← The Pat McAfee Show
The Pat McAfee Show
PMS 2.0 1346 - Rest In Peace Jim Irsay, Former Nuggets Head Coach Michael Malone, Bruce Arians, Lord Stanley's Cup, Heather Dinich, & AJ Hawk
02:39:32
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Pat McAfee
Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome, on this Rest Easy Gym. Thursday, May 22, 2025 this program starts now. Sports are happening all around us, especially here in Indianapolis, Indiana. I shed some tears last night when a friend of mine was announced that he passed away and we will obviously talk more about that as the show goes on. And what the Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has done for me for this program, for the show, for the, for everything is going to be tough to kind of break down and chit chat about, but Jim Irsay left a legacy of compassion and give back that I think should be studied by everybody that ends up with any type of money or any type of success. He woke up every single day hoping to make the world a better place, making people happier. And I know life gets in the way sometimes and I don't think he always got it right and he certainly battled his demons. But God bless this man, Jim Merce, in the way he wanted to treat treat other people, especially people that he knew. If you actually got to know Jim Irsay, you loved him. I wrote something on Twitter last night and it took me a lot of attempts as I was watching the Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks in game one of the Eastern Conference Finals in Madison Square Garden with a comeback that hasn't happened in 1414 games. As I was watching the great city of Indianapolis and a great state be represented, I was trying to talk about the greatest philanthropist in the history of this state in Jim Merce. Finding the right words was not easy because what could you say about a man who has literally been the owner of an NFL team since he was 37, the youngest general manager in the history of the league as a 24 year old? He'd been around the game since he was a child. He basically chit chatted about those Baltimore Colts locker rooms as being like his babysitters. He grew up in the locker room, always talked about cleaning and sweeping and hanging out and talking to the boys. There was a story that has come out that when he was 16 years old, after his dad said something to the effect about the guys being bums and not representing and sawed the team down as a 16 year old, he went onto the team bus and said football is a team sport, let's never forget it, and cried and walked off. He was a consummate team guy. He loved those he was surrounded by and if he had heard about anything that needed help or he learned of any situation that could use a financial boost, he was writing A check or giving money quicker than any person in the history of existence. I don't know how they'll be able to track how much money he's given to people, causes. He just builds buildings here, just donates buildings to the city of Indianapolis, wings of hospitals, let alone all the things that just go, not talked about. It has to be over $100 million. And then once he realized that he was able to make other people feel good with his good fortune and with the amount of money that he had, he started buying up things that he thought people would be interested in seeing. And then he wanted to figure out how he would tour this so that people could experience these once in a lifetime things, from ancient hundred year old things to the Beatles drum set that he felt obligated to buy or Elvis Presley's guitar. He wanted people to experience it, not just him. He didn't want to just lock it up in a room and say, hey, I'm a rich guy, I got this. He would outbid other rich people so that the world could see the things that he found interesting. He toured the Jim Irsay collection around this country, around the world. I think he did a couple European stops. People got to see things that they never had. The giveaways that this man would invest time in and make imaginative and make it, you know, entertaining for everybody. He dressed up as Willy Wonka and put a giveaway on for a Super bowl ring for Colts fans. He loved making other people feel good. And I was very lucky that I got a chance to call him a friend. You know, a lot of owners kind of view their teams as business. A lot of owners view their players as transactional. A lot of the suits in the NFL might not have the most amount of respect for players, you know, because players are stupid. But Jim Irsay grew up in a locker room, so he had compassion for the players, empathy for the players, and always had the players back. That's why every player that goes into the hall of Fame, that played for the Indianapolis Colts asks him to be the one that presents them into the hall of Fame. We knew he had our back, we had his. He had his problems. A lot of people talk shit, but if you got to know him, he was one of the most brilliant, unique, and interesting humans to ever exist. I'll miss Jim Irsay and you done good, buddy. You done good, man. He was awesome. He would come on this show anytime I asked him, no matter where he was. He came on my show in 2012. I think I was doing a show at a Local bar, and it was with IndyStar of the local newspaper, and it was on Twitter, and it was just an idea that I had. And Indy Star kind of pieced it together, and we'd have, like, 200 people come to this bar. It was chaos, always, because there's people at the bar that aren't there for the show. You know, never do a show at a bar, okay? Never do a show at a bar unless you're getting the whole bar. Do not do a show at a bar, especially if there's, like, an audio component to it, because there's gonna be drunks at that bar who have no idea that your show is happening. So it's cha. Chaos. Every single week, chaos. We would have, like, half the bar. There'd be 100 people, 200 people there watching. It'd be an Indianapolis Colts recap show that I was doing. And it was solely for Twitter. It was solely for social media. And one of my first guests was Jim Ursay. And the reason was because he followed me on Twitter throughout the lockouts. So during the lockout time in the NFL, front office executives were barred from speaking to players, and players are barred from speaking with front office and executives. I actually worked out with the Columbus Crew during that time, and I thought I was going to make my soccer dream come true. I was way too out of shape. I mean, the coach told me, I knew, like, probably seven, eight months back in shape. And I'll tell you what, I did not have that time. But the front office people weren't able to talk to the players. But there was ways to get around it. So, like, Bill Polian saw the news thing, and it was like, me playing soccer. And he got a message to somebody. Got a message to somebody that got a message to somebody that got a message to me and was like, hey, this lockout's not going to be forever. You hurt yourself playing for the. You would feel like a dipshit. I was like, who's saying. Why are you saying I don't talk to you that often? He goes, that's not from me. That is from, you know, somebody high up. There was, like, a real divide. Like, we aren't on the same team right now. And Jim Ursay followed me on Twitter during that time. I remember it happening. Cause I was pretty dialed into my Twitter during that time. I would answer everybody. I would reply to everybody. I thought it was the greatest platform because you could connect with anybody and you could kind of share yourself, and you could get creative with your words. You can get creative with your thoughts and you could reach people. And that's why I think X is so important. And I know there's a lot of shit on there, but there is stuff that happens on X that's magical as well. And Jim Ursay saw the same thing. He loved that platform. And he followed me throughout the lockouts. And then when the lockouts were over, we had training camp. And he arrived at training camp. We're up in Anson, Indiana. I was 280 pounds. I was so fat. Have fun. I had a lot of fun during that lockout. I had a lot of fun. I knew I had tighten up, but I was not in my best shape. And, you know, I'm a training camp doing my thing. And Jim Irsay gets there and he. He's on his golf cart and he does a beeline right over to me. And he and I did not have a relationship like that after I got arrested, okay. For public intoxication. Definitely. Allegedly swam in a canal. Allegedly swam in a canal. I was definitely publicly intoxicated. And that was a big moment, pivotal moment in my life. In the conversation I had with Jim Mercy after that and the conversations I would have with him, he would come check on me, you know, like, hey, how you doing? How you doing? You good? But it was always like surface level conversations. Good, good. And then he would get out of there or have a conversation with Adam Venateri, who we loved. He absolutely loved Adam Vinnetari as well. So I was just kind of like a part of the conversation. You good? Yeah, I'm good. Any story? Good, good. And then we talked to Vinteri. Obviously. Love Vinytarian. I was just cool. I was lucky to be. I was. There's pictures of me, Vinny and Jim talking. Practice, you know, everything like that. And in 2011, after the lockout, Jim came to talk to me, and it was our first real extended conversation. And once you start listening to him, start brainstorming ideas and you get to the bottom of what he really wanted to do. All he wanted to do on Twitter was give away shit. That is literally all he wanted to do was just give things away to people. And as he was at training camp, you'd watch him just give hundreds to every person in sight. I don't know if there was a guilt that he felt that he had everything or an obligation to give back to people. And I think that's why anytime there is a narrative about Jim outside of Indianapolis or outside of Indiana, you very rarely heard anybody here because of how much he's Affected and helped literally any human he could have. He was one of the kindest people I've ever met. And when I retired, I went and talked to him before anybody else because we had a friendship. Obviously, he's owner of the team, I'm punter of the team. It's not like we're best friends, you know, he's living a much different life than I'm living. But anytime we talk to each other, it was real conversation, real moments. And I think he genuinely liked me as a player. I don't know how many people, but I felt obligated to go talk to him and let him know that I was gonna retire and I was done with this thing. And he took two hours. Basically just giving me game, giving me game, like, hey, are you gonna be able to fire somebody? I go, excuse me. He had his vape, big smoke coming out. He was good vapor. I actually told him in that conversation, hey, you ever see those people? They blow O's and like, they do the. He goes, what? And I text him a link and he's like, I think I could. Yeah, I think I could do that if I had enough time. Loved his vape. He said, you think he could fire somebody because what you're signing up to do is run your own business. And he said, I don't know what barstool is, but I will certainly try to learn as much as I possibly can. But from what it sounds like is you're gonna be running your own business, you're gonna be managing your own people. Are you gonna be able to fire somebody? He was like, let me tell you about the first time I had to fire somebody. Let me tell you about being a 37 year old owner. Let me tell you about mistakes that I've made. Let me tell you mistakes that the Beatles have made. Let me tell you mistakes that people from around the world that I've gotten to meet, that have run companies and because I am in the position that I'm in, I get a chance to learn. And he gave me two and a half hours of just game on what I'm doing. And he said on the way out that if I ever needed anything, he'd be there to help me. And he said, I'm gonna help you succeed in this venture. And if you ever wanna stop or you get sick of doing it, you have a job here for life, your family for us. And that was like a very comforting thing, obviously, to know, like, okay, fallback plan, I can work for the Indianapolis Colts. I think, like, that was Kind of a good mindset. And I just assumed he was saying all those things. Cause I was in his presence. And then him following up with that through this business development that we have had in his care for our business, in our show. He would be showing other people our show as if we were like his kids and like proud of what we did. And he would send me articles that he's come across that he thought I should read. Whether it would be a leadership thing, a business thing, the future of media thing, things that are being said about that. I would just get a text message maybe three in the morning sometimes, because who knows where the fuck he was in. The entire world, obviously has multiple planes, multiple houses, has the ability to live and do whatever the hell he wants. But he was always checking in and he would hear something was going on with me, he would send me a motivational message. He would always come on our show. Literally, he would ask to come on our show. And I just feel an obligation to let the world know that you might think things about Jim Mercy if you don't actually know him. But we lost a fucking legend in Jim Mercy. And our city will feel the effects of him not being here going forward. And here's Jim on our show doing his thing, showing the world exactly who he is, which is a compassionate, brilliant, wealthy legend. Rest easy, Jim. I fucking love you, man. Arriving in beautiful fashion. There he is on a golf cart driven by another massive human being wearing a suit that is only top of the line. A man who walks around and hands out hundreds to people. A man that gives away more money than any other human you've ever encountered. A man who has paid for everything I have ever done. Ladies and gentlemen, Jim Ursa. My friends call me Jim. You can call me Jimmy. Bang Jimmy from the cold Lita. I love my friend. And there's Nothing like this 57 year old female killer southern orca whale is special. Now I'm frustrated with flying cars because I'm obsessed with that. I want a flying car. Hey, me too. I don't want this phone. Give me a flying car. I outbid them for Elton's piano. Believe that sometimes guys will get liquored up and go straight women in the broad Ripple Canal traffic. So there's wreck traffic in their underwear. Now, Pink Floyd calls that a momentary lapse of reason. Lolita is mellow, she's a Buddhist, she hangs low, she's cool, she's happy. But like Mars. Think about this is 250 million, Mars. 250 million miles. When you go, you Know, it takes about anywhere from, you know, nine to 11 months to get there, depending on the alignment. Are you going to fucking Mars? Are you going to Mars? It sounds like you're. I wish I would. They go, well, I have these beautiful Monet paintings, but I have John Lennon's piano in the front room. What do you want to see? I want to see John Lennon's piano. I don't know. I don't know. I put on this Willy wonka outfit about 12 years ago and we had a treasure hunt in Indianapolis and the winning team at halftime was given real super bowl rings. You have to get them one at a time. Try to help anything in any way you can, one at a time. I've shut down a lot of Girl scouts. Hey, here's $2,000. We're going home. You know, the only thing that beats everything is love. Love every time beats hate every time. If you come at hate with hate, it's not going to be good. You're going to get more hate. I'm lucky to be a part of the Colts organization. Getting to know you has been a cool thing. Just know that I think personally, as somebody who is a billionaire, you're doing good with your money, you're doing good with yourself. What can I say this. When you came to my office and told me you're planning about retirement, I never thought we'd be sitting there and you'd be the megastar. Sorry for saying that, but it's true that you are. Your show and what you do and the entertainment you provide, you know, as David Letterman type, it's at the very top. I always knew you had that potential, but man, what you've accomplished, we're so proud of you that you're a Colt alumni player. I mean, you know, you represent. I'm lucky, you help me out a lot. Rest in peace, man. Obviously sending nothing but positive vibes in love to his daughters, his grandkids, his, you know, son in law, like his loved ones as a whole, his staff, there's a great group of people that have been around him for a very long time. And I got a chance to send them messages overnight. You know, the Gormans, I mean, Scotty and Jeff have been with Jim for like 30 years. Pete Ward has been with Jim Merce since Baltimore, let alone the training room that he has kept literally since Baltimore. The equipment, staff, everybody. He takes care of his people. He's so loyal. And I have no idea how they are all feeling today and last night, but just know you guys all did good. Man, Jim had a great group of people around him and that's because he had a great eye for talent and he had a great aura. Rest in peace, Jim. I appreciate the shit out of you, man. Now, I think Jim Ursa had a big, big role in last night's Indiana Pacers first game win in Madison Square Garden. Now, the odds say that the situation they were in multiple times, the game was over. New York Knicks fans outside of Madison Square Garden were saying that they were going to sweep the Pacers late in the fourth quarter. Actually, let's go to down 17 with 6 minutes and 12 seconds left. 11194 in the Mecca Madison Square Garden. There's no way this Pacers team's able to do that. Nerd. 18 foot step back. How you doing? Keep it moving. Pascal Siakam. And then it became the Nism. Aaron Naismith, shoot her out of Vandy. This dude won ape shit at the end of the fourth quarter. Obviously Tyrese Halliburton's gonna do his thing. He's gonna be a facilitator, he's gonna knock down shots. But Naismith goes five of six late in the fourth quarter, goes absolutely unconscious. That one right there. From three foot beyond the arc. Then that one off balance, bang, bang. How you doing? Keep it moving, Tyrese. Ah, game winner. Jim Irsay grabs that thing from heaven, throws it through the hoop and Tyrese Halliburton says, reggie, you see me, we just did it. Biggest comeback in the history of basketball. There's actually a stat that shout out to between the numbs. Greg Harvey. The teams were 0 in 14:14 in playoff games when trailing by nine plus points in the final minute of the fourth quarter. Well, this Pacers team, you think to yourself, well, that must have been just some anomaly last night. That must have been some specialty. Uh, they would go into overtime, not play their best basketball, and they'd come out of Madison Square Garden with a win, a massive win. Tyrese goes for 31 and 11. Double double, 30 plus points. How you doing? Keep it moving. Niece Smith goes absolutely unconscious. The boys go bananas in Madison Square Garden. Pasco Siakam, dawg, how you doing? Keep it moving. Rick Carlisle. The style of play that they have, maybe, just maybe start reading the Tea Leafs. Because you think last night anomaly. It certainly was. Anytime you're O in 1414. Yeah, you would think that that is a statistical matter of fact at that point. Yeah, I think that is just something that all basketball watchers would say. Yeah, that makes sense. Especially in the Final minute, then you're playing a free throw game. Oh, gotta make those. Have to, gotta make those. When do you miss those? Well, maybe when you're tired. Maybe whenever you're worn out. Maybe when you're beat up a little bit. Maybe whenever. That game that you thought was out of the weeds is all the way back in the dirt, brother. And that's what this Pacers team does. Let's go back to April 29th, shall we? Down 7. How you doing? Keep it moving. Pacers, massive dub hitting big time threes. They somehow have the capabilities to do that all the time. Tyrese Haliburton makes insane plays. And correct me if I'm wrong, this right here is the last play that Mr. Halliburton has gotten to see live. Let's get that man back in an arena. He deserves to celebrate with his people, not just in a bar as his boy loses his mind. Now let's go to the Cavs. He can't do it again. Well, this is on May 6th. April 29th, then. May 6th, we're down 7 with 48 seconds left. Ah, nice, Smith. Give me that. Then obviously we remember that Tyrese Haliburton miss on purpose, gets his own rebound. Go ahead and skates. Step back. We win, you lose. Big ball dance in Cleveland, Ohio. And then in the first game of the Eastern Conference finals, it happens again. Is it potentially a skill, is it potentially a trait? Or is it potentially the way they play that at the end of games teams might be wore out and they take advantage because they're in better shape? The toxic tables here at Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt want to have the hammer. Dad. Cowboys is here. And joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who has been fantastic on television during these conference finals. He's an NBA champion head coach. Now seemingly television pundit speaks. Great. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Moore. How you doing, coach? I'm doing well, man. Good to be on with you guys again. Hey, great to see you again. Obviously, this time around you are becoming a TV pundit, a good one at that. You need to understand you're doing a great job. Don't change for. Well, I only got one game under my belt, so I got a lot of room for improvement. No, but don't change. That's what I'm saying. Don't worry about and don't change. Just be you. There might be somebody. There might be somebody who thinks they're in a position to give you advice because they have maybe done TV school or something like that and they're trying to be nice. Now, granted, there's some people out there that will give you great advice. But me looking at you, just be you, okay? Your resume is good. Your personality is fantastic in the way you talk. You make dipshits like me feel like I'm understanding what's going on. Now, with that being said, do I understand what's going on with this Pacers team? It feels like three times now. Miraculous comebacks late in the game. Is there a reason that that's happening? And is that reason potentially because Carlisle has these boys running? Do other teams potentially get worn out and the Pacers think that they can capitalize when these teams are out? Or what do you think it is about this Indiana Pacer team, Coach? Well, I'll tell you what, the question I'm asking myself, Pat, is, is this a team of destiny? You just showed all those plates. They're never out. You can see the belief they have not only in themselves, but in the collective. And Rick Carlisle, who you've mentioned a few times, won a championship in Dallas, doing an outstanding job of coaching this team, using his bench. When I watched them play last night in Game one, they are relentless in everything they do. Go back to the very first basket they scored last night. They made the basketball. Three guys picked up full court. They extend their pressure. They're trying to wear Jalen Brunson out. He came back in the game with five fouls. They went at him every time. But they're never out of a game because they believe in themselves. And that start with Rick Carlisle. Tyrese Halliburton is putting that team on his back. And then you mentioned it, Aaron Neesmith last night, 30 points, eight of nine from three. And in the fourth quarter, the Knicks. And I know, I think Tom Thibodeau talked about this after the game. They didn't find Aaron Neesmith. This guy was going nuclear in the Garden. And he hits three after three. 20 points in the fourth quarter. And you talked about it. You're down by nine points with under a minute to go, and they're able to force overtime and win the game. And I just thought about it afterwards. Is this team destined for greatness because they keep on finding improbable ways of winning games on the biggest stage in the world. Okay? So on that note, team of destiny and them finding ways and never losing belief or confidence that they can come back and win it, because they've obviously done it now multiple times. Multiple times in the. I mean, in the Mecca is what they call in New York City. That game was awesome. Incredible. I mean, that game was a great start to the conference finals for the NBA. Answer, answer, answer, answer, answer. Pull away and then obviously have the biggest comeback, quickest comeback in the history of the sport. I mean, that is exactly what the NBA envisioned in this entire thing. But whenever you think about this Pacer team last year, they make it the Eastern Conference finals. Nobody really talks about them though, because they get swept by the Boston Celtics. Just swept. Then the Olympics happened. Tyrese Halliburton doesn't even play, so he literally doesn't even step foot on the court. So like dead. But you get it wasn't a part of the team. So there was no conversation about how great the Pacer season was last year, how young of a team they were, how Pascal got traded in mid season. There was never any chatter nationally or even locally about, hey, that was a hell of a Pacers year. It just kind of got swept away because of how it ended. Do you think having that maturity and having that experience from last year helps them and what is the direct correlation to having been there before in your eyes as somebody that's been there talking to a team? Well, experience is the best teacher. Right? And you talked about them being there last year and losing to the eventual champion Boston Celtics. I think continuity is really important in this business. You know, obviously the Knicks last year played against Indiana. They were not healthy. They've added Karl Anthony Towns, they've added Mikhail Bridges. Where Indiana's got consistency, they've got continuity. You have a coaching staff that's been in place and won at the highest level. So you have to give them a lot of credit in terms of their approach, their belief. They went into Cleveland last round and took games one and two. They're not afraid to go into any arena in the NBA and find a way to win a game. You watch them play and you can feel and sense the belief that they have. And that is a powerful thing. We won a championship in Denver two years ago. Our players had that same belief. We felt we could go anywhere and beat anybody anytime. And that's a powerful thing. And I think Rick Carlisle coaching staff and their players continue to show that and illustrate that. So I would agree, Pat. I think having that continuity, having that belief, having been there before, can, can be a powerful thing as you try to get to the NBA Finals. Okay, so obviously it looks like the Eastern Conference finals is going to be electrifying. And I think Tyrese even brought up that shot there from Jalen and that shot from, from Kat, about how they were talking about, do you think your guys's style make other people get tired? You know, especially this late into the season? There's 100 games or whatever people have already played. And Tyrese mentioned he was like, I don't know. I'm not them, obviously, he said, But Jalen normally at the end of those games knocks those shots down short. Little bit of short. Obviously. It was great defense there. And then Cat gets this short. It's like, were they tired or was it just trying to get it up quick? It's like, I don't know what you could say because you're not that other team. But in a best of seven series, with the way this team runs and the way they're bought in, it's like, that would be like a hockey team. They're, like, not scared to. We'll wear you down here. We will. You might score sweet. You're running a gasser. Then you're coming back the other way. And it feels like this year they're healthier and more confident than they've ever been. Shout to the Eastern Conference finals. Delivered. Now let's go to the Western Conference here. This Oklahoma City team, obviously, they've only lost 14 games all year. SGA is officially the MVP of the NBA season. We've obviously heard you speak about Oklahoma City. We've obviously heard you speak about the mvp. People get all worked up, you know, because you're saying compliments to another player in another arena and another fan base in the Western Conference. That comes with the territory of being on tv. This is standard operating procedure. So I obviously hope you don't take anything into that from what people are saying, but what is it about this OKC team? What is it about them that makes them so dangerous, so lethal, and why have they been so dominant? I know Chet's big. I know SGA is an absolute dog harvesting here is an absolute guy. They got people all over the place. And the coach, people are saying is, this guy's the guy. What is it about them, you think, that makes them so difficult as somebody that's obviously had to play against them? Well, everything you just said. But the one thing that really stands out to me that separates them from everybody else is their defense. And if you want to dig deeper into that defense, it's their ability to turn you over. It's the ability to generate turnovers, and more importantly, to turn those steals and turnovers forced into points on the other end. If you want to go back to that first game, obviously it comes down to the ability to take care of the ball. For Minnesota, if they're going to have a chance to try to get a game tonight in probably the loudest and toughest place to play in the NBA, they cannot beat themselves. And they did that in game one. Way too many turnovers that fueled OKC's break. Minnesota had zero fast break points. And if you're going to play against the number one defense in the regular season, the number one defense in the playoffs, you've got to find a way to get some easy baskets. You cannot play in a crowd. They're sitting on Anthony Edwards, they're sitting on Julius Randle collapsing on every time they drive the ball. So they've got to trust their teammates. But here's the key. They need Nas Reed, they need Dante DiVincenzo, and they need Nikhil Alexander, Walter Walker to make shots. Because until they do so, Julius Randle and Anthony Edwards are going to continue to see a crowd each and every possession. Yeah, Julius Randall went for 20. What? In first half last game and then next to nothing in the second half, which a lot of people are saying, that's incredible coaching, what they're doing and what you're just pointing out there. I forgot about Caruso. I should have given Caruso his love. He looks awesome. He feels like that's where he's supposed to be. Feels like a college environment when I'm watching it, which is what I think goes to your point about the best arena in all of NBA. But let's talk about their star player. Go ahead, con man. Yeah, coach. I'm glad Pat brought up Caruso because people are saying if Caruso was guarding sga, he'd foul out in five minutes. How do you feel about the entire conversation with the foul baiting? You know, a lot of people are not too happy with the SGA and Brunson kind of style of play. But, I mean, we looked at it yesterday. If you were to take away all of the free throws, SGA still leading the league in scoring. So what do you think about that entire conversation? And then also, how would you coach against an SGA or a Brunson, where maybe they do get calls that other guys don't, but you still have to remain physical with them throughout the game. Well, it's definitely a challenge. And people can complain all they want, but all year long, Shay was one of the top guys in the NBA in terms of free throw attempts per game. That continues into the postseason. And you've got to be a lot more disciplined. I mean, Jaden McDaniels fouled out. He can't foul out. These coming games if they're going to have a chance to slow Shade down because he's their best defensive matchup. But you've got to be disciplined. You've got to show your hands. You've got to stay down on shot fakes. You know he's going to get a whistle. There are certain guys in this league that we call foul artists. They have the ability to understand how the game is being called, and they have little tricks to make sure they're getting the call. So as a defender, whether you're the primary defender on the ball or a help defender, you've got to know that the referees are going to be looking for that. So be a lot more disciplined, and if you're going to have a chance of beating them. You can't put Shea on the foul line 14 times. That's way too many. They compounded mistakes in game one, whether it was off of a turnover, a drive or a pick and roll of getting called for the fouls, because that allows the big key with that, fellas, is he goes to the foul line 14 times. That's 14 times where they're setting their defense. And as I keep on mentioning, their defense is elite. And I'm glad you mentioned Alex Caruso, because I think their bench does not get enough credit. They have a really good starting five, but Alex Caruso, Cason, Wallace, Andrew Wiggins, Kenrich, Williams, last game all come in and have a huge impact in meaningful minutes. So we're talking about the depth of Indiana. I think OKC and the Western Conference, very similar. They can wear you down. They have a lot of depth and deep teams this time of year are dangerous teams. Yeah, because somebody's going to get injured, too. I mean, that's just kind of what basketball is, especially in the best of seven series. So being able to have somebody replace that great during games, being able to have somebody get some minutes in, you know, like for Carlisle, it's obvious that he just brings some people in and like, run. Just, let's run. Let's run these dudes. And it's. I love the strategy and I think all of Indiana loves it. Let's go back to the flopping and the foul artist, I think, is how you described it. Great term. And we will start using it as if we created it ourselves. We will give you credit every once in a while, but just know that we will certainly say it and act like we did it and made it up ourselves. Do you Talk to refs. Like, all the refs. I guess there's only a certain amount of refs. You guys know all the refs pretty well. I think it's a pretty personal relationship between players, coaches and referees because you're all out there and you're all a tight group. I get it. But refs know that, like, a lot of these replays are going to showcase that maybe there wasn't something. And do you talk to the refs during. Before the game? During the game. How do those kind of go as opposing coaches with some of these calls? Well, there's no doubt. And the one thing that you guys should know is during the playoffs, anytime I contact a league office after a game or I send clips in, is rule where the league is going to make sure they share that with the opposing coaching step. So they want full transparency. They want everybody to be on the same page. But I remember we were playing Golden State in the playoffs one year and they gave us the postgame review, like, and they admitted that they missed six fouls on Draymond Green in one game. And I go, well, listen, man, you. You can't miss six fouls in a game. That is just not acceptable. You have to make sure we are letting the next crew that's coming in to ref the next game give them a feel for what's happening and how this game needs to be officiated better. And I always give the league credit because they always strive for being transparent and helping the league out. But the end of the day, great players like Shai, and that's what he is. Like Jalen Brunson, that's what he is. Had 43 points last night in a loss. They're going to get the benefit of the whistle. That's just the way it is. And the fans want to watch the best players play. They don't want to watch them on the bench. And. And you just have to deal with it. And you got to get your players to understand that and feel for how the game is being officiated. And I expect Minnesota to come out. Chris Finch is a hell of a coach. I think he'll have his group ready to play tonight. I think with the way the game is constructed, the way the rules are constructed, and that it's humans blowing the whistle and everything's happening so fast. I think they're destined to get some wrong, which always in basketball I think you're destined to get. Just because everything can be considered a foul. Like, for us, holding on the offensive line in football can be Called all the time. It can be called all the time. So it's like, is it egregious? Is it not egregious? And then a ref just gets a little flag happy and all of a sudden happens, like, officiating sucks. Okay. It's not fun. I don't know why anybody signs up for it. But we do appreciate. We do appreciate those who do it, but basketball feels like the one where it's the most like. And then we go in 8k, super slow mo, and it's like, no, actually not. I think that's a tough job. That's a tough job. Especially with the way they do like. Tyrese had a little leg kick last night on Jalen Brunson, and Jalen actually said, he kicked me, he kicked me. And you can only see it in, like, from the behind angle, slow motion. Tyrese definitely did put his leg right into Jalen Brunson's groin. And then he hits him. And then Tyrese does the thing. It's like, oh, that's a little work right there. But if you're a ref, how could you ever get it right? Took Nisma's arm at one point, slapped himself with it. Yeah. Foul artist, baby. That's a foul artist. Okay, let's talk about the team you chitchatted about there. Minnesota being prepared for it. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Coach. Obviously we talked a lot about OKC and how great they are. Ant Edwards on the other side, it feels like he's one of the young players in this league who probably doesn't give a how good the other team is. Just kind of how he's wired. He's kind of an old school, young NBA player. How do you feel about Ant Edwards? And is he, you know, prime to. Is he one of the more equipment equipped young players to put a team on his back and lead them to victory? There was no doubt, and I've seen it, unfortunately, up close and personal. Game 7 last year, we're up 20 in our building in one of the crazier playoff series I've ever been a part of. And Ant Edwards puts that team on his back in that second half, and they come back and beat us. What I need to see from Anthony Edwards tonight, what the Minnesota Timberwolves need to see from Anthony Edwards tonight is a great aggression. Only took 13 shots in game one. And the craziest stat of that is only one of those 13 shots were in the paint. We think of Anthony Edwards, we think of dynamic athlete aggression attacking the basket. They need to find a Way to get out and transition once again, zero fast break points. Anthony Edwards in the open floor is exciting, dynamic, athletic, and we need to see more of that because you don't want to play against that set defense over and over and over again. I expect Chris Finch to get him off the ball a little bit more, Let him get off catch and shoot pin downs, let him attack. But he is confident. He's been here before, and I expect him to have a great game tonight. And we talked a little earlier about Julius Randle. Third quarter, zero points, only one shot. After having a great first half. Anthony Edwards, end game one, fourth quarter, zero points, only one Shot. He cannot take 13 shots tonight. He's got to take 25. And for him to do that, it's got to be in transition in the open court with an attack mindset. Okay? And we all want to see it from Anthony Edwards. Yeah, that OKC team is just. Yeah. Explosive. They really are. It just 14 losses, and all year, all the conversation was, we need to be talking about OKC more. Need to be talking about OKC more. Because okc, you know, obviously small market, how people chat about it. Western Conference has 45 other stories. 45 other stories in a Western Conference. So it's like. Well, it's hard to just talk about okc, but all the basketball people are like, okc. And then you watch them do their thing and it's like this thing. Oh, as you look down, they're up 15. It's like, whoa. They're very dynamic. And also lock it down on the defensive side. Yeah. Someone on TV yesterday said they won the, you know, the triple crown of defense this year. They were like, first in perimeter D, first interior D, and first in, you know, point opponents, points. They're bopping the wood. Yeah, they. Bob Wood. Okay, let's go to the Eastern Conference. Don't say way. Hey, whoa, whoa. Easy with the way you're thinking about that there, Coach. Let's go back to the Eastern Conference. Yeah, absolutely. Bopping Wood. Yeah, we heard you. Ty has a question for you, coach. Yeah, coach, we've talked a lot about the Pacers depth and obviously Oklahoma City's depth. When you're watching that game last night, is there any way that the Knicks can withstand the pace of play and the style of the play, you know, play that the Pacers, you know, use if they're only playing seven to eight guys off the bench? Like, at some point does Tibbs have to say, like, hey, even though some of these guys didn't get much burned during the regular season. Like we can't keep, we can't keep playing seven guys when they're rotating 11, 12 guys out there because come game three, if they haven't got one, like they're just not going to have anything left. Well, yeah, it's a great question. And you get to the Eastern Conference finals and you're the New York Knick coaching staff, it's hard to just adjust and say, you know what, we're going to change our rotation now. We're going to go to a nine man rotation. They only played two guys off the bench last night. Double figure minutes. Obviously, we all know how deep Indiana is. They're so deep that you guys realize that Miles Turner, who got off to a great start last night, how many minutes did Miles turn to play in the fourth quarter last night? Two. Right. You had guys like Ben Shepard, Obi Toppin in the game late. And that's what Rick Carlisle's done all season long. His depth is ridiculous. He trusts his bench. And I learned a long time ago from my father, the greatest gift you can give a player is confidence. And all those players know that Rick Carlisle has great confidence in them to go out there, regardless of the time, score, situation, to do their job. And to answer your question, I don't think there's anything the Knicks can do to change how fast and how relentless and the pace in which the Pacers play because they're a great running team and unlike most other great running teams, they run after makes better than anybody else. So it was a track meet. You score on them, they get that ball out of the net, inbounds and up the floor faster than anybody I have ever seen. And then they pick up on the other end. So they're relentless in their approach. They come at you for 48 or overtime if it needs to be. And I don't think there's anything that Knicks can do in the middle of this series to change that. That is Indiana's style of play and they've been doing it all season long. Do you ever see a guy hit his head off the rim like four times in a two minute span? Obi Toppin, I mean he was he even on Jalen. Jalen had his sick make after Obi did his double pump dunk in overtime. He's also fouled, which should have been on the foul line, but I think everybody was so mesmerized by him doing a double pump in a dunk, taking it to the rack the way right here, hey, he got fouled. Clearly, clearly Got fouled. Would have been a four point game if he would have knocked down a free throw, which we assume he would have. I think Jalen, before this or after this, had like a little floater. Obi jumped up to swat. It almost hit his head off the rim. I mean, Jalen put it up over top of him. It was like all the pieces play. And that's kind of the word about the Pacers from all the basketball people that I hear. Talk is like, you never know who it's going to be each night. Literally every night. You talk about Miles Turner having a great start and only playing two minutes into fourth. He had some time in overtime, didn't go great. I think he's going to want to get that taste out of his mouth as well next game, which would be great, but he can go for 30. Miles Turner could go for 30 in game two and nobody would be so surprised. It's a fun time to be a basketball fan. You're crushing it on tv. Keep going, boss. Hey, guys, I appreciate it. I'm gonna go bop the wood and I'll talk to you soon. Lot of that, ladies and gentlemen below. Stop by playing defense. Yeah, of course he's gonna play defense because he likes to feel it. He likes. Maybe that's why he got let go. Which we will certainly ask him about the next time he joins us. Is, was he bopping the wood too strong? He might have been. And the boys were like, oh, we don't. We play 82 games. Stop bopping, Coach. We don't need you bopping the woods so hard. Potentially. He said, how about Draymond Green? Guy was like a Ram truck. Missed six calls. Can't be missing six calls on one guy. He's out of the game. The guy's out of the game, let alone us. And everything else that happens in the guy's gone. Just from what you missed, probably had four fouls already, too. You guys gets 10,000. Yeah. What is this? It's a shame Malone's not gonna be. He's not gonna be on TV very long. Because the bopping of Wood comment. No, no, no. Because he's gonna get hired very quickly. Yeah, but what if he likes his TV stuff so much? What if he's like, you know what? I don't mind bopping a wood down there at la. Much more fun. Bob and Wood here. Yeah. Without all the pressures of having to deliver every single night with so many eyes on you. When you're Bob and Wood, it's probably a little. Yeah, he just Wants to get in there and smack his wood around a little bit by himself. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah, Gotta play defense, brother. That's right. More casual. That OKC theme walks it down. They could, you know, Minnesota, we all just believe in Ant. Yeah, right. That's how I feel for sure. Julius Randle, too. I believe. I believe in Ant, though. I'm like, ants a guy. So that team will go inevitably. I think it's like, then you watch OKC and they just. Just like to coach. It's just like the Pacers. It looks pretty similar. Think they play a little bit more tough defense than the Pacers. And to his point about the Pacers, after you get. They get scored on, they get the inbound pass quick, and they're running the other way. So it's a gasser. So even if you have success, you're going back the other way. That's a mental thing, too. If you get beat and they score on you, there's no, like, you just. They just get the ball, screw it. So I think that naturally, potentially lends itself a little bit to, like, ah, they're going to score on us at some point. We just got to get it back the other way. It's kind of a. It's an interesting contrast. There was a highlight tape going around the Internet after game. One of the team was trying to screen Caruso, and they just couldn't do it. Like, he just kept going around screens, going over screens, going through screens. Like he was just a junk, y' all. Relentless. Relentless. You're saying. You talk about the Pacers, though, and, like, what they're doing late in the games being a skill. Like, it's at the point now when you talk team of destiny, like, every single one of those guys, like, in a late situation where they have to shoot a three, every single one of those guys believes they're making it. Like, that's the. That's the point they're at right now. Like, their confidence. And obviously, everyone we talk to, it's like, hey, confidence is the most important thing in basketball. It doesn't matter how many times you miss it. You got to go back there and have the belief that you're going to make that shot. And every single guy they have on the court, whether it's their star players or their role players or the bench guys, like, the feeling is just that they're going to make these shots, they're going to knock them down, and they do. And they have been on this shot. I think a fun little fact here on this Shot is. His foot's on the line for the two, right. He thought it was a three. If his foot is back a half an inch, what's that ball doing? Swish. Yeah, yeah. You know, like, in his head, he was shooting a three. So. In his head. All right, three. And his muscle. Just. All of his muscles, like, yeah, we're shooting a three right now. And then it's like, oh, no, actually, I'm this closer brick straight up. Then it falls. It's like, if he's actually at a three, like, he clearly thought. He even said he wasted it. Yeah. So I can't. Thank God they won. Yeah. Thank God. Yes. I was so scared. I know. I was so, so scared. The New York Knicks call, radio call, they say for two. They say it immediately, because I think they're there and they're looking for everything. The TV call and watching at home. And with his reaction, I was like, we just won that game. We just won that game. And Tyrese Haliburton just did. And Jim Hersey caught that thing and threw it straight down into the. I was like, what a night. Because Jim Mercey's last tweet was basically, good luck to the owner of the Pacers, Herb. Good luck to the fans, and good luck to our city. Basically, that was his last tweet, and it was like, it perfectly encompasses who Jim Ursa is. Like, he loved this place. He was appreciative of this place, loved the people here, and he took a lot of pride in this being our city. And this team has a lot of pride in representing Indiana, too. It's very clear, by the way Tyrese operates, by the way Miles operates, by the way Pascal is, you know, like, kind of just came in, and I think they've all just taken to the city. Oh, yeah. And the city has taken to them. It's a beautiful thing. Speaking of this city, there was a man who had two different coaching stints here. There's a man that's known as the quarterback whisperer. There's a man that is known as one of the greatest offensive minds in the history of football. For me, I got a chance to watch him be the interim head coach for the Indianapolis Colts, and I got a chance to watch him go win a damn super bowl as a head coach with the greatest of all time, ladies and gentlemen, friend of the program, coach Bruce Aarons. How you doing, boss? Doing good, buddy. Doing good. Little rough day. That was a rough night, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And you. And I texted this morning, and last night, I shed Some tears. Last night, I shed some tears on the show here, just talking about him. And I wondered if you would potentially say some things about Jim Irsay that maybe people outside of Indiana or people that maybe don't know him have ever heard, you know, something that maybe they don't know about. Just. I think you've been around the league. You've been to a lot of teams. You've been around for a long, long time. You know how teams operate. You've been and seen how other owners operate. Jim was special, and I. I appreciate you potentially, or I potentially appreciate you coming on and sharing some sentiments with the people. Oh, you bet. I mean, the guy was just so, so special. I mean, I was blown away by the tweets and everything that went out by the former players. I think that just tells you what Jim was all about. This was at his birthday party a couple of years ago here at Lake Oconee, and he invited me over. We had a great night. And, you know, people don't realize, you know, the game I missed in Baltimore after Chuck came back and I got sick, first thing Jim wanted to know was my wife there? And the guy said no. And within two hours, my wife was in the hospital with me. He sent a car, he sent a plane. That plane stayed on the ground for three days waiting for me to get out of the hospital, take me back to Indianapolis. And that's the kind of guy Jim is. Jim. Jim loves his players. He tried to mentor his players. You know, he was the second team to ever hire mentors for his players. And it just meant so much to me to see what the players reactions were to him. You know, we all called him the boss because he was just a special, special dude and the most generous man I've ever known in my life. Yes, I think that is something that, you know, everybody assumes that people with a lot of money donate money, and I think everybody does, but because there are certain tax exemptions and there are things that you can kind of do, and I assume they're super uber wealthy, people feel obligated to give money back in some sense. You know, there's probably a percentage on what they're willing to give up of their value or net worth or whatever they're making every year. Jim didn't care about any of the. Actually, I have no idea how his accountant did it. I have no idea how his accountant would be able to keep up with everything that Jim did. And I know what those numbers. Numbers, nobody cares. Right? Oh, you're rich. And here's him with Chuck, obviously. And everything he did for Coach Pagano. That will never be able to be like the amount of behind the scenes stuff that Jim Irsay is doing and the amount of cancer research. Now post this because he just learned about this community and was like, oh, I need to help this. And then mental health stuff. He learned about the community. I need to help this. And oh, there's some buildings downtown Indianapolis that need to be renovated and put back together. Oh, I need to help this. Oh, there's these people that I know that they. It's just like that was every day for everything for him. There was even almost a damn whale that was put into a bomber plane filled with water so that he could fly. Talk a tea Lolita out of a aquarium in Florida to the Pacific Northwest. Seven hour flight. Okay. Seven, eight hour flight, whatever it is. Wanted to fly a fucking whale with its friends, with a couple to get with its family on the other side. Just because he learned of. Talking to him was like, this is a Buddhist whale. This is a cool whale, man. This is not how this whale is supposed to end its life. So he's trying to figure out he was going to have to spend, I think like 15 million on this plane to turn it into an aquarium for a whale to get up in the sky and go. It's like that was him with everything. And there's not. Not a lot of humans that ever been created that way, Coach. Not a lot of humans. No, no. And, you know, he. He was. He was the shoe. You know, he always talked about the shoe. And you know me growing up in York, Pennsylvania, the Colts were my team. Johnny Nice was my idol. And to put on that uniform and put that shoe on as a coach meant so much to me personally. And it was a great four years, you know, the three I had with Peyton and the one I had with Andrew. But I love the city. I love everything that the Colts stands for. And that's because of Jim Merced. Yeah. So now obviously the Indianapolis Colts are going to have to figure out what's next for their organization, for that family. I assume there's already been plans because of how the last few years have gone. We're obviously all not blind to any of that. I think last night came out of nowhere. I don't think I expected that at all, Coach. You. No, not at all. We all knew there was things going on. Like, we all. We all. I don't know. I don't know who all knew what, to be honest. I think they're keeping A lot of things tight. I think they didn't want anybody to worry. I think that's another thing. Jim, like, didn't want people to worry, like. So I think there was a lot more potentially going on than any of us. Even the people that are maybe even closer to him than I. And I don't know if you like any of that stuff, but we all knew that. But still, whenever it was like jar, it was like, holy shit. And then I immediately just started thinking about what a legacy this dude has left behind by the people that know him. You know, everybody, to your point about the players, every player that said said the same thing. Every friend of his has said the same thing. Every coach who said the same thing, it's like, this may be the most giving man that has ever existed. It's like he understood the position he was in, and he tried to make it be a position that can make the world better. We're going to miss the shit out of him, Coach. We're going to miss the shit. Oh, there's no doubt. There's no doubt the NFL is going to miss him because he was a true steward of the game, historian of the game. And I thought Roger Goodell said it really well today about how much they're going to miss him in league meetings and because he loved the game. He grew up in the game, and it oozed from him. Every single time you met him, it was all about, you know, the NFL protecting the shield and protecting the shoe. He. I would get messages from people that were in his suites during games, and I would shank one, you know, if I shanked. Very rare. Ba. You know that. You can attest to that. Very rare. Very real. Please. Very rare. Thank you. Thank you. I took a lot of pride in that, especially. I knew offensive coordinators and quarterbacks, too. You know, if I shank. Peyton taught me that early. I'm fucking him, too, you know, because there's a much bigger spotlight on his failed first down if I am not. You know, because if you. If you get a good one, it's like, ah, just football happened. You hit a shank, though, it's like, oh, offense failed. Bad punt. Now they're in there. You can really. You know, we can just keep the game rolling with no spotlight on anything bad. If there's a good punt, I would get a text during the game from the people and I would see it in my phone. Hey, can't be doing that. The gym. He's watching your punts. Okay. I guess he threw a garbage can one time because I hit a shank and I was like, felt so terrible. And then he comes in, down, afterwards, into the locker room. Always came down the locker room afterwards, always before the game, after the game. Always wanted to be with the boys, you know, never spoke, you know, unless he was asked to. Had his own chair that they had, like he had his own locker basically, but it was in the middle. Came down before every game, after every single game. Just wanted to be in there, wanted to experience it. And we won the game. And I think I probably had a couple bombs afterwards. Okay? You can't hit too many shanks in a row. You're going to get cut as a punter, especially if you have been arrested and you tweet a lot. So, you know, I had a lot of things going against me. So I read that text before he got in and I go, boss man, sorry about the shank. And he goes, yeah, but you got it back and we needed it. And he knew like my net and he knew like what it led. Like he knew, he knew ball like he was a ball knower. But he wasn't scared to hire people and let them do their jobs either. Like, he was a great leader. Now, granted, I think that has worked against him sometimes. Like maybe somebody didn't do their job as well and his loyalty maybe was a little bit too much, but it was all because of how he felt as everybody was a member of his family, Coach, you know, like, that is literally how he treated everybody. You were a member of his family. If you were on his staff, you were a player. You're a member of his family, bro. Those Thursdays when Chuck was sick and in the hospital, those Thursday meetings with Jim were just amazing. You know, we talk about Chuck every time and how he was doing and then we would find out about, you know, what do you think about this week? And I would tell him, you know, I don't know how much of a chance we have, but, you know, I do remember one game and there was this one punt, all right, we're playing Jacksonville. I think the ball's like a 32 yard line with nine seconds left. I said, bro, just kick that bitch as high as you can out of the end zone. He said, I got it, coach. It came down one yard in bounds and that dude started running it back. I was going to kill you. No, no, no. You wanted me to have a 12 yard net, brother. Okay, you wanted me to have a 12 yard yard net. I ain't got time. I ain't got time. For a 12 yard. But I understand the assignment. I understand. I understand the assignment. It was great to spend time with you in the Indianapolis Colts building. I know you are held in high regards, in high respect by everybody you've ever worked with, but certainly with the Colts. And thank you for making some time today to kind of share some thoughts on. On old Jimmy from the Colts. We appreciate you, man. Here's to my man. Here's to the boss, baby. Hey, cheers to you, Jim. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach Arians. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, super bowl champion legend Bruce Aaron. Thank you. I love that. I love that. I think everybody's. Everybody that I've known that has been around gym today has had a very similar thought. We're going to. We're going to salute. We're going to salute the book. We're gonna salute the big man today. Like we were gonna do that. And I'm happy BA Made time for that. He's so cool. Yeah. That hat still plays. Yeah, always 32 yard line for me to hit that thing. We had a great relationship. The plus 32, I assume. Yes. Yeah, it was plus 32. Yeah, I got it, brother. Sounds good, brother. I can't. Come on. 12 yard net right now. That is. You might as well just what you do. Pooch it to the one. And they caught it. Yeah, I got it. You got like a yard. I mean, it wasn't. I hit that. I mean, it was very high. I get it, I get it, I get it. But, like, if this guy takes 199 after I hit a 5, 0 on this, like, we deserve to lose. Yeah, we deserve to lose outside, guys. And also, like, my boys. The boys are ready. Hey, the boys. This is what we do. This is kind of up. You're putting me in this situation. Okay. You could do the quarterback rollout. Yep. Throw high. Or if we take a couple, you know, penalties. Yeah, yeah. They would decline it because their assholes is on the other side. They know exactly what they're doing. Yeah. Bna. BA And I sat next to each other whenever he came to the team. And Chuck was the head coach. And Chuck gets leukemia diagnosis. Like week four, week five weeks. I forget. Very early in the year of Chuck's first year. So BA Becomes the interim head coach. And. But he didn't want to act, you know, he didn't want to. Yeah. Tough. He was like. It was very tough. He was probably the only guy because everybody had respect for BA Already, so he's probably the only guy that can handle that. And BA And Chuck's relationship was like that. So there was no real, you know, animosity through it all, especially from Chuck. I mean, Chuck's battling through that entire thing. But I don't think there was any from Chuck's friends that maybe hadn't worked with BA Before. Like, that's a tough. Yeah. And Bruce was just perfect for it. And, yeah, he sat next to me. He knew I was from Pittsburgh. So we had a great relationship before he became the interim head coach. So he's the offensive coordinator, you know, so whenever I'm jogging out the pun or whatever, we have one where we're backed up on, like, the two. He's like, need a big one, baby. Need a big one, baby. It's like, oh, I know. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, brother. Thanks, brother. It was an honor to be a part of a team that Bruce Arians led, and it was certainly an honor to be a part of an organization that Jim Irsay owned and ran. Rest in peace, Jim. We appreciate the shit out of everything you've contributed to society. 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Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state are happening all around us. The talks at tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Sweet sweater, pal. Thanks, man. Yeah, you know, just such great hockey these last two nights. Basketball's been incredible, but the hockey has been just as good. Figure out where the Bruins. Let's go to one half of the hammer. Done. Cowboys. AP Town is here. And joining us live from an attic in Ohio, ladies and gentlemen, a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Rider cup winner, a man who has a tree on the Ohio State campus. Who put it in? Was it uncle? Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Hawk. What's going on? Age? Not too much, I thought. First off, the tribute you guys put together for, for Jim Urson, that was amazing. Yeah, that whole video is crazy to see what, what that guy has done. He's. He has an impact. I think that will last forever on this NFL. Well, I appreciate you saying that. I think the RC family and everybody around him will appreciate you saying that. I. Yeah, man, I. Yeah, he's a character. Like, the fact that, like, we need more characters, I think, in the world, I think sometimes people like, they, they get in a position like that and they're not, they're not themselves. Jim felt very, very authentic. I didn't know him personally, but, man, that dude felt like he was doing what he felt was right, the right thing to do. Yeah, authenticity was just something that would ring true with Jim. You know, Jim wasn't acting how he thought NFL owner was supposed to act. Jim was being Jim Merce. Hey, I've been in this league. He was the longest tenured owner. He's the longest tenured owner. And yet he, he told us that in one of our conversations with him. He said, I was going through the, the team photos and there was a photo that I was the only one that's still here in. And he was like, I think that's when he said, that's when I decided I was going to start speaking up a little bit more, you know, and he started like, I think that was whenever, you know, the sale of the Washington football team kind of got initiated and some other stuff. It's like he loved the league, he loved the game. He committed his entire life to it. And he lived, you know, this dude lived. And he was never once caught not being Jim Mercey. He made some mistakes, made some mistakes. Life happened. And he's a human, I think good for him. I think he was very open with that too, about the mistakes that he made, which goes back to exactly what you say. And he also cherished the days, you know, that he had. And he tried to live and he tried to share everything. It's honestly, literally could go just the amount of shit you could say about Jim Ursay is just never ending because of what you said. He wasn't a proto. Like, he's not a prototype. It's not like this is what you think somebody's supposed to act like. He was a power lifter. The guy in the middle, just middle of his general management career in ownership of career, said I want to become a powerlifter and hired somebody, started eating more protein and whatever to get as strong as he possibly could. Went over to Ohio, won the Ohio state championship as a powerlifter just because he wanted to prove to himself, I think. And he played football at SMU and I mean just an absolute legend. The music, the music he gets into, starts a band, he buys like I mean the amount of just. He'll always be the youngest general manager of all time. Oh yeah. 24 years old, forever. You're the general manager of 24 of 24 years old. That's when he took over really. 24 as general manager. Yeah. Then when he's 37, he became owner because his dad passed away and then there was some sort of battle, you know, in court for who's going to get the multi future, multi billion dollar team. He ends up as sole owner of the team as a 37 year old. 37 year old, 24 years old. He's the general manager for the team and his dad was, you know, there's enough stories about how his dad operated and how the world was back then and everything like that for the colts. So he's 24 years old, as Joe mentioned, 37 is sole owner. And then he's, he's 70s 80s is when this is all happening. So everybody, you know, from that time period, he was friends with and knew everything that was available during that time period. He was potentially, you know. Oh yeah, yeah, why not? Why not? Like not everything was a perfect. He didn't bat a thousand. But it's like the stories that he has, the things that he's done, the people he's influenced, the world has become better because of him. It's like hell of a life, man. Hell of a life. And he was certainly unique. That was interesting to me. So I was looking, I was watching everybody's quotes that were. Because I think we all felt obligated to be like, hey, we need to let the world know that we love this man, you know, because there has been a lot of things said outside of Indiana about Jim Hersay. And after I put mine out, I went and looked at, you know, the boys, Ty Hilton, super emotional. That was, that was cool with Payton obviously put out his, that was all over everything. Edron James and him are like Edge and him were very, very, very tight and Edge put out like a perfect edge post, you know. Vinnie, Reggie. Vinnie, yeah. Like the guys Dwight was talking about him this morning, like, the guys that were, you know, you knew who his guys were. And I was. I was lucky, I think, to be, like, the youngest one. I think I was potentially the youngest one. And was it because I got in trouble? Yes. Was it because I enjoyed Twitter? He enjoyed Twitter. Yes. Was it because I did have an entrepreneurial spirit that he understood? Yes. Was it because, like. Like, the guys that. I wanted to read, what everybody said, you know, just kind of get their take on their relationship with Jim, because I think it's not the same. Like, for me, my relationship with him was. I think he felt an obligation to, like, help me in my business venture because, like, that is kind of how he viewed me. For Peyton, it was. I wonder how it was for him, you know, like, that's why I wanted to read, you know, what everybody was saying. Four out of five, maybe five out of six. Unique was the word that was used. And I think that's a great way to describe Jim. Or in the most positive way, very unique. And nobody else will live his life. There will never be. There will never be another Jim Mercy, you know, never ever. 250 million miles away. Like in the cliff, when he's talking about going to Mars just out of nowhere. That's what I love about. So the moon. The moon. Five million miles away. Wow. Mars. Okay. Mars. 250 million. And then he says how long it would take to get there? As if we've just gone. Yeah. I'm like, bro, you're doing some real research on this. You're doing some real research. Well, I don't think it's gonna happen in my lifetime. It didn't. He was right once again. The car. Yeah, I don't want the phone. I don't want this phone. I want a flying car. They say technology is going to change my life. And what they told me it was going to be. And they say, it's your phone. Phone. I don't want a phone. I want a flying car. How about him telling us about the plans to have a team in Europe? Yeah, yeah. He was like, the Concorde, what was it? Yeah, the Concord. Yeah. The Concord was supposed to be able to go supersonic, which would have made New York to London three hours, four hours or something. Then that stopped. So we had to hold up our plans. I was like, I feel like that was actually. I feel like that was actually the NFL's plans. Like, I feel like that probably was. And Jim Ursay, with his, you know, fascination, it appears, with these types of things. He was probably A big part of it, brother. How long does it take for Indiana to la? Four hours. New York to London, Concord Supersonic, three hours. We can have a team the whole world. We can travel the whole world. He was definitely going to buy one of those, too. Oh, yeah. He was going to be supersonic. And let's go down to the house down there in Puerto Rico. Yeah, let's go over here. Super. Going supersonic over the United States. There were stories he had a helicopter here in Indiana. And you would know. I guess you would know, you know, because he lived in a community, a town like, you know, Carmel, which is like one of the nicest. I say nicest towns in America. I assume it wins the award for it every single year. And he had a. I think you pay for that. But still, amongst those who try to pay for the award, karma wins. So it's a very nice part of town. Lot of money. Because a lot of companies are headquartered here in Indianapolis because of how easy it is to kind of get everyone everywhere. You know, it's got called the crossroads of America here, because we got everything everywhere. So a lot of money in Indiana. I don't think a lot of people know that a lot of money in Indiana. Carmel has a lot of. A lot of money. Like, that is where, you know it is. A lot of cops, a lot of roads, a lot of land, a lot of castles. A lot of. The high school goes viral every single year. Yeah, the high school is a university, like a campus. Like, it is a very nice town. So Jim at massive piece of land in Carmel, and he got a helicopter. And I guess they did not have rules on where you could land or take that thing off from. So, you know, jim, fuck it. Let's land that thing in the backyard. Yeah. And he was. And I guess some of the neighbors got upset about it, and obviously he said, whoa, I'm so sorry. So then he bought land, wherever it was, to build a helipad in that thing. And they would talk about him just going up to concerts because the Eagles were in town or whatever, and he. He's friends with them. And so he's like, I need to go. And so he just hopped in a helicopter. It was like, there's Jim. There's Jim. Because you see, like, news helicopters. You see. You could kind of see, oh, that's a hospital, obviously. And up there's Jim going through. It's like he was just one of the most interesting people of all time. And it all came from a good spot, I think. I think everything Came from like a good perspective, which is wild because he's been. His dad had like, you know, he just never acted how you would think he was supposed to. And it was always in my eyes, as somebody that came from, you know, nowhere near that class of people. I always had respect for him being able to be relatable while having a completely unrelatable life. And he was special, A.J. he was special. Okay. Sour sports, which he loved in abundance. We talked about the Pacers, Knicks. Anything to add to that? I mean, it's great example. I tell my kids all the time, you never. You should never give up on any game. Unfortunately, my kids fell asleep before Tyrese and the whole situation happened, but they didn't. They tried not to give up. They were very excited when they woke up. But man, you got this right here. Come on. I mean, niece Smith, everything about it, this game, this. This is a game you'll be watching 20 years from now. I think, yes, I agree completely. And he said he wasted the choke. I think he got it out of the way. Yeah, exactly. I think he got it out of the way. It's done. A lot of people were probably thinking you were going to do it, expecting you to do it, especially with how clutch you have been. You got a chance to do it, you still won the game and you acknowledged that it was. No, that's tough. I wasted it. And people say I would be aura farming. Great answer. Yep, great. Also great New York costume out of Tyrese Halliburton last night. Backwards hat, big jacket, doing New York. I respect Tyrese in that entire thing, but yeah, you're right. Talking about not giving up in any game. Pacers are obviously the epitome of that. Did you watch the hockey last night? Did you watch the hockey last night? A little bit. I did. Did. Did you get a chance to. You talked about your kids falling asleep during the Pacers Knicks game. I'll tell you what, Oilers stars. There was certainly nothing that would have held you on that game in the first two periods. Connor, McJesus, Draisaitl, and the boys in Edmonton are about to run wild on Texas hockey. Otter. More like we need the otter guy. He couldn't see anything. Couldn't see anything. Wow, these guys are about to get run off. Home ice. Let's go to the third period, shall we? Three, one. Third period. 30 seconds in power play. Carryover from the second period. Miro High School. Now we got a game. Three, two. You know, they say a two goal lead in hockey is the most dangerous one because Once you score one, guess what, it's a one goal game all of a sudden. And everybody can get a little nervous. Well, they did another power play. Two minutes later. Oilers can't play hockey legally in the third period. Mikhail Granlin makes it 3:3. Then two minutes later another power play. Edmonton. Do you know the rules, Dutchy? Matty Duchene scores. And then inevitably Once it was 4:3, it would become 5:3 as Tyler Sagan with a nasty backhand. You're talking about taking the top off the lid. I mean they did that. Oh yeah. And then they would have an empty netter at the end. Dallas Stars would inevitably win 6 3. Going into the third period it was 3 to 1. Let's go to Dallas Stars fan 1/2 of the hammer done. Cowboys. A man has been wearing an otter mask in public. Bubba Gumpino Gumpy. You thought it was over two, didn't you? Going into the third period. You thought maybe this Dallas Star scene wasn't going to be able to keep up with them. Edmonton Oilers, they were cooking us in the the first two periods. But this is what we've done all playoffs. Game seven against Colorado. They're up on us the whole game. Third period, we start skating downhill. It's kind of our mo. It's kind of what we were doing. And I don't know if you caught it. There was some great USA chats at the end of that game. There's a big dust up at the end of that game. There was USA all night long. Scotty Scheffler in the building. This is. It's Texas hockey's time, brother. This is it, brother. Team of destiny. USA chance to end it. I did not know. Okay. Oh yeah. Hold the phone. We had a five on five or better. Now the Canadian people will tell us that a lot of the players on the field now Dallas is Finn. Yeah. They're a finish. They're a Finnish team. I assume there's some Canadians on that team as well. I believe they have six Americans on the team. We love that. Boom. We love that the United States organization franchise is going to win. Lord Stanley again, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado age, I don't know if you know this. Joining us I think I do live in studio is something that was born in 1892. Wow. What? Ladies and gentlemen, Lord Stanley come Lordo's here. This is what it is all about. This is what the Dallas Stars who are down 3:3:1 going into the third period kept fighting for. This is what the Edmonton Oilers got so Nervous. They just had to break rule. They just had to get three penalties three consecutive times, three power plays, three penalty kills. Failing as Otter and the Dallas Stars fight back for a three goal lead and win to start off the Western Conference finals. The Hurricanes and Panthers are about to be in quite of a fire tonight. Oh yeah, quite a fire with how Marcy kind of got disrespected a little bit by channel. This is what it's all about. Marshy's been there, the Florida Panthers have been there. Can Carolina Hurricanes get back in this thing? Can the Edmonton Oilers play like they played in the first two periods for all three periods for the rest of the series? And will the Pittsburgh Penguins ever get their names back on here? They're on your four. There's a lot of Pittsburgh Penguins on here. Back to back multiple times, stacked up one time because they had to change to a new level. So right on top of each other. It's a beautiful thing. And in this cup, legends have housed beers, housed so many beers in this thing. Patti Maroon thought a six or seven thousand, thousands of beers out of the top of this thing. The amount of people that have shaped hockey, shaped the sports world, shaped pop culture, have had their lips wrapped around this thing as booze get shoveled down. Their gullets is endless. AJ is actually one of the booze bags that have been a part of this. That's right. You too? Yes, I certainly have chugged a beer out here. Shout out to Rupper, New Jersey Devil, Stanley cup champion. You're gonna have to go back a couple to get to that one. New Jersey Dove for a long time. Same with the Penguins too. You gotta go. No. Yeah, they're. They're middle of the cup right now. They're teetering on getting evicted from the cup and not having their name on it. We need to figure that out. But A.J. whenever you see this thing, even through the screen, all the way from Ohio, your first thought is you get a little tingle in the pants, don't you? Yeah, little. Little tingle for sure. I'm honored to have drank a couple beers out of that thing. So. Yeah, it was. It's a beautiful thing. I mean, I want to talk about history. Like the amount of legends that have not only drank beers. I've just been around that thing. Think how many presidents have been around. Is every president been around the Stanley Cup? I would imagine. Especially if they love ball. Every president ever from when the Stanley cup was invented wasn't a big hockey guy. I think he was the only one that didn't Howard. Yeah. George Washington didn't love the Stanley Cup. That's a fact. I heard that he put apples in it. Actually, Georgio is 100 years. Yeah. He predates the Stanley cup by a bit, I think. About 100% sure. You know more than me. You're the Hawk guy. I don't think Georgio saw the fucking Lord Oak J just said every President Ever so since 92. Since the NHL. Yeah. It's a beautiful thing. One of the fun facts about Lord Stanley cup that we like to point out every single time we're around it, because it is something that they say is a fun fact about Lord Stanley. Whenever you're around it, boom. Right in here. The wanderers defeated Canora 12 to 8. May 25, 1907. That one's gonna live there forever. I have no idea how that was the one that ended up being in there. But there's. There's a team in there that won twice, 12 to eight in there. They're gonna be there forever. They're the first team to understand what it's all about, you know, I think that's why they left him in there. Yeah. And when this thing's out and about. Yeah. Yeah, sure. It's a head turner. Oh, yeah. Big time, shiny, greatest trophy. I. I mean, obviously, the Lombardi is the Lombardi. World championship means the most. I heard some things about Lombardi. The Lombardi from the Handlers. Howie. Oh, they're talking on Lombardi. Howie. Howie. And Matt from the league. Howe from the hall of Fame. Howie the handler knows ball. Howie, the Handler's from Toronto. I talked to him about the Maple Leafs. Not believing enough. He's. He's great Canadian ladies. Oh, yeah. He said about pretty good. He did he good about. He knew. He knew what he was here for. He knows I pushed it on the party, though. Well, they weren't talking shit on the Lombardi. And it wasn't Howie. How he laughed about what he learned from maybe the NHL understanding. I think Lombardi kind of just gets shipped. Just kind of like, hey, coming in. Oh, no. Yeah. Like a football. Throw it. No. Yeah, but with, like, a delivery. With like Spedex. You at least have to sign for it. That's what. That's basically what they were saying. It's a priority shipment. I guess this thing will always have a human around it. Yeah, Mikey. Good hair. Yeah. Okay. He's been around a couple times. Howie with the great accent is how I'm going to talk about this guy going forward. Right dog? 17 years, I believe. Damn. This thing will never sound like. Huh? What's his accent? What do you mean? Like, you. Can you say something, please, so we know, so we can explain? Will you act like this Howie Gentleman, please. Howie the Handler. There. Straight there. That's exactly what he sounds like. Howie the Handler. Everything's kind of a question. I've heard a lot of boots in my day. That might be the best one I've heard. And then he. He got. We said, holy, what are you. Say that again. And he basically looked at me like, I'm not your puppet. Okay. But I. I said, is this thing oot in a boot? And he goes. Everybody always makes fun of how I say boot. And he was like, no, that is. That is how you. It's. He might be the perfect guy for the job. He's. He seems like just living embodiment of hockey. The way he walks, even looks like he skated his whole life. I'm sure he has. Yeah. Shout out to Howie the Handler. He was a mountainee before. There's a chance he was on a horse. Yeah. Where was Mike, though, with the good hair? Is he all right? Yeah. Remember, they do. They do, like, nurse schedules. I like that. Okay. It's like three days on, three days off. Yep. Sure. Three days on, three days, three days off. He's out in a boat. Before Mike, there was another guy. His name is Phil Pritchard. He's now the curator of the Hockey hall of Fame in Toronto. So they kind of. They move up the chain until they. Oh, there's a corporate ladder here. What are they doing? Howie the Handler, I assume how he's committed to the game. He needs to be kind of disrespectful that you said there's something higher than the handler of the Cup. Yeah, you're right. Coming from the hockey conversation, the curator of the hall of Fame, I think probably considered a good one. It's not better than the keeper the Cup. Yeah. I mean, Howie the Handler would disagree. He's a nice man, too. You know, he. He is a good man. Yeah, he. He's glad. As they would say, he's never leaving. I am surprised Mike's not here, because I thought he lived inside the case with the Cup. That is kind of how it was presented to us. Correct. Because every time that thing was around. Yeah, he's there. It was like, holy hell. I never take my eyes off this thing. That's basically what he said. Yeah. You guys want to touch it? You can. Don't hug it. I think he is in there. They Just fold him up and turn him off. Oh, no, no, Tim. Tim saw the inside. Oh, he did? Yeah. Cuz we were surprised. Was there a pillow in there? Yeah, actually there was nice satin in night. Okay. Yeah. But how about how we just wheeling this thing around everywhere? Is it steel or silver? A little Saint Lord, Stanley. Yeah, no, it's a metal. I'm allowed to pick it up. I don't think. I don't think I'm allowed to pick it up. I think I'm allowed to touch it. I heard that. I think I just saw his head. Oh. Get a little comfortable. Okay. A silence pistol. Getting a little comfortable. Hey, this is what it's all about though, so. It's all about. Yeah, it's not made out of anything that you would know. It's. It's kind of a vibrating. It's a material not known to man, only to tanium. Yeah. Only Stanley cup champions know what it's built of. Well, thank you to Howie and Matt and to Mike with the good hair. Yep. Here's Howie. By the way. If you. This is how. This is the man that showed up. Thunderdome. Say something in our office. We set up that. Thank you, Howie. Howie's not that big compared like. I think there was good perception. Perspective is it. You stand in front so you're bigger. Yeah, but he knows because he's always around it. The gloves. Look at the gloves. I love the white gloves. Yeah, the gloves actually were a little bit of a problem for. For Howie this morning. Put the one on. Only went up past the thumb. Oh, no, that went to the other one. End up they ain't tighten them up. Yep. Oh no. Oh no. What happened? Oh, did Mike. Is Mike alive? Mike is alive. Okay. Mike has retired from handling. What? What? Oh, Mike with the good hair no longer around. What do you mean? He said, I'm not doing it anymore. Sick and tired of living in this goddamn box. Like to get an apartment at least. Is he the head coach of the Manitoba Moose or something? He could be the Medicine Hat Tigers. Yeah. Maybe the swamp Rabbits could be the bits. You know what? There he is on the right. There he is on the right. He. He. He took the tractor the last lap around. That's Phil on the left too. The other keeper of the COVID No, Phil is the curator now. The one on the left is the curator of the hall of fame. Hair on both. Great hair. They know they're with the. A lot of pictures. Yeah. Lord Orange Tire from this Mike. What's your life, brother? He probably has 17 billion miles flying. Can you imagine? Okay. That could be traveling everywhere with that. He's with Lordo, brother. It's a good life. Who's your travel companion? Lordo. Yeah, yeah. Do you have an extra seat for this? You do? Okay. I would like an upgrade. Why Lordo? Yeah. We appreciate Mike's service. We appreciate Mike's service. I miss you, Mike. We are. I'll tell you what, though. Howie. Howie's. Yeah. How he's got possessed. I don't. You know what? You know how he does that. He was done when Tom Cruise is done. It's kind of how I feel about Mike. Oh, Lord. You're done with Lord Stanley. Ah, Tony Ice. Don't worry because Mike with the good hair. One of the perks of being the keeper of the cup is it gives you good hair. Wait till how he comes back next year. He's gonna do it. 17 years, brother. Yeah, but. But once he's around it, every single. He was sleeping in that box. I threw my shoulder out or something. That's Mike. That's Mike with the good hair. I don't know what the hell is going on with you. Squeeze. He's not dead. Has Howie ever handed the cup off to the captain of the winning team? Because I know Mike has. No. I think this is probably his first. I bet you he's gonna be on skates too. Mike like to walk. I think he's gonna be on blades. Yep. Howie, I think he's gonna take a lap with the cup before he hands it over. Show they announce him. They announce him. And he gets to hold it up over his head first before anybody else. Howe. Yeah. That is how they think. How he knew he was coming on. How he's gonna be so mad. I'm not your popping his head. Can we get him a microphone? There he is. We get him a microphone, please. Is there a dress code you got to have with. With Lord? You just got to have a jacket on. There he is. You should give it. You should run. Get. Go. Give me the mic. Jog that out there. Bit of a shuffle going on. Howie, you're the best. Look at Howie. Thank you, Howie. Howie, thank you for this today. Oh, I'm happy to be here. It's always great to bring the cup around and get the publicity and everything that it deserves. It's a great time of year now with the playoffs going on. Nothing else like it than the Stanley cup playoffs. I agree completely. Hallie, how long have you been a handler of the cup? Since 2009. Should we call You, Howie, the handler, you can. Mike with the good hair has retired, I heard. He has, yes. And Phil has gone on to be the curator of the hall of Fame as a whole. He's always been the curator. He still travels. It just he chooses when he wants to travel. And it's you and one other handler or are you full time? The main. The main handler? Sure. In the regular season, there's probably four. Four of us that would travel with the Cup. Then in the summer when we're traveling with the winning team, we have a couple other people that will help us out. And you know, because it's much busier every day you're traveling somewhere. So whenever you think about the entire process, this is a full 16, 17 years now of you being committed to traveling with Lord Stanley Cupp. Is that accurate? And when you get presented with that potential job, is that a massive honor, I assume, or how do you kind of view it? And when did you find out that you were potentially just going to be traveling with Lord Stanley cup for a living? Definitely is an honor. When I was asked, I was very surprised. I started working at the hall of Fame as a volunteer back in 2004, I guess, and you know, I worked some part time hours in the museum. And then all sudden Phil Pritchard had asked me if I'd be interested in traveling with the cup, so didn't take me long to answer. And I've been doing it since. I travel with other trophies too, and artifact displays at different events, but the cup is probably the main thing that I do. So your security for high value things. What are the trophies? Yeah, what other stuff do you. Artifacts do you try, like Conn Smythe, the Heart trophy, the Art Ross, everything that we have for the NHL. There's like 20 or 21 other trophies. So we could be various events with these trophies. Yeah. And then we have our artifact displays. We have different cases that the artifacts will sit in and we can display them at different events. So there's always something to do. Okay, well, we want to let you know we appreciate you coming here to Indianapolis, Indiana. We appreciate you because we've always had Mike with the good hair. Yeah, yeah. What's he doing now? I'm not sure. I think he just. He got a little tired. He just wanted to relax a bit. He. I can understand what he's about. He's living in a smaller town outside of Toronto now. His father lives there too, so I guess he just wanted to spend more time with him. And I don't think his life Is as busy as it used to be, so I think he's enjoying himself. Mikey with the good hair. You've done good. Real hair. Absolute. When. When one of the handlers retirement a 21 Stanley cup salute. Maybe like, does. Did Mikey with the good hair get to drop the cup before he retired or. I'm not sure. To be honest. I think he kind of surprised us when he did decide to go. But he put in his time for sure. And, you know, he deserves a big hand. Of course, for everything that he did do over the years. He did a lot of it on his own. There was a lot of long days, and I don't think people really appreciate what we do do with the Cup. I think you are, but it's been a lot of fun, a lot of great experiences, and we all love what we do. I. I appreciate you speaking there for Mike, but also for yourself There a lot of long days I'm alone with Lord standing up. We are traveling to a lot of cities, a lot of places, so we can have an eye on the greatest trophy in all of sport. Last question for me. He just talked about the 21 beer salute. Maybe out of the top for Mikey with the good hair, which we would like to see sometime. I asked you this earlier. You have been. Because you're literally at all the. Not all the celebrations, but most of the celebrations. Yes, the players have. So every player and every coach on every team that wins the Stanley cup gets a day with the Stanley Cup. And you guys travel around with the Stanley cup to these different parties, these different events and everything like that? Yes, you have seen some wild shit. Is that inaccurate? I. I think the fans, they kind of fascinate about some of the things we do. See. I mean, they're not as crazy stuff as you might think and everything. They always ask us, what's the craziest thing you've ever seen with a cup? Well, for us, the craziest thing is, like, stuff that's normal. So we don't know what's considered crazy. 17 years doing this, brother, I've seen 10,000 beers get drank and deleted out of this thing. I assume that is something that all the lads want to do. Oh, sure. They're always drinking out of it, for sure. The players will maybe put their babies in it, maybe christen them. Them know there's food eaten out of it all the time, too. Poutine. Yeah, Poutine is a big one. Especially for the poutine. You think poutine's good? Poutine is great. What about Timmy Horton's double double? Is that. Is that good or no? Timmy Horton double double is very good. Just like I said it was. He can't hear you because he doesn't have headphones on. There's a Canadian in the back. Really? Doing a victory lap to what you Smooth cream? Tiger. Tiger. Yeah, Tiger tail. Do you know smooth cream? Ooh. No, I don't. I'm not a big coffee drinker, so I'm not sure. Craft peanut. Tell them it's craft peanut butter. Oh, is it okay? Sounds interesting. It's delicious. All right, Howie, we appreciate the hell out of you for bringing Lordo and thank you for walking out here. We forced you to do it. Basically, you're peer pressured into this. Yeah, yeah, no problem. Thank you. You're the man, dude. We appreciate you. Don't take Lordo yet, though, please. Need one of those blazers. Grab that mic. What, the hall of Fame? Yeah. Look at that. That patch is. I think Phil can get you one of those. Right? Phil's the guy we need to ask for that. You guys need to sell some merch. I think you have to. It requires some, you know, maybe unemployment first. Okay. Okay. All right. We don't got time. Yeah, yeah. All right. We appreciate the hell out of you, Howie. All right. Okay. So the NFL owners meeting was yesterday, and. Well, Tuesday and Wednesday there was a vote. That's awesome. Isn't it? Just sitting right there. So cool. Amazing. How is it? I mean, I love how you could tell Howie he's a soldier for the cause. Like, he is all in on that, on his gig. 17 years. 17. I don't think he's going to retire, you know, ever. I think he probably just goes down with the cup, and I respect that and I love that. I think that's what hockey, you know, is expected out of that. So him saying we're all surprised by Mike with the good hair. I think we all are surprised by Mike with the good hair living with his dad, though I'm sure there's. Yeah. Thanks for your service, Mikey. Thank you, Mike. And it sounds like he went out on top, so. Yeah. And now he's just able to go boat his day. Exactly. I mean, think about that, too. Is that he started as a volunteer. Yeah. And he never said sorry about it either. He climbed his way up and now he's out in a boot with the damn Stanley Cup. Yeah. You can go doobadoo. What? Double double. Is that two cream, two sugar? Yes, sir. They created that. Oh, the doobadoo. Timmy hoes. I mean, roll up the rim to win. It's phenomenal. I don't know how I feel about Howie Lejanda. And I know about Smooth. Smooth Cream or Tiger. Tiger. Yeah. I was confused that he did not know the crap. Peanut butter. I wonder if he talks to his American friends in a position of being like the GPS guy in kilometers. Oh, probably. Hey, three kilometers. You're gonna make it, right? I have no idea what that is. I have no clue. Is that three football fields? Is that three mile? What is. Why are you guys using such a different thing? Metas about 20 meters down. What is that? So that's like almost a yard and a half. It's like 25. And I gotta make it right in 25 yards. Having Gumpy on the maps, some of my favorite times in a car, I always put it on in my car. If anybody's in there, every time, gotta put it on. It's so loud, too. His speaker's louder than everybody else' so it's like, in 3km, make a left, and I'm like, gump, what the is that? What is that? Canada is awesome. Canadians. Yeah. Are awesome. Are we worried that Mikey with the good hair either got sick of us or were the Panthers just so much that he was like, I can't do this. Elbow room. Got him. Yeah, elbow room. I've been here for three weeks straight. He saw it in the ocean. He's like, I can't do this anymore. It's on a beach. He's from Toronto, too. Oh, man, the cops down on the beach. This is hockey time. All right. The NFL owners met yesterday and voted on new rules that were being pushed by NFL coaches and management and teams. The big one was the Tush push play. The Tush push was potentially going to be banned forever. Philadelphia Eagles obviously didn't appreciate that Laurie gave a 30 minute speech. Jeff Laurie gave a 30 minute speech that was followed by Jason Kelsey, who came in, and I only heard what Jason Kelsey said on the New Heights podcast, but he said, if I was told that I only had 80 plays and they were all going to be the Tush Push, I would sign up for that immediately. Now, we have heard him in the past say that he's at the bottom of a car wreck and that kind of thing, but that is being an offensive lineman as a whole. But Jason Kelsey wasn't lobbied. Laurie went and lobbied in, inevitably, notably, it was a 2210 vote, I think, to keep the Tush push around. It wasn't just the Tush push, though. With the way it was being worded, this particular vote, it was basically saying he couldn't pull or push anybody on a football field. That would take away the scrums that happen late in games where a running back gets stopped, then the offensive line comes, picks him up. There's four D linemen, there's four offensive linemen, four or three offensive linemen, and they move the running back over the first downline like six, seven yards. Everybody goes apeshit for that because it's literally a display in a feat of strength over the other team. So I think the wording of it potentially eliminates some other plays as well that all football people would be down with. But it was certainly an attempt to get rid of the double pushing of Jalen Hurts his ass. The Green Bay packers were the ones that presented this. And the Philadelphia Eagles take a victory lap after it doesn't get past the ban and say, push on. Guess who they're playing in that game? The Green Bay Packers. So it was great use of social media there. Great use of social media there. The teams that were very loudly against the ban of the Tush push were everybody that you would think it would be. Everybody you think it would be. Yep. It was Coach Sirianni playing football. John Harbaugh, we're playing football. Motor City. Dan Campbell. We're playing football. Hell yeah. Mike Vrabel, we're playing football. Come on. Aaron Glenn, we're playing football. Basically, every coach that you thought would be, we're trying to. Trying to take football out of football was against it and then some. So the Tushbush stays. AJ and congrats to Philadelphia Eagles. First and nine, first and eight and a half. Every time they get the ball, brother. Yeah, I don't have a problem with the Tush push, to be honest with you. Like, I understand when people want to argue, say, hey, it's not a football play. Well, yeah, it is a football. By the way, what you just said, you go along Mercy. Dan Campbell, Mike Vrabel, Harbaugh, everybody. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it. I'm just saying, if I was a defender and I was trying to stop it, yeah, it would piss me off. It would be frustrating. But at some point, someone's going to crack the code, right? And they're going to find a way to. You're not going to stop it every time, but they're going to find a way to consistently have a way to do something about it. I don't know. I mean, I would assume that's the case, but I just don't know, because they are so good at it. I don't feel like we can ban it just because they're the best at doing it. The Philadelphia Eagles fans and the Philadelphia Eagles as a whole turn this into a. Oh, we're tougher than you. So you want to ban it? Yeah. Angle. Good angle, by the way. Yeah, yeah, good. Good angle, by the way. Because whenever you watch it, it does feel like, oh, this is just a battle of wills. This is a battle of strength. This is a battle of grit. Low man wins. That's what football is supposed to be. And I think D lineman say, it doesn't matter how low we get. They got 800 pounds of people pushing their ass cheek of a Jalen hurts who squats 800 pounds in this entire thing. It's unstoppable. So you say somebody's going to figure it out. I think there are some people in football that are worried. I don't know if we can stop. I don't know if there's any way to actually stop it, because on the defense, I don't think they're allowed to push back because that was banned because of field goals back in the day. So I also am a fan of not getting rid of it strictly as it becomes a toughness conversation. It's like, oh, we're tougher than you can't handle it. Okay. How come we're better than you with it? Are you? It's just an easy play. Well, why aren't you? Because you're not as tough as us. I'm like, oh, I got a point. Checkmate. All right. I'm on their side for it, but it feels like something's gonna give. Feels like something. Maybe only one pusher. Number of pushers. Yeah. It's gonna be like they're gonna have to change it eventually. Maybe one pusher, I guess. Right. That could. They could see that be like, a negotiation. If The Eagles go 89%, 90% on this again this season, and I know there's the Packers. There were the ones that bit the bullet and said, fuck it, we'll be the ones that'll kind of push this, there'll be more people that be like, all right, maybe we do got to make it a competitive fairness thing as opposed to just a health thing, which I think is what they're thinking. Yeah. Because, you know, obviously, like, the packers take a bunch of heat for this and, you know, rightfully so, because they're the ones that push forward. But I think a lot of people were saying, like. Like, the league itself, the league office, like, they're kind of the ones who want this out of it. And it's just a kind of an easier situation for the packers to be the ones do it because they don't have an owner. So it's not like, you know, you can't point fingers at one guy. But also, like, we were under the impression going into this, everyone who was reporting around this was basically saying, like, yeah, this is going to get passed, like this is going to be a done deal. And then it doesn't. So I wonder if we're going to be at this same stage next year and they're going to be talking about it again or if this is. Is kind of just going to float off, like into the, into the sunset and we won't really talk about it for at least a few more years. When it was the, when it was the Tush push, when this play on the screen right here is what we were talking about and what the rule was talking about, I think I could have gone either way on whether it was. It was banned or not. But when they changed the wording recently to the situation that you described, you know, where running backs five, six yards downfield, he gets held up, but then, you know, two, three offensive linemen coming and know you, you push him for a first down or there's many times when a guy, ball carrier stumbles or whatever, and an offensive lineman or a teammate holds him up and then kind of throws them for three yards or something like that. When they changed it to, you're not allowed to push or pull anywhere on the field, a team or anything like that. Anywhere on the field. That's when I really didn't want this to go through. So, you know, if they change language potentially to only take out this like the Tush push, only one person can push if it's within the line of scrimmage or something like that. But like downfield and stuff like that. When, when, like situation you talked about when, like pushing for a first down and stuff like that, that's awesome. That can't leave the game. Well, and also not everybody's good at it, but it's just the Eagles and the Bills who are very good at it. So, you know, credit to Jalen hurts their offensive line and also credit to Josh Allen and the Bills offensive line. Like, I could see banning it if every single team was swinging a 90% bat and they're just getting first downs and it is a first and nine for everybody. But how many times do we see it Failed for the other teams that don't work on it. Like, I think it's happened multiple times with teams where it's, oh, they're lining up for a tush push, let's see what they got. And then they don't get it done. Like, it is, you know, a different type of NFL play. But until everybody is very good at it, there should never be a play that's eliminated. Because, you know, what if, what if a team like the Colts, they could come out with, we could get good at this. With Anthony and Daniel Jones both, we can. The Colts could be good and Steichen obviously has been over there. It's a lot on the offensive line though, which goes back to. So the Philadelphia Eagles are being punished because they're good at finding and Stoutland's good at coaching offensive linemen like, and they're tougher than your D linemen. It's like to your point about if once everybody gets good at is probably whenever it becomes a conversation for competitive fairness and all that, yada yada, it's like that was what happened with kickers. So there'd be like five, six good kickers and then there was a bunch of shit kickers for a long time and they'd be missing extra points and it was still an exciting play. Then kickers got like too good, kickers got too good and it was just like routine. This is 20 yard kick. No NFL kicker is going to miss this. This is either getting blocked or it's going in. It's getting blocked one out of a thousand times and it's going through. So once everybody got good at it, to your point, it became a. This is not, this is not a competitive play. There's nothing in that. Then we need to change it. Maybe that is where we're headed. Maybe if everybody gets good at it and everybody takes advantage of it, then everybody will be like, we can't just have it be first and nine for all parties here. Like, that can't be how it is. That's a very valid point. And they've shown precedent with it with the kicking. And that was a huge change. I mean, going from gigantic, that was a gigantic change that the NFL doesn't love doing. You know, I think, I think that's a very good point. Joining us now might be a guy who understands this play a little bit more than anybody. Cause he's been bent over with a ball in his hands to start a play more times than any of us, ladies and gentlemen. He's the founder of the Trenchies which is an awards banquet for offensive linemen around the NFL. He didn't get any credit. No. Than any other rollout of the protector of the year award. Ridiculous. But I know he's excited that it's happening. Ladies and gentlemen, on his birthday today. What? Super bowl champion. A. Happy birthday, aq. Happy birthday, buddy. What's up, boys? I appreciate it. No, we appreciate you spending some time out of this off season for you and, you know, retired professional athlete life that you've been living and stay at home dad life and obviously this birthday celebration to chit chat with us and work on your tan. You could be doing that right now and working on his body. I don't know if you've seen him. Oh, yeah. Starting to look good and work on his cooking. I don't know if you see he's been. He's cooking. I mean, I've watched you guys talk about my belly enough. I got to get that back in order. Jeez. I didn't really have time to watch our show. I thought you were doing golfing and celebrity events. Yeah. I don't know if you guys saw that. I mean, Happy birthday, Q. Living your best life. We love you, man. Training guys, putting guys in the NFL got, you know, train 13. NFL offensive line. Yeah. I'm just sitting around over here, you know. Okay. Hey, listen, you do you brother. You live your life. You live your life. Happy birthday. In shipyard. We know it's active. Oh, yeah. Full piss. Yeah. If we flush the toilet, maybe for the birthday. We go flush the toilet. Yeah. Once a week. Once a week. We keep it out. We got to let people know. All right. Happy birthday. Maybe this year we do it more often. We're talking. All right. We're talking about the tush push. And obviously this has garnered so many conversations. I think I've felt like four different ways about this play throughout the process of them potentially banning it. And I think I would have been okay either way that they went in the end. If they would have banned it, I would have been like, okay. The way they reworded it to take away downfield drags and pushes, I don't think I was a fan of. Because that moment of an offensive line picking up a wide receiver or running back and moving the pile for a first down is a cool moment in sports. So if it was just tush push, if they would have banned it, I would have been okay with it. If they would have made it, one person allowed to push, I would have been okay with it. Jason Kelsey went to bat for it. He's obviously in the epicenter of this entire thing. What are your thoughts on the Tush push and do we need to give credit to the teams that are great at this more as opposed to just trying to ban the play entirely in your eyes? Yeah, I think that's been my biggest take the whole time, is the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles have been the only ones that have been damn near 100% on this thing. And so when you look at it, it is a skill. Like Buffalo tried to do it and they get stuffed. Other teams have tried to do it and they've gotten stuffed. I mean, it's not nearly as successful with all the other teams as it is with the Philadelphia Eagles. So it's clearly a skill that the Philadelphia Eagles have mastered. So if one team's better than the rest at it, then. Then they're clearly doing something right, and it's clearly a skill set. This isn't that. This isn't a play where it's an automatic first down for everybody across the league. And if it was, I could understand it. And clearly it has been proven that not many people are getting injured during this play either. I've done a million QB sneaks. You just kind of dive your legs and keep your feet moving, and they. They've found a way to. To. To make it so good. And Jalen hurts behind has made it so good. So you can't punish them for being better than everybody else at it. First and nine for the Philadelphia Eagles continues. I think that is kind of a mindset. I. That should almost be like a shirt for them. Yeah. Yeah, like that. That's almost like a thing. For the Philadelphia Eagles, if they're up over 90% again and nobody else is touching them, maybe the respect will be gained for their ability to pull this off. But more than anybody else. Go ahead, A.J. aQ. How do you propose. Like, how would you try to coach a team to stop this? Like, what do you do? Obviously, you can't let any kind of movement, like, what are you telling your D line, your linebackers? Listen, the biggest thing is you have to get off on the snap. Clearly, the offense has the advantage because they know the snap count, so they're able to anticipate that and get out on the snap. But if a defensive line can somehow get a tell and dive at the legs, because that's what you have to do. Like, the offensive linemen are doing such a good job of anticipating the snap, getting off first, and then. Then once you create movement and you get the push from behind, it's over. So you have to stop the initial movement and then have people flying up over the top. You've been in that mode where you've seen the linebackers jump the pile and kind of get that stop. But, you know, it starts with getting off on the snap, and if you can get some anticipatory tell on what the cadence is or what the snap count is going to be, that is going to be big. How old are you today? 39 years old, boys. 39 with an anticipatory droppage. This might be the year for aqs. Yes, it might. This might be. This might be the one. This really might go okay. So that's when they started doing the hard count, and then the Chiefs were just jumping over top, and then the ref said, we told the defense that we can award a touchdown here if they want to keep doing that. And that's because the Eagles can just add a hard count in there and keep everybody off balance. It's. They got. They got the league in a bind, and they're way behind. Everybody else is way behind. And. And that's why Jeff went in there for 30 minutes and was like, we don't like football anymore. And then Jason Kelsey comes on the back end of it and goes, rabes, you don't like ball. Dan Campbell, you don't like ball. Not tough enough. Aaron Glenn, you're not tough anymore. John Harbaugh, Baltimore, you guys aren't what is going. All the teams that backed it are exactly the teams that you thought they would be like. It is exactly who you thought it would be. Congrats to them. It survives for. You're right. It survives for another year. And congrats to the Eagles. Now let's talk about congrats to the offensive lineman as a whole. Protector of the year coming to the NFL Honor show. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it is. That's cool. It is cool. It is cool. We actually pitched what the trophy should look like, and it's very similar to what your trophy looked like last year whenever we gave away the trenchies. I love that Deon Dawkins has pushed for this, because Deon Dawkins loves the position, loves being an offensive lineman, loves life, and will also be considered one of the protectors of the year every year that he plays football. I like that Andrew Whitworth got in on the push. Obviously, he has very great connections at the NFL. Multiple super bowl champ, absolute dog, one out on top. And we think that this is what it should look like. Just put the protector underneath. Yeah. Let go. Yeah. I think we get rid of the trench, the trenches word there, and we put the protector. And I think they handed out the NFL honors and a Kush. I think you should feel very proud of yourself. Influencing an awards or award show maybe for the offensive lineman. Pretty cool. There's no doubt about it. I mean, listen, we've been talking for years. I'm a big believer in the offensive line. They need to be recognized. It's tough to recognize because there is no stats. But if you watch ball and you know, ball, you know how the play starts and how the play finishes, it always starts with the big boys up front. And you forgot about that. What was that? Divisional round. Yeah. And then the. The round after that. Yeah. Championship round as well. Yep. Relax. I just said the team. I said the team. I still had him ranked one offensive line. Relax. Yeah, but we said if you have a good offensive line, you win. He said he hated Jalen and he said no, didn't go. I blame. I blamed it on the court, on the quarterback. You just didn't think you'd be able to make the play that would be needed is what you said. He proved me wrong. He had a hell of a run in. A hell of a run. Yeah, I'd say ass beating in the Super Bowl. I mean, absolute. And they ran the ball, obviously, more than they passed the ball throughout the season. They committed to the run game. I think a lot more people are going to do that. And speaking of that, I think the clarity of football is coming full circle. Con man has a question. Listen, listen, listen. Hold on. Before we go any further, I don't know what that word means, so you're gonna have to tell me what that was. Contextuality, cyclicality. There it is. Okay. It was cycloty. Yeah, it's in there. You heard it. You heard. Don't be a. You heard. First of all, no matter how it's pronounced, don't think it's a word. Yep. But the media. Yeah, no, yeah, we. It is. Connor has a question. You, though. Yeah. Aq, how did you feel about all the offensive linemen going in the first round? It felt like that was kind of the trend this year in the draft, obviously, led by Mike Vrabel, the Patriots, and Will Campbell. But how did you feel as you saw those big dudes fly off the board? Were you just juiced up for those big dudes or what was your feelings Juiced up, Rocked up all the terms? I mean, it was all right. It was fun. It Was fun to watch. It really was. I mean, listen, the big boys, it happens every year. Always take the over on offensive lineman draft in the first because it's always. There's always going to be a run as soon as some, some team makes a pick and they make a pick early at 4, right then there has to be a run because now you're scared you're going to miss out on that. I think offensive linemen, their track record of being able to play and be able to play with longevity has been proven more than the skill positions, I think over time. And so when you see that and you can find a cornerstone, once one goes off the board, they all start to go. And in typical fashion, the Chiefs get a guy who probably was the best lineman in the draft because of an injury with the last pick of the first round. I mean Josh Simmons would have picked by them at the end of the first and just. I think it finished with two picks on the over. I think the over was six and a half. I think it went with eight in the first round. I mean it's a big number of offensive linemen. It was a good group. We will see how they perform at the next level. It's always interesting to see what the transition is. But yeah, I was pumped to see that many guys go who drafted the best one offensive lineman. You think Kansas City Chiefs got the best lineman? If he. I think Josh Simmons on tape. What he put on tape at Ohio State was incredible. He probably would have been the first guy I picked. He tears his patellar tendon against Oregon halfway through the year and teams were questioning that. But talent wise and what he put on film, he was probably the most talented guy. He probably would have went fourth overall had he not gotten injured. How old is he? 21 years old. Transfer from San Diego State, comes over to Ohio State and just bawled out bald out. He'll be able to recover though, we think from the patellar tears, what we're saying. Yeah, I think, I think that's a questionable injury if you're 30, 31, 32. But I mean at 21, he should be able to pop right back into that thing. And Chiefs get themselves kind of a steal at the end of the first round. Of course they do. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, teams were actually super surprised at how quickly he healed that he was. I remember that combine. They were all like pleasantly surprised at how fast he was was healed then. I'm pretty sure he was medically cleared by the time the draft happened or whatever. How was the. How Was the Mahomes outing any. Did you make any new best friends with any NFL players at the Moms outing? Had a great time with Amend, Dola and Edelman. They were. They were a lot of fun. Yeah. Spent some time with Whitworth. He was great. And then Steel Lafferty, one of the best wakeboarders, I guess, in the country. Had a great time with him. Great golfer. Daniel, everybody. Lafferty. Daniel's son, Steel Lafferty. Really? I believe so. Lafferty, Daniels. Daniel Lafferty, one of the goats. Wow. We died. We saw you mingling out there. I think you represented well. How was the golf game? Did you play well? Golf game was really good. Practice round. I was driving the. Out of the ball about 310 down the middle. Surprisingly, there was a par 4, is about 375 on the green. Putting. I hear a ball hit into the front of the face. That's old Patrick Mahomes bombing one about 365 carry into the front, face to the green. I was like, whoa, he's a guy, huh? And golf, obviously, he's a guy at everything else. He has those two par three holes we saw at his house. And he's former baseball player, right? Like, very good baseball player. He's hitting the ball365, you're saying, in Vegas. So he does. He does that in the practice round. I was blown away. I was like, who that? Oh, whose ball was that? They're like, oh, that's Patrick. Jeez. He was in the group behind. And then during the tournament, Marty Fish drives the green. He hits it, like, 375 to win the long drive on that hole. The next. Marty's a monster. Yeah. I'm coming for Marty someday, though, on that golf course. Amen. Yeah. Marty can play, man. Marty can play. Yeah, I heard. I heard. Yeah. Does he come out of the slot? Yeah. Can he get that thing? I don't know if you've heard. I got a new swing. I don't know if you've heard. Yeah. No. Let me see it. Well, we still fa. We still fading the ball over there. Nah, it's got my sl. I'm perfectly straight. You see what Rory's doing there? And JT and whoever that guy is. And that guy. And that guy. And there's Scotty. Oh, that was Scotty. Okay. Yeah, I'm pulling now. Yep, I'm pulling now. I'm pulling that thing coming down the slot. And then bang, the bang. Hit one. I love it. I've only hit one ball Nothing like an Internet golf lesson. Internet golf lessons are the best. They only make me shank the ball for 400 times after I could do an Internet go. I told the story about the unduffable. Do you remember that thing? The unduffable? Do you remember the. That wedge I bought on the. Oh, yeah. Bubba stole it. Yeah, Bubba. Bubba. He might have stole my unduffable bag. I think. I think it's behind that putter. Is it? Yeah. You remember this ape? I bought this thing watching the golf fix at like 3am it was considered the unduffable. I think we went to gci. I do remember that. Yeah, I think we went to GCI literally the next day and I took an entire chunk out of the fairway and I was like, this thing lied to me. And I believe you. You were a little negative. You thought I was a little bit naive thinking that a golf club was going to be able to fix everything about my golf problem. And I'd like to let anybody know if they can figure that out. I would like to buy those clubs. Okay. Okay. Well, I think that thing is also a lie because I think I've tried to chip it on your putting green over there and I think I bladed it right into your office door. So not sure that thing works. It's not enough. That's a blast blade. Sure. That's on you, brother. Happy birthday. We appreciate you. Appreciate. Yeah, you too. All right, we'll wrap up here on ESPN. We'll continue on YouTube Plus. No, just YouTube. YouTube Plus, ESPN Plus, Disney Plus. Tick tock live, period. Boom. That's where we'll be. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. You have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. Let's take advantage of today. All right. Sweet. Anytime somebody passed away, that's like the whole it's hard not to do that, you know, Perspective. Yeah, it normally takes pretty serious things to get real perspective for people. That was crazy walking around. My daughter Mackenzie, Sam, recovering from surgery she had. She's kicking ass too. Absolute dog, Sam. She's a beast. Well, she's had a go through and just like so inspiring. But a lot more time me and Mackenzie doing like, you know, one on one time. Mackenzie1. It has been awesome. I'm running around the house with her. Ah. You know, and then we had this room in the house, smaller room. And it's like got some small steps up there. It's like a secret room that was created by the previous owner for his kids to like, make like. It was, like, literally created for kids to, like, kind of hang out, turn on some music, you know, depending on how she's feeling, you know, Mambo number five has been getting her really good. Yeah. Because she can count. So 1, 2, 3. She feels like she's part of it there. And then has, like, good bop in there. And there's two lights in there, and she has found where the light switch is. And now we don't want the light on in there. Okay. But there's no room. There's no windows in the. In there. So it's a little dark except for the thing in there. So I've started. I have my flashlight out now on her with the song playing. And now she's dancing with her shadow right in this room. Pretty sweet. And then all of a sudden, I bring in the. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And she goes, no. So she, like, starts running for her shadow, away from big shadow. So we're literally just running laps around this room. 10, 15 minutes, and no running from thumb. My finger just doing this around. It was so much fun. Like, just. It was so cool. And we're about to take her to bed or whatever, and I open the group text, and they've been sent in the tweet or whatever. And it was just like. I was in, like, disbelief, almost like it just kind of came out of. You know, you never expect that because there was, like, a lot of things, you know, not going great. I think, for Mr. Jim Irsay. Like, I think we knew that. We heard that there had been, like, speculation and stuff, but nothing really out there. But I was just like, jim will get it, because Jim's had to do it before. I think, like, the thought was always just like, jim will figure it out. Jim will figure it out. And Jim has the best people in the world, literally helping. Like, Jim will figure it out. So whenever I see that, I'd be, like, just, like, blindsided. Like, holy hell, I did not expect that to happen. I guess he is human after all. Like, he is human. So this was going to come, and then you immediately think about, like, his family and his crew and everything. It's just, like, perspective. And then, holy shit, that came out. I think there's so many. You just got to appreciate what we have. We just got to appreciate the fact that we're here, you know, I think we got to appreciate. Don't have to agree with everybody, don't have to get along with everybody, don't have to be happy all the time. But there should be at least a little bit of you know what, we're still fucking alive. And we either treat that as one thing or another. And I think the thing that Jim treated it like was going to try to make the most of us, going to try to give back as much as possible because the position he was in and it's like we can make decisions every day too. Do we want to be miserable existence or do we want to potentially try to enjoy this finite time that we have, that we have no clue when it's going to end? You know, and that always seemingly comes back to the forefront whenever something like this happens, especially to a friend or a family member. So rest easy, Jim Mercier. We appreciate the shit out of you, man. Hey there travelers. Kaley Cuoco here. Sorry to interrupt your music. Great artist BT Dubs, but wouldn't you rather be there to hear it live? With Priceline, you can get out of your dreams and into your dream concert. They've got millions of travel deals to get you to that festival, gig, rave, sound bath or sonic experience you've been dreaming of. Download the the Priceline app today and you can save up to 60% off hotels and up to 50% off flights. So don't just dream about that trip. Book it with Priceline. Go to your happy price. Priceline. If you want tools that stand the test of time without testing your wallet, Harbor Freight is the place for you. 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They scored three goals within the first six minutes of the third period, took the lead, inevitably won six to three after an empty netter was slotted at the end. 10 Dallas over Edmonton in the West, 10 Florida over Carolina in the east. And tonight the Hurricanes and the Panthers. There could be some Fireworks to start this entire thing. Now I've done some more investigating, some journalism with the hockey people. That's AJ Hawk toxic tables here at Boss Conor Anti Schmidt, one half of the Hammer Cowboys tongue digs. I've done some investigating because in my eyes I didn't remember. Like an Eastern Conference final war. Right. Full line brawl. Has it ever happened? I don't think so, but that's because at this stage it'd be very dumb to do that because of penalties and power play and everything. But with the way the Panthers were acting after the last game with what old buddy did to Marshy, which was I think deemed scumbag behavior by bush league. All bush league stuff by all hockey people, I was like, wait a minute. There's a chance that we get the. We get a sticks glove shirt soon as the puck is dropped, start this entire thing. The Florida Panthers are going to have to stick up for their guy because that happening right there was a clear and obvious this guy's trying to. He's trying to weaponize a puck right now. Now granted, guys will dive into pucks like that is certainly what people will do. Guys get hit with pucks. That's why you see busted grills all over the league. But dudes just blasting pucks into guys is like a bush league teenager high school move soft. Yeah. So Marshy was like, excuse me. And he fights the guy immediately, which I think any hockey guy would. I think that was a direct happening. Pavlov's dogs, you do that thing. There's going to be an immediate fight afterwards in the NHL, especially with Marshan. So like I think so Marshan getting kicked out after the. He was mad at the refs. Like you guys don't know puck. And then way they reacted afterwards talking about like, you know, we have no comments. It's like I wanted to know is this going to be a 5 on 5 fight as soon as the puck drops tonight? And I guess a lot of people aren't expecting that. What the hell. Big bombs though. Big hits. They're thinking though, that old buddy, his first is going to be a. Yeah, there's going to be a. Can be a nail. Yeah. There's going to be some runs. There's going to be. Sir. They think the Florida Panthers are. Because just like I assumed and then I changed my mind completely because of the situation. Nobody wants to give up a penalty. Nobody wants to give up a power play. Look what the power play did for the Dallas Stars last night. Yeah, three of them straight in the third period. Three straight goals within six minutes. All of a sudden, the Dallas Stars now are in the lead. They were down 3:1 literally six minutes ago. So the power play is a big deal, especially in the Eastern Conference finals. You're so close to. To the Stanley cup finals. It's like the fight, I guess, is not necessarily a thing we should be thinking is going to happen. Damn. But it is going to be. But they're going to take some good run. The boys are going to take some runs at him, I guess, legally when. When they are allowed, like within the parameters of the rules. So then the Hurricanes are going to have to defend buddy, even though they didn't do. We know. I know that. I know Florida, the Panthers, I know Patty Maroon. Like, they're a. They're a heavy team. They're going to wear on you. They're going to wear you out physically. Like, can Carolina, can they compete with that at all? Yeah. Is. Is Carolina have any bodies that are there to protect maybe the rest of the boys? Because we've seen this in the past where a team has felt obligated to have to fight for a teammate, and they were by far the beta team on the ice. There was an alpha team waiting for them on the other side, and these guys just basically sacrificed themselves for the good of the team and to be a teammate, and that happened. You're asking if that's a similar situation for the Carolina Hurricane right now with the Florida Panthers? Let's go to the back row back there. Former host of Hockey Talk and also men from Canada, one half of the Hammer, Don Cowboys, Bubba Campino in the hat. Nikki Skates with the Hair. Is Carolina equipped to battle the Florida Panthers or is this going to be a bully fest here tonight potentially, to put it simply, no, in the sense that they don't have like a fighter who's going to go out there and Chuck Nux, like a Tom Wilson. Would they have guys, though, like a Jordan Stahl, Jordan Martinook, bigger guys like Martinook, 6, 1, 2, 10, probably stalls. He's like 6, 4, 2, 10, 215, 220, probably. They'll battle. They're not going to shrink from it, but they're not going to go out there and just, you know, throw bombs and turn it into a gong show. They'll stick up for their guys. But I do expect some type of retaliation from Florida, you know, whether it's taking runs at Goss's Beer legally or, you know, maybe play it on the edge a little bit, you know, giving him a little Extra couple little extra shots after the whistle, things like that. Some face washes. Getting in his grill and giving him a hard time all night. I do like that Canada sport is known for. Oh, is that right? We're going to fight. Dumpy. You were befuddled by this entire situation yesterday. You went so far as to lie about the situation to try to make it seem like a bigger deal to others so that they would understand the way you feel about the situation. Are you still in that situation about this? Yeah. I mean, the way Marshawn reacted tells you everything you need to know. Like he would rather be punched directly in the face than get a slapper ripped at him from the own blue line. You know, I did see a certain section of the Internet going, we're upset and mad and shocked that someone did this to Marshawn. We're now champion. Well, exactly. I think that's why it's even more so. This guy has licked people. People's faces. Yeah. Game one, dude. Game one of this series. He's already in your kitchen. That bad? He is all the way in there. Yeah, he's cooking and cooking bacon. That's breath. All right. Good luck to the Hurricanes tonight. I legitimately, I think this Florida Panthers team probably get a little added motivation going into tonight to be the tougher team, which they already are. So that'll be something. And then obviously the west play tonight. Timberwolves and a Thunder. We will watch that. Big news coming out of college football. Heather Dennis of ESPN joins us. Heather, sorry we got sidetracked there with the hockey fighting and everything. Massive breaking news from your Twitter account that we just saw. The 12 team college football Playoff will now be a straight seeding model this fall, rewarding the selection committee's top four teams with the top four seeds in a first round by multiple sources of told espn the ten fold commissioners and Pete Bavacqua, who's the Notre Dame athletic director, comprised the CFP's management committee. They reached the agreement this afternoon. Okay, so we think everybody thinks this is smart. We knew that whenever they went to the 12 team playoff, they were going to have to evolve and adapt to make it better for the second year. Do we know they're meeting today on this and is there any other changes coming? And thank you, Heather, for making time for us on such short notice. Yeah, no, thanks for having me on. They are not announcing any other changes today for 2026 and beyond. The other reason that they came to this agreement, remember, it had to be unanimous in order to implement the change for this fall. And one of the reasons they were able to get to the unanimity is because of the financial component that was added to it. Sources told me that if you're one of the four highest ranked conference champions, even though you're not going to get one of those top four seeds or first round buys necessarily, you're still going to get the $8 million that Boise State and Arizona State got.4 million for getting into the playoff and then 4 million for advancing to the next round for a total of 8 million. So to be able to keep them financially whole was part of this deal. Okay, So I love that. And obviously that source is probably calling you with more information on how they got to it. I think everybody kind of agreed that this was the right move. I think everybody didn't. It seemed like everybody in football, both fans, coaches, and obviously the committee, felt like this was. Is the right move after year one. Yeah. And you know, last time we talked on the show, I told you that everybody in that room felt like this was the right thing to do for college football. But there were some hang ups in there because there were some people in the room who wanted to tie this conversation to try to use it as some leverage for 20, 26 and beyond. Because this is a very divisive issue for the future of the College Football Playoff. In terms of automatic qualifiers, the SEC and the Big Ten, what guaranteed spots? Well, how many do they get? Do they get four? What does that mean for the ACC and the Big 12? Those are the conversations that are going on. And there were people in the room who said, hey, if you want to do what's right for college football, now, let's tie it into the big picture and make sure that we're doing the same thing for 20, 26 and beyond. But they. It's divisive, Pat. We don't know how. College football, seemingly divisive, always has been, always will be, but dammit, it is a beautiful thing in its entirety. You just talked about guaranteed slots for these conferences because they want the championship games not to be held against basically their teams. If you fight hard enough to get to the championship game, it better not be held against you. They want if you make it automatically in. Which leads to Tone's question. Yeah, Heather, obviously 12 teams now and then it was 14 teams was rumored to be the next one. But is there any chance that we skip 14 and go directly to 16? And when could that happen? There is some consideration for 16 and part of the reason for that is to allow for more at Large teams allow for Notre Dame, obviously, which has some protections in the future iterations of the next contract of the College Football Playoff. So I would think it would be 14 or 16. Certainly seems like there's some momentum for 16, but I'm telling you, I am not going to try to predict the automatic qualifiers because there's. There's going to be some pushback. There already is pushback, not only from within the room, but there could be some political pushback as well as. As far as politicians, people in Congress, all the way up to the top. We'll see what happens. I know the people at West Virginia aren't gonna be happy you keep slighting the Big 12 like that, but I think the Big 12 potentially doesn't have as good of a seat at the table because West Virginia hasn't been in the conversation for a couple years now. So once Rich Rodriguez and the boys over there put their big boy pads back on and we're at the table, maybe the Big 12 get a little bit more respect over there, as they should. Got prime over there, too. Come on. Big 12 is about to be. Don't look now, okay. Oh, look now. Asu. Oh, my God. Scatter. Boo just came. What? What do you think he's about to do with the future? Yeah, yeah. The SEC needs to, you know, because guess who's coming. That's a Big 12 Mountaineers. But it'd be a Big Ten because they're the premier conference in the. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. It's a Big Ten, the SEC. And then the SEC's doing this one. Guess who's coming. Big 12, brother. Okay. Don't worry, though. We got the Big Ten. We got enough good eyes to be looking at the top of the mountain right now, though. I'll let you know that. Big Ten is going to. Hey, when a Big 12 start, especially West Virginia, especially in the middle of Big Ten country, should be in the Big Ten. Okay. Or the acc. Very, very much should be in the conversation. I guess our academia is just not high enough. I've long said I'd be okay with kicking Rutgers to the curb and bringing in West Virginia. Okay. I like that. I think AJ Hawk feels the same way. Heather, you need to get behind that because I think you're voice means more than any of ours. Go ahead, A.J. heather, you mentioned these top four teams get $8 million. Does it? Can they do whatever they want with that money or do they have to spread around to the other teams? Can you use it for nil? I wonder, is it school by school or does, can they tell the teams or the schools how they can use that? Well, just be clear, it's not the top four teams, it's the four, the four conference champions. The highest ranked conference get that money and they can use it as they will. I mean, think about this Notre Dame this past season because they're an independent and don't have to share it with the rest of a conference. That $20 million that Notre Dame racked up for making it through the playoff to the national championship game, that's theirs. So you know, that's another question in terms of how they share that with the conference. I'm not entirely sure how they splice that up for those other teams in those leagues, but I know that Notre Dame was able to keep every penny of that. And what do they do with that? I think is AJ's kind of follow up. They put that into the university, the athletic department, the football team. Like who? How does that, do we know where that money goes? Or is it just dropped into Pete Baqua's bank account and they say, Pete, you did a great job with the Golf Channel. You did a great job with NBC Universal. You're damn, you're a great, great athletic director here at Notre Dame. You can just do whatever you want. Like where does the money go? I think that's a good question, aj, what is it? Does it build up the university? Does it go back to that? What is, do we know that answer? Yeah, no, my understanding is that it goes back into the athletic department funds, whatever it is that they make, and they could use it how they, how they want to use it in terms of the nil and the settlement that's going down with a $20.5 million cap to the student athletes. Gosh, I mean, guys, there's so many other expensive stadium renovations and just all kinds of other things. People hear about all these mega million dollars and forget that there are a lot of other expenses that the athletic departments have to run to be self sufficient and sustain the other non rev sports that they have. Yeah, the non rev sports, obviously a big deal. Got to keep those, have to keep those. Need sports, need more sports. Need as many sports as we could possibly have. Also helps whenever you just got donors that will just give hundreds of millions of dollars. That'll help as well. Yeah, that'll help as well. And, and we're all trying to find that for our universities. Heather, thank you so much for joining us on such quick notice. Way to break the news and way to be on top of it. Hey, man, find a quarterback for my Steelers. Next time I'm on, we talk about that. All right. Where are you from? I was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, and I appreciate the love that you showed the Berg this year. I followed along with that, man. I was hoping there was a QB in the audience there for you, though. Oh, yeah, everybody did. Yeah. That was a little worrisome going in there that everybody in this room, arena, is hoping that Aaron Rodgers comes out here and says he's going to be a quarterback and I'm really the only one. And the people that are backstage to know that that is not. That is not even a thought, has not even been a consideration. But I think you're not the only one that's worried. But Tone said yesterday, die hard Steelers fan, Mason Rudolph's the guy. Well, yeah, for the first few weeks. And then, as Heather knows, we got a national champion. Will Howard, he's the future. He's so tall. I love Will Howard. I think all these guys that people are talking about. Jalen Milroe included a lot of developmental quarterbacks in this year's class. Will Howard is an outstanding student. I've heard everything great about him in terms of his worth at work ethic and his desire and just him as a human being. And you know what? I will be a Mason Rudolph fan. Why? Because he's there. Because he's won some football games. Yeah, that sounds exactly like everybody else over there, ladies and gentlemen, calls for points. Iather, didn't you. I will be a Mason Rudolph fan. Okay. If Mason Rudolph is the quarterback, I will be forced to be to be the fan. Because he's there. Because he's there. He's the guy taking. He's taking the snaps. That's right. Right. Well, for Tennessee, Aaron is around. He did Joe Rogan yesterday. He said lot of stuff, you know, a lot of important stuff. He did. He did. I didn't get to hear listen. Yeah. Tone, did you listen to the whole thing? Yeah, they broke down a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. I want four or five hours. Yeah. What? I don't know. I'm just guessing. Didn't listen. Sounds like he lied. There is not a ch. You lied. People died. How long was that? It's a good question. I bet it's three, three and a half, man. Rogan's long time. Rogan goes a long time. 3 hours and 4 minutes. 3 hours and 12 minutes. Oh, sorry. Oh, they covered a lot of stuff. Yes, they did. I saw some tweets There's a lot of stuff. Yeah, I can't wait to listen. Good work. Way to go boys. 3 hours 12 minute conversation, you know. Oh yeah, just a lot of. With young Jamie. Yep. Three hours. He's. He's at a five or six E.R. i think in there a couple times. Couple pee breaks. That's unbelievable. And I'm fascinated by that. Yeah. Let's take a break, come back probably. We're four hours into this. Hey, just listen to it. Let us know we're listening. We're all listening. Oh yeah. AJ is a thousand percent already listened to it. That's boy my circle like real, real shit that they are depending upon me. So I'd like to be able to focus on that and other things that I've going on. So I think anytime he gets clarify himself on things, you know, there is a sense from folks like okay, that makes more sense. And then there's also the people are like, don't care, don't want to hear it. They do that. And I think it's Rogan too. So I think that. I think that's why it's a really good simpatico. It is. I think so Matt, that level, especially Rogan. I've thought about him a lot through this entire thing. Followed and watched what did he. A lot too. Great business, great talent, obviously being able to do what he does. Could you imagine having a show that sways world's policies? I don't think that's what he started out. I don't. When he started, I don't think that's what he thought it would grow into. But yeah, it's wild now. I've had some. I've had some vitamins sometimes, you know. And then I get on a plane all by myself and then I'll see something's blown up. Like something is just gigantic. And I think to myself, like he just walks into that room, sits down, puts the thing on and that's like, all right, who knows where we're headed today? And then there's a chance that like in countries are changing policies because it's a lot. That is a. That's a lot of pressure. That is. I couldn't even fat feels like he handles it very, very well. And obviously he's had mass. But it's been like that for a long time now. He's just been like it's crazy. It is a crazy thing. I don't even know what goes on. Like when something happens during a show in the back of his mind just going like Yeah. I wonder. He's like, oh, yep, that's gonna get some traction. Yeah, exactly. It's an interesting thing that pressure is not something. Plus the amount of people. I mean, the amount of death threats that I get. And we just talk sports, you know, I couldn't even imagine if you, like, oppose their political of opinion. The support. Yeah. Or provided evidence. Yeah. Against somebody else. It's like those people get so mad. The political people, they get so mad. And I understand. Because they're saving the world in their eyes. Yeah. And I think what happens is they don't understand that there's a complete other side that thinks they're saving the world too. Yep. So if you got two people that are saving the world that view the same exact thing. Thing from the complete opposite way. And you both exist forever. I don't know if you're gonna ever. Nope. So are you yelling at a wall? Kind of a bit. Yeah. But we appreciate people doing it. Thank you. Somebody's gotta do it. Somebody's gotta do it. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. We appreciate people doing it. But that seems like a very unfulfilling. Because not there's never, you know, trying to, like, constantly trying to win, but, like, do you really ever win? Like, I don't think so. I don't know. No. I don't know. Like, it feels like every once in a while there's a big win for somebody and then. Then you scroll a little bit. It's like. No, actually complete opposite. It's like, Jesus, you guys are never going to agree on anything. Yeah. Ever. You never. Like, for us, good game happens. Like last night. Pacers, Knicks. I think everybody in sports was a good game. Yeah. Like, Knicks fans were like, that was a good game. Like, we all had a moment last night. Like, all of us had a. That was awesome. You know, needed it here in Indianapolis, too, with the loss of Jim happening, you know, at the beginning of that. So it was like magic. I think it was like a magical night sports provide. And I don't know if I didn't get a chance to because all the sports were happening and literally the stars and oil stars. Yeah. Coming back, it's like, that was a great game. I didn't get a chance to check out what was going on political world yesterday. They get along. Have it. They have. They did, actually. Did they have it really? Oh, yeah. Watershed moment. I'm sure they did. They put their sores down for a second. Yeah. I like that. Yeah. About three. I don't know how many parties everybody Everybody feels like there is two distinct ones, you know? And I know that it's talked about. Feels like a majority of people here, though. Feels like majority people here. But these ones real chirpy. Oh, yeah. These ones are the most. These ones are the most chirpy. They're lied, you know, because they're the ones that are. We're for the calls. We're for the calls. This is what you need to. And they're kind of feeling like they're giving the marching orders almost. Oh, yeah. For the people that are on that. The. The outer side. Periphery. Yeah. Periph of that thing. So the ones that are in the peripheral looking outside going, what am I. How am I supposed to. What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to feel about this? And then the ones on outside. We got you. Them. No, it's us. And then it's like most. You know what I mean? And it's. And then these ones are the loudest because I think they're setting the tone for everybody. And then everybody just kind of filters in here. Like, man, that's a loud dope up there. And then you just go. It's. Then you drift out. What's going on? You come back in. And then. What's going on? Oh, my God. You guys are never gonna. You guys are never gonna agree on. No. Feels like that's a fundamental disagreement here. You reminded me, and thank you for reminding me. While Aaron was on Rogan talking about change, Mason Rudolph was in the Oval Office actually instituting change. Okay. That's true. No. Last week, mandatory goatees. Maybe it was this week. Could you imagine Trump with a goatee? Especially a jet black one, like he should. Good luck over there. Thank you guys for saving the world. Thank you. Appreciate it. Somebody's got to do it. Somebody has to. A lot of people have to do it, I guess, but I'm thankful I'm not in that world. How about whenever they were talking about Stephen Abram for president, and he was like, you know, I'm thinking about it. You should. Yeah. I'm like, really? Definitely. Good idea. Boy, that's real life over there, brother. Like, this is real. Obviously, sports are awesome, and people get very personal and people get very pissed off over here. People call you terrible things in the sports world. I'm learning it's more toxic than I thought it was going to be. Sure. I'm learning. Yeah, it's a little bit more thought. It is unifying. Like, sports are the most unifying. Last night, I saw a high five Happen between two different cultures. Clearly did not. But also, group was next to. In group was next to. High five celebration hug, everybody coming together. I think sports have that. But in the sports media world, sports talk world, boy, it gets a little toxic out there because if you. If you. If you don't like somebody's team, you. You took a shot directly at me. I mean, fuck, I had Colts fans. Yeah. Saying terrible things about me this year because I just didn't, you know, appreciate the way things were being handled over there by the locker room, which I still have hope for, though. They're gonna turn it around. I. So I. I didn't expect how toxic it gets and how mean people can be because they could take it very personally, which I respect, which is why sports are as great as it is. But in the politics world, it's like, everything is personal. Oh, yeah. Everything. Yeah. I guess Stephen A. Is built for it. I guess he'd be built for it. No doubt. Yeah. But has anybody told him, like, bro, I don't know. This doesn't sound like a fun time. Has anybody said, like, hey, I don't know if it's a fun time. Has anybody said that? Maybe. I would assume. I would assume that someone told him. I hope so. Yeah. But he. You know, some people, like, he loves it, living out there. Yeah. Some people, that's what they thrive in, that. That energy. I think you're right. And we need people that do love that. Like, you can tell President Trump loves it. Like, all right, I can take it on the shins. Whatever. Whatever you do to me, I am. And you need people that are like that, Obviously. I think Barack Obresident, Barack Obama was similar. Was able to just continue to do his things. And you look at the people that get to the top just kind of move and move, and you just get battering rammed in the shin on everything. You just got to have no personal feelings, basically. Like, anything anybody says to me is not personal, even though it is very personal. Everything's. I don't have that ability. I don't have that ability even, like, outkick will dance with politics heavily. And I'm like, man, people gotta be so mad at you all the time. It's. Cause they do both sides. All right, that's good delivery, Tony. Yes, it was. That was really good. Actually. They say they're. They say they're adding a balance to the way things are going, which, I mean, that is how it is, though. It's just like everybody does their. And it's just so I'm happy sports can hopefully provide moments of unity. You know, I do feel that the whole world's gonna feel like that someday. Yeah. Yeah. In my lifetime. I think it's gonna happen. Everybody's gonna be rowing in the same direction. That's right. Everybody's gonna. Something's gonna cause that. Something has to cause something has to bring us all together. What can bring us all. All together? Mass. Everybody's going to go shake everybody's hands. World Cup. Yeah. Mass destruction. World Cup. No, Ma. Mass. Mass destruction. A huge. No, we're talking World cup, brother. Geographical event like Cona. Something like that. I could see Argentina and Brazil coming together. Maybe a big TST win. Yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it. Potentially. Bring some people together. We'll be there. I can't wait. Yes, we. Yes. Yes. He. A bicycle kick. We will have boots on the ground. Bingo at tst. All of them. Yeah. All the boots that'll be there will be on the ground. Yep. 10 toes down. That's right. You've been working on your dismantling of referees mindsets. I got some new boots that I'm definitely not going to use them at the tournament. But they are fun. Phenomenal red. Yeah. But do you have any new sayings for these refs? Oh, I'm always ready. The rest are going to see the new boots and be like, oh, boots might wear boots to coach this. Do you have red boots? The boys have a good place. They do have a nice red tongue on them. Yes. Love that red boots. They're the Jude Bellinghams. They're brand new. They're unbelievable out there. Especially if they got a sweet hint of red. Him and the coaches of Concave are going to be great. What they do. Oh yeah. Stack lineup in our. In our group this year. Yeah, you're. You're gonna kill it though. You're in the group of death. Rexams. Wow. They can argue. I mean Atletico, we got a good group. Who we playing first? We got Wrexham and Bournemouth in our group. Yeah, Bournemouth really good. They're playing. They had a professional player on our team. Yeah. The Bourne boys. Matt Richie. I don't think think he'll be out there. They have Richie playing. Richie signed. Still under contract with Portsmouth till next season. So we'll see about that. So I don't know if TST's in a million dollar tournament are just going to let a pro signing pros now. Okay. We want. We want Lou Messi. Boom. Yeah. Hong Kong Ka. I heard he has interest. I Mean, he'll be out of contract pretty soon by the sounds of things. No, he's going to sign back with Inter Miami, is he not, Buddy? Inter Miami has lost six to seven and they've let up 20 goals in the last six. He's coming to Pittsburgh River Hounds. They don't understand. Pittsburgh River Hounds got knocked out last night of the U.S. lou. Yeah, he's been playing every game they're losing. He's playing and they lost six or seven. It's not some Mickey Mouse league. Yeah, you're right, it's bad. It's bad news right now in Miami. It's not going well, Barcelona, pal. Yeah, this ain't just some farm league, pal. This is the mls. Well, you know what? Actually it ties directly too. Correlates with his. His personal security guard not being on the field. Agreed. Yeah, and I don't want to dive into that anymore. But if the MLS tricked this whole thing off because they wouldn't let a security guard on the sideline, they deserve everything. It's common to him. Now with that being said, MLS go league. Yeah, it's tough league. Lou needs to go to the Timbers. I was gonna say it's just a matter of time before he kicks down Beckham's door and says like traming to Portland right now. I want to be a timber. You think Lou Messi was moving to Portland? I think he's certainly interested. You think he wants. He wants an MLS title? Yeah, he wants to. Lou Messi leaves inner Miami. He's packing his. And going where? Portland Backing his out of America. Oh, the Columbus Crew maybe. Yeah. I could see him with Austin. Oh yeah. Potentially bring him in. Yeah. What about Cincinnati fc? Don't they have a brand new stadium? They're very good young lads. He could maybe want to go to Cincinnati. I. I think he'll eventually stay. He just seems very pissed off right now. Well, that's cuz the team stinks. And his security guard's not a lot of beer. I could see him leading the revolution. The revs. Two years for the re. I don't know which country. An actual revolution. A revolution of peace and hope. That's what L. Messi does with that left foot. Maybe you should play goalie if he's so good. That's not a bad idea. He's not playing for America in the World cup, right? Even though he lives in Miami? That has not been decided. Pulisic also isn't playing at the Gold cup, so. Yeah. What happened there? So none of our good players are Playing what? What happened? Rain is not there. Politic. What Reina was a decision by the gaffer. He doesn't want our gaffer is a. Yeah. This actually it turns out. Turns out Geo might not be good. Yeah. He showed up to the last tournament very out of shape. I mean, that's fine. He doesn't play. We've been. We've been acting like this guy is the savior for the long time, and he's just not. But when you give a guy the moniker Captain America and then he's not playing in one of your marquee tournaments, I'm looking at the gaffer saying ballistic. Do you know what the you're doing, pal? What's his name? Ponch. Ponch. Pono. I don't think that's his name. Pete Ponchetinho. I'm out on this some of a. I want him out. Why isn't Pisic playing, though? He's banged up from a long season at AC Milan. He's trying to rest up and be ready for the World Cup. Okay. He's getting ready for the World Cup. Four years next year. Boy. Nice year already. Yeah. 20, 26. It's close. But also, I don't. He's got. He's got a strained hat. They got to put this to take 18 months off. They got to build team together. Like, I don't love it. I mean, when's the. When's the World cup start? Next summer. Next summer. Next June. Okay. So I'll see you there. Soccer. I don't care about this year either. Now what are we going to do? You know what we are right now to the rest of the world? We are Qatar. That's who we are. We're the team that gets a handout. Welcome in. You get to play in the World Cup. And then we get. Because we have like, Pete Ponch or whatever the hell his name is and a Captain America who's got a hurt toe or something. He can't even play. All right. You know what my Captain America did? Lando Donovan. He buried Algeria in the ground. He did. And sent us to the knockout stages. I didn't see him prolific. Do any of that. Yeah. Or Clint Dempsey. Yeah. Bingo. The bald guy. Jermaine Jones. Michael Bradley. Colby Jones. Yeah. Lexi Lawless. Absolutely. Bingo. Taylor Twellerman. Yeah. It's not his. Yeah, man. They got great new tarps. So I like that's his name either. I think it's just Taylor. 12. Okay. Well, that's what I'm saying. Names that we remember. Christian Pulisic. I guess I'll just remember him as being tired. The guy that's tired. Okay, Captain. I don't like that. Me neither. Is that what it is, Gump? She's tired. Yeah, he's resting up from a long season in Italy, the cool guy. But this is. This is. I'm not the fat. He should be playing. I get it, but thank you. This is the first season he's gone without getting hurt and played a full season. Okay, so he's not hurt, so he should play. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Like, it is a good thing that he hasn't gotten hurt. But also I get. He should be play. He came on the show. I appreciate him coming on show, taking time with us. When I was at West Virginia for the. I forgot about that. Yeah. Okay. This guy is acting like he's Captain America. Meanwhile, I think we have given him the moniker Captain America. I think he is super quiet. I don't know. I think a lot of people did. He's masking and raiding around as Captain America when reality. This guy Hawkeye, I think it was. He is a sea level avenger body. He was unbelievable at AC Milan all year, dude. Best season of his career. That was disrespectful to Hawkeye. Okay. Yeah. I'm just saying we need our guys. He's our guy. We need him. We're one year out from the World Cup. We got a new gaffer and don't. Don't we need to go? That's what I'm saying. Like, the team should learn how to play with together as well. Yes. Cuz we're going to do the same thing. Suck. We're going to show up, we're going to go out there and we're going to talk and we're going to be playing Guam in pool play and we're going to tie them and these guys are just going to be bitching the whole time and then it's going to be. And then we're not going to make it out of the. The knockouts. Can't do that. I mean, it's just. I'm done. I'm done. So the problem. I think the biggest problem for us is we talk every time as if we are going to win a World Cup. That's my expectation. So we kind of show we're America. Exactly. We got a big country, a lot of people, a lot of opportunity, a lot of money invested in soccer. No matter how shitty US Soccer has been over the years, which it certainly is and has Been and has been new leadership multiple times throughout my livelihood, my life. Like, we have enough. Well, our best athletes don't get to play. It's like, okay, cool. We still have. We still have our other athletes. Like, there's a lot. We have a lot of fucking. We're a massive country. How come we haven't been able to figure it out? Well, we. So far behind. Okay. How many hundreds of years into soccer do we have to be where we. This was sold as the golden generation as well. That. That is the biggest issue. Like, it was different when you had dogs going out there and doing well and overachieving. This group was sold as the golden generation, and they haven't produced. Turns out they're the patent generation. We don't. We don't have any junkyard dogs and that. And that's just the bottom line. We're the W generation. No, that's the soccer. We're watching. No, we're watching. That's your. Actually, this is. Is this your generation? I say my generation. This is Bone's generation. It's the worst generation. It's. It's the. I don't think that's what. It's the era of punch. And there's another word I could use there with a P, but I don't want to use it. Well, we haven't seen Paunch coach yet. We've heard him try to speak English. It's not good. I don't know how that goes. And we've seen how his boys react to him. They don't want to play. I'm tired, Coach. And you know what he says? Punches once, you grab some pie, and that's okay. Go ahead, be tired. He's not even going to be there, right? He's not even traveling. Who, Pulisic? Yeah. No, he's. He's out. That's what I say. It's not. It's not right. It's not good. Wait, Gump, though, is prolific. Is he gonna sit out for the next 12 months and rest up for the World Cup? I would assume there's 15 more tournaments to play in that he's gonna. Yeah, he's just. He's just taking the summer off. Okay with it? I think he was trying to take the summer off if he's done till the world. No, I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm okay. We need training videos, though. Yeah, exactly. Videos. We need to know he's working. That's what they should do. All of them should take off all the time from now to The World cup and just, hey, no money. Let's get together exactly how much money they'll make if they make it to the knockout finals, semifinals, the semis. If they make it to the semis. All of a sudden these guys are rock star heroes, man. They could tour around like the Savannah Bananas just kicking the ball and like, hey, come see Captain America and the Avengers, you know, and they would actually get a crowd. And then if they. Instead of. They lose to Guam, if they lose to some. Is Guam in the World Cup? Just so I know there's no way. Okay. They might be. Jeff Small might be striker. They have called up some dogs who. From the mls, though, that I think, think. I think are excited to play. We ain't winning. I don't give a. Yeah, but I think that's kind of what's been missing, dude. If you talk about like Jeff Cameron and Breck Shea, they like, were fired up. Every time they put on that tarp. I think they're added a lot more. Guys that are gonna play at the Gold cup, that are fired up to play for usa and they're gonna play in an American style. Not gonna be flopping around. But are they any good? Yeah. Yeah. Diego would be fired up to go get in between the pipes and play for teams. Where's the little. Where's the boy? Where's the real chosen one? The. The Philadelphia, the 14 year old? Where's he at? He better be in this. Is he in this? No. No. All right. What are we doing? Put his ass in there. We got yamile. Yeah. So he's 16. The rest of the world better be talking like this when it comes to flag football in the Olympics. Yeah. I hope they understand that. They got no shot. This better be the vibe, because that's how I feel. I feel like we are. Are Sweden trying to put together a flag football team to compete with the United States when it comes to soccer. Well, on that note, let's get out of here. We're supposed to be a positive group, but it's hard to be positive about this soccer team. We haven't seen this dude's team, though. We need to. Yeah, we need. When you see Paul, I can see it in my head. And guess what? They're all tired. Just see. Let's see how the gold cop goes. I just. Just wait and see how the Gold cup goes. If the Gold cup is. Then you can say, punch, you've had enough. Are you eating? But either way, he's getting the World cup player. I don't want to play. You're eating one from yesterday. So much. Here's something funny. Yeah. Guam was actually the first country in the entire world to be eliminated from this World Cup. Of course they were eliminated. They were eliminated in 2023. That's what we're saying. Yeah. JC Mateo is a backlash. That's why he wasn't. Wasn't on the pitch. All right, let's have a great afternoon. We'll see you tomorrow. Watch the conference finals tonight. We'll be talking a lot about it. And tomorrow we'll have a nice feel good Friday to go into a great weekend. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice, it might change your life. Rest in peace, Jim. You did good, brother. Let's enjoy tonight. Tape Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, Team. Goodbye.