PMS 2.0 1482 - Dan Orlovsky, Bruce Arians, The 2nd Annual All-Everything DB Team with Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

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The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 – Episode 1482 Recap

Date: January 6, 2026
Guests: Dan Orlovsky, Bruce Arians, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk

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Overview

This episode of The Pat McAfee Show aired as anticipation was peaking for both the College Football Playoff semifinals and NFL Super Wild Card Weekend. Pat, AJ Hawk, Darius Butler, Bruce Arians, The Toxic Table, and recurring ESPN guests Dan Orlovsky and Tone Digs discuss the wild landscape of both college and pro football, the prominence of transfers and NIL in the NCAA, news in NFL head coaching cycles, playoff matchups, and their annual “All-Everything DB” team. The crew blends in-depth football analysis with their signature unfiltered banter and some heartfelt (and hilarious) moments.

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Key Segments & Discussion Points

1. Football’s Big Week: College Semifinals & NFL Playoffs

Timestamps: 00:00–18:04

• The show opens with the team celebrating what they call “the best football week of the year,” with two CFB semifinal games (Indiana vs. Oregon, Ole Miss vs. Miami) followed by the NFL’s expanded Super Wild Card Weekend.
• Tony frames the college games as generational stories with upstart teams and transfer-fueled rosters.
  • “Welcome to football heaven. We’re lucky to be here.” – Tony (03:36)
• Ty Schmidt puts it simply: “If you’re a football fan, really, if you’re a sports fan, this is the best week of the year, in my opinion.” (04:30)
• The panel highlights the underdog stories of Wisconsin–River Falls (D3 champs) and Ferris State (D2), reinforcing that "ball thrives in the North."

Notable Quote

“The way he describes guys is whether or not you’d like to have a beer with him... that is the type of language we like to use whenever we’re discussing football players, whenever we’re discussing leaders.” – Tony on Ole Miss coach Golding (00:58)

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2. College Football Playoff: Bold New Era

Timestamps: 08:26–18:04

• Miami’s “at large” inclusion and identity: "Miami kind of has their own brand even separate from the ACC...” - Darius Butler (09:39)
• Indiana’s rise with Coach Signetti: Panel raves about the Hoosiers’ rapid emergence via transfer portal and NIL, suggesting it’s a new template for program turnarounds.
  • “What Signetti has done... is give a lot of people hope that if they have the right boosters, the right people... you can flip something from nothing to maybe a national champion in two years.” – Tony (11:44)
• Transfer Portal = Parity: “We might never see an Alabama type run, a Clemson type run...” – Connor (16:03)
• “Ratings up into the right” for college playoff games; audience excitement is spreading to previously less-followed teams and conferences.

Notable Quote

“The cool part [about the transfer portal] is it separates the great coaches from the good ones, the good coaches from the not so good ones.” – Connor (13:25)

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3. NFL Playoff Matchups & QB Talk with Dan Orlovsky

Timestamps: 18:04–34:15, 43:02–47:00

• Future of College QB Stars: Dan Orlovsky joins to assess Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza (“reminds me play-wise of Trevor Lawrence… if you don’t change the picture on him, he’ll shred you”) & Oregon’s Dante Moore (“If you protect Dante Moore, he’s Matt Ryan – just so smooth.”)
  • [19:22] “He talks like a ten-year vet when he’s talking about defenses… every play is a puzzle.” – Tony
• NFL Wild Card Preview: Orlovsky talks Steelers vs. Texans (“Houston’s defense is ridiculous... I struggled not to put 6 or 7 guys on their [All-Pro] defense,” 27:26).
  • He lays out the tough challenge for Pittsburgh: "It’s not going to be an overly complicated thing for Aaron... this is a pretty significant challenge." (28:39)
• Texans D creates ‘boo birds’ in any stadium: “Your offense is just trying not to turn the ball over. That is the move. They just smother your happiness." – Tony (31:04)
• Extended debate about which home underdogs actually have a chance (“I’m not betting against Josh Allen because he’s been there, done it," 90:46 – Coach Arians).

Notable Quotes

• “...to be a top pick and really good in the league, you have to be a three-tool player. You gotta beat dudes with your arm, your mind, and your legs.” - Dan Orlovsky (25:14)

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4. Coaching Carousel & Trends, Defensive vs. Offensive Hires

Timestamps: 91:24–104:22

• Bruce Arians (Coach BA) debates the NFL’s offensive coordinator obsession vs. the elite group of defensive coaches available:
  • “Defensive coaches are way more qualified, but the hiring cycle… has been all offense…” (91:24-92:09)
• “Owners are very much monkey see, monkey do.” – Tony, regarding coaching hiring cycles (104:22)
• The trend appears to be swinging back toward “actual leaders,” not just play-callers, at head coach.
• More evidence of the importance of leadership, not just Xs and Os:
  • “You need an actual coach. You need a leader in there, not just a play-caller, a play designer…” – Tony (105:47)

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5. The Pipeline & GM Talks

Timestamps: 110:07–112:06

• Dolphins GM search: “John Eric Sullivan of the Packers… he’s a dude.” – AJ Hawk (111:07)
  • Extended local color about working in Green Bay and leadership pipelines.

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6. Super Bowl Contenders – Parity, Media, and the Playoff Atmosphere

Timestamps: 126:19–146:15

• Extended breakdown of NFC, AFC playoff teams (Eagles, Seahawks, Rams, 49ers, Bears, Packers, Jaguars, Bills, Patriots, etc.).
• Recurrent theme: coaches and teams flying under the radar due to defense-heavy, “unsexy” football and market perceptions.
• The locker room insight: chemistry from “beers with the boys” still matters for leadership and team building (Tony 151:49, Tony 148:08).

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7. The Annual “All-Everything DB” Team with Darius J. Butler

Timestamps: 132:52–142:19

• Darius presents his exclusive, selective “All-Everything DB” list:
  • Derek Stingley Jr. (Texans), QuinYon Mitchell (Eagles), Cooper Dean (nickel, Eagles), Kaylin Bullock (Texans, FS), Derwin James (Chargers, SS – “the OG of the group”).
  • “Tough to make this team… These are the five that made your final five.” – Tony (132:52)
• Co-Rookies of the Year: Xavier Watts (Falcons), Nick Iman Wari (Seahawks)
• Emphasized: communication, versatility, physicality—“They are ball hawks as well as getting after you and laying the wood.” – Darius J. Butler (137:02)

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8. Memorable/Miscellaneous Moments

• AJ Hawk’s Birthday: Multiple lighthearted “Happy Birthday” serenades to A.J. Hawk, who also fields questions on high school two-way stardom and toughness. (64:43, 116:05, 161:00)
• Pittsburgh Pizza Discourse: Intensely authentic, local debate about the best style and shop in Pittsburgh. (37:31–41:12)
• Scott Hanson & NFL RedZone: Tribute to Scott Hanson’s offseason “powering down” and RedZone’s changing style. (120:54–123:50)
• Travel Tales: Crew recounts their harrowing but safe plane landing en route to the live show (159:07).
• Coach BA Wisdom: “If you’re getting picked in the top five, you’re going to a really shitty team most of the time.” – Bruce Arians on QB evaluation (85:11)
• “Beers with the boys” as a necessity: “Team chemistry is built better around a keg than kale...” (79:31)

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9. Best Quotes (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• “If you’re a football fan, really, if you’re a sports fan, this is the best week of the year, in my opinion.” – Ty Schmidt (04:30)
• “The cool part [about the transfer portal] is it separates the great coaches from the good ones, the good coaches from the not so good ones.” – Connor (13:25)
• “Your offense is just trying not to turn the ball over... [The Texans] smother your happiness.” – Tony (31:04)
• “To be a top pick and really good in the league, you have to be a three-tool player. You gotta beat dudes with your arm, your mind, and your legs.” – Dan Orlovsky (25:14)
• “Team chemistry is built a lot better around a keg than it is kale.” – Tony (79:31)
• “Owners are very much monkey see, monkey do.” – Tony (104:22)
• “You need an actual coach. You need a leader in there, not just a play-caller, a play designer…” – Tony (105:47)
• "I think Mendoza is generational. You're the quarterback whisperer..." – Tony to Bruce Arians (86:11)
• "Defensive coaches are way more qualified, but the hiring cycle…has been all offense." – Bruce Arians (91:24)

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Additional Notes

• Show Tone: Unfiltered, rowdy, deeply knowledgeable, and extremely inside-football, leavened frequently with jokes, ribbing, and local flavor.
• Football Week Energy: The whole crew backs up the week as 'football heaven', joking about travel mishaps, legendary pizza, and connecting classic football culture with the modern transfer portal/paydays era.
• Final Word: “We love you guys. These are the good old days.” – AJ Hawk (161:14)

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This episode is a can’t-miss for diehard NFL and college football fans. It captures the stakes, emotions, and off-the-field culture heading into one of the most anticipated weeks in the football calendar, all while showcasing the crew’s signature camaraderie and sharp wit.

Transcript

[Tony]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this magical super wild card. Tuesday, January 6, 2026. This program begins now.

[Connor]

Football.

[Tony]

He's the greatest. And what we're about to have here, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and a Monday, is something that we football people like to call greatness. Thursday, College football playoff game in Phoenix, Arizona. I'll tell you what Ole Miss host in Miami. Ole Miss being a team that was left for dead.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Ole Miss, a franchise that we thought were going to be completely done so after this year, better make the most of it. This is over. Your coach is leaving. Your coaches are leaving, your players are leaving. Everybody's gone. Well, turns out the running back that has 4,000 touchdowns who still has three years of eligibility left, he's returning back to Ole Miss. Quarterback from Ferris State, national champion, beautiful school up there in Michigan. They go back to back, by the way. Congratulations to them. We'll talk about that. Trinidad goes to win a dad whenever he's down there in Oxford. He said if he's granted another year of eligibility because of what was happening for one of his years at Ferris State, where he could potentially be deemed a medical red shirt. So maybe he gets an extra year of eligibility. If I was to have another year, I'm not going to buy you. I'm staying right here at Ole Miss.

[Ty Schmidt]

Whoa.

[Tony]

Two coaches from the coaching staff that'll be leaving, Charlie Weiss Jr. And Kevin Smith, who is the running back coach, will continue to coach the Ole Miss team. The other four that were kind of working both jobs, LSU and Ole Miss, will not be returning to Ole Miss for the rest of the run. It's an interesting dynamic what's taking place in Ole Miss. And that head coach Golding, he might be the one. This guy might be the one. Now he's got a sick visor with great hair, seems to have a great disposition, looks like he enjoys having a good time. The way he describes guys is whether or not you'd like to have a beer with him. That is the type of language we like to use whenever we're discussing football players, whenever we're discussing leaders. And this guy's been able to rally the entire squad. Congrats to him. And then Miami. We've been boots on the ground for Miami now two times down College Station when they were taking on Texas a&m. 40 mile an hour wind gusts kind of changed the whole entire game. So whoever could survive that game, we thought was going to be a very mentally tough team. But what was very apparent Is this Miami team stumping people? And then they got a chance to take it all out on the Ohio State Buckeyes. A lot of people are chit chatting. That's Conte Scott, he's a beast. Didn't win the Jim Thorpe Award, but does hit the Jim Thorpe clean, clean statue pose immediately after a pick six in the college football quarterfinals. But what they did was out physical the Ohio State Buckeyes. And that's the identity not only of how I think people would want the Miami Hurricanes act from down in Miami, but the head coach is like a black belt in jiu jitsu. Mario Cristobal's got no time for your games. Offensive lineman loves Miami from the area, speaks Spanish to the folks in the area. Recruits full time, wants to bring the U all the way back. And guess what? They are. Their style of play is electrifying. The way they go about doing their business is awesome. They'll talk their shit and do their shit. And Carson Beck, their quarterback, if he's going to have time like he did against Ohio State, he's certainly able to make the right decisions. And they got a guy who's Derrick Henry in the making and running back and Mark Fletcher, he can run over whoever, whenever. However, this game, Miami Ole Miss is going to be an absolutely epic battle over there in Phoenix and then Atlanta on Friday. Big Ten battle to see who's going to be representing the Big Ten in the national championship. A repeat. Obviously this game happened early in this college football season. The Indiana who, who, who who Hoogers won all the way to Eugene and proved to the world that they're a real team this year. And the Oregon Ducks, what have they done since back get better. Dan Lanning, absolute psycho for football. Kurt Signetti, absolute psycho for football. Both teams built the same way. We're big, we're strong, we use the transfer portal, we certainly pay our guys, we got studs across the board and we're ready to roll this game on Friday night after a Thursday night college football playoff semifinal. Then this game on Friday for a college football semifinal. And then we go to bed and we think to ourselves, wow, football is awesome. It can't be much more, can it? Yeah, super wild card weekend starts. Two games on Saturday, three games on Sunday and then a Monday night football appetizer that's going to be in the home of oh Mama Amy for my life. From the long long of the Houston Texans traveling to Pittsburgh on Monday. That's after everything we already have. Welcome to football heaven. We're lucky to be here. The talks and tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Ty, this is special time for ball.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, it's the absolute best. You know, not only are we going to be boots on the ground, which is kind of just a cherry on top, but you know, everyone always talks about divisional weekend being the best because a lot of times you have, you know, the best teams remaining. I think you're hard pressed. You look at really the calendar for the entire year. This is the best week of the year. Okay? We get college football semifinal. College football semifinal. All into all these best games. Like there is. There is no. If you're a football fan, really, if you're a sports fan, this is the best week of the year, in my opinion.

[Tony]

Yeah, I completely agree. Now, March Madness, obviously great for the offseason. March Madness is fantastic. That is a good time. I would even add in because we got to experience it. NBA All Star break, great. All Star week, great. Because behind the scenes, not really on camera, MLB All Star week, awesome. Super bowl week is awesome. But this right now is a ball lover and ball watcher. Pause. This is the one. I mean, and then let alone what's happening on Thursday and Friday decide the D1 champs.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sure.

[Tony]

We've already had the D3, D2 and D2A champs already decided. Tony has been a big week for ball in total. Now you're a Duquesne Duke, obviously shout out to the Dukes there. But how about the D3 Champs, Wisconsin River Falls? They beat North Central, who we obviously know very well. North Central over the last six years has won 96% of their games. Wisconsin River Falls here, at one point they were 0 and 10 at one point not too long ago. They've never won a national championship before. The other night, they conquer the conquerors, North Central, who was looking to be back to back national champions. And now looking out for maybe a dynasty down there in Wisconsin River Falls. There is a player that I know very well and so do you that started his entire career over there at River Falls. Owen Schmidt.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Tony]

The beer truck. What? Yeah, he went over there, demolished them people, demolished them kids. Came over to Morgantown, worked as a bouncer at a bar, earned a scholarship, became the West Virginia mountaineer legend and icon, and then obviously goes on to play in the NFL. He also does music. He owned a saloon at one point. I mean, an absolutely dynamic human started his entire thing over there at River Falls. He was at this national championship because I put a tweet out about good luck to D Bones Boys, this North Central squad. And I got a tweet back from Owen. It's like, hey, I'm actually here. Where's your. Let's have a little respect here. Congratulations to Owen Schmidt and Wisconsin River Falls for winning their first national championship. Michigan's own Ferris State goes back to. Back in the D2B level. Congratulations to Ferris State getting the job done. Who's their next? Trinidad. Maybe that quarterback's getting plucked. Go to some school that makes it a College Football playoff semifinal like we had seen last year. And then the D2A team that won it all, Montana State. Congratulations to the Bobcat. Sorry. FCS team. I do apologize. It is D1. Hard for me not to call it D2, but it is D1. Double A, FCS. Then there's a 2 and a 3 and an NAIA and a juco. Okay, I'm trying to keep it. All right. We love ball. This game. Insane. That was an overtime touchdown. That was thrown to taco dollar right there. It was obvious, obviously. Don. 6. The extra point for Illinois State. Roll Byrd's incredible year gets blocked. So now Montana State's kicker named Miles Sandstead. All he has to do is hit an extra point in front of a bunch of shirtless dudes in the freezing cold. He does that. Montana State wins the national championship. Congratulations. Yeah, that's what it's all about. They win national championships in rodeo, they win national championships in football, they win national championships and all those things. I didn't see Duke Kane on there. Tone. Is that ever going to happen to represent Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania?

[Tone]

The Dukes made the FCS playoffs last year. They went out valiantly on their swords this season. They did not. They were not ranked high enough to make it. But they will. They will make it. We will get an FCS championship out of them. If you looked, all the. All the champions are from Northern states. So that's where ball lives. That's where ball thrives these days. So I'd be shocked if a team out of Pittsburgh didn't win soon.

[Tony]

A lot of people talking about the sec. Are you guys okay? Is everything going to be okay? Stephen A. Smith actually made a good point this morning. He said it's about to be three different Big Ten teams that are potentially about to go now. Okay, now, granted, Miami, certainly Ole Miss, certainly Ole Miss, representing the SEC very valiantly. I think that needs. That's a big story that needs to be told. This golden guy has to hold his building together, but he's also representing the entire Southeastern Conference at this point. And In Miami, ACC was an afterthought. I mean the acc, I can't believe we're letting any team in there. Duke. Yeah, right. That's why we had JMU in tulane in the 12 team playoffs because how ass the ACC champion was. So Jim Phillips was sitting over there, the commissioner of the acc, staring down potentially no ACC teams in a college football playoff. And then there was a big conversation about, well, this Miami team, I know they lost early, but this Miami team got all the pieces. They're big enough, they're fast enough, they have dominating wins. Carson Beck's been there, done that in a college football playoff committee put them in there to represent the acc even though they weren't champions as an at large kind of team in there. And they've certainly held up their end of the bargain. Shout out to Miami. Nine year NFL vet, Bride county hall of Famer Darius J. Butler. Miami and Ole Miss obviously Final Four. So they're good teams. Great stories too for all of college.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. Ole Miss I think probably has the best story right now because of what's going on with the coaching staff and the coach leaving the players. And now you got five stars transferring from LSU to Ole Miss. So I think storybook wise probably got the best story. Miami, if you looked at. I'm glad the committee actually knows Ball and they let him in and they were the one lone ACC teams. But I feel like Miami kind of has their own brand even separate from the ACC in their glory days. You know, you talk about the hall of Famers and the, the legacy there and then on the Big Ten side, that Big Ten kind of dominance just keeps going on. Indiana, clearly, I think right now the best team, best coach team in the country. Then Oregon, you know, on any given Sunday they can do their thing. So I think we got a great Final Four. But yeah, you know who I'm rolling with.

[Connor]

Well, Miami's supporting the entire thing too, where it's like, hey, conference champions can't get in. You know, like we almost left or not. We, the committee almost left Miami completely off of the table. It was almost under Dame.

[Tony]

JMU was in.

[Connor]

JMU was in.

[Tony]

Tulane was in.

[Connor]

Tulane was in like that. Miami is the examp of exactly why you have to change the entire bidding situation with the cfp.

[Tony]

Yeah, I love this Miami team. I watch this Miami team boots on the ground. We'll be able to do it again. Obviously we'll be doing a field pass from both of these games on ESPN too. You say Ole Miss is the best story in College football. I think right now, if you were to zoom in, the best, craziest story is certainly that. But if you were to zoom out in a big way, what's happening here in Indiana is crazy. It's absolutely crazy. First ever Heisman winner. First ever. First ever. Number one overall pick. First ever. First ever. First ever. First ever. First ever. And now they have a chance. They're knocking on the door of a national championship appearance. What Signetti has done to this entire state, obviously this university, but also college ball as a whole, is give a lot of people hope that if they have the right boosters, they have the right people behind them and they have alignment from the president. President Pam Whitten is a ball lover. She is. We are going to try win ball. Yes. And then you have a head coach and an ad, they're also on board and you get the right people, you can flip something from nothing literally to maybe a national champion in two years. That's kind of the upside of this modern day football that we have for college bowl. That doesn't get talked about. A lot of things get lost in the sauce. Transfer portal is a bad time. It is. Contracts are out of control. They are coaches having to leave at certain times. It is insane. Bad, bad, bad. There's a lot of bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. Good, good, good. Indiana can now thrive as a football team because it can provide the amount of money to be able to get some recruits that they need when of football would have went to another school that they could have potentially got to the NFL for. Now you got Fernando Mendoza going to Indiana potentially over other schools and big names in the past because maybe they were able to offer a little bit of a sweeter deal maybe because the business is a little bit nicer down there in Bloomington. They were able to bring in Pat Coogan, the center from Notre Dame maybe because the boosters want their football team to be good. It's a good thing for ball as a whole, not just a bad thing. That always gets brought up. Tone Diggs.

[Tone]

Yeah, I agree 1,000%. And this year in the transfer portal, IU is doing it again. Them in Texas Tech are dominating. And I, I like how you said it and Deba too. Like when you look at it just in a vacuum right there. Yeah, Ole Miss and what's happened with Lane and everything like that. But when you zoom out IU before Sig got there, 1 and 8, 2 and 7, oh and 9, there was a 5 and 4 in there, 2 and 7, 2 and 7, 2 and 6. 1 and 7. 2 and 6, 0 and 8. 1 and 7. 1 and 7.

[Connor]

1 7. 1 and 7.

[Tone]

Like insanity and sick comes in there, back to back years, goes to the playoffs. They have a chance to be the second team ever, I believe, to go 16, 0 in college football. The last time was Harvard in like the 70s.

[Dan Orlovsky]

This is.

[Tone]

And I'm trying not to be like, just in the moment, this might be the great one of, if not the greatest sports story of all time. What Sig's done at IU and the run this year.

[Tony]

And people are saying, like, Ted Lasso type shit here for Signetti. You are talking maybe one of the greatest coaches in the history of sports. When it's all said and done for this pies on, it's living down there.

[Connor]

Yeah. In all sports like you mentioned. And just professional or amateur, like, you can lump him in with guys in the NFL with other sports like that. But the coolest part with the transfer portal that, you know, maybe with all the negativity around it, which of course there is, but the cool part is it separates the great coaches from the good ones, the good coaches from the not so good ones. Like, you could argue that Texas Tech is primed for Joey McGuire to be in the consideration of one of the great coaches in college football. Because if they can continue to do it, Signetti in three years has gone from JMU to, hey, this guy's the best coach in college football. That is nuts. And it's all because of the transfer Porter.

[Tony]

It's not. It's not just like his talent evaluation as part of coaching, getting the most out of people. I mean, I don't want to continue to point at one particular place, but it is going to be kind of the example that people use whenever they say, yeah, money doesn't mean you. Florida State. Okay, look where Florida State was. They were. Should be in the national championship conversation, should be in the tournament. Their fans felt that way. A lot of injuries at very key positions. Obviously it ended up working out how it ended up working out. Florida State, people still hold grudges against people for that particular moment. But then it's like, all right, you got a program built, you're there. Let's do it again. They spend money on the wrong particular fit in Django and they go right into the shitter. So it's not just that you have money. Okay, certainly having money is a necessity in this modern football. But it's like to your point about the coaches being able to pick the right people and coach these people while they're getting paid millions, hundreds of thousands of dollars, managing egos. You're right. I think the coaching aspect of it is having a light sh on it, brighter than ever. And we haven't even talked about the team in Eugene time.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly. And I think, you know, they. They have a lot to kind of look forward to this year as well, because last year, you know, Oregon was kind of the best team all year, and then they got flat out embarrassed in the Rose bowl. And I think, you know, they started to kind of do the facelift when Crystal Ball was there. But, like, coming into the Big Ten, I think a lot of people in the Big Ten thought Oregon's going to be, you know, like, yeah, they have the money, they have Phil Knight, they have the nice uniforms and all the different. Different combinations, but their style of play doesn't match any team in the Big Ten. And Dan Lanning has, from the get go, said, hey, we need to get more physical on the offensive and defensive lines. And that's exactly what they've done. And then on top of it, you have the Dante Moore story now, where it's like, is he going to be, you know, is he going to go back if he. If they end up winning the national championship? Like, he kind of cements, you know, his. His draft status and he probably goes pro and he could end up being the first pick. So, like, there's a lot of interesting things there. And then again, you know, as a Big Ten guy, for. For two Big Ten teams to meet again in this, you know, Peach bowl, and for it to be a rematch of one of the best games of the year already, like, you couldn't ask for a better matchup.

[Connor]

Well, and that's what's sweet about this, you know, college football. And the parody in it, too, is like, we might never see a Alabama type run, a Clemson type run, where it's one or two schools, you know, like, the thing going around right now is the first semifinal without Ohio State, Clemson or Alabama. Like, we. We may never see a run like that again because of the transfer portal, which makes it so much better. Like, we're either going to have Miami versus Oregon and Indiana or Ole Miss versus Oregon and Indiana. Like the. The every single year, kind of similar to the NFL right now. Like, you have no idea what's going to happen in the end with all these teams.

[Tony]

And now, granted, we had Ohio State and Alabama still in the quarterfinals.

[Tone]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tony]

But ratings up into the right. Way up into the right. The New Year's Eve game was up like 30 some percent or something like that. Now does that mean people are getting more used to, to kind of the schedule? Because last year kind of got dropped in on them out of nowhere. I don't know how many people were really pounding the drum every single day that the college football playoffs are about to happen out of nowhere. Hey. Yeah, it's been three weeks, three and a half weeks. There's a huge game tonight. I think people are kind of getting.

[Darius J. Butler]

Used to play the song more.

[Tony]

Yeah, they actually got rid of that.

[Darius J. Butler]

They did.

[Tony]

The song is dead.

[Darius J. Butler]

What?

[Tony]

Yeah, I'm trying to buy the rights to it. I'm trying to buy the rights.

[Connor]

Beethoven sued him.

[Tone]

Why don't we just make our own?

[Tony]

I think we already have one recorded. We sang it how many times? So we'll just rip that. Yeah, you're right. We should just do that. But on that note, it did feel as if there was a lack of people knowing last year that the college football playoffs were happening. This year, you know, obviously second year people are a little bit more comfortable, but the numbers way up into the right for football as a whole, college football for sure. And I think what they're going to see from these two games is good football.

[Ty Schmidt]

Too much.

[Tony]

I think good football is about to be on display.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. Comment just mentioned it like. Like for what, a decade, decade and a half? Just Bama, Georgia, Clemson every year you kind of definitely get tired of that. So to have this final four and these stories, all four of these teams, I feel like have great stories. They got completely different stories, different style players, different coaches. I can't wait for these two games back to back, man. Then obviously, whichever Natty we get, that'd be great as well.

[Tony]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who has all the right ideas for everything on earth. Ladies and gentlemen, the quarterback guru for ESPN and football knower, Dan Orlowski. Just wanted a dry cleaner. Had to get my suits clean. You know how green he is. Greeny likes me buttoned up in there when I go in the morning.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Just got him done. Just changed them out, dropped them off, picked them up.

[Tony]

Love your people, family forever. Respect the hat. I like the fact that you wear clean suits as well. Let's talk about these college football playoffs quickly. You know, Oregon, Indiana playing each other. People are saying that's number one and number two overall pick. Now granted, on what Dante Moore decides to do, there is a chance, I guess he goes back to Oregon, maybe play some more football, maybe does that entire thing. Fernando Mendoza, in my eyes, Just from watching the entire season. He's 6, 5, 2, 25 to 2, 30 throws, dots takes hits and can run. And then in between the years, he's outrageous. And I've been told he's never sunk the biz at Knicks down there in Bloomington, but he has certainly had beers with the boys. Everything you hear about him is that he's an NFL guy. Now granted he's got a season he's trying to finish, finish here. Feels like Fernando outright number one whenever it's all said and done. And then Dante Moore number two. How do you feel about the display here of potential future NFL quarterbacks and what are your thoughts on these guys projections going forward?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, the more I've watched Fernando, the more he reminds me just play wise of Trevor Lawrence, you know, big physical, athletic guy. I would say if you don't confuse him, like if you don't change the picture on him, if he has a pretty good idea what coverage you're in post snap lap, he'll shred you. And that was one of the things that surprised me in the Rose bowl was like how much? Zero coverage or man, just Alabama lined up and played and it was just catch and throw for him. He's too smart of a player. But it's been pretty impressive to watch his growth and kind of thriving this year. It's too early for me when it comes to like the legit study of these guys to say no brainer number one. He's obviously going to be in that conversation. And then I think for Dante, I think for Dante, if you protect Dante Moore, he's Matt Ryan to me, just so smooth. And I think that's the thing that happened last time they were out Indiana, out at Hudson was just, they made him uncomfortable and he never allowed to play in rhythm. If you, if you allow Dante to play in rhythm, he'll cut you up pretty good. And so that's the advantage that Indiana has. You know, I'll be interested to see how Dante and that offense performs. Does it change his at least potential plan? He has them. I had heard yesterday from somebody that has some interest in it that they thought he was going, you know, and felt confident that he was going to go. That's hearsay and what that that group of people believe and whatnot. So we'll see. But I do think that both of them have, have really high end potential to be first round picks.

[Tony]

I mean there's numbers floating around for quarterbacks right now in college, like five million, five and a half million dollars. Do you Stay at the place you're at. $5 million, build up your resume, build up your confidence, build up reps, build up everything, and then go the following year. I mean, that's on the person to decide. Obviously, that's for them to choose. And congrats to them being in a position to be able to do that. Fernando, brother, you said you talked about his cover zero awareness. Penn State game winner, cover zero. Iowa winner, cover zero they bring. And he even told us the other day that he's in the middle of a play. He's like, oh, they bluffed me. They got me. And then he's making a decision later. It's like he gets it, you know? Like he.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You got to mess with them, man. Like, you. You got to mess with them. You got to do some things that are a little bit unorthodox. You have to consistently change the picture on them. You guys have heard me say this. I think there's two ways to really impact quarterbacks. You either speed them up or slow them down. And right now, you're not really doing either to Fernando. And I think the best thing that Oregon can do, knowing how good Indiana's offensive line is, it's like you've got to try and slow him down. You have to get him to second guess what he's looking at.

[Tony]

He's. I'm telling you, this is a generational guy. I think he's generational. That is how I am describing Fernando Mendoza. Not just because the way the ball comes out, the way he's built 6, 5, 2, 3. I mean, that is exactly what you want. He can't run. He's got the edge on Alabama. Okay. That's an SEC team. He gets the edge, picks up the first down. But in between the years, he is a Sunday guy. I mean, it is no questions asked. Plus he's having beers with the boys. It's like everything you want, basically, in an NFL quarterback. From what we've learned about Fernando Mendoza, he is. And it's like, I don't know how many of these guys just pop up. I don't know how many of these things are just out there, honestly, roaming around in the streets in 2025.

[Connor]

Yeah, we've been to a lot of college football.

[Tony]

2026. Sorry, Jesus.

[Connor]

We've been to a lot of these games. None of them have looked like that. What Mendoza put on display for the.

[Tony]

Rose bowl, even when we watch Will Howard against Ohio State.

[Connor]

Yes.

[Tone]

What about Stroud? Because you guys talked glowingly about him.

[Tony]

After that similar feeling about Stroud, similar feeling, but just vastly different. Like Stroud was moving more in that game against Georgia, which I think made us very like, oh, I didn't know he could with how big he is. We knew he could spin it. Fernando is like dissecting the defense. We talk about all these quarterbacks having their second chapter whenever they're later in their careers. Why are all these guys doing so well? Well, it's because they can break down what a defense is. And all these younger guys, because the way they've been doing offenses their entire careers, they don't really have to break it down. So these guys with experiences that have been there and done that and know what's happening, they can make the best selection for each play. It's like feels like Fernando's already at that. Feels like he is already at the second chapter where he knows what you're doing. His answer to us the other day was outrageous. Every play is a puzzle. Basically, he's a nerd. Like, we know he's a nerd. He's a football nerd. Every play is a puzzle. That's how I look at it. I just got to figure it out. And then, ooh, you got me on that one. Let me go to my check down piece that I got right over here. It's like he talks like a 10 year vet whenever he's talking about defenses. So much so people think he's a robot, whatever he's talking about.

[Tone]

And so all of this and Saban talked about a little bit going into the game. Bama going into the game was primarily his own team.

[Tony]

Team.

[Tone]

But Fernando has been so good against zone all season long off of the RPOs, that was the storyline coming in here. They were like, bama's gonna have to run a lot of man. So then he answers the questions against man, against Bama. So now he's great against zone. He answered all the questions on the test against man against Bama. So Oregon, yeah, it's in a bit of a pickle here about what to do against Fernando coming into this game.

[Tony]

6, 5, 2, 30. That. That is just a whole nother element. And he can move. I don't like the saggy pants he's wearing, but yeah, he can certainly move.

[Darius J. Butler]

And he's Adidas.

[Tony]

What's that?

[Darius J. Butler]

Gotta blame adidas.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he won't be wearing those at the next level. But I think he also. You talk about like his maturity in between the ears. I think if you're going to get drafted by a team like the Raiders or the jets, who has been habitually terrible for the last however many years. Like you need to possess a special kind of maturity as that quarterback coming in. Because a lot of those guys, quarterbacks, we've seen them draft like they just let the situation eat them up. And I think he's shown that, like he's not that type of guy.

[Tony]

Beers with the boys is a big deal for me too. That's a whole being a nerd and also beers with the boys. That is just a part of the job of being. I'm not saying you have to drink, but we need to hang out with the boys.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Them all going to New York for the.

[Tony]

Yeah. Like being a leader and being a part of the group is a huge part of being an NFL quarterback. It's like everything this guy does seems to be great. Orlovsky, your last thoughts on it all?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, I think the thing that stands out is nowadays to be top pick and really good in the league, you have to be a three tool player. You got to beat dudes with your arm, your mind and your legs. You have to have that capability. We see it with all the good quarterbacks. Every great quarterback that we've really known and is in the NFL right now, they're great problem solvers. And when you bring up him saying every. The defense, every snap is a puzzle, I mean that's you. You have to be a great problem solver and you have to have the tools to solve the problems. And those tools are different for a lot of different guys. You know, they're just different tools. And it looks to right now it looks to be that he has all those tools. And I would. The thing with Stroud is interesting because I think this is for the public. I don't really believe it's going to play a part for the NFL evaluators. But C.J. was at Ohio State and a big time recruit. So it was like, oh, you're the Ohio State quarterback and you are a star recruit. I still think that there's going to be people in the public thinking, wait, this is the kid that went to Cal and then he transferred to Indiana and he's going to be the first pick. And it's like if you just took the human move them to their traditional powers of college football, there probably would be a less negative reception on that thought with Mendoza than it would have been.

[Tony]

I agree. First impressions are tough to kind of shake. Now let's talk about another Cal quarterback that wasn't number one overall. That could have been. Go ahead, Tone.

[Tone]

Yeah, Dano obviously I saw you talking earlier and saying that Aaron, maybe Aaron's best game in his last four or five years and now he's got the Houston Texans defense coming to Pittsburgh which if not one number two defense in the, in the entire NFL. I know you know they're going to throw a thousand passes to, to Gainwell and Warren and they're going to get it out quick. They're not going to let that D line disrupt the game. But overall, how do you feel about Aaron and the Steelers offenses chances against that Houston defense? And I'll give it to you, we gave you a lot of shit before the season. You were right about a lot of things with the Steelers and I just wanted to point that out to you.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You're a good man, Tony. Also I appreciate that I was wrong on things as well.

[Ty Schmidt]

So don't.

[Tony]

Okay. Clip that. Clip that. That, that was cool. We're just going to pull that. Go ahead. Just for.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I don't know who you said yeah you were but that was. Dude, I would say my answer for, for, for Pittsburgh versus Houston's defense is rinse and repeat versus with any offense. Houston's defense is ridiculous. We had to do the, the, we not had to. We got to do the voting for the NFL awards and first and second team all pros. I struggle to not put six or seven guys on their defense on the first two teams that's that good. And so one of the things that Pittsburgh has thrived on offensively this year is yards after the catch because they get the ball out so quickly. Aaron knows exactly what you're in. He's going to get the ball to playmakers in space and yards after the catch, it's one of the best defenses in football and everything. But certainly defending yards after the catch, it's one of the best tackling defenses in football. And so that's the big challenge is the thing that Pittsburgh loves to do and it's really kind of kept them afloat this year. Offensively is the thing that Houston like dominates with. They just thrive in it. And so this is not going to be an overly complicated thing for Aaron. He's going to know obviously it's Aaron. He knows who most people are in defensively but he will know exactly what Houston's in. They're not, you know, schematically incredibly creative, especially on first and second down. They're going to play four man front. They're going to play in quarters. The thing is it happens so fast and they're going to have, they got people who can cover both Stingley and Lassiter can check dk. I'm sure it's going to be a great battle, but DK is not going to dominate that battle. Petrie is as good as a nickel as there is in football. I think the one thing, the one thing that if you watch teams have some success against Houston defensively this year, you have to take shots down the field. You're not going to hit a ton. You have to. And it's just not something that Pittsburgh does. So I think it's a pretty significant challenge.

[Tony]

Calvin Austin will hit the little stutter, go DK down the sideline. And we would like to let Yinzers know and we've been told that a lot of people in Pittsburgh watch the show. We appreciate that. We love you down there. You need to know that your offense is going to be punting a lot. Okay? The Houston Texans bring the boo birds to stadiums that they go to because your offense is not going to look good. I witnessed it with my own eyes in Indianapolis and I was like, oh, I didn't even think about this. People. Whenever their offense is not doing well, their natural reaction is that's what the Houston Texans do to your state stadium. They bring the boo birds. It's not just the Texans coming to play your team. It's also the boo birds are coming in because they are going to make your offense look elementary. They've done that to everybody. Seattle Seahawks doing the same damn thing. They will make your offense look elementary. Your offense is just trying not to turn the ball over like that is the move. They're, they're, they're sparring right there. Your offense is not trying to get exposed early in this game. So it's even an idea like, hey, let's not do anything crazy. They're probably going to get a couple three and outs on us. They're probably going to get a sack. That's the way it's going get to go. So what we're trying to tell Yinzers and Acres, let's not burn the place down in the first quarter whenever there's not a lot happening on offense. I, I know that's going to be hard to do in the moment on Monday Night Football, but it's like this Texans defense can get you very, very upset with your team. That is kind of how they've been. Dano.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, they've got the 2As. 2As good edge rushers as anybody. But also in the run game. I mean, Will is, Will Anderson is a, a demon in the run game. Their linebackers are as quick, downhill as anybody. So, like. And they. They run through your face.

[Tony]

It's.

[Dan Orlovsky]

They're a violent group of linebackers. I mentioned Petrie. Petrie is as good as any nickel in football. They're fast, they're long on the back end. Bullock is sensational. Lassiter is sensational. So it's. It's just a very dominant defense when it comes to their individual talent.

[Tony]

That's what. That's what people start doing. We suck. We. How is this guy still the coach? That's what they're going to be saying.

[Tone]

To be honest, though, they don't move the off a ton because they're so used to it sucking.

[Tony]

Okay, we'll see Houston Texans come in there. And it is 4th and 13. It is. We have not gone anywhere. Yeah. We. We. There has not been a positive play for a while. Like, there has not been a single. Yeah. Moment because they just smother your happiness. That is literally what the Texas defense does in Pittsburgh's a place, you know, especially Monday night. Long day. Got out there and made a gold lot. Had a little. Couple cocktail or two there. Did their thing. Had some Dallas Alice pizza. By far the best pizza in Pittsburgh.

[Tone]

Well, work's canceled.

[Darius J. Butler]

I don't know.

[Tone]

Work's canceled Monday, by the way. There's no work on Monday in Pittsburgh.

[Darius J. Butler]

Canceled.

[Tony]

Is that real?

[Tone]

I just made it real.

[Darius J. Butler]

Holy.

[Tony]

We need Father Maximilian Maxwell to potentially do that. I think he can kind of do whatever he wants to do. John 3:16 and Father Maximilian Maxwell really getting a win for the Steelers the other day. Beautiful thing. Maybe they're the team of destiny, honestly, as we go forward here, but as we do look at you traveling to Pittsburgh because you're there for the game. People are going to be pumped to hear that. So also, geez, you guys got a lot of heat. You guys got a lot of heat on the Internet. Calling that last game you, Lou Fowler. Yeah.

[Dan Orlovsky]

There was a lot of people saying, talk too much.

[Ty Schmidt]

Talk too much.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Talk too much.

[Tony]

Three people in there. A lot of takes.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Just a reality. It's a reality. We're going to talk 33% more than other booths.

[Tony]

But what people are saying is you don't have to. You can have the acknowledgement that there is three people and kind of make that decision together. Not saying it should be you or Lou, but there should be maybe be a little bit better of a conversation going in on expectation. That's on you. I'm not a TV producer. I didn't go to broadcast Boot camp. But on that note, whenever you're traveling out to and when that rules analyst talks. If it's that same guy, say you don't deserve to be in the NFL. Just say that to him. You should not be speaking for the NFL. Okay. Thank you. This is a meritocracy. You get to the league. You don't get to just be here because you were here. And just because you're on my network that I work on on doesn't mean I have to think you're good at your job because you're not. You are terrible. And you're representing all the fucking ball whatever you speak. You could say that to him. You're allowed to do. I'm giving tone. Just canceled work in Pittsburgh on Monday. I would like to give you permission to be able to say that to that guy that we've never heard of before.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's a good man.

[Tony]

He's a good man. I'm sure he is. There's a lot of good people getting fired right now because they're ass at their jobs. So like he's good guy. I get it. We need to super wild card weekend, brother. You're on Monday Night Football. Let's. Oh, that gets me worked up. I don't like these rules. Gene Steritor. That's it. Gene Stereotor needs to be doing it for everybody. I don't know why he's not. Ed Hockey. Where the hell did you go? Ed Hockey. Lee just wanted to disappear from the limelight. Nobody thought that was going to happen. Why is it his ass tell him to stop lifting for 14 seconds and break down a play. You know that's who we need. This guy I've never heard of popping up on the screen. Well, I think we don't need it, buddy. Okay. Unless you're going to be great. We don't. Let's move along. Let's move along. You guys are going to be great on call in Pittsburgh.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hell yeah.

[Dan Orlovsky]

We don't have the call. Troy has the call. We'll be there for. I'll be there for NFL Live. Troy and Joe is a call?

[Connor]

Yeah. They ain't wheeling them out.

[Tony]

Oh my God. What's your problem? Ty? What's his deal? But they are paying them. They are kind of playing them 30 million a year. Yeah, that's what I mean.

[Connor]

Nothing against them.

[A.J. Hawk]

I'm saying they're not.

[Tony]

Yeah. Joe and Troy. Yeah. Drone Troy. Oh my God. My heart's.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You guys are problem.

[Tony]

Connor, for me it's just not that guy. It's not that rules analyst guy that's representing football on the biggest stage. Like, he's not the one with Joe and Troy, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, that's Russell, which he's on the clock too. Yeah, he's kind of the goat compared to.

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was like whenever they had the replacement refs and they're like, you want.

[Connor]

Is this what you want, T. Is.

[Tony]

This what you want? This is how bad. That's a touchdown. No, it's not.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I used to have John Perry. I think John Perry then went to. I think John Perry works for the Bills now, I believe.

[Tony]

See John Perry boots on the field. I remember John Perry on the field. I remember actually getting into it. John Perry on the field because he robbed me. The only other way to describe it would be screwed me out of 15 yards on a punt, out of bounds. So I certainly. What was that, buddy? Because they do this whole thing.

[Coach BA]

Thing.

[Tony]

And then he had good moxie, good flow. He'd been there. Gene.

[Dan Orlovsky]

JP's a good dude.

[Tony]

Yeah, I liked the Buffalo Bills are plucking. Okay.

[Darius J. Butler]

The hell is he doing there?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Well, I think, I think some of these officials do this where guys who are ex officials are in that role. I believe they, I don't know if every organization has them, but they go and work for organizations and they evaluate like these, the upcoming opponents tape. When it comes to.

[Tony]

We can get a lot of PIs on this team.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, stuff like that. I think something like that where you're, you're saying, hey, this, this, this backside defensive back or something like that, or this right tackle, you know, pregame, these coaches have conversations with officials, look out for this, look out for that. I, I think that's in some capacity.

[Tony]

That role that feels smart, that, that feels like a good idea. If you, if you're making as much money as these NFL teams are making and refs matter as much as they do, having somebody to be able to potentially play the game a little bit on your side is a good play. We just hate this.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I also think like some self evaluation. Pat. Sorry. Like, hey, just so you know, you know, maybe you're getting away with this shift or this motion or your guys doing this check yourselves, stuff like that, to try to get it ahead of really either side.

[Tony]

Interesting, because Dion Dawkins does the inside hand chop that some refs call holding. I would assume that now JP who's working for them, talks to the officials and says, hey, this is the move that he does. It is not holding, like more of a clarity on the entire. That's like either. Colts got one of these. Let's not get this guy.

[Connor]

They probably do.

[Darius J. Butler]

Bills keep changing rules. Got the inside track.

[Tony]

Oh, you're saying maybe we should keep our eyes on what's going on.

[Coach BA]

Still can't get a banner.

[Tony]

Gumpy is a Dolphins fan. He should not be speaking.

[Tone]

We got two.

[Darius J. Butler]

Give me two.

[Tony]

Okay. 1972, only undefeated team. That's right. Pop the bottles. Still running it. Pop the bottles. Indiana Hoosiers might get you.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's prime for Josh this year.

[Tony]

Indiana Hoosiers might get you.

[Tone]

Prime for Josh.

[Tony]

Hey, in Pittsburgh though, you need to go. Great Italian culture in Pittsburgh. That means there's a lot of pizza. There's a lot of great food, beautiful culture everywhere. And whenever you said you did not know Pittsburgh had pizza like this. We're there Monday for live. If want to have on set taste test, I'll volunteer. Interesting sentence there for the second one. But yeah. A lot of different pizza pizza. A lot of different opportunities. We'll make sure some Dallas salad pizza will be delivered. That's the best in town.

[Dan Orlovsky]

That's the best one you say?

[Tony]

Yeah. No questions. Dallas house. Yeah. Now granted, did I work there and grow up with a family? Sure. So is that a little bit biased opinion? Of course. But I will say Dallas Alice pizza. Certainly phenomenal. That is the place. Okay. Augie's currently running this place alongside his mom. Still doing it back there. Shout out to Beth. We love the entire squad. Love the family.

[Dan Orlovsky]

That's what you're looking meat lovers.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Tony]

Oh yeah. That's everything on there, pal.

[Tone]

It's a good piece.

[Tony]

It's not the best. I have it on. Good, good.

[Darius J. Butler]

It looks much better than it did in that first photo.

[Tony]

That looks good. I don't like the photo choice for the Dallas salad pizza that they used on the graphic.

[Ty Schmidt]

Terrible. Look like a piece of cardboard.

[Tony]

It did. And I don't like that at all. But you can also buy it half baked. So it does kind of look like that. So then whenever you get home after a long day, you pick it up half baked, you put it in the oven. Now you got oven baked pizza. The old take is taking care of people, you know, cuz that's a working class pizza.

[Ty Schmidt]

Mama Marado loves the half baked.

[Connor]

No.

[Tony]

Who doesn't? Who doesn't.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Good people love the what is. I have a couple questions. So one, it what is Pittsburgh at least pizza style wise is there in differentiating thing like are they famous for thick thin stuff?

[Tony]

All that.

[Dan Orlovsky]

And then what do we. What do we like. Like, what kind do we like?

[Tony]

Go ahead. Tone tones about the slander. You know, friends in family. Go ahead. No, no, no.

[Tone]

I would say Pittsburgh. Like, obviously New York. You know what a New York slice is? Detroit's got its own pizza. You guys up in Connecticut have your own style. We are Chicago.

[Tony]

Chicago.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Someone that says McAfee's pizzas suck.

[Tony]

Yeah. Who said that? They don't want to say that to Dallas house face. I'm gonna let you know that right now.

[Tone]

I didn't say Chicago because I don't respect.

[Tony]

Who said that? Vince. What? Vince. What? I would like to know names.

[Dan Orlovsky]

No, just.

[Tony]

Okay, well, Vince was probably the owner.

[Tone]

Of Vincent's, which is a solid pizza.

[Tony]

Great pizza as well. I'll tell you what, Vinnie doesn't do a bad job on pie, but now we kind of.

[Tone]

We kind of adopted all the pizzas. And then whatever shop you go to is kind of a style from potentially another place. Place, like, my favorite is Fury's, which is more of a New York style pizza. Pat's favorite, obviously, is Della Sells, which is a square pizza.

[Connor]

Every.

[Tone]

Everyone's got their different ones. There's even one where it's cold cheese. I don't love that. That's called Betos. But there's. I mean, there's a. If you like pizza, it's got something for everybody.

[A.J. Hawk]

Whatever.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You like Rockaway? Rockaway, yeah.

[Tony]

No, but just make sure it's an Italian name, okay? Just make sure it's Italian name.

[Ty Schmidt]

To borrow.

[Tony]

I don't know.

[Connor]

Yeah. Boom, bang.

[Tony]

Talk about. Talk about a New York slice. Don't do that. Okay? We're not doing fazzolinis either. We're not doing any of that. Okay. OG Pittsburgh, Dan. I don't know if it still stands, but, like, the densest per capita of Italians in a city in the world outside of Italy was like, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, actually.

[Coach BA]

Really?

[Tony]

Italians everywhere. I mean, all of them. They're all Italians. This is Anthony Dijiulio. This is Franklin, Nicholas, Morocco. This is. I mean, these are, you know, like this. I think Phil's even Italian. That's why he gets so tan in the entire thing. His last name is Mains or whatever. It's like everybody around me growing up was basically Italian. And it's a. When you move out to Indiana and there's none except for Andretti up on a sign. It is a culture shock. I will say it was a little bit of a wild time.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I love Italians.

[Tony]

They're the greatest.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I love Italian food. I love Italian food. I Gotta go to Italy. That's my number one place that I want to go to in the world.

[Coach BA]

World.

[Tony]

Just go to Pittsburgh. You're going. You know, you'll be there. It'll. It'll basically be the same damn thing. Okay, let's talk about the Super Bowl. Where's it at? San Francisco. Okay. Can't wait to see who gets a Santa Clara. We got Aaron obviously taking on CJ Stroud. Both of those guys have won in the playoffs. Feels like there's a lot of inexperience in the playoffs happening right in front of our eyes. Maybe the dawning of a new day in prime time. Go ahead, D. Budge.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. And this weekend we got super wild card weekend and we got four quarterbacks looking for their flight first playoff win. Drake May, Bryce Young, Justin Herbert and Caleb Williams. Who do you have most confidence in getting their first playoff win this year? Well, this round, I should say.

[Ty Schmidt]

I.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Think the Caleb and the Bears packers game just feels that there. There's a good shot for that. I think the world of Green Bay. But that game's going to come down to the final three minutes. Can Green Bay's defense, the last time we saw them out, at least with their guys, they got ran by Baltimore. Obviously that's the trademark of Chicago's offense, is their ability to run the football. D. But you would know this, but I just think one of the things that makes it so challenging is like everybody's got a tackle and then that creates those downfield shots for Caleb. And so Caleb, there's still moments of inconsistency and head scratching, misses at times, but he makes big plays down the field when they present themselves. And so I think that Caleb's got a good shot because of some of the injuries and again, just the challenge of playing them. I would also say this, this. I think the Chargers Patriots game is a very interesting matchup. If you. If we just look at New England and the Chargers and we say, what's the weakness of the Chargers because of injury? You'd say the Chargers offensive line.

[Tony]

Right.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Just not an offensive line that is healthy enough. What's the weakness of New England defensively? It's their ability to get after the quarterback. And so I think maybe, maybe that kind of contrast or mitigating kind of leans to the potential for the Chargers offense to have some rhythm. And then I would say the second thing is this Chargers defense is different, man. I think it's one of the five to six best defenses in football, certainly one of the less best in the playoffs. And I just don't think New England offensively has dealt with a defense like this one. Really good edge rushers, Derwin's outstanding speed at the linebacker position, coverage that's very good, well coached. And so I can see Herbert and the Chargers. I don't know where I stand pick wise yet, but I think that's a really interesting game.

[Tony]

I'm fascinated by the Chargers as a whole, you know, because I like their building, I like their coach, I like their culture, I like everything that's possible. But can they ever really get it done? I guess we shall see. And then let's go down to Duvall. Another great story coming out of this weekend. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Daniel, why do you think that the Bills are favorites going to Duvall? I mean, we, we've seen what Jacksonville's done over the last several weeks and I know they love it that way. We've already heard Liam Cohen kind of mention like, hey, we're on, we're home underdogs, so we got everything we need. But why do you think they are underdogs at home? Especially what we've seen out of Trevor Lawrence as of late. And how do you think that game's going to go?

[Dan Orlovsky]

One, the quarterback. Two, Buffalo's really good. I mean, Josh, Jacksonville's really good too.

[Tony]

What? You know, you don't know who they are. You hate Trevor Law. I want to let you know, Dan, we had a full conversation out there where I said, we're not going to be rude to Dan ORLOVSKY Today. It's 2026.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I went out the door.

[Tony]

Well, when you start talking about a lack of Italians in Pittsburgh, certainly it's going to start, Grazie Perego, you know, all that stuff. But whenever we talk about, about this, whenever you say, well, Bills are a really good football team, it's like, yeah.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Why are they favored? And I said, one, they have the best player in the playoffs. Two, they're still a really good football team. It's not like Josh Allen's going down there playing by himself. They have the leading rusher in football. They have arguably the best offensive line in football. They have the best right now coverage unit in football. And so there's a lot of really good stuff with Buffalo. And that's kind of why I sit a couple weeks ago like, let's move on from this. Does Josh Allen have enough? Yes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Wait, you said best coverage unit, better than the kickoff coverage.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

What are you talking about here, Dino? Pass coverage.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I mean, right now, right now that secondary is playing at A very high level.

[Tony]

Very high. Wow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Houston.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, Houston as well.

[Darius J. Butler]

Houston.

[Dan Orlovsky]

No Seattle secondary.

[Connor]

No.

[Darius J. Butler]

Units out there.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Jacksonville, they're not as eng wise as Buffalo. N there's not as good as Second Buffalo secondary has been fantastic the last six weeks.

[Tony]

All right, I trust.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Fantastic.

[Tony]

I trust you. But now whenever you say that, that's acting like, you know, like whenever you say they're a really good football team, is that the reason why they're favoring Jackson? You're kind of saying, like Jacksonville, not.

[Ty Schmidt]

A really good football.

[Tony]

You know, just whenever you use it, I don't have to put one down to put up the other. It's like, well, you kind of do. Whenever the question is, why is one favored over the other? And you say, well, one's really, really good. So what would that.

[Dan Orlovsky]

No, I, I, no, I said the quarterback. And then Buffalo's a really good football team.

[Ty Schmidt]

So that would indicate that Jack's not a very good football team.

[Darius J. Butler]

Rushing the league.

[Connor]

Who is the number one rush defense in the NFL?

[Tony]

Who is it?

[Connor]

Oh, Jacksonville.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Jacksonville.

[Coach BA]

Who can't stop the run?

[Tony]

Who's that?

[Tone]

The Bills.

[Tony]

Oh, okay.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Who can't? Who can't? Who's not a very good run offense? Jacksonville.

[Tony]

You're holding the bill's water again. I'm happy we got to that. Okay.

[Dan Orlovsky]

That's the weakness of the team. They're not a very good running football team.

[Tony]

Have you had eyes on Jacksonville? Have you had eyes on Jacksonville?

[Dan Orlovsky]

You know that answer.

[Tony]

In real life. Have you had eyes on them?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Oh, see him in person? No, I've not seen them in person. No.

[Tony]

Okay, so I, I can see how you can say eyes on them like film. I get it. But like whenever we saw him take on the Colts and it was without dimes, obviously, so it is what it is. But it's just like they're gigantic. They are all massive. They're all very fast and people are wide ass open. This guy should not be allowed to have the ball on offense. Parker Washington, I believe is his name. He's returner, great returner. And Liam finds ways to get in the ball in space. It's like this team is unbelievable. Like, I think a lot of really good, A lot of people very excited for Jacksonville this year. You know, obviously they had the Blake Bortles run. Whenever they go up to New England, take a knee before half, they could have continued to step on the throw. The Patriots second half, they collapse. Everything blows up after that. Literally everything blows up in Jacksonville and then way before that. Yet Brunel Spinning it. And obviously Fred Taylor, absolute dog for that team. But like, this one feels like the realest that Jacksonville's ever had. And it's just year one, hopefully, of what it is.

[Dan Orlovsky]

You know their defensive coordinator, Paisan Anthony Campanelli.

[Coach BA]

There you go.

[Tony]

Yeah. Yes. Did you see the tweet that Nick just sent you, by the way? We are Pittsburgh is the number one Italian per capita world place outside of Italy in the world. It makes sense. So go ahead and eat up over there, Dan. Logo sandwiches too. Re Subs. Whole Italian Hot. Let's. How you May? How you doing? Keep moving. Yeah. Here's a lot of small words that just say in numbers that say a lot of Italians. A lot of Italians in Pittsburgh.

[Dan Orlovsky]

A lot of East Coast.

[Tony]

Last question. Yeah, yeah. The Italians say is water here and.

[Tone]

They put roots down and it's don't leave.

[Tony]

Yeah. Unless they're forced to. And you're Chicago.

[Tone]

Happens you got to go to your mom. I think my grandmother was.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I think my grandmother. My grandmother, I think was like maybe off. Off the boat. Italian. Monero.

[Connor]

Oh, so you can say it then.

[Tony]

Oh, say what? Connor? Jeez, he's from Boston. That's complete opposite there. You know, that's kind of an Irish run town with Italians there. Pittsburgh, Italian run place with a lot of Irish. So that's kind of the. Yeah, yeah. Little. That's the reverse there. You see, we should actually have the Italian horn as a logo like the Celtics have, you know, the three leaf clover or whatever. If we really wanted to accurately depict what the Pittsburgh was and what Boston is. All right, last question here. Speaking of Boston. Let's go up there. Go ahead, con man.

[Connor]

Yeah, Dan. Look, there's no winning in this mvp, you know, talk. I know you've probably seen on the Internet, no matter what, no matter who you say you're going to get shit for. I even just laid out the reasoning for Matt Stafford yesterday, and people assumed that I thought he should win the mvp. Obviously, as a New England Patriots fan, I believe Drake May should win the MVP. Matthew Stafford currently minus 180 at DraftKings. The best sportsbook on the planet. Drake May plus 150. That has switched over the last couple weeks. You know, Drake May has been the favorite then Stafford. Currently Stafford's the favorite. I would actually like to give you the chance here to explain to everybody why do you think Drake May does deserve the mvp? Nothing about staff or nothing about the debate. Just talking about Drake May. Why do you think he deserves.

[Tony]

He's squirming right now he's squirming.

[Dan Orlovsky]

No, this is my favorite moment for Conor because he's not trying to make me look like a.

[Connor]

Douche.

[Tony]

We about to fudge. Say something now.

[Connor]

Say it Dan Dickhead.

[Tony]

Yeah sound like you were about to fudging let one slip.

[Dan Orlovsky]

I would tell you that number one okay. Probably did as much with as little as anybody in the NFL. Obviously there's not a ton of stars on New England. I think Steph's had a fantastic year. I think Steph is in the running for at least on the field what he's done. Comeback player of the year Hunter Henry is another big time player. Hunter Henry quietly has had had like statistically I think like a top 30 season in the history of the NFL at tight end career top 30 career type stuff. Josh McDaniels is great the two backs as patch casters but they're not like these bonafide stars as a puka Nukua is or Devonte Adams. And so to have the season he's had without the no brainer first team all pro or second team all pro guys it speaks to how well he's played. Number two two to take a team that didn't have high expectations and obviously earn the they're the two seed. Earn the two seed and the playoffs is speaks to speaks volumes to how well he's played. And then three and this is where I would say Connor, this people aren't gonna like this but this is just truly how I feel. I honestly believe unless you've watched just about every single snap of these guys I think it's really hard to make a fair judgment and I promise you there's not a lot of Patriots fans who I've seen just about every snap of staff and there's not a lot of Rams fans that have seen just about every snap of Drake May. What they've asked Drake May to do just in when it comes to the control of their offense is pretty significant and that's why you've watched this kind of climb steadily throughout the season. Not only performance but warranting very much so being at the top of that MVP conversation.

[Tony]

Hell yeah. Dana, we appreciate you. Well you know you have a vote. We know you put it in just like tone did. Odds have been taken away from draftkings because the votes are already in so you can certainly tamper a little bit. We can't wait to see who wins all these awards and obviously being in the conversation is a great thing anytime we have a conversation with you. We appreciate the hell out of it. We love you, Dano. Love you too.

[Connor]

Boys.

[Tony]

Ladies and gentlemen, Dan Orlovsky had a seatbelt on in the parking lot. When he's driving, he doesn't wear it. You know, I think he's probably been yelled at before. Like, hey, if you're going to be in the car, put a seat belt on. He was like, all the time. And they're like, yes, all the time. And they parked it and he was like keeping it on. You know how, you know he doesn't really wear it? Oh, yeah, because that thing coming, we gotta. You know, he probably doesn't even know. No, somebody should tell him. He probably don't even know he could lift that thing. Crazy. It's all right, Dana. We love you, man. We love you, Dan. You know what else we love?

[Connor]

What's that?

[Tony]

That is also happening right now.

[Connor]

Huh?

[Tony]

Women's college hoops. Okay, listen, I know nobody would expect us to be a women's college hoop show, but we certainly are. We caught the fever whenever Caitlin Clark was playing at Iowa and Angel Reese was down there at LSU and Dawn was doing her thing at South Carolina. It was like WWE mixed with wild hoops at the same time. Caitlin obviously comes here to the Fever, changes the dynamic of our entire city. Excited for her to get back healthy, we took our show to Iowa for the first Friday of March Madness to celebrate the women's basketball team as opposed to the men's team, just to celebrate it all. So we are fans of the game and this year there are six teams that seem to be in for the natty now. UConn dominant yet again. D. But I didn't know this.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, you can't talk about women's basketball without talking about UConn. One of the greatest dynasties ever. Sarah Strong is keeping that going. Defending champs, obviously. She got one with Paige Buckets last year. She's only averaging 18 points, eight rebounds, four and a half assists, three and a half steals on defense, and a block and a half while shooting 58% from the field. And also her running mate, Ozzie Fudd, who's leading the nation probably in 3 point percent, is shooting 58% back there. 48%. I'm sorry.

[Tony]

God. UConn always good. It feels like North Carolina always good ls you always go, what's that?

[Ty Schmidt]

Actually, you know, they started out 13 and 0 this year and they've dropped their first two SEC games. A lot of people saying, wow, is Kim Muli lost her fastball or is it just because that rat bastard Lane Kiffin.

[Tony]

No, I didn't know people were saying that. We can't talk women's college hoops without talking about my favorite team. The sixth best odds. Let's go out to Ames, Iowa, shall we? Foxy?

[Darius J. Butler]

You don't want to play your best basketball in Jeff.

[Tony]

January.

[Darius J. Butler]

You don't want to be a monster in January. You want to be a monster in March.

[Tony]

About to get. In the pain. Make your. Come on, come on. You're about to get cooked by Honey Crooks. Listen, I'm a huge fan of the way she operates. Huge fan. She just gets buckets. Oh, yeah. That is literally all she does. And did I know anything about Iowa State's women's basketball team and ever? Nope. But Audi Crook's highlights pop up my algo. And I say boys, immediately I'm making a song. We're making a highlight because people are trying to take shots at audi right now. ESPN's TikTok.

[Connor]

What?

[Tony]

Yeah. They're like Baylor exposes audience like, you better fucking watch your mouth. Okay? They made a couple shots. There's a lot of good teams. Audi Crooks is going to cook when everybody looks. And that's in March when she's a monster. Ty Schmidt. And you know it. Women's college hoops runs through Ames now over there in Iowa.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, it certainly doesn't. But I do love Audi Crook. She is a Iowa gal, born and bred, Algona, Iowa. So I will ride with Audi Crooks regardless of where she goes to college.

[Tony]

You're about to get cooked by Audi.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's cute.

[Connor]

That's cute.

[Darius J. Butler]

We know who runs March. She said it, she better back it up.

[Tony]

She's going to be a monster in March. She's going to be a monster today. What a good time. Song's a heater though. Hey fans, welcome back to Fansville's Cheers and tears. Okay, so like everybody deals with losing, right? To a rival and a last second field goal. Whatever. It's fine. I'm totally fine. But I cope with losing with an ice cold Dr. Pepper. Those 23 flavors peppers 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. This is Arc Raiders, a multiplayer extraction adventure where most of humanity shelters underground. But raiders rise to the surface in search of something greater. In the Rust Belt, every run is pressure. Every decision is a play call. Face the relentless machines of arc and rival raiders, chasing the same prey prize. Push forward or extract while you're ahead. Team up trust no 1 ARC Raiders is on sale now available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S&PC. Rate a T for team. Football is the greatest. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. Super Wild Card weekend is coming up and both college Football playoff semifinals are preceding it. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday are going to have magical football to get us through the greatest weekend of all time. The talks are tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt, one half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP Tonus, your tone as we projected the lines, is there anything that kind of sticks out or a little bit unusual as you look at the betting.

[Tone]

Action for college football? No, I mean it's pretty standard. Indiana is getting I believe 60 some percent of the bets which is not shocking, just the way that they have looked. And then the Ole Miss Miami game is a little more equal even. And I think that's because of the story lines and, and just how the magical run that both of these two teams are on. But though nothing out of the ordinary that I'm seeing with these two games in this, in these situations.

[Tony]

How about Super Wild Card weekend? Anything we're seeing that makes us go, oh, that's interesting. Sportsbooks DraftKings will certainly like that.

[Tone]

Yeah, there's a lot of, there's a lot of home dogs in this round of the of the playoff. Obviously you're going to get that when the Steelers in the Carolina Panthers are hosting games as they as they won their conference. And then there was a flip recently between the Bears and the Packers. Packers were favored by 1 1/2. Now the bears are faired by 1 1/2 even though Green Bay on the Money line is minus 112. Bears are minus 108. So this is basically a true pick them in that game.

[Tony]

Okay, so the Chicago maybe atmosphere turned that thing to them being favors by one and a half. But could you go back to talking about the Money line on DraftKings Moneyline just straight up pick for the Green bay Packers is minus 112 you said.

[Tone]

Yeah, last time I looked. Yes.

[Tony]

And Chicago Bears money line pick just picking them to win is minus 108.

[Tone]

Correct.

[Tony]

Which would say that the Green Bay packers are actually favored to win that because they're taking a little bit more off of your bet. If Green Bay wins as opposed to the Chicago Bears, that means they think that Green Bay is more likely to win because they're taking on a bigger risk. Whenever you're taking that bet as opposed to taking the Chicago Bears in their eyes. Then whenever you talk about the spread, them being minus one and a half, I believe that was before it flipped or has it flipped again? Has this flipped again? Again? It has flipped again. Okay. Just flipped yet again. Okay. So this thing is dancing back and forth. The Green Bay packers now favored on the road. This could be a big bet coming in. This could be monitoring or something. This could be an injury up. This could be literally anything you're talking about. A true coin flip, it feels like, is what DraftKings is saying. And during the regular season it was split outcomes. Anyways. Ty, how's this make you feel about what's going on with the books?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't surprise me with how banged up the packers are as well. But like you said, the two games, games during the regular season, like they, they were both incredibly tight. First game, packers won 28, 21 and Caleb threw, Caleb Williams threw an interception on, you know, their last play of the game, essentially. And then in the second meeting, you know, the, the packers kind of dominated the first 55 minutes of the game or so. And then the Bears score a touchdown. They obviously recover the onside kick, score again, go into overtime and win. So I would say, I mean, it makes sense, you would think that the, the Bears, this is a very close, close matchup between these two teams and they obviously know each other very well. But it would make sense that you would give the slight nod to the Bears being at home.

[Tony]

How do you feel about this one 9 year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. You got Caleb obviously playing his best ball that we've ever seen him play. And then for the packers, there's still a lot of interesting conversations happening around their entire operation over there.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. Health is always critical when it comes to these games. That's why you see all these different teams and coaches rest. Some of their star players and Todd just mentioned a bunch of their key players are banged up. Obviously probably going to be all pro this year. Michael Parson, where you're going to really miss him on that defense side of ball. I'm kind of leaning Chicago. Even though this is Caleb's first, you know, playoff atmosphere, he'll be a first for a lot of different things. He'll be at home. He's still, he's still not necessarily hitting the singles yet. I would say he definitely has that home run hitting ability, the run game. He has to lean on defense. They're going to get the turnovers to set him up, I think. So, yeah, I'm leaning, I'm Leaning Chicago and it's a lot of pressure. I'm hearing some rumble rumblings with Matt LeFleur on the sideline too. So Ben Johnson is obviously very comfortable. So, yeah, I'm leaning to Chicago on this one.

[Tony]

Hold on. But I heard there's an extension coming. I mean, there's been a lot of conversation around Coach lafleur and what the future looks like. Ty, is that not accurate?

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah, it is.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, I, I don't know if there's pressure per se, but it's just like, hey, guess what, you can't lose this one. You know, it's like the, the packers at the start of the year. And granted, again, we talk about this with Ballard and Steichen and the Colts and like injuries, injuries are a very real thing thing. But when the packers traded for Micah Parsons, that was like signaling, hey, this is the piece that we need to get us over the hump to go win a Super Bowl. And early on there, when he was healthy and they were healthy, it looked like they were one of the best teams in the NFL and team. But since he's gotten hurt, they've kind of limped into the playoffs, which is exactly what they did last year. And again, the packers are one of those franchises like the Steelers or, you know, one of those, like winning one playoff game or just getting into the playoffs. Playoffs, like that doesn't really sit well. They. They need to win an NFC championship or go to a Super Bowl. So I think if they struggle here, my guess would be that there will be very serious talks and considerations into not resigning Matt LaFleur and maybe getting rid of him if the packers do lose this weekend.

[Tony]

Joining us now is the all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. That is on no sources. That is just our opinions from the situation. Or is it from.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, not sources. But it's like everyone who is associated with packers media, like beat reporters, people who do radio show, Schneider, Schneides, you know. Yeah, guys like that. Like, everyone is kind of talking about it because that was a big deal when they asked Ed Policy about it at the start of the year and he was. And he basically said so Schneidman asked Ed Policy at the start of the year.

[Tony]

Policy.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ed Policy is the, the de facto. He's the president of the packers right now. He's the owner. Yeah, exactly. The de facto owner. He's kind of running the show. And he was not committal on giving extensions to both LaFleur and Gooden. So it was kind of like, oh, okay. He didn't outwardly say that they're going to extend these guys. So there is room to believe then maybe if this season doesn't end the way that they want it to or expect it to, that there's a chance they don't get new contracts.

[Tony]

Is that Carmine's boy?

[Ty Schmidt]

That is Carmine's boy.

[Tony]

And they make big moves.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, big time. He was the one who basically came in and put the hammer down to get Micah Parsons.

[Tony]

Now you, you bring Micah and you're unbelievable. Micah gets hurt, you don't do his play as well. Is that going to be held against Gut Coons and Luke Floor? We shall see. Just like here in Indianapolis. We bring in Danny Dimes. He was incredible. Danny Dimes breaks his leg, we stink. Who do you hold, do you hold that against Chris Ballard? Do you hope for that type of return after Danny Dimes comes back? Are we bringing back Danny Dimes? Not in a contract. It's like all those things have to happen in every single building. Fascinating if, if it happens in Green Bay. Because that's a job everybody on earth would want, right?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Yeah. I mean, that is certainly something they want. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is the all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, a man who celebrated another trip around his son, A.J. hawk. Happy birthday to all who celebrate here on January 6th. It is A.J. hawk's birthday. We love you, buddy. Happy birthday, Hawk. Happy birthday, Hawker. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Him on full screen. Dear Hacker, happy birthday to you.

[A.J. Hawk]

Let's go to the Capitol.

[Tony]

No, no, no, no, no. That's different. January 6th celebration. Ours is always and will always be Hawker's birthday. Happy birthday, Hawker. You look good there on full screen. Want to make sure that happened just strictly so that the people can could see whose birthday it was. Because with all these faces and places, people could potentially be confused on whose big day it is. It's yours. Happy birthday, A.J. we love you, buddy.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you. Appreciate that. Guys. One thing I don't think you mentioned is Bears, packers situation, the rivalry, the head coaches, they don't really. There's some weird animosity between those two, isn't there?

[Tony]

Yeah. And I like the fact that they've continued the rivalry, they continue the tradition, and the fact that we're getting to experience it in primetime on Super Wild Car weekend on Saturday night is just a special, special thing. It's a special game, it's going to be a special atmosphere and the game is going to live up to expectations. AJ how do you feel about this one for your pack?

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, honestly, I feel pretty good about it as long as Jordan Love's health is okay. I. I understand, like, for Caleb and the Bears, there's definitely. I mean, there's pressure on both these teams. We know that. It is an added thing with the whole the floor rumors. I understand that's not like we don't have any solid information whatever. But there's always rumblings about that if they don't win this game. Game. But I feel pretty good about where the pack are going into Chicago. I feel like they. They feel like maybe people aren't giving them a chance or people are been hyping up the Bears all year and Caleb and what they have done. So I feel like the packers are kind of laying and waiting, you know, hopefully have a big game.

[Tony]

Let's go around to super wild card teams. And we're the only ones calling super wild card.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, that's what it's called.

[Tone]

Super Wild car.

[Connor]

Yeah, it's Super Wild Car weekend.

[Tony]

I've heard. I haven't seen anybody else really say Wild car. I've heard it in the past. I don't know if I'm so. Anybody. It's super wild. It's super weak.

[Tone]

Super wild card weekend.

[Tony]

It's leading into super bowl season.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Tony]

It's super wild card weekend. Obviously. Let's just go around. I don't think either of these coaches are in trouble if they lose McVeigh or no. Or Canales. I don't think so. This one, it seems like from what everybody that is following Green Bay is saying, certainly a conversation if Green Bay was to lose this game, about the coachers, McDermott. It'll get loud.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Tony]

It'll get real loud for McDermott. And that hasn't even been brought up or broached at this moment. And we're not calling for this. We're just saying the reality of the situation with Josh Allen being the best football player on earth and alien is how everybody views it. Buffalo bills fans. If McDermott can't get the job done, they're blaming him. They're not blaming Josh Allen. They're saying it's him, that they can't win. No Patrick Mahomes, no Lamar Jackson, no Joe Burrow, no anything in the playoffs and you can't get the job done. It's going to get loud for McDermott. And nobody has talked about that at this point.

[Connor]

It is also gotten very, very loud for Brandon Bean, at least from the Buffalo people. Especially with how the Keon Coleman situation has kind of happened this year with him being a healthy scratch. It's gotten loud for the GM as well.

[Tony]

Shanahan and Sirianni, they're both good, right?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tone]

They'll ask for S on his job.

[Tony]

But that's just because Shanahan will get loud, too. They always attack like what his record is. They always do that entire thing. And I'm not saying they should. Without Fred and Bosa on the defensive side, they're nowhere near at full capacity. But it always does kind of get loud for Shanahan if they don't win a Super bowl. Ain't that accurate, A.J.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, that's definitely accurate. I also think if you lose, how you lose plays a big factor in. If they think about possibly moving on from head coach. If you get rocked, if you go out there and you know what? Look what happened to Alabama and Indiana. If you get dominated physically on both sides of the ball, like, people definitely have questions.

[Tony]

Yeah, people give up hope. The interesting thing, and I don't want to get too off topic here with Alabama, you look at all the other coaching staffs that are left, they're all Saban disciples. Alabama decided to go away from Saban in their next decision. I wonder if Alabama people are going to be good with that if they continue to not win national championships while Saban Disciples win national championships. So these other schools are taking our fucking recipe.

[Darius J. Butler]

They won't.

[Tony]

And then they're. And then we say, well, we need a guy from. Make it make sense. I don't understand why everybody wants a piece of Saban's tree. Okay. Hey, Saban's out. Apples are blooming everywhere. These things are great. Johnny Appleseed, this guy, he's getting. Every other school that's good is pulling from the Saban tree. And then we decide, cut the tree down, put a field up, and get the hell on. I bet you Alabama people are going to get pretty loud about that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, I think they already have.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Just thinking about that. And then we got Coach Saban, I think, on tomorrow, and I know he's tight with Greg Byrne, who's the ad, and he's very close with the Alabama community and everything like that. But so I'm wondering how I'm going to phrase that to Coach Saban. But I thought about this last night and the night before about it all. Just because we're seeing the four disciples and the way Signetti talked and the way Lanning was talking and they all talk about Coach Saban's. Like Signetti said I'll learn more about being a head football coach. All right. In one year of Saban than I did the 27 years before that. He said that's what Signetti said about Sabani. Yeah. So then for Alabama to choose to not go with a Saban decided disciple, like, that's an actual decision that was made. And I got disrespected for Coach Saban, and it's like, coach isn't going to feel disrespected. He'll high road it. He'll be very nice about Alabama and everything. But I, like, immediately as I was sitting in my house that was in a state where it was legal, maybe a little hot, I fired off a text, I typed up a full text to Coach Saban about, you need to stop going to these basketball games and sit with this guy. Like every other school was looking for you. Is basically what they were trying to do in your own school.

[Coach BA]

School.

[Tony]

Try to move on. I could see that he won't be disrespected by that. But it is something that's very fascinating whenever you think about how loud it got with that. And I. I think it's justifiable. And we love Caitlin Bore. I think Kaylin Bore is an incredible coach. I like the hire Whenever it happened, I thought he was maybe one of the only accomplished guys that could go in and fill the shoes of Coach Saban in Alabama. And maybe that's the reason why they wanted to go a different direction. AJ maybe. I'm not 100% sure. Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

I don't know. Usually if, like, it. It still ended well. With Saban, it wasn't like, oh, he was great, and then he wasn't good the last couple years. Then I understand going like, hey, we're going to bring in the opposite of what we had. But no, like, it was good. And he decided to step away. See you.

[Tony]

And.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Coach BA]

I don't know.

[A.J. Hawk]

I guess at the time, though, it sounded like it made sense for DeBoer to come in.

[Tony]

Yeah, for me, I was on DeBoer side. Still am. But then now we're kind of watching this all trickle and it's like all of these coaches are saying, this guy birthed me, basically.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yep.

[Tony]

And he birthed this era of Alabama football.

[Darius J. Butler]

Football.

[Tony]

And it's like, why is everybody else want something that you guys got except for you guys? Like that? That could be. That could be something. Now, granted, I'm a look for disrespect guy. Okay. I am. Coach Saban is not. He spends his energy in Solutions, all right? Not problems. I'm not looking for that type of stuff, but for. That's an. I'm excited to hear his kind of. This is me telling Jimmy Sexton to go ahead and. Or Ms. Amy, please tell Coach Saban that this is coming tomorrow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay?

[Tony]

That I am so certainly asking if he is disrespected by the fact that every good team in the country is trying to get a Coach Saban light in there, and except for your school is trying to do it. And I love Kalen. This is not me backhanding Kaylin DeBoer. This is me watching a Saban disciple, Saban, a coach at the Rose bowl with our own eyes right there. Signetti is just dissecting every attention to detail. Every single thing is. Saban's entire thing is attention to detail. It's just like, bomb, bomb, bomb. Got a plan for everything. I got plan for everything. Signetti hyper like that. Lanning hyper like that. This golden guy. I assume there's a lot of Saban coming through in his leadership techniques right now.

[Connor]

All right.

[Tony]

And Crystal Ball. Yeah, well, all right. He says all right.

[Connor]

All right.

[Tony]

And Crystal Ball. He gives. The way he talks about coach, it's like, that's an interesting decision. Hindsight being 20 20, especially with having.

[Darius J. Butler]

Boots on the ground and seeing Miami a couple times and then seeing Bama just. Just get completely bullied. It's like, okay, you know, Cristobal and how he designed his team. You know how Sig has designed his team, like, just physical. I mean, that's all we know from, you know, Alabama football. And then to actually see that, like, at that point in the fourth quarter, it was like, damn, this is embarrassing. Like, these boys laid down. It's one thing to get beat, but it's another thing to just get absolutely punished. So, yeah, it's very, very odd. And the Bama people, to your point, Todd, they've kind of, I feel like, kind of been out almost since the day, since the hiring. Like, it was impossible for Caleb to live up to those. It'd be impossible for anybody to live up to Saban standard. But just the Alabama standard or even the SEC standard in general for Caitlin was tough to step into that.

[Connor]

Yeah, maybe not Golding. I don't really know as much with him, but it feels like all three Signetti Landing and Crystal Ball wanted to build their own, you know, Saban type aura at their specific schools. Like Lanning especially. He's been up for every single job and his whole entire thing is the grasses down green In Eugene, Cristobal leaves Oregon just to go to Miami because, you know, alma mater, like, very much a connection there. Wants to bring that place back. Insignetti. I mean, granted, much different situation, him going to IU with the whole entire Bama job. But, like, IU has gone all in on Signetti. Like, you wonder if all those guys, all those Saban disciples that are so successful would rather like, hey, I want to go and be Nick Saban, but at a different school, not at the Alabama itself.

[Tony]

Yeah. Taking over that Bama job at the time, aj, not easy for anybody, I think, like, literally impossible. Still there. Still there.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Statue still. You're playing on his field. He's still there. Okay. And he's talking ball on the weekends. And everybody agrees with everything he says. Whenever he goes on and pontificates about shit, we put that on X, obviously, and all that gone. Those numbers are outrageous. And I'm not saying saying, like, the numbers matter because only good numbers matter. But these are good numbers. These are not like people watching it because they hate it. It's numbers of people watching going, yeah, that's actually my opinion going forward now, that that is how I feel. And he's still doing that on a big stage while this team's happening. So not an easy job at all, we're saying. But it's just very weird that everybody else is trying to get a piece, except for whenever they had to make the decision. There was that disrespectful coach. You disrespect. I'm kind of disrespectful. You call me one of your best friends. Respect. I view you the same way. I like that you did that. I did not know that that's how we view each other. I'm pumped up about that. I know that. And as one of your best friends, I'm disrespected by what's going on down there. And that's who I'll be in your friend group. I don't know how many of those you have. I will certainly be the one that'll be.

[A.J. Hawk]

You need a couple. You need a couple of those.

[Tony]

Yeah. Always have been that person in the group. So I'm excited to do that for Coach Sabre. Coach, this is a good time. Just wait, you know, just. You won't have to say anything. I will. Now you're probably gonna say, I don't feel like that right now. I'll say, okay. I'll be clear.

[A.J. Hawk]

Go take an NFL gig, too. Give him one of these NFL gigs. I want to See him back in the league.

[Coach BA]

He won't.

[A.J. Hawk]

But still, Raiders.

[Tony]

I think he's pretty happy with what he's doing right now. That's his answer all the time. I'm really happy with what I'm doing right now. Him and Ms. Terry going to the Alabama basketball game the other night, just kind of casually saying, yeah, let me get some popcorn maybe. Let's do this. I'm gonna go golf with the lads. All right. Oh, I'm going to go golf with business partners that are maybe worth a billion dollars like I am. Okay, I'm gonna do that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, what are they gonna say about Indiana now?

[Tony]

Yeah, exactly. My golfing buddies had no idea. Tee off the first tee. Alabama should beat the hell out of what got no ball.

[Connor]

Might be saying, why didn't we hire Sig? Like having this exact opposite.

[Tony]

Okay, so on that note, sig and Kaylin DeBoer similar, right. Small school success. Have a lot of success. Success and then get put into a big position. Like, I think a lot of these rookie quarterbacks, if you see a lot of ball in college, kind of put you in a better position. I think a lot of reps at smaller places to get them into those positions. Signetti could have been a guy maybe that fills in those shoes.

[Connor]

Can you imagine?

[Tony]

And also, like, yeah, we had the JMU coach, loves the opportunity. Oh, my.

[Darius J. Butler]

No chance.

[Tony]

That would have been so loud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Debo went. Went from a Natty to Bama. Like he is not as if he went to Tony's part. Like, jmu, this guy was playing in the national championship.

[Tony]

But when we. Beautiful thing of his. Hans, of course. What are you doing, brother? We need you to be a better talent evaluator. We need you to know who's the right guy for the right job. Not saying Kaylin DeBoer can't win at all. We certainly think he can. But is Alabama the right place for Kaylin to born how he operates, we'll see.

[Darius J. Butler]

You were to hire K me those resumes.

[Tony]

Did you see on our show? He said, anca, why don't you suck it on our show?

[Darius J. Butler]

I would have hired that guy with those resumes. You look at Kayla, his record, like even going. Going into Washington. Yeah. The national championship appearance. Like, I mean, if. Now if Signetti was like an SEC guy for, you know, 10, 20 years may be different, but he's down there in Alabama. Yeah, yeah. He had a couple iup. Yeah, but he's not.

[Tony]

He's more of a IUP school program coach Sirianni's dad, I believe, Coach. That's almost a factory down there. Used to be some rumors about iup about, you know, go up there, you might leave with something. You know, good times.

[Tone]

I told the boys that.

[A.J. Hawk]

What do you mean?

[Tony]

Just good times. You're gonna leave with a hangover for sure. Whenever you go up to iup, that was kind of the rules. I think a couple of those bars are still there, still doing it. And I was up there when I was just a young lad, like a teenager, certainly in there as Jason McAfee. Still doing it. So I think IUP is still bringing it out there, so we appreciate that. Love ball there at iup.

[Tone]

Yeah, they love ball. My brother went to school there. They're known for STDs.

[Connor]

They.

[Darius J. Butler]

AJ.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's what they're doing.

[Tony]

They were. Not anymore, obviously. They clean that up, which we're very proud of them for doing it.

[A.J. Hawk]

How do you clean that up?

[Tony]

Well, you know, how you clean up. Just people graduate, you know. Now we got a new group in there, the youngsters.

[A.J. Hawk]

You break the chain. Yeah. Don't let the youngsters continue it.

[Tony]

You're right. I mean, that was a wild thing just to be. All right, let's move along.

[A.J. Hawk]

There's a couple of higher schools that have that same kind of situation going.

[Tony]

I think it's a little. I think it's rude.

[A.J. Hawk]

Iup.

[Tony]

Because IUP have had great times up there.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Sure.

[Tony]

I mean, great times. There was a couple basement frat parties that I was at up there. People had no idea who I was. Was just terrible. Sound systems, DJs sweating on top of everything. Just college, baby.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Good times up there. And taking it back. The ball. Fernando's living a college life.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Tony]

With the boys. Did you hear that, A.J. whenever he said that, I thought that was a big deal for the number one overall pick.

[A.J. Hawk]

I. I agree. Yeah. Because you wouldn't think that. And then I saw what the quick. The. The clip of him walking in with the boys to a. A local establishment, it looked like. Yeah. I mean, that is true. Like, you don't have to sit there and go and get hammered with the boys every single night, every weekend, but it is. I think you need to hang out with them off the field for sure.

[Tony]

Team chemistry is built a lot better around a keg than it is Kale. Has been my saying since the beginning of time. Now, you could change Kale out and put maybe another leaf in there, and maybe I would think it's kind of equal, but nonetheless need to be hanging around the boys like that needs to be something that a quarterback does. You're the CEO of, of the locker room. That is what your immediate job is. So you got to know everybody, got to have relationships. You got to take time out of your life to build the relationships. And it's like, I think Fernando has all the pieces. He just got there about a year ago.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Hang out with the boys, rally around the boys, everything. It's like, that's good leadership. I'm excited to see him in the NFL. Joining us now is a man who's known as a quarterback whisperer for the NFL. He's worked with every great quarterback that has ever existed and coached with every coach that's ever coached ball.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Tony]

Ladies and gentlemen, multiple time super bowl champion coach BA Yay.

[Coach BA]

What's up, boys?

[Tony]

Hey, great to see you. We missed you in here this morning, obviously. And your vibes and energy and energy drinks are certainly something that we are going to miss for the rest of the way. But we appreciate you joining us here. What I was just saying there about Fernando, how real is that you think being able to hang out with the boys, have a couple beers alongside being 6, 5, 2, 3 and able to break down a defense. What are your thoughts on this Fernando Mendoza kind of sensation and him at the next level, Mr. Quarterback Whisperer?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I think he's got all the traits, man, and drinking beer is one of them. Especially with the offensive line. Every quarterback got to take care of his offensive lineman and maybe a top receiver or two, but he's got all the measurables. The guy can spin it, he's athletic. Reminds me a lot of Drake May coming out. Same height, speed, but yeah, he can place the ball anywhere he wants to.

[Tony]

To put it, what's the difference between the NFL and college for these quarterbacks? Now, there had been a conversation that all these second chapter quarterbacks that are around the league, we've seen them. Darnold Baker, Kirk, you just go around all these second chance quarterbacks almost that have had an uptick in success. A lot of people started saying, well, they've seen the defenses, they understand what the defenses are, so they're able to make decisions. These younger quarterbacks, with the way ball is in high school and college kind of slowed down the development of the football iq maybe. Is that an accurate depiction of what is happening at the quarterback position in your eyes? And do you think Fernando Dante, any of these guys are maybe getting back to understanding what's happening on the defensive side?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I think the volume of defense that young quarterbacks see is just so huge. You know, they're saying they might see four coverages in college and maybe five blitzes versus eight or nine different variations of coverage and 20 different blitzes in a game. Game. Mendoza looks like he can handle the pressure extremely well. He seems very bright. Haven't sat down with him. I'd love to sit down with him, put him on the board and get to know him a little better, but he just looks like he's got the cerebral part down pat.

[Tony]

How many young quarterbacks should we see having success in the future? Because it has been a little bit of a run here of these younger guys starting to really break out. And you look at this playoffs, not a lot of playoff wins from a lot of these quarterbacks. It almost feels like we're completely in the dawning of a new era of the qb. Do you agree with that and how do you feel about these young guys heading into their biggest games that they've ever played?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I think for sure the NFL is in great position right now with a bunch of good young quarterbacks and a couple more that are going to come in next year. But yeah, I think with the playoffs, advantage to the guys who've been there and done it, you know, to Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, but the rest of those guys, I mean there's, there's some talented young people out there that can really play. Trevor Lawrence is playing at a super high level. Caleb Williams is playing a high level. Brock Purdy. I mean, you know, Jalen Hurts is MVP in super bowl last year. So I mean the league has got a number of great quarterbacks and we're not even talking about Mahomes and the guys that are missing. You know, Justin Herbert's in there. So I think it's going to be a whale of a playoff series.

[Tony]

Most important time of the year, most important position in the game. Feels like we got studs everywhere and the defenses are about to make it tough for him. Go ahead, A.J.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, B.A. when you're evaluating these quarterbacks coming out of college, I guess what was your, what was your formula or how did you do it? Did that change over the course of your time in the NFL and how you tried to, I guess, predict success in the NFL for these guys?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, for me, you know, I didn't like comparing people, but I love comparing measurables and what a guy, who a guy might remind me of, you know, when I did it for like 20 years. And you know, I love to sit down with them individually and get them on the board. Talk to them about hots blitzes. Tell me about your offense. Now if a guy can put his up and explain to him what are you going to do versus cover two? What do you do versus this blitz? I want to hear how you handle it. Then we're going to put our offense up on the board and talk to him about it. And then out in the middle of the work workout, I might walk up and say, okay, it's man, man protection. Here comes a weak safety. How you gonna handle it? And the best two I've ever seen were Andrew Luck and Patrick Mahomes. Peyton was great too, but Andrew Luck, I tried to fool him. He said no, that's exactly what you said. You're right, you're right, that's exactly what I said. Mahomes just spit him out. I was going slide protection. Here comes a strong safety. Fix it. He's throwing the ball. He makes the right. Call me in a 15 minute meeting. These guys had it down. May take some guys two or three years, some never get it.

[Tony]

Okay, so my question is then, how do we miss on guys, if that is possible in 15 minutes. Being able to find that out. Why do you think there's so many misses at the quarterback position, which there has been now granted as of late, feels like there's more hitting. Feels like there's a little bit more hitting as of late. But there was a run there where we had no idea if the quarterback was going to be good or not. How did people miss and why did people miss, you think?

[Coach BA]

I found sometimes it's system fit and a really shitty team. I mean if you're, if you're getting picked in the top five, you're going to a really shitty team most of the time, you know, you're not lucky. Like Ben Roethenberger was pissed he dropped down to 11. But he got on the Pittsburgh Steelers with the best defense in the world. He wins 15 games as a rookie, that, that was, that showed young quarterbacks, I don't have to go in the top three. You know, that money is not necessarily going to come on this contract. It's going to come on the next one. But you get in those teams and if you don't have an offensive line so many times like you pick this quarterback. I'm looking at the Raiders right now. And to pick a quarterback to fix them right now I think would be a bad mistake. You got a hell of a lot of other things to fix. Well, one quarterback ain't fixing all that shit. And you better get an offensive line in front of this kid. You got a great run running back. Get an offensive line if you can slide down a couple spots and maybe get one that you really, really like a little bit later in the top five or six picks.

[Tony]

I think Mendoza is generational. You're the quarterback whisperer. So free agency. You can flip an offensive line, too. We saw Chicago Bears do that. They traded for Tuni, which was a massive move. Pay two other guys to shore up kind of the middle. Ben Johnson says we need an offensive line. I love Caleb, but we need to do this because our run game is going to be whatever. It's going to be able to protect Caleb. And that's worked very quick. I mean, the offensive line is like literally the key, it feels like, to whether or not you're going to be ass, you know, ba that feels like that's the biggest deal.

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I mean, but the thing is who's available and you have to have a trade partner. You know, what are you giving up to get those guys? And the Bears did a great job. They solidified that inside interior part of that offensive line, which they needed to. And that's put him in the playoffs. Because Caleb is now not running for his life all the time. He's just running to run and make plays. And he's very comfortable in the pocket because he's got a pocket. These other cats, I think back of David Carr and Tim Couch in their first two years, they were sacked 140 times. Timmy Couch, when I got. He was all broken up by the time I got him. Hell of a player, was never a bust, was a great player. He was just torn all the pieces by the time I got him. His arm is about to fall off and as tough, as tough as nails. But to get to some of these teams, you know, if I'm a quarterback, I ain't coming. I pull an Eli. I pull an Eli, so I ain't coming Eli.

[Tony]

John Elway. It has happened a couple different times and obviously what happens around you is certainly very important to how you have success at the quarterback position in football. There's 11 people on the field for a reason. But, boy, these quarterbacks take all the blame and then they get all the credit as well.

[Connor]

That's right.

[Tony]

And a lot of the money. And a lot of the money. Okay, let's talk about Ben Johnson. We talk about him being able to sh up the offensive line. Whenever he took over the job, everybody thought he was going to be great. This is the bell of the ball. He's turned out to do just that. This is his first time in a big stage, though. Go ahead, D. Bud.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. So Caleb, I mean Ben, obviously it starts with him. You talk about quarterbacks getting the beat out of him. Caleb went from taking 68 sacks last year to only 24 this year. But what changes on the playoff stage? I know we all as players, everything just got faster. For whatever reason. You go from preseason speed to regular season speed to postseason speed. From a coaching standpoint, what changes once you get to the playoff stage, especially with a young quarterback?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I think it's the level of preparation. You know, everybody's fired up, everybody's in, you know, for the, for the Bears. They're going to play somebody for the third time. That's hard and. But they know each other. Just get healthy, get ready, get a game plan. Ben's always got surprises for people, but you know, they didn't just fix an offensive line. They got Swift and they got Romaduza and Luther Burden. They got weapons, young tight ends, because Ben's a 12 personnel guy. They got two tight ends that could really play. I love the Bears opposite offense. When those kids are all healthy on the outside.

[Tony]

I, I appreciate the fact that that Chicago Bears culture was flipped so quickly. They're not the only ones, man. You know, New England seemingly was able to get back to where they wanted to be. And then if you think about Carolina Panthers are hosting a damn playoff game. Oh yeah, there's a lot going on around being Jolie Cohen. He was hired late. This guy's not going to be able to hire staff, this guy because Bruce Arians ain't going to let him hire anybody out of Tampa Bay. This guy's not going to be able to hire damn staff. That's how late it was in the process. They hire what, a 21 year old GM stoner? They got no shot. And here we go. Now all of a sudden the Jacksonville Jaguars are hosting a damn playoff game which leads greatly into. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for our favorite segment of the season. It's B.S. or no B.S. with B.A. we appreciate the hell out of you, B.A. go ahead, con man.

[Connor]

Yeah, Bruce, Right now there are three home under dogs in the first round of the playoffs. And picking them all to win is the right thing to do. Is that BS or no bsba?

[Coach BA]

I think that's no BS brother. I mean, when you look at the teams that are under Houston, got great defense, quarterbacks playing great, gonna make the road to Pittsburgh. I don't think that's A tough one for him. Buffalo and Jacksonville. That's a tough one for me because Jacksonville is really, really hot. But I'm not betting against Josh Allen because he's been there, done it. And of course the Rams and the Panthers. The Rams went out there and got embarrassed in Carolina. I don't see that happening again with that defense and Matthew Stafford playing at that level. I think they're all safe picks. The only, the only one that's really questioned me is Jacksonville because Liam's got him playing so good.

[Tony]

Okay, so is that. Is that supposed to be BS then? It's supposed to be BS don't take the road, dog.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay, so the favorites are going to win.

[Tony]

So you like the favorites, B.A. is that what I like?

[Coach BA]

All the favorite jumps, taking all the. I'm gonna take all the favorites.

[Tony]

Okay, so we got a little bit of a scandal here. So. So let's go back.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's B.S.

[Tony]

Baby. That's B.S. baby. That's what that certainly is right there. Okay, let's get to the next one. Go ahead. TA man.

[Ty Schmidt]

All right, Coach, you just mentioned it a little bit there. Defensive head coaches are all the way back. There will be more defensive head coaches hired this coaching cycle than offensive head coaches. Is that BS or no bs?

[Coach BA]

I think that's BS too. I think the defensive coaches are way more qualified. But the set, that's the hiring cycle. The last four years has been all offense, everybody. I've had two calls this morning, people looking at different people and they're looking for young offensive coaches. And it baffles me because when I think of the defensive Brian Flores and Vance Joseph and Robert Sutton and Steve Spagnolo, just to mention a few on defense. Unbelievable defensive head coach. But the trend, I mean, Kevin Stefani is going to get a job real fast. I think Matt Nagy's got a shot and you're going to hear his name, Clint Kubiak. And I would think if somebody's smart, they bring back Mike McCarthy.

[Tony]

Oh, hell yeah. Hey, we think he does want to get back into the game. You know, I feel like he enjoyed the hell out of his life. First time he's had a fall in what, 50 years or whatever. It was the story. He got to hang out with his kids, got to go see volleyball. I love. There we go duck hunting up there with his dog Gus. Gus, which is an award winning duck hunting dog in Gus. I think he enjoyed all of that. But he's football guy through and through. You know, he was excited to get back in there and I feel like he learned a lot from watching from this perspective as opposed to being in a building. Do you think that's possible with coaches maybe away from the game for a year and then you kind of get back in with, I don't want to say a brand new, but a different perspective maybe than you had?

[Coach BA]

Oh yeah, totally. I did that with cbs After Arizona, you know, I thought my health was not going to be good and I got it all fixed up and you know, decided to get back in. And the one thing I decided I was not going to call plays.

[Tony]

I was not going to be the.

[Coach BA]

Head coach and offensive coordinator and probably would not have taken the job if Byron Leftwich wasn't available. And to me it's still a crime that we're not talking about Baron Leftwich and his head coach.

[Tony]

Psycho.

[Coach BA]

That's the brightest off miss of mine I've ever been around.

[Tony]

I love to hear that. Byron Leftwich obviously could spin it as well. I've never been around him on a day to day. Tough just. Yep, what a name too. Byron Leftwich synonymous with ball. I appreciate the fact that you away from it, come back and say I could probably be a better leader as a whole if I'm not calling plays in this entirety. You go to Tampa, win a Super Bowl. That's all she wrote. Let's get to the third. BS or no BS with BA Go ahead, Tone.

[Tone]

Yeah, BA Sam Darnold can and will lead the Seattle Seahawks to the Super Bowl. Is that BS or no bs?

[Coach BA]

I think that's no BS brother. I think right now Sam's figured it out. He doesn't have to put a Superman cape on. They got that running game rolling. Showed up big last weekend. San Francisco. This may be the facilitator. Get the ball out to the right guys, make some big plays with his legs and you know he and jsn, man, that's a dangerous combination. But when they got that running game game going with the defense they're playing right now and then the 12 up there in Seattle, watch out. It's going to be tough.

[Tony]

Home field advantage is wild for Seattle to have. Congratulations to them. And McDonald being able to turn it all around and Darnold spinning it. Biggest game, biggest moment. Donald throwing dots. Good for Darnold. Hopefully they're able to get it done there in Seattle. Obviously their fan base worthy of being showcased to the world throughout the entirety of playoffs. Now there's a couple game balls we need to to give out, you know, in actual NFL buildings. The Monday after Games, there are game balls given out. In a team meeting, the coach comes in, has these game balls ready. He and the equipment manager have worked together, read off a list of accolades and he throw it, you know, sometimes back of the room, a little bit of a spin. Big time catch. The energy, obviously, fantastic. We want to do that this season with BA he's done it every single week. That obviously will not change this week. Go ahead with your game balls. BA who should be celebrating a huge, huge end of NFL season.

[Coach BA]

Yeah, nfc. A lot of guys didn't play last week with Matthew Stafford. Again, put it up. Big numbers, three touchdowns. Had a hell of a ballgame leading them to a big win. And then in the afc it was a little bit harder because he only had one tackle. But Miles Garrett, for breaking the sack record, his stat line was one tackle, one sack. That's hard to pay $150 million to a guy for one tackle. But 22 and 23 sacks might get it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hell yeah.

[Tony]

A lot of money.

[Connor]

Stop the game.

[Tony]

A lot of money. You know, he said, as long as upstairs has the same mentality about winning as me, I'm good, I'm happy, you know, because last year, whenever his contract was in discussions, he put out a whole letter high five to the ref there is hilarious, by the way. He put out an entire message about how it's not just about being a good player. I want to win games, man, I would like to win. And seemingly took a shot at Andrew Barry with the way he described getting to Canton and Hall of Fame. Almost as if that was a goal for the Browns as opposed to winning football games. Then he gets 40 million a year that seemingly changes. I'm going to be a part of the change that's going to happen here. Then they go on to not win again. It's like, how long does this last? Is Myles Garrett going to continue to be a pillar in a sensation while they continue to lose? Like Joe Thomas spent his entire career? Obviously nobody wants to do that. The Browns are fascinating. BA Obviously you're up there as a coach. It feels like they have been just cursed. Like they are just to going to stink. Doesn't it feel like that with Cleveland? I don't like it. I like the people of Cleveland, but it feels like that with the Brownies.

[Coach BA]

Yeah, they had the great fans, man. I, you know, I was with the Colts and we went up there like week 16. It was snowing like crazy. I said, peyton, you don't have to worry about silent count today. We're in the lock. We came out there, as they asked in every seat. It was crazy. We had to kick a field goal on the last play of the game to win. And then going there and coaching for three years. They had great fans, man, and they deserve Moore. It's a shame, but that you can't put the product on the field. It's just been the quarterback issue for years and years. And you know why they ever get Bomb Baker? I don't know.

[Tony]

Yeah, that was, that was wild. Beat the Steelers in a playoff game.

[Connor]

Pretty big without, without Savansky on the sideline. He had Covid.

[Tony]

The Pittsburgh Steelers are who the Cleveland Browns beat in the playoffs. Get this guy, though. Get him out of here. All these commercials. I'm about sick of him doing a Dougie. Let's get him out of here. Now. He's down there in Tampa trying to win NFC South. Got a nice house down there.

[Ty Schmidt]

He does have a nice house.

[Tony]

He's got a nice house down there. I, I, I, I seen that as, as a, through the Instagram story there of his family as he followed along with that NFC South. You think Tampa's going to be okay?

[Coach BA]

Yeah, I think so. I think there been a lot of injuries this year and some things didn't go right. A couple different spots. But Todd's going to right the ship and Jason Light's going to get another great draft. Draft. And they'll, they'll reload. They don't have to rebuild. All right.

[Tony]

I guess we'll just believe it because you're down there, you're close to the situation. You're the man. We appreciate the hell out of you, Coach.

[Coach BA]

You got it, guys.

[Tony]

Ladies and gentlemen, that's Coach Ba. The Tampa Bay fans were calling pretty loudly for a new Coach Dunner.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, real off. Big time.

[Tony]

BA's in the building, you know, as consultant. I think Todd and Jason will get it done. It's like, all right, that sounds like that's what's on going to be happening.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right at that division. It feels like any year you could argue that any of the teams is by far the favorite to win it.

[Tony]

But what I'm saying is they're not making any changes. No, that's what it sounds like, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah. I mean, Chef, he kind of said that yesterday too, but, you know, things could change.

[Tony]

Chefy living in his fears in this moment is certainly wild. Him getting a whole new narrative or perspective in a city, an entire city, just from one text message. Hey, Actually snooping around Cliff Kingsbury.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Parting aways. He's gone from Washington. Add Cliff Kingsbury's name potentially to a list of head coaching things. Well, did he get fired or did he leave? Well, him and Dan Quinn sat, talked about the future and they decided to part ways. I guess they disagreed. So now he'll pursue other opportunities. It's like, is he still getting paid by the Commanders and by the Cardinals? And then is he potentially going to be a head coach now all of a sudden? Because obviously what he was able to do with Jaden last year is certainly going to be a conversation that is going to be brought up during the whole interview process here with a lot of head coaching vacancies and not a lot of head coaching candidates. It's like, so did Dan Quinn tell Cliff, yeah, go be a head coach somewhere else. I don't like what you're thinking. Or did Cliff tell him, hey, I'm going to need more money because I'm going to go be a head coach? Or did they actually talk ball? And Dan was like, I'm done with it. And then defense coordinator comes in, Dan's done with it. I don't want anything. We need to not have whatever happened this year happened happen again. Fascinating development, because.

[A.J. Hawk]

Can you put that tweet up? I'm sorry, can you read it? Like, how that tweet is worded? Like, he met with Cliff today to discuss the future of the offense after those conversations. So heading into those conversations, what was the thought I said, that's what I want to know. Like, what was your. What did you plan on into this meeting? Were you thinking, like, hey, I'm gonna. We're probably gonna part ways? Or were you thinking, everything's all good. And then after you talked, you said, see ya?

[Tony]

Yeah, it was Dankin. Like, he's gonna have to earn it in here. And he didn't earn it. And then they decided to move, move on. Maybe Dan Quinn wanted a different direction and Cliff's like, I'm not going to do that, if that's what you want to do. Because Coach Tomlin multiple times moved on from offense coordinators because he wanted a different style of football to people. Yeah. And I think multiple times, he's not the only one. There's been other teams that have done this where the head coach would like a different style of football to be played. You can either do it that way or we'll find somebody to do that. Maybe that's what took place here. I'm not sure, but I think Cliff Kingsbury's name. I'm like, oh, people are going to want him to be a head coach for sure because of what BA literally just, just said. If you're an offensive guru, you're certainly going to get an interview and a sit down. He's handsome, he speaks well. He has Jaden Daniels, who has one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time now on his record that he can certainly sell a lot of jobs open. It feels like Cliff might be a head coach next.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's crazy how shit changed so fast in the NFL. And I'm thinking what you're thinking as far as philosophy wise on the offensive side of the ball, hey, Cliff, maybe we should do more of this. And Cliff is kind of like, hey, this is how I do it. And coming off of that NFC championship run with a rookie quarterback, like that was crazy. Ran a ton of hurry up, were super aggressive, went for it on fourth down a ton. I know Jaden got hurt a bunch with his running and his elusiveness, but that's a part of what makes him great. I don't know if this will be the right time for Cliff to hit the market as far as being a head coach with all the hot names that are out there on.

[Tony]

Are there hot names?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, on both sides of the ball. Deep. The defensive guys and we talk, we looking at the landscape of who's out there right now. Kubiak could be a name with, you know, that's out there leading Sam. But outside of that, I mean, Josh McDaniels, he's not going anywhere. Like the top. Like offensive guys. Like who? Who are like the top.

[Tony]

No, that's what I'm saying.

[Darius J. Butler]

Like now six jobs. Yeah, we got six jobs available. Like, yeah.

[Tony]

And then who knows if another one opens up after this weekend from whatever outcome. It's like, how many offensive names are out there. This might be the time for Cliff Kingsbury to get back in the game. Because last year, to your point about the NFC championship, people were like, hey, Cliff's going to get back in the head coaching. Yeah, I actually did it. I'm getting paid. I like Jaden. I like working with Jaden, actually. I like what Dan Quinn's doing here. Let's go ahead and stick it around, give it another run. And then if he doesn't get hired, this might be the old story of like, hey, when you're hot, these opportunities aren't going to come forever. But it feels like he's going to get a lot of interviews.

[Connor]

Yeah, definitely. Especially with what you said, you know, like, look at those teams at the top, like the Raiders, for instance, they're about to draft a young rookie quarterback and he's had a of ton, ton of success, Cliff, with young quarterbacks. So you can even go back to Kyler. Like they kind of built Kyler up a little bit. They went to the playoffs and granted you see how that ended up with Arizona, but there Tennessee, you know, the offensive guys are kind of older. You wonder if Stefanski wants to take a year off. You could definitely see that after living in Cleveland for that long. And then Big Mike, Big Mike, you know, older guy. A lot of these teams do want those younger kind of, you know, quarterback, goofy, guru, offensive guru types. And I think Cliff would definitely fall into that category. Even Cleveland. Like you think Cleveland would give Cliff Kingsbury a look because they have multiple.

[Tony]

Young quarterbacks and it's Cliff want to go to Cleveland?

[Ty Schmidt]

Absolutely not.

[Tone]

Doubt it there.

[Tony]

What's that?

[Ty Schmidt]

Cliff Kingsbury is not going to Cleveland, I can tell you that much. If he Cleveland, Cliff, if he gets another crack at head coaching job, he will not be going to Cleveland. I believe he was, was a Pat's backup for a while.

[Tony]

So I wonder he played with Tom.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. I wonder what kind of relationship he has with Brady. Because if you remember it was a couple years ago, remember it was like a done deal that he was going to go to Las Vegas to be their OC and then they like fudged something with. They didn't want to give him an extra year that he wanted or something like that. So great. I mean that's, that's a different regime. So who knows there? But if you're Cliff, I mean if you went to Vegas, I, I would think you would maybe more so want to go as maybe the O.C. you, you go gangbusters with a guy like Mendoza and then, then boom. After that, hey, I'm, I'm the hottest ticket in town.

[Connor]

Yeah. And to Debo's point about the defense though, right now I believe Brian Flores is the quote unquote favorites to land in Vegas. A lot of. I think Floria reported over the weekend that the idea in Vegas right now would be a full blown New England Patriots Brady reunion with Beefalo being the head coach, Brian Dabel being the OC and then day ball being another guy who's good with young rookie quarterback with.

[Tony]

A st out there. He's gonna pinstripe suits.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Mark Davis.

[Tony]

Oh my God, that'd be awesome out there. Yeah. Just in my head, all of a sudden, Cliff has a real shot at getting a head coaching job.

[Tone]

Yeah. The offensive guys would be Clint Kubiak, Seattle OC Cliff Stefanski, Big Mike, Joe Brady, Joe Brady, Matt Nagy.

[Tony]

We'll see.

[Connor]

Yeah, tbd.

[Tone]

I think I'm probably leaving a couple out.

[Tony]

But to your point though, what if. What if defensive guys win the day? Now, B.A. said, that's B.S. baby. And we a previous B.S. or no B.A. or no B.S. with B.A. we asked him if a defense is going to be the thing that wins the title this year. And he goes, that's BS baby. Need a quarterback. So he's always going to think offensively. I think that is what BA Does. But with how great all these defenses are and if d', Amicos, Houston Texans are able to go on a run strictly because of the their dominance. McDonald's with their Seattle Seahawks strictly because of the dominance of the defense. It's like owners are very much monkey see, monkey do. I mean, they are Philadelphia, they have.

[Darius J. Butler]

One of the best defenses. Last year, obviously, Saquon had an unbelievable year, but they've kind of been a rotating cast at that offensive coordinated spot. But their defense, especially since Vic has come over there, has been great. But I think, you know, I'm on board what BA Is saying because we know how important important it is with developing quarterbacks. We've seen what Liam has done with Trevor, we've seen what Ben has done with Caleb. So yeah, I can definitely see the monkey do, monkey see, monkey do part of that. But I mean, you have to look at. Every organization has to look at, hey, how do you want to build this team? Which guy can really come in here and lead this franchise? Whether it's a variable or Dan Campbell or Sirianni or d' Amico Ryan's, whoever that guy is that you think is Robert Salah from 49ers, whoever that guy that you have the money, most faith to stand in front of the room and lead you to that next chapter. That's where you go whether it's offensive, defensive, or like a special teams guy.

[Tony]

I like that that's being considered seemingly more by everybody. Like, hey, you need an actual like coach. You need like a leader in there. Not just a play caller, a play because there for a while after McVay, who Actual leader, by the way. McVay. I'm not saying that he's not an actual leader. Sean McVay, great leader, great speaker, feels like everybody respects the hell out of him, has made tough decisions, has had hard conversations. He's not just a play designer and play caller, but I think a lot of People are like, whoa, everybody could do that if they got to good place and you got the good place. Why don't you come on in here? It's like leading a team and having like an alpha trait that you have to have while also having empathy and being able to relatable while your resume has to be able to hit. That's all a part of being a great coach. And I think a lot of that got forgotten about whenever there was a hiring cycle or two or three after Sean McVay had successfully where it was like, who could call best play fans, like offense, we're going to give it to him. We're bringing in a super genius. It's like, well, what about like leading a team though? Like. Like that is certainly a conversation that was kind of lost. And then mcdc gets a gig.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

And then all of a sudden Vrabel starts gnawing on glass basically up there. And then you start seeing Sirianni, his little entire thing. Is his leadership style different than everybody else? Seems like he's got the boys rally behind him. Him. It's like, wait a minute. Maybe you do need somebody that can lead an organization at the head coaching job while also being able to do the football side of it.

[Connor]

Yeah. Exact. Taylor. I don't know if we consider him in that, you know, entire.

[Tony]

We do.

[Connor]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We do. Koc really was the one that flipped that for McVeigh. Like, Koc went in former player after his entire Ram stint and he made the Vikings what it is. And then he had to make a bunch of tough decisions with Kirk and some other guys and Brandon Staley, I think comes to mind for me as far as like, oh, yeah, that was a bunch of shit when it came to McVay's entire coaching tree. But there isn't a Ben Johnson or Aaron Glenn, like, at all. Not even remotely close this year. Like there was last year. Like last year going into this entire week, it was like, who's going to get the bell of the ball? The two bells of the ball, really. Because Aaron Glenn was considered the number one, you know, defensive guy and Ben Johnson was the number one offensive guy. But it worked. And now this year they're in. Isn't that so? Cliff Kingsbury kind of stepping into that. Hey, don't forget, like, second time. Yeah, second time. Yeah.

[Tony]

How much he learned. Well, we watched at Arizona since he's been. They've already fired another coach.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

And they already got some. But you know that. That whole situation. They might be to Cleveland to the west. And I don't like that.

[Tone]

Did you see the stat?

[Tony]

Huh?

[Tone]

The entire history of the Arizona Cardinals, I think it's like 100 years. They've never had a coach be there for more than six. Six years.

[Tony]

Yeah. There was another stat that came out Cardinals that was just so horrible.

[Darius J. Butler]

Green quarterback win.

[Connor]

They win like 17. They can go 170 for like 10 straight years. And their entire franchise's win percentage would still be under.500. That's the one that's coming to my mind.

[Tony]

That was one of the stats. There was like most double digit losses in the history or something like that. It was way. The graph way this way. And then there's every other team and it's like, have we not talked about how the Cardinals have been absolute sh. And how their fans and that city.

[Connor]

That's why it's a beautiful city. That's why we don't talk about it. Because the city is so freaking awesome.

[Tony]

And the people are like, that city is awesome.

[A.J. Hawk]

UCLA in college football. Beautiful place, unbelievable campus, unbelievable spot. Like they should absolutely be able to win and they just don't for some reason.

[Tony]

Phoenix after Indianapolis, Indiana obviously might be best city in the United States of America.

[Connor]

Like Nashville after India.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, Nashville, Miami, they stink too.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, maybe that's why city's too nice.

[Tony]

Football just like we talk about with Miami. Yeah, yeah.

[Connor]

All three. All three of those places.

[A.J. Hawk]

Too much going on.

[Tony]

Said he's too good. Said he's too good. Can't focus on ball. How could you? Phoenix. Yeah, that's what they say. Oh, mountains with the view. Oh, there's five star restaurant. Here's five star restaurant. Five star restaurant, relatively affordable. And also anything you want to do a good time is here.

[Ty Schmidt]

I want to go practice that.

[Tony]

Oh, I'm gonna be late. I'm gonna drive 150 miles an hour. That happens because they're living life too much out there. You're not Tyreek Hill. Maybe Phoenix being too awesome is the problem.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's also why you'd think they would be able to attract like a top line head coach, you know, a bunch of good players in free agency. Because it is is awesome out there.

[Tony]

What's Miami doing? What's playing down there? What do you guys got cooking down there in the Dolphin? Nobody really knows by the sounds of things. McDaniel said he was helping in the GM search, and Barry Jackson reported that McDaniel actually isn't safe.

[Tone]

So I think once we get the gm, the GM will make the decision on what the hell's happening.

[Tony]

Who's the gm? Potential possibility. Who's the name?

[Ty Schmidt]

We know John Eric Sullivan of the Packers. I believe he's having an interview today. I think they're interviewing maybe like six people via Zoom today.

[Tony]

Okay. So from our understanding, just from, we don't know, a lot of people telling us things about front office people around the NFL would be open to it. Wouldn't mind getting more info on the people that we don't know about, which would be cool. These people are kind of like under the guise of watching film and on the road behind the scenes to kind of build, you know, a roster that's normally. Who's getting the general manager jobs. Are they leaders too? I think that's something you certainly have to look at. But allegedly out of the packers organization. This John Eric Sullivan guy is a guy. A.J. you know him, I think from your time in Green Bay.

[A.J. Hawk]

He's been there a long time.

[Connor]

He.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, he is a dude. Like, I, I think if I didn't believe that, I just wouldn't say much about him. But yeah, I think he's absolutely a guy.

[Tony]

Yeah. But I think Green Bay has been creating a lot of these, like, good leader, not just like, find out, evaluate, evaluation. They've watched it.

[A.J. Hawk]

They've watched it, like Green Bay, whatever you want to say, like from the top down, like, it's run the right way, they do things the right way. And so they've grown up in that system. They want to try to implement that somewhere else.

[Tony]

When you become a gm, Schneider, Elliott, Wolf, New England over there at Seattle is obviously Schneider. They're littered literally throughout the rest of the league in high profile. He might. He's going to be the next one, allegedly. Even though they're interviewing other people.

[Tone]

AJ I have a question because I'm trying to shape my mind how I feel about this John Eric Sullivan. Do you have to call him John Eric Sullivan? If you are a friend of his, you have to call him John Eric. Do we call him Jess, Johnny, Jay?

[A.J. Hawk]

I don't know. I think you call him whatever you want. I don't know what he prefers.

[Tony]

Sol's available.

[Tone]

I just didn't know if he was a two name guy or not.

[Tony]

Plane landing.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, Beautiful plane landing on the belly of the plane in the Hudson.

[Tony]

That's right. Belly of the beast up there.

[Connor]

Can't use Sully because he just signed that $560 million contract with the Chargers after their Monday Night Football game.

[Tony]

I forgot about that. Him and Wazowski really put on a show for Us. Sully is a dog. Yes. So maybe they just call him Johnny. Yeah.

[Connor]

Johnny Je.

[A.J. Hawk]

Je.

[Ty Schmidt]

Rick.

[Connor]

Je. Wentworth.

[Tony]

Good jingle.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah.

[Connor]

That would be a good one for him.

[Tony]

That's a good. That's a good jingle.

[Connor]

New gm.

[Tony]

Did you hear that Audi Crook song before you came on?

[A.J. Hawk]

That is honestly. That's very good. That was. That was you.

[Tony]

Come on. Come on.

[A.J. Hawk]

It's really good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Legit.

[A.J. Hawk]

I am a big fan as well. She is awesome to watch play basketball.

[Tony]

I already got people tweeting, what's the name of that. That song? Audi Crooks Brother. That's the name of that song. Maybe even brother at the end.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Shout out to AI. Shout out to bars. Shout out to Melody. And shout out to Audi Crooks. You're about to get cooked. That's Audi Crooks.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's a good sound.

[Tony]

Yukon's in trouble. Especially if that thing starts.

[Tone]

Oh, oh.

[Tony]

You know, it starts going.

[Coach BA]

Sure, okay.

[Tony]

I don't like that. I don't to want like that. We wish them all the best. We love Audi Crooks. We also appreciate the hell out of you. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Yeah, I came up out of nowhere. Let's take a break. And on the other side, obviously got to cover everything else happening in the sport.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Tony]

D3. D2B. D2A. Obviously figure out there.

[A.J. Hawk]

I don't know what any of it's called either.

[Tony]

Me neither. I get attacked though for saying you guys are elitist.

[A.J. Hawk]

There's no more one AA, right? Correct.

[Tony]

I guess there is. Is one double A. They call it FCS. But one double A. D2. Like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? What are we doing?

[Connor]

Jeez.

[A.J. Hawk]

I didn't know the nj CAA and njc.

[Tony]

Well, we know it only remains junior college.

[Connor]

Oh, okay.

[A.J. Hawk]

I didn't know that was still. That's Coach Chef jb. I know.

[Tony]

Yeah, that's right. Chef jb. So much meat.

[Darius J. Butler]

Which one did he get?

[A.J. Hawk]

Meat feed to the dog.

[Darius J. Butler]

Steve Kim.

[Connor]

Yo, Big Smitty Dave Ports.

[Ty Schmidt]

You know, all the. All the cast characters.

[Tony]

The food does look phenomenal.

[Connor]

It does.

[Tony]

It does, yeah. Real time out there. Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

This boat looks phenomenal.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a yacht.

[Tony]

That's a yacht.

[Ty Schmidt]

Jesus Christ.

[Tony]

All right, let's get out of here. We'll be back on the other side. We appreciate you all so much. Happy New Year. We're thankful to be here. Let's wrap up all the sports talk on the other side. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. Might change your life. Take five. Hi.

[Ty Schmidt]

There.

[Tony]

Surprise. 30 for 30 presents.

[Darius J. Butler]

Booyah.

[Tony]

Can I get a witness from the congregation?

[A.J. Hawk]

You can't stop. Authenticity.

[Tony]

Booyah. Stuart was exactly like you saw him. On camera. Off camera. He dialed it up 10%. Can you imagine the impact of young black boys and girls looking at that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Going, I feel seen.

[Tony]

He changed the culture. He changed sports stream.

[Connor]

Booyah.

[Tony]

Presented by Modelo right now on the ESPN app. Football. Hey, it's magical. A.J. happy birthday, buddy. Hey. Don't want to have to do this again, but there might be some new people here, so happy birthday. That would have been awesome if we would have did that. That would have been great. You know what? Maybe we should, right? It only happens once a year. I think you're right.

[A.J. Hawk]

My connection's kind of choppy right now.

[Coach BA]

Happy birthday.

[Tony]

I can't hear you. Oh, you got to be louder. Happy birthday, dear. Happy birthday to you.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hell, yeah.

[Tony]

Happy birthday, A.J.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you. Yeah, it was, like, shifty yesterday. My audio cut out. I didn't really hear it.

[Tony]

Oh, you didn't hear. Can you hear us now? No, you can't hear us right now.

[A.J. Hawk]

I was reading your lips. So, yeah, still doing it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Here we go.

[Tony]

Okay. Can you do that? The whole stop?

[A.J. Hawk]

Not doing it again.

[Tony]

Can you believe it? Can you hear us right now or no? Can I seriously?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah. I just came back.

[Tony]

Okay. Happy birthday to you.

[A.J. Hawk]

I appreciate it.

[Tone]

Can you believe it's been five years since his party at the Capitol?

[Tony]

It's crazy you did that age.

[A.J. Hawk]

You know, a lot of people do. Mention that to me. People do.

[Tony]

Is it weird your birthday the same day as what was happening over there.

[Connor]

And washed it just happened to not be on the program.

[Tony]

Here's AJ Hawk highlights. By the way, if you. If you don't know this, the guy that shows up on the screen every single day from Manic in Ohio was an absolute monster on a football field. I mean, no questions asked, all time leading tackler for the Green Bay packers at Centerville High School over there in Ohio, outside Dayton. Shout out to all the Elks out there. Obviously, legends across the board. AJ once had, like, 30 tackles in a game while also rushing for 250 yards and punting six times for an average of 50 yards. You're talking about the Ohio boy of Ohio, boys. He has a tree named after him on the Ohio State University's campus because he was once the president of Ohio, voted by his constituents. So, ladies and gentlemen, we are certainly going to celebrate William Grace football guys. William Grace, Ohio, guys, and good friend of the program who's not only good on a football field and on this particular of the show and in day to day life where he's living in the moment, like right now and right now and right now. He's also an incredible mixed martial artist. People forget.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

That at one time I wanted to see this.

[Tony]

He was potentially going to take down John Bones Jones, but instead he stayed focused on football. And obviously we thank him for that in the football world, in the UFC and the MMA world. You missed out on this. Hey, you missed out on us, aj. Happy birthday, buddy. We love you.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you. That clip's amazing.

[Tony]

It is. It showcases what could have been. What about what you thought, what we.

[Tone]

Found out this weekend?

[Tony]

What's that?

[Tone]

His senior year, he tours pcl, acl, and mcl. Was out for four weeks and then came back and played quarterback the rest of the year because quarterback got hurt. Led him to a state championship and.

[Tony]

He said I wasn't. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's real.

[A.J. Hawk]

It took a lot of liberties with that story, but. Yeah, you know, I guess like one. One piece of that. I tore my PCO my first game my senior year.

[Tony]

Okay. Not your acl.

[A.J. Hawk]

No, no, because ACI wouldn't be able to come back. I've torn a pcl. Got, you know, got scoped, cleaned out the cartilage rehab. Had to come back the last four weeks wearing a Don Joy. That was awful. Been playing quarterback. Quarterback's a tough position. Not gonna lie. Even in high school, it's tough making those re. I was. I was tucking and running a lot.

[Tony]

Did you guys win?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, I think so. I don't know. We didn't go to. We didn't go to state finals or anything like that. No.

[Tony]

So your high school quarterback obviously needs to get added into this entire thing. Were you playing linebacker as well? Clearly. Obviously.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah. Well, I mean, I was like. So I. I played linebacker, running back, and I was always like a backup quarterback in case they needed me, and then they needed me when I came back because I got hurt.

[Tony]

So you're playing full time linebacker and full time quarterback in Ohio high school.

[A.J. Hawk]

Football for a couple weeks.

[Tony]

God. Had to be legendary. They tell stories about this guy. Oh, yeah, sure. When I ran into. Who did we run into? We ran into somebody who was at another place in Ohio, another high school at the same time. Instead, he used to go watch Centerville High school football games to watch AJ Hawk, this absolute maniac on the football field. This guy has been like the Ohio boy through it all. And A.J. happy birthday, man.

[Connor]

Happy birthday.

[Tony]

Hi.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you.

[Tony]

And don't you worry. Ohio. He's spawning others.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Tony]

He. He's spawning others over there in the great state of Ohio. We appreciate that. And what a great week for it to happen.

[A.J. Hawk]

Maybe the greatest week, football week, huh?

[Tony]

I know. Legit. AJ the semifinals. Semifinals. Super wild card. Super wild card. Super wild card. This is it, AJ we made it here.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, we did, I think. Ty, didn't you say this is like the greatest football week slash weekend of the year? Yes, I would say you are most likely sp. Spot on there.

[Tony]

Yeah. Especially because Thursday we start with college football. And it's not just a potential. No, nothing college football midweek game. No, it's College football playoff semifinals.

[Connor]

The game.

[Tony]

This is. This is. Here we are. These are the best four. And then Friday, it backs it up. And then we got two very obviously very good games Sunday, three very good games Monday. What? And we don't have to be distracted watching eight different screens. You see Scott Hansen get emotional when he said goodbye.

[Connor]

Yeah, he did. Had to.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Can't blame him.

[Tony]

No more octo boxes till next year. I'll see you guys in September, he said. So what's he do till then?

[Ty Schmidt]

Unplugs.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

Does he pop up in the off season at all?

[Ty Schmidt]

And then come, what? You know, the first. Last week, August, first week of September, he unplugged.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's it. What happened?

[Ty Schmidt]

He goes. They unplug football.

[Connor]

I'll plug him from the back.

[Coach BA]

Months.

[Tony]

And then September. What?

[Connor]

September. They walk in, they actually have to get a duster.

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hello, NFL fans. Welcome Back to Week 1 of the NFL red zone. And then he does his whole spiel, and it's like he never left. Yeah. But he has been unplugged, basically collecting dust for the last six months.

[Connor]

You forgot after they first plug him in, before he does that, he has to pee and poop. Of course.

[Tony]

Of course. Well, actually, maybe he does.

[Tone]

Yeah. That's why he doesn't.

[Connor]

Yeah. A large extent, I thought. He builds up.

[Tony]

He changed the style of play. He changed his style of play this year. You know, New contract for Scott Hansen. He changed the style of play. You know, he. He's basically like the NFL's point guard, just kind of passing in the games, coming back in, getting the ball. Boom. He was. He was a little bit more.

[Ty Schmidt]

Getting a couple more shots up.

[Tony]

I'm a dribble into your. Into your area. And I'm a dribble back, you know, and then I'm going to Take it up. Then we're going to run again and then maybe I'll go see and I'm going to take it back like this. Okay. And then every once in a while, something big. Let me go and kick it out to the corner, you know, let me go ahead and do that. Every once in a while he'd send it to a booth that was complete shite. And we'd be like, come on, Scott. He didn't pass the ball for the last 10 minutes. We don't need these people to be the next ones talking in that, that entirety. He changed his style of play a little bit this year. I think we all noticed it, right? With Red Zone.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. Did anyone end up boycott because of the commercials?

[Tone]

A ton, dude.

[Tony]

There's a lot more commercials.

[Tone]

As ratings were down for Red Zone, I think like 98% or something like that.

[Tony]

He heard about something else that had that percentage before we went live. That is not real. But I did take it on the shins going into the NFL season because I was an NFL red Zone shill because I said one minute out of seven hours is going to. And be. We're still. Who cares? We're still going to watch this thing. And I'll tell you what, there was a couple times where Scott was about to get to a really good point and all of a sudden, boom. Somebody pops in for a 35 second ad and I'm like, what was he gonna say?

[Tone]

That's true.

[Tony]

Still watching it on your side, you.

[Tone]

Still see it, you'll never know.

[Tony]

Mercedes looked nice though, didn't it?

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, my God. You kidding me?

[Tony]

They got good commercial.

[Ty Schmidt]

They do.

[Tone]

They do actually.

[Tony]

Good bow tie, great bows.

[Ty Schmidt]

John Ham voicing him over.

[Tony]

He's making quite a comeback for that.

[Ty Schmidt]

I love.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Coop has good meme league in NFL Uber.

[Tony]

The Uber one really went all night. Yeah, Uber went all in with him. And they should, by the way.

[Dan Orlovsky]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Coop nails it. Good commercial.

[A.J. Hawk]

He's actually a fan.

[Tony]

Knows ball, watches ball, lives ball. I can't believe he said that thing in that thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tony]

That was crazy. He said that.

[Ty Schmidt]

I know. No, but it was spot on.

[Tony]

What was that thing, though? What was the gq? It was a. Oh yeah, the GQ.

[Ty Schmidt]

Thing with him and Will Arnett.

[Tony]

Will Arnett. Is this thing on? Available now. Please go watch. It's incredible. Good for Coop. I believe he wrote, directed, shot, edited the entire thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh my.

[Tony]

We are massive fans of Coop. Obviously in his big ass brain. Him in that conversation though, saying, I mean retelling it a Very real story. Because when we found out we had his number, it was very. All right, boys, we're doing a cold FaceTime here, which is move that happens in the Thunderdome whenever we get somebody that we think should not know of our existence.

[A.J. Hawk]

Not much outside of the Thunderdome. You'd have to. Not many people outside of the Thunderdome are doing the cold facetime for the first time. You ever reach out to them?

[Ty Schmidt]

Certainly not to someone like Bradley Cooper.

[Tony]

I didn't even think about that. It just feels like the right move, doesn't it? We get it.

[A.J. Hawk]

It is. It's your move. It's what you do.

[Tony]

It's great. And it's crazy when people. People answer, you know, because then it actually.

[Coach BA]

Holy.

[Tony]

You know, we don't have to call the Catfish Show. It's actually this person, you know, that is crazy thing. And as soon as Coop answered that, we won immediately into me something, girl. We're all jacked up. And the fact that he remembers that moment is so cool for us. And the fact that he says it publicly. Crazy.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's cool, baby.

[Connor]

It's a great story here it is.

[Tony]

Actually, from GQ's social media. I believe this is for. Is this thing on. What's that called?

[Ty Schmidt]

Press junket.

[Tony]

That's sweet. He's a cool guy. Beginning, I think, of the movie star.

[A.J. Hawk]

Will that brought you up.

[Tony]

I just. We just texted him back. He met him, all this stuff, but he was. I was at Chris Hen's house in the morning having coffee, because we would always do that in the morning. And then I see on my phone, it says Pat McAfee calling. So I must have got his number.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Tone]

And then it was a FaceTime.

[Tony]

And then I open it, and he's with all his guys. And I was. They started singing Shallow. And then I looked like a little boy who just met Elvis. That's crazy. That's crazy. That is crazy. That. Yeah, exactly. That is insane that that is the way he's talking about it. But that's because I think. And I don't want to speak for him here. I think he watches our show, like, every day. Like, that's how much he loves ball. Like, the guy is addicted to ball. So him getting commercials and being a part of it. We're a huge fan of that. Yeah, we appreciate the hell out of him, champ. We are biased. Yeah, he's. Yeah, he spoke the team on the field.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Tony]

True. Got a great promo.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. It sat in the owner's box.

[Tony]

And then he made some Decisions in the off season and now they're back to back champs for the first time in 25 years for the NFC east or something like that. I don't know. You tell us.

[Connor]

I think the only back to back division champ this year. Pretty sure the they're the only one who won their division two years in a row this year.

[Tony]

And nobody's happy with them?

[Connor]

Nope.

[A.J. Hawk]

Are people giving them a chance to win at all?

[Tony]

No. What are we talking about?

[A.J. Hawk]

It's wild that they're defending champs and people don't like. It's like they're just, I don't know, fly under the radar. It's like people just don't believe in.

[Tony]

Them or what all season. It's like that age they're like waiting for him. It's not just like national people. It's like the Philly people too are just wise team sucks. This team's exactly what we thought they are. But biggest stage, they got stars all over the place. Could certainly just dial it up. That's not really how people are talking though about this team at all, right? All year, Ty?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, no, not at all. I mean it's the same the. But I don't know if it's just because people like. It's. It's. When your team's defense is so much better than their offense, it's more often than not a tough watch because they're beating teams like 13 to 3 and 13 to 10 and yeah, their offense has kind of looked like shite, but their defense is so good. And the fact that we haven't really talked about them, like, I feel like, you know, if teams take them lightly in the playoffs, which they won't, but like Philly has just as good of a chance to come out of the the NFC as any other team right now.

[Tony]

Yeah, definitely. I mean, unless you talk about. See how se. I mean, hey, they're the real deal.

[Coach BA]

They are.

[Tone]

This is unbelievable.

[Darius J. Butler]

No bs brother.

[Tony]

That's.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hey, well said Superman cap. Did he say Sam was put the Superman cap? That's huge. I mean huge development.

[Tony]

They're so far away. Just, you know, they're like so far away. So it's hard to talk about them, which is not fair. Okay, we're going to tell you we're.

[A.J. Hawk]

Part of the problem.

[Tony]

We probably didn't talk about them enough. Now Granny, you go over to Pittsburgh early in the year. We talked about it.

[Coach BA]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Good football team.

[Tony]

It's good football team. Exactly what was said the one we didn't know at the time that's a great football, great football team. That is a great football play. Real tough and I think they've kind of developed all year, only gotten better and better and figured out different ways to win. Remember, he was just getting the ball every single play for a while and then all of a sudden now Charbonnet is the guy and now will use. Definitely have him going on. We got a couple tight ends getting loose and then the defense is just going to be one or two in every statistic. And Mike McDonald, our head of coach, he's actually calling the defense as well as leading this entire thing. So we're going to have a tough mentality. Yeah, I don't think anybody really talks about Seattle enough in this entire defense.

[Darius J. Butler]

We all know how great the defense is. Jsn how great he is as well. That Rashid Shahid highlight, I feel like he's gonna make, you know, a couple splash plays here and there. Maybe it's a kick return, maybe it's reverse. Just a 70 yard post where people are gonna remember, oh, they did get Rashid, she at the trade deadline. But they put this team together greatly and they got the right head coach. We'll see if they got the right quarterback on this run. It's a lot of pressure on Sam, but a lot of people believe in them.

[Tony]

I believe in them too. Look at these stats from Himbo here on playoff teams versus playoff teams. These are the people that made the dance. How'd you fare against them? Seattle Seahawks 6 and 2 worst. Steelers 1 and 5. Patriots 2 and 2. Only played four playoff teams, which is a part of the strength of schedule issue which everybody's wondering about. Does this surprise you at all though? Con man Seahawks at 1. Steelers the worst in the league.

[Connor]

Definitely a little bit bit with the Steelers, but also because of their division being kind of having a down year in general. Them not playing as many playoff teams probably did not help them. The Jags being 5 and 3 I think is what kind of stands out. We're talking about them being home Underdogs. They won 13 games, they've beaten other playoff teams and they're still kind of being disrespected. I'm not there yet with Seattle. I'm just going to come out and say it. I don't think they're legit at all. I don't think Sam Donald could win a season super bowl at all. But I do think their defense can do it. That's why all the okay the ra. The. Seattle's allowed kind of Internet fan base so they will Definitely. Let me hear it because this, the Rams win, they go to Seattle. Who you taking? Because I know I'm not taking Darnold over Stafford.

[Darius J. Butler]

That was a great.

[Connor]

It was great game. And they had a punt return touchdown to basically win it. And that can happen again with Rashid Shahid. And they had a two point conversion which also helped them win it.

[Tony]

I'm not putting down the Rams. I love the Rams and I don't.

[Connor]

Want to put down the Seahawks either. My beliefs are not in Sam Darnold and Unfortunately, them winning 13 to 3 against a team where Philip river scored 24 points doesn't make me think any higher of the Seattle seat. But at the same time, I still believe in defenses winning championships. The last one that I saw from New England, it was 13 to 3. The last one from Philly. I mean, that defense dominated Patrick Mahomes. That defense won the championship. So still very possible for them to win a Super Bowl. It's just game on the line.

[Tony]

I don't know. Okay, let's move past that and let's go to defense. Ladies and gentlemen. It's award season, isn't it, A.J. hell yeah. Yeah, it is, ladies and gentlemen.

[Connor]

What the hell?

[Tony]

Was that a real belief or kind of asking a question on whether or not all this.

[Connor]

We get it?

[A.J. Hawk]

No, it was a real. I had my thing muted and I hit it at the last second and just wanted to make sure I got it across.

[Tony]

Oh, so you try to just make sure we really understood where you're.

[A.J. Hawk]

I was going to say what kind of award season. I was going to pose a question.

[Tony]

Oh, I like that.

[Connor]

Like, there it is.

[Tony]

I like that. I did that to Ty earlier. I said, who is Ed Policy in the middle of him giving an answer just in case other people don't know who he is, that he's acting owner of the Green Bay Packers. So I like. I like the thought of the potential alley oop there for. From a. Happy birthday.

[A.J. Hawk]

Thank you. Trying to figure the mechanics of TV out.

[Darius J. Butler]

That was a good mic.

[Tony]

Great Mike. And he's the man.

[A.J. Hawk]

He's the man. I hope he gets hired.

[Tony]

I'm excited to see. Yeah. What happens with him. I think he's very focused and excited for the opportunities to potentially get hired. And what a nice, refreshing feeling it would probably be leaving a place, getting a chance to get away, do life a little bit while observing football from a different perspective and then diving back back in and obviously know that this is it. So this is the. The final run at this entire thing that has to be a great feeling for Coach Mike. We're obviously pulling for him, but it is award season. His season's over. So now we got to give awards. The AP did all their voting. All their ballots have been cast. Congratulations to AP Tone getting that done. Had to watch every single snap of every single player at every single position for every single title. Thank you to for doing that and the other 49 AP people like Dan Orlovsky and others. I hope you did the same as Tone because us watching him take it seriously was actually awesome. Tone, we appreciate you doing that. But it's not just ap. They're giving out awards. We got awards to give out too, aj. You know that.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, I do. What are they?

[Tony]

Oh, that's a good question. How about the everything DB Darius J. Butler? Oh, everything db. Tough to make this team. I'll tell you what, I asked if we needed a first and second string dbut said, nah, I, I don't want a full first and second string. It's going to be tough to make this team. Now granted there's a lot of DBs all around the league. We're appreciative of their services. These are the five that made your final five?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I go one through five and then there are two rookies that kind of get a co, I guess, rookie of the year. But yeah, it is tough to make the team. It's only five spots and they're very a lot of deserving guys. I think Dan O. Said earlier, it's tough to even put all pro defense against together and not put all the damn Texans on there. But we're going to start with the Texan second time. Make sure Derek Stingley Jr. One of the best cornerbacks in the league, if not the best cornerback in the league. The only cornerback in the league to have four plus interceptions in three consecutive years. He was drafted number three overall and has lived up to the hype. Already got a new contract becoming one of the highest paid cornerbacks in the league. And we know we've been around the league for a long time. A lot of of times when a player gets that money, gets that first big, big time life changing check, they kind of take a year off or kind of have a year where they get. It's kind of a dub. But no, he stepped up big and has been one of the cornerstones of the best defense in the National Football League. It was tough not to put his counterpart on the opposite side of him. Kamari Lasset. I'm already said right now he's Honorable mention. He shipped it on here but it's tough, it's tough. But speaking of the other corner on this list, I mean we already showed all five will go. Quin Yon Mitchell, sophomore superstar.

[Tony]

Congratulations.

[Darius J. Butler]

Quinon, first rounder a couple years ago out of Toledo. A lot of guys didn't know this guy's name coming out of college, Mack Maxion. But he is one of the best press corners and we know how much of a premium that is especially in the playoff time. He will lock up with your number one receiver. He will travel from the left to the right. He will get in his face and he was challenged him down in and down out. Once again it was tough to pick these two top corners because there are other guys out there. Denzel Ward, Christian Gonzalez, there are the really, really, really good cornerbacks out there. But this guy right here has put together two back to back years. He almost made the team last year, just not a ton of ball production and a lot of these press corners won't have a lot of ball production but he has been unbelievable this year in that Vic Fangio defense where they played more man coverage. So I expect to see that more down the line in the playoffs as well. So congrats to Queen.

[Tony]

Congrats, congrats. Of course not easy to get on this particular graphic.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely not. And this spot is near and dear to my heart. The nickelback position where I kind of made my hay in the league. Cooper Dean.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Another. Another successful day, you know, breaking barriers I'll say on this team for sure. Unbelievable year once again. Again it took until Week 12 this season for Coop to give his give up his first touchdown in the National Football League. He's become one of the best, if not the best slot defenders in the league. He can tackle, he can blitz, he's a great pre snap communicator and his ball production is going up as well. We already remember the big time interception which was his only interception last season in the super bowl which he took back for a touchdown. But he is a physical specimen out there and once again communication is key of that nickel position. He can line up. He played some outside corner this year because they needed him but he's back where he's most comfortable in that slot and he is an absolute dog. Another sophomore superstar up here with his teammate on this team. Honorable mention for this spot, Jaylen Petrie. Marcus Jones also had great years in the clock.

[Tony]

Congratulations to them. Congratulations to an exciting white crack in the all everything BB team. This is huge day. Hey Coupe, thank You and Riley too. I know. They come up here and they think you're coup. Congrats to you as well.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Exciting words.

[Ty Schmidt]

I've been waiting for this day my whole life. Arguably, and this is one of the happiest days of my life.

[Tony]

Seahorn.

[Tone]

Yep.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Eric Weddle.

[Tony]

Oh, Weddle was a monster.

[Darius J. Butler]

Save you hitman.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Sticking corners though.

[Connor]

Chuck Pagano.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Chuck Pagano.

[Tony]

Chuck Wyoming.

[Ty Schmidt]

We used to dust Riley Moss.

[Tony]

Yeah. Corners elite.

[Darius J. Butler]

We just strictly dust. Fox was corner, right?

[A.J. Hawk]

Aj oh yeah. Corner was made Ohio State and then he got drafted by Minnesota.

[Tony]

Yeah. And we're just talking about random corners throughout the history.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. Just random super athletic corners.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Surprisingly super athletic. Congratulations.

[Darius J. Butler]

Congrats. Now we move on to the safeties. Kaylin Bullock, he was the best free safety and then National Football League this year. Once again, this secondary, this defense can be all Texans if I'm being honest. But he's going to get around the ball. He's a big time hitter. He would show up, he would show up in later wood as well. Once again a great communicator. They don't do a ton defensively as far as scheme wise. They don't try to trick you. This defense just lines up and do what they do. Four defenders in that back end who have at least four interceptions. That's Kaylin, that's Jaylen Pull Petrie, that's Kamari Lassiter and That's Derek Stingley Jr. So they are ball hawks as well as getting after you and land the wood. They do everything you want to do on the defensive side of the ball. And he was the best free safety in the National Football League this year. So shout out to Kaylin Bullock on his first appearance and all. Everything.

[Tony]

Hell yeah. K2 Eagles, two Texans and then obviously stud. That's been around a long time.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep, back to back years now for Derwin. Just James. And he could be a slot, he could be a linebacker, he could be a safety. He's Mr. Everything when it comes to the Los Angeles Chargers defense. Another pillar on that back end. Also leads all defensive backs and pressures. And he was actually chipped on like 12% of his pressures which you rarely see safeties getting chipped that much. But he's around the ball, around the line of scrimmage a ton. Kind of similar to Kyle Hamilton. Obviously he came before him, was one of the best players in college at Florida State and has hit the league running a bunch of all pros, a couple all everything DB teams now. But he does everything. Had A little more ball production this year as well. Had three interceptions but we'll get after you will sack, we'll tackle you in open field. And also a great communicator as well. That's all. All these guys talk their shit pre snap. Now Stingley is probably the quietest guy. He's just going to follow your best guy around shadow and make plays. But all these other guys, great community. Actually Quinon as well, he will lock your ass down. Just get in your face. But those guys in the middle and usually the guys in the middle of the defense, safeties, Nichols, backers, they have to be the communicators. Get other guys lined up and also be kind of Swiss army knives and do multiple things for their defenses. So shout out to all five of these guys on all everything DB team this year.

[Tony]

Congratulations boys. Derwin first ever back to back all everything db. Him and Stingley, he was on as well. Okay. So congrats to both those guys. It's multiple years of dominance. Did I see a C was on Derwin James's chest there and nobody else he would be the captain. You think of this all everything DB team?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, he's the OG of this group for sure. This is a pretty young group actually. So the league is in good hands and I can't wait to see these guys on the biggest stage making big plays, you know, on primetime games.

[Tony]

Speaking of young group, couple rookies of the year here now to be something of the year you would normally be just an individual schedule.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yep.

[Tony]

But this is co rookies of the year. Just pick one. Too much good football.

[Darius J. Butler]

It was. It was tough. It was tough to pick just one. I'll start with Xavier Watts since their season is over in Atlanta. But he had an unbelievable season. From wire to wire. Was a part of a very good defensive draft class. What I thought with The Falcons, the two edge rushers, Walker and Pierce Jr. Xavier Watts was kind of the pick that went under the radar. I thought he should have been a higher pick based on what we saw him do at Notre Dame. He will come up and hit you once again. Another guy that will communicate and he plays like a vet. Like when you watch this guy, you just turn on the tape. You would think he was a 67 year vet out there with Jesse Bates. He will attack the football. Led all rookies with five interceptions. He will lay the hat. He will make big time plays. I can't wait to see this guy's career just ascend down there. Atlanta, he's going to be a good ballplayer for a long, long time. And then speaking of good ballplayers, Nick Iman War, he was a first round pick and just an absolute playmaker once again, just like Dirk, same number. He's obviously nfc. You got Derwin and afc. He will line up all over the defense. He will blitz, he will tackle and he will get after football. I mean when we think, yeah, we think about lob and you think about Cam Chancellor and he was kind of the tone setter of that defense. I will put Nick in that conversation. He's the one of the tone setters of this defense. You have great players all around that defensive secondary. We know Mike McDaniel, he's an absolute madman. They have a great front as well. I think their front is a little better than it was in the lob days. So they've kind of been carrying his team. Best defense on third down and Nick Iman Warri and what he's able to do in coverage, what he's able to do in the run game, what he's able to do getting after the passer. He's a big reason why this is one of the best defenses in the National Football League.

[Tone]

As a rookie we highlighted him at the combine and coming out of college, hey, this is probably going to be a guy who's does well at the combine. He was 63220. He ran a 43 8. He jumped 43 inches for his vertical and his broad was 11 6. So yeah, he is just an an athletic specimen who is also really, really good at football.

[Tony]

Congrats to the secondary job boys and the all everything DB team and honorable mentions. Didn't want to make a first team, second team.

[Coach BA]

No, couldn't.

[Tony]

So we just do one tough to crack tough tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, the trenches. Wow.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yes.

[A.J. Hawk]

Same trophy.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, the reigning. Who was it? Trenchy Lane Johnson.

[Tony]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's expected to practice tomorrow.

[Tony]

That's a huge deal for Eagles.

[Darius J. Butler]

Very huge.

[Tony]

I'll tell you what biggest stage. This is like the thing we always talked about with the Chiefs whenever they're in the middle of their run of every single year. It's like Pat Mahomes, Travis Kelce, Chris Jones, all the boys on that team, like they're used to the big stuff stage. Like not that they're mailing it in but like been there when we, when it's time like to win or go home, lock in with the amount of skill that they have. It's like if they are to completely lock in which turning on and off the light switch isn't necessarily always easy. Okay. That's why people work their dicks off every single day and prepare and yada, yada, yada, you name it. But with the way the Philadelphia Eagles are constructed, a lot of big time players and normally in the biggest moments is when they play their best ball because they understand like the ramifications of everything, you know, in those moments. So I'm not saying that they mailed it in or didn't play their best ball. I'm just saying there's a chance, there's a chance that we have not seen anywhere near their best football.

[Connor]

What is the status of Jalen Carter? Because he had surgery on both his shoulders and he missed the last, you know, a little portion of the season. Is he 100% healthy? Are they still trying to figure that out? Do we not know if he is also already back practice?

[Tony]

They call him Baby Rhino or something.

[Connor]

Yeah, Baby Rhino.

[Tony]

That guy, I don't know.

[Darius J. Butler]

He just blocked. Didn't he just block a kick?

[Tony]

Jordan, Was that Jordan?

[Darius J. Butler]

No, Jordan and blocked one too.

[Connor]

But I just remember him going, he.

[Darius J. Butler]

Had, he definitely missed a couple weeks throughout the stretch. I think he's healthy. I will have to check but I think Jaylen Carter's healthy. Lane Johnson should be coming back and as you, as you guys mentioned, like that run game, if that can get going, that'll change everything for the Eagles.

[Tone]

Carter returned in week 18 from a month long absence because of injuries to both shoulders. Yeah. So it feels like he.

[Tony]

What about Lane?

[Tone]

Lane, I don't know right now.

[Tony]

Just to see if we already. Cuz if he's coming back to practice, you assume he's playing. Why would you practice?

[Darius J. Butler]

Lane? Trent Williams, I expect, I don't know, I haven't seen anything. But with Trent Williams knowing who he is with a hamstring and I expect him to be back up.

[Tony]

Yeah, I saw him tunnel, you know, boom box. I saw him still vibing, moving a little bit and then on the sideline it looked like he was not like agonizing in pain like that thing was, you know. Not that that can't pop up on you though.

[Connor]

Yeah, for sure.

[Tone]

Lane, who's been out since week 11 should be back for the playoffs. He's in line to return for the playoffs.

[Tony]

That's a big deal.

[Connor]

Huge.

[A.J. Hawk]

Their record, huge.

[Connor]

That, that's like the craziest stat of all time. Like 120, 20 and 50 with him and then they're awful without him.

[Tony]

It's from Jeff McLean. Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson expected to practice on Wednesday. For the first time since he suffered. At least Frank Johnson has made progress in his recovery, but still has to test his right foot before the team makes a decision on his availability for Sunday's wild card game. First, the Niners.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's playing.

[Darius J. Butler]

That injury is a bitch.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, he's in.

[Tony]

Yeah. Liz. Frank sucks.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Because that's every. Everything. That's the whole foot. Oh, I. Super painful. Yeah. I rubbed my pinky. My big toe. Okay. You can walk on the outside of your foot. The inside of your foot. Got an ankle. Maybe you can hobble a little bit. Just the entire. That sucks. He's taking many great men down. Blaine Johnson will return, though, from battle against that thing. Hell, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

How hard. How tough is it? I guess aj, Both of you went to Super Bowl.

[A.J. Hawk]

There's certain surgeries that.

[Darius J. Butler]

No, not even that injury. Just as a team, like, we always hear, like, super bowl hangover. Like, you have that long run, you win it all, you celebrating and coming back that next year, obviously not too many people go back to back. How tough is like that, really handling that and being in it, being a part of that team.

[Tony]

I'll answer quickly before AJ gives an actual answer. I thought we were just going back to the super bowl the next year. Everybody told me I was wrong, and we. And I was. We never got back. So. Aj, Your thoughts during that entire time?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, it's. I mean, I don't know if we assume. See, we won. We won it all, and then we got locked out, like, you know, a month later. So it was different. We didn't come back together until training camp started. So that made it a little bit different, I think. We weren't together, so it was like, it's all fresh and new again. We didn't have, like, the complacency. I think we went 15:1, I believe, that year, and then got beat in the playoffs, which sucks. But I don't know if I could say, like, there's complacency, but people, like, it's natural human nature to get comfortable. Like, if somebody. If you do get a ring or something happens, I don't. I wouldn't say that was the case with us. I don't think Big Mike was not going to let that happen with us. But I think it is real. It's definitely real.

[Tony]

The team that I was in the locker room of, I'm not even going to act like I was really a part. I wasn't. There's no reason I should have been there. I had no idea what I was doing. I feel like I brought good vibes though, but like that seemed very mature. So like the next year I think we made it to the divisional round and I lost to the Jets. I think we gave a deep shot to the right after calling a timeout because we thought we're getting the ball back. Passing her first interference, Nick Folk hits a 30 some yarder instead of having to be a 54 year. Nick Folk still doing it by the way. He was old at that time. Still doing it. Unbelievable. We lose the second year. But like I think all the OGs, I think they knew how hard it was to get to the super bowl, you know, like so I think I.

[Darius J. Butler]

Had Mount Rushmore quarterbacks too. Like Peyton and Aaron. Like, yeah, you would assume like every year you had a legit chance.

[Tony]

Peyton took it really hard. I think from my understanding, I don't know all the information on anybody or anything, but from my understanding it was Peyton. Like I think he disappeared for a few weeks, like get away from everything. Like really took it hard because how good our team was and how he had to lead at halftime. And I keep saying we, but like I didn't do, you know, that team was so cool to be a part of. They were just like grown ass men, you know, like, yeah, we're drinking a beer the night before, before the game. Where is the ice cream?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, these have beard our Saturday meetings early on in my career.

[Tony]

Yes. Ice cream, beer, pizza, ball was ball. What else do we need? Like we're playing cards on this night. We're doing dinner this night. This is happening on this night. It's like that, that was like. It was. And I just get dropped in there strictly as a single young vibes guy at every one of the events, you know, for basically every part of the team. Defense, offense, skill, lineman. You know, I got a chance to really see how they operated and I think they got a chance to see how I operated too. And I would say I think they did. They think I did okay, I think I did. But it was like that was like in West Virginia. It was the same shit. Like we were, you know, our team was like pros.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, you see, I came into Ohio State, we won the national championship my first year. Like I saw those dudes were men like those upperclass watching them, I'm like, okay. Like this is, they're. They were like a part of an older generation to where they, they could go out as hard as anybody on the planet and then they would be there at 6am the next day just cracking skulls. And they did not care.

[Tony]

And I think they would say that that was a trait that helped them in football, like, you know, overcome. Yeah, well, not only that, but, like, I feel like those people got a lot tighter as a team. Like, I think there were certain things that happened whenever guys. Guys weren't just completely worried about nutritional science at every single wicked turn. You know, I saw something about track, the 100 meters from the beginning of documented time till now, and we've only gotten like 0.7 or 0.8 faster. Whenever it talks about all the shoes, all the new technology, the new track, everything like that, documented 100 meter time. And I might have got got by AI if I was. They put a lot of work into this thing to do it, but it's like, how. How much faster did the human body actually get with the advancement of all this science and technology and information and all this shit? And it's like, not that much. So, like, whenever these nutritional people came in and just changed the entire culture of football like that almost, and the NFLPA and the NFL made it mandatory in the cba, like, everybody needs a nutritional coach. Everybody needs a science coach and shit like this. And I think athletes just bought into it. Cause it's like, yeah, okay, this is what the nutritional person says. This one it is. That really changed quickly. That's why whenever I'm talking about Fernando Mendoza having beers with the boys, like, I think that's a big deal. Like. Like, I. I think that is a huge thing. Because, yes, I guess everybody's stronger faster by how much? Certainly there's guys that are very, very fast, and there was guys that were nowhere near as fast playing football back in the day. But it's like, how much did all this super duper nutrition help? And what did we lose by taking away all the bad stuff that could potentially bring more chemistry than anything else, you know? And that's why whenever I hear mental toughness.

[A.J. Hawk]

Sorry, I don't want to lose that mental toughness. When I. Like when everything is crafted for you and hear smoothies and all this, that's what I get worried about is guys that say, like, yeah, yeah, I'm not gonna. You see a guy all of a sudden in street clothes after warm. Bad don't feel right today. Yeah, I don't feel right, Mike. What are you talking about? You don't feel feel right? Like, come on, man. Like, that's what I hope we don't lose also.

[Tony]

Hey, yeah, make a peanut butter and jelly, bro. We're hungry. Yeah, open that thing okay, Take anything, spoon whatever's nearest. Boom, bang. And then do it. Just doing that as opposed to, hey, here's this for you. Here's this for you. You want two protein balls? How about a protein stick? You want a little bit of this Gatorade? Oh, you want to get. We used to have to try to fight for some goddamn Gatorade out there. And I'm not yelling at the clouds in front yard right now. I'm just saying when I'm talking about players being generational. Fernando feels like an older generation quarterback in the modern era right now. And I don't even think he knows it. I think he's just like, it's a.

[A.J. Hawk]

Good thing, it's a great thing. And he doesn't know it.

[Tony]

Shut up that Oregon defense. I was going to home Dan Landing.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm really excited for that.

[Connor]

So pumped.

[Tony]

Second shot at him.

[Connor]

I'm glad that game is Friday and not Thursday. Me too. And I'm pumped for Miami Ole Miss too. It's just, you know, Oregon, Indiana, that's.

[Darius J. Butler]

Some of the nerds. You see what the nurse is saying about Dan Landon? What about beating him twice?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, pretty easy.

[Tone]

The board did it.

[Tony]

He wasn't the only one, I guess Ryan did.

[Ty Schmidt]

This is different.

[Tony]

That's what Hembo. Hembo said. Everybody's talking about beating Landing twice. I think Hembo sent me a stat about another team that was trying to beat somebody to twice. He's like, everybody talks about it being hard to beat somebody twice. It's actually not factual. Maybe you beat him the first time because you're a better team. And then it was some stat. This one is about Dan Lanning and maybe these teams are just better teams, which is what Hembo and the stats people say. I think about the whole narrative about it's hard to beat somebody twice. Because I think outside stats people, us, we get better knowledge, you know, more fired up, a little bit more motivated. Stats people say, well, actually higher score first. First game was more corresponding with how good team is. And then the second time should be the exact same. But we all understand what this is. We all understand adjustments, we all understand what could happen. But stats say it's certainly possible.

[Tone]

Also you see the. The DeBoer Washington when who beat him twice. 36, 33 and 34.

[Tony]

31.

[Tone]

Like those games could have gone either way.

[Tony]

32, 31, Ohio State, first meeting, rematch. Ass beating.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

4121 was not.

[Connor]

It was not that close.

[Tony]

Yeah, yeah, that was 411 nothing. That's what it felt like in my eye, in my mind. And I assume you feel the same way on that one.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, the beating team twice. I guess I'm a victim of that too. Or I guess I'm guilty of saying, oh, you know, it's hard to beat a team twice just because. Yeah, that's stupid. We should change that. I just. Because I heard it before. It's like saying, oh, make sure you don't go outside with wet hair when it's cold. You'll get pneumonia. That's dumb. Like, that doesn't mean anything. That's a. Don't touch the eggs of a. If you touch the eggs of In a bird's nest, the bird won't come back because the mom will disown them. Nope, that's false as well. Like, yeah, we got to have you disproven that.

[Tony]

Yeah, all these things. All these things are. Just do it this way. Because this is how it's always been.

[A.J. Hawk]

You don't want poop on your hands. You don't want your little kids having mushy bird poop and garbage all over their hands. So don't be dugging around a bird.

[Tony]

Okay, I like that. So they went to the extreme saying, hey, you want to ruin his life?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah, the mom will kill all the babies if you touch them. They make them feel bad.

[Tony]

Yeah, the most extreme.

[Darius J. Butler]

What about pumping gas with your cars on?

[Tony]

Yeah, I guess that's.

[A.J. Hawk]

There's. That's never been even questioned.

[Ty Schmidt]

What do you mean, shouldn't do that?

[Darius J. Butler]

Are you sure?

[A.J. Hawk]

That's in the winter. Especially in the winter. Deep butt. You're an indie. You're going to need to do that.

[Tony]

You knew, aj.

[Darius J. Butler]

I always do it.

[Tony]

You knew. Okay, you do as well. You knew. AJ felt very strongly about that. And I appreciate you alley ooping him here on his birthday. AJ's never even thought about turning his car off while pumping that gas.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's just common sense, you know that.

[Tony]

Well, how come at every gas station it says turn your car off whenever you pump?

[Coach BA]

Everyone does it?

[A.J. Hawk]

I mean, there's a lot of signs all over that mean nothing that are garbage that they just have there.

[Tony]

I agree.

[A.J. Hawk]

That's. What. What is it for? What do you think? CYA cover your ass cuz they don't want to get sued if your car blows up.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. And that's. You know what? Yeah, it is fine until some fat hayseed flicks a cigarette near your car and it blows up the entire gas station. And now you don't just have one fatality you got 30, 30, 40, 50.

[Tony]

This is just like the bird with the eggs thing.

[Tone]

Exactly. I looked up the bird with the eggs thing. I think he's right there. He's wrong about the gas thing, but.

[Tony]

Oh, he's a lot of signs. But what he's saying is just because we've heard it all the time doesn't mean it's real. You know, just because that's what AJ likes to question. Question the.

[Tone]

He doesn't like.

[A.J. Hawk]

Hey, I like to question they. When people say. They say like my mom is guilty. She always says they mom, who is they?

[Tony]

Here's I don't know. We'll say it's Google at this exact moment is one part of that. I don't know if this how they identify. We shouldn't necessarily just automatically throw they on them, but.

[A.J. Hawk]

Yes, you see rare. Rare is what I see right there.

[Tony]

Rare. Very rare. Yeah, but what do you see the first line or do you just not read like first line into.

[Ty Schmidt]

What are the two words? It's after rare.

[Connor]

It's Tim McAfee nicotine.

[Ty Schmidt]

Right.

[A.J. Hawk]

Catastrophic risk. But I mean come on now.

[Tony]

Aj. Aj. All right, so obviously everybody has told you you're wrong, but I understand. You got to live.

[A.J. Hawk]

No one's ever mentioned it to me. I think they all said thank you for keeping me nice and comfortable while you're pumping gas. I think that's all.

[Tone]

He also does this new thing on the plane flights where he refused to sit in his seat during takeoff.

[Tony]

Yeah, what's that all about?

[Tone]

Pretty active flyer because he was told one time, hey sir, can you sit in your seat for takeoff now he refuses to do it.

[Tony]

I don't have to do that. I'll tell you what, every once in a while I'll protest some that's being said on those things. I respect, I, I, I very much respect what you were saying.

[Tone]

I can't wait for to hit his head off the ceiling.

[A.J. Hawk]

I got a wide base, you see my wide base. The real problem is he's like banging.

[Connor]

On the exit door like oh, you think this is, you think this is fine? Don't you want me to do that now before if I did it in the air it be much worse throwing the ground.

[Tony]

I just want to see if it's holding. Yeah, I appreciate you doing those last plane checks. How about the peek and go? You were dead ass asleep the whole time.

[A.J. Hawk]

Oh no, I watched, I watched that whole thing, believe me. I cuz I saw it and I heard him juice it back up and I was like, oh, dang it, we're going around.

[Tony]

Okay, so you were up for that. Okay, I'm happy to hear you were up for that. In the way you fly. I assume you were actually woken up by the plane moving and your body just. We're in a puke right now. Even though you're dead ass asleep. Us in the front, kind of in real time, dealing with the information, knowing that hell was about to potentially happen. Like, hey, if we. If we can't land, we'll just pull it right back up and then we'll head over to LAX and then getting a message like, hey, think we're going to be able to land? So we're going to be able to see ground. We're going to be good. It's like, awesome. So kind of like anxiety kind of just kind of settles away and then we get to a part where we see ground. Like, we. Okay, we got here because we knew the mission. The whole mission time, and obviously we're paying attention. We're doing the entire thing. We see ground clear than I think we've seen.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, yeah, it looked good.

[Tony]

I mean, it was clear. Definitely.

[A.J. Hawk]

He could have touched down.

[Tony]

I. I'm thinking the pilots wanted to land at the other.

[Tone]

You guys saw the ground?

[Tony]

Oh, yeah, I saw house.

[A.J. Hawk]

Oh, big time.

[Tone]

Because I woke up on the.

[Tony]

There's a minimum. Yeah. I'll tell you, it was. It was certainly an impressive relift back up in here, the sky. But from what we were understanding and I'm sure some pilot would give us.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, I don't have my hours. Yeah, I know. A.J. got some hours under.

[A.J. Hawk]

There's minimums. He was. He was fully legal to do it. He made a decision. He's conservative. I agree it's better to do that.

[Tony]

Than die, which he can always grandstand with, you know, like. Well, we just thought it's safer for all parties, but also potentially.

[Ty Schmidt]

And my hotel's right there.

[Tony]

Yeah. So that. That is where you know, we. In the background of the plane, who then had to do an hour drive, you know, with limited, certainly had some questions. Like, my eyes. I was told if we could see, we're going down here. Is air traffic control telling you we can't go down? No, they're saying you can. Okay. You're just finding out if you could see. So you're making a decision to go to LAX then?

[A.J. Hawk]

Yeah. Airport was open? Yeah. Still fully open.

[Tony]

Oh, yeah. Operable.

[Darius J. Butler]

Down.

[Tony]

Safe.

[Connor]

That's right.

[Tony]

Thank you for doing it.

[A.J. Hawk]

We're here.

[Connor]

Hell, yeah.

[Tony]

We can't Complain, honestly. That's nice plane. We're on it a long time, but that was a nice plane.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[A.J. Hawk]

Wasn't nice.

[Tony]

Three rooms. I mean, you guys were sleeping in the back. Had no idea what was going on in front, right? No.

[Tone]

Luckily, California could not hear you guys right there.

[A.J. Hawk]

I didn't know that you guys knew we were possibly going to do a, you know, a go around or touch and go.

[Tony]

Like, I didn't.

[A.J. Hawk]

I didn't even know that. I just. It was foggy.

[Tony]

Yeah. We were very much in the know on how it was all going. Pilot actually came back, sat in front of me. All right, hey, listen, I'm going take a seat. Did this one.

[Connor]

It's going to be a long one.

[Tony]

Had his glasses on his lap. So here's the situation. Kind of breaks it all down. Low ceiling, you know, obviously a lot of pressure. Blah, blah, blah. The whole thing. Super scientific words. We're all, what, half asleep at that point. And it was a long time.

[Connor]

I was nuked at that point.

[Coach BA]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Oh, man.

[Tony]

Yeah. Still up.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

This guy, very well dressed, good hair. I mean, seems very professional. Moves glasses to the lap. I mean, knows his whole thing. Breaks it all down to us. Does it sound good? It does sound good. Thank you for, you know, the information. Gets up, goes back up there. Now we're all on high alert. All right, here we fucking go. Let's see what happens, boys. Flight attendant turns around, they're saying they think it's good for landing. It's like, oh, yeah. Yes. That's great news. Little burst of energy there, buddy. You know, about the 27th hour of our day. 2020 8th hour of our day or whatever. Lucky to do it. Not bitching about it. Just tucked in about state of mind where we are at the time and then, yeah, the. Oh, look at that guy's house. I'm literally seeing his backyard. Okay, we can see down there. It looks like. Holy. That was good takeoff. Shout out to that plane. Still having a juice. Be able to just turn that.

[A.J. Hawk]

I was hoping he was going to circle around, come back in the same airport. They do that sometimes. Try it again.

[Tony]

No, no, no, no.

[Connor]

Guy was never landing there.

[Tony]

Never.

[A.J. Hawk]

Well, no, the hotel was connected to lax.

[Tony]

He wanted us to take the roller coaster ride.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Tony]

That's all that was, all that was about. Boys, wake up. You got a hour and a half ride.

[Connor]

Awesome.

[Tony]

Thankful to be safe.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Tone]

Yep.

[Tony]

Thankful to be safe for.

[Connor]

Shoot.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Tony]

Cannot wait to get out to Arizona, then to Atlanta, then super wild card weekend. Why I didn't Super Wild car Monday.

[Ty Schmidt]

What?

[Tony]

Look at me live. Happy birthday.

[Darius J. Butler]

Here we are.

[Connor]

Happy birthday, hog.

[Ty Schmidt]

Happy birthday, hog.

[Tony]

Happy birthday, hogger. All right, we're back tomorrow. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're obviously in this together. Team on me. Aj Anything to say on this birthday?

[A.J. Hawk]

No. I appreciate you guys. Thank you. And you guys know these are the good old days.

[Tony]

Absolutely. You landed the plane, brother.

[A.J. Hawk]

Rent it. Let's live in the moment and this moment, this moment and this moment. And a new one. And a new one. The past is dead. The future does not exist.

[Connor]

Here we go.

[A.J. Hawk]

Kind of like new one.

[Tony]

And here it is.

[A.J. Hawk]

Tone's not in the moment. I can tell Tone's worried about now.

[Tony]

He's trying to move on a hammer down. He's got a lot of bets to get. A lot of winners shout out to that whole thing. Happy birthday. Love this moment. In every moment we get to spend again together. We're so thankful for the moments in which we get to talk about sports for a living. It's the dumbest life of all time and we can't thank you all enough for allowing us to do this. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Goodbye.