What's Wright - Nick Wright REACTS to Aaron Rodgers' comments on Pat McAfee show

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode: What's Wright - Nick Wright Reacts to Aaron Rodgers' Comments on Pat McAfee Show

Date: August 7, 2026
Host: Nick Wright (guest host, "What's Wright" segment)
Podcast Network: iHeartPodcasts and The Volume

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Episode Overview

This episode kicks off with Nick Wright’s analysis and reaction to Aaron Rodgers’ latest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, focusing specifically on Rodgers’ ongoing grievances about COVID-era controversies and the broader implications for sports broadcasting’s boundaries around political commentary. The episode also explores the evolving dynamics of "stick to sports" culture, the selection process and difficulty of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, a US soccer coaching decision, and the recent blockbuster Dodgers trade in MLB. Throughout, Nick Wright’s tone is candid, reflective, and acerbic, as he tackles the interplay between sports figures, media narratives, and public reaction.

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Main Segments & Key Insights

1. Aaron Rodgers' Comments on Pat McAfee – "Alternate Universe" & Accountability

Timestamps: 02:27–12:30

• Rodgers’ Grievances:
  Aaron Rodgers recently used his McAfee Show platform to relitigate his COVID vaccination stance and criticize Dr. Anthony Fauci, paralleling recent events in the political sphere.
  • Nick contends that Rodgers has "created an alternate universe where he was the only athlete who decided not to get the vaccine and that he paid a massive price for it when that is not at all what happened." (05:10)
  • Criticism focused not on the vaccine decision, but on Rodgers’ lack of transparency—his claim of being “immunized” and drawing out the ruse until caught.
• Rodgers’ Decline in Popularity:
  Wright argues Rodgers’ polarizing reputation emerged from his "kooky conspiratorial stuff," persistent self-martyrdom, and a pattern of blaming others rather than self-reflection—“a lot of pointing fingers instead of pointing thumbs.”
• Quote:

  "Aaron Rodgers' lack of personal accountability has become an absolute trademark of the last five years of his career." (11:40)

• Context for Criticism:
  Nick highlights how the NBA’s vaccine drama (e.g., Kyrie Irving) was a city-level issue, and that in the NFL, many unvaccinated players received little public scrutiny unless their protocol differed due to team rules.

2. When Sports Shows Get Political & The Overton Window

Timestamps: 12:34–20:41

• "Chilean Sea Bass at Taco Bell" Analogy:
  Nick reflects on his own reaction to sports broadcasts delving into politics, even when he agrees with the viewpoints. He likens it to ordering fast food but receiving fine dining unexpectedly:

  • “It would be, if you absolutely love Chilean sea bass... you go to Taco Bell... and they give you Chilean sea bass. Even if you love it, it’s not what you wanted.” (15:48)

• Personal Disclosure:
  He is proudly progressive but avoids overusing his sports platforms for politics unless it feels vital or unique.
• Why Avoid Political Tangents:
  Many in sports media—both creators and consumers—experience burnout or disappointment when sports content veers into politics, regardless of agreement. Nick is acutely aware of this and exercises restraint in when and how he addresses such topics on TV and his podcast.

3. "Stick to Sports" Hypocrisy and the WNBA Example

Timestamps: 20:41–27:31

• Shift in Media Tone:
  Nick describes how political/adjacent commentary in sports swung from predominantly liberal/progressive to now being far more accommodating to conservative voices (e.g., Boomer Esiason, the UFC’s political gestures).
• The "Stick to Sports" Crowd:
  These critics, according to Wright, only want dissenting views silenced—“what they actually meant was, if you disagree with me, stick to sports. But if you agree with me, you have an obligation to speak on it.” (24:28)
• Caitlin Clark as a "Caricature":
  Clark, the rising WNBA star, tries to avoid politicized controversies but is being used by both sides in cultural debates—despite her own preference to be “the Michael Jordan of the WNBA… not trying to get dragged into it.”
• Quote:

  “Caitlin Clark has been turned into a caricature by folks, by extremists on both sides of the political aisle… It has not been her own doing.” (26:40)

4. Pro Football Hall of Fame: Why It’s So Tough

Timestamps: 29:12–34:37

• Process & Notable Players:
  Wright runs through new eligible candidates and describes why the Pro Football Hall of Fame is the most exclusive and toughest to get into.
  • Argued the following will be first-ballot: Rob Gronkowski, Adrian Peterson, Ben Roethlisberger.
  • Others like Richard Sherman, Antonio Brown are deserving but likely have to wait due to off-field issues or strong new classes.
• Quote:

  “Great Hall of Fames are supposed to be hard. This one is damn near too hard.” (34:14)

• Looking Ahead:
  Next year’s class will add Tom Brady. J.J. Watt will also be eligible, and both are considered locks.

5. US Men's Soccer Coaching & Dodgers Trade

Timestamps: 35:40–44:35

• US Soccer Coach Extension:
  Endorses Mauricio Poino’s extension, dismissing reactionary calls for replacement after a tough Belgium match.

  • “Giving the team the stability is the best thing we can do from a coaching standpoint.” (36:01)

• Dodgers Acquisition of Tariq Scubal:
  Nick analyzes the outrage over the Dodgers’ trade for Scubal and dismisses the idea that it’s purely a result of MLB’s structural financial inequities.
  • Most teams could have matched the trade offer, but “the Dodgers just did it.” (43:56)

  • “If it’s a lie, then we fight on that lie.” (reference to The Wire, discussing sports narratives)

• State of Baseball:
  Despite complaints about competitive balance, “baseball’s got more momentum right now than it’s had in 20 years.”

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• On Rodgers’ self-mythology (05:10):
  “Aaron Rodgers has created an alternate universe where he was the only athlete who decided not to get the vaccine and that he paid a massive price for it when that is not at all what happened.”
• On accountability (11:40):
  “Lack of personal accountability has become an absolute trademark of the last five years of his career.”
• On sports/politics crossover (15:48):
  “It's like if you go to Taco Bell and order three hard tacos and they give you Chilean sea bass—it's not what you wanted, even if you love it.”
• On ‘stick to sports’ critics (24:29):
  “What they actually meant was, if you disagree with me, stick to sports. But if you agree with me, you have an obligation to speak on it.”
• On the Hall of Fame (34:14):
  “Great Hall of Fames are supposed to be hard. This one is damn near too hard.”
• On Dodgers trade narrative (43:56):
  “But the fact that that’s the reality of it doesn’t really matter… the Dodgers just did it.”

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Important Timestamps by Topic

• [02:27] — Nick’s introduction & episode rundown
• [02:50] — Aaron Rodgers, McAfee, COVID commentary, Rodgers’ media “alternate universe”
• [10:28] — Novak Djokovic comparison; legitimacy of debate venues
• [12:34] — How the Overton window has shifted in sports media
• [15:48] — "Chilean sea bass" sports politics analogy
• [20:41] — “Stick to Sports” conversation, rise of conservative voices
• [24:28] — Caitlin Clark, athlete caricature in politics
• [29:12] — Pro Football Hall of Fame, challenges of selection
• [36:01] — US Men’s Soccer coaching stability
• [43:56] — Dodgers’ Scubal trade—narrative vs. reality

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Summary

Nick Wright’s portion of this episode provides a smart, sometimes biting exploration of Aaron Rodgers’ ongoing public complaints, using the discussion to reflect on how sports figures use media platforms, the difficulties of keeping sports and political commentary separate, and the shifting cultural standards of what’s socially acceptable on sports TV. The show’s arc moves fluidly from the particular (Rodgers) to the general (WNBA polarization, Hall of Fame exclusivity, baseball labor dramas), offering a mix of sharp critique, media commentary, and straight sports talk—always with Wright’s characteristic self-awareness and humor. This episode is ideal for listeners interested in both hot takes and the bigger-picture dynamics shaping American sports conversations.

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Transcript

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[Sports Podcast Host]

Welcome in what's driving the Grud episode 488, our Friday episode that I always tell you guys we record on Thursdays. So if between now and when you guys hear this, there's crazy breaking news, my apologies, we won't have it in today's episode. The last time we did something like this, between when we recorded the episodes and when you guys heard them, the breaking news was LeBron James to the Sixers. I was already out of the country. I don't think that's gonna happen again. Today's show is brought to you, as always, by our friends at Boost Mobile. I don't even think on Thursday's episode I mentioned this one time, but it does help us out if you subscribe to the show. Also, just a reminder, next week we will bring to you your regularly scheduled episodes. Then we are off for two weeks. But I have some ideas for what we might populate your podcast feeds with while we are off. Damanze also will be back next week, back, you know, done with his final piece of his paternity leave. So we will have the full crew back with us next week. On today's show, we are going to do four separate things. We're not doing a mailbag today. Four separate topics that are, you know, it's actually kind of three sports, one non sport. The sports we are going to discuss at some point are baseball, international soccer, the Pro Football hall of Fame. And we're going to start the show. There is no straight to voicemail brought to our friends on Boost Mobile as there never is on Fridays. We're going to start the show with a little bit on broadcasting accepted norms, I guess at this point in relation to the Rogers latest appearance on Pat McAfee. Now I don't think, in fact I know nothing I have planned here over the next 10 minutes or when we're discussing this to me qualifies as even quasi political. That is not the piece of this that I interested in for our purposes. It certainly, however, is not X's and O's sports stuff. And I'm saying that on the front end for a reason that will make more sense as we get to the back end of it, because it's one of my kind of broadcasting notes on it. But Rogers went on McAfee and decided to do a bit of, you know, the greatest hits. And it was fresh off Dr. Anthony Fauci's appearance for Congress where he pled the Fifth and didn't want to talk to them. And so Rogers did something similar to what Vic Fangio did from the Eagles podium, which is decide this was the right time in the place to discuss how Covid was dealt with and Dr. Fauci from five, six years ago. Fine. So be it. Um, a few things on Rogers before we get to the. What I think is the most interesting piece of this, but I just want to do this on the front end because I have said this before, but I want to reiterate it here. Aaron Rodgers has created an alternate universe where he was the only athlete who decided not to get the vaccine and that he paid a massive price for it when that is not at all what happened. Aaron Rodgers, at least in most media circles, was not heavily criticized at all for, and listen to the words I'm saying here, the decision not to get the vaccine. Because unlike in the NBA, where if you didn't get the vaccine, there were real penalties, like Kyrie, it wasn't really an NBA thing as much as it was a New York City thing where Kyrie couldn't play home games with the Nets because of the city regulations. That wasn't an NBA rule because he was allowed to play road games. That whole thing was very weird in the NFL. The. A lot of guys, we. We still don't know who all did and didn't get the vaccine, we kind of could piece together. If you remember the COVID times you had, there were different rules as far as if you tested positive, what the protocol was, as far as how much time you had to miss, and what the rules were as far as, I think, masking and other things whether you were vaccinated or not. And because of that, I, you know, people piece together, oh, I don't think Lamar got the vaccine or there are some other quarterbacks. There are a bunch of players that didn't get it, and you only knew about it because their COVID protocol was different than someone else's COVID protocol. Again, it is 2026. I am not interested in relitigating any of those things. The only reason I even bring any of that up is because Aaron has created, it feels to me, this fake universe of murderdom where he took a stand no one else was willing to take, and he paid heavy price for it. It's not what happened. Aaron got criticized because he lied without directly lying, knew he was doing it, and people didn't like that, that instead of having the courage of his convictions he has now, six years ago, when in the moment, he could have, as a league mvp, as one of the greatest players ever, took this stand that he felt was a brave, important, thoughtful stand that. That he thought could save lives all these Things he instead passed the buck, did a little play on words. Yeah, I've been immunized. And then kept that ruse running for. Until he got caught. That's what he was criticized for. He then got more and more criticized not for a decision that is. Was not at all incredibly out of the mainstream to choose not to get vaccinated. He got more and more criticized cuz he wouldn't stop talking about this years later and then kept upping the ante on his kooky conspiratorial stuff when he tried to bring Jimmy Kimmel into the Epstein list and, and the, the ver. The, the, the other nonsense. He tried to pedal us or have his friends in the media pedal us about how he's playing safety and for the scout team and got an interception for the jets when he was months removed from the Achilles and how he might come back within the same season. And just all this just mouth vomit that people got sick of to go on top of the fact that, that he didn't seem to be a very good leader. A lot of pointing fingers instead of pointing thumbs. All of those reasons are why he got. He went from I think relatively popular to relatively unpopular. And he has convinced himself and is I think trying to convince others. Oh no, it's only because I

[Listener/Caller]

did

[Sports Podcast Host]

didn't get the vaccine. Novak Djokovic didn't get the vaccine. Now you can, the only reason I bring that up, you can say it's unfair that he had to miss tournaments. That you, if you wanna argue whether or not those regulations were right or wrong and if you think that your reading of Dr. Fauci pleading the fifth is evidence, I am not, certainly in this setting and maybe in any setting really interested in having any of those debates. And if folks think that's because I think that I'm on the wrong side of it, you're wrong. I'm just, I, I'm not interested in it. But those are the, those are legitimate debates and if people are interested in having them, they should have them. Whether or not they should be having them on ESPN at 12:30 in the afternoon is a different discussion. Which brings me to where I really wanted to go with this. But I did just wanna set the record straight on the first, first of all that Aaron Rodgers, who lack of personal accountability has become an absolute trademark of the last five years of his career up to and including. I mean it was so much disingenuous that everybody remember this one. Everybody knows you gotta FaceTime me. I don't have phone service. I was 90% retired. And then I would like there was just so much obvious that he just became for a lot of us a non credible person. And instead of taking any accountability for any of that, he's like, nope, I just bravely wouldn't get that toxic shot. And now I've been proven right and you all owe me an apology. It's just such nonsense. But now to the broadcasting piece of

[Podcast Announcer]

it

[Sports Podcast Host]

because I have two major points to make here. The first one is about. How the Overton window, if you will, has moved on political topics on sports television. And this is one. And I do not hide everybody who is listens to this podcast, watches this podcast, has had any, knows, you know, just a passing knowledge of me deeper than is one of the guys on TV knows my politics. I am very openly and proudly progressive liberal. I vote as such, maybe not in every single possible election, locally, municipally, everything. I'm not, I don't just click the one thing straight, you know, party line, ballot or whatever. But I had a pretty, you know, I have a, I'm quite proud of my voting track record on causes and parties and politicians. I believe in if that, if you are a person that, that makes you unable to stomach my take on whether or not, you know, Cooper Flag is going to win an mvp, then, you know, good luck, God bless. But I don't hide it. But I also don't at every opportunity. In fact, in rare opportunities these days when sports and politics seem to come together, do I opt into getting into it? And that is for two reasons. First one is a pretty simple one that I've talked about before. And that first one is that because right when the TV show started, there was a lot of political sports, political talk on tv in large part because of Kaepernick. There was, you couldn't avoid the Kaepernick story. That was inherently, you know, a political story in part, and there's a ton of it. And I think after that the door opened even wider for other things that aren't Kaepernick related, where people felt comfortable. I have a platform, I'm gonna talk about it. And I use this podcast for that. When I feel deeply passionate about something on the TV show, we basically never do it. I think the only time we've done it in the last three years was when we were doing a show from the Chief's parade. There was a mass shooting that we were heard the gunshots of were evacuated out of were for, you know, our real experience of that. And that obviously, at least for me Becomes, in part, a gun story. So I'm going to talk about that there. But we do it very rarely, and there are two major reasons for that. And the first one is this. And this is why I gave that little disclaimer at the beginning. It was my own reaction to tuning into a sports show that not only I like, but this was the most. This was the moment of clarity for me that I agreed with the host's politics, that I thought he was on the right side of the major issues, that on the topic he was discussing, I agreed with everything he was saying, and I was bummed out. It's what he was doing because it wasn't where my brain was at the time. Not even. Not that my brain wasn't agreeing with him. It was not what I was looking forward to. The only, like, again, two very messily mixed metaphors. It would be, if you absolutely love Chilean sea bass, it's one of your favorite dishes, you find yourself craving it at times, and you go to Taco Bell, which you also like, and order three hard tacos and a chicken quesadilla, and they come out and give you a perfectly prepared Chilean sea bass, even if typically you love it in the moment, you're like, well, that's not what I wanted. I was looking for this. You gave me that. And then imagine if you absolutely hate Chilean sea bass and you go to Taco Bell and you get. You make your order and they give it to you, how you're gonna be. And in that moment, when I heard someone I like who I agreed with what they were saying, I agreed with their politics, and yet I was still disappointed they were doing it, I was like, oh, I should do it less, because the people who hate everything I'm saying are gonna be pissed. And a decent portion of the people who agree with what I'm saying, they're not gonna be pissed, but they're gonna be a little disappointed. I was like. And so that, to me, was like a light bulb moment. Like, okay, if that's how I'm reacting, that's how a lot of people will be reacting. Which is why I try to be very judicious on these platforms, more liberal about it, pun intended, I guess, here than on the TV show. But even here, I have to be very, very passionate about something to where it. Or I or either. Very passionate. And these are usually wrapped together or feel like, you know what? I have something to say that's important and no one else has said it. Like, people ask me sometimes privately why I don't talk, whether it just, you know, on this or on Twitter or whatever about Trump more. And there's a couple reasons, one of which is my second point that I'm going to get to in a moment. Um, but one of them is like, yeah, you know what? I think that beat's pretty well covered. I I very rarely have an opinion of the current president that I feel like, you know what, no one has said this. It is a unique individual thought that I like it. Like nobody has made this point.

[Angie Martinez]

And

[Sports Podcast Host]

so I don't, you know, I don't know how much my voice would

[Listener/Caller]

add

[Sports Podcast Host]

rather than just being like the chorus on, you know, certain things for people that see the world a certain way. So that's one of the reasons. But here's the other reason and this kind of is tied up a little in what's happening currently in the wnba, which is. The stick to sports folks.

[Colin Cowherd]

One

[Sports Podcast Host]

and they, they won so resoundingly they got more than they actually initially were asking for. Because I do believe and I think, listen, things are cyclical. I think we've swung one way, we'll swing back another at some point. Like very rarely will we be in a proper equilibrium. I do think there was a period of time where the only, not the only, but the vast majority of either political or it rarely was outright political, but politically adjacent commentary you heard on sports TV was progressive or liberal viewpoints that if, if people were not sticking to sports, it was saying a lot of stuff that I personally agreed with. We have now swung in the other direction to where I think folks who see the world the way I do have been cowed a bit. We are not quite as vocal. We pick our spots more, if at all. And folks who see the world the opposite are more emboldened than ever before. Whether it's Boomer a size and using his platform number one radio show in the biggest market in America to regularly, regularly talk politics. Whether it's the the UFC as an entity holding an event, you know, at the White House and Dana White doing all the Dana White stuff, or whether it just be folks. Kind of just accepting that whatever the wild liberal athlete version of Aaron Rodgers

[Colin Cowherd]

is

[Sports Podcast Host]

would just never have the latitude of open mic night during ESPN's afternoon block. We like the it's just it swung this way and maybe it swung too far this way eight years ago and it swung too far this way now and maybe you're trying to catch it in the middle but never it'll just swing back be my my thought on it. But here's the other. Here's the point. The, the bigger point I'm making about the stick to sports folks. And this is what we're seeing in the wnba. And this is what is really interesting to me. The stick to sports folks didn't actually mean it. And now that Caitlin Clark is begging people to let her stick to sports, they're pissed because what they actually meant was, if you disagree with me, stick to sports. But if you agree with me, you have an obligation to speak on it. And that has been a very fascinating thing to see play out in real

[Colin Cowherd]

time

[Sports Podcast Host]

that these folks who never gave two shits about Sophie Cunningham three weeks ago, she comes out and speaks her piece on what she believes transgender athletes place in sports is. The sick to sports crowd is like, perfect. Amen. Totally agree with you. Let's have that conversation. Let's, let's, let's talk. Is there, does it apply to the WNBA right now? Of course not. Is there a player that we're talking about that is, you know, draft eligible next year whose gender identity is in question? No, definitely not. Is, is there any relevance to this WNBA season on the court? No, but this is a argument I want to have. We have a popular player saying what I agree with Preach and in fact, teammate Caitlin Clark, you got the biggest megaphone of of them all. You agree with her, right? Oh, you don't want to talk about it.

[Listener/Caller]

You.

[Sports Podcast Host]

It's been really fascinating to see and I, I am really interested in if Caitlyn's able to do it, if she can hold her water on. I truly do just want to stick to sports. Call me the Michael Jordan of the wnba. Everybody buys sneakers. I'm not trying to get dragged into it. If these folks turn on her because she has been an avatar for them. Caitlin Clark has been turned into a caricature by folks, by extremists on both sides of the political aisle, in my opinion. And I'm not a both sides guy. I do not think like, ah, we have equal problems. I do not believe that at all. I do believe that Caitlin Clark specifically has been turned into a person that she may or may not be by folks who love her and hate her. And the, the person that she was has been turned into by people who hate her is the exact opposite person that she was. There might be the same person that she's been turned into by people who love her. I'm not sure. Whatever it is, it's, it has not been her own doing. And she wants to stick to sports. And these people are pissed about it and that's fascinating to me.

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[Angie Martinez]

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And we now have a great example as to why the NFL hall of Fame, the Pro Football hall of Fame, is the best hall of fame and why when people throw around future hall of Famer Willy Nilly, they are so often mistaken. Because not only is this hall of Fame hard to get into, it feels impossible to get into. So here's the deal of the non senior candidates and then just the players, not senior candidate players and not contributors. It is a maximum of five eligible a year. Okay, so last year, guys who didn't. I'm just gonna give you the list real quick. 25 semifinalists who did not make the 15 finalists. Okay, these guys were semifinalists that didn't make the finals last year. Lomas Brown, Rodney Harrison, Robert Mathis, Philip Rivers, Steve Smith Sr. Fred Taylor, Earl Thomas, Heinz Ward, Richmond Webb, Vince Wilfork, Steve Wisniewski. They didn't even make the first cut last year. Finalists that did not make the final eight last year, okay, they were as Jari Evans, Frank Gore, Tory Holt, who's been waiting forever. Eli Manning, Reggie Wayne, Kevin Williams, Jason Whitten, Darren Woodson. Finalists who made the final eight but did not get in, Terrell Suggs, Willie Anderson, Marshall Yonda. All right, so you might feel like, okay, so Suggs Anderson, Yonda are in better shape than certainly the semifinalists didn't make it. But then also Jari Evans and Tori Holt and Frank Gore and Eli and Reggie Wayne and Jason Whitten, Darren Woodson, yeah, they might be in better shape. It also might not matter because here's why. This hall of Fame's awesome and I feel, you know, awesome. It's tough, but it's supposed to be new to the ballot this year, among others, but most notably these six guys. Adrian Peterson, Ben Roethlisberger, Rob Gronkowski, Richard Sherman, Antonio Brown and Cam Newton. So here's why the hall of Fame is impossible. Rob Gronkowski takes one of the spots he is in. Adrian Peterson takes one of the spots he is in. Big Ben takes one of the spots he is in. That's three down already. Cam Newton, maybe one day. And I really like Cam. Cam Newton is not getting in first ballot and probably not ever. I don't want to say that because that's more. It's very, very hard to make the hall of Fame case for Cam Newton other than like change the game stuff. Cross him out. Antonio Brown has a Hall of Fame caliber resume, but I think that the, they are going to have no problem making him wait. And had he not, you know, done what he's done over the last few years, they probably wouldn't have made him wait. He's a four time first team all pro. He's got over 12,000 yards, he's got 80 touchdowns. He's not getting in first ballot. And this is, this is a really tricky one. And I, to me, this guy is very clearly a Hall of Famer. Richard Sherman, I do believe deserves to be in and will get in. I don't think he'll be first ballot and so that does, but he could be. And if he is, only one spot else is open and if Antonio gets in, no other spots are open. Gronk, Adrian Peterson and Big Ben are going to make it. I think Sherman might have to wait a year or two. I think Antonio Brown might have to wait a year or two. But again, every year new guys come eligible. Next year, Brady's one of them. Like guy, it's tough. My guess is next year's hall of Fame class will be Gronk, Peterson, Big Ben Suggs, Willie Anderson, which leaves Marshall, Yonda Sherman, Antonio Brown along with Jari Evans, Frank Gore, Tori Holt, Reggie Wayne, still waiting. Gosh, Tori Holt, man, how many more years till Tori Holt? He falls off when he retired in 09. Willie Anderson's 08 like it's get it's tough man. But I think that's the Hall. I think next year's hall of fame will be Gronk, Peterson, Big Ben, Suggs, Willie Anderson. That's my guess. Now fortunately for these guys I in 2028 obviously Brady walks in. The only other first ballot eligible guy I think that is got a like a real shot is Alex Mack. But I he he's not gonna be first ballot so neck so a year, two years from now there should you should be able to get four additional guys along with Brady. I mean great hall of Fames are supposed to be hard. This one is damn near too hard. Boost Mobile's proving you don't have to overpay for great wireless. Unlike the Savings with the 25amonth Forever Unlimited plan to permanent price with no contracts and no price hikes. You can keep your phone and your number but you save up to $600 a year compared to the major carriers. Stop overpaying and switch to a fair price@boost mobile.com today based on average annual single line payment of AT&T Verizon and T Mobile customers compared to 12 months on the Boost Mobile Unlimited plan as of January 26, 2026. Pardon me. For full offer details visit boost mobile.com all right, two oh, JJ Watts eligible next year as well. Hold on. Tell me is is J.J. watt eligible next year or the year after? Okay. Okay. That's all right. J.J. watt walks in. First ballot walks in. We talked about Aaron Donald on the last show. There is a real argument. It's funny, I said in the last show, there's an argument. Aaron Donald's greatest defensive player of all time. There is an argument for that. There's also an argument he's not the best defensive player of his own era because J.J. watt was in that era. That's how good J.J. watt was. Two quick stories because I went longer than I usually do on a Friday show. One is the U.S. men's National Team extended Mauricio Poino. That was obviously unequivocally and undeniably the right call. I was stunned how many people because of the game against Belgium were like, okay, let's move on, guys. Giving him the a full cycle, giving the team the stability is the best thing we can do from a coaching standpoint. They had a terrible game, there is no doubt about it. But restarting this whole thing and running the risk that you're going to hire a zero, it just can't be done. So I thought it was a no brainer. I'm thrilled he agreed to do it. I liked that he seemed to really enjoy coaching the team. I also think having one World cup under his belt, that went fine. Not great, but went fine, had some great moments and now having the full four year Runway, he'll have even more authority to create the team in the image that he wants have, you know, and so I think that's great. And the other big story that we have not gotten to is school going to the Dodgers. And this to me is a fascinating example of almost human psychology. And so I'll just try to do this quickly. If you believe the Dodgers are bad for baseball, if you believe that you need a salary cap, that you has to be more competitive, balance all those things, those are all totally legitimate beliefs. Obviously I think you can, you know, cow herd and others make the exact opposite argument all the time. I think that is, you know, good ground for a vigorous debate. The pros and cons of having an evil empire like the Yankees and the Oughts and the Dodgers. Now what I find so fascinating is the Dodgers trading for school has almost nothing to do with their financial advantage and what's supposedly wrong with baseball. Yet from a narrative discussion and from the momentum of oh my God, a lockout's coming or work stoppage that this can't go on. It didn't matter. It, it just, it's the Slim Charles line from the, from the wire. It don't matter if it's a lie, we fight on the lie. I butchered that line. Slim Charles fight on the lie. What is the exact line? The if it's a lie, then we fight on that lie. A dozen teams in baseball could have trumped the Tigers offer for school. Tiger's gonna pay school like 9 million bucks. He was on a one year, 32 million dollar deal. There's only a few months left in the season. Now if they resigned school, that you can talk about that being what's wrong with baseball if that's how you feel. If he had already been on a long term contract that was like an albatross and they were going to take it on, fine. Hell, if baseball had a version of the franchise tag where it's like, yeah, they trade for him, he's on her contract, but they're definitely going to keep him. None of that's true. And they didn't trade a bunch of stuff. They traded three from what I'm told kind of mid tier prospects. A lot of teams could have traded for Tariq Scubal Tarek school. The Dodgers just did it. But it's the school trade that people are like, that's too much. Enough is enough. But it had such so little to do with their financial advantage. But the fact that that's the reality of it doesn't really matter. And it seemed like this was the final straw for a lot of people. With that said, man, baseball's got more momentum right now than it's had in 20 years, maybe 30 years. Certainly at 20 years, we'll call it. Not 30 years. 30 years ago. Is work Savage. A work stoppage would be so bad for the sport. It'd be so bad. I I haven't really spent a lot of time studying how to get this thing fixed with the meetings of the minds, but it'd be so bad. But Scubal, the Dodgers got Scubal because nobody else wanted to step up and trade for him. Not because they've got the richest local television deal in the sport. Huge thanks to hard rock bet boost mobile. And even a thanks to SeatGeek because I forgot to thank him yesterday. Thank you to Volume. Thank you to Hard Rock Damanze Back next week. I'm back next week. See you guys then. Subscribe to the channel. Helps us out a ton. YouTube, itunes, Spotify, all that. See you guys then. We'll try.

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