PMS 2.0 1335 - LIVE From Times Square, Matthew Tkachuk, Quentin Richardson, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show – Episode PMS 2.0 1335

Live from Times Square, featuring Matthew Tkachuk, Quentin Richardson, & AJ Hawk
Release Date: May 2, 2025

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Introduction

On this special edition of The Pat McAfee Show, host Pat McAfee alongside A.J. Hawk, Connor, Darius Butler, Tone Diggs, and Ty Schmidt brought the energy live from the heart of Times Square. Celebrating Pat's 38th birthday, the team delved into the hottest topics across the sports spectrum, from intense playoff battles to an electrifying boxing event slated for the evening.

Live from Times Square: A One-of-a-Kind Event

Darius Butler kicked off the show by painting a vivid picture of their live setup amidst a bustling Times Square. “[...] Tonight is going to be electrifying,” he exclaimed at [00:19], highlighting the unexpected challenges and excitement of hosting a live show in such a dynamic environment.

The stage was set for Ring Magazine’s Fatal Fury: City of Wolves, a high-stakes boxing event headlined by notable fighters like Rolly Romero and Ryan Garcia. Darius emphasized the uniqueness of the event, noting, “This is a once in a lifetime event” at [02:13].

NBA Playoffs: High Drama and Stellar Performances

The conversation swiftly moved to the NBA playoffs. Pat McAfee praised Jalen Brunson’s outstanding performance, mentioning at [06:22], “Jalen Brunson scored 40 last night. They are absolutely hounding him defensively all night long.” The team's discussion highlighted the New York Knicks’ thrilling game-winner against the Detroit Pistons, with Darius reflecting on the city’s electric atmosphere: “[...] the city was alive last night” at [06:35].

Quentin Richardson, a 13-year NBA veteran, joined the conversation to analyze the Knicks’ prospects. A.J. Hawk lauded Brunson’s clutch performance, stating, “That shot was perfect, with the spin and release” at [67:00]. However, they maintained that despite the Knicks' recent success, the Boston Celtics remained formidable contenders, with thoughts revolving around the Celtics’ depth and championship experience.

The hosts also dissected the Clippers vs. Nuggets series, anticipating a riveting Game 7. Tone Diggs shared insights on the shifting odds, noting, “The Clippers being short favorites is very, very interesting” at [08:06].

NHL Playoffs: Injuries and Team Dynamics

Transitioning to the NHL playoffs, Matthew Tkachuk provided an insider’s perspective on the Florida Panthers’ journey. Hosted by Darius, Matthew discussed battling a groin injury and his determination to lead his team to success. “[...] I'm pain free and ready to go,” Matthew stated at [23:40], underscoring his commitment and the Panthers' readiness to challenge the top teams.

The panel also touched on notable injuries across the league, including Aiden Hutchinson’s recovery and Victor Headman’s return from injury. Darius reflected on hockey’s rugged nature, “Hockey culture is so damn beautiful” at [14:38], celebrating the resilience of players who continue to perform despite physical setbacks.

Boxing Extravaganza: Fatal Fury Live in Times Square

A significant portion of the show was dedicated to the upcoming Fatal Fury: City of Wolves boxing event. The hosts discussed the impressive fight card featuring fighters like Satsumi, Teofimo Lopez, Devin Haney, and Rolly Romero.

At [95:10], A.J. Hawk shared his predictions: “I’m going with the firefighter” against the police officer, and later backed Devin Haney over Jose Ramirez, citing Haney’s impressive prep and determination.

Darius Butler engaged the audience with interactive segments, making bold fight picks and encouraging listeners to join the live kickoff show. “Rolly Romero is going to knock out Garcia” he confidently predicted at [97:20].

Interviews with Matthew Tkachuk and Quentin Richardson

The live show featured compelling interviews with Matthew Tkachuk and Quentin Richardson.

Matthew Tkachuk detailed his injury recovery and the Panthers’ playoff strategy: “I was dealing with a freak accident, but our team is ballers,” he remarked at [22:34]. His insights provided fans with a deeper understanding of the Panthers' mindset heading into the playoffs.

Quentin Richardson offered his take on the Knicks' potential against the Celtics and shared his thoughts on the evolving NBA landscape. A.J. praised Richardson’s analysis: “That shot by JB was beautiful,” at [67:00], emphasizing the technical prowess witnessed in recent playoff games.

Technical Challenges and On-Air Banter

Throughout the live broadcast, technical hiccups added to the show’s dynamic atmosphere. Darius experienced a moment where the feed cut out, prompting lighthearted banter about the challenges of live reporting in a high-energy environment. Despite these interruptions, the hosts maintained a flow, ensuring the audience remained engaged with continuous sports talk and humor.

Closing Remarks

As the show neared its end, the hosts reflected on the day's events and the upcoming boxing matches. Darius Butler encapsulated the show’s ethos: “Anything can happen in sports,” at [92:40], celebrating the unpredictable nature of live sports and the unique experience of broadcasting from Times Square.

Pat McAfee wrapped up the episode with heartfelt thanks and excitement for the evening’s fights, leaving listeners eagerly anticipating the action-packed night ahead.

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Notable Quotes:

• Darius Butler [00:19]: “Tonight is going to be electrifying.”
• Pat McAfee [06:22]: “Jalen Brunson scored 40 last night. They are absolutely hounding him defensively all night long.”
• A.J. Hawk [67:00]: “That shot was perfect, with the spin and release.”
• Matthew Tkachuk [22:34]: “I was dealing with a freak accident, but our team is ballers.”
• Darius Butler [92:40]: “Anything can happen in sports.”

Conclusion

This episode of The Pat McAfee Show stood out with its live setting in Times Square, comprehensive coverage of multiple sports leagues’ playoffs, and engaging interviews with key sports figures. The blend of insightful analysis, spirited banter, and real-time event coverage provided both entertainment and valuable perspectives for listeners, making it a memorable episode for fans of sports and live broadcasting alike.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Welcome to the Pat McAfee Show.

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

Hawk, sitting in at Pat's desk on this Feel good. Friday, May 2nd. Happy birthday, Pat McAfee.

[Connor]

Sports It's a heck of a day, boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Pat, where are you? What are you doing? How's it going? Happy birthday, buddy.

[Darius Butler]

It is a glorious day indeed. May 2, 1987. I popped out of Sally McAfee's womb. And ever since then, I've been trying to be an additive to society. I haven't always hit the mark, but I woke up this morning another year older, another age change. And, you know, you really look in the mirror and start judging yourself and you say, what the hell are you doing with your life? Well, I happen to be living the dumbest life of all time. I'm so incredibly thankful and grateful for everything that I get to do with the people that I get to do it with. And today I'm live from Times Square. Okay. I am sitting on a stage that has been built probably within the last couple hours, live in the middle of Times Square. There's a box event happening here tonight brought to you by the Ring magazine. Fatal Fury, City of Wolves, a once in a lifetime event headlined by Rolly Romero and Ryan Garcia. Time Square is alive. Okay, I'm going to let you know that Times Square is certainly alive. I can't see anything, really. I can hear you guys perfectly. The setup has certainly been a lot. I think there's a lot of, you know, different signals and a lot of different things happen. A lot of different companies working. You know, there's 75 years of experience in the truck in the back, we asked for a talkback machine. You thought they would have thought we were trying to cure all of cancer. So this has been a great start. I am thankful and lucky to be here. And no matter what, tonight is going to be electrifying. What's going to happen in this ring behind us? I mean, there's drummers already warming up. We got a chance to do the kickoff show. It's going to be awesome. And this is one of those things where it starts happening and I think we can cut away from that particular shot. You probably come back to me. I can't. I can't talk to Marty either. So that was something that is. I'm literally on an island out here. So shows up on the TV. Thank you, buddy. Hey. Boom. Thank you, sir.

[Connor]

That's 75 years.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Darius Butler]

I went, Marty, 75 years of experience. We're able to do this. This is incredible. That Was not Marty. Marty was the one who is. It had been pounding drum. This has certainly been something. But if you look behind here, they set up a ring in the middle of Times Square. Like, I think the middle of Times Square is actually over there, but it is certainly in Times Square. And the people that are just walking by are staring at me like I'm a zoo animal. Some people obviously have sent some love, which I appreciate. And yeah, we're going to have a great day here. We're going to have a great time. And me and Booker T. Are going to kick off this entire event. And I think the Dazn people are really pumped up from what I've learned that we are doing that. Yeah. So it's great. It's an honor to be here. And sports are an incredible thing. AJ Hawk, I wish I was with you guys back to Thunderdome, especially on, you know, a May 2nd holiday. But being asked to be a part of this and the WWE folks are a part of this and TKO is a part of this, I, I don't know how you pass up an opportunity to do a show live from Times Square. And then this morning I thought to myself, should have passed up the opportunity to do a show at Times Square. So I, I, I am pumped to be here. Got a chance to walk around everybody less than hospitable, I would say is certainly the word, but them all and let's have a great night. And I'm very, very, very appreciative of, you know, just getting asked to do these types of things. Like I'm a doofus from Pittsburgh and this is like this morning I got emotional, man. You know, and birthdays, I don't know if they're supposed to be or not, but I did, I got like pretty emotional this morning when I woke up in this hotel. It had no hot water. Oh, geez.

[Connor]

Nice.

[Darius Butler]

No hot water. Yeah, cold shower this morning. Not my design. No, actually one hotel. I think it's supposed to be a nice place. And the program has gone from the feed. So it's back and we're back. Okay, so nice cold shower woke me up. Nice cold shower. Then you just stare at the mirror as a 38 year old for the first time and yeah, it's just like I'm not supposed to be doing any of this. I'm not supposed to be here. I'm not supposed to be a success story. I think a lot of people know that. I think if you look at the people that grew up on my street around me, like I think One day that story is going to be told. You know, we're talking, like, actual murders and stuff, like, so I. I'm very grateful to be alive, very thankful to be doing all this. And the fact that we're doing a show live from Times Square felt like something I had to do. I was told that our whole show was going to be able to be here. Let me tell you what, boys, that would have been an impossible task. Would have been an impossible. I couldn't even imagine trying to get a couple more microphones up here and trying to set it up. 75 years of experience. Obviously a lot going on, but, yeah, it is a dream come true to be able to live this life alongside you guys. And now that I have my daughter, I think everything kind of hits a little bit more. AJ thank you for traveling out to Indianapolis before you head down to the Kentucky Derby, obviously, horses racing this weekend are going to be a big talking point. The NHL is on fire. The NBA is on fire. I was driving around the city last night. Jalen Brunson, big body. It's a game winner. This place was electrifying. Everybody hit the streets. Everybody hit the streets last night. And a lot of people that are sports fans know me now out here. So everybody and their mom was talking shit to me about not being friendly or talking about the Knicks enough in the entirety of our sports coverage. You got to talk about them Knicks tomorrow. Got to talk about them Knicks tomorrow. This city was alive last night with this filthy, clutch player of the year shot to win the series over the Detroit Pistons. And it's like now I think they got the Celtics or whatever. So good luck there. And then if they get through that, they got the Pacers coming out of the Cavs Pacers matchup. But sports are awesome. Everything's electrifying. And today is certainly going to be a day we're going to talk about now. How's it going to go? Who knows? But today's going to be a day we're going to talk about. A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it is. And I would imagine everyone, especially I know Bruce Brown is there with you and is back in his hometown kind of. Jalen Brunson. I was watching this game. The back and forth was unbelievable in how it all played out. Playoff basketball has been pretty, pretty awesome. And I have not consumed a ton of regular season basketball. Pat, I don't know how much you have watched, but Jalen Brunson, how, like, how much work he has to do to just get open and to. He scored what, 40, right?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

40 last night. And they are absolutely hounding him defensively all night long. Like I'm just, I'm so impressed the more I watch playoff basketball. I'm pumped. I'm pumped they got to the next round. I'm sure Bruce Brown's been been in your ear ever since this game ended, huh, Pat?

[Darius Butler]

It wasn't just Bruce. I'm telling you. There was thousands of yuppies over here in the city that were very jacked up because you know, like the streets, everybody was watching in bars I think. And you know, this place is the city that never sleeps. It was very much alive. And I don't know what happened in New York during COVID I think everybody kind of moved out of here. Obviously every city was kind of done during COVID And there was maybe some calls that New York was going to never be New York again. This place is buzzing, especially after last night. I mean, you're talking about just like full on everywhere. So it was on a beer. They weren't the only great NBA game last night. Ain't that right, Bo? There was. I mean this Clippers Nuggets series is getting great as well over there, boys.

[Connor]

Yeah, thank God too. Cause it's the only Game 7 right now for the NBA in the first round.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, Clippers forced a Game 7 and it was like it was a trio of Clippers that really dominated the game for them. Kawhi had 27, Harden had 28, Norman Powell had 24. Now game seven will be on Saturday. It's the first game seven of the NBA playoffs that we're going to have this year. And really this has been a back and forth series. We talked about it yesterday, how you know, the Clippers down 32 in the series, were favorite six and a half point favorites at home. But we're still, you know, dogs to win the series. Nuggets are favorite to win series because they do have that Game seven at home. But now, now Jokic has a chance to answer back at home with no coach. He is the Jackie Moon player coach of this team. So the first game seven getting game seven on Saturday is going to be awesome.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Game seven is what we're looking for. You know, Game seven is also what the NBA is looking for. I also appreciate the fact that Joker, I mean he gave a coach's GM's press conference yesterday after that game. Yeah, we never hear Joker talk in the past. Last night, him talking, just sitting down, answering questions as if he was the. Joker's the coach of that team. And I appreciate That I like that this is what Joker's become at this stage of his career. But also Kawhi and James Harden showing up in the biggest spots. And the Clippers being favored. Okay. For the game on Saturday.

[Tone Diggs]

Yes.

[Darius Butler]

Then the odds.

[Tone Diggs]

Yep.

[Darius Butler]

So the odds just completely flipped. Tone, is that what's happening?

[Tone Diggs]

That's the weird. Like I we talked about it yesterday where the Clippers, you know, were the six half point favorites and we're like, okay, that's because they're at home. And Nuggets were still favorites to win the series. We figured because, you know, they'd be favorites at home in Game 7. But no, the Clippers being, you know, short favorites. Very, very interesting situation because you could have got him at plus 300 yesterday to win the series.

[A.J. Hawk]

It.

[Tone Diggs]

That is a. Sometimes sportsbooks do weird things, but maybe it's a momentum thing coming off the Game 6 win. Who knows, to be honest.

[Darius Butler]

And the NHL obviously shows up. We have Matthew Kachuk joining us here in a matter of moments. Connor. The NHL playoffs are always something to talk about. Actually, there were some New Yorkers that were kind of bummed out that the Rangers aren't really a part of the conversation at all. Yeah, obviously they said this city's better whenever the Rangers and the Knicks are going. Rangers are de. But the NHL playoffs are still a buzzing brother.

[Connor]

Yeah, no doubt about it. And the Rangers, they did bring in actually Mike Sullivan. So they are kind of in the conversation. A lot of people assume you're welcome. He'll be the highest paid coach in that team's history, possibly in NHL history. But yeah, Mike Sullivan did get hired as the Rangers coach. But let's not talk about teams that absolutely stink like the New York Rangers. You just mentioned Matthew Tkachuk joined the program. Unfortunately, his brother Brady probably not joining the program because they got last night by biz's Toronto Maple Leafs. Hell of a game. Toronto, they were up 3 0. This was Game 6. Ottawa was kind of going on a little bit of a run. People in Toronto probably getting worried. Matthews got the goal scoring going. They went up early. Bill Nylander there, he had the second goal and he had the empty neck goal. Crazy story with him. He almost missed the game. They had their kind of lineup card and William Nylander, who's one of their best players, I believe he was assistant captain on Sweden's four nation team. He's unbelievable. He almost completely missed the game because he wasn't on their lineup card. Someone caught it before turning it in. If he wasn't on that card when it got turned in, he wouldn't have been able to play. That would be an all time Toronto in the playoffs, completely melting. Something that would probably have happened in the last few years. But maybe this is the Toronto Maple Leafs year. Because of that they win game six. They now go on to play the Florida Panthers in round two. That's a huge matchup. Going to be unbelievable. That's one side of that bracket. I believe the other side of the east will be Capitals Canes. Yeah, there it is. So we have kind of the Atlantic set, then in the Pacific, you know the Oilers Kings down there. Oilers start down 2 0, King Tada to a hot start in the series. And then the Oilers rip off four straight. This game was nuts. I think there were five goals in the first six minutes. It was insanity from start to finish. But the Oilers get it done, they come all the way back, they win four straight, they move on to play Ty Schmitz Golden Knights. Because the Golden Knights they did get the job done for Ty last night.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they did, Pat, you mentioned it a couple nights ago when Stoner had that absolute clap bomb from the blue line. They just, they kind of just needed some time to, you know, get activated. Stoner with a nice little pass there. Jackie aces. He scored his first goal of the series last night. Him and Stoner both were pointless through four games in the series and due to an injury they've been playing on the same line. So they had a back and forth affair with Minnesota last night. Stoner gets the tip in at the very end. Vegas wins that series four two. And I'll tell you what, the Minnesota Wild, you know, even though a lot of stats are coming out, you know, they've made it to the playoffs 10 years in a row or nine years in a row and haven't been able to get out of the first round. That was an excellent matchup and you know, going to set up for quite the tilt with Vegas and Edmonton which is going to be a great series as well.

[Connor]

While Bill Guerin gets the Minnesota Wild going. But Pat, I assume you heard a lot of come on mine last night because the Stars Avalanche game, the only team to force a game seven, the Avalanche, they end up beating the Dallas Stars gumpy squad pretty handily. Granted it was, yeah, there was one of the bounces, there were a few, I don't want to say soft goals, but yeah, you just see Cale McCarr whiff on a one timer and then it just end up on a stick right in front of the Net for the Avalanche. They end up beating the Stars 7 to 4. That game 7 is Saturday night. The NBA's game 7 is Saturday night. And then, Pat, the only other thing when it comes to these hockey playoffs we have to mention is we are in injury release time. Because in the NHL, they don't actually say what is hurt. They just kind of wait till they're out of the playoffs. This tweet got posted or sent in today. Victor Headman, one of the best players in the NHL. I believe he that he's got an assistant there, but I believe he is the captain of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Now, he played the first series with a broken leg, which insane. And then Olivier. And I'm not even going to say his last name because I'd screw it up. Bjorkstrand is coming in through my ear. Thank you, Nick. He was injured April 11. He woke up with swelling and had signs of bleeding. Was rushed to the ER at 2am he had surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. These guys are playing hockey, folks, okay? So when they say playoff hockey is different, they mean it. A lot of these teams are going to have stuff like this. I assume the Senators are going to come out and say Brady Tkachuk was playing with 18 broken ribs, even though the human body doesn't even have that many. But yeah, the NHL playoffs are rolling, Pat. And we got a game tonight, jets versus Blues, trying to force another Game 7. That's the only hockey game tonight. And then we have our other game seven on Saturday, but game six tonight in St. Louis, Pat.

[Darius Butler]

Okay, can't wait to watch that. How many ribs does Marilyn Manson have.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ I think one less than whatever he was born with.

[Darius Butler]

Pat, from what I hear, speaking about ribs, you know, that broken leg there is insane because that truly is like the hockey culture. You know, they'll just say he has a lower body. He has a lower body, and then they'll expect him to play. And then as soon as the season's over, it's like, no excuses, no excuses, no excuses. One of our guys, our assistant captain, actually had a broken leg. We had to lift his ass up and push him on the ice for him to play. That's why the hockey culture is so damn beautiful. And the NBA is getting physical too. I appreciate the way that Detroit Pistons team played. I appreciate the way the New York Knicks had to battle through. I appreciate the way we got Kawhi and Harden. Ballin'joker's playing. And the Pacers, one of their most physical specimens. I Guess we ain't going to see him for the rest of the playoffs. I don't know if you heard. No, no. Yeah. John Halliburton, Tyrese's father, he will not be attending any of the games from this point forward for the rest of the season, home or away. Kind of bummed out about that, but I guess, you know, anytime you get into a fight with an active player, there's going to be. There's going to be some blowback. There's going to be some fallout for that entire thing. So I didn't know if we're going to potentially put a hat on and maybe sneak him into a suite or something like that. We spoke to Tyrese. He said, nope, that is not. We are. We are trying to move forward. Now, I will say John Halliburton, Tyrese's dad, is a big personality. He has a lot of moxie. He is beloved in Indianapolis, which is why I brought up the other day why he was able to get on the court. People are wondering, like, how'd that guy get on the court? Well, that's because he sits there every game and, like, he knows, like, that's kind of. He's a guy here, you know, the signed guy with the flamingo who does the counting thing, the honest. Everybody kind of sees him. I kind of hate that guy, but I think he does a really good job for the Pacers and distracting John Halliburton, he's like one of the mainstays, too, ever since Tyrese has become an Indiana Pacer. So he's got a lot of moxie. You know, he did a bunch of interviews after they expected him not to speak to the media after his apology out there. He has been banned seemingly for the rest of the playoffs. And we'll just let John know that, hey, if you want to come watch the games at the Thunderdome open House for you, you know, and I assume they won't have a camera on him watching these games, but something to think about. And if they go on a run here, which the Pacers certainly can, I hope there is a conversation later in the Finals, like, hey, maybe if they do make the finals and there's a chance to win an entire championship with how supportive of a father he has been, which I think is a big deal in modern society, I think we do a lot of talking about that. Hopefully there's a chance to kind of bygones be bygones and we move forward. But I think everybody in that situation is happy that we're moving forward from this agent. I think everybody's kind of happy that we have a resolution, we're moving forward.

[Pat McAfee]

And it feels like he's not. I mean, it's not an official ban, right? It feels like they kind of talked, and they kind of have a mutual agreement, like, okay, yeah, well, I'm going to. Let me. Let this thing kind of die down a little bit. Okay. I don't. You don't have to, like, put it in writing that I'm not allowed to come back. Right?

[Connor]

Yeah, I feel like that might have happened. I feel like also Mr. Halberton might have been told, like, hey, stay the hell away, just because I don't know how mutual it can get. I mean, it's the playoffs. Pat mentioned this guy goes to every game. We mentioned how long the NBA season is. His kid is Tyrese's.

[Pat McAfee]

You see the game winner.

[Connor]

His kid just hit, though.

[Pat McAfee]

You see the game. It's an emotional game. I get it.

[Connor]

No, no, that's what I mean, though. Like, now he doesn't get to be there for those moments.

[Pat McAfee]

Let him go in a box, though. Say, you can come to the game. You got to sit up top. You can't go anywhere near the court. Couldn't you try? Maybe we could negotiate that at least if they get to the finals.

[Tone Diggs]

Possib Yanis there either, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Like, I don't know.

[Connor]

He's looking right through.

[Darius Butler]

He said He. He. His quote in the media was, it might look like I was looking at Yanis, but I was looking right through him, brother.

[Tone Diggs]

Exactly.

[Darius Butler]

It was me and the Pacers fans just kind of enjoying the moments together. And he said, don't you disrespect me. I wasn't disrespect. I was just taking in a moment with a blanket towel that I had my son who just cooked that man and took it to the rack. But, yeah, it is obviously a disappointing situation for the Halliburton family. I think they're probably all just like, let's move on, let's move on, let's move on. But for the Pacers as a whole, this doesn't slow down the fact that they are ballers. This Pacers team's very good. So are the Cavaliers, so are the Celtics, and obviously so are the New York Knicks. And then on the west coast, it's like the NBA playoffs are shaping up to be great. Let's talk a little bit of some NFL news, shall we? Aiden Hutchinson had that nasty leg injury. Nasty. Kind of changed how the season was going for the Lions. But then Also became like a regular thing for the Lions. Like, oh, star defensive players are going to get hurt. Star defense players are going to get hurt. He was on a way to potentially win a defensive player of the year. That's how good Aiden Hutchinson was playing before he gets injured. He's looking good, AJ Rehab videos are getting posted. He's at an indoor soccer facility working a little basher board. I assume he's kicking the ball off that board kind of shaking some people. He's running, he's sprinting. He's not at a full gallop yet. But the one legged jumps there on the bad knee I think are a big deal. And AJ we chit chat about it. These rehab processes suck. I mean this is all miserable. It's all incredibly hard work. Happy to see one of the game's greats getting back.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you hit it right there. You heard, you heard me making noise when I saw him. He does that one legged, that one legged hop. Man, that thinking of one legged hopping on a bad knee coming off a surgery, that thing is so painful to do. So I'm glad to see he's recovering like that. The guy's unbelievable. The guy's off the charts and what he can do. He is, he is Detroit right now.

[Darius Butler]

So.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, happy for him. Happy for his recovery.

[Darius Butler]

Foxy, you getting all jacked up watching the great white hope up there from Michigan? Yeah, 100%. Get back to it. 100%. He's the heart and soul of the team. We need him to be at 100%. The defense is not the same without him and I expect him this offseason to get about $40 million per year. So that leg better be looking good because he's going to get a lot of money and his expectations are going to be very, very high. That's an interesting thing, AJ if you think about paying a guy coming off such a serious injury, you're like banking on the recovery in the rehab. You're watching it like hoping like, hey, he's going to get back to form. We assume he will, especially with how much commitment he has to his body. As we've seen before, he's a guy that carries around the jug of water.

[Pat McAfee]

He's not messing around. We know that.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, he's always locked in. So I think he's going to get back to full strength. Kelvin Shepard, New DC for the Detroit Lions. Obviously going to send it. Life is good. Whenever you have a guy that can get to the quarterback anytime he wants. Looks like Aiden Hutchinson and is on his way Back there are the Florida Panthers on their way back to a Stanley Cup. Are the Florida Panthers the team that is going to be the new dynasty in the NHL? Do the Florida Panthers have the most American lad playing for them? Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, Stanley cup champion, friend of the program, Florida Panther legend Matthew Kacha. How you doing, man?

[Matthew Kachuk]

What's up, guys? Thanks for having me on again.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, I want thank you for joining us. Congrats on all the success. You know, that rivalry with Tampa is certainly becoming bug windshield in one particular direction, and I appreciate you pointing that out to them and to the media. I would like to let you know that I believe you got me into an international incident.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Do you know that I am not aware. No.

[Darius Butler]

So, you know, four nations up in Canada, they boo the shit out of us. The Kachuk boys say, I don't think so. Okay, set the tone. We go ahead and beat the hell out of these Canadians. Okay? Nine seconds in, we have this fight. I think that set the tone for all of America. Okay. I think you set the tone for the entirety of the continental United States of America and I assume Hawaii as well. So then a couple weeks later, I head up to Canada for elimination chamber and they boo the national anthem. I'll tell you what, I wasn't able to fight the fans. I wasn't able to do that, but I certainly said something and whammy. Justin Trudeau on one side, Donald Trump on the other, and old Pat McAfee right there in the middle of it. So I want to let you know, thank you for representing for our country and motivating me to represent for our country. That meant a lot at the time. You need to know that. Good job.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Oh, I mean, I appreciate. I think that, you know, looking back at that experience, it's. It's just how prideful you are to wear that jersey. It's been such a long time coming and going into a hostile environment in that. The Bell center in Montreal. Great ring, great atmosphere, but it's kind of us against the world. And, you know, the guys that fought early really wanted to just set the tone and make the rest of the team realize that it's us against everybody right now, and this is how we're going to stick together and we believe in each other and this is how we're going to do it. So I'm proud of the guys. I was proud of the whole team. And it was a great, great tournament and great for hockey, really.

[Darius Butler]

I think so, too. And when you say us versus everybody, us versus everybody, Brothers, how we all felt about it. And you hurt your groin, obviously there was it hurt going into that and you played through. Did you get hurt then? And there was real worry and concern by us hockey fans that you weren't going to return this year as a whole. What were the expectations coming out of that with the groin? And obviously you're back on the ice, which is great news for the Florida Panthers. But how was that journey with the groin?

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, no, nothing. Nothing before that. Just got hurt. Freak accident. Freak little play in the tournament. I'm actually later in that Canada game and actually didn't really know if I was going to be able to come back this year or not. Attacked the rehab so hard and had so many highs and lows, some good days, some bad days, some days were brutal. But, you know, had a great support, you know, staff at the rink, you know, with the doctors and trainers and everybody got me. Got me through and, you know, positivity and days where I didn't know if it was going to be good or not. So started feeling, you know, better just a few, you know, weeks ago, getting ready for. Ready for playoffs and was happy that our series actually started a little bit later. So it gave me a few extra days of wiggle room to get back and was able to come back from game one. And I'm feeling great right now and hopefully we're off and running.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Do you have some fresh legs? I mean, obviously rehab is a lot in a groin. I don't think there would be anything. I mean, we just found out old buddy had a broken leg that was playing for Tampa. You hockey players are absolutely absurd. So broken leg sucks. I assume there's some broken backs and ribs. Groin though. That's every movement, right? I mean, that is every movement in hockey, especially whenever you're on skates. When did you know you were going to be able to get back? Was it like weeks before playoffs or was it like kind of last second, saying, you know what, I think we're at a point where I can go again?

[Matthew Kachuk]

No, it was honestly last second. And, you know, just when you're able to do stuff that's more pain free. I guess. So now I'm pain free. Especially like it's one of those, as the playoffs, you know, have gone on, was maybe feeling it just like a tiny bit of just not soreness, but more just like kind of sluggish and haven't really skated a whole lot until right before playoffs. So, you know, as the series went on, I felt so much better. And as the last, I mean, probably starting from game three on, I felt, felt, felt back to normal. So I'm happy with where I'm at right now and I'm happy to have, you know, get past that first round.

[Darius Butler]

Last question for me because I can barely hear the boys back in the studio and I can't communicate with the boys in the studio. So I'm kind of on an island here in Times Square. It's good time, it's good to have big boxing fight happened here tonight on Dazn. Who knows if their app can handle you downloading it or not? I assume that people have it figured out at the zone. They've been great to work with. So whenever you see Biz get as excited as he is excited for this Maple Leafs team and he's yelling at his phone, obviously sending it to the world and we're sending messages to him. I think everybody in the hockey world sent a message to him about the Maple Leafs. Does that, do the boys rally around that in the Panthers? Like, is Marshan, you know, are we watching this video before every Maple Leafs game? Are we trying to, you know, kind of stuff Biz in his mouth, maybe into a bin or. What are your thoughts on the Maple Leafs and the pressure that they have being the team from Toronto that seemingly can never get the job done? Do you guys worry about that shit at all?

[Matthew Kachuk]

No, I mean, it's, it's round two. You know, we've, we've been in way more high pressure series and games and then this and hopefully we will be, you know, down, down the road. That's the goal. Right. So, yeah, I think that, you know, us trying to, trying to relish that underdog role going into Toronto. I mean, they're the number one seed. They, they had the best season in our division. We have our, you know, our hands full with them. They've got some of the best offensive players and I think there's, there's more to worry about on ice than stuff wearing off the ice. So we're going to let that stuff handle itself, but all we can control is that stuff on ice and we'll let the fans do whatever they want outside of the ice.

[Pat McAfee]

Matthew, do you.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Biz. Biz is going to be problematic. Biz is going to be loud. We know that. We know Biz is going to be loud. I mean, if anything, he's going to be very excited. That mustache looks good too, right now, Matt. He' he's got a good stat going.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I thought he was an Oilers fan last year, but it's hard to keep track sometimes. So, you know, we just worry about our. Our stuff on ice and. And let everything else, you know, just follow.

[Darius Butler]

Go ahead, A.J. sorry, buddy.

[Pat McAfee]

Will you talk to your. Your brother at all about the. This Maple Leaf squad and what they. What the roster may. May do? I know you guys. You know each other pretty well, everyone in the league, it seems like. And second part of that question, are you wearing a Sunday red shirt from Tiger Woods? Because I don't know if I've ever seen anybody in the wild with one of those on.

[Matthew Kachuk]

I actually am, yeah. They're nice enough to have sent me a bunch of stuff over the last few months. It's great. Stuff is great. It's great to golf them. It's great to just chill out and so I appreciate.

[Darius Butler]

How much was that. Was that $90 there, that T shirt? Was that a $9,500? What was that was like the old school affliction shirts. They. I REM website going on.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah. I didn't pay for it, so I've got no clue. But it's comfy. It's comfy, though. I like it a lot. But yeah, going back. Going back, A.J. it's. It's pretty soon, you know, with them just playing. Last night, I just talked to him by text, but, you know, we don't know when our first game is, but definitely before that. I'll give him a call and ask him, you know, what he saw throughout the series. Little things. And then I'll ask a lot about individuals, like what guys, what you could exploit with some guys. What guys maybe get a little too riled up. What guys you can get off your. Off their game. What guys are looking like they're playing through stuff or look a little injured, like it's all the little stuff that I'll ask them. And, you know, it's playoffs. You know, every advantage you can get. And it's nice. It's nice having, you know, my brother that have just. That just played them, so he'll give me the honest truth.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead, boss. Connor.

[Connor]

Yeah, Tkachuk. Obviously, Pat mentioned, you know, Biz talking about Brad Marchand, and if Biz didn't beat the piss out of 10 I gypsies, and he probably wouldn't be running his mouth like this, but he did. Brad, coming over from Boston, I'm. I'm a huge Bruins fan. You stole him. It's tough. But as a Bruins fan, I am pulling for you guys because you got my captain oh, Captain, how has it been having Brad March?

[Darius Butler]

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm getting a FaceTime right now from biz.

[Connor]

Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yes.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, we're. Hey, we're talking about you a little bit here. I just complimented your mustache, and Kachuk said he thought you were an Oilers fan last year. Now all of a sudden, we're back on Maple Leafs. Are you ever going to make a decision? Okay. Oh, is he on right now? Yeah, yeah, he is.

[Pat McAfee]

It's tv.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, I. I was. I was asking. We just had him on our podcast. Plan on hitting any Maple Leafs late in this round or what? Hey, you plan on taking any cheap shots? Kachuk is what he's saying.

[Matthew Kachuk]

I don't know what he's talking. If I would have been taking cheap shots, I would have been suspended.

[Darius Butler]

He said if he would have taken any cheap shots, he would have been suspended. The NHL has rules, obviously, B. You're making things up is what he say. What happened to the Oilers? You're off their boat completely, huh? Now we're back on the Maple Leafs Family Cup. Back to Canada. I'm just trying to get a Stanley cup away from the elbow room. And Matthew, I'll tell you what, that elbow room was a good representative of hockey there, I think, for a bit. Matthew Tkachuk taking it into the ocean. That's a good time. What did you think? What do you think of where we are right now in the NHL playoffs and how Panthers are going to sweep the Leafs? Right. And then what do we got next?

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm going to.

[Darius Butler]

I'm going to sign off here, but tell Matthew that Chief Craig Berube is going to put Paul Maurice in a mental pretzel. Okay. It's going to be the best coaching job we've ever seen in the Stanley cup playoffs. And that's all I'm going to say. Thanks, Biz. Yeah, we know Coach Mo. We know Coach Mo ain't never going in a pretzel, brother. We know that. Sorry I interrupted you, con man. I think you were talking about Marshall.

[Connor]

Oh, no, it's perfect because Brad Marchand also, I don't think has ever lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the playoffs. So that's another thing you guys added and stole from Boston. But how has it been having Brad in there? Have your chirps kind of gone up a level? Because we know Brad's kind of number one in the league when it comes to things like that. Has the team morale kind of been raised because of Brad. And also how has the, you know, chemistry building been with Brad? Obviously getting him at the deadline.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, the team morale has skyrocketed getting a guy like that. You know, I know everybody in Boston, or at least everybody I've talked to. I know they weren't too big of fans of us down here, but now they are with him and especially they're big fans of us now that we're playing that we're playing the Leafs here. Sorry, the air show's going on right above my house right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Can we see a little bit of a gong show up there, eh, Tom Cruise?

[Matthew Kachuk]

We're good. We're good. Now it sounds like it's the air show here down here is awesome, but yeah, I know everybody in Boston is pulling for us, especially against the Leafs now. It's great to have a guy like him here. He's such an, you know, ultra like competitor. His compete on the ice and his, his mental warfare that he has with guys and some of the stuff he can say to get them off their game, it's, it's top notch. But it's just so great seeing how great of a player he is up front, like in practices, like during the games. What a. Just a complete player he is. And I know that he's had such an amazing career, but I still don't know if people like should give him the credit he deserves because he really is, you know, incredible player and he's been an incredible teammate so far. So we're so lucky to have him. And it was, it was terrible and brutal playing against him, you know, all those years in Boston. So we're very lucky to have him.

[Darius Butler]

Now. What are some of the mental warfare. What is some of the mental warfare? Does he do research on these people? Because I know obviously we've seen him lick faces. We've seen him piss everybody off. He is a pest. We all know that. But like, what, what is some of the. He does homework on these guys. He's saying things that you guys don't think is accept. Like why is he the guy whenever it comes to a menacing person?

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, he's. He's probably just got the experience against some of these, some of these guys and knows when get them off their game. Like he's, he's smart with that stuff.

[Darius Butler]

He's.

[Matthew Kachuk]

He's got some pretty good chirps, but he's. Now, I've always said the guys that. The guys that make you the most mad are the guys that are in your face, you know, might Chirp you a little bit, but can also go on the ice and back it up and put the puck in the net and produce and ultimately win games. And he does it all, so we're very lucky to have him.

[Darius Butler]

Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Matthew, I know that Anthony Stolars, the Leafs goalie, was your teammate last year, backing up Bob. Is there any kind of advantage you get going against a goalie who your former teammates with or not really?

[Matthew Kachuk]

I don't know. I mean, they have solely. So they got the goalie, they got the defenseman in Oel, and they got, you know, Stevie, who is a forward for us last year, so they couldn't, you know, they know all of our secrets. So I don't know if it's an advantage or a disadvantage or what it is at all, but, I mean, I don't remember scoring much on stole in practice last year. He's so big and he takes up a lot of the net, so we're gonna have to. Have to find ways to get. Get it past him, whether it's guys in front of him or making a move a lot. But he's. He's been incredible for them. He was amazing for us last year when he was in. I mean, his numbers were pretty much best in the league, I think, last year when he was in for us. So, you know, it's going to be a great. Another great goalie battle. We just saw one with Bob who's been absolutely on fire and incredible this whole year, him and Vasilevsky last round. And I'm sure it's gonna be another great goalie battle with him and stole. So I'm looking forward to be in those games.

[Darius Butler]

The goalies have tells like history or they go through like, like glove side on a goalie. Is it always love side, or they like go through like a little patch where you guys find, like, there's a potential weakness for the goalie. Is that happening at all times or is there like a book on most goalies?

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, like normally at the beginning of the series and then before each game, we'll go over stuff with the goalie. We'll go over, you know, like the year and the common stuff that's happened over the year, you know, whether it's, you know, like that kind of like a heat map, you know. So, like, if he's letting a lot, you know, high glove, that'll be the higher percentage there. And then if it's, you know, if he's let up a little bit more than the average, you know, five hole That'll be shown too, but so there's a heat map and a bunch of bullet points that we'll go over before the series and then like maybe like the last 10 to 20 games stretch. So, you know, it might not be a whole body of work, but it'll be what's been going on recently.

[Darius Butler]

So.

[Matthew Kachuk]

So I always, like. I mean, I'm. I'm big into like, you know, the numbers and stuff like that and seeing it's kind of like an advantage, you know, and all teams do it and they all go over the pre scouts and everybody's so prepared so that by the time when you get in the game, like, you know, you're. You're not really thinking out there, you're just playing. So we do a really good job of that with our team.

[Darius Butler]

I'll tell you what, my clap bomb, it's always going stick side, you know, that's. That's so. I don't know what goalie I need to go against to score a goal. How about math Mark, Andre Flurry getting.

[Pat McAfee]

Mm.

[Darius Butler]

Obviously different team, different series, different everything. The respect the league has shown him has been bananas. I feel like. Is that normal? Like, how is it because the duty. Is it because the player is how long he played? Or is it just kind of like how the NHL and the hockey culture is?

[Matthew Kachuk]

I think all the above. I mean, what an incredible goalie, what an incredible career. He's played so many games, you know, won three Stanley Cups. I think it was. Three Stanley Cups. Right. And. And you know, what he did for that, that team in Pittsburgh where they, you know, kind of started from the bottom and built up with him and Malkin and Crosby and all the cups that they had and all the success was. Was all started with a guy like him. And you see him go to Vegas and the success that they've had since and you know, start off with him as well. So everywhere he goes, he seems to bring that winning mentality and that fun culture. I mean, I don't know him too well. I've only met him, you know, a few times, but he was a great guy. A lot of fun. You know, even playing against him, he kind of bugs you a little bit because he's always vocal and moving around and. And pretty animated. So when he's doing that, Andy's, you know, robbing you, it's never a fun. Never a fun feel. So he's had an unbelievable career, like I said. And yeah, he's just so much success. Everywhere he goes, success follows. And only heard Unbelievable things about him as a guy. So it's not surprising to see the reception he's gotten from the whole league and everybody's playing against the players. You know, I saw the other day, you know, the refs line up to, to shake his hand, you know, the crowd, the applause, everything. Nothing. Nothing surprises me with, with how he's been treated. He deserves it all.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I appreciate you saying that. Obviously we're from Pittsburgh, so watching him and Malkin and Crosby and Tanger and the boys kind of grow and have success and then us have to move out of that era, which we are currently in the middle of doing solely now the head coach at the Rangers. Don't know if I love that, but we'll see how it all goes for Pittsburgh. The locker room hijinks, change room hijink is what like math was kind of known for. Is that everywhere in hockey? You guys always. Is there always some sort of shit going on in the locker room? Is there like one person per team? Is that just normal hockey culture stuff?

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, I would say there's a few guys per team that are normally like, like seem to battle and seem to battle pretty good against each other with. I'm not saying I'm involved or not with my team, but there's.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, you're the guy. You're the guy, huh? You're the guy.

[Matthew Kachuk]

No, no, no.

[Darius Butler]

What are you doing? Taking dumps and ice skates. What are you doing?

[Matthew Kachuk]

No, it's, it's, you know, you can never give away your secrets because I know definitely. No, it's me. But yeah, I know that he's, he's been famous, you know, league wide for some of the stuff that he's pulled on his teammates. So I always think it's funny seeing those videos and hearing what he's doing. But yeah, I'm sure each team, each team's got a few guys that like to mix it up with the off ice shenanigans, so. But yeah, he seems like the king of it.

[Darius Butler]

That's awesome. Go ahead, aj. Sorry, buddy.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you ever seen anybody to follow that up? Have you ever seen anyone take it too far? I know I've had some teammates in the past that have ruined guys cars because they put so much. They put, you know, a bunch of crickets or something. They got all in the air conditioners. Like have you ever seen anything go too far and guys really get serious with it?

[Matthew Kachuk]

I think the one one I saw that was probably taken a little bit too far was, was Johnny Goudreau. Got his. Got him and him and one of our other teammates got their heads shaved once. And that was. I mean, they were not. They were not too happy about it at all. So I think that was maybe the one that. That was a little bit too far. But most of the time it's all. It's all in pretty good fun. But I'm trying to think, was there anything that's happened around the rink recently? I'm sure there has. I'm sure there has. But, yeah, I try to stay out of it because I don't want to be. I don't want to be a target.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, of course. Yeah. Smart. We shipped a car to Montana one time. That was pretty good. That was pretty good.

[A.J. Hawk]

Wow.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Okay. Yeah. So we gotta take it up a notch in the hockey world.

[Darius Butler]

No, no, no, no. I'm not saying it ended up good. That was almost a fight. I think that was almost a full fist fight, but. And I say we.

[Matthew Kachuk]

I was 20 ones with. Yeah, I've heard some funny ones with, like, with. With Keith Yandel and Kevin Hayes with like moving guys, cars on the highway. I forget who they did that to, but I've heard a couple funny ones like that, like moving out to the freeway and stuff. Little stuff. It's the little things that are funny.

[Darius Butler]

I think I saw somebody's not on our team. It was somebody else's team. They took somebody's car and put it on like a barge and then moved it out to the middle of like the river that they were practicing next to. And it was just parked in the middle. And like.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a good one.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, that's good. That's a good one. That's going to find a. You got to find a ship captain, you know, to get that thing back. That has levels to it. Just something to think about as you continue to move on. Elbow room, I'm sure, has a lot tone. Has the last question for you here.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, speaking of exactly that, I was in Fort Lauderdale in February for four days. I went to the elbow room all four days in your honor. I just kind of wanted to bask, bask in your greatness. But you guys have played a lot of hockey over the last two seasons. Obviously two cup appearances, one last year. When you're driving down a 1A and you see the elbow room and you look over, is that a little extra motivation? Like, yeah, that's where we want to be again. That's where we want to end this thing. I want to take that thing into.

[Matthew Kachuk]

The Atlantic Ocean again 100%. It. It's nothing but unbelievable memories and it just makes you want to do it again. So that's the goal this year. Hopefully we can bring it back and run it back. So it's the goal every year, but especially when you have some great memories of success and the memories you have with your teammates and the guys that you've gone to battle with for such a long year. And you can have the pinnacle of hockey in the Stanley cup right in your backyard. However many minutes away from where I am right now, it's. It's a goal to do it again, for sure.

[Darius Butler]

We appreciate the hell out of your time, man. I know you're in the middle of a playoff run and the NHL playoffs are grinding time, but it's also electrifying for us as fans. So thank you for giving us a little inside peek. And we can't wait to see what the next locker room hijinks is out of the Florida Panthers. Maybe it's taking that Stanley cup to maybe take it down there to tootsies down there in South Florida. Yeah, maybe. Maybe second.

[Matthew Kachuk]

We gotta win this round first, so. Yeah, baby steps. Baby steps.

[Darius Butler]

Okay, so there's a chance old Lordo takes a trip to Tortuga. Okay, sounds good. Ladies and gentlemen, Stanley cup champion legend Matthew Kachak. I wonder if Lordo's ever been to tootsies. I doubt it.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Lordo's kind of been everywhere, right? I mean, wasn't it swimming in. Whose pool was he swimming in?

[Darius Butler]

Mario?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Dented it. It. Yeah.

[Connor]

Tampa.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, but. Yeah, but how many? South Florida.

[Pat McAfee]

Good point.

[Darius Butler]

You know, I don't know how many. Go ahead.

[Ty Schmidt]

I could see it. I mean, Mike, the keeper of the cup in inside tootsies with the white gloves on, just kind of cutting it up. I could. I could definitely see that. I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility.

[Darius Butler]

I'll tell you what, it's sweet talking to Keachuk. Just such a lot of the lads. And I'll tell you, Times Square is active. A lot of people walking around. It's. It's a beautiful day out here. It's supposed to be 80 degrees here in A. Can you take the lower third off there? It looks supposed to be 80 degrees here in about 4:00 Eastern or so. And a lot of these people. And once again, d own 75 years in the truck. DZone handles all this stuff. I don't know how many people knew that this was happening. You know, like, there's a lot of People that just been kind of walking around. A lot of people, like, wondering what the hell is taking place here. And I, I, I think their minds are about to be blown. That, like, a very notable massive set of fights are happening tonight. And Ryan Garcia is going to be here, Devin Haney is going to be here. We got a firefighter fighting a police. I mean, it is going to be a spectacle here in Times Square, and what a special, you know, place in the world's history to kind of do it. And I'm starting to get a little sun. Starting to feel a little good. The sun's starting to come out. Maybe I'll get burnt before the kickoff show that starts at 4:00. Can't wait to promote the Zone. They've been a fantastic group of people to work with. Nice. This is, this is truly dream come true to help them out so people can realize that this event is fucking happening. So it is. I'm just surrounded.

[Connor]

At least it's not, at least it's not like your birthday or your daughter's birthday coming up. So it's not like the cherry on top or anything.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, it's May 2nd's a good day, May 4th, better day. Obviously, that is my daughter's birthday coming right up. So. So I can't wait to celebrate her turning too. But, yeah, this was a terrible decision. And, well, you were sold.

[Connor]

You were sold a different bill of goods, you know, like you, you were just. When you committed to it, we were all there. Okay. And then Tuesday comes around and you're told, like, hey, by the way, if you bring those fucking assholes you work with, that's not gonna work. So why don't you come up here alone, do it, do it on your own. And then, and then maybe next time, time you can bring the Bugle Boys, if you will.

[Darius Butler]

Usually, I mean, and then the chaos, just the full chaos that this has been. Every Zoom call, every email this morning, I try to stay away from it because it is my birthday and I didn't want to. People just sunning Zito, acting like they know what they're doing. They don't have a clue. I mean, it's just, Happy birthday. It's great to be here. This is never happening again. And I am pumped to watch these fights. And I don't even know if I have a seat. I assume with the way this has gone with these people, I'll probably have to sit outside that thing to watch this entire fight and hopefully I'll get a chance to see it.

[Connor]

That's probably. That's probably your seat right there. Can you see the ring from this one?

[Darius Butler]

No, no, no, brother, no, no. I'm getting kicked off of this thing. This is. This is multi use. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. This is. We are merely saving a seat for other people that are vastly. Whatever.

[Pat McAfee]

Where's Booker T. When does Booker T. Join you for 4pm Eastern?

[Darius Butler]

I need Booker T. Here. I think that is. I think that is. That is what I need. Booker T. I cannot wait. It is a spectacle, you know, because you got Carlo's Bake Shop right over here. Oh, wow, Buddy. That's Buddy, which I believe is Buddy. That's literally right there. I was in the Brooklyn Diners. The green room area that we were kind of given. It's around the corner down here. Me and Gumpy got a booth, so that was cool. We got a. That's our. Our green room is a booth, which has been awesome.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Okay.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I mean, we had some great food here last night. New York City's had some great meat. So I'm not gonna say it's been a complete disappointment. Saw Bradley Cooper last night.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, ran into Coop, just so happened to be in the neighborhood. I mean, so he said hello to him. It was. It's been nice. Coming to New York is a nice place to come visit. You know, New York is a nice place to come visit, especially whenever the weather's like this and it's alive like this and there's a massive event happening. Once in a lifetime event happening like this in Times Square with a sport that has obviously been around for centuries and in a place that has meant so much to not only the United States of America, but the world, this Times Square place. So it's. It was obviously an awesome opportunity to be asked and excited to never sign up for anything like this again. The fire department, you live and you learn. That's all you try to do. And as a 38 year old, that is. That is literally all we're trying to do.

[Connor]

First lesson at 38.

[Darius Butler]

Yep.

[A.J. Hawk]

Boom.

[Tone Diggs]

It's a big reflecting age. I read that this morning. So, you know, something to think about.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Ton, I really appreciate your sentimental thoughts to me on that happy birthday message where you just. You didn't even copy and paste the AI. You just screenshotted the AI.

[Pat McAfee]

What was it?

[Darius Butler]

You could have.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, that was the gimmick.

[Darius Butler]

That was the gimmick. Yeah. Yeah, but you could have just copy and pasted that. I think everybody would have known. He just Screenshot it. An AI guy Happy birthday wish to friend. Yeah, 38th. It was pretty good. It got a pretty good pop out of me, I must say. Yeah, there it is.38. Could be. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. This is real. Yeah. And everything I said about what's going on here is real, too. You're saying this is my first lesson from 38.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

We were all part of these calls all week. I was 37 when these calls were happening. Yeah. We knew you had an idea.

[Pat McAfee]

We knew you had an idea before you got there. Maybe.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. But I mean, it's. We've gone off without a hitch here, I guess. Yeah. You know, true.

[Pat McAfee]

The sun is right out to, you.

[Darius Butler]

Know, for that one. Zito's been on Zoom calls all morning figuring this thing out. I'm pretty sure Z handled all that. Yeah. People have been talking to Zito like he's some big dumb dipshit. Once again, they work for a company that has an event nobody knows is happening. So who's the dipshit? I don't know. But about sick of that. About sick of that. That. That. You. You can. A lot of people say a lot of things about me. I'm at that stage of life. I'm very okay with it. I get it. Some things completely out of line. Some things from a narrative that is false. Some things just complete lie that they've been told and just keep rolling. And some things legit. Like, some people hate me just because of who I am. I understand they say terrible stuff, but whenever people that we're supposed to be trying to work with just like, talk to Zito as if he's some dip that get. That grinds my gears, I don't like, don't talk to my people like that, you know? And then if you're going to talk to my people like that, sweet. That door has been opened. Now this is how our conversation is going to go. So, Zito, I do appreciate the amount of effort that you put in this. Same with Lindsey from the wwe. She's been on about a thousand emails that have all had things settled, and then, oh, no, those haven't been settled. And then she's recirculating emails that have been settled. But there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. We're in the middle of Times Square. It's going to be a great fight tonight. The ring looks amazing.

[Pat McAfee]

Did they shut the card down pat? I. I can't really tell. Is the street shut down or where are you? Where's that ring?

[Darius Butler]

No. So it's like It's. I. I don't know what is normally a street. I. I don't. Their street right here is active. Street right there is active. I don't know if this is normally an active street or if it's just like kind of like normally a marked off spot, you know, And. And that is just a marked off camera there that Marty just cut to. And we appreciate the hell out of Marty and all his hard work, too. Marty. Marty was grinding the truck this morning. 75 years experience in that truck. We were told a couple different times. Yeah, that's a lot of experience. Holy hell, man. You guys got it all figured out, especially in 2025. But the 75 years, man. Wow. All the way back to 1950.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah.

[Connor]

They're bringing it crazy. Oh, there we go.

[Pat McAfee]

That's real. That's amazing.

[Darius Butler]

That's real.

[Connor]

That was. Yep, that was. That was right on the money.

[Pat McAfee]

That happened in the exact moment when he was talking about it.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, what do you think happened? Is he already okay? Do we know and Pat's okay? Everyone.

[Darius Butler]

He's working on it.

[Pat McAfee]

Everyone in New York City is okay, though, right? Just the feed cut out.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, good to go.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, just the feed cut out. But, I mean, it will be like the. The. You know, nypd.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, there's a lot of big.

[Pat McAfee]

So the NYPD plays the.

[Connor]

They don't play.

[Darius Butler]

They bought.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, I'm talking hot hockey. Don't they do this in hockey as well?

[Connor]

There's a big.

[Pat McAfee]

A big hockey match between FDA and NY and nypd.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think they do like rugby as well.

[Darius Butler]

And.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there's probably, like.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, they.

[Connor]

Probably baseball.

[Ty Schmidt]

Have you ever seen the Departed?

[Pat McAfee]

Do we know who is. Do we know who's favored to win this? Fdny? Nypd.

[Tone Diggs]

I don't think there was odds on that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, because I believe they're both amateurs.

[Tone Diggs]

There was. There was odds on.

[Pat McAfee]

They don't make odds for fights. They make odds for tough man contests.

[Connor]

I feel like Brucey Brun did a pretty good breakdown, if you don't forget, from yesterday. And he did say one of the two has been like, kickboxing for a very long time. Obviously, it is a boxing match. It is not a kickboxing match, but Bruce is pretty confident one. And Pat is back. Thank God.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, good. What happened? You all right? I don't know. I don't know. I have no idea. Everything's okay. I could hear you perfectly that entire time, I think. Yep. And the screen just went black over here. I don't know if it's black over there. I'll just continue to power through. True. You guys just tell me whenever it's okay. Sweet. We are still doing this. Sun's out, sky's out. Yes. The police department and fire department battle in a lot of different sports. I think they trained. I think their boxers, like, trained for this, though. Like, I. I think, like, I forget who I met. I met somebody at an event. They were fighting for some fire department. It might be this guy. It might be Joel Allen. To be honest, it might be Joel Allen that I met somewhere. They train for this fight. This fight normally happens at a different setting, a different venue. It doesn't. It wouldn't normally happen at this type of event. So the Ring magazine that put this together alongside Fatal Fury, it's all good. The. They. They wanted to kind of start the whole show with this and kind of pay respect to the city that they're in. So they asked if they would do it here. They're gonna do it here. I think it's kicking off tonight. I love this type of shit. Like, I legitimately enjoy this. I have family that obviously are both EMTs and firefighters. I don't have any cops in my family. But, like, I. I understand how much pride each of them have in, like, their own world. Obviously, they're all coming together whenever something goes wrong in a city. So I appreciate them representing early. And then if you go through the fights, there's a bunch of good fights here tonight. Like, a bunch of good fights. Fights. Tsutsumi there, he's 262 in Japan. This is going to be his first fight over here in America. There's a chance. He's like, a guy, but nobody really knows about him. Tiafimo there was a champion, already, lost his title, got his title back, and then he retired. Now he's kind of back on the run. Barbosa Jr. Is undefeated, you know, so, like, you're talking about those first three fights. Got a cop versus firefighter. Awesome. Satsumi debut here in America should be great. Teofimo has been a champion already at the age the age of 25, has retired already at the age of 25. Barbosa's undefeated. Then you got Devin Haney, fresh off the no contest against Ryan Garcia. Jose Ramirez and Roly Romero are brawlers. So it's like tonight's fights should be amazing. I don't know how many people know that these are happening, but these fights are going to be electrifying. I think the people that had the vision for this to happen certainly had had the right track. I think they were on the right track, you know, and hopefully it's just all able to pull off. And I know adding us here earlier in the day has certainly been a task that has seemingly been impossible. But it is, it's all going to go well. It's all going to be a great night here on this Friday, May 2nd, here in New York City. And I have no idea what time it is. Obviously there's no clock and I could the sun, you know, there is no sense of time here. It's a city that never sleeps.

[Connor]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

And have you seen Ryan Garcia yet or any of the boxers have yet to see any of them yet?

[Darius Butler]

I've not. I saw them do the weigh in, I saw the press conference. I saw Devin Haney's dad. He's been mixing it up. Bill Haney, he's been mixing it up a little bit with Oscar De La Hoya. They've been kind of getting into it. I've seen some of the sit down interviews. There's like B roll shots of interviews I think Chris Mannix was doing for Dazn. I don't know. I honestly have no idea if any human on earth has seen any of them those or when they're going to see those. But like Roelly and Garcia talking to each other. Awesome. Absolutely awesome. Devin Haney's interview is great. It's like got a lot of good personalities on this card. Got a lot of good fights on this card. I don't know boxing inside and out. But I am pumped if I get an opportunity to watch these fights, to see these fights tonight after the kickoff show that starts at 4:00 that me and Booker T. Are going to be hosting. And now I hear a full echo in my ear. I assume you guys are hearing the same thing. No, no, it's good, it's good. There's going to be good music in tonight's fight too because I think while we've had this first hour, they've been playing music in my ear too throughout the entire heard some symbols you guys haven't. No. That's the live drummer here. This guy's a talent. I heard him before we went live. This guy is a talent.

[Pat McAfee]

Right over your shoulder. Is he like right next to you? Warming up is a sound check.

[Connor]

Travis Barker at desk.

[Darius Butler]

He's right. He is awesome. He's got great hair, sunglasses. He is very good. He's got to get his rehearsal time in too. Like I completely understand that. So I'm not worried at all about that. Just, just testing the music, you know, Just testing the music throughout the truck. And 75 years in the truck, you know what's going out, what's coming in. We don't know at all times. But it's a great day to be in New York City. It's a great day to be alive. And I'm old as now. And I'm being told we got about 15 seconds to the heart out. You need to know in the next hour we got Q Rich talking basketball, we got boxing talk, we got sports talk. And we're gonna have a great time with it. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice if I change their life. We'll see you in three.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's your money saying it's time for a McDonald's run. Cause with new McValue at McDonald's you.

[Darius Butler]

Get more than you expect. Like buy a six piece McNuggets and.

[A.J. Hawk]

Add a McChicken for just a dollar. Your money says let's go get more.

[Darius Butler]

Than you expect with new MiG value. Prices and participation may vary. Valid for item of vehicle or lesser value. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate, first 3 months only, then full price available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full terms@mint mobile.com.

[Pat McAfee]

Hour two, the Fat McAfee Show.

[Connor]

Feel good.

[Pat McAfee]

Friday, May 2nd. Another happy birthday to Mr. Pat McAfee joins us live from Times Square.

[Darius Butler]

Sports, sports.

[Tone Diggs]

Hell yeah.

[Darius Butler]

There it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Pat. How'd everything go over the break? You guys good? Everything situated. I know we lost you first.

[Darius Butler]

I didn't move. I just stood right here. Didn't move. It's great. The weather's fantastic, the people are spectacular outside of the fences here. And Times Square is alive. Big night tonight, Big fight tonight. Once in a lifetime event in Times Square as the ring posts fatal fury. Clash of cities. Ryan Garcia, Rolly Romero, Devin Haney, Ramirez, Satsumi coming to America and Tiafimo Lopez in Barbosa will battle right here in Times Square on the Zone. Now forget the thoughts that I have on a lot of things that are Happening. I guess the fact that we're up right now, Matt Brown is calling a modern miracle. And what he has seen, he's been bouncing back and forth, forth from a certain different things. I assume getting in here maybe wasn't as easy. Maybe. I mean, it feels like there should have been enough time. It's a feel good Friday. It's an honor to be here, A.J. the NHL playoffs are happening, the NBA playoffs are happening. Obviously Kentucky Derby is taking place this weekend that you will be at. There's a lot of magic in the sports world and that's really what the true focus should be on. So I'm gonna stop bitching about everything being half ass and terribly run around here and I'm gonna, I'm gonna enjoy this feel good Friday. I'm like, this feel good Friday be a fantastic one because this event's going to be electric sports or electric. And I'm still alive, brother. And that's what we're talking about. I am going to get burnt. I did not expect this type of sun. I did not expect this type of sun. But that's good because you get a nice little base tan going into the spring, into the summer. Life can be magical, aj. So we got Q Rich joining us here in a matter of moments. I know you're not alone over there in Thunderdome. Thank you for taking the trip. You look amazing. The talks table at Boston. Connor and that Ty Schmidter there. Ty, I know you're a big boxing guy. Tonight's fights are about to be magnetic here in Times Square, brother.

[Matthew Kachuk]

Yeah, without a doubt.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, you mentioned it. You know, it's like we got three main event, you know, matches, you know, mixed up throughout this card. And then you said it earlier too. I love the FDNY versus NYPD type thing. I feel like that's something that people are not usually privy to. Don't have access to definitely. Unless you're in the city. I mean, I know you said they usually, they make like kind of a big deal about it and this event would be in like an actual, you know, arena or something like that. I think Bruce mentioned a couple days ago they used to do it in the theater below Madison Square Garden. But seeing two guys, I mean, I don't know if they genuinely have bad blood, but you know, if movies have told us anything, the fire department and the police department, these guys don't like each other and they're out for blood. So I'm very excited to watch that as well from two guys who, you know, if even if you are like a big time boxing fan, you probably haven't heard or seen anything from either one of these guys and anything could happen. I'm expecting fireworks tonight.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. And that starts the fight and then obviously we end with Garcia Romero and that should be a slobber knocker as well. So it should be an incredible evening. We potentially are kicking off the entire thing at 4:00. 4:00 kickoff show. Tomorrow's kickoff shows time for Canelo's fight, which we'll be doing live from the Thunderdome. Has changed like 3, 3, 4, 5 times. Sure. After meeting these people that are running this thing, I would never guess that there may be, you know, some indecision or something like that, but it's good. Everything, everything's good. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys AP town. Garcia heavy favorite tonight. I do believe in the main event. Any other betting odds that we need to look at for this particular night or weekend that you like, Toad?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, Garcia is a heavy betting favorite. He's minus 1200 versus Romero. Haney is also minus 1200 in his fight. Susumi is minus 5000 in his fight. The, the closest fight as far as odds go is Teofimo and Barbosa, which we have talked about. Barbosa is undefeated. Like I could. You could get Barbosa at plus 200 right now. I think that's probably my favorite bet of the night. If you're looking at the other fights where, you know the favorites are minus 1200 or something like that, you're either gonna have to guess the round, the method of victory, whether it's knockout or decision, stuff like that. But no, as far as the, the closest fight, the teofimo and Barbosa 1 is the closest one. And if I get an undefeated dog in Barbosa. Yeah, I think you could sign me up for that. When I was studying the sweet science for last night, that one felt real good.

[Darius Butler]

Well, Tiafimo's got his. TFimo's got his moxie back.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah. Does he or did you say he does?

[Darius Butler]

I seen him with sunglasses on and a nice sweatband. I think he, I think he. I think he's a guy that is potentially a problem. I mean, if we're gonna get some sun, we might as well one of those metal mirror.

[Pat McAfee]

Get a mirror sun things.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. And there's a big gorilla over here.

[Connor]

Go get it. Go get it, go get it.

[Darius Butler]

That's what I'm saying. I think the 1 verse 100 thing is a Little bit blown out of proportion with the Times Square gorilla I saw over here. I did see Elmo. I did see Spider Man. I did see the Cowboy. And I appreciated their halftime performance at Lucas Oil Stadium a couple years back. And that was very, very kind of them. And definitely Fathom. Definitely Fatim. Yep. Absolutely, brother. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much.

[Tone Diggs]

I saw Holster was there, too.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Hulkster's pitching. He's got a amateur wrestling shoot wrestling promotion.

[Connor]

Right.

[Darius Butler]

I think that's a good idea because if you watch that Matt Madness, you know, there's like. I think there's a lot of opportunity there with how good those guys are, how electric those environments are, and how much talent there is. I mean, Penn State alone, yes. Has what, like 14 national champions? How about Gable, Stevenson and how about the Hendrickson fellow? How about these guys? Like, other than the Olympics, what are their opportunities? They have, I hope, Eric Bischoff, who I assume is going to do a lot of the business of this entire thing, obviously he led the WCW for 82 weeks over the WWF before that inevitable downfall. Is he? Is he. I learned the name.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think it's Martinez.

[Darius Butler]

Izzy Martinez is a part of it. I don't think I know him, but I think he comes from the freestyle amateur wrestling world. And then Hulk Hogan bringing all the promotion, brother. And I assume the beer and the boys are going to want to drink afterwards. I hope that works, man, legitimately. Because we grew up in Plum. Obviously in our hometown, I had friends that were wrestlers. I appreciate and respect the sport. I respect how hard it is. I respect how tough you gotta be to be a amateur wrestler. I appreciate the garbage bag runs. I appreciate, like, everything about the sport. And I think the only thing it's kind of been missing is the only avenue to get paid is either you go to the UFC and learn other mixed martial arts, or you come to the wwe, or you just take your cauliflower here and your work ethic and try to figure it out somewhere else. So if they're able to get that done, I think that'll be good for a sport that they were trying to get rid of just a few years back. Aj, yeah, I'm.

[Pat McAfee]

We all know how hard wrestling is. Like, amateur wrestling is ridiculous. I still remember being at basketball practice watching our. My buddies that wrestled come out of the wrestling room to go get a drink out of the old school drinking fountain. And they looked like they were on the, you know, the steps of hell. How, how they tired they were, how sweaty they were. So, yeah, those guys need to get some. They need to find some avenue to pay those guys some money. They deserve a lot of cash actually for what they've been doing.

[Darius Butler]

Well, how about them spitting to lose weight and stuff? Like just the amount of commitment to lifestyle that those dudes, let alone how bad it hurts to have cauliflower here. I mean, I got, I got bruised ear from Gunther whenever he smacked those ham hawks on there. Thought I was going to get cauliflower here, pop my eardrum. I thought I was done, you know, maybe for the rest of my life. I have recovered, obviously, and I'll be ready for next Saturday. But it's like the amount of pain, the amount of discipline, the amount of commitment and how great that sport is. Especially whenever it's packed arena and they got the highest levels competing. I don't see why it can't have success. So hopefully they do. Hopefully we get a chance to watch it. Hopefully they get a TV deal. I watched two guys wrestle around a tractor tire on ESPN the Ocho this off season. So I would assume they're going to be able to get a TV deal. Hopefully they're able to market that. Let's pivot away from amateur wrestling. Let's get to the association, the NBA. I am standing in the middle of a city that was electric last night because the New York Knicks hit a game winning three to knock the Detroit Pistons out of the playoffs. Joining us now is a man who's a friend of the program. I think it was 12 years in the NBA, maybe 13. I don't have it in front of me. Ladies and gentlemen, 13 years, Quentin Richardson.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, Q.

[Connor]

Rich.

[A.J. Hawk]

Happy B Day, Pat. Happy born day, player.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, I appreciate you, man. I think by the end of the day with the sun, you and me gonna have the same complexion, brother. Complexion. I appreciate you with the love there for the birthday. I'm getting old, obviously, we all are. But the playoffs are just getting ripe. It feels like in the NBA we can start with this Knicks game because of how electrifying the finish was. And this city was alive last night. People pouring out of bars, the excitement was oozing. And There was an 110 run, I think by the Pistons late to tie this up. It got really into a dogfight before the clutch player of the year does what he does at the end of the game. What are your thoughts on the Knicks? What are your thoughts of them coming out of the series? It was a very physical series with the Pistons. And what should the realistic expectations be for the Knicks going forward against a Very, very, very good. Reigning champion.

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, I love what happened. I mean, I love the physicality of that series. I loved everything about that series. That, that shot that JB hit last night, listen, that was, that was beautiful. I'm talking about when you think about it, like get a guy going that way and then dribble into it and everything from the, from the move to the dribble up to the release rotate. It was, it was perfect. Like, watch the spin on the ball. That was, that's perfect right there. The ball is seamed up perfect. Like from a shooting standpoint, listen, it doesn't get. Only thing that could have made this shot any better is that it was at the actual buzzer and put triple zeros on the clock. That's the only thing could have made that better.

[Darius Butler]

Whenever you think about the next series, taking on a team that is, I guess, in the future breaking up. Is that what Sean said yesterday? Connor?

[Connor]

Yeah, he said that, Pat. But look, let me just explain something to you, all right? When teams are as good and as dominant as the Boston Celtics, Silver has no choice but to force them to break up. And you know, Sean says a lot of things and I'd like to take a page out of Jimmy Butler's agent's book and say, you know, shit, Sean's. I don't want to hear what you have to say. Okay, brother. The Celtics are staying together forever and they're going to win five more titles over the next seven years.

[Darius Butler]

Knicks have anything that can beat the Celtics, though? Q. Like, what is the realistic expectations there?

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, if they, if everything goes right for them and, you know, they clicking on all cylinders, obviously anything can happen. The game still need to be played. But I mean, if I'm picking, I'm still rolling with Boston. I felt like the Knicks had a great chance coming out of this series and I still had Boston, you know, pick to move on from him. I just think that they too strong, Tyler, top to bottom. They got a lot of depth. They got everything they need. They got championship experience. They were just there last year. And I, I, I love what the Knicks are doing, but I don't know, I don't know. They haven't been able to beat these guys the whole season. They, they struggled against the top few teams and I don't see that changing right now.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, especially after a tough one against that top Detroit team. Go ahead, A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Q. Obviously the, the Clippers beat the Nuggets last night. Force of Game seven that we all are excited to watch Saturday night. How do you see that one playing out? And did you expect this, I guess with the Nuggets obviously firing a coach, what, a month and a half, whenever, however long ago, did you expect them to possibly make a deep run in these playoffs?

[A.J. Hawk]

No, I don't expect them to make a deep run. I didn't expect this series to be easy either. I expected it to go six or seven games. I think now, obviously when you get to game seven, it can go either way and we gonna see. I mean, I think if Kawhi continues to play like he plays and obviously, obviously Harden steps. I mean, the big three obviously, for them played well last night. Powell, Kawhi and Harden and then, you know, Big Zoo is going to do what he does. But I think if they could get another game like that from all of those guys, I think they should be able to tip the scales and beat Denver. But I mean, what the way Jamal Murray has played and obviously Joker is ever present. But Jamal Murray playing the way he's played and obviously with Aaron Gordon and the other guys stepping up and being sufficient, this is, this has been a great series. And Russ is. To me, Russ Westbrook has been one of my favorite players for the longest of time since he came into the league. So for me it's dope to see him playing well and out there doing what he does and having fun and then helping this team win.

[Darius Butler]

Talk about the Clippers a little bit. Q. I mean, what a team here. Now, I don't think anybody expected this. Obviously, Kawhi in the playoffs is Kawhi in the playoffs? James Harden playing like James Harden? The Intuit Dome is awesome and electrifying, but there's like some teams, you know, that like, or some players, I guess that when the playoffs come, they get better. Jimmy Butler was one of those guys, obviously, with his move up to Golden State. But Kawhi in the playoffs is a guy that everybody fears, always has. I don't think I know who or what Kawhi is. Kawhi is, loves basketball. Like, what is Kawhi and what is this Clippers team, you think?

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, Kawhi is unique in the sense that, you know, he's. He's a private guy in an era in a world where everything is made public. And I mean, he doesn't subscribe to that. He's not on social media. He doesn't do much, you know, commercialing or any of that stuff. You don't really see him out and about. He's to himself with his family. I mean but at the heart of it, Kawhi is a baller. I mean, yeah, he's had a lot of injuries, and he's had to deal and battle through a lot of different things. And I think. I think he's learned over time to take his time and give his body his proper time to heal, because I think this. This time right now, you see him come back, he's a lot stronger than he's been in previous attempts. So I think, you know, he's just a guy that's quiet, man. I think what you know from him, with all of his teammates, everybody says he's one of the funniest guys on the team. He's funny to be around, but, I mean, he doesn't really subscribe to everything on the outside. If you know him, you know him. If you don't, unfortunately, you don't. But, I mean, I think. I think, you know, he's. He's a. He's a gym rat. He's a ball. I mean, when you watch him play, anybody that's played ball and been in the league, you know that this is a guy that works extremely hard on this game. When he's healthy and he's available to do his thing, you don't go out there and perform and do the things he's doing in the way and the manner that he's doing, and without putting a whole lot of work and a lot of reps into what he's able to do.

[Darius Butler]

I think that's the same thing that can be said about Joker. You know, everybody say he doesn't take it serious. Well, you have to. To. To be that great. It's like Kawhi.

[Pat McAfee]

You have to.

[Darius Butler]

You have to love ball to be that great, to commit to it that much. And I love that we're getting to see playoff. Kawhi. I like that the Clippers are on a roll, and I like that Ballmer has a chance to potentially roll. There's a couple storylines coming out of the East. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor]

Yeah, Q. Rich. Right now, you know, the Bucks are kind of getting killed. And that's also the story about Game 5 with the Pacers is, you know, Tyrese Halliburton's dad almost smack you on, and Giannis almost popped his head off as well. But the stories right now, especially surrounding Milwaukee, is Giannis leaving and, you know, T's and P's to Gregg Popovich as well, because San Antonio has been tied to Giannis. But what do you think about the whole situation in Milwaukee? They don't really have much cap space. They kind of did abide by what Giannis wanted by bringing in Dame, but that didn't really work. Do you see Giannis staying in Milwaukee? Do you think that there is a chance where, you know, he might go down to San Antonio? Because San Antonio is completely building around Wemby. They obviously brought in De'Aaron Fox. What do you see the future of him being? And do you think Milwaukee's in one of the worst spots right now because they have no money and they haven't really done anything in the playoffs with Giannis and, you know, recent history?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, obviously I think they're in a difficult spot with everything with the roster where it is with Dame going down and, you know, with the, with Giannis looming. But, I mean, I still feel as a front office, as an organization, they're not moving off Giannis unless he comes and he makes it clear to them that that's what he wants to be done and he wants that to happen. And I could see them possibly trying to facilitate that for him, but I don't think they'll come to their decision on their own to try. And I don't see them giving him up and going and proving anything and trying to go win a championship that, like the, the best way forward for them first is to keep him and try and do anything else around that. But unless he, I mean, short of him coming to the front office and saying that, I don't, I don't think they try to make that move. But I mean, we know this is a superstar driven league and we've seen time and time again once that that superstar makes that, that, you know, takes that, that direction and they make it known that usually happens one way or another. I don't know where it will be or where he desires to be, but I mean, if he makes that known, more than likely he'll be moving on to somewhere.

[Darius Butler]

Let's talk about the team that knocked them out in five games. Okay, gentlemen, Sweep conversations about the Greek freak for a reason, but the Pacers are the real deal. Some of the Cavs. Go ahead, Diggs.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, I wanted to talk about these two teams because everyone talks about the name Knicks and the Celtics and these two cities, they're salt of the earth cities and they're salt of the earth teams. The Cavs are minus 550 to win the series, and for people who don't know, betting, that is a pretty heavy favorite. Is there a reason why you think the Cavs are such heavy favorites? Because I Connor brought this up the other day. I think one of the teams is 36 and 15 and one of the teams is 35 and 14 over the last 50 or so games. They've both been hot to end the season. Why do you think the Cavs are such heavy favorites?

[A.J. Hawk]

I think you go, you know, you gotta look at it. This is a very narrative driven league, you know, like, they. Everything is, like, based on the last game. It's not based on, you know, the full body of work. And I mean, those numbers you just threw throughout there, you know, he lose to that not being. Everything not being based on what the real body of work is. The narrative in the story is that the Cavs has led, you know, the east wire to wire, been the number one team from the beginning to the end. And, you know, they. They just. They just walloped, you know, the Heat in the first round. So they looking like they primed to do all of these great things. And we know how it is in the playoffs. I like what? I like Cleveland. You know, if I had to pick in this series, I probably would pick Cleveland to win this series.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, is that right? Is that right? Yeah. Well, is that because Halliburton's dad's not going to be there that way?

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, I mean, listen, listen. Unfortunately, I don't. I, you know, I, I hope for the best. I hope eventually they let Hallie Burton's dad come back to games eventually. Because I don't think, you know, that was. I hate that it happened. I know this guy's a good guy, and I think, you know, whatever happened, he just got ahead of himself. And I don't think, you know, like, he apologized. I think he was sincere. And I think this was like, damn, like, he can't come to the games, period. Like, I didn't think it should have went that far. I thought, did, you know, I mean, obviously disciplinary action should have been taken, but I think, think, you know, considering everything that went down and that could have went down.

[Darius Butler]

Yes.

[A.J. Hawk]

Okay.

[Darius Butler]

Him going forehead to forehead with Giannis, I think that was probably the part, you know, for him.

[A.J. Hawk]

I was before he even got like. I, I got like, more scared as it went on. Like, when he first came out there and was standing there with the towel and Giannis was looking at him, I was like, wait a minute. I was like, giannis is like deciding right now in real time, am I going and just like, like, spear this dude or, like, take his head off or what am I going to do? And then he was like, okay, I Was okay. He let it go. And then I was like, oh, no, no, he didn't let it go. He's like. I was like, oh, God. I was like, I don't know what's about to happen right now.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

And it was just. They were forehead. Like, that was scary. I felt scared for Mr. Halliburton when that went on. I was really scared.

[Darius Butler]

I did as well. Tyrese had no idea it happened. And obviously it's a way after he's in the locker room, he. Because he does the whole. He jumps up on the scorers table. What a moment. He Giannis to the rack to win a series in Indianapolis, jumps upon the scorers table, has a good time. They almost push him. He almost falls over, shout out to Obie. He comes down, he does an interview. And then afterwards he goes and talks to his dad and his mom and his lady. And then he heads into the locker room, probably on Cloud 100 or whatever, sits down in the locker room. The boys are having a moment. And then somebody goes, did you see your dad? And no. What happened? And then he watches the video and it's like, oh, no. Oh, no. You know, the way. The way you said it, I think is how like everybody sense. Like the guy got ahead of himself. Obviously. He is a very. He is a very type A, I guess would be the person. I don't know.

[A.J. Hawk]

He's very animated, energetic guy.

[Darius Butler]

Very supportive of his kid too, which I respect. Like, I. I like the fact that he has been like Tyrese's. He's a him, Tyrese's dad and mom, big champion of Tyrese. Very supportive. So I love that. But is that the reason? Because he's not going to be in the building. You think the Cavs are going to beat the Pacers? Q. Is that. Is that the reason? That. Is that what Suede you over to the Spider man and the in the Cleveland Cavaliers, brother?

[A.J. Hawk]

No, no. I want to also say while I am picking the Cavs, I wouldn't be shocked if the Pacers pushed them or even won this series. I would not. I'm just saying I do pick the pick the Cavs here, but I don't think it's like, I don't look at it being a sweep or a gentleman sweep or nothing like that. I look at this as a 6A game series. Six or seven game series. That could go either way. But I'm picking the Cavs. That's. That's. That. That would be my pick, I think. I think for me, Donovan Mitchell, if he's the best player in the series like he has been throughout the season. They should win, and I think he should be the deciding factor. I think he's the biggest superstar in this series, and he has a chance of having the biggest imprint on this series.

[Darius Butler]

Can the Cavs win it all?

[A.J. Hawk]

Nah, I don't. I can't see them getting past Boston. I'm stuck on the Boston train right now. If y'all can't tell I'm stuck until they show me a reason to get off of it. It. I'm, I'm. I'm. I'm cemented right there and believing they should. They should go back to back.

[Darius Butler]

Why does Shams and I saw the report, I saw the reaction on the Internet after the Sham's report of Boston's future. You know, they're going to have to reshuffle some things. And I saw everybody on the Internet basically, like, yeah, this is how this goes. You spend a bunch of money and then you're going to have to turn it over. And in football, you have to do that as well. Did it rattle the NBA world a little bit to hear Sham say that the Celtics are already looking to rearrange their team while they're in the middle of a dynasty run right now?

[A.J. Hawk]

Maybe to the people that wanted to know, I mean, once they put in the aprons and all those different things, and when they signed these guys, if you remember when they were signing these guys to these deals, they were saying that that would loom large in the future, in the recent. In the coming future anyway. So, I mean, you expect certain things to happen, and that's why these guys, the general managers and the presidents get paid the big bucks, so that they could use those big brains and figure out how to make it work and retool and come back and do it again.

[Darius Butler]

Connor doesn't love it.

[Connor]

I mean, look, it stinks. But, you know, if. If Giannis is serious about winning a championship, then he's serious about coming down to Boston. That's all. That's all. He already looks good in green. We know that. So I don't know, maybe Yanis. Maybe Yanis comes down to Boston. I know Boston has incredible Greek food as well.

[Darius Butler]

Giannis, okay.

[A.J. Hawk]

I saw a great Stevenson. Brad Brady is. Brad is awesome at putting the teams together. I'm sure, you know, he'll figure it out. That's how y'all got this, this. This current situation y'all got. Because he did such a great job, you know, putting it together. So I got confidence. He'll he'll, he'll get y'all back to where y'all need to be.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Brad. Brad Stevenson, Indiana guy Just, just as we, just as we continue to talk ball, let's just remember the Pacers, you know, in the state of Indiana are ready to, ready to go on a run. There was a lot of conversation, a lot of conversation about a guy that used to do what we do for a living, which is talk on TV and host podcast, especially with his decisions late in the season. Ty has a question for you. Q. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Q. Rich, starting last night and then really this morning, everyone's kind of coming at JJ Redick and killing him and basically placing the Lakers early exit almost solely on his shoulders. When you look at, you know, and then he came out and basically said, like, hey, we need to do this list of things if we actually want to be a championship contender, whether it's, you know, getting everybody on the same kind of conditioning plan, all that kind of stuff. When you look at this, how much of this do you think is JJ's fault and. Or is a big part of it? Rob Pelinka, the way, you know, everybody celebrated him when they got Luca in that trade. But then you look at their roster construction, they had four points, four bench points in that game, five. Like, they were forced to play these guys, their starters, 40 plus minutes in all these games. And as a result, you know, the question of Lucas conditioning and LeBron being 40 years old and all that kind of stuff came up. So did JJ have a choice in terms of doing something different or, you know, like, is it justified that people are killing him the way they are?

[A.J. Hawk]

I think it's a, I think it's a bit unfair. And I think, you know, some people say, oh, JJ rubs you the wrong way or this or that. To me, it's like, if you look at the scope of everything, JJ and the coaching staff did a great job first half of the season. Then the team got blew up by a monumental trade, trading Luka Donkic, you know, for Anthony Davis and Christian, like now they came out to, you know, to JJ and the staff's credit, they came out that second half of the season and they put them in positions and to the players credit as well, because they had to do the playing, but they put them in positions, even with the small ball unit or whatever. They, they found a scheme that worked for them. They found it, they hit, they, they clicked and they hit a little streak and they put themselves in the third seed. So I think putting them, putting, when they got to the third seed, it made everybody the world outside think that, hey, they should be competitors for a champion. And this when in reality, when they never got the big man, this roster wasn't really set to be a content contending team for a champion. And facing Minnesota in that first round, completely exposed that you saw Rudy Gobert out there looking like Shaq, you know what I'm saying? And they had nothing for it. And it was okay. People can be critical that he didn't play Jackson Hayes, but it was like what was happening when Jackson Hayes was out there on the court. What was happening when these guys were out there. It was a reason that he opted to do the things he did. And my thing is like everybody's being so, so, you know, you get the knee jerk reactions. I'm used to that. I know that's how it goes. But to hear the things that are being said, it's like you can't take away this great first season that JJ had and the great job he did and throw it all away because of the. They lost in the first round and they were the higher seed. Could he have done things better? I'm sure. I mean, that's for any coach, any coach in any situation, whether he's a rookie or whether he's a veteran coach. I'm not naming any names, but there's plenty of coaches right now that have made mistakes in these playoffs and win, lose a draw. That doesn't make them a bad coach. That's just part of it. You learn from it and you go ahead and get better. And when JJ spoke about the conditioning things, I saw zero things wrong with it. Because anybody who played or know jj, he was maniacal in the off season. He came in in the best shape possible. He went crazy. That was literally why he said that was one of the reasons he decided to retire, because he could. He didn't want to do another one of his off seasons because what it required from him and what he put into it. So I don't have a problem with him demanding that people, you know, go out and put, put into it what you want to get out of. If you don't put everything into it, you're not going to get everything out of it. And I think he knows that firsthand. So I don't have a problem with him saying that.

[Darius Butler]

Maybe JJ plays for the Lakers next year. You know, maybe. Maybe it's a player coach situation like what Joker's doing. And right now in Denver. Let's stay in the West. AJ has a Question for you. Q. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Q. The Rockets travel and take on the words tonight, Game six. Trying to, you know, stave off elimination. The Rockets are How do you see this thing playing out? And are you surprised at how physical this, this whole series has been and how back and forth it is?

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm, I'm, like I said earlier, I'm surprised across the board at how physical the playoffs have been and how tough these guys have made it. I love, love it, to be honest, but I was not expecting it, I'll say that. And as far as this game goes, man, I don't know. I feel like if the warriors are who I think they are, they gonna close this thing out tonight. I don't know whether it's Jimmy that has a big game, whether it's, you know, obviously Jimmy or Steph have to have a big game, but whether it's Pajinski or one of the other guys that step up. But if the warriors are trying to be really contenders for championships, they will close this thing out tonight because if it gets to game seven, you just, you just never know, man. And the Rockets will have home court. They are young and crazy athletic team. They unbelievably strict, like streaky. And you see, they, they, they, they, you know, everything is chippy. So if it gets to game seven, we all know everything else is out the window. Anything can happen. So you don't want to get there.

[Darius Butler]

Spencer a lacrosse kid, right?

[Connor]

CONNOR oh yeah, Pat Spencer. He, he played lacrosse in college at Loyola Maryland, but played basketball at Northwestern. Absolute junkyard dog. He was actually interviewed while he was playing lacrosse by Quinn Kesnik. And Quinn Kesnik basically came or went with him to do a basketball workout. And he said after it, like, hey, Pat Spencer is not joking around with basketball. He's actually going to do something. But with this series two.

[A.J. Hawk]

Q.

[Connor]

Rich, there's been a lot of talk about Steph's thumb and Dillon Brooks and them saying like, hey, yeah, if I had a bad ankle or a bad shoulder, that is what we're attacking. Can we expect Dylan Brooks or, you know, one of these more gritty players on Houston, maybe even MAU Doak on the sidelines to probably grab and yank Steph's thumb early in this game. And do you think this will affect them greatly going forward?

[A.J. Hawk]

Listen, I said this when he first got this injury. It's such a nagging. He won't be better with this until every, till basketball is over with this season. So he sits down for the summer and goes and just doesn't do anything because you could. Literally. I mean, I don't. First of all, I have zero problems with what Dillon Brooks said either, because that's what we would do. If something is wrong with him and he's out there and it's like, it's a weakness. It's not like we gonna do anything dirty, especially. You don't even have to do with something like a thumb that's a knuckle. Every time he dribbles and somebody swipes at the ball, when he passes, when he goes to reach, when he goes to catch, catch the ball. Sometimes when he dribbles the ball, that thing is always out there. So it's not even like you have to go above and beyond to do anything dirty. It's a natural reaction. If he's going to dribble and somebody's trying to steal the ball, they could hit it just like he hit it on somebody's leg. Like it's, it's one of the easiest injuries to, you know, to keep hitting and keep nagging at the whole time. So when that comes to that, it's not even, you know, that's why Steph is looking like, nah, it's not a, it's just, it is what it is and he knows that it's going to get hit whether somebody's trying to do it intentionally or not. It's just part of it.

[Darius Butler]

Reaggravating a thumb injury, especially being the greatest shooter of all time, has to be annoying. Thumb, big deal for a shooter. Obviously you're a former three point shooting champion. Thumb, massive part of the shot, right? I mean, isn't that, that's a huge.

[A.J. Hawk]

Absolutely. I mean, that's why I look and I'm so. I mean that's, that's why Steph is the best shooter ever in the world. Like I, I hated to have anything on any of my hands of fingers. I wanted total touch and feel of the ball. So I can tell, I mean, I know from experience that like having that, that thumb taped and not being able to completely feel the ball, it alters your natural shot. So he's had to, you know, do whatever he's had to do to adjust to that. And that just shows how great of a shooter he is. But like, I hated having anything. I didn't want finger sleeves, tape, I didn't want anything on my hands just because it, it didn't feel natural to me. And I wanted always to be able to have that feel in the ball.

[Darius Butler]

Fox, you remember I had that paper cut on my Ring finger on my right side. I couldn't hit three in the office. It was never. Since you had that. Yeah. Ingrown fingernail, too, on my right pinky. Every time it just. It's just a little bit too much, you know, I think that's why I don't shoot like Steph. I think those are potentially. I got this, you know, Constant ingrown. Ingrown fingernail.

[A.J. Hawk]

The smallest things can throw everything off. So I feel. I feel you there, man. The smallest things can make all the difference.

[Darius Butler]

Let's talk about some of the biggest thing, like rest. Tone has the last question for you here.

[Tone Diggs]

Q. Yeah, cool, Rich, The. The Thunder have been off for basically a week, and they're still waiting to find out their opponent in the NBA. Is there a rest versus rust type situation? Is. Is all this rest a good thing or can they potentially be rusty going into the next series versus a team that has played a potential seven game series years?

[A.J. Hawk]

If I'm being honest, man, from experience, if, if, if, if OKC comes out and they play really well and they win against whoever they play against, they're gonna say it's not a problem. If they don't, they're gonna say, oh, we had to. You know, that's just how it goes, man. I can't really honestly say that one or the other makes all of the difference because if they had some guys that were kind of dealing with knickknacks or whatever, they got a great time right now to get. Get healthy and come out and be hitting on all cylinders. So it could be good or, you know, I don't. To me, it's weird to say one or the other. And I feel like it only gets said after the fact when you see the result and you try and think, put things and make them tangible and tie them to what you want your narrative to be. For me. Cause it's like as a basketball player, you just wake up and it's like, do I feel good today? And it's like, I could have had all the rest in the world and whatever. I just don't feel rested. So it's just subjective. It doesn't really make sense for me to say that. I've always looked at that and kind of laughed at it because I felt one or the other didn't really matter.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, it's all outcome based, which is why sports talk is so great, because anything can happen in sports. We were talking about this last night. We were on. We took a helicopter into the city. Okay, Me, guppy and Bruce, you know.

[A.J. Hawk]

That traffic action, little west side action get you out the way.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. You know that traffic getting in from Teterboro to the city, that could be longer than the flight from Indianapolis to New Jersey. So, you know, especially if there's a couple car crashes or something down. So a couple years back, I learned that you got a chopper into the city. You can't roll any dice in there. Now, you know, there's been some things that have happened with helicopters, and so that certainly kind of, you know, slows you down a little bit. But as we're flying, you know, you start thinking about, like, life and you start chit chatting about it. And then we all just led right back to, like, why sports are great, because literally anything can happen. Like, literally anything can happen. Last night, Jalen Brunson doesn't have to make that, you know, and the Detroit Pistons win that series. And all of a sudden, the Detroit Pistons are all the way back. And then beef stew's getting healthy, and it's like the city of Detroit all of a sudden is a basketball city again instead. Jalen Brunson, clutch player of the year. What you've done in the past doesn't necessarily mean anything. For what you're going to do in the future, you have to do it every single time. Knocks that down. This entire city is elated. There's a vibe here. It's like, anything can happen in sports. So whenever you're talking about the rest versus rust thing, it's like people will pound the drum on one particular side and then the outcome will be the complete opposite thing, and they'll still think that they were right because it could have happened. That's why sports are the greatest. And I hope that young crew over there in OKC have rest instead of rust, because the year that they've had, I hope they don't slow down, but, man, yeah, basketball is heating up, and this playoffs is going to be great. You like the Celtics, it sounds like. I think you need to keep an eye out for the Pacers in the Cleveland Cavaliers. You got some dogs barking without a dad, and I don't love that. I don't love that John Halliburton's not a part of it. We appreciate you, Q. Rich. Have a great weekend, man.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yes, sir. Anytime, anytime. Enjoy your B day, fam.

[Darius Butler]

You know much about boxing?

[A.J. Hawk]

I watch it.

[Darius Butler]

Okay, here. Here's the fight card for tonight. I want you to make your picks for the fights. This is happening tonight on the Zone. It's right here at Times Square. Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves, once in a lifetime event live from Times Square. Do you have the firefighter or the police officer?

[A.J. Hawk]

Q Rich, I'm gonna go with the firefighter.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. Everybody likes the firefighter, by the way. Firefighter always shows up and is always a hero. I think that is one of the problems that police have with firefighters that the police sometime to deliver bad news. Firefighters are always beloved. Let's go with Sumi who is 26 and 2 in Japan making his debut over here in the United States of America, taking on Whittington. Who do you like in that fight?

[A.J. Hawk]

Q What's Whittington's record?

[Darius Butler]

Let me pull it up.

[Tone Diggs]

Undefeated is a heavy favorite.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, Tsutsumi is like a very, very, very heavy favorite. Here we go. Two and two is winning.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, Give me, give me Sumi me that. Yeah, okay, I see what's going on here.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, they're trying to launch Sumi. I do believe Tafima Lopez was a prodigy. Became a champion at the age of 25. Then he lost his title, then he won it back. Then he retired and there's actually a moment where I guess he like was asking his corner if he was still a dog or not. He's seemingly all the way back, taking on an undefeated Barbosa. Lopez, I believe is favored in this fight. Barboza, who is undefeated, underdog. This is going to be a great one as all these fights are. Who do you like? What do you think? Q?

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm going to go with, with Tia. Female.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. Tfimo's a dog too. He did his interview with sunglasses and like a Gucci Gucci bandana on. Feels like he's all the way back. Devin Haney, fresh off the no Contest, still undefeated. 31:01. Remember the Ryan Garcia fight where Ryan got pinged afterwards, also was overweight. That's his last fight. So he's trying to get back on track here against a very good Jose Ramirez. Haney is favored by a lot even though Ramirez has more knockouts than Devon. Who do you like?

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm gonna go with Devin Haney.

[Darius Butler]

He's strapped up right now. I saw him at weigh in. He looks, he looks unbelievable. Devin.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, he looks gotta be, he gotta. This is a comeback fight. He gotta be ready.

[Darius Butler]

How about him being undefeated because that no contest still. And I think some people doubt him because of what happened with Garcia who was eight pounds heavier than which I think is a, a big deal in the boxing world. And let's go to the main event. Ryan Garcia, fresh Off of that, no contest. That fail 241 and 1. Taking on a brawler in Rolly Romero. Who do you like? How do you like it and what do you think happens in this fight?

[A.J. Hawk]

I'mma go Rolly. I think he. I think. I think that he get a knockout because these boys gonna be slugging.

[Darius Butler]

Hell yeah. Okay, so you like Rolly over Garcia as a knockout in the main event here at Times Square Square?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yep.

[Darius Butler]

That'd be huge odds. What are the odds on that? We look up because. Yeah, what is a knockout for? Yeah, I bet you those are massive odds. Q. Like huge. If you wanted to lay a little.

[A.J. Hawk]

Wager on the boy, only push us, pet. That's all. I bet I don't do the money.

[Tone Diggs]

Plus 850 for rolly by ko.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, plus 850 would be good money, Q. Rich might be able to win some people some stuff. We hope you will watch, if not, have an incredible, incredible weekend. We appreciate you, man.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yes, sir. Anytime, fellas.

[Darius Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

Made some bold pits.

[Darius Butler]

All kind of. Yeah, he did make some bold picks. He did make some bold picks out there. How about him looking at the tailored tape and going, oh, I see what's happening here with this room.

[Pat McAfee]

We're trying to get somebody to bump, but it's also on the other side for Winnington. What a great opportunity you have though.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, his fourth fight, this Tsutsumi guy, I watched him film on him last night with Bruce. Bruce found some 26 and two. You know, I can only make comparisons to other sports. Shota Imanaga, right? Didn't come over to the MLB until later.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Darius Butler]

In his career he stayed in Japan for a long time, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Darius Butler]

Like this guy, 28 fights in Japan. I wonder when the time was gonna for him to come over here. Special that it's tonight. Lucky that we're gonna get to watch it. But there's a chance he, you know, after this fight, really rocket ship and goes, you know, depending upon how it goes. And then Tiafimo, he had a chance to be prodigy best ever. Then he retired. Then he lost his confidence, lost his moxie. Then he gets back into it. I think there's going to be great fights here tonight, which is very exciting and seems like we've settled in here in the second hour. I don't know on your guys side. Yeah, everything over here is kind of settled in, which has been very kind and very nice. I assume the truck is kind of getting pieced together as we go here. A lot of moving parts, a lot of big time fights and we're in the middle of Times Square. So I assume you know a lot of shit to deal with, let alone the unions. I couldn't even imagine. Oh yeah, couldn't even imagine the amount of unions that are working here. But I think the Ring and Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves have put together quite a clash. Quite a night here in Times Square. I'm pretty excited about. Did you know Gap has like premier location right here? Like Gaps right there, Old Navy. Then there's a McDonald's. There's like.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean is. What do you think rent? You think rent is what, $4 million a month if you want to have 2,000 square feet.

[Tone Diggs]

Pat was talking about the unions and he was talking about we're going to get our cut. Okay, Pat, you want anything wants to get done in Times Square, we're going to at least get our vig on the situation. So yeah, the Gap and all those places, they're, they're paying premium, premium money to be there.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, yeah. And I walked by Applebee's, I think was still, you know, popping off. Applebees are certainly popping. Holy. We knew Cake Boss would do something special. Holy hell.

[Connor]

Here we go.

[Darius Butler]

Whoa.

[Pat McAfee]

Uhoh.

[Darius Butler]

Move. Thank you so much. Here, hold on, on, hold on, hold on. What's your name? My name is Mo. Oh, you work at, you work over here at Carlos. Yes. And this is Cake Boss's spot, right? Yes. Okay. What is this Cake? Oh, we got a Microphone for you. Great. Your name is what again? I'm sorry. Mo. Mo. Okay. Mo. What? I love oreos. I love cookies and cream. Did you guys do research or just is happen stance here? Happen. Just happened. Your microphone's not on, so you will continue to use mine here. This place. Place. Right. What a prime location for Carlos. How many people are we serving a day in there? And is everybody just getting cakes or what are we serving over here? Cakes, Sykes? Cheesecakes, sandwiches. Cupcakes, cookies, Pizza. Any pizza in there?

[A.J. Hawk]

Pizza, yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Focaccia pizza. Oh, focaccia pizza. Yeah. Where are you from, Mo? I'm Dominican. How long have you been a baker or chef for about four years. Congratulations. What's Buddy like on the day to day? He's really a nice person. Interesting answer, Mel. I will say that was an interesting answer. Thank you for this. Is there any weed in this? No. Oh, could have. Just want to let you know. You could have, you could have. Thank you, Mo.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you.

[Darius Butler]

Thank you. Appreciate you, Mo. Thank you, Mo.

[A.J. Hawk]

There you go.

[Connor]

That looks.

[Darius Butler]

It does look delightful. Yeah, it does. It looks very. I mean, it's gonna melt out here for sure. Yeah, I'm doing big keto. It's a birthday though, you know, I think I should probably.

[Tone Diggs]

I think grab a fistful. They actually said those are keto oreos and a keto cake.

[Pat McAfee]

Just take a big chunk out of that.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Connor]

There you go.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What is it?

[Darius Butler]

Well, happy birthday.

[A.J. Hawk]

Something.

[Connor]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that fondant on the outside?

[Ty Schmidt]

Looks like a nice yellow cake.

[Tone Diggs]

Fondant.

[Darius Butler]

Have you ever.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that the show that says fondant?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah. You mean the cake?

[Darius Butler]

Fondue.

[Pat McAfee]

Fondant.

[Tone Diggs]

Like the stuff they use to make to wrap realistic on the app, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Tastes like poop usually.

[Darius Butler]

Well. Oh, you're not about to stop that. Like, is it cake? Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but it makes it look sweet, smooth and everything.

[Tone Diggs]

AJ's saying it like an.

[Pat McAfee]

No, someone wasn't. I don't know what show. They always said good cake.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it looks like it's good cake.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. It's unbelievable. I mean, this is. There's a lot of stuff on the outside. Icing, I guess is what it would be called.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Icing on the outside. Yeah, icing is on the cake. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Lot of icing. Okay. You got to get through the icing. It's all there in my face.

[Tone Diggs]

You need to sign.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Can you decide? Happy birthday. Sign.

[Darius Butler]

I'll tell you, I don't bite.

[Connor]

Dude, come on.

[Darius Butler]

That birthday, it changes though, cuz it has like the vanilla top. Let me spin it.

[Pat McAfee]

It might be like a. A mixture. Like a marble type thing.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, hold on. Good. So like this one down here. I haven't got into that yet. That's like a little loose chocolate up there. You got an Oreo layer in there. So maybe we just.

[Connor]

That was really good.

[A.J. Hawk]

Hey, be careful. You got.

[Darius Butler]

You got a big match coming. Coming up. Yeah, I need to. I need to. Yeah, look, I got Dwight. I got Dwight around my mouth too. I don't love that. But you know what? Didn't we say we need to add a layer or two because there's big chops. Don't need to beef up a little bit. I was maybe losing too much weight. Need a little.

[Connor]

You need a little beef. That looks like a good bite.

[Darius Butler]

That was a good bite.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Hey, Marty. I appreciate you getting that close up. Marty. Marty's the best of the best. Marty's the best of the best.

[Connor]

Not 75 years, but that's a guy.

[Tone Diggs]

You could have a beer with.

[Darius Butler]

Marty might be learning some things in there, you know. 75 years sitting in the same truck as those guys. I can tell you, Marty's in hell right now. Marty is in absolute hell back there. He's never seen anything like he's seeing today, I'll just tell you that much.

[Connor]

Yeah, it's cuz he's learning.

[Darius Butler]

Welcome to Marty. Marty. You haven't done, brother. Why don't you look around and get a notepad out, you know, stop zooming in on my face. You need to be right now. Notes, brother. You need to be taking notes.

[Tone Diggs]

Tommy and fatim taking notes earlier too, when they were walking around set.

[Darius Butler]

Tommy Collins is getting sunburnt to hell out here. He. He was right down here, which I'm very appreciative of him just eating that. Speaking of eat it. This is a great cake. Cake boss doesn't. It obviously doesn't miss cake boss does it again. I.

[Connor]

Did he. Did he by chance write in his sweet science picks on the back of the happy birthday? Because I assume. Assumed he wanted to talk sweet science.

[Darius Butler]

What? No. Projection. You know what he said? Ty. What did he say down in super bowl radio?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it was. We were talking about the game. He said what?

[Darius Butler]

No football questions?

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, you asked me about the Giants.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. I got so much icing all over my body.

[Pat McAfee]

Got a napkin anywhere? No, absolutely not.

[Darius Butler]

I don't have a clock here, brother. This cake is delightful, though. And then they got the Oreo here. Oh, I need to stay away from Those.

[Pat McAfee]

Can you take the Oreos and dip them into your cake and get some cake?

[Darius Butler]

Good idea, A.J. good idea. That's something you would never do, too. I can't believe you thought.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I'm a cookies and cream guy as well. Like ice cream wise, for sure.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Chocolate.

[Darius Butler]

That might be too much. That might be too much. That might be too much.

[Matthew Kachuk]

They're not perfect.

[Darius Butler]

This is like. This is like a triples. Yeah, exactly.

[Connor]

Boom.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, that's what.

[A.J. Hawk]

Where.

[Tone Diggs]

That's where you keep the cookies at.

[Darius Butler]

Good. Yeah. Yeah. I want a good buyer. I want a good buyer.

[Pat McAfee]

How pumped you, Booker T. Going to be when you bring that. The rest of that cake over to him, brother?

[Darius Butler]

It's going to melt up here. Thank you, Nick. My guy, Nick on the audio. Good dude. Great dude. Hard worker. He brought the mic up. That wasn't on, but, I mean, it's Nick. Nick's not the one that's in control. Whether it's not. It's on or whatever. You know, Nick's a good guy, hard worker. A lot of people here. Things are coming together. Feels like the chaos has slowed down. There was moments where you could feel the frantic. You know what I mean? Like, there was. There was people that weren't comfortable with where they were in the day. Now it's starting to, like, kind of settle in. I assume all that takes is just one connection to one connection and figuring out a problem and then us getting added into it and then, you know, us just dropping off out of middle of nowhere and everything like that. So feels like everything's about to be magical tonight. And this cake is delightful. It looks good. It's gonna melt. It's very hot out here. 80 degrees, they're saying today, man.

[Tone Diggs]

And. And that's it.

[Darius Butler]

Times Square, that's nuts.

[Tone Diggs]

The. The air does not move, so that might as well be 110.

[Connor]

It's gonna affect the fights for sure.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I didn't even like an early fight for sure. The. The firefighter and the police officer are going to be fighting first. It's going to be daylight, light still. It's gonna be 5:00 or whatever. That's gonna be hot as. I mean, they'll be used to it, obviously. Maybe favors the firefighter there, huh?

[Ty Schmidt]

Favors the firefighter big time. For sure.

[Darius Butler]

Good lather because how hot it's gonna be. Everybody else, have they been training, like, in, like, the islands? Because it's thick. It is very thick out here right now. I'm getting burned up, obviously, but that's not bad for me, but for the fight factor. Yeah, you gotta wonder, let alone when it gets dark out here with all these lights there. It's an interesting. Has time. It's never hosted a boxing event. I wonder how many times. Times once in a lifetime is what they're saying this is. And I believe it after watching the whole thing here. I wonder how many people have been. Been able to set up their right here in the middle of Times Square and how it's gone off because I think they're planning on people just kind of filing in around. They say 300, 000 people go through here every single day. 60 million in ad spend every single year. It's like there is. Oh, cloud. Wow, thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Is there a perimeter?

[Darius Butler]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

What do like special people have to get tickets to sit in those seats or how does it work for everyone around us?

[Connor]

Anybody who walks gets a seat.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, I don't know. There is a very large. There's a. There's a very large fence that is surrounding this entire area. I'd say like 8ft. It looks like.

[Tone Diggs]

Looks like they do a concert summer series in Times Square as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, well, they do all kind of stuff with like the Today show and all that. I don't know how where that is compared to where you are though.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, it's not in Time Square. We walked past the NBC. I almost thought about stopping by and saying, hey, is that the Lester here?

[Connor]

Yeah. Where's he at?

[Darius Butler]

Just want to chat about how some things were kind of angled. Just didn't know if we were going to talk about reality or not. I didn't know. But it was cool to see Radio City Music Hall. We walked by. Me and Gumpy walked by. Right. Remember they kicked the NFL draft out of there. Yeah. If you do recall the way best thing to happen for the draft in the NFL for sure. But remember they were going to do it there forever. And then Radio City Musical said, I don't think so. We got Chippendale's performance.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, the Rockettes. Apparently there was.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, there it is.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, there was some sort of disconnect there and they said, n, we're not canceling the Rockets.

[Darius Butler]

You guys are going have to find.

[Ty Schmidt]

Somewhere else to go.

[Darius Butler]

So it wasn't the Chippendale, Scott. We walked past Radio City Musical. They were doing a tour for the Rockettes. I think they're 100 years. I think it's 100 years of the Rockettes. We saw a sign. Jumpy might know better than me. They're doing tours and everything like that. It was the leg.

[Pat McAfee]

They dance if they kick their legs, right?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Christmas, them and the other Down Under.

[Connor]

They do more than just kick their legs.

[Pat McAfee]

Thunder down under does that too. Diggs.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That's cool. How many times you been to it?

[Tone Diggs]

Six.

[Darius Butler]

Seven, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Sweet. Those guys are talented. They're usually pretty jacked.

[Connor]

Seven times?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Every time I go to, they report.

[Pat McAfee]

You on stage and, you know, get food physical.

[Tone Diggs]

I went by myself during Mania weekend.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's cool.

[Darius Butler]

What's that? What happened? We're talking about the Australian strippers. Yeah, yeah. Good show. The male ones that just kind of let that thing. Swine.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Thunder Down Under.

[Darius Butler]

Good show. So I don't think I fully understand it. So bachelorette parties go out there. They walk in there and these Australian guys are just rubbing it all over meats.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody everywhere. Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

And they're super attractive, got sweet accents. And then they're just doing that three, four times a night. That's their gig.

[Tone Diggs]

I believe so.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

I believe that is the case.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, they gotta be three or four shows a night if they're doing that many shows. Those guys are exhausted.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Think about the bruises, too. On certain body parts.

[Pat McAfee]

Those things are really stamps everywhere.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Okay. I don't know if that's just ladies and gentlemen.

[Pat McAfee]

Not on them.

[Darius Butler]

Ladies and gentlemen, Fatal Fury. City of the Wolves. New video game that's out. I've played it. I'm not great at these games. It's a fighting game, like old school. Mortal Kombat. Okay. I think KSI and Speed are going to play against each other tonight on a kickoff show. I think. I think they're going to play against each other. Now. Who knows if that was supposed to be breaking news. We're not allowed to really. I don't know what I'm allowed to say, what I'm not allowed to say. Things have really been fluid in this entire thing. But this Fatal Fury game, the graphics are amazing. And, you know, Saudi Arabia is a part of this, setting this whole thing up. The Ring Magazine and boxing as a whole. And obviously with TKO getting involved with Dana and the WWE and Nick Khan, and obviously we talked to Turkey the day that it happened. This is one of the events that he had scheduled before kind of taking on that new boxing debut. You video games in Saudi Arabia, I guess, are a massive piece of like the evolution of Saudi Arabia, I guess it is a huge, huge piece. I think the Crown Prince, God bless him.

[Matthew Kachuk]

God bless.

[Darius Butler]

I think the Crown Prince, God bless him. And Turkey Big gamers, like, I think they view video games as a big way to, like, kind of expedite the process of their country kind of catching up to everybody else. They host, I think the World cup or whatever of E Games over there. I think they have made a massive investment, investment into video games because they think it can help their community, their culture, and also they think they can contribute because of the way they. They have a passion for it. So I think this Fatal Fury, City of the Wolves, being a massive piece of it is like a part of Saudi Arabia saying, like, hey, we are trying to adapt and to help and to add to everything as a society and as a culture. And I know there's people that are going to be mad about that because of things that have happened in the past, but I appreciate the fact that we're potentially going to be a part of like. Like the world, you know, like the world catching up and the fact that video games are doing it, that sports are doing it. Like, I think that's a really cool piece of this whole story happening here at Times Square. Legitimate. I think it's a very cool part of the story.

[Connor]

I'm pretty sure they're massive investors in, like, Rockstar Games and like the 2K games, like, all those type of games that have a ton of success, like the Grand Theft Auto, the Grand Theft Auto 6, which is being regarded as, you know, going to be the biggest game of all time. Pretty sure they have a massive investment in that. So video games are kind of.

[Darius Butler]

May 26, 2026. That's coming out.

[Connor]

We'll see. We'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Has that been bumped back a few times already?

[Connor]

Yeah, this is what is happening.

[A.J. Hawk]

Why?

[Pat McAfee]

It's just not ready. There's glitches.

[Connor]

I don't know. I can't tell what they're. What they're doing because they also. There were some rumors where, like, they weren't gonna have a release date and they were just gonna be like, hey, it's coming out next week. But I don't know. Yeah, allegedly today they pushed it back. Back to 2020.

[Pat McAfee]

Can you drop nuclear bombs on people in that game? Like, what else can you do to creatively kill people?

[Tone Diggs]

I don't know if you could do nuclear warfare.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think it's more so just like the scale of how big it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, build a big world. A much bigger world now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly. I mean, the Grand Theft Auto 5 is like the most successful media property of all time.

[Darius Butler]

Oh, okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

The amount of, like, time and effort they have to put I mean, that came out like 12 years ago. So, like, they. They've been.

[Pat McAfee]

The metaverse was supposed. Supposed to be.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Connor]

They have like, you know, Grand Theft.

[Darius Butler]

Auto is a great game. I played on my phone. Yeah, I played on my phone. There's a kid over here holding up a piece of paper that says Boston Connor. That's good. Still got the juice over here, brother. And then I. I got a sign over here. I think it's a homeless man. I can't see him. He's on the other side of the fence. Says I need money for booze and weed for the weekend.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, honest.

[Darius Butler]

You know, people are starting to fill up here. It's about to be a massive night here at Times Square. It's going to be an incredible weekend for sports. We can't wait to join you on Monday. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. And as you get older, remember you're allowed to appreciate every single moment you have breath. We have no idea what's going to happen next. We have no idea if tomorrow's promise. All we have is today. Let's enjoy it and let's make other people's lives better. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. We'll see you on Monday. Goodbye. Feels like I was pretty good. Sign off. Two of me on the screen too.

[Connor]

Yeah, you got the first hour as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Did I? That one.

[Connor]

You got it right on.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you did.

[Darius Butler]

First one was Zito counting down in my ear, which was great countdown by Zito. Great countdown by Zito. Every once in a while, zito's got like 35 things happening. The reason why I know that is because he in my ear, you know, and there isn't. He's like trying to rush and speak into my ear and I'm like, oh, Zeno's probably bouncing around. I can already see him punching 45 different buttons and trying to figure things out. But the countdown and the way he's handled today. First class stuff out of you today, Zito. First class stuff out of you, Jose.

[Connor]

Perez.

[Darius Butler]

Marty, back in the truck. Helping get this thing up on the air today. I know that you can't say anything to me and I can't say anything to you, which is wild to think about. 75 years. Just. Thank you, Marty. And to fathom who's going to be running point for the kickoff show that starts at 4:00 Eastern, we thank the hell out of you, brother. I'm excited to see what you got to Deal with. He's gonna have to actually use their board. Foxy. He's gonna think about him. We've been on the line with those guys for this entire program because we've been kind of communicating with them when they cut your cameras and stuff. And let's just say I reiterated to them, like, when we talk on this show about how good WWE is at production and at just taking care of things, I said we weren't in, you guys. And I reiterated that about 10 times today.

[Connor]

Okay. We're just as good. So why don't you sit down back there?

[Darius Butler]

I agree. But, like, I think the WWE people, like, they woke up early this morning, got over here, trying their absolute best. There's like four different entities all working together on this. And to the WWE people, I'm incredibly grateful. Always will be, always have been. I'm 38 years old today, and I get a chance to work not only for the wwe, but alongside people from the wwe. They're first class. And to my guy Nick, working on audio down here. Good work. Stand out here in the sun with me, brother. I appreciate the hell out of you. And I'm sure there's other good people that are working here. I'm not going to look at anybody as if they are. For the rest of the day. I'm assuming everybody's enemy, but. Which is always a good idea. Yeah, it's always. We walked into that. Into that diner earlier.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

And you know, like, everybody's in there. And I'm like, I don't know who's foe. And I don't know who's foe, friend. So everybody can get it in here. I guess I just kind of. I just walked down, sat down, didn't talk to anybody and kept it moving. This 4 o'clock kickoff show is going to be electrifying, though. Booker T. Is going to be here, and we're going to launch into a once in a lifetime event here in New York's Times Square that is going to be remembered and chit chatted about forever. We're incredibly lucky and honored to get to do this. And the fight card is set up to be great. Great. And tonight should launch us into a great weekend of sport. Aj, Safe travels down to Louisville. Thank you for coming over to Indianapolis, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Appreciate it.

[A.J. Hawk]

Not.

[Pat McAfee]

Not too far of a drive from here.

[Connor]

So.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, everything's. Everything's looking good. It'll be a nice rainy weekend, I feel like in Louisville.

[Darius Butler]

Are you gonna get an answer? Are you gonna do some journalism or. No?

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I. Yeah, I probably will. I'll probably pull, you know, Ian Rapaport, maybe pull like, a recorder out of my, you know, my phone and record some conversations of people and, like, try to see what they're gonna do in their professional. Professional life. Is that what you should do?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Treat my friends like sources.

[Tone Diggs]

Oh, I have a gift. I have a gift for you.

[Pat McAfee]

What is it?

[Tone Diggs]

Actually, couple scratchers and a Subway gift card.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I think you'll like. Card again.

[Darius Butler]

Also, let's remember. Oh, mama. He just dropped that in there a little bit. Let him hear it. Let him feel it. Let it taste it. Speaking of taste it, there's some sticks beer in Thunderdome you could take down to them. Oh, yeah, take that down.

[Connor]

There it is.

[Darius Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're like 19 ounces, right?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Darius Butler]

You have been. You have Ben Roethlisberger's number. Why don't you FaceTime Ben and let Aaron and Ben FaceTime maybe from down there and chit chat about what life could be like as a Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback? You know, let's. Yeah, let's see what we're about here. And on Monday after the weekend, we're expecting a full report from you, AJ Especially how many mint juleps you drank and how many cigars you smoked.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

Mint.

[Pat McAfee]

Jules, I'm not huge on those. I like the whole, like, you know, pageantry and all that. So I'll try one. Maybe have one of those and then whatever.

[Connor]

Stay on. You got to stay on par with Joe Paul Leon's estimate.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. What did he say, 125,000?

[Pat McAfee]

Nah, I don't feel it.

[Darius Butler]

Kind of tastes like poop. I've had them one time. I think it's kind of poopy tasting.

[Pat McAfee]

But salad sandwich at the Masters. I.

[Darius Butler]

Guy.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not an egg salad guy, so no offense to the Masters. I'm not eating an egg salad or pimento sandwich. Even worse, actually.

[Ty Schmidt]

So I'm not like, a hot egg salad sandwich.

[Pat McAfee]

Those hot?

[Darius Butler]

Those aren't hot.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's hot outside. The Masters, I mean, they don't.

[Darius Butler]

You like chicken salad? You like chicken salad?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm not a.

[Darius Butler]

That.

[Pat McAfee]

That whole, you know, texture guy. That's a weird texture.

[Darius Butler]

I think I like chicken salad a lot. I can get down with chicken salad.

[Pat McAfee]

I can roll egg salad, chicken on it.

[Darius Butler]

What about pasta salad?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, oh, I can do that. I can do a little bit of that. Yeah, it's pretty good.

[Connor]

Oh, pasta.

[Darius Butler]

What about Caesar salad?

[Connor]

Oh, delicious.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll get a Caesar salad, but only if they don't have a normal, like, house salad.

[Darius Butler]

What about a chopped salad?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Chops good. It's a little bit of work. Is that the wedge deal where I got. That's a wedge. I guess everyone calls.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, but you can get the wedge chopped. You know that.

[Pat McAfee]

I know. I. Yeah, I should ask for that more often because I do really like the wedge.

[Darius Butler]

I didn't know that was possible until I sat with somebody who's super successful and then we order the same thing because I just order what they order because I didn't really know what I was supposed to order. Yeah, theirs came chopped up because they asked for it. And mine came in a big block, a piece of head out of lettuce or whatever. And I'm like, why didn't I get it that way? It's like, why would you put mulch in and not put anti weed in there? You know, like, I thought those things.

[Connor]

That'd be smart.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good question.

[Darius Butler]

I'm happy we did get that mulch outside, even though it quickly became just a greenery. Yeah, that was. That was good. Everything's working out.

[Pat McAfee]

Gazebo looks amazing, by the way. This is the first time I've been here since it was. Been fully upright.

[Darius Butler]

Yeah. Tim McAfee is the real deal. Tim McAfee is the real deal. The mulch looks good whenever you see it, if you can see it. I don't know how it looks today, I assume.

[Tone Diggs]

Nice.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pretty solid.

[Darius Butler]

Okay. I appreciate that. I'll tell you, Time Square is alive. And this is cool. This is really cool. The Lion King has a massive piece of property.

[Connor]

They still doing it on Broadway.

[Ty Schmidt]

Broadway, right.

[Connor]

So good. Good.

[Darius Butler]

It's huge. I mean, this sign. This is one. This is the biggest sign, really, in the entire thing. I met a guy named Aladdin today.

[Tone Diggs]

Legit.

[Darius Butler]

I mean, a human named Aladdin.

[Connor]

You sure?

[Darius Butler]

Yeah, he.

[Tone Diggs]

Prince Al.

[Darius Butler]

He said his name was his. No, no, I don't think it was. His name was Aladdin. He's the director, I think, tonight. Good guy, good hand. He. He covered college football back in the day. So he was. He had a great name. He was one. He was in that room where I was walking in there thinking it was war with everybody, and he walked up to me, I was like, all right, here we go. War, war, war. And he goes, pat, how you doing? I got a chance to cover some of your games at West Virginia. Then he shouted out, morty Ivy. Shout out, morty Ivy, by the way, Gateway gator. Great. Then he shouted out, owen Schmidt. Steve Pat. Like the Whole team. So it was cool to meet him. He's moved into the boxing world now. Yeah, it was cool to chat with him. Yeah. But he. So he wasn't an enemy, I guess. So I'm gonna walk back into that diner and I'm gonna say, everybody's good people here, everybody's great. Everybody really wants us to succeed, which is with a good feeling. And 4:00 this kickoff to a once in a lifetime event will start. And boys know that I miss you and I will see you tomorrow and appreciate the hell out all you.

[Tone Diggs]

Miss you.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy birthday.

[Tone Diggs]

Likewise.

[Ty Schmidt]

Happy birthday.

[Connor]

Birthday.

[Darius Butler]

Thanks for all the posts. It's always weird. It's always weird. I took my birthday, I tried to take my birthday off the Internet and how. I guess, I guess it just can't do it. Yeah, I looked into it last night, late last night, I'm like, I think I can I get this off the Internet, you know, Cuz all of a sudden, I mean you get a lot of messages. Very cool, very kind. Everybody saying Happy birthday is very nice of people. I appreciate. I hear from people that I haven't heard from in a long time. But then you're sitting on like 110 unread text messages and I feel like a terrible human being. So I say thank you so much for the message. But then that starts now. We're.

[Pat McAfee]

How are you doing, man? How's it going?

[Darius Butler]

Now we're back in it. So I spent a large portion of this morning like catching up with old friends, which is great. I don't want to say it's not great. It is great. But there's a lot of pressure on like replying to everybody here on the birthday. And I don't, I think what started was Facebook. Do you remember that Facebook had everybody's birthday and you would log into Facebook and it would like, the first thing you would see is like, hey, here's whose birthdays it was. And everybody like, boom. Gotta go to the wall. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. It was so cool. I think it made everybody like happy. And you know, it was nice to hear from people and it's nice to hear people say happy birthday to you. But man, I immediately felt like, oh, I gotta respond to all these people because they took time out of their day to do this. And I think that's what I'm doing for the next couple hours before this kickoff show. And if I don't reply to you, I just want you to know via this message right here. Thank you so much for the text and the words that mean more than you could imagine. I'm lucky to be alive. And let's have the greatest weekend of all time. Time. All right, let's do that. Hell, yeah. Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Well said.

[Darius Butler]

All right, we're in this thing together. 4:00 kickoff.

[Pat McAfee]

Booker T. Singing.

[Darius Butler]

No, but I assume there's going to be the amount of talent.

[Pat McAfee]

Amazing. Singing the national anthem, I would imagine.

[Connor]

New York City.

[Darius Butler]

They got a lot of people here, man. They got a lot of people here tonight. I saw like a guest list. Now, Grant, I assume that's changing at all times. Sure. I assume all of it's changing at all times. Times. But I think there's gonna be a lot of people here tonight. A lot of talent here tonight. I think it's gonna be a big one. Should kick off a fantastic weekend. All right, we're in this thing together. Team on me. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. You really never know what somebody's going through. A simple, hey, how you doing? Hope you're good. Can change the trajectory of a life. Never forget it. Team on three. We'll see you tomorrow for a kickoff show and then Monday. Overreacting to everything. I love you all. I appreciate you all. One, two, three, team. Goodbye. Rapper Sean Diddy Combs was a king maker. He had wealth, fame and power. Until it all came crashing down.

[Tone Diggs]

Federal investigators raiding two homes owned by hip hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm Brian Buckmire, an ABC News legal contributor.

[Darius Butler]

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.

[Tone Diggs]

You may know me as the host.

[Darius Butler]

Of ABC Audio's daily news podcast. Start here.

[Tone Diggs]

But I'd like to add aspiring true.

[Darius Butler]

Crime expert to my resume and here's how I'm going to make it happen.

[Tone Diggs]

Every week I'm going to unpack the biggest true crime story that everyone is talking about.

[Darius Butler]

ABC's got some unique access here, so.

[Tone Diggs]

I'll talk to the reporters and producers, producers who have followed these cases for months, sometimes years.

[Darius Butler]

We'll bring you the latest developments and.

[Tone Diggs]

The larger context on the true crime stories you've been hearing about.

[Darius Butler]

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