PMS 2.0 1306 - The Start of a New NFL League Year, Dan Orlovsky, Tyrese Haliburton, Shaquille O'Neal, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show - Episode PMS 2.0 1306

Title: The Start of a New NFL League Year, Dan Orlovsky, Tyrese Haliburton, Shaquille O'Neal, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk
Host: Pat McAfee, ESPN
Release Date: March 12, 2025

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Introduction

On this special NFL Wednesday, Pat McAfee and his co-hosts dive into the excitement surrounding the commencement of the new NFL league year and the official free agency signing period. Celebrating the resurgence and growth of the NFL, the show highlights key moves, player performances, and team strategies that are set to shape the upcoming season.

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NFL Free Agency and League Resurgence

Pat McAfee opens the discussion by congratulating the NFL on surviving another year and thriving with record-breaking salary caps, larger contracts, and unprecedented ratings. He emphasizes the Philadelphia Eagles' ascent as the current world champions, thanks to their robust offensive line and star player Saquon Barkley.

Notable Quote:

"More ratings and eyes on the game than there's ever been. More ways to enjoy the game than there's ever been. And it's a wonderful time for the NFL."
— Pat McAfee [00:00]

Darius J. Butler adds his perspective on the Packers, advocating for acquiring veteran players to bolster their young roster, although he remains skeptical about their aggressive free agency moves.

Notable Quote:

"They are the youngest team in the NFL. They need some guys who have been there and done that before to shore up the locker room."
— Darius J. Butler [04:05]

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Tyrese Haliburton's Spectacular Performance

A significant highlight of the episode is Tyrese Haliburton's game-winning four-point play against the Milwaukee Bucks. Wearing his customized DX Pumas, Haliburton executes a flawless tunnel screen, culminating in a crucial free throw that seals the victory for the Indiana Pacers.

Notable Quote:

"Tyrese Haliburton, perfect face of a franchise, this guy... with his double-double and game-winning play, that's a pretty good way to launch the DX Pumas."
— Pat McAfee [11:00]

Haliburton reflects on the importance of teamwork and the strategic play that led to his memorable shot, expressing his excitement for future interviews to delve deeper into his mindset during the pivotal moment.

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Aaron Rodgers and Pittsburgh Steelers Quarterback Saga

A heated segment revolves around the ongoing quarterback situation involving Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pat McAfee discusses rumors and media speculation about Rodgers potentially signing with Pittsburgh, while Boston Connor and others express frustration over the uncertainty and lack of official communication from the teams involved.

Notable Quote:

"The entire city of Pittsburgh is like, we're waiting. And he's like, okay, okay. I didn't know I had a shot clock from a city that I've never played for before."
— Pat McAfee [14:57]

Darius J. Butler and other co-hosts debate the implications of Rodgers joining the Steelers, weighing the benefits of his experience against the challenges of integrating him into a new team dynamic.

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Free Agency Moves: Geno Smith and Sam Darnold

The conversation shifts to recent free agency moves, including Geno Smith's signing with the Las Vegas Raiders and Sam Darnold's transition to Seattle. Dan Orlovsky provides insights into how these moves will impact their respective teams, highlighting the Raiders' need to bolster their offensive line and the Seattle Seahawks' quest for a more dynamic offense.

Notable Quote:

"While I'm ecstatic for Sam Darnold, the situation is going to be very different unless some pieces get added to their offense."
— Darius J. Butler [32:06]

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NFL Division Highlights and Team Strategies

The episode delves into the NFC North, discussing the competitive dynamics within the division. Ty Schmidt shares his optimism about the Packers' strategy, while Darius Butler remains cautious about their free agency aggressiveness.

Notable Quote:

"First and foremost, it's great to be back. I mean, like the amount of deals are happening, it really is head-spinning."
— Darius J. Butler [04:05]

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Q&A with Dan Orlovsky and Shaquille O'Neal

In a lively Q&A session, Dan Orlovsky and Shaquille O'Neal join the show to discuss various topics, including quarterback evaluations, team building in the NFL, and the state of other sports like NBA and F1 racing. They offer their expert opinions on player performances, team strategies, and the evolving landscape of professional sports.

Notable Quote:

"If Anthony Richardson can't beat out Daniel Jones, then it's a miss on the draft."
— Darius J. Butler [23:58]

Notable Quote:

"Steph Curry completely changed the game... I want Steph to be in that goat conversation."
— Pat McAfee [163:09]

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Technological Innovations in Sports

Pat McAfee and guests explore the intersection of technology and sports, discussing advancements like cochlear implants for the hearing impaired and Lasik eye surgery for athletes. They emphasize the importance of technological support in enhancing player performances and overall sports experiences.

Notable Quote:

"Technology is the greatest. It's amazing what we're able to accomplish."
— Pat McAfee [182:41]

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Conclusion

As the show wraps up, Pat McAfee reiterates his excitement for the upcoming NFL season, Tyrese Haliburton's burgeoning career, and the continuous evolution of sports technology. He thanks his guests and co-hosts for their valuable insights and looks forward to covering more sports news as the new league year unfolds.

Notable Quote:

"Cheers to you, Shaq. Appreciate you, man. Beat your march."
— Pat McAfee [143:48]

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This episode of The Pat McAfee Show offers a comprehensive overview of the current sports landscape, blending expert analysis with engaging conversations and memorable moments. Whether you're an avid football fan or a casual sports enthusiast, this episode provides valuable insights and entertaining discussions that capture the essence of the dynamic world of sports.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this happy birthday NFL Wednesday, March 12, 2025 this program starts now. Football celebrating a massive day. The new league year and the official free agency signing period begin at 4:00 today. Congrats to the NFL. Yeah, another trip. Private sign. And you know this marks the beginning of a new league year. Everybody at the bottom of the mountain trying to chase the Philadelphia Eagles who grind and their way behind a great offensive line and Saquon Barkley all the way to the top of Lombardi Mountain. They are our current world champions and today every organization you would hope would be leaving no stone unturned on the pursuit to becoming world champs at the end of this particular season. Now, we all thought maybe, you know, the NFL would not be able to survive another year. Yeah, maybe last year was their last season. Turns out they're back and seller caps bigger than it's ever been. Contracts are larger than they've ever been. More ratings and eyes on the game than there's ever been. More ways to enjoy the game than there's ever been. And it's a wonderful time for the NFL. So congrats to them and happy birthday. Happy birthday to the NFL. That's nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler has an F1 hoodie on that season starting this weekend.

[AJ Hawk]

Sure is.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know how that survived. I thought that was going to be one of the ones that didn't have another season. This is going to be the year where we're going to pay attention to this. Yep. We're going to dive in. We're going to pay our respects to racing that happens in Europe. Doesn't mean it's the pinnacle.

[AJ Hawk]

Happens everywhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah, I heard they've been infiltrating our. Yeah. Down in Miami. We, we got lost on the, on the track trying to get into the building in a sprinter van. It was a great time, wasn't it? So I kissed the pavement through the whole thing. So I taste some of the rubber. F1 starts this weekend.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes. In Melbourne.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Well, good luck to all that one drivers.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Whatever.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe a little bit faster exciting racing this year.

[AJ Hawk]

We got a different favorite, different betting favorite to win it all this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Vanderstoppen. If he's racing, we know he's gonna win this thing.

[AJ Hawk]

That's what we would think. I mean I would take the money plus money on him, but Lando Norris McLaren, Orlando favorite.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep, Orlando. We know Lando pretty good. He won a couple races that he wasn't Supposed to win. Remember he did. Because I think Vander Stoppen was in the lead. And then Lando says, I want to go. And he said, I'm not doing it. And they did a little. Right, that is that Lando.

[AJ Hawk]

Lando was the guy have won a race, but ended up letting his teammate Oscar Piastri win it.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

So that's how I know he won in Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's when we learned that you guys aren't actually racing.

[Darius J. Butler]

Not trying to win.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. No, you're not trying to win because the person that was winning the race. Yeah. But I thought we're trying to nonetheless. This the year. F1 this year.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Have fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Good luck down here in Australia. Dying under. You know, as they say, the NFL though, obviously cooking. They're dropping. As Foxy put up there, they're dropping a football over in Times Square. You know, crowds already gathered to watch football drop. Now. I was just in New York City on Monday. It's alive, really. I think it might have been the first day where it was very good weather. You know, we've gotten like a couple different fake springs, little pump fakes. It was perfect. The weather was awesome. It was an active city. I mean, there was people every crosswalk. It was damn impossible to kind of turn to go a different direction because of how many people were out and about. Running, biking, living. You know, it was like. It was beautiful to see, actually. It was really fun to be a part sucked to drive anywhere. You know, it wasn't. Wasn't necessarily for the time it took to get to said Madison Square Garden. But I assume this is going to be very active. I assume this is going to be a good shot and shout to the NFL. I'm sure some middle manager came up with this idea and they said that is the only way to launch the 2025 NFL season. That's big brain stuff. That's big brain stuff. Everybody will see do it Times Square, obviously, the toxic table is here at BostonConner. And good to see you, Ty. You've missed a lot here with the free agency tampering period. We are very happy that you are back. How do you feel about where the packers stand? We haven't got any takes at all from the Green Bay contingency on this particular free agency over the last 48 hours.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, first and foremost, it's great to be back. You know, it sucked missing the last couple days, especially with all this stuff going on, because when you're not in it, it's so hard to keep. I mean, like the the amount of deals that are happening, like, it really is head spinning when you're not in here and being able to. Okay, okay, okay. I, I'm okay with what the packers have done so far. I really. My whole thing was I, I just want them to get a couple vets because I'm tired of the, hey, this is the youngest team in the NFL. Like they kind of proved last year, especially down the stretch, like, they need some guys who have kind of been there and done that before to maybe shore up the locker room a little bit. So, I mean, they got a guard, you know, who anytime you're going to add offensive linemen, especially as. As we've seen in recent years, like, with how much they ran the football last year, I kind of like that. You know, I'm can't say I've ever really heard of the guy before, to be honest, but he started for the.

[Pat McAfee]

We did a lot of that the last couple.

[Darius J. Butler]

Exactly, exactly. More and more of that this year. And then, you know, they do get a cornerback from, from the Raiders who they're going to. They're going to end up losing both their cornerbacks. So it's kind of one of those things where I, I've known in years past, like the packers don't. It doesn't matter how much cap space they have or how little cap space they have, they're not going to be super active like a lot of teams are. So anytime, you know, I was saying, like, hey, I want them to go get DK Metcalf. I want them to check in on Trey Hendrickson. Like, they're never going to do that. You know, the chances. That's just stupid and wishful thinking. So we'll see. There's still a couple, you know, vets out there that are available. They need to get a receiver, though. I like, I. They really, really need to get like. And, and they. They missed on like a true number one, I guess. But they need some help there. But you see what everyone else in the division's doing. That's kind of why it's like, hey, let's go. Like, let's make some moves here.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of action in the NFC north, obviously it was one divisions in all the ball last year. That's only going to continue, we would assume. Even though the Vikings, J.J. mcCarthy's their starter currently. Who knows what the future holds for them. Since you've been gone. Great song.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Since you've been gone.

[AJ Hawk]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

All demos.

[Pat McAfee]

I couldn't tell you who was by either. I don't know who. Kelly, of course. Oh, that's Kelly.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's Kelly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's our first. Hey, she could sing Kelly Clarkson, kid.

[Boston Connor]

She can sing the. Out of it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Got the pipes.

[Pat McAfee]

She has her own show. And whenever we're off, my wife watches it. So I see it, and it's like she just does karaoke for, like 15 minutes of the show, and it's just her murdering everybody else's song. Like, just singing it better than I'm. Like this. You should just do this every fucking. This should be an hour. Oh, yeah, she does interviews. Great interviews, obviously. She does jokes. Yeah, great jokes. Does good Q and A. But the karaoke, it's like, hey, Kelly, nobody on earth can do what you. And she knows it. I think she is a weapon. Anyway, since you've been gone, you know, this guy didn't watch hockey anymore. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was pretty insane hockey talk yesterday. It all revolved around, basically, Connor has quit on the Boston Bruins. Not quit on them. He's quit on Sweeney, who's general manager of the Boston Bruins because they traded Marshawn to the Florida Panthers. Florida Panthers, obviously the biggest rival in recent memory of the Boston Bruins, especially as the reigning Stanley cup champions. And they met for the first time. I don't know if you know this. Last night, Marshawn back on the Boston ice with the Florida Panthers. Florida Panthers, reigning Stanley cup champs. Guess who won the game last night. Who? Boston Bruins. Guess who didn't watch. Who? This guy. He could have had a great night last night. Ended with a fight, too. You guys won at the end. And a fight. I mean, it could have been a great night for you. You are choosing to not cheer for the Bruins strictly because one guy is seemingly trying to tear it all down. But you got to continue to support. Don't feel that way.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Still supporting the players, you know, Swayman, McAvoy.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Swam and let one. Sway. Swayman let one. They went to a review. They went through a review, actually, to see if it was in because it ended up cross. This was like, with a minute 20 left in the game, down one. It was a great ending. I mean, I. It was electrifying. And I. I texted you immediately, like, oh, no. Swamming. Just let a squeaker through, bro. And it did look bad. Then he ran the audio. Whistle blew. Great win by the Boston Bruins.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, huge. It's awesome. Now that I'm not watching, they probably will go on and win the Stanley Cup. But I. I still had a fantastic Night. You know, catching up on the Boston Celtics documentary, going back, you know, to the 60s and 70s in Boston was real fun. Definitely nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

What you learn a lot.

[Ty Schmidt]

Definitely nothing terrible going on then, but no, no, it was good to see that the Bruins are winning. You know, it's great that the boys are rallying around Sako, the best coach in the NHL, kind of. My assumption was that Sacco was going to have the boys going once again, and of course, they still are, but no huge one, you know, for the Celtics. Okay. I'm glad that the Bruins are playing well, but the Celtics once again are competing for that NBA championship, playing the OKC Thunder tonight, going up against the 1 seed, you know, at home. We're the favorites, of course, because as Rich Paul said, you know, to be the man, you got to beat the man, and that's who the Boston Celtics are.

[Pat McAfee]

So Ric Flair said that. I think Rich Paul, though, was quoting something along to knock off the Kings, to become the Kings. Yeah, exactly who the Boston Celtics are.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah. Potatoes, you know, potato, potato. That's fine. Yeah, there you go. We can still. We can do all that.

[Pat McAfee]

We can.

[Ty Schmidt]

Nickel and dime. This conversation with the Celtics are still the chance. Okay. And that's kind of the bottom line here. I don't know if Rich Paul said that as well, but. No, I'm looking forward to that. But no. Hockey season has been fun. You know, it was a real good ride. Ever since we set the record for most wins, most points in an NHL season, it's been incredible. But now, unfortunately for a lot of Boston Bruins fans, their sights have been, you know, kind of altered, like Missoula.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot, don't we?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly. We love Joe Jason. They've already won a title, ladies and gentlemen. This team is very young. You know, this is kind of like the 2011 Bruins. That's what we're seeing with the Boston Celtics right now. They are incredible at the basketball. So maybe we do. You know, let's just. Let's just move over a little.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, the Celtics are in trouble. I want to let you know. Shot of the year is now calling Indiana home.

[Ty Schmidt]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Tyrese Halliburton last night said, this is Tyrese Halla ballgame getting Tyrese Halla buckets drifting sideways while fouled on an inbound where they ran a tunnel screen. Basically down three against the Milwaukee Bucks. Gets fouled. Four point play to walk off a dub against the Bucs. Now, I guess it wasn't a walk off technically because Giannis had a chance to answer he would run down the court and air ball it. But whenever Tyrese Haliburton buried the and one four point play, Pacers took a lead with three seconds left. This was electrifying live. I believe we will be talking to Tyrese Halliburton in about 50 minutes or so to kind of get his headspace on the biggest shot he's hit, you know?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Nah, I'm sure there was some playoff. Yeah, there was some playoff that was.

[AJ Hawk]

So nasty last night.

[Pat McAfee]

So. Oh, dude, what a play. First of all, play design phenomenal.

[AJ Hawk]

But running full speed and then shooting that back to your right as you're running full speed, like that's, that's an insane over Giannis, you know, who knows what his wingspan is over Giannis. And obviously Dame's on the bench. So right in front of Dame, that's just all time shit. Then followed up with making a free throw after he tried to ice you. That's big time ball.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. They wanted to review if it was a foul or not, I think, or if he was in bounds. I think there was like, it felt like it was a 10 minute review.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And they just had Tyrese sitting over there knowing he's about to shoot a free throw to win the game. Now granted, potentially goes to overtime because it is tied at the time. They're not down, but he knocks it down pure. I mean, there wasn't a even a doubt on the free throw and we needed it, obviously. Bucks and Pacers in the playoff conversation. And Tyrese Halliburton, perfect face of a franchise, this guy. Especially for the Indiana Pacers. Last night he was wearing the DX Pumas that he had specially made. He actually shouted out Mr. H numerous times in the postgame presser. Said that if he would have gave the socket, it would have been a $25,000 fine by the NBA.

[AJ Hawk]

Worth it.

[Pat McAfee]

So he said he wasn't gonna take the fine. We will ask him 25k get a especially after that. We can figure out 25,000 bucks somewhere. Can we? I think he's just trying to respect the game, trying to respect the boys and also let everybody know that he is a wrestling fan. Always has been, always will be. Had a double double last night. Obviously not his biggest night of the year, but he had a double double in the DX shoes and hits a game winner and has a four point play. That's a pretty good way to launch the DX Pumas. So congratulation. Congratulations to Tyrese Halliburton and the rest of the East I'm sorry about it. Y'all can suck it. The Pacers are getting hot at the right time. And we'll talk Tyrese at 105 Eastern Time. That'll be about 50 minutes from now. Text him last night. You know, superstar. You know this guy?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Now we have Shaquille O'Neal joining us at 2:30 Eastern. He was on the air immediately after this game. Listen to them talk about everything happening. Certainly fascinating Lefkoe out there doing his thing. He looks so cool.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, Great shoes.

[Pat McAfee]

Looks so cool. When they came back to the studio after this game, Lefkoe was actually clapping for the game. He's like, that was a good game. Like, that was good. It was. Is basketball back? Is basketball bringing? It feels like if they're going to have magical moments like this happen on random Tuesdays, why not? We'll talk to Tyrese. Can't wait for that. One half of the Hammer Cowboys ball cap. Tone here. Tone. Pittsburgh steelers, obviously. Beautiful. St Patrick's Day. Irish hat. You got it right there. Topical. Feels good.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are awaiting a quarterback decision.

[Boston Connor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

What is kind of the state of Pittsburgh right now? Because let me tell you what happened. There was a video that somebody retweeted of Aaron Rodgers talking about Pittsburgh, you know, because Big Mike McCarthy's from Pittsburgh. He's got a lot of friends from Pittsburgh. This is from years ago on our particular program. Somebody retweeted it. So it came up in my, you know, algo yet again. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is a. This needs being a zeitgeist right now. This is something because of how much he is certainly being associated with Pittsburgh in playing for the Steelers, not just them. I think the Giants are in the conversation, and a lot of people are saying, is he going to go to the Vikings? Even though the Vikings have not come out and there has not been rumors that the Vikings and Aaron talking. We know nothing. I retweet that video, though. I guess I should have. I guess I should have known that this was potentially going to happen. All of Pittsburgh basically was like, oh, I know, and he's going to Pittsburgh. Seemed like there was people very excited about it. Then there was people that are indifferent about it. It feels like, is there going to be any decision at quarterback that the entire, entire city is going to be rallied around? And what are your thoughts on Aaron potentially being your quarterback? And once again, I just retweet that. So people know, like, the guy loves the city. Like, if he was to go to Pittsburgh loves the city. Thought it should be in the world that we're in right now, especially with how much his name is being thrown to Pittsburgh. I did not. That's not me saying I know shit. I don't, I don't. I do not know anything. I wonder if he does, you know, and, you know, you could text him and call him. Sure. But what if he doesn't answer?

[Ty Schmidt]

Typically.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, for five days or so. Sure. Which maybe has been.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Before we go live, cold face time. Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Give us something. No answer. Then you get a text back like, hey, everything's going good, or whatever. It's like, all right, you know, we just want to get a little bit of a lean, at least on what this could be. So I know nothing, but I thought that video could be good for the current conversation because he does have massive respect for the city, for Tomlin, for everything in the people over there. How do you feel and what do you think Pittsburgh's thoughts are and what's quarterback situation is right now?

[Boston Connor]

So to your question, is there a quarterback out there where the fan base is going to be happy? No, that person does not exist at this moment. You put out a couple polls yesterday on Instagram and Twitter on who people thought that quarterback would be, and a lot of people think it's going to be Aaron Rodgers right now. Whether it's Aaron Rodgers, Russell Wilson, you know, apparently there's some rumors out there it could be Mason Rudolph. Whoa.

[AJ Hawk]

What?

[Boston Connor]

That's probably, that's, that's a situation we're hoping doesn't happen. But, you know, love Mason.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think Rudolph's coming in to be a starter, but maybe he'll compete. You know, we're about to drift.

[Boston Connor]

I mean, we're sitting at 20. I don't know if that person exists either. I personally and I, I, I said this yesterday, I think I'm in the minority in, of Steelers fans just because of Aaron's age and everything that potentially comes with Aaron. I'm not a believer in that. I do think Aaron is the best possibility and best chance to win next year for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now there's a contingent of people who voted Russ.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's that?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Who's.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that Zito's computer Z voted Russ. That's what I'm realizing right there. Okay. He's pulling for Russell. Wolf chaos, baby.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

He's pulling for Russell Wilson because that means Rogers would be in the NFC north, maybe, or the NFC East. That's what Zeno's pulling for. I guess if that's the case, go ahead.

[Boston Connor]

But everyone's waiting on 51,000 votes, is.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of votes. 13 hours.

[Boston Connor]

Everyone's waiting on Aaron's answer. Who knows when that'll come? And there's things that are definitely working against Aaron in Pittsburgh. One being the national media. You know, the rumors out there that he's looking for a two year, $90 million deal, which we believe to be false. You know, Shregs and I, I think straight just meant this like in a. In a glancing thing. Like he was like, who knows when we're going to get an answer from Aaron? It could be one week, it could be two week, it could be three weeks, it could be four weeks. Then obviously everyone in Pittsburgh got mad that of the idea of Aaron stretching people along for four weeks, which we have no idea if that's true or not. I looked into it today.

[Pat McAfee]

That is the Aaron Rodgers. That is the Aaron Rodgers thing, though. You know, like Schrager says, you know, we don't know when this answer is fact, factual, statement, factual. We don't know when it's going to be. Could be one, could be three, could be, you know, and then people in Pittsburgh, isn't this guy so special? And it's like, did Aaron say. Did Aaron talk to Schrager? This is just Schrager.

[Boston Connor]

So Pittsburgh media right now is basically thinking he's looking for 45 million years dollars a year and it might take a month to get an answer, which, you know, we have no idea if that's.

[Pat McAfee]

And with everything else you potentially have heard about Aaron, you know, that probably similar, similar vein stuff, it's like, yeah, def this prima donna piece of like. And people in Pittsburgh can feel that way pretty quick.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Now granted wins games.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. No one cares.

[Pat McAfee]

No one cares. City of Pittsburgh is a place where if you win some football games, brother. Love you. Come on in, man. I got some good news.

[Boston Connor]

I looked into it. We are in day 11 of moon cycle. We're in the waxing gibbous. We have a full moon on Friday the 14th. So I think if Aaron's moon rocks are fully charged on Friday.

[Pat McAfee]

See, that sounds a little condescending. He can get some answer.

[Boston Connor]

We could potentially. I think we might make decision Saturday. Saturday, Sunday, after he talks to the moon gods and stuff like that. I know there's people in Pittsburgh, some close to me, who said they won't watch a game if Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback.

[AJ Hawk]

Sure how close to you?

[Boston Connor]

Super close. Like I can't. I came from his nutsack.

[Pat McAfee]

Your pop. What's that all about? Why. Why is coach. Why is coaching up?

[Boston Connor]

He listens to too much local sports talk.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

So there's a lot of what happened there.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, that's what happened.

[Ty Schmidt]

No one dudes change.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like to let coach. I would like to let coach Diggs know that if Aaron Rodgers ends up being a quarterback for the series, which once again, we do not know, there is a beautiful pair of front row tickets on the 50 right behind the Pittsburgh Steelers to game one that we would like to offer you. You. We'll see. If he's not watching, you know coach Diggs will go. Come on.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Can you imagine coach Diggs after Rogers throws four touchdowns for the Steelers?

[Pat McAfee]

I always need the bike shorts.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Boston Connor]

I stand on the fact that Aaron is the best thrower of the football available right now. I think that's pretty obvious. And when you go and get out the. Get the weapons that you have. I know already. And the Steelers want to run the football, but you need to also throw the ball. We saw that a ton last year. I think Aaron's the best option and that's why I'm still hoping.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, we shall see when his answer comes. Maybe it's next year.

[Darius J. Butler]

You never know.

[Pat McAfee]

That's just happening. And then people getting pissed at Aaron Rodgers because Schrager's opining about something that could happen. I just got a stat from Hembo. Number one in the NFL in completion percentage targeting vertical routes in 2024. Was who? Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson. 56%. So maybe less restful. Russ is the answer. Joining us now is a man who I'm sure has an opinion or two about all of this. He is the face of quarterback coverage on espn. He calls games and ladies and gentlemen, he's an absolute icon in the sports media world. Horrendous dude of dude. Perfect. Danielski Few will hunt.

[Boston Connor]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

American made another subtweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What are you doing? Who's this? Who's this message to right here? Use this message. They wouldn't. They wouldn't offer you a hunting show or something?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh.

[Tone]

Now some dude I get gotten a gift, a T shirt from one of our family friends. This. This family friend that we have got me a T shirt from this company. And it aligns pretty much with some of the things or a lot of the things that I believe in. So I went and got some more stuff. I think they're from Philly, the company.

[Pat McAfee]

So everybody wants to be alive. Comes time to do what Lions do.

[Tone]

I got that dude. Restoring the dignity of hard work.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, hell yeah. I like that a lot. Hard work is. Yeah. A work ethic I think, is the most important thing, you know, which is why I feel the way differentiator about what's going on maybe in this city, you know, at the, in the football team. But hey, I got optimism. I got optimism. Let's stick with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Rodgers, I think I saw you on TV say Aaron would be perfect for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then you immediately said, I am keeping him the hell away from the Minnesota Vikings because he brings too much. What does that mean? And when you look at the Pittsburgh Steelers situation, why is Aaron Rodgers the guy that you think should be the quarterback?

[Tone]

Well, ever since they traded for DK Metcalf, it became very clear that their offense just presents a problem immediately when they get out of the snap. As a defense, you're going, all right, what are we doing? Are we going to try to play coverage? Because then that'll help. I mean, the Steelers have the worst run game in the NFL of the last six years. Statistically, it's the worst yards per carry run that run offense in the NFL for the last six years. So one of the ways that you help it outside of playing better offensive line wise is just have less people down near the football automatically. That is going to be a question defenses have to ask themselves with DK and George. Now I've said from the jump, this has to have George as part of the equation. And I don't know if it has been become like publicly official that yes, he is staying because there has been some understand or under understandably question marks attached to like is, does this mean the end for George Pickens? So he's got to be a part of that. But I just look at it and go, all right, there's a defense. You got to ask yourself, you're going to play coverage. Are you going to try to stop a run game that hopefully gets a little bit better? And I think that that presents really well for Aaron Rodgers. I don't think it's the perfect. For me, it would have been Sam Darnold. He's clearly, clearly, clearly the best option. And I think it's clearly the clearly the best option for Aaron Rodgers. That's why I get a little bit unknown about what's taking so long to make the decision. The reason why I would not do it in Minnesota, it would be a massive mistake, was you've already made the decision. Minnesota. JJ Is the guy. Once you let Sam walk, you've made it clear that JJ Is the guy. Aaron's not going there to be a backup. Aaron's going there to try to go win the division and go to the Super Bowl. So this isn't open competition. This isn't, hopefully you can play till JJ McCarthy is fully ready or healthy. This is. We're trying to win the super bowl was one of the greatest ever, so. And I would not do that to that young player.

[Pat McAfee]

What? Okay, so you wouldn't want another year of J.J. mcCarthy in the building, healthy, watching a veteran quarterback for one year. I mean, depending upon how long Aaron's playing, we have. We know nothing from Aaron's side. We know nothing from Aaron. You don't think that that would be an okay move for JJ McCarthy as a whole goal long term with his career is what you're saying.

[Tone]

You think that. You got to be very careful with saying one year with a veteran quarterback. Aaron's not a veteran quarterback. Aaron's one of the greatest ever. Aaron thumbs. Whether. Whether people like, disagree or agree or. There is a lot that comes with Aaron just because of what he's accomplished and the personality that he has. People love him, people hate him. And so you. Are you really sure, Minnesota, it's not just bringing a veteran quarterback in to maybe be the guy for one more year. You're bringing Aaron Rodgers. That's different. And so when I think you allow Sam Darnold to walk out of the building, you're making the decision as an organization. All right, the young kid is the play. This was the plan when we drafted him. It was trending that way in preseason. This is the play now. We are deciding that J.J. mcCarthy is going to be the guy and we want to now have someone there to support him rather than threaten him. You want somebody in Minnesota that is going to challenge JJ As a professional, not kind of threaten his job and leadership role within the team.

[Pat McAfee]

Got it. Who do you think that would be? Just like somebody two, three years in. That's a backup quarterback type conversation. Like Kenny Pickett, for instance. Going up there to Cleveland like a Kenny Pickett type quarterback? Is that what you're saying? Somebody that isn't, you know as well. I don't know. Known or respected by his peers. No offense, Kenny. Jesus Christ, you're a Super bowl champion.

[Tone]

I know what you're saying.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. I hope Kenny understands what I'm saying. Somebody that isn't like a. I would walk into A room.

[Tone]

Kenny Pickett's. The opening day started for the Browns.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, well, good luck to Kenny Pickett, too. I would. He came in there and started spinning. Against the Philadelphia Eagles, Miles Garrett came back to win. Kenny Pickett's already won a Super Bowl. Last guy to touch the ball in the Super Bowl, Kenny Pickett.

[Tone]

I think the ideal guy would have been Daniel Jones. That would have been the, you know, the ideal guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on.

[Tone]

It's not going to be on that note.

[Pat McAfee]

D, bud has a question for you. And remember what your little notebook says. Go ahead.

[AJ Hawk]

Wow, that caught me off guard. But Coates, competition, obviously, we brought Daniel Jones down here to compete with Anthony Richardson. You mentioned, right after it happened, right after the news broke, does AR ask for a trade? So that aside salaries, aside, what do you think about this competition? Who's going to be the day one starter, in your opinion, in Indianapolis?

[Tone]

The day one starter. I'm not ready to sit there and say, like, definitively, come on, Dan, you.

[Boston Connor]

Have to gun your head.

[Tone]

Guess I don't have to. Yeah, I just. I just. The way I look at it, and this is why I said, is Richardson going to ask for a trade? I'm not sitting here saying that teams are going to be knocking down the door to go get him type of thing. He has had moments that have been very encouraged, but it's hard to. And you guys know this. It's hard to just get rid of some of the, I guess, judgments that have been made against him, especially in your own building. And if all the conversation and the noise about how things were going down last year are true, I just think that's really hard. You gave a guy $14 million, upwards of $17 million to come and compete. That's. That's a very clear message to Anthony. Now, I've talked to people that have kind of disagreed with the Anthony wasn't working hard narrative. I. Not in the building. That is, in the building, really.

[Pat McAfee]

I have.

[Tone]

I have. I've had people say, nope, works hard. You know, prepares the right way. He's working hard. Now, maybe it's not to the extreme that you want your starting quarterback, but people in. In the building, I've heard that. So whether it's true or not, I just think it's hard that once people within the building, I would imagine some people, because it has to come from somewhere, believe a certain thing about a player. It's just hard to shake that. And so I think it's. Daniel Jones got a great opportunity, but I think it's Very clear. Anthony Richardson. The organization's telling you like it's time to put up or shut up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And I'm optimistic, you know, Cause D. Buck gave me a motivational speech earlier today. T. Buck gave me a motivational speech and I've read a lot of the blogs, you know, about the, from the Colts fans that are all pissed off at me for just, you know, having a front row seat to football for a long time, being very lucky to have that seat, and just seeing a lot of people that don't end up being what they could be because of, you know, the way they go about doing their business. You know, a lot of it revolves around, like a work ethic. A lot of it revolves around, like having a passion for job and things like that. So whenever you say, you talk to people in a building, they've said, that's interesting.

[Tone]

Let me ask you this question that's very, very fascinating.

[AJ Hawk]

A lot to learn. It's a big, obviously it's brand new. You're the quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

And he hasn't played a lot of football either.

[AJ Hawk]

So coming into, coming into the league, coming into the draft, I think most people around football knew, okay, this is a boom or bust guy. He's either going to be this or he's going to be that. And it's a lot to figure out. Have I seen it? You know, people change it year three, year four and really learn how to start being a pro. Yeah. Are those few and far between? Absolutely. So as a coach fan. Yeah, I'm very optimistic in March 12, going into his third year that he starts to figure it out. Dan Jones. A lot of people are excited about Dan Jones, more excited, I guess than I am. But Dan Jones can turn the corner and figure it out too. But yeah, as a Colts fan, the guy that I would want to be the day one starter in, to figure it out and to do all the right things behind the scenes and show up on Sundays. More importantly, is Anthony Richardson going forward.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. And you know what? I'm the same way. I read a lot of messages from Colts fans to me last night. They're being very mean. You got to do what you got to do. I appreciate your passion. I hope he has the same passion for the Colts because that would be cool. And I think this year it could happen. You know, I think he could hear all this noise, see what happened. He got benched last year, you know, and the things, the reasons why he got benched were very real and I think very much brought to his attention and told to him. And it's like maybe he takes it all this offseason, rolls with, has not played much football. Has not played much football. So I will say I have changed my tune. I am optimistic about Anthony Rose. All right. I'm optimistic. Hell yeah. I think it's very difficult to do that stuff, but I think. Why not? Why not ar.

[Darius J. Butler]

Why not?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he's.

[Tone]

He has no choice. I mean, he.

[Pat McAfee]

He has so much talent. So much talent. It is.

[Tone]

Yeah. That's why it's so like, I'm a supporter. I'm a believer. I've been Anthony Richardson fan since college, since calling his game.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You're making up sources in the building now to say things that aren't real. Yeah.

[Tone]

So that. That one will probably get me in trouble. But. And I know this like Daniel Jones. Listen, everything you hear about Daniel Jones, great teammate, hardest worker, puts it all, you know, does everything the right winning.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

Fast.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

Yeah. I mean, he's anti. Whatever that was getting said about, you know, that whole, I guess situation last year.

[Pat McAfee]

So I think.

[Tone]

I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

If ar.

[Tone]

Anthony Richardson can't beat out Daniel Jones. Let's like, let's be honest. If Anthony Richardson, in a very clear message from his organization, it is time to go. Can't beat out Daniel Jones, then it's a miss on the draft.

[Pat McAfee]

Agreed? Agreed. Agreed. Hey, good luck out there, boys. Thank you. Thank you to both of you. Good luck to both of you in your competitions. Now there's been some quarterback moves during this free agency tendering period here or whatever the this has been. Because actually free agency starts today at 4:00. Connor has a question for you. Dano.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Danny, always a pleasure. Gino to Vegas. And Sam, darling, wish I could share the message. Excuse me?

[Tone]

Nothing. Go ahead.

[Ty Schmidt]

I missed what you said. No, please, please, enlighten me.

[Tone]

No, no, go ahead. Vegas and.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, okay. All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Kind of a wuss move there, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Then Darnold to Seattle, obviously Seattle, no dk, no locket. They're kind of going to look completely different as what they have in the past. And you know, Geno down, reuniting with Pete Carroll. Kind of a cool story as well. How do you feel about those two moves?

[Tone]

Yeah, the best, but also the worst.

[Ty Schmidt]

Nice.

[Tone]

I don't. I'm super happy for Sam Darnold. Ecstatic for Sam Darnold. You're going to a very different situation. And that's my thing for Seattle is don't take Sam Darnold and pay him this money. And think you're. You're not going to have to add some pretty significant pieces in the next six weeks or so and you're going to get the same results. Sam went from arguably the best situation quarterback wise in the NFL outside of maybe Philly to one that is dire right now in Seattle. Yeah, I love JSN Jackson, Smith and Jigba's really starting to come on at the back end of last year. He's going to be a very, very good wide receiver. He had two really good wide receivers last year in Minnesota. Three pretty darn ones if pretty good ones if you include Naylor. Hawkinson's a star. They don't have that star tight end in Seattle. And the offensive line was top five seven in the NFL specifically when it came to their pass protection. That is not Seattle's offensive line. So while I'm ecstatic for Sam Darnold that he got his money, the situation is going to be very different unless some things get added to their offense. And my challenge to Seattle is you better add at least another starting wide receiver. At a minimum, you better kind of include a tight end. That's a little bit more of a difference maker. And offensive line's got to get a lot better. Now. Clint Kubiak, their offensive coordinator, runs the same system. That should help the offensive line a little bit. But. But you know, if you go back to the last two games of last year, the main thing was, well, Sam Darnold stinks. And then the main thing that I kind of was on board was like that offensive line got whooped and that's kind of when he became a lesser player than he was last year. So I want to see what Seattle does. I'm not ready to sit there and say we're going to get repeat performance by Sam unless things change. I like Gino in Las Vegas. Brock Bauer is really good. I think Las Vegas has okay receivers. Like I'm a big Jacoby Myers guy, but they're going to have to add some pieces as well. Offensive line is a little bit better than I think the play at quarterback made you think. Tino was fantastic last year with the bad offensive line, but they need to add some pieces. I love the fact that he's with Chip Kelly. They need another starting offensive lineman or two, but I think Geno gives this team the chance to just compete in games on a week to week basis for now.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I like Geno's competitive spirit, you know, especially with the journey he's been on. Maybe Danny Dimes has a Similar one. But you know, with Geno, the way he's kind of got to this point I respect and the fact he turned down that deal with Seattle to go to Las Vegas to rejoin Pete Carroll and his mission and Chip Kelly over there as offense coordinator and Tom Brady seemingly on a day to day basis, a phone call away because I think he's all in. Great scene for Geno Smith. Yep.

[Tone]

Back to the thing I'd say about that real quick though. Pat also is just because he's there doesn't mean they shouldn't draft a quarterback if they like one in the first round. They absolutely should.

[Pat McAfee]

We think that with most of these teams too, like Giants, like you know, even if they get a vet, they should probably, if they like a guy, they should draft a guy and do that. The whole at least give him a year to learn under which you know, Minnesota could do with JJ McCarthy yet again because he wasn't maybe in the building as much last year because he was hurt. But hey, don't want to stall any growth, especially with what we're hearing about jj. What we're hearing about JJ is like guy stars o'clock. This is a guy is what everybody has been telling us. I can't wait, wait to watch it. The draft is going to be fascinating. On that note, Tone has a question for you.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I do, Dan. Besides Shador and Cam Ward, like is the number three quarterback, whoever you think that is, do you think they are worthy to be drafted in the first round?

[Tone]

Oh, absolutely. I, so I, I still think Cam Ward's going to go number one. If I, if I was Tennessee, that would be an easy choice for me right now. I think number two probably ends up being Shador Sanders somewhere. I don't know exactly where, but I'd be surprised if he got outside that top 10 world. I think that third quarterback is more likely going to be Jackson Dart. I don't think Jackson Dart gets out of the first round. I watched Jackson Dart's tape and I go, what am I missing? I actually DM'd lane. Tiffany hasn't got back to me, but I said what am I missing about Jackson Dart? Because I think runner and athlete wise, he reminds me a little bit of Jalen Hurts. He makes some throws on tape. You're like, I mean this is big time football now. The pushback that or I guess the, the hesitation that you have is there's two games late against, I think one against Kentucky and one against Florida where he makes two or three decisions like, dude, what are you doing with the football in that moment. So I don't love that. But those are conversations you have to have throughout the process with these guys. But I'm a fan of Jackson Dart. I don't think he gets out of the first round. I texted Field Yates. I don't think he gets to the Pittsburgh Steelers at number 20 or 21.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[Tone]

I just don't. When you watch the Georgia game, he unbelievable in the Georgia game. And so. And he throws the ball downfield as well as any quarterback in this draft. He's super confident with what he's looking at. And a lot of people continue. And I haven't watched him yet and I'm going to, but a lot of people are talking about the Tyler Schuck player out of Louisville. I can't make a comment on him because I haven't watched him. But I think those three guys are first rounders for sure. I don't think. I don't think Jackson Dark is out of round one.

[Pat McAfee]

Now let's talk about Jackson too, because he was out with the boys on Halloween. Remember out with the boys on Halloween. Everybody was mad at him and they went for like 400 yards three days later. And I think the boys love him. Like, I think Jackson Dart is beloved by his team. Obviously he's in the Lane Kiffin offense, so there is a lot of explosion and everything like that. He's been able to handle all of it. Ole Miss, not in the conversation during the playoffs. So everybody kind of forgot about Jackson. I think, you know, all these guys on primetime tv, you get a little bit more convo. Cam and Shador also not in there, but they are there, literally vlogging the entire process. So Jackson Dark kind of disappeared from the conversation. And then once people start pointing out like, hey, Jackson's beloved by people, then you start showing a highlight. It's like, why not? Why not?

[Boston Connor]

Dan's point too, which hurts him just in the public eye. That Florida game, I think it was three interceptions in the fourth quarter when, you know, if they win that game, they're in the playoff. In that Kentucky game, they were both national games where it just didn't look good in the fourth quarter. So I think that, you know, that kind of put a sour.

[Tone]

It was like, like tone. Tone. It was like the final drive as well, where. And the weird thing is in both of those games, he plays really well. And then he gets to the final drive and he makes two or three just outrageously boneheaded decisions and everyone will go, well, that's a Bad sign or a red flag or is he panicking with the football? But then there's so much other evidence of him not doing that. And that's why I think, like I've said this, I remember talking about Will Levison this way when you would go, I, I want to have the conversation and sit there and ask him what the heck were you thinking in this stuff? Because maybe he thought something different or saw something different that you just get the explanation of understanding why they're thinking. But I think he's a runner. He's a lot like Jalen. Hurts, man. And as a thrower, he pushes the ball downfield. So, so. Well, I, I'm a big fan of his. I, I honestly think he's close to quarterback too. For some people.

[Pat McAfee]

In the entire draft, you're saying over instead of the Cam Shador conversation that's currently taking place.

[Tone]

I absolutely think he is going to be quarterback too. For some people.

[Pat McAfee]

All you need is one team to think anything. You know, one team thinks quarterback. One. And you could go, what about the.

[AJ Hawk]

Off like the, the offensive style, you know, coming from that Lane Kiffin Ole Miss system and then going into the NFL because like Cam Shador McQueen, like for like more pro style offense. What are you, you. Would you have any concerns about that.

[Tone]

When you watch the Door's offense debut?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Heavenly Father. Oh my gosh, man. Shador's offense tough to watch, man. I don't mind the Lane Kiffin offense. I think one, I think one, you, you take a ton of reps to seeing space and seeing how, how the field and, and coverage plays out. I think number two, you're challenged to make really low, low percentage throws. So this isn't a dink and dunk offense. He's not kicking the ball to the perimeter on an outrageous basis getting, you know, easy completions like you're taking shots down the field. Three, they ran real concepts. You know, I, I have so many examples of full progression reads or full field reads a lot of RPOs, which again are part of the NFL. So I don't know how greased he is with protections. There's examples of. I write down you have no clue what protection is. But that's kind of the case for most of these kids right now. And so you gotta again sit down and have the conversations with these players throughout this process of tell me what you know about protections. I'll go back to last year with Jaden Daniels. If you watched Washington, Washington really ran one protection all season, slide protection and Jada just knew what the problem was. That's what allowed him to play so fast and kill the blitz. So I'm, I'm. I don't knock the Lane Kiffin offense for him. Shador's offense for me is way harder to understand. I would tell you, you, I don't, I don't want to make this number up. I would tell you. At least 50% of Shador's completions or throws are at the line of scrimmage, just screen or RPR right now. And so, and then 25 of his passes are terrible pass protection. And you're going, well, there's nothing anybody can do. And so there's a small group of plays that you really can try to, for me, gather a fair evaluation of Shador. There's a, A lot that Shador does really well. I just think it's tough because you're either asking him not to do anything or there's no chance for him to do anything. And I think that's why, for some people, they might get hung up on Shador as a tough kind of evaluation.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he's definitely tough. I think that is something he proved with that offensive line about. Let's talk about Cam Ward now. Cam and Chador obviously training together as we. Bunch of highlights there. Shador spinning it all over the place.

[Tone]

Him and really good, really good player.

[Pat McAfee]

You like Cam Ward a lot, right? Right?

[Tone]

Yeah, I think Cam Ward's the number one pick, and it's clear to be the number one pick. I've said this. I think the thing that surprised me more about Cam Ward than I anticipated was how well he throws the ball from the pocket. I mean, there are so many examples where that ball, he hits his back foot on the ground and that thing jumps out of his hand. Jumps out of his hand, and it's an absolute rip. And the ball downfield. I mean, he throws the seam ball as good as anybody. Gosh, I'm trying to think, you know, Jaden through the crosser really well, but throwing the ball in between the hash, he absolutely steps on the football and rips it. And so it's clear to me that he's, he's the normal pick. He reminds me a little bit, you know, ironically, Steve McNair coming out of school and just his style. He's not an electric athlete. He's not a dynamic athlete, but he's athletic enough. And do I wish he was an inch or two taller? But, but Camborg, clear number one pick. I, I, if I was Tennessee, I would not trade out of the pick.

[Pat McAfee]

Tennessee Titans need a quarterback. Cam Ward is the quarterback they should take, says Dan Orlovsky. And Dan ain't stinky with that one. Dan ain't stinky Dan. You ain't stinky Dan. Only a few.

[Tone]

I'm trying to see my Cam word notes. My camward pros. My. My plus is about camward. Doesn't get fooled. Post snap, ball jumps off of his hands. It looks like he's throwing off a trampoline. He does not hesitate. We got a quick trigger. He does not force the football, which for, again, a little bit surprising for a guy that I guess is ultra aggressive. That's a sick throw. Ultra aggressive and kind of a playmaker. I think he's really strong in the pocket with his feet and his eyes tied together. There's plays where he has examples of controlling the line of scrimmage, changing some protection, changing some plays, scenes middle field RPOs. There's multiple times where he takes over in the fourth quarter. Takes over, and you're like, yeah, best player. This. This throws nuts. Just pin it on his chest. Super accurate with the ball. I think he makes you hold your breath at times, you know, because you're like, oh, gosh, what are you doing? I don't have a lot of college.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you write, oh, gosh, what are you doing in your notes? No, I just went off the prompter. Got it. I like that.

[Tone]

And honestly, I would tell you for both these guys as well, both Cam and Shador, they got to get some receivers that could catch the ball a little bit more. And so there's moments where your Cam's tape. I'd go, why are you forcing the ball to Restrepo? And then you watch, you're like, I know why you're forcing the ball to Restrepo. In the same with Chador. Why are you just only looking at Travis? Yep, I know why you're only looking at Travis. So doesn't have a blitz plan, you know, but again, that's the case for so many of these kids coming out of college, so. And he's an average athlete, but I'm a big fan of him.

[Pat McAfee]

He's played a lot of football, a lot of football, obviously, at different levels. Incarnate Ward over there to Washington State, all the way through Miami and that ACC run they had. And it feels like if you watched them last year with Miami, football gods love them. Yeah, football gods absolutely love them. This game, I mean, the. Yeah, this is where it all started. I think this was. It was when the magical run Kind of all started with Virginia Tech because Virginia Tech had 20 returning starters. This is going to be the tough one. And then there's a Hail Mary full of grace that connects. And then a couple weeks later, there's a fumble that like there was just so many things that went their way this year, except for the Syracuse game, obviously at the end, but feels like the football gods like Cam Ward as well. You do? Okay. Congrats to the Titans. They got a guy. Congrats. Sounds like the Titans got a guy. On that note, Ty has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, Dan, when you look around the NFL, which quarterback do you think is prime to kind of take that next. Next jump up this next year? And do you see either one of the guys getting drafted? Could they have a season like Jaden Daniels did this past year? Potentially?

[Tone]

There's two guys in the league right now that I think should. I think will and have no reason not to. No excuse not to. So in the draft, I'll touch that real quickly. I think Tennessee needs another receiver outside of Calvin so that their offensive line should play better. I want to see them add another receiver. The Giants are intriguing because of Dable. We'll see if they do it the same with Cleveland, you know, the Jets, Raiders. So I want to. The only one I feel really confident about right now is Cam as far as where he's going to get selected. I think the two guys that like one more so than the other don't have any more excuses. So one Trevor Lawrence down in Jacksonville. I like what Jacksonville has done. Go back to the addition of, you know, Liam Cohen and bringing him and what he has done immediately for Baker Mayfield or did for Baker Mayfield. This is, you know, Brian Thomas Jr. Is absolutely fantastic. We've talked about it. America probably didn't get the opportunity to see him a ton. He's a superstar in the making at the wide receiver position. Gabe Davis is there. I like a lot of what Jacksonville has done. It's time for Trevor to take a big leap.

[Pat McAfee]

It really is.

[Tone]

Like you're too talented of a player. I know it maybe hasn't been the most ideal situation for you at the start of your NFL career. And there was a moment with Doug Peterson where it was trending that way and it didn't. It's time to take the jump. There's all the pieces in place for you to become what you were expected to become at that number one pick. The second one would be Caleb. You know, Chicago's had a fantastic off season. Gets the hottest offensive mind in football over the last maybe 10 years since Sean McVay got the job. Offensive line additions, interior one. All those guys know this system. Tierney knows it. Drew Dahlman knows it. Jonah Jackson knows it. So the plug and play ability and, you know, the understanding of you're going to get protected. I think the biggest challenge for Caleb is trusting that the play call and the offensive line are actually going to do what you're telling me as a player it's going to do. Because I do think there are moments where he didn't have that last year. I know what you're telling me on paper, you're going to protect me and this and that. I don't trust you. I don't trust the guys in front of me. And I think that's going to be the biggest thing is Caleb getting to that point where he actually, when. When coach calls the play to get the ball to your hands, just get the ball to your hands. We're not asking for you to hit a home run here. We just want a completion. Or when the defense tells you you're not getting the home run, get the ball to your hands quick. Okay? And then when we take our shot, we take our shot, and if it's there, let's take it. And so finding the balance for him there, I think, is the big challenge. But, you know, with DJ still there and the tight end group, that they have the background that they have, the scheme, the offensive line, I expect Caleb to take a big jump. I was one that was hesitant when the marriage of Ben Johnson and Caleb came together. There is a part of me that still is because I want to see Caleb do it in time. And everyone talks about, well, look what he did with Jared Goff. For all you people out there that say that Jared's really freaking talented now, I mean, Jared, he used to be golf.

[Pat McAfee]

Now he's the guy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, now.

[Pat McAfee]

Now they're chanting, Jared Goff. Jared Goff. That's all they chant in Detroit. That is their chant up there. Into your point. What I think you're about to say is Jared Goff plays in timing. Like that is what he does. Like that. He is a.

[Boston Connor]

He grew up.

[Tone]

He was trained by Sean McVeigh. That's the basis of the offense. He was trained in it. And so when you're trained in it early on, it becomes muscle memory, it becomes second nature. It's a habit. Caleb doesn't have that. So it might take some time. I've said this. Is he capable of it? Absolutely. But you got to go have that be a staple of your game. But and I think for him as well as. As much as you want him to take the jump, I really attach Romeo Dunze taking a jump as. Because to get this offense pass game wise to where you want it, those two receivers would be a big part.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And a lot of great points there. You didn't bring up Bryce Young. Fascinating. Bryce Young in the same.

[Tone]

I want to see the mad wide out still.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Bryce Young in the same boat of Caleb though, I think didn't really trust offensive line for a while to Whitworth brought up. Whenever Tuni gets sent to Chicago Bears, Tuni can look at Caleb middle of the game and be like, hey, we got you here. Like, we. That's the type of like thing that an OG offensive lineman can do. That can hopefully build up a little bit of trust in that. Because if you don't have faith in your offensive line, and I know this as a punter, if you don't have faith in the person blocking for you, you're not thinking about executing. You're thinking about whether or not you're going to die. Like, that is. That is literally all you're thinking about. So, like survival is the thought as opposed to making a play that can affect people. That can certainly affect people. And that's all the defense is trying to do. They're trying to get him to get his head down and make him get his eyes down. Just trying to make him think about it so he can't do everything else.

[Tone]

Caleb's not there, take off. Number one's not. Instead of going, Archie's number two. Number three. All right, cool. Ball comes out of my hand. And you're totally right. If you don't have that as a quarterback, you. You don't. I think you. I'm not worried about the execution. I'm just worried about something bad not happening.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And that's why you see the running in the spring every preseason. And I obviously don't have every stop like quarterback every preseason when we go out to punt and we got two McDonald's workers and an insurance guy blocking for me. And it's a lot easier to run and block a punt than it is to block for a punt, especially if you haven't done that. The only thing that's going through my head is we are catching and getting this. I mean, it is just, oh, bang, we are out of here.

[AJ Hawk]

Never even thought about that.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a fucking nightmare. I got front flipped on Hard Knocks. Cincinnati Bengals guy comes around the edge on the insurance salesman, I think, and boom, flips. I do a full front flip, take a front flip, bump on my back on slow motion, and hard knocks, fucking. The guy made the team because he blocked the punt. I'm like, good for you, buddy. Good for you. What a nightmare. Since that beg was always the fourth preseason game, that was the worst. I didn't sleep the night before.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, that boy. That's one of the first things we look at too, as defense is like, is the quarterback watching a rush? Now, Caleb's not a guy. That's a statue quarterback. But are you watching the rush? Do you trust the protection? And talking to AQ and other centers that's been around, they say is it's a very small group of quarterbacks that actually control things at line of scrimmage. When you control it, I guess you can trust it more when you really understand it.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead, Daniel.

[Tone]

Yeah, and if you guys going back to the college kids, and I think this is why these guys, you got to spend time talking with them. If you had to ask me, what would be the number one complaint I have about Shador is I think sometimes he predetermines looking at the rush to get away and easy to say, hard to do do because the offensive line is so poor in protection. But there's plays when you sit there and go, you're just looking at the rush. You're not even trying to get the ball to your hands and just hoping to create or go make something happen or create some space. Because there are moments when you watch him in the pocket, you're like, man, that's such good pocket operational space movement. And you're finding that little small pocket where you get to throw the football to or from. And it's awesome. And then there's clips where you're going. You're just catching a snap, looking at. At the rush immediately and going, okay, where's the opening? And. And I think that's. That's a real thing.

[Pat McAfee]

And.

[Tone]

And I think that's something that as a team, you got to sit down and watch film with him. Like, if I was watching film with Shador, I would be like, why did you do it there? Tell me. Tell me what went through your mind. Because I watch you get the snap, you might look one way, and then immediately you almost get into that shortstop athletic position of, okay, where am I moving to? Instead of trying to find over or in or a check down. And so to debut point, you know, I think that's something as a defense, you're watching tape and going, this happens far, too far more than I actually like it to happen. And I think that's got to be a conversation that gets had when you're evaluating him.

[Pat McAfee]

Short Shador giving an answer. Well, what you didn't see here is the previous six plays, I. Yeah, I actually got sawed in half. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

So he did an interview where he talked about he. His weakness was he tried playing hero ball way too much. And I don't know if he was right. Totally what Dan was talking about there. But he know. I think he knew. He knows his weaknesses, what he had to do in college.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm excited to watch Shador as a pro because it feels like his entire life, they've been making him a professional football player, you know, like, that is. I feel like I've watched it first of all on socials and everything like that. And I think he's gonna. Whenever he gets to his home, wherever it is, I think he's gonna do just fine. Same with Cam Ward. Work ethic. You know, you got a work ethic, you can figure it all hell out. If you don't.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, you're just going to continue to be crap. So let's just work. Let's restore the dignity of hard work. I respect the hell out of that. Thank you, Dan.

[Tone]

Oh, boy.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you doing today?

[AJ Hawk]

Who.

[Tone]

I got to go drop off lunch. My wife runs the book fair at school, so she sets the book fair up. She loves it, too. Like, it's. It's like a way of life for her. So she. She decorates the. She has a theme, and she decorates the whole library. It's nuts. How is it this stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

That is very cool of her. As long as you're not doing this ever again, we'll be okay.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You embarrassed all of us, buddy.

[Tone]

Why?

[Pat McAfee]

I made. Awesome. Yeah. Four hours later. Bro.

[Tone]

Bro, that. That. That high shot is so high.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I watched.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And this is the first of many. Ladies and gentlemen, Danner Orlovsky. Thank you. Daniel. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? Well, with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision makers. You can even target buyers by job title, industry company seniority skills. Wait, did I say job title yet? Get started today and see how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyer with LinkedIn ads.

[Boston Connor]

We'll even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign.

[Pat McAfee]

Get started at LinkedIn.com results. Terms and conditions apply as the number and severity of third party breaches continue to rise. Companies are increasingly vigilant not just about how they handle their own data, but how their vendors do as well. For security and compliance leaders, this means more security reviews are coming across your desk every day and valuable time is being wasted on manual security reviews. With Vanta questionnaire automation, security and compliance teams can complete security reviews up to five times faster, giving you time back to focus on running your security and compliance programs. Over 8,000 global companies like ZoomInfo, smart recruiters and NOIBU use Vanta to save time on security reviews. Visit vanta.compodcast to learn more about questionnaire automation. That's Vanta football. He is wonderful. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. It's not just football, although we are in the middle of the NFL's new league year beginning at 4 o'clock today and the free agency period officially launching at 4 o'clock today. There's also a lot of other sports happening and we will certainly be covering it all, you know, because last night Tyrese Halliburton became Tyrese hall had the big buckets. He became Tyrese had a ball game with a four point play to beat the Milwaukee Bucks. He'll be joining us in about five minutes to chit chat about this. What a moment. What a time. He knows he's in the middle of the season. Okay. There's still a lot more to do but whenever you have a moment like this, you got to celebrate it. We will certainly try to remind him of that here in a matter of moments. The toxic tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. 1/2 of the hammer done Cowboys ball cap tone is here. Sweet cat cap time.

[Boston Connor]

Thank you.

[AJ Hawk]

He's a sweet cap.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a sweet march.

[Boston Connor]

Need a little bit of the luck of the Irish this week for the Steelers.

[Pat McAfee]

So because you guys don't have a.

[Ty Schmidt]

Quarterback St. Patty's Day.

[Pat McAfee]

Around the right around corner March 17th time. It's Tim McAfee's will be calling off. He he's getting all ready. He's getting ready to just go ahead and slaughter some green beers.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good move.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He's going to do it as he should Monday. Used to used to do that. I think I'll certainly have a green beard too this weekend. Sure have to cilantro. You know with the lads. You know with the Irish people give a little bit of love. Not what we used to do though. We, we really used to do it like St. Patrick's Day. Used to be. Oh yeah, used to be one of the ones. I, I think, you know, Christmas was obviously big.

[Ty Schmidt]

Halloween was big night before Thanksgiving.

[Pat McAfee]

We didn't do that much. I never really did that with New Year's. Obviously. St. Patrick's Day was the one. That thing started at like 8:00am, Fourth of July. Yeah, Fourth of July is a good one. Yeah. St. Patty's Day, though. Kegs and eggs, 8:00am Start just by noon. You're at the nightclub that you're normally at about 2, 3am and they're open in Pittsburgh. And you're right in the middle of it. I mean, you walk outside, there's like sun and it's like, what the hell is going on? Then you go back into another place and you start hammering more alcohol. And by five or six o'clock it's over. You know, that's all she wrote. You go take a three hour, four hour nap and then guess what? Well, we got nighttime St. Patrick's Day now. And almost, you come out of the. You almost come out of the cave. People thought you were down, but instead you move the rock and you show back up at those bars and at those clubs and say, have a St. Roger's Day. Are we doing this or not? And nobody that was there in the morning is there anymore. So you really feel like a survivor. You feel like you're one of the guys that have made it. And then if you see somebody that you were potentially hammered drunk with like 11, 12 hours beforehand and they're out, there's a moment of we did it. Good for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, congrats.

[Pat McAfee]

We did it. Happy St. Patrick's Day. Inevitably, March 18th, horrendous day. Sure. Like one of the worst of all time, but happy St. Patrick's Day to everybody. And I love the hat that you got on. Now, nine year NFL vet Darius State brothers here.

[AJ Hawk]

March 18th is actually greatest day ever.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[AJ Hawk]

Specifically 1986.

[Boston Connor]

Happy birthday.

[Pat McAfee]

Say your birthday. It is.

[Ty Schmidt]

But you have the same birthday.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't know that was celebrating. I didn't know I was celebrating your birthday.

[I]

You were.

[Pat McAfee]

Every St. Patrick's Day.

[AJ Hawk]

Exactly. You brought, you probably brought in most of my birthdays. Most of my birthdays, probably. Blackout.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I was having a good time.

[AJ Hawk]

I appreciate that.

[Pat McAfee]

Just having a good time. In the name of Darius J. Butler.

[AJ Hawk]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now live from Anatican, Ohio, is a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Rod cup winner, ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk. AJ okay, still got the amica. Look, I don't know if There was a lighting difference.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Maybe. Maybe that's my look now.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, maybe. Hey, all good. Mazel, bro. Shalom.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, thank you very much.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I agree.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

St Patty's Day is amazing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's one of the. It's one of the ones, you know, Especially if you're in a place where it's celebrated. Pittsburgh. Absurd. They always say, like, Georgia. Somewhere in Georgia. Savannah, Georgia. Georgia is always big. Chicago. How is Boston? I assume that's a pretty good one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, actually, usually what they'll do too. And maybe this just happens by chance, but I remember when, like, I was in high school and a couple years out of high school, the St. Patrick's Day parade through South Boston was also with the state championship in hockey. So a lot of people, you go in the morning, you know, make your way through South Boston as the parades go and everything. Incredible. And then you go to the Garden because that's where the hockey games are going on all throughout the day. And usually those are very big games. Everybody knows what's going on.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, not to mention any names, but we got one of our guys out of jail at about 5:30am on St. Patrick's Day.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think I know who.

[Pat McAfee]

And then we went straight from the jail straight to Danton and slept in the car in the parking garage for about 40 minutes or so. Then we opened the trunk, which there was a keg that was potentially taken from somebody else's house. And we just wanted.

[Boston Connor]

Do I know this guy?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, you certainly do.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think he was in here.

[Pat McAfee]

You certainly do. I was, yeah, he was. Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was. I was potentially with person whenever they got arrested. And that was a wild time to be alive. Then I was almost put in the position of, like, I'm pretty boozed up right now, but we gotta get old buddy out because we got big St. Patrick's Day coming up here in about four or five hours. So we obviously pulled some strings, made some things happen. We got straight from the gym jail, straight down to a parking garage, straight into. Tapping the keg in the trunk, straight into. We're all having a good time here, aren't we? Yes, we are. Walking past police officers just moments before we're in jail. Obviously publicly intoxicated, having a great time. Good to see you guys. Then we kept it moving. Inevitably, that case would get dropped. I believe against person. It was all nice. Like we've been saying this entire time.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's a win. It wasn't that when Joe Hadley of Joe Hadley, washing windows and Suns killed. Killed that homeless guy.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Yeah, see, that's. These are all lies. Hadley was on jail and I don't think he ever has been, actually. He's a good lad. And if you do need your windows cleaned in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, you call Joe Hadley. Yes, and I wish I had his business's number right now because we would say it and he would be so mad. I'm already booked. I don't need people calling me. What do you got? Every time you say my name, my people start calling me. They want their windows clean. I don't want to clean your windows. I already got enough windows. Joining us now. Oh, there it is right there. We found the website. It is. No, I'm not going to go so mad. See you on April 9, haddle bags and everybody else back in Pittsburgh. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who stole the evening last night with a spectacular four point play to beat the Milwaukee Bucks here in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was wearing a fresh pair of D Generation X Pumas whenever he made the absurd play. And now he joins us. Ladies and gentlemen, gentlemen, Olympic gold medalist from Iowa State, dog Tyrese Halliburton. How you doing, dude?

[I]

I'm good, man. The intro gets better every time.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, especially whenever you do that. You do last night. Hey, let's run through the play real quick. So we run a tunnel screen here. Okay. We're gonna run a pick and little pick and skim. You're coming around. I heard in a press conference you said you wanted to start on the other side. And you rarely get the ball in this play. Feels like this play was made for you to get the rock. Can you go through it, you know, kind of step by step here and at what moment, like when did you know that was falling? As soon as it comes off the hand.

[I]

Yeah, it felt good when I left my hands. You know, I had a lot of in and outs last night, so when I let that one go, it felt good. But we, we call this, we call this Colts, I believe. And it's an end of the game package for us. And it's like a rub. What do they call that?

[Pat McAfee]

Football?

[I]

It's like a rub route. Yes.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[I]

And so typically when we run this, I'm always denied, like whoever's guarding the the ball denies me or like turns around and sees me and takes me away. So I was trying to get on the other side, so we threw it to the opposite corner kind of like as like a, you know, like a lead, like a fade. Lead me all the way to the other corner and let me shoot it that way. But just Aaron and Miles did a great job of kind of picking. Picking my guy off there and. And, you know, just made the shot.

[Pat McAfee]

Had to feel pretty cool. I mean, as the ball is falling and you have Giannis in your face, he's 6 foot, 7 foot tall, in your face, doing this right in front of dirt. What's his. The coach, Darvin Ham, the pictures of him with his hands in his pocket still, and Lillard obviously sitting there. Just so many magical, memeable moments out of this. In the Pacers, they posted a photo of you while you're shooting it with Giannis, and it said yes, sirs on it. Like, there is posters galore in there, but as soon as that falls, you immediately know, okay, I got to knock down a free throw. Is that the immediate thought, or what is kind of the mindset after it goes in?

[I]

Well, when they challenged it, I didn't know. I mean, I was hoping that it was a three. I was hoping that I didn't step on the line. And then they confirmed with me right away that it was a three. So now I was thinking, you know, the game being on national tv, people might appreciate some overtime. So I thought for sure they were going to wave that foul off. Then once they said, you know, that was a foul, I was thinking about was making the free throw. I know what it's like to be a. I thought it was like an ice kicker for a little bit right there, but I haven't. I haven't missed a free throw since. Since All Star, knock on wood.

[Pat McAfee]

So, yeah, we will knock on wood. Should not have chatted about it. I just. If we're going to talk about kickers, that would be something we would definitely not mention. But I respect the confidence and you've put in the work to feel that way. Yeah, they reviewed it for, like, what seemingly was 10 minutes. I was watching it. I'm like, this guy's just standing over there. And I think Reggie even brought up, like, they're icing Tyrese right now. You stepped up, knocked it home. No problem. I love everything about TV time. Reggie or Tyrese. Yeah. You weren't flexing a little bit too. You're doing a little standing around. You know, I saw you. You should have done a little bit more with the shoes, you know? Hey, great. Great night for the DX Pumas, pal.

[I]

I should have hit the top. I don't know why I didn't hit the top. I. I was too caught up in the moment. That's on me. I got to be better there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good sellers.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but I heard you say that, you know, you would have been fined 25,000 or something if you would have told him. Oh, it over there on the sideline. Is that accurate?

[I]

Probably I would have called Triple H asking to look out for me or something. I would have. You know. Good, good WWE marketing, probably.

[Pat McAfee]

This is the, this is the NBA that we're talking about. These guys get paid hundreds of millions of dollars. They can find 25 grand. They're calling Triple H and me.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, he could have.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Sell a sweater or something.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I mean, yeah, buy. Sell a watch.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sell all the clothes that you wear.

[Pat McAfee]

That jacket, that big poofy leather jacket, that's 28, 29, about 4 or 5.

[I]

No, I wouldn't go. I wouldn't go that far. I wouldn't go. It's not, not that.

[Pat McAfee]

How about this? This fit right here? This guy's wearing and 40 grand walking in the building. You know, just.

[I]

There's no way it was 40 grand but.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bag of peanuts.

[I]

I've seen some, I've seen some good memes about this. You know, typically my outfits always get memed. One of them was when you go. Someone was like when you go to your boy's wedding and then this is when you, you know, the night after and you. All you have is your dress, shoes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you leave like this good fit though.

[I]

That was a good one.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that was a good one. Well, your, your outfits, costumes get memed because. Because you always look great. You know, this is, this is exactly what I would wear if I was headed over to play Milwaukee Bucks. Now talk about the game in winning that, that's big, right? That's a big win for the Pacers last night. Last night was obviously was national TV game. But that's a huge game for you guys. And coming off a three game schneide, you come back for your first game after missing a few last night, get a win. Where are we sitting at now? And what does the rest of the season look like for the Pacers? Can I be. Can I be talking shit openly to everybody, buddy, about us winning this thing?

[I]

Well, you always could do that, Pat. Of course we are tied with. Tied with Milwaukee and Detroit or we have the tie break over Detroit. We're tied with Milwaukee for the four seed and we play. We have a back to back coming up with Philly and Milwaukee and the winner of that game against Mo on Saturday. I want to say. Yeah, in Milwaukee. We'll have the tiebreaker for the four seed. But, yeah, it's tightly contested there between four to six. So these next 18 games are really important.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so that's how many we got left. 18, obviously. Can't wait to make it out to one of these games to watch, you know, the Pacer show in life before the playoffs. Because whenever we get in the playoffs, we know that the Pacers about to run it. Okay. And look out to the Eastern Conference, because there's a freight train coming through, and it's hitting Peyton jumping sideways, fading threes to beat the Milwaukee Bucks. That's a beautiful thing.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Go ahead, AJ Yeah, Tyrese, I'm curious. How many times have you practiced a shot like that? And I don't. I don't think casual people, casual fans, have any idea how difficult of a shot that would be even on air, let alone with Giannis in your face fouling you. But how many times have you practiced something like this?

[I]

Well, this shot specifically, I. Honestly speaking, we put this in two years ago. I haven't made this shot in probably two years. Well, I haven't got the ball to make it in two years, but I don't know, I feel like over the course of your career, of course, being a basketball player, you imagine shooting so many different shots and different angles and stuff like that. So in this play, I'm not even thinking about. It's not like, this isn't a shot.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, oh, I practiced this so many times.

[I]

Nah, this is just basketball feel and having confidence that I could make, you know, any shot in that moment.

[Pat McAfee]

You said you had a lot of rim out. You weren't the only one. It felt like all the boys were, but every time I looked at the score, you guys were in the lead or battling. Feels like you got a good squad legit. And how do you feel about Carlisle and the boys?

[I]

Yeah, feel good. This was obviously a great. A good diagram play here. You know, I feel like we.

[Pat McAfee]

We.

[I]

We missed a lot of open looks last night.

[Pat McAfee]

That's.

[I]

That happens over the course of a season. You know, you can't control every.

[Pat McAfee]

Make every miss.

[I]

But I feel like our process has.

[Pat McAfee]

Worked really well and feel really confident.

[I]

About the way our offense has looked, you know, since All Star break and.

[Pat McAfee]

Throughout the course of the year.

[I]

So, you know, I'm definitely, definitely excited.

[Pat McAfee]

About what the rest of the year.

[I]

Has for us and looking forward to.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, competing in the playoffs here soon. You did that thing again where you just shifted the gear with your voice box. You know what? I'm gonna have A different voice.

[I]

I didn't. That wasn't intentional. That just happened.

[Pat McAfee]

You're back. We're coming back. Not like town downtown. Shift a little bit. There it is. It is wonderful. Darius has a question for you. Tyrese. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

You were talking about playoff basketball, and you guys. Are everybody in the NBA right now kind of making that push? I know I'm a guy who really locks in. NBA post All Star break. What's it like in between those lines as far as the intensity and how does it step up Post all star break, making this late push and then into the playoffs?

[I]

Well, yeah, I mean, I think over the course, it's a little different in football probably. You guys are probably looking at the standards standings the majority of the year because there's only whatever, 16, 17 games. But in basketball, it's hard to, like, you want to know where you are, but I would say seating and stuff like that really isn't impacted until the last, like, 20 games. You know, you're. You're right there in. In contention with everybody, and then it's about tiebreakers and stuff like that. I feel like that's what you pay more attention to through the course of the year, right? When you play a team three times, you know, by a third game, it's important, you know, you want to get that tiebreaker because you never know where everybody could end up in the end. So after All Star break, it's really about, you know, locking in and. And just. I don't know, the. The. The. The intensity really picks up because, you know, we played Milwaukee, this is our third time playing them, and I would say the intensity behind this game was much higher than the first two. And, you know, I'm assuming that this weekend will be obviously even more important. It sets up a pretty good. Pretty big game, you know, because, you know, we've been neck and neck pretty much all year, and. And, you know, we're. We're looking for a. It's looking like a crash course that we're going to play each other in that four or five game. Don't want to take away from what Detroit is doing because they're looking really good as well. They could be right there with. With. With both of us. But, you know, you want to be that 4 seed because you want that home court advantage in that first round.

[Pat McAfee]

Feels like the NBA is doing this, brother, right now. Feels like everything, like the vibes, conversation. You know, you hit a shot like that on a Tuesday, like that's happening on a regular basis. It feels like the NBA Is in a good spot. Spot. Remember last time we talked to you? We thought dead. Remember?

[Ty Schmidt]

Big time.

[Pat McAfee]

Thought the NBA was dead. You remember I was even telling you that. Instead, it feels like the lads are chatting a little bit more. We're learning more. The game's getting better, Teams are getting more interesting. You know, it feels like it's good time in the NBA. Do you guys feel that right now or no? Yeah. Yeah.

[I]

I mean, I. I mean, us in our league, we never feel like it's dead. I mean, I hear. I hear what you guys are saying. We. We obviously all talk a lot, so I, I, I hear the opinions of the. The. Of the. Of the team. But I think, you know, as we get to playoff time, I think that's when everybody really locks in. Everybody's engaged, you know, more story lines, more rivalries. All that stuff is created, and, you know, maybe a little bit more drama, which I think all sports fans appreciate. So I think we're in a good time right now as we get here in the playoff time.

[Pat McAfee]

Jared Rich, Paul say he's a vegan. Do it all. Yeah. Stays away from all. Smart.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, he does.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't like all drama. Speaking of, we got Shaquille O'Neal joining us in about an hour, excited to chat about his thoughts on the current state of the game. You know, that should be fun. That should be blessed. I'll ask him about your big shot last night. I saw him react to it in real time. Now he's gotten a chance to kind of digest it for about 14 hours. What his thoughts are. Shot of the year, people are saying, Tyrese, shot of the year happening last night. Felt like the place was packed out, too, right? Good vibes last night?

[I]

Yeah, yeah, it was definitely packed in there. I think, obviously, our fans love. You know, we love. We get national TV games, you know, because in the past couple years, we haven't really had that. That opportunity. So I think as a fan base, as a team, we try to take advantage when we get that opportunity. And, you know, you play Milwaukee, right? Like, that's a team who there's obviously a little bit of a history with with both of us. So I feel like the fans are all part of it, and, you know, that's what makes our league great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it was awesome. That was an awesome experience. I should have been there. Should have been there. I was supposed to go. Couldn't go. Couldn't go.

[I]

You were supposed to go. My mom, you know, my mom, you know, she's in charge of the tickets, so I this is maybe the fourth or fifth time I said, hey, Mom, I think you got to hold two for Pat. And she goes. She goes, why? Why? He never comes. Anyway, that's what mom said.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

She's gonna.

[I]

She's gonna give you some. When you finally do come, she's gonna. She's gonna be like, hey, I always hold these tickets for no reason.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, let's tell Mom. Okay, That a. I appreciate that. I understand the passion that she has for it. And watching a game alongside of her is an honor. She's in there. She's a great fan. She's very well loved by everybody, too. They kind of know who she is. With that being said, Mom, I got a lot going on. You know, I got a two year old, you know, wife and I got a two year old. It's not as easy as just, you know, we're going to go on Tuesday downtown and watch the game. There's a lot that goes into it. You'll experience this. Okay, well, I have your back.

[I]

I have your back in these conversations, of course, because I know you got a lot going on, but, you know, mom. Mom thinks the world revolves around the Pacer.

[Pat McAfee]

So I need to let mom know. I apologize for that. I can't wait to watch a game. I'll see her soon. I will see her soon.

[I]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And then obviously, the lady, I saw her last night. Jade was down there. A lot of. A lot of comments about what you were going to do last night. I did appreciate seeing you just go and see your lady and just have a nice little night in Indiana. Right? Right.

[I]

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Came back, watched, watched Paradise.

[Pat McAfee]

I've heard it is great show.

[I]

I'm on episode seven. Great show. Great show.

[Pat McAfee]

Was it snowing in there? Was it? Is it? They said that that is normally the. What the. What do they say?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Who's in it?

[Pat McAfee]

Was there all white people in there? What is the show? The Paradise?

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay. I didn't know that. They're just talking about.

[I]

Are you okay?

[Pat McAfee]

They're saying what Tyrese normally does. Stop. Hey, D Butt.

[I]

D. But did they tell you when I went to the combine, they gave me the debut name tag. I said, why did I get the debut?

[Pat McAfee]

That's not real. Debu wasn't there. Debo wasn't there. It was either. It was either Debone or Debone.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, it's indie, you know, hospitality.

[Pat McAfee]

It was either him or Debone. And to be honest, the Debone one was on its way, but we thought it was disrespect. Because if you see the debone one.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think you would have, you know, Lou Elastic.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I mean, Lambo got it with.

[Boston Connor]

Mine, so I mean, just makes sense.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's exactly. Lombardi came in with Anthony De Jolios. No reason other than it was available at the time. People need to remember that. Ty has a question for you. Tyrese.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, Tyrese. Obviously it's, you know, midweek game, regular season, but still, you know, that's. That's a big matchup. Hitting that shot. Where does that rank in your career in terms of like big shots that you've hit?

[I]

I mean, probably. I'd probably say number two in terms of big shots because I. I hit a game winner against the Bucks last year in the playoffs as well, so probably. Probably right up there, top two. I mean, what are the odds that fan. We're really going to remember a regular season game 15 years from now, but hey, you never know.

[Pat McAfee]

I will remember.

[I]

Hopefully we make more. More moments where that's not a top five moment. But currently I'd probably put a number. Number two.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a big shot, dude. Four point play to win a game, especially in like playoff time. That is a.

[AJ Hawk]

Over Giannis too.

[Pat McAfee]

Over. Yeah, over the Greek freak. Yeah, that's a great shot with Dame standing on a sideline right in front of their bench. I mean, that is. That's a great moment. Are you gonna. Are we. We'll try to do that. Actually, we should probably get him like.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, you gotta get that blown up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Blow it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, put that on the ceiling. Maybe a bedroom, you know.

[I]

On the ceiling.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So you can see yourself the whole time.

[Boston Connor]

That's where he's got his mirror. That's where he's got his mirrors.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[I]

Yeah, I knew that was coming.

[Pat McAfee]

I knew that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cody Rhodes mural.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Mark.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yo.

[I]

Yo, Todd. By the way, I saw the Lisa Bluder bobblehead.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You're broken.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know. Cold nickels, bro.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I didn't touch the goddamn thing. We had a moment, but that's how it was supposed to happen. What?

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[I]

You made me bet my gold medal for that bobblehead?

[Darius J. Butler]

You're sleeping at the wheel, pal. I told you. Hey, Lisa Bluder is yours. Take good care of it. And under your watch, under your stewardship, she gets broken in two. I don't know what you want me to tell you. I can send it to you in pieces.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Do you want to do the feet and the upper body? Do you want both pieces or just the. The what? Do you? I don't want.

[I]

It's broke now, so that's totally fine with me. Well, maybe we'll get you a new. A new bobblehead or something. Yeah. Oh, they got my bobblehead. I'll give you my bobblehead these days. Maybe my Iowa State one. That would be even better.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if the Ty's gonna put that in front of him, but we will. We will definitely put it. I'll have you know Coach Lisa Bluder told us she sent in another one. She did.

[I]

I saw that on Twitter. That's. That's good for the brand.

[Ty Schmidt]

We'll see.

[Boston Connor]

Not the tie, just to you.

[Pat McAfee]

We haven't got it yet, but we will be patiently waiting for Coach Bluder.

[Ty Schmidt]

We'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Logistics.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Con man has a question for you. Tyrese.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Tyrese, one of those big shots could come against the Celtics, but you guys can't beat him when it matters. But do you guys have any big rivals this year?

[Pat McAfee]

What's this guy's problem?

[Ty Schmidt]

I think last year, you. You and the Bucks.

[I]

I know you thought that was funny.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think last year, you and the Bucks had some beef. Do you have any beef with any teams this year that maybe. I mean, I know the Knicks.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

There.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's that kind of fake beef because you did say you and Josh Harden, Jalen Brunson are all boys, but who's the team this year that the Pacers really hate?

[I]

I mean, coach. Coach Carlisle says to beat teams, you got to hate them. You know, so.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, yeah.

[I]

I think it's whoever's in front of us. I think we. I think we're. We're supposed to hate. I think obviously, last year, playing the Bucks in the Knicks in the playoffs, we. There's a little bit of a rivalry there. And then, you know, your Boston Celtics as well, they beat us in the playoffs, so, you know, we. We.

[Pat McAfee]

Detroit. This year, you guys haven't. Ah.

[I]

Ah, right. Yes, I guess that is a. A thing. Back in the. In the league, they're trying to bring back the. The bad boys rivalry, right? The Malice rivalry.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, I don't know who's trying to bring that back. You guys are, because aren't you guys getting a little.

[I]

No, I think. I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[I]

I think the public might be trying to bring back the. The malice rivalry, but, I mean, that's good for the league. I get it. My only thing is, I said this last year about the Bucks. I don't really consider it a rivalry until you get a playoff matchup. So if we play the buck, if we play the Pistons in the rock playoffs, then I think you can say that the rivalry is back. But until then, you know, I think, I think it's just competing. And like I said, coach says you gotta hate him to beat him, so it's all part of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Carlisle, what a special guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Love that guy.

[Boston Connor]

You imagine Tyrese's stands just haymakers, his fans?

[Pat McAfee]

I could actually. Yeah, Especially Tyrese. You couldn't imagine that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Need more rivalries.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe he's putting those pumas, you know, through people's faces.

[AJ Hawk]

Watch out for these dudes.

[I]

Music. Switching music. Music to the, to the pedigree.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. It's gonna be tough because if you connect on sweet, you're gonna have to pick them back up. You're gonna have to switch and you're gonna.

[I]

But what if it's a big fella? Big drunk fella, you know, he doesn't go down.

[Ty Schmidt]

Isaiah Stewart.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you. How tall are you?

[I]

I'm six five.

[Pat McAfee]

You're a pretty big dude too, bub. So you're gonna get. I'm talking about big.

[I]

I'm talking big as in why fat guy?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so you're a wide guy.

[I]

Couple. Couple brewskis in them. Probably not going down from the sweets and music.

[Pat McAfee]

I think drunk fat has a button you could hit for sure. I think you could get.

[I]

Everybody has a button. Everybody has a button, by the way.

[Pat McAfee]

But if you're gonna do a kick to the gut pedigree, then lift person up, then you can switch in them, then I think you get the 1, 2. Are these DX Pumas gonna be for sale?

[I]

I think right now they're a player edition. They're just for me as of right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Fine. But from this company we can't get.

[Ty Schmidt]

Would be nice, but I, I, you.

[I]

Know, I have a great relationship with the people at wwe. So, you know, we've. We're having conversations. Hopefully it's a collab collaboration opportunity in the future with, you know, some current, Some past superstars. You guys know, big WB fan. So if I can do stuff with, you know, with. With dx, with Triple H, with the final boss with. He's under armor now. Now it's the final boss. Oh, John Cena. You know, I don't know what his nickname is right now as a bad guy, but whatever. That's the main one. That's the main one we want.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, Whose side are you on here in this entire thing? I don't think we've talked.

[I]

You know, I love good Competition, so, you know, I'm with. Cody's been great to me. We had a great conversation at the Rumble, but I mean, Cena's my guy, so. Yeah, that was, that was root. That was a little reckless, but I think I, I, I fall somewhere in the middle. I'm probably leaning towards Jon, but if Cody wins, he's resilient. You know, I, I respect that. He's, he's had to fight past the whole bloodline to get to where he is today, so.

[Pat McAfee]

Sure.

[I]

The final boss and Cena are not, aren't anything to him, but we'll see. I'm looking forward me.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Confirm.

[I]

You didn't say it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Not a code.

[Pat McAfee]

You didn't say. Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[I]

Oh, I say it. Hold on one sec, I'll say it. Give me a sec.

[Ty Schmidt]

Go get your mark.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm ready, I'm ready. I'm ready, I'm ready.

[I]

Come on.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Look.

[I]

There we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Right on. Really good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thank you for doing that title like that.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Congratulations, buddy. That was a big night last night. We can't wait to watch the Pacers finish out the season strong. And then playoff basketball right around the corner. Welcome back. You were hurt, right? Last time, his first game back.

[I]

I was hurt last time, first came back.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we're happy you're back. Ladies and gentlemen, Olympic gold medalist, future world champion, Tyrese Hallburn. Yeah, Tyrese could be a world champion. WWE and the NBA. Good.

[I]

Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, it's gonna be hard to get that strap.

[Pat McAfee]

I do appreciate that you just, you are very much openly a Celtics fan. Right to Tyrese's face.

[Ty Schmidt]

How could I not be swept last.

[Pat McAfee]

Year in the playoffs. You remember that? Yeah. We go into garden in New York, do some gardening, get the Knicks out of the way. Then all of a sudden we got the Celtics. Like, yeah, this is going to be great. This is going to be a fun series. And it was not. They just did. They just won four straight.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, the craziest part was that the Pacers, after those four games, you watched all of them. It should have been 2, 2 or 3 one pacers. Yeah, because there was, they just down there, like, moments.

[Pat McAfee]

Remember, there was a ghost in the, in the garden that stripped.

[Ty Schmidt]

Somebody just dropped Tyrese.

[Pat McAfee]

Dribble it, just dribbled it. And somehow the ball bounces sideways on the basketball and now it's over. We lose that game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay, the, the pass, the inbound pass, the Jaylen Brown three pointer in the corner.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's like 108, 101 Pacers with two minutes left in Indiana, the game we were at before, the Indy 500, like, they should have won that for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

That was when I. I hit the.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, you rev the engine.

[Pat McAfee]

I revved the engine. McGee was there, the team. McGee was there. McGee was still doing it.

[Boston Connor]

They still revving that thing?

[Pat McAfee]

I.

[Boston Connor]

Or is that just playoffs?

[Pat McAfee]

I haven't been to a game this year, so I believe it's just playoffs. It's been tough to get that. I don't know. Going to a game is. It's a lot. It's a lot. And all the way down there with everything going on.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Wait, you rev like, they have, like a NASCAR there.

[Pat McAfee]

Indy car.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, you're right.

[Pat McAfee]

Right. Indy car. Jeez Louise. All right, forget.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

It's all racing. It's all racing. It's not F1, so. It's better than that.

[AJ Hawk]

Come on.

[Ty Schmidt]

Amen, brother.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Weekend.

[Pat McAfee]

Big weekend this weekend. G1.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I hear there's a new guy. New guy. Gonna take the top spot.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't we. You're talking about Londo.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Londo. They're gonna let him win this time, I guess.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean, let an Amen.

[Tone]

He's gonna.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

If he is the pole sitter, he will win the race.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that is G1 racing. You know, Follow the leader, leader, leader. Follow the leader. Get this thing done.

[AJ Hawk]

We had seven winners last year coming off the best season in, what, 80 races? No, 23, I think. Seven different winners.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm proud of. I'm proud of F1. So resilient. Just coming back another season. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

They've been around for a while.

[Pat McAfee]

Really long time.

[AJ Hawk]

I think ESPN's deal is up.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, shoot.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no.

[AJ Hawk]

Next year, I think, before we get into.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm getting into it, too. This year I'm getting into F1. I'm gonna see why people like it. Because anytime we talk on F1, I'll have some snob send me a message, tell me I don't get it, and yada, yada, yada. It's like, okay, can the boys go on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and do anything? No. So I don't want to hear it. But with that being said, a lot of money, Okay? A lot of investment, a lot of passion, a lot of pageantry. And those cars do look sweet.

[AJ Hawk]

Got an American car coming in, too.

[Pat McAfee]

In 26 Andretti, cattle of that Catalan, driving an Escalade.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I'll watch that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Especially because American Escalade will paint. Because F1 really loves when everybody's just right behind each other. The Cadillac Escalade's gonna come and go. Nope, we're actually. Yeah, it's gonna be Monster Jam.

[Darius J. Butler]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

F1 meets Monster Jam.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's something I watch.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's why they didn't want Americans in it for a long time. Right. They were actually like actively suing America to get into to F1 and to happen.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, I know Andretti was going through. He built a big, big facility out here.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Actually.

[AJ Hawk]

He was trying to get into it, but he did not. Cadillac is getting in shots of Cadillac.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, I'll be sweet. Is that. Do they have a good car or engine or whatever the is or.

[AJ Hawk]

We don't. Won't know yet until 26.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, so you don't even know if it's got good. I don't know if it's gonna be able to compete.

[Pat McAfee]

I promise.

[Boston Connor]

Cadillac has the best engine engineers in the world.

[AJ Hawk]

It's a great American company. They'll figure it out.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, they certainly will. Yes, they certainly. Which is why F1 didn't want Americans in for a long time.

[Boston Connor]

That's true.

[Pat McAfee]

Cadillacs didn't come in there and do it. I'll tell you what, when Cadillac gets in, we'll get in. When's that? Next year.

[AJ Hawk]

26.

[Pat McAfee]

See you next year. Yep, see you next year. F1 starts in Australia this weekend. I will watch, I will say, I will give it another shot. I'm optimistic I'm gonna like it. That's my new thing. I'm optimistic these days.

[AJ Hawk]

Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

About things that are seemingly a matter of fact. But I will be optimistic that the opposite is going to happen. And I'm pumped about that. You know, I was optimistic that we're going to see both of Bosas on one team. San Francisco 49ers. I think Mama Bosa was optimistic that she was going to see both her boys playing for one team. I think the split jersey was going to be no more. The split travel was going to be no more. The Bosas thought, you know what? Nick and Joey back at it like they were kids in the backyard on the same D line hunting other quarterbacks. That's gonna happen. Brandon Bean said, I don't think so. One year, 12.6 million dollar deal for Joey Bosa to join the Buffalo Beals. Now remember, they moved on from Von Miller. Still kept the door open to bring back Von Miller at a different price tag. And now they signed 12 million guaranteed to Joey Bosa. Joey Bosa stats over the last few years whenever it comes to sacks have not been necessarily something that'll guarantee like high adding money, but he's a game wrecker. He's a dog. He's a tone setter. I think Bean loves everything about that. AJ when you saw Bosa was going to Buffalo, were you as surprised as I was? I thought he was going to the Niners. I thought they were going to make that happen.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, I was a bit surprised. I'm just curious what the Niners may have offered if, if he signed a 1 year 12 million guaranteed, possible getting up to 15. Like, do the Niners offer him half of that, you think? Like I, I would imagine, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I would assume there was some sort of hometown family discount, you know, like, like we don't have all the cash in the world, especially with Brock Purdy's contract looming. Depending upon this year or next year. I assume it was a low ball. I assume it was a low ball. And then he said, nate, you want to lose some money for your brother? And he goes, absolutely not. He goes, all right, we'll send Joe to Buffalo then. And Bean, he adds a guy on a one year, you know, mission with all the amount of money they've invested in this particular roster trying to go win a Super Bowl. Can Joey help him do that?

[AJ Hawk]

He's a top tier guy. Guy win healthy and health has been his major issue. But when he's out there, he's going to produce in the run in the past game. And the Buffalo Bills need some dynamic playmakers on both sides of the ball. I wonder if Josh Allen sent this idea over to Bean, but yeah, I think he'd be a great addition. They locked up Russo as well earlier this offseason in Bernard on the second level linebacker. So yeah, they keep beefing up, signing one year deal with Demar Hamlin. So, you know, trying to figure it out on Buffalo on that defense side to get over that. Kansas City Chiefs hunt.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats to Demar getting another deal with the Buffalo Bills. Obviously a fantastic story, but also great football was played by Demar this past season. Shout out to the Yinzer going back to Buffalo. You look at the AFC east now, A.J. you know, there's a lot of question marks here. Patriots, brand new everything. Jets, brand new everything. Dolphins, you know, kind of staying put with a lot of the pieces that they had in years past. A lot of conversation around them is there, are they ever going to be able to win a big one? Gumpy, after going to Miami, your thoughts on the Dolphins being able to focus and win football games after spending five days in there?

[I]

I think it Will be tough.

[Boston Connor]

But I like what Chris careers doing.

[Pat McAfee]

No big splashes, but some good moves bringing in some good guys for the team we already have. Okay, so Jets, Patriots, brand new Dolphins seemingly the same. And then the Buffalo Bill is revamped, including in bringing in new people. AFC east is an interesting conversation with the Bills being the king, obviously.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, definitely the Bills. And even with Joey Bosa, like the biggest thing for the Bills especially their D line was like, hey, these guys rotate, you know, constantly. I think they're leading D lineman only still played 60 or 70% of snaps and that was Ed Oliver. So Bosa with the hell thing won't even be as big of a problem it feels like. But yeah, it is kind of wide open. It's one of those spots where, you know, a couple things go wrong for the jets or the Dolphins or the Patriots. You know, that other team can kind of slide up there into that two hole and maybe sneaking to the wild card there, but the Bills still run it. I mean there's no, there's nothing confusing about that. They are, you know, levels above those other, other three teams.

[Pat McAfee]

They certainly do. And obviously the only reason why they haven't had their super bowl run or super bowl success is because there's been one team standing in their way. The Kansas City Chiefs. Obviously Kansas City has a lot of moves that they have had to make this offseason for their team. They get to the super bowl, which is still an incredible feat. They win the afc. Incredible feat. Had the number one record in all of football. Incredible feat. And then they get the doors blown off them by the Philadelphia Eagles, which I think has put a chip on their shoulder which could make this Chiefs team even more lethal than they have been in the past. They move on from Justin Reed, who just signed a three year deal with the New Orleans Saints yesterday. Justin Reed's safety from the Texans, I believe. Then he goes to the Chiefs. He can kick off. He can kick field goals. He was an absolute dog for this Chiefs defense. He gets three year, 31 and a half, 22 and a half, 22 and a quarter guaranteed. Congrats to him. Returning home to Louisiana D Bucks. What are they getting down there to Justin Reed.

[AJ Hawk]

Great. A great player. Smart player, great character. Guy on and off the field in the meeting room. A guy you want in that building. You talk about his Texans run. Had a great run there. Had a great run with Kansas City. I'm a little surprised. I thought he would get kind of close to what the other tops safety's got on the market. It's a great addition for New Orleans. They're willing to dealing somehow, even with their cap situation. But great signing with him. Getting back. Paired up the other Louisiana native, Tyron Matthew.

[Pat McAfee]

How about Tyron Matthew? Still doing it? Yeah. High level? Yeah, yeah, very high level. It's almost like because he goes down to the Saints and the Saints haven't been. Yeah, you know, you kind of forget about it. Good luck to everybody down there in the new regime. Let's go to college ball, shall we? Rich Rodriguez had a press conference yesterday or two days ago talking about a new rule in the West Virginia Mountaineer Football Camp.

[Tone]

No, I don't really.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, they're going to be on it, so it's not. I'm not banning them from. I just banned them from dancing on it. You know, it's like, don't look. We try to have a hard edge, whatever, and you're in there, you know, in, in. In your tights, you know. Dancing on TikTok ain't quite the image of our program that I want. But I told the team today, I.

[Tone]

Said everything today is about trying to make everybody individual.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all about the individual. It's all about the individual. And I said football is one of the last things it was got to be more about the team than the individual.

[Boston Connor]

And so I just.

[Pat McAfee]

I banned dancing on TikTok.

[Boston Connor]

I guess I did that.

[Pat McAfee]

But anything that doesn't look like our program should look, you know, I mean.

[Tone]

I think it's just like, come on.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, really, I mean about it. And I'm allowed to do that.

[I]

I guess I can have now when.

[Pat McAfee]

They, when they, like I said, 20 years from now, they want to be.

[Tone]

Sitting in their pajamas in the basement eating Cheetos and watching Tick Tock or.

[Pat McAfee]

Whatever the hell they go at it. Smoking cannabis, whatever. Knock yourself out.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Where did that come from? Smoking cannabis?

[Pat McAfee]

You remember there was a question. I'm so happy he's back. I am so happy he's back. I didn't ban Tik Tok cuz they're going to be on there. I banned them dancing on Tik Tok. I don't want to see them in their tots. I don't want, you know, that's what he said there.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I was just.

[AJ Hawk]

I just want a quick conversation of like the unfiltered conversation.

[Pat McAfee]

So there was a lot there. There was a lot there that was certainly coming through. The cannabis thing came from an earlier question because Pacman Jones, front of the program, obviously West Virginia University legend, top 10 pick, top five pick in the NFL draft out of West Virginia. He told a story about how, you know, he was able to get around the marijuana test throughout the NFL. And to be clear, I didn't know that was really possible in the NFL. And I got tested a lot. I was in the substance abuse program for 27 months. I think I had 300 some tests in a 20, 27 month period. So you're talking about a lot of tests. I, I took a lot of tests. So listening to him kind of lay out what he did, I'm like, well, that is actually a pretty good little. It's pretty little strategy. Slide a hand in there, do the entirety. I don't know what the piss testers that I had. It would have worked because they were.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, me too.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, they're right in front of me.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Right there in front of me.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

But Pack said he was able to do it and I believe with the way he set up, he had like.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, no, I believe I was with Pack in Cincinnati. There's different. They test differently depending on who is working, whatever teams.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So, like, I, I believed, I listened to it. And then obviously at West Virginia, we potentially did have a way of going about doing the test.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Did they test you in college?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

You tested for weed in college? How often?

[Pat McAfee]

I got it like twice, I think, in the four years. Randomly selected.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it was, it was truly random. And NFL is random. But, you know, like the time period that it's going to, you know, you starts on 420. Yeah, it starts from 420. So, you know, you OTAs, mini camp, training camp those certain times. But outside of that, you can kind of time and space it out in college for. At least for us, it'll be random. You know, call up after practice, huddle, hey, Butler, Hart, McAfee, go in there right now, it's like, damn, college. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So we, we, we had night before, we were told, oh, no. And then next morning we were in there. So we, you know, we had the whole. There was a gimmick, there was a game. Sure.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

We're sleeping with gnc.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Well, you just need a Visine bottle, basically, and somebody else. And then you just sleep with that in your tights so it gets body temperature. You wake up the next morning, pop that thing in the microwave, 5, 10 seconds, make sure it gets a little bit more heat. Put that in a tight center going in there. And then obviously go to the stall and they give you the cup and then it turns around. They test the temperature. That's the big thing is the temperature, right? Yeah, it is. Sweet. You're good. You got it. I'm gonna go to workout. I'm not saying I did that or anybody in West Virginia did that. I'm just saying that did happen potentially in drug testing times. So he was asked earlier about the. Not just about the drug testing policies, but the ncaa, I think, doesn't test for it anymore, and in West Virginia, it's legal. So he was just asking. He was being asked about how he's going to talk to his players about it, and his answer was very good. He gave a very good answer. He said, you know, it was easier back in the day whenever it was against the rules, because if it's against rules, I say, don't do it. Like a false start, jumping off sides. Get against the rules. Don't do it. Smoking reads against rules. Don't do it now that it's, like, kind of not really being tested for. And also it's legal in the state in which our school is. He gave a speech about excess and, you know, obviously anything and wanting this, and if it doesn't affect this. Like, he gave a very. It wasn't a rich rod answer that I thought I was going to hear. You know, I. I don't need no hippies. Like, it wasn't.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

He's evolving. He's got to evolve with the times. Good for him, man. Like, even Saban says, like, you have to kind of.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

You can't.

[Pat McAfee]

You can't.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

There's certain things you can't be stuck on. I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's still, you know, we're not. We're not dancing on tick tock. Okay. And I'm allowed to do that. He said, so you want to be in their basement? He's going to have his. He's going to have his.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Hey, if I'm a high school recruit and I want to go to West Virginia, I'm scrubbing my tick tock right now. I don't want him.

[Pat McAfee]

If you're a high school recruit and you're a dog, just know that you are very much welcome to West Virginia. You know, and those. These players exist. You know, there's a lot of teams that have them. A lot of teams that have them. Now, granted, the TikTok generation, we're not blaming them. TikTok is an app that is obviously captivated an entire group of human beings at a certain age, and I think it tries to promote fun and happy and just being a part of things and when you're doing those dances, you know, you're part of a group. It's like, I don't mind it at all, but I do appreciate. I've never done it, but we got people in here that have done it. It's like, you do what you got to do. But I don't mind Rich Rod being like, yeah, that ain't what we're looking for though. You know, there's other teams that maybe that is their thing. Rich Rod's like, that ain't what we're.

[AJ Hawk]

I completely understand what I've seen.

[Pat McAfee]

He's, yeah, exactly. And he said, they're gonna be on it. I know that everybody has tick tock, so they're gonna be on it. I just don't want them dancing on it. Listen, you can watch others dance, you can comment, sure. You can even say, damn, that's a great dance. Oh, I just don't want to see your fucking ass. I. I begin some quotes, you know, from the building of Rich Rod. And he's been evolving. He certainly added to his incredible repertoire of being able to put swear words into places that really nobody has been able to do. He is an orator, to say the least. And, you know, getting a chance to chat with him now after practice and after these meetings and with how he acknowledges, you know, some of the things that happen in these interactions. I couldn't even fathom what he was saying to his friends about whenever I was there. Just like legitimately, I couldn't even. Couldn't even. This fucking asshole. Just like the whole layout of it. But it's gonna take a little bit, I think, to get that culture. It's gonna take a little bit. Him and Matt Rule, you know, Matt Rule was the first one to ban TikTok. I think he had TikTok workouts at 6am in the morning of the combine, where they had the strength staff print out everybody's TikTok bios and put them on top of weights and then push the sled while they're staring at their TikTok tick tock bios. It was called a tick tock workout is what Matt Rule said. And I think what Matt Rule and Rod are both saying is, first of all, we shouldn't be recruiting guys that want to do this. But also, if you're here, we don't want you to be worried about that. We want you to be worried about this. Trying to build a culture, set a tone is basically what he's trying to do for sure.

[AJ Hawk]

And it's tough. We've talked. Just talking about it. We were in college 20 years ago. These coaches have been coaching much, much longer than that. And while you're talking about these guys, I'm thinking about Bill Hill. You know, you talk about evolving. I saw a video, I think of him in Chapel Hill, the basketball game. Great dab, solid daps.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Beautiful.

[AJ Hawk]

Never seen those type of daps coming from Bill B. I wonder if he's the next coach to ban Tick Tock and these zany dances on the platform.

[Pat McAfee]

What will he call it? He'll call it a talk Tech or something.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, Clock Talk.

[AJ Hawk]

Can you do that gimmick in college?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[AJ Hawk]

He's gotta. You gotta be up to speed now, right?

[Pat McAfee]

No, I think he's going to rely on Old Faithful. I think he's going to call his social media stuff the wrong name.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, My face. Snap Face also.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I'm not doing it.

[Boston Connor]

He gets a good pop out of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Thanks. He does feel good. I get a good pop out of it, too, because. What's the combo coming? You know what combo is coming? Anytime you would reference MySpace, it is like, oh, yeah, he. Nobody has updated him on anything.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's been out of the game.

[Pat McAfee]

Where's Tom? Tom. There is Tom. Okay.

[Boston Connor]

Rest in peace.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

I think he made a bunch of money and kind of just vanished.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he became a photographer. Yeah. And just did it.

[Darius J. Butler]

He kind of just does his own thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Created his thing, got a ton of money, and now I'm going to go do what I want to do. Yep. That's nice. That's why you're in my top eight. Tom, is it still alive?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Is MySpace still a thing?

[Pat McAfee]

I think JT bought it a few years back. He's going to turn into a music platform, but obviously that always works. You know, people try to start new platforms or revive platforms. I think they was a little bit of an investment trying to make it a music thing, but I don't. I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, is Tom the MySpace guy?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay. I had no clue what we were talking about.

[AJ Hawk]

Everybody's friend.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was right there.

[Boston Connor]

He was just like a cool guy.

[Pat McAfee]

He was always there for you. You had no friends. Yes, you do. You have one friend. His name's Tom. He created this thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. Didn't know much about it. It was hard to reach.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's good gimmick.

[AJ Hawk]

That's him.

[Boston Connor]

Tom had no idea.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's got no skeletons.

[Boston Connor]

The beef and anxiety, stress. He was going to cause with teenage women and picking their top eight friends.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, a lot of those social media platforms at the early stages created a lot more drama than I think they could have ever intended. Certainly, you know, like writing on people's walls. That became a thing whenever Facebook in their wall started. And then whenever people start tagging. Tagging photos. Pull. There was a lot of things that were done during that time because people would say, I didn't do that. And then you just go right to their Facebook and there's a photo and a post explaining exactly what you did the night before. It's like, I was not at insert whatever. And then all of a sudden, you open this Facebook app that's relatively new, and there's 14 photos and posts from you at that place.

[Ty Schmidt]

What the hell?

[Pat McAfee]

And somebody actually checked in with you there, like, hi, this is your best friend. Said that you were there. What? Like, must have been a. I was not. Is that you? That. That started. That never happened in the real world before. You know, I think, like, what was a beep, chirp.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, next to where you at?

[Pat McAfee]

Next time. Where you at? They had the tracker on that. Yeah, they had, like, a tracker on the phone. And I remember people being like, you're gonna. You're gonna. I was like a teenager or a young, young, young lad listening to older, I guess, terrible partners, now that I think about it, in relationships, being like, this is going to ruin my relationship. It's like, well, where are you lying about where you are? It's like, now. Now you could be tracked. It's like Facebook took that to another level, and now you can just track everybody all the time. Yeah. The transition into being tracked and not being able to just say I wasn't. There was one, and it was like 2005 ish on Facebook. Facebook, 2006 ish. And now we're here. Now everybody knows everything about everybody. And now people are dancing on TikTok. But not in the West Virginia University locker room. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Why top eight? Did you ever answer why he only did eight top friends? Tom, on MySpace.

[Pat McAfee]

You could do your top four, too, I think. I think there was, like. There was setting. I think there was levels. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Top eight was just like, hey, here's the eight people that I hang out with. And then whoever the ninth is. Problem problematic.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Are they ranked one to eight? They're not ranked, are they?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think they were. Oh, I think they were. If I recall.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Would people shuffle it around? Yeah, I would need. I didn't get into it where People would shuffle them around. You could go from eight to one.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

What do you guys do to do that? What do you do for that?

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, you got to shuck their corn.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Put water on them and serve them.

[AJ Hawk]

That's tough.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I'm glad I never got into MySpace. I wasn't there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. My space. I didn't do much of the MySpace. I knew. I knew enough about it, but I didn't do enough paying attention to it, you know? Cuz that was back whenever to get on you had to call the Internet and hope that they answered. And then they would answer, then you'd get on there and then what a gimmick. You go to aim and then you go to.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Then your mom picks up the phone in the kitchen and bumps you off. That's like, that's how old school that is.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. I'm rearranging my top eight. Jesus Christ.

[AJ Hawk]

My space was the one that you. You could have friends that weren't in college. We went to college. Facebook had to have the college.

[Darius J. Butler]

It was for people who were like right underneath that cut off for fa. Facebook, when you still had to have a college email address to get on Facebook.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. My senior year in senior high school, I think that spring whenever we were about to go to college was when Facebook opened up to everybody and you just had to have a college email. Yeah. So like, it was crazy that we were one of the first people. People on that platform. Yeah. But what a game changer. Just, I mean, that thing changed.

[Boston Connor]

I remember waiting for my email.

[Ty Schmidt]

Everything.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, everything. I mean, it changed everything. It was just like it was cool to be. Yeah, there was a lot of that. There's a lot of reaching out, poking people. That was an insane start. That was a hey, hey, hey, hey. You know, and then get my poke, being able to connect with people was sweet. You know, like I thought about if I had that in high school and I go to these soccer tournaments in like other states. Like it would have been nice to be able to like just be like, hey, nice seeing you this weekend, instead of, hey, never see you again. Like that, that. It did add. It did add like a, A nice connection to the world. Now with that, obviously there comes, you.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Know, once that all came to. Once it all came to the phone, when the iPhone came out, that's what things actually really changed, I think.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Just connecting to the world was something that wasn't possible back in the day. Yeah. And then all of a sudden everybody joined a couple of these platforms, which leads once again to if you're trying to launch a new platform, I respect what you're doing, but it's difficult. Is like Blue sky, even threads. You got Zuck fun in that thing. Yep. And you got Instagram pushing that thing. And it's like, are you gonna join threads? Sure. Because everybody's. Am I gonna use it though? Probably not. Blue sky. This sounds like a great idea. Okay, what is Blue Sky?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

What is it?

[Pat McAfee]

It's threads for Twitter. Oh. It's basically like, like.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

No, it's tough to get traction.

[Pat McAfee]

It's tough to get different Twitter. Sorry. It's a different Twitter. It's like a more positive, you know, because X became a cesspool of political bob. You know, all that stuff. Which if any platform gets good, it. It's in. By good, I mean like, if any platform gets popular, it's gonna get, you know, there's gonna be in there just like the real world. There's gonna be. But what I would like to say is gotta get through that. There's good in there too. Like being able to connect with anybody at any time. That is a weapon that social media has that wasn't always around.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, even add into already existing ones. Like remember fleets? Like they added fleets to Twitter and that couldn't even last because it was like awesome. Hey, I'm not adding, you know, an Instagram type story to my Twitter. That's not. I'll go to Instagram to do something.

[Pat McAfee]

Like Rio's taking Tick tock was interesting. True. Twitter trying to follow suit. Everybody's trying to figure it out, you know, and we're just trying to have a good time. And this good time will continue on YouTube, ESPN Plus, Disney plus and Tik Tok Live. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. Tomorrow, tomorrow. Tomorrow. Tickets on sale for big night out at noon Eastern. Feel like I got a good plug out.

[Boston Connor]

That's good, good.

[Pat McAfee]

Feel like I go plug in. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless wage. Too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying. No judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment anyway.

[Tone]

Give it a try.

[Pat McAfee]

@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] this episode is brought to you by Shopify Upgrade your business with Shopify, home of the number one checkout on the planet. Shop pay boosts conversions up to 50%, meaning fewer carts going abandoned and more sales going Cha ching. So if you're into growing your business, get a commerce platform that's ready to.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Sell wherever your customers are.

[Pat McAfee]

Visit shopify.com to upgrade your selling Today football has a lot of things happening around it. Band in it and we are obviously going to discuss it all. That is AJ Hawk. The talks to tables table is here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Great to see you Ty. 1/2 of the Hammer Don Cowboys ball cap tone is here. Nine year NFL vet F1 superfan Darius J. Butler is here. We had some news during the break. It is official Cooper cup, he's being released from the Los Angeles Rams. Now they were thinking about maybe trading him. Obviously Cooper cup put out a tweet months ago maybe at the super bowl that the Rams had told him that they were going to be seeking a trade to get him off of the roster. He put out a tweet basically acknowledging that and thanking everybody in la. Now they will just release him instead of trading him now. Is this because other teams didn't offer up their best trade package because they knew that he would probably have to be released? Is this because he's been hurt a couple times? We don't know. But what we do know is there's going to be numerous teams that are going to want Cooper Cup, a veteran wide receiver to join their building, especially one who's known to do all the right things on and off the field. When he's healthy at Boston, Conner, you want him in New England. I think you just, you went from six to midnight whenever you saw that the Rams were releasing them and maybe not have to give anything up to get him as a Patriot?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I think the only thing that Patriots fans right now are, you know, concerned about with this free agency so far is that they haven't added, you know, a savvy wide receiver vet for that room. And it feels like Cooper cup is that perfect guy. A lot of people you know will say Cooper Cup's washed. I've seen that on the Internet. I've seen he's old. He's really not. I believe he's 32. Obviously he's a Super bowl champion. He's a seasoned vet. He still performs when he's healthy. That's the big if. You know, similar to the Joey Bosa conversation of when this guy's healthy, he's an absolute stud. I Think New England's not the only team. I think every team basically up here, Green Bay, Pittsburgh, east even, would want him in their building. The Colts would want him here. I just assumed that, you know, some of the places that he would go to would want to be those, you know, more top contenders. We mentioned the Chiefs yesterday as one of those teams they obviously added or brought back, rather Marquis Brown, Rasheed Rice coming off an injury. But there are plenty of teams out there and it feels like every team who would need a wide receiver, Cooper Cups, kind of on the top of that list right now, especially now that he's been released. And maybe it is kind of a lower number than expected.

[Pat McAfee]

Cooper Cup Yeah, I would assume, especially if you're getting cut on this particular day, there's already been a bunch of money that's already been sent out. Speaking of a lower number, especially at the wide receiver position, DeAndre Hopkins is signed with the Baltimore Ravens. Congratulations. D Hop obviously goes over to the Chiefs for a year, has a little time in the Super Bowl. Now he joins the Baltimore Ravens. There was a photo that was posted a few years back of Derrick Henry, Lamar and D Hop. And D Hop posed the question, how many TDs would this trio total? Well, we're going to find out. And I know this isn't the D Hop of like five years ago, and I know it isn't the Derrick Henry of like four years ago, but Lamar is Lamar. D Hop has a great opportunity here with the Baltimore Ravens and Derrick Henry had like a full resurgence. Not that he was ever down, but last year he looked great. I think we're going to find out what that question's answer is, and I'm excited to watch him continue to build over there in Baltimore.

[AJ Hawk]

I love watching D Hop play play football, and I'm sure the Ravens fans probably split on this signing. You know, I'm sure a lot of them are like saying just like what you're saying about Cup. You see a lot on Internet D Hops wash. But he's a competitor. He's going to go out there and work and try to put his best foot forward on a contending team. So he'll be playing meaningful football again. So we'll see a ton of D Hop next year.

[Pat McAfee]

What is it, 5 million? 5 million for D Hop? Up to 6, potentially. Who knows what the incentives are in all of the contracts. Lamar Jackson gets Another weapon, though, A.J. which I think is good news for Lamar and good news for the Ravens.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, I don't know how if you're like a Ravens fan. How you could be upset with this sign. It's D Hop. It's not like you're paying them 45 million dollars a year. It's one year, six million dollar deal with the Ravens. So, like, I think it's all upside when you think of this. So I am. I. Cooper Cup's definitely gonna have to go to a contender. You know that with a franchise quarterback, there's only a handful of teams I think you. He's even going to look at what. Okay, sorry to derail that. I know Cooper was at the beginning of this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We're talking about right now. You know what? We're never going to get back to Cooper cup too. So thank God you got that out right there. You know, that is a. I appreciate.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I'm just thinking of Cooper cup and I'm like, yeah, the dude's awesome.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Still.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

So is D Hop.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, D Hop did the same thing. I think one to a contender, you know, like 5 million, 6 million. At this point of your career, you've already earned a lot of money. Let's try to get in some meaningful football games. You know, D hopping up to do it last year. Cooper cup obviously has done it a lot with the Rams. It's like, let's continue to do that as opposed to just maybe getting paid more and going into complete irrelevancy, which is certainly possible. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

I mean, I D hops still. He's still going to be great in the red zone.

[Pat McAfee]

Red zone.

[Boston Connor]

Which is. Is something the Ravens are always. Look, they're always in the red zone. They always. It's always something they need. Like, I mean, he didn't. He had a great start with the Chiefs and then there was the lull. And then obviously, you know, in the garbage time of the super bowl, things went really well. But I. I mean, D Hop still. D Hop.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you worried over there in the AFC North? Baltimore Ravens loading up?

[Boston Connor]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Joey Burrow, obviously in Cincinnati. Cleveland just brought in somebody that's been in your building and Kenny Picket as well as keeping Miles Garrett. You guys got questions of quarterback? You got question with TJ Watt. Are the Pittsburgh Steelers going to be okay? Whenever D Hop signs the Ravens is your first thought, oh, no, we're in trouble yet again.

[Boston Connor]

No, that was. That was not my first thought. My. You're right. The Steelers have bigger problems on their roster. No, D hop does not scare me. The Browns, kp beating them twice is my worst nightmare of all time. The Bengals, they don't play defense. No, I think Steelers are gonna be fine.

[Pat McAfee]

The Bengals, interesting. Nobody's really talked about it. Jamar Chase obviously is due a shit ton of money. I think Rapport told us he's got nothing with time to figure that out. Mike. He'll just. They don't play until, you know, September or whatever. And it's like, okay, so we're doing that again. Feels like we're gonna go through that entire song and dance again. Then T. Higgins stuff, obviously is very real. And then on defensive side, Trey Hendrickson is allowed to search for a deal. It's like the Bengals have a lot of question marks. And Jamar Chase said, know your worse than add tax. Tax up. Oh, tax up. Yeah. We ain't getting no hometown discount. Okay. I know my worth. And also, also, I know that this could have been done a year ago. So we're going to add a little tax if that is something that he actually means, as opposed to just a bar that he thinks is very cool. That is going to be interesting for Duke Tobin to kind of deal with. The Bengals are in an interesting spot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Well, and we've seen time and time again, like, if you're going to do this stuff and JJ just said it earlier, like, get it done early. Like, you don't want a cowboy situation where you just wait and wait and wait and wait, and then the market just kind of balloons like, he just won. I mean, did he win the triple Crown last year? Yeah, exactly. So, like, guess what, you know, I mean, you could get this done now or they can, you know, extend it a little bit, and then some other guy who's not as good with him because of what the market is, like, might end up getting a massive number. And then you're looking at like, oh, wow, we might have to end up giving, you know, jamar chase, like, $50 million.

[Pat McAfee]

You kind of have to decide whether or not Jamar Chase is in your long term plans right now. Like, hey, is Jamar Chase in a long term plan? Yes. Let's pay him then. If he's not in our long term plans, I guess. Guess we can continue to do this shit. You know, the song and dance. Now, granted, what's the number that they're going to be willing to give up, you know, for their. Towards their salary cap to build a team. You know, not every team is going to want to spend 35, 40, whatever the number is going to be on a wide receiver. So then what does that mean for the future for the Bengals? And then, I mean, there's a lot in Cincinnati to be figured out. And the way they do business is not in a way that's like, yeah, everybody's going to be happy at the end of this thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, it's crazy, too, that rap sheet mentioned is that he thinks that a deal could get done with obviously Jamar, but T. Higgins as well. He kind of ideally, yeah, he like. But Ratchet snuck that in yesterday and didn't use the ideally. He was like, I think they get them both done.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Duke Tobin said at the combine, ideally we have both guys back. Ideally, we are able to get a deal done. And I guess Rapaport also says it, but that that would be very anti Bengals.

[AJ Hawk]

He said at the 40 million mark, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And that was before they gave Trey the Duke Tobin ideally was before they gave Trey Hendrickson the okay to seek a trade. So they were still trying to figure that out this legitimately. I don't know if there's ever been a more like, hey, the Bengals need to draft five defensive starters in this year's draft or they're actually going to give up 50 points a game because they're not going to have any money to spend.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's what they did last year. Last year, their defense, they didn't draft them, but their defense gave up a bunch. And they get rid of the sack king, you know, the sack kings.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Imagine if they don't object Trey. If you don't have 15 and a half sacks from Trey also last year. How bad is the defense?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'm very. The bengals are fascinating.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

17 and a half. I'm sorry, Trey.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the Bengals are a fascinating thing, you know, because their fans obviously very passionate and they'd been to the super bowl, you know, in recent memory, and they got a quarterback who's an Ohio guy who can win, and they got an explosive offense, seemingly with Zach Taylor that's able to. But they just don't look like a team that's going to win a Super bowl, you know, and it's like, I think they're all bummed out, you know, I think Lou Annaruma leaving there, coming here to Indianapolis is certainly something. Now there's a big shakeup on the defensive side. It's like Bengals fans, I think, are very confused and I would be as well. We got the guy, we got. We're. How. Why, why aren't we? And then you look across, you know, state lines. Ravens got Lamar and they're rebuilding. Steelers always have a winning season. Somehow I have no idea how that works. And then you look up to Cleveland it's like, all right, at least we're in a better spot than Cleveland. But you got a guy at quarterback. You got a guy quarterback. And he's like, does anybody think. Anybody talk about the Bengals win a Super Bowl?

[AJ Hawk]

Nope.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

No, not right now.

[Pat McAfee]

It makes no sense because they got a quarterback that could win a Super Bowl. And if they were able to block Aaron Donald on that last play, Joe Burrow finds Jamar Chase. They score a touchdown, they win. They might win the super. Now, granted, the Rams might answer, but the Bengals might win that fucking Super Bowl. And that's only. Only a few years back. And now it's like, well, they're not gonna be able to figure out all the problems. What a weird team to be a fan of. I assume, like, legitimately a weird fan.

[Darius J. Butler]

Duke Tobin, too, kind of like backed himself in the corner when he said a couple weeks ago, like, jamar Chase is going to be the highest paid, you know, non quarterback in the NFL. And then you see what happens with Miles Garrett, and it's like, the longer you wait, like, you might end up having to pay this guy $10 million more than you anticipated when you initially said that.

[AJ Hawk]

And like you said, said with the guys that, you know, that you have identified are going to be a part of the long term, those are the guys you take care of early. Josh Allen getting a new do deal with four years left. Saquon Barkley getting a new deal one year into his contract. You know, those guys are part of your next, you know, four or five years at least. Get it done early, or he's just going to cost you more and more money as it goes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, and look what we've been talking about, like, since the Eagles won the super bowl, like, hey, you got to be able to run the football now, and you got to be able to, you know, stop. Stop the run. Like, are the Bengals with T. Higgins and Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow with no defense? Is that a team you would like, hey, in December when they got to go and play in cold Cincinnati or Cleveland or Baltimore or Pittsburgh, like, is that a team that's built to win in those kind of environments? I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

That goes back to the convo. Nobody says Cincinnati Bengals are going to win the Super Bowl. That's a shame, because Joe's a guy.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, you're right, though. You wait. You wait to pay guys when you're not. You're not. You're maybe you're 80% sure that he's part of your long term Plans or you're thinking, like, I want to see what maybe let's see how it responds after one season if you can do it again. But with Jamar, there's absolutely no question. This guy, you want him a Bengal for life. So you're right. Like, you should have found a way to get this done.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You know the Brown family, though this is now granted, they're in a new age. They got an indoor facility. They sold the rights to the stadium for the first time within the last few years. So everybody's got a dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge their way through the modern era. Speaking of quarterback speaker signing big one in Washington, Marcus Mariota us is back. Another quarterback domino. Obviously we still have some questions at some other places like the Giants and the Steelers and the Vikings, but Marcus Mariota is returning to the Washington Commanders on a one year deal. Shout out uce. I. I think a lot of people forget what Marcus Mariota means to the University of Oregon and what he did in college. When we were out there and we got a chance to do the show from out there there, and he just walked through the Marcus Mariota hallway. Like, this is actually the Marcus Mariota hallway. All of his titles, all of his records, all of his trophies. It was like a, Oregon loves Marcus Mariota. B, this guy's one of the most accomplished football players in the history of college ball. And it's like he's obviously beloved. He's been in the NFL a long time now. We all remember him with the Titans and then whenever he went over the the Raiders and now he's behind Jaden D. Daniels and Washington Commanders and their full rebuild in transition from being a crap and a shite organization into a great one. It's like, this dude's got to be a great dude. Like, he's got Marcus Mariota's got to be a great human. Not just saying he isn't a good football player, but like great human, I think is the overwhelming convo about old us.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Have you seen the. When you popped up, I instantly thought of the. The mic'd up quip when Derrick Henry ran into Marcus Mariota on the field after a game. They were playing against each other. Like, Derek Henry like went and jumped on his back and was going great. Like, so excited to see each other. I'm like, oh, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Like you, you get a glimpse into what kind of teammate Mariota is when you see stuff like that.

[Pat McAfee]

And you know it didn't end well with the whole Tannehill situation in Tennessee and Tannehill and the Titans would go on and have massive success very quickly after that. So I think Marcus Mariota kind of got cast aside, obviously, and I don't have if that's the first time he's ever had to deal with that in his life, but it was certainly loud then. He bounces around now. He still has a home in Washington. I assume Cliff loves a nice veteran quarterback in there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, like, even the quarterback series, the.

[Pat McAfee]

The.

[Ty Schmidt]

The original one with Pat Mahomes, Mariota was one of those guys, Kirk Cousins in Minnesota. But Mariota was going through all that, you know, injury stuff, and they were following him the entire year. And it does feel like they cut.

[Pat McAfee]

Him on his birthday. No, like his kids, maybe his kid was being born and he went and.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Got surgery and they didn't know. It was a weird thing, especially to have cameras following him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it was crazy situation, but it felt like during that entire thing, he was never like, a nuisance or like a. A negative guy. Like, he seemed to still just be kind of one of those calm, cool, collected dudes.

[Pat McAfee]

Chris Godwin returned to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earlier this week, and Rapaport came on our show and said that he thinks that Godwin turned down, like, an extra 20 million potentially to remain with the Bucks. Here's he chatting on the Insiders last night. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I.

[AJ Hawk]

I feel like it was like we.

[Pat McAfee]

Were, like, really close. I think that when, you know, when it comes to a situation like that, like, you have to.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

You have to really, really consider it.

[Pat McAfee]

And, and me and Mariah, we. We had some, like, some really tough conversations. Had some really tough conversations, like, with my agent.

[Tone]

Because, like, at the end of the.

[Pat McAfee]

Day, right, we're trying to figure out, like, what's going to be best for our family.

[AJ Hawk]

And again, like, not everybody would make that decision.

[Pat McAfee]

And, like, I'm not faulty. Anybody that would. But I think at the end of the day, like I was mentioning, in.

[AJ Hawk]

The pressure, like, I have to go based off of. Off of my gut.

[Pat McAfee]

I have to go based off.

[AJ Hawk]

Off my intuition and what I feel.

[Pat McAfee]

Like is going to be best for us in the long run and, you know, and being here where we. What we call home, where we feel the most comfortable, where we can, you know, raise our newborn son, I think.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

All of those things are big factors.

[Pat McAfee]

For us and, you know, in making this decision. People hate moving. People hate moving. Now, Grant granted Florida, and everybody's assuming that it's New England, even though I.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don'T think it was ever the question was left out. But yeah, the reason he said we were really close was it was brought up about going to New England right at the beginning.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so New England, freezing cold. Obviously you deal with weather, you have to pick up and move up there. State income tax, obviously very real part of the conversation. Obviously going to a question, you know, you don't know what you're getting into. What is date today look like in Tampa? You know exactly what it is. He said, I I don't hold against anybody that would take the extra money to go somewhere else. But for us and our newborn son, we're staying here. I love it. I love it. Out of Godwin. He's a buccaneer for life. And I assume Jason Light loves him as well.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Aj Yeah, I would, I would assume when. When you hear that he turned down an extra 10 million or something, that it was from 20. A team that a 20 million that I, I was like, okay, well what terrible team offered him a bunch of money and trying to come there doesn't have quarterback. It's not the, that's not the Patriots. That's not what I think of when I think of the Patriots. They got Drake May and obviously are doing what they're doing. But yeah, I mean, just listen to God wouldn't speak right there. You could tell, like, all right, this dude gets it. Like, this dude is a professional. And yeah, the Bucks are lucky to have him. I think it's awesome that he's staying there.

[Pat McAfee]

And if you think about, you know what VRA's entire thing has been like, we got opportunity and compensation. And he, I think he knew he was going to have to overpay for some people that he wanted in there. But if you think about who he's signing and how like Godwin is the culture guy that Vrabel is trying to get in there. Dog complete dog, works his ass off, be loved. It's like, that's a pro that you want in your building. So that's potentially why Vrabel was willing to pay so much. Like, hey, you are what Milton, you're a guy that we want in here for sure. Godwin, you're a guy that we want in here for sure. Crazy that he turned down that. If it was 20 million, that is a lot of cash to play ball. But once again, maybe he just loves being down in Tampa.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, we don't know how, you know, how that was spread out, what incentives, what per game bonuses or whatever the language was in the deal. But for receiving, obviously the money is great and very High on the priority list when you're a free agent, but for a receiver, you're. That's one of the most dependent positions on the field. So you got to have a quarterback, you got to have a good play call, you got to have a good offensive line, hopefully other good weapons, weapons around you. So that would have been a big risk for him, football and production wise, going to New England. Obviously, Drake May is very, very talented, but we haven't seen what he is in this league. We know who Baker Mayfield is. We know who that. What that offensive line is. We saw Bucky Irving, he was unbelievable last year as a rookie. You still got Mike Evans, hall of Famer on the other side of you, McMillan who had a good rookie year, Otten, who was a good Titan. So whatever other weapons they add, that's a great situation for Chris Goblin to stay in.

[Pat McAfee]

Heartbreaking for New England.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah. Definitely tough. But you do get it, you know, And I love Drake, man. I think he's going to be a Hall of Famer, but I feel like around the league, you don't know if, you know, the, the players think that it's not as if, you know, Drake May went out and lit the world on fire. Like, they still have the fourth overall pick. They won. I think Drake started for one of their wins, you know, so it's not as if he's, you know, all of a sudden, not everybody's going to be.

[Pat McAfee]

A Hall of Famer either.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, that's kind of coming up in conversation in, you know, the Colts world with me. You know, a lot of people just attacking me for pointing out things that are obvious red flags in my eyes as somebody, you know, especially at the quarterback position. But I'm optimistic that it'll be able to change. I'm optimistic that AR will be able to change. But it's like a lot of these guys don't work out. Like, that is just a fact of the matter. Like, if you look at the percentages of guys that end up hitting and then guys that end up missing in the NFL draft, especially it's quarterback position, there's a lot of misses. Like, that is just. That is how it is. It's a very difficult position. It requires all of you all the time, because the people you're playing against, especially the ones that are good and great, they're doing that. So you have to do it in return. It's not an easy thing. So it's like, I agree with what you're saying about Drake May. Like, when I'M watching Drake. It's like he's got all the intangibles. Seems like he's got what is takes to be a guy. But yeah, massive question mark probably for a lot of people. Like, I'm going to have to see it. And Godwin at this stage knows Baker can spin it, knows that that offense can make magic. And it's like, I'm going to stay in the warm, I'm going to pay no state income tax. I'm going to stay at my house, my community, my school. And I know Baker and I are going to be able to be productive. I guess that's a whole nother added aspect of it, to your point.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, nothing against Chris Godwin either. He's also played every single year of his career with Mike Evans. You know, like, I, I don't know if obviously Evans has been hurt. So he's been the number one guy during games, but going into a season, for an entire season, if he's been a number one receiver for his entire career, it's kind of like the same thing with T. Higgins. Like T. Higgins we all love think he's a number one receiver, but he's never been a number one receiver because he's been playing with Jamar Chase. So it's, you know, that question mark as well. And he's truly, he is set up better for success now with Tampa, whereas even with Drake, you know, another thing not being talked about as much like, hey, second year, second offensive coordinator, second offense, like, has to go through second culture. Second culture. Yeah. Has to go through that entire thing again now. I still feel great about Drake and the Patriots this year. Absolutely. Especially with the new guys they're bringing in to kind of reset everything. But yeah, it, it just makes more sense for Chris Godwin staying home.

[Pat McAfee]

David Carr on NFL Network debone reporting that this in the group text when he was asked which quarterback on a new team is best set up for success in 2025, a breakthrough year, he said, Daniel Jones. Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

Whoa.

[AJ Hawk]

I love to hear.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, I hope so. He's in for a good competition. Training camp.

[Boston Connor]

It's an easy choice.

[Pat McAfee]

Open comp, is it?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, it's an easy choice until the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Steelers sign their quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

Why?

[Boston Connor]

No, it'll still be dead.

[Pat McAfee]

Dan Jones. What's going on with the Steelers? Are they signing a quarterback anytime or.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

No?

[Boston Connor]

No. Like I told you, it's not a full moon until Friday, so Aaron's moon rocks. And then this way. You agreed. Thank you. You texted me, you said you're right. Actually I just talked to Aaron. That's exactly what's happening.

[Pat McAfee]

So.

[Boston Connor]

No, nothing. Nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you feel about. Aaron has said nothing to me. I don't know about. To you or to anybody. I would assume. I assume he's not said anything. All these situations that have happened over the last, what, five, six years, we've done this. We've. With Aaron, there is always leaks from people. And then Aaron comes on this show and he goes, anything you hear is not coming from my team. Okay? My team does not. This is not how this goes. But every off season, there is. Sources are telling us. Sources are telling. There was a report today that was coming on the show today. On our show today, it was making its rounds around Pittsburgh with, like, actual media people. I was getting texts from people in Pittsburgh. Hey, heard today's a big one seven that I'm missing it, but I'll catch the clip afterwards. What do you think he's gonna say? And I'm like, who? I'm like, who are you? I'm like, actually asking who? And they're like, isn't Aaron coming on your show today? I'm like, no. Who said it was being reported in Pittsburgh? Like, he's coming on the show. He's making his decision. Which even more so leads to Yinzers going, I'm tired of waiting for this guy. Aaron never said he was coming on the show. We never said he was coming on this show. But the expectation, I guess, from some people is that he was going to come on this show today at the start of the new league year and make his decision on what he wants to do. Does he even want to play? I mean, there's like. There's so many levels to this, but the entire city of Pittsburgh is like, well, we're waiting. And he's like, okay, okay. I didn't know I had a shot clock on me from a city that I've never played him before, but also trying to see how what the best is. So, like, it is. He's a fascinating cat. But this quarterback situation, like Giants, are they talking to Russia and Aaron? So if Aaron goes to Pittsburgh, does that mean Russ is going to the Giants? What about the Vikings? How come they haven't just come out and said, jj's our guy. We're not looking at the veteran quarterback. And how come we haven't heard anything about the Vikings potentially trying to sign Aaron? This is us just all being like, Aaron at the Vikings would be sweet. And we're not talking right though the.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Vikings, if they are.

[I]

If.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

If that's the decision they're making. Like, hey, JJ's our dude. They. They're gonna have to eventually say that. Like, why wouldn't they have said that by now?

[Pat McAfee]

Now? But once again, they don't have to do that. But that could be a hypothetical that people start reporting. Like, today's the day that Minnesota is going to come out and say that JJ's. Even if Minnesota never said this, and they're probably not expecting to do it, that's kind of seemingly how this world works now. It's like Minnesota is going to have to tell us who their quarterback is before he ever did that. Before the end of the day, it's like, they never said that they're going to do that. Just like Aaron has never said he's going to do it. Has Aaron even said he's going to play again? I don't legitimately any.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Anything. He hasn't said anything, has he?

[Pat McAfee]

You tell me.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

No, for real. Like, that's. I'm the one I say all the time. Yeah, I think he's too good to not play. I think he will play, but that's just me saying that and as a fan of watching him play. And I want him to go to Pittsburgh, too, but I don't know anything. I don't know if he knows anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you want him to go to Pittsburgh, which I think is a. That is actual news. Like, people in Pittsburgh should be like, A.J. hawk, who. I don't want to put like a rating system on Aaron's friends because I don't know if There's a top eight. He's top eight.

[Ty Schmidt]

If there's.

[Pat McAfee]

He is in Aaron. Aaron's MySpace top eight for sure. Like, that is no questions asked. So that is what he wants. Aaron has heard the pleas via text messages from maybe some Yinzers about potentially going there, but Aaron is also probably hearing shit from other places as well. And this is like a massive decision for Aaron Rodgers, you know, in his entire life. So I, I am eager for him to make his decision. I'll text him every morning. Let's go. That's literally what I text them. Or I'll send like, the eyeballs, because I know the eyeballs will get them, you know, because the eyeballs are like, oh, what do you know? He'll send and he'll go, what? And I'll go, let's go, dude. And then there's no response afterwards, you know, there's no. No response. So I think everybody's kind of eagerly awaiting. But in Pittsburgh, it's A lot of, like, this guy needs to tell us whether or not he's. Come on now. We're about sick of it. And it's like, I assume the Giants, some Giants people are probably thinking the same thing. And then Vikings people. You listen to Dan Orlovsky talk about it. He's like, well, he doesn't. We don't. No way. It's bad idea. Okay. All right, Russ.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Russ wants him to do something as well, doesn't he?

[Pat McAfee]

I assume Russ does. I assume a lot of these rookie quarterbacks are wondering what the. The draftable quarterbacks were, are certainly flustered about what's going to happen because, you know, where he goes matters. How about Kirk Cousins? You know? Yeah, like Kirk Cousins. Everybody's just. There's been different reports. There's no way they're going to keep Kirk Cousins. Have Michael Pannix Jr. Be the quarterback is what everybody says, you know, thanks. Then there was reports throwing a combine. Falcons are okay with paying Kirk Cousins 37 million bucks and have him be a backup quarterback. And it's like, is that real or is that not real? Come on. Haven't heard his name at all being talked about in this entire quarterback carousel, though. So maybe it is real.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. I mean, I feel like, why wouldn't it be real? You already. He's already guaranteed that money from the Falcons, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

And you drafted Pinnicks with the idea that if it doesn't work out with Kirk Cousin, he, he looked, he looked great for a run, and then he looked really, he looked terrible before they benched him. So, I mean, I, I. Kirk wouldn't want to be a backup. Of course, you only got a few years left, I would think, as a quarterback, but. Yeah, unless a team is willing to give something up to get him in there. I can see him being back up there in Atlanta.

[Pat McAfee]

Dan Orlovsky said Kenny Pickett's going to be the starter in Cleveland. AJ Your thoughts? Thoughts didn't say. Definitely said there's a chance Kenny Picket's a starter, which there definitely is. There's definitely a chance. Kenny Picket, starter in Cleveland. Didn't even think about that. I was just like, all right, Kenny Picket's gonna be, like, the veteran backup now. That's gonna be, like, his new role. And Orlovsky was like, who else? Yeah, who else is going to be there?

[AJ Hawk]

No chance. Zero percent chance.

[Pat McAfee]

Kenny pick number two overall pick. Zero percent chance, number two overall pick.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, and Shafter said they're taking a quarterback. And then you see what Mary Case said about Shador.

[Pat McAfee]

So maybe Kenny starts the season. Yeah, first couple games. Yep. See how it goes. And then you bring in the rookie or do you drop the rookie in there and have Kenny Pickett be the veteran voice of reason. And interesting for Kenny that he is now that guy though. You know, like in my. My thought whenever you got trade there I'm like, all right, Kenny Pickett's getting brought in for some veteran, you know, leadership here to do a little. And it's like not that long ago he was drafted to be the guy Pittsburgh Steelers. And now in my head my first reaction is like, good for Kenny Pickett doing this. And yeah, Dan Orlovsky mentioned he'd be a starter. Earlier today was the first time it crossed my mind that like oh, Kenny Picket might be the starter for the Cleveland Browns. That's real. That is a very real situation. You're saying.

[AJ Hawk]

No, that's just my opinion. I don't have any sources on this. Just my. Well, I guess that can't be used as a source as I. So yeah, according to my sources, Kenny Pickett would be the starter, will go to rookie quarterback and he will be.

[Pat McAfee]

The starter according to source says also known as my thoughts. You know, I talked to a lot of people so do I count or not? I think I should count my own.

[AJ Hawk]

Hey, Kenny's a great guy to have in that in the building and you know, Mario just got signed. I just talked about Kirk Cousins being potentially a backup because Mike Michael Penck, he doesn't have the cleanest bill of health either. So when you lose a quarterback, we all know how everything, anything could just go downhill. You have no chance. So yeah, I can see him being in the building, but if I'm Andrew Barry, you just gave, you know, obviously miles 40. I don't know where they are health wise or signing wise with their offensive line, but if you have a def decent offensive line with Stefanski, I think you put a rookie quarterback in there that you feel confident if you draft that number two position.

[Ty Schmidt]

And we've talked about so many times how like the backup quarterback position is the position that is going to get, you know, playing time at some point, point in the season because of how long the season is. Like you, you. You get a Kirk Cousins type quarterback for two games, especially down the stretch where you need to win for like a. A playoff chance. Like yeah, you're going to be pretty pumped. You held onto them and just ate that 37 million versus you know, the massive dead cap hit that I assume is Contract.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go to hockey, shall we? Ovechkin, OV is just nine goals away from breaking the Great One one Wayo's goal scoring record. He's gonna do it this season. This is insane. Yeah, it is insane because this was at one point thought of as untouchable, unthinkable. And here we are just nine goals away with a lot of hockey left to play. And he did it in a season which he broke his leg and came back.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So when you look at that, it's one of the all time great achievements in sports in general. If he's able to pull this off, which I think he will. And then there's the conversation of if he does do this, does he come back next season? I think that all depends on how the Capitals postseason goes. Right now, they're the best team, record wise in the NHL, so they got a good shot at a Stanley Cup. Does OVI break this record, maybe win a second cup and ride off into the sunset? Or does he come back for more and chase more? What does OV Diesel want to do? What else is there to chase? If you already get the goal scoring record, you want to be remembered as the greatest goal scorer of all time. Well, he is certainly that. And that was not him scoring on that empty net, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, he passed it up so that that guy could get his first career.

[Pat McAfee]

Hat trick, which is unbelievable because we're talking about history. He could clap on that thing from the blue line. Yeah. Which was also big. That would have been sick if he would have done big. Narrative on him early in his career was he's not a great teammate. He doesn't pass the puck. He's selfish. All he wants to do is score. And then you see things like this as we evolve over time. Time players. That Russian. Was that the Russian kgb? Was that Russian conversation? Wasn't that kind of the thing about Russian players as a whole is they're a little standoffish maybe. Obviously the language different than ours. That was kind of the talk about Russian players as a whole. Yeah, there's a couple stereotypes like that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Like, not as physical, you know, a little more flashy.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't like to play defense, just like to shoot. But then we see Gino when he comes to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He's awesome. Teammates love him. Everybody loves him. His parents are beloved by the entire place. And Gino will fight you. And I think Obi, he's been so awesome for so long, watching his ass just, just. He's just waiting. And then as soon as I think comes over and it's just clap. And I think he has a kid now. I think I watch him and his kid hitting some in the garage in the driveway. It's like what a weapon. Nine away from breaking the all time record. That's impressive. Now speaking of records, here's a man that has all of them. You want to just talk about the amazing of success that an athlete could potentially have both while playing and retired. This man's name is at the top of the goddamn list. He is now teamed up with the wonderful company Beatbox who I watched their Shark tank last night to learn a little bit more. Three founders. It is a carton of wine type party punch is kind of how it's described and it has 11.1% alcohol in it. Okay, it is a good time. Time. Quick. Well, there is now a Shack themed beatbox. It is blueberry meeting lemonade in a flavor mashup so big it could only be inspired by this man. Ladies and gentlemen. Hold on, hold on. We have some. Hold on. We have some in the fridge. Yeah, we got some in the fridge. We gotta. We gotta cool them down. You drink that cold, I assume Shaq, right? It's delightful.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

That's what I do. First of all, you. You know the rules.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Tank top only.

[Pat McAfee]

All right?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

We don't have the tank top.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on, come on.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

The hell's going on?

[Boston Connor]

He definitely for. He definitely forgot the rules.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

What the hell's going on?

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know. He won't forget again.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

The guy with the long hair. What's your name?

[Ty Schmidt]

Connor Shack.

[Pat McAfee]

How are you?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

All right, the guy in the middle. What's your name?

[Darius J. Butler]

Ty. How you doing? Shaq.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

And a guy, the white shirt.

[Boston Connor]

Tony. Shaq and then the brother.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Let me speak to the black language. What's up, my boy? What's your name?

[Pat McAfee]

What's up O Triple?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh my good.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

And then there's aj Sex symbol dot com. Perfect face, perfect hair, perfect T shirt.

[AJ Hawk]

What's happening?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Hey, your Sha gummy. Shaq, your gummies are a big hit with all my. I got four kids and they all ask for the Shack gummies almost every day of my life.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

There he is there.

[Pat McAfee]

Tank top man.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Tank top man. There you go. There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Now listen, I'm ready to talk about beatbox with 11.1% alcohol inside of it. This is the Shaq Inspired blueberry lemonade. 11.1% alcohol at a 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday. Something. You know, this is certainly a good.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Are you trying to race?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You gotta chug it. Yeah. How much? All right. Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Put a hole in the bottom of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. All right, Wait, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Pat.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Hold on, Pat. You're corporate, and I'm corporate. According to rules, you're not allowed to drink alcohol on these shows. Is that true?

[Pat McAfee]

We're only on the Internet right now. I think we're good.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

All right, so you sure?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think we're good.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Okay. All right, you ready?

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on. Hold the phone. Did you. Did you. Is that one got some gimmick in it? This one's fresh out of the box. This one's brand new.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

All right, you know what? Let me get a new one out of the box.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're saying that.

[Ty Schmidt]

All right, there you go.

[AJ Hawk]

Try to do perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, this is the.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

There's the box.

[Ty Schmidt]

Damn, that's good.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Okay. All right. There's a good box.

[Pat McAfee]

Good delivery. Sha. Beat box flavor.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I'm gonna grab this.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's do it. My daughter in a little bit.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

You ready?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Shaq. Here's to you. Always trailblazing, always eyebrow raising. With the amount of money coming through, that guy's brain is nothing short of captivating. Cheers to you, Shaq. Appreciate you, man. Beat your march.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

You're set. Go. You lose. Not entertained. Not entertained.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on. Hit that thing. Hit that.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Are you not entertained?

[Pat McAfee]

Got it. That's. Hey, that was my first. That was my first beatbox as a whole, but also the first one of yours. That is good. Which flavor you got?

[AJ Hawk]

That is blueberry lemonade.

[Pat McAfee]

So the blueberry lemonade, I believe, is a Shaq one. This one is. The hard tea was delightful.

[Boston Connor]

The LSU hard tea.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Hey, that's what this beatbox. Yeah, suck that. Suck that beatbox down. Let's talk about a Shaq. How'd you get involved with the. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have to. Hey, yo, let's talk about Beatbox. How did you get involved. Involved with this? And how excited are you for DJ Diesel with a little beatbox out there having a good time some all summer long?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Well, you know, I. I do a lot of, like, 150 to 200 shows a year, and one time at a festival, I saw these kids drinking this drink, and I was actually thirsty, and I tried it. I was like, what the hell is this? And then I looked into the company, and I saw that my good friend Mark Cuba was involved. I called him and said, hey, Mark, I'd like to meet with good people. Beatbox. And, you know, we, you know, talked about, you know, a partnership. And, you know, I've always tried to get at the beginning of companies, you know, to help them grow. You know, being a sports guy, I have the mentality of, what can I do as a great player to help you win the championship? You know, you mentioned money earlier in your show for me is never about money, but it's just about. No, not really, but it's just always about the. The opportunity. You know, a mentor of mine passed away yesterday, Junior Bridgman.

[Pat McAfee]

Man.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

And he was a great businessman. I said yesterday on the show that, that I tried to emulate him because my father did a great job of teaching me all the torture stories. And every time I would come in with a C, he was like, you know, athlete lost 30 million. You know, like, he would. He was always, you know, advocate education. So, you know, this is just me continuing my father's legacy and just, you know, taking advantage of opportunities. Because, you know, Pat, there's a lot of football players that you played with and played against that don't have anything. I know a lot of NBA players that don't have anything. So I'm glad that I have the opportunity. And this is just about being a businessman, helping the company grow. I wish my assistant was here because I'm gonna tell you guys a secret. I never know when I'm making the deal because I never want any deal to be monetary related. I join a company, I invest. I just want to help the company grow. And then at the end, whatever happens, happens. But, you know, being the great competitors, being the great athletes that we are, we strive for number one. They showed me a chart yesterday, and we were, you know, they was talking about how great they are, but we're not number one. Yeah, but we're gonna. No, there is no but. I want. Boom. I want this company. I want their ass out of there. Boom. Boom. So for me, this is what it's all about.

[Pat McAfee]

So. So when you talk about trusting the process, you genuinely believe that, like, you're more so in the work and the grind, and then we'll find out what we make at the end of that. I respect that a ton. Now, you have garnered a lot of capital through the trusting the process process in your brand. And the way you go about doing your business is seemingly spotless. I don't think I've ever seen you pick something that isn't a winner. Your gummies. I'm not like a sugar candy guy. I'm a chocolate guy. I like chocolate candies. Your Shack heads gummies. We have them in the office. The sour ones are the best gummies I've ever tasted. So, like, selecting that company to work with is a business skill that not everybody has. This tastes very good and obviously does because Shaq is a part of it. It feels like you have a selection process and good taste in things that can have success. And I think they do the same exact thing with you. On the return. Now, you talked about. What was his name? Guy passed away yesterday. I just found out. He's a billionaire, I think. Ex basketball player, right? Ex NBA guy. Yeah. Like, good business over there in the NBA world. A lot of good business people.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I was. I was having a conversation with my. My son the other day because, you know, I was. You know, my father used tactics to motivate me, which worked for me. So my son, you know, tell them stories. So I was telling that I use jealousy to motivate me. Now I work my ass off, and I don't really care about the. The list and all that, but one. About 10 years ago, the Forbes list came up of the, you know, richest, retired athletes. And I knew. I arrogantly said I gotta be number one. All the. I know I'm number one. And when I saw it, it was Junior Bridgman number one. I was like, who the hell is this guy? And then Michael and then Magic and then Dave Bing and then me.

[Pat McAfee]

5.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

So now I'm pissed. So now I'm pissed. So instead of hating and doing that, now I just studied these guys. Junior Bridgman. I know that name. Play for the Bucks, but damn, he did Wendy. Okay. Oh, I like chicken. I'm gonna start big chicken. You know, Dave Bing is, you know, doing stuff, and still Jordan with the shoes. You know, I got my own shoes. And, you know, Magic is doing a lot of philanthropy work, so I take all that stuff, and I just ramp it up even more. So, you know, I always tell people it's okay to be jealous sometimes, but don't turn that jealousy into envy, turned into motivation. I'm jealous of you, brother. You got a hell of a show. I'm here talking to my cousin, my producer. How can I get a show like that? And we're studying everything you do, but you work a little too hard for me.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no, no. You work your ass off, too. Yeah, I. I'm not doing that all day. Three hours in a day, obviously, a little different. And we.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Three hours. Oh, hell, no. That's too long, Pat.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You could do it, though. You could do it.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm not doing It.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I'm not doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

The inside the NBA, I mean, we're stooges, so it, it feeds us. And I won't be doing this forever. I. I look at guys like Rich I in and Dan Patrick, and I'm like, how. And Stephen a even like, how do you do this for 30 years? I. I don't know how you continue the juice and the energy, but with that being said, I've seen you on TV and movies and everything since I'm a kid, you know? No, I don't want to age you, but you work your ass off, which is why I think I have so much respect for you and for all.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

The success that age me when I'm a kid.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When I was six years old, I remember watching you, you know, do your thing.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Hey, can you. Hey, hey, can we. Can we put up a fun poll right now?

[Pat McAfee]

Sure.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I want you to ask your. Your viewers which. What's sexier, your arms or AJ's face?

[Pat McAfee]

Put AJ's face back up there. Hold on, let me make sure.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I can't tell.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, let me get a good check. AJ's got a fresh cut for you too, Shaq. He remembers that jawline was.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Don't be flexing too much.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, I am. So do we take the photo? Do we take the photo? All right, good. It's done. Shaq, I watched, I watched that Shark Tank on this beatbox. Mark Cuban put a million down for 33% of the beatbox. How far into the company is beatbox right now? And what is next for you and them to kind of world domination with this thing?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

We just want to continue to grow. We just got on the phone, phone call with Walmart and, you know, we're selling viewers, so brand new partnership with them. You know, it's just about growing, you know, just about getting the word out. You know, we dominate the festivals. Want to continue, you know, to dominate festivals and then, you know, eventually take it worldwide. You know, my, my views and strategies may be different from, you know, the, the founders, but any growth is great growth to me. You know, a lot of, you know, people want to. Want to go for numbers and do all this, but if we were better than we were. Yeah. Yesterday, to me, that's success because I know the reason why we created Shum is because I'm going start pissing a lot of people off and, you know, you can't wh my ass up. You know what you can do? Just bite my head off.

[Pat McAfee]

If I.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Upset you in any way. Hey, I want you to just take these right here. Once they get the clog up in your throat, you just take one of days. If you're watching that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Get. Get a little. Get a little beat box in you, and then go ahead. Hey, you can even rip me in half if you. Wow, how tough you are. Rip my head in half. Yeah.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

That's awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Freaking face off the shack. Alicia. Gummies are delicious. That was very.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

AJ we do this every time. You just sit there, talk.

[Pat McAfee]

No, he's coming. He's coming around the corner.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Oh, well, he's coming around.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm getting all this out of the way, Shaq. I'm getting all this out of the way.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

This isn't.

[Pat McAfee]

This isn't. But you get it. It is.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yes, yes, I understand. Yes, I understand the language.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, with that being said, go ahead, A.J.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, Shaq, get into basketball a little bit. What's your thoughts on this, this current NBA season, everything going on? There's always, always drama. People talking about too many threes being shot, all of this. How do you think the rest of the season goes? And who do you think actually finds a way to win this thing? You think Boston can repeat?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

You know, when I was a kid, the NBA, of course, you didn't have access to all the games, but the NBA always had certain storylines. So when I first started watching the game, it was about how innovative Dr. J was, how the style I was, and he had the bad stuff. Then after that, okay, here. Here comes this Patrick Young guy and this David Robinson guy. Oh, don't forget about Magic and. And Bird. And then when I started playing, it was all about Jordan and the Bulls. So to answer your question, we have some interesting storylines. Cleveland, can they overtake Boston? Okc, can they come out the West? Who's the mvp? Derek Rochet, Giannis and Dane. Can they get it done? So, you know, it's a lot of, you know, the Lakers, you know, Charles Barkley said a couple weeks ago the team was terrible. Now they're in loophole. So we have a lot of interesting storylines. As a fan, I do think there's too many. Three weeks. You know the part that I hate about the game, Pat? Imagine every football team running in the same place.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

So I like. You know, I've said this means that every team does the three dribble handoff, top of the key, pick and roll switch. I would just hope that coaches will go back to being innovative. You use what you have. Like, Denver does a great job of. Okay, we got the best big man, league who can shoot and post up. Let's should do that, you know, but, you know, I think.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I don't know what the ratings are like. I hear, you know, different. Different rating numbers. Like, I wish there was a. Like, a ratings guy that we can go to, and it would show us, but, you know, the games that we've been having on TNT have been very interesting. The game last night, Indiana, the Coach runs a 1987 Hoosier play.

[AJ Hawk]

Great shot.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Look right here. And you got to know as a, you know, defensive guy, don't let that. Don't let Tyrese or Seaco get the ball. I would rather have a guy like Miles Turner shoe. So they run this little football play that you would know what, you know, type of call that is.

[Pat McAfee]

Screen there. A little clear out here, brother. Great play.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

That's right. Tyrese right here gets the ball. A guy you don't want to get the ball. He takes it, he shoots it in rhythm. Fouled by Giannis and the three. That was a great game. I'm sure people in Indiana, you know, saw that game, and it was like, they're out having fun. So, you know, I'm. I'm up and down about the players and how they play, and that's because I'm critical, because I expect greatness. As a kid, I saw greatness. I was able to obtain greatness. So as a fan, that's what I want to see. You know, I. I can remember going in the Chicago Bulls arena and. And seeing like, oh, this is what. This is how champions play. This is how fans supposed to treat you. You know, I can remember playing on teams where I missed a shot and a million people boo like, Jordan missed a shot. I'm like, man, can I get some of this love? And then, you know, one guy said, yeah, you can get some of that love. When you start winning, I gotta start winning. All right, I got you.

[Pat McAfee]

Do you think that the modern greatness, though, because it looks different than the greatness of the past, is something that is going to be tough for the greatest big man of all time to buy in on? Whether or not like Tyrese Halliburton, obviously. Go ahead.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

My mother said a very simple term. They're not like you. So sometimes I have to get out of my ways. But one way. Well, one way I will not get out of is the formula. I know to be a great big man, gotta average over 28 points. You gotta average over 10 to 12 rebounds.

[Pat McAfee]

I know that.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I will not change that. How you get to 28, it's okay. Like last night, my good friend Adam Lefto was, oh, so 20 points. And I didn't smile. He's like, we not happy. Like, no, bro, anybody can get 20. Like, I expect greatness from a guy that.

[Pat McAfee]

He just had 22 assists, though. He.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I don't care. No, no part of the formula.

[Pat McAfee]

He did triple double. This guy Zion had a triple double. Yep, that's what I heard you said, I don't care. He can get more than that. It's like, God damn.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I remember one time I had 50 points and I missed like two or three throws and I came on and everybody was, oh, I'm looking at a great game. And I'm looking at my father and he's like, you should have had 60. I was like, huh? He's like. He's like, what the. You mean, huh? 50 plus points. Yes, sir.

[Pat McAfee]

That's awesome. Always want, wanting more and expecting more, especially from our best in the world, is awesome. You guys, though, you guys are like a team in the NBA. I think as regular fans, you count all the teams that are in the NBA. Well, most of them, at least. I haven't seen a lot of them play a single game this year, but most of them play. And then you guys inside the NBA are a team, like a representative of the league. You guys should be incredibly pumped about that. And obviously Charles Barkley took a shot, that big dome, Kendrick Perkins and the ESPN and everything like that. And it was a magical moment, I think, for tv. And obviously that's going to happen. You guys are coming over to ESPN next year. Is that. Is that. Do I have that understood? And when that happens, what changes for you or what changes for the show?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

That the term coming to ESP is correct. I know they're leasing our show.

[Pat McAfee]

Licensing. They're licensing you guys.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I don't know, know the legal ramifications. I want to say the wrong thing here, but it's definitely good for tv. And one thing about us being athletes, I think you can say whatever you want as long as you say it respectfully. You know, I. I don't have a problem with people saying certain things and criticizing me. It's part of the job. You know, before I get upset, I always say to myself, if there's some proof inside the criticism, you just gotta take it. This is the nature of our business. Like, I remember one time I asked a person to say, hey, I come. I'm not, I'm not. I'm not talked about when it comes to Greatest players of all time and say, because we couldn't go to you in the fourth quarter, you miss a lot of people. Now, there's truth in that. Can't get mad, so I have to accept it.

[Pat McAfee]

But, yeah, I would have got mad, though, if I was you.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I know, but. But the title that I do own, I am the most dominant. Well, one of the most dominant big men in history. And, you know, I'm.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm. I'm.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I'm fine. So, you know, the thing with Kendrick and Charles, that's the same thing we were doing the court. So, you know, as long as those guys keep it wwe, you know, you got Charles talking about I walk through a graveyard with a whistle. And you got Kendrick Talking about the 509. Y'all ain't gonna fight. If you are gonna fight, I'm gonna be the promoter, and we gonna do it on May 19th. Not if not. You talk, we talk. And let's just keep the going.

[Pat McAfee]

Just keep all the smoke, I believe is what Charles said. I want all the smoke. Whenever he started the entire thing, it was. It was wonderful. That's why I think everybody loves your show. Now, let's talk about some of the teams this year. More specifically, one of the teams that you mentioned out of the West. Ty has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, Shaq, you mentioned OKC earlier, and there's been kind of a narrative going around today. Actually, I saw it on Twitter that, hey, you know, people in the NBA, they're not necessarily afraid of OKC or they don't respect them. When you look at them, they maybe have the MVP this year. Do you think they're a team that can actually, you know, win a title this year? Or do you think they're still. Because they're so young, a couple years out.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I hate using this word, but if they continue to play well and if this guy continues to shine like he's shining, they definitely have a chance. You know, I've always been an avid get of the other. So Jay Will's gonna have to play, you know, all the guards gonna have to play, the big guys. Har. All those guys are gonna have to play well. I think they can get it done, but they have to get it done. You know the reason why they're not getting respect because. And listen, it happens to a lot of j. When you have bigger names and. And premier players, they're always going to get the first rights of the fus. Like, LeBron's still here, so he's first. And then you got Boston they're the champs. They're second. Second. And then you got, you know, Luka going to the Lakers like, he's third. So. And, you know, Oklahoma City is fairly a very small market. You know, they're playing well, but they still have to get it done. But the fact that teams don't fear them means they want to have to do things 100% correctly at least four out of seven games.

[Pat McAfee]

What was it last year? SGA really came into the lexicon of the conversation, I think. And then this year, he's just continued to go, are you they young? What is the OKC model for those that don't? Are they young and they've kind of developed or are they free agent? And what do you think is the best in the NBA for team building?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Shaq, first of all, Pat Mc Smith. What the is Alexa won't be doing those bad, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, that was pretty good, brother. Yeah, my addiction's pretty solid. Yeah, yeah. No, in the z SGA k into the zeitgeist, you know?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

You know, I think they can get it done. You know, I always tell people that the most valuable lesson. The most valuable lesson I learned was in my last year in Orlando when, you know, we beat the Bulls the year before they came back to swift us. As I'm walking off the court, Michael Jordan says, before you succeed, you must first learn to fail. I'm like, yeah, whatever. But then when I got home, I was like, what the did he say? Like, before he succeeds, you must first learn to fail. But so that angered me, so I always had to play. So, you know, hopefully that, that, that, that, that. That tough loss they had last year angered them, and it look like it's anger them because they're playing well. So hopefully they learn from that and they can move on. But, you know, Joker's gonna have something to say. Lakers gonna have something to say. If Golden State can get in, they're gonna have something to say.

[Pat McAfee]

It's on that note, star power throughout the west coast is very real. DBut has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, speaking of Golden State, obviously, Steph got a running mate now with Jimmy Butler, and they've been kind of hit the ground running since he came over there. And a lot of people talk about you. You don't give certain players their flowers. And we talked about shooting too many threes and all these things. Steph Curry completely changed the game, and I've been an advocate of him being in that goat conversation because of his impact on the game, what he's done first unanimous MVP, 4 chips, and LeBron era. I saw you put him in that goat conversation, too. And that means much more when he's coming from G14 classified. Big diesel. Why did you say that? What do you think about Steph actually being in that goat conversation?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Because if you're going to have a conversation, I want to have a real conversation. Don't just put who you want to put in. If you're going to have a national, worldwide conversation who the goat is, I want all the recipients. That's all. Like, for example, my guy's always gonna be Mike. Before Mike, it was Dr. J, but now we got Mike. I played with a guy that was a killer. He helped me get three. I don't have a problem saying that. I know I was the Finals MVP three times in a row, but without him, I definitely don't get three. You gotta put his name, and then LeBron, you got to put his hand. Now there's a guy that is so good, every team plays like his team in the last five, six years, and there's never been a shooter like him, and he's winning championship. How come his name's not in the conversation? Listen, we live in a world with 8 billion people. You're gonna have. You're gonna pick who you want. It's your opinion. I don't have a problem with you picking any of those names. But, you know, we all talk about who the greatest is. I want to hear everybody in the conversation. Like, if we're going to talk about this on tv, and I'm just talking about your two people, like, you know, and then from. From a big man said, what about Kareem?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, a lot of what?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah, I mean, like. I mean, like, we're gonna have this conversation and put our tweets, put out polls, and put out Instagram, all the recipients, and then you pick. I don't really care who you pick. Jordan is my guy. No, I don't care about anything else. Jordan is my guy. That's my opinion. And whoever don't like it, go to the store and get some shack and.

[Pat McAfee]

Rip my face apart and chew me. Well, I think if I was you and I went into Chicago and I saw Michael Jordan miss some shots and get clapped, I'd probably think this is the greatest guy of all time as well. Everybody has different experiences. Steph Curry, though, you talk about changing basketball as a whole, globally. I mean, you got seven footers now, Wemby coming in from France. It's like three, three, three, three three. Every level, every yeah, every level.

[AJ Hawk]

LA Fitness.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

I think. And I think. And I don't say this disrespectfully, I think because he's not an exciting finisher, people compl.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the no look is kind of the only thing he's got. You're talking about not.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah, imagine. Imagine if he had tremendous finishing power. Then it'll be no like his name. Like. Like, right. Like right now he's just a shooter. Like, you know, all the other guys can shoot. Yeah, no, I'm talking about. No, not dunk one. I'm talking about go through the land and just like.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, like that.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Imagine that. So I think, you know, because he doesn't really finish like that, people overlook him, but I'm not overlooking him.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, we appreciate you doing that, especially with the platform you have and who you are. Last question. Obviously, we know you're very busy. Connor has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Shaq, obviously, huge game tonight. Thunder Celtics. How do you feel about that game? And then, you know, people are always saying, you know, this might be a finals preview. And you mentioned, you know, all the guys that, you know, Shai would have to go through in the West. How much of a difference is, you know, regular season ball to playoff basketball? Like, what is that level that everyone else goes to as the rounds progress?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

My answer can first be part of your question. Starting a new show called I don't watch that when I'm not working dot com. I got to do. Hold on, hold on. Go to dinner. Go on the hot day, or watch Thunder in the Boston Rich and Austin go out on a hot date for a thousand bucket dollars. To answer your other question, you know what I learned? Learn from the great field Jackson, is you pace yourself. You know, if you have championship aspirations, you beat the team that you're supposed to be, you stay dominant at home, and you stay above 500. So where are they playing at?

[Ty Schmidt]

Boston.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Okay, so Boston being the championship team, they know they got to put this team away. So I expect Boston to win tonight. However, OKC wants to be great, so they know in order to be the championship, you have to go through the champ. So if I'm playing the champs, I'm letting them know that if we see you in the finals, this 40 I'm giving you now, next time it's going to be 50. So I hope it's a good game. And good luck to all the fans watching, because I won't be watching.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Hey, we'll send you an update. We'll send you an update. We're gonna have some. We're gonna house some beat boxes tonight. The Shaquille flavor, the Shaq flavor is obviously incredible. That tastes way too good to be 11.1% alcohol. That's a problem.

[AJ Hawk]

Is 11.1 tell you that?

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Listen, I want to say I know we're having fun, but all the people that are drinking the Beatbox, you know better. Don't drink and drive. Drink responsibly.

[Pat McAfee]

Amen. Especially Uber Lift everything that's capable nowadays. There's no reason to get behind a wheel. We appreciate you, Shaq. Keep killing it.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Thank you. Thank you, aj Sexy face dot com.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Thank you, Sha. Appreciate you.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, ladies and gentlemen.

[Boston Connor]

A bunch of websites.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, AJ Hawks.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

He does.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

He has so many websites, doesn't he?

[AJ Hawk]

Now I know why you got the fresh cut, aj.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it makes more sense.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, for Sha. Yeah, it was for Sha.

[Pat McAfee]

Just real quick. You wouldn't be able to stop him, you know that?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, I'd say so. I'd say that's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I would not be able to stop anything.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know that.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you know?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Just so I know. Thanks for reminding me.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, just a little head up. Oh, oh, no.

[AJ Hawk]

In the paint. On the block, Foxy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, of course. No, no, that's what he's talking about. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, different way.

[AJ Hawk]

Most dominant.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly, exactly. The most dominant.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah. Shaq wouldn't.

[Darius J. Butler]

International ball, it's never going to work.

[Boston Connor]

No, not with Shaq though.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we need one because he's an international man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Shaq be boxed.

[I]

Boom, boom.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That was good. You know, and we can't call you very small time because we didn't give you the ball in four court because you couldn't make free throw. He had to be so pissed when he heard that.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

How come? How come I'm never in a conversation about grace? Well, thought I just win. That's all I did. Could we give you the ball in fourth? Well, yeah, he couldn't make free throws hack a shack. You ever heard of it? It's cuz of you.

[AJ Hawk]

Change the game.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. I guess there's a little truth in that. Off.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good point.

[Pat McAfee]

And then I just.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, but to him, shooting a free throw is like us using a ping pong ball to shoot a free throw. I feel like.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Lethal shooter.

[Pat McAfee]

That'd be tough. That's like a little papa shot. Yeah, I'm not great with those little balls. I don't know how people actually shoot them. Like a basketball. No.

[AJ Hawk]

Backboard.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

You just gotta Find the spot on the backboard and just try to replicate. It's impossible.

[Pat McAfee]

It's definitely what I do. Yeah, Yeah. I mean I am off the backboard guy. I'll even underhand that thing. Oh yeah. But there's people you'll see that are like actually shooting full jumping and I'm like, how are you? I don't know how you're. I do that.

[Boston Connor]

You just have to be very weak, little muscle tone, stuff like that.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you heard anything about the Pittsburgh Soup? No, I did. House.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

When does it have to happen? Like what? When's the latest we're gonna hear it?

[Ty Schmidt]

If it doesn't happen today, I'm out.

[Boston Connor]

If it doesn't happen today, I'm out on them. You can tell them that too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I guess Chef D is pissed off that it hasn't happened happened yet.

[Boston Connor]

Join the club, pal.

[Pat McAfee]

Here we go. Yahoo Sports. Charles Robinson. Yahoo Sports still exists. Goat.

[Ty Schmidt]

Charles Robinson still exists.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely. Charles Robinson, friend of the program. The Falcons are expected to keep quarterback Kirk Cousins through Sunday's deadline and pay him 10 million that he's due because there's a another $10 million guaranteed that's due by March 17th or 16th or something like that staying there. So he's staying.

[Boston Connor]

I was looking at their roster just to you know, just to see because it peaked my interest. They don't have another quarterback besides him and Penic. So if they were to cut him and let him go, they'd be in a real situation and who perfect to you know, kind of, you know, deal. Cuz we all know Kirk, he's a great guy. He's going to help Michael Penck and if Michael Pennix is on a rookie deal, they probably don't mind paying Kirk that money. So the only way that you potentially do that is if Kirk forces his way out. Which also doesn't seem like a guy who do that but we'll see.

[AJ Hawk]

Does he have the note?

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[AJ Hawk]

Trade cloth so he can kind of pick where he goes or no. Is that somebody?

[Ty Schmidt]

Not sure. But we do know Pennix loves him. Pennix talked about him last year about how he like looked up to him and everything.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And I think Kirk loves Pennock. Yeah. I think is the way he talks about it. So you know, maybe Kirk gets to the point where he's like, all right, this is my career now.

[Boston Connor]

He does have a no chance.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's got family down there too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, his wife. His wife's family is from there. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And still he's making a ton of money doing Nothing sucks.

[Pat McAfee]

It does suck that, but doesn't feel that.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

But yeah, he knows where, where he's at. But to, to accept the fact, to accept the role of, hey, I'm a backup now, that's got to be tough.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're. I agree. But that is a conversation that a lot of quarterbacks have to have, you know. And I only know that because Matt Hasselbeck came to be the backup for Andrew Luck and he was a starter the year before. And I had a chance to chat with him about how he had to like actually like talk to his family and be like, if I take this, it's like me admitting like my starting days are kind of over. Like now I'm just like the veteran backup. And I'm not saying Kirk Cousins going to have to do that, but that is, is a part of a career that people can get to if they want to or they can bow out of. To your point, I forgot completely about how great he was on tv.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Scott Van Pelt's mic muted. Couldn't talk anymore on set and Kirk just took over the show and just started like directing and started like talking and got a promo and asked a question. Then Scott gets a microphone back. They're back. He was great on television. I, I mean, and he said sometimes, you know, my son asked about Patrick Mahomes and I tell him it's hard that we don't even play the same sport. You know, we're playing like the, the self deprecating humor from Kirk Cousins. He's obviously a nerd. Like we all very much understand that. He understands that as well. He has a great TV gig.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh yeah, son.

[Pat McAfee]

We learned that too.

[Darius J. Butler]

Command an audience.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, we did.

[AJ Hawk]

Great perspective too because he came guys, right? Drafted, you know what, Third round, third, fourth round. Came in obviously as a backup, same draft as RG3. And then he was at the point where he was one of the highest paid quarterbacks in the league and now been a backup and then he played in these offenses in KLC. Coming from that McVeigh tree, he'll be able to talk about these quarterbacks in these offenses for the next 10, 15, 20 years. So I mean, Kirk probably won't be starting this year, probably. But he's got a great future ahead of my I love Kirk feel.

[Pat McAfee]

I love Kirk Cousins, I really do. Big fan. Every time I talk to him, I'm like, I love this dude. Nerd.

[Ty Schmidt]

Another guy from the quarterback series.

[Darius J. Butler]

Understands it. Like you said, very self effacing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, love him.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's get the hell out of here. Big one tomorrow.

[Ty Schmidt]

Huge.

[Boston Connor]

Huge.

[Pat McAfee]

Cuz it's day one of the new league year. Yeah, that's right. And it's also ticket release date for big night. Oh yeah. I don't know, I don't know how this is going. Do I think there's a chance.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I think it'll be all right.

[Pat McAfee]

Think it'll be okay legitimately? I don't know there's a chance because I think it's like 10,000 tickets. 11,000. I don't know the exact number because we're blacking out some of the, some of the sections because the way it's going to be set up, obviously for giveaways and stuff, you know, it's a, it's a fully immersive show. I, I, I will, I will, I will say there is a, there's a lot happening. The giveaways in the performances we'll say are, are obviously the key parts of it. So setting up the arena and the seating is rather important. I think it's gonna be like 11,000, 10,000. And we said no ticket would be more than a hundred dollars. The base price of the ticket. So I got a call this morning from fees. Yeah, they're like, hey, there's, so we saw in your video you said that there's no ticket will be worth more than a hundred dollars. The base ticket price will be less than 100, but after the fees, it will go over 100 miles an hour or 100. I'm like, I feel okay. I feel like I told the truth. Yeah, we listed now. These fees are crazy though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah, they are.

[Darius J. Butler]

But, but that's not, it's different if you were, you know, if tickets were 700, you know, the fees on top of that push it well over a thousand. Like a hundred. It's still, it's still manageable. It's like sales tax.

[Pat McAfee]

20 tickets will be available. I don't know how long those will be available. Available. I think there's like a couple thousand of those. And then $95 will be the most expensive ticket that will be out there. There's a $70 ticket, I think that has the most, that has the, it's either 70 or 60. I forget what it, it's one of those in there that has the most available. But I'm very excited for. It's going to be a, I think it's going to be a amazing show like literally every day that passes and I'm, I'm a pretty negative person. Okay. I call our show terrible. I mean, I say our show stinks or whatever. Normally. I think everything's gonna not be great, not not be good enough for people's attention, you know, hey, people are spending their attention with us. People are spending their time with us. We gotta make it good. Sorry. Our show stinks. He's literally my thought. And there's mornings where I come in here where I'm just standing in the shower just like, what the fuck? We are gonna disrespect so many people today with what our show is about to be. I am so sorry about how bad it is. So I normally feel that way about everything. I normally think, like, everything's gonna be crap. We are lucky that if anybody watches anything and if the next day they decide to still be fans of us, we're in a good spot. That is legitimately my feeling towards things. This one feels good. I don't know. It feels good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I think it's because the amount of talent that are going to be on this show, it's like, it's gonna be a cool night. I think it's gonna be a big night. I think it's gonna be a cool night. I think it's gonna be a really cool night. And obviously, giving over a million bucks in the arena will be a lot of fun. Changing some lives will be a lot of fun in the. The people that are gonna show up, the guests, I think people are gonna be like, how the did Billy Gardell? I did this. I doubt how the did this guy put this thing together. Billy Gardell has not been reached out to yet. You're right, though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That is a show. Show is fluid.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Come on.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm just one of you.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Don't do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't do what you said.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pittsburgh.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't do what you just said. Don't do what you just said.

[AJ Hawk]

Sorry, I'm not from Pittsburgh.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, you never seen Mike and Molly?

[Boston Connor]

He's a national.

[Pat McAfee]

What about guy invented oic?

[AJ Hawk]

Well, okay, I know Zimpic.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, hit the commercial. Then he was doing that. He was doing high knees with the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sucking down a dog.

[Boston Connor]

That was. I mean, Billy Hot dog.

[Ty Schmidt]

Excuse me.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that's Billy Gardell. The one.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Got some DK harbor.

[Pat McAfee]

The one I grew up with left. The one that is now right. That is Billy Gardelle right there.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know that macho man.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Kind of looks like Ellen.

[Pat McAfee]

I have not reached out to Billy Gardelle. Ellen, the other day.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, really?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When I had my glasses on, I had a Thing going on with my eye. So I put the glasses on, you know, to cover it up, because I didn't know what was going on. That just disappeared. I'm not going to get that checked. I'm just going to keep it moving. Smart.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Good morning. Don't. Don't Google it either.

[Pat McAfee]

I have no idea. I'm just like, all right, something's happening with my eye. I don't like it. Okay. I'm gonna put these glasses on, try to hide it a little bit. Okay. Tomorrow if the same thing. We're doing the same goddamn thing. And I woke up the next day. Didn't happen. I'm like, sweet, no more glasses. What happened? Didn't even. I asked that, like, one time. I was like, it feels like that was something, though. And it's like, don't. You don't.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, you got to get your eyeball removed.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't have time. You don't have time. Yeah, don't think. Just move, move, move. So. Shouts in my eye. I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's good work.

[Pat McAfee]

Way to figure it out, dude. I. I think it is actually my dominant eye, too. Ooh, left eye dominant. Dominant right hand guy. So, you know, as a growing up, shooter. Right. You know, rifle. Right. Right. Spot with two eyes, then lock in with one eye. And then it turns out that you do this game or the. The thumb game. On which eyes, Mom? Left guy. Dominant. This entire time. So I should have been. Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Or would you rather be born blind or turn blind when you were three, 30?

[Pat McAfee]

Born.

[AJ Hawk]

Born blind.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. I guess.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I wonder how they. If someone's born blind, how do they see things in their. Like, how do they picture the world?

[Pat McAfee]

Audio.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, I know they are, but, like, in their brain, do they have visions of something?

[AJ Hawk]

It's like, you don't have color. You don't have.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I'm just saying that.

[AJ Hawk]

What do they.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Yeah, like, how do they say a goal post? And you've never seen a goal post? What do they. How do they envision that?

[Pat McAfee]

Did I. Did I tell you guys about my trip to stares the other day? Did I tell you about this on the show?

[Boston Connor]

You did.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

You glued your head to the table.

[Ty Schmidt]

Nice.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Good call.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

The bucks at Schultz's place or where.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I didn't protest.

[Ty Schmidt]

The protester.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I didn't protest.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, no. Maybe it wasn't on the show.

[Pat McAfee]

I went in there and got Americana. Okay. We're. We're. We're doing some furniture shopping next door, and, boy, I found out me not in there. Much better. Better, you know, I'm kind of bored. Sam was dialed in, though, you know, every piece, the whole thing, having a conversation. I love it. She's great at it. I'm very appreciative of what she's done for our homes, my everything, you know, she's great at it. But for me, I get bored pretty quickly. I'm either laying on the couch or I'm going and looking at something we're never going to buy. That's right. Starbucks next door. So I was like, all right, I'm going to go get a Starbucks. I'm going to go get a Starbucks. So I go into Starbucks, and the lady that's working in Starbucks bucks, she has this thing drilled into her head with like an airpod on the end of it, and it's on her left side. And she's cash register is to. I'm this way. So she's like, here. So I see it, you know, she was incredibly polite, kind, nice, jovial, and I just can't help myself. I'm like, excuse me. I obviously see what's behind your ear there. What is that? So she lost hearing in her left left ear because of a virus like 15 or 20 years ago or something like that. And they had this device that they drilled into, like a bone cochlear implant.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

A cochlear implant?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

And then she had this thing on it. And I was like, how's it work? She's like, good. Yeah. It just sends it over. I'm like, genius. Isn't technology. Isn't technology just, like, amazing? I told her and she's like, yeah, I love it. I have to change it out every two years. You know, there's like an update on it or whatever. And once you get past just like looking at something sticking out of somebody, it's small, but it's definitely sticking out of a head, like at my life, obviously. And I've said, I can hear now on this side of my face, in my head, and yada, yada. And I said, technology is the greatest. She said, the best thing that I saw, guy came in here with a seeing cane. Like a cane, and he got his phone out. And she was like, do you want me to tell you any stuff that we have, like two cookies or whatever? And he goes, no, no, I'm good. He had a phone that was directly attached to an know something. He had like a Bluetooth, maybe implant or something. And he was just reading everything that was in front of him. So like, it was like chocolate chip Cookie, there's three of them. There's blueberry muffin. There's two of them. So he was like, literally getting a play by play from his phone into his ear about what was happening in front of him. And it's like, could you imagine not having that? Like, if you're a blind person, not having that. It's like. So they've. I think technology is. Tried his best. What was the thing Elon was creating?

[Ty Schmidt]

Neural.

[Darius J. Butler]

Neuralink.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

He's trying to fix that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's. That's wild.

[Ty Schmidt]

It'll get there.

[Pat McAfee]

I hope so. I hope we get to a point where technology is able to take care of that. Because your question there. She lost hearing 15 years ago, 20 years ago in that ear. But I couldn't imagine just losing it completely, you know, at a certain age or losing vision. A certain age. I guess you have memories, which is good. But then are you automatically reminded that you can't see them anymore? Probably, you know, every single time. So that's a tough. That's a tough thing I'm having. Technology is taking care of that. But that thing in that lady's head was really cool. Like, you know, because you can hear. That's why the headphones that don't go in the ear, that just kind of sit on your jawbone, they kind of rattle through your bones and you can kind of hear it. It's like. It's impressive what we're able to accomplish, but that lady had to get that drilled in, or I think worth it.

[Ty Schmidt]

It sounds like.

[Pat McAfee]

And it hurts so bad. Yeah, I think so. She says it shoots over to the other ear. She can hear it in there. Whatever the case, I'm not tough enough to get that thing drilled in there. I hope I don't lose my vision. I got Lasik, and there's some things where I'm doing this now, and I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to get Lasik again, and I'm not going to do it. They tape your eyes open. It's easy.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

It's a lot easier now, isn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

They tape your eyes open. Taper. Eyes open, eyes open. Then a laser comes in. Have you done it?

[Tyrese Halliburton]

No, but I watched my wife get it done, like 15 years ago.

[Pat McAfee]

That's when I got it done.

[AJ Hawk]

How long does it last typically?

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean? The.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

The 20, 30 years, I thought.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, 15, 20, 30, whatever it is. Yeah, but I got it done mid offseason. I got it done. But they tape your eye open, and then a laser Comes in, you don't see anything. You lose complete vision. He's black.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's why I'll never do it it. And that just scares the out of me.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

That's really scary.

[Pat McAfee]

They do one at a time. So then they're like, let us know whenever you see the blinking light again. And then you don't see it. And they're like, let us know when you see the blinking light. And after the fourth time, they ask you, like, am I supposed to.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Oh, is this over?

[Pat McAfee]

Or whatever. And then all of a sudden, you see the. And it's like, oh, yeah, I could see it. They're like, okay, good. And then they do the cleanup and then that whole thing. And then they do the next eye. They're like, all right, we're gonna do the other eye. It's like, well, let us know whenever you see the blinking light. Let us know whenever you see the blinking light. I say the am I blind in one iron? And then the light comes back. It's like, thank God. Next morning, though, 2010, the whole world. Definitely worth it. Definitely worth it. I mean, you could go blind, I guess, but definitely worth it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Would you just get prescription glasses, though?

[Pat McAfee]

I had to wear prescription glasses because I had contacts in for, like, 10 years straight. Never, never took them out because you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Already wear the glasses sometimes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like, it.

[Pat McAfee]

Dude, those are blue light glasses.

[Darius J. Butler]

I know, but that's what I'm saying. So, like, that. That whole thing doesn't bother you, but.

[Pat McAfee]

When you wear blue, like, glasses, you know, like, here is good, but all the way out here. Yeah, yeah. Bad. The bad. Like, you. You. If these are actual prescription glasses, you can't see, like, out here is where it sucks.

[Darius J. Butler]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, so, like, I had bad eyes. Bad, bad, bad eyes. I had contacts in, though. I never took out it. It's amazing what the world looks like whenever you can actually see. For sure. It is. It is pretty crazy what the world looks like.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Come on, Foxy.

[Pat McAfee]

And Lasik was able to do that for me. Yeah. Foxy needs it.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I've looked into it. I didn't know that I didn't have to miss a day of work to get this done. I could do it Friday after the show and then be good to go. So I'm actually going to do this. Yeah. And getting it done. The latest you possibly can on a day is the right play. Yeah. And every single person I've talked to that has gotten it done and said it's the.

[Ty Schmidt]

The greatest thing they've done in their life.

[Pat McAfee]

Next morning you're seeing 2010. Yeah, literally the next morning. Because if you get the last one, you're not allowed to drive home or whatever. You get the last one done. You just take an Ambien immediately afterwards and you just sleep. You wake up at like 3am or whatever. Yeah. Because your sleep schedule is kind of. But whenever you wake up, do you have to wear glasses? I think the next day they got those wraparound boys that you got to wear the solar eclipse virtual reality glasses. Yeah, yeah, those ones you got to nowhere but like you can just see everything. So I think the way I got it done, I think I got a 4:30 or 5:00 appointment, had it done, took an Ambien, woke up like 3am and I was like, holy, this is a pretty nice house I'm living in. That's what I'm gonna do. I went into the indoor facility like two days later for the Colts and I'm like, wow. I haven't been able to see the roof. It's nice because all the lights. Lights, you know. Yeah, exactly. Because all the lights are blurry. So they just cover up, you know, because whenever you lights pop up, if you have bad eyes, it's just a big. So like the roof of the. The Colts facilities. First time I saw it, I'm like this pretty nice place or whatever. They're like, yeah, we didn't change it. I'm like, yeah, I know. But I'm. It's my first time seeing. Well, what have you been playing with? I'm like, yeah, not good. I've been pretty blind. Someone told me the procedure took three minutes total and you were done and out. Yeah. But it feels like an hour. Whenever there's definitely. When there's no vision in your eye because they go one eye at the time. So when you can't see anything on your right eye, it's. That's sketchy. That's sketchy.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Feel.

[AJ Hawk]

That's crazy. You and you. Your whole job is.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And hold it or. Yeah. And so what happened was I lost my right contact mid game. Didn't have any backup contacts. Cuz I've been wearing these contacts for 10 years, 5 years or whatever. So I was. I literally had no. And this is just. And I got Adam venator here. So it's like, listen, I can up for me here, but this guy is a.

[AJ Hawk]

Other eye buddy. Put it down.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo. That's. Well, that's kind of what I did. I kind of did a. Now that I know that my left eye dominant I did do like a one eye thing and the snap came at me for a punt and it was a. I'm like, I need to get these eyes fixed. And then I had to go more context. I didn't even have more context, but I would recommend it. I would recommend it. I'm going to get it done for sure. Hopefully soon. It's sketchy though and knows what.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Taping her eye open is a wild scene.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

When did they first start doing Lasik? Like who was volunteering to be like the test dummies?

[Pat McAfee]

So when they. When they rats. Helen Keller would have got it. Hopefully. I don't know how that works.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's how she got blind.

[Pat McAfee]

But I don't know. I don't think that's true. I don't know how Helen learned it. You know, I don't know how Helen Keller learned.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

Is any of that real?

[Ty Schmidt]

There's some Helen Keller learned are conspiracy theories. I don't believe in them, but there are some.

[Pat McAfee]

1989 was the first ever lasik. Adam Schefter has reported. It is now official that the jets are releasing Aaron Rodgers.

[Ty Schmidt]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, big news. The jets will take on 49 million in dead cap money on releasing Rogers. He's being designated as a post June 1st cup. Meaning they'll carry his $21 million cap hip until June 1st when it drops to 14 million saving 7 million. But they then will absorb a $35 million did.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay, a lot of mumbo jumbo.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of mumbo jumbo. But yes, the jets are officially releasing Aaron Rogers. He will be a free agent. And now we sit and wait. I saw Shefter was on a podcast and he say he's tired of weight of Aaron Rogers.

[Boston Connor]

Bruce sent that into the group chat. I thought it was actual breaking news cuz Aaron's picture popped up with Shefter's name.

[Pat McAfee]

But Bruce, I appreciate you, buddy. Thank you for keeping us updated. Up back there. That's on me. Could be a giant.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, could be.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe.

[AJ Hawk]

Maybe if he wants to.

[Pat McAfee]

But why would he?

[Ty Schmidt]

Good point, good point.

[Darius J. Butler]

That is a good point.

[Pat McAfee]

Doesn't want to move.

[AJ Hawk]

Everybody hates moving.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody hates moving. God, hate it. By 20 mil he could wake up.

[Boston Connor]

Tomorrow and see the ocean's blue and be like giants.

[Pat McAfee]

Scott, that's not how it works. You keep saying stuff like that going, you're going to end up with Mason Rudolph as your quarterback.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

If that's how time is a flat circle works, then that's where we'll be okay, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't be. You're listening to coach Diggs too much. You need to stop reading, Coach.

[Tone]

I will.

[Boston Connor]

I refuse to talk to him about any of it.

[Pat McAfee]

You need to stop reading Coach Digs's text. He said he's not watching his Steelers. They bring an Aaron Roger from one. He's our old guys.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

I heard we. I mean, I know it probably won't happen, but I. If Coach Diggs came on the show one time, I'd be very happy.

[Pat McAfee]

We can definitely make that happen. Certainly if we're giving him front row coaching gear, though.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

He needs to be coaching gear. Gear, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, we know the only gear he has.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's.

[Tyrese Halliburton]

We play bocce with him.

[Pat McAfee]

We should go do a show live from his next bocce match. When you guys take on the Pepperonce. When are you guys just taking Pepperoni?

[Boston Connor]

As long as Tim's coming on the show too, I think. Let's do it.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no. Tim is just holding down a Ford here. I don't think he'll be at the Pepperoni's match either. So I'll be a whole different animal. I was live at a bocce match match, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight's a big one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cool. Better be better than tire wrestling news.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of, we have pitched a couple specials to be on ESPN too. I hope that happens. We've. We are dabbling into the. Creating new content world, you know, so we would like a couple specials to be allowed on ESPN too. Okay. And we'll see how those are received. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited for us to explore the space.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, might as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Of counterproduct programming. I'm excited for us to kind of explore that entire thing. I'm very, very pumped up about that. But we will. We certainly will. All right. Tickets tomorrow, noon. Okay, noon. I am scared that because the price of these things only going to be able to buy 4Max. Okay. I'm gonna be able to buy 4Max.

[AJ Hawk]

Smart.

[Pat McAfee]

It's Wednesday, April 9th is the show, so I know that's tough for some people. I saw some messages from people saying, oh, I work on Thursday. I thought you were for the working man. All right. All right. I work on Thursday too, bub. Okay. How about. But with that being said, the reason why it's Wednesday is so that we can add on to the Axe kind of tour because everybody kind of works Thursday through Saturday. And if you want to think about the people that are doing those types of gigs, those are the people that will be there on a Wednesday night. So any of those other days would have been tough to kind of get in there, especially in the spring whenever a lot of people on the move. So I apologize for it being on Wednesday night, but also has to be on a Wednesday night and it'll be fun. I'm. It's going to be a good night.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's going to be a good show. People are going to say, why didn't we. Why didn't. Why isn't this show happen before? I think it's going to go great.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. You might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Team on three. Hey, D. Bu. Great work this week.

[AJ Hawk]

Hey, you too, brother.

[Ty Schmidt]

Another boy, D. 1, 2, 3.

[Shaquille O'Neal]

Goodbye.

[Pat McAfee]

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