PMS 2.0 1269 - OVERREACTION MONDAY, NFL Week 17 Recap, Adam Schefter, Bill Belichick, JJ Watt, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1269

Episode Overview: In Episode PMS 2.0 1269 of "The Pat McAfee Show," host Pat McAfee, alongside contributors AJ Hawk, the Toxic Table (Boston Connor and Ty Schmidt), and guest Bill Belichick, delves into an extensive discussion covering NFL Week 17, the Indianapolis Colts' organizational culture, the impact of Jim Harbaugh on the Los Angeles Chargers, playoff implications, and insights into upcoming college football bowl games. The episode is marked by candid conversations, expert analysis, and relatable banter, providing listeners with a comprehensive recap of the current sports landscape.

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1. Overreaction Monday

Timestamp: [00:00] - [01:09]

Pat McAfee opens the show by addressing the concept of "Overreaction Monday," highlighting the diminished significance of Week 17 NFL games as teams prepare for next season. He emphasizes that many final-week matchups, such as the Detroit Lions vs. San Francisco 49ers, hold little consequence for playoff standings, with key seeds already locked in.

Notable Quote:

"The Lions are taking on the Niners, and looking ahead to this season, you would think that this would be a showcase... it's going to mean absolutely nothing." – Pat McAfee [00:00]

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2. NFL Week 17 Recap

Timestamp: [01:09] - [02:24]

The discussion moves to the NFL playoff scenarios, with Pat explaining the tight race for playoff spots in both the AFC and NFC. He notes the Kansas City Chiefs securing the AFC's top seed and the Philadelphia Eagles locking in the NFC's number two seed, leaving six AFC spots and one NFC seed still open.

Notable Quote:

"There's a heated race for the number one overall pick... We got the number one seed on the AFC side, we got six AFC playoff spots wide open." – Pat McAfee [01:11]

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3. The Toxic Table: Indianapolis Colts Culture Critique

Timestamp: [01:54] - [28:56]

Darius Butler takes the stage to deliver a passionate critique of the Indianapolis Colts' organizational culture. He expresses frustration with the lack of accountability within the team, highlighting issues such as quarterback Sam Darnold's inconsistent performance and the management's handling of player behavior. Butler argues that despite having talented players and a dedicated general manager, the Colts have failed to secure a division title in over a decade, underlining systemic problems that hinder the team's success.

Notable Quotes:

"This group of players has never won here. They've never won the AFC South in 10 years." – Darius Butler [22:56]

"Nobody that's good has that problem. Having preparation questions publicly, nobody has that." – Darius Butler [30:56]

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4. Impact of Jim Harbaugh on the Los Angeles Chargers

Timestamp: [03:49] - [04:28]

AJ Hawk discusses the transformative effect Jim Harbaugh has had on the Los Angeles Chargers in his first year as head coach. Hawk credits Harbaugh with instilling a "hardball" approach both defensively and offensively, leading the Chargers to a playoff spot and revitalizing quarterback Justin Herbert's performance.

Notable Quote:

"You bring in Jim Harbaugh and they start playing their hardball football defensively, offensively. And now they're in a position where they can compete." – AJ Hawk [03:49]

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5. Bill Belichick’s Analysis: Colts and Playoffs

Timestamp: [28:56] - [57:53]

Former NFL head coach Bill Belichick joins the show to discuss the Colts' predicament. He emphasizes the importance of leadership alignment within a team and criticizes the Colts' management for allowing poor performance to persist. Belichick also touches on playoff strategies, emphasizing the Chiefs' approach to resting key players to maintain peak performance for the postseason.

Notable Quotes:

"I learned more from them than they did from me." – Bill Belichick [30:56]

"It's hard to go to your team and say, we’re going to rest these five guys, but we don’t care about everybody else." – Bill Belichick [35:08]

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6. Kansas City Chiefs Playoff Strategy

Timestamp: [35:56] - [37:30]

Belichick continues his analysis, discussing the Chiefs' strategy to rest key players heading into the playoffs. He highlights Patrick Mahomes' pivotal role and the depth of the Chiefs' roster, asserting that even with some players resting, the team remains formidable and ready for the divisional playoff round.

Notable Quote:

"The Chiefs are playing at a level that is as strong as any time they played at during the season. They're hitting their peak." – Bill Belichick [35:56]

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7. College Football Insights: Rose Bowl and More

Timestamp: [57:03] - [163:56]

The second half of the episode shifts focus to college football, with guest Bill Belichick sharing his experiences and strategies related to recruiting and team building at the University of North Carolina. Discussions cover the importance of consistent vision, the role of coaching staff in developing players, and the nuances of recruiting in the modern collegiate landscape. Belichick draws parallels between his NFL coaching experience and his current role in college football, emphasizing adaptability and mentorship.

Notable Quotes:

"You want a consistent vision between the ownership and the people who are running the team." – Bill Belichick [73:20]

"The guys that love football, they want to get better and they utilize all the tools we're providing." – Bill Belichick [74:41]

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8. The Future of NFL Quarterbacks: Sam Darnold and Carson Wentz

Timestamp: [147:53] - [174:56]

The conversation returns to NFL quarterbacks, focusing on Sam Darnold's potential and the strategic use of franchise tags. Pat McAfee and contributors debate the feasibility of the Colts retaining Darnold through franchise tagging, discussing financial implications and his performance trajectory. The segment underscores the challenges teams face in securing talented quarterbacks amidst salary cap constraints.

Notable Quotes:

"It’s a whole new world, you want to get insurance." – Pat McAfee [19:46]

"I think there's a lot of voters that put their mind into it and wrote down their pick even before Christmas." – Darius Butler [140:09]

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9. Playoff Predictions and Team Dynamics

Timestamp: [174:56] - [200:05]

The panel engages in predictions for upcoming playoff matchups, analyzing team performances, coaching decisions, and player impacts. Discussions include the Chargers' potential surge under Harbaugh, the Vikings' battle for the NFC top seed, and the Chiefs' dominance in the AFC. The segment is characterized by strategic insights and foresight into playoff implications based on current team form and dynamics.

Notable Quote:

"If I was head coach in the NFL, I don't care what team I was on, I would watch that game with my staff and then go over it with the team." – Bill Belichick [97:20]

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10. Final Thoughts and Farewell

Timestamp: [200:05] - [213:00]

As the episode draws to a close, Pat McAfee reflects on the diverse topics covered, reiterating the importance of organizational culture and strategic decision-making in both NFL and college football. The panel expresses optimism for future seasons, acknowledging the challenges teams face while highlighting the potential for positive change through effective leadership and cohesive team dynamics.

Notable Quote:

"Sometimes you just gotta have a dog that's going to grab somebody by the face mask and say, hey, this is what we're going to do today." – Darius Butler [190:10]

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Conclusion: Episode 1269 of "The Pat McAfee Show" offers a multifaceted exploration of the NFL's current landscape, delving into team dynamics, coaching strategies, and the intricate balance between player performance and organizational culture. With insightful contributions from Bill Belichick and passionate commentary from Darius Butler, the episode provides listeners with a deep understanding of the factors influencing team successes and struggles as the NFL season transitions into its playoff phase.

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Note: Advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections have been omitted as per the instructions.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this magical overreaction. Monday, December 30, 2024. This program starts now. Football is amazing. And obviously the college football playoffs pick right back up on this beautiful week of football mattering. Now, there is a football game tonight to wrap up Week 17 of the NFL schedule and it means absolutely nothing. That is just a matter of fact. The Lions are taking on the Niners. And looking ahead to this season, you would think that this would be a showcase, obviously a rematch from last year's playoffs between these two teams. Two teams that are going to be vying for the number one overall seed. So let's put them on Monday Night Football. It's going to be great. I don't blame them. And obviously the Niner season has gone how it's gone. And now the Lions have worked themselves into a point where their second to last game doesn't matter. Now, for a couple teams, their last game does not matter. There's already been, you know, a number one seed locked in in the afc, the Kansas City Chief Chiefs, and there's been a number two seed locked in in the NFC, the Philadelphia Eagles. And A.J. brown came out and said one half of the Hammer Cowboys AP tone that.

[Boston Connor]

He was going to rest up, heal up and get ready for.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so AJ Brown, so you can count me out for week 18. Okay. If we're already gonna be locked in to a number two overall seed, the number one overall seed on the NFC side will be decided next week whenever the Vikings and Lions do battle. So if you think about the season shaping up, we got the number one seed on the AFC side, we got six AFC playoff spots wide open. And then on the NFC side, damn near the same thing, except for the number one seed still up for grabs. And there's going to be a team that's going to have 13 or 14 wins that is going to be a number five seed playing in Super Wild Card weekend. On the NFC side, Magic is on the horizon. Award season is right around the corner. Let's go to the toxic table at Boston. Connor and that Ty Schmidt, con man. Your team stinks.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, but still a lot to play for, you know, number one overall. See, we're talking about the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

Cool.

[Darius Butler]

I understand.

[Ty Schmidt]

We all want to win a Super Bowl. There's a heated race for the number one overall pick. That concludes this upcoming Sunday. And obviously massive news this weekend was the Patriots losing on Saturday, 40 to 7 and the Giants winning, moving the Patriots to that number one option. Which is huge. I mean, look, we knew this year for New England was kind of a wash. We knew it was a bridge year. But did we know it was going to be a number one overall pick competition year?

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Ty Schmidt]

But here we are and we love the spot. And I think everyone in New England's hoping we lose again once again on Sunday and see what happens in this week because a lot's going to happen.

[Pat McAfee]

Heard there were some boo birds potentially happening up there in New England. There were some chance happening in the fourth quarter there in New England. And Drake May, after an early scare for a concussion on the sideline there, comes back and plays. Had some magical plays. I think everybody, which is weird because they are three and 13 and they got their, you know, shit pushed here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Holy hell.

[Pat McAfee]

Los Angeles Chargers in a big way. In a big, big way. At home, up in Foxborough, across the country. 10:00am Kick for the Chargers, 10:00am Local time kick in the cold. They get their absolute asses handed to them. But there was a lot of, you know, content, we'll say, or contempt from the Patriots fans. And now that's only opening up the rumor mill even more. What do the Patriots look like going forward? Everybody assumes and knows that Drake May is a guy, but will they be able to figure everything else out? And for the Chargers sake, geez Louise. Let's go to nine year NFL vet, host of everything, db Good D, Bad D. This Los Angeles Chargers team this year, one of Jim Harbaugh going on a run. That's the reason why the Patriots are in the position that they're in right now is because Harbaugh went up there and beat the hell out of them. And now the Charger. Congratulations to the Chargers. Locked up a playoff spot one year with Jim Harbaugh. What are the realistic expectations for this team as they hit the playoffs? You think D. Bu I mean, look, Dan.

[AJ Hawk]

Dan o called it. You know, he saw it with the Chargers. A couple other people saw it too. But look, you bring Jim Harbaugh in and in a calendar year, he brought the Michigan Wolverines undefeated season, national championship. We were on the field when they did it. And then he comes into the NFL and gets this team into the playoffs. In year one, we saw it with Justin Herbert. You know, he broke the record for most passing yards in his first five years. But we just saw it at the top. He had to change offensive coordinators, had to change head coaches a couple times. You bring in Harbaugh and they start playing their hardball football defensively, offensively. And now they're in a position where they can compete. Once you get in the dance, anybody can beat anybody. When you have a quarterback especially, you can go up and you like your chances against any team.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely. And there's weapons on that team and everything like that. Lad McConkey and Justin Herbert. Yeah, they're literally just like this. It almost feels like the way Burrow and Chase feel. Cincinnati Bengals get another massive win and they are still lurking for that last AFC playoff spot. Let's go back to the nfc, the number one seed race. The Vikings are in that because of a magical comeback win over the Green Bay packers. Let's go to at Ty Schmid, 1/2 of the toxic table. What does this mean about the Packers? Buddy, I saw you're a little bummed out, it seems like about it.

[Gumpy]

No, I don't think bummed out. I mean, I think it's what we said a couple weeks ago. They're probably a year away. Year two years away. It just, you know, hey, against. You got to beat the good teams if you want to win a Super Bowl. Against the Eagles, the Vikings and the Lions, they are a combined 0 and 5. So you know, that's not great going into the playoffs. And now they slide down to the seven seed. Probably going to have to go to Philly in the first round. It just, you know, you can't start slow against these good teams like this is. It's what they did both Vikings games and against the Lions. You can't let teams that that good get out to big leads and then have to rely on, you know, scoring 17 points in the fourth quarter. I mean, they gave it their best shot. You know, they came back and made it seem a lot closer than it actually was. But I mean, you know, the packers are still probably a year away. So, you know, I'm not too upset about it.

[Pat McAfee]

And in, in all due respect, the teams you just mentioned, we're going, oh and five, two very good football teams. This Vikings team is awesome. They're. They're fun to watch.

[Boston Connor]

Unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

They have a great top five defense obviously with B flow over there. People are saying that he's going to become a head coach. And Sam Darnold having this rebirth in Minnesota is so beautiful. I don't know if you got a chance to see the clip from the locker room after a big time win. They're lifting Sam up like he's Rudy and Kevin. Look at Kevin o'clock. It's a movie scene. The head coach looking over, happy for my guy right there. You Put some music over that, like some cinematic, dramatic music there with Kevin O'Connell looking over at his guy. They counted him out, they said he stunk. He was in New York, then he was in Carolina, then he was in San Francisco. This guy's never going to be great. Now this is what it's all about, his team lifting him up on their shoulders. You think that team didn't just send a message to everybody in that building like, hey, we've been hearing the chatter about who's our quarterback next year. This is our guy, Sam Darnold. Where he has done with Kevin O'Connell and this Minnesota Vikings team this year, nothing short of spectacular and awesome. And they could be the number one seed in the NFC, their top 10, or I'm sorry, their first round draft pick, J.J. mcCarthy at quarterback gets hurt. They let Kirk Cousins go because the deal was going to be too big. They wouldn't be able to afford them. Kevin O'Connell had like five different quarterbacks last year. The football gods were seemingly working against the Minnesota Vikings for the last two football seasons. And now, now they have 14 wins and they're about to be battling for the number overall seed. Can't say enough good things about everything taking place in Minnesota.

[AJ Hawk]

Obviously it starts with, with the quarterback, in my opinion, but the culture, you know, when you. It's going to be a lot of head coaches hired, you know, this upcoming cycle like it is every year, hit an absolute home run with Kevin OConnell with the culture that he set, obviously on the offensive side of the ball. Then you hire Brian Flores, what he's been able to do with the defense. And then Sam Darnold, we know skill set matters, talent matters. He was drafted at the top of the draft. When he came out number three overall, couldn't find, couldn't figure it out in New York, moved on to a few different places. I think Ben and San Fran was huge for him as well. But then getting into this system with these playmakers around him, he has been phenomenal from week one to now. Now, like you said, in the chance to have a number one seed, I think their win total coming into the season was like what, six, six and a half? Something like that. So you didn't expect much. Drafted JJ McCarthy in the first round. Definitely going to have to make a decision. But seeing that post game locker room with how this team, how this organization, how this city, I'm sure now feels about Sam Darnold is going to be hard to move on from 14 going forward, but they got a Lot of unfinished business right now.

[Pat McAfee]

This year, they're going to have to hope that Sam Darnold gives a hometown discount, I think. Oh, yeah. With what Sam Darnold has been able to accomplish. And I'm not saying that Sam Darnold won't do that. Okay. I think there's a chance that Sam Darnold's been around the block a couple of different times, finds his home and says, wow, this is much better than any other experience I've had in any other building that I've played for. Obviously, I'm playing my best ball, but if somebody offers them 45 million, 50 million a year, I mean, what the hell? Yeah, that's going to be tough to say no to. Are the Vikings going to be able to do that after paying Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison is going to have to get paid as well. The way the defense is playing. I'm sure there's going to have to be money allocated to different people over there. So it's like that's a huge decision for the Vikings and hopefully they'll be able to come together and keep that.

[AJ Hawk]

It's crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. In Minnesota.

[Ty Schmidt]

Incredible.

[Pat McAfee]

Because he. I mean, so much vindication, I assume, Sam. So much just after. You're the guy. You're the guy. You're the guy. You're the guy. You're the guy. You're the guy. He was drafted, what, like 20 or something? I think it was like very. No, three.

[J.J. Watt]

Three.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, 20. 20 years old.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I think it was like 20 years old. Something like that. Like, this is the guy.

[AJ Hawk]

New York, too. So that. Everything that comes with that, then bad, mad, bad days.

[Pat McAfee]

Bad, bad. Everything under that umbrella.

[AJ Hawk]

The worst.

[Pat McAfee]

The worst possible situation. The more we learn. Yes. The more we learn about the Jets. Looking back on situations going, holy, there's 12 year old. Oh, my. Yeah, I know the break. What are I going to get into? Sorry. You're a heartbreaking. He's a kid.

[AJ Hawk]

Got a lot of time to figure out. A lot of time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, he certainly does. But Sam Darnold bouncing around, especially in the offseason with the training, getting better, getting better, staying focused, being like, my time will come, My time will come. My time will come. Signing a one year, $10 million deal with the Minnesota Vikings, that's a prove it deal. That's probably the last one that's coming if it doesn't work out the way it does. And instead now they're battling for the number one seed in the entire nfc and he's being hoisted up on Shoulders. Now, I say they're battling for the number one seed, the nfc. Let's go ahead and listen to Steve Kornacki from NBC. This guy. Hey, the goat. So good. So good. So good. Here's Kornacki last night talking about the number one seed in the NFC situation.

[Adam Schefter]

The last time the Vikings were the NFC number one a quarter century ago. And in the half century they've been doing playoff seeding, the Lions have never been number one. Now, by holding off the packers, the Vikings do for the moment move into that number one spot. But you see, even with that, only a 39% chance of staying there. That's because Detroit still has to play Niners tomorrow. And no matter what happens in that game, next week, as you say, is for all the marbles. Vikings will be going to Detroit. So Detroit is favored because of that. And the stakes here, doubly high. This won't just be for the one seed, for the bye for home field, but again, because they're from the same division, whoever doesn't win next week is going to tumble all the way to the fifth seed and will make the playoffs as a wild card team, potentially looking at a 14 win wild card team. Have we ever seen that before? The 99 Titans, they were 13 3. This might be a first that we're looking at.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Kornacki obviously dug go, no questions asked. And the reason why it doesn't matter is because they would Both end up 14 3. If the Lions were to lose to the Niners tonight, they'd be 13 3, the Vikings sitting at 14 2. If the Lions were to beat the Vikings next week, they would both be 14:3 and it would be a clean sweep. Lions of the Vikings on the season because they already beat them once already this season. So you're talking about some massive stakes in the NFC north next Sunday night. Got flexed in, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Here we go.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thank God.

[Pat McAfee]

Here we go. Hey. Last week of the year in Detroit for the one seed for the division. Doesn't get any better than this, boys. Let's go. You only get one shot. Don't miss your chance to blow. Opportunity comes up in a lifetime.

[Boston Connor]

Is that three years in a row lines or Sunday night? Last week of the year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, because those packers.

[Boston Connor]

What team was it? Maybe not last year, but two of the last three years.

[Darius Butler]

Definitely.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's. Hey, that's Motor City football. Exactly. That's mcdc football. Times have changed, man. It's so awesome to see. Yeah, it could be a five seed. They'll have an that's all right. Gotta be who's in front of you down in Tampa. Oh, no.

[Boston Connor]

Sam Darnold's teammate.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no, you don't want the red hot Baker Mayfield. Yeah. A lot of people are doing the comparisons to the Carolina Panthers quarterback room to what they used to do with that Washington. What was that team? The Washington.

[Boston Connor]

What year was it?

[Ty Schmidt]

You said it last week.

[Pat McAfee]

It was Shanahan was.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, historically speaking, they were the Washington Redskins.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah, the Washington Redskins team. Whenever they had all those coaches in there, people are calling that Carolina quarterback room. Same thing. Like, hey, all the rebirths that are happening around the NFL for these older quarterbacks past their first contract trying to figure it out. Are we bus, are we middle of the road or are we potentially good quarterbacks? They're all basically down there in Carolina. One point David Tepper said, you know, give me all these guys weren't able to figure it out with any of them, but now they are able to go elsewhere and do it. Bryce Young I still think is going to be great. Now let's go to the AFC side. Kornacki had another breakdown on the AFC side about the number seven overall seed, which is obviously the last and final wild card weekend slot. On the AFC side of things, three.

[Adam Schefter]

Teams going for that final spot. Denver now sits in it. Here's the playoff checklist for each of these teams. Look, the Broncos, if they could have just beaten Cincinnati yesterday, that would have been enough. They would have clinched. Instead, they miss next week. They host Kansas City. Are the Chiefs resting starters? The Broncos, if they win that game, check mark, they're in the playoffs. That's it. But if the Broncos lose next week, look, it's a check mark for both the Dolphins and for the Bengals. And look how wide open the door would be for the Dolphins. They would then just need to beat the jets and it would be the Dolphins making the playoffs. From the Bengals standpoint, they need Miami to lose next week on top of Denver. If both of those things happen, no small order here, but Cincinnati just has to beat Pittsburgh, do all of those things. The Bengals would end the year on a five game winning streak, would sneak into the playoffs and would go to Buffalo against a Bills team that would probably rather play someone else.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so I mean Kornacki's cooking, but there's so many different scenarios here for this number 7 overall seed in the AFC playoff picture. Still lurking. Miami Dolphins go into the cold and get a big time win. Let's go to one half of the hammer done. Cowboys Bubba Gumpino lurking Dolphins Gumpy.

[Bill Belichick]

I don't think many people watch the game, but Snoop Huntley had an all time performance. And I'm not, I'm not exaggerating. He scored, he ran for one, he was throwing it all over. I think he only had a few incompletions. And then our defense has been lights out the whole second half of the year. Carl Wentz just got to give us a chance on Sunday to get in.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, Carl Wentz, we don't know if he's playing right. We have no clue what has been announced.

[Bill Belichick]

Drag said Carl Wentz for a half and then maybe their other guy for the second half.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so Patrick Mahomes won't even pull Cam Ward, he, he'll just play none of the game.

[Bill Belichick]

Well, he might ruin football if he does that. According to some people.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't, I didn't love that everybody was just the fact that he played. I was pretty pumped up Cam Ward was playing in that particular game.

[Boston Connor]

Pop Tartar bowl was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Pop Tart bowl is going to be awesome. Per usual, Matt Campbell leads the Iowa State cyclones to the first ever 11 win season. Iowa State or whatever. First ever 10 win season I think in the history of Iowa State. And the Pop Tart obviously had to go. Did you see the frosted strawberry off in the back? Rose from the dead. Kind of scared to get in between the smoke, you know. And once you die, I guess you don't want to die again. It was very high on top of the stadium. Stood right behind the smoke though in the camera angle. So couldn't get a good glimpse. But we got the point. Pop darts bowl obviously bringing a lot of passion now.

[Boston Connor]

It's awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

It's awesome. And you can eat this by the way. You can eat this. Yeah, that thing was just alive right on top. Rocco Beckta, Coach Campbell and the boys obviously start hassing it. Yep, that's a bull season.

[Bill Belichick]

You know what you didn't see, Pat? You didn't see it on frosted Pop Tart. Every Pop Tart there was frosted covered with delicious frosting and ice cream.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I didn't even think about how the Pop Tarts bowl decided not to ruin it for anybody and put the non frosted pop Tarts in there. But nonetheless, Cam Ward could have won back in down one fourth quarter. Okay, he's standing over there on the sideline. How long has he been standing over there for what? About an hour and 15 minutes. Just hop back in there. Just gotta do one drive down the Field. What are we even talking about? Yeah, he's quit all his teammates, Pat. Damn it. I do. I understand why people are saying that. I don't. Now, granted, I think somebody brought it up last week on the program about like, are Shador and Travis going to play the entire game? I think somebody brought up. I forget that was.

[Boston Connor]

That was Joe Fortenbaugh's angle as he was taking Colorado first half BYU full.

[Pat McAfee]

Game on espn, BET Live or whatever. Yes, yes. Because first half of the BYU full game. He ends up hitting that, by the way, not the first half, but full game. BYU dominating performance. Absolutely dominating performance. We were wrong, obviously, up on the game day set, other than coach Lee Corso, but he presented the idea that Shador and Travis and everybody would only play for one half and then everybody would play for the second half. And I remember thinking myself, why would they. Why would they do that? Why would that be the case? That was not the case. Colorado was the case for Cam Ward. I don't know if this can become the new normal. I think there is a chance that like some of the nil bonus money and deals that have been signed, I think the bowl game is a part of that. Like there's an incentive to play in bowl game. So I think start however many games, too. I think that is a part of some of these deals that have been written. Now, what do These deals mean April 8, when the revenue share comes in and there's a whole ruling and everything? I don't know. But I think that is why we saw some people play and then obviously prime getting the shout out, by the way.

[Gumpy]

Shout out.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out. Wow. Shout out. Bill McComb has got me these Bill, too.

[AJ Hawk]

I've been seeing that shoe a lot.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a nice shoe.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. You know, I saw different colors.

[Pat McAfee]

Makes me feel athletic, you know, Makes me feel really great.

[AJ Hawk]

Shoe.

[Boston Connor]

Is that the shoe they put in the grinder and Jumanji?

[Pat McAfee]

You know, I wish I had that.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't have it either.

[Pat McAfee]

I've been watching the Grinch show. You know, when they put the Grinch one, the Christmas wrapper, the boom when people going down. Jim Carrey 1. Jim Carrey 1 Jim Carrey. Anyways, prime got insurance for all the guys.

[Gumpy]

Yes.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Love that.

[Pat McAfee]

Which I don't. I think Coach Saban has told us about that process of insuring his guys so they would play and the process of it all in Colorado. Fronting the bill for the insurance for the guys who play is cool. Expensive, but I think very much so. Oh, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

So it's a whole money grab for those insurance companies.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I had to. I had to get one because I was franchise tagged.

[AJ Hawk]

And what would have to happen for.

[Pat McAfee]

So I would have needed. Needed to be on a football field practicing, and somehow my leg gets sawed off. Just sawed off.

[Ty Schmidt]

Somehow Criss angel comes through.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. And takes my leg off and puts it on somebody else's body. And then all of a sudden, I can get the 10 million or whatever it was. Lloyd's London contract. Signed it because I was just thought I was supposed to, like, franchise tag. You get insurance. Sure. People say you should insure that leg of yours. You only go one year payment here. Yeah. But I'm gonna be a millionaire. That ain't gonna last forever. Okay. Mr. McIntosh, you're saying blank. This is a whole new world. You're gonna. You're gonna want to get insurance. Here's the people you want to get to. This is how you want to sign up for it. This is how much it costs. 50. It was like 40 grand or something like that. 35 grand. 35. 40 grand. Would have got like, 10 million, but contract's pretty thick.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And you start rolling into page, like, 35, 40. It's like, how do I get this money? You don't.

[Gumpy]

You don't, actually.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Thanks for actually just giving it. You just.

[Gumpy]

Thanks for the premium.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, but if. But if you never kick a ball again, which is kind of what it was. We got your back.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's like, thank you so much. But in for Travis Hunter. Shador. A lot on the line for them to play there, especially if they're projected top five picks in its entirety, which I saw. He's wearing New York Giants cleats. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

With the logo and everything.

[Pat McAfee]

The Giants had number one overall pick. They don't anymore because they got a big win over to Colts. Colts have been eliminated from playoff contention. They're the only ones that went into the weekend lurking. Knew they had an opportunity to still make the playoffs and end up losing. And they. They lost the New York Giants football team. And a lot of people didn't know they were still playing football over there, but I'll let you know. Drew Locke might be a guy. Put it on. Drew Locke might be a guy.

[AJ Hawk]

Five touchdowns.

[Pat McAfee]

Him and neighbors. Is that a tag team of the future over there? Yes. Football giant. It looked like it. It certainly looked like it. And remember, while this game's happening and you're watching these highlights, the Indianapolis Colts still very much in it all they would have to do is, you know, just win out against the New York Giants team. They already got a win in MetLife at. Against the New York Jets. They, going into this game had more wins in this stadium than the team they were playing against. But Drew Locke put that thing on. And when Drew Locke gets hot, it's unstoppable. Joe Flacco did everything he could. You know, there was. There was a couple turnovers, obviously, there was a couple touchdowns that were thrown. We were in it. But inevitably, 45 points.

[AJ Hawk]

45.

[Pat McAfee]

45 points total. No, for the one team, the New York Football Giants. 45 points in a game you needed to win.

[Boston Connor]

You know, in fact, the Giants were the only dog to win yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so the only.

[AJ Hawk]

Only.

[Boston Connor]

Well, it was 141 and 13 and 2. The dog or the favorites were yesterday. The Titans and Jags were basically a pick them. So whichever book you looked at. But yeah, let's just play. Let's just say the Colts were the only. Only favorite to lose.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And it was. It was all three phases of the Indianapolis Colts. And that led to. That led to me typing something up on X. Sure. Okay. And the only reason why I felt obligated to put this particular message out is because the things that people were saying to me as I was observing and reporting on the Indianapolis Colts is somebody that has been, you know, in the city, obviously at all the games, like two hours before games start, watching everything, how it goes. Because I don't know any of these guys on this team, really. I don't know any of them. No relationship with them. Now, my fault probably. But also, whenever Jonathan Taylor did what he did last year to start training camp as our superstar and our best player, and he was just pot with a hoodie on for the first two and a half weeks of Shane Steichen and Anthony Richardson trying to set a brand new culture, a culture that is only existent because all the pillars that are still on the team now earned the team the number four overall pick because how bad they were. Okay. So whenever that whole thing starts, I have to point out the fact like, hey, this would be a lot easier if you just, you know, didn't do this and kind of set precedent and showcase that this how it is, inevitably it was right. Business move. Chris Ballard, Jim Hersey rewarded Jonathan Taylor and that particular action while they're trying to build a brand new culture in there with a new head coach and a new quarterback and everything. And I think from that moment, the way I spoke about it, kind of, you know, hey, that guy is not one of us type thing. Sweet. All good. I actually kind of expected. I understand that completely. But I feel like I was very optimistic about this team for a very long time. And every microphone that I could find, I would talk about the Indianapolis Colts having a way. The Indianapolis Colts having a great team. I would show up at every single game. Shit, I fucking named the stadium. Okay? I mean, that is. And then I'm a part of all their. Pretty much all of the cold stuff. Very much proud of that fact, too. Have a lot of friends in that building, obviously, that have been there a long time. The. The OGs that I referenced. I would like to see this team get good for them. But the players just, like, have never won. This group of players has never won here. Haven't won the AFC south in 10 years. Think about how good the AFC south has been for the last 10 years. Great, powerhouse, top to win.

[Ty Schmidt]

One of the best.

[Pat McAfee]

But all these guys that are not all these guys, most of these guys that are on this team have been here for the entirety of it. Chris Ballard, who I think is a good man, okay? He's a very good man. Great hair, great accent. He always says, I trust our guys. I trust our guys. He's paid all these guys that have been here for a long time, they still never won. And then, you know, the whole thing starts happening with me pointing out the tapping out thing of a quarterback on a third down in a red zone in a game that you need to win, and he says, I was tired. That's all. It's like inside voices don't need to say that. The fact that you think you could say that leads me to believe that you literally have no awareness of any repercussions of anything. There's no accountability anywhere. So obviously it was bummer to hear Anthony Richardson, a man who has so much potential, so much. I mean, you're talking about being able to throw, what, 62 yards off his back foot like this into a bucket. Being able to run 4, 5, 4, 4 at £260, might be 290 right now. Who knows? Whatever is, he is immensely gifted. I mean, it is bananas to think about how great he is. But then you start putting pieces together, start watching things. You see the tap out. That's not the only time he's tapped out of a game with no problems. Happened in his first year, too. If you watch his first five games that he played, there's like two, three different times where he's off the field. And then what was the. What Happened medically, nothing. He's just. He's back. Practice Wednesday, it was like, well, what happened? He was sore. And then this week it was being described as he's back and his foot are sore, which is why he's not practicing. And it's like, okay. Turns out it's back spasms, so we hope he's okay. But that one little tap out thing was an indicator of how the entire culture in that building is. If your franchise quarterback thinks it's all right just to be like, nope, I don't want to be on the field. If he thinks it's okay to just not work hard, which was the reports that came out immediately after the benching is like, he started preparing a lot better, became the guy who was the first one in. He started becoming a professional. After the benching, the OGs had to go talk to him. It's like, well, what had been happening before that moment? And then obviously my face gets used as like, hey, this guy's an enemy of the Colts. What the national media saying, no, everything I said about your team was right and everything I said about your locker room was right and you have won nothing. You have won absolutely nothing. I was just a punter. I very much understand that. I saw a lot of people saying, this guy's just a punter. Well, if I'm just a punter, I don't know, the view won't. 10 million views or something like that on that thing just upon it writes up pretty good, I guess, and basically summarizes how a lot of these Colts fans feel about this particular era of this team. There's no accountability. They're seemingly just not really aware of anything that's going on and they don't seem to give a at all about the Indianapolis Colts. I understand it's a business, I understand it's a profession, but I just felt like I had to get off my chest. Some people said, you know, is this. How long does this take? This take weeks? You start writing this or whatever. It was like, no, no. That came together pretty quickly. That came together pretty quickly, about 20 minutes or so. Just because it was all natural thoughts that I had late the meetings. Like, nobody that's good does that. Nobody that's good. Missing or skipping treatment. Nobody that's good does that. Having preparation questions publicly, nobody has that. Work ethic questions publicly. Like, nobody has that. Nobody good has that problem. It's not a professional operation over there. So whenever I have to point it out, it's like I become an enemy as opposed to Somebody that's being like, hey, we got to tighten our up. But I don't know if you can flip that switch, which I said in that I don't know if you could just become a professional overnight either. I don't know how that happens. I don't know what the future looks like for the Colts, but I do know there's a lot of us, from what I've learned from reading the responses to that, that are Colts fans, which I am, that are about fed up with it. There's not really many likable pieces to this Indianapolis Colts team. And then the podcast stuff on a losing team. It's like, I get it that I made content when I was playing and when I was young, I had to go through a lot of learning lessons as well. But a lot of these guys are older and they haven't won and they're doing a lot of shit that bums do. And it's like somebody has to push that, point that out and I'll do it. And I'm not the only one. There's a lot of people that are pointing it out here about the Colts. Yesterday was a bummer, D. But boy, it was a bummer that should have been. We should still be lurking. At least there's something to have hope for going into the final week. Jackson, Bill, who can't beat anybody but the Colts, which goes back to you guys still talking, doing podcasts, acting like you're something the Colts. I'm not getting into it. Salute to Service Award, which is obviously a massive ordeal, especially here in Indianapolis, Indiana, which is an award given to somebody on each team for their service back to the military and how they. I was very lucky to win that award multiple times I became a finalist in the NFL, felt honored to do it here in Indiana. The amount of military personnel there is not a lot amount of military everywhere. Camp Atterbury is about an hour hour south of here. They're sending people to war down there. I mean, this is a very, very, very big military hub. You heard about the shelter downtown before the winter. The Colts gave that the blue, the Salute to Service Award winner. It's like the Colts gave the award to themselves for what they do for the military in Indianapolis. It's like, so nobody on the team who's blue? Blue's the mascot. Oh, that's the Colts. Like, that is the Colts.

[Ty Schmidt]

They tell him where to go.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's like you just start adding up all these things. It's like, who are you guys? Like, why do you think you are who you are. And it's because they all got paid. They've all been here, and there's never been anybody that's like, hey, you can't just stink and get away with it. Well, you can't because they have and they are continuing to do so, man.

[AJ Hawk]

And as a. As a former co, I saw, obviously a lot of people saw your tweet. You saw my.

[Pat McAfee]

So many. I did not expect that. I put that down, by the way. Came back, saw it, said 6.8. Whoa.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. People thought I was like, mad when I was writing it. I wasn't mad. I was just like, this is just a matter of fact. Yeah, true. These are just all the things how I feel about the situation.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, you. Like you said, you can't. I don't think you can just flip the switch. You know, it's a culture issue at that point, because you're coming in, like you said, lurking, and you going. You looked at the schedule a couple weeks ago. Okay, we got these two teams. We handle our business. Obviously, some other things got to happen. But then to see that effort, you know, talent is one thing, and I feel like we have the talent on the team. So when you go into and playing the New York Giants and you lay an egg like that, they put up 45 on you, and they were just watching the tape, watching the game and seeing the effort. Extremely, extremely disappointing. You see what's going on in Minnesota with what Questy and KOC have done. You see what's going on in Detroit with Brad Holmes and mcdc have done in other places as well. The Rams. The Rams came into this season, bunch of young pieces on defense. Obviously Stafford didn't know what was going on there, and they're won the damn NFC West. So, like, when you. It comes to. It comes down to the leadership, and that's from the top down. Not only the players and then the players, you gotta police each other. You gotta. You gotta create that culture and enforce that culture in the locker room. And like you said, we know a lot of people in that building shout out, Dave Hammer, who. This probably be his last season there. But he's been there since.

[Pat McAfee]

Head athletic trainer.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he's been there since. Since 84. So he's seen a bunch of different teams. A lot of those guys, the training room, equipment room, former players. You know, I know it's a lot of new fans who maybe have been fans of the Colts for, you know, four, five, six, seven years and think they know it all. But when you Talk about the people who have laid the foundation of the organization and what they put out there on tape and on the field as professionals, you obviously got to look at yourself and check yourself, and then you got to be able to check each other. And only way you can check somebody else else is if you're accountable yourself and you're holding it down. So very, very disappointed. As a former cult, and I agree with. Damn everything you said in that.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of bum tendencies, just like too many bum tendencies and then just stop being bums. Just be like, I don't. It's hard for me to understand and wrap my mind around it. Especially, you know, like, Anthony Richardson didn't play yesterday, and I hope his back is healthy. Legitimately, I hope his back is healthy. Back spasms would suck. The fact that it wasn't rolled out as back spasms to begin with, I think is.

[AJ Hawk]

That's my opinion once again. And I know a lot of people over there. I got a lot of respect. But that's. That's an organizational thing because you can't. Like, you. You put him in a bad spot because, like, we don't know. We don't know as fans. We don't know what's going on inside the building. But when you say back and foot soreness for a week when everything's on the line and you already. There's already been question marks around your quarterback with the tapping out and missing games like that, and you say back and foot soreness, and then after the game you say, oh, it was spatula them. They were serious. Like, that's like. Like, what are we doing?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's. Go ahead.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's very much like the Dolphins with TUA early on when they said, like, he had, like a rib problem and it wasn't anything. It wasn't fractured. Like, that was the initial report. And then as.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, a hairline fractured something instead.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo. As the week went on, then they released, you know, hairline fracture in the ribs, which is a completely different story. But the Giants, too, they're one of the teams that hadn't scored 30 points all year. They were on that graphic with the Raiders.

[Pat McAfee]

Multiple guys got their first interception of their career yesterday. Yeah, I think that's why I saw. Not career, but years. That's actually their. I think I heard that's their. That's their first interception of the whole season. Right? That's what it felt like. Yes. Nasty. Obviously. Not the right throw, not the right spot. This is his first interception of the year, though I do believe this guy. And it's like, what a play. That's the first drive. That's the first drive downfield. We were moving. Flacco was playing ball. And there's a lot of talent on the team, which I think is why it's like, come on, dude. Come on. If you want to make me the face, make me an enemy in this city, okay? Trying to get me booed out of town for what you guys have done to that building.

[Gumpy]

You guys always say it, too. Like, yeah, there's a lot of. There's. There's a lot of talent in the NFL, period. Like, you know, typically, you don't get to the NFL, like, if you suck at football, like, there is a lot, but it goes back like that. Everybody's good. So, like, if the culture is bad and stuff like that, like, you mentioned it, like, a lot of the. That was coming out in the media and what people were saying, like, you don't. Both of the. Both of the seven teams on the AFC and the NFC side, you don't hear any of that shit from any of those teams. None of that stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, we got. We got guys not working hard over here, middle of season. What? Got guys not working hard. That's like. That's gotta be. We got guys just showing up late to team meetings. Like, not because they get in a car accident or something. Just because I overslept. Sorry about it. It's like, what the. Do you care about football? Do you care at all about any of this? Maybe you don't. Whatever the case, you're eliminated again. Have a great vacation, and next year we got a chance. Actually. Join us now, ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL Insider for espn. Adam Schefter. We had a chit chat about the Colts there, you know, because I'm a writer now all of a sudden on X. Yeah, I see the thoughts were rolling out that that is a situation. You know, Shane Steichen, I think a lot of people think, good play caller. Although some of the play calls yesterday, like, what are we. What are we doing? And then he came out afterwards and said, I don't want to throw anybody under a bus, you know, with their back spasms. That's why I said soreness. He's the one that kind of said that. It's like, okay, well. Well, kind of threw him under the bus by not saying it. But how's he. You know, what is he. What's the truth? What's not the truth? You know, all this. You never know. Colts. Do you have any intel on what The Colts could be, because obviously I do not. Especially at this point after what I wrote yesterday.

[Mike Tomlin]

Well, that was unbelievably disappointing. I mean, you ripped into them or you basically put out the facts the way they are. I don't even think you have to do that. They lost to the New York Giants, who hadn't won a game at home all year long. Giants came up with interceptions that they hadn't come up with all year long. The Giants were in the number one slot. The Colts are playing for their playoff lives and they lost. They lost to the worst team up until they say in football. I mean, Pat, the facts sometimes speak.

[Pat McAfee]

Decisions over there, though, like, who would be making the decision over there? Because I think a lot of us Colts fans are wondering and once again, do not. I do not have sources in the building. I. I don't.

[Mike Tomlin]

Well, you know, you know the way that that building operates better than anybody, right? It has to start with the owner, correct?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but who's the owner? You know, Jim's the owner, but. Yeah, who's around every single day. He's kids, I believe Carly's on the sideline, literally, with a head headset every single day. Kaylin's in the bill. It's like, would Carly. Would this be Carly's first massive decision? Like, is that. How's it like? Do you know?

[Mike Tomlin]

I still. I still think Jim makes the decision in the end, ultimately. I still think Jim makes the decision and I think he listens to the people around him, but I think he's making the decision.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's pivot away from a team that has been eliminated from the playoffs yet again. Okay, let's eliminate from them and let's talk about the teams that are in the playoffs already. Let's talk about the Kansas City Chiefs. What do we think about resting, playing? How do you think this pans out for this last week, week for the number one AFC seeded team?

[Mike Tomlin]

I think we'll see Patrick Mahomes in the divisional playoff round. I think we'll see Chris Jones in the divisional playoff round. I think we'll see Isaiah Pacheco in the divisional playoff round. I think there are key players that have not been healthy, that this is the ideal time to get them rest. And the Chiefs are playing at a level that is as strong as any time they played at during the season. They're hitting their peak. And so when these guys are unhealthy, this is a chance to rest them. You're not going to risk them. They didn't risk them. Last year, once they had clinched their spot, it was a different scenario. I don't think they were the number one seed, but they had clinched their spot and Andy Reid used that last week to rest them. I know they'll get another buy, but this team is clicking right now and you're not going to expose certain people at times like this. And here's the thing that I think a lot of people also need to understand. Like there's 53 players in the roster. So if there are four, five, six guys that don't play, there still are another 45 or so that are on a Super bowl caliber roster that are going to go play against the Denver Broncos. Like, this isn't going to be a gimme game for the Broncos. And by the way, for Carson Wentz, this will be a Super Bowl. This is a big game for him. There's a big game for all the people that are going to be called on. Now. It's as favorable as Denver could hope it to be for a matchup against a team as great as the Chiefs. But it's not a layup, it's not a gimme. They still have to go out and take care of business. But I would expect that the Chiefs rest the key people that have had injury issues and don't expose them any further and get them ready for the divisional playoff round.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay? And that is Andy Reid's move. Remember, the reason why Patrick Mahomes is the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback or became the Kansas City Chiefs quarterback is because the number one overall seed or the number two overall seed, I forget which one was already locked in going into the final week against against the Broncos and Alex Smith took a break. Patrick Mahomes goes in, Mahomes beats the Broncos, then obviously finish out the season with Alex Smith, trade his ass to Washington. Patrick Mahomes is the guy. A lot of us go, this is the best Alex Smith has ever played. He finally found it and he get rid of him. And then everybody behind the scenes was like, just wait. Just wait until you see this guy. Wait till you see this thing. Turns out that was the right move. Turns out that was the right move. I'm not saying that's going to happen with Carson Wentz and Patrick Mullins, but Carson Wentz goes in there and gets a massive win for the Kansas City Chiefs. Boy, you're talking about a resurgence of a career all of a sudden and for us. I'm pumped that it's happening. Not because the Colts are no longer lurking, but Carson Wentz. Football is electrifying Carson Wentz Football is electrifying. Anything could happen at any point of the game. Let's last question for me before the boys have some about current situations up there in New England. We brought this up last week. I think to you. Connor is actually the one who says, I am Mayo. Got. Okay, I'm Mayo guy. But I'm just letting the world. Do you hear that?

[Mike Tomlin]

What happens?

[Boston Connor]

Someone's.

[Pat McAfee]

Somebody's phone's going off. That was my laptop.

[Darius Butler]

Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a 1999 ring too. I mean, that was a pretty magical moment. Okay, so Connor, though said there's some reports up in New England or coming out of New England that Kraft and the Krafts might, you know, if it goes bad the final two weeks of the season, with just one season of being a head coach, Gerard Mayo maybe move a different direction. And some people in New England are like, Vrabel would be the guy that would go and take over. The prince who was promised wasn't Mayo. It was actually Vrabel this whole time. What are your thoughts on what's taking place in New England? And after an ass beating in Foxborough with fans chanting anti Mayo stuff, how do you see it kind of working out up there?

[Mike Tomlin]

I think the crafts have wanted to give Gerard Mayo every opportunity and I still think that that's the case. Again, you never put too much into any one game. But if there's another game like that at the end of the year, I think it's going to lead to discussions. I, I think that they want to stick with Gerard Mayo. This is a guy that they've believed in. It's a guy they've promoted. It's a guy that they've stood behind. Now there are things that they have to address. Like there's a team again that needed help at wide receiver and traded the draft pick that became lad McConkey to the Chargers. They traded that pick and they used the picks they got back in return on Jalen Polk and Javon Baker, I believe. And so they need to get some things straightened out. Right now they're in position to secure the number one pick in the draft. And by the way, like, if you're Buffalo to me, you're resting everybody this weekend and you're letting, you're letting New England win that game because they're going to try to win the game. And if I'm Buffalo, it's my pleasure to have New England win the game so that they're dislodged from the first pick in the draft, which is an incredibly valuable spot to be in, especially when there are quarterback needy teams lined up at 2, 3, 4 and are going to be vying to trade up to number one and you can get back a ransom for that pick. So to me, you know, Buffalo will send out guys. They're going to be trying. Players are never going to be in the mindset, oh, we're going to let this team. That's just not how the NFL operates. It's why the Giants hammered the Colts yesterday, because players are fighting for their jobs and trying to prove something on a weekly basis and everything they do goes on tape. But fact of the matter is, if I'm the Bills, like Josh Allen, we'll see you in the wild card round and James Cook will see in the wild card round and anybody of any import, we'll see in the wild card round. But again, there's only so many guys you have. You know, guys have to play. You can't rest. The whole roster can't forfeit the game.

[Pat McAfee]

I've been a part of a team that rested players the final two weeks. I think all the starters started because their start streaks and all this type of shit and appearances and escalators and contracts and then they were kind of replaced in the second half. It was like a preseason outfit, though, because you say, you know, at the beginning you said, there's still a lot of guys that are on a Super bowl roster. And then you said, we need enough guys to play the game. It's like a lot of those guys are very good at their jobs. Which are what? Well, special teams. They're great at special teams. They're great at giving looks in practice. But to have an entire game depend upon them. We shall see. Might see some superstars. Just like a preseason. You talk about the Buffalo Bill saying no Moss to the New England Patriots. So they dropped to what, four or five instead of number one overall. Let's talk about tonight's game that means absolutely nothing. Tone has a question for you.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Shetty, it does mean nothing. Because the only thing that matters for the Lions is next week's game against the Vikings. So does that mean the Lions are going to rest people tonight? And especially because they have been so banged up, why would they risk more people? Or is mcdc playing their guys tonight in a game that means nothing to them?

[Mike Tomlin]

But that's how you think. That's how I think. And I had this debate with somebody in the Lions this morning. I'm like, there's nothing to play for. You're on a Short week. You play the Vikings, and like Dan says, we're going to try to win this game. I'm like, okay. I mean, if you listen to his quotes, this is who they are. They are built on grit and toughness. They go for it. They're going to go for it tonight. Now, again, I think you have to see how the game is flowing and what's happening. And I think they're going in with the mindset we're going to try to win this game. Again, this is in talking to them, they're like, well, we could become the 10th team in NFL history to have 15 regular season wins. I said, okay, Bravo. Good for that. They're like, well, we don't want to take away from the energy and the momentum that we've built. Okay, but again, you're in a short week. Everything is rotting Sunday night. But they're not thinking the way we're thinking. They're just not thinking that. Now, for me, it's hard to imagine that you're going to go run Jameer Gibbs into the ground tonight when David Montgomery's gone, but they remember that they lost this team. They think that they can just go out and be tough every week. And Dan Campbell's been pretty adamant they're going to keep playing. Now, if they're up two touchdowns in the third, fourth quarter, could we see a quicker hilt look? Yes. Could certain situations in the game enter into his thinking? It would be illogical to think that they wouldn't. But going into the game, their mindset is, we are going out there to win the game and we'll see how the game unfolds and how he handles it from there.

[Pat McAfee]

Second bye week here, week 17. Yeah, be nice getting an opportunity, you know, let the boys, hey, let's get a couple of drives in. Let's get a couple drives in and then bang, go head out there.

[AJ Hawk]

Now that AMC dc I agree, it's not. But boy family, the whole family over there.

[Pat McAfee]

He'll be going forward on fourth down, too. Tonight he'll be Jared Goff, qb, sneaking into fourth downs. First quarter, second quarter, we need it. There's some dogs on the Niners defense that can hit. Yeah, they. They still fly around flyer and this game means nothing. Yeah.

[Mike Tomlin]

Hey, you know, but the Niners have shut down more of their roster than the Lions are considering. Shutting down their roster. There have been a lot of guys who have been hurt, a lot of guys placed on ir. They're missing a lot of guys already. The Lions don't care. They're going in there to play the game, which again, as fans, we could sit here and debate it. I think I lost. Would say, why you?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Mike Tomlin]

Okay. Well, I think most fans would say, I don't love it. Like I.

[Ty Schmidt]

Someone gets hurt, you won't love it.

[AJ Hawk]

What are we doing?

[Pat McAfee]

No, but if they do a stumble fumble, bumble mumble tonight, oh, my God.

[Gumpy]

Everybody'S going to love it.

[Pat McAfee]

Ben Johnson does a triple throwback. Everybody's doing double throwbacks these days. Okay. We're doing a triple throwback that just. Ben Johnson unloading the clip tonight on Monday Night Football would be awesome. That would be fantastic.

[Mike Tomlin]

They think that they have an endless supply of trick play, so it's no big deal to use whatever they want tonight in a meaningless game. But again, they're going to get back to Detroit, I don't know what, six in the morning on Tuesday. And they're going to get underway with preparations for a monstrous Sunday night game. So they're on a short week of a west coast trip and they're the Lions and they're coached by. And they don't care what is.

[Pat McAfee]

What is the. I love that. I love everything about it. What, man? Oh, we. The game. They're not keeping score, man. That's cool. Yeah. You know what? My guys to be losers going into the playoffs. Yeah. Biggest game of the year coming up next weekend. Yeah, we want to. We want to have an L hanging over us going in there. No, look for the Lions win by 60 tonight. Exactly. That's culture. That's MCDC football. And that's why we're in this position in the first place. Let's go beat the hell out of him and get some revenge. And then we'll go win next week, too. I love that.

[Mike Tomlin]

Tone would like to have a word with you. But that's the way the Lions are thinking.

[Boston Connor]

I was just asking a question.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, because it's a very real question. Valid because it is. This game would normally last week of the season for teams. Instead, it's second to last week of the season. It's like, do you take a little things? Because then you're going to be back next week. So you don't have rust going into the playoffs, but you still got a chance to rest a little bit. Maybe it will be a Cam Ward situation. Maybe it will be one half.

[Darius Butler]

Well, let's be honest.

[Pat McAfee]

This defense is brand new. They need all the reps they can get together. What happened in Miami? Con has a question.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Shefty, kind of last week out of nowhere. Tua was downgraded to doubtful and then obviously didn't play yesterday. What's his status and can we expect him playing this upcoming weekend with the lurking Dolphins still looking for a playoff spot?

[Mike Tomlin]

I don't think it's a lock he plays this week. I think it's, I think his status is in question. I think that would be the fairest way of saying it. I think that that hip was more banged up last week than people realize. It's the same hip that he had surgery on in college. It's a different spot. But the fact of the matter is it was bothering him last week and got word over the weekend that he wasn't going to play. They're like, no, he's still trying to play okay, and obviously he felt like he couldn't play in the end and I think that they're back in that spot again this week. I think Tua will see if he can go out there and try to play, but I think on Monday, six days out, I think it's absolutely fair to say that his status for the upcoming game against the jets is in question and we'll see if he can make it back.

[Pat McAfee]

Jets coming off a tough one. I mean an absolutely tough one. But the Dolphins still lurking need Carson Wentz to do his thing against the Denver Broncos. Huntley looked much better than he did earlier in the year, though. Maybe McDaniel gave him a different offense. Gumpy.

[Bill Belichick]

He just had more time to figure it out. He was doing the motions and he was actually, he actually played really well. We need him back next year to be the backup.

[Pat McAfee]

He looked unique, unreal in the middle of the season. He didn't have the offense figured out. So whenever he was out there, the offense was actually inept. We saw it against the call. It was terrible yesterday against the Browns. Very good defense was able to pull accomplish some stuff. Looks like he might have to go for a little bit in the biggest game of the year.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's starting a playoff game in two weeks.

[Pat McAfee]

The hip how long should we be Is this going to be something where they say ah, ah and it's going to linger? We assume.

[Mike Tomlin]

I, I, I don't, I don't know. I just know that right now we don't know whether he's going to be able to play this week and that they could have to lean on Tyler Huntley again this week. It's possible. We'll see how the week unfolds. I don't know yet. But again, this is an injury. He's had before to the same body part. Well, and I know that it was definitely significant last week and it was bothering him. He couldn't play with their playoff hopes on the line and we'll see if he can make it back this time.

[Pat McAfee]

What was it? Bo Jackson. Yeah, had that, but it was just vastly different because modern science, he was able to get back in there. But it's something like the joints like dislocated and then blood and then I think blood starts straight. I think it's like a very dangerous. If I remember the Bo Jackson documentary that they did about the injury that basically ended his entire athletic career. I think two had something similar.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Because Bo Jackson had popped out and back in in the same play, but the blood kept flowing.

[Pat McAfee]

God. Science, modern science hopefully is a okay. Speaking of being a okay, Philadelphia Eagles are a okay at the number 2 overall CD, but has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Hey. Okay, obviously some questions at the quarterback position, but running back Saquon Barkley, he cracked the 2,000 yard mark last week and I saw a heated debate with you and the guys pregame leading up into it. You said basically, hey, they're going to arrest him. In the last week of the season, some of the guys on the panel like, hey, go and get the record. Where are we at now with what Nick Sirianni is going to do with Saquon going forward with obviously needing 101 yards to break the all time record, which Eric Dixon absolutely does not want him to do.

[Mike Tomlin]

Well, Darius, we have not heard official word from the Eagles, but I think that everything that they've said and done speaks volumes. As soon as Saquon Barkley went over 2,000 yards yesterday and got to 2003, he came right out of the game. They didn't leave him in there to continue his chase of Eric Dickerson. They got him right out of the game after that run and he was put on ice. And now he's one of nine running backs in NFL history to go over 2000. And after the game they asked him about it and he's like, hey, we've got bigger things in mind. They've asked Nick Serrett. We're not thinking about that. I, as I said yesterday, as I said this, I'd be floored if he played again until the playoffs. I don't care how close he is to Eric Dickerson's record. Again, everybody takes a different tact and different approaches. The Lions tonight, they're going in, they got work to do. That's how they approach this. The Eagles they're not going to have a buy. I think that Saquon is going to be put in bubble wrap next week and then he'll be unwrapped for the wild card game. They have the number two seed. Might it have been different if they had put away the number one seat? Maybe. Maybe that would have been a conversation, I guess. But I don't think you're risking putting out a 2,000 yard rusher in a meaningless game against the Giants. No matter how close he is to Dickerson's record, he's 100 yards out.

[Pat McAfee]

If that was like 45 yards, I wonder.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, like if it was 45 yards, be like give a half. Right. We can give a go for the Giant.

[AJ Hawk]

It's like a movie.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He broke the. His single game, right. Rushing record against the Giants first time at MetLife and then this time could break the old time rushing record against the Giants.

[Mike Tomlin]

By the way, didn't Saquon, didn't he take himself out of the game and not decide to go back in? Earlier this game, earlier this season when the Eagles was. The Eagles single game rushing record was online. There was some record that was in his and he, he wasn't. That's not the way he thinks. It's not the way he's wired. He doesn't care about break. His mindset is on getting a Super bowl, not breaking another record.

[Pat McAfee]

And we'll tell you how the Giants people are thinking right now.

[Mike Tomlin]

I don't even know if that's gonna happen, but it.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm going to have a tough time sleeping if Saquon goes to film. I'll tell you that as I've told you, just being up, I, I have been around enough players so.

[Darius Butler]

But he's the. He.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the most popular player we have by far. Yeah. Just breaks the all time record against his team. Oh man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hashtag.

[Pat McAfee]

And then in the single. Oh my God situation. 100 yards, 100 yards. Saquon can find that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Get that and a half, two runs first quarter.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. Might be able to. Now this Giant seems good. People forget. Yeah. You saw what they just did.

[Mike Tomlin]

By the way, Pat, you know, here's another thing. You think the Eagles again, they have nothing at stake if they win, doesn't impact them all. If the Giants win on Sunday, they probably fall to what, 8, 9, 10 in the draft order. Like a win. The Eagles losing is a win for the Eagles organization.

[Pat McAfee]

Bill's Patriots, same situation now we got Eagles, Giants. Same situation here.

[Mike Tomlin]

Now again, I want to Be very clear. The players are not thinking like that. They're going to go out and play. But you can't tell me that organizationally that they aren't thinking, well, if we let the Patriots win, if we let the Giants win, if we don't put out our best guys, if we don't do everything we can to win this game and they win, their draft order crashes and to get to where they want to be or where they are now. Like the Giants need a quarterback. Everybody knows it.

[Pat McAfee]

They're at 4.

[Mike Tomlin]

If they win on Sunday, they're going to roughly 10. Roughly 10. How are they getting.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry, Saquon Sirianni. Sorry, buddy. Gonna have to get 100 yards. Earlier in the season. Dickerson did it in 14 games too.

[Mike Tomlin]

I can tell you this. I think the Eagles care a lot more about the giants falling to 10 than Saquon Barkley breaking Eric Dickerson's all time single season rush.

[Pat McAfee]

Saquon's been special though. Yeah, that's been so much fun to watch. And obviously he's going to be at the NFL honors if they're not playing in the super bowl as an MVP finalist running back being able to do that obviously in the modern age that we're in is insane. Best offensive player will obviously come in to the award to Saquon Barkley. It's like congrats to you, Saquon, especially because I, like many, had no idea this was possible. Because we thought he was just going just another Giant's wasteland. That's what we thought it was going to be this entire time. But instead the Giants said, we can't pay him 13 million a year. Yeah, right.

[Mike Tomlin]

No, John Marik called it. John Merrick called it.

[Pat McAfee]

Him with his head, hand on his face.

[Boston Connor]

He's got to be so mad going.

[Pat McAfee]

Buddy, I won't be able to sleep. This guy goes to Philadelphia Eagles, you hear me? And he is by far our most popular player. Well, there's a reason he's also your most best player mbp, which I think is what he's going to win, win at the NFL honors, even though he deserves MVP Valuable Player conversations. Because look at the way this team is finishing this year versus how they finished last year. It's because of a run game being able to do what it's doing. And also Kenny Pickett and McKee can spin that. What a time to be Philadelphia Eagles fans. Congrats to you guys. Last question here.

[Mike Tomlin]

We appreciate it, you know, and it's not just the way that Saquon plays It's the way he carries himself, too. Like he's class and a pro. Like, that's the kind of guy you. You want in your locker room. Last question. Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, no problem. Ty has a question for you.

[Gumpy]

Sheffield. Has any of the conversation around Sam Darnold changed over the last couple weeks? A lot of people saying, hey, there's no way they can pay him, and then they're potentially going to get the number one seed. We saw how the team reacted to him in the locker room yesterday after beating Green Bay. Is there any way that they actually let go of Sam Darnold?

[Mike Tomlin]

Now, Ty, I'm glad you asked that question, because my reaction to seeing that video, when Sam Donald walked into that locker room and they all jumped all around him and popped the champagne and did whatever they did, there it is like, look at Kevin O'Connor. He's watching this.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a movie scene, brother.

[Mike Tomlin]

Well, hold on. He's watching this, and in the back of his mind, they just want a huge game. So not how he's thinking now, but how. How can you let somebody that your team feels that strongly about walk out the door? That video tells you that they're not going to let him go. That's what that video tells you right there.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. We agree. We saw it the same exact way. Although it's going to be a big number, Will they be able to afford it? Will Sam do a little business with them, too, to remain there? We'll watch you tonight. What are you doing? You're from home. Yeah.

[Mike Tomlin]

Sitting here. Getting ready for the pregame show tonight. Monday night. Countdown down.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're getting ready for the show. The. The.

[Mike Tomlin]

The game might not have as big as stakes, but I'm. I'm attacking this show. I'm treating this show like it's the most important show that we've done all year.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go. That's Adam Stacker. We're back on the other side.

[AJ Hawk]

What's up, y'all? It's Joe Button here to talk about prize picks. Football season is heating up, and Prize Picks is the best place to get real money. Sports act check while watching football. With over 10 million members and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, Prizepix has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. The app is really simple to use. Pick two or more players across any sport. Pick more or less on their projection, and you could win real cash on your lineup. Prizepix even invented the Flex play so you can still cash out if one of your picks doesn't hit on prizepix. You can mix and match players from different sports real money sports action while watching football.

[Pat McAfee]

Download the prizepix Daily Fantasy app today and use code TPMS and get $50 instantly when you play $5. That's code TPMS on prizepix to get $50 instantly when you play 5 dollars. You don't even need to win to.

[AJ Hawk]

Receive the $50 bonus. It's guaranteed prizepix run. Your game must be present in certain states. Visit prizepix.com for restrictions and details.

[Pat McAfee]

This episode is brought to you by Dutch Bros. Get stoked for all the holly jolly vibes this season at Stay cozy with returning winter faves. Hazelnut truffle mocha and candy cane mocha. Plus the new Winter Shimmer Rebel energy drink blends up sweet cream and blue razz flavor with soft top and shimmer sprinks to keep those spirits energized all winter long. Download the Dutch Bros app to find your nearest shop, order ahead and start earning rewards. It is wonderful. We're so lucky that we get to talk about it. The talks at tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt one after the Hammer God Cowboys AP Tony's here rocking at Pittsburgh Steelers Tarp Feeling good about the boys.

[Boston Connor]

Feeling really, really good about the boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, why wouldn't I?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, a little bit of a schneide. A little bit.

[Boston Connor]

Listen, all those teams that just lost two, they aren't playing guys in week 18 because they're really, really good and that doesn't mean that it's a good thing to lose to them. I'm just saying, you know, played them close for three quarters. Fourth quarters was was tough and we got a little bit figured out. But we're going to do it.

[Pat McAfee]

You guys having a little bit too much Thanksgiving dressing fourth quarter can't keep up with everyone. No, no. Celebrate holidays a little bit too hard over there in pitch. Oh no.

[Boston Connor]

Just mistakes and turnovers that were going in our favor. Beginning of the year just didn't go our way those last three.

[Pat McAfee]

What what goes around goes around, goes around, goes around, comes back around. Yeah, maybe for the playoffs, you guys.

[Boston Connor]

Thank you Nelly Furtado.

[Pat McAfee]

All you got to do is get into the dance and then you'll get moving. Was it just Nelly Furtado in that song?

[Ty Schmidt]

I thought it was Timberlake's part.

[Pat McAfee]

They're saying some stuff about him.

[Boston Connor]

Tell you what, if Nelly was in that song at all, I'm thinking of.

[Pat McAfee]

Victory like lap Nelly Furado had a little bit of A run there.

[Gumpy]

He did.

[Darius Butler]

Victoria.

[Bill Belichick]

British Columbia legend.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[Bill Belichick]

Nelly Furtado went to Mount Doug.

[Boston Connor]

Did she have a pocket Spectrum?

[Bill Belichick]

Spectrum's rival. Mount Doug.

[Pat McAfee]

Where I went had nothing on Mount Doug.

[Bill Belichick]

Mount Doug.

[Pat McAfee]

No, not when Nelly Verado was there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Not the man either.

[Pat McAfee]

The state of Canada produced Nelly Vertado. I didn't know that.

[Gumpy]

Me neither, did I.

[Pat McAfee]

She had a little bit of run. I. I too know she was a warm and fuzzy. If you put 14 photos up of potential Nelly Fritters.

[Gumpy]

Not a chance.

[Pat McAfee]

No, but I saw her name on some songs. Bangers love Nelly Bangers.

[Boston Connor]

She had a pocket full of sunshine.

[Bill Belichick]

No, she wasn't in the Timberlake song. Was not in that song either.

[Ty Schmidt]

I didn't think so. She's promiscuous, right? With who was with.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, she was promiscuous. I could have never. That looks like an AI guy. Cindy Crawford, if you ask me.

[Boston Connor]

That's a great pull.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats, Nelly, for thought man eaters. Thanks for everything. That's her.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I remember that song. A little run. Yeah. Mount Doug.

[Gumpy]

Mount Doug.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh.

[Boston Connor]

Natasha Bedingfield's pocket full.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And that's about cocaine.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Which I learned, you know, I had it. I had it as my alarm clock without knowing that knowledge. And then we're on trip. Everybody was in the same hotel room for some reason. I had the thing set up at 6am Just kind of hit. And all of a sudden I got a pocket. Got a pocket full of sunshine. Snooze. Nine minutes later, cancel snooze. Couple people ruffle. Will you shut that thing? The up. Got it. Sorry. Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. Turn the cocaine song off. Somebody said. I was like, that's a sunshine.

[Ty Schmidt]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

What? Sunshine. Okay. Like you think sunshine's in a pocket. Okay. Maybe that is a bag of sunshine, which is Wakey, wakey. That's a bunch of cocaine. You're listening to it 6am I'm listening to it at 6am I'm done with that. So I apologize. I did not know that was the case. Now with that being said. What a time. Banger.

[Boston Connor]

Banger.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a lot of those bangers that just pop up out of nowhere. You know who's been bringing them back to light? The Notre Dame social media team.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

This is the way I live. That's what they put on the line. They had some Jeezy on their first one.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Obviously it won. Indiana University had Mark Cuban on, fresh off a failed presidential campaign. Back into the world, though, obviously. Self Made billionaire from Pittsburgh. One thou he voiced over their particular video. Notre Dame had Jeezy on there. Almost could have known.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know what was about to happen.

[Bill Belichick]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Now they got baby boy Prince or whatever on it. It's like, wait a minute. Is this Notre Dame social media team creeping in on Oregon's social media team that's at the top up there? I'm not sure. College football playoffs just a few days away.

[Darius Butler]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. D Buch, we're about to be on the sideline.

[AJ Hawk]

The Rose bowl cannot wait.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that not bananas? We get to do that.

[AJ Hawk]

It's awesome. My, my favorite part of the year. Been on the field for those games, seeing the best of the best go at it. And then at the end, you know, Obviously we started 12 Countdown.

[Pat McAfee]

Ohio State, everybody's saying this is national championship like game, this rematch. Obviously the Big Ten, one of them's not going to make the final four, which is absolute crap. Means we don't get to top four teams in the country this particular year. We know that because one of these teams isn't going to make it. Will Howard fresh off his best ball game. Jeremiah Smith fresh off a dominating performance. Trayvon Henderson, Judkins doing their thing out of the backfield. Offensive line, dominant defensive line with JTT Jack Sawyer cooking all over the place. They broke two of Nico Iamaliava's helmets. Two of them in one particular game. You're talking about flying around. Then you got the undefeated Oregon Ducks team ready to do it. Obviously Dan Lanning is an absolute do, but his team's littered with talent. You know, everybody chit chat at the beginning of the season about this Ohio State roster with how much money they spent on it. Valid. Okay, valid. Very valid. Because they have gone all in in this particular roster. And then you heard, you know, Trestle and Urban Meyers say that's got to be the best team that's ever put Ohio State uniform. Now we've won national championships with teams that aren't as good, but we'll see if they're able to do it with this good of a team. Basically is what they said about the roster and everything like that, that Oregon put together quite a roster too. Now let's not get crazy at all. They have high end talent at every single position and they fly around that. Now obviously that was right in front of our faces and we're all mind blown. He was screaming and actually projecting some spit onto that crane that was blocking our view in front of our suite. So we got to watch this and witness this. That's tight end. They got every position like that.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Now they had to take on a Penn State team in a Big Ten championship right there. Just jumped over and that pounded a rock against him. With Singleton and Allen, they were able to gain some yards. Is Oregon going to be able to bounce back? Is Dylan Gabriel going to be able to utilize Taz, absolute dog. Jordan James, absolute beast out of the backfield. Dylan Gabriel doing his thing? It's like we're hey, this is going to be a good game, too. The granddaddy of them all. We're going to be lucky to be on the sideline broadcasting on ESPN too. But the game itself is setting up to be a banger physical. Both need it, both want it. Both feel as if they are at their best forms right now. We got a good one coming on Wednesday night. Which football needs great one.

[AJ Hawk]

Two great coaches, two great organizations, a lot of NFL talent. And in that setting, that beautiful setting.

[Boston Connor]

That is so nice.

[AJ Hawk]

5:00 kickoff cannot wait.

[Pat McAfee]

It's 5:00 somewhere. Pasadena. Whenever this thing kicks off on the Eastern time zones, five, 2 o'clock local, we have a 7 to 10am local game day, I believe, on New Year's Day. And then there is the it's Texas.

[Ty Schmidt]

Texas.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you heard that there's a little.

[Boston Connor]

Peach Bowl, I believe.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you heard a little bit of the chatter out of the Texas Arizona State?

[Ty Schmidt]

Some beef.

[Boston Connor]

What's going on?

[Pat McAfee]

Sam Levitt Jr. Redshirt freshman quarterback for the Arizona State team who just won the Big 12. Obviously a lot of conversation about Cam Scattenbu, the running back who's a stud. Sam Levitt Jr. Has become a court he's dog. Very, very good. He was asked about Quinn Ewers and he gave an answer about believing in himself and said, I'm ready to prove I'm the best quarterback on that field or whatever. Quinn, you was hurt, took the high roads that I heard what he had to say. They've been fun to watch, yada, yada yada do that. But you got those Arizona State dogs ready to cook. They're ready to activate the Valley in this entire thing. Could you imagine the upset that could be if Arizona State knocks off Texas? Texas, with all the talent and size and funding and everything behind it with Sarcasian, that'd be banana. Now, I'm not saying it's definite. I'm not saying that's the way I'm picking. I'm just saying would Be gigantic for Arizona State. And also another massive shot across the bow to the sec. Yeah. You know, the SEC during this bowl season is that a lot of things happen to him. That's not great for all the talking points that have been said.

[Boston Connor]

Correct. Not as bad as the acc, but the SC has. There's been a lot. And that's. I believe Arizona State also has a lineman who went to Texas or wanted to go to Texas and they said, you'll never play here. So now he's starting at Arizona State. So there's some chips on the shoulders for the Sun Devils.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And then obviously the Rose bowl. And then at night, the capper, Notre Dame, Georgia. How you doing? Keep it moving. Can't wait for the Catholics to take on the dogs. And yeah, I'm excited as shit for tomorrow night. Penn State, Boise State kicking it off all the way through Wednesday, New Year's Eve. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who obviously has a rooting interest for the Ohio State Buckeyes, but will also be on the sideline with us at the Rose Bowl. He's a college football national champion, super bowl champion rider cup winner, A.J. hawker. We were just talking about the slate. Your first takeaway. Whenever you think about it, I mean.

[J.J. Watt]

Arizona State, that would be a. I don't know what the line is. You may. Oh, 13. I seen right now. Okay. That would be a huge upset. But I'm excited to see scatter. Boo. See if he can run wild.

[Pat McAfee]

As you said, there's been a lot of home ass beatings thus far.

[Gumpy]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

College Football Playoff. But it was called home field advantage for a reason.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

It was called like the reason why they were seated for home field advantage because everybody thought they were the better team. So sometimes chalk is going to win it. At this point people are a little bit worried that maybe there'll be another couple blocks. That's what people are saying.

[AJ Hawk]

Express. But what we don't have this round that we did have last round is that cold weather that we talked about a lot and that that obviously paid a big factor in that first round. Now it's neutral sites, warm weather. Obviously some teams that have well rested. I'm excited about this. But 11 points and 13 points at this point in the playoffs. Some big, big time spreads.

[Pat McAfee]

Those are some big time spreads. We'll be live on ESPN2 for Ohio State and Oregon. AJ let's talk about that game real quick before we pivot to the greatest of all time when it comes to NFL coaching and general managing. Now in the college world. Ohio State fans, we talked about it last week or something with where Coach Saban talked about how, hey, Ohio State fans, we got a chance to win national championship. Let's. We'll worry about everything, you know, offseason. Let's. Right now I know we lost Michigan. Let's roll. Feels like Ohio State is behind this Ohio State team, right?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, absolutely. Especially after the showing against Tennessee. I think anybody that was on the fence or thought, hey, this team isn't what we thought they were. I think they're back now and they're.

[Pat McAfee]

Ready and that's beautiful thing. Yeah. Some Buckeye fans get loud. Oregon's fans are going to be bananas.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're closer, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now is a man who's going to be trying to get to this particular game for the next couple years. He is now the head coach at the University of North Carolina of the Tar Heels football team. He's the greatest general manager and greatest NFL coach of all time. Ladies and gentlemen, Bill Belichick. How you doing, coach?

[Bill Belichick]

Great, great. Happy holidays.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy holidays to you. Merry Christmas.

[Bill Belichick]

A lot of football this weekend.

[Pat McAfee]

So much. I mean, there was games, so many games. Now, I'm not going to say, you know, the New England Patriots are kind of like when March Madness happens and there's only one game at a time and the game stinks, you kind of are forced to watch it. Nothing else. But it was a nice day. It was a nice breakup there. It was nice to see the Chargers do their thing, but it was a lot of football. Let's talk about your world. Is it a lot of. What is your world right now? Are we still recruiting, putting together a staff? Where are you at right now? Down in North Carolina?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, definitely recruiting. A lot of guys going into the Portal. Seems like every day, you know, as team seasons conclude with the bowl games and then the playoffs here that are coming up. So a lot of guys in the Portal, a lot of people contacting us want to come to Carolina. My Instagram account's been. Been busy, so scrolling through that, I never thought I'd be saying that, but here I am, you know, joining the 21st century. So that's been good. So, yeah, we, you know, got big weekends coming up. The weekend of the fourth weekend of the 11th, a lot of guys coming in to visit and stuff like that. And so, yeah, it's been fun. It's been good. Really enjoyed it. And, you know, school has been great. Chancellor and the staff and administration really been behind us. And so we got. Got a lot of positive things going, but a lot of players want to come to Carolina, so that's a good thing. You see any good ones, send them our way.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you got it. Hey, listen, no doubt about it. Cannot wait to see who ends up up as a North Carolina Tar Heel under your watch down there. I think that's something that a lot of people would be excited about. I can't believe you're using your snap face and my face DM's now to connect with people that potentially are in the transfer portal. But I love it. Let's talk about the 4th and the 11th. Is that when you're going to try to figure out if these guys are guys that you think could be Carolina guys or is that them trying to get a feel whether or not they could fit in with your particular system? How does that kind of 4th and 11, 11th weekend go in your eyes?

[Bill Belichick]

Right. Well, the weekend of the fourth, we're still, you know, open on some transfer portal players before school starts. And then you know, just the whole month of January is kind of a big recruiting month. So, you know, we'll just, just take them as it comes here, start to work on the 26 high school class and, and also which we're already working on them at the high school class as well as still, still supportive guys that'll be left over and start the off season program with the players that we have and get things rolling there. So it's, you know, big month for us.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So when they reach out to you, they want to come. Do you treat it like draft prep? Are you like interviewing them to see if they're the type of guy or the type of player that you want in your building? Are you selling the shit out of your program right now to a lot of people?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, both, you know, both, you know, not only, you know, recruiting the players, but, but as you know, in college there's a lot of recruiting that goes with the parents and also with, you know, other people, high school coaches or people they train with and so forth, which is a little bit different than what it is in the NFL, but it's, I'd say a combination of the first two days of pre free agency where there's a lot of talking going on before free agency actually opens and the few hours after the draft when teams are trying to re sign or trying to sign players to fill out their roster, you know, where you're dealing with agents and players, it's, it's some kind of combination of those two days, has it been more, you know, Been doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead. No, go. You said you've been doing it for a long time. And I was about to say, has it been more or less tasking than you thought going into it all?

[Bill Belichick]

Oh, it's just different. Yeah, it's, it's just different. But, you know, it's, it's good. It's, you know, again, you feel like you're just talking to a younger players who have the same aspirations of, you know, being good and developing their career in college football to lead to the NFL as opposed to college players who are out of eligibility and heading into the NFL. So it's a little bit different conversation, but it's kids that want to be good, kids that love football and, you know, kids that want to play for your team, whether it was New England or Carolina. It's a little slot, the same theme.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead, A.J.

[J.J. Watt]

Especially the skill position players. Pat and I talk about this a lot. We feel like we see these young, young, 17, 18 year old kids step in day one and they're great, like receivers from the jump. Are you seeing that when you see you're recruiting these skill position guys? And we think it was maybe they're growing up, doing these seven on seven tournaments, traveling the country, doing all this stuff. Is that something you've noticed at all as young players being developed at such a young age?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, I do think some of them, you know, do have a big edge there. But as you know, A.J. those kids catch up to each other and that, that, you know, call it 18 to 20, 18 to 21 age. Some of the kids that mature quicker, you know, they, they don't, they don't get, you know, they don't physically develop very much. And there's other guys that, you know, come in at, you know, 210 pounds, 220 pounds and they're 250, 260 or the 240 guys end up being 310 and you know, things like that after some training and, you know, good nutrition programs and so forth. So it's more of a projection element for sure in looking at the high school to college players. But you know, in the end, it's up to each one of them to, you know, develop as much as they can. And we'll provide all the tools in terms of training, nutrition, coaching scheme, techniques, fundamentals and so forth to make them the best that they can be. And if they work hard and apply themselves, then they'll max out on potential.

[Pat McAfee]

How's it been putting together your staff? We know it was announced alongside of You, Lombardi, general manager. We're incredibly happy for him that he's back in football. I think he mentioned at one point or you mentioned at one point a director, a player, personnel needed. And obviously you need all your coaches. We know about. Steve. How, how is the staffing been coming together?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, good. You know that I'll really start to move on that this week and next week. Again, a lot of coaches that are potentially available, that'll be on the staff are either still involved in college football, bowl games, playoffs, or still involved in the NFL, which we still have another week of the regular season and then, and then some of them are in the playoffs as well. So we'll see how that plays out. But there'll be a strong NFL presence on the staff, but not exclusively. We'll have. We have some other people too, that we're working on. So try to put the better. Put together the best that we can. And, you know, players that are coaches that'll help the players and, you know, help produce winning football at Carolina. That's what we're there for. We're there to help the players.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm very excited for you to take advantage of the college special teams rules. I cannot wait to see what you come up with with those college special teams rules. Now, let's talk a little bit about the NFL, shall we? We are in a certain season. You just talked about the last week. Tone has a question for you.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Coach, you've been in a lot of these scenarios. The Chiefs, they locked up the one seed, so their scenario is if they don't play guys in week 18, they're going to have two weeks off. The Eagles, they locked up the two seed, so it'll just be week 18 off and then, you know, play the first week of the wild card and Lions have nothing to play for tonight, but then have something to play for in week 18. How did you handle these situations year by year as far as resting starters, going in the playoffs and stuff like that?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, I think it's a great question. It's, it's. It's a great question and, you know, one that gets kicked around a lot. I think each situation is different. Each team's different. And in the end, as the head coach, I think it's, you know, your responsibility as a head coach to do what's best for the team and you just put the team first. So in some cases that could be to rest a particular individual maybe who has a nagging situation or condition. If your team is not playing well, particularly in a Certain area, maybe they need to play more. It's really hard to go to your team and say, well, we're going to rest these five guys, but we don't care about everybody else. Put the rest of you guys out there, we don't care what happens to you. That's not a message I could ever give to the team. So if there was an injury situation, then that's one thing I would say. The guys that I had, the Brady's, the Gronkowskis, the Bruskies, Mike Vrabels, Rodney Harrison, those guys wanted to play. They weren't. They didn't. I mean, they practiced all year, they worked all year. They wanted to play. They've never said, hey, coach, put me in, I don't want to play football. You know, they. They complained when they had to come out. You know, Brady complained when I put the backup quarterback in to take two reps in practice on Wednesday and Thursday. He wanted to take every snap. So that really was never a problem. Guys coming to me saying, oh, I'm too good, I don't want to play, or I want to sit this one out. They wanted to be in there. So that was never too much of a problem. But in the end, I think you got to do what's best for your team. And honestly, if your team is in the playoffs but you don't feel like they're playing very well, then I would play a more to sharpen up for the playoffs because that not playing well going into the playoffs isn't going to last long. And so I think each coach has to make that own determination. But look, if there's a player that is dealing with a chronic injury situation or chronic condition, then I would absolutely rest that individual player because if he's at full strength, it just makes you a better team in the playoffs. Okay, so I don't know if that answers your question.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it does.

[Bill Belichick]

A long answer to a short question.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, you give a lot of situations or situational answers, which makes me feel good about the way I view things, because you can't give black and white answers for every single. Everything. Everything's different. Every situation is very different. Now, did you ever pay attention to. And once again, this is something you were in the position. I Forget how many AFC championship games you posted or whatever.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like 11.

[Pat McAfee]

You have like a record of it. Obviously, going into the season, your teams have been playing well whenever you were coaching them. But like the Bills and Patriots, if the Patriots beat the Bills, the Patriots currently have the number one overall pick. If they beat the Bills, they drop out of number one overall, and then Giants, Eagles. If the Giants beat the Eagles, the Giants drop to like number eight or number nine for the pick. Now, I know that players and coaches can't think about this, but as a GM and somebody that has to be like, front office wise, do those conversations ever enter into anything or is it just we got to go play our game and let the cards fall as they fly at the end?

[Bill Belichick]

Well, you know, I don't know. It sounds like it might have in Miami, you know, with Coach Flores, because he brought that up about, you know, the organization pressuring him.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

Trying to, you know, for a better draft choice. I mean, that was, you know, that's. I don't know if that's been resolved or not. I think it has, but that was kind of publicly talked about. You know, I, I mean, I, I never was never involved in that, but I could just. I. I don't know what happened somewhere else. You know, it's. It's different than the NBA. You know, the NBA kind of rectified that by having a lottery. So even if you're the worst team, you're not guaranteed the first pick pick in the NFL, that's not quite the case. If you are the worst team, you do get the first pick. And you know, personally, I don't think it would be a bad idea for the competitiveness of the, of the sport to, to do something similar to what basketball does, you know, with those lottery picks. I mean, you know, and that then we wouldn't be having this conversation. Well, we might be having it, but there'd be, you know, other circumstances besides just your record there. There'd be a, you know, actually a lottery part of it. But, but that's not a decision for me to make. That's just a suggestion.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I think if you were to give suggestions, people will listen to it. So that is good that you are doing that. We're thankful for that. Especially with how you viewed it, having to pick 29 to 32 every single year as you were coaching in this entire thing. Not that you would ever be in the lottery. The NBA is crazy, though, because even though it is a lottery, some people try to think for like a 6% better chance of this entire thing. Anything that happens, there's more bullshit that comes into it. But to be clear, the. Any team, the team that I was on that was. We won two games for the Andrew Luck. We ended up getting number one overall for Andrew Luck. And there was people calling it the Suck for luckier. And there was f. Our fans were showing up with like suck for luck signs like trying to lose. And there wasn't a single player that was trying to, I wasn't trying to shank any punt ever. I'm trying to keep my job like that. It's always, you know, it's never players, players can't do it. Coaches, same thing. But there's always a wonder if the franchise feels a certain way. Now let's talk about the number one overall pick currently. Connor has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, coach, obviously the Patriots, I mean the Titans right there too. I think the Raiders fan base as well with these coaches who are in their first year, you know, and things aren't going too well. What as a fan base or just as a team when you're looking at it, can you kind of point to as a positive, you know, what, what should those type of fan bases be looking forward to or kind of be hanging their hat on when you know, they're running it back to next year? And how long would you say is kind of that window for a head coach, a new head coach to kind of figure it out with the team?

[Bill Belichick]

Well, that's a great question. I'd say these days it's not very long. You know, you see the coaching changes being made pretty quickly. You know, regardless of the amount of time is left on a coach's contract. You don't see the Tom Landry situation too much anymore where you know, there's actually some patience in building that's you know, becoming less and less frequent. So, and even the owners that, you know, with a franchise is worth as much as they are, it doesn't seem to affect them too much to, to have these big payouts on multi year contracts that the, that the value of the franchise just overrides it by so much. It's, they don't really care. So that's a good question I think. Look, in the end, you know, you want to a consistent vision between the ownership and, and the people who are running the team, whether that's a general manager, the head coach or some combination cap person, whoever those people are. You know, you want a consistent vision to run the team and, and if you have that, then I'd say that's a big edge over a lot of other teams in the league. I think there's a lot of teams that don't have that. And you know, that's probably the start of, you know, the start of the, the really fundamental problem on the organization. So what should fans Hope for. I think really what fans need to hope hope for is, is a consistent vision from the. From the team ownership, head coach, general manager, cap guy, however you, whoever that is, that there's a consistent vision there that they make sense and that they have the discipline to follow. And if they have that, then. Then they'll probably be all right. And if they don't, then they're going to keep bumping into each other and say it's, you know, it's hard.

[Pat McAfee]

Is there anything, obviously, thank you for all that, but is there anything tangible that fans should look at to be like, yeah, this guy could be good coach, will be good coach. For instance, when Motor City, Dan Campbell was with the Detroit lions, he started like 0, 10, 0 and 10 up there bad. And then the second year, they started out bad as well. Ownership Sheila Fordham came out and was like, I believe in the process. I believe in what's happening behind the scenes. I believe that they're getting better. Is there things that fans should look at that, like, for instance, Darren Rizzi down there in New Orleans, okay, he's the interim head coach. They get blown out and then they lose bad again. And everybody's first thing is like, the team don't want to play for this guy, doesn't want him to be a head coach. I think he's a great coach, personally, but that's like 40, whatever it was up there in New England, 40 to 7. A lot of fans are looking saying, oh, the team doesn't want to play for this guy. Is that fair, you think? Or is there things it fan bases should look at be like, oh, here is progress. This is what a coach is trying to do. Or is it just the vision being stated all the same?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah. I mean, so much of that's internal, Pat. I think it's really hard for the fans and. And honestly, it's hard for people outside the organization, which we've been in that situation a lot, where you're looking from the outside in at another organization and you're sort of wondering what they're doing. So I can imagine the fans, you know, kind of feeling that same frustration. I think when they, you know, tell you what they're going to do, then, then you can follow along and do it. So I think at a team like Washington, you know, they came in and said they were going to change everything, and they did. They got a new owner, they're going to do new. Something new with the stadium, they changed their practice facility, they got a new general manager, they got a new coach. They signed Adam Peters, signed 20 some free agents. They just turned over the whole thing. You look at Green Bay, you know what Green Bay is going to do? They're going to draft, they're going to sign the players that they liked in the draft. Four years later, they're going to let the other ones go, and they're going to replace them with draft choices. That's. Sorry picks. The Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, there's a lot of people that could scout for the Steelers. When you look at the Steelers defense, they have the same guys playing the same positions for three decades, basically, right? Same type of players. So, you know that it's easy to see what the pattern is there. You know, I think the teams that, that are consistent, that, you know, that have a pattern and do what they do, as long as they do it well, then. Then you stay with it and try to prove it again. There's other organizations that it's. It's sort of hard to see. You know, you and I have talked about the Bears, Pat. You know, you go out, you draft the quarterback. You go out and. And, you know, acquire all these receivers and everything, but, you know, no running game, no pass protection, no production, can't score. You know, it's just, you know, in a city that, you know, it's going to be tough to throw in the end of the season, period. Right? It's. So I just don't really, you know, I don't know if that's the way to put it together versus a team like, you know, Green Bay or Detroit, who went out and built the offensive line, you know, to go with the quarterback. Then added skill players, you know, Minnesota, you know, lost their left tackle, immediately went out and got another left tackle, you know, to make sure that they, you know, could at least hold up on the offensive line there in order to use their skilled players. And so, you know, just. You watch different teams, you know, construct it differently. You know, Washington, look, they were the second worst team in the league last year, you know, and now they're in a playoffs. And so they had a plan, they stuck with it. Some things worked out, but, you know, they got a lot better. You look at other teams like Chicago, like New England that weren't very good last year and arguably worse this year than they were last year. So, you know, everybody's kind of got that same opportunity to improve, especially teams like Washington and New England that have, you know, $100 million in cap space or whatever it is. And we're going to have a lot of it next Year too do. It's like, well, what's, you know, where are we seeing the improvement? What. How are we seeing this work? You look at a team like Washington or a team like the Chargers, you know that again, you know, when Coach Harbaugh went out there, he had a very specific plan for what he was gonna do. He's going to build the culture. It was going to build an offensive line. Herbert's not going to go back and throw the ball 50 times a game like. Like he had done in the past. I mean, yeah, he's broken a lot of records this year, but it's not because of the number of passes they've thrown this year. It's because of the number of passes he threw the last three years or whatever it was. So, you know, they've changed the culture out there. They're a much better defensive team than they've been. And, you know, here they are. They're in the playoffs, too. Look, Sean did the same thing at Buff at Denver, you know, and he did it with a $55 million cap hit. You know, he did it with two thirds of a team. So next year, when they have a full cap available, then they'll have a much better team. When you add another third of a cap group of players to the roster that he didn't have this year, I think Sean did a tremendous job there. And that's a tough division. It's hard to win out there in that division. So, you know, you look at some of the teams and what they've done and the pattern that they're. That they're following and, you know, you see. And then you look at other teams and, you know, you don't necessarily see the same. The same. Not saying has to be the same plan, but a plan or consistency in.

[Pat McAfee]

Following up a plan, we can at least see what they're trying to do, what you're trying to accomplish here. I think, like, we go back to the Lions, whenever mcdc started so bad, it was like they clearly had a plan. This is what our plan is going to be. We're just going to wait for it to kind of take place. And they're certainly reaping the benefits of that right now. You talk about Sean Payton, I think should have won for two personally, because Zach Taylor even gave him the opportunity for that entire thing. Ty has a question for you.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, Coach, I don't know if it's because of the. We just talk about it more in, like, the media and just fans in general now, but again, last night, Raheem Morris is getting killed for his, you know, timeout out decisions kind of late in that game. Why do you think, and we see it, you know, week in, week out. Why do you think so many coaches in the NFL now are just not good with clock management? Whether that's timeout usages or, you know, like Pat said, going for two in situations where they should or they shouldn't. Why does it seem like that number just kind of grows higher and higher every year in terms of coaches who just kind of seemingly don't have the pulse of the game?

[Pat McAfee]

Game?

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, I don't know it, Ty. You know, it was kind of reminiscent of the Chicago game, you know, where they had to time out and they ran out of time at the end of the game. It's. It's kind of a. It's mystifying. And I don't know exactly what happened internally between the communication between the head coach, the quarterback, the offensive coordinator. Maybe there's a game management person involved. That's something that none of us really have first hand knowledge of unless, you know, you're on the staff or involved in the process. What I would say, what I've always tried to do, and I changed a little bit on this with Brady, okay, what I always try to do is you have three timeouts in the two minute situation. You use your first timeout between two minutes and one minute, you use your second timeout between a minute and 30 seconds, and then use your third timeout sometime under 30 seconds. Now, that wasn't an absolute rule, but that was a rule of thumb. And so you really didn't want to have two timeouts with 20 seconds to go. And you didn't want to use two of your timeouts in the first 30 seconds of a two minute situation, you know, where you didn't need to. And so that was kind of the progression. Now there might be a certain play that would override that, but that was the general rule of thumb. And so you get down to that last 30 seconds and the decision really is, you know, do you save the timeout for the very end if you only have one timeout, not two, which, you know, that's a whole nother conversation, but you only one time out. Do you save that for the very end or do you use it a little bit earlier so you have more time? All right. But now the quarterback's got to manage it. And so Tom and I and Josh had this conversation probably in about, I don't know, 13, 14, somewhere in there, because I had always wanted to save it it for the end, especially if you need a field goal. So you didn't have to run the no huddle field goal team on that. You could just take a timeout and go in there and kick it. But Brady said, look, I'd rather have more time and less timeouts because it gives me more options than less time and a timeout. So let me handle it. If I screw it up, then that's my fault and you can take it away from me. But I would rather you take the time out with 27 seconds and give me more time to do something with. Then run a play with 27 seconds. And now we go to 13 seconds and we have one timeout. I'd rather have 27 seconds and no timeouts than 12 seconds of one timeout. And it puts a lot of responsibility on the quarterback. But Tom wanted that, and I felt very confident giving it to him. So basically, we fundamentally made that switch, and I would take that third time out a lot of times in the 32nd range, even though it had gone against a little bit of my previous thinking, because Tom felt more comfortable managing the game that way, and he did it very well. So I, you know, I was more than happy to, you know, give him that responsibility because, you know, he. He could manage it. And so I think some of that depends on just how you want to set it up between the head coach, the quarterback, the offensive, the coordinator, and again, possibly if you have a game management person, you know, in my case, that would be Ernie that we all kind of got on the same page, said, okay, this is what we're going to do. We're going to give it to Brady. And, you know, Tom, you. Here's who you got to work with. You don't have any timeouts, but he wanted more time and less timeouts. And so I think any of these can work. But it certainly helps when, you know, when you're all on the same page. And that's, you know, that. That's a big one. Really.

[Pat McAfee]

You and Tom Brady having that meeting weekly is kind of like legendary. There's shots from do your job one, do your job two, do your job three. I don't know how many of those documentaries we have, but it's the only time we've got to see.

[Bill Belichick]

There's only one, but go ahead.

[Mike Tomlin]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Anyways, there needs to be do your job too.

[Bill Belichick]

But the other document, the other documentary, as you remember, is the roast. I wouldn't count that one.

[Pat McAfee]

We did not participate in that. If you look at the names that were in there. We were not one of them. I know. Yep, yep. Dog Gotcha. The. But whenever you and Tom would meet, is that the type of things that you would talk about? Situation stuff? You would talk about the defense, you would talk like. Those meetings, I think, are pretty legendary now. Everybody in their head sees it. Tom's sitting at your desk, the shots here, it's clearly your office, and it's like that is a gathering of the brain trust of the Patriots each week. When did that start and what were those meetings about? Was it about this type of shit or was it about everything?

[Bill Belichick]

Right, so when. When coach Ray passed away in 2001, at the beginning of 2001, he was the quarterback coach, Charlie was the offensive coordinator, Charlie west the offensive coordinator. And so we kind of had to replace coach Raybine. And so I did that on the defensive side of the ball. So that's when Tom and I would talk on Tuesdays about this is what the defense is doing. This is how they're playing it. This is how they're playing a cover three, this other plan, their cover four. When they go to, you know, blitz zero, they make these adjustments, so forth. So I instructed Tom on the defense. Charlie talked to him about the offense. Right. We're going to run this play on this play. If we get this, we're going to do that and so forth. And as that evolved and as Tom really understood the defenses better, then our conversations about defense became shorter and we talked more about just overall, how to attack the defense and. And, you know, personnel matchups, how to handle good rushers and so forth. It just became a more in depth conversation. But the Saturday morning meeting was always more about situations. The Tuesday meeting, the one that I think was shown on that documentary you're referring to, was talking about Ed Reed and the Baltimore defense and so forth. The Saturday meeting was about situations, you know, how to handle different time situations or personnel or substitutions or rules or whatever. It was, you know, the sliding thing as an example. You know, the quarterback slides and they spot the ball back where the ball is. And we've seen multiple examples where the quarterback slides early and doesn't get the first down because of the. Where he slides, you know, he should have gone further. Like when, you know, Pittsburgh was trying to, you know, run out the clock against, I think it was Washington or. Yeah. And. And field slid too early, things like that. But the situations we would cover were a lot of times what had happened the week before or the previous couple of weeks. So, you know, to me, Atlanta, they should have watched the Chicago game. Even though they weren't involved in the Chicago game, they should have watched that. Every team in the league should have watched that. And they should have said, okay, if, if we were in this situation, what would we do? What would we do? And at what point would the head coach say, hey, we got to take a timeout or the quarterback or whatever it is? And when you see things like that come up, that's a great example. You know, the Cincinnati, Denver game. Game is another one that I think if I was head coach in the NFL, I don't care what team I was on, I would watch that with my staff and then go over it with the team and say, okay, you know, here's. Here's what we do here. Here's what we would do. Here's the type of play we would run. Here's when we would do and play both sides of it. Because you could be on offense or you could be on defense, but you're playing both sides of the play. And one of the really most interesting games was the Atlanta, the overtime game between Atlanta and. Who was that against? Washington. Washington, earlier in the year was Atlanta and the Bucks.

[Ty Schmidt]

Kirk Cousins set the record in the Bucks.

[Darius Butler]

You're right.

[Bill Belichick]

Atlanta and the Bucks. Yeah, that was the weekend that I was in Washington and Jed Fish showed that to his team and he was going back and forth about, okay, well, here's the Bucks and then here's Atlanta and here's the, here's the box. And it was about a half hour meeting with his team and Jed was explaining in great detail. It was a tremendous meeting, honestly, one of the best meetings I've seen about how the team should. We would do this in this situation and look at how this player made this decision here. And we wouldn't want to make that decision or we would want to make that decision, or this was played right? And the game went back and forth and back and forth. And then, you know, the guy who ends up catching the pass is the special teams guy who never even plays on offense about, you know, Hodge being ready to go, going in there and taking advantage of his opportunity and winning the game. And then all of his teammates saying, hey, there's nobody we're happier for than this guy because he's the first one on, last one off, works harder, and we needed him and he came through. And those are the kind of things that you, you just learn situationally. And I would say one of the best feelings that I've ever had as a Coach would be when we were good in New England, and I would walk into that Saturday night meeting and the guys would all be sitting around having dinner and the games would be on and it'd be George, Alabama or Michigan, Ohio State, whatever the game was, and everybody be watching it. And they would all be talking about, hey, watch out for the bingo situation. They're going to hard count here. Be ready for this. Oh, they made a bad play here. We wouldn't have done that. And they were talking situational football or giving each other a hard time about what their alma mater had done right or done wrong in the situation, but it was all situational football. And they're just watching the game and everybody's into it. And so that's when I knew, you know, with the Brusques and Rodney Harrisons and Brady's and all those guys, Troy Brown, that those guys were so into it because they just couldn't watch a game. They had to watch a game and talk about strategy and play calling and timeouts and, you know, that wasn't a foul. And it was a foul and. And those kind of things because they were just so into the game. But honestly, it was an awesome feeling as a coach to hear our players have those kind of conversations.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

And that's why they were good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When you talk about a culture, it's like, there it is right there. You know, that is literally what a culture is being talked about. Do you think you're going to be able to.

[Bill Belichick]

And it's. And inevitably there would be a situation that come up from time to time where there would be like, hey, what would we do in that situation? And you're sitting there as a coach saying, you know, that we don't quite have that, like, what we would do if it was this, but this is a little bit different. We need to talk about that. And honestly, it was a great. You know, it was a great environment. I mean, it was fantastic.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

And I learned so much as a coach because those guys would bring up stuff. Stuff, you know, Brusky'd bring us something, or Rodney bring up something, or Vrabel bring up something and say, hey, you know, we do this. But actually that's a pretty good idea, what they did. What do you think about that? And, you know, a lot of times we'd end up doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I heard you didn't listen to people. I remember. I heard that wasn't the case. I heard.

[Bill Belichick]

You know, let me tell you something. Let me. I'll go on record right here, Pat I learned more from them than they did from me, and I learned more from them and I assume they would.

[Pat McAfee]

Flip it because I just want to let you know, we just sat here for 25, 30 minutes with you here. I just learned more right now than I have in a long, long time. So I couldn't even imagine playing for an entire season under there. But I do respect the fact that you appreciate all the players that have done everything, you know, in your world legit.

[Bill Belichick]

Well, Pat, Pat, I wasn't. I wasn't a good player. I wasn't like you and A.J. like, I wasn't a good player. Yeah, I see the game as a coach. I see the game as a coach. When Brady tells me what he sees on the field, that's what really matters. When Brewski and Vrabel tell me what they see on the field, that's what really matters. I can say, oh, we can do this. Or Lawrence Taylor, Mel T. Would say, you know, I can't read that. Like, I don't want to hear about that key. Here's what I can see, though. Okay, well then the key I gave him, forget that. It's no good. You can't use it. You tell me what helps you. Okay, I'm going to work on that. And so it really helped me to understand what players see and what information they can utilize and what information they're getting. That's just, they're just, it's just air mailing it out there because they're think sitting there saying to themselves, I can't do that. I mean, yeah, it sounds good, but this just doesn't apply. So I really appreciate them telling me like, that's a bunch of bs. Like, I don't want to hear that. Here's what helps me. Okay, then, then you try to, you know, gear your coaching towards what helps the players.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that you're in the solutions business, brother. You know, a lot of people have too much ego, too much pride, everything like that. That's the reason why you're the greatest coach of all time. Somebody that played for you and obviously has immense amount of respect has. Last question for you here for D. Buch.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, coach. You're talking about the culture and a lot of those vets. And now you're kind of on the other side of that in college, getting players ready to kind of go to that next level. What's the biggest indicator of knowing when you have a player that can kind of pick those things? Everybody's talented. We talk about it all the time. Everybody's talented, but there's so many moving parts. The season's so long, especially for rookie players. We got a lot of rookies that's impacting teams right now. Ladd, you know, Cooper DeJean and Quion Mitchell out in Philly. These teams, Jade Mitchell, Jaden Daniels. I'm sorry, Bo Nixon and Denver. All these guys are going to be contributing big time in playoff teams. What do you see, I guess, coming in early or even in the draft process with these players that you think will be able to pick it up and fit into your culture on the next level?

[Bill Belichick]

Well, I, I think, look, I think it's the same, you know, for all of us players and coaches. The guys that love football, they want. It's not work. It's not work. They, they want to learn, they want to, to, you know, they want to process, they want to practice, they want to get better. If you really love football, then, then you're into all that. If all you want to do is play, then, well, that's once a week. I mean, that's great. But you can't get better playing once a week. You got to, you've got to put all the practice and preparation time into it to really improve and get better. And so I think those are the guys that, that'll, will, you know, ultimately be good at that again, guys like Harrison, Brusky, Vrabel, you know, know, all those type players, they, they put a lot into it on a daily basis. You know, McGinnis. I mean, I go right down the same thing on the offensive line. You know, guys like Tuney and, and, you know, Dan Copa and David Andrews and, and, you know, Logan Mankins and guys like that. And those guys are so into it that it's, it's, it's all the time. And they love football and they love talking about it and so they're going to do all those little things, right? Some of them, some, you know, just comes through osmosis and others, it's really studying in detail. But those guys that love football, like, deep buzz, just like you. Look, man, I've never been fast. I don't know what it's like to be fast. I don't know what it's like to catch somebody who's, who's got the ball. And I know what it's like to run away from somebody who's trying to catch you, right? So I have to learn how to be fast from you because I can't relate to that. I'm slow. I get the other side of it. But everybody's faster than me, so. So I learned from fast players. Nobody taught me more than Randy Moss did because I didn't know what it's like to be fast. And Randy taught me what it's like to be a fast receiver and how he could attack people. But I didn't really understand that. So I've never been fast. So like I said, coach, at one.

[Pat McAfee]

Point, you can move. We saw you down there in North Carolina. That newspaper clip. We know as soon as that photo was taken, you got up and boom, Forrest Gump right to the other end and went crazy. And obviously random Randy Moss. We're all pulling for Randy Moss. What an absolutely absolute dog. First ballot hall of Famer. Let's talk about another player that could be first ballot hall of Famer that you coached for a long time. Adam Vinatieri, kicker, potentially first ballot hall of Famer coach. How do you feel about that? What are your thoughts?

[Bill Belichick]

No brainer.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so.

[Bill Belichick]

Gotta be.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so too.

[Bill Belichick]

Guys made so many big kicks and as great of a career as he had in New England, I mean he had just as great of a career in Indianapolis. Again, a lot of his. Thanks to you because of the kickoffs. But, but I mean, Adam, look, there's a lot of names up there that you know, are pretty impressive. Obviously, you know, Eli and I mean it's a, you know, it's pretty impressive group.

[Pat McAfee]

So who's who there? Yeah, that's a huge. Yonder's in there. Obviously you'll be first badge. Yonda gets in there. Gates has a bunch of records. Holt obviously bananas. Fred Taylor, hell yeah, out there. Reggie Wayne out there. But it's like a kicker. Luke Keakley, obviously stud Jared Alhal of them. But like Venatoria kicker. Potentially being first ballot is fucking sweet.

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, can we get him up there in a Patriot uniform? Get him in there kicking in the snow. The greatest kick of all time. They actually we get him a Patriots uniform.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see him run that? Did you see him run that this week? Because Greg Gumbel was on the call for that and they reran it this past week. What a call by gumball. You're talking 45 yard field goal in a snow globe. Okay. And absolutely. This is after the Tucket thing happens. Vinnie has to kick a 45 yarder. I think it's like 30 mile an hour gusting winds in a snow globe. Guy knocks it through. It's like, of course he does. And then obviously hits a Super bowl one a couple weeks later. It's like Go. He's the goat. And for 24 years, no flubs. There was never like, there was never like a downtime. Somehow with kickers, they're always going to hit a downtime. Vinnie just kept, just powered right through it. Just not mentally such a dog. I love that man. Man, I hope he's first ballot. That'd be crazy.

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah. And you know, the other kick in the, in the snow game was, you know, that was another one too. There was even more snow on the ground and we tried to brush some of it away, but I thought honestly, probably his best kick might have been in the Carolina game to win that one just because of the rush. You know, they'd already block, blocked one. But that rush they had with, you know, with Peppers and that whole defensive line was, I mean those guys were unblockable and they're all ball, six, five, six, six. And I mean that ball barely cleared the line. It barely cleared the line. But he got it up and, and threw. But I mean that was, that was a tough kick too. So he's had so many clutch plays. I mean, and you know what? Vinnie Vinitari was a football player. I mean, I know he was a kicker, but that guy worked out with the players. He made tackles on kickoff coverage. He was physically and mentally tough. He was really it. Yeah, he was more than a kicker. He, he was really a good teammate and a good fight football player is Herschel Walker.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's Herschel Walker tracking him. He had a terrible angle. At a terrible angle. He had to absolutely, absolutely actually walk him. And you talk about he was in pre med, he was going to be like a brain surgeon if he wasn't a kid. You're talking like makes sense. Dog, teammate, great teammate. Everybody loved him. I'm pumped for him. Just like I'm pumped for you to do everything down in North Carolina that you've been able to do everywhere you've ever coached. You're awesome. You make us better every single week. We appreciate the hell out of you, coach.

[Bill Belichick]

Thanks, Pat. Appreciate the opportunity to come on. It's gonna be a great week here in week 18. I mean, this, this Vikings Lions game, you can't ask for a better season finale than that. That's really, that's a heck of a game. To great job by the schedule of makers. You know, Howard Katz coming up with that one in his send off. What, what a game to end the regular season with.

[Pat McAfee]

I've kind of cooked Howard Katz a little bit over the last few weeks, but I want to let him Know, he does great job. And you're right, the greatest is the last one. Sunday Night Football for all the marbles on the NFC side. That's a dinger. We appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, the goat, Bill Belichick. I didn't expect that conversation to go that long. No, we actually had J.J. watt like, hey, Jay, do you want to wrap up the first hour with us? Sure. Because we're off on Wednesday yet again and last week we didn't get a chance to catch up with him. So he'll join us in about 14 minutes or so, 205 Eastern. We'll continue to talk to him. How about Bill going how the Bears, they play in Chicago in December and they can't run the ball, so I don't know what's going on over there. Then he made a couple others and.

[Gumpy]

Then this decision, coaching situation. You know, you got to go back to the Bears game.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, he did it three times. Cedo. Has it always been like that? I didn't know if it was like that. He's just. I don't know. I don't know why he was burying us. He's not. He's just pointing out the off. No, I know. It just came really fast. Yeah. Bear. Ye. Don. Yeah. Is what he did there embarrassing? Yeah. Those guys. Yeah. You did get embarrassed there. Oh, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

For you.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, these guys in Chicago, you got to play in Chicago, you know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Got all these wide receivers.

[Pat McAfee]

I know global warming is happening and the polls are shifting, but it's still Chicago, Illinois right there on the lake. So, you know, building a team might be a little bit different there. That was awesome. That was a fantastic, fantastic take. That was very riveting there.

[Boston Connor]

They talk to talk about how, you know, he would show the team just plays from other teams. Like the timeout situation between the Bears and Lions and stuff like that. And how he talked about how Jed Fish showed it and that how did. And he said every team should do that. Would locker rooms you guys were in. Did teams do that?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we shot situations we should situation. I assume you guys did as well.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, we did. I think we did more as I got older in the league. I don't remember doing an as much early on.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, early on. I think the. And once again, I'm talking as if I know, but I got a front row seat to a lot of. Because my job was hilarious and got grossly overpaid. I think it used to be a lot more like, we do our job, it doesn't matter everything else. We be the best we could possibly be.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, don't worry about situation. I'll take care of the situation. You just make the, you, you make the play when it's your turn like.

[Pat McAfee]

That used to be and it's kind of evolved into like more info, the better. More info, the better. More outside stuff the better. And listen to Bill. It feels like Bill's been like that since the beginning. He, he shouted out Ernie, you know, up in the clouds. Ernie was like the first stats and analytics department in the NFL as a human.

[AJ Hawk]

Absolutely. And then the other big thing that jumped out to me is him just saying, okay, Tom saying, hey, I want this responsibility with timeouts and him being like, all right, you take care of that. Like that takes so much off you as a head coach. We see, we can see it now with kind of the Manning cast from Peyton and Eli are kind of going over situation or even they have other quarterbacks on. You could tell, like those veteran quarterbacks, those super bowl winning quarterbacks. Like those situation, those timeouts. Hey, they probably say it, remind everybody and huddle, those type of things. So when you're a head coach, especially a young head coach, and you can kind of get that off your plate where you don't have to deal with some of the end of the game or end of half time management, like that's a huge weight off your shoulder. Especially if you're a play calling head coach like Bill was at times from the defensive side of the ball. We got a lot of offensive play calling coaches, coaches now. So if you can have that quarterback in a position. We got a lot of young quarterbacks playing. It's been multiple times with the Bears where it's like damn, Caleb, you know, you called take over. But they don't have, not his game. They don't have that power early on at least.

[Pat McAfee]

How about. Yeah, I wonder how many years because I think he said that was in 2013. Maybe he said 13, 14, 1314 when that happened. And that might be 12. You know, in that era there, how many years did Tom Brady want to do it? And was. And then he finally was like, hey, I'm about sick of sitting out here and thinking to myself we should be going. And then you guys are over there doing your thing. Why don't you just let me do it? It's like, and, and once again that's Bill Belichick like being a coach, like, you know, as opposed to everything you've heard.

[J.J. Watt]

Tom said that on the thing. Tom said that on the broadcast yesterday. He explained the timeouts with the 2 minutes to 1 minute. And like when you use them, like Tom said the exact same thing.

[Pat McAfee]

They won so much up there. Yeah. And it's because they never beat themselves expected. They never beat themselves themselves either. Like, that's why the situational conversation with him is so big. We're back Thursday. Happy New Year. We'll be live for the Rose Bowl. Holy. I just. We're off tomorrow because games and then same thing with New Year's day. But we're live. ESPN2 Rose bowl and College Game Day live 10am to 1pm Eastern on Wednesday. I cannot wait to get out there. It is going to be awesome. Electrifying. Just completely forgot we're off tomorrow.

[Boston Connor]

It's gonna be so nice all day, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's get to a break. J.J. watt will join us on the other side. We'll make our picks for tonight's game that matters. Yep. Because momentum, man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. Man.

[AJ Hawk]

They all matter.

[Pat McAfee]

How was this coffee this morning? The same as every day, actually.

[Gumpy]

Just one shot.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no. You're taking it off. What? Wow. You're changing.

[Boston Connor]

There's no way.

[Gumpy]

I never change one this morning. Guess what?

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Gumpy]

42 ounce cup of espresso.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right before the game, I'm gonna try.

[Gumpy]

To make my heart explode.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, don't do that, Coach. We need you. Obvious. When it comes to towing, seeing is believing. That's why Chevy truck's advanced camera technology offers up to eight available cameras for 14 unique views. So you can focus on the view that really matters. Matters. Chevrolet Together, let's drive.

[Ty Schmidt]

Learn more about chevy [e-mail] safety or driver assistance features are no substitute for the driver's responsibility to operate the vehicle in a safe manner.

[Pat McAfee]

Read the vehicle owner's manual for important feature limitations and information from ESPN Podcast and Omaha Productions. Coach is a new groundbreaking educational football podcast hosted by NFL NFL legends Bill Belichick, Matt Patricia and Michael Lombardi. In each episode, the coaches break down game changing situations and front office management tactics. Sharing insights from decades of coaching experience and opening up the Bill Belichick encyclopedia.

[AJ Hawk]

Of football knowledge created by football legends for football fans. New episodes of Coach Drop weekly.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen wherever you get your podcast. Oh, it's wonderful. That's A.J. hawk age. How you doing, Paul?

[J.J. Watt]

I'm doing great, pal. Can't wait to to get out to Pasadena, man. It's gonna be awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I know. With the way the so nice the sun rises and sets over the San Gabriel mountain. Oh my God. And then the cotton candy clouds with the pink behind it with the grass, it looks good enough to. And then obviously the Ohio State Buckeyes, trying to avenge from an earlier loss this season, take on the Big Ten champion Oregon Ducks as they try to move along in the college football playoffs. Two Big Ten teams enter the Rose Bowl. One Big Ten exits a loser. One exits a semifinalist for this college football season. Drama, intensity, violence, skill, and maybe some comedy on ESPN too, as we broadcast live from the field. AJ have you been doing your research on these teams and how do you feel going in, pal?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I have been, I've been checking things out, watching like what happened the first time these two teams played, how different they are right now. I saw a little clip earlier today of both Oregon and Ohio State arriving at their team hotels. Everybody seems to be locked in.

[Pat McAfee]

Seems get off the bus. The bus.

[J.J. Watt]

A lot of fan fair, a lot of people taking pictures of them as they're walking in. None of the players are phased, they're just head down focused on the game.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're locked in. Obviously the boys are locked in. I, I, I did see that Will Howard said something along the lines that they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves. So, you know, that's good. And I think that's him saying like he, I screwed up like I did. If we know anything about the leadership of Will Howard, but if we know anything about football and how teams motivate, they're gonna be like this team didn't even. Okay, so we didn't even play. All right, let's see how that goes. Talks to tables here at Boss Connor and Attai Schmidt. One half of the Hammer done Cowboys. AP Tone is here, nine year NFL vet, looking very cool today. Darius J. Butler is here and joining us now, ladies and gentlemen is a five time first team all probably one of the only members of the Bull ring of honor down there in Houston. He's a future first ballot hall of famer, a gimmick machine. Ladies and gentlemen, J.J. watt. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

What's going on guys?

[Pat McAfee]

How you doing, Jake? Hey, hey.

[Darius Butler]

Dogs are barking.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody's excited.

[Darius Butler]

The whole town can't wait for this. This we're, we're pretty excited over here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I bet you are. I bet you're pumped. Tex is the name of the dog. Is that the name of the dog? Tex.

[Darius Butler]

That's Tex. I named after the first, after the division champs down here.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right. Texans certainly playing their best football. Certainly playing their best football.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, we're, we're going to be playing football. All right. Playing football, you know I am.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm a little bit worried about the future of the AFC south and also the past last 10 years, obviously. Obviously. The Colts have not won. The Texans win again. I saw you get real excited on the Internet after I posted a blog on the X. You know, I saw a little excitement from the J.J. watt account.

[Darius Butler]

I looked at it and I was like, man, it's really long. Do I want to read all that? And then I read the first two lines like, yes, I do.

[Pat McAfee]

Let me.

[Darius Butler]

Let me sit down. I actually sat down in a chair and I said, let's just dive into this right here. This is great. I mean, I have to say, obviously, the Colts, Colts, we had a great battle many times. They've had my number a couple times. I've had theirs a couple times. And it's just. It is. Sometimes you just gotta. When I see this family infighting, it's just. It's good to entertain.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It sounds like you're pretty excited. I wanna. I'll have you know it's only gonna last a few weeks. And then next year's Colts team is about to be the best one ever. I don't know if you know that. Best one.

[Darius Butler]

Well, you're not gonna see it because you don't have any tickets.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll watch. I'll be excited to watch. From home. Yeah. Got Siki could buy the tickets if I'd like to, but also watch it from home's not bad.

[Gumpy]

Not bad at all.

[Pat McAfee]

Not bad either, you know, especially I saw a stat.

[Darius Butler]

Is this stat correct? I don't know if this stat's correct. I just saw a stat. You never know on X.

[Pat McAfee]

True.

[Darius Butler]

Since the last time the Colts have won the AFC South.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Darius Butler]

Every other team in the division has won it twice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

At least that is true. Yeah, that's correct.

[Pat McAfee]

Titans and Jaguars.

[AJ Hawk]

That's rude.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

No way. The Jags have won Portals. Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Darius Butler]

The Jags have won twice since the last time you guys won it. I. I couldn't believe it. I had the stat check.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep. It's real.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you didn't fact check it. That's why you said, I don't know. And you just. You just wanted to present.

[Darius Butler]

I came to the show that does the best fact checking on the planet.

[Ty Schmidt]

Amen.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Nobody gives us enough credit for that. That. Yeah. Hashtag stat. That. Yeah, it's not great. Okay. But I know.

[Darius Butler]

What's the reaction been? What has there been reaction from inside the building, inside the city? Seems like a lot of Support on your side.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'd say there's a lot of support in the building as well. Feels like there's been a lot of support. Ex players that have been in the building, a lot of support. Ex players that have never been in this particular building. A lot of support. Feels like there's been a lot of support. And then there is obviously a lot of people that are, you know, not a lot, but there is people that exist that aren't happy about what I said, you know, like I should be supportive. Like that's what they need, you know, because especially what Coach Saban's saying. It's like I have been, I feel like I have been, you know, I've made fun of the Houston Texans so many times. Right to this guy's face. Remember we were showing fake pictures of their stadium? Yeah, Exactly. Boom, open. 20 of them had 14 of these bobbleheads. I mean, just done it all. Every week I picked the Colts, every fucking week I picked the Colts. I've been all in. I've been supportive. Hey, listen, they'll figure it out, they'll do this, they'll do that, they'll do that. All the while noticing a lot of things that in my head as somebody, I view football differently than a lot of people. I think I'm a big humans guy. I want to know the humans that are playing guy. Just because I've been very lucky with my small job that I had as a punishment to be in buildings, you know, and seeing what type of works and what type of clearly does it. We're almost completely dove feeded. One year we could have been completely undefeated. One year I've had the opportunity to kind of see it. So whenever there's just like red flags popping up like shite franchises do that, shite franchises do that. That's crop right there. That is more crop right there. All the while supporting it. And it's like inevitably whenever it all kind of kabooms. It's like the tea leaves were there the entire time. That this is a crap organization. What's going on right now, this locker room, most crap. I think now building certainly we got some problems, but this Frank Reich, I mean you go, I don't know how the fuck we got here. I think is like my biggest takeaway. Like, how is this? Because they've paid everybody at a lot of pillar positions. There's talent, talent all across the board on the Indianapolis Colts, high end guys, you know, across the board. And for one reason or nothing, it's just expected that they're going to lose good to good teams just expected. And then like the way they go about it and the things that happen there, it's like, I don't think it represents the state of Indiana or Indianapolis or Colts fans at all, the way they play either. And they've never won in the way they act. It's like, yeah, I just couldn't take it anymore. Yeah, I just couldn't. Fuck. Yeah. Here's your popcorn. Hope you're happy, Jake. I could take it as anymore. I couldn't take it anymore. But there's.

[Bill Belichick]

I hear you.

[Darius Butler]

No, you support him for a long time.

[Pat McAfee]

You did.

[Darius Butler]

Like I, I through tough times through. I think you support him for a long time. I think you had the. Early in the year, you had the little. Where we all saw the. Okay, that's. That's something there. That's what he actually feels. But you bounce right back.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa, what are you talking about? You're talking about that. You're talking.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, we. You let us into the, you let us into the brain and then you took us back out. You said, no, I support them. I will support them. And then it didn't. You gave them the second shot and they didn't, they didn't do it. So here we are. Which you're not. I don't think anybody's really disagreeing with what you're saying. I think there's obviously, like, when you just look at the stats and you look at the reality of the situation, it is what it is on paper. You literally can look at it and see this has not worked out. Whatever you have tried, whatever it has been, it's simply has not worked. So you have to find a different path. If you, if you're an organization like the Indianapolis Colts, who has obviously been a great organization, who is in this division, who this division has been bouncing a little bit all over the place, but it's not, I wouldn't say it's been considered one of the toughest divisions in football over time.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Darius Butler]

And you haven't won it when everybody else has won it twice. And there's a couple teams in there or at least one team in there that's had the number one draft pick multiple times in that same time span, and they found a way to win it twice, at least. Like, you have to do something different. And I'm very curious and very excited to see what happens in this off season because I, I also imagine there's probably some people pushing back, being like, okay, well, we also don't want to Just give in and seem like Pat McAfee is running this entire show. But you've said a lot of things that a lot of people need to hear.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, there's other people saying things that I'm saying, too. It's not just Pat McAfee.

[Darius Butler]

You're the only one. You're the only one.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. There's a lot of people that have said this entire thing, but that's what I. The situation is. Anthony Richardson will be, entering his third year, 2.25 seasons completed. If he was to play well, it depends on how many games he misses next year, but he's entering his third year. Shane Steichen, what if you move on from.

[Darius Butler]

Is it a landing spot for Rogers? Kind of, you know, all right, he said he's.

[J.J. Watt]

He's open to mentoring someone.

[Pat McAfee]

He said he would take a pay cut, got to Dementor and whole. The whole song and dance. But it's like, Chris Ballard's been here for what, eight years or something like that. And he's good dude. Like, I think we all appreciate him, like, as a human. He is. He's very nice. He's good in the community, too, I think, which we're not even going to talk about the locker room and an award for a player going to a mascot. Like, we're not even going to get into that. But, like, if Chris Ballard was to stay and then Steichen's to stay, so then everything's staying the same. They're just saying one more year. We're gonna do this one more year and see how it goes. It's like, okay, that's possible. I think that's very possible. If he moves on or they move on from Ballard, then Steichen's lame duck coach, just like Chuck was whenever they moved on from Grigson for Chris Ballard. And then what happens with Anthony Richardson is what. So I don't know. I assume the right move is they are going to continue with the same batch. And it's going to be some uncomfortable days for me if we happen to be at events, which I don't go to, but let's say I go to one and there's an event where a bunch of Colts players are. But it turns sounds like they don't go out in the community anyway, so maybe it's not.

[Darius Butler]

You got to give me the mascot thing. What's. What's the mascot thing?

[Pat McAfee]

You know, the Salute to Service award?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Blue won it this year. All right. Okay. All right. There's no reason.

[J.J. Watt]

Who votes on that?

[Darius Butler]

You got to be. There is no way.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's no. There is no.

[Pat McAfee]

Blue is a great mascot. Gives back to the community. Blue should be up for the Walt bait man of the year if we're gonna put him up. He might be, yeah. I mean, who knows? But yeah, he wanted salute to service award. So it's like you can't. Nobody even in there is worthy of giving. Like, what are we doing?

[AJ Hawk]

We got hope though.

[Pat McAfee]

We got just be kind of likable.

[AJ Hawk]

Remember how much of a show the Houston Texans were?

[Pat McAfee]

No dumpster fire.

[AJ Hawk]

And look at back to back playoff appearance. We got hope.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ars like Stroud. I like that.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm just saying we got hope going forward.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, what are you saying? What is the forward.

[AJ Hawk]

You gotta. I think, look, you keep talking about good guys and all this. I don't care if somebody's a good guy. Like, you gotta get done. You gotta get the job done. Yeah, you want to be a good human, but like if you're leading off of, hey, this person's a good guy, like, look, wholesale changes, you got to start from the top and mindset, that's what you have to to do. But you got to go back to the drawing board like that yesterday, dude. And that was just a culmination of kind of what has been. You know how people say, hey, it doesn't show up till it show up. Actually yesterday when you're lurking and you go up into.

[Pat McAfee]

We were lurking J. But how bad this.

[AJ Hawk]

We were lurking that drew lock put 45 on you. Like, I mean that like that's.

[Pat McAfee]

Now Drew Lock might be where he's supposed to be.

[Gumpy]

Giants. Giants were a tea kettle. They were just waiting to exploit.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly like Billy O'Brien. That's what the Giants were Te kettle Giants is what everybody was saying. They were steaming, whistling, boom. Colts need this one. Must win. The Colts, you know, and must win.

[Darius Butler]

No, I mean that offense that you guys faced had been high, high powered all year long. Everybody saw it. So you know, it was, it was. No, nobody can blame you for giving that up to that. But I think there are like I'm with debut though. I hear what you're saying, D. But like sometimes you got to have. Have some just pure dogs. Like this is at the end of the day, a violent, tough, physical game. Sometimes you just got to have a dog that's going to grab somebody by the face mask and say, hey, this is what we're going to do today and this is who we're going to be.

[Pat McAfee]

That's football. Yeah, that's football, we need that, you know, and it's like, that's why every time I say like Zier is probably going to be all pro. This guy, the amount of tackles he had, he's phenomenal football player Zaire Franklin. But it's like all this shit is happening in his locker room too, you know, I don't expect him to be like, vote. Not everybody's like a vocal leader, but at some point when you're constructing a team, you need somebody who is some sort of leader. Like, you know, like Ryan Kelly. I'm. I love Ryan Kelly, like Ryan Kelly the center. But I think Ryan Kelly's like vocal. Like when you're constructing a team, you need somebody or some people you would hope in each room room you would have somebody. But it's like, it just feels like it's just the culture's crop. Like nobody really.

[Darius Butler]

It's tough, man. I mean, I've obviously like, I can't sit here and act like I haven't been on a 2 and 14 team before. Like I know what that likes. It. It is, it is, man. And you're right, it just takes a little groundswell. It takes. But sometimes there are other bigger factors at play that you do need a full blown culture shift. Because if you're, if you're in that locker room and you're trying to change a culture but nobody above you is supporting it, it's you're just, like you said, you're a lame duck so you could be in that lock, brother. And everybody's like, why would I listen to this when it's clearly being allowed at this level, at this level, at this level, like there's it's, it has to be a full blown organizational push to change an entire culture and everybody has to be on the same page and everybody has to stick to that. And it's very difficult to do when there's so many people in one place.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, to your point about the people above you kind of run against you. It's like once you set precedent too, it's over. Like if you set precedent with anything, it's over. And if it's not good, you can't just like get that back. That's not something you can just put the toothpaste back into the tube once something happens, you know, and I'm not pointing directly at one contract holdout, but it did happen at the very beginning of a guy's career in a brand new culture in a very lat loud way after. It's just like I I don't think Anthony Richardson had a shot in like knowing how to be a pro. I don't think he had a chance, you know, college. He didn't play much, didn't win much, but it was like potentials there. Then he goes into the Colts building and it's like best player on team, holding out, wearing hoodie, two and a half weeks potting around to start this entire thing. That's how the NFL is now, he thinks. Right. It's just, there's no real. And then once you just start steamrolling that thing and there's been six years of that kind of before it. It's easy for young guys just to catch in and be like, oh, this is how this shit goes. And then it's just, just never ends. Like, I don't know how you, I legitimately don't know how you stop that thing and be like, not anymore. Nope. I don't know. I legitimately don't know how it stopped.

[Darius Butler]

Get luck on, get luck on the horn. Just get Luck on the horn. See, See what that manager job pays. Yeah, yeah, just get him back out there.

[Pat McAfee]

That would be great actually.

[Gumpy]

That goes back to like what you asked Shetty in the first hour. It's like ultimately like who's making the decisions? Because like Ursay is there, but if he's not making the decisions, then you just have like a void of leadership at the top. And you would think after hearing that stat about how every other team in the division has won two division titles in the last 10 years and you haven't won any, like most owners would be like, all right, this is unacceptable. Like we need to make a change. But that's not happening. So like if you do just go status quo and just run everything back next year. Like we saw the way the, the fans were today. Like, I mean, dude, like the overreaction tweets, like, guess what? Not as many people are going to be showing up bright eyed, bushy tailed to go to Colts games.

[Pat McAfee]

Colts are good. The Colts are such. We, we need to win. We just need to win. They just need to win.

[Darius Butler]

It's also like you guys have like, if you're sitting there looking at it, you're like, okay, we've. What are our different options? Okay, we tried Rivers, Ryan, Flacco. We also drafted the young guy early. We tried the young guy early. So we've tried the young rookie, we've tried the old vets who have been like, you're in. It's, it's a tough, it's a tough spot to be in.

[Ty Schmidt]

Middle of the pack. Dan Jones.

[Pat McAfee]

Have we tried it?

[Darius Butler]

We try to. We try to hide quality coordinator from a place. We tried. A guy that's never coached in his life. We've tried. We've tried all Saturday.

[Pat McAfee]

Was brought in to try to bring a little accountability back in the building. Okay. He. He was.

[Darius Butler]

I'm just saying. I. I'm sure they're looking at it like, all right, we're attacking it from all these angles. None of these ones work. What's the next angle that we're going to try? It's. I mean, the Texans we were in. We were in a tough spot, obviously.

[Ty Schmidt]

For the last two years.

[Pat McAfee]

We're not taking a year off next year.

[Ty Schmidt]

The culture on your schedule. Guess so.

[Pat McAfee]

We're out.

[Ty Schmidt]

We're going to take one year.

[Pat McAfee]

We're gonna breather.

[Ty Schmidt]

We're gonna completely just wash this thing dry. And then we're going to figure out where our future is. And also. Fire sale. You want one of our players? It's like a yard sale. You come on over, we kind of barter a little bit. And then you can leave with them.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Because in college you can have 60 guys hit the portal. Right? And you can really turn over. Oh, yeah, you can really. I don't know if it works like that with the NFL until now. I heard Peters over there in Washington. Bill just said he signed 20 free agents. They try to turn that thing over. 20s. That's less than half. Half in college. They can sign 80 new guys they hate. I hate this place. All of you gone. Bringing in a whole new roster. NFL. You can't do that.

[AJ Hawk]

Bill might do it this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Unc.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. After that fin wheel bow lacking.

[Pat McAfee]

He didn't like it.

[AJ Hawk]

He didn't like it.

[Pat McAfee]

Boston College just beat the hell out of them.

[AJ Hawk]

No, that's.

[Gumpy]

Now they were in the. I've been. They were on the bad boy mowers Pinstripe bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

Who. Who was? It was.

[Darius Butler]

That was Yukon. Yukon.

[AJ Hawk]

Jim Morris. New Hampshire Husky. Yukonwa.

[Pat McAfee]

I knew it was a New England school's up there.

[J.J. Watt]

Yukon's legit, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Damn right, legit. Well, Moore actually said.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, he's pissed.

[Pat McAfee]

We see you and we don't like it. That's when he came out and said, you're poaching our guys. I know who you are and I don't like it. Not one bit. Jim Morris said, it's a wild time. We do know who you are. Think hard before you tamper with our players. Says Yukon's Head coach Jim Moore fresh.

[AJ Hawk]

Off of 9 and 4 season.

[Darius Butler]

Nice wasabi Bowl.

[Gumpy]

Brett Fenway Wasabi.

[Ty Schmidt]

What does he mean? Is it the Fenway Wasabi bowl played at Fenway College.

[Gumpy]

Played in the bad boy lawnmower pinstripe in New York.

[Pat McAfee]

That was the one I saw in. Matt Rule gave a great post game interview after that win. Still wearing full jacket because it was cold as shit.

[Gumpy]

They almost came to blows though, those two teams.

[Boston Connor]

Yes.

[Gumpy]

Dylan Rayola took a late hit and.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I saw that the boys got his back.

[Boston Connor]

Was that the ref with the gash?

[Pat McAfee]

No, that was North. That was East Carolina and oh yeah. Yeah.

[Gumpy]

NC State.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. NC State boys got passion over there. So a little rivalry and ref try to ref got caught up in the middle of that season.

[AJ Hawk]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, listen, boss, boss, boss, boss. I said shut up. I don't like that that happened. Obviously we need our officials to remain healthy and everything. But the boys came, came out with some emotion and started fight for that Carolina. There was some booms.

[AJ Hawk]

Well still care. I like it.

[Pat McAfee]

No, not all of them. I think it's pretty.

[Boston Connor]

A lot of. A lot of it's been.

[Pat McAfee]

Good ball. Yeah, good ball. Cam Ward only played a half though. So kick him out.

[Bill Belichick]

Quit on his team. It'll be a second rounder now for sure.

[Ty Schmidt]

Guy doesn't like pop team.

[Boston Connor]

Had no idea that was going to happen.

[Pat McAfee]

How about. Who was it? Daniel Jeremiah got back to his phone. I've been busy with the family all day, so I haven't caught up with all. All this chatter. NFL teams will not give a fuck about not playing. That was basically what Daniel Jeremiah said. College football is ramping up right now, J. Ramping up right now. These playoffs, you know, first round, kind of a little bit of a chalk. A lot of good teams.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Beat a lot of not so good teams. We got some big ones here tomorrow night and then Wednesday.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, no first round. I agree. But also like that. That's the teams that were supposed to win one. And that's just the way it goes sometimes. Sometimes the NFL playoffs aren't great. Whatever. This is going to be a lot of fun. Very much looking forward to this. Jealous of you guys. Out the Rose Bowl. One of the best, greatest settings of all time. And this game is insane. This. This is going to be a lot of fun to watch.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, before we let you go, we have to ask you about the most valuable player and the most best player. Also all your other awards that are potentially something you care about. Ties.

[Bill Belichick]

No ties. No ties.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know what you're talking about.

[Bill Belichick]

You're not allowed to say it's a tie. It's a cop out. You can't do it.

[Pat McAfee]

So the most best player is the offense player of the year or defense player of the year.

[Gumpy]

Could be.

[Pat McAfee]

They could sneak in there. They could be the mvp. The MVP is valuable, which is why quarterbacks normally. Because quarterbacks are the most valuable part.

[AJ Hawk]

Got it.

[Pat McAfee]

That was explained by an email from. From the ap.

[Boston Connor]

That was not.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Boston Connor]

That was not. That was. That was just Ocho, who you know is.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you a peer of yours here.

[Boston Connor]

In mine, I'm starting to think that maybe no one votes except for Acho and we just say, hey, we put him in charge.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it sounds like he's a little jealous.

[Boston Connor]

He just understands the rules better than everyone else.

[Ty Schmidt]

AP stands for Ocho's picks.

[Bill Belichick]

Oh, boom.

[Pat McAfee]

It should be. Maybe with the way Tone's reacting right now.

[Mike Tomlin]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Tony knows that there's a chance. How many voters is there now? That could go down to one quickly, especially with the way things are going. I appreciate the way Acho has been explaining these awards, but can you give us your watch list for the MVP and then the 2Mbps?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah. So how it works out is you vote for five. So for all these, I put up five on the watch list for the MVP here. We're looking at it here. Josh, Lamar, Joe Saquon and Sam Darnold round out my top five. A lot of people think this is a two person race. And you know, it depends on the eye of the voter, the eye of the beholder, on what you think valuable is. Because a lot of people can define valuable in different ways. Last year the voters defined valuable as most wins because Lamar did not have the best stats, but he did have the best record at 14 2. He also had great stats. Don't get me wrong, but Dak and Josh Allen had better stats last year and you look at it this year, Lamar, Joe Burrow have better stats than Josh Allen. But Josh Allen has.

[J.J. Watt]

Are.

[Boston Connor]

Is he doing it with less People say, I don't know. That's up for people to decide. And then Saquon 2000 yards. Unbelievable what Sam Darnold's done. Coming off like there's a lot of.

[Pat McAfee]

Stuff that could happen. Let's talk about the Josh Allen stuff a little bit because what you just talked about is last year, Lamar won. Stats were good, but best team. He was best player and most valuable player for the best team, Josh Allen. Now the Bill is best team in this particular conversation because there's no Chiefs up for the mvp. But his stats aren't as good. Why? Why are his stats phenomenal? He didn't play fourth quarter this past. Right?

[Boston Connor]

I mean, the stats are still phenomenal. Like last year, Lamar had 29 touchdowns, seven interceptions. Lamar or Josh Allen had 44 touchdowns last year. So he had clearly had a lot more touchdowns this year. Lamar has 43 touchdowns to four interceptions. Josh has 40 touchdowns to six interceptions. Joe has 44 touchdowns to eight interceptions. They're all absurd. They're like this year, the stats, they all have absurd stats. So it's. It depends on how you look at it.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, I'm happy. I'm not a voter. JJ let's say you were a voter. Are you a voter? J.

[Darius Butler]

No, thankfully, I'm very happy. I'm not.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you think it should be viewed and what are your thoughts on this year's race?

[Darius Butler]

I mean, obviously this goes back a ways for me. I'm a believer that no player on the field is more valuable than the quarterback. So I agree that MVP is always and should be a quarterback. Award board. If we're truly going off valuable, and I also look at the word valuable in that. Like it's. If you took that player off of their team, which one is going to drop off the most? In my opinion, like in going stat by stat in, in this category especially is tough because there's other things that come into play because if you're behind in games and you're throwing, you're definitely always like Joe Burrow is and having an unbelievable year, an insane year, rightfully so, is in this conversation. But when you're also behind in games and chasing, your numbers are going to be way, way higher. So it's, it's a really tough one. Like, if you take Saquon off the Eagles, how far are they dropping if you take Josh off? Dude, this, this is insane. Like, I also agree with what Tony said this weekend. I don't like not, not the tie part, but I do agree that voters get fatigue. We've seen it in other sports. MVPs. We've seen it in. It could be where they're like, all right, we maybe gave it to him last year, but we're not going to give it to him again this year. Or he already has two, so let's give it to somebody else. Like that absolutely does happen and it shouldn't. And I also think, last thing, sorry. Is I think there's a lot of people that have Already either written it down on their sheet or at minimum made up their mind even before Christmas. I think there's a lot of voters that put.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't do that, that put their stuff down and it's.

[AJ Hawk]

I just saw people saying race is over like two weeks ago.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, who said that?

[AJ Hawk]

People?

[Boston Connor]

Nope.

[Ty Schmidt]

Who's that?

[AJ Hawk]

Does he have a vote?

[Boston Connor]

It was Dan Orlovsky.

[Bill Belichick]

No, he apologized. He apologized this morning. He said he was sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

He said he was sorry.

[Bill Belichick]

He legit. I'm sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm sorry.

[Bill Belichick]

Legit.

[Pat McAfee]

He was sorry, though.

[Bill Belichick]

I mean, he's been right about everything else this weekend besides that. But he was sorry about saying that.

[Pat McAfee]

Did have a hot, hot weekend on the X.

[Bill Belichick]

He always does. He. He never brings up how Mac Jones would have won all those super bowls with the 49.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about? I don't know.

[Bill Belichick]

I never see him talk about that one.

[Pat McAfee]

Dana is having a nice little Monday right now. There's no reason to do this.

[Ty Schmidt]

Matt's spinning it in Jacksonville right now.

[Pat McAfee]

To their detriment.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don't look now.

[Pat McAfee]

To their detriment.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're going to hate him forever.

[AJ Hawk]

He did call us. Sam Darnold. He was on an island with that one. He spoke very highly of Sam Darnold in Minnesota this year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Shut up, Bunch.

[AJ Hawk]

That's my guy.

[Pat McAfee]

As well.

[Darius Butler]

That's the most fascinating off season situation that I'm looking at. Like that. That one's crazy, man.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think happens? What do you think happens?

[Darius Butler]

I mean, in my opinion, you have to at minimum franchise and try and hold on. Like, you can't take a guy that's going 14, 2, possibly number one overall.

[Pat McAfee]

Season and I don't think they can. Franchise, I assume.

[Darius Butler]

No, no.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know.

[Darius Butler]

I asked somebody, I asked somebody that rule and they said they could.

[Pat McAfee]

So. Well, maybe. I, I legitimately, I think it's all dependent upon how it's negotiated.

[J.J. Watt]

Well, it's 40.

[Darius Butler]

It's 40. 43 million is the number anyway. So if you're going to pay him, like I think you have to try and run it back. This. It is way too damn hard to find a quarterback that fits what you want to do that can be successful in this league. I think you have to try and hold on to that guy. It's proven successful. I would much rather burn the hand versus two in the bush. If JJ McCarthy comes in and he makes you, forces you to make a change and you overspent, fine. But you can't. Like you could have the number One seed right here in a first round buy. You're telling me you don't want to run that back even if like I don't know. That's tough, man.

[Pat McAfee]

A bird in hand as opposed to two in the bush. Potential get your ass fired. What JJ Wachus said right there. Hey, we know it's possible if JJ is able to just pick it up as quick as possible. Or maybe we find another guy that's been around the block a few times, sign him to a one year deal, run it back. Because Kevin O'Connell can draw a place for anybody. Justin Jefferson can catch the Rock from anybody. Addison's a weapon. TJ's obviously a monster. Is B Flow going to be a head coach somewhere?

[Gumpy]

Oh, potentially it could be.

[Pat McAfee]

You would think because 43 million is franchise tag for a quarterback. That's. These are your stats. You just said that. I don't have. We found out at Santa Darnold, so.

[Boston Connor]

I just looked it up. Albert Beer wrote a article article on the 27th and the title was for Vikings and Sam Darnold. The franchise tag makes sense.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so if it is possible, 43 million would be a win. You would think with how Sam Donald has played thus far. Because you said I wonder.

[Darius Butler]

I had the same question you had. Like I don't. I was like a one year deal. I'm not sure that you can. I asked somebody and they said you could but I. It does feel strange, doesn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, especially you should be able to negotiate that out of your deal. I think if you're signing. Because this is what like his third deal deal he'd be signing. Right. Because the Carolina end up being a. Yeah, he got.

[Gumpy]

I mean it was like two years, 20 million or something.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Gumpy]

I think it's very pretty similar to the one he signed with the Vikings and then nine.

[Darius Butler]

You have to figure there's also not a lot of one year deals that they think the franchise tag is ever going to come into play. Because why would you be on a one year deal if you could potentially be making 43 the next year?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you can negotiate the tag out of your deal though, I think. Right. Because you can get trade. You can negotiate trade out.

[Bill Belichick]

You can negotiate it out like Dak.

[Pat McAfee]

Did it, Brady did it. But I think you got to have the leverage like they had where they were putting up massive numbers and so 10 million bucks plus we get a franchise tag option. Because if they have one franchise tag option, it actually means do they get two franchise tag options on a one year Deal.

[Darius Butler]

Oh yeah, you would have to imagine. Right.

[Pat McAfee]

So wild. So then that's an increase of what, 20% from your previous year.

[Darius Butler]

I'm spewing a lot of things. I don't know a lot about it.

[Pat McAfee]

So that'd be like 50 million. It'd be 43 million.

[Boston Connor]

There's a headline.

[Pat McAfee]

50 million. Ish. The next year he. So he would technically sign a three year, $103 million deal is what these three years would be if he was to do the math.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm surprised 43 is a number with.

[Pat McAfee]

Feels like. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

What is it? Average of the top five or.

[Pat McAfee]

No salaries. Not the bonuses though. I think it's just top five salaries. At the position of the last five years. I believe they might have changed it over. I got franchise tag. So, you know, a lot of kicker bonuses take place. Those aren't in it, conveniently enough, you know, not a lot of. Yeah, just salaries. The punters and kickers. This is what you're gonna make. 2.4 million. Deal to kick a ball. I will sign that. Shouldn't have signed it that quick, I guess. Okay, everybody else holds out a little bit. I didn't know that. I heard I was gonna become a millionaire. Guaranteed. I signed it, went to Canada, celebrated, then found out. Wow, this guy's grossly underpaid. That was me. And then that's kind of the franchise tag in a nutshell. Kirk Cousins used it to his advantage whenever he was with Washington.

[Gumpy]

At the time it was the Redskins at the time.

[Pat McAfee]

That is.

[Boston Connor]

That's journalism.

[Pat McAfee]

That is correct.

[Darius Butler]

He is the franchise tag king. Absolutely. Crushed it.

[Pat McAfee]

Crushed it. And Venatori also, I think got franchise tag like three years straight up and doing England, then they had to change the rule. He could only do it two times. But if a one year deal could become a three year deal with two franchise tags, that feels. That feels weird, doesn't it?

[Darius Butler]

I. I think I'm gonna go back to my phone and there's gonna be somebody explaining to me that either I'm an idiot or. Yeah, it is weird.

[Ty Schmidt]

Probably never happened before.

[Darius Butler]

I think you have to. Either way, no matter what it is.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm FaceTiming a general manager right now randomly. Let's see if they answer her. Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

It'd probably be the first time ever player on a one year deal got attack.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're live. We're live. We're live. We're live. We're live. Hey.

[Darius Butler]

This is exciting.

[J.J. Watt]

Would Sam be a free agent after the season? Could other teams make offers?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, that's the, that's the other thing is like there's no way the Vikings will pay him rates in the end of.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Though.

[J.J. Watt]

I mean like anybody.

[Darius Butler]

Someone's gonna give a billion dollars. Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

They'll get him a massive deal when. When multiple teams are bidding for him.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. I feel like it would be talked about more.

[J.J. Watt]

Weird spot. You're right, J.J. weird spot.

[Darius Butler]

Has to be the first time ever that somebody won your deal. Franchise take.

[J.J. Watt]

Who are you talking to? Both of you guys pointing at me. Oh, you're pointing. Vamp. You know that you heard vamp. J. Did you ever hear that in the broadcast? Means just talking like. I'm like, why do you.

[Darius Butler]

Let's just, just tell me.

[Pat McAfee]

So everything you just said. Franchise tag is possible. Obviously this is an abnormal situation. The second year franchise tag is 20% more than what that year is. And there are some contracts that have no franchise tag clauses in them. But obviously that's a part of the negotiation up in the front end of that. That person also said would be wild if a one year deal became a three year deal with two franchise tags in the entire thing. I don't think they've ever seen that point. So.

[Darius Butler]

But I'd franchise them if I, if I can spend $43 million to possibly get the number one seat again. No doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

And what else do you do? What else do you do, J?

[Darius Butler]

What do we do?

[Pat McAfee]

You punt that decision to next year. That's right. You don't even have to make it. Oh, yeah, yeah. Just let's go ahead and take that thing the next year. We'll see you then. 43 million. That's good deal. Fully guaranteed deal. Had fun here, right? Probably could get 50 on the market somewhere. But take a 7 million dollar hit here for guarantee, we have a good time and then we'll see where we are next year and then maybe, you know, we can learn more about jj. That's the move, JH Yeah. That's the move. Yep.

[Darius Butler]

It does make for a tough off season. There's no doubt. Because J.J. mcCarthy is going to be healthy and he's going to be out there spinning it and people are going to say, I mean that's throwing love. I don't, I don't think you. I don't think it matters. I think you take the guy that took you to whatever it is, if they do end up getting the one seed and that is your guy. Especially when you look at that locker room, the way that they're celebrating, the way that they love him right now. It's also give just an insane amount of credit to Kevin O'Connell. Like, the guy clearly knows what he's doing. Also, let's talk about how coaching matters more than just about anything. Coaches. It's one of the things that I asked Mike Tomlin in our production meeting before the Christmas game was if you were hiring a head coach in today's atmosphere, would you be. Would you offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, CEO type? And he was like, in today's world, has to be an offensive mind. Has to be a guy that's an offensive mind because the quarterback's the most. So it was really. That was a really interesting take from a notoriously defensive guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow, that's a big piece of information, right? Especially cuz I thought it was coming back to Culture center being the head coach. That's why I thought it was kind of swinging in that direction. Because I think there's a couple places that are like, if Rabel's available, let's make sure we give Rabel in here, because he will.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Boy, does that piss me off.

[Pat McAfee]

Why does that piss you off? J.J. walker, this is you all.

[Boston Connor]

No, no, no. What do you say? Quarterback's the most. We had Matt Canada hanging around for three years. That was the guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you are.

[Darius Butler]

You are hot.

[Pat McAfee]

Son of a.

[Darius Butler]

What do you. What did you just wipe off with a Dude, wipe notes?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, notes.

[Boston Connor]

See the ball throw Kenny yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that, buddy?

[Boston Connor]

See the ball throw Kenny Pick it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yesterday.

[Bill Belichick]

Yeah, I've been waiting.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw that. See, dude, that's what you wrote down there. That's what you wrote down pretty good. It did. Took him for a walk, did it, though. Oh, my God. That was the note you put down.

[Darius Butler]

You got the other angle, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Which, yeah, of course there is no other angle.

[Darius Butler]

That's the only angle.

[Pat McAfee]

Of course we got the other angle, dude.

[Darius Butler]

Cuz I got thrown for a loop there. I sent it to my buddy, like my brother brothers, and I was like, dude, this is crazy. What the hell happened? And like, it was the perfect flag. It's around the world before the whatever truth gets his pants on. And I saw the owners like, oh, I'm an idiot.

[Pat McAfee]

What other angle? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? There's another angle.

[Darius Butler]

I feel bad.

[Pat McAfee]

I've been.

[Darius Butler]

I've been on that, man. I know what that feels like. That's the worst. When, like, you just. There's times where you look like an idiot and you don't have to look like an idiot.

[Pat McAfee]

It's football.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's county picket football trying to make a point.

[Pat McAfee]

He's been spinning over there. Yes. McKee comes in, spins it. He was spinning.

[Ty Schmidt]

They tush pushed him.

[Bill Belichick]

It's almost like anyone can spin it.

[Pat McAfee]

A little bit too high. What's that?

[Bill Belichick]

It's almost like anyone could spin it over there.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about? In Philadelphia. Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

Tanner McKee comes in ice cold, just tosses two tutty snacks.

[Pat McAfee]

No problem. McKee, we know.

[Gumpy]

I'm worried about potentially seeing him round.

[Pat McAfee]

One of the play else. McKe. Yeah. Well, I love that Big Dom got his football back. Cuz I heard McKe potentially wasn't going to be able to sleep at night if he didn't get his football back. AJ Brown, hell of a throw too. I mean, like to his credit. Yep. Sees it, eyes it. That guy launches that thing. I mean, that was. Hey, that was the guy's first ever touchdown. Oh, no, no. Oh no. Oh no.

[Darius Butler]

Took a lot of time to think about the throw too. It wasn't an immediate punt into the stands. He took a couple seconds, he had a couple moments to think and still yucked it up there.

[Pat McAfee]

Big Dom says, hey, bud. Yeah. He gets you a Jersey. Okay. We'll get it after the game. Can't get it right now. Need that ball back now, though. Okay. Need you to give me that ball back. Yep, yep, yep. We got you. We got you. No big problem here. Love that. Big Dom is the guy that's negotiating with the fan. Big Dom is obviously consultant to ownership, general manager. He's a sideline, obviously executor. Anybody gets on the sideline, he's going to deal with it. And then also he is a fan negotiator for situations that could occur. Remember Tom Brady, Mike Evans had a similar situation down in Tampa. Became a big to do. McKee's first touchdown, we assume is it could become a multimillion dollar ball. But you never know. Never know, never know with what McKee's going to go. And instead AJ Brown signs a jersey for him. Nobody tries to steal it. Shout to Philly. Getting it right here. It seems like Philly. Philly does it right here. Yeah. Way to go, Philly.

[Ty Schmidt]

Absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

There you go. Nobody ever says that about Philly. No. This type of situation, as soon as A.J. brown tosses that shirt, this is what people would say about Philly. Not us, obviously. Choose. That thing's in the air. Somebody takes out pocket knife, snatch in half, rips that thing, sprints for the exit. Other person has it. Whoa, what's the. Shut up, punk. Jackson off his. See, he's out of it.

[Boston Connor]

Finds its way in there.

[Pat McAfee]

Somehow somebody does step on poop, a human's poop on the way out of there. That's what people say about Philly.

[Boston Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think it's right, because obviously they handled that with the most amount of chivalry I think that you could possibly have. Shout out to Philadelphia.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you.

[Darius Butler]

We almost made it. We almost made it. I thought maybe on a Monday we wouldn't have any feces discussion. I thought that was a Wednesday only. And here we are again. Here we are.

[Pat McAfee]

Philly. Philadelphia. Philadelphia. Somebody, some john over there, ate a horse poop after a Super Bowl.

[J.J. Watt]

That on film. Is that on? Do we have footage of that?

[Darius Butler]

That can't be real.

[Pat McAfee]

It didn't come out of a. A cup. But it was a poop.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, Right up the street.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it was poop. Was poop. One of these. Like we know when a Pope kisses the ground, it was like that. Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

Same thing, pretty much, huh? Same thing.

[Pat McAfee]

I wonder if pope ever was forced to kiss the ground. Had a little poop on, a little turd on it. Something like that. Oh, and I wonder if he goes. No, not today.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't.

[Darius Butler]

I don't have the story here. Somebody filmed it in. What? What the hell are you talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

So the Pope kisses the ground. I think that's one of the popes.

[Darius Butler]

No, I know that. I know that. I'm talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. What are you talking about? You talking about after the Super Bowl? Philadelphia, whenever they won a Super bowl, they had to grease the polls, remember? Because they didn't want people. No.

[Darius Butler]

Who ate. Who ate horse poop.

[Pat McAfee]

Some john over there off the ground, like the Pope.

[Ty Schmidt]

Super fan.

[Pat McAfee]

Some John. Some Philadelphia Eagles fan ate because came out and said that they would do it if the Eagles won a Super Bowl. And then, lo and behold, the dogs are barking. Hold up. Wait a minute. They do it and then they have to eat the poop off the ground? That's Philadelphia Eagles football. I mean, that's the way those Philadelphians are. They will support their team till death. But if you stink at all or give any indication that you stink, it's over. Yeah, it is over. They got high expectations over there for good reasons. I love the way they handle sandal different than Indy. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, if any of this that happened in Indy was to happen in, I don't know, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New England, anywhere. You name it. Like, this wouldn't have, you know, I'm with you, man.

[Darius Butler]

I'm. I'm with you. I came from that era where, like, if you stunk or you lost and you even did an interview the following week, or, like, you were roasted, if you posted on Twitter or Instagram, it was over. Like, your fans would destroy you, much less, like, now. It's. It's a podcast. It's everything. Like it.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, I'm.

[Pat McAfee]

Do what you got to do. Build your brand. I understand. You got to build your brand. Do what you have to do, do your business. Think about your next job at your current job. That's smart. I did it. Listen, who would I be to say that? But it's just, like, the way they handle everything. It's like, you guys haven't won nothing. Everybody else in the AFC south has wanted to. Let's a stat. I just learned.

[AJ Hawk]

Crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't need to hear that. Wild. But I'm happy we got in. Now, unless CJ's playing in a Super bowl, obviously, which is possible with Texans, they can get hot. They get Aziz Al Shayer back, which could be a big, you know, momentum swing for that Houston Texans team in the playoffs. He'll stop by, hopefully super bowl radio Row, and then he'll just say something like, hey, can somebody search the last time the Colts have won anything? And it gets pulled up and it's like 10 years. That's when I learned right in C.J. stroud's face. 10 years.

[Ty Schmidt]

11. Just because last year was 10.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I got cool shoes on, though. I won that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

You see that? Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Those are great.

[Pat McAfee]

See that number right there?

[Darius Butler]

I just wanna. Before I. Before we end this, I just want to get a full grasp on the situation. You are moving forward with the exact same scenario into next season if you are in charge of the Colts.

[Pat McAfee]

Me? Yeah, buddy. I already. I've already laid out plans to the boys, and I don't know if we're gonna have enough players to field a team next year for fucking week one with the way I would kind of.

[Darius Butler]

Go coach, gm, all staying the same. What I'm asking. I'm trying to. I wasn't here for that part.

[Ty Schmidt]

Is that what you got from that tweet?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Do some journalism, buddy. All right. Jesus Christ. Snoop around just a little bit, right? Just. Just snoop around just a tiny little bit. J.

[Darius Butler]

All right, well, you said during my segment, you said, I don't think you can change it up because you don't want to change one and not the other.

[Pat McAfee]

I Don't think they will. I said, I don't think they will. I think.

[Darius Butler]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

And by day, we don't even know who's making a. Like, that was my. I.

[J.J. Watt]

That's the thing. Who's in charge?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no. Ash. Maybe John Mellencamp. Maybe. Shit. It might be. We have no idea. Blue. That's why I asked. I said, hey, you, Blue. Salute. Service of war.

[Ty Schmidt]

They might just say, dude, I.

[Darius Butler]

That we said a lot of preposterous things. That is very, very high up there with some of the most preposterous stuff ever said on this show.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you should see when it was announced, nobody really knew what it was because they made the announcement pretty quick. You know, they made it. They kind of, like, snuck it in and out there. But as somebody that is, like, tried to, you know, really give back. This community is a military community. Like, like, just tried my best to be a part of it. And, like, it's kind of just a natural thing. Whenever they announced this year, salute to service award winner is. I was actually, like, kind of pumped to see who it was. And then Blue comes out, blows his nose.

[Gumpy]

Of course he did.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm like, all right. Okay.

[Darius Butler]

Blue is making a mockery of the whole thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

How did that little bit.

[Pat McAfee]

Blue is good.

[Darius Butler]

No, I agree. I agree.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree.

[Darius Butler]

Blue is good.

[AJ Hawk]

That's crazy.

[Darius Butler]

But I'm just saying, like, service military, like, yep, man, that is a little.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bit of a mockery.

[Pat McAfee]

It's not a mockery.

[Ty Schmidt]

Embarrassed them all, but it's tough.

[AJ Hawk]

We fact checked that.

[Boston Connor]

It's true.

[Pat McAfee]

It's true. Wasn't Blue.

[Gumpy]

Staff Sergeant. In the arm.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, J. We appreciate the hell out of you. Okay. Thanks for really coming on today. I hope you enjoyed your popcorn. Okay. Hope you had a blast. It did look really good.

[Darius Butler]

Have a great day. Enjoy Pasadena. That will be awesome, AJ Good luck to your boys. I've sat. I won't see you guys this week. So it's gonna be another 10 days till I see you again. Hopefully, a lot of fun, exciting things happen.

[Pat McAfee]

What a bummer.

[Darius Butler]

See you then.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Darius Butler]

It'll be after. It'll be after Black Monday.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, it will. Yes, it will, J. Who knows what happens that day?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. You're talking about when. All the effort. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

So we'll know what. We'll know what's going on.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. I. I can't wait.

[Darius Butler]

I'll have my popcorn ready.

[Pat McAfee]

Who knows?

[Darius Butler]

Maybe you change the whole world up there. All you. 100%.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Don't Put. Ladies and gentlemen, Jay. Thanks, J. Thanks. Can't wait to see. Happy New Year, J. We'll see you next year. I'll see you next year. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

J.J. y. Oh, back.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, everybody calling you J.J. wah in your life now.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. That was so funny.

[Pat McAfee]

That was good. Hey, I was.

[Darius Butler]

I was good backing up that. Coach Saban saw that. Like, the. When I heard Coach Saban say talk about the skit, I was like, what? Listen, having Coach Saban look at his phone and watch that two minutes. Crack me up.

[Pat McAfee]

We. We showed it to him right before that clip. So what you saw him talking about came immediately after showing him the clip. Clip. We saw his face just like your face is right here on this wall. We saw his face the entire time. He smiled at a couple things, but there wasn't any big pops. I think he was very flustered on where this was headed, you know, like, that was immediately upon getting on the. That was.

[Darius Butler]

He was. He was. I think. I think Shane Gillis just in general got him a little. Like. He's not used to. It was. That was good television. That was good television. He did not like. Like that at all.

[Pat McAfee]

Your commercial was good. Commercial great. That was good commercial.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was fantastic.

[Darius Butler]

It was fun. They did a great job. Went out there to Chester, Pennsylvania. Went out there. It's. It's such a cool setup. And the way that he does it and the way that his crew and staff and everybody is. Just had a lot of fun. Just flew out there real quick, did it. And they. They were hilarious. Great to work with. Shane's obviously hilarious.

[Pat McAfee]

Best commercial of the day for all the Netflix shit. No doubt. You know, they're promoting everything. That's the best commercial of the day. You were a part of it. How'd you feel on the book booth? I thought you did good.

[Darius Butler]

Thank you. I. I appreciate it. I love the booth. I. I really enjoyed it. You get the adrenaline, you get the stadium atmosphere. You get the vibe. You get the unexpectedness of the game. I really enjoyed it. I mean, I. I literally had people in my mentions saying that I was all over the Chiefs and I love the Chiefs too much. Why. Why am I talking so good about the Chiefs? And then I had people. My mention saying, wow, can you tell that his brother's on one of these two teams? Like, he loves the Steelers, So you didn't run very quickly. What it's like about being a broadcaster, I think I did it properly, so I had a lot of fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Nine Eagle is the greatest. Nate did a great Job. It was fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's what you're looking for right there, buddy. You either pissed off both people or made both people happy. That's all you can ask for. We thought you did great. And Nate looks so cool. Yeah, he looks so cool.

[Darius Butler]

Great. Red velvet looked exactly like Santa's sash. It was. Beautiful suit, Nate. One thing I'll never, ever do in my life is outdress Nate.

[Pat McAfee]

April, Anything else you think. You ever think in your life. Anything else you'll never do in your entire life? How about squirrel die or squirrel suit dive off the side of a cliff? You know those things.

[Darius Butler]

I wouldn't put that as a no for life. That really could be fun in the right scenario.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the right scenario there? Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Safe landing.

[J.J. Watt]

Relatives.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Water.

[Pat McAfee]

Water I've done on virtual reality. It is water. Nervous there at the top.

[J.J. Watt]

I believe you hit water at 700 miles an hour.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Darius Butler]

Isn't that the whole point of the suit, is that you come in, glide it for a nice, nice, easy, and drop your parachute?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, but not if you hit a mountain first.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the. The issue is the mountain that you just jumped off of, you know, because there's a little bit of a breeze. Sometimes the only safe scenario is if you have.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, that's the point. I'm saying I need us. I need somewhere where I can get away from the mountain. Aren't these squirrel suits, like, where you. You just glide down like.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

You can go anywhere in the world.

[J.J. Watt]

They go through the mountains. Those guys go through the mountains really close.

[Pat McAfee]

You can turn that song sideways, too. Like you're a fighter jet, I think. Yep.

[J.J. Watt]

The pop smoke in the back, too, so it looks cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Put definitely smoke. Need maybe. What color would you. What smoke? Red, obviously. You put red. Or would you put the up. The Clarence color right there behind you?

[Darius Butler]

Ooh, that would be a nice color. That would be a nice color going through the ground. I actually think the. The blue would be nice. Yeah. What the hell? Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Darius Butler]

Can I turn that off? Why does it. Thumbs up.

[J.J. Watt]

They're watching.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a lot of things been doing these things that I'm about done with what they do to you guys photo albums in the new. The new phone.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, it's so stupid.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard it change.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

You got the new phone.

[Boston Connor]

No, it's not the new phone.

[Darius Butler]

Do you not have an iPhone?

[Pat McAfee]

I. I haven't done the update. I haven't done the update.

[Boston Connor]

But now at the bottom, it's like recent days, they give you the memories are kind of nice, actually.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So I had somebody fully ran by AI now. So it like categorizes everything.

[Boston Connor]

The memories are really nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Nice. I can't wait for. I had somebody say it's crop what they're doing.

[Boston Connor]

They put slideshow together for you. It's actually really nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Who said that?

[Bill Belichick]

It wasn't me. I think I got no issues with the album. Sounded like it could have been me. I got a lot of issues with a lot of things, but the. That's not one of them.

[Pat McAfee]

The photo album the first day you were definitely not happy about. Definitely.

[Bill Belichick]

I remember the only. The only.

[Darius Butler]

Got the best IG game that. I mean that he's got a great ig.

[Bill Belichick]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

JD Ladies and gentlemen, we have a code rag for T. Obviously it's a holiday season. This could be from anything.

[AJ Hawk]

Good gate.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's keep a look at the clock. It's 2:55.45 on my clock.

[Darius Butler]

Over, under 45 wipes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Under.

[Pat McAfee]

That was so disgusting that you started that and then you acted like it was okay whenever age started. Said 100 wipes and then he cut it down to 50, then to 40. You're like, yeah, that's normal. And then dig. Same thing. You guys got real problems. You're pooping in your hands. Have you guys heard that?

[Darius Butler]

You're acting like it's an everyday. You're talking about a once a year occurrence.

[Pat McAfee]

Once a year, 45 wipes.

[Darius Butler]

First of all, this was like the main topic when I was down on the field before the game in Pittsburgh. This was like. I had multiple people bringing this up to me. They were like, j this morning, over under 15 wipes. I'm like, dude, this is not. I don't want this to be. I got J.J. wah. And I've got 100 wipes. It's not great, but it's a once a year. Like. Like just gets a little sideways. Like. It's just crazy. You're not.

[Pat McAfee]

How old are you?

[Darius Butler]

There's a lot of people out there on the same side as me and agent.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there isn't. How old are you?

[Darius Butler]

35.

[Pat McAfee]

35 times. This guy's used at least 45. 5 wipes. What a freak. What a psycho.

[Darius Butler]

You're. I'm not. You cannot tell me that you're walking away from 100 in your entire life. 10 and under.

[Pat McAfee]

I will say. I will say yes. 100 chance. 10 and under. My whole life. I will say. If I get to six or seven, I'm like, God damn. Gotta keep what is the problem? Yeah, I gotta sit back down.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it's gotta keep back down.

[Pat McAfee]

Six or seven. Seven is a lie. I am not lying. You guys got problems with your tush? I'm telling you, this is not good.

[Bill Belichick]

I'm with you, Pat.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm scratching my head hearing this number from these guys. I put and I think a lot.

[Boston Connor]

I'm taking a video.

[Darius Butler]

You're talking about after that Pizza Hut. After one of your Pizza Hut days here where you guys are crushing 10, 15 slices of pies next day. Like ain't just next day. Tell me it all comes out roses. Smooth, easy.

[Pat McAfee]

No, but what are you talk 45 wipes. You could wipe your whole body one time completely clean with 45. Are you going brand new toilet paper every time too? This is a follow up question. You're going brand new every time.

[Darius Butler]

AJ Am I solo on this? You're the one that said 100. Give me a little backup here.

[J.J. Watt]

Well, I mean I was asked the question. I'm saying I'm, I, I, if it happened with me, it was the 40 or 50 situation. It was younger. Definitely not once a year. But yeah, I'm saying it has happened back in the day when it maybe in my, you know, backing down, man. Between 10 to 15.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that's what I said back then.

[J.J. Watt]

When I was younger.

[Pat McAfee]

45 times. You're pulling out. Let me get in there. And we're going in for another round one.

[J.J. Watt]

He's not saying it's every day. No one's ever said it's every day.

[Darius Butler]

Why, why did Chris Pratt say that brown marker joke like that?

[Pat McAfee]

That is the, like it was a comedy, wasn't it?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, but that was on the show. Yeah, he was talking like in reality life.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm worried about you guys. Speaking of worried, we're going up on three minutes since Tai has exited. This is not a number one code red. This was a number two code red. Clearly. Will he dude wipe himself with some dingle bells or is the season pass. That's a decision that we're going to have to find out and wait for his post. Dump presser J your thought about the game tonight? It's a big one. Lions taking on the 9th. Nothing on the line. J. Nothing. Lions lose by 50. They still will be playing for the number one seed in the NFC next week against the Minnesota Vikings. Lions win by 50, which is possible. It means absolutely nothing. They'll still be playing for the number one seed next week and the Niners are out regardless. Nobody thought this season was Going to go the way it has gone for the Niners, excited for them to reload this offseason and come back better than ever next year. J how do you see this game game going?

[Darius Butler]

It's a really tough one. I'm actually very interested to see how they play it out. I am personally of the belief that you either go all out and play as a perfectly normal situation or you rest your guys completely and let them get ready for next week. I don't like the, the middle ground situations where you just kind of see how it goes and then take guys out. But I mean the Lions are the Lions. They're very beat up obviously, but they're still just a juggernaut. They know how to score, they know how to run the ball. The Niners just hasn't gone anywhere remotely close to what people thought. I'm very confused and I don't even know what to think about them going into next year now. But I think, I think the line.

[Pat McAfee]

Is still J likes the Lions minus three and a half on the road here on Monday Night Football. Biggest game of the year happening next Sunday night just six days away for this Detroit Lions team. Darius J. Butler, nine year NFL vet. Do you like the Lions minus three and a half or the Niners getting points at home?

[AJ Hawk]

No, I do not. I'm going with the Niners to cover in this one just because of the uncertainty. What's going on with them?

[Darius Butler]

Would you sit everybody?

[AJ Hawk]

I mean I, I, I would, I would play them just because I feel like that's who Dan Campbell is. But at the same time they've been so ravaged by injuries and then you down and back as well. So like how much do you play Gibbs? Yep. So I mean it's tough. It's tough. That's why I'm going. Nice fighters.

[Pat McAfee]

You said you'd sit them, James.

[Darius Butler]

I think I would. Next more. I'm sitting here thinking about it. I think I would.

[Pat McAfee]

Five minutes in and out. Code red inverted. We are now back to green flag racing.

[Darius Butler]

What's the number?

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations. Ty Schmidt. I, I assume he used his dude wipes in there so he's not going to be able to reach a 45 or 50 number that J.J. watt reaches once a year here whenever he takes a massive dump.

[Darius Butler]

Getting spun. To me this was an AJ thing. Stop spinning it to me.

[Pat McAfee]

You're given more information. You're giving more information out. We're learning follow ups. Yeah, we're learning more about. That's journalism.

[Darius Butler]

The Stonehenge over there is quiet. He's not standing.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, nice guy.

[J.J. Watt]

You asked me the question. You asked me the question. I gave you an answer.

[Darius Butler]

I know you said 100, so why.

[J.J. Watt]

Am I dropped it down?

[Pat McAfee]

Because you said once a year you do it 45. And you skipped work last week. Week. You remember he had to do the. The entire Christmas game thing. So we haven't been a chance to chat with you. We've talked to AJ already.

[Darius Butler]

Work you weren't on on Christmas Day.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Never was going to be.

[Ty Schmidt]

So skip.

[Pat McAfee]

It had great Christmas.

[Darius Butler]

How many dude wipes did you use?

[Pat McAfee]

That's a good question. 1. Ty, what happened there? No red. You almost. You almost dump your pants or what happened?

[Gumpy]

Very close to my pants. I took. You know usually you. I. I don't wait for the in between hour two and hour three to take a dump because we just don't got that kind of time. We just don't. Sometimes you know we're going to go a little bit earlier. Sometimes we're going to take our time. Today I had no choice. Said I'm going to have to. I. I haven't taken a dump in like two, three days.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry.

[Bill Belichick]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

What? What? Yeah.

[Gumpy]

Traveling. I. It always happens after. You know.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations. I guess getting that out of you.

[Boston Connor]

That's way worse than the white barrel.

[Gumpy]

I think so I. I said today.

[Darius Butler]

Yes.

[Gumpy]

You know what?

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Gumpy]

I'm going to have to. I'm going to have to get Shake Shack and I'm going to have to force it out. I'm going to have to. Really? Yeah. Just kind of let loose and it was. I mean just nasty. Sludge.

[Pat McAfee]

Grainy.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Tough football in there.

[Gumpy]

Not the. Not the type of dump you want to be taken. But that's why, you know, I mean if I had toilet paper and not dude wipes in there.

[Pat McAfee]

How many wipes do you think if you had to. Toilet paper.

[Gumpy]

Toilet paper? Well, I just. Is just so messy that it's just.

[Pat McAfee]

Not something you wanna.

[Gumpy]

But you know, dude wipes. I think just slopping it around about. About five wipes.

[Pat McAfee]

Five dude wipes?

[Gumpy]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God. That is A.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

5.

[Gumpy]

Five wipes with the dude wipe.

[Pat McAfee]

With one dude wipe. Correct.

[Ty Schmidt]

Five dude wipes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You.

[Darius Butler]

Wait a second.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on. Whoa.

[Darius Butler]

And then you rewiped with the same dude wipe four more times.

[Pat McAfee]

No, four more times is tough. I don't know how I got there, but at least two more you could get. Yeah. Two more.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

With the same wipe.

[Pat McAfee]

Fold that thing in half. How much room do you guys have? Coming out of your butt.

[Boston Connor]

You guys are using the same wife.

[Pat McAfee]

You gotta fold that in half one time. You wipe it once and throw it in you.

[Ty Schmidt]

You don't fold it.

[Pat McAfee]

You got to fold it. Cleanup. Jesus. The fold. The folded dude w. Sp and cleanup in here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

What?

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[Gumpy]

No wonder you're going through a full roll of toilet paper every time you take it.

[Pat McAfee]

The is wrong with you guys? What is wrong with you, man? Yeah, yeah. Believe Jesus.

[Ty Schmidt]

You don't fold.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't. You don't what? You guys have so much.

[Boston Connor]

So you wipe your ass. You pull it out. Put look at your. And hold it and then go back in.

[Ty Schmidt]

Not as egregious.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a clean up. This is going to sound vast and I think it'll explain why I was so mind blown. I'm a one, two wipe guy. Whole life. That's it. I think it's. I think it's admirable in my butthole to be that way. That I'm learning that you guys are doing 45 to 50 of them.

[Boston Connor]

You're very lucky.

[Pat McAfee]

But you're talking about dude wipes. That's a easy. How you doing? Keep it moving. Situation.

[Darius Butler]

45 it over five times. You're in origami with your dude wipe pipe.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know how you do it five times. Now that is an extension of straight butt piss, gentlemen.

[Gumpy]

Okay, I'm not talking about like thick clumps of poop in there. Like it's. I was pissing out of my. So like you just do it. You do it a couple times and it's good. It's clean.

[Pat McAfee]

So, AJ, have you made your pick yet? D bun plus three and a half. JJ's on the Lions. Minus three and a half, JJ. Also, I think the 45 wipe thing is happening once a month, not once a year. That's what I'm starting to.

[Darius Butler]

I gotta go wipe my son's ass. He's awake. I gotta.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Good luck, dad. Thank you, jh. Great exit for him.

[J.J. Watt]

I'll take the lions.

[Pat McAfee]

Me too. All right, that's the show. What a day today.

[Bill Belichick]

What a day.

[Pat McAfee]

We did good today, I think.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

The more we learn, the more befuddled we get, boy. Oh, we got over reaction tweets. I completely forgot. Need to do these. Sent out a tweet this morning saying, good morning, beautiful people. Law has happened. I can't wait to hear your thoughts about your football team. Why don't you make a post and utilize? I don't want to overreact it ended up being a number two overall trend on X in the United States of America. We appreciate, appreciate everybody for participating. It is so much fun and so cool to scroll through those. The number one trend was guy died at 100. Former President Jimmy Carter. Carter. Absolutely. Rest in peace. Love peanuts. 100 years old.

[Gumpy]

Love peanuts.

[Pat McAfee]

He was a peanut eater. He was potentially the guy to say, hey, Texas roadhouse, peanuts. All of them. Throw them all over the place. We're not 100, sure, but he lived to 100. Holy. Way to go. Beat the game. Rest in peace. He was the number one trailer. And on the United States is X. Number two is hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but it's from Boston, Connor. Hashtag, I don't want to overreact, but the Patriots have the best situation for a new staff in front office in the history of the NFL. Number one pick, most cap space in the NFL franchise. Rookie quarterback. It was a fun experience this year, but glory must be restored to New England. And glory comes with 25 packs of Sigs and unlimited logs of dip. That's Mike Vrabel. Sounds like con man. You're all in on frames. Coming back home.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I am. This would be an overreaction, though. I would classify it as that. I still think that there are legs to the Mayo era. I did not think about the Schefter scenario about the Bills losing on purpose so that the Patriots win. I still am not sure if the Patriots can win with another team losing on purpose, if that is possible. But I still have some faith. Although if it does end ugly and and Mayo does get fired, it wouldn't be the worst case scenario for Mike Vrabel or Ben Johnson to come in.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if you ordered enough logs of dib. You know, I don't think have his own farm. Yeah, you're right. I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Maybe it's possible they can open it up up there. I mean.

[Pat McAfee]

And you forgot vapes too, right? He's vaping. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Vapes in Massachusetts don't do too well just because of the rules there now. But you can go up to New Hampshire.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you can't vape in.

[Ty Schmidt]

You don't get all the cool flavors.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a lot of teams that are going to want Varel's services. I think you should know you can't vape up there.

[Gumpy]

You can.

[Ty Schmidt]

I just don't know what flavor.

[Boston Connor]

You know, he's not a flavor guy.

[Pat McAfee]

If.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, if he's a menthol tobacco guy. Then he's fine. Which I assume he is.

[Pat McAfee]

What a dog for able. His contract with the Cleveland Browns is up today. I believe it was reported. A.J. hawk.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah. I mean, Braves is an absolute hot commodity. I. I do wonder where he could land. But the. The patrons job was like. Yeah, I don't. I don't think it could happen. But it would not shock me if he is named the Patriots coach eventually.

[Pat McAfee]

He's in a Patriots ring of honor, right? Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Loves new.

[AJ Hawk]

Got the red jacket.

[Pat McAfee]

Red jacket.

[Boston Connor]

Love that red jacket.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Gumpy]

Who gives a job?

[Pat McAfee]

Happy Gilmore 2 is coming out. It is. Let's go to the next overreaction. It's from Gumpy. Hashtag. I don't overreacts, but after starting the season two and six, the Dolphins have fought tooth and nail to stay lurking in the playoff hunt. Gotta handle our business against the jets and we're a Carl Wentz masterclass away from a chance to break the 24 year drought. See in the playoffs. Hashtag Go Finns. Gompt. Schnaut. Nova reaction.

[Bill Belichick]

I cannot express the roller coaster this season has been, but the fight that this team has shown has been actually incredible. They were dead at 26 going into Los Angeles. Play the Rams on Monday night. Win that game. They've kept winning. They fought. So I am proud of this Dolphins team whether we make the playoffs or not.

[Pat McAfee]

Huntley looked a lot better against the Browns than he did earlier in the year. The two stuff's worrisome. Yeah, two stuff's worrisome. It kind of came out of nowhere in my eyes. I didn't expect it. Whenever I turned on the game and Huntley was playing, I was like, what I miss, I go back through to. Had a hip. Same hip that he had surgery on, which was the Bo Jackson injury. Modern advances in science got him back to playing sports where Bo Jackson was not. Hopefully he's okay. Let's go to the next overreaction. It's from Chris C. At C2. You can see one. You see too, like Chrissy.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Is that like the classes?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Ty Schmidt]

The C2 classes. You guys have those or no?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're talking about cotton, metal.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, no, no, no. Never mind. There's like honors classes, there's C1 classes, and then there were C2 classes in my area.

[Pat McAfee]

Are those Dom? Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's why I thought that name was.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Chris potentially. We're not 100% sure. Hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but Raheem Morris is not a head coach and should never get the chance again. Two minute drill timeouts as coaching 101 sucked at Tampa Bay. Was the assistant head coach for 28. Three completely fumbled this whole season. Bro. Ain't it? And Arthur Blank a card. Who's gonna let it happen? Geez Louise. C2 bringing an A bomb to this guy. What happened here? Was this a lot of Atlanta reaction?

[Gumpy]

Yeah, a lot of people who are done with Rahim. Unfortunately.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't.

[Gumpy]

I don't necessarily get it, but that was. That was most of the sentiment today.

[Pat McAfee]

Penix comes in, has a couple good balls. I think he's a guy. He had to score, had to walk down the field, had to make a throw to score with less than a minute and he did. I think he checked all the boxes of being a guy. Kirk Cousins in uniform on the sideline, hands and pot. Interesting. Just kind of watch it all unfold. Weird. But then Jaden Daniels does what I think Jaden Daniels is going to do going forward. I actually put out a tweet after that game. Was like, future NFL's in this spot. Yep, Future NFL is in a real good spot with those two. I guess Atlanta says we need to be in a new spot. Can't blame them. Here we go, the next one. This one's from Patrick Wilson at Papa Pump oc okay, hashtag. I don't want to overreact, but the Chargers put the league on notice Saturday. Justin the Second Coming Herbert and the rest of his squad are following the greatest head coach of our time, their promised land. And there is nothing Patty Mahomes, Joe Burrow, or even Taylor Swift can do. I don't know if Papa Pump wants to go ahead and bark up that tree, the Taylor Swift one, but that Chargers win was awesome to watch.

[J.J. Watt]

H. I mean, Justin Herbert, I love watching it do. But man, I. You can't give Harbaugh enough credit for. For this team. What he's able to do in under a year. It's just he's changed everything and there's hope now for a long time.

[Pat McAfee]

This is him after the game in the locker room room. Credit goes to all you guys, Players, coaches. Mostly the players, though. Most of the players, though. And then he. He gave, I forget a couple more wise words of wisdom and he said, man, this feels good. Turn around. Why don't you give everybody a high five? Everybody starts having. And then to you players. For he's a jolly good fellow for he's a jolly good fellow for he's a jolly good fellow which everybody can do. And then it goes right into who's got it better than us. Nobody. They are right. Walk it off. It's like, Jim Harbaugh is awesome. You knew it. You seen it, you said it. D. Bu. I don't want to put you on the. Oh, just like I said it would train. But for the Chargers, you were very early on.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Justin Herbert, I think we all saw his talent talented enough to make me a fan of the team. And so, you know, knew all he needed was a head coach and an organization kind of behind him. They brought in, obviously, Harbaugh. His culture. We've been talking about culture all day long. We saw his culture firsthand in Michigan. What they were able to do, him coming back to the NFL, getting his team on track, bringing Jesse Mentor over on the defensive side. They've been great all year long. So they got all the pieces to not only compete now, but the future is very, very bright for the Chargers.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This is from Ivar at the underscore scalds. What's that mean? Is that a reference to something?

[Gumpy]

I don't know. I thought that was just, like, some Icelandic Viking.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. It looks very Viking. Hashtag, I don't want to react, but the Vikings are a team of destiny. Sam Donald is the mvp. KOC Is the coach of the year. We're gonna win on Sunday and take the number one seed and the buy, and then we're gonna get blown out at home. Skull Vikings. Hashtag. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. What's that all about, A.J.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't know. I mean, honestly, I was thinking about this earlier when I saw Sam Darnold and how fun it was in the. In the locker room and how they've. We've championed this guy and how he's revamped his career. I hope Sam is enjoying the ride, because sometimes it does end in the playoffs pretty quickly. So I hope no matter what happens in the playoffs, Sam Darnold is still awesome, and he still had a great year.

[Pat McAfee]

That is the. The crazy thing about the playoffs. Biggest, most important game, most heightened environment, and it's all over tomorrow if we lose a Skaldo, a composer and reciter of poems honoring heroes and their deeds. In this particular case, Ivar was talking about this particular Vikings group of heroes. A lot of Vikings fans with a realistic view on things like this, or.

[Gumpy]

No, I'd say there. There are more than I expected. Just because the Vikings are potentially going to be the number one seed. But it was, it was split between that and like, why aren't we talking about Sam Darnold for mvp?

[Pat McAfee]

Legit. And it's. He's on Tone's watch list now. Tone had Joe Burrow on before a lot of other people because of the history we were watching with Joe Burrow becomes first quarterback with eight straight games of something, something, something forever. Forever. Better than everybody ever in history.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. 250 yards and three touchdowns.

[Pat McAfee]

And watching him with what Zach Taylor decided to do. Brown goes down at the one yard line, sprains his ankle, light sprain. He'll be back. They say they had the opportunity. Just kneel it out from the one. Now you would do that, I guess, if you didn't trust the kicker was going to make the kick and he would go on to make the kick a. Or miss a 35 yarder, I think in the next series. But on the one yard line, right in the middle of the field, like 19 yards, Cade could shank a 19 yarder. You think it would be able to go straight in. That was very ugly. And obviously he thought it was very bad him getting up and walking off. But like them choosing to score the next play, I didn't.

[J.J. Watt]

That was very confusing.

[Pat McAfee]

I was so confused. And it was like, all right, so one of your guys either thought to himself, oh, I should go down, or was told he should go down. And in the process he sprains his ankle. And you know what? Fuck this in vain. We're going to score on the next play. It doesn't even matter. Like just I guess you think your kicker is going to miss, but if you think he's going to miss a 20 yarder for the middle of the field, like you guys aren't going to win any games anyways. If that's the person that's kicking for you now, he would go on the miss. So I guess Zach Taylor probably be able to say that. And the Bengals would inevitably win. But geez, we're not to see decision was being made. I was like, this is the dumbest thing I've seen. And I was pulling for the Bengals at the time because the Colts and all the teams that were lurking were like, bengals, we need you. Then Sean Payton not going for two. I don't. What do we.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, that was. That was weird.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't fully understand that either. And then he came out and said, well, if we tied, it meant we went in there. It's like, so you think there's going to be a Whole nother quarter of Joe Burrow not scoring. I don't. I don't. A lot of decisions made there at the end of the game. Game where it was like, what the is happening. But Bengals win, and they gave a lot of us an opportunity to continue to cheer for our team. So we appreciate that. Oh, yeah, but that was wild. They got to figure out making kicks, though.

[Boston Connor]

Is Money Mac out for the year?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think so.

[AJ Hawk]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

K out of lsu, if you do recall. Huge leg. Monstrous leg. That's why when it hit that upright, it was so loud. He hit that thing square. I mean, that was a fool.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

He got drafted to Cleveland. Yeah.

[Bill Belichick]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And we talk about this cold weather with the. These college teams. Couldn't imagine LSU dude just showing up in Cleveland and being like, yeah, you gotta kick here. What is this? Oh, it's the worst place ever. Not only because of here, but also because where you're gonna play. Like, everywhere you're gonna play is gonna suck. Cincinnati sucks. Cold, windy. It's on a river as well, somehow. You're on a lake here, they're on a river. Then where you're gonna go? Pittsburgh. What are they on, 3R? There's three rivers. They're on the rivers. And Baltimore's got a bay where it's coming in off the goddamn Atlantic. So everywhere you kick is going to be terrible. So Cade got kind of baptized in that. Now he's on the Bengals, and it's like he has the ability. He hit a game winner for him last week, and then this week he clanks that one. It's like a lot of. It's mental. I think whenever you get in that cold and windy, it was a.

[AJ Hawk]

It was a bad day for the Bengals kickers even of the past. So at halftime in this game, do we play with Shane Graham?

[Pat McAfee]

I know Shane Graham.

[AJ Hawk]

Did he play here? No. Here in Indy?

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay, so halftime, they had like a giveaway, pizza giveaway for the entire stadium. And I think it was three contestants maybe. And the last one faked an injury. Out comes our guy, Shane Graham.

[Pat McAfee]

No way.

[AJ Hawk]

For like a 20, maybe 30 yard field goal. Obviously, he's dressed as a civil you and boy, it did not go well.

[Pat McAfee]

No way he missed.

[Ty Schmidt]

All of them shaked.

[AJ Hawk]

One more chance. One more chance. Another shame. No, I know Shane, too. I don't know where I. I crossed paths with him. I don't know where it was, but Shane's good, man. Nobody brought this to my attention. And I did a little research on it.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see what happened in Shane? Shane will make the next one and the one more kick. Chants get very loud and it gets uncomfortable because the amount of pressure that gets placed on the kicker. Obviously we feel that every Saturday college game day. How about Jacksonville, Tennessee? Do you see the pregame?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh gee, that was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God. Jacksonville, Tennessee pregame. Oh yeah, it's in Jacksonville. Okay. This is Jackson deville also known as Jax him deville in a video game taking on Will Levis. Okay. In a punch out game. Game.

[AJ Hawk]

That's gonna beat Will's ass.

[Pat McAfee]

You would think this is in Jacksonville. Look at the crowd. Fifteen of them going mild at the whole entire thing. They're watching it and guess what happens? Inevitably you nailed it. Not even a knock down knock out Tennessee Titans. How you doing? Keep it moving. That's in their building. Imagine a coach Doug walking out and going, what are we doing here?

[Ty Schmidt]

Kidding me?

[Pat McAfee]

Go back in the locker room, boys. We're not.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don't look up. Don't look up.

[Pat McAfee]

That's why. And I think it was a Jackson. If the end of the video there is right. That's a Jacksonville cheerleader that was I think fighting for both sides there. How in the is it even possible for Jax him to lose? They said we want not an option.

[J.J. Watt]

Should not be an option.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it should have been him versus Tony. No, just Tony Khan should have been in there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Out of wheel.

[Pat McAfee]

Should have had no weapons. Will Levis should have not even known how to throw. Maybe no arms, no legs, just Matt make the A mat and Jack Sam just stepped. Maybe it's like maybe this is what Jax him does PDR the entire time. Yeah, maybe. When I saw that, I was like, God damn. And we're gonna lose to him this week. We're gonna lose to that team.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, it doesn't matter anyways for any side, win or lose.

[AJ Hawk]

Finish strong, boys.

[Ty Schmidt]

Island of irrelevancy.

[Pat McAfee]

I gave up 45 points to the Giants. Bounce back a must win. Drew locked back. Was there any other reactions about Drew Lock being the future of the NFL?

[Gumpy]

A couple. Hey, we found our bridge.

[Pat McAfee]

Quarterback bridge. No, I'm talking about future forever.

[Gumpy]

Well, there were a few like, hey, him and Malik neighbors. You do not want to see them the next couple years.

[Pat McAfee]

I've only seen them one time and they're. I'll tell you. Yeah, they can go. All right, let's go to another overreaction, shall we? This one's from Jordan at J Money Kerns. This guy's a money guy. Hashtag I don't want to overreact but kay see an MC DC own M floor 3 and 9 against the Vikes and Lions the last three years. Putting on a guardian cap and letting AJ me up in Oklahoma drill would be less painful than the packers in the first half of games. Packers are frauds, Ty. You go through these and pick these. You picking a Packers one like that, wow, what's that all about?

[Gumpy]

It was good overreaction because I, I wouldn't necessarily say they're frauds, but it is definitely concerning that they seemingly can't really beat the Vikings and the Lions because I don't think every single year the NFC north is going to be getting three teams in the playoffs. But I think same deal, you know, young team, they probably are about a year away and you know, they kind of did it themselves. Hey, if, you know, you want to be a contender. Their gauntlet, if they were to like go to the super bowl, oh boy, is it going to be fucking tough. So they kind of did it to themselves, but we'll see they do. They just, they start so slow. And then a lot of games against these good teams are the situation we saw yesterday where they're down, you know, 13 to 17 points in the fourth quarter with like six minutes left. They scored two quick touchdowns. They end up, you know, they're down two and then, I mean, you know, you pin it on the defense. But like they had, they have no chance to actually win the game. So we'll see. It looked a lot closer than it really was yesterday, but they're still young and they're still probably about a year or two.

[Pat McAfee]

About a year out age. That's what I think about the Packers. About a year out. About a year out.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, they gotta, they gotta figure out how to like, how to win those big games. Like, everyone has to learn how to win. The packers, they're a good team, they know how to win. But you got to find a way to put you over the hump in those big games that really matter.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they're doing it right though, to be clear. But I do love that the packers fans, one year or one week, ah, then big win happens. It's like, wait a minute, hold on. And then a lose happens, a loss happens. It's like every time we play somebody good, we suck. So maybe next year. And then if you guys, you know, win here going forward. Holy Jordan love is way ahead of schedule. Is it still Toyota Thon? Here we go. In this entire thing, yada, yada, yada. And then I just Think, like, next year. I think he's packers here.

[Gumpy]

That's why I try to keep it in perspective.

[Ty Schmidt]

Still is.

[Gumpy]

Because, like, Jordan Love still hasn't. I mean, he's. He started, like, you know, less than 30 games. Like, he's still kind of figuring things out. They're in a much better spot than a lot of teams in the league. So it's like.

[Pat McAfee]

Like Colts.

[Gumpy]

Well, you know, maybe not, I suppose, but yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Colts are staring down a nice refresh. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

10 years.

[Pat McAfee]

I was. What's that?

[Ty Schmidt]

10 years refresh?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I was gonna say ayahuasca. You just hit a nice little reset on that day.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Whole team, whole building. All right, everybody, come on in. Shut the doors. Put your phones down. Comes in, we're gonna be pumping some stuff in the room. Somebody's coming around out with, like, it's a boom box. And then, you know that thing that's like. That puts out fires?

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo. Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

They got one of those just in the indoor facility, pumping ayahuasca.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'll care about football even less.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Ty Schmidt]

And they already do.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Somebody's gonna be in there. The person's gonna push them to like football more.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

And care about it all. Yeah. Maybe your team will try it out.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, we don't need that.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you need?

[Ty Schmidt]

We need some big boys. We need some beef.

[Pat McAfee]

You need small fence.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's all we need. We just need beef.

[Pat McAfee]

Drake Maze. A dog. Let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This is From Trevor Cash, @t,cash176. Hashtag. I don't overreact, but that I'm overreacting. I'm 35. Last time the Commanders were this good, I was in diapers learning to walk. Our super bowl window is now hashtag, hail. Hail to the Commanders. Hail to Commanders. Left hand up. Were the Commanders good for them? They were in the pits of hell. Yeah. Laughing stock of laughing stocks. Cannot even talk about being a fan of the team because the first thing that's going to be brought up is a litany of bad things that have happened. Happened to you. First thing could be anything. Oh, your owner this, your owner that. Your stadium's falling apart. Your team stinks. You've got rid of this. You have no name. You have no. You have a boom. New ownership comes in. Jaden Daniels is your quarterback. Scary. Terry McLaren and he get along just fine. Defense is balling. Cliff Kingsbury. Dan Quinn, flip a thing. It's like magic. Happens overnight, seemingly for the wash. Did.

[Boston Connor]

You hear the Chant last night by any chance?

[Pat McAfee]

What was it, John?

[Boston Connor]

There was a Josh Harris chant in the stadium last night.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Good for Josh. Harrison deserves it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

He had to feel so good. Remember we watched him do an interview there early during preseason. Did not go well.

[Gumpy]

Handshake. It was high five.

[Ty Schmidt]

Handshake. It was weird.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Damn.

[AJ Hawk]

This season.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Feel like forever.

[Pat McAfee]

That wasn't this winning.

[J.J. Watt]

Winning helps every.

[Pat McAfee]

It can't be.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was.

[Pat McAfee]

This is his first year, I think it was. And we all said, yeah, commanders would be good. Obviously it'll be better than what they were because what they were, he's like, bump poop. And then all of a sudden it's like, Jaden Daniels is doing the same thing C.J. stroud did last year. I don't think we're ever going to see that again. And then Dan Quinn with the backwards hat. Holy. Has this guy found something. Cliff Kingsbury. He doesn't have to worry about anything but calling place. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Now they're dancing. Congrats, Washington. You guys deserve it. You guys deserve. Let's go to the next overreaction, shall we? This is from Darius the Sagittarius at its DJ666. Whoa. Oh, devil, huh?

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

What's up, Satan? Jesus. Hashtag. I don't overreact, but I still believe. But watching the Broncos Bover Bover throw their chances after two actual miracles was almost as heartbreaking as watching Joey B. Put the Broncos defense and Riley Moss on all fours and give them the Chuck Pagano treatment all game. The waffles.

[Ty Schmidt]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

What is that? That's what I inferred.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, he's talking about the waffle.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeez Louise. Jeez Louise. I'm tired from Broncos bova throwing.

[Gumpy]

I thought that was a nice touch as well.

[J.J. Watt]

That's pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

Sean Payton and Bo obviously put themselves in a position to make the playoffs still. But with the way they've been able to operate with a 55 million dollar deficit and bill said they're free from that next year. I don't think they are. I think they get another hit next year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, they do.

[Pat McAfee]

From the Russell Wilson deal. I think it was a two year thing, but nonetheless, they're on the right direction. That owner Waltons, they got to feel like they've done a good job over there, too. Yeah. New ownership in Washington winning. New ownership in Denver finally winning. You know, first couple years of rust didn't work out, but now we're ready to roll. Good for all parties. League's Values only going like going down. We had some good football games. Great football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, we did.

[Pat McAfee]

We need them. We said that shite is only going to lead to prosperity. All the bad was going to lead to some good at some point. Have to sit through the rain to see the flowers. And that's what we did. There's a lot of bad football. Then we got some great football games. No thanks to your team.

[Ty Schmidt]

No thanks to your team.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty good game. 45 points. I mean.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Shootout. Playoff implications on the line. It's a pretty good game. Tough for me to watch. I couldn't stomach it early. Sure. Let's give me the. Out of here. I can't take it. They'll be back. Let's go to the next overreaction. That's not an overreaction. Sebastian. Nelly. Fortunately.

[Gumpy]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

At Flaming Hamsters. All right. Okay. Hashtag. I don't wanna react. But as a Pats fan. The Josh Allen Bills will win more division crowns than the Tom Brady Patriots. Heartbreak. Flaming Hamsters onto something here. Convent Flamin. Ha.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hamsters. Sure. Who gives a fuck about the crowns? Okay. They can have them. Will they win more than six Super Bowls?

[AJ Hawk]

I doubt it.

[Pat McAfee]

Flaming Hamster wants a home playoff game again. Exactly. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don't we?

[Pat McAfee]

That's what Flaming Hamster wants.

[Ty Schmidt]

And so do I. But when we're talking about who gives a shit? Bulls. The division champion. Those fall into the who gives a shit Bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

Hang a banner.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Exactly. Have fun. Hang your division title banner. Winner. Because no one gives a About those.

[Pat McAfee]

Well. The Flaming Hamster says I want a home playoff game. I'm sick of this. I want the Flaming Hamster was actually at the game where your fans chant fourth quarter.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're chanting Fire Mayo.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[J.J. Watt]

No.

[Ty Schmidt]

No. Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

They were craps. Actually shot the windows. He said turn John Bon Jovi up. Turn this.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was happening.

[Pat McAfee]

They want to hear. I want to hear A lot of booze.

[Ty Schmidt]

A lot of empty seats.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

A lot of Fire Mayo chips.

[Pat McAfee]

What if the crafts are actually pumping that in. In. Push it. Do it.

[Bill Belichick]

Turn it louder.

[Ty Schmidt]

That would support my theory. That I'm pretty sure isn't that theory.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Let's go. Let's go to the next overreaction. You know what he's talking about.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't.

[Pat McAfee]

You do know what he's talking about.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't want to know what he's talking.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah you do. Let's go to the next overreaction. Is. He's from Andrew Shockley. Who is the Pittsburgh news guy. Andrew Shocky Yes. Not to be confused with Andrew Shockley at the Real Shockley. Hashtag, I want to overreact. But the Giants are a doomed franchise. All they had to do was lose two games to finish the season and get the number one pick. All they had to do was lose, which they become pretty good at. And they couldn't even do that properly. Fire John Moore. The owner's not fireable. He's not. But this particular owner might be on the look, on the hunt to fire some people, especially if we continue to show that hard knock clip where he said, if Saquon Barkley was to go to the Philadelphia Eagles, it'd be really hard for me to sleep at night. What do you think this guy's heart palpitations are like every single Sunday whenever he has to open his phone or he gets a text from somebody and says, you see Saquon just went for another 200 yards today. Hey, did you see the Eagles are still in the lead in the NFC East. Hey, you see the Eagles are favorite to go. Saquon's mvp, Joe Morrow's like, I hate this place. Joe Shane, though, Dayball got another opportunity. That's right.

[AJ Hawk]

One more year would be another game or another year.

[Pat McAfee]

More year. One more year.

[Boston Connor]

One more year.

[Pat McAfee]

Bruce Brown, Is that how everybody feels about Giants fandom?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, the, the backlash to winning is, is loud. I do think that Joe Shane and.

[Pat McAfee]

And Dable both do stay in the next year. And, you know, I'm just enjoying the.

[J.J. Watt]

Hopes that we do have Malik neighbors.

[Pat McAfee]

We got Tyrone Tracy, some nice young pieces.

[J.J. Watt]

Obviously, first priority above everything else is.

[Pat McAfee]

That we got to go get a quarterback. It felt like it was going to.

[J.J. Watt]

Be Shador or Cam Ward going into this weekend now, who knows? So, you know, time, time will tell.

[Pat McAfee]

I, I believe that Joe Shane will figure out the quarterback position and it will be much better next year.

[Gumpy]

He will figure out the quarterback position. He's got a, a gem in the waiting. He's got the apple of his eye. He's got Carson Ben back at number 10.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I didn't think about Carson Beck because he was being talked about as maybe top five going into the season. Has an injury now obviously on the elbow, which is a big part of the whole thing. He'll be supporting the dogs throughout, but he is declaring for the NFL. Maybe Carson Beck is the Giants next.

[Gumpy]

He just screams New York Giant quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe we go up to Canada, get Curtis Rourke.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, nice fit at Miz Life.

[Pat McAfee]

You're talking about kid. Canada's little Brother Curtis, trade up to one.

[Ty Schmidt]

You sexy. D x e3 first and a second. Come on up.

[Pat McAfee]

So you're negotiating deals as the number one overall picker. Yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Raiders can go. Max Crosby, two first. Two twos. Come on up.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so you're just letting. You're just floating some things, just ideas.

[Ty Schmidt]

Just if you. I mean, you want a franchise qb, you want the future, do you want to be able to win in the league?

[Pat McAfee]

Sure.

[Ty Schmidt]

Come to the table.

[Pat McAfee]

The Colts going the number one after Peyton Manning's run and getting, you know, luck, and now the Patriots ended up in number one after getting a franchise quarterback. It makes you wonder, how do these teams that win all the time always seem to have things go their way?

[Ty Schmidt]

That's how it works.

[Pat McAfee]

Colts need one of those. We need to somehow just fall to three.

[Boston Connor]

Well, you went to four, but I'm.

[Pat McAfee]

Saying we need to get back down there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Pats are the only team guaranteed to have a top five pick.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so we're in it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Gentlemen, we are back. If we get the number one pick, we can, we can trade back a.

[Pat McAfee]

Couple times the amount of picks you could get for that number one overall. Oh, my God.

[Ty Schmidt]

Especially because the teams that need a quarterback, like there are four teams.

[Pat McAfee]

You might be able to get two number ones from this year, one number one from next year because you're going to swap with somebody, let's get an extra one and then maybe one from next year just to get up there. If people get desperate enough, that's how much the number one overall pick is worth. So you can really improve your team quickly. Yeah. You think about the Houston Texans did when they go back to back. Back that high up in there, it's like you can flip your team. If you make. And you look at the Lions. I mean, I know the penny draft class didn't turn them around immediately, but you get a penny or another offensive lineman. Oh, yeah. In the first 20 picks you got a chance. Changes everything.

[Ty Schmidt]

And they didn't have, you know, like that team didn't have the rookie QB contract in the most cap space in the league like we do. So it's like we can do that with the draft and we can do it with free agency. It's just. We'll see what happens.

[Pat McAfee]

Real hope.

[Ty Schmidt]

There is real hope.

[Boston Connor]

If nobody wants to come up and get one of these quarterbacks, there is.

[Pat McAfee]

A chance that that happens. Although that hasn't been the case as of late. Now everybody thinks every quarterback's going to be great, especially with this last rookie class. I mean you look at Jaden doing well, Drake doing well, Bo has done well. Pennix we think is going to be a guy there. Caleb, I mean he's in the middle of it upper in Chicago. He's in the middle of it up in Chicago.

[Ty Schmidt]

Plus the Shedeur Dion press tour that's about to happen. I think we've already saw the start of it.

[Pat McAfee]

What did Dion. Dion put a tweet out calling people idiots. What was he calling people idiots for what happened?

[Boston Connor]

For picking them in the ball game.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I picked him and I did too. I guess BYU was the right answer there.

[AJ Hawk]

They super mature and we not happy with the announcers from that game.

[Bill Belichick]

I know that.

[Pat McAfee]

Who wasn't BYU folks?

[AJ Hawk]

A lot of people just in general. Oh, you guys are sucking off Colorado the whole time to get an ass kicked.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I saw Shador throw a touchdown to Travis and it was. They were down 28 maybe at the time and I got posted on all the socials. I was like oh Travis Hunter gets what it's like. You are asking for people to hate these people. You are asking for people to hate Travis and Shador in this entire thing. They did get their asses beat by byu but what they did to Colorado you cannot understate. I mean flipped an entire program absolutely around. Did you hear Shermer talk about Travis and Shador don't into the NFL?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh how they would dominate.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he thinks they're already pros basically. Now will he be able to build up enough a team to really have success over there priming him positions? We shall see. Still very early. Let's go to another overreaction, shall we? This is logan epley@loganreply. Hashtag I don't want to overreact but the Colts are done. I'm going to get rid of everyone. And I mean everyone. Stinking Ballard ar jt hell, even earth sake. Oh, get them all going. I'd prefer to watch a CFP jingle on repeat for a month straight rather than watch another Colts game. Sell the team, Logan. You said it, brother. Foxy, can you please run that beautiful CFP footage? We're mixing things up. It's about time more schools get a shot to shine. It's more game a lot more Fun starting with 12. Countdown to one that's how we crown a CFP National Champion. That's how we crown a CMP National Champion Champs keep the dream alive 1 through 4 get a first round by 5 to 8 host 9 to 12 winners move on and the crowds all yeah. Quarterfinals New Year six. It's a part here. Shot and shin. It's more games and a lot more fun. Starting with 12, counting down to one. That's how we crown a CFP national champion. You're right. Holy. That was a great overreaction.

[Boston Connor]

Have we asked Marty did he record that first time? No flubs.

[Pat McAfee]

Marty is not singing it. That was not Marty. No, that was recorded by a couple boys down there in Nashville. Okay. The only reason why I know that is because they have sent messages saying, hey, thanks for highlighting the song we pieced together down there. I was like, no problem, Stapleton. No, Stapleton was not part. I think songwriters behind the scenes.

[Bill Belichick]

As long as it was in Nashville, we're good.

[Pat McAfee]

It was in Nashville. I do believe these people have cut their teeth down to catch a song. We're mixing things up. It's about time more schools get a shot to shine. A lot of illiteration. School Shot. Shot. You know what I mean? More games and a lot more fun. What are we starting with? H?

[J.J. Watt]

I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

12.

[Ty Schmidt]

Son of a.

[Pat McAfee]

12 days away from the Rose Bowl. Say the number starting with 12, counting down to ones.

[J.J. Watt]

I'm almost immune to that video. I've seen it so many times. It's like it's not even.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't build up antibodies to something you love. Jesus Christ. Overreaction. This is Alabama News at Al Underscore news. I don't overreact, but the Bengals are the scariest team in the NFL right now. Buffalo Bills have to be their pants at the thought of playing the Bengals in the first round of the playoffs. I'll tell you, Joey B. Is. He's unbelievable. I will say. Hey, Zach Taylor, great work over there. Sure, he made some decisions in that game as somebody was pulling for the Bengals while watching that game going, what the is this guy doing? What is this guy? Why are we. What is going on here? And obviously you have the belief in Joe Burrow that he's going to be able to figure it out. And he did. And they did and they get a huge win. But, man, they made it harder on themselves than they needed it to be. They made it a lot harder on themselves than they needed to be. That team's right away role, though.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Very questionable coaching decision. We've seen some of that with the Bills this year as well. But I. I wouldn't be from the Buffalo Bills. What they have right now. Would not be scared to play anyone going to playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

Me neither. All right, let's get the hell out of here. We'll be back on Thursday. We'll be live from the Rose Bowl, 5pm Eastern on ESPN2 on Wednesday. So honored to be a part of that. Pumped? Hell yeah. You think he's gonna be patting the whole time if Ohio State doesn't play without it?

[Gumpy]

A doubt.

[Ty Schmidt]

Better be. Or he's not a true fan.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're gonna be all right.

[J.J. Watt]

They'll be all right.

[Darius Butler]

I'm not worried.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you gonna be all right though, is what we're wondering.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh yeah, it's gonna be great. Great day. Great night.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you were doing some potting though, down there in Georgia.

[Gumpy]

Was doing a little bit, remember?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You remember that? A little Pat and your car got broken into and then you're patting all over the place and we love it. And then against Tennessee, there was a pass breakup. You remember him celebrating a pass?

[AJ Hawk]

I, I, I loved, I'm not gonna lie. Loved that from aj.

[Pat McAfee]

Me too.

[AJ Hawk]

Ohio State. I've never seen that bias.

[Pat McAfee]

Me neither. I was, I was pumped to watch him get excited. Cool. Big pass breakup. And AJ goes, oh, you know, like he got like genuine. I saw like in his song, like, oh, AJ's very pumped for this Ohio State Buckeye team. As you should be. They put an ass beating down on that Tennessee. And just like what happened after they lose to Michigan, they go play Georgia. They played their best ball against Georgia. Free confidence wouldn't swagged out all over the place. They did the same against Tennessee. Can they carry that into the Robo Rose Bowl? And in Oregon, they've just been waiting. Yeah, it's about time. You know, that's. Oh yeah.

[Gumpy]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe their school gets a shot to shine down there. It's a big old game and a lot of fun. And there's two of them. There's only going to be one. They go and that's how we crown CFP Rosebull. And let's get out of here, boys. Thank you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. Shot to dude wipes. Shout out to Seatgeek. Shout out to all of you. Shout out to AJ. Remember, Pat2024, 30 off all tickets. It doesn't matter if you have shopped or seatgeek before. Any ticket. Now granted, if it's less than 30 bucks, that ain't gonna work. But any ticket that they have, whether it's a college football playoffs, which is obviously going to be for fantastic or a show, comedy, music, Broadway, you name it, they got tickets for everything. 30 bucks off. All you got to use is P A T2024. All right. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice Might change your life. We're just sing together, boys. Let's enjoy these next couple.

[Gumpy]

Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Oh, yeah. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team goodbye.