
Mike, Jenna and Dan break down what they saw and heard in episode 1 of Hard Knocks. And they discuss...the "Dan moment" See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Mr. Gekko, you're a huge inspiration to us all. But who was your muse? My dear old nan. She would tell me, always remember to be true to yourself and to use.
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That fast and friendly claim support on the Geico app.
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I follow her advice to this day.
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Wow. That was cool. I loved it.
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That was neat.
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You'll be signing so many autographs at camp.
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Oh, man.
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People are going to be like, it's damn Bates.
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That video is so funny.
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Their heads off and you see the field and it's hard to not be.
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Romantic about Big shot. There you go. Big one, Big Dan.
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Thankfully, you're already in slow mo.
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Yes, you have to.
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Although Dan is going to slow it down even more. All right, welcome back to the Buffalo plus channel, presented by Connors and Ferris. Mike Catalana. Dan Fates. I am Jenna Cotro. Please be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, subscribe and share. We're talking Hard Knocks. Episode number one. Our reaction to everything. It was a special night as the Bills being featured. Episode number one, the premiere of the Bills at Fisher. Mike, our own Dan Fates. A little cameo in there.
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It was awesome.
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It was awesome.
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It was great. Because we're watching and we're not sure because you guys know if you watch us, they filmed a bunch of stuff of all of us. As you already know if you've watched the episode that was not in this. But while we were waiting, we're sitting there going, just watching who's going to show up. And then the next thing you know, slow Mo Josh with slow Mo Dan right next to him. What'd you think the reaction was funny.
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Just because.
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Yeah.
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So Jenna smartly decided to set her phone up to record our. Of us watching the podcast or the episode because we all were together and this is our reaction. It's funny because we were all waiting for the cut to the Bean interview. Like. Like to see that.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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So we're always.
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We're.
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We kept being like, is it here?
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They mentioned being.
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They mentioned being here. Oh, wait, what is it about? What about this? Or they'd show like a landscaping shot.
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Yeah.
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Mike would be like, I don't know, guys.
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It could be it.
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That could be the bush at Mike's house. But so with just popped up was like, yeah, awesome. That was funny.
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And in fairness, you're good at. That is your shot. You love the tunnel shots. You're great at the tunnel shots. You're either following them in and you hit it right there. And you're right Next to him.
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So that was day one. That was day one. We're following Josh no matter what.
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Yes.
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Happened to me.
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I gotta say. The arms looked good.
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It was a good day. It was a good day.
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Pumped up right before he came out.
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Somebody said it was the Zoolander face, which I thought, that's pretty good. Yeah.
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I mean, obviously it was you and Josh, so everybody was looking at you, so that was really good, obviously.
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But I did incredible to go back to what did I wear that day? Because we had joked around about, like, oh, we got to make sure our outfits are good. It was one of those moments where I was like, what did I wear? Okay.
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Yeah, yeah.
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It wasn't a big, like, ketchup stain on it as we go through it.
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Not a lot of media. I wouldn't say cameos. I would say shots. I shot. I saw a shot of Thad Brown early on Channel 8, and I saw Mookie Hawkins getting an interview with Haron. Yeah, that was more of. But not a lot. You know, you see people sort of around. But you were. You were one of the prominent ones in episode one.
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I got it.
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Look at you.
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Love it. All right, let's talk more of our takeaways from episode one. I think Trey White is just a star. Like him at Pittsford Dairy. The trade day Sunday was great. I mean, him running up the hill, him like his mentorship to Max Harrison. Like, I just thought, to me, he was one of the guys that I was like, he was a star that.
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Running up the hill. We were all at practice. We believe it was the day that Max Hairston was injured. And we were waiting and hoping to talk to Trey, and then we saw him leave and go all the way at the other end of the field. His wife was with him, and we thought, well, maybe he just wants to avoid the media, you know, and he's. And his wife. And they walked 100 yards to get to that spot. Oh, no. He was in full uniform, running up hills at Fisher. That was a cool shot that they had.
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Yeah.
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But your point about Pittsford Dairy, I mean, and he got Christian Benford to laugh, smile, talk to everybody.
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Say words.
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Yes, Say a lot of words. Good.
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He liked it. He liked the Sunday. And Trey was being. Trey was the Trey that we all knew and we seen at camp. And now everybody got to see that guy.
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I thought they nailed the interaction of the players coming in to camp, like, showing up at the dorms. It was Josh with his Josh. Every step, every. Every step of the way, just this. And then I thought there were a lot of good one liners that I wrote down. Dawson Knox's look at this view was.
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Yes.
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It's like, what else could you do?
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Like, that was perfect.
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That was really good. Josh had the one about. It was the best night of my life. Talking about the wedding, he's like. And it was my wife's. At least that's what she said.
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Was.
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Was just the subtle, like.
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Yeah.
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Chef's kiss.
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Very, very Chris Pratt esque.
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Yeah.
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So Chris Pratt esque. It was very funny to get to see and like, said that's. We see that in like snippets, like in and out of press conferences. When we've get to interact with Josh. It's funny to get to see it, like, up close and personal like that.
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I love the meeting room stuff. Love it. We never get that.
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Yeah, we.
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You all hear locker room. Not in the speeches after games. Like, you know, the team puts that out. That's cool. We've seen it. But the meeting rooms, I've seen tons of them from other teams.
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Yeah.
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And to see it be Joe Brady, Bobby Babich, who will, I think, be in every episode. And. And Sean, I thought that stuff was kind of cool too. That takes you into another place that we don't normally see. I. Oh, and in the dorms. Did KJ Hamler say he had a pregnancy pillow?
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That was great. Yeah, we watched it with our significant others. Renee knew exactly.
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Z has one.
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He does.
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He calls it the sleep system. He's going to kill me.
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So Josh just. You just said your husband has a pregnancy pillow.
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He's got. He calls it the candy cane. There's the candy.
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There you go. Josh C. Or Zach C. What happens when you.
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Oh, my God, he's gonna be so mad. Oh, my God.
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What? We. I think another thing that we expected. Bobby Babbage is screaming.
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Yeah.
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There was a time where Trey's talking to Brandon Bean and it's a cut away from across the field. And you're like, oh, this is like, real great. And he's saying, it's great to have you back. How are you feeling? And Bobby just is in front of them screaming. Just screaming.
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So you could say that Bobby Babbage interrupted the owner in the gm.
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Well, that was Trey. And that was Trey.
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That was Trey in the gm. That's right.
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Yeah.
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He kind of interrupted them.
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Yeah.
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Maybe not quite to the point. I did. Like in the meeting when he told the defense stay away from 17. Yeah, that should be assumed.
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And then he looked at Taran and was like, you, dude, stay away. You stay away.
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The scooters bit was funny. And you will. If you go to camp, you will see the guys all on their scooters. KJ Hamler talking about how he got a bum scooter.
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Yeah. Pretty good. Okay.
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So good. And then Spencer Brown. I can't wait to clip that. Oh, him just large man, small bike, and just the wave.
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Yeah. When they were joking about Trey and Max's skinny legs compared to the other guys. How about Josh talking, you know, theories of gravity.
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Yeah.
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Had him go in there.
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I think Josh is really smart.
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I agree.
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Okay, good.
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How smart do you think Josh is?
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I think Josh could be a mezza.
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He's very bright.
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He's very bright, and he. I don't think he would ever say that.
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No.
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But he.
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Even when they tell him, good throw, he deflects it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or when. When they were touring the stadium. Kind of cool to hear Josh and Terry Pula together.
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Yes.
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Walking around the stadium, getting that view. But even then, when Terry joked about, like, something about the quarterback, he's like, you know, because he doesn't. I can't imagine being a person who doesn't take compliments well.
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Shut up.
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Shut up.
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Yeah. I thought that the stadium, I thought was very interesting because we. Yeah, we still. I know we've seen images, videos of it, but to get to see Josh taking that in, that was pretty cool. Behind the scenes. And then obviously talking about the wind, and then they're talking about, oh, there's this big beer garden, and Josh drops the fancier drink, fancier drink, beer. I thought that was very good.
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Yeah. I loved. And this was in the beginning, and it was McDermott in the meeting room, which is talking about, like, embrace the failure. Like, you're gonna fail. This is the time to do that, though. And I know it was really early on, like, him talking about, like, just let it rip. But I think that's something that you. You kind of forget. Like, yes, these guys need to be good. They need to be dialed in. But, like, this is the opportunity for them to try stuff out, to do different things, to see how that process plays out. So I thought it was. It was refreshing to hear a coach be like, hey, I don't expect perfection. That doesn't mean it has to be. It's good. It's good to be bad. But it's like, embrace that and let it rip.
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Yeah, I liked it.
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Yeah. I have a newfound respect and fear of AJ Epanessa.
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Dude, the snakes thing.
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I'm out. You would be that way with a fraud.
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A.J. horrified. No.
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And he's.
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He's.
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And he's like, oh, no, they're constrictors. Yeah.
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Like.
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And.
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I said, I wouldn't drive my car down that area. He's walking around looking for snakes. That was wild to see that.
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Wild.
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How about us? Something else that was kind of wild to see. Dion.
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Oh. With the. The drifting. That scares me. Oh, my gosh. I'm not built for that.
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I know. There are things in contracts that players can't play pickup basketball. They can't go skiing. It would void their contract. There are a lot of things that teams are obviously protecting their asset. Dion is one of a kind to just be. And by the way, it's not like he has one. And he, like, takes it around a public track. It looks like he has his home own racing garage track set up. Unbelievable.
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I said to you guys, maybe Terry Pula just found out about that tonight. Chance, this is what he does. And he's got the kids.
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His kids are stars.
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Yes.
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Yes, Definitely.
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Kids are stars.
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Dion is obviously was one of the stars tonight. Josh obviously a star, Dion a star, and Trey a star. They really were the stars.
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Yeah.
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Also, one of my favorite one liners from Josh was the red return of the blue and red. And Spencer Hawes or Jackson Hawes caught the ball and then threw it, and they cut to Josh and goes, oh, we need that ball. Yeah, very. Was very good.
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Well, no, you say Dion, Josh, Trey Rochester. Yeah, obviously, of course. Also a star. Got some Pittsford dairy in there. Some beautiful glamour shots of our area. And I think it's so cool because, yes, I. I forgot that the Bills are one of five teams that go away to a college for the preseason, but that's really cool.
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And like I said, we would like to be in the show. It would be. We're gonna be in it, so we're.
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Gonna be in it. Dan says that he's already been.
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I can take a. Yes, he has. I could take a step back and go, yeah, it would have been cool to be in it. I. I love Hard Knocks. I think it's a great show. And when I look at it as a whole, if you don't know the Bills more than Josh is your fantasy team quarterback, you root for him because you don't like the Chiefs or whatever it is you were like, you would love this team right away, 100%. I'm not saying a Dolphins fan or a Jets fan. I'm just saying if you don't know the team. That's what I like about Hard Knocks. I don't. You know, even though we know the teams in a certain way, you don't really know them.
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Yeah.
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Aaron Glenn got to know him a lot in the. In the Hard Knocks that they did with the Lions. You know, there's coaches or players. I think Bobby Babbage is going to get that. I think Joe Brady is going to get more of that. And. And I think the entire franchise, it was good for Terry Pugula. It was good for the franchise. The stadium looks awesome.
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Yeah.
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It was a very positive thing.
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Awesome.
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We're going to be in it because we. They haven't done the Bean segment.
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They haven't done a bean one or.
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A Sean or McDermott.
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Yeah.
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So our questions about their relationship, how Bean has handled the trials and tribulations.
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He's co producer of episode two of.
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How Bean has changed, some people would say over the last nine years. I think they have to do that story. Somebody asked a question that would work for that if they needed some video.
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Brandon, how have you changed so dramatic?
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Dan Patrick. Dan Fates.
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Dan Patrick, I. I know you so well. We obviously know each other so well. And I could hear in your head, you being like, just don't mess up.
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Just don't up.
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It was like, make sure the camera. Yeah, you got it so bad. It's so bad is that I knew I could say something, but then you had to give it a minute. You had to give it a minute for the camera to cut.
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So you were directing and producing.
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You are a ham. Meanwhile, like, don't get a video of me. And Dan's like, I gotta wait for them to cut to me.
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Wait for it. Wait for it. The pause.
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The pause to be like, hey, God, when they edit this, they're gonna need a second to cut to me.
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Literally in my head, because I'm like, no.
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Because I'm saying to myself, I go, the hard doc producer, they don't know who's asking the next question. So if I ask, if I say something, they can then sw. Swing the camera.
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You've got this all set up. This is your preview of episode two.
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It's going to be James Cook will preview will be the big thing on episode two, which will bring in Bean, his conversations, all of that. And then they circle back to Brandon on the patio podcast.
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I kind of was a little surprised they didn't have somewhere in there the Cook thing. But they did. They ended it on a big high note. That was a celebration of the the team.
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Yeah.
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And they did say that's big picture, what they do in the first episode. They really did a good job of that. So there's four more episodes to go, so.
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Oh, my gosh.
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That just may be funny.
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I know you so well.
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A little tears. Couple tears.
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Yeah.
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And obviously, if you're watching this, you watch the episode. As Jenna would always say, please comment in on all these things. What your. What your highlight was, what you really liked. If there's anything you didn't like. I don't know, like I said about AJ with the snake, that's just kind of something to see. Yeah. What you thought. Because I think if you're a proud Bills fan, you're watching this, you're. You're pretty excited from what you saw.
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Yeah. Episode one, like I said, my wife came in. My wife came in to watch it with us, and I was asking her, who does not know first down, third down, anything like that, how many yards? Doesn't understand football, but she loves the stories of things she liked watching Full Swing. Like, she likes the. What are their significant others? Like, their family. I thought that was really cool. And she was engaged and was like, that was really cool. To get to see all that goes on at training camp. She sees us or hears what we're doing. To actually see all that goes into it was pretty cool.
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I need Dawson night. Well, Dawson Knox's wife. To teach me how to fold clothes.
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That was unbelievable.
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That was unbelievable.
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Her saying this one bag. And you laughed because you wouldn't be able to do that. She's like, are you kidding me?
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Yeah.
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No, I'd be like, no, just shove more in there. It's okay.
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12 days into one carry on gives me anxiety.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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That is impressive.
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That'd be easy for me.
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Yeah. He's a cake. This view.
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That was funny.
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Yeah. You do get a little sense of the. Of the dorm rooms, obviously, and what they do, but look at this view. Yeah. Those guys have gotten used.
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Some dry humor as well. No, I thought it was great. Yeah. I'm looking forward to them talking more about Sean, about Brandon, some of the other story lines, the James Cook stuff. But I thought, all in all, it really set the. The tone for who this organization is, who are their main guys and kind of some of the fun characters along the way.
B
And the other thing, I wanted to add it. There are people that haven't watched this show. Maybe they're watching it now because it's the Bills. It does morph more into football, you know, I mean, because this show was about football, but was Josh and how good he is. Great video that they have of camp, but it becomes storylines about making the team. Who needs to step up those kind of things. Because it's five episodes.
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Yeah.
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So it leads up to it, but it's stories like this. And then they'll have stories, you know, from the first preseason game after somebody has a good or bad game.
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Yeah.
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Leading into the next one.
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So White Steve.
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Yes. Got in there.
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White Steve getting the shout out and even said. Because we talked to him, and he's like, how was that touchdown? Or something like the celebration. And he was like, they hated the spike. And they showed the clip of them hating the spike.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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But he said, I made it. Right. Or like, this is.
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You know, Josh looked at me. It was like the play was called for him.
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So. Yeah, that was great.
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More from White Steve coming up this week.
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What did you think of Joe Brady?
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More airtime than I thought. But because it was so offensive forward, it felt like, you know, Josh centric. Offensive, centric. Um, I thought they got into Josh Palmer very early.
B
Yeah. I think they're introducing that. Those things. I wonder how much of the next four episodes are specifically about Josh. I think very little.
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I think.
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I'm with you. I'm not saying that they. He will be in them.
C
Yeah.
B
But his role in the preseason games will be very limited. If he plays, that will be highlighted in those games. I only say that because they did cover a lot about Josh.
C
Yeah.
B
You know, his last year, he's getting married. All those things that were in there. I'm not saying they're not going to have him in there, because they will maybe playing one of the dorm games, you know, playing the. But there's a lot of players and a lot of things we've seen them shooting, so we'll see how it plays out.
A
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. All right. Cool. Good stuff. Really? Wow. That was cool. I loved it.
C
That was neat.
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Dan, you'll be signing so many autographs at camp.
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Oh, man.
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People are going to be like, it's damn Bates.
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That video is so funny.
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My God, he's got a clip.
A
It's unbelievable. Thankfully, you're already in slow mo.
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Yes.
A
Although Dan's gonna slow it down even more. Hold on. I. I'm. You know, I'm going to zoom in on your.
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Super slow Dan.
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Take the one shot. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
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Yeah.
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There's the open.
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Don't you. Don't you do that to me.
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Don't you.
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Don't you do that to me? All right. Okay. Hey, that was cool. We'll see about episode two.
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Like comment subscribe.
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Like comment subscribe. Let us know how you thought the first episode was and what you. What you make of it. And if you saw Dan, you're probably paying attention to Josh. Yeah, we're all looking at Dan. All right. Thank you so much for watching. For Mike and Dan, I'm Jenna Cottrell. Please be sure to like, comment, subscribe and share. We catch you next time here on the Buffalo plus channel. Presented by Connors and Ferris.
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Dan Slow mo.
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In the time it takes you to actually board a flight.
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From Group 8 now boarding Premier Altitude Elite club members.
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You could have bought a Hyundai on Amazon.
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Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-603 for more details.
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Limited availability pickup through participating Hyundai dealer in select markets.
Podcast: Buffalo Plus: A Buffalo Bills podcast
Episode: Hard Knocks Ep. 1 REACTION + YES, that was DAN!
Date: August 6, 2025
Hosts: Mike Catalana, Jenna Cottrell, Dan Fetes
This episode delivers the Buffalo Plus team's detailed, enthusiastic reaction to the premiere of HBO's "Hard Knocks," featuring the Buffalo Bills at their Fisher College training camp. The crew reflects on memorable moments, behind-the-scenes insights, personal highlights (including Dan Fetes' on-screen cameo), and what the episode reveals about the team culture and personalities. The discussion is lively, brimming with their trademark dry humor and fondness for the Bills’ community.
Tremaine White’s Charisma
Dorm Life and Player Humor
Inside the Meeting Rooms
Scooter Antics and Player Quirks
Josh Allen and Ownership/Stadium Tour
Sean McDermott's Message
Lighthearted Moments, Family, and Personal Stories
Star Power
The Buffalo Plus crew’s reaction is both entertaining and insightful, blending insider access with authentic fandom. They celebrate the unique lens Hard Knocks provides, appreciate the humanizing focus on stars and role players alike, and eagerly await stories yet to unfold about the franchise’s inner workings. The tone is playful, proud, and welcoming to diehard and new Bills fans alike.