PMS 2.0 1435 - Watt Wednesday, In the Trenches with AQ Shipley, Everything DB with Darius Butler, Shams Charania, Stanford Steve, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 #1435 — “Watt Wednesday”: NBA’s Big Night, NFL Vibes, Insiders’ Roundtable & Sports Culture Bangers

Date: October 22, 2025
Host: Pat McAfee (ESPN)
Guests: AJ Hawk, AQ Shipley, Darius Butler, Shams Charania (NBA Insider), Stanford Steve, JJ Watt, Tone Digs, Toxic Table, and more

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Episode Overview

Pat McAfee and his rotating ensemble—brimming with ex-pro insight, rowdy camaraderie, and razor-sharp sports takes—return for a classic “Watt Wednesday.” With the sports world peaking (NBA’s season opener, NHL magic, MLB heating up, and Week 8 of the NFL on deck), the crew dives into the high-notes and absurdities, tossing in deep analysis, inside stories, and the signature locker-room banter that defines PMS 2.0. Major segments include instant reactions to the NBA’s much-anticipated “Return to NBC,” their thoughts on Michael Jordan’s new broadcasting involvement, evolving player/media roles across all major leagues, and wide-ranging updates from around the sports universe.

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NBA Season Tips Off: NBC’s Debut and Early Drama

[00:13–10:31]

Key Discussion Points

• NBA’s Season Opener on NBC

  • The show launches with Pat marveling at the fever-pitch NBA openers: “Double overtime thriller... Steph and Luka going off... SGA looks unstoppable... KD’s new chapter in Houston.”
  • Praise for NBC’s throwback presentation, from the iconic intros and “score bug” to the deeply nostalgic broadcaster panel (“it just felt big”—[03:13]).

• Panelist Reactions: The NBA’s Big Night

  • Ty Schmidt: “That nostalgia, like I was 8 on the couch watching Bulls games... NBC nailed every detail out the gate.” [03:20]
  • Darius Butler: “The stars showed up... SGA stepping up, an MVP coming off a title run. That Caruso dunk attempt, electric.” [04:25]
  • AQ Shipley and Connor Natai reminisce about 90s Bulls introductions and Michael Jordan’s presence—“NBC is hitting all the details.” [08:25]

Notable Quotes

• Pat on NBC’s broadcast:
  “It felt big. Torico’s voice makes it feel big. Maria Taylor is synonymous with massive moments…” [02:35]
• Darius Butler on SGA:
  “He can get a bucket whenever he has to... walking bucket, clutch bucket, all three levels.” [66:33]

Michael Jordan: The Sit-Down, Not Studio Presence

• Panel confusion on MJ’s new role—expectations vs. reality.
  “I thought he was going to be like Gretzky in the studio...but nope, it’s pre-taped, just sit-downs with Tirico.” [06:55–12:00]

• Michael Jordan candidly discusses giving back; shares old stories.
  “I felt the pressure...when it goes through, feels good. That’s why you chase the thrill, even post-career.” [10:15]

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NBA Insiders Table: Shams Charania Joins

[16:04–44:40]

NBA Broadcasting Evolution & Player Involvement

• Shams joins to discuss:
  • Why MJ isn’t a day-to-day studio analyst (“he’s earned his setup”); the league is excited more legends get broadcast chances under new media rights deals.
  • The increasing presence of former NBA players in media roles:
    “Back at FanDuel TV, hearing Chandler Parsons, Lou Williams, Shump, DeMarcus—it’s always refreshing to get the live perspective.” [20:26]

LeBron’s Back, Rings, and the Lakers’ Luka-Shift

• Shams reveals LeBron’s sciatica surfaced over summer; he’s being patient to get into shape—targeting a mid-November return:
  “He needs to feel like LeBron James; they need LeBron to be LeBron and Luka to be the new face.” [21:41–27:37]

• Luka Doncic’s Laker debut:
  “43-12-9, most points by a Laker in a season opener since Kobe in 2007.” [27:37]

Trade & Twitter Mania: Bronny, Shams, and the Blockbuster

• The Luka-to-LA trade broke via Shams, causing internet mayhem—a tweet posted by Bronny in the Lakers’ group chat:
  “My phone started going crazy...that was the tweet heard round the world.” [31:12]

NBA Odds & International Talent

• Darius Butler pivots his NBA betting strategy:
  “I think I’m just betting on the international guys—Luka, Sengun, Joker, Giannis, SGA.” [63:08]

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Pelicans' Big Hope, Knicks/Cavs, and Rookie Watch

[37:11–43:55]

• Zion Williamson: The panel debates him finally being in shape, holding healthy accountability, and his “chef” lifestyle.
• Cooper Flagg’s rookie usage: “Spending time at point guard, experimentation early in the year.” [43:00]
• Knicks/Cavs preview, Mike Brown’s high-pressure New York start, and early season injury concerns for the Knicks.

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NHL Tribute Magic: Marshy’s Homecoming

[53:22–56:44]

• Pat and Connor (Boston fan) detail the emotional return of Marshy to Boston after 16 years, the team’s tribute, and the tradition of honoring legends.
  • Emotional resonance called “some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen in sports.” [54:40]

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NFL Hot Topics: Jerseys, AFC South, Colts’ Chemistry & In the Trenches

[57:55–113:36]

AFC South & Colts

• JJ Watt joins, praising the Colts’ offense:
  “This offense has no weaknesses… Daniel Dimes, Taylor Warren, Pittman—the OL is blocking at a high level.” [73:40]
• Vibes matter:
  “They like each other, they hang out. Culture is top-down love.” [75:31]

Notable Quotes

• JJ Watt on NFL camaraderie:
  “There’s nothing like playing, nothing like that locker room.” [90:26]
• Colts chemistry:
  “The offense gets together on Monday nights and watches MNF together...100% attendance at Thursday dinners. Different vibe.” [75:31]

NFL Uniform Throws & Style Hot Takes

• Vicious roast of Chargers’ mustard-yellow kits and warnings about “disaster class” matchups coming Sunday Night. [76:26–78:44]

NFL Coaching Rumble: Ravens, Jets, Dolphins Drama

• Ravens drama: Ping-pong/Cornhole/ping-pong tables forcibly removed from locker rooms (by veteran leader vote, not coaches).
• Dolphins: Locker room schism, McDaniel “done” with the media/fan circus, Tua & the coaching carousel.
• Jets: Woody Johnson publicly throws shade at quarterback; panel reacts to rarely-seen owner interventions.

NFL In the Trenches: AQ Shipley’s Top 3 Week 7 Takeaways

• SF 49ers: Shanahan “has all his toys back”; fullback and tight end synergy.
• Micah Parsons: “He’s the closer” for Green Bay, destroys OTs when shifted.
• Stafford Still Spinning: Matt Stafford’s elite London performance; still world-class.

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College Football Roundtable: Stanford Steve, Tone Digs, Panel

[127:38–156:18]

Week Preview & Storylines

• Spotlight: Vanderbilt’s continued rise and SEC playoff leverage games.
• Oklahoma vs. Ole Miss: “Playoff elimination game.” Defense and run game the difference.
• Texas A&M at LSU: Must-win talk for Brian Kelly; A&M’s offense in focus.

Coaching Carousel & Recruiting

• James Franklin’s on-set appearance after Penn State loss: “Extremely brave to do. Humbling.” [147:21]
• Penn State’s search: “You could be the one to bring a national title here.”
• Florida and Lane Kiffin rumors; NIL and “alignment” as the true separator.

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Lighter Side & Signature PMS Banter

[44:40+]

• Extended riffing on sporks (“the unduffable silverware”), the pasta/pasta pronunciation wars among the Italians at the table (“prosciutt vs. prosciutto”), amusement park nostalgia (Kennywood vs. “Kennyworld”), and regional cultural quirks.
• In-show contests (hoop shots, U-ball), allergy debate (“Is vitamin C wasting your time?”), and a maze of inside jokes on show dynamics.

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Memorable Moments & Quotes (with Timestamps)

• Pat on the NBA’s new media deals:
  “...A lot of OGs getting an opportunity to cover the game. If last night is any indication—congrats, NBC, you nailed it.” [14:22]

• Connor Natai on the Marshy tribute in Boston:
  “No one will ever wear 63 again. He’s one of six to ever score 1,000 points for the Bruins..." [54:57]

• Shams Charania breaking down LeBron’s injury timeline:
  “He needs to get back into basketball shape. They and LeBron are looking at mid-November for his return.” [21:41]

• JJ Watt on retiring and locker room bonds:
  “No matter what you do in the real world, you can never replicate that adrenaline, that competition…” [90:26]

• Pat (typical PMS absurdity):
  “Spaghetti is my least favorite of the pastas. But boy—the Italians love having a good spaghetti.” [48:55]

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Highlights & Timestamps for Important Segments

• NBA Opening Reaction & NBC Coverage:
  [00:14–12:00]
  The panel relives the drama and nostalgia of opening night and Michael Jordan’s new media presence.

• NBA Insiders & Shams Interview:
  [16:00–44:40]
  Deep dive into NBA broadcast evolution, LeBron update, and league power dynamics.

• Marshy’s NHL Homecoming:
  [53:22–56:44]
  Emotional sports tribute talk.

• NFL AFC South, Colts Chemistry & Inside Football:
  [73:33–77:24]
  JJ Watt and the crew discuss winning culture, chemistry, and O-line play.

• NFL Locker Room Drama/Culture:
  [86:43–101:05]
  Ravens and Dolphins turmoil; leadership, fun-policing, and what really happens behind the scenes.

• In the Trenches—AQ’s NFL Top 3:
  [110:07–113:36]
  Technical breakdowns, offensive schemes, and player praise.

• College Football Talk:
  [127:38–156:18]
  Previewing pivotal games, the money and coaching carousel, and what’s next at Penn State and Florida.

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Overall Tone & Style

The show’s trademark is raucous, no-holds-barred sports talk—mixing expertise with locker room humor, poking fun at each other and the sports world at large, but always swinging from informed, passionate fandom or professional insight. Comedic timing is sharp, references are both high-level and intentionally low-brow, and the crew never shies away from over-caffeinated digressions or airing out internal beefs.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

This episode is a must-listen for fans of unfiltered sports conversation, bridging detailed analysis with both reverence and ridicule for everything from the NBA’s media arms race to what makes a locker room “work.” The crew’s live reactions and real-time debates—especially around LeBron’s latest chapter, the shifting tides in the NFL, and their fixation on the “little stuff” (pasta, sporks, amusement park rides, and made beds)—deliver both the insights and the madness that define The Pat McAfee Show experience.

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this watch. Wednesday, October 22, 2025. This program begins now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Football.

[Pat McAfee]

It is magical. We're lucky to talk about it every single day. But I'll tell you what, the NBA brought it last night. The NHL brought it last night. MLB is obviously cooking with fire. And we're about a little bit over 24 hours away from week eight of the NFL season kicking off. We're in the middle of a great time to be alive. We're appreciative of the fact that we get to do this. We'll have Sham Sharania joining us in about 15 minutes or so. Can't wait to catch up with him about all the NBA stuff that we need to know. After an exhilarating start for the association yesterday, I mean, they had a double overtime thriller and then into the late, late night, they had Steph Curry and Luka putting on a show. Now, granted, that Lakers team certainly looks a certain way without LeBron James on that particular court, but Luka looks a little different too. 40 plus points, obviously. One rebound or assist or forget away from a triple double. And they look great. But Hemi Butler and Steph Curry and the Golden State warriors appear to be the real deal. But nobody, and I mean nobody appears to be able to topple this Oklahoma City team. And what SGA was able to do in that first game, this, this whole Houston Rockets with Kevin Durant dynamic is certainly awesome. And I love the fact that Kevin Durant gets to experience a new city and do a new thing with a new team and earn his rank. He's still an absolute dog. They got big Turk on their team, too. They got this big Turkish fella senging big Turk. I'm sorry, baller. This guy's an absolute baller. Houston Rockets were a good team, young team. They get Kevin Durant, he's obviously a weapon. They're going to be good this year. They lose in a heartbreaker to this Oklahoma City team and at one point during this game, Alex Caruso, yes, that guy you're talking about tried to go over top of three dudes in overtime. Two point game. Caruso is going for it. They all got maximum confidence over there because they obviously just won the title. The Deutscher Chamber is still locked down and SGA can get a bucket whenever he has to. The NBA had a hot start. They got a lot of games today. We appreciate them doing that. And then in the NHL, there was a magical moment up there in Boston. Now we'll Obviously chit chat about that in a matter of moments. We have 12 year NFL vet, Super bowl champion player, coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Jackie Moon of the NFL if you will. Ladies and gentlemen, Akush Shipley. How you doing Akush?

[AQ Shipley]

Great boys.

[Pat McAfee]

You're a big NBA guy. I know you were all excited and jacked up. You've always been a big time Jordan's bear and LeBron guy since the beginning of time and since the beginning of that conversation started becoming a daily conversation on sports television channels all over the world. Last night he did debuted his commentating stuff. Now that was alongside an entire NBC package that I think did a fantastic job in the rollout. It felt big. Talks to tables here at Boston, Connor at Ty Schmidt. Ty Tirico's voice on it makes it feel big. And then Maria Taylor is obviously synonymous with massive moments. She comes from like college game day. Now she's on Sunday night football, Football night in America host and halftime show host. She feels like she's a part of something big. Then you got Melo up there, you got TMac up there, you got Vince Carter up there. Then in the booth you got hey Crawford man, he's good on the mic. Torico calling this thing and then obviously Reggie Miller who's been on a call for games like the last 30 years. It was like NBC really did well last night I thought. And that was a big takeaway I think from a lot of the sports community after watching last.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, without a doubt. I think you know like for me who like I'm a casual NBA fan, I will watch the games but like the, the actual double overtime game to start like that was just the cherry on top because if you remember like when we were younger like I, I had so much nostalgia and like deja vu almost watch NBC intro last night like I was 8 years old on my couch watching the Bulls again like it was nuts. And then yeah it just everything down to like the score bug, every little detail and, and that could just be because it's something new. We're not quite used to it or used to the previous stuff on ESPN and ABC and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, the. Yeah, Turner, exactly. But like it just everything about it felt like they gave attention to detail and the cast is incredible. And it was only the first night like I think we can assume that. Okay. Hey, this is a great launch. These guys are going to get much more comfortable and much better throughout the course of the year.

[Pat McAfee]

Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Good to see You d your thoughts on the coverage on NBC? I like obviously give me the ball because I'm gonna dunk it. Yeah, love that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I'm right there with Ty as far as that being nostalgic. I remember watching the bulls game and my big brother Mitchell forcing me to watch the intros and that Bulls music. But obviously it wasn't the Bulls last night. But that game was great. Came down to the wire. I probably want to take back some of my tweets. I won't delete them because I'm not a bitch made cat, but you know, I was a march riding along some of the bets because that is one of the most exciting parts about the NBA too. Betting alongside it as well. But the stars showed up. You mentioned SGA just stepping up, being an MVP coming off the title run. You're always wondering about these teams, how will they show up to start the season. We saw the banner night, we saw the ring and it was no doubt he was going make that shot. That's just what he does with that shoulder shimmy. You mentioned Shingoon. Absolute dog. They were calling baby joker a couple years ago and he showed why. Pretty much their best point guard right now. Great lineup, but the thunder got it done. That attempted dunk from Caruso is absolutely electric.

[Pat McAfee]

So there's Oklahoma City are down 2. Kevin Durant obviously had an opportunity to put them up. 3. He missed a free throw. If he would have made that free throw, I think SGA makes a three instead of a mid range. Then it goes to overtime after SGA makes a shot. That was one of the most matter of fact shots that we've seen in some time. SGA has, has the ball dribbling down. He's in the paint. He's mid range. That's definitely falling. They go to overtime. Overtime gets electrifying. Well, you mentioned Caruso trying to absolutely go yam in this entirety. But all of overtime was pretty. There was a couple like five point leads and then they would come crawling back. This thing would end up going to double overtime to kick off the entire NBA season to kick off the brand new relationship or re relationship with NBC. I think Adam Silver was out there like, yeah, it's more ball. They did have to make a decision though. They put the Lakers in Golden State. Okay, so you're putting Luka and Steph Curry on Peacock only. Okay. So I thought to myself like, oh, if this goes to what do they end up doing? We get over to the Lakers golden state game, it's like 32, 31 already. And I think to myself this actually worked out for them perfectly. Yeah, we got through the first like bullshit. Let's figure out who we are as a team. First game of the NBA and we got right into it. It was almost like a better setup for them when that could have been a problem. Michael Jordan, you know, sits down with Michael Tirico. I, I don't think that's what I thought was going to happen.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, definitely not.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I, I didn't think that was it. Now granted, we got Michael Jordan. Yeah. Love that we got Michael Jordan. He says he's paying for, he's giving back to the game. You know, that's what this is all about and everything like that. He sit down with Tirico I and it's my dumb brain and maybe because I'm too simple. I thought he was going to be Wayne Gretzky up there. Like I thought there was a chance we were going to see him in studio.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's not you being dumb because that was the bill of goods that we were certainly sold for a while there. I feel like it was only on Sunday Night Football when they first introduced this that it was like, oh, actually, nevermind. This is what he's going to be doing. He's not, he's not going to be doing any of the studio stuff.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's insights, excellence. He's just sitting down with Rico Diner at the crib. They're just kind of having a little conversation, going to go through some stuff which is obviously great to get more content from Michael Jordan. Anytime you get a Michael Jordan talk, it's great. But that's why I was excited for him live in real time. So on that note, does that change the way you view anything after last night or did you feel like the sit down with Michael Jordan, especially in this long form interview style, which Trico, we think is incredibly talented. Trico's on Olympics, Tico's on Sunday Night Football. Tiro on an NBA game is going to feel big.

[Connor Natai]

Awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

And congrats to Tico.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Bringing it feels big whenever he's on it. Nance feels big.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Al Michaels feels big whenever he's on the call. Michael Cole, you know when he's on the call.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

It feels, it feels very big. Who else?

[Connor Natai]

Buck.

[Pat McAfee]

Buck is on call Big. Let's see. Anybody we're missing? We do apologize.

[Connor Natai]

Oh, McQuaid.

[Pat McAfee]

Fowler. Fowler, Fowler. Kirby McQuaid.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, Herbie, he's, he's got, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

He'S not play by play.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, sure but yeah, you're right.

[Pat McAfee]

So I'm talking play by play only, not color comments, please. We are not.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I don't even want to get into that. Everybody that does it. We are big fans of. Okay, except for some people that aren't fans of, you know, whoever. But Michael Jordan last night, was that a big deal for you as a die hard Jordan guy to be able to see him just do something with the common game, with the live game.

[AQ Shipley]

It was good to see him, but I was, I was with Ty. I thought he was going to be on the desk. I thought he was going to be like you said, like he was going to be Gretzky. Give some analyst. But I will say, when you think of NBC basketball, all I hear is Alan Parsons Project 6, 6 from the.

[Pat McAfee]

University of North Carolina.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. That's the moment.

[Darius J. Butler]

Edgar.

[Pat McAfee]

They showed the intros last night. Yeah, they were crazy. Yeah, they. The marketing, the branding was good. Behind that. Was that. Who was the GM that you all you Bulls fans hated?

[Connor Natai]

Cross.

[Pat McAfee]

Cross. Was that him directing all that? Was that him piece in that whole thing?

[Connor Natai]

I think probably he.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he is. He should get a little bit more credit, this guy. He's also the pregame activity. What's going on? Comment?

[Connor Natai]

Well, like it sucks that it was only three minutes. Okay, three and a half minutes for sure. It blows. But like I was locked in on that three and a half the entire time. So like, although the first one was just kind of generalizing, hey, this is what I'm going to be doing when they do ask him about specific players and stuff like that and they do throw in the little three minute clip. Still definitely disappointed. But that three minutes is going to be talked about no matter what. Because what he says about a Sang goon or about a sga, about kd when they get to a Lakers primetime game that's actually in LA and they're talking about LeBron and you really do get unfiltered MJ on LeBron with Tara. Like that's going to be incredible. And the logo too. Not sure if you notice on the logo the little VI on the bottom being golden highlighted for the six championships in the MJ.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the detail.

[Ty Schmidt]

Nice little touch.

[Connor Natai]

NBC's kind of hitting all the, all the little details.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'll be excited to see what their coverage is and yeah, that is. That's very nice. I didn't either. Wow, that's. That's some insights. The excellence, right? Yeah.

[AQ Shipley]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

That is a little bit of the difference. Now the Sit down. Interviews will be captivating. Told the story about Airbnb, you know, shooting a free throw in front of the kids. Hadn't touched ball. Felt a lot of pressure. When that one goes through, he feels good. Tariko goes. Did you make it? Yes, brother. Yeah, yeah. Yes, brother. But I do like the fact that he felt a little alive, you know, I think that's why the whole gambling on golf thing happens because these guys are in these biggest moments. I mean, you think of Michael Jordan, you think of all the big moments, we're doing all the shit all the time. Think about an entire arena, the entire league is on your back. Everything, basically Nike is on your back at that point. The amount of pressure and exhilaration that you have to feel whenever that shit falls. Okay, so now that's a dragon. Okay, that thing's out there. How do you feel that? Well, this putt needs to be worth 150,000. This, this three foot, like chasing that thrill, I assume was what maybe started him into that particular world. And then nowadays it just seems like it's status quo to learn. Like my thoughts are, Michael Jordan is competing on a golf course right now. He's obviously taking over business. And the fact that we're getting a sit down interview with him that was already recorded. Are they going to update this thing at least?

[Ty Schmidt]

That's what I'm working on.

[Pat McAfee]

Can we get some updated. Tariq, hold on. Tariq, we need you to travel down there. We need that to happen each week.

[Darius J. Butler]

So we thinking this is just one long interview. They're going to just microdose throughout.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, I think we're getting episodes, brother. I think last night was episode one.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Podcast.

[Ty Schmidt]

So, like we will get, you know, like him talking about, like LeBron at some point, but I don't think it's going to be topical as to what is actually, like we don't know this, we don't know. But. But my impression from last night was Tarico went down to his house before the season started during the summer, sat with him for two and a half hours, and they're going to cut that up into little splices throughout the course of the season.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but just like The Roman numeral 6 at the bottom, they always keep us guessing.

[Connor Natai]

I agree.

[Ty Schmidt]

I hope so.

[Pat McAfee]

We thought he was going to be on the desk. Well, we got this, we got the six, we got that. We're all excited, we're all into it, we're all listening. And I do appreciate him saying he felt obligated to give back to the Game, you know, at this stage, why is he choosing to do it now? And I think you have given back to the game. I mean, we're all wearing it, basically. You've given back. Yeah. You've given back a lot. Your name and your dunking has really changed everything, but, yeah, I'm excited for it. I thought he was on the desk, though. I felt like a mark whenever I saw him. That's what I thought when I saw him sitting down at his house.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. How stupid am I? Yeah, like he's gonna be.

[Connor Natai]

Go.

[Ty Schmidt]

Go to Oklahoma City and see Stand on the court tonight before the game.

[Pat McAfee]

What a. That's what I was doing.

[Connor Natai]

Me, too. I know that might just be the first one.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm so embarrassed by myself. I know I was hard to look. It was hard to look at. Like you, Annie, you know, the business. What? Michael Jordan. Oh, yeah. He's gonna go down there and spend his whole night in Oklahoma City. Yeah, I bet he will.

[Ty Schmidt]

Idiot.

[Pat McAfee]

Why'd we think.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know. I have no idea. And it seems so simple now, looking back on it, like, of course he wasn't gonna go down there. Why would he? Yeah, they rolled out the red carpet.

[Pat McAfee]

And came to him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Why would he?

[Pat McAfee]

He just got done.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Just got done.

[AQ Shipley]

You know, he could have done opening night.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Connor Natai]

I don't think he's going to any arenas like there. If they do a doubleheader on NBC and then maybe, you know, they're just doing studio show.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe he pops into the studio and maybe last night they won from Oklahoma City because it was like, first game. Let's go ahead and be live from here. Maybe it will be a studio, like football night in with a couple of people spread out. Because you start looking at the lineup of all the. I don't want to say the cast characters, but you get. You get what I'm saying here? A lot of people for NBC. Amazon Prime's got a bunch. They got a lot of legends working over there. I'll be excited to see how they kind of disperse everything that they got going on. But it feels like the new rights deal that Adam Silver has negotiated with all these different platforms is going to provide a lot of opportunity for a lot of OGs to kind of tell their story and give their takes on it. I'm excited to see all the drama that kind of just starts. I mean, there's going to be so much shit. You got a lot of players saying a lot of stuff at a lot of different places. And There's a lot of things that are going to go through the season. You know, how, like, normal play or live players right now how they feel about the OG players. So now you got a lot more OG players potentially saying things. That's why we asked Steve Nash yesterday.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, hey, Steve, what are you going to say about the current players? You know, like, how are you going to. He goes, I'm always going to be me. I was going to be. I'll be excited to see how they all balance that because I think Shaq and Chuck obviously get a lot of heat because it feels like they're burying the modern day, but they're just pointing out from their eyes what they see in ball. It's like, how do all the other OGs see ball? And how is those conversations go? I think it's good. I think it's great for the conversation. It's great for us to kind of keep up with. And if last night is any indication of what the season's going to be like for NBC, congrats. You guys. Nailed it. It feels like Michael Jordan. We thought he was going to be there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Why would you guys think. Yeah. I don't know. I wear the shoes, guys. Got all the money in the world. Okay, what do we do? You want me to read an A block? Okay. Is it my turn to talk? We think Michael Jordan was.

[Darius J. Butler]

I was honestly shocked at the store. I couldn't believe he actually shot the free throw.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. For.

[Pat McAfee]

For the.

[Darius J. Butler]

I'm assuming billionaire that owned the house. I would have thought he said, I'm not puppet. I shoot three. Yeah. But that shocked me.

[Pat McAfee]

On a note, I'd like to buy this house and tear it down. Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

The family's just like, he's. It's an Airbnb. And he gets there and the family's just there and they're like, hey, Michael, can you just. Just shoot one, please?

[Pat McAfee]

Think about them seeing the order come through. Yeah, that's like that commercial. The Michael Jordan guy who get. Trying to get the reservation for the restaurants and then shows up. Michael Jordan's right in our house. That's not.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

They say no Airbnb.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Right.

[Connor Natai]

It's not. It's not listed. No way.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I'll be excited to see how much that would cost a night if you were able to rent it. Maybe Ty. Maybe you rent that thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Start working on your free throw.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know. You're right. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. Quick 150 grand for the weekend. No big deal.

[Pat McAfee]

A night. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who might have more information on why the hell did we think that Michael Jordan was going to be sitting in a studio talking about basketball throughout the season on NBC? Ladies and gentlemen, Sean. We, we feel so stupid. We, we last night while we're sitting there watching Michael Jordan at his house, it looked beautiful by the way. He's got a lot of those different rooms. And we saw his house in Illinois that was for sale. Still for sale. Everything like that. Beautiful place. He's earned it all. Congratulations to him. He's built a lot of different businesses for other people. I think Chicago Bulls, the NBA would say this. The Jordan brand would obviously say this. Space Jam potentially. I mean you start naming things. This guy is obviously an earner I think for everybody that he's ever really worked for catering everything. So I appreciate how nice of a setup it is for him. And why did I in my brain when I heard this think that Michael Jordan was going to be doing anything other than sitting in his house having a podcast. And on that note, how does the NBA, Adam Silver and people you talk to around the league feel about all these OGs getting an opportunity to cover the game with the new rights deals?

[Sean Deveney]

Well, I think one, your heart would have been broken if you had reached out to me yesterday. I would have told you Michael Jordan is not going to be hashtag Sean's deal. Hashtag Sean still tuned in as excitedly. So I'm happy you didn't and I'd rather you get your dream shattered. But you still get to experience the Michael Jordan, you know, mentality, the, you know, every, the aura that that is mj. But I mean I enjoyed watching that. I think it was like a three minute interview. I believe half of it was talking about when he went to the right. I think it was a Ryder cup owner's home and he got challenged to shoot a free throw. He said it was like years ago or something. I know Brandon Miller was drafted by the Hornets in 2022 in, in high in the lottery. I think he was a number two pick in Charlotte. He told a story at the time that he was shooting free throws with Michael Jordan and he was trash talking Michael Jordan. So that was three years ago. So we do know that. We do know. I don't know how long ago this was, but at least three years ago. Brandon Miller and Michael Jordan, I think Brandon Miller, the story goes he saw Michael Jordan airball a free throw. So shout out Brandon Miller No, I.

[Pat McAfee]

Don'T want to hear that. Listen, you don't need to say everything that comes into that brain, okay? You can go ahead and filter something.

[Sean Deveney]

I'm just refreshing memory. So I don't know how long ago this was. Was this after the. Brandon Miller, was it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, several years after.

[Sean Deveney]

We gotta. We gotta do some now. How could it be several years every year like this?

[Darius J. Butler]

No, it was.

[Ty Schmidt]

It was like a month ago.

[Connor Natai]

But he said. But he says in the interview, like, I haven't picked up a basketball in years. The last time I picked it up was INS story.

[Sean Deveney]

No, no, we got to figure out the year.

[Pat McAfee]

He said he hadn't picked up a basketball in years. Whenever he was asked to shoot the free throw. That's why he felt the pressure.

[Connor Natai]

So.

[Sean Deveney]

So pat me as a listener, I'm hearing that, and I'm like, what's years is years, five years, six years. I know for sure he picked up a ball in 2022.

[Pat McAfee]

So that's probably.

[Ty Schmidt]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Airball and free throw. And said, I'm never doing that again. Yeah, I'm gonna go golf.

[Sean Deveney]

Then he did it, and then he made it. So the ending. The. Let's just. For. For our fantasy purposes, we'll. We'll just.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no.

[Darius J. Butler]

Remember the camp, too, where the. He makes every shot or if he misses.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Well, how many years ago was that?

[Pat McAfee]

It was 20. 20, maybe 2019. That feels like it was a little long ago. Yeah. If you make every single shot. If he misses one of these shots, everybody in here gets free.

[JJ Watt]

Jordan.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah, right. I don't think so.

[Sean Deveney]

I will say, though, Pat, I think the return of, like, players, you know, whether, you know, at Amazon, NBC, we're seeing a lot of former players, you know, up there, and I. I love it. I mean, back when I was at FanDuel TV, worked closely with Chandler Parsons, Lou Williams, we had DeMarcus cousins on, you know, Iman Shumpert, Evan Turner, guys that would come on and, like, from my purposes, I know what I'm. What I do. And it's always refreshing to hear the experts, the people that were in it, that lived and breathed it. I mean, you guys, you db, aj, the other aj, like, you guys have that experience that the expertise that I think the fans hopefully can get and absorb that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, me. AJ's into debut. Always try our best, just kind of give our perspective. But we think everybody, obviously, is a good voice to be heard now when some people take themselves a little bit too serious, and if they're done, they're going to get buried every once in a while by some people. But that's the game that we're in. That's the world that we live in and we appreciate what you do because we obviously can't do that. But I'm excited to hear the former NBA legends commentate all year long. Now let's talk about a legend that is currently not playing, but still in the league and has played against all the guys that are currently on TV. Now. LeBron James, okay, so he has a sciatica, okay, in the back there with the Los Angeles Lakers. Three to four weeks is what was being said. Obviously at this stage of his career, this might be beneficial for him long term if he misses three to four weeks worth of games here at the beginning, whenever, obviously at the end of the year is whenever you're going to need LeBron James at his absolute best last year. He's flying around like he was a 29 year old. Still they were expecting him to do that. Luka obviously brought in to be the future of the franchise. Are we about to enter LeBron James sit in the corner, let Luka cook. Maybe LeBron James save the legs a little bit, still be able to dominate. Is this a new era of LeBron James basketball with the Lakers? And when are we expecting him to be actually back with the Los Angeles Lakers?

[Sean Deveney]

Watching the Lakers last night, I think they need LeBron James who's going to be there, have the ball in his hands. Whenever Luka doesn't have the ball in his hands and Austin Reaves is either off the court playing off the ball, they need LeBron James to be LeBron James. That's what I saw last night. I mean a top 15 player last year he was on an all NBA team. And this sciatica that we talk about right on his right side. It is important to note here, Pat, I'm told he first had had this back situation occur late July, early August in an on court workout. I'm told he's working out with Tyrese Maxey and Zach Levine and he felt something in his back and then he ends up getting tests and things of that sort. And so this is an injury that's been described to me and I think Draymond Green spoke about it last night, that it comes and goes, you feel it. You don't really have like a set timeline or there's. It's not like there's a treatment that you just do and it just heals. It's time. It's how you feel. And I Think there was maybe a notion that he'd feel better by now, but obviously he needs time because all of the off. He didn't have an offseason. So all that time that he missed. You know, we're usually accustomed to seeing LeBron in August and September post these 6am workouts. We only saw that really for a couple weeks this summer. So he didn't have that routine, normal LeBron James offseason. And so I think this, this training camp, I think right now is a lot about him getting back into basketball shape and being able to go out there and play with the proper conditioning that we're accustomed to seeing him play. Because he's not a guy that's just going to come in the game and just stand in the corner. I don't see that from LeBron James this year. Never say never where that could be next year or if he keeps playing or, you know, how the second half of the year goes if he's not able to be back physically. But I am told he's doing more and more on the court. But sources tell me he's going to be very, very patient with this injury. And I'm told The Lakers and LeBron are looking at mid November ish for him to make his debut. So we're still looking at some time here before he's going to be able to be back out on the court. There's still some boxes he's got to check. And in the meantime, you know, he's sitting there watching this team and you know, I think back, Rich Paul told me the day that LeBron James opted in that they just want a realistic chance. LeBron James just wants a realistic chance of winning a championship. And I think, I think we're going to see how this team looks. And you know, watching this team, I can only help but reread Rich Paul's statement to me back on. I think it was June 30th and kind of that message that they had was a cry for help. Like, we want this team to be as, as, as loaded, as stacked as possible so we can have a chance to win a championship. And, you know, we'll see. I'm not going to panic over one game. I'm sure Laker fans are panic, but we'll see how this team looks as the next few weeks go on.

[Pat McAfee]

Deandre Ayton, right, was brought in for the Los Angeles Lakers. Now they're an opportunity to obviously see what the roster is without LeBron playing. You talked about him not being standing a corner guy at this stage and June 30, text from Rich Paul about wanting to win a title. It's like, if LeBron can continue to be the freight train that he has been, he's a modern marvel this year. Like, he is an actual. And then we don't even go back to the Olympics was that.

[Sean Deveney]

It's insane. It's insane. He's. He's about to be 41 in December. And the fact that he's playing at this level, that's why, like, I can never picture him standing in the corner. If LeBron James has to, I. I think a lot of scouts, a lot of teams would agree. These Lakers need LeBron James to be LeBron James for this team to have a chance to really contend and compete for a championship. So if he is a stand in the corner player, I think that's going to shift what I'd say, balance of powers a lot.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. LeBron James on your team, on your roster, need him to be LeBron James to win. It's like, I'm excited to see how long that can last because remember, it's been like the last three, four years where they're like, LeBron James can't just be the ball dominant, run heavy at the age that he's going. Especially they're running on hardwood. Think about how big he is, the joints, everything like that. They talk about the body and everything, the travel schedule, the lack of rest, all the shit that NBA players talk about. This dude's 41 years old and he's bigger than everybody. He's somehow still doing it all. The guy is a absolute physical specimen, and I can't wait to see him back. So what it sounds like you're saying is his sciatica might not be still hurting right now, but he needs to get back into game shape is what we're hearing. And through this process, the sciatica might pop up a little bit because it's kind of a sporadic. This sciatic is a little sporadic. Okay, that's pretty. That's pretty good. A couple bars there, actually, so. So that whole thing to think about, certainly going forward in my life, but it is a sporadic thing, so it might pop up. But mostly this is him training to get into season shape at the moment is how you're kind of feel. Your feel is for the situation.

[Sean Deveney]

He went a little over a month before September 29, which was media day in training camp. He went over a month prior to that. So we're thinking late August, mid August. He went that far without touching a Basketball, like, real, real live basketball action. So you're already behind the eight ball when you're starting training camp, and you haven't really done live basketball. You haven't been your routine, normal off season. So he is playing catch up in a lot of ways as far as his conditioning. And I'm sure he's looking great in his individual workouts. He's got to get to the point where he's feeling like LeBron James. He's able to move like LeBron James. But listen, in the meantime, and even as we move forward, I think think a lot with the Lakers changed once they got Luka Doncic. Like, Luka Doncic has been the guy. He is the guy for this team. He is the new face of this franchise. And so, yeah, they need LeBron James to be LeBron James, but Luka Doncic is 20. I think he just turned 26. Like, he is supposed to be that guy. If you're asking for. You need LeBron James to be LeBron James, which is, you know, probably on this team, having the ball when Luka doesn't have the ball, probably being the 1A, 1B option. But you need Luka Doncic to be the face of your franchise as well. We saw that last night. He was absolutely brilliant. He played great basketball. Didn't. Didn't force the action. And the numbers he put up at the end, just unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. One assist away from a triple double. He goes for 42. Sorry, 43. 12 and nine. Okay. And Lakers lose to the Warriors. The warriors improved to 27. 8. When Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green all play, including regular season and playoffs. Jimmy Butler the third. Sorry. 31 points, his most in a regular season game since joining the warriors. And Luka Doncic, 43 points, most in a season open by a Lakers player since Kobe Bryant in 2007. So obviously, Luka comes in in great shape playing his best ball. Are the Lakers poised to go on a championship run? And if they're not, what does that mean for LeBron?

[Connor Natai]

San Antonio.

[Pat McAfee]

San Antonio.

[Connor Natai]

Oh.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that what you're saying about that June 30 message?

[Sean Deveney]

That sounded like a me, like a meteor, you know, like, I think that's what that. What. The sound you guys just made is like a meteor hit. The meteor might hit. We'll say you. You never know.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, he's saying that thing. It's buzz. No, it's buzzing.

[Sean Deveney]

On the court. We saw with the message from Rich Paul, like, they want. Like, he. In his mind, he's about to be 41 years old, year 23, never been done before. It's about having a realistic chance to win. And only time can tell, you know, one game isn't going to decide the Lakers season.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, there's another trade off. We're not talking about LeBron being traded at this moment. We're just saying, hey, these things are all obviously being chatted about. There was a trade last year that obviously rattled the entire industry, rattled the entire sports world. On the same night as the Royal in Indianapolis, Indiana, there was a trade that sent Luka to Los Angeles to become the face of the Lakers. He looks better than ever. But at the time, it was earth shattering info that maybe not everybody had. Go ahead, D. Bud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, absolutely. Talk about longevity. LeBron, first player to play with his son, and his son is making arounds now on the Internet. See some Internet reports. I want you to clear this up for me. Did you text Bronny James to break the Luka trade? Or how did this. How did this work with him sending that into the Lakers group chat?

[Sean Deveney]

Sean, can we pull that tweet up?

[Darius J. Butler]

Sure.

[Sean Deveney]

We pull that tweet up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Boom.

[Sean Deveney]

What's the tweet? I can't even. I can't see it.

[Pat McAfee]

We have it up.

[Sean Deveney]

So he put my tweet. See, some people hit me. They're like, yo, why are you. Why is it coming out that you were texting players? I'm like, what are you talking about? It says right there. So they're saying that Bronnie posted my tweet in the Lakers group chat.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. That's right. You told him to do that? You told him to do that?

[Sean Deveney]

I think I had time. I don't think I had time to text anyone that night. I. I had time to pick up, like, five phone calls that night. You being one of them, Pat. You being one of. My hands were shaking. They were like, like, literally. Literally.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Shock.

[Sean Deveney]

I was. I was sweating bullets. I was like, I don't want a typo.

[Ty Schmidt]

This is.

[Sean Deveney]

You have typos and tweets. This is not the tweet for a typo. Yeah, you know, this, this. This is not the tweet for a typo. You got to make sure you're on it. You can't have any detail wrong. And I, I. The only people I was texting were the. My sources on the story. So about five people I was talking to. The last call I had. This is exactly how the call went. I picked up. I said, did this really happen? And the person goes, yeah, did. That's it hung up. I. I didn't even have to say what it was. They didn't have to say what it was. We knew it. And I put, you know, maybe 20 seconds later, I put it out.

[Pat McAfee]

How about self censoring there in the, in that big of a moment? Yeah, yeah, indeed.

[Sean Deveney]

Family friendly Airways. You know, I can take advantage of the platform.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you're, you're, you're senior NBA insider. You need to make sure you watch your mouth. Yeah, you need to watch your mouth. And I'm about sick of your mouth too, the way you've been talking about these stories. Okay, so you need to slow it down, Sean. Yeah, that's obviously the tweet heard around the world very quickly. Hall of fame, hall of fame tweet. Hall of fame break.

[Sean Deveney]

And so, no, I didn't, I didn't. I. To clear up DB I did not text Bronny James anything about anything that night or really any night. But, you know, that night was. Was five people I was in constant communication with over a seven minute period. And then my phone started going crazy. Sources picked up my guy Tom DeCordi's call, SportsCenter producer, shout out to him. You obviously called. So there were a few. There are a couple GMs, I picked up a couple other people, but yeah, that. There it is. There it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. This doesn't even count for people that screenshot it and posted it themselves. I mean, this thing's over a billion, obviously. No typos. Great capitalized letters there. I think you really pieced it together well. And I will say his. His hands were shaky strictly because I did FaceTime him. And it was like he was in that moment of like, holy shit. Like it just happened, you know, And I was telling him he got hacked. I think everybody's probably telling you that.

[Sean Deveney]

And you knew I was woefully unprepared because what did. I had glasses on? You. You've seen my. You. You've. You're one of few people that have seen, you know, the hair without the hair shams.

[Pat McAfee]

Looks very cool without it all kind of, you know, buttoned up just like whenever he's not saying words.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, like seams. Got a little messy hair. And he's not doing the king. You know what I mean?

[Ty Schmidt]

He is.

[Pat McAfee]

There's two shams is here and we appreciate this Shams.

[Darius J. Butler]

Obviously, I expect the SES to be a wake up and make the bed type of guy too. Know you're in the Hotel. But geez, Shams, the best mate.

[Sean Deveney]

What are you talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

No, right there on. Over your left shoulder, brother. It's right there on the.

[Connor Natai]

Made poorly that man.

[Pat McAfee]

You kidding me? What four years old. That's me.

[Sean Deveney]

Am I tr.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you putting it on the counter for? What's it on the side table for? What do you. What's that?

[Sean Deveney]

We might have a little straggler on the side, but it's a made bed over here.

[Pat McAfee]

Who made it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Helen Keller.

[Pat McAfee]

Geez.

[Connor Natai]

Come on, Choms.

[Pat McAfee]

Helen Keller would have felt that on the side.

[Connor Natai]

That's a good point.

[Pat McAfee]

Be better.

[Connor Natai]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

If I had to get. Because that was right. Yeah. Her entire deaf and means of. That's wild. The amount of patience. Oh, we don't have to get into that. We don't want to get into that. We don't want to get into that. Let's talk about patience. There's going to have to be some in New York, you know, because we're all figuring it out. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, Shams. As a Celtics fan, I just try and rile Bruce up as much as I can because he loves the Knicks and he actually is kind of pissed off today because Carl Anthony Towns 1 is questionable for night tonight and 2 said that he doesn't really know what his role in the offense is with their new coach, Mike Braun. So what's going on with the Knicks? Did they kind of build a team for Thibodeau style and now they're realizing that they have to completely change the team because Mike Brown style is different. What do you kind of expect the Knicks to be this year? And am I wrong in thinking that the Cavaliers are going to win by 50 tonight?

[Sean Deveney]

No, I mean the Knicks and the Cavs have the pressure going into this season to be the, you know, coming out of the East. I mean they're Orlando, Atlanta, Detroit, you know, Philadelphia, if healthy, Boston's gonna always be competitive and we'll see. Jason Tatum, the way he looks, I'm sure he really wants to come back this season. But yeah, I mean those. That's the pressure that they have when you fire Tom Thibodeau after making to the conference finals, you know, it's championship or bus. Mike Brown is entering a championship or bust situation. The Knicks roster knows it. But even the players in Cleveland know that this is a championship type season, championship robust season. That's what's on the line, at least getting to the finals. So what comes with that? Of course there's going to be growing Pains like, I think Jalen Brunson, Karnathi Towns, OG Anunoby, Mikhail Bridges, all trying to figure out exactly how Mike Brown is as a coach, his offensive systems and all that. But honestly, BC the thing that I'm more worried about than anything is the fact that this team. Team in New York right now is so, you know, like they're dealing with injuries, like they're. They're banged up already and the season hasn't started. Mitchell Robinson is out tonight. Josh Hart is out tonight. Those are. That's your starting center and essentially your sixth man who basically can be a starter for your team. So you're already starting the year. And those two guys, I'm. I. I think there's a very real chance they're missing real time to start the year. Mitchell Robinson, it's been touch and go with him all throughout the last couple years. He's had ankle surgery, ankle surgeries. He's had, you know, time off. He only played, I think, 17 games, you know, 18 games or whatever last season. So this is a team. They need to be healthy. They need Mitchell Robinson. I'm more concerned right now about how banged up they are. Even Cat, he's dealing with a quad strain. We'll see if he plays tonight. I would expect him to try everything he can to play. He's. He's been playing through a ton of pain throughout the last few years, so I'm more concerned about their health.

[Pat McAfee]

I watched Cat run up and down that court against the Pacers with these eyes right here. I'm happy I'm not that tall.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, he was lugging.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, it was after about 40 times of that. I don't know how a body that large kind of continues to go. He was a weapon for him whenever he was balling, though.

[Connor Natai]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Big purr. Was killing it for the next day, for a while. Big games, obviously, tonight. And last question obviously comes from Tyba, A. An ex big man. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Seams, we need an update. New season's officially started. Zion looks absolutely jacked. He's no longer a fatso, which everyone absolutely loves. What does this mean for the Pelicans? I feel like we've been doing this, you know, the last five years, really, ever since he's drafted now, you know, it's kind of. They gave him the keys. Okay. And. And is he gonna be able to take him to the playoffs? What's going on with Zion and the Pelicans?

[Sean Deveney]

I'm looking at their injury report and all of their main players are healthy. Kevon Looney, their backup, big, he's out to start the year. But everyone else that matters is healthy. And that's the only thing that matters for the Pelicans. When Zion Williamson's on the court, we know he leads to winning and he leads to success. The problem is he has not been able to stay on the court. And then when he misses time with soft tissue injuries, he obviously, you know, he looks different than before. And he also smoothie sets him back, conditioning wise, his basketball shape, and it prolongs his time period. And the Pelicans trying to look out for him, set these expectations and set these ground rules. But they do have a new management in there. Joe Dumars is the new president of basketball operations there. David Griffin.

[Pat McAfee]

Let him play. Let him play.

[Sean Deveney]

He's 1 on 1, 2 on 2, 2, 3 on 3, 4 on 4, 5 on 5. Well, let's hope it doesn't get to that point this, this season with him. But Joe Dumars, I will say this. He's the guy that's won a championship. He's. He was a champion with the Bad Boy Pistons then. He was the. The GM of the, of the Pistons in the 2000s when they won a championship. Then he's been a part of building cultures, building teams, and he's holding Zion Williamson accountable. I think this is for the first time in his career he's had a voice like this. This really hold him accountable. And so this is a pretty make or break season for Zion Wilmington, for the Pelicans. See how this team looks? So when he's on the court, we know what we get. And he looks like he's in shape this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, he is. We appreciate. Let's go, Zion. Zion respects the art of being a chef, okay? So he dabbles every once in a while, and he just doesn't do as much working out as he's supposed to do. And then all of a sudden, everybody says, with his style, the way he is built, built. He says, guys, this guy's fat. Then he goes on a court, he has a quadruple double somehow, okay? And that's just the Zion Williamson story. Everybody looks at him, says he can't do it. And then down there in the Pelicans are like, well, we need him to be able to run 45 wind sprints. It's like, can we just get five minutes out of this guy? Because he puts the ball on a hoop and then he finds somebody. He's electrifying. Whenever he plays, he is dominant. Whenever he plays. So if we get a Zion Williamson, please. We've been pulling for this for like a half a decade. Long time since I started seeing him dunk. I've said this numerous times. So I. I.

[Sean Deveney]

Look at this. Look at this.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. He's been doing that on little tiny white kids in South Carolina on the Internet, since I'm, what, like 25 years old?

[AQ Shipley]

For sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm 38 right now. Yeah. So he's been doing that a long time. I have followed Zion's story, the shoe blow out, the whole thing. I love how he is so explosive. Just. He is such an explosive athlete. Like, they don't make a lot of humans in the history of the world that are as explosive as Zion. To be able to be as big as he's always been in and to be able to do what he does at the effortlessness that he does it, it's like this is a special talent. Then he gets the pelicans, and they will love him on. On a court.

[Connor Natai]

And he has good vibes, too. Like, he's a. Like a jovial guy. Yeah, that's why it sucks.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got himself into some stuff off court, but no doubt because he's.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, so it's. It's an interesting dynamic down there with him. And then they pay him a bunch of money, and they're like, yeah, we're still not gonna. Still not gonna let you play that. You got to be able to. We're gonna see more out of you. I don't know if I'm ever gonna get that. They got a new fucking chef right down the street right here. I don't know if you want that. Yeah, now they're gonna let him out there. I hope it happens. Let's go, Zion.

[Connor Natai]

Looking back on it, it's crazy, like, the. How him and jaw went one and two and like, how their careers have both, you know, gone. They've both been paid. They've both been very successful, but, like, very two different, like, controversial number one and number two overall picks now, and.

[Pat McAfee]

They can wrap it up in the hall of Fame.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hell, yeah. Right?

[Pat McAfee]

And that's what it's all about.

[Sean Deveney]

That's the thing, is, like, both of them have a chance here.

[Darius J. Butler]

Year.

[Sean Deveney]

Still have a trajectory line here.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Sean Deveney]

To, like, make a great sec, you know? I don't know if second half's the word. These guys are still so young. Like, it's scary. These guys, like, 25 years old, talking about, like, how they're going to finish their career. They have their whole, you know, 26, however old they are, they have their whole career. But I think everyone in the league would love, like, even, even fans of his other players, they'd love to see him put together a 70 game season. You know, he. The way he's dunking, he should be in the dunk 82. Try to lead this team to the playing playoffs. Like that's what everyone's been waiting on.

[Ty Schmidt]

Let's be real here.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean, how many don't they play?

[Connor Natai]

82.

[Darius J. Butler]

We just saw the goat last night. 82 games.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, 70 be great. Let's get Zion to play 35. That's what I'm saying.

[Pat McAfee]

Sound like what?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, I just.

[AQ Shipley]

We.

[Ty Schmidt]

Listen. I'm a big Zion guy. First of all, I, I liked fat Zion, so I don't know if I love new Jack Zion. We'll see if he's the same guy. Connor said. Said he's very jovial. Being very jovial is a fat guy trait. That's not really like a Jack guy trait. So.

[Connor Natai]

That's true.

[Ty Schmidt]

We'll see. Bingo. Yeah. Living, breathing embodiment right here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

So, I mean, two different people.

[Darius J. Butler]

We'll see AQ and Asia.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you know what? To be a dog, maybe he has to be a little miserable, a little hungry.

[Ty Schmidt]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe that's a new Z.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wait, AQ or.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that, A.J. okay. All right, all right. I forgot about that. Yeah, that was you. Sean's insider. But not for football, obviously, or the program. Last question here from D. Bud, for you. Big, big debut tonight.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, yeah. Going from one Duke number one pick to another one, Cooper Flagg. What should we expect from his usage? Heard some reports about him being a point guard for the Mavs. What should we expect from Cooper Flag?

[Sean Deveney]

I think. I think he's going to spend a lot of the early part of the year at point guard. We'll see what the final starting lineup is. But the way they finished the preseason was d' Angelo Russell coming off the bench. Bench Cooper Flagg as the point guard. I mean, this guy does everything. He's able to impact the game on every single level already in the league. So I think it's going to be very interesting to see not a playmaking game so early in his career. They're kind of experimenting with it. Kyrie Irving. We'll see when he's getting back. Obviously that's their, that's their point guard when he's healthy. But in the meantime, I think they're going to put him in position pretty early.

[Pat McAfee]

Jason Kidd says we got him this whole them getting number one overall pick with this Cooper flag. Main event generational title talent. After the Luca trade that we just talked about having at least a billion views and becoming the topic of conversation. It's certainly some conspiracy fodder. And your name is involved in all of them, including group text. We appreciate the hell out of you for joining us. Sh. Have a great NBA season.

[Sean Deveney]

Appreciate you guys. Happy NBA season. We'll be talking soon.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's see that. Let's see that bed real quick one more time. Can we just. So we see that can.

[Sean Deveney]

Hey, hey, look at this. Look at this. That's a made bed.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, it's not. Look at the pillow.

[Pat McAfee]

Why are the blanket. Hold on. So look at the blankets on the left side too. It feels like this is like your thing. You put them up on the. On the side. Table pillows.

[Sean Deveney]

It's. No, no, no. We have some stragglers here. You know, we. It's. It's a big bed. I love my. My comforters. Maybe I got double comforters here. The pillows are up.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, double. Okay.

[Connor Natai]

Double comforter.

[Pat McAfee]

This one's on the table.

[Connor Natai]

Oh, yeah. On the left.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's over here too. Keep moving. Sean.

[Connor Natai]

On your right.

[Pat McAfee]

Choms the other side too. This one's over here. It's on a table, right? Then the chair jumps.

[Sean Deveney]

Maybe the comforter is so big you can't. You know, you can't tell if it's.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, get a comforter that's big enough for your bed that fits the size of your bed.

[Pat McAfee]

But I. I also. How do you not know when you're making the bed? Cuz you. You have to be pulling.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, no. I got an extra six feet here.

[Pat McAfee]

Actually. There's a chance that se. Does. You ever see those people jump into pool? Feet first and then they, like go all the way down. Seams. Actually goes in the. In the top. Under the.

[Ty Schmidt]

Under the.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you might be right. So he doesn't even have to pull them up on it.

[Sean Deveney]

This is a seven. Seven and a half rated make the bed moment. Right?

[Pat McAfee]

You are disrespectful right now.

[Darius J. Butler]

Some nice spirits.

[Pat McAfee]

You're out of control. Ladies and gentlemen. Sham. Sh. So he pulled those up, right? Had to. Unless he did this, which he could have. Or from the bottom.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, bottom slide.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Good at what she could have done through that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Just.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he.

[Darius J. Butler]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what he did. Right?

[Darius J. Butler]

For sure.

[Connor Natai]

And that's what. That's what he might do too, when he Gets in bed, he might just throw them up as fast as possible.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a chance.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, there's a chance with seams. He's so dialed in into, you know, having conversations, building relationships, getting inside information. Outside of that, I don't know Sean's, you know, I don't know with them.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

I never know with sharks. Yeah, well, that's why we love them.

[Connor Natai]

Bingham.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well said.

[Connor Natai]

The water alarms.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Connor Natai]

Drink, drink. Water alarms.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Lunch. The oatmeal. He put pork and oatmeal. Yeah. That's certainly a move. That's a decision that was made. Wife had a little potato soup the other day. It was thick, though. Didn't know if I should go with the spoon or the fork, you know, because there was little bacon bits on top.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, went with spoon. I am a fork user, though. I think I would rather fork than spoon. Spoon, basically. Nine times out of ten, I think I'm more of a fork guy.

[Connor Natai]

That is very interesting because I've been having the same debacle with my microwave meals and I have learned that I am a spoon guy no matter what.

[Pat McAfee]

Really? Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Like I've been eating like just steak and rice, little, you know, pre Made one.

[Pat McAfee]

So you'll go down the corner and use bingo as a shovel.

[Connor Natai]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

That's where I. That's where I come in. I have problems because my guys, you know, Pitchforky.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They can't get it all. So I gotta turn that song bitch sideways. Sideways. And I'm trailing this way. You see you guys are doing a little bit of this. It feels like.

[AQ Shipley]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

I still use.

[Connor Natai]

I'm Sporks. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that, buddy?

[Darius J. Butler]

I still use sporks.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

So we used to elementary school, you.

[Pat McAfee]

Go into your kitchen. Oh, hey, it's a pretty good day. Let me go ahead and get a paper plate.

[AQ Shipley]

For sure.

[Pat McAfee]

That's my house.

[Connor Natai]

I'm a big paper plate.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on now. Paper plate for sure. Let me pull that out. Let me go ahead and open this drawer right here. Spork.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep. Got.

[Pat McAfee]

How's that?

[Darius J. Butler]

Butter. Knives, forks, Sporks.

[Ty Schmidt]

Metal.

[Pat McAfee]

Always love metal.

[Darius J. Butler]

Silver word.

[JJ Watt]

Very nice.

[AJ Hawk]

Silverware.

[Connor Natai]

Metal.

[Pat McAfee]

Metal.

[Ty Schmidt]

Metal forks.

[Darius J. Butler]

Custom. One of one.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Always available.

[Darius J. Butler]

Always.

[Connor Natai]

If you have sporks, that is. I'm so jealous. I haven't been jealous like this ever.

[Pat McAfee]

I think silverware sport.

[Connor Natai]

If you have metal sporks. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You only think of spork being the plastic or the sh.

[Connor Natai]

Exactly.

[AQ Shipley]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

It took months to come here.

[AQ Shipley]

KFC Right, right. They're the only ones. Yep. KFC is the plastic sporks.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's the model we. We use say.

[Pat McAfee]

We need to say actual match the rest of the set going to kfc, that's like a little chipper on the side of the green, you know, it's just like perfect for the occasions.

[Connor Natai]

Unduffable.

[Darius J. Butler]

Exactly.

[Connor Natai]

It is the unduffable silverware that is exactly.

[Darius J. Butler]

Ice cream soup, spaghetti, doesn't matter.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, what the hell. That is the right move.

[Connor Natai]

I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

I was pork ice cream cracking through and then. Don't worry, I got you. It says the spoon. Oh my God.

[Ty Schmidt]

Everything spaghett is. I mean, boy. Cuz usually you get the big, you know, serving spoon with the fork to.

[AQ Shipley]

Kind of twist if you want all in one.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's for the birds. Get a spork.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Both of them.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You guys use scissors while you're eating?

[Ty Schmidt]

Sometimes.

[Connor Natai]

Sometimes I think I'm out on spaghetti.

[Pat McAfee]

Just as a whole.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. Like I think I'm a pet. A guy guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I think penne pasta is fantastic. I'll model linguine. I'll do that entire game. I agree. Spaghetti is my least favorite of the pastas. But boy, do the Italians love having a good spaghetti. Like you go to an Italian's house.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

No, try the spaghetti I like. Would much rather the thicker one that has a little bit more like. No, you gotta try the spaghetti. It's like. Okay, I'll definitely do that. But the other ones I think are better. You guys should maybe take a little bit more pride. No, those ones. Then you do spaghetti. Why Nick? Why is the spaghetti always the one? Why is it just the orig?

[Steve Wiltfong]

It is the orig. It's standard. It's. It's just the best option. It goes with everything.

[Pat McAfee]

I see. And that's what we're saying. We. We don't agree with you. Yeah, we think the other one is much better. All the depending one, the rigaton. Not bad either. I mean there's both ties. Yeah. The bow ties. Not bad. Tortellini. There's so many different options.

[Darius J. Butler]

I could never be out of spaghetti.

[Pat McAfee]

No, that's because the tradition of it, I think. Right. Is that what you're doing?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. I mean it's just. It's got.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's always.

[Darius J. Butler]

Tough times go a long way. It's good. Goes with everything, like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And also you can get a little parmesan on top of it. Don't even need the sauce or the gravy, whatever it is. For me, though, I don't like the.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, I don't like sucking it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah.

[Connor Natai]

I don't want to eat my food through a straw like you are with spaghetti and.

[Pat McAfee]

But you got to be able to do the hanging. That's where the scissors come in. Cuz you do the twisty twist and then scissors. Now all of a sudden, guess what that is. That's a fat ass rigaton. All of a sudden, rock your fork and it's like, yep, I got to the final game that I was looking for here. Thank you for letting me do that. Nonetheless, shout out to the Italians. You guys got brief.

[Connor Natai]

Fazoli's the only place you can eat spaghetti. Fazoles, baby. It's the only place. They do it right everywhere else. It tastes like cologne.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, that's not what. That's not real.

[Connor Natai]

The only places I. The only Italian house is I've been wearing spaghetti. No, thanks.

[Pat McAfee]

Not good. No. Yeah, right.

[Connor Natai]

Terrible bowl.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go to hammer Don Anthony Degiulio. What the hell is going on out here with this conversation about bad sketch out here and Fazellini's being the only good spaghetti?

[Anthony Degiulio]

Sounds like a bunch of Irishmen talking about Italian food.

[Connor Natai]

Scottish too.

[Anthony Degiulio]

I'm a Riggaton guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, me too. Okay, so we're all on the same page.

[Anthony Degiulio]

Even the Italians know me. You know, you are not on the same pitch ever.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, ring of thong, you guys are pretty on the same side. Oh, what, you don't like petty.

[Connor Natai]

Okay, whatever.

[Sean Deveney]

Guys.

[Connor Natai]

Eating steak with a spoon.

[Pat McAfee]

That was spork action. No, that was D bus. Oh, yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. When it's cut. When it's cut up already, you know, he's getting the pre made meals, obviously, which a lot of people are doing now.

[Connor Natai]

They're so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Feels like the chefs are getting good at distributing good food for people to get into, like, shape. I think that's. I think that's a good advancement of society that we have right now.

[AQ Shipley]

Nothing, nothing makes me more mad than whenever they don't. They don't pronounce the vowel at the end. Prosciutt. Mozzarella.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's that?

[Darius J. Butler]

Who's they?

[Pat McAfee]

Are you the Italian mozzarella?

[Connor Natai]

Mozzarella.

[Ty Schmidt]

Technically it's brigitte.

[AQ Shipley]

Duh.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it's gabagool. It's mozzarella.

[Anthony Degiulio]

No, I hate it.

[Pat McAfee]

Brute.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, pronounce the vow at the end.

[Pat McAfee]

You are. This is the Jodonoru. Disgusting. This is a part of the problem. I Didn't know this was the. Let's go back to hammer. Da da. Anthony de Jolio. This is disgusting out here.

[AQ Shipley]

Why don't we just call him Anthony de Jool?

[Pat McAfee]

We do, we do. We actually do call Anthony. And there is an e O at the end like E I, E I O. So you would have to hit the E at least at the beginning. Anthony de Jolie. I don't like what's going on here amongst the stage. I want to let the Italian conglomerate know that I am 0.01% Italian.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's undocumented and we love you and.

[Pat McAfee]

Grazie and prego for that. And I'm thinking about going renting Italian club and join the pepperoni. Sure, the pepperoni.

[Ty Schmidt]

The Irwin pepperoni.

[Connor Natai]

You should think about joining coach Diggs's team instead. He's got a great team name for his boys.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the name of the team as Tony. Tony. What's the name?

[AQ Shipley]

I can't remember.

[Connor Natai]

Isn't it the fight in the fight in dang nabitz or something like that?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think that was the name. But they are a tough squad on that bocce court, I would say. Yeah, they don't like playing on the rocks they got over there at pen hills. But we'll certainly get it figured out. Tony, we appreciate. Appreciate you, buddy, for sticking up for the Italians because it got it disgusting out here.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, that was gross.

[AQ Shipley]

I love the Italians.

[Connor Natai]

Thanks a lot.

[AQ Shipley]

Love the Italian food.

[Pat McAfee]

Appreciate it.

[AQ Shipley]

A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

That was outrageous.

[AQ Shipley]

The AJS. Yeah, that was good.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you should be going by fake day many ways with what you just said about the Italians. Might be smart for you to lay low for a little.

[AQ Shipley]

I think they just need to pronounce the vowel at the end.

[Connor Natai]

That's it.

[Pat McAfee]

Pepiron you're talking about. You're talking about a bocce team name. That's a brand. That's a brand name.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, you're right.

[Pat McAfee]

Cut that.

[Connor Natai]

We probably shouldn't rile up a. Q. Shipple anymore just because he might blow a gas.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's. Let's talk about some of the news that happened around the sports world over the last 24 hours. The NHL did hit a home run. The NHL had a magical moment. The NHL did something in the Boston Bruins and the Boston Bruins fans did something that happened. You know, I don't want to say very rarely because it does happen. You know, like it feels like sports do try to pay respect to the people that have given to their team, to their cities. To the franchises. Now everybody does it differently. You know, Jerry Jones said when Emmett Smith came back, of course we fucking come for Maka. There's, there's enough to say thank you. We said thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, we're getting out of here. There's none of that here. With the Colts, I got a chance to see Edwin James, who obviously meant so much to the city and team. He got an entire video. I think Jeff Saturday did as well. Obviously Peyton Manning did. So this does happen. This is something that does take place, but the way teams kind of do it and how the fans buy in and how the player receiving it kind of operates certainly makes the moment great or makes the moment bad. What Maron returning to Boston happened, that was some of the most beautiful I've ever seen in the history of sports. I damn near say now obviously there's breakthrough moments that have happened in sports that made the world a lot better. There's championship moments. That'll be icon.

[Connor Natai]

Immortalized.

[Pat McAfee]

Immortalized forever. There's the word I'm looking for. But it's like this moment right here. I think everybody's going to be trying to chase whenever they're trying to pay tribute to somebody who means so much for their city. How long was Marshy up in Boston? And on that note, you as Bruins fan watching this. I mean, I got teary eyed watching this. I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. I assume you did as well.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, he was there for 16 years and it was his whole career. It's not like he started somewhere else. He started in Boston, stayed in Boston, you know, was the rookie young kid making a name for himself was awesome right away too. He's been the same player the entire time. And that's the stuff that like really gets you, like him and his kids, you know, because when he first came here, he didn't have an entire family and his kids grew up here. And he talked about it after the fact, like, yeah, it was very emotional for me driving into the stadium or the arena because then I started thinking about everything my kids have sacrificed and my family just to go from Boston to Florida, you know, in that sense too. But also just supporting him through his entire hockey journey. I mean, the thing is too, no one will ever wear the number 63 again in Boston. And Boston is an original six hockey team. It's a historic franchise. He's one of six players to ever score £1,000 points for the Boston Bruins. And you look at that list and it's Bergeron. It's Bobby Orr, it's Ray Bork, it's Legends of the Game. And you know he's in that category. And I'm sure for him being a undersized NHL player, you never imagine when you're starting out like, yeah, I'm going to be a 20 year vet with my jersey retired in multiple places and now he might be that. And he did leave the door open after the game. Like I do see myself possibly coming back if the situation presents itself.

[Pat McAfee]

Florida Panther Marshy did you how did you feel watching that all take place?

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean, that was awesome. I love when places just celebrate their legends for sure. And now it took me back to last year when he was traded. The one time in however many years we were working together that con man legitimately wanted to fight me. I came in after trade, hit him on the back and he like the look in his eyes like, okay, this is real. And watching that, experiencing that, it took me back to them. Okay, they really love this guy and we love him too.

[Pat McAfee]

And he loves them. Yeah, I like that he got emotional out there. Florida gets the win off a terrible, terrible meant to be. The NHL was awesome. The NBA was incredible. The NFL is about to cook this Marshawn Beast Mode Lynch Prize Pick is making sports season even more fun on Prize Picks. Whether you a football fan, a basketball fan, it always feel good to be right. Right now new users get $50 instantly in lineups when you play play your first $5. The app is simple to use. Pick two or more players, pick more or less on their stat projections, anything from touchdown to threes and if you.

[JJ Watt]

Right you can win big.

[Pat McAfee]

Mix and match players from any sport on Prague Picks. America's number one daily fantasy sports app, Prize Picks is available in 40 plus states including California, Texas, Florida and Georgia. Most importantly, all the transactions on the app are fast, safe and secure. Download the prospects app today and use code TPMS to get 50 instantly in site credits after you play your first $5.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's code TPMS to get 50 in.

[Pat McAfee]

Site credits after you play your 1st $5. Prize picks it's good to be right.

[Darius J. Butler]

Must be present in certain states.

[Pat McAfee]

Visit prize picks.com for restrictions and details. Hey fans, welcome back to Fansville's cheers and tears. Oh okay. So like everybody deals with losing right?

[Sean Deveney]

To a rival and a lot last.

[Pat McAfee]

Second field goal, whatever. It's fine.

[Sean Deveney]

I'm totally fine.

[Pat McAfee]

But I cope with losing with an ice cold Dr. Pepper. Those 23 flavors are like so delicious. They totally wash away the pain of Your college football team taking a big fat L. College football. It's a pepper thing. Football is magical. The NBA tipped off its regular season last night. The NHL had a magical moment with Marshy returning back to the Boston Bruins. And tomorrow, week eight of the NFL season kicks off. We're in the middle of a great time to be alive. We thank you all for allowing us to do this for a living. The toxic tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here. Yes, sir. What are you wearing here?

[Darius J. Butler]

McLaren Fit. Nice hoodie. Two drivers trying to get their first championship this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that the one that Van Der Stoppen's on? One.

[Darius J. Butler]

No. Vanish. Verstappen. Verstappen.

[Pat McAfee]

Max.

[Darius J. Butler]

Max Verstappen. He actually is driver for Red Bull.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh really? Who's. Who's on McLaren. Is that.

[Darius J. Butler]

That is. Let's see if you got it. I think you got it.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Mr. Lewis Hamilton and not Sir Hamilton.

[Darius J. Butler]

But he did just set the records for all time points scored. Over 5,000 Ferrari.

[Pat McAfee]

That's got to be either Oscar Orlando.

[Darius J. Butler]

Both of them. Boom, boom, boom.

[Pat McAfee]

I will say I got assist on Lando.

[Darius J. Butler]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

I feel pretty good that I Oscar under.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Pistorius.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'll tell you what, not.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's not his name.

[Pat McAfee]

He's from South Africa too.

[Connor Natai]

I don't think he's down under.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, poor little thing. Thing too. If that whole thing wouldn't have happened.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, who knows where we're sitting now? Truly nine year and our 12 year NFL vet, Super bowl champion AQ Shipley's here. Good AQ. We're about to get into your takeaways, but please let me introduce a man who was a Hoffnom this year but did not make it to the semifinal. But this is kind of standard operating procedure from my experience. You know, I was offnom three times. AJ I think is going to go on to make the hall of Fame. And he should. This guy's the all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. He is a college football national champion with the Ohio State Buckeyes. He's a Super bowl champion with the Green Bay Packers. This man has a tree tree on a campus named after him. And it's not just a redwood. Taylor, ladies and gentlemen. AJ Haw.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Is it more of a Japanese maple or is it more of a redwood? The tree that you have on there, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

It would be a Buckeye tree. You know, Ohio State Buckeyes. That's where I went to school, so that kind of makes sense.

[Pat McAfee]

What does a buckeye tree look like? Is that thing like the chocolate?

[AJ Hawk]

Pretty sweet? Look them up. They look pretty sweet. You know, bucket guys, you know, they, they grow on them. They're very, they're very hard. You could throw them at people if you want.

[Pat McAfee]

Nuts. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. So, so what is the bill? Is it a. What is the build? Is it a rounder? Is it a little Christmas tree?

[AJ Hawk]

It's got, it's got a trunk and then it goes up like that.

[Connor Natai]

Oh, like an apple tree.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I could take your little buckeye tree with one of these.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't think that's exactly what buckeye. I think I could take that thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Down with a shin kick. I think I could. I. I think I could potentially get one of those right there. Is that, is that AJ's tree right there? Do we just look up actually, AJ, AJ Hawk's buckeye. No. Do buckeye trees normally sit amongst their friends? Is it normally like a, a wood in the wild?

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know how it works in the wild. It's called Buckeye Grove, where they plant them. So they are amongst their friends there for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

You're telling me that I couldn't go shin kick that thing in half right there that I just saw that thing.

[AJ Hawk]

On, on the Internet that you pulled up? Yes, you could definitely kick that little baby tree down.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't pull it up. AI did. Okay, on that note, AI is cooking for these sports books in the NBA. Okay. We need to know that they're going to be throwing a hot, hot, hot, hot, hot baseball in this basketball odds world. Now, Gumpy, obviously one half of the Hammer Cowboys didn't even know there was NBA action. He, he was actually betting on KUSA last night, Conference USA and then maybe some footy. But there are people that are noted basketball gone. And what we would like to let people know is they know what's going on. Okay. These sportsbooks know what's going on. What was some of the bets that you had last night on Kevin Wayne Durant?

[Darius J. Butler]

I had him to go over his prop, which I believe was at 23 and a half. Well, I know at least in the book that I bet on, it was at 23 and a half. He ended up with 23 points in a double overtime game on opening night, which is tough. And then Steph Curry, I believe his was maybe 24 points and he was one short as well. So, you know, you bet on two all time greats opening night. And you know they're right there and.

[Pat McAfee]

They give you hope early because their shots are falling. Oh yeah, shots are falling.

[Darius J. Butler]

Kd, he came out hot.

[Pat McAfee]

First half cooking and they're feeding them the ball. And big Turk and kd, it's like, wait a minute. These guys are the new, this is the new duo.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. I think I made a decision to just bet on, especially after the conversation yesterday with the great Steve Nash. I think I'm just betting on the international guys going forward.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Because they're gonna, they're gonna block the wood.

[Darius J. Butler]

Luca Shingoon, Joker Yan. Honest sga. Yeah, Yeah. I think I'm go with those guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Not a bad idea. Let's go international. Heavy on the prop betting for the NBA. Just to kind of reiterate the fact about them knowing what the hell is going on. You mentioned a stat about sportsbooks last night.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. Points and rebounds for KD was 28 and a half. He had 20 and eight going into overtime. Got one rebound in overtime to get the over 29. And then I guess in the double overtime he hit a three as well. So it, I, I mean without the overtime, a lot of bets don't hit last night, especially with Kevin Durant Prop SGA2.

[Pat McAfee]

Just looks like he's shooting at a bigger bucket. AJ this guy's special. I don't know how much of the games you got to see last night. The Oklahoma City, Houston Rockets game in Oklahoma City on banner night. And shout out to the bullies that are currently on Houston. They got a chance to watch the banner fall and them get their ring. The rings were very ingenuity. A lot of ingenuity in their rings.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So you're able to just pop off a ring and then basically get a smaller ring that you can wear out and about in public. Because nobody can wear super bowl rings except for Bruce Arians. When he comes in here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And he puts this thing on, it literally looks like he's got a, I don't know, some caricature of a ring on his hand. And it just makes noise sitting in the safe. AQ needs to do that. But it's so big. I think a lot of people talk about it. There was even a multi multiple tweets about like how a lot of people say these super bowl rings and championship rings are getting too big. So for them to think past that and be like, oh, let's actually get a little ring inside of it. We can put all the stuff. Then the boys can Wear that whenever they want to go out and about. And then obviously whenever we want to flex our shit, we can go ahead and put the bigger one on. This Oklahoma City team is special, aj that's what I think I watched last night. They're only going to continue to be that.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I'd actually like to attend a game there. I bet it's one of those places where if you go in person especially you feel like the atmosphere and how they rally around this squad. It. I watched the whole pregame situation where they're getting their rings and all that. Man, Oklahoma City seems like the, the center of the basketball universe right now, if you watch.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I mean, let's not get crazy, okay? Because we got the fever here. Doing, doing all magical things.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Great year.

[Pat McAfee]

The Pacer is obviously about to go off and do something magical with Rick Carlisle. But on that note, we all watched as Pacer fans last year during the finals, like, damn, that place is awesome. That place is cool. And people like watching their style of play now. SGA was called foul merchant and all these things. He's just so much better than seemingly everybody on the court at just getting buckets. Guy will get a bucket whenever the hell he wants. They needed a 2 because Kevin Durant missed a free throw. Everybody's like, you can't miss that. If he would have made it and they needed a 3. SGA is knocking down a step back through. Like that is just kind of who he is at this stage of his career. He's fun to watch, man. His mindset too is deadly.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. And I've been loving watching some of the clips from the starting five that he has kind of behind the scenes, just his whole vibe and his mindset, I think a part of it. He was like, they asked him about a 30 point game and he was like I said, a below average game for me because obviously he averages more than 30 points. He is one great guy to bet on, on that, on that note. But yeah, he's a walking bucket, he's a clutch bucket. He can get it on all three levels. He can get to the rim, he can hit the mid range, which is kind of a loss art at this point in the game. I love everything about SGA's game and then here other great scorers kind of talk about him. James Harden was talking about how kind of easy the game has become for SGA at this point in time. So love watching him play.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, and that's the other thing about some of these props too, like the big guys like me and D bunting on kd. You know you're never going to go wrong doing that. But if you were to bet sengun a guy like that who's always been good, but now is starting the year super hot. Yeah, the two exactly like his odds are massive. And then there's another European guy playing for the Bulls, Matthias Bou zelis. And he actually is one of those dudes people think are going to be really good. And like his odds to score are high. And when I say international, I mean he's from Illinois, but his name is Matthias Bou zelis.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so it sounds like at one point potentially family was not from here.

[Connor Natai]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Which kind of sounds like everybody.

[Connor Natai]

Wait, hold on.

[Pat McAfee]

Wait. So we betting on everybody now? Ah, we're not getting into it. We're not doing that. Here's some stats from Hembo about last night's Oklahoma City Houston. Interesting game. SGA has scored 20 plus points in 73 straight games. Jesus Christ. This guy's unbelievable.

[Connor Natai]

Don't think you can bet on him to score 20 points.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that won't even get an odd on that. Passing Kevin Durant and Michael Jordan for the fourth longest streak in NBA history. People have done it more. Okay, we shall see. Thunder outscored the Rockets 26 to 12 in points off turnovers. Kevin Durant took only three shots in the fourth quarter. No T. Which certainly made Darius J. Butler pumped about betting on his over there. Including zero in the first overtime. He's passing a lot. He was deferring a lot to others. I found that interesting. Obviously, new team, they'll kind of work through it and then singoon here. The big Turk fella. First Rockets player with 35 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a season opener. Franchise history Rockets. Their starting lineup had an average height of 82.2 inches. The tallest for any starting lineup in a season opener since starters were first tracked in 1970. In 1971. So a happy. Come on, bro, America. We need to know what that is.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, and that's going to get broken tonight by the Mavericks just for the record for tallest lineup ever of Cooper flags playing point guard.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, and then Wemby has an opportunity to potentially break that with any teammate that they bring in on any given win. But on that note, 82.2 inches, 1224.

[Ty Schmidt]

Another would be 1284. Looking at about 6. Yeah, 6, 9, 610 in that range.

[Pat McAfee]

Now that is us just saying what a high number would be in our mind. We didn't do the actual math here. Right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, I just did you know?

[Darius J. Butler]

72, 6, 10.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, 12.

[Pat McAfee]

6, 10.

[Ty Schmidt]

12 times 5.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, I was just saying a number. That would be a big average 6 foot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

So 610, 72, 6.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. Yeah. So 7ft is. Yeah, 84 inches.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It's a tall team. They're playing at a different altitude, AJ than anybody since the 1970, 71 stat was created, AJ that's a tough team to handle, especially.

[AJ Hawk]

Is that a good thing? I mean, is that always a great thing? Can they get back on D? I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, they lost, so you're worried about them tall.

[AJ Hawk]

You know, these big, tall. You know, you watch in person, these guys are the stopping and starting getting back like, it's. They are freak athletes. We know that for being 610.

[Pat McAfee]

SGA put Kevin Durant in a little bit of a blender, actually, to get him to foul out. Kevin Durant fouls out of last night's game. He was bummed out, too. I. I appreciate it. He cared. It was great. He was on.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Effort. Max effort. That's overtime, too. That's a lot of max effort on there. And then I think he was in SGA GA's head. He's, like, always going for it right now. SGA goes, I don't think so. And then get some bang. And it's like, you watch Kevin Durant.

[AQ Shipley]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, that's not good. He walks out. Obviously, team needs him. And SGA just knocks those down. I mean, that's just what's gonna happen.

[Darius J. Butler]

What'd you think about how the Thunder crowd booed up? He kind of. It seemed like he loved it, and he kind of spoke about it after the game, saying, like, you know, it's kind of ingest.

[Pat McAfee]

That's just them, obviously started there a long time ago. Long, long time ago. A lot of teams ago. Great run there. Obviously, with Russ and Harden and obviously everybody's had their own careers now since. They're kind of like the shield, aren't they? A little bit.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Kind of like Shield Roman Reigns.

[Connor Natai]

That's somewhere he might go back. Like, we were talking about LeBron on the era where he might, you know, sit in the corner. Like, if KD were ever to be in that era, it feels like OKC would be the place he would go back.

[Pat McAfee]

Sga. So Kevin Durant is sitting there like it's a practice drill.

[Darius J. Butler]

Shoot 63.

[Connor Natai]

Think about that lineup with. You know, it'd be Chet dunking on.

[AJ Hawk]

Dudes in the fourth, too.

[Pat McAfee]

An ot, aj that was an overtime.

[AJ Hawk]

The best. If you would have made that dunk, they. It would have been an earthquake in Oklahoma City. Like, this was so awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

What was? I mean, honestly, in his head right here. Yep. I'm going. Don't care. Caruso. We love it. We absolutely love it. Crusoe has certainly found quite a home out there at Oklahoma City. They all have. Joining us now is a man who's found a home in the. In the booth on Sundays. He's getting comfortable showing different looks, showing different styles. Ladies and gentlemen, a first ballot hall of Famer whenever the time comes, a member of the Bull ring of honor for the Houston town Texans. Oh, my God.

[AQ Shipley]

Last.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, down there. Jeez Louise.

[Connor Natai]

How not into that ring.

[Pat McAfee]

JJ Watt.

[Darius J. Butler]

Jj.

[Pat McAfee]

Holy. You look so.

[JJ Watt]

I was prepared to come on and talk all nice about the Colts. I'm ready to talk nice. And then you just want to come in hot.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on. Speaking of coming in hot.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Get up, James Lo.

[AQ Shipley]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

I had to look at the TV up, up here. Just get a closer look. You look so cool right now. Do you understand how cool you look, right? What is going on here? Because I saw the glasses in the booth. Obviously, we've seen the hair come through a couple different things. You said you were trying some stuff. Appreciate you guys having a good time. What are you just enjoying life right now? That's why you're doing.

[JJ Watt]

I'm just messing around, man. I love it. These were $5 on Amazon. I just tossed them on. Just messing around, having some fun.

[Pat McAfee]

And look at the hair, too. You got stronger.

[JJ Watt]

I'm trying the.

[Pat McAfee]

Connor.

[AJ Hawk]

Nice.

[Connor Natai]

Don't worry about the back, brother. The flow on the top is your strength.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah. Let's keep this right here. This is really. You might even be able to take that some bitch up a little bit. Might be able to take that thing right. Right over top there. Just, hey, you explore the space. You're doing a great job. We appreciate you. Let's talk a little bit. Did you watch any of the NBA games last night? Do you have any takes on that?

[JJ Watt]

I watched a little bit of it. I had my. My son was rustling around a little bit in the bed, so I was bouncing back and forth. I saw the end of regulation. I unfortunately did not see the end of two overtimes. Monday night really buried me. Staying up till three in the morning watching the Texans game.

[Pat McAfee]

That was tough to stay up and watch. And we won't have to talk about the Texans anymore. I don't want to make you feel bad, especially with how good you look. But let's talk about the AFC South, Indianapolis Colts. I saw your tweet. I retweeted it. I don't know when you tweeted it, but I don't know. I just saw it. And your breakdown is everything that we have been kind of thinking as well from watching this team at the Loud House. But I do appreciate you having a chance to learn about them, talk to them, watch a game, call a game, especially against a team I think we all respect in the Chargers. What are your thoughts on the Indianapolis Colts other than just this tweet? And they're for real, right? It feels like they're actually for real. J.

[JJ Watt]

It's pretty incredible, you know, having heard about them all season long and finally being able to call one of their.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Games.

[JJ Watt]

The offensive efficiency. I mean, I just sit up there in the booth and I'm watching as a coordinator, let's say you're a defensive coordinator and I'm like, okay, what's my game plan going to be here? I have to stop Jonathan Taylor.

[AJ Hawk]

No question.

[JJ Watt]

Number one priority. Okay, I'll stop Jonathan Taylor. Then they're going to run these play action schemes. They have Tyler Warren, who is just wide open all the time because of some of these schemes. Okay, so I got to stop Jonathan Taylor now. I have to stop Tyler Warren. Okay, well, Danny Dimes is also firing balls into Alec Pierce. He's got Pitman, he can do all these different things. Then they open up the screen game. The offensive line is blocking at an unbelievable level. I'm sure AQ's talked about it already. They are just opening everything up for this team in the run game, in the pass game. Daniel Dimes is not taking sacks. He's not even phased by pressure in his face. He's delivering in efficient throws when he has to and also crazy clutch tough throws when he has to. This, this offense, I said it many times this week, this offense has no weaknesses. It is truly, truly impressive to watch.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, J, love what you're saying. So the AFC south is obviously the Indianapolis Colts because the entire AFC might be for the foreseeable future, but whenever you learn about this, you know we're going to have to pay Danny Dimes. And hopefully Danny Dimes understands that he wants to be here as well, you know, and hopefully that is how he feels. I assume he's enjoying his time here. I know the city loves him. I know there was potentially a gathering this past weekend between maybe Pacers and Colts players. And I believe Danny Dimes was having beers with the boys which we like. We like to see that. We like to see, to hear those types of things. And it's like all the pillars that you're talking about, all in. It feels like the vibes of this team just vastly different. What do you think for the talking to go ahead.

[JJ Watt]

Talking to them during the week, that was a major theme. So, like, these guys, the offense gets together on Monday nights and watches Monday Night Football together. All the position groups do their Thursday night dinners, which a lot of teams do. But you could just tell, like, this team likes each other. They hang out a lot. Lot. They find time to get together. Danny made a great comment about it's a little easier to get together in Indianapolis than it is in New York City. But he just talked about. Tyler Warren came in and he's a guy's guy. He just wants to be part of the hang. He wants to be there and be around the guys. And Forest Buckner was telling us about the Thursday night dinners and how attendance has been 100% this year, whereas in the past it hasn't always been that way. The organization, top down, you can just tell everybody's loving it.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh.

[Darius J. Butler]

Love to hear.

[Pat McAfee]

It's tough to play in a lot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Especially when you look that. That stinky. What did you think about those Charger jerseys? You know, I always gotta ask you your thoughts on jerseys. What. What did it look like? Boots on the ground.

[JJ Watt]

All right, all right. Let me break this down for you. So in the stadium, the end zone, own the branding around the stadium. Unbelievable. We all know The Chargers have 10 out of 10, some of the best uniforms in sports history. These are not it. Yeah, these. These were not it. We. We made the Savannah Bananas reference.

[Pat McAfee]

There's.

[JJ Watt]

It's just.

[Pat McAfee]

There's.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's off.

[JJ Watt]

There's too much yellow. They have so many great uniforms, so many great colors. That Charger power sign in the background.

[AQ Shipley]

Awesome.

[JJ Watt]

The uniforms, unfortunately, were not.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess tomorrow night they're debuting a throwback on. Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Like the filthy school. Dark blue, like bolts on the shoulder. Ladanian Tomlinson and all the highlights you see of him. They're wearing those tomorrow night.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the equipment staffing.

[JJ Watt]

Those will be good.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the equipment staff in the Charger saying, the blue light from Men in Black. We got our fastball. Dude. Don't worry about the minions. Okay? Don't. Don't worry about all that. And we lost in this entire thing.

[JJ Watt]

Oh, yeah, look at that.

[Pat McAfee]

We still got. But. But us as fans think you guys got this in the chamber. What the hell are we looking at things for? Like, we have. We hold the Chargers, I think, in such high regard when it comes to all these things. When they roll that out there, especially as a Colts fan, it was like I was kind of looking forward to what you guys were.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And you guys do. Can't have this.

[Darius J. Butler]

We were in a facility, remember, they had all the dresses sick, all the.

[Pat McAfee]

Different unis, different fire, fire, fire, fire. Oh, and they're proud of it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

They took a lot of pride in that. As they should. So then roll.

[JJ Watt]

I think even white pants, like, if they just went white pants. You just got to break it up. You can't go full mustard bottle.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, let's get a hammer done. What'd you say, Tom?

[Anthony Degiulio]

Yeah, I just want to get ahead of this right now. Sunday night's gonna be an absolute disaster class as far as uniforms are concerned. Steelers are going with a throw. Throwback with, like brown tannish uniforms with a yellow helmet against the Green Bay packers and their yellow helmet.

[Pat McAfee]

What?

[Anthony Degiulio]

Sunday night's going to be horrendous. I just want to get ahead of this now. I know. Trust me. I know. Yo, Packers, Steelers. Why not have two of the most iconic uniforms ever on Sunday Night Football? Nope. We're going to go with the worst uniforms of all time. See you Sunday night.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Well, you know, the packers hadn't won since 1970 in Pittsburgh against the Steelers. That's ass. What are we doing here? This is what we're putting out there. Why are the Pittsburgh Steelers doing that? And then there's a chance that the packers go out there looking like this.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it's a blood ball game for the Packers. They're going to wear the old leather helmets. I think they have like the brown leather ish tint helmets that they might be going out there maybe with the Acme packers uniforms. But that just. You know what? That's the way Saturday Night Football should be.

[Darius J. Butler]

Good look.

[Pat McAfee]

I guess most people are watching. Let's put our worst uniforms out there. But nonetheless, Packers, Steelers, big deal. Also Bears, Ravens. This weekend. You have that particular game. Ravens got rid of cornhole ping pong. They got rid of video game. Allegedly. VO report. They got rid of all fun jacuzzi, all team chemistry building things. Get them out of here. A lot of distractions in the building. Allegedly. This is a report. We do not know how much of it is exactly real. I will say this as a person that was on a team that Chuck Pagano was the head coach of, and he was from Baltimore. Baltimore and we bring big number 90, Corey Redding over from Baltimore. They try to turn our locker room into more of a Baltimore style locker room. That's where I was introduced to Cornhole. So the Baltimore Cornhole thing with the Raven I think is a big deal. I think it has been for a long time, actually.

[JJ Watt]

You had never heard of Cornhole?

[Pat McAfee]

No. But on that note, I never lost either once I learned about the game. So just I don't know if that was good for the Midwest that I learned this game in a little locker room. Because you guys got a lot of meetings. I don't. Okay, yeah. You got a lot of time. A lot of time. Yeah. And once you get that little pizza toast, you know that little turn that song bitch Sideways, you can really start gauging that thing. And then once you start playing a little defense and then we're running this thing. Oh, I got a climber too on this. You want me to go ahead and Larry Bird this thing? We could do that as well. I got real good. Too good, some would say. And I didn't want everybody to know that because maybe they take the cornhole boards out of our locker room, but the Ravens are at the point where they're taking out of the locker room. Okay, that's not good. That's never good news. This players only meeting stage of things happening over there and then on the other side, the Bears.

[JJ Watt]

Whoa.

[Pat McAfee]

Are they a real team? Good, better, best. Never let it rest till your good is better and your better is best. Afterwards, they're going crazy. What are your thoughts on the game you're about to call right now?

[JJ Watt]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're all waiting. It should be happening right now. The Ravens practice to see if Lamar is out there. I mean, before the bye week, it sounded very confident that he would be back out there for this game. Now you hear the press conferences at the beginning of this week. It does not sound nearly as confident. So we're all kind of waiting to see what practice looks like today if he's out there, because that's. I mean, we all know we've seen what that product has looked like the last few weeks without him out there. He's former two time MVP for a reason. Like they need him back out there badly. And on the other side, the Bears four game winning streak, they're starting to look like what you would imagine Ben Johnson's vision is for this team. They're running the ball really well. Their offensive line is playing together, the running backs are seeing it, hitting the holes. Dennis Allen has that defense humming. They have turnovers on turnovers on turnovers. TJ Edwards comes back, plays really well. Honestly, if they even continue to elevate Caleb's game to another level, there are much more things that can be unlocked for this team. So you look at it as a four game win streak and you think to yourself, wow, they're playing really well. Then you turn on the tape and you're like, these guys could be playing even better than they're playing right, right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Sound football though, is what you're talking about. Whenever you say like Ben Johnson, like tough sound football is what you're seeing from film.

[JJ Watt]

I think there's a lot of run game. He's really implementing that run game kind of that Detroit like do what, take advantage of what you know you can control. Well, I mean they have some really condensed formations. They run a lot of shifts in motions. They have, I believe it's the number one most explosive plays in the NFL. The guy just really knows how to scheme. And you can tell tell that the players are picking up on what he wants them to do. And as you saw by the locker room after the game, they're also buying in from an emotional standpoint.

[Pat McAfee]

How about him? The mic'd up of their scoring a touchdown, fourth down. Stop everything. He doesn't even.

[Darius J. Butler]

Psycho.

[Connor Natai]

He's awesome.

[Ty Schmidt]

He is a psycho.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a psycho. Yeah, that is exactly what he is. And I don't think we knew that. I mean, obviously we knew he was very good. He was the bell of the ball. We did not know he was full football psych. No, had no idea. Yeah, we had no clue.

[Connor Natai]

His what him walking into the building.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bears thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Exactly. Us watching that now with what we know.

[Connor Natai]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Because we see his offense, gimmicks, people run all over the place. This guy might be fun. This guy must be a good time. Now what we know about him, looking back on his first speech to the entire building. Jesus, he hated everything about. He hated every single thing about that. And we'd like to let Ben know you might be the perfect guy for Chicago, brother. And I think if you continue to win, they're going to love everything about it. They don't need you to be doing all the bullshit. We just want to win football games for the first time. Long. A long time. And if Caleb's bought in, there's a chance here we got something special brewing in the midway. Good for them, Thankful for them in the NFC North. Now all of a sudden. Oh, Ty. Oh.

[Ty Schmidt]

It might be the best division in football. But now it also makes more sense looking back on maybe, like, his relationship with Dan Campbell and why it worked. Like, Dan Campbell was like, this guy's a psycho, man.

[Connor Natai]

I gotta stay away from him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like, you know, he's not a big tough guy like me, but I'm not fucking with this guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Serial killer.

[Ty Schmidt]

Serial killer guy. I respect this guy, man.

[Connor Natai]

You can do whatever you want.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you can see they get along going to Chicago. Interesting, you know, because they haven't had that, I think, for a long time, him doing it. It's great. I can't wait to see you on the call, J. You've been doing great work in the booth, brother. We're not just bullshit. Not just the funny photos in the ash. Jj, You've been doing a great, great job calling games. We appreciate you. Go ahead.

[AJ Hawk]

AJ yeah, jj, you were mentioning the explosive offense that Chicago has. You know, a pivot to an offense that isn't been as explosive. The New York football. Jets.

[Pat McAfee]

Jets.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know if you saw Woody Johnson, their owner had some comments. He was trying to defend the head coach, Aaron Glenn. I don't know. You may. Some people may say he kind of threw his QB under the bus, even though he may not have been lying when it comes to stats and performance, I guess. But how would you handle that? How do you think that goes in the locker room? I guess.

[JJ Watt]

Yeah, that was. That was interesting. Just because we all have eyes, we know what's kind of been happening up there. We know it hasn't been great, but for an owner to just pretty much explicitly say that the quarterback has been bad in the way that he did, it was. That's not something you see very often. And Justin Fields, whether been playing great or not, like, he is very well liked in the locker rooms, he's been in the players like him. So it's when. When your owner says something like that, it definitely is discussed. I mean, it's definitely something that people see and you just. Around the league, people see that. Oh, wow. That's like. Even though. Whether he's bench, whether he's not bench, who knows what that situation is? That is. That is something that I don't. I can't quite remember an owner saying something like that in the middle of the season while the guy's under contract. Can you.

[Pat McAfee]

No, no. I mean, Woody does a lot of Woody stuff. You know, it's pretty cool.

[Connor Natai]

Just.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, our.

[Pat McAfee]

Our coach is good.

[JJ Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

The guy. 20 million a year. I paid socks quarterback.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

So I be A Bill o' Brien situation.

[Pat McAfee]

Antoine Staley. Oh, yeah, that's my little fight. Antoine Staley, New York Daily News reporter, says Aaron Glenn, when he was asked about the quarterback situation, we will have a quarterback. They will line somebody up that's good for the sport, that's good for the team. I think that's good. You kind of have to have somebody there at some point, even if it's the punter, you know, because punter lines up, I guess, technically in the quarterback position every once in a while. And Aaron Glenn's letting you know, we will take the field.

[Ty Schmidt]

Love that.

[Pat McAfee]

With a qb, Aaron Glenn's trying to change. You talk about Ben Johnson. Obviously, they both come from Detroit where if you think about Aaron and Ben, oh, my God. And then mcdc, think about everybody thinking the same exact way about everything. Now you get dropped into a new building and they don't think like that at all. And it's like, you got to do not just the team, not just the locker room. That's an entire culture shift. You got to do it to a building. Ben being able to do it as quick as he's been able to do it in Chicago, and then what Aaron's going through in New York. Do you think there is success on the other side with a and Glenn?

[JJ Watt]

It's really hard to say, man. I mean, I, I, having been there, we did their first game of the year. We saw him in the preseason. I mean, we said he says all the right things. The building seemed to buy in. He wants it to be football first. He doesn't want it to be the fluff, the media, anything outside the building. He wants it to be pure football first. They've had a really, really tough go of it here. There's no question about it. And yes, the quarterback play hasn't been great. Some of those first half, end of the half situations have been pretty wild. I mean, you have Garrett Wilson kind of questioning your own decisions on your team. Like, so that's where you start to see some cracks where you're like, well, hang on a second here. Like, there's doing everything the right way and making sure we're doing it. And then when it comes time to implement it in actual game situations, if it doesn't go the right way, and you see players, captains, leaders start to question it. I've been in those before. We've all been in those meetings. But where coaches go over those situational situations where it's like, hey, at this point in the game, this is what we're going to do. This is how we're using our timeouts and this is how we attack it. And then all of a sudden you get in that situation and they don't do it and you're like, wait a second, why do we have that 45 minute meeting?

[Pat McAfee]

The guy can't throw. We're trying to get to halftime. Okay, that's, that's. So you got Garrett Wilson throwing everybody under the bus whenever he said, I didn't know what the plan was. Then once I found out what the plan was, I was bummed out about it. I was bummed out that was the plan. Then he got the owner coming out and so saying coach isn't the problem, you guys are looking at the wrong guy. Yeah, that quarterback sucks. I mean, that's like the most tough.

[JJ Watt]

Place to play, man, because it's just. There's a billion eyeballs on you at all times. The pressure is so high. You have to win immediately right now. Otherwise everybody gets pissed. You don't have time to develop or build that culture. So I, I have sympathy for that, but it's, it's certainly been tough. I also know if you win there, you're top of the world. So parades. Somebody's going to figure it out at some point.

[Pat McAfee]

We hope there's more of this. We hope there's more of this over there for Aaron because that jets job has sucked a lot of happiness out of humans and a lot of emotion and a lot of soul out of people. We hope that doesn't happen. Aaron Glenn. Good luck over there, Ag.

[Connor Natai]

Yep, good luck.

[Pat McAfee]

Calvin Shepard's having a good old time in Detroit right now. He's running up and down the sideline yelling, and Aaron Glenn over there, like my owner won't. And a quarterback and a wide receiver.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, we have a quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we will play with a quarterback. That's a different world. But hey, you're the head coach now. Now let's talk about another pressure position, being a Philadelphia Eagles player just in general. Now, this Eagles team obviously has a lot of drama, but maybe they got a, maybe a leader coming back. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. J. Brandon Graham coming out of retirement and rejoining the Eagles last year. Year he was the one in the media actually, that accidentally said something about Jalen Hurts and A.J. brown. So maybe there's a chance he's coming back in there to maybe, you know, heal the locker room and get them back on track. What do you think about this move? And now that you are, you know, this far away from retire or from coming Back and all that shit. After the first couple years you were done. Can you tell us what the closest time or closest team you were to coming back, if there is any at all?

[JJ Watt]

Yeah, I think this is great. I'm very much looking forward to seeing it. I'm happy for him. I mean, I know exactly how it feels to be out and watching and like having that itch. So I'm really looking forward to seeing him play and him getting that experience and just there. There's literally nothing like playing NFL football, man. It is the coolest, best job in the world. And no matter what you try and do in the real world, you can never replicate that locker room, that adrenaline, that feeling of that competition. There is nothing better. So I'm happy for him. I can't wait to see how he does. I do think that they're, you know, the Eagles are like. It's crazy. Like you see him start out the year so well and then you see him go through all this stuff and the media and everything and there's still a very good football team. Look at like we can pick them apart and everything, but like they're still a very good team. So maybe he's bringing it together and is the ultimate glue guy guy. But I'm just happy for him. And then from my standpoint, I mean it was never actually legitimately close. The two teams I was watching always were the Texans and Steelers. Because it would have to have a real true, significant meaning for me to have come back. And it just never came to fruition.

[Pat McAfee]

Both those situations needed you and you chose not to do it. I think if I. If I recall, yeah, both those teams did need a impossible pass rusher named J.J. watt. I think. Cuz we got real excited every time one of those situations popped up. Hated that somebody got hurt, didn't like it. Actually we thought there was going to be no injuries this entire season. Turns out we were wrong. That you're going to be wrong whenever you're on daily sports talk, whatever the case. But we thought maybe you were going to go back to the Steelers. I mean it was. It was like storybook was happening. TJ and JJ getting introduced last as they're coming out onto a field. I mean during the entire thing doing all of it. I mean that was like a potential possibility there, we thought with the way the roster was kind of constructed. And then the Texans, same exact thing. You were in the building too. You're in the building. You're in the building. So you, I think mentally didn't want to Deal with the Monday after the game. I think I've heard you talk about that.

[JJ Watt]

Yeah, yeah. And I was very conscious of, like, the retire unretire thing for me. Like, when I made the decision to retire, I took a lot of time to think about it because I knew that I was. Was most likely going to be a retire once and be done guy. So I didn't take that decision very lightly, and I knew that it would take something unbelievable to get me out of it. And that situation never rose. I was always ready. I. I truly believe for two years, I was fully ready. At the end of two years, I could have still gone back out there and played. Now, this is probably the first year where I would be like, you got to give me a legit three, three months to get ready if I need to get ready now.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So you finally stopped training like an. Is that. Is that what you're saying?

[JJ Watt]

A little bit, yeah. I mean, I still train like an. I still train like an idiot, but I'm definitely taking an off day here and an off day there a little bit more often.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I remember when we were talking your first year of retirement, and it was like, what are you doing? This is not what it's supposed to be. No, I just. I need to be able to walk in every room, beat up everybody that I walk into.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I remember that whole line. And we thought you were a psycho. We're happy you're at the point where maybe you sleep in for a day or maybe take a day off, let the body recover. And we're also excited and thankful that you. You did a retirement. And then you said, you know what? I did my shit. And now we're just waiting on the hall of Fame. Because if you would have won back, that delays the hall of Fame.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Lays the hall of Fame another five years. BG John Clark of NBC Sports over there in Philly is reporting that it's his understanding that Brandon Graham has been working out regularly over the last month or more to get ready for a possible return. With an original plan of possibly returning for the Green Bay game after the bye week. It looks like it's been sped up. I'm told he's been ready and is in great shape. Okay. Bruce Brown shaking his head. He thinks there's a little conspiracy cooking up back there. It feels like that's New York Giants fan Bruce Brown. I haven't dug into how it works.

[Steve Wiltfong]

With the dead cap and the salary.

[Pat McAfee]

Cap and all that, but I just know that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hi, Roseman's.

[Pat McAfee]

Pulling some here. This is planned all along, all off offseason to have him just show up after the buy. But you know, Jackson Dart beats him.

[Steve Wiltfong]

And they got to speed it up.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that is potentially, that is potentially the case. Let's get back to a team that obviously you know a lot about. You said you would have went and played there if that was the case. We are going to stay away from questions about the Houston Texans because of what I did early. But a actually has a very good question about the dynamics potentially behind closed doors down there.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, the Texans defense is playing at a high level, obviously. We saw that the other night with four takeaways. Is there ever a worry or a concern that there's some division between offense and defense in that locker room?

[JJ Watt]

I don't think there is in this locker room. I do think that that there are teams where that's certainly been a part of. I think with this team there's almost, it just seems like on the offensive side it might be more like not 100% sure of exactly who they are, what they're trying to be or what they're able to accomplish. C.J. was just under fire this past game. I mean, every single time there's guys coming right up the middle, he's running out, he's running all around. Obviously he had the one where he ran back in the safety, no safety situation. But the offense just hasn't found their legs. And whether that's Joe Mixon not being out there and not being able to establish what they want, whether it's Nick Haley not quite running things the way that everybody envisioned because like we've talked about before this offseason, everybody was crazy excited about this offense. They were really excited about the install and about what they would be able to do and it just hasn't happened. Whether it's Laramie Tunsil being traded away, there's just all sorts of questions and not a lot of answers. And I know it's very frustrating because people down here in Houston especially remember that rookie year for CJ and had big, big visions of what that was going to become. And switching offensive coordinators was supposed to be the thing that springboarded this team team into the next stratosphere of legit super bowl contender with that defense they have and it just has not happened.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I, I, it was tough to watch. I, I don't like what's been going on with the Texans, even though obviously it's the Colts division now. But I don't like because we were big fans of CJ and everything. They were growing. We love d'. Amico. Obviously Casterio has been very good to us. Obviously the Houston fan base is fantastic. So we thought this was the time where the Texans were about to be great for a of lot long haul. For whatever reason, they haven't been able to do it. We have some updates on some news that we have discussed here especially for the game that you are going to be calling. Adam Schefter is reporting that Lamar Jackson is practicing today. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is practicing. And we also have from source within the building the report that the it was the coaches that are the coaches pulled out the toys from the locker room is false.

[AQ Shipley]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Connor Natai]

That's huge.

[JJ Watt]

I was not looking forward to asking that question in a production meeting. So I'm glad that we already take care of that. That's never fun.

[AJ Hawk]

Did the players do it?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. Were there moves though?

[Pat McAfee]

So the wording is we just cop. We got a text from the building. Okay. It says report it to report it to was coaches that pulled out the toys from the locker room is false. So I don't know what the hell if that was the actual set.

[JJ Watt]

Well, that, that whole article, I don't know if that was the same article or a different one, but there was like an article that came out that said like we talked to 25 players in or 25 people inside the Ravens organization during the bye week and this is what we came up with. That's. There's a lot of things there. First of all, 25 people in the organization singing like a bird is pretty crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

Not good.

[JJ Watt]

I don't know. That's never good. Second, never know what kind of agendas are going on here because I think part of the report was like, like we blame the offense more than we blame the defense and there's all sorts of. So there's, there's a lot to digest here. Now that being reported false, which you never know with those types of things, sometimes they're like we took it out for cleaning. You know, there's.

[Pat McAfee]

We forgot to put it back.

[JJ Watt]

This is, this is the type of stuff that comes out when you're an expected super bowl contender and then you end up sitting there at 1 and 5.

[Connor Natai]

Well and like if it wasn't the coaches and the players did it, that changes it, right? If, if the players made the decision to, to do something like that or.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that the same anybody making them okay, it's terrible news. I mean if we feel like we got to get to cornhole boards out of the locker room. That's not.

[JJ Watt]

Because there is somebody in there that loves those cornhole boards and they're now pissed. And then they're getting their group together. That's like, hey man, that guy's an asshole. He thinks that's why we're losing. Well, maybe he should cover somebody a.

[Pat McAfee]

Little tighter on, man. Let alone the politics of who's voting to keep what in there. But also this is where people gather.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, there is shit talk happening in these moments. There is. Let alone me, punter, kicker, whenever everybody else is studying film. And I, I've, I've really, I've gone through every rep. You know, I, I got some time here, dude. Let alone that whole aspect of it. But these things, these, these little places in the locker room or in the building, this is where people gather. You know, this is camaraderie. This is where people become humans. Ping pong table. Even if you're not of a piece ping pong player, there's a couple people playing. You'll stop by for 30 seconds, 45 seconds. Have a little moment, keep it moving. Even maybe potential gather entire team. It's like these are just little moments to provide moments. You know, many hoop. Yeah. Mini hope is huge.

[AJ Hawk]

Time to compete together. You get to compete like it's just more. It's great.

[Darius J. Butler]

I think it's.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[JJ Watt]

It's that thing where everybody's always like, you need to be locked in on football. It's like, okay, I. You do not watch film or study or play playbook for 24 hours a day. When you're in the building. Not every single moment is in the meeting room. There are times where you are resting and relaxing in between. That's some of the best memories are those where you got guys dropping 20 bucks on who can make it into the garbage basket with their tape after they take it off.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, 20 bucks. Those are the. Yeah. I kept it low.

[JJ Watt]

I don't know what the threshold is for whatever it's supposed to be.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[JJ Watt]

Whatever push does.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. M and M's. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lost a lot of.

[JJ Watt]

I've lost a lot of push ups in my day.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I didn't expect somebody to make the Gatorade bottle shot that they certainly made right there. Lost. Lost about 600 M&M's on that particular shot. We got another message. It was the veteran leaders that wanted all the games out there. So I think.

[JJ Watt]

So it is out. Yes, so it is out.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh boy.

[Pat McAfee]

So the message was that the veteran Leader saw it was going on and there was too much.

[AJ Hawk]

I think the young players are abusing it or something. Like, how's that work?

[Pat McAfee]

I wonder? Too much jocularity going.

[Ty Schmidt]

Goddamn kids coming to meetings.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. Trying to play Fortnite all day in the locker room. It's like, hey, why don't we, you know, look at a coverage or something?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, why don't we watch the film? Why don't we. Man, that's tough because now you got leaders and then. Now you got a little segregation in the locker room now.

[Connor Natai]

And I saw a pretty.

[JJ Watt]

Then you have somebody saying, well, I don't agree with the leaders. And then you're undermining leaders, Peters. Yeah, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's a lot of vets on that team, too. It's not like a. You know, you have obviously young players that play, but Pagano might have been.

[Sean Deveney]

Cooking everybody on the ping pong table.

[Connor Natai]

Was he cooking?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, they call him ping pong Pagano, actually, because of his ability.

[JJ Watt]

Maybe they go out and dominate this week and then every team is just firing ping pong tables out there.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody get out of here. See you.

[JJ Watt]

The Dolphins have a ping pong table.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. Not enough for those to get out of the locker room, brother. I don't know if that's going to help them. They stink at football down there in Miami. We don't love that. What are your. What are your thoughts on that situation? Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I mean, now that you brought it up, J. And you know, you're thinking about retirement, man, wouldn't that be a great place to go back for you this year? Maybe come in, save the Dolphin season. Listen, it's not great. It gets worse every single week. They've said, hey, look, listen, we're not going to fire Coach McDaniel anytime soon. It's not imminent. Stephen Ross doesn't really care, it seems like. And, boy, he's going up to the podium post game and saying a lot. And that's.

[Pat McAfee]

Really.

[Ty Schmidt]

People have kind of met their threshold with that, too, is throwing people under the bus. He's throwing two under the bus. Just kind of. What's your. What's your whole view of this entire Dolphin situation?

[JJ Watt]

Ah, this is. This is far past ping pong table territory. When you are doing it as publicly as they're doing it and. And hiding it as little as they're hiding. Just makes you wonder what it's like behind the closed doors. Because it's pretty wild how much stuff they're saying publicly. And when you sit there and watch it. And you just think to yourself, you didn't have to say any of that. Like Tua didn't have to say what he said the other day. The coach doesn't have to say what he says at the podium. Like it, it's. You can stand at that podium and give coach speak and player speak answers. People do it all the time and you can handle stuff behind closed doors. So when it gets to the point where you are discussing these types of things in public generally, that means it has been pretty bad behind the scenes for a while and clearly it has to be at that point there. I mean, we all saw this team as a legitimate playoff team a few years ago and potential for bigger, bigger things. And unfortunately it just seems to have unraveled quickly.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think it has unraveled pretty quickly and their fans have certainly witnessed it all kind of unravel in real time alongside Gumpy, watching this team. Will anybody ever be able to win in Miami?

[JJ Watt]

Why not?

[Pat McAfee]

Because, well, have you been. I mean, obviously you're J.J. watts, so I think you probably live and move a little bit different than Lee the, than some people. But whenever you talk about a football team and the sum of its parts and everything that is available in Miami, I, I think it's, I think it's a tough. I think it's going to be a tough place to win.

[Darius J. Butler]

72.

[Connor Natai]

I mean, that's true. Before the merger.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're right. 1972, I didn't even think.

[JJ Watt]

But you could say that about like LA. LA's got a lot going on.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it does. No, I don't think so. Actually. I, I think that's a little different story. Like miam, Florida and Cal just never sleep.

[Darius J. Butler]

Miami never sleep.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of opportunities. Yeah, a lot of opportunities. In a lot of places you think are nightclubs. They're not nightclubs. They're actually adult ballets. And then you walk in there, they're also serving you steak and they're telling you you can be here till 7:30am and guys are like, well, I don't got a meeting till 8am so why don't I, why don't I do. I think there's just a lot of options down in Miami. I don't know. And I know the Miami Heat have been able to win and obviously we've learned that Gilbert, Gilbert Arenas just gave a great quote. The neon up, I believe about what the lifestyle is of an NBA player and everything like that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Talking a little too much, a little chatty.

[JJ Watt]

Oh, I Got to see that.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of stories. A lot of stories coming in. It was a lot.

[JJ Watt]

He.

[Pat McAfee]

He. He said a lot. I'm sure there's a lot of people. Yo, yo. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

[Ty Schmidt]

Stop.

[Pat McAfee]

But he's telling us we're learning from outside, looking in. I think Miami's going to be tough to win. And then we go back to what Tyreek Hill said after the season last year. Tyreek was done with this last year. Oh, yeah. And everybody, like, kind of buried Tyreek for it. And then now the season's happening, and Tyler Tyreek's like. That's what I was saying. This. This place sucks.

[Ty Schmidt]

It might be a reverse Dan Campbell situation, too. I mean, obviously, they never knew what he was going to turn into, but, like, he was their interim head coach a couple years ago. Like, he was in their building. They could have. I mean, if he gets that job, do things change, you know, and do they stay the course a little bit more? But they were like, this guy's a. Get him out of here. You know, bring him again.

[JJ Watt]

I don't know, man. Detroit and Dan Campbell were the perfect marriage.

[Ty Schmidt]

I agree.

[JJ Watt]

Everything, like, I don't know if. If it maybe does maybe, but I do think you have to have the right mentality and infrastructure for that to happen. And we always have to remember what happened in his first year. Like, you had to be able to weather that storm. And I just. I don't know if it's the same situation in Miami, if he is able to do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

You.

[Darius J. Butler]

You mentioned Miami and the Miami Heat in particular. One of the first things you think about when you think about the Miami Heat is Pat Riley and the he Heat culture. And that's why even being so opposite of what most NBA franchises, at least from the outside in, look, it's like, hey, I mean, Chick ran LeBron out of town because damn cookies. You know what I mean? Like, that's Riles. We heard UD talk about him every time he came on the show. So that type of structure, obviously, what's going on with the Panthers, obviously a very different culture just in hockey in general. But that style of leadership from the top down, Coach Maurice Zito, all those guys. So you definitely have to have the strong structure from the top down. And you look at Coach, once again, we're not in the building day in and day out, but you hear a lot of people that have been around football for a long time, and they talk the way they talk about Mike, you know, Mike McDaniel, they'll be like, hey, that's the complete opposite of what you need, especially in a place like Miami. So, yeah, it's a lot of. It's gonna be tough to win now.

[Pat McAfee]

He would have had to have won a lot. And they were starting out good. But all your. That you do that they love whenever you're winning. They hate whenever you're. Which brings us to Russell Wilson. Listen, greatest tweet he's ever sent. I mean, let's ride, Mr. Unlimited. You're talking about a guy that's given us a lot of catchphrases. Okay. He's given us a lot to the Internet. His greatest work might be a tweet that just had no context, was just sent out there saying, hey, you know who I'm talking about, okay? And I think this is potentially Jackson Dart Scatterboo, maybe even day ball saying, hey, listen, you're. We can't just be sitting here letting this shit happen. Like, I understand that you are, like, super good guy all the time and high road all the time. You're Russell Wilson, bro. Super bowl champ. Get the hell out of here with this whole thing. Then you probably got Jackson Dart. Push him a little bit. This guy's bounty. Remembering Scatter Boo's like you, this guy. You know, there's probably a little bit of a motivation happening. And Russell Wilson says, yeah, you know what? Send it. First time we have seen Russell Wilson do this legitimately, and I want to let him know we love it. Jj, how do you feel? Feel about it?

[JJ Watt]

Yeah, I mean, I'm great with defending yourself against a just seemingly out of nowhere unnecessary shot. So, yeah, nothing wrong with that. What I'm focused on right here now is that's a weightlifting glove type look on the right hand there with the fingers cut off. I had never seen that before.

[Pat McAfee]

It's thicker.

[Darius J. Butler]

Dangerous.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it's thicker. I had not.

[JJ Watt]

I did not know that we were operating in that.

[AJ Hawk]

That Wet Bandits love. Yeah.

[JJ Watt]

That type of territory.

[Pat McAfee]

That is Wet Bandits. Yeah, it is. Good call. Yeah. Because you need those fingertips so you have a control, but, you know, you need the thickness of the weightlifter to kind of keep it warm. Now, granted, it is certainly going to be different feel of the ball than what you're used to because there's a layer of warmth there in between. Maybe that was the reason why him and Sean Payton really didn't get along. Sean Payton saw the glove say, this guy sucks his fingers.

[JJ Watt]

We were just talking about, like, when stuff gets public, how. What it must have been like behind closed doors Like, I mean, this is a. Your team's doing great. They just won a big game. Like, they're in just a shot out of nowhere towards New York City. Like, why? Like, there had to be some stuff going on behind the scenes for that to still be in the back of the mind after all that.

[Pat McAfee]

I love Russell Wilson responded.

[Darius J. Butler]

Love.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Russ, if this is the new, new you, we're happy about it.

[Connor Natai]

Keep it going.

[Pat McAfee]

And J, if this is the new you with the glasses and the hair, just know that we love it, brother. Keep going. We appreciate the hell out of you.

[JJ Watt]

Thank you. I appreciate the hell out of you.

[Pat McAfee]

What's behind you there? What do we got behind you? There's a lot of stuff, like, perfectly placed.

[JJ Watt]

It seems it's just a cleats from the game I played after my son's. My son was born. Two sacks.

[Pat McAfee]

No big deal.

[JJ Watt]

Company Right after he was born, my wife. This is a book from. Well, family vacation. All of us. The ball wall. My son got me a Father's day gift. I can't figure out the point for.

[Pat McAfee]

My life over here.

[AJ Hawk]

So.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you did it four times. You got the wrong side.

[JJ Watt]

No idea what's going on? Not even close.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, J.J. wa. You know, every once while you put those glasses on, you kind of lose your sense of direction. Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That is something. On a camera, though, whenever you're trying to. You'll see me just get, like, kind of caught in the middle. I'm trying to go up and to the right. Is it that way? Well, in me, it's actually up and to the left here, but on the camera, it's up into the right. J had quite a moment there. Before we get out of here on espn, we need to do some takeaways. Okay. From week seven of the NFL season. Age. This is some great segs. Is it not great.

[AJ Hawk]

Unbelievable segs we've been having.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, we have been having unbelievable segs.

[Ty Schmidt]

Have we not great segs every week.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we've been doing a lot of segs around here.

[Connor Natai]

Best eggs of my life.

[AQ Shipley]

I love good segs.

[Pat McAfee]

Me, too. We. We do love good seg. You're talking about segments, correct? That's not what it sound like coming out of your mouth. You need to know that, aj. So let's talk about your. Why'd SES do that to you? I don't like it. But let's take your big three takeaways coming out of week seven of the NFL season from AQ Shipley.

[AQ Shipley]

Let's start in San Francisco Block party in the bay.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it's a party. It's a party. It's a party. Love that.

[AQ Shipley]

Let's just talk about Kyle Juszczyk and George Kittle being back on the field together for the first time since week one. And let me tell you, Kyle Shanahan had all his toys back. Would you ever use a fullback to block a five technique defensive end?

[Darius J. Butler]

No.

[AQ Shipley]

No, never. Right, let's send Kittle out. Use check. Cut off the defensive end, Christian McCaffrey right up the middle.

[Connor Natai]

Damn.

[AQ Shipley]

Big time play. Big time time from him.

[Pat McAfee]

That third and short there. That's pretty good.

[AQ Shipley]

Pretty awesome. Right? Let's take a look at this one. Kyle, you check here on the left. Let's look at George K on the backside. Chasing down the backside safety. Look at Trent Williams. Use check. Out in space. He got all his toys. The operation was up and running. All the shifts, all the motions, all the eye candy. Take a look at. Use check again.

[Pat McAfee]

Fake.

[AQ Shipley]

No, bring it back.

[Connor Natai]

That's nasty.

[AQ Shipley]

That's pretty sick. Now he's able to run his full operation. Operation.

[Pat McAfee]

First down there for the San Francisco 49ers. CMC got 63% of the yardage for the San Francisco 49ers, the most by any player of this NFL season. That was a Hembo stat. They're special over there when they can run the Rock, obviously. And George Kittle and Kyle use check. Help that. There was a time in the off season, I think we. This got brought up the other day where they weren't going to bring back Use check and then to get the deal done. He's a vital piece of that entire process.

[AQ Shipley]

He's everything. That's the whole reason why I brought this up with him and Kittle there. They can do everything in some cases. Sometimes it's opposite sides, sometimes it's together. But the fact is, by having them there, they're interchangeable. They can do all the shifts, all the motions, all the things.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I remember a couple years back you said, if you want to know where they're running the ball, you got to follow us. Check us. Check is literally going to take it to him. That's why they do the pump fake on the. What's that called? An orbit motion? I don't know if that's what.

[AQ Shipley]

And he sold it with the tilt, like. Yeah, well, you can kind of call it that. Orbit would go behind the quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that one called?

[AQ Shipley]

It's really just a fake. Like he's just selling. Like he's going across. And if you know, notice. Can we run this back real quick?

[Pat McAfee]

Absolutely.

[AQ Shipley]

When he goes, when he goes like he's going across the formation, watch what it does to the linebackers. And that sets up the block for Trent Williams.

[Pat McAfee]

Leverage.

[AQ Shipley]

Bingo. Now Trent Williams has leverage.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's the worst block. Anytime you snap the ball while the players in motion, it always mess with the def. Because the conversation a couple weeks ago like leverage. Everybody's trying to get and win.

[AJ Hawk]

Starting to boss over. Oh, no.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bow.

[AJ Hawk]

We got a bow. Actually, bow means like reduced.

[Pat McAfee]

And then Trent will punch a guy in the face as well, which is always good. AJ you're off balance and going to punch you in the jaw. That's good. That's. Welcome to football, baby. What's your second takeaway coming out of Week 7 of the NFL season?

[AQ Shipley]

Money. Time, Micah. And here's why. He is the closer. Every single time in the fourth quarter you need a play. It's coming from him. They were supposed to chip there. He recognizes it. Does the old Reggie White hump move inside, gets the pressure. This is in the fourth quarter. Guess what next, very next play. Let's get the sack. Let's go up and around Jonah Williams. Tough day.

[Connor Natai]

I know.

[AQ Shipley]

I saw it, watched it live.

[Pat McAfee]

That was big.

[AQ Shipley]

Push, pull. It's 20 to 20 right now in the fourth quarter. They're driving on the eight yard line. Need a touchdown. They don't, they get a field goal and then Green Bay goes down, scores a touchdown. They win the game.

[Pat McAfee]

What you say AJ slingshots himself.

[AJ Hawk]

Slingshot push pole like the AQ said in the last one. That was a great dip and rip there, but yeah, punch him and then use his momentum and throw yourself into the quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

This is why you paid him in Green Bay, right? I mean this is literally the reason.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's it. I mean after the, the last sack. That's exactly. That's why you trade for and pay this guy. Because he single handedly won in the game. Like I remember, you know, and I was texting a little bit with AQ and he just said like yeah, once, once he moved over to Jonah Williams side like it was blouses.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go to the last takeaway from AQ ship. They coming out of week seven of the NFL season.

[AQ Shipley]

Stafford still spinning it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, he is. This time in London. AQs quickly.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, let's look at this first one real quick. We are going to get hit in the side of the head. Let's just sidearm it to the back of the End zone touchdown.

[Connor Natai]

Damn.

[AQ Shipley]

Go to the next one real quick. We got a fade to devonte Adams. Incredible what he's able to do here. Just one step.

[Sean Deveney]

Throw it.

[AQ Shipley]

Perfect. Only he can catch it.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow. Matthew Stafford got drafted the same year as me and AQ Shipley and Darius J. Butler. He's in London at 9:30am spinning it all over the place. I'm worried about maybe getting a hemorrhoid while I'm pooping. That's the difference in lives. That's the difference in greatness. Matthew Stafford is elite, brother. And that was incredible. Hey, thank you for your takeaways. We'll be back tomorrow. As week eight of the NFL season kicks off. You're the greatest people on earth. Goodbye. Just had. We had. We had like 34 seconds here. I thought you did a great job with Justin. You could sense the urgency. Nascar, nascar, nascar. You kind of did your thing waving the towel.

[AQ Shipley]

We were coming in.

[Pat McAfee]

You did a great job there. Running straight off the field. Not to trying get in everybody's way. You don't want to hit the kicker. You want to get the hell out of the way.

[AQ Shipley]

Don't go at an angle because they're coming at an angle.

[Pat McAfee]

That's situational football. Let's go back. You. You said bow is something. What is a bow? What is a bow call? What is that?

[AJ Hawk]

Like if you boss your boss and you're all like, take your stepping strong, okay, we're moving over strong. Or say, say the safety comes down here. We want to boss this way. Like, watch.

[Connor Natai]

Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

Boss, boss, boss.

[Sean Deveney]

Nope.

[Pat McAfee]

Here we go.

[AJ Hawk]

No, actually, we need to bow back.

[Pat McAfee]

To where we were. Okay. So actually it does.

[AJ Hawk]

AQ said, I'm sorry again, like, there's a lot of good things on here, but it does. It sets up these guys box, so they just gotta. It takes those linebackers, it already gets them out. Leverage.

[AQ Shipley]

Boom.

[AJ Hawk]

You're setting up the box down the field.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And we started seeing this in the last few years of offense coordinators designing plays to set up blocks. And Niners are the biggest proponents of that.

[AQ Shipley]

They use their shifts and motions to set up plays down the road. So that right there you think he's going across and then he runs the. The crack toss. And then later in the game, they're.

[Connor Natai]

Going to do that.

[AQ Shipley]

They're going to stop. He's going to cut the defensive end. Kittle's coming as the second puller and the. They're running two tight end counter. Then the next time they're going to start like that. They're going to stop them and then send them the other way. Like, there's a million and then there's a play action off of it. There's so much they build off of.

[Darius J. Butler]

And then AJ if you put the clip back up there, the boss, the S and the boss, that to the run strength. And the bow is to the weak side.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Strong.

[Darius J. Butler]

Weak. Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

Usually boss. Strong bow. Weak. Yeah.

[Sean Deveney]

Okay.

[AJ Hawk]

So you don't have to say it. Hey, boss, boss, boss.

[Pat McAfee]

Bobo bow.

[AJ Hawk]

And it already tells you which way you're going.

[Darius J. Butler]

Gotcha.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And he has to strike. Strong bow. It obviously doesn't have anything strong. That's strong side, weak side, left side, strong side. You guys doing all that type of stuff. And all Shanahan and Usheck are doing is just big brain in the out of you. Just puppeteering. God. We need you all to shift this way. Thank you. It's gonna be hard for us to get you if you just stand there. Thank you. Let's go ahead and do this. And we got Christian McCaffrey. He's more explosive than all your guys. It's amazing what this 9.

[AJ Hawk]

You gotta work it, though. Sorry. You got to work it. You got to be good at it. Because if not, it looks like. Like poop. If you're trying to run all this pre shift, motion shift all, and then all of a sudden you're getting TFLs every play.

[Pat McAfee]

They're all cool.

[AJ Hawk]

Nice. Why don't we just line up and play, buddy? Like so. Yeah, you have to be very, very good at it.

[Pat McAfee]

The timing of it all, you're saying, very well rehearsed.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, they've repped that a billion times. Like, how many times have they repped everything? I would imagine walkthroughs, practice, everything.

[AQ Shipley]

This is why it's so good. And you can ask BA when he's here next week. Because most teams around the league, when they get to Thursday, when they get to Friday, it's mostly packed because it's a passing league, right? Every single run, period. Every single pass, period. Doesn't matter what period they're running in practice. They're getting eight out of 10 of them as runs. And they're constantly working on it. That's why it looks so good.

[Connor Natai]

And that's something that, like, we. We do forget right now with Miami. Like, McDaniel revolutionized the whole motion thing when he started doing that sprint out. And maybe that only works the players like Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle. But that's another thing with those motions that Just completely change the game. Like you mentioned, like setting up blocks. Like, it felt like Miami was unbelievable at that for a while. And you know, it started in San Fran.

[Pat McAfee]

They started blurring the lines with the emotions big time. The Miami Dolphins offense started blurring the lines and that's why there was so much promise, so much and so much hope and that's. And so much optimism. Oh, man, it's going to be impossible to stop. It's also impossible to learn as a quarterback. If Tua goes down, we are.

[Connor Natai]

Oh yeah, completely, unfortunately.

[Pat McAfee]

And if Tua ends up not playing well, we are completely. And our culture, boy, it's splintering quickly. And our order and our head coach. Just get me out of here.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he doesn't give a what. Not anymore. He's done.

[Darius J. Butler]

You don't think so?

[Pat McAfee]

No side eye. And Quinn, yours was it for you. You think that was it? When he was cold, it was rainy. It was 60 mile an hour winds. Quinn, yours is playing the game. Okay, great. And he does ass and he jogs off and he's. He's side weird. You think that was the moment where McDaniel something D. That was part of it.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think it might have been after the game when he had the presser and that person put out the super cut of him just saying. And he. I mean, he knew what kind of questions he was going to get asked and he was like it. I'm just going to go up and say a bunch. I don't care.

[Darius J. Butler]

That was an AI.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know.

[Connor Natai]

There's a chance There are a couple, you know, doubles in there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they could have doubled them up.

[Connor Natai]

When I rewatched it, there was a couple double ups, but it was still accurate.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Good at it. I mean, especially with how similar they all sound.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Darius J. Butler]

There was also a moment in the game where I think Tua threw a pick and like the offense is kind of like kind of, you know, moseying off the field. He's like, off the field.

[Pat McAfee]

Here's the clip. Actually. It's like a. It's like a half a second here after. You got to wait for it. Not yet. They'll show Tua first after the pick, obviously. Knock good. It's 246 fourth quarter. Things have not gone well. The weather stinks. To is not. Get the. Off the.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, you're done.

[Pat McAfee]

He is not happy. He's not happy.

[Darius J. Butler]

So he's still invested. He cares.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he does.

[AJ Hawk]

How do those team meetings go, aq? How do you think those. Like, how do you Bring the juice as a coach for team meeting.

[AQ Shipley]

It's really tough to sit up there every single week and be like, boys, hey, this week we just got to be one. And oh, this week one and. Oh, you know, it's tough. It's really tough. I. I mean, I don't know. Especially when you're starting to lose all these guys games. Especially when you lose a bunch of games in a row. You lose the locker room and then you start to see what's happening outside of the locker room, in the press conferences.

[Pat McAfee]

It's stuff they need to go to Kennywood.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, not a bad idea.

[Pat McAfee]

Sure.

[JJ Watt]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

A.B.

[Connor Natai]

You see this, it's always a good time.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, I see the shirt did what? Is Kelsey's company investing in Kennywood or what?

[Pat McAfee]

No, Bruce Brown had it all wrong, okay? Bruce Brown said.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, why would they? There's no way they're putting any money in that place. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Seems like Travis Kelsey saving Kenny World. Shut the up. Hey, it's Kenny Wood, okay? It's not Kenny World, but Travis Kelsey, I believe is an investor in Six Flags and he's looking to make it almost as good as Kennywood. Right? Is that kind of what you read, Bruce? Yeah, that is correct. I believe they purchased a 9% stake.

[JJ Watt]

In Six Flags and the stock was.

[Pat McAfee]

Up 18% on the news.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I believe his focus on the Cedar.

[JJ Watt]

Point location to kind of restore it.

[Steve Wiltfong]

To his childhood Glo glory.

[Pat McAfee]

But I just figured, you know, they.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Would just, you know, maybe acquire Kenny.

[JJ Watt]

World in, in the aftermath of the.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Deal and get that going, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

As a six flag.

[Connor Natai]

That's a good idea.

[Pat McAfee]

This. Yeah. Now this is very cute. That's very cute. I love that the Kelsey family is classic Cleveland family. Okay. I like that they are going to the amusement park. I like that they're doing the Six Flags. I like the. They're doing the entire thing. I love that he's invested. I appreciate the fact that Travis knows what's good for a community and what's not good for a community. I appreciate that he's trying to make things better and also be a businessman going forward. With that being said, you saying kennyworld, as natural as you've been saying it needs to fucking stop. Okay? That's a great name. Actually, they should have potentially named it that. We don't need everybody to know that Kenny Wood's not the right name because Kenny O owned the woods and it's Kenny Wood. You know, just like the Italians dropped the final sound there. Just get rid of the S for the woods and just keep it as Kenny Wood. And just know that Travis Kelsey, he might have invested in some other amusement park dump that needs saving. Kenny was just fine. Okay. Kenny was just fine. We had that cinder block underneath that one picture still.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

We don't have that picture up anywhere. Can pot it up. That was really good.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you got osha.

[AJ Hawk]

OSHA certified. No question.

[Pat McAfee]

Definitely. It's a strong cinder block. It's from Pittsburgh. That fucker's ready for it. That thing is built for it. Don't you worry about any. Did you hear about the racers?

[AQ Shipley]

No, I was, I was on them this summer though.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh buddy.

[Connor Natai]

Should I have not been on?

[Pat McAfee]

It's Kenny. Well, you're safe everywhere. Of course this ain't one of those aha places but. Yeah, they put a cinder block underneath one of the roller coasters. Somebody found and took a picture. It looks certainly sketchy. Yeah, certainly looked like it was right around the bend. But they said don't you worry about it. We got the mechanical engineering all figured out taking care of themselves. That thing's not feeling any pressure. And I went over to the potato patch and I believed him. Then I went over to know his arc. I said wow, this thing's just same as it was whenever I was growing up. This is amazing.

[AQ Shipley]

I, I rode the jackrabbit and I took my 7 year old daughter with me and I told her, I said hey listen, this first d, this first little dip, we're going to go down, it's going to go up, we might lose you. So just we're going to hold on real tight. I mean I had her in a full tilt head look and I thought I was going out too.

[Pat McAfee]

You talking about the whoopy wheel of the jack? Yeah. Boom, boom. That's. That's the whole part himself though. That's the whole purpose of the jackra. You hop, hop. You know, I do appreciate it was cool when I was 12.

[AQ Shipley]

As a 39 year old man holding a 7 year old daughter, I thought we were, we were gone.

[Pat McAfee]

See that's okay with difference. Also this was found. Okay. This was. Oh Facebook log out. Geez. Bruce, Bruce, Bruce Just got booted by. Is that by Zuck just kicked you out Here it is one Berg's post here.

[Connor Natai]

No way.

[Sean Deveney]

What's wrong with that?

[AJ Hawk]

Really, really sturdy.

[Pat McAfee]

Wait, there's a lot of hills in Pittsburgh. What the do you want these guys to do?

[Steve Wiltfong]

That's how we were taught to fix stuff growing up.

[AQ Shipley]

What is that?

[Pat McAfee]

You know, whenever you're at a restaurant and the table is a little wobbly. You obviously put Splenda under one of the corners. That's exactly what you do. That's what they do with roller coaster.

[Connor Natai]

Smart one.

[Pat McAfee]

Burg knows they appreciate it now. I don't think they should have let humans on the outside see this.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, definitely not.

[Pat McAfee]

That was their mistake. They obviously put up a board here. Nobody can see it anymore and we move forward. And on that note, Kennywood doesn't need saving. Has QB1 Ben to Kennywood yet. He was at the Pence game last night. It's a hockey night in Pittsburgh. Obviously Kees will cut a great promo. Will hires out there with the boys. I assume Aaron Rodgers want an experience. Kennywood. I don't think you really go to Pittsburgh. Not do that. I don't know.

[Connor Natai]

Hard to imagine that.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about? The swings. The best swings in the entire country.

[Connor Natai]

I mean.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean he's. The things go way out there.

[Anthony Degiulio]

They hit up phantom Fright nights after the game last night.

[Steve Wiltfong]

I talked to him.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so they went by Fright nights which is obviously a legendary time to be at the Kennywood and which could also be called Kenny World because the entire world of happiness kind of resides right there. So let's get to a break on the other side. We'll do another college football convo with Stanford. Steve.

[Connor Natai]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Just reminding you that Kennywood is getting more expensive and they're not really adding many things, but they need you now more than ever.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bad.

[Pat McAfee]

Just for maintenance, free parking and food. No, no, no.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, that's done.

[Pat McAfee]

From what I've been told, it was an expensive day. Okay.

[Connor Natai]

Like 15 bucks.

[Anthony Degiulio]

As it should be.

[Pat McAfee]

The whole day was expensive. I think whenever you pay, you don't really know how great it's going to be. So you often wonder why. That's a lot of money per person. What is this place? Is this Disney World? Even better. It's Kenny.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. If we're paying that much, I want to kick Kenny Kangaroo in the dick.

[Pat McAfee]

Could do that. He's around.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see him? Did you take a picture with Kenny Kangaroo?

[AQ Shipley]

I didn't.

[Pat McAfee]

He's a little creepy looking, remember? Yeah, he kind of looks like a tube. Soccer.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, he's got a little bit of that.

[Pat McAfee]

But there might be a new Kenny Aru. Yeah, you don't know because Kennywood brand new. You ever show up late to the.

[JJ Watt]

Game and your friends already saved your.

[Pat McAfee]

Seat, your drink, even a of piece.

[JJ Watt]

Plate that's looking out, that's having your back and that's exactly what AT&T does. With the AT&T guarantee.

[Pat McAfee]

They know staying connected matters. That's why AT&T has connectivity you depend on.

[AQ Shipley]

Guaranteed.

[Pat McAfee]

Or they'll proactively make it right. Just like that friend who takes care of things before you even ask.

[JJ Watt]

AT&T connecting changes everything.

[Pat McAfee]

Terms and conditions apply.

[JJ Watt]

Visit att.comguarantee for details.

[Pat McAfee]

This is Kevin Clark for manscaped Look.

[Ty Schmidt]

Being a man doesn't mean skipping self care.

[Pat McAfee]

I do this show three times a week and every single time I do.

[Ty Schmidt]

A little self care beforehand.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay? Grooming the hair, everything.

[Ty Schmidt]

You guys see it?

[Pat McAfee]

You don't wake up like this. You don't wake up like that. You gotta do. You gotta get the stubble going. You gotta get rid of that awful mustache I had last spring. Listen, I tried. I thought the mustache over the, the, over the stubble was a good look. Not a good look. It wasn't a good look. You have to learn that the hard way. Manscaped makes it easy to feel confident.

[Connor Natai]

Clean and ready for anything.

[Pat McAfee]

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[Connor Natai]

Day.

[Pat McAfee]

Because real confidence starts with a clean cut and the right gear. Get all the manscaped products you need right now at your local target. Football is magical. That's AJ Hawk. The talks at tables here at Boston. Conor Natai Schmidt, nine year NFL vet. Darius J. Butler is here. 12 year NFL veteran and Super bowl champion AQ Shipley is here.

[Ty Schmidt]

God bless you.

[AJ Hawk]

Bless you.

[Darius J. Butler]

God bless you.

[Pat McAfee]

So no, I've been seeing up allergies though.

[Connor Natai]

Allergies? Are they pill this morning?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah. See? Or not.

[Pat McAfee]

Can I get a heads up whenever it's time to do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

I told you, you can't miss days. I said you gotta start it and you gotta ride that through December.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you know, I'm not used to this being my life. So maybe a reminder every once in a while, especially on a day like today where it sounds like it was pretty obvious and I got big time sneezes happened in the middle of hour three freezes starting in with Stanford. Steve's. I don't like anything about any of this.

[Ty Schmidt]

I get it. See, but personally mine's, mine's more towards the sniffles. You know, I'm not gonna be sneezing from the allergies. I'm just gonna be.

[Pat McAfee]

Which is even worse.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. Exactly. So if I, if I sense that tomorrow morning, boom. I'll text you at 5:30 please and let you know.

[Darius J. Butler]

Internet doctors actually told me that's bad for your immune system. It weakens it. Taking all that vitamin C and medicine. Really? Yeah, that's what I was.

[Pat McAfee]

No. Now herd immediately is what you're talking about here, bud. Okay. But you're allowed to add some peds to your herd if you want. Like we've been seeing up over there. What are you. You're telling me that that's been a waste of money?

[Darius J. Butler]

I'm just relaying the message that was given to me.

[Connor Natai]

Don't listen to that. He doesn't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Does anybody. Does anybody about anything? Yes. There's one man, two men actually that know about college football and we get a chance to chit chat with them every single week. One of them is live from Hammer down down in AP town who's a published college football author multiple time. And another is a man who's on the game day set. He's also with SVP every single night whenever they have a show Fortnite. When did they.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a good question. Steve's always on a road.

[Pat McAfee]

He's always on tv, always on the road and always keeping us updated on what games we need to be paying attention to coming into the weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another college football convo with Stanford. Steve, how you doing? Did you take your allergy medicine? I guess it's that time of year. Even though Ty's keeping that tight lipped.

[Steve Wiltfong]

I don't know if I'm on the same medication as Ty. I don't know if I'm in that tier. But yeah, the, the, the runny nose dripping like a faucet. Season is here for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, it is. And we will survive. Okay. We will certainly get through it. But I've been vitamin C in to try to combat against this and then all of a sudden we got a Yukon educated man coming over here saying that ain't doing nothing for you. That's actually hurting you. I don't like that one bit.

[Darius J. Butler]

Drink your water and get to rest.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I understand. Ice and stem. I, I, I get it. We will certainly figure that out. Okay. I will hammer the water. Let's talk about this weekend. We have the incredible opportunity to head down to Nashville and celebrate this Vanderbilt University football program that has obviously come through the ashes and now is a powerhouse house in college ball not just in the sec, they're hosting Missouri. What are your thoughts on this game and how should we be viewing it before heading down there fired up to.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Go down to to Nashville and after watching Vanderbilt for our lives. They had never been favored over an SEC ranked team until last week and now this week they're again so for after never being a favorite two weeks in a row, they're a favorite after that impressive win over LSU issue obviously Pavia is the story the face of that team. He's fourth in the Heisman rankings now around 1011 to 1. But you know Missouri played their first road game last week, looked a little vulnerable, didn't run it as well as they have in their home games. Still good against the run. Both these teams are top 12 against the run. So to me it's whoever shuts down each each other's run games. Poppies has just been insane staying on third downs and keeping his offense on the field and that was in full, full vision last week against LSU with him converting third downs fourth downs. They're over 56% on third down which is top two in the country I believe. So that's the story to me is what the defenses bring to this game and what should be a hotly contested ranked matchup in Nashville.

[Pat McAfee]

Tone whenever Vandy LSU was on the board, Nick Saban said, I know okay that Vandy's good and they're favored for the first time in 575 games or whatever they cases. It is just hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that LSU is going to lose the Vandy. That is literally what Saban said. Saban said, I've just been around too long. I am sorry. I have respect for their team, yada yada yada. I just can't see it. This team not only last year obviously had a big time run with the nil transfer portal. They got even better this offseason. Feels like Vandy feels great now they lose to Bama. Obviously people are going to talk about that but another opportunity to prove that they're for real Tone, is that what what you're thinking as well?

[Anthony Degiulio]

Yeah. Last week with LSU I disagreed with Coach Saban. That was strictly because LSU does not have an offense at all and I was favoring Vandy because Pavia is going to score points, they're going to get rushing yards. Steve talked about these two teams like they both can stop the run and they both can run the football. The difference here for me is is Pavia over Pribula and it's not that Bo Pribula is bad. Pavia is just him with a little bit more moxie in my mind, mind. And Mizzou is definitely better than LSU in my mind because they can score points and LSU cannot and the defense is really good. But I think the difference in this game, Steve talked about being in the top five in the Heisman race now is Diego Pavia and Tim Beck, the offensive coordinator of Vandy. It's his second year here. He came with Pavia. So second year for everyone in this offense down here. So I think they're going to continue to get better on offense, but Pavia is a difference for me.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ Special story in Nashville. Dude, he's looking last couple years for this Vanderbilt team. It changes everything, literally. Like they're talking about the projections and expected people that are going to come through game day and obviously there is multiple sites visited and everything like that. And there's people in South Dakota State that are pissed off about us not going out there. And I just learned from the Internet that I was actually 6 years ago this weekend that I had the opportunity to be the guest picker out there in South Dakota State. That place was fucking awesome. Go Big. Go Blue. Go Jacks. But down there in Vandy, obviously, anytime our show is mentioned as something that people want, it's a big deal. It's like, hey, this is the biggest game of the weekend. This is conversation about your program. This is spotlight of everything you're doing because of how the football team is. Last year could have been just a kind of a, you know, a flash in the pan and said they've continued to build on it. Great for the university. AJ I think it's a beautiful thing when sports can do this for somebody or something.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, it's awesome. Yeah, their team is awesome. I mean, it starts with Diego. We know that it's unbelievable when you think about the impact that one player can have. And I understand, like, there's, there's studs all over the place, but when your quarterback is a guy that plays this well but also has that kind of personality, I think that makes him very, very easy to root for.

[Steve Wiltfong]

It's.

[AJ Hawk]

It's ridiculous if you think about the money that he has brought into that university just by being a great football player and seemingly a great person.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, Vandy, obviously, good school, everything like that. Pavia alluded to that in his interview with us, like, hey, everybody thinks like, hi, academics, yada, yada, yada. He said, we're a gritty group down here. We are a gritty Group and they're coming. Coach seems to be the perfect fit for the guy to be the head coach of this particular team. Ty has a question for you, Steve, as we wrap up this particular game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Steve, maybe this is out there and I just haven't seen it, but why isn't Clark Lee's name being mentioned for a lot of these like open jobs? You know, he's obviously got a pass with Elko. He was the D.C. at Notre Dame. I think people are finally starting to realize like, oh wow, this, this guy is actually really good. I know he played at Vandy, but like, why isn't he right up there, you know, being mentioned for like the Florida job or the Penn State job or any of these other big jobs that might open up.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Well, I think with the Penn State job tied, they don't want to look at another Vanderbilt head coach coming fair Franklin came and I think there's a little bad taste in their mouth right now. They're in Happy Valley. But no, I, I, I agree with you. I just think he's made it known how much he loves his school school and what he's built there. I mean, people are going to bring back the old press conference. I think it was from 22 when he said the goal is to have the best football program in the country. And I think there's just a lot, there's a lot of stability, there's a lot of foundation he's built, you know, with the stadium being redone and he's made it known that, I mean you look at what Signetti did and putting his boots on the ground and getting, you know, extension after extension. I think Clark Lee is more than happy, happy to take one of those to stay at Vandy in a place that he loves so much.

[Pat McAfee]

You think about Dillingham out of Arizona State too, You kind of think the same thing. Like this guy just loves the program, loves the area, loves everything about it. So there is still some, you know, love of program, love of sport happening in this massively business world. Because if, you know, some of these schools come in with an offer like, Hey, $96 million was just paid by Indiana to Signetti. So now there's a comp like on what? Yeah, to not go to Penn State, what the deal is, you know, so if some of these places can't keep up with those big checks, push comes shove. Love the place, love the school. Do you love them? 30, $40 million difference? Do you? How much do you, you know, that's an interesting dynamic for a lot of these guys and players too are having the same exact situation at a smaller level for the amount of money going different, different places. It's a wild time now. We had two undefeated SEC schools before this past weekend. Texas A and M now the only undefeated SEC school. Ole Miss loses to Georgia. They got a big one this weekend and so does Oklahoma. Your thoughts on this matchup, brother?

[Steve Wiltfong]

Yeah, I know AQ talks about leverage all the time, Pat. And we got a playoff leverage situation here with this looking like an elimination game for Ole Miss in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is a little bit favorite. You see that four and a half a half. But the probability of these teams right now is below 50% to make the playoff with a win. The numbers, the math, the analytics, whatever you want to call the stuff I can't comprehend says both teams get over a 60% chance. Oklahoma's got a tougher remaining schedule, but this is a monster spot for Ole Miss. Lane Kiffin, you know, being that close last week and then just getting it given to him in the fourth quarter, you know, they only had three possessions. I don't even think they had a first down in like 13 yards. It didn't go well. And you saw, we talked about last week about, you know, this game, the Georgia game against Ole Miss, and I talked about Georgia being more, more having more depth amongst the line of scrimmage. I felt like you saw that in Ole Miss, you know, they weren't the same team in the fourth quarter as they were the, the first three quarters. And on the other side, you got Oklahoma, who had to go to South Carolina, get a much needed win.

[Pat McAfee]

Win.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Mattia looked a lot better. The defense is as good as it gets in the country. So this is a test of good. I should say very good on. Very good. When you talk about Ole Miss's offense against that Oklahoma defense, that's, that's, that's the matchup everybody wants to see. It's a matter of what Ole Miss defense looks like going on the road and going against Mater, who got things back on track after looking rusty in that Red river game.

[Pat McAfee]

Tony, what are your thoughts on this matchup here being a playoff decider? Basically, here goes. Going into week nine of the college football season.

[Anthony Degiulio]

Yeah, I agree with Steve, especially for Oklahoma. They can't lose anymore because their schedule is still so hard going out. Ole Miss with two losses. If they lose this one, their schedule is actually pretty easy going down the stretch. So I think they still may have a chance with two losses at the end of the year, depending on if it's an SEC championship game or not. But I love Oklahoma's defense and this is by far the best defense that Ole Miss is going to to be playing so far this season. They played LSU's defense, but it was at home. They scored 24 points which was their lowest total of the year at that point. And Oklahoma last week for the first time all year ran the ball. They ran for 170 yards. Ole Miss has the hundredth ranked rushing defense in the country. So with mater and running game at Oklahoma, with that defense, I, I tend to lean towards, towards Oklahoma in this one.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's look at the Oklahoma Sooner schedule. Just got pulled up here by Bruce. They got Ole Miss and then they got number, number, number, number down the stretch here. Tennessee, Alabama, Missouri and then lsu. Now a lot of people are saying, well just because there's a number next to a team, does that mean they're actually good or is there an SEC bias? You know, because the Alabama stat that they won four straight ranked games for the first time in history. I saw everybody from outside, outside the SEC go ranked teams. Yeah, they're ranked teams in this entire thing. So I think a lot of people are wondering who's who in this entire college football world that we're living in right now. But nonetheless, Oklahoma has a lot of opportunity to win their way back into the College Football Playoff conversation if they were to lose this game. But if they lose this game, they got a lot of potential Ls around the corner as well for Venables.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, it's week nine. So I put a little bit more respect on those numbers. Now it's not like that number that was next to Penn State before the season started. So I respect a little bit more. But what do you think about the number next Oklahoma that minus four and a half. Steve. I guess it's for Steve and Tone. What do you think about that number? Good or what do you think?

[Steve Wiltfong]

I thought it was good and then I looked at this stat. Listen to this one. Top 10 teams are 2 and 15 against the spread. When an underdog against a lower ranked team. This was Ole Miss last week against Georgia and that's again them again this week. It's 06 this year. When you look at that top 10 team as a dog to a lower ranked team. Oklahoma vs Texas, Illinois vs Indiana, LSU against Ole Miss, LSU against Vanderbilt. Ole Miss last week against Georgia and Texas at Ohio State. That's, that's a trend that's not good being on the wrong side of. So, so that I, I I like Tone's call there. The defense being at home and Oklahoma getting that ground game. They have, you know, some young guys, some freshmen on that offensive line. They got it going against a good defense in South Carolina this year. So that makes me lean Oklahoma.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go to the next game that we need to be watching this weekend. You know, the slate. Interesting. Okay, slate's interesting. We got a lot of good teams, we got a lot of good storylines this weekend. Not as many, many massive games, but ball will show up for us in this game. Could be special. This game could be Texas A and M reminding everybody once again like, hey, we are for real, dude. Like every, every week that passes, that Notre Dame win looks better and better and better. Yeah, that they go into there with Texas A and M, only undefeated team left in the sec. They're taking on an LSU team with no offense. Steve, is that the story of the game in your eyes?

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, the.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Also the history. LSU is 12, 12 and 2 against A and M. A and M has just not had much success against LSU at all. You go back to last year, that's. That was the Marcel Reed coming out party where he ran all over that LSU defense. If A and M were to win this game, I would think they would be wary of a, of a number one ranking. Pat, when you look at what that win is, that looks, that looks like now at Notre Dame and now you go to LSU on a Saturday night in a place that's just been wretched to you in years past, I think it's, it's has all the goods. Marcel Reed, those receivers against that great defense of LSU is an awesome, awesome matchup. You got everything you want in this game as a top ranked team coming in, you know, as a small favorite against a team that's great at home, hasn't lost at home this year. And the key to me is Marcel Reed in that offense because in these two road games, they've played, played. They've gone to Notre dame and scored 41 and they went to Arkansas and scored 45 last week. So that's the matchup. LSU's defense at home against Marcel Reed and a guy who continues to climb up those Heisman poles and odds and all that stuff. What happens in that matchup when A and M's offense is on the field?

[Pat McAfee]

Operator, I'm calling that Brian Kelly lives down there. Go ahead, Debo.

[Darius J. Butler]

Ah, yeah, he does. Right now, this kind of a must win. It may be crazy talk, maybe a crazy question, but is this. Are we entering Must win territory now for Brian Kelly.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Absolutely. Absolutely. When you look at their schedule, the remaining way, they're going to be underdog a bunch of more time times. If, if chalk holds up, I believe it's. They're going to be 7 and 5. I don't know if Brian Kelly makes it to that. They got road trips to Alabama. They have to go to Oklahoma or they get Oklahoma at home. And then also you got Arkansas in a rivalry game at Oklahoma. Yeah, this is a monster, monster spot.

[Pat McAfee]

For LSU at Bama next. Jesus at Oklahoma. Now they got Western Kentucky. Hilltoppers are no jokers. Yeah. Huge. Huge. Obviously middle of the week football is good for all of us. Let's go to Hammer.

[Ty Schmidt]

Don.

[Pat McAfee]

Don, what's the story of this game that maybe we haven't hit yet?

[Anthony Degiulio]

Yeah, I, I love this A and M team and I love the A and M offense because they are so balanced. They. They can run the ball with that running back room. That's incredible. They can run the ball with Reed. They could throw the ball with Casey Concepcion and Craver on the outside side. The defense Steve was talking about how much, how much the points the offense is scored on the road. They are on the road here at LSU. The defense gave up more than 40 at Notre Dame and more than 40 at Arkansas. So we'll see. I mean LSU offense has not been good, so they should be better on the road here. But I mean, they got a guy on defense for A and M whose name's Cassius. How he's got eight sacks. He's going to be a first round pick next season. They're the number two third down defense in the country. I love A and M. I think they should win this one. It would be a huge upset for me if they did not. I just, I mean, I think as a team they're just very, very well rounded.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, so we like A and M. They're undefeated. We've liked them since the beginning. We really like Ohio State.

[Ty Schmidt]

Y.

[Pat McAfee]

We really like Indiana. Okay, so we start piecing these teams together. Alabama, we all really like. Right.

[Connor Natai]

Really like Vandy.

[Pat McAfee]

Really like Vandy. Really like him because we really like Bama.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Anthony Degiulio]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So it's like, it's one of those situations. It feels like the cream is starting to kind of rise up. But also it's college football. Fucking anything can happen. This weekend is one of those weekends where absolutely anything can happen. On that note, about anything happening, James Franklin joining the game day set. Steve, your thoughts? I thought everything I told James Franklin on the Set is exactly how I felt about it. I just want him to know about it. I want everybody to know about it. You sitting up here is fucking wild. Okay? I wasn't able to say that, but I do appreciate you just getting into the pocket here and just sitting right in the middle of what could be incredibly awkward because he has no idea what we're asking. I was not given a question to ask. I was not told. Now, do I want to bury a guy that is spending his Saturday morning with us with an asshole question? Probably not, but he did not know what was going to happen there. It's live television. Anything can take place. If you listen to the Penn State people, they're like, wow, it was really nice, you guys, to do for James Franklin. Okay? How come we didn't hear a lot of stats being said? I saw the graphics of a lot of these stats. Didn't hear you guys saying anything about, hey, you never won one for us, even though 2016 Big Ten championship there. So I think Penn State people are a little emotional. What were your thoughts on James Franklin joining us and what were your thoughts on him saying, yep, we're just going somewhere else, win a national championship. He feels like he's even more energized for the future of coaching. Is that your takeaway from our convo with him and what did you think of it as a whole, Steve?

[Steve Wiltfong]

First off, I thought it was extremely brave to do agree People, people, you know, to your point, he's still getting up on the desk. He's still getting to Athens, Georgia, you know, in the middle of nowhere, when you're talking about Big Ten country and all that, and. And to show up and do what he did, did is not an easy thing to do. I don't care what the questions are. To be, you know, humbled like that and fired, you know, before a team meeting, you know, the Sunday before, and to go through those losses, you know, at ucla, at home against Northwestern, to see him walk off the field, you know what? Looked to me like he knew that was the last time, like it was going down to come back the next Saturday, Saturday, and stand up in front of there. I mean, you're in the middle of the interview. I'm on the side. I'm trying to take it all in. I mean, there wasn't a. You could hear a pin drop in that thing because I think people were really that interested in what he had to say. And the coming out of that. Him, him. The want of him to coach again was pretty evident. So he's gonna have. I mean, the list is only going to get bigger and longer for him to possibly be a candidate of. So I. I don't think he's going to be out of the coaching for. For a long time at all. I think he's going to jump right back in.

[Pat McAfee]

Massive respect for him going out there. Yeah. Like even you guys got to even think that's incredible. Like AQ Shipley, Penn Stater.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Saw your name on the wall there a couple times whenever we were there.

[AQ Shipley]

How'd it look?

[Pat McAfee]

I thought it looked great. I thought you especially the Remington award trophy that's up there really, you know, symbolic of greatness at Penn State, which is how I think the Penn Staters view it. Right. Like Penn State. Penn State people are sick of being third, fourth in the Big Ten. We want to win national championships. We are putting the money up to win national championship. We want to win the big games, let alone losing at home in front of a $700 million renovated stadium that somehow still has 112,000. It feels like the expectations of that place are to win a national championship. But you guys haven't been there in a long, long time, which I think a lot of people are saying on the counter side of that, it's like your guys expectations aren't really realistic. So what is your kind of takeaway?

[AQ Shipley]

I think the biggest thing was, first of all, yeah, it was very admirable that he went down there. I mean, obviously that's not an easy thing to do. But I think whenever you look at what Penn State is expecting, I think five years ago, pre nil free transfer or pre transfer portal, you're sitting there in 10 and 2. You probably accept that and you feel.

[AJ Hawk]

Pretty good about it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right.

[AQ Shipley]

But the fact is, is that they put the amount of money that they put back into this roster and kept everybody from going other places. I think that was the issue. The expectations were preseason number one. So many people had them preseason. Winning the national championship, championship. And okay, you lose the game to Oregon, that's fine, but you gotta, you gotta come back the next week and you lose to ucla, who hadn't won a game all year, and then you lose to Northwestern, which you just can't accept.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, that's what the Penn Staters were saying to the entire segment on game day. I don't know if you kept up with the Internet reaction. Obviously I do. I live in that world. It's a tough world to be in, but I have to be in it for the gig. And it's like the reaction from the Penn Staters were like, this is real fucking nice. You guys just. Yeah, let this guy. Just let him come up here and redo his entire image. It's like, I. I don't think we were doing that. We were just kind of getting an opportunity to talk to a guy that's in a very unique situation. I mean, this guy, yeah, very good football coach, has built. I think what I said to him about you guys, like, 10 years from now, you will look back on James.

[AQ Shipley]

I said that to you last week. And I think everybody will be very grateful for what he did for that program and where it was when he took it over and where he brought it to.

[Pat McAfee]

But in the moment right now, we're not in that time. We are not in that time right now. We will be in the future. But who do they get, Steve? Who. Who's. Who's the right fit? Obviously, everybody says Matt Rule. Matt Rule was on our show last week. He's like, I'm committed. We could build a powerhouse here. We. Which obviously, you know, it is what it is. It is college ball. But it's like, that's really the only name now at this point. Sig signing and then other people. Is he a fit? Are they not a fit? Other people potentially not wanting to leave. Like, it's a pretty crazy time right now in the head coaching search, I'd assume, for multiple people, including. Including adding Florida into this.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Yeah, I. I just look at Penn State, if they were going to pull the trigger there, you have to think they have a plan, right? I mean, Pat Craft's too good and been around too long to not have a plan. I mean, you hear Coach Saban talk all the time. He talks about getting, you know, coordinators leaving. He always had a list. He always had a couple guys. I've heard athletic directors talk about it. So as after the Oregon loss, you could sort of feel this, you know, know, hey, we. We missed a monster opportunity against, you know, top 10 team, which has been the crux of Franklin Franklin's tenure. So I. I don't know. It seems like it's pretty tight to the vest with all that's going on and all the money that they're spending. There has to be a plan that they are keeping pretty tight to the vest.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we shall see. It'll all work out, you know. It'll what?

[Ty Schmidt]

Or won't?

[Pat McAfee]

I think if you have somebody. I think if you have that much money for a roster, that they're going to continue to have we will assume they're always going to have good players. I think in this modern world that.

[Darius J. Butler]

We'Re in, they will a lot of NFL talent.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they'll always have good players. So does that make them like a champion? I don't know, but I think they will be like, I think whoever gets in there will have a good team. Like, I. I think they will be a good team.

[Ty Schmidt]

I agree.

[Pat McAfee]

They're going in the shitter.

[AJ Hawk]

They've been a good team. They've been a good team. They need to win a national championship, don't they?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Like next four years between Michigan, Oregon, Ohio State, State and Penn State. Who do you think is out of those four? Like, I have more faith in Bingo. I'm not even including Indiana because they're already going to win the N this year. But like, at Indiana.

[Pat McAfee]

Other than Indiana.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, other than Indiana. Or you can add them in here because I forgot about them for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

No, you didn't know.

[Darius J. Butler]

You didn't.

[Pat McAfee]

You never forget about Mendoza.

[Connor Natai]

Mendoza, Veris and baby Mont. Jersey's in the mail. But still, like, out of those schools, like, no doubt about it, I would rank Penn State last Gez and then the other ones having a better chance just the next four years.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's because of what has happened over the last 10 years.

[Connor Natai]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. That is what you're going with. And obviously all those places have cash as well.

[AQ Shipley]

And they're losing every recruit right now. Every recruit is decommitting. So Terry Smith, his job as interim is, hey, how can we get this culture back to where at least it semi was? And how do we keep some of these recruits or you got to make a splash higher to tell these recruits, hey, let's come back.

[Pat McAfee]

I would not be worried about, about the decommitments because whatever coach you get, you're going to get there. Yeah. It's like none of this matters right now, Portal.

[Steve Wiltfong]

It's totally different now, too. Nil. It's just going to be money. I, I really, I really believe that when you look in and hear what coaches talk about, as long as you have the money, you're going to get.

[Pat McAfee]

The players, which goes back to. They're always. They're going to have a good team.

[Ty Schmidt]

Always going to have a good team.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, always going to have a good team. Because the alumni are like, we would like to win in Asheville. It would be cool if we were able to go these places and just kind of flex our shit to everybody. But instead you start rattling off, what if I.

[Connor Natai]

You all those schools have money. Like, I. I get. Money's a thing. And Penn State has a lot of money. Indiana has a lot of money. Oregon has a lot of money. Michigan has a lot of money. Ohio State has like. Everyone's got a lot of money now. Sorry, not everyone. The top billing teams have a lot of money. And so, like, sure, you can. It does come down like. I completely agree with you, Steve. It does just come down to money when it comes to players. But at the same time, if everyone's money's kind of similar, then what. What's the next best thing? Chance to win a championship. And Penn State is not in the top three.

[Ty Schmidt]

When it.

[Connor Natai]

When we're just talking about the thing about this.

[Pat McAfee]

Think about this. Think about this sales pitch. You could be the one that brings the national championship to Penn State.

[AQ Shipley]

True.

[Pat McAfee]

You could be a hero here forever.

[AQ Shipley]

And I think they're top three in draft picks, by the way, putting people in the NFL and the James Franklin era, by the way. Like, they put people in the pros and they all are killing it in the pro.

[Darius J. Butler]

Good players. Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't you guys just sign John Gruden and get over it?

[Darius J. Butler]

I hope they don't steal Jim Moore from.

[Pat McAfee]

I wouldn't hate that. I said. I said Mora would be an awesome hire if he was to go to Penn State. I said John Gruden on game day. And I was not planning on saying that. Like, that was not like a planned line. Just in a moment, I'm like, doesn't Gruden want to coach again? How come we're not saying Gruden's name? He would be a great college football.

[Connor Natai]

Guy with a pulse. You mentioned coaching.

[Pat McAfee]

Jeff Braum.

[AQ Shipley]

He's coaching soon, too, by the way.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's that?

[AQ Shipley]

Jon Gruden.

[Pat McAfee]

Where?

[AQ Shipley]

Jon Gruden vs. Jay Gruden in the Hula Bowl.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, sweet.

[Connor Natai]

Excuse me.

[JJ Watt]

Okay.

[Connor Natai]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe that's an audition to get back in the game.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Connor Natai]

Can we go?

[Darius J. Butler]

I just see him in the sec. John Gruden. I don't know why, but I just see him as an SEC coach.

[Connor Natai]

Him in Lagway.

[Pat McAfee]

But then down in Florida, there's a lot of names that are associated with that Florida job. True, Steve. Who ends up with that job?

[Steve Wiltfong]

Oh, put me on the spot, huh?

[Anthony Degiulio]

We know. We know who they want.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Yeah, I reading stuff this week. I thought it was interesting. They know Lane is the guy that everybody wants. People have talked, you know, he's the modern day Spurrier. And you look what Spurrier did there. And he's still. Still the God. So from what I read, they're going to make Lane say no twice. So that just means more millions of dollars. I mean, he's up there, but now you're talking about 11, $12 million. He's going to say no. That's. That's a tough deal.

[Pat McAfee]

That's not the big separate. The obviously, the millions for him is obviously a big deal. But, yeah, the finances for the team. Right. Like, that is the different ballgame. Like everybody says, Florida has big nil. Right.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Yeah. Yeah. I just. I feel like there's. I don't know if they. They're aligned correctly, if that makes sense. Yeah, you're.

[Connor Natai]

Makes sense.

[Steve Wiltfong]

You know, you got ads, you got donors, whatever like that. They just need to get on the same page. And that's when you have a school that monstrous and cares that much. That's where I feel like their problems have come. So. Alignment technique. The why getting redone to two year project.

[Pat McAfee]

Why did Governor DeSantis. Who's he trying to pluck? What's he doing? There's something he's trying to pluck.

[AQ Shipley]

Sick.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's what it was.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he was trying to get sick, Eddie. Governor DeSantis quote, tweeting things, saying, hey, Sig, you love Florida down here. It's like, hey, Gov, we don't need that.

[Connor Natai]

He doesn't like Florida.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Then he signs $93 million deal. He's like, no, thank you to Florida. I like the fall up here, but whenever you talk about the governors getting involved and trying to figure out the fucking state school team, it's like, hey, they're going to figure it out down there at some point. I hope they do, because this bad boy is awesome. Whenever it's like kind of in and it's special time. All right. We appreciate the hell out of you, Steve. I'll see you down in Nashville.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Sounds good. No pressure for aq, but the Colts are the best offensive line in the league now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Agree.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay.

[AQ Shipley]

This isn't accumulative rankings that we do.

[Connor Natai]

Those.

[Pat McAfee]

You will see in the trenches. Top five performing offensive lines tomorrow. You also see everything. Db Good D, bad D tomorrow. And for us, we're gonna head the hell out of here. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. AJ Great work today. The hair looks phenomenal.

[AJ Hawk]

Y. I don't know. But yeah, appreciate it. Great, Great job by you.

[Pat McAfee]

I do appreciate the fact you had to change your entire hair because they said it was starting to look like a yaka. That's what he's doing right now.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, no, that's. That was in the process of it. I think the ya came as. I was growing it out.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, really? I thought it. It just for some reason, your house.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know, maybe. Maybe early, I don't know. But, yeah, I think that's when it came up.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey. It's okay. Mazel.

[Ty Schmidt]

Dude.

[Pat McAfee]

It's all good, bro. Jesus.

[AJ Hawk]

Been months and months. It's a month. Yeah. It takes a long time, right?

[Pat McAfee]

I think it looks good, though. I think your hair looks good.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, we'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

Good haircut, too. Face is shiny.

[AJ Hawk]

It's really warm up here. I can't regulate this attic very well. And sometimes it's super hot, sometimes it's super cold.

[Pat McAfee]

We're in that time of year. Not only do you need allergy stuff, you also need to know that if the sun's hitting your windows, well, it could be a thousand degrees inside. Yes. But then as soon as that sun disappears, we're in the desert. Now it's cold as in there. And then. Do you have the heater on? Do you have the AC on? Well, I have auto on. Well, my auto has no idea what's going on either. It's tough to kind of adjust. So we're in that time of year, you know? We're in. Oh, the house is 78 degrees.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

All the way down to. Oh, the house is 61 degrees. That is where we are right now. It's a good time to be alive. It's football season, Ton. Why don't you come out of Hammer, Don, don't. Go ahead and get the hell out of here. Shall we? Hope you're good, buddy.

[AQ Shipley]

Hey, Hope you're good.

[Pat McAfee]

Do you want to do a giveaway?

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, oh, there we go. You know, Debone threw one off a wall yesterday.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[AQ Shipley]

It's about the luckiest thing I've ever seen.

[AJ Hawk]

It's pretty sweet.

[Darius J. Butler]

Divine intervention.

[Connor Natai]

You son of a bitch.

[AQ Shipley]

It was unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

Here it is right here. We're fast forwarding it live on camera, I believe. Is this feed to show right here that we're showing this is okay? Got some time to get to it, I think. And Debone got a motivational speech from Bruce Aarons. He steps into the D bone spot. He says he is a U ball pioneer because he does that shot right there with a throw off the wall. Nothing but chain bone. That's D bone U ball right there. He's calling himself fucking Magellan. Of U ball. He's calling himself Christopher Columbus. Lois and Clark, if you will. He is a U ball pioneer. Cuz he throws it like this when everybody else was doing this. And I want to let you know, AJ started to mock him yesterday before he did the throw. I mocked him because I'm like, hey, it's like the Dr. Pepper thing. You're supposed to throw and don't be doing chest passes. The throw might be the right move. And D. Ben's doing a lot of this. I'm pioneer.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's a lot of that. Christopher Columbus. Good comparison. Just lost out there. Got lucky.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that is a good comparison for team D, Bone and Butts.

[Darius J. Butler]

Because it is my partner, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Ever since that first day, you guys haven't had a lot. Oh, yeah, sorry. D block did have one win. I think the D boys, though, certainly started stacking some bells and rough go. There is a champion of the office. Aj, I know you. I don't know if you can see it as Tone has made his thing.

[Darius J. Butler]

Damn it.

[Pat McAfee]

Where's this ball reside? You know where it resides. Yeah, with me and Foxy. Foxy, Good work yesterday, buddy.

[JJ Watt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Good shooting. Here we go.

[AJ Hawk]

Who's AQ's partner?

[Ty Schmidt]

Tone.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, okay.

[AQ Shipley]

They're gonna play Tone.

[Pat McAfee]

Just found that out. Tone will get rid of you as.

[AQ Shipley]

A partner last week.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Ton will certainly say, this ain't working. It's not you, it's me. See you later. And kind of get out.

[Anthony Degiulio]

This is my partner on Wednesdays. Bone is my partner on Thursdays because Bucksy isn't here.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but you fired Bone. What was that last week and the week before that? No, Bruce.

[Connor Natai]

Bruce. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I.

[Connor Natai]

Me and Bruce now are a unit.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty good little team. We got a lot of good teams kind of brewing out here. Dirty, actually. Good player, too. Dirty's been working on his shooting. He's gonna end up being teammates with somebody, and they're gonna steal a win.

[Darius J. Butler]

Dirty mitts.

[Pat McAfee]

Dirty mitts was. They were just trying not to get shut out yesterday and they didn't got potential. Got two points. They do got. They're out there.

[JJ Watt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They can stand on the court. Thank you. What do you want to do?

[AQ Shipley]

It's football season.

[Sean Deveney]

Come on.

[Pat McAfee]

It's U ball season, too, but where do you want to throw this football? Okay. This hoop right over here. If you're able to bury this particular football for the brand, baby Duke into that basketball. What are you staring down, Jabba for that job will beat your. Oh, I like that. I'm gonna Let you know Jabba don't play no games. But Jabba, Jabba will hit you with a higher, higher, higher. I don't know if you should be messing with Jabba whenever you're trying to win some people some money.

[Steve Wiltfong]

That's a good point.

[Pat McAfee]

AJ Actually has a motivational message for you to go ahead and make some people happy on this glorious watch Wednesday.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep, I sure do, A.J. you know, hey, do this one for James Franklin. Win it for him.

[Ty Schmidt]

Boom. There it is for James.

[Pat McAfee]

This one. And shams for James AQ Shipley, 25 winners of $500. If you're able to put that football into that basketball hoop right over there, the chain net is up. Obviously all busted because of too many splashy splashies into that particular hoop. Not a lot by you, but I do know right now could be the time for you to win 25 people $500, AQ for the good of Penn State. Not a lot of wins over there recently. You could do it for the people, AQ Shipley. Whip you a hall of Famer, steps up wearing khakis and a hoodie. Oh.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, man.

[AJ Hawk]

Good point ball, though.

[Steve Wiltfong]

Good ball.

[Connor Natai]

I think that went in.

[AJ Hawk]

Might have.

[Pat McAfee]

I can't tell.

[Connor Natai]

Yeah, I can't tell either. There is a chance that I heard the splash.

[Pat McAfee]

What? What? What is every. I don't know what everybody's talking about.

[Connor Natai]

There's no net on that side.

[AQ Shipley]

Yeah, I think it went.

[Pat McAfee]

Clearly did not go in. I would like to let everybody know that that did not go. Me and Tone, we got pretty good eyes on that. I'd say you were four feet off. It looked good.

[AQ Shipley]

It looked good. Best draw I've had in a long time.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, well, let's go. We're off on that one. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Anything to say, aq?

[AQ Shipley]

Hey, let's have a better week next week, huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, let's go.

[AQ Shipley]

Get better every week.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Team on three. One, two, three.

[Connor Natai]

Team.

[Pat McAfee]

Goodbye. Talk about stepping up.

[Sean Deveney]

It's time to level up your game.

[Darius J. Butler]

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[Ty Schmidt]

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[Pat McAfee]

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[Darius J. Butler]

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[Steve Wiltfong]

Level up.

[Darius J. Butler]

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

[Pat McAfee]

A 20 year old soldier goes missing from a U.S. army base. How can she go missing on a military base.

[Sean Deveney]

That's too ridiculous.

[Pat McAfee]

What would come to light is horrifying and ignites a movement that sparks a reckoning in the US Military. Listen to Vanished what Happened to Vanessa, a new series from ABC Audio in 2020. Listen now, wherever you get your podcast.