The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Best of The Dan Patrick Show

Episode Title: The Best of The Dan Patrick Show
Release Date: December 20, 2024
Host: Dan Patrick
Network: iHeartPodcasts and Dan Patrick Podcast Network

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1. Interview with J.J. Watt

Overview:
Dan Patrick engages in a comprehensive discussion with NFL star J.J. Watt, exploring Watt's transition into broadcasting, his approach to analyzing games, and his insights on player injuries and strategies against top quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Broadcasting Career and Advice:

  • Transition to Broadcasting: J.J. Watt shares his anticipation for his upcoming role as an analyst for the Christmas Day Chiefs vs. Steelers game on Netflix's "Iron Eagle."
    “I haven't called an actual game broadcasting wise live, obviously I've done the studio and everything and we practice together. But first one, very much looking forward to it.” [03:20]

  • Advice for Aspiring Broadcasters: Watt emphasizes the importance of authenticity and balancing personal insight without overwhelming technical jargon.
    “I think mostly it's be yourself. It's share your experiences, but also don't overdo it.” [03:34]

  • Collaboration with Play-by-Play Announcers: He highlights the delicate art of providing insightful commentary while allowing the play-by-play announcer to shine.
    “Get those 15 second moments where you analyze something and then get out of the way for Iron Eagle because it's really the most important thing is he's able to do the play by play.” [04:09]

• Injury Management and Playing Through Pain:

  • Advising His Brother on Playing Through Injury: Watt discusses the mental approach required to play effectively despite injuries, stressing the importance of focusing on the game rather than the pain.
    “If you're thinking about your ankle, you're not going to have a good day. So I'd rather him not think about it then be out there trying to think...” [05:35]

  • Pain vs. Injury: Differentiating between manageable pain and legitimate injuries, Watt underscores the varying degrees of pain players might choose to play through based on team standings and playoff aspirations.
    “There is a degree of difference. And I also think that depending the team and depending where you are on the standings and if you're in the playoff hunt or not...” [06:07]

• Strategies Against Quarterbacks:

  • Analyzing Patrick Mahomes: Watt provides an in-depth breakdown of strategies to counter Patrick Mahomes' playstyle, emphasizing the necessity of versatile edge rushers and inside pushes.
    “If you rush to that point, his first look is always going to be that B gap... But if that's closed off by your D tackle, he's just going to drop back 10, 15, 20 yards...” [10:17]

  • Preference for Quarterback Hits Over Pressures: He advocates for quantifiable quarterback hits over vague metrics like pressures and hurries, valuing clear and impactful plays.
    “I like quarterback hit over a pressure or a hurry. Because that means that like, first of all, it's a literal thing that you can quantify.” [13:00]

• Personal Anecdotes and Holiday Plans:

  • Christmas Preparations: Watt shares personal moments, including gifting his defense players and balancing family time with professional commitments during the holidays.
    “He is 2, and he's large, as you would expect. So it is tough... We're gonna do our own little Christmas here.” [17:26]

  • Appreciation for Colleagues: He expresses gratitude towards Dan Patrick and his broadcasting team, highlighting the collaborative spirit behind the scenes.
    “I got to give a shout out to Fritzi. We've been trying to make this happen for a very long time...” [18:21]

Notable Quotes:

• On Broadcasting:
  “I want to kind of enjoy the game the same way the fan does.” [03:34]

• On Injury Management:
  “If you're thinking about your ankle, you're not going to have a good day.” [05:35]

• On Strategy Against Mahomes:
  “You can't just rush to a spot with Pat because he's not going to be at that spot...” [10:17]

2. Conversation with Reese Davis

Overview:
Dan Patrick speaks with Reese Davis, host of ESPN's College GameDay, delving into the dynamics of college football playoffs, team performances, and broadcasting challenges during high-pressure games.

Key Topics Discussed:

• College Football Playoffs and Team Evaluations:

  • Notre Dame vs. Indiana: Davis examines the historical context and current pressures Notre Dame faces against Indiana, acknowledging the latter's minority success.
    “Historically, the only thing that's consequential about Indiana to Notre Dame football is that they're in the same state.” [26:32]

  • Ohio State's Struggles: He predicts Ohio State's potential losses based on their defensive vulnerabilities and matchups against strong teams like Tennessee.
    “I think that is the most likely one if, if a home team is to lose, it would be Ohio State...” [27:28]

• Broadcasting and Game Day Logistics:

  • Live Reporting from South Bend and Columbus: Davis shares his experiences covering multiple game days, highlighting the vibrant atmosphere and anticipation in different locations.
    “Pure electricity here... They moved final's to this week typically finish a week earlier in anticipation...” [34:22]

  • Advice for Aspiring Broadcasters: Emphasizing the importance of simplicity and humor, Davis advises new analysts to make complex topics accessible without overcomplicating their narratives.
    “Have a little bit of a sense of humor. Don't over talk.” [60:20]

• Playoff Format and Team Strategies:

  • Critique of Current Playoff Selection: Davis discusses the challenges with the existing playoff format, suggesting the inclusion of more conference teams to create a balanced and fair tournament structure.
    “They have to change that immediately... just see the tournament, whoever.” [29:23]

  • Georgia's Team Dynamics: Analyzing Georgia's strengths and weaknesses, Davis highlights the team's defensive prowess and offensive challenges due to key player losses.
    “They're still really good on defense... They have as many good players as anybody.” [33:28]

Notable Quotes:

• On Notre Dame vs. Indiana:
  “There is no rivalry. I said, historically, the only thing that's consequential about Indiana to Notre Dame football is that they're in the same state.” [26:32]

• On Ohio State:
  “I think that is the most likely one if, if a home team is to lose, it would be Ohio State...” [27:28]

• On Broadcasting Advice:
  “Have a little bit of a sense of humor. Don't over talk.” [60:20]

3. Discussion with Kurt Warner

Overview:
Hall of Famer Kurt Warner joins Dan Patrick to discuss a range of topics including MVPs, quarterback performance, broadcasting nuances, and his perspectives on current NFL strategies and player management.

Key Topics Discussed:

• MVPs and Personal Memories:

  • Placement of MVP Trophies: Warner humorously reflects on the physical absence of his MVP trophies in his home, emphasizing memories over physical accolades.
    “It's about the memories more than it's about the trophies, Dan.” [39:38]

  • Photographic Memory for Games: He recounts memorable moments from past games, demonstrating his deep knowledge and recollection of NFL history.
    “The Baltimore, Pittsburgh World Series was 1979... That's how I remember it.” [63:01]

• Quarterback Analysis and Performance:

  • Kirk Cousins Scenario: Warner offers insights into Kirk Cousins' mindset during performance slumps, advocating for confidence and finding suitable offensive systems.
    “If I'm Kirk Cousins, I'm thinking, okay, that's not who I am. I need to find an offense that fits me...” [42:54]

  • Preferring Quarterback Hits Over Pressures: He elaborates on the effectiveness of hitting quarterbacks to create tangible game impacts compared to less defined metrics.
    “I like quarterback hit over a pressure or a hurry... Need to get sacks. That's the goal.” [13:58]

• Broadcasting Nuances and Rules:

  • Explaining Complex Rules: Warner discusses the challenges of explaining intricate NFL rules to the audience, recounting historical rule clarifications.
    “It's funny because I've had a game with the Cowboys a number of years ago... And so that's what happened 48 years ago.” [61:39]

  • Advice for Aspiring Analysts: He advises new broadcasters to simplify complex topics and maintain humor, drawing on his extensive experience covering the NFL.
    “Understand. Read the room where. Don't go too deep into the weeds... Have a little bit of a sense of humor.” [60:20]

• Thoughts on NFL Strategies:

  • Load Management Concerns: Warner expresses skepticism about adopting NBA-style load management in the NFL, citing the physical demands and existing injury management strategies.
    “I don't see it. Even if you go to 18 games, I think, look... There's load management within the games these days too.” [68:56]

  • Matchups and Team Strategies: He emphasizes the critical role of matchups in NFL success, particularly how certain teams are tailored to counter specific opponents like Lamar Jackson's Ravens.
    “Matchups become so critical... the Steelers have a real good gauge on what the Ravens want to do…” [46:19]

Notable Quotes:

• On MVPs and Memories:
  “It's about the memories more than it's about the trophies, Dan.” [39:38]

• On Quarterback Performance:
  “I don't think he was ever comfortable in Atlanta. I think there's a lot of continuity issues between the guys around him and himself...” [42:54]

• On Broadcasting Advice:
  “Have a little bit of a sense of humor. Don't over talk.” [60:20]

Conclusion

In this "Best of" episode, Dan Patrick brings together influential figures from the sports world—J.J. Watt, Reese Davis, and Kurt Warner—to delve into their professional journeys, insights on game strategies, broadcasting, and personal anecdotes. The conversations offer listeners a deep dive into the minds of these sports personalities, blending expert analysis with relatable stories, all while maintaining an engaging and informative atmosphere.

Notable Moments:

• J.J. Watt's Personal Insights: Watt’s candid discussions about balancing family and professional life during the holidays add a personal touch to the episode.

• Reese Davis on Playoff Formats: Davis’s critique of the current college football playoff system provides a thought-provoking analysis on how the tournament structure impacts team strategies.

• Kurt Warner’s Broadcasting Wisdom: Warner’s extensive experience and advice for aspiring analysts shed light on the nuances of sports broadcasting and the importance of relatable commentary.

This episode serves as a valuable resource for sports enthusiasts seeking in-depth conversations with prominent figures in the industry, offering both strategic insights and personal reflections that enrich the listener’s understanding of the sports landscape.

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Note: All timestamps correspond to the positions in the provided transcript and serve to accurately reference the discussed segments.

Transcript

[Dan Patrick]

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[Fox Sports Radio]

You are listening to the Dan Patrick show on fox Sports Radio.

[Dan Patrick]

J.J. watt, future hall of Famer, works with the NFL Today on CBS and he's working Christmas Day Chief Steelers game on Netflix one Eastern with Iron Eagle handling play by play color duties there. So how many times, how many games have you done as an analyst at a game?

[J.J. Watt]

I haven't called an actual game broadcasting wise live, obviously I've done the studio and everything and we practice together. But first one, very much looking forward to it.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay. What advice have you been given?

[J.J. Watt]

I think mostly it's be yourself. It's share your experiences, but also don't overdo it. For me personally, I've just this year watched games much closer and I've just seen what I like, what I don't like. And for me personally, I love it when the announcer watches the game like a fan and talks like a fan, but then subtly interjects here and there the knowledge and experience they have. But I, I don't want to be overly technical. I don't want to lose people with football jargon. I want to kind of enjoy the game the same way the fan does.

[Dan Patrick]

That's great advice and you're not asking for it, but I'll give it to you anyways. Get those 15 second moments where you analyze something and then get out of the way for Iron Eagle because it's really the most important thing is he's able to do the play by play. Your, your color commentary is needed, but you still have to give him that time to bring it back and say, you know, third intent, you know, for the Texans or whatever it might be. But being able to compartmentalize something, say what you want to say for 15 seconds and then get out of the way. That's an art. And absolutely, yeah, he's the best.

[J.J. Watt]

I love iron. I'm very, very much looking forward to it. We had Nate Burleson in the booth too, so it's going to be a lot of fun. I went and watched the Cardinals Bears game with Ian and Charles, so I got to sit there and just watch them work and see how they work together. And we've been buddies for a while, so it's been great.

[Dan Patrick]

When's the last time you gave advice to Your brother yesterday, about.

[J.J. Watt]

We were talking about his ankle, and we were talking about just the recovery and all that. We talk every single day. So we. We talk about the game, we talk about life, we talk about injuries, everything.

[Dan Patrick]

He's playing.

[J.J. Watt]

Yes.

[Dan Patrick]

What advice do you give him of playing through a high ankle sprain?

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, it's much more about preparation, everything during the week and getting yourself to game day than it is on game day. On game day, you kind of let the adrenaline take over. I mean, there may be a couple things here and there you can do differently, but once the game starts, if you're thinking about your ankle, you're not going to have a good day. So I'd rather him not think about it then be out there trying to think, okay, if I do this move, it's not good for me. That's no good.

[Dan Patrick]

The difference between pain and an injury.

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, especially with an ankle like things like this, I mean, a sprain is literally an injury. It's just been. It's painful, but there's just different levels that you can play through. I agree with you. And I know the old school thing, like, there's guys that can play through pain, and then there's legitimate injuries that you can't play through. But there is a degree of difference. And I also think that depending on the team and depending on where you are on the standings and if you're in the playoff hunt or not, I think the willingness to play through either one is different for every guy.

[Dan Patrick]

Well, just look at the Lions with David Montgomery and Aiden Hutchinson. They're like, hey, we're. Montgomery is going to hold off surgery just in case they go far in the playoffs. I mean, that mentality. And these games mean something, too, so that, you know, they're extra motivation.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I think there's that old school mentality as well. Like, let's just figure it out. I mean, there's been plenty of times in my career where they're giving you a decision. They're like, you can get this fixed now and you're going to be out, or you can hold off until the off season or maybe it gets better over time, but most of the time, competitors are pushing it off until whenever. Maybe I should have not pushed it off a few more times.

[Dan Patrick]

Well, I was wondering, you know, you look back on that, you played through a lot of gruesome injuries there. If you had to do it again, could you have done it differently?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, it's more about the recovery from the injuries than it was the actual Injuries, I think 20, 2015 was the year that I was by far the most banged up and just crazy amount of stuff. So after the season, we had to fix a lot. But it's the recovery process that I wish I would have done differently. I always wanted to be the fastest back from recovery. I always wanted to be back on the field quickly. I wanted to show my teammates, the fans, everybody. I'm doing whatever I can to get back out there. And there's probably a few times that I didn't let the whole process play out before going back out there when I should have.

[Dan Patrick]

Playing in snow. How much of an.

[J.J. Watt]

For a pass rusher? Yeah, not fun for a pass rusher at all because that's your whole advantage is edges, corners, turning, grip. You just literally lose all of that. So very, very frustrating.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay. How does an advantage. How does an offensive lineman take advantage of that or a quarterback take advantage of you trying to rush in the snow?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I mean, in theory he should have significantly more time. Now the same issue plays out with his receivers. They can't cut the same, they can't make the same breaks. So he's going to have a tougher time there. But in theory, it should be more difficult. You're probably going to get some more bull rushes because a guy's going to try and run through you as opposed to speed rushing around an edge. Yes, you can change your cleats. Yes, you can wear seven studs. You can put longer, but it's hard.

[Dan Patrick]

We're talking to J.J. watt. He'll be on the call Christmas Day. It's Chiefs and the Steelers. That'll be on Netflix at one Eastern. How will you be in critiquing, analyzing your brother doing a game?

[J.J. Watt]

I'm going to be, I mean, I'm. Listen, people are like, oh, he's going to be so biased for his brother. The same thing was on the other side. Chiefs are the Chiefs. Like I'm going to be talking good about Patrick Mahomes. News flash. So people are going to say he's biased for the Chiefs. I'm not going to deny the fact that he's my brother during the broadcast. He is still my brother. I am still. I. We're still blood related. But I have no problem saying what I'm seeing. I mean, if I'm seeing that he's, you know, he's getting caught on a certain pass rush or it's not working, or if a run comes his way and it goes through that gap like that's, that's Real I'm not. I do want to be a good announcer, so I am going to do my best there. But he also, on the flip side of that, he's also one of the best players in the entire world. So if he makes a good plane, I get excited about it. News flash. That's what you do when great players make great plays.

[Dan Patrick]

How was your approach to Mahomes for.

[J.J. Watt]

The game, for calling the game or playing against him?

[Dan Patrick]

Playing against him sadly didn't have much.

[J.J. Watt]

Success there because with a quarterback, what you do is you look for their drop spot. What, what yardage do they drop to? Because as a pass rusher, that's where you want to go. So most guys are somewhere in the seven and a half to eight and a half yard range. The problem with Pat is you rush to that point and he knows he has the arm strength to throw the ball from anywhere on the field. So if you rush to that point, his first look is always going to be that B gap. He loves to rush up in the B gap, which is between the guard and the tackle. So if he can get a lane there, he's going to take it. But if that's closed off by your D tackle, he's just going to drop back 10, 15, 20 yards and he knows he can make that throw from there. So you can't just rush to a spot with Pat because he's not going to be at that spot, whereas some other guys can't do that because they don't have the arm strength. Him and Josh Allen are two of the best at that, and it's, it's extremely frustrating. So the number one thing in my opinion you have to have against Pat is obviously a good edge rusher. But then you need that inside push because if you can take away that B gap and get those guys up in his face as well, at least now I know as an edge rusher I can rush a little higher, so I can also take away that deep drop back.

[Dan Patrick]

Were there certain quarterbacks that you knew or thought that maybe they were going to get preferential treatment, so you had to maybe modify how you were going to hit them?

[J.J. Watt]

Hitting the quarterback is an art, and it is an art that I was very proud to have a high degree in, because there are certainly ways to do it that you can. Are still allowed to hit them and not get fined and not get penalized. It took me a lot of fines and penalties to figure out where that line was, but I got it and it really is a skill. And I think that you have to be able to utilize that skill because laying hits on a quarterback also does affect the game, even if it's not a sack. So knowing that you have that step, step and a half and using it is huge. I do think, and I'm not naive to the fact that I may have gotten a little preferential treatment myself in the fact that it built up repertoire and the refs understood that I knew the rules and so I was going to stay within them, but I was always going to push it. But yeah, I mean, you can. It's extremely hard and I get frustrated with some of these rough in the passers, but you absolutely can find ways to hit the quarterback legally.

[Dan Patrick]

I always thought that quarterback hurry was an underrated stat that, that we do get focused on sacks. But I still like when I watch Max Crosby, he may not get there, but you know that he's there.

[J.J. Watt]

So I like, I like quarterback hit over a pressure or a hurry. Because that means that like, first of all, it's a literal thing that you can quantify. You can see the hit and he hit him. And you know what it is? Pressures and hurries I get real iffy about because I don't understand how these people are saying, what's a pressure, what's a hurry? What happens if it's a screen and they let you through? Is this a distance to the quarterback before he throws the ball? What. What are those? So I'm a big fan of quarterback hit because that means you were within a step of him because you didn't get a penalty and you hit him. Either he threw it or he didn't. But I agree with you there. You can effectively play without sacks. But I will also say pressures and hurries are like saying would have scored a touchdown. Like the receiver was open, the quarterback just didn't throw it to him. Well, it's a results driven business. Either scored the touchdown or you didn't score a touchdown. You either won the game or you didn't. We need to get sacks. That's the goal.

[Dan Patrick]

Best team in the AFC is who?

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, you can't. You can't see anybody but the Chiefs until they're proven otherwise. I mean, it's the debate right now. Like, are they doing what the Chiefs do and figuring it out as the year goes on? And they're just. They have the clutch gene and they're going to keep it going. It's tough to say. Their defense is so good, but I mean, the Bills are just. The Bills are rolling right now. It's just Their defense, that scares you because they are giving up a ton of points that offenses. I mean, Josh Allen's playing superhuman right now. I. I'm calling the game in five days, so I'm gonna go with the Chiefs because I want a great game.

[Dan Patrick]

What's it like to tackle Josh Allen?

[J.J. Watt]

I think I. So I played against some more earlier in his career, so it was probably maybe a little bit easier then because he wasn't as settled in and comfortable. So I've had some fun tackling Josh, but it's not fun chasing him around. He's big, he's fast, he's mobile. He also has a great arm, but had a good one on him in the playoffs down there in Houston. I really enjoyed that.

[Dan Patrick]

I was amazed when I saw Cam Newton in person.

[J.J. Watt]

That's.

[Dan Patrick]

That's a big guy. That's a big guy.

[J.J. Watt]

Cam is one of the only times that I really, you know, we've. We've collided, and you get up and like, yeah, that was a collision. We both, like. It was a stunt, and I wrapped around in the middle, and he started to scramble right up the middle, and we just. Neither of us kind of saw each other, and at the last second, we hit. And it was one of those where we both went down right where we were. Neither gave ground, and you just look at.

[Reese Davis]

Nice, nice.

[Dan Patrick]

But, you know, do you want those matchups there, or would you rather, you know, try to chase Kyler Murray?

[J.J. Watt]

No, no, I don't. I don't like chasing anybody. Dan. I'm gonna be honest with you. I prefer if they just stood there in the pocket, but then you have the guys that do that. Brady, who. Who gets the ball out in 1.4 seconds, and you're like, all right, I can't. I can't even get there. Peyton was nice. I like.

[Fox Sports Radio]

I like.

[J.J. Watt]

You know. You know, it was good, but, I mean, he also torched us. I think he threw his 55th touchdown pass against us, so I can't. I can't even say anything there. Luck was. Luck was another good one. I like chasing Luck around. We had some good battles, me and Andrew Luck, and he was obviously always very cordial afterwards.

[Dan Patrick]

Did you give your teammates Christmas gifts?

[J.J. Watt]

Yes. The D line, generally.

[Dan Patrick]

What. What did you give him?

[J.J. Watt]

There's. There's a different level. So, like, actually, early in my career, my first defense player of the year, I gave the whole defense custom iPads. That was early. And then as it went on, it was. There's a lot of. A lot of beverages over the Years. Very nice beverages. There was, you know, backpacks, designer backpacks, things like that. Never, never pick up trucks. That's a new one for me. There's a lot of. I saw Ryan Fitzpatrick tweeted today, but he was right. There's a lot of questions I have about that from a tax standpoint, from registration standpoint, from an insurance standpoint. We'd love to see the logistics behind that.

[Dan Patrick]

Is you ready for Christmas at home? You're going to be on, like, how tough is that? Like, you got to go Christmas Day. How big is your son?

[J.J. Watt]

He is 2, and he's large, as you would expect. So it is tough. There's no question that's tough. But I'm leaving, so I'm gonna see him Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I'm just gonna be gone, literally, for the game. So we're gonna. We're gonna do our own little Christmas here. He's. He loves the Grinch. He is all in on the Grinch.

[Kurt Warner]

So I.

[J.J. Watt]

He tried to steal our Christmas tree the other day, and I said, what are you doing? He goes, I'm taking it up the chimney. I said, no, no, that's not the hero part.

[Dan Patrick]

Is he already as tall as Kyler Murray?

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, Dan, that's not fair. That's not fair.

[Dan Patrick]

Merry Christmas to you. Have fun. And you got a great thought process going into that game of what we, the audience, wants to hear. Stick to it. Any iron eagle is as giving as any announcer that you'll work with, and that's really important. He will make you better.

[J.J. Watt]

Yes. That's my. That's my whole goal in life, Dan, is to let everybody around me make me look good because they're all better than I am. So I'm here for it, just like you. I appreciate you. And I got to give a shout out to Fritzi. We've been trying to make this happen for a very long time. I think I might have more text messages in my phone from Fritzi than I do for my wife, but I appreciate it. I'm glad we could finally make it work.

[Dan Patrick]

Thanks, bud. Happy holidays. No, no, hold on. Remember, we kind of have an over under of how many text messages before you have to take the little space between messages.

[J.J. Watt]

But he knows I actually wanted to do it. Like, that's. I'm. I'm with it. We just literally, it's been. It's been chaos over here.

[Kurt Warner]

He was always very, very genuine and kind with his responses. Not one time did I get a.

[J.J. Watt]

Hint that is like, you're being a Pain in the.

[Kurt Warner]

You know what? And he found time to do it on the last show of the 2024 year.

[Dan Patrick]

So that's very awesome that he did that. Okay, have a good broadcast, my friend.

[J.J. Watt]

Have you ever gotten a mean one back, Fritzi? Has anybody ever said, like, to stop or just the big capital s t o P, like the infomercial?

[Kurt Warner]

Derek Thomas came over to me back in the day at the ESPN zone in or in Disney World, and he's like, fritzi, I got your first message. I got your third message, and I got your eighth message.

[J.J. Watt]

I knew where to be.

[Kurt Warner]

You got to relax a little bit with the messages.

[Dan Patrick]

Well, we had a problem with Bill Murray that Fritzi. Bill Murray reached out to me and said, hey, tell Fritzi to stop. And so I said to Fritzi, stop, Bill, Muriel, come on the show. You must stop. And then Fritz, he goes, should I text him to tell him that I got it? I go, no, don't text him to tell him that you got the message to stop texting him. But he always gets his man.

[J.J. Watt]

I mean.

[Kurt Warner]

Well, I don't mean to be a.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Pain in the neck, but you are.

[J.J. Watt]

No, you're the best. You're the best.

[Dan Patrick]

Thank you.

[J.J. Watt]

You guys are great. I love. I love it every time I'm here.

[Dan Patrick]

Thank you, buddy. That's JJ. What?

[Fox Sports Radio]

Fox sports radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of our [e-mail] and within the iHeartRadio app, search FSR to listen live.

[Dan Patrick]

Hey, it's Steve Covino, and I'm Rich Davis, and together we're Covino and Rich on Fox Sports radio. You can catch us weekdays from 5 to 7pm Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific, on Fox Sports Radio and, of course, the iHeartRadio Apple. Why should you listen to Covino and Rich? We talk about everything. Life, sports, relationships, what's going on in the world. We have a lot of fun talking about the stories behind the stories in the world of sports and pop culture, stories that, well, other shows don't seem to have the time to discuss. And the fact that we've been friends for the last 20 years and still work together, I mean, that says something, right? So check us out. We like to get you involved, too. Take your phone calls, chop it up, as they say. I'd say the most interactive show on Fox Sports Radio, maybe the most interactive show on planet earth. Be sure to check out Kavino and Rich live on Fox Sports radio and the iHeartradio app from 5 to 7pm Eastern, 2 to 4 Pacific and if you miss any of the live show, just search Ko Nrich wherever you get your podcast. And of course on social media, that's Kavino and Rich. Golf's newest league is coming to ESPN and ESPN Plus. Introducing TGL presented by SoFi. You have three on three team matchups that play on Monday and Tuesday nights. Six teams competing for playoffs in a championship. You're in Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, Florida, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay. Those are the teams 24 the PGA Tours best. You got Tiger, you got Rory, Colin Morikawa, Xander Shoffley, Ricky Fowler and so many more. 2 hour matches during primetime and the matches take place on Monday and Tuesday nights. There's other sporting elements. There's timeouts, there's refs, there's overtime. Players are mic'd up. They all play in a custom built tech infused arena. It's wild. It's not your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf. Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists, producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all that holiday music you want and all the holiday movies as well with Sonos. Sonos products work together so what you can do is build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Once you hear it, you'll ask yourself how have I survived without this? Sonos has great gifts for everybody on your list. Visit sonos.com dan you'll save 20% on select products. That's sonos.com dan the flavor, the tradition.

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[Dan Patrick]

Reese Davis, host of college game day will join us. Is Reese in South Bend? Because the game is coming up tonight. Todd, do we know where Reese is?

[Kurt Warner]

I believe he's in South Bend by.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Now for the game test.

[Dan Patrick]

You believe he is?

[Kurt Warner]

College game day is doing back to back action Friday and Saturday, South Bend and Columbus.

[Dan Patrick]

All right, well, why don't we find out where Rhys Davis is? ESPN College Game day host live. They will be at Notre dame from, well, 3:30 until 8 on the mothership. Then they go to Columbus for a second show. Are they paying you for both of these college game days, Reese?

[Reese Davis]

Not extra. Dan. I think they, they took the original hour and a half show and made it four and a half hours. You know how that works at espn. Yeah, but I'm actually, I'm actually thrilled by it. I can't, I can't think of a better place to be to start this playoff than on campus at Notre Dame. I was even advocating before we knew the pairings that we needed to be at Notre Dame Saturday morning regardless of when the game was. But I think it's even better that they're playing the first one and we're here on Friday afternoon into Friday night.

[Dan Patrick]

Can you open up the curtains, look outside and give me a weather forecast?

[Reese Davis]

Yeah, I mean it might look terrible, but I'm right on campus at the beautiful Morris Inn. Let's see if we can see a little snow out there.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Reese Davis]

It's, it's nice and it's nice and chilly. We're just a few steps away here from, from the golden dome and we'll be beneath the Word of life mural. I like to be official. People sometimes call it touchdown Jesus stand. But it's the Word of life mural giving, giving the gospel and good news to teams like Indiana who've made the playoff.

[Dan Patrick]

I guess the pressure on Notre Dame when you're facing Indiana. So this is in state and Indiana never gets this opportunity. And now you have it. How much pressure? You just gave Marcus Freeman a contract extension as well. Vegas loves Notre Dame this year in the playoffs. So how much pressure?

[Reese Davis]

You know, I think if the game gets close, there might be some game pressure. But right now, both these teams are really similar. And, you know, someone asked earlier this week what the rivalry situation was, and I said, there is no rivalry. I said, historically, the only thing that's consequential about Indiana to Notre Dame football is that they're in the same state. I mean, this. Indiana's lost more games than anybody in the history of the sport. And Notre Dame has the greatest tradition in terms of being a storied tradition of any. So it's, you know, they're 200 miles apart, but separated by worlds, you know, historically. So if it gets tight late, I would imagine Notre Dame could start. Could start feeling. Feeling some of that pressure.

[Dan Patrick]

Somebody's going to lose. There's a home team that it feels like is going to lose this weekend. It just. The odds are somebody's going to lose. Who do you think that would be?

[Reese Davis]

I think even though I think they're going to win, I might be overly influenced by spending time there earlier, earlier this week, but I think if a home team is going to lose, it would be Ohio State because I think that they are facing the best team in Tennessee, and they also are facing a team with a particular strength that is opposed by a particular weakness of Ohio State, meaning the defensive front. We saw what Michigan's defensive front did to Ohio State's revamped offensive line because of injuries. In Tennessee's defensive front is just as good. It's a little bit different, but there, it's deeper and maybe a little better on the edges. But they have a particular strength that could give Ohio State trouble. So I think that is the most likely one if, if a home team is to lose.

[Dan Patrick]

Why is it open season on Ryan Day?

[Reese Davis]

I don't know. I mean, I mean, I understand rivalry. I understand the importance of it. Dan. It's kind of ridiculous. I mean, really, this loss to Michigan is the only one that was a bad one. It's not your birthright to beat Michigan every year. And, you know, this. This was a bad loss. There's no way around it.

[Kurt Warner]

They.

[Reese Davis]

They played tight, they played poorly, and they should have won the game. The previous three Michigan had better teams than they did, you know, so it's. They're the. They're the winningest program in the history of the sport. And, and this small faction, I think, generally of Ohio State fans that act as if it's their birthright, that they have some type of. That they're entitled to beat Michigan every year is preposterous. Guy 66 and 10, you know, I think he's. I think this is his fourth playoff appearance. It's really preposterous. Guy's good football coach and, you know, you got to be careful what you wish for. You know, if they're trying to push him out, they better be careful what they wish for.

[Dan Patrick]

What tweaks would you suggest for the format next year?

[Reese Davis]

Man, the first one. They've got to do away with this. Only conference champions getting the buy. The reward for winning your conference champion is inclusion into the field. Didn't just see the tournament because. And that's what it is. They have taken the team that's been best all season, Oregon, and created a more difficult path for Oregon than they did for Penn State, which lost to both Ohio State and to Oregon in the Big Ten championship game. I mean, all of these teams are good and capable, but Oregon's got to play the winner of Ohio State, Tennessee. Penn State starts at home against smu. Good team. If they win, they, you know, they get Boise State. Would you take that, you know, to get to the semifinals? I think you would. So they have to, they have to change that immediately. Dan. I think that they did it this way because they want to value conference championships and it was a mechanism to get it done, to get the other conferences to agree, well, you're not going to go backwards now. So just see the tournament, whoever. If it's four Big Ten teams that get to buy, so be it. The way it goes.

[Dan Patrick]

Talking to Reese Davis, ESPN college game day host, and he will be working tonight. This afternoon, 3:30 until 8 on the mothership at Notre Dame and then goes Saturday morning, 9am until noon with the matchup of the Buckeyes and Tennessee. Yeah, I'm, you know, if I'm Oregon, you probably wish you would have lost the game to Penn State because you would gladly, I think, change, exchange places with them.

[Reese Davis]

You know, I like the way I agree with you and I think in all practicality, it's an easier path than dealing with one of the other two. But I do like the way Dan Lanning has approached it. He's like, you know, we're just, we're just going to try to win the games that are in front of us. We're good and we think we can beat anybody. So I think he's handled it just the right way. But the unintended consequence of ceding the field like this is. Is a problem. And really the whole bottom half of the bracket now Georgia is where it deserves to be. But if they're playing a backup quarterback, then you have, you know, you have that part of the bracket with Boise three seed Georgia the two see with the backup quarterback. And you know, some of that's luck of the draw. I understand injuries, part of it are going to happen. But the bracket is imbalanced, top and bottom. More power teams, including Texas at the top than at the bottom.

[Dan Patrick]

If there was an MVP vote for college game day, who would.

[Reese Davis]

How about. How about. About co MVP or you think you really want to get me with this? I thought I was saving Maxv and Herb street. All CO MVPs. Desmond also CO MVP. I'm just out there trying to, you know, help him get a first.

[Dan Patrick]

Oh, look at you. Look at you. And you know better than that. I was trying. I was trying. And it looks like you're channeling Jim Harbaugh with your look.

[Kurt Warner]

I've been.

[Reese Davis]

I've been mistaken for him at times. I'm a big Harbaugh guy. We have a. We have one of our, One of our runners on college game day has been with us for a couple of years, a woman called Ruby Dreher, who is married to a former Ole Miss player who played for Jim with the Chargers. And when she came back this year, I told Ruby, I said the part of your contract, if you've read the fine print, is that you owe me one Harbaugh story every week. So, so she would, she would bring in these odd Harbaugh stories. But now aj her husband is playing for the Seahawks. So I'm, I'm. We've. We've run to the end of the Harbaugh stories. But yeah, I'm, I'm a big fan of Jim's. He cracks me up. I think he said it best. If you like football, you probably like Jim, so. And I do.

[Dan Patrick]

Georgia seems vulnerable. You know, as you mentioned now with Carson back done for the rest of the season here, you know, losing lad McConkey and Brock Bowers, I mean, that's a. Had a really big impact on Carson Beck and that offense here. So what is this team or who is this team now?

[Reese Davis]

They're still really good on defense and they're going that defense should keep you in every game. Now, are they as good as they were a couple of years ago. They are not their team that struggles to run the ball a little bit at times. And you know, I've had some issues on the offensive line. They've certainly had issues, as you've alluded to, with playmakers on the outside, but they still are probably one of the two or three most talented rosters in this field. So I think, you know, if Gunner Stockton plays effectively, if they can, they can run it well enough and he, you know, he's able to make make enough throws that Georgia still has a chance to win it all because they they've got as many good players as anybody, as many elite players in most positions as anyone in this field.

[Dan Patrick]

Give me if there is a juxtaposition the environment at South Bend tonight and what you think you'll get in Columbus tomorrow.

[Reese Davis]

Pure electricity here. I mean I walked in, I'm staying at this place on campus called the Morris Inn. I walked in yesterday and there was a guy playing bagpipes in here. I grabbed dinner with Richard Digger Phelps last night. You could just feel the buzz around town. They're so excited. They moved finals Dan to this week typically finish a week earlier in anticipation and hoping that they might have a home game. And they do. So everybody is like all in same direction fully Columbus. Based on being there Sunday, I think there will be excitement that is, that is just waiting for something to go wrong and then there will be angst. No, the first time they don't convert a third down. The first time Tennessee completes a 15 yard pass or something or Dylan Sampson, you know, gets loose for a 20 yard run. There will be anxiety in that building and I think how, how day and the players respond, respond to that internally will be really, really important. Saturday night it's it's more of an angsty like there's still the paw hanging over and they're just wondering if something's going to happen, if the shoe is going to drop in here. It it's all seashells and balloons for right now in Notre Dame. They're excited.

[Dan Patrick]

Good to talk to you. Have fun tonight. We'll be watching.

[Reese Davis]

All right, buddy. Thanks a lot.

[Dan Patrick]

That's Rhys Davis.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Be sure to catch the live edition of the Dan Patrick show, weekdays at 9am Eastern, 6am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

[Dan Patrick]

Golf's newest league is coming to ESPN and ESPN Plus. Introducing TGL presented by SoFi. You have three on three team matchups that play on Monday and Tuesday nights. Six teams competing for playoffs in a championship. You're in Atlanta Boston, Jupiter, Florida, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay. Those are the teams 24 the PGA Tours best. You got Tiger, you got Rory, Colin Morikawa, Xander Shoffley, Ricky Fowler and so many more. 2 hour matches during primetime and the matches take place on Monday and Tuesday nights. There's other sporting elements. There's timeouts, there's refs, there's overtime. Players are mic'd up. They all play in a custom built tech infused arena. It's wild. It's not your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf. Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists, producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all that holiday music you want and all the holiday movies as well with Sonos. Sonos products work together so what you can do is build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Once you hear it, you'll ask yourself, how have I survived without this? Sonos has great gifts for everybody on your list. Visit sonos.com dan you'll save 20% on select products. That's sonos.com dan the flavor, the tradition.

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Hi everyone, it's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kapi from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate. That's right, nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars, plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list. So join us every morning on NBC to make TODAY your home for the holidays.

[Dan Patrick]

He's Kurt Warner. He's got a couple of MVPs and he's a Hall of Famer. He's joining joining us courtesy of NFL Network's Game Day morning this Sunday. And he's calling the Cardinals Rams for NFL Network next Saturday, December 28th at 8 Eastern. Where are the MVPs?

[Kurt Warner]

I don't know, to tell you the truth. Sometimes they're behind me, sometimes they're in my outside office. I don't know. Dan, Wait.

[Dan Patrick]

Steve Young said the same thing. He didn't know where his MVPs are.

[Kurt Warner]

I mean, it's about the memories more than it's about the trophies, Dan. So sometimes my wife will put them up, you know, to kind of decorate the the office a little bit and, and look cool. But yeah, I'm with Steve. I don't know more about thinking back to those great memories than it is, you know, looking at the trophies.

[Dan Patrick]

Well, Steve said if I walked in his house, I'd never know what he did for a living. Is that the same in your house?

[Kurt Warner]

Yeah, you wouldn't know unless you came into this office. My rings are back behind me somewhere, obviously some football helmets and there's a Super Bowl MVP trophy, I guess is up there on the top. So outside of this office, you would have no idea. My wife is not a football fan at all. So I don't have, I don't have different pictures or anything displayed anywhere. No.

[Dan Patrick]

Does that help if your wife is not into football?

[Kurt Warner]

You know, I think it helps when you're playing because it's nice to be able to get away from it now that I cover the sport. I wish she liked football more. So she would sit down with me on Sunday afternoons or whatever and watch football because now, you know, I got to kind of watch it and cover it all the different days of the week that it's on. And, you know, she could care less. She doesn't want to be around it. She doesn't want it to be on tv. So it's a little bit harder now that I cover it. But it was nice when I was playing, whether it was the kids or my wife. None of them were really football junkies. So you came home and you could just be that.

[Dan Patrick]

If you were Kirk Cousins, what would you think about your future?

[Kurt Warner]

Well, I Was Kirk Cousins. A couple of times in, in my career, you found myself in that situation. Yeah, I think if I'm Kirk Cousins in Atlanta, you probably think your career in Atlanta is over for sure. And I think when I went through it a couple times so, you know, leave the Rams, go to the Giants and, you know, then benched. When I was, you know, with the Giants nine games in, you know, my mindset was I still felt I could play, but I didn't know if anybody else would give me a shot right now. Now this is two organizations that have kind of, you know, moved on from me, so to speak. And that was my, you know, that was the secondary thought in my mind was, man, is anybody going to give me a shot after, you know, this season? Because obviously my year with the Giants was completely different brand of football than we played in St. Louis. So if you just looked at stats, you know, numbers, whatever it was, you'd be like, oh, my gosh, this guy's a shell of himself in New York from what he was in St. Louis, so he's probably not a starter anymore. And I think you could say the same thing about Kirk Cousins with this last stretch that he's had there. I'm sure there's a lot of people wondering, are his best years behind him? Can he ever get back to the form that, that he had, you know, prior to this season? So I'm sure, you know, part of that is going through his mind is what. What is the future? Is there a future for me as a starter in the National Football League?

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah, but what's that like to play at a peak, peak level with the Rams and then you get benched with a Giant? Like, how does, how do you go from that high to that low and then go back to that high with Arizona and go to the Super Bowl?

[Kurt Warner]

The bottom line, Dan, is, is you've got to be realistic with your situation and you've got to take ownership of the stuff that's yours. And then you also know that there's a lot of stuff going on around you that isn't always on you, although it looks like it's on you. Right. I mean, I broke down Kirk's, you know, the interceptions when he had that four interception game. And there was a couple plays where I felt like his receivers, you know, kind of duped him a little bit, and he ends up throwing an interception. And so to me, as a quarterback, you've got to go back and look at those things and go, you know what? You know, that wasn't on me. And those kinds of things help you to hold your confidence. Even when the stats may not say you're playing really, really good football, you hang on to what you know about yourself. You learn from those moments. Like, yeah, that was a dumb decision. What, you know, what am I thinking in that situation? But you don't just like, all of us on the outside are looking at Kirk Cousins and just going, oh, my gosh, he's terrible. He can't play anymore. And when you watch the film, I don't think that's the case. I don't think he was ever comfortable in Atlanta. I don't think he's ever been comfortable in this offense. I think there's a lot of, you know, continuity issues between the guys around him and himself, and it's led to a lot of this stuff that hasn't played into his strengths. And if I'm Kirk Cousins, I'm thinking, okay, that's not who I am. This offense didn't fit me. I need to find an offense that fits me because I believe I can still play at a high level. And that's how you hold on to that confidence even when you're going through moments like this or you find yourself being benched.

[Dan Patrick]

We're talking to Kurt Warner, the Hall of Famer. You can catch him on NFL Network's game day morning. Rich Eisen, your host on Sunday, and he's calling the Cardinals Rams for NFL Network. Now, did they tab you for this because these are two of your former teams?

[Kurt Warner]

I don't know. I mean, it works out beautifully for a lot of different reasons because we're going to be in LA on Sunday morning, so we don't have to travel far after the game. Obviously, you know, we joke around that it's the Kurt Warner bowl when, when these two teams play because they play a couple of times a year and obviously it's a big game. You know, that NFC west is going to come down to the end, so I'm not sure why, but. But I like it. Yeah, I like all those different factors, and I think it's going to be a really good football game. It's going to mean something. So I'm excited about it.

[Dan Patrick]

Would you play Patrick Mahomes this weekend?

[Kurt Warner]

You know, I am a firm believer that if a player is healthy enough to play, then you play them. And I understand all the different things. Oh, you know, if we could save him for this game. And that's just what we do, Dan, like if, if we get injured. But it's not so Bad that it stops us from playing. We want to be out there playing. And that's what you do in every other scenario, right? We're trying to look at this down the stretch, but in every other scenario, you do the same thing. If you're in week four and, you know, your guy tells you, hey, I can play. I'm good. I can practice all week and I can play, you play that guy. You don't. You know, that's just the nature of what this business is all about, is we want our best out there, and our guys want to compete every chance they get. And you don't pull that competitiveness from them in any situation unless you see the guy and you go, okay, that's not our guy. That guy can't protect himself or that guy can't play at the level, you know, we need him to play. Other than that, if he says he can go and he's out there practicing, he goes.

[Dan Patrick]

Why do the Steelers have Lamar Jackson's number?

[Kurt Warner]

That's a great question, and I don't really know the answer to it, but I think what we. We all know is that there are certain teams that just get into our mind that we struggle against. When I played, it was a Tampa Bay Bucks defense, is that I just knew how good they were. I knew what they were going to do. It wasn't a surprise. You know, they didn't fool me. They were just really, really good at what they did, and they matched up really well against us. And that's another thing I don't think we consider enough is matchups and how important matchups are. Dan, in the course of things, like, we just want to look at a team, well, this team's better than that team. But matchups become so critical, and inside divisions, you know, certain teams are built to stop other teams. And I just feel like the Steelers have a real good gauge on what the Ravens want to do, how Lamar Jackson plays football, because they've played against him and they've watched him so much, and. And they just match up very, very well. And like I said, you know, as a quarterback, there's times you have teams where you're just like, man, I just know I've got to be perfect in this game if I'm going to have success. And going out and trying to play perfect usually leads in the other direction. You know, instead of just going in free and believing, hey, doesn't matter, you know, we're going to take this team. I love the matchup we got, and we're going to go out and sling it around. You sometimes can get a little bit tighter, hesitate a little bit more. And against good teams, that's all it takes.

[Dan Patrick]

Explain to me, and you said this before, years ago to me, that you loved when somebody blitzed, that somebody was open, but you got to take that hit sometimes.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Like you.

[Dan Patrick]

You may like, it's I. The risk and the reward with that. But what's that? How do you process that of that guy's coming? And I'm probably going to get hit, but it does open up this route for, you know, Isaac Bruce. Yeah.

[Kurt Warner]

Yeah. All I can say, Dan, is that the hits never hurt as much when you complete. And so, you know when that's coming and you know there's a guy open and you're going to hit him and it's going to be some kind of play, that adrenaline or whatever it is, most of the time you don't even feel the hit. Like, it's just like, I got you. And you're thinking of it from that perspective, not, oh, my gosh, this guy is going to hit me. I'm thinking to myself, well, I just won. You can come and hit me all you want, but I just won because there's an opening there and I'm getting it to one of these guys. It's going to make a big play against you. And so I just. I loved that aspect of things. And, you know, the other challenge, too, Dan, was I'm going to try to get the ball out before you can even hit me. Like, that was. To me, one of the fun parts of it is, how fast can I see it and. And beat you? So you think you're going to get a free hit on me, Dan, and then the ball's out and you got to stop. And you're just thinking, that was awful because, you know, you know, these guys are licking their chops. As soon as they see the tackle step down, this defensive end is coming right at you, and then, boom, all of a sudden the ball's out and they've got to stop there. There is no better feeling when I play than that aspect. Is that when a team thought they had you with the blitz and they had an overload and somebody's coming free and you just flip the ball out and you get a big play, and you just know the frustration that they're feeling.

[Dan Patrick]

These rookie quarterbacks rank the performances so far, not who you would take in the future, just what you've seen this year from all of these guys who have played.

[Kurt Warner]

Jaden Daniels is number one. For me, been the most consistent from day one to now. You know, there's so many big plays. I love the way he plays in control, his poise. I put him at number one. I would put Bo Nix at number two. You know, not as good early, but I think he's played some really, really good football. He's been helped by Sean Payton who does a great job of dialing up some easy things and giving him some opportunities. But I think he's played really, really well and what we saw in college has really Translated to the NFL. I would go Drake May3 and he's probably the biggest surprise for me of all of these guys. A lot of ups and downs last year in college and a lot of footwork stuff and didn't think he saw it really quickly in college. I have been overly impressed since he got in there, especially with the situation and they don't have a lot of pieces. He's not surrounded by, you know, what some of these other guys have and he has seen the field extremely well. He's played fast, he's made a lot of plays and, and made them competitive. So I would put him at three and then I would put Caleb at four. Even though we've seen glimpses, you know, there's just, there's a long way to go in terms of speeding up the processing, getting the ball out, being more consistent, playing the game. And so yeah, that's how I would rank him at this point.

[Dan Patrick]

Is Caleb the problem or the Bears the problem if you were going to pick one or the other?

[Kurt Warner]

Man, if I was going to pick one or the other, I would, I would probably pick the scheme as being the problem for the young quarterback. Like, I, I, I think Caleb's got some issues he's got to get better at. He's got to see it and process faster. But then I've talked a lot about, you know, some of these teams run these pure progression type systems and what that does is it forces a quarterback to have to look and, and read a play the exact same way, no matter what the defense is. And I think that hurts quarterbacks because just because they're looking at a receiver, they don't get to see the entirety of the field. And so as he tries to work back across some of that stuff, he's completely lost to what's going on on the backside because he wasn't really worried about it to begin with. Like, oh, I'm not worried about what's going on over there. I'm going to read over here first and I just see that hurting him over and over and over again. And I believe that can be a problem across the league. You know, some teams do it better than others, but I believe that scheme has really caused Caleb Williams to play slower and play more deliberate. Where I think he's been at his best is when he's been free and he's looking, doesn't have it, he reacts and he plays just like he did in college. And I think that system has really hindered him from doing that. So young quarterback, room to grow. But I wish they were giving him some different opportunities in terms of the scheme that they ran or they run because, because I think that's hurting.

[Dan Patrick]

My best to the family. Happy holidays and thanks for joining us as always.

[Kurt Warner]

You got it. Happy holidays to you as well.

[Dan Patrick]

It's Kurt Warner.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Be sure to catch the live edition.

[Dan Patrick]

Of the Dan Patrick show, weekdays at.

[Fox Sports Radio]

9Am Eastern, 6am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.

[Dan Patrick]

Golf's newest league is coming to ESPN and ESPN Plus. Introducing TGL presented by SoFi. You have three on three team matchups that play on Monday and Tuesday nights. Six teams competing for playoffs in a championship. You're in Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, Florida, Los Angeles, New York and the Bay. Those are the teams 24 the PGA Tours best. You got Tiger, you got Rory, Colin Morikawa, Xander Shoffley, Ricky Fowler and so many more. Two hour matches during prime time and the matches take place on Monday and Tuesday nights. There's other sporting elements. There's timeouts, there's refs, there's overtime. Players are mic'd up. They all play in a custom built tech infused arena. It's wild. It's not your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit tglgolf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf. Sonos makes it easy to enjoy a cinematic sound experience from the comfort of your own couch. Sonos works with award winning artists, producers, sound engineers to deliver the highest quality sound. Listen to all that holiday music you want and all the holiday movies as well with Sonos. Sonos products work together so what you can do is build your own sound system and they look as beautiful as they sound. Once you hear it, you'll ask yourself, how have I survived without this? Sonos has great gifts for everybody on your list. Visit sonos.com dan you'll save 20% on select products. That's sonos.com dan the flavor, the tradition.

[Del Taco]

And the spirit of carne asada lives on at Del Taco. Join the asada today with Del Taco's new limited time half pound chipotle carne asada steak burrito. Packed with sweet, spicy and smoky flavor. Wrapped up and grilled to perfection, the whole carne asada steak menu delivers the bold flavors you crave with epic burritos, loaded fries and street tacos starting at just $2.99 only at Del Taco.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Hi, everyone.

[eBay]

It's Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb from the Today Show. We love this time of year. There's so much to celebrate. That's right. Nobody does the holidays quite like today all season long. Join us for special performances with the brightest stars. Plus festive recipes to whip up the perfect holiday flower feast and great deals on the hottest toys and gifts for everyone on your list. So join us every morning on NBC to make TODAY your home for the holidays.

[Dan Patrick]

Congratulations to Easterseals Southern California on their first place win for innovation in customer service at this year's Unconventional awards by T Mobile for business. Easterseals has used T Mobile 5G to create immersive VR development tools that aid people with autism in addressing transportation barriers. These tools are shaping the way safe and personalized skill building is delivered. And for that, T Mobile congratulates Easterseals Southern California for their unconventional thinking. Al Michaels was on the call last night with Kirk Herbstreet Broncos Chargers prime video.

[Reese Davis]

How.

[Dan Patrick]

How you feeling?

[Fox Sports Radio]

I feel great. Kirk just sent me a video. He is in South Bend for game day.

[Dan Patrick]

Yeah.

[Fox Sports Radio]

And he's doing the Ohio State game. Snowing like crazy.

[Dan Patrick]

I know.

[Fox Sports Radio]

So I am going surfing today. It's 80 degrees out here or will be. He is going snowboarding.

[Dan Patrick]

Do you bet on. Do you bet on college games?

[Fox Sports Radio]

I don't, you know, Dan, I don't bet. People laugh because, you know, I'm the. The point spread, you know, announcing king and have been for years. And I was doing it when you. You weren't supposed to be doing it. But I know that the more you know, the less you know. And I know a lot about the National Football League. I probably know more than 99.9% of the people. But if I had to bet on football, I would not be living where I'm living right now. I'd be under a freeway overpass. You can't win. You cannot win. It's fun. It's fun to play. And I would hope that people only play with money that's disposable, but, you know, you can get into a lot of trouble with it. So I Know what? I don't know which is the most.

[Dan Patrick]

Important thing, but going into it, you know, like Brent Musburger gave us, you are looking live. And that was his way of saying to gamblers back in the 70s. Weather may or may not play a role here, but you're trying to covertly throw it in there, where you probably have bosses who say, or the commissioner who says, hey, don't be overt in making this about a point spread.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Well, they. They did years ago, but now everybody's in bed with DraftKings and FanDuel and all of the other entities. Bet MGM. So I had a lot of fun, you know, being the rascal. But. And don't forget, I did the super bowl back in 94. San Francisco against San Diego was an 18 point spread. And they asked me the one time, my boss, Dennis Swanson, at that point said, you know, the league is very sensitive to this. So I stayed away from it until the end when the 49ers were leading by 23. And the last play of the game is a Stan Humphreys pass into the end zone, which would have covered. So I couldn't hold it back at that particular time. But, you know, I had a lot of fun. And, you know, I'm the, You know, for years, I would say, you know, when the score was 41, nothing. I said, it's not quite over. So it was, it was, it was. It was fun to do it at that point, but now it's just overt.

[Dan Patrick]

What's it like to talk to Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, in those production meetings?

[Fox Sports Radio]

Fun. And I've known. Look, I've known Jim really well for 30 years and knew him as a. As a quarterback of the National Football League. Knew him when he was in San Francisco. He's interesting. He's got a good turn of phrase. He's a lot of fun. His brother is one of my favorites of all time. John. John is great in those meetings. There are so many coaches who are so good now, like Mike Tomlin. Mike Tomlin is as good as anybody I've ever known. In all of these years, covering the NFL now for 39 years, what Mike will do is he will answer your questions before you ask the question, which is so good. You know, he'll get on and go, okay, here's the rundown. And he. He will go to all the places that you want to go without you having to waste time asking him the questions. He's phenomenal. Sean McVeigh is phenomenal. Most of these guys are are terrific. And harbor certainly fits into that category. Both. Both Harboys.

[Dan Patrick]

All right, if I said Sean McVeigh or Mike Tomlin as an analyst, Take your pick, man.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Either one. They'd be. Each of those guys will be at some point if they want to do it. Tremendous, tremendous. Because not only are they, you know, football savvy, obviously, I mean, that's. That's a given. But they know how to put words together. Tom went through the years, there were no cliches. And I said even last night at one point, everybody would say, running back by committee. It became such a banal kind of phrase. But Mike says distribution of labor. He's just got a different way of saying things. And I always felt that if I had a debate team, Mike Tomlin would be my captain.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay, but what advice do you give those who want to be an analyst?

[Fox Sports Radio]

I would say understand. Read the room where. Don't go too deep into the weeds. Make the complicated more simple. You're not doing this game for people who know what a three technique tackle is, because 1% of the population would understand what that means. Explain what that means, but do it cogently. Have a little bit of a sense of humor. Don't over talk. I mean, nobody ever got into trouble for shutting up. It's as simple as that.

[Dan Patrick]

It's.

[Fox Sports Radio]

So that would be my advice. I've talked to a few people through the years about this, but the important thing is just kind of don't, you know, take your time. The replay is not going to go anywhere, so don't jump in. Don't, you know, don't go wall to wall and inject some humor. And the guys we're talking about, Tomlin and McVeigh, will each be fantastic when they decide to do it.

[Dan Patrick]

He's Al Michaels, the Hall of Famer, on the call last night with Herbie with the Broncos and the Chargers. That was a game that I thought the Chargers would normally lose because I thought the Broncos had them. And then all of a sudden you have that, that kick, that free kick at the end of the first half. Were you up on the rule when it happened?

[Fox Sports Radio]

It's funny because I've had. I had a game with the Cowboys a number of years ago, and they have tried that through the years a couple of times. In fact, Harbaugh tried like a 71 yarder when he was with the 49ers. So I hadn't thought about that rule in a long time. But once it happened and I saw that everybody was talking to each other on the field and the officials are getting together. I said, yeah, I remember this now. And then, you know, it's a good thing. Terry McCauley, obviously, is our. Is our guide. I went to Terry and then he could explain it, but you don't. Look, it has happened since 1976. And I don't know if you were watching last night, but Dan Fouts actually called our truck and talked to Steve Hurt, our information guru, and said in 1976, when Ray Washing made that kick for San Diego, Founts had to tell the coach, Tommy Prothro, that that was the rule. And so that's what happened 48 years ago.

[Dan Patrick]

You have a photographic memory, but it's. But it's. It's kind of crazy when, when we were at the Olympics and I remember talking to you about Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the World Series, and you were giving me the day and the weather. Where does that come from?

[Fox Sports Radio]

Well, the Baltimore, Pittsburgh World Series was 1979. The weather was. The weather was easy to remember because Howard Cosell came on the air in, I think, Game three in Pittsburgh when, after two games in Baltimore with snow flurries, and Howard's opening line was welcome to the Winter Olympics. So that was an easy one to remember. I don't know. I'm somehow able to, in my. My mind, kind of go back and put my. My brain and my body in the. In a physical presence of. At that point. You know, it's funny. I'm like a lot of people, you know, at this particular point in in life where I probably have a better memory of stuff that happened in the. The 70s and 80s and 90s. And, you know, what I had for breakfast yesterday? Weird.

[Dan Patrick]

But are you like Joe Paterno? You know, some of these coaches that coach until they die, like, do you want to broadcast until you die? I mean, not to be morbid, but this is what, you know, I remember this being told to, like, Belichick is going to coach probably till he dies.

[Fox Sports Radio]

No, that. That's not important to me. What's important to me is enjoying it. I think anybody in any line of work who's past the regular, what we consider to be retirement age, I think if you have a passion for what you do, keep going. And I do. And, you know, my health is. Is good enough right now.

[J.J. Watt]

And I really.

[Fox Sports Radio]

I love what I do. I love it. I love going to the Games. I love broadcasting the Games. I work with some phenomenal people with. I can't believe it's. It's been three years now on prime video. And they put together a. A fantastic group and I love being with them and we have fun and we like, we gathered last night after the game. You know, it's like 9:00, so, you know, west coast game. And we're all together, having them, just having a blast afterwards. So, Dan, as long as I have the passion for it, I'll continue. But I'm not sitting here going, mo, I've got to do this so I die or I got to set some kind of a broadcasting record. No, not at all.

[Dan Patrick]

Because like Hubie Brown, I mean, hubie's in his 90s, right? And I think he's just retiring.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Well, you know, Eubie was a partner of mine. I did the NBA for two years. So the first year, 0304 season, I did it with Doc Rivers. And then Doc went back to coaching in Boston and I got UB the next year. He was, he was a lot of fun. A lot of fun. And God bless that man. I mean, he's just, he was a wonderful partner. And I guess he's going to retire this year, but, God, I could listen to him forever.

[Dan Patrick]

What's it like calling a game in, you know, when, when weather plays such a role that it might impede your ability to call a game?

[Fox Sports Radio]

Well, it's funny because we did, look, we did Pittsburgh, Cleveland, when it started to snow in the second half. So I really can't see what's going on. But we can enhance it. The television picture, I mean, I've got to call the game off the, off the TV picture because looking at it live, you can't see any of the yard lines. But we can superimpose or whatever the phrase would be, the yard line. So that's how you call that game. But people love that. And a snow game, that's one of the games, one of the few games that through the years, the rating actually, I think went a little bit up in the second half because normally, you know, in the East Coast, a lot of people are going to bed at halftime. It's 10:30, whatever it is, at that particular moment in time. But at that, in that particular game, I think people would tune in and go, wow, this is pretty terrific. And they watched all the way through, and it's a great game that went all the way to the end.

[Dan Patrick]

Can the NFL give us too much NFL?

[Fox Sports Radio]

I would have thought so, but here we go. I mean, it's. You know, I'm not certain that Tuesday morning football at 3am Wouldn't work. I mean, people just can't seem to get enough of it. When you look at what 100 shows that are rated by Nielsen last year in 93 or 94, the National Football League, I don't know what's enough. If you go down to 87 of 100, maybe you're slipping a little bit. But, Dan, you know as well as I do, I mean, Netflix, two games, Christmas Day. There's always a game, it seems a game on television. And people, they love it. I understand it because it is the most dramatic thing on television. Unscripted, fantastic. And the National Football League is just full of drama. You don't know what's going to happen. And that's, I think, why we love it so much. We do now. I don't know. I don't know when you reach the breaking point, but you would think by now we've gotten there and we haven't.

[Dan Patrick]

If the NBA reached out, if Commissioner Silver reached out and said, al, what do you think of our product and what would you do moving forward?

[Fox Sports Radio]

I think he understands what's going on right now. I think everybody's talking about, you know, it's a three point game, a three point shooting game and all that stuff. I don't know what the answer is, but every sport has this issue too. Baseball has its issues, obviously. The NBA has its issues right now. Hockey kind of tweaks things. The NFL has been able to tweak a few things. I don't have the answer. I mean, that's why, you know, Goodell and Silver and Bettman and Manfred get the, you know, the money they get or, you know, that's, that's their job. Their job is to figure this thing out. But on balance, you know, people still love it. So I know the NBA ratings have leaked a little bit. I think part of it has to. Has to do probably with the fact that, you know, maybe they want. People want to see more basketball the way it was played. I'm not sure they do, though. I don't know, Dan. I don't know if they. If I had the answer, I would let you know. But I mean, to me, you don't need any tremendous new iteration of it or involvement of something. A tweak here and there is enough, but I'm not quite sure what it is.

[Dan Patrick]

Can you see load management coming to the NFL?

[Fox Sports Radio]

No, because I think, you know, I think. I think that would be a very bad thing. Guys are hurt. I mean, look, there are enough injuries. Guys are playing through injuries to begin with. No, I think, you know, if Somebody wants to go to a game, they, they want to see the team that they are buying tickets to see and not some sort of, you know, small, small sample or small part of, of what it is that their, their team is supposed to be providing. I, I don't see it. Even if you go to 18 games, I think, look, I think there's load management within the games these days too. A coach, you know, if a running back needs to have a little bit more time to get fully healed, maybe he won't carry 20 times, maybe he'll carry seven or eight. So there's load management right now, I think within the game.

[Dan Patrick]

Great to talk to you as always. Thanks for joining us.

[Fox Sports Radio]

I wish you I'd sing Auld Lang Syne to you, but I forgot the words. Can you call it graphic memory? But I forgot the words of old Lang Syne.

[Dan Patrick]

Can you sing?

[Fox Sports Radio]

Can I sing? Hell no.

[Dan Patrick]

Okay.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Just wanted to.

[Dan Patrick]

Just one.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Dano. Dano. Dogs will be screaming in the distance if I. Hey, nice to see my picture up behind right shoulder.

[Dan Patrick]

There it is.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Yeah, that's. That's a movable feast up there, isn't it?

[Dan Patrick]

Yes, yes, it is. It's in a prime spot now.

[Fox Sports Radio]

I love it right tomorrow, but I.

[Dan Patrick]

And Eagle could be up there, you know, next week.

[Fox Sports Radio]

It's great, man.

[Dan Patrick]

Thank you, Al.

[Fox Sports Radio]

Take care, dad.

[Dan Patrick]

That's Albino hall of Famer. Introducing TGL, presented by SoFi, golf's newest league live on ESPN and ESPN Plus. It's sharp and it's electric. How is it sharp? How is it electric? Picture this. Two hours of Hammer dropping overtime forcing playoffs on the line. Golf with 24 of the best players on the PGA Tour. Tiger, Rory and more split into six teams. Atlanta, Boston, Jupiter, L.A. new York and the Bay. This isn't your average Sunday pickup game. To learn more, visit TGL golf.com and tune in to the inaugural season beginning January 7th. Keep up. It's golf.

[Del Taco]

The flavor, the tradition and the spirit of carne asada lives on at Del Taco. Join the asada today with Del Taco's new limited time half pound chipotle carne asada steak burrito packed with sweet, spicy and smoky flavor, wrapped up and grilled to perfection. The whole carne asada steak menu delivers the bold flavors you crave with epic burritos, loaded fries and street tacos starting at just $2.99 only.

[eBay]

At Del Taco, we've all got a thing, an obsession. For some of us, it's vintage fashion, our cars, anything we can collect. They all live under one. Ebay it's where closets get filled with statement pieces and vintage finds, where must have sneakers wait for you, and designer handbags are the real deal on ebay. Doors open to stacks of the rarest trading cards, and a garage stocked with all the car parts you need for any DIY job. EBay's home to whatever thing you're into that keeps you up at night. Ebay Things People love hey there, Scott.

[Reese Davis]

Patterson from I Am All In Again.

[J.J. Watt]

Podcast Life Short Talk Fast Stream Gilmore.

[Reese Davis]

Girls on Hulu that's right, grab your coffee and get cozy because all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls are now on Hulu. Stream all the witty, banner, heartwarming moments and awkward Friday night dinners with Lorelei, Rory and the eclectic mix of characters. Whether you're rewatching or going Gilmore for.

[J.J. Watt]

The first time, Hulu has you covered.

[Kurt Warner]

It's a show.

[Reese Davis]

It's a lifestyle. It's now streaming on Hulu.

[Dan Patrick]

Life is an adventure. Share the journey. Check out the all new Wolverine RMAX for 1000@ Yamaha Motorsports.com or you can go to your local Yamaha dealer today. Bring the family in. You can get four adults sitting in there comfortably. A lot of cargo space as well. And just remember, always protect the environment. Wear your seatbelt, your helmet, eye protection, protective clothing. Read the owner's manual product warning labels before operating. It's The Yamaha Wolverine R Max 4 1000@ Yamaha Motorsports.com.