PMS 2.0 1508 - Boston Bruins Defenseman Charlie McAvoy, Freestyle Skiing Halfpipe Olympic Gold Medalist Alex Ferreira, Aaron Rodgers, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show PMS 2.0 #1508

Date: March 4, 2026

Host: Pat McAfee | Guests: Charlie McAvoy, Alex Ferreira, Aaron Rodgers, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk

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Episode Overview

This packed episode celebrates recent American sports triumphs, most notably Team USA's dominance at the Winter Olympics—especially in men’s and women’s ice hockey—then rolls into NFL offseason news, a feature interview with Boston Bruins defenseman/Olympic champ Charlie McAvoy, gold medalist skier Alex Ferreira, and a lengthy, candid conversation with NFL legend Aaron Rodgers. The crew also covers major NFL trades, the World Baseball Classic, golf’s TGL drama, and digs into the unique bond between sports, national identity, and personal legacy.

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Key Topics and Discussions

1. U.S. Olympic Glory & American Sports Swagger

Timestamps: 00:00–15:00; 29:16–54:00

• Pat sets the show’s tone, celebrating Team USA’s Olympic dominance in men’s and women’s hockey.
• Both teams’ gold medals are seen as a generational breakthrough: “We are the best hockey playing country in the world right now.” — Charlie McAvoy (32:35)
• Discussion about the “American swagger” the hockey teams embodied and how that vibe might redefine the sport’s future in the U.S.
• Numerous athletes “face-timed” with legends of previous American hockey history, emphasizing a sense of legacy and inspiration for future generations.
• The crew marvels at the passion, resilience, and brotherhood exhibited in the men’s gold medal game, with special praise for goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and the grit shown by McAvoy, Hughes, the Tkachuk brothers, and others.

Notable Quotes:

• “You’re playing for those people that are going to tune in and give you all their love and support because they’re American, and that’s what we share.” – Charlie McAvoy (35:04)
• “It just means everything...no matter where you are in America, for two weeks in February—we’re all one.” – Charlie McAvoy (35:09)

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2. NFL Offseason News & Analysis

Timestamps: 05:25–28:18; 75:11–86:00

• Trent McDuffie Trade:
  • Chiefs trade two-time Super Bowl champion CB Trent McDuffie to the LA Rams.
  • Darius Butler breaks down ramifications: “He can cover, he can blitz, he can tackle—he’s been coached great. This is a guy that can do everything.” (05:42)
  • The team analyzes Rams’ Super Bowl odds shift, KC’s draft strategy, and why veteran DBs keep moving in KC’s system.
• Kyler Murray’s future: Is Minnesota the key to his redemption? Pat and Ty debate Murray’s off-field questions, the opportunity with Kevin O’Connell, and the cyclical nature of NFL success: “The NFL is so hard. If you’re winning, you have to hold onto that for dear God.” (15:03)
• Patriots' Offseason: Stephon Diggs release, wide receiver market, and what Vrabel’s moves mean for New England’s direction.

Notable Quotes:

• “He can do this out of spite…sometimes when you get older and you start to see things from different perspectives...” – Darius Butler on Kyler Murray (24:19)
• “If you add a number-one [CB], what does that do for a defense?” – Pat (83:08)

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3. Boston Bruins' Charlie McAvoy Interview

Timestamps: 30:18–56:38

• Olympian’s Insight: McAvoy discusses the pressure, excitement, and legacy of winning hockey gold, sharing behind-the-scenes moments like FaceTiming with Hall of Famers and celebrating with both current and past Team USA stars.
• Leadership in Boston: On the Bruins’ captaincy committee, culture, and his own growth as a team leader dealing with adversity (jaw injury, comeback, Olympic run).
• Team Brotherhood: Strong emphasis on family, community, and the gold-medal inspiration passed on to the next generation.

Memorable Moments:

• “We just didn’t want to blink or miss any of it…we talked a lot about how this was our golden age of hockey.” — (31:31)
• Reliving the viral celebration with fellow Olympians, including Jack Hughes’ lost teeth, and the gritty moment McAvoy broke his jaw only to return in three weeks and help clinch gold. (38:57–40:05)

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4. Olympic Skiing Gold Medalist Alex Ferreira

Timestamps: 59:17–109:10

• Ferreira’s obsession with landing clean, high-amplitude runs in skiing halfpipe: “Amplitude is king…my whole style is making it as clean as possible.” (102:04)
• Comedic persona "Hot Dog Hans" brings humor to skiing culture and expands the sport's appeal.
• Discusses skier versatility, community, why more Americans should hit the slopes, and extends an invite to the crew to Aspen.

Notable Quotes:

• “I’m in the business of landing. ... We’re skiing on a block of ice. If you don’t land, you’re going to have a bad day.” (103:34)
• “I’m a soul shredder…I go out and ski with my friends, my mom, my dad, whatever.” (107:51)

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5. Aaron Rodgers: In-Depth, Candid Reflections

Timestamps: 123:03–204:12 (Extensive segment)

On Pittsburgh Steelers Experience & NFL Future

• Rodgers praises the Steelers’ culture, fans, and key teammates—expresses gratitude for camaraderie with the likes of Mason Rudolph, Will Howard, T.J. Watt, Cam Heyward, and others.
• Major narrative: No official decision yet on his NFL future, but acknowledges the powerful sentimental/career pull of reuniting with coach Mike McCarthy, now Steelers head coach: “...for a guy to try and come back and lead back to that greatness, I don’t think you can do better.” (134:14)
• Transparent about personal priorities: taking time with his wife, enjoying the offseason, no deadlines set by the team or self.

On Media, Relationships, and Privacy

• Rodgers forcefully addresses media obsession with his private life, stalkers, paparazzi, and expresses his fierce desire to protect his wife’s privacy: “The obsession is bizarre. … I never really wanted to live a public life.” (150:11)
• Relates how football’s grind and leadership are easier when “home is a refuge," credits happiness in personal life for peak performance and fulfillment.

On Mentorship & Legacy

• Lauds Will Howard as an emerging QB prospect: “He’s got the right mindset…he was in my hip pocket, I loved it.” (182:42)
• Openness to guiding young QBs, love of the “fraternity that is quarterback room.”
• Touching on broader trends in coaching, cyclical NFL tactics, and why veteran experience may be coming back in vogue.

Pop Culture: Olympics, ‘Love is Blind’, and TV

• Found inspiration in the U.S. Olympic hockey run.
• Enjoys ‘Love Is Blind’, praises this season, and bonds with package co-host Darius over reality TV.

Notable Soundbites:

• “When you feel it, when you have it, you just know. … It freed me up in a way I’d never experienced before to truly enjoy football.” (159:17)
• “We’re not living a public life. When this is done, it’s Kaiser Soze—you won’t see me. I’m not doing TV.” (154:24)

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6. World Baseball Classic, TGL, and Other Sports

Timestamps: Throughout

• Highlights from Team USA baseball’s pre-tournament games, roster excitement, and anticipation for the WBC.
• Recap of wild TGL (virtual golf league) moments—Tom Kim’s hole-in-one, Tiger Woods’ enthusiastic celebration.
• Admiration for spectacle and community in international competition, desire for more U.S. sports crowds to bring the noise seen in the Dominican Republic and Japan.

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Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• Pat McAfee (33:06, on Team USA hockey): "American swagger felt like the perfect mantra. Is that something that you’ll continue to think about...?"
• Charlie McAvoy (38:57): “Man, I’ve lost way too many teeth this year. I’m good—hope I don’t lose anymore.”
• Darius Butler (24:19, on Kyler Murray): “Sometimes you get older, you start to see things from different perspectives…We know he has the talent. It could be one of the best turnarounds we’ve seen in the NFL.”
• Aaron Rodgers (150:11, on media obsession): “The obsession is bizarre...Now I’m out of it. I don’t want to be part of that.”
• Aaron Rodgers (134:14, on Mike McCarthy): “Who else would you rather have lead [the Steelers] than a guy that literally bleeds black and gold...a dream job for him.”
• Pat McAfee (201:58, summarizing the Rodgers interview): “Recap this conversation...you’re very happy, wife Brittany—awesome...Football: there’s been no movement in decision-making, both on your side and the team...And you love, fucking love, ‘Love Is Blind’.”

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Important Timestamps

• Charlie McAvoy Interview: 30:18–56:38
• Alex Ferreira Interview: 99:42–109:10
• Aaron Rodgers Full Segment: 123:03–204:12
• NFL trade breakdown: 05:25–28:18
• World Baseball Classic Preview: 70:01–74:03; 220:44–224:46

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Episode Tone & Style

• Camaraderie: Banter and inside jokes between Pat, the “Toxic Table”, and guests.
• Patriotism: Enthusiastic, playful, and sometimes tongue-in-cheek celebration of American sporting success.
• Transparency: Guests are open, even vulnerable—Rodgers in particular shares deeply personal insights.
• Humor: The show is infused with humor — hockey, golf, skiing, and trash talk between fan bases, but also pauses for genuine, even emotional moments.

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For Listeners Who Missed It

• This episode is a true celebration of recent U.S. sports triumphs, with a special focus on the Olympic hockey teams’ gold medals.
• Pat and the crew deliver both high-level sports analysis and genuine, behind-the-scenes stories from their star athlete guests.
• Aaron Rodgers’ blockbuster segment is a must-listen for fans curious about his personal evolution, his NFL future, and the pressures of stardom.
• You’ll walk away feeling both fired up about American sports and with a unique perspective on the athletes’ off-field lives, their mindset, and the cultures that shape modern sports.

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Notable Final Quote:

“When you meet that person...it just frees you up in a way you’d never experienced before to truly enjoy football. ... I’m loving it.” — Aaron Rodgers (159:17, 203:48)

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End of Summary

Transcript

[Pat McAfee]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome on this Aaron Rodgers. Wednesday, March 4, 2026. This program begins now. Sports are awesome. We're so incredibly thankful that we get a chance to chat about them. We'll have Olympic gold medalist Alex Ferreira joining us as this golden celebration of the United States of America sports coverage continues and rolls on. Then we'll have Charlie McAvoy on at 12:30. He's fresh off of a big one. Hell, yeah. For the Boston BR last night where what's going on with Pittsburgh Penguins?

[Tone]

Oh, they're great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I agree. I don't love that. Sid's out a little bit here, but we're going to make a late push. Push. Charlie McAvoy will join us. We appreciate the hell out of him. Obviously, Olympic gold medalist with Team USA for hockey. And then at 205 Eastern on YouTube, ESPN +Disney Tik Tok X and I think that's it. Aaron Rodgers will be joining us. So we are so incredibly thankful that we get to do this. I can't wait to catch up with Aaron. We haven't talked to him since training camp last year before the Pittsburgh Steelers season. That was. So many things have happened and obviously a lot has changed over there in Pittsburgh. Where is he at? What is his thoughts as he heads into another off season in which anything, I assume is possible. We followed the Pittsburgh Steelers season this year. Obviously, I am from Pittsburgh, lucky to be from there, as is Tone and Nick, CFO Phil in the back, our families. So we obviously have a little, you know, black and gold in our souls. So we're going to follow along with what the Injers have going on. And Aaron Rodgers coming and playing quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers is something that any Steelers fans could have never fathomed. They paid $30 million to a wide receiver in DK Metcalf. They did things that they had never done before in an effort to win Lombardi, number seven. Now, did it work out? No. Did it end up with massive change whenever Mike Tomlin stepped down? Yes. Is Aaron Rodgers going to be a part of next year's team? Who knows if he gives us that answer right. But hiring Mike McCarthy, good friend and former coach of Aaron Rodgers, I assume is throwing a bit of a curveball into this entire situation. So at 2:05 Eastern, we'll catch up with him and I'm pumped for him. I can't wait to celebrate him a little bit, too.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, I've got a chance to chat with him now over the Last couple days as this kind of happened, I think people think me and Aaron are in constant conversation. It's like, my life's pretty busy. His life's pretty busy. That's not the case. You know, like, that is not a constant stream of communication. But when we do catch up, it is always spectacular. I have a thousand questions. Obviously, he's always in the middle of something awesome. You know, he always looks hilarious. And, yeah, I think today is gonna be. I think today is gonna be. This dude is in good spirits, man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Love that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, like, he is in good spirit. That was. As soon as, you know, a little facetime happens, he answers. It's like, you can see, like, a little. This guy is. Hey, Spark, I'm happy for you, man. That was literally the first thing I said for him. Cause you could tell he was happy. So I don't know what that means for his football future. I don't know what that means for, like, what's going on with his life now. But I am excited to catch up with him, and I think the world will obviously respond, which is seemingly what happens for him his entire life, definitely, whenever he comes on this particular program. The toxic tables here at Boston. Connor and at Ty Schmidt, one of Boston's finest coming on today. Con man. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I cannot wait. Charlie McAvoy, especially off a huge win last night. Granted, the Penguins battled, but it is awesome to talk to an Olympic gold medalist, let alone a Boston Bruins Olympic gold medalist.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. The whole group of lads over there and all the women from the U.S. women's hockey team and Michaela Shiffrin just yesterday. I think what we're learning about these Olympians is we are simpatico to all of them, even though we have certainly never attempted a lot of these sports. Ferreira on today. I watched him in the morning, just flying around.

[Connor]

You're not supposed to be able to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

What is that? Dude? Yeah. It's insane. I've never. I can't. Pizza, whatever this is called, I can't even do that. So just watching him, talking to him, I'm excited to get the mindset because it feels like they're all dogs. Feels like all the Olympians are dogs. You only really have one opportunity to prove that you are who you said you are and you are what you worked for. And if you don't nail it, it's like you got maybe never. So the commitment, the blind commitment and faith that you have to have in that sport, I think creates dogs naturally. And we cannot wait to chit chat. With more of them 1/2 of the hammer down Cowboys AP Tony's here and 9 year NFL event host of everything DB good D bad D One of the smartest minds of defensive football in my eyes in history of the game. Ladies and gentlemen, Darius J. Butler. Steve Butch. We have huge news in the DB community just before we went live. The Kansas City Chiefs trade Trent McDuffie, two time Super bowl champion, former number, first round pick out of Washington going into now his fifth year. Going to have to get a new deal traded to the Los Angeles Rams, who instantly pick up a superstar and an elite player on a defense that hunts, a defense that's young and a team that is seemingly always in super bowl contentions. It seems that this is a win win for all parties. The Rams still have another number one first round pick at number 12 or something like that. They give up pick number 29, which is obviously very enticing for others to get into the first round because first round talent is first round talent. But if you already have a first round pick and you like where your team's at, that 29th pick was probably being utilized as something to go get something somewhere. You pair that with a fifth, a sixth and next year's third, it's like that's not bad at all. Going to have to pay Trent McDuffie, but if you have the finances already figured out. D But what is that contract going to look like and why did the rams want Trent McDuffie so bad?

[Darius J. Butler]

You would expect the numbers with What Stingley got, J.C. horn and those guys probably around that 25 million mark. I know the salary cap is bumped up, so maybe a little bit more. And this is an absolute stud. And the Chiefs let him go. Obviously you saw the haul that they got back. They didn't let him go because of talent. He's obviously a talented guy in his prime. And this is kind of what they do. They let All Pro Mooney go kind of in his prime. They let Sneed go down to Tennessee in his Prime. And now McDuffie. And this is a guy that can do everything you want out of a defensive back, out of a cornerback. He can cover, he can blitz, he can tackle, and obviously he's been coached great as well. Spags is one of the best defensive mind that this game has ever seen. He has big game experience, winning two Super Bowls, played in three. And now you're going to a team who's very talented as well. Their coach, Chris Schuler, he was kind of one of those hot names on his head coaching market this cycle, but he's still there. It got close. This defense, they play a ton of zone coverage. They don't like to blitz a lot. They like to get home with their front four. I'm interested to see how this changes that defense because now you have a guy that can match up not only on the outside, but he can bump in and match up some of these number one receivers on the inside as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Changing the math is a beautiful thing. The Rams are not going to be able to do that on defense. Speaking of math, Hembo center. Verse that including the playoffs, The Rams allowed nine individual 100 yard games receiving in 2025. Only Pittsburgh. Come on. I didn't know that. Good God. Which also Mike Thomas steps down. Whole new team in there. I think that's potentially why 11. So it feels like if the Rams were to get better at a place, that would be it. Yeah. Now the Chiefs get a lot more picks, get a lot more ammo to potentially make some moves. Tell them things. Chiefs dead. Nobody talking about them. Really. Yeah. Patrick Mahomes. I saw Travis Kelce at TGL last night. Hey, who's there? Wow. TGL had the night.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

TGL did what they had been dreaming they would have since. Since its inception. Last night was electrifying. Let's go to. Let's go to Jupiter taking on the Bay.

[Connor]

Yes. Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

The Bay has a playoff spot. Playoff spot on the line in this particular game. Jupiter owned by the Tiger Woods. Not in the playoffs. That could change though. You get a big time win over the B. The Bay had a three point lead over Jupiter's squad. Whenever Max Houma buries a putt after dropping the hammer on the green. That was a two point putt. That was a two point. It goes from six three to six five. Momentum's in Jupiter's favor. Are they going to be able to put it out the Bay? Well, Tom Kim says, how about I go up to the tee box and hit. Wait.

[Aaron Rodgers]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

That looks pretty good. Is that on a green?

[Connor]

Is it a Crocker? He likes it.

[Pat McAfee]

I liked it. When it comes up, boom, boom, boom, boom. Hey, Tiger. It's like your vision. The second ever hole in one in TGL history. They go bananas. Tigers celebrating. Homer's losing his mind. Tisner saying, holy shit. Jupiter might be in the playoffs or the tgl. This has got to be the most electrifying back to back that we've ever had in this league. Massive hammer putt for two points by Homma. Just absolutely pumping putts. Then Tom Kim steps onto the grass, hits into the screen, and some people say it was rigged. I disagree. It's a pure hole in one to bring the entire TGL super arena to their feet. It's not ever yet, though. Nope. Nope. Yeah, they needed something else to get on top of that. How about Kiz, One of the most electrifying humans in golf, burying a putt, putting Jupiter up. And all of a sudden we got some playoff stuff for Tiger. And boy, wow. Just so happened to be on. Yeah, and thank God for that. Sent a text to the group after Homa buried the putt. And then I felt the juice that was building. I'm like. And then I heard Marty and I heard Matt go playoff spot online as they're going to commercial break. I'm like, hold on now. This is real deal. This is what they've been looking for. And then all of a sudden, Tom Kim pulls up hole in one. And it's like, wow, that's my squat. That's unbelievable. Now the playoffs are set. We got the Boston team somehow at first. How are they good at everything? Bcgc, baby.

[Ty Schmidt]

Look out, look out. Okay, bcgc. We bring the Juice every night. Just like that. Roy McIlroy and the Frog always there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I just don't know how you guys are good at everything. I don't like it. There has to be some sort of abnormality that if the Boston name is associated with it, that it's just automatically good. Because these people have never been to Boston. They're playing on this. He's on that team last year. I don't think they won a single match, for what it's worth. And then what? Then they just, oh, you know what? Yeah, we are from Boston. And now they're the number ones. I don't know how that works. Good for you guys. Happy for you guys.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's a really good time.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, the hottest team in here is actually the fourth ranked team in Jupiter, obviously. And we just saw what they did. And don't get me started about the Atlanta Drive.

[Connor]

They're good at drive are good. Bill Horschel has been anchoring this thing for a while.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, then how about the Los Angeles Golf Club? Remember what they were doing out there?

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They were golfing.

[Ty Schmidt]

LAGC can swing it.

[Pat McAfee]

LA Boston Jupiter. My favorite team wisex Tiger woods. Also, they got kids and houma. Yeah. Feels like they knew what they were doing whenever they pieced that team together. And if that team doesn't make the playoffs, maybe the death of tgl. Well, Chance, maybe the death of tgl. But instead, in the most electrifying fashion, they earn a playoff spot. Congratulations to all parties involved down there. That was what you guys were looking for, exactly. What do you make the Hammer for? Well, if a team's out of it and they want to get back into it and they think they can drive, let's make the Hammer boom. Okay, then let's make one's a big deal, obviously. Boom. And then, oh, let's have one of the funniest dudes who's actually a commentator. So he's good on the stick. If you need him, let's have him make the game winner to send it. It's like everything TGL wanted happened, and we're happy for them.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

From Tiger, huh?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. Motion from Tiger in that last clip.

[Pat McAfee]

He looked good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, he did.

[Tone]

Masters, here we come.

[Pat McAfee]

He does have an interesting. Obviously, we all know everything that he's been through on his leg. So much, but he looked much stronger than I thought. In the celebrating moments were the ones where he looked the strongest. Those are like, you know, off script. Those are also using a little bit more balance. He did a fist pump with Max Homa, too, after he made a putt. Looked like.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It was really.

[Connor]

He activated Sunday form.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I think he even activated the ass in there. Whenever he did, it was like, wait a minute. This Tiger got some muscle again. Feels like he does. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

And Tom can. Can take a hit. Max Homa laid into him with a shot right there, and Kim just ate it.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Still coming across the middle.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's a little golf football right there. We appreciate that. Shout to the TGL. But let's get back to this McDuffie trade. So the Chiefs making moves, getting another first rounder. Are they going to use that to bundle to try to make more plays? Nobody's talking about the Chiefs at this point. And it's an interesting thing because, you know, you see Travis and Jason, everybody automatically thinks like, oh, that's like the very cool brothers that are really good at football. Nobody's really thinking, like, Travis probably going back. It feels like, I don't know. That's just. Feels like the way we're reading it.

[Tone]

Feel like it.

[Pat McAfee]

And Patrick Mahomes is still there and is Andy Reid still there? Do they still have a team over there? Nobody's talking about them. And now they're trading away all pro corner. Feels like they're gearing up for something. Is that not what we're all thinking here with this particular move?

[Tone]

Yeah, I mean, I think they're gearing up to get back to where they have been, you know, the last decade or so. But I mean last year was weird. They couldn't run the ball to save their lives. Offensive line was. Has been an issue the last few years. They're still trying to figure that out. But I mean, Patrick's going to be back obviously, Andy's going to be back. And the sportsbooks, they are not counting out the Chiefs. They have basically the same exact odds. When you look at the Bills and the Ravens to win the AFC and you look at the super bowl, it's Bills, Ravens, Chiefs in the afc and then you have the Patriots behind them. So as far as the books go, they still think it's Bills, Ravens, Chiefs, which has been the AFC majority for the last decade. And then obviously the Patriots who are the young upstart franchise coming back into it. But no, the Chiefs are still up there in the odds. I don't think anyone is ever going to count them out with Patrick Holmes. He's probably going to be back for week one of next year. If they can figure out the running game, which they are. They are linked to basically every running back in the draft and or free agency. And then they, they let corners go. That's what they do. DBUTs highlighted it like they'll be fine.

[Pat McAfee]

Look at the divisional favorites odds here. Okay. And we talk about the Chiefs and how once we see Patrick Mountains on TV, we're going to get back on board with him. It's like they already think that in the books. Like, yep, Chiefs will be back. Let's go and make sure that's the case. You start looking around some of these. I mean Connor's face right now is EP that he just read that the Buffalo Bills are favored by. That could have been something else. He had a look of complete confusion. Obviously there's a lot of things up there. I'm not just pointing out one particular thing that he could lose in his mind but for me, the thing that stuck out whenever I looked at this odds graphic first Vikings, they were playing for the number one seed.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

In the think about that. Isn't that nuts? That is nuts. And then Ben Johnson gets the Chicago and now we're all like, Chicago's probably a real team now. Like for real. Detroit, we think they're a real team.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh yeah. I'm surprised that they're favorites.

[Tone]

That's mcdc football.

[Pat McAfee]

Green Bay, we obviously all think are a real team for sure. So all of a sudden you're The Vikings fans. And it's like I'm learning a lot about my state right now. And also two years ago we were playing for the number one seed in the nfc and then now we are the worst odds to win just our division at this point. What a wild fall that potentially is for what a coach that we think is one of the best definitely in the entire league or whatever the case is. The NFL is so hard. And if you're winning, you got to hold on to that for as long as you opposition. Well, not only. Yeah, but I just think in general, if you are winning, you have to hold on for. Dear God. And that goes in Minnesota Vikings. Now they're looking for a veteran quarterback. It is very obvious. Every report coming out of the combo, like the Minnesota Vikings are open for conversation. Con man, you have been big on if Kyler Murray gets into Kevin o' Connell's offense.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Because whenever we talk about arm talent, right. We talk about Kyler Murray. Whenever you talk about the ability to, you know, be in the moment, I guess because you've been there, done that, there's stats coming out of you. Look at Kyler Murray's desert era. And he sent out a tweet saying thank you to Arizona. He was so thankful. 20,000 yards, you know, passing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

121 touches. You start looking at stats. It's like he's accomplished a lot of shit. Like a lot of shit has happened on a football field with Kyler Murray. He's seen a lot of snaps, he's seen a lot of defenses. Now the entire conversation is the off the field stuff. Is he an actual leading man? Is he a front man? Is he a CEO of a billion dollar organization? Is he a guy that'll do everything you need him to do to be the starting quarterback and also the influence on the rest of the entire team and how the locker room goes, the team goes as the quarterback goes. And that's not just on the field. That's how he operates. That's how he kind of handles everything. And the conversation always around Kyler has been like the off field stuff. Not necessarily exactly what you would want for quarterback. Definitely wide receiver, running back, He's a corner. He's an immense talent. He's the only guy ever to be drafted top 10 in MLB and the NFL.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

You're talking about freak show athlete. One of the greats in the history of humans existing. It was just always a conversation. Is he an NFL quarterback? And I think that got thrown at him a lot. But then you look at like, we can't talk about him now, obviously, because that is a. A breach of contract for the nflpa. But you look at the NFLPA report cards back whenever they were put out.

[Connor]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Just back in the day, like last year.

[Connor]

Yep.

[Tone]

Can't talk about.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything's terrible at the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah, everything's terrible at the Arizona Cardinals. There's been people that have gone over there that we have respect for. Lost. There are stories that have come out of there where you go, that's not a real organization. They're not the only ones. There are certainly other places. So was Kyler ever gonna. Was anybody ever gonna win at Arizona? Would it have taken somebody like a Peyton Manning who's like an executive coming in there being quarterback? Remember the story was he interviewed Bill Polian of the Indianapolis Colts whenever he was coming out, as opposed to the other way around. Would it have taken somebody to go in there and change the entire, hey, this is how we're doing this. This is how we're doing this. This is how we're doing this. And how many of those exist in the modern world that we're in? Is anybody or would anybody have been able to do a successful job for the Arizona Cardinals? That is a question now that I think is allowed to be asked.

[Alex Ferreira]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I am also a person that, as soon as I saw the clause put into Kyler's contract that's never been put in anybody else's contract, they say you got to watch film immediately said, that can't happen at quarterback position because of how high I hold the quarterback position in. I hold the quarterback position in such high regard. You are gm, coach. And that's because I watched Peyton. That is literally how I got introduced to the NFL, is watching Peyton Manning do it and how he operated. It's like, this is a goat. Yeah. Okay. Then you hear stories about how Tom Brady operates. This is a goat. Okay. This is how this is supposed to go. Go back to the day. So that's how I hold the quarterback position. So whenever that clause gets put in there for the first time ever, for a guy, that was a lot. That was tough for me to ever believe. But as we continue to learn shit about this Cardinals organization, it's like, would anybody ever tell, like, hey, this is how this shit's supposed to go. This is what you're supposed to do. Like Vrabel, right now with Drake May, he's letting him know, hey, this is how you talk to these guys. This is where you go. This is what you do on Thursday Nights, instead of being at home with the lovely and Michael, of course, and all that stuff, you're going to dinner with boys here. You're buying them this. Like, somebody is teaching people how to do this job as well. Right now, literally, in New England, I assume Sean Payton's doing the same thing with Bo Nix. It's like, did Kyler ever have somebody tell him exactly how to be? All these questions still remain. And then you turn on the tape and you watch this thing happen, and it's like, yeah, so if Kevin o' Connell can get Kyler Murray to buy in to learning his offense entirely and that. I'm not saying that that'll be a problem, but I'm saying if he can get him to buy into that offense completely and understand what's going on and utilize everything that he can do, it's like, that would be a lethal. That would be a problem. Like, I think if he was able to get the best out of Kyler Murray, I think that would be a problem. And also, the Minnesota Vikings, who are the worst in the division, become the story of the season, where it's like, see, we gave up on these guys way too soon, both of them. There's a chance that that could happen in Minnesota, and you have been the driver behind that in my world. So I appreciate you opening my eyes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, it's just like Sam Darnold, like, obviously, you know, Kyler Murray was the first overall pick. He's had success. He's led a team to the playoffs. And Sam Darnold, before Minnesota wasn't technically that didn't have that type of resume. If you were to bring Kyler into a KOC offense, Kyler, like you mentioned, he gets a KOC kind of, you know, course on how to attack a defense, which, as we've seen it, once he gets a quarterback in there, he can teach anybody to do it. He had Josh Dobbs his ear for three days, and Josh Dobbs went on to win. And then you mentioned the talent around him. He's never played with talent like Justin Jefferson and Jordan addison. He's had A.J. green in the back half of his career. D Hop for a little bit. Trey McBride has been his guy as of recent. But as far as Justin Jefferson type level, like that has to be the most attractive guy as far as wanting to play with, wanting to throw the football to him. Now, we've talked a lot about it. Their cap is awful. They have a really, really tough cap situation. That's why Grinard and all these guys are being told like, hey, we might trade you. You're getting released. But that's why the 1.2 million number for Kyler Murray is perfect for Minnesota. Like, if you're Kyler, you don't have to go to Minnesota forever, but you can go for one year, learn the KOC offense, see what Sam Darnold has become, realize I can do that. And also know that, hey, if I go out there and absolutely ball out for the Vikings, they're not going to do the same thing that they did with Sam Darnold. With me, they already realized, like, hey, we had Sam Darnold. We let him go. We go from 14 wins to nine wins, miss the playoffs. If I go there and win 12, 13 games, the Vikings most likely are going to give me a deal.

[Pat McAfee]

You talk about all these great things that could happen. I don't know if you mentioned it there as I was trying to read some stats. Daniel Jones has credited the Minnesota Vikings for making him a much better quarterback, like Kevin o' Connell with the way he handled his week. What he looked at, like, helped me out. It's almost becoming like a, you know, like a Shanahan type situation over there in San Francisco. If you're a quarterback, they learn how to be the guy. This is kind of what you can do on that. You see Mac Jones throw that chunk of ice.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's just one of the boys now. He's not. He's not. Backup QB Mac Jones, unbelievable.

[Pat McAfee]

Takes a shot out of this thing. I've never seen this concoction. Is that snow? I'm not 100 sure. Whatever the case. Jeez. Hose.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Hosenhausen right there. I mean, that was a Hosenhausen out of Mac Jones right there. And then immediate dance afterwards, you see George Kittle just like, rock his head back then keep laughing, George. Reaction was. That's Mack. Yeah, that was his exact reaction there. Max Vibes, he's like, he's having a good. Yeah, can't spell immaculate without Mac. Without Mac right there in the middle. I love seeing that. But on that note, he goes to San Francisco, becomes what he's becomes. I assume it's going to happen again. It's like Kevin OConnell was given credit. If Kyler was to go over there and have success, we everybody else would be like, of course. Like, this is obviously what it is. And then you just have start thinking about that NFC north, and it's like, who's the odd one out?

[Tone]

The Vikings.

[Pat McAfee]

If Kyler.

[Tone]

Let's Say Kyler has the Vikings.

[Pat McAfee]

What you don't think he has a chance to become. He's 28 years old, bears athletically, talented, wise.

[Tone]

Yeah, but you know, we've all heard the same stuff. I mean, what is he going to change overnight?

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe. And I thought about this as well. Maybe everything they were saying is unfixable. Like being fully like being an NFL quarterback, what it calls for to be an NFL quarterback, like that is, that is interesting. But what if he hears all that in your. Strictly on a spite decides that would be cool. Like, you know what, I'm going to prove everybody wrong and I'm going to go in here and absolutely there's a chance with how competitive he is that that becomes his angle and he's almost driven out of that fact. So I'm not saying that everything that they were saying about him is true and I'm not saying that I don't believe in him, but there is a chance that he uses it all as like motivation to become the best version of himself so that he could say I told you so basically to almost everybody. That is certainly an angle that athletes have used in the past.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely.

[Pat McAfee]

Especially elite athlete.

[Darius J. Butler]

And he's playing for a coach, obviously. Well, if he goes to Minnesota, he'd be playing for koc, who's former player, former quarterback. And this is a position that Kyler Murray's never been in, at least from my perspective. He's kind of always been that guy even coming from Texas, like he was, I think the most decorated quarterback coming out of Texas, then going on to be the Heisman winner, number one pick. And this is a guy who's, you know, 5, 9, 510 achieving these type of things. You mentioned being drafted in MLB, the top 10 as well. Like this has always been the elite of the elite. So now he's in a position where the whole football world is looking at him. Everybody's kind of out on him. He'll be playing for, you know, a million bucks for this team. Obviously he'll be getting his money, but they'll be paying. So now you're in a brand new situation. You're not the guy walking into the building. You're a guy that we hope can be the guy. So yeah, he can do this out of spite and out of just kind of like sometimes you get older and you start to see things from different perspectives. We know he has the talent. That isn't a question. And now having the other pieces, Justin Jefferson and some other pieces that he have there, man, it could be One of the best turnarounds that we. That we can see in NFL.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And you described it right there perfectly. It could be a maturity situation. You know, whenever you finally get told that you're not the one, don't come in a building. We don't want you. There is a perspective changer that could potentially happen. There was reports, ESPN report that came out that said he's interested in two teams, and we would assume that if one of those teams is the Vikings, that everybody who throws a football good would certainly be interested in that particular gig. Because of Kevin OConnell. And Connor and I had this conversation earlier. We were just out there. Might be nice not to have Scottsdale in Oldtown and, you know, a lot less to do.

[Darius J. Butler]

Scott, still to Minnesota.

[Connor]

Yeah, that. Well, I think that's the biggest thing. It's beautiful. You know, when the season starts, if you're not used to it and you're

[Pat McAfee]

used to, like, oh, you think it might break them.

[Connor]

Yeah, I mean, negative 20 degrees, dark at 4pm like that. People talk about, like, seasonal depression. You know, if you're from here, it's like, whatever. That just. It is what it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I am depressed. Thanks.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

And it's not just that season. There's four of them, but.

[Connor]

But I think this is like, hit. This is. He has an opportunity to kind of just flip all the narratives because whether it is true or not, like, that is what everyone says. You know, you go to a place like Minnesota where if things aren't going great, like, that could go really bad. Or he could, you know, know, he could be. He could be, you know, their savior.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe their savior. Maybe his savior. Maybe he goes and plays baseball and I'll tell you what. Hey, I like that. Our country played San Francisco first.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I'm watching this tape out of the Dominican Republic and their fans are going absolutely apeshit. We're playing the San Francisco Giants, and it's. There's some Giants fans in there, I think that, you know, that were kind of the Americans beat the shit out of the San Francisco Giants. And I couldn't be more pumped up about that. Right in the face of some of those Giants. The boys might be a killing machine.

[Connor]

This group might be.

[Pat McAfee]

No, but I'm saying this might be what and who this team is. We watch D Row stack days. He said, keep doing the right thing. Hopefully good things happen. He's taking this skipper opportunity as the honor of a lifetime. Like, actually he has a morning show, I believe, on MLB Network. He's done Some media former player played for a long time. I think there's been teams that have asked him to maybe manage or come and be a skipper when he gets this opportunity. During the last World Baseball Classic late, he got to experience. He fell in love with it. And he also fell in love with, like, the opportunity to tell the boys how big baseball could be for the country and how we can kind of change the future of baseball with what we're doing. He's seemingly the perfect guy, and this team is his. These are his guys. Yeah. You have been selected for a reason is what these guys have been told. And it is a motivated bump punch. And it looked like it yesterday. It was spectacular watching them do their thing, especially after we literally meet them all and watch them work the day beforehand. Yeah.

[Connor]

And I think, you know, again, these early games, like, this was my expectation. Like, this is what we should be doing. This is arguably the best collection of talent in the world. We saw clips from the doctor and stuff like that, but guys hitting homers. We talked about Bregman. You know, you look at him and if you'd see him and just in public, he'd be like, yeah, this guy, what he hits this ball 437ft, you know, like just an absolute nuke. And that's what all these guys were doing. Our lineup is so difficult. I mean, it's one of those things where this is an elite competition. But a couple of those early games, we're not. We're going to be seeing pitchers like these guys, and they did exactly what they were supposed to do. Damn near everybody in the lineup had a hit or multiple hits. We scored 15 runs. The pitching staff looked great. Like, every single thing, every box that I think they probably wanted to check, check. They checked yesterday. Including a guy like, yeah, you know, Tony. Tony's boy, Roman Anthony, in his, you know, third at bat as a Team USA player. He hits a home run. Like, you can just tell the confidence is building with all these guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I. I'm pumped to watch the boys.

[Connor]

Yeah. When it matters.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you're seeing the photos of, like, Paul Skeens has a little boy with the Team USA gear on. And it's like this kid has literally been once in a year, loves America, loves baseball, obviously. So him getting a chance to do that and be America's ace, even though he won't be the first game, he's taken that as a huge honor. He's not the only one. They're all viewing it that way. Like, we are here to Represent our country, represent our sport, and it's beautiful. And that's how you can get behind people that play for, like, the Boston Bruins. If you're from Pittsburgh, that's how you can kind of watch a group of lads go and take on some Italian ice and take on the entire globe and become the greatest and not worry about who they're potentially wearing and representing on a nightly basis in the greatest league on earth. NHL, ladies and gentlemen. Joining us now, Boston lad, Boston boy, Olympic gold medal hockey player for team United States of America, Charlie McAvoy. What up, dude?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Hey, guys, how we doing?

[Pat McAfee]

How long did you know you were coming on the show? Was it yesterday or a couple days ago, or did you just find out this morning? Morning.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Traver Guy had mentioned it, like, a week ago after we won, but then we got it on the books, I think yesterday. Told me we're good to go. So it's fired up.

[Pat McAfee]

So you're playing the Pens last night. Can't have an own goal or something. Make me feel good. Can't do anything like that. Can look out for it.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I was thinking about that yesterday when he said it, I'm like, we're gonna have to be Pat's Patsy inserts tonight. But.

[Pat McAfee]

And you did. Yeah. Thanks for doing it, Charlie. Just like you did over in the Olympics. It was fun to watch. Can you please, please. You know, every Olympian we've talked to shares, like, a real passion for representing the country. And I had. I gave. I felt obligated to give a speech about how I grew up in soccer, which is an international sport. And all we wanted to do was prove that the people from our country are better than everybody else. We wanted to prove that our region was better than the other regions. And then whenever it gets the country, we're better than the other countries. The sport of hockey has obviously never been America's. You know, it's always like, fighting, fighting, fighting. Is that a mentality whenever you guys head into these Olympics, especially this year, like, hey, hey, we have the right crew now to kind of take this, and our country will fall in love with this. Was that a mentality heading into the Olympics, or did you guys just kind of ride the wave as it went

[Charlie McAvoy]

along, man, I think looking like, looking back now, now that it's all been, you know, been said and done? We did. We talked a lot, this group, about how this was. This was our time. You know, we. We were not shy about broadcasting it. When people asked that we were going over there to win a gold medal, medal we spoke about it a ton, you know, as a group dating back to that four nations that this was kind of our. Our golden age of hockey. This was the best team that we've had yet, and we all got a chance to do something really special. And then just about not letting it slip, you know, and then now looking at it like that tournament flew by. It was the two fastest weeks you could ever imagine. And we just didn't want to blink or miss any of it and let this opportunity slip away. And, man, it's just amazing that we were able to get a of ton done.

[Pat McAfee]

American swagger felt like the perfect mantra. Is that something that you'll continue to think about as you roll forward or maybe USA Hockey will use going forward? How do you think about that? Solly ism? I guess that kind of carried you guys through a very tough Olympic gold medal game.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Yeah, he kept talking about it the whole time, was that we needed to play with swagger. We needed to have that American swagger. And I thought that was so neat because, you know, if you kind of digest that, like, it was so true playing with that confidence and that belief and like, hey, you know, we are who we are. We, we're America. We're the best country. We are the best hockey playing country. And it was our time to prove it. And I think it's just unbelievable, you know, that we leave Italy and both the men's and the women's like that. We are undisputed. We are the best hockey playing country in the world right now.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you think that means for the future? Obviously, the hockey life is crazy. As a kid, ice time, the amount of commitment, what the cost, the family, every. Hockey is not an easy sport in America. Yeah. Yet I think for everybody. Do you think there is a world where we could potentially continue to advance that, especially off of this? And how do you feel the reaction from America about hockey has been on your side? Because we know a lot of people that aren't the big. The hockey people, but boy, they fell in love with watching you in the women's team. I think it's good for future hockey. Do you feel that? And what's the conversation amongst you hockey folks about it?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, I got so many texts, you know, people saying thank you, you know, just. And then also about the impact that this is going to have moving forward, you know, that we've inspired the next generation. And I think one of the coolest things is that, you know, we've been able to Talk, we were FaceTiming like, Chris Chelios before every game. Brian Leach, like, these are all the guys that we had their jerseys, you know, we. We dream because of them, because of what they did, you know, in. That, that 80 group. Mike Ruzzioni, who I've known since I've been at BU96, World cup of Hockey team, like, all these guys that just paved the way. That was why we wanted to do this. We got into hockey because of them. And then it was just so amazing that, like, we got to share with them, we got to FaceTime them and be like, man, look, we did it. Like, we did it for you guys. And then hearing, you know, how we'll be the ones, you know, getting facetimes all these years later, being like, hey, we watched you guys do that. We dream because of you guys. We. We thought it was possible because you guys did it. Like, that just gives you chills. That's been, you know, probably one of the coolest parts about the whole thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I think Jack said Team USA is a brotherhood. Team USA is a brotherhood. And if it was, they weren't just talking. You weren't just talking about this particular team. It's like, hey, our entire country has been trying to make this sport bigger, and it's been happening for a long time. Your sport's impeccable. And that game was electric. It had me feeling. It had me feeling things that I don't know if I've ever really. You know what I mean?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Like, I was feeling the same thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're in it, though. You're in it, though. So you gotta do what you gotta do. But there was people who had probably watched hockey or they would say the hockey, like, probably four or five times in their life that were up in the morning, early ass. You know, that was 5:00am Pacific over there, just like, yeah, let's show up and watch this. Screaming at their TVs with AS Halibuk standing on his head. And like, I'm getting videos of people that are like, hey, this guy's never watched hockey before and watch his ass watching you, it was like, it was spectacular. You guys put on a great showcase of your sport, I think in that gold medal game. It was fantastic hockey, brother.

[Charlie McAvoy]

It's unbelievable. Like, I think that's why, you know, when we've had these conversations amongst the group and amongst guys, like, you know, it's hard to put in words the difference between putting on a Bruins jersey, which I take so much pride in. I love the city of Boston. Like, I I'm. I'm here now. I raised my family here. I love it. But it's just something different about putting on that Team USA jersey. It just means everything. And, like, you're playing for those people that are going to tune in and give you all their love and support because they're American, and that's what we share, and, like, that's what makes it so unbelievable. Like, no matter where you are in America, like, we're all one. We're all one. You're not rooting for the Bruins or. Or the Penguins or the Fly. Like, we're just one for two weeks in February. And, like, man, it doesn't get any better than that. Like, it's just amazing, you know, how. How it all played out. It really is.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I don't know if you saw where the ratings were. You don't have to worry about Flyers fans. You tried to say the Flyers there. You might worry about Philly, you know, it's been a long time over there. It's been a long time. Yeah. Buffalo, huge. Pittsburgh, huge, obviously. Boston, gigantic. I mean, Florida. Yeah. Florida, huge, I believe, because it is hockey beach down there. It was special watching. And then, like, the women doing it before you was such a good. Like, hey, like, what's coming? You know? And then the goal that Megan has, so filthy. Just, like, so, so good for women's hockey. I think that goal being that goal. Don't you think, Charlie?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Oh, unbelievable. Like, we watched it, and I. I mean, I want to say it was probably 10 of us. We all. We went to dinner. We played the next day. So we knew that, you know, some guys went and brought their. But most of us, you know, we were like, it's probably a poke to get to. Like, we should probably get to sleep early. Big game tomorrow.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. A little bit of a.

[Charlie McAvoy]

We watched it in the. In our team. It was a group trainer's room for the men and the women, and we watched it in there, and, like, I'm talking all 10 guys. When she made that move, we were like. And then when she buried it, it was just like, we're all hugging and jumping. Like, you felt it. Like, we felt like we won. We felt that pride that you guys felt like Americans. Like, hey, like, we. We did it. And. And it was just unbelievable. And then seeing them, you know, because they stayed through the whole rest of the tournament because they walked in closing, like, every day. It was just, you. How you guys feeling today? They were just on there on their little, you know, little bender that they were Going or, you know, as they should have been, like. And it was just so cool to watch. And we were just saying, like, man, we got to do it, too. We got to do it, too. Look at them. They're on top of the world. Like, they were floating around the village, that whole group, that whole women's team, and we're like, man, we got to do it. So it was just incredible. Yeah, they inspired us. No doubt. You know, watching them do it first, that's beautiful.

[Pat McAfee]

That's wonderful. Hockey's our sport now, and that's a cool thing to be able to say. Were you jealous that Jack Hughes got to lose teeth in the gold medal game? And is that why you put your face in front of the net next to him, just hoping that you'd be breaking your shit again? Is that. Was that the goal of that entire thing? Like, let me. Let me try to eat one of these things in the gold medal thing. So Jack Hughes isn't the only one busting chicklets out there. How.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Man, I've lost way too many teeth this year. I'm. I'm good. I hope I don't have to lose anymore. I don't know if you've seen all this from this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Hold on, hold on. We missed it. We missed it, we missed it. What? Was it you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You got a little bit of, like, a spot to put a hose in there. Yeah, I see that. Kind of a little.

[Charlie McAvoy]

That was. That was Montreal, and it was November 17th this year. I broke my jaw, I lost all those teeth, and I missed, like, three weeks. Honestly, it just makes everything even sweeter now. Like, how? Got back on the ice, got back on track. Like, made it to February, you know, in a really good spot. And then. And then, you know, it had a happy ending this year. Everything, really.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, thank you for doing that, by the way. People got chills whenever you were just putting your life on the line and trying to eat a puck for the good of a marriage. It was like that grit, that grit. That's why I think Hollabuk was so celebrated, because this dude's literally standing on his head, but it was as if he was like, no, we're winning. This is not how this is going to go. That shit. This one, iconic forever. That photo from above. I forget. Oh, I should know. The name of the person that got that photo from above is some special man.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I had a front row seat to that. You saw it. Like, I had. I was coming back like, oh, my God. And when he saved It. I still can't believe it.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. That one. You. Where are you? Right there.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I'm right there. That dash, man, I would have been dashed up. I couldn't believe. Believe it. I couldn't believe. It didn't make any sense how he saved it. Like, it was insane. And then the other. The other one that you showed, like, in the. In the play, when that's happening, like, you're just trying to be in a good spot, good position on that. Like, I'm. I'm by the net. And then when it started to come in, like, all that stuff just happened so fast. It wasn't until after the game that I'm getting all these notes like, you. You saved the game too.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, yeah.

[Charlie McAvoy]

You know, they've kept it in it, like, didn't even stop to think about it. You honestly can't because you're just like, next shift to. A minute later, I'm back on the ice. And you just. Yeah, but it was. Yeah, you're just in a good spot. Oh, my God, here we go. L. Kidding. And then even after this, they had another poke. Another poke. Like, it was a full group effort there. Like, look at Larks. He's diving on the ice. And then I think it's Sandy that gets it out. Like, we just all bear down, man. They. They had so much pressure on us, really, for. For a lot of that second and third period. And like, it was just a full group effort. And then, hell, Heli, like, we've. You should see the group chat, the team group chat every morning. It's still. Somebody writes in it, like, first thing. Hey, thanks, Heli. Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

I just want to say thanks, man.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good morning.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Have a great day.

[Pat McAfee]

Good morning, boys. Hope you're all doing well in your respective cities. Halle, can't thank you enough, dude.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Can't thank you enough for the gold medal, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're getting standing ovations in every fucking town because of you, Halle. So thankful. But it wasn't just him. Obviously, you all did it and. But let's talk now about the NHL. Okay. I don't love it that we have to have this conversation, especially after what just happened last night and you know what the foreseeable future looks like. But you guys are doing something cool up in Boston. Boston, Connor has a question and some thoughts for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Charlie. Absolute honor, obviously, you know, beat the dog shit out of the Pittsburgh Penguins last night, which was very fun to watch. It was a sturdy 2 to 1.

[Pat McAfee]

It was a blowout.

[Ty Schmidt]

2 to 1. People don't talk, Charlie.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't laugh. Don't laugh, Charlie, okay? You're a little fucking American hero right now. We don't want you pissing anybody off in Pittsburgh.

[Tone]

And one team does have more points than the other.

[Pat McAfee]

Erroneous on all accounts. You guys just shut up and let me talk to your little Boston hero thing. Good Lord.

[Ty Schmidt]

But that was incredible to watch. But the whole season has been awesome. I mean, you mentioned breaking your jaw, and you're back three weeks later. It felt like that was a miraculous thing to do. And then during Team usa, throwing your body in front of the net after getting the bull taken off mid tournament, like, just incredible. So thank you for your service. But talking specifically about the brilliant Bruins this year, there hasn't been a captain last year. Brad Marchand gets traded, you guys don't name a captain for the team. Has it been kind of odd going out there without anybody with the C on their chest? Have you felt yourself kind of stepping up a little more as that role? You and Pasta, as he's hanging over your shoulder on that chain? How has that vibe kind of been this season with the Bruins and. Keep going, brother. Keep beating the shit out of the Penguins.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Yeah, man. I honestly, I think one of the coolest things I learned, like, about just, like, the leadership aspect of it, because we've had so many amazing captains here. Like, whether it was Z, then Bergy, then Marshy, like, we had all these guys, you know, that you do it by committee, you do it as a group. If there was one thing that I learned, like, when I got to, you know, elevated into that, like, you know, the captaincy circle, is that, like, it takes everybody in that group. You can't do it alone. You don't want to do it alone. You want to shoulder it to other people. Like, you know, we. You know, we're all stronger together. So I think me and Pasta, you know, we had that feeling and we pulled guys in, you know, early, that regardless of whether there's a C or not, like, you know, we're all going to share this together. We're going to bounce things off each other. So it's been me, it's been Pasta, Elias Hampus, you know, Zadorov, like, we've. We've all leaned on each other to do it, and we've been able to have great success this year with that.

[Pat McAfee]

Who has the nastiest dangles in America? America.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Nastiest angles in America, man. I think it might be Captain America. I think it might be Austin Matthews.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, but, I mean, he's kind of in Canada. He's kind of going through.

[Connor]

Not for long.

[Pat McAfee]

We are bummed out. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don't know any. We don't know. But I just see the way he's asking. Answering questions like, hey, he wants to come home. I don't, like, get him out of that. Okay. I don't like. Gee, that. I didn't say that.

[Tone]

I meant that. I meant the Maple Leafs, not the country or the city of Toronto.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, and on that note, we don't like the way that you Canadian reporters have been attacking our guys for doing something. Okay, yeah, stop it. But I do also respect it, kind of, because if we had. Well, actually, Wendy Crosby, with the utmost respect in Pittsburgh, actually.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

So we have actually shown it before. Nonetheless, let's talk about the tensions that are very real seemingly between the two best countries of hockey, which is a good thing for sport, not a bad thing for sport. Go ahead, Ty.

[Connor]

Charlie. I don't know how many Canadian teammates you have, and obviously, anytime you have a situation like this, you know, you guys are professional, so you would think, hey, post Olympics, like, you know, we'll enjoy it and all that kind of stuff. But then once we get back to, you know, our NHL teams, like, we're. We're on to trying to win a Stanley Cup. But have you noticed? Because there was like, just, you know, everyone talked about it, and it seemed like this year it was just maybe to another level. Like, is there real animosity or tension between some of the Canadian Games guys and, like, us players now that the Olympics are over and we, you know, hockey is our sport now. It is no longer Canada sport. And I assume some of those guys are still a little raw about that.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Yeah, I mean, we didn't have any on our team go. We had Morgan Geeky, that. That's been, you know, he's been amazing for us. And, you know, he didn't end up making the team, but he was pretty close, you know, so I haven't seen anybody on that side. You know, we actually played. We played against Team Sweden in the quarterfinals. So we had. We had two of the guys there on our team, Elias Lindholm and Hampus Lindholm. And, like, you know, it's. It's all. It's all respect. It's all love. Like, as soon as we got back, you know, they were two of the first people to congratulate me. You know, I think after, like, you got to put it all aside, because, I mean, it Was crazy. Like we got home. I feel like we weren't even, you know, off our victory tour. You kind of barely had time to, you know, sober up there and we were already back on the ice playing for the Bruins. So it happened, Happened really fast. And like now we're back. It's one common goal. Like it's. It's. It's the Boston Bruins, nothing else, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

I think you guys did celebrate properly. I do wish you guys were given a few more days though. A little bit more of a Runway, you know, a little bit.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I think we're going to find them this summer, Pat. Don't feel bad for us.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll do it all over again. I heard you guys are paying for that one. So on that note. Wow. I got. Yeah, yeah, you're welcome. The.

[Charlie McAvoy]

It wasn't. Just forgot to thank you for that, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I was from America.

[Charlie McAvoy]

That was one of the.

[Alex Ferreira]

That was.

[Charlie McAvoy]

That was one of the best nights you could ever imagine, man. It was insane.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard it was epic down there. I just want to. I wish the thought was I'm going to get down there actually, like, oh, let's go ahead and do that. Couldn't do it because we had combine happening here. Thought somebody was going to pay the tab. Lucky to do it. Would have done it if I was there. So like just kind of lucky to be a part of your guys celebration. On that note, heard the night was epic. Heard you guys had a great time. Thank you for celebrating America properly. And then I got a chance to chat with you. Obviously the next day you guys were trapped, traveling up for Halibuk to go get the medal of Freedom or that you would later find out and also get honored at the State of the Union. I heard you say something about a kick. Jack brought it up too. Jack brought it up too. A kick. You think you. Are you athletic?

[Charlie McAvoy]

I mean, I like to think I'm athletic.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. But ball sports. We know you hockey players. Yeah, we know you hockey players. You guys are like the wrestlers, you know.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Like, I mean, I love. I love football. Like, football is still my second favorite sport, without a doubt. So I played it up until middle school. And it's just so tough because, you know, every weekend you're playing hockey, so every weekend you're having to choose between that or your football game. And like, it would just get too. It just got too much. Like you're missing practices. People don't like if you miss practice and playing the games type thing.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Parents get real loud. Coaches get real.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Parents get Real loud about that. So it kind of just became like, all right, well, time to. You know. I wish I could have played it a lot longer.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it worked. It worked. Yeah, it all worked. Yeah, it worked.

[Charlie McAvoy]

But I still. But I still love it. So I remember, like, we used to, you know, like, mess around and kick, you know, it wasn't like move back like it was now. It was just the old school extra point. But like, that was always fun to do when we were, you know, for middle school football. Like, I wonder what I would do now. I honestly do. I don't know if the pressure would get to me. When you're on college game day there and you got all the people on top of you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I try to make it a little bit more pressure packed, you know, that's why I. Everybody always asks why I take the number up. It's like, because I'm trying to. I'm trying to break these people right here. That's like a part of kicking. Yeah, that is what kicking is.

[Darius J. Butler]

The crowd to gallery.

[Pat McAfee]

Boom. Yeah, let's make this. Let's go ahead and make some noise here. There's a lot on the line. Hey, you thought this is worth 100? How about this? Actually 200,000. And then they have to have a moment there where they're like, oh, my God. Oh, shit. Like, that is a part of kicking, you know? And that's why when Jack Hughes was there with the ball, he's. I'm a little nervous, right? Shut up, dude. I don't want to hear that. I think you'll be okay. It's just whether or not you have the technique. But if you were kicking in eighth grade, I feel like you potentially do.

[Ty Schmidt]

And they do the warm up with the soccer ball.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Because a lot of Europeans, you guys do the soccer ball warm up. Are you. Are you a part of that?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Soccer, it's called. It's called sewer ball. Basically it's just two touch. You get two touches and then you got to kick it to the next guy. But the object of it is to try and put him in, like a tough spot, give him a ball that he can't really handle, and then you get down to one guy and you're the winner.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it sounds like you're a real nail gun in. In sewer ball. Yeah.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Seems I kick that thing like I'm kicking a 50 yard field goal. It's a full boot. You better be better ducking cover.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so you're used to kicking things. You are an Olympic Gold medalist. You play football. You would eat a puck if you literally have eaten numerous.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I should have been wearing a football helmet during that one.

[Pat McAfee]

No, don't, by the way, just one. I know Brock Nelson had to. I know he had to. I know he had to. And I'm assuming he didn't want to. And all that stuff. Stuff that looked like a guardian cap out there. It looked like. And obviously he didn't deserve that. He's tough dog. It had to do that. But it did. It was. It was hard not to just immediately. Guardian cap.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And I'm like, well, this guy's smarter than everybody else. And then you got McAvoy. I learned about him. Yeah. He's Mr. Hershey.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

It was.

[Charlie McAvoy]

It was crazy. Our doc was like, has been back in Boston. He's been amazing this whole time. But, like, he kept telling me me, like, three. Three months. I want you three months in the bubble. Like, that's when I'll feel comfortable. So I hit three months, like, right after the group stage at the Olympics, and I'm like, hey, I didn't. I didn't forget about that whole three months thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Can I take this off?

[Tone]

And right.

[Charlie McAvoy]

He was like, yeah, I didn't. I was hoping you'd forget. Yeah, okay. Like, yeah, you're good on my. On my end. So I had that thing off as fast as I could.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you guys are animals. You hockey players are animals. And we learned about two families of animals throughout the entire, entire Olympics. I think the world learned about a little bit more. Feels like we got something special going on. Florida Panther fan D Butt has a question.

[Darius J. Butler]

Absolutely. Tucks. And then the Hughes brothers. They're awesome. Obviously, seeing Jack on the show and seeing that interview, I think that kind of got introduced his personality, just his vibes to the world. What can you tell me about kind of both of those brothers. Brother groups, I guess, man, first off,

[Charlie McAvoy]

like, I just can't. I think it's the coolest thing in the world. Like, could you imagine how proud, like, their parents must be? Like, I mean, if you're the Hughes, you have three guys in the NHL, and then, you know, obviously, Jack and Quinn getting a chance to do that. Like, if you're Chantel and Keith Tkachuk, who I've known the Tkachuk brothers forever. Like, how amazing is that? You follow in Keith's footsteps and like, the two of them get to be, you know, NHL players, and then, you know, those brothers to go over there and, like, what we just accomplished. Accomplished. I think it's just the coolest thing in the world that they could look back at that and be like, man, like, look at the. The genes in that family. In both families. Like, man, they were. They were doing something right. But I mean, Brady and Matthew are just clowns. I can't listen to them open their mouths. I'm already laughing. Like, especially Brady, man, he was. He was kind of like the class clown the whole tournament. And he just kills me. Like, you know, both of those guys are hysterical. They don't. They don't take themselves, you know, too serious. Like they're unbeliev locker room guys. And then obviously the two of them have that edge, that mean streak to them. Like they're gonna get in front of the net and they're gonna piss everybody off.

[Pat McAfee]

They double teamed somebody over the boards in the first period. I forget who it was. It had to be so Slovakia game.

[Charlie McAvoy]

They got thrown out. The two of them, they. They got thrown out together. And then there was the rumor that they were trying to fight in the hallway.

[Alex Ferreira]

All of them.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Rumors.

[Pat McAfee]

Rumor. Allegedly. Yeah, heard about that.

[Charlie McAvoy]

But then, you know, and then you have Quinn and Jack, and, you know, Quinn is obviously, you know, I think the, you know, best defenseman in the NHL right now. He's unbelievable. And his approach is like, he's very serious. You know, he works so hard. Like, everything he does, he's a little bit more, you know, straight, straight arrow, you know. And then Jack's got a little bit of a different personality. Like you guys were hung with Jack. Like, Like, Jack's funny, you know, he's. He's. That Jack's the pretty boy right there, man. That's America's face. Now. He's. But he's unbelievable. Like, you know, the two of them just have. They have such amazing skill. Like the way that they skate, it's different. The way that they, you know, maneuver on the ice, it's different. Like, you can tell that they both grew up together doing all the same stuff. They just move different from everybody out there. Like, you know, I mean, you put both sets together, like, you know, you can see why our team was so good, man.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you had a dog and a goalie that says, yep, we're just going to. Not really. We're not going to lose today.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Hell yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a beautiful thing. We're so lucky that we got to watch you do that. Good luck the rest of the way. Except for against the Pens. Anybody else?

[Darius J. Butler]

And the Panthers, well, they're not.

[Connor]

Beat them all.

[Tone]

Sorry.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hey, we still. We still got it. Actually. Was it Chucky's idea to come down and celebrate in Miami down at Hockey Beach Cap. Hockey capital of the world, man.

[Charlie McAvoy]

I think he's. He could run for May and probably win now.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hell yeah.

[Charlie McAvoy]

He said he's gone three years in a row. And I think his quote was all. All championships. The road leads right to 11.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard they got him on a

[Charlie McAvoy]

first name basis there now. Man. He was holding court at 11. Man.

[Pat McAfee]

Chuck him calling down there and being like, hey, we want again. You know the deal. Yeah, we're going to here.

[Charlie McAvoy]

He's like, yikes, it's me again. We're coming back.

[Pat McAfee]

The boys are here. I mean, you should see the boys. Everybody, we're gonna swing by. Elbow room. Obviously we have to all roads. Yeah, after. You're the man. Good luck the rest of the way. Thank you for doing what you did for us, man.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Man, thank you guys so much. And Pat, thank you again. Night of my life. Appreciate it, bro.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm happy to hear that. That makes me feel good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

That makes me feel really good. I've given $150,000 to others that haven't even said that. No.

[Connor]

Why'd I do that?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, you say good night about that. Makes me feel really, really good. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, on our way to

[Charlie McAvoy]

Nashville, we got to run by.

[Pat McAfee]

Goodbye, Charlie. Yeah, Charlie. Holding up to team. Oh, no, they're going to call him a squid.

[Connor]

Yeah, they are going to call.

[Pat McAfee]

And they got quite a poke there. From Boston to Nashville. That's a little bit of a trip.

[Connor]

That is a bit of a poke.

[Pat McAfee]

The hockey boys, just the lingo and the way they operate the best squid. That's classic nail gun. Was unbelievable. We just got a whole team of nail guns.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bit of a runaway.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you Canadians, I think are probably the reasoning for that. Gumpy. So we appreciate you guys contributing words to hockey while we contribute hockey to hockey. 45 more tournaments will be tied.

[Tone]

Keep it going.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking. I just watched the tournament. Exactly. Yeah.

[Tone]

You won the last one. Congratulations.

[Pat McAfee]

How many Olympics has there been 58. 58 major tournaments for Canada. Are you talking about World Cup?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Talking about it all.

[Pat McAfee]

Juniors.

[Charlie McAvoy]

You can.

[Pat McAfee]

You can run it all.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay, this was.

[Pat McAfee]

This isn't. This is in soccer. This part of the problem here.

[Tone]

You.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Hey, you run any tab, you can cut out any tournaments. You know, we can do Olympics, we

[Pat McAfee]

do world championships, we can do juniors.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Whatever you would like to do. We could do that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hear that music what was the last time?

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry about that. What was last time a Canadian team

[Ty Schmidt]

won the Stanley Cup?

[Tone]

Never.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Yeah cuz can no Canadians are on Stanley cup winners.

[Connor]

They don't let them touch the trophy.

[AJ Hawk]

Mar.

[Tone]

Mar actually didn't add anything to that

[Charlie McAvoy]

Panthers team last year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, especially not thank you Sam. Getting traded back to Boston, is he probably their sellers.

[Pat McAfee]

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[Aaron Rodgers]

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[Pat McAfee]

But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back.

[Aaron Rodgers]

From professional grade products you can count

[Pat McAfee]

on to fast, dependable delivery delivery. They're there to help you keep things running smoothly. Plus, their technical product specialists are here to help answer your toughest questions. And because Grainger knows safety is always a priority, they're committed to being your partner in protecting both your people and your facilities. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by. Sports are the greatest response. We're so thankful that we get a chance to chat about him. Obviously, we've now had the absolute honor of chatting with multiple United States of America Olympic gold medalists, the Most recent Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins and obviously of the men's hockey team. He's missing his entire lower chompers right here because he broke his jaw earlier in the year. He was the one who put his face in front of a puck next to Hollabuk. As they continue to dominate defensively against a very dominant attack from from the Canadians. They would go on to win the Olympic gold medal alongside the women's hockey team and proclaim ourselves as the owners of hockey. We can do that because that's what happened on the ice with a bunch of people we've never met personally, but we're certainly happy that they did it for us. Yes, so sorry to Canada that that comes with this, but that's just part of the entire game. And speaking of the Game. It's ours. Talks to tables here at Boston. Connor and at Ty Schmidt, con man. Not only is McAvoy cool, but Ty Schmidt. We're talking Alex Pereira, fresh off a skiing half pipe gold medal. He's a three time Olympic medalist, one time gold med. And he's going to be joining us, I assume, with some outrageous mindset that we're going to be in inspired by. If I had to guess.

[Connor]

Yeah, I would assume so. I don't know how I missed this during the run of the Olympics. I. I didn't see any of this stuff. And then I watched his full run this morning. I might be more impressed by what he did than like, you're not supposed to be able to do that kind of. On skis, I get going downhill super fast. Not. This guy's doing three back flips. Twisted like it's crazy. Crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we were super invested in snowboard.

[Connor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Halfpipe. Because Chloe Kim obviously Sha White, like throughout the. And also the X Games with Tony Hawk and everything. We know that. So I think we've always been invested in that. And also during my generation, I'm. I'm not on mountains, you know, ever. A lot of people think I love snow. I. I do not actually. From the cold. Do not mess with snow. More of a tree guy myself, but I've never been. I watched movies where they were kind of saying skiers were nerds.

[Connor]

Yeah. Big time.

[Pat McAfee]

And skiing was kind of like, yeah, ye. Everything.

[Connor]

Like rich punks.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Ty Schmidt]

Johnny Tsunami.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, was it that the movie?

[Connor]

Yes. That is what you're thinking of.

[Pat McAfee]

That is movie. Okay. It was two parts, but we're all

[Connor]

on that same page.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That's how I was being pitched. That movie was clearly saying skiers are the heels.

[Connor]

Yes. That's what it was.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Squids. Yes.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Snowboards. Nail guns. Okay. That. That is kind of how the whole thing was old and I not knowing the culture, just like, all right. That's how I'm rolling forever. That skiers suck.

[Alex Ferreira]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Hard for me to get into it. Then you obviously watch Lindsey Vonn. Then you see Mikaela Schiffrin and you're like, hold on now though. We got the fastest. We. We like that. We have the fastest skiers as well. Never would have thought to get in the half pipe because it's like seemingly just a snowboarder thing. I'm going to say it. I'm officially a skiing half pipe guy now. Is it because Ferraro one. Probably. But also because everybody that went finished their runs like the snowboarding stuff, they pull out early because they don't hit something perfect. They know it's not going to be a good enough score. There, they're gone. The skiers hit. I. I mean these. And they are.

[Tone]

So you're saying it's easier.

[Pat McAfee]

Full set. I don't know if it's easier if they're all better. Whatever.

[Connor]

Yeah, right.

[Pat McAfee]

Whatever it is.

[Tone]

I can tell you which one it is.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Whatever. Watching it. These eyes, I like them landing and continuing to do more crazy stuff. I don't know if he's ever done the. This one.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah, sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Where they just catapult. No, no, not the flying one. The flying one as well. Absurd.

[Tone]

Big air.

[Pat McAfee]

Squirrel suit. That thing's insane. Skiing might be. I don't. I don't want to say it. Half pipe better.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's gone.

[Pat McAfee]

Flying squirrel better.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. The big air.

[Pat McAfee]

And then the one where they catapult them in there and they just straight up in the air and they go. And then. Do you ever see that one?

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't think the Mac 4, they're literally.

[Pat McAfee]

No, they're literally. They're just skiing like this. They have no. And they hit a jump that goes straight up. If they go up the side of a building, basically we want gold. And they just send them. And they can't see any. I. I don't know if they close their eyes or what they do, but they're in the sky and it's like a gymnast takes flight. And they. The whole. They're spinning a thousand times.

[Tone]

Kind of like the high diving of skiing.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh. And they don't have poles. And they don't see any.

[Ty Schmidt]

No poles. They don't see anything.

[Pat McAfee]

And they're just like blindly, like landing and then skiing down.

[Connor]

I got to get eyes on that.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, my God.

[Connor]

I got to get eyes on that.

[Pat McAfee]

It is literally like they take a. A slingshot and. And they just send them. And these. These ski was just. I mean, straight up into the sky and they can't see a thing. They might have done. I don't know what a 17,000.

[Connor]

Sure.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Probably.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know what it is.

[Connor]

1620.

[Pat McAfee]

And then they hit the. And it's just like a. Thank God I nailed it. It is. And they were stomping this out.

[Connor]

It was skiing every skiing event. I was like, yeah, I'm watching this.

[Pat McAfee]

Wait till you see this one. I can't believe you missed.

[Connor]

No, I need to get eyes on this now.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it is. Is. Is this it?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, that's Mac 4.

[Pat McAfee]

This is another one.

[Connor]

But once again, I love this one.

[Pat McAfee]

Skiing is awesome in this one. Yeah. Cuz they're going a long way. The one I'm talking about, they shoot them straight up.

[Tone]

It's called freestyle ski.

[Pat McAfee]

Freestyle ski it is. I'm telling you, certain death every time they get launched into this guy.

[Ty Schmidt]

If you're skiing, doing tricks like that without poles, you know, like, hey, I'm going so high, I can't have poles in my hand cuz if I do, something's going to go wrong.

[Pat McAfee]

Dbot. Have you seen this?

[Darius J. Butler]

I have not made it.

[Tone]

They land on the piece of.

[Darius J. Butler]

Little too Caucasian for me.

[Alex Ferreira]

Whoa. Come on.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Come on.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. The snow. You're out there riding horses. That was racist. I'll tell you what, it certainly was accurate, though. I think I did not see a single black person in that particular shop. There's something Shark Week. There's an absence, seemingly. There's a lot of things.

[Darius J. Butler]

A lot of viewers, though, we watch that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah, we certainly will. Which white is going to get eaten? None of them. All right, I'm not watching this again. You guys teased us all Shark Week. I'm not doing it again. Next year comes, I'm like, oh, what white's gonna get eaten again by a great white out there? Let's do it. Nobody. Yeah. There is a couple of super white events and this one was certainly, I will say.

[Darius J. Butler]

And I. I definitely need to get eyes on.

[Pat McAfee]

Dude, it is a. We can't find it. We can't find it. It's unbelievable. Big whatever is trying to hold us back from this becoming maybe our favorite big snowboard. I think big snowboard knows that they lost it. And I think what we've realized is it's all personality driven. The snowboard is more personality driven. This is this. Yes, this is it. Okay.

[Connor]

Yes, I have seen it. This is awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

They can't see a damn thing. Dude. They are just getting rolling. Do we have any others? Is that just one run? This is the same one. Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Just. I don't know.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, that's it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, Just gone.

[Connor]

I love this.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

All of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And they stomp it out. Yeah. And if their ass hits the ground, which I don't know how it doesn't, you're getting dropped from 100ft. Whatever it is, the ass touch the ground, they go say that it's kind of like.

[Tone]

It's kind of like gymnastics. They go off the palma, they gotta hit, they gotta land it. Landing counts. The. The moves count.

[Pat McAfee]

Everything. Yeah, it is. This one's spectacular. If you get a chance. If you get eyes on this one in four. Four years, you're gonna like what you see.

[Tone]

Yeah, it was fun.

[Pat McAfee]

Nine year NFL vet. Man who hates white sports. Darius.

[Darius J. Butler]

I love hockey. Daughter just started riding horses.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Got a daughter in golf. You know, I love all sports.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I love competition. But I will say volleyball. That. That the slingshot into the sky. Not look flippy twirly one did feel to your point.

[Darius J. Butler]

I tell you what though, if we did get. Get in there, I think we probably did you see that wide receiver group?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's doing.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, that's combine.

[Darius J. Butler]

Strap some skis on.

[Pat McAfee]

I was down. I think I was in Memphis.

[Ty Schmidt]

Figured out.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I was in Memphis. We were walking down Beale street during the day, which I think from my understanding is where. When we should be.

[Connor]

Yeah, correct.

[Pat McAfee]

From.

[Connor]

We were told by what we were told.

[Pat McAfee]

We were told. I'm just telling you what we were told. It was beautiful time.

[Connor]

It was.

[Pat McAfee]

It was great. There was a team, I guess. I don't know, a crew. 40 guys just did, I don't know, 150 backflips down the street and they were on America's Got Talent. I learned we do have good flippers. America has really good flippers.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that's why in the Summer Olympics, whenever we do gymnastics, we always are like, we are going to win this one. And then we change all their scoring systems and everything. If we were to get into, which I think we did, we won, by the way.

[Connor]

So. So we're already in there.

[Pat McAfee]

When we're going through the sky, it feels like we are bringing it out there. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Certainly there's not Norwegian judge that well said.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Who's that? That was snowboarder, right?

[Ty Schmidt]

That. No, that was the skier that was the big. The Mac forehand one that was showed before showing the right one.

[Pat McAfee]

Guy did a trick never been done before. Landed it perfectly.

[Tone]

Came in second.

[Pat McAfee]

Came second because the Norwegian.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh. Kind of like small but files. When they. They couldn't grade her because it was so good.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

We had one of those. We normally in the history of these types of events, from our understanding outside looking in, if you accomplish something that's never been done before, you win.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Didn't happen.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's bullshit.

[Ty Schmidt]

And then a Norway guy won. Huh.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Huh.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's look at those numbers again. Who's giving what out there? He did a super duper McFlippy. Yeah. Nobody's ever been doing it no, we didn't win. How's that? Let me get eyes on. Who's that? Oh, humans are deciding that this is something that's ever been done before. Wait until you see this. He does a 22,000.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Remember when a 900 was something?

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Well.

[Ty Schmidt]

And that's why we don't own snowboarding anymore. The kid from Japan.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Japan had 1, 2, 3.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think he's been running snowboarding for basically since Shaun White. I think he was 14 when he started.

[Pat McAfee]

So for the good of snowboarding, we need the baseball team to win. I'll tell you. I don't know. No, that Dominican Republic, they're a fun team.

[Darius J. Butler]

We got the bullpen.

[Pat McAfee]

We definitely do.

[Connor]

We got the arms.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I agree. But the Dominican Republic's got the crowd.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're playing the Tigers.

[Connor]

How many runs they score?

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. It was close game.

[Connor]

How many runs we score?

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. 15.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Theirs was a little bit louder, wasn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

I'll say.

[Tone]

Better crowd. Their crowd was a lot better.

[Pat McAfee]

I do wish we would have played this at a place that would have liked.

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

To watch the United States of America in a fashion like this, though. And I don't know where that.

[Connor]

That's what it'll be like on Friday. It's tough because. Yeah, exactly. You know, like, they're playing this in the doctor, so, like, there are no. You know, no one from the Dominican Republic is showing up with, like, their Tigers hat on and being like, hey, listen, I know the boys are getting ready, but, you know, I want. I want to see what the Tigers do tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, I didn't think it was enough pop over there in ar. I love Arizona. I didn't think there was enough celebration whenever roman Anthony took one. Oh, 700ft. You know, I didn't. I didn't. I didn't. And, like, the last.

[Connor]

The home of enthusiasts, the home of the Giants, though. That's the. We don't need to celebrate.

[Pat McAfee]

It's the home of America.

[Tone]

Scrimmage games.

[Pat McAfee]

No, I understand. You don't need. So. But maybe you do, actually. Did you see how the doctor's treating these scrimmage games down there?

[Tone]

Maybe that's a problem.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah. We're a lot more spoiled here. You know, they go back home to Dr. You Got Soto. You got, like. You got all of the guys. Yeah. Coming back home and not even just the guys playing. You got the OGs over there as well. Big popular, doing his thing. Pujols. Yeah. So, like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

It's Going to look like the fucking World Series over there.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I don't like the amount of juice that their, their countries behind them, especially with if those bats get hot. I mean, that's, that's an electrifying team.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then Japan. They're over in Japan. Yeah, I like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I want to see that.

[Pat McAfee]

I like how that's happening, though. I like that the Dominican team is in Dominican Republic. I like that the Japanese team is injured. Japan right now. Like, I like that it is getting a feeling of like home training camp and then let's go ahead and do this. And they're having the games in different places. I like what the World Baseball Classic is doing. Joining us now, ladies, Dominican Republic team looks dangerous.

[Connor]

Yeah, so do we. Though we looked pretty dangerous yesterday as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, we did.

[Connor]

Pretty potent.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, we did. Judge Judgy just immediately drives into Giants.

[Connor]

Ran out of arms. You know, we, we had already been like, hey, we've. We've played everybody. All these guys have multiple hits, multiple rbis. We don't want to get anybody hurt. Let's grab a couple slap dicks from over there who aren't going to make the team. We'll throw a jersey on. They won't have the name on the back. Those guys were ripping base hits. Once they put the colors on, I mean, it was just. It was a blood bath.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, my.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what it was.

[Connor]

He pitched yesterday.

[Pat McAfee]

How'd he do?

[Connor]

And he looked damn good. Oh, he threw about four. Four pitches, you know, set him down right away. Did exactly what he was asking.

[Tone]

His brother pitched the next inning.

[Connor]

It was for the.

[Tone]

For the Giants. That was actually pretty cool.

[Pat McAfee]

It was. Yeah. We got some magic happening. Joining us now is a guy who, I'll tell you what, he didn't get a chance to experience team USA baseball training camp, but he'll be loud about USA being better than everybody. Oh, yeah. He's college football national champion, super bowl champion Rider cup winner. Ladies and gentlemen, AJ Haw.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

How you doing, Hawker?

[AJ Hawk]

I'm doing great. I tell you what, I watched that game and watching the US Seeing their batting lineup and just trying to figure out, oh, hey, sorry, this guy's got to hit seven. This guy's got to hit eighth, ninth. We got studs everywhere you look. So I don't see how. I understand. Dominican has a bunch of juice. They have a lot of trouble talent, but there's no way you're taking down this US Team.

[Pat McAfee]

I feel like, okay, I like that. I feel the same way. And I Think Team USA feels an obligation for that to be the case. But I'm saying is there's some good teams out there and baseball is an interesting thing. So the boys coming out and hanging 15 is a beautiful sign that that is what's happening here. Early Paul had to get a couple early pitches out. They took advantage of him early and then he turned off the lights on him. All the boys did. It feels like we are gearing up for a big one. First game of the World Baseball Classic for the United States of America will be Friday night, 8pm against Brazil as Logan Webb will take the bump from the San Francisco Giants. Then they play Great Britain. The pitcher for that particular game will be. Yeah, Scoobs, Tarek scuba, who'll pitch 55 pitches. That's already been announced. And then the third game against Mexico, Paul Skeens will be our ace. And then against Italy it'll be, I believe, Nolan McLean.

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so that is our starting lineup. And then obviously you got Bryce, you got Judge, you got Bregman, you got, you got Tony, Tony's boy. I mean it is Bryce Hart.

[AJ Hawk]

Are there any major leaguers on Great Britain?

[Connor]

Yes, yes.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Ben Franklin, Jazz Chip the captain.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ben Franklin's, he's an up and coming player. I know you guys are thinking of electricity.

[AJ Hawk]

Ben, is he related?

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe deep, deep relations between the two. I, I believe Brazil doesn't have any major leaguers.

[Connor]

They do not.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Friday night, 8 o'. Clock.

[Connor]

Correct. We might, there's a chance that we score like 25 runs in the first inning.

[Pat McAfee]

There is a 10 run or a 15 run. I forget what the rules are.

[Connor]

I believe it's after after 5 and after 7. 15 after 5, 10 after 7. So there is a chance that we still win like 55 to nothing.

[Pat McAfee]

And I believe the, from my understanding, from my understanding, listening to the mindset, we are trying.

[Connor]

That is the intention.

[Pat McAfee]

We are trying to dominate. We are, there is. We need to get, get hot quick.

[Connor]

Right.

[Pat McAfee]

Because baseball is a sport of runs. So it's not like, hey, we're playing, they don't care. We are going to try to get hot. And once you get hot, if you can stay hot for two weeks, which teams definitely can do, this is the time and everybody's chasing that. Japan's going to be chasing, trying to get hot. Dominican Republic's going to be chasing, trying to get hot. Cuba I believe is going to be trying. Venezuela. Venezuela is going to be trying all

[Darius J. Butler]

these kind of close.

[Pat McAfee]

All these teams are going to be Trying to get hot. What's that? Go ahead.

[Darius J. Butler]

Cool D. I'm surprised those odds are I guess, that close.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Connor]

Good ball club. They're very good.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

I heard they're rolling up in Nike Canada up there.

[Tone]

Not too bad either.

[AJ Hawk]

Who's the worst squad in the.

[Aaron Rodgers]

In the group.

[Pat McAfee]

Here's if we look at the odds, it might be Israel and Czech Republic.

[Tone]

Czech Republic, Great Britain.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're in. Okay. That's Nicaragua as well. Plus 6,500. It just fascinates. This is a really fascinating term. I love what MLB has done with the World Baseball Classic and who's all in and who's all out. We appreciate the buy in from the boys.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Honestly. So we can celebrate it all. Let's talk with some football, shall we? It has been fun celebrating Team USA though especially on this particular platform, being able to do it, you know, because as athlete especially growing up, if you're told and this is one of the benefits of ESPN which I certainly would like to let those be known publicly because I've certainly said a lot of the drawbacks from publicly as well. But one of the which there is always going to be from my understanding in life, you're dealing with humans. So this is going to happen especially with a big of an organization as espn. We love a lot of people at espn. We certainly hate a lot as well, but we love a lot of people at ESPN but like saying like hey, would you like to come on our show? So much different for a lot of people, whether it's agents, managers or even the athletes themselves that grew up watching ESPN Sports center being like that's cool that ESPN is giving rub to this particular sport. And the fact that people are saying that about our show is a really cool thing. Like we talked about bowling yesterday and I saw a bunch of people say like hey, thanks for talking about bowling on espn. I don't even really like calibrate that, but that is like a really cool thing. So we would like to thank ESPN for being a position that whenever we talk about something people get very excited because of the years and years and decades and decades of commitment to sports. So that is something I think that is a positive. On that note, PR team says that NFL Live is going to to lead free agency frenzy in a tweet. That's false. We will be leading free agency frenzy at noon when it actually starts. And we got Schefter that's going to be in here. Orlovsky's going to be in here. Schrager is going to be in here. I think we got some led boards that are going to create some beautiful moments in here. So you know, there's always that game, there's always this game going on. But we are thankful and lucky into all the sports and the athletes that have represented for us. We are thankful. Now let's talk a little bit about NFL football. Huge trade this morning. The Kansas City Chief send Trent McDuffie to the Los Angeles Rams. Patrick Mahomes has weighed in on this particular trade since we talked about the first time, which is four letters, couple periods. Damn. That's all he said. Damn. Anytime you lose a great player, obviously the locker room is going to feel it. I assume Trent McDuffie who's won two Super Bowls with Kansas City Chiefs also very tight with that particular locker room. He's going to go on to get paid by the Los Angeles Rams in his new home. And the Chiefs were receive their second or later first round pick. They have the 13th overall pick. They also had the 29th overall pick. They trade that away. They get, they get that and then they get a fifth, a sixth and a 20, 27 third. So congratulations to the Chiefs picking up some picks that I assume they'll bundle. AJ I'm not 100% sure. How do you feel about the move as a whole and what do you think this messaging is from both teams?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean for the Chiefs to let a great player like this go, it just tells me they just have other needs, I guess that they feel and they don't. They don't want to pay. Pay him the Giant contract that he deserves, that he's going to get once this rookie deal is up. So I guess they wanted to get some picks. Like you said, who knows what happens during the draft if they bundle things wherever they try to get. But McDuffie, unbelievable player, man. I love this dude. I love a young corner that is physical. I mean, watch him come up, he's not scared to tackle. I always love seeing that. But I don't know, I think the Chiefs doing this, it just. They have other needs. They're trying to figure things out. They know they got to score some points on offense. They got to protect Patrick Mahomes and they're going to continue to try to, to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And you know the Los Angeles Rams pick up a weapon over there.

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

And they've been up and to the right seemingly every single year. Is this a move that can change like super bowl odds for you or super bowl optimism? Everything. DB host Darius J. Butler Yes.

[Darius J. Butler]

Obviously when you bring a guy like this, he, he's going to add value not only to what he does, but the guys around him. You have flexibility for a guy like Chris Shuler. Now you can expand and do some things differently. We did the, the, the Monday morning DC we had a couple plays from the Seahawks that was against the, the Rams. It was obviously large windows even in that tight red area where usually you like to get matchy and tight. And now you have the ability to do that with the guy like McDuffie and he can blitz. And what AJ said is important too. When you're one of these top tier cornerbacks, a lot of times the drawback is they don't want to get physical, get their nose, you know, get in their nose in there and make tackles. And he's not afraid to do that. He's been coached by spacs his entire career. He's played in huge games. He's been going up against Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid his entire career in practice and how to go through just those, the type of flow of things. So I think this is a great pickup for the Rams that can get them over that hump. Help get them over that hump.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, speaking of getting over the hump to win a Super bowl, they were tied for the best odds to win the Super Bowl. They are now the favorites +750 that this, this move was made. Shout out to a corner. Hey, hey, that's a corner doing that. We've seen quarterbacks get signed to team and their super bowl odds not move at all. Yeah, good quarterbacks. Quarterbacks that have, you know, accomplished things in the league. McDuffie goes to the Rams. They go from being tied for the best odds to outright best odds. That's huge for the sportsbooks to make that move. Let's go to one half of the hammer down Cowboys AP tone. Is that just strictly because McDuffie's there or do you think the sports folks are seeing the fact that people are going to see that seemingly their big issue that they had last year and why they weren't great is seemingly now fixed?

[Tone]

Both when, when sportsbooks move, it's obviously, you know, because of the talent of the player, but also because of, you know, the.

[Pat McAfee]

What's the word I'm looking for deficiencies of the team? No, the.

[Tone]

Sorry, the, the sports books are going. They're going to have more money bet on that team. So they need to. Thank you. They need to lessen the handle or the, whatever they're going to have Oh, I like that.

[Pat McAfee]

You had a little brain fart on handle.

[Ty Schmidt]

Very.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I mean, you were deep in there. We were all watching your brain look for it through your eyes. It felt. It felt like you. We're not anywhere near there.

[Connor]

I'm not.

[Tone]

No, I wasn't even.

[Pat McAfee]

But guess what? We're there now. So the handle, obviously is about to come because people are about to get eyes on the Rams and start thinking about last year and then maybe what the chances actually are. They're trying to get ahead of that.

[Tone]

Yeah. So more bets are going to come in on the Rams. So when the more bets come in, they don't want to have to pay out greater odds. So if you leave their odds higher, then you're going to have to pay out later if that does come true. So they lower the odds so that the payout at the end doesn't have to be as high. So it's part of the talent of the player. And then also how much they know that people are going to come and bet on the Rams because secondary was a position of weakness for them.

[Pat McAfee]

Super bowl at SoFi yet again. Okay, so the Rams trying to double down on that entire thing. I believe in the Rams. Them having this best super bowl odds is crazy to think about because of how many different iterations they had. Is Matthew Stafford still getting in that trailer? Probably so, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bringing his buddies, too.

[Pat McAfee]

I think we're getting. I. I think amoral people, we, like, they've been trying to get messages to me, I believe, through a lot of different avenues. A lot of different avenues. Hey, you know, the amoral people would like, say thank you to you. It's like, tell them I said no problem. Hey, you know, the amoral people are trying to get a hold of you guys to say thank you for what you did for them. It's like, tell them no problem. Then somebody else, hey, you know, you know these people, the Matt, the Immortal people. Yeah. They're trying to get a hold of you. Tell them I said, no problem. It's like, no, I think they want

[Connor]

to, like, they want to send you a fucking trailer.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So, like, I appreciate their persistency. Just know that I, on my end, Immortal, we think you are a huge part of the story. I mean, Matthew Stafford was not going to play. He was supposed to.

[AJ Hawk]

Did we figure out what's in there? Do we know what's in that Airstream? Like, what is it? A red light bed?

[Ty Schmidt]

What is it?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, at $150,000 vibrating thing, red light bed that they have that I think Puka said it's like the best 30 minutes of his life. Of his life. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So I think they have all the shit maybe into one. Whatever the case is, they're a huge part of the entire story of last year for the Los Angeles Rams. Matthew Stafford was supposed to be back out. Here's a little inside baseball that we won't say. Matthew Stafford, I guess, has a bed that is inside the. A moral of Donna Harmon Central. Yes. Okay, that is what it is. Looks super cool, looks incredibly uncomfortable, but I assume it is actually more comfortable because it's making you better. Whenever we were out in LA for the ESPYs last year, we put a request in for Matthew Stafford, like, hey, we're in your city. If you have time, go ahead and do it. It. And he told us, and I guess we can say this now. I assume he wouldn't be mad if we said it now. He told us. He was like, hey, I sorry, I can't make it. I got an appointment on my back. This is actually like a thing, you know. And we were like, oh, that feels like real information. Okay, first of all, on Matthew Stafford, but also, you should. You didn't have to tell us. You could have just said no in there. But he was like trying to be like, hey, actually want to. Want to do the show. I just want you to know, want to do the show. I'm thankful you guys are out here in la. I feel, you know, like the whole thing, but like real thing happening. So then as the story continues to roll on about him potentially being back by this time and he's not back by this time and then he's not back by this time. And then this trailer rolls into the back door of the thing. It's like, holy, is this old ass quarterback going to be done? And that was really the chatter about the Los Angeles Rams is that Matthew Stafford's not going to make it back as something that's like unhealable. And then all of a sudden he gets on mvp. What crazy. How's that? How does that even happen for his old. Once again, we got drafted the same class as him. I've been nominated for the hall of Fame three times. You got to be five years out of the game to get nominated for the hall of Fame. We got drafted in the same class. That's old. He is an old man in this game. Back problems. So that immortal group, I think is a big deal for them. And if Matthew Stafford could be healthy again, who they add A stud now, because if you can run zone with 10, if you can run that Z

[AJ Hawk]

line, that front, they have too. You know, those guys are nasty up front. So you can press especially like third and short situations, man. Like a lot of these clips. You see McDuffie pressed up a lot of times, which you have to do when you get third and short.

[Pat McAfee]

But he can take away one guy, right? And then what? Oh yeah, then you're just. Then you can run all your. Without. That was the Reavis answer, right? Like Reavis was kind of like that. Adding a number one, what does that do for a defense? Like in whole.

[Ty Schmidt]

You just.

[Darius J. Butler]

You talked about it earlier in the first hour. Changed the math. Whenever you. You bring over a great player and typically the guys that are at the top of their positional group getting paid, whether it's wide receiver, a pass rusher, a left tackle, all these guys change the math. If you're a left tackle, hey, I don't have the chip. I can get an extra guy out the passing pass rushers. You got to put another offensive line on me. So all these guys change math. And this is the same thing that Trent can do. Either you can double team the number one guy and just lock him up on the number two or just have him on a one guy and do different things. And a lot of the. I guess the bones of their defense is that front four. They've been dependent on that young front four. I'm interested to see who gets paid from that front four because somebody has to get paid from there as well pretty soon here. But yeah, Trent McDuffie does a ton for your defense.

[Pat McAfee]

Less need is active tone. These first round picks are hilarious for him.

[Tone]

Yeah. And field Yates put out the tweet earlier. 2017, traded the first round pick. 2018, traded. 2019, traded 20, traded 21, traded 22, traded 23, retraded. 24. They took Jared Verse. So that was awesome. Great pick. 25 and 26 both traded. Now they do have a first round pick still this year.

[Pat McAfee]

13. Yes, but I said 12 earlier. It's actually a 13th pick. I do apologize for that. But it feels like if we look at their history, Everybody in the NFL knew that they were shopping 29.

[Tone]

And what does Les say?

[Pat McAfee]

Them pigs. Yeah, but those picks are able to get you really good stuff.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's a hall too. Corner. Like that's all you got.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, but really? Fifth, sixth next year.

[Darius J. Butler]

Seventh, first in the third, two next year.

[Pat McAfee]

Like, yeah, third, I guess. But this is a second victim of 29. No offense. I don't want to knock any draft classes saying that something is 29. He's in a first rounder because it certainly is a first rounder. But there's 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 picks. Seemingly, now that we're covering the draft, those are viewed for the first round teams as second round picks.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And for third bad teams, they're viewed as, oh, that's another first round pick in there. You know, it's interesting how easy teams are to get off of, especially the good teams, but then how easy they are to get off of that type of stuff.

[Darius J. Butler]

But you never know, you know who that player is. You know, it's always a pick. It looks different when it's a number. But like what was Cooper cup was a third rounder. Like, like these guys, you never know. Richard Sherman, fifth round. Like it's always Puka is a fifth round. So you never know in each draft, you know, all these teams fall in love with certain players and they'll slip or maybe they have these different picks, they can jump up a couple picks. So you never know kind of who that player is. And I'm sure they probably have a handful of players that they love.

[Pat McAfee]

Puka is enjoying the hell out of his offseason. I can't wait to see if he

[Darius J. Butler]

has still bringing it.

[Pat McAfee]

If he, if he's able to do everything he's doing right now and also dominate a football field, which I think is what he's going to. To do. We're talking one on one, wildly impressive. We are talking one. We are talking an impressive individual, which he is. Puka certainly is. I think people need to remember that whenever they're talking shit about everything Puka's doing, it's like, go watch the film. But he, Puka is a.

[AJ Hawk]

Watch him block. Watch him block downfield. Watch him do all the dirty work and all the tough stuff as well as make the giant catches over the top.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Puka's allowed to do whatever the hell he want. If he's not breaking up, Puka's allowed to go live his life. And Puka is beloved in every single room he has ever walked into. And if this is the type of, if this is who he is as a professional athlete, we are lucky that Puka Naku is in the NFL. He's going to be an entertaining lad for the next couple years. Now he still has to play good. Yes, of course. Still has to play great, which we assume he'll be able to handle his

[Ty Schmidt]

business when that Stuff happened mid season. He went out against Seattle in primetime and had like 220 yards and a touchdown. I don't think that'll be a problem for Puka. But on the other side for Kansas City, Debo mentioned it earlier, like, I don't know who they have in their scouting department at corner, but they've been able to move these top, top guys and then immediately replace them. Whether it be a rookie or a second year guy or a trade. McDuffie was one of those for.

[Pat McAfee]

Draft them or draft them. I mean, McDuffie is one of these guys we're talking about. Spags came out and said, hey, we got young guys. We had to throw them out there and just figured out they were. That was him. Yeah, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's the other thing too. Like, they're probably very comfortable with getting rid of an all pro corner who of course is going to make the Rams better and then immediately replacing them and having Spags either coach him up or just picking the right guy that they know is going to be a day one dude.

[Pat McAfee]

We're in a beautiful time right now because all we can talk about is just drama, stories, leads or pictures. You guys see Todd Monken and Shador.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was sweet. Good crop on.

[Pat McAfee]

I like what's going on. Obviously, when Monkin showed up for his opening day and he was dressed the way he was dressed, we all thought to ourselves, this guy's awesome.

[Alex Ferreira]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Then you start looking at his history and his success. You kind of do your thing. And then all of a sudden, you know Monk and tell Shador in their first meeting on some of Shador's programming, I think maybe the Cleveland Brown social media team, he's like, hey, you know, I wanted you. I was the one that wanted you in Baltimore. We're gonna have to talk about that someday.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And Shador was like, yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that. Whatever. He goes, no, really. Like, I was. What the hell? I was the guy that wanted.

[Tone]

I think you wanted me to Georgia as well.

[Pat McAfee]

I was actually the guy that like wanted you or whatever. So I think Todd Monken is excited about this relationship. Relationship. But I think Todd Monk could also. Am I going to say it?

[Aaron Rodgers]

What?

[Connor]

Damn good football coach.

[Pat McAfee]

Is there a chance that he does have success? I think so too, A.J. i. I think there's a chance with how good of a football coach he is. Just handling situations, you know, like that is a part of being a head coach, just handling situations. There was a situation where he's talking shit about Miles Garrett. No, never Said that not one time. What I actually said was this feels like he might be perfect for the Cleveland. Cleveland Browns. I mean, obviously everything's tbd, but I do appreciate him posting his photo and the Cleveland Browns photo and being like, yeah, let's go ahead and just do this. But there's a chance he does lead the Browns to not being ass, AJ And I think we need to acknowledge that.

[Alex Ferreira]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, I think we got to understand, like, what the standards are, what the expectations are for Cleveland. They're not sky high right now. We know, like, they've been trying to figure out the whole Stefanski situation to move on from that. The quarterbacks are always up in the air. But to Monken, I feel like he's flying under the radar. Like, no one. There's a whole lot of people that couldn't name the Cleveland Browns head coach at the moment right now. And I think that's a great thing for Monkin because he can kind of slide under the radar and hey, like, can only go up from here pretty much, it feels like for Cleveland.

[Pat McAfee]

Isn't it crazy? The last head coach got a head coaching job before anybody else, basically from the Cleveland brothers.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then a report card got leaked. He's the worst. Got a head coaching job somewhere else immediately. That's big deluxe football. But on that note, I think a lot of people thought, thought that Stefanski was a great coach. Remember, he won coach of the year. Who's voting on that? Doesn't matter, who knows? But he won coach of the year a couple times there in Cleveland and they weren't able to have success. So the immediate question is like, well, if you got the best coach in football, it's getting coach of the year and you guys stink. Like, what are you doing? How are you going to ever win? And it's like, well, actually, guys went to the playoffs, I won playoff game, and they remember you forced a guy out of the building. Who did that? Was that the coach? Was that somebody? I don't know who was who. So I think, I think the Browns. Nope. I'm not gonna say it. I don't want to start an all out war on Stefanski. Okay? I definitely don't. I'm sure he's a good guy. And I, and I like Matt Ryan. Okay. And I think Matt Ryan does have a good football brain. He's the one who hired him. But like, I think any coach coming in there would have been, would have been better than what they had going on personally. Now everybody else, I think, is saying Andrew Barry's the problem, the ownership's the problem. Right. That's kind of what the NFL, I guess is saying.

[Ty Schmidt]

Definitely the ownership.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Because I remember Tepper was a problem until they got good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly. But the has came out and basically did say like, yeah, we forced everybody's hand and decided to pay Deshaun Watson 230 million.

[Tone]

He is still in the mix.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Is he the quarterback or is something running out? He looked athletic. I did see him moving and working out security. He's coming back off of something that if he was to be able to be a good football player again, we'd all be incredibly impressed with his ability to find it again, you know, because he gets paid more money than anybody in the history of sport at the time. Guaranteed. I assume baseball player had something bigger in the history of our sport, $230 million guarantee. And that was all happening while some of the most serious things of all time were taking place off the field and he couldn't play. So not only does he opt out because he wants traded so he's not playing, then everything happens terribly off the the field that he doesn't play, then that all gets behind him, then he's back on the field. It's like he hasn't played in like two and a half, three years. Is this going to be. Is the NFL still right? No, he'll be able to figure it out. He didn't. Then injuries happen and then now all of a sudden we still have a contract that we have to kind of uphold here the biggest of all time and he takes another run at it. It's like if desean Watson plays good football, that would be very surprising. That would be the most surprising.

[AJ Hawk]

He's going to be there though, right? He's going to be on the team.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I assume the Haslams that paid that deal are like, yeah, yeah. You're being. I heard a deal at the combine of a former college football coach.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah, this is one of the best deals ever.

[Pat McAfee]

He is currently a janitor on the, on the campus at like the Rec building because his contract had in it that his money would be guaranteed to him and if he was fired, he would be moved to another job on campus to fulfill the contract. So I believe the current job that is being filled to fulfill the college football head coaching contract for FAU is currently mopping floors at the Wreck.

[AJ Hawk]

What is he actually, Is it a no show job or is he really doing it?

[Pat McAfee]

All right, we got mop in hand.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good for him doing a Great job.

[Tone]

That's a good paying gig.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Danny is highest of all time. Yeah. But also, that's one of those ones where they're looking for a breach. So, like, they would like to not have to pay you.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So, I mean, if you don't have good form on that, you know.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

They're saying breach. Like, I think he has to be very good.

[Connor]

Janitor in the Navy.

[Pat McAfee]

I think he has to be very good because they are. They got eyes looking.

[AJ Hawk]

They send the people through there slipping, like, hoping he doesn't put the little warning sign up. So they got people there taking falls all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

Where. Where's the express auto? What is the. What's the. In Spanish? The. The caution. Wet floor. I love cudado. C U I D A D O, I believe is what it says. I get so happy when I read. I always say loud. Cudado. I don't know which is on the side.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's slippy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, they're looking for that with him.

[Darius J. Butler]

Wow. Yeah, that's news to me. I didn't hear that.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the people that told me that obviously wanted me to hear that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. And see your reaction.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Immediately. There's a guy, he's janitor right now. I'm like, what? Yeah, he's currently a janitor. Where? Good for him. Is this like a passion project? They're like, no, can't have a breach of contract. Needs it to get paid. It's like, how's that work? And then they obviously on the person that negotiated.

[Connor]

Sure, sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, dip, you know, immediately goes into it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Living in Boca, too. Yeah. Not a bad spot.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, if you had a brain, he'd just buy 15 Roombas and just set that.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see that one with dog poop on it?

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. All of a sudden, it start painting the canvas. Oh, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

It rolled over some with some turd like dog poop. And then painted.

[Pat McAfee]

Little loose stool gets underneath the Roomba. All of a sudden, Roomba becomes Bob Ross. And, you know, all of a sudden you just got the whole poopy half, you know, and you need to blot that shit. They say, well, that shit's actually everywhere, so you ain't got no. You got nothing. Yeah. It literally looked like one of them roller painters.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, geez.

[Tone]

Not good.

[Pat McAfee]

Fox. Are you still Roomba in your whole house? Nah, I gave up on that thing.

[Ty Schmidt]

What about the outdoor one? You have to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

That's the one I'm talking about. The outdoor one didn't make it to the new house. That thing suck. Don't get an outside lawn mower robot. It doesn't work. You know what I'm saying?

[AJ Hawk]

Like, the super expensive ones, though, you

[Pat McAfee]

gotta get a commercial for like four years. So I always say, I got my money's worth. No, by working. What does that mean? I mean, everybody knows, like, if it comes to cutting grass, you're looking at the lines, you're looking at the levels, the Eve, everything like that. You think this Roomba grass thing was doing any of that? Absolutely not. It looked good. It's just. It was a pain in the ass because the wires would break. Once the wires break, you had to fix those in order for it to go at all. So it was brutal. Yeah, you need a Z turn out there. If you can afford a Z turn, you get the Z turn. You get and put that thing straight out of rabbit, straight out of turtle, right to rabbit. And then you let that thing eat right there. I actually, I bought a house in my NFL career, about the middle of it that had a massive field in the back because I didn't like to work with other people. So I just wanted to kind of work in my backyard so I can kick balls, needle the big field. I got it. Soon as I got, I bought this Z turn. Boy, I had a good time.

[Tone]

It's fun.

[Pat McAfee]

It is so many. It's time consuming.

[Connor]

It is.

[Pat McAfee]

It is certainly time consuming. But, boy, it's a good time. Because in Pittsburgh, it's all hand, and we are going, you know, it's not that good of a time. Right. I mean, we're pushing sled straight uphill is basically what you're doing there. One of them Z turns. I don't know if South Florida has much opportunity for that unless you're working on a golf course. Yeah, right now. But you get a few, probably.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean, not speed.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a good time, man. You could disappear out there.

[Connor]

It's therapy.

[Tone]

It is therapy.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it is.

[Darius J. Butler]

Is.

[Pat McAfee]

Is pretty nice. Foxy don't want it. He's letting robots do it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they'll make bronco versions of the Z turn.

[Pat McAfee]

Kyler Murray potentially on the move. Definitely on the move. Where will he be? Well, ESPN's reporting that he has two potential destinations in his mind and that there's obviously a lot of interest in him is what his people are going to say. Regardless, I've come full circle on Connor's theory that if Kyler goes to the Minnesota Vikings, Vikings are a problem. That that is kind of where Connor has been since the beginning of This, I think that is because the amount of respect we have for Kevin o' Connell and his offense. But if you remember, I think the only thing we've ever said about Kyler consistently is that guy could spin it like his. His ball flight, his spiral, his pinpoint accuracy, his ability to do it all, especially with his size. But just his arm talent alone is outrageous. And what do you need in a Kevin o' Connell offense? Well, you need to be able to put the ball exactly where it needs to be. You also need to know where it's supposed to go. And that goes to the clause that was put into his contract. Will he be able to accomplish that? And Conor has convinced me, yeah, he will be able to do that. And now all of a sudden, I'm thinking of Kevin oconnell and Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson. They're letting go. Aaron Jones, obviously, I think he's a big time weapon for whoever he signs with, was for the Minnesota Vikings. But I've come around fully to Kyler in Minnesota. There's other vets being talked about heading over there as well. What are your thoughts, aj?

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, I think Kyler with kfc, the more you think about. Yeah, it would make a ton of sense. And I think for Kyler, a change of scenery could be good for him and a different person in his ear to help Mountain.

[Pat McAfee]

I.

[AJ Hawk]

Obviously, we know quarterback's all about confidence. I don't feel like Kyler lacks any confidence, but what the. Like everything. Just watch these clips.

[Ty Schmidt]

What do you like?

[AJ Hawk]

No one really else on the planet can do what this guy can do. So when you can couple that with a guy that can sit in the pocket and also sling it, like, yeah, like Kyler absolutely, absolutely has a chance to resurrect his career, I believe, especially if he goes to a place like Minnesota.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, something to think about here too, as we're running those highlights and you're saying he's one of one, there's another one of one out there in Anthony Richardson. Remember Kevin o' Connell gave him a fool.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bad dude.

[Connor]

Hey, you're playing this league for a long time.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, he said, you can't do that. I almost sent him a text and said, hey, give us a one then. Yeah, immediately after that, I, I almost send us a one because maybe you are the one that can make him live up to his full potential. Because Anthony Richardson at his absolute best is the thing that draws everybody to like, hold on. And if we think Kevin o' Connell is the guy that gets the best out of everybody. It's like, hold on, is Anthony Richton going over there? Can he layer a ball?

[Connor]

We haven't seen it yet.

[Ty Schmidt]

He can throw 68 yards off his back foot there.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, you understand that. Can he layer a ball? Because that is from my. From my understanding, that is what Minnesota. Minnesota is going to be looking for first and foremost is we need somebody that needs to know where the hell the ball has to go. And they need to be able to put it over a linebacker in front of a safety. We need that ball to be in our offense immediately.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's why if that is the only thing, and I don't know if Anthony Richardson can do that, I'm right now probably going to say I don't know if I've ever seen it. But again, that deep ball, it's not

[Pat McAfee]

the first thing we think about.

[Ty Schmidt]

Not the first thing we think about. Yeah, but if that is the only thing the Vikings are thinking about. Thinking about. If Tua goes to the Vikings, they may go 17 0. Because that's all I think about when I think about two of.

[Pat McAfee]

And there's another guy. There's another guy that people are like, bomb. Yeah, exactly. Bomb. And then all of a sudden you pair him up with Kevin o' Connell and it's like, hold on, are we scared of them? Yeah, we are. We are a little, little scared of them. Joining us now is not from the world of football, but certainly the world of. Let's go ahead and send it, bruh. Yeah, okay, that's.

[Connor]

I learned it's fresh powder out there. Let's get going.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now, Olympic gold medal free. No skiing half piper. Okay. I don't know the official titles.

[Connor]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

He skis. He's in a half pipe. He's the best in the world. Clearly was. The entire morning I was watching three different runs. This guy's the man. Ladies and gentlemen, Alex Ferrero. Yeah. How you doing, brother Pat?

[Alex Ferreira]

Thank you so much for having me on. I'm doing great. I'm on an all time high and I'm never coming down, so don't try and break my stride.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're only here to lift you higher, brother. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your altitude for a few minutes. Let's talk about the half pipe. We mentioned this earlier. We are very out of the winter sport world. We. I don't really know it much. I get into the Olympics, though, every single time, especially when America's kicking ass. Thank you, brother. But it Felt like the skiers have kind of taken the half. It felt like every skier was nailing something absurd. And I grew up with what's the.

[Connor]

The movie Johnny Tsunami.

[Pat McAfee]

Johnny Tsunami. Which kind of judged the skiers. And I'm an outside the winter sports world, so I always thought the skiers were the worst. Then I watched this half pipe, and it's like, wait a minute. The skiers are definitely more entertaining on the half pipe than the snowboard was for me. And then all of a sudden, you roll out there, and they're like, well, wait a minute. We actually got the guy. I want to thank you for a spectacular watch and also winning, but can you tell me more about when did every skier become phenomenal at the halfpipe? Because it felt like that's what. What I was watching.

[Alex Ferreira]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the snowboarder guys are super impressive as well as the girls as well, but definitely, as far as the ski side of things goes, everybody is on their game. Nobody doesn't land any runs anymore. Everyone's always landing. Everyone's crushing it. And, yeah, the competition runs deep. It is a super steep, steep track to compete against all these guys. So I'm just super grateful to be on top.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, definitely on top. And we'll certainly talk about some guy that seemingly follows you around as well, who. A little bit of a. An ex, A little bit of a wild card.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Former gold medalist, probably.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And he lives in. You know, he's good. A good idea, I think, for the good of sport. What are you being judged on? Because I saw them talking about how high you were. Okay, what are you worried about most? How high you're getting, how clean you're spinning, how clean the landing is. Like, what is mission one for you as you're heading down into the half pipe?

[Alex Ferreira]

That's a great question. Let's just start with amplitude. And is king. There's a variety of criteria. There's overall impression, there's degree of difficulty, but the main. Main thing is amplitude is king. You got to go huge. You got to execute on your grabs perfectly. And the idea, or my whole style is all about making it as clean as possible. I want people to watch on TV and be like, oh, maybe I could do that. So I just try and make it super, super nice.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, nobody thinks that. Yeah. But young skiers. Young skiers are things thinking that. But I like the fact that you. You all think to yourself, like, when people watch on tv, this should be a clean. Like, it should be good, because whenever people are just cutting off their runs, I found myself getting disinterested. Like, I think that was happening in the other half pipe. You guys, you're talking about. All of us are going through. It was. It was a hell of a spectacle. Ty has a question for you, Alex.

[Connor]

Yeah, Alex, like, when you're going out there, I mean, because like Pat said, if you're trying to make people think that this, like, that was even you coming in on the half pipe and just, like, revert now, I don't ski, but. But I was like, I would fall back and probably break my neck on the entry into the half pipe there. When you're trying new tricks, like, what is that process? Like, how do you just kind of keep pushing the envelope? Because I feel like some of this stuff, it feels like the human body a isn't supposed to do that, but, like, if you're practicing this kind of stuff day in, day out, if you're not landing this kind of stuff, obviously you could get super, super hurt and not be able to complete competes. Like, what is the process like when you're trying to put together a gold medal run like this?

[Alex Ferreira]

I mean, let's just be real here. It's scared. I'm scared shitless. It's absolutely insane, everything that everyone's doing. So you gotta be on point. And we're skiing on a brick or a block of ice, right? Like, this isn't just, oh, we're going for a fun ski. No, this is pure bulletproof ice. If you don't wet land, you're gonna have a bad day. So it's always. I always say, I'm in the business of landing, trying to make it as clean as possible, land the best of my ability, and put on a show. I noticed early on, like you were saying, that when people aren't landing runs, the audience is getting disinterested. It's not as fun. I always try and stuck to the. The characteristic of consistency is king. Be as consistent as I possibly can, and everything else will take care of itself.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, your prep is probably insane. AJ has a question about that, actually.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I wonder, like, as far as your. Your final run, you posted run, and you had to sit there and I believe watch three other competitors go. Can you take us through what that was like inside your head, how nervous you were watching each guy go?

[Alex Ferreira]

Yeah, it's a living nightmare. It's absolutely terrible just watching the top three qualifiers coming down below and the whole time, you know, I'm not much of a religious man. I believe in the universe due on to others as you would like.

[Pat McAfee]

The golden rule.

[Alex Ferreira]

Right. And I just kept talking to God, basically. Just, you got to give me this one. Come on. You got to give me. And, you know, he came through big time. So thank you to the big man upstairs, I guess.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I believe in the universe. And then I realized in that moment, okay, there's God out there, too. Somebody needs. Somebody needs to be hearing this now. Does he have a son? I don't know at this point. I mean, if there would have been four qualifiers, maybe we would. We would see if we got to that point. That's a beautiful thing, Having faith in that moment, obviously, but also getting it to cash in and get to enjoy, you know, the benefits of all your hard work is special. So I appreciate that. Con man has a question for you.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Alex, Pat mentioned it earlier. I was infatuated with Hot Dog Hans. It seems as though he follows you around. I believe it was kind of something you and one of your friends who was a filmmaker kind of developed. Can you tell me more about Hot Dog Hans and this absolute nuclear weapon of a podcast Persona?

[Alex Ferreira]

You rock. Thank you for saying that. I appreciate it. Basically, a friend came to me and said, hey, have you seen Uncle Drew? Kyrie Irving? This sitting is amazing. He dressed up as an old man. He's dunking on people, 360 dunks, layups, whatever. And I said, no, I hadn't seen it. He showed me. I thought, wow, this is fantastic. He goes, we should do this with you in skiing. And it just so happened at the time. One of my best friends, he owns a production company called Vital Filter Films, is working for people like the BBC, Nat, Geo, espn, You name it, he's on it. And basically, we came together. I dress up like an old man, and I mess with people on the slopes, and we have a blast. Our main goal is to bring humor and originality and some major creativity to the space. And I think we're doing a great job so far, and I hope everyone keeps enjoying it. We're just trying to have a lot of fun. Fun.

[Pat McAfee]

We have Hot Dog Hans, a bit of a ledge, you know, and obviously, palling around, around with an Olympic gold medalist does not hurt the skiing world. We learn about it every single Winter Olympics. There's a lot of options out there. Go ahead, Tone.

[Tone]

Yeah, there's a ton, Alex. And in the football world, we always talk about it's impossible to play both sides of all offense and defense. Let's say you had four years. Okay? Could, like, obviously, you're very Very, very, very comfortable on your skis. Like how would you do in big air or aerials? Or let's say you're going super G or slalom, like, because you're so comfortable on skis. If we gave you four years, how do you think you would do in those other events?

[Alex Ferreira]

Listen, man, I'm super confident, but let's be real here, I would get absolutely slaughtered. This is not a joke. There's so many different disciplines of skiing and you need to specialize in your discipline because everyone has gotten so freaking good. It's just the real. It's the nature of the beast. Everyone's amazing.

[Pat McAfee]

Do you do the skiing? Like, do you, do you do the, like the hang? We'll take the, the basic skis,

[Connor]

double blacks.

[Pat McAfee]

What's Michaela Shiffrin? Slalom from those things. Have you ever like done that? Are you like a natural? Like go hang out, do the skiing whenever you're not doing half pipe skiing. Like, how does that all work out?

[Alex Ferreira]

Absolutely. I'm a skier first and foremost. I'm a soul shredder. I go out and ski with my friends, with my mom, with my dad, whatever. I'm there for it. I like being around. I'm especially there for the app racing. I like to have a good time. We're not here for a long time, so I'm trying to enjoy it. But yeah, we have a great time. Any type of skiing, you invite me, I'm there. Ellie skiing, normal groomers, powder skiing, park skiing, whatever. I got my ski boots on right now. I'm going to shred park right after this.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the man. Okay. How can we. Yeah, okay. Yeah. All right. We love that you're living in your boots. This guy hasn't taken his boots off since the, since the Winter Olympics. I have not gotten gotten into the skiing at all. Where should I go in America? Where would you. A couple places. You don't have to pick a favorite and piss anybody off. But where's a couple places that if we were to take a group to kind of go do a skiing and also an apres skiing. Where do you think we should head? Here in the United States of America?

[Alex Ferreira]

Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy to piss people off. You got to come to Aspen. I'll show you the best time of your guys lives. If you haven't seen before. We'll have a blast. And yeah, you let me know when you to want to come and I'll set the whole thing up for you and your crew.

[Ty Schmidt]

Boom.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's why you Are the man we need representing United States of America on those two skis. You're the best. Thank you for taking time and congrats again.

[Alex Ferreira]

Much love. Go usa. Appreciate you boys having me on. All the best. I will see you soon.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you for representing for us, man. And good luck out there. Go shred park, dude. Alex Ferreira. Yeah. What are you talking about? About, dude, I'm kind of blowing it right now.

[Tone]

Hilarious.

[Pat McAfee]

Living the gimmick.

[Ty Schmidt]

Such a beast.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, he's the one.

[AJ Hawk]

Is he doing like back flips over people if he's going down Black diamonds, like are there jumps out. I don't. I don't.

[Tone]

I don't like today when he's going to park. Yeah, there's boxes, there's jumps.

[Connor]

Yeah, we got to.

[Pat McAfee]

Got to do that.

[Darius J. Butler]

How we got to go.

[Pat McAfee]

Is that still happening?

[Tone]

Oh, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Tone]

Out there till March.

[Ty Schmidt]

Last February.

[Pat McAfee]

What's today's date?

[Tone]

3-2-3.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, you'll be able to ski out there till April.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I'm in debut skis, right? You. You've gone a decent amount of.

[Darius J. Butler]

I went. God rest his soul. Vonte was a huge skier. Former teammate, Vonte Davis, he would go out there all the time. Some of his friends who I was still in contact with, they go multiple times a year. So I am definitely down. I went once and, you know, I picked it up fairly quickly, but I. I'm definitely down to go anytime.

[Pat McAfee]

I got invited to go live with a little. With Vonte a ski trip, and I couldn't make it happen. And I was seeing the pictures of what happened, and I'm like, man, that ski time looks like a good time. You know, I don't know if I'll be able to do the skiing, but it does feel like the skiing community is a good time.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. The opera skiing is just like a part of it. Like, yeah, we're going to have a good time here. Like, that is what we're here for. And it feels like it's a great therapeutic type of great workout.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's like a nine to three type thing to too. So you can get some sun. Nice little suntan while you're going.

[Pat McAfee]

Like a lot of chiefing. Right? I mean, a lot of cheap.

[Ty Schmidt]

A lot of boozing.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you can. Really devastating, right? Yeah, yeah. Some really terrible things.

[Tone]

You can die for sure.

[Connor]

Yeah, you could die.

[Ty Schmidt]

You need to wear a helmet.

[Darius J. Butler]

Make a decision though. Skiing or. Or snowboard right now? Snowboard.

[Tone]

I still have my board, so.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Am I making a decision Right now?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, sure.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wouldn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

Give me the ones that are up.

[Ty Schmidt]

No poles.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, give me. Give me the ski. Mostly because I've walked on two feet my whole life. And getting me on a skateboard.

[Tone]

Very difficult if you've never done it. Skiing is a lot easier. Like the first three, four.

[Ty Schmidt]

They got mini skis too, by the way. They got skis this big.

[AJ Hawk]

If you want to.

[Ty Schmidt]

If the.

[Pat McAfee]

I've gone rollerblading before.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. Exactly. They have those size skis.

[Pat McAfee]

Do they work or no?

[Ty Schmidt]

They do work, but they are like trick skis. Like, you're supposed to be a very good skew to use them, but still.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you mean? Like, I can't just go out there first time and do a little. How do you do it?

[Ty Schmidt]

You can.

[Pat McAfee]

And then what am I. Am I grinding on that?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I did. Hitting the boxes like. Tony, those are good.

[Tone]

If you can ice skate.

[Pat McAfee]

I. I think I can.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like.

[Pat McAfee]

If you.

[Tone]

If you could.

[Ty Schmidt]

Sides.

[Aaron Rodgers]

If you.

[Tone]

If you could stop wearing, like, hockey skates, then you could do those.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so I'm doing trick skis first time I'm out there. Okay. That I've decided. Because the long ones scare me.

[Charlie McAvoy]

The.

[Pat McAfee]

The length of it is what scares. You know, because. Doing this whole thing. Because I've had the. The Little Mermaid things for swimming. What are those on your feet? I can't. The flip. Flippers. Hey, Jay floats.

[AJ Hawk]

What are you talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm talking about those big flippers.

[Connor]

Flippers like.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, like your scuba, like.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Flippers.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, Flippers. Not floaties. Okay. Flippers.

[AJ Hawk]

That's what it sounded like you were saying. I don't know. What are you using flippers for?

[Alex Ferreira]

You.

[Pat McAfee]

What do you put floaties on? Your kid's got no shot. Is that where you put your floaties?

[AJ Hawk]

Their feet stay up and their head goes down. You got to really test them. But throw them into adversity right away.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I understand. Yeah. I get hanging on to them by their Achilles. Yeah, I understand what you're doing there. No, anytime. Those things. I'm just not good at the. The big flock and. And then the. The long skis, just. That feels like that would not be good for my knees too. Like, that feels like that's a lot. So if I'm getting a little.

[Tone]

There's middle roller blade.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, you can do that.

[Tone]

And that's best of both worlds, too.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's the hardest part of skiing is just.

[Darius J. Butler]

That does not sound like a good idea.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about? I'm turning that thing Sideways. I'm dragging that thing down the hill. Like that is what they say.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean, that's kind of your M.O. you go right. You know, hey, let me get in the batter's box. I go up and get Clyde. Let me get a ring. I. Stone cold. Yeah, go ahead. You know what? Go ahead. Put the rope.

[Pat McAfee]

You're right. So that would be harder. Those little ones.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, they are definitely harder.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, I thought we're talking to. AJ's gone. AJ's already headed Aspen.

[Tone]

Oh, nice.

[Ty Schmidt]

Someone called him.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Well, as we end here on ESPN2 as the Red Sox and Yankees play each other on espn, we will let you know that the team USA with Clayton Kershaw pitching. I do believe he's not starting, but our. Oh, at some point he's pitching.

[Tone]

I. That's what we were told, right?

[Pat McAfee]

We're playing the Colorado Rockies. That's available nowhere.

[Connor]

Mlb, tv.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay. It is available somewhere.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Yes. That's on me. Be a friend. Tell a friend something I said. I change their life. We're back tomorrow. Aaron Rogers will be joining us on YouTube, ESPN Disney tick tock. And hopefully you'll join us as well. See you tomorrow. Goodbye. Did I miss anything?

[Ty Schmidt]

No, no.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Got it.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I hate them all.

[Tone]

Yeah. The lineup came out in. Yarbrough is getting start from the past.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I believe that's.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hopefully he's sponsored by that company. What, Marlboro Yarboro. That's money.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if they're doing as many cigarette sponsors, sponsorships these days in pro sports. Just any another thing. I think it's kind of a tough thing to establish.

[Ty Schmidt]

Like Red Bull.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

No, a little different. I think Red Bull has a lot of. A lot of. A lot of hats on these skiing.

[Connor]

That's true.

[Pat McAfee]

I think Red Bull would say we do more to support Olympic sports than maybe anybody. Anybody else. Which we would like to say to Red Bull. We appreciate your service. Not only that, but also when you guys decided to tag team with vodka and everywhere. We appreciate what you did for all of our lives as well. Foxy just gave a big head size. Sounds like he survived some night. Big time hangover when you do that. I loved it though. It was great nights. Okay. Sorry you had one with the lads, pal.

[Ty Schmidt]

Go start your Roomba lawnmower, pal.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what. I was looking for one of those for five hours over there in Phoenix. Just at the end of the day. I'm glad. I bet. Dude. No. This next place is awesome. You guys got Red Bull vodkas here? No. Okay. We do got.

[Connor]

Yeah, right.

[Pat McAfee]

We're not the mountains, but it's always snowing. Jesus. Get me out of here.

[Darius J. Butler]

Any hangover with that?

[Pat McAfee]

No. I don't know, to be honest. Oh, anytime. I've only done it. I've only done it a couple times. Long time. Literally two times. Long time ago. Always a long time ago alongside an immense amount of alcohol.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

So, like, you know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. How do you know?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And then chicken or egg? Yeah. The thing that I do know, though, I don't know about the hangover, but I do know looking in the mirror going, what the. Are you fucking. You are a real.

[Connor]

Okay, okay, Tony Montana.

[Pat McAfee]

This is what life is. Yeah. I always. That was my issue with it. Now, I've had a lot of friends, obviously, that were into that particular thing. Good time crowd has, you know, certain traits, I think, everywhere. And I was always a part of good time crowds in, like, a lot of different cities. So obviously I see that type of stuff, but for me, it's never good. And I don't. I don't like that everybody just automatically calls me a cokehead as soon as they see me with some energy all the time. It's like. Actually, no, it's complete opposite. I've. I've talked to me about it after, and I didn't like me. I don't like what it did to my brain. You got to be Adderall out of your mind. It's like. No, actually hate that as well, because it keeps me too on track.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I like to. I actually like to kind of voyage out. Out of there. Oh. I said, well, you gotta be doing some meth. You on meth? No, man. I wake up like this, and I'll tell you what, it annoys me too. But then we take some. Then we take an herbal remedy, and I think that slows me down enough. But, boy, that upper stuff, I think there's a lot of that in those X Games type stuff. I think those guys are. I think they have to. I think they are part. I think they are a good time crowd. I think all of them are, which is why I think it's so electric when we watch the Winter Olympics. It's like a very electric time.

[Connor]

I mean, like he said, that's. No, like, you can. Those guys could break their neck every single run they have. You're doing ski the flips and like that on skis. Like, you could die every time if

[Tone]

you've never been on a half pipe. The Top part. And then where it goes down to that, it is ice.

[Pat McAfee]

It's.

[Tone]

It's ice. So it's like. It's basically concrete, dude. People that land on the top and then where it starts to go down on their back, like, that's.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw a guy hit. I saw a guy hit edge. I saw a guy hit edge because I think he tried to steal another jump at the bottom. So he thought he. I think he was trying to jump more and he jumped into the wall basically and started flipping and didn't even know it. And boom. And then he goes down and he's on and they send in a whole thing. I'm like, oh, I just watched God break his back. And then he gets. Gets up, walks down the half pipe and then starts making fun of himself and then walks away. And I'm like, this is. This group is dogs everywhere. Shout out to the Winter Olympics. Let's get to a break. On the other side, Aaron Rodgers will be joining us. I can't wait for. I have no idea what. Do you know where this is headed?

[Aaron Rodgers]

No. Can't wait, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Have you talked to him about coming on over the last couple of years. Days?

[AJ Hawk]

No, not really. I like nothing like.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, sure.

[AJ Hawk]

Nothing in detail about anything.

[Ty Schmidt]

Just.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Hey, what's up? How are you

[Pat McAfee]

always lying?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

So what are you going to make a decision on what you're going to do this next year? You think I'm texting them that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. So that's what people expect, right? And what.

[Tone]

Oh, yeah. Everyone thinks that. Yeah. He's making a decision today.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't think that. Oh, that is not.

[AJ Hawk]

That'd be sweet.

[Ty Schmidt]

He should.

[Connor]

You're.

[Tone]

I agree.

[AJ Hawk]

Why not?

[Pat McAfee]

All right, good.

[AJ Hawk]

As time as ever.

[Connor]

I agree.

[AJ Hawk]

He loves.

[Pat McAfee]

March 4, if not now in World Baseball Classic is about to start.

[Connor]

Yeah, exactly.

[AJ Hawk]

We just won gold. And men's and women's hockey. Like everyone's riding high and everything else.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got a dog named Apollo, right?

[Connor]

He does.

[Pat McAfee]

First thing that comes to mind. What do you think of Apollo?

[Connor]

Apollo 13 or Apollo Anton Ono?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so let's get rid of the first one.

[Connor]

You said Apollo Anton Ono.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Which is what? Winter Olympic.

[Connor]

Yes, Winter Olympic legend, speed skater.

[Tone]

What about Apollo Creek?

[Darius J. Butler]

That's first.

[Ty Schmidt]

That was my first. That.

[Connor]

That works too. Who gave Rocky the. The Star Spangled Banner, you know, trunks. It was Apollo Creek.

[Pat McAfee]

So he's going to be pumped up about what just happened in the Olympics. Yes, Aaron, because of that.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, you see how you tie it together. What about the Apollo Theater? I thought that might have something to do with it.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean literally any Apollo you're thinking of now is not the first one that I was talking about. Apollo Creed potentially the right answer. Apollo 13 also opportunity. Apollo Anton is what we're trying to get to the Greek God. Yeah.

[Tone]

That movie, that movie with the Apollo theater.

[Connor]

Great.

[Tone]

Is that Chris Rock goes in that Apollo. Anybody know that? Is that.

[Connor]

There it is.

[Tone]

Is that what it's called?

[Ty Schmidt]

A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

get him to the Apollo. I thought it was the tall guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Russell Brand.

[Connor]

Let's give him to the Greek.

[Tone]

Let's get him to the Greek.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh yeah, there it is.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, second break. I'm just going to act like he named Apollo after Apollo Antono. There's a good chance and he was watching speed skating come out of win Olympics and that why he's seemingly glowing. The I I said earlier in the show that talking to him last week, couple days that is, he was glowing through the facetime and I don't know if you feel the same way or want to say the same thing. This dude feels very. It feels like he feels very good about where he is in his life right now. You agree with that, I would imagine.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean would he.

[AJ Hawk]

Do you think he would want to come on if he wasn't feeling good?

[Pat McAfee]

I mean there's been some times. Yeah. Where he wanted to, you know.

[Ty Schmidt]

Feels like it's a lot of other

[Darius J. Butler]

going on in the world too outside of sports. They might want to talk.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't even.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't think he would do that.

[Pat McAfee]

That I just thought about that right now. All right. It. We'll see. Be your friend. Tell a friend something nice might change our life. Feels like Aaron is in. I'm excited to hear what he has to say. Excited to catch up on what the year was. So much has happened since the last time we talked to him. What does his future look like? Does he know at this exact point? Is he allowed to take his time to figure out what he wants to do? Because he's already a first ballot Mount Rushmore football player.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yes, he is me and Freddie. Something nice might change your life. Take five. Partner with Amazon Hub delivery to earn extra income for your business with your business. Assist with local Amazon deliveries and get paid for each package you deliver. When you become a partner, you and your staff will deliver packages to customers

[Aaron Rodgers]

in your area on a schedule that

[Pat McAfee]

works for you, gain extra income, increase

[Aaron Rodgers]

exposure for your business and connect with neighbors.

[Pat McAfee]

It's easy to get started with no. No delivery experience. Long term Contracts or startup costs required. Interested in Learning more? Visit Amazon.com hubdelivery that's Amazon.com hubdelivery from 30 for 30 podcasts.

[Tone]

Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami gunned down.

[Pat McAfee]

There's a key to this case. It's Brian.

[AJ Hawk]

An hour before he died, he was

[Aaron Rodgers]

on the phone arguing with somebody.

[Pat McAfee]

This might be a hit.

[Ty Schmidt]

You want the truth.

[Pat McAfee]

They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest.

[Aaron Rodgers]

We had a killer amongst us.

[Pat McAfee]

Murder at the U. Listen now. Sports are the greatest. I just had to burp. I just took down an incredible rap over there and I did not expect the type of of up that was coming there as I was introing this wonderful hour that I assume is not going to be talked about at all. That is A.J. hawk right there. He's a college football national champion, super bowl champion Router cup winner. The talks to tables here at Boston, Connor and at Ty Schmidt. Good to see you, Ty. You're glowing a little bit right now.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Hey, you know it's tough not to.

[Connor]

I mean we got a guy who I'm looking forward to talk to and we got Team USA baseball taking on the Rockies at 310 today. It's a great time to be alive.

[Pat McAfee]

Life is good, isn't it? Yeah, like. And it's a great day to be alive. I know the sun still shining when I close my.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Not your NFL. Darius J. Butler, one half of the Hammer Cowboys. AP tone and joining us now, ladies and gentlemen is a four time NFL mvp, a Super bowl champion last year was the quarterback of the the Pittsburgh Steelers. Before that he was quarterback of the jets before that. What people will remember is an iconic run with the Green Bay packers where some kid out of cow became an absolute icon. That man's name, Aaron Rodgers. How you doing dude?

[Aaron Rodgers]

I'm glad you guys played that song because AJ loves that song. He really does. That's one of his favorites.

[Connor]

Oh really?

[Pat McAfee]

Do you want to sing with us? It's a great day to be alive live. Did he say what you say?

[Aaron Rodgers]

J He's talking about.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's muted.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Travis. Can't hear him. I love it. Can't hear him.

[Pat McAfee]

Go ahead. A.J. what you say? Oh, no, no. He's doing that on purpose. I think Aaron. I think he's doing on purpose. I don't know if you guys play with me or not. We actually cannot hear you right now. So if you could turn off your mute, that would be sick.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, you are muted. Dude, they're saying it's your side. Everybody in the back is. Oh, he thinks we're lying to him. See, this is part the of the problem.

[Aaron Rodgers]

There's got to be some technical issue

[Pat McAfee]

when I come on.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Right. I think I'm good today, but there's got to be something, right?

[Pat McAfee]

You look good. You look incredibly happy. I told the boy. Let's call AJ back. Aj, you are actually could not hear you. AJ thinks we are. You think we're with you, aj, we are not with you. We actually cannot hear you. Aaron. Thank you for being a part of that moment.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And also this is a better two shot anyway.

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what, Aaron, be handsome. Which is a part of a lot. Yeah, exactly, exactly. I like the blue shirt, blue eyes. Just going absolutely crazy right now. But you're also glowing.

[Aaron Rodgers]

It's a shout out. It's a shout out to where I did my rehab, you know, twice collarbone and my Achilles. So shout out to Heather and everybody over there at Elite Ortho. I just saw it in the drawer today and you can't see it, but I've been doing a lot of. A lot of push ups and lifting, you know, so it was kind of tight on the arms. I kind of liked it.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

So you wearing those tight shirts?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I'm on bunch of peptides. You'll learn about that when you retire. And I don't know what you're planning on doing in this particular conversation, but hearing that you've been working out and what I said to the boys is getting a chance to FaceTime with you over the last few days and catch up with you after the season, it's like, you look good, man. You look healthy, you look happy. And obviously a couple times you weren't able to chat because you were working out. You will be a guy that will work out for the rest of your life. Or is this a part of your process? Still on what's next for you as a football player or as a human? I don't want to. Literally. We are so happy you joined us. It's great to catch up. I don't want to immediately jump into it, but you're talking about working out. It's like, okay, are you just always going to be like that? Is there a reason? Have you got to that point in your mind? Like, where do you sit on this particular March 4th?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Probably somewhere between you and AJ. I would say maybe closer to you. I know you've got a good workout schedule. AJ's like 5am on the versa climber in there. You know, I'm not doing that. But no, I'm trying to stay fit. I mean, it's harder when you get older, so you kind of can't take the same amount of time off as you used to. You know, after so many seasons, I would take, you know, a few weeks off, a month off, month and a half now, you know, now 42, just to stay in shape, you gotta. You gotta kind of always be doubted on the diet and sleep and workouts. If you want to look the right way, you know, I, I want this. This is, you know, we're not on espn. I mean, it wouldn't matter, but. But you know, I want to look good. I want my wife to want to me.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay. All right. On that. Okay, so we'll get back to the workouts and why and everything like that. And I'll tell you.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Shout out to. Yeah, shout out to Icelandic water. Of course, I'm usually a mountain valley spring water guy, but I do love the Icelandic. And, you know, when I got to Pittsburgh, there were a lot of guys. Imitation is the highest form flattery. A lot of guys that, you know, copied some of the things that I did, you know, with the wired in head headphones and the mountain valley. And Vince Karonica is one of the top ones. He came out to Malibu, we had a good time and threw the ball around a little bit. And after that, you know, the next time I saw him, he was wired in green bottle with him everywhere. So I take a lot of pride in that. I appreciate that. T.J. watt, you know, went to wired in headphones. So.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, bad teammate.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Appreciate all those guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Notorious bad teammate Aaron Rodgers potentially influencing the locker room room. Let's talk about you being old man in for the Pittsburgh Steelers in new team, new city. When we talked to you at training camp, it was still the stage of like everything was possible. And I think Jalen Ramsey was talking at trailing training camp about once. I heard everybody's why everybody was really motivated, really excited. The season goes how it goes. You have success. Obviously win AFC north, doesn't end up with a Super Bowl. How do you look back on the year that was with the Pittsburgh Steelers and how thankful are you? And I'm asking you that because, yes, I am Yinzer and everything like that. Former punt passing kick world champion for the Pittsburgh Steelers. But how was the year versus what you thought it was going to be and then what it inevitably ended up being? And how do you sit now with what last season was for you?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, first of all, I just had to. I had to to to do not disturb, because obviously Ben Squironic's watching it. So he just texted, yo.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you, dude. Baby Betty. Yeah. Shout out.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Shout out. Shout out to Ben, man. Like, there's a few guys I've really connected with, you know, quickly, and he was just one of them. Like, I love Ben, and he's such a. He's such a quirky, you know, kooky. I don't know if you guys have a chance to talk to him, but. But he's hilarious. Every day, he's just on one. Just on one. And I never, you know, there's some doldrums, you know, throughout the season, you know, long weeks or training camp, but him every day the same. Just cracking jokes, ripping on people, inappropriate, you know, things that he would bring up all the time. Oh, yeah. So he. You know, there was a lot of guys that made the year special. Ben, obviously, my quarterback room. I mean, I'd never met Mason Rudolph before. Mason's one of my favorite guys I ever played with him, and Mason got me through every single day. I mean, he is just hilarious. I mean, he's such a. Such a naturally funny guy and super dry and cutting, so we had a blast. And then Will Howard, like, what a great young player. Just got the right moxie, the right personality, and loved working with him. And Skyler Thompson, you know, sky is one of the quietest dudes I've had in the room, but this guy's a sweetheart, man. He's just such a. Such a nice guy. So we had a blast. And then obviously Cam and TJ were. Were great. And the guys I got to spend time, you know, a lot of time with locker room wise, you know, next to Pat Fryer. You know, I love Pat and just loved his whole demeanor and the way he showed what a true professional he was the entire year. And Calvin Austin, what an absolute sweet kid. That guy is, like, just special, special guy to share the field with. And so many guys. You know, you mentioned Jalen. I love playing with Jalen. And Deshaun Elliott, who said, I need to be retired, you know, in the off season, I gave him a lot of. About that. But I love. I love desean. I mean, what a. What a great, great guy. And there are so many people. Arthur Smith, Tom. Tom Arth, Mike T. Obviously, you know, Mike T. Was a huge reason why I went there. And Mr. Rooney, like, just the way I was treated out there. I had a blast. You know, obviously we talked about this, like, when you're off the field, stuff is Is. Is not an escape. It's a, It's a blessing. You know, it's a refuge. It's. It's a home you can just play and just enjoy the heck out of every. Everything the game has offer because the game is a tough game. It's a grind. You know, it's a long season and there's ups and downs and highs and lows and emotional swings and momentum and the mantle of leadership is, you know, heavy. A lot of times it's something you love, but. But to be able to go home after work and, and be able to have that part, you know, so locked in and so special and such a refuge, you know, made the year even more fun. But I give a lot of credit to the organization and Mike T. And, and Arthur and all the guys I mentioned, the quarterback, Roman Ben and DK And Calvin and Roman Scotty, and it was just a fun group of guys and I really enjoy my time.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And obviously only one team wins the super bowl that was not you guys. So it's always going to be a devastating finale to a season. Then Coach Tomlin obviously steps down after a long tenure with the way it all ends. You're not sour about the decision to join the Pittsburgh Steelers at all. And on that note, Mike McCarthy going back to Pittsburgh Diner to become the Pittsburgh Steelers head coach feels like it's a movie done it. Then it's all feel like kind of like a little bit of a simulation type situation here with this all kind of happening at this exact time. Your thoughts on him getting into the Steelers building for the first time in his life as notorious Yinzer and friend of yours? I believe I can say now that he's kind of taken over.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, Mike's one of the great guys in the league. Just an absolutely exceptional human being with a huge heart. We had a lot of great years together, a lot of, A lot of fun. You know, he just, he really cares about the players, but he also holds guys accountable and creates a lot of structure and details in the, in the, in the process. But man, I, I love my time with Mike over the years. Obviously there was some, there are some, some times it's like, you know, it's like a, like a big brother where you, you're, you know, sometimes you love him, sometimes you pissed at him. But deep down there's so much love for, for Mike and appreciation for the time we spent together. And I think, you know, what was really special for us was in 2022, he was with Dallas and they came in and Played a night game against us. And we were going through some struggles. And Mike and I had talked like that Monday of that week, really before I came on the show on Tuesday. We had talked on Monday and said, hey, let's, let's spend some time together, you know, before the game, away from the cameras, because we knew it was going to be a spectacle, you know, everything that was written, most of it, you know, about our relationship. And let's, let's spend some time together where we're not like, with a boom mic over the top of us and a camera on us. So I was telling you this, you know, I want to share this story, but so he hit me up, up on, on game day and, and was like, hey, what time you want to get together? And it was like we had a night game. It was like noon, I think. And I said, you know, I usually come, you know, four hours for the game, but I'll come a little early. I said, what time you going to be over at the stadium? He said, I'm already here. So I said, okay. I said, where do you want to meet? And he said, let's meet in, in the sewing room. So there was a room in the. Off the, off the locker room, off the equipment room room where the sewing ladies, sweethearts would put the patches on the uniforms and names on the uniforms. And so we met in there for like an hour, just him and I, and just had a really special, special time, like talking about the time we spent together and the appreciation we had for each other and the gratitude and that was a deeply meaningful moment for both of us. I think I can say. And to say, you know, the, the league, the way it's covered is so fickle now. There's so many opinions. And it used to be just, you know, on Sports center, it was like it was on espn. It was, it was highlights, you know, and, and the stars were the people in the highlights. And I've talked about this, but now the, the stars or the people they think they're stars are the people who are debating. You know, it's all talking heads. And the majority of it, I would say other than this show, I think that not speaking out of my ass there is very negatively slanted. You know, it's like somebody has this opinion, they'll fight about it. And it's, it's mostly negatively slanted, or at least one of the people has a negative slant on it. And so I saw some of the stuff you've written about Mike and I just think one, he doesn't give a about that. Two. It's all. It's majority of his. Any negative thing about Mike, I don't give a. About how old he is, how long he's been in the league or the trend of the new young, you know, play caller who's called, you know, who's been on the staff of one of the Shanahan disciples. Like, it seems like that's kind of the hot thing. I get that. Like there's a lot of great scheme in there, but there's something to an old school organization, which the Pittsburgh Steelers definitely are. I just think the Green Bay packers were and bringing in a guy not only who brings accountability and a program that's proven to work at multiple places now, now, but he's a user. Yeah, he grew up literally like we're on the practice field and Christian Coots are a long snapper. Who's Pittsburgh through and through. You know, grew up there, went to Duquesne. Great dude. I loved, I loved K's. Hilarious. I just gave him all the time. But he's like, I remember one day I'm in practice, I said, hey, where's Greenfield Avenue, where Mike's from? He's like, you know, in his ax, he's like, it's right over there, you know, just the other side of the hill. I mean, I mean that's, that's where Mike comes from. Mike bleeds, you know, Pittsburgh Penns. And I think there's something special about that for a guy who's going to come home and lead in a historic franchise. There's not many of them in the league I've talked about. There's only a few kind of those cornerstone franchises. Who else would you rather have lead? You know, a guy that like literally bleeds black and gold and loves the city with all his heart and this is like a dream job for him. I was telling him after he got, after he got hired, like, what an awesome thing. Like you've now you're going to have to coached three of the iconic franchises. Green Bay Packers, Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. Are you kidding me? That's 60s, 70s and 80s, like dynasties, you know, and, and for a guy to, to try and come back and lead back to that greatness. I don't think, I don't think you can do better, you know, at this time in this franchise's history than bringing in a guy like Mike McCarthy. So I'm really happy for him. We've had good conversations and I have a lot of love for Mike.

[Pat McAfee]

We're incredibly Proud of that Yinzer Legend Mike McCarthy, like, legit. You talk about him being.

[Aaron Rodgers]

He was on the show too. You guys had him. He was great, wasn't he?

[Pat McAfee]

Unbelievable. He quoted Galileo. I didn't know he had that because once again, he is Yinzer. So I, I just, by looking at him and hearing him talk, I naturally am. Like, I know him. I've met a thousand of hims before throughout my entire life, just because he is such a Yinzer. But then he was quoting the things he was saying. Like, I go out there with the partners of kickers and, you know, if it's real windy, sometimes you gotta have a conversation about which way needs to go, which way when you go, you're talking about him being there at noon or whatever for an 8 o' clock game. It's like the amount of depth that he had from all the years of football and the way he views things and seemingly has adapted with the time. And I'm sure he hasn't been perfect. And I appreciate the fact that you mentioned that conversation you guys had in the sewing room in the bowser Lambo, which is like one of the most historic places in football. You two having one of the most historic football conferences as potentially, if what happens is about to maybe happen here, which I would definitely lead to Next. But Mike McCarthy impressed us every single week. I was actually asked, though, by the Pittsburgh Steelers people. First time I've ever been asked. We've had a lot of people get hired for jobs coming off of this show. First time I've ever been asked, like, hey, what was this person like to deal with? And it's like, hey, every week this guy was more prepared than anybody else. No offense to anybody else that has ever been on a show. We're appreciative of that. He came with ideas, he came with thoughts. Hey, I saw this, I think this, maybe this. And then we'd say something, he'd go, oh, I never thought of that. And then he, like sit there and like take an actual genuine thought of it. And then he's, oh, I guess that kind of leads to. And then he goes this. It's like, yes. Like, he was fully invested with us and we very much understood, like, he's trying to get back into coaching. And he was all in for us. So we were appreciative. I was mind blown by him and I, I was turned, I think all season being like, yes, he can coach in a modern NFL. Let's talk about you now, still playing in a modern NFL. You're 40 years old. What year would next year be if you played 22? You've lived through some errors now, bro. You've gone through some errors in humans and technological advances in society and in the NFL and personality changes in everything. So you've been there for that long. Mike McCarthy being able to coach, coach in this day and age seems like you're all in on that. Is that something you think that can win a Super bowl in this day and age? And do you think the Pittsburgh Steelers can be a team that can get number seven because that's all their parent, all their fans care about are those things that you've thought about with Mike being paired with the Pittsburgh Steelers because the only thing either of them care about is winning a Super bowl, basically. Right? That's the only thing that matters for either side at this stage of the journey in the football lives. You agree with that or no?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, I agree with that. I think the league is very cyclical. I think if you seen just you talking about trends in the league and where it goes, it. If you look at the trends last year in the NFL and I felt like, you know, Arthur was, was kind of on the front of a lot of this, the six offensive linemen, you know, as a, as a counter to some of the things that defenses were doing. Whereas you've seen in Buffalo, I think Buffalo, you know, did this more than anybody playing nickel to every personnel because Darren Johnson is one of the best players in the league and he's one of the most underrated players in the league, I think, for whatever reason. But. But he can play a box linebacker and stop the run and he can cover guys. And because of that and their willingness to play nickel versus any personnel grouping, I think some of the responses, and definitely in Pittsburgh for us, as you see more teams doing that, not, not matching personnel, so going more nickel to base personnel groupings was go six offensive linemen. And we kind of roll it out really the most against Cleveland early in the season and against Minnesota. And it was a good counter for us for sure. And you saw more and more teams start to get to a sixth offensive lineman. Now many people were saying that Darnell was like a six offensive lineman, but I think Darnell proved a lot of people wrong this year about his route running ability, his ability after the catch, his catch radius and his ability to be a full time wide tight end. But the flexibility that we had with, with Spencer to be able to come in and be the sixth offensive lineman. There you go. Right now you're bringing up okay it's. Yeah, I mean that's the highest since 2007. But I would say what's the percentage of six offensive lineman packages at eight? I'd say it would be under 5% probably, or under at least under 10. That number probably jumped up this season as well. So what I'm saying is you see trends change in the coaching ranks. You know, Mike, Tom and when he got hired was an outlier, you know, there weren't really any around that 40 year old range quarterback or coaches as being being hired. And then Sean McVeigh got hired, I believe at 33. 30. He was in his early 32 maybe.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't remember if it was 32 or 33. Whatever it was, it was absurd. Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And then, and then went. Goes to super bowl and then wins the Super Bowl. And I think everybody's like, oh, you know, that's what happens, you know, with defenses, the Seattle 3. Everybody needs to run Seattle 3. With the Shannon system, everybody should get a Shannon guy with the young coaches, everybody should get a young coach because obviously it works and that's the way the league is very reactive and that way. But I think, as you see, like I'm saying, with the cyclical nature of the fullback position, obviously, I think becoming more of a factor in the next coming years as you're playing more base personnel, defenses want to play nickel. And the reason for that is because usually a third linebacker who gets taken out in nickel situations is not a great cover guy. So now you're creating big personnel in order to put that guy in a bind because obviously he comes off the field in passing situations or in nickel situations, so the fullback comes back around. But I think what I'm trying to say say is that I think you're going to see more older coaches get opportunities because you realize that maybe, you know, the experience and the accountability factor and having been through multiple decades or stretches of the changes, the cyclical nature and change of the league, they have a better opportunity to deal with the things because they've seen so much stuff. Me and Mike were laughing about on one of our first calls about.

[Pat McAfee]

Which Mike. Which Mike? Which Mike?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Mike McCarthy. Karthi. Okay, big Mike. Yeah. Me and Big Mike were talking about a play that we. That is all over the league now. But I didn't see it back in the league until he was running a few years ago with, with Dallas and Dak. And it was a play that we ran back in the early 2010s and late 2000s where you have a lead blocker for a swing route. So on the backside of a progression, you have a fullback or some. Or a tight end lead blocking and you had the halfback run a wide route. So now halfback's not just catching a check down and having to make multiple people miss. Now you have a lead blocker are going. And just the fact that that's the way the league goes. When people see concepts at work, they change it. When people see older coaches have success, then it's going to allow for more of those guys, good job opportunities. Like the Rich Versace of the world who, you know, had a chance in Oakland after the Gruden stuff went down and had a great run, but then was passed up for a younger guy from a tree that was hot at the time. And. And more of those guys need jobs and deserve jobs and hopefully Mike has. My big. Mike has success and. And it can open doors for more guys in the 50 plus range who've been lifers, who know how to coach ball.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When we see big Mike have success, obviously, hopefully that'll continue the trend that you were speaking about. We just saw Monkin get a gig. Obviously. Vrabe's been around. He gets a gig last offseason. McDonald new coach, certainly having a lot of success in Seattle, but just like the quarterback market where the experienced guys are getting another opportunity and maybe having success, we'll see if that happens again at the head coaching position, especially in Pittsburgh. What it sounds like is the offense that you've known your entire NFLness is starting to become a little bit more significant around the entire NFL. And maybe this West coast offense that Mike McCarthy is certainly going to bring in is something that you have mastered for a pretty long time. You've obviously had to do a couple different offenses as the game has changed, but this is the one that you were birthed upon in the NFL. So that would mean you would want to be back in it. Right? Is that not a. Okay, now you. You would have to make the decision. You would still want to play. Right. Which I don't. I'm not putting. I want you to know that if you don't want to say anything, we do not give a shit. Now do. Is there a lot of people that want to hear if you want to play next year or not? At this exact moment, definitely. But you have earned the right at this stage. 21 years in the NFL, first ballot hall of Famer Mount Rushmore in his entire thing to figure out what is right for you and what you want to do. So you don't feel like we are putting a deadline on you, but have you got to that point where it's like, would be cool to play in Big Mike's system again. Would be cool to be in Big Mike's building again. Would be cool to get a chance to maybe rewrite the ending of our relationship in a place that, although it is not the same, has seen similar history whenever it comes to NFL story. How much of that combo have you had with yourself at this stage? And what has that been like, reliving what could possibly be next year?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, I want to say that anybody on here who's expecting me to make some big decision, just shut up.

[Alex Ferreira]

Just.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Just turn it off now. Just. Just leave, you know, and we would

[Pat McAfee]

like to say you are good people. Not everything's wrong with you. Tone's leaving right now. Okay? Tone is leaving. The rest of Pittsburgh is on the way out. Okay? You're good people. But just like, this is a gigantic decision for a human being's life, and I know football is gigantic, but this is. This is. This is two decades plus worth of shit that has to get sorted for how life kind of continues to go. But on that note, you've had to have done some daydreaming about what it would be like to be back with Big Mike. I assume, or am I assuming incorrectly there?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, I mean, what are we sitting here? It's March 4th. Frequency starts, in a way, week. I've been spending a lot of time with my wife. We went on a ski trip. Just been laying low. There's a lot of other things going on with the situation in Malibu that have. That have changed some. Some things. But I've talked to Mike. I've talked to Omar. There's been no deadline that's been, you know, that's been put in front of me. There's no contract, you know, offer or anything. So there's nothing that I, you know, having to debate between. I'm, you know, free agent and, you know, again, I'm. I'm enjoying my time with my wife and enjoying this part of the off season. And. And, you know, I think there's conversations to be had down the line. But. But right now, I'm not. Not. There hasn't been any progressive conversations. You know, I love Mike, and Mike and I have kept in contact over the years. I've been. I've, you know, had conversations with Omar. I really, you know, I think Omar, you know, enjoyed. Enjoyed having me there. I think the guys, you know, had a positive response, you know, to. To our time together. But. But again, there hasn't been any deadlines set on me. There hasn't been any contract, you know, floated in front of me for me to like, well, we're giving you Till, you know, March 8th to make a decision on this contract. There's been nothing to that respect. So. So in that manner, I'm just, you know, I'm working out because I. Because the reasons I told you first and foremost.

[Charlie McAvoy]

And.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And I'm spending time with my better half and, you know, interested in what the conversations will be. But. But there hasn't been any progression when it comes to that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so you're saying it feels like all parties are trying to figure out what is what going forward, not just you, because the team still, Steelers are in the middle of rebuilding this in McCarthy's vision, you know, not that they're wanting to do a full rebuild, which is why they hired Coach McCarthy. This isn't a time to rebuild. This is a, hey, take where we are and kind of go for it. They have to make decisions. What you're saying is you have not been told that any decision needs to be made from their end and on your side, you have not put yourself in a mental place to have to make a decision because that, once again, that is a gigantic decision obviously for you to make at this stage of your life. I do appreciate, though, the head hell out of this multiple times now where you've mentioned her, your wife and you. This, hey, this is the reason for your glow whenever I FaceTime you. And have you heard all of the conversations you've had to have about your wife? Because nobody knows. I've never met her. Obviously, I've never met her. That was a story yesterday as New York Post.

[Aaron Rodgers]

When.

[Pat McAfee]

As if I would have met. Exactly, exactly.

[Aaron Rodgers]

When's the last time we actually hung

[Pat McAfee]

out and when would I have time to potentially know, no offense. Okay, I would love to hang out with you. But on that note, the times in which people have hangout times isn't necessarily conducive to daily sports show human beings. But on that note, it's not just about me. There's other people that have said it as well. There's a lot of conversation and conjecture about your relationship. And I think you, whenever you announced said relationship on this particular program, you talked about how like, hey, the lady that I am with right now is not signing up for everybody just to tear her down because she is in a relationship with a guy that's good at football. I think you've set the standard for that. But boy, it has been a lot of conversation by everybody about your relationship. Have you heard it? Do you want to talk about that at all? And good for you, by the way. It seems like you have found. It feels like you found your wand, brother. It genuinely does. So congratulations. We are very happy for you in that particular sense. You need to know that as well. There's people out there that are very happy for you as well that you're in love.

[Aaron Rodgers]

The obsession is bizarre.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay?

[Aaron Rodgers]

That's the only way to put. The obsession is, is really bizarre. You know, I, you guys know, you laughed about this, you know, many times you showed pictures of it. But I'm, I'm not, we're not living, you know, at the beach anymore. Part of it is I have legitimate stalkers and I don't say that lightly or flippantly. I've been getting stocked in my house for about a year and a half when I was living there. Not just that, but stocked at the coffee shop I would frequent, the gym at, Proactive that I would go to, which was really bizarre. Still is. And then the paparazzi was stalking me for a long time, flying drones over my house and had a, you know, I've learned, has had a bounty on getting a picture of my wife, which I think is very bizarre as well. I understand the attention that comes with somebody who's accomplished what I've accomplished. And so in no way, you know, am I making this a woe is me. But when it comes to your personal safety and now it's not just me, it's me and her. It's really fucking bizarre. And you know, when we met back in 2017, like, I knew that there was something crazy special about this and I wanted to be with her. And she would make funny comments like, I would never live in Green Bay and I don't want to be a, you know, player's wife. She just, she's not a public person. And you know, then she, she moved back across the pond and I got myself into to, you know, crazy town. And, and I was with individuals who called the paparazzi who leaked, you know, or, or talked about where I was living, who, you know, coerced me to make, you know, the proverbial, you know, Instagram social media posts. I never really wanted to live a public life. I mean, if you look at the saga with my family for years, years they was one sided. They were making shots in the media saying I never said anything until it got to the point where I'm like, all right, enough is enough. And I don't. Honestly, I'm not. I. If you look at my Instagram, I think I posted one time, you know, and it was a. It was a, you know, a post about the, you know, the ATVs I got the boys. I don't post on X. Like, I'm not a social media guy anymore. So I only know about this stuff because. Because of my sweet sister Mia, who actually has a message I'm gonna read at some point.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right, so I've learned this. Mia, I've learned. Mia, I've only learned of you over the last couple days. Sounds like you are a dog. And I would like to let you know I appreciate what you've done. Look how happy he is. Look, you feel fully. Feel fully empowered. Feel like fully supported, it seems like, is how you are describing your relationship. And I think whenever you come out out and speak about this for her, feels like you're trying to support her as well, saying, hey, like she did.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, she didn't. She didn't sign up for this. You know, she signed up because she loves me and she supports me and she wants to spend the rest of our lives together and start a family together. She didn't sign up to be out front, you know, social media wag. Like, she doesn't want any of that, you know, And I don't either, you know, and. And I was with that. And. Which is like, even more telling. Like, do you understand? I was with it. I lived that life. I didn't like it. You know, I dealt with it. I didn't like it. Now I'm out of it. I don't want to be back in it. I don't want to be a part of that. I understand, you know, when I play, if I play that there's scrutiny, there's attention that comes with it. But I'm. I'm fully content on living a private life. But you have people out there that say shit about me and create these narratives. Narratives. And talk about my wife and talk about this and that and search for our wedding certificate and all this different. Like, we're not living a public life. We're not. We're not going to now, not in the future, not ever. When this is done, it's Kaiser Sose. And you won't see me. You won't see me. I'm not doing tv.

[Pat McAfee]

Kaiser. So say, I don't think I know what that context clues tells me it

[Aaron Rodgers]

means usual suspect, usual suspects. Yeah, I'm not. I'm not going to be out in the about. Yeah, yeah. It's a whole nother.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

That's AJ's guy.

[Aaron Rodgers]

But the. But the narratives, you know, have just gotten a little bit ridiculous, you know, and I just. To some of those, I want to say, like, just move on. It's been years and years and years, you know, and I dealt with, you know, I dealt with clinically bipolar. I dealt with depressed, relevant seeking. I dealt with people that wanted to, you know, search out other possibilities, and. And before they could commit to me. And then, you know, then they go on TV talking about how I ruined their lives and all this shit. And I just want to say, just, like, move on with your life. Stop lying about me. Just move on with your life and be happy. Like, it's. It's not just them, but it's other people in the media that's, like, there's this relevance that they feel that they have to mention my. My name. Like, I'm not seeking relevance. I'm not seeking attention. I'm not doing. This is the only thing I've done this entire off season, Right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. And we haven't seen it since training camp.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I would only do this. I would only do this because this is the only platform that. That I want to be a part of where there's positivity. But. But I think it's. The obsession with my wife is very, very strange. And I have a super small circle. It's getting smaller by the middle. And the people that are in that tiny circle, they know and they've met her and they love her and the people that aren't, it's just the way it is. Like, that's life. That's life. You learn, you grow, your circle gets smaller, you have less time to spend with other people. But just like the obsession with, like, what I'm. My personal life, it's just. It's strange. It's very strange. I understand the attention that I get and because of what I've accomplished. Accomplished, but. But I'm not going to put up with any more about.

[Connor]

About her and.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And I'm going to protect them. And that's why we're not living at the beach anymore. And. And I'm happy, very happy with. With that decision. And in life, man, life is great.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it sounds like it. Congratulations. Getting that off your chest, that was a lot. That was a. That was a lot of shit that had been boiling up that well.

[Aaron Rodgers]

At some point, you know, like, at some point, it's just like the narrative gets so far out there, it's like, just stop. Just.

[Pat McAfee]

That's how Aaron Rodgers Tuesday started, actually. Like, people don't know. That is you didn't talk. He, like, literally never talked is kind of what the thing was. And then everybody else was kind of talking for you. And then whenever I say everybody else, I mean, just a few people were talking for you. Everybody else that was around you was saying the same thing. Oh, he's a bro. He's a dude, a teammate. And obviously he's unbelievable, talented. Every athlete had respect. But when those narratives just continue to grow. I told you, I think the first time I saw you during a rain delay down in the Bahamas, when you're doing a golf tournament to raise money for something, terrible person also had us down in the Bahamas. Awesome time.

[Connor]

Great time.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. Thank you for doing that. But there was a rain delay there, and there was a couple cocktails. Ty had maybe 30 or 40 of them. Me as well. I mean, let's not get crazy. But I say, like, dude, I feel like I don't really know much about you, and I feel like you're a Mount Rushmore guy, and that was because you didn't really come out and do your stuff. That's how Aaron Rodgers Tuesday started. And then you would talk once. Okay, a week. And then all of a sudden this guy wants a 10. It's like, no, everybody does this once a week. Just so happened. You're listening. You know why? Because you have heard a lot of things about him, but you never heard his side of things. And I think there's going to be people that are always going to have their feelings about you because of all the narratives there at the beginning. But anybody that's ever watched you on Aaron Rodgers Tuesday, anybody that's ever hung around you and all your teammates, like 99.9999% of your teammates and coaches have all said the same thing. You're a bro. We appreciate the hell out of what you've done for sport and how you go about living your life. And you're definitely unique. And I appreciate you taking a stand here for your wife because there's been a lot of thoughts, there's been a lot of opinions, there's been a lot of ideas. And I like the fact that you're standing your ground, double down, saying, no, you don't like, what are we talking about? This isn't a decision for you to make about us. This is a decision for us to make about us. And I'm a football player. I understand there's going to be pressure that doesn't. And spotlight that doesn't mean that she just has to sign up for hell. You said you met her in 2017. That's a new piece of information. That's a new piece of information. I didn't know that. I didn't know we knew her for a long time. And I just want to let you know after all that, especially after I heard you going through different reports that we had seen there in your brain and kind of giving your angle of this entire thing, like, hey, there's two sides of the story. If you would like to potentially think about that in the future, human existence. And then you just go, I remember 2017. I was like, whoa, did we know that? Congrats. I didn't know we had deep, long time history with somebody, and then we decide that we're going to go ahead and when two become one, and then all of a sudden we're living a great life and we're happy. Like, good for you, man. Good for all of it. I just want to let you know that. Good for all of it.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, it's like, it's like I said, I mean, like when you. When you meet that person and even though we had years between it, like, there's always that draw, you know? So, like, you know, one thing I will say is, like, I think I've been accused of being emotionally unavailable. Yeah, I own that for sure, because I met. I. I met my person in 2017 and I. And after. After it didn't work out at the start, I dove into football and I made football my number one from that point forward, forward, and. And gave everything I had to the game because I love the game. But when things came back around, you know, a year and a half ago or so, at the end of 2024, like, man, to be able to just have that freedom, that being in the. With the right person gives you, and there's just. No, there's no substitute for that. When you feel it, when you have it, you just know. And it's like, man, like, it just frees. It freed me up in a way I'd never experienced before to be able to just truly enjoy football. And I said last year, you know, when I wanted to play, like, it was about having fun because this game gave me so much. And a big part of that for sure was. Was the Steelers and the guys I met and Mike T. And all and Arthur and Tom Arth and. And that part. But a bigger part was the home life was a different space than it's ever been and she deserves all the credit.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for you, man. Happy or happy? Happy or happy. I think I read somewhere somebody said, I used to hate my life, but I love my work. So I made my work my life. Now I make it work. And I don't know if that's necessarily like the best initiative, but I don't think you're alone in that entire thing. I think it's happened in the past and your best version of you is going to make you the best version of you as a football player. So I'm happy you found that and I hope we get to see it again. I hope we get to see it again. On that note, there's others that hope that's it. Not putting any deadlines on you. Okay. Not putting any narratives out there. Icelandic water is delicious.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yes. Fantastic.

[Pat McAfee]

And certainly that was a good one too. You need that too because a lot of came out there. You need a nice. Take a nice deep sip of the Icelandic water there to get it. I'm not the only one though, that hopes that I get to see a super happy Aaron Rodgers way all the. Also playing his best football at this stage of life. Let's go to one half of the Hammer Cowboys Yenzer AP Stone.

[Tone]

Yeah, he's right. Aaron, I would love to see you back in the black and the gold, but you do what's best for you. It was awesome this last season watching you. There's a lot of surreal moments. Some of my favorite moments on the year is when someone would up and you would chew them out on the field. That was the absolute best. There was a lot of that.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Unfortunately.

[Ty Schmidt]

Unfortunately.

[Connor]

But.

[Tone]

But you've. You've been around a lot of Pittsburgh guys your entire career. We've talked about it even before you were Steeler, like back when you were a Packer and you've heard all these stories and how Pittsburgh is. Did the city and the injuries and the fans did everything. Did they live up to the expectations that everyone sold you before you actually became a Pittsburgh Steeler?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Better. Better, I would say. I mean just the. The fan. The fan support that we have. It started training camp and, and I. I said this before but the fact that that Steelers still go to Latrobe. It's so funny. Cool. I mean it really is. Like I gotta give a shout out because I'm if Ben's still watching like to Meadows. Meadows makes a. A DQ Blizzard knockoff which is honestly better than dq. So shout out to Meadows. Like we. We went there. DK came a couple Times. The funny thing about that is that the one time that DK came was the time where the girl who was working at the front we became kind of regulars actually wanted to autograph. And so Ben felt real sensitive about that, which was great. But. But the fact they do that and then so many fans show up in Latrobe is just. It's awesome. It's. And it's such a great team bonding stuff because there's nothing to do. You're staying in old school dorms. Like, I know Mr. Rooney's put a lot of money in that school, but there's, you know, DK and I are sharing a bathroom, sharing a shower. You know, we had a good time though. But so much great team bonding happened in Latin Trove and, And I know Mike is excited for that. You know, it's a harken back to when we'd go to St. Norbert's across town in Green Bay for so many years and just had a blast. And all the crazy shenanigans that were pulled over there at nighttime by The Flynns and T.J. langs and Josh Sittings of the world and John Coons. But that was a great, I think, intro to the whole team and just see the response from the fans and how much they love the black and gold and then, you know, acousture other than the field surface itself is a great place to play.

[Tone]

Fixing that.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I mean, I'm not saying anything out of my ass.

[Pat McAfee]

Like everybody knows. Yeah, everybody. Yeah, everybody knows.

[Aaron Rodgers]

But I will say one. You know, I had so many cool moments over the years in Lambeau and Lambo. As far as songs go, is known for like roll out the barrel and jump around. But jump around they share with University of Wisconsin, you know, but. And, and people still get into it, but roll out the barrel and jump around to kind of the two songs. But when they play Renegade Acer, I mean it is. It's awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

We were trying to sing to you before you got over there. That literally the first thing I think we did. As soon as you came on and talked about going to Sters, we were like, do you know Renegade? Cuz this is about to be real. That. Oh mama.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, dude. Yeah, it's a real moment when the first bar hits. Like the whole crowd goes crazy. It's. It's incredible. So I had a. I had a really good experience and the people were great. I always joked for years there's something in the water out there. Cause you think about all the hall of fame cool quarterbacks that have Played there. But the people are just really good people. Remind me of Green Bay, obviously doesn't have the. The arc, the infrastructure and the. In the architecture. Pittsburgh's a little different than Green Bay, but. But just. I'm talking about like good hearted kind human beings like Pittsburgh, man. I can't say enough good things.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Football people, you know that. And actually the Football Town is the NFL Films film that was made about the history of Pittsburgh and 750 Western Pennsylvanians have been drafted to the NFL.

[Connor]

It's a lot.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Didn't you. Did you narrate that or were you. The intro to that or the whole thing.

[Pat McAfee]

I watched it last night for the first time. I watched it. They sent it to me because I wasn't able to make it to the premiere because the combine was happening here. And it's being shown in Cuman. Sorry. Cayman Science Center.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Got that wrong. All day yesterday as we were promoting Cayman Science center, which is the old Carnegie Science center. It's a 55 minute movie that is shown on Pittsburgh's version of the Sphere. Okay. Which is what the Cayman Science center has. And they made this film with super special cameras to obviously be able to showcase it. I think there's like obviously vibrations and sound. It's like an experience that you go and do it and it's the history of Pittsburgh and football. And it was. I watched it yesterday. They sent me a copy of it and they wrote me a really nice note because the Pittsburgh Steelers are part of the race. Rooney family is a part of it. NFL Films was a part of it. And they like thanked me obviously for my work. And Keith Khosrow, who is from Pittsburgh, who's been in NFL films for like 25 years, took this on as like a real passion project because the draft is coming to Pittsburgh. And I'll tell you, I watched it last night. I cried. I cried that I was. I got like real emotional that I was even asked to be a part of it. Because growing up in Pittsburgh, you're going to be shown things about the Pittsburgh. I think it'll be this. I think this will be like must watch for basically every school in Pittsburgh because it tells the history of the city, obviously talks about Pittsburgh, showcases the pride, showcases the uniqueness of Pittsburgh and what it is. And it was like. And the fact that I was voicing it, it was crazy. I should not have been. There's so many people that have come from Pittsburgh. So I'm watching the first five minutes and first five minutes, like they open like basically Setting the scene. And it's a lot of me talking. And as soon as it's over, then it goes to Duff Football town with the entire thing. And then it says, as told by Pat McAfee. I just started. I like. I actually just, like, started crying as I was watching it. I'm like, this is like. If you were to tell Young me that I was a part of this, I would. I would have felt as if it was the honor of a lifetime. And I still feel that way. So we're gonna try to do something draft week. We'll send an invite to you. I don't know how busy you'll be, but I'm gonna try to rent out that whole place and invite anybody that going to be talking about the draft.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And the draft is in Pittsburgh this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, dude, you should come. You want to be a part of it. Draft spectacular.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I bet you. I bet you. K thinks he should have been narrating that instead of you.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, exactly. But he's not the only one. You know, there. There's a lot of yinzers that should have been in there. In the fact. Yeah, it was crazy. It was just really, really cool. And I. I think. I don't know what the award. The number. Somebody said that there's a rating. I don't know if they were telling the truth or not.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I was just.

[Pat McAfee]

No, you were just making that up. But I do think after watching it, I'm like, hey, this is some real artsy. Like, this is.

[Tone]

I looked to see if it was on Rotten Tomatoes. I couldn't find it.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a good story, man. It tells this.

[Aaron Rodgers]

You're just making it up. Just giving them.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. He says 98% on tomato meter. I didn't know if he was being serious because that's how much effort they put into it, though. Like, they put into it certified fresh.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Right?

[Tone]

I did Google it.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what to say. He's just making it up. But it is. He was really cool, and I was watching it and they fucking cried. But I think it goes back to what you're talking about. Like, that place, since the beginning is a people of, like, togetherness, grit, and football. And that story is told in the football town. I'm happy you experienced that. Joining us live from Anatican, Ohio, is a college football national champion, super bowl champion, Riot cup winner, AJ Hawk Hawker. How you doing? You don't look blurry at all. Good to see you, dude. What's going on, boss?

[AJ Hawk]

I'm doing great. They've been working on my audio, I couldn't really hear everything going on today. You say you're coming back or not? Where are you?

[Darius J. Butler]

What are you doing?

[Pat McAfee]

Good question.

[AJ Hawk]

Pittsburgh. Is it Pittsburgh or bust?

[Aaron Rodgers]

I already sidebar to you about this. I knew you're gonna.

[Pat McAfee]

Is it Pittsburgh or bus? That's a good question, AJ and the J stands for journalism. Go ahead, Aaron. If you would like to tell him to. To stop, or we can mute him again. If you'd like us to do.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, let's mute him again.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, shut him down. Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Let's see.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, see? Sorry, you couldn't hear anything. Let's move along here. Connor has. Has a question for you, Aaron.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Aaron, always a pleasure. There's multiple things I'd love to talk to you about, but this is.

[Aaron Rodgers]

You had a great year. Oh, my God. So much to talk.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, I'd say, pal. But speaking of things, you know, only

[Pat McAfee]

3.8 million files worth. I'll tell you, that was a lot of time on the Internet, and I'm sure you're taking a lot of victory laps. Now is not timeless. Remember, this is a sports show. But I do think you two should potentially get together and link up for a podcast to keep us all updated on what going on on your.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that would be very fun, but

[Aaron Rodgers]

I would love to.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, there's a deal. So you guys are doing a show.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Connor. Spiracy with Aaron Rodgers. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Bingo. Conspiracy Files, perhaps. I don't know.

[Pat McAfee]

Conspiracy Files with Aaron Rogers.

[Tone]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, sweet. We just got look for the first episode next week.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it'll be very fun. We'll start with, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. That'll be another show, Aaron.

[Ty Schmidt]

Speaking of sports, though, bringing tears to eyes, the Olympics, like, the last couple weeks have been amazing. You know, we've talked to men's and women's hockey players that won gold. Were you able to watch it? I know you said you were on a ski trip. Did you watch any of the Olympics or your thoughts about it? Did even watching those Olympics also kind of, you know, inspire you even to continue to want to play? Is that. Is there anything that you thought of or took away from the Olympics? Because, I mean, for us, it took over our little break, and that's all we could really watch and talk about.

[Alex Ferreira]

About.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, I loved it. I loved it. You know, I. I like to, you know, tease my wife. One of my favorite events is the biathlon, just because I think it's so silly that it's such a. Like a European. Eastern European Sport where it's. How. How it. How it started. Oh, let's. Let's cross country ski. That'd be fun. Nice little workout. But what if we get out there and we see some animals we want to kill? All right, let's bring our rifle. The biap on is skiing with the rifle shooting. It's incredible. And it's like, all, like, you know, the US has rarely been. Been great at that, and I think there's a reason for that. But. But. So I definitely watched a lot of biathlon stuff, but of course, I watched. I watched our men and women playing hockey. And I've gotten to know Knight, Hillary Knight. I got to know her because she's. There's so many Wisconsin connections. Wisconsin. I don't know why they don't have an NHL team, because there's so many great hockey players that come from. From that state. But. So I was definitely tuned in for the. For the women. And they were just an absolute buzz, weren't they? I mean, they were scoring five goals plus every single game to the championship, but that was an awesome, awesome win. And then the men, you know, like, I knew there was a lot of talk about this is a year and stuff, but it's always kind of, you know, it's been. It's been canon, this sport. Not anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

Not anymore.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Not anymore. Not anymore.

[Pat McAfee]

No more poutine.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And those. Those brothers. I mean, studs, the two sets of brothers, the Kachuk and the Hughes. Man, that was so. I mean, this play right here, just to pop it over was unbelievable. And. And I was watching and going absolutely nuts when Hughes put this in the back of the net. And I think, like, most Americans who were watching were so. Man, that was awesome for our country. I've always thought, you know, we wanted to be on Green Bay. And you can say you're the best in the world, but you're really the best in the United States. But when you win an Olympic medal, you are truly the best in the world. Now, they didn't let some of the Russian athletes in. You know, I think, obviously, we know there's been some. Some doping issues in the past with some of those athletes, but. But they're still. They're the best in the world. You know, everybody that won medals and I think, you know, gold obviously gets focused on so much more, and there's so many great opportunities. Olympians that won gold for us, but. But so many who won silver and bronze should be really proud. I. You know, I was going back in some of the. Because I just like, the history. Like, isn't it amazing that really the best country over the last. I don't know how many. 10 Olympics plus maybe forever is Norway. That Norway wins the medal count every year. I know some of us. It's just a country of that. That small.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

To be that dominant at so many different sports is pretty amazing. But I love the new sports, too. But I think, you know, just going skiing and then watching. Watching some of these events where they do, like, crazy moguls into, like, backflips, or they're doing ski and half pipes or they're ski. Just. Yeah, it's. It's. And you had Michaela on, right. She. She won another gold. Like, that was amazing. But yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm really so proud of all of our Olympians. As an American, I think I want to take this time to talk about the athletes absolute hose job that our. Our pairs dancers got.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

You know, there's a lot of stories about them. They got absolutely hosed by the French judge. Not surprising. Classic. They should have won. They should have won. Won gold for sure. But. But they won gold in the team competition, which is great. But they're the husband and wife duo. I think it's ice dancing. But they were awesome to watch and see. I mean, I definitely tuned in. It was cool. On.

[Ty Schmidt]

On.

[Aaron Rodgers]

On Peacock. Shout out to Peacock because they had like a. You know, have. They have like Scott Hansen's on the.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, the Gold zone.

[Aaron Rodgers]

They had the Gold zone. That was awesome. Yeah, Gold Zone was great.

[Pat McAfee]

It kept us rolling there. Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I mean, they had a lot of. They had a lot of curling, though. A lot of curling was showing on the gold.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Too much. Boring. I. I think cur. Curling had a run.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Exciting sport.

[Pat McAfee]

No? Yeah, curling had a run there with curling. Matty Hamilton and the boys on the stone. Whenever we were real winning Johnson guy and absolute stud, obviously with the stick and the stone. I mean, he has the capabilities to kind of do. Do it all on there, but I don't need to be watching Great Britain take on who gives a. In curling, you know, especially if there's a hockey game going on between Canada and who gives a. Like that. That.

[Aaron Rodgers]

But there was. There was the fun like. Like little drama where the one guy actually touched the stone.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, the Canadian. You're saying you're talking about the money. What's it called?

[Charlie McAvoy]

It wasn't across the hall. The hog line. You wouldn't get it.

[Darius J. Butler]

Sorry about.

[Charlie McAvoy]

It wasn't cross the hog line.

[Pat McAfee]

No. From my understanding There were some people that were saying that was a penalty in curling because the. The extra boom. I guess an Olympic play. Not necessarily. Okay. And then didn't the Canadian the full rock as well?

[Charlie McAvoy]

That's because the full rock has to be past the hog line.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, then why was everybody telling me you guys were cheating?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Well, that's why I won the gold medal.

[Pat McAfee]

Who won the gold medal? Canada in the women in the men's also. The lady that cheated did not win.

[Charlie McAvoy]

No.

[Aaron Rodgers]

What about. What about the hockey?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, what did happen with the hockey?

[Charlie McAvoy]

Like I said, congratulations. I've said it probably 150 times now.

[Ty Schmidt]

She had 100.

[Aaron Rodgers]

It was three on three. You know, it wasn't real.

[Charlie McAvoy]

You run into a hot goalie, that happens. Goalie stood on his head.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you supposed to do? He's out of buck.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Saw every medal of freedom. Love it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. He immediately just followed it up. And I'll tell you right now, I had everybody vote. He said if anybody says no, we're not going to do it. Everybody. Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Connor, can we get that. Can we get that one guy out of the locker room though and get him working on something else?

[Pat McAfee]

I'll tell you what I saw.

[Aaron Rodgers]

That's a bad look.

[Pat McAfee]

I saw, I saw, I saw some people. Now he is. Is a beer league hockey player, I do believe. Like he still does pick up ice hockey with the lads. So I think he is a massive hockey fan. But I was shown some presentations of some potential happenstances taking place at that exact moment. And then what happens? Especially with what the world's got going on. I'm like, oh yeah, I guess there is some titles that you should. Shouldn't be tagging one on, I guess. Fucking we did beat Canada though. I mean, it was hard not to get lost in a moment. I assume, you know McDavid's on that team. Exactly. Oh my God. But then there was somebody that surprised me. Well, he was hurt.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I know. Awesome guy.

[Pat McAfee]

Great guy.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Hey, shout out. Shout out to shy Shorzy. If you haven't seen the show, seriously, go watch it right now. It's hilarious. I know. My man Jared Kelso is Canadian, but unbelievable show. And that got me. I've always loved watching playoff hockey, but that got got me like that. And going to a Pens game this year and watching the old guys, Gino and. And Sid and Latang still playing in their 21st year and just seeing that support there like. But Shores, he got me way, way more in the hockey. So there's a new season out as well, season five, I haven't. Haven't binged it yet, but shout out to Mr. Kelso and everybody with Shores, because that's a hell of a show.

[Pat McAfee]

Hell, yeah. That's a great way to get into hockey. However you get into hockey, you should get into hockey. Hockey is spectacular. And the cultures of the hockey are even better. Like the humans and the way they're supposed to act. And in the pwhl, the Boston Fleet are about to go on a run.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And win the entire thing. So we're all in. And we're happy you are in on the hockey as well. I'm happy you went to a Pens game. We saw you there. I think we saw you there. Saw you at the game. That's a good time. Good time over there at the PPG Paints Arena. What did you.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Great time with the big boys. With the big boys. Took the line over there, had a good time. And Mason. Mason showed up. Will showed up. Skyler. I can't remember if sky showed up or not.

[Pat McAfee]

Bad teammate, bad year, bad.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I think sky showed up. Sky showed up.

[Pat McAfee]

Somebody else put this together. Not you. Obviously, you were not a part of that. Somebody else did this for you because you would never do something.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, listen, I mean, I had the idea, but I got to give a shout out to the big head, to Cam Hayward, because Cam has a connection over there. He's been there forever. Cam had the connection. I had the idea. McCoy. McCormick. I love McCormick. He's the best him. You know, he was kind of the ringleader, getting some of the line to go, and then the QB room was great. You know, anytime we had something going on, there was kind of an understanding that everybody was going to be there. So. So you knew that, you know, Mason, Will, and Sky were going to be there, so.

[Pat McAfee]

Terrible teammate. You're a terrible teammate.

[Darius J. Butler]

Scott is probably loyal to the Panthers. Spent some time down there in Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you think he's a Florida. Yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Kiesel. Kiesel, too. The best. What a beauty he is.

[Pat McAfee]

He likes to have a good time. Yeah, he's still there. He. And to be clear, he still might be fourth most popular Steeler active or retired just because of how much he

[Tone]

was a big night out doing it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, he. We loved him. We love everything about him.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Who do you put. Who do you put above him?

[Pat McAfee]

Ben. Big Ben is a big deal. He's the most tenured Pittsburgh Steeler of all time. So I think he's obviously conversate. John Coon on the Pittsburgh Steelers.

[Connor]

Yeah, Coon is a Steelers got a

[Pat McAfee]

ring you the fucking. That was a nice little Jeopardy trivia that he wanted to get in there.

[Ty Schmidt]

Happy birthday, by the way.

[Pat McAfee]

Chris fu matuma falla. Maybe the original. So maybe K's hero. Chris fu mata ma fala. Happy birthday to him. I'll put him up there for sure. Troy Palomalu deserves it up there. I mean, there's some greats. Cordell Stewart gave us some good times back in the day. Tommy Gun, I mean, it depends on how you really want to go through it. Tommy Maddox, Terry Bradshaw never gets talked about. Before him, there was no Super Bowls impact Pittsburgh. But I think, I think he's come out and hasn't been like, okay, what

[Aaron Rodgers]

about, what about Mel Blunt?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, dog still big cowboy hat.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Change the big cowboy hat.

[Darius J. Butler]

Literally change the game.

[Connor]

Mean Joe Green, A.B.

[Pat McAfee]

huge. Antonio Brown. I mean, Hines. One of the greatest wide receivers of all time on the field. Obviously. Heath Miller had a great chant. He was one of the original hu. You know where he was kind of. There's a lot in there. So what, what I'm saying is it's good to be in that top amount. And that's what Kiesel has done because of how present he is for the people of Pittsburgh all the time. And you were the same way. And we, we appreciated how you treated Pittsburgh. That, that was, that was for real. Now let's talk about you treating younger players, especially with how terrible of a teammate you are and how bad of a leader you are and everything. Go ahead, Ty.

[Connor]

Yeah. Aaron, great to see you as always. Before we get to that, I know you acted on Game of Thrones. If you're looking for a new show, if you haven't watched it you yet. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms dive is so good. Thrones is all the way back.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Really?

[Connor]

It's unbelievable. Really, it's unbelievable.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Better than House of the Dragon?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I never watched the Orig. I never watched the Ridge. I watched this. Don't have to watch the Orig to watch this.

[Connor]

No, you don't.

[Pat McAfee]

It has been fantastic. Connor sent me a text and said, hey, I know you're never going to be able to. You don't have to. This one's even better.

[Connor]

Yeah. And it's only six episodes, so you can knock it out very quickly, but it is immaculate. I, I, I think you'll enjoy it.

[Aaron Rodgers]

But what's it on?

[Connor]

Hbo.

[Ty Schmidt]

HBO stuff.

[Connor]

Yep, Yep.

[Ty Schmidt]

Soon to be.

[Connor]

Yeah, yeah, soon to be. Paramount plus or something. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Spending a lot.

[Charlie McAvoy]

A lot of money.

[Connor]

A lot.

[Pat McAfee]

They are all in on everything.

[Connor]

They are. Everything's going to be on there eventually.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, we're happy. Hey, they love live sports. Maybe a daily sports talk show.

[Connor]

We'll see. We'll see.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's good.

[Connor]

But, Aaron, I am curious because we didn't talk to you throughout the season. How much were you watching college football? Do you claim Fernando Mendoza as a. As a cow bear?

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Connor]

Okay. You don't. But then I, I was just curious

[Pat McAfee]

if you know it, you tell the story.

[Aaron Rodgers]

You tell Simon Berkeley.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes, I did. Go ahead. I don't like what you just did.

[Aaron Rodgers]

How can you not with Maran, though? What a legend.

[Pat McAfee]

He delivered the goods. He did. Right on time, right on the stage. That. That was pretty fantastic. God, I'm sorry.

[Connor]

No, you're good. I'm surprised he hasn't reached out because it seems like, I mean, we talked about this a little bit with you a couple years ago where you've gotten to the point in your career now where half the guys in the league talk about how you were the player that they looked up to. And then, you know, just like that moment, being able to kind of pick your brain a little bit. Do you have just like a laundry list of guys now, like our guys, very actively and frequently kind of reaching out to you younger quarterbacks in the league and asking you how they can get better and like, how. How has that been? Like, do you still intend to enjoy that aspect of it where you kind of are just like the. You're the forebear of all this quarterback knowledge and you get to pass it on to the next generation?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Well, I'm available if anybody wants to. To learn. I would say that the, the younger player is more hesitant. Maybe like my phone's not ringing off the hook with guys want to learn. So I'm just going to talk about one guy that I really poured into this year a lot, and it was incredible to work with, and that's Will Howard. You know, I knew about Will, watching him ball out for Ohio State. I didn't really pay a ton of attention when he was at Kansas State, I'll be honest with you. But I loved watching him with Ohio State because obviously age was there and I followed the team for a long time and enjoy watching them. But I didn't know what to expect when Will came in or how he'd be with me and, and Mason for. And sky for that matter as well. But the room was a fantastic room. I mean, I love those guys. And we still have a group, group chat that, that lights up all the time. But, but Will in general, I think, has what it takes from a personality and a moxie standpoint to have a long career in the league. And you never know what's going to happen until the live bullets start flying. But I really, I went to him early in the season, early in camp, and I said, listen, I help you as much or as little as you want. You know, it's kind of my, my nature to inject, you know, during a drill, work or during a meeting, because I want you to see the game the way I see it, and I want you to be thinking about the things that a young player should be thinking about. And a lot of this goes back to when I was a young player and how I was treated. And, and it's the way that I wanted to treat my backups when I became a starter. And, and, and the way that I, you know, I feel like I worked with Jordan Love and, and Zach in New York, even though that was only for a year. But, but I really wanted to pour into Will and make sure he knew that I cared about him and I wanted him to be successful. And anybody who's in Latrobe who watched practice was like, damn, this Will Howard pretty damn good. I mean, he's having a real nice camp until he had a flu injury, which kind of allowed him to just kind of reset and learn the game. And, you know, he's going through his rehab on his hand and different things and throughout the season. It was fun to see him get suited up later in the year. But Will, how's the right. He's got the right mindset. He's a very humble guy. He asked a lot of questions. He was in my hip pocket for a bunch, and I loved it. I mean, I really did. I'm a big Will Howard, not just fan as a human, but believers as a player that when his time comes, he's going to be more than capable of being not just a consistent starter, but a guy who can stick in league for a long, long time. And it's because of his mindset. He's got kind of an old school mindset where he takes notes, he's talking about the right things, he cares about, he takes care of his body, and I think he's got even more to give from that standpoint. But that's what I'm excited for him. And I told him this when Mike was hired. Like, Mike knows how to. To work the quarterback room, and Mike knows how to be involved, to teach the game, to teach defenses, to Teach you how to be an expert of the offense and then give you the keys to take, take control. So I love working with Will. You know, I love seeing guys across the league. Like, you know, I got a charity thing coming up in a few weeks, and it'll be fun to see Sam Darnold. I mean, what an incredible story that Sam has gone through. And to be a Super bowl champion and to play so well this year, it's awesome. I mean, that's what it's all about. You know, it's guys that second and third chances and you start to figure it out and you've been cast off by this negative, you know, constant critiques of who you are as a player and you're a washout, you're a bust, whatever it might be. And. And I thought Sam just handled himself so well this year. You know, I think I would. Had a hard time not. Not chirping a little bit more.

[Pat McAfee]

No.

[Aaron Rodgers]

People who tried to crush me because they crushed him. Crushed him. Guess what? He's got a ring now and forever. A lot of people. A lot of people are dining on some crows. So I love. I love the fraternity that is quarterback. Quarterback room. And I'm always open to helping guys out, but it starts with guys, you know, in my room and on my team and. And I loved working with Mason, sky and Will, and I hope Will, and I think he did. I think he learned a lot this year.

[Pat McAfee]

Year.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And. And he's got a bright future.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, quick follow up on Will. Incredible answer there. Appreciative of your answer for how much you care about ball and the future of ball, because quarterback position is the future of ball. Will Howard being talked about immediately. If Aaron doesn't come back, maybe Will Howard gets an opportunity finally to kind of run the team. Big Mike McCarthy spoke about it all and he said he wanted to watch the practice reps of Will through throughout the season. And he said he just want to see how he processes the defense. How much can you get from watching Will it practice as opposed to what it was training camp, whenever he got back healthy and was doing some work, maybe against the defense, was there things that you saw like, okay, feels like his arm can keep up with the NFL if he had to, and his brain could do the NFL if he had to. Were there things in practice that you can know? You said you can't tell until live bullets, but were there indicators? That's like, hey, he physically would be able to survive in the NFL as well, not just because of his leadership, which we Saw up close and personal with Ohio State ever so he had a dance and a celebration with everybody on the team. It was unbelievable watching him lead. But like when it comes to being physical of quarterback, what it was there shit you saw in practice that Big Mike might have been mentioning or alluding to whenever he talked about watching his practice reps all season?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, I think, I think so. I think it all comes down to processing for a young player. Can you process the defense quickly? What player we're in? Is it, is it a, you know, check with me play? Is it a run it versus anything? What's the progression? Where do my eyes start with? That's why I talk to them a lot about like, where do your eyes start with each play? Because you need to simplify things in order to, to process quickly so, and then, and then process. Part of processing is anticipation. Can you throw with anticipation? Can you. In college you see a guy open, you throw it. In the NFL you expect a guy to be open. So you anticipate and throw and the windows are tighter so you have to, to throw with anticipation. So I mean I saw, I saw that late in the year as you returned to practice. I think from an intelligence standpoint, processing the pre snap stuff, I think he's going to be great at that. You know, he was my right hand man with all the signals this year. He was phenomenal at it. You know, he sat next to me in every meeting. He was sitting next to me in the quarterback room, he sat next to me in the big room when we went offense and, and I loved it because I was always, you know, whispering things to him, this or remember this or take this note or hey, remind me of this thing. And he would come with, you know, he'd learned how I did. You know, when I was a young player, I studied defenses and I studied, you know, defensive signals and secondary and different things and that's what he was doing. And then he was watching me self scout me on what signals I use during the week. And I think it was anything but a wasted year. It was a year that he's looked back on at some point, be really thankful that he learned football in that way. And yeah, I'm proud of his progression. And like I said, he was playing great in training camp before he had that fluke, you know, hand injury and he came back and got back into it and he can throw it, he can move. And as he continues to refine his body and get more reps, I think he's gonna, he's gonna realize his potential.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, Will, get your ass in shape. Now on that note, he is big. He, he is big. And I think that's the thing is like he has the capability to be a strapping dude. And if he's able to piece everything, not that he isn't now, but I'm just saying like Will, if you were to go, Will, everybody we've talked to that knows you says if he gets to the next step, which is where he's headed, he's a guy and I think that means like body, mind, everything. And that's exciting news. Well, Will, we're happy for him. I would like him to be very successful. So thank you for leaning in on him because I was very loud going into the draft about him being a guy. So you doing everything you did for him last year. Thank you, sir. That is going to give me a good, you know, just like I said it was, you know that, that gives me one of those victory lap which is big in this business as you. This business as you know, that is a, A big deal. Yeah, we, well, they don't have a scoreboard here. In our particular. The profession in sports there is, which is why it's the greatest. You actually find out, you know, and. But in sports media there isn't. But every once in a while you got to let people know. Like I did though. We did score here. This was. And at the time I was getting. He got real loud, I got real. He got real from real big people saying things about me and it's like, come on, Will, I believe in him. I happy to hear you do as well. AJ has a question for you.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Aaron.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, getting back to it, but. Well, I said Pittsburgh or bust earlier. Is that a situation that you wanted to address? You're a very open minded person, so I assumed you'd be open to play anywhere. But I don't know, with your, your ties to Pittsburgh and obviously Big Mike, it all seems to make sense to me.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a good question.

[Aaron Rodgers]

What makes sense?

[AJ Hawk]

You going back to Pittsburgh, playing for Big Mike. I think Campy is there. Mark Lavat is there. There's a lot of great Green Bay people back in town. Oh yeah, Grant Thorne, Amazing. There's some amazing characters.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Characters, yes, there's some great characters. I mean like, there's not be lying if I didn't say that. That was, that was something that I enjoyed seeing, you know, like all those guys getting back together and you know, it's, it's some of the guys that had the greatest impact on my career. You know, you're talking about James Campen who used to take me out when I was a rookie on the road because I didn't know where to go, what to do. And, and there wasn't a lot of rookies back then. You know, there's less rookies making the team than there are now. And Campy would take me out to dinner on the road, road a lot. And he always says that I took him out one time to a Mexican spot that cost, you know, 10 bucks a person and used to take me to, you know, 50, $60 a person dinners. But, but James was an influential person in my life as a young player especially. I love, I love coach Camp and a ton, obviously, Mike, I've talked about him a bunch. Mark Levat, you know, it was Barry Rubin who I love Barry Rubin, one of the all time greats in the league, strength coach and, and Mark Levant was his assistant. Better back then. And, and I watched bloke, you know, go from, from assistant to. Then Dave Redding came in. Redman, just what a legend. You remember Redman, A.J. great guy. And then Mark took over and had a lot of fun success with him. He's one of the great human beings in the business that I've been able to be across. And Grant, you know, watch him come in from, you know, a young guy trying to sort it out. We gave him a ton of, you know, all the time, but you know, with him and Thad, Thaddeus Jackson, you know, just some great guys I was able to be, to be a part with. So obviously that's, that would be a draw if I, if I decided we'd go down that path. But again, it takes two to tango and we'll see what happens as we get in the free agency and everything. But obviously I have so much love for all those guys I mentioned. And Tom Harth, Tom was there in the offseason, my first offseason. So to be able to play for him last year was really special. And Jari Evans was a teammate of mine. He's assistant offensive line coach now. You know, Jarvis, awesome guy. Like, I love. He just felt so secure with him at guard. Like, okay, this guy is an absolute mauler and, and he's going to take care of his guy every play. So, yeah, I mean, I, I love the staff that he's. Pat Graham was there for a year with us as well. You know, I was, I was teasing. I can't remember who I was talking to. Like, Pat Graham was a little puffier back then. Like, Pat Looks like he's kind of shredded now.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, is that.

[Aaron Rodgers]

He looks like he's in shape. Like he was a little puffier back then. So. So It's. And Scott McCurley, who was with us for a long time and still a linebacker coach. So obviously I know a lot of that staff and have a lot of love for those guys. And I think Mike's done a really good job of putting that together. Even his chief of staff scar was with us in the Jets. An awesome. An awesome guy. So I think he's done a good job putting that whole thing together.

[Pat McAfee]

I think some Steelers fans are going to be thrilled that somebody from the jets is in there. But on that note, sounds like a great guy.

[Aaron Rodgers]

He's not a lifer Jet, so.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Not many of those. Okay. Yeah. Do those exist? I know if you have a last name, maybe.

[Darius J. Butler]

Fireman.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

He did actually say recently he got an autopsy and they cut him open and they said, oh, my God, sir, you bleed green. We've never seen this before.

[Pat McAfee]

Fireman Ed.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you. So I'm happy to hear that that is the case.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Fireman doing autopsy when you've died. What's he talking about?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, that's the thing. Connor said he was dead a couple times.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he. He's been dead twice. Three, four, five times, six times, seven times.

[Pat McAfee]

That man is death defying is what Fireman Ed is. Runs towards the fire. So let's never forget that. And just because he just so happened to get put into a spot to have to cheer for the worst fucking. You didn't say this. Take Aaron off the screen, please. Can you take Aaron off the screen? The worst franchise fucking ever. Sorry. Put me back. Put us back up there. That is not Fireman Ed's fault, okay? There's a lot of people like Fireman Ed who have given up. And then obviously, because they're in the spotlight, it's talked about. I think all people just would like to have success there. Which he did at one point. Wanted just to have success there. And I'm. I'm worried about that place forever.

[Connor]

No, they're supposed to be really good this next year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I have a lot of faith in this year, especially from what we saw at the combo.

[Pat McAfee]

I know the jets fans deserve it. I. I think we all do.

[Connor]

They.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, they don't.

[Pat McAfee]

Why are you guys so mean? Jets fans. They. They.

[AJ Hawk]

Greeny. Greeny does.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What about Greenberg? Greenberg said he would cut off you, remember?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Michael Cole. You don't think he deserves exactly I

[Ty Schmidt]

want to see Cole squirm forever.

[Pat McAfee]

Gary Vee, good call. Thank you, Aaron.

[AJ Hawk]

He's going to own him.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a long road, I think, especially with what they're value in the Miami Dolphins. Yeah. 12.5 billion is the valuation for the Miami Dolphins as Lin Bin, Chinese billionaire, comes in and buys 1% at $125 million. It's not just the dolphins, though. It's also the F1 race down there. It's also the tennis tournament down there. It's also the.

[Darius J. Butler]

No, it'll just let you know, letting everybody know it's race week for F1. It's back.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Oh, we know.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, we know.

[Tone]

Yeah, we know. Australia, Melbourne.

[Ty Schmidt]

See you Saturday at 11pm Baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Really? Melbourne?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Melbourne.

[Pat McAfee]

America's team Andretti is doing it. Who's running the Cadillac? Is it Andretti? Who is it?

[Darius J. Butler]

I think he's a part of it.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, I'm in on it. But nonetheless, what? The Seahawks are going to go for crazy. So if Gary Vee was to ever get the Jets, I think he's going to have to start moving some real Gary V. Mons out there and it's going to have to be a lot of them. They're going to have to get up there a lot. And we will try to continue to promote the Eager Eagle.

[Ty Schmidt]

Come on now.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. We will continue to try that, but I think it's going to take a long road to get there. Okay. And I don't know how the jets got buried in this whole thing and I apologize. Your fans don't deserve it, but everybody tried to win over there, including this guy. Now, will you play in the future? We don't know. What we do know is you're seemingly enjoying the hell out of your life with your wife right now. DBOT has a question about that.

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah, completely away from ball. Like you said earlier, it's March 4th. I know it's the time of year where I kind of dial in, binge some old TV shows I haven't watched. Homeland's one of them Peaky Blinders with the movie coming out down the lines. And then I got seven 17 year old daughter. So whatever I can do to hang out with her when she allows me in Love is blind. I'm hooked. Big show tonight. Any show that you've been dialed into lately, Eric.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I love that you said that because it is Wednesday and this is the last episode. What a fucking great season.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody loves everybody. I can't believe they cut last week

[Aaron Rodgers]

before we get to the. I know. Altar for everybody, man. It's.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Love is Blind cliffhanger.

[Aaron Rodgers]

You know what? I enjoyed it so much. I went back and I'm watching. Last season was blind. What a wild season. The poor. The poor half Chinese, half Mongolian guy who.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, man.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Patrick, he just got.

[AJ Hawk]

Situation described by everybody.

[Pat McAfee]

Got real screwed.

[AJ Hawk]

Said a guy with brown hair.

[Darius J. Butler]

That's the only way you describe him. Agent.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, I don't know the show well enough.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I haven't seen the show.

[Pat McAfee]

I assume that is a piece.

[Aaron Rodgers]

What's going to happen? DB Who. Who do you got as locked? I got the big guy. I got the biggest big guy. And the. And the. And the lock.

[Darius J. Butler]

Black dude. Dreads.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And.

[Pat McAfee]

And white.

[Darius J. Butler]

They're a lock. No drama.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I think that's the only two.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, see, I think Bri.

[Darius J. Butler]

I think Bri and Connor, I think they're going to make it.

[Connor]

You're a fool.

[Pat McAfee]

I think that was set up. Got a chance.

[Darius J. Butler]

I think Br.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I think that was set up.

[Pat McAfee]

Really?

[Darius J. Butler]

I think it was a setup. I think Brian Connor. I think they make it.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think Mike says no right off the.

[Pat McAfee]

How many of these people are out here? What?

[Alex Ferreira]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

What? Like, what the hell's going on?

[Ty Schmidt]

So, like right now.

[Aaron Rodgers]

What about the Italian guy? The Italian.

[Tone]

Oh, he's gonna win.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think it starts with him saying no.

[Darius J. Butler]

He's saying no. He wants kids.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. He wants a family.

[Aaron Rodgers]

He wants kids.

[Ty Schmidt]

She won't like it.

[Tone]

That's Italian, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Are they all dancing around with each other or all these.

[Ty Schmidt]

These solo. That's Love Island.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so this where that guy went running into the water and his lady was getting.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly. Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

That's Love Island.

[Ty Schmidt]

Correct.

[Pat McAfee]

Montoya just came back. That was his name.

[Ty Schmidt]

Montoya. I'm believing.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so that's a Love Island.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Indigo. Indigo Montoya.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Nice.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if it's. I don't know if what is that from Princess Bride?

[Aaron Rodgers]

But DB Jesus Christ.

[Pat McAfee]

A Princess Bride drop right there. I. I would have never.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Love is blind tonight.

[Charlie McAvoy]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

For the finale.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Really? What about traders to Columbus, by the way?

[Darius J. Butler]

Columbus, Ohio.

[AJ Hawk]

That's what I heard.

[Ty Schmidt]

Are they.

[AJ Hawk]

Do they ask height and weight of each other? Do they have any idea what they look like?

[Ty Schmidt]

Nope. You can't ask any, like, feature questions. You can't tell what race you are, what color your hair is, anything.

[Pat McAfee]

It's just. What?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, but the Chinese. The Chinese Mongolian guy said that he was Asian.

[Pat McAfee]

Love this guy. Well, so does it say Chinese, Mongolian? Patrick.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, it just says Patrick. And he. He specifically Asked like, what. What are you.

[Darius J. Butler]

How about.

[Aaron Rodgers]

How about when she breaks up with him and says, it's not about your looks, and they go like 45 minutes earlier, and she's just like, yeah, I could never be attracted to him. It's not going to.

[Pat McAfee]

This is.

[Ty Schmidt]

I didn't.

[Pat McAfee]

I text you middle of vacation. You said this is not something that you would ever think about, but you need to think about. Love is blind is electric, is what you're saying.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Telling you. It's. It's been a great season this season, too. I'm glad you brought that up, D.B.

[Darius J. Butler]

hell, yeah.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I have been watching, man. It's. I can't wait.

[Pat McAfee]

Good luck to all those couples. I hope you find.

[Ty Schmidt]

Couple of them do.

[Aaron Rodgers]

It's already happened. Yeah, it's already happened.

[Ty Schmidt]

There's been like. This is the ninth season. I think there's been like eight or nine. Nine weddings like that go through.

[Connor]

That's pretty cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Wow, that is awesome.

[Connor]

Well, it sounds like Mongolian Chinese guys about to get his heart broken.

[Ty Schmidt]

No, no.

[Pat McAfee]

And he did.

[Ty Schmidt]

And the reunion was fireworks.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, tell me.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I haven't got there yet. I'm going.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Okay. Okay, go back. There's seven other seasons, too. It sounds like you can dive on in, bub.

[Ty Schmidt]

Houston's wild.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm gonna start doing it. I'm gonna start watching that. Okay. So let's recap this conversation, shall we? You're very happy. Wife Brittany. Awesome. Mia. Dog would like that. You would like people to move on from stalking you, obviously. That'd be cool if that would stop happening. Both people that have been in your life and also people that are trying to cover your life. Football. There has been no movement in decision making, both on your side and any other. Other side. So, like, when that time comes, you'll make the decision. You're staying in shape and you. Love. Fucking love. Love is blind. Is that. Is that a. Basically a good recap of everything we got here. And we're launching a show that has a logo look for the first episode. Coming soon, the Conspiracy Files with Aaron Rodgers. Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

We get the whole cni. We get.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of things. Now, I don't know if that necessarily is AI's greatest go at Aaron Rodgers, but Pretty close.

[Aaron Rodgers]

He looks good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We'll shop it. Shop it a little bit. So anything we miss in there? Is there anything we missed in there? I don't think so.

[Aaron Rodgers]

No. I mean, if we're going to call it, I just want to. I gotta. I'll get my ass whooped if I don't read this. That Mia told me.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yes. That was the message. Foxy actually also love his blonde fan.

[Darius J. Butler]

Oh, no, he's, he's.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Hey, shout out to all the boys in the back. I miss you guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah. Thank you, Aaron. Appreciate you, dude. But Foxy just.

[Aaron Rodgers]

See you guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Foxy just dropped into my ear there and was like, you gotta hear from Mia. Gotta hear from Mia. That's what he literally.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I'm gonna sign off on this because my phone's dying too.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Aaron Rodgers]

All right. I gotta read this here full screen for you, buddy.

[Pat McAfee]

The floor is yours. And Mia, I guess this is.

[Aaron Rodgers]

This is. This is from Mia. In her voice she said says, stop flat out lying. I don't have a sister named Christie, and I have more than two sisters. Also, I've never lived in Wisconsin. Stop using my brother's name for clicks and views, you weirdos. Okay?

[Pat McAfee]

Period.

[Aaron Rodgers]

And one more thing. I learned football this past year and more than half of sports media should not be reporting on football. A game they know nothing, nothing about. They too should keep my brother's name out of their mouths. Thanks, Mia.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Was that a period or exclamation point at the end?

[Aaron Rodgers]

Thanks, comma formal.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, thanks. That's unbelievable. Well, thank you, Mia. That was phenomenal.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Thanks. Love you, Mia. Thanks, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, and we love you, man. Thank you for joining us. Great to catch up with you. Good luck with everything. And yeah, dude, do your journey of life. We've been appreciative following along with.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I'm loving it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, it sounds like I'm loving it. How happy you are, dude, you're floating. I am a dude. That's super cute, man. I'm sure this will kind of stop all the conversations about this should.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure it will always does.

[Pat McAfee]

You're the ladies and gentlemen, Britney's husband.

[Aaron Rodgers]

I was right about co. Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

First episode of Connor Speaking Conspiracy Files with Aaron Rodgers coming out soon.

[Tone]

Yeah, we'll dive into that.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm sure that'll be an early one. Let's just go ahead and set our credentials. First things first. Here was Aaron in 2020. He had a 500 page report done. Here's his demonstrate. I don't know, presentation.

[Ty Schmidt]

Presentation, Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Which he did. You go back. Hey, do you mind, do you mind if I. Go ahead, buddy.

[Connor]

Page 147.

[Tone]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

I consulted with plenty of doctors, people that have know my body type, know my blood, and also talked to Joe Rogan. So anybody said Was this guy talks to fucking Dr. Joe Rogan. He thinks he's a fucking genius. It's like this guy had a 500 page report done on why he does not want to do this or whatever. And it's like, wow. I. I think he and many others like him are feeling

[Connor]

vindicated.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, pretty good.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like to hear it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Say it again.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like to. I would like to. I don't know if you're ever gonna get that, Aaron. I also don't know if you're ever gonna change anybody that, you know, feels already a certain way. But I do appreciate the fact that there comes a time in Aaron's life we have realized where he's like, fuck it, I gotta say something. I'm done with this. And he just unloads. And that's definitely what that was for. A lot of the reports of his relationships, he. He's been in the relationship, he's currently in. The way he deals with things, the way he handles things, the way he does everything. So I'm appreciative of him doing that. I hope he's even happier. And I'd like to reiterate the fact the last few days where I've gotten a chance to catch up with him via FaceTime here. This is by far, by far the happiest I have ever. In the year. How long? I don't know how many years we've known him now at this point. Nine.

[AJ Hawk]

Nine.

[Pat McAfee]

Eight years.

[Connor]

Eight years.

[Pat McAfee]

By far. Those are the happiest, happiest face times that I've ever had with him, you know, and aj, you talk to him a lot more than I do. I love the fact that you were just trying to find out if his Steelers are bus. If he was playing.

[Connor]

Thank you, Age.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you for doing that. Obviously, we stumbled at the gates with you being muted. I don't know what happened. That was actually you being muted, by the way, and I appreciate you pushing that. But he seems so happy. That's kind of my big takeaway of it all.

[AJ Hawk]

Aj, legitimately, yeah, Seems to be in a great spot. Yeah, I mean, we'll see. It's March 4th right now, so, yeah, who knows when anyone knows anything.

[Pat McAfee]

So he knows football. This is him trying to not talk about anything. Yeah, you heard him. He said everything that needs to be said. Just talk to him. I don't need to be saying anything about any of it. That's why I was muted, actually. Fucking keep me out of this. We're going to continue to ask you, though, as the Days roll on and we got to talk about something. Speaking of talking about something, huge news out of New England. The New England Patriots have informed Stefan Diggs that he will be released after the start of the league year next week. Remember free agency frenzy on Monday at noon, all the deals are basically announced. Then Wednesday at 4, new league year begins, I do believe. And whenever that happens, that's when everything has to be certified and that's when you see a lot of players leaving teams and beginning new adventures. Obviously Stefan Diggs bought into the New England Patriots this year on the field and in practice. Had a great year for the New England Patriots. I think in the locker room and on the field. There was a lot of noise towards the end though on the outs, a lot of noise. Everything that you potentially were worried about happening with Stefan Diggs seemingly all happened at one time. And it was at the very end. You got some legal stuff happening, got personal drama stuff happening, got things getting loud and then obviously you guys don't win the big game. So everything is being recalibrated. I would like to say that this one a lot better than I could have imagined for how long it went. And him being released is surprising because of the, the on field and locker room production. But I feel like Vrabel has to set a precedent here on like hey, we can't just have so much shit out. So it feels like that's potentially what the news is. I don't know. Con man, your thoughts on them moving on from Stefan Dig?

[Ty Schmidt]

I think originally when he signed the deal, it was a three year deal. But everyone once the contract was released kind of saw okay after the first year. There is an out for sure. I mean it went basically as good as it could have gone. Drake maybe took a massive step. Stefon Diggs was a thousand yard receiver. I believe he hit a lot of his incentives, let alone the stuff he did just in the locker room. Like you mentioned, him giving speeches before games was awesome. Him just kind of buying in to the entire culture. I think looking back on it, when we just talk about the Patriots specifically and the on field football stuff, he will be a big part of kind of the beginning of the Vrabel era. But now all eyes just turn to, you know, A.J. brown, something like that, making a trade for a big time receiver or that being kind of the premier thing for free agency next week. So hats off to Stephon Diggs that the stuff off the field. One thing, just him as the football player, fantastic as a Patriots fan.

[Pat McAfee]

Your thoughts D. But as the Patriots move on now to maybe new wide receiver one or maybe new future offensive weapons coming in instead of the veteran that they had for year one, Mike Vrabel.

[Darius J. Butler]

I mean he's been productive everywhere he's been and kind of just to piggyback on everything. Comments I think the deal, you know, essentially it worked out once we saw it come up in a three year deal with the and out after the first one. He was productive. You know, he didn't have a big game, you know, late in the playoffs or in the super bowl, but he was definitely productive. I think he helped the locker room. I think he helped Drake may and they got a ton of money so they'll move on. They'll be all right. I hope he's good off the field legally or, you know, with everyone, everyone involved, but still a productive player. I'm sure he'll end up with another team and he'll still go on and do his things. I'm a, you know, I'm a Digs fan on the field. Not only how he plays and how he produces, but how he competes. And he showed kind of a different side of him with the leadership stuff on the New England Patriots last year. So I'm, I'm interested to see where he ends up.

[Pat McAfee]

NFL researcher just put out a tweet. Stefan Diggs has a thousand plus receiving yards in seven of his last eight seasons. Most season with a thousand receiving yards since 2018. Him and Mike Evans, both of them available. Okay, so we'll see what happens in the future. Obviously AJ Brown on that list. Is he available? It depends on which day you're listening to which insider. Yeah, okay, like no, he's not available but if somebody offers something he's definitely available and they'll listen. So is he available? No, we're not really, but anybody kind of is. You know, that's kind of the conversation around A.J. brown right now. So a lot of talent potentially on the move. Where will they go next? We shall see. He'll be throwing a Justin Jefferson. I mean that's, that's an entire. And then if you think about the Patriots going to a new number one, it is AJ Brown. We start drawing up some trades that could potentially work.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Before the show started, Evan Sid says the Eagles are asking for a future first and second round pick in any potential AJ Brown trade. It's like where the Patriots picking after today's trade.

[Tone]

I don't know if I see them getting that.

[Pat McAfee]

Why?

[Tone]

Well, today's Trade was a 25 year old who is now coming off two back to back all pro seasons or

[Pat McAfee]

owed 100 million probably.

[Tone]

Yeah but I mean that was not a first and a second. That was a first and a third obviously I don't that's a lot for A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

brown round. I I mean fascinating. I mean some team what if it's a 31st pick.

[Tone]

Some teams did give up two first first off so I mean it could happen.

[Pat McAfee]

Not something yeah one team.

[Connor]

Yeah the Colts.

[Darius J. Butler]

Good point.

[Tone]

Oh that was the Colts wasn't it?

[Pat McAfee]

And we're still happy with that. We, we know he's going to show up next year and be a key piece. I like our guess us losing seven straight though tough after doing that's not a great start.

[Tone]

At least you know that quarterback's to

[Ty Schmidt]

going coming back though right In November he's going to be hot.

[Pat McAfee]

Everybody's talking about everybody everybody's talking about how in the Colts world about how boy they this up.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah they are all talking about that.

[Pat McAfee]

Alec Pierce was on up and Adams with K earlier day and said oh look I love indie but like I've earned right now to see what free agency I'm gone. Yeah let me just go ahead and check. Let me go ahead and check under the hood of some places to see what they got going on if they want to add a few hundred ponies to that engine that they got going there. Alec by far plays best football this past season. He's a good ball player by far play. He's tough, he's gritty, he's athletic, he drinks two beers.

[Connor]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah he's young. I mean he, he wasn't always this guy though. Like we actually watch him develop here in Indy now was he not always this guy because he didn't have a quarterback and then everything was turning over.

[Connor]

That could have been part of it.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe, maybe that's what it was and maybe this year he had his best opportunity to kind of do who he was. Whatever the case, he definitely had his best year this year and now he's hitting the market and people are going to watch his highlights and they're going to see his numbers and they're going to say yeah I think we'd like to take the top off of this fucking two shell defense that's fucking playing against everybody and he's got it. He's tough, he blocks, he's good and he's gone. And then Daniel Jones not necessarily going to be here either you know and then Pittman. Are they to going to be able to.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well hopefully now yes but who knows? Like, we up in the year.

[Tone]

They like their guys.

[Connor]

They do like their guys. That's what you can kind of fall back on.

[AJ Hawk]

Yep, that's what I do.

[Pat McAfee]

I heard an impression of him by somebody else in the NFL at a high ranking position, and I did not like that. I felt. I felt disrespected. That tracks. This guy was phenomenal at it, too. Well, I'm not going to say what he said. I'm not going to say what he said. There was a couple drinks and they go, listen to him. Because I brought up, you know, some things that have happened. I said, we haven't won the division here in Indy. Do you know that? We have not won 11 years, 12 years. We haven't won the AFC South.

[Ty Schmidt]

Damn.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. The Juggernaut. The AFC South.

[Connor]

Correct.

[Ty Schmidt]

Juggernaut.

[Pat McAfee]

Every other team has. Every. Every other. Think of the teams in the AFC South. They have won the AFC south more recently than the Indianapolis Colts have. Do you know that? Like, do you know? They go, no, I didn't know. So you're telling me, Chris, isn't it like, we did not know that? And then one person, we had that conversation a few different times, you know, because I always ask people to trade their good players to Indy.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I always, every time I talk to him, Josh Allen would be great over here. Hey, why don't you send me your best wide receiver? I need him over here. I've press bean for Josh Allen publicly and privately more than 30, 40, 50 times. What would it take? What would it take? You know, I would trade myself quicker than I would trade Josh. And then to Bill's mafia, like, yeah, actually, let's do that. There's a lot of people saying that. Oh, yeah, definitely. He's got a lot of heat on him.

[Connor]

Yes, he does.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got a lot of heat on him. I assume he knows that in this entire thing, but, like, I'm sure he knows that, but it's. It's. You have Josh.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pula didn't help him.

[Pat McAfee]

It's very. I tried to get T.J. watt from Pittsburgh, though. I mean, I was trying to trade for everybody. Okay. I was walking around team to team, who's your best player? I fucking want them here in Indy, you know, And I don't think I have enough say at this stage of life yet to really make a deal. But what would it look like if it had to look like it? Because that's kind of what Indianapolis combine is. So I was trying to do that with every player and Then one of the teams. I'd say it was the fifth team I approached with a deal for their best player, and we weren't going to give up anything, by the way.

[Darius J. Butler]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

I think it would have been a good deal. They go, oh, yes, we can actually do the negotiation right now. And the guy right here just drops into Chris Ballard, and then he negotiates with. And then he was negotiating as Chris Ballard.

[Connor]

Oh, that's good. Oh, that's good.

[Darius J. Butler]

What an asshole.

[Pat McAfee]

Pretty high up. Great rib. Pretty high up.

[Connor]

That is good.

[Pat McAfee]

Good.

[Tone]

Oh, man, I didn't know Jerry Jones had that.

[Pat McAfee]

No, it wasn't. No connections with Dallas Cowboys.

[Connor]

We.

[Tone]

No, we did not talk.

[Pat McAfee]

We have no connections with Dallas Cowboys, but we have connections. I think we're pretty plugged in. If we really wanted. If we wanted to get in the insider game, which I don't know if anybody wants to be in there right now with Schefter. Okay, Chef's got it.

[Connor]

Not this week either. He'll. He'll cut your throat.

[Pat McAfee]

Chef dunked. Donked on p. On Florio.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah.

[Tone]

That's a shame.

[Pat McAfee]

Really hard. And I didn't even know I was kind of opening a can of worms yesterday. Whenever I said Schefter, like, every time you break news, we're all trying to figure out the angle. And then he'll say, like, that's most of the time when you guys think that I'm getting something, it's not from who I think it's from. And I don't really like this narrative. I'm like, oh, he kind of took offense that. I guess that's probably what's been said about him a lot. Turns out it was happening at that exact moment. I did not know that. So Florio, Pro Football Talk. And we will say Florio Paisan, West Virginia guy. We know him, he founded Pro Football Talk, was a lawyer, just started writing basically all day, every day about football starting drama. And what he became is one of the most influential websites. They sold that thing twice. Like, he. Florio has been a part of NFL football for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long time. So let's. You can't undersell Mike Florio's impact in the NFL. It's very real, which is why NBC has signed him and brought him into Football night in America. Like. Like that is. But he does every once in a while go, oh, it's interesting how these insiders are operating. What happened with that? 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 6. So Schefter's just copy pasting Bullshit. And just putting it out there, basically. Must be nice that that's the insider game. Floria thought he caught Schefter.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Floria thought he caught Schefter. And for the good of ball, that can't happen. And Schefter says. Is that right, you think? I copy pasted from Rosenhaus. Here's a thousand text messages I sent around a league, basically saying, hey, what was the time? Go ahead. Keep rolling through them, please. Keep rolling through all them. Yeah, they keep going. They just keep going and keep going and keep going. This is what Schefter. Schefter dunked on Florio the hardest we have seen.

[Connor]

Shattered the backboard, the ball.

[Pat McAfee]

And also, I would like to. And look, he only thanked one person. So now we got to. Who was that?

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Who you say thanks to only one team. I'm assuming it's the Niners. Okay, now that's exactly.

[Connor]

Safe assumption.

[Pat McAfee]

How everybody would feel.

[Connor]

Deal.

[Pat McAfee]

But on that note, it's like Schefter actually given up. Kind of how the juice and the sausage is made, but also not giving away the name while getting a dub here over. Florio has to feel good for Schefter to execute this.

[Connor]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And the entire Internet saw it. Everybody saw it. Florio will have his get back, though.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, his moment in the song.

[Tone]

He'll manufacture something.

[Pat McAfee]

Florio, exactly. Florio will find something. And I don't think enough people. People know, like most NFL buildings, every single computer in every coach's office. The homepage is basically Prof. Football talk dot com. And it's like, what rumor did this guy hear about you might need to know about? And he's in there, so congrats to both of them. I like a good Godzilla. King Kong.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Unbelievable.

[Connor]

None better.

[Pat McAfee]

And I like good Internet. And Shafter. That was. That was beautiful Internet.

[Ty Schmidt]

Great caption, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, Florio could come back immediately and say, with modern AI, do we really

[Darius J. Butler]

know you don't need AI for that. You text yourself.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he could be texting his mom or his wife.

[Darius J. Butler]

Boom. Edit. Boom.

[Ty Schmidt]

Hey, respond this way.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, no, don't do that.

[Darius J. Butler]

I'm just saying you could.

[Connor]

I don't have the time to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

Catch yourself.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Connor]

That is what he would say.

[Pat McAfee]

Let me hear. Let me hear the full thing. Hold on, Adam. People are saying that it was very easily possible that you just kind of did that to yourself.

[Connor]

You think. You think I got the time to do that? I mean, I got calls coming in every.

[Pat McAfee]

Every Every second here. Every second.

[Connor]

You think I got time to text myself? Edit it, you know, crop it down? No, no.

[Pat McAfee]

What about AI, though?

[Connor]

Like, let him think what he wants. Let that think what he wants.

[Tone]

Oh, you can text yourself.

[Connor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, Tone just found a new way to sell himself. I did. Honestly, I.

[Tone]

That's cool.

[Pat McAfee]

I can't wait to see how you utilize that. There's going to be people texting Tone about how good his bets are in Hamilton. It's so good, dude. Thanks for doing that. Go.

[Tone]

I said great show today, pal.

[Pat McAfee]

I said thanks. All right, let's all start sending ourselves text messages of positive and gratitude so we understand and appreciate that we're all trying our absolute fucking best out here, okay? And let's enjoy it all. We're lucky to be alive. Very thankful for everybody who stopped by today. Very, very thankful for Charlie McAvoy and Alex Ferrer for what they did for the United States of America and for our program. Congrats to both of those absolute legends. Aaron Rodgers stopped by for a long time. Great to catch up with him. And AJ Almost did some real journalism. At least he tried multiple times. Boys in the back. You got a rightful shout out. You should. Gumpy. We're done talking about the 1904 Canadian world champion or four nations last year.

[Connor]

Yeah, I mean, that was about the Olympics.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, it wasn't.

[Charlie McAvoy]

You're right.

[Pat McAfee]

These four nations, even a real thing sound like that was kind of made up and out of nowhere. On that note, WBC is happening.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. That is real.

[Connor]

That's right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Score.

[Connor]

It is currently 2:1. We are winning. Judgy hit a homer in the first inning. I'm trying to figure out how he scored our second run, but. But you know, Sodo hit another bomb

[Pat McAfee]

for the Dominican and did a place go crazy. Oh, yeah, we need to see that's. Next time we need to go to one of their games down there. Here's Aaron Judge. See you. I've decided this ball needs to exit this stadium.

[Connor]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

That's one nothing usa.

[Connor]

I ain't a cheapy. Look how far he hit out of the goddamn stadium. You know what's also nice is the Dominican Republic. When the they have to. They're not playing in their everyone's backyard down there. They're gonna be coming to our territory. So we'll see if everyone's, you know, throwing bags of loose leaf tobacco in the air stuff. They're not gonna be doing that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. They might travel.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Yeah, they will travel.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they will be looking for the dubs up there, brother.

[Connor]

I. I do believe you guys think that they're going to take over half the stadium in my. No, no, not half, okay? We. A thousand Dominican fans come up and go to that ball game. Okay? Okay, Sounds good. You guys want the Dominican to win?

[Pat McAfee]

I'm on the team. I'm on Team usa.

[Connor]

These guys hit two homers and oh

[Pat McAfee]

boy, we can't beat these guys.

[Connor]

They beat the Tigers 12, 4.

[Pat McAfee]

It's their fans. Look at our fans. Show the judge over again. Those aren't our fans. Somebody else.

[Connor]

Because we have an expectation these games don't mean anything come Friday night when we play Brazil.

[Pat McAfee]

Are you all right?

[Connor]

Now, what was that?

[Pat McAfee]

You know he's pounding the pal in the table for these boys and I standing on it. I appreciate that. And I'm on team and I love our team.

[Connor]

I know. So start acting like it.

[Darius J. Butler]

This ain't a Rider cup situation, all right?

[Connor]

No, no, it's not even bring that. Just sign.

[Darius J. Butler]

Okay? It's not.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm telling you, though, whenever you see that atmosphere down there in the Dominican, it's hard not to go like, whoa, I get it. They're a bit more excited about this than us. And then Aaron Judge hits one 500ft today. It's like, let's go ahead and let's all remember here we're in reality and this is a good time. Holy. We should have been at that. Yes, we should have been in there. That's one of those. That's like an SEC college bait. We need to go do one of those too. That was SEC college baseball.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. They go absolutely crazy.

[Tone]

Mississippi State or something.

[Pat McAfee]

And then ours is fine. Ours is Mickey Mouse.

[Connor]

Ours is an expectation.

[Ty Schmidt]

Imagine what Venezuela's like right now.

[Pat McAfee]

Japan. How about Japan?

[Darius J. Butler]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Who are they playing? Because with Shohei hits a home run over there, I bet that entire wherever they're Tokyo Suzuki did hit a big

[Connor]

fly over there and they did go crazy.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what I'm saying. I'm a little bit worried that they boys aren't feeling enough juice from the country.

[Connor]

I was gonna say. Were you going crazy when you know we beat the out of some Mickey Mouse Eastern European team in pool play and in the hockey in the Olympics. No, that was the expectation. Good. We should beat the out of these clowns. And that's exactly how we're treating the Rockies who haven't won more than 45 games in the last 10 years. Who the do we play yesterday? Giants. They stink. Okay. This is the expectation. That's Fair is the expectation. We're trying to beat teams 50 to nothing in this pool play. And then when we see Dr. In the semifinals, then we can talk. Then we can talk. We'll see who they're gonna throw at us.

[Pat McAfee]

I just want, I just want to make sure that the American baseball fans are understanding that, hey, the boys need

[Connor]

us also to that point. Those Dominican games, like, those will be worth watching as well because, like, there is a chance that they hit like 15 horses a night.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, let's get into world baseball. I'm pumped for world baseball. Yes, legit. I'm very pumped about it, especially because we met all the boys and it's like, hey, we got some legends. Great dude that love representing America right now. This is good news. All right, let's get the out of here. 353 today. Let's remember that whenever we go short tomorrow, be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Hey, great work this week. Great to have you back. Great to have you back, team.

[Darius J. Butler]

Great week.

[Pat McAfee]

Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three, team.

[AJ Hawk]

Good luck.

[Pat McAfee]

Calling all sightseers and selfie takers. Welcome to Texas, where a day on our hiking trails will lead to a lifetime of memories. And family road trips become family legends where thrill seekers make a splash into spring fed pools and picky eaters will clean their plates. This is your invitation to visit Texas and see it for yourself. Visit traveltexas.com and plan your family's trip today. Let's Texas 911. Where is the emergency?

[Aaron Rodgers]

It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19 year old Sarah Stern.

[Pat McAfee]

Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows.

[Aaron Rodgers]

Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen to Bridge of Lies coming March 10th. Wherever you listen to podcasts,