PMS 2.0 1400 - Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Scott Hanson, JJ Watt, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

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The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 – Episode 1400 (September 3, 2025)

Guests: Miami Head Coach Mario Cristobal, Scott Hanson, JJ Watt, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

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Overview

This jam-packed NFL Eve episode of The Pat McAfee Show features dynamic discussions on the return of both college and NFL football, the resurgence of the Miami Hurricanes, Alabama’s coaching pressures, Travis Hunter’s NFL debut as a two-way player, behind-the-scenes insight into the NFL RedZone with Scott Hanson, sports scandal deep-dives, and lively banter among NFL legends and sports personalities. Headline interviews include Miami’s Mario Cristobal riding a resurgence, RedZone’s Scott Hanson offering a studio tour and prep secrets, and JJ Watt breaking down player experiences, team captaincy, and his move into European football ownership and NFL commentary.

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Main Topics & Key Segments

1. Kicking Off NFL Eve and College Football’s Early Dramas

• Pat sets the table for NFL Eve (00:00) — NFL season begins tomorrow, excitement is high.
• Recaps college football’s opening headlines:
  • Miami Hurricanes’ electrifying win over Notre Dame
  • Carson Beck as Miami’s next potential QB star
  • Is Alabama “dead”? Early panic around Kaylin DeBoer's leadership post-Saban

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2. The Curious Case of Alabama and Kaylin DeBoer

(06:21–13:58)

• Panic in 'Bama Land: Fan unrest, DeBoer’s “win-now” expectations, and living in Saban’s shadow.
  • "Kaylin DeBoer could have been a king at Washington... He wanted to chase what significance forever is." — Pat (08:19)
• Program comparisons: New England Patriots post-Belichick, Steelers’ shifting identity post-cowher.
• Recruiting and five-star talent: Can DeBoer turn it around with loaded classes and his winning history?
  • "I believe he's always won... That did not look like a Kaylin Deborah team." — Pat (10:37)

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3. Playoff Expansion & College Football Shifts

(14:19–15:20)

• Expanded 12-team playoff format: “If you get in the dance, that’s what matters.” (14:45)
• Debates about possible dilution, more blowouts, but more schools get a shot.
  • "That’s the thing about it—more schools get a shot to shine." — Connor (14:58)

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4. NFL Storylines: Travis Hunter’s Two-Way Debut

(15:42–19:24)

• Jacksonville Jaguars’ Rookie Experiment: Travis Hunter starting as a WR, backing up at CB.
• Darius Butler insight:
  • “Majoring on offense, minoring on defense. I think that’s the right way to start it out.” (17:16)
• Personal comparisons: Darius’ own two-way college experience and the logistical challenge at the pro level.

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5. Exclusive: Mario Cristobal Live

(20:04–33:26)

• Cristobal on Miami's Momentum: Replacing Cam Ward with Carson Beck, long-term strategy and recruitment intensity.
  • "He's a legitimate dude. People love being around him... relentless worker, just fits.” — Cristobal (21:19)
• Recruiting South Florida:
  • "It’s always been important... you see a lot of misses [when you don’t keep locals]." — Cristobal (24:49)
• Culture, alumni involvement, and keeping focus with early success.
  • “Miami is now learning how to handle success again... when everybody is trying to kiss the crack of your butt... you gotta stay clear of that.” — Cristobal (27:10)
• Building in the trenches: Changing style with time but prioritizing defense and a power run game.
• NIL era challenge—Jeff Bezos and The Rock as hypothetical boosters, and business realities.
  • "I played here on some badass teams... I learned quickly, I like playing with those guys." — Cristobal (23:16)
  • "He was my teammate here in Miami." — Cristobal on The Rock (32:17)

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6. Scott Hanson’s NFL RedZone Masterclass

(43:25–56:27)

• Behind the scenes tour of the RedZone studio: screen setups, spotters, and prep routine.
• Discussion of “controlled chaos” in the control room—coordinating real-time cut-ins and the complexities of live TV for millions.
  • “It’s like calling plays in my ear, like if coach to quarterback communication system, and then I get to the line of scrimmage and execute whatever the football demands.” — Scott Hanson (48:21)
• Addressing the end of “commercial-free” era and commitment to not missing big football moments:
  • “We will not miss a touchdown. We will not say, ‘Let’s sell some pizza or pickups,’ but do it.” — Scott Hanson (55:29)
• The emotional weight of being Sunday’s NFL narrator for millions.
  • “It’s a massive responsibility when everyone in the sports broadcasting industry who’s not working on an NFL Sunday is most likely watching RedZone.” — Scott Hanson (49:00)

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7. NFL News: Steelers, Captains & Vets

(36:09–40:59)

• Cam Heyward’s hold-in ends, Mike Tomlin minces no words: “Cam doesn’t participate a lot in team development.”
• Veteran leadership—Steeler’s captaincy culture, T.J. Watt, and Aaron Rodgers narratives.
• Lighthearted takes on holding in/holding out and earning captain stripes.

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8. Scandal: Steve Ballmer, No-Show Jobs, and Sports Salary Cap Loopholes

(65:02–74:03)

• Pablo Torre investigative bombshell: Clippers’ owner allegedly using shell companies to pay Kawhi Leonard (and others?) beyond salary cap.
• Hosts ponder spread across NBA, potential for other leagues, implications for Pro/College sports, and the NIL future.
  • “If Ballmer’s doing this... There’s no way Ballmer is the only owner that’s doing this.” — Pat (71:58)

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9. JJ Watt on Soccer Ownership, Broadcasting, and NFL Life

(75:09–86:31)

• Life as new Espanyol and Burnley owner: Navigating soccer business, chants, and British bureaucracy.
• NFL Captaincy: Why he prefers the classic one-offense, one-defense, one-special teams approach
  • “I like three. I like offense, defense, special teams.” — JJ Watt (84:59)
• Behind-the-scenes in TV: Prepping for games with Ian Eagle, balancing family, travel, and TV work.
• Player’s life stories: Playing through pain, getting epidurals (“truly one of the most insane situations I’ve been a part of”—JJ Watt, 89:54), and the mental toll versus physical.

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10. Travis Hunter & The Challenge of Playing Both Ways

(111:37–115:12)

• JJ Watt & Darius Butler on Two-Way Play: The exhaustion, mental challenge, and why what Hunter is attempting is unprecedented in the modern NFL.
  • “If he truly pulls this off, I have utmost respect.” — J.J. Watt (112:08)

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11. Lighter Moments & Signature Show Banter

• Legendary high fives dissected, hair style talk with JJ Watt, and Pat’s travel anxieties.
• College branding wars: Adidas/Nike deals for major programs — “Adidas is making a big-time play.”
• Fun with guests—charity raffle winner Owen drains an NBA three live (125:20), winning money for 30 fans!
  • “Step right into it — first time!” — Pat (125:28)
• Show closes with camaraderie, a call to kindness, and a vibrant anticipation for opening NFL weekend.

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Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On Alabama’s Ruthless Standards:

  "If you don’t win every single game, why are you here? ... Saban was able to do it ... how come you’re not able to do it? What’s going on with us?"
  — Pat McAfee (06:32)

• On Miami's Football Culture:

  "When those guys (alumni) are there, it makes a difference. When I came to school here ... before our coaches could come rip our ass, you had Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown ... right in your grill, making sure you hold up the standard."
  — Mario Cristobal (24:49)

• On the NFL RedZone Experience:

  "It’s the NFL doing something and then me tapping America on the shoulder saying, hey, hey, hey, look at this—in Dallas, in Houston, in Detroit ..."
  — Scott Hanson (51:41)

• On Team Captaincy:

  "Some teams...you’re like, wait a second, is that your roster or the captain’s list?"
  — JJ Watt (84:43)

• On Scandals/Salary Cap Loopholes:

  "If this is true, every owner should be doing this."
  — Pat McAfee (75:17)

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Highlighted Timestamps

• Miami/Alabama discussion: 06:21–14:18
• Mario Cristobal interview: 20:04–33:26
• RedZone Studio Tour with Scott Hanson: 43:25–56:27
• Pablo Torre scandal analysis: 65:02–74:03
• JJ Watt on playing through pain: 89:11–91:44
• Owen’s clutch NBA three for charity: 124:45–125:31

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode dominates with the energetic, comedic, and candid tone that defines The Pat McAfee Show. Both insiders and superfans will enjoy the blend of authentic locker room insight, industry scoops, and instant-classic banter. The heft of real football talk is balanced by hilarious tangents, unforgettable quotes, and moments that feel both big-league and local.

For listeners new and old, this episode serves as a definitive kickoff for the 2025 football season—both on the field and in the (virtual) studio.

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Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the ThunderDome on this NFL Eve. Wednesday, September 3, 2025. This program begins now. Football. It's magical. Obviously, college football is already into its season and there's already storylines developing that we're going to have to talk about and get to talk about for the next 20 weeks. On that note, Miami University, the youth University of Miami, Miami University is in Ohio. The University of Miami Hurricanes football coach Mario Cristobal will be joining us in about 15 minutes or so. Obviously, this Miami team, what they did last year was awesome to watch with Cam Ward, it catapulted him into being the number one overall pick and a generational player described by the Tennessee Titans general manager. His leadership was obviously phenomenal. That team won on a run that we all got to experience in a glorious fashion. Had Hurricanes fans believe in. The youth was all the way back. Well, after a big win over Notre Dame to kick off their college football season with Carson Beck, a highly paid and highly touted quarterback, leading the way, they look like they're once again back in relevance and back in big conversations. Carson Beck, obviously a veteran of college football, able to kind of maneuver in the pocket, able to put him in bad plays or in good plays, able to get the ball to his wide receivers, able to execute just college football at a very high level. And then all the weapons that they have, all the athletes down in South Florida, and I guess the recruiting processes by Coach Cristobal are relentless and never ending. Is the U all the way back. We shall see. I cannot wait to talk to coach in about 15 minutes or so. College ball already has magical storylines developing, like is Alabama dead? There's reports coming out of on three now that boosters are saying, wait a minute, hold on. They say what we're thinking, that's college football to a tee. We'll certainly chat about that then. Also, the NFL kicks off tomorrow. Philadelphia Eagles having their banner night. Somebody needs to tell Coach Sirianni he was asked about it being banner night and expectations, and this is how that entire thing went. How locked in is the super bowl winning coach? Well, find out. Now, you guys have emphasized you're moving.

[Scott Hanson]

On from last year, the last banner Night in 2018.

[Pat McAfee]

It's famous that the fans booed the Eagles at halftime because they weren't happy with the way things were going, albeit it was banner night.

[Scott Hanson]

How do you feel about the fact.

[Pat McAfee]

That even though it is banner night for you guys, the fans will still have the standard of performing and winning.

[Scott Hanson]

At a high level?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I didn't know it was banner night.

[J.J. Watt]

We won't be out for that.

[Pat McAfee]

End of answer. I'm excited for this Sirianni. If he's super locked in all season, what can they do? Can they go back to back? Well, they got the Dallas Cowboys trying to figure it out after a 29 year championship drought. Can they kick off this season in a much better fashion than all the drama that was off the field? That's what the NFL brings. And then we got Chiefs and Chargers on Friday and then a huge college football slate on Saturday. And then on Sunday, ladies and gentlemen, it's back to Red Zone 2.

[Tone Diggs]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Wow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

Scott Hanson will be joining us at about 1240, 1245. I can't wait to hear how he prepared for what's about to be, you know, hours of NFL football. Remember we made that change? Yeah, had to. It wasn't commercial free anymore. No, it wasn't. They added a couple L wraps. We're dropping some commercials. Yeah. We're in 50 million households. Okay. You paid a subscription fee. You're welcome. That you get to have this. We're also going to maybe drop a Verizon ad in there. Sure. We're maybe going to go ahead and slide. Door dash. Hey, you're kind of hungry right now. Even listening to Scott Hanson talk for about what, three straight hours here. You haven't really taken a break or munch on anything. Doordash will get you whatever you need. Are you feeling a little sick too? We got some medicine we can deliver. Doordash, you want a little water? You should hydrate. Maybe a little bit of that. You want a little THC drink? Yep. DoorDash get you that. I mean, anything you need while you're watching Scott Hansen somehow not pee all day while break down everything happening around the NFL DoorDash has you. We're going to sell those commercials. So this is no longer commercial free football. This is NFL football. That's right. And you need to know with NFL Football, there's going to be a little bit of advertising because everybody wants a piece of our shit. And the reason is because everything is electrifying. The Red Zone channel is such an incredible invention. I mean, it is outrageous how great it is. It doesn't matter if you're a die hard fan of one particular team. With the way YouTube TV now has the quad box, you just have that Red Zone channel on there. You're keeping up with all the games that you can't keep up with. Yep. Everything that matters. That's Happening in games that maybe you can't get for whatever reason or don't have enough attention to pay attention to. Scott Hansen's got your back. I can't wait to chit chat with Scott Hansen because he has to do the research for every team he's calling every team, every game, every week. So he's got to know everything. This guy's a Rolodex of information. I'm excited to hear his thoughts. And maybe he'll be playing with a football like he was.

[Tone Diggs]

I hope so.

[Scott Hanson]

Of course.

[Pat McAfee]

Super zany.

[Scott Hanson]

He was in a car.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, he was.

[Pat McAfee]

He was in a car with a football team.

[Darius J. Butler]

Is it always with him?

[Pat McAfee]

Football. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler, asking the right questions. I. I would assume Scott Hansen always has the football. When his contract was up though, I think he put the football down. Yep.

[Tone Diggs]

Had to.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

He said I can go do other stuff if you never do.

[Tone Diggs]

Picked up a hockey puck.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, park zone. Exactly.

[Connor]

Now he's got that football. He's got that thing on him though.

[Darius J. Butler]

Always.

[Connor]

Always will.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's the toxic table that knows everything at Boss Connor and Attai Schmidt. Sweet elephant T shirt. That's my favorite animal. Really?

[Connor]

Is that right?

[Darius J. Butler]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

As I've grown older and learned more about animals, the elephant is my favorite. In between those massive ears, there is a brain. Don't forget shit. No, it doesn't. And it's petty. Yeah, I'm a big fan of the elephant. I like the way the elephant operates. Yeah.

[Connor]

You ever seen the video of the elephant who goes back to the old lady's funeral in and stomps on her grave because she screwed with him when he was a baby elephant?

[Pat McAfee]

See, that's true. That's one of those things where because of how smart and petty the elephant is, people would believe it's true. So maybe the elephants getting a little slanderous here.

[Connor]

Stories about it got videos there is real.

[Tone Diggs]

This thing comes in and raises hell in the entire elephant.

[Pat McAfee]

Looking at the photo. Who's dead. Yep, that's who I thought it was.

[Connor]

This at like you saw a photo. I think he got wind of it. You know, I'm sure these things talk because of how big their brains are. And somehow it got back to the first one and then boy, oh boy, it ravages this family's funeral. It's crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, let's talk about the elephant in the room and what people aren't forgetting. They aren't forgetting what happened down there with the elephants of Alabama and Roll Tide World. What happened when Saban was a coach. And now Kaylin DeBoer is being judged directly against peak Nick Saban.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, tough.

[Pat McAfee]

What are we doing? Yeah. Doesn't work out well. We're. We're loafing. 21 Dan Orlovsky. Yeah. Dan doesn't know shit. Alabama fans just down there in it, it's like, well, if you move on from Kaylin Deborah, which people are already talking about, which is college football. Yep. Especially one of these big programs. If you don't win every single game, why are you here? You're getting overpaid. These players, you think you're getting overpaid, you're getting overpaid. You need to get the hell out of here. We need to win. Nick Saban was able to do it. That was just a couple of years ago. How come you're not able to do it? What's going on with us? We. You can go all the way back to Bear Bryant where he was playing 152 players each game.

[Tone Diggs]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

When we were 12 deep at the running back position, which I learned there was some scholarship situations going on there. I guess Bear Bryant was really good at giving scholarships to every person that he thought could play football. And there were some scholarship limits, I guess that came into play. But whatever the case, the Alabama fans were expecting to be in the conversation. Hey, we. We are in the conversation all the time. The conversation that we're in is championships. We're not in the conversation of low fin. And no, we're not dancing.

[Connor]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Playing like ass and getting beaten the trenches. That is not what Alabama football is. We as Alabama fans have been able to go into restaurant in any town in the sec, in any college football place and say, we are the Kings. How you doing? Alabama's here. You're welcome. Roll Tad. And we were able to get any seat we wanted. We were able to talk to any team we wanted. Kirby Smart even got a little popped off. There's Georgia fans. They start, we're Alabama now. We can't do that anymore. You know why? Because we got 21 lows. Says Dan Orlovsky. That's right. Against Florida State. So that is a. A fascinating thing happening down there in Alabama. And a lot of people have been pointing out that Kaylin DeBoer could have been a king at the University of Washington. Could have. He had success up there. They're put you right up there next to that mountain. What's the mountain over there?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, Mount Rainier.

[Pat McAfee]

Beautiful. Mine. Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Right off Puget Sound.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm telling you, you walk so nice. You're downtown, you're walking. There's buildings here. It's not bad here. A little miss, you know, early in the morning. And then you turn right as soon as that building ends and you look, there's just the most beautiful mountain of all time. Just sitting there like it's a, like it's a postcard. Got the snow right on top of it. It's checking. They said they were going to put Caleb DeBoer's face on that mountain if he was able to turn around the University of Washington, keep it going. And he certainly did there for a while. Oh, yeah, that panics year. Remember the Roman Empire? How often do you think about Rome doing things? The whole, everything they had going on, it was up playing hard. Good recruiting process. We were all the way out there celebrating it. And then he says, you know, I need to get to Alabama, go change this entire thing. People are like, he could have been a king, but he wanted to chase what significance forever is that 1/2 of the Hammer Cowboys AP Tone your thoughts. Like, what do you think it is? Because this kind of thing happened with Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia as well. True. Now, granted, at that time, Rich Rod was getting into a lot of bickering, I believe, about like, what our football team had earned. Whenever it comes to a little bit of assistance, paying coaches, other things happening. Because if you compare what we have now versus what we had then, I mean, we had some really low quality shit. And then everything got built up through our football team. Allegedly, Coach Rod was looking for a little bit more assistance from the program. Program didn't want to give him any. So there was a little bit of bickering there. Then he felt like obligated, he had to leave because he was never going to get really what was needed like everybody else was getting. But him going to Michigan, I assume he would look back and say, like, could have been king. Now he's getting a chance to kind of write that ship, which I'm very pumped for him to get to do that. But I do wonder how much Kalyn DeBoer thinks about that in that brand new office of his over there.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, I agree. Because I mean, he, he was a guy who was, who was level up, leveling up. I mean, he started at the lowest levels and won there and came through and was all the way up to Washington. I think there's a handful of schools and I'm sure Rich Rod would say this still there's a handful of schools that you don't say no to Michigan being one of them, Alabama being one of them. You know those blue blood, blue collar schools that you just like. Washington is a great football school. They're in the Big Ten. They can probably pay their coaches almost as much as Alabama. I'm not sure if it as much as Alabama, but they're up there. But there's some schools that you do not say no to and Alabama is one of them.

[Pat McAfee]

So 70 million is allegedly what the buyout is. Kaylin DeBoer.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's a lot of money.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

But I believe in Kayla.

[Pat McAfee]

I do too. I believe he's always won. Like he's always won. That did not look like a Kaylin Deborah.

[Darius J. Butler]

It did not either.

[Connor]

Recruiting class though, you mentioned. Yeah, Bama most five stars coming in eventually. That might help.

[Pat McAfee]

They got to run though.

[Boston Austin Connor]

They got to try.

[Connor]

If you're Bama, you got to look up at New England and see what happened up there. It's the only real comparison you can do with like a legendary coach leaving. And I'm not saying get rid of DeBoer because I still believe in him. I almost bet Ty Simpson to win the Heisman after that first drive. And that's for shoot, brother. But you know, the Patriots, their brand of football last year completely changed and it wasn't what it was when Belichick was there. Not even like the win loss record. Just brand on the field like you're talking about when it comes to loafs. And I'm not saying get rid of Kayla now, but if that doesn't flip around quick like you are better off going with somebody that can, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know what Coach Rabel has done with the New England Patriots. We have no idea. We assume it's going to be good. We, we know it wasn't great there for a one year coaching stint to get fired.

[Connor]

I don't think anybody understands though, like at least Rabel understands what the product of a New England team is that people like.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, what the fans expect.

[Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, all those things. I mean it happened with Pittsburgh a little bit. So Pittsburgh, obviously, Steelers running defense. Running defense. Then they got like 5 wide, 5 wide with like Todd Haley, Bruce Arians and everything like that killer base. And they had success and it was great. Everybody was happy when they had success. When you stop having just the most amount of success though, they immediately go, this ain't Pittsburgh Steeler football. Like, this ain't what it is. I think that's why a couple coaches got ran out of town. I think that's why Todd ended up getting run out of town. I think Bruce Arians in a similar fashion, I think that type of offense doesn't fit the city. So I understand what you're saying. And Alabama might be the same way. Kayla Boer needs to win, win games.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Immediately though he knows that.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, that. That was what I mean, he knew going in that if it, it wasn't unbelievable from the start like this would be the reception, like people, no matter what were going to react like this if they weren't, you know, going to the playoff or going to the national championship or, or whatever the case may be. But he also, it's not like he forgot how to coach. I'm sure he is still supremely confident in himself. So yeah, now it's just, hey, we, we got to get going. We gotta, we can't lay an egg next week. Can't lay an egg in the sec. We, we know the talent we have and you know, let's stay to the course here and not completely fall apart after week one.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I think the thing with the Boris too that is tough is Saban, what lost four or lost four times, two as a double digit favorite his entire time there, 20 years or whatever it is. And Deborah's done it four times now in his.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, whatever.

[Connor]

That's what every Alabama fan saying.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they know. That's it. Yeah.

[Boston Austin Connor]

You can't lose the ones you're supposed to win there.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's why I came to.

[Pat McAfee]

That is. I guess that is what he signed up for.

[Connor]

Did he though?

[Pat McAfee]

Because that sucks.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean that's why he left Washington. You know, you have Washington national championship, you come to Alabama because just like the same conversation we had with Bill after week one, you could be a great coach. You guys can be prepared, you can have all these different things. But if you're not getting the best players in the country year in and year out, you don't have a chance to be in the national championship conversation year in and year out. And now with him being down there, we talked about leading the nation in five star recruits next year. He retained a bunch of guys on that roster. So you have the pieces and now it's on you as a coach. BA talked about it yesterday like coaches lose more games than they actually win. So now the effort, the energy, the intensity, attention to details, those are the things that Kaylin DeBoer, which he's always done, has to be great at, but now at the highest level. So like I said, I got faith in the turnaround. Hopefully it was just a one off. We'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

We like Calen DeBoer. Yeah, yeah, we do. That's why watching that game the other night was like, he's going to get. He's going to get crushed.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Very nice to us.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's been very nice to us. And also.

[Darius J. Butler]

No, no, no, we can't. Oh, if we start, if we start doing that. He's a nice guy. That nice guy. Shit.

[Pat McAfee]

He is. In general, he's a nice guy and he wins.

[Tone Diggs]

He does win.

[Connor]

I personally think as we're talking about it, should have thought in his head like, hey, Bear Bryant of Washington will be cool. But yeah, I guess going to Alabama, because you mentioned it, you know, you got to go to Bama to be in the conversation for a national championship. Like now you don't because there's 12 teams and it might suck. Like at the end of the year you might say like, well, Notre Dame didn't play anyone. Well, Washington or one of these PAC 12, you know, they didn't play anyone, but they're in the conversation because they made it. So like, is it worth the.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, when you're starting with 12 and you're counting down to one exact. You know, if you get into dance, that's really all that matters.

[Tone Diggs]

More teams, a lot more fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, it's supposed to be, but that first round was not a lot done by the bad team.

[Tone Diggs]

That's a good point.

[Pat McAfee]

That was pretty big.

[Connor]

Yeah, but that's the thing about it is that more schools get a shot to shine.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And boom. You know, when you, when you put it that way, you can't help but this is the right way to crown a CFP national champion. But when you're watching some of those games, it's like, oh, it feels like we're just got more. More blowouts. Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

This game shite.

[Pat McAfee]

And boy, we got a lot of off time for the higher seeds. Did they get rusty? They just had a month off.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Congratulations. You. You did the best out of everybody.

[Connor]

Well, and that's the quarter Finals, New Year six.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. You know, that kind of rotating bases should help.

[Mario Cristobal]

So cold.

[Pat McAfee]

That was a great song.

[Tone Diggs]

It was.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Let's talk a little bit NFL before Coach Cristobal joins us. Travis Hunter is listed as a starting wide receiver and then I believe he's second string left corner or something like that. So the mindset here is he's majoring at wide receiver and he's getting a minor and cornerback. And we probably assume that this is the right way to go about doing this. Once again, this is not a normal situation for anybody to handle, let alone brand new head coach, brand new GM in a city and a program and organization that's trying to make a huge jump here. Huge jump. Stoner, who's the general manager, actually came out the day after drafting Travis Hunter and saying the game of football is supposed to be tested, the boundaries are supposed to be touched. You're supposed to try to change the game. That is. That is Travis Hunter. I gave a full speech about how, holy shit, football was once like this. Now it's completely different because Travis Hunter is here now. We're getting a chance to see how they're going to unroll it. What are your thoughts on this, D? Butch, what does this say to you? Whenever it's a major and wide receiver, kind of a minor in cornerback at.

[Darius J. Butler]

This moment, kind of expected on this level. And Stoner and Liam Cohen, they're dealing with something that nobody's really dealt with before at this level. You made the big trade to draft him at number two. He dealt with a little injury preseason with the shoulders. So I don't know how that affects, affected or impacted their plans going forward. But you start with a major and wide receiver. It's a lot more moving parts on the offensive side of the ball, between the ears when it comes to game planning, adjustments and all those things being on the same page with Trevor Lawrence and all those things on the offensive side of the ball than there are in the defensive side of the ball. If you're looking at the schedule here, these different weeks, you see the different weapons when you come across these different teams where you have matchup problems on the defensive side of the ball. If you are the Jacksonville Jaguars, that's when I think they'll implement that chess piece. Travis Hunter, maybe it's a. It's a cat defense. Hey, we're going to play this third down, red area. Hey, you got that cat. You got ja' Marr Chase this week on these critical situations. You got Nico College. You have whoever that opposing number one threat is, and you put your best cover guy on him. That may be just 15, 16 snaps that game, but we'll see. I can't wait to see how it actually unfolds. He's a great, great player. We know who he is, not only physically, but between the ears. What he showed in college football, to be able to kind of attain all that information and be in the right places. And we talk about loafing. This guy rarely loafed. I never really saw him loaf on the college level. We know how tough it is to play on the National Fall League physically, week in and week out. So that's the number one thing to watch out for. But I'm excited to see this Travis Hunter experience and see it starting. Majoring on offense, minoring on defense. I think that's the right way to start it out.

[Pat McAfee]

I like the thoughts and everything you laid out. We're not saying that's definitely what they're thinking. We are just saying this is a possible mindset for them. Like whenever they face a team, I think it's two, three, four, five, six, seven, a 10 or 11, whatever it is. Yeah. Two, three, four, five, Six, seven, 10, 11. Got it. Okay. And so all those weeks they have a plethora of weapons on the other side, so why not add in one of the greatest athletes? You're just saying this could be the mindset that the Jacksonville Jaguars are having.

[Darius J. Butler]

This could be just because of how tough it is. And I'm coming kind of from personal experience. I played both ways in college my senior year, so there were certain matchups where we went to. We're playing Virginia, we're playing Rutgers or West Virginia. Hey, you got a 15 play script on offense. So I'll go and practice with the offense, 7 on 7, practice with the offense in red area. And I knew my plays, I knew my position, but I majored on the defensive side of the ball. But I knew exactly what situations I was going to be going into on the offensive side of the ball. So I think that's a great way to start it out, you know, on this next level, which, like I said, nobody. We haven't really seen anybody do it yet.

[Pat McAfee]

And then if he's able to do it full time on both sides, that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Baby, that'll be insane.

[Pat McAfee]

That'll be unbelievable. That'll be so much fun to watch. We can't wait to follow his journey in a tough AFC South.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, tough AFC south to the gills. Yeah. Obviously Houston's got a lot to say in that conversation. Sure. For good reason. They've won it a few times. Tennessee, they got a guy. They got a guy generation, new stadium coming. And then obviously we got Trevor Lawrence in a new Adidas commercial with a guy who's going to be playing both ways. Feels like vibes are high down there. Stoner feels great. Liam Cohen is beloved. I mean, they got it for the next couple, building a new stadium, I think. Yeah. I don't know how they're going to do. They put three pools in there. I Don't know. Probably have to AFC south stack. Nobody wants to come down. Yard pool. Oh, my God. Somebody swim.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Everyone's got the length of the field with the.

[Connor]

With the ball with Travis Hohner running in a touchdown.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. All right, ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is a guy who had watched the end of that conversation. We do apologize to him for that. He is the head coach of the undefeated Miami Hurricanes football team, ladies and gentlemen, Mario Crystal ball. Coach, what do you think about putting a hundred yard, 100 yard pool so we can swim down the side as your boys? Carson Beck's throwing a deep ball to Tony down there. What do you think about that, Coach? Pretty good.

[Mario Cristobal]

We're gonna want this pool again.

[Pat McAfee]

100 yards, right down the sideline.

[Mario Cristobal]

Right down the sideline. Sounds like you're kind of stadium man. I don't know if I can make that happen.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you walking on top of the pool would be cool. Yeah, like you're on top of the pool and you got people swimming underneath. Nonetheless, Coach, congratulations. Okay, Cam Ward comes in last year. You guys become a viral sensation with how the games go. Obviously, massive plays happening, magical run throughout the entire season. We have a Miami fan with us, and he was obviously each week living and dying with you guys, as I assume you were. Now you have to reload. You lose the number one pick in the draft, Cam Ward. Why Carson Beck, the guy for you guys this year, and what has he shown since getting there that makes you believe, like, yeah, we might have lost an incredible leader, an incredible quarterback, but we were able to find another guy that'll be able to do that for us.

[Mario Cristobal]

Well, you know, he was at Georgia while Monkin was over there, was now with the Ravens. And, you know, Monkin and our offense coordinator, Shannon Dawson, they're really tight. You know, he's a. An Air Raid disciple. But, you know, Monken successfully blended, right? The power run game, the rpo, the Air Raid, with an unbelievable run game, really diverse. And we felt that we could do the same thing with Shannon Dawson and just discussing Carson and watching him on tape, he had all the tools, man. And when he had good protection, he lit it up really well. In 23 last year, they got, you know, beat up a little bit. It wasn't maybe the same system. It just fit us. And the guy is. He's a great human being. Like, he's a legitimate dude. Like, people love being around him. He gets after it. Relentless worker, and he just fits.

[Pat McAfee]

And you got wide receivers making catches like that. I mean, I mean, absolutely Absurd catch there by CJ Obviously, Tony went crazy. And are we thinking about maybe putting Bane on offense? Are we thinking about maybe getting for the ball a little bit?

[Mario Cristobal]

We'll see how Heisman voting goes down the stretch, man. If we need to, we might do that. But you saw him with the ball in his hands. He's been playing football since he's been knee high, and he does it all, man. And if you have a chance, watch him. And watch Mesador, our other defensive end, against Notre Dame's tackle and see what a great job they did controlling the line of scrimmage.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we watched, we saw it. Yeah, it was. That was the thing, I think I noticed with these college teams now that I've been baptized kind of into the world through college game day. It's like, you got to be big and you got to be fast like that. You have to be big and fast. Now, granted, everything else in between the years have to have that as well, but the body types of college ball at the highest level, you got to be big and fast. They talk about you being like a relentless recruiter. What are you looking for for guys that you're trying to make hurricanes? And what do they mean by saying that you are a recruiter? 25 hours. Because we're wasting now seemingly seven, eight minutes of you potential recruiting time, by the way they describe it.

[Mario Cristobal]

You're killing me. You're killing it. Hopefully this will help out, too. No, I mean, always.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it.

[Mario Cristobal]

Yeah, I played here on some badass team. I was a nobody. But the guys I played with, they were like legitimate, real deal dudes, hall of Famers, gold jacket type guys. And I learned quickly, like, I like playing with those guys because, you know what, on Saturdays, they're going to kick ass and take over games. And. And I came back to Miami as The G in 98, 97, 98, when they were coming off of, you know, some really bad years and trying to put it together and going, man, that does not look like Miami. And then guys like Chuck Pagano, right? He was a DB coach here. Greg Shiano, Butch Davis, Larry Coker, a lot of guys that were, you know, showing me the road, hey, this is a way we got to build this team. We got to recruit really good players. I'm like, yeah, because those guys aren't very good. So we hit a slew of home runs, man, in a very short amount of time and flipped the program. And I just became. I've always been a big believer in the right Kind of people and in football, the right kind of people that are legitimate, like elite competitors.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Florida in South Florida, more specific, getting good at college football again is great for college football as a whole. But boy, Florida was looking dry for a while. A lot of flights out of town. South Florida native D. Bud has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Too many South Florida kid, grew up a hurricane fan, obviously went to UConn. So a hustle for life. But how important is it? And we pat talked about your recruiting, recruiting South Florida specifically and keeping those guys down there looking up and down the roster. A lot of South Florida boys and then looking on the sideline with all those legends. Michael Irving, Ray Lewis, Willis McGahey, Andre Johnson, Edge, a lot of South Florida guys themselves. How important is that for you, Coach?

[Mario Cristobal]

Man, I was about to plug those guys in the game. They're about to kick off to us. I'm like, all right, let's get Devin Hester in there, see what he can do too, right? No, it's always been important, you know, and you know, I was away for a long time. I've been away for 20 plus years before finally leaving Oregon and coming back this way. And from afar you would see a lot of misses, a lot of local misses, and then some national misses because Miami is made up from, you know, a national aspect as well. The big bodies up in the Northeast, the Midwest and sometimes even the West Coast. But to get guys like Reuben Bain, think about it. Reuben Maine is part of our first full class, so he's a true junior now, right? And like all the fruits of all that hard work, all the labor, man, it's paying off. So yeah, when those guys are there, it makes a difference. When I came to school here and why I came to Miami was because I always saw those dudes coming back to the games. If we were playing in a big time game before our coach should come over and rip our ass. We had Michael Irvin, Jerome Brown, may he rest in peace, piece, Winston Moss, Melvin Bratt, and all these guys right in your face, right in your grill, making sure you, you hold up the standard. So it's always been a natural thing and it's good to see that coming back.

[Pat McAfee]

It's been talked about for years and years. That was just to hear the use back, the used back, the used back the used back last year, felt it, the whole world experienced it. You know, you go out to Cal for game day there. The Miami fans traveled out there, like a lot of them. And it was like they were feeling as if we're all the way back. And now after beating Notre Dame early, you got some games here early, brother. Like Boston College, obviously. Big one for, you know, them and for the ACC here as a whole. USF Florida, Florida State, then Brahms, Louisville, you got Pitt after Thanksgiving up there. So I mean, you're gonna have some cold. It feels like you have a Bethune.

[Connor]

Bethune Cook.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, sorry, not BC. I'm so sorry. Bethune Cookman. That's 100% on me. That was Coach, I was wondering what.

[Mario Cristobal]

The hell you were talking about.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach Reed. Yeah, yeah, for us.

[Darius J. Butler]

But we talking about South Florida. You know those athletes, Coach, how important? I know it's one game at a time, but you look at that schedule, you see Florida State you played. You see Florida State, you see Florida there, all you guys are in the top 15. I know it's early right now, but even surrounding that, how much do you hear about that with all these Florida teams kind of being back at their standard, what it used to be?

[Mario Cristobal]

Well, think about it. Today was probably, maybe yesterday was the toughest day because for the first time in a while, Miami is now learning how to handle success again. So we had to be all over their butts about, look, when everybody tries to kick, kiss the crack of your butt on the way to class and tell you how great you are and you see all this stuff, you gotta stay clear of that and get you over here so we could be all over your butts and push you and grind on you so you could focus on what gave us this opportunity to begin with. You know, so it's all learning process. But I mean for us, like you mentioned, it's Bethune Cookman right now, you know, it's tomorrow's practice. We got to get after like today. Francis may know against Ruben Bane in a one on one, looks like Jurassic Park. That's the way Miami should look, right? Yes, that's our focus, man. Just like right here, right now. Not get ahead of anything. Not skip steps, man. We got a lot of work to do, but we're doing it and we're making a ton of progress.

[Pat McAfee]

You talk about Jurassic Park. AP Tonus question for you.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, coach, obviously we know you are a trenches guy. You were big, born and raised in the trenches. Trenches. And you talk about Bane and Francis going up against each other in practice. Everyone said preseason, you guys have a top 5o line, D line. And you talked about Mar marrying the air raid with a power running game. And we talk about all the time in the NFL how you know The Eagles just won the Super Bowl. It feels like we're coming back to having to play defense and run the football. Are you seeing that in college football as well? Because, I mean, last year, all final four teams, they. They played incredible defense and they ran the first football. So are you seeing that as well in college?

[Mario Cristobal]

I think so. I think everything is morphing and evolving and blending. I mean, I mean, you think about it, I was at Alabama with Coach Saban when it was. We're almost like a. Like a boa man. We, like, you kick your butt up front, then just strangle you on defense and win 17 3. But you have to start scoring points, right? And then the spread and tempo. Remember, as Coach Saban used to call us, Al Qaeda because we would, like go faster practice. So it just kept going from. People started saying, you know what, if we could just combine that almost like that basketball, like, spacing mentality in the passing game and blended in with the right type of play action, protection concepts, great screen games, a power run game. You could. And varied temples. Right? Like a good pitcher. Mixed up your pitches all the time. If you could make that a reality, then you could have something special. And we've become that. And last year, for us, that was a generational offense, and we feel like we can be even better here in the coming years.

[Pat McAfee]

Enemy of the state. Coach Shaven is calling you. Practice. These guys are enemies of the state here. Al Qaeda.

[Mario Cristobal]

Taliban is what he did.

[Pat McAfee]

Coach, that's. What are you trying to do here? What are you trying to do here? In the picture, Carson Beck had a. Had a handshake with a db. I think you feel like your team's tight. I feel like that is the X factor that really separates the great teams from the good teams. I think your teams have to like each other. I think they have to hang out with each other. I think they have to want to fight with each other. Like, I think that is a huge piece. Do you feel that in your locker room? Because it looked like it from watching the game.

[Mario Cristobal]

Yeah, it feels like that. You know, your biggest concern is when you're getting all this talent, are you getting independent contracts or are you getting legitimate dudes that want to win while pursuing their goals. Right. Their dreams? And like, we do a good job just doing a lot of stuff together. I mean, it's. We're lucky we're in Miami, right? We're. We're in the middle of Coral Gables, and then we're at, you know, Prime 112 and Smith and Wolinsky then we're. We want to get the team together. We'll go on a speedboat and go to the beach for a little while, but then.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Mario Cristobal]

Be back here in this. Recruiting.

[Pat McAfee]

Recruiting. We're recruiting right now. We're recruiting. We got palm trees everywhere. We're on speedboats. We got good sun here.

[Mario Cristobal]

Players. More players anyways.

[Connor]

But.

[Mario Cristobal]

Without a doubt, I think it showed. It showed because I don't think it's hard to win games like that unless you're tight and you're. You're slugging it out for each other. And that was a muddy, bloody game up front. I mean, that was like Rock Em Sock em Robots for four quarters. And I. I think our guys just found a way to just dig a little bit deeper.

[Pat McAfee]

It was a great game. We appreciate you guys doing that for us especially opening week. It was. I think you're both teams a. Okay going forward now. Your team in this modern era, especially more players. More players. You're going to need assistance. Connor has a question for you.

[Connor]

Yeah, Coach. You're a, you know, 10 out of 10 recruiter. Obviously you were the recruiting coordinator at Alabama and now it's changed a lot with Nil. I believe just Jeff Bezos was in the building in a suite at your game. And also Dana White now has a daughter going to Miami. Have you reached out yet for maybe half a billion, Maybe one billion? Jeff Bezos, I think, pisses that in the morning for maybe a couple more players. We're talking about all these great Florida schools. You know, a couple extra dollars might help.

[Mario Cristobal]

Oh, you know, soon I think we'll. Our next lineup will have the rock of Pat McAfee. And we'll go from there. We'll line them all up, man. Hit him up for some dough.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm already giving enough money to West Virginia. You. You need to call Dwayne Johnson. He just got a 15 minute standing ovation for his acting role in the Smashing Machine. It's like, I think he's about to crack into. They're talking Oscars. Oh, yeah. Hey, the Rock somehow. Papatouille. Yep. Zoa Energy drink. TKO chairman. Yep.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Production company.

[Tone Diggs]

Seven bucks.

[Connor]

Final boss.

[Pat McAfee]

What'd you say, Coach?

[Mario Cristobal]

He was my teammate here in Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

What a stud, dude. What was he like in college? Incredible work ethic. I assume you guys all saw that from very young age.

[Mario Cristobal]

He's the guy that walked in, like doing 315 for 20 on the bench press, you know, just kind of like a walking bicep. Just a monster. Monster physique. And. But really quiet, really reserved, and a great player. A great, great player. We were loaded, man, even back then. Great players had to take their, you know, wait their turn and whatnot. But he was always a great teammate. Great player.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he gave back to you guys right in there at Dwayne Johnson locker room or something. I think he. He ties back to his times at the U for a lot of things and a lot of inspiration for what he does. A great success story, especially if you's all the way back. We can't wait to watch you, Bethune Cookman this weekend. Then we got the Florida lineup. Don't look ahead, Coach, but usf, Florida, Florida State, everybody's good. First time. All Florida teams have been ranked, right?

[Connor]

Top 15 since I think it was 2006.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. 06. And it's early. It's early.

[Scott Hanson]

It's early.

[Pat McAfee]

One week.

[Connor]

Let's keep going.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't be taking those kisses to the ass crack. We don't need any smooches on the butt. We need to get back to work. Coach, we appreciate the hell out of you and thank you for stopping by.

[Mario Cristobal]

Appreciate you guys. Thanks for having me.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Mario Cristobal. Wait, wait, wait. Coach. Coach. Coach, you still there?

[Mario Cristobal]

I'm still here.

[Pat McAfee]

You speak Spanish? Is that what I remember? See? All right, Ciao. Grazi. All right.

[Boston Austin Connor]

That was a little Italian for you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right. Sweet.

[Connor]

Makes it in there.

[Pat McAfee]

So I guess Coach Saban. Coach Saban used to have Mario crystal ball. If there was like a. A recruit or a coach or an area he was trying to get to where you know, Spanish speaking, it was like, coach Crispball, I need you to come, please. Need you.

[Connor]

Need you here, Coach.

[Pat McAfee]

Need you here. I guess it's just fluid. Oh, yeah. Whatever you need down in Miami, that's probably an incredible thing to have. Yeah. Yes. What a beast. You guys like him down there. Love them gumpy. Let's talk about it. What were your thoughts on Mario Crispball? Because I remember a couple years ago, remember, you guys had the lead, hand the ball off, fumble happens, goes back the other way. We all feel obligated to say that can't happen. Coach. Coach. I can't obviously hang on to the damn ball. Obviously hang on to the ball, but that can't happen. Feel like he got judged harshly because.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'm just saying that strictly from how we even had to. Had to talk about. Everybody had to talk about it. What he's done since then is really turn the entire program around number one overall pick in Cam Ward, obviously. Perfect marriage. And it feels like Carson's the exact same way. And he's recruiting 25 hours a day. They're saying, gumpy, you got to be excited as a you fan.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, it's awesome because I used to watch him a lot when I lived on the west coast when he was coaching Oregon, and I liked him there. But this Corey Weatherman guy, the new DC they got, you see his passion and the fire he has on the sidelines. That was the problem last year. Cam Ward knew the defense couldn't get a stop. If you didn't score in one possession, there was a good chance you were going to lose that game.

[Pat McAfee]

Congrats to Miami being back and congrats to all of us. Get a chance to see Michael Irvin, and damn, I forgot to ask him.

[Darius J. Butler]

What's Michael Irving's title? Yeah, you gotta have some.

[Connor]

I think he's leader of the pack.

[Pat McAfee]

What is. He's the Minister of Culture.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. He's McConaughey. Yeah, right. Leader of the pack might be Michael. Michael Irvin.

[Connor]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Minister, maybe of Drake.

[Connor]

Drake was technically like Toronto Raptors ambassador. I granted that was pro team.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Because I asked McConaughey's title, I said, what are you, like, Chief of Culture or something? He said, I'm not an executive culture legend, of course.

[Boston Austin Connor]

You see his golf swing, by any chance?

[Tone Diggs]

Oh, my God.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's McConaughey.

[J.J. Watt]

So smooth.

[Pat McAfee]

Of course, somebody said, you need to act like a golfer. And he was like, all right, let me watch it.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, no problem.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I got it.

[Pat McAfee]

What do I got to do? These hands got to get real loose up here.

[Darius J. Butler]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

It looks like. And I'm just trying to pinch that thing. Right. He's awesome. Yeah. Everything about him, his vibe. Whenever he walks, it looks like he's floating and it makes. And his hair is just all so perfectly primed.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I looked it up. He has another title. It is a Minister of Culture, but he's also the professor of practice at the university.

[Darius J. Butler]

Is that Michael?

[Boston Austin Connor]

No, that would be.

[Pat McAfee]

We're just trying to build for Irving, Professor. Trying to build for them. We have some great news coming out of Pittsburgh. Cam Hayward's gonna play football this year. Wow.

[Connor]

For the Steelers.

[Pat McAfee]

Steelers.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Never would have guessed that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. The hold in, I guess, is not going to be an issue. Mike Tomlin says this.

[Darius J. Butler]

I'm certainly expecting Cam to play.

[Pat McAfee]

Cam doesn't play a lot of team.

[Darius J. Butler]

Development over the last several years.

[Connor]

My job is to get him in and out of the trove and I've done my job. And so there are no reservations about his participation or his readiness.

[Darius J. Butler]

I'm sure he's chopping it a bit.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Holding over. He's playing football for the Pittsburgh Steelers. What Coach Tomlin is saying, expecting that's a big deal. Obviously, last year was all pro. Now he was seeking a little bit more money because they redid his contract last year to take away money, I assume from this year. So now he's at a lower level. And all anybody was saying is, okay, Cam, come on, come on. That's basically the way everybody treated this. We thought maybe he'd get a little bit more money before the season. Doesn't seem like that's going to be the case. And now Cam Hayward's playing for a fully stacked Pittsburgh Steeler team.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, it's huge, especially week one against the jets, who are going to have a good running game. And Derek Carman, who they drafted in the first round or out of Oregon, is going to be banged up for the first couple weeks. So that's huge. Obviously, need came in the middle.

[Pat McAfee]

He's.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I mean, he's been the best player on the Steelers defense for a long time with T.J. watt. Did Tomlin. Did I hear him say him call practice team development. He goes, cam doesn't participate a lot in team development. He just called him.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Then he said, it's my job to get him in and out of Latrobe. I did that. And I dare say Vincent. Whatever he said, yeah, it was great. Way to word things, which is Mike Tomlin football to a tee there. So basically we are all getting a little bit overzealous about this hold in Cam. Probably not practicing those days anyways. Yeah, what years is for him?

[Connor]

15, 16, 17, 18.

[Pat McAfee]

In the. In the middle of a defensive line. Take it on body.

[Darius J. Butler]

So much work.

[Pat McAfee]

Captain, obviously voted Aaron Rodgers, T.J. watt and Miles Gilbert. Dog.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Connor]

Oh, okay. Well, I guess if I'm a Steelers rookie, I know how to get my paycheck. I guess I'll just hold out like Cam Hayward and that'll be a captain. And, oh, Aaron Rodgers, he's up there. He didn't work very hard this off season.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean he didn't work?

[Connor]

You don't know.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's what people are saying.

[Boston Austin Connor]

He's just saying.

[Pat McAfee]

He said Aaron didn't work hard this off. So you see that ball coming in, you think he just woke up doing that?

[Connor]

Oh, well, Aaron wakes up doing that. Yes. Every day, actually. I do think he does. Does wake up and does that and you know exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's because he's worked.

[Connor]

How many quarterbacks were playing with those squirty guns on stage this offseason while everybody else was.

[Pat McAfee]

He's working on his aim.

[Connor]

Yeah, well, he ain't shooting in football.

[Pat McAfee]

That's where you're wrong, my friend. Because he throws that thing like he's pulling.

[Connor]

Throwing darts. Exactly.

[Boston Austin Connor]

You'd never seen the longest yard if.

[Connor]

He was throwing water balloons or maybe. Maybe some sort of water contraption instead of a squirt gun. I'd feel a little better. I'm just saying. Two of those four captains. Captains for the Pittsburgh Steelers are essentially. Oh, excuse me.

[Pat McAfee]

Three.

[Connor]

I forgot. T.J. watts up there, he held out, too. Hey, look, if you want to be a captain.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't like. I don't like what Connor.

[Connor]

You just gotta hold down.

[Pat McAfee]

I just want to let everybody know. I did not know Connor was going to take that.

[Connor]

No, me neither. Till I saw.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And Connor got real excited. I think whenever his brain started piecing that whole thing together, he could tag Pittsburgh a little bit. But that's how Pittsburgh knows people from Boston are going to react if he.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Doesn'T realize that it rains in Pittsburgh and you got to play with a wet ball. And that's what Aaron was doing with squirt guns, was just squirting his balls down so he could, you know, participate.

[Connor]

In practice as long as he was squirting his own balls.

[Pat McAfee]

I just want.

[Connor]

On his own.

[Pat McAfee]

He certainly was because he needed to get good grip on that thing. But with all that being said, Cam Hayward in year whatever, aaron in year 400. TJ wat still there. It feels like now is the time where they're all going to walk in and play the ball. Chris Boswell kickers that still a thing going on?

[Boston Austin Connor]

He'll be out there kicking two out, I assume.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't. I assume he says I would.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I believe we would have heard.

[Darius J. Butler]

So should have been captain.

[Connor]

I think slay's in his 13th year, right?

[Pat McAfee]

14Th.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. He's a OG.

[Connor]

So many vets on that team.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're going. They're going for it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Ramsey.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. Yenzer, I think by and large, grizzled team guaranteed Super Bowl. Yeah, well, I mean grizzled bet some.

[Darius J. Butler]

People been saying a little longer than tooth said that.

[Connor]

Longer than tooth want money. That's what I've heard.

[Pat McAfee]

I will tell you this. I think. I think there's yinzers that are very worried about how this is all gonna play.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I wouldn't. I wouldn't call them yinzers.

[Pat McAfee]

Then I. I think there's a lot of. Oh, real nice. We got all the toys, huh? We got everything that's supposed to be. We're supposed to win the Super Bowl.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Feels like you're listening to one person.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I think he represents a lot of people, though.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I don't think so. Not my people.

[Connor]

I want all the teams up here to go to the super bowl or do the play.

[Darius J. Butler]

Thank you.

[Connor]

By far, the team that goes nine and eight that's the most entertaining would be the Steelers. If the Steelers go nine and eight, it will be comedy watching that place will explode. Yeah. Just imagining, like, a 7 and 2 start and then a 9 and 8 finish.

[Pat McAfee]

You know what it kind of feels like when Kenny Pickett was slicing and dicing that pre season. Do you remember that?

[Connor]

Atlanta.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God. Tone was.

[Boston Austin Connor]

He thinks that would be. I was born in 99 and 8.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we know. We know you were. But we're saying there's. There hasn't been a lot of, like, really ridiculous expectations out of the Pittsburgh Steelers fans.

[Boston Austin Connor]

I think, for a bit since 2017.

[Pat McAfee]

I think there hasn't been this one in the Kenny Pickett preseason. 1 feel like the biggest. Like the Kenny Pickett preseason was two or three years ago.

[Tone Diggs]

We all knew that was a joke, though, so that. So this year, I mean, imagine how excited they were when Kenny Pickett was 7 to 7 in the preseason. You got Aaron Rogers. Now things are changed a little bit.

[Pat McAfee]

Here we go, Steelers. Here we go. P's going to the Super Bowl.

[Connor]

Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

If they don't fire everyone.

[Mario Cristobal]

Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Moving on. Nope. Get your.

[Connor]

Here we go.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Everyone just got extensions. And by the way, I. If I remember correctly, that guy from Pittsburgh that you keep listening to wanted Aaron to play in preseason, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Okay. He said, I want. I want. I want to see two, three snaps. Him in that Pittsburgh Sailors uniform. Don't we think he should take a couple snaps so we could see it?

[Boston Austin Connor]

You tell that guy to come see me next time.

[Pat McAfee]

He actually is coming today.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Oh, good.

[Pat McAfee]

I just hope you'll see him.

[Connor]

I really just hope the con artist is conning the other teams and not his own city.

[Pat McAfee]

City. Whoa. Whoa.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's what I hope.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what I hope.

[Boston Austin Connor]

It's gonna be a fun year, isn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

It's gonna be a long one. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's gonna be spending a lot of Time with us. Okay. He's gonna be in all of our lives and we're excited for that. We still have no idea how he does it. His bladder control is one that they should tell stories about. His ability to navigate throughout an entire league's actions and storylines is second to none. His contract was up. I think he had more leverage than anybody in the history of on air talent. I hope he utilized it. Even if he didn't, we're thankful he's back. The host of the Red Zone channel, ladies and gentlemen, Scott Hanse. How you doing, brother?

[Scott Hanson]

Gentlemen, welcome to our humble abode. I asked to do this interview from the Red Zone studio. This is the first ever interview I've done from the actual Red Zone studio. You welcome us into your place all the time, so if you want a tour, we can do that or we can just talk how the Steelers can get to the super bowl starting on on Sunday in the early window of NFL Red Zone.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we will certainly talk about that again when with somebody that isn't you. What we can do with you is see your studio. I had no idea we had potential access. Thank you for allowing us to be the first Red Zone studio interview. Okay, so it's a massive green screen. All right. And we're standing behind that podium the entire time. Is that what we're doing?

[Scott Hanson]

Yeah. Now I know you're gonna make fun of me because like, look over here. Right here. Let me go.

[Pat McAfee]

Go full screen on this or no, step back.

[Scott Hanson]

There we go.

[Pat McAfee]

It's up and down. Got it? Yeah. That's a standing. It looks like the COVID This is.

[Scott Hanson]

Not some ego play by me. You know this Pat. The, the. The crew uses this to balance the green screen here like a Marvel movie and whatnot. The desk is real, the host enthusiasm is real, and most importantly, the touchdowns are real. But the background is completely fake.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so how many hours are you in there? What time's day start?

[Scott Hanson]

So I'm in Los Angeles. This is right next to Englewood, right next to SOFI stadium in inglewood, California. Literally 300. 300ft this way is SOFI stadium. I, I like to be the first one in the studio. I get in at little after 5am on Sunday. Kickoff is 10am Pacific on Sunday. So five hours of ramping up. I have a little. I eat my. I eat my food, eat my breakfast at the desk right here. Okay, I know you want to know this. No, there's no toilet back here or anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Scroll down, scroll down, scroll down.

[Scott Hanson]

There's no, no gatorade. Jug back there. Just like I stand right here.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a little hose. Is there a hose in there? Was it. Was that a wire?

[Tone Diggs]

What was that wire sort of catheter?

[Pat McAfee]

What was it?

[Scott Hanson]

It's. Yeah. Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, here.

[Scott Hanson]

You really want to get into it?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, go down. Go down a little bit. What is that? What's that down there? That's a little catheter there or.

[Scott Hanson]

No, it does. It does. It does sort of look like a tube. That's some kind of electrical cord. So anyway, looking into the camera here, here's what you guys find fun, because I only. I only stand here for the first 90 seconds of the show. As soon as we go to the Octobox, when the kickoffs are all beginning, I come around here and I stand right here and watch this wall of monitors. They got a, you know, camera light up here for the Pat McAfee show today. That's not usually here, but we have influencer. We have every game on all these big monitors. Go into quadrants. I'll put all eight games on. Over here, I've got a massive monitor that's tapped into the scoreboards of every stadium in the NFL. And I got all the scores live with the clock exactly synchronized to the game clock. So the action could be a little two seconds off. But that is the game clock down here. I've got what you got at home. We call it our program monitor that I know what you're watching at any given moment, and then I can say, all right, we just had, you know, whatever the Patriots did just this. The Cowboys, the Eagles, whatever, let's get it over here. But yeah, we rock and roll. My right hand men, my version of Boston. Connor, Ty Schmidt, Tone Diggs, they sit right here. Tim Galanyans, Brian Laravy, they have their laptops popped open to give me any type of stat fat player identification. And we rock and roll for seven hours with no commercial breaks.

[Pat McAfee]

So you got two spot. That's awesome. Thank you for the tour there, by the way. That's fantastic, Stu. Thank you for showing us how the sausage is made. And that sausage, by the way, is a must for any NFL fan every single Sunday. You've become just an institution in of yourself on one of the quad boxes for everybody's YouTube TV run. You got two spotters there. Who's deciding? Like, are you cutting to these games in real time? Who are you talking to? Is there some. Is there a truck? Is there a room? How many people are in there? I assume that control room. It is.

[Scott Hanson]

It is. Controlled chaos, but chaos indeed. The control room is right above us over here and it has about 15 to 20 people in it at any given time. Our producers, our coordinating producers, Alan Flowers and Andy Gregg, our line producers, Todd Mossberg and Brian Nettles, they're in my ear constantly saying, all right, we're on the Falcons game right now. It's third and eight from midfield. If they go incomplete, they're going to bring out the punt team. So let's go to Green Bay. But keep in mind, Seattle's coming out of the two minute warning timeout and their first and goal from the six. So if they come on a commercial break, let's go to Seattle. Otherwise, go to Lambeau Field. However, if the Falcons get this first down, we'll stay with this drive.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[Scott Hanson]

So it's like calling plays in my ear, like if coach to quarterback communication system, and then I get to the line of scrimmage and execute whatever the football demands.

[Pat McAfee]

The people that I've met that come to mind that could potentially pull off what you're doing, Michael Cole, period. That's it. I think what you're doing is, is like very difficult and you make it look very easy. And that's why I hope whenever we saw your contract was up, it was like, oh, buddy, now is a good time to be Scott Hansen. So we want to say congratulations to you and also thank you for getting that done because you're a massive piece of our NFL season, brother. Massive piece of the entire thing, Pat.

[Scott Hanson]

I appreciate it, fellas. I appreciate it. I've been on the show like once or twice before and I say this every time. It is a massive responsibility. I mean, I love doing what I do and I hope the enthusiasm comes across your televisions. I love football, I love serving the audience, but it's a massive responsibility when everyone in the sports broadcasting industry who's not working on an NFL Sunday is most likely watching Red Zone to get the 10,000 foot view. Players tell me all the time when they're not playing on Sunday, they're watching red zone. Coaches tell me when they're not playing on Sunday, they're watching Red zone. So it's, it's a heck of a responsibility. And I try and respect the game, respect the players, respect the coaches, and honor our audience who joins us, millions of them, for every single Sunday that make Red Zone their, their ritual and their routine. So I appreciate you boys. I'm going to give everything I got here. Season 17.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[Scott Hanson]

Kicking off on Sunday.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go. You've Earned it all, Scott. Yeah, we appreciate you. On that note, D butt has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Just mentioned season 17. How many, I guess, weeks or years did it take you to get actually comfortable with all of that chaos that you just mentioned that goes on behind the scenes? And now you're going into a game, assuming you're going in pretty comfortable every Sunday afternoon. What, Sunday morning for you now?

[Scott Hanson]

Yeah. So. So debug. Good to see you, sir. Happy New Year to you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Happy New Year.

[Scott Hanson]

You know, football, Football before is. Let's go, let's go. Before I was the host of Red Zone, I was a roving reporter. So I used to go to Lucas Oil Stadium and cover the Colts game, right? And I would do some pregame reports, and then during the game, I would sit up in the press box with all the rest of the talking heads and just watch the game log stuff. But I'd be the guy up in the press box that would have my laptop open. And as Peyton Manning was doing something on the field at Lucas Oil Stadium, I'd be elbowing, you know, the guy and the gal next to me on media row saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know Peyton's doing this, but Tony Romo just hit Terrell owens on a 50 yard touchdown in Dallas and oh, oh, oh, Adrian Peterson's got 100 yards at the half in Minnesota. Like, so. I have always wanted to get the overarching view of the NFL, even when I had a live game going on in front of me. So to answer your question specifically, I. I was not entirely comfortable, but reasonably comfortable because I always want to watch more than one thing at a time. My brain is wired that way. And I love multitasking and just saying, oh, man, I want to tell this person about this going on. I know you're watching this, but check out this right here. And that's what red zone is for. For seven straight hours. It's. It's the NFL doing something and then me tapping America on the shoulder saying, hey, hey, hey, look at this. In, in Dallas, in, in Houston, in Detroit, whatever.

[Pat McAfee]

And the only people you really attacked were normally punters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, super positive. It's all super positive. Everything's positive, which is why I like you. Touchdowns, good things happening. Boom, boom.

[Scott Hanson]

I shouted you out. When it. When a dude bangs a 70 yarder, I shouted you out on.

[Pat McAfee]

I love. That's a kicker. And I do appreciate that punters only appear on the Red Zone channel when.

[Scott Hanson]

One'S going, I meant a 70 yard punt. That's what I'M talking about, okay?

[Pat McAfee]

I like you doing that.

[Scott Hanson]

But you ask the fellas. Ask. They know that I have before, okay? I've said for the brand, man, I saw it, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

The first 10 years of a murder scene of the punters, though, okay? This is like we're talking very recent history here.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

First 10 years, if we see a.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Bunt, we know why there's the only.

[Pat McAfee]

Time a punter would go on Red Zone channel is because it's going the other way. So I hated the Red Zone channel. As somebody that was, you know, playing at the time, I'm like, redtown Channel. Everybody loves it, huh? It's great. Yeah. Only time I'm getting on there, somebody running right by my ass, so. But now that I am just a sports watcher and no longer a punter, it might be the greatest invention that any sport has ever had. Like, whenever it comes to a media thing like college football is going to try to do it, I hope. I think there's always been.

[Scott Hanson]

Are you guys going to do it again? Last year you dabbled in it. Are you guys going to do.

[Pat McAfee]

It was so many commercials. We were still doing the commercials of the regular. You know what I mean? Like, you got the 32nd ad thing is still a thing. I guess with that, you would have to sell that as an L Rap digital. Like you guys. NFL.

[Scott Hanson]

Oh, boy, here it comes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, what is it? How many hours of.

[Darius J. Butler]

He just said commercial.

[Pat McAfee]

Full commercial. Football.

[Scott Hanson]

Pat said commercial free.

[Darius J. Butler]

I heard you say. What did you say? Yeah, we can run it back.

[Pat McAfee]

Can you give us a preview of what it's going to sound like on Sunday there? Yeah, I'm close my eyes.

[Scott Hanson]

Oh, man. Let me. Before I do it, can I. Can I just say one thing when it comes. I'm the host of the show.

[Pat McAfee]

What if I said. What if I would have said no right there? You said, can I say one thing?

[Scott Hanson]

I'd run through the stop sign. The business, folks handle the business, of course. And I have no say over different elements that could, could or could not be in the show.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay?

[Scott Hanson]

And so I'll just tell you right now, when you see me come on the air here, we're going to hit the Octobox. We've got eight games in the early window, taking you around all the different cities. And then when we get into it, ladies and gentlemen, it's been more than 250 days since the first full NFL Sunday, but we are back and seven hours of red Zone Football starts now.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Well said.

[Scott Hanson]

I realize that might be a Slight change to some of you, but that's what. That's what the catchphrase will be going forward.

[Pat McAfee]

We all understand what the NFL is. Okay? We all understand what the NFL is. As soon as we heard it's in 50 million homes and everybody's watching it, we knew immediately there's going to be commercials dropped in there. Now, they already started doing commercials with the L reps. You know, they already started sliding those in. Now.

[Darius J. Butler]

True.

[Pat McAfee]

You guys are saying commercial, free football, and I saw a Lowe's ad on my screen as you were doing that. I'm like, we're certainly getting money from commercial stuff, though. Yeah, that's exactly what it would do, you know? And then now actual commercials. Are you going to maybe go to the bathroom now? If there is, like, a little. No, no bathroom. You still stand still married to it. Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

17 years.

[Pat McAfee]

But I don't think anybody's upset about the commercials. I mean. I mean, it's an easy thing to kind of tweet about and post about, but I don't think anybody's turning it off because of commercials. And the NFL knows that. Yes. And it's like, yeah, we can. We can serve.

[Scott Hanson]

I'll tell you this. We've had meetings all off season. We had our rehearsal. We had our dress rehearsal in week three of the preseason. And we are not going to sacrifice any great football for any of the business side of things. Right. The business folks are going to handle the business, and. And we play the hand that's dealt us, but we will not miss a touchdown. We will not say, oh, okay, this is first and goal from the five. But let's, you know, sell some pizza or pick up trucks, but do it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Yeah. Unless it's a truck.

[Scott Hanson]

Like, you pick and choose your spots like anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, if the business people are content creating people, that's when you're in a good spot. I assume over at the NFL, you guys have it figured out. We can't wait for Sunday. And you just saying that right there. 250 blessed days, getting right into seven hours of red zone football. I mean, we got the gbs over here, brother. We got goosebumps. We appreciate the hell out of you. Have a great season. You're the man, Pat.

[Scott Hanson]

Guys, great to see you.

[Pat McAfee]

Thanks.

[Scott Hanson]

Have a great year.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, that is the Red Zone Channel. Scott. Anson. Scotty.

[Darius J. Butler]

Tour was cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Tour was sweet. Yeah. Got two guys, two spotters down here. Got some people in truck.

[Tone Diggs]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

We got these TVs here. Every stadium score board is big for him. Cuz he can just go in there and say it is blah blah blah blah blah blah and it's like on TV he's 30 seconds off, he's like.

[Tone Diggs]

I don't know where I'm going next.

[Pat McAfee]

That'S why I'm right there.

[Connor]

Would love to meet his utter guys.

[Pat McAfee]

I maybe we get a chance to get over there.

[Connor]

I would like great other guys.

[Darius J. Butler]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Pat McAfee]

Football is majestic in the NFL kicks off its season tomorrow night in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, the city of the reigning defending world champion Philadelphia Eagles as they play host to the NFC east rival, the Dallas Cowboys. Now how will the game go? We shall see. How will the night go? Shoot, should be epic. And will Jerry Jones speak before, during and after this game? Absolutely. It is going to be a kickoff to the NFL that we will celebrate in magnificent fashion. And then Friday night we got the Chiefs and Chargers, Saturday full college football slate of kick ass games. And then Sunday we got seven hours of red zone football coming right up as the Indianapolis Colts host the Miami Dolphins here in Indianapolis, which we will certainly be. Maybe boots on the ground there, I think. I think we'll probably boots on the ground there. And then Sunday night football, Ravens, Bills. Are you kidding me? We get Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson on Sunday night. Yes, please.

[Connor]

Gonna be waiting all day.

[Pat McAfee]

That's just a few sleep. You will be waiting all day.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yes you will.

[Pat McAfee]

New version of that song's gonna hit like. Yeah, always. Like crack so hard. I mean gonna hit huge. I mean it's all coming. Josh Allen, the whole bar, Jackson, he's just a few sleeps away.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah.

[Connor]

And tomorrow we're forgetting his Sunday night football.

[Pat McAfee]

Kinda. Yeah. So we're getting a kickoff of Torico Collinsworth and Carrie Underwood's probably new.

[Tone Diggs]

Oh yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we're probably getting that tomorrow night.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Waiting all day for Thursday night.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my God. We've been waiting all off for this whole night. Oh, Sirianni doesn't know it's banner night. You believe? You believe? Absolutely not. That's his gimmick. I respect that. He said we're not even thinking about that and then asked the question about it. Didn't even know that. Yeah, we just keep it moving. He has to sell that gimmick and live that gimmick to the team. But also he understands that they will boo his ass if they don't play great early. I think he wants to defend. I think he likes his team. I think you should if you're the Philadelphia Eagles and Saquon Barkley's back. Landon Dickerson, offensive lineman who was injured during training camp, was full participant at practice practice today. So that's good news. He was drinking beers on the field with the Cleveland Browns offensive lineman during training camp practice, that was an indicator to me that he's probably going to be back. I don't think you're just going out publicly having some beers while you're rehabbing an injury that you're not going to be back for a wild move if you did. That was just kind of my reading the human thing, like, he's having beers. He thinks he's coming back. If he's back, that's a huge deal. Obviously, for an offense line that was number one in the league last year, are they going to be able to do the same thing they were able to do last year, which is rush more often than they pass, and they dominated the offensive line basically in every single game. I can't wait for this season to start. Then Friday got Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert, and then we're right into it. Let's go. We've made it. Happy NFL Eve to you. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. That's Darius J. Butler. That's one half of the Hammer done Cowboys AP Tone. And then the toxic table is here at Boston Austin Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Joining us live from an attic in Ohio is a college football national champion, a Super bowl champion, a Ryder cup winner, and a father of 10. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. hawk Hawker. How you doing, brother? Good to see you, man.

[A.J. Hawk]

Hey, I'm doing great. But Crystal Ball was very impressive to me. No joke. I've seen him in interviews and talk, but that dude has a presence about him. I was very impressed. I like him.

[Pat McAfee]

So we didn't even get into. I guess he was going to be a Secret Service agent.

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, as the story goes. Yeah, he was. He was ready to do it. It was like a two year process. Got offered a job and then the morning he was supposed to leave to go to, like, do his training in Quantico or wherever, he said, you know what? I really want to do this anymore. I'm going to be a football coach.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess he rolls Jiu Jitsu. I guess he does Jiu Jitsu. He's fluent in Spanish. You know, he played football at the U. Obviously he feels like the perfect guy to maybe lead the Hurricanes all the way back. You're down there.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Do a lot of people feel the same way AJ feels about him?

[Darius J. Butler]

It's buzzing. You saw the attendance at Hard Rock Stadium last week in shitty weather, but it's definitely a buzz down there. Football is different. College football is different. When. When the U is good, when the Florida Teams are good, but when you watch the University of Miami play football, it's like a certain attitude, a certain swagger that you expect to see. And Cam Ward leading that ship. Fell short of the end, didn't make a playoff run. But now we got Carson Beck and he's hit the ground running. And Gump mentioned earlier that defense and that defense is flying around, can actually get stops. That'll be exciting. But Mario got. Got the town abuzz right now for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I love to hear that. And how far is the stadium from campus?

[Darius J. Butler]

21 miles.

[Pat McAfee]

Miami guards go.

[A.J. Hawk]

Do any students go to games?

[Pat McAfee]

They did this past one. It was packed. It looked awesome. I know.

[A.J. Hawk]

Well, you know, kickoff, big game. I'm saying like the middle of the.

[Scott Hanson]

Road games this week.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's a commitment though. If you're a college Kid, you drive 21 miles.

[Pat McAfee]

21 miles in Miami. Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

It's an hour and a half.

[Pat McAfee]

That's three hours. Everybody says LA's traffic is slow. At least LA has like multiple lanes. True Miami. I always feel like I'm on a really small road with nowhere to go and there's a lot of people around me doing the same exact thing. That's how I always feel like when I'm in Miami. Traffic wherever you get to. Awesome. It's like, it's worth it. Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

The traffic is better going from Coral Gables north to Miami Gardens as opposed to coming from like Fort Lauderdale or anywhere going south. Cause when you go into Miami, it kind of gets bottlenecked. Where like big time. Yeah. It becomes like five highways merging. Yeah. No matter what time of the day it is. So it does flow better. But I'm sure going back is a shit show. But it's definitely a commitment either way to go 21 miles. You assume, you know, having some beverages and things like that. It's a commitment.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Hey, those hills in North Carolina, commitment to drive through. Yep, Yep. We were driving over there. It's a lot of.

[Connor]

A little bit of a hike.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Not a lot of places are like here where it's just flat and you got a big circle that takes you wherever you want.

[Pat McAfee]

Gotta love it. It is very flat out here. It is very nice. Speaking of, you know, things that are very nice, it'd be cool to have a job I don't have to do and I get paid for. Yeah, that would be really cool, wouldn't it? We've heard about these no show jobs in the sports world through colleges. Like back in the day, I believe there was a quarterback whenever D butt And I were in College. He At UConn, I was at West Virginia. I think we've mentioned this. In the summer, a guy was working at a car dealership. He never went there, but he was making a ton of money. Like. Like a lot of money. And obviously the NCAA somehow snoop it out. It became a big story. And it was at that moment we all started thinking, like, holy hell, that's a genius idea. We gotta find a place. Like, we didn't even. I don't. I don't. The people I was talking with, which was a lot of members of the team, hadn't even thought of that potentially being a thing. So I think for us, it was a little bit of an eye opener of what people might be doing. But it also, it was a little intriguing thought, like, oh, that's a good idea. Like, that is a good way to kind of sneak in the back door, around the rules a little bit. The NCAA isn't saying this around rules, but that's not a bad. Now we're hearing about it in a huge way. Pablo Torrey, investigative sports journalist who has done a lot of great work. Yeah, I mean, he is, like, fully committed to this. And I think it's going to be good for the sports world and even the whole world, because I think he was digging into a tree company first and then kind of unfolded all of this. If. If I have the investigative process proper, he was looking into this tree growing company. That isn't real, I guess, is what they're saying. What? And then Ballmer was allegedly. This is all via Pablo Torres, investigative journalism. So we are not saying we created this. This is Pablo Torres doing this. It's a lot of money and a lot of huge names and also the league. This has massive implications. I think everything that Pablo Torres said, I looked at his tweet where he put the video out from his podcast. Had 12 million views on it. Okay. This is going to be a big ordeal. I assume the NBA is already trying to look into all this. I wonder how prevalent this is around the NBA and in professional sports as a whole, as an owner is sneaking or circumventing the salary cap by providing funds through another company. How long has this been going on? Who all does this? Obviously, we heard about it from the college ranks. Have professional teams been doing this with their biggest stars? If they have, how long has it been taking place? Since, like, the beginning of time. I wonder all those things just learning about this, but allegedly, Kawhi was getting paid a lot of money through a tree seeding. Company idea.

[Darius J. Butler]

Very kind of them not making the world better.

[Pat McAfee]

So I think they. They were saying they were allegedly. Who knows about actually. Because oxygen comes through those trees.

[Tone Diggs]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. They were generating oxygen, which we all, all need oxygen, you know, I love oxygen. Yeah, I do too. Because there's osmosis in here or whatever. Molecules do their thing and then they do si do. And then all of a sudden we got. You're breathing. Yeah, we're breathing. Here we are. We need those. But being able to just say, yeah, yeah, this is what his salary is. And then on the other thing, got a couple advertising moves. Nobody knows. Here's 28 million bucks. That's an interesting dynamic.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, very.

[Connor]

And if, like, if what Pablo Tory is saying is true, then you don't stop at basketball. You just think of every big star a star deal that you have heard of over the past five to 10 years in your head. Like, immediately I go. And again, this is strictly based off what Pablo, as Tori is reporting. If it's true, then this is where I go, like, okay, you know, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, these guys who are getting a ton of money. And I don't think it's happening with the NFL, but people will naturally, because of a story like this, would assume, you know, oh, if the NFL is scripted, you don't think the NFL is going to be paying guys in advertising deals that are worked into contracts?

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, yeah. You shouldn't say it, but we're on the same.

[Darius J. Butler]

We're probably thinking the same thing.

[Boston Austin Connor]

A lot of hometown discounts out there.

[Pat McAfee]

When they went on their bingo. Allegedly. I mean, if.

[Darius J. Butler]

If Pablo towards you just start to think, the mind starts to think crypto.

[A.J. Hawk]

Why are we paying in crypto? You can't. You can't trace it. Can you figure it out?

[Pat McAfee]

Why are we doing all these llc? You can.

[Connor]

There's a couple of athletes that were actually invested in crypto pretty big that, you know, might have thought they were going to get arrested by the FBI again, something that might come back up. Hey, wait, was this deal that Pablo Tory is reporting about with the company like this? Is this something that a crypto could do? Because then you think of some of the stars that were playing at the time, you know, that were invested in some of those things.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, it's hard. You can't help but just think. Can't.

[Connor]

And it's all based on Pablo Tori saying this.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, Pablo Tori, by the way, we'd like to say I appreciate his.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's gonna find out.

[Connor]

He's gonna get.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a lot of. There's a lot of bang.

[J.J. Watt]

He's.

[Pat McAfee]

He's getting a lot of shins. Oh, yeah. Like from very powerful people. And he's just like. Yep, that's what I thought. Yep. That's what. Just kind of doing this.

[Tone Diggs]

I'm keep digging.

[Pat McAfee]

Insane. This one's gigantic. Huge.

[Connor]

Huge.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, this is.

[A.J. Hawk]

This is company went out of business. The tree company had to file bankruptcy. Is that why he figured it out? Because then their creditor. The creditor was Kawhi's LLC or whatever. What is. What was it?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't know. How do you get the books? How do you get through it? How do you find out? And how is it not. I assume it's an actual investigation now that, you know that that's been cracked open. Yeah. And it's, you know, for us as sports fans, you want to think to yourself, like, ah, the business, business. Let's just talk about the teams. Because if they were able to do it, you'd assume other teams have done it. You know, like, that's just how I naturally think it's like if they're doing. If Ballmer's doing this, he happens to have a lot of money. Like a lot, a lot. A lot, a lot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. Or that could be the other part. Maybe it is something. I mean, what's the point of being the richest owner in team sports if you can't do some that everybody else isn't doing? Yeah, like 28.

[Pat McAfee]

So we talk about this with the Denver Broncos, about how there's no south salary cap on the coaches salaries. So like they have a definite advantage over teams that don't have as much cash because they can pay Sean Payton. Vance, who's our special teams coordinator over there, I assume he's really good and if I know him, I apologize for forgetting at you.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's not moving parts.

[Connor]

Oh, no. Bones went to Tennessee.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, it is. We do know.

[Pat McAfee]

Who is it?

[Boston Austin Connor]

It's Riz. It's Darren Rizzi.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh.

[Connor]

Oh, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

We apologize. First year there, though. Yeah, exactly. It's his first year there, but they can pay. He's the guy that created the new kickoff rule. Basically, he was one tasked with the entire thing. Very good at his job. But they have the advantage of being able to overpay the coaches. So anything anybody else officer able to do that? I didn't even think the advantage to overpay the players. Like, hey, yeah, your salary will definitely do the whole. You broke the record. Yeah. Okay, we'll do that whole thing. See, also, I'm not saying Denver's doing this, but I'm just saying this would be something that the richest owners in all the leagues would be able to take advantage of. And all these people are so uber competitive. They're definitely thinking about ways to take advantage of other. There's no way that Ballmer's the only owner that's doing this.

[Darius J. Butler]

No way.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, maybe, maybe no way. But there's no way.

[Connor]

Especially in Cali. Just think about how many taxes pro teams are in Cali and then the taxes in Cali. Like, hey, sure, it's paying the ass the taxes, but, well, you got to.

[Pat McAfee]

Combat the taxes almost.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Boston Austin Connor]

This is also going to be the college football model, by the way, when the whole revenue sharing comes in, the players are getting their salary and then they're getting on the side. Yeah, this is going to be the.

[Pat McAfee]

Whole model for that. But the nil things have to be get paid by the commission.

[Boston Austin Connor]

That's why. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

A.J. is this what Ohio State's been doing? Is this how you guys have been able to have such good teams for so long?

[Boston Austin Connor]

What was your job?

[J.J. Watt]

I don't.

[A.J. Hawk]

I did not.

[Pat McAfee]

What was your job? You didn't show up at. Were you making sandwiches?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

Are you? Okay, so let's say Kawhi showed up.

[Boston Austin Connor]

A couple guy for.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

RIP Terry.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Rest in peace, Terry taught you a lot of good life lessons. But Ohio State's been doing this no show job thing for a long time or. Nope. How do we know everybody isn't doing. I mean, it's hard not. I'm naive.

[A.J. Hawk]

I've been naive to it. I don't think. I didn't think it was that rampant. I really don't. I still don't.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I didn't either until I read this. And then you immediately just go, why?

[Darius J. Butler]

And it's in the contract, too. According to Pablo Torre, as soon as he's done with the team, it's done. Which you would obviously expect. But if he retires, if he's traded, deal's done.

[Connor]

In the names, like, we're talking about Kawhi Leonard, of course, big name. But like, some of the names on there are much bigger than Kawhi Leonard. And that's why you really start to wonder and you go down that rabbit hole.

[Pat McAfee]

A list. Yeah.

[Boston Austin Connor]

According to Pablo Torres.

[Connor]

According to Pablo Torres.

[Pat McAfee]

Pablo Torres, investigative journalism.

[Connor]

All right, Pablo, sit in that pocket, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm telling you, those are some big names. I think.

[A.J. Hawk]

I think into the whole Political world. Pablo want to get in there.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Pablo wants to get into whatever needs to be get into. I think from what I.

[Mario Cristobal]

What we are gathering, it's got a.

[Darius J. Butler]

Little rabbit hole right. Next.

[Tone Diggs]

I mean, when you do this kind of stuff and you take it on the shins like that, it's like, okay, well, there's something there. Like, people just dismiss this and be like, all right, whatever, we're not even. But if people start attacking me, it's like, okay, well, maybe I'll keep digging a little bit.

[Pat McAfee]

Good luck, Pablo. Good luck, Pablo.

[Boston Austin Connor]

That's a wild life to live.

[Pat McAfee]

Wild. Hey, better you than us, Pablo. But we appreciate what you're doing.

[Boston Austin Connor]

By myself, I'm doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

But as I read. Amen. Amen. As I read that, all I thought to myself is like, what Connor was saying is just like, if they're doing this, did he think of this idea? I don't think he thought of this idea.

[Tone Diggs]

The first thing I thought of Mike Parsons, I was like, I wonder if the packers gave him like 5, 000 acres of dairy land or something. Dairy farm.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, you get half the tickets to this sled tubing.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Mountain, Right. Yeah, we'll have a Micah tube.

[Connor]

Well, I mean, Green Bay especially more than any other team, like, you know, they have land and investments and they don't have an owner. So you're assuming any of those landed investment.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my gosh. Every deal now. Can't do that.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, can't do that.

[Boston Austin Connor]

This whole room with slots at the United Casino. Those profits go to you.

[Pat McAfee]

Now that's.

[Connor]

See, we're going to call this the, the Parsons parlay up here. It's going to be. It's going to be beautiful. It's going to be beautiful.

[Pat McAfee]

Pablo Torre getting to the bottom. But joining us now is a man who probably has thoughts on this fight. I guess this is very much in his world. And what's he doing?

[Tone Diggs]

Yeah, great.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

And why is he not doing this?

[Connor]

Certainly better when the Premier League this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. Ajj, we got some negotiating tactics we'd like to drop on your head that maybe you could utilize to get a Leo Messi. Maybe. Ladies and gentlemen, the owner of Burnley and the owner of Espanol in La Liga, currently ranked fifth. Yeah. In La Liga. He's a future NFL hall of Famer. He's calling games this season for CBS. CBS. He's gonna be great. Ladies and gentlemen, J.J. watt. Gonna be great. I knew it was CBS.

[J.J. Watt]

I am fired up to be back. I'm Excited to be here?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. You're an owner of a new soccer team, jj. Are you cheating? Is it considered cheating? Do you know the rules? Are you allowed to do the Steve Ballmer thing? Are you allowed to funnel. Allegedly. Allegedly. Via Pablo Torres, Investigative Journalism. Are you allowed to just create shell companies to potentially funnel money to people to circumvent whatever salary cap there is for your teams? Hypothetically, if this was happening Via Pablo Torre's Investigative Journalism with Steve Ballmer, our immediate thoughts is every owner should be doing this. Do you have the companies in Spain that are willing to help? Espanol? Maybe put some money through the back door? Are you thinking about this? No.

[J.J. Watt]

Transfer window just closed two days ago. So we are good to go. All business is done. Everything is good. There is no more screwed. No more movement on our end. All is well.

[Pat McAfee]

What is the food over there in Spain? Beans and masha. Paella. Mallorca. Paella so far.

[J.J. Watt]

Play Mallorca next Monday.

[Tone Diggs]

Tough side.

[Pat McAfee]

Watch out for the pirate now. Pirate can put them in. What's our team? We're the Espanol Pericles.

[J.J. Watt]

Parakeets.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the parakeets. Yeah. Okay.

[Scott Hanson]

Better watch out.

[J.J. Watt]

We got a cauldron of chaos. RCDE stadium place.

[Pat McAfee]

A cauldron of chaos with the parakeets.

[Connor]

Let's go, Keats.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yeah. What do we do? Do we fly? Parakeets fly. What's the. What's the chant? What do we say?

[J.J. Watt]

We got. We got a great one that I just learned. Obviously. I'm still learning some of the new ones. I believe it's. In the morning we drink coffee. In the afternoon we drink rum. And at night we are magico Espanol.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that.

[J.J. Watt]

You have to sing it in Spanish.

[Scott Hanson]

You have to think.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't. I don't, I don't.

[Pat McAfee]

You can't sing in English in the morning. Oh, we drink morning.

[Scott Hanson]

Anyway, I went over there.

[J.J. Watt]

First match, unbelievable. We're playing Atletico Madrid. Massive match. Opener. Our first match there. My first time in Barcelona. Down one nil. Come back to one win. Let's go on bananas. This crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

Did I see you tweeting about a ref? A ref got you guys at one time, right? There was an offside, maybe a goal called back.

[J.J. Watt]

That was Burnley. That was with Burnley. And yes, it was absolute shite. It was shite.

[Pat McAfee]

It was.

[J.J. Watt]

I gotta watch myself a little bit here, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, come on.

[J.J. Watt]

Questionable at best and have yet to.

[Pat McAfee]

To hear.

[J.J. Watt]

Yet to hear an acceptable reasoning.

[Pat McAfee]

So hold on. Love to hear that. Are you putting pressure on this. And is there like a British guy that's in charge of calling back and being like, hello, Mr. Walt? Yes. Like, is there like a full. Do you have a British accent that you are going to pick up a British.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't use a British accent, but we don't take this bullshit anymore. We're not like a little team at the bottom of the table. I just want to take this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yes. We.

[J.J. Watt]

We are going to speak up about it.

[Pat McAfee]

It.

[J.J. Watt]

I'm gonna tweet about it. They're gonna hear about it. We'll get a letter back saying, yes, we screwed up, we're sorry, nothing's gonna change, but we're not taking the laying down anymore. Pisses me off.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that. Hey, Burnley up the clerk. Get on the horn.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Tell Howard Webb you want a conversation.

[Pat McAfee]

Jj. Who's Howard Webb now?

[J.J. Watt]

I'd like to have a lot of conversations. I'd like to have a lot.

[Connor]

Send the dudes, brother. You want to get their attention.

[Pat McAfee]

Have them talk. Lettuce. Yeah, looks bad. Head on lettuce. Good.

[Connor]

Thanks for following the program.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he's growing it for a little bit. Nah, Big off season, you got bought into another team.

[Connor]

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. And their chance sucks.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it doesn't. That's fantastic. In the morning, we drink coffee. In the afternoon, we drink from.

[Connor]

In the night.

[J.J. Watt]

You just worry about Pablo Tori taking a look in your team over there. All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's fun.

[Connor]

That's my stations from. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. 20, 20, 20. Go on.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, now I will say this. That move by Bulmer, okay? Allegedly, via Pablo Torre's investigative journalism. Get that out there.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Allegedly.

[Pat McAfee]

Allegedly. Put that out there, please. That's what he's doing by the owner. I assume Steve Ballmer's going, so what? And then he's. He's probably. Without a doubt, he's probably saying through somebody else, like, hey, we didn't talk about when. Blah, blah, blah, did what? This is just a part of the whole. Whole thing. It. It was. I feel like a naive doofus living in this world and being in this world so often that I didn't just think that this was how this goes, you know? Now that I know this, though, every single deal that's done, every single move that's made, it's gonna be hard not to be like, and what are local? What. Is there any businesses? Yeah, what other. It's hard not to just think like that now, jj, Legitimately, I. I don't.

[J.J. Watt]

Well, I mean, like, now that you say that. It's actually pretty interesting. I think AJ was kind of pointing to this before. Like what, at what level of involvement did he have to do to justify being paid for it? Because like in an endorsement you show up, you film a commercial or something and you get paid obviously money for that. But that's, that's okay. So like if he showed up for 10 days out of the year and, but his endorsement rate is 2.8 million per day and he showed up for 10 days, that comes out to 28 million. So, so like what, at what point is it he Might have a 20.

[Pat McAfee]

Million dollar daily rate in the off season? Might have a 20 million dollar daily rate in the off season.

[J.J. Watt]

Two days he went out there and tapped on some trees. These ones look good. These ones look good.

[A.J. Hawk]

He's in a few of them.

[Pat McAfee]

He don't like doing it. Yeah, probably one shovel at least.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, there's gotta be a picture of him planting a tree somewhere that justifies.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's all you need, one picture. Hard hat, shovel.

[A.J. Hawk]

AI will do it.

[Pat McAfee]

They put it on billboards. How much value, you know how many eyeballs see that? Individual eyeballs on that billboard. Billboard. The value of it. Yeah, that's why I think like this nil thing is going to be a problem. They got this commission that's supposed to approve things. It's like if you turn one down, they can easily just say, who says so. They can't pay me $250,000 for one commercial. Why? Because other people aren't able to do that. Well, I found a company that's willing to do it. Like, how could you ever say no to that? I don't know how you can turn down anything in America in a capitalist society that we live in. I don't know how you can say no to any deal that is being offered to you, you via money. Honestly, I don't understand how they're going to be able to say that.

[J.J. Watt]

No, I don't, I don't get how they, I don't, I don't understand how they're going to wrangle that in, in college and how they're going to do, do it all. Unless you literally take the whole system, put it on a salary cap system and you have a reporting and everything. It's. That's a very, very tough system to reel in.

[Pat McAfee]

And then each school can just get, you know. Yeah, a tree according to Pablo's race. All right, let's move to football. TJ is a captain for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Congrats to the Watt family, Cam Hayward. Mike Tomlin says he has no reservations about thinking about whether or not Cam Heyward's going to play. Aaron Rodgers obviously leading the boys. Killaroo on the special team side as captain there. All vibes seemingly high with the Pittsburgh Steelers. I feel like training camp was a good one for them. Feels like everybody has expectations that they're going to go on a run this year. What are you doing your thoughts as we near kickoff of this NFL season for your brothers Pittsburgh Steelers?

[J.J. Watt]

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this team performs. I think there's a lot of anticipation because you have Aaron Rodgers, you have DK Metcalf. You want to see what this offense looks like, what Arthur Smith can do. How's that going to match up? Is Aaron Rodgers going to be under center a bunch running the play action game and the run game that Arthur Smith likes, Are they going to shift it more towards that shotgun drop back game? Really excited to see that. We literally don't know besides the little practice clips that we have. And then that defense, I mean you got Jalen Ramsey back there, you have T.J. obviously you, I mean who knows but you assume Cam's going to be out there on game day. So we'll. It's a really, really strong defense when you look at it. And I'm really, I think it's the offense that's the most exciting to see what that looks like because we really don't know yet.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, DK Metcalf and John who just getting dropped in there is pretty wild. Friarmouth about to have the biggest year of his career. We all think Jaylen Warren just signed a deal. I think so. Whenever you think about that offense and all the pieces that they have, the only question is will they be able to block and move any bodies? We shall see. Four captains for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Go ahead D. Bud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. I assume you were a long time actually I know you were a longtime captain in Houston, Arizona. What's like the sweet spot for you now? Owner, four team captains. I mean some teams I see you got seven, eight guys. Other teams, I think the Bills maybe only have two, if I'm not mistaken. What's like the sweet spot for you when it comes to team captains?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, it's a great question. And I mean I personally like the one offense, one defense, one special teams. I understand where it started to get a little, you know, you have guys that it's like, well that guy's definitely a captain, but we already have one who's a For sure. Captain. So it's. It gets tricky. I mean, you see some of these tweets where it's like, these are our captains for this year. And you're like, wait a second, is that your roster? Is that the captain's list?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

So it gets. I think, I think I saw literally like 10 on one team. And you're like, okay, 46 guys play on game day. That's. I'm not a mathematician, but that's like 20% of your roster.

[Darius J. Butler]

Leadership.

[Pat McAfee]

Leaders, you know.

[J.J. Watt]

But I like three. I like offense, defense, special teams. I don't know what you guys have experienced. What's your. What do you like?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we. You know, when it got sent into the group, I think it's the Titans, who had seven of them or something like that. Eagles also another team had eight or whatever. And it's like the old adage about if you have two quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks. I think if you have eight captains, do you have any captains? Like, you know, like, that is the. But I think they're also trying to promote people to become leaders. Raiders. And the team has a mission here with the C that they're giving out. I think it was the Raiders who had Max Crosby and Geno Smith and then A.J. cole. Yeah, yeah. Who's the punter? It's like, that's the right. Like Gino. We assume from everything we know he's going to be the guy on the offensive side, Max Crosby on the defensive side. And AJ Is the best punter in the league at the moment, so he should be the guy. It's like when you have that. I grew up.

[J.J. Watt]

I grew up in a hockey atmosphere. I was played hockey all growing up. And like in hockey, that C and that A on the jersey means a massive, massive amount. Like, there is such a heavy weight that comes with that and responsibility. And I think that's so cool. And I do think when you have 10, 12 guys, it takes some of that weight away. But also the thing I've noticed is there's some of these teams that don't put C's on the jerseys, which is fine. I mean, you can do whatever you want. But I always think back to hockey and like that moment when you press the C on the captain's jersey for the first time, that's such a special moment. I think that's a really cool thing for guys. And so when I see the teams that don't do it, I just. For those guys, I'm like, dang, they missed out on a pretty Cool moment there.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out to Sidney Crosby, by the way, for the city of Pittsburgh for so long having that C on his chest. Shout out to Barky. Yeah, Shout out to the C's on the boy's chest. And the apples, you know, a couple apples.

[J.J. Watt]

I saw. You guys are getting a nice new soccer stadium down there, aren't you?

[Boston Austin Connor]

Really nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Boston Austin Connor]

River Hounds are putting like a second level on that.

[J.J. Watt]

It's gonna be.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, the Hallmark stadium down there.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, it's gonna be great for.

[Pat McAfee]

It's already very nice. They're making it bigger.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yes, they're big.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, this is good. Riverhounds, by the way.

[J.J. Watt]

It looks nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Espanol and Burnley. Put your little all starter team together. It'll be J.J. watts teams versus Pittsburgh. Riverhounds slips down in that stadium. Yeah. For pink slips. Let the River Hounds potentially own Espanol and Burnley have Tyler playing if he wants to keep the team. Yeah. Take on a River Hounds on the river and there's going to be problems, I assume, especially with a bigger, bigger stadium. I didn't know they were adding to that.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, it looks really nice. They're doing. They're doing some nice things.

[Boston Austin Connor]

May. May put Starlake out of business because they're gonna do a lot of concerts there. No one wants to drive all the way.

[Pat McAfee]

Star Lake is a long drive for everybody in the East Hills, I will say that. So shout out to the Riverhounds, making some magic happen. Okay. Speaking of magic, Jerry Jones is filled with it. Absolutely. Wheeling, dealing, literally, since he was just a wee little lad. One oil rig that cost him $800,000 generated $100 million in wealth, which is what he bought the Dallas Cowboys with. And now he's known for one move and that he's trading away his megastar. Go ahead, A.J.

[Scott Hanson]

Hawk.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, J.J. let's say you're the D coordinator for the Green Bay packers here the first four games this season. How do you use Micah Parsons? Like, how much do you play him? And also like how much do you move this guy around?

[J.J. Watt]

It's a beautiful thing about being a defensive lineman. You really don't need to know that much. You don't need to be that smart. You don't need to learn a whole lot of plays or terminology because we have basically two jobs. One is set the edge, stop the run, and two is get the quarterback and you're going to tell me where to line up and my job is to go get him. And so it doesn't take that long to onboard a new guy when it comes to a pass rusher, especially one of talent level of Micah Parsons. So I'm using him to the fullest as long as he feels good, which, I mean, we've read about his back, we've seen about his back, but I saw that clip from practice the other day where he's absolutely smoking the blocking sled. And as a guy who's had epidurals in my back and who's had back surgery, I know that you're not looking that explosive, knocking that sled all the way back.

[A.J. Hawk]

Did you have him in season, Jage?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, yeah, I had. I had epidural in mid season one time. Really, really shitty.

[A.J. Hawk]

How was it?

[J.J. Watt]

Did it help a lot? I was squatting on Monday. My Monday ritual was to squat 405 for three sets of five every Monday after games. And I was on my way up. I wasn't even at 405. I was at 275. And I got to the third rep back. Boom, gone, disc out, fell to the floor, literally crawled on my hands and knees to the training room. It was. I could not stand up. I went in. They were like, yeah, you're in a really, really bad spot. The next morning, I had to go and get an epidural in my back, basically. Kind of helps take that disc, put it back in for the moment, and played the rest of the season. And it was. That was truly one of the most insane situations I've ever been a part of.

[Pat McAfee]

When was this? When was this? What time of year this was?

[J.J. Watt]

It was like week four or five.

[Tone Diggs]

Oh, God.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

275 takes them out. Mentally. You feel so weak because it was.

[A.J. Hawk]

275 anymore that year.

[J.J. Watt]

No, no, I. I changed, obviously, everybody, everything.

[Connor]

But thank goodness.

[J.J. Watt]

It's one of those things where you look back on it, like, it later. Like, you know how, like, I'll. Let me be candid here. You look back on it and you're like, man, I probably should have, like, asked a few more questions. I probably should have, like, done a little more research. But you know how it is, man, when you're in it. And A, you're getting paid a lot of money, B, you got all these fans, C, you got your teammates. You're in the middle of the season. You're like, I know.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't.

[J.J. Watt]

I don't care, man. Get me to Sunday. I don't care. Just get me back on that practice field. Get me out on the field. So, yeah, even just telling that story, it does sound. It does sound pretty, pretty dumb, outrageous.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

405 works out, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Day after game, I need to be going through a 405 on my back, on my spine. I need to do it. It did work out, jj, you'll be the first ballot hall of Famer. It did work out. You being a psycho machine certainly ended up as a good thing to for your football career. But I do appreciate the fact those.

[J.J. Watt]

Epidurals, they can do some pretty good stuff. They can do some pretty good stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

How big is that needle? Right? That. That needle is gigantic. Right?

[J.J. Watt]

This is the craziest part about it. So I go in for the epidural. They. I take. They take me back. You know, they put the stuff in and the anesthesia and everything. I go back, I come out, and they're like, hey, how'd it go? And I was like, I don't know. What do you mean? They're like, yeah, you were telling us all sorts of stuff back there. And I was like, oh, no. What do you mean? I was telling you stuff? I was under anesthesia. And they're like, no, we had to give you the stuff that you don't feel it, but you're still awake because you have to tell us where the pain is. And I was like, wait a sec. I was up back there.

[Pat McAfee]

You're blacked out back there.

[J.J. Watt]

Like, yeah, you're talking to us the whole time. I had no idea what the hell back there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, real loose lips back there. I would love to hear about Bill.

[Tone Diggs]

O', Brien, our coach.

[Pat McAfee]

So this guy.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Wait, jj, you said that people don't look like that hitting sleds when. After getting epidural. Are you saying that this whole back thing is.

[Pat McAfee]

Is.

[Scott Hanson]

Is made up?

[J.J. Watt]

No, I'm saying you can't. I'm saying you're not doing that if your back doesn't feel good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Like.

[J.J. Watt]

Like he feels good enough. Like. Like if you're bending in that way with your back arching and lifting that thing like you're feeling decent, like your back is not at a point where you might not play, at least in my opinion. I'm not. I'm not going to. I may have to eat these words, but that's a tough movement on your back right there to lift that sled up in the arch position. He looks explosive. He looks strong. Like, he looks pretty damn good.

[Pat McAfee]

I can't wait to watch him. And everything he's saying out of Green Bay is like, so, folks on ball. So happy to be there. Once again, we are very much in a honeymoon phase of $47 million a year. We are still potentially hovering around like he was at that house when he learned how much money he's getting. Yeah.

[Connor]

And it might be more.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean?

[Connor]

If Pablo, Tori, if Apollo, Tory's telling us, oh, yeah, that's the first deal.

[J.J. Watt]

You think you need more. More than 47 dudes. He got six per year.

[Pat McAfee]

How much money is enough money? Yeah. But not enough money more than that. So too much money ain't enough money, I believe is what a poet once said. Wheezy F, baby. The, the, the inner tubes that they ride down there. Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Noah's ark.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Wisconsin Dells outside of Green Bay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

The Kalahari.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. They could be giving Micah half the ticket sales throughout the entire football season. We don't know. We have no idea. Now that is a part of the whole thing. We don't know. But what we do know, he earned it. Congratulations. And he's saying all the right things up there. And Green Bay packers fans are steadfast on. We're winning Super Bowl. Yeah. This is an amazing time. We love the NFL. Now there's a Steeler fan in here obviously that's excited for you getting to call the game this weekend. Go ahead, Tom.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yeah, J.J. obviously there's a lot of first time head coaches this year. Kellen Moore, Shotty, Liam Cohen and Aaron Glenn. You call Aaron Glenn's game this weekend. Have you got a chance to talk to him at all? Because he's been a little testy with the media so far. I didn't know if that was going to carry over to those pregame meetings with you guys. And which of those coaches do you think is going to be best this year?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, yeah. I actually did the Jets Eagles preseason game. So I did go and talk to him and sit down with him. He's great. He's great with us. I think the thing about him and what he's trying to set and maybe some of the stuff you're seeing in the media is he is trying to make a no nonsense, all football. We are the New York Jets. We are going to be tough, disciplined, physical, aggressive. He wants to kind of change that entire culture. And he's taking it to every single aspect, whether it's the preseason games and not having guys do interviews on the sidelines, even if they're not playing to how he handles the media and the stuff that he gives. He is trying to set a precedent for his team. And listen, whether they're good or not. He said it the other day what he wants and what he's going to judge this season by is if jets fans are proud of the team that they're watching every week. And last year they were number one in free stamp penalties, they were number one in drops, they were number one in missed tackles. Like, these are a lot of undisciplined things and he's trying to come in and correct that first. Obviously that will help translate to wins. Does that mean they're going to be unbelievable world beaters this year? Who knows? Somebody goes worse the first every year. But I think that he is building a culture there that those guys are bought into.

[Pat McAfee]

How quickly will it take effect, you know? And will he be given enough time to maybe have it all take effect? We shall see. There's some jets news that Shafter has tweeted guard Elijah Vera Tucker suffered a season ending torn tricep before it even gets started here. He's getting a second opinion to confirm the injury and see if the surgery is necessary. Okay, so jets fans obviously go, of course. Yeah, of course. That's kind of how it all goes. Go ahead.

[Connor]

He tore his Achilles before too. He's been out for a long time. That really sucks.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, he's a very good player. Just named captain this week. Like, he was really excited about being a captain. Great player. I believe it's the last year of his contract. He's up for an extension after this year. Like such tough timing from that standpoint.

[Mario Cristobal]

Really tough.

[Pat McAfee]

Sucks. I mean, you go all the way back to what Justin Fields first day he got carted off. Yeah, a toe or something like that. It's like jets fans just can never be like excited. Yeah. There's always something that's going to pop in. Oh, we're actually. Everything's good. He's saying everything. Real hard nose. Our guy, our captain guard now is out for season. We haven't even started. See out. Geez, that foreplay thing with Aaron, man, what a bummer.

[Connor]

Even thinking about it. It's. It's still like, that was a sad, sad time September.

[J.J. Watt]

Just seeing the fan of the team so jacked up.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, we got him, we got him.

[J.J. Watt]

This is awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

The shot of the American flag running out there with that place going crazy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Just fan of NFL, period. I wasn't even a Jets fan, but just to see, okay, they got Aaron, they got defense, flag everything. And then just boom.

[Pat McAfee]

And if you ask a Jets fan, they go, of course. Yeah. What are you talking about? And it's like, that's crazy that that is their kind of mindset. But maybe Aaron Glenn's the one that's able to flip it all.

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[Pat McAfee]

Void.

[DraftKings Announcer]

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[Pat McAfee]

When did making plans get this complicated? It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send event invites and pin messages so no one forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption.

[J.J. Watt]

It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Pat McAfee]

Learn [e-mail] There's a lot of new faces in different places. Go ahead con man.

[Connor]

Yeah JJ New coordinators for the Eagle in Lions. Last time this happened with the Eagles on offense. They had that kind of lull year almost before going back and winning the super bowl. And then you know, Lions lose DC and oc. But you know, most importantly Ben Johnson with the oc. Are you worried about them at all? It feels like every year one of these teams that is typically at the top of the league ends up dropping off a little. Do you think it's either of them? Do you have your eyes on another team that you're kind of curious about at all?

[J.J. Watt]

Listen, I think it's easy to sit there and say, like, oh, we have no worries. We got the same guys, we got the same scheme. It's just a different guy calling the plays. Or it's just a different guy. But it is hard. It's hard to change coordinators, no matter who it is, especially one on both offense and defense. It's a new guy. It's a new voice in front of the room every single day, delivering messages his way. Could be better, could be worse, but also just getting that continuity with what the guys like, how they feel and everything. So there's definitely no guarantee that it's going to be successful. And there could certainly be a rocky point to get over, get past. But I look at that whole NFC north, like you mentioned, the Lions, the NFC north between the Vikings, packers and Lions last year had an unbelievable year. Is that conference going to be able to repeat that type of dominance at that level? And are the Bears? Can Ben Johnson get them up in that conversation?

[Pat McAfee]

That's a.

[J.J. Watt]

That's a really, really. I can't wait for Green Bay Detroit, week one.

[Pat McAfee]

That's.

[J.J. Watt]

That's incredible.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm very excited for you to call games now because you have to do meetings with all these teams. So when you're talking about them, you know, you can't be, you know. Oh, yeah, you can't be because you're going to be walking in the room where it happens, brother, Whenever you're commentating these games, you know, oh, yeah, that's an interesting thing with game day. That's like, for instance, Bubba Cunningham, athletic director of North Carolina, whenever he was the chair of the March Madness Committee and whenever North Carolina gets in and West Virginia is the first team in the history of March Madness to be left out of the tournament who have like five, six different criterias checked or whatever. I guess I said some really mean things to Bubba and about Bubba kind of deserved it and everything like that. I completely forgot about Bubba.

[J.J. Watt]

So do you go into that meeting and ignore it completely, or do you like, hey, man, I was a little messed up, but we'll get through it.

[Pat McAfee]

I had no idea. I completely forgot it.

[Boston Austin Connor]

He came up the path.

[Pat McAfee]

I completely forgot. I went into that place, skipping Michael Lombardi's gm, friend of the program. Basically, I'm walking in that place like we own the building. Yeah, this is. We are. I mean, Literally, Bill Belichick and Michael Lombardi are running this place. This is our fucking house. It's great to be here. Literally, very comfortable. Sit down, have a good time, boys get their passes, kind of mingle around, have a blast. Place was beautiful. Security, people. Pat, welcome home. You know, the whole thing, like, very. Everybody, very kind. And I'm sitting there, and I'm just going through whatever the show is about to be. Kind of a couple different conversations in the production room, which is normally just like one of the halls, classrooms that we rent out for game day, basically. And Bubba Cunningham walks in. There is a little bit of emotion whenever he walks in. Some people, like, tighten up a little bit. I'm like, that must be somebody. And he was talking to Pete Thamel, and they go, this is Bubba Cunningham. And I'd heard his name. And I'm like, bubba, how you doing? I'm Pat. That's a great name. Or whatever. You know, they just, like, clasp that whole thing. And somebody says, it's the athletic director here. I'm like, oh, congrats, man. Feels like it's going to be electric out there today. And then I sit back down. But he. He. As he was walking to me before that conversation there, he said, public enemy number one, I believe, is what you said, or something like that. I didn't even. And the interaction was pretty stiff, so then I sat down, and then as he walked away, that was when I was like, like, oh, my God. And I looked at him and I said, you. Us. That's what I said. He was all right. He was. And he said, yeah. I was like, oh, you're the. Yes. Basketball. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I probably said some stuff. He goes, yeah, you did. Or whatever. I'm like, that's on me. Should have put him in. That's as 100 on me. I do think, yeah, we should have made it. I did do a little bit of a battle, but I did apologize. And he said, you know, if you did know exactly how it went, I don't think I'm the enemy here. And I was like, well, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't be giving me any more new enemies. I don't need any more new enemies here, you know? So it was. But that's something you're going to have to experience, you know?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, but as long as, like. As long as you're saying something that, like, in that, like, as long you can go back and be like, no, I. I believe we should have been in. You're not. You're not having to defend yourself. If I say something on here about a team and, like, I actually believe it. And then I have to go and talk to the guys face to face and they're like, why'd you say that? I can say, well, at the time I thought that. That your running game was trash. That's why I said it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you got on biz.

[Tone Diggs]

That's right.

[Connor]

Standing on ball.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Boom. Gotta do it back. I'm just telling you, this team has.

[A.J. Hawk]

A bunch of loafs.

[Pat McAfee]

There's gonna be. No, no, you're good. I'm just saying there's gonna be a lot of awkward encounters. Go ahead, aj.

[A.J. Hawk]

No, no, I'm saying, like, Dano, what if you go, you count 21 loafs for a team and you go into a production meeting, they're like, hey, I'm gonna show you there was only seven. Are you gonna sit there and argue with these coaches back and forth players?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, what are you gonna do, Becker? Are you gonna defend your stance, your take?

[J.J. Watt]

I mean, if. If in a situation like that, if you can turn on the tape and show them, I'd be like, I mean, guys, if you want to sit down and go through, let's do it. I mean, yeah, I'll show you all 21. Embarrassing for you.

[Scott Hanson]

Oh, yeah, that's his dream.

[Connor]

That's Dano's dream.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Woody, or what do you just sit at the end of the table, keep his mouth shut.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know, stand on business. I'm excited for you to comment. Jeez, that's a lot of people in the back not thinking. I don't know what that team a SOB back there. What are you excited about for commentating legit. You did the Christmas one, right?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I'm really, really enjoying this because A, during the week, my prep is very similar to, like when I was playing. I'm breaking down film. I'm looking at the matchups and all the different stuff. So I'm really enjoying that aspect of it. And then the actual game, you get the adrenaline from being in the stadium, from not knowing what's going to happen next, from feeling the crowd and the emotion in the big moments and trying to make sure that you're properly articulating what's happening and teaching fans about the game, but not overdoing it and trying to watch it from a fan's perspective as well. I really, really enjoy this. And I have the best partner in Ian Eagle. He's so good. And we have such a great team at cbs. So for me it just, it scratches that itch on a much deeper level. Because I'm talking football every Sunday. On a deeper level.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell yeah. And you're going to be traveling a lot. Have you prepared for that?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, yeah. I mean that's obviously the most difficult part, hands down is going to. Is when I have to say goodbye to my wife and sons every week. And you can give me some advice on that. I would appreciate it because vitamins, I don't see any easy way.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you take the vitamins, brother. We've already talked about the mode of transportation, what it should be. Okay. You already have already given you that whole thing.

[J.J. Watt]

Check that box.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't need to be, we don't need to be feeling every single gust of wind. No, no. We don't need to be feeling every gust of wind either. Yeah. You know, like Matt Berry the other night said, I think you were on.

[J.J. Watt]

A small bird the other day. I saw, I saw you post it looked like a small bird.

[Pat McAfee]

Nope, that ain't ever happening. I'll tell you. We are getting to 40. I'm only getting on planes to get to 40,000ft, brother. That's where you need to get to. The storms are all happening below that. Okay. If it's happening up at 40,000ft, the whole world's feeling this room. So that is the. I am scared of flying. So with what I do, there's a lot of traveling involved and I am not like the greatest flyer. It is always a full on need to hear. Come on, let's. Every single flight. It is like that. So yeah, I think I've given enough advice in that whole thing. You're allowed to ask for this, you know, I wish coach Corso would have asked. You know what I mean? Like, I wish.

[J.J. Watt]

What happened there, man? What happened?

[Pat McAfee]

That's literally what he does.

[Darius J. Butler]

Old school.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's literally what he does. Like, I think like if you were to ask him, this would not be even a conversation. I think I've offered up in the past for different games and it's just kind of been like, hey, don't literally, don't worry about it. Too much money. What are we talking about? Like that is literally how he like kind of views it all.

[J.J. Watt]

But I'm happy you guys nailed that. Everything about it, it was perfect. It was so cool. You guys crushed. It had to be awesome being there, just seeing the specific spectacle and then him nailing every single pick. I mean his team's winning. Like that was so cool.

[Pat McAfee]

It was really a perfect send off. I Think personally. And Southwest in the airport, giving him a round of applause for how many years he's been through those airports. It's like, that was even perfect, you know, it was like everything about it was just so monumental. And as we're riding his coattails out in front of 107,000 people or whatever it was there, and you see the band layout, it's like, I hope, you know, coach, you did good, brother. This doesn't happen just for anybody, you know? And I. I think his last pick was his best, too, in the last couple years. I mean, he absolutely nailed the entire thing. If he would have had another Houston moment, I was hoping, with the band and the entire thing, that would have been one of the most legendary heel moves of all time. But it's. Instead, he gets it right with the Ohio State Buckeyes, of course. And, yeah, it was cool to be a part of. I was lucky to be there. They did a great job, though. The people that set that up, the producers of Game Day, all the ideas. As soon as they were out, I was hearing them, I'm like, genius. That's genius. Tux we got. He's wearing a tux. Nobody knew that. I think he showed up just like that on Saturday.

[Connor]

Genius.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't know if anybody knew he was doing that. Yeah, it was perfect. Man, college football's crushing right now. Yeah. Yeah, it literally is.

[Connor]

J. J, do you know, because a lot of times you're on the program, and I've seen a couple photos, hair was looking magnificent. Do you know how you're going to wear it yet?

[J.J. Watt]

Dude, I. I have. I need opinions right now because it's been a hot topic in my household, in my chat with my friends. I got a haircut scheduled tomorrow morning, and I'm. I got to decide, like, is it staying long? It's it this, or is it. Is it going back short?

[Pat McAfee]

You had.

[Connor]

You had a fantastic. I don't know where the photo is, but you had a middle part either at an espanol game.

[Pat McAfee]

And you have really strong hair. You should not get rid of your hair. It's very strong hair. I think, personally. Now, does that mean.

[J.J. Watt]

I'm just trying to figure out how to style it. That's my issue. Because on Game Day Europe, I'm at the stadium for, like, six hours. So I got. It's got to stay strong throughout the whole game. And you're wearing a headset. It's just the shorter is so much less maintenance, but I. I enjoy it long. I've never Ever had it this long ever. So it's really unchartered waters here.

[Pat McAfee]

You can go kind of a mid range jumper though, right. You don't have to go too small because you got good hair there. And I think this is a barber, you know, I assume.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, yeah, it's a barber. I know. I like Connor's flow. I. I want to flip out the back. I like the fl. I just. I'm not long enough to do the flip out the back.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But he had to do a lot of hat times to get to this time, you know, and you're not going to be able to do that. Yeah.

[Connor]

It's a summer of hats, really.

[Tone Diggs]

You can slick it back like Barry Melrose.

[J.J. Watt]

Legend doesn't get enough credit.

[Pat McAfee]

For the sport of hockey. You know. Are you gonna have the headset behind? You're gonna have a coif in front probably whatever the hell this is in front of this. So you should think of that, you know? Yeah. Like WWE headset goes.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah. Here we don't do the pop star mic.

[Pat McAfee]

What you got on game day?

[J.J. Watt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[J.J. Watt]

What do you have on wwe?

[Pat McAfee]

You have a headset? Headset full.

[J.J. Watt]

What do you like better?

[Pat McAfee]

I like this right here. I like ears. I. I don't like the thing going over my head or over my ears. I like individual ears. You know, I don't like feeling like I'm building cauliflower while I'm watching.

[Connor]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

And doing the show. You know what I mean? I like it beat up. So I like this. You guys. Headset. Old school, huh? Old school.

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Kirk. Herb street would say that you should wear the mic thing on the. If you're standing to Ian's right on your left side of your face for when you look at him and talk to him. You see whole face as opposed to.

[Boston Austin Connor]

That's a nice tip.

[Pat McAfee]

Microphone covering. This is a good tip face.

[J.J. Watt]

That's a good tip.

[Darius J. Butler]

Did a good job.

[J.J. Watt]

I didn't even know they made righty and lefty versions of that.

[Pat McAfee]

Every one of them could be. You can flip that thing right around. Every one of them. Yep. Wow.

[J.J. Watt]

That was a. That was. That was a defensive lineman moment.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no, because there is the ones that are just specific. The opposite way.

[Connor]

Some of them stop when you flip it. Some of them do stop. Like here.

[J.J. Watt]

Thank you. Thank you, guys. This is good teamwork right here.

[Pat McAfee]

But we will assume the ones you use will be able to go left or right here. You'll be able to do that entire thing. I'm excited to hear you call A game, brother. Legit. We know you love it. There's a couple storylines this season that are going to be different than any any before. Now there's a guy that's majoring in one thing, minoring in another. D butt has a question for you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Travis Hunter. He'll be majoring at least early on in wide receiver minoring on the defensive side of the boss. Rare air. You were one of the few that was able to do it in National Football League. What was that week like? Prepping to play some tight end, you know, in the red area coming up weeks. How was the practice like, did it change? And how do you think Travis Hunter is going to handle this league? Least early on?

[J.J. Watt]

Yeah, I mean, just like everybody else, man, I'm so excited to see what this looks like because I did it as a goal line tight end. So I would go down there on Friday and I would practice my two plays for literally just two plays at the end of practice on Friday with the whole offense. And that's fine. It added an extra five minutes to my day where I would have been drinking water on the sidelines instead of practicing those two plays. But him, like, what's, what's his package going to be when it's. When we say he minors his corner, is that going to be, you know, a third down package? Is it going to be only in the red zone or is it going to be quarter by quarter like, I can't wait to see. And none of us know what that's going to look like. And people have said it, I think, I think it might have been devonte Adams. I don't remember who said it. Like, it's crazy. I don't know how you could do it. Truthfully, from a pure fatigue standpoint, I do not know how you could do it. I forced, I always call it the greatest three minutes in my football career. Forced a fumble, picked it up, ran it, went off to the sideline for one play and then went in on offense the next play and score a touchdown. Probably the most tired I have ever been on a football field. Like, I don't know how you could possibly go run some routes at receiver, catch some balls, go over to the sideline, take a sip of water and then go back out and try and cover the best receiver receivers in the NFL. Like, that's incredible, man. I know we give him a ton of respect and we give him a ton of credit, but if he truly pulls this off, I have utmost respect.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, he celebrates touchdowns and stuff too. Just like you. You Know, because you, you know, scoop that fumble or whatever you did, run it back, go to the sideline, come back in play tight end, score a touchdown for the fumble or interception. Had to celebrate because the place is going crazy. So we got whipping jj and watch me, jj. Yeah, we saw that. Turned down for what? Then you go back out there. Oh, no. Now we score a touchdown. Guess what happens again.

[J.J. Watt]

Hell yeah, brother. It's supposed to be fun.

[Pat McAfee]

I see.

[J.J. Watt]

I see the Eagles now, which I respect the hell out of. And maybe it's the reason they win Super Bowls and I didn't fair enough to them. Fair play. When they're like, we don't talk about our Super Bowl. We don't want, like, we don't see smile with our rings. I'm like, geez, guys. Like, well, what's the point? Like, at some point, we got to be happy we did it. Like, holy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Tom Brady was like, I want to see the quarterback celebrate with everybody. But what I'm saying for this implying in this is that's exhausting, too. Y. I mean, that's a lot. That's full time, you know, and the. The hype and every. The adrenaline and everything rolling, jacked up. And then you got to sit down for a kickoff. And now you're still. Still on camera, though, in the stadium. Okay, so do something. Don't just sit there. Look like an, you know, place goes crazy. Then a commercial runs of you on the jumbotron of J.J. watt here. They're ciphering money through this car dealership to pay me for my deal here in Houston. You need to buy a car there. Okay? So then they show you again. You're. Yeah, buy a car there. You're dead tired at this point. Kickoff happens. Okay, touchback. We got a TV timeout, obviously. All right? You jog on the field now, bang, you're right back in it. That would. That would be very exhausting. Yeah, I could see how that would be. And that's mentally too.

[J.J. Watt]

Like, I consider myself a decently smart guy. Offensive play calls are absurd. Like, absurd. And I had to know one. I had to know one offensive play call for the game. And I went on that huddle, and Fitz was. He said the play call, and I literally looked.

[Pat McAfee]

I.

[J.J. Watt]

Which this is the craziest part. I only had one play, so why was I even asking him what to do? Because it's the only play I had. But I said, fitz, what do I do? Make sure I lined up behind him at fullback, motioned, and went and caught it.

[Pat McAfee]

I love everything about what Travis Hunter could potentially do here in theory. Iconic.

[Darius J. Butler]

Be insane.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Insane.

[Darius J. Butler]

And like, like JJ said, a lot more moving parts on offense, defense, especially as a corner. I mean quarters just cover three. It's on cover two. Like you only got probably four things that you're actually going to do. So knowing it isn't that hard playing it is super tough. But I can't wait to see him actually do and how much of it he actually does. But they move mountains to get him and Stoner seems pretty jacked up. So we'll see him out there.

[Pat McAfee]

They gonna change football. Says Stoner. Day after they draft him. Couple quick notes out of college ball that we need to talk about. I think Tennessee has moved to Adidas from Nike and Penn State. His move from Nike to Adidas. So I love that.

[Connor]

Never going to win anything.

[Pat McAfee]

I do appreciate Adidas making a play though. Feels like they're coming back into the game.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Is Whisco in an Adidas school still too?

[J.J. Watt]

Currently under armor.

[Pat McAfee]

Currently.

[Connor]

I mean Miami though, we just talked. Tomorrow they got Adidas.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm Adidas is making a big time play.

[J.J. Watt]

I feel like everybody just kind of rotates around every like five, 10 years. Does that feel like it?

[Pat McAfee]

We looked up what the deals were worth. Much smaller than we could have imagined. Yeah. Yeah. It's very. Yeah. I don't know if the schools suck at negotiating or.

[Connor]

Well, Nike sponsors just the biggest athletes from every school.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Well, they're probably like, what are you gonna wear, Russell?

[Connor]

Instead of the entire.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[J.J. Watt]

Like at some point there's not many options.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, at Penn State they're going to be Adidas options and get a lot.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Of money for it.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's South Carolina.

[J.J. Watt]

They were the same. They were the same one.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. Time the South Carolina deal. Interesting. Yeah. They're with Nike. She'll be fun. We'll continue. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Might change their life. J.J. that a baby. See that right there? It's a zero. We're buying time. The Adidas move. I don't like it. Is Nike getting out? What's going on? I think.

[A.J. Hawk]

I think D is just making a push. I don't think Nike's trying to get out of anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, I got some shell tops. Sure. Okay. I'm not gonna act like I don't like Adidas.

[J.J. Watt]

Go, Dan Smith.

[A.J. Hawk]

We all know the best cleats.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yes.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Under Armours.

[Scott Hanson]

Aj we know the Pinnacle.

[Pat McAfee]

I wear Air Force ones basically every day of my life. I mean there is, you know, it's just Or Jordans, and it's not right.

[Tone Diggs]

But if I see. If, you know, I'm watching a game on Saturday and one team's wearing Adidas and one team's wearing Nike, I ain't never picking the team wearing Adidas ever. And that's fair. That's not fair. That's just the way it is.

[Pat McAfee]

That's pretty real.

[Darius J. Butler]

And that was Jordan, too. And recruits, boom. That's the biggest thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but Adidas, they got Travis Hunter, they got.

[A.J. Hawk]

They've done a good job with younger kids. Younger generation definitely wears more Adidas than one.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they're trying to. I think Adidas is trying to crack the market a little bit. I think they're trying to get in there personally, it feels like.

[J.J. Watt]

And Nike, they got Texas Tech with the Mahomes jerseys.

[Pat McAfee]

Mahomes, Holmes. There we go. Yeah, the. You got a bunch of guys, right? Yeah, sure.

[J.J. Watt]

Oh, yeah. Obviously massive in the soccer.

[Scott Hanson]

Aaron Rogers.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I forgot. Aaron's a big Adidas guy.

[Boston Austin Connor]

He's gonna be super bowl champion, too.

[Connor]

He already is.

[Pat McAfee]

May already is.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Another time.

[Pat McAfee]

Seven. And the only one that matters in Pittsburgh.

[Boston Austin Connor]

No, no, no. I love Green Bay. Green Bay is my NFC brother.

[Pat McAfee]

What are they doing to get those deals? That was good. High five. We missed it. Heard that was a very clean high five. That was one of the greatest high fives I've seen. Both. They both went back for it. Like, both aggressively meeting both sitting down, both kind of locked in place. The pureness of the hand. Of the hand there. You saw it, too. Yes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Perfect.

[Pat McAfee]

Perfect. Because they really went for it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Perfect. Rockstep.

[Boston Austin Connor]

We're on the same page.

[J.J. Watt]

That's tough with the back. If you knock it all the way back. Get those to line up.

[Boston Austin Connor]

A couple old school teams that used to build through the draft, but now we're making moves.

[Tone Diggs]

Well said.

[Pat McAfee]

Watch out.

[J.J. Watt]

Are you guys going side to side? So you're right handed.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if now's the time. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Hold on.

[Tone Diggs]

I was waiting for the camera. We're just kind of showing you what happened. I don't think we.

[Connor]

Run it back.

[Scott Hanson]

Holy.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty good. Yeah, that. That was really good. Holy. I don't know if you guys do that again.

[Darius J. Butler]

Super bowl preview.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Could be.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe.

[Tone Diggs]

I kind of felt something right there.

[Pat McAfee]

Joel. We felt it. Yeah, we all felt it. We'll see. Colts are going to have something to say about that. They are? Yeah. I like Colts. What's everybody quiet about?

[Boston Austin Connor]

I think Colts are going to win the South. I'LL say it.

[Pat McAfee]

Sleeper team Kings, Kings of the South. Boom.

[Connor]

Sweet potato pie.

[Pat McAfee]

Smack dimes running wild.

[Connor]

Two Super Bowls by 2035.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we can add it a little bit. I know the Texans are scared. We know it. They're not saying it, but we understand the vibes down there in Houston. Asia. Oh, no. The Colts got Danny D. We know that. We understand that. Houston, we are not necessarily thrilled that they are in our conference. Right. Or our division right now. Yeah.

[Connor]

They got a banger week one, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, they're going to have problems all season. Okay.

[Connor]

Rams, Texans.

[Pat McAfee]

Matthew Stafford. Brand new. Come on day, huh?

[J.J. Watt]

It's going to be. That's going to be a good one. We've got. I've got the Titans week two, so I'll get some AFC south action Week two. I'll see. I'll see what Cam Ward's about. I'm really looking forward to that. I cannot believe how little hype and discussion Cam Ward gets. It's the craziest thing for a number one overall quarterback pick. Very much looking forward to watching him play Week 2 against the Rams.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, JJ. Hey, we got a. We got a couple people here that won raffles at charity events here. This one, I believe, was for Ms. Where we raffled off a chance to be live in a Thunderdome to watch the show in the program. We don't do this often, so we're probably terrible hosts, if I had to guess.

[Connor]

Definitely.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It's probably nowhere near what they thought it was going to be or anywhere near as good as they started. Yeah, we had Deboned give them a tour of the place. I mean, it was. We tried our best. We did it. Waters, the whole thing. Food, snacks, good chairs, good chairs.

[J.J. Watt]

We got basic human necessities. Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. Took photos, did a tour. Debone gave a tour. This is where I eat snacks.

[Connor]

This is where our friend Mitt lives. He's just fucking hanging out, showing the locker room.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep, yep. Saw everything. Yeah, we. We did the tour. We did the thing, you know, we tried our best because this is for a great cause and obviously these people overpaid for this, but it was for a good cause, so we're very thankful. There's Carly, Ted, Owen and Claire. Okay, owen is a 13 year old and he's tall, I believe for his age. He. He is staring. He's 13. Staring at like my temple. Bottom of your earlobe. Yeah, like my temple. Like right here. He's very tall, athletic. He's. He's from Indiana, so he Definitely has a. A shot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Of course.

[Pat McAfee]

So I think on the way out here, we were wondering, Owen, will you try to shoot a hoop to win 30 people, $500 that are watching the show? Will you do that? All right, Owen, do it. All right, Owen's got the ball. Now's the time. Owen. Owen, here's the deal. Jj, can you hear what we're saying through those speakers? Yeah. Okay. No, he can't. All right, jj, speak loud. Will you give Owen a little bit of a motivational message here as he tries to make a shot for 30 people to win $500?

[J.J. Watt]

All right, Owen, here we go. There are 30 random strangers on the Internet. You've never met him, you never will meet him. They'll never thank you in person. But this is extremely, extremely important to them. So I want you to step up to that line. Pretend it's you in the middle of that gym like Hoosiers, and drain that ball right through the net. Here we go.

[Pat McAfee]

Whatever you want to do, Owen. If you want it to be a free throw, you want it to be an NBA 3, whatever shot you want to take, if you make it 30 people will win 500. Now, Owen's been sitting over there. Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

He's cold.

[Pat McAfee]

Like an absolute gentleman. Okay. Just sitting with Claire, his mom. I do believe I sweet. Was not enough of introductions. I do apologize. Could be older sister, too. Okay. Got mom. Got it. He's with mom. Claire, he has been nothing but a gentleman over there. Yeah.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Not a peep. No.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Sweet boy.

[Pat McAfee]

Good boy. Sweet boy.

[Boston Austin Connor]

The good one.

[Pat McAfee]

Ted and Carly, also nothing but positive vibes here. This has been incredible. We should think about doing this more often, man. Maybe. Yeah. To be honest, it's very rare. Your microphone's off. Yeah, your microphone is definitely off. And you are. Are back. All right. All right, Owen. 30 people, 500. All you gotta do is make a shot. You pick from wherever you want to go. And we appreciate you in advance for being an awesome lad.

[Boston Austin Connor]

Is this the Owen?

[Pat McAfee]

No, it's not. You did not call into the show a couple years ago, right, Owen?

[Connor]

That guy's long gone.

[Pat McAfee]

He did not appreciate Boston. Connor. He's gonna go with an NBA 3.

[Connor]

I like it.

[Pat McAfee]

This is very far for a 13 year old. I think anybody walks into our office, everybody walks into our office, and they try to Huck a 3, and they have no idea it's an NBA 3. And it's always short and it's always an airborne. Yeah.

[Connor]

Daniel, Jeremiah, I'm talking to you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And also aq Shipley. Sure. You can just go through basically. That isn't a professional basketball player that comes in here. Oh, and NBA three. 30 people, $500. Good luck, pal. Hair looks phenomenal. Yep. Let's go. Yes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Let's go.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[Mario Cristobal]

That bucket.

[Pat McAfee]

The. No. Oh, my God.

[Darius J. Butler]

Step right into it.

[Pat McAfee]

First time. Wow.

[Boston Austin Connor]

He just got an offer.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. Dude. Some college coaches calling him hell yeah. Dude.

[Tone Diggs]

Coach Debris.

[Scott Hanson]

That was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. All you got to do is repost this video, say something nice to somebody and put the easiest way to pay you. And you might be one of random. Lee selected 30 people to win 500 because Owen just stepped. Might have his foot on the line. No, no, no. He's on shoot from wherever the hell he wants his league and the league he'll be playing in next year. In the next 10 years. That is good. Splash, Owen. Unbelievable stuff. Wow. Owen, Claire, Ted, Carly, thank you for coming in here and enjoying the day. Thank you for donating to a great cause. And we apologize that this all it was.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tone Diggs]

Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we do apologize for that. Jj. That was awesome.

[Connor]

Thank you.

[J.J. Watt]

My day is made. That was the coolest. That was unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

You. Yeah. Never a doubt.

[Darius J. Butler]

Never doubt.

[Connor]

Confident.

[Pat McAfee]

Stepped up to the line.

[J.J. Watt]

He was so confident.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, dude. Have you started school yet? Have you started school yet? Have you started school? Yeah. He skipped school for this. Tomorrow's gonna be a good day.

[J.J. Watt]

Tomorrow's gonna be a good day.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, you walk into that cafeteria, brother. Yeah. There's 30 people that are never gonna say thank you. You like JJ told you. But just know you made their lives infinitely better and you made us needed that.

[J.J. Watt]

I'm hopping out of here today.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, me too. All right. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Shout out to you, Owen. Team on me. Wow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Shout out to the chat too. I'll be in there tomorrow.

[Boston Austin Connor]

There it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye. Talk about stepping up.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's time to level up your game. Introducing the all new ESPN app. All of ESPN all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments.

[Pat McAfee]

The electricity is palpable.

[Darius J. Butler]

Step up your game. With no annual contract required. It's the ultimate fan experience.

[Pat McAfee]

Level up.

[Darius J. Butler]

For More on the ESPN app or at stream.espn.com Sign up now.

[Boston Austin Connor]

You've seen the headlines, heard the debates.

[Pat McAfee]

The three point ball has created a monotonous rhythm to the game. Has the three pointer ruined basketball? Basketball. And how did we get here? The rise of the three point shot can be partially traced to an eccentric Kansas genius named Martin Manley, whose story didn't turn out quite the way he imagined.

[Connor]

I decided I wanted to have one.

[Pat McAfee]

Of the most organized goodbyes in history. 30 for 30 podcast presents Chasing Basketball Heaven. Available now wherever you get your podcasts.