The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 965 - Joe Theismann, Darius Butler, Bill Cowher, & Pacman Jones LIVE In The ThunderDome

Episode Date: August 31, 2023

On today’s show, Pat, Pacman Jones, and the boys chat about Chris Ballard’s press conference about Jonathan Taylor and the Colts as a whole, Zay Flowers and the Ravens appearing to be very tight, all the top college games this weekend as college football is officially back, and everything else happening around the NFL as we are just one week away from the start of the season. Joining the program is Super Bowl Champion, 1983 NFL MVP, 1982 NFL Man of the Year, 2x Pro Bowler, All-Pro, former QB of the Washington Commanders, Joe Theismann to chat about his thoughts on the Commanders and what they need to do to be successful, his career as a whole and how his horrific injury was actually the best thing to happen to him, his thoughts on Notre Dame, NIL, and much more (31:20-1:03:31). Next, 9 year NFL veteran at DB, host of the Man-To-Man podcast and friend of the progrum, Darius Butler joins the show to chat about the Jonathan Taylor situation and what is going to happen there, why he likes the Ravens to come out of the AFC this year, and more (1:12:40-1:57:23). Lastly, Hall of Fame, Super Bowl Champion, 1992 NFL Coach of the Year, Pittsburgh Steelers Hall of Honor member, and now CBS NFL analyst, Bill Cowher joins the progrum for an incredible conversation about his career, what coaching in Pittsburgh means, his relationship with Mike Tomlin, his relationship with referees, if he’s worried about where football is going, and much much more (1:57:25-2:33:42). Make sure you subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. We’re off tomorrow, we’ll 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, NFL football is one week away Thursday, August 31st, 2023. This sports program starts now. Football is happening this weekend in abundance. College football has a menu that is certainly going to be appetizing, but we are just seven days away from the National Football League kicking their 2023 season off whenever the Detroit Football Lions travel to Kansas City to take on a Chiefs team that might be in the middle of the new dynastic run. There was a conversation on Sports Talk this morning about are they a dynasty? Are they not a dynasty?

Yeah, they're a fucking dynasty. But are they a dynasty that's going to be in a conversation with the Patriots who had 20 years of dominance that none of us can comprehend that we're playing in the league at the same time? Or anybody with a brain that understands the parity of the NFL and how hard it is and how lucky you have to get to maintain success at such a high level?

Will the Chiefs kick off the season in beautiful fashion or will the brand new Lions go in and say, hey, I know you guys are out of Bank Robin Wolf, and there's 53 fucking Lions coming into town, and we're taking Arrowhead down on this banner night where you're celebrating yet another Super Bowl championship. We have not won a playoff game since?

1991. Wow. Sheesh. That's what we're one week away from talking about. We're one week away from debuting on ESPN. We're one week and one day away

from being live in Tuscaloosa. We're one week and three days away from a full NFL Sunday slate. We're one week and four days away from overreaction Monday that we're off and running with college football and NFL for the foreseeable future.

Life is beautiful. Let's have a Thursday. Hell yeah! Joe Theismann will be joining us in about 26 minutes. The artist formerly known as Joe Theismann out of New Jersey. Darius Butler will join us in the second hour. Can't wait to chat with him. And Bill Carr.

Coach Carr. Bill Carr will be joining us in the third hour. Obviously, a man that we have great respect for and admiration for and have seen him do a lot of great things. Last year, though, I did tell him, hey, Bill, enough. Had to. For the good of my friend, Jeff Saturday. That's right.

Did that work out great? No. Would any coach that went in there do well? I don't think so. Had a lot of shit going on. There's people gambling against their own team. In the building. What's went in there do well? I don't think so. Had a lot of shit going on. There's people gambling against their own team. That's good. In the building.

It's happening in there. Right down the road here. Betting in there. Late to meetings. Late to treatment. Right, right. The biggest comeback in NFL history. Do you think that is on a coaching staff or whoever the coach is?

Or do you think maybe those players in there didn't have their minds focused on winning football games? It was a bad culture, I think. So Jeff Saturday being picked to go in there, I didn't think was that big of a deal. Like, who really wants to go in here and do this? There was a bunch of people, I guess. And that's what Bill Cowher was saying. Who knew?

So I might have missed the mark a little bit on that particular reaction, but I'll own it. I'm a Yinzer. Cowher's a Yinzer. He'll completely understand where the fuck I'm coming from. And I can't wait to chat with him about how he feels about team building in 2023 because we got a lot of shit going on around the NFL that we are going to talk about. There's some great things surfacing on the internet that tell us,

oh, this team tight. This team good vibes. Yes. This team is going to maybe do some shit. And then this other stuff we got, like Chris Bauer kind of promo at the end of his press conference. Like, oh, it doesn't feel like vibes are that good in this particular building but if you start winning games all that's behind you we'll talk about all that and more they know aj hawk what oh yeah

aj hawk will not join us in about 54 minutes or so because aj hawk is uh heading over to lambo oh a couple of the boys uh jordy and uh stuh stuh stittin yeah ston. That's right, Stitton. I didn't know if it was Stittson. I forget. Dude, I apologize. He would murder me, too. He's been on the show. He is a not only physical savage, but I think mental to the brain.

He would absolutely kill it. Both of them going into the Packers Ring of Honor or Hall of Fame or whatever. So, AJ's going to celebrate. That's a bummer, but we do have 14-year NFL icon in the Thunderdome, rock star made, ladies and gentlemen, Pac-Man Jeff. Yeah. Today's shirt, real cool. Real cool.

Awesome. He walked past me, and I was reading the back of his shirt. Yeah. You don't get to do that often. There's a full sentence on the back where it's like, okay, here we go. Would you say you're top five fashion guy in NFL's history? Oh, yeah. Definitely top five.

Wow. Every day it's something new, isn't it? It doesn't repeat outfits. Nope. No, and it's like those – No, never. You know, we see guys in the NFL and the NBA whenever they're doing their little walk-ins. Sure.

How you doing? How'd you dress today? Cool. Russell Westbrook. Yeah, a lot of that. You killed it today that's how many times nba 82 games and then to the playoffs whatever nfl it's 17 regular season games and now playoffs so that we're seeing these people like 25 times out of a 365 day year okay

this motherfucker i think is a 365 we got a game we are showing up we're walking in type of dresser and i want to let you know, I respect that type of commitment. You look cool every day. I appreciate it. First impression is everything. You never know who's going to see me for the first time. That's how we all do it. That's why we all do it.

That's actually right. Yeah, that's why the toxic table does what they do. At Ty Schmidt and at Boston Connor, there's going to be a lot of people that are going to see you guys for the first time next week. One week from today. I cannot wait for that, Boston, Connor. There's going to be a lot of people that are going to see you guys for the first time next week, one week from today. I cannot wait for that con, man. I cannot wait for somebody who watches ESPN regularly. They're like, okay, I got my business station channel right here. I got my political station right here.

I got my news station right here. And I got my sports station right here. And the sports one, this station, for those people that do that, always ESPN. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty wild. I'm pretty pumped about you two getting introduced to those people. I mean, me too.

But they've seen me already. They hate me pretty. We've heard that. For now. We've heard the rumblings. I've been on there a long time, bub. Yeah, but. I've been on a lot of games.

I've traveled a lot of miles with that show. Yeah, you have. I've really fell in love with being on that show and boy, there are still some people that just don't get it. I appreciate that, but there's going to be like that. But I think we're going to get introduced to a crowd of people that are going to maybe enjoy us as well. Have we thought about

what life becomes, though, next Thursday for everybody? You know, I think it is going to be quite a game changer for us. And in doing so, I don't think it's going to change us as humans, but I think lives are going to change a little bit about one week today on this particular stage. And I'm very excited to watch you boys blossom into

not only obviously incredible internet personalities. Sure. And I guess I don't want to give a speech again, so one half of the hammer. God, Boystown digs you as well. Thank you. And everybody in the back. I am very excited to watch the world learn of your guys' talents.

Yeah. Legitimately. Because there's a lot of people, I'd assume, that have had no idea that some of the most talented brains in the sports media world are in this thunderdome. And I get attacked for a lot of things. And people come after me. And every single conversation I have, I say, it's not just me. I have 15 employees over here, okay? And we are a team of dogs.

And I can't wait for the world to get introduced to your guys' talent, legitimately, and we're one week away from that. Now, with that being said, heavy is the head. You know, Con Man. Heavy is the head, Con Man. I have definitely thought about it, and we were just talking about this too. Like, for us, it won't really change anything. Like, everything is the head gone, man? I have definitely thought about it, and we were just talking about this too. For us, it won't really change anything. Everything's the same.

But going online, seeing a lot of that stuff is going to be interesting. It's a whole new life, honestly. Yeah, it really is. Genuinely a whole new life. Last night, I was like, I mean, this conversation has happened a lot recently with where we've gotten. Very proud to be Internet show. 100%. Live on Internet. Yes, love the Internet. Very proud to be internet show. 100%. Live on internet.

Yes, love the internet. Show only exists because of internet. But our internet existence has changed. My internet existence has changed a bit. And you start almost understanding, like whenever I would hear people talk about Twitter or whatever being, I don't like Twitter, it's so super negative.

I'm like, stop being soft. I'm like, stop being soft. Twitter is the most important is so super negative. I'm like, stop being soft. I'm like, stop being soft. What are we? Twitter is the most important and powerful social media platform there is. Like, just get past it. Do what you got to do. But this sports world

that we have gotten introduced into, and I think we're about to get dropped into, is a very debate world, right? Everybody in that world is a debate, debate, debate. So it's almost like if we feel a way, these people think that we would like to go to war for ourselves. Yeah, sure. And I think they're like, mm-hmm.

I'm ready. Mm-hmm. For sure. No way is this person right. And they're going, it's a little different tone on the internet these days. In my world, I don't know what it is for you, Ty, but I'm pretty pumped to see how you hilariously handle it all because i think the world will enjoy it i think it's the i mean i think part of it too is because we've been doing it so long and granted like going on espn is going to be a completely

different level but different crowds exactly different different crowd but i just look at like the different iterations of our show like when i first started like producing your podcast and stuff like that like people hate change so it's like this guy sucks he's not funny he's an asshole like i i don't want to listen to this guy so like you kind of you know you your skin gets a little bit thicker or i guess you just learn to like oh who gives a fuck like this person wishes they could sit up here with you guys and do what i get to do every see that's the thing though like everybody sounds jaded when they talk about it but it's's, like, real. Like, you have to have the mentality, like, fuck these people. Oh, yeah.

For sure. And that's, like, not good. I don't like having that mentality, but it is how you kind of have to be. But with that being said, let's talk about the positive side of it. Yeah. I assume you're going to be able to sell out theaters in about a year. I don't know about that. I think you're going to be able to sell theaters in about a year.

I think you're going to be able to. Yes. No, movie theaters. This is going to happen. All right. Sell out a movie theater. Do what is the ACC? Oh yeah.

ESPN in general. ESPN is putting games on in movie theaters. So old... I'm excited for the world to witness. That's why I laid it one week out. But let's go back in time. There were some people that predicted the death of movie theaters. I don't know if you're willing to turn your mic on.

Nick Moraldo was dancing on the graves of movie theaters. Oh, yeah. He was so happy. Oh, I don't have to pay $20. Yeah, I know you love going to the theater so much as well. Recently, it was a terrible experience. The last time I went, it was awful. But I enjoy.

It's a to-do. You're doing something. Event. It's a thing to do. So whenever you were just bashing around, I'm like, yeah, look at a to-do. You're doing something. Event. You know, it's a thing to do. Yes. So whenever you were just bashing around, I'm like, yeah, look at this hater here. But now it feels like the movie theater industry is starting to blossom. I think they're putting live football games in there.

Yeah, that would be sweet. Can't wait to go watch that. With popcorn? Yeah. A primetime game? Chicken tendies, maybe? Those are going to sell out. What about the recliner?

They got the recliner. Yeah, don't have those at home. All due respect, that's the last place I want to watch a fucking football game. Yeah, me too. What about the ones... If you want to. The movie theaters, they think it's going to work. The ones where they bring you food and you just ring a button and they bring everything to you.

That would be awesome. That would be awesome. If you're bonding with your son or something, it's cool. Sure. Somebody that wants to do that, they can't afford to go to the game, I guess. Yes. Yeah, it's a moment.

Boom. Yeah. They'll put a little merch shop outside. Yeah. Sell jerseys. Yeah, maybe get some people to spill beers. There you go. Tailgate in the parking lot.

Yeah. It feels like you're there. That's what it is. That's why we missed that entire thing. Let's talk about something that I won't miss when it's not a thing okay it's jonathan taylor indianapolis cold situation and it's continuing continuing to brew isn't it you know and now that jonathan taylor has been placed on the pup he'll be missing the first four weeks of the season anyways okay remember the pup is for those who are physically unable to perform.

And if you're put on that list, you get a certain amount of time you cannot participate, but then you're able to return to the team during the season. Yesterday, for the first time, I heard Chris Ballard, who's a pretty important part of this entire thing, the general manager of the Colts, say he thinks relationships are repairable. Okay. So he would have the most amount of information.

Now, he had some sauce in that press conference. Oh, yeah. Stephen Holder asked him, well, you just said great players have their own market. Why won't you pay Jonathan Taylor? And Chris Ballard said, we won four games last year. Well said. And then said nothing else.

Here's actually that entire clip that I'm pretty pumped that we just pulled up that quickly. Here's Chris Ballard being asked about why he won't pay Jonathan Taylor. The running market is what it is. But look, great players are what they are too. So I think that all works. I think there's a... Sweet head.

Yeah. In that case, JT, the great player, why not pay him? We won four games last year. We won four games last year. We won four games. He's talking to his kid. Yeah. Listen to this on the way out. Y'all loaded them suckers up today, man.

What a moment. Now, I don't think Chris is speaking to the media for a long time now. General managers are not required to speak to the media every single week. It's the coach that has to do that. So Ballard knew he was going into one, and they asked him relentlessly about Jonathan Taylor. And there towards the end, you finally got a chance to hear the Indianapolis Colts' reason on why they're choosing not to renegotiate

with a guy who said two months before training camp started that he wants a brand new deal and to get paid, even though three months before training camp started that he wants a brand new deal and to get paid, even though three months before training camp started, he said, I'm playing through the contract that I signed years ago. And you got a new culture that has been started. Sounds like the Colts are saying, Jonathan, have a little bit of self-awareness here. Yes.

Please, okay? You had a bad year last year. You were hurt. Okay. You're still hurt. Are you? Which might affect why people don't want to trade for you. Even though we heard there was a lot of interest,

even though dolphins came out and said there was no offer, we made no offer. So what was the actual interest? Will, will we ever know? Probably not. But Jonathan Taylor coming off his worst year, we're picking number four overall.

I appreciate the fact that Chris Bauer has given some answers at least because of some of these responses we can catch why the colts are doing what they're doing but the response of him saying it's repairable i think is the biggest one in this because they have five weeks now pretty much five weeks if you think about we're about a week and a half out till when he'll be back if he stays in shape which we hope he hasn't played football at all he hasn't he's been on the field hoodie on sunglasses on nobody wants to trade for him unless the Colts are just not negotiating in good faith which was a wild request asking for a team's number two wide receiver I got cooked for that by the Dolphins I understand you don't want to trade him fuck we

would we don't want we would like Jonathanlor to be on our team as well so like if you're not going to give us a one or whatever you're thinking about doing a request for your number two wide receiver when you're getting a number one running back who everybody believes should be getting 17 million a year seemingly outside of indianapolis that is not a wild request you sound ridiculous when you're attacking me you say i sound bad i will every time i read what you're saying you sound very bad with that but obviously that request was not granted which by the way just a request not that wild but there i don't think there was much interest so will jonathan taylor there might have been interest in the colts were just saying fuck you to everybody

maybe we'll if we find that out but seemingly not enough interest to get him to get traded so if he has self-awareness about that about what is the most available to him right now, what is the move right now, what gets us past something, maybe they will be able to get back into good graces. Maybe he'll be back as an Indianapolis Colt, and maybe he'll have 200 yards in the first game, and all the Indianapolis Colts fans will completely forget about this entire fuckery of a thing. With that being said, I think he's going to have to fire that agent if that is the case.

If he doesn't understand what the situation is, he should think about that entire. And we started looking through the roster of who this agent reps. And although he is an accomplished mixed martial artist agent and professional wrestling agent. Yep. And he does have NFL players. Absolutely. Other than Shaq Leonard, the artist formerly known as Darius Leonard of the Indianapolis Colts,

he's not really an NFL agent. You know, he has people, but it's not like Jonathan Taylor was in MVP discussions two years ago. So you're putting a lot of faith in somebody who might be the greatest agent of all time in the NFL when it's all said and done. I have no idea. We don't know what's going to happen in the future with this guy. But he's putting a lot of faith into somebody

who hasn't had that much success in the NFL in the way the NFL does business and then with the situation. I think it's good that they said it's repairable, but there's going to have to be some things that take place. And if they do, I think we're right back on track. Jonathan Taylor's in the backfield with Anthony Richardson. And all of a sudden, our Super Bowl odds are going to change immensely

because those two horses taking over. Sorry, those two colts. Amen. Actual ponies. When they come stampeding into your yard, they're all over the place. That's what I think could happen now with what I heard yesterday, although he was a bit saucy with his answers, Pac-Man Jones. But I do think this is repairable. That's what I think could happen now with what I heard yesterday, although he was a bit saucy with his answers, Pac-Man Jones.

But I do think this is repairable. But if he loves football, he'll be back and playing after four weeks. Now, like, you got to understand, all right, I can push it to the limit and try to get paid. But at the end of the day, if it's not going to happen, I need to play this year in order to get paid next year. So I think it's repairable. I don't think he's going to leave the coach. I told you that earlier.able. I don't think he's going to leave the coach. I told you that earlier.

Like, I don't think he's going to where he's going to play or he's going to sit out the whole year. I don't think they're trading him. No way this year. So the interesting thing about that was we asked Rappaport and Schefter about the interest in Jonathan Taylor because if you think about the timing in the NFL calendar, and we say this on a regular basis, but it's just like the facts, and it turns out to be exactly how it happened on this.

But in the calendar year that it happened with training camp and everything taking place, like it was a bad business move. Like I think it was not a good business move to do this. Brutal. OTAs do it. Sure. People got money still. People still have things going on

I think he missed the window but then whenever he took his shot it's like all right if he ends up getting paid this will this is a good shot worth it it's a results-oriented business here it ends up not working out like I think this was a bad move but Rappaport Schefter basically every media outlet were telling him no it's good move a lot of interest that was wrong that's what i'm saying like i don't know how this was all so misconjecture now there it is there's the fucking word right there can't wait for that to be on esp but like i don't know how it was like how do we get so many different things unless it was one person telling all those insiders and all those newsmakers. The agent.

No. Is that what you're saying? That would make a lot of sense. That would make a lot of sense. Unless it's just the Colts weren't negotiating in good faith or what we're being told is not an accurate thing, even though sometimes that's how the game goes. Well, and the good faith thing, that makes no sense.

We're talking about Chris Ballard, who's arguably one of the better drafters in the entire NFL when it comes to being a GM. So if it was, okay, you're going to get four picks, like the McCaffrey deal where they brought up – No, there will be people that will say to you, we had the number four overall pick. Absolutely, yeah.

But, I mean, that has a lot to do with the performance, which you can also then just go right back to the fact that, so why would he not want to trade somebody for all four of those picks if they had the fourth overall pick because they were that bad my favorite part is chris ballard having to explain to people that when you're not good at your job you don't get paid and things happen thank you for saying that's typically how the world works and i know everyone should have a job and everyone should be able to play in the nfl but that's just not a reality and you mentioned the timing aspect of it i think that's what it comes down to. Let's say the Eagles, if DeAndre Swift and Rashad Penny both get hurt

in the first six weeks of the season, I assume that they're going to say, okay, we'll back up and give them a first-round pick for Jonathan Taylor because if we get him, we probably will go on and win the Super Bowl. I don't know. Shane Steichen over here, good relationship with the Philadelphia Eagles. I legitimately wonder if they would be like, do we once? True. You know what I mean? Is this what...

Because this is now, there has been plenty of occasions where teams have said, especially in modern history here, like last five, ten years, where teams go, just because he didn't get along with that crew doesn't mean he won't get along with us over here. And I think that can be said even about us with companies.

So we do appreciate that. But I do wonder how teams will take into account this whole thing happening, the way it happened, when it happened, if that will affect any future businesses, and if anybody gave a shit at all. I don't know if that will affect future business because he had a good rapport with the coaches that were here. I don't think him not showing up, not being here now,

will affect him from going somewhere else. Yeah, I got you. They say like Jonathan Taylor just didn't want to be there. This was a play. This was a play that he had to make business-wise. He's not going to do that here because he's going to want to be here. I respect that. In the locker room, are you guys used to this?

He gets paid, he comes back to the locker room, nothing. Don't we worry about it? As long as he comes back. If he got his money, he comes back, good. If he doesn't get his money, he comes back. There's going to be a couple. First day. First day.

You know, there's going to be a lot of that. But it's a whole new culture, too. That's the thing that is really... Like last year, Gus Bradley comes in in D coordinator okay Darius Leonard the year before like by far best player we had on defense he gets hurt so he misses like the first whatever of Gus Bradley's regime with the defense so it's almost like Darius is watching Shaq is watching a defense get created that he used to lead but he's not a part of and then whenever he came back it was a tough thing because where in the hierarchy are you in the coach's eyes where's the plays how are they going and I'm not saying that when Shaq

Leonard came back he's not the guy but he was even talking like he said as much yeah he said I'm not the guy here's the guy in this defense this is a new defense and everything like that and i i would assume that jonathan taylor's confidence is going to be unrattleable but with this offense kind of developing right now right in front of his eyes with him holding out and they're gonna if it's obviously going to go at least four weeks into the season if there's success in that thing and then you drop them in and then shane syken's like hey this is just the role you need to play here right and this offense is now built around anthony richardson as opposed to being built around jonathan taylor in the run game in the backfield that's a whole nother interesting like human element here that could come into play

that we just assume will get settled if they figure out a money or a reality situation that pops into jonathan taylor yeah at the end of the day, he's going to have to make concessions. That's basically what it comes down to. Like, hey, we gave you your opportunity here. No one gave us fair trade compensation that we were okay with getting rid of you. Unless that's not real. Unless that's not real. And I guess it is possible that he comes off PUP and has a good game or whatever

and then still gets traded before October 31st or whatever the trade deadline is but like if he's going to play for the Colts this year like he has to make concessions he has to change something he can't keep doing what he's doing like it's already been proven like hey guess what like wait there's a line was drawn in the sand you didn't get what you wanted but we're not just going to crumble now because everything kind of went to shit. What if he comes back with a press conference too, and he just completely lays it out? Yeah. Really misread the whole situation.

Took my shot. Had to do it. I apologize. You know, it's just one of those things. I thought it was going to go well. It did not. Here we are. Excited to be back.

Excited to be back. Personally, it was just business. Excited to be back. Excited to be back. Let's move along. I'm thinking PR-wise now how this thing works because that's a whole other animal because the noise always comes from the outside. But once that noise creeps in, which it does everywhere pretty much,

that can start dividing everything. And it's like what will be said about Jonathan Taylor when he comes back and the Colts and, well, behind the sources are saying, sources are saying, are saying like all the anonymous shit that could potentially I just hope they figure it out and when they do Conte's gonna have to be a big part of this yeah hey good luck Conte yeah go get him Chris Conte's head PR guy for the Colts his name's Matt not Chris some people call him Chris Canty nope I've heard it before no that that's only come out of your mouth, so you heard

that in your voice. No, no, people were whispering behind me. I was like, okay. That was also your voice. No, no. Yeah, that was also yours. No, no, no. So from the Jonathan Taylor situation, which is, yeah, right? Yeah. Pretty, yeah. Yeah, big time. I don't like watching them. Like, Ballard should be happy putting the team together

right now. Should be celebrating the season coming up. Yeah. Anthony Richardson appears to be a guy. Alan Pierce is making plays. And instead, he's, we won four games. Okay? Four games. He doubled down. Yeah.

Like, he rethought, like, we were shit last year. Nobody deserved our game. No, me, no. I should have lost. I i mean what are we even talking about that's uh he shouldn't be like that he should be happy yes he should be like the baltimore ravens the baltimore ravens right now they get that lamar deal done they bring in obj which is a massive signing they won more than four games they definitely won more than four games apparently they also have zay flowers on his, which is immediately a lightning rod on

the field. And from what I'm watching, a lightning rod behind the scenes. Yesterday, a video surfaced where it was name, school, sign, and bonus. And all eyes are on Zay Flowers. And he goes, Zay Flowers, Boston College, $7 million. And then you

see Odell Beckham. Everybody going crazy in the entire room. And that video was released, and we posted it because it's a beautiful thing because what you see right there is a rookie who is clearly beloved by his teammates, clearly. The way they reacted whenever he said what he said there, you can tell there's a lot of respect, especially Odell Beckham Jr., who is in the same wide receiver room with him.

What a perfect environment for a guy who's a playmaker. And there was a teammate going, let me hold some. Let me hold some with a hat underneath him. It's like you could tell that that team's bonding. That's a rookie who got drafted. They're bonding very close. And then once again last night, we see another video. Right off of Lamar Jackson's Instagram story.

And this is Zay Flowers' guy. Zay Flowers is loved by this fucking Baltimore Ravens team. And when you watch this video, we won't be able to play it because Kodak Black would certainly give us a copyright strike. Banger of a song, by the way. I guess that is literally the entire South Florida anthem, it sounds like. Because as Zay Flowers comes into, yeah, as he comes in here, I don't know if this was a rookie show or not.

I don't know what this event was. I have no idea. They got chandeliers in there. Maybe it's just, I have no clue where they are here, but I love the fact that you can see exactly who all is from South Florida, and they are the ones that are surrounding him by the end of this, rapping the entire song, lyric for lyric, with

Zay. This is the type of video you see. Saw it with the Eagles. With a, hold on, wait a minute. Hold on, wait a minute. Hold on, wait a minute. It was right before the NFC Championship game. The video hit the internet that this is what the team meeting looks like. And there was

offensive line coaches in the whole room dancing. It's like, oh, that team's going to win right there. That is a team that is together. That's a team that is loose. That team likes each other, it appears. That is a weapon. If you have the talent and you like each other, I feel like you're going to play harder and better.

That's what I'm seeing on this Bucket Ravens team. Every video that surfaces from them, we need to start talking more about the Baltimore Ravens. Nobody's chatting about the Baltimore Ravens. Who are we talking about? Cincinnati Bengals? Joey Burr is back in practice. Here we go.

Smell me? He's back. Joey fucking Burr is back. Let's talk about the Bengals. Let's talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers. They look a lot better. Nobody's talking about the Baltimore Ravens right now. I see these videos. I get very excited about the Baltimore Ravens right now. I see these videos.

I get very excited about the Baltimore Ravens and what their season could look like. Adam, Pac-Man, Jones. Well, we know they're going to be a good team. We know they're going to make the playoffs. We know they're going to be in the hunt. The question with Baltimore is can they stay healthy? If they stay healthy, we'll be talking about them late in December,

early January, hopefully not February. But, yeah, they could be a really, really good team. That's the bias of this program. You know what I mean? Because we got that and then we got this right here. Tone, are you not scared to death after seeing that? Those boys are tight. I would be.

That is a very – look at Chris Ballard, how he's talking. Yeah, not happening. We want four of them. We want four games, bro. Fucking get off my – fuck these people. Walks off. And then you've got Lamar Jackson starting quarterback, high-spade guy in the league, on his Instagram story with the entire team,

except for some whites that had never heard that. Yeah, a couple of whites. There's some whites. Everybody was into it. There was a lot of whites that did not fully understand, but at the end standing up. I don't know what you're saying, what you're singing, but goddamn. I fucking loved it. What a show. There's a know what you're saying, what you're singing, but goddamn, I fucking love this.

What a show. There's a lot of that. Yeah, there's a lot of that. And that takes place in a lot of these rookie shows. There'll be some big fat white on the offensive line will come out. Yeah, Tyler Leonard bomb. Okay, yeah. And he'll go, I should have been a cowboy.

And you'll hear all the other whites that understand. They start singing along. You know what I mean? And then at the end you'll get the guys that have never heard that song before go, alright. That was good. Should have been one. Good tune. Me too. Light ranching or whatever.

And then there will come those situations where a rap song will start and all of a sudden you'll hear like two, three people and then literally the entire team meeting standing except for like some really country fat white just sitting there. I don't know. I want to be a part of it. It's good.

Those types of moments are huge for team camaraderie. Those types of moments are huge for everything that you need to be successful in the league, I think. People talk about the college atmosphere where it's like those are your brothers. You go from boys to men together. You have to live in the same places. You sweat and bleed a little bit more in those college workouts and in the summer and everything like that. That's a tight group.

If you could bottle that, this is the last time. Once you go professional, you don't get the same. Or if you could bottle it, it's like it is hard. With transactions, we just had Tuesday over 1,000 people were cut. You don't keep people around for four years. Now, college, we'll see what it's like anyways because I'm trying to – for college game day this weekend, I'm trying to go through every single quarterback that transferred.

There's like 20 quarterbacks at a new home or whatever. Now, granted, you're trying to get that, but that type of tightness doesn't always happen in professional sports. So whenever you see it, I think we've got to respect the shit out of it and i think the ravens got it right now not that the steelers don't no no they were all chugging beers at all these concerts together i love seeing that type of stuff yeah there are i think there's a lot of teams in the afc who are good and also tight and the ravens i feel like because obviously we followed them close over the years being the rival uh i feel like they always are tight except for last year potentially

because of the contract thing was going on. But now that that's all figured out, they have no reason not to be tight at all. And yeah, I think they're going to be better because I think Monken's better and I think the offense is going to be different than what it is. But I mean, unless that video can help Lamar throw a deep ball. All right.

Join us now, ladies and gentlemen. He's a man who's a Super Bowl champion, okay? A legend in the NFL, but before that, played in the CFL. Learned that today while I was doing a little bit of research. He's obviously an incredible TV personality. His golf game, huh? Stupendous. Kiss, kiss.

Former Heisman with ladies and gentlemen, Joe Theismann. Hey, Joe. Joe, how you doing, pal? I'm doing great, buddy. Hey, thanks for having me. And first thing I had to ask you, how's your golf game? Terrible, Joe. We spent some time in the range together out of Lake Tahoe.

Joe, I want to let you know, my game fucking stinks. Joe, I can't. The game is impossible. You gave me a great tip, didn't you, Evan? Remember, Evan was standing right there. Oh, yeah. Joe, Pat, you need to slow down. i'm like all right thank i'll listen you're fucking joe i will i will listen to that and i hit like three good ones you remember joe i had

three good balls yeah you really did yeah absolutely so then i'm good then i went on a course and i hit a hundred bad ones you know so it was a tough day it didn't you're not alone okay yeah but you're a player you're a all the time. Do you play a lot still? I love it. Yeah. You good? Yeah, I do. I really love the game. I love everything about it. And as much of a head game as it is, it's a physical game too, but it gives me a chance to get out and really test myself. I mean, you have nobody to blame, but you can blame your caddy. And that's always somebody you can yell at, but normally it's, it's all on you. Yeah. I love that type of feeling. And I think the more I learned about you today,

I didn't know you were a punt returner. Did you know this guy was a punt returner? You were a punt returner. I had no idea that was the case. So I would have started in college doing it. My first seven games in college as a sophomore, I returned punts. And then when I joined the NFL, the first two years, I was a punt returner. So then you get the starting job and you just go on to be dominant, win a Superbowl champion and become a legend of the NFL. Is that how that worked out? Were you a quarterback while in college or were you just a punt returner? I assume you had. Oh no, I was, out there. Were you a quarterback while in college or were you just a punt returner?

I have a few records at the University of Notre Dame. I think our record was like 23-2 and 1 or 2 and 2 or something like that. We had a pretty good run there, Pat. Pretty good run. I'd say. I'm in Indiana

too. They're back too this year with Sam Hartman. They're back here with Sam Hartman. Oh yeah, Sam's good. Sam is good. He's a player. Sam's legit. Oh, yeah. Sam's good. Hey. Sam is good. He's a player. Sam's legit. He's a player. I think Marcus Freeman's got a guy. I think they got a guy.

I think they got a team right now. I think, like, legit. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And, you know, I think Texas Southern, I think we have this week. Last year, we lost to Marshall, which we really shouldn't have. Well, respect everybody. But the fact of the matter is these are the games that you have to go out and dominate. I mean, that's the bottom line. You

have to dominate them. What was your, you one of those guys, uber competitive still to this day, is that you think that was one of your edges? Oh yeah. Yeah. I'm a competition junkie. You know, if you and I are at, Hey, you and I are at a light together. You're in one car. I'm in the other car. We're the first two cars it's on it's on what do you drive i'm gonna beat you off the line yeah it's like being it's like being at a drag race you know you you you check the other lights on the other side to see if it's gone to orange and then you anticipate it going to green and then here we go yeah and i absolutely love it yeah you gotta pop that clutch a little bit there so you're not on your phone at the red light

either i think that is quite an advantage in modern day is like if the person next to you is on their phone it's almost like all right let's not interrupt this person here we are off and running i also get a kick out of like picking which horse is the right one you know when i'm pulling up let's say there's two lanes and you got two cars up there picking and judging the car that is going to be the one that isn't distracted and the one that's going to get off the line. Fun little game. Get real excited when I pick the right fucking lane to Joe.

I'm gonna let you know that. I know what you mean. Amen. All right, let's start talking about some things that are very relevant to your world. The Washington football team, the Washington commanders, the not going to say it even

though there's a massive petition to bring it back although now we're hearing that that potentially isn't legit who knows what do you think the future looks like do you think they have a new team name and how quickly does that happen and how does it look you think joe well the process is is it would have to be submitted to the league, and nothing would happen probably within a year, possibly two, when it comes to a new name. I think they want to move towards a new name and sort of put everything about the Washington Commanders,

the Washington football team, in the rearview mirror and move forward. I think Josh Harris and his group have done a terrific job of creating an environment that's really very positive. What you hear a lot now is people talking about the football team. Over the past couple of years, there's been more conversation about what's taking place off the field or away from the field than it has been on the field. So to me, I think what we see is something very, very positive going on. And, you know, you look at our running backs. You look at our wide receivers.

You look at the defensive line. They're inside the top eight or nine in the league. The big question is, you know, what's Sam going to be able to do? And he acquitted himself, I thought, pretty darn well through the preseason. And now it's just a question of can you carry that through over a 17-game schedule? And I'll tell you, Pat, 17 games is a lot of football. You watch these guys transition from the collegiate level into the professional level. They hit about week 12, and it's like hitting a wall.

But, yeah, you still have a lot of the season left. So there is a big transition for them. Yeah, you hit that rookie wall, and then it's like a tunnel, and then you get to like week 16, week 17. It's like, oh, there's a light at the end of the tunnel there, but it is a tough part of the season for people emotionally, mentally, energy, everything

in a very important time. The commanders are looking to play important football obviously in that stretch. I think what Sam Howe has done is remarkable, but that NFC East, it's loaded, right? I mean, just a few years back, it was absolute crop, just crop, everybody in there. Like seven wins.

A year ago. Yeah. What's that? A year ago. A year ago. A year ago, everybody was saying, oh, geez, NFC East. You know, Cowboys are dominant ones. Then all of a sudden, the Eagles come up.

The Giants play well. And had it not been for, you know, conceivably a call by an official in the second giant game, Washington could have made the playoffs as well. So you'd have all four teams in that division going. But if you look around at the divisions, Pat, it's really interesting. You know, the AFC East, that's a loaded one. The AFC North is a loaded one. The NFC East is loaded. Listen, the team that I'm with, don't count Seattle out in the West. Don't sleep on Seattle out in the West. You like Pete, huh? You like Pete Carroll?

I like what Pete's done. Pete has reloaded, and Geno is recharged. People don't realize Geno Smith had the best completion percentage in football a year ago, 70%. And I think actually they got better. So you still, you know, San Francisco, you're still wondering what's going on. And so, you know, you look at the division. Oh, let's talk about that.

Let's talk about that because Jimmy G just came out from Sports Illustrated with Robin Lundberg, I do believe, and was asked pretty much about the Trey Lance situation in San Francisco. This is what he had to say. Now, Jimmy G in San Francisco had a lot of success together whenever he was playing. You know, this is how he spoke about the Niners when asked about it by Robin Lundberg. What did you make of the Trey Lance trade to Dallas? Weird situation. Been a lot of weird situations over there in San Francisco, just to leave it at that.

But, you know, I'm happy Trey got another shot, man. How do you think San Francisco's handled those quarterback situations? How do you think they've handled them? I think it's been messy. I'll put it that way. Yeah, that's a nice way to put it. Interesting, right? So, like, what is happening behind closed doors?

And then Bosa's not a training camp right now. I love that team because I like watching them play football. But you saying you wonder what's going on over there, I think a lot of people are kind of starting to do that. Joe, what do you think it is? Well, you know, Jimmy's headed for Washington, D.C. as a politician after that interview, I guarantee it. Throw the question back to the person asking the question.

Well, what do you think? I think the instability at the quarterback position creates major issues everywhere. We've had it in Washington for a number of years. Now, San Francisco, you've had different people play. The Trey Lance deal, when it was made, I was wondering about it and scratching my head initially. And then, of course, Jimmy had a chance to play. Brock's come in and played well. I mean, you've had different people play over periods of time, but you don't have any consistency like, say, you have in Green Bay or you had in San Francisco before.

We just haven't seen that in a lot of places. Good transition in Kansas City with Alex going to Patrick. And so if you don't have that consistency, if you don't have that guy behind center being able to play and practice, and that's really important, Pat, you have to be able to practice to get better to play you have to be able to play to learn what you need to do and and that's been i think a problem with it yeah listen we both know it you can't win at any level without a quarterback yeah that's why i can't 230 million dollars 200 joe you see these deals i know you you do. Don't bring that up.

Don't bring that up. Don't mention numbers. I don't want to talk about it. Please. Joe, we're talking $200-something million. Absurd. Joe, we're talking $200-something million. Hey, that's only going this way, too, Joe.

Just only going this way. I know. Oh. Hey, 1984. 1984, fourth highest paid player in the National Football League I was at $1 million a year. A millionaire kid out in New Jersey. It's funny.

It's amazing. It's amazing how things have changed. And you know what? I don't begrudge these guys one penny. Get everything you can get. It's a short lived career. It's an opportunity to be able to do the thing you dreamt about as a kid. And the numbers are there.

If you can get somebody to pay you, good for you. Hey, and also on the flip side, we would all like to say thank you to guys like you and others that laid the framework and the groundwork for this league that is the most successful in the entire world. So thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe.

Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe. That's a real thing. I know it gets said by a lot of people, especially whenever they're talking about, like, lifelong and health insurance and other stuff. Like, we appreciate what those guys did for us. Now, also, I can figure it out.

You know, like, that is, it's kind of like two sides of a coin. But I know every player that I've talked to is very appreciative of everything you guys had to go through and what you did to get us to where we are. So we're very grateful. Speaking of, one of the things that you had to go through that nobody else went through, and obviously every conversation you've ever had has probably came back to this one play, which sucks, I would assume, because of how fucking great you were in the NFL. But that play where you, you know, the, you know. The end? Yeah.

Yeah. That sucks. I guess you could call it the end. You know, it's interesting about that night, Pat, because the success that I enjoyed in the National Football League as a part of the Washington quote-unquote Redskins was really special. I mean, to be an MVP, to win a Super Bowl, you know, to be in the salary category I was at that time, all those things were wonderful.

But I really started really believing my own headlines. I started thinking I was really, really good. And it changed me as a person, I believe. And what that night did, that was divine intervention in my mind. I was headed down a path where my ego was getting the best of me. I thought I was really special. I thought I was the guy. I thought I was the one that they couldn't be without. And then obviously found out things differently, but you get caught up in that world and we've seen so many athletes have that happen and I was one of them. And then after the evening, after I got hurt, it gave me a chance to be introspective and

look at my life and look at the person I became and was becoming as opposed to the person that I wanted to be. I want to be able to help people. I want to be able to do things. I want to be able to help other people achieve success. I get the greatest joy out of working with young quarterbacks today, whether it's high school or college, it doesn't matter. And watch them succeed. And the look on their face is priceless. It's like opening a big, big Christmas present. They get so excited about the fact that they've discovered something that may be able to help them. That's my joy in life now, is to be able to help other people enjoy the success that I had. And to be able to play for Coach Gibbs and Coach Walton and Coach Allen. I'm telling telling him it was just a Jack Pardee was the one that gave me my chance to play in 78 he made me the starter after George got fired so I have a lot of people

to thank and at one point in my life I thought it was all about me and you know what Pat the bottom line is we're not on this earth to be served. We're here to be able to serve others. And you see this in the way quarterbacks work with one another. Yes, it's a very competitive position, but a lot of guys are able to help the other person. And then I say this to any young quarterback out there, watch what the other guy is doing and doing well. That's how you learn. Don't ask for a verbal description, but observe. Yeah, well, you said a lot there. I don't want to let you know that was fucking very cool to hear. You know, not a lot of people.

That was really cool to hear because I think I didn't know that about you. I obviously, I assume there are people who have told you at different times in your life, maybe that you're being an asshole or whatever. So here as a human later, realizing, looking back, changing, growing, chasing fulfillment is what it sounds like you've focused on as opposed to anything else. That's a cool thing for people to hear, bro. A lot of people just don't change. You know that a lot of people just an asshole. They just keep going. Well, it's hard. So it's hard sometimes to look in a mirror and be flat out honest. And you know what? It's what I appreciate about you.

There's no facade. If anybody wants to know who Pat McAfee is, all you need to do is watch. And all you need to do is listen. You're out front. You're right there. And, you know, sometimes honesty just scares the living daylights out of people, especially when it's about themselves. You know, it's much easier to hide and go, oh, that's not me. Well, if you face it, it's a little bit easier. It's not easy to deal with, but down the road, it becomes a better situation. Yeah. If you're always being yourself,

you won't get caught. You know, I think that's one thing that I like, um, you kind of see with a lot of people now I had to get, I don't know, I wasn't comfortable with being me for a long time. And then you get like down to the bottom of the bottom and everybody turns on you. Not everybody, but a lot of people turn on you and start burying you and tell you that you're a piece of shit. Like when I got in trouble or whatever. It's like that's a time where you really got to do the same thing you do. And then you just own it. And that's Joe.

And that's Theismann. But so you just own it and that's joe and that's the uh but so you just own it and i appreciate you saying that though that's a big deal man you should be very proud of yourself honestly you should be i appreciate that thanks back hey no problem you said something about sometimes you got to look in the mirror i try not to do that as much as possible hey with those guns i look in the mirror every morning. Hey, they're coming together. I do catch a reflection. They really are. I catch a reflection every once in a while, Joe.

You know what I mean? I'm like, whoa, okay, good. We're in there. They really are. I appreciate it. They really are. Now we get to side you. Now we get to see the full depth.

What's that? What's going on? Nothing. Nothing. What are we doing? I enjoy it, bro. It's nice to be retired not getting tested you know there's some different vitamins i got running through my body right now that

seem to be working you know seem to be working but you know those shit don't work if you don't get in there if you don't work you gotta put the work in have it in there joe hey every morning every morning is arm day oh yeah when you wear tank tops every day it's easy what do you need to work on well the only thing anybody's gonna see what's that your arm so i'm just doing arms every day what do you stay you golf your fitness routine these days i keep yeah i'm down i'm about three days a week now i try to i'm back if i worked out this morning got some cardio in this morning a little bit of weights i'll take a day off i'll probably hit some balls later today. Do some stretching. Stretching is a big thing for me. I mean, I've never been flexible and stretching is to me the key to longevity in anything. Being

able to be flexible, being able to move, you know, motion is lotion when it comes to joints and being able to stretch out, I think is so important. And I am horrible at it. I'm not as consistent as I should be. And you know, the older I get, the more I try and stretch, the less I can, the less flexible I become. Well, that seems to be like my golf game. You know, the more I do, the worse I get. But the whole, how old are you? How old are you, Joe? On September 9th, I'll turn 74.

Wow. Oh. Happy birthday. Yeah. Happy birthday, Joe. Actually, my oldest son, Joe, same birthday. Playing that, obviously. You playing that, yeah?

Just let me go ahead and get ahead of this. Yeah, it was all mapped out a long time ago. Yeah, 40 weeks is about the, let's go ahead and get this whole thing figured out. The boys have some questions for you, if that's okay? Sure. You look wonderful. I mean, you look very good. I'm not going to live that long, but if I do, geez, could you imagine?

Look at the skin. I'm living in a mask. You got to be low. I mean, the routine. And then look at the fucking hair. We still got good. You know what I mean? Great balance.

Hey, Joe. Hey, Joe. Doing it, Joe. You should be pumped. Hell yeah. Happy birthday, dude. Ty's got a question for you. Joe, going back to Notre Dame, just curious,

when you look at kind of the way Notre Dame has progressed since you were there and Montana was there and guys like that and then the success Lou Holtz had when they won the national championship and then there was a little bit of a lull kind of until Brady Quinn and then same deal, Jimmy Clawson was there and he was supposed to be the next guy. But do you think the expectations and the pressure and just kind of like the star power from, you know, Hall of Famers and guys like you in Montana while at Notre Dame has kind of caused a lot of guys to crumble

that maybe couldn't live up to like the hype and the legacy of the school and all that kind of stuff. And obviously Sam Hartman looks good. But do you think Notre Dame is kind of in a position now where they're back to being the blue blood that they've always been and not just kind of the name? I think so. I don't necessarily think, having talked to some of the young guys that have come in, they make the decision to go to Notre Dame knowing full well what the legacy is, what the reputation is, what the history is of the university and its football program. So they understand what they're stepping into.

The question is, do you have the talent level? Is there consistency in the coaching staff to be able to get the best out of the players there? Tommy Reese now is our offensive coordinator. Tommy's down at Alabama. And Tommy really worked the ball to the tight ends a lot. You know, Jared Parker's there now. Jared Parker's there now. Jared Parker's there now.

He coached the wide receiver position, and we see the wide receivers. We saw him against Navy jump up. So you have different philosophies and different concepts. And Sam's really, you know, a big quarterback, a tall quarterback, has mobility, has a great arm. You know, the guys, Ian Book and others, weren't as big. They weren't as strong. And, again, so much of what we do in the National Football League,

as well as the collegiate levels, what's the system that you play in? And what do they emphasize? Tommy likes to run the football. Tommy liked to run the football. And we've had a lot of guys have a lot of success that way. We got the ball to the tight end. But as far as the wide receivers go, they weren't as big a part of the offense

as I think we're going to see them going forward. So I don't think the kids worry about the reputation of the University of Notre Dame. They're proud to be there. We're proud to have them. And it's just the talent level around them so much that determines. I've always said this. The quarterback position is the single most dependent position on the field. Really stop and think about it.

Jim Kelly would have had a Super Bowl ring had somebody made a kick. Well, you're right, though. You're right. I mean, Jim, who I love, loved you. Great guy. Respect the hell out of Jim. Great guy.

I mean, you win by 40, you don't have to make a kick. It's true. You know what I mean? You know what I mean? You don't cover. Right now, you have to talk about my covering. You get into that at all, Joe? You get into gambling at all? No mean you don't cover yeah now you have to talk about my covering now you get into that at all joe you get into gambling at all no i don't you know you know my wife and i'll talk about it and you know i'll bet a buck with my you know with a buddy of mine on something i just

you know i it's so unpredictable and to be honest with you you get to enjoy it more when you don't have so much online. You're not going crazy. When somebody's driving down the field to try and cover, I know all the jargon. I know what's going on. When you're driving down, somebody's driving down the field, and they're about to do a cover, it's like, oh, no, a backdoor cover. Yeah, there we go. It just breaks your heart, and it ruins the day.

And then all of a sudden, the worst thing is you start chasing. Yeah, got to get back now. Got to get back. Yeah, you've got to win the first one or two or else you're going to chase, and it's going to be a long, long weekend. So the sportsbooks have regulations on it to save people from themselves, but there are certainly people losing money still. I think as it continues to go on, last year, Joe, we won one for, I think, 18 or something.

Yep. One for 19. 20 because we did multiple. It was so bad. We were picking like, okay, this is an actual guarantee. We're going to move the odds for this. We're going to get everybody. Hey, listen, we're going to get back on track here.

We're getting back on that horse. Let's go. This is a guarantee. And we would lose. It's like like it's so impossible to win i've no idea don't you love those locks don't you love those locks this is oh this is a lot this is a guarantee guarantee guaranteed win they're playing at home they haven't lost in 25 years the other team doesn't have 15 players and all of a sudden you lose yeah

we know too much joe that's the thing we know too much, Joe. That's the thing. We know too much. We know like, well, let's say 87% of the time a team coming off of this is going to do this, especially going into a situation like that. Or you add in the wind. This bumps up to a 92%. 92%. That sounds like a great time. But then you don't account for, there's fucking 8% there. That 8% is still a very

real, it's not a zero there. That is not a, so that 8% might be moving for the next 50 times that that situation pops up. You have no idea because the past. The classic of that is horse racing, Pat. How many times have you heard people go to a, they go to a track, they're going to bet on a horse. Why'd you bet on the horse? Because I like the colors. The jockey, the jockey's wearing a really nice, really nice outfit, or the horse has really nice colors on it. So I'm going to bet the horse.

And the horse wins. And all those numbers and all those statistics and the races they've run in mud or whether it's dry or whether it's term, nothing. Nothing. Does not matter. Nope. Does not matter. How did you get to that point right there? Did you see that pink?

So sweet. I had that pink. It was raining. It was the only one I could see. Caught my eye. Literally, I would like to see the horse that I'm betting on, and then all of a sudden, here we are. That's right.

Triple crime. We did it. Unreal. Then they shoot the horse. Whoa. That's true. Joe, that is part of this downfall of horse. Yeah.

We've learned that this year. We don't like doing it, Joe. We've got to cover sports every single day. We learned a lot about the horse racing community this year. Yeah. A lot. I didn't know that. Sadly.

Yeah. Let's have a moment of silence for all those horses that have raced. Moment passed. Thank you, ponies. Thank you, horses. Thank you, ponies. Pac-Man has a question for you, Joe. Joe, my question is the NIL deals is really big right now,

especially at Notre Dame. What do you think it would have been when your time, and also what are your feels on the transport portal because we're finding we are looking up teams and it's a hundred different kids that's transporting to different schools every other week you feel like how we're looking at the schedule um do you are you with the transport portal or you're not with it you know pac-man first of all the nil is umIL is seeping into high schools, and it's ruining it. I mean, we don't have it. I didn't know that, Joe.

I didn't know that, Joe. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's in the high schools, too, as well as the colleges. It's been in basketball for a long time. It's scary. I mean, the numbers are crazy for college guys. We don't have college football anymore.

We have semi-professional football played by young people. That's basically what it's boiled down to. And so, and, you know, we heard a couple of years ago, a little couple of coaches going at it where now you get to buy your team. That's in essence what they're doing right now is colleges are buying. The wealthy are going to get more wealthy and those that can't afford the players are going to be able to just provide education and a place to play some football. But when it comes to the competition, the other thing back there too is how about the conferences? What's a conference anymore? A conference this year is not a conference next year. If you're part of a conference this year,

you're probably not going to be part of it next year because somebody is going to offer you more money. I mean, it's crazy what's going on. The NILs, I think, I thought there was a better way to compensate the athlete instead of just giving them money and giving people a chance to be able to make it. I won't get into that. And as far as the portal goes, what the portal has basically done is basically said, hey, look, if the competition looks a little tough ahead of you, just go someplace else. I don't know how a college coach recruits anymore today, Pat. How do you recruit someone? You can't publish a depth chart. I've talked to coaches where they cannot put out a depth chart

for their spring game because they're going to have people transfer out if they're not one or two. Oh, I didn't even think about that. Instead of competing for it, instead of saying, okay, I've committed to this university, you know, the guy ahead of me is there and I'm going to, I want to compete. And, but now it's like, well, if you're really good, that means you probably have a minimum of 20 other schools that are interested in you. So now you have this elevated opinion of yourself. You get no basic fundamental understanding of the game you're playing

because you think you have all the answers. And then you just go transfer someplace else. We see guys going from one to the other. Now, I will say this. I think they need to do something with the portal. I think they need to create some type of stability in college football so you can't just pick up and leave all the time. But yet, we at the University of Notre Dame have benefited from it because Sam Hartman transferred from Wake Forest to Notre Dame. Now, this is his

sixth year. He's 24. I don't know what the quarterback's going to be next year. Of course, he received the extra year because of the pandemic year. Like I say, I think we're going to surprise people going forward. We've got some tough games. We've got Clemson coming up. USC coming up. Ohio State. I'll be out there for the Ohio State game. Ohio State's looking at that one, right? That one's the one that can potentially knock Ohio State off the path there, waiting for the big one at the end with Michigan. I want to get back into what you were talking about there though with the transfer portal and you know not being able to release a depth chart i thought about this with how open it was there was over what like 1900 kids

or something in the portal or something there's only 130 teams like i don't know where a lot of people are going to go but if you start thinking about the ripple effects of that like let alone the money me if i was handed that type of money, I mean, I would have been a bag of shit. At that time, I would have not have been waking up at the time that those off-season workouts were at. I would not have been all in at those summer conditioning workouts. I would have been a bad person.

Now, I'm not saying everybody's like me. I'm a white trash kid. You hand $100,000 to me in Morgantown. I mean, I'm not saying everybody's like me. I'm a white trash kid. You hand $100,000 to me in Morgantown. I mean, I'm going to have... Listen, you're running your... I don't buy it. You wouldn't have been a bad kid. Maybe you'd gone in a different direction. Maybe you would have made some decisions that would have been not necessarily in your best interest, but you don't give yourself enough credit, Pat, to be honest with you. Well, I appreciate that. But let's get to it. Hold on, Joe.

Hold on, Joe. Hold on, Joe. Joe, hold on, Joe. Joe, hold on. Not even that part, though. The transfer portal thing, like the lessons of like failing and like hard work and somebody telling you, you said these coaches can't even recruit. Like hard coaching. I think a lot of coaches are scared to coach hard because they think that, oh, this person is just going to get up and leave. So I think we're going to miss out on a lot of great football

because I think there's going to be so many more players that are never going to reach their potential because the mental toughness that you need to be great at football is not something that most people are just born with. Like it has to come through situations and coaching. I think that, to extend upon your point point is going to be a big time ripple effect here over the next 10 years that I don't think was ever even considered, Joe. You know what I mean?

And the NIL thing, you could definitely hit that as well. But that thing's a big deal, Joe. I don't think it's being, I don't think it's, I think that's being undervalued through this entire thing of creating men. You know what I mean? Right. And women and young women too. I don't even know if they're NIL dealing.

Look at Nebraska. Look at the 92,000 people that showed up for a Nebraska volleyball game. Awesome. It's great. I think it's absolutely unbelievable, and it's wonderful. Our women at Notre Dame, we've won more national championships of recent years than we have in any of our other sports. And our hockey is great.

Our basketball has come on. Our baseball has come on. Lacrosse. Lacrosse has come on. Soccer, obviously football. So, but I mean, what I watched this morning when I was watching SportsCenter, I'm going, wow, that is so wonderful. And for the athlete to feel that way. And you know, the other thing too, Pat, that you're really referring to is the life lessons that you learn. Working hard for something are invaluable for you for the rest of your life.

Yes. Because you're going to go to a job and somebody may be better than you there. And what are you going to do? Are you going to go someplace else and then someplace else and then someplace else and just become a nomad going from job to job as opposed to fighting it out, learning, toughen it out? I think I think the most important asset any individual has that wants to be successful is mental toughness. is mental toughness. Hell yeah. Joe, I enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for coming on, man. Genuinely. Thanks for having me.

What do you do? Thanks for having me. You do some commander stuff, right? I was looking it up. I was trying to. Yeah, I did the preseason for a couple of years and I haven't the last few years. Mostly I do a lot of motivational speaking, have a chance to travel around the country

and now we're down and around the world to be able to share some stories with people and share some experiences i've been blessed to have some unbelievable people help me get where i am today and i appreciate them every minute oh yeah we're definitely gonna try to book you need it boys are gonna need about halfway through the season for sure we're gonna be a little tired we're gonna need to come finish the finish the year strong i appreciate the hell out of you joe thank you for the golf tips i will apply them when I finally get good at golf. Thank you for the life lessons today, and thank you for the time. We genuinely appreciate it. Pat, great being with you. Thanks for having me. Take care.

Coach Lou Holtz is here as well. I think he wanted to tell you something about your birthday coming up. Joe, I'd just like to say happy birthday to you. I know that we, well, I'm sure we've crossed paths. I can't really remember right now. I know you never actually played for them. I can't remember if you played for Aero Parcision or if it was Dan Devine or if it was one of those other guys. I know it wasn't Newt Rockne.

I know he was a little bit before your time. But, Joe, it was an honor talking to you today. And I just – I love that you go out there and you put out for the University of Notre Dame. I know how much you love the university, and I think you know how much I love the university as well. Go Irish, Joe. Happy birthday. Coach, thank you.

That meant so much to me. Thank you so much. Yeah, I guess happy birthday as well. I can probably get that in there. Ladies and gentlemen, Joe Theismann. Thanks for coming. Let's get to a break. What a weapon.

Yeah, dude. Yeah. Can't believe he's 74. Yeah, that's absurd. I really appreciate him saying, yeah, I turned into a prick. So that injury, terrible, obviously, but it really kind of saved me as a human from myself. That was great because I haven't heard him since he was in the Monday Night Football booth,

I feel like. With Kornheiser and Tirico? Is that? Yeah. I think so. Is that what it was? I think so, yeah. What a power team.

In my head, I just saw them three wide. Because remember, whenever I was potentially thinking about trying to be a Booth person, they were saying, Kornheiser didn't work. Kornheiser didn't work. He wouldn't work. Three Booths wouldn't work. And that's when I really remembered it all and thought about it. I was like, I think Kornheiser wasn't terrible.

Dennis Miller? Dennis Miller, yeah. Was also there, too. That was being talked about as the third man in it. I think it was Torrico. Tasman. Yeah, and then they were Jaws Look at that

Hell yeah still got it Nailed it Torrico 24 years old and I think Wow Aged perfectly How about Kornheiser bro Him and Wilbon Just locked down sports media for

I don't know what 40 years now Been doing it Like you talk to any of the suits It's like hope everything potentially just locked down sports media for, I don't know, what, 40 years now? Yeah, been doing it. A long time. That's all, like, you talk to any of the suits, it's like hope everything potentially has the success of PTI. It's like, that's the dream. You have to be PTI. I'm like, hell yeah.

Okay. I forgot about this, too. The Heisman actually hosted the first half of American Gladiators when it first started. Oh, should have kept him around. He would have kept that asshole in check that was running at him. That would have helped out a lot. You know what I mean? Yeah, that big prick. After watching those documentaries,

I think the guy at the top is really a problem. Yeah, that's why he fell apart. You could say. He stole it. I like that Theismann knows the show. Yeah. Did you play quarterback in there, Dan? That was awesome. Yeah, I got a couple records there, actually. Yeah, I think we were 23-1.

Oh, yeah, yeah. But you were turning punts. He walked up at the golf course. He walked up at the driving range. And like, hey, Pat, obviously you know I exist. I was like, oh, that's cool. Joe Theismann knows who I am. And I just saw a sweet old man.

Yeah, yeah. So I'm like, I don't know what to do here. I don't know what to do here. I'm just going to. So I started naturally. I was what I mean? Yeah. So I'm like, I don't know what to do here. I don't know what to do here. I'm just going to, so I started, naturally, I was quiet, a couple swings,

and then duff, duff, motherfucker. I'm like four feet away from the screen. You know, and he's like, how's it going,

Pat? You know, and I'm like, not great, Joe. Thanks. All right. And then he turns around

and he's like, let me watch a couple. All right. Okay, Joe, here we go. All right. And he goes, you just need to slow down.

Slow down, Pat. Come on. And then he looked at Foxy. Your job is to tell him to slow down. Makes sense. He's a motivational speaker. Yeah. Yeah, he was really good.

I thought we were going low that day. Me too. And then I remember I had four broken feet. Yeah. I barely walked. Sunburned back. Hey, speaking of, we got a big-time debut. Foxy Flick coming in about an hour and 20 minutes.

Hell yeah. Sweet. Hell yeah. It's the longest one yet, but it's behind the scenes of Espy's and Tahoe. It's a banger. Presented by PXG. Hell yeah. Shout out to PXG.

Love you, PXG. Most expensive clubs of all time. Story behind it. That's right. Mm-hmm. Jeez. That's right. Oh, BXG. Most expensive clubs of all time. Story behind it. That's right. That's right. Oh, yeah. How many back ribs are we going to get this week?

We just watched the thing. Yeah. We just watched. This has been followed by six. Jeez Louise. Sheesh. Sheesh. Sheesh.

Come on, Pac-Man. Follow your quiche. Follow your quiche. There you go. Read your quiche. Read your quiche. Quiche. Sign it. wish come on pac-man follow your keys follow your keys elbow tight all right boys got a lot of show left a lot of show left i just lot of show left. A lot of show left. A lot of show. Skip Beal out here rebounding. Yeah. That'll go better when Beal's out here rebounding.

Beal's working in the back. Yeah. Beal's working in the back. I was on a FaceTime with Beal and Gump last night. Really? It was awesome. Whoa, three-person? All-timer.

Beal might live in a log cabin or something. Yeah, he was. Well, he has a log cabin. He's moving and shaking over there. He was, like, working in the kitchen while we were on the call. It was awesome. I was kind of seeing a tour of his house in the past. Well, you saw the Dahmer doc.

You know how they move. That's rude. Come on. He was not saying that. In the kitchen, they're all moving and shaking. You think he could have neighbors? All right. Let's get to a break.

These guys. What was the face all about? Just checking in? Yeah, we were just talking about how we're going to move forward because the new system that they have that will replace the system that we've used for ripping and clipping is only 20 to 25 times better than the one we use. Oh, is that right?

Finally. I think it's only, I think their back-end clipping-ripping system is maybe 40 times better than the one that we just signed up for another round for two more years. Oh, nice. Yeah, we re-upped it.

We re-upped it right before finding out about this mega thing that we're allowed to use that makes everybody in here's life much, much easier. To be fair, I mean, it feels as though we've had to go the opposite way a lot of times. So this is kind of great news.

Yeah, this is good news. Yeah. Yeah. If it's that, it's much better. Convenience is much more important than a two-year subscription of a service that we will not use at all. We could actually use that

for just the basketball court now. Boom. Just right in there. And then also the short course. There we go. Two years. Let's go. That's a great investment. Sorry to Bender. Been trying to figure out how to record

everything out. That stuff ESPN has on the back end is just, there's some shit that they have that I don't know if everybody just doesn't know it exists. No, Walt created it and actually proprietary information. Froze it in his cryodome. I don't know if Walt was part of it. I don't think so. I mean, the highlight thing is truly one of the best uses of technology I've ever heard. I think it'll only take like four and a half hours out of Foxy, Bill, Tone, and Mitt's Mondays.

Mondays are going to be a lot better. Yeah. Monday's a pretty big day. I think. Boy, last year, those things came down to the wire. Oh, yeah. That was awesome. Yeah.

We're a week out, boys. So awesome. Hell yeah. Finally. We're a week out, boys. So awesome. Hell yeah. Finally. We are a week out from all of this. Good Lord. Had to, got to do. Yeah, there you go.

Got to do an interview yesterday. Yeah. Big time interview. Hilarious publication. Oh, yeah. Hilarious. Hilarious. Hilarious.

I can't wait to read it. Oh, it's going to be great. Me too. Oh, can't wait. That's what Me too. Oh, I can't wait. That's what you said, like legit hard-hitting questions. You know, you were very excited about being able to expand on some of that stuff. I think I'm going to be in a Wall Street Journal. WSJ.

That's a big publication. I looked it up. It is. I had to Google that. I knew the name, obviously. You hear it? Of course. That's a big publication. I looked it up. It is. I had to Google that. I knew the name, obviously. You hear it? Of course. That's bananas.

That's hilarious to think about. And I think the people that read that are nobody that I've ever hung out with in my entire life. But boy, are they going to hate me. And I can't wait for them to read those words. Well, they're going to love you. You never know. They might. You never know. I might. You never know.

I don't know. Following the last one? Following the Bloomberg? I don't know. Yeah. I love doing interviews and stuff because there isn't too much of me already. Sure. But the lady

that is doing it was incredibly nice. She was very, very nice. And I appreciate her investing her time in our story and everything like that. Those suits are going to fucking be piss-free now. I'm going to pop this asshole in a tank top, get into this news magazine. News magazine. News, what is it? Newspaper. Newspaper.

Newspaper. One of the biggest ones. That's what they said. I Googled it. I was asked if I wanted to. News, what is it? Newspaper. Newspaper. Newspaper. One of the biggest ones. That's what they said. Yeah, you're in finance. I Googled it. I was asked if I wanted it. Oh, yeah. You're in finance.

That's the one. Yep. Yeah. I'm in finance. No big deal. I got the fucking stocks app right here. Yeah, own finance. Exactly right.

Basically the finance. AMC to the moon, brother. Boo. You know, I'm talking about those stonks all day, everything. Come on, GameStop. We were there. I heard they only go up. That's right.

So I was told by numerous people. Mm-hmm. Just put your money in there. Well, actually, it's like the top 300 companies. You're kind of betting on them to do well. And then that's really a safe bet. That'll give you, you know, like a 6% to 7% annual return. That's basically their smart one. I read the Wall Street Journal.

Boom. Gotcha. I like it. Boom. There it is. This guy's hitting buttons like Jim Kramer. Yeah. Sell, sell, sell. Joining us now down in Florida is a guy who obviously is a football savant. He played professionally, played at a college now that stinks of football,

but is getting better because Dan Orlovsky is giving motivational speeches. Back in time, though, second-round pick. Whoa. Yeah, big-time dog. Also fancies himself an F1 guy. That's right. So you have to immediately question his taste. But nonetheless, ladies and gentlemen joining us

an absolute superstar host of the man to man podcast and everything DB Darius J Butler let's go UConn didn't deserve that kicking off our night tonight against NC State we didn't deserve that on our way back up Jim Mora

Dan Orlovsky is back in the building tonight I heard he's going to be potentially running out with a husky on his shoulder and this is big time I do believe UConn's going to be potentially running out with a Husky on his shoulder. And this is big time. I do believe UConn's going to get back to some prominence, like whenever you were there and when Dan Orlovsky was slinging the rock around. UConn takes on NC State this evening as a 14-and-a-half home underdog. Then, obviously, Nebraska, Minnesota.

Welcome to the Big Ten, Matt Rule says, PJ Fleck. Florida taking on Utah, 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I believe Herbie's on that call. Let's go. I believe Herbie's on that call. It should be a big-time night of college football. Yeah, man, we back, man. I'm excited to be back.

I mean, it sucks when your school sucks, and that's been the thing for the last few years. But we got a little taste of some success. We got to get back in the conference. Obviously, at some point, everybody's moving around. Hopefully, there's room for us somewhere. But tonight, getting the win tonight will be obviously huge for the program. And Dano, you know, you just got out of the scene with Denzel Washington, equalizer.

Like, he got to bring some juice. He got to bring something to that sideline tonight for sure. Well, he gave that motivational speech. He'll have that shoulder. He'll have a towel. Yeah, he gave that motivational speech. He'll have that shoulder. He'll have a towel. Yeah, he'll do that thing. He'll do, we need 30 seconds clockwise. And then guess what he'll be able to do?

He's able to just on a, right back down a clockwise. He has the ability. So I think he'll be the lead towel waver this evening as well. I don't know if you saw yesterday he hung up on us. That's messed up. I saw it. I saw the Beetlejuice comparisons. I think Wesley Snipes came from A.J.

The last one you guys threw, it was a little close, though. The dude that played in the 13 hours. That was a good one. Well, that was the one he was pitching. Yeah, so that's the answer he was looking for, like, right out of our mouths. And nobody really thought of it for some reason. Somebody said Glenn Houghton, the guy from Always always sunny i think that's more of an accurate depiction i don't know which one that is yeah if you saw him he set himself up you can't say you got to know your

personnel you can't ask this crew hey who uh that was like you know when hasselbeck hey tell me something about dave jones just can't do it you gotta you gotta know your personnel i agree yeah we did catch him off guard though though, because he was on set. We kind of called him because we saw that he was in a scene with Denzel Washington. He does look like that guy. Yeah, just like that. Who's this? Always Sonny.

Dennis from Always Sonny. But what's the name? Glenn Howerton. This is Dan. We did it. We were trying to get there. Yeah. It took us a little bit.

We apologize. You're Glenn. This is Dan Orlovsky yeah uncanny uncanny resemblance crazy holy hey this guy needs to watch his back when you go to these auditions going forward yeah there's gonna be another one of you there that's right and he just got out of a scene with denzel washington so i i know it's always sunny was very successful i don't know if you got a lot of jobs coming your way with dan orlovsky on the ball. He's a thespian, Darius. Did you know that?

He's a thespian. Hey, that was a quality scene. Quality scene. And, you know, I hate that he ruined it. I thought he was in the movie. I definitely thought he was definitely in the restaurant. You know, I was interested to see what he actually picked. And he ran out.

Like, you know, it's a little soft. But I thought he was in the movie. Sad he ruined it. But he is a thespian. That's big. That's big time. Denzel doesn't get any bigger than that. That's A-list.

Obviously, Stephen A, big time as well. Shout out to my guy, Dane, man. Doing some big things. Back on Monday Night Football this year. Wow. Shout out to my guy, man. I thought the other week he was on X all upset that they didn't have him on something. Yeah.

Yeah, that's every other week. It's about to happen. You know, say you're on Monday Night Football. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Oh. a mountain of something. Say you're on Monday Night Football. Oh. Oh. Stealing my stuff. Everyone's taking my ideas.

Oh. Anyways, let's move on. Jonathan Taylor's at the Indianapolis Colts for at least until week four, allegedly, unless somebody trades for him while he's on PUP. Can that happen? Ooh. I believe so. I would assume.

I would assume. Because the report was even if someone trades for him while he's on PUP. Can that happen? Ooh. I believe so. I would assume. I would assume. Because the report was even if someone trades for him, he still has to sit out the four weeks. Because they designated it. So once a designation is made, it is a permanent. But even if somebody else picks him up, Miami Dolphins, we're going to be in the mix. But GM Greer came out and said no official offer was made.

I think we were kind of misled. I thought they asked for Waddle. Well, yeah. Wild request of the number two wide receiver for your team getting on the MVP running back. Wild request. As crazy as it sounds, Pat, I would have to agree. A wild request? Tyree Kill is a wild request.

Vic Fangio. You know, you got to ask. You got to ask. You know, I know you're negotiating for it. Yes, that's what i mean it's a it's a passing league you know uh waddle is the number two receiver but probably the best number two if not the second best but he's up there receivers are making shit number two receivers probably making 20 25 minutes a year uh soon once t higgins and those guys get paid so with a

passing league like that a guy coming off his best year and you're gonna trade for you know jonathan taylor obviously great running back two years ago was in the mvp conversation last year was banged up not healthy currently not gonna have him for the first four weeks wow i mean that that may be a little stretch but yeah it's definitely a request though like what are we even talking it was it was a business negotiation requesting the number two wide receiver when you're giving up the running back i do not understand why it is the way it is but Yes, though. What are we even talking? It was a business negotiation requesting the number two wide receiver when you're giving up the running back. I do not understand why it is the way it is, but it felt like the national narrative was if the Colts don't pay

Jonathan Taylor $17 million a year, they're dumb. So now it's like, well, the number two wide receiver for a team, for a guy that everybody thinks is one of the top running backs in the NFL, which we hope is the case, that didn't make sense, but the deal was not made. If the deal was made, then you could say, wow, that was a wild fucking move to give up your number two wide receiver in a passing league. But also you get Jonathan Taylor, who's supposed to be a guy where we lied to about the interest you think, because the NFL calendar told me that was going to be a tough deal to get done with Jonathan Taylor, especially in the world that we're in we were hoping for it but

everybody was telling us about all this interest and seemingly there wasn't unless chris ballard was negotiating in bad faith in making wild requests like number two wide receivers to everybody that wanted to do business you know what i mean hey he's doing his job that's what he's he's supposed to ask for, I guess, wild things. But I think the biggest thing holding him up to – Wildest our fucking – he's an MVP conversation we're trading. Listen, Pat, you know – You're the one telling me how good of a running back he is.

Everybody on earth was telling me how great he is. And then the number two – Talk is cheap. Talk is cheap. What's being offered? What's being offered? And it's a what have you done for me lately, Lee. We know – we watch. We watch me lately, Leek. We know.

We watch. We watch the coach closely, obviously. We know how dynamic he is when he's healthy. He was never even hurt until, I think, last year when he had the ankle injury. And then coming into this year, still not being fully healthy. That's a big thing, especially for a position where it's running back. Yeah, he's only been in the league for a couple years, but he got a ton of carries in college.

And, you know, it can go downhill quick at that position. And there's not a lot of teams lining up. We can see what's going on around the landscape with running backs. Not a lot of teams lining up to pay running backs 15 plus million dollars a year. Is he worth it? I think that's exactly what Anthony Richardson needs, especially when you look at the rest of the roster. You look at the talent at receiver. The guys just can't from they can't create't create space you know guys aren't going to be

open so we're going to need anthony richard to be dynamic week in and week out to give us a chance to win so we definitely need weapons at wide receiver no wild request asking for the number two wide receiver wild request like i the word request is an interesting thing because I think the narrative was trying to be built that the Colts were not going to ever trade him. Even though they said, hey, we'll trade him, they weren't ever going to trade him. And that would be a much different outcome than potentially nobody being interested in trading for him or actually signing and trading for him or giving up a one, which I would assume is what Chris Ballard

was at least thinking for, a two and a four, and something that equates to a one, because of how great of a player he is, everybody else is saying. Now, that also leads to the question, why don't they just pay him? And Chris Ballard said, we won four games last year. How do you feel about that answer? And then he also said the relationship is repairable. Do you think that's the case?

Yeah, I think it's definitely repairable. You know, look, I hope this is just me talking, but I hope Jonathan Taylor and Jim Mercer, Chris Ballard, I hope they all figure it out. And Jonathan Taylor goes down as one of the best running backs in Colts history. That's what I like to see. He's a great guy off the field. I'm not going to judge the guy based off how he's handling his business

in my opinion i don't think it's great i didn't think lamar jackson was handling that that whole thing great but it ended up working out he ended up being the highest paid quarterback in league history so it worked out for him he had the talent he was coming off the season where he wasn't healthy either so jonathan taylor you got to handle your business just like we were in the locker room hey you got to handle your money situation as that's, that's not my problem. We want you in the building. You got to figure it out. That's on, that's on the big, the big dogs to figure it out. I hope he does. We got a guy on a rookie deal. I mean, we, we need, we need him badly.

We got a bunch of big guys out there. We got Pittman. I like Pittman. I like Pierce, but when I watch them on tape, you know, every every every catch, every throw is like a contested throw. These guys are sticking to him. You know, we got drafted downs to be that guy to create separation. They obviously don't love Isaiah McKenzie. They let him go and then signed him back. So we got big tight ends. Once again, big guys usually aren't great at creating that type of space. So I love Anthony Richardson. I love everything I've seen from him. We know Shane Steichen's system works. The offensive line, we know we have the talent there.

We spent the money there. They got to get out there and produce. So I didn't love the answer. You know, we won four games last year, you know, from Chris Ballard, and obviously I love Chris. I also didn't like the Andrew Luck comparison because we know Andrew Luck had T.Y., had Fleeter, had Reggie, had, you know, good backs, had Bruce Arians, you know.

So it was a completely different. And Andrew Luck came in. He was, you know, a ready-made product from day one. So different ballgame. But I think I hope those guys figure it out. And I mean, we're rebuilding. So it's not a rush. We don't expect to go and compete for a championship this year.

But we got to get it done sooner or later. I hope we get the truth on how much interest there actually was and if the Colts were saying no to things or if there is ever a sense of self-awareness coming down the pipe for Jonathan Taylor like, yeah, we should have done this play at a different time, maybe not as interesting. You got to be healthy, man. Yeah, and also play.

But, D-Boy, this is what i was telling pat at the break it's really like the coach have the ball in their hand if they don't want to trade them they don't have to trade them they don't really even have to bring them off the pup list correct he have nothing to do with what their decision is right now if they wanted to play bully ball like yeah to me like the best thing you can do is repair the relationship if not guess what buddy we'll leave your ass on pump for the whole year you'll be back in the same situation next year yeah that's an interesting thing if they want to do that and it sounds like jim erce especially after lots of talk today yeah yeah mike he's down that's your city that's down there and

you know so he had jonathan taylor jonathan taylor's agent. The whole thing. Dan Snyder getting voted. He had a lot coming down the plate. And then he's got Chris Angel coming down next Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium doing everything. And then Tarketay dies. And then he's like, Jonathan, you want to be paid? I want my whale. Yeah, exactly. Okay, life isn't easy.

I just bought a Jack Nicklaus putter to kind of soothe my pain. And you're talking about doing this whole deal coming off your worst year so i hope it's repairable chris ballard saying it's repairable though he knows jim he's been talking to jim and i would assume him saying we won four games last year is not just chris ballard's thoughts oh yeah those are you know what i mean those are coming i mean he's tired obviously he's tired of hearing it he's tired of hearing the questions and it's it's you devalue, obviously, the asset, the player. When you know that relationship is already bad, you know, the guy wants out. So guys, you know, I don't have to give up as much to get him because you want to get a deal done.

And I think Lambeau said you also don't want to be in a position where you just don't take the best deal that's out there. And it's not what you value to get back. So everybody's in a tough spot. I think Chris Ballard said that yesterday, too. Like, hey, get back so everybody's in a tough spot i think chris ballard said that yesterday too like hey look coaster in the shitty situation jonathan taylor's in a shitty situation and typically that's what leads to things being able to be repaired and get back but hopefully he gets his money um and gets back out there gets healthy and gets back to the guy that we're used to seeing that's a good thing to say there because if we're all wrong we're all right you know if we're both in a good situation probably be able to get a deal done if we're used to seeing. That's a good thing to say there because if we're all wrong, we're all right. If we're both in a good situation, probably be able to get a deal done. If we're both in a shitty situation,

probably be able to get a deal done. Somebody's in a good situation, a bad situation, probably not going to be able to see eye to eye. No. Deshaun Watson, he wanted out. Everybody knew he wanted out, but he was a quarterback in his prime of his career. Obviously, he had the shit going off the field, but those don't come around often.

You don't get those quarterbacks in their early 20s that's going to be available. He ended up getting 230 fully guaranteed, and the Texans got a bunch of picks back for it. So what's going on with Jonathan Taylor? It's the market. Josh Jacobs just led the league in rushing last year. He had to sit out, hold out, and still get a couple million more. Saquon Barkley coming off one of his best years he got a million like it's tough right austin and got two he got two million more bucks in incentives yes i'm gonna be traded i want a deal

okay go look for one all right welcome back what are we doing oh yeah you know what we'll give you 1.7 million dollars in incentives you need to rush for 2,000 yards, Chris Johnson. Hey, it happened. You can do it. It happened. And we need 22 touchdowns out of it. Easy. You literally have no other options. And also, what happened to me here?

Then we're going to draft the receiver in the first round. What's that? We're going to draft the receiver in the first round and then make the quarterback the highest paid quarterback in the league. So, you know, it's a throwing league once again. That's just what it is. And these running backs, I hate it for them. I honestly do.

I hate it for them because, you know, Eckler's situation is obviously completely different than Taylor's, you know, as far as how the team is built and how much we need them. But it's tough for the running backs right now. Yeah, I'm intrigued to see how it all pans out. There's humans involved in all of this. So there's a chance that, you know, pride and ego and spite come into play. But there's also a chance that empathy, compassion,

and appreciation come into play as well. Let's remember that as we look ahead five weeks when Jonathan Taylor could potentially come back. And I assume we won't have to talk about it at all. No, none at all. The first four weeks as this whole season kicks off. Connor has a question for you about a team in a great spot seemingly. Yeah, D-Butt, you brought up the Ravens and Zay Flowers, or Lamar,

and actually, I just remembered D-Butt challenged me at a Madden yesterday, and I just want to let you know publicly here, I would kick your fucking ass, and we're not going to do that yet, but with the Ravens and Zay Flowers, I'm not sure if you saw the video of him rapping Kodak Black, but it was unbelievable.

When you see stuff like that, is it just immediate, okay, the Ravens are going to go on and rip off 13 games and possibly go to the Super Bowl because they're doing stuff like this? What's your reaction to seeing a team this juiced about a rookie wide receiver nonetheless?

The vibes are hot, man. It's great when guys just get together. This is Odell's first year on the team. Zay Flowers, obviously. Lamar Jackson and Zay been pretty much from the same area. When the last time I came on the show, a week or so ago, this was my AFC pick to come out of AFC. They got a first year offensive coordinator, so it's going to be different. They're going to be throwing the ball more. Lamar Jackson just got his money. He's going to be healthy. He's going to be, I think,

at that MVP level again level again man obviously these these type of things you know it makes you want like damn i wish we could have you know them in the jets maybe on hard knocks with you know just seeing how things seem to be over there in the ravens and we've all either covered or been around or played in the league for a while and we've all heard good things about the ravens culture whether you hate them or love them on the football field their culture has always been very highly respected and talked about. John Harbaugh has done a great job with that.

Drafting the right guys, bringing the right guys in, trading the right guys when it's time to get rid of them. So I love everything I'm seeing out of Baltimore right now. How'd you feel about name, school, signing bonus reaction to Zay Flowers there? Odell Beckham Jr. lost his mind. I think it's, they love that dude there, man. They love Zane.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they love him. Every time you see him, he's one of those kids, one of those young players. You see every time it's like he's smiling. He's out there doing his job. He's grinding. He's working. That was even before he got drafted.

It's always like good vibes with him. So that's one of those guys who come in and you don't think – you know, he's going to go out there and put in the work. That's the thing. When we came in the league, it was like, hey, rookie, you almost want to be seen and not heard. You know, you get out there, you get your job done. You know, league has changed a little bit more, but Zay Fenton right in.

I mean, I love every second of that shit, man. I can't wait to watch the boys get out there and ball for sure. The name, sign the bonus thing. You know, that's something obviously we do to every training camp, every year for rookies. I don't love it to see it on social media for certain reasons but uh i love to see those vibes once again with the team vibes yeah all those things are find outable if you want to really search for it but it getting released and just like here it is is certainly an interesting thing and we actually had a conversation about whether or not we should let it out. And it was like, well, they, I mean, the team did.

So it's like, it's not our decision. Well, I'm saying it's public information anyway. Yeah, but I'm saying a lot of things are public information, but people don't really like go find it. And then it kind of gets just like shoved. It's an interesting, it's an interesting thing. But all of our contracts are known by everybody. It's not a good thing.

It puts a lot of people in a bad position. So I appreciate that this potentially led to that conversation taking place because this has been something that's been a problem, I think, for people dealing with family and friends and targets and everything like that for a long time, everybody knowing the exact amount of money you are worth and also everything that's on your body. There's some stuff coming out of the Dwayne Haskins story. Yeah, crazy.

That is kind of this exact thing taking place. And it's not been legitimized, but you should look into that. That's one of those things that you should kind of look into. Speaking of things that we kind of have to look into, Jimmy G. Hey, did you hear this? Jimmy G, super handsome. Jimmy G knows I missed it. You didn't see?

Oh, dude, he was talking to Sports Illustrated's Robin Lundberg. Had a nice little split screen, you know? And Jimmy G seemingly didn't really mince his thoughts at all about how he feels about the Niners. And I did not expect this. Normally super high road shit all the time out of everybody. This was not the case. Here's Jimmy G talking to Robin Lundberg.

What did you make of the Trey Lance trade to Dallas? Weird situation. Been a lot of weird situations over there in San Francisco. Just to leave it at that. But, you know, I'm happy Trey got another shot, man. How do you think San Francisco's handled those quarterback situations? How do you think they've handled them? I think it's been messy.

I'll put it that way. Yeah, that's a nice way to put it. Yeah, messy obviously had his first tie last night against Nashville, but Messy is the way that old Robin Lundberg is describing the situation in San Fran. Jimmy doesn't correct him. Does this make you worry a little bit about what's going on behind closed doors in San Francisco with Bosa still out, or should we just say, Jimmy's not a part of that team anymore?

Who cares? Who cares? Who cares? I mean, yeah, that's one of those things. You know, whatever happens in this building, that's all that matters. Obviously, I still think right there, Jimmy G kind of took the high road, and anybody

that was watching that situation, you know, you had the guy, yeah, you signed him back on the contract, you had him, like, not being able to practice with the team or some shit like that. Different field, different field. Yeah, after a Super Bowl. Never heard never heard or some shit like that. Different field. Different field. Yeah. After a Super Bowl. Never heard of no shit like that. And it was kind of that situation was the grass is going to be green

on the other side type situation. You go and get Trey Lance, you know, top three in the draft. Everybody's talking about, you know, trading all the picks, getting them. It was a bad pick from the jump. Like, nobody had saw that much film. You fell in love with him with the off the field stuff, the intangibles, all that stuff is great, but you got to play football. You got to play football, especially if you're not playing

it at that high level. You got a guy who's went to an NFC championship, a Super Bowl, and he's just kind of like, all right, get the fuck up. Actually, we need you back because our guy got hurt, so now we need you back. All right, we'll get you out. It was a messed up situation for sure, but I still think right there Jimmy G took the high road.

Yeah, I guess he could have certainly been worse. He could have gone harder. Yeah, I don't know. I think like, hey, I'm pulling for Trey. You know, just a classic, cliche, bullshit answer that could have came. So I'm very appreciative of how Jimmy handled that, and I hope this continues to be a thing that everybody does now. It feels like people are a little bit more comfortable

with telling their actual, real, genuine feelings, which is good news, because as we learn more about people as opposed to a facade, I think we respect and appreciate them more, which is only going to grow the game. So I think all those cliche answers were bad, actually, back in the day for a long time,

and they're still going to be bullshit. We're just taking this one day at a time, all that type of shit. But him choosing not to do that, I enjoyed it. I love Jimmy. Huh? You said you love him. No, Pac said he sounded like – yeah, it seemed like they were cool for sure.

And, I mean, I love Jimmy. I've been rooting for him this whole time. Obviously, he can't stay healthy. That's been Jimmy's thing. When he's out there, he's a good quarterback. He's a quarterback you can win with. Now, in San Fran, you know, it's a huge year for brock purdy a lot of people you know are saying like you know just going there kind of almost crowning him um he had a great great end of the

year what eight nine games stretched down there at the end of the year this is a big big year now you've been the guy you got the book on him all right this is what he's good at this is what he's not you know let's figure him out now he's got a whole season to kind of get out there and run this offense. And obviously you moved on from Trey, so that's not lingering in the background. You got Sam Darnold, you know, backing you up. But it's a big, big year for Brock Purdy out there. Hakuna Matata with Bo Sassoon, you think, or what? You got to get that.

You got to get him in the building. That's the best pass rush in the league right now. You got to get 9-7 in the building. I saw something that said he's supposed to be available for the Steelers game. Sorry about it, Tom. But I didn't see anything about the deal getting done, so that's going to be interesting. I know the Boses, they don't play about their bread.

It'll be interesting to see. There's been a lot of projections that deals are going to get done. The Bosa deal is going to get done around this time. They're like, you're going to do training camp normally about a week, 10 days, two weeks out. You'll see that's when the deal to get done, the Bosa deal is going to get done around this time. They're like, you're going to do training camp normally about a week, 10 days, two weeks out. You'll fee. That's when the deal will get done. So now there's been a lot of people that are like,

it's getting close. The deal is going to be done by whatever it is. But why? I mean, like he said, like, sorry about it. But I mean, they are so fucking stacked at every position. Every single one. Yeah. They only got better on defense.

Ridiculous. Like, adding Hargrave is unbelievable. Who was there? position every single one yeah they only got better on defense like ridiculous they have like adding hargrave is unbelievable man who was there oh the uh cleland farrell who was a what top five pick now he probably shouldn't have been there but he's now on that d-line too like they're armstead yeah i mean i enjoy watching that niners team it's so fun that's why whenever i hear jimmy saying i'm like oh they play fast too so fast too. So fast. Fast. Greenlaw and Fanga. And they talk shit. Oh, yeah.

They are. It's not just like, all right, let's line up again and go to the huddle. It's like big hit, celebration. Don't hear about it. Yeah. And then we're back. And Fred, the way he plays. He's unbelievable.

Kinlaw. Kinlaw. Hufanga is going to be in the house that Troy built, so I'm sure he's not going to be motivated there. Steelers always play good week one. They do. Steelers always play good week one. Bosa's not even in the building right now.

Steelers play good every week. They stack, man. You lose to D.C., you lose to Mikko Reis, you get Steve Wilks to come in, who's one of the better defensive minds in the league. And then when you are a great defense like that and you got the offense on the other side of the ball who likes to kind of control the clock, you know,

throw inside completions, keep the clock moving, run the ball, so you can actually get over there and rest, go over adjustments, and then you come out and get back on the field, like that's a bad, bad combination for opponents. How about Chris Jones? You know, the Steelers. Hey, they got to pay him, too. And now he's kind of in that situation where there's other guys on the team.

You know, they're in the middle of kind of a dynasty-type run. There's other guys on the team. Take your team-friendly deals. But, you know, hey, I was the best DT in the league last year, in the league that Aaron Donalds is. And it's not like this is like a flash-in-the-pan type year for Chris Jones. He's been this guy, you know, for some years now. And if you look at that Kansas City defense, everything revolves around 95.

The run game, pass game, you need 95 in there. So they got to get that figured out. He said he's willing to sit out, you know, week eight. I think the tweet he put out and deleted. So we'll see if that actually happens. Oh, he deleted that? I didn't know he deleted that. I didn't know he deleted that. I didn't know he deleted that.

Yeah, we were talking about that bread, that bread. That's a lot of money. He's getting fined, yeah. There's a pretty good amount of cash coming out of his payment, future potential payment is disappearing. But we assume that will be negotiated in there. And to your point about Travis Kelsey and Patrick Mahomes both having team-friendly deals,

I mean, if you look at what just happened with hawkinson man travis kelsey slides down the list oh yeah of how high he is being paid in the tight end department he's going to go down statistically is the greatest tight end of all time he reworked his deal a couple years ago so they can continue to do this thing that's why the chris jones situation is so many different layers like you know v just saying that to chris and chris is probably like i don't care i don't i need to be compensated i appreciate that but it's not just the money bro it's like whenever they're being talked about how often does the defense get talked about and how often does chris jones get talked about barely he's the best the tackle in the game you said last year better than aaron donald and it's obviously football fans are big fans of him.

But when you talk about the Chiefs, it's not a Chris Jones conversation ever. So I think there's layers to it on his side too. So it's like that's a tough deal. Yeah, and the offensive guys, they're making a lot of money off the field, I'm sure. They're a lot more marketable off the field. You know what I mean? Like Chris Jones, everybody loves him,

but you're not going to see Chris Jones, you know, playing in a match or, you know, in big-time commercials or in these NFL. Like these are two of the faces of the league. We talk about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelsey. So they solid. And once again, it's always in that locker room. It's like, hey, as a man, as a player, you got to handle your business, you know, how you see fit.

So obviously I don't have a problem with how Chris Jones is handling him, but i i want to see nine five on that field to see you know how many how many kansas city can run up and if they can actually be like you know a dynasty dynasty would be so abnormal if we saw bosa hold out jones hold out jonathan taylor basically hold out that'd be crazy yeah brian burns with carolina hasn't been paid. He's holding, though, right? He's holding. Yeah, true. He's holding in the building. Christian Wilkins. He's holding, right? Yep.

He's also holding. He's in the building. But what if it is like, now, granted, it's all going to get figured out. Yes. We just assume. Right. Has to. It's got to be.

Good organizations. Too much money. Too much out there. Yeah. Too good. I mean, the Miami Dolphins, Christian Wilkins holding in or whatever. They paid a deal I'm in a couple days ago. They just paid a fullback.

Yeah. A fullback. Highest paid fullback, right? In the history of the league. Highest paid. More than Patrick Ricard. More than Juice. Oh, you should check over there in San Francisco.

The fullback just got paid in Miami. It's like Wilkins has been, we've been publicly hearing about him negotiating. It's like Miami's got two other big deals done. Wow, that's still popping off. Gumpy, you've got to love to see it. The team's coming together. Everybody's getting paid.

The boys are back. Yeah, everyone knows in McDaniels' offense you've got to have a great fullback. You have to. Highest paid for sure. Don't pay Wilkins, though. Take your time. Well, I appreciate that. The number two wide receiver was a wild request.

And then literally the next day, highest paid fullback in the history of the game. Does anyone know what the word fucking request means? No, yeah. It's just an ask. Not Dolphins fans, bro. Who gives a shit? Right now, in this exact moment, they do not. Yeah.

Because they're like, it would be insane to trade. It's like he did it. Untouchable. It's untouchable. Number two. Fucking untouchable. Number two. Fucking untouchable. I respect that. As a Dolphins fan, I respect you saying that.

But with that being said. We just drafted him six overall a couple years ago. He's coming off his best year. What did we just do with fucking Jonathan Taylor? I mean, what are we even talking about? The guy's fucking MVP two years ago. You're running back, Pat. No, we're going to pay him $17 million, I'm being fucking told.

Everybody's talking against themselves. I don't want to fucking hear it. That's Cap. That's Cap. I mean, we just going to pay him $17 million, I'm being fucking told. Everybody's talking against themselves. I don't want to fucking hear it. That's Cap. That's Cap. He's not. I mean, we just saw the market. We see what's going on in the running back market. No, Darius.

Who can pay $17 million? Nobody, which is what I think Chris Ballard has been trying to say this entire time. Yeah, what are we talking about? Why would they reset the market? Now, if he was holding out after that MVP year, that's a different conversation. I just don't understand. That was his third year.

I'm sure this Malky guy's got it figured out, and I do appreciate that. And if he gets a deal done, I don't know. Possibly the worst holdout of all time, timing and everything. That's what I'm saying. The entire strategy behind it is just if it works out, we're wrong completely. Okay?

Sure. Which could happen, and business does do that. That is something that could happen. But optically, with where we are right now, with how it has panned out, Colts look stupid. Jonathan Taylor deal looks stupid. This agent is hated by the entire city. I mean, and Jim Irsay.

Yeah. And if he's going to continue to do, we don't know if that's the truth. This is us just projecting what it looks like from right now. Yep. It's like, this is bad. This is a bad thing. This is just a bad business move.

But it might work out. And hopefully Jonathan Taylor, still the guy from two years ago. Right? That's what we're hoping? Yeah. Hell yeah, we hope. Because you look at this. Yeah, I'm optimistic. Pac-Man, you go on this Wednesday meeting and you

put up the game records. Who are the three game records on offense for the Colts right now? Anthony Richardson. Michael Pittman. We got it. Ryan Kelly. Yeah, but you got to remember, they're going to do

center eligible. That's right. Ryan Kelly. Zeke. Ain't no Zeke. We ain't got no Zeke at center, okay? Look, you got to have dudes, right? Jonathan Taylor, the last time we saw him healthy is a dude. Like, you look at all these teams that are at the top that compete.

Like, they got fucking dudes, you know, difference makers. And not to say that these guys can't become those guys, but right now, you look at our offense, you say, okay, Anthony Richardson, a guy who started 13 games in college, who we expect to have some growing pains, it's natural. That's the guy that we have to limit. Obviously, his arms and his legs. Who's he throwing to?

Who's going to get open? Who's going to be dynamic on the offense outside of Anthony Richardson? I don't see how as an organization, we can let Jonathan Taylor out of that building. Now, you have to pay him. That doesn't mean we got to pay him $17 million either, though. So you got to also look at the market as a business.

They got to repair that shit. Yeah, we got no game wreckers. But as a... Wild request. Number two, wild request. Wild. We got no game records. But as a... Wild request. Number two, wild request. Wild. We got no game records on the team. Hey, that's the Dolphins. That's the Colts issue.

The Dolphins, they got nothing to do with what you got going on over there. Bingo. That's why everybody, like Dolphins fans, are acting like the Dolphins... Yes. The Colts are the ones that are making the... They're giving up the only fucking real super talent, if still, right? Hurt. It's an injury that's been lingering

a long time his injury has been lingering he missed camp he missed camp it's like an ear infection yeah those those years who somebody had a t.j hawkins had it magically went away when it worked out yeah and a back that's the thing about the year like you know a little bit uh financial freedom your ears kind of perk up all that all that fluid out of there yeah they open up boom they just dip out of there i'm happy tj's ears okay yeah me too could you imagine having that for that long oh my god you're equilibrium trying to block oh fuck sorry you're about to say something and we went on an absolutely absurd important ear impression i was just sitting here listening what you're saying he was like this just look bad for the Colts and everything.

But he came out and said that he would play up under the original contract. That's first and foremost. Second of all, they won four games. You was the owner. I don't know. If DB was the owner, Connor was the owner, Ty, Tom, anybody in the building, I'm not paying a motherfucker if we only want a four game. Yeah, we're never going to be owners. It is a rebuilding

year. I'm paying a pack. But only reason why... You're not in the building. If he was coming off his year, yeah, I would pay him. You pay him right now. You pay him right now? For this year? Just for one year? So how much you pay him? And how much?

Once again, I'm not resetting the market. I know his injury, right? I know, okay, are you going to be – is it an injury where you could be back to 100% at some point? If it is, I'm cool with you sitting out the first four. Now, like you said, Pat, this is lingering. And I saw some videos of him even on the sideline not really walking. Now, if you can't walk to where you're not limping, that was weeks ago now. Where is he now? So if he's on the track, i talked eb i talked to him i talked to the training

staff and they said hey this is the injury we think he'll be back at this point i'm gonna i'm gonna offer him hey we'll put you at 13 14 man we just saw what jacob's got for one year how many years three four years you know you have the first two years guaranteed it is what it's like it's a young it's a young guy who it ain't like he had a bunch of injuries in his past he's a young guy who we've seen him be the best in the league at this position and look at the rest of the roster like it ain't like you like who else are you gonna come back and show something before you get paid i well nobody's to pay. What you doing with the money? So to disagree with like some things here,

we think the right answer, and we are not intelligent human beings, but you saying you want to agree to like a three, four-year deal, okay, that's different than what we think. We think they should boost his salary for this year and then just like, hey, can we meet in the middle somewhere for the salary for this year and then just like hey can we meet in the middle somewhere for the rest of this year no we're not gonna be able to get a trade done and i seems like jim's not gonna want to pay him for four years right now especially after that year it's like there has to be somewhere you can meet in the middle but then you start

talking about precedent being set and like how this whole thing's gone and like what happens the next time somebody's in this position it's, all those conversations start getting chatted about. And it's, like, what matters, what doesn't. What matters is if that guy's on the field, we're a better football team. Yeah. You'd assume. Game breaker. You'd assume.

But also, him just not being. If you're 100%. Yeah, him in the building not, like, is not good for a team that's being built right now. It's, like, there's so much shit in this. I hope he gets paid. Yeah, this. I hope he gets paid. Yeah, yeah. I hope he gets paid. I just think this was all very poorly executed to get to that point.

Jim wouldn't be saying the president. The president's been set with Tony Pollard, Josh Jacobs, and Saquon Barkley. I'm talking about paying a guy who does this in your building. You're rewarding, pretty much, the reaction. It's how they could view it. I'm not saying that's how they view it. I'm just saying that could be how general managers have viewed things in the past. That's business, though.

I understand what you're saying. It doesn't have to be business in this building, though. That could be business. There's business in the building because you haven't paid. What have you done for me lately? Oh, you're talking about why they shouldn't pay you. Yeah, because I'm being honest on the business side of the part of it. Like, four guys that had 1,000 plus yards this year that don't have a three-year contract

that's maybe a year older than him and playing on a one-year deal. So, there's no way that you can say, all right, it's good business for me to go and get this guy a three- or four-year deal or even give him $13 million. Because the guys who had 1,000 yards only give him 10 to 11 million. And you do business how business is being done and everything. We would like to see JT get 10 years, $150 million, and him be incredible. Boom. But what we're saying is we live in reality, though.

You know, like this is where we live yeah that's it that's those other guys they got davante adams uh you know you got you got a good a good situation over there in new york with the giants you got a good defense you got a good core good young quarterback you already paid again you believe in him in the future right now everything's a question mark, especially offensively for us. Defensively, we got some pieces. Super young cornerback group. Do we have a dynamic pass rusher? Shaq, we got to see Shaq get back to where he was. Zaire, we got Buckner up front.

We got some dogs around, but we need those guys. And Jonathan Taylor, when we saw him healthy, is a guy, was a guy. Could you imagine if we win with this team, that would be wild. That'd be sweet. I don't think the expectations are that we will, other than like, yeah, let's go win a Super Bowl. But that kind of works against the Jonathan Taylor deal, too, where it's like, hey, we're turning over everything here.

Like, it is a turnover, pretty much, of everything. And it's like, you don't want to be a part of it. It's just, there's so much shit. We hope he gets paid. Feels and it's like you don't want to be a part of it it's just there's so much shit we hope he gets paid feels like it's never gonna end chris jones he's gonna get paid right has to yeah has to bosa he's gonna get paid has to has to brian burns he's gonna get paid has to has to absolutely christian wilkins he's gonna get paid has to i believe so oh whoa i mean it's a little bit you know when you talk about those premium premium positions you know the pass rushers if you're an elite pass rusher elite quarterback elite receiver corner like those are like the quote-unquote premium receivers now uh chris jones is a d tackle but he's their best pass rusher as well so chris

wilkins he doesn't come off the field. He's a dog. He doesn't need to, you know, take a breath, two plays, you know, not he's a three down guy. He does everything you want. Super athletic. So I think he's definitely worth whatever he's asking for. But when you talk about Brian Burns, Nick Bosa, Chris Jones, you know, I think you are talking about, you know, kind of, you know, a step a different tier of guys. All right.

Well, good luck to everybody. We hope they get their money. We can't wait for the season to start with you, brother. Great to see you again. What's that thing you're wearing there? Oh, this is a Mercedes hoodie, AMG. We did our re-sign Lewis Hamilton. Congratulations, Lewis.

You're going to lose to Vanderstamp. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Vanderstamp's a dog. Vanderstamp's just going to lose to Vanderstamp. Yeah. That's right. Every single weekend. Vanderstamp's a dog. Vanderstamp's just going to beat you every single weekend, but I'm happy that you're in here going on dates with Rihanna.

Yeah. Got to build him a car. Got to build him a car that can compete. But Verstappen is – I mean, he's dominating right now. It's not fun for the casuals right now. I get it. It sucks. It stinks.

It's not his name anymore. Verstappen is dominating. It's not his name anymore. For stopping is dominating. It's not his name anymore. It's for stopping. And I seen you talking shit about the swings yesterday, too. The who? Me? Yeah, you.

Damn, I said the swing looked good. Oh. I didn't see that. You're talking about the hole-in-one challenge? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that Butler Birdies was chirping in the background. I didn't know that. You're talking about the hole-in-one challenge? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that Butler Birdies was chirping in the background. I didn't know that. I would never.

I'm seven, eight months into this game. I'm not in the position. Gertie had a nice – Bruce with the lefty. Connor Swain kind of stunk. Ty was smooth. Okay. Pat, you know, you was right. You had a couple that were –

I thought they were going. You know, everybody was on. Nick came in. Nick came out with the knee sleeves. uh pat well you know you was right i you had a couple that was i thought you know everybody you know everybody everybody was on nick nick came and they came out with the knee sleeves you know off the ones that tools came back there so hey i got respect for everybody gave pat you got this come on bro you changed my grip how you hitting him how you hitting him since you're going with the baseball grip yes it works does it work or not no no no no no i can't with the baseball grip? Yes, it works. Does it work or not? No, no, no. No, I can't do the baseball grip.

I enter a lot. But the thing you told me with the turn, the left turn, that definitely works. That's the answer. Lock it in. Remember forever. Golf is impossible. It's hard. Hey, when you get here, we got 10 of them for you.

What's your score? Another challenge. How many greens hit? How many greens stay? How many hole-in-ones? Right. Did Russ sand that thing down yet? Shout out, Russ.

Russ Green. We're going to need a little bit more sand. That green is supposed to be able to hold for 250. That's right. I mean, it certainly can hold if you're throwing, like, Victor Hovland. Yeah. High ones. Yeah. No, not even. hold if you're throwing like Victor Hovland. Yeah. High ones. Yeah.

No, not even. DB is hard. A lot of backspin. Jump it up there. It's tough. Some of the golf balls we're using, though, I don't think you can get actual backspin. No. But Bruce did bring in 40.

Crumbs off. Crumbs off. Thank you, Bruce. Appreciate it, Bruce. No problem spinning those. Tell you that much. That's why that guy's got a hole in one. And confirmed that.

Shout out, Foxy. Foxy's my first golf coach. Shout out, Foxy. He's my left foot down from the jump. Fuck. Well, the four dons of golf is actually Zito's. That's right. Zito's.

Zito, what is it? Head don. Head don. Foot don. Butt don. Slow don. Oh. I like that.

That's pretty good. Four dons of golf. That's right. Hell, yeah. I can't wait for the four Don's of football to start one week from now with the NFL, college football, big slate. Can't wait to dive in. Good luck to your Huskies tonight.

14 and a half point dogs. Yep. We don't have them. We cover. No, yeah, they are. No, cover. We cover, yeah. It's 14 or 14 and a half.

One of the two. Y'all going to cover over and under. Y'all only expected to win five and a half games this year. Hey, you know, that's the expectations outside the building pack i'll tell you it's only matter it only matters what's in those footballs and the expectations we have for us i just talked to the team a couple weeks so i'm ready to get after it what you're saying to boys hey fellas we can't get into a conference everybody wants a school we can't get into one everybody's talking notre dame as an independent we're an independent are we choosing to do it maybe not but now is the time to rewrite the story of the yukon huskies is that what you're saying to these boys you know pretty much we got

people in the in the positions of power that care you know they care now we got uh you know the got benedict as a d he's calling i don't know. You want a guy named Benedict in there. You do not. He's going to change. We'll be back. We'll be back. We'll be back. Don't worry about it.

We rebuilding too. We rebuilding too. I was about to say. Don't throw any stones over there. What are you talking about? I'm saying we rebuilding. No, we're going right into Happy Valley. And Garrett Green is running wild all over the Nittany Lions, brother.

What's the line in that game? 20 and a half. 20 and a half. Yeah, we're all taking them 34 and a half. Well. It's the word on the street. That's what everyone's saying. You said we, though.

You didn't say that. I know we all. No, I got West Virginia. You got a line, dude. Yeah. How about this? West Virginia has not announced a starting quarterback. And I've been saying this guy Garrett Green's name for three months,

that he's going to run wild. Don't even know if he's a starter. I have no idea. That's how much I fucking know. But I'll tell you what, the running back there, we paid him. Yeah. He's a player. He's a ball player.

Offense line's back. Happy Valley ain't going to be ready for us. Who should we look for in Connecticut's team? All level. All right. Wow. Whole team? All of them. All right. One whole team. Respect, dude. We just got running back. But I guess the whole damn team up there.

Tonight, I guess we're in. Has Bama named their quarterback yet? No. Ohio State did. They just did. We saw Georgia's quarterback at the end of the blowout. Now, Beck is supposed to be a dude. Like you said, a lot of quarterback moves.

It's hard to keep up with this shit now. Well, got to get it right. This guy's just a casual. Shouldn't be on college football. It's kind of like NFL football, not college football. Get him out. Welcome to Husky Nation, Coach Pagano. Is that the brother? That is.

Chuck's brother? Yep. Let's go Huskies. He's coaching a lot of Chargers, Broncos. Now he's coaching for UConn, John? Wow. Hey, he's out there. We got Pagano in there. Come on, man.

I did not know there was a Pagano in the building. That's big news. I heard there was an Orlovsky on a motivational video. Oh, yeah. I just now learned that there was a Darius Butler motivational speech on a Zoom a couple weeks ago. Now I'm learning that there's a Pagano in the building. Whoa. Plus 14.5 tonight.

You got it. Ladies and gentlemen, the UConn Husky. Nine-year NFL vet. Big brain. Host of the Man to Man podcast. Thank you. Thank you, man. And joining us now, ladies and gentlemen Is a author

A yinzer A hall of famer A man who inspired the entire city of Pittsburgh Whenever he wore the whistle As the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers Ladies and gentlemen You've seen him on TV for like the last 30 years, whether it was on coaching or with a microphone,

the electrifying yinzer that is, ladies and gentlemen, Bill Carr. Yeah! How are you, boss? How you doing, Pat? I'm good. Coach, I said some things to you last year whenever you got mad about Jeff Saturday getting the coach job, and I didn't like it. As the words were coming out of my mouth, I did not appreciate it.

Because, you know, you're a Yinzer. You're a Yinzer royalty. You're a hero of mine and my family's growing up. So whenever you buried Jeff Saturday and said this was going to end up terrible, I had to stick up for my guy. Now, they won one game and then lost every single other one. Gave up the largest comeback in the history of the NFL. It is not great.

We're a dumpster fire. So I would like to let you know, I acknowledge what I said wasn't accurate, and I didn't like saying it. I want you to know that. No, Pat, listen, I understand totally. You're talking about a teammate. I know Jeff is a good guy.

He was talking about the profession. I was talking about the process that they went through at the time. Jeff at the time had a chance to coach, that they went through at the time. Jeff at the time had a chance to coach, but he wanted to spend the time in the studio and also a chance to see his kid play college football. I understand that. It's a way of life when you get into coaching. And at times when guys like Frank Rank were let go and was fired, I think there was other people on that staff, Gus Bradley, Scotty Montgomery, who deserve the opportunity to see what they could do as part of their resume because they were there from day one at training

camp. They were there going through all the hours and early hours that was there. I believe that's what the process is about. Coaching is not easy. It's a lifestyle choice that you make. And sometimes people wait a lifetime for that opportunity. Sometimes it comes, unfortunately, at the hands of someone else getting fired. So I'm talking about the process. And I thought very strongly about the profession. It's not easy. And that was what I was talking about. You were sticking up for a teammate, a colleague. I get it. I was not offended by it. I also felt a responsibility to stick up for my profession and coaches and I got a lot of people that supported me and I got feedback from that so

it was about that and that's the platform I'm on at CBS is to say what I think is right and make sure that I bring some fairness to what other people may deem as something that is that took place well I appreciate that and obviously you're one of the greatest coaches of all time that's why you're a hall of famer and why you're beloved by not only your hometown pittsburgh but seemingly in every nfl market and on cbs i enjoy you and that suit at the tip of the table oh so nice i work in the room a little bit it's nice to see coach but let's dive in to what you just said there about coaching and the times and the hours like i know that i am not supposed to be a coach aj hawk who is normally

on here we've had open discussions like nah not supposed to be a coach at all the amount of hours and commitment and everything that kind of puts into place in traveling and moving and the families and the pressure and expectation it's it's a terrible gig it is the way to the world on your shoulders do you think in this modern era coaches are still able to coach and what do you think coaching looks like 10-15 years from now with the way we're headed in football I don't think it's changed at all Pat when I think when you look at it coaching is interesting I saw the clip that you had with Aaron talking about the greatness of the game, what makes the group football the greatest game.

He talked about competition and he talked about the fear of failure. And I think I would say that's very true as well with coaching. The thing I love about coaching is strategizing, bringing people together, trying to mold a team, navigate your way through a 16, 17 week season. And at the very end, try to find yourself and put you in a position where it's do or die, it's win or go home. And so that thrill is something that brings coaches together. And you're a teacher. Coaches are teachers. We're trying to bring a bunch of people together. I coached special teams. I first started in the National

Football League. I played special teams. I mean, you i mean you were punter i mean you were plum west virginia pac-man sitting there in the studio i remember talking to pac-man how many times he's a corner that pac-man played for us he was gonna be covering kicks as well and he knew that so i said you know but that that's what makes the game great because that's the the beauty of it is you got 53 guys you. You've got 46 guys, 47 on game day. Everybody has a role. And, you know, my feeling as I try to coach Pat is I want everyone to embrace that role, to be as good as they can be. And I wanted to walk in that field with a swagger, a bounce, a cockiness, maybe short of being a little bit arrogant.

I said, you know what? And the only thing I ask you to do is don't cross the line. What's crossing the line? Disrespecting the game, disrespecting the teammate and if you cross that line my job is to pull you back but man i wanted you to walk that line as close as you could i'd rather pull you back than you being too far away from the fray to cross so we did have a little chippiness about us when we play we had a little cockiness about us when we played. A little bounce in our step. That's how I wanted us to play every week.

And so I always try to make the game personal. God. Coach, still got it. Yeah. Yeah. You too. And obviously, you're Yinzer. We've been down to crafting.

Yes. And obviously, you're here. Are you coaching the Pittsburgh Steelers with that mentality? I think like Pittsburgh people bought into the team. This is our team. It's representing our city. It was a perfect fit. Obviously you're from there.

So you are one of the Pittsburgh people, but when a city and a team's attitude and mentality match each other, I think that's when it's really a beautiful thing. And the Pittsburgh Steelers have been able to get this right now from Noel to you to Tomlin. It's not easy as that in everywhere else. Why do you think the Steelers have been able to be as consistent with a mentality, a message, and in the head coaching department when seemingly everywhere else is struggling to do that except for like two, three places? You know, Pat, I think it starts at the top. You know, when Dan Rooney hired me, it was a family type of atmosphere.

You walked in there. Rest in peace. You know, I mean, it was, yeah, rest in peace for Dan. And now it's arts. And before Dan, it was the chief. And, you know, it was all about culture. It was about walking in there and it's about a selflessness. You know, they bought the team based on winning money at the racetrack. Right.

And so it was just, they lived on the North side. I mean, Mr. Rooney with the North Hills and North Catholic. And so it, you felt it when you walked in there and say, leave your ego at the door. Cause you know what? I don't want to hear it. You walk in here. It's about what you're willing to put up. What can you offer to put together the configuration and the collaboration that we're going to have? The personnel people to the person, the receptionist. We're all in this together.

We're all a Pittsburgh Steelers. The responsibility we have to represent this city, to represent this team with what it really means to be a professional and to be a hardworking blue collar. No nonsense, no frills competitive knock me down but i'll get back up because i'll be the most resilient thing you have ever faced and you know what that's that's who we were that was the obligation we had and mike has taken it and just i just gave it to him he's taking it run with it you left those iron cities in the fridge he has not drank them those things are going to have a little bit of sauce on them whenever those get cracked open.

Well, I got my face in the name of Iron City now. That's one of the great achievements I've made. I made a cover of an Iron City beer. Yeah. Pat, you've done a lot of great things, but until you get your face in the cover of an Iron City beer, don't tell me about what you've accomplished. I know.

I just felt this big right there i'm talking to a giant is it the mongo is it an og what is it uh iron city og it's not even no it's an rc it's not even ic light it's an ic it's a true ic wow hell yeah yeah yeah holy shit there it is look at you! Congrats, coach! Hall of Fame is good. This is great. That is amazing. Good for you.

I'm trying to work my ass up onto a Turner's T. You know what I mean? I'm trying to get onto a Turner's T. I see Iron City. What a collab there. That is brilliant. Another Yenzer. Tone Diggs has a question for you, Coach. First and foremost, thank you. I mean, my dad wore the goatee on Sundays just like

you. He had the pullover Steelers windbreaker just like you. So yeah, we go way back. But I wanted to ask you, because you were kind of thrusted into it. You had Tommy Maddox and you guys drafted Ben and Tommy started the season, so I don't think the plan was to play Ben as early as, as what happened. What do you think of rookie quarterbacks coming in now?

And they're basically all starting right away. Well, I mean, I mean, I, Kenny Pickett, I think when you look at what happened with him a year ago, he came in about midway through and, you know, they started with, you started with the guy backing them up. I can't even think of his name right now. Mitch. Mitch Trubisky. Mitch started the season, then Kenny came in.

I think you've got to be really careful. I think I go back, and I know Anthony Richardson's starting right now in the Indianapolis Colts. Man, their best player, Jonathan Taylor, is not going to be there for them. I think that's the best thing you can do with a young quarterback is don't ask him to do too much too early. I think if you can play defense, you can run the football, let him get a feel for the game.

Playing quarterback in the National Football League from college to pro, number one, the complexities that you're going to go through week in and week out. The speed of the game that you're going to go through week in and week out. So it's very hard to get a feel for that. And just, you know, the quality of teams that you go through, I mean, week in and week out. You come from college where you play maybe three or four big games a year. Every week is a big game here.

And you're going to get the best of the best. Coach, Coach, Urban Meyer said every week is Alabama. Right? He's the best. Coach, Coach, Urban Meyer said, every week's Alabama. Remember that? Yeah. Right? So I just think bringing these guys along in a manner with you don't want to destroy their confidence. I like what Matt Canada did. If you think about Joe Burrow his first year,

they put him in the shotgun. That's where he was in college. And he was throwing a ball 35, 40 times a year. Got hurt. He couldn't even finish the season. The next year, what they do is Zach Taylor, start putting him under the center, running the football a little bit more. And all of a sudden, now the running game complemented that. And then all of a sudden, he's evolved to where he's at. I think Matt Akaneda did that near the end of last year with

Kenny Pickett. Started running the ball a little bit, put him under center, a little bit of the play action. You saw in the preseason, He's starting to feel more comfortable right now. He's been able to process things better. And I think that that's the thing that you want to do is bring him along slowly and don't destroy their confidence. And sometimes if you throw them in there and try to do something, you know, ask them to do too much too early, it could stunt their growth. Yeah. Because once somebody loses their confidence, it's over. Like we're, we saw it with Mariota seemingly this year in preseason.

In that first game, it's like that guy seemingly has lost his moxie right there. That is not something that you can regain. You'd hope a young guy would be able to get through it, but if you see ghosts, that becomes a tough thing to get past week in and week out. That's coaching too, Pat.

That's the part of that. So I love about that is how much do you give a guy? When Ben came on, he started with week three for us. If you watch week three through week eight, he was probably throwing the ball 24, 25 times a game. We were running the football, playing good defense. We were winning. But as he got more comfortable in the offense,

as he started to process things a little better because it was repetitive plays that were coming in, he got more comfortable in the offenses, he started to process things a little better because it was repetitive plays that were coming in. He felt more comfortable. We felt more comfortable giving him more and more. And you can just see the evolution of him from week one, year one to year three, when,

when a year and even year two, when he won the Superbowl. So I think bringing people along, let them earn the right to do more, but being put them in a position where they're comfortable and make sure that they can process things. Don't throw too much at them too fast. Yeah, and if you're Shane

Steichen, you just got a head coaching gig for the first time in the NFL. You're doing great. What are you going to deal with? Well, there's guys gambling on the own team, against their own team last year. There's people late to meetings, late to treatment. So you're going to have to fix that whole thing.

And then also, by the way, best player, not happy to be here. That's tough, coach, right? Shane's got to balance a lot of shit here almost. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I think he's just got to take it one step at a time and prioritize what's important. And I would go back to the same thing. It better start with what you have on the inside with the culture and

it's talking about holding people accountable and setting up making sure people are held accountable whether that means showing up to a treatment on time to meetings on time you know if i had a 205 i was supposed to be on your show 205 but clearly i apparently I came on at 2.15 so I said you know as a player if you had just said to me Pat 2.15, 2.15 is fine so if I have a 10 o'clock meeting I expect you there at 10 10.10

what time is this 2.05 meeting what time is this 2.05 call we apologize 100% on us that carries down to all the other things that you do and it's just it's about just holding people accountable not that you're not flexible that you know things don't come up and that you work with people because individually you're going to have a lot of different people there in different parts of their contract to be insensitive to that

you know some people just signed the extension they feel very comfortable some people in the last year of the contract some people don't even want. They feel very comfortable. Some people know last year the contract. Some people don't even want to be there. And maybe that's we're talking about the case with Jonathan Taylor. Man, just be sensitive where everybody's at. And I think that's the most important thing with professional athletes is let's understand these are guys. These are the best of what they are coming out. And try to bring them together so that they can understand a degree of sacrifice they may have to make, but also it's done with a degree of respect and empathy that we can go through with knowing that every situation

is uniquely different. And that's the challenge as a head coach. There's no manuscript because every building you walk into, there's going to be certain challenges. And so trying to understand the dynamic of the building, the dynamic of your team, while at the same time, making sure you have a vision for what you want your football team to be that's what you're trying to navigate that's what you're trying to build and that's really what is great about coaching is that you're a part of that process tool but there's a lot of people that aren't good at it i mean what was the number like 200 how much i think it was 800 800 million dollars or something was being paid to fired

coaches around the nfl last year with contracts that were still going, which is great news. Guaranteed contracts. Get all the money you can get. Love it. Isn't that a whole thing? But it's hard to win, and there's no patience anymore right now. There's zero patience. That's the thing.

Right. That's the thing. People don't have patience anyway, and I think that's the thing that happens with some of the owners that are coming in. You say, why about the Roonies? think that's the thing what happens with some of the owners that are coming in you say why why about the roonies they understand that like it it is part of the process is is going through that learning curve and some you know you sit there and you you look at coaches and um you know i was talking to mike the other day where i saw him at the uh um at the hall of fame we sat down one friday night we still had a chance to talk probably for the first time since he's taken over.

And we just start talking about where it is in the coaching profession that he's so much better a coach now than he was when he first got there. My year, year one, I was just trying to figure out the dynamic of the building and try to win games along the way, understand my team, even understand my assistant coaches. And that's the other thing for a head coach is, who are you aligned to? Well, be loyal to this the only person you have to be loyal to is your owner because they brought you in there to win a championship so sometimes

you're going to have to tweak sometimes you're going to have to make change and those are the things that you have to be able to navigate you got to be able to understand that's why it takes a coach give them three years i've always said give a coach three years. And in the three years' time, if you're not trending upward, if you don't see a sign that you're getting any better or that a plan isn't taking place in terms of trying to create a direction, a culture, then I get it. But, man, those first three years, it's a lot of a learning curve,

and every building is different, and it takes a lot of support people from a standpoint of personnel, from coaches to players and trying to get that right dynamic. Think about Zach Taylor coach. I mean, that first year they were terrible. They earned Joey Burrow. They earned Joey Burrow by being so bad. And it was like, this guy's bad, but he won't get fired because the Brown family is not going to pay a contract to a coach that ain't going to be coaching. Like that is why that's what people were saying about him him. This guy would not have a job if he was on

any other team. And then now it's like, expectations are to win the AFC North, expectations are to win the Super Bowl. It's like he got his team in there, his vision in there, and we're all very lucky for it because that Bengals team is incredible to watch. Coach, hey, I know you're doing TV and all that shit. You're a coach though still, huh? Is there teams that have reached out? Oh, down through the years, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say every year, but pretty much very often. And then what happens? You just don't want to commit to the whole No, you know what? No, I've been there. I guess I got a little taste of normality when I stepped down. just don't want to commit to the whole no you know what no i i've been there you know i guess i got a little taste of normality when i stepped down uh oh this is what humans are like

wow you mean there is an off season oh i can travel and so um yeah so i i i've uh i've been able to enjoy the off season and at the same time, when I lost my wife three years after I stepped down, I stepped down because of her and met my current wife. I started thinking about going back. I just said, I'm good. Plus, I really enjoyed being at CBS. It gave me a little bit of my fill during the season. I've been able to watch football with a bunch of football guys,

with Boomer and Phil and Nate and JB. And so we sit there every Sunday and watch every game. I talk to a lot of coaches around the league, GMs around the league, just giving my feedback, what I see. Because sometimes what you see isn't always what's really taking place. I'm still very, very involved throughout the league. But I'm more on the periphery because i just you know i i love the game pat i love the game i love to see guys get opportunities i'm trying to

see why we can't get more of the guys like scotty montgomery's and eric the enemies and get some of these guys get a chance to become a head coach so i guess that's why we got really passionate last year with jeff and so i just i think it was a process i just didn't think you should be skipping the line and jumping in front when other people are sitting there. Like you said, you man, it's, it's a lifestyle. You don't see your family. You're working 70 hour a week jobs. There's no guarantee that you're going to be there outside of your contract, which may be one or two years. If you can get aligned with a good head coach, a lot of times that's, that'll give you the stability that you may want, but that doesn't

always take place. So I understand the profession and great respect for the profession, great respect for the game. And so I know we're trying to make it safer. I just don't want us to get to the point where we're playing flag football. Oh, yes. It's a good pivot. That's the only thing I want to say. It's a good pivot.

So let's talk about this because I think why Pittsburghers loved you so much is because, like, and you talked about this, like, yeah like yeah there's gonna be a toughness about like our team we're we're representing a tough city here like this is this city every every person from this city pretty much thinks they are a tough person like that is that is what they want to be represented as that is what they want to be this is what it is so whenever you think about football and how they were changing a little bit, less practices, less OTAs, a strike zone on a quarterback, there's rules changing to open up tight ends to make it very,

very difficult in the middle of the football field. And it's good for tight ends, great for tight ends, but make it hard to make plays in the middle. It got to a point where I think every football fan was just scared to death, to your point, about like, if they make this rule change, they're going to make this rule change. If they do this, what does it stop at? Do you think the future of football is still going to be tough? Do you think it's in a safe place?

that we've recurred over the last 50 years are going to scare people into maybe taking away something that we love about football which is it's a gladiator physical tough sport and i think that's why it's popular do you get worried about that it sounds like you do i do i think roger goodell has done a very good job of making it safer i think that they were constantly looking at ways to make more padding on the helmet, making sure to eliminate the concussions. Baseline testing has been a part of everything that we're doing right now.

Maybe getting a point to where it's such a great industry that's earned so much high revenue that maybe we can get the surfaces to all be the same. I really do believe that has a lot to do with it as well. Find a way to make all the surfaces the same. Because when you think about it,

these guys are practicing on one surface, playing on another surface. And then next week it could be somewhere else and give you a surface. I'd never even played on when I go to another team. So if we can even that out, then finding footwear that can match the surface, I think that would do it. The heads and the helmet, I think we're acclimating to that.

I really do. I just know I go back and I go talk with Mike about that in Pittsburgh, and he had a very physical camp. He went live a lot. And you see the way they played in the preseason. Come on, we'll see what happens if it transitions into the regular season. I think it will. I think they're a tough team. They want to get back to running the football and being kind of a tough defensive

football team. That's how they play. That's what you get in Pittsburgh. That's why I got tough punters wear cut-off shirts like you guys. This is partially your fault. It's partially your fault. Yeah, you should know that. But I still do get concerned.

I see a Pro Bowl and we're playing dodgeball. Come on. I mean, really? I mean, seriously. I mean, dodgeball, even the Pittsburgh dodgeball was a kind of, we try to hit people with dodgeball. It hurts you. It is an intriguing little dilemma because of how much money is coming in.

They don't want to stop a cash cow. But also, the game is a cash cow because of what's possible. So Roger Goodell does not have an easy job. I understand that. And there's a lot of doctors and scientists and numbers that say a lot of things. And I think you said something in there. I think it was your previous answer, but you just referenced it again, talking to Tomlin. You said it's the first time you've really sat down with him and got a

chance to chat with him was at the hall of fame. Was there beef between you two whenever he becomes the guy? No. Why do you think that's the case? Because schedules? We've talked, but no, it's respectful space. It's respectful space. You know, and I, and when I took over for Chuck,

I had a meeting with Chuck and Chuck just wanted to just say, you know, Jay, you know, I got on a plane with them and it's just, hey, Chuck, just to tell me like Tommy, you know, you have Neil O'Donnell and Bobby Brister. What was it like to work with both of them? Which, who'd you like? They're both good quarterbacks. Okay, I know they're good quarterbacks, but was one better than the other one? They're good guys. Okay, well, so much for that question. So tell me about Mr. Rooney and was it hard working for him?

He's a good owner. I know he's a good owner, but it was like, who did you have to go through a certain person? It's a good building. I'm going like, okay, I'm getting absolutely nothing here. And so basically the whole conversation the rest of the way goes, so how is your family, Coach? Where are you going to live?

I go, okay, I'm going to live in Fox Chapel. Family's good. I got three daughters. You know, I go, you know, is there like anything that I should know about Pittsburgh or like anything within the building? It's a good city. You grew up there. You know, I'm going, okay.

So we landed. I go, okay okay i basically just got nothing from chuck and i go you know i figured up because you know my takeaway was you figure it out you do it your way you know what the history is you know what you're walking into and what your tradition has been what the expectations are but do it your way and actually when, when I stepped down, Pat, one of the things I said to Mr. Rooney, and we had Ken Wisenhut, we had Russ Grimm, and both very good candidates. And I said, listen, I think they're both excellent candidates to take over, but you may also want to consider what you did when you brought me in. You brought me from the outside, a set of fresh ears, ears and eyes. And I said, so let somebody else come in here that

maybe did like I did, try to figure it out for themselves. You know what you're walking into. You know, the mystique is there. The tradition is there. The history is there. But man, put your thumbprint on it. And so when Mike came in, he picked Mike, all I did was leave him a Larn City beer and just said, good luck and um you know it was we talked periodically um but not much and um we've talked more now as it's 15 16 17 years later um but we talked periodically through and i'd see him when i go back there and just nothing but respect i'd sit down in his room like we'd sit down like We're you at with the family? It's more of that because he was a good football coach. But it's just navigating the personal life as being a head coach in Pittsburgh.

It's not an easy thing to do. So you know that. I mean, you grew up in Plum. And to anywhere you go, you're going to have to be that. So it's just try to create a little bit of a little bubble around you which i was able to do and in fox chapel lived in the same house for 15 years daughters went to high school there they helped two of them graduate from fox chapel and they went from kindergarten to fox chapel right there so it was you know um it's a great place to raise a family it's a great

place to coach. But you, you know, you just got to keep winning. Yeah, I definitely got to win. And they've been doing that. Obviously no below 500 seasons for coach Tomlin since he's taken over, which is obviously absurd and incredible.

Still looking to get back to where they are. They might have it now. You know, that Fox chapel place, all those kids hated me. Every one of them. Why? I'm just a white trash kid from Plum. I think I talked a lot of shit though too i mean you know what i mean i i had to do that

that may work that may be where it started right there yeah sometimes yeah well you know i i didn't i i grew up in crafton i didn't like plum either so like whether you were boxchopper okay so because you you were a trash talker and that kind of always brought out the best in me. I just love to see people trash talk. Yeah, me too. I mean, what do you want? I know, but that's okay. That's why I made it personal, Pat.

That's what I like to make things personal. Pac-Man has a question for you, Coach. What's up, Coach? Pac-Man. How you doing? I'm doing good, Pac. How you doing? I'm doing good, Pac. How you doing? I'm doing good.

My question is, we come from that tough-nosed background coaching, but up in Washington, we had a couple guys that's talking about Eric, the enemy that he's coaching too hard, goes back to the head coach. Yes. Have you ever had that situation where a player comes to you as a head coach talking about coaches being too hard on me? And if they did, what would be your answer to them? Professional football.

Well, you know what, Pac-Man? I think that's the one thing I found is that the one thing about coaching is you're a teacher, but you're working with the players. And I learned that. I played and went right from playing to coaching. I mean, I was 28 years old. I went from being a linebacker with the Philadelphia Eagles to coaching special teams with the Cleveland Browns

and coaching guys that I just played with three years before that. And I think that you've got to be respectful of each guy. I talked about this before. I And, you know, I think that you got to be respectful of each guy. And I talked about this before, I mean, you want to push them, but man, not everybody, you can treat everybody the same way. Some guys need it. Some guys need it. Some guys will resent it. Some guys will, you'll turn them off. And so you have to know the guys need a pat on the back and the guys need a kick in the butt and i think that good coaches are like good teachers that everybody learns the same somebody people can learn verbally some people can need it to see visually so coaching is the same way if you don't treat everybody the same okay but you have

to teach everybody the same you treat them try to keep the parameters in there so i just think there's and i've talked to eric even about that about the fact of just you know there's a fine line between pushing some a team but where the push comes there's got to be a little give too i pushed our team i gave them back too i just all of a sudden we're done you guys with the afternoon's off let's go see a movie um you know just you know it's a little bit of give and take works, particularly at the professional level, because they're not, everybody's the same. You got 34-year-old people in the room with three kids and a 21-year-old in there who's

got money in his pocket for the first time. So the dynamics are going to be different in that room. I just asked everyone to make the same sacrifice, the same commitment, and then have a group of people within there that you can understand, leaders that you have, that you can trust and get a feel for the pulse for the locker room, a pulse for each position that you're talking about so that you can maybe nip some things before they become problems. So, you know, what you hear on the outside, again, some people, you know, that's probably with today's social media yeah that's our people gripe they control no well no listen i'm part of it too yeah we're part of the problem coach we're part of the problem every time we say we'll say something it's like well that's our fault actually yeah that's you know you're i guess you've been in longer than us though yeah

definitely your fault yeah no i i guess that's why sometimes you sit there on tv that's why i said like what you hear the noise on the outside sometimes is a lot greater than the noise on the inside. You guys all know from playing there. Pac-Man, Pat, you know that. AJ knows that. Sometimes on the inside, they're saying, what? On the inside, you can navigate it because there's a brotherhood that's in there.

There's a camaraderie that's in there. There's an understanding. There's a culture. Particularly, there's a brotherhood that's in there. There's a camaraderie that's in there. There's an understanding. There's a culture, particularly as a culture. I always had an open-door policy, and I always said one thing. Come in and ask a tough question just to get ready for the tough answer. Why am I not starting? Because I don't think you're the best option I have right now. Sorry.

Okay? All right, thanks. Any other questions? Anything else? Now, did you treat every ref the same? Felt like you did. Felt like you treated every ref the exact same. I want to let you know, Coach,

I don't know how often you guys talk about refereeing and officiating on your show, but us, we're a big-time, I don't want to say the officials hate us, but boy, we will, because they're so important to the outcome of games. So important. They make decisions that affect jobs, careers, legacies, hate us but boy we will because they're so important to the outcome of games so important they they make decisions that affect jobs careers legacies everything and it's like there's no

questions asked to them afterwards and i think the way you would get fired up not only would fire the city up in fans but your your team sees that and it's like this guy feels the same way that we feel i want to let you know I appreciated the way you talked to the refs, even though I assume they weren't necessarily as grateful for all the actions. Well, you know what, Pat, and a large part of that really was sometimes

when things are going awry, you have to be the calm in the midst of a storm, right? Sometimes you have to be the storm to get people to wake up. So sometimes I use the officials to kind of create the storm. Oh, like a hockey fight. Like a hockey fight.

Almost like, well, sometimes it's just like, you know what? I didn't mean to ever show up. No, that's a terrible pitch. That was my God bless Gordon Carter. That was wrong of me to do what I did. Of course, of course. You've admitted it. You've moved on. It's all of me to do what I did. Of course, of course. You've admitted it. You've moved on.

It's all right. I did. I did. It was a great teaching lesson for my daughter because she said to me after the game, Daddy, you were so good by putting that pitcher in that official's pocket because he was wrong. I go, yes, Lauren, he was wrong, but your father was wrong.

Two wrongs do not make a right. Don't show people up like that. So it was a great teaching moment for me. So I used that as that moment. Oh, thank you, Colin. Way to go, Colin. Way to go, Colin. Way to go.

So at the expense of Gordon McCarter, but anyway, it's okay. But you know what? Honestly, sometimes it's just, you know, it's okay but um but you know what honestly sometimes it's just you know it's the passion it was isn't i just want to make sure they knew it's important to me as it is to you you know so i just want you to know like like i i was going to stick up for our team i was going to stick up for and sometimes again you cross the line you cross the line get over here but man i wanted you to walk that line i needed to walk that line So it was me that had to be, if I'm going to talk to talk, I had to walk the walk. And so I was always constantly doing it, trying to create the

energy, the focus, and the ability to understand this, where we are, how important the game was, how important it was to be able to do the little things at the little missing a little thing. It's going to create missing a big thing. i love it and that moment there that you used to teach your daughter we're just running it here in the background more hilarious than i remembered first of all your fucking mustache oh stupendous stupendous that starter jacket oh my god the hair and then you this is back in the day where actually had to print those things off so you thought you were right and then they printed it things off so you thought you were right and then they printed it out and then you knew you were right and then it was a full on because i i told

kevin green i told kevin green and greg lloyd okay okay don't don't let me stay who was out there if there's somebody was out there i'm not going to sit there make a fool out of myself they go no no one left the field we had 11 guys then someone came up and handed me a picture and like oh now i was like really mad. So that gave a great halftime talk right there. And we came out the second half, and Jim Miller threw two pick sixes. And we got beat by 30 points. Really rallied the boys.

Really rallied the boys. I swear to God, it was one of the best halftime talks they've ever given. Yeah, well, you know, sometimes the message just doesn't hit until the next week. Yeah. You know, sometimes that's going to be the way it goes. Coach, we appreciate your time, man. Thank you so much for everything, obviously. And thank you for the words today.

You got us ready to run through a wall like four different times. You're always going to have it, Coach. Well, thanks, Pat. And listen, good luck to you. Good congratulations on your success and everything you've got moving forward. Your Saturday gig with the college game day, it's awesome. Listen, any time a yinzer can come from plum to get to the point where he can wear the muscle shirt right now and stand up and say whatever he wants to say, man, you've broke some boundaries.

I like it. I'm proud of you. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. It means a lot coming from you. Tonight, NC State-Yukon, 14.5-point favorites. Yeah. You see that?

I know. Do you know the team? I know the team. As a matter of fact, I'm going on the Ring of Honor at the end of this month against Louisville. Wow. So they're putting me in there. Thank you. I'm very, very proud of that because that is the place I went to school there.

I made a statement. I went down there as a boy from Grafton. I left there a man. So that was NC State is a very, very special place to me. Is that where you birthed the mustache? Oh, the mustache. You can go back. There's a couple clips.

The mustache was on there back then, yes. It was grown there, yeah. Yeah, the thing's beautiful. That's my boy to man. That's where he goes. That's basically a visualization of it all. You're the best, Coach. Will you come on our show again?

Yeah, I mean, sure, if you ask me. That's very cool. That's good. We'll keep that in mind. Ladies and gentlemen, Hall of Famer Bill Cowher. Thank you, buddy. Yay, Coach! That was awesome.

Unreal. You were sticking up for a teammate As soon as he saw my clip He was like, Pat has to say this He's wrong He's completely wrong and he's going to be proven wrong It's going to be a disaster He has to do it

I get it, I appreciate that he saw that That was sweet That was cool Seriously, legend He still got it I appreciate that he saw that. That was sweet. Yeah. That was a cool convo. Yeah, seriously. Legend. Hey, the motherfucker, he gets you ready. Yeah. He still got it. He started giving that speech.

Yeah. Thinking about football while he was talking. I'm saying not every year, but yeah, most years people are like, hey, Bill, you want to coach again? Or how about you? Did we know Tony had this book? I didn't. I had no idea.

Me neither. This thing just popped up out of nowhere. This is- It's signed by Coach Gower. What? Are you kidding me? Tony. Wow.

Tony. Is that what it says? Yeah, Tony. Tony. Easy to read? It says Tony. Enjoy the read. Oh, I thought it said easy to read.

Like, hey, Tony, even a buffoon can read. Yeah, you saw the E. Enjoy the read. Yeah, just like the back of this shirt earlier. I thought it said something. Bingo. I didn't know what it said, but I thought it said something. It does.

I just learned a lot. It does say something. Yeah, but it didn't say what he thought. Yeah, bingo. That was like two minutes before the show started. I got pretty fucked up real quick. It was over him and there. Wait a minute.

Kerry, you want to wear that? Sweet. Say whatever you need to say to me, man. It's all good. Let's go to the phones. Let's go to Cole and Indy. That was cool. Yeah.

Nick was waving a terrible towel back there. We should have asked about fucking Myron Cope. Oh, man. Double yoink. There it is. Yeah, Z asked me, he's like, where's your fucking towel? I said, it stays in my safe until Sunday, and it comes out for games, and it goes back in the safe.

And you know I wear that same disgusting t-shirt that I wear every single year, even if we don't win the Super Bowl in that shirt. It's coming back next year because the shirt's supposed to win a Super Bowl. That's right. That was my 11-0 Shaleve shirt. You need to frame that thing if you do win a Super Bowl. Shaleve. Shout out.

Pittsburgh's a hell of a city, man. It really is. Bill Cowher's like the perfect head coach at the time in which Pittsburgh was Pittsburgh. Perfect head coach. I love what Noel did to him, and I love that he kind of returned the favor to Tomlin. Yeah, bub. I could tell you a lot of things, but also, this is your time, not mine.

Like a smart people thing. Yeah. They figure it out. They figure it out. That was, I like that they sat down, though, and just like, what if, so, how do you feel now? 17 years later, what are your thoughts? Any decisions you regret?

And then Tomlin just talking about the expectations of Steelers fans. Because Steelers have a massive fan base. Massive. And they are mostly Yinzers. And Yinzers, very patient. Oh, yeah, sure. Aren't good at just sawing you down. Low expectations usually year over year.

Yeah. Don't talk shit. Won't openly say how they feel. Nope. No. So that's an easy team to coach. Nope. You lose two, three games in a row.

This guy fucking forgot how to, this guy doesn't even know football. Get him out. You got some guy sitting at home who's like, we run the ball, just like we did with Bettish. Now we got Naj, what's Naj doing? And you get a chance to see it on social media now more than ever. Oh, yeah. But Bill Cowher's like, thank God.

Everybody's starting to witness this. It's impossible to keep in. Yeah. It really is. And I bet you Tomlin feels the same way. He handles it pretty well. He does. He's got an unflappable confidence, it feels like.

You have to have that. He's always the same. You can't tell any difference no matter what. Let's go to Rob in Chicago. Rob, what's going on, pal? Hey, Pat. What's up, boys? Hey, what's going on, Rob? Hey, Pat. What's up, boys? Hey, what's going on, Rob?

What do you want to talk about? So, Pat, I saw you tweeted last night about 92,000 people packing a football stadium in Nebraska to watch a volleyball game. Hell yeah, Rob. Unreal. We got a chance to chat with that with Joe Theismann. Unreal is a great, great descriptor there. And I guess this is something that I should have known about happening, right?

We should have known this. This is a historic event taking place in Nebraska. I played volleyball in high school. It was my favorite sport that I played. Love the sport of volleyball. It's sophisticated. There's strategy. There's a lot of athleticism in there.

And there's moments to lose your mind. Like when somebody spikes one and it just hits the ground to lose your mind like when somebody gets when somebody spikes one and it just hits the ground lose your mind when somebody blocks somebody roof somebody lose your mind there's a lot of joyful moments i've always thought it should be a bit more popular than it is now our high school volleyball team we used to fill up the basketball yep gym and there was fights because of our volleyball games, which seems to follow the Fox Chapel conversation with Bill Cower. I mean, it's just a nonstop thing in Pittsburgh. But, like, volleyball, great sport.

I did not know that Nebraska had a team, a women's volleyball team. Very good. Seemingly. Yeah, great. Not just good, great. And I appreciate the fact that everybody in Nebraska was like, yep, let's do this. I saw people tweeting, like, a couple other schools could do this if they wanted to.

We'll do it then. Yeah. You think you could get 92,000 people to show up for an event for something? That is not normal. Like people see football teams do this or like Taylor Swift do this or like Beyonce do this, and they just think this is a normal thing. If you build it, they will come. They say that is not the case.

People choose not to do shit all the time the fact that 92 000 people were like yep we're going to support our team and the girls i think showed up and had the moxie swagger what a moment congrats to all of them and congrats to volleyball the sport as a whole yeah getting some recognition because nick sent me some things last night volleyball's ratings good here we go. Like climbing. Super fun. Everybody thought pickleball was going to be the sport that kind of takes over.

But watching pickleball kind of stinks. There's a couple players that are electrifying to watch. But mostly pickleball is not fun to watch. Fun to play, but as a spectating sport, not great. Volleyball actually drives a little bit of numbers. Volleyball now is filling up fucking football stadiums. What if volleyball is the sport, and what if we look back on this

moment like 10 years from now, it's like, hey, the Nebraska women's volleyball team was the one that kind of opened everybody's eyes about the sport being maybe that sport that can crack in and crack the code of people wanting to watch and enjoy it. I think it was a big moment last night. It's awesome to watch during the Olympics, and everybody loves beach volleyball during the Olympics, and it's super fun to watch and enjoy it. I think it was a big moment last night. It's awesome to watch during the Olympics, and everybody loves beach volleyball during the Olympics,

and it's super fun to watch. And not to bring it back to football, but this is why when Nebraska had coaching job was open, and they were like, oh, well, Nebraska's been shitty football for years. It doesn't matter. That fucking school and fan base shows up for pretty much fucking everything. That was remarkable. So cool.

I understand that there was a lot of people in those stands that had never seen the women's volleyball team. Well, that was a spark, too, is I think they did either a country concert afterwards or before it, I can't believe. So maybe some of those fringe people who didn't necessarily want to go to a volleyball game would be

interested in going to the concert, but then you go see It's like, oh, we got a team? This is fucking awesome. We got a team. Yeah. Let's go. I love it. There's no way every school could do this or any other school, really, because, I mean, this happened in the NBA.

Like, Steph Curry, when they went to San Antonio, they played in the Alamo Dome, and that was still only 57,000 people. Not only 57,000. It's the biggest basketball game ever, but 90,000. So many people. So many people. So many people. Choosing to go do this. Yeah.

You know, like that. You got to get humans to leave their homes. Cancel plans. Prime time spot. Go sit in the middle of the week. Yes. Sit in a very tight, confined spot, some of them, and just go do it. It's like, that is very impressive.

So cool. And tonight, Rule got a chance to debut the team against old Minnesota. BJ Fleck saying, Matt Rule, welcome to the Big Ten. You know, the off-season conversation about BJ Fleck was, this guy has a banking system. Yeah. He got Fleck coins. How dare he?

People are manipulating things. How are you doing? Elite. I don't care if you're not good. You're elite. Better say it. Welcome. You're lucky to be here.

How are you doing? Good? No. How are you doing? Elite. You don't care if you're not good. You're elite. Welcome. You're lucky to be here. How you doing? Good? No. How you doing? You tired? No. You're elite. Damn right. They tried to get him out of town. Instead, what I think happened was a little baby face turn for P.J. Fletcher. The head coach of Minnesota. Because a lot of people were like

the people were trying to get a guy out of a building because he's trying to basically build his culture and his views or whatever. I don't know how Nebraska is going to be this year, but I do know that when Rule is coaching in college, he's good. And we just need to maintain that theory. This evening as we watch the Minnesota Gophers take on the Nebraska Cornhawks. He's been incredible at turning around programs.

He turned around Temple. He turned around Baylor. But both of those first years at those places were terrible. Like he took over and it took a year at both of those places. But for tonight, Minnesota, they lost their quarterback, Tanner Morgan, who was just on the Steelers. He got cut. And then Mo Ibrahim, who ran for, I don't know, a billion yards a game.

So, Minnesota's a down year. It's a good year for Nebraska to catch them opening weekend, I think. I love, though. Let's go. Keep in mind, though, P.J. Fleck, early in the season is when Minnesota usually shines because the snake oil hasn't exactly worn off yet. You get to like, you know, mid-November,

late November, that snake oil is worn off. Yeah, but again, you know, early season, a lot of people are invested in the Fleck coins and how many they have in the bank and stuff like that. If they have lost, you know, four or five games by the time November comes around, that's when the snake oil typically wears

off and people stop giving a shit. Who hates Iowa? We hate Iowa. Says the Minnesotans. Because they very rarely, if ever, beat Iowa. That's why. Watch how PJ fucking around this shit.

He wasn't last year, but they choked at home against Iowa and they were supposed to win. Iowa, you know, worst offense ever. They still couldn't beat them, so. Not enough people were rowing the boat. We heard about it. Literally. There's people rowing the opposite direction.

That sounds like a coaching issue. Well, they got that all sorted. Because now everybody, when they're asked how they're doing, guess what every human in the building is saying? What's that? Elite. Elite. So they might be all in.

It might be elite buy-in from Minnesota. Whoa. That'd be great to see. Because of a potential lawsuit that was going on. Yeah. They were trying to get him out of there. Oh, yeah. Crazy.

This guy makes us all wake up at the same time. What? This guy makes us run hard. This guy tells us we need to do stuff this guy is a problem i'm my coach yeah there's no rules like that as well tell you what gumpy is drinking the rule kool-aid oh yeah get in early get in early nebraska outright tonight okay i like it i like rule i'm fucking all in on rule i'm all in on wisco yeah yeah i'm all in on Rule. I'm all in on... Wisco. Yeah, I'm all in on Wisco. Coaches in college football are just huge.

I think so. But the Rule thing is interesting because Nebraska literally was... They were supposed to go with Frost, right? Oh, yeah. He was like Navy SEAL. Remember? Their recruiting classes were top tier, too. And they were just bad.

So bad. That made no sense to me me why they were so bad it's like wisconsin luke fickle comes into a pretty good spot i'm not saying nebraska isn't a great spot it could be at some point because their fans are fucking oh could you imagine having that fan base yeah oh yeah they're crazy 92 000 women's volleyball big old stadium big old stadium fans are diehard jim carrey and yes man was right there third row yes i forgot let's go to david in odessa texas what's going on david how's it going keep it moving nailed it yeah that's perfect all right i got a little two-parter for you guys one for the boys and then a football

one for you uh earlier you were talking about how you can't wait for the new ESPN crowd to get a gander at the talent that you guys got going on at the Thunderdome. I can't fucking wait, personally. I've been wanting to do this for a while. I've been wanting to say that Matt Amell Typer is a fucking dog. So I'm so excited for you guys. And, shit, I can't wait to walk into a tire place. And, oh, look, it's Pat and the boys on the ESPN screen. How dumb is that going to be?

Honestly, that's going to be so bad. That's going to be very, very dumb. It's going to be so awesome. And also, Pat, come September 17th, I hate to do this to you. I know you got a lot of good things going on for you right now. You know, ESPN move. You're properly jocked now. Thank you.

And Anthony Richardson seems to be a guy. Yeah. But come September 17th, the Houston Texans are going to whoop the dog shit out of your precious Indianapolis. All right, David. Whoa. Go Mojo. Go Mojo.

Go Mojo. What's that? Odessa. Odessa. Front and at Mojo. What's that? Odessa. Odessa. Frontenac Lights. Yeah, Permian Panthers. All right. Thank you, boys.

David's an asshole. I saw that one coming. As he was building up? Yeah, as he was building up. Yeah, he was starting to really start. 17th is the second Sunday. I knew the 16th was a Saturday. Yeah.

I do appreciate him. Genuinely, I do appreciate him calling in and putting over the boys. It's always good. Texans are Texans. Texans are Texans. You didn't know that. C.J. Stroud looked good. He looked really, really good. I thought C.J. Stroud looked very good.

Even night one. I was watching C.J. Stroud. He had that one drive. He threw a pick and i was like not a bad adding for old cj stroud everybody's a whack i'm like he looked like he was at least look like an nfl quarterback look like he knew what he was doing he broke the huddle had the whole thing it's the first preseason game i think it from then to like after the third preseason game it's like i think cj stroud's probably gonna figure it out i think cj stroud's gonna have a chance now with the offensive line, give them a shot.

You would think that because Tunzel's down there. They invested in there. Then you start looking at the other side. Willie Anderson was just somehow unblocked every single play in college and in these preseason games. I don't know how that works every single time. Yeah, he literally was just running free at quarterbacks in college and in the NFL. It's like, is his football IQ so high that he's just like,

okay, they just shifted to the right. That guy's not is his football IQ so high that he's just like, okay, they just shifted to the right. That guy's not going to block anybody. I'm going to be wide the fuck open here. And if that's the case, that's a great trait to have. But nonetheless, I like D'Amico Ryans. I think the Texans are not bad. You know, I heard Joe Theismann talking about how stacked some of these divisions are, and he didn't say AFC South.

That was weird. He just forgot, I think. He said AFC East, AFC North. AFC North. AFC West. Don't sleep on Seattle, he said. I think he. He's forgot, I think. He said NFC East, NFC North. NFC North. NFC West. Don't sleep on Seattle, he said. I think he left out

the Chiefs, too. Yeah. So that's probably why. He was like, oh, the Chiefs, I mean, they're also in that tough division the same way the Colts are.

We got who? Jacksonville week one? Yeah. Jags at home, one o'clock. Getting four and a half. Yeah, interesting little spread there.

That feels a little. Should probably get a little bit more, right? I was thinking in my head with Dwight Scarce. Seven and a half, eight and a half. So Billy Walters is seeing this and he's like, well, let me check the book. Let's see if it's in the book. Sports book or? No, in my book, the rules are in a book.

But then I'll check the sports book. All the sports books's what's the name of the book what my book yeah uh what is it like secrets of a gambling or life at risk or something yeah it's in a book you read a book you'll figure it out it's on the book that is that is the title yeah gambler gambler secretsers. Seekers. How'd you do it again? Yeah, well, I wrote the fucking thing, so I'd hope I know the name of it. It's in the book. Again, you know, just a couple chapters. It's on the front.

On the front of the book, in the inside flap of the book. Side. Back of the book. In the actual book several times, and then you add the back of the book as well. What chapter do you debut that? You know how, like, you never know, like, the name of songs until it, like, pops up or whatever? When do you start talking about the life at risk or whatever? Is that just immediate, the motto through the whole thing,

or is there a certain story that we need to dive into in the book? Well, again, all this stuff is in a book. So if you read a book, you will kind of realize it. How many times did you tell us that? Well, I ended every sentence with, again, it's in a book. I started every sentence with, it's in a book, too, because I'm trying to sell the book. If we get the Lockettay whale bet of the day from Billy Walters.

That'd be a bad. The Talkettay Lockettay. Yeah, I think we'll just call it the Lock-a-tay whale bed of the day. From Billy fucking Walters. Bruce, where are we with that? Bruce was the point person for us. So we always got to watch it. Is that locked in or what?

How do we go about getting that, you think? I followed up and have not heard back yet. Oh, it's in the book. Damn it. It's in the book. We'll just have to use his keys. Yeah. Read your keys. Yum. He's in the book. Damn it. It's in the book. We'll just have to use his keys. Yeah. Raise your keys.

Yum. He's got good keys. Who's that? There it is. Walter's. Bonus ball, bonus ball, bonus ball. Oh, get legs. Jabba.

Thank you, Jabba. Thank you, Jabba. Way to go, Jabba. Thank you, Jabba. Move your ass. Oh, got it. Sorry, Jabba. Bang. Bang.

Oh, my God. I'm so sick of it. I am so fucking sick of it. Going after the last break. Yeah, put one in. Yeah, right in. Yeah, swish. Nice.

There we go. Nice. All right. Needed that one. That's a sick bracelet. That's sick. Let's go. That's a sick bracelet. That's sick. Let's go. That's from Tajay.

There it is. Going to need that this weekend. It's like Dwight Howard's Rolls Royce or whatever. Did you see that? Yeah, I did. Starts with a ring. Takes a championship ring and just puts it on the front hood ornament, and the car starts.

Oh, that's so sweet. I did not see that. That's so much money. I couldn't even imagine how much money that is. Oh, that's so cool. Sweet, I did not see that. That's so much money. I couldn't even imagine how much money that is. Oh, God. Does he have that in the Philippines? Thailand? Thailand?

Yeah, he's in Thailand. A lot of stuff being said about him. Taiwan. Really, Taiwan? A lot of stuff on here. There it is. Is he in Taiwan? I believe he's in Taiwan.

A lot of stuff being said about Taiwan. That too? Yeah, thanks a lot. Send us all into oblivion. Bring it on. What happened with that guy yesterday that does the politics? Mitchie? Mitch?

Oh, boy. I saw it on the national news. He's still standing there. He came back. He came back. How about his assistant, the lady? Yeah, she's on the list. Do you want to take a break?

Hey, lady, just get him off the stage. You guys can say your questions louder. Speak up! How about her after he doesn't answer that thing, he says he's okay. She goes, any other questions? It's like, yeah, a lot. We have a lot of questions. We all got questions.

Are you running or not? We got questions. Oh, fuck. She's just waiting to get up there and grab him by the arm and be like, did you hear that, old man? You think she's done? Oh, yeah. She is so sick and tired of doing what she's doing. Hates Mitch.

They tell me I commit to this job. I'll see a big promotion. This would be great for my life. What do I have? Oh, a guy that can't talk into a microphone at a talking situation in a talking profession. Cheese would be great for my life. What do I have? A guy that can't talk into a microphone at a talking situation in a talking profession. It'd be cheeseburgers she's blended into smoothie to feed him.

Laying him on changing tables and bathrooms and changing his diaper. I'm trying to change Mackenzie. She gets her legs moving. I guess it could be a little bit easy with him. That guy's legs don't move. He's got that locked up thing that happens. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. All this stuff is allegedly.

No, no, no. He gets locked up. Oh, he's dehydrated. That was just sent in. Oh, let's get an IV in the guy. They wouldn't be able to. Yeah. No.

They'd probably be like this inside him. Sir, you don't have any veins. Sir, you have no soul or blood. I can't find it. I think it's been drained. Yeah. So just. I just have to open his mouth up and just dump water.

Yeah, he's got water poured into him. Yeah. His people can swim. How is that the best you smart people got? Isn't that their thing? Politics? Maybe. You smart people?

Oh, yeah. It was Ivy League. Actually, I think the smart people are going private now. Private sector? Private sector. Private sector. Yeah. And BlackRock. Boom.

Oh, you couldn't wait to get that one. Nope. I saw that word bouncing around. Don't you worry. They're in politics, too. Well, of course. They were trending the other day. I didn't know exactly what it was.

I'm like, oh, BlackRock. I can't wait to see what this is. It's going to be hilarious. I was thinking maybe Black Twitter got a hold of something. Yeah, sure. I thought maybe there was a new historic thing. New moon. No, that is not.

Yeah, maybe a new moon. Yeah. Maybe some crystal ball to power with the fucking super blue moon that was out there. That is not what it is. Nope. Just all the powerful people put all their money in one place and they own everything. Yep. That's sweet.

Oh, good ball. Oh! Was that moon cool? I fell asleep. It was super cool. Super's sweet. Oh, good ball. Oh! Was that moon cool? I fell asleep. It was super cool. Super blue moon. Very bright. So blue moons happen

once every three years. So whenever somebody says once in a blue moon, that's every three years. A blue moon is two full moons in one month. Okay. Last night was a super blue moon,

which I'm not 100% sure what it means other than the fact it might have been brighter than other blue moons. This fucker was a spotlight. Yeah. The next one's coming in 2037.

Super blue moon. God damn it. I missed it. Fucking set my calendar. No, that's why I recorded it. You're here, right here. Kind of lock in. You'll be there.

You're there. It was really bright. That is bright. Really bright. It was. Yeah, Bruce sent a photo, too, of his entire apartment. Coming off the water, too. That's beautiful.

There it is. Yeah, I went to somebody else's house and got a chance to get this shot. This is not where I live. I thought it was a lighthouse out there. Yeah, it went to somebody else's house and got a chance to get this shot. This is not where I live. I thought it was a lighthouse out there. Yeah, it was very bright. It was almost like Yes Man when he flipped on the moon. Oh, yeah, yeah. Whenever looking for his ass.

Or not, the Truman Show. Yeah. When they're looking for his ass. That's what it felt like, honestly. Like walked into this person's living room out of the bathroom and bedroom. And it was just like so bright coming in. I'm like, what is this? Is somebody driving on that lake? And they go out, super blue moon. Super blue moon. of the bathroom and bedroom and it was just like so bright coming in i'm like what is this is

somebody driving on that lake and they go out super bloomin super bloomin someone's going on up there too 200 tons of garbage on the moon left by humans yeah is that actually i've seen this on the internet wealth has a lot of incredible posts on instagram very wide array of things they do wealth is posting on there. After 50 years of exploration, is that right? Because 1969, right? Yeah, but they just don't like to tell people when they go back. After 50 years of exploration, the moon carries weight of nearly

200 tons, not American, of human artifacts, including abandoned robots, discarded spacecraft parts, and moon buggies. Among these remnants are items never meant to return, like a fallen astronaut figurine beside a plaque commemorating fallen explorers, and unexpected objects

such as bags of human waste. These lunar mementos, ranging from golf balls and family photos to scientific tools and experiments, bear witness to humanity's enduring connection with the moon. I thought we had no fucking connection with the moon. That's what they tell you. Well, sorry. One time connection with the moon. That's what they tell you. Well, sorry. One time connection with the moon.

Oh, we've, you know, orbited the moon countless number of times. And then what, we're just taking dumps and throwing them out there? Bingo. Fucking throwing them out there. Yeah, I don't fully comprehend how this happens. Dark side of the moon. We got people up there, huh? Yep.

Have to. Also, I looked at this and saw how they spelled tons and realized it wasn't, you know, an American interpretation. I said, fuck this shit. I got nothing to say from this. That is not the right way to spell tons. It's not. We tried our best to understand what you were saying, but we just couldn't comprehend what you were doing. Spell color, C-O-U, or C-O-L-O-U-R.

That ain't how you spell it. Can't do it. No. That ain't our English. The worst. No, it's not. I don't understand how languages have evolved so much. Now, let's not even dive into how sounds are something in one place and then just meters away.

It is not that. And they grew up next to each other. I don't know how that all works. But I will say ours is the best. Oh, yeah. Hands down. Our language is the best. Hands down. Can't learn any of the other ones, so that's why I'm saying this one's the best. Oh, yeah. Hands down. Our language is the best. Hands down.

Can't learn any of the other ones, so that's why I'm saying this one is the best. It's the only one I speak, so it's the best. By far. It's the language of romantic. I don't think it's ever been said. Don't tell Noah Lyle of that. We do have a world champion language. Well, don't say that

out loud. No, I think English has been tried all around the world. I mean, China's making a push. That's what I heard. Teaching in schools now. Yeah, but Gallagher. Yeah, hang on. I sure hope not. I'll eat the oranges, but I ain't speaking the language.

Well said. Clementine? No, mandarin. Mandarin. Nice. Mandarin oranges are delicious. So good. Tony, you just ordered some of those, I thought. Mandarin oranges? No, Chinese food.

Oh, that's heavily Americanized. That was quite the story yesterday. What, you were eating? Yeah, because we're all kind of like dieting. We came in from playing golf. Forgot to order lunch. It's 11.05. What's going to get here? 11.05. That's a order lunch. Okay. It's 11.05. What's going to get here?

11.05. That's a very important part. It is actually 11.05 on the dot. 11.05 on the dot. I said, what's going to get here fast? I scrolled through the DoorDash. My order arrived here at 11.13. 11.13.

That's like freaky fast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like they were sitting there like, Tony needs to order this right now. I don't know what we're going to do with this food. That's unbelievable freaky fast. Yeah, like they were sitting there like, Tony needs to order this right now. I don't know what we're going to do with this food. That's unbelievable. Unbelievable.

How happy are you? My stomach didn't feel great later in the day. But it was there. It was there. He had nothing but time. Crazy. All of a sudden, I got 47 minutes. Holy hell.

You would think the trip, I guess it's right down the road there. Whole thing of orange chicken patties. Orange chicken, General Tso? General Tso. Oh, no. Respect. Shrimp fried rice? Chicken fried.

Chicken fried rice. How about lo mein? Any noodles? Nope, that was it. It was a launch combo. Egg roll? No. What?

Typically, egg rolls. Like we said, we're trying to eat less. You're eating General Tso's and fried rice. Yeah, but no egg roll. Egg roll puts it over. I hate hearing that fucking laugh in the back. What? What are you talking about?

Those two fucking cackling next to each other. Who? No one can hear it on the fucking... What's the issue, Tommy? Those two are literally the peanut gallery. Yeah, they are. They're sitting in a place that's above everybody. You can hear them through the glass,

but no one on the show or, like, the audience can't hear them, but we can hear them. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It's beautiful. We have a great time. I saw our show with Skip this morning. Yeah.

Yeah. He said Caleb Williams is the best college quarterback he's ever seen in his lifetime. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Keyshawn and Skip just fucking ripped him to shreds. Oh, my. Skip did?

I just saw a lot of those. I didn't watch any of it. Keyshawn didn Skip just fucking ripped him to shreds. Oh, my. I just saw a lot of... I didn't watch any of it. Keyshawn didn't like what he was saying, though. Except Vinny Testaverde was pretty fucking good. Ever heard of him? I mean, Tebow. Going back to the Florida Gators thing, Tebow was just so absurd. Yeah, he was good. Absurd.

And he won. Yes. That's the thing about Caleb. He's going to have a lot of highlights this year again. And NFL teams are going to be very pumped to get him in the building because his playmaking ability is seemingly ridiculous. Yeah, off the chart. And his confidence is what you want in the whole thing. But they're going to have to win for him to get another Heisman.

And I hate that that is the judgment. Well, he's not going to win a Heisman, but he might. I mean, they're only up 21-14, though, at halftime. And their defense seemingly has the same issues that they had last year. But we're only week zero in. We're only week zero in. I rode USC hard last year. I had them in the playoffs because I liked everything they were doing.

I don't have them in the playoffs this year just because Pac-12 is stacked. But we should enjoy the hell out of Caleb Williams, no matter how much. But that's sports media. We've got to start comparing this guy to Tim Tebow. Yeah, exactly. We've got to start comparing this guy to Andrew Luck. You know, John Elway. You start going through all the Joey Burrow the year he had.

Josh Allen yesterday. You start comparing these. I don't think coming out, Josh Allen was being talked about. No, no, no. He was being compared to him. Yeah, but immediately it has to start happening. It's a gift and a curse of having success, especially in L.A., but let's just take him for what he is.

That Zachariah branch is unbelievable, though. He's so good. Love that kid. So good. I had no idea that that was going to happen, obviously, but they put his stats together for former USC greats. He had like 184 yards or 200 and some yards, two touchdowns accounted for with a kickoff return and also a receiver.

Like that's going to be good. That's taking him to score every week. Because Caleb can extend plays. So that Zachariah Branch guy who's seemingly faster than everybody else on the field, he should be having a big year, especially because Caleb's got a big arm. So that seems to be a great little weapon that they found and added in there. They lose Jordan Addison. That would have been sick.

That Pac-12 is loaded. Tonight we get a chance to see Utah. Yeah. Pumped. Against Florida. No calm rising. Yeah, because knee injury that he suffered or whatever. In the Rose Bowl. Yeah, they said somebody's that he suffered or whatever. In the Rose Bowl.

Yeah, they said somebody's name. Notable name playing quarterback, I heard. For him? Yeah. For them? It was the guy that came in for him when he got hurt. I can't remember his name either, to be honest with you. There's a lot of people in college football.

Yeah. Stop. In a lot of schools. In a lot of transfers. A lot of schools. A lot of things. Yeah, a lot of schools. In a lot of transfers. A lot of schools. A lot of things. A lot of everything. A lot of time between now and

Monday. That's right. There's going to be College Game Day live. Charlotte Saturday morning. We are back. We are back. So back. We are back. On location. We got big games tonight. Pumped. I don't want to give away anything about who's going to be at this Charlotte College Game Day episode. Ooh. I don't want to give away anything about who's going to be at this Charlotte College Game Day episode.

Ooh. I don't want to say it. Has it already been released? I don't even know. I don't think I've seen anything. You guys don't know? Yeah, we do. Has it been? I don't think it's been announced yet. No. Pretty big names joining us.

I think this year is going to have a fun energy. Be a hell of a year yeah i think there is a little bit of a little bit of a thought of like yeah game day is something that a lot of people are big fans of and would want to participate in if they were asked and i think we're going to take advantage of that this year hell yeah and i think this weekend there are some awesome things in store i do believe and i'm speaking as if I have any say in any of this. I do not. I'm just saying, like, the show itself is going to be a lot of fun.

It's going to be a good watch. I think so. I think it is. Now, there's going to be people that hate it, obviously, for the first few weeks because it is going to look a little bit different than it has in the past. We know David Pollack, which I will certainly miss. His presence around there and Gene and Bear, obviously, got a good deal with Fox. He was in Australia, I think.

Yeah, eight months. Living. I love that. That was a big part of, like, he was very excited to cover soccer and, like, horse racing and, like, all these other things that he's interested in alongside college football. He goes to World Cup. Australia, super pumped about it. And then, no offense, but that's the

worst United States World Cup ever for our women's team. Just the least amount of interest in it for whatever reason. Methy. Methy. Methy certainly affected it. There was a lot of personal feelings about a lot of things that were happening. Time was tough.

All the games were on at 4.30 a.m. And then they lose early. The earliest they've lost. So it's like Bear was like super pumped to go over there and do some coverage. That thing was over before the evening. So now he's back on the road. We will miss him, and we will miss everybody that's not there. But I think Saturday's show is going to be a fucking good one.

Hell yeah. And then guess what? Then we're back Monday. What? Then we're back Tuesday. What? Then Wednesday there's a full huh, and then Thursday. It's go time.

We begin. Let's go. Then Friday, Tuscaloosa. That's right. Big surprises. And reacting to an NFL game. Cool. It's all so exciting. It really is. Best time of the year. By a mile. By a mile.

By the way, I don't know if you guys have seen week one stats. Chiefs score like 38 points per game in week one. Did see that, yeah. Well, Andy Reid's told Chris Long that he will actually take a play from anybody. It doesn't matter. This is from the Green Light Podcast. Shout out to Chris Long getting the Inside the NFL gig as well.

We're massive fans of his. Super Bowl champion multiple times. Everybody loves him. This is him talking to Andy Reid about his plays and where he finds the incredibly creative concepts. You look everywhere though, high school, college. I mean, at least I've heard rumors that you've got guys that go down to the bottom of the ranks to find new concepts and things you might want to go with. Have you ever actually taken something from high school? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I took one from a janitor one time at Green Bay. I mean,

you got to tell me that. No, we had a janitor. time at Green Bay. I mean, you got to tell me that. No, we had a janitor. It was a mom and pop group that cleaned our facility forever. And then they were game day. And, you know, this guy kept telling me he was the owner of the company, the father of the family. And he goes, I've got this play for you. And he kept telling me this over and over. Finally, I said, OK, here's a card. Draw up the play.

And he drew up the play. I go, dang, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. We called the play just before halftime, and it scored. And he starts hitting his wife, and he's going, that's my play. That's my play. And she's going, yeah, right. Yeah, sure it is. You know, that's, we'll take

it from anywhere. That's football. Shout out to Chris Long for the Inside the NFL gig, the Greenlight podcast, Andy Reid being electrifying, and we are just one week away from all of it.

Come on. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice that might change their life. Have the greatest weekend of all time because next week is going to be electrifying.

Woo! We appreciate the hell out of all of you.