okay. We could do that. Right out front. That'd be awesome. Right out front. Him waving hello.

Maybe there's like a... Yeah, him pointing to the Doppler or something. Oh, please. We need a TV. He's holding a TV screen with today's weather. So, boom. Maybe that's at the gate with an intercom at his mouth. Yep.

With the screen with the Doppler on it. And then his mouth is the, hello, welcome to the dome. That would be awesome. Yeah. All right. You're right. It could happen. I was being so negative there for a second asking for nothing.

That would definitely make this place better. For sure. Armando, get on it. All right, Lenuti. Good luck out there. Good job, Don. Come on. It's championship day, yes, sir.

Yeah, championship. On to the Super Bowl. Still got it. All right. That feels good. Oh, fuck. Can't got it. Still close.

Can't got it. Just going to look and throw, AJ. You know, you got to look. You got it. Just let that thing go, man. Stop aiming. This guy sucks. That was good.

That was pretty close. All right. Oh, no. There it is. Oh, no. The guy missed the back. Wait, wait. Oh.

AJ, how many winners? 15. 12, wasn't it? No, no. 15, I think, because of how hard it is. It is a full-court shot. Yeah, you're right. It is. Level of difficulty, yes. 15. 12, wasn't it? No, no, 15, I think, because of how hard it is. It's a full-court shot. You're right, it is. Level of difficulty, yes, 15.

Okay! See what I did there? Jacked him up. Got him all jacked off. Sucked him up in that one. Sucked him up with the fakes. You've been on a play. Grow up, guys.

Sucked him up! the fakes. Yeah, I've been on a play. Grow up. Grow up, guys. Suck them up. Knock them down. Oh. Right there. Golly. Bang. Oh. We're running out of opportunities, AJ.

You want to make that 20? You want to make it 20? Yes, take it 20. 20 people, 500, and one merch. Give one merch. Oh. See what I just did again? Sucked him up again.

That's my ceiling, though. That's the ceiling. Oh, come on. I'm going to be seeing Phil next week, probably, I think. I don't know. And he's going to try to fight me. Oh! Oh, shit.

Fucked in that. I thought that was the one. Put it in. Here we go. Kick that Gilbert. I blame you. It's a rugby ball. That will end up being the thing if this does not go.

20 winners of $500 and one merch. All you got to do is retweet this video, say something nice to somebody, and put your cash tag in the same reply so we can pay you officially on Cash App. This is all coming from that man, Aaron James Hawk of Ohio, Centerville more specifically. What a hero. What a guy. Here we go. Bang-a-ring.

Yeah! Thank you, AJ. We knew it. Thank you all for watching. Thank you to Schefter for stopping by. Thank you to Michael Cole for stopping by. Thank you to Drew Garrison. We'll be back tomorrow with an Aaron Rodgers Tuesday.

Be a friend. Tell a friend. Say something nice to somebody. Goodbye.