PMS 2.0 1320 - Dan Orlovsky on Shedeur's Pro Day and the Remaining QB Openings, Karl Ravech on Shohei's Special Night and the State of Baseball, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Summary of "The Pat McAfee Show" - Episode PMS 2.0 1320

Release Date: April 3, 2025

Title: Dan Orlovsky on Shedeur's Pro Day and the Remaining QB Openings, Karl Ravech on Shohei's Special Night and the State of Baseball, & AJ Hawk

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1. Emotional Family Moment with Dan Orlovsky

The episode begins with Pat McAfee expressing gratitude to listeners and setting the stage for a content-rich show centered around recent sports events. A standout moment features Dan Orlovsky sharing a deeply personal and emotional story about his son, Madden, who is autistic.

Dan Orlovsky recounts how ESPN's NFL Live crew surprised Madden by displaying his artwork around the studio on World Autism Awareness Day:

"When my son Madden was surprised with his artwork in the studio, it was the most present I've ever been as a dad." [19:39]

Pat McAfee reflects on the significance of this gesture, describing it as a magical and heartfelt experience:

"Yesterday I got tear up literally thinking about it right now... It was so surreal and special and emotional." [00:00]

This segment underscores the show's commitment to highlighting meaningful personal stories within the sports community.

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2. NFL Quarterback Landscape: Shador Sanders and Draft Prospects

A major focus of the episode is the analysis of NFL quarterbacks, specifically Shador Sanders and his performance leading up to his pro day. Dan Orlovsky provides a comprehensive evaluation of Sanders, praising his physical attributes and arm strength while expressing concerns about his decision-making and consistency under pressure.

"He's really impressive when he's in a clean pocket, but he's often running for his life. Half of his throws are at or behind the line of scrimmage, many influenced by poor offensive line protection." [26:20]

Pat McAfee engages with Dan on the potential impact Sanders could have if drafted:

"Will Shador Sanders be a starting quarterback next year? Or will he end up being a backup for a stopgap?" [00:00-03:00]

The discussion delves into Sanders' draft prospects, comparing him to other QBs like Jackson Dart and assessing his readiness for the NFL.

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3. NFL Trade Spotlight: Joe Milton to Cowboys

The show highlights a significant NFL trade involving Joe Milton moving from the New England Patriots to the Dallas Cowboys. Pat McAfee breaks down Milton's talents, emphasizing his athleticism and arm strength.

"He could spin it, do a standing backflip in full pads, and his arm strength is absolutely absurd." [13:07]

Boston Connor, a Patriots fan, expresses disappointment over losing Milton, highlighting his potential as a valuable backup quarterback:

"It's a bummer because Joe Milton can throw it a country mile and is a great athlete." [14:13]

This trade analysis provides listeners with insights into how such moves impact team dynamics and quarterback depth.

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4. Tornadoes in Indianapolis: Impact and Personal Experiences

The conversation shifts to severe weather events impacting Indianapolis, with Ty Schmidt detailing the recent tornadoes that struck the city. The discussion covers the unpredictability and devastation caused by the tornadoes, as well as personal safety measures taken by Pat and his team.

"Last night, tornadoes touched down in Indianapolis, hitting neighborhoods like Brownsburg with devastation and destroying warehouses. It was a wild and unpredictable night." [03:34 - 06:16]

AJ Hawk shares his experience, emphasizing the fear and urgency during the tornado watch:

"I got loud. So I went downstairs to make sure everyone was with us." [09:49]

The segment highlights the community's resilience and the importance of preparedness during natural disasters.

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5. State of Baseball: Shohei Ohtani’s Spectacular Performance

Karl Ravech discusses Shohei Ohtani's outstanding performance in baseball, particularly his walk-off home run that secured a victory for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"Ohtani hits a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth, making the Dodgers 8-0 and showcasing his exceptional talent." [90:10]

Carl Ravage emphasizes Ohtani's global appeal and his impact on MLB's popularity:

"He's the most well-known athlete globally since Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali, and he's on pace to become one of the all-time greats." [91:07]

The conversation underscores Ohtani's dual-threat capability as both a pitcher and a hitter, contributing significantly to the excitement and momentum in baseball.

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Conclusion

The episode wraps up with reflections on the day's discussions, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of sports and the profound personal stories that enrich the sports narrative. Pat McAfee and his team express optimism and anticipation for future events, ensuring listeners that more engaging content will continue to unfold.

Pat McAfee concludes with an inspirational message:

"Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together." [Final Segment]

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Notable Quotes

• Dan Orlovsky:
  "When my son Madden was surprised with his artwork in the studio, it was the most present I've ever been as a dad." [19:39]

• Ty Schmidt:
  "Tornado season is wild because it can pop up out of nowhere." [07:07]

• Boston Connor:
  "Joe Milton can throw it a country mile and is a great athlete. His trade to the Cowboys is a loss for the Patriots." [14:13]

• Carl Ravage:
  "Shohei Ohtani is the most well-known athlete globally since Tiger Woods and Muhammad Ali." [91:07]

• Pat McAfee:
  "Sports are the greatest. We're lucky we get to talk about them every single day." [00:00]

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This summary encapsulates the key discussions, emotional moments, and expert insights presented in the episode, providing a comprehensive overview for those who haven't tuned in.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode. The Thunderdome on this. Hell yeah. Thursday, April 3, 2025. This program starts now. Hell yeah. Hell right. It'll be a great Thursday. We got a lot of sports happening. Obviously the NFL had a massive trade this morning, which we'll certainly discuss. Baseball had a big time night by its biggest star. Hockey's happening with a grade 8. Having a chase even in a losing effort scores another goal. Obviously the sports world is alive. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to chit chat about it every single day. Have a couple of great guests happening just in a matter of moments. We'll have Dan Orlovsky joining us. Dan Orlovsky, obviously host of ESPN's NFL Live. He also commentates games. We don't know what his future is, business wise. Haven't seen any like kind of, you know, passive aggressive tweets. Yeah, we'll certainly ask him about it, but yesterday I saw a tweet involving him that made me get a little bit emotional when his son Madden, who is an autistic lad to celebrate World Autism Awareness Day, was surprised, I believe by everybody at the ESPN NFL crew, where I think Dan and his wife took a bunch of his drawings that he has and they surprised him and put it up all around the studio and the set. And his son Madden has autism and he's, he's. I don't, I don't want to describe. I've been around him and I feel like I'm friends of the family kind of. So the way Dan describes it is, you know, he's there but he's not really present. You know, he's like kind of around. He's 11, 12 years old, whatever the case is. And he felt like yesterday was the most present he had ever been. And as a dad having this moment with Matt, his other kids are all very athletic, they've had a lot of success. I think they do a lot of things. Madden, I assume, is the quiet one who is just kind of yesterday he got a chance to kind of be celebrated by his family and by his dad's friends and then his, his siblings friends and then his friends brought. It was like what a magical day here for the Orlowski family. Yesterday I got tear up literally thinking about it right now, but also watching it just because that moment for Dan, I assume was so cool to watch Madden in an element that he felt incredibly comfortable with. And we'll chat about Dan, chat to Dan about that and then we'll also, you know, ask Dan, about what's going on around these quarterbacks. Shador Sanders, pro day tomorrow. Whoa. That's a big deal, obviously. Let's hear what Dan Orlopsky is thinking. Shador, number two quarterback in the draft is what everybody is saying at this point. Where will he end going? Who will end up spending a top pick on a draft on a quarterback? And will Shador Sanders be a starting quarterback next year? Will he end up in a place where maybe he'll back up for a stopgap potentially? Guy can spin it. We saw how incredibly tough he is and his entire life he's got a chance to witness what greatness looks like with his father, who is one of the greatest athletes of all time. The work ethic, the accountability, the discipline, you name it. You would think inheritedly he would have everything you'd want in a professional football player. Will he be a guy that will change a program? We shall ask Dan Orlovsky that question. Hopefully he'll give a good answer. And then the second hour, we got Carl Ravage.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Ravi, let's go. It's going to be Ravi time. Ravi time. Talking baseball with Ravi Guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[AJ Hawk]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that, that's what it would be. A little bit more baseball talk because last night baseball was awesome. Now it's not just those, it's not just me. It's also the boys at the talks table at Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Boys, wild weather here.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, man.

[Pat McAfee]

In Indiana last night, one half of the hammer died. Ball cap boys. Ap Tone. Tone and I grew up on same street in Pittsburgh. Very hilly area, doesn't have tornadoes. Ty, you grew up in Iowa. I think that is a tornado area.

[Ty Schmidt]

Correct.

[Pat McAfee]

Con man, you're from Massachusetts. Not a lot of tornadoes up there.

[Boston Connor]

Never.

[Pat McAfee]

Last night was the realest that our area of Indiana has had since I've got here. South side of Indianapolis had a tornado maybe 10 years, 15 years ago that really took out a neighborhood. And then Indiana itself has tornadoes on a regular basis. Normally it's like hour, hour and a half south of the city, hour north of the city. A couple neighborhoods have been hit a few times, but Indianapolis normally misses it for reason. Last night, couple touched down literally right in the middle of big time Indianapolis neighborhoods. And obviously there was some devastation in some parts of town. Brownsburg, which is on the west side of Indianapolis, which was the town that I lived in for the first five years I lived here in Indianapolis. The Bulldogs. Great community, great people. A warehouse got blown over, I believe there's bad, bad warehouse Goes down unaccounted people. I think there was some streets, obviously lights and houses that happened. So just know that with storms happening right now, and I don't know if we are in the time of these storms to continue, and I don't know how long the season is, it's incredibly scary, the tornadoes. And now I know everybody has their natural disasters and everything. Tornado season is wild because it can pop up out of nowhere. Okay, so it can pop up out of nowhere and then literally you're just looking up at the sky hoping that it doesn't, like just pick you. Because those things will come down and then bang, they'll do some devastation and then they'll hit like one house in a full neighborhood and then pick up and move and then wipe out a whole neighborhood over here and then pick up and be over or move to a completely different trajectory. It's like there's no predictability out of it. You have no clue what's coming, how devastating it's going to be. And every time I've experienced it, it's scary as shit. So we will obviously help however we can here in our city of Indianapolis. For the people that had any devastation, but also to everybody that experienced that and is going to positive vibes, it is an anxiety riddle, especially now that we have a daughter. You know, that's the first real one that has come near Indianapolis since daughter has been alive. And it's like, okay, her room's upstairs. You don't have to be from a tornado place to know you're supposed to get done. But it's like, also, she just fell asleep, so how real. And then once you get the alert on the phone and then you hear the siren going on outside the house, it's kind of like an eerie sound, hidden. And then all of a sudden that lightning turns into a purple and a blue and a green. And then the wind is insane. And on the water that I live, these waves were crashing like it was the Pacific Ocean. I mean, it was. It was a wild night here in Indianapolis, which I assume it was Arkansas. I believe Kentucky got some. I think even up into Michigan there was a little bit of storms. I assume Ohio got some as well. So T's and P's to everybody, we will help out however possible. But I think that was your first time, right? Being in the middle of it? Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Never heard a tornado siren in my life. And allegedly there was one last year downtown. I don't remember that, but I've never heard it. Never. The green lightning. And I feel like for someone who is, you know, never experienced something like that. When you picture tornadoes, it's not nighttime. So, like, the fact that it was night and there was these insane winds, insane rain, like you talk about, you know, kind of just never knowing where it's gonna touch down, like when you can't see, literally is impossible. I kept kind of watching the lightning go off, waiting to see, you know, some sort of tornado touchdown. Not in the city, because, like, Ty's explained to me, like, living downtown, that's basically where, you know, you are kind of of safer from tornadoes because they don't really go through cities. But I was trying to look out kind of up towards you guys, because up towards you guys were the path that they were kind of projecting squares on the map. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And Angela Buckman, WTHR last night, and her tag team partner. I forget his name. I apologize. Handsome fella. They were on it also. Ryan hall, y'all. Yeah. This YouTuber, I was on with him after our storms passed. Have a smart tv turn on smart tv. Was heading over. I think Hulu was out or so I forget why. I couldn't log into my. I think I had too many. Too many devices because my Internet changed, so I couldn't log in. So I went over to YouTube or whatever, and Ryan hall, y'all, was right on the homepage. It was like 253,000 concurrents, and I clicked on it. This is a sophisticated operation here. I mean, sophisticated little tag team partner drops in there in the lower right corner. He's given updates on updates on updates. Ryan Hollyo at one point. Point, I only got to see a little bit of it. I think he said, we've been streaming for. And he looks at the clock and he goes, 10 hours. But you see him do this and like a new warning comes across the top of screen. Like, his setup was insane. He was covering Kentucky, Arkansas, Indianapolis, Indiana. And it's. It's oddly fascinating to watch it all happen. But the reason why it's so fascinating because you have no idea what it's going to do. And like, on the. On the meteorology on the map there, Doppler, there's like a little hook in the red or the purple, and they're like, that's a tornado right there. And it, like, looks quiet, obviously. And they're like. Then they start drawing out trajections of this thing. And it's like a wide net, and you're just hoping your town isn't in the net. And then as it starts moving that thing Gets kind of smaller. And you're right. Yeah. Basically everywhere where we live was kind of in the. That's the first time I've ever seen. I mean, my house was sitting directly in the middle of where it was headed.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'm like, I don't know. I don't know which room is the right. I'm just going in the basement here. We got to get four cats, two dogs. Daughter, obviously is going to be with us, and who knows what's left standing at the end of this. And luckily, we're missed. A lot of people are missed in that whole thing, but it's an anxiety time. And in Carmel, they had a. Carmel, which is a suburb of Indianapolis on the north side, normally ends up in, like, readers choice. Best towns to live. They have more roundabouts here than maybe anywhere else. Beautiful town. Great town. They had a tornado. Touchdown. Very abnormal. Brownsburg, obviously. Very abnormal. It's like we're in it and we hope everybody's okay. Tone, I know you were chasing them last night. Thought about getting out on the street and following along from the text that I was reading from you.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

It was the. The first time that we were in a situation where the siren went off and then the TV was like. Like you got a good chance of it. And then obviously you got two alerts on your phone, like an Amber. Like you're used to the Amber alert things going off. I haven't had one yet. For a tornado. I don't think so. Yeah, I got loud.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Oh, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

So I got the wife and daughter and the dogs in the basement. I need to go see it. So I went. I went outside and I stood on my porch seeing if I could see anything. I couldn't. And then it got real, real windy, so I had. I headed downstairs.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so you couldn't cantor it. I could have didn't ride the lightning. Well, if you can feel it, you can chase it.

[Boston Connor]

Amen.

[Pat McAfee]

Right In a ram truck. Dodge ram truck.

[Carl Ravage]

I.

[AJ Hawk]

My urges and my wants and my needs to the side. And I. I wanted to head downstairs, make sure everybody was with your family.

[Boston Connor]

That's a family man right there.

[Pat McAfee]

That's smart.

[AJ Hawk]

Family first, tornado chasing second.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, in my household, that's. That's good list. That's good list. I appreciate. I'd be excited to hear the rest of that list as well. I don't have family. Football gambling record. Yeah, exactly. You've had a couple different lists. The issue that Sam and I were having last night and obviously made sure baby Girl was okay. We wanted to see it. Yeah. You know, so all Angela Buckman wthr kept telling me was, get away from the windows. Get away from the windows. And I'm like, well, how can we. How can I see it? You know? And I'm from Pittsburgh, so I'm like, we'll know if the windows, like, right in there. A heads up. The windows are going to cave on us. And Sam's like, not really. And I'm like, okay, but we would want to watch this, don't we? She's like, yeah. So obviously make sure baby girl's okay. Then we're watching out of this little. There's like a tiny little window, like, connected to the room that we were in. And I'm just sitting there just looking at this thing, and all of a sudden you start to see, like, a little bit of rattle. And I'm like, oh, how strong is this window? Is this why we're not in there? Let alone the thought of things getting picked up, like, coming through it and everything. And I just like you, tone. I was like, I'm gonna watch this whole thing. And then I immediately was like, okay, let's hunker down. I don't know if I'm built for this.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, I love watching storms. It's just kind of just how you're built.

[Pat McAfee]

The green lightning was wild. Is that generators getting hit? Is that what that is? Is that a lightning bolt hitting a generator and then going back? Yeah, because isn't lightning this right?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I googled it. So it has something to do with like the per. The temperature that is, you know, in the clouds versus on the ground. And green lightning is like a barometer. Very, very specific to tornadoes. Like, if you see green lightning, that is a sign that one is coming.

[Pat McAfee]

Neighbor over here lost trampoline. I don't know if they know yet.

[AJ Hawk]

What'S got a free will.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that thing was up over the thing. Garbage can came through our gate over here. Going to have to get that fixed.

[Boston Connor]

Saw a stoplight, you know, on the ground, completely, you know, bent over.

[Pat McAfee]

Telephone pole on the ground, I believe. Trees, obviously, you're going to be falling over. There's outside of our place right there. Just like that. A garbage can did that to our steel gate. Like, that's what the wind was like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

So now granted, that wind had to get that garbage can on a pretty good, like. All right, let's get these wheels down here. And they were really.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Really rolling that. I mean, that. I mean, that's a, that's 100 mile an hour. That's a bull.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's a bull coming through faster than that. I'm not even going 200 miles.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we don't, honestly don't know with what last night was. What we're saying is last night was insane across the Midwest. If you were a part of it, obviously we would like to send you positive vibes, wishes and prayers. And obviously if you can help out to your communities that get devastated by these things, you certainly should. Just like we were able to do with the hurricane relief, we will certainly do the same here with tornadoes, especially in our city here of Indianapolis, Indiana. Now moving forward, the NFL had a big trade this morning.

[Boston Connor]

Huge.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if you heard or not. Bazooka Joe Milton, formerly of the University of Tennessee, then of the New England Patriots, has now been traded to the Dallas Cowboys.

[Carl Ravage]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Alongside a seventh round pick. He in return, the Patriots will get a fifth round pick. We all thought that Joe was potentially going to be on a move because he and Drake May obviously same class. Drake May has proven even though in a losing bout in his first season, that he's going to be a guy making throws all over the place. Then Joe Milton got some playing time and I'll tell you what, he was good. He could spin it, he could do a standing back flip. Obviously not a lot of humans can do that in full pads. You have to be an incredible athlete to be able to do as such. His arm strength is absolutely absurd and obviously he can move. So Joe Milton we thought earned himself at least a little bit of attention or opportunity whenever he got on the field. And he now has earned himself an opportunity to be the backup for the Dallas Cowboys. With Dak Prescott, Cooper Rush now a member of the Baltimore Ravens, Trey Lance no longer there. Now we got Joe Milton as the Dallas Cowboys backup quarterback. Let's go to New England Patriots fan, Boston Connor, you're losing Joe. How do you feel?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, you know, Joe Millen's kind of been on the trade block. It feels like ever since the Patriots signed Josh Dobbs this offseason and it is a bummer because Joe Milton, you know, you said guy can throw it a country mile and we see the athleticism. It is awesome. And there's always that thought of, you know, hey, you got two young quarterbacks. Who knows if Drake goes down, maybe Joe Millen steps up and becomes something. But no, I think since Drake May has started playing, since Drake May's really gotten to New England, it's been all about him. I think everyone that is a Patriots fan is happy that Drake, Drake May is just kind of getting the keys completely. Fifth round pick. I think a lot of people assume two fifth rounders, two third rounders now for New England, that kind of gives them a little bit of maybe a bundle to get back up into the first round later on.

[Pat McAfee]

A little bit of a bundle opportunity.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, a little bit of a bundle, Ruski, if I'm Andy Reid, especially with the top of the second round pick. But most, mostly a scene like this is all aboard, baby. All aboard the Mayflower. I mean, this is, it's Drake May's time. I mean, we talk about, you know, what team could possibly be the commanders of the past season. The Texans of 2022. I think at least in my camp, in the Patriots fans that I know, especially with having that fourth overall pick, it feels like the Patriots really can be that team. We pull up their schedule, you know, and I'm a biased Patriots fan, sometimes unbiased, but you pull up the Patriots schedule, I think it's hard not to say, hey, there, there are nine legitimate wins, possibly 10, possibly 11. Well, look, we might screw around, win 11 games. And I'm not saying we're.

[Pat McAfee]

Why not? Perfect season. That's always, there's always, why not start.

[Boston Connor]

One game at a time? But look, that that's possible. And I, I think the, the hopes are very high. And especially now, even though it is smoke screen season, it does feel like with Mike Vrabel, with, you know, the teams that have rebuilt kind of quickly, you could look at the Lions per se. Will Campbell at 4. Feels very possible. Get that O line straight up for Drake.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody loves beefing up the offensive line in the football world. Not necessarily the most sexy pick whenever it comes from a fan's perspective or media perspective, but you get a great offensive lineman that is worth it in spades. Over under total wins for the Patriots. Seven and a half this year.

[Boston Connor]

Hammer it.

[Pat McAfee]

You just said 9, 10, maybe even 11. Boston, Connor, a New England Patriot fan. But I'll tell you, after watching Drake maybe through certain things and then hearing the shit we hear about behind the scenes and then knowing what we know about Vrabel, who's able to win games, he became number one seed in the AFC with the most amount of guys heading to the ir. You're talking about guys getting dropped on our team on Thursdays in very important positions and them somehow winning Tannehill at quarterback, Derek Henry at running back. You do recall these times, Vrabel Wins seemingly.

[Boston Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

That is kind of our thought now that he has a quarterback franchise guy and an ability to compensate people up in New England. Maybe it is. Maybe it is the time, it's all for the Patriots to be back and maybe it is because the Mayflower is delivering it all.

[AJ Hawk]

I just wanted to add a quick little tidbit because I saw this going around the Internet a bit. Does this mean that the Cowboys are looking to trade Dak? Looked into it. Spotrack put out a tweet. Dak actually is more dead cap than DeSean Watson. If you were to try to get rid of Deshaun Watson, Dak has. If you were to trade him before June 1,148.3 million in dead cap this year. If post June 1,50.9 this year, 97.4 next year. He also has a no trade clause. So.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so he's probably not getting trade.

[Ty Schmidt]

Probably not.

[Pat McAfee]

There was a little bit of buzz there around the Internet and once again, we did not create this. We're just telling you what was happening on the Internet. Fair topical show.

[Boston Connor]

It's fodder.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Sometimes observe, report.

[AJ Hawk]

Good movie.

[Boston Connor]

Never take anything as truth.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Okay. I mean, you never know. With that being said, people are talking about Dak to the bronze or something like that. Yeah. And that was a funny little narrative going around the Internet. Just as somebody that gets a chance to just check things out. And it's as somebody that lives on the Internet and follows along with basically everything happening on the Internet at all times. The. The thought of the Browns having to pay, what, $700 million, that's quarterback position, was a funny thought, but I think that's because people were thinking like, the Browns are gonna have to do something. What are they going to do? They should figure it out. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who was a quarterback in the NFL for a long, long time. Then he took his talents to ESPN where he has been the face of quarterback guruism and NFL play as a whole, basically on every show, including ours. Ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, father of Madden, Dan Orlovsky. How you doing, Daniel? I'm doing great.

[Dan Orlovsky]

How are you guys? What's going on?

[Pat McAfee]

Just want to let you know, I led the show with what happened yesterday with Madden in the NFL Live studio. And I want to let you know, I was getting teared up talking about it when I watched it yesterday. I got teared up. I couldn't even fathom how magical of a moment this was for you, for him, for the Whole family, legitimately.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah. No, thank you, man. It's. It's been like an incredible 24 hours, obviously. So many tears cried, but, like, tears of just nothing but awesome and good and celebration, you know, like, to give people a little bit of background of how it all came together, I'll speak on Madden just a little bit. So Madden's a triplet. When my wife was pregnant, it was one of those situations where, you know, we were kind of advised, like, hey, this one, this one, you.

[Carl Ravage]

You.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You can get rid of this one if you want, type of thing, and it might be a little bit easier. And that was never on the table for us. And so we kind of knew when Matta was born, like, hey, there might be something type of thing. And then Madden has always been fascinated with animation. Always. I remember him being like a little baby watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and just literally thinking Mickey was real. Like, Mickey Mouse. The animation of it was real. And so that's always been his thing. It's always been something that he's been gravitated towards. It's just drawing and creative and animation. And so, you know, those images that people saw yesterday, those are pro. Some of those could be five, six, seven years old. He didn't even know what we had picked. We just have boxes and boxes of them at home. Then I got diagnosed with autism probably around the age of two or three. It's scary at first because there's a lot of unknown and there's probably a lot of negative attached to it, and I don't want to pretend that it's not real scary. It is, but, you know, like, yesterday I remember going home to my wife and just telling her, like, yo. Like, that was unbelievable. And it doesn't happen without you. Like, my wife has taken them to countless speech therapists, occupational therapists, behavior therapists, the school system that has this kind of been. You know the saying, like, it takes a village, like, that was kind of the representation of it yesterday. And, you know, it wasn't my idea. Our director, Tim Ferrell, came to me, like, 10 months ago with the idea. April 2nd, Autism Awareness Day. I know your son loves to draw. Would he do it? I'm like, absolutely. So I didn't know exactly how he would respond. You know, like, Walk Studio was a total blind reveal. It was awesome, man. That, like, I. I said this at the end of the show. Like, I'm a sports person. I only like sports. Like, that's the only thing in the world I've ever loved. So, like, when my kids do well, in sports, I'm the happiest person in the world because it's all. I like Madden, that's not his thing. And so like to watch him have his thing and to swell up with pride that he has his thing, like, it was, it was so surreal and special and emotional and it was cool, man. It was really, really, really cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it was amazing for all of us to watch, you know, legitimately, especially now that I have a daughter and, you know, you feel different ways about the world whenever you have a child. But for you saying the only thing you like is sports, the only thing you're in is sports. So whenever your kids succeed in sports, you're happy. I bet you there was a moment too where you were like, so pumped that you could provide something for Madden that he was also interested in. So I want to let you know, that's good parenting. Cool parenting by you and the wife. And that was a magical moment we were lucky to spend with the Orlovsky's legitimately. It was so cool. That was cool thing. And I hope Madden. Madden continues down that path, by the way, because animation is a good gig, especially in the world that we are currently in. So congrats to your whole family having that moment. And shout out to Tim. You said the director of NFL Tim? Yep.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Ben Ferros, the director. Like all, you know, again, an unbelievably incredible moment. If that doesn't win some kind of award or he doesn't win some kind of award. Because this was like, again, not only his idea, it was his execution as well. Because I, I didn't know, like, if they would just throw up one drawing at a time type of thing. But like all to have all of them as the splattered background was his and kind of the cruise idea. And yeah, dude, it was, it was amazing, man. Like the run around, the run behind.

[Pat McAfee]

The main screen there was, that was like, he was, you know, like, that was really. I'm getting choked up thinking about it even more. Congrats. It's so cool. So, so cool. So, so cool. I don't want to cry this entire time. I have questions that I'd like. Yeah, but that was awesome. Just know that that was amazing. And we all celebrated alongside you and your family. Now with that being said, speaking of families, Deion Sanders child, Shador Sanders, we know he has the traits of greatness because we've seen his father obviously become one of the greatest athletes of all time. And argument greatest athlete of all time. Shador Sanders. Pro day is tomorrow. And you are traveling. I understand that right now. So we appreciate you taking time in the back of the car, and if your service isn't fantastic, we're completely okay with that. With Shador, what do you think needs to happen at the pro day? What are you looking for at the pro day? And what's really the conversation in your eyes around Shador San?

[Dan Orlovsky]

I think the number one thing that I would want to see at the pro day is the ball jump off his hand a little bit. I would tell you this. I think Shador, for me, is the hardest evaluation I've had at that position since I got into tv. Reasoning is this. When you're taking a guy in that top five, top seven position, you want traits that are uncoachable, physical traits that are uncoachable. And there's not a ton in Shador's game that looks physically uncoachable. Now, that doesn't mean he doesn't have a lot. That's awesome. The reason why I say it's such a tough valuation is I don't know if this number is real or not, but I would tell you half of his throws are at or behind the line of scrimmage. That's just the nature of what they had to do at Colorado, like screens and RPOs. Half of them. So you take half of those throws and throw them out because they don't matter. Anybody in the world can do that. And then you take a quarter of his throws and you throw them out, because the pass protection, the offensive line is so bad. It's so bad, you're like, I don't care if it's Lamar, Josh Patrick. No one is doing anything behind design. So then you're like, you get a quarter of his passes that you feel like you can evaluate. And when you see that he has some time of timing, like those throws, the timing, the rhythm, the ball placement, the. When he's in a clean pocket, when he can manipulate somewhat, he's really impressive. He does that really, really, really well. But then you watch tape and you're like, no, he's running for his life. Can't throw that out. Or, man, he's only throwing the ball to traps. Hunter, like, that throws sensational. That read, that throws sensational. But he. Sometimes he only looks to throw to Travis Hunter. So you're like, all right, I can't knock him for that. But are you only locking on Travis? Sometimes he just catches the ball, and it's like, all right, I'm just gonna run. I'm just Gonna look for where I can move in the pocket and run. And part of you understands that because the pass protection is so bad. But I think one of the things that consistently I would write down is I want the ball to jump off his hand. I want him to drive the football. I want him. I want him to absolutely. Like, there's 18 yards. It's in between a safety I got. You need to throw an absolute piss missile right now. And he doesn't have a ton of that. And so, like, at the pro day, I would want to see him step into some and just freaking drive them and going, all right, like that. That this is a part of my game that I'm capable of.

[Pat McAfee]

Interesting, because if you drop Shador, and I don't want to say this to Will Howard, because I like Will Howard. You put Shador on that Ohio State team, or you put Shador on, like, Georgia, or you put Shador on Alabama, or you put Shador on Ole Miss, or you put Shador on any of these teams that, you know, him, his dad and his crew had to build. Basically, they had to build, you know, two schools they had to build and create. So there's going to be some holes, obviously. Now, granted, they have a lot of talent and skill, but the offensive line at one year and then next year and everything like that. So I could see why you would say it'd be a hard read, because it's like the guy seemingly makes plays. Guy was able to rebuild two different programs. The guy has the it factor. He's used to the spotlight, but it's like, will he be a guy that'll be able to adjust to an NFL game? I think, yes, just strictly because of the relationship. But I could see how NFL teams and you are like, we don't really know what's. Because you can always play the game. If this person was on this team, what would happen? But you don't. You don't actually get to see it, though, you know, so then it's like, is he making the right decisions in those moments? Because some of the decisions that he's making are out of desperation. Like, you say he's running for his life.

[Boston Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Fascinating. Fascinating on what it is.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah. And like. And I would tell you, a guy that I've comped them to is Tua. You know, and so you mentioned the Alabama. If you put him on there, I don't think he's got as much anticipation as Tua. Tua has, you know, one of one anticipation. But there's nothing about Tua's. Game that physically is like, oh, my goodness, outside of the things that matter, you know, the ball placement, the in rhythm, you know, the layering of throws. I say this all the time. Shador consistently makes the right throw, not making every throw. He's not going to wow you athletically. I do know this. He's tough as nails. Yes, I do know that he, this dude is tough. I think he's really smart. I think he's probably mentally very tough as well because of the upbringing, because of the pressure, because of the spotlight. I, I, I, I think with Shador, like, you just want to sit there and watch some tape with them because he get fooled by coverage. Often the ball goes to the right place consistently. But there are stuff you're going, why are you holding that football? Why are you holding it? And if he says, listen, man, it's, it's second and eight, we're down 28 to seven in the first quarter. I can buy that. Like, I can buy that. So I just think there's a lot of variables around him that were so bad that you want to have those convos.

[Pat McAfee]

I can't wait to see how it all unfolds. You know, number two is the big conversation. What are the Browns going to do? Ty has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Dan. So given all that, obviously Shador has been linked to the Browns, and we know right now their quarterback situation is kind of just a mess. Maybe Joe Flacco, given his success with Kevin Stefanski. But do you think ultimately Kirk Cousins is going to be who the Browns turn to and he's going to be the starting quarterback next year? Obviously everything in there, nothing's really moved yet, but it seems like that's kind of the most logical choice.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, I do, I think the things that make sense to me are Kirk Cousins eventually be with the Browns and Aaron Rodgers is already going to the Steelers. I think with the Browns, if you look at it and you go, okay, well, Kenny Pickett, if Kirk Cousins becomes their starting quarterback and they had a player like Travis Hunter, if I were the Browns, I would take Travis Hunter at 2. If I was dead set on not taking a quarterback and I was getting Cousins, I got a chance now because this is still a talented roster and Stefanski is still a very good coach. Travis Hunter would play wide receiver, me. But I think Kirk Cousins never seemed settled last year. He called his games on Monday Night Football. He never seemed comfortable. It never seemed like the right offensive fit, although I thought it would be perfect. Zach Robinson, the offensive coordinate, Atlanta Just, it didn't. He didn't run the. The similar stuff that Kirk was, you know, accustomed to. And if we're going to talk about, like, Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams in the play action and how Caleb hasn't done any play action, so that's going to take time. Kirk's only done play action. And so it just. It didn't mesh for him in Atlanta because they just didn't. And so I think if Cleveland gets Kirk Cousins and drafts Travis Hunter at 2, I think they immediately become a competitive football team. And I would. I would bank on that being the case.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. A lot of people are saying that around the Browns. To clarify, one stat that you made, you said, I don't know if this is a real number, but it appears from watching the film, it's like 50%, 34% of Shador's throws are at or behind the line of scrimmage, let alone what is within two, three yards of down.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

So your stat, that was from Hembo. Hembo literally just texted. Yeah, Hembo just text that in. Because he was watching. Shout out to himbo.

[Dan Orlovsky]

And he said, hembo, how many passes. How many of his passes are thrown, like, inside of five yards of the line of scrimmage?

[Pat McAfee]

I assume we'll get a text here from Hembo in a matter of moments. But the reason why he sent that in, because there, for a little bit, it was like, browns are going to take quarterback. Browns are going to take quarterback. That means they're going to take Shador is what everybody thought. So then as you start thinking about, well, is Shador going to be the number two overall pick? You say, maybe Travis Hunter. They're saying maybe Abdul Carter. Team him up with Miles Garrett, especially if you're able to bring in a Kirk Cousins. So now you got a veteran quarterback, and you got two pass rushers that should seemingly be able to win games for you if they were to take.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Shador Sanders, take Travis Hunter. Take Travis Hunter, man, and play him at wide receiver.

[Pat McAfee]

What about a package on the defensive side?

[Dan Orlovsky]

No, yeah, I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. And I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody like, you play him at db. But here's what I do know, defensive back, and I. I want to respect all the DBs. Dude, you go cover that guy. Like, hey, we're in man coverage. Go cover that human being. So it's like, just go cover them. You know, it's those. These elite athletes. Jalen Ramsey, go cover him. You know, and so, hey, cover two, you're playing the flat, you know, or cover three, you got deep third. So I think you could build a package for Travis and certain situational centric moments where you could give him some coverages that he should be. Feel comfortable to. But, like, the way the reason I look at it and say play wide receiver is one, as an offense, I could take a defensive back that's really good and take him out of the game. I can. I can formation them. I can motion. I can. I can minimize his impact on the game, especially if he doesn't have an elite corner. Opposite of. The second thing is I, as an offense, I can always manufacture touches for guys. You mean to tell me that you watch this guy play wide receiver and you watch his ball skills and you don't want to force the ball to him 10 times a game? Game. I mean, he's. He's got clips that I'm like, oh, this looks like Randy Moss. This looks like Justin Jefferson with the ball in his hands. Dude, his strides are ridiculously long. So as an offense, I'm like, I can force the ball to him 10, 12 times a game, and I know it's going to happen. I could take a defensive back out of the game. Like, imagine if you're Baltimore, yes, you're gonna throw the ball to him. You're just gonna force. Dude, patty's got like 10 of those.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that one. That one was at the beginning of the season. It was like, this guy is unbelievable. And you mentioned earlier when you're talking about Shador. Shador forced it to 12 a lot. It's like, there might be a reason. Exactly what you're chatting about. But, yeah, that's a good point about. If he's a db, you can kind of keep him out of the game. You can just keep him away from it. They used to do it to Revis. That's why a lot of the corners don't have as many, like, stats, because the offense just goes, okay, well, we're not going to throw anywhere near said guy. And if a quarterback tries to throw it towards Guy and gets picked, they're walking to the sideline and every coach is saying, hey, we just don't fucking. We don't go near that guy. Doing like that. Is that. Is that is the sign.

[Dan Orlovsky]

We did that with Rebus. We did that with Sherman. We would go into the game and be like, you're not throwing to him. Namdi Asima, don't throw the ball to his side. Don't care what the coverage is. You're not looking over there.

[Pat McAfee]

Asante Samuel, you know, obviously Patrick Peterson.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Okay, good. I'm happy to hear you just went along with that. Let's make sure we put a little respect on Asante Samuel on this. But you're right. I appreciate that narrative, actually. Actually, it's like we want to get. We want this guy to have the ball in his hands, right? Is that all we want? So let's get him on offense, and if we get him to go lock somebody down on defense, we can certainly do that. Congrats to Travis Hunter, by the way. Basically, everybody's saying the same thing about him and he hasn't been in the NFL yet. And all they say is the dude loves ball. He's locked in, he'll stream every once in a while. But other than that, he doesn't drink, done smoke, doesn't do anything. He's like the perfect football player going forward.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And we're lucky that you're in our sport, brother. Legit. Let's get back to the quarterbacks conversation. Tone has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Dan, we've talked about on here. You are a big fan of Jackson Dart in his game and you've talked about him going in the.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on, hold on, please. 907 total attempts at Colorado by Shador Sanders. 500 of them were within five yards of line of scrimmage, which is 55%. Dano. Dano. Guy watches the film. Guy watches Shout out to Hembo, by the way, for being that. Now let's get back to the conversation Tone was trying to start.

[AJ Hawk]

But yeah, you, you like just Jackson Dart out of Miss. You've talked about him going in the first round. I want to know because with their. Everyone talks about the. The gap from Cammore to Shadur and then Jackson or whatever and then the rest of the guys is the D is the gap from Jackson Dart to the rest guys big enough where like you would rather take Jackson Dart in the first rather than taking, I don't know, Ewers Howard, Chuck Milroe in like the third. Do you think Jackson Dart is leaps and bounds better than those other guys Guys?

[Dan Orlovsky]

I do. I think Jackson Dart is closer to two than he is to four, five or six in the quarterback ranking for me this year. There's so much about this, this young man's tape that I love. Like I'm sitting here, Tony, I got all the, like, the things that I like about his tape. Every game you study, you like him more and more. For me Personally, every game it was like, oh, I like that.

[Pat McAfee]

And.

[Dan Orlovsky]

And as it went on, you're like, I liked him more and more. He makes some big time wow. Athletic, athletic throws where like athletically he makes some really challenging throws. He gets through progressions if not better than anybody in the class. The downside of the knock on that would, I would tell you is this Ole Miss ran like the same six concepts a lot. That being said, he operates them flawlessly. And that being said, so did Jaden Daniels at lsu. So like I don't, I don't use that as a knock to him. I think he's a bull when he runs the ball. He reminds me of Jalen Hurts when he runs the football a little bit. Just a big physical bull. There's not a lot of easy in his offense. There's not a lot of dink and dunk in his offense. They're throwing the ball downfield. High risk, high reward, very challenging type of throws. I don't think he's reliant on his legs. I think he uses his legs when he has to rather than when he wants to or when he's confused.

[Ty Schmidt]

And.

[Dan Orlovsky]

He drives the ball into windows. Here's the, the stuff that I would tell you about dark that like maybe would scare people. I don't want to use the word scare, but make them study more. His feet have a little Drake made to him last year. Like really like, hey dude, stop being so sloppy with your feet. A little bit laziness or boredom, but you work on that. Obviously Drake may did. And I've said this before the Florida game and the way it ended has to be the conversation. If like, if I was going to spend 11 sit down with Dart, I would put on the end of the Florida game and be like, talk to me about what happened because in the Florida game, he's awesome. Like that poster was awesome. He's awesome in it. And then his last two possessions, you're like, what the heck just happened? And I would want to know from him what happened in the game. What, what happened? Tell me what happened to make you look like a completely different player. But I think he's going to be an awesome pro.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, him running is fantastic. That that is in. To be clear, I don't think we paid enough respect to Jackson Dart at the beginning of this draft process. The more highlights we see. It's like that looks like a Sunday guy. And then I get a text from Himbo Hembo actively watching right now. Thank you. He said, hey, remember this? There's a lot to dream on with. Jackson Dart wins downfield 1934 yards and 25 touchdowns targeting Verts corners posts in 2024. Both of those are the most in FBS. He decimates man coverage 12 yards and attempt first man coverage in 2024, which is the highest in all of FBS. And then he creates out of chaos, says Hembo. 18 explosive runs 10 plus yards or more on scrambles in 2024, which is the most among P4 programs. So you're talking about Jackson Dart having the most. The most. The most in that Lane Kiffin offense, which is obviously very explosive. But you have to be able to handle it all. And you talk about that Florida game at the end. I think he took some big shots in that game potentially. And then also.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't you?

[Dan Orlovsky]

There's, there's, there's some. There is some. I don't want to get myself in trouble here.

[Pat McAfee]

Not a doctor. Don't do a doctor. Don't do the doctor thing. You're you. We're all saying the same thing. There's some shots where it's like, yep, yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Is he all there?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What is still playing? Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Like Will Howard in the Michigan game.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo. Exactly like the Will Howard in the Michigan game. And I think in college there's a little bit different with the unaffiliated neuro whatever it is. And we're not, once again, we're not doctors, so we're not doing this entire thing. But as football watchers, you see something happen and then you go, he looks a little different after that. And then before that. So that could be a conversation piece now. Highest scouts inc. Draft grade of the quarterbacks in the 2024 and 2025 class. This is from him. Caleb Williams got a 97. Jaden Daniels got a 94. Drake May got a 93.

[Ty Schmidt]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

J.J. mcCarthy got a 92. Cam Ward got a 92. Shador Sanders got a 90. Jackson Dark got an 88. Bo Nix got an 87. Tyler Shuck of Louisville 87. Michael Penix Jr. 85. Damn. So what Hembo's saying is like the scouts ink draft grade of Jackson Dart is like guy. Like they're saying he's a guy. And also so this draft class at quarterback position might not be as low as everybody is saying it is in the end. Is that what you heard there, Dano?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, that's. That's kind of how I've felt about the class. It's not as bad as kind of people have painted it out to be. I'm a Jackson Dart guy. Like I would seriously, I don't think he makes it outside the top 10. If I were the Raiders, if I were the jets, if I were the Saints, I would be very seriously considering drafting him in the top 10. Dude, at the, at the end of the day, can you see it and can you throw it at that position? He sees it well and he can throw it. Do you panic with the football in times of panic? Because that's the reality of that position in the league. He doesn't. Sometimes he gets it out. Sometimes just because of the athleticism he gets himself out of batter goes and creates good. I think the fact that he's been stressed so much to pick to make challenging throws down the field has given him like this confidence of like I can go make some big time throws. And so I like for me, dude, he's the one guy in the class. I'd say Cam is the number one player for me or pick at the quarterback spot. Jackson Dart would be neck and neck with Shador for me.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Very fascinating of it all, especially how this draft class will be viewed five years from now as opposed to what it was viewed at the beginning of this draft cycle. Last question. We know you're very busy. We appreciate you from Connor.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Dan, you mentioned there the Raiders looking at Jackson Darden. I believe every single mock draft has Ashton Jinty going there. Spy Tech came out and said his son was going to basically leave the family if they don't take Ashton Jinty. But it sounds like you think kind of what Brady has been saying a lot too. Tom has come out and said, you know, the most important thing for a young quarterback is, you know, being able to sit behind a guy, learn what to do. Obviously Tom is going to help in that process. Do you think the Raiders will take Chedor or Jackson Dart at six if they're still there? And do you even see them possibly trading up or another team team trading up like the Saints you just mentioned to get either of those guys in the top five, Top six?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, I, I don't see the Raiders getting overly aggressive. The head coach won a Super bowl with a third round pick and the guy that's in the front office, you know, his greatest of all time is a sixth round pick. And the general manager came from Tampa Bay where they just watched a a cast off and Baker Mayfield revitalize his career. I think of Pete Carroll and I go Legion of boom. Unbelievable defensive line. I think that the defensive line prospects in this draft that can people consistently talk about are probably a little bit more at play for the Raiders. And so I don't think they get overly aggressive with the draft. We'll see if Gino gets that extension. That being said, I just raved about Jackson Dart and if. If you think if you're the Raiders and you think that he's a first round guy, I don't mind being aggressive. My gut tells me because of the people, the decision makers in their past, they won't.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, Dano, we appreciate the hell out of you, man, for joining us. Good luck today. We know you got a big day. We know you got a big day. Lee.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I appreciate you boys. I appreciate you, Pat. Thanks for your words, man. Very kind. You're a good friend.

[Pat McAfee]

Put a smile on that face. You know, we're wheeling dealing today. Okay, Dan. Yesterday was for the family. Yesterday was good day for the family today. Hey, how you doing?

[Dan Orlovsky]

We got business to handle. We got business to handle.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. That's right. For not only now, but for your future and for your family's future. So it's worth it. Ladies and gentlemen, amen. The legend, Dan Orlovsky. Lot of get you out of there. He likes Jackson dart.

[AJ Hawk]

He does, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Loves.

[Pat McAfee]

This is one of those things during the draft process where people watch more film and more film and they learn more about people and then all of a sudden you hear people go, hey, did we know? Basically. And then. Cause you can't dive into everybody's film. College football season so long. There's so many people. The only reason why I am saying that, the way I'm saying that is because for college game day, it's a lot of things. It's a lot. It's a lot. It's a lot of things. Okay, Friday nights are a lot of things. Trying to. Oh yeah, I remember. Oh, yeah. Learn about this. Hey, new coach here. Back up this year, back up. So it's a lot. So I think a lot of people that are in the the draft world or maybe even the high levels of the scouting of teams, they can't pay attention to everybody throughout the entire season. So that's why this particular part of the calendar is meant for like learning. And that's when you start seeing the dark horses start coming through the draft and it's like, holy shit, we did. We know in Ole Miss not making the playoffs. I think that is a. Forget about Shador was on prime time every week because they were must watch ratings moving. Cam Ward in Miami ended up being in the News cycle every single week because of some magical win, some miracle win. They were on this run. They're saving the U. Here we go. It's like Jackson Dart and Ole Miss obviously got attention because Ole Miss is in the sec, but not as much as everybody else. So I think he's kind of went under the radar in this entire thing. And he's in the SEC at Ole Miss, which kind of goes against the SEC SPN characterization. Go ahead, buddy.

[AJ Hawk]

Remember, Kiffin came out and kind of came at the. The SEC for saying Ole Miss never has any night games. Saying given all the, all the night games to Bama and Georgia and LSU and now those schools have earned those over the years. But over the last couple of years, Kiffin, you know, on Ole Miss has been very good. But no, even he said like, hey, we're. We are never the primetime game in this conference.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And they were an electrifying offense and Lane Kiffin is awesome. Yeah. You know, so you would think that that would become more. And they were in it for the 12 team playoff at the very end. Very pissed them. South Carolina, Bama. There are others obviously that thought they should get in over some teams and it's like, like last year could have been the year where maybe they do get some prime time. They get in the playoffs and Jackson does any of the. That he did in any of these games. And you get 15 million people seeing it as a. As opposed to 1 million people seeing it. It's like a very different combo, I think, personally. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And right now, like when it comes to the draft, we're just talking about these four guys. Abdul, Carter, Shador, you know, Jackson, Dart, Cam Ward kind of has left the conversation because he's locked in at 1. But like, how many guys are going to get picked at our. Unbelievable. Like Jared Verse was the best defensive player. He won defensive rookie of the year and probably didn't touch on him once last season during the draft process and then, you know, during the season when it actually mattered, he played well. And that's like Mason Graham right now. Like everyone's talking about him as the best, you know, interior D lineman. But leading up to the draft, we're not going to talk about him whatsoever just because of the main storylines at the top.

[Ty Schmidt]

When we say it all the time, like, it also is why like coaching and where you go in the draft matters quite a bit because if he goes to, you know, one of the teams who sucks, then it's like, does he just get swallowed up by that? But he goes to the Rams, McVeigh. And then he ends up having an unbelievable, you know, couple games down the stretch. And then everyone remembers the playoff games. Like, he. He had his best games at that time. It's like, if he doesn't get that opportunity, are we talking about him in the same way? Probably because he's an unbelievable player. But, like, if a guy like Jackson Dart goes to Cleveland, is that different than if he goes to, like, a Pittsburgh at 21 and. And he's making the playoffs in his first year.

[Pat McAfee]

Fascinating times for all these guys. Good luck to them all for you guys. And we're just thinking about the draft spectacular. Once we get to pick six and we don't know any of the guys. That's kind of a part of the draft process. That's kind of the part.

[Boston Connor]

We got more because, yeah, you work with college football.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's. There's a lot of, oh, yeah, this dude. And then immediately into the film and then we chit. Chat about the entire experience. Then we have 10 minutes.

[Carl Ravage]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Until the next one, at least.

[Boston Connor]

Like, the teams up here are kind of spread out. Well, like, patriots are at first four, culture at 14. Packers and the Steelers are in the 20s. Like, we do kind of have a nice little vested interest. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Unless there's movement. Whoa, whoa. Which could happen. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

A couple times.

[Pat McAfee]

That's why the draft is so spectacular, because you never know what you're going to get.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

More conversation from Katie Blackburn. Katie Blackburn, Chief. I forget the. She is the vp, coo. Evp. EVP of Cincinnati Dogs. Okay. I forget which. Oh, not even in the C suite there. That is interesting. Evp. She's running the Cincinnati Bengals. Obviously she was in the news because the Trey Hendrickson comment where she said at some point he's got to be happy with what we offered him. And you know, that came out on April Fools. We talked to Trey Henderson about it. He didn't expect it. I. I assume Katie Blackburn on the backside. That's not what there was. There's a feeling about negotiations where, like, both sides have to be happy. Like, that's what I was referring to. Whatever the case seemingly did not fare well in the crowd with that particular statement. Then something else came out through pro football talks, Mike Florio, where, you know, he reported about a quote from Kelsey Conway and Katie Blackburn, Kelsey Conway reporting it, like, oh, maybe the Bengals aren't in Paycor Stadium anymore because they have to give a one year heads up to Hamilton county, which is obviously the county that Cincinnati is within and owns the stadium there, they have to give them a one year head up that they would like a two year extension on the lease that they currently have. And in that conversation, which was a great question by the way, and I don't think any of us even knew this was potentially coming up, so I appreciate the journalism and all she said at one point we could I guess go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn't pick up the option. Okay. And what the Cincinnati Bengals journalists are saying, that the way that reads versus the way it was actually said is not like she basically was like, I guess we could go somewhere else. And then she also basically alluded to like when that decision comes time, which is in June of this particular summer, like we'll make the decision. Like we'll make that. That's when we'll. Right now we're not focused on that is kind of how she laid it out. But I think a lot of people were burying her for saying this. And from. If you listen to the people that were in a room where it happened, that was not the context at all. Although this is high stakes here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Whenever you're talking about a team with a stadium, we've obviously seen these conversations happen in the past. Now this would be the Bengals leasing paycor stadium from the county that Cincinnati is in for another two years. They have five options, a two year extension. So that'd be another 10 years. They have to give a year heads up in that whole thing. So they're doing business with the county. Are they running it? Are they leasing it for 13 times a year for preseason games, regular season games, then potential playoff games if they were to take place at home. And then do they rent it out to, you know, concerts and everything? I don't know how the business goes because we didn't get all the information. We don't have the contract that it has. But anytime a team says maybe we do have some freedom on the stadium, happened in Minnesota. They were going to move. Minnesota was going to move out of town because they weren't able to round up a new stadium. This would not be for a new stadium, but I think it would be for a new deal with the people that own the stadium. Because she even lose it, it's gonna. We would like it to be best for both of us here. So she's using this as leverage, I assume, which all teams will do with their stadium. And then the city is probably just waiting, you know, to see what you do. And I don't think this is a raise taxes situation because they don't need to build a new stadium. But it's certainly something that needs to get figured out. And I remember there was a time before I got here in Indianapolis, RCA Dome was the Colts stadium. And allegedly the story goes because Jim Mercy has a house in Los Angeles. He was in LA and he was in a helicopter and he was flying either to his house or from his house. And then somebody, you know, leave back to Indianapolis that Jim Merce was in a helicopter in Los Angeles. And that was always the city that was kind of getting dangled over all these other stadiums and cities heads like, hey, we'll pick up and go to Los Angeles. You don't want to give us a new stadium, we'll pick up and leave. I don't think Jim was even looking for stadium sites. I think Jim was literally just going to his house in Los Angeles. But then it got reported that he was looking in la and then all of a sudden there's a vote and all of a sudden Lucas Oil Stadium is kind of built in the city own. The Colts pay a lease each year, so they don't get to have all the money for the all the other events that take place. But it's like this is very normal for NFL teams to do. Happened in St. Louis, obviously. So much so that they got up and left. Happened in San Diego. They got up and left. Both of them went to Los Angeles. People talk about San Antonio wants a team. Like every time a team needs something, they will certainly find a location that could, hey, these people would love. These people would love it over here. I don't think that's what. What's happening here though. And that's kind of how it was being talked about. I don't think that is the case here in Cincinnati.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, no, it absolutely reads like that's what she was hinting at, like suggesting, hey, if we don't get something done, like relocation isn't. Is a possibility. And I don't think, you know, if you look into it a little bit more and obviously like how important the Bengals are to Cincinnati and everything. But this also seems like a situation like, like you said, you know, she's got a lot of other stuff on her plate right now in terms of. Of like the Trey Hendrickson stuff and everything. So a decision on this doesn't need to be made till next year. But you would also think like, there's no way the city wants to bungle this either, you know, like. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Didn't even try to do that. But they like, they want this to get done as well. I mean, the, you know, like the, the situation where it's at in Cincinnati, in between the two stadiums with like all the bars right there, like what it does for the local economy on game days and everything. Like, they want to make sure this gets done too. And I think anyone who jumped to the conclusion, like, oh man, they might be relocating, like, obviously, like that is not going to happen.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't think it helped coming off the heels of yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what I'm saying. Like the Trey Hendrickson thing, I, I believe that that was, that was a dumb. Listen, you're running an NFL team. There's a lot, okay, Every word is screwed in us. Billions of dollars at play, hundreds of millions of play. There's a lot, I think alluding to somebody who's the sack king all pro, a guy that doesn't get a lot of respect outside of a building, kind of speaking in, in a way lacking respect inside the building. Don't know if that's the best way to get things done. And Trey Hendrickson obviously was like, what are we? What are we?

[Boston Connor]

What the hell?

[Pat McAfee]

We haven't even talked in a couple months, basically. So I think that was certainly a mistake. And I assume she would say the same thing. This whole, I guess we could go somewhere else. I don't think that was vindictive at all. I think it was just like her speaking as a matter of fact. Like, I guess we could go somewhere else. But she was just answering a question.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, like the Trey thing, you can read it. And no matter what the tone was, the words themselves were absurd. And then with the, you know, the stadium entire situation, that is one where like, holy shit, look at the headline. And then you read the entire transcript, even without the question that was asked, just her words, it's like, okay, so the headline kind of takes it out of what the headline.

[Pat McAfee]

In fact, you're saying headlines may be a little.

[Boston Connor]

There's a chance that it was negative here because when I did read it, I did read it as like, I guess we went to the moon, you know, that's how I read it.

[Pat McAfee]

I just heard Gumpy drop in last night, obviously. Massive MLS game for the concave. A quarter four final LAFC taking on Inter Miami and Lionel Messi. That game kicked off at 2am 11:30. Okay. Might as well have been, especially after the tornado night that it was. Who ended up winning that game? What happened?

[Gumpy]

Well, you see, after they took away Messi's bodyguard, some guy slapped the guy and kicked him in the leg and got a yellow card for lafc. Should have been a red. No, a player should have been a red card. What happened? This guy who did this goes on to score the game winning goal.

[Pat McAfee]

Goal.

[Gumpy]

Inter Miami loses their first game without Messi's bodyguard.

[Pat McAfee]

By this he says all good. Yeah. Is that a yellow or a red? Yellow pops up. Warranted he says. Then he goes and wins the game. So they're gonna do a.

[Gumpy]

An aggregate thing second leg next week back at Inter Miami. Inter Miami's first loss of the season.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the. What time of that game gonna kick off?

[Gumpy]

Miami probably be around 8 midnight. No.

[Boston Connor]

Okay, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to the concave pot available today if you want to get into the soccer. Remember World Cups coming to America here in a couple of years, we might as well get some information. Gumpy Jeff, Cameron, Brek Shea, great crew, good group of lads. The concave pod a soccer conversation is great. MLS banning that. I mean it's a big dom.

[Gumpy]

Big dom situation. Inter Miami didn't lose all year. Now they take away the bodyguard, now they lose.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, why would you just. There's a picture of the guy. I don't know why you'd want him not protecting the boys on a pitch. Yeah, you know, especially with his ability to follow and track the game. Do it all. Have the MLS said anything about this?

[Gumpy]

Like not, Not a damn thing people are trying to say Inter Miami did it, but it was a changing of the rules so nobody had any choice. Why they changed the rules I still can't figure out.

[Pat McAfee]

Well listen, there's a change of direction of the league whenever one guy came. So maybe you change the rules for one particular person. Everybody else can eat. Yeah, everybody else. You can't have your bodyguard on the side. But you know who can't? Man? That one. The one that's the balloon door winner.

[Gumpy]

Make him assistant coach for all I care.

[Pat McAfee]

Like we did with you. Yeah, so you could go chew out the refs a couple yellow so Tony Mul doesn't have to do it. Yeah, I respect it.

[Carl Ravage]

Taxact knows you probably don't need help filing taxes. But if you get stuck we have live experts you can talk to. And who knows, you could hit it off and become long term tax.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Staying up late at night talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

Deductions, refunds, personal exemptions. Heck, you could even fall in love.

[Carl Ravage]

And create a little dependent of your own one day. Or they could just answer your filing questions.

[Pat McAfee]

Tax act. Let's get them over with.

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[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Sports are the greatest. We're lucky we get to talk about them every single day. I just want to let you know. I just feel like now is a good time to tell you. I'm wearing purple shoes today.

[Boston Connor]

And they're awesome.

[AJ Hawk]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

We're all Mustangs here.

[I]

Yeah, we are.

[Pat McAfee]

We're all Mustangs here.

[Boston Connor]

Amen.

[Pat McAfee]

Another. Another pair of bronze. Everything LeBron did for us obviously. Coming through, having a conversation. At least I could do support his shoes. And I'll tell you what. These incredibly comfortable. They're sturdy, you know.

[Boston Connor]

Best ones out.

[Pat McAfee]

Seen these ones gray ones yesterday. Not too bad. Had some white ones on the other day as well. They're all pretty thick, you know, like pretty durable, pretty sturdy. These ones are the most. I'll say comfy. But also they're purple so not normally my go to but it's a soft purple. You see it's not like an in your face purple. It's just boom, a little bit of pizzazz here.

[Boston Connor]

Lavender.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It is a lavender, isn't it? I. I think you're, I think you're onto something with these. The shoe designs being pretty spectacular.

[I]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

I love purple.

[Pat McAfee]

He some of his shoes too much.

[Carl Ravage]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

The colors we're doing, we're doing too much with the colors.

[AJ Hawk]

A lot of guys, a lot of on court stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like cuz you're, you know you're trying to flash.

[AJ Hawk]

Not so much lifestyle.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Like every day can't wear them. You know. It's not A to B here but it is a Sunday cruiser. Yeah, like the ones that he has. But I'll tell you what, I've had like five, six pairs come in over the last week or so. They are a good shoe to feel on the feet. And I think I'm more athletic athletic because of it, you know. Now he's 6 foot 9, 220 pounds. I'm 6 foot 1, 260 pounds, sure. So it's a little bit of a different animal, different breed. But these shoes can feed families to toxic tables here at Boston. Connor at Ty Schmidt went after the Hammer Done ball cap boys AP Tone Tone. What are we gambling on tonight? What have. What have the Hammer don boys been gambling on?

[AJ Hawk]

A lot of NBA, a lot of NHL, a lot of baseball. You mix in PG DJ Tour every. Every sprinkle. Every once in a while. Bruce is doing, I believe, a deep dive into the tour to the derby because, you know, he.

[Pat McAfee]

The race to the crown. Okay. It has a documentary coming out on. On Netflix. Yes, I understand what you're saying. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, that's basically where we are in the offseason now. Now, the football maybe might. We might try to find a specialist. One of you guys said you're gonna special in ufl for gambling and come and win.

[Pat McAfee]

Some UFO is happening, obviously. We watched it this past weekend. I think those guys are smart for not holding out. I'd say I think probably smart for not holding out. I think probably just try to try to make it profitable. You know, people hold out whenever they feel as if the ownership is making too much money and the players or the employees aren't making enough money. If ownership is losing money hand over fist, not the right time to do a holdout should be in the time of trying to build brand, try to make brand look good. So then you get to a point where owners are making money. Then now you get to a CB8. This is not me speaking because I know the Rock and I don't even know how much hands on the Rock is with the UFL at this moment, with everything else he has going on. But anytime people, you know, turn people away by saying, like, we're not doing this for this, it doesn't work out well. I mean, it was just a movie.

[Boston Connor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

That just completely happened. There's another league that they're allegedly threatening to hold out. And it's like, you're not making any money. So it's hard to relate to human humans that are at home that are like, you guys are complaining about getting the opportunity to do this when it's costing people. You're basically a foundation at this point as opposed to a business. And whenever you try to portray yourself as ungrateful for that, a lot of people automatically go, to hell with these people. So I'm happy the UFL folks got it figured out. I'm happy they had opening weekend this past weekend. I'm hoping that it does become conversation. Peace. I saw Dan make a kick. Congratulations to him. And yeah, UFL is happening. Yeah, I don't know if we should be gambling on that though. Why not? I just don't know if that's for you. Might as well go to the gas station, get scratch off. Like if Jordan Tayom is playing, you better.

[AJ Hawk]

I understand, I understand where you're coming from, but there's a lot of UFL.

[Pat McAfee]

Sharps out there joining us now, ladies and gentlemen. We need to get the. Was it the ping pong? We had a good run on the ping pong pong in China. I believe it was Chinese ping pong.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We were waking up in the morning and we had Korean baseball. We had a little bit. If Gumpy could maybe turn his sights onto something that maybe the books aren't paying attention to and we could all ESPN bed have Chinese ping pong on there.

[Gumpy]

I haven't been checked on there. The Crown basketball tournament though. We are killing it though.

[AJ Hawk]

I was gonna say he kind of does that already with me.

[Pat McAfee]

Some of the people don't watch the.

[Gumpy]

NIT championships tonight too between Chattanooga and UC Irvine. Chattanooga's catch at three and a half. They're going to win that thing out, right?

[Pat McAfee]

All right. See that's what we're talking about. That's good offseason fodder right there. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Lakers warriors at 10 o'clock so maybe won't see the entire game, but that will be a good, good thing to talk about tomorrow.

[Pat McAfee]

And then also Memphis Heat, right? Yeah. At 7:30 playing tonight. Okay. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen is college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Rider cup winner and co host of the Bobby Carpenter Show. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk. How you doing, Hawk?

[I]

Not a co host, that's Anthony Schlegel is his co host. I just joined Bobby every Wednesday.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. At noon. I saw. It's a fascinating time. I mean. All right. Okay. Okay. That's no problem at all. But I am excited that you're talking to the boys. One of the greatest linebacker rooms in the history of ball. Getting a chance to share some stories together is something we all will watch and obviously pay attention to. Shout out to the general. Shout out to Schlage. Shout out to you UFL football. Obviously you watched. What is the big takeaway from your perspective Perspective on who's who this year in this particular uflc?

[I]

First, I have a question because Tone said there's a lot of UFL sharps out there. Can you please name those. Those people Pretty, pretty deep into it.

[Pat McAfee]

Sports Rage is dialed in on ufl. You know, and you know I like defensive plays. Yeah. So this team scores fast or they turn it over. So not a lot of defensive plays on this side. He gave some bets. Radio Row was like, how about tackles? How about tackles? This guy total team tackles. Yeah, he is. I think he is the UFL sharp. Although I assume was something as unpredictable as the UFL would be. I assume there are some gamblers. I think they could probably take advantage of the odds makers whenever it comes to ufl if you're paying attention to it close enough. And there are. I've seen UFL super fans out there. I saw some people in the stands. It's early in the season. Hopefully they are able to build something special because more football, the better. It's been hard for us to catch up with any offseason.

[Boston Connor]

No doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

I will say it has been difficult for us to pay attention to it. But good luck to all parties over here.

[Boston Connor]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Ufl DC defenders. I know problematic.

[Boston Connor]

I mean, the Renegades are a formidable team if they're catching 10.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean 10 and a half roughnecks. Well, the Renegades have more. Quet. Derek Bunner.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

He's the rapper. He's become singer, rapper, artist, hunter. Yeah. Former NFL.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Stud Marquette, who I think may be trying to get back. I don't know. I've been trying to follow along. He released new song recently. I think he performed a song opening day. Yeah. Which is sweet. Alongside Danny Garcia in the opening. But yeah, they're a team. They're a real dude. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And clearly they really haven't caught up yet because the showboats should not be eight and a half point dog.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, they should, dude. You don't have DC Defenders, especially with the beer snake.

[Boston Connor]

You ain't seen what the showboats are showing this year, brother. They are nasty.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Stoops is the coach of the Renegades. How about the Brahmas? Brahmas getting seven. Obviously that's not the battle.

[Boston Connor]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that'll be a pack Stadium Lords of the league. Which is what we talked about earlier when the St. Louis Rams ownership like kind of threatened to leave St. Louis if we don't get a new stadium. We need to leave. That stadium was by far the worst stadium in the league at the time. Oakland's Coliseum I guess would be number one. But they were moving to Vegas. That decision had been made that St. Louis Rams Dome awesome being there because the history, great show and turf, everything like that, but it was pretty crap. I mean at the time it had not become anywhere near a NFL caliber stadium. I think a lot of people would say if they played in there the last I think we were in there the last year it was over there. Second to last year it was over there and it was like this is pretty crap. Great environment, great fans, but just like quality of stuff not good. Needing an update. So there's always that convo about like we'll leave, we'll leave, we'll leave unless you give us one. St. Louis for whatever reason they don't come to an agreement, they don't get a new stadium. Kroenke gets the hell out of there, becomes the Los Angeles Rams. He ends up having to pay a few hundred million back to St. Louis to leave. Now have you heard what's going on in Cincinnati? A rumored story we chit chatted about fresh off the Trey Hendricks and he should be happy with you know line from the owner's meetings. Katie Blackburn was quoted as saying we could I guess go wherever we wanted after this year if we didn't pick up the option which is a two year extension to stay at Paycor Stadium which they have to make the decision by June 30th of this year to give a year heads up to Hamilton so that they can start marketing to other people to potentially want to lease that stadium. Maybe us.

[Boston Connor]

Interesting.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe we'll lease the stadium, have good time in there maybe. Who knows Whatever the case would be, these I does doesn't feel like it's a big deal especially from the people that were in the room said it's not a big deal. But the Bengals are literally a part of the fabric of society over there in Cincinnati. Right A.J.

[I]

Yeah, they absolutely are. This is kind of like the stadium thing's been going on for a few years in Cincinnati. Like somewhat behind the scenes I believe but like I guess the city they're, they're haggling over I think how they share revenue. Like how much other events can can happen in the stadium. Like I guess Hamilton County. I think they, they proposed like 1.2 a $1.25 billion renovation plan for everything and now The Bengals have been going back and forth, I guess, trying to figure out what, who pays for it, how much you pay for it, and then who gets to split everything and how it works.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And once again, I believe this lady, Katie Blackburn, evp, currently at the Bengals, has evolved the Bengals into the 21st century more. Right. I think we would all agree with that.

[I]

Absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Like, I think she's getting murdered because the Trey Hendrickson. But owners will say stuff, and, I mean, Jerry's in the middle of it right now, which will certainly talk. Like, I don't think Katie meant to say. I assume once she read it and heard it and saw their reaction, she wasn't, like, pumped that she was the one that caused that. Especially with Trey feeling disrespected, which should. This guy's an all Pro. He's sacking. You're talking about him as if he's just a guy who's lucky to be on the roster, and that's how it kind of came across. So I. Super. But this particular one, I think people were piggybacking on this. Like, this lady is the one. I disagree with that. I think she has. I'm not in the city, but I think she has tried to make the Bengals become a 2025 operation. Is that accurate from somebody that lives in Ohio and from the area?

[I]

I think 100 accurate. I was there for one season. Katie's there every day. Her daughters are there. Like, it's an absolute family thing. And she. Yeah, she has brought that.

[Pat McAfee]

Like.

[I]

Yeah, she's made the Bengals very respectable, which, you know, some people have respect. Before the last 10, 15, 20 years, the Bengals were looked at, you know, much differently.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So Katie definitely said something dumb about Trey Hendrickson is what we're saying. But also, this is not something that she should be getting absolutely crucified for. On that note, Jerry Jones has been speaking more about the Micah Parsons situation. Now, he obviously is up for a contract. Miles Garrett just got $40 million a year, allegedly. Okay. And with these contracts, with what they're being reported, with what they actually are, Christian Benford of the Bills was reported to be having a. Yeah, it was.

[Boston Connor]

Four years, 19 million. It was actually four years, 17.25 million.

[Pat McAfee]

Per year, which doesn't seem like that much of a difference. But whenever we're talking about reporting contracts and then comps and what other people should be asking for, what is normally out in the public is not accurate. So what is Myles Garrett actually getting? Is it actually getting actually 40 million? I guess we'll find out nonetheless. Daniel Hunter signs. Miles Garrett signs. Mike is up. TJ's up. Trey up for money. Trey was told by the Bengals allegedly last year that they would take care of it this offseason. Hopefully they'll do that. Micah is feeling the same exact way as if he should get his deal done. Micah allegedly was talking to Steven Jones and Jerry Jones about what could potentially become. He directed them to David Mulaguetta. Jerry Jones was asked about that. He said, I don't know who that is. Well, he's about to learn. He's about to learn about who, you know, David Mulaguetta is today. There was a couple quotes that have come out from Jory Epstein about Jerry Jones speaking about the situation. He once again said, most everything that I've ever had success with, I've overpaid. For what I'll tell you, I've had it well analyzed when I did it. Usually I'm a fat punch payer. I'm not bashful about sending the money out. What he just said there, I'll let you know. I'm well analyzed. When I do this, though, it is worth it. Which leads to the next quote that he says about Michael Parsons. Jerry Jones, I'm Michael Parson. To be the player that he wants to be paid as, he has to be a tremendous leader for the Dallas Cowboys. I want to personally have total and complete satisfaction that I've got a commitment from him and that I can see that it's not just contract talk. So what he's saying is, is first of all, when I overpay people, it's well analyzed in my heart and in my brain. When I lay my head down, this is good money going to a good person. So him then coming out and saying, I want Micah to be the guy here. If this is how this is going to be, I want him to be the guy. And I would like to know that and have total, complete satisfaction that that's going to be the case. I assume that's Jerry saying why he was talking directly to Micah before Micah kind of led him to David Mulaguetta. But it does feel like Jerry's going to inevitably pay Micah. But that's an interesting statement that he's saying publicly basically to Micah saying, hey, if this is what you want to act like and this is what you want to get paid as, this is what we need. Every snap, every down, every meeting, every day, you got to be our guy. Not saying that he isn't, but this is Jerry just publicly basically stating his expectations of Micah when he inevitably pays him, in my eyes.

[I]

Yeah. See, I mean, I feel like this is just. He's trying to motivate slash negotiate through the press. I mean, if you're Mike and you hear this, he's not. He's not saying, you're not the guy that we need. But I guess he's saying, hey, if we go ahead and we do this and we. We pay you what you rightfully deserve, like, are. You're basically like, you're not the face of the franchise, but you're definitely one of them, and you have to act that way and has to trickle down through the locker room. Like, there's a lot that goes with it. So he's probably just telling them, like, you got to continue on your path and continue to grow and mature as a pro.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And there was, you know, an ultimatum reported to Aaron Rodgers that was inevitably not true. Our old party said it wasn't true, but it was quoted where like, you're not doing that asshole Pat McAfee show. Okay? If you come back here, allegedly, that was sad. And then that was debunked immediately by all parties involved. But you do wonder what Jerry thinks about the Micah Parsons podcast.

[Boston Connor]

Yes, you do.

[Pat McAfee]

You do wonder what Jerry and Steven and everybody is like, hey, if we're paying, you're not. You're not going to be going on your thing, just talking shit about our. You know, like, this is not, you know. And Mike is like, well, I'm trying to build my brand. People are interested. I'm one of the greatest young players in the league. I'm electrifying. I have a good personality, good work ethic. I'm having a good time. And Jerry's like, that's fine. Yeah. I just did a fucking Landman. Okay, you can do this. When it's done, you can do all. But if you would like the money that you are asking for, there's going to have to be a way you go by doing this. I do wonder if that is the case. I'm not saying it's definitely in there, but I think all of that shit goes into. If you want to be a franchise player, you're going to have to act how I would like our franchise player to act. What are those things? How will Mullah get to navigate the waters perfectly? I assume David Mulligett is the guy to kind of get it done. So I think we all assume he's going to get paid a lot of money. What does it look like going forward with Micah is the Question. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

When it comes to, like, being a leader, you. You would assume that what Jerry's looking. Looking for is for more of the kind of. In locker room conversations that sometimes do leak onto the podcast. Like, kind of looking around the league, you could maybe say, you know, Almond Ross St. Brown is kind of one of those guys who's at that level, but still does kind of the weekly podcast type thing. But even that is with his brother. They have, you know, guests on the show a lot. Like, I remember a few years back, maybe it was last year or two years ago, when Micah was supposed to do the weekly. Weekly thing with Undisputed, I believe, with Skip and Shannon. And then that kind of blew up. I. I think right after his first appearance, maybe his second appearance. And then obviously, we all see what happens with the podcast. A lot of times he goes on there and he just says some ridiculous stuff that typically gets into the headlines then even the. The traveling around. I think he was with CJ Stroud in Japan last year, like, and granted, that is the off season.

[Pat McAfee]

That is, hey, go live your life.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah. When you.

[Pat McAfee]

But if we're gonna pick you $40 million a year, your life is gonna look a little different publicly, is probably what Jerry and them are saying, if I had to guess.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that what you're.

[Boston Connor]

That's what. That's what. Yeah, that's exactly what I was kind of reiterating, too, is just like, those type of things that are very in the public eye because he is Micah Parsons. Like, it's not as if he's a rookie here. You know, you've talked about it before. Hey, I wasn't gonna be tweeting and doing all of that bullshit with the Colts if I wasn't performing well like Micah Parsons is. He's a superstar. He's. He's unbelievable. He does play very well. And it kind of gets down to the point where, like, the only downside to Micah thus far has been the off the field shit with the podcast with those things.

[Pat McAfee]

Something he said taken out of context, something he said maybe not how he wanted to say it, something he said not landing right. Like, we're in this world, so we very much understand completely. Anytime you get on a mic, there's a chance that your shit's going to get taken out of context. There's a chance that it's not going to land how you want it to land. Your intentions of your message might have been a good delivery, but what people heard or wanted to hear is actually how they take it. And Then all of a sudden you're in the middle of a storm and the storm is a distraction and winning is already hard enough. So if it is about all these things, which we assume from that quote, we assume that is what it is, we could be wrong, but that is just us looking at the situation trying to understand what an 80 plus year old man could be thinking, that is running team and saying hey, if you 40 million a year, we're paying a pass rusher. If that is the case, we're going to need all energies going towards how do we make the star better. Every, every, every moment is how do we go about doing that. And what we would say to Micah is Micah. Podcasts maybe not as prevalent whenever you're done, but there will be some form of content that you'll be able to create whenever you're done. If you're going to get record breaking money like this, keep the main thing, the main thing for as long as you can. Keep the main thing, the main thing and all the other stuff, whatever you're allowed to do, certainly do it. But no, with the career you're about to have as a Dallas Cowboy and the personality that you've already showcased, you're going to be a okay whenever this whole thing is over. I know it can be hard to be patient and wait for that and maybe have a emergency podcast if you think something is not being reported accurately or talked about in a proper standpoint. But do not let the side shit ever interrupt the main shit. Cuz the main shit is 40 million a year seemingly is what the main stuff is. And now granted you can get that with the side shit as well. Let's not get crazy. You could certainly make that amount of money. It's gonna take a long time. Yeah. And it's gonna take a lot of strategy. It's gonna take a lot of commitment. Same amount of commitment it's gonna take to get to the quarter quarterback. So we as people that don't know Micah would just like to say if this is the only thing that is potentially holding up this deal getting done, go ahead and understand the podcast will be there whenever you are done sacking quarterbacks for $40 million a year. If that is potentially the case, and I know that sounds hypocritical potentially, as somebody that had a podcast while I was playing and did a standup tour while I was playing and had a merch company while I was playing, I knew I was two shanks away, you know, from this thing is over at all times. And also I'M making two and a half million a year, and I don't think I'm the face of a franchise. 40 million a year, face of the franchise. The side money will come. You know, the main money is very, very good. And that's just unsolicited advice from somebody that does not know Michael Parsons.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, because he had the situation, I think it was even last year where, like, he's on the podcast and they're doing their top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL and he, like, he doesn't put jack on there. And like, whether that was, you know, I'm. I'm sure that was just like an oversight.

[Pat McAfee]

Omitting.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. But, like, that doesn't get out and that's all anyone's talking about. And. And like, to the brand part of it, like, obviously, I'm no one. None of us are in that situation. Like, he's one of the biggest stars in the NFL, so it's kind of like, strike while the iron's hot. But I'm sure part of that, too, is like, hey, listen, like, the. What you're going to be able to achieve by being one of the stars of the Cowboys, like, we. We have the strongest brand in all of sports. Like, you don't need your podcast necessarily to, like. Like that. Like you said, that is always going to be there. But if you do everything right on the field, like, you're gonna make more money than you have any idea what to do with, because you're going to be one of the biggest stars on the planet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And you look at the booths. Okay. Yeah. And that's just like a direct indicator of, like, who. Like, the Cowboys have a pipeline into a booth. I'm not saying Micah's gonna want to do a booth, but that pipeline can certainly. Those are like, the most difficult jobs to get.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Because there's only so many can turn that pipeline to a studio show or to your own show or to your own, like the Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys funnel of shit afterlife. I think after football, life is very large, so I hope that's not holding it up. And this is once again us just assuming that this is all this thing. But you couldn't help but assume that that is a part of Jerry Jones's thinking. A.J. hawk.

[I]

I mean, I think about it as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Of course.

[I]

Keep the main thing. The main thing. Like the oldest coaching cliche situation. It makes a lot of sense, but it could be a lot worse. Like, what if, you know, he's out there, he's Got a couple of DUIs. He's robbing gas stations. Like, it could be much worse. The fact that this is the off the field stuff we're talking about, it's a new time. I mean, I mean, like, yeah, especially guys coming up. Guys are in high school with shows and putting content and stuff. So this is going to be something they're going to deal with. It's just. Can you. Do you have the awareness to know, like, I better be producing? Like, if I'm going to be doing this sideshow stuff, I have to produce and it should motivate you to produce even more?

[Pat McAfee]

For me, it was 1000%, because as soon as Chuck Pagano gets Indianapolis, I have my first meeting with him. He looks sweet. He had Ferragamo. He looks. Of course, it was very nice to meet him, you know, and they tried to replace me immediately with another punter, you know, especially because I was tweeting and everything like that. And then they heard the sound at practice one time and they understood that that was probably not going to happen. Okay, like, that is welcome to the bomb show, brother. And, like, that was like. They brought in numerous guys to try to take me out. I had to learn how to become a directional punter in one off season because they were basically like, hey, we're directional punting, and if you can't do it, you're gone. They wanted me out of there. I understood it, like, it was very clear. And I taught myself how to directional punt, which everybody should be able to do. The only reason why I didn't is because I didn't know how to punt whenever I got drafted. So it was just a new thing. I added it in there. But they were trying to get rid of me for sure. No question about it. And then I think they got to know me a little bit and everything like that. And Chuck presented one time, he was like, why don't you stop tweeting? You know? And I was like, hey, back in the day, I was out four and a nights a week, okay? Having a pretty good time. A little bit too much of a good time. You seen a mug shot? Obviously. Now I'll put out a tweet about something I'm watching while I'm laying in my bed, okay? If I cause any distractions, you can fucking find me. You can do whatever you need to do. If I shank some balls, you can get rid of me. But if I'm tweeting about a Real Housewives episode or tweeting about something happening in my life, just Know that, like, that in comparison to a lot of other things, could be vastly different. And Chuck said, deal. You know, he said, deal, you got it. And then obviously, I go on to have my best stuff from being under that umbrella and going through it all. But I knew that I was literally two shanks, three bad tweets away in, two shanks away from being kicked out of town, you know? But that does heighten the sense of everything. Everything, you know, heightens practice. It's like, hey, if I want to do all this stuff and set up myself up for post career, which punting money, great. Overpaid, Grotesquely overpaid as a punter to kick balls 1000%. I am not saying that that is not the case, but also that money's not lasting forever, you know, so, like, if I want to set up myself forever, I have to make sure that this is locked tight. And I am in my. When I'm there, I'm first, earliest one in. I'm dialed in. I'm bought in. I'm in every. Like, I'm a. I'm a positive for this team as a punter, as opposed to this guy has a Twitter account and he's shipper. It's like all those things kind of go together, you know, and it's modern.

[I]

Are we wrong, though? Are we.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry.

[I]

Are we wrong to assume that players have that same feeling, have that same awareness that are doing this stuff? Like, I would assume, like, most people that do it understand the deal. Like, hey, I don't want to come on here after we get blasted and I'm loafing all over the field, and I come in, I have to talk like nothing happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Micah. Micah's such a superstar, you know, I.

[Boston Connor]

Don'T know if you can assume anything.

[Pat McAfee]

He's so good, so good, so good at football. So good, so good at football. Such a superstar, you know, it's like. And I assume Bleach Report was paying him pretty good. You know, I assume Bleach Report was paying him pretty. Not 40 million a year, but they were. Were certainly.

[I]

How different is it, though? You know, like, guys have local shows all the time. Like, especially a place like Green Bay, Wisconsin. I was there nine years. There's, like, backup quarterbacks have shows. Every Tuesday night, they would drive 45 minutes to and do a radio show from a bar. Like, there's. There's stuff like that happening all the time, and that was streamed and everything, I guess. How is that different than this?

[Pat McAfee]

Because nobody heard them.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah. No.

[I]

Yeah. But they could if he Wanted to.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but I guess. Yeah, but nobody did, you know, like, yeah, Micah, everybody hears. That's like a. Too many people hear our show. You know, everybody hears our show.

[I]

Which he should say, sorry, sorry that they want to hear what I have to say.

[AJ Hawk]

Those back quarterbacks.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that goes back to me saying, like, Micah, when you're done, you're going to be. It's going to be a. Okay, brother. It's still going to be there. All I'm saying is, is if his podcast or any of the other content stuff is the reason to hold up a $41 million a year, do not. And I assume we'll get to saying the same thing. Like, brother, you can do Dallas Cowboys content on their social media. We can still keep you relevant in this entire thing. And also, that's one less job that you have to have. Yeah. You know, because people do take it that way. Like when I would go do stand up or whatever, I would hear people and they'd say, oh, you're doing that instead of focusing on ball. I'm like, well, when I went to, you know, like a breast cancer awareness event on, like a Tuesday night, which lucky to do, thankful to do. I didn't hear you saying I wasn't focusing on ball then, you know, like, so there is always like the, like, when Aaron comes on our show, the original pitch was like, hey, you know, on Tuesdays off days, people normally do, like, local shows that players have had forever, players have been getting paid for forever. Instead of doing that, would you just want to do, like an Internet show with us or whatever? And he goes, yeah, I haven't done that in a few years, actually. That would be. And that was the beginning of Aaron Rodgers Tuesday. So there's always been some sort of content being created with players. It's just how many people hear it and if nobody hears it, it's not really a distraction. If everybody hears everything you're saying, then it causes shit, you know, and that's coming from experience and also from, like, watching the world. Micah's shit gets heard.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

By everybody every week. So no matter what you say, it's going to get responded to, which is going to add another element of which Jerry Jones could like. And we could be completely wrong on this entire read of this. Jerry Jones could like that. Michael Parsons. I liked it. To Star is in the middle of all these things.

[I]

You're right. Good, good.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, we don't. We don't know that for sure. But what we do know is, like, it's hard to win in football in the NFL, it's even more hard whenever you got people taking tours around your facility. Yeah, it's even more hard whenever you got everything, let alone causing more potentially from some. Something. So I. I hope they get it worked out. And I think T.J. watts, like, yeah, let's. Why don't you guys go ahead and hurry up. Why don't you let Mool get to go ahead and figure that whole thing out, and then we'll see where we're headed with Pittsburgh Steelers.

[Boston Connor]

Well, for Jerry, too, like, he might be looking around and thinking, okay, the NFC title game was the Commanders and the Eagles, the two teams in our division. And do any of those guys on those two teams, are they kind of dicking around doing anything? No. Okay, how do we get there? Like, actually, especially when Brandon Graham, Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Bg, he had that one.

[Boston Connor]

He did the other thing about Jalen and that. And that kind of fell into the. Because he talked about on the weekly radio hit about Jaylen and A.J. brown having a bad relationship.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Which was drama.

[Boston Connor]

Which was huge drama.

[Pat McAfee]

But then it got.

[Boston Connor]

And that was only once. That was the. That was the one time. People heard Brandon Graham on that, you.

[Pat McAfee]

Know, did not know the show existed.

[Boston Connor]

Didn't know the show existed. That was when Brandon Graham. Graham had the torn tricep. He wasn't playing really yet. So that. Or not yet, rather, he was kind of out for the year till the Super Bowl. So who knows if he did that every week Again, don't even know because he's not Michael Parsons. And he wasn't, you know, talked about every single week repeatedly, because he's one of the biggest stars. But you assume. Jerry, talk about, like, heightened, you know, hey, we got to go right now with the way the Commanders and the Eagles are. If, you know, if anything can be, you know, kind of nixed in the sense of, hey, let's try and get back to the Super Bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

A podcast, optically.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, optically, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Even if he. Like, even if on Mondays he is doing something that he would normally that isn't football related, optically, it doesn't look like you're distracted, like. And I knew that was a thing for me. And once again, much different ballgame Michael Parsons and I. So I'm just saying at my small level, optically, me having any brand name tweets, anything that I did, if I don't do well, it's like this guy's distracted. He's worried about other shit. Get him the hell out of our town. There's only 53 spots. Okay. You should be lucky that you're here is how fans view this entire thing. Like, you should be lucky. You're a part of our team. You should be focused on our team. I'm not saying that should be reality. Obviously guys have to be able to do their own shit. But if you're going to get 40 some million a year optically, it could be very easy to sue that over with just being like, I'm all in on ball. And once again, if you want to content, just do it with the Cowboys. Social media, which still has massive reach. Posties available, Jerry's available. You can still make content with the boys.

[Ty Schmidt]

You also wonder how much of it might be like, hey, when you were doing this stuff in the past, like, we had Mike McCarthy there. Like, this guy is a veteran. He's won a Super bowl before. Like, now we have a first time head coach. We need you to be a leader in the locker room so that like, this stuff doesn't blow up. And this is all Brian Schottenheimer's dealing with all the time. Like, he's got enough on his plate trying to navigate how to, you know, get this thing going in the right direction. Like, we, we need, we need you to make sure that everyone's rowing in the right direction.

[Pat McAfee]

What we're saying, Micah, is get every dollar, brother.

[Boston Connor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Get every dollar.

[Boston Connor]

New England would love you too.

[Pat McAfee]

You've earned it. And I'm sure there would be a lot of other places. Yeah, they'll love to pay you, but he has 5th year franchise. Franchise.

[Carl Ravage]

You know, you're not going anywhere.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. If they want to. And he was. When he got drafted, he cried because he wanted to be a cowboy. His entire life feels like a perfect fit. Hopefully they're able to get it done and if the podcast still remains. All right, sweet. Can't wait to hear what that is. Last night, baseball, their biggest star had a massive moment. Ty Schmidt, what happened in the bottom of the ninth?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, sh. Oh. Ohtani hits a walk off home run. The. The Dodgers were kind of losing. They. They've actually had to come back in several of their games so far this year. And yeah, this moment is just incredible.

[Pat McAfee]

Go back to the beginning of this and let's just run this. So bottom of the night, Atlanta Braves, who were completely defeated, taking on the Los Angeles Dodgers who were undefeated.

[Ty Schmidt]

Correct.

[Pat McAfee]

The Atlanta Braves had a lead. The Los Angeles Dodgers have a comeback. It's the bottom of the ninth, one out, tie ball game in at bat. The biggest star in baseball, Shohei Ohtani in front of his home crowd. Let's take the walk into the batter's box and to see what happens on your feet. I wonder what he's going to do here. 2 for 4, 2 singles. He's seen it pretty well. Tie ball game. First pitch.

[Boston Connor]

Y ball to center field.

[Carl Ravage]

Harris is back.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, T walk off. It's magical. That's last night in Los Angeles. The dark dodgers are now 8, 0. And to have a moment like that this early in the season is great for baseball. Speaking of great for baseball, a man joins us now. He is the play by play for Sunday night baseball on ESPN. Has been at ESPN since 1993. Friend of the program, ladies and gentlemen, Carl Ravage. How's it going, Ravi?

[Carl Ravage]

Not as good as Ohtani, but things are good, I can tell you that. But not as good as Shohei.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, let's talk about that. Because, you know, in a lot of sports, whenever the superstars perform well, the sport's going to do well. When the superstars play like, people are going to bury the sport. Feels like right now with Paul Skin, Shohei Otani, Soto, I believe over there in New York, Judge and Aaron Judge, they're all playing good ball. That moment last night show, my God showing up in a massive way, bottom of the ninth this early in the season. I think it's going to keep people hooked. I think it's going to keep people interested in that type of magic happening with this guy. It seems to be just like the way it goes with him. He is the, he's, he's on pace to be the goat. Ravi. And how do you feel about the state of baseball with him leading the way?

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, no, he, he is that. You know, I'm trying to think, given this is a sports show that talks about every sport, football, etc. There probably hasn't been a athlete who's more well known globally, maybe since Tiger woods, maybe Muhammad Ali than this guy. I think you could make the case he's the biggest and most well known athlete globally on the planet because obviously of what he does in Asia. And that's why the Dodgers invested in him. You got to remember a couple of things about him this season alone, forget about pitching etc and his MVPs. He went to Japan. The expectations were off the charts. We just did the Dodgers Thursday to open the season. And one of the things that all the players were even astounded by and company was, was how big in that country he is. There is no comparison in this country to his popularity in that country, it doesn't exist. He goes over there, they win two games, he hits homer. You have to understand, last night was Shohei Otan bobblehead night. So not only do they come out to get a bobblehead, they lined up beginning at 7, 8, 9 in the morning to get the Ohtani bobblehead. And then on his night, he walks up to the plate and I swear, you talk to the players, you talk to the fans, he was expected to do what he did. The level of accountability is beyond recognition. It's Brady in a Super bowl at his prime. It's woods at a major at his prime. It's not a question of, of where. It's not a question of is he going to hit a homer. It's where's the ball gonna go. That's the level of expectation and delivery we're talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so, Ravi, I appreciate you telling us all these things. And my respect for Shohei grows even more every time I learn something about him. I think not just popularity in Japan. He's baby face over there too. Like he's loved by everybody. It's not just like known by everybody. Yes, it's beloved by every there, which is obviously impossible. And it's because he's been so, so good for our, for America, for mlb. He's been amazing. For baseball, he's been amazing. And this is all happening. Wow. Mitsuhara. Mitsuhara almost derailed the entire thing. He seems to be a robot. Why do you think he is so locked in? Why do you think he's so unflappable? And is he just engineered to be the superstar that baseball has needed for some time?

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah. I mean, it's amazing how quickly the injuries and playing in Anaheim have derailed the kind of the Mike Trout train we were all on. But this right here that we're seeing is exactly the type of response the Dodgers were hoping for in Japan, let alone in Los Angeles. And for a bobblehead. I mean, seriously. Now, I assume if you're a, if you're a smart company like the Dodgers are, you will then try to sell bobbleheads. But maybe there's, you know, there's an exclusivity to it. But look at how many people turned out to get a bobblehead doll of Shohei Ohtani. Yeah, he is that guy. I'll say this. When we walked into the clubhouse on Thursday at around 7:00, so local time game, 4:00. We get there at 1:00. Ohtani is sitting at his locker. And it's not as if his locker is separate from everybody else's. There's Freeman locker next to his open. There's Bets locker next to his. In baseball, when you've reached a certain status, you have a locker, a corner locker. If you're guys like Ohtani and Bets, and then there's an entire locker next to yours, empty. So he's got the locker next to his empty. We walk into the clubhouse, and this has become fairly common in baseball. Guys, you walk in and they know the media is allowed in at a certain time. And they run. They hide.

[Pat McAfee]

Hootie hoo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

They hide.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Ohtani sits at his locker and he. It was. There was no boy in the plastic bubble, but nobody really approached him. But he sat at his locker alone and looking at film, studying. So. Remember Yvonne Lindell when he played tennis and like he was a robot. That's how I looked at Yvonne Lendl. Ohtani's got a great smile. I saw him squeeze Edmond's muscle last night after Edmund Homer. There's a personality there. And he does. He lights up a room with his magnetism, and then he lights up stadiums with his ability. He's absolutely different. And gifted to a level again. You go to Babe Ruth, we may never have seen it. I can't wait to see him pitch. Assuming he's. They're going to say, yeah, we know you're. You're on pace to hit, you know, 70 homers and win a batting title and MVP.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Steal 70.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, you do that, too. They may not need him. I'm sure he is going to do that because he wants to. He's as unique a talent as I've ever seen and obviously I've ever seen on a baseball field.

[Pat McAfee]

Lucky that we're in the era of it. Very, very pumped. I. I love this dude. Have since the very beginning of learning about him. And the Babe Ruth comparison is awesome because obviously pitch and hit.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And him. That swing just seemingly was a casual.

[Boston Connor]

So smooth.

[Pat McAfee]

That was like a seven iron almost. Just like casual deep center field to walk off.

[Carl Ravage]

How big are you, Pat? How big are you?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm six two.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, this. This guy is. This guy is not Aaron Judge, but he's darn close. I mean, he fills out a uniform. And when you see him stand next to others. Look at him.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, he got a fat ass. That guy's got a huge ass. You're talking about.

[Carl Ravage]

I think Mark Showalter used to call that a high Butt. And that was a quality of a player. If you get a high butt, you're. You're going to be a good baseball player.

[Pat McAfee]

In football, same exact thing. Yeah. We're looking for explosivity, which is normally coming from the Honda. And it feels like his base is obviously spectacular. I think he's what, six four or something like that and six four, six.

[Carl Ravage]

Five and about two. Just muscle 240, 230.

[Pat McAfee]

He's just strong on all the things you just mentioned. Tyler has a question.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Ravi. When you take all that into consideration, the Dodgers, you know, this start, obviously they haven't started this well since 1955 when they were in Brooklyn. They keep coming back in all these games. Their pitching depth is unbelievable. Are we like, is it. Is it almost expected that they're going to break the single season wins record this year?

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, I, I think that. I think they will. I thought the Mariners, who won, you know, the 116, 17 games were the biggest disappointment in baseball because they never did anything in the postseason. I don't think there's any question this team passes that record. The 01 Mariners. I don't think there's any question about it. The only. I don't. You know, usually health can slow down juggernaut like this. They are so deep, they could actually have a handful of guys go down. They could rest guys. Blake Snell was not good last night. He was complaining of the umpires. They're not, they're not beating, you know, the chicken. Chicken crap of Major League Baseball. They just roll through the Atlanta Braves. I mean, think about the Braves going home now having not won a game and realize what the Dodgers do like again, the Dodgers, three, four, five starters. When you parade glass now out there against your number three or Blake Snell against. Because the way it works, you're number four. Like, it becomes so demoralizing. And that's what they do on a nightly basis. And the idea that they came from behind, from five zip is just another indication. To his credit, Dave Roberts seems to have got this culture and I think it's rooted in Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman and Max Munshee. They won the World Series. Their entire goal now is to do better than they did last year.

[Pat McAfee]

Year.

[Carl Ravage]

And you guys know this. You know, with sports and with champions, sometimes there's a hangover. No chance with this group that they want to win the day. And if you win the day, you could win every day. And they're obviously doing that right now.

[Pat McAfee]

162,0 would be awesome. Good luck out there.

[Carl Ravage]

That'd be pretty sweet. I can't wait. I'd love to cover that, man. I love that.

[Pat McAfee]

Last question for about the Dodgers here from Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Ravi. So you mentioned it like, you know, sh. Obviously wants to pitch. There's no two ways about that. But I'm kind of of the train of thought like why would you pitch this guy? He's so good at the plate. That's the only thing that could really derail stuff is if he has another elbow injury or has another season ending injury. I know you mentioned, you know, like how deep they are with the pitching staff. So if Snell or Glass now or one of those guys goes, goes down, maybe you slide him into the rotation. But do you think there's any thought that like hey, we're just gonna have this guy focus on hitting because again he might win an MVP. He could hit 74 homers.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, he'd, yeah, you know, he'd win the MVP. There's, there's no doubt about it. I, I think, I think the dynamic between the Dodgers and Ohtani is, is unique. You know, the Jordan rules existed with the Chicago Bulls. I, I don't think that the Ohtani rules exist with the Dodgers. But clearly a guy that's, that's compensated the way he is with his talent is given certain liberties and I think if he wants to pitch, which he does, they're going to afford him that opportunity. May not be as often as he'd like, but I think he really wants to do that again. If we're going to talk about how driven he is to be the best hitter on the planet, the best baserunner on the planet, he wants to be the best pitcher on the planet and I think they will afford him that opportunity. And again, you, you, you may forget like how darn good the guy was as a pitcher. Like he's a great pitcher. This isn't adding a number five.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of pitching, tone has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he would have to be the second best pitcher behind Paul Skeens, who's the first pitcher since ERA to go 25 stats, go sub 2 ERA and have 175 plus strikeout schemes. Is skiing's the most dominant young pitcher you've ever seen? And if you guys, do you have the Pirates on the Sunday night baseball schedule this year or can you not do that? Because you would have to just get lucky to get schemes on on his pitching day.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, I mean the whole Sunday night thing, the pitching is luck. I mean with the Exception of Thursday, the literal opening day of the season. We. We are at the mercy of whatever pitcher is pitching. It's not like Monday Night Football, where you know you're going to have. Have the quarterback every Monday night. It doesn't work that way. NBA games don't work that way with guys getting rest. So that. That would be all. That would be all luck if we got schemes. Have I seen the dominant pitcher? I got to know him at lsu. I was there for that World Series championship. Pat, you can speak to it. You've been around athletes, you know, your entire life. There are. There are guys who. Who attempt to. Well, they get it, but they. They also work their ass off more than anybody else.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, Yes.

[Carl Ravage]

Y did that. Skins did that. Ohtani does that. Mookie Betts does that. Like, in the baseball world. That's why people always wonder, like, why golfers. Like, why Tiger woods, why Scottie Scheffler do they tweak their swings? It's because they're not satisfied even with winning multiple majors and being the number one player on the planet. Skins. Ohtani, Mookie bets to your question. You know, was. Was Dwight Gooden that great?

[Boston Connor]

Was.

[Carl Ravage]

Was Jacob deGrom that great as a young pitcher? Yeah, I'm not, you know, I'm not certain that there's anybody who, you know, who's better than Skeens. After one year and now two, I think we'd be fooling ourselves the same way. Ohtani has this global appeal. You know, there's the right side of the picture with Paul Skeins, which also affects how people feel about him.

[Boston Connor]

Him.

[Carl Ravage]

And I saw the photo shoot that he and Livy did. So there's all. There's things that go along with these great performers, and I think a lot of people love everything about what Paul S.K. means. Yeah. There's the show.

[Pat McAfee]

Ravi, Have a little respect.

[Carl Ravage]

I would look. I mean, I'm all about Lou. I'm a. I love.

[I]

Looks good.

[Pat McAfee]

They're not laughing. Ravage. You're ravaged. Geez, Louise.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, it's. It's Rue.

[Pat McAfee]

Like R O O, R O, U. Jeez Louise.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, like Baton Rouge. Okay, I get it.

[Boston Connor]

I thought it was Hunger Games.

[Pat McAfee]

Operator, won't you put me on?

[Carl Ravage]

You know whose dog. I will say you know whose dog's name is Rue is rocket. They get a rocket and a roux. He just. He just texted me, is my buddy Jimmy Dykes. Those are his dog's name, but legend. But it's Ro and oh, tell Jimmy.

[Pat McAfee]

Dykes I said hello. AJ Has a question for you. Ravi.

[I]

Yeah, Ravi, speak. Speaking of pitchers, have you spoken to many of these pitchers around the major leagues and how pissed off they might be about these torpedo bats? Are they trying to come together and get these things banned and, like, what do you think the future looks like?

[Carl Ravage]

I grew up in Massachusetts, used to go to a thing called candle pin bowling. That. That's. That right there is what we would try to. If you cut that off at the label table, that would be. What would. 10 of those would be standing and we would take a little bowling ball and try to knock them down. Not big ball. No, no, no. Not big.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no.

[Boston Connor]

It's called duck pin.

[Pat McAfee]

It's called duck pin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Candle pin. Where I'm from Massachusetts, candle pin. They used to have Bob Gameer on Sunday on every night. Yeah, Candle pin bowling. And he would have bowling for dollars. It was great.

[Pat McAfee]

No chain reaction.

[Carl Ravage]

You can spin now. You can spin it up there and wipe those things out.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I bet you could too, Ravy.

[Carl Ravage]

My brother was the bowler. Carl was not. Matt Ravage was the bowler.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to Matt.

[Carl Ravage]

Back to the question. I don't think they're not pissed off because, look, the. The Yankees dealt with cold weather and then all of a sudden they dealt with better pitchers and the balls weren't flying. Although I think. I think our guy Bregman hit a torpedo. That home run today. Like, it makes a lot of sense. And golf has done this forever. If you can increase the size of the face of a golf club and allow you to miss the sweet spot, but technically be in the sweet spot, that's what that bat is. That's keeping you into the sweet spot for a lot longer. So hit one off that label and there's just a lot more meat on the bone.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what PXG is doing.

[Boston Connor]

Hell, yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Exactly, Mark.

[Ty Schmidt]

That is what Bob Parsons find it anywhere near. Near the sweet spot. And that ball is just.

[Carl Ravage]

That's right.

[Boston Connor]

On and on and on and on and on and on and on and.

[Pat McAfee]

On and on and on. Shots. Parsons. Parsons. Shout out to Matt Ravitch as well. I assume he's from Massachusetts. Speaking of, Connor has a question for you.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Carl, let's talk about it. You are from Massachusetts. Shout out Needham. And the real reason baseball is back and you know, we can talk about the Al Gore Inconvenient Truth is because the Boston Red Sox are back.

[Pat McAfee]

And it seems that haven't said their name one time.

[Boston Connor]

It seems like, well, that not be just mentioned. Bregman hitting home run. The Boston Red Sox today with a torpedo, but it was an absolute moonshot.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, a lot of people there.

[Boston Connor]

And who's it against? Yeah, it's at Baltimore. One of the best teams. Shitty market. You know what's not a shitty market? Boston. So now that Boston's back, Boston can't.

[Pat McAfee]

Move the needle in Baltimore. I know you think. You fill it up. You think, fill it up. Yeah, Right. Not him. Not in poopy.

[Boston Connor]

Baltimore. Hey, guess where Sunday night baseball is.

[Pat McAfee]

Where?

[Boston Connor]

Boston. Not Baltimore, because Baltimore stinks.

[Pat McAfee]

No, Baltimore's a great place.

[Boston Connor]

Baltimore isn't a great place. We don't have to play this game.

[Carl Ravage]

Okay?

[Pat McAfee]

Famous seafood's over there. Great crab cakes.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, and that's a little bit outside the city. Okay. That's not in Cayman park, whatever the hell it's called. But let's talk about it.

[I]

Carl.

[Pat McAfee]

Boston Red Sox are back.

[Boston Connor]

You are headed there for Sunday night baseball this week against the St. Louis Cardinals. And actually, this is the first time I've actually paid attention to this graphic. Their socks are on it, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold the phone.

[Boston Connor]

We are one of the top five top 10 favorites to win the World Series. Is it time for Boston for myself, for the people of the city and New England to get back into baseball? Because even though people might not think Boston baseball town, because Boston's more of a title town down. Are the Sox back in it? Should we start paying attention, or should I be following the Red Sox all year?

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, I know. I think you're on the. The bandwagon has got open doors, and people are. People are piling on. The Braves are on that list as the second favorite, and they've lost their first seven games, so they. Yeah, the Red Sox are a real deal this year. And, you know, they're spending money. I mean, Boston Red Sox were part of title town. It wasn't just the Celtics and the Bruins. The Red Sox had won those titles as well. Well, the Red Sox were the biggest roller coaster in the world, winning championships and then finishing in last place. The Alex Bregman deal came out of nowhere. Although, I'll be honest with you, I. I had only thought Bregman was going to end up in Boston because of the wall out there. And that's a perfect pull park for a guy like that. Not pulled pork. Pull park. That's a perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

I had to pull pork this morning. Not bad. Pretty good pull pork. Good time. Just like down in.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, yeah, that's a pool party.

[Pat McAfee]

Push park and a Sw Bet all the above. Good point.

[I]

Yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Baltimore is a great city. I'm a shellfish allergy guy, so I can't have crab cakes. We will be. Saturday night. The North End. North End, Saturday night. Pre Red Sox. No, but. But honestly, Garrett Crochet terrific yesterday. Obviously a long term deal. Christian Campbell looks again. Don't. Don't quote me, but he has some of the mannerism of a young Mookie Bets electric bat. He's got just hit a bomb today.

[Pat McAfee]

Then he just.

[Gumpy]

Oh, yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Eight year deal for Christian Campbell. You don't invest in players like that. And they let Mookie get away. Which has turned out to be a disaster for the Red Sox.

[Boston Connor]

Let's talk about Campbell. Okay. Let's talk about Campbell.

[Carl Ravage]

We don't got you like Percy Campbell. Chrissy Campbell's special.

[Boston Connor]

I've been saying that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So, so special. We're wrapping up here on espn. We have a hard outcome in like a minute and a half. But you just mentioned something there that I. I don't know if you know that you can combat. You said you have a shellfish allergy, which normally has the ability to take people out. You know, that thing swells.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Breathing. AJ had a shellfish allergy at one point in his life, actually. Aj, would you like to talk to Ravi about what he could potentially do so he could be at the Hoity Toity events having shrimp cocktail?

[I]

Yeah. Ravi, sorry. I know we're up against a hard out, so I can't give you the whole plan, but if you let me know, I can help you through this. I once had a shel allergy as well. And through the course about five to six years, I've come through the other side. I can have shellfish.

[Pat McAfee]

He microdosed himself. He microdosed himself. So he.

[Carl Ravage]

Was it worth it? Is it worth it?

[I]

Probably not, to be honest.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But when he grabbed.

[Carl Ravage]

But sorry, I know you're up against it. I ordered chicken piccata once in Nashville, Tennessee. I thought they had little gnocchi in it. Turns out it was lump crab.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Carl Ravage]

To the hospital at Vanderbilt.

[Pat McAfee]

Almost dead. Did that thing.

[Boston Connor]

She's lump crab.

[Carl Ravage]

Chicken picotta.

[Pat McAfee]

Right to the hospital.

[AJ Hawk]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank God we had good. Yeah. The shellfish, the nut allergies, they can really.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I have a daughter right now, and the first time having her have peanut was like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Fingers crossed.

[Pat McAfee]

Here we go. We could be going to the hospital for the next day here in this entirety.

[Carl Ravage]

EpiPen, baby. EpiPen it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. You always have one of those on you. Go to Jimmy's famous, get yourself an EpiPen and a crab cake. It'll be worth it. We're going to continue digitally. We'll be back tomorrow here on espn. Be a friend. Tell friend something nice. It might change their life. Okay. We nailed it. Okay, Ravi, we're still live. YouTube, ESPN plus Disney plus and I think we're banned from Tick Tock Live.

[Carl Ravage]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Shoot. I think there's a chance we're getting bombarded.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a chance we're getting attacked. You know, that's gonna happen from time to time. Especially with the way we, you know, our lives have been going right after the tariffs.

[Boston Connor]

I think we can assume who's doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Liberation, dude. Okay, Ravi, we saw the who's gonna win graphic. It's the doctors. It's the dog. And we. We asked about the Pirates earlier. Pirates have any chance?

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Making it.

[AJ Hawk]

Aren't they up on that graphic?

[I]

Making What?

[Ty Schmidt]

Making the fourth one down on the right.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that's Padres 500 is what team.

[Carl Ravage]

I guess up there finishing 162. Absolutely. They will do that. Carl and I, Pat. I'm a pitch for a guy, but not, not in that league and not in that division.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right.

[I]

So Reds are too strong.

[Pat McAfee]

Cincinnat. Reds have.

[Carl Ravage]

The Reds are good. The Reds are good.

[Pat McAfee]

Every year.

[Gumpy]

Every year we're told the Reds are good.

[Carl Ravage]

They got Tito. But every year before this, we didn't have Terry Francona.

[I]

He's a different spider.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, and then we got. Anytime I see Herby tweeting, you know, I'm like, okay, yeah, guys off the.

[Gumpy]

Blue Jackets wagon all of a sudden.

[Pat McAfee]

No, he's just not tweeting about it. You know, he picks and chooses, keeps it positive.

[AJ Hawk]

We know Herby loves baseball. He hit.700 in high school.

[Pat McAfee]

Legit. He is a baseball guy.

[Carl Ravage]

Only Herby loves baseball. He also loves SEC basketball. We got some very nice text from Kirk her street about SEC basketball coverage. Yeah, he's dialed into that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, did you know his high school at Centerville, he's the all time leader homers. Do you know that?

[Carl Ravage]

Did not. I did know. He's a. I mean, he's a baseball rat. I know that.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, I think he was actually a guy. Like, I think baseball was probably.

[I]

He keeps the book. Doesn't he keep the book when he goes and watches a game as a spectator?

[Pat McAfee]

Probably Stats guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Probably. That would be a Herbie move.

[Pat McAfee]

Dork. It would be a Herbie, but actually probably have Jake do it. Yeah, Jake. Two strikes, you know.

[Boston Connor]

Poor Peter.

[Pat McAfee]

E1, E1 in the entire, you know, keeping the book.

[Carl Ravage]

The other night in LA at Dodger Stadium was Tom Hanks. He was all about the book, man.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of stars out there. I seen a lot of people coming.

[Carl Ravage]

A lot of stars.

[Pat McAfee]

Feel like baseball has momentum right now or no.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh God, yeah. Baseball. Because they fixed it with the pitch clock. The bigger bases get some, get some speed going.

[Pat McAfee]

Bigger bases?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh yeah. They get a little bigger basis. I think, I think that it's really interesting. You tell me what you think over the next couple of years does nil screw up college to the point where people get pissed about it and they don't want to. They're not going to follow it as much as they are because I keep hearing and I do the sec so I'm on the right side of. Of where it's going. They have great success, but so many colleges are going to be and their fan base sort of put off by the rich getting richer. Major League Baseball has some of that with the Dodgers, but still we haven't had a repeat winner since the Yankees in 98, 99 and 2000. Is that a possibility that unless they fix this, they're going to alienate a large percentage of the global group?

[Pat McAfee]

Very interesting. I have not even thought about that for potential benefit of. Of baseball or other sports. Maybe even NHL, major sports. NHL I think is having a good time right now and I, I think it's the product on the ice or the product on the field. And if stars are playing well, like for instance in the NHL right now, Alexander Ovechkin is chasing a record that nobody thought would. And you're talking about an all time great and their team's doing well. So that's great buzz. Last night I was watching they had a camera on OV the entire time with stats underneath and who's scored what and it's like that is a good promotion right now. We even got a, we got a thing sent to us from I think the NHL or maybe the capital is where it's the countdown thing for how many goals until he breaks the record, you know and like the great, the great eight things.

[Carl Ravage]

I love that.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that's good for the NHL because superstars are performing well on the ice for baseball. Superstars are performing well. I think that is what it takes. And if you prove to like the fan, like casual fan like my myself, if you prove that when I turn this on something is going to happen like the People I know, especially out of the gate.

[Carl Ravage]

Especially out of the gate. That's why the judge thing was so big. That's why Otani in Japan and then on Thursday night to open it is so big, you need, you need that. And then you get a, like the OV cam is the second best OV thing ever next to OV splits that you could get at the Brick Bar up in Buffalo. That was a big thing. A lot. A whole case of OV splits. I just had this conversation with somebody, honest to God, I believe the Brick Bar just had a big fire. Seriously, I think the Brick Bar may have had a big fire, which is not, which wasn't good at all. But yeah, OV cam, OV splits.

[Pat McAfee]

Well. Well, Ravi would like to help with the Brick Bar getting back on its feet, obviously, if there's anything to do that. We appreciate you mentioning Brick Bar, which I did not know existed until now, but I'm also hoping that the Brick Bar comes back in a big way. On the note though, of baseball having a moment here in Superstars and Popularity, there's a little bit of media news that broke a couple weeks ago. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, given all that where, I mean, and again, I know, you know, you're not involved in this decision making and all, but what does that mean when baseball has all this momentum right now and then boom, all of a sudden ESPN is potentially going to lose baseball rights? Like, I'm one of those guys who grew up watching Baseball Tonight and it's, it is, you know, if you're not watching a game, you're not really getting much coverage. I mean, now they're showing Ohtani and, and judge and stuff like that. But like, the day to day coverage of baseball isn't what it used to be. Do you think if ESPN does lose, you know, rights to games and stuff like that, like, how much can that potentially harm the mlb?

[Carl Ravage]

Well, I mean, that, that part of it, you know, if, if you go to that conclusion and that's an unknown, I don't know that. I know that just being associated with it for so long and having hosted that show that you grew up watching and hearing all the time about Baseball Tonight, again, I have a hard time envisioning a world in which ESPN and Major League Baseball don't have a future. So as I've said before, or, you know, I'm an optimist about that, I think there's, I think there's a really good chance that we end up with baseball. And I've, I've articulated The reasons for it. You know, ESPN has a platform coming out that has every other sport on it. And baseball, I would think, would want to, if they could, would want to be part of that. If, if it's Noah's Ark and you're an animal and all the other animals are on it, you want to get on it, too. You don't want to be left on.

[Pat McAfee]

So that's not over over. I thought it was reported as if it's a done deal. You're saying that's not a done deal. That's what you say you're.

[Carl Ravage]

Oh, no, they've opted out of it. But that doesn't mean they can't negotiate either side back into it. Nobody has yet, you know, agreed to pick up the Sunday night deal package, if that, you know, exists in its current form next year. The Home Run Derby, the wild card. Major League Baseball has a really good history of figuring out ways to get their product out there. This is a much bigger discussion about national versus regional, etc. I know that Jimmy Pitaro has said many times how much he wants to be involved with Major League Baseball. Where there's a will, there's a way, and is there going to be a way that we end up together? I think there is. We'll see. But what happens if it leaves espn? You know, I don't know if the. If the environment's different enough that when the NHL left, they. They weren't really heard from. Then they came back and look at how popular the NHL is. That may not be applicable anymore. It may be very applicable. You know, I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm intrigued because I'm getting into baseball for the first time ever, and we're covering baseball like, I mean, very early in the season here. We'll talk about baseball. We're talking about it every day here. Ravi, I don't know if you're seeing. We're talking. Oh, I read.

[Carl Ravage]

Look, I reached out to you preseason. I said, let's go. Here we go, Game one. Let's. Let's start doing this. Let's do this weekly. Let's do this daily. I wanted to talk baseball on this platform. I want to talk baseball all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we appreciate you doing that. And I appreciate baseball being great to us thus far this season. Now, one day, you tell baseball, you tell baseball as a whole, you give me two, three weeks of shit, I'm out. Okay? I can't do it. I can do one week about cold bats. Okay? I can do one week of cold bats. I can do you know two starts in a row by schemes where the Pirates just let them done. I, I can do, I can do two or three of those. But if it, if we got a three, four week period where baseball is just. Which doesn't feel like it's around the corner at all, but it'll lose my interest right now it's like every night there's something.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's too many good players, something happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Too many good teams.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think that too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yankees, Mets, obviously the Dodgers are doing their thing. Red Padres, the Red Sox are back in it. Matt told me about that. Matt Ravich. I don't know if you know him.

[Boston Connor]

Matty Pins, you mean good bowler.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, great bowler.

[Pat McAfee]

That guy was unbelievable. He could fucking spin that thing and really do that. But you're. I think baseball is like doing it. And for us, selfishly, like the Pirates have the guy, you know, going for. Not it's not Shohei, but it's like.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, the test is always going to be pat. The test is always going to be. You go through the beginning, beginning of the year. You hope you have your stars perform, will the big markets be in it and for how long? What happens when your pirates go into a slump, God forbid, schemes or somebody like that get hurt? Where do you, where do you go? Where does your interest? Like, the key is this is a, this is to pardon the stupid, you know, analogy, this is a, this is a marathon. It's a long season. So there's peaks and valleys. You hope that there's going to be enough superstars, big market teams, stories like Ovechkin, maybe somebody goes and hits a homer, six, seven, eight games in a row. So you glom on to different things and you hope that baseball has the ability to take us through June, July, August, September. Because then when you get to October, it's the best.

[Pat McAfee]

Shohei hits a walk off. Last night we don't even mention. Didn't a guy hit three home runs last night?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Ivan Her Herrera, the catcher for the Cardinals, who, like, you know, no.

[Carl Ravage]

One knows, put up a dozen, I.

[Ty Schmidt]

Think, and he hit like all three of them into Big Mac land. They weren't like, you know, you know, cheapies. Like he, he absolutely blasted all three of them.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Didn't even talk about it because Shohei had a walk off at whatever 1:00am in the bottom of the ninth in our world. But it's like, yeah, guy hits three home runs in one night. Okay, I could tune into a home run derby, no doubt. I, I can watch it. I can watch That I can also watch a pitcher slice and dice for an entire night. It's like, it's getting interesting. Baseball is getting very interesting.

[AJ Hawk]

And the Padres are.

[Carl Ravage]

Well, say this about the torpedo bats too, guys. The, you know, let's, let's not discount what's going on in baseball. Pitchers, the pitchers have had every single advantage the last, let's say, dozen years. You know, through analytics and metrics and all those cameras they got going, the hitters had nothing. So if a torpedo bat can help the hitters a little bit, it's better for the sport because it was it. We want runs. Baseball needs offense.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Carl Ravage]

If the pitchers are going to slice and dice every night, that ain't going to work.

[Pat McAfee]

Every sport wants offense, including like even ufc. You know, like whenever people are just laying ground and pound, people don't get as excited. There was even a walk off bunt last night. Yeah, walk off bunt last night. Good touch. Good touch with the barrel. We win the game. Let's go ahead and get the hell out of here. We did it at home. Walk off bunt now. We got another game tomorrow. Let's see if we can do it. That's the thing about baseball. You can enjoy these moments for about four hours and then you're right on to the next one. A lot of magic happening early here. Go ahead, Tom.

[AJ Hawk]

Say we haven't even mentioned the Padres are undefeated and Jackson Merrell, who just got paid $135 million yesterday, hit a home run the day that he got paid $135 million.

[Pat McAfee]

So baseball, okay, baseball. We were.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, Jackson Merrill's special. I'll tell you one thing. I, I would. You know, you talk about, about Paul Skeens, who's young, the, the superstar pitcher for the Padres, and they have a lot of them. Just keep an eye on Michael King. All year, he, he was, he was adequate in his first start. He punched out 11. I think gave up two hits in his second start. Keep your eye on Michael King.

[Pat McAfee]

I just learned from Ty that he was a Yankee and then he was traded for Juan Soto, who is now.

[Carl Ravage]

He was free agent after this year. Free agent after this. He could easily end up in the Bronx. He's a Rhode island kid. He could end up in Boston. He could end up in Baltimore.

[Boston Connor]

Tell him he's on Pittsburgh.

[AJ Hawk]

Brother might be a Pirate.

[Pat McAfee]

No one's going to sk.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah, he could back up Paul Sch.

[Pat McAfee]

And Jer Jones. He had a hundo. Can this kid touch triple digits?

[Ty Schmidt]

He's not throwing triple digits.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't want him.

[Carl Ravage]

Well, that's because he has got the best stuff in the. He's got the best stuff in major league baseball.

[Pat McAfee]

I just saw a 99 mile an hour splinter yesterday. Okay. That they didn't know if it was a four seam fast. Ravi, let's relax.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's very good. I don't know if he's going to accept like a 10 year 45 million dollar deal that the Pirates.

[Pat McAfee]

That's not what you think. We're going to give him 45 million. Yeah, right, brother. At most incentive base up to 22 reach of Boston. All right, Ravi, we appreciate the hell out of you, buddy. Thank you for joining us.

[Carl Ravage]

Good to be with you guys. Have a good day.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Carl Rabbit.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, I'm Brad Milke. You may know me as the host of ABC Audio's daily news podcast, Start here. But I'd like to add aspiring true crime expert to my resume. And here's how I'm going to make it happen. Every week I'm going to unpack the.

[AJ Hawk]

Biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

ABC's got some unique access here. So I'll talk to the reporters and producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years. We'll bring you the latest developments and the larger context on the true crime.

[AJ Hawk]

Stories you've been hearing about.

[Pat McAfee]

Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best.

[Voiceover]

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[Pat McAfee]

Michael King has 11 strikeouts through five innings of work.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's filthy.

[Pat McAfee]

That was on April 1.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's absolutely.

[Boston Connor]

He's coming to Boston.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't like him saying he's got the best stuff in a game. I saw 90.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think he got an hour. I think he got a little excited. He got a little carried away.

[Gumpy]

Yeah, Ravi got a bit ahead of himself.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's awesome, but I just don't think.

[AJ Hawk]

He loves the Pirates organization. So who does?

[Ty Schmidt]

Pittsburgh guy.

[Pat McAfee]

He said, yeah, I'm a Pittsburgh guy. Yeah. 162 out of one.

[Boston Connor]

They said they're going to play all.

[Gumpy]

The games all the way.

[Boston Connor]

No one loves the Pirates. Call a spade a spade.

[Pat McAfee]

I. Okay, I'll say I don't love Pirates, but I love Paul Sk. Yeah, there you go.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

And I love Pittsburgh teams winning.

[AJ Hawk]

There's a lot of people love Pirates. They just don't like the owner.

[Boston Connor]

I've heard on the Internet that people in Pittsburgh are already saying like this team, I'm out.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the owner. It's the owner you're waiting on. Move. Moving on from the owner.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're back after yesterday too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[AJ Hawk]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

If you listen. Yeah. Because Paul Schein's historic. Yeah. And now we need the Pittsburgh Pirates Twitter account to maybe acknowledge, let people know. Yes.

[I]

Where people know he's on the team. Just let us know he's on the team.

[Pat McAfee]

How about a scrolling. What was that, a 10 minute scroll?

[AJ Hawk]

I found out that stat about under two ERA, 175 plus strikeouts.

[Pat McAfee]

The MLB, I think.

[AJ Hawk]

No, that came from Pirates.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

The MLB was tweeting out the, you know, Skeens throws a jam right after the game.

[I]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Look at me, I'm replaying like who's this guy play for? Is he on the Pirates? I see. But to your point about them not liking the team of the Pirates, there are people that are die hard baseball people in Pittsburgh. The Pirates fans, those are going to be Pirates fans. Everybody in Pittsburgh though wants Pittsburgh teams to win. But if the Pittsburgh team's owner is not trying to win, they fucking hate that guy. And we've been at that point for like five, 10 years, seemingly just reading from outside in on this particular guy.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Boston's the exact same way. Like I, I, they won the World Series in 2018 and that was with Mookie Bets and you know, a bunch of guys that ended up, you know, getting basically kicked out the door. And so in the exact same sense, you know, with John Henry, everyone hated the Red Sox owner, but now they have spent money, they brought in a pitcher, crochet him. They just paid that Christian Campbell guy, Bregman, a couple of the guys Ravi was talking about, like the, the Boston area is the same exact race. So I know what you're saying.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So I think that's how Pittsburgh feels and especially when jet passing on opening day does that promo.

[I]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

About how shitty the team has been constructed and how they could have spent money around Paul Skeens. And then opening day, exactly what Jeff Passon said was going to happen. Happens where Paul Skeens. What are they? They. I forget what it was.

[I]

One.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he leaves the bump. Should be undefeated on the year. Instead, they give it up. They lose. Boom. The whole thing. They're ruining Paul Skeens. That becomes the narrative after day one.

[AJ Hawk]

Those guys have been sent down.

[I]

We're good.

[Pat McAfee]

They're here.

[Boston Connor]

Sent down to the Indy.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Doubleheader today.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's here?

[AJ Hawk]

Huh? Our setup guy on our closer. Three games.

[Boston Connor]

They play for the affiliate. Remember that team?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the Indianapolis Indians.

[Ty Schmidt]

Correct.

[AJ Hawk]

Levy Dunn said that's the name of the team.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't create the name of the team. This is. Once again, I hate to be the one to tell people this, but this is the team name. The Indianapolis Indians. They're the AAA affiliate for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Paul Skeens pitched here, and he filled the entire city up whenever they want to do it, just like he does everywhere.

[AJ Hawk]

And Guppy was. I think he. He only pitched here in the minors. And what did Livy say? Man, there's some tough minor league towns.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And they said this is the only.

[Pat McAfee]

One she's ever been by a mine mile. Really? Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

She said Indianapolis. More like nice town, Annapolis.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're right. She did say that, didn't she? Yeah, nice town, Annapolis.

[Boston Connor]

That's what people say.

[Pat McAfee]

Pirates fans were thrilled with how quickly their new ace was advancing. And so was his girlfriend. I'm actually very happy he flew through the minor leagues, Levy says, because some of those places were brutal. Let the record reflect the Paul Skeens here described Altoona as beautiful. Smart kid is beautiful.

[Ty Schmidt]

Altoona Curve.

[Pat McAfee]

Been there once, I think. Penn State. Altoona. Never heard of that school.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Penn State. Altoona has a. Penn State has a satellite camp. Saltoon.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think I've been up there. Home of.

[AJ Hawk]

Very close to Duner Mifflin.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, the electric city.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it's Grant.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. What else have we not chatted about today? Travis Kelsey, good person, good human. Donates $3.3 million to a homeless facility. That a baby, Travis.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, that's right.

[Pat McAfee]

I love this. This type of stuff. You know, obviously a lot of negative gets covered around the NFL and around professional athletics because negativity will hog some publicity. And obviously the conversation around Travis Kelce is that he is a goat at the tight end position. Obviously very successful at football, but there are people who just naturally hate him because he's very popular, very famous, especially now because he's dating the most popular and famous person on earth in Taylor Swift. So him giving back, making the world a better place, I think should be chatted about. And he doesn't have to do this. You know, there's a lot of people that have a lot of money that don't give back, that decide not to give people, say, $3.3 million to Travis Kelce. Especially with Taylor Swift. What is that? That's 20 bucks for most people, maybe. But with that being said, doesn't have to give up 20 bucks in comparison to what everybody else doesn't have to give up. $3.3 million. Could build another house with that money. Could buy a lot of things for Taylor or for himself. Could set himself up and his family with $3.3 million. Maybe start a business with 3.3 million bucks instead, wanting to give it back to society. And with that, I say, atta baby trap. Hell yeah, baby trap. Just an Ohio guy, good football guy who's represented himself well. And now doing a good thing, A.J.

[I]

Yeah, doing a great thing. I mean. I mean, 3.3 mil. That's no, that's no joke when you're doing this. I mean, he's. He's a fixture in Kansas City. And speaking of, we're talking about Micah's podcast and everything. I mean, Travis found a good way to navigate this throughout his playing career.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. New Heights podcast. Obviously very successful. Congrats to Jason and Kylie Kelsey on their new baby.

[I]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

New daughter.

[Pat McAfee]

Now that we're talking about the New Heights podcast, it's like, obviously you're gonna get a lot of heat whenever you're in the public eye, especially if you're dating somebody who is Taylor Swift. And Taylor Swift, I believe, obviously, we went to a concert and it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever. Just the buy in from Spectacle. It was. It was hard not to get caught up in the Tevud. Whatever it is. It was awesome. In her business and her work ethic and her creative mind and everything she's done, unbelievable. But she has come out a couple times politically, so naturally, anytime you do that, you're gonna piss people off. Anytime you're famous, you're gonna piss people off. Anytime you're successful, you're gonna piss people off. So she has, I think, added to the amount of people that don't like Travis, just like Travis probably done the same for Taylor. So he's taken on the shins a lot from a lot of people that I don't think look into the entirety of the situation, and there's going to be people that see this and think it's fake. And not give Travis any love for this. Well, he should do this, he should do that. It's like, nah, we got two greats that are together. That's good for society. And also, whenever they're giving back, I fucking love it. I really do. So shout out to Trav. Man, I think he's only going to get better, too. Oh, yeah, because his. His messaging. You know, we broke some news that he was not going to retire. I was not. I'm not going out like that. I'm gonna find this founding youth. I'm gonna be the best shape I've ever been in my life this offseason. I'm gonna grind harder than ever just because I don't like the way the season ended in that Super Bowl. They made it to a Super Bowl. Okay. They're back to back. Super bowl champions, won the AFC again. Okay. Great afc. Lamar Jackson's in the afc. Josh Allen is in the afc. Joey Burrow is in the afc. Anthony Richardson is in the afc. You're talking about all the great teams. Jones, that are in the A, could be in the afc. All the great teams that are in the afc, they still want that. Get their ass beat on the. At the Super Bowl. Everybody says this team's bad, this team's over, or whatever. And it's like in that locker room, that might have been the. The best thing to happen for them and the worst thing to happen for everybody else. And I'm excited to watch Travis do his thing here, no matter how many years we got left with them.

[I]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

And they. They were never like, fully healthy on offense. You know, like, Hollywood Brown was out before the season ever started. And they kind of mentioned it. Because of that, Xavier Worthy had to kind of move over to the Hollywood Brown position, which wasn't his real position. And then by the time, you know, Hollywood Brown was back, Rashee Rice was out for the year. So they never really got that entire full Rasheed Rice, Hollywood Brown, Xavier Worthy, you know, Travis Kelce, and then even Pacheco. Pacheco got hurt and they had to add Kareem Hunt halfway through the year. So it really was one of those things were they were kind. They had like different iterations almost throughout the entire season of their offense. So it'll be sweet to see what they're like next year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I agree. And Patrick Mahomes with a full offseason of not being the guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, first time where nobody's talking about Patrick Mahomes being a goat.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Right.

[AJ Hawk]

Cut his hair.

[Pat McAfee]

Cut his hair. Finally feels like he's wanted to do that.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes, yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm tired of having a mullet. You know this thing. But if I cut it, we're loose. Of course.

[Ty Schmidt]

So.

[Boston Connor]

So as I got to do it now.

[Pat McAfee]

That's your haircut, man. Everybody loves your hair. Yeah, everybody loves it. They don't look in the mirror every day.

[Boston Connor]

Two kids, man. Three kids.

[Pat McAfee]

But he did have to kind of win back to back Super Bowls, brother. I don't know if now's the time to make a life change, lifestyle change, you know.

[Boston Connor]

But Andy Reed told him like hey.

[Pat McAfee]

No Andy Reed sitting next to Jake Glazer there saw that best next Coach T. I love seeing Jake Glazer super.

[I]

Bowl as Shreg said.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I mean it was awesome. Oh you year. He's preparing for this and those guys are getting bombed is what Peter Shrag's had a great week. He did I think personally espn. He's always good on our show. Wasn't allowed on our show for a long time for a while but he was always good on our show. Whenever he was on our show and then he was on get up. Great first take adds a completely different element because he's coming from like I'm just telling you what I.

[AJ Hawk]

He came in.

[Pat McAfee]

This is not a. This is not. I'm not trying to go to war.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm not arguing with you.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm just telling you like this is how I. This is kind of how. And he has so many connections, so much information. It's not like his first time on tv. It's like very polished. I like I love Shregs in his new role.

[AJ Hawk]

His first hit on first take was talking about Jerry Jones and that whole situation and he was so like. I don't know if he played it down just because of that reason. He. His voice was so mellow and so monotone for that whole thing. Just talking so just like, like just basic about Jerry and then you know. Cuz I. I think he knew Stephen A was coming in over top on.

[Pat McAfee]

The Cowboys and I would assume Shre is going to try to balance too like the. You know on ESPN and even our show sometimes there's going to be swings at people, you know and things in teams and organizations and events and yada yada. Shra's like an insider, you know. So shrig's. I mean hey, I. I didn't say it. You know the amount of Shregs being like well also trying to balance relationships as an inside. It's like shefty whenever things Start getting takey when things are getting tak. You normally see Shefter go well I think they did that like normally sticking up for almost every shrag's insider pundit analyst. Like he is also all this things. He's a. He's a utility player. I think he's a great ad to.

[Ty Schmidt]

ESPN especially coming from Good Morning football where everything is just like so positive and they don't do that at all. Like they're not taking shots at anybody really. They're celebrating every team, every player and then yeah, you go on first take and it's like you're in the two box with Stephen A on some team or doing like so like that. I'm sure that's going to be a bit of.

[Pat McAfee]

It is a little different world. A different world. But I think he, I think he was great. I. I enjoy, I enjoy old Shrek.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah man.

[I]

Drake's can handle any situation. He can handle any sport. You could throw him anywhere in. He'll, he'll be knowledgeable, he'll be good at it.

[Pat McAfee]

But he knows like the football. He knows it so inside out because he knows the people that are kind of running it, you know. Like Jay Glazer has that thing. I'm sure if Shrags was to have one of the a gathering of some sort, all the younger coaches that are kind of getting all the gigs would be there. He's like kind of grown up with them in the thing. That's a weapon for ESPN a half as the NFL coverage only continues to grow, we assume.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, him and Greeny in the mornings as well. We were talking about him on first take but. But him.

[Pat McAfee]

Those two should have a coffee. They should, they should each have a coffee and they should just sit there for 15, 20 minutes and like Greenie just pepper them, you know. And I think they kind of did.

[Ty Schmidt]

That the other day shooting the with strikes.

[Boston Connor]

Boom boom. Got a couple segment ideas actually.

[Pat McAfee]

They might say. They might say. Yeah, yeah. We've been thinking of ideas for segments around ESPN and some of them we don't think would ever land but they would do well. Yeah, but you could call it shit. Shooting it straight instead of straight. Shooting it straight. Shooting at Shreg with straight.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, shooting a Strager.

[Pat McAfee]

Shooting a straight with Schrager, you know, and have Greeny say straight. Maybe shooting it straight with Shrek. Yeah, could be something, something to think about.

[Boston Connor]

Shooting it with Pistol Pete maybe. You know, you could throw a P in there somehow.

[Pat McAfee]

Shooting it straight with Pistol Pete.

[I]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Or instead of shooting it Straight, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, with Pistol Peter. Yeah, maybe it's Pistol Peter Schrager shooting straight.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, there it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Pistol Pete. Pistol Peter Schrager shooting it straighter than you.

[AJ Hawk]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

With Mike Reber.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

That, that. That's the one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, dump that so they don't steal our. Dump it. Dump it. Dump dm.

[Boston Connor]

Tm.

[Pat McAfee]

Pistol Peter Schrager shooting straighter than you.

[Boston Connor]

With Mark at that little, you know, two seater in the corner.

[Pat McAfee]

And the journalism.

[Boston Connor]

Journalism.

[Pat McAfee]

The journalism corner with the stairwell up and.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, the books.

[Pat McAfee]

Lot of books.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of, how are.

[I]

Watch.

[Pat McAfee]

How are those books, huh?

[I]

I've gone. Doing well, man. Doing very well.

[Pat McAfee]

Isn't it amazing that they've just remained titleless, authorless, nameless.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[I]

Because after I read him I put them right back in the same spot.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but after you read them you say, all right, I don't need to know the name of this book anymore.

[Ty Schmidt]

File it off.

[Pat McAfee]

File it off. Yeah, and just put it right back up there. Only author can know what book this is. Not a single. The blue one I guess has a name, but I think it's cuz you wrote it on there. What. What was the name. What was the name of the blue one there? What is the name of that book?

[I]

I believe that was what Atlas Shrug by. That was a. That was a Rod's thing. I got that right over the shoulder.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the. That book club was a fun run. Do you remember the book club?

[AJ Hawk]

Oh yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We had. Nobody will give us credit for this obviously because we're doofuses. I think we were part of like the second largest book club on earth. Okay. Oprah has her. Going to be tough to catch up to. But if you go by just strictly people that bought Aaron Rodgers book club merch, let alone the people that participated and follow along. Just merch. We had thousands and thousands of people following along with this book club. And then the. The analysis of the books that were chosen by people by. I mean it was. What do you gave us a bible one time. What was that book?

[Boston Connor]

The Fingerprints of the Gods.

[Pat McAfee]

Fingerprints of the Gods. All right, next one week we'll get a new book for this week. Want you to read this 4, 000 page.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a little dense but.

[Boston Connor]

And it was.

[Pat McAfee]

And then he would drop one in there, just oh yeah. And funny enough, hey, why don't we. Why don't we read about what happened in insert name of controversy of the past that relates to today. Just read this one. I'll See you next week, whatever it is. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Fingerprints of the Gods. Pretty funny now with the new info about the pyramids, isn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What's going on? What's going on?

[Boston Connor]

Let's just say I looked into. I looked into Giant.

[I]

What's underneath.

[AJ Hawk]

Where'd he go last OTAs?

[Pat McAfee]

He went over to Egypt. June 6, 2024, right. 6, 6, 24.

[I]

Did he discover the. The stuff underneath?

[Pat McAfee]

What if he put his palms on there? There's some energy, started shifting. Yeah.

[I]

There's some chambers down here. We gotta check this out.

[Boston Connor]

Hold on now.

[Pat McAfee]

Is the energy coming from. Can you feel it? And then you got whoever he was with, who we probably know, going. Oh, yeah, I can feel it.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

In my.

[Boston Connor]

In my toes.

[Pat McAfee]

And then put. They're putting their arm, their hand on his shoulder.

[AJ Hawk]

Uhhuh.

[Pat McAfee]

And on the pyramid. That might be how they found it.

[Carl Ravage]

Yeah.

[I]

Let's get some light. Can we get some lidar out here? These guys are feeling it for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, the guys said they found about some things. Who, sir? Aaron Rodgers and his tattoo.

[I]

You should have seen them all shaken together. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Tattoo on his arm lights up, glowing.

[I]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

He starts sitting the light switch like he's bare. We don't know there's a chance. And if you're going to report what we just said, just know that we. We do not have any. Any firm truth that that is the case. No, we're just letting you know. Could be. Yeah. With Aaron Rodgers.

[Boston Connor]

Could be.

[Pat McAfee]

Could be the truth. He could have thrown football. That thing lands in the desert. Big hole in the sand. He goes down to get it and he feels. Feel some pulsing boom, boom, boom. Sting alive. You feel this. Somebody else comes in. They might have got a shovel up. The reason why I couldn't make dotiers. They might have to shovel up. And then all of a sudden they're two miles deep. And you're like, holy fuck.

[Ty Schmidt]

And the sand parts like the Red Sea.

[Pat McAfee]

And he just walks.

[Boston Connor]

And then someone comes out. We've been waiting for you, Aaron Rogers.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a chance.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know if that's true or not.

[Carl Ravage]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. We are. And it's Artie Smith. Yeah. It could have been Arthur Smith.

[I]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

With his brother, drinking beer.

[Pat McAfee]

Love his brother.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Just sitting in the back of the pub. CEO of FedEx.

[Boston Connor]

Welcome home. Aaron Rogers. Yeah, I can see that.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you talked to doing. What's this. What's this guy? What's he doing? Is he trying to find more coils under different World wonders what the going on.

[AJ Hawk]

Seven's got a theory.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[I]

What is this theory?

[Pat McAfee]

Here's Ben Roethlisberger from the Footballing with Ben Roethlisberger podcast. But I think Aaron secretly, again, just.

[AJ Hawk]

My opinion, I think Aaron is secretly.

[Pat McAfee]

Still holding out for Minnesota, which is.

[AJ Hawk]

Why he hasn't signed with the Steelers.

[Boston Connor]

Why else would you not. Why else would you go throw a.

[Pat McAfee]

Deacon and be working out and put.

[AJ Hawk]

It out blast to everybody that I'm.

[Boston Connor]

Throwing to these guys. But you won't sign. So I just think he's holding out for Minnesota.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You think he's really gonna go try to complete the Brett Favre infinity gauntlet?

[Carl Ravage]

I just think he thinks that Minnesota is a more complete closer team to.

[AJ Hawk]

Win a Super Bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

Good question. On Spencer, I would like a little bit of excessive stuff. I I watched the football and pod maybe one go to Giant Eagle immediately. Giant Eagle sponsor the football and pod perfect relationship there, especially in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh. Can't wait to hopefully get back to Pittsburgh and enjoy some Giant Eagle next week before a big night. With that being said, I think there's a lot of people that feel the same way that Ben Roethlisberger feels. AJ Hawk. I think there's a lot of people thinking that way. But then the reporting is the Vikings aren't in on Aaron. But then so Aaron instead of maybe finding the coils under the pyramids for some reason. So that would mean that Aaron would have different information than what's being reported basically about the Vikings. And then, you know, I mean, certainly feasible and possible. And if you think about Aaron on that Vikings team, you would say that feels like an offense that he knows he would be able to operate in. That feels like an offense where he's probably not going to be asked to take a lot of hits or any hits really. That feels like an offense where people are going to be open where if he can spin it, which he will be able to do until he dies legitimately, which we saw out of the UCLA clip, that would be a team that we would obviously enjoy the Aaron Rodgers experience of watching with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now that feels like a team that is also built to go, but it's a different built team. It's not going to be the same style as a Kevin oconnell offense. It's an Arthur Smith offense. It's in Pittsburgh. It's not in a dome. It is very, very cold. It is like it's just two different operations. So maybe that is the case. AJ you would know a lot more than us. Do you think Ben Roethlisberger is just kind of trying to piece it together in his mind? What do you think Ben's thinking whenever he says something like this?

[I]

I mean, when you hear Ben say that, yeah, it would make sense. If you look at both teams, you would think the Vikings are, are, you know, closer to, to get into the super bowl than the Steelers are. But we don't know. We see what teams like the commanders do in one season. So you don't really know, but yeah, I would assume, like if you're a quarterback, wouldn't you want to throw to Justin Jefferson, have that Minnesota defense and everything that they have around them? I'm not saying Steelers don't have weapons, but I mean, Aaron got to watch up close and personal for a while how good the Vikings can be.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, and the Vikings, you know, and once again, we think the Pittsburgh Steelers are good. They are good. Pittsburgh steals are good, but it's a different style. Very quarterback friendly offense in Minnesota, like, especially for what his talent is. We had Kevin O'Connell down at the owner meetings last year whenever they're trying to figure out which quarterback they wanted to take. And we asked him what's the most important part of being a quarterback in your system? He said, accuracy. Well, there happens to be a guy, you know, who is probably the most accurate guy in the history of football statistically, and Aaron Rodgers throwing it, you know, so you would think that would be something that Aaron would see and Kevin oconnell probably sees as well. It's just, are they trying to figure out if JJ McCarthy's their guy? Have the Vikings told him he's the guy if he wants to come? Obviously him working out of UCLA kind of rules out retirement in my eyes. Unless he's just working out to stay in shape, which obviously J.J. watt's still squatting and still doing everything. He's not playing. So it's an interesting dynamic. It certainly is. I like hearing old Ben talk about it though.

[AJ Hawk]

It was funny. Nick and I watched this at the exact same time and we looked at each other and said, I wonder why Ben thinks this. Because it's exactly what Ben would have done at the end of his career. Ben's just thinking, what would have I done? Like we looked at each other, we're like, oh, this is exactly. Ben's thinking this because he's like, oh, that's exactly what I would do if I was in Aaron's position.

[Pat McAfee]

How about Ben going, you think last contract, kind of last two raw. What have I Done. Who is the closest to in that offense? Once again, love the Steelers. Ben has done a lot for Pittsburgh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That is. Is it fast? What. What has he said to you, A.J. what have you. What have you talked to Aaron? Has it been.

[I]

No, I. I haven't recently.

[Boston Connor]

I don't.

[I]

I don't know. I don't know exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What a terrible guy. Dude. Until he makes a decision, I don't know.

[I]

I thought it would have happened by now. Didn't you?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But what I think doesn't matter. Well, you think you see dies, so.

[I]

I think what one dude thinks is what matters. And no one really knows what that dude thinks.

[Boston Connor]

That's the original question. You know, you. That Pat asked you, like, have. What has he said to you? You said, I don't know. You think he'd sign, don't you? That was your answer to the question.

[I]

He never told me that. He never told me he would sign by any time. I've never asked him directly, hey, is there a deadline? When are you going to sign? What are you going to do? No, I have never not asked him any of those questions. I haven't spoke with him in multiple days.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[I]

So I don't know, like, I don't know what's been going on. You know, like, why, what are we waiting till after the draft? Are we waiting right before the draft? What are we doing?

[Pat McAfee]

I have no. Listen, if you get a chance to ask him, please do. Also let him know we said hello. Okay.

[Boston Connor]

And tell us about Egypt. What was he doing?

[AJ Hawk]

The derby's coming coming up, so find out.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Derby. Also the coils in Egypt. Yep.

[I]

Big night out.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, stop putting that out in the atmosphere.

[I]

Getting close. I'm getting texts from people that are predicting it in the. That are playing that. That are in positions in the NFL front offices.

[Pat McAfee]

Too many people that are like, in. In the world are like, yeah, so is he on Wednesday night at Big Night at your big surprise, as you said, is that the. And I'm like, would be wild. And I think Nick went on Caboli and Mack or Mack and Caboli podcast back in Pittsburgh, and they asked him. They're like, hey, we're here. And you know the Caboli Classic that Aaron's going to sign at Big Night Out. And Nick gave a great answer. He's like, we appreciate the thought that people think that we have enough sway that the Pittsburgh Steelers are just going wait. Okay. For a show that's never happened before, Pittsburgh Stewart's gonna be like, so it's a show that's never existed before. Big night out. Yeah. Well you. We're cool with it. Yeah. Just wait until that night just to kind of do it. And Aaron's also like, you know what I want to do this at a show that's never happened. Big night. Yeah, I want to do that. Like that is a massive compliment. I don't think people know that. That that is kind of a compliment but also would be an asinine ask by me to be like hey Steelers, save it. Okay Aaron.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay Aaron.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't you don't say anything. Don't do it until big night out. Okay. April 9th. That's when this all goes down. Like that would be. But as we get closer to the date I start thinking to myself now Aaron, if you would like to make a decision.

[AJ Hawk]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Next Wednesday. I do know a place where a bunch of Steelers fans are probably going to be.

[Boston Connor]

It'd be cool.

[AJ Hawk]

You know what, you know where this goes to.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[AJ Hawk]

If it doesn't happen then then everyone's going to think it's going to happen big or the draft spectacular in Green Bay.

[Pat McAfee]

No, people are probably saying that we're a bunch of woke cowards because we wouldn't let Eric do it at midnight out. They probably would say remember that. Yeah, it won't give him a platform. That's probably going to be talked about. A big night out. I'm pretty excited to talk about a lot of stuff. A big night out that's going to be a good just not at the Open 1520 is going to be pretty good. It's going to be a pretty. A pretty solid collection of happenings in my life and my perspective on the things should be a fun thing. Now granted if if there is a quarterback that's going to sign with Pittsburgh Steelers his name's Aaron Rodgers and it happens at big night out. Just know that that has not been a plan and it's currently not a plan but if it does happen be a pretty epic way to kind of introduce your Steelers run here. Yes it would. So please relay that messaging to him from us. Okay.

[I]

Think about it. He comes out puts a piss dealers jersey on maybe full pads. Maybe just come comes out in full pads, full uniform, jogging pyro throws the ball like throws the ball off some people's face in the front row and breaks their head off.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Pittsburgh people would respect that.

[Boston Connor]

He's got.

[I]

He's got a live arm.

[AJ Hawk]

Still got a live I wasa box the whole PPG paints arena can you do that.

[Pat McAfee]

I seen the tp.

[AJ Hawk]

I've seen the T. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if you can just.

[Boston Connor]

Hot box with ayahuasca an A box if you will.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Thank you.

[I]

If you will.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't want a box gun.

[AJ Hawk]

I didn't want to shorten it in case people to know what we're talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Talking about AASA Y which is actually dmt. Sure.

[AJ Hawk]

Some of that frog juice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You want.

[Boston Connor]

You want to knock on the door, open the door or walk through the door?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I want to head to the 10th one.

[AJ Hawk]

Which door is it?

[Pat McAfee]

Let's walk through. You know, people change and never come back from those things.

[I]

Yeah, they do.

[AJ Hawk]

Seen it lived.

[I]

People will get. Some people get lost and they won't come back. We know that by conception.

[Pat McAfee]

On that note, wonder if Aaron's been listening to that out on that beach.

[Ty Schmidt]

I assume so.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah. At the wave.

[Boston Connor]

With the wave noises.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm so far from my home he edited his own. Yeah, yeah. He says that.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

How's it going? Good. That's three pens down. I think on the day.

[Boston Connor]

No, it's been way more than that.

[Pat McAfee]

I've only seen three. I've heard four of them.

[Boston Connor]

I picked them up before the last break.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. He's the drummer that's flipping the sticks and then they hit off the microphone then go right.

[Boston Connor]

They hit this thing. That's the real problem, you know. You know why I keep papers here?

[Pat McAfee]

Because if soften it you bingo. That's like if I pick up my phone and I put it down, you hear it and then it hits this thing every once in a while.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We should put pads underneath this and on the.

[Boston Connor]

And around it. Cuz it never hits this. It always rubber.

[I]

You can put rubber things down?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we could down underneath it.

[I]

Place mats. Like rubber place mats they have down.

[Pat McAfee]

Those are annoying sounds. Mouse pad. Mouse pad's not bad. You ever see Debo and work his mouse on the arm of the chair and he has to roll the ball? It's pretty good work.

[Boston Connor]

I mean he's a idiot. There's a. There's an entire thing that he can put his mouth.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think that's the case.

[Boston Connor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Debone is a talent. I think he's. He's no longer a champion in thunder buckets.

[Boston Connor]

I was going to say to my point, we played six game of thunder buckets on Wednesday. Or sorry, today's Thursday. On Tuesday we win all of them. Yesterday we go to play. He goes, okay, go Ahead, you shoot first, brother. We won six games yesterday and I shot second every time. Like, what the fuck do you mean I go first?

[Pat McAfee]

You guys had some chemistry issues yesterday. Early. We could sense it big time right away too. Clean sweep by me and Foxy, the whole office yesterday. And we took a beating the day before too, Connor and Debone. So we probably knew that that wasn't going to happen on back to back days. But as soon as Debone and Connor stepped up to the line and they started bickering before the first shot, we knew it was probably.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We know it was problematic, especially in thunder buckets. You need good synergy.

[Boston Connor]

Yes, he played well. Game two. I will say he, he, he showed up. Game two. I did not.

[Pat McAfee]

I do appreciate the fact that he is, you know, it's kind of unpredictable. Like is he going to chest pass that thing through the hoop or is he going to try to shoot it each time? Sometimes it feels like he just wastes a turn and it's like, that was an interesting, interesting. That was an interesting decision by you. And then the next time he'll like shoot it and it'll go in. It's like, that might be. And then the next one he's like, but I think I got two to three more pitches in my bag.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, and then he starts trying new and whenever he, when that's hitting, it's good.

[Boston Connor]

He's calling thunder buckets. Yeah, he's the Thunder Buckets. Beef stew. You know that, that's who he is when it comes to the league.

[Gumpy]

I don't know if I'd give him that much grit. Good rim protector, too.

[Ty Schmidt]

Giant of Canada 6.

[AJ Hawk]

He's kind of like, he's kind of.

[Boston Connor]

Like six time champ. Let's not just act as if he's. He's won nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

You're talking about Debo. Yeah, I'm talking about Debo. Every game counts as a championship. What is.

[Boston Connor]

Okay, he's one time champ. Okay, so he's like the YIC of the league.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think. Yeah, exactly one.

[AJ Hawk]

I think he is the Y.

[Pat McAfee]

No, he is not. He's not hanging 61 ever. Brother.

[AJ Hawk]

I saw him make a lot of money.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but then he'll change his strategy. You know that. And he's stubborn. And he won't go back after that either. Yeah, and he won't put cheese on a burger. Whatever the case. I mean, there's a lot going on with D Bone. Hey, way to go, Debone. You're doing great.

[I]

There you go, Bone.

[Pat McAfee]

Proud of you, Bone. How about Dirty doing farmers walks? Did you see those? Oh, yeah. Dirty's getting after it in there. He's walking around the gym with two kettlebells, heavy ones. Just walking around. Everybody's kind of getting after it right now. It's a good time. Time. The weather's changing in a violent way.

[Ty Schmidt]

Very much so.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Flooding is the big thing now.

[AJ Hawk]

I just.

[Ty Schmidt]

We're in like a flood watch, like I said. Rest of the weekend.

[AJ Hawk]

I saw a Tweet. We had 728 severe and tornado warnings combined yesterday. The most active day since 2011.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So let's keep our head on a swivel, obviously. Let's help out when we can. Let's send positive prayers and vibes. Everybody that's battling through anything and let's enjoy what we got. You know that there is a perspective that is put into place whenever you're standing in your house and you think there's a chance it's going to disappear. It's like, you know, maybe shouldn't worry about some things because in this moment right now, it feels like I could lose everything. And some people do. So with that being said, let's enjoy this life while we have it. Could die at any moment. Let's never forget it. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're in this thing together. Can't wait for big night next Wednesday night on YouTube. X maybe.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe. Tick tock live. Be a friend. Tell a friend something. I just might change your life. We're in a sing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a kingmaker. He had wealth, fame and power. Until it all came crashing down.

[AJ Hawk]

Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by.

[Pat McAfee]

Hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. I'm Brian Buckmire, an ABC News legal contributor. As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall. And what could be next? Listen to Bad Rap the Case Against Diddy, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.