The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 912 - Shams Charania, Cincinnati Bengals GM Duke Tobin, Mike Florio, Pacman Jones LIVE In The ThunderDome, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: May 25, 2023

On today’s show, Pat, Pacman Jones, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about the tonight’s Stanley Cup Playoffs game between the Golden Knights and the Stars, the NBA playoffs game between the Celtics and Heat, and all the NFL stories percolating around the internet. Joining the progrum to break some news about LeBron, the Eastern Conference finals, and Ja Morant is NBA Insider for Stadium, The Athletic, and co-host of Run It Back on FanduelTV, Shams Charania (36:09-1:01:35). Next, de facto GM of the Cincinnati Bengals, Duke Tobin joins the show to talk about constructing the Bengals roster, how they’re always in win now mode with Joe Burrow, how he’s going to pay everybody, replacing guys on the defensive side of the ball, his process when selecting players in the NFL Draft, and much more (1:05:47-1:42:01). Later, owner of Pro Football Talk, Mike Florio joins the show to chat about the NFL kickoff rule being changed, the process of finding a new commissioner after Goodell is allegedly up in 2027, who he thinks could potentially be the next commissioner, whose deal gets done first, Joe Burrow or Justin Herbert, Jimmy G’s foot surgery, and more (2:06:55-2:46:07). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you tomorrow, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to our Humble the Boat, the Thunderdome, on this glorious Thursday, May 25th, 2023. This sports program starts now. Sports! Hey, you're cooking right now. And, you know, there has been some developments that have happened in our particular program's life. Okay, the Talks at Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt rocking an incredible new Titleist Cop. Thank you very much. You look like a champion golfer.

Well, you know, I don't know if I'd say I'm a champion golfer, but when I'm wearing this Titleist Cop, I definitely feel like a champion golfer. Did you win that or buy that? Oh, I bought this. No. I think you earned it, though. You definitely earned it. You look really good. Appreciate it.

It's a good color. Yeah, it is. It's a good color. Love said color. One half of the hammer. Dot. Appreciate it. It's a good cap. Yeah, it is. It's a good color. Love said color. One half of the hammer. Cowboys Tone Diggs is here. And Pac-Man Jones is here. Obviously love having you in the office.

This has been a great treat for us the last few months. We appreciate the hell out of you. Now the boys in the back are kicking ass and everything like that. AJ Hawk will join us. Sean Sharania will join us here in moments. There's a lot of news out there. A lot of basketball stuff. There's a lot of basketball stuff potentially brewing right now.

Coaching hirings. LeBron retiring. What? Bar's there, by the way. I mean, that is kind of happening. I threw in firings at the end. We can kind of make it all happen. Shams will be here to break it all down.

Duke Tobin. Shout out to Pac-Man Joe. You got it, Pac. General manager of the Cincinnati Bengals has been with the Cincinnati Bengals since 1999. That's good here. All the time. They were having conversations about never having a conversation about an indoor practice facility in 1999. That's exactly right.

Now 2023, and they got a consummate top of the American Football Conference football team, an indoor facility, and a sponsored stadium, and the future of the NFL at quarterback. I mean, they are a completely different program now than they were then, but all eyes have been on a championship ever since, and he has put together quite a monster in the Queen City. In the Queen City. Yeah, so it's interesting because there's so many different Queen Cities. Yeah, why is that in Cincinnati?

Charlotte. Well, Charlotte is Queen City. Charlotte, you go to uptown not downtown it's the queen city buckingham Cincinnati Cincinnati what's that buckingham in england technically that's certainly in england there's a lot of queen cities i would assume it's a king city we're talking about the united states okay okay i just in victoria up there in canada there's probably a lot of queen city as well cincinnati is the queen city right it is. Best place to live in Ohio, man. Okay, so you've got, obviously, Denver, Colorado.

Oh, Gadsden. You need to put more items there. Well, that's Queen City of the Plains. That is just in the—I think there's a lot of these. I mean, Alabama has three Queen Cities. That's bullshit. You should have seen. She used to vacation there, though.

You remember, she liked horses. Yeah, you're right. Queen of the Black Belt. I mean, we know that's the real Queen City come on yeah united states here you got cumberland maryland look at all the cities in the united states that are called the queen city buffalo new york is that right hey queen city of the great lakes traverse city michigan i believe that's like the caribbean lake up there right oh it is so beautiful up there so you see why the queen wanted to visit there manchester new hampshire live free or die that's why the queen wanted to visit there. Manchester, New Hampshire, live free or die. That's why the queen wanted to visit there.

You ever see the queen's ski shoes going over to Denver? Like, fucking give me the hardest cliff you got. Double black, queen city of the west. Anyways, shout out to Cincinnati's GM, Duke Tobin, joining our program today in about an hour or so. A lot of questions for him. And, you know, there's a lot of things happening around the NFL, especially around this owner's meeting in which there were some rule changes.

Now Thursday night football can obviously be flexed two times from weeks 13 to week 17. Have to give a 28 day notice basically to all teams, all parties involved to make it happen. Although it's being said that it's not going to be used, it will be, especially if there's two stinkers potentially on there. Because Jeff Bezos didn't pay the amount of money he paid for Thursday night football for every game to fucking suck like it did last year. Exactly. the amount of money he paid for Thursday Night Football for every game to fucking suck like it did last year. So anytime you've got a big old pocket in charge of something, there's a good chance there's going to be some things made for that. If you're running a sound business, you have to do as such.

And speaking of business, there was a rule change for the good of business in the future, allegedly. To save ourselves from potential future litigation, we are going to change a rule to make the league look a little bit Bush League, let's just move on with it there's been a lot of convo about this oh yeah ton and there's been people that have you know said to us like uh thank you for talking about this rule change because we have talked about it he believes other people potentially talk about it and now there's like good words being spread about potential football in saving football in the entity that is football. So everybody that has been associated with football has come out and said, we hate this. Literally everybody, except for the commissioner of the league of the biggest league in the world of the sport, pretty much, who championed this,

allegedly lobbying around making this rule to want to be a thing, allegedly via Mike Florio of NBC and Pro Football Talk, who'll be joining us in the third hour, allegedly via a report that he had. Now, he was just called a top five conspiracy theorist around the NFL by Howie Roseman, GM of the Philadelphia Eagles, literally

two days ago on the Pro Football Talk. And Florio is always snooping around. This dude was writing blogs 1, 2 a.m., 3 a.m. whenever he was getting texts from people on the West Coast, on the East Coast about everything in the NFL. Former lawyer, started a blog, sold it one time,

started another one, sold another one. Incredible businessman. Has the feel of shit in the NFL that's completely different than what we talk about. He talks about all the kind of the things, the cooking, the dramas, the Vanderpump rules. Exactly. He talks about all that type of stuff that's happening.

That is very effective and real to how the NFL goes about it, but very different from us. And he has different connections and a different brain, and it's a good one, and he dives in. And when he dives in, it feels like he is like a bloodhound. That's right. He keeps going and going and going he dives in, it feels like he is a bloodhound. That's right. He keeps going and going and going. Finds his bone.

So what he said was there was a meeting of special teams coaches at the NFL Films office over there in Philadelphia or New Jersey, whichever part it is in. That's a very close area. I think they both kind of identify as each other. I do apologize to wherever it actually is to the other place for lying about it. Anyways, they wanted to pass this earlier in the year, in March. It did not pass.

Everybody hated it. So they wanted to have a meeting, a brainstorming meeting, basically, with all the special teams coaches over there in New Jersey. It was not all the special teams coaches. A lot of the special teams coaches that I know were not invited to that, did not know this happened. But let's assume that special teams coaches were there, were present, and there was a brainstorming session happening

with people that love football and don't want to see football change at all. Allegedly, McKay, who's the head of the competition committee who changes rules, Adam, Rich, Jack? Adam is the guy who did the Lakers documentary. He's a producer on Succession.

Okay, so it's not him, though. No, it's Rich. No, it's Richard McKay. No, it's Richard McKay. Yes. Richard McKay is the head of the competition committee, and Roger Goodell, the person who basically is able now, I guess, from Florio's article, to pretty much kind of guide whatever he kind of wants at this point with however it's set up.

I don't know if it's new CBA or new set of protocols on getting rules changed. Those two were not at the brainstorm session, okay? So there's a chance that the brainstorm session did come up with some great ideas, grander ideas than this particular thing to save themselves from whatever stats that they are honing and saying that the concussion thing brings. But they weren't even there. And then there's another vote, doesn't pass. No, there's another day we're doing this.

And then all of a sudden it gets passed. That is right in Florio's ballpark. Oh, yeah. I mean, you're talking about a potential brainstorming meeting where the people that are actually making decisions weren't there to hear anything. Then there was a vote. Then there's a re-vote.

Then there's a delay. You're talking Florio's. Oh, yeah. That's his Super Bowl. This is Florio's world. Flex investigative muscles. Oh, my God. I mean, and there's numerous pieces to it.

There's so many people pissed on one side. There has to be reasoning on the other side. Litigation lawsuits. He's a former lawyer. He knows that this is his like, this is a Florio special. Oh, yeah. And it's talking about rule changing. And this is one of the first times and I'm not sure we'll ask him whenever he joins us in

the third hour. This is one of the first times that it feels like everybody in football is on his side. For sure. Definitely. In a while. Right? I don't know about in a while or ever. Especially in football. The players, coaches, teams, themselves. Yeah, because normally he's doing something that's

going to... Somebody's not going to like it. Exactly. Somebody's going to be pissed. In this particular one, it feels like he's literally like, hey, we're all like, hey, we've seen how you... Okay. Now we need you.

Let's get to the bottom of this thing for the good of all of us. I can't wait to fucking talk to him and see how he's feeling about it. It's because I think we're potentially talking about a bigger issue here because in this process where the coaches potentially did come up with better ideas or whatever, there was no one there who could then take those ideas and implement them or prove them. And then when they didn't like it, McKay and Roger just come in and make their own fucking rules, which it's terrible for the kickoff,

but what's next? What's next? Yeah. Right. When will they stop? That's exactly right. We're going to start using a round ball? No chance.

Because there's a chance the points get people on the fingers? Yep. Are we going to take the laces off because when it's cold, it kind of slices on the fingers? Yep. Are we going to take the laces off? Because when it's cold, it kind of slices your hand. Paper cut. Are we going to do that, Pac? What is next? Checks and bounds. Who is the head of?

I know Tomlin is on there. Adam McKay. Who is the head person? Adam Rich McKay. Adam Rich. Rich McKay. Rich McKay. He's there.

Tomlin's there. Rabel's there. He owes us some kind of dialogue. Frank Wright. No, that's the thing, though. They don't. They don't care. That's there. Tom is there. Rabel is there. He owes us some kind of dialogue. Frank Reich. No, that's the thing, though. They don't. They don't care. That's the...

Yeah. We're not going to be able to talk about this later. They don't know a shit. Whenever we... Yeah, we got to get it out now. Yeah, so we got to have all these conversations. Does NBC have a deal with the NFL? I believe so.

Something they put balls on. Do they have Florio in there? Yeah. Oh, and he's... He's not ever critical. No. Especially not now. Not to my knowledge. In the NFL, right? No. I'm about sick of those comments. Better, and he's not ever critical. No. Especially not now.

In the NFL, right? I'm about sick of those comments. Better get this out of the way now. And if I'm not going to let you say it, I'm going to ESPN. It's like... So ESPN has never said anything damning about the NFL ever? What? Do we... Do you think they're...

Would they much rather have us talking about dumbass fucking rules that they're saying or entire mindsets of humans? You tell me. I don't know. So that narrative needs to stop. All the other ones I can understand a little bit of fear, a little bit of change. But that particular one, come on. Come on. But anyways, where will Roger Goodell stop?

Where will they, if they want to make another change, if they want to make another rule, and they just have the ability to say, vote. Everybody that's involved says, no. Cool. We'll push this one back. Let's do it. We want your ideas. Who's your idea? Come on. Let's talk about it. Then they have another vote. No.

Then they're like, pfft. But it needs to be yes. We're going to vote again. We're going to need 4x yes. This is just like whenever they do the NFLPA meetings. And now people are going to vote again. We're going to need 4X yeses. So we don't know who's going to win. Get together. This is just like whenever they do the NFL PA meetings. And now people are going to think, oh, this guy's a super NFL PA guy. Absolute opposite, too, for those about to get introduced to us. They do the NFL PA meetings at the end of the longest day of the week.

It would be, you would watch a 15-minute propaganda video about what the NFL was like back in the 1920s. End of the day. How guys had to roll their own cigarettes to smoke. Hell yeah. Yeah. They wouldn't even be able to buy pre-rolled cigarettes at the time. And you do that whole thing. Guys have already practiced, had all day of meetings,

and got another early morning tomorrow. And then they do their entire pitch. And then they're like, any questions? And it's like, do not ask a fucking question. Get me out of here. Although, if you paid attention to what we just watched, there was about 15, 20 things that we need. Hey, there's some business shit happening here

that I don't think is necessarily a good idea and you're taking money out of my check to do that whole thing. I don't necessarily like it, but it is not a position for you ever to really go like this unless there's something very... Needs to be addressed.

Concrete. Other than that, hey, you want your Madden checks? Yep. Get the fuck on out of here. assume this meeting this vote was potentially the last one i would assume in the entire yeah in the entire voting thing and they're like uh what's the answer no take 30 we'll be back yeah this is just like watching jury duty yeah yeah you know reconvene hey we need four people to go over to this side. There isn't four people to do it. It's like, we'll see.

Better find them. But an hour and a half, we'll see you back here. Let's meet again here. Is that what they did? This is something that Florio will know. And it sucks that this is all we have to talk about. But other than this, there really isn't much going on around the NFL. Lamar Jackson's back in the building for the Baltimore Ravens. Sounds like they're going to have an offense where he gets to throw the ball a lot.

That'll help the run game. I love where they're at right now, Pac. I can't wait to see it. To me, Lamar has to be able to run the ball to be successful. If you think or if y'all think that he can go back there and throw the damn ball more than 30 times. 30 would be a shit ton of times. 30, yeah. If you're in fucking trouble, if he sits back there and throws the damn ball more than 30 times, 30 would be a shit ton of times. 30, yeah. You're in fucking trouble if he sits back there and throws the ball 30 times.

Aaron's throwing 25, 28 times. Aaron Rodgers can throw the ball anywhere on the field. No, but I'm saying he's throwing the ball 25, 28 times a year. I think that is a misconception about Aaron, is that Aaron only wants to air it out and Aaron only cares about Aaron and everything like that. It's like Aaron will do this right here. He is not scared to do this.

Takes what he gives. Because he knows exactly what's coming off of that, which is, boom, we are opening something up. And as soon as you give us one, we're taking it. But I think that type of balance is why Aaron has had so much success. Also why I don't think he's had like, what, 1,300? He's never thrown for over 5,000 yards. I don't think he's ever thrown for 500 yards in a game

Yeah, I don't think so either I don't think he's ever done any of that So last year The most attempts per game was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Of course 45 a game The Baltimore Ravens were 28th in the league At 28 passing attempts per game

So I think if he does 30 a game I guess with how many plays Or offenses getting more plays, that feels like a lot. Yeah, it does. 31st in the league at 28 at passing attempts, that feels like a lot. Pass happy league. That feels like a lot. It is, but my point is Lamar got to run.

Yeah, we agree. Patch my homes. Rodgers? Rodgers don't have to run. Like, he have a running game. But Lamar have to run the ball. I'm saying himself as far as that offense being. I think he knows that, right?

He has to know that. Yeah, passing the ball, having him on the run, you know, that helps. But also, J.K. Dobbins was rushing for like 120 yards on one leg last year. They have four running backs go down. Yeah, before the season. The Gus Edwards. I think Lamar knows that the reason why Lamar is Lamar is because he can do things with his feet that nobody else at his position can do.

I think he is very happy, though. And we've never talked to him. No. Wish. Hell of a negotiation by him, though. We had dots. We had dots. We had dots.

I've never talked to him, but I would assume that he knows that he has to run. But also, if you have a passing game, that makes your running game a lot easier. Yeah. Like, that makes it a lot easier. I'm hoping that they're able to tie it together. It sounds like Munkin's able to do it. As soon as he was hired up there, you were nervous as a Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Sounds like Lamar fucking loves him.

I was. I mean, he's the offensive coordinator of a team that has won back-to-back national championships. Yeah, that's college versus NFL. Yeah, college ball has that fair catch inside of 25. They do. Guess what else does now? What's that, pal? The NFL.

The Monk and Tate's bench. Also has that now. Yeah, I know, but there's a lot of other differences that we hope remain in there. I don't know. Okay, let's not just have people fall over and then the play's dead. I agree.

Nobody touches them. Well, we learned that on second tackle attempts after somebody's already touched the ground that an injury to the shoulder is up 14%, and we believe that once you touch the ground, you are down. There's a chance that that passes. So everybody that isn't on our side about this fucking kickoff rule, there's a chance that some stat that they can throw in for future lawsuit

and negligence, I guess, is how they would be viewed because we knew that this was a stat and we chose not to make it. What all do we... Only need to get one foot down because they want to eliminate turf toe. Yeah. Speaking of turf, it seems like everything else is being talked about. Exactly. Except for the actual turf. Maybe that's why

they're doing this. But Monken was an NFL coordinator who went to college and now back here and a lot of the college stuff comes up to NFL and offensive coordinator things. He wasn't just a college all-offensive coordinator that decided to become an NFL offensive coordinator and just runs jet sweeps all the time and stuff like that. It ruins a football team.

He's talking about Matt Canada, the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive coordinator. He still has the job. 31 in the league last year. Just like Ferentz's kid, 131st in the country. He still has the job as well. Do believe Canada will develop. Not 100% sure about Iowa. We shall see.

Here's Lamar talking to the media afterwards about the offense and about what he's expecting. He's obviously just got paid a shit ton of money, but he sounds very refreshed about a new offensive system. I mean, just being able to throw the ball down the field. You know, sometimes, you know, we can't. Running can only take you so far, you know, and I feel like with this new era of teams and offenses in the league,

I feel like we need that. And Coach Todd Monken, when I'm sitting in his offense so far, he's looking tremendous. Do you feel like you won't have to run as much and that will maybe be scaled back a little bit? Absolutely. Absolutely, especially with the receivers we have. Bane, OBJ, Zay, Dove, Pro, all those guys.

You got Isaiah, I can't say Zay. Isaiah, the tight end, Mark, my guy. Oh, they have a new change, a nickname. They have to. Somebody's actual name. Yeah. They're going through that right now. Isaiah and Zay, it seems like they're going through that right now

in the locker room. That's a hilarious thought. they're going through that right now in the locker room. That's a hilarious thought. That is happening in the cafeteria, in the locker room, and in the meeting rooms. You're going to say, well, I can't say that anymore. Two heads looking at you. We're going to say, Zay. The Flyers. New Zay.

Actually, his name is fucking actually. Call him Likely or something. Call this guy High, I guess. Sure. Like. But he talked about, he seemed to be genuinely pumped about it and I don't know if that necessarily means

whenever he says yes a lot less running that he wants to run a lot less but he also from a business perspective and we do not agree with this but if he did view it this way all the guys that last a long time to your point they're right in here.

They're spinning. And he said Aaron doesn't have to run. Aaron's always been able to run, though. Yes. Which, if Lamar is able to be Lamar forever, which we assume he'll be able to, and he is able to figure out how to be or put into position to be a prolific fucking sniper with, he's never had these weapons before. I mean, he just listed all his weapons off there. He's never had these weapons before exactly i mean he just listed all his

weapons off there he's never had these weapons before no offense to hollywood okay he might go on to have an incredible career and he was not happy with the offense they were running i don't think they were necessarily put in a position to become an air raid style offense but if he slices and dices this year and this is able to prolong this career that everybody kind of wondered about what a time he's got to be incredibly pumped. How recent was that twist? Those were tight. That was clean.

They look like they just got done this morning. That's what I'm saying. He was pretty clean. That was very tight. Yeah, he was really clean. That's what I watched. I was like, this guy went through a whole practice, has a beanie on. Yeah.

Tight. He looked refreshed, though, man. We had a conversation. That's worth a couple hundred mil. Yeah, we had a conversation back in the back, and we was talking about somebody um on another team okay that was playing and you was like oh he was going through something last year oh yeah yeah yeah yeah talk about being a human yeah yeah happy if you're happy yeah do you win because you're happy are you happy because you win right and if you're going through some off the field stuff does that kind of take an entire

weight off of your shoulders and make you live a little bit freer, a little bit lighter, a little bit more happy, which makes you work a little harder, probably be a little bit more relaxed in moments, dive in a little bit more. Yeah. I bet you there's a great relief that that couple hundred million dollar deal is done and now he just gets to go play. And for us,

we don't have to judge every single week or even have the conversation of, yeah, I wouldn't, I mean. Right. or even have the conversation of, yeah, I mean. We haven't paid him. He's got to get out of bounds. The guy's got $200 million. Are you going to try to run somebody off right now? Are you going to take an extra hit right now? Because we've seen Lamar act like he's going out of bounds, spin move on a guy.

We are out of here. Touchdown. Last year, it was a lot of, gee. Take it easy. Now he had an injury. So was it that? Or was it potentially, there's a lot of fucking money on the line here. Yeah. It. Take it easy. Now he had an injury. Right. So was it that? Or was it potentially? There's a lot of fucking money on the line here. Yeah.

It's the business. Generation. It's the business. We could have had this deal done beforehand. I've already won an MVP. I've won a playoff game. This entire team is built around me. We could have this deal already fucking done and should have this deal done.

But since we don't, I have to think like an actual human. So then that even leads into the conversation, the narrative to be built that he did that. We do not think he did that. No. We believe that Lamar Jackson is incredibly competitive. And if he stepped out, it's only because he thought it was the right decision at that exact time.

He wasn't thinking business the entire time. But you can certainly see how he would have thought about that. So you're talking about maybe the best Lamar Jackson we've seen in an offense that he appears to love. If he can throw the way other guys who have had these weapons in this type of offense have been able to throw, they're going to have so much success for the long haul. This is the same exact conversation that kind of happened with Jalen

before last year, and I know Jalen's much younger. But the entire convo was if Jalen can throw and Jalen can become an NFL elite passer, this Eagles team is going to win. And if he can't, he's cut. Jalen isn't even on the team anymore. Next QB. He just negotiated a massive deal,

and he's going to be the face of the Eagles for a long time. And they are awesome to watch, and he is incredible. But the reality is going into last season, it was like, can this guy be an NFL passer? Can he do that? And he proved he absolutely could. I think Lamar an nfo passer can he do that and he proved he absolutely could i think lamar has proved that he can put the ball where he wants it now he's going to have the opportunity to do it they're going to be great oh yeah they're going to be great if they

tough division tough division hot in the kitchen in the afc north but they're you know they paid them but they're also listening to them like i was it last season or two seasons ago like yeah it's pretty hard to play quarterback when the other team knows exactly what the hell you're doing. And then they also said, okay, go get me D-Hop and OBJ. Allegedly. Allegedly. But they didn't get D-Hop, got OBJ, and then what do they do with their first-round pick? Yeah, we don't know about D-Hop.

Yeah, I have no idea. D-Hop still could be on the table. Maybe that is something that they might do. But he's got three first-round picks at wide receiver this year. How many quarterbacks in the NFL have three first-round picks in their receiving core, you know? Sounds like a lot of pressure. Not to mention Mark Anderson.

Pressure. No, it's opportunity. That's right. What are you talking about? Sounds like pressure. The NFL is pressure. He's thriving under pressure. Yeah, there's 32 quarterbacks.

We'll see. Also with Odell, too. I mean, we'll see how he is coming back from the ACL. But a lot of people, the knock on Lamar is like his deep ball accuracy is terrible. He's never had a guy like Odell whose catch radius is massive. And we'll see because we don't know because he's been hurt. But he's the kind of guy where you don't have to put it right over his shoulder into his hands. You get it in his vicinity, he's going to

give you a pretty good shot of going up and getting it. He's actually going to maybe get a historic shot while making the catch. His warm-ups, I hope he's all the way back. He's saying he's feeling more healthy than he's ever felt. He said he's feeling better than he's ever felt. Remember, that touchdown right there was with a still-torn ACL.

Because he had an ACL surgery that did not take. It was a bad surgery. So he played the entire Rams season, and I guess the Browns season as well, at the beginning before Odell Beckham Sr. hopped into Adobe. Right. Got to get my son. Cut a video, put it on Instagram.

Get my kid the fuck out of Cleveland, please. We are sick of this. OBS really should have been up for at least some sort of sports Emmy. Yeah, I hope you got a ring. Most influential video? Yeah. I mean, potentially Odell Beckham Sr.'s video and cut up of Baker Mayfield refusing to throw the ball

to Odell Beckham Jr. seemingly in the video. Right. Yes. Who knows how it was edited and doctored. We don't know what all OBS can do. OBS might have been turning the head. He could have been. In the video.

We don't know what all his games are. He might be an animator for fucking South Park or Family Guy. We do not know what OBS is, but from the video we saw, it was certainly means for them to want to get the fuck out of there. He goes to L.A., does what he does, has a touch on every single game, going to be the Super Bowl MVP. Allegedly, his ACL was torn that entire year while he was doing that all, and then it fully popped in the Super Bowl after already scoring a ton.

So if it is like the healthiest Odell Beckham Jr. has been, mentally, it's probably the healthiest he's been as well. I'm excited to see him. I don't think anybody's expecting him to play 17 games. No. Nobody's expecting Odell Beckham. And I think that's a different part of his career, too, where normally he signs a place.

People are like, oh, great. Only going to get him for 10 games, 11 games. Now it's almost like, hey, if these are the important games. Yeah, only need him for that. And at the end of the year in the playoff run, like, okay, we are cool with having him for 11 games because a lot of people miss games now. And for what Ty said, too, they got three first-rounders, so he don't have to go out there and put all the miles on that Ferrari. You know what I mean? He can

just put that Ferrari out there on a couple of plays and put it on the pace. Don't go out there and try to be a hero. And throw a touchdown. You know what I'm saying? I think it'll be a good fit, though. With the younger guys, he can teach the younger guys. He got three first-rounders over there

on the offensive side of the ball. It should be good. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Oh, the Bengals are worried? But the division... We score points. I mean, we score points. We score points. You got to keep up the pace to play with us.

We don't score points. They don't still have the same D.C. that Joe Burrow hates, too, right? Because remember, he scorched them for like 500 yards after the Ravens' D.C. Oh, yeah, because the guy said Joe Burrow's not. Yeah, he's not an elite passer or something. That was awesome. That was, yeah, that was bold. I hope that happens all the time.

Me, too. Like, hey, Joey Burrow seemingly the chip stacker that Tom Brady is. Yes. Okay, and I know Patrick Mahomes probably is as well, but it goes in a different fashion. The next young great one's probably like that. Feels like Joeyey burrow and i think a lot of people have said this i'm not this isn't groundbreaking shit but it does feel like he is in the similar competitive frame yeah as tom brady so we watched tom brady's man in the arena the amount of media clips no he just had stored like oh yeah skip said in 2009, maybe 2008,

he said that I couldn't throw the ball with my right arm anymore. Run that. He did say that exactly. Yeah, and then in 2000, I think a defensive coordinator said that I lost a zip on my ball, I think. Then pulled the stats for that next game against them as well. Like Jordan, the guy at the restaurant, you tell, hey, how are you doing, Mr. Jordan?

Great to see you. It's an honor to play against you. Is that right? Okay, George. Okay. You didn't tell me my stat line. All right. Yeah, you're not wearing my shoes, huh? Yeah. That was Brady's explanation for the whole Spygate season after Spygate. Like, oh, we won all those games because of that. Watch this.

And then they went 18-1. That's awesome. I love a good Spite run, you know? It's the best. That is how some of those guys just go. Yeah, deflate gate suspension. Purely Spite. Yes. You guys are cheating again, by the way. What do you think? Yeah, stop cheating. I am so sick. You know what, Roger Goodell? Hey, Roger.

Hey, listen up, Roger. Hey, Roger. You've been fantastic out here. They just showed, I mean, they just showed Tony Pollard scored five touchdowns on Colts last year. I mean, they just ran. Nice. That was fun. We need to turn that off. Third string running back, too.

In a couple weeks, that's just going to be my fat fucking face just staring at the area whenever I'm talking, which is going to be a very weird thing. And I completely forgot where I was headed right there. You were talking about the Patriots. Hey, Rob. Hey, Roger. Oh, yeah, our commissioner. Can also do Inception with that camera, with you in it, and then on the TV.

I just thought of that. Oh, my God. We can do wide one with the side one. Yes. Sorry, Roger. Cheating Patriots again. That would be sick. That would be. That one. Yes. Shooting this one. Yes. Sorry, Roger. Cheating Patriots. Again. That would be sick. That would be. That one. Yes.

Shooting this one. Shooting that one. Shooting that one. And then looking at yourself. We have 22 cameras in this place. Yes. If we had somehow had them all. I mean, we set up some mirrors in here. People's brains. Should do a fun house. People would be going through the airport just like,

motion sickness. What are these people? Anyways, Raj, you've been great. You've been doing a great job. Big money. Thankless job. You get paid. I guess that's the thanks. And it is handsomely.

And we assume that you're going to go be a president or something whenever you're done here. And allegedly, Jim Irsay said about 2027, this thing's over for Raj. Just sign an extension. 2027, that'll be when he's done. So now they're eyeing future commissioners and I do like the fact that Jim Irsay has become the spokesperson for the other.

Yeah, he has. I would like to let everybody know you probably have, I think so, I think you said, fuck it, I'll do a brother, and then I got a performance later too. Exactly. If you want to bring anybody, but he's been answering a lot of questions I think that a lot of us said, fuck it, I'll do a brother, and then I got a performance later, too. Exactly. If you want to bring anybody. But he's been answering a lot of questions, I think, that a lot of us have. So I appreciate that he's either dialed in, that maybe there is some questions that are going on,

or he has gotten to the stage of, I've been in the NFL since I'm 10 years old, pretty much. So if I want to start speaking, I am allowed to start speaking. And if that's the case, can't wait to see what he does next. Yeah, bingo. But if it is just like, hey, go ahead and give the answers because you think people need to hear some

of these things, you got it. His Dan Snyder stuff, fascinating. He was the first one to kind of come out in those owners meetings. He has done his thing.

But he came out and said that 2027 will be the last of Roger Goodell pretty much. And then he also went on to explain how the potential replacement will be held.

There might be a CEO of business, and then there might be a commissioner of football. They might hire two, three people to take up Roger Goodell's hundred jobs that he's will be held. There might be a CEO of business, and then there might be a commissioner of football. They might hire two, three people to take up Roger Goodell's 100 jobs that he's doing right now. I'm intrigued to see how they handle it,

but an expiration date for Roger Goodell is a big fucking deal. That is a $50 million, $60 million a year job. There's going to be a lot of executives that are going to be trying to get that job. We all know that Sam Rappaport, who is in the building, in the NFL offices, has been his kind of, I don't want to say angling,

but kind of trying to learn how to be a commissioner for the NFL. She basically said that to us, and she's told Roger Goodell that. So is that something? Because Roger Goodell came up in the NFL building as well. Or we may be looking around a little bit. Because how about Jason Wright of the Washington Commanders? Former player, now a president. Obviously has expertise in...

Crisis management. There it is. That was literally the business he was in after football before getting back to the Commanders. He was a crisis management lawyer or something like that. There's a chance that as the tide turns here into the next regime of whatever the league is, and I'll be excited to see the send-off that Roger Goodell gives in 2027

and how many rules he'll change. Yeah. Prick. Whoa. Whoa. Sorry, I had to say it. Easy. Whoa.

We're saying that on YouTube. Yeah. That doesn't fly? That's not because we're – no, I don't feel that way about Rod. Oh, yeah, I know you don't. I don't feel like he is a prick. I think this move he's making right now, though, this is a bad move.

Not a prick move. This is a prick. Yeah, it is. It's a little prickish. A little prickish. A little bit. It's like old Commissioner Goodell. Yeah, bingo.

Kind of coming in the front here. So who knows what his next couple years are. But that is an interesting piece of information from Jim Irsay. Like, oh, yeah, 2027, Roger Goodell era. Four years. So it's like that means they're actively right now trying to figure out who that next person is going to be. Can't get it wrong.

No. Cannot get it wrong because the NFL is the only thing that's kind of up. Yes. Up and to the right. Up and it's up. And up and it's up. And it's up and it's up. And it's up and it's up.

And everybody else, it was kind of crazy what everybody else did. Yeah. Oh. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. We're going down, down in the air. He said we're going down swinging. I've been up and flying and rolling. We're going down, down.

It's tough. Good luck to whoever takes that job next. It does not seem like a desirable position. You are. I mean, I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to do takes that job next. It does not seem like a desirable position. You are. I mean, I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to do something great. Yeah. Get paid handsomely. You've got a lot of money.

But with what Goodell. Goodell has jokered through the playoffs here as commissioner of the NFL. He has triple doubled. 40, 20, and 10. Every CBA negotiation, the NFL wins. Every TV rights deal, the NFL wins. Every rule that they want to fucking change, the NFL wins. Every TV rights deal, the NFL wins. Every rule that they want to fucking change, the NFL wins. And that's the Roger Goodell NFL pretty much.

While taking all the shrapnel from everybody, whoever gets that next gig, good luck to you. I'm honestly pulling for you. We all fucking need you not to suck. Absolutely, but let's not forget what got you on this. Patriots are cheating again. Bam. Roger Goodell.

That's right. Kick him off the tour. Boom. Roger Goodell. That's right. Kick him off the tour. Yeah. Once and for all. Go on. I seen the Pittsburgh Riverhounds beat the Columbus Crew last night. Yeah. Big win.

Okay. Woo! Team out of Pittsburgh with a stadium right on a river down there. That's right. You just got down there on the North Shore. Yep. Now, soccer field. Yep.

On the river. Couldn't even imagine or fathom the wind down there. And that's what you get, a little grit, when you come to Gritsburg and play the Gritsburg Riverhounds. Beat the shit out of Columbus crew. See ya. Put them in the MLS now. You should.

That should be the way it works. With the Patriots, they're cheating in OTAs. Yeah. Kick them out of the league. Put them in the USFL. We don't want to make this decision. You got to do something, though, Rog. They're just going to keep breaking it.

How many gates are we going to have out of New England? OTA gate now is a full thing. I don't want to talk about this. You guys sound like a bunch of bitches. Okay? If this is what you are, OTAs, okay? Who gives a fuck? You don't don't you don't you don't and you know what the conversation was when this happened hey bill if we do this there's a chance

that roger's gonna take away a few otas at the end of the year and what did bill say who gives a fuck run it do whatever you want to do. He can take the OTAs because as we all know, they don't mean fucking anything. Because Aaron's there. It's a big deal. My point exactly. If OTAs mean anything, then we might as well just give the Lombardi to the Jets because

everyone's saying how fucking awesome it is. Haven't won a game. Who cares? Alan Zarco hitting the balls. Aaron Rodgers had a calf strain. Exactly. Which we hope is okay. He's got massive calves. He does have big old calves.

He's got big because he's underneath that squat right now. He's got a suit in his new profile photo. Yes, he does. He's looking dangerous over there. That's pretty cool. He's looking dangerous over there. He's got massive legs and calves. He's got a strain in the calf.

Lazard got hit in the balls. But all other signs coming out of Jets camp, boys got to figure it out. Aaron's in charge, too. This is how we're doing it. From day one. Hey, instead of running, huh? Let's do a little, huh?

Huh? I know. I just hope that all the, you know, pomp and circumstance around it and how everyone's, you know, gassing them up, I hope. Now it is. It was kind of a football buff. Is he in the fucking CIA?

Dude, this dude looks like a special agent. He certainly does look like it. But they have to win the Super Bowl now. There is no other option. You have to win the Super Bowl. Tell your team to stop cheating. Ty won't let him in the bus. Yeah, Ty does not want to see him win a Super Bowl.

Let's ask Quinton Williams about how OTAs is, too. Not everyone's happy over there. Okay, well, they're not cheating yet. Yeah, they were. Well, maybe. Everybody is. I mean, two OTA practices is a little light, too, over there. Okay. Well, they're not cheating yet. Yeah, they were. Well, maybe. Everybody is. I mean, two OTA practices. A little light, too, for what they were doing.

Yeah, agreed. What they were doing was despicable. What were they doing? What? Well, obviously, we can't talk about it because nobody can. No, I'm asking you guys. What were they doing? Because I genuinely don't know.

So they left the cold tubs open. 45 minutes extra. Are you kidding me? I don't know. Are you kidding me? But it could be something that... I heard they were leaking mercy in everyone else's locker room. Well, it might be that new COVID, me? I don't know. Are you kidding me? I heard they were leaking Mercer in everyone else's locker room.

It might be that new COVID, too. We don't know. Anyways, joining us now is a man who might have a little bit more information from a much different league. What did you guys do? I don't know, but all I know is I will not forget Tony bringing it up three times. So next time the Steelers do something, we'll talk about that, too. Steelers never will.

Yeah, okay. Nothing ever happened with Big Ben. Oh, you want to go now? Next time the Steelers do something, we'll talk about that too. Steelers never will. Nothing ever happened with Big Ben. Oh, you want to go now? Joining us now, a man who is the senior insider for the NBA, for The Athletic and FanDuel TV. Stadium. Stadium. He and Stadium Network. Remarkably handsome.

Oh, yeah. The next one, ladies and gentlemen, Shams Rawna. Yay! Shams, we had to get through that conversation. I apologize for making you wait. I truly do. But I know that we didn't want to drag you into what was going to be said at the end of that thing, which certainly was.

Would you two like to apologize to each other about that? Oh, absolutely not, no. I will never apologize for bringing down tears. Pat, congrats. But, you know but you're talking about next NFL commissioner. I think that's what you're talking about, right? Yeah, trying to figure it out. Why not PM, next NFL commissioner? Why not you?

You don't want the stress? I feel like you can do the job. Yeah, you know, I just don't think I'll be taken seriously enough. I will certainly put a Twitter campaign together, and it'll probably be passed. I think we got to get that going. I think we got to get that going. I think you have commissioner in your future, Pat.

I will say, I've negotiated a couple hundred million dollar deals with networks and such. You know, I kind of know the landscape a little bit. I feel like I got a pretty good understanding of the game. Former player. How do I get along with billionaires? Billionaires seem to like me a little bit. They're the ones I actually get along with. All the other people I don't.

If they want to pay me $75 million, I'll run the league. You need to get an online law degree in the next six years. Plenty of time. No problem. Someone will give you a degree. AI can give me a degree today. Frank Abagnale did it. Frank Abagnale, yeah.

You're going to have to go to a lot of those hootie-tootie events. A lot of handshaking Frank Abagnale did it. Frank Abagnale, yeah. You're going to have to go to a lot of those Hootie Tootie events. A lot of handshaking. Abagnale? Great movie, bro. How good of a movie is that? Amazing movie. I met that guy as a kid. I met that guy as a kid. I didn't get to see a lot of people speak,

but Frank Abagnale spoke to, I think, the... I wish I was there, I think the, I want to, I wish I was there. It was something I met him and it was like a full on, who's that? Oh, the greatest con artists of all time. I'm honored to meet you,

man. You know, what a dream, what a dream to meet you. And then the movie comes out. I'm like, Oh, I've been talking about this guy since I'm 12 years old.

He had it figured out like everything. And now they're saying the con is actually the con of his life. Yeah, he lied basically about everything. Yeah, that's all a con. Exactly. So his actual con is lying about all the cons. Yeah. I mean, I feel like sometimes I'm going to catch me if you can.

I feel like I'm winging it all the time. So I feel like we're all trying to do our thing. I want to be Frank Abagnale. I want to go be a pilot one day. Yeah, and maybe run around a factory with a check with Tom Hanks chasing your ass around. It'd be fun. Let's move into what you are incredible at,

which is the basketball. You have found your calling. It seems like you are incredible at it, have the ability to build relationships, keep relationships, and then also do right by people. So let's dive into the biggest news that we assume you have information about. LeBron James is retiring? I've seen this guy in the news and in dial-up internet since he's like 14 years old

driving around a Hummer with a shoe deal. Now there's a time that I'm going to not see LeBron playing basketball anymore? This is a sad day what was he talking about shams in that uh press conference after the game yeah so i'll just look at the overall context of the season right like lebron james the numbers he put up this year historic uh performances i think the most points ever for a player at the age of 38 leads the lakers from 2 and 10 all the way to the Western conference finals. And he plays Pat the last few months of the season with a torn tendon in his foot that could need surgery this summer.

I'm told he's going to be evaluating that foot. It's very possible. He might, he might need surgery on that foot that could sideline him for two months, but you know, two months over the off season, get that foot, right.

I think that's something he's going to have to get evaluated. And if he's going to need surgery, that will shelve him for a little bit. But I think anytime you're 38 years old, you just finished your 20th NBA season, you're going to be 39 when next season starts. You have to be thinking about the future. I mean, I think it's only human nature. But this is the first time LeBron James has even broached the topic of retirement. And I think that's why everyone was kind of caught off guard.

Even people around him were surprised to an extent. Do I expect LeBron James to retire? I don't. I fully expect him to play next season. All I've heard from those comments is that he will be playing next season. That's my sense. But again, I think he's going gonna take the next couple months to really see where his head's at and see if he can get re-energized and i think the one thing about

lebron james that's interesting every time he gets back around his kids pat i know you just had a kid they have a way to i guess energize you i don't have any kids but uh lebron james kids they energize him and i think being able to spend time around them br Bronny James going to USC, he's going to go on a tour in Europe in August. I would expect LeBron James to be a part of that or be around that. I think seeing his kid play, being around that, I think that will re-energize him even more, getting him into the season. But even the bigger point now I think for the Lakers is, how do we go into this offseason and manage the workload of LeBron James?

Because he's going in every night being the number one option. Now, I think he can do that at the age of 39. The question is, do the Lakers want to put him in that position? Does he want to be in that position? So they have to really build a roster out this offseason point guard position. D'Angelo Russell was benched. He's on a max contract. He was benched the last game of the season in the playoffs in game four. What do they do at that position? I think they'll be aggressive potentially in looking at that position. Oh, Kyrie. Kyrie Irving's out there.

Fred Van Vliet. Whoa. Marketplace this upcoming offseason. I think Kyrie Irving and Fred Van Vliet have to be at the top of the list. I'm not saying either are likely for the Lakers, but I think if you're the Lakers, you have to look at both of those guys and see if there are any options you can exhaust. Okay, so a lot of great answers in there.

If LeBron gets that two-month surgery thing that's going to come on the foot, first of all, way to be an absolute doll with that happening in your foot throughout this entire thing. Let's stay away from Taco Tuesdays. Right, smart. Let's stay away from Taco Tuesdays. He's smart. Let's stay away from Taco Tuesdays. You know, he's like one of the hardest working humans of all time is what they say.

He keeps his body in great shape. Would have to at the age of 38 to play the basketball season that he is playing as the number one option every single night. Is he saying that he doesn't want to be, like he doesn't want to bear that type of workload anymore? Is that why it's even being broached? Or do you think this is actually the Lakers saying, like, we can't be killing our fucking guy every single night who's kind of making that

decision what are you hearing well i think it's it's you looking at it from a realistic perspective i think lebron james the lakers i think when you look at him going into the age of 39 he would be entering year 21 he's playing heavy minutes he's trying to play every game this year he would have played every game this season if he didn't miss the time with the torn tendon. He has a torn tendon. He ends up playing through that. He could have had surgery that could have shut his season down.

He plays through it. And the run that they had, I don't think anyone saw that run coming Western conference finals. And I think now anytime a player is this late, I know you got, you know, in football, you deal with it with Aaron Rogers.

You deal with it with Tom Brady, where it becomes a year toyear thing when these guys reach or get closer to the age of 40. I think it's just human nature. I think what took everyone aback is just LeBron James. We've never heard him talk about the concept of retirement. He's always been superhuman. He's always been this guy that everyone is just like he literally defeats Father Time every year. But I think when you look at it now, you have to put all these things into consideration.

Do you want to throw LeBron James at the age of 39 out there and be the number one option? Now he can do it. The question is can you make his workload a little easier? And I think that's the question the Lakers have to answer. We saw him hanging out on the side on a couple different series during the playoffs. Yeah, that's right. Hanging out, kind of letting everybody else figure it out.

Austin Reeves seemingly became like the guy. Is that going to be the thing going forward? Austin Reeves is a guy for the Lakers? I mean, when you watch the playoffs, there were a lot of possessions, Pat, where I don't know if we've seen LeBron James just give the ball to a player and just watch him go to work. I guess Kyrie Irving was the last example. Dwayne Wade, you know, back in the day in Miami.

Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. But I can't remember a time in L.A. Like, I guess sometimes he dumped the ball to Anthony Davis, but for a wing player on the perimeter to just go ISO or pick and roll, Austin Reeves stood out this year. He had a big playoffs. He's earned himself a lot of money. I think the max the Lakers can offer right now is four years, a little over 50 million. The max any other team can offer is close to $100 million. I think he's closer. We're in the middle of that as far as his value.

Come out to the Pacers. I don't think so. Yeah, come to the Pacers. They trade their good players. They don't get them. No, we got to go in right now. Halliburton. As soon as his contract... Pacers have a need for a wing. I'm just saying. Holy fuck. Austin Reeves is playing for the goddamn Indiana Pacers. cap space. Pacers have a need for a wing. I'm just saying. Holy fuck.

Austin Reed is playing for the goddamn Indiana Pacers. Here we go. Okay, look at the Pacers. The thing is, he's a restricted free agent. The Lakers can match anything. It's just going to be which team wants to put down the offer sheet. But I think the Lakers want to bring him back. I think the Lakers, there's definitely a chance.

Hold on, Choms. Didn't you just say 450 and then everybody else can offer 100? They can offer that and then they just got to match? It's like a franchise tag? So he's a restricted free agent because of the contract that he signed. The Lakers are limited as far as how much they can offer him. Their max is four years, around 53. Every other team, because of the deal he has, can offer him a max of four years.

I don't know the exact number, but it's closer to $100 million. It's something like $96 million. And then Lakers can match. Because he's a restricted free agent. Whatever offer sheet he gets, the Lakers can match. Oh, he's going to be a Laker. But they can't go past $40 or $53 or whatever? No, they can match.

Yeah, they can match. That's outright. So outright, they can offer him that deal, and maybe he takes it. I mean, he said to me he wants and maybe he takes it. Maybe he, he, I mean, he, he said to me, he wants to be a Laker.

He wants to be a Laker for life. Yeah. Probably wants to make a hundred million dollars to 50 less million. But I think there's, I think there's a, there's a, there's a, there's a scenario out there.

The Lakers are preparing for where he's going to get a pretty sizable offer sheet and they're going to have to make a decision to match but they want to bring him back he wants to be back I I think you know he Austin Reeves the year he's had he's been developed there he's homegrown there uh I think there's gonna be a lot of interest around the league but uh the Lakers want him back okay that's awesome he's massive game go ahead Connor yeah huge game and just real quick Sean's there are people on the internet saying that LeBron said he was going to retire, thinking about it strictly, so we wouldn't talk about him getting swept. I am not saying that.

That is what people on the internet are saying, and we do know LeBron. Come on. The guy's a genius. He's an A-plus PR guy. Even if he did say it. I mean, even if he did do that. Still next level. Let me take the pressure off.

AD, Austin, Darwin. Listen, I'm not in his head. I'm not in his head. I'm not in his head. But if that's what it was, that's, yeah, that's next level. I mean, think about, yeah, the first question Pat asked you was about him retiring, not about how they got swept. And also he said, and you guys are going to say that I'm lying about this too, but I fucking knew this was coming.

I think LeBron's playing life chess. He is. Yeah. That's a good call. I did not see that on the internet. The internet's on to him, obviously. But just like every other genius that's out there. I think the internet's always trying to get on

to LeBron. In that same press conference, he was making light of the fact that he's been caught saying that he saw something happening, something coming, that he was like, the future. And he was making jokes about that. So I'm sure he's well aware of what's going on. See, I thought he said, because I was listening to that press conference as well. I was on baby dude you said that he's gonna get around his

kids and get energized my stage of fatherhood right now every time i'm around my kid it is just a full-on dead tired how we doing you are so damn cute but whenever he said and you guys are gonna say i'm lying here too i think there's a chance that LeBron's like, yeah, everything you guys are saying I'm lying about, even if it is physically, I might have missed one or two, okay? I've been famous for 20 years, all right? I've been saying a lot of shit. I am.

I am actually on this whole thing. And if he did do that, which is in my mind, absolutely the case right now. Next level. What a teammate. Yes. Huh?

Let's not talk about how bad. How AD played. D'Lo got benched last game he just said bingo it was hurt donnie and he had a broken foot yes what a brilliant hey thank you braun smart thank you braun way to be a good teammate braun i bet you people try to spin as a bad thing by the way it's not just just think about he played he had a historic year at 38 the numbers he's averaging he has way too much left in the tank. Bingo. To call it. What a play.

Look at what he has left off in the game. And a farewell tour. I don't know. I personally, talking to the people I talk to in the aftermath of those comments, I don't see it. But, listen, LeBron has a lot of money. He can really do whatever the hell he wants at this point. But I think this is a guy that's got a lot left to give.

And I think if the Lakers beef up this roster, they have a chance to make another run. Man. Chess. He's full on. Chess non-check. Everybody's right. He reads full books by just reading one page.

And everybody's been mocking him for that. The guy's a genius. What do you want? Sorry about it. I mean, the guy was listening to the Migos before they even released music. That might have been a miss. So that might have been one of his misses. But or.

Or. Or maybe he did. He might have seen it. What do you want from him? Go ahead, Connor. Aside from LeBron, Shams, obviously there's a massive game tonight. I think it's Shams. Is it Shams?

Actually, I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. Yeah, see? I beat him to the punch because I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. Yeah, see? I beat him to the punch because I was going to ask a question. He was going to say, oh, I don't want to hear from him like Shaq did. And then he'd say, I'm just kidding. And then he'd go into it. So I figure I'd lead with Shams.

So that distracts the retirement. Boom. Distracts. Exactly. Look over here. You just said Shams, Shams, Shams, Shams, Shams. Don't do the Shaq. Shaq, Shaq, Shaq. Exactly. All right. It said Shams Don't do the Shaq It is Shams though

Have I been saying your name right or wrong No you've been on it BC just wanted me to not give him the Shaq treatment For the third time It's okay we'll play it off You got more treatments dude You got bigger things to worry about Shams I do know what your name is

But tonight Celtics Heat game 5 Ties are turning a little bit What do you think bigger things to worry about, Sean. See, I do know what your name is. But tonight, Celtics Heat, Game 5. Ties are turning a little bit. What do you think is going to happen? Gabe Vincent starting for the Heat these past couple games. He's out now. Obviously, Malcolm Brogdon. Yeah, Malcolm Brogdon's got a tear in his elbow. That was news.

Not sure if he's going to play or not. What are we thinking? And also, how much does it matter that the referee of this game the miami heat are 19 and foreign i mean those records are interesting always right but i think i think the suns finally beat the scott foster situation true i'll beat that this this posting so this is the postseason of miracles you know this is a postseason where anything can happen boom do you believe it's out up. This playoffs. Gabe Vinson, that loss is massive.

And I think Boston, like, if you can't take advantage of no Gabe Vinson, this is a guy that's been essentially a star in this postseason, in this series. If you can't take advantage of that, I mean, you probably deserve to lose. Yeah, fuck them. I agree. Him being out is a big deal. Malcolm Broggdon he does have that tear in his forearm so i do expect he will play tonight he's gonna play through the injury we'll see how much miami wants to guard him uh but listen i think boston has to be going

into this series with a lot of confidence i'm not saying they're going to be the team to come back from 3-0 and break the streak but it's never been a history but but if there is a team that can do it if there is a circumstance that this can be done and i mean this would have to be the one miami jimmy butler's been arguably the best player in the series um i think he's he's been amazing he probably needs another 40 50 game for this team to win uh one more time i feel possibly so uh but this is a team that's beat up no gabe benson tonight tyler heroes out butipo's out. This Heat team, what they're doing this year, I think it has to be one of the most improbable playoff runs in NBA history.

And so, kudos, shout out to them, but Boston, they got to get it done tonight, right? BC, what do you think? Yeah, they would have to. I mean, he has never fired Missoula, but he certainly has given up on the Celtics a couple different times

throughout this entire run here. So now – The NBC has already fired Missoula or no? No. We have not fired Missoula. Love Joe. Oh, no, no. Love Joe.

We have not. Love Joe. Wow. I went to college with Joe. I know Joe. Not that Joe. Give me the scouting report. Good dude.

Had a good time. He was – Yeah, yeah. I haven't talked to him since college, but seen him a couple times. Very happy that he's having success, though. Very happy that he's up there. But during the Sixers series, he was fired. Yeah, people hated him. Made no sense.

Then he fires Doc Rivers. Then he puts a 30-point differential in Game 7 and says, Sorry about it, pal. You want a championship? You're getting fired from the place you're in. Goes on the road, game six, wins in Philly. Basketball is the, it feels like they are very heavily clear everybody out of this fucking building right now. It feels like it is a super game-to-game basis.

And if the Celtics are able to turn this around first time, these Boston people are going to be tough to handle. Quick question here from Ty Schmidt, Shams. Yeah, Shams, do you have any update on the John Morant situation after the whole, you know, he posts bye on Instagram and then the cops show up, you know, for a welfare check? That seems kind of weird. Is everything okay with him?

Do we have any update on what kind of suspension he's looking at next year? What's going on with John right now? Yeah, I think the first thing's first, like, we hope John Morant is good. kind of suspension he's looking at next year what's going on with jaw right now yeah i i think the first things first like we hope john moran is good uh he posts those pictures of his family and then he posts by i mean definitely you know you you have to look at that you know when i first saw it i only saw the last message and i'm like oh did the suspension happen did like did something come down and then you see the string of posts and yeah i mean that's that's that's fairly alarming and the the cops did go and check on him um is that normal so what's that what so is that normal i think just given everything that's happened i guess i mean maybe it's because he's a public

figure i'm i i don't know how normal it is or not like how much more shit do the cops know that they see that we don't know that like an Instagram post happens and everybody is just like the cops wanted a welfare check he's good and everybody's like yeah that's just normal I've never I don't think I've ever yeah you meet I've never heard just like cops see a social media

post and they're like you know what let's go see if you guys are okay I like if that's happening but is there more that we don't know that that has just become something that everybody's like, yeah, this is just how this goes. That's an interesting development, I think. Yeah, I think just how public this situation has been for the last several months. I mean, this isn't the first time the police there in Memphis

has been involved with something involving John Moran. So maybe their antennas are up. You're right. What did he do? What did So maybe their antennas are up. You're right. What did he do? What did he do? What did he do? You're assuming. What did the cops get involved?

Because when he was in Colorado, he was at that adult ballet. That's right. And he was, he was a ball. He was thunderstorming. He was living. You know what I mean? He was living with butts. Yeah.

It was a monsoon in there. It was a monsoon. Yeah. He was living. You know what I mean? It was a monsoon in there. It was a monsoon. Reckless. Absolutely reckless. But like, why are you on social media? And especially agree, but have the Memphis police been

involved in anything? Because remember, this is the we think it's a terrible thing. We want to let you know, we are not happy that John Moran is flashing guns on Instagram lives. Hey, stop fucking doing it, alright? You are not afforded the same freedoms as everybody else. You signed a play in an association in a league. You are somebody

now. Just stop fucking doing it. That is how we feel. It's just stupid for you to continue to do this. It's reckless. I think any gun owner, and I know there's a lot of people that are like, well, technically he didn't break any law and if they're going to try to attack our gun rights or anything like that, it's like actual gun owners don't love how reckless that

fucking gun is too because you give a bad name to gun owners whenever you're just doing this dancing with it in the middle of a car, aiming it at who knows what. So there's stupid that it happened. But if the police been involved, maybe, I don't know. The police are very involved in this situation,

so much so that an Instagram post is like, we need to stop at his house? There have been a couple instances the last year or so. I mean, there was one incident with John Morant and the high school prospect where he, him and a friend physically... But that's different than a tweet. No where he, him and a friend physically. But that's different than a tweet. No, no, I agree.

But this is a relationship with the Memphis police, I think, is what you're trying to say. What happened? I don't think I remember this. I think there's been different involvements with the police there that have been involved in a couple different situations. There was a mall incident as well. Okay.

There have been a couple times where they've been alerted. So stop fucking flashing your game. Okay. But again, I assume a lot of it is because public figure everything that's happened the last three months he flashed a gun a couple months ago he flashed it again recently the nba is investigating um that the denver police investigated prior and again like i talked about i think before like there was no law that was broken in this situation that happened in in the last couple weeks there was no law that was broken in this situation that happened in the last couple weeks. There was no law that was broken in Denver. But I think the law of morality, every NBA contract has a morality

clause, the conduct that's detrimental or not detrimental to the league. There are clauses for that in a contract and the league is able to suspend you. And so I will say this, from everything I'm told, the NBA, which has been investigating, they're closer to the end of the investigation than the beginning. And I do expect a decision on john moran and a potential suspension will come be will be coming down soon um i i don't know exactly when but i would expect it to be sooner than later um but thankfully like i said at the top like thankfully there was no crisis here that no one heard john there's nothing serious that's going on with john moran he told the police that he's just taking a break from social media now pat if you're if you're leaving social media do you are you posting your your family and then a picture saying bye i mean

maybe you're just that sentimental with with instagram yeah i don't i don't know i don't know i i honestly don't know either and we all hope Ja figures the fuck out. Yeah. Can't be. I think everyone wants the best for Ja. Everyone wants him to succeed. Everyone wants him to do what he does on the court. I think, I mean, just as basketball fans, we want to see him do what he does. And as a person, everything I've heard of him as a person, good person.

But I think the league, thankfully the league, I think, and the police have checked in, and he's doing fine. Well, and to your point there, like, shout out to the cops too, just being like, hey, everything all right? Yeah. And then being like, all right, I'll see you later then. You know? And like, that's a cool thing. You would hope that at some point in every community, which is going to be a long time, but we can hope for it,

that that is how it operates. Yes. Like, hey, that is how people who choose to protect and serve a community have a relationship with said community. And it's just like, yeah, hey, is everything okay? Cool. We'll be on our way out of here. But whenever it was just like understood, like, yeah, cops went over.

I was like, I must be missing stuff. I didn't know he fought a high school. You say you like fought a high school guy? I thought he punched a high school kid in the face. And in a mall? I didn't know about any of these things. And so then you start thinking about Adam Silver. It was like, hey, da, da, da who's like hey bob can we please yeah yeah

can we how many how many more you think like this is it right for jaw we'd assume yeah well this this will result potentially so he got eight games and i think when that eight game suspension happened um i think everyone kind of thought that that was light. And so that's the perception around the league. And so now you meet with Adam Silver. You tell Adam Silver, you know, it's not going to happen again. I've learned from it. I've learned from the past. You do an interview.

You kind of say the same things publicly when the media asks you. And then two months later, it happens again. And assuming everything checks out in the investigation, the gun was his. Obviously, that was him in the investigation the gun was his obviously that was him in the video which you know clearly was i i think i like that it's over so grainy video yeah not sure so just just for any future litigation it was the first time how much is it going to be the second time i mean it's like you you do the same thing again i mean do you double up do you give him just a little bit more do you go, hammer down and give him half a year or a full season? I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer.

I think anything will come with some criticism, I think, either way. If you give him the full year, it's like it's too much because you're not breaking any laws. If you give him half a year, it could be too much. You know, maybe you just give him double and then you add a few. Like, there's no right answer. Adam Silver's the only one guy. He's getting 50-plus.

Yeah, I think it's going to be a big one just because of how big the story has become. And I didn't know that there was previous situations where he and the police were on basically a first-name basis in Memphis, Tennessee. I didn't know that was the case. So hopefully they have it figured out because he is electrifying. And it is a great thing to have on television when John Moran is playing. The energy of everybody in the building is higher whenever he's in there. Let's hope he knows that and understands that there's a lot to kind of accomplish and figure out. And maybe stepping

away from social media is a good first step. Maybe he is making some changes to make his life better. Although it did involve a wellness check from the police. We can't thank you enough for joining us, Shams. Where are you at? Are you going to the game tonight? I'm in L.A. right now. Undisclosed. Oh, you're at LeBron's house Okay

So LeBron doesn't want to play as much Remember from earlier The other guy LeBron said Yeah okay Alright we appreciate you Ladies and gentlemen Sean Schrodinger

That's a damn shame I don't love that one bit But I do love sports And I love chatting about it Every single day With the Talks at the Table At Boston Corner And at Ty Schmidt

Hat looks great Ty One half of the hammer and at Ty Schmidt. Hat looks great, Ty. One half of the hammer. Dot. Cowboys tone digs. Hat looks great, Tony. Thank you. And also 14-year NFL veteran and icon Pac-Man Jones. Hat looks great, Pac-Man Jones.

Thank you, sir. What about my hat? What the fuck? New Zealand, like Australia, just closer. Yeah. Name the lowest COVID cases out of any country in the world. They are a great island over there. Jermaine.

Everyone's hat. Yep. Present. Murray. Present. Business socks was a banger, bro. Flight of the Conchords, you don't even know what this is. This is way before your time.

It was the biggest New Zealand propaganda video of all time. You have no idea what it is. So don't you tell me that I'm not showing your hat respect. You said goodnight to everybody except me. Well, it was immediately after I introduced you that I realized everybody's got a fucking hat on right now. Yeah. Except for me, I must have missed a memo. And also, when I look at your hat,

I think it's a great hat. Whatever, dude. It's not as good as the Flight of the Conchords, though. That would basically be everything that is the New Zealand representation. But I've never been to New Zealand. So would basically be everything that is the New Zealand representation. But I've never been to New Zealand. So I might be completely wrong. 59 reasons New Zealand is the best place on Earth. Let's start with number one.

No part of the country is more than 100. I don't know how long a kilometer is. It's close to the sea. 50 miles. It's an island. Classic. There are no snakes. That's huge.

Take that, Australia. And the crossing is ahead of the Mount Doom. It's a walk like no other on the planet. And also Brett, Jermaine, and Murray. Joining us now is not a New Zealander, but an Ohioan. He's the champion of Ohio. He's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, and the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. COVID survivor thus far.

Yeah. Careful. Hey. There's something brewing. Hey. Uh-oh. Don't say they're in a kitchen or anything or a Hey. There's something brewing. Hey. Uh-oh. Don't say they're in a kitchen or anything or a lab. Don't say that.

Because we don't want to be a part of that conversation. We don't know. But I will say. All right. But we will. We don't. We will say. Allegedly, there's another one coming.

This guy will be if he has to for all of us. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hall. Yeah. Have you heard this? Have you heard this, AJ? I have not seen COVID pop up. We need to go to New Zealand, don't we? Well, it sounds like they have it all figured out, and if we have to, we will

because I can't do it again. No. These tweets, what these tweets are saying. Who's saying? Who's saying? These tweets. Who's saying this? Foxy, just come on. No.

Tweets. Who is it? No. Well, I got the vaccine, so I'll be fine from this, right? Well, yeah. Turns out there's a new one. We don't know, okay? I haven't done enough research.

Did you get all eight? Because I did. Well, we appreciate you doing that. Obviously, thank you for serving the community. Where's your mask, Tony? Did you get COVID? One time, yeah. Oh, okay. Worth it. Great work. Could have been more. Remember? Cowboy. Oh, yeah. He went into the cave.

That's it. He watched Yellowstone in the COVID cave and came out this. COVID had a bigger effect on this show maybe than any show. There's a tweet. numerous ones, saying there's another fastball coming right on the paint. That's what they're saying. I want you to know I'm ready.

Hey, we all are. You know why? Because we celebrated numerous times that we'd beat this thing. We're not saying that it's gone forever, but we were ready to celebrate our victory because we know how hard the world fought to beat this motherfucker. You're talking about maybe the biggest commitment by the entire globe in the history of anything happening

to beat this thing's ass. So if it comes back, we're ready, we're prepared. We've been there, we've done that. All we have is the inch in front of us and the inch behind us. And in between those inches is the present moment. And where we are right now is in a much better spot than we were then. We are prepared and ready to battle whatever.

And we will, won't we? Tried and true. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Go us, dude. The inches are going to be everywhere around us. Go us, dude. Woo!

Not just America, obviously. The earth! Yeah, yeah. Go earth! We're ready, dude. Yeah! But they're saying this is a fastball. We're going to need a big bat, obviously. The Earth! Yeah, yeah. Go Earth! We're ready, dude! Yeah! But they're saying this is a fastball.

We're going to need a big bat, allegedly. Joining us now is a man who swings a big bat over there in Cincinnati. He has since 19... 99 has been a part

of the Cincinnati Bengals operation at a high level making decisions and scouting. Now he's the general manager and they have a consummate contender

for the American Football Championship championship. He is a dog whenever it comes to piecing a team together, and now he's going to be tasked with keeping it together. We believe he will be able to do so. Pac-Man Jones is the reason he's joining us. The general manager of the Cincinnati Bengals, Duke Tover. What's up, dude?

What's up? What's up, guys? Hey, thank you for joining us, man. Honestly. You know, I was going to wear my tank top today, too. I'm kind of glad I didn't. I didn't want to show you up. Are you jocked?

You're jocked? Are you jocked? A little bit. Yeah! Dude, do you have time to work out? Diet? Tiny, tiny bit. Is your life just all ball all the time?

Are you a big film guy? What is life as a general manager for the Cincinnati Bengals for you? What's day-to-day schedule? I don't know. I just pretend to look busy, you know. I got too many good guys around me. I just stay out of their way. Well, it seems like you guys are.

Yeah, on occasion I'll get a workout in. Well, you guys have fake been busy to an incredible successful fashion because the team that you guys have pieced together, and I know you guys have fake been busy to an incredible, successful fashion because the team that you guys have pieced together, and I know you've heard it and we've said it, and I'm assuming that you have heard us talk about the indoor facility, but you talk to any coach that's ever been through Cincinnati or anybody that's ever been there. It's like, hey, it's different there. It's like a real family business there. The amount of people that are there making decisions, the things that are, and they basically describe it as,

and they probably weren't able to have success there, but they say it's harder to win in Cincinnati with the way the setup is. You've got to have full commitment from everybody at all times. It's a lot different than maybe some other places, so you've got to have the right people. What you've been able to piece together with that, and also take it into the next step. We've got an indoor facility.

We've got sponsorship on the stadium. I mean, we've got things popping off there. you should be pumped with what you have done as general manager of the cincinnati bangles i think it's an incredible thing is that all accurate though when people talk like that and what is your viewpoint on how the bangles have been since your time starting in 1999 to where we are now well i'll tell you this, and I don't know what perception is. The reality that I've lived here is that everyone in the building, they're here for football, period. That's their life. Whether they own the club or are working here or coaching here or playing here, they're in it to win it. And that's been the mantra ever since I've been here in 99. It was before that, you know,

with Mike and his dad, Paul. It's a family business, but the business is football. We don't have other businesses. We have the football business and the goal is to win. And it's always been to win. It's been to put the best team together. And we feel like we got a pretty good team now. You know, the pieces are falling into place and we got to go out and do it. This league's not easy. It doesn't matter how good a football team you have. You know, you got to get them prepared right. You got to stay healthy and you got to have some fortune. But we think we got a group that can compete with anybody. Go ahead, AJ.

Duca, you hear coaches talk about all the time, like how do you handle success? Like that's when you really find out who your team is. And you guys have obviously, because you're so good, you've set yourself up to where we expect you to win the Super Bowl every single year, which is a great spot to be in, but maybe some pressure from the outside. How do you guys – does that change anything in how you guys go about your day-to-day?

I don't think so. I haven't noticed anything different. You know, our guys handled coming off the Super Bowl and losing a heartbreaker there and coming right back and playing for the AFC Championship. So our guys are resilient. They know what it takes. So I don't worry about that with our coaching staff.

They've been around here a while now, and they know each other, and they know our players, and our they know each other and they know our players and our players know each other and know what it takes to get there. So I don't see that. Obviously, as your team matures, people want more money. And so that's something that we'll work through as we go. But we got a lot of guys that are hungry to win and a lot of guys that feel like we can win it all. And so that's kind of where you want your football team to be that's the mindset well definitely chat about the business side at some point because your answer about uh team but i think the combine whenever they said about t higgins uh if you want to you guys should find you guys should find find your

own like we we like having t higg. We will certainly talk about the money that you're going to have to disperse and figure out in the modern salary cap gymnastics that can take place in the ways contracts are structured these days versus how they were in the past. And I'm excited to hear your thoughts on how you're handling all of it because allegedly the borough contract

is being negotiated right now. Andrew doing his interview and seemed to be pretty chill. You know what I mean? So it's like i'm excited to hear your thoughts but first but i got a tea time i gotta worry about i gotta get out there so we got we got a lot going on hey a lot of business gets handled out there but before we dive into that zach taylor you said the coaches you got faith in the coaches the whole world didn't after zach's first year i mean it was it was not a good run there. In the Andy Dalton situation, I think,

the way that kind of all kind of got handled and panned out and everything like that. And then people were saying, Zach Taylor got hired as a head coach because he had a cup of coffee with McVay. This guy, he only got hired because who he hung out with. And it wasn't success early. And just like in Buffalo with Bean and McDermott, where there wasn't success early, and they said,

nah, we trust, we trust, we trust what we're building here. You were very firm behind Zach Taylor's side. And now it's coming out, this guy's a great, great fucking NFL coach. What did you see from him at the beginning that made you think like that? And was there ever any times where, you know, you had any doubt that this could potentially happen with this coaching staff? We never really had any doubt from Zach from the moment we met him. You know, we knew he was about the right stuff.

He believed in the same things that we believe in as a football team. He really relates well to players. He knows how to take care of players. He knows how to push them when they need to be pushed. He's got the right mindset in terms of, you know, doing what the players do best and putting our players in position to be successful. And, you know, he's proven to be able to do that, you know, with players like Joe Burrow and Higgins and Chase and all of our guys. And so it's there was never really any hesitation because we knew what he was about. He's great to be around.

He's got a great mind. He's got excellent leadership. He grew up around football. He knows the game. So this is not new to us. And he knew the locker room. And anytime you're new, anytime you have a whole new staff change, it takes time. And so, you know, we wanted to build it with them.

And and so so far, so good. Yeah, I'd say. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I would say I would say it has worked out. But I think like that patience and the vision that you have there. And it seems like a lot of people that are in positions of power in the NFL have that. Us media and fans, you know, it's, hey, we apologize, you know, because we overreact mightily for a lot of things. And we're very thankful for people like you who are in positions to actually pull the strings. We're like, all right, doofus, just please. Hold on. We got an offensive genius here pretty much.

Just wait until we get them to pieces. Your offense is electrifying. I mean, it is. And the head coach being the offensive coordinator, that's good news because you don't have to go find a new one every single year either, which it seems like defensive head coaches have to do. Pac-Man has a question for you. And, by the way, shout-out to both of you for making this happen.

Really appreciate it. Duke, my man. Duke, my man. What's up, Doogie? How you doing? I'm doing pretty good. Everybody want to talk offense. I want to talk defense with Lou Allen Romo.

Daxah here played really good last year. We went and got two defensive back this draft with the safety losing Jesse Bates. How are the young kids looking? Will they be ready? Yeah, I've been impressed with the DBs, just watching them go through the underwear drills that we're doing right now. I've been impressed with the DBs, just watching them go through the underwear drills that we're doing right now. I've been impressed with their movement. I've been impressed with their cohesion. You know, we've got some leadership there. We've got young guys, but we've got some

leadership. Dak's done a great job. Scott's done a great job. And some of these young guys are looking the part. You know, until we start playing football, you never know. But we feel like that group pack is going to be a good group for us. A lot of speed, a lot of athleticism. We've got some length. We've got some experience. So, so far, so good. Hey, Lou Anarumo is a dog. He's the best dog.

He's an absolute dog. He's getting – Don't let him get away from us, Duke. That's what I'm saying. Duke doesn't want us to talk about him, right? Duke, every time he came on our show, you're probably like, can we get that fucking guy off that show? We need nobody to know

about his existence. That seems like what it's been, right? Doesn't it feel like that? Yeah. The thing about Lou is he's a lot like Zach. He looks at the players, sees what they do best, and puts them in position to succeed. And he puts a lot on their plate, and he's demanding. And I think they appreciate that. I

think they appreciate the flexibility and the diversity that we have on defense, you know, from a scheme standpoint. And Lou's a great game planner. He can look at what a team does best and look to take it away. And so we've been really impressed with, you know, how he's built the Bengal defense and the Bengal defensive philosophy. It's a lot like Zach on the offense and Brian Callahan. Yeah, but you've got to have the right players to be able to execute all that shit. When the Patriots are doing everything for so long the way they were doing it, there are certain players that are good football players.

They go up there and it's like, not good players here. This is a whole different ballgame. So whenever you have a demanding coach who expects a lot, you've got to find the right players. How do you go about finding the right players in this whole combine process, draft process? Because that's what we talk about all day. There was this S2, C2? There was an S2 test that came out.

Like, you know, that's funny. Good pop out of Duke. There's a guy who actually makes the decisions too. I like you learning about that. But how do you know if a guy is going to be a guy that fits your culture or not? You know, is that the hardest thing to figure out and the whole thing? Well, we talk to them, you know, that's what we do. We talk to them and, and that's, that's the number one. Then we talk to people that know them and we talk to people that,

that, that we trust to tell us the truth and people that know what it takes to play, we trust to tell us the truth and people that know what it takes to play, not only in the NFL, but for us. So we rely on information from good sources. And then we talk to the players and we want to hear it from them. And then we want to marry that with what we see on tape. And if it's different, then we've got a problem. But if we're seeing what they're describing on tape, they say they love football and the tape shows it. We believe it. If the tape doesn't show that they love football, then we've got a problem. And and so we want guys, you know, where every time you turn over a rock, it's the same underneath. You know, you see the desire you see. We want guys that love football.

You see the desire. We want guys that love football. We want guys that are intelligent enough to learn and adapt to today's NFL. We want guys that are tough. Bigger is better. Stronger is better. Faster is better. Productive, great.

But we want guys that love to play the game and want to maximize themselves. The guys that are just doing it because of what it brings, there's a problem there uh because normally they fizzle out the guys that are doing it because even if the nfl didn't exist they'd still be trying to play football somewhere those are the guys we want no i thought you just drafted joey burrow's friends yeah yeah you know you draft chase or whatever drafted okay is this a good idea? It's like, well, I hate to break it. I think even if Burrow wasn't on the team, that motherfucker's getting drafted.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is the spot. The weapons, the mindset, the mentality, it feels like you got what everybody else is looking for. Good for you, man. Go ahead, AJ. Duke, when you're scouting these guys, like out of college especially, who are some of the people you go to that you trust their opinion? I know you can talk to coaches, assistants,

but are you guys going in talking to janitors, trainers, everyone like that they kind of interact with? Our scouts have great contacts. It depends on the school. Some schools, you might have an academic advisor that's a great source for you that really, really understands. Some schools, it might be the strength coach. Some schools, it might be the strength coach. Some schools, it might be the pro liaison. Some schools, it might be the head coach that you

rely on. But it's different people at every different school. And we really have scouts who have developed relationships with a lot of different people at different schools. And there's guys at schools that they, what did he say? Have no interest in hearing about what he said because he hasn't been right in the past or he hasn't been forthright in the past. And then we've got other guys that that's where I want to spend my time. So I want to make sure I go in one-on-one and talk to, you know, this person at this school and and so it takes time as a scout to develop those relationships and there has to be a trust and and so we've we've gotten that over time to to feel good about what we're getting that's like inside scouting like some older scout

to a younger scout like hey befriend this uh second equipment manager. His family's in there. After the head equipment manager gets out, he's going to be the head, and he's right now doing a lot of the dirty work. Let's not just say hello and introduce ourselves. Let's actually – this is a friend. That's a genius. We didn't even think about that, AJ. Great question.

I love that. Hey, that's like real – We've got young players on our team that have played with a lot of these guys in this past draft, and we'll have guys on our team that play with guys in the next draft and and so those are valuable resources too what this what is this guy like in the locker room what do you want to be teammates with him you know would you want him coming here and and sometimes you get a yeah that'd be fine and sometimes you get absolutely you know i, I got to have this guy. This guy is fantastic. Anybody say not? And so there's a lot of ways to get information about a guy.

You know, these guys are spending three, four, five years at a school or in college football anymore, not necessarily at one school, but in college football that there's a lot of information to be found if you do. Yeah, some people are playing seven, eight years in college ball nowadays. It's a whole new world, Duke. Just got accepted. More information, though. More information on who's doing what there. Has anybody ever said, nah, don't bring

him? Anybody ever did that? Anybody been like very straight shooter with you and been like, you don't want this guy? It's not that I don't want him. It's that he would rather not play with him anymore. He's not, he doesn't fit really. It's that he would rather not play with him anymore. You know, he,

he's not, he, he doesn't fit really here, you know? So yeah, we get that from time to time. That's awesome. And those guys aren't here, you know,

they're like, they're like, nah, you know, he's, he's got a little talent, but you know, he's,

he's not real motivated or, you know, you're not sure where he is when he leaves the facility or you're, you know, he, he's not much of a worker, but he'll show up on Saturdays and play, you know? So when we get those type of answers, we tend to respect them. Hey, that's real empowerment of your players, dude. That's real. That's real deal. That's probably why you have everybody bought in so much over there. That's not like that everywhere. I don't, you, you've been in Cincinnati for a for 100 years so i don't know if you know that yeah we are we want our locker room to gel and

and and zach has done a great job of building a fantastic culture and so we're trying to nurture that we're not trying to blow it up by taking undue risk on guys that might not fit in the locker room with our other players man seems so doesn't that seem like a simple concept hey dude it does right doesn't that feel like a pretty like non-starter to not have that that's not that's not everywhere okay there's there's nothing i do that's not just a simple concept you know bigger is better. I'll take the stronger guy.

I want the tougher guy, the faster guy, the stronger guy. And I also want guys to get along and play as teammates. And so it's not necessarily always the best collection of talent. It's it's the best team. And so this time of year is a great time to start building the team for for next season. Yeah, but that camaraderie counting as a factor, that's close to Cillian. That's not the simplest. You're playing a chess move there, pal. Because having like, hey, week 11, week 12, we're going to go through some shit.

Okay? Week 14, we're going to have somebody injured. We're going to take a loss. We're going to suffer a bad loss. There's going to be a moment. We need not to have everybody just, ah, ah, ah. That's something that not a lot of people think of for some reason and we see it every single year it's actually how i judge some teams like hey looks like that team fucking gets along really well there we'll show practice clips on our show

and like some teams will be dancing together and then some teams it's like very apparent like hey those dudes do not like each other and you can immediately tell almost can't you duke yeah you can and it's not about liking your teammates. It's about respecting them. You know, that's what it is. It's about respecting what they're doing here and the contributions they can make and understanding the fit of everybody in the building. You don't have to hang out with them outside of the building.

You have to respect them, though, when you're in the building together working as a team. And we've got a lot of mutual respect. And it starts with the very top. It starts with Joe Burrow. He commands respect, but he earns respect. And the people that are around him feel that. And then he gives respect back in spades. Man.

You know, that's the position, too, Duke the game you got a guy yeah 15 20 35 who knows how long the science way it's going exactly he could throw until he's 55 60 minutes i mean who knows he's an ohio fuck too i mean he's not speaking of joe burrow you brought in some protection go ahead connor yeah duke you guys brought in uh orlando brown this year was it kind of sweet to steal him from the chiefs one uh were you also the genius behind the idea of him interviewing the mayor uh during the offseason to announce that game and then with the evaluation aspect of it do you evaluate free agents the same way as you do with the draft asking players or is it easier because you know what they can do in the men's league and you kind of know how that process is with proven veterans?

Well, there's a lot of questions there, and I'm probably not smart enough to remember them all, but I'll start with the last one I heard. Genius. In terms of evaluating free agents, yeah, there's less of a projection. You know how they're going to play in our game. You really work on trying to figure out how they'll fit. And there's a lot of ways to do that. And we spend a lot of time, you know, trying to do that. That's an important part of evaluating those guys. The money has to work.

And in signing Orlando, you know, that's just a matter of being patient and flexible when opportunity came up. You know, you can have a plan in place and, you know, it's out the window when free agency starts. And then you have to kind of refocus and see where some opportunities are. And Orlando was an opportunity that that appeared for us. And we said it's too good to turn down. You know, we, uh, let, let's see if we can get it, get it hammered out. And, uh, and we were able to get it hammered out and it's fantastic. So free agency is normally about money. You know, they want opportunity. They want a good team. They want a chance to win. They, they want to play the position

they want to play, but,. But number one, it's about money. And so you got to make the money right first. Okay. So that leads right into a perfect discussion. That's right. I know you got a tea time, Duke, and it might be coming up and creeping up closer now that these words are about to come out of my mouth. We've been trying to figure out how the hell the Joey Burrow contract is going to look with the Cincinnati Bengals. Already been to a Super Bowl. Now, he didn't win an MVP yet, like Lamar Jackson has. Has been to a Super Bowl, right?

Everybody on earth agrees he's the guy. Everybody on earth agrees he's the guy. He's perfect for your team. Everybody in Cincinnati loves him. He's from Ohio. There's other comps, I guess, you can use. Then there's the outlier that is in Cleveland that everybody is

trying to bring up at all times. Then we hear Joe Burrow's involved in the contracts and he understands he's got to build a team. T. Higgins says he appreciates that Joe Burrow's in on the contract and understands that whole thing. Where are you in it? Will you talk at all about that situation

with us? And have you had to do any exercises in salary cap gymnastics to kind of figure out how the future looks with joe burrow as your quarterback uh yeah we look at a lot of different things and thankfully katie's on top of that one she's the one that keeps us uh keeps us on track with the salary cap, not only for this year, but for future years. And so everything we do, we're looking now. But these dollars count. If you're not counting them this year, you're going to count them next year or the year after. So every dollar that goes out counts.

So it's a pie. And just how big of a piece of the pie. just how big of a piece of the pie. You know, the only thing I can predict with the contract is it's going to be a sizable amount of money, and he's not going to be asking any of you for loans anytime soon. Okay, okay, so we're paying a lot of money. Yeah, here we go. He'll be paid well, and he's earned it. And, you know, what it looks like in its final state, you know, there's more than just the Bengals and Joe.

It's Joe's agent it's the union it's a lot of uh factors that are outside of of us that you know there's a lot of people have that have interest in this and and Joe's great to work with and and I know uh Katie and his representation will get it worked out and uh and we'll go forward you know, we plan on Joe Burrow being here a long time. He's the straw that's stirring it right now. Hell, yeah. And that environment in the jungle is awesome. And he's the perfect person for it because it feels like no moment is too big for him.

I had a chance to see him at the SEC Championship when Georgia was playing LSU. I think his junior year, I believe, obviously. Senior. I don't remember. When he was balling. I went into the stadium early because we did game day and I had nowhere to hang out. So they let me in the stadium early and they were practicing all the camera shots. And the players who got

there very, very early. This is a massive game. I mean, this is a huge... They had a tight shot on Joey's face for like five hours before the game to about like three hours before the game to about two hours before the game to about one hour before the game.

And there was nothing else for me to literally look at other than this fucking massive shot on him. I didn't see the guy sweat once, blink once. Every interaction he had with everybody was like a cool, clean dap. How you doing? Have a good one. I think like a janitor came over at one point that was cleaning up the field.

How you doing? There was nothing. It's like this is the coolest dude of all time. Then he gets in the NFL. Same exact outcome. But you had to hate him getting murdered that first year, huh? Yeah. He proved how tough he was, though, Duke.

You had to love that, I assume. Like, hey, you're tough. We get it. He got crushed though so i think we appreciate you investing in the offensive line to try to fix that but did that ever scare you in that entire process when he started there well um yeah i mean your quarterback getting hurt always scares you a little bit it's not what that's not what you want and you know joe is the type of guy that never believes that the play's over and believes that he can make something out of everything. And that's part of what makes him great is that is that he doesn't give up on things. And so, you know, we knew we had to fortify what was going on in front of them.

And we think we've got a great group up there of guys who understand how he plays. And I think our coaches understand how he plays. And, you know, we've kind of come up with the Bengal offense with Joe Burrow. And it's just fun to watch. It's fun to watch him interact. One of the easier scouting assignments that we've had as an organization, because you couldn't walk around that LSU building without somebody telling you how great he was. You're in the cafeteria getting something to eat,

and the cafeteria lady is telling you what a great guy he is, unsolicited. So some guys are really easy to scout. He was really easy to scout at LSU because everything they said was obvious. Yeah, and he's only lived up to the hype somehow. Tough division, though. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Mike Tomlin likes to say that it's hot in the kitchen in the AFC, and we talked to other GMs who, with in mind they draft

and they build their teams around the division, with that in mind, like with the AFC North, how do you have to build your team to be first and foremost successful there in the division? Well, our division never goes away. And we kind of keep wishing here in Cincinnati that it would, but the other teams are pretty darn good at what they do too. And Pittsburgh's not going away and Baltimore's not going away. And Cleveland's got a lot of talented guys and we've had a heck of a time beating them year over year so it's a division that never just disappears even though we might like some of the teams to disappear but you know

we've always felt like if you can win our division you've got a team that can beat the other divisions you got a team that can beat you know that can win it all if you're the AFC North champ you got a team that's a contender, a contender for the Super Bowl. So, yeah, it's a physical division. You've got to be big enough. You've got to be man enough. You've got to be able to stop the run. You've got to be able to play in inclement weather. You've got to be able to play in hostile crowds. You've got to be able to slow down pass rush there's always pass rush in our in our division uh there's always just big strong physical man football and uh it it hasn't changed and i don't see that changing as we go forward all four cities there said hell yeah because

whenever you when you said hostile environments that's interesting because that's those are all blue collar towns so there's a lot of shit talking in all those towns. And then the weather is the worst. That is the worst. Any kicker, shout out to your guy, he's Money Mac is an absolute dog. Has been as soon as he got in there. Huber had an incredible run over there. I don't know what the next day is there at the punting position.

But anyways, that is a nightmare of a division. Every year you got to sign up for that. November, December. It's going to be fucking miserable. That's how it's going to be. And also, they're going to be trying to run over your face. Man football in the AFC. Great term.

I absolutely love that. Go ahead, AJ. Duke, we hear people talk all the time. They say, oh, well, you can't pay everybody on a team, especially when you have a young team. He was talking. We didn't hear a talk all the time. They say, oh, well, you can't pay everybody on a team, especially on a young team. He was talking, but he was down. We didn't hear a word you said there. You look like we just glitched your entire screen.

Did you say something there? No, I don't think so. Oh, you did. We missed it. That's our class B, AJ, not you, obviously. Go ahead, pal. That's all right. Can you pay everybody now?

With this, how you can kick the can down the road, how we can kind of craft these salaries, what they're doing year after year to kind of move money into bonuses. Is it like, can you really keep your core together nowadays with the salary cap? Well, that's the hope. And we'll see how it goes. You know, there's a mindset for this year and there's a mindset for the future. And we're not giving up good players that we think can help us win this year

because we might not be able to have them in the future. You know, so you've got to balance both. One thing that has to happen is you've got to count the dollars at some point. And we're not looking to disappear here in a couple years because, you know, we've done things that put us in a precarious spot. So we want to be mindful of this year and we want to be mindful of the future. We want to keep as many good players as we can. We know there's competition for them. When their contracts expire, they expire. And we have to be willing to replace them if we have to replace them. It's not the desire. We want the guys with life in their NFL career to finish here.

We want guys to stay here and be part of our community, a part of our team, a part of our legacy long-term. We want that. It doesn't always happen, but that's what we strive for. Yeah, too much good. These are the type of problems that you kind of got to run into. How do you redevelop, replenish, and replace is certainly going to be a part of your legacy as it goes forward. Feels like you got Joey Burrow.

Should be pretty okay. Yeah. Should be pretty okay. But a lot of incredibly talented pieces around there. And hearing you talk about having to pay it at some time and then also saying, like, yeah, just because we might not have a guy in the future doesn't mean I want to get rid of him right now. I always get so confused when I hear, well, two years from now, his contract is up. So we don't have him next year. It's like, so we get that off our books, but we did pick up a third rounder.

It's like, is that third rounder going to play as fucking good as DeAndre Hopkins? Do we not care about him playing? Like, we signed a contract to play football. Our team is worse without the person. Yeah, but we don't have to pay a deal two years from now. That is used as an excuse in some places, Duke,

you know that. Well, you're not the only one confused by statements like that. Cause I'm confused by that too. You know, the goal is to win and you win with the best players you can possibly have. And so we're not, we're not going to ship them out if they can help us win,

you know, early, just because we're, we're trying to maximize something for the future. You know, the future is now and next year, the future will be that year. And the next year, the future will be that year. We're mindful of what's going on in the in the in coming seasons but it it's not driving our our willingness to put the best team on the field this year and and so when we've got a player that a young player that's producing and somebody says are you going to get rid of them the answer is normally hell no no but dude you don't want to have to pay them in three years that's what they say and then they sell this to their fans.

And their fans are like, we got that. Yeah, that makes sense. We don't have to do it. It's like, what? Dude, what are we doing? Last question here from Pac-Man. And, Duke, you've been incredibly kind with your time here, especially with the golf thing and OTAs happening.

The kickoff rule. Is Darren going crazy? Because, you know, this is mind-boggling to me and Pat. It's like we're trying to take the fucking returners out of the complete game. Now we're talking about we're just going to punt the ball. Nobody's going to get to go down

the field. We're going to catch it. What's going on, man? Duke, how'd you guys let this happen? What about football? I thought we were playing football. Duke, I thought it was football, Duke. AFC North football, Duke. Why'd you let it happen, Duke? What about football? I thought we were playing football, Duke. Duke, I thought it was football, Duke. AFC North football, Duke. Why'd you let it happen, Duke? Well, I can tell you that A, they didn't really ask me. B,

the Cincinnati Bengals voted against that. Okay! Hootay! We'll see how it works. It is changing the game. I'm always a believer, let's keep the thing the thing, you know, and the thing is football. And that's what people enjoy. And that's what people like. So we've got to be mindful of keeping football in football. And

so we'll see how it goes. But I do think it'll reduce the kickoff returns and reduce the effectiveness of returners and the effectiveness of special teams as a whole. Especially in your division with the weather, somebody hits a duff to like the 10, like that's, hey, we're hitting it and getting it. And I'm not saying your team's not going to do it. Darren obviously is going to have everything in and he's not just going to throw in the white flag

and just say, we're fair catching everything. What are we even? We get to about 25, There's no penalty potential. There's no turnover potential. There's no injury potential. Let's just fair catch no matter what. If it lands at the 26, all right, get every good

return from the 26 out. But everything else, you know people are going to do that. And I think that's a shame. I honestly believe that that's a shame that that's going to be one of the things and obviously they got it all figured out but I appreciate that the Bengals aren't scared to be like what's everybody else saying nah there's a lot of there's a lot of great players who've made careers out of being special teams players and uh you know whether

that continues or not it will we'll have to see but the more special teams they take out of the game the more reliant you are on having special teams players on your team. And so, you know, you're taking some opportunities away from guys to have long careers as just special teamers. If they're not returning and they're not covering, then there really isn't a reason for them to be around. And I think we know those humans that have done that, and the humans that aren't in football have not

because those people aren't normally getting in media or having massive, like, anything like that. So I think you don't know how many of these people there are. There's, like, 10 people at any given time on a team that are probably going to have a five-, six-year career. Oh, yeah. That have set their entire – I mean, that's like a lot of people at any given moment.

I don't think people even recognize that. I'm happy you do, though, Duke. And we appreciate your time today, man. You bet. Thanks for having me, guys. How will you play? You a player? Scratch?

I don't know. I got two or three swing breakdowns I'm working on. Man, you can play. He's the same. I'm out of the pocket. Yeah, you're coming out of the pocket. He can hit it. I'm out of the pocket. Yeah, you're coming out of the pocket. Stop it. He can hit it.

I'm out of the pocket. Duke, you coming out of the pocket with that thing? Are you putting a pool noodle in the arm? What are you doing out there? I got a lot of swing thoughts. I got too many swing thoughts right now. What are they right now? What are they right now?

In, out? Well, it's the front arm. You know, my front arm is breaking down a little bit. And so I've got to really focus there. Then I've got a putting problem, but that's been with me a long time. Duke! Duke! Listen. Oh, yeah.

I'm not a good putter. I have never been a good putter. Don't understand how people are good at putting. It's a completely different sport than fucking golf. How is this the most important part of the whole thing? I also struggle with it for a long time. I don't know if you're on Instagram. I'm just going to assume you're not.

That's rude of me to do that, but I'm assuming you're not on Instagram. So there's a lot of feeds on Instagram that are like golf tips. You remember the golf fix show? I assume you watched, you're talking about all your different swing thoughts. I assume you watch a golf fix every once in a while. Yeah. So me too. Me too.

And I used to love it. I'm like, all right, I need to take a towel, put it on this arm, I need to do this thing, and then that's going to create the perfect swing. I'm not paying a fucking swing coach, but I'll watch this golf fix

and I'll do this entire thing. There's like a thousand of those on Instagram at any given time, Duke. I mean, there's golf tips and tricks everywhere. This one I'd never seen before and it's so simple. And I assume you've thought of it

because you said like you're the master of the simple thoughts. You know how everybody tells you when you're putting to like point this at the hole? Right. Turn that son of a bitch sideways. Match it up with your putter.

And then so you're square. And then you're just trying to putt square through it. I've done it the last four days in here since seeing it on Instagram. Whole different ball game. All right. I like that. Now what if you put a cross on it what if you go this way where you get where you know you take it to the next level go this way and

then you got that line and you got that boom duke you're you're already there genius idea look at that they already got it there you go yeah man i love it i'm making putts though duke i'm making you should try it i mean you're a scratch it sounds like yeah so i don't need to be giving you tips trying Instagram told me though guy did pool noodle then he had a rubber band thing on his arm and then he gave me this one. So I had to really sit through it to get to it. That guy seems to know

what he's doing as do you. Incredible team incredible person. Thank you for joining us ladies and gentlemen, Duke Tobin. Yay! What if that fixes his... That'd be huge. Dude, I've been making putts. What if he leaves, he goes and makes the PGA Tour,

and all of a sudden the Bengals downslide because of it? It's your fault. Oh, sorry about it. Whoops. Anthony Richardson just got to Indianapolis. Sorry, AFC. Oh, no.

What do we need to do? I need to get ahold of Bean right now and Beach right now. What? And, hey, I'll get that con artist on the fucking golf course. He's making every single putt. I'll get every GM out of the AFC if I have to with this putt. It has changed a little bit.

Because you literally just line up your putter square with the thing. It's much easier optically. So you're making putts, though? Is it going to help you make putts? I don't know, bro. I'm making them here. Does that mean anything? I used to not.

It's like everything. Yeah, nothing matters until it's an actual real round that actually counts. On those Tahoe greens. There you go. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Fast.

Putt it right off into the lake. Oh, no. Into the sand? I putt it right off into the sand. I was on the green. Oh, yeah. I've putt it into the water before, though. Yeah.

It happens. Not last year. Not last year. Not last year. Not last year. I don't believe you. That's a fucking lie. That's not true. He's heard somebody else say that story, and everybody got a big pop.

He's like, oh, that's my story. Oh, I'm going to use that. That's my story. That sounds like me. It is. I like to take other people's stuff. Yeah, no. Yeah, because you're so like everybody else.

It's the same exact thing. Thank you. You're just the most basic person of all time. March to the beat of everyone's drum. Yeah, that's what they say. I appreciate that. Normal human, A.J. Hawk. Yes.

Same old, same old. Pat, Duke is awesome. Yeah, cool. Duke is one of my favorite, man. And he always tells you what's real. Like, you know, some GMs are like, oh, man, you know, when I was coming to my last year, when I told my groin,

he told me after the game, he said, this is going to be your last year. You know what I mean? Sorry about it. That's awesome. I'd rather someone be straight up with me than beat around the bush, but he's an unbelievable person. He's really good at what he do too. See where they at right now. Very good.

And whenever I brought up how hard it is to be in Cincinnati, or was at least, that's everybody that's ever coached at Cincinnati is like, man, as soon as the season's over, it's college football. I'm on the road. I'm scouting now because there isn't like a full scouting department. It's like very much like, hey, these are our people. Small business.

It's almost like the most. It's all his family. A lot of them, everyone's related. Yeah. Football. Crazy. It's so different than everywhere else. It's very different.

So you coach special teams and you don't watch, you don't go, like, the person's going to be kicking for you, you're not going to go find that person? You want somebody else to do that? Just got to unload the ball. That doesn't make sense. Just got to get him the hell out of here dude get him out of our building that's awesome especially with how successful

they have become he did not say like hey i'm not we are not just going to be kicking a can down the road here money is real he said numerous times he said those numbers are real whether it's this year or next year that's a real money so that's an interesting thing as we think about how he structures joe and chase and t and everybody else yeah that they kind of got to put on money i'll be fascinated to see what they choose to divvy up and what they just choose that no we'll just pay that let's pay that this year right and then we'll just kind of figure this whole thing out you know what i mean you hear what he said it was interesting to me he said there's a lot of people that are interested or involved in the contract he mentioned the union and all this stuff what can they help figure out the structure like how does that work so if we watch back i go union

like i was yeah because i was told they want to make sure joe's not taking a hometown discount bingo so i was told whenever andrew was contract was potentially up And I'm like, Andrew might be the guy who legit does not care about material items. The guy is, he will ride a bicycle that is not an expensive bicycle and a helmet, and he will ride to work. He is an anomaly of a human being. And his contract was coming up.

And I was like, you know what, maybe Andrew. Now, his dad, incredible businessman, as is Andrew andrew an incredible businessman but i thought there was a chance especially with how hard he was hit numerous times and how close we were and how you get a couple more pieces yeah maybe you're able to go i'm like maybe andrew's the guy that's like you know what let's just do a deal i like you pay me a shit ton obviously but i don't need to completely tank the rest of the salary cap or whatever i thought and, I had four people that looked at me like I was the dumbest human of all time. They say, you think Andrew's making that decision? What do you think this is?

I'm like, oh, Andrew's a puppet for the agent. Agent? Yeah. Agent, NFLPA. You think the NFLPA is going to let Andrew Luck take less money? That fucks every single quarterback that is going to come up behind Andrew Luck. Andrew's got no say in this. So they say that's cute, pretty much, what they told me.

That's real cute that you just think, like, Andrew, oh, he's a good guy. He's super noble. He'll be like, let's do that. That's not real. Like, that is not real, especially with the first contract. Like, Tom Brady, after his first contract, you know, I mean, pick 199. He has a lot of leverage and a lot of power. No, but he also took less.

He took less money, less money, less money, less money. It's different than when you come up for your first gigantic deal. That's the difference you're talking about. As number one overall pick, too. Like, that is, you know what I mean? Pick 199, a little bit different contract conversation, whether people like it or not, that first one, versus a number one overall pick or a top five pick.

So it's like, is that what he meant by you knew? I wanted to follow up immediately. We missed. Got to have him on again sometime. Somebody else ask him. It talks to him. Please. And let us on a golf five pick. So it's like, is that what he meant by union? I wanted to follow up immediately. We missed. Got to have him on again sometime. Somebody else ask him. They'll talk to him. Please. And let us on a golf course today.

Start her at the golf course today. Don't let him be fucking late and have any extra people. Right. And you harass the shit out of him. You are so good at that at every single golf course. And then on his way off of one,

please find out if the union is kind of in there for anything other than structure base if there's any negotiations yeah because i would love to see what that was with jalen hurts because jalen hurts obviously not number one overall pick but been to a super bowl has won an mvp kind of the same as joe burrow second rounder second rounder yeah such a different i mean that's a different game but remember his salary cap hits when we looked at the five years and his deal it might have had two voided years on the end but the salary cap hits when we looked at the five years in his deal? It might have had two voided years on the end, but the salary cap hits weren't absurd like they are with a Russell Wilson

or even a Patrick Mahomes now that we're four years into that deal. So you would assume. Hey, Mahomes don't care, by the way. Exactly. I mean, he's definitely getting paid a lot. Listen, I'm rich. He owns teams. You guys pay me.

I'm getting paid a lot of money. I'm about winning in a legacy at this point. Because he already cracked the code once. First deal was the biggest of all time. So it's like he already did his duty. Hey, listen. I did it, right? Next deal is probably going to be awesome, but also pretty fungible with the Kansas City Chiefs and what they have going on, I would assume, going forward.

Just like Tom did with the Patriots for so long. But the Joe Burrow deal is going to be massive. When does it happen? I think it happened before the season. They're already talking about it right now. Would it be before training camp? That's another thing we missed.

It will be, because Mr. Brown don't do deals normally during the season. He don't really do that. Worry about football. He going to get it done before training camp. But I think now with the deals being so big, the NFLPA have to look at the deal before it's like.

Yeah, they make a lot of good deals, the NFLPA. They're the ones that should be looking at contracts for sure. Tom Brady, speaking of Tom, Tom Brady fucking hates the NFLPA. He calls him ignorant. He's not the only one. He's not the only one, bro. There's a way to get that thing. There isn't. That's another no winner, I'd assume. Right? I'd assume that's a no

winner. Yeah. Players, like, yeah, when you're playing, especially as a young player, why, I don't know, it's tough to get them engaged, I feel like, anyway. For me, I couldn't get me engaged. I know that. The young players love the't get me engaged i know that the young players love the pa they're lucky to be there they're thankful to be there well is rookie men they love that they're there okay they love that they have the nflpa card they love they're in a

the players union yep they love everything they're getting madden jay they're in madden listen they're negotiating a deal for me to be in fucking mad all my friends are playing and then like you just any person that's been around the NFL, I was only in there for eight years, okay? Only eight years. And I played a very tiny, tiny role on any of the teams that I played on. But I was around, and I did hear conversations, and I did have thoughts. You, you, you, you stick around the NFL a little bit of a time.

You're either a rep and love it, but you're even a benefit from it, and you're probably one of the reasons why. Or you do not. You do not. You have a lot of questions about a lot of things that are happening because they're one of the people that are taking money out of your check automatically. So you've got taxes taking them out, obviously.

Don't love that number. What is that? Hate that person. Who's that? Oh, that's the country tax. Which country? Canada. How much is it for? Well, they're actually taxing you on your yearly salary as opposed to what you just got paid for that preseason game. So you're actually going to lose $800 playing in this preseason game in Toronto.

But don't you worry. Your business, Marion County, they're going to tax you. State that the business that you're in is going to tax you as well. You're going to lose over $1,000 to go play in a preseason game up there in Toronto. You're lucky to do it. You're growing again. Okay, you're lucky to do it.

All right. This is just how it goes. Sweet. 401K. Yeah, you'll get that later, though. All right, you'll get that later. And then right there, NFLPA dues. NFLPA dues.

And you look and you're like, what have these motherfuckers done for me? I was in a substance abuse program 27 months. They tested me eight times a month. That was the max. We paid for that. We all paid for all those tests. That's the max amount of times they can test you. 27 months.

Eight times a month. There was no letdown. I said some things to the doctor in charge, Dr. Brown, and he held it over my head. I reach out to the NFLPA. Can somebody, like, get this guy off my fucking ass here? Can we slow this thing down? No text back for, like, two months.

And then I get a text. I'm, like, one month out from leaving. You good question, man. I'm, like, I'm not good. And I'm going to start looking into a lot of the shit you guys do now all of a sudden as well. Business decisions are poor. Have to make so many different thoughts for so many different.

It's just like you hate the NFL PA as you grow older in the NFL. And it's not a winning. They don't have a winning angle ever. But taking everybody's money and not really doing shit is certainly not a good one. Especially Dr. Brown. I call Dr. Brown, I think, what was it? He runs the Substance of Abuse program. It was either my day I retired or the day I got the program.

Hey, this Adam just wanted to tell you, fuck you. Yeah, Dr. Brown not in a good spot either. He didn't respond well to that? I hung up. So he would respond by that. He is a human, okay? And he was hired by the NFL to do the job that he's doing. He's not making any friends.

Okay. He's in another very difficult job. He's like a PO for, I mean, yeah, that's for everybody. He's in a bad spot, but also he is petty.

I do believe he is petty. When I was told that I was going into stage one, phase one, after a three-month period where three months, I thought that was all. Okay, I do everything right in this three months. I'm good. It's over. I lost 16 pounds. 16 pounds.

Didn't fail a test. Okay? Got all the fat cells out of my body pretty much. Okay? Didn't fail a single test. Didn't miss a meeting. Didn't do anything. So I'm like, cool.

I'm on my way back to Pittsburgh to celebrate me getting out of the program. Okay. Because all my friends have been having a good time. I'm on the highway. On the highway. Pumped up. I get a call from this guy. Jamming.

And he goes, I am here to inform you. I'm Dr. Brown. That we are moving you now into stage one, which is similar to the three-month thing, just for 24 more months. Just? Yeah, right. Excuse me? Who are you? Can we start with six months, see how the first six months goes? Yeah.

Re-evaluate. Dude, I said, what type of doctor are you? You're a doctor. What type of doctor are you? I doctor what type of doctor don't use a psychologist and i went full yeah that's not even real is it what do you use to have conversations make things up anybody can be a fucking doc how about i'm i'm dr padding i was so mad so immature he held that against me yeah 24 months straight he held against me i was tested 4 a.m. in places. Bathroom stalls of hotel.

I was tested everywhere and I was never in the program. I still got tested in random hotel lobbies and stuff. Dude, that was a whole thing. I deserved it. I deserved it. I agree. And I do believe that the substance of abuse program does serve a benefit. I think without it, I'm probably in a much different place.

It's still there though. I think it is. I'm probably in a much different place. Is it still there, though? I think it is. The testing is different. There's no way Dr. Brown's giving up any power. But you don't go in right away, like a failed test or a DUI or something. Well, that's for probably weed, probably for marijuana. Any drug or alcohol-related anything, that's why I went in immediately. They told me the next day, congratulations, you're in the program.

Then I was like, that's not good. That's not good at all. And I was like, I got to lose a lot of weight real quick. Yeah, now. I got to get a lot of weight. Wait, did they test you for boot? Did they test, can you have alcohol in your system? No.

That's a fail. Because, yeah, my buddy got, he wrecked a dirt bike, all this stuff in the off season. He got put in the program for like 12 to 18 months, and they would drive in and test him all the time out in northern california i think i had no reason i think i had a 3am test one time i guess a reason well i think yeah wrecked his motorcycle uh probably with booze if we had to guess not a good decision me for instance walking shirtless around town right 4am very boozed up a good decision. Should have to pay the piper in the NFL, I understand.

But to the magnitude that they do it, it is a lot. It is a lot. What's that? I said me going out, put me in the program, 4 a.m. I had one time I was at Six Flags, and the dude comes in, he got his briefcase. Bro, we in the bathroom at the gift shop. It was so embarrassing. There's nothing I can do. I'm like, yo, hey Adam, what's going on?

I need you right now too. Pissing. So he paid a mission to get in? Yeah. You had to pay it? No, definitely not him. NFL. They have that cup with them. They have a clipboard with them. They have a full uniform. There's been a couple that have been really, that cup with them. They have a clipboard with them. They have a full uniform. There's been a couple that have been really that South Florida guy.

He got caught. Yeah, but it makes sense. I mean, the South Florida guy. Makes sense. If the South Florida guy catches me on any other day than the day that he caught me, I am certainly right alongside everybody else that signed off on that entire thing. He caught me. I had to get to a plane.

We did gas station inside a highway because I was literally getting to an airport, getting tested in Fort Lauderdale in South Florida, have four hours to do the test, running late to airport, meet side of highway pretty much. He propositioned it immediately. He's got a big chain on. He's got a chain

on. I think he had a grill, long hair. You look like Riff Raff. He's got a new song out too, by the way, with Wiz Khalifa, I believe. And I'm sure it's a banger. I mean, let's not even second guess it. But yeah, he looked like the what was he calling himself? Tiger?

Jody High Roller? There it is. He looked exactly like that. I'm like, this guy doesn't look like any of the Pistos. That's pretty much what the guy looked like. This guy doesn't look anything like the piss testers. He's awesome. He is. And then he was like, you know, I got some guys down here.

We do a little. How much? I didn't even get to that point. Yeah, what happened? Did you just have to get to the airport? You couldn't finish the conversation? Am I missing plane right now? No.

I'm pissing. I got riffraff piss testing. I'm probably 150 tests deep at this stage. I've been around the game. I've been here. I'm good time. Do you think he was setting you up? Do you think it was a setup at first?

No, it came out. He did. No, I mean, in the moment, though. Ooh, great question. I don't know. Because that would also be a good racket. Is this a test to get me out of the program? Where if I say, no, no, no, I would never do that.

That would feel like entrapment. I would love to fight that. It wouldn't do that. Yeah, I would love to fight that too, Dr. Brown. You sent a motherfucker in to ask me if I want to get out of this? Of course I want to get out of this. What do we do? This is cruel and unusual punishment at this stage.

I get it. Maybe six months, needle it seven months, make my life better. We're 25 months into this thing. Okay, this is a long time. All my friends have been drunk for the last 25 months. I haven't been able to hang out with anybody. I've just been, can we get past this so yes of course I'm going to accept Riff Raff's offer

to pee in this thing for me and I'm paying him 50 grand or something like that I forget what the number was it came out though it came out it was a bunch and I didn't blame anybody and I actually I did a full if I stay another day I'd probably talk to the guy

probably get an entire probably get three months reprieve there. But instead, I missed the boat. Yeah. Because my bladder is too good. I pissed too fast. And it worked out. You had a problem pissing? Not at all.

I took 200. Have you done the math on how many tests you've taken? Just in that program? I did the math. 27 months, eight tests a month. 216 tests. Yeah. That is so many piss tests. P did the math. 27 months, 8 tests a month. 216 tests. That is so many tests. Pants at ankles.

Shirt at nipples. Standing at a line that is toilet and visible. And then you just got a random person in North Carolina you just met four minutes ago in the lobby of the hotel. Come on now. Go on, boy. Piss. Wash your hands. In the stall.

Go on, piss now. Ricky Williams tested boy. Piss. Wash your hands. In the stall. Go on, piss now. Ricky Williams tested at least 500 times. That makes sense. The program is set up for you never to get out of it. Or to get you out the league. Because a lot of guys flunk, and you're gone. There ain't nobody you can go back and report it to except Dr. fucking Brown. He's the head dying charge.

He make the rules. So if you flunk a test and you can't say, I mean, you don't have no way to say that it wasn't clean, you're going back in front of the same guy. Josh Gordon. Yeah. I didn't fail a single test or check in or miss anyone 27 months.

See, that's bullshit. I didn't fail a test, but I missed one. Check in? Yeah, I missed one. We had to call New York. I had to call New York. Do you have to do the same thing? Yes.

It's like USADA. What's that? My bad. The UFC fighters have the same thing. You have to give your whereabouts. If you're going somewhere, you're taking a trip, they can give you a fail if you don't let them know that you're traveling, you're leaving.

We had to give two phone numbers that you could reach me at, the address I was heading to, how long I was going to be there. I had to give two phone numbers that you could reach me at. The address I was heading to, how long I was going to be there. Had to call and they said, NFL, blah, blah, blah. And you have to say, put me through to. And then some person would type in what's your name? Where are you going? What's your address? And you weren't

driving a car. Your offense was, it wasn't vehicular manslaughter or something. You were walking around legit. Public intoxication. It's what fucking college kids get when they're boozed up. It's like you stole a candy bar and got the death penalty. I got a $140 fine from Indiana. Exactly.

Now, if you were swung on a cop or something like that, then, okay, yeah, this guy really has an issue. And you'd think, even if the guy's petty. It's my smart math. It's not that any NFL incident that you get in and if you got alcohol or any kind of thing in it, you're going into the program.

24 months though. 27! Especially if you don't miss anything, it doesn't matter how petty the guy is. You'd think, even if he wants to be petty, after 14 months he'd have been like, alright, this guy hasn't missed anything. He's clearly taking it seriously. Let's cut him a little slack. Nah, let's stick him in there for another year.

It was a full spite run, though. Yeah. Like, I was just like, fuck this guy. Like, I am not. Had to meet with a substance abuse counselor once a week, too, for an hour. Yeah. I'd drive to this guy's house. They make you pay for that?

No, they pay for it. Oh, okay. But it had to be there. They check in there. They check in. If you don't go, it's counted as a missed test. Yeah, any of these things, if you miss a check-in, you miss this, miss a test, you have four hours to take it, all a fail, count on more time on the back end, and you're never getting out.

It was like you live with fear pretty much every morning. And then the cruise. Yeah, Sebastian Janikowski, shout out. He was in that program a couple times for things. He said, go on cruise. What they do, land on boat? Sounds like they might have. That would be me on an island, for sure.

I would have to map out the entire... We're going to start in Antigua, then we're going to go over to... Senor Frog. Then we'd be in Morocco. How long is booze in your system, Pat? How long does booze stay in? You can sweat it out, I think. But yeah, like 6-12 hours, I guess, depending upon how much. Did you have any times where you just got tested and you knew he couldn't come back the next day?

Yeah, I went to Vegas. I said I was driving a lot. Oh, yeah. I'm driving from Atlanta to California. Yeah, California. They be like, whoa, what are you driving? Fucking tour bus. I did actually do that.

And then I'm coming right back, though. So, yeah. I did that. So that gave me like six, seven days. That's a good play. That's a good play. You can't get tested. I was on a tour bus actually traveling around.

That was what I chose to do because, once again, all my friends were drunk. So I was just trying to figure out what is fun to do that isn't. Yeah. So I went Bigfoot hunting, ghost hunting. What? Alligator farm. What? I went ice fishing. out what is fun to do that isn't yeah so i want bigfoot hunting ghost hunting what alligator farm i want ice fishing what was your favorite part i want i want uh catfish noodling i want fisted a fish down in carolina nice i did all your favorite thing out of all

you have a favorite huh is that the one you stick your hand yeah you fist the fish how was that so it was crazy. I got my back like fourth degree burns. Yeah. Because you're standing in a lake like this the entire time. And I didn't put any sunscreen on me. Oof. It's tough.

But I went in there and I took a fucking dinosaur out of its hole. The way it works, I guess, is there's a bunch of holes around the side. I was in a lake. I assume rivers and creeks the same way. I'm not a cafe. I'm not a noodling expert. I'm not going to act like one. Sure. I'm just just gonna tell you how i took in the noodle experience in carolina i guess they they know where the holes are so there's big holes there's like houses almost around the lake

for these catfish to live in and they know where the big fucking holes are so at some point eventually big catfish is going to find big hole. Because if little catfish is in big hole, when little catfish tries to get into big hole, whatever's inside of it is eating it. I mean, it is a full thing. So your hand is effectively somebody trying to take the hole. Yeah. So whenever you put your hand into the hole, the catfish attacks your hand.

So then you go down the side through the gills, and then you lock your hands, and then you've got to fight this thing out of its home, and it's a dinosaur, and it's like 30 fucking pounds. It was, I'll say exhilarating, but we were finding a lot of empty holes. We were finding a lot of empty holes. I mean, I was thinking

I... Nothing. There's turtles and crocs in this thing Sleeping fish Let's go try to find another hole You got it But I was doing a lot of this So I got like 4th degree burns on my back That was the worst part of it

I got a photo Big fucking Sticking a noodle down there Is that why they call it that? I call it fisting a fish, but Ty, I believe in Iowa, they say noodle. No, I said fisting a fish as well. Yeah. Are you sticking your noodle?

Are you noodling? No, I'm just saying if there's random holes in the bottom of a lake, I bet people have stuck everything down there trying to catch those things. Yeah, but you're a hole in the wall guy. Let's get to a break. Oh, no, I'm not. The old office had that, though. There ain't catfish glory holing

okay oh somebody's tried it you know that the origin of the term is unknown actually yeah maybe noodling as a term has also been applied to various unconventional methods of fishing such as any which you do not use bait there you go rod and reel speargun etc this usage is much less common the term has been applied to similar capture captures. So I was noodling was the style while I was fisting a fish. Not cut noodling. Actually, fisting a fish is a style of noodling. Yeah, without bait.

Although your hand is bait. There was a couple little ones that they let back in the hole. Yeah, respect the fish. Also trap it. Those. Also entrapment. Those fuckers are not happy. Those catfish. I could imagine.

They got sandpaper on the inside of their mouth. Yeah. So, like, I just got scraped. And they got the barbs, too, that'll stick in you. Yeah, they're poisonous. Catfish. I don't think any of those things. You guys talking about stingrays?

No. Catfish and barbs do sting. No, barbs will sting you, yeah. That's why you got to take them from, like, when you, you got to go down. We let catfish have poison. Top down. At least that's what I've always been told. Are we talking about standard fish things? No, no, no.

Catfish. Catfish. Catfish are dangerous. Each has three spines and stingers on fins on top. Yes, I didn't know that. I'm just sticking my fist in there. I'm happy I didn't know that. Well, they're not inside.

Anyways, that's what I've been saying about me this whole time. I'm a fucking dog at fist to fist. Let's get to a break. We have an incredible guest on the other side. Here we go. Joining us now is a man who keeps an eye on everything. My friend. It really does feel like that, doesn't it?

Oh, yeah. He's locked in. We've seen what, like, he calls his office, I think. That cabin thing. This guy has worked his ass off and he lives good. He's got this beautiful setup that he kind of sits inside of and just kind of does this with

the entire NFL of what's going on. He's been doing it for a long time too. It's like, hey, what's going on? Seems like, done it. Da! Da! Da! I don't know!

You know? And then, he's done it so well, he's actually sold his property a couple different times. He's been a trailblazer in a genre that everybody is trying to follow at this stage. Ladies and gentlemen, Paisano, and also author of the brand new book, Father of Mine, available right now, Mike Florio.

What's up, guys? How are you today? Hey, is that an accurate depiction? Like something's going on and you go, eh? Is that an accurate, you think? Is that, did I do you justice there? Yeah, it's funny. Sometimes what happens is I'll be told something with the specific explanation that I should just present it as my own idea and that before too long it will come to pass.

That happens from time to time. You get people behind the curtain that want the truth to get out. They don't want to put their name on it. They don't want to be tied to it. They don't even want to have an anonymous source. They just say, if you would put this out there as your own idea, there's a chance it will come to pass. That happens more than people realize.

I love that. You kind of, that's a great position for you to be in. Yeah, wow. Holy shit. Okay, I guess. Of course, it's just the janitor. Yeah. But I'll take it.

Okay, he's an AI. He's AI potentially kind of sneaking in to take it, which is an insane thing to even start to dabble in. But let's talk about this rule change that has had us chatting, obviously, and I think our show is going to talk about it more than any other show naturally because of the position that I held and also the one that Pac-Man Jones is a part of and how we kind of talk about sports. With special teams being attacked over the last few years, maybe the last decade,

for the good of the game, for players' health, for the future of football and future lawsuits, we need to make special teams a lot safer. And I think it kind of has always passed because people don't fully comprehend how serious special teams is taken in NFL buildings and how important it is to winning actual games. So the NFL feels like they can kind of get away with adjusting special teams without much public backlash

because, well, who cares? They don't care if we're still throwing the ball 75 yards still available that's right okay for Patrick Mahomes to throw the ball there's still a touchdown available but there's a lot of strategy and scheme in there every person associated with the NFL that has learned about this new rule where the fair catch goes immediately to the 25 has hated it and it seems like you are in that party with us and also doing some research about it all. How did we get here? And what has been the reaction on your side of this entire thing? Well, look, the NFL announced years ago to the world that the kickoff play is the most dangerous

play in the sport. And then the league embarked on a way, not necessarily to make it safer. Their way of making it safer is to do it less frequently. I made the point today. It's like, hey, you know, it's not safe to juggle hand grenades. Maybe you should do it once a month instead of once a week. If it's a dangerous play, it's a dangerous play. Address ways to make the play safer. Don't just come up with ways that the play happens less often. It started with the kickoff point going from the 30 to the 35. More touchbacks, less kick returns. Then ball goes in the end zone.

You get it to 25, not the 20. You don't run it out. You get it to 25, less returns. And now this fair catch, the latest way to reduce the number of kick returns. But it's based on a flawed premise. And this is something I texted you

about earlier today. I found out about this today because the whole thing is 19 concussions last year on kick returns. We got to do something about it. premise and this is something i texted you about earlier today i found out about this today because the whole thing is 19 concussions last year on kick returns we got to do something about it 19 concussions unacceptable 19 okay fine the only problem is when we look at the film they saw eight the other 11 the only way they came from well how's that even happening that's not real what you just said it's not real though howie roseman said just the other day that you're top five conspiracy theorists in the nfl yeah you wore that as a badge of honor and you two having that interaction was beautiful and you two know

each other you've been around the nfl a long time you fucking know everybody so any interaction that you have is always just going to be hey that's business baby but you saying that there's 11 concussions missing from film in film is the only thing that doesn't lie how is that even a real conversation that's happening actually like changing rules what does that even mean well it means that when they gather to talk about it and what happened was they tried to push this through in march and there was pushback and the compromise was we'll bring coaches to new jersey they went went to the NFL Films facility in New Jersey and they had a meeting.

And the idea was we're going to come up with some ways that we can make the play safer short of implementing this very flawed fair catch rule, which is still going to be a live play. Until the ball is caught, it's a live play because the guy could muff it. Guys aren't just going to stop. The guys covering the kick are going to go all the way down there and get as close as they can in the event the ball glances off the guy who's trying to catch it.

It is not going to take any of the steam out of a play. It just introduces a new element to it. So they try to come up with these different ideas. And in that process, that's how we've learned that the data was put out there, and the coaches who studied the plays presented to the league, wait a minute, we only see eight. Where's the other 11? Where are they coming from? The guys

are running off the field. They're fine. You're saying this guy got a concussion on this play? He's fine. How about the coaches? Florio, I don't know how many special teams coaches you know. Those motherfuckers didn't sleep. Which ones are you watching? You're watching first quarter of the season?

Yeah. Which one are you? Second. We'll watch every single kick. And even if it's close, we'll put it in there. And then whenever they found out the number that they all had combined, these mother... Oh, my.

And then the thoughts of... You want to talk about conspiracy theorists. Now all the special teams coaches, they're just making up numbers now. Now they're just saying that there's all these things we only found these this is a big lie that that becomes a real thing that starts to fester i think that's why the first vote this time around fails and they're like not we need to do it again is that kind of how it took place well yeah what happens is they say okay fine we'll do this meeting with the special teams coaches but the problem is they didn't take it seriously and And Rich McKay, who's the chairman of the competition committee, wasn't even there. And my understanding

at this point, the rulemaking comes down to Rich McKay and Roger Goodell. They're the ones who push it all through. So McKay's not there. He's not paying attention. And it just is lip service. They're still going to push this through. And there's about 25 or 26 owners who aren't paying all that much attention anyway. They're going to do what the commissioner wants. So they get it done. They ignore the coaches on this. And they do it because the league is convinced this is in some way going to make the game safer.

It's going to lead to a lesser possibility of legal liability because this play is so dangerous. We have to take it out of the game. I just think it's a mess. They need to address the play. There has to be ways to address the play to make it safer, not just make the play happen less often, because that can make it more dangerous. If guys aren't used to running down and covering kicks, what happens when somebody does return one? They're not as experienced. They're not as prepared as they would otherwise be. That's right. Go ahead, AJ. Sorry, Bob.

Mike, do we know, like, is this one of the only times where we've seen Roger Goodell kind of push something through that was unanimously the coaches are against? And are we, are they worried that he could do this in the future for other things? Bingo. Well, you know what? It happened. And that's a great question. Remember back in 2010, after the Saints Vikings NFC championship with the walk-off field goal by Garrett Hartley, I believe they pushed through the overtime change and they sent the coaches to the golf course when they pushed it through because the coaches were against it. So it isn't unprecedented. But what we're seeing is as time goes by and as Roger Goodell gets more and more power, he gets what he wants. He wanted Thursday night flexing. He got Thursday night

flexing. He wanted this fair catch rule. He got this fair catch rule. If he wants it, I mean, they twist arms. They lobby people. Anybody who's no or undecided, they get them to go along with what the power brokers in the NFL want. And the ultimate one is the commissioner. Come on. Step into my office here, please.

Let's go. Thank you. Ten, please. Thanks. You want any peanut M&Ms? Hey, so we're going to do this with you or without you, you know? So much going on. Let's go. Ten, please. Thanks. You want any peanut almonds? Hey. So we're going to do this with you or without you, you know? So much going on.

Just don't even know if you, you know what I mean? So that's all. You said the owners, 26 of them, aren't paying attention. We just talked to Duke Tobin, who whenever Pac-Man asked him about it, he said, I would like to have you know that Cincinnati Bengals voted no against this whole thing. And I like that they are independent thinkers. I think the Bears also similar type operation whenever it comes to these votes

anytime it's 31 to 1 or 30 to 2. Normally it's these family-like operations. But you said 26 votes and then you're saying Rodgers is able to do this. And then Rich McKay has so much power. How does Rich McKay have more power than like Vrabel or Tomlin in the competition committee? What's the purpose of the competition committee what's the theory because seemingly whenever i

read your pro football talk piece on the whole thing with so much more information than anybody anybody else has had it seems like roger caddell could just make them do whatever or does he have the numbers that he doesn't have to use them how does that whole process of making a rule work you know well mckay is the chair of the competition committee, and he's been in that position for years. He's the most powerful person. Now, the competition committee maybe isn't as strong as it used to be because at the end of the day, it's what the league office wants.

They know how to orchestrate it. They know how to push agendas through and get the votes that they want. Who are the votes? Who are the votes? What are the votes? Is it all the owners? It's all the owners. You need 24 owners. For most of these rule changes, you need 24 owners to say yes. What does the committee

do? The competition committee is rallying owners to either vote for or against whatever they want, or what is the competition committee? Do they have votes or no? Well, they make a recommendation, and my understanding is this fair catch rule was 8-0 with the competition committee, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. It's always going to be 8-0 in the NFL. It's non-binding on the owners. Okay. So the competition committee, let's say they voted against this. Doesn't necessarily matter if Raj is able to get 25 owners to vote yes. The owners can do whatever they want to do. If the competition committee recommends it, rejects it, or doesn't even address it. You know, every year there's a slew of proposals from teams,

and the owners can say, we like that. Even though the competition committee didn't endorse it, didn't say anything about it, we like it, we're going to do it. It's whatever those 24 decide to do, or at least 24 of 32 decide to do. What a league. It's wild. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got a competition committee.

What do they do? Well, they look out for the player's safety and the future of the game. Okay, they vote on shit? No, no, yeah. We got a competition committee. What do they do? Well, they look out for the player's safety and the future of the game. Okay, do they vote on shit? No, no, no. It's like you're crazy. I mean, we do own the league here. Let's not even do that whole thing. Because I was a little bit worried, you know?

Because you think about guys like Ohio Fuck Vrabel. Yeah. Who's on that competition committee. You're like, wait a minute. Vrabel didn't want special teams vote. What's that about? And then it's like. Mike Tomlin.

Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin. He doesn't. And then you talk about Ron Rivera. These guys are all football. These are our football. Exactly. Rabel is our football.

And what you're saying is, certainly they said the vote was 8-0, and they're going to have to be, especially with how much backlash is coming whenever somebody goes. There is a chance that there was some discourse in some places, but it really doesn't matter because as long as the owners voted through, it's just kind of we're on to the next one. Yep.

Whatever it takes to get to 24. I'm happy to hear that. They know when the commissioner wants something. He wanted Thursday night flexing. This time around, he got it. He wanted this fair catch rule. He got it. Okay, so I'm happy to hear that.

Not because I think that's how it should be. I'm happy to hear that so I don't have to judge Vrabel. Yeah, I understand. The person that I was most, you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Really. Vrabel and Tomlin. That goes against everything that I had thought of a human.

You know what I mean? So I just didn't expect that. So now that I'm hearing how it operates, I'm learning a little bit more. I'm learning a little bit more. That's good. And that's what happens every time you come on the program. Connor has a question for you. Mike, speaking of the commissioner, Jim Mercer said that in 2027

that'll probably be when he's going to be gone or his last season. What are you hearing as far as successors? Does Goodell make a recommendation? How is that process going? How much say do the owners have in the next commissioner? Is it completely up to them or no?

Hey, Connor, that's a great question. It is completely up to them. They hire, they fire, they pay, they pick the commissioner. But when you look at the business and how it's grown and how complicated it is and how much the commissioner gets paid, this is something Ursa hinted at, and it's something that I've long believed. It's a chapter in my book from last year, Playmakers, about the NFL. The next commissioner could be not your typical name that you hear from inside the NFL community. You hear Troy Vincent, you hear Brian Rollout, people who are already connected and rising up the ranks.

Troy Vincent, you hear Brian roll out, people who are already connected and rising up the ranks. What you hear now is the possibility of them going out and hiring a CEO, somebody from Pepsi, somebody from Apple, somebody from some big company who comes in and runs this multi-billion dollar conglomerate like a major corporation. And then there would be a football czar that reports to this new CEO. So they could have a completely different management structure come 2027 if that's when Goodell leaves. Now, when he did his last deal, Joe Lockhart, who was the league spokesman at the time, came out and said, this is the final contract for Roger Goodell. Like the next day, Goodell said, hold on. No, no, that's not true. A few weeks later, Lockhart was gone. So I would not assume that Goodell is going to give up his seat in

2027 I mean if he's still healthy enough and vibrant enough and he's not going to be all that old and it pays great money and what do you really do at this point you're guiding the ship through open clear waters most of the time keep your hand on the wheel as long as you can for 60 70 80 million a year I think

so too and his legacy will be the bottom line and what he was able to accomplish for the NFL and obviously growth in Europe and everything like that and hopefully trying to make the game safer, but in a smart way so that the game can remain forever. That's going to be... He's been great. He's going to be hated by everybody.

He has to make very difficult decisions and announce very difficult decisions that are going to piss off an entire fan base that is called a fan base because they're fanatical, which means they're psychopaths and they're in love for something. So he is the one who has to, hey, you guys did this. You're going to be hated.

But the success of the NFL under this fucking guy's leadership is second to none. They'll write books about this forever. So that was why when Jim said that, it was very interesting. But to your point about the CEO and the executive and then the commissioner of football, Jim talked about making more movies.

He wants the NFL to make more movies and stories. They got media deals. They got to deal with medical people. The vastness of an NFL building, I think you could get an exec in there that handles a lot of shit and help out. But boy, you would piss people off if it wasn't a football first thought at that particular position. You know what I mean, Florio?

The fans would be like, oh, here we go. We're going to suit corporate in the football as opposed to a guy who's grown up in the NFL office as a football guy's commissioner. I think that would be a little bit of backlash, a little difference for people, don't you? Oh, it would be. It would be a little bit of backlash a little difference for people don't you oh oh it would be it would be and you know what they would just keep their heads low and their mouths shut and they take it because they're still going to do what they want to do at the end of the day that's one of the reasons why the commissioner makes so much money he is very good at being the pin cushion for all the unpopular stuff he is so good at press conference when he's asked tough questions he knows how to talk his way through it and not really say anything

and move on to the next question. And the owners can kind of hide behind that and they do whatever they want to do. And if people don't like it too bad, we're still going to do what we want to do. And I think if they decide to pivot to a CEO, they'll find somebody who's very good at standing up there saying, hey, this is what we do. And as long as we get the bright, shiny objects during football season, Sundays, Mondays, Thursdays, whenever they want to play, we're going to be fine. In America, Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, Australia, Italy. Hey, hey, hey. Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Florian, you should have seen the shark board that I got sent from Little Italy in New York after the birth of the baby. It was, I mean, grazie. I mean, it was unbelievable, Bison.

You should have seen it. I had gabagool. What? And then I had a little bit of, I think it was parm. I believe it was. And there was honey on this thing. The other gabagool. Oh, my God.

It was. What a time. That's just your house, I assume, every night. That's right. It's the way to do it. Gabble Ghoul is the way to go. Gotta have Gobble Ghoul. Hey, we got questions about other shit that you're probably cooking on. How's the book doing?

How is it? How are we doing? Because the thought that your dad, and I don't know if I remembered exactly, somehow your dad was a gangster. I think so. Yeah, I do believe that was how it kind of was laid out. It kind of hung with the gangsters, was a gangster.

And then you, I didn't know you were a part of it. Did we know this back? In the mob. We had no idea. No, no, no, no, no, no, not me. No, yeah, of course not. The world's amazing. Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, oh. No. So my dad was a bookie. Oh, there it is. When I was growing up. So he had to run a little business. Yeah, yeah. My dad was a bookie and grew up 60 miles from Pittsburgh.

He hated the Steelers because everybody always bet the Steelers. He loved the Cowboys because everybody bet against the Cowboys. That was just his way. He always needed the Steelers to lose or not cover, and he always needed the Cowboys to win or cover. So he was tied into the crew that ran Wheeling. And I was around, I was a kid. It was normal for me. I didn't know any different. I mean, I got to an age where I understood what was happening and I realized

this isn't exactly legal, but nobody was doing anything about it. And I remember finding a series of envelopes where he was sending out the lines for the week, because back in those days, that's how you did it. You put a stamp on the the envelope you put it in the mailbox and i'm looking through the names and it's all the judges and lawyers and politicians and doctors and movers and shakers in town who are getting this sheet every week and calling in and making bets so that's what it was and you know i decided and i probably told you this last time early in the pandemic got some downtime popped open the laptop and just started writing so you know it was fun to do what are you boozing you're boozing when you're writing you smoke smoking dope you smoking dope

i want to know what i don't know what stick aj smokes and i'm curious how many a day he smokes i can only do one every other day man because i can't do that deal with that cotton mouth and i wait until evening but i have i am curious what's your go-to i have a couple different ones anything like in the Connecticut wrapper I like. But no, you just got to drink water. You could smoke 8, 10 a day, and if you just drink some water, you'll be fine. 15 to show. Yeah, it don't matter.

So it sounds like that's number one. That's more than Michael Jordan. He does six. I thought that was Hall of Fame type stuff. He made me feel good. Watching that made me feel good about myself. I was like, okay, I'm okay. Yeah, because that's the thing.

I'm very conscientious about cigars because I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to get cancer from it, but I like it. So what's the right balance? And I'm kind of it. And I talked to my doctor about it. You know, it's good for my mental health. I got Crohn's disease. It actually helps that. So every other day is kind of where I settle in.

Oh, look at you. Do you drink whiskey with a cigar? Wine? What do you do? I'll have bourbon. A little bourbon with the cigar. A little bourbon usually. Rocks?

Three fingers? What are we doing? Just mix, water, splash? I little bourbon usually. Rocks, three fingers. What are we doing? Mix, water, splash? I'll do Crown usually. Sometimes Four Roses. I like Four Roses. I've been drinking that recently. I'll cut it with Coke or Coke Zero.

I'll be candid. Coke Zero, best Coke ever. I have good calories and I like the taste of Coke Zero. Also, here's a little twist. Di Serrano. Italian liqueur, Pais paisano a little di serrano it's got that almond taste to it you put that in there too and it's a nice little cocktail okay hey and then you're typing why you know you're not smoking any dope we do we don't smoke while we're typing while we're writing not yet not yet i'm on my medical card yet

oh okay you're thinking about it though huh have you thought about it well hey i've got one of the qualifying conditions i got crohn's disease there's like five qualifying conditions in west virginia that's one of them it would be it would be wrong not to get it well doctors i mean science the edibles like i think you start with probably if i had to guess wait until you see i'm excited i'm excited for you to kind of experience it. You know what I mean? Oh, well, listen, I was in Arizona. So I had to, you know, sample the local agriculture there. Oh, it's just guys.

Oh, shit. All right. All right. I learned that you shouldn't drink before you do that. It results in a much more potent reaction. Oh, you're a little twisted out there. It really stayed with me for a while. Football twist.

Football talk. Put your leg down. Stop spinning. Pack, go ahead, pal. What happened that night? Let me tell you the story. What happened that night was- Floor was twisted like a Super Bowl.

Boom. Hey, I'm looking at my phone that night, and it was like 10.53 p.m. Oh, dang it. And I kept looking at the phone, and I felt like I was trapped forever in 10.53 p.m. And I kept looking at the phone, and I felt like I was trapped forever in 10.53 p.m. And it was never going to end. And I was getting really nervous until that minute changed that I'm trapped forever in 10.53 p.m.

Maybe part of me still is. And what about when 10.54 came? Did you get no fear? I was feeling pretty good. So it was a celebration. That was the ebbs and flows. I mean, you're really riding it. Congrats to you getting through that, honestly.

Way to go. Way to go, Mike. I wish you would have opened up your Twitter, though. I think we all wish you would have opened it. I was smart enough to stay away from that that night. No way. I think my son took my phone from me that night. Hey, your son's a great dude. It was very nice to meet him whenever he came through the office downtown.

He loves you, too. He loves you. he loves you he always said what are you going on when are you going on when are you going on yeah hey young paisano your grandpa was the bookie to the judges in wheeling i think you're good there whatever you need uh let me tell you i'll tell you another story real quick hell yeah i just found this out a week ago somebody that i know got a subscription to newspapers.org or newspapers.com or whatever, has all these archives, and actually found a story about a grand jury in Pittsburgh in 1958, and they hauled up a bunch of guys from Wheeling, and they had a picture in the freaking Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and there's my dad at age 36, about your age, sitting there with a suit on, waiting to go in

to testify. I never knew that happened. I'd never seen that photo. It blew me away. And he's been gone 25, 26 years. I don't want to get misty here. But it was kind of like, you know, you say like if you have a loved one that's gone, you'd give anything to just have a little more time with him. It was kind of like I just found 30 seconds with him, you know, and it was, I'm sorry,

but it was, that was really, really impactful for me. Hey, that was a cool moment there that just happened. Obviously the genuine care. How do you look? Do you look good with the suit? You look good. Yeah. You look good.

Jet black hair, thin tie. You know, that was a style and nice expensive suit. I could tell it was expensive. Even in the black and white photo, it had that shine to it. Yeah. He looked good. He's living. He was, did he have shoes?

Did you see the shoes? How were the shoes? I didn't see the shoes. Didn't cut down that far, but based on the How were the shoes? I didn't see the shoes. Didn't cut down that far. But based on the suit, I got a feeling it was some nice shoes. Hey, that a baby! These shoes?

These shoes. You're talking about these shoes. Pac-Man has a question for you, Florio. Florio, you was talking earlier. Is it any possibility that Goodell goes and sits in the seat that does all the marketing, like you were saying, he's going to hire someone from these Fortune 500 companies to come and then let Troy Vincent be the commissioner with the football knowledge?

Do you think that's a possibility? Because when I was reading into it, it was like, well, the commissioner doesn't have to be the commissioner to take care of some of the business when it comes to the NFL. That's a great question, Pac-Man. I think what it would be is whenever the commissioner does step aside,

they hire this person who comes in and runs the business. And then it would be a Troy Vinson. And he'd be perfectly positioned to be that internal czar of football who knows the game. Because if you're going to hire a CEO from Pepsi or wherever, they're not going to know the game. They're going to know how to manage a major organization and all the media and political

and all the other stuff that goes along with having this gigantic company under your control. But they need somebody like a Troy Vincent. And he'd be the perfect one to be the person who's ultimately in charge of football because that's kind of what he is now. I don't know how much in the weeds the commissioner gets, except when there's something the commissioner wants, like this fair catch rule change, because he thinks there's some benefit to the league that comes from it. But I think Vincent would be the perfect one if it happens in the next few years. And if he's still there, he'd be the perfect one to kind of take over the football side.

And they bring in somebody else to take over everything else. We'd be happy with any ex-player that becomes the commissioner of the NFL. We'd be pumped about that. I think we all would seemingly rejoice for that. Jason Wright, hey, huh? Right? He's been through a lot. He's been through some fires. He's good, too.

The organization he's been running is a lot more turbulent than the NFL. And he was in a crisis management law firm or whatever consultancy firm before this. He was a player. He's great when he talks. It's good.

He's not putting his foot in his mouth. And I think that's the – you talked about that earlier about what the weapon is of Roger Goodell. It's like I saw him before the lockout, and I've told the story numerous times, but it deserves to be stated. He – Jeff Saturday, the night before, this is the year before the lockout happened, so playing a season and lockout's coming. Inevitable. Everybody's talked about it. Literally, the day I got

drafted, the next day they're like, hey, lockout's coming. We need to start preparing for it. Cobra insurance, we're doing this. We got a war chest with a bunch of money we've taken from everybody. Okay. To pay a bunch of lawyers that didn't get a deal done. Okay. I mean, there's just, there's a lot of those conversations that have to take place. But Jeff Saturday is like, hey, Roger Goodell will be here tomorrow.

Obviously, the commissioner of the league is in training camp. He wants to answer everybody's questions or worries or concerns about the lockout. You're talking about people not having money, jobs, insurance. I mean, there's a lot. You had some pissed off players, okay? I didn't know what the hell was going on. I was way too young. But there was a lot of guys in that room that were not happy,

and they had a night to prepare questions. And, like, we're going to get this guy. It almost felt like the thought was, all right, we're going to have an opportunity tomorrow, no cameras. We're going to be able to fucking, you know. And I watched this dude for 45 minutes not answer one question, but still put out a fire. It was, like, from one part of the room. It was, like, everybody, okay, you know. It still put out a fire. It was like from one part of the room,

it was like everybody, didn't say a thing, did not answer a thing. Then he goes over to this side of the room. All right, now we got like the bigs are kind of talking here. All right, answer your thing. Boom, go through it all. Then there's like a really personal one. It's kind of touching in the way he handles that and he does the whole thing.

And then at the end, it was like everybody realized that he didn't fucking say a thing. And then he was that and he does the whole thing. And then at the end, it was like everybody realized that he didn't fucking say a thing. And then he was out and he was gone. And it was like, that's why, that guy. That's why he is who he is. And you look at the other commissioners around the other leagues, they will put their foot in their mouths as fast as they get a microphone in front of it. That's going to be a tough job.

Being able to speak, I think, should almost be like the number one requirement, especially for an asset that's judged publicly. And Jason Wright's a guy that fucking... That's going to be a tough job. Being able to speak, I think, should almost be like the number one requirement, especially for an asset that's judged publicly. And Jason Wright's a guy that, that's a tough job, though. That's not going to be an easy hire there, I don't think, Florio. What you're describing is a superpower. The ability to speak with a straight face, say nothing, be completely unaffected by the fact that you are saying nothing.

Act like you are saying something and wait for the next question in response to which you will again say nothing. And your dad did it when he was 36. I saw that. He was in a suit. He said nothing. My dad's attitude was always never say anything. Don't bring any attention to yourself. He would be shitting literal bricks if he saw the life that I've developed the last 22 years.

You can't do that. You can't say those things. They're going to come get you. That was always his concern. I don't know who they was, but they are going to come get you if you say the wrong thing at the wrong time. They may not be wrong about that. One of these days they may come get me. They just have to find me first.

A lot of talking out of you, Mikey. A lot of this talking. So many words coming, Mikey. That would be a funny thing to think about. Ty has a question for you. Mike, we've been talking a lot about which one of these quarterbacks is going to kind of reset the market here. Pat mentioned we had Duke to open on, and then a couple months ago we talked to Tom Telesco, and he basically said,

hey, we're not worried about the Herbert deal at all. It's going to get done. We know what it's going to take. Do you envision both of those guys getting deals done before maybe even the preseason starts or training camp starts? Definitely the season. And also, who do you think is going to go first? I have a feeling it's going to be Burrow.

Look, all due respect to the Chargers, and I think Tom Telesco has done a great job with that team, but there's always an element there that something's just a little off with the Chargers. And I wouldn't be shocked if they don't get this done before the start of the season. And I don't see Justin Herbert as the kind of guy that's going to make a big stink about it. Because of that, maybe they take advantage of his good nature

and they kick the can a year. I don't know anything about that. I'm just saying, based upon paying attention to the Chargers and knowing how Justin Herbert is, it won't surprise me if they don't land the plane. With Burrow, it sure sounds like things are in progress. And he said last week, I know what I want. And I wish there would have been a follow-up question at that press conference, what do you want? Not that he would have said anything, but I'd like to know what he would have said in response to what do you want? Because I've had this theory and maybe it's crackpot, but I don't care. It's never stopped me before. Top five conspiracy theories in the NFL noted. That's right. One

of these guys is going to get a deal that pays him a percentage of the salary cap. And that's fair. That's the way to do it. We talk about leaving enough money aside for the rest of the team. Okay, let's not talk dollars. Let's talk 16%. I get 16 cents of every dollar, whatever the cap is. Then I don't have to worry about three years from now, my deal's obsolete. Patrick Mahomes was the highest paid player in the NFL by 10 million a year, just three years ago. Now he's $7 million a year behind Lamar Jackson. If you're tied into a percentage of the cap, that doesn't happen. And if anybody's going to do it, it's going to be Joe Burrow. And if any owner's going to do it, it's going to be Mike Brown, who's been that contrarian,

that will do the thing that the league doesn't want teams to do. And the league doesn't want teams to do this. So I think it's lining up perfectly for Burrow to get a percentage of the cap. And that's the best way to solve this problem, do a long-term deal, and everyone wins. We just had Duke on. Literally. We literally just had the guy.

Damn. That's on us, Gloria. That's a brilliant idea. I wish we would have had it. But you know what? He wouldn't have answered it. But we would have liked to see how he would have. Well done.

Well done. Go ahead, AJ. Mike, speaking of the Bengals, who is going to be left out? They're trying to pay everybody. They paid Joe, hopefully, this offseason. Are they going to be able to keep their core together and all those young studs? Well, you know, the problem is T. Higgins is due for a new contract, and he wasn't a first-round pick, so he's a free agent after this year.

And he's a number one receiver. A lot of these number two receivers, they go somewhere else, and they can't be number one. But he's got the speed to be a number one guy somewhere else. And that may be a challenge to keep T. Higgins happy. Jamar Chase is next up after this year. He's eligible for a new deal and he's one of the best in the NFL. It's going to be difficult for them to come up with a number that makes T. Higgins happy. And I think a lot of what he does and these other guys do will be driven by what Joe Burrow does. If Joe Burrow does a deal that can be couched as he wasn't a pig at the trough, he didn't go for every last dollar, then maybe they can get these

other guys to do the same thing. But this is one of the curses of having a great team with a lot of great players. You've got to figure out, are you going to keep them or are you going to try to reload through the draft? And there's a lot of great receivers that You've got to figure out, are you going to keep them or are you going to try to reload through the draft? And there's a lot of great receivers that come out every year. But when you have a great one, good idea to try to keep it. Yeah, that's what Duke actually said at the combine. Like, hey, if you want it to you, go ahead and get them. Yeah, we got him right now.

And he mentioned to us, like, I'm not going to trade somebody away because two years from now I'm not going to be able to keep them around. He said, I like good players on my team. That was a very telling. And he talked about how, like, we're not going to be able to keep him around or get it he said I like good players on my team that was a very telling and he talked about how like we're not gonna be able to pay we're gonna have to we're gonna have to refill in some places it was he was pretty open whenever he's talking to us earlier and it was it did sound like somebody's not gonna be able to get paid like that's just how well they already did with Jesse Bates they already did with him he's gone sound the Falcons they reloaded with Dax Hill last, who came in and is taking over his spot.

I think Joe Mixon is on borrowed time. I'm still not 100% sure he's on the team this year. Maybe they try to squeeze him at some point before week one to take less money. But that's part of what you got to do. But that core, you got to keep the core in place. And it used to be you couldn't afford two high-end receivers. When you have two guys like Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins, you find a way to afford them. And then you make the cuts elsewhere.

Well, and the QB deal being what it's going to have to be. I mean, that's an interesting balance. It feels like he's the right guy to figure it out. He's pretty jocked, and he's going golfing today. A lot of time to think whenever he's out there. Tone Diggs has the last question for you here, Paisan. Yeah, Mike, there's kind of some quiet, breaking news today about Jimmy G that he had to have surgery after he went to the Raiders,

and they're kind of unsure on the timetable. Is this news? Is it not news? How did you take that? I saw that, and I thought, wait a minute. He had the surgery after he signed with the team. Did they not give him a physical? Did they know that he had this issue, and they still paid him anyway? How does this happen?

Or did he get hurt on his own after he signed? There's a lot of questions that need to be answered there about how this came to be but it looks like there's some uncertainty as to whether or not he's going to be good to go when camp opens they're confident he's going to be ready to go week one but it is kind of a strange thing and that's been the issue with Jimmy G his playing ability isn't a question it's durability that has bit him at various times over the course of his career and here he is right through the door in Las Vegas with an injury that required surgery.

So I think it's just something to keep an eye on. These Raiders fans just being like, this is what we... Come on. You're kidding me. This is what everybody said was going to happen. It's already happened before we even play. Anything else we're missing? Any news you think coming soon?

Or are we dead right now? Well, hey, the turf versus grass debate. I think that is not going to go away. There was an excellent item the other night on HBO's Real Sports with Brian Gumbel. Andrew Kramer did a great job. They talked to the Cincinnati Reds team doctor who does a lot of high school work about how dangerous those fields are for high school players. And the NFL players have lined up against it.

And it's getting louder and louder. And I'm told, we haven't seen the numbers yet because they won't disclose them. I'm told the injury numbers last year on turf versus graph were awful. And they're only getting worse. And that's something that players keep pushing. And the World Cup could be the tipping point because all these swanky stadiums, AT&T, Jerry World, SoFi, they're bending over backwards to put in grass because the soccer players know we're not playing on that shit. We want grass. So if they can do it for them, why aren't they doing it for their own players?

And I said this earlier today. Even if you don't think about the players as human beings, which a lot of the owners I believe don't, you still have an investment you're trying to protect. Why don't you protect your investment? Why are you putting this guy that you're paying $40 million a year out there, where he's more likely to get hurt on that stuff than you would on grass? You saying that as bluntly as you did is absolutely hysterical, but you're hitting on all the exact same concepts and ideals that we have. And we think like Von Miller's really pushing it. Von Miller's big time superstar.

So him getting behind it is good news. The protecting your investment is one that i don't know if it doesn't get presented to the owners enough for stuff like for your facility like hey you're you're spending a couple hundred million on this particular you're gonna have shit food what do we why not have why don't we protect and kind of make this as best as it could possibly be yeah because then the return on investment guess guess what? Seems like potentially better, which means what? More money to do stuff. How come that has kind of been absent from conversation seemingly? It makes no sense to me.

And when you consider, and I got no qualms with picking on Jerry Jones or staying crunky, they both have multiple hundred million dollar super yachts. And it costs them more than a million a week just to maintain those yachts how can you justify not having the best possible fields in your facilities for your football players it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever but you know it's harder to have all these events they like to have at jerry world all these concerts boxing matches everything else if we don't have turf underneath, it would be too expensive. It's too expensive to move the grass out.

It's too expensive to retrofit the stadium with, like, what the Cardinals have where it slides in and out. And it's just the way it's going to be. And the league won't get behind change. Mike, they got the tech. You got to tell them. There's got to be a way to do it. 2023.

They got, like, a grass level. In London. Check out Tottenham Stadium. Yeah. And then like a wooden surface is there. Concert venue. It's like layered. And then boom, you just.

Slide them up. Which one do you want? And that's the field all of a sudden. It's like, that feels like the answer. Isn't it a bit hypocritical to alter the kickoffs in the name of player safety, but not alter the playing service? Nick, shut up. You don't know.

Nick, you don't know. Okay? There's another conspiracy theoretical Italian here. I mean, unbelievable. How about Thursday Night Football? I mean, there's not even a full. Bingo. Yeah.

It all makes sense, Mike, and we appreciate you covering it all. Great talking to you guys. How do you feel about that? Congratulations on the ESPN deal. Hopefully you still talk to us little folks once you're big time super big time not just big time you're already big time you're gonna be super big time football night in america yeah right you still talk to us pal we're very thankful yeah that you talk to us let's not it's the biggest show every week yeah by far the biggest time you could possibly be it is yeah look at this you're looking extra jack too what have you been doing you look

bigger come on bro i'm trying to slim down too while get bigger so like i'm trying to have uh Yeah. Look at this fucking thing. Hey, you're looking extra jacked, too. What have you been doing? You look bigger. Come on, bro. I'm trying to slim down, too, while I get bigger. So I'm trying to be properly jock. That's right. I'm trying my best. There we go. But I also have been eating. Last couple days have been good.

Yeah. Baby, though? Florio. Changes everything. Congratulations. And it changes everything in a good way. Thank you for everything. But you've got to have a lot of discipline, because you step on that scale after a few years eating all the food that the baby doesn't eat

once you start going out to restaurants and you finish this meal and finish that meal next thing you know you step on that scale and say is somebody else got a leg on here too oh yeah i don't want that leg on it yeah yeah holy shit i mean i don't i don't want that at all i'll talk about that leg you know for though, like, I just get so tired. Like, we're up still, you know? So you get so tired, and you just get, like, so lazy, and it's like, I'm so hungry. There's something to eat.

Just give me the Oreos. There's got to be something to eat in here. And then it's just like one leads to another, and all of a sudden I feel disgusting. And I'm like, all right, I've got to work out. So then I do, like, 100 push-ups. So now I'm actually building while also getting fat.

So there's time coming here. Weather's getting warm. Sun is out. Hopefully we'll be able to get down, but I appreciate you noticing the push-up routine I've been on. I am looking pretty jocked right now. Just like I'm jocked up that you came on the program. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen. My pleasure. Anytime, guys. Pro Football Talks. Mike Flora. You too.

Happy Memorial Day. Yeah, boys! All right. That's that for today, AJ. man. Ladies and gentlemen, pro football talks, Mike Flory. You too. Happy Memorial Day. All right. That's that for today, AJ. I think it was a pretty good program. He noticed how jacked you are. I've put some things on and they haven't felt or fit the same.

Because of muscle mass? Clothing. Clothing, yeah. Muscle mass is coming with the fat alongside the fat. I just talked about the tag team components. You need fat to make it into muscle, either way. Yeah, bulky. We're bulky. Bulking season. Of course.

It comes before beach season. And I have enough discipline to know what bulking season is and actually do it. A lot of people push bulking season to May and June this year instead of December and January. I agree. Yeah, because, you know, you're supposed to do it when it's cold, I assume, and then

once it gets warm, you're there. Exactly. Sweatshirt weather is bulking season, but people push it until night. AJ, what do you do? You're just always in show season? Like, hey, is this show bod? No. Show bod?

No. That is. No, I just steadily try to maintain whatever I'm doing. No, he's in body fat checks. That's all he can do. Throughout the entire year. Bob Carpenter signed with a beer. Did I see?

No way. Did I see General Bob Carpenter? There was something. No way. Sweet commercial. So he did. Okay, so I did see that. What happened? What do you mean?

He put out a sweet commercial for it. For who? For what? Garage beer. Hell yeah. From here. Oh my God. What?

Let's go back. It's a good one. Oh, you're going to play it? Yes. Oh my God. Official sponsor. Garage beer. Oh, my God. What? Let's go back. It's a good one. Oh, are you going to play it? Yes. Oh, my God. Official sponsor. Garage beer. Beer flavored beer.

Beef with an F? Okay, my bad. Yes. It's crisp and cool and doesn't taste like ass. All right. I'm about to call you. I drink in garages because my wife says I don't belong inside. If you like a cold breeze on your bag, drink garage beer.

It's American and so can you. Garage beer. Beer flavored beer. That's the greatest commercial I've ever seen. I'm so happy that I just glimpsed at that at some point during my scrolls earlier. Imagine if we didn't have that in our life. Oh, man. I'm going to bookmark that tweet right now.

What I would do to be a fly on the wall on that set. Why didn't they get a video of him after he drank 30 garage beers and passed out behind the bar? He was getting a breeze on the sack. He probably did. Bro, I love that. That guy, he's one-on-one, huh? Yeah, he really nailed it? He really nailed their vision. I think he did.

That's an album cover. That's Luke Cohn's next album cover. Come on. Garage Beer is an Ohio beer? Yeah. Dude here started it, or bought it, and it's blowing up. Bobby's amazing.

It doesn't taste like ass. How about him looking? If you like a breeze on your ball bag, there it is. That was one of the good things. He's looking off camera when he reads that. So he's either really acting or he's practicing his lines. And they just took the practice. Imagine Bobby mic'd up for an hour with those types of thoughts in his mind.

They should. Breeze on the bag. 15 different commercials from that because I know they got a lot of good stuff. All right. Thank you, General. Thank you, General. I'm so happy that just happened.

Yeah, wow. Fucking A, dude. That was awesome. That was much better than I could have just happened. Yeah, wow. Fucking A, dude. That was awesome. That was much better than I could have ever expected. Yeah, I didn't even see that. Yeah, well done. All I saw was a still photo of him on the tweet. The super tight tank top.

The super tight gold gym tank top. Bro, did he have four costume changes in that thing? Oh, yeah. Imagine what's on the cutting room floor. Can you imagine? Exactly. That's what we're saying. We need version two, three, four, five. Blooper Oh, yeah. Imagine what's on the cutting room floor. Can you imagine? Exactly. That's what we're saying. We need version two, three, four, five.

Blooper reel, baby. We don't know what all Bob agreed to when it comes to social presence and videos, but I hope there's at least a season four through five in this thing. Yeah. Please. Speaking of, did you hear old Logan Roy's pissed?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did. Me too, Bob. Hey. Makes sense. Hey, you old miserable prick. Me too. I'm not happy about it.

He's pissed about how they stay in character, too. The method acting going on. Yeah. The, uh... I think there's... I don't... Is it... I think there is breaking news, potentially, but I don't...

Yeah, that looks like breaking news. This is also breaking. So this is... Okay. So, that looks like breaking news. This is also breaking. So this is, okay. So we'll do this one here. Alex Sherman, Sherman4949, he fucking knows. Yeah, he does. Okay, Alex Sherman knows.

He's got scoop. It says it right there in the first word. DirecTV has reached a deal to continue carrying NFL Sunday ticket for commercial establishments. The announcement could come as soon as today. Remember, I believe they made a similar deal with Amazon. Yes, they did. To do Thursday night whenever it went to streaming, but then DirecTV was able to keep its hands in there. DirecTV said, hey, we already got all the piping.

We already got it all figured out. We'll just lease it from you to run it on you. You guys run it, but we kind of get an opportunity for where we are everywhere. Restaurants, airports, everything like that that isn't necessarily easy to sign up and to sign in to your particular program, which only exists and then kind of disappears,

and there's nothing else any other day, we can kind of take care of that whole thing. Seems like good business, and good for everybody here. Yeah, remember, we wondered about this, didn't we? Like, how are they going to play it in barters? But then after this year, then what happens? Is this just a one-year thing? No, I would assume that as long as DirecTV has these pipes

and Google doesn't want to create them all, this just a one-year thing no i would assume that as long as direct tv has these pipes and google doesn't want to create them all yeah because you got to think every smart tv would have to go over to it every so think about all the tvs in some places every single one of them would potentially have to be go over to the app get into it yeah log into it and do the entire thing you know what i mean and with a lot that's a lot i don't know if anybody's going to do it. Because remember, we had this conversation about Prime and Amazon. And once you do all that login for one game, as soon as it's over, it's nothing. Right. It's not like it goes to another thing.

No. So all of your TVs are blank. And you just say to yourself, well, do it. Because it's the NFL. It's like, life's a lot easier if we don't have to do that. And DirecTV is kind of profiting off of that still, which is a smart play, I think. Well, like Buffalo Wild Wings and Hooters, like those two places, they do play all those games.

And people go there on Sundays to watch the games, especially if they're out of town. So it's necessary to have. DirecTV has struck a multi-year deal to continue broadcasting the National Football League Sunday ticket package to commercial establishments, including bars and restaurants, not airports. Bars and restaurants probably in airports, though.

Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The NFL sold the Sunday ticket commercial rights to Everpass Media, a joint venture owned by Private Equity. They got so much money. Private Equity firm Redbird Capital Partners and the NFL earlier this year. The company's confirmed a Sunday ticket deal on Thursday afternoon. The agreement, which kicks off 2023, gives REC-TV the ability to use its network of satellite installations to connect sports bars, casinos, restaurants, and hotels

throughout the U.S. with Sunday ticket just as a... We got the piping. Smart. I mean, this, and hotels throughout the U.S. for Sunday Ticket just as a... Yeah, okay. We got the piping. Smart. I mean, this is the only way they stay in business because if they don't have the access to NFL stuff, like, people aren't fucking putting new satellites up. It's not happening. It's a powerful thing to have, though. Oh, yeah, absolutely.

As we transition here, you know, into the digital age, I actually said this in a speech I gave in front of a bunch of fucking billionaires in suits. Like, everybody assumes linear television's dead in the future. Linear television's dead. There's going to be an iteration of it, but what we know now

is it's going to be dead. It's like, when's that coming? One year? Five year? Ten year? Twenty year? Twenty-five? Thirty? When does that come? Because that's a long time if we're living in it. I guess if we're looking back on history, we'd be like, you know, the streaming age really came in a matter of like 15 20 years everything kind of turned over living that's a long time that's still trying to figure that out in the middle of it yeah we're living through it right now yeah so i think like we were all just

assuming like oh the streaming thing's gonna do everything this is what i looked into whenever i was thinking about taking the show to a network it's like i still think there's a massive weapon in this transition phase of having every television in america you know what i mean nobody has that in the streaming age that you have the ability to get to it you have the chance to do there but the linear power is still a very real one and i think i yeah i think i and a lot of other people kind of forgot about that and maybe just thought or looked past it. It's like,

and who knows how long this phase is going to be here. Well, that's what we always talk about that. Like, oh, you know, cord cutting is like, you know how many fucking people still have cable

and like will have cable until cable is not an option anymore? But Hulu's cable. But no young people do. Nobody younger than me does. But I'm saying like people who still have a fucking cable box and like a special cable box and like

a special cable remote agreed completely but you talk about like hulu and youtube tv for sure you still gotta sign up log in oh yeah get to it it's like but once you get in there it's a bunch of channels right like so it's still like tv i still view it as like linear tv it is it's like that is gonna last because these other ones just like we were talking about when Thursday Night Football goes to commercial everybody's like where? Oh we can't fucking go anywhere. It has to stay there. We can't. You know what I mean?

That's got to get better. That's why YouTube TV and Hulu are such weapons because you can channel surf on it. And that's why I think this time I think that's going to be a tough like human instinct. I think it's going to make linear TV survive for a lot longer than anybody could have imagined. I think personally that's all to be a tough human instinct. I think it's going to make linear TV survive for a lot longer than anybody could have imagined.

I think personally, that's all I was trying to clarify. No, no, yeah, I agree. I think we always talk about that. And even that, though, I would say that still is cable because you're subscribing to a cable package. The idea that people are just going to be like, oh, whatever, I'm just going to sign up for Netflix and all these different apps and then just do that

and not have access to cable. I don't think that's happening for a long time. Yeah, I think there's people that won't. For sure. And there always has been. There's more people now than there ever has been. Right. Cord cutting is a real thing.

Only have apps. Bam, I go to this app, to this app, to this app. Now that's costing just as much. Probably more. Potentially as everything else. But that whole collection of channels is always, it feels like for the foreseeable future.

Yeah. Still going to remain very, very, very, and we're proving it right here. Yeah. I mean, Google just had to negotiate with DirecTV. Right. Google's the future.

YouTube's the future. Having to talk with the oldest and be like, hey, we need to figure this out here. And they're always going to have a little bit of leverage over everything. Yeah, and some of those companies are are too big to fail at this point. There are a lot of channels where those companies are from that's okay.

Those companies aren't just going to die. They're going to last for a very long time. And maybe they do pivot, but they're still going to have their cable option no matter what. What did Dana say last night? Yo, that's how I went. Yeah. Exactly.

Did you hear that? Did you hear that? Oh, yeah. Yes. What a time bro we're gonna be able to say that we were on like when this transition happens in 20 30 years whatever it is 15 years 10 years i'm not giving a projection maybe next year fuck yeah no one knows maybe maybe everybody would just be like you know what we don't want to we don't want to do any tvs it'll be cool to look back and say like we were on were on a – that was a part of it too.

Yeah. Because you're looking at a room full of people that, like, grew up watching ESPN. Yeah, every day. For me, it was sports and wrestling. That's literally all I watched. I didn't watch anything else. So, like, the thought – and Foxy posted this, I think,

and he told me immediately upon as did Ty and everybody basically had the same thing. It's like, if you were to say, like, back in the day, our show was on ESPN, like, that would be a big fucking deal. Yeah. Epic. And it's, I think, like, we have that nostalgia feel a little bit. And there's an entire generation that doesn't. But I think, like, we still got a long time

with them being able to be back in the world. Yes. You know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Not that it isn't. They have deals with every single league. They have the NBA championship. Rights to everything. They're always going to be a streaming of sports entity

because they've put, I think they've invested $30 billion in sports. Disney has. I believe that is the number that they did. So that's rights and streaming and everything like that. But the entire, you know, vibe of it back in the day was like hey that is it's the biggest sports channel in the history of planet earth and i still think there's a chance that it is you know whenever you start looking at numbers and everything like that and then you start thinking about the transition to the streaming thing where espn plus and espn app and everybody's trying to do that. It's like linear still. Like YouTube

is the... Everybody's trying to get to the streams. YouTube is going to become the next dark horse. No, YouTube TV is a collection of all the mainstream. I think YouTube as the app. I'm saying the transition piece into that from linear

to the app world. YouTube TV kind of gets people that may not be or don't feel comfortable with it it kind of gets them going in that direction i think yeah hulu as well yes part of the espn right i'm a hulu person i'm moving to youtube tv though this one have to yeah i actually just ordered sunday ticket last night hey that's very good of you i'm probably 20 minutes before kickoff yeah yeah 100 bucks, they got me. It was right on the top. They're definitely crashing right before kickoff. No doubt. 100% chance.

Elon Musk crashed on his own shit last night. Tech is going to crash. That is just the way things go. You just got to hope that they fix it. And by they, who the fuck is that? AI? Humans? We don't know. Aliens. Well, that's probably why they're offering the $100 off

so that people sign up now. That's not reality. We're talking about this right now. Could easily put this in like, hey, let's sign up for this tonight or tomorrow or this weekend. I won't. It'll be right before kickoff. Oh shit, so many oh shit signups.

I've never done Sunday Ticket. Do I need to get Red Zone 2? Is it nice to have both? Having both is nice shit so many oh shit signups i've never done sunday ticket do i need to get red zone too like is it nice to have both so having yeah having both is nice just because you can put it on multiple channels like you can like i got the premium one because i could have two tvs with red zone on both of them and have red zone on my laptop yeah but also you can have other games and red zone yeah so like sunday ticket i had red zone as one of the options that's nice and then there was other games because you're not going to be able to fill all the games if you're using that. Right.

You know, so it is. But they're having a four piece right now. They're having a four box on one TV for sure. I need to figure out because right now I have YouTube TV and you can only play it on four TVs under one sign in. So like in my house, I can only have four. What a hilarious thing. People are watching this. We're not watching four fucking TVs.

People have two TVs in one room. That's a big deal. Could you imagine saying that? No, but on Sundays, my wife's watching TV upstairs. I'll have two or three TVs. In a whole house? You can only be logged into those TVs

Got it Or you gotta buy an extra deal right And then you can have eight Yeah I was trying to figure out how many you need But I think eight Is it eight or ten is the max that first weekend Cause every team plays Dude there's some weekends where it's impossible

Try to watch every game and it's like There will be 14 1 o'clock games to 4 o'clock games. That's how they'll fucking talk to you. That's the worst when they do that. Why are we doing this? You guys are so smart. I get it. You've got to piece all these things together. Can we not shuffle a couple of these ones? Can we split it down the middle? What are we even doing?

What are we doing? That happened late in the year a couple of times where there are unbelievable games at 1 and some of the 4 o'clock are like so-so. But it's like, hey, you could just move one of those 1 o'clocks to 4. Yeah, we shouldn't even be here. Yes. We should not be in this particular position. No.

You guys have done great work, but this particular week made everybody's life a little bit of a miserable thing. Yeah, talk about flexing games. How about we start flexing some 1s to 4s and some 4s to 1s? Let's do that. Yeah, I get you flexing out on Sunday night and all that, but flex them up to four o'clock and make them the game of the week and flex them out.

Yes. That's what they should talk about. Well, normally it's Cowboys, right? Yeah. It's Cowboys we care for. Tom Brady and the Cowboys. Yeah. A lot of times those are good teams. Chiefs now. Used to be. Yeah. That's a good time. Four o'clock games are.

The 425 games. The Bills, Chiefs. Those are my favorite to play. And you like the, I like the night games too. But I didn't have to, everybody's like, well, one o'clock games are bad because you get home and get through your thing. It's like, I understand for like your human life, I guess that's the case. Love when lights are on in the stadium. You know what I mean?

Everybody does. Everybody does. Love when lights. When you get there and you're in the game, that's the best game environment you can be in. Yeah. Need the lights on. When they're not on, actually, kind of a practice.

Got to wake up for that. Come on. Can we do a little? Not you, though, huh? And, you know, the night games, it ain't too many games on. That's why we love the night games because there's only one or two of them on. You know what I mean? No matter what night you're playing on,

there's only going to be one or two of them on. It could be Thursday night, Monday night, or Sunday night. Saturday night coming for playoffs. Pac-Man, only guy ever. What was the tone? To sack a quarterback and get sacked as a quarterback? In game history? In NFL history, yeah.

Pac-Man Jones, only guy ever. Record a sack and get sacked. Same game. Hell yeah. No big deal. There you go. Did they just not block you on the sack? Did you have to make a move on anybody?

Or was it you earned the sack or no? Yeah, I earned the sack. Atta baby. But you told us before that you decided when you got the ball as a quarterback you were going to get sacked because you knew that's that. Who sacked you? And you wanted to be the only one. How did you come up with that?

And that's what you said. What? Robert Mathis sacked you you knew that stuff. Who sacked you? And you wanted to be the only one. How did you come up with that? And that's what you said. What? Robert Mathis sacked you? That's awesome. You're not the only one. I mean, he sacked a lot. Adam Pacman Jones, the only player in the league history to record a sack on defense and also be sacked.

Pacman Jones scored three sacks in his 12-year NFL career. He also sacked once by Robert Mathis on a trick play against the Colts, 10-40 left in the second quarter. Here's the highlight of the play just after Big Ben's sack. He's the only player to be on both ends of the sack. What year was that? Do you know what year was that? Was I there?

Wait, just after the Big Ben? Oh, it's a highlight play. Yeah. I forget what year that was. Do we play that? Let's run that thing. What do we? It was like a reverse.

Yeah. Reverse pass. Oh, here we go. Here it is right here. Yeah, right there. Oh, we got to go back. Robert's the dog Oh, here we go. Here it is right here. Yeah, right there. Oh, we got to go back. Robert's a dog, dude.

He was. Yeah, you weren't getting out of there. Not that fast. There's no shot of you getting out of there. Was that your first year or second year? Was that like five guys that take Benzo? Second year? Yeah. No, Ben went right down.

Matt just put his arms around him and said, I'm with you, dog. Yeah, he was. You see how teams are calling about? Now this makes a ton of sense. Davis Mills. Teams are calling. You know, Davis Mills had that run.

He did. It was in the middle of a dumpster fire and they were having success. So everybody thought to themselves, this guy might be a guy. Very good. Then they get a whole new coaching staff. Now, same coaching staff, new head coach. Right. And they go into another year where they're appearing to be better. Had a complete distraction out of the building.

Didn't seem to have all fires. Jack Easterby was no longer a part of the program. There was no longer mandatory Bible study every single Monday morning, Tuesday morning in the entire team. I mean, there was a lot of things that took place. It appeared as if all signs were pointing to, this team's going to get better. They got much worse. And the tide turned on the public

perception of old Dougie Davis Mills because I thought we were all firm believers that maybe this guy could be a guy. He was tall, seemed to be smart, made some plays. He'll be able to pull this off. So we thought maybe the Texans weren't going to go with a quarterback because Dougie Davis Mills. And then there was like, Houston's not sold on a quarterback.

Well, maybe the... So you're right. It does make sense that maybe other people were thinking similar things that we were thinking, but last year he was not good, right? Yeah, I mean, I think he was better as a rookie. Stats-wise, though, he's got better stats than Justin Fields. Everyone thinks he's going to be an MVP. Tony, come on!

Whoa! Just the way you said the stat that you chose to say, I think is what the what was. You know what I mean? I actually. There's no reason to adjust it. That was kind of an echo. It was kind of a twist on Lombardi kind of brought up the same point,

and I enjoyed it. I liked it. Elambo, not the biggest Chicago Bears fan, right? Yeah, definitely not a Justin Fields fan. And Davis Mills also had Brandon Cooks, who's good for 1,200 yards every year and to get traded. Where's he going? What are you backup? You think AJ, you think he'd be back up somewhere

probably he's not gonna be back up Houston. They said they're not taking calls, so they don't want to trade him. Yeah, I don't know why they don't want to. They signed Case Keenum, though, to be, you know, pseudo. Yeah, like a tutor to CJ Stroud. Who else is down there?

D'Amico? Who's coaching all down there? Players. How many players? The OC came from San Francisco. Is there players coaching down there, though? Let me see. Former, I wonder. The coordinator, Matt Burke. Not the O-lineman Matt Burke.

The coach, Matt Burke. How do you know him? Cincinnati? Linebacklineman Matt Burke, the coach Matt Burke. How do you know him? Cincinnati? Yeah. Linebacker coach at Cincinnati. He's the man. I've been, yeah, stayed in contact with him for years. Oh, yes.

He was the coordinator there? D coordinator at Houston, yeah. He was the D coordinator for a quick year in Miami. Yeah, I remember Miami. But, yeah, now he's Houston's D coordinator, man. D'Amico calling plays, though. I doubt it. That's usually not the case for defensive coaches, but I don Houston's D coordinator, man. D'Amico calling plays, though? I doubt it. That's usually not the case for defensive coaches, but I don't know.

Oh, really? Do you know many D coordinators that don't call plays? I don't know. I haven't looked into it, I don't think. Bobby Slowick, OC. Here's the offense. Shane Day, Chris Kiffin, Nick Cray, Bill Lazor. Oh.

Draw job. Chris Kiffin's got that dog in him. Ben McDaniels. I'm going to say Ben McDaniels can drink 15 to 16 beers. One night. For sure. Ben McDaniels can really throw it back. This is a good staff he put together.

Man, I'll bet. Strasser there from the Indianapolis Colts formerly. Offensive line coach. Happy he's down there. He's a dog, right? You said he could drink 15 to 16 beers. I do not know that aspect of it. I've not had a cocktail or anything with him. Defensive passing game quarter.

Corey Unlin, Dino Vasso, Cole Popovich. I don't know any of these. Okay. Here we go. All right, D'Amico. Good luck out there. Go get him know any of these people. Okay. Here we go. Alright, D'Amico. Good luck out there. Go get him, D'Amico. It's crazy. The person who's third in command at a place, nobody has

a clue who they are. They get a general manager job somewhere else. It's like, has this guy been in the NFL? 50 years. Oh, okay. That makes sense. It was like Lou Anarumo when we were looking at his history. Jesus Christ. This guy's been everywhere.

He's been in the NFL for 30 years. Some of those position coaches that only are requested to do one media thing for every quarter of the NFL season, and when they do the media, there's nobody asking them any questions. Then they just kind of disappear back into their hole. You don't even know they exist. And then they're up for a coordinator job, and it's like, oh, wow, this guy's been breaking records in the NFL for 15 years.

Hey, way to go. That's crazy. So good luck to all of them. Good luck. Yep. Good luck. We'll get it done. Of course.

All of those people pissed when Jeff Saturday got that head coaching job. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. Shout out to D'Amico. Getting a pack on your way out here into this beautiful three-day weekend. You want to do something to hopefully give away some merches, pal? What do you think?

What do you want to do, buddy? I don't know. You made some putts yesterday. You want four or three or five? A lot of putts. He was shooting from behind the net going the opposite way, and they were looking good. Oh, opposite net. Are you talking about moonshot?

Yeah, I'm talking about moonshot going this way because the bike. Don't want to hit the bike. Okay. You want to do a moonshot? Yeah, I'm talking about moonshot going this way because the bike. I don't want to hit the bike. Okay. You want to do a moonshot? Moonshot. Hold on. Hold on. We didn't bully you into this. No, yeah. You were shooting them before the show and they look good. Because the moonshot has bullied you a little bit. Yeah, it has.

Moonshot. We're getting more merch today. Is that from the opposite free throw line? Yeah. Okay. Moonshot. Moonshot. We're getting very Merced today. Is that from the opposite free throw line? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Moonshot. Moonshot.

Here we go. He wants it. Gave him the out. Hey, we did. And also, I like the fact that there's been something that's had your number a little bit. You have beat it before, but overwhelmingly lopsided against you. And he said, give me that. Give me the moonshot. Did you hear, too?

I like you did that. Let's go, Pac. Before the show, I caught another pass on him go Pac before the show I caught another pass on him what's that? I caught another pass on him before the show Nick threw it hey it's time to get back Pac time to get back

Nick can attest alright let's get the camera on you here we don't we do have the if Pac-Man Jones makes his moon shot brought to you by Bush Bavarian straight out of Semper that's not an actual sponsor of this particular...

Oh, my God. It looks great. I didn't make that. It looked great. Bonus ball, bonus ball, bonus ball. If Adam Pac-Man Jones can make this moon shot, it's going to be incredibly cool. We'll give 15 people some mergers from store.pacmacashow.com. Bonus ball, bonus ball, bonus ball. If Adam Pac-Man Jones, 14-year NFL

corner, is able to make the moon shot... Oh, it looks so good. Oh, no. Oh, okay. Ball number two. Check ball. Check ball. Check ball.

Okay. Check ball. I'm not going to need another one. Just pick this up so my hands can do something. Ladies and gentlemen, Pac-Man Jones makes this moonshot. 15 people in some marches. Oh, it looks good. Oh!

He just went noodling. Just went noodling. Yeah, how about it? All right, that'll be a way to pull that thing out of its hole down there. If Adam Pacman Jones makes this moonshine, we'll get 15 people and some merches. Oh, I thought that was it. We'll be two here. Adam Pacman Jones is able to make this moonshine.

We'll get 15 people. Oh, that was the one. make this moonshot. We'll get 15 people. Oh, that was the one. That thing might slide under. Here we go. Here we go. If Adam Pac-Man Jones can make this moonshot,

15 people will win some merch from store.patmatch.com After that bonus shot, it would have been good. Come on, Pac. 15 people will win some merch from store.patmatch. After that bonus shot, it would have been good. Store.patmatch. Come on, Pac. 14-year NFL corner. If he hits his moonshot. Oh, man. That one's not going.

First ball. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, if Adam Pac-Man Jones can make this moonshot on his first try here, which will be this upcoming try, we'll get 15 people. No, no. Pac, which will be this upcoming try. We'll get 15 people. No, no. Pack, we're in for the net. Ladies and gentlemen, if Adam Packman-Jones can make the moonshot. And stealing him.

Good grab. That was very work. That was a little flat. That was a good hustle. Yeah, it was flat. Ladies and gentlemen, if Adam Packman-Jones can make the moonshot. Oh, they're coming back. Hold on. There's two more.

Hold on, Pacman. First try. Come on, Pac. Come on, Pac. Shoot the ball. It's the purpose. What if Bill hits rib? Let's take a breath. Take a beat here. Guys, we didn't fully have a chance to tell

Pacman how proud we are. Love you, guys. Truly. Love you, Pac. You know what I mean, Pac-Man? How cool you look every single day. Every day. Every day.

The energy you bring into the Thunderdome. Pop-off. Shoe game. All the different cars that show up here. Yeah. The food. Some with a gate, some not. The food.

The gate opener and something not. Yeah, no gate opener ever. You've crushed it. So right now, the only thing that really can make it all better is when this ball decides to go into that hoop right over there. Come on, Pat. Come on, Pat. If you make it, 15 people will win some free merches

from storedupatmcphyshow.com. Adam Pacman Jones. Oh, my goodness. That would have been the one. Yeah. That would have been a good one. Probably one. How good was that one?

That was the one. I mean, side range. AJ, what are you thinking here, pal? He's getting unlucky, but I see you have a ball left in your hand. I think that's the money shot right there. You're right. The money shot. That is the money shot.

Is that what you're looking for all the time, AJ? The money shot? Right now, I am, yeah. Pac's going to hit it. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. Hell, amen. Why don't you hit the merch shot here, Pac? Come on's gonna hit it oh yeah hell yeah hell amen why don't you hit the merch shot here back come on come on pack come on five hundred dollars what do you say kid you make this moon shot there you go that's been a glorious thursday it has a fantastic week

duke tobin top notch oh fuck back ram all right three- day weekend though. I mean, that's three day weekend coming up. That's good. Hey. Alright, Pac. It's okay. We're good. Nobody's going to remember this next week.

No. We do have a show tomorrow, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Monday is the holiday. So, Pac, next time, Pac Merrill will be here. tomorrow, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah Monday is the holiday So next time Pac-Man will be here Oh yeah, Pac's not here I was confused Well Tony, you can get confused whenever something like that happens right in front of our face

That was devastating It was, some things just don't make sense Why wouldn't the universe just let the ball go in and out? I don't get it What's that all about, Pac? What do you think? Shit happens sometimes, you. I don't get it. What's that all about, Pac? What do you think? Shit happens sometimes, you know. I don't like it. I don't like that it seems like it's beat you.

It doesn't really beat me. I missed a shot today. Got up and down, just didn't go in. Bingo. Yeah, you know what? You're right. Well said. Yes, exactly.

You know, I think if you were to shoot it one more time. I think so, too. You know what I mean? I think if you were to shoot it one more time. I think so, too. You know what I mean? I think you might make it. Just one more. I'm thinking. Yeah, I'm thinking you might make it. This one's a flat one.

You grab a couple? No, no, no. Okay, okay. One more. We have to have some sort of standard. You got to draw the line. Around here. Based on history, you know.

AJ, any final thoughts here for Pac-Man as he attempts the first and final shot, moonshot? Is this the final? You think this is final? Yes, this is final. The first of the final. He's going to make it. He's going to make it. That's why it's the final one.

Yeah, of course. I don't know if he has his ears in or not, but he knows he's going to make it. He feels good about it. That's why it's the final one. Yeah, of course. I don't know if he has his ears in or not, but he knows he's going to make it. He feels good about it. Ladies and gentlemen, Adam Pacman Jones, who is a freak athlete. That's right. Said, you know what, team? I want to make a moonshot so that 15 people

can win some free merches from store.patmcphyshow.com. Hell yeah. And there would be some places that would be like, no, no, no, don't do that. We were like, yes. What do you want to do? He just wants to make a moonshot. I said, sounds good. First try.

Last try. Adam Pacman Jones moonshot. If the ball falls, 15 free merches. All you got to do is retweet this video and say something nice to somebody, and you could potentially be one of the 15. Oh. Oh. Getting robbed. The people are, yeah.

Hey. Hey, pay. It's all right. Lived to shoot another day. Plus moonshot. Yeah, he certainly didn't die out there. You're right, AJ. No, just the hopes and dreams of the people.

We had a moment of silence, but it wasn't because of a death. No. Which is nice. And 100% shots you do take death. No. You miss 100% of shots you don't take. And 100% of shots you do take today. Yeah. What if you were to fire that fucking sonic fin

into the net? We don't need to shatter the backboard. That was it there. Damn it. It's all right. Hey, next week.

Yeah. Because yesterday you already won. What are we even talking about? Oh, yeah. Yesterday you already won. Yeah, he made a bunch of putts yesterday. Next week he's going to do the back-to-back-to-back.

What? We're going to celebrate the hell out of life whenever Pac comes back-to-back-to-back and wins again for the people. God damn right. It wasn't his fault that that hoop had a cover on it today. That hoop stinks. Everybody watch White Man Can't Jump this weekend and see whether or not Pac-Man would have been able to drain the shot in that gym or not he would have been able to.

Absolutely. What a movie. What a great movie. The original. The new one? The new one, yeah. I watched the new one the other day. Why are you so stupid, Benny?

Oh, it's out? She's not in that one. Haley, you're so stupid. You watched the whole new one? What's that? You watched the whole new one. I watched it. I watched it.

I watched it. The whole movie. Tell you what, it is going to be hard to follow up Wesley. Yep. And? Who is it? Woody, who is the greatest actor of our generation. It's Jack Horler.

I know Jack, but then is Michael B. Jordan? No. No. I haven't even seen the thing. What is wrong with you? I haven't even seen the thumbnail for it. Oh, I bet. I bet. Okay, who is it then? Tell me who it is.

It's that guy who's a diehard Vince Carter fan. Some guy I've never heard of. He's a cool guy, though. I saw him on first take or get up. Doing the media rounds. He was good. So it's already out. Been out.

Came out last Friday. It came out last Friday. It came out last Friday. It's on Hulu. That's the thing. It's on Hulu. Do yourself a favor and go watch the old one. Direct to Hulu? Yes.

It was released by Hulu. For Hulu. No, not in theaters. No, not in theaters. Right there, dude. Senkou Walls. Boom. To the window, to the walls.

Play hard, hustle harder. I'm definitely going to watch that. Are you? Even though Michael B. Jordan's not in it? I love the first one, so this one has to be probably twice as good. I watched the first film. I wouldn't like the first one, yeah.

You don't need to remake great things. I think about the first one, the age I was when I watched it. Sure. So you kind of got to judge against that. Playing think about the first one, The Age I Was, when I watched it. Sure. So you kind of got to judge against that. Playing a lot of basketball back then, too. Boom. And also Baby going on.

Yeah. Sure. So I didn't see the whole thing. Sure. Good actors in the first one. That certainly helps. What are you saying about the second one? I'm saying I have no fucking interest watching Jack Harlow.

Why are you such a hater? Reprise a role that Woody Harrelson Why are you such a hater, dude? It's like Conor's, oh, well, there you go. Looks like everyone loves it. Not! I don't know who's voting those things.

I've never seen anybody. I've never been asked to vote. The tomato meter is critics and they panned it, obviously. And then the audience score is just, you know, common folk. Yeah. And why don't you just look on the left side of the screen? You see something. It's called John Wick Chapter 4, 94%.

Okay, so do yourself a favor. Watch John Wick. Don't be watching this bullshit. Where's Top Gun at? Well, this is just what's out. Top Gun, mind you, was certified fresh. Yeah, 97, I believe. And that matters, right?

These people matter. Oh, yeah. They do. And that matters, right? These people matter. Oh, they do. Sometimes. Sometimes. What'd they say about Morpho? About Morpho? Oh, the show. Yeah.

Big Door Prize. I'm not sure. How about it? He had a new segment this week. You saw this? Yeah. What did we watch? Did you see it, AJ?

I did get to see some of that. It was nice. I liked that. It was good, wasn't it? Made me want to watch that show. Same. 10 football. I think you said they win. 10 wins. That's a 10-win team. It was nice. It was good, wasn't it? Made me want to watch that show. Okay, 10 football. I think you said they win. 10 wins. That's a 10-win team. Maybe 9 wins. I forget what

it was. AJ, did you go watch it? Watch what? The show? Yeah. Not yet because I just saw it today on the commercial. In between segments. There's another new Apple TV show out too. Do that next week. Which one? Silo. Oh yeah, I tried that one. Yeah, you did. 30 seconds, right?

Yeah, that one's 45 seconds. Super serious. I like it. Boom. There's Silo. 86. Apple TV talent. Max. Their talent, right? HBO Max. Just Max. They always put out good shit, don't they? They use a lot of money, right? Well, HBO's gone. Drop the

the. Drop the HBO. Yeah, I don't love that, but you know that It is what it is We're always going to call it HBO right? Even when it was HBO Max I still call it HBO Yeah but you guys don't respect it Because it's a brand name Yeah well you don't respect it Don't respect what?

You said you're still going to call it HBO Yeah because it's a brand name HBO Go was the winner Blue Magic is a brand name Yeah well now Max is. Welcome. Wow. Look at that audience score. Look at that meter. Holy shit.

That's my thoughts. That's a film right there. But go ahead, watch White Man Can't Jump with Guy Carlow. Have fun. Bro, I would have given this a hundo and a hundo. You watch it for five straight days. 50,000 on Memorial Day weekend. I watched it again two days ago. Let me rephrase that for you again and a hundo. You watch it for five straight days. 50,000 on Memorial Day weekend. I watched it again two days ago.

Let me rephrase that for you again in a different way. On Memorial Day weekend, you're going to watch White Man Can't Jump with Jack Harlow over Pop Gun Maverick. When did that become what was happening? Memorial Day. On Memorial Day.

I was talking about his jumper. I was just trying to add in that his jumper would be great in the gym. I wasn't saying on Memorial Day. White man can't jump over Top Gun Maverick. I don't know how we got here, but we're here now.

I've watched it more than you. I've watched it more than you. At this point, I think you might have. I've watched it more than you. I don't know about you. You don't know that. At this point, I think you might have. I don't do shit. I got a baby. What are we even talking about? You guys know what this is.

Yeah, well, I do. But you, I mean, if we're talking total screen time, I've definitely watched it more than you. We talked about the last 45 minutes. I've watched that son of a bitch from entry to exit every single time. I've watched it about 15 times. Well, I'm up there 15-ish. I've only seen 14 times

I've seen one part of it. That ending, 40 minutes, AJ, you can watch. It's like an episode. It's an episode of something. You can just go watch it and it's perfection. Greatest episode on TV of all time.

All time. There's so much action. There's comedy. You can really get. Yeah, your feels a little bit. Is Matt going to make it? There's something like, oh, shit. Every time.

Real athleticism. He sprinted through the snow. Exactly. Not just athleticism, teaching. I mean, he's teaching you how to run. Bingo. I saw Bill run on the treadmill. Yeah, I saw that too.

He looked like Tom running through the fucking. I don't doubt it. Bill plays no games. Well, he still holds the 100-meter record at Bill High School. Yeah, you should have seen him this morning. You didn't see him this morning, did you? Bill High School. Fucking weightlifting gloves for the deadlifts.

What? It was next level. Bill wants to keep his hands soft. I walked in and I was like, holy shit, Bob. Bill, we want calluses, Bill. I need to step up my game. Bill, we want calluses, Bill. I need to step up my game. Bill, we want calluses. Take the gloves off.

That's what we're here for. That's why you do it. He's so used to wearing rubber gloves. He just... Big guy. Let's get out of here. He doesn't want his DNA all over the place. Big thanks to Florio for joining us.

Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike. Big thanks to Duke Tobin for joining us. Thank you, Duke. Love you, Duke. Shams Rania broke some massive news on the program today. Yes. We do not act accordingly.

The broken foot thing, I think we've had respect for it immediately. I assume Shams had broken that news before. He had not. That was breaking news. LeBron could be facing a tendon foot, tendon surgery that could take him out for two months coming up here. He had been playing with that. Absolute dog warrior. So we're talking about flopping, you know,

whenever he went from one side of the court to the other side of the court, into the guy's beer and took guy's towel to use it. Think about maybe the tendon that was ruptured or whatever it was. Just maybe lost a little balance. That's a great point because, once again, we're not talking about the flop. We're talking about the injury. And we're not talking about the sweep. We're talking about the injury. And we're not talking about the sweep. We're talking about the retirement.

He's a genius. He's basically a hockey player at this point. Didn't tell anyone about an injury. Nick, you're right there. And then, boom. Nick, please do something. After he's out, he tells everyone. He was out for two months with this injury.

And the Lakers got ten times better. That's not true because it's breaking news, Tony. Please do something. Bro, 29 points per game this year. Playing every game, damn it. Almost every single minute. He missed two months. He's a guy, dude.

He's a hockey player. Kanye West was wearing Muay Thai pads on his legs last week, this week. In his shoulder pads. He is creating a superhero, I do believe, costume. Started at the bottom last week. Goat. What's his guy?, I do believe. Costume. Started at the bottom last week. Goat. What's his guy? Someone needs to talk to him.

Is he playing for A-B's team? I'm not 100% sure if he is suiting up for the... He's got big fucking hands. Look at that ice cream cone. It looks tiny. Yeah, I mean, his shoulders too. The guy wore Muay Thai pads on his legs last week. He looked like an indie wrestler.

Somebody tweeted that, and it was like the best accurate description of it. Who knows if that's what we're all wearing in like 10 years, but that has been how Kanye dresses every day of his life. All you are going to dress like this 10 years from now. And I assume there's a lot of days that there's misses, just like everything else. That's right.

But every once in a while, he'll put on the right pair of Muay Thai pads, and 10 years from now, we'll all be fucking sparring with each other and kicking trees. So we appreciate Old Yeezy for doing that. Thank you, Kanye. A lot of days, he looks like an asshole.

A lot of days. Not today, though. Not today. I want to take it up every day, so I can't say anything, but if he's going to normalize wearing Shoulder pads under Like he's in a

Simple celebration And wrestling pads Maybe he's just yoked Are we sure those are pads How can we know for sure It could just be 35 t-shirts On top of each other. Oh, so the next one is not

police? Is that the police? Yeah. So it takes the next one off. It's like, grazie. Firefighter Z. Alright, Firefighter Z. Can't wait to see tomorrow. Alright, thank you for doing that

for us Kanye Thank you Kanye Keep going Kanye Without you Kanye we'd just be still wearing The same stuff we were Wait kind of are I guess What I mean bell bottoms are coming back

Well I don't know Are they? Mitt's wearing them, but does that mean anything? That's a great point. Nah, Mitts, I wear bell bottoms too, Mitts. Say it again, Tony. Let's go, Mitts. Come on, Tone. Yeah, Tone, hater.

What are you saying, Tone? Go ahead, Tone. Completely different. That's completely different. Why? Why? Why? Are you being racist?

Because Mitt's white? Is that racist? Great question. Are you being racist? Is it because Pac-Man's black? Tony. Are you being racist? Because Mitt's white? Is that racist? Great question. Are you being racist? Is it because Pac-Man's black? Are you being racist? It's because Pac has style and Mitch is pulling out whatever he can at the bottom of his fucking clothes pile. He certainly did that today with his shirt.

I don't know if you guys saw how fucking wrinkly that thing was, but that has been sitting in the bottom of his dirty wash for the last six months. There's peanut butter on the back shoulder. Hey, hey, Mitt, you're killing it. Keep it up, Mitt. Thank you, Mitt. You're doing great, pal. Honestly. There you go, Mitt.

Yeah. He knows. Fresh hawk. Fuck yeah. Yeah, turn Mitt's mic on. Maybe not. Who knows what he's listening to? Give me the chocolate dough.

Put that thing on his haircut. His hair looks... Can you go back to him? Looks awesome. Hey, hair looks really good, Mitt. Let's fuck it. Fuck it. Race week.

Fuck you away. Dude, there's a snake pit. Me and DJ Diesel. Yeah, let's go. Oh, yeah, dude. I love bell bottoms. Bro. Wrinkles are in bro Shut up

Alright we appreciate you mate great work Good fashion Need you in shoulder pads and shin guards tomorrow Bingo We really want to be about the future Alright let's get the hell out of here Great work everybody Thank you all so much

Be a friend tell a friend something nice You know the world could hear a little bit more of that Goodbye