PMS 2.0 1329 - Final Boss Tuesday With Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Peter Schrager, Tom Coughlin, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1329

Release Date: April 22, 2025
Guests: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Peter Schrager, Tom Coughlin, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

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1. Incident at WrestleMania Weekend

Pat McAfee opens the episode by recounting a harrowing experience during WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas. While at a WWE event, Pat was unexpectedly confronted and attacked by Gunther, a former World Heavyweight Champion.

• Pat McAfee (00:00):
  "Last night, I went to a medical facility local over there in Las Vegas... I was attacked by Gunther... He had his legs wrapped around me... I was deemed okay, but I lost consciousness."

Pat details the chaos that ensued as his friends—Ty Schmidt, Connor, and Darius Butler—attempted to intervene. Despite their efforts, security remained focused on Pat, leaving him vulnerable.

• Pat McAfee (01:00):
  "I did not like the way you guys were treated. I appreciate Shane Helms there looking out for me."

The incident has left Pat questioning WWE's security measures and expressing his determination not to be silenced.

• Pat McAfee (02:16):
  "If you think choking me out is gonna end me, you're wrong."

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2. NFL Draft Insights with Peter Schrager

Transitioning from wrestling to football, Pat welcomes Peter Schrager, an ESPN pundit and NFL draft analyst, to discuss the upcoming NFL Draft.

• Peter Schrager (09:21):
  "Travis Hunter is minus 1400 to go number two... Shador Sanders is the most interesting guy in this draft."

The conversation focuses on the fluctuating odds surrounding top prospects like Travis Hunter, Abdul Carter, and Shador Sanders. Schrager emphasizes the unpredictability of the draft, noting potential movements and how sportsbooks are reacting to insider information.

• Peter Schrager (10:50):
  "As soon as that information comes out, if you were to head to a sportsbook and place a bet before they could change their line, you could get them in this situation."

Pat and Schrager explore the complexities of betting on the draft, highlighting how rapid information dissemination can influence odds and bettor decisions.

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3. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Creative Ventures

Dwayne Johnson, known for his multifaceted career, joins the show to discuss his latest projects, including a Martin Scorsese-directed gangster film set in Hawaii and a forthcoming book.

• Dwayne Johnson (20:55)
  "I've been wanting to chase the challenge and be inspired by the challenge... This opportunity to tell a story that's never been done."

Johnson delves into the inspiration behind his new film, emphasizing the cultural significance of Hawaii and the untold story of Nappy Palava, the Godfather of Hawaii. He shares personal anecdotes from his interactions with Palava, highlighting the depth and authenticity he brings to his creative projects.

• Dwayne Johnson (22:47):
  "We have a little announcement coming up with Pat McAfee, DJ and Papatouille."

The discussion also touches on Johnson's philanthropic efforts, particularly his work with the J Fund Foundation, which supports families battling pediatric cancer.

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4. Tom Coughlin's Reflections on the NFL and Leadership

Tom Coughlin, a revered NFL coach, shares his insights on team building, player development, and the evolving dynamics of the NFL.

• Tom Coughlin (32:37):
  "John becoming the 17-time heavyweight champion... He's on Mount Rushmore now."

Coughlin reflects on WrestleMania's success and the role of media in shaping narratives within the NFL and WWE. He emphasizes the importance of leadership and the psychological aspects of coaching, drawing parallels between his experiences and Pat's recent challenges.

• Tom Coughlin (42:24):
  "I want to continue casting the net further... Let's transcend professional wrestling."

Coughlin also discusses the significance of authenticity in player interactions and the necessity of balancing professional obligations with personal well-being.

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5. WrestleMania Weekend Highlights and Aftermath

The conversation circles back to WrestleMania, with Pat expressing his admiration for the event's success and the performances of various WWE superstars.

• Pat McAfee (23:33):
  "WrestleMania is its biggest weekend... The WWE is hotter than it's ever been."

Pat praises Jacob Fatu, highlighting his emotional connection and the impact of his performances on both fans and his personal life.

• Pat McAfee (28:06):
  "Jacob was telling me this saved my life... fans love that."

The discussion also covers the main events of WrestleMania, including the return of Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman, and the rise of new talents within the WWE landscape.

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6. Closing Remarks and Upcoming Events

As the episode wraps up, Pat emphasizes the transition from Las Vegas to Green Bay for the NFL Draft, expressing excitement for the upcoming discussions with Mike McCarthy and other NFL insiders.

• Pat McAfee (71:19):
  "We're heading to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the draft... Can't wait to get up there."

The episode concludes with reflections on the chaotic events Pat experienced during WrestleMania and a reiteration of his commitment to addressing challenges head-on.

• Pat McAfee (76:00):
  "We're not going to let this Austrian... Steal it or make anything negative about what the weekend was."

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7. Notable Quotes

• Pat McAfee (00:00):
  "I was blindsided while trying to stick up for Michael Cohen."

• Darius Butler (05:09):
  "You didn't tap. You didn't embarrass the program."

• Dwayne Johnson (20:55):
  "No one does a gangster movie better than Martin Scorsese."

• Tom Coughlin (32:37):
  "John becoming the 17-time heavyweight champion... He's on Mount Rushmore now."

• Peter Schrager (09:21):
  "Travis Hunter is minus 1400 to go number two... Shador Sanders is the most interesting guy in this draft."

• Pat McAfee (23:33):
  "WrestleMania is its biggest weekend... The WWE is hotter than it's ever been."

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8. Conclusion

In this episode of "The Pat McAfee Show," listeners are treated to a blend of high-stakes wrestling drama and in-depth NFL Draft analysis, enriched by appearances from industry heavyweights like Dwayne Johnson and Tom Coughlin. Pat McAfee navigates through personal challenges, professional insights, and entertaining anecdotes, delivering a comprehensive and engaging discussion that caters to sports enthusiasts across the board.

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Note: Advertisements, intros, and non-content sections from the transcript have been excluded to maintain focus on the core discussions and insights.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this final boss. We're on the draft. Tuesday, April 22, 2025. This program starts now. Sports are happening all around us. Thank you for all the positive prayers and vibes for this year. Neck that Gunther snatched up and choked me out on Monday night Raw. The Raw after Mania. Last night, I went to a medical facility local over there in Las Vegas. I thought maybe I was gonna have someone with a C3, maybe up here, something in the neck because of how it felt. But instead I was. I was deemed a. Okay. I certainly lost consciousness last night, though, as the entire world watched on and shout to the boys jumping the barricade and trying to get me. Now, I do have some questions. All that security is kind of focused on the boys, and I'd be focused, too. I mean, Ty was going to get some Boston. Connor was going to gnaw on Achilles if he had to debone. Actually puked ringside because of how jacked up he was. And D Butt almost ran through four to five different guys. I appreciate you boys trying to get. Get in there as I was blindsided while trying to stick up for Michael Cohen as this Austrian asshole was attacking me. But there was 45 security people on you. There's nobody on. I'm getting my life choked out of me. What am I supposed to do? Well, I found out quickly that there ain't really much you could do whenever Gunther's got that thing on you. He had his legs wrapped around me one time. He had the whole time. I felt my body slithering away and I had my hand on it, you know, because I seen UFC and I trained a little mma. I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. And then, you know, just go. You just kind of disappear. Yeah, you just kind of disappear from existence there. And what the hell is going on? You know? How the hell do we get to this point? I didn't like the way you guys were treated. I obviously didn't like what happened to me. I appreciate Shane Helms there looking out for me right there. Hurricane St. Pat, you could be okay, but I wasn't back yet. I think I was supposed to lift my legs a little bit. I think that's how I was supposed to get back in there. Also have been talking a lot, so let alone the abuse that happened to my vocal cords while this Austrian prick was just kind of late. Nonetheless, thank you to the medical facility in Las Vegas for taking care of me on such quick turnaround. Yeah, I appreciate everybody's positive thoughts and prayers. And everybody said that they're happy it happened to me. I hope we meet in person so I can punch you in the fucking face. Okay. I was thinking for Michael Cole.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What was he doing? He was grabbed up. Michael Cole?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Legit.

[Pat McAfee]

He was going to. He was going to choke out Michael Cole. Yeah, Right. Can't be having that. So what happens next year now? I don't know. You tell me. Just know that I'm bad about it for whatever. And if you think that choking me out is gonna end me, you're wrong. You think you were gonna bury me publicly and I'm gonna quit showing up, you're wrong. But I know you're not gonna mess with Michael Cole and get away with it. I don't care how big, strong, intimidating, how good your rear naked choke is. I don't care about any of that, okay? Michael Cole's a good man. We appreciate Michael Cole. And whenever you start attacking him, things like that are gonna happen. We'll talk to the final boss, Dwayne the Rock Johnson, in about 15 minutes or so. We shall see now if he will still be able to make it. His schedule incredibly packed, which is why I assume he wasn't able to make it out to Las Vegas, but was paying attention to everything that was happening. Was literally getting texts, myself, Cole and others throughout the entirety of Mania, telling us what his thoughts were, how excited he was, and what a great weekend it was for the wwe. So lucky to be a part of it. Not just me, though. Toxic tables here at Boston, Connor at Ty Schmidt. Ty, I appreciate you trying to get in there and kind of clean up with what Gunther was doing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Without a doubt, man. I mean, we got a big week here, okay? The NFL draft is right around the corner. That's typically one of our biggest shows of the year. So I, I agree with your sentiment. I don't know what this. What the hell the security was. I mean, listen, we weren't out there trying to, you know, create an all out melee. We're trying to get to you. We're trying to help you out, you know, and it's.

[Pat McAfee]

We got a big week for the program.

[Ty Schmidt]

We got a massive week. Exactly. You had just announced, too, about, you know, Coach McCarthy and everything. So there, There's a. A ground swell with everything that's going on with the draft, and then, you know, boom, they try to take you out. What are we supposed to do? Just sit there like a bunch of. In the front row?

[Pat McAfee]

No way.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think so.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard you guys clear. 9 year NFL vet. D BU. I expected you after I was hearing the story from you guys, because I didn't know what you got. To be honest, I didn't see much of it until we were walking back and I felt surrounded by the crew. I'm like, how'd you guys get. I was literally like, well, I saw D Bone's face first. I, like, was coughing. Obviously, I had some blood coming up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Actually.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if it was from my lung or from my throat or whatever. Long week, a lot of talking or whatever. So as I'm coughing stuff up, I turn my head and I see Debone's big face. And I'm like, oh, geez, now is not the time. But how the hell did Debo get here? So then afterwards, we have a full conversation. I guess you guys just hit it again as soon as the thing started, because I had a lot of people tell me, why did you turn your back to him when you're in a fight? It's like, I didn't know I was won the fight. I was trying to break up a guy from Michael Cole. Then I was trying to get back to do my job because I don't think Gunther was. They don't tell me a lot about shows. Gunther just kind of walked his ass. Where did he come out? Came out nowhere. And he had a microphone. He snagged the microphone up. He was out there. I was like, I'm gonna get back to my desk here. And then all of a sudden, he snatches me from behind. Coward.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, of course, coward.

[AJ Hawk]

He's Austrian.

[Pat McAfee]

Nobody's talking about. But we chit chat about you guys afterwards, after the medical facility, in the bus or whatever, you guys just kind of cleared that thing like a fence, huh? Do you feel athletic in out there?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Going through sn, I think War Raiders, I think they were cutting the promo, so all eyes were on them. He kind of snuck in, came out of nowhere, got in Cole's face. Obviously, you stuck up for him. We tried to get in there and protect the franchise. You know, jumping over Kyle was definitely the first one over. Fox. He jumped in, threw a couple potatoes in there, but it was some real deal. Two things, though. You didn't tap.

[Pat McAfee]

Never though.

[Darius Butler]

You didn't tap. You didn't say uncle like that bitch Gunther did. Oh, it's on site.

[Pat McAfee]

He did tap.

[Darius Butler]

It's on site when we see him and Pierce, what the hell are you doing? What the hell is security doing? You got 20 guys, while he's over there choking you out, they're doing their little. I mean, it was wild, man. The shit got real. I got close. I probably got probably four or five feet away. But the boys hunkered down. He got a decent security team. They just got to focus on the important things right there.

[Pat McAfee]

They're like, let's try to get you out of here. I'm like, yeah, okay, you got it. Then I realized I couldn't. There was a little bit of a breathing issue happening because this guy boa Constricted my throat, got in deep. He did have it in False. He had it real deep.

[AJ Hawk]

It was deep in you.

[Pat McAfee]

It was deep on me. That snake was wrapping around my throat there. Yeah. Just way deep air. It really was.

[Dwayne Johnson]

We saw it.

[Pat McAfee]

And he was flexing, too, because I had my hands here, you know, just like, desperation. And then I could feel like his. Like, I could feel him. And I'm like, I think I already lost here. I think I was supposed to tuck the chin at some point. Once again, didn't know that. No. And I mean, we'll find out how this goes. Knows Gunther, I hope you're happy, buddy. You might sign up for something you don't want. Just a quick little heads up.

[Darius Butler]

The cold, though. What a bully. And Cole, to his credit, went out there and finished right back out there and got. Got a good pop, too.

[Pat McAfee]

I appreciate Michael Cole being the consummate professional that he is. It's kind of like what happened at the elimination chamber. Like, I'm a big fan of Canadian people. I've gone to Canada throughout my entire life. Had a good time. You Boom. The national anthem. My natural reaction is, oh, I hate these people. Didn't, actually. But that's just my natural reaction. I see you punking my friend. Natural reactions. No.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't do that. And then what happens? Well, I get choked out on. On Netflix Worldwide.

[AJ Hawk]

Same for us, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Rock. The hell you think this is, pal? I do. I'm happy nothing happened to you guys, you know, because people jumping over that thing normally does not end that great. I'd like to think that somebody in there was like, they're Pats boys. They're Pat's boys. Please don't kill them. But I'm happy nobody decided to follow you guys.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, I think there was some conversation behind us about that.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so, too. Yeah. From what I heard afterwards. Yeah, from what I heard afterwards, that people were like, your boys got in there so quick. We had no idea. Obviously, we didn't Want to cause a scene with them. But we, we were worried though that once your boys came there was a chance that somebody behind were gonna be like tidal wave. Okay, we're.

[Ty Schmidt]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You guys. I don't know if you guys even thought of that. No, not. Did not even think of that at all. Okay, good. Could have been a real.

[AJ Hawk]

Would have been nice.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Honestly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Legit.

[Pat McAfee]

But I am going through a little bit of. You can hear it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Who knows how long. I'll be damned. How about future earnings? Cuz I am a lawsuit.

[Ty Schmidt]

Something to think about.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Everybody's throwing that word around towards me.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Wait a minute. There might be one.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Going the other way. And I don't know what Austrian law is, but I do know what happens here in the United States of America. And Gunther can't be doing what he's doing. So be more on that subject. I assume every moment of the day as we go forward. 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here. Tony, we're on to the draft, obviously. Thursday night is the first round of the NFL draft. We'll be live in Green Bay, Wisconsin. We'll be with Peter Schrager. Can't wait to talk to him in the next hour. We'll also be with coach Mike McCarthy who obviously won a Super bowl with the Green Bay packers on a history with Green Bay Packers. Actually has Mike. Mike McCarthy way up there in Green Bay. It's going to be a blast. We can't wait to get there. There's been some odds movements though here as we're getting closer to the draft. Feels like the picture's becoming a little bit clearer for some teams. Is that accurate?

[Peter Schrager]

Yeah. So there was some news that came out this morning that Schefter reported. Shrek's talked about a little bit about, you know, Browns at 2, Giants at 3 being open to potentially moving it before that, if you looked at the odds before that, though, like it was, it was kind of coming into focus. Travis Hunter is minus 1400 to go number two, which is, I wouldn't say like a guarantee, but once you start getting up into those odds, it's pretty good. And then Abdul Carter minus 700 to go at number three. So once you get to those, it's like, okay, hey, we know kind of 1, 2, 3 in this situation. But now the news that, you know, the Giants and the Browns are both willing to move out of that position, I don't think it necessarily changes if Travis and Abdul are going to go two and three, it just depends on what team is going to take them. Then there was also some movement this morning on sportsbooks on who is going to draft Shadur Sanders, who is by far the most interesting guy in this draft, on where he's going to go. I mean, people talking be anywhere from three to not even in the, in the first round, which would be insane. But the Browns currently the favorite to take Shedeur now, and the Saints for the last, I don't know, three weeks since the Derek Cardinals have been the major favorite to take Shedeur at number nine. And then at some places, the Steelers are now the favorites to take Shedeur. So odds for Shedeur are all over the place. But everything, you know, as far as 1, 2, 3, even Will Campbell at number four is minus 500. So it feels like 1, 2, 3, 4. At least the sportsbooks think they have a decent idea on where they're going to go.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm pretty excited to see what the movement is. Yes. Because everybody's starting to get like pretty excited about potential, you know, shrags who will be joining us in about 55 minutes or so. He's plugged in, he's locked in, but he doesn't try to be for like the entire draft cycle. He waits until like now to be like, hey, here's all the information I'm having. He was on last week and he had a lot of questions. He was like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Now he's like, hey, a lot of people interested in moving up 2, 3, 4. And normally movement up to 2, 3, 4 would be for a quarterback. Instead it's for players this week as opposed to maybe Shador Jackson Wool hard shuff, you know, where do the quarterbacks kind of fall into the entire play? And then Travis Hunter, who inevitably gets the once in a generation type player that everybody's talking about. Odds are all over the place. Tone, we have to talk about this because you're a goblin man.

[Peter Schrager]

Yes, I am.

[Pat McAfee]

Hammer is a daily sports gambling podcast that comes out of the Thunderdome alongside, you know, you and Gumpy and Bruce. Boy, obviously getting off it. These odds makers don't know shit either. No, they don't. We can get people on the draft. Now, granted, they have a minus 20,000 or whatever it is for Cam Ward. They're reading the headlines in the insiders comments just as much as us. Now, granted, some of these sports books might have an in at a team. Okay. We just have to understand that that's Reality of the world, legally. Not supposed to.

[Tom Coughlin]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

They're literally just following the same shit that we are. You can win betting on the draft. We can get some good odds in our favor betting on the draft. Is that not accurate?

[Peter Schrager]

Yeah, because the. All these. All the sports books, let's assume they don't have, you know, a shefty or.

[Pat McAfee]

Which is illegal. Yeah.

[Peter Schrager]

Or, you know, a strike's working for them, giving them information so that they can't change their odds before the information comes out. So as soon as that information comes out, if you were to head to a sportsbook and get, you know, and place a bet before they were able to change their line. Yeah, you could get them in this situation. And also they're just guessing right now. They're guessing as much as we are. They're changing odds based off of lies and smoke screens and information that, you know, teams are feeding all these people to report on. So, yeah, this is the one time a year where you know just as much as the sportsbooks as far as. If you're paying attention to the insiders and stuff like this. So, yeah, there's some things where you can get over on them this, this time of year.

[AJ Hawk]

And there's always a team like last year, the. The kind of goose, if you will, the golden goose would have been Penix to the Falcons in the top 10. I forget what the exact odds were, but because of the Kirk Cousins thing, because of, you know, everything that the Falcons were trying to build. Defensive head coach in his first year, them taking a quarterback, it was like plus 2000 or plus 20,000 might have been that high this year. It feels like there's more of that type of stuff, like the AJ Brown, you know, Patriots, which has already been shut down from, I believe, the Philly side. But if you were to take, you.

[Pat McAfee]

Know, but all those little rumors affect the sports books for, like, at least an hour. Like, they'll have to look into all the rumors as much as we do. Tyree Kill puts a video up of, like, man, I'm being traded. The odds makers are like, all right, does this change anything for the Dolphins on what the Dolphins was. Because they can get got in any of these things. So just know that with, like, games and shit. The odds makers in sportsbooks, we all assume know everything. They have so much AI, they have so much computing, they have so much knowledge. Their spread seemingly always on for this, it is just an objective view on what the news is. So unless a team is giving anything away, we can get these sports books and we only know that because we swayed exactly the entire sports gambling industry a couple of years back. Whenever we got intel morning of the draft that Mac Jones was not going to the Niners. And as soon as we opened the show from a living room in Tampa Bay is how that show opened, and we go, we just got it from a very, very good source that Mac Jones is not going to the Niners. From that moment on, Mac Jones and the Niners went from like minus 250 to like plus a thousand in like a scan of like an hour. And that's just because we said something. So whenever I say, like, hey, they can be. I don't say manipulated, but manipulated by news, they can. So just because the sportsbook says something, that does not necessarily mean that that is a matter of fact when it comes to the draft, more specifically, this draft feels like the biggest, who the fuck knows in the history of drafts that we have covered.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, without a doubt. And if those, you know, three at the top that everyone assumes that Tony just went through, you know, Ward, Hunter and Carter, if one of them just doesn't go in the top three, then the whole thing kind of gets blown open. Because the assumption for Patriots fans at 4 was, hey, we get whoever's not there. They're saying in New England, Will Campbell's going to go four. If Abdul Carter were to drop, they're not going to take Abdul Carter. So all of a sudden it's like, okay, well, at 5, Jacksonville do that.

[Pat McAfee]

But then Daniel Jeremiah just said that Will Campbell's not in his top five players or whatever.

[AJ Hawk]

Not in the top 10.

[Pat McAfee]

Top 10 players.

[AJ Hawk]

J.

[Pat McAfee]

But it's the number four overall pick. So. So it's like all these odds makers are doing the same thing that we're doing. Wait a minute, I thought we had Will Campbell locked in. And then all of a sudden frames is like, I don't think so. Like, that's all it takes on a draft night.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, same with like, Ginty. And they're saying, like Ginty, Carter and Hunter, other players that would be traded up for what? For you would assume the number four overall pick, the Pats could move back if someone loves Ginty. And that's when the wool camel thing comes in handy. And that's where you could bet, like Patriots Will Campbell outside the top 10.

[Pat McAfee]

What we're saying is this is gettable.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, Very good.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, with that being said, you can get got to like all these boys did.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

On the casino floor out of Vegas, you can certainly get got. But There is a chance that we can get them too. In this entire.

[Peter Schrager]

To your point, like, even at five with the Jaguars, I think it was Charles Robinson of Yahoo. Who works out of his car. We've had him on a few times.

[Pat McAfee]

He reported he doesn't live in his car. He works out of his car.

[Peter Schrager]

He reported he would. He would be shocked if the Jaguars didn't go with an offensive weapon at five and was talking about Liam Cohen potentially seeing Tedro McMillan as his Mike Evans or whatever. And Terrell McMillan's odds at five went from like plus 4,000 to plus 650 or something. Like. Or yeah, plus 650.

[Darius Butler]

Right.

[Peter Schrager]

Right there. So, like, just that report, like, just move things this weekend. It's crazy how that works.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, that is crazy. I mean, it would be hard to pass on Mason Graham right there, dog. He is. And then it always comes back to the quarterback discussion for me because it is smokescreen season in the conversation around these quarterback class being like, hey, we don't see. We only see one true first round of Where's Shador gonna go? Where's Dark gonna go? What's the. Is there. What's the over under on quarterbacks in the first round? Was that two and a half?

[Peter Schrager]

Two and a half.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. So even with Milroe, I feel like it's been a little more conversation overs. Minus 140. Okay. See that. That may be over two and a half. Yeah. I like over two and a half quarterbacks.

[Pat McAfee]

Me too. Quarterbacks always. Even if they say this class not that good. Some team will. Even if somebody trades back in at the tail end, which is kind of what the narrative has been for, like the last four or five days. Because everybody thought maybe quarterback goes in the top five, top 10. That's where you pick your quarterback. Then shrags and every other insider is like, teams that need quarterbacks, they value what each pick is worth. So look for maybe a lot of movement at the tail end of the first round, much like what Green Bay did with Jordan Love.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

A few years ago to kind of get back into the game. So who knows how many quarterbacks end up going, especially with how the first round. Fifteen rolls out well.

[Ty Schmidt]

And it seems like. I mean, same. You know, you mentioned him, you know, xiao shuck, however you want to say it. Like now if you turn on ESPN in the mornings, like, he's starting to get like, the. The big time.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Ty Schmidt]

If you just look at his, you know, his intangibles and his measurements, you'd say, well, how Isn't this guy, you know, the best quarterback in this draft? So I feel like there is a chance that, you know, maybe we get four, maybe we get five guys, maybe.

[Pat McAfee]

10, maybe 10, 10 quarterbacks in the first round.

[Peter Schrager]

To this point, I was listening to Bucky Brooks and Lance Airline swirling. Lance did a 10 year study. Only six quarterbacks have gone in the second round over the last 10 years. Because if. Because these second round quarterbacks, that should be second round, they all get bumped up to the first round because everybody's scared to death. So you're. They're either going in the first or the third. Like the second thing doesn't rarely happen, so they get bumped up. And that's why these quarterbacks go over two and a half in the first.

[AJ Hawk]

Which is why this quarterback class kind of reminds you more so of like the Kenny Pickett draft versus the other. Because the Kenny pick draft was Kenny.

[Pat McAfee]

Kenny Pickett's a Super bowl champion.

[AJ Hawk]

Kenny Pickett's great and he's got good moxie. And he changed college football forever.

[Peter Schrager]

Bingo.

[AJ Hawk]

Try and fake slide. Guess what happens? 15 yards. But if. If, you know, Kenny went 21 and then all those other guys went after. I think that was the party draft.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Malik Willis.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Malik Willis. And leading to that, do you remember the conversation leading up during that week was Will Leviss is going 4 overall? Well, Levis is the guy. He's gonna go. And he ended up dropping to the.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Malik, though, gave a jacket to somebody at combo bingo. And he was gonna be the guy. The Lions are supposed to take him at 2.

[Tom Coughlin]

I remember.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

So I don't want to hear Tyler Schuck's name this week is kind of my point. I've seen clips of him spinning into the dirt.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. There was one throw from the combine that nobody talks about. You know, everybody talks about Will Howard's day. Nobody's talking about the combine. Sidestep, sidearm. Missed my 10 yards. Look cool, though.

[Ty Schmidt]

It did throw.

[Pat McAfee]

That happens. We'll see what comes to be real in what is fake on Thursday night. Speaking of real, let's talk about the realist, ladies and gentlemen. Joining us now is the most famous person that I've ever encountered, potentially the most famous person on earth right now. I think he is. He walks into any room in any country on planet, and let's just say another planet, too. Everybody would say, what the hell is that? And then somebody would say, you know what that is? And they'd say, that's yes. Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the board at tko, obviously. Massively successful actor, Mount Rushmore, professional wrestler, friend of the program. Ladies and gentlemen, Dwayne the Rock Johnson. You look jacked. You look jacked, Rock. How you doing, brother? Wow.

[Tom Coughlin]

You Papa Tuohy using handsome son of a bitch. Listen, you look at J. How are you feeling after last night?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I went to a medical facility in Las Vegas. Thank you for asking. Did not expect Gunther to try to pop my head off of my body. But he attacks Michael Cole. Obviously, you and I both. You attack one of my boys. I have to do something. I didn't know we were getting into a fight. I turn around. Massive mistake. I get it. And then he snatched me up and I won. Night. Night. He sent me to dreamland last night, right there in Las Vegas. And I know you've probably had to experience this a few times. The boys jumped the barricade to try to get in there. Just quick. You're the director of the board here. What's all your security doing attacking my guys and not getting Gunther off my neck? Rock, what the hell's going on?

[Tom Coughlin]

Well, first of all, you know, when you guys hop the barrier like that, you know, I text you and I said, I love that shit, because if it's on for one, it's on for everybody. And that was phenomenal. So I love those boys jumping that barrier, and they had to get in it because your boys came with that heat, man. But by the way, it looks like he's got that thing on pretty snug around your head. You're turning purple.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah, I was. And I obviously witnessed it back later in real time, because at this moment right here, the body's there, but I'm not sure, you know? And whenever I come back to it, I have the hurricane shout out to the Hurricane, and Shane Helms is right above me. He's like, you're okay, bud. He's like, doesn't feel like it. All of a sudden, I'm looking up at the lights. I don't know what's going on here. And then I see my boys. See, there's a hurricane there. Thank you for helping me, Shane. The man Petey there, creator of the Canadian Destroyer, also helping me out in that entire thing. All the boys are there. And then Gunther just kind of walks away. You need to get this guy on a control rock. This is your company. Come on, you get this guy under control.

[Tom Coughlin]

Hey, listen, it may be my company, but at the end of the day, it's WWE and it's pro wrestling. So anything can happen. So you got to get your shit together or you're going to give me a call.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's talk about WrestleMania weekend. We got over a bunch of numbers about the success that it was. The attendance, obviously insane, the merch absolutely outrageous. The attendance at the WWE world. Everything up into the right for the WWE right now. And obviously the WWE is hotter than it's ever been. The world loves it. WrestleMania is its biggest weekend. Did you expect this going in and what are your thoughts on the weekend as a whole? Whenever you see stuff like this being, you know, kind of reported on two days after it ends?

[Tom Coughlin]

Well, you never like to look at the scoreboard, obviously, and you never think that, hey, the bell is rung and everything is over. So you put your best foot forward, you converge everything. It was a big build up to WrestleMania, obviously. You were a big part of that, and this show was a big part of that. I was very happy, man, to see these numbers. And it's really reflective, I think, of wwe, the growth of wwe. I think the excitement of wwe. My goal and my job and my role is to continue to, as I always like to say, just cast the net further. Cast the net out there. Let's transcend professional wrestling and still keep it. Professional wrestling and the anchor of it, but reach for more. I love that every year we keep breaking records, knock on wood. And we keep gaining new fans, which I thought was great. And I do want to point out, number one is I want to thank you and thank the boys here on the show for the incredible buildup. As you know, I'm always hitting you up on the side, man. Keep it going. Thank you, brother. Thank you for all the work. And also, you know, I want to point out that some of these matches, first of all, I was very happy with the show. A couple of things I thought could have been better, which we're going to talk about here in a second. But overall, man, everyone, the work rate of every single performer, women, men, men, was dynamic. I thought we made. I thought we discovered and created a lot of big stars with big potential. Number one, Jey. Uso. Yee. Very happy for my family there. Uso. Yes, man. That was a. That was a big, big night for him. Big night for our family. Yee. Yeah, for our family there with the Anawais, Maivias, Fitu, Sumanus, the Johnsons, Fefitas, Snukas. I mean, just all of us Polynesians. Very proud of him. I also want to point out Jacob Fatu and how you think about what I love About Jacob is, you know, the last event I was there, I went backstage, I gave him the biggest hug, man, and you know, he had tears in his eyes saying this saved my life. And so I think when you have that kind of performer who is pulling and digging in to something and delivering his soul and passion to something that has saved his life, man, you're flying at a different level. And fans could feel that. And fans love that. This is why the guy goes out there and he's supposed to be the quote, heel in the match and they're cheering the hell out of him. They're chanting his name. And that told me immediately, man, there is, that's a, there's a big future there with Jacob. And I can't wait. I thought the girls, all the women, by the way, they worked their ass off. They stole a huge portion of the show. And let's see, I think. And the first night's main event with Seth, Punk and Roman I thought was fantastic. We'll get into the second night main event too. I know you got some questions about that first night's main event.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I do. Second night main event, definitely. We got some questions too. I got some brand new shoes. I cannot wait. You know, the boys brought me some of these brand new shoes. So we will, we will certainly ask about the, the second night main event because obviously you are a massive piece of that entire thing. But let's talk about that first night main event. Paul Heyman is obviously somebody that you've known for your entire life. I would assume Roman same exact way. He's known him since he was a little child, literally. Paul Heyman, I asked him whenever he was wise man for Roman Reigns. I said, when did you know Roman was the guy? He goes, when Roman was six years old, he walked into the locker room and I knew and he gave like this full answer about like I knew this was going to be the next one. So he's been around your guys family literally forever. Then CM Punk's his best friend. He does the favor for CM Punk. Then he hi to CM Punk. Okay. Did not expect that. In my mind. I'm on the side. I'm like, yes, he's back with our tribal chief. Yes, the bloodline is back. And look at Roman, who was absolutely shredded. Shout out to the discipline that Roman Reigns had leading in to WrestleMania. Maybe the best he's looked ever legitimately. So then Paul Heyman obviously says, CM Punk, my right arm's going to your nuts. You're not going to win this one. Who do you think, I'm here with my tribal chief. And then, lo and behold, just a few minutes later. Hiya. And then he dangles that thing around to make sure he gets the whole entirety of it. And then, obviously, Paul Heyman hands the chair to Seth freaking Rollins. Whenever you see something like this unfold as another chair shot, as if it was the end of the shield yet again. And then last night, Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman take a victory lap, basically, and then they add Braun Breaker to the mix.

[Tom Coughlin]

Breaker, what are your thoughts?

[Pat McAfee]

What are your thoughts on how that goes down, how that ends, and how? Paul Heyman's a snake. He's a snake.

[Ty Schmidt]

He is.

[Tom Coughlin]

Ah, well, let me get to that part in a second. Let's talk about Bron Breaker. I love what he's been doing lately. I think that he's really shown out and shown up. I feel like, you know what happens. And I went through this too, as well. There's this maturation process. What happens when you come into the world of wwe, and if you got a little bit of heat to you in a good way, good heat, and you got a little bit of potential to you, the company will see that, and they'll start putting you in positions where we see how not only how you react to those positions, but more importantly, how the fans react to it. So Braun's been put in these positions, man, where he has really risen to the occasion. I'm not surprised. He looks like a million dollars. He's believable, he's legitimate, and he comes from a hell of a bloodline in the Steiner family, which, as we know. So I was happy to see that last night, happy to see the way it went. First night's main event, the finish of that main event, I loved it. I loved every second of it. Because, you know, I watched. I was at home on my couch with the fans, and as you know, I was texting you throughout the show and texting you throughout that main event. Keep it going. This is amazing. Stay in that zone. Stay in that zone. And. But when I was watching it the first night, that main event, I know the finishes of what's going to happen. I know all the finishes, but I don't. I want to not know how they get there. That's the thing. So, especially if I'm watching at home, so I'm watching it, and I watched how they got there, and I loved it. I thought it was dramatic. I thought it was exactly what it needs to be. But also, Paul's been. He was, in a way Raised in this business, grew up in this business, loved this business. I knew him back in my grandfather, my grandmother days, like way back in the day when he was just a kid. So the, you know, his passion for the business goes way, way back. But also his intellect goes way back and he understands. He's a big thinker, he's a long game thinker. I have a cool fact about the final boss and Paul Heyman, which I want to share in a second after I talk about him. But I loved how it all went down and I loved that ultimately it came down to Seth and Paul and what that's going to look like. And now we'll see how it all unfolds. We have the rest of the spring, we have the rest of the summer. But I loved every moment of that, you know, and look, I. I thought shout out to Roman. He came in incredible shape. I think every year he is dialing it in more and more. I think this idea of people calling him a part timer really fuels the fire in him. To show you, man, I'm a lot of things and you want to call me part timer, but the company is still on my back. And now watch what I do. And he comes in incredible shape. I thought Seth has always, always delivers. He's my, he's our Superman. I love that guy. Connected with him after the show. He' phenomenal. You could count on him around every corner. What I love about Seth is you can continue to see him grow and you can continue to see. It's like, you know, when I told Cody a month and a half ago, or maybe longer, hey, I don't want your title. I want your soul. And then Seth followed it up, I think the following week says, I don't want your soul. I want that. You know? And he, as simple as he made it, he still made it powerful. And then here we are. So I love what those guys did last night. Loved it. Okay, Sorry. Saturday night, I loved it.

[Pat McAfee]

Now let's get to your soul talk. Okay, let's get to the soul talk. Because what we saw at elimination chamber when, you know, you ordered the to John Cena and we see John Cena's face go from, oh, you can't see me hustle, loyalty, respect, to the last time is now. And then he shakes Cody's hand and then he kicks him right in the dong. Okay? And then obviously, all roads lead to the main event of WrestleMania. WrestleMania, Sunday night two in Las Vegas. Here we go. What were your thoughts whenever you're watching that? Obviously you're Pulling for John Cena. Who's your guy? Are you texting him before the match? Are you giving him heads up? Was there a thought of you coming and maybe having to involve yourself a little bit just in case Cena wasn't able to get the job done? Because the American nightmare, Cody Rhodes in the middle of his prime right now, in the middle of his run. What were your kind of thoughts going into the night and what was your expectation of John Cena going against a very, very, very great champion in Cody Rhodes?

[Tom Coughlin]

Very great champion in Cody Rhodes. Now keep in mind for us here and all the fans speaking as dj, as Rock director of the board and not final boss, I got to tell you that let's start with the ending and let's start with John becoming the 17 time heavyweight champion and becoming legitimizing himself as being without question the goat, period. He's on Mount Rushmore now. Gotta kick a guy off to put him on. I think now Dusty goes in the back. He was always on my Mount Rushmore. He goes on the back there with me. I'll be raising my eyebrows back there in the back of Mount Rushmore. But you know, I think that, you know the way John, at the end of the night, John raising that title, that was the bottom line, that was the North Star and I loved it and I love that moment. I think he's going to go on to have this insane run as a heel. And what I love about this, what I love about John is, you know, I like to think that I keep not only my finger on the pulse of things. You and I have talked about this. Don't keep your finger on the pulse, but put your whole hand on the pulse of things. And that way things, meaning the fans and they' sentiment. And I love that the fans are so engaged, they're so connected to John's heel run. Now I see a few fans saying that, oh well, I really don't believe he's a bad guy. So he's playing a bad guy. But here's the thing, you don't have to believe that he's a bad guy. You know why? Because he's not a bad guy. He's a good guy. Good guy. I mean, I've known the guy for 20 years. We've gone up and down to hell and back. We talk all the time, text all the time. He's not a bad guy. He's telling the truth now. And you could feel that in his delivery man, because he's telling the truth. This is 25 years of Imagine going out every single night for 25 years, every night, regardless of where you're at, and know that you're going to get cheered and know you're going to get booed. And in some places it's even harder. You're going to get booed out of the building. That's a hard psychological place. I give John so much credit. When this heel turn. We talked about this heel turn a few months ago, and then he did it in Toronto Elimination Chamber, which we're going to get to in a second. I said, brother, I give you so much credit and I hope you are exhilarated right now because what you are attempting to do takes guts and you are putting it all on the line because there's no blueprint for a heel. John Cena. It's not like we could go back and look at the books and go, okay, when John turned heel back in 2015, it worked well, here's what happened well, here's how we're going to make it improve. We don't have that. So he was creating it as he went along. He was crossing T's and dotting I's as he moved forward. And I thought he was brilliant. And I can't wait to see this. He'll run for the rest of the year. Who knows what's going to happen? I love that there is a specific amount of dates that we have John Ford, and I love his connection to the audience. Again, he's not a bad guy. He's not trying to play bad. He's just talking the truth. And he said, hey, I'm fed up with this shit in terms of this really messed up relationship that we had. Okay, so with the fans. So I got a call about a month before Elimination Chamber, I get a call from Ari Emanuel, who we know owns tko, tko, owns wwe, has been my longtime business partner and one of my best friends for over 20 years. He said, we need help at Elimination Chamber. Ticket sales are a little slow. But beyond that, because what we are finding is with Elimination Chamber, it's become the pay per view that's been interesting. Fans have had fun, but it's also the conduit to WrestleMania. And how do we create a elimination chamber that people must tune in to see? How do we create that? And he goes, right now, we don't have that. And he said, will the final boss show up? I said, well, let me give it some thought and let me get back to you. So I gave it some thought. I got back to Ari. I got back to Triple H and Nick, we had a call. I said, I have an idea. What's most important to the final boss? The most important thing to the final boss isn't titles. It's not money, it's not fame. Been there, done that, and grateful for that. Final boss wants your soul. And what does that mean? What that means? That doesn't mean, hey, the final boss wants you to act like this, be like this, at his beck and call and treat you like crap and make you do all these things that are unbecoming or embarrassing. That's not what the final boss wants. That's not how the final boss flies. No, no, no, no. What that means is whatever you could think of in your head. So, Cody Rhodes, whatever dreams you have, whatever ambitions you have, even if they're dark, even if they're amazing and they're full of light, even if they' whatever those are, you tell the final boss he's going to make it all happen. You wave that magic wand, he'll make it all happen. So when it comes to giving me your soul, giving the final boss your soul, that is what you want, not what the final boss wants. And so what does the final boss get out of that? And get your soul for life. That's what the final boss gets out of that. So now we go into elimination chamber with this idea of, will Cody Rhodes sell his soul sold to the final boss? And my thought at that time, and you and I might have even, I know we talked about this, was it was a litmus test to find out, in my opinion, how will fans respond if Cody sold his soul to the final boss. Let's get a temperature check on this. Let's establish it, let's anchor it in. And you come to find out that there were a lot of fans who were saying, sell your soul. This is going to be crazy. Whatever it is, it's compelling, it's going to be great. Let's do it. Sell your soul. So I was an advocate of that, not turning Cody heels soon, but eventually down the line. I like the idea of that because Cody's a smart guy, he's intelligent guy, he's a ring general. And I think this idea of you give him a reason to turn way down the road, by the way, you give him a reason to turn. Not based on titles, not based on this, but it's his soul and what that means that affects generations. It's transcendent beyond pro wrestling. And fans were loving it. As we got closer to elimination chamber, we were kicking ideas around. Myself and triple H and that's the fun part, by the way. I've been kicking ideas around triple H for 20 years, dude. Just always having a great time with him and Nick and my team as well. And Triple H said, you know, what about this? What about John turning? I said, I love it, I love it. The next question is, you got to talk to John, see how he feels about it. And you know, in a moment where you have this shifting moment. And it happened to me when I was a pure baby face. I got booed out of the building around the world. And they took the title off me my rookie year and they sent me home in the summer of 97. And I didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew this is not going to work for me. I don't even know if I have a future in pro wrestling. I get a call from Vince and says, I'm going to bring you back as a heel and be part of the nation of domination. I said, that's great, I love it. But just give me two minutes on the microphone to speak from the heart. And he did that and things changed immediately that night. The same thing with John. John loved this ide idea of turning heel, but he's like, but you know what? There's something. There's an anchor here that I'm going to root it in, which is a real thing that I've been experiencing over the years past, 20, 25 years. So when the. So when we were moving forward with John and this idea of him crowning, getting crowned at wrestlemania, wrestlemania and becoming 17 and turning heel. I'm sorry. And then being a heel champion, I knew then the best thing for the final boss. We've established this idea of Cody's soul. We can always come back to it. I did feel and I made the call. I don't want to be involved in that. Step back. Let the final boss step back, back into the shadows. Let all the spotlight go to Jon. Let it go to Cody. Let's not make it about Cody Soul eventually or John Soul. No, let's let them do what they do. And I called John after elimination chamber, spoke to him, called Cody and I said, I think the final boss's work is done. We've established it. We just pulled off the greatest angle in the history of professional wrestling other than Hulk Hogan turning heel back in the 90s. I said, this is amazing. We have six weeks now. Let's build. You guys go and crush it and I'll be right there with you. And I'm always Here if you need me. But I think it's best for the final boss not to be in involved in that finish. You guys go say it's six weeks to plan for that. So I love the finish, finish of the match. I would have finessed things a little differently on how they got there, but that's just me creatively. There are a lot of minds in the room. That's my thought. But still, ultimately the bottom line was I love John getting 17 and I never had a concern about John pulling this off. My thoughts are always to Cody because of what we've established with him and his story and the kind of babyface that he is. So if done right and I think if finesse right and if nuanced right down the road, that guy not only has an incredible babyface run again as champion, but also just an unheard of run as a heel.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tom Coughlin]

Down the road, let's talk about you.

[Pat McAfee]

Saying the final boss needs to step away to, you know, kind of let the spotlight be where it should be with John and Cody, who, you know, potentially. You talk about John being the Goat, there's a chance. Cody, when it's all said and done, is also trying to vie for a spot on that Mount Rushmore rock with his dad on the backside. With you raising your eyebrow, a lot of people just assumed you were going to show up. Just assumed you were going to show up. So when Travis Scott comes out, they think there's a chance of maybe, you know, there's going to be a reunion from the elimination. What are your thoughts on Travis Scott getting involved and you saying I need to stay out of that. Was there ever a moment where anybody was trying to tell you differently, like, no, no, no. Final boss, anytime you're around is a good thing, not a bad thing? No.

[Tom Coughlin]

Well, they don't have to say anything like that to me. And they know when I come to them, and them meaning Triple H and Nick and Ari as well, and I lay this out and I say, hey, here's how I really feel that you go, we can insert final boss in the end of this finish, but then where do we go? There's other commitments that I have and I want to also be careful that we're not overstepping and, and leading over our skis too much here. Can get involved in the finish. And I said, but why get involved in that finish when the spotlight should just be on in my opinion, John, 17 heel champion. What does 2025 look like if this man is saying he's going to ruin Professional wrestling. That, to me, is the anchoring storyline. It's not soul right now. Right now it's not. But by the way, we'll go back to it.

[Pat McAfee]

Still got it.

[Tom Coughlin]

Look, I can't take the text that I got and from the guys that I got. Who are these top guys who are saying one in particular who I love is my guy. I call him the Superman of the company. He's like, listen, my soul's for sale when it's time. I said, I love it. Let's do it. So, look, I love Travis Scott involved, and I'll tell you why. Because he loves wrestling. He's a huge fan, and he respects it. He's working his ass off. I know that he has plans to train with Booker T. I don't know if it's happening already. It might be not quite too sure there on his schedule, but he loves, loves the business now. I was. I was just as surprised to see Travis Scott as well. And I knew the moment I saw Travis, well, that immediately amplifies. Well, here comes the final boss. And so again, yes, I love. I love. They were waiting.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think I texted you. I think I texted you as it was happening. You did.

[Tom Coughlin]

You were like, are you coming out? And I was like, no, dude, I would tell you of them coming out. I'm not favoring you. But again, again, I. I love. At the end of the day, North Star John CENA heel champion 17 Thug says he's going to ruin wrestling. Now. We tune every week in, in every. In every week to see how it happens, how that goes down. Some parts of it, I would have just adjust.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tom Coughlin]

A little bit more. I would have finessed it a little bit more.

[Pat McAfee]

But it was a great WrestleMania. I think you all should be incredibly proud. Would have been awesome for or.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Just. I mean, the place went absolutely ape. But the next time it does, it will go crazy. We have some other questions about the things you're talking about, other commitments. Go ahead. Ty Schmidt.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Rock. Speaking of those, I read something recently that you said, like, this is the most creative, inspiring time or creatively inspiring time of your career. I'm so jacked up for this Marty Scorsese movie with you, Leo, Emily Blunt. Just curious, when. When do you start filming that? Is that still in pre production? What has that process been like working with all those people? And how much did you film in the Smashing Machine? I know that comes out later this year. How much did that kind of help you with this? Because I know that's kind of a step up in terms of, like, dramatic work compared to some of the other, you know, action blockbustery stuff that you've been doing as of late.

[Tom Coughlin]

Yeah, you know, I been wanting some time for some time now, since about 2019, I've been listening, trying to listen to this voice, like, in my gut. Behind your rib cage. We all have that voice where it's just gnawing at us behind our rib cage. It's up to us whether we rip our rib cage open and listen to it or if we keep that voice in there, we don't listen to it. So I had been wanting for years now to chase the challenge and be inspired by the challenge. I love making the bigger blockbuster movies. They're a lot of fun, they're hard as shit to make, and a lot of people enjoy them. Hopefully knock on wood around the world. But I wanted more, and I wanted a challenge, and I just wanted the opportunity to disappear into something and disappear into a partner role that would really challenge me in ways that I've never been challenged before. And on top of that, I know it sounds crazy, but to be nervous, man, and in a way, like, you're. You're. You're. You're buzzy, like, how am I going to do this? I don't know how to do this. And that happened on the Smashing Machine with Benny Safdie and a 24 and, of course, Emily Blunt. And. And then that led to us having a conversation, myself and Emily, about what's next. And, you know, I was telling her, I said, you know, what's interesting about Hawaii is in Hawaii. What I love about growing up in Hawaii is you go to Hawaii, and I'm sure a lot of us have been to Hawaii. You go to Hawaii. It's beautiful. It is the beautiful, most beautiful place on the planet. Pat, you were there. I saw you send me pictures when you were there. Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Got engaged there. Shout out to Hawaii. Shout out to all those everywhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Tom Coughlin]

You can feel, man.

[Pat McAfee]

And for the root, I believe that's a drink. Yeah, there's a lot. You. Yeah.

[Tom Coughlin]

Into the natural.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. Yep, yep, yep. All of it. Yep. All right. Yep. I'm. I'm down with all the used stuff. Yeah, all of it. Tattoo. I don't have enough time to get the tats or the toughness, but I'm down with Hawaii. Love the place. Favorite place on earth.

[Tom Coughlin]

It is absolutely beautiful, and you feel that mana. And I was telling Emily, you know, what happens is when you go. You go to Hawaii and you Enjoy the beaches, the sun, the tourism, the events, the entertainment. You go two miles in a different direction or three miles in a different direction. It's a different world. And you better be careful where you go. You better be careful about what you say and how you say it. And I mean, the underground, the organized crime there, I mean, again, I grew up as a kid there. So you grow up as a kid, you always know. So we were talking about that, and then about a week later, we were on a plane going to Japan to finish the master machine. And Emily had said to me, hey, you ever a guy named Wilford? And she didn't know his last name quite well. And I said, wilford, I'm not quite too sure. She goes, nappy. I went, nappy Palava. Yes. So Nappy Palava, just so you guys know, is he's considered the Godfather of Hawaii. And he was the godfather who ran all of the islands. But he had to do it in a way. He had to do what he had to do, and he had to do it in a way that was very ruthless, that was very strategic, that was still very smart. But also, keep in mind, he had. We had the Japanese Yakuza there, the Chinese triads, the Korean gangs, outside influence, American gangsters coming in from Vegas trying to take over Hawaii. Hawaii was the hotbed. And not only that, but then you had American corporations coming in at that time, in the 50s, wanting to just take over Hawaii. So. So back when Hawaii was stolen in the late 1800s, what this man did, he was a reflection of how people, Hawaiians, the Polynesians felt at that time. So in the 50s and in the 60s, when everyone was coming in and just taking Hawaii and cutting it up, this gang, this gang, this gang, corporate America, he said, this ends and it all ends now. And he took it back, and he became the Godfather of Hawaii. Incredibly influential. And this story has just. It's almost like where the universe and kismet comes in and there's a reason why it hasn't been told all these years. And we put this up on its feet called Scorsese. And we had a meeting with him and we pitched him, and he loved it and blown away that the story's never been told. And also, as Scorsese said, he says, you know, when I was a kid, when Hawaii became a state In, I think, 1959 or 58, he said, I always wondered back then, wait a second, what happened to the Hawaiians? Where are they at? And so this idea of telling the story to Scorsese no one does a gangster movie better than Martin Scorsese. He's. He's the goat. He is the Mount Rushmore, right? He's on Mount Rushmore up there with the directors. No one does it better than him. But what has really, I think, energized him with this project is this idea that a man stands up, yes. A gangster, yes. The Godfather, yes. Ruthless. But also he stands up to reclaim what was originally stolen. And that was culture and that was land. And how about this? I have spent. Now, I've had the privilege of spending days with Nappy Palava, Uncle Nappy, and his wife Marlise, Auntie Marliz in Hawaii. And it has been incredible. He's almost 90. He is sharp as a whip, and it's been an incredible process. So when we talk about creatively, for me, just as incredible, incredible process to get to know this man and spend time with him. Nick Bilton is a co. I'm also going to write a book based on this. Well, my. My co writing author is going to do most of the writing. I'll just say, yes.

[Pat McAfee]

You'Ll be there, though.

[Tom Coughlin]

You'll be there. This process, brother, has been amazing. Thank you for asking about that. And I cannot wait because again, it's just this opportunity to tell a story that's never been done. And as I've been. And as I've been talking to Nappy and then telling him, uncle, uncle, first of all, he whispered something the other day. And when he talks, first of all, you go into a restaurant, as you gave me the beautiful entrance. Thank you, I appreciate that. We went into a restaurant, Mama's Fish House over there in Maui. You walk in and I walk in. Sure, I might turn a head or two, but I'm walking with Napi Palava. And this is the godfather of Hawaii. And when I introduce everybody to him, the waitstaff and everybody, it's really beautiful as they sail at us, they say, this is my Uncle Nappy. They take their time and they say, it is an honor to meet you and to have you here. And after all these years and him doing everything that he's done, when he speaks, you really listen, because he'll draw you in. And he knows. He'll talk softly, quietly. And he pulled me in and he goes, look, I love you. He said, I love you with all my heart. I trust no one else but you with this. And I said, uncle, I said, do you have any regrets? He said, no, no, no, no, no, no. He goes, I'll tell you why. Because in Life. There's right and there's wrong. And if you're going to live right, then you go for it and you live right. He goes, right on. You go, live right. Live right, he said. But if you're going to live wrong, you can't ever not accept everything else that comes with it. I have no regrets. Beautiful. So that's going to be the Martin Scorsese project, man, with Emily and DiCaprio and Nick Bilton writing. I can't wait. Next year. We're going to start shooting next year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

So hold on. Yeah. The reason why he asked is because all of us who are fans of yours, and I think at this point, we'd be able to say friends of yours, which is an honor just in of itself to see you get a chance now to do, like, a. I don't want to say, like, award bait, but, like, oh, yeah, you're teaming up with Scorsese to tell a Godfather story that's never been told, let alone, like, the historical relevance that Hawaii has. Not just the United States of America, but to the world. Obviously, Pearl harbor happens, but then, like, everything that takes place, just from my wife and I visiting her over there and learning about those islands and how important they are, like, almost a. Like a linchpin to the entire world. I cannot wait to watch you do your thing in there. I cannot wait to watch you win some awards. I can't wait to watch you get the respect that you've earned in this entire thing because you're a commitment not only to your people, but to your craft. And we can't wait to see you come back to the wwe. And I personally would like to say thank you for Papatouille, brother. Yeah. I mean, I'm on a full. It's my first time in my life. I'm a white trash kid from Pittsburgh. Okay. So having a full face plan and lotion and moisturizer, never in a million years. Never in a million years would I do that. So then I see you on your Instagram, be like, hey, I created this thing Papatouille, and you basically said to me through your phone, you're allowed to take care of your skin. I was like, thank you. You got. Thank you. So everything. Every morning, I'm with you and Papa Tui. I appreciate the hell out of you for everything. You're the man. We appreciate you. Us.

[Tom Coughlin]

Hey, listen, let me just say this. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it, and I appreciate the Papatouille shout out there. I do. You know, the thing About I'll probably get in trouble with the Papatouille board, but it's okay because I own the company. But we have a little announcement coming up with Pat McAfee, DJ and Papatouille.

[Pat McAfee]

Coming up.

[Tom Coughlin]

Coming up. It's coming up. And I will tell you. And I'll tell you this, I'll tell you for everybody listening, why this is just so. It's just incredibly authentic. First of all, it's our relationship and our friendship and our brotherhood. I love coming on the show, love hanging out with the boys. We got to get together again. We'll go for another steak dinner next time. We're all in the same town again.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. On your channel.

[Tom Coughlin]

So for everybody watching and listening right now, Pat comes in my trade. It was for the show. I can't remember what show it was. It was in LA at the Intuit. Though unprompted, he goes, hey, by the way, before I leave, I really love Papa Tui, man. I've been using it. And I said, dude, I don't want to sound weird, but your skin looks great. And I said, I didn't want to say it. He goes, no, no, I appreciate it. And he goes, I just want to say thanks, man. You made a great product. And you leave and you know this to be true. I looked at Maya, my cmo and I was like, what he just said that was. Was unprompted. There's something there. And then you and I talked anyway, so I appreciate the love. Thank you, man. Papa 2 is doing great. And we just expanded our partnership into Walmart and Target. So anyway, dudes, thank. Thank you for having me on. And to the boys, thank you guys for having me on. I appreciate it. It's always the best. We love you. Love you. We got some teramana to drink too.

[AJ Hawk]

Too early.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, hold on, let's talk about this. Just, just. I mean, we're blowing through the heart out here and we can move it back because you're the rock. Teramana. Unbelievable Y moana. I mean, we didn't even get into live action. Moana 2 is unbelievable. This oo Godfather movie that you're also writing a book for is going to be awesome. Just tko. Board of director. Director of the board. I mean, hey, just know that as former athletes that we are watching you as former athlete kind of navigate this. This world. You're an incredible inspiration to us. You're an eyebrow raisin trail blazing buu money making dog that we are all watching. We appreciate the hell out of you. Us.

[Tom Coughlin]

Hey, I Appreciate you. Love you so thank you and I'll see you soon.

[Pat McAfee]

Hit you.

[Tom Coughlin]

Hit you some.

[Pat McAfee]

Still got it. All right. All right. Thank you ladies and gentlemen.

[Tom Coughlin]

We appreciate you.

[Pat McAfee]

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[Tom Coughlin]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Tom Coughlin]

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Wait, did I say job title yet?

[Tom Coughlin]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Peter Schrager]

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[Tom Coughlin]

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[Pat McAfee]

Sports are happening all around us and obviously we're incredibly lucky to be a part of damn near all of it. It is a dream come true to get to do this for a living. It's also a dream come true to get to work with the wwe. Now, what happened last night was a nightmare as Michael Cole, my broadcast colleague, my great friend and obviously the greatest of all time whenever it comes to WWE commentary, was viciously attacked by the former World Heavyweight Champion Gunther because Gunther tapped out and Gunther didn't like the way we talked about it. So not only did he try to attack Michael Cole, which he would inevitably put a chokehold on Michael Cole's damn near 60 years old journalist at this point, then I You know, just break it up. Hey, I said you need to get off my guy here. Then obviously, Adam Pearce comes sprinting in. We think we have his thing under control. All right. Hey, listen, you take a hike. Pa. This thing, this is over here. You came out of nowhere. We have no idea where you came from. You're acting like an asshole. I'm gonna go do my job. And he attacks me like a jungle cat. He puts a bow constrictor around my neck, and then he puts me to sleep. La La Land is where I head to in Las Vegas last night as the boys jumped over to barricade to try to get my back. First of all, boys, I appreciate you.

[AJ Hawk]

Do it every day of the week.

[Pat McAfee]

I appreciate you doing Gunther. You. I. Is there legal action? I. I honestly thought. I honestly don't know how or what we got. That's not my style at all. Okay. We'd rather handle business in other ways. I have no idea what's next. But I know don't put your hands on Michael Cole. And if you do, there's a chance I'm gonna get involved. And even if you chuck me out, I'm still gonna stand right back up and say, hey, fuck you. Okay? Don't be doing that to my friend now. You attacked me from behind. I found that very clever. There was a moment where we're both staring at each other. It could have been a little bit of a time. But it said, you wait for me to turn back around, go back, do my job job. Keep show going so you can continue to get paid.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

So we can all keep lights on here. It's raw. After Mania. This is a big one. Instead, I get attacked. The boys come out. Whatever the case, nonetheless was taken to a medical facility last night. They checked my neck. Obviously. Everything's good. A little, as you can hear, a little rough. Been talking all weekend.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly that too.

[Pat McAfee]

It's very dry out there. So I didn't really know what all the damage was directly from Gunther other than the fact that he restricted all the oxygen to my brain.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I was no longer there, so, you know, God. I didn't tap out last night, but I definitely got passed out last night. And we move forward. That's why this Tuesday is glorious. NFL draft is on Thursday night. And I hope Adam Pierce gets it all sorted over there at Monday night talks tables here at Boston. Connor Natai Schmidt, one half of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone is here. A nine year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. I appreciate you trying to get in that security was stiff. That security was stiff. They were worried about you guys. They weren't really worried about the former world champion choking me out.

[Darius Butler]

They had the. They had the wrong f. Focus for sure. But like you said, most importantly, you didn't tap out. You didn't embarrass the program. We jumped in. We didn't embarrass the program. We tried to kind of maybe dial up a little blitz on the run.

[Ty Schmidt]

We did.

[Darius Butler]

But them boys might tapped in.

[Tom Coughlin]

They might.

[Darius Butler]

They might be tapped in. In the trenches. Cuz they was ready and we were missing out. Linebacker, we needed. We need it. We need it. Need it. Forehead traps. We need the shoulders.

[Pat McAfee]

But saw a lot of people asking that.

[Darius Butler]

It's on site.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now. It is. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is Guy who wasn't there last night.

[Ty Schmidt]

Could he used him?

[AJ Hawk]

Sad, I'd say could have used him.

[Pat McAfee]

Wouldn't have been nice to see him just use his barbarian like strength too, to jump up over that. Oh, man, that. Him just doing one of these up over that thing and then some security guy coming in. I got. Not that one. You know, trying to figure out who's aj. And then AJ literally cobra striking one of these guys. Maybe I don't pass out last night.

[Ty Schmidt]

Probably not.

[Pat McAfee]

But instead, he wasn't there.

[Peter Schrager]

Thanks a lot, aj.

[Pat McAfee]

He was hanging with his family. Okay. College football national champion, super bowl champion, Ryder cup winner. Absent last night as I get choked out in Las Vegas. Aj. Hawk.

[Adam Pearce]

Hey, you're right. I was. I was actually on a plane watching my iPad on Netflix and I saw this happen. I was extremely jealous that I was not there and envious of the boys that they got.

[Pat McAfee]

I was.

[Adam Pearce]

I was very impressed how quickly they jumped over that wall because that would.

[Tom Coughlin]

Have been fun, man.

[Adam Pearce]

That would take a good time.

[Pat McAfee]

I was very envious that there was a situation where I could have hit people.

[Darius Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what that sounded like right there. Sounds like rules weren't really implied flagged at that moment. Just allowed to just start hitting people. Very envious of the boys in that situation. Not envious of me, obviously. I was attacked from behind. Aj, you don't like. You were.

[Adam Pearce]

That was nasty. And I don't think. I mean, credit to you for not even thinking of tapping, but I don't really think Gunther would have, you know, he probably would not have honored that tap and let go anyways.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, maybe, though. Maybe he just wanted to see me tap for my life. Just a heads up. You're gonna have kill me.

[Peter Schrager]

He's not a tax.

[AJ Hawk]

You're limited.

[Darius Butler]

Take it off him. Take the heat off him for tapping a couple nights before.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he was trying to. Yeah, right, Gunther. Yeah, right, buddy. And you know, I thought, granted, me and Cole, we see the world differently than Gunther does. Okay? We see wrestling different than Gunther does, you know, but we have had nothing but respect for Gunther, I think, throughout this entire thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Put him over all the time, we do.

[Pat McAfee]

Pull him over all the time, we do. We put him over all the time. And he loses to our guy, Jey uso, who we have, you know. Yeah, Yeet. Situations with Big Night ad. And he just. Jey uso came through to Big night Out. You're talking about all these things. So Gunther just being like, yeah, I don't like the way you got. With his accent. I don't like the way you guys. Shut up, dude.

[Ty Schmidt]

Shut up.

[AJ Hawk]

Go home.

[Pat McAfee]

This is a professional sports. You're a world champion, brother. You're not gonna love everything it's said about you. Think I enjoy everything that said about me? You see what LeBron did with Stephen A. That's how you handle it. You walk up and you say, I don't like what you do. You don't smack a 60 year old man and grab then snatch him up. And that ain't how you do. There's no couth in that, aj. So while you're sitting on that plane, you should have seen what was going through my head. The entire place was screaming, you tapped out. You tapped out. You tapped. As he's talking to Cole. And in my head I'm like, oh, this is going to amplify the entire situation for sure. Door. They're kind of publicly embarrassing him again. Then obviously Cole was like, hey, listen, I just. Can we shake hands here? You know, kind of get all this? So I'm not the one who tapped out. Cole did throw a little bit of a.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Pat McAfee]

He couldn't help himself there. And then Gunther does his thing and then there's so many wires back there. I mean, I couldn't keep my feet. So they strong, you know? And then, I mean, Cole almost lost his. Yeah, Cole's down and out there too, for a little bit. Thank you. Yeah, I've been hanging out with Wade Barrett, so I can. You know, because with the placement of where Cole's head was, it's like whenever there's a hostage.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You don't know where the target is. So he had Cole up there pretty tight. So I tried to take the elbow out the Back door smart. Yeah. And it worked, clearly. Caught him. Then I hit him with a little left. But everybody's got their eyes on the boys, obviously. Fans jumping in. They're probably gonna be.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

A little bit more. Nobody's trying to get Gunther off my damn neck. I mean, Adam Pierce is like, get on back and then get him off.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

How about that, Pierce? I mean.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, like. Like you said. You know, I wasn't thinking it in the moment. Maybe that is why, you know, they kind of just converged on us because they thought. I mean, I did have my sweet WrestleMania jacket on, so may. Maybe they thought that it was.

[Pat McAfee]

I think it's quite a flash.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know, I know. So maybe they did think it was a couple fans. But again, you know, I mean, who's. Who's making money for the company? Why the hell are they dealing with us over there? Let's go, you know, let's go get the guy. The guy who's. Who's calling the show every single Monday night.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, and I will say, you know, WrestleMania weekend was fantastic. We're not going to let this Austrian. Okay. Steal it or make anything negative about what the weekend was. Sure. And also, we have yet to say it. The Rock didn't even bring it up. Congrats to Dominic Mysterio.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Congrats, Tom.

[AJ Hawk]

What a win.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a champion.

[Darius Butler]

Truly, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

A champion. Twice guys over. He's defended it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, he is now certified. He's a certified champion in WWE. And we debuted same weekend I was at NXT. He was handed WrestleMania, obviously. So, I mean, that's kind of how it goes. And the way he's acted since then and how disrespectful he's been to. His hall of Fame father is obviously something we've all watched, but he's undeniable at this point. The guy's Intercontinental Championship Champion. And I'll tell you what, Las Vegas, just like us, got to the point where they're like, you know what, man? Congrats.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Piece of.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's kind of what the Shit's off.

[Pat McAfee]

That's kind of what they did. So congrats to Dom. What a win. That fatal four way match was insane.

[Darius Butler]

That was the exact ride I was taking on when he won it. I still wasn't necessarily a Dom guy. A lot of us was booing. Connor was taking his victory lap for sure. When he ran out, kind of got halfway up the ramp and then ran back in the ramp to get his moment, I was like, all right. I'm a dime guy.

[Pat McAfee]

He.

[Darius Butler]

He is, absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

When he came back in, he came back.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. I got to take this moment.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom.

[Darius Butler]

Got back on the turn point.

[Adam Pearce]

That was awesome.

[Peter Schrager]

He's a piece of, but he's our piece of.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. Well, he's yours. He's not necessarily mine, but I, I am certainly proud of him. But yeah, him just saying. You know what? Yeah, I'm gonna take tractor another round. Cuz they start cheering for him. I think that had to be so uncomfortable. He's standing up there, he's holding the title and I see he thinks everybody's going to boo him. Everybody starts cheering for him, he's like, hold the phone, hold the vote. I didn't know this how this is going to be. That's a 50 yard run back in. Stop the show. Okay. We're not going to continue the show any longer. Runs all the way back in there, goes up there and they show him love. And the man you see down on the side there, Bron Breaker, he speared Carlito from one commentary desk to the other. Absolutely absurd in front of us. Bron Breaker loses his touch title on Sunday. Then on Monday he joined Seth freakin Rollins and Paul Hammond. So the WWE is on fire right now. Liv and Raquel with the Judgment Day once again tag team champs. They weren't tag team champs one day. Now they're four time tag team champs. Lyra Valkyria, still the intercontinental champion. You talk about so many different title changes, so many different story changes, so many different narratives changed. It was a great WrestleMania weekend, AJ. And you got a chance to experience all of it, or some of it. And when I need you, you weren't there. So.

[Adam Pearce]

Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, believe me, I. If I had any kind of inkling that Gunther was gonna do that, I would have. I would have stuck around, no question.

[Pat McAfee]

Me too. I would have. I would have walked around like this.

[Adam Pearce]

You tucked your chin. You tucked your shit all night.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It's hard to get a throat when you walk like this. Yeah. Maybe a dog collar.

[AJ Hawk]

Dog collar with spikes.

[Pat McAfee]

I asked the medical professionals if I'm gonna need to wear a neck brace today.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Tom Coughlin]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And they said, sir, there's nothing really wrong with your like anything like that. You just. He just took oxygen away from your brain. But I wasn't there. Had to be something. I mean, don't you think I should protect my neck? You don't need that, sir. We'll see.

[Darius Butler]

You thought about going forward? Like you're gonna have like security just like Debone, maybe just.

[Pat McAfee]

Sure, yeah, like bone debone puked all over you.

[AJ Hawk]

Someone joining us now?

[Pat McAfee]

We'll move away from what happened last night. It was a great mania weekend. Thank you to everybody who participated. Thank you, the superstars. Thank you, the crew. Thank you to everybody. Buck Gunther.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to the Fountain Blue in Las Vegas. Shout out.

[AJ Hawk]

Incredible.

[Adam Pearce]

Very nice.

[Pat McAfee]

So nice. That's the nice hotel I've ever stayed.

[AJ Hawk]

In until this week, by far.

[Pat McAfee]

Now we're going to Green Bay. So we will go from Fontainebleau in Las Vegas that just opened a year ago to Green Bay, Wisconsin hotels, and we cannot wait to get up there. Ain't that right, Ty?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, without a doubt. I mean, listen, Fountain Blue was great. It was. It's no Motel 8 with, you know, an indoor pool and probably a pretty sweet sauna.

[Pat McAfee]

Is there WI Fi? I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I would imagine so. I would imagine they have blazing fast WI Fi, their continental breakfast, you name it.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's going to be joining us for a draft spectacular. And I have no idea how this happened in the mix of a lot of media news.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And like a massive free agent moving from NFL Network and FOX to espn, somehow Schrager did not have a home for the first night of the draft. And it's like, come on home, brother.

[Ty Schmidt]

Please.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Emmy Award winner, ESPN pundit insider and analyst Peter Schrager.

[Connor]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go. Let's go, Shrek. Let's go, brother.

[Connor]

With open arms. You know, the Motel 8's great. What I always tell, like a good hotel situation when you can park and then enter from the outside into your room, you know you're in a good spot. And I feel like that's what we're looking for at Green Bay. Little parking lot. Put the key in from the outside, walk right in. I can't wait.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go. That's a motel, brother, not a hotel and motel. Hotel, Holiday Inn. I think that's everybody. Okay, happy to hear that. A little culture over there, Shriggs. I like to know that that's possible. Here we are two days out from the first round of the NFL draft. This is normally whenever you are pretty dialed in. You were saying some things this morning on get up about how there seems to be a lot of movement potentially for 2, 3 and 4, but not for quarterbacks, maybe. What are you expecting here at the top of this draft? Is everything kind of settled in in your eyes, or is there still Massive question marks out there. Shregs.

[Connor]

Not at all. I think everyone thinks it's going to be chalk and it's going to go Cam Ward number one to the Titans. And I believe that will happen. I've been told that teams have called the Titans and they have not entertained any offers and they're set. And Cam Ward is expected to be the number one pick. Barring something crazy happening over the next 48 hours, two is where it gets interesting. The same teams that have been calling the Titans are calling the Browns. And the Browns, unlike the Titans, are listening and their phone lines are open. And the Giants, some calls have been made to the same thing there. So every year you have GMs making phone calls just trying to get a feel for it. But I could say with great certainty that both The Browns at 2 and the Giants at 3 phone lines are open and they're not telling teams no, no, no, no, no, we're set. Travis Hunter's our guy or Abdul Carter's our guy. Both those teams, the door is still open and they are listening to calls. Whether or not that's where they go, it's a different story, but at least leads to some intrigue and it might just not be chalk at the top of the draft.

[Pat McAfee]

Normally the calls up to the top end of the draft are for the quarterback position, but it sounds like that might not be the case this year. Tone has a question for you. Shregs.

[Peter Schrager]

Yeah, Shregs, let's talk about Chador. Who is the most interesting man in the draft on depending on where he goes. I can't remember the word you use this morning, but it was awesome. Somewhere around the media in mean mode, one of those things. But you said Shedeur anywhere from potentially 232 into the second round. ESPN Bed has him as a favorite to go to the Browns at plus 250. I know FanDuel has him the favorite to go Steelers. So no one knows where Shador is going. If he does get by three, if he does get by nine at the Saints, do you think he gets by The Steelers at 20?

[Connor]

Yeah. So three is where it all starts. And that's the word I use was delta meaning the difference of change. And it can go anywhere from three to honestly the second round. And why do I say three? Because the Giants have not closed the door on taking Shador Sanders. I know the Giants do have a fondness for Shador Sanders and if you're going to take them at 15 or 18 or 19, if this is the quarterback of your future There is a feeling of just take them at 3. Just take them where you have them. Don't get cute. Take them when you have them. If you like them, that's your guy. They obviously have been to his Pro Day. 13 different people from the organization came. They have been to multiple Colorado, Buffalo games. They had been to practices, and not only did they have them in for a visit, they then took them out to dinner in New Jersey. And then last week, to just make sure one more time, they went out to Boulder again. The issue with this is that they've done the same exact work and put the same exact personnel behind Jackson Dart. They have sent everyone to the pro day at Jackson Dart. You know, there are so many connections between Ole Miss and the Giants right now. If I could just go through them quickly. Joe Judge is one of the lead assistant coaches with Ole Miss. He's been there for a couple of years. He's boots on the ground. A lot of the same people from the Giants front office worked with Joe Judge. So if there's any conversation on Jackson Dart, they can have it there. Freddie, Charlie Weiss's kid is calling the plays over there at Ole Miss. Well, Brian Dabel worked with Charlie Weiss and they have a long relationship there. If they have any conversations to have, they can do it there. You add in Eli having a connection to Ole Miss. You add in the fact that Joe, Joe, Joe Shane has a kid who goes to Ole Miss. Like, there is a ton of connections between Jackson Dart and the Giants. So I'm not just saying because a lot of people went to the workout to Shador, that that's their guy. It could be as easy as early as three or it could be one of these where Shador slips past the Saints at 9. And I'm saying 21 makes sense to the Steelers or 20 to make sense to the Steelers. Because I've. I've heard that he and Mike Tomlin had a great meeting and his conversation with Arthur Smith went great. But I'm not coming out right now and saying that's where it ends. He could slide past the Steelers and it can go on till. Till Friday night if that's the case.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so on that note, and I think Tomlin and Shador would be great together. I think from what we know about Shador, which is a lot because of all the behind the scenes stuff and documentary stuff, and we've seen him since high school, I think if he gets to a place that knows him, likes him and accepts him him, he's going to be a guy. But if he goes to a place that like isn't all in on Shador, it might be another one of those stories where it's like is this the right fit? Yada yada yada. Now on the quarterback first round quarterback discussion. DBut has a question for you, Shreya.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, and much like Kuiper, I'm. I'm very high on Shador as well. And you talked about him possibly been a play at three. I'm sure that'll impact his number. Number. Where are you at on the over under in the first round with the quarterbacks? I think it's at two and a half right now, the tone said and obviously if Chador goes earlier that'll open that up. Where you at with that number?

[Connor]

Yeah, look I think for sure Cam Ward goes one. I think if I'm looking at the way I think at the end of the first round and I'm talking from like 26 at the Rams to 32 at the Eagles. If you're the Browns, you're the Saints, you're the Steelers and you didn't take them in the first go around or you're in the Giants, those teams will be looking to trade back. Look at The Rams at 26 like that is classic. Less need here. Someone come back, give us another extra pick, we'll move back, you come and get him. So long story short, I do think Cam Ward is one. I do think Shador goes and then I think Jackson Dark goes. I'm going to say three with a possibility of four. If someone wants to sneak in at like the last two picks to get a mill row or a Tyler show.

[Pat McAfee]

It just feels like two and a half quarterback position nowadays even if somebody doesn't really. Well, let's try and see if we can hit that. Feels like a good bet, but could be a wild draft night. AJ has a question for you about a non quarterback. Let's talk defense, shall we?

[Adam Pearce]

Yeah, Shriggs, what about Mason Graham, the big D tackle out of Michigan? What do you think the range is where he could be? I've heard if he's there at 6, the Raiders may, may, you know, take a look at bringing him in. Obviously try to bolster that into your defensive line. But where do you think the range of where he could go?

[Connor]

He's in that next tier, right. So you've got Abdul Carter and Travis Hunter as defensive players. Then there's this group and the group is Mason Graham, who is your three technique worker, inside interior lineman. Then you got Jalen Walker who is this stud pass rusher who's a coach's son and is interviewing out of this world, out of Georgia. And then you've got the corner out of Texas, you know, Baron. So you've got that next. Next, that group of next three if you're looking for a defensive player. If I was to target Mason Graham, I would say five is the earliest to Jacksonville, but I'd be surprised.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[Connor]

And then I would say the back end is probably 11 to the Niners would be like the bookend. So he's going somewhere in that 5 to 11 range. My mock draft, I've got him going 9 to the Saints, but that could easily be 8 to the Panthers or 11 to the Niners.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you put out your final mock draft yet?

[Connor]

No, no, and I'm excited to share that. I'm going to put it out tomorrow morning. We're going to talk about it on Get Up. We're going to talk about it on SportsCenter and NFL Live. But I've been working on this thing, Pat, for probably since you got to Vegas for WrestleMania, sitting on the couch. I'm watching you guys. I'm watching the NBA playoffs and I'm texting every GM and I'm getting all the intel I can and I haven't submitted it yet. Things change, but right now I feel pretty good with where I've got these guys and where in the range they're going to be. I can't pinpoint every team, but I feel like I've got the right 32 guys who are probably going to go in the first round.

[Pat McAfee]

We're talking to Peter Schrager currently at an airport heading to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the draft. Obviously, this is a thing. He's releasing his mock draft tomorrow morning. That'll be something the entire industry will be looking at. We cannot wait to see you in Green Bay, Wisconsin on that mock draft. Connor has a question for you. Yeah?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Straight. It feels like the Patriots at four is kind of where the unknown of the entire draft starts. You know, the 1, 2, 3 seems to be set. Who knows what teams or what order that will be in? But it really does feel as though number four is kind of where the toss up begins. Will Campbell being a huge favorite today makes me think there's no chance he's going to go number four, because that's what this week's all about. I believe you talk talked about at two or three teams. We're calling up, of course, for Carter and Hunter, but also Jinty getting a big Push right now. Is that somebody who's going to be probably in it for New England at four or do you see New England doing kind of hey, we need a left tackle, we need a pass rusher. Even though their GM or pseudo GM Elliott Wolf, even though Mike Vrapel is obviously kind of running the entire show, has said before like, hey, we're in a spot where we can take best available. And it sounds as though best available would be GNT at 4.

[Connor]

It's interesting. So you know Will Campbell, you look at him, he's everything, you know you like in a player. But is he a blue chip prospect? He's not Orlando Pace coming out of college. He's not Jonathan Ogden. I'm not sure he's Joe Walt or Rashawn Slater or any of these recent guys either. There's obviously questions about his arm length and people can roll their eyes, but is he a better offensive guard than offensive tackle? They're real questions. So that to me tells me there's no way this is a slam dunk. I also know that they've been making calls on Arman Mbu in the last few days and just to to make sure what they know everything about him as another offensive tackle option. And then you nailed it. You know, Genti, this is there's three great players in this draft coming out of college. Look, all these guys could end up being awesome players, but there are three great players. There's Abdul Carter, there's Travis, Travis Hunter, and then there's Ashton Genti. And if you're telling me, well, this is a team that's already got Saquon Barkley or this is a team that's already got another star running back with them, I'd say, okay, you don't take Ashton Genti at fourth overall. Ramandre Stevenson is a fine running back, but Ashton Gentry completely changes his Patriots offense. So I would not close the door on Membu, I would not close the door on Campbell, and I would not close the door on Ashton Gentry. I'd also add this. I've been doing this a long time. Elliott Wolf, been in the league a long time. The one number one overall pick that I've ever been completely duped on was a few years back and I did do a mock draft and I made a million calls and even within their organization and I submitted to at the time, foxsports.com I was like, Sam Darnold's going number one to Cleveland. Sam Darnold is the Cleveland Browns quarterback. I did that around Wednesday afternoon I felt really confident on it. Checked around with my Cleveland guys. Still felt really confident on it. The pick was made and the announcement from one Roger Goodell was Baker Mayfield. You know who was in that front office? El Elliot Wolf was number two in that front office. So I don't trust anything from the Patriots and what we're hearing from the Patriots, I think Elliott Wolf gets a kick out of having everyone zig and then they zag and they say, well, we didn't say anything. You guys made that assumption. So I think it's wide open. And I'm not just trying to spike ratings here in New England or anything. I honestly think anyone who thinks they know the Patriots are doing it for and saying it's a slam dunk, they're full of it because Elliott Wolf ain't talking. And I don't think Frable is either.

[Pat McAfee]

We have Rabel, I don't think is, you know, a stranger to telling the media to go scram as well. So. Should be a fun time for the Patriots fans. What if you guys just trade out? You know, what if you just trade out, especially if people are trying to get to 2 and 3, I assume 4 is going to be an active spot as well. Anything is possible with this draft. Feels like that's real now. In the past, there's been some players that we know get moved on draft day. Ty has a question for you. Shrek.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Shrek. Speaking of the Patriots, there's been a little smoke around, you know, A.J. brown potentially getting traded there to reunite with Frable. We haven't really heard anything from Trey Hendrickson since everything kind of went sideways after Katie Blackburn's comments at the. The winner meetings or, you know, the. The owner's meetings. I know that a lot of this stuff might be like, day of. And you don't really have any of it yet, but are you hearing anything about, like, trades percolating outside of teams, you know, making an early selection and then moving back into the. The, like, kind of book end of.

[Connor]

The first round, I'm going to shoot you straight. This is interesting because, you know, actually, Hendrickson, he made. I mean, you guys are great with Hendrickson. That was the only time I've seen him speak publicly. And I thought he was awesome with you guys. But, like, this is the kind of stuff. Candidly, this stuff won't be popping up today. And I know that seems like I'm taking the fit that's going to be a Thursday situation because. Because they'll get the structure of a deal and they'll know what's going on. But based on what Cincinnati does at 17, look, if they take Shemar Stewart out of Texas A and M at 17, that suddenly makes Trey Hendrickson a lot more easy to get rid of and say, okay, well, we can at least go to bed knowing we've got a guy that we just drafted who's going to make way less that we have the utmost thoughts for for the Patriots. You know, let's get through the draft, let's get through night one, but let's get through night two and let's see what wide receivers they've selected or what offensive weapons they've selected it before we start making those trades. So I have done this a long time. You never see the veteran player traded a day before or that deal made until the day of, and it's usually after the pick was already selected.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, last question here shrigs for you. Before you get on a plane, what airport are you at? Right there seems active.

[Connor]

LaGuardia. I'm telling you, LaGuardia has been completely redone. This used to be the hell hole of the earth and right now it's lovely. I feel like I'm in in a. On a luxury liner. This is great.

[Pat McAfee]

It does look very nice. Is that an international win? Because you know. No, no, that's domestic lights. You know, because domestic. Most of these airports, the international wings, they soup up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So whenever people come to America, look how nice our is. And then you go down escalator to the domestic side. It's like picking actual off the ground. Haven't been updated a long time. That looks like a beautiful. And look at this sky behind. Dude.

[Connor]

I'm thinking, I'm thinking maybe taking a little trip here on a random Tuesday or Wednesday to spending a couple hours hanging at the airport. It's beautiful.

[Pat McAfee]

Terminal. Hang out at the terminal. Maybe live there. Okay, last question.

[Connor]

Get that little massage at that little relaxed place they have. It'd be great too.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe Sparrow pizza be so good. All right, last draft question here from D Bud.

[Darius Butler]

Straight. You just mentioned wide outs. I know. Outside after Travis Hunter, I don't really see that guy. And last year he had Marvin Harrison Jr. Neighbors Rome right at the top. We knew they're going. How do you see the wide receivers coming off the board after Travis?

[Connor]

The most polarizing prospect in this draft outside of Shador Sanders is Ted McMillan because I have teams telling me he wouldn't escape the top five if it was up to us. The production that he had at Arizona and what he brings as a 6 foot 4 wide receiver with incredible hands and just a dominant. This guy looks like Calvin Johnson or Mike Evans on a good day. But the tape from 2024 wasn't great. There were plays where he took off the things he said publicly. He's a volleyball player. There's questions whether he loves football. All that stuff can play tricks with an NFL front office. Especially if it's a young GM putting their name and sticking their name on something. So Ted McMillan, as I said, should door can go like 3 to 34. I think Ted McMillan could go anywhere from like 5 to 19. That's how. That's how big his delta is. But it's a great question. He's the number one guy probably. And then Matthew Golden's the burner that you get out of Texas. Who is what he is. He's an Xavier worthy type, you know. And then a book is everyone's favorite player in the world. AJ will like this. It's literally everyone wants him to marry their daughter. He's that much of a great guy. The question is, is where's the upside there? He's probably a first round pick as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to Ohio State Creighton. You know, absolute gentleman.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Yeah, that's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Shregs. Travel safely. We will see you in Green Bay. Enjoy laguardia Airport. It looks gorgeous.

[Connor]

It's beautiful. I tell you, I watched the WrestleMania. I thought you guys were awesome. You were incredible. But I have a new favorite part of the wrestling ecosystem. I don't know if he's even got a name. The Paul brother. His manager, Jeff with the brass knuckles. Bit of a villain. I like that guy.

[Pat McAfee]

That's your favorite guy, huh? Jeff is Drake's Never. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Strager. All right. Thank you. Okay. A Jeff mark.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Bit of a villain, that guy.

[Tom Coughlin]

I like him.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeff got thrown out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Pat McAfee]

He got thrown out. And we've seen Jeff a few times. The only time he's always up to no good.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[AJ Hawk]

Sneaky bastard.

[Pat McAfee]

Logan Paul had a dro like a pet drone day that I was.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Just kind of come to come to me in my jungle.

[Peter Schrager]

Drone Jeff hit that bear can as.

[Pat McAfee]

Hard as Steve did. Yeah. I mean, you're right. Steve Austin's quad there. ATV kind of stuck into the pad.

[Peter Schrager]

Bit of a gimmick on.

[Ty Schmidt]

A lot of juice on that thing. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

A little bit too many CCs there. I don't think I knew what was going on. He really.

[Ty Schmidt]

He blasted that day.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a good There's a situa. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good sale.

[Pat McAfee]

It was great to see Steve Austin come out. There. It was. He threw that thing. 124,576 people. Whatever. That card landed on the commentary desk right in front of me. I have that. That's deep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, that's sweet.

[AJ Hawk]

That is cool.

[Darius Butler]

Got a frame.

[Pat McAfee]

He threw it out there. I actually have it. Yeah.

[Peter Schrager]

Counted everybody in there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. The first night. Yeah. One, three. He got the 18. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What if he would th.1 1002. You got. Stop moving. Were you with. Did I already start over? Let's do it again. One, two. I will say there was a video of him trying to get up onto the ramp of the stage.

[Peter Schrager]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

That thing was coming out of nowhere. Yeah. I mean, the way that was set up, certainly in a fashion, especially because I came through one of those side doors as well on the back of one of those, like, graphic trucks. I don't know what it would be. In Vegas, it's very popular where you run a graphic, run an ad. Ours is for big night with behind the scenes exclusive footage available now on Hulu. I don't know if anybody told anybody that I was coming in on a truck to the side, though, because obviously they were facing that way. He's coming in here. That's a tight turn, though, from where you're coming for the ramp. So if nobody told Steve that that ramp. You got to hug that thing pretty tight in there, I could see how that would happen. But, yeah, what a spectacle it was out there in Las Vegas. That stage was gigantic. This is a lot longer than I thought it was going to be as well. It was pretty gassed out and then we yeeted, you know, So, I mean, it was a. It was a hell of a time. Shout out to Las Vegas. Shout out to Allegiant Stadium, also a beautiful stadium.

[Ty Schmidt]

Gorgeous.

[Pat McAfee]

All these new places are nicer than the old places, obviously. Allegiant. Very new. Fountain blue. Very new. So this weekend or this week in Green Bay, we'll be heading in to that good old fashioned. Feel good at Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm exhaust. I'm jacked up. I cannot. I cannot wait.

[Pat McAfee]

We can have some of them cheese curds.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, without a doubt we have them.

[Pat McAfee]

Super. Did you get us a dinner place?

[Adam Pearce]

Yeah, I think. I think we're gonna make that work.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you.

[Peter Schrager]

Coach will appreciate that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, coach will appreciate that joining us. He said, I'm gonna call him.

[Darius Butler]

We're gonna be locked in.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Mike McCarthy is gonna be spectacular on Thursday night. Now, I called him late in this process. He said I don't know everything about all these prospects. I'm be honest. I mean, Mike, we don't need you to be the all knower of tight end coming out of Liberty University mid first round, late first round. All we need you to do is tell us why you think a team's doing it and if it pops up, a story just rekindles. Go ahead and let that thing fly, coach, because we got a good five hours with you on Thursday night back in Green Bay. I can't wait for us. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who is a multiple time super bowl champion, A man that knows the NFL, NFL inside and out. He's been a consultant, I think he's been a manager. He's obviously known for being one of the greatest head coaches in the history of the game. Ladies and gentlemen of New York Giants fame coach Tom Coughlin. How you doing?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Thank you, Pat. I thought you were telling stories about stadiums. I could tell you one about the old Raiders stadium. We're going to open with them. One year when I was in Jacksonville, we go out there, none of the restrooms worked and after the game we all showered in one stream of water coming out of the waffle. The whole team and then flew back across the country.

[Pat McAfee]

What year is that, Coach? Coach, what year is that, you think?

[Dwayne Johnson]

I don't know, maybe 96 or 7 right in there.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's talk about that because Candlestick, obviously back in San Francisco had no doors on the toilets that like back in the day, obviously the Coliseum you're talking about in Oakland was wild behind the scenes. But then you get out there and everybody in the city is smoking too. So it's just, just a weed cloud over the entire place. And if you look at what it is now, Allegiant Stadium, they're selling like $100,000 VIP boxes right off of the end zone. Is it wild for you and the other OGs that have helped build this league to see where it is now? I mean, there'll be hundreds of thousands of people in Green Bay just to watch the draft. Feels like the league is bigger and better than ever. Could you guys have expected that whenever you guys were trying to build this entire thing?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, that's, that's for sure. But some of these stadiums today are just, they're incredible. You know, they're. They're going to build one here in Jacksonville in the next couple of years. It looks more like a spaceship it's unbelievable where these things are going and how well they've come along. But I will tell you this. I was in Green Bay for two years and the fans are incredible, as you well know. During my first preseason, I had come in from St. Norbert's College into the. Into this to our offices to look at some tape real quick before a night preseason game. I thought I'd maybe run home for a couple of hours before the game started. About 3:30, I opened the back door of the office the way we used to sneak out in the parking lot. And the parking lot was full of people for a preseason game. That was at 7:30 or 8:00 at night. They're throwing Frisbees. They're. They're throwing the football around. It was. It was an incredible scene. That was my first introduction to the fans of Green Bay, one of the.

[Pat McAfee]

Greatest football towns in the history of football towns. Anytime you think of Green Bay, you think of football. You think of Steve Sable, you think of NFL films, you think of the frozen tundra. You think of the backbone of what the NFL has become.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Think of Lombardi. That's what you think about. Matriculate Lombardi Avenue right there, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

Right next to McCarthy way. And then I think AJ Hawk even's got a lane over there. They got a good curling facility there. But let's talk about this week of the NFL calendar. Obviously, the draft is on Thursday. As a head coach, as a manager, as a consultant, what are your thoughts on the guys that you're trying to bring into the building? For us, it feels like we just want to know if you love ball, like if somebody loves ball, everything else kind of follows suit. Is that what you were looking for as well, or what was kind of the big thing?

[Dwayne Johnson]

It's a huge question that the players asked. And you know how this goes now, Pat, the players are. Are given the answers to the questions in advance, you know, by the agents and all that stuff. But you're looking for authenticity. You're looking for somebody who loves the game, who knows what he's getting into, knows what he's being hired for, who fits your tradition in your locker room. Let's face it, if you've been with it for a few years and you've had a chance to build a team, team the way you want to build them. You want somebody that's going to come in and be a part of that. So all of those questions are big and of course, goes right along with all the normal questions of height, weight, speed, and blah, blah, blah, blah, who he played against, who's the best guy you competed against this year? You know, as we all try to analyze and work down towards it, but the love of the game and the love of competition, this is the thing that you, you've got to get to the bottom. Who are the competitors? Give me a room full of competitors. We'll take our chance.

[Adam Pearce]

Go ahead, AJ Coach, other than watching these guys on film, watching them compete and speaking to their coaches, I guess what can you do to, to ensure that this guy is a true competitor and he's not, you know, putting on just because he's sitting in a 15 minute meeting with your team at the combine?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, for me, you get, you got to count on your scouts, you've got to count on the people that are supposed to be doing all the background work work, doing all the checking. Knowing the personality of the player, it's not easy today. I understand that the trainers don't really give you the information you need today because of all the legalities that are involved. But however, you got to have people who truly know the player and can stand up one way or another and talk about him. We're going to know how the player grades on the tape. We're going to know a little bit about him after his interview at the combine. But what you need to know is deep down inside, what's he made up of? And somebody's got to get in there and find out the real personality of.

[Pat McAfee]

The individual on the things that you potentially find out. D, Bud has a question for you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. During this process, I feel like every year it's always a prospect that's like, hey, it's some red flags, you know, off the field, as a coach before drafting a guy. How was the due diligence behind that? But then is there a certain story where maybe you did some due diligence on the guy, you trusted him going forward and it turned out to be good?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, my, my story with regard to that is not the story of a prospect coming in. It's a story of, of David Tyree. David Tyree. And this is. I'm not talking out of school. David wrote it in his book. David Tyree. My first year. It's the spring of 2000, 2004, my first year in New York. I look up from my desk and there's a knock on the door. Ernie, of course he's there. He's got David Tyree with him. He brings David Tyree in and he looks at me and he says, do with him. What you want? I thought, oh, what's coming? So David sat down. Syracuse guy, he sat down and he told me the story. He had been pulled over by a police officer on one of the bridges and he had marijuana in his trunk. And so I listened to this story and David told me about finding Jesus and all that. And I've heard that one before, so that wasn't necessarily the clincher, but I did, I did, I did listen intently and I did decide that, you know what, I'm going to give this guy another chance. And he proved to be quite a story. And it was. It was a good thing we kept him.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, I'd say. I think Eli's pretty pumped up about it as well. I don't know how Patriots fans feel. As soon as you mentioned his name, Boston Connor over here sent two birds to the sky. And I'm happy.

[Dwayne Johnson]

You know, Pat, one of the stories about David Tyree and Eli tells you a little bit about Eli. The Friday before that, Super Bowl 42, the Patriots undefeated team. We're practicing. We had the. The Arizona Cardinal facility to practice in. So we're practicing and it's probably the worst practice I've ever seen a receiver, certainly a receiver have. David Tyree was a wide receiver. We used him on short yardage and goal line because he's strong and he would block. And we had put some things in the goal line where the fake, you know, the first touchdown he scored in the game was off of that play, action play. But in the practice, he couldn't catch a thing. The ball was hitting him in the helmet, shoulder pads, he couldn't follow it in. It was a really terrible practice. Now I'm trying to hold it all together, not show my concern, blah, blah, blah, blah. The red line's going up my head a little bit. But Eli, when the practice is over, he takes David Tyree, he puts his arm around him, he says, david, don't worry about today. We know that when the game's on the line, you'll come through for a us. It was quite a prophecy, to be honest with you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'd say tell me about Eli, because obviously we know Eli from the Manning cast and he's one trying to keep things light. That's right. You know, and I've got a chance to be around him. He's much taller and bigger than I think people give him credit for. He's incredibly athletic. I think his brother's known as like the robot. Obviously the type A personality. We're going to do us all what was Eli like? Is that a very common Eli story there of leadership in teammate and everything like that?

[Dwayne Johnson]

It is in his own way. You know, I've got it. My thinking is this, Pat. Quarterbacks are busy. They're real busy guys. They got a lot on their plate. They're not going to be your rah rah guys. You know, they can be your captain, where they stand there at midfield, but they're not going to be the guy that stands in the huddle and gets people going, etc. They've got to be really into the game mentally, and that's. That's where they're coming from. From. But the thing that a lot of people don't know about Eli is, I mean, he can dish it out and he can take it, but he's one of the great, you know, what's. Ball busters in the locker room. You've ever been around. And so you have Richie Soybert, you had O'Hara, you had Strahan, and you had Eli, and back and forth they would be. Back and forth, they would be. And. But he could dish it out, he could take it, and he's really, really good for a football team. And that's sense.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it sounds like you guys had a great culture over there. Let's talk about the Giants culture. Currently. Tone has a question for you.

[Peter Schrager]

Yeah, Coach? There's a lot of talk around this draft about the Giants at number three, and they have to take a player that, you know will quote, unquote, save Brian Dabel and Joe Shane's job.

[Pat McAfee]

How do.

[Peter Schrager]

How do you feel about that going into a draft with that much pressure, you know, on the coaching staff, on the team, and it just in general, you know, trying to save your team and save your job with a draft draft.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, I'll be honest with you. You know, the noise on the outside is. That's what it is. It's noise on the outside. The coaches, the scouts, the gm, they know what's on the line, okay? The way the Giants have always operated is best player available. And the thing that has to happen in a draft anytime is you can't reach for somebody. You can't reach for a player who does not belong in that position. So if he's graded into that position and that player happens to be there, then the Giants are going to take best available.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you feel? Did you watch the off season Hard Knocks offseason last year?

[Dwayne Johnson]

No, no. Oh, I never watched any of that stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Smart. It's a good idea not to watch it. I'll tell you what, the off season one though, last year was just like a recipe for disaster. I think if you're Shane in the Giants, but as a fan getting an inside look into how that all because like the Saquon decision had to be made and then Daniel Jones decision was already made. So it's like we have to stay with what we made. We can't really do this. And then Saquon has the biggest year a running back has ever had in the history. It's like each year you can potentially get burned. Is that kind of the, the idea, the mindset that you have as a coach or gm, like hey, we got one day contracts here.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, not, not really. The, the, the consequences as you've already mentioned, are great. But you have to understand that in my belief, and I'm a fan just like you, I'm not in, in any office meetings where I listen to what their questions are or how they want to go about their business. That's their business business. But I do know this. There, there's, there's always a give and take and something happened in that negotiation that went south and obviously the result is a result and to, to Saquon and the Eagles benefit. It worked out terrifically for them and unfortunately for the Giants it didn't. So the Giants, they, they, they, they understand it, they've listened to all that's been said about it, but they've got to go about their business.

[Pat McAfee]

Now.

[Dwayne Johnson]

The great thing that's going on in Philadelphia, which once we start talking about football again, is the idea that look what the running game, look what the running game did for the Philadelphia Eagles. And better than that, the greatest asset that a quarterback can have, bring Jalen Hurts in and we'll talk about it, is the ability to run the ball. Because when you run the ball, you have play action pass, you help the offensive line, you help everybody. And then in a game when they're going to launch the ball, you saw that result as well. It's unexpected on the part of the secondary in many situations, but the running game and what Philadelphia had found, and it also kept the quarterback from being the primary runner in that offense, which is going to keep him on two feet for a lot longer.

[Adam Pearce]

Coach, what do you think Saquon has done for the rest of the league? We know we saw the running back position kind of get devalued. I feel like now it's back on the map. I feel like old school football, it's cyclical, it's all coming back. Do you see this team's trying to become run heavy now in the future.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, I never, I never believed in any of that crap either. Eric Henry did a good job. So you got, you got people who have reestablished themselves, themselves in the positions they should be in. They should. Those people that have that kind of ability and can literally put a team on their back, they're going to be taken high in the draft. I think that part of it has been proven to be a mistake when you pass up on the great ones.

[Pat McAfee]

How do you feel about football, though, as a whole? You said you didn't buy into all that. It got really spread out. Rules changed. Safeties and linebackers weren't able to really hit over the middle. The tight end position became this blossoming position. We started spinning it 50, 60 times a game. All of a sudden the running back, you better learn how to protect more so than run the ball. Now Saquon and the Philadelphia Eagles almost give everybody else a blueprint. Like in 2025, you're allowed to be a run dominant team again. Do you think that's true or no?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Don't forget now. Okay, once you've got the quarterback. You're talking to me. So this is what I believe. Once you've got the quarterback, and that's over here, you can't win without the quarterback. Okay, I think we all agree with that. Now I'm going to work on the offense and defensive lines. That's what you're seeing in Philadelphia to get done what they did with a four man rush and play coverage behind that. Are you serious? I mean, it's, it's. You'd love to be able to stamp that for every, every game you play playing. And that's what they were able to do.

[Pat McAfee]

How come everybody's not doing that?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Good question.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, there's a couple more questions for you, Coach. Here's Ty Schmidt.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Coach, going back to the culture question with yours specifically, everyone's heard of Coughlin Time and kind of heard stories about the way you run your operation. We've been talking a lot with these kids in college now with Nil, who they're coming into the NFL. They're already millionaires. They've, you know, kind of been not necessarily entitled, but pampered for a long time. Do you think it's harder for younger kids to acclimate to being in the NFL now than it was when you were coaching and like, you know, actually taking it as a profession and realizing how serious everything goes?

[Dwayne Johnson]

That's a good question. And I'll tell you why. Remember, in days gone by, the ultimate was professional football. To be in a position to be drafted, or in the case of many would be as a free agent, make a professional football team and have that as your goal. But to know how to get to that goal by going to a college where you know, you've got five, four years, you've got to battle adversity, you've got to fight yourself through some difficult times. You know, either coach doesn't like me, I'll tell you what, play well, the coach will like you a lot. You know, these, these ideas today about, you know, the, the worst thing that ever happened in the collegiate game is this business about, you know, the portal and transferring and all that crap. What are we teaching our young people? Every time you don't like something, you run away from it. What is that all about? Yeah, what does that have to do with education? How about the understanding you're going to need your degree. I don't care if it's 10 years down the road or whatever, you're going to need to be in some circumstances where you had to use brain power to get to the next level. I think we've made some huge mistakes. You know, they talk about the genie doesn't go back in the bottle. Let me tell you guys, if we don't solve this portal business, this transfer stuff, so that people, you know, the tradition of college football, again, the love of the game game, the idea that when you make that decision, you're there for a four year period or there's a penalty, you want to go, yeah, go ahead and go, but you're going to have to sit out for a year and the clock is going to be running on you. So I am upset about all of these things. Matter of fact, I told Nick Saban and Archie Manning those two need to get together and solve college football somehow.

[Pat McAfee]

Agreed. I've been telling Nick Saban that since the first day I talked to him. Like, hey, buddy, you're the one that's got to do this because all the coaches respect him. Like, I think he's one of the only ones that can rally all the coaches. Because if not, you and I both know this. There'll be all the coaches saying, yeah, this shouldn't happen. And then also, hey, we got 100,000 bucks over here if you want to just go ahead and bail because we're going to try to win. It's like a, they need rules, they need something. And for everything you're talking about, I think is Obviously, very valid. But the ripple effect, long term of never facing adversity or being callous is a big deal, you know, like, there's.

[Dwayne Johnson]

No question about it.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't want to speak out of pocket.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Stronger.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo.

[Dwayne Johnson]

It makes you better. It makes you better.

[Pat McAfee]

I was just kicker and punter, okay? And so I don't want to speak out of pocket for everybody. Every human I know that played college football wanted to quit at least five times. Winter workouts, winter workouts, off season workouts.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Summer workouts, 6 o'clock in the morning, everybody. You can't go home. You got to stay there for the whole summer.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Dwayne Johnson]

You know, all of that stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of moments of like, nope, not doing this anymore. And now there's like an opportunity like, oh, you don't want to do it. That's smart, actually. And also, we can get you an extra couple hundred thousand bucks over there. It's like any 19 year old, 18 year old that just has, like, comes from a background of nothing. Like, it's almost a desirable move to do that when really fighting through that entire feeling is going to help you for the rest of your life. Hopefully. Hopefully we'll be able to get that. We are wrapping up here on ESPN. We will continue digitally on ESPN, Disney, YouTube and TikTok live. You see on his polo there, J Fund Ed has raised over $32 million for families battling against pediatric cancer. You can help out Coach Coughlin. We will continue.

[Dwayne Johnson]

30 years, Pat. 30 years we've been doing this incredible work.

[Pat McAfee]

I was just reading about this. Founded in 1996 by Tom Coughlin in honor of Jay McGillis who developed leukemia while a member of Coach Coughlin's team at Boston College. They've been doing this for 30 years. The foundation, they provide financial and emotional support to the families of pediatric cancer, I believe, because the parents and everybody has to, like, shut down their lives basically to make sure the kid can get through all the treatments and get to all the things. Over $32 million in assistance in the J Fund. Congrats, Coach. That's amazing stuff that's making the world a better place, Coach. That's real deal, Pat.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Pat, thank you for what you do for charity, too. You've raised a lot of money.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, hell yeah. Listen, I try to make the world a better place, try to chase fulfillment, but whenever you're in a position like you, especially with how much focus you had to have on football to go ahead and change a terrible situation, I assume for your team and try to make it a little Bit positive for families is a beautiful thing. That's a J Fund. We will help out how, however we can. Our goal is to be there for parents facing the unthinkable so they can be there for their families. What a mission. Legitimately. What a mission. Coach Coughlin, everything we've heard about you is just like first class. First class. First class. With that being said, you go into a media market, obviously you're in Jacksonville and you've been in a couple other places, but in New York, that media market is a place that they are trying to make you not be that. Go ahead, con man.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Coach. How is the New York media market? Because every year you, you know, it feels like there's a conversation. When Aaron Rodgers went to the jets, the whole entire thing was, well, is he going to be able to handle the New York media market? It's pretty intense over there. And he kind of made the point basically saying, well, now everything's on the Internet. Like, it's not as if you're not dealing with, you know, the. A massive media market no matter where you are, if you're playing for an NFL team, let alone an NFL team who's competing for a Super Bowl. But is that a real thing that you have to prepare guys for if they are coming in as rookies or they're coming in as free agents? When you're with the Giants, like, hey, this is different here now, or is that kind of more, you know, more of a myth than it is a real thing that you guys have to deal with?

[Dwayne Johnson]

It's real. And I'll tell you, I'll give you the best example. When you speak in some markets to the media on a daily basis, there's six or eight people. When you speak to the media in New York on a daily basis, there might be 75 to 100, okay? It's a whole different deal. And realize this, these guys, these people, okay, are competing for a story, for something sensational, something that makes their presentation, their article different from other people's article. And that's what it is. It's a highly competitive thing. You know, I think we all go through it. I had to learn from it. You guys know what happened after the 06 season, how they wanted to fire me. We're eight and eight. We're in the playoffs. Get rid of Coughlin. But I did come to an understanding. I'm a blue collar guy. The media people are. The writers are blue collar guys. I sat and talked to them face to face, took the gloves off. We came away with I had a little bit more respect for them and I could treat them a little bit better. I could give them a little information. Never would hurt my team, but I could be a little bit more approachable. They needed help for their job and I, I changed a little bit and I was better with regard to that. But it is highly, highly competitive in that market and you do have to have as a, as a part of your player development program, the educational value of understanding how to deal with the press.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the press is obviously a very important piece of the NFL media in coverage of the NFL is a massive piece of it all. I had no idea that New York media members were blue collar. I had no idea until you just said it right there. I was puked actually whenever you said it. But you would know a lot better than I would. I guess you actually had a chance with extend the olive branch. Let's go shake their hands. Let's move forward. We got to work together. I think that's a smart play. Once again, Coach Coffee, figuring it out. I mean that seems to be what you do in all aspects.

[Adam Pearce]

Go ahead, AJ Coach, getting back to the draft, Travis Hunter, what do you make of this guy? What do you think he's going to be able to do next at the next level? Would you be able to play him both ways, receiver and db or what would, what do you think your plan would be if you drafted and brought him in?

[Dwayne Johnson]

He's obviously a very, very highly skilled and very, very well conditioned athlete to be able to do that, that at the college level in a game that has what, 150 plays or more. So this is a young man who's expressed an interest in that. I've never met him, I've never talked to him. I have never had the privilege of sitting down and learning more about him. But it appears on tape that he's an exceptional athlete. And if that's the case, I don't know why whichever side you decide to put him on, you wouldn't have a special situation your dime. Look, whatever where that young man might play on the defensive side of the ball as well as offense.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach, it's never happened really before. Obviously there's always been packages for incredible athletes through it all. And there's now people saying, you know, like you have to play him. And I think he has publicly come out and said that he wants to play both. But then he also gave a full answer because that's what he, he's always done. Do we have. We just. Is there guys that you know are going to have success in the NFL. You know, like Travis Hunter is going to have success in the NFL in my eyes. But this draft, there are so many. I'm not saying Travis Hunter. This is not me saying this about Travis Hunter. Okay? The cart before horse, though, happens with the draft every single year, media wise. And the numbers say, and this once again, not about Travis Hunter. Numbers say a lot of these guys aren't going to fare in the NFL. How do you keep a realistic view whenever you're going into a giraffe or even into the rebuilding of your team, understanding that some guys just aren't going to be able to be good NFL players?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, you've made those decisions going in and there are some people that only put the play, the guys they believe can really play on the board. If there's any question about them, they're not even up there. So you might have a board that's stocked for all seven rounds or you might have a board that has 40 or 50 players on that there because those are the people that they believe can play the best. The thing that you'll have to keep in mind about Travis is and all players, okay, 17 games is a grind. I will just tell you that. It's a grind. And to be able to, to, I know he's young, but be. To be able to get that production, a player has to be well rested, well trained, well conditioned. And, and you've got to be able to say, like we all do, you know, during the course of the season, maybe we put, maybe we do a walkthrough on Wednesday instead of a full practice as the season goes on. Because here's a guy, if he is doing what we're talking about, playing on both sides of the ball, he's liable to have 75, 80 plays a game and you're going to have to keep track of all.

[Pat McAfee]

I hope he's able to do it because it would be spectacular. And watching him in Colorado was awesome as well. And I hope it happens. But you got to remember the NFL is the all star team of every single generation that has played for the last, what, 20 years. Basically, with how guys are, it's a different level every single week. If Travis is able to just make the jump for what he was doing in Colorado, right. In the NFL got to be celebrated as one of the greatest athletes to ever exist. Let's talk about the modern NFL a little bit more. D. Bud has a question for you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, we kind of talked about earlier with the running game kind of coming Back. I know something that's come back as well is more two high safeties, more defenses kind of making the offenses and the quarterbacks go the long, hard way. Do you kind of see that sticking around or do you see it going back to more single high safety here pretty soon?

[Dwayne Johnson]

You know why that is?

[Pat McAfee]

Why?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Because people. People are not patient enough to run the ball. Oh, yeah, they give up on the run. If you can sit there, okay, with six in the box and stop the run, you got a pretty darn good football team. But most people on the offensive side of the ball will not stay with the run. You're sitting there with too high, you know what you're running against. No matter how they configure it, you know, no matter what personnel you have in the game, you know, you know what you're going against and you, you can scheme to block it up, but people won't stay with it. They won't stay with it. And. And that's where the game has changed.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think we should talk about first round of the draft on Thursday night? What is the point we should make more of, like, is this team trying to get better? Are they trying to find starters? Like, first round, we're trying to find starters or we're just trying to find guys that contribute, how many, you know, like back half of the draft? Is anybody realistically thinking that they're definitely going to hit a home run? What are some things we should think about Thursday night from the great brain of Coach Coughlin?

[Dwayne Johnson]

You think one thing you should do is make a decision in your minds as you're looking at it and studying it. What is the first round? Are there actually 25 guys that belong there? You know, are there 20 players that belong there? What. What's the first round according to the way in which you evaluate weight? Okay. Then you can look at the individual teams. Okay. What's Kansas City doing? You know, they're trying to solidify an area which has become quite obvious for you. Okay. And that is at some point in time, they're definitely going to try to get better in the offensive line for sure. So you need to know, understand what, where a team is, what they're in need of, and then you have to make those decisions going in also. So as you look at the players available, okay, are they available by need, or is this the best player out there at that time? So you've got a lot to talk about as each individual team comes up. What are their needs? Where. Where was their weakness? What do they intend to do? What did they do in the off season? You got to know what people did in free agency, because if you're not putting that thing together that way, you've got a lot of problem.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you do? You golf these days? You said you're down in Jacksonville. What is life like for Coach Coughlin right now?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Well, I'm busy with my. Obviously with my. My foundation. The J Fund foundation has our 30th celebrity golf classic, May 18th and 19th at. @ TPC Sawgrass. The players Championship. Yeah. Yeah. So we're. That's our 30th. We had a wine tasting back in. In march that had 1200 people at it. We have a Champions for children dinner in New York in October that the Giants have been extremely supportive of, just as the Jaguars are supporting us here in Jacksonville. So we're busy with these things. The only thing I admit to in golf is I have clubs. That's it. All right. I play nine holes a week with Randy Edsel and Mike Malarkey. Oh, no. In football. Yeah. So that's my. That's my golf.

[Pat McAfee]

Yukon legend Randy Edsel. Let him know. The West Virginia Mountaineers say hello. And does as well. Good luck. On the 30th golf tournament down there at TPC Sawgrass, 1200 booze bags went to a wine tasting. Is that.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Is that what I heard on the stadium. On the floor of the stadium? Yeah, right out there. Jaguars hosted us. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to the Khan family. Making some magic happen out there. The champions for children up there in New York with the Giants. And Coach Coughlin, we apologize for calling you five minutes late. But you knew that was coming, right?

[Dwayne Johnson]

Yeah, I knew you'd be a little over. Remember Strahan's great line? I was two minutes early and three minutes late.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, legend Coach Coughlin.

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[Pat McAfee]

It's two minutes early, three minutes late.

[AJ Hawk]

That's good.

[Pat McAfee]

What a time. Yeah. That's why we wanted to be very communicative with Tom Coughlin. Yeah. Hey, this might move. This might move a little bit here. Do not want to piss you off. That's like Bill Cower anytime we call him. Oh yeah, you're supposed to call me 20 minutes ago.

[Peter Schrager]

So sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

We didn't want that with coach Coughlin, you know, Triggs gets rolled rolling a little bit. The rock gets rolling a little bit. You got to have a conversation. I love Tom co. That's the first time I've talked to him.

[Darius Butler]

Oh yeah. He's a. He's a dog legend. Multiple super bowl champ for a reason. Knocked off obviously undefeated. Bill, you know, twice.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you know. Do you know Tom Coughlin, though?

[Darius Butler]

Well, I. I played for Randy Essel, so he was a Coughlin disciple. I believe he coached DBs for him when he was in Jacksonville. So it was very. A lot of things that Randy Essel did was very Tom Coughlin like so the five minutes early. Been on time, you know, clean shave and all. All the from Randy definitely came directly from time. So I was familiar with him without necessarily being familiar with him personally.

[Pat McAfee]

How about you, aj? You ever meet Tom Coughlin?

[Adam Pearce]

I never met him. Had my one buddies that played for him. They played for. I actually we. When I was at The Bengals. We practiced against the Giants for two days when he was there. That was like. It's a.

[Pat McAfee]

A.

[Adam Pearce]

He runs like a professional operation. That dude is like an old school professional ball coach. Like, you better not. No one's on the ground. It's going to be a fast physical practice. But hey, nobody's on the ground. Like all this, all the little things that you heard of, like back in the day, like, he continues all of those things and he also, I think also like progressed and, and changed with the times as well.

[Pat McAfee]

When we heard that he was potentially wanting to come on the show, it was like, Tom Coughlin wants to come on the show. Yeah, I, I never met him. Obviously. I heard stories about him and I've heard of the Coughlin time and all that stuff. You're talking like folklore about him as a human. I guess he does know the show, watches the show. So that's a pretty crazy thing. Bruce Brown, were we reminiscent on the glory days that entire conversation or what? Yeah, that was awesome.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, he's a absolute legend in New York.

[Pat McAfee]

When he, when he got there in.

[Ty Schmidt]

04, it was Eli's rookie year, obviously.

[Pat McAfee]

That, that whole like trade fiasco with Philip Rivers at the top Giant Stadium. Like, as a little kid, I was like scared for my life in there. Like, everyone's chanting Eli's name, all Kurt Warner's out there.

[Ty Schmidt]

And he was just so patient and.

[Pat McAfee]

Stuck to his guns, you know, O line, D line.

[Ty Schmidt]

Running the football.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe too much if you were up there in the. In the upper deck as a little kid. They were going crazy. Thunder and lightning. Both those guys back, back then it was Tiki fumbling it and 3 yards and 5 dodge.

[Tom Coughlin]

Jeez.

[AJ Hawk]

Love Tiki.

[Darius Butler]

He talked about Philly in that D line. Like that was a big part of that 41. Like having that NASCAR package.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

With Tuck straight handing the boys, just getting after Brady and let the. Letting the coverage do their thing in the back eight. Pierce on the second level with the backers. Like he was architect of that for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

We should ask him about that sack that Strahan got on Brett Fart. Oh, sh.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, it's not a bad idea.

[Dwayne Johnson]

The fake one. You.

[Pat McAfee]

Tom Coughlin, probably afterwards I wasn't real.

[AJ Hawk]

Then just walks on by, went to Brett.

[Ty Schmidt]

Mark Gaston was still.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know. Not Bringly. Yeah, allegedly there is. We are not jumping into that.

[Darius Butler]

Still bringing it. Allegedly.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess there's a lot of. Yeah, there's no reason for us. What do you got there? Yeah, what se The Greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and. And the moon, aj, how many total downloads, you think?

[Adam Pearce]

Three billion.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, I've said it every single time. That's how we know. You do not listen. You do not pay attention. You have no fucking idea what's going on around you.

[Adam Pearce]

Hey, kayfabe man. Come on. What are you talking about? I'm trying to bump the numbers.

[Pat McAfee]

I know.

[AJ Hawk]

One of the. One of the downloads was from myself when I went to the four nations Cup, United States, Canada final.

[Pat McAfee]

How was it?

[AJ Hawk]

And they put me on the glass and they. It was basically the coolest experience I've ever had at a sporting event. And I've been to a Patriots super bowl where they won, so it's saying that much.

[Pat McAfee]

So you're one of the over 28 million downloads, AJ. On the road.

[Adam Pearce]

On the road to 3 billion downloads.

[Pat McAfee]

Certainly. Certainly. I don't know how many people are on Earth or would purchase tickets to things, but 28 million downloads. And Seatgeek is the number one rated ticketing app. Each ticket is scaled on one to ten scale. One means not so good, ten means good. If there's a red dot next to your ticket, that means seatgeek saying, is a bad deal. Do not get this ticket. There's better tickets elsewhere. If there's a green dot, they're saying, hey, this is a good price, good ticket. They'll never catfish you. What you buy is what you get. And sequest tickets to everything. Obviously, the NBA playoffs are happening, the NHL playoffs are happening. There's WWE events happening all the time. Comedy, theater, music, physical, you name it. SeatGeek has your back. And right now, use promo code PMS2025. That's PMS2025. You'll get $30 off your tickets. Doesn't matter if you're a new or repeat purchaser. $30 off with code PMS2025 restrictions apply. Which is if it's.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, right.

[Pat McAfee]

Less. Less than 30 bucks, which you're not going to find a lot of in the modern world unless you're going to big Not. Hey, Hulu, the behind the scenes thing available now, I would recommend it highly because of how much work foxy put into it. And also it's good Foxy. I think you did a great job with that thing, piecing it together. Yeah. You say I put a lot of work into it. I think the behind the scenes actually shows how much work you put into it. The amount of phone calls, the amount of. The amount of stuff that had to be coordinated the producing. I mean, there's so many things. It's not. It was all. I mean, there's things that came up that there's certainly. Yeah, yeah. That's a big show. Yeah. But it was fine. It was funny. It was necessary. Sure. Yes. You know, that had to happen now. There was people that just inserted themselves for no reason at all because they have a certain title and sure had to make them feel good, even though they were nothing to the entire conversation. But that's life.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Big Night out, available now on Hulu. Watch it. I'm telling you, it's worthy of a watch. And I think afterwards you'll say, oh, I hope I get to go to one of those. And maybe we will have another one. But where.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was like 10 days ago. Feel it might as well have been three years ago.

[Tom Coughlin]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

How many days ago was it?

[Ty Schmidt]

I think it's a little bit more than 10.

[Peter Schrager]

But I mean, 13 tomorrow.

[Darius Butler]

Two weeks. Yeah. It's crazy.

[Ty Schmidt]

I was thinking it was Monday the whole time.

[Pat McAfee]

So today's Tuesday.

[Ty Schmidt]

Today is Tuesday. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, today's Tuesday. On that note, we'll be off tomorrow, getting Thursday night set up in Green Bay, traveling up there, obviously got a stage being built. Shout to the ESPN people building that. Shout out to the NFL people.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, coming together to go shake their hands. Shout to everybody on the Internet that called me a piece of shit for saying, like, no, I'm not doing all the song and dance, even though you have no idea what I'm talking about. And everybody else that's ever had to do what I did said, thank you for saying what you said. So a lot of you people that think I'm the worst human on earth, there's actually people that are like, man, thank you for saying what you're saying. I know it's terrible for you. I know your shins get pounded into oblivion, but know that the rest of us are watching on, going, good luck out there. I'm like, well, why don't you say anything public? No, no, no, no.

[Ty Schmidt]

Not a chancel, dude.

[Pat McAfee]

That's you, brother. That is you. So I'm happy we were able to get that done. I'm happy we're able to get there because obviously the future of the NFL is going to be drafted on Thursday night. And us being able to have boots on the ground with the energy that it's going to be with Coach McCarthy back in green Bay, with Peter Schrager, with all the inside sources, with everything that's going to happen, AJ Even returning the all time leading tackler to Green Bay. It's going to be a cool night. So we're off tomorrow. We'll see you Thursday for the draft. Spectacular. Spectacular. We're all going to go take a nap.

[AJ Hawk]

Uh huh.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that is, that is what is about to happen. WrestleMania is certainly spectacular. WrestleMania in Vegas is a daunting task whenever you look at it from the beginning and now that we have, you know, eclipsed it and got to the other side, there is quite an adrenaline dump of being on for 96 straight hours. Most important shot of all times happening. Boom boom, boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, boom, boom. Get home at 4am okay now drafts in two days.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't have a stage set up yet. Do you know we're going to do this sir has been a lot but we're incredibly pumped and lucky to do it all. And when we get to Green Bay, boy it's going to feel great to be alive.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's going to up on Thursday night? What team is going to reach the Jets.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep. He took it from. I took took it from my mouth to.

[Pat McAfee]

How's everybody handling the Aaron Rogers conversation last they pretty.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think so.

[AJ Hawk]

Once again that was five.

[Peter Schrager]

When was that smelling like roses?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I saw a lot of people saying a lot of things. I saw a lot of people saying a lot of things. I saw the GM talked about it. I'm not talking about that. I know what you're referring to or we're talking about current players.

[Darius Butler]

How did jets fans.

[Peter Schrager]

Oh GMs are allowed to do that once that just talk about the current players on the roster.

[Pat McAfee]

Why? What do you mean?

[Peter Schrager]

Well, you know there's certain GM down in Dallas basketball, NBA. Nico and he came out and he said I I didn't realize people.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, here he is actually. Funny you say that. Thanks for bringing it up.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Yeah, good question. I did know that Luca was important to the. To the fan base. I didn't quite know it to the. To what level?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Dwayne Johnson]

But really the way we looked at it is, you know, if you're putting on the. If you're putting a team on the floor that's Kyrie, Clay, P.J. anthony Davis and Lively. We feel that's a championship caliber team and we would have been winning at a high level and that would have quieted some of the outrage.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of injuries obviously and they were in championship literally a year ago. Just say that part in every.

[Adam Pearce]

I mean he had to know Buddy, he had to know.

[Pat McAfee]

What if he said, I have my blinders on when I walk into every building because I watched the Mavericks play here in Indiana when Luka was playing. And that was a Luka Doncic home game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Here in Indiana. And I assume that is in every arena, let alone the Mavericks arena. Oh, yeah. So Nico just being so locked in on the process, he doesn't even really get to experience the noise. That's got to make you feel good as a Mavericks fan.

[Darius Butler]

No, I think he. Every time he talks about it publicly with cameras in there, he makes himself look worse. I mean, the second the. The. The ending of it was, you know, when he talked about the team post trade, just talk about that. You felt like, that's champion, team, championship, team, if healthy, no reason to say, oh, I didn't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Run the beginning of that again. I think he really leads it off and sets the tone properly for us to listen whenever he goes. That's good. That's good. Tone center. Yeah.

[Dwayne Johnson]

Good question.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't know that. Can I like. All right, Bob, I'll tell you what, Nico. Everybody said you're a good guy. Adam Silver said, Nico is a good man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Rich Paul.

[Pat McAfee]

Rich Paul. Say he's a good man. I would like to believe that the basketball gods will make this guy pay for this. Now, granted, that is not fair to the players that he mentioned. Who I am a fan. Love Kyrie.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Kyrie will stand right in front of a fan and say, you're not blowing like, I like the way he goes about it. I don't agree with everything that Kyrie says or does, but I respect the shit out of the way Kyrie operates. AD Come on, dog. Oh, absolute dog. Pj, you're talking about the entire team. I like the way they are play. I like their players as humans, but I still can't get over the fact that that guy rallied around a nutritionist and some other people and somehow made themselves believe that they were more important to the Mavericks than Luca Donche. And for me, as a former player, it's going to be hard for me to ever get over the fact that this suit thinks he's more important than the actual guy that's doing the work. So for me, I will be. And I don't think I was ever considered a Luca fan. But the way this is all rolled, I'm like, I need Luca to win one way before this Nico guy does. And I think it's good for the NBA. I think it's good for the Emmy. Can't be good for Nico's life though, you know, like as soon as he gets out of that press conference, he goes, how's it go? And his PR guy goes, as soon as you went, it was kind of over from there. And Nico knows that none of us are going to listen to him. Yeah, his team's just going to have to win like nothing. He says in any of these press.

[Adam Pearce]

Conferences, they need a three, Pete. They need the next three championships, honestly, to get the heat off, off of him.

[AJ Hawk]

Not happening.

[Pat McAfee]

You don't know.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes, we do. We can do the whole.

[Pat McAfee]

Like they want to, they want a play in game.

[Darius Butler]

They also need Luca to fall off too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they need Luca. Cuz they're saying Luca is not a professional enough to remain healthy. Then their entire team's hurt and he's blaming it on health. It's like, well, that's why you got rid of Luca, cuz he's not healthy but he's playing right now and he was playing in the championship last year for you. So you're kind of talking out of boat both sides of your mouth here. He just needs that Mavericks team to play well. That is what, that is what Nico needs. And I don't know how long he's gonna have you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, see that's the thing because the more I hear, the more I'm convinced that the governors of this team are just like, sorry pal, you know what you got to do, okay? Go back in there and take all.

[Pat McAfee]

The bullets for no. Adam Silver said.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know he said that. I choose to believe that Adam Silver is, is, is wrong in that regard.

[Pat McAfee]

Adam Silver came on this program.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know. And he was great. He was great.

[Pat McAfee]

And he reiterated, he. Let me tell you, the Dallas Mavericks are committed to Dallas. They love Dallas.

[Darius Butler]

Sure, sure. You know, we just came from what.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's where I feel like I'm getting worked brother, a little bit. Cuz I. This guy wasn't. He was like, he's like a big time executive at Nike. How the hell does this guy put his foot in his mouth every single time he talks? Every single, single time.

[Pat McAfee]

We have dealt with a lot of big time business.

[Ty Schmidt]

We.

[Pat McAfee]

Have a very, very important position. Not saying Nico didn't, you know, whatever. Not saying Nico wasn't a very successful executive with Nike. But there are dip. Not saying Nico. No, there are, there are fucking idiots at very, very, very, very high, powerful positions at companies that are very successful and very gigantic that you would never expect for fucking doofuses to be at. And now granted, I'M the guy literally wearing jorts right now, okay? And I, I have said very dumb things and I've been a part of that. But I'll walk into a meeting, very important people thinking to myself, wow, what an honor it is being here. And I will leave a meeting going, wow, I don't know how America works. I don't know how that company is successful. That's got to be the dumbest group of people I've ever seen. And then we leave. We do not do deal. Guess what happens. That company, they just keep having success.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, without a doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

I have no idea. I have no idea how somebody in there has to be doing something. No way. It's the people that I talk to. Maybe it's AI doing it or whatever. So just to assume because he was a high level executive somewhere at a successful company means that he's going to be successful with things. I think from our own experiences. Sure would say that does not.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm not even assuming success, though. Like, I, I would assume that at some point, like he had to have wowed him in the interview, you know? Yeah, you would think. But that I do believe that these governors are just like, hey, listen, pal, you know what? This was our decision. I get it. Everyone hated it. We knew they were going to. But that's why we're paying you the big bucks. Go out there and eat night in, night out. And if, you know, if they, if they don't win, then, yeah, he's going to get fired and he'll move on.

[Darius Butler]

This is over, Nico.

[AJ Hawk]

Without a doubt.

[Darius Butler]

He's taking the bullets. He's going to get ran over. He'll probably get fired. But you don't trade Luca without the owner.

[Ty Schmidt]

Get him out.

[Darius Butler]

No way Nico can make that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but. Well, let's so you.

[Darius Butler]

No way.

[Pat McAfee]

So who put together the pitch deck to tell the governor, brand new governor, that they should get rid of their best player?

[Adam Pearce]

Had to be Nico Pride.

[AJ Hawk]

Pelinka.

[Darius Butler]

You think the governor, you think the lady who owned this, who just bought this team, is gonna let this GM come and say, hey, we're gonna trade?

[Pat McAfee]

You think this is. I don't know the lady governor. I don't know the lady governor. She seems like she's Adelson. She's winning over everybody down there. She's in it with Nico as well. Welcome. I own the team now. Mark Cuban was front row. Every single one won a championship. Living and dying with him. Bummed out, sells the team. Now you got this lady. That's my team now. Also, boom. You think she came to Nico and was like, we gotta get rid of the fatso? The guy that's really good.

[Darius Butler]

I don't know why. I'm just saying Nico can't make this call. I don't think he can make this call.

[Pat McAfee]

You think the lady governor.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Brand new to the team, comes in and goes, I don't like the way that one looks. He seems to be a little bit of a slob, doesn't he? You think she's the one that comes in and says, nico, get rid of him?

[Darius Butler]

That's my theory. Maybe it's much bigger than basketball, bro.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it's real estate and casinos.

[Pat McAfee]

Because you're thinking about the Browns casino. You're thinking about the Browns because the Browns are like Andrew Barry Stefanski. They seemingly have a job for the rest of their lives because ownership was like 230 million guaranteed to the guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Give it to him or seller cap's gonna be. Don't care who's the owner, who's working for who Here. Thank you. Make the play. You're saying this has happened in the past?

[Darius Butler]

I think so.

[Pat McAfee]

I find that hard to believe. But I'll tell you what, if she did do that, good luck. She's got good vision, I guess. Defense wins championships. That's right. Defense wins championships. Tonight, first round of playoffs. Game two are happening around the NBA. Con man. Who do we have playing when and where?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I got Bucks Pacers on NBA TV at 7:00, which is absolute crop.

[Pat McAfee]

Because if Tyrese Hal is on national.

[Adam Pearce]

Tv, a playoff game is on NBA tv.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. And it's gonna be impossible to find. I can already tell. And Tyrese Halliburton needs to be on prime time television. He's a prime time player. He's good for the NBA whenever Tyrese is playing. But nonetheless, we'll take another dub with nobody watching outside of India.

[Darius Butler]

Games back too. I think Sean's announcement.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, nobody cares. John Moran's throwing grenades and the MVP are playing. And then Luka, who we just talked about, and basically the only team that we talk about, the Lakers, because they are at the Lakers. And then the T Wolves with Ant man, who also has a lot of stuff going on. It feels like those are kind of some of the faces they're pushing. They don't care about Indiana or Milwaukee, but those are the three matchups we have tonight. All the higher seeds are up except for the Lakers. They need a win.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of Minnesota and Ant man, he is being fined $50,000 for his my dick is bigger than yours comment to the Los Angeles Lakers crowd on Saturday night. Sources tell Shams Sharanya he's saying he's telling the truth. He's probably going to appeal this. I'll be excited to see how Adam Silver feels about it all. They say it's a big dick contest. Anthony Edwards went in there and says, I got the biggest one of them all. The NBA said, you can't be saying it.

[Peter Schrager]

You know what they should do, cracking.

[Pat McAfee]

Down on all these rules. And I know what you're going to say, Tone, and I don't want to hear it. Just Shams having report that, though, is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Tweeted and once again, that's why they got Ant man on primetime.

[AJ Hawk]

Exactly. He also mentioned in that comment, you know, I got $300 million, so the 50k. I'm sure he's real bummed out about that.

[Pat McAfee]

Anthony is quite a heel and I think he's a okay with that. He's quite a ballplayer. Cannot wait to watch those three games tonight. Back to the NFL quickly. Jerry Jones was talking to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, I believe is the name, and he teased that he's working on two pretty substantial traits at or before the draft. We're looking at two things that could happen before or after the draft. Okay. We're looking at a lot of things that can happen before and or after the draft. Today and or tomorrow or the day after. It could happen in this moment or moments that are happening, happening in the future. The fact that they could happen before or after the draft suggests that the targets are players on other teams, not draft maneuverings, says Mike Florio. What are they? When could they happen? Will they be substantive? Substantive?

[Peter Schrager]

Substantive.

[Adam Pearce]

That's not right.

[Pat McAfee]

Substantive. Substantive.

[Peter Schrager]

Wouldn't it be substantial?

[Ty Schmidt]

Nah. Substantive.

[Pat McAfee]

You could say substantive. Instinctive. Thank you, Florio and Ty Schmidt in the usual sense. Or will he come up with a new definition for the term like he did with all in last year when he didn't do anything? Florio's always asking a question.

[Peter Schrager]

Two big, two big trades come from the Cowboys?

[Pat McAfee]

Nope. We're looking at two things that happen before or after the draft. We're going to sign our draft picks. That's one of the things for sure. Second thing is, I'm going on that yacht to celebrate who we drafted. Those are two things happening after the draft. Could that happen before? Doubtful. But maybe. I'm Jerry Jones.

[Peter Schrager]

That's on me. I was looking at a Quote that said trades.

[Pat McAfee]

I was like, yeah, this is his actual quote. He's always moving.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Jerry Jones is a wrestling promoter who happens to have a football team. Jerry Jones, also a high level thespian. Maybe he needs to just start focusing on that so he can start accruing Oscars. Like this new movie that the Rock's doing out in Hawaii. You're telling me there isn't a Jerry Jones role available? For sure, Stacy. Somewhere.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there probably is.

[Pat McAfee]

Still us.

[Tom Coughlin]

Some land.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely.

[Darius Butler]

Hell, yeah.

[Peter Schrager]

One of them CEOs are coming in buying land.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. What he o. I. Oh, man. That.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Jerry Jones.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Explore the space. Call Moose a bunch of times. That's a great idea.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a Jerry Jones in a Scorsese flick about an US Godfather taking back his land.

[Ty Schmidt]

I love that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. But instead, he's worrying about things that could happen before. After next year. Maybe next year's draft.

[Ty Schmidt]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all available for us. Right in front of us. Jerry Jones, football.

[Ty Schmidt]

He knows what he needs to do. Everyone knows what he needs to do now. Just said it. You just said it. He needs to be in that movie. And I need to see the dailies of him calling Dewey O a thousand times.

[Pat McAfee]

So there's Leonardo DiCaprio.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Emily Blunt.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Martin Scorses. What? And Jerry Jones.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

You tell me.

[AJ Hawk]

And that's the bottom line.

[Pat McAfee]

Because Jerry Jones said so. Shout out to Stone Cold Stomp.

[Ty Schmidt]

Shout out.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we'll see you guys Thursday. We're dying. I just want to let you know that slowly in front of you all, but we are enjoying it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't love that. Gunther did that. To be at the end of WrestleMania weekend. It was. It's hard not to think about that.

[Adam Pearce]

What you think when you woke up.

[Pat McAfee]

Hurricane. Hurricane. Shane Helms is staying above me. And I thought to myself, this is not good right now. That's, you know, very similar to how. How. Wow. How did I end up here? You know, just kind of looking down at the ground, coughing up blood, spitting some things as a big Austrian man was rolled off of me. Yeah. I mean, there was. There's a lot of things running through my head. Mostly it was, what the. And then I see D. Bones head. I'm like, where the boys are here?

[Peter Schrager]

That was a nightmare.

[Darius Butler]

No chaos.

[Pat McAfee]

It was chaos.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was chaos.

[AJ Hawk]

Truly.

[Pat McAfee]

Controversy, too. What are they gonna do?

[Darius Butler]

Lost our tops.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we did.

[Darius Butler]

Great hat, too. Zeke grabbed it for me, man. Somewhere in Vegas.

[Pat McAfee]

Chargers to the game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep, Exactly.

[Darius Butler]

It's worth it.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Gunther. I hope you're fine and. Or suspect suspended. Actually, that's not how I roll. I just hope the worst thing is upon you.

[Peter Schrager]

Kick him off the tour.

[Pat McAfee]

I hope you have diarrhea for the rest of your life.

[Adam Pearce]

That's tough. That is tough.

[Pat McAfee]

And stop messing with Cole. Dude, you're Gunther.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What a badass. Wow. Smack around a Syracuse grad.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Peter Schrager]

Maybe it's just a thousand years old. Calls him Gunther all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Cole. Cole's supposed to be this professional journalist and everything. He refuses to say Gunther. Yeah, and then he calls him just a ring general. It's like that's not his name. It's the ring gal.

[Peter Schrager]

So I get why he came at Cole, but you didn't deserve what you got.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I think once, you know, I thought we were good, though. I thought we had a mutual respect. After I push him off my guy.

[Peter Schrager]

It's been on the show.

[Pat McAfee]

You do your thing, I'll do my thing. And then instead, something snaps in his little dumb Austrian brain. I need a cheap shot. This guy joking about the. Okay, it's Wrestlemania weekend, dude.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Grow up. Grow up. Let's get out of here. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in a sing together. We'll see you from Green bay with Coach McCarthy, Peter Schrager and all of the new draft picks. We're in a sing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, Team. Goodbye. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a king maker. He had wealth, fame and power. Until it all came crashing down. Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs. I'm Brian Buchmire, 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. Hey, I'm Brad Milkey. 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 biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about. 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 stories you've been hearing about. Follow the crime scene for special access to the people who know these stories best.