PMS 2.0 1333 - Buccaneers GM Jason Licht, Panthers GM Dan Morgan, Tyrese Haliburton, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show - Episode PMS 2.0 1333 Summary

Introduction and Upcoming Fight Preparation

In this energizing episode of The Pat McAfee Show, host Pat McAfee kicks off by sharing a personal anecdote about purchasing a wrestling ring, setting the stage for an exciting blend of sports talk and personal experiences. Pat reveals his anticipation for an upcoming match at Backlash in St. Louis, where he’s set to face Gunther, a formidable Austrian wrestler and recently crowned world champion.

Pat McAfee [00:00]: "This thing has been set up in my barn in my house. Now it has moved into the Thunderdome because we got work to do before next Saturday night at Backlash..."

Pat emphasizes the dedication and hard work invested in preparing for the fight, highlighting the physical and mental training he’s undergone to ensure he’s ready for the showdown.

NHL Playoffs Recap

The show delves into the ongoing NHL playoffs, with Pat and his co-hosts discussing key matches and standout performances.

Pat McAfee [04:12]: "Hockey is showing up. Playoff hockey is immaculate."

They highlight the resurgence of teams like the Vegas Golden Knights and the dramatic comebacks of the Florida Panthers, underscoring the intense competition and unpredictability that defines playoff hockey.

NBA Playoffs and Draft Insights

Transitioning to basketball, the conversation shifts to the NBA playoffs and recent draft developments. AJ Hawk provides insights into standout players like Jamal Murray and the performance of teams such as the Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics.

AJ Hawk [11:18]: "Jamal Murray put up massive numbers and led the Nuggets to secure their series with impressive shooting from beyond the arc."

The hosts commend players like Jalen Brunson and Russell Westbrook for their resilience and impactful performances, painting a picture of a dynamic and fiercely competitive basketball postseason.

Interview with Jason Licht, GM of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers [28:17]

Pat McAfee welcomes Jason Licht, the General Manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for an in-depth discussion about the Buccaneers' draft strategy and team culture.

Pat McAfee [29:24]: "What is the biggest tell on whether or not a guy's going to be successful in the NFL. What are you looking for that kind of makes it that okay, this is going to be a guy type indicator for you?"

Jason Licht elaborates on the Buccaneers' unique "I am that man" policy, emphasizing the importance of character and cultural fit in their draft selections. He shares impressive statistics, noting that all 38 of their draft picks from 2019 to 2024 were listed on NFL rosters last season—a testament to their effective scouting and selection process.

Jason Licht: "We put the players that are worthy of being drafted on the draft board like every team does, but then we just kind of take the assholes and the douchebags off and guys that don't love football..."

One of the highlights of the interview is the discussion about their first-round pick, Emeka Buka, a record-breaking receiver from Ohio State.

Pat McAfee [31:27]: "You took Emeka Buka at pick 19. When did you know this was going to be the guy if he was available?"

Jason Licht: "He epitomizes everything we're looking for. You just can't go wrong with this guy."

Discussion on Team Dynamics and Offensive Strategies

The conversation further explores the Buccaneers' offensive strategies and their relationship with key players and coaches, including Baker Mayfield and offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard. Licht highlights the synergy within the team and the effective communication that fosters a strong, cohesive unit.

Jason Licht: "We have great synergy here. We got a great culture. We're flying high with the way it's going and this Grizz just stepped in and I think we're going to not miss a beat."

Interview with Dan Morgan, GM of the Carolina Panthers [157:30]

Later in the episode, Pat welcomes Dan Morgan, the General Manager of the Carolina Panthers, to discuss similar themes of draft strategy and team culture.

Pat McAfee [157:30]: "This is the guy who just got done with another, we assume, successful draft. He's a multiple-time Super Bowl champion and an absolute legend."

Dan Morgan shares insights into the Panthers' draft philosophy, focusing on resilience and character, mirroring the successful strategies employed by other top NFL teams.

Dan Morgan: "We look for guys that have been through adversity and have built a lot of character and toughness."

A significant portion of the discussion centers around their first-round pick, Benjamin Morrison, and the importance of selecting players who embody the team's values.

Pat McAfee [159:57]: "You have to be good to people."

Morgan emphasizes the Panthers' commitment to fostering a positive and strong team culture, reinforcing the idea that character is as crucial as athletic ability in building a winning team.

Dan Morgan: "JC was one of those guys that I did not want to lose him at any point. He brings too much attitude to the defense and he's a great leader."

Jordan Travis Retirement and NFL Injury Protocols

The episode also touches on the sobering topic of injuries in the NFL, specifically discussing Jordan Travis's retirement due to a severe leg injury.

Pat McAfee [141:23]: "He was a great football player, great dude. And we'll never know, you know, never know what could have been great."

The hosts reflect on the challenges athletes face when dealing with career-impacting injuries and the importance of resilience both on and off the field.

Final Remarks and Upcoming Events

As the show nears its conclusion, the hosts recap the main discussions and look forward to upcoming events, including Pat McAfee’s fight at Backlash and preparations for future sports seasons.

Pat McAfee [170:04]: "We are incredibly lucky we get to talk about sports."

The episode wraps up with light-hearted banter, emphasizing the camaraderie among the hosts and their shared passion for sports.

Notable Quotes:

• Pat McAfee [00:00]: "Every day promises one-of-a-kind entertainment that won't be seen anywhere else."

• Jason Licht [29:24]: "We just kind of take the assholes and the douchebags off and guys that don't love football..."

• Dan Morgan [157:30]: "We look for guys that have been through adversity and have built a lot of character and toughness."

• Pat McAfee [141:23]: "You left your impact on football, brother. You were an absolute dog on the football field."

Conclusion

This episode of The Pat McAfee Show offers a deep dive into NFL team management strategies, the importance of character in draft selections, and the relentless pursuit of excellence in sports. With insightful interviews from top GMs like Jason Licht and Dan Morgan, combined with spirited discussions on ongoing sports events, listeners are treated to a comprehensive and engaging exploration of the contemporary sports landscape.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Tackler for the Green Bay Packers. You pick. Stutter. Stunner. Damn it. Your friend. Tell a friend something nice could change their life. Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this big sports Wednesday, April 30, 2025. This program starts now. Sports are wonderful. We're so incredibly lucky that we get to talk about them. And yes, as you saw on the beautiful pan in by our lovely Evan Fox, the wrestling ring has returned to the office. For those that have been following along for a long time. That particular wrestling ring was purchased by me once I found out that you could buy a wrestling ring on the Internet. I believe it was my second year in the NFL. I might have been a little bit tuned up a little bit boozed up late at night, found a website and they said, yeah, you can buy a full size wrestling ring. Wake up the next morning, kind of forget about it, move along. 3, 4 months and 18 wheels shows up at my house, says, hey, I got a delivery for you. I say, what is it? He says, a wrestling ring. I said, for who? He goes, are you Pat McAfee? I guess is how I signed up for it on the website. I said, that is correct. He delivers that thing. I put it up in my barn, then it went in our old office. This thing has been set up in my barn in my house. Now it has moved into the Thunderdome because we got work to do before next Saturday night at Backlash, where I fight an Austrian asshole who is strong, tough, intimidating, and a former world champion as of a couple weeks ago. So I got a lot of work, work to do. I'm going to get better. We're all going to get better and we're going to enjoy the hell out of the process. And I'd just like to let Gunther know that the blood, sweat and tears, hell yeah. That have gone on in that ring, not just by me, but by everybody that has set that thing up and gone to work in there over the years, will all be worth it for Next Saturday in St. Louis at Backlash. When I walk in there, I'm going to be prepared, all right. I've already been doing some flips, I've already done some bumps. I'm already feeling pretty good. Cardio is in a spot I think is better than it has been before in some different matches that I've been in. I do have a little bit of a gut still, but that's going to be good because Gunther is a little bit of a thumper, a little bit of a pounder, maybe Even try to put a little bit more meat on my body before next week. And he's already taking it as a joke. He's laughing in his Austrian way. Well, we'll see who's laughing in St. Louis. We'll see who's ready in St. Louis. Because I'm going to let you know, I don't overlook anything. Feels like he's probably going to overlook me. And I see a lot of the iwc, the Internet wrestling community, who hates my guts. I found out over the last few weeks, well, really, I fucking hate you too. Just to let you know that you gatekeepers think you're the only people that are allowed to be fans of wrestling. I've been a fan of wrestling since long before you were alive. But with that being said, I am incredibly lucky and fortunate to be a part of the company that I grew up being a fan of. And on next Saturday, I'm going to take everything I've learned from the decades and decades of being a fan and the decades and decades of studying this business and the people that I've gotten to shake hands and learn from personally, and I'm going to take it into that ring and I'm going to try to do Michael Cole, the greatest of all time, some justice. And everybody that's ever been bull by an Austrian punk, there's a chance I get my ass beat. There's some people that want to see that. And I'm going to let you know, I understand that's a reality. But I'm going to step into the batter's box every single time, especially whenever I think it's for the right reasons. And if I swing that thing and I miss, it's okay. But if I swing that thing, which happens on a regular basis, and I somehow connect and that thing goes going, we're going to have a moment that we're going to talk about forever. Stand up for the right thing. Feels like what I'm doing. Why end up falling down for the right thing? Potentially. Such is life. We'll enjoy it all. Talks at tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, I see the sweater. All of a sudden the Vegas Golden Knights aren't dead. Feels like you're coming back from the grave in your fanhood. And also, sweet haircut. Shout out to back porch barber JC.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, without a doubt, shout out JC I haven't had a haircut since like around my birthday. It's been almost like five months, so it feels good to kind of get the mop off. But you said it Listen, coming into this series, I mean we, we talked about it yesterday with biz. The, the Western Conference is, is a gauntlet. But Stoner's back. The Knights are back. I got the C on today. I'm feeling great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I saw Stoner. What a nice clap bomb from the blue line. Obviously hockey is majestic. Playoff hockey is majestic. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is a fan of the Florida Panthers, who are still a grimy Grady team that could potentially go on and go back to back with the Stanley cup and take that thing to the elbow room. Let's go to 1/2 of the hammer down cowbo. Hockey had a great night last night. And are they getting nervous in Toronto that the Maple Leafs are going to Maple Leafs yet again in the playoffs?

[Boston Connor]

Oh, let's start right there. Let's start centers Maple Leafs. The series that everyone thought was done, it was 3:1. But no, the Sens come back last night. They went four nothing in a, you know, it was just an absolute dominant performance. The Kachuk, you know, the Kachuk brothers, Americans heroes, said they would come back. Said it would come back to Ottawa and it will. 32 Ottawa is up or, sorry, 3 2, Toronto is now up in. But as we know these Leafs, the Leafs have been up 31 many, many times. They've been up 31 against the Bruins. They've been up 31 and they have blown that. So now we are going back to Ottawa. 32 in that series the other game last night, Hurricanes over Devils, the Devils, Sebastian Ajo or sorry, the cane. Sebastian Ajo ends it in overtime. The Kacs, you know, they pretty much handled the Devils 41 in this series.

[Pat McAfee]

Devils were up 3 nothing in this game. I do believe the Devils were up three zip. Obviously they were down three one in the series. Devils showed of life. We're up three zero kx. Come storming back, get to overtime. Big time win to go ahead and end that particular series. Yeah, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

In front of 20,000 screaming KX, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Steve Smith senior was told, hey, you gotta slow down that crank. You're kind of reorganizing some things in here. He was getting after it on there, cranking the, out of that thing. And the screaming Kacs are certainly a weapon in the Eastern Conference.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah. Ajo had multiple goals last night on top of the. The game winner. And then. Yes. Let's go to Ty's Vegas Golden Knight. Stoner with. I haven't seen Stoner put in a goal from, from the blue line in a, in a, in a long, long time.

[Darius Butler]

He talked about like Stevie Wild. Look at that.

[Boston Connor]

I mean he likes to muck it up in front of the net. He does pucks on net, sticks on ice. He's kind of a front of the net type of guy. But that was an absolute rocket from Stoner. In this series. The wild were up 2:1 in the series. So this coming back, the Knights come back to go up 32 in the series, you know, and then obviously, you know, they're cycling the puck behind the net. We get it out into the slot and we get an overtime winner for the nights ago up three to two in the series. Huge. Flower was in net after an incident there and you know, Flower, he stood on his head mark Andre Flurry the all time winning.

[Foxy]

What?

[Boston Connor]

Sorry, what?

[Ty Schmidt]

I said he gave up the game winner. But the Vegas fans did chant his name when he came in as they.

[Pat McAfee]

Should show their respect. Two overtime games last night. Hockey is showing up. Playoff hockey is immaculate. This Vegas Golden Knights team has a lot of talent. This Vegas Golden Knights team is always electrifying. And this Vegas Golden Knights team, from a selfish perspective have been so good to us. I mean, Ty has full kit because they made Ty an honorary member of the team and also treat him like a make a wish kid. Right? So I mean we are big fans of the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Nice to see them come back and do their thing against a Minnesota Wild team that was very tough and stingy in this series early.

[Boston Connor]

They are scrappy and then talk about a scrappy series. Let's go to LA and Edmonton. LA was up 20 in this series. And then the Oilers have, they have absolutely steamed back. They are now up 32 in the series after their win last night. The Oilers have absolutely dominated the third period in this entire series. Knights have had at least a tie or a a lead going into the third period in every single game. And this one again, the Oilers dominated in the third period and then, and then took it and then they got an empty netter to make it 3:1 at the end.

[Pat McAfee]

So something happened. Jackie Redmond at Monday Night Raw, she came up to me and was like talking about hockey, playoffs, NHL playoffs and how awesome they are. And then she said something about the LA Kings coach making the worst decision in a long time in coaching. I didn't get a chance to hear it all because I was literally getting introduced into the arena at the time. But she said that we need to be talking about the LA Kings coach making a bad coaching decision and kind of changing the course of this entire series. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Don Cowboys out of Victoria Canada Gumpy. What was she referring to? Do you know?

[Boston Connor]

So there was a definite goal that he challenged. If you challenge a goal and you don't win the challenge, the other team also gets a power play. So the goal counts for the Oilers. Then they score on the power play right after that. Basically turn this whole series on its head.

[Pat McAfee]

That was two games ago.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Jackie was like, you, you guys need to be talking about like coaching decision in hockey actually changing the outcome of the series. She legitimately, like first thing she said to me was like, obviously the playoffs are awesome. Yada yada yada. Have you talked about the Kings coaching decision? Because I don't think this happens a lot in hockey. Right. It's not really like you're looking at the coaches. Biz actually said yesterday about the coaches. Like coaches. Six and a half, $7 million for a coach. There's only so many things you can really do. Feels like that might become a storyline if the Kings end up losing a series.

[Boston Connor]

They legitimately could have swept this series. Like that's how at the start of this series they were outplaying the Oilers, like killing them. And then that changed everything. Now the Oilers are up. The Kings never lose at home. Dominated at home all year. Oilers go in there and win. And you got to think the Oilers clinch it at home in game six.

[Ty Schmidt]

That also happened last night in the Golden Knights game on Stoner's goal. Minnesota challenged as well. And then boom, right after that goal's good and the Golden Knights are right back on a power play. So yeah, I mean that, that obviously that that changes the outcome and the flow of a game massively.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, let's go to tonight. There's more Stanley cup playoffs for this evening. Washington, who's up 31 currently over. LA Hobs will be playing obviously Ovechkin, superstar of the league. Tkachuk and the boys down in Florida are three one taking on the Bolts in Tampa. That's a tough barn. St. Louis and Winnipeg 22930 tonight. Hopefully that series can go to seven. Why not? You know, why not extend this playoff feels like everything. Both in the NBA and the NHL. 313-13-3131 Here we go. Now we got a couple battles. Speaking of the NBA had a good night last night. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. But the hell happened in the NBA.

[AJ Hawk]

NBA did have a great night last night. One more note on the NHL too. Panthers E Blad will be suspended two.

[Pat McAfee]

Games he was just gone.

[AJ Hawk]

Right. He got suspended. P PDS came back after 20 games. Obviously had the hit that wasn't called in the game but then got of an elbow. A2 gamer. I. I didn't love it, but it is what it is. We'll rally, we'll figure out a way. But NBA. NBA was great last night.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah, that was clearly an elbow.

[AJ Hawk]

It was clearly didn't call it.

[Pat McAfee]

How about the ref right there? Nah, that's playoff hockey. Right? So hockey showing up. This guy suspended for two games. That's clear. Elbow to the face. Love everything about it. Okay. Hockey players just kind of eat that and keep it moving. Suspended two games after a 20 game suspension for PEDs. Are the back to back hopes gone with one elbow swing for the Florida Panthers? We shall see. NBA in the middle of some magic right now.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes. There are four games last night. Two kind of blowouts and two very close games. We'll start on the west coast. The Nuggets and the Clippers. Two, two series coming into it. Nuggets found a way to get it done. Joker once again being dominant, got a triple double. But the story tonight was Jamal Murray and I found out this morning he is the all time leader in Nuggets history with 40 point playoff games. I would not have thought that or thought it would have been Joker, maybe even Melo. But Jamal Murray came alive and put the Clippers down. This really wasn't close. James Harden didn't really show up for the Clippers. Kawhi had a decent game. Russ had a good game as well. Just an all out team effort for the Denver Nuggets to figure it out and get it done and get this series. 2, 3, 2. Like I said, this was a 2, 2 series coming in. They found a way to get it done. Jamal Murray just lights out 8 for 14 from beyond the arc. So he was on fire all night long. Nuggets get it done. 43, 7, 3 stills. Like I said, 8 for 14 from beyond the arc.

[Pat McAfee]

And Joker's coaching this team, right? He is.

[AJ Hawk]

He's a coach.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what they're like first shoot. He is the coach of that team right now.

[AJ Hawk]

Coach and GM and you know when you fire your coach coming to the playoffs, we've said it, all the NBA guys have said it. Like you pretty much think championships hopes are out the window. But Joker and obviously Jamal Murray and other guys stepping up, having big plays. I can't speak enough about Russell Westbrook too bouncing back. He always has tough outings and it's always loud in the media around that team when he does. So I love to see him showing up as well. What other game?

[Pat McAfee]

Russell Westbrook just last thing on him. He's so fast. Yeah, that'd be like a loose ball. It's like, who is that? And it's like, oh, it's Russell Westbrook. Still got it. Doesn't have a lot of pressure on him on this team either. No. You talked about obviously Jamal and Joker. Aaron Gordon, also a guy, Vaughn a guy. I mean they got a bunch over there and Joker being the coach, player, Jackie Moon of them right now currently pretty awesome story. And I think I forget who we talked to. Maybe Q. Rich or somebody else from the NBA world that they said once you fire a coach, just like you mentioned, you're. You're kind of saying like, all right, we're not going to try to win it this year. I don't think anybody told the team that. I don't think anybody told the players that. Obviously Joker has the opportunity to be great anytime he's on the court. What if the Nuggets go on a run here and they fire their coach and GM right beforehand? If you're Malone, you gotta be like, was I even. Yeah. What was I doing there?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, like they can go on a run. That would be unbelievable. His, his last champ. His only championship run with the Nuggets. And Joker. Jamal Murray was obviously huge in that as well. But that was one of the more impressive championship runs I know that at least I've ever seen. Speaking of championship runs, Celtics, you know, back, you know, champions looking to go back to back. They had a great outing last night. Didn't start off well. They were down in the first half against the Magic Ofer. You know, for a team that broke the three point record OFer from beyond the arc in the first half and they just absolutely took over the game in the second half. 36 to 13 in the third quarter. Ended up beating the shit out of the magic 120 to 89. Jason Tatum once again should be at this point one of, if not the face of the league. I mean he's everything you want in a superstar. Not on his team, but just league wise gold medalist as well. Even though, you know, Steve Kerr didn't play him, but just absolute vibes. Vibes, gold medal vibes, 35, 10 and 8. So he's a guy that fills up the stat sheet. And this team, you know, they're going to be fighting on defense, going to get it done on offense. Jalen Brown had A solid game as well, but it's always a team effort when it comes to the Celtics. They close out this series four to one. So a gentleman's sweep. Orlando Magic, they got talent, they got guys just probably a piece or two away. But I am excited to see Paolo's future as a superstar in NBA.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see that graphic that Boston made Orlando magically disappear?

[Darius Butler]

That was pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

Very clever way Go Bone. Hey, baby Bone. Well done, Bone. Bone was really in his bag this morning. Really, really in his bag this morning, I tell you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I was hoping especially in the first half that the Magic at least extended this series, you know, one, two games maybe. But this is a great job by Celtic closing out and now they have more of an opportunity to get healthy when they get to the next round. Another game. Pistons and Knicks been a gritty affair. Another good, good series. Right now that series is also 3 to 2. Now Knicks came in up 31 and Pistons found a way, found a way to get it done. Cade Cunningham didn't have a great game, I would say to his standards going into the fourth. But he is just. His game is just so calm, under control. He's a young player, but he looks like a savvy vet out there getting it done. Some substitution. I think Thibodeau could have probably got. His guys got big body Brunson in a little bit earlier late into that fourth quarter, but did not. And Pistons found a way to get it done and extend this series to make it 3:2. Pistons continue to fight. Hopefully this goes to a seven game series. Love this team just outside of the court. I just love seeing Foxy and Bruce going at it in the back. So I need seven games out of this series for sure. But I think Cade grew up a little bit more in this series. All the boys fight. They're all dogs out there. Big purr. We'll see how he bounces back and shows up for the New York Knicks going forward. See if they can close it out next game.

[Pat McAfee]

You can tell how like physical Detroit is. I was watching a portion of that game last night because I couldn't watch the next game. We're going to talk about, even though I live in the city, that the game was happening and it was a close out playoff game and we couldn't fucking watch the game. Need to figure that whole thing out. That, that is the dumbest. I don't, I don't even know. I don't even know the proper words to describe the fact that I couldn't watch the pacers play the Bucks last night, get out of YouTube TV. And I have Hulu, and I couldn't. Couldn't find the game, and it was on YouTube TV. On NBA TV for, like, the first quarter.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So I thought I had it figured out. I thought I had it on. Leave the room, come back. No program's been blocked in your area. Okay, so I guess I'll just watch through social media clips. Oh, no, you got to download the NBA app. It's like, okay, let me have my tv. Download another. Can it even find the MDA app? I have no idea. Well, you need to have Bally's network or FanDuel TV. It's like, somebody gonna call YouTube and Hulu and tell them that. Who? How? That's unbelievable that I live in the city in which this game is happening. And they're like, well, it should be sold out. Was it not? Felt like. Had to have been sold out, like, so I just can't watch the. What. Anyway, so I was forced to watch Pistons, Knicks, you know, and it was boring. The magic's happened here, and it got good at the end.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Pistons, Knicks got good at the end, but this Bucs Pacers game has, like, had a lot of juice, and the series been wild. Can't watch it. So I guess I'll watch Pistons, Knicks, then I'll go over to hockey and yada, yada, yada. That's how I do my night. Jalen Brunson was getting just like. There wasn't a single step he was taking without two guys or one guy hitting him, going and burying them. And there's a couple moments where they zoom in on Brunson's face where he's about to do an inbound pass. And it's like, that's just what you sign up for, I guess whenever you're with the Pistons, I guess you just kind of sign up for that. You're going to get battled. Yes. Then there was a moment with the cord where a little bit of a give. Ooh. Rolls. Oh, so maybe the Pistons kind of softened the floor a little bit there. Maybe that's normal wood. I'm not 100% sure, but playing that Pistons team, I don't think anybody wants to sign up for that. Yeah. Gritty, grimy, tough, physical. It's exactly how we want it. And that's how we won the game, because Hart and Brun. And we're out at the end of that thing, and that's when we pulled away. We got a lead, and they couldn't get sub back in and we win that one. Game six in Detroit. Let's go. They're like. Like in hockey. Tampa won all those years because they were big, physical and fast.

[Foxy]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's like in playoff hockey, if you're big in physical, you're probably going to end up winning. Which is why this Washington Capitals team has a shot. Because Tom Wilson is literally still Tom Wilson. Ovie still ovi. But you got to be big and you got to be strong. This Detroit Pistons team in best of seven series is baseball. You can't do it, but in hockey you can. And in basketball, if you play the right way, you. It's like they wear people down. And that's how we love it. It was just like the bad boys back in the day, the 04 pistons back in the day. And then you could even look at the Lions. The Lions are a gritty football team that are going to ground and pound. So that's what the city of Detroit wants, what the state of Michigan wants. So they're so much fun to want to watch win these games.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I think Joe Missoula's Boston Celtics will sign up for it, but Foxy mentioned it right there from. I think it was 257 left in the game to 27 seconds left. They were trying to get Jalen Brunson in the game and everyone in the garden was basically. There was like growing uncomfortability with what was going on because of the fact that there was no pauses in the game. I think they had to call time out to get Brunson back in because at that point I was watching the Celtics game because of course they weren't showing Pacers bucks. As soon as that ends. NBA tv. Hey, we're back. Celtics magic. Here we go. But yeah, that was so stupid.

[Pat McAfee]

But anyways, the Pistons are theme. I don't think anybody wants to play. I don't think anybody wants to play the Pistons just because there's no way. It's going to be a fun, serious. You're gonna get beat down and like the refs are gonna have to figure out what they call and what they don't call. It's kind of like what they were saying about Patino's team whenever it came to March Madness. It was like the refs are gonna have to decide what the rules are for their team because it's every single time down to court. I assume the Detroit folks, you talked about the old Pistons, everything like that. I assume the Detroit people love how this team represents that City love everything about it. And like you said about the refs, it's so weird because, like, they'll call the game normal and then. And at the end of that game, it was so physical and they swallow the whistles. They don't know what to do, so they just let them play. It's awesome. A lot of pressure on the ref. So much. Now let's get to the game that nobody in Indianapolis could see. Unless you were there. Unless you were just watching the clips online. The Indiana Pacers beat the Bucks in a gentleman's sweep. Congrats to Indiana Pacers. Tyrese Halliburton is the guy. Tyrese was hala balling all over the place end of the fourth quarter. Had to make a play to tie a team. He does then. Let's go to the final 37 seconds of the game last night and just watch the pacers, who were Don7 with less than a minute left in overtime. The rebound Pacers have to work quick again. No timeouts. There's a long three by Nehar.

[Boston Connor]

He got it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, baby. Got it in the corner. Taken by Nemhar. Job by Nemhar to get there to take it. He's not Nemc. Still have a chance.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Halberton has it.

[Pat McAfee]

20 seconds to play. Don't mind him getting a layup.

[Boston Connor]

And he'll lay it in.

[AJ Hawk]

And a foul.

[Darius Butler]

Now they.

[Pat McAfee]

Got the foul. Mr. Halbert degree and out of bounds. Trent lost it. Uhoh. 10 seconds left. Overtime series deciding game. Halberton against Giannis Halberton. 3 7. Puts it in. He put it in. 1 and 3. 10. There's no timeout. No timeouts for the Bucks. Yanis to inbound. Not happening. Here's Trent. Great victory for these guys. What a heck of a victory. What a win for the Pacers. Pacers are a damn good ball club. Yeah. And Connor, you said yesterday that you would rather play the Cavs than the Pacers at this moment as the Boston Celtics. A lot of Cavs fans got all pissed off. Then you put out a tweet. What are the records between the Pacers and The Cavs?

[Darius Butler]

Last 50 games of the season, including the playoffs. They essentially have the exact same record. I think it's one game difference. Maybe 35 and 15, 36 and 14. But they're basically identical these last 50 games.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Tyrese Halliburton and the boys are balling. Coach Carlisle has the boys flying around this Pacers team at this time of year. If you go back to last year and this year, playing their best Ball. And also the entire city is around them. Did you hear that experience? Did you hear that environment last year? They might have been too young. They got a big win in the garden. Then they took on the Celtics in the Eastern Conference final. They should have won three out of those games. They end up losing four straight. 40 loss. Nobody's even allowed to celebrate. You get swept in the Eastern Conference finals, get the hell out of here. It doesn't matter that you made the Eastern Conference finals. So the Pacers weren't really even allowed to celebrate the season that they had last year, which was certainly overachieving from what everybody expected. Tyrese Haliburton was just voted the most overrated player in the NBA. And then all of a sudden, when it's needed in a fourth quarter quarter, he does it. Then when it's needed in overtime, he takes the Greek freak to the fucking hoop and wins the game. Now a lot of the conversation is about what happened after the game. We will talk to Tyrese Haliburton in an hour and 15 minutes, 01:40 Eastern Time. Tyrese Halibalin will be joining us to chit chat about the Pacers going 41 over the Bucs. Now Damian Lillard tears his Achilles that is obviously incredibly sad and changes who the Bucks are. But that number 34 guy is an absolute beast. And when push came to shoves, one of the series was on the line. Halliburton. And they drew up a play to get Halliburton on him. One on one to the rack. Old school basketball. Pacers advance and Pacers are dangerous. I don't think I heard anybody talking about that on TV this morning. I just heard people saying that Tyrese's dad, his father, should not be allowed to watch him play basketball live ever again because of a moment that happened afterwards. Crazy that that is coming out of people's mouths. But I understand we must protect players at all costs. I'll be excited to hear what Tyrese Halliburton has to say about that in about an hour and 15. I think he agrees with the sentiment that his dad should have been nowhere near Giannis after that game. But I do believe his dad has been very invested. His dad just read that he was the most overrated player. His dad has watched him get benched throughout the entire Olympics. His dad has seen him get traded out of Sacramento. His dad has been alongside the journey of the Iowa State Cyclone throughout his entire life. Maybe got a little bit excited whenever his kid took the Greek freak to Iraq to win it. And Had a moment afterwards that he regrets, which is what he said Tyrese obviously regrets. But just being like, ban him. Him ban this kid's dad is a wild statement, I think just. Just. That's a wild statement. But I don't know how the NBA policies operate.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Protect the player. I am on a protective players World 100. And also Giannis. Yeah, he's kind of Giannis going down to Mr. Halliburton. And Mr. Halliburton not even. Yeah, him also go what?

[Jason Light]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

To a six foot nine guy. Certainly a tale of the tape should be made there on how that whole thing went. But Giannis, I think in Tyrese, I think they know each other.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Obviously through the basketball world, I think they have maybe the same trainer and everything like that. Giannis obviously very upset in that moment. His team just got knocked out of the playoffs. Tyrese's dad super jacked up. He apologized for it. He doesn't think it's right. Tyrese doesn't think it's right. So it's been a wild reaction, but the reaction has kind of been camouflaging. What the real story is, his Pacers team is for real. We couldn't watch the game last night, but the pace. If you could watch the Pacers, they are for real. Debuff.

[AJ Hawk]

It was a phenomenal race.

[Pat McAfee]

Radio.

[AJ Hawk]

Listen, I'll tell you that little flash of the past, but, yeah, it was an unbelievable game. And now on the Bucks side, is that the last time we see Giannis in the Bucks jersey? It's going to be some conversation, a lot of conversations about that. Obviously, the post game dust up is going to get some headlines and he kind of, you know, pops, put. Put Tyrese in a bad spot. But I think Tyrese handled it like he's been handling everything. It seems like a true pro. And Giannis, I think he did as well. He showed a lot of restraint. That's a big bad person to walk up to, but he definitely showed restraint. Then he got into it a little bit with Ben Matheran, too. So this is a chippy series. This will be a chippy series, but this is why we watch the playoffs. This is why we love the NBA players.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Him snagging Matheran's head afterwards, and then Matheran saying, get, get off me there. There was indie reporters who were like, ben, what are you doing? It's like, what is Ben doing? Why is this guy snagging Ben Matheran's head? Is he going to kiss him? Is he going to hug him or is he.

[AJ Hawk]

Stephanie says some crazy to him, too.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, he's. He's okay. All right, get that. Like, there was indie reporters that were like, ben, what are you doing here? It's like, what the hell was the hell was going on? Some old beat in the hug. But with that being said, I appreciate the fact that both these teams cared enough to get to this chippy, you know, and it was a great series, even though it was 4:1. And once again, the Pacers, they're menaces. Yes, the Pacers are a problem. And the Pacers are loved here. This particular Pacers team loved in Indianapolis. I think everybody says they represent the city well. They represent the Pacers well. And obviously the storyline of his dad getting after it. I don't think anybody wanted that to be the story. But I'll tell you, you look front row down there. Every game it's Tyrese's mom, Tyrese's dad, and they've been through it all with Tyrese, and he gets a little jacked up. I appreciate the fact that he loves his kid.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, can't make it about Tyler. You sure?

[Darius Butler]

No doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't make it about you. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who just got done with another, we assume, successful draft. I've gotten some stats here about this man. Okay? All 38 of this man's draft selections, first through sixth rounds from 2019 to 2024 were on an NFL roster last season.

[Boston Connor]

That's crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa. Wow. That's a high hit rate. Ladies and gentlemen. This is a multiple time super bowl champion. This guy's an absolute legend. The general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, ladies and gentlemen, Jason La. Sorry. Sorry about the little audio glitch that there was. Thank you for waiting around and thank you for joining us. Boss man, how are you?

[Foxy]

I wouldn't miss it for the world. Appreciate you having me on.

[Pat McAfee]

I want to let you know we looked up some of these stats. Brother, you're in your bag whenever it comes to this draft thing. 38 from 2019 to 2024, first through sixth round, all 38 picks that you and your scouting department and pro personnel and everything were on a roster last season. That feels so unlikely. Just with the way the world is currently, with the way we don't know who's going to show up. Once somebody gets a little bit of money, once somebody gets a little bit of freedom, once somebody gets into an Osage system. For you, what is the biggest tell on whether or not a guy's going to be successful in the NFL. What are you looking for that kind of makes it that okay, this is going to be a guy type indicator for you?

[Foxy]

Well, first of all, I mean, I got a phenomenal staff. I'm lucky. The only thing I'll take credit for is hiring well. So I hired a great group of guys and girls that are on my staff. I mean, you guys have had big brain, Mike Greenberg on and you know, there's a, there's a host of others. But, you know, it was about five years ago, you know, we weren't having the success I wanted in the drafts. Kind of had a powwow got together, just all of us, the whole staff, talking about what are the picks that have made it, what are the picks in the history of the Bucks and that have made it? And we're big time players and we, you know, it was, it was the person, you know, we're missing a. On the, we're never, rarely missing on the player. We're missing on the person. And what are these qualities of a person that made them successful? And we came up with it. We came up with a little slogan. John Spytack was a part of this too. It was called I am that man. And we have a silhouette in our draft room. It's actually Levante David that is the silhouette because he epitomizes everything about what we're looking for. You could, you could say the same thing about Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, a host of others, but it's a quality that we're looking for and it's really not that hard. You know, we put the players that are worthy of being drafted on the draft board like every team does, but then we just kind of take the assholes and the douchebags off and guys that don't love football and guys have proven that they don't like it, they're difficult to deal with, and we just kind of mitigate our risk and we're taking good, great players that are great humans.

[Pat McAfee]

What you say I am that man. I am that man.

[Foxy]

What is the I am that man? It's, you know, so at the final stages of the draft prep, we'll go around the table to all the people in the scouting department, say, is he that man? And yes, he is or no, he's not. So we take him off the board and we take a lot of good players off the board. A lot of players that went in the first, you know, go in the first round. But we, I inform the owners, you're don't, don't don't get nervous. You know these guys are probably going to go in the first but we just don't want to deal with, with him.

[Pat McAfee]

Jay Glazer and family, obviously the ownership down there at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Let's talk about. I am that man being kind of represented in your pick. Your first pick, Emeka Buka is a guy that Kirk Herbstream came on the show and was like the guy who's gonna be the guy. Another Terry McLaren is what Kirk Herbstreak described him as is a mecca Abuka. You take him at pick 19. That is the highest that he's ever been showed any respect basically since he has gotten to Ohio State has put up massive numbers. I believe he's a record breaking receiver for the Ohio State Buckeyes and he's never talked about, even whenever we were talking about the games and we're covering the games, obviously it's impossible not to talk about Jeremiah and then beforehand it was impossible not to talk about Marvin Harrison, let alone Tate and then the two running backs that they have. Whenever you go through the superstar list and the storyline list in the talking point list, Emeka buuka is like 5, 6. If you add Will Howard and you add to offensive line, he's like 7, 8, 9 on the talking point list out of a starting 11. But every single game he showed up and he blocks his ass off whenever other people have the ball. I assume whenever you guys did that I am that man speech. This guy had glowing reviews because that's all anybody that's ever been around him has said. When did you know this was going to be the guy if he was available?

[Foxy]

The scouts talked about this guy all year starting back. I think it actually started back last year in 2023. But you know, he just epitomizes what we just talked about. You can't find anybody to say a negative thing about this guy as a teammate, as a person and then obviously as a player. We, we just thought that he was just the, the mold of consistency. He reminds us he's got some Godwin traits to him. He's got got but you know he can play all three positions. It just, you just can't go wrong with this guy. It when you have a defensive minded coach like Todd and he is raving about this guy and excited about him throughout the whole draft process, hoping that he's going to be there for us, then you know, that's a great tell that that he's the right person because there's a mult, there are Multiple defensive players we could have taken there and felt good about at that spot, but he was the unanimous. We need this guy. We can't let this guy slip past us. We don't want to risk moving down, trying to get Cube picking up a pick. Let's just take him and be happy with it.

[Pat McAfee]

Two offense, five defense out of your seven picks. Obviously, Baker Mayfield, still the quarterback down there in Tampa, feels like a perfect fit for your offense. You talked about Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and everybody else, but let's talk about the people calling the shots. DBut has a question for you, Jason.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Jason, you mentioned you took great job of hiring, and with that, you. You usually get success, most notably with Baker Mayfield. Great success, even with the run game. Kind of turning that around last year as well. So you lose Liam to Jacksonville to be a head coach, and that will continue to happen as long as you have success. How do you manage the people taking over those jobs, whether it be coaches in front office? How do you manage identifying, I guess, the next in line?

[Foxy]

Well, you know, I. I trust Todd, obviously, to. To know who he likes as a coach and what he's seen all year. He. The meeting rooms with them the whole year. And for us this year, we. We interviewed a lot of candidates. Todd did he. I was a part of the process, but Todd did the majority of it. But really, at the end of the day, it was pretty easy with Josh Grizzard, our Grizz, we call him as our coach, as our offensive coordinator. Yeah. He's also from Lizard Lick, North Carolina. So you got Grizz from Liz.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that for Lizard like towing? Is that. Is that that. Oh, that's Lizard like Towing.

[Foxy]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you ever seen that show?

[Foxy]

No, I haven't.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you want to learn a little bit more about Grizz and where he's from? I think you should go check out. Yeah, I think you should.

[Foxy]

I felt like I knew everything about him.

[Pat McAfee]

You watch one episode, you'll know. You'll get it. You will get a Grizz's success story. We should be talking more about Grizz. Way to go, Grizz. Congratulations down there. I'm sorry I cut you off there, but Lizard Lick toeing. I think we'll do a good justice on where Grizz is from. I think you'll learn a lot quickly. Just 30 minutes is all you need.

[Foxy]

Well, he's. He was. You know, he was. He had a great relationship with our entire offense, and he's a sharp guy. Not just because he Went to Yale doesn't mean that he's sharp. I know some people from Yale and Princeton and other Ivy League, you know, schools that I wouldn't trust coaching our offense, but he. He's definitely one. It's a plus. He's just a great dude. And I know when we. When Todd named him the offensive coordinator, I got text upon text from our players and most notably Baker, that was really, really fired up about it. So he's off to a great start.

[Pat McAfee]

How off? Did you check it? You said most notable there with Baker. Did you check with Baker? I know this is a big conversation. It always is like, hey, did the quarterback have any say on who his final wide receivers were? Hey, did the quarterback have any say on who his offensive coordinator was? We have seen drama in the past at other places, and that being actual talking point, you and Baker, how is your relationship and how much are you chit chatting with Baker whenever you're doing things for the offensive side of the team? Not. Not necessarily the entire team.

[Foxy]

I would say Todd has a great relationship with him and I also have a great relationship with him. Both of us checked in with him and asked what his thoughts were on. On. On Grizz, and they were always very favorable and always very, very high. Along with our other offensive coaches, the. There's great synergy here. We got a great culture. Some other GMs might call it an ecosystem, but we call it our great culture. And everybody right now, we're flying high with the way it's going and the chemistry that we have and this grizzle. Just step right in and I think we're going to not miss a beat.

[Pat McAfee]

Baker feels like the perfect quarterback for you guys, especially in the situation that you were post Tom Brady. I mean, that's the greatest of all time. We saw the cranes that were in that city whenever we were living down there for like six, seven, seven months. I mean, the Bolts had won a couple Stanley Cups, you guys, obviously Super Bowl. Now, who's going to come in for the next era? Obviously, Mike Evans and others will continue, but the quarterback position is very important. Baker Mayfield, especially with how he'd been kind of kicked out a couple different times, felt like the perfect guy. And now I'm hearing he took a Mecca, Buka and his family to brunch as soon as he got to town after getting drafted. And was that down there on that bay, they got some beautiful spots. Looks like it. Is that where Baker took the brand new bucket?

[Foxy]

It might have been. Baker's got a pretty good Sweet spot, too. His house. It's right on the water, too.

[Pat McAfee]

He does that on that island, is he? You don't have to give away his.

[Foxy]

I don't want to give away the address. Let's just say he's got a nice view, I think. Yeah, he's got a nice view.

[Pat McAfee]

We probably saw that house. I think we drove by it a couple times. Good for Bank. Congrats, Bank. You deserve it. You deserve it. You've earned it. Absolutely. I'm sorry, but he took a Mecca out. That's like leadership to a tee, right? That's what we're looking for here.

[Foxy]

It's. Yeah, I did it with unprompted. He was super excited after the pick. I texted him. Him right before the pick. You're going to like this one. He texted me back right after the, you know, was announced and super excited and, you know, that's what we love about Bake. I was watching your show yesterday. You guys were talking about dogs. He's a dog, so that's what we love about Bake. That's. That sums him up in one word.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Les need brought it up about how we're looking for dogs. You know, and if you've been in a football building, you know, it's spelled D A W G, not dog. And I think Les Sneed was saying that because I seen some graphics on some shows that said, like, dog watch. Dog watch. I'm like, oh, that is not. We're not talking about the same sport here. Wrong. You're talking about the dog show. Is that what you're talking about? I don't know what you're referring to. Looking for dogs. It seems like that's what I am. That man is about like, hey, totally. Yeah. Does he work hard? Teammate? Will he do whatever. Does he love ball? I mean, that is literally the case. Now, on that note, you took a pick that, you know, I think is kind of a projection or maybe a question. Go ahead, Tone.

[Jason Light]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Jason. Second round. Benjamin Moore, Morrison or. Yeah. Out of the corner, out of Notre Dame. He was hurt for half of last year, but his 2023 tape was unbelievable. He had six interceptions as a freshman. We're watching him against Marvin Harrison here, which was. Was unbelievable. Is it. Is it a situation where, like, once the doctors clear him, you're good to go or how do you. How do you go about drafting guys with that have been injured in the past season?

[Foxy]

So we. We have a process here. Just like every other team. We. Our doctors checked them all out at the combine. They wait for more IM testing, they ask for more things. Sometimes in these cases, at the end of the day we're not going to take a player that our medical team felt uncomfortable with. He ended up working out right. The week before the draft we, we had one of our top scouts there at it. We got the video of it right away. We felt he looked really, really good. And he's in a spot where I think he's going to be full go by. You know, he probably could practice right now. We're going to see how it goes when he comes in here, but we're going to take it easy. We're going to make sure that we careful with him but he's going to be ready by training camp. Everybody feels like and you know, he had the same injury on the other side, his other hip back in high school, had it repaired. It's kind of like from what we understand, it's once it's repaired and you can play on, you've proven that you can play on it. You're, you're good to go. It's almost as, as healthy as it can be.

[Pat McAfee]

Speaking of injuries and coming back, let's go to the other side of the ball. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Jason, just curious. I assume everything is good with Chris God Godwin considering you guys re signed him but obviously he has that brutal, you know, ankle injury and had to have surgery immediately. Missed the rest of the season. What's his progress been like and is there any part of drafting a mecca Egbuca because you don't know if, if Chris is going to be available at the start of the season or is that one of those things where it's just like, hey, the more weapons we can get for Baker, the better.

[Foxy]

It's, it's all about the weapons and it was all about best player available there. Chris is on target where we thought he'd be. You know, Chris we're taking, Chris is a, we signed up in three years. One year is a long term deal in the NFL, but three years, it's, we're, we're excited to have him this long. So we, this gives us some comfort that we can just make sure that he's rehabbing at a steady rate that we're not rushing this. We're expecting him week one but now we're not, you know, not worried about trying to rush it too quickly because we've got another receiver that can step in. But that doesn't mean that we're not expecting him to be back week one because we still Are okay, let's stay.

[Pat McAfee]

In that wide receiver position. You bring in a guy that I liked a lot out of Oregon, late pick, obviously was around in Tez Johnson. He was electrifying when he was at Oregon. But when you do that, you also create a locker room that has the smallest dude in the NFL and also largest dude in the NFL. 310 pound difference. Which once again, I would like to say is one of the main reasons why football is so damn spectacular. Any body type.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

It can play football and contribute to the team. So you got the smallest in the league. Biggest in the league. Tell me about Tez a little bit and what your expectations are. What should anybody's expectations be for seventh rounder, sixth rounder, maybe even fifth rounder in their first year in the NFL?

[Foxy]

Well, they're up against the odds of just. If you take a look at the whole thing, every team, team, year after year, fifth through seventh round picks, the odds are against you making your team. If you make it, you know, that's, that's great. So with Tez, we're going to see how he, how it is when he's in here. But I'll say this.

[Jason Light]

We.

[Foxy]

We had a, we had a pretty high grade on him. Most of the time that you're watching Oregon offense, he was. Is one of the top, if not the best player on the field. Did the same thing down at the Senior Bowl. Makes plays left and right. He's a hell of a return Turner. Hell of a kid. Bucky Irving's been talking to us about him for two years now. Got frankly got a little tired of him talking to us every day about him. He was my son, Theo, my 11 year old's favorite player in the entire draft. That's not why we took him, but I don't have to hear about that anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

So chances are, I mean, it helps life. Yeah, it helps life.

[Foxy]

It helps life a lot. Yeah. So. So no, we're super excited about. He was so fired up when he called. You know, you make those calls. I get a little nervous making those calls on draft day because that, that recording lives in me and it's the most important day for these players. So I don't want to come off sounding like a dork and I don't want to, you know, call the player by the wrong name. And I certainly don't want to make a call and say, hey, because I kind of say the same thing every time I try to think of something new to say. But once the call is made, hey, we're Going to turn your name in. What do you think? And one day, one of them is going to say, well, I don't want to be there. And I'm going to have to say, hey, you somebody else.

[Pat McAfee]

Somebody's not happy about you calling them. I mean, like. Like, that would be a great recording. Hey, how you doing today, man? This is Jason Light from Tampa Bay. And they go, yeah, I know. I was hoping this wouldn't any other team but you guys. All right, forget it. We'll go and shut it down. Hilarious that you're thinking about that recording because you flub a couple words. Oh, my God. You look like the dumbest guy of all time. Yeah, you look like the dumbest guy. How'd this guy become a general manager of an NFL team? I can't even speak. Oh, my God. God, the nerves before, let alone a first rounder. Holy. Maybe we get a teleprompter in there, Jason. Maybe we get a teleprompter in there. Something to think about, brother. Something to think about, that is.

[Foxy]

I'm gonna have to start using chat GBT to come up with something new or something. I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

People are saying it comes up with apologies pretty well. People are saying on the Internet maybe those have been publicly used. These AI. They might be doing the drafting for you much sooner than you could even imagine now. Until then, Connor has question for you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Jason, I don't think they can figure out, you know, the reasons why guys might not love football, which is what you said when it comes to breaking down some of these prospects for you guys. What are some of those things? Is it, you know, things of the nature, like Les Snead said yesterday, where, you know, they drafted a bunch of D linemen and all those D linemen started at small schools, worked their way up, and then, you know, proved that they love ball through, you know, working very hard. But what are some of those things that you look for that shows that guys don't love ball and you can kind of stay away from them?

[Foxy]

Well, first of all, I'd say my scouting staff, fortunately, they've been with me for a long time, a lot of them, and they have their areas covered pretty well. They know everybody in that area. They know. I know it's hyperbole and you hear it all the time, but they know the janitors in the building. They know everybody at these schools. So we get great information from them. It starts with them. They're the lifeblood of this organization, our scouts. But then, you know, we. We talk to them at the combine. And these guys go through the ringer there. They're doing interviews for five straight hours. And sometimes I like it when, when our staff is talking to the player at the end because they're exhausted. But if they're still alert, engaged, you know, they love it. They love every bit of it. And the same thing when we bring them in for a visit, top 30 visit, visit, we put them through the ringer here. We start off in the morning, they pick them up early, they have breakfast, they meet with coach after coach, staff member after staff member for an entire day until 5:00. And we had a player. We have, everybody has eyes on these guys. They report to me, they report to my scouting staff, what they thought about the player, even the intern driving them to and from the airport. So we had a player that was towards the end of the day, we had him in a room, he's waiting to talk to another coach. And the coach goes in there and he put a ski mattress mask on. And he was sitting there with the ski mask because he's like, I'm just done talking to everybody. Can I just sit here with a ski mask on? So he was the weirdest thing. So I kind of like the psycho ness of that. So we didn't take the player off the board, but it's just kind of.

[Pat McAfee]

Definitely an asterisk though. Hey, let's remember this is a once.

[Foxy]

In a while, yeah, I move him down maybe a couple ticks. But then we had a player that was getting a little too comfortable around one of the interns. And I mean, does he not realize that that's probably going to be reported? I mean, that they have to know that this is, this is a business. Obviously doesn't love it enough to act like a pro during the visit. So there's just little tells like that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's interesting because, you know, I would assume they're being told like, hey, this is an interview. What you're doing right now is a full day interview with these people. So the people that pick you up in a car, even if they're not associated with, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they are reporting back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You would think in 2025, that's an assumption that would be a narrative that is spread to the people there. But then there's the follow up of like, well, nowadays these kids don't care because they've been millionaires for four years already. They've been millionaires for three years. Have you noticed anything in the modern nil Athlete, are they? I think it's potentially a positive because you already know what somebody's going to do whenever they get money, whenever they get rich? Because that was a question I think for a long time, like, hey, when this guy gets money for the first. I mean, I certainly could be an example of people wondering. And I ended up getting. I had a good time. I bought a wrestling ring at 3am first time getting money. Not everybody's supposed to have money. I was not supposed to have money at the beginning of that. I still worked hard at my craft, but I was not supposed to have money. There's some people that get money. Once you start sleeping on satin sheets, not as good. Feels like in the nil. That could be a positive because we already know what people are doing whenever they get some money. And has it changed the way they act when they're talking to you? Is there a little bit more entitlement, potentially from people who have been professionals for a few years before entering the National Football League?

[Foxy]

From my experiences so far, I thought going into this NIL thing, you know, a few years ago that we were going to be seeing that the entitlement more so than not. But from my experience so far, I think it's just been the opposite. I think these players are coming in very well educated on how to handle their money, how to handle success. They already have a team of people, a lot of them, that are investing their money. You know, the days of asking the player, what are you going to do with your first paycheck when you get your bonus? What is, what are you going to. What's the first thing you're going to buy? You can't answer that anymore because they've already done all that. They bought the car, there's a lot of them have bought the house already, you know, so I think they're. I think they're really more mature about it now. And I think that goes. I think it's just society now. I think their moms, their dads, but a lot of cases their parents have, have really taught them well now. And just maybe it's just because the players were taking. Are very mature. But I think overall it's been a positive experience.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I've been seeing that too. That's why the nil entitlement conversation does come up a couple of times. Like there's people out there that people talk about and the way they act, for sure and negativity is going to hog publicity. But getting a chance to meet these guys traveling around for college football and college game day. These kids are millionaires at 19. And I'm thinking about my, myself if I was like on a college campus with what 50 cent beers are right there. Yeah, like that is what this is. That's what I'm saying. So like the way I see these guys operate, I'm just like so impressed, like so mind blown by the way. And I think they've kind of been scared by society too to like act right. Because if you get caught on camera or caught on anything, your life's over. And they've lived through, they've seen friends, they've seen that. So that I think that's why there's a lot more people that stay in. I think there's a lot more people that have matured quickly. I think people learn a lot more about stuff and I think they don't view money as big of a life changer as maybe we would have whenever we're coming up. Because it's just part of the process. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

But I mean that not only impact on the young man at that time, but the family and the ecosystem around him. They're becoming a millionaire. So that could potentially be a bad part of it. But Jason, I want to ask you a potential good outcome and I know we're still early on in the nil era, but do you feel like it'll lead to better and deeper drafts? Because we talked to Tony actually about Benjamin Morrison. I thought that's first round pick, obviously he had the health concern. First round pick, easily. I think the best press corner in this class. And it was a lot of corners and receivers and D lineman go late that I thought would be first round picks and pass. Do you think it will lead to better drafts down the line?

[Foxy]

Potentially, yeah, potentially. I think we saw it this year a little bit like you said with Ben Morrison that there's. You're also running into though a little bit of a problem with. We're seeing like we're watching, you know, linebackers, defensive linemen in particular at big schools where they're out of the game in pivotal moments or they rotate. And that used to be a red flag for us, but now it's, it's just the way it is. These programs have to play the freshmen otherwise because they're afraid of losing them. So it's, it's, you know, you normally wouldn't see a linebacker rotate at Notre Dame or defensive lineman rotate at Tennessee. You'd keep the best players in there. But you know, they have to keep in mind with the pipeline coming so It's a fine line that they're walking.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't even think about that until right now. That's awesome. You're watching the film. Where the hell is this guy? Is this guy tapping out on third downs? What is. Give a call? Yeah, we had got to get him 10 snaps. Got to give him at least 10 snaps. That is kind of in his contract there. He'll leave. We need him next year, brother. That is a wild situation. That's something I never thought of at all.

[AJ Hawk]

And as a player, you, you would hate it. But long term, it may help you out. You may go into the draft fresher, go into the league fresher.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but the dogs, the dogs want to be out there.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, absolutely.

[Darius Butler]

You want to take everything pissed off.

[Pat McAfee]

Especially like what do you think about Travis Hunter? And we only got a couple more minutes here. What were your guys thoughts on a player being able to go offense, defense and even special teams? Seemingly he could punt, probably for them if you really wanted to. What are your thoughts on Travis Hunter? The anomaly. Is that how you viewed it?

[Foxy]

Yeah, I mean he's a unicorn. We're not supposed to talk about other players with other teams. He hasn't signed his contract yet.

[AJ Hawk]

So.

[Foxy]

Yeah, he was a, he was a unicorn. It was gave you a good problem. Like where are you going to play him? So. Or are you going to play in both. Both spots. So it's, it's going to be an interesting. If he continues to where he is now, it's going to be an interesting subject here in four or five years when his contract's up, he's going to be one of paid number one position. So that's, that's their problem, not ours.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a hilarious. That's a hilarious thought actually. As you're going through this. Hey, success. Let's say this works. What happens? Well then we got a, you know, because number one corner money. Especially if we got them on an island. That's. That's a lot of guarantees there. And then wide receiver position. What that's been. Oh, Travis, go get him, bro. All right. Hey, we appreciate you joining us, man. You're the, the best. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day.

[Foxy]

Appreciate it, guys. Hey, nice haircut, tie.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hey, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

[Pat McAfee]

How you feel about Mad Mel's performance? Did you see any Mad Mel for draft night?

[Foxy]

Oh, no, it was fantastic. That was awesome. That was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

I love appreciate you. This guy. You actually watch our. I think we appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, General manager Of the Buccaneers, Jason L. He watched like, I think AQ Shipley may be interested. Introduced him to us. And when A. Kyush was down there coaching and playing. And then Greenberg's the salary cap guru. He's been doing salary cap gymnastics for a long time down there. Yeah. Bruce Arians is down. The entire coaching staff, basically. Yes, that was. I forgot about that.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody, Tom Moore, I mean, yeah, Coach Goody was down there, I think. Yeah, yeah. So a lot of people sure. Like, you should see this asshole. He's got a show and I think he is now. He was saying, take a picture people off the board for certain things. It was like, well, it depends on who you listen to here. On me, I don't know if I would have been on their board or not. You know, he said, we talked to the janitors. I'm like, that's good. Janitors go badly. Love this kid. Then you. I talked to some other people. Potentially Plumborough. We hate this guy. Yeah. So that'd be an interesting little dilemma.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know how you were in college, but what I've seen you as a pro in both professions, you. You treat everyone pretty well behind the scenes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Unless you. Unless you're against us. If you're against us, I will be a. If I think you are against us, I do not have the time. And I think that is a downfall. I think that is a downfall of my being, which I am trying to get better at in this entire thing. I am trying my best. I think I'm gonna be forced to do so if I want to continue to do business and things like that. So if I feel like you hate us or against us or trying to stop us and it's for either a wrong way, boy, I don't have time. And if you would like to engage, I will certainly engage as well on why I think you are wrong in what you are saying. And then we'll keep it moving and you know how that that goes. That's that middle, you know, that's that one. That's that one. There's one group. Seems like now with that being said, we're all trying to evolve and get better. They have their side as well. So I respect that. And you hear what I just said. Would have never said that about three years ago.

[Darius Butler]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

So we are growing and evolving. But if. If I feel like. I feel like you should be good to people, though. Like, I feel like you should be good to people, cuz literally life is hard. As for every. Everybody's going through something, no matter. No matter what situation is, everybody's going through it. And we're in this thing together, always going to be. And that either sucks or we could just view it for the reality. We got to coexist, bro. Hell yeah. Doesn't mean you have to hang out with people. Doesn't mean you have to surround yourself with them. But we just got to keep it moving. Moving, brother. This episode is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. When it's time for you to ditch the blacktop and head off road, do it in a truck that says no to nothing. The Chevy Silverado Trail Boss get the rugged capability of its Z71 suspension and 2 inch factory lift, plus impressive torque and towing capacity thanks to an available Duramax 3 liter turbo diesel engine. Where other trucks call it quits, you'll just be getting started. Visit chevy.com to learn more.

[Jason Light]

At New.

[Pat McAfee]

Balance we believe if you run, you're a runner, however you choose to do it. Because when you're not worried about doing.

[Jason Light]

Things the right way, you're free to discover your way.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's what running's all about. Run your [e-mail] Running sports are happening all around us. And that professional wrestling ring looks damn good, doesn't it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, it does.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah, it was nice to see that thing come back together. It was nice to walk in here this morning and have a nice square circle out here. It was a nice reminder of the things that have helped build this company into what it is today and how thankful we are for the people that have followed our journey since the beginning. Because they would know that as our relationship with the WWE has grown, so is our company. We love the WWE a lot, let alone for all the opportunities and the guidance and the chit chat, but all the entertainment throughout. Damn near four decades of my life. Now I'm 37.

[Ty Schmidt]

Getting close.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Big week this week.

[Pat McAfee]

Huge shout out to the WWF and the WWE into professional wrestling as a whole. One of my first purchases after I got money was that right there. Didn't know you could buy one. Found it online about 2:33am Celebrating life obviously beforehand, probably too hard. Would inevitably have to slow that down a bit if I wanted to survive and and be a kicker in the air punter in the NFL. That was a nice life lesson. But as I was enjoying life, this thing popped up on my screen and all I had to do was just punch in my debit card number and this thing would show up at my house.

[Jason Light]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

They said they would build it too. Because I knew how big of a pain in the ass it was to build because I had been to indie shows in the past. I had seen the people have to build the ring. I know that building the ring is actually a massive part of like the hazing process of getting into the wrestling business. Although Charles, Charles Lil Naich, he's been Bill rings for like 35 years. I think he is the guy after watching him do his thing. But I buy this, we'll ship it to you, we'll build it for you. And it's kind of synonymous with everything that has happened since I retired and since this second career has started. Because I started training the day after I retired in that ring as a 29 year old with a man named Rip Rogers, who was the former trainer at ovw, which was down in Louisville, Kentucky. Kentucky, which is where John Cena, Dave Bautista, Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin and many others trained. And he was their trainer, hired him to train me. And basically that ring basically just implies I'm retiring and I'm gonna go try to do all the things I've dreamt about for my entire life. And that was number one on the list. So it's great to see it out here. And next Saturday's gonna come quick. That's right. Next Saturday's going to come quick. It was nice to climb those ropes though. Get up to the top of that thing and just wait in the middle. Yeah. First time, think we got tighten the ropes a little bit. I will say as I was sure, middle rope a little bit, you know, a little bit softer and top rope and the bottom rope obviously has a mind of its own. So we kind of got to get that sorted. But that's like, that's a. It almost got me emotional this morning thinking about it. And as I was standing there as it was being built, build and we're kind of piecing it together, it's like, yeah, man, I can't believe I get to do this again.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Need to bring it and we need to move a little bit.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep, they can move.

[Pat McAfee]

We need to move a little bit. You come check it out in St. Louis. Thank you to today's sponsor, Seatgeek. The greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and the moon. Over 30 million people have downloaded this. Well, I don't know if that's true. There's over 30 million downloads.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Of the Sea Geek app. It's the number one rated ticketing app. Okay. Not two, not three, not four. Number one. Over 30 million downloads, still number one. So that's a lot of people that could hate your product and say, five. One star. One star. One star. Instead, anytime you use Sea Geek, you think to yourself, wow, this was incredibly convenient because they score all the tickets. That's the best part of it.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah, by far.

[Pat McAfee]

They tell you. And I don't know what anybody else does, to be honest. I've never shopped for tickets on any other platform. But I will tell you what SeatGeek does for you. SeatGeek will say, you know, they'll put a green dot next to something that'll be scored 1 to 10 a ticket, and that's basically them saying to you, like, hey, it's a good ticket, a good price. It's a good ticket, a good price. Then they'll put a red.on1. It's like, hey, they're trying to screw you over here. Do not buy this ticket. There's a better ticket somewhere else. Just them looking out for you is awesome. And they were our first, first ever partner whenever I retired and got in this game. They have sponsored plenty of wrestling journeys of mine, whether it's being WWE NXT panelist before their main events and all the way through a match at NXT. Commentating in NXT to managing any NXT, what to moving. It was the SeatGeek house down in Tampa. Whenever we moved down there so that I could commentate in the Thunderdome that was built during COVID because that was a dream come true. Bought a house down there, moved the show down there two days a week. Lived in Tampa for, like, months. Yeah, months at a time. And seatgeek's been with us throughout the entirety of it. And you can use SeatGeek to go experience the madness that is going to be backlash in St. Louis. John Cena or Andy Orton.

[Darius Butler]

Whoa.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Use PAT 30 right now. You get $30 off tickets. Doesn't matter if you're a new or repeat customer. $30 off with code PAT30 restrictions apply. Like, if the ticket is less than 30 bucks, there won't be one for backlash. Those tickets wild. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Show you your on se too.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that, brother?

[Darius Butler]

Show you your view.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey. Experience what it will be like.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, that's good.

[Darius Butler]

Just so you know you're not getting screwed behind a pole or something.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You're not going to get catfished now. I did see some pictures of some stuff. Stadium builds. Somebody went to some college event. I think there's half the. Half the.

[Boston Connor]

There's A guy that goes and does.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

He tries to find.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. And we know the Utah Hockey Club has that cool seat.

[Pat McAfee]

He's looking for the darkest red dot. I want the worst ticket for the worst price, worst experience. How's it going to be at sports? It's probably going to be better than anything else you could be doing. We're incredibly lucky we get to talk about sports. So joining us. It's not junior joining me. It's not just the toxic table at Boss Conor and ATI Schmidt. It's not just one half of the Hammer Cowboys AP tone. Sweet look today.

[Boston Connor]

Thank you. I appreciate that. I do have a question, though, if you don't mind.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

You know how when NFL teams, they're going to face a running quarterback, they, you know, for practice squad, they have a wide, wide out dude or something like that. Who, who's going to be your. Your Gunther for the next big pop.

[Pat McAfee]

Of Pump wants to come down. I've seen him. Him and Gunther are a little bit different. Different, but same. You know, he'll.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, he'll.

[Pat McAfee]

He'll. He said he's on standby. He sent a tweet out today, said he's on standby. If we need an appearance in a Thunderdem. I think we should. You know what I mean? I think we, we should think about it. Just a man used to. Yeah, he used to have mountains. Mountains. Great Mathematic as well. Yeah. Maybe we do call Big Papa Pump over here.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's not a terrible idea.

[Pat McAfee]

Big Papa Pump with like the. I'd like to extend a formal invitation for you for whenever the hell you want to get over here. And I don't know if I'll be able to build any of the pump that you have. You know, that was a big part of your game. I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to get there, but if you want to come in and give me a little, you know, some strategy, some thoughts, some tips, some tidbits, maybe a couple, you know, work me through some things. It would be an honor because obviously I've seen what the Steiner family has produced. Braun Breaker is a problem. Yeah, yeah, he's. He was dressed like a hitman the other night.

[Darius Butler]

Look like you too.

[Pat McAfee]

He did. And he takes that thing off as a hit dog.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

And he's just sawing people in half. That's from the Steiner family. So I got mad respect, obviously.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, to go forward, sometimes you need to go back. What about bringing in War Pig? He's Got a lot of Gunther in him.

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. I've already faced.

[Boston Connor]

Rest in peace.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't even think about War Pig until this exact moment.

[Darius Butler]

Already faced a Gunther esque and I.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly what we thought. Boom, Pow. Up and over to him. Kicked in a dick or building. Ref didn't see it. Super. He stumbles out. Oh, I just got kicked to the. I just got kicked all right in the. The balls here. But I, I think it was the leg. It wasn't a low blow. It was a. It was a hamstring shot that just missed a little bit. I got a little bit jacked up and excited because you're allowed kicks to the leg. You know, you're allowed kicks to the leg. I don't think you're allowed kicks to the balls, so. Kicks to the leg or. Okay, I just. Maybe my pinky toe hit him directly in the ball. Yeah, a little bit too. A little stiff, brother. You know, A little bit stiff, bro. And then old buddy, old War Pig turns around. He had me there for a bit. Body slam, leg sweep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Rake around the post. I mean, he had me there.

[Foxy]

You were playing possum.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, right. He had me a little. At one point, I thought I didn't sign up for Warpig, you know. He came out of nowhere. He attacked me from behind all. I was there doing autographs, signing an indie event. IWA east coast in between college and the NFL where nobody has any say. That was my only free time. Not really under contract. Yeah. Just got done with West Virginia football. Haven't been drafted yet. Nobody has me under contract. Okay. So I'm driving down there, Eddie Edwards, acting agent at Time from Plumbro, part of the World Mustangs here fund. Good lad hears about it and goes, hey, you're not getting any, okay? You're going down here. You're going to have a good time. You're going to watch an indie show. He loves wrestling and he understood wrestling. He was like, well, let's not get in the ring tonight, okay? We don't need any more red flags out here. We got a couple minor in consumptions, you know, from Morgantown, where you're potentially boozing a little bit, obviously some other stuff. And then you, you can't be getting in a wrestling ring because they'll think you don't care. And I said, you're right, 100%, no problem at all. We head down there and what was it like a minute and a half into that building? Nick. Nick was with me there. So was slower Monster. So was with Phil Main CFO Phil. It was like a minute and a half ago. You want to have a match tonight? And I was like, yes. Once you got in there and felt the energy inside that armory, inside that.

[Foxy]

Battle Dome, there was no way you.

[Pat McAfee]

Weren'T stepping inside the square. No chance. Had high tops, khaki shorts, long khaki shorts. I was ready for battle in there. And I got called in and a war pig came out, attacked me from behind. I had no game plan, no strike strategy. 1, 2, 3. Brother hit him with a super chick to end that.

[AJ Hawk]

Did Warpig get any calls from any front offices?

[Darius Butler]

He turned out to be Gunther Warpig.

[Boston Connor]

I think passed away shortly.

[Darius Butler]

Fast forward.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, I don't think we did. Look, we have.

[Ty Schmidt]

We've had this discussion.

[Pat McAfee]

He smoked four cigarettes during the match and after the match. I have never. It was so impressive, this Warpig guy and. But I was working a little stiff that night. I think we all saw. And I do apologize. Apologize for that. But literally, ever since I retired, I've wanted to be a wrestler. Got an opportunity to do it, have lived some dreams. And next Saturday, I get to stick up for the greatest of all time, a man who commentated over a lot of basically my life. I can't wait for it. So Warpig maybe is the right guy to go back to your question to bring in here. Or maybe I just need to watch that film.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I mean, there's a couple others from, you know, some OCW matches I feel like probably bringing bring in.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh yeah. Bill Ding. Maybe the wall. Bill Ding. The wall was really good. One. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Test two, baby. You bring him in here.

[Pat McAfee]

He had a lot of grit.

[Darius Butler]

Give him stilts, maybe.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll see. We'll see how it goes. Well, I got a week and a half, boys. Good point. We have boys. Things are gonna have to happen.

[Boston Connor]

I don't think they have a lot of other schedules.

[Pat McAfee]

Nine year NFL, maybe that you don't know that nine year NFL vet, host of everything. DB Good D, Bad D. Let's. Ladies and gentlemen, Darius J. Bonkey. Great hoodie right there.

[Jason Light]

Thank you.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you. Throwback to the. To the pot.

[Pat McAfee]

Antoine Be legend, Hall of Famer.

[AJ Hawk]

He put out his take on the 100 verse one. Really? No chance. No faith in the humans at all.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that all about?

[AJ Hawk]

Responded to a Robert Mathis tweet because Robert Mathis obviously has complete faith in us. But I mean, that damn ring is very, very captivating. I got a quick question too. I know we got our guy waiting, but if we get the wide shot again. Foxy, have you thought about. You're talking seat geek. Any sponsorships in the middle of that ring?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's a lot of conversation about that. I will say there was a lot of them.

[AJ Hawk]

As soon as I saw the shot, I'm like, damn. That's the first thing that popped in.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Well, I. I mean, obviously, because we just got out of WrestleMania weekend. He saw a bunch. That's probably what I mean. There was. There was nine of them in there. There was a one Scott show where I was trying to count. I was like, is that they even stuck one in the side door there Is that nine of them. I mean, that's in boxing, obviously. That has always been a thing in the boxing world. In wrestling. It never was, though. Like, ever. Like, that was. That's a big difference. That's a big change.

[Boston Connor]

Until that scumbag came in with a stupid prime logo.

[Pat McAfee]

In my ring, scumbag's got a title shot. Are you talking about Logan Paul right now? Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

It's good healing.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'll tell you what, I got a Prime the other day, the other night, because the hydration station is right there next to me. And Logan walked out after his promo. There's video. So he walks out, I think it was two weeks ago. Grabs a prime, and I look at him. I'm like, hell, yeah. Hell, yeah. And he goes. He picks up one of the primes from hydration stations. He goes, want one? I go, yeah. I've actually never had one. Not a bad time. I didn't know there was a real. Over there either. I had no idea that I had. You know, I thought it was.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, gimmick bottle.

[Pat McAfee]

I thought it was gimmick bottle. I thought they were just gimmick bottles over there. There's 50 primes right next to me every single time. So I had one two weeks, weeks ago. Not bad. Had one Monday. Not bad. I don't know if they're going to be different flavors and how many different flavors there are. Not bad. I don't know what all the rules are on them either. Do we know what the. Like, Is it? Zero. Do we know if there's, like, a caffeine.

[Darius Butler]

A lot. A lot of caffeine. Not sure what that has.

[Pat McAfee]

Caffeine. And I thought it was a hydration.

[AJ Hawk]

Not the hydration one. It might be different ones.

[Pat McAfee]

They have an energy drink one.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, it's an energy one.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, they have different versions.

[Pat McAfee]

This is a hydration one, I believe.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think it's prime zero they.

[Pat McAfee]

Need to get to.

[Boston Connor]

That might be.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. They. Or maybe it is.

[Darius Butler]

I think they are low calorie in nature. I don't believe sure if they are.

[AJ Hawk]

But anything with zero on it.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't get it.

[Boston Connor]

I agree.

[Darius Butler]

Zero carbs.

[Pat McAfee]

Cinnamon raisins.

[Ty Schmidt]

Zero calories.

[Pat McAfee]

Zero sugar.

[AJ Hawk]

Of course.

[Darius Butler]

Come after Dr. Pepper. Zero we're going to have.

[AJ Hawk]

So what's.

[Pat McAfee]

What's.

[AJ Hawk]

What's the replacement of the sugar?

[Tyrese Haliburton]

I don't care.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well.

[Pat McAfee]

Just real quick. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

That's great for us.

[Pat McAfee]

I understand. Have you ever heard of what. What did they call is the movie called Envy? Jack Black Invest two riser. Yeah. Okay. Have you ever heard about this movie?

[AJ Hawk]

No.

[Darius Butler]

I eat freaking French toast. He's coming after our zero.

[AJ Hawk]

Give me the real glucose.

[Pat McAfee]

All right.

[AJ Hawk]

My body's. They know how to break that down.

[Pat McAfee]

He's saying that this is all fugues and we're just got marks. Basically.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And to be clear. I don't understand it either.

[Ty Schmidt]

It might be right.

[Pat McAfee]

I had. I have a. I had a French toast with keto syrup on it last night.

[AJ Hawk]

How many carbs?

[Pat McAfee]

Zero carbs.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Zero carbs. It was so delicious. I get this tortilla. This keto tortilla. I I I. I warm it.

[Darius Butler]

I don't toast it.

[Pat McAfee]

I warm it. I warm it. I don't toast it. Then I dump that syrup in the middle of it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

000 sugar syrup. Maple syrup. It tastes just like. Like you know. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

The real thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. The.

[Ty Schmidt]

The Artist Formerly Known as.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa whoa. No. The. The what is the Pearl Mill Brother. Yeah. So you put that in there. It literally tastes like a pan. I'm eating a pancake. 10pm last night. No carbs.

[AJ Hawk]

It's crazy. Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

How does it work? Well I think what's happening is. And in that movie that we were just referencing this Vapoo riser was this thing that you sprayed on and then poop just disappeared. It was Vapoo riser made so much money. Obviously it had terrible repercussions. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Very bad.

[Pat McAfee]

On the other side. I would assume whatever is making this just be. Yeah. You drank something but nothing happened. There has to be something we're giving up on the other side. There has to be something.

[Jason Light]

I hope not.

[Pat McAfee]

That French toast was so good. Toasted it across. Okay. Put a little. Obviously wrap the egg batter around it. Eggs good protein. We're all good here. Keto toast. Cinnamon toast. Keto cinnamon toast. Zero carb. Wrap that with the egg. Obviously. Then you Go ahead. And then we toast that thing. Then we put that down. Then we. So much syrup. So much syrup.

[AJ Hawk]

Cholesterol free eggs, too.

[Pat McAfee]

I did take out the middle of the yolk. Thank you.

[AJ Hawk]

Good job. Good job.

[Boston Connor]

You're coming to eggs now.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. You. I was being.

[AJ Hawk]

No, no, look, we need it. We need just. But what is it in moderation?

[Pat McAfee]

How is it. How does it work?

[Darius Butler]

I don't want. I don't want to know. I. I just want to read the link.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all fake stuff.

[Darius Butler]

I want to see the foxy.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't get. This guy is all fake stuff. Mannequin. So just look at the ingredients. If it has less ingredients, it's usually more healthy. The less ingredients, the better it is for you.

[Darius Butler]

This guy told you to order Pringles and then what he tells about Pringles?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah. Two days later. I love Pringles still. Hey, hey, can we order $2,000 worth of Pringles so that we can get them next day? Oh, yeah, allegedly. Go ahead. For how many ingredients are on that? I see you checking it out. First time Ty's ever done this with anything.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there's. There's about, you know, there's four ingredients pretty much. But this is not a significant source of trans fat, which is really all you're looking for.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there's probably quite a bit of aspartame, which is not good for you. Yeah, we don't know gives you that.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, he's. I don't want us to get a big aspartame problem.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, I think that's like a very known fact. Yeah, very known fact.

[Pat McAfee]

Not good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. It's kind of like when people. When you go to McDonald's and you know that Diet Coke or that Coke tastes incredibly good, it's like, yeah, there's like 65 pounds of sugar in those bags. But guess what? You know, nothing you eat is. Is worth it if it's going to taste like, you know, because you wouldn't keep it.

[Pat McAfee]

That's not what they say. They say being fit is worth being hungry or something.

[Ty Schmidt]

And people who say that are those.

[Pat McAfee]

People on Instagram that are just so jocked. So. And I see these guys whenever I go to Ink Girls, obviously, at the wwe, and I'm like, so much discipline. Good for you. Good for you. I don't know. And I have some teammates, like Anthony Costanza didn't like eating, so he was, like, forced to eat to, like, gain weight. And I'm like, what a good problem. That would Be. Because I'll tell you what, I see a nice Rudy sub, which, once again, I can get all the meats from a nice Italian sub from Rudy. Yeah, I can get the lettuce on there. Mayo even. Good. How you doing? Keep it moving. Then you just gotta remove the Mancini's bread. You get rid of that, you put it on some Hawaiian keto bread, which you guys have seen in here, super fluffy and soft. And then I get to have a sub in a sandwich.

[AJ Hawk]

All of a sudden, two carbs.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm beating the game there. I wonder.

[AJ Hawk]

You got it, man. You got it figured out.

[Jason Light]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Why are you raining on the parade?

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now is a guy that does it the old school way. Yeah. He might not like eating his taste buds. Might be the worst in America. Ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, super bowl champion, Ryder cup winner, at least the most miserable taste buds in America, AJ Hawk. How you doing, Hawker?

[Tyrese Haliburton]

I'm doing great. I mean, do not put me in the Dan Orlofsky category. You know, we watched Dano take the chocolate off of a Reese's or something to eat a tiny little piece of it. So, no, I'm not. I don't take it to any of those extremes.

[Pat McAfee]

You know that. Yeah, he said he would only eat the middle, right. You know what he said? He wouldn't eat the outside, but to get to the middle, he chewed off the outside and spit it out.

[Boston Connor]

Yes, Correct.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that should be something. Like, whenever you're scouting a guy, you find out.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Does a guy do this? Now, he was a good backup quarterback for a long time, though, so maybe that should be a good tell. Whenever we told him, hey, you just. You know what you could do to that? You just snap that thing in half. All of a sudden, guess what's right there in front of you. You know, you can eat. Never thought of that. Man. How long is this guy been nibbling?

[Boston Connor]

He's an.

[AJ Hawk]

He did that for attention.

[Darius Butler]

It's the worst.

[Pat McAfee]

That's your teammate.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, quarterbacks do all the time for attention. Stand up.

[Darius Butler]

Amen.

[Boston Connor]

It's true.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know what you're referring to. Point, A.J. you hear Jason Light as we continue these GM conversations from the first hour? And did you hear him say the I am that man policy that they have when it goes to their draft board? Feels like everything we've been chatting about. Everybody that knows ball has been chatting about. About the culture and loving ball and being a guy I think that is becoming more and more and more prevalent. If not it has been more prevalent, we just haven't really heard about it.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Yeah, I think we're just not. We don't hear about it as much now. We're getting to hear like the, their strategy and how they build these teams and what they do through the draft. But yeah, I think anybody that's been in any kind of leadership position, that whole buzzword culture, like they always wanted to build a great culture, always were trying to do that. It just now, I guess it's more public and, and people are always trying to figure out, hey, this team did it. How do we find, how do we craft a draft or, you know, build our roster like they did it and bring the right people in. But it's not, there's no exact science to it. It's. You're, you're guessing a little bit too.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, there were some people that were questioning a pick that was made by our next man. This guy has been an awesome, seemingly culture changer in a city that I think lost a lot of hope in their team ever having a culture again. He's a college football, football hall of Famer, He's a former 11th overall pick and he's currently the general manager for the Carolina Panthers. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Dan Morgan.

[Dan Morgan]

Hey, guys doing?

[Pat McAfee]

Dan, how are you, brother?

[Dan Morgan]

Doing great.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Dan Morgan]

Doing great. How you guys doing?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, man, we're good. We're post draft right now, so we're trying to find things to talk about to cover three hours. So whenever people like you join us, we're incredibly lucky and thankful. Hey, thank you. We would have to be talking about if Aaron Rodgers is going to play quarterback for the Steelers or not for the next three weeks. So we appreciate you taking time here. Did you hear what we were just chatting about there at the end when talking about culture and dogs in loving ball? I say that because your first pick this year, the Irish oos, who we are a big fan of, we think he's a game changer. There was a narrative, and it might have been during smoke screen time in the draft cycle where people are like, we don't know if you lost loves ball now. They said he loves volleyball. We don't know if he loves football. I assume that was something that you had to talk about or address with him and what did you see or learn about the man that is obviously a great football player that said, yeah, I want him to be a Panther.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah. I think part of that's probably people's way of trying to get him a little lower on the, on the draft board because I think a lot of people liked him. You know, for us, we were really thorough in the process. You know, we bought him in here for a 30 visit. We met with him at the combine. We loved everything about him, not only as a player, but as a person. He's super competitive, he's super smart, he's tough, and you know, he does all the things that you're looking for in a number one wide receiver. So we're extremely, you know, excited about him.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that he's the sixth Hawaiian born player to be drafted in the first round. Congratulations, T. Max. I also love the fact that he's the first player ever to give a lay to Commissioner Goodell. Shout out. Oost there. And then let's talk about what happened back in Carolina. I heard that Coach Canales actually gave a lay to T. Mac whenever he got to Carolina. And how much are we embracing the Hawaiian culture? Because it is a beautiful one over there, Dan?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, we're, we're definitely embracing it. You know, obviously it's a beautiful place over there, but you know, we love the, the receivers that they, that they put out over there. So we're excited about him. We're big, we're big Hawaiian fans now. So, you know, he's going to bring that, that juice that we're looking for on the outside and that size. So, yeah, we're big fans.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So let's talk about Bryce Young, who's going to be throwing him the ball. We saw it all unfold last year. Canales, his first year as the head coach. Obviously we saw what he did down in Tampa Bay. He was going to be the guy that was going to revisit, survive a career, save a career. Then he got a bench moment, then he comes back on the other side of it and it feels like your entire team kind of ignited on the other side of the bench. It got even better. Second half of the season looked like a team that is going to be one that is going to be a problem in the NFC south. And especially a team that I think Charlotte is going to be able to rally around yet again. Was that all led by Bryce Young? What did you see in the second half from Bryce and from your team?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, you know, I think obviously, you know, like any team, you know, it starts with the quarterback. Right. So, you know, Bryce, you know, coming back after being benched after the second game, the resilience that he showed and that's just who Bryce is. Bryce is, you know, he's a. He's a resilient player. He's a tough player. He's a smart player, guy that can extend plays with his legs and make a lot of things happen. So I think, obviously, when the quarterback's playing really good and at a high level like he was towards the end of the season, I think the team, you know, feeds off of that. And, you know, I think you saw at the end of the year, you know, that our team, you know, started playing a lot better, and, you know, that energizes everybody, and it energizes us in the office, too. So, yeah, we're. We're excited about his future and the team's future Future.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead, A.J.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Yeah, Dan, you said Bryce is obviously tough and resilient. I feel like everybody wants tough and resilient players that can kind of handle adversity. Do you guys do anything different or what have you learned when you're evaluating these players, if they truly are like, the. The type of players you want to bring into Carolina?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, I think a lot of times, like, you know, going back to what you just said, AJ like, you know, when player. The players that we look for are players that have been through adversity before. So. So, you know, some of these guys, they really haven't had to overcome adversity in their life, you know, before coming to the NFL. So we like guys that have been through adversity at the college level or in their life, you know, whether in high school or childhood. So I think that builds a lot of character, builds a lot of toughness and resilience. So we look for those type of guys.

[Pat McAfee]

That's maturity. I think you mature through situations because whenever a situation happens, you change, and you can either wither or get tougher and learn from it. And I like the fact that that is a trait that you seek out. I also like the fact that it looks like you can find out they're physically tough as well. Connor has a question for you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Dan, clearly you're still a big son of a bitch. You can probably bring it in the A or B gap. As a Patriots fan, one of my favorite tidbits from this draft season was Mike Vrabel put the pad on. Kind of felt some of these dudes, Will Campbell in particular, to see what they were like. Did you, you know, maybe throw the pads on, maybe even grab a pad, hit up Trevor Etienne, you know, while he was doing some drills? Was there anything physical like that? Just because you have played before and you Know what it's like to be out there on Sundays?

[Dan Morgan]

Absolutely not. I'm definitely. I'm not. I'm not putting on the pads. I'm not putting, you know, not putting anything on my. Any pads on my shoulder or anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Especially no helmet on. That hair. Hey, the hair is. Wow.

[AJ Hawk]

Wow, great flow.

[Dan Morgan]

You gotta make sure it's right. Definitely gotta make sure. Right.

[Pat McAfee]

You feel good? Yeah. Yeah. You certainly feel good about it. Especially, hey, is that an everyday look there? Are we hat or that?

[Dan Morgan]

No hats. I don't wear hats.

[Pat McAfee]

Because you got that. Yeah.

[Foxy]

Fix.

[Dan Morgan]

Fix the hair every day.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeez.

[Darius Butler]

Must be nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it must be nice to have that hair. Oh, yeah. Check one thing off to. Don't have to worry about this. Let's talk about the draft a little bit more. Go ahead, Tone.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, Dan Dbut and I actually the other day, we're looking at after the 2024 draft, a way too early 2025 draft. And Tet McMillan and Nick Scorton, your second round pick, were both in the top 10 there. So congrats on getting two top 10 picks.

[Dan Morgan]

Appreciate it.

[Boston Connor]

But for Nick, you know, he leads the big ten in sacks, then he goes down to Texas A and M and doesn't have the same production. So how, how do you scout a player like that who has a production drop off in a year before the draft after he has an incredible year in 2023?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, you know, I think you just really have to look at the body of work and yeah, the production may be dipped a little bit, but, you know, he's still super disruptive out there. He plays with a lot of energy and toughness, enthusiasm. You could just tell he's passionate about the game. So. So I don't really play too much into the, you know, the dip in production. You know, he was. He was still productive in terms of tackles for loss and things like that. So he's a guy that we obviously, you know, we felt. We felt really good about. We actually had a first round grade on him. We had him in the late first round, so we traded up to get him. We put a priority in getting edge in this draft, which we thought was a deep. That it was a deep edge class. So. And he was just one of those guys that, that we really had a liking for love. So we went and got him.

[Pat McAfee]

Love to hear that. Love that you're making moves too. And is that we've waited this long, let's go get them now type move on draft night.

[Dan Morgan]

Well, well, right before that, there was a Couple edge guys that. That went. So, you know, we were just kind of looking at our board and, you know, we're like, hey, let's go. Let's go get this guy. Like, we, we. We think he can be a difference maker for us and a guy that can make a bunch of plays. So, you know, let's go get him. So we traded up for him.

[Pat McAfee]

You just talked about a couple edge guys going ahead there. It was a big time trenches draft, which I think is kind of aligning with the state of football. Ty has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Dan. Even though you guys got a receiver, the run we had on O line and D line in the draft was crazy. Was that. That was obviously the deepest part of the draft. But you guys made a massive investment along the offensive line last year. Obviously, keeping Bryce upright is paramount and the most important thing, but when you see what happened with the Eagles this past year on their super bowl run, does that kind of just lend credence to what you guys did last year along the O line, knowing kind of where the NFL is going in that cyclical nature, that running the football and winning on the offensive and the defensive line is the most important part of the game as well?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, you know, I think it just goes back to even, you know, when I was playing, like, I think we know that the game is one in the trenches. So, you know, whether it's O line or D line, if. If you're not winning the line of scrimmage up front on both sides of the ball, your chances of winning, they go down mightily. So we wanted to build the defensive front this year like we built the offensive front last year, and we feel like we accomplished that this year. So we're excited. We're excited about the defensive front now.

[Pat McAfee]

I kind of wish you would get out there with him a little bit, though. Oh, yeah. Come on. Are you lifting every day?

[Dan Morgan]

I'm. I'm a peloton guy, so I do like. I do the peloton and then I get off the peloton and I'll do like, just some light weights. No, no heavy lifting.

[Pat McAfee]

Peloton. Is that because of knees or is that because you enjoy cycling because you're down there in South Florida?

[Dan Morgan]

Well, I have the. I have the bike and I have the treadmill, so I just go back and forth every day. So I just have a. I have a routine that I do, and it works for me.

[Pat McAfee]

You're running still full running.

[Dan Morgan]

The hammies are a little. A little shaky here lately, so it's usually more hiking, more walking than it is than it is running.

[Pat McAfee]

Running is a wild thing. If you got any knee stuff, like the ex professional athlete. I would like to know the number of people that are running that are ex professional athletes. Legit. Because you're like scared to almost too. I think at some stages, like if you stop running for like a year, then all of a sudden you're like, oh, I'm not going to start doing this again. My knees are going to explode. Potentially. This. I got this treadmill.

[AJ Hawk]

Game changer seems awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

I got this, the anti gravity. I got this anti gravity treadmill.

[Dan Morgan]

So like the soft tissue stuff, as you get older, it gets real. Whether it's the calf or the hamstring. You feel something grab and then you're. Then you're sitting on the couch for two weeks.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And you don't want to deal with that afterwards. And the hair is always going to be good though, no matter what you're running, walking, hiking, biking, you know, whatever the case.

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, we put a little hairspray.

[AJ Hawk]

It'll.

[Dan Morgan]

It'll keep it upright and I'll be good to go.

[Darius Butler]

What's actual lightweight for you? You know, you're saying that as if you're lifting, you know, 10 pound dumbbells. What are we actually talking about?

[Dan Morgan]

I'll do like anywhere from like, if I'm doing like dumbbell bench, which I did this morning, I'm gonna go like £50 at the most.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, that's a little pop there. Just kind of wake them up a little bit. How you doing? We're running highlights right now in the studio. Up you from college? Hey, hey. Oh, yeah.

[Boston Connor]

Heyday Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so speaking of heyday Miami, I mean, there was a lot of conversations about Miami back in the day, a lot of documentaries about everything that was happening not only on the field but also off the field. We're currently in an era now of nil where, you know, a lot of benefits could have potentially been had back then, but they certainly are being had now. We had Jason Light on earlier talking about how the NIL has affected the place player and you're scouting and talking to them. He mentioned about how sometimes on film a guy won't be on the field for like a big play because they got to get a freshman some plays because if they don't play the freshman, he'll transfer out and they're paying a bunch of money. Is that real? And is there any other things about the modern athlete that you've noticed while scouting? These guys trying to Find your culture, guys.

[Dan Morgan]

No, I definitely, I definitely think that's. That's a real thing because you'll be watching the tape and, and you know, somebody that's a really good player that you're watching, like, they're not even starting the game. They're playing like a younger guy and trying to appease the younger guys so he doesn't transfer. So, yeah, there's definitely. There's definitely validity to that, for sure. What was the second part to your question?

[Pat McAfee]

Just, is there anything else from these nil. From the nil development of college ball that has changed, like the modern athlete for you? You think whenever you're talking to these.

[Dan Morgan]

Guys, I think maybe it's a little bit of an advantage to them that they, you know, they're used to having money in their pocket, as opposed to the first time them having money is after they get their contract money. So I think it's actually an advantage for us at the pro level that they're already used to having money, you know, if they didn't get in trouble with the money, then, you know, you're really not worried about it at, as, you know, from my seat. So I, I feel. I feel fine about that. And I actually think it's an advantage in. In some ways.

[Pat McAfee]

That's two GMs now that have said the same thing about that. I think we made it. Maybe the nil thing isn't all terrible in there, you know, maybe it's not all terrible. Go ahead, A.J. last question for Dan.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Yeah, Dan, when you actually, when you talk to some of these head coaches in the college ranks, I guess, how has that changed? How has their attitude or how do they view players, you think, from say, 25 years ago to now, is that. Has that evolved in how they, I guess, have to coach these guys? It does seem like a little bit different than it might have been in the past.

[Dan Morgan]

Honestly, I feel bad for, you know, some of these head coaches in college football right now. Just, you know, it's just tough for them. It makes it tough. You're not allowed to. Really, you can't. You're allowed to. But if you discipline a kid or you're too hard on a kid, you know, they can just transfer and they can leave now. So. So, you know, I think it's very challenging for them. And, you know, I'm happy that I'm on. On this side of, you know, football. Yeah, it just makes it. I. I just couldn't imagine having to deal with that every day.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you're, I guess Reaping the benefits on the other side in the pro level. So congrats to you not having to do that.

[Dan Morgan]

Appreciate that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that hair stayed dark. You know, having to deal with that every day. We got some grays popping up, maybe getting there, a little thin spe. Speaking of thin, Hunter Renfro last year got down to 150 pounds. Allegedly, it is being reported colitis, ulcerative colitis. Is this.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, this is what I have.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, this is similar to what you have. Okay, so I have seen somebody that has had to go through this. Your insides basically are just, I. I mean, beating you up seemingly.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So he had these fevers, obviously. I assume he wasn't able to hold food, wasn't able to eat. I assume everything else. So whenever he was at the Raiders here, you know, obviously not a lot of conversation. You guys just signed him. You bring in T. Mac, obviously. Why the Hunter Renfro signing and when you learned about his actual story, what is your first messaging or thoughts from him about what this season could be for him and how do they figure that out? Is there like medicine or something that's going to kind of prevent this from ever happening again?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, it's. It's kind of an amazing story, you know, because I was, I was curious too, like why he just didn't play football last year. And then, you know, his agent gave me a call and he said, hey, Hunter's interested in coming back and you know, I think he'd like to play for you guys. And I was like, absolutely. Let's, you know, let's bring him in for a visit. Let's talk to him and you know, let's, let's see, see what we can do. So coming in and hearing his story, you know, about how he was sick and you know, all the stuff that he went through, through, it's an amazing story. And you know, for me to have him in front of me and him wanting to come here and knowing the type of player that he was out in Vegas, like, why would I not want to give this guy a shot? You know, if he, if he can get back to, you know, the form, the form that he played out and out in Las Vegas, like he can come here and play like that, then, yeah, let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Also coming back home, potentially over there, I mean, I'm, I'm very excited, excited to watch him in your offense, especially with Canales big ass offensive brain. We haven't asked about the defense enough. D, Bud has a question for you. Dan.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. First of all, Dan, I gotta thank you for passing the torch, carrying the torch as a Broward county legend. Obviously going on to Miami, doing great things, Broward there, but defensive side of the ball, you made a decision to make J.C. horn at the time the highest paid corner in the league. What went into that decision and what do you love about J.C. horn being a cornerstone of that defense?

[Dan Morgan]

Yeah, you know, I think, obviously I think he's a cornerstone of our team. A guy that I wanted to lock up, you know, that was one of the things when I got this job that, that I wanted to do is keep our core players around here, reward guys that, you know, not only play the game the right way, but do the right things off the field as well. So JC was one of those guys that I did not want to lose him at any point. He just brings too much, brings too much attitude to the defense and he's a great leader, great person, and he's everything that you want, you know, from, from a player in general.

[Pat McAfee]

You're rewarding your own guys. Such a message to everybody, like not just you guys in your locker room, but also free agents. Like, hey, this guy takes care of his people. I hope it works over there. And I also hope that we get a chance someday to chit chat with David Deper. Tell me about him. Okay, I've, I've. Hey, tell me about him, Dan, day to day, what is he like? Because you becoming the general manager, being this ultimate football guy in that press conference where, you know, I think you were doing 75s and maybe 1/ hundreds, not 50's at the time and you were jacked up. It's like, okay, feels like Tepper hired football people here and gonna let football people do their thing. And I'm not, no. I don't know if that's not how it was before, but I'm saying that was the narrative. We talked, everybody talked about it. How has it been working with David Tepper and what is he like just as a human?

[Dan Morgan]

Dave and Dave and Nicole are the best, you know, And I would say just in regards to Dave, he is definitely misunderstood. Like he is somebody that you can talk to, hang out with, laugh with, have a good time with, with. Okay, he just wants to win, just like I want to win, just like Coach Canals wants to win. He's going to supply everything that we need to win. So, you know, we're getting a new indoor facility outside stadium renovations are on the way. So things are changing around here. Things are looking really positive and that's you know, that's a testament to Dave and Nicole Tepper.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Once he donated the stadium, you know, cuz everything we had heard before that is like no way. Once he donated to Luke Combs, Eric Church flood relief and Caleb, I believe for the flood relief, I was like, you know what? Hey, maybe Tepper, maybe in this big bad wolf, you know, and then we start hearing more stories like it go ahead.

[Dan Morgan]

It's like, it's like a villain in a movie that like, you know, you just like, you think they're a certain way, but then, you know, then you're actually here and you're with them every day and they're total opposite of what you thought.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I completely understand that. Yeah. Grew. It is a. But whatever. Because if somebody has a narrative about you and then you do some things that feed that narrative, it only cements them. And I'm only talking about that as a human that that has happened to, you know, where it's like, I'm all like it. I'm not like it. Then you do something that they could easily say, just like we fucking said it would. Yeah. There's people that are like that. We hope to meet him someday. And we're incredibly pumped for you as an ex player getting a chance to lead a team and it looks like you're doing a damn good job. Good luck the rest of the way on the peloton with the hair and with the family and the Panthers.

[Dan Morgan]

Appreciate that. You guys come by here anytime you want.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Lake Norman down there is a beautiful place.

[Darius Butler]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Still got that bar downtown. What's the name of it? Whiskey.

[Dan Morgan]

I don't think that that's here anymore. What if I'm not mistaken?

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know.

[Dan Morgan]

I don't really go out though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I assume you can't at this stage or have the time to. There was. We played a bowl game down there.

[Boston Connor]

Whiskey River.

[Pat McAfee]

Whiskey River. There it is. We. We played a bowl game down there. Boy, we had a time. I mean we had. Yeah, we beat North Carolina. We beat North Carolina down in the Mikey Car Care Bowl.

[Darius Butler]

We could do a couple stops.

[Pat McAfee]

We also.

[Darius Butler]

We where at Chapel Hill and we can go to.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, Chapel Hill. A lot of convos there.

[AJ Hawk]

All right. We got to get clearance.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, everybody stop. We appreciate the hell out of you. Good luck. General manager of the Carolina Panthers.

[AJ Hawk]

Thanks.

[Dan Morgan]

Appreciate it, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

And some Dan Moore. It's getting loud. Come on. It's getting loud. Too loud. It's getting loud down there. Thank you.

[Darius Butler]

Dan be good.

[Pat McAfee]

Dan being very jacked.

[Boston Connor]

So jacked, bro.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He's one of my favorite players. Legit. One of my favorite players.

[Pat McAfee]

That makes sense. I.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

You know what he wore mirrored what Mir vibe for a little bit.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, kill it.

[Pat McAfee]

Him down at the U. Think about that. Because you go through the list of the U. No, Dan Morgan doesn't get mentioned. He's college football hall of Famer because of what he did at the U. And it's like the, the appearance was, the way he played was, the intensity, the tenacity was everything, I guess that the U was at that time. But he was just saying delivered in a milk check. You know what I mean? In. In that particular fashion.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, he gets to. I grew up a Miami fan and Dan Morgan definitely gets talked about in that because he was a South. Well, he came. I think he played early in PA somewhere, of course, and then he came and played his senior year.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a Pennsylvania guy.

[AJ Hawk]

Unbelievable running back awards as a running back. I think he played safety and linebacker as well, then went on to the U and was unbelievable there as well. And it was a first round pick. So, yeah, he, he's definitely talked about the upper echelon when you come talk about those Miami defenders.

[Pat McAfee]

Hair's phenomenal.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

So good. One of those highlights, he has an interception and it looked like he was against Florida State. And after the interception, he gets tackled on the opposing team's sideline. Brawl immediately. I, I had not seen that before, but you can see it in the highlight.

[Pat McAfee]

And AJ's like, that's my favorite player.

[Darius Butler]

I love this guy.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that guy.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He made number 44. Like, he made number 44. Awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

I feel like 44 is a great number. 44 is a great number. Tyler Warren, Zaire, Franklin, Dallas Clark. You know, a lot of Great Colts wearing F44. Joining us now is a guy who's going to go down as a potentially greatest pacer. One of the greatest pacers of all time.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't want to cement him. His greatest kids in his early twenties. Still.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's young.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a young lad.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's got a lot of time.

[Darius Butler]

Hopefully he stays.

[Pat McAfee]

He's already had a lot. He will. Well, hopefully he will. Whoa. A man who represents the city of Indianapolis in beautiful fashion and a man who has led the Indiana Pacers to yet again, again, another playoff series victory. Ladies and gentlemen, Tyrese Haliburton. Yeah. What the hell he did. Had a big night last night, huh? Took him to the rack. Win the game. Feel Like God, jump up on the scores table. Just. Can you walk through all this? 10 seconds left. Playoff series clinching game. You got the ball in your hand. One on one, Greek freak to the rack. Place explodes. I mean, that's what dreams, dreams are made of, right? Is that what it felt like last night, Tyrese in the middle of it?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, for sure. It was a lot of fun down the stretch there in overtime, start overtime. I hit a three to start and then feel like I missed every shot down the stretch. And, you know, my teammates did a good job of keeping me up, telling me that, you know, we were going to have another opportunity to stick with it. And guys just continued to make plays. Andrew Nemar made a big three, Double A made a big three. We just got a couple steals down the stretch. They turned it over. They there and they trust me to make plays at the end of game.

[Pat McAfee]

I understand you missed a couple shots in every time I wasn't able to watch. I don't know if you know that. I was just keeping up with social clips. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

I got Hulu and YouTube TV, okay? Every month they're dinging me. Yeah, ding, ding, ding. Can't get the Pacers good.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a joke.

[Pat McAfee]

So I'm following it on social media and obviously the business is good. Okay? But this team, Tyrese, this guy needs to be on tv, okay? You are electrifying, brother. You talked about missing shots in overtime. How about the end of the fourth quarter? Nade it. Got it, got to have it. What do you do? Take it to the rack. Dunk. Not only a pull up, which a lot of people do at this stage. All right, I'll just pull up and shoot it from here and hope you take it to the rack. That's the end of the fourth quarter. That's to get it to overtime. Then in the overtime, same exact thing. Tyrese. Holla balling right now, brother. Holla balling right now. Why do you think this Pacers team plays so well during playoff time? Why do you think your team is playing so well here post all star game?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, I think, you know, we had a lot of injuries early in the year. Obviously both of our backup bigs go with torn Achilles. Then we lost, you know, Andrew Nemart and Aaron Nesmith, who are, you know, our. Our main two on ball defenders, and we kind of just had to figure out a way to stay afloat. And then once those guys came back, we really hit our stride. You know, I think we just made an adjustment, you know, after the new year just, you know, stepping it up defensively and then, you know, started to make some more shots, which. Which definitely always helps. But, you know, I think we got a lot of depth and we're prepared to. To play here in the playoffs. And, you know, I think we're. That's what we're built for. And, you know, we're just trying to, you know, ride this way and ride this wave up, you know, into the second series.

[Pat McAfee]

A little chirpy between you guys. Guys, right? This series, was it always going to be that way? Did we know it was going to be that way coming into the series throughout the season?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, for sure. We always knew it was going to be that way. I don't think it's any secret that there's a rivalry there between us and Milwaukee. And I think as competitors, I think that's what people love. People love to see that and I think we all enjoy competing in that. So it was a lot of fun, the back and forth and, you know, I think at the end of the day is. Is for the most part just competition. But, you know, I definitely think it was a lot of fun, though, you know, sign me up for that all day.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Especially you guys. Went 4:1. It has to feel much better to be on that side than the other side. You put out the message, you know, in your post game press conference or on social. I forget what it was after. Dame tore his Achilles. Obviously a bummer for anybody, even though you guys are competitive and rivals. I thought that was very professional of you. I also thought it was very professional of you afterwards last night, after you just had maybe your biggest, biggest game you've ever had. I mean, series clinching to need it to get to overtime. Brack. Yep. To win this dribbling down in home. Did you hear the roar of the crowd whenever that inbound pass happened? Because they. They decided to just let you get the ball. They decided to let you get a ball. We're not going to do press. We'll let him come out here. Got 10 seconds. Let's go ahead and see what happens. We run a little screen and cook place goes bananas. I mean, that is huge moment for you in the history of your base basketball. You have worked your ass off to get to this moment, to have this moment. And it appears as if the conversation is about. Your dad was about that shit too. Hey. He and Giannis obviously have an interaction after the game and it has been talked about. It has obviously been scrutinized. Your dad ends up on court And I went to bat for your father earlier at every single game. I mean, that is where the Halliburtons sit. That is just kind of how it is. Have to protect the players. Obviously, you came out and said, dad can't be. Do. Where are we at now with the whole conversation? And I am bummed out that a tiny bit of the conversation is about this, but in a week or two, don't worry. I don't think this will even be chatted about as we. Bygones be bygones. You need to know that.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think he just got caught up in the moment. You know, I think my dad is obviously a big personality. And I think, yes, after the game, he came on the floor to. To celebrate. And I think that, you know, obviously his, his actions were, you know, out of line. And my. Apologized. Giannis. He apologized to Giannis. He put out a statement apologizing yesterday. I addressed it in media yesterday. It's unfortunate, you know, what happened, and there's no, no excuses and no place for that. And I think that he understands that. I think he just got caught up in the moment. But, you know, I, I, it's, you know, I understand that a lot of the dialogue has been about that, you know, coming into today, but it was a big win for us as a group, and, you know, that's really where, where my focus is on. But again, we, we know that that's unacceptable and something that, you know, we can count on not happening again.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Definitely need to enjoy the moment. Those moments don't happen all the time. And it wasn't. You remember, he was your dad, so he's, he's his own man. He's an excitable man. I think we've all seen his passion. You said big personality. I think he's always been like that since he's got to Indianapolis. I mean, the first time he came up to me, I mean, we're talking huge dap, yell, scream. It's like. And he is there. We know who Halliburton's dad is like in Indianapolis. So, like, that's why he was able to just walk onto the court afterwards. Like, people are like, why was he all the way on the court? It's like, exactly. Why was he on the court? Because of who he is. Like, that is kind of a part of the conversation. What ends up happening, though, can happen. I appreciate you saying it. I appreciate him saying it. It. And to you, I hope you did enjoy that moment. Man, I hope it wasn't all Caught up in all the other stuff. Now, with that being said, we move on to a good team. Hey, this team's a good team. Cleveland Cavaliers are the real deal. When do we start watching film? Have we already started watching film? Are we training? What, what is. What, What? How do we go on to beat the Mrs. Cleveland Cavaliers? How do we go do that? Because they're very good, right?

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yes, very good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're very good. How do we go? What are we doing? When's this all start?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, I mean, we started like me and my trainer did a little film stuff last night. We'll do some film stuff today. As far as team stuff, we'll start, you know, real team prep within the next, you know, tomorrow and the day after. I think we will play them on Sunday. So we'll practice Saturday and travel Saturday. They're a good team. You know, they're really physical. They can shoot the ball really well. They got multiple guys that can handle shoot, defend, you know, I think that's why you see the record that they have. They're really good and really deep team. So we just gotta be able to match that energy. And, you know, it's not going to be. It's not going to be easy by any means. It's a really good team. So we look forward to that, that competition. And, you know, I think this year we haven't really ever played each other this season at full health. So, you know, it's hard to really look at, you know, necessarily all the film because I have really played a ton against their, their, their, their full group and I only played the first half, I think of the first game we played them. So as far as film, I'll probably have to go back, you know, two years and then start to watch some. What other guards have, have done against these guys. But definitely looking forward to the competition and got some friends over there. So it'll be, it'll be a lot of fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Can't wait to watch it. Hopefully I'll be able to see it.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, these are all tv.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. That was unbelievable after the first round. That was unbelievable last night. That was every TV in the house. I said it must be this one. I don't go like, I thought maybe it was my Internet. It was every TV in the house. I'm like, come on, come on.

[Jason Light]

Yes. Yeah, that's unfortunate. I don't under. I don't understand NBA TV rights. I'm not the guy to talk to about that.

[Pat McAfee]

We had silver on. I know I missed it. I didn't know this was coming, though. How could I have ever expected it? No, how could I ever expect? I could never expect. Okay, playoffs, though. Grueling. Very grueling. Prime time now.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Coming right up. And it's at the end of a very, very long season. Debod has a question for you.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Tyrese. Something we definitely noticed and kind of notice it every year. Just the overall physicality, the bump up in physicality with the NBA playoffs. What's the mindset going into it? How do you deal with it? Do you do anything differently? Did you learn anything from the OGs in Paris? Like, you know, Steph LeBron and Tatum, who have had a bunch of deep playoff runs? You pick up anything from those guys? But just how do you handle it personally on a night in, night out basis?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, for me, I think at this time, it's just taking care of my body, taking care of my mental as well. I think that's most important for me. My social media usage is way down during the playoffs.

[Pat McAfee]

We miss you on there. We miss you on it. Just know the feet crushing it.

[Boston Connor]

Zero Dark Alley.

[AJ Hawk]

Zero dark.

[Jason Light]

I download social media in between the rounds and then I get back off it.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, what the helly.

[Jason Light]

Before the next game won. But I think I should have never redownloaded the app, seen as what my social media looks like at this point in time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but hey, you're knocking off entire cities, brother.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, people were not happy about the overrated.

[Jason Light]

People were not happy.

[Pat McAfee]

Thanks for watching.

[Foxy]

Not happy.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, well, especially.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, you just knocked off an entire state, brother. I mean, that's. That's bastard. One on one, you knock off your entire home state and then overrate that for good reason. And Greece, because a week ago, definitely Greece and probably other countries that are near there. And you're talking. So that's going to come with it, brother. When you live in the paint, every once in a while, you're going to get dunked on, believe me. So don't you worry about that negativity that's coming your way. No, there's a lot of positivity because those pumas look fresh, too. Oh, man, the fit look phenomenal. And then we're making every free throw, every three. You don't worry about ch from social media, Tyrese. You just keep it moving, brother. And with that being said, we will move the show digitally to YouTube, ESPN Plus Disney plus and Tik Tok Live. Whoa. Bigger than Twitch. We'll see you tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Okay, now we're on digital. People are still watching Tyrese. Okay.

[Boston Connor]

Don't say anything bad.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

About Giannis.

[Pat McAfee]

You see the rest. I have nothing.

[Jason Light]

I have nothing bad to say. He's a great competitor. He had 30, 20, and 10 last night. Unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

Why Ben's head like that? Why was he. Why was he grabbing. He grabbed Ben's head like that. Did you see that? Or maybe you haven't even seen it. His hand went all the way around his full.

[Jason Light]

After we won, I kind of blacked out for a little bit. I didn't see anything that happened. And then, like, I had no idea the thing happened with my dad and Giannis. Until I got to the back, I had no idea. And then I saw this, the Ben and Giannis thing, and I was ready to do media. I didn't know what was going on, but I think it's just emotions were high after a good series and hate to see it happen like that. But, you know, it's playoff basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

I kind of. Man, I wish I could have seen it. I like that you both cared, you know, like, that's what I think. That's all anybody talks about for the NBA, right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Jersey swap.

[Pat McAfee]

And these guys don't care, and modern athletes don't care. And it's like we see Detroit and New York. I mean, that is chirpy. We're watching hockey right now. Chirpy. Obviously, you guys, chirpy. It's like people are getting back to, like, in our eyes. I think old school people say, like, competing. We're trying to. Yes, exactly. Nuggets, Clippers. I mean, go ahead.

[Jason Light]

That's what.

[Darius Butler]

That's what.

[Jason Light]

That's what sports is. That's what high level competing is. You know, I think that's what everybody wants to see. I think every sport goes through a time where it's like, oh, it's soft. Is this. Is that. But I think when you get to the high stakes and what we all compete for, to win, then I think you're going to see, you know, the best, you know, come out in people.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so Detroit worst, depending on how.

[Jason Light]

You look at it.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah, I guess the worst things could potentially happen in any situation, but I like to see the two teams care, and I like that there's rivalries, and I like the fact that it all happened. I don't love that some of the conversation was about your dad and that whole thing, and they're talking about a lifetime banishment and everything like that. Tyrese's father. So I think that should Be something to talk about. But, like, obviously we got to protect the players. But I enjoy that there was a little heat. I enjoy that there was a little heat and a little bit of passion. Aj. Oh, yeah. Last question for me on that. You said Cleveland was physical. I watched Detroit. They were super physical. Physical. Oh, yeah.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Everybody is. I feel like everybody super physical.

[Jason Light]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So that's the thing. Like, is this like a evolution of sport? You said everything has a soft era. Does it feel like it is we're in a more physical era? And why do you think that is? Are refs letting more things go or is this just everybody decided? Yeah, this is what we're doing now.

[Jason Light]

I just feel like it's just playoff basketball. You know, I am. I'm different because, like, I grew up, you know, my main time of watching basketball is the 2010s, right? Which, like, basketball purists, their heads are like, oh, that's soft. Like, that's like flopping and all this stuff. And like, I don't believe that. Like, I believe that my era of watching basketball is the highest level and where we continue to bring it, the game keeps evolving and keeps getting better. I'm a believer in that. I just, again, I feel like when it comes to playoff basketball and it's. It's winning time, then you know, the game's going to get more physical. And I think that physicality on top, top of, you know, how skilled guys are and continue to, you know, grow in. In that. In that area as well. It just, it. It. We're in a great, great era of basketball.

[Pat McAfee]

I think people from a 30, 000 foot view said that you guys never had physicality. You just had talent. Like, it was just like a all star game at a YMCA is how people would describe it. There's no effort, there's no physicality. They're just hucking up threes. And then I'm watching these playoff games and it's like Jalen Brunson's Get Everybody. Every step he has taken against Detroit, there is a body. You too. I mean, that's why I was so surprised. They gave you so much room there. With 10 seconds left, it's like, wait, this feels like something different than what is normal. I like the where NBA basketball is headed. Do you have a party going off on your screen right now? A little bit of a disco ball?

[Jason Light]

No, I actually have YouTube. I was watching the show before you called me, so it's on espn. There's an ad going on. That's why.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, good Ad.

[Jason Light]

Hey, my apologies. I'll.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no. No apologies.

[Jason Light]

I exited. I exited. Don't worry.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no. Hey, listen, you. You spoke to two different voices today. There's been three different lights. I mean, this is a good way. We're doing numbers, brother. We're doing absolute numbers. Go ahead, A.J.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

I haven't heard the second voice, actually. I don't know.

[Darius Butler]

I do like.

[Jason Light]

I do.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Like, when you drop it in, though, it is.

[Pat McAfee]

It is.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Keeps everybody on their toes. But Pat was speaking about that last play, so you get. You get free access. You're bringing the ball up. You get that pick around the top of the key. When you see Giannis switch to you, do you know, like, all right, here we go. We're going to the hoop all day long or what? Do instincts take over? Like, take us through your head right here. Like, what's going through it?

[Jason Light]

No, I think it's just reading his feet, reading his. His hand placement, all those things. You know, I knew the last play would come down to. To me versus him. You know, I knew we were. He had five fouls of time, so we knew we were going to set the high ball screen, and they had been switching down the stretch of the game, so knew that this was going to be the matchup. And, you know, I. A lot of people were like, how do you let him get right? I mean, I had been going left for the majority of the game, so I was just trying to make the right read, and I feel like it looks like I made the right one on this play.

[Pat McAfee]

Why do you think he was thinking you thought. Because you're going left all night, he thought you were going that way. That's why he committed that hard. And obviously, well, they were.

[Jason Light]

They were stating he left the whole game, whole series. That's been their. Their talking point from. From their team and from the bench. So, you know, I just tried to make the right read. I think that, you know, I just made the right play in that moment, but I'm not thinking, like, I'm going right.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm.

[Jason Light]

This is my plan. It's just reading his feet and reading the game. It's just read. React.

[Pat McAfee]

You heard it, aj Great answer on that.

[Jason Light]

Voice changed.

[Pat McAfee]

Just.

[Jason Light]

It was just a little unintentional. Unintentional.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Yeah, we understand, and I think it's awesome. If I had two voices is. It's two concerts. Yeah, I believe is. That's right. How it's been described before by musicians or whatever. Ty has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Tyrese, we heard Something from Rick Carlisle last night when you guys were down to the fact of like in a huddle, he said like hey, sometimes you got to just hit somebody, you know. And then he said like yeah, excuse my language, the NBA probably doesn't want to hear that. But what was the message when you know, you guys were down big like before, you know, you had that massive comeback to kind of to re galvanize everybody and get things going again?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, I think we just this whole series and really throughout both of our playoff runs last year and this year, we just keep preaching our depth and you know, the wear down effect, you know, over the course of a series. How can we wear on teams over the course of a game? How can you wear on teams to you know, keep playing fast, keep playing with that energy, using our depth correctly and see how that will wear on teams. And I think last night was a prime example example. At the end of the game we just, you know, they had a couple of turnovers at the end of the game that I truthfully believe was just part of our wear down effect throughout the course of the game with our constant pressure and our constant, you know, aggression to get downhill and all those things. So it's funny that they caught Rick saying that because it usually there's a camera around our huddle. It usually pushes the camera out. I'm surprised that that made it through. Ty, I have watched your reaction to the packers draft pick maybe a hundred times. Makes me laugh every single time.

[Pat McAfee]

You're a Packers fan?

[Jason Light]

Yeah, I mean I'm not really welcome in Wisconsin as much these days. So packers and Colts and the, and the Niners, you know, my boys, the QB over there. So you know, I kind of got a couple teams.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Jason Light]

Baseball. I'm a free agent. I was a Brewers fan and then I was supposed to throw the first pitch last summer and they, they x that playoff series.

[Pat McAfee]

So I said I like so I.

[Jason Light]

Said you know what, I'm no longer a Brewers fan. Don't create. We're looking for a team.

[Pat McAfee]

They cut you. Yeah. They didn't want you to be a fan. I, I, I respect that out of them though. Just like going back to the rivalry thing. Just going back to the rivalry thing. I mean you're from there interesting move. But you having beef with the Bucks, them saying you think you're just going to come over here and toss a. Yeah, right. We don't want you. You should come to Pittsburgh Pirates, bud.

[Darius Butler]

Do not do that.

[Jason Light]

Some people have told me maybe the Reds cuz they're not very good. And you kind of.

[Boston Connor]

Best friends.

[Ty Schmidt]

If you're a free agent, Tyrese, you go with a team that's going to maybe win a World Series here. Don't go.

[Jason Light]

That's fun. Is that fun?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, so be a Pirates fan then. If you want to be miserable, be a Pirates fan. Come join.

[Jason Light]

I don't want to be miserable, but I don't want to be like, oh, I'm a Dodgers fan. Come on. I gotta Red. So find a middle ground.

[Ty Schmidt]

Be a Diamondbacks fan.

[Darius Butler]

Red Sox on the up and up.

[Pat McAfee]

Diamondbacks. Don't be a Diamondbacks fan.

[Jason Light]

Aren't the. I feel like the Reds are the closest to Indy.

[Boston Connor]

Well, actually, the AAA Pirates team, the Indianapolis Indians, are in Indy. So you ipso facto be a Pirates fifth.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Paul skitched here, so you could have seen him if you were. I mean, not.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, they didn't change indie teams to the Guardians.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, no, no. Still, the Indian work Indianapolis. Right downtown. Right downtown. They're hitting. They're hitting home runs, but not whenever Paul Skeens is pitching there. That's right. Which means you should be a Pittsburgh Pirates fan. I think we talked about baseball, we talked about basketball. We need to talk about something that you. You also know very, very well. Connor has a question for you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Tyrese. Obviously a couple massive things happened last weekend, I believe. Need to get your thoughts on WrestleMania Saturday and Sunday. Paul Heyman, kind of similar to your father, looked at, you know, Roman Reigns and punched him right in the dick. And of course, there actually a photo from last night of you guys in the locker room. It's crazy. It looks just like it. But what did you think about the Heyman turn with Seth Rollins? Obviously now Bron Breaker has joined up with that team. Were you surprised? Do you feel like that is the right move? And you know, you have to mention Cena, of course, now beating your guy Cody Rhodes on Sunday. How'd you feel about mania?

[Jason Light]

Yeah. So night one, main event, I was. I predicted that this was going to happen. I kind of saw the groundwork being late. There's a video. Video if you don't believe me.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Jason Light]

But I, you know, hate to see that's happening to my tribal chief. I still acknowledge him. Yeah, for sure.

[Boston Connor]

Punk.

[Pat McAfee]

Punk.

[Jason Light]

Hate to see it happen to him, too. But Seth Rollins is. Davenport, Iowa. My girl's from Davenport. So, you know, I got. There's that connection there. Ty, don't say anything. I don't.

[Ty Schmidt]

I said shout out. I love Seth Freaking.

[Jason Light]

Is that the Cities I'm excited.

[Dan Morgan]

Huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Quad Cities. Quad Cities. Cities. I love that. What a beautiful place.

[Jason Light]

Excited to see what happens with. With Seth as a Heyman guy, and I think what Bron is going to be able to accomplish, I think the presentation looks like an absolute monster right now. This is. This is going to be great. This is kind of like our new evolution without a fourth guy, maybe. Is that what I'm sensing?

[Pat McAfee]

Are they going to get a fourth guy or girl, or are they just going to stay as a menacing trio that's just going to run rough shot through the Monday night Raw roster, telling them, you need to get out of town and get your ass beat.

[Jason Light]

Yeah. I'm excited to see what happens there. And then night two main event, of course, like I told you guys, we're gonna win 17, and we won 17, so that makes me feel great.

[AJ Hawk]

He doesn't.

[Jason Light]

I don't think if I said hello to him that he would. He'd probably be like, you're. I don't. I don't rock with you. You know, that's why it would be his.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's why he's been saying this.

[AJ Hawk]

Whole time, toxic relationship.

[Jason Light]

That's okay. But I'm still. We have a toxic relationship, but I'm.

[Pat McAfee]

Still rocking with him.

[Boston Connor]

He probably follows you.

[Jason Light]

I'm still rocking with him.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, I appreciate that.

[Ty Schmidt]

What about the Sin City Street Fight?

[Darius Butler]

Come on.

[Boston Connor]

Huh?

[Jason Light]

Sin City. Sin City Street Fight was a. Was a great, great fight. Let's talk about the opener, though. That was probably the greatest guy. The night two opener was probably the. Arguably the greatest opener in WrestleMania history.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree. They absolutely brought it down.

[Jason Light]

That was unbelievable. That was unbelievable. Oh, we need to talk about. About is this backlash match. That's what I'm excited about. That's what we need to Talk about.

[Pat McAfee]

Jay Uso beat Gunther. Night one opener kicked off WrestleMania.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, that was j. I'm with that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. We're eating. We're eating.

[Jason Light]

I'm with that for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Guther attacked Michael Cole because of the things Michael Cole said during the lead up or in the match. I don't think any of us really know. And yeah, Tyrese, if it was you, I would have done the same thing, pal. That's how I, I, I kind of operate. You. What are you by supposed to just sit there now? He's gonna push me. Okay.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, I. Hey, I loved that you had your guys back, and I love that the fellas tried to get in there, too. It felt like, you know, I, I thought these guys were like, big, muscular guys couldn't get through that security. The whole time.

[Pat McAfee]

There was 10 of them.

[AJ Hawk]

There was a lot of numbers.

[Pat McAfee]

To be clear. All they were was focused on the boys. Yeah, I'm getting my head popped off my body, and the security's all attacking the boys. It's like it's seemingly going one direction here, and I don't like, look at him sprinting right by me.

[AJ Hawk]

Like your talent, Pierce.

[Jason Light]

Why is nobody. Why is everybody worried about the boy?

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, Hurricane tried. Jessica tried her best. I saw Adam Pierce has ever given his best. But there's professional security right there. They got Jason Jordan.

[Jason Light]

Jason Jordan used to wrestle. Let's grab Gunther, bro.

[Pat McAfee]

I hate. Don't break it to you. Everybody there used to wrestle embarrassment. Hazel. I don't want the Hurricane.

[Jason Light]

Somebody do something.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't do anything. Yeah, exactly. I'm on.

[AJ Hawk]

See you try.

[Pat McAfee]

The boys tried, but they were getting attacked by 100 people.

[Darius Butler]

Ridiculous.

[Jason Light]

That was unbelievable. But what a promo you cut. Oh, my goodness. What a promo you cut.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations to you. I just.

[Jason Light]

That was great.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I don't. I was given the opportunity to speak, and I said, there's a lot of things that need to be said. There's a lot of things that are being said about me, and I think people. People don't know who the I actually am as a person. I think there's maybe a lot of narratives, but with that being said, there's a chance I get my ass beat here, but at least I'm doing it for the right reason. And I. Yeah.

[Jason Light]

Going. Going down fighting. Are the fellas going.

[Pat McAfee]

Are the fellas going down fighting? What do we. Hell. What do you mean going down, brother?

[AJ Hawk]

Who.

[Jason Light]

I said if you're going down, we're going down Fight. If. But I don't believe you're going down.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. You have to fight. What are we talking about?

[Darius Butler]

See this thing?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not.

[Jason Light]

Hey, put him in the sleeper hole. Brian. He tapped out to the sleeper hole. Put him back in it.

[Pat McAfee]

I know right now there's currently a question about who's Mission defense Endurance, too, in this entire thing, because how quick that went, you know, and he tapped quick.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Darius Butler]

You learn from the diamond.

[Pat McAfee]

And Dustin Poirier is going to have his last fight July 19th down there in New Orleans. He taught me that if I'm ever in a sleeper again. We got to look for that lever, brother. Yep. Two hands on that lever, and then we kind of wiggle our way out.

[Darius Butler]

Shoulder out.

[Pat McAfee]

And Gunther, you know, English is a Second language. Who knows if he was able to understand what Dustin Poirier told me. You know, I have no idea. You know, I buy you stuff.

[AJ Hawk]

Amateur one on you.

[Pat McAfee]

Anyway.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he said cross up on the forehead.

[Jason Light]

What's. What's the attire looking like? Are we going back to the. The tank?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, just a tank top.

[Jason Light]

Plain tank.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's the issue here. Didn't know there was going to be a match. You know, I think some of those things take a lot. A lot of playing there, so. Yeah, but it's more my style. You know, John Cena got rid of the music and everything. He just want John Cena.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, I like that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's probably what you're going to see out of me. I think it's going to be all business. Oh, I'm. Hey, listen, I'm being forced to fight a guy from Austria. That's how I. That's how I feel. Yeah. Have to do this. Have to get to do this for the good of society. Let's go in there and handle business.

[Boston Connor]

You come out to Toby Keith.

[Pat McAfee]

Sure.

[Jason Light]

Don't go that far. Don't go that far. Just stick with dance music.

[Pat McAfee]

You said we don't need to be changing stuff. Is that what you're saying? What are you.

[Jason Light]

Stick with entrance music. Stick with the. The same graphics and American badass fighting in Austrian.

[Pat McAfee]

Could you imagine the uproar?

[Boston Connor]

His dad served in the army. He lost his right eye. You got a problem with that, Tyrese?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And he flew a dog till the. Stop doing that.

[Jason Light]

Stop.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Jason Light]

Stop doing that.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. We appreciate you joining us. Good luck against Cleveland. You said first game Sunday? Sunday.

[Jason Light]

First game Sunday. I have no idea what time.

[Boston Connor]

Don't eat there. The city sucks. That's all. I just wanted to say. Don't eat there. The city sucks. Everything sucks about that place.

[Jason Light]

Why? Why? Oh, you're a Steelers fan. Don't like Browns.

[Boston Connor]

Well, that's part of it, but have you ever been there?

[Jason Light]

Okay, I've played there before.

[Pat McAfee]

Smells like poop. Unbiased.

[Darius Butler]

Unbiased. Have no. Have no qualms with Cleveland. When I went there, there was legitimate trash in the streets like poop rats there. There was a. And like, this is. This is real. This is just my experience. And I love the.

[Pat McAfee]

Rock and Roll hall of Fame is right there on the lake.

[Darius Butler]

Rock and Roll hall of Fame. Love the setup. How the arenas and stadiums are next to each other. Love how that. That massive mall they have really cool.

[Pat McAfee]

The old. The.

[Darius Butler]

Is that the old national. Old something. And it Had a really cool roof. The streets are filled with poop and trash.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't see that. That must have been a different time.

[Jason Light]

I can't agree that I'm a Midwest guy, so I refuse to believe that.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm going to say this. Growing up in Pittsburgh, I was told every day of my life. I won't say every day. Anytime the city came up, anytime the word Cleveland came up, there was an immediate following from every human basically that I've ever talked to. That place a shithole. Fuck them.

[Boston Connor]

Mistake by L that is literally how.

[Pat McAfee]

People from Pittsburgh feel about Cleveland. Strictly because of Steelers Browns history. That is how it is. Ben Roethlisberger, whenever he said he's the mayor of Cleveland or whatever or how many times massive pop in Pittsburgh for all it is. And it's whenever the Browns left Cleveland and they went to Baltimore party in Pittsburgh, just like that's. That's how Tone has been born and raised. So the first time I went to Cleveland to play the Browns, we were driving the bus through the city. I was like, wow, this is like a pretty nice city. I was mind blown very windy, which I hated for my job. But I enjoyed the city of Cleveland. I think it's a very nice. There's an outdoor area there, the casino.

[Jason Light]

As an NFL player, when you, when you guys go to a different city, do you guys actually get to like do like do anything?

[AJ Hawk]

No dinner.

[Darius Butler]

Not like in the NBA you can do dinner.

[Pat McAfee]

Some guys don't do dinner. Like Vinitari didn't do dinner because he was coming from New England. And I guess in New England there was a theory that the chef would poison your food.

[Boston Connor]

Bingo.

[Darius Butler]

That's.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what I'm trying to say.

[AJ Hawk]

He's a very cute key piece.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He said I'm not eating out anywhere. I don't want to be pooping my brains out tomorrow. All you need is one chef to have a little money on a game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Cleveland.

[Darius Butler]

Cleveland's the fourth best city in its own state. You know, it's Columbus, Cincy, Dayton and then Cleveland.

[Boston Connor]

Don't forget about Athens too.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, you could throw that in there as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Youngstown is a great. Can we please talk about barely top 10 Cleveland's casino? That Jack's Place is a good. It was a good casino to us.

[Darius Butler]

Great casino.

[Boston Connor]

It's cuz the dealers don't know how to add or do math.

[Pat McAfee]

Tony, that's the problem.

[Jason Light]

What is going on?

[Pat McAfee]

He's from Pittsburgh.

[Jason Light]

That he's what is going on. Right.

[Pat McAfee]

But that might Be a good thing the city's trying to gift you. Okay. We got a blackjack dealers that can't count.

[Boston Connor]

What a gift that would be.

[Pat McAfee]

What a gift that would be. Anyways. Congrats on the big win. We appreciate you. Thanks for the positive vibes against Gunther. It sounds like.

[Jason Light]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Though you know.

[Jason Light]

Those are positive vibes. What are you talking about? Sound Sounds like I'm rolling. I'm locked in.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Big Papa Pump has replied to my open invitation. The genetic freak plus pet equals disaster for getting third. Okay? So I think.

[AJ Hawk]

Hey.

[Jason Light]

You should. You should come out to his. You should come up to his theme song.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think I should be disrespecting Big Papa Pump at all.

[Jason Light]

That's not. Just ask for permission.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but that's the thing. That's why I'm working for him. What if I let Big Papa Pump die? Oh, maybe he'll let you wear the chain mail.

[Darius Butler]

That'd be.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, but damn. Morgan.

[Jason Light]

That would be fire.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It would be fire.

[AJ Hawk]

If you're going to use somebody's theme music. It's only one person.

[Darius Butler]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

No. No.

[Darius Butler]

I am real.

[AJ Hawk]

We talked about all this from WrestleMania. The biggest pop in WrestleMania was whose music.

[Boston Connor]

D. It wasn't. Did he get his ass beat last night too?

[Darius Butler]

I believe in Jo Hendrick.

[Pat McAfee]

There's going to be an ass beat every once in a while. Professional wrestling. What a performance by Joe Hendrick.

[AJ Hawk]

That's the music. If you go use rko.

[Jason Light]

RKO got him out of here so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Twice. He fought.

[AJ Hawk]

He battled.

[Jason Light]

He did battle. Respected that. Respected fight.

[AJ Hawk]

Randy's awesome post match. That was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Go ahead.

[Jason Light]

Have you taken rko?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that? Brother?

[Jason Light]

Have you taken an RKO before?

[Pat McAfee]

No. We're gonna try to keep that.

[Boston Connor]

Randy's gonna beat the out.

[Pat McAfee]

Randy's £290. Yeah.

[Jason Light]

You don't believe that. You don't believe that.

[Pat McAfee]

I do in St. Louis. Brother.

[Boston Connor]

You mean Legend Killer.

[Jason Light]

We got about. Was that seven months. We're carrying it through 20. 25. Stop it.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about?

[Darius Butler]

Don't be a mark. Dude.

[AJ Hawk]

No way.

[Jason Light]

Ruining wrestling. You heard him.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm gonna try.

[Darius Butler]

You can do that without the strap?

[Pat McAfee]

You think he's gonna be able to do that over a range? Randy Orton's dead body. Brother. Yeah.

[Jason Light]

Randy here. Who else we got? We're gonna. We'll see Punk at Money in the Bank. Run that back.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you doing?

[Jason Light]

He'll blow the kiss back.

[Pat McAfee]

Is this fantasy booking from Tyrese Halbert? Yeah.

[Jason Light]

I'm fantasy booking. Can I do that? I'm a fan.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you can do whatever you want. Just don't get mad when it doesn't go the way that you want it to go, you know?

[Jason Light]

Oh, hey, I'm just. I'm a fan of the product. I. You know, Triple H is my guy, so I'm. I'm rolling whatever.

[Foxy]

He.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm rolling.

[Pat McAfee]

Triple H talks shit to you, though. I think in one of his meetings. Not you in specific, but he talked. He gave an answer all about fans. Yeah. About how they're, like. They dissect it, obviously, which they appreciate. We've gotten to that stage. But also he said, like, people, like, book it, and they have no idea about, like, people's schedules and health and, like, if that's even possible. And then whenever it's not that they get mad about it, it's like, well, that's what you just did is not. Not, like, reality in the whole thing. So I think he was trying to just, like, give his side of what the reality of the. The business of figuring it out is while, like, people who are so passionate about wrestling. Yourself, myself. I think that's why we've actually become, you know, as tight as we have. It's like, those people can bash the product, like, get negative, especially on the Internet. And I think Triple H is like, man, yes, Would love to do everything you are. You guys are saying would be, yeah, we need Stone Cold Steve Austin to kick off Monday Night Raw next week. We. We should have that, like, and not that fans are expecting that. I think wrestling fans actually have a very good feel for store, for sure. I think wrestling fans have a great feel. Not all of them. There's a lot of people that I think, you know, are just kind of blinders on in their particular world, which is okay. But it feels like the wrestling fan and community as a whole smartened up to, like, the business more so than any other sport, I think, personally. And very passionate. Very passionate.

[Jason Light]

Yeah, it's a good point. And you know, everybody. Like, you don't know everybody's schedules, but you hear rumors of people's schedules and take that into account from time to time, you know? So, yeah, I definitely agree with that. I feel like the WWE understands how smart their fans are and. And they adjust accordingly.

[Pat McAfee]

How about, yeah, there's a movie coming up. This guy's in, yeah, Hungary or whatever. It's crazy. It is. The wrestling world is insane, dude. It is so awesome. It's the greatest form of entertainment there is. And the people that don't get it will never get it. That's what Triple H said. There will never be enough reasons to explain to people that don't get it why they should like it. And you'll never need a reason to explain to somebody that likes it, you know, why they should like it. I think Triple H has said that. It's a perfect thing. And Tyrese, I think you're an entertainer, brother. That's why whenever you're on the court, there's a little bit of heat sometimes. Tell your dad we said hello. And do you know. Yeah, calm down. Yeah, we're.

[Ty Schmidt]

Take it up a notch.

[Jason Light]

Appreciate you guys.

[Ty Schmidt]

Maybe take it up a notch.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Maybe.

[Darius Butler]

Might as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe.

[Jason Light]

I wouldn't go that far.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I don't know. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Olympic gold medalist, Tyrese Halbert. Tyrese, out here, there's no one way of doing things. No unwritten rules and no shortage of opinions. Adventure. Because out here, the only requirement is having fun.

[AJ Hawk]

Bank of America invites kids 6 to 18 to golf with us for a limited time.

[Pat McAfee]

Sign them up for a free one year membership, giving them access to discounted Tetons at thousands of courses.

[AJ Hawk]

Learn [e-mail] golf with us what would.

[Pat McAfee]

You like the power to do? Bank of America restrictions apply.

[AJ Hawk]

CBFA.com Golf with US for complete details.

[Pat McAfee]

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[Foxy]

Yourself.

[Pat McAfee]

Whatever you do, do it for less. At Harbor Freight, the Greek freak said. He said, I've lifted a championship before. They haven't. Did Tyrese just walk in there with a gold medal or no?

[AJ Hawk]

He did.

[Pat McAfee]

He should have.

[AJ Hawk]

He did.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's a world champion you should have.

[Pat McAfee]

You ever want just do one of these numbers here?

[Darius Butler]

They're both world championships. Let's not get into.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry. Had a big role on that team Vibes guy. Yeah, he was vi. Why are they voting him most overrated? What's that mean? He talked.

[Boston Connor]

I have a theory.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know, anonymous players, I think. Players. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

You see who put it out.

[AJ Hawk]

Who was it?

[Boston Connor]

He's friends with us.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he didn't get the most amount of us, but close.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, we know why?

[Pat McAfee]

Why?

[Darius Butler]

Hand up, you know, Celtics Swept his ass 4 Nothing in the Eastern Conference finals. So a lot of people saying, you know, hey, Pacers are great. Albert and led him all the way to the Eastern Conference finals. All those people are also saying, like, and then he got his ass swept. So no one gives a fuck how.

[Pat McAfee]

Many teams are left of the conference finals.

[Darius Butler]

No, hey, I. I agree with you. I think Tyrese Albert and top 15 players.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I'm just saying though, that is wild that the Pacers never get talked about. They were the final Four, you know, And I mean, obviously it's just Eastern Conference finals or whatever it is, but they were a good team and this city got ignited behind it. It was awesome to see see, like the Pacers in the city come behind the Pacers. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

And like the Celtics thing, I am joking about. But for real, people do that with the Knicks too. Because they beat the Knicks to get to the Eastern Conference finals. Were all banged up. Yeah. And that's part of it. Because, I mean, the Pacers have that same argument when they talk about last year. It's like, well, they got super banged up in the Eastern Conference finals where Tyrese was hurt and stuff like that too. But I think that is why he got voted.

[Boston Connor]

And unfortunately, paper season is over now, you know, because Maze, in what, one day? And once it's May in Indianapolis, only one thing matters.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay?

[Boston Connor]

Greatest, greatest month in any city in the world.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, we have some. May in Indianapolis is awesome. The Indy 500 here is insane. There's a bunch of events. 300,000 people will be here for this race. It's a spectacle. If you've never been and never done it, you should. Yes, it is. The reason why Indianapolis is such a good host city is because they host the largest sporting event on earth every single year. And then obviously conventions that they host. It's like the city is built for you to come into town, have a good time, and then go ahead and get out of here. And the Indy 500 is a real deal. They'll still follow the Pacers. Maybe. I mean, we have some big news out of the NFL. Kind of a bummer. Not just kind of, I guess. Very much so. Jets quarterback Jordan Travis. Well, I hope I'm happy for him. A fifth round pick, number 171 out of Florida State in 2023 has informed the jets his intention to retire. Obviously he was a keystone to that Florida State team. Whenever he got hurt, all hell broke loose with the Florida State team that was undefeated but did not make the College Football Playoff because their backup quarterback got hurt as well. I believe they're on a third string quarterback in a very quick time. Jordan was the guy that led that entire team and his absence was the reason why Florida State was not placed into the college football playoffs. So obviously that caused a firestorm in of itself. He's been on our show a few times even whenever we were in Dublin. He's a good dude, great dude. They talk about how good of a player he is and how great of a guy he is. Has that injury now he's retiring. I hope he's a piece obviously I hope everything like that is okay. The 2024 fourth round. Our fifth round pick says I gave everything I had to the rehab process. But despite all my efforts, my leg never responded the way we hoped. I've been medically advised to retire from the game. I love so deep man. That's what I feared. I'm bummed for him. He was a great football player, great dude. And we'll never know, you know, never know what could have been great.

[AJ Hawk]

Great player, great dude. And this is kind of the other side of that, that nil argument or debate because that was his peak earning potential now with this injury. And so one thing we can't control in sports, we always hear control. You control how hard you work, showing up, being a pro. But injuries just the unfortunate part of the game. So I hate to Jordan.

[Pat McAfee]

Mike Garofolo reporting this quote from Jordan. It's like man, I gave it acl.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

What, what all was it? The ACL plus everything.

[AJ Hawk]

It was nasty.

[Darius Butler]

That was like everything. Knee below I thought and they because.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

You don't really get medically advised with lower body like leg injuries that often that doesn't happen too much.

[Pat McAfee]

Well and also I was going to say like they give projections for everybody for their recovery and for the rehab schedule and hey, this is what it's going to be. This is what it's going to be. And I think in 2025 with the way, you know, medical is and the way we've seen so many rehabs to injuries before, we kind of have a good sense of what's going to happen. I assume he had a belief he was coming back. I assume there was a full plan and then for it just not to work out because rehab sucks. Rehab is so Lonely, painful, like what he went through, it had to hurt so bad. And then for them to be like, we don't think you're ever going to be able to get it. That sucks. But what he needs to know is you left your impact on football, brother. You were an absolute dog on the football field. Florida State, real deal, potentially change the conversation around a college football playoff because he was absent. And I hope he thinks about that and as well during this time that I assume is very tough for him. Family, friends, everybody in that area.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He's so young, like he's just so young. And I would imagine from when he started his rehab up until he got that news, it probably never even crossed his mind that hey, I'm not going to play again. Like I, I think there's always hope, especially when you're rehabbing something. Like I know you have to have hope that you're going to make it back, you're going to figure it out, you're going to be your old self again, hopefully. So yeah, for the guy this young, it's, it's terrible. Especially we know how good of a duty is now. Good of a player that this guy can be, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Damn. Yeah, I'm like, I'm like, oh yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hopefully you can find some like fulfillment in coaching or some or you know, something close to the game still where.

[Pat McAfee]

It'S like, or whatever. Dream.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly, whatever. I mean, yeah, you hope that anytime you hear like it's he's medically advised to retire, hopefully this isn't like something that it's going to affect his day to day life, you know, still. And like he's going to have a tough time just physically, just doing whatever, you know, but, but yeah, hopefully he finds something that he loves.

[Pat McAfee]

He posted a handwritten letter. It's very long. We've not been able to run through it. Thankful, thankful, thankful. On November 18, 2023, my life and career took an unexpected turn. I gave everything I had to rehab process, but despite my efforts, my leg never responded the way we hoped. After much prayer and consultation with my doctors and medical team, I've been medically advised to retire from the game I love so deeply. It's crazy how fast life can change. This is not the ending I had ever imagined. But I do trust the Lord's plan above all else. Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21. Thank you to everyone who's been a part of this ride. With love and Sincere gratitude, man. Hell, yeah. All right. So he will power on.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Even though he got bad news. Well, Jordan, you did good, Bob, and sorry to hear that. I couldn't even imagine that being told hold that after all of it. Because every day you're going in there, like you said, hopeful. You know, the reason why I'm doing all this is because I'm going to get to the other side of this and it's going to be good. The reason why they're rubbing a metal piece of what just rod, I guess, up and down your skin to beat up your scar tissue. Some of the most that's just scar tissue stuff. Let alone rebuilding every muscle and every and every movement and everything. The amount of work that takes in, in retraining your leg, just breaking up the scar tissue so that doesn't affect you forever is them literally just raking this metal thing up and down your skin. And it's like. So it's torturous. I will say it is grasting. What's it called? Yeah, Graston.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Yeah, Graston it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Need to do it, though. I need to break scar tissue. We don't break scar tissue. It's gonna hurt forever. So we'll go 10 minutes today. And it's like, all right. You're looking literally just. And you're walking into that building knowing that at some point that's gonna happen. And it is like busting scar tissue from the outside and they're just raking. It's like you have to do that every day. That's it. Every day. Let alone like all these things. It's like you're signing up for pain. And it's oftentimes you're hopeful, but you're away from everybody else. Nobody knows exactly how it's going to go. It's like you're banking on a plan being the right one for you. And then it's like, here we go. And then you get all the way through and they say, yeah, I ain't responding, or whatever. That's a bummer. He'll give back, though. He'll get back. And he did good. All right. Is there anything we didn't talk about? Oh, yeah. Van Ginke. Yeah. Huge congrats to him, juicy. This deal, A.J. hawk deserves this.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Absolutely deserves it. Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I think so, too. Van Ginke, which we saw down in Miami, obviously, with incredible flow. This guy's all over the field. They give him a 1 year, 23 million dollar extension with 22.4 million guarantee to keep him in Minnesota. Deal Done by agent Drew and Jason Rosen has. He was formerly in Miami. Guy makes plays all over the field. He has eyes on the ball seemingly all the time. He'll have his head in on every single tackle. He's a true game changer, game wrecker. And he's getting rewarded. One year deal. I like the fully guaranteed basically for another year.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Could have been. Could have been a defensive player of the year last year with the season. He had you mentioned his impact. Run game, pass game. Can get after the quarterback, get him on the ground, can pick it off. Remember that big pick he had against Aaron. But he's unbelievable player. Obviously was an unbelievable player in Miami as well. Seems like a great character locker room guy as well. So you need those dogs around him. Love him Getting a nice little pay bump for this season.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ Listening to you go on his pass rush there was awesome. For real.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

That inside spin was something crazy. Yeah, he's. He's a ball hawk, man. I love it. He's.

[Pat McAfee]

He's.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

I think he's gotten even more jacked as he's gotten older in the league too. Maybe that's part of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I wonder have we seen he is. I assume he's absolutely shredded. Yeah, just the hair is so sweet. I. I think good idea. Got long blonde hair, let it fly like a. AJ Hawk. Clay Matthews, maybe. Sure. Yeah. AJ Is this one of your favorite guys in the league? I forgot about the defensive player of the year Congress conversation at the end of the year.

[Boston Connor]

Last year I actually did vote for him for defense player of the year, number one on my ballot. He was top five in like every category. Sacks, tackles, as far as edges. He had like 20 more tackles than anybody. He's top five in pressure, sacks, everything. Interception, two interceptions and return touchdowns. Yeah, he was a dog last year.

[Pat McAfee]

And nobody talked about him. You were actually. You said you don't know how people are going to respond to you putting Van Ginkel as your number one. As your first number year AP voter actually in the entirety. That's because under a radar out there.

[Boston Connor]

In Minnesota between him and Zach Bonnet at one point, you know, and then obviously Trey Henderson was a sack leader and stuff like that, but no, Van Ginke had an unbelievable season.

[Darius Butler]

Do you think this does anything with the Trey Hendrickson stuff? Him doing a one year 22.4 million guaranteed up to. What was it up to? 23 million. Do you think this so much more maybe pushes anything?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't understand. Was Van Gink tinkle. He was up or he had A year left on his contract because we didn't talk about him at all.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I thought he signed a two year deal because it was like the B flow thing. His best years in Miami were with B flow and then he goes and reunites them. But I thought it was only like two years, like 18 million or 16 million. I didn't think it was even close to that.

[AJ Hawk]

Somebody else got a one year bump too. Is it either Granard or Hunter? I forget which one. But one of those guys got a one year bump. I want to say maybe, maybe around 30 million number. But yeah, the number does seem low for sure. Especially coming off the season that he had.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ, what's going on? Go ahead.

[Boston Connor]

So he signed a 2 year 20 million dollar contract with the Vikings last year and then this is a, a one year $23 million extension to. For the Vikings.

[AJ Hawk]

So.

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, so three year 43.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Which is good deal for the Minnesota Vikings for a defense player of the year candidate. And Van Ginke, A.J. kevin O'Connell has beef low on the defensive side. You just brought him up. They got Justin Jefferson, they got Addison, they got a tight end, they got an offensive line probably going to be healthier than they were last year. They got a great defense, a lot of offense. Is JJ McCarthy going to lead these boys to the promise lane? Is that the guy that's, that's where we're that right? Yeah, that's 100% the case now.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He has, he has to.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I can't wait to watch this legitimately.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Is he full go? Is he full go in off offseason stuff? Do we know?

[Ty Schmidt]

I would imagine, yeah, I think so.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

I think they did say he was.

[Ty Schmidt]

The Rogers stuff is completely done because they traded for Sam Howell on D1 of the I think the second day of the draft.

[Pat McAfee]

So what if JJ's a guy? Yeah, there's a chance everywhere JJ's been he's been a guy. Like what if he is a guy.

[AJ Hawk]

In KOC that's been a winner?

[Darius Butler]

He's made a guy up of everybody.

[Pat McAfee]

Legit and it's like he's been a winner. He's been a guy. He's with koc. He won't be considered a rookie obviously because he misses an entire first actual rookie year. But his first year as starting quarterback with that team that could potentially was almost the number one team in the NFC is like, I mean that is, that's awesome. That's an awesome opportunity for jj. I, JJ wouldn't do it because I know he's like, he does the meditation and stuff, and he's obviously had to be in big moments for his intention. Entire sporting career. Feels like even back through high school. But what an opportunity. That's big. That's a big opportunity for jj Outside.

[AJ Hawk]

Of, you know, the. The tough injury he had last year, this is a dream scenario for a young quarterback. You coming in with a bright offensive mind. You're coming in with great. Pretty good off. Yeah. Offensive mind, pretty good offensive line and great offensive weapons on the outside. So he had that structure, he had that stability. He won a championship in college. College. And then going to the NFL and having all those things around you. Because we always talk about quarterbacks, especially, you know, young quarterbacks, not developing properly, not having the right structure and things around them. And he's coming in with all these things, then having that year under your belt to learn whatever he learned. I don't know how much he was in the building. Obviously he wasn't taking physical reps. Yeah. But hopefully getting mental reps, learning some things from Sam, learning from Kevin O'Connell. So now he has an opportunity, and we know it's going to be his show. And I'm definitely excited to watch how number nine does this thing in Minnesota.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Do you think that it is kind of a tough situation because of the fact of, you know, they were the number one seed for 16, 17 weeks, and now that's kind of the floor. Like, do. Do you see the fans being like, oh, yeah, no, it's okay, jj. Like, that's fine. We're not first year.

[Pat McAfee]

I gotta remember that.

[Darius Butler]

I was like, it's like, hey, we went.

[Jason Light]

We.

[Darius Butler]

We won 14 games.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Minnesota fans. I'm not saying, saying, like, us and people from the outside. I'm saying, like, I wonder what.

[Pat McAfee]

What a lot of ops in Minnesota. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was very nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Very nice. Right.

[AJ Hawk]

I would.

[Ty Schmidt]

I would imagine Minnesota fans are more excited going into this year because with Darnold last year, like, he was the backup for the 49ers, like, we were far removed from him being the third pick in the draft. Like, last year was house money. I think you ask any Vikings fans, like, holy. Like, we. We did not expect we'd be in this position. They haven't barely got to see JJ McCarthy yet, and he's still like a top fic. If. If I were a Vikings fan, I'd be more excited going into this year than I was last year.

[AJ Hawk]

And for that pressure on him with what we've seen for him in college, coming in, like, I would Anticipate he has that type of pressure on himself to be a winner, to. To win championships. And as a fan, this is the guy you drafted Young first round. This is the guy we want to be our quarterback for 15 years. I don't think those expectations were there for Sam Darnold. Maybe after that season, like, hey, maybe we should lock him up, not take a chance. But now you, you're going all in on. On Sam. Darn you not bringing in Aaron for a one year, two year rental. This is your potential franchise guy. And once again, you got everything around you, starting with arguably the best wide receiver in the league with Justin Jefferson. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

And like the expectations for Darnold weren't there, but now for the team, they are absolutely there.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Like they put all that money into the O line. They bought, brought in fries. They brought in Ryan Kelly. They also draft their first round pick. Yeah. Was another offensive lineman. Like, I completely agree, like, for J.J. mcCarthy in particular, but we talk about it with the Lions after their first good year. It's like, well, now that's the expectation. And I'm not saying they're expecting JJ McCarthy to come in and win MVP, but I would assume most Vikings fans are like, hey, we better win 12 games this year.

[Pat McAfee]

I hope they do. I hope it keeps going over there because I like Kevin O'Connell.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, he's a man.

[Boston Connor]

Eli. They brought in Hargrave and it was Darren Reed. Or.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, love Justin Jefferson too.

[Pat McAfee]

Or no, you see Ryan Grigson was in the shot over there when they did a draft. We're talking about. We're talking about nice side profile. His beard at a. Remember he walked by at the combine?

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Lined up. Lined up nice or what?

[Pat McAfee]

We're talking like perfect lineup. He walked by at the combine. What'd he say he was 290 or something? 3. 3. O 5.

[AJ Hawk]

How do you look?

[Pat McAfee]

Good?

[AJ Hawk]

Stacked?

[Darius Butler]

Jacked.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Put together.

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely jacked. Yeah. Look at him. Look at the line. Look at the line. That's nice. Wow. I mean, he's getting that done, you know, Unless he's got the. Does he got the straight edge?

[Ty Schmidt]

He might, he might.

[Pat McAfee]

Look at. Yeah, he said, steady, steady hand. Geez. I mean, look how jacked he is. He said something along the lines of I have to eat and I have to be able to have a beer every once in a while, so I'm not able to do whatever everybody else does. So he just works out all the time so he can stay in shape. He was, I think he said he was 300 and some pounds when he walked by. Just had to combine. Damn. Because he blocked the sun.

[Darius Butler]

They're ready to roll.

[AJ Hawk]

Was he like second in line over here?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't. He was next. He was in the. It was Kevin O'Connell Quesi. And then I think he was like right there, if I remember from the shot.

[Darius Butler]

And he got interviews this offseason, so.

[Pat McAfee]

I assume senior vice president, player personnel. Oh, yeah. He was going to potentially go to the Jets.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That was like the conversation. Maybe he was heading to the Jets. I will say second time as gm. I assume he will do a great job. That feels like kind of the move for some coaching and for some GMs if they get the opportunity. If you're young and you get hired to be a head coach or a GM and it doesn't work out, you know, obviously that stinks and that's a very heavy thing. But then whenever you get that second opportunity, there's so much for you to pull from. So much for you to pull from for the first time. And the other day you get a chance to have to go learn. You have to humble yourself too. Like there's a lot of. There's. If you get another opportunity. Obviously if is a big word. There's only 32 jobs. I think it has paid benefits to people in the past. And his beard looks great.

[Foxy]

Y.

[Pat McAfee]

His beard looks absolutely great. Damn. Morgan too. Jesus. Yeah.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

How is he? How's he.

[Pat McAfee]

That.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

How are his arms that big when he's only doing 50 pound dumbbell bench.

[Darius Butler]

300 reps.

[Pat McAfee]

He was lying.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Yeah, you're right.

[Ty Schmidt]

He had you 5,000 rep. That was a dumbbell bench. He might be curling, you know. £150.

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. Yeah. But I mean just the meat. The shoulder check. Yeah, that. That's. That's not just. That doesn't just fall there like that has to be.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He's doing. He's doing a little more than he makes out.

[AJ Hawk]

Seems like a calisthenics guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

He's sandbagging.

[Pat McAfee]

How about the. The hair was clean. Jason Light was awesome.

[Boston Connor]

He was. I want to have beer with Jason Light.

[Pat McAfee]

I did. We've seen him have beer on a boat. Yeah. Yeah. The boat parade. Remember those times?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, man.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Oh, man.

[Pat McAfee]

That boat parade was electrifying.

[Darius Butler]

So sweet.

[Pat McAfee]

That was hard. Not to just be captivated by the clips that were coming out.

[Ty Schmidt]

Tom crawling around because he was so boozed up afterwards.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

We did the Lombardi family being pissed for being thrown.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That's all going. We Appreciate what you've done. Yeah. But you are not actually the Lombardi. Okay. So that's what we all say. Oh, yeah. We respected. We respect and appreciate the hell out of it, you know, But. But we're at the celebration of it. And if the greatest of all time, who has a bunch of them says, you know what, first time boat parade, let's go ahead and give it a.

[Ty Schmidt]

Heave ho, we're gonna do that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a lot.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And if Gronk wants to Gronk and use it as a baseball bet, that's just. That's a part of that trophy's journey.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

With that team Beautiful that won that beautiful trophy that was created. I remember that whole thing. We had to talk about that.

[Darius Butler]

So they're all different.

[Pat McAfee]

Just like us as humans.

[AJ Hawk]

It's true.

[Pat McAfee]

We all have the same goals, though. Enjoy this life. And we'll continue to do that. Tomorrow's a big day.

[Ty Schmidt]

Huge, massive.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, tomorrow's huge show. Huge. And then Friday. Holy Times Square. Yeah. Wow. I'm standing here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Now I guess the desk not. I'm intrigued to see how this one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Goes a little bit different.

[Pat McAfee]

I've had zero say in the setup of this thing, which is not necessarily my most favorite thing to be a part of. Sure. You know, I don't necessarily love it. Me personally, you know, because what I've learned is, I guess there are parts of this business where the people that are on camera are just like, hands off and know nothing about anything else going on. And I respect. Respect that. I respect that a lot. But if you're the person that's on camera, don't you think you should know a little bit about what's going on? Because if all hell breaks loose, you're the one that's on camera, you know, so shouldn't there be some sort of exit or thought in this entire thing? So I've, you know, alongside the. This show operating, you know, we've been in the back of a box truck. We've been in the middle of a parking lot. We've been on Sideways on top of a hill. We've been everywhere. And obviously, we got an absolute weapon. And Zito, who just like piping what needs to go where. But the amount of things that we have gotten to learn, I think about setup and staging and everything, networks and all the shit behind the scenes, I think is a little bit more than most people that probably do shows and such. So whenever we talk to people from other companies that are doing the setup, you know, they're talking to dipshits that don't know anything. It's like, whoa, whoa. Have a couple questions as well. The crew that we talked to this morning. It was a good convo. It was a good convo at the beginning. I didn't think it was going to be. It was not good at the beginning. I don't think it was going to be a good conversation. I did not. I was long convo. I was very, very worried at the beginning of that. Beginning of that conversation. But I think it turned out it's going to be awesome. I think, I think it's going to be a great setup. A lot of trust, a lot of faith in everything that's happening over there. And yeah, once in a lifetime event is how they're going of talking about it. Friday night, the Ring presents Fatal Fury fighting Times Square, brother. I mean, it's going to be right in the middle of Time Square. They put the ring up today. I'm going to be standing, I guess, just somewhere. I have no idea.

[Darius Butler]

Incredible.

[Pat McAfee]

I haven't seen a photo, but he said the desk is going to be a little tight and I'm going be standing there sitting there if I would like. It's Time Square, brother. Do you want to be a part of it? Sure. Hell yeah, I'll do this. Thanks for the opportunity. So that's going to be Friday. I have no idea what to expect out of that. Do you have to listen to the call?

[Darius Butler]

No, no, no. Not, not, not even a little.

[Ty Schmidt]

I should be fun.

[Darius Butler]

I have thoughts.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard a lot of these calls. Yeah, the group, the team has heard a lot of these calls.

[Darius Butler]

I have, I have some expectation.

[Pat McAfee]

We have a very, you know, we've, we've been through a lot of convos, through a lot of different times. And you know, the team hears a lot of these convos as they go because team needs to hear because everybody needs to know what the fuck's going on. Because, you know, I think a lack of communication is probably the worst thing that can happen in a business, an entity, a show, a program, anything like that. But I'm also not gonna fucking tell everybody everything. So, hey, this is gonna happen. It's on you to know your shit if it is associated with you. You need to pay attention for your time and handle your business. That is our business. Business. I think, I think that is our business as a whole. If you were to project our culture, that would be. Handle your. Okay, don't got time.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Be a pro.

[Pat McAfee]

Bingo. Be a pro. That. That is basically what Is Debone is being a pro maybe too much day in, day out, day in, day out. He's. He's such a pro. He's such a pro. But we've heard a lot of calls, listen to a lot of people from a lot of different places. Today's call, the beginning of that thing was chaos. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I know that was fun and not.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Like too many people or what.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of people, a lot of ideas, but a lot of ideas. And anytime you got that, you know that's good because there's only a couple wires. So if we got five different ideas, you know, that's the whole thing. But I think everybody was trying to get on the same page because this kind of came together late is what I kind of felt. The people that are on the other side were just learning of this I think very recently. So had to give some grace obviously, which goes back to what we're talking about. So it is, is. I think it's going to be great on Friday. We're going to find out though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we are.

[Darius Butler]

I think the scene's going to be great. I think we're going to be able to see you and then everything else in here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Well, again I have an expectation and I, I think it's going to look.

[Pat McAfee]

You think I going to go out. I'm going to look cool too. I'm going to try to look cool.

[AJ Hawk]

I think, I think it, it took a windy road, but it got to a. You know, sometimes with different organizations, different teams talk to each other.

[Pat McAfee]

Other.

[Darius Butler]

It's a language bar, I think.

[Pat McAfee]

So Times Square is there. I mean there's a lot of. There's a lot of different signals bouncing around here, observing pieces. There's a lot of, I don't know.

[Darius Butler]

A lot of satellites.

[Pat McAfee]

That was a tough one this morning. Worst case scenario, you grab your phone, you call in FaceTime and you're just walking around Times Square. I'm in Time Square actually. I'll probably hit the whole city.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I got some things to go see.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Put the AirPods in.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And the show in New York City, Boom.

[AJ Hawk]

I think there's a chance one AirPod if you could walk around. You want. You gotta have.

[Pat McAfee]

I started doing that in the office. That was awesome time. That was like a two week period where I was on a lot of calls and I started being one ear AirPod guy and that was old school Bluetooth guy. That's literally what it was.

[AJ Hawk]

I still out there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Drew down there in Florida, I assume. I don't see a lot up here in Indiana. Truckers.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Drivers.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I love when you drive past a gaming rig. Oh, that's when you know that guy's stirring it up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Big time.

[Pat McAfee]

That guy is on there stirring it up. He. He wants to know what's going on. Bogey niner, whole thing. I love that we press that lot. That guy loves being on the road.

[Ty Schmidt]

Without a doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

That guy loves. Can't wait for the next person to talk to that's his home. When's that person gonna get in? Signal. Hey, driver. Yeah, Hello. Keep it moving. Love it. All right, we'll keep it it moving. Said New York. I'm going to tour New York City on Friday.

[Darius Butler]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm happy we figured that out. Get some steps in too, for Gunther.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe I run the whole time. Yeah. Training. Let's not do that. Yes, me.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Boston Connor]

A lot of good boxing gyms there.

[Pat McAfee]

I need jc. Did you see JC shoes today? He had some hocus that weren't hocus.

[AJ Hawk]

They are Brooks about 65.

[Pat McAfee]

These things were real big. He was visibly, while he was walking, appearing to fall every step, like off of his shoe.

[Darius Butler]

It clogs.

[Pat McAfee]

But he said it was so uncomfortable. We're talking this big at the bottom. Yeah. I think they're running shoes or whatever it is. Maybe he said standing shoes. It was unbelievable. 3 inch lifts straight across.

[Darius Butler]

Like the Irish standing shoe.

[AJ Hawk]

I guess for a barber that's a good idea to have some good standing.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, dude.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

It's not good to roll your ankles and fall over, though, if they're that much.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

You can't do anything.

[Pat McAfee]

But I think he's still. He is a. He's a right here mover.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, I think this is where he is a.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like a half moon mover.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Especially depending upon where a good light is at the mirror. Obviously.

[Darius Butler]

Sometimes you just move that chair. You don't have to move.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Because he can just. Yeah. And then poof. How you doing? He gave good cuts in them, so we got to keep that in mind. Ty got a good cut. Foxy got a good cut today. Tom got a good trim. Gumpy's beard looks phenomenal. I do love that you get that beard done.

[Dan Morgan]

Have to.

[Pat McAfee]

Guppy. Anything happening in soccer tonight?

[Boston Connor]

Actually, big match Concave. Champions cup inter. Miami's down two. Nothing to Vancouver. They're plus 250 to go through tonight.

[Darius Butler]

Holy cow.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so what is this quarterfinals?

[Boston Connor]

Semifinals.

[Pat McAfee]

Is Lou playing?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, they took the. They took the game off on the weekend in the league so they'd be fresh for tonight to make make this comeback.

[Pat McAfee]

What channel is this way? Am I gonna be able to watch this?

[Boston Connor]

Yeah, it's on at 8:00 on Fox Sports 1.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. 8:00 FS1. Lou Messi takes on Canada.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, White caps are tough.

[Boston Connor]

The white caps are unbelievable this year actually. It's insane what they're doing.

[Pat McAfee]

Who they got on their team, I have no idea.

[Boston Connor]

They're beating the hell out of.

[Darius Butler]

That's on an eight. Yeah, bummer, man. Because every other playoff sports on. So no thanks.

[Pat McAfee]

What, what playoffs we got tonight? Who's playing?

[Darius Butler]

Panthers. Lightning are at 7:30.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's a much better game.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, Warriors, Rockies.

[Darius Butler]

Warriors.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's a much better game.

[AJ Hawk]

T Wolves, Lakers.

[Boston Connor]

Just throw it on something.

[Pat McAfee]

This T Wolf Lakers game they're saying. I think I heard Charles Barkley, who we have respect for, obviously a man that has changed TV forever. He said if, if they lose this game, he don't want to hear LeBron in the top five conversation anymore. At 40 years old, that might have been fake. I might have of got sent out in there. But there is people that are going to I think be very up like hard on LeBron and Luka if they lose in the first round of the playoffs. How everything went in there, especially if it's a gentleman sweep with the Timberwolves. Ant has been electrifying to watch. Speaking of electrifying, Steph is shooting like he had. He was like seven years ago. Yep. Feels like we got cardio Steph back and Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green obviously balling. And that's J. Jalen.

[Jason Light]

Yep.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, it's Jalen Green.

[Pat McAfee]

That Houston team's good.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, a lot of young buckets.

[Pat McAfee]

Jalen sounds like it over better. No, no, no.

[AJ Hawk]

He needs to score.

[Boston Connor]

Like he's awesome to watch.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

He's a freak, man. I watched him last time. I haven't seen a whole lot of him. That guy's unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

This is the NBA though for us. Like Cash. Like we are learning about these teams now and I think the NBA kind of understands that too, you know, like there was quotes from like Tyrese and I think even Adam Silver maybe when he was asked about the ratings in the first half of the season, he was like, playoff. We get it. Yeah, like hey, whatever, you know, all eyes are on us. Like we understand what it is long season. But I do think those teams that have been hardened throughout the entirety are normally the ones that end up going on the run, which is why the Celtics being dominant throughout the season, they go the Nuggets. Whenever Joker had his run, they were great all season. Golden State warriors almost had the win record. They were going forward whenever they were good all season. I think you can tell by the entire season who's going to be great. But there are teams that come alive in the prime time, and it's like, will they be able to sustain it? We shall see.

[Darius Butler]

Well, that's why, like, for sure, the first round has been one thing. The second round is going to be unbelievable. Like, the Thunder are going to play the winner of Clippers and Nuggets. So it's going to be great. The talking between t Wolves and warriors will be historic. I don't think the NBA will have ever seen anything like any ant and. And Draymond, probably.

[Boston Connor]

They are.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no. Yeah, I wore bronze today.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. These. Hey, he's got some good shoes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hey, don't let him win tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, don't let LeBron and Luca get back.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don't let him win tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

That goes to three, two. Hold the phone.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. J.J. reddick point favors.

[Pat McAfee]

What? He's coaching his ass off.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, more excuses.

[Ty Schmidt]

You think he might be in over his keys?

[Darius Butler]

No, just. I mean, how are you gonna play an entire half? I think it's cool.

[Boston Connor]

I do ant play the entire half.

[AJ Hawk]

Trying to go 2, 2.

[Darius Butler]

It's 22 years old. He's 23 years old in the game.

[AJ Hawk]

Trying to go 2, 2, down 3, 1. You're trying to prevent that.

[Pat McAfee]

You win or go to the next game, go home.

[Darius Butler]

I thought Dalton connect was like, the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Pat McAfee]

Guy makes his own shot. Creates his own shot. Yeah.

[Boston Connor]

He tried to trade.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the NBA. They try to trade everybody.

[AJ Hawk]

Shot is confident.

[Pat McAfee]

What happened? I do like that JJ looked down the bench at one point during that second half. Nope. One point. At least one. Oh, yeah.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

How many guys. How many guys were, like, inching up? Okay, yo, here we go.

[Foxy]

Here we go.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

And then he just.

[Pat McAfee]

LeBron's like this in the corner in between sets or whatever, you know, grabbing a water. Luke is doing one of these boys, you know, both hands, one of these. Whenever they're a TV timeout and they're on the court and there's a delay or something, they're doing some ad read, I guess. JJ's looking at the boys. They look tired.

[Foxy]

Yeah, it.

[Pat McAfee]

No let them die. Nobody. I love J.J. doing that. What if they go on to win?

[Ty Schmidt]

Don't let him get it.

[Boston Connor]

Almost worked. They did almost win that game. They probably should have won that game.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They seem to be the most exhausted. I'm not a basketball expert. J.J. redick knows basketball much better than me.

[Darius Butler]

No doubt.

[Pat McAfee]

But he's going to be judged by what happens from this point forward. Anybody gets any injuries. Not which is natural. Could happen to anybody at any time. If they get blown out the gym here tonight because they're exhausted, weren't able to catch up. It's going to get loud. But what if the Lakers win? And what if they did need a little extra time last game to remind them of what they're allowed to do, which is represent the Lakers in the playoffs?

[Darius Butler]

I'm taking them.

[Pat McAfee]

Good luck, boys. Pull for you. Good luck, everybody. Shout out to Ant, too. Yeah, he's fun monster. He's fun to watch.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Luca needs to play through the whistle first. Luca hears these ghost whistles. Sometimes he just stops playing.

[AJ Hawk]

Hands up, running half back.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Darius Butler]

It's just Luca.

[Pat McAfee]

You're listening to Free layups.

[AJ Hawk]

No, I'm watching him.

[Pat McAfee]

No, you're listening to Nico Nar.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm watching him.

[Darius Butler]

No, that's just Luca play through the whistle.

[Pat McAfee]

You heard Coach Tyrese said they're playing more physical. This is. This is what? It's more physical now.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Luca was born. Remember those games we seen from over in Serbia?

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, he's got it in. We just got to of might do a couple E's.

[Darius Butler]

That was a few Lucas ago.

[Boston Connor]

Whoa.

[Pat McAfee]

This is an eco narrative. I don't know what you're doing right now.

[Darius Butler]

I. Look, I love Luca Donage.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm just saying he was great on Sunday. Conversation. I didn't watch.

[Darius Butler]

Me neither.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw clips. I saw clips. He.

[Boston Connor]

Was that on cbs? That was on CBS Sunday Morning, too.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I'm talking about Caleb.

[Boston Connor]

Oh, Presley.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Sunday he was out with Anderson Cooper. 60 Minutes.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Same go.

[Pat McAfee]

That 60 Minutes thing we saw, Was that what it was?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Bill Belichick's thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Correct.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It was a statement coming out. Yes.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's getting loud.

[Pat McAfee]

From who? Loud. Say it was.

[AJ Hawk]

Who's a statement from?

[Pat McAfee]

There was a misleading narrative about the interview from. I don't. It's just.

[Darius Butler]

What's the over under wins there?

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Boston Connor]

I think it's like six.

[Pat McAfee]

You got that man tattooed on your bicep.

[Darius Butler]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

That old man coach the pros when he coach Patriots.

[Darius Butler]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

College is interesting, especially with how it's all going right now.

[Darius Butler]

Six and a half.

[Pat McAfee]

It's getting Real loud. It's getting real loud down there, you know, and obviously North Carolina made a lot of things happen to bring him in. A lot of promises, a lot of expectations.

[Boston Connor]

Seven and a half.

[Darius Butler]

Seven and a half.

[Ty Schmidt]

All the other stuff that came with.

[Boston Connor]

You get the under at minus 110. If you like it, it's a good under.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about? Bill Belichick and Michael Lombardi. Yeah, Staff.

[Darius Butler]

I'm taking a loan out.

[Pat McAfee]

It's getting real loud around football right now. And I think that is the complete opposite of what Bill has always been about. So I assume that this will not be how it is. And I assume once we get to football, hopefully all this other stuff will kind of.

[AJ Hawk]

I wish we had a hard knock. I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. Allegedly, there was going to be a hard.

[Ty Schmidt]

Had the opportunity.

[Pat McAfee]

Why? What happened? All right, ladies and gentlemen, let's make sure we remember everybody's going through something.

[AJ Hawk]

Everybody.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We're all in this thing together some more.

[Darius Butler]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Team on me. We'll see you tomorrow. Big one tomorrow. Hey, big one tomorrow. We know who's going to be on y. Yep. Team on three. Great work today, aj. You look fantastic. Thank you.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

You too.

[Pat McAfee]

Why does wait stay committed to your diet?

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Where does the bronze. You got on sick?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I gotta get in between top turnbucks oil.

[Tyrese Haliburton]

Oh, yeah, I like those actually.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're low Top too. I feel fast. Yeah, I feel like I'm going to come back from down three. One.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Team on three. Have a great day, everybody. One, two, three.

[Darius Butler]

Team.

[Pat McAfee]

Goodbye. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a king maker. He had wealth, fame and power.

[Jason Light]

What's up?

[AJ Hawk]

Welcome to New York.

[Pat McAfee]

Until it all came crashing down.

[Boston Connor]

Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by.

[AJ Hawk]

Hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm Brian Buckmire, an ABC News legal contributor. As Diddy heads to trial, we trace his remarkable rise and fall. And what could be next? Listen to Bad Rap the Case Against Diddy, a new series from ABC Audio. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Brad Milke. You may know me as the host of ABC Audio's daily news podcast. Start here. But I'd like to add aspiring true crime expert to my resume. And here's how I'm going to make it happen. Every week, I'm going to unpack the.

[Boston Connor]

Biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

ABC's got some unique access here.

[Boston Connor]

So I'll talk to the reporters and.

[Pat McAfee]

Producers, 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.