The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 952 - Feel Good Friday With Ian Rapoport, NFL CMO Dr. Allen Sills, Jordan Schultz, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: August 11, 2023

On today’s show, Pat, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about last night’s two preseason games including CJ Stroud’s NFL debut, as well as the games that are on tap this weekend and what they’re expecting, some of the best bets, and much more. Joining the program fresh off his international vacation is NFL Network Senior Insider, Ian Rapoport to chat about the RB situations around the league, if the Jets are going to get O-Line help, his thoughts on all new these new NFL aggregators, and more (15:02-52:58). Next, the Chief Medical Officer of the NFL, Dr. Allen Sills joins the show to chat about the new kickoff rule, different things he and his team are doing to attempt to make the game safer, the grass vs. turf debate, guardian caps moving forward, and more (1:09:41-1:51:28). Later, NFL Insider for The Score, Jordan Schultz joins the show to chat about his week on “Speak!,” why he likes being in the mud in the insider game, and more (2:05:59-2:15:59). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. See you on Monday, cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this Feel Good Friday, August 11th, 2023, this sports program starts right now. Football! Okay, the boys made a decision there right before we went live to say football instead of feel good on this glorious Friday. We can't thank you enough for joining us. The reason why they said football is because we had two preseason football games last night. We've got six games today, six games tomorrow, two games on Sunday. We have a weekend full of NFL jerseys

playing on NFL field. Now there's a couple questions that we have to raise here on this beautiful Friday. Are the Patriots dead? They're completely defeated. Are they on the road to potentially losing every single game this year? They've already started 0-1. Certainly possible.

They're trying their absolute best to lose every single game. Patriots might be dead, and on the flip side, are the Texans a favorite? Chance. How about the Vikings? They stink. Seattle Seahawks, they're awesome. Now, the real deal of the whole convo, and we're kind of mocking it all because at one point in time, people actually thought that way,

what we just said about preseason games. Now, what are we looking for? Well, we want to see if the young guys are doing well. Well, I think old Tank did pretty well last night. I think old Malik Cunningham had a great fourth quarter last night. I think Jordan Addison looked damn good. I think some punters looked good. I think some punters looked good. I think some kickers looked good.

I think there was a little bit of offense, a little bit of surprise. Some strategy from teams that maybe leads us to believe that that might be what they are this season. There's certain things we can find in these games. We just have to look for them. And last night we certainly did that. Did forget. What's that?

That it's the local commentary teams. Bingo. So that first game, Patriots-Texans up there in New England, it was awesome to see that fucking Boston Wicked Paul drop his ass in in Bob's discount furniture studio. I didn't know at the beginning if that guy owned the furniture store. It was Bob. Yeah, I didn't know if that was like his actual furniture store,

which is why he was there. Let's check in with Bob on the couch there, Bob's furniture. He had the best Boston accent I've heard in a long, long time. Every time this dude popped up on the screen, I was all ears. I wanted to hear how he pronounced some words. I wanted to hear what he was thinking. And also, I know that this son of a bitch, Paul, boots on the ground at Patriots camp, and he's going to shoot a straight,

just like Tommy, Kern, and everybody else you've ever heard from. So it was a fun experience listening to the local broadcast. Then we get to the second game, local broadcast, technical difficulties. We're starting a little bit later. I'm like, well, the game's already at fucking 10 o'clock. We need to not start any later. It's going to be hard for me to stick through this.

They go to the Seattle coverage, Michael Robinson, former player, a lady I did not know, and then Mikey Bennett was up there as well, former D-lineman and absolute stud, brother of Marty Bennett. So obviously that was an entertaining booth. Sure. They cut that thing off, though, because of technical difficulties? Maybe. Yeah, we'll see.

Maybe. I don't know if that was technical difficulties or if they're like, we got fucking the guy, the local guy, on the other side of the fucking stadium right now we should technical difficulties cut this thing right over to paul allen with the minnesota vikings right i don't know if that decision was made or if it was actual technical difficulties as soon as they went over there what hey paul you're a talent pal yeah unbelievable you're a real talent the minnesota vikings fans are lucky that you are their guy, their voice. We had Myron Cope growing up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He was the creator of the terrible towel. He was also the creator of his own language. We're talking about not really speaking. The ultimate yinzer was this guy. Now, every once in a while, he'd have 10 beers, 20 beers, 30 beers, hop in a car and drive. Not good. But you put him in a booth behind a microphone,

he absolutely crushed it for it. Now, whenever you hear these local commentary teams during these preseason games, you all got to kind of take it with a grain of salt. But I think last night was a Paul Allen showcase. Big time. And I learned that. So I'm excited to watch through the weekend, see who's doing what, what teams are where.

And let's go to the toxic table at Boston Connor, Connor Smollett, and at Ty Schmidt. Connor, with you, Patriots played completely defeated. What did you see last night that makes you excited? Seems like that 55-year-old dog is going to be very good for you guys. Yeah, bingo. Keon White, we all saw him when he got drafted in the second round, and it looked as though that he was a 40-year-old man.

He's wearing 99. A lot of people are saying he's probably fourth in the depth chart with defensive ends after last night. It's clear to see that guy's going to play a lot. He was very good. All the young guys on defense really did well. Gonzalez got beat on one one-on-one in the corner, but he punched it out. Ended up going

out of bounds. Didn't really matter. Did kind of get beat, but he still looked good. Jalen Mills playing safety. It is clear once again that this team is going to be a very good defensive team, and then all questions are on the front. But just to clarify, watching Bailey zip on the ball, Zappy, jog off the field after a third and four, not getting it done,

and seeing Bill O'Brien in the background of a camera shot as he's walking off and Bill O'Brien is saying shit to him. I can't tell you how good that felt just to watch. Just because last year, obviously a big thing with Mac, the body language, him throwing his hands up in the air a lot of the times when he's on the field, on the sideline, there was the Bills Thursday night prime football game where Mac's yelling on the sideline, throw the fucking ball to Patricia, and now it's flipped.

Now we got Bill O'Brien yelling at the QBs, and that's exactly what I think Patriots fans want. And I bet Mac and Zappy probably want that too, just because of how big of a shit show it was last night. But at the end of the night, Malik Cunningham is the next Lamar Jackson. So I don't know if Mac and Zappy even matter. It's his Cunningham kid.

He might get in week two and just never look back. And I'm here for it. I love it. We should put in four tight ends, Ramondre Stevenson and Cunningham, and run the read option up and down the fucking field. Well, especially if you've got that good of a defense. Run the ball, go ahead and bury the clock, and then have your defense get off the field.

You're in a good spot. You can win some very boring games. Who cares? We're winning. Yes. With that being said, 259 picks in this last draft. That's right. I think there was a long snapper or two drafted.

One of them might not make the team. Sure. That is like seventh round. I was picked 222. Didn't even know how to fucking punt. Was drafted to punt. Like, hey, your potential could be a good punter. Now, Bill Pullian's a Hall of Famer.

Obviously, he saw something that I didn't fully comprehend as the only punter in the history of the NFL that couldn't touch my fucking toes. And you still draft me. Like, I appreciate that. But everybody knows that that was just like a throwaway. Yeah. Like, yeah, if it's whatever.

259 picks in that draft last year. Malik Cunningham was not drafted. No. So somehow this guy is an undrafted free agent that Bill Belichick finds. And in the fourth quarter of the first preseason game, he gets an opportunity to play quarterback, electrifies everything. Game was a little bit of a dud.

A little bit of a dud. Preseason game. Then he comes in. You see all the mass holes like, look at his score, 20-3 with six minutes left in the game. Mass holes still in abundance at Gillette Stadium with that jumbotron looking glorious. And those who stayed got to witness a dog.

This dude had his fucking helmet ripped off. Actually, at one point, it was like, my eye. Yeah, my eye. The ref was like, did you get a concussion? He was like, no, I got my helmet to my... I got the back of my helmet to my eye. Tell me how that happens in this league or whatever. And that guy's

definitely not going to make the team. The guy just tackled somebody by the face. Not supposed to be in the NFL. But he gets up. Very next play. How you doing? Keep it moving. Strike! What a ball. Would have been a tut. Doesn't matter, though, because what Malik Cunningham would go on to do is shake it off, shake it off,

and then lead the team down, score a touchdown with this nine-yard scamper where he runs a guy. Can't bring me down. That guy's not making sense. Yeah, there's a lot of guys on the field right there, fourth quarter, first preseason game, minute 54 left, that are not going to be in the NFL.

It's just the safety who. We are certainly judging him against players that aren't NFL. That guy just got shook out of his shoes. He's not even going to be playing in the XFL. That guy's going to be selling insurance, but he had a great football career, pal. You're in an NFL camp. You're in an NFL camp.

I mean, maybe he'll be able to work his way back, but that's going to be tough to get over in the film room and when they're judging who's going to make the team, who's not going to make the team. Well, I can't pick the guy that literally fell down for Malik Cunningham, right? Can't do that? Can't do it.

Yeah, he's gone. Keep your feet under you. Not athletic enough, they'll say he's gone, even though he's probably a great football player. He's in the fucking NFL. People need to remember that for a preseason game. But reality is Malik Cunningham had a touchdown run in college. That Gumpy showed me last night.

He broke seven tackles. Ran for like 165 yards in his one play. Scored a touchdown. Has more rushing touchdowns than Lamar Jackson did at Louisville. Now, he was not a Heisman player at Louisville this past season. And everybody says his arm is doo-doo. He threw a strike right there with an NFL ball. Maybe the ball was too small for him.

Maybe he needed a little bit bigger ball. But I don't know how every team passes on him seven times and has a draft pick with that one play that I saw him at Louisville. But now here's Bill Belichick, super genius, just found another guy. And I guess they gave him a massive signing bonus. Yeah, he got $200K signing guaranteed right off the bat. Super genius. Just found another guy. And I guess they gave him a massive signing bonus. Yeah, he got $200K signing guaranteed right off the bat. And I believe it was a three-year deal. And just not at quarterback, too.

He's been playing wide receiver in training camp as well. Yeah, which was my immediate thought after watching him. It's like, okay, here we go. This is Bill Belichick's next Julian Edelman. I assume Malik can catch. He seems to be an incredible athlete. Now, will he be able to pick up what Julian Edelman. I assume Malik can catch. He seems to be an incredible athlete. Now, will he be able to pick up what Julian Edelman was to do as a Kent State quarterback? And then he gets to the Patriots. He becomes a special teamer, a safety, a wide receiver, a quarterback at different times.

Goes on to have an incredible career and one of the greatest catches in the history of football. For sure. Atlanta. So me just saying, well, he's going to put the Julian Edelman package is obviously me saying that, oh, yeah, this guy would just be able to be Julian Edelman. Not everybody is going to be able to be Julian Edelman. But with what Bill Belichick was watching last night, you have to think that his brain was like, well, remember what we – and Bill O'Brien's like, yeah, I do remember.

And I assume Malik is going to be at least given a great opportunity to be a part of that offense when it's all said and done. And that's the fourth quarter of the first preseason game that happens. Congrats to the undrafted free agent player who in the first preseason game, fourth quarter, proves pretty much to everybody, like, yeah, guy's supposed to be on the roster, supposed to be on the team. That can happen the rest of the weekend.

We need to keep our eyes out for those situations. On the flip side of that, the Texans, C.J. Stroud, number two overall pick, he comes out. I thought he had a good drive going. Now, people were saying, hey, good drive. He got sacked for like a minus 20 or whatever. Completes his first ball, seemed comfortable, got in and out of the huddle, seemed

poised. Everything kind of went off without a hitch. There was no delay at games. There was nobody lined up off sides. There was nobody still in motion whenever he snapped the ball. Now he was under duress every single pass play. And for Connor's point about the New England Patriots front, seems like they're in a much better spot than they have

been getting to the quarterback. Or the Houston Texans offensive line is just terrible. But that right there is a big play because people thought he wasn't athletic enough to make plays whenever the play breaks down. Remember when he played in Georgia in the college football playoff, he was running a lot, and people were like, well, if he would have done this all year,

we would have maybe won more games or in a different fashion. He never chooses to do that. It's like, well, first night, evaded some sacks, seemed comfortable, looked like a professional, right? I think it was a couple times where maybe he looked a little antsy, and whenever he threw his pick, literally pump faked to a guy And then he learned quickly Yeah this ain't Northwestern bro

You can't pump fake a guy and then go back to him If he doesn't move If he's double moving Maybe we can do that But if you're pump faking you can't be going to the same place you just faked Because somebody like Mills Who's a veteran in the secondary, he shot the whole, I mean, that was

the easiest pick of all time. But that's an easy welcome to the NFL moment for C.J. Stroud to learn from. I think if I'm Texans fans, I'm not that discouraged. I don't think I'm that scared. I think there was a couple moments where he got to show that he could be a guy. Like, that's one right there. I think

obviously the game was moving a little quicker than he could imagine, but it was that because his offensive line wasn't that great. But all the shows, all the shows. Oh, yeah. And all the internet. All the internet, yeah. CJ Stroud ain't going to make it in the NFL.

Cooking him. He's a bust. Poor performance. It's like, he threw a pick, got it. He got sacked. Okay, definitely his fault. Against Belichick. Definitely, yeah, against pick, got it. He got sacked. Okay, definitely his fault. It was Belichick. Definitely, yeah, against Bill Belichick.

Yeah, definitely his fault. But other than that, we didn't see a lot. But there was nothing I was really that worried about. I was like, eh, first game for a rookie quarterback, new scene, new offense, new everything. I didn't think he looked that bad. There's people I feel like really making it out to be terrible, though. No, for sure.

He never faced pressure like that at Ohio State, ever. He was under more duress last night than he was in his entire time starting at Ohio State. There's going to be growing pains. There's a reason that the Texans picked him number two overall. They're not very good. They've got a ways to go.

It's going to take some time. Obviously, in the preseason like they they could have just left him in there and been like hey figure it out but you also don't want him going out killed yeah exactly you don't want him getting sacked eight times and then being like 4 or 17 and just completely killing his confidence like he's gonna figure it out he's gonna be okay and then you put you know laramie tunsell protecting his blind side like that's certainly gonna help a little bit like it's i. I think it's because he's Ohio State. I think it's because he's young.

I think it's because the Texans stink. But people are being very mean to him. What people are judging that are in positions of decision-making, it's like, does he look like an NFL quarterback in this first game? Because even something as small as somebody going in motion and then having to go get set, snapping the ball before that person gets set because everything else is kind of going on that you're worried about, like, that's an amateur-looking thing.

Right, yeah. Breaking the huddle, like, that's an amateur-looking thing. Like, how you have the control of everything, that's a thing. Like, I think he looked the part. I honestly did. The pick was terrible, though. Yeah, that pick. That is not going to happen, but a lot of rookie quarterbacks

throw a lot of terrible balls. I didn't think it was proper to throw in a towel on him, but you know what I did? I did like the Houston Texans, the way they were vibing down there. Dougie Mills comes out. Case Keenum. It's unfair that Case Keenum is playing third and fourth quarter of a first preseason game.

He's playing a different level of football, just like Jalen Mills is, playing a different level of football than everybody else. Good the texans maybe they got something this year yeah kind of like uh i thought i was thinking about it while watching the game yesterday like when lambo said kind of try to judge the whole team because overall the whole team like texans kind of looked like they were crisp like they were they were doing the right things but when doug mills came in he would like he looked like good yeah he looked like so obviously he's been in the league for a lot longer but like his decision making was super quick he was i was like oh immediately in my head i was like tempe buccaneers need to trade for doug mills tomorrow yeah how many of those guys are we gonna see all weekend

backup quarterbacks like the tempe buccaneers need to trade for malik cunningham right now you know what i mean joining us now is a man who might have a little bit more information on if any trades are going to take place over the next couple weeks as training camp happens, or will it all kind of come down to cut day? Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, host of the weekly wrap-up with the Rap Sheet and friends, us being the friends, he being Rap Sheet, from NFL

Plus! Ian Rapoport. What's up, guys? I saw NFL Plus got Red Zone, you know, trying to bump those numbers for a big-time sale of an app. And NFL Network, Red Zone and NFL Network. Pretty big deal, I must say. Oh, so NFL Plus has NFL Network on it now full-time?

Yeah. So you can stream NFL Network whenever you want that. It's good. So will you guys be splitting up all the good stuff onto something like nobody watches and then something everybody else watches? The coverage

you had a couple weeks ago, what was it? Where all the good stuff... Feels good back weekend. Yeah, we're back. Welcome back to school football weekend. We're all together football weekend. Smoking me.

When they had all the good stuff happening on NFL Plus. No. Yeah. I mean, I would say I remember that differently. But look, NFL Plus is a great addition. I would just subscribe. You get a lot of really good stuff on there, including now NFL Network and Red Zone, which you can stream anywhere. You can just be riding your car with Red Zone on your iPad.

It's amazing. I love that you look down to get the proper ad for that thing, you know, because they are pushing NFL Plus. There's a reason they're pushing NFL Plus. I happen to believe that this is all going to be a part of the sale of NFL Network, of the kind of digital rights. And if you have an app that has a subscription service, oh, in 2023, you got subscribers? Oh, man. Smart play by Raj. But also, let's not be ruining any actual coverage in this money play.

Nonetheless, you're a money man. Welcome back, dude. Great to have you. You're at your house. You've been on a world tour, obviously, with the wife, and then now you're back at home after your training camp tour. Have you seen your kids? Have you talked to your kids? When was the last

time you heard they were still alive? Everything like that? I am back. I toured the world with my wife i went to 18 i saw 18 different teams in training camp which i think is a lot um and my kids there we go that is we're in the adriatic sea right there that's beautiful man um full-time job that was two kids yeah in the adriatic sea just fine in time chilling i was in the middle of a 40 kilometer bike ride in Croatia. And it's great too.

We finished 20 kilometers. We sit down. Give us a bottle of wine with lunch. And then we're like, cool, now we got to drive back. A little boozed up? I mean, not really boozed up. I had a glass. But still, it was... Yeah, one bottle of wine ain't going to do anything.

No, I had just one glass and maybe a little bit more. There was, you know, 11 people, so it was... Yeah, one bottle of wine ain't going to do anything. No, I had just one glass and maybe a little bit more. There was, you know, 11 people so it was, well, not really, but anyway, my kids are in my house. Oh! How about that? When did that happen? And they're alive, which is even better. Hell yeah. So, this is big news, right?

When did this all take place? They got home about a half hour ago. Jesus. Oh. Think about everything you have done, everything we have done. Zito's married. That's right.

Foxy's engaged. Yeah. Yeah. I want to go back to the Zito thing. I'm sorry to interrupt. Don't worry. I'm bearing it as a father. Did you not know my address?

Like, is it? You were in Croatia during it during it uh i was that why i didn't so you knew i was gonna be there yes i i saw where you were at instagram and i was like ah he's not okay got it yeah because you told us you were like yeah i'm gonna dump my kids off in the middle of the woods for about two to three months yep then we're gonna go on a world tour then training camp starts and they're back to school and then we're off and running and we're going to go on a world tour, then training camp starts, and they're back to school, and then we're off and running. And we're like, oh, that's why. Yeah, that's why I didn't invite you. But so much has happened since you last saw them.

Is everything good? Everything's good with them, yeah? Seems to be great. They had an awesome summer. They played a lot of sports and did a lot of things, and they brought back a lot of medals and a lot of really dirty clothes. It's been great. This makes sense, though, because he was with his kids for 20 minutes,

and then you got that text that he said, hey, can I please come on the show for like 45 minutes or so? I've had way too much. Yeah, I'm sorry, because I was like, oh, he must have some news to break or something. That's why he's doing it. It's like, no, no, no. No. No.

Max and June are driving me fucking nuts. What are these things? I've been in Croatia, Slovenia. Go back to camp. Jeez, go back to camp. Their hair is like down to here. They all need haircuts. It's ridiculous.

No haircuts for seven weeks. No barbers in the woods. I guess that makes sense. Well, congrats to the whole Rapport family being whole again. Seems like they had fun. You had fun. A lot of people questioned it. But, hey, you live your life, Rapp.

Speaking of living life, the life of the NFL is about to really start to ramp up here. You know, big time weekend, first preseason games for 30 of the NFL teams. What have you learned about the NFL right now that makes you think it's different than years past? For instance, seems

like we have some actual holdouts happening where like last year, two years ago, ever since the new CBA, it was hold ins like, Hey, we're going to do this a little bit more civilized going to be here. We're going to be kosher, going to be professional.

Now it's like motherfuckers are out of the building. Is this what the new norm is going to be? What are you hearing about it? And are we close to a resolution on any of those? Yeah. First of all, I don't get the sense we're close to a resolution on any of them. The holdouts are Zach Martin, of course, with the Cowboys, standing on principle.

It's interesting because you talk to the Cowboys people, and he's one of their favorite players. The Cowboys coaches, executives, they love Zach Martin. He has been the highest paid guard for several years, but he looks at the market, feels he's undercompensated, and is taking a really strong stance. I don't sense any traction there. Chris Jones wants a new deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. He is an awesome player. Number 10, by the way, on the top 100, which was unveiled exclusively on NFL Plus. I assume you watched that.

Nobody saw it. See, so that list came out. Nobody saw it. Why are you guys – we get you're trying to build something, but it doesn't mean you need to just hide all the good stuff. No, I always saw... Brick by brick. What's that?

Brick by brick. Brick by brick. Yeah, but brick by brick. Don't put the wall, though, that you've already built back there because people like seeing that wall. Do the little shitty stuff that we don't know about or love. You know what I mean? Because you might as well just throw that into the Adriatic Sea.

What is it? Adriatic Sea. The Adriatic Sea because nobody even saw it. Nobody even saw it. Nope. It's just like inside the NFL. Yeah. Inside the NFL was like –

I love inside the NFL. Yeah, you haven't watched it in years. Nobody did. I know that. It was because it was on Paramount+. It's like we get you're trying to build your app, but also like you're just basically killing brands all day.

You have people there. Until you get there. I just don't want the NFL to do that. NFL's good business. Don't do that. It's a fine line. I think we're walking the line. Chris Jones holding out. The Chiefs have made a big offer. Obviously not big enough.

We'll see how close he gets to Aaron Donald money. I think that's probably the, I don't know if he's shooting to be above Aaron Donald, but like that's the kind of ballpark and he is an awesome player. So we'll see if they get a resolution. And then Nick Bosa still holding out as well. Bosa is a little different though, because the 49ers are allowed to forgive his fines if they get a deal. The veterans on veteran deals, you cannot. So the Zach Martin fines, the Chris Jones fines, those are happening regardless. A little bit of a different story. But yeah, I'm honestly like I've been surprised that we've got holdouts. We hadn't had any in the past. What about J.K.

Dobbins over in Baltimore? It feels like there's a little bit of smoke over there, a lot of smoke, at least. Is there some real shit going off there? He's obviously been injured a little bit. Connor reminded us all of the report card that the Baltimore Ravens training facility got last year, the training room, which normally got high remarks from everybody in Baltimore. It was like, these people don't care about us. They stink. It is terrible. What's going on with J.K. Dobbins and the Ravens?

They're a different team whenever he's healthy and playing, obviously. He's terrible. What's going on with J.K. Dobbins and the Ravens? They're a different team whenever he's healthy and playing, obviously. Well, and when he played the end of the year last year, he was one of the best running backs in football. That was a stretch that was really, really good. I think he would like to get paid. I know there's been some discussions about a long-term deal in Baltimore.

And he's on the PUP list. Now, I don't get the sense he's that, that injured. It seems like the kind of injury that would be probably okay if he ended up with a contract extension. Oh, you know, one of those. Well, good luck with JK. Let's talk about one of those situations in Indianapolis. Then let's talk about Jonathan Taylor who Shane Steichen said, maybe next week he says he, I forget how he said it, but should be,

should be back next week. Then Jonathan Taylor had the eyeball emojis. And I know like the national fans of the NFL know Jonathan Taylor to be a very talented running back and a special talent and everything like that. But in Indianapolis, there's a lot of people, not everybody, I'm not saying that. A lot of people though that are like, not the right, this doesn't feel like the right way of doing business.

That's how a lot of Colts fans feel. Bad, poor performance out of the Indianapolis Colts last year. Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Everybody fired, pretty much. Hey, out. So now, after the season, Jonathan Taylor says, yeah, I signed a contract, I did that. He knows that he didn't have his best year last year. Knows that the Colts are in a bad spot. He says that in April. Then everything changes, obviously, quickly. And he

decides that he wants his money now because the rest of the running backs aren't getting their money now. And then it becomes this big public situation with Jim Irsay and yada, yada, yada. It's like, I hope he gets paid. But I feel like the Indianapolis Colts and him situation is going to be tough to mend. What is the eyeballs and what are you hearing behind the scenes? yada, yada. It's like, I hope he gets paid, but I feel like the Indianapolis Colts and him situation is going to be tough to mend. What is the eyeballs and what are you hearing behind the scenes?

I would, I would agree with all of that. It's really hard. And I've been, you know, obviously this has been going on for three weeks. I was actually, like we talked about last time, I was in Indy when that broke, it was crazy. I feel like if you're a running back and you have the opportunity to get paid, you should do everything you can to get paid just because of what we have seen about the position. So he is taking a hard stance. Last year, played through injury. So his performance was obviously covered by an ankle injury that he ended up getting surgery on. He has ruffled a lot of feathers and that relationship is not good. Not good. I don't know if it could be fixed. You know, a trade would obviously fix it. But we've also seen situations where things are bad,

they're really bad. And then you kind of get together on a contract and then everyone feels better and they hug and they say, all right, let's put this behind us. What I don't know is, can it be better if he doesn't get a new deal like going through all this the situation has been really really challenging and bad on all sides and then if they just say hey come on in no due deal does he just come in like that's what i i do i can't figure out honestly yeah none of us can either on it because so many different angles you know what's the angle well one of the angles was that jimcer was like, I love whales.

He actually said that. That was how he started the Lolita video. The country or the animal? With an H. H. Whales. Why do you ask? But whales is what I was referring to.

Anyways, he also said, I'm not trading Jonathan Taylor now. I'm not trading him in October. Publicly said that. So he's basically saying, Jonathan Taylor, like, hey, you're playing on this deal? Is that what he's saying? Is that what the Colts still think?

And do they still want him in the building, you think? Do they still want him in the building? It has been challenging when he's been there. Yeah. New culture. New culture.

New quarterback. Everybody's fine. This is like you're really hitting on all of the reasons of why this has been so tough to figure out because, like, do you want him in the building? Well, I think Shane Steichen is really positive. Took a lot of that kind of, like, positive mojo from Philly. Like, Philly has a really good culture. I think there's a lot of what he's trying to build in Indy.

Like, you know, in Philly, you walk around, you see, if you're a player, you see your own highlights playing everywhere. It's kind of cool. It's real positive vibes. And I think he's trying to do that in Indy. And then the Jonathan Taylor situation has been the opposite of positive. Right? And so I think from the Colts' perspective, it's kind of like, well,

you know, last year was so bad. Why are we rewarding anyone? I kind of understand that. On the other hand, like, if Jonathan Taylor is going to be there, like, is that even good? Like, because I don't – I just don't know how this gets fixed. And then if he gets traded, that would have to be a sign-in trade with the team too, right? You would assume that he would want a new contract. Yeah, he would get some sort of –

That's a lot. Right, some sort a new contract yeah he would get that's a lot sort of right some sort of new contract and the colts would get compensation you know probably pretty high compensation because he's a really good player i just you know shane steichen is in his first coaching first coaching job he seems like a guy who's ready he did a great job last year with the eagles and then he walks into this like that you know you know, this is sort of how you tell. Like, you know, this has been, I'm sure, really tough for him too. So I was at training camp that one day,

and this was at the beginning of the whole Jonathan Taylor. I don't think we knew everything at that particular stage of what was going on and how unhappy he was. But, like, I saw Jonathan Taylor stand up, and I'm like, okay. So I talked to Shane Steichen after practice started. I watched it. I'm like, hey, man, welcome to Indianapolis. Yeah, our best player fucking hates everybody.

Good luck. And they're like, you know, I was like at that stage, I'm like, hey, change the culture, bro. Like I actually told him like, all right, I need you to change the culture in here. I need you to have a good offense. Go ahead and shape this rookie quarterback into something. They say his ceiling's real high.

We're going to find out with you, yeah you fix jalen hurts and then also like uh our best player fucking hates everybody so i gave him like the classic like good luck go get him you know it was like you're gonna do great that's a real thing now he knows so to all of it he's thankful to be a head coach you know like these are the things like that's what he did he like he answered me in a super professional manner but i was letting him i was trying to let him know like these are the things like that's what he did he like he answered me in a super professional manner but i was letting him i was trying to let him know like hey we all pretty much understand that you got a lot of shit on your plate right now a lot of stuff on your plate right now so whenever they said he was going to go do rehab somewhere else we all kind of assumed immediately like okay this is somebody finally like giving Steichen a chance, maybe. Give him a chance to institute his culture

without the best player who probably has a lot of sway in, say, being miserable about everything because he's in a situation business-wise. I don't know. I like it. Hopefully they're able to get a deal done. Money always seemingly talks, but Jim Irsay has said, brother, there ain't none of that.

There ain't none of that coming, so who knows? Hopefully they get it figured out. The running back said, brother, there ain't none of that. Not happening. There ain't none of that coming. So who knows? Hopefully they get it figured out. The running back market, though, still a very interesting one. Connor has a question for you, Rap. Yeah, Rap, with the other running backs, obviously Zeke went to New England on a visit. Apparently it went well.

He was there for a little bit. And after the preseason game last night, it's clear that New England needs a little help in the backfield. Do you see that one happening in these next coming weeks? Dalvin Cook, do you see that happening at some point soon just because training camp, you know, we're less than a month away from the season

kicking off now. Kareem Hunt, is he going to end up in Indy? Yesterday Michael Lombardi kind of theorized that possibly Hunt physically wasn't there just yet, but do you think that he will end up with the Colts either way? I didn't know the part of him physically not being there.

I mean, he had two visits. Sounds like he had two offers. You know, I think at this point maybe the thinking is, like, just wait. Maybe the deal increases. And I think that, you know, I would say that for all these guys. Zeke, I got a text this morning kind of checking in, and the response I got was slow motion,

which is basically like no one's in any hurry. Oh, not that he's slow. I was going to say, moving in slow motion? Yeah, because I thought the text was slow motion. He's healthier and he's fast. The motion is slow. Do teams think he's going to play center? Is that the issue? He's bad center. They're not going to put him at center, I don't think.

Can't do that. Him and Griff Whalen never playing center again, I don't think. Griff Whalen formerly of the Colts, Zeke formerly of the Cowboys. But you said all these people are just waiting for more money, like Kareem Hunt's waiting for more money. Is that real? Well, I think waiting to see if there is more money. You know, because reality

is like you don't have to sign right now. Like, if you sign in August 11th, it's probably the same as August 20th. You get a couple weeks, the season's ready. You know, running backs can get acclimated faster than I think a lot of positions. So it's like, you know, maybe there's an injury. Maybe someone else has a need. Maybe your leverage increases. I think they're all sort of on the same page.

And then, like, if you're Zeke, you've been through eight training camps. Like, I don't know that he needs to go through one of these. Just get to a point where you can get there with a couple weeks to go, be in shape, and get ready to roll. So, like, you know, at some point, probably soon, all these things happen. My guess would be Dalvin is first. I do think there's a lot of interest between him and the Jets. Just, you know, hasn't happened yet.

So we're all kind of waiting. And then here's the other thing. You know, you get through the preseason. I think teams would like to see what they have. So it's not bad for them either because they just get to play the other guys they want to see anyway. Yeah, but, like, I understand what you're saying. As a human who believes in, like, team, I'm a big, like, team guy.

Training camp is like, I don't know, if you can get somebody in your building during training camp, even if it isn't, like, to get them in on plays and get them all the way back or whatever, just being around everybody. Now, not that that can't happen when season starts, and there's always going to be signings happening late in the season, and those people are welcomed as quickly as possible,

and obviously everybody's excited about it. But, like, the situation with the Niners, I understand they're saying, like, I would want Nick Bosa in the building. I would want people to see Nick Bosa. I would want our rookies to see Nick Bosa. You know what I mean? Like, if Dalvin Cook's coming, like, I would like Dalvin Cook and Aaron Rodgers to be able to talk about some plays that he likes.

And Aaron, you know what I mean? Like, that's how I view training camp because I think that's how, like, I've seen people have, like, great success. You went away to camp, didn't you? Yeah. Where was that? We went up to Anderson for the last, like, seven years of my career. And then rookie year, we went to a place called Terre Haute. Rose Holman was the name.

They're the engineers. Real smart school. Real nice school. Hell, yeah. Really nice. I was like, this is not bad. Had an apartment. Me and Curtis Payne are roommates.

So, like, literally in quarterback meetings pretty much because they would come down to our room so that, you know, they could make a mess and we would have to fucking close. That's true. But, like, I was in quarterback meetings pretty much because they would come down to our room so that you know they can make a mess and we would have to fucking close but like i was in quarterback meetings there and then you go up to anderson and it's just this dorm and it's just a dump every no good people very good people yeah but very very good people the building wasn't but we're all adults you know and we're all humans who have houses and beds and stuff like that that isn't that far away. So it's one of those things that you like, oh, but it's getting away. Like, that's the biggest thing. Like, when remember the Titans, you know, when they hopped on those buses and go up to Gettysburg to do their like getting away together is a big deal. Same ground.

I think that we're fighting on today. Today, I think, like, that's a big part of training camp. But it seems like that's almost been lost with how everybody's talking about everything, Ian. Yeah, I mean, I remember when I was in St. Joe's for the Chiefs a couple years ago. Hurry! Hey! There's proof of life! What up? What's what's up boys both of them hi hey how was camp boys how was camp we loved it we hated it we missed our parents or no it was good it was

amazing we loved it did you miss your parents no not really yeah i did okay hey shout out you're gonna get more gifts that was a smart play but I like the way you're an outlaw I want to let you know that Did you hear that your parents went on like a world tour? That's how much they missed you guys They were trying to stay occupied by traveling the world Did you hear that? I know, I already heard about that

Make sure they take you You guys deserve to go there too Say you want better first class amenities too They owe you, you need to know this. You're too young to know this. Them sending you... I owe myself. Okay, sick.

Sick. They owe you a lot, though. Let's make sure the gifts are big. Birthday gifts, you... Yeah, Christmas this year should be a good one. Yeah, you deserve everything. You need to remember that, okay? And if not, you hold out.

Yeah, hold out. Say you'll go sleep outside in the middle of the cold. To hell with them. All right? All right. Bye, guys. Scram. Max and Jude, good work, boys. Yeah, hold out. Say you'll go sleep outside in the middle of the cold. To hell with them. All right? All right. Bye, guys. Scram. Max and Jude, good work, boys.

Yeah, there you go, boys. Once again, he's seen enough. Yeah, that haircut's in, huh? Ian, real quick. You mean the Hoover High? Yeah, all the kids have it. I couldn't tell you which one was which hair. I was going to take a guess.

The one that missed you seems to be your favorite. I'm going to say it's Max. No, Max did not miss us at all. Max is the one with the swoopy hair. Jude has the curly hair. They're getting haircuts, literally. I'm going to say it's Max. No, Max did not miss us at all. Max is the one with the swoopy hair. Jude has the curly hair. They're getting haircuts literally in 30 minutes. It's the same.

I would have been wrong. Jude is 17 months younger and is about the same height. Got his uncle's genes. Yeah. The mailman. I mean, Lee is pretty tall. But anyway. Well, next to you.

Yeah, it depends. Yeah, that's when you're on an NFL team, everybody thinks you're small, you know. Yeah. When you're hanging out with Ian Rapport, everybody's like, this guy's a genius. Goddamn giant over here. Watching NBA on TV. Anyway, love those kids there. But why is everybody, and I think they just. Go ahead.

I'm going to be honest with you. So I was at St. Joe's a couple years ago. And I was talking to Mahomes after practice and I'm like, do you like this? Like camp seems, you know, it's an hour and a half away. Do you like this? And he was like, what I like is I go sit at a different lunch table every day

and I just go introduce myself to a new teammate. And maybe that's like what people do. I just had never heard that. And I was like, there is something about this going away to camp. It's kind of cool. Yes, it's heard that. And I was like, there is something about this going away to camp. It's kind of cool. Yes. You're all you got.

Let alone people that have kids. You know about this. I mean, you send your kids to training camp in the woods every single year. But guys that have kids and when they're at home, they're full-time dad. So getting a chance to kind of – now, granted, there's a lot of speeches about not being there and apologize for being a bad dad, so I don't know if I should be promoting this. But, like, guys getting away from that particular thing. I've heard some people say, like, this has been – I love going to training camp.

Like vacation. Yeah, I love going to training camp. Kind of get away from everything that's going on at home, whether it's all chaotic. So I hope that doesn't go away. But it seems like everybody doesn't really care about that because teams aren't in a rush to get deals done to get these guys into camp to build camaraderie.

Players don't seem to be in a rush to get deals done to get in there because they're like, yeah, I don't have to go to some shitty dorm. I just hope that mentality doesn't change because I think it's a big piece of team building that is cool, and you can't really just buy it or trade for it or draft it. It's something that has to be earned, and I hope it just remains. I do hope it is something that remains as somebody that I – well, I love training camp. Sounds fun.

I mean, I had nothing to do. Yeah. You're shooting the shit. I wasn't going to say it, but – I'm just a mayor up there. I'm having a good time. It could actually be worse for you. What's that?

It's worse for you because you've got to figure out ways to fill that time. Well, yes, but also I don't have to do the shit that everybody else is doing. I know for sure that me going and playing cornhole is a lot better than whatever bullshit that offensive line is doing there. So I just hope that never goes away. I hope they get deals done. Lombardi said he thinks about two weeks left and everybody's camp is probably when all these deals happen. You know, that's probably when it all kind of takes place. Do you agree with that?

Yeah, I think that's probably right. You know, maybe after the third preseason game, you get like that. I think it is about two weeks, maybe 10 days, two weeks. 17, 17 days for the last. Is that what it is? If you play your Thursday, if they're Thursday night, third preseason game, it's 17 days until the regular season starts. Crazy. Crazy. Wow. That's even more than I realized. You know what that's setting up for?

Say it. You know. Voice of the NFL, go look down at your phone. We are not trying to get an 18th game this year. Say that. That sets up for an 18th game. No, no, no, no. That's not, no. I don't think so.

Yeah. Yeah, they're already kind of building it in. You know, it's here. We got this. We could potentially another round of primetime games. Yeah. Three on Labor Day. Oh, wait a minute.

Wait a minute. We can also, another bye week, right? Another round primetime games? Yeah, I think so. Three on Labor Day? Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. We can also, another bye week, right? Another round primetime game? There we go. Oh, it's never going to stop. You guys are going to make all the money, and NFL Plus is still going to have zero subscribers. Hey, Ty has a question for you, Rep. Rep, right after Rodgers got traded to the Jets, everyone kind of had the rose-colored

glasses saying, hey, they're going to win the Super Bowl, and that's really only been heightened since they were on hard knocks, and Dalvin Cook potentially going there. But then this week, there was all the talks coming out that their O-line wasn't very good in their joint practice with Carolina, and then now a lot of people are saying, hey,

there's a real concern here with the Jets' offensive line. Do you think they're going to go address that and try to get some O-line help before the start of the season? I would say the Jets as a team are really good, really sound, really talented. That's the only spot where I would say there's some questions. I think the main thing is I don't know what the offensive line is going to look like. I saw the online, the sort of viral clip of Brian Burns making Mekhi Becton look bad.

Brian Burns makes a lot of people look bad. He is awesome. And that spin move was nasty, so that was one rep. I think there's a lot of that now where a lot more one-rep spotlight stuff gets put online, and I think there's a lot of conclusions made of that. Dwayne Brown is going to be coming back. Salah said he has no doubt that he'll be ready week one, which there's your starting left tackle.

Hey, that's big news. I don't think we can do that. Put that on a sneaky ticker down there. I mean, Salah said, I think, quote, no doubt. Now, that surprised me because I thought he would take a little longer. He had pretty serious surgery on his shoulder. But then, like, you know, the question then the question of Elijah Vera Tucker is awesome, truly awesome. If they have an issue at left tackle or right tackle, does he go play tackle?

You put the best guys on the field. The Jets' O-line might struggle now. I just want to wait and see what it actually looks like before we get to the season. Yeah, concur. We don't know who the starting five is. We don't know if they're going to be the greatest offensive line in history. Obviously, the Eagles offensive line is the one that everybody is striving for, but if you go back through time, there's a lot of great offensive lines that either are unknown, doubted, not a lot of money. it's just a group coming together in a position unlike any other on the field they literally if they if they find chemistry somehow and they can learn each other's tendencies

those five any five seemingly of ability weight power can move it's like can be great and then if you don't find it though it can take a long time to find it you know because now you're like mix matching you know on price is right when they're trying to pick five numbers yeah to win the car yeah and if you get four right like the amount of opportunity in there like from a numbers math like if your left guard is shit but your left tackle is good and your center is good it's like well we can just change this one what if this next one's bad yeah what if this guy gets hurt it's like you can really start looking for almost ever for it so we hope everybody has it figured out Cincinnati Bengals last year yes eight games it took them for that offensive line to figure it out and they got

much better than what they had been I assume they're only going to get better that's where you win games though so it is a little bit of a scary thought for Jets fans, I'd assume, as it comes back down to reality and down to earth that, although you've got a quarterback who seems to be better than he's ever been, you've got weapons, you've got a defense, you've got a coach, you've got a culture,

you've got the media buy-in, but then it might come down to just basic football. Can you block fucking anybody? We shall see. that's a real good storyline last question here for you rap from yeah yeah ian i saw that you retweeted a tweet from mina kimes that was kind of calling the israeli insiders thieves stealing from thieves that'd be i believe dove in jpa and ml and rkx and all and football uh you guys you're calling them the israel Israeli insiders

because they were all in Israel at the same time. Yep. Thank you. Just clarifying. Is that true? Yes. One of them was stuck over there because their wall got stolen. What's your problem with those Twitter accounts, Ian?

Yeah, they might all be the same person. It's possible. That's why we're kind of piecing this whole thing together. But what is your deal with them? That's a good question. Because I like them. What I was trying to do, Greg Rosenthal is a good friend.

He does a really good job on his free agent article that I definitely read before retweeting. I just liked how Mina Kimes called attention to the work that Greg does. And so I wanted to retweet it because Greg is a good colleague. And so I wanted to retweet it because Greg is a good colleague. And I wanted everyone to see his list of however many free agents that was.

You're full of shit. Yeah, you're just shit eating grin already. It is interesting. Hey, this next generation here of news accruers, I will say, because they accrue information and just gather news and then they release it through their Twitter

accounts. It's a new angle. It's not an insider. It's not a pundit, but kind of. A little bit of punditry in the news. They're not really bloggers, but kind of because they're giving their takes. Sometimes, not letting people know the context of the things that they're saying.

And so a lot of times a shit storm, you know, starting an absolute shit storm, but I appreciate that they're hustling, trying to make it out there, but there's people that do not like them in the football world. And I'm looking hard, man. Whoa. It's hard. What?

No, I mean, it's just, I think about this a lot. That's what he said. Foxy. What are these guys deal? They're just haters, I mean, it's just I think about this a lot. That's what he said. Foxy, what do these guys do? They're just haters. I mean, they're haters. I love Ari Miroff. He basically started this. He's not in here, Foxy.

Ari Miroff is the godfather of this particular style. He's the originator. He's an aggregator. Yeah, yeah. He always gives great credit. Exactly. He's a class act. Yeah, he is.

Class, class, class. Fox Fox, you hear all these haters. I mean, they're just trying to be like, Ari, can you blame them? No, I'm trying to be like Ari. Do you know what Ari looks like? Do you know what any of these guys look like? I met Ari once. He's working hard.

He's at everything. Foxy's saying this, but who does Foxy root for? The Lions. What do we think about Lions fans? What's up? I don't even know why this guy's piping up back there. Lions are brand new Lions. Hell yeah, this is the year.

He tried to put words in our mouth. Anyways, Rap, sounds like you're on their side, and I just want to let you know, I'm not happy. You're a hating asshole. Just like these guys right here. It's challenging when you – I mean, look, those guys do give credit. Not always. No, they do not.

Well, sometimes they do. Sometimes they do. Every once in a while they give credit. No, they don't. It's just I don't know the alternative. I mean, look, I don't know why they exist, just being honest, but I don't know the alternative. They cover the game they love.

Eliminate them. What are we talking about? They cover the game they love. Yeah, that's fair. I will say, every once in a while, you know, those things will pop into the old algae, and it'll be a big, long, wild tail. Whoa!

I didn't know that. I did not know that. Thank you for bringing that into my life. Well, and that's what's nice is if you just search a little bit longer, either Rappaport or like Schefter or someone tweeted that like four or five minutes before that, and then they're just not credited there. So you're like, oh, shit, this guy actually is plugged. Now, I will say, let's follow up with that for your world of insider news.

It feels like now you break news, right? Somebody, let's say it is Ian Rappaport yeah of course yeah let's go yeah yeah Ian Rappaport just broke some news okay then every other network let's say ESPN or Fox or NBC they'll say that their person confirms that that becomes the news now yeah the news is like Schefter confirms report that blah blah blah and that is like how it or Fox will have Jay Glazer confirms report that blah blah blah or now Schultz yeah Schultz Jordan Schultz who's on uh speak speak or whatever in a suit at the desk yeah Looking good. Looks like Clay.

Sit. Jeez Louise! In a good way. Come on! Why'd you guys take that bad? It's not a compliment. I thought it was. Yeah, he looks good. He's got smooth skin like Clay. Connor thought he was watching

Slavery Deathmatch. Feel good Friday, dude. You guys are some hate. I, as, oh, for shoot, thought that was a compliment. Yeah. Did not think that was. They grabbed his body from Madame Tussauds and stuck him on the speech. That's not a compliment.

Your house is waxed. Anyways, you should see what you look like. Did you see what you look like on Jabba today? No. Jabba has a certain super pale setting on him. Oh, I'm super white. Wait until you go back and see it. You are glowing.

Okay. Not like Clay, but you are. I wish. Anyways, is that the new thing? We love Schultz here. Love him. Seeing him at that desk was wild. Yeah, he's awesome.

Okay, yeah. He's awesome. Holy shit. It was wild wild I did not expect alright it was the lighting in there we love you Schultz congrats Schultz we need to get you to Thunderdome since you're at our desk since you're at our desk that would be awesome

take the private plane fly on in do your thing but that's a new world right isn't it and these aggregators, accruers of information or whatever, they're doing the same, but they're just saying that we have confirmed when a lot of people are thinking they fucking know nobody.

They've seen it on two different reports. So I'm not bashing that hustle of all those different accounts who might be the same account. We're not 100% sure. We have no idea who any of those people are accounts who might be the same account. We're not 100% sure. We have no idea who any of those people are. But that is the game now, right?

Isn't it? That's kind of the game. I guess. I mean, what you described earlier about networks having their own people confirm, like that should happen to me. First of all, that's why all these people are employed. Second of all, there shouldn't like, let's say we report something and then, I don't know, ESPN reports it later, whatever. They should confirm it, make sure it's right and report it themselves. Like I have no problem with that at all. They do it fine. We do

it the same. Like everyone should credit their own person. That's literally why we are here. Whether honestly, whether you break the news or not, and if you didn't credit the person who did move on, it's the other stuff where it's just kind of like repeating. I don't know. This is our world now. It seems to be there's more than ever. I don't really know what to do with it. So, like, I think it doesn't.

They get a lot of retweets. I think it doesn't. A lot of action. Which, by the way, they should be proud. It's not easy to build. I think it's going to be tough for new insiders to kind of you know what i mean like i think you already established you know chefty already established i think it's going to be tough for like a new one like schultz he's trying to do it right now

but there's so many potential news breakers you know what i mean it's like i don't want to get too like um in our conversation, but I'm happy we started our podcast when we did, as opposed to when the podcast became just 10 million of them. Is that what... You guys were a podcast first?

I had a podcast while I was playing. So yeah, that's where it all started. I don't even know if I knew what a podcast was back then. Yeah, and that's why you know you're pushing this nfl plus without the understanding it's never going to work but i love that you do it you know i absolutely love that you do it but yeah it's a weird time it's a very weird time because you would a lot of people would say well who cares if raptor or rapid porter shepherd getting credits? Like, well, these guys commit their entire lives. Bingo.

This guy is a robot who his wife sees one hour a week. Yeah, but I think we're trying to showcase that. Like, although you are not a blue-collar human being, you have no idea what a callus is on your hand, you do work your dick off, which should be respected by people that enjoy hardworking people, you know? I appreciate that. I play golf, so calluses, obviously, that's my hands are all callused.

Yeah, I'm bopping, too. Yeah, exactly. Smacking your kids around. Hey, let me go golf a little bit, get this calluses built so I can do Rocky Road tonight as I bop myself. All right, we appreciate you. So thankful you joined us. And you're the man, Rat. You truly are. Enjoy that Rocky Road tonight as I bought myself. All right. We appreciate you. So thankful you joined us. And you're the man, Rap. You truly are.

Enjoy that Rocky Road tonight. That's right. You know what I mean? Thank you, guys. No, I don't. Thank you. Goodbye. Ian Rap.

Yeah, Rap. All right. Let's get to a break. Oh, it's good to see you, Rap. Tony, why'd you bring that up? I didn't know you were going to bring up being a hatin' ass hoe. Well, no, no. I just brought it up because, you know, I was scrolling Ian's Twitter to see what he's reporting onron, why'd you bring that up? I didn't know you were going to bring up being a hating-ass ho. Well, no, no. I just brought it up because I was scrolling Ian's Twitter

to see what he's reporting on. Oh, so you're just being a journalist. Okay. Thanks. I was aggregating info from his Twitter account like they do. Foxy, we are outnumbered. I think the best thing they do is take someone else's video off the team's YouTube or social media,

just rip it, upload it as their own, put their watermark on it, and then just pass it around. That drives me nuts. That's tough. Oh, is it, Fox it as their own, put their watermark on it, and then just pass it around. That drives me nuts. That's tough. Oh, is it Fox? Those are things I do not like. I will say, if it's one person, I'm completely flipping my take, and I think it's one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

It'd take a lot of work to run four different accounts stealing information from everybody. The thing I also don't love is I feel like those accounts are more susceptible to a Barry McOchner situation because they'll just take anything and run with it because that shit does get retweeted by a bunch. All those tweets hit.

So it's just a matter of time before you're seeing something where it's like, well, we're all just getting got here. I'm guessing 17 years of age to about 20 years of age. The people that are running those accounts.

You think? That's what I think. And I think they're, they should be very impressed with their hustle, the success that they've had. I do believe they should potentially, you know, give a little hat tip every once in a while.

A shout out every once in a while. Or a face to the Twitter. Yeah. Let us know that you're a human. Yeah. Who you are. Yeah. Real name.

The video thing where they were, I haven't seen that lately, though. That was something I think had stopped, hasn't it? Yeah, I do not remember the video. The last thing from like, not. The video thing was very frustrating, though. Yeah. Because like,

a lot of hard work goes into editing a lot of those videos. The watermark may have stopped, but they're still taking other people's videos and uploading them as their own to get the views. Which I don't think anybody gives a fuck about now at this stage because it's like you do that. You can tweet video, obviously. They make that very easy for people to do

so you don't have to steal views from people who are creating content. But I don't think there's anybody at this stage who really gets that banged up about people sharing their video on Twitter except for like the NFL. The watermark stuff is fucked up. Yeah, big time. The watermark stuff is fucked up. I thought that was a little rude. But once again, they're

giving me some information every once in a while, so I appreciate their services. Not as fucked up as the ricochet shot that Schulte got. Schulte just got killed. Not by me. Actually, yeah, you. It wasn't. You read that Jack Card book right there that's sitting on the desk?

Yep. And you woke up with a headshot mentality. And Schultz got one right to his clay dome. Just because Schultz is going to be the next lead in a Wallace and Gromit movie doesn't mean it's my fault. Can we get Schultz on today? He needs to defend himself.

He does. He's done great on TV. We're happy for him. He's probably getting ready for speak as we speak. Joining us now is a man who's in an attic in Ohio, a man who's a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers.

Swallowed a June bug. Tom Tom swallowed a jelly bean. Piece of gum. What's going on here? We got to get this debug this place? Another bug fall from the sky? Yeah, it's starting to happen. Before a season, we got to get this entire...

What's that bug? They do a bug bomb. They do a bug bomb. Drape the thing over the entire Thunderdome. Because yesterday, I remember there was a spider in mid- Where are you? Yeah, he sprinted away. It's nothing compared to, and Nick brought this up,

there was a mouse at our old studio. And you remember Foxy? Did you guys see the mouse? Yeah, that was crazy. Hate those things. Can't just squash that like a bug. Did you kill it? You could. Did you kill it?

You could. Did you kill it? Where is it? It's gone? Okay. Okay. All right. Mouse!

Foxy, literally. Oh, yeah. Never seen anything like it. No. This is a mouse for your computer. Smaller than much. Much. For sure. Tiny.

What do you do with it? You can't just step on it. Cut your pet off. You just don't represent the state of Michigan like that. Picking up bites. This is going to be hard. No, you kill it. You put it back in the hole, and then all its friends know,

hey, we've got to get the fuck out of here. You don't have to do any of these things. What I know you can't do is do what you did. With that being said, need to blow up all the bugs in here. Can't have that happen in whatever we're on ESPN. No. Join us now, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk. Yay!

AJ, what's going on? So you swallowed... Junebug. You swallowed a legit big old Junebug. Yes. Can we run it back and see if we can see

that actually happen on video? I think it's going to be like the shoelace thing with Ocho Cinco, but there's... I saw it. It was moving so fast. Yeah, these bugs

are different out here. I'm sorry about it. They're not little bitch-ass Ohio bugs. You know what I mean? These are Indiana bugs. Okay, they're flying around. Get that place fogged.

You got to fog that. You got to probably shut it down for the weekend. Get it all, you know, fog that thing up. You come in Monday, it feels good. It's actually a really good call. We're going to be off a couple Fridays coming up because we do have to do a lot of things over the three-day weekend to this place.

We are going to add blowing up all these bugs that have been living here since Jesus was the helmet. Be careful, though. If you do do that, people come in and make meth while you're gone. Yeah. What? I was going to suggest getting the bodies out from under the stage that Bill put there.

That might be a good start. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He probably poured concrete over them. Oh, there it was. You can see it. You can actually see it. Please run back. You can actually see it. Boom, right run back that thing torpedoed my throat we can see your reaction we don't i don't know if we can see the

actual bugs that's on you sorry you got those weak baby blue eyes you know what i mean you're not able to see as well because they're not as dense as these green ones we got right here yeah we saw right here okay 4k not for long by the Okay, 4K. Not for long, by the way. No. Not for 4K. Not for long. We've seen that thing torpedo my throat, dog. You know what I mean? That ain't... On a mission.

Thanks for laughing in my face about it. No, I mean, now I do see it. So I appreciate you fighting through all that. Ready? And dip. Boom. Right there. Unreal.

These bugs these days. Yep. Yeah, you don't see that happen to greeny we better get that cleaned up well his office that studio doesn't have any bugs flying out of the ceiling like we got around here they also don't have any softies like we do with mitt with the spider thing and foxy with the mouse thing greenies should we let the crows in eat the bugs yeah maybe maybe that is what i hate to tell Foxy, but his house is probably teeming with rats because I know they're scurrying them out

of rats and mice because they have to scurry out of those fields because they're building those giant Amazon factories and plants behind his house. So they have to go somewhere. They want to write to Foxy's pantry. I have a cat that protects the house from all mice. A pup cat is not doing anything. He's actually a cat, a fat one from all mice. A pup cat is not doing anything.

Yeah, he's a dog. He's actually a cat, a fat one. He just sits outside and is old. Nonetheless, let's move along here, okay? Big round of applause for me handling that bug. Congratulations, Pat. Okay, the way I did it. And that's also doing a little brainstorming

on how we make this place a little better. Exactly. Before we debut on ESPN for the whole world to see. Happily figured that out, even though it seemed like somebody was against us the entire time. Yeah, a little bit. Interesting. Let's talk about last night's football.

We had football, two of them last night. The Patriots completely defeated, losing to the Texans. Ohio State product, C.J. Stroud got his first NFL action. Obviously, first series ends up with him throwing a pick. He pump fakes to one place, and then he throws right back to that place. Welcome to the NFL. You can't do that. This isn't Illinois.

This isn't Rutgers. This isn't Northwestern. That's Mr. Mills, and he's playing the Super Bowl, I do believe, an absolute dog, that guy. So that was a learning lesson. He was able to evade some sacks. He seemed to be confident, poised, threw the ball around,

got a big-time sack where he got killed, was running for his life a lot. I didn't think it was that bad of a debut, but boy, threw the ball around, got a big-time sack where he got killed, was running for his life a lot. I didn't think it was that bad of a debut, but boy, a lot of people are saying this guy's going to stink in the NFL because of what happened early in this preseason football game, AJ. Yeah, I mean, I think the preseason's so weird, and you're right. He threw that one late, that pick that he threw, obviously threw that thing a little bit late, can't do that.

So we'll see. Hopefully, I guess what you want to see is progression from the first game to the second game but does he does he make an improvement that's what we're looking for yeah i think um i think it was deon sanders a video i saw where he said don't waste a mistake and i don't think i've ever heard that frame that way like let's not waste a mistake like if it happens cool let's learn from it though let's not just like let's not do it again yeah let's make sure let's hey let's, though. Let's not just place this thing. Let's not do it again. Yeah, let's make sure. Hey, let's hone in on it. This is exactly what happened, and this is why it won't happen again.

Him moving, though, evading some sacks there. 99 was coming in hot a lot. Now, we don't know what the Houston Texans' offensive line is going to be. We hope they will be better. But him being able to get the edge, outrun some people, I think that's a big deal for what was being said about him coming out of college. Right, AJ? Yeah, no question.

Because he is able to move. He just didn't do it very often. He did it in the Georgia game, obviously, his last game he played there. But, yeah, they also didn't have both their starting tackles in the lineup too, didn't they? Yeah, which affects some things. You know, Laramie Tunzel's not going to play in the first preseason game, especially after the deal he just signed with how long he's been in the NFL.

So hopefully that will affect it. But I saw some stuff out of CJ that made me think, yeah, he's right where he needs to be, right where he probably is. You know what I mean? Yeah, preseason number one, new head coach, bringing some juice. I like what D'Amico's doing, obviously.

No delay of games, no illegal shifts from the quarterback, huddle in, out. Which just looked like a professional operation. That's what you want it to look like. Yes, I think so, too. And I don't think a lot of fans think of it that way no because i said take it for granted i think they take it all for granted because it does seem to run so well during the season you're right like there's a lot of moving parts in preseason no question so i thought cj handled all that what like if you're going through the check box of what cj

stroud did well and there's gonna be people like oh he broke a huddle. That's good. It's like, it is. It's a big deal. That is good. That's the way you didn't have to do it in college. That is good that he did. He was able to evade sacks. Okay, welcome to the NFL. It's like, yeah, that's what we're saying.

He completed some balls, was on the money with a couple things, was on the run, completed a pass. Okay, he can do that. Now, was he under duress every single play seemingly? Yes. So was he getting a little antsy, a little bit quick, probably making people think he's not ready yet? Maybe.

But also, I don't think it was the end of the world there. On the flip side, the Patriots' defense. Now, once again, first preseason game, can't take away too much. Lambeau, though, said you can sense some trends, though, from these preseason games. Last year, weren't able to really get to the quarterback, right, or stop the run? We couldn't stop the run at all.

We had a decent amount of sacks. Judon had 15. Oh, yeah, but focused on D-line, right? Focused, yeah, yeah, yeah. Last night seemed to be dominant. And that dude who we thought was maybe a 45-year-old man out of Georgia Tech, he seems to be the real deal. And they got a rookie third-rounder out of Sacramento.

Yeah, Sacramento State, Marte Mapu. He didn't play last night, but they're saying that he could start this year either at safety a real deal and they got a rookie third rounder out of sacramento uh sacramento state marty mapu he didn't play last night but they're saying that he could start this year either at safety or linebacker this dude's a rookie got drafted this year not playing in the first preseason game like now we're gonna rush this guy he's on the bench they like they like what they see early obviously bill belichick loves that fuck yeah if he's because that key on white we saw him play last yeah and he and he was picked ahead of him. Marte, Mapu, yeah, Gonzalez first round. Mapu was actually on the sideline

with a play sheet next to Steve Belichick checking calls and figuring everything. They're saying he's next level smart defensively. Up on the Patriots after last night, down on the Patriots after last night? Definitely up. I am kind of worried. Not worried, but I am bummed I didn't see anything really from the offense.

It felt like they ran maybe eight plays, and none of them are going to be plays that will run during the season. But seeing all the rookies play, most of them played very well, and there was one later round offensive lineman that played well, and a lot of guys that were moving around. We were talking about that with Rap Sheet a little, with the guards moving to tackles, any of that stuff with the Jets O-line. Bill drafted a lot of guys that, yeah, they're center, guard, or tackle,

but they all played different spots last night. One of the centers we drafted played left tackle for two drives. So seeing that also gives you help. Yeah, to Connor's point, Marte Mapu was charting plays for when Steve Belichick was calling them. And AJ, I assume that's probably weird for a rookie third-rounder to be charting the plays there in the first preseason game like that? I mean, honestly, maybe not because if they like the dude

and they want to keep him involved but not put him out there and risk him getting hurt, it's a good learning situation. So I'm sure the coaches came to him like, hey, this is what we want you to do, kind of get in our heads and kind of understand what the game plan looks like and what we do. I'm just learning this, dude. I guess he's, huh? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So what round was he taking? Third. Third, yep. He was the Big Sky Conference's defensive player of the year last year. Hell, yeah. There we go. He don't fuck around.

Sounds like a Patriots guy, huh? Yeah. A third guy is already going to be a superstar probably? Another guy that's a Patriots guy is an undrafted free agent that they give $200,000 guaranteed to, which is more than like fifth, sixth, seventh, fourth rounders are making. But he didn't get drafted by anybody. 259 picks. Malik Cunningham out of Louisville.

He had more rushing touchdowns than Lamar Jackson in Louisville. Couldn't throw the ball where the fuck is what the internet said about him. I didn't watch a lot of Louisville last year. I apologize for that. Go Cards. But this guy lit it up last night, and now we're just assuming he's going to have a role in the offense because Bill Belichick saw this and has had a lot of success with guys who are former quarterbacks in college, who are great athletes,

who seemingly are just footballers, which this guy is. When he gets his head almost ripped off, decapitated at the 45-yard line, he goes, what the fuck? Then he gets up, makes another play, leads him all the way down to a touchdown. How does he not get drafted? And what do you think Bill Belichick was thinking while watching this guy? He had to – I mean, Bill has to just – he got a touchdown dropped right here too. First of all, that should have been a great highlight for him.

I felt for him on that one. And honestly, watch his reaction. I like that he didn't freak out and lose his mind and like throw his hands up like what are you doing you got to catch that i like that he he had a good reaction too as a young kid because he knows how big a deal it is if he would have thrown a touchdown there well and bounces back drives him down scores a touchdown he thought it was coming here we go now uh all right let's get in here and let's run some people over let's not go down let's into the end zone to make this thing 20 to 9 154 left in the fourth quarter mass holes celebrating all around offensive linemen say i'm not spiking a ball i don't know

bill belichick wants me to do that yeah i like little pass off that that left tackle and guard had a nice pass off on the little 25 25s effort at the goal line makes me sick did you see buddy just get shook out of his actual shoes right now? That's not effort, though, Diggs. 25's right there. Well, also, though, you know these guys are scared to death of getting targeting calls, too. Oh, yeah, I guess you're right there. I don't know.

Guy ripped off a helmet. Yeah. I don't think a lot of these guys— He knew he didn't have a chance, yeah. I don't think a lot of these guys are thinking about targeting calls or anything else at the end of these preseason games. They're so tired. They're just trying to survive. Did you see that guy just rip his helmet all the way off his head?

Straight off. I was watching it live. I'm like, this is awesome. I hope that he popped up. And then did you think to yourself immediately, that guy's not going to be in the NFL? Okay, sweet. If you don't even know to let go of that thing,

you're probably not going to make a lot of good decisions. Who knows? Maybe you'll be able to learn how to do that in the XFL moving forward. Speaking of helmets, I know it was the other game. Did Kirk Cousins wear his helmet the entire game? Yeah, I saw that. Kirk Cousins was dialed in. He just wants to hear the call.

He could have had just an earpiece, but he wants to feel like he's in that moment. Especially in Seattle, he wants to feel the noise. There's the mental reps that can happen. I didn't get to see a lot of that game. Seattle Seahawks fans have been averagely good to this show.

Drew Locke played well. I feel like Seattle Seahawks fans have been... What was he? 17-24, I think. 195. Two totals. First series, not great. Then he comes back. Strike! Nice ball. Great ball right there. Mullins played well great. Then he comes back, strike! Nice ball. Great ball right there. Mullins played well, too.

You're a good ball to Bobo. Jake Bobo. Dang, that's a strike. That's a fucking strike right there. Yeah, this one here. Drew started in the NFL. People forget that, remember? Yeah.

He was rapping on the sideline. Look at him there. He looks very, like, he just looks confident in the pocket. He looks good. Yeah, call that bitch my bodyguard. Yeah, that's my bodyguard. Drew Locke was going to be competing with Geno Smith whenever he got traded is what everybody else thought.

Then Geno went on to lead the number one offense in the NFL, and then he just got a new payday. Drew Locke's there. Geno's still there. Pete Carroll always competing and chewing his gum. Seahawks are always going to be good under Pete Carroll is what we think now. Although last year we did have doubts going into the season.

We apologize. Right. Let's pivot away from last night. Let's pivot away from preseason football. Sure. Let's talk about the lives that are playing football. Hell yeah. Hell yeah.

Let's talk about the people that are in charge of making sure that the game lives on forever. Let's talk about the serious stuff of football. Health. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is the first ever chief medical officer for the NFL. Friend of the program. A man who brought the guardian caps to the NFL,

which made all old school football players pumped, but seemingly only going to be the tip of the iceberg with safety. Why are we getting concussions in practice when we don't need them? Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. Alan Sills. Doc, good to see you. Hey, thank you. Hey, Pat, good to see you. And by the way, congratulations. I hear that you're a new dad. So congrats to you. Is anybody getting any sleep at your house these nights right now? Yeah, Doc, it's an interesting thing, huh? It's just a whole new schedule. This is just,

you just kind of get dropped in there. I didn't do enough research, Doc. I don't think I looked into it enough. I didn't know what I was signing up for, but I don't think I could have ever understood truly what it feels like. Like yesterday, I get home, you know, she's laying down on her diaper change, getting her diaper changed, you know, place she likes hanging out there. She doesn't mind, you you know having uh letting the body air out sure you know she's a she's a free spirit so she enjoys uh the changing table there in the living room that we have and i get home and she like sees me out of the corner of her eyes and she starts making like and like kicking and everything and then she has like a little smirk

and i like literally almost melted through my fucking house. It was like such an amazing feeling. I don't think you could ever understand that unless you had it. And then on the flip side, you know, I don't think you fully understand what the fuck is about to take place when that baby comes into your world for the first three weeks either. So it's an honor. I thank you for the compliment. And my wife is kicking so much ass. Speaking of kicking ass, the NFL had 6.3 million viewers for the Hall of Fame game, Doc.

Okay? That's absurd. That's more than every other sports finals. The NFL is only going like this and this and this. Is every decision that you're making basically for the future of players and the future of the game?

And do you feel true pressure on that for not fucking up the game too much away from football but also making sure it survives forever because we're in a golden era once again, Doc? Yeah, well, absolutely. We have a terrific game played by the most amazing athletes in the world. And that's exactly what we're about is how do we make sure that this game not only continues, but gets better and better over time so that it is something that remains a force and something that people can participate in. And so, you know, our commissioner has said before, and I'm a big advocate of this, Pat, you can make the game both safer and more exciting. Those are not mutually exclusive. And if you look back, I mean, football has always been about

innovation, right? Whether you talk about the forward pass or the introduction of the plastic shell helmets or so many different things that football has always evolved and it should evolve as we learn more and as we know more, as we understand more, we have an obligation to try to make it better for those that come behind us so that the game will persist and will remain as great as it has been. Yeah, it's not easy. Those are some tough decisions that have to be made, obviously, as it goes. And old school guys like this particular home plate face who, you know, used to ride out to Adam's Apple, you know, aren't always going to fully understand that. So that is a full thing that you have to battle with, obviously. But AJ has a question for you, Doc. Doc, you mentioned we can make the game safer and more exciting.

Do you have any examples? How do you do that? It seems like a tough task. Yeah, I'll give you an example. If you looked last year, one of the things we're starting to do is quantify head impact. So we're not just looking at concussions, but we're literally looking at how many times during a game does a player hit his head. And last year's Super Bowl, you talked about Kansas City and Philadelphia. I think every one of us would say that was a great game, right? It was a great football game. It was incredibly entertaining. It was exciting. It was well played. It had everything in it that you would want to see

from a competitive football game. That game had one of the lowest rates of helmet contact of games that we saw played last year. And I bring that up to illustrate this point to say you can play an incredibly exciting, fan-friendly, competitive brand of football that doesn't involve using your head, for example. And so that's where I think we have to be looking is how can we preserve all the elements of the game that are exciting and that fans love and that players love and that we all want to see continue, but also work to decrease injury and improve the margin of safety. And that, to me, is what our challenge is. Hey, Doc, I think what everybody's scared of is when you make one rule, like, well, this is going to lead to. You know, like, well, if they're willing to do this,

what else are they willing to do? Do you guys keep that in mind about the potential, like, PR ripple effects? Like, if we decide, you know, to have a Mickey Mouse kickoff that every coach that is involved in special teams and every player that's ever been in special teams and every human that's ever known football says, we hate this. And you still put it in there. Everybody's fear is like, well, what else will they do? There, there still has to be some guardrails on like football is always going to be a potentially dangerous sport, right? Or how do you kind of navigate those waters? Yeah, absolutely. Listen, football is a collision sport. It's not

a contact sport. It's a collision sport. And that means there will be repeated high energy collisions among players. That's part of the essential nature of the game. And it always will be, period. And no one wants to change that. I think what you want to look at, though, is how can you take aspects of the game and improve the equipment, improve the training and improve the game itself based on what we're learning? Because we just know more. And look at automobiles, for example. You know, think about your new baby, for example. When I grew up, I'll tell you, I was a kid in the 1960s. Whoa!

There were no car safety seats, right? Nobody rode in a safety seat as a kid, right? I used to crawl around behind the backseat of our family car while we're driving on the highway. I mean, today that seems absolutely crazy to us to think that we drive down the highway with a baby or a kid crawling around with the seats not restrained. So we got child safety seats, and they got better and better. crawling around with the seats, not restraint. So we got child safety seats, and they got better and better. So it's just an illustration that as we learn more, as we understand more, we can make the game safer because we have more knowledge to work with.

And let's talk about the kickoff for a minute. You brought that up. Hell, yeah. You came loaded on this one. I assume you came ready for this one. I assume this was one. I'm happy to talk about it with you guys because it's an ongoing conversation. Here's what we're faced with. If you sit in my seat, who's trying to, again, work on safety, reduce injury, the kickoff rate of injury has gone up substantially over the

past couple of seasons, particularly concussions. So as you guys know, we made some changes back in 2018, 2019 with how the kickoff was set up, with the blocking rules and so forth. And it had a great effect. Concussions on kickoff went down substantially. They started going back up a little bit in 21 and last year they went up to the highest level we had seen in seven or eight years. They're back now as high as they were. Kickoffs are about six percent of all plays, but there's something like 15% of all concussions. And so it's very hard to just sit by and say, wow, that's really unfortunate, but we're not going to do anything. You know, that spurs us to say, what can we do to make this a safer play? So if we're going to do that, we got to understand how are people getting hurt? Why are they getting hurt? Are there things

about that we can change? Now, when you look at the fair catch rule, you know, where that came from was our competition committee and our ownership looking at colleges. Colleges made that fair catch rule a couple of seasons ago, and it had an immediate and dramatic effect at lowering the rates of concussion and all injury. And so I think our competition committee and our ownership, I think they looked at it and said, look, our numbers are going the wrong way. They're going way up. We got to do something. While we figure this out, and we need to figure it out, this seems like something we can do. I think it's a stopgap. I think it's an interim measure while hopefully we can figure out a better solution. And that is a really active process. When you talk about changing a rule, Pat, it's not just me writing an email and saying we're

going to change a rule, right? We have a whole process. We have engineers that we engage. We have our health and safety experts. We have coaches. We have former players. Obviously, the competition committee has to recommend it, and then all the owners have to vote on it. So it's a really long process, but I think this year's rule, I look at it as a stopgap. It's an interim step while we try to figure out something better for the long term. But it feels like we need to do something, given how many injuries are happening on that particular play, way out of proportion to other plays in the game.

And I can respect your chair and you having to think about that because that is actually your job. You were brought in because of the concussion situation. So the big argument against that, I think, is the fact that special teams coaches said they watched back all of the concussion situation. So, you know, the big argument against that, I think, is the fact that special teams coaches said they watched back all of the kickoffs and they weren't able to find all of the concussions that were allegedly being reported on kickoff plays. And then there was something said where somebody would say they had a concussion

days after and then it would be said, oh, it happened on a kickoff. Like, I think there's a lot of mispotential communication or narrative building getting there, and I'm not in there to see the numbers, but we know in 2023 you can shape numbers however you want for any type of argument. You said 6% of the plays, 15% of the concussions, but there's a lot of people saying that they have no idea

where those concussions are coming from. Is that just a lie? They're just lying to fight against a rule that's happening? Or how's that? Because I think back, I watch a lot of football. I couldn't tell you the last time where I'm like, you know what? There seems to be on these kickoffs concussions happening. Is it like later diagnosed and you're not able to see on film or watching?

Or are we just missing it completely? Well, I think there's several things there. First of all, I don't think anybody's lying. I think everybody wants the same outcome, which is a better, safer play. But we look at the data. And so we have the video data and we have all the concussion data, which comes out of the medical records. When were people examined and where were they diagnosed?

So we absolutely are confident about how many concussions appear to be related to kickoff plays. But let's set that aside for a minute. Even if we weren't talking about concussions, we can talk about all injuries and the fact of how the kickoff play has a higher rate of all injuries, not just concussion. And, again, that makes sense. It's a play with space and speed, right?

You've got guys running down the field at full speed who are incredible world-class athletes, and you're having collisions there. And so there's got all the ingredients there to have injury. And the question again for us is, why did that change? Like in 2018 and 2019, 2020, we saw those rates of injury go down. Now all of a sudden they're going back up. That's something we have to look at and figure out, okay, are we executing a different play? Are there different players that are playing on the play? Are we officiating it differently? Something is changing, and we're seeing that go the wrong way. And so that's what's motivating us to look at it.

But we work with the special teams coaches, and we work with everybody. And by the way, I think all ideas are on the table. And I mean this sincerely, Pat. I don't mean this in a flippant way at all. If you guys had ideas, I mean, look, you're a former special teams player. We'd love people to submit their ideas about how to play play the kickoff be made safer because we're just trying to get to a better solve and i think all ideas have to be on the table for that okay so i'm sorry can you put me

on the full screen so what you're thinking will happen this is from your office right this is your office this is your office here in new york I would come in, sit down right there. You'd be right there. And then I'd draw up the new kickoff up there. Is that how we see this working out? Hey, you know what? I would love to talk to you about it. We could spend some time together, and I'd love to take your ideas.

And we'll take it, and we'll take it to our engineers and let them analyze it and bring it on the table. Hey, I'll do my own stats and analytics, too. I'll get my own. I'll get my own engineers in there. Because, honestly, I mean, this is me patting myself on the table? Hey, I'll do my own stats and analytics too. I'll get my own. I'll get my own engineers in there because honestly, I mean, this is me patting myself on the back. I think like almost every kickoff stat, and I'm not saying I'm the best kickoff person of all time,

but I think I have the record for damn near everything that you can do there. Onside kicks recovered, onside kicks recovered by yourself, touchback percentage, field position drive start average. I think the kickoff play for me was a very important one, and for a lot of teams it's a very important one.

So I think everybody that loves football sees those things going. So I'd love to be a person that is a part of making the kickoff better, but I think it's going to be difficult because the way a lot of people are talking about the numbers versus how you're talking about the numbers right now, two very different trains of thought. I think we need to meet that first, get everybody on the same page, and then guess what? We're rowing the boat.

That's right. Now we're rowing the boat and we're making real progress, you know? And I think another thing that's important to say, Pat, let's get this out there. We want to keep the foot in the game, period. I mean, kickoffs and punts are an important part of football and should remain. And frankly, right now, with so many kickoffs being touched back, that's not a really exciting question to ball be kicked through the back of the end zone.

So this isn't about getting rid of those plays. But again, it's how can you look at innovative and creative ways, just like we've always done in football? I mean, for the past hundred plus years, people have looked at plays and said, you know what? This play is too dangerous and we don't need that particular block. You know, we don't need that particular, you know, chop block to be able to execute a successful play. So I think that's the spirit you have to come at it with. A lot of people are excited about the XFL kickoff.

No, nobody's excited about that doc. Nobody, nobody. We're looking at that and trying to talk to them and hear from their experience. So all I was terrible, don don't do it it's a practice drill that is a practice drill that is that talking to duane what's that what you're talking to right yeah now if duane johnson says let's do it i mean you gotta do what you gotta do right you know it is the rock but like could you imagine could you imagine walking into an nfl stadium the nfl now we talking. The NFL. We're talking about the greatest league on earth. You walk in there and there's a kicker over here with a tee. And there's like that.

You know, that can't. This can't happen, Doc. Okay. This cannot. You know what I mean? This is training camp. This is practice. This isn't football.

This is. But we will do something to save. Let's say. Hey, let's do it. Let's do it. I appreciate you, Doc, coming in and answering those questions. Because for a long time, it was like mixed messaging almost happened. And by mixed messaging, it was every media person or insider person trying to take a shot at explaining something that they don't know.

Not a lot of people know a lot about kickoffs. So it's a very interesting and delicate subject. But the thing is, everybody's scared if you do that. What else will you do? What other rules are coming that get you away from football? Sounds like you're on the same page. It's always going to be a collision, high-impact sport. How can we make it smarter? We just need to hear that, right?

That's what we need to understand? That's exactly the message. There are going to be collisions. That's the exciting part of the game. And how can you preserve all the things we love about the game but take away some of the things that don't really add but that just create risk? Because at the end of the day, go back to your point, Pat, when you buy a ticket and you show up to an NFL stadium,

you want to see the very best players playing. You want to see the best guys on the field. If you see the Chiefs and the Bills play, you want to see Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen, right? That's who you want to see out there on the field. So how do we create the safest environment? There are always going to be some injuries in sports. We know that in every sport.

But what can you do to make it the safest environment? That's what should motivate all of us. Big conversation happening right now. Ty has a question for you. And we know you don't make this decision, but Ty has a question for you. Right, yeah, Doc, this might be more so a question for the owners than it is for you, but we've heard a lot about the difference between the grass fields and the turf fields and a lot of the players wanting all grass fields.

Has there been any movement on that? I know we got the stats and they basically said, hey, we can't really differentiate that grass fields are much safer than turf fields, but then we hear the news that when the World cup is coming to the united states in 2026 a lot of these nfl stadiums have already agreed because the soccer players have said hey we're not playing on turf we're playing on grass and they've kind of conceded and said all right sounds good we'll have grass for the world cup but then you got a lot of their own players saying well that's kind of bullshit because we we want grass fields for ourselves and they haven't really conceded on that point.

Do you think we are anywhere close to that being like a legitimate conversation where we might have all grass fields in every NFL stadium? Well, this is an incredibly active area of work, and Pat, I hope I don't run you over on time. I'm going to take a minute and work through this. Doc, doc. Just go out here. Nothing but time, honestly. Okay.

Because this is information that I think the entire NFL world would love to hear. So please take your time. So this is something that we spend a lot of time thinking about and studying research. And I say we, the league and the Players Association together. I mean, we both have engineers and turf experts that work on this. And I'm just going to tell you the bottom line. The bottom line is it is way, way more complicated than it might seem on the surface. No pun intended. The more I've learned about it, the more I realize how little I know about it. Because what you come to realize is we don't just have two kinds of surfaces in the NFL, grass surface and artificial surface. We've got almost 30 different surfaces. And by that, I mean, grass surfaces are very different from place to place. They're different in the height and the thickness and what's underneath them and the

drainage. And then you've got variability even within the same season. You guys know this at Play. AJ, you know this. The grass in Green Bay in August is very different than the grass in Green Bay in January. It's totally different in terms of its properties. And then same thing with artificial. We don't just have one kind of artificial surface. There are a lot of different makes and models and how they're installed. So how do we try to start understanding that from an injury perspective? Well, what you have to really get to understand is what is it about each surface, whether it's grass or artificial? What is it that's contributing to injury and what is it that's protective? I mean, there may be some things that make it safer on certain surfaces for certain injuries

that we don't even think about. Everybody thinks about ECL injuries, for example, but what about shoulder injuries or concussion? You know, is a softer field better for some of those injuries? So when you start looking at what is, quote, the safest surface, you really have to take into account all the different injuries, but you also have to take into account how much variability there is in surfaces. Back to your question, how are we trying to get at that? There is a lot of movement there. This year, we've got a new little robot, literally is a small robot that drives around the playing surface and takes measurements on all different aspects of the

playing surface. Because one of the other things we've learned, just to show you how much more complicated this is, the middle of the field is very different than the side, which is very different than the end zone. Even on the same field, you've got a lot of variability. So this little robot drives all over. It takes measurements. And now we can really start to understand, okay, what is the field in Green Bay really like? What is the field in Tennessee really like? What is the field in Los Angeles really like? What are all these different properties? And now you can go back and match those properties against the injury. We've just never had that level of data for it to be able to really, really match against injury and understand. And I think this is also important to say.

If we went to our ownership tomorrow and said, hey, here's the safest field. We've proved beyond a shadow of a doubt this is the safest field. I think they would all get behind that i honestly believe that okay so we just have not we need to get to that we just have not been able to get to the point of saying hey this is the safest surface we just have not had the data to say that this surface is far better than others because what i can tell you guys is for example there are some artificial fields in the league that have a lower rate of lower extremity injury than grass fields. Why is that? Again, that's what we've got to understand is why is some artificial field actually playing safer than some grass fields?

It's a really important topic. It's an incredible amount of work that needs to go into it. We're trying to do the work, but we want to do it in a way that comes out to the right answer. You mentioned about the World Cup. We're actually working with FIFA trying to understand what they're doing. They actually don't have a true grass surface. It's actually a hybrid surface. It's got grass and it will have some artificial fibers in it as well. So it's not just a pure grass surface.

But one of the things you got to understand is that for soccer, their number one goal is the ball roll, how the ball rolls and how the ball bounces. That's what they're more concerned about than anything. And so we have to make sure as we're looking at the field, our athletes are very different than soccer athletes, right? If you look at an NFL player, they look very different than a soccer player. And the demands on the surface are very different also. Yeah, so obviously I didn't even think like Methy is deciding not to play because the pitch is cropped in the ball. Because you've got to make contact, right?

So if that ball is bouncing and you flub one, it's like how smooth the field is is a big deal in soccer. I always assumed it was strictly because of joints because they've got to run seven, eight miles every single game. The added information there, you know, is good. Also, what you just said, that if you were to go to the owners and say hey this surface our little our little robot that took another human's job yeah it's much smarter than able it's able to do it humans aren't able to do it okay sod father put his hands

down he didn't know but if that robot comes back and says like this grass is the best you said that the owners would do it because a big narrative has been like, these billionaires don't want to spend the money to change it. What it sounds like you're saying is like, if we tell them all to change it, because it is pricey and we're wrong and it's not the right one,

like all CMOs out of a job and that's a bigger deal. And you just talked about like a turf field being it. Could you imagine what this whole, like like flip the turf make it grass thing you came out and said our robot tells us that this fake turf is the safest and then every owner puts that turf in it would be a it would be an absolute bomb pr catastrophe yeah for you guys that's an interesting you're in a bad spot there. Hey, you're in an interesting spot, Doc. Well, we've got a lot of work to do.

Obviously, the players' input is very important in this, and the Players Association has been doing work. They've actually started last year surveying players after they play on different surfaces and getting their reaction and response. Because, again, remember, there's a couple aspects of surface. You want something that's safe, but it also needs to perform. You could make an incredibly safe surface, but guys couldn't perform on it because they wouldn't be able to get any traction to do what they need to do.

Again, a lot more work to do here, but I think my experience… How close? How close? How close? How close do you think the robot… Sounds like a long way away. Doc, are you just bullshitting around, you know, so that maybe we will just pass and move on to another subject, you know? Because, Doc, that's what people are going to say. Be honest.

That's what people are going to say, Doc. People will say what they say, Pat. I think you know me better than that. I've always been pretty straight and direct to you, and I'm just trying to give you some insight into why it's not as easy as it might seem. I don't know how close we are, but what I know is this, we're putting all our efforts into it. We're putting tremendous research and science behind it. And we're going to continue to share that. There are no secrets here. We'll share that information, obviously with our players,

obviously with our owners and with everybody. But I just want to give you some insight as to how we're approaching the whole issue. And the fact that there's a lot that goes into this, that's more than just, you know, one injury on one surface or the idea that it's grass versus artificial it unfortunately it's just not that easy hey doc listen i think every time you've come on our show you have sat in the pocket you know because we pepper i mean we do we act as if you were the one that is deciding every rule change and everything that's happening in the world i mean heavy is the head you're the first ever chief medical officer so obviously that's kind of but you've come back on a very regular basis and been very open with us but to your point people are going to say what they're going to say and i was just telling you like if it

continues to take long like in long and long while you're trying to figure it all out the first reaction from people is like uh they're just passing the buck. Yeah, pushing it down. Just pushing it down the line when it sounds like you're saying, hey, we're shoot trying to get all the fucking information because this is going to be a big transformative decision wherever it comes. Hope you get it right, Doc.

Good luck, Doc. Hope you get it right. Good luck out there. AJ has a question for you. Doc, what about the helmets? Are you guys looking at going to making position-specific helmets? We're here. There's a quarterback

helmet that has a spare tire built into the back so you don't hit your head on the back of the ground when you get tackled. Is that something you guys are moving forward with? Yeah, there are actually a couple that are out this year, AJ. The quarterback one is one. It's basically just got more padding inside but in the back because that's where you find that quarterbacks fall and hurt themselves, right?

They're throwing the ball, they're getting rid of it, and they fall kind of unprotected and hit their head on the ground. So that one is already out, and there are several quarterbacks who have tried it already. It actually is no larger and no heavier than the other helmets that people are wearing. Stop hating, AJ. Yeah. Yeah, he's hating on this. I'm not hating at people are wearing. Stop hating, AJ. Yeah. Yeah. He's hating on this. I'm not hating at all. I'm not hating at all.

But the padding is just basically moved. You know, you're putting the padding. I mean, again, think about a car. You know, where do car crashes occur? They reinforce the car in certain places, and so that's what this is. The other one that's out is the trench, which is a lineman-specific helmet, specifically offensive lineman. When you look at where most offensive linemen get blows, it's up on the front of the head. It's up on the frontal

area. So the trench has got some reinforcement there. We've also got some offensive linemen doing that. I think this is going to continue, and I think it's a great thing because, again, look back to the car industry. Cars got safer and safer because we understood where crashes were occurring and how we could mitigate that. So down the road, I hope, and I actually think in three to five years, you know, receivers will wear a certain helmet. DBs will wear one, you know, offensive defensive linemen will have one linebackers. It's just going to be a helmet that's adjusted to this particular risks.

They'll may all look the same on the outside, but there'll be engineered differently and they'll have different padding. And that'll be a good thing. It'll make those players safer. Yeah. So the punters and kickers will be the only old-school guys left on the field, AJ. Well, I said football players, Pat. Oh! Whoa! Oh!

Doctor! Dog! Stepping in my office! Thank you. Check your hernia. I'm just kidding you. Thankfully, their rate of head contact is pretty low, so hopefully we can continue with that.

Yeah, we're trying to make your life easier. I would like a kicker or punter to go in there, though. And just after every time he kicks, he runs full speed and dives his head full speed. And now he gets into dogs. Now we got to study these fucking punters and kickers. I need a live back for helmet. Now we got more stats coming out of one. I think the position-specific helmet makes a lot of sense.

I think when it was brought up last year during the entire Tua conversation, I remember thinking to myself, like, how has that not already been thought of, seemingly, for the back of the head? But, allegedly, there's a new, Tone has a question for you, Doc. Yeah, Doctor, I do. Speaking of Tua and speaking of the specific helmet um there's been a lot made that tua did uh jujitsu this offseason i'm not sure if he's a black belt or not yet but uh he did that to prevent concussions is there anything in your field any study going on right now that jujitsu does in fact prevent concussions

judo sorry judo martial arts yeah well i i think there are a couple things people are looking at i mean specific obviously wouldn't want to comment on one individual but the idea is learning how to fall right how to protect yourself in a fall and and how to you know mitigate force into sensitive areas so i i think a lot of people are interested in and are looking at that um in parallel with that a lot of people are looking at neck strength you know how does neck strength play a role in possibly mitigating and protecting you against concussion? And again, that's hard to study because it's hard to measure neck strength and then correlate it with weight of helmet and concussions, but people are doing that work. And so I think you'll see some data on that coming out in the next year or two, and hopefully we'll

learn something. Again, I don't think preventing concussions is just going to be better helmets. It's certainly part of it, but we'd love to have other measures and other ways to train people to learn to fall or strengthen. And then at the same time, back to what we talked about at the top of the segment, and that is learning not to use your head. You know, how can you play the game

without using your head as the first point of contact? I think that's going to be a very, very important conversation also. Will there come a time where you guys will have a robot at training camp or at OTAs where it'll be able to tell like the thickness of a skull or like the strength of a neck?

Like, for instance, that guy from Centerville, Ohio on the that's on the screen with us. Like you just probably put your hands on it. It's like, all right, this guy's skull a lot thicker than other people. We could probably just put a baseball cap or one of these leather helmets on this guy versus somebody who might be more prone to a concussion. Is that information that is possible to get? I mean, I'm making a mockery out of how big and thick that guy's head is. It's a compliment. Banger, he lost.

Yeah. Say it again. Say it again. But is that something that we're ever going to get to where we're maybe able to figure out beforehand who's maybe more prone? They can do that with hamstrings. They can do that with other muscles. Will they be able to do that with the brain ever?

It feels like that might help some things too. Yeah, it's a great question. Oh, no. That was the one. Oh, they cut him off. Jesus Christ, get him out of there. The league cut him off. Tactical difficulty.

Tell him to stop bringing up common sense. Shit. I don't know if that was us. He's very good, man. Honestly, there. The league cut him off. Tactical difficulty. Tell him to stop bringing up common sense. Shit. I don't know if that was us. He's very good, man. Honestly, he is the guy for the job. He is the guy for the job. I think we're one of the only shows he comes on to, so I'm very thankful for that.

I don't know if he has kids that are fans of the show or whatever or how we became the ones to do this. I think he cares. I think he's passionate about his job. Honestly, he knows, like, hey, I can get my message out. We're trying. But also, for us, it's like, as as i don't want to say as former players because to his point i didn't really deal with the medical stuff much what especially with don't you have like you have like 50 tackles don't you yeah sure sure sure it's 50 no 20

something but still fuck yeah barker was up and then he was down you know what i mean yeah a lot but i like i just think us experiencing a lot of stuff you know like in seeing a lot of stuff ask different questions because play ladies and gentlemen he did not get muted okay good good good okay ladies have a talk around so hey i don't know what happens if it was us or you guys you're the nfl we are not we'll assume it's on us not on you but i want to let you know why you were gone there, in the abyss. We thought you were gone forever. We were singing your praises about how good you are at this

particular job. And then I also want to mention about how you come in here and we don't ask you like, hey, the NFL, you know, started a thing where people are learning CPR now across the entire world because of something that happened in an NFL game. Congratulations. It is never like that that and we want to let you know we appreciate

the hell out of you but we are asking a lot of the questions that I think like the entire world would potentially want to know that's NFL fans so we appreciate the way you handle this all now back to the are we going to be able to figure out if guys are prone for concussions more so than other people is that on the horizon or would that be impossible? Yeah, a lot of people are researching that, Pat, but we just got more to understand. And that's a thing, and you guys know this, you watch the game all the time.

You see two players take the same exact hit, one guy gets concussed and one doesn't. Well, why is that? It has to be something about intrinsic factors, whether it's skull thickness or neck strength, one player, brain volume, spinal fluid volume. There are a whole lot of things that people are researching. It's not easy to study that, but people are certainly looking at that and trying to figure out who might be more prone

to concussion and maybe they need a different type of, they need a different program. So a lot of work going on there. I'd love to see us get to that point. Certainly make my job a lot easier because, you know, I still take care of a lot of athletic teams. I still take care of a lot of patients with concussions and I'd love to be able to have that information, but we're just, we're not there today. What if you became the guy? That's a concussion waiting. Nope. He's good. Put him in whatever.

You can freak some guys out pregame. If you told him, Hey, your spinal fluid is pretty low. You're probably getting knocked out today. Probably a little bit more of this. Be careful. much your head out of it bud all right well we appreciate that thank you for rejoining us let's talk about some of the great that is going on with the nfl and medicine and kind of making the world a better place i just referenced in a joking way that cpr initiative that has kind of taken place because of what we all watched on monday night football but that's going to save lives at some point that is going to save lives.

The DeMar Hamlin, you know, story is one that the entire world saw. What has the NFL done from that story to like change? Like can't change the hit, right? That hit is a very standard hit. It's just the reaction, making sure everybody's able to do that. If it comes in, what have you learned from it all? Yeah, well, I think, I think it's a really, really important opportunity path for the whole sports community to think everybody's able to do that if it comes? And what have you learned from it all? Yeah, well, I think it's a really, really important opportunity, Pat, for the whole sports community to think about this whole idea of emergency preparedness.

How prepared are you for something to happen? Because the story that night was not just that we got 30 medical professionals there and they've got a plan and they've researched and they've trained. I mean, that was incredibly important. And in that moment, that saved that young man's life, which is an incredible story. But what I want people to think about is, what if that happens in my league?

What if that happens in my field? And that's something that's not just about football. It's not just about the NFL. It's about soccer. It's about lacrosse. It's about baseball. It's about youth. It's about high school.

It's about college. And so this is a great opportunity for us to take that moment and say, you know, there was a great outcome that night because there were dedicated professionals who had a plan and who had trained and who had the right equipment. And that is something that can be implemented at any level. I mean, we still hear horror stories every year, and these are tragic of a high school player in a sport. Maybe it's basketball, maybe it's volleyball, having a cardiac arrest, and the AED is locked up somewhere in the school and nobody can get to it because it's not during school hours. I mean, that just shouldn't happen, right? That just shouldn't happen. And so the message here, I think, is first of all, people should get trained in CPR. I hope all you guys are trained, by the way.

I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands. I was at an airport. I was at an airport on the wall. There was a torso right there. And then I hit a button and, ah, ah, ah, ah, stay alive, stay alive, ah, ah, ah, ah, stay alive. And I think you're supposed to keep going there. I don't know if you stopped, but they did certify me, I will say so. But it's not just about being certified.

It's about executing too, right? That's a big deal. That's a moment there, you know, like, can you execute? And it's about being prepared, which is to say, hey, we've got this sports league. We're a high schooler. We're a youth league. We're college. Are we prepared to deal with common emergencies, which are cardiac emergencies're a high school or we're a youth league, we're college, you know, what are we, are we prepared to deal with common emergencies, you know, which are cardiac

emergencies or a spine emergency or a heat emergency. That's another huge one right now in the times that we're in. So, so yes, the NFL has done a lot. You know, we did make a coalition partnership, as you mentioned, with American Red Cross and American Heart Association and others to, to work on improving access to training for CPR and working and partnering with schools and other organizations. Obviously, our clubs, we've made an emphasis. You know, we've encouraged every one of our clubs to offer CPR training for all their staffs and all the players.

I'll tell you another thing, Pat. This didn't make the media last year, but I'll share with you guys. We had a situation last year where one of our teams was traveling for an away game. The night before the game, a couple of members of the staff went out to dinner and an event, and one of the individuals had a cardiac arrest. And one of the other staff members had to do a defibrillation and perform CPR until the emergency personnel got there, saved that coach's life, got them to the hospital, and they got definitive care and they recovered. Nobody heard about that event, but that would not

have happened and wouldn't have been a happy ending had they not been prepared and had they not been trained. And so we just think this is something we need to keep talking about. And I hope that, again, it's not just about the NFL or even about football, but really all levels of sport and this idea of just being prepared and thinking about it. I think people sometimes think, oh, you know, we're just at a youth level and this doesn't happen. But it does. There are youth all over the country who have unexpected cardiac events in a variety of sports. And it's about thinking about that and being prepared. Yeah, absolutely.

Especially as of late, it feels like the heart is a topic of conversation with younger and more fit people. I'm not diving in to what everybody will say, but I do appreciate the fact that we seem to be more heart health conscious. Now, granted, a lot of very terrible things had to happen in front of us all to put life into perspective, but it does feel as if we're a little bit more conscientious of it. I didn't know we had two NFL guys potentially die last year because of cardiac arrest. That is wild. I don't know how that doesn't get out in the world of the ring. Hey, God, is the person back coaching? The second person, yep, they are back. And then there was another situation a couple of weeks back. One of our clubs, it was the Rams, I don't mind saying,

they did CPR training for their staff. And so their coaches all got trained. A week later, one of their coaches was on vacation, not in LA, in another situation. And there was a cardiac arrest of a child in a swimming pool at the resort where he was. And this coach, who just got trained a week before, did CPR, participated in the resuscitation, and again, saved a child's life. So this is real world stuff, and it really matters. And as you said, Pat, it's important that we take the opportunity to take all the bad stuff that happened and turn something good out of it. Yeah, saving lives, actually. You should be incredibly proud, as should everybody

at the NFL. And we hope it never, ever happens again. But if it does, we got people ready all over the place to make sure we can all live longer and enjoy the hell out of our lives. Anything we should look out on the horizon, like Guardian caps during games? Yeah, people have asked about that, Pat. We're obviously still trying to understand. I mean, first of all, when we implemented guardian caps in practice, we had a whole lot of data from colleges. You know, virtually every Power Five school uses guardian caps in practice for football and had for a number of years. So we had a lot of data and a lot of experience to go on. We don't have any of that data in games. I mean, nobody's worn

them in games. And so obviously we're trying to continue to learn about it. We're looking a lot of experience to go on. We don't have any of that data in games. I mean, nobody's worn them in games. And so obviously we're trying to continue to learn about it. We're looking a lot this year in joint practices where they're used and trying to understand, but I don't think the future of the game is about a guardian cap per se. I think what we can learn from that again is how can we design a better helmet?

What are the materials that may make the helmet safer? And again, more importantly, how do we not use the head? How do we get the head out of blocking, tackling all the things that can be done without having to have head contact? So more work to be done there. We're obviously looking a lot at the Guardian Cap this year and what the experience will be in training camp, and we'll share that. But that's kind of where we're going on that.

I just heard really good news there. AJ, did you just hear really good news there out of Doc's mouth in that answer? Yeah, he's smart. He knows the Guardian Caps are not going to be put in play for game day. Okay, but also, have XFL do it. You know what I mean? Your test group. Hey, why don't you guys do a little

kickoff? Okay, trash that. Let's not. But maybe try this whole Guardian Cap thing. Last question for me, because you did bring it up, but it's a real-world problem seemingly everywhere. It is hot as hell like this tampa steelers game yeah that's going to be a hundred and what is their thoughts of like how what do we that's too hot right for football isn't it isn't there like warning signs

there probably shouldn't do strenuous physical activity in this particular temperature but there's not really no answer because it seems like it's an unrelenting heat we have currently. How are you handling that, and what is the thought behind it all? Yeah, well, again, there's a ton of preparation that goes into this path. So, again, every club has an emergency action plan around heat illness, recognizing guys that are affected by heat, how we're going to treat them, and how we're going to prevent secondary complications from that. And it is something that everybody is really vigilant about.

We've been in touch with all our clubs about it. Every club rehearses those scenarios every year. And it is just something that's on top of mind for all of us. It's something I think about every single day during these times of year. And so it starts with just that awareness. It starts with that preparation. It starts with thinking about all that we can do to mitigate the effects of heat. I will say that this is primarily heat illness and heat emergencies. You see much more in practices

and you see it obviously in this time of year. It's not really been a game phenomenon. And when we've talked to experts about that, people that study this all the time, like the people at the Corey Stringer Institute, for example, that work with us. You know, the fact that football is a discontinuous sport is really helpful, right? You're not running constantly the way you are in soccer or in a marathon or something like that. You're each plays about five or six seconds and you got a break. And then obviously you've got the offense defense exchange. So you can't directly compare football to some of the other sports, which is reassuring, but by no means can we take a breather on that. We have to be extremely vigilant. Everybody has to have their highest level of alertness and awareness. We all have to look out for each other and, again, take

all the measures we can to keep people cool because, as you said, it's affecting places that never even affected before, and it's probably going to last longer than what we've traditionally seen. And those polar caps, I mean, keep an eye out. Look out, yeah. Geez, I've heard about it. I don't know anything I mean, keep an eye out. Look out. Geez. I've heard about it. I don't know anything about it.

But, boy, I've heard it's getting hot out there. It's only boiling more and more. Doc, you're the right guy for the job. We appreciate you, man. Thank you so much for coming on this show and allowing us just to pepper you with questions about every serious subject that you have to deal with throughout an entire season. You're the man for that, honestly, you need to know that. Hey, thanks so much. I always enjoy visiting with you guys and I hope I'll see you down the road sometime soon. Do you,

do you enjoy it though? Like honestly, we really absolutely. Okay. No, I do. Cause you guys are passionate about the game and you ask good questions. And as you said, you asked the same questions that are on the minds of a lot of people. And I enjoy talking about this because I feel like we've got so much work going on. And when people really understand that work, they'll better understand some of the things that come out and hopefully we'll understand the philosophy that we're operating behind. So yeah, talk to you guys anytime. I'm happy to happy to join you. Okay, well, we absolutely love it. We appreciate you. Keep going. You're doing great work. Ladies and gentlemen, the first ever chief medical officer for the NFL, Dr. Alan Sills.

This is his actual office. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. He sent you that? Yeah, pretty cool. It's for like the play 60 when they, you know, show like the kids what they're doing.

He's a wizard on this thing, bro. You should see him. That's actually a part of the interview. You know, they race these things. Yep. Can do it. There was like six different doctors that were potentially up to be the chief medical officer. And he came down to the little round CD race.

Stool race. He fucking, his little feet. He crushed it. So he probably has a practice and he has patients, regular patients and everything on top of his antidote. Yeah. So he probably has a practice and he has patients, regular patients and everything on top of his NFL. Yeah, so I think he's been with the Grizzlies and the Predators, I think, in Tennessee. Colleges as well, Vanderbilt, Mississippi State. Yeah, so he says he's probably still the guy. Teams, places, which is good for those teams, obviously.

They should maybe market that in the recruiting process. Also, we got the NFL's biggest brain. He is here. But that's not an easy gig, bro. market that in the recruiting process like hey also we got the nfl's biggest brain yeah he's here but that's not an easy gig bro and once he started breaking down the field stuff there's no way it's ever happening how with how much like yeah like you said each turf field is different from the other turf field too like we know there are cheap field turf fields that you've been on and then there's ones that are really nice and a lot more expensive and i think those cheap ones were the slit ones they were like, we don't have all the information

on what's the best one, but we certainly know what the worst one is. And I think that was like two years ago or last year. They got like four of those out of the league. Yeah, Detroit had it last year, and that's where Vaughn tore his ACL. Hey, but still, but still though, places that have a legit closed dome,

it's not that they can't take the top off. They're going to always have turf, aren't they? Well, what if he says that? What if they come to the conclusion, them and the robot, that a turf field, a specific type of turf field, is the safest field? Yeah. Like, while he was saying that, I was thinking of them coming out with a press conference.

Roger Goodell, we have listened to our players, them coming out with a press conference. Roger Goodell, we have listened to our players, and we are changing every stadium into this Z95 plus turf. And then all the players immediately are going to go, grass! We're looking for grass!

And then Dr. Allen Sills is going to have to step up and go, the reason why we are spending this $2 billion is because a robot told us, and all of our studies told us, it's like, that's not going to be an easy, you know what I mean? No, what do you mean?

If they say this one turf, then they're going to say, oh, it's conspiracy. This guy was lobbying. How much are they paying you, whoever owns it? Oh, my God. He said England has supergrass. Green Bay has supergrass. Okay, what are we talking about? We don't know if that's the best yet. Yeah, they don't know if it's perfect, grass. Green Bay. Green Bay has super grass. Green Bay has super grass. Okay. What are we talking about? We don't know if that's the best yet.

Yeah, they don't know if it's perfect. Because in Green Bay, it's shit's frozen still. Even though they got heaters underneath it, whenever it gets frozen, then. And grow lights, too, all winter. And heated, though, then it's like a slush. It becomes worse for some. Is there an answer? Yeah, no right answer.

I've been told it's grass. It's not changing for a long time. Let's get some Kentucky bluegrass out of it. Yeah. Maybe some Bermuda. Bermuda. Bermuda. The nice, tight Bermuda down south.

That's what we need. So I thought he was going to start breaking down to different forms of grass. I was like, oh, I can have a little bit of a conversation. It sounds like you can, too. We all know a couple different styles of grass there. I'll never forget the first time I played on a soccer tournament on Kentucky Bluegrass because whenever he mentioned, like, soccer players wanting to pitch, we went to some tournament.

I think it was in Virginia. I think it was in Virginia we showed up, and I looked at the field, and I was like, holy shit, this is the nicest field I've ever – I'm going to have 15 goals a game in this thing. And then you, like – it starts, it starts getting tore up a little bit, and then you have people that just come in and fix it immediately. It's like there's some really high-maintenance grasses out there. Oh, yeah, that's awesome.

You don't even think about the greenskeepers and everything that's going on. At the Colts facility, old Troy is the head greens guy. He's a legend, but his job is like 19 hours a day during the season, like turning that whole thing over. So I think Dr. Alan Sills said, before I recommend them hiring a greenskeeper for 19 hours a day at every one of these stadiums and turning it over completely,

which is going to cost millions and millions of dollars for them, we would like to have the information. Which one is the right one to go over? Which is very reasonable. But I do appreciate the fact that we let him know reality. If you keep kicking the can down the road here, people are going to say you aren't looking up information. They're thinking you're bullshitting right now.

And how about him going, I think you know me well enough. I don't bullshit about it. Good answer. I'm not the one saying it to you. I'm just telling you this is fucking – Tell the owners, though. He's probably thinking, hey, why don't you tell Mike Brown he's got to put grass in and he can't have back-to-back nights of Taylor Swift

because it will tear up his grass. You tell him. That's a whole other ballgame. Have it even. Can't stop T-Swift. Yeah. You can host high school turf. You can have everything when you have turf.

They do it all. I'm sure Indy hosts everything probably. I would imagine Lucas Oil. Yeah, the city does. Col city does colts right city but that's what i'm saying heinz that's why they have it all these high schools have field turf because they can host a billion things and not have to worry about well the reason why heinz field there would really get a depiction of being a crop field is because like the game that would come after the high school state championships that were happening there on friday which is what five of them oh yeah now it is now it's five of those games are happening then pit would have a game yeah on saturday or thursday and then steelers play on

sunday somehow like prime time and everybody is all over the place and they're like look at this shit field and then they the steelers started like, spray painting the dirt green too, which did not help because then players come out and, like, they're painting the dirt. Yeah. They're lying to people. This field is worse than ever. They had to get it better, but that is something that is, like,

a thought whenever it comes to the business of transforming. They switched to the old Kentucky blue, I believe, in 2009, 10, around there. It's been immaculate ever since. It's a beautiful field. Wind is still a pain in the ass. Hey, that jumbotron up there looks sweet. Yeah, no joke. It looked awesome.

And that was the thing that caused a lot of kickers problems, right? Because there's that wind tunnel or something. Yeah, so come in through it one way and then go out that other way. Yeah, it's kind of gone. And then they raised the lighthouse a little bit. It's still going to suck. There's a lighthouse? Yeah.. Yeah, so come in through that one way and then go out that other way. Yeah, it's kind of gone. And then they raised the lighthouse a little bit. It's still going to suck. There's a lighthouse? Yeah.

I mean, oh, yeah. Foxborough weather is going to suck. No matter what. Punting and kicking there is going to suck. That's why Nick Folk will have that job forever if he wants to. Yeah, because he's so good at kicking outdoors. Bingo, yeah. He'll figure that out.

Belichick said he's taught him stuff about kicking in different climates. Yeah, I don't know if it's just like you naturally have it, or if it's like a mental toughness, or if he's just bullshitting. Yeah, and he's just getting lucky. And he's just good. Yeah. And he's just been bullshitting for like 10 years, but he is very, very good in there. Where'd he grow up? Where'd he come from? Did he grow up

kicking in that kind of condition? I don't know. I mean, he was. He had a stint with the Jets, so I know it's not easy to catch him. Chicago's got to be the toughest, right, Pat, with that weather and the grass that's nine inches long? So, I don't. The grass certainly sucks. It's a known thing.

The grass is ridiculous. The grass certainly sucks. The wind certainly sucks. But I think, like, everybody thinks Chicago, Windy City, because that's, like, the nickname. Cleveland is. Oh, yeah. Cleveland is by far the worst they they have it's on the

lake i mean on the lake right there yeah and when it gets cold too man like the lake effects everything that happens there is crazy that's why like phil dawson what phil dawson was able to do there for how long he did it like he's another one of those guys like folk where it's like that guy i don't know what he was doing and how smart he was. He's certainly more mentally tough than I would be because you'd be looking at a kick and it's like, well, where the fuck am I putting this? Where am I even starting it? Some guys are able to do it.

That's why this Cade York kid who got drafted by the Browns at LSU, it's like I do not envy his position at all. Good luck. Good luck up there. Is Mason on the team yet? Is Mason Crosby on a team yet? He just kicked a ball on a boat on a lake or whatever, right to somebody's chest.

He is not on team. Who's your guy? Is Robbie out too? Robbie's still a free agent, gold? We saw him out of Tahoe, right? He said he is a free agent right now. Yes, there's multiple vet kickers out there just waiting for a gig to open. They'll get a job.

You know what they're waiting for. Yeah, they will. Don't the Cowboys need a kicker? Yeah, they just released like Tristan Vizcayeno. He was in a battle with someone else. You see who got a workout? Who? For the Commanders or Panthers.

I forget. Commanders or Panthers. Taylor Russelino. Really? Nice. Oh, good. Come on, buddy. Good for him.

Come on, buddy. Well, that's what the Packers drafted a guy, Anders Carlson, I think, from Auburn, and they said he's been just, like, so inconsistent. Like, he's got a massive leg, but he's missing a lot of kicks. So, we'll see. Like, I would imagine since I think they drafted him, like, the fourth or the fifth round.

So, like, he'll probably make the team, but I don't know. No, no, definitely make the team. Well, that's what I mean. Yeah, draft in the fourth round. But if you've got fucking Robbie Gold out there available. Fourth round pick, bub, he's going to at least, they're going to give him the opportunity to miss at least eight games worth of kicks. For sure, but also, but Rodgers isn't the quarterback anymore.

Like, you know, like you could, like, they could go through points where, like, Mason was in a little bit of a slump because like all right well we're still going to score touchdowns like i don't know like they're going to need every point they can get i mean you're absolutely right but i hope it's not you know we're five games into the season and he's missed six field goals and and that's why they've lost four games yeah and they're going to say well he's better turn it around we did spend a fourth rounder on him that happened with agayo uh out of uh florida state yeah for whatever reason he just couldn't hit an nfl ball for whatever reason it was and they he just kept getting opportunities opportunities after opportunity it's like if you get drafted they're going they're going to give you every

chance that you can possibly get he was early the Cowboys current kicker. He was the second rounder. The Cowboys current kicker played for Toronto FC of the MLS for a couple years and then was in the USFL last year. What's his name? His name is Brandon Aubrey. Hey, good luck. Do we know how he's doing? Is he making kicks?

None of this matters. Training camp doesn't matter. Like, honestly. Training camp doesn't matter. Like, honestly. No. Training camp doesn't matter. Can you make it in the game? Bingo. Guy makes 27 straight in training camp. Everybody loves him in the dorm and in locker room and everywhere. Like, we got a guy.

And then in the first preseason game, he goes one of three. They're like, all right, he'll get it back. He'll get it back. And then he does, like, none of that matters. Nope. Nothing matters at all. And so just sunday you know there's guys there's stories i've heard where a guy has missed every single kick in practice

two periods one on wednesday one on friday every single kick in the team period drill then gets a sunday goes three or four they win the game guy gets offered a contract keep the job see like how you doing it's awesome All that matters is can you put the ball through the fucking uprights whenever the game is there? And if you can't, you'll be gone. And if you can't, you'll be kept around. But if you're a fourth rounder, they're going to let you miss those things for a while.

Because of how smart they are for drafting you in the fourth round. I was drafted in the seventh round. That's why I was kept over Tim Mastay. Tim Mastay was definitely better than me on training. He was aastay. Tim Mastay was definitely better than me on training. He's a good player. Tim Mastay was definitely better than me on training. He knew what he was doing.

I didn't have a clue what I was doing. And they just cut him. They're like, well, they didn't fucking draft him. See you later. And I was seven. I was picked 222. Couldn't even imagine a fourth runner. He'll be...

He might have been a fifth runner. I don't know if he was a fourth. But still, they definitely... Yeah, I mean... Went and got him. They're going to need him. They're going to need him. None of this matters. They're going to need him at Green Bay.

He'll make him in the game. Yeah. He's fucking better, I'll tell you that much. What's your problem? We'll know soon enough. What's your problem? Get rid of Mason. Just fucking run it back.

I mean, run it back. You know, I mean. It's good to have a kicker. It is good to have a kicker, especially when you lose, you know, a four-time MVP. Take him for granted. You take those guys for granted. Well, fans have no idea until they're just upset four straight weeks. What happened? Oh, you missed.

Seven kicks. Kicker and punter. Absolutely. All of a sudden, a new punter comes in. The dude hits 19-yard punts out of bounds. I'm happy if I'm playing wing, kind of, but you can't do that too many times and get away with it. Yeah, that's a defender. That's a guy who's on a defense.

Because we'll make the stop. Because we'll make the stop. Just get out of bounds and then we'll defense and make the stop. Yeah, put the fire out. I've hit... I think I hit two punts under the Chuck Pagano era regime where there were shanks or whatever and Chuck saying to the defense,

put the fire out! Put the fire out! Like it was a turnover. I'm like, fuck you, Chuck. God damn it. I'm hearing, that is tough. I literally just put the fire out, like it was a turnover. I'm like, oh, fuck you, Chuck. God damn it. Like, I'm hearing, like, ah, that is tough. I literally just put the defense in a terrible position. But do you want to talk about a position getting devalued? Pal, look at the punter deals. Punter deals are getting real small.

Those are getting real. Are they? Yeah, young guys, like Thomas Morstead's in his 15th year. I don't know how often that's going to happen, because in punting, you've got to be very explosive. So a lot of these young guys can be very explosive. And are you going to spend any money, really, on the punting position when you're literally trying to cut back on every other position?

I'll be excited to see what these contracts for punters look like in about three, four years. Yeah, is Morstead the oldest? Yeah, is he the oldest left? Yeah, and then Hecker down in Carolina. Oh, yeah. I mean, he's one that got paid, and then to your point about having to cut back,

they had to cut him, right? Yeah, now he's with the Panthers. I think he's doing well down there. I think he was second in the NFL in net last year. Nobody talked about him because he's in Carolina. Carolina. Did Huber just retire? Yeah.

Huber called. Hey, what a run. He's like the king of Cincinnati. High school, college, NFL. All right there. Yeah, it's electric. And remained a Cincinnatian through the whole time. Like, you know.

Ohio guy. He is awesome. Yes. Huber is one of the guys. He is part of the team. Yeah, I love Kevin Huber. Lucky that I went to college in the same era he did and played in the NFL. He obviously played much longer.

The game is going to miss him, especially with that silky whoop behind his back run. Then he gets demolished. Killed. Killed. So cool. But it is cool. There's a lot of games this weekend. Hell yeah.

Preseason football is heating up. That's A.J. Hawk. The Talks at Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. That's A.J. Hawk. The Talks Table is here at Boston Corner and at Ty Schmidt. One out for the Hammer. Cowboys turn Diggs is here who was hand signaling me something before we went live. Before the break, you said I'll give some plays out for the

preseason. I said I got four of them. Okay. Four plays coming soon. Joining us right now, though, is the insider of the future. Amen. A man who is on top of every single storyline happening all around the sports world. That's right. His dad is formerly the founder of, well, I guess still the founder,

formerly runs Starbucks. He could have chosen a life of just kicking his feet up on a yacht with a suit. Instead, he decides to kick his feet up with a suit on Fox Sports 1 like the last three days. Hell yeah. This guy's becoming a TV personality right in front of our eyes. Insider of the future.

Amanda Conner said, look like Clay on TV. Ladies and gentlemen, Schultz. Hey, Schultz. What the hell is Connor talking about? Whoa. I look clean. I look dapper. This man called me an animated wrestling character.

No. Connor, you're killing me. Yeah. You did look dapper. You did look clean. I think what Connor was saying is there was a couple angles there where you were turning to your side. Yep.

The lighting. The lighting. That guy looks so good that can't be real. Yes. That's like a statue. Thank you, yes. Oh, okay. You know what I mean?

I got to tell you, a couple folks said it to me, and they said, you got to get yourself on McAfee to defend your suit game. And I said, what do you mean? And then I pulled up the tape and the screenshot live so he had uh you had a little maitre d look going on yep right yeah hey have you been doing this before or are we just realizing this now you're on tv a lot this week right not normal this is new are you working for fox sports now what's going on so i flew to la i was i did last friday and friday went well then they said

can you do monday right then monday went okay can you do tuesday oh wait can you stay for the whole week and actually i was gonna stay another week but at some point schultz has got to get back to the family yeah of course hey i would love to get back to it uh but schultz you got to do what schultz you got to do you know you guys you guys know schultz martin schultz needs you but i understand what you're saying you guys like me i like you maybe we could do business is there something potentially popping off here i would hope so i would hope so and uh we're having those discussions i also did bleacher report insider stream on their app gonna continue doing that i think throughout the season so hopefully hopefully you'll be seeing more of me patrick you know listen when i wore a suit i think to myself would pat and aj approve this suit

and when i got on that set i thought to myself boston connor would too well you thought of that you honestly thought of us when you're on there because that was a big moment the fact that you were thinking about us we really appreciate now i miss you guys i gotta say i miss you guys i don't think it was a suit though like i think we're were thinking about us, we really appreciate. Now, I miss you guys. I gotta say, I miss you guys. I don't think it was the suit, though. I think your friends were misjudging what happened here. It was not the suit. I don't even think we talked about it. Oh, I had so much makeup on. I was so caked up that I looked

fake. Bingo. Bingo. Yeah, that is what Connor was referring to. Suit looked good. We love seeing you on TV. We're happy for you. But Connor would like to clarify some things, I do believe. Yeah, look, Schultz, I don't know why the clay was supposed to be an insult. I came from

the kindness of my heart. I was being completely genuine. You looked like a sculpture up there. I did enjoy the suit and that wasn't a mean thing. Now, McMahon might have said something disrespectful, but again, that was not my sentiment whatsoever. Connor's lying right now. again, that was not my sentiment whatsoever. What was it?

Connor's lying right now. Well. Yeah, that is what Connor is. No, Ty was there for it too. Yeah, Mitt did say that, Schultz, the only thing that you were missing were the two bolts in your neck because you kind of look like Frankenstein's monster.

That's what he, I didn't hear that. Can we pop up a screen grab? Schultz, what's that all about? Why are people saying that? Do you think maybe... Do you think maybe because all the makeup was on, you weren't able to be yourself? Maybe you just...

No, it was great. I thought you looked good, too. I don't know what these guys are talking about. What do you mean, these guys? You! It's a compliment. I wish I looked like Clay. I don't.

Yeah. Yeah, all the time Tomorrow morning I'm going to come in and say you know what Connor You're a real Clay looking motherfucker I will have a pep in my step then I have Schultz says to Connor you know what In the third person

I really appreciate that it came from a good place I have extremely thick skin I did not take it personally And if anything I thought it was pretty funny But it is good to get the bottom of it that it came from a good place. I have extremely thick skin. I did not take it personally. And if anything, I thought it was pretty funny. But it is good to get the bottom of it and understand the impetus of what you were actually saying. So it was a good thing. Yeah, that's good.

We had a little misunderstanding. What? What's that? We had a little misunderstanding. And now we're all back. I think Foxy was laughing, though. No. Oh, Foxy was definitely laughing. No, I wasn't. Foxy was laughing though. No. No, I wasn't.

I love you, Schultz. No. Foxy's a pig. I was muted back here. AJ, do you have any questions for Schultz, pal? I'm not sure if I do or not, Schultz. Let me tell you something. Schultz, I will tell you how something goes on this show.

On this show, when I ask AJ if he wants to have a question, and he goes no, that means he's done with this human on our show. So I just said, AJ, do you have a question for Schultz? I didn't say no. I didn't say no. There's a lot going on. I've got to hone in exactly what I want to ask because there's so much going on right now.

But, Schultz, I was unable to see this segment of your whole time on this show. How do you think it went other than your looks? I know I heard you killed it, though. He looked good. It's not other than that. I need to see a screen grab because I missed it. I'm sorry. I will go back and look after the show.

It is screen grab. But how did it go? Is that something you want to do every day? Yeah, Z. Yeah, I'm all in, bro. You know that. I want this you talked earlier patrick about you know sitting on the yacht and sitting in the suit and having your everything pampered and silver spoon and i'm fully aware of that like i don't want to i'm not

going to hide from the fact that i was born on home plate you know we talk about being born on first base i went around the whole base path yeah you know yeah i i had well the entire um i i had everything at my disposal i don't want to say that that wasn't the case but with that in mind it would be an absolute shame for me not to take full advantage of my situation, which was being well-educated, having opportunities to travel and having culture. And like I, to me, and I, I, I experienced guilt with this all the time. This is not something that I've, you know, fully, um, figure it out. It's just the bottom line is I, I experienced guilt with it. So with that in mind, I want to maximize everything. I really want to make my parents proud. And I want to be on TV every day talking football. And as you said, being the next generation NFL insider. Hell yeah. Good for you, Schultz. That's a real

self-aware thing to do. You know, cause that's not normal. Normally people in your position will be like, did you see all the work I fucking did being born to this successful family? You know, they have that kind of mindset. So you not having that, we think is beautiful. And that's why we think you're only going to grow and grow and get bigger and bigger.

Spotlight growing, screen growing, everything growing. And we appreciate the hell out of you, Schultz. What do you got on tap this weekend, pal? Just with the fam, you know, very low key. And it's interesting.

When I flew back, I took the red eye last night. And my wife said, you enjoy this shit, don't you? There we go. I said, what do you mean? She said, you like the grind of being in the studio all week, coming up with topics, chopping it up with the other talent, breaking stories, and then coming back on the red eye and getting you know diving full head first you know into the family into the kids and i said i do i do because that's how it was taught to me with my dad that's how i saw

you know what the experience i had was was very much so like my dad dad's going to grind, my mom's going to grind, and they're going to do it for us, right? And so I had to reset my expectation of, okay, to your point, I don't necessarily have to do it. And maybe it is selfish because it's not something that I need to do to provide for my family. But I want so badly, Pat and AJ and all the McAfee fellas. I want to be the next guy. Like you had Ian on, you've had Adam on. I want to be in that category, right? And so the only way to get there is to follow the path that's been set for me, which is what my parents did.

And so my wife was saying, like, you know, most people would probably be like, oh, I'm so tired. And I felt refreshed. I felt re-energized. And that's because I love it so much. So I guess that's the best way to put it. Not obstacles, opportunities. And I appreciate the fact that you're willing to put in the work

when you could be just an incredibly lazy, entitled person. So we appreciate that. With that being said, Connor was not complimenting you whenever he said Clay. I know. I know he wasn't. That's why this all happened. But we will continue to watch you evolve and mold yourself just like you were, Clay, into the version of yourself that will make you feel the most fulfillment in this one opportunity that you have in life.

It's not your fault that your dad was incredibly successful, but it is your fault if you take it for granted. You have not done that. We appreciate you. Have an incredible weekend, ladies and gentlemen. Can I say one more thing? No. Yeah. Can we shout out the GOAT, Ari Neeroff? Hell yeah. Thank you, Jordan.

I love you, fam. We all love Ari. Ari Neeroff is that dude. Last person yeah. We all love Ari. Hell yeah. Shout out to Goat. Ari Miroff is that dude. Last personified. No cap. We agree. We agree. Ari's lit.

You know what I mean? Ari's lit. For real, for real. We appreciate you, man. Ladies and gentlemen, the Shultz Club. What's happening? What is happening? What is happening?

What is happening? All right. Let's get to the phones. Mm-hmm. You know, let's- I like that last angle. That last thing was really good. I could really see you.

Every time. I forget about it every time until it shows up, and I'm like. Oh, yeah. How is this thing? It makes me tiny, too. Yeah, it was a good play. It was a good play. We had, you know, an opportunity to laugh with Schultz.

Yeah. Yeah. We had fun with Schultz. But he. I love Schultz. I appreciate him saying, I was born on home plate. Not even third base. Yeah.

Right. There's a lot of people. That's the saying. It's like, this guy was born on home plate, not even third base. That's the saying. It's like, this guy was born on third base and thought he hit a triple, is what people say. Why do you feel guilty, though? Tell him to stop feeling guilty about it, that your dad is successful. I think he feels guilty because he seemingly does have a conscience. Yeah, it's not his fault.

He's not seemingly just ruining a lot of other people's lives because he has an innate power because his dad was somebody who was smart. Like, I think that is where nepotism has really been something that people hate. It's like somebody gets put in position of power over a lot of people who have a lot more ability and talent strictly because of the womb that they came out of. And it's like, those should be the people that feel guilt. And they don't. You know what I mean? Yep, exactly. The people that, just like anything else, just like, let's say, the Rookie Symposium. The people that feel guilt. And they don't. You know what I mean? Yep, exactly.

The people that, just like anything else, just like, let's say, the Rookie Symposium, the people that need to hear it, it's not registering in their brain. They're not listening. Well, shout out to Schultz, man. Out there grinding. That's the worst job in sports media, too, he's choosing to do. So, good for him. And it's the hardest to get your foot in, to get their foot in the door

and to try to get the traction, too. With that being said, his dad helps him with that, right? Yeah. I guess you've got to make the effort to go reach out to everybody. Yeah, you've just got to develop relationships. Yeah, but he loves the grind. And his wife says, you really love this shit. How about him saying, I was in the studio

thinking of ideas, chopping up with the boys. You know the town. You had a job. Got it. Dive right back into the family yeah you're human we get it you were just talking about this a couple seconds ago love it what a different world that bro grow up in oh my god grew up in yeah i live on this lake now and i'm watching these kids with these fucking jet skis all summer bingoingo. I'm like, these kids are living a much different life than the life that I live. I don't even know how these humans, like, how is that human able to relate to anybody?

I don't know. Takes a real special person, I think, especially at that younger age. I couldn't even imagine Schultz in high school. He's showing up in a Benzo, probably. He looks so cool. Probably sweatsuits galore. Basketball with him at all times. Handsome.

Starting point guard. I don't know why you keep looking at me like that. I said it as a compliment. Just didn't feel that way. Now, that's my truth, and if you guys react to it how you react to it, I can't control that. Was it makeup? Was it a lot of makeup or what?

Was he wearing a lot of makeup? That's not his fault. It's not his fault. Believe me, I've been... I've had a makeup artist dump something on my face and it's very obvious that you just like... AJ's thinking about Schrager

last year at the Combine. No, I think he was thinking of somebody dumping on the face. He's a fucking pig. Even though we're talking about makeup right now. I'm talking about makeup. No, you're talking about John McAfee underneath the hammock. He spilled a bunch of fr though we're talking about makeup right now I'm talking about makeup No you're talking about John McAfee underneath the hammock He spilled a bunch of frothy makeup on your face Yeah exactly

What's your problem What's your problem We're trying to sympathize with this guy Who's trying to sympathize with humans who grew up as a bazillionaire Okay He got put in a spot there It's not his fault Like I wasn't a makeup expert

And then somebody puts makeup on me who's allegedly his fault like i wasn't a makeup expert and then somebody puts makeup on me who's allegedly an expert and then all of a sudden i go on tv and then i see a still shot i'm like oh jesus christ that human made me look much much worse than i actually look what the hell and i already look bad that's not your job that's what i signed up we're gonna do that every day now right but then how can... That's like when someone takes a picture with you, too, and then they take the liberty of doctoring the picture, you know, trying to get rid of some red eyes or something and change your face.

Red eyes might make it look as though your mouth is big enough to swallow a cantaloupe. Stuff like that. All the time. The photos that are on the internet of me are very vast. There's a lot on the internet of me are very uh uh vast you know

there's a lot of different sizes of me sure there's a lot of different uh places of me you know a lot of that stuff but boy one thing's normally common if i'm in a state where something is legal for whatever reason i just can't get my eyes open in those photos and tired man sleepy always tired you know post malone actually just did this yeah for the photos you know i might I just can't get my eyes open in those photos. Tired, man. Sleepy. Always tired. Post Malone actually just did this for the photos. I might have to do that so people know that. But there's some people that have tried to correct that in their photos with me. I think they're trying to make me not look bad.

You're like, hey, this guy looks like he's incredibly stoned right now. Let's try to help him. And then in turn, my face becomes like Mr. Potato Head. Yeah, you look very wacko. I'm just plucking on eyeballs. It's a whole thing. AJ, then I got the people that say they look like me all the time. That's something.

That's awesome. I'm sure you react well when the person has long, dark hair and doesn't look like you at all. Yeah, I'm a pretty fuckboy white prototype. So there's a lot of people that look like me, you know, and then I get those tweets. It's a lot of fun. AJ is one of one except for that sculpture of horse. Crazy horse.

You and crazy horse are twins. A lot of people think you look like Woody Harrelson too. People do tell me that. Congratulations. Super handsome. I'm okay with it. I love that guy. That's who's playing you in the movie, you no denzel i always say that i love denzel that's good me too said that from day one equalizer three coming soon that's gonna be tough though bro i think like why because he's like 60 no just you know i think people get mad

if if denzel's playing you just because the world we're in right now well i agree like i'm definitely not like yeah like i i don't have the stature to have Denzel play me. That's why people are upset. I need to have a bigger name. You're not handsome enough or badass enough. I'm not. We're talented enough. That guy's unbelievable. I just watched American Gangster the other night.

So good, dude. Frank Luce. He just wants Harlem back. That's all he wants. Imagine if he went whiteface to play A.J. Hawk. How just wants Harlem back. That's all he wants. Imagine if he went white face to play A.J. Hawk. How mad people would get. They would be irrationally upset about it. So mad.

Let's talk about what did happen with Schultz. Let's go back in time here a little bit. We've done two film studies of our show today. Bug hit me in the back of the throat early. And then lastly with Schultz here, we had a dynamic camera angle and video setup. We are 100% sure that we will be the only

show that will ever have this as the full screen ever in the history of ESPN. I will assume. I can't wait for that. He doesn't know. No, he doesn't. That's what makes it look like so much fun. He must think it's like a glitch. Exactly what you see, AJ. Yeah, he doesn't. That's what makes the game so much funnier. What does it look like on his screen? It looks like that. It's like a glitch.

Exactly what you see, AJ. Yeah, but he must think it's like a glitch. Like, this can't be what the show actually is. It's very noticeable on my end, by the way. It's very noticeable. Pretty noticeable on our end, too. The only thing I can imagine is he's on his iPhone, and he really can't see the screen. Yeah, that makes sense.

That's the only thing. Or he's just staring at himself the whole time, and he doesn't notice what's happening around him. He's a pro's pro. He doesn't let those things distract him or bother him. That's the only thing. Where he's just staring at himself the whole time and he doesn't notice what's happening around him. He's a pro's pro. He doesn't let those things distract him or bother him. I'll tell you what. When I look like a real jackass some days, every once in a while I'll get a glimpse of me up there on the screen and I'm like, Jesus. Yeah. Yeah.

Happens to me too. Let's go back to a full. Let's go back to one of those. I start thinking of doing that in the middle of the conversation. We don't do enough of this, AJ. You know what? I don't think we do enough of this. What's that?

The one shot on me? Yeah. You know, I have the control to do that. I don't know if you know that. It's been added to my desk here. Oh, I can't wait. So I will have the control there on Fridays during the season. No, I'll take it with me.

Yeah, you'll break it. I'm sure you'll pack it up. This one stays with me. This thing stays with me. Get your own. But every once in a while you'll be like doing a you know a pretty good promo and i have to like grab something or like say something to the back and i'm just sitting here i'm like listening listening listening but it's like i don't know how long age is going to be talking how long do we have to get this answer so all of

a sudden we you know implored this thing and i can do this and then i can talk to the back real quick and then we can come back into this thing, and then boom, bang. So that's new with the upgrades a couple weeks ago. That came in? Yeah, there's all this lighting, too. I don't know if you saw the lighting whenever Foxy zoomed out.

All these lights are new, and the reason why you'll know that is because there are lights in our studio. Right. We didn't have lights before. No. We were the only studio in the history of the show that had zero lights and paid

for lights got a lighting company here they said lights are good and then as we went on the air we quickly realized we have no lights no not good but not an easy thing to do like the amount of they have like these sensors and light like how heavy is the light here like meters or whatever yeah they check it all out aperture is another word I guess it's being used a lot Dims The dims are obviously being discussed at all times When it comes to lighting Cause how far can it reach

But yeah we have lights for the first time that's pretty cool Yeah they're sweet We got a lot of shit coming in bro Bringing in a makeup person from ESPN Yeah Schultz is the guy That was asked In the hole So where will makeup be Makeup person from ESPN? Yeah, Schultz is the guy. That was asked in the hole. So where will makeup be?

Will you be paying them? I'm like, there would all be a makeup. Are you sure? Television. Yeah. That'd be amazing. First day back, everyone has full face of cake makeup. Everybody, the whole face.

Also, like, do we want to punish this person trying to make us attractive every day? No way. This person doesn't need to wake up and be like, here we go. More tricks. Give me your fucking faces. We don't need that. We don't want that. I get uncomfortable with makeup on, to be honest with you.

Yeah. Because I'm a sweater. So I'm always like, so is this makeup running right now and like can everybody tell that i feels like it's pretty thick caked on my face i'm very moist right now what is happening and you never really know i would just like to remain my classic red-faced human being for the rest of my life but there's a lot of tv companies that don't want that on their television can't touch your face or anything, or else you'll fuck it all up. Yeah, what about if I blow my nose?

They just don't want you super shiny. I know that. They just don't want your face all shiny. That's why they try to, like, mute that. I think WWE, that's a big thing. We don't need you shiny. I'll replace him like it was 1,000 degrees in here. You know what I mean?

Can I get an air conditioner underneath the desk? That'd be great. An eye block person. Michael Cole like it? Does he like makeup? I think it's just part of the job. Can't tell. I mean, he looks the same, I feel like, on TV.

WWE has a very talented group of, you know, quick. Painters. See you later. How you doing? They're very, because they do. I mean, they're working 52 weeks a year. Yeah. Numerous times.

That crew is a very talented one. I don't know how they survive, to be honest with you. It's crazy. He's got to stand for like 10 hours straight four times a week in four different cities. That's a lot of traveling. They're doing good. Hey, keep going. Keep crushing it.

Let's go to the phones and get the fuck out of here. Okay. What do you guys got this weekend? Anything awesome? Ty, what are you doing? Watching some games? Yeah, that's about it. I'm not really doing anything. Are you getting excited about Hair Jordan? Air Jordan? Love Story? Tonight, baby. 7 p.m. on NFL Network. Who we got?

Bengals in Cincy. Well, is that one of the games that you want to pick for us, Tone Diggs, as we gamble in the preseason? Very, very dumbly. It was, but after Jordan Love, I didn't really trust Sean Clifford, who is a 25-year-old rookie. He's actually older than Jordan Love. And then you've got a guy named Alex McGuff coming in there.

The fucking USFL MVP. To come back for the Packers. So I didn't really trust that one. The four I'm looking at this weekend, one of them is tonight, the Broncos. Okay? Right there. Bottom right corner. Broncos, Cardinals, five and a half.

Sean Payton has said these boys are going to play, and they're going to play hard. I think Russ is supposed to get like 20 snaps and then he's followed by Jared Stidham, who is a very good backup and preseason quarterback. Followed by old Ben DiNucci there. DiNucci?

The Broncos, for sure. I like the Broncos and they're going up against the Cardinals who are going to play some starters. They said, yeah, case by case situation. The next one I like is your Indianapolis Colts tomorrow. So they go Anthony Richardson. So that'll be fun. And then you have Gardner.

And then you have the best preseason quarterback in all of the land last year, Mr. Sam Ellinger, who's going, they're going up against the Bills, who they said Josh Allen won't play. So it's going to be Kyle Allen and then whatever. Anthony Richardson's undefeated! After that, I kind of like the Panthers against the Jets. So you got Bryce Young,

Andy Dalton, Matt Corral still looking to make a name still. You know, Roger, he's not playing. So you got Zach Wilson and then you got Tim Boyle. I mean, they were okay, but I kind of like the Panthers there. And then the last one that I really like, I'm going to probably be on them all preseason long.

This one's on Sunday. The 49ers. Oh. I thought it was going to be the Ravens because how good they are. Well, the Ravens have won 23 straight, okay? That's what I thought you were going to say. I think we all thought you were going to say Ravens. And we were like, wow, tone.

But they're getting – I mean, six points is a lot in the preseason. They're playing the Eagles who – the Eagles have a good quarterback room, too. After Hertz, they got Mariota, then a couple guys. So, yeah, I mean, Ravens, sure, maybe. 23 straight is pretty impressive. Niners, though, you got that quarterback room going up against, they're definitely not playing Jimmy G.

And then it's Hoyer and then Aiden O'Connell out of Purdue, who's pretty good. But, I mean, I like the San Francisco quarterback room. So, those are my four that I'm rolling with. Okay, Broncos, Colts, Panthers, Niners. Let's go. Go ahead and let's see if we can hit some. Tone, 2-0 last night. I made it, Tone.

Tone had the Texans and Seahawks last night. Are we turning the corner? Hopefully. Are we getting hot? I think so. We shall see. Let's go to the phones. Let's go to Eddie in San Diego.

What's going on, Eddie? Pat, AJ, boys, how we doing? Keep it moving. Hell yeah, Eddie. Hell yeah. What do you want to talk on, Eddie? Pat, AJ, boys, how we doing? Keep it moving. Hell yeah. What do you want to talk about, buddy? Hey, so you guys are talking about Bakhtiari potentially getting traded to the Jets. Do you guys really think it is a possibility with him being such an advocate against turf fields, knowing that he would have to play eight to nine games at home on turf?

Good point. Interesting, Eddie. I mean, that is certainly something to think about, an added element. I just assumed it's not going to happen. Yeah, it's not. That's what I just assumed. It's not going to happen. He makes too much money, doesn't he, to trade him right now?

Yes. Yeah, they cleared a lot with Rodgers. They would have got rid of him. Yes. Have we heard anything about them trying to move him earlier? I don't think so, right? No. There's been no rumblings, right?

We haven't heard really anything. It feels like a wish list much more than a reality, but I mean, who knows? It's the NFL. Yeah. It's not going to happen. Okay. What if it did?

If not, it does. And you feel? I'm not going to fucking cry over spilled milk if it happens. I want him to play out there, but if he's gone, he's gone. That's the NFL, baby. Next man up. Interesting. Move Jenkins out there, but if he's gone, he's gone. That's the NFL, baby. Next man up. Interesting. Move Jenkins out there. Could you imagine Bakhtiari

at a New York Rangers game, chugging those beers down? Yeah. Oh, my. How about he goes to... What was it? Saved by the Bell? What was the play that... Broadway? Yeah, wasn't it Saved by the Bell? Saved by the Bell, yeah. He goes to Saved by the Bell. He's chugging beers on stage it Saved by the Bell? He did go to Saved by the Bell recently. Saved by the Bell, yeah.

It was Saved by the Bell. He's talking beers on stage with Saved by the Bell cast. Him and Zach Morris are up there high-fiving with Aaron Rodgers watching. And they get the whole gang. Green Bay East. If Bakhtiari ends up at the Jets, Packers fans... That'd be crazy. The amount of spite that is probably going to have to get built up.

What's that, pal? That'd be crazy. I mean, but there is absolutely no way that they're going to trade him. Pitch Perfect was the movie. Saved by the Bell was the play that Aaron Rodgers went to off-Broadway. I'm cultured, Zito. Please. Come on.

Zito, please. When I'm talking Broadway, listen. I thought you were talking about him. Him and Pitch Perfect. He was phenomenal. Great actor. And if they take that to Broadway, slide him right in. Good call, ZD, baby.

Good call. Let's go to Griffin in Florida. What part of Florida are you in? How hot is it? That, boys. How you doing? Keep it moving. I'm in St. Pete, right in the middle. It's about 108 today. Humidity, though, low. It's a dry heat. It's a dry heat.

It is. As soon as I step out, it's sticky. Yeah. That's Florida high. That's St. Pete. You guys get this in winter and fall, though, while we're cold with rain. Yeah. That's right. Go ahead.

I'm going to be playing golf when it's 80 on Christmas time. How's your game? Getting better. Getting better. Breaking 90 now. Okay. Oh. All right.

What do you want to talk about, pal? You know, we've come a long way. Been watching for a long time. Talking about new lights coming in. You got a makeup person from ESPN. You know, I want to see if we can go even higher. I want to know where we stand with getting Scott's staff on the show. Griffin, can you take me higher?

That was a good question, Griffin. Maybe next draft like we had the magician this year. Michael Collins. Michael Griffin. Michael Malone. Yeah. Michael Malone. Yeah, Michael Malone. No. Michael Malone is the head coach of the Denver Nuggets.

We like him. Yes. But America's greatest escape artist is Michael Griffin. And I'm sick of you guys. I'm sick of you guys. Sure wasn't Michael Collins? Michael Collins is catty. Big part of that.

Big part of the story about somebody meeting Phil Mickelson at the halfway house of a golf course and him signing. Good positive story. Very positive Phil story. That's Memorial here. That's Memorial, yeah. Oh, is that who that was?

Yeah, I guess because he said Ohio. Michael with the Memorial Tournament, yeah. Alright, let's... Anyways, Phil Mickelson gambled a billion dollars over four years soon. Yep. He didn't refute I guess because he said Ohio. Was it your boy? The Memorial Tournament, yeah. All right. Anyways, Phil Mickelson gambled a billion dollars over four years. Sue him. He didn't refute that. He just came out and said, I did not bet on the Ryder Cup. He said, I had a problem.

I know. It's documented. I've gotten help. It's under control now, though. Two days after the Bryson video comes out, it's just under control now. Yeah, that's an actual grand I'm betting now. And look, you heard what I was just doing. under control now yeah that's an actual grand i'm betting now and look you heard what i was just doing so a thousand dollar bets much better than 220 or 560 or 640 thousand dollar bets on things or 20 000 five game long shot parlays i was just popping those off on the reg bro what are we

talking about i was just doing now i'm betting a thousand with bryson dechambeau for nine holes and can only half it. Can't full press. That's right. It's only another $500. Exactly. Sue me. Yeah. Should have seen what I was betting with Jordan.

Oh. I bet that is astronomical. Yeah, me too. Probably a couple million or even higher stakes. 10 Gs. Maybe. Very high stakes. Very high stakes, I would bet.

Those two gambling with each other. They're friends, right? Aren't they? Don't they know each other well? I think so. I think they, I would bet. Those two gumbling with each other. They're friends, right? Aren't they? Don't they know each other well? I think so. I think they run the same circle. Yeah. Or they used to.

What are you doing? What's wrong? You got another bug? Running the same circle was incredibly clever for what you... What you're implying. Let's go to the phones. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what's happening.

Let's go to James in New York. James, what's going on, pal? That was funny. That was really good. I'm not sure what time it is. Let's go to James in New York. James, what's going on, pal? That was funny. That was really good. Hey, Jay. How we doing? How you doing? Hell yeah.

Yeah, I'm lying. Just needed to shed some info into this situation, boys, with this JPA football. Is this him? Seems to be elaborate. You know what I'm saying? No, I'm not. Get out of here with that, you know? But your suspicions are right.

You're right. So, you know, I used to be a Washington R-word fan, you know, back in the day. Baltimore Colts, Johnny Unitas, Black Hightops, he was sick. They leave. Sick with the skins. Great years ahead, right? Doug Williams. How old is this guy?

Sounds young. Mark Griffin, right? That's great. So, Dan Snyder gets the team. I get Mark Brunel, Rex Grossman, Jason Campbell. That's great. Still love the team. RG3.

Kirk. Sick. Still sick. Still looking for content, right? So stumble on Twitter. I find this account, right? It's rwordtoday, right? And he's throwing out these emotional tweets.

Exactly. And about player performance. Um, to find out a few seasons ago, it's the 17 year old kid, just fitting out bullshit info. And now he's running this JPA football account and probably those other accounts too. And then, uh, he's in this Twitter fight with Ben Standing of The Athletic right now

about stealing content right now. So it's just popping off. Needless to say, Washington's dead, and I'm a fan of the Shields like our boy Rob Lowe. Hey, James, I don't know how much of what you just said was accurate or not because for that to be true, you would have to be like a 50-year-old man. You're very old. No, no, no. My family, look, I got a little gabagool in me,

so my family runs deep. So I was born in Washington, you know, all that. All right, got it. And you know that that's who JPA footballers are? You're just kind of piecing some things together, thinking it's... No, Hondo. No, Hondo.

Hondo. Hondo. Hondo. No cap. No cap. No cap. Lady, lady, lady. All right. Thank you, James. No cap.

All right. Is that how this gentleman speaks? Is that why you're regurgitating his lines? What's that? No cap? Litty? Everything's litty and no cap. It's usually not how con men talk.

It's just how the vibe is, bro. Okay, cool. All right. That's cool. Quit tripping. Don't be a mitt, bro. Yeah, come on, dude. Don't be a mitt. Why are you killing Come on, dude. Yeah. Don't be a mitt.

You're killing the vibe. Mitt is so excited right now. We can see you. Yeah. Mitt's been screaming no cap for three hours. Oh, God, bro. Bro, this is all cap, bro. Let me have a mic.

In that shirt. Yeah. Yes. What's on the docket for this weekend, Mitt? Honestly, let's not embarrass the program. The docket for this weekend, probably go out with the buddies,

hang out, watch some football, bet on some games. Yeah, of course. Yeah, it sounds like that's what you're going to do. Probably get like three or four car accidents. Everybody else's fault. Get my laptop. Someone breaks into my apartment, hopefully. I have a fault. Get my laptop stolen.

Someone breaks into my apartment, hopefully. I have a homeless man living with me now. Alright, anyways, I'm going. Be safe. Don't embarrass the program, man. Last part is the most important, Mitt. Don't embarrass the program. Was that the first time you played the Tony Stewart video or did you run that before? First time. During the commercial? First time. Okay. That was a sweet video.

You guys did a hell of a job. drone shots mixed in cuts then you you're highlighting who who is in each car like that was a hell of a job yeah foxy obviously zito's our drone pilot solid on the sticks oh yeah it's a lot of editing a lot of editing that video it looked like oh yeah foxy took a crack at it kind of knocked it down yep and then our guy talk Talk kind of came in at the end and put the finishing touches on it. Old Casey, that'd be Talk. What an awesome track that they built right out

there in the parking lot. Are you kidding me? That was sweet. It was unbelievable. I don't think I fully knew what to expect or to, you know, that whole thing. Those carts were moving. We're talking about like drifting and stuff like that. What I think is the most impressive, though, is Tony went from fourth place to first place in a matter of seconds.

Yeah, blink of an eye. He's so good. There's like, you watch him like do stuff, and it's like, oh, my God, how did he make the car do that? He's pulling Gs on this golf cart, and it's not slipping at all. Because when you slip, you lose power. That's when you lose speed. So you're trying not to slip while hitting the apex.

That's why you swing wide so you don't lose any of the momentum or anything. And him just being able to figure out the course, yeah, and then just be pedal flat the entire time, pretty much. It's like, this fucker's unbelievable. He just won again this weekend. Yeah, he did. Just won another race this weekend in a truck, I think. Based. Is he going to Eldora soon? That's in Ohioio it's a dirt track i assume probably he might have just won i think he owns it i think he owns that one

some driver owns it that dude just loves racing he does lives for it does how about him whenever he said he's driving on the road he's like yeah i'm very aggressive yeah i'm like i'm happy to hear you plow at the front of his car did not be able to go to bed. Do most guys do that? Do most guys drive, I guess? Like, he retired from NASCAR and from everything, and then it seems like he's driving more than ever now. Seems like he did not love the NASCAR business. No. Okay.

I think. I don't know. I don't know if that was the case. Because you heard him start talking about, yeah, they got all these young guys that are racing. I assume they're cheaper, the drivers. Probably cheaper. I would assume that we didn't ask enough or elaborate enough but as i continue to think

about what he said i thought it was pretty important line when he said there's no stars really driving i would assume the nascar people thought the cars were the stars right just like you know you remember when the nfl was that's not the case but yeah no exactly that's like when the nfl said there's no dancing there's no uniform you're not allowed to have any uniform differences they just wanted to be able to just put players in uniforms and like the uniform is the star not the player

it's like NASCAR with his answer seemingly doing that ladies and gentlemen he is off he is about to shit his pants Connor you hold that sign There he goes He literally

He showed me this sign He showed me this sign About half a second ago Good luck in there, Ty Go get him, Ty Good luck in there, Ty Can someone follow him with the camera in there? Can someone get some audio maybe?

We got H&R What the hell, Hawk? Oh, you're right You can't film in the bathroom H&R? Yeah Fucking weirdo H&R

My bad, I forgoto. H&R. My bad. I forgot about the H&R. Let's go to Kevin in Compton. Hell yeah. What's going on, Kevin? Got a call from Compton. I don't know how many shows after that.

He's got a history in that. What's going on, man? This is the second time. If you're good Friday, boys, how you doing? Keep it moving. Hell yeah. So before I get into it, I'm a Jets fan. I've been a Jets fan my whole life. Before I get into that, shout-out to you for always shouting out Compton when you can.

Shout-out to Pac-Man for wearing that EZ shirt. One Q one. So, that guy brought it up earlier. I was going to bring it up about Tiari. But also, maybe Zach Martin can be an option for us into the line. Heading out there for week one again. So excited for that. But, yeah, I've been to Jeff's time my whole life.

Do you think the O-line's a problem? Do you think the O-line's a problem, man? Oh, I don't – all right, look, I'm delusional. I don't think we have a problem. I think that's the weakest part we have on our team. I like that. I think that's the weakest part we have on our team because Mekhi Becton, that's probably the biggest question.

We got to see what he's going to do. But, I mean, we can add Bakhti, that's probably the biggest question. We've got to see what he's going to do. But, I mean, we could add Bakhtiari and Zach Martin on those deals that, you know, the Steelers got for Allen Robinson where the Browns are paying for about 30% of that, I mean, like 80% of that salary. That's funny. Those would be great deals. Now, Kevin, we appreciate you calling.

We hope you have a great weekend. They said the interior really good. Yeah, Tucker and McGovern are their two strong points. So if Zach Martin's looking for a new deal to become a very highest paid guy, I don't know if the Jets will spend that particular money. But, I mean, who knows at the tackle position, honestly. Yeah. You need a tackle. And if Dwayne Brown comes back and he's good, there's one.

And if Mekhi Becton is good and he's 20 pounds lighter than he's ever been, there's the other. This one's for Ty. Yeah. If this one went in. This one's for Ty. Ty made it to the toilet. What's for everyone?

For Ty. He shit his pants to me. Oh, my God. Is that daily? Does that happen every day? No, that's the first time in like two months. But he had,

I forget what he was eating before the show like an asshole. It was something. Jim and Nick. It was, I don't want to throw it out there because, you know,

it's a good company. Chick-fil-A, right? Yeah. Chick-fil-A makes him dump his pants? So I think, fried stuff really, I think Kazan

gets to him. I'm telling you, but it's not just that. I'm sure he had like two energy drinks. He probably put 14 Zin in his mouth. I mean, the guy's... Well, he's got... Didn't he get a bunch of his stuff taken out, too? He had all kinds of stomach things.

Yeah, and he's still able to hand... After Adam Cole, yeah. Yeah, he still goes after it. Cole almost killed him. Yeah, Adam Cole, that asshole. And you like him, AJ. Where is he right now? AEW. He's with MJF right. Where is he right now? AEW.

He's with MJF right now. They're a tag team. They're talking about Hogan's birthday the other day. Yeah, he was just trending the other day. Yeah, because I believe what MJF said was, with how pale and skinny Adam Cole is, if he was around back in the 80s, Hogan would have snorted him. Yep.

Pretty good line. Happy birthday, Hogan. That's a very good line the 80s, Hogan would have snorted him. Yep. Pretty good line. Happy birthday, Hogan. That's a very good line. Happy birthday, Hogan. That's good bars there from MJF. Pretty good with the stick, obviously, but as soon as I heard it about Adam Cole, I'm like, I never heard more true statement, brother.

I don't know how I didn't think of that myself, you know, that whole thing. They are an electrifying tandem. Very electrifying. Yes. Happy birthday to Hogan, though. Happy birthday, Hope. Happy birthday, brother. And MJF said that on thing. They are an electrifying tandem. Very electrifying. Yes. Happy birthday to Hug, you know. Happy birthday, Hope. Happy birthday, brother.

And MJF said that on me. Yes, that was a good line. And I don't know if it's true or not. I don't know what the criteria was. No, it was a good joke. There it is. Nice. Bottom of the bucket. Yeah, splash. Mortar. Have a great weekend, everybody. I thought that was Ty. It's Bill. Bill McComis. Walking through the gym. Bill, splash. Mortar. Have a great weekend, everybody. Splash. I thought that was Ty.

It's Bill. Bill McCombs walking through the gym. Bill, you want to make any announcements about your membership to the gym, to the Hawk House? Come on, Bill. Bill? Come on, Bill. Listen, there's nothing wrong with taking your time, you know,

doing your rest days. And, you know, if you have a big project coming up in the weekend, maybe you don't want to deadlift on a Friday. So how many bodies are you cut up this weekend? Well, that's not. Wood chipper, right? The wood chipper. No, he's building a deck.

For what? Of course he is. What's under the deck? Let me tell you what happened. My first time seeing Bill squat in here was on Tuesday. We haven't seen his fucking ass since. Nope. We have not seen him in that gym since.

Nope. He came in the next day and said, it's my rest day while we're lifting. You know came in the next day and said it's my rest day while we're lifting you know what i mean it's my rest day i go two days on and i'm off and two days on and then thursday comes no no bill uh-oh no bill no appearance and then friday comes no bill and he shows up with 13 a baker's dozen of donuts oh yeah i'm like bill not only do you quit on us in here, but also now you're trying to poison us. You said, it's a feel-good Friday.

I'm trying to be a good member. He quit on us, AJ. That's how I see it. Well, I don't know. He could do deadlifts on Friday and build a deck all weekend. Bill is tough enough. He doesn't have to worry about being a little bit sore to build that deck and bury those bodies.

I think him squatting. Yeah, Ty's dumping right now. A double flush. We hear the toilet. Oh, you hear the toilet. Two flushes have happened here. I was hoping you could hear his voice screaming or something. You listen closely. I don't think he's done. I think there's a couple

more flushes on the way. For sure. We hope Ty feels better. We hope you have an incredible weekend. AJ, great work this week, pal. You too. You're not here on Monday, right? No, I got Brady's event. He's in town now.

I haven't seen him yet. Does he live in there now? No, he came in. He's got his event on Monday. He holds every year here, his charity deal. That's where you take the golf cart into the pond? The very first one, the golf cart malfunctioned and I was responsible for it, yes. Nope, you were drunk, drove it right into a pond? The very first one, the golf cart malfunctioned

and I was responsible for it, yes. Nope, you were drunk, drove it right into a pond. Everybody lost everything, including chopper smokes. So, I mean, let's not make that happen. At a very tight. Oh boy, tight.

Oh, look at that. Way to make it back. Did it. Good hustle. He's not done probably. No, no, no. His pants look good. Way to poop in Raleigh, bro.

Oh, thank you. You know what I mean? We didn't know if you were going to make it back for the end of the program. That's a quick one. Think about that on ESPN. Yeah, but we heard two of them. We heard two of them. Yeah, well, I had to give Kirsten a plus because the boy does not smell good in there.

So I'd give it a little bit. Tone, great work this week, pal. You too, my baby, Tom. Talks the table, really good stuff. Happy you're here for this, Ty. Me too. Ty, we were just going around the room, and I guess we'll get you now because we've got everybody else.

What was your absolute favorite moment of the week? Nice thousand words or so. Thousand words or so? Yeah, I hope we all did it. Everybody else is giving their answers. Okay. Honestly, that might have been my favorite part of the week right there i haven't had a good dump in a couple days

and uh i knew i was gambling when i got chick-fil-a this morning at about 10 15 spicy chicken sandwich you know bacon extra a couple pieces of uh american cheese on there i said hey this is this is a dangerous move because we usually know how this game ends my stomach was feeling fine pretty much all show and then about 256 i said oh boy i'm gonna shit my pants i really am got in just in time and it was one of those things where you don't even have to waste any time you sit down and then just eject. Game on. Eject. Code red. Exactly. And I was smart enough, because I kind of had a feeling this morning as I'm leaving my house, I said, you know what? Fucking grab your wet wipes.

Wow. Put them in your backpack. You might need them today. That's a big play. And I did. Congratulations. I was prepared. Give me a bidet.

Give me a bidet. We should have those. To be honest, though, the way they set up the bathroom, the toilets, where they put the toilet paper holder is actually right where your leg would be. Oh, yeah. So you actually have to sit kind of sideways on it. I don't know if the bidet would actually, you know, it's really well done. Professionals, you know, people that have done this millions of times.

Why are you asking that question? We're the professionals. Just those little things, you know, those all happen. It's amazing. All right. Well, thank you. You're the last one to do that okay do you want to guess what some of the other answers were from other people yeah um i assume connor maybe took another crack at uh schultzy what do you think he said if you had to go exactly as what you thought he said what do you think he said i really enjoyed seeing you know clayface making his national TV debut.

Yeah, yeah. What about Terlan? What do you think Terlan said? Tony? Probably DeSantis. Yeah, well, no, because DeSantis is kind of certain. Yeah, I got a new guy. Hit a couple bumps. Who you got? I got a new guy. Yeah, Tom Neal.

Yo, really? I did not know that. Yeah, I switched sides, actually. I was going to say, he's blurring part of the lines. You're talking about the guy that is on all the TRT, I believe. I'm blue now, brother. I don't think you have a clue.

But people think you do, and they get real mad. That's an easy crew to really rile up. Too easy, really. You can really get them going over there. We've got to try not to do that as much. I just want to let people know, though, if we wanted to be a negative program like a lot of sports media is,

if we wanted to talk shit on people, boy, I think we'd be very good at it. If this entire show was just sawing people down. We would be prolific. We have a good time. I think. We try not to do that. But every once in a while, we don't mind just kind of riling some people up. To rile up the political community is the easiest thing to do on earth at this stage. It's almost to the point where it's almost like hacky.

Exactly. It's almost like hacky. Too simple. Yeah, it's too easy. Low-hanging fruit. Yeah. Like very educated people. You can get very educated people very upset.

Fuming. Oh, yeah. So quick. So we need to not do that like every day. You know what I mean? We didn't do it today. Just tried. Not while AJ started it.

AJ tried. No. They let emotions creep in way too much. Say one thing and they think you're attacking their whole family and everyone they've ever known. Yeah, and it's... They're supposed to be smarter and better than us. But in the sports world, we're like,

can't let your emotions creep in. And then the people that make decisions are like, can't let emotions creep into your decision making. And then the most important decisions in the world that guide around our lives are basically all made on emotions. It's a very interesting...

I'm happy we're not in that world, but also we need to stop fucking with that world as much. You guys stop it. Next year is going to be so good. That is your gimmick. That is. The guy's a master at falconry. How you not love him i mean that's takes a real kevin costner is

no no no no no no he's talking about tony's new horse oh he is really when does that happen that's october next next year yeah november november next year november next year it's gonna be so loud dude it's gonna be sick people are gonna be so loud, dude. It's going to be sick. People are going to be so smart. This is just like when Bitcoin came over and everybody was a Bitcoin genius. It's like whenever stock started happening and everybody was a stock market genius. Stonk, stonk, we're doing this. Everybody knew.

Everybody was talking about these coins that are going to go to the... I mean, NFTs, everybody became a genius. Metaverse. Bingo. Metaverse, everybody became a genius somehow. It's like, how the fuck do you know? When, like, elections come around, people are geniuses all of a sudden. Oh, yeah.

They just know everything about everything. Well, you know, the gas prices are actually because of blah, blah, blah. It's like, who the fuck told you that? I'm sure you know. That's what's fun about it. I'm sure you know. The best is the panel show where they pop it up on the wide shot because they have to, and there's 11 people at the desk for like a six-minute segment.

I'm like, is this really the best way to do it? Well, everybody's got to be represented. Every idea counts. And everybody needs to see how they're feeling on the TV. That's right. Let it rip. No matter what channel it is. Let it rip, Sue Schiff.

Let's get the hell out of here. I'm happy we're in the sports world because it does appear if that presidential election is coming up next year, their world is about to be full chaos. So much yelling at each other. So much yelling. So much, you're wrong. For sure. But we do get NBC back.

What do you mean? Steve Kornack. Oh, Mavs. Is he doing Sunday night football still? Yes, I think so. And a Kentucky Derb. And the Olympics, whenever that comes up. But remember, his bread and butter

is... Let me zoom in. Look at this county right here. If we were to judge this versus the 1996 election, what we're seeing here is a very similar type of response that we saw then. Maybe it's because of how people are feeling geopolitically. But then you zoom out, you go into this town in Alabama, boom, you check this.

Oh, now we got a trend. Which probably tells us to zoom out now. Let's go over here in Mississippi. Probably going to be, yup, just like I thought. Let me check. Call it. Yup. We are in a position to go ahead and say, yeah, that's probably what's going to happen.

I mean, that's where I first found this fucking guy. Oh, yeah. I'm like, look at this wizard of a master at work. I don't know. I don't know anything about that whole world, but boy. Like Orlovsky. Dane could do that. He's good on the board.

You fucking watch your mouth. Not like Kornacki, brother. Orlovsky could do what Kornacki does. Fuck you. Fuck you. What's up with Steve Orlovsky? Dan Orlacki. You son of a bitch.

Dan Orlacki. Dan Orlacki. You guys. What? This is so disrespectful to Kornacki. Imagine them two on the board together, Con. I can't believe we're even doing this. What are you talking about?

I cannot believe we're even comparing Dan Orlovsky to fucking Kornacki. Are you guys serious, or are you just fucking around? I'm serious. I'm dead serious. You guys are all idiots, then. What are you talking about? Steve Kornacki is 101. There will never be...

I'll throw Al Roker in there, too. This is what's happening in your neck of the woods. I understand that. Yeah. When Orlovsky brings out the little blue line... What does Orlovsky have in his hand the entire time? An iPad. Kornacki is strictly on the board.

That board is an iPad. Yes, but he is only touching the board. Orlovsky has to fucking look down at his thing. He's got a harder job. No, he doesn't. It's so much easier. Do you operate on a device that is closer to an iPad or a fucking board? Well, the board would be easier because you just got to go.

So much harder. Longer range. Everything. Everything for an iPad. Just right in your hand. This fucking harder. Longer range. Everything. Everything for an iPad. Just right in your hand. This fucking big. Dan Orlovsky loves the deep ball. He would.

Oh, loves the deep ball. Dan Orlovsky threw 80 picks in his career in one game. What are we talking about? I can't believe you guys. That is so disrespectful. How many picks did Kornacki throw? None. Good point.

That's a good point. All right. Good point. That's a good point. All right. Good luck, Orlovsky, trying to get into Kornacki's orbit. Guess it's not going to take place. Thank you for opening our eyes to that. Yeah, thanks, man. I mean, I'm still kind of pissed at you guys. Did they announce what crew he has?

I know ESPN did that. So Dan said. The A-team, duh. Who's he with, though? He's not doing college football. Not at all? Not this year at all. Now, I saw him put a tweet out, like, they took me off college football in response to somebody.

And I'm like, I sent him a text. I'm like, aren't you doing NFL games or something? Are you doing, I assume you're, did you want to do college football games? He was like, uh, yeah. I didn't mind doing it or whatever. I'm like, okay, I just read your tweet. Sounds like you're very unhappy about it.

He's got four NFL games. I think he's doing NFL. I don't know. Because ESPN is going to probably, and I do not know. This is just something, because we are not working with the NFL department at ESPN. No. Which is funny to think about.

Who got called up to think about. You know? Well, who got called up to the crew right below Kirk? Greg McIlroy. Greg McIlroy. Yeah, he got promoted up there. John McDonough. I like Greg. Yeah.

I think he does really well. He's good. And then, was it Osweiler? Or am I confusing it with someone else? Osweiler has done games, I think, for FS1 maybe. I didn't follow. There was an announcement like two days ago. I was just going to say something just came out about it, but I forget what it was.

Yeah. They announced their cruise, I guess. All right. Well, everybody's going to have a great season. That's right. For sure. We're about to go watch a presentation from Jake Herbstreit because today's his last day of his internship.

Good run, Herbie. What does he have to do, like a recap of what he learned or something? Yeah, he can kind of take it however he wants it. We'll judge him for however he decided to take this presentation. Yep. You know what I mean? Like, hey, we just want some sort of presentation at the end of your internship.

Well, what's it going to be about? You figure it out. Shut up and do it. Be creative, yeah. Yeah, is it what you learned? Is it what you saw? Is it what happened? Are you going to be about? You figure it out. Shut up and do it. Be creative, yeah. Yeah, is it what you learned? Is it what you saw? Is it what happened? Are you going to mock a bunch of people?

I mean, there's... Oh, you can take that in so many directions. You can have some fun with that. And I would like to think, as boss of the place, I told him to explore the space. Exactly. I'm not, you know what I mean? Hey, do what you got to do.

Creative control. He did a great job last year. No wrong answers. Well, we'll see. There certainly will be wrong answers. Yeah, we'll see. There certainly will be wrong answers. We will judge it. He's still an intern. If it's shitty, he's going to hear about it.

It's our job to mold him like clay. Bingo. Oh, good callback. Into a human who will be a productive member of society. And not like anybody else. Seemingly not everybody, but don't want to paint a broad brush. That generation. Yeah.

You know, we are trying our best here with Jake, but he's a good kid. Kirk did a great job. Great job. I know. All of them. Jake's taking out the trash. That kid grew up in like a 10,000 square foot house in Nashville, Tennessee, with every single country musician and star as like an uncle and a friend. You know what I mean? Very cool. And he's taking out

the trash over here, just like Schultz. Now, different levels, obviously. Schultz, we're selling coffee to everybody. Kirk Herbstre herb street we're selling college football for 27 years is the face of it you know it is still a little bit of a different and now we're on amazon i mean a whole nother level oh i saw jake when he was a little kid kirk came to speak to the team when i was in college and he was standing at the podium and he put jake on the podium he was that small and him and his brother were there and i remember them both standing there and Kirk was awesome. Gave a great speech. Well, exactly. He got

access to Ohio State as a kid. Not a lot of people get that, right? People dream of that. So he could act like an entitled punk and he doesn't at all. He's a sweet boy. Yeah, he is. He's a very sweet boy. He's a sweet kid. He is. He is. Picked me up from the airport one time when I came in there. He was there early waiting on me. It was great.

He's a good dude. Hey, you did good, Jake. I mean, we'll see. I don't love all this ball washing before his presentation, you know, because if it sucks, then we're going to have to take all this back on Monday. Which we will. Yeah. I feel like we're stern but fair.

Yeah. He's done a great job, this particular internship. He's done more than he did last time. Way better than last year. Growth. Yeah. Growth. What if this presentation is so bad? That's why I'm he did last time. Way better than last year. Growth. Yeah. Growth. What if this presentation is so bad?

That's why I'm not saying anything yet. I got faith in her. Last year's was very good, so I'm hoping. It was. Well, that's the problem. Last year, it was like some of the things he learned, which seemingly hopefully paid off. Did he try to mix in humor and stuff?

Oh, yeah. A couple home run slides. Yeah. Out of nowhere, too. Slide pops in, and it's a dunk, yeah. A couple home run slides. Yeah, out of nowhere, too. Slide pops in, and it's a dunk on something. We're like, okay. Okay. Send me that.

Jake, send me your deck. I want to check it out. If it's anything like last deck, I don't think Jake's going to want to be everybody to see that. Probably film it. Just myself. Just me. Yeah. You know, somebody's going to hack into Jake, see who he dunked on.

There was a couple internet personalities to Jake. Yeah. Oh, good for him. Okay, he's doing that. Yeah. You know, somebody's going to hack into Jake, see who he dunked on. There was a couple of internet personalities to Jake. Yeah. Oh, good for him. Okay, he's doing that. Okay. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That just pops out of nowhere.

There's plenty of – there's a million ways you could get the boys excited by doing that. Yeah. Just anything that happened on the internet from when he started to now is kind of, I think, free game. So there's a lot. You know what I mean? There's a lot. I mean, there's one slot I think about two to three times a week still. Year has been a year past.

Just because of how sweet of a kid he is. Yeah, he's a sweet boy. You don't expect it out of him. And then all of a sudden he's breaking down what our company does and what's important. And it's like, all right, this kid's kind of doing like this is what I learned, business stuff. I'm like, I'm happy to hear that. And then the next one is like a condescending

dunk on somebody so loud. Like so loud. And then his delivery is just like a shot. And obviously it was good. It was really, really good. All right, let's get to that. Have a great weekend. Remember, it's going to be the Broncos, Colts, Panthers, and Niners that are, let's get to that. All right. Have a great weekend.

Remember, it's going to be the Broncos, Colts, Panthers, and Niners that are going to get dubs for us in Hammer. Done. And we'll be back Monday with a good one. Shout out to Mitt. Shout out to Erbo. Shout out to all the boys in the back. Shout out to you for watching and allowing us to do this every single day

for a living. It is a joke. We have a dumb show. We enjoy the hell out of ourselves. But we are so thankful for you. When we go on to ESPN, date to be announced, it has been figured out.

Okay, nice. TBA. You're going to announce the date that we're going to announce it? Yeah, that's what I'm doing right now. I'm thinking. Date. Date. Yeah, can't find it. Okay, TBA. October 10th. Yeah. Can't find it.

Okay. TBR. October 10th. Nice. Hold on. Let me check. We're going to start us right in the heart of the season. Okay.

I think August 17th, a date will be announced. I think that's the date. A week. Next week, right? Yeah. It's coming up. Next Thursday. Next Thursday.

How many days do we have until football? 20. Next Thursday. Things are starting to happen. Less than four weeks. Week from yesterday. Let's go. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the hell out of it.

Remember, our weekends are going to be packed with football just around the corner. So enjoy this time and know that football days are ahead. We love you all. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Goodbye.