PMS 2.0 1510 - World Baseball Classic Team USA vs Brazil Preview, Shams Charania, North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi, & AJ Hawk

Summary

The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 Episode 1510 Summary

Date: March 6, 2026
Main Theme:
Preview of USA vs. Brazil in the World Baseball Classic, deep dive into baseball’s current cultural moment, NFL free agency shifts, and major sports headlines, with analysis, banter, and special guests Shams Charania and North Carolina GM Michael Lombardi.

---

Episode Overview

In this high-energy "Feel Good Friday" episode, Pat McAfee and his crew (AJ Hawk, Tone Digs, Conor, Ty Schmidt, and Michael Lombardi) celebrate the confluence of sports, giving special attention to the World Baseball Classic, using Pat’s own experience facing Clayton Kershaw as a launching point. The crew shifts into lively conversation on baseball’s resurgence, the state of the NFL, and rolls through key sports moments — all with trademark irreverence and expert insight. Features include betting talk, front-office moves, and exclusive looks at NFL and NBA storylines.

---

Main Segments & Highlights

1. Pat McAfee’s At-Bat vs. Clayton Kershaw (00:00–08:00)

• Pat recounts his attempt to hit against Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw at Team USA training camp.
  • Stakes were set: donations per outcome (Hit, Walk, Strikeout, etc.), raising over $60,000 for Kershaw’s Challenge charity.
  • Pat, a novice in the batter’s box, describes the intimidation and thrill:

    "Getting the opportunity of a lifetime, a dream to be able to face off against a first ballot hall of Famer...while out at Team USA baseball training camp was incredibly cool." (08:00)

  • The panel jokes through the experience, breaking down McAfee’s swings and misses, and Pat relishes making “contact” ("I will put on my Twitter bio. Made contact." [04:06]).
  • Memorable Moment:
    • "[Pat on Kershaw’s curveball:] And that curve ball, everybody was talking about it. Boy, it really does make your whole entire body..." (08:44)

---

2. World Baseball Classic Hype & Team USA Preview (08:00–20:00)

• The group previews USA vs. Brazil, with Team USA as heavy favorites (-9.5).
  • McAfee on the stakes:

    "We got our best team we've ever put out there for Team USA in the history of Team USA baseball. All the studs are out and they’re trying to win for their country." (10:38)

  • Global interest highlighted — Shohei Ohtani’s grand slam for Samurai Japan, intense local environments, and expectations for Team USA to match the energy.
  • Baseball’s changes praised (pitch clock, bigger bases), with hopes for a resurgence:

    "Are we about to have a little renaissance moment for baseball? I think there’s a chance off of this." (12:16)

  • Ty: Notes more buy-in from MLB stars than ever before — "like 70 of the top 100 are playing in this tournament." (12:49)

Notable Quotes

• Pat: “Stars playing good...Paul Skeen’s star...Aaron Judge is the most famous...Shohei Ohtani’s biggest star... all the stars are playing great too.” (12:17)
• Conor: “You can buy in and watch every single game. Let's take some baby steps first.” (14:15)
• AJ Hawk: “You just let me know. We appreciate you being a great American. Good luck.” (06:53)

---

3. Baseball Culture, Accessibility, & Show’s Growing Appreciation (14:00–19:30)

• Crew discusses increasing respect for baseball, comparing MLB players’ culture to the NHL.
  • Visiting events in other sports (bowling, PBA) leads to appreciation and analogies.
• Pat: “Once we meet things and get into things, it feels like we do have a natural respect and appreciation for things a lot more. And we’re just trying to learn, literally.” (14:47)

---

4. Team USA Leadership & USA’s “Skippers” (16:00–19:30)

• McAfee’s praise for Team USA manager Mark DeRosa (D Ro), his genuine competitive drive, motivational leadership, and effort to form a “killing machine in baseball.”

  • “He’s the perfect guy for the gig and he’s taking it...” (18:09)

• Assistant coaches and unity across baseball generations emphasized.

---

5. AJ Hawk Joins: Reflections & Quick Bits (20:00–24:44)

• Welcomed by Pat with elaborate intro:

  “All time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers...” (20:13)

• Spirited banter about Avatar trees, then “wrapping up” World Baseball Classic segment with AJ’s outside perspective:

  • “First off, you versus Kershaw. I thought you did great...even when you swung and missed, you looked good. You looked like you belong.” (22:41)

---

6. Betting Preview and WBC Lines (24:44–26:20)

• Tone: “The US is minus nine and a half. Is the spread on this one...anything more than that is very, very rare.” (24:52)
• All-in office bet: every US starter to hit a home run.
• Ty: “If you look at the lineup from one to nine, I’d say like seven of these guys typically bat third or cleanup...” (26:08)

---

7. Rapid-fire NFL Free Agency & Quarterback Movement (27:00–44:00)

• Main topics: Kyler Murray’s future (Cardinals, Colts rumors), Daniel Jones’s recovery, Geno Smith’s release, and Dolphins roster moves.
• Pat: “Kyler Murray, top 10 NFL and MLB obviously has all the talent. The Vikings seemingly the good combo.” (28:09)
• Quarterback carousel, team strategy talk (Colts, Vikings, Dolphins).
• Miami Dolphins’ leadership overhaul discussed; venting on ex-GM Chris Greer.
  • Conor: “Not a bad move. Sully’s at the wheel, and I’m just glad everybody can now see how terrible Chris Greer was at his job.” (42:36)

---

8. Patriots/Boston Sports Superiority and NBA Segment

(46:35 onwards, ~47:49–56:00)

• Boston sports dominance riff — the Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and new teams all finding success.
• Shams Charania joins to report Jayson Tatum’s historic comeback from Achilles injury (expected return ahead of schedule):

  • “He made it his goal, his mission to come back for the 25, 26 season as unlikely as everyone else thought it was going to be.” (48:09)

  • Tatum cleared for 5-on-5 a month ago, mental & physical hurdles discussed.
  • Anticipated “minutes restriction,” with the crowd and team’s expectations sky-high.

  • “Jaylen Brown...put this team in position to compete for a championship...” (48:10)

  • Tatum described as looking “like Jason Tatum” in recent practices (53:28); nervousness about re-injury and the psychological barriers.

Notable Shams Quotes:

• “There’s not just going to rush him back. They're not going to put him in a position where he’s not fully cleared.” (48:49)
• “He looks like Jason Tatum. He looks great.” (53:28)

---

9. More NFL: Trades, Free Agency, and Roster Moves (57:00–105:30)

• Michael Lombardi (NC GM, former NFL exec) joins for front-office insight:
  • Talks candidly about recruiting struggles, resilience at North Carolina, player development, and navigating the NCAA and NIL.
  • “If you're not worth a darn, they're not going to attack you. Some programs are not worth attacking. They're going to attack us. We expect it. It’s all good. We've been in the arena before.” (68:58)
• NFL front office decisions examined (DJ Moore trade, Trent McDuffie move, Lions releasing Taylor Decker — possible domino for Maxx Crosby?).
  • Emphasis on domino effects: “When you start shedding contracts, you're doing something, especially when you’re as close as the Lions are to being in the Super Bowl.” (103:36)
• Wealth of analysis on taxes, player movement, and long-term planning.

---

10. Rapid Headlines & Banter (105:45–138:56)

• NFL coaching carousel: Mike McCarthy, Harbaughs, bias in coach reputation.
• Rashan Gary’s (Packers) near-release, rapid reversals, and player-generated graphics.
• Unique show moments: a singing telegram from “Happy George”, show banter about pool (billiards), Happy George bits, and running inside jokes (many about the wardrobe at Miami’s Club 11).

---

Key Timestamps

• Pat vs. Kershaw At-Bat: 00:00–08:00
• WBC & Baseball Hype: 08:00–20:00
• Boston Sports/NBA & Tatum Update (with Shams): 47:49–56:00
• Michael Lombardi interview: 66:08–106:08 approx.
• NFL Free Agency & Trades: Sprinkled throughout, with major discussion 57:00–105:30

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• Pat McAfee (on Kershaw’s curve):
  “Boy, it really does make your whole entire body...” (08:44)
• Shams Charania (on Tatum):
  “He looks like Jason Tatum. He looks great.” (53:28)
• Michael Lombardi:
  “If you're not worth a darn, they're not going to attack you. Some programs are not worth attacking. They're going to attack us.” (68:58)
• AJ Hawk (to Pat):
  “You just let me know. We appreciate you being a great American. Good luck.” (06:53)
• Pat McAfee (on Boston):
  “It just seems like that area is just always going to win for some reason. And we have to just live with that.” (45:04)
• Pat (on sports):
  “Sports have afforded us the opportunity...” (137:34)

---

Summary Table: Key Sports Stories

| Segment | Topic | Notable Points | |-------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------|---------------| | USA-Brazil WBC Preview | Team USA’s best roster, expectations, global hype | USA -9.5, all-in bets, baseball’s momentum | | Pat vs. Kershaw | Charity at-bat, curveball terror, charity wins | Over $60k raised, TV spectacle | | Boston Sports Dominance | Celtics, Red Sox, new sports, Tatum’s near-miraculous return | NBA & NCAA context, Boston luck | | NFL Free Agency | Kyler rumors, Dolphins changes, QB carousel, Lions cap moves| Insights, predictions, analysis | | NFL Trades | DJ Moore to Bills, Lions release Decker | Strategy breakdown, domino effects | | NCAA/NIL | Lombardi’s inside view; recruiting, CBA, system reform | Call for modernization, unionization | | Show Antics | Happy George serenade, locker-room banter, unique culture | Signature style and humor |

---

Episode Tone

• Knowledgeable yet accessible, weaving in-depth analysis with comedic banter.
• Self-deprecating, irreverent, high-energy, and full of inside jokes.
• Blends deep-dive sports insights, gambling tips, and moments of relatable ridiculousness.

---

For First-Time Listeners

This episode spotlights the infectious excitement surrounding the World Baseball Classic and MLB’s cultural moment, shows the NFL’s feverish rumor mill as free agency opens, and leavens sports expertise with signature Pat McAfee Show entertainment. Must-listen highlights include Pat’s Kershaw story, expert breakdowns from insiders, and a blend of news, fun, and unpredictability.

Transcript

[Tone]

Throws you a curveball, you're in trouble.

[Pat McAfee]

That breaking ball.

[Conor]

Good luck.

[Pat McAfee]

It's.

[AJ Hawk]

It's pretty nasty.

[Pat McAfee]

Think he's gonna make contact?

[Michael Lombardi]

No.

[Pat McAfee]

If I were you, I would just start swinging as you release. You think I make contact? I can barely make contact against. Fight. A bingo. 25 grand. Extra base hit. 15,000. If you walk me. $10,500 donation. Strike out. 10,000. A hit is just 10,000. Ball dollar donation. Hit by pitch, that's an extra 5,000. Strike is a thousand, obviously. And then every ball will be a donation by the pitcher as well. Skeen said that if he was pitching against me. Throw one behind me.

[Conor]

I've had a lot of votes to

[Pat McAfee]

get you in the ribs. A lot of

[Michael Lombardi]

you can get in

[Conor]

there and look at one if you want. Get used to it.

[Pat McAfee]

Is this the one you're going to put in my ribs?

[Conor]

Nope, you're not.

[AJ Hawk]

Don't swing at this one.

[Pat McAfee]

Don't swing. All right, I won't.

[Michael Lombardi]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Okay. Okay. I thought it was going to burn my feet. Rookie of the year. Get a little closer. Just got a cramp in my left Check.

[Conor]

All right, no balls, no strikes. Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. What the was that? What the was that?

[Conor]

I like that you let it go, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. First one.

[Conor]

Yeah, I like it. Oh, foul tip.

[Pat McAfee]

Foul tip. Oh, Where'd you go, Pat? Where'd you go? What was that? That was Kerfo. That was a strike that was right there.

[Conor]

Hey, thank you for your donation. Kershaw's challenge is forever grateful.

[Pat McAfee]

So what was that you just drew?

[Conor]

Fast, fast, fast.

[Pat McAfee]

Curve. Oh. Where'd you go? And what else do you have?

[Conor]

I have a slider.

[Pat McAfee]

Fuck. This is guy number two.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm bad number two.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I got a different attitude this guy. I don't like what you're doing with the strikes, though.

[Conor]

You're on it.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, foul. Foul ball.

[Conor]

You got me, though, there, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Contact.

[Michael Lombardi]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I will put on my Twitter bio. Made contact. What's your drone? This will be his curve. Right?

[Conor]

That's all I got right there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I saw it. Hey, fastball away.

[Conor]

All right.

[AJ Hawk]

Over here, maybe.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, you never know, but I'm

[Conor]

gonna try fastball way. Oh,

[Pat McAfee]

I think I got it. I think I got it. That was good.

[Conor]

Did that hurt?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you got. Thank you, dude.

[Conor]

We'll count that as a single.

[Pat McAfee]

Infield single. Hey, I got a ghost runner there.

[Conor]

He's fast.

[Pat McAfee]

Over. He's on second.

[Conor]

Okay,

[Pat McAfee]

I got it.

[Conor]

Hey, good work, dude. That was awesome.

[Pat McAfee]

I knew the curve was Coming right there. You did? Yeah.

[Conor]

How'd you know?

[Pat McAfee]

Just because I thought. Because I made contact.

[Conor]

Oh, yeah, you read my mind.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's make a move on.

[Conor]

Yeah, you got it.

[Pat McAfee]

You told me fastball away.

[Conor]

Yeah. I cut in a little, he got jammed, but contact like I was aiming

[AJ Hawk]

away through a two seamer and it's supposed to kind of run, but it

[Pat McAfee]

kind of ran the other way. I didn't think about the punch out pitch. Like I was sitting there. I'm like, He's. He's up O2. You're definitely gonna hit me with something. Oh, where'd you go?

[Conor]

Give catcher got you there.

[Pat McAfee]

I think I got on base.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's an infield single.

[Conor]

You know it.

[Ty Schmidt]

You had. You had enough, though.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see his face? He said, I don't know. I don't know about. That's real. He said, mookie's good.

[Conor]

Short stop.

[Pat McAfee]

What I remember.

[Conor]

I'll give you one hit, give you one hit.

[Pat McAfee]

One foul ball.

[Conor]

And then I did cat. Does that count?

[Pat McAfee]

Cuz I count your F. You catch enough counts as a two for there. Okay. There's a few swinging misses, a lot of swinging misses.

[AJ Hawk]

So yeah, you just, you just let me know.

[Pat McAfee]

We appreciate you being a great American. Good luck.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, no, there's no way I'm going to be able to throw enough strikes. All right. Thank you, dude, you're the best.

[Conor]

That was great, man.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, let's go. This show stinks. And the fact that you listen. We are very, very thankful for McAfee on the line with a gorgeous assist, the all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. You stutter. Stutter, damn it. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice could change their life. Hello, beautiful people, huh?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Welcome back to Thunder Down. This feel good Friday sports program shall begin now. Sports are the greatest. And we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to cover them for a living, talk about them, and even participate every once in a while against a goat. That was the debut and the premiere of Kershaw versus McAfee. And me being McAfee guy that's only been in a batter's box one night of my life. Getting the opportunity of a lifetime, a dream to be able to face off against a first ballot hall of Famer, a once in a generation type pitcher, while out at Team USA baseball training camp was incredibly cool. I'm so thankful that Clayton agreed to do that. Team USA allowing that to happen. And we raised 60,000 plus for Kershaw's challenge, which is a beautiful thing. So very thankful for it all. And. And I'll tell you, when you're in there and you're looking at him do his. You think, I'm on TV right now. I'm in there. And once again, we think that what started as a Kershaw, where you just pitch against McAfee at the beginning of this thing, this kind of be a marketing thing as, like, news starts happening. Skubal's only going to be throwing 55 pitches. There's some other stories line. It's like, hey, also, if you want to get back, maybe, you know, maybe. Maybe you do this thing. So we saw him do the bullpen session for this particular p sesh against me for the bat, the one in against him, and he was like getting. I mean, they were. There was gloves popping.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah, big time.

[Pat McAfee]

It felt like we were out of game. And I think he was really trying to find out. I think he's still trying to get back into it, but he's also willing. He said, I'll, yeah, I'll throw a thousand pitches if they. I don't care. I got nothing to do on the other side of this whole thing, and I'm never doing it again afterwards. I'd like to pitch, Clayton, that we do that once a year for the next 20 years. Okay. Just to see how we both kind of evolved through it all. And if I never get to do it again, know that it was an honor of a lifetime. Clayton, thank you so much for the opportunity to see that and that curve ball, everybody was talking about it. Boy, it really does make your whole entire body. Tonight, Team USA will take on Brazil, 8pm on Fox. Shohei Ohtani and the Samurai Japan team, I'll tell you, they showed up and they said, let's go ahead and kick this thing off. Shohei hit a grand salami in the second inning. I think it was like he almost hit for the entire cycle by third inning. I mean, they are unbelievable in the Tokyo Dome. It feels as if everybody is really into this right now, globally. Okay? Every scene that we've seen from these other countries in hosting home games, it's been bananas. We're hoping for the same thing tonight. Although Timothee Chalamet must be filming something over. I can't wait to see what you're making, Tim. San Benito. Also love that you're traveling. Probably sold out, 10 stadiums over there. Love everything you guys got going on. But we like the fact that baseball is about to take over right now and we like the fact that it's bringing countries together. We hope the same thing will happen behind this Team USA baseball team. Just like with what happened in the Olympics about all the sports. And then at the end, both the women's and men's Olympics team, it can be special. We got our best team we've ever put out there for Team USA in the history of Team USA baseball. All the studs are out and they're trying to win for their country. They're not the only ones, obviously. We just saw Japan. Kuha is playing right now. The Dominican Republic obviously has a lot to say about it all. There's a lot of teams that are trying to get it done and we can't wait to watch it all unfold. Eight o' clock tonight. USA Brazil. We should win by a lot. We're favored by nine and a half.

[Ty Schmidt]

Absurd.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Pretty rare for a baseball game that's very mlb.

[Pat McAfee]

Every time a touchdown and a field goal.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. In this entire thing. But the boys are ready. We can't wait to watch. Logan Webb gets the start tonight against Brazil. Can't wait to watch the San Francisco Giant do his thing. He's got good mustache right now. We saw. We had eyes on it the other day. It looks great. I also was potentially there whenever he got recruited on the Team USA and maybe even was a little part of the recruiting to get him out there. So it is a dream that we've had this much interaction with this and thank you to baseball for the hospitality. Now on that note, to talks to tables here at Boston Conner and at Ty Schmidt. Boys. I like the America fits we got today.

[Ty Schmidt]

Gotta do it.

[Pat McAfee]

And Ty, this Team USA baseball team might be the thing that really brings a lot more people into baseball. We got rid of the. We added a pitch clock.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. We shortened the games.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep. Bigger bases.

[Pat McAfee]

We got bigger bases. We got stars playing good. Yeah, stars. Paul Skeen's star. What's he do? Oh, he wins the thing for the best thing. Aaron Judge is the most famous best. What's he do? He wins the thing for the thing. Shohei Ohtani's biggest star. What? He wins the. All the stars are playing great too. Bryce Harper, Dingdongs all over the place. Schwarbo doing all the names that we know in baseball, playing very well last year into this Team USA baseball. If they can continue to go and then they can have another season, are we about to have a little renaissance moment for baseball? I think there's a chance off of this.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, I, I think the biggest thing is because we've talked about this tournament in years past and like, if you love baseball, it's fun to watch because you, you know, a lot of these guys. But, but the major, major stars have kind of stayed away because they're getting ready for the season. But like ESPN puts out their top 100 baseball players in the MLB every year and I want to say like 70 of the top 100 are playing in this tournament. So it really is kind of the first real buy in, I think, where it's like every country that is entering this with players in the mlb, they're actually trying to win the tournament. You mentioned it. This is the best team we've ever had. And we're at the, the period in the schedule. Like there's a lot going on, but, but we do still have that high from the Olympics. So like any, any, anything we can watch that's like, hey, we can go support our country. And it just so happens we have the best team that our country has ever put out there. Like, these games are going to be electric. There's only been a couple so far, but all of them have delivered.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I, I like the baseball. I think Connor and I were actually talking about getting MLB TV on our phones. I think, why not? Can we follow the season? Why not get in? Especially with how nice they've been to us and how electrifying these early scenes out of baseball have been. Con man.

[Conor]

Yeah, and just the culture in general. Like, I feel like there's a natural respect for how baseball players operate. It's very similar to the NHL. And you know, I mentioned it to Ty earlier and Ty said it like, hey, the Red Sox have Roman Anthony and an ace and Garrett Crochet. Like you can buy in and watch every single game. Which. Let's take some baby steps first. I'm going to.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, let's watch a few.

[Conor]

Yeah, let me get, Let me watch a few. But still with players like that on the team, like, you can easily do that with the, you know, Pirates. You got Connor Griffin, the kid coming up and Paul Skeens and the other hundo boy, Jared Jones. Like, you can watch those guys on a weekly basis no matter what. I feel like I have that in Boston. Then once you get to know the guys even more.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like them to succeed.

[Conor]

Yeah, you want them to succeed.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like baseball to succeed after meeting the people. So all the people in that get mad at us for going to stuff because I'm a doofus and I Understand that. I understand.

[AJ Hawk]

I.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I've been with me a long time, but man, I'll tell you, once we meet things and get into things, it feels like we do have a natural respect and appreciation for things a lot more. And we're just trying to learn, literally. I went at the PBA event. I'll tell you, they're using upper reserve. Yeah, I might be in. You know why they're using uppers over there? They're in that bowling alley for 13, 14 straight hours. Those guys are rolling balls in these. PBA tour player Cam Crow arrested on drug charges. Carmel NDA. That's around here. That's near where the royal pen is.

[Tone]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

It was in the afternoon. Obviously he's gonna try and get some lunch. Maybe wake up after a long session

[Conor]

in the morning getting a jersey.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, a little cocaine. I mean, you know, I don't know if it was in the report, but cop said, cop said we get a maze roll, 10,000. There's no lights in there, you got no windows. You come out here, you need a big afternoon, you know, you need to be a 210 at least every time. But you just can't be mose around our town just like that. Okay? You can't have it. And Cam Crow said, listen, I got four o'. Clock. Am I going to be. I gotta go back out there. That's pba. They are locked in. They love it. But on that note, learning about bowling and going to the PBA event, like anytime that pops up, I feel like we'll be able to give it a little bit more respect and appreciation, especially whenever we see a three hunda. Maybe this weekend at E.J. tackett winning the US Open, the first major of the year in his home state. You know, on Sunday on the TV show on cw.

[Conor]

Need it.

[Pat McAfee]

If that comes up big, it feels like we're showing a little bit of baseball. I've tried to do that and I think baseball has been very welcoming to us. So we appreciate mlb. John, Chuck, Bob, all the boys up there at the top left. Thank you for the hospitality. D Row opening that up, you know, talking to D. Ro. This might be one of my favorite humans here now. Skipper Skipper America here.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Conor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

D Ro, the former player, now morning show host on mlb. Okay. Izon can really spin it. Oh, yeah, he is really good. Head skipper for Team USA as a whole. Hand selected assistant skippers. I don't know if that's what you guys fucking call them. The assistant skippers in the entire thing. Hand selected, like the team was a part with the Skippers putting plans together to get guys to come on team and, like, felt like a real honor to be able to represent baseball and the United States of America in this. And he's given, like, actual motivation, actual angles. He's thought about this since last March. They've been putting his team together. And this guy, if they continue to put him on a mic after these wins, I think he's gonna be good for baseball, too. Yeah, I think he's gonna be good for baseball. And he was very nice to us, you know? Cause there was a lot of opportunity to potentially throw ideas. Cause I had been talking to him, I've been talking to Kirsch, I've been talking to MLB people. Just trying not to step on any toes. Yeah. Grandpa Rossi, legend through this entire thing. Absolute beaster at all. So I'm talking to all these people, and I talked to D. Rowe. He goes, I got 30 minutes with the guys. That's the only time I'm like, you. Can we go come get some stuff in the clubhouse? You know? He's like, you can. I'm gonna let you know, you can do whatever you want. Okay, I'm gonna let you. We'll let you do whatever you want. I got 30 minutes. That's my first time with the guys. You know, like, it's all been text messages, some zoom calls. I'm like, you wanna give a speech today? He goes, yeah. I'm like, I'm not gonna be in there. I know how important speech is. Thank you. Thank you. Then we move along. That's my first train. It's our first training session. You know, we got time with the guys there. You know, I was like, so you don't want me just going out on the field mingling with the Bulls? It's like, we're gonna try to. You know, this is really our top. We're trying to win this thing. We're trying to get the boys together. I was like, all right, sounds good. He goes, you hang out wherever the hell you want. Okay? You. You. And once again, you can do whatever the hell you want. But, you know, just so you know, what I'm trying to do on this day that you're there, we're trying to build the boys here as quick as possible. That we are trying to get a killing machine in baseball, basically, is what we're trying to do. And I have. I have. I don't know how this guy isn't a coach or a leader of something already. Like, my conversations with him have been electrifying. And it seems like he's the perfect guy for the gig and he's taking it. I mean this is like when he wakes up, morning show host early when he goes to bed. This is America needs to win this because of how much he loves baseball. Pettit feels like the same thing. Oh yeah. Sean, Casey in there, Dino who's another assistant skipper Holiday. All of them are like, this is for, like this is for our generation. This is for your generation. This is the next generation of baseball. This is our shit. And it was like, it's been really cool to experience, I would say, Ty, which is why I think think we care so much at this point why we're talking about it so much.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, for sure. And it like you said, I mean like the buy in right now, like we, how much we talked more about baseball down the stretch last year than we have in the previous seven years combined, you know, so it's like you mentioned it, all these guys are playing well right now and typically they, they wouldn't be doing this, but it just amplifies everything, being able to go to that event. And like you said, how gracious all those guys were with their time entertaining us being out there. It was awesome. And I think they understand too. Like they understand the mission at hand and they all want to perform. So that's why I think it's going to be very special.

[Conor]

And building it up like the World Baseball Classic being a thing every three years. Right? Like that would be something to look forward to constantly. And I feel like, you know, the last one we didn't necessarily look forward to it. It was something that was on and it was like, oh, great, this is awesome. Now it's something where it's like, hey, if we get our guys every single three years here to one first this year, go get the crown and then defend the crown going forward. That would be great.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go to one half of the Hammer Cowboys AP tone. But before you give us your odds, we have to introduce a man who looks so cool right now.

[Tone]

So cool.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, amongst us is somebody who has a college football national championship at the house, wide right next to that super bowl championship. Why right next to that, a little placard thing that says Ryder cup winner. But the team lost on the other side. Title belt says most tackles in the history of the Green Bay Packers. And then right outside of that house, there's a tree and that thing, its roots are connected all the way to another tree that's on the Ohio State University campus. Because this Guy was the president of Ohio Wide. Ladies and gentlemen, the new nil funder for the Ohio State Buckeye football team, A.J.

[Conor]

hawk.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Good to see you, Hawker.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. That got me thinking. Is it ever. Have we ever seen a tree grow and the roots combined and then you just hold on like they were so that's the difference. I'm saying like two miles away.

[Tone]

It's called awa.

[Pat McAfee]

Heard of her? Yeah.

[Conor]

You ever been to Pandora?

[AJ Hawk]

We're talking. You guys are talking real life.

[Pat McAfee]

The Avatars.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes. Avatar.

[Tone]

Yeah. Everything's connected.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think you're allowed to do what you just did. Right there. Okay. Hope you're happy. They were blue. Let's talk about. They wear blue.

[AJ Hawk]

They were blue.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yes.

[Conor]

Yeah. But just to call them by the color of their skin.

[Pat McAfee]

It's just ridiculous. Disgusting actually. I can't believe you're doing that on this.

[Tone]

I can't believe you even see that.

[Michael Lombardi]

What the hell?

[Pat McAfee]

All right, let's go.

[Ty Schmidt]

I didn't know you hated the blues.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. What's that all about? I thought blue lives matter.

[Conor]

Yeah. That's pretty cool.

[Ty Schmidt]

What the hell is going on?

[Tone]

What are your thoughts on Smurfs?

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, let's move along.

[AJ Hawk]

Discuss a question for you, Tom. We'll come back to you.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm sure you do. Okay. Is it about Smurfs? I'm excited.

[AJ Hawk]

Just about like, you know, geopolitics, things

[Pat McAfee]

going on around the world. I. I have a question. Yes. We have looked it up. Trees are connected underground through a complex symbiotic network fungi known as the micro network.

[AJ Hawk]

So the roots don't connect.

[Pat McAfee]

That's called the wood. Wide. We. Okay, let's wrap up. World Baseball Classic. You were not there with us. We were bummed out. Obviously. That would have been a lot of away from a lot of kids. If you combine and into that and weekend. We understand completely. We did miss you out there. Your expectation on me versus Kershaw and then also your expectation of World Baseball Classic. Just as a guy who's not a big baseball guy. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I'd say first off, you versus Kershaw. I thought you did great. I thought even when you. Even when you swung and missed, you looked good. Like you didn't look like. You look like you belong.

[Pat McAfee]

It was upper body. Right. I don't know of arm.

[AJ Hawk]

But you're also like golf. To even take a good. To have good healthy cuts like you got. I thought was it was a win and obviously you got a hit.

[Conor]

You.

[AJ Hawk]

You sprint down the line. It always pays to hustle. We know that.

[Pat McAfee]

And by the way, I would have. Johnny, Patty's off.

[AJ Hawk]

I thought that was beautiful. And then I. I thought you did get it. Did you? A little bit dirty by only throwing. Showing the one pitch.

[Pat McAfee]

I believe he's foxy. I.

[AJ Hawk]

When they show the one that went hard, right? Which I. You probably did that on purpose because you threw.

[Pat McAfee]

You.

[AJ Hawk]

You burned a few in there before that one, so I get it. But I thought it was awesome. I thought that first curveball he threw you was awesome to watch from the behind, like, from that thing fell off the table. That thing?

[Conor]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Was that 18 inches of drop?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I thought it was hitting my head. I mean, I don't even know why your body would do that. Like, I don't remember the moment exactly in my brain. So me watching it back, it's like, I didn't know I moved that much the first time I saw that.

[AJ Hawk]

He didn't fall down, though. Some guys fall down.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I was pretty close. I mean, if I wasn't so bad on my heels, because I think you're supposed to not completely be on your heels. It's probably how you activate your hips. But if I wasn't so locked into the ground, I think I'm down for sure on that one. If. Watch that back. And then the angle we have from Bill McComus's camera, I think, which was incredibly well done by everybody. That was all set up in, like, three minutes, four minutes. Cameras everywhere, microphone. Let's do this. This great work by all parties involved, because Kershaw was warm, and they just redid it, so we didn't want to do it. But whenever I saw Pettit and Rossi do the full glass, I'm like, geez. Okay, so everybody was kind of waiting on me. It was good. It was good time. Now tell me about World Baseball Classic, and then we'll wrap up and move into some football.

[AJ Hawk]

Well, first off, yeah, we know DeRosa and the boys want to win. I mean, nine and a half point favorites. That's some pressure on you. Like, if you're the skipper of that squad, you're thinking, hey, we got to go win by 25, because we had. The expectations are so sky high. But I think, yeah, I think, like Connor said, if we can go get this one and then we defend it another three years, and we just know this is our thing. Coming off of hockey, too, I think it's like, we have to have gold.

[Pat McAfee]

Very worried about baseball, labor negotiations that are around the corner. Especially if we start hitting a real groove with baseball popularity. Hopefully all parties will come together and make sure that doesn't happen. But that's rare in these types of situations. But maybe baseball sees the moment tonight. Bets on this particular game. What should we be looking at? Tone?

[Tone]

Yeah, you guys talked about it. The US Is minus nine and a half. Is the spread on this one. If you go or look at an MLB bet, they are all minus one and a half. And occasionally, occasionally you'll see a minus two and a half. So anything more than that is very, very rare. You'll see that in the WBC though. Samurai Japan was minus ten and a half, I believe.

[AJ Hawk]

So they just have no respect for Brazil's baseball team.

[Tone]

Yes, that is correct. Or a ton of respect for team usa.

[Conor]

I laid it.

[AJ Hawk]

There you go.

[Tone]

I laid it. I mean they 10 round every. Everybody they've played already.

[AJ Hawk]

I'm taking, I would take the US Here.

[Tone]

And then a popular thing in the office this morning is we just took every single US player to hit a home in a home run. You can. They're all up there. Starts with Judgy who's +105.

[Pat McAfee]

He can definitely hit a home run

[Tone]

all the way down to terrain at +475.

[Conor]

So you can get.

[Tone]

We, we did it with all the boys. I mean Judgy's hit home already. Home run already. Raleigh has, Buxton has, Harper has, Bragman has, Anthony has. Those are the ones that have already hit home runs in their first two warm up games.

[Pat McAfee]

Games.

[Tone]

So it's not like. And they've hit multiple home runs. So we just, we just laid all the home runs with the boys today. Just. That's just a fun thing to do.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Especially if nine and a half. We're gonna need a lot of them.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's hit them. So if we want to win, which we do, and we want to cover which we do, these are going to have to happen. And this team was built to do this.

[Conor]

Right?

[Pat McAfee]

I mean that's what this team was put together. Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean if you look at the lineup from one to nine, I'd say like seven of these guys typically bat third or cleanup on their regular team. So just having a guy who's got pop like a cleanup hitter does bat ninth, obviously that's a good thing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Maybe next in this Kyler Murray's playing in the world baseball class. Murray obviously no longer with the Arizona Cardinals, put out an entire statement thanking Arizona for the time. We assume there's a chance that he goes to the next stop and has success. You know, he's played a lot of football, thrown for over 20,000 yards, has a lot of touchdowns, obviously a lot of experience. There's some question marks on how it was all working behind the scenes as him as a quarterback of a franchise, a leader of a program. But is the Arizona Cardinals going to always be like that? That's kind of the question you have to ask especially whenever you see report cards and Fs are across the board. What's that for? Everything. Seemingly the Arizona Cardinals and then all of a sudden we can't see the report cards anymore. So will that continue to be Fs? Will they continue to get better? We'll never know publicly unless it's leaked like it was just a couple weeks ago. But what we're saying is Arizona Cardinals seemingly never going to be successful or were they never going to be successful because Kyler was their quarterback? So there's the two questions. Now if you get somebody in there who's like a super executive type quarterback, which I think Fernando is going to be, I think Peyton Manning was like that, Tom Brady was like that. I think Patrick Mahomes is like that. I think they're all the greats have kind of been like that. Tyler's not like that. Tyler has been drafted top 10 in MLB and the NFL. Only athlete ever. I think he's super chill guy. I think he's an incredibly athletic guy. I don't think he is necessarily like a CEO type. So if the Arizona Cardinals get a CEO and be good, maybe. But it seems like Kyler and Arizona were never going to work. Will Arizona ever work? We don't know. Will Kyler and Next Stop work potentially. And I don't know if you know this, aj There's a new team lingering. Who do you know? Kyler Murray is maybe the best athlete of all time. Maybe the best athlete of all time. Oh, they say Bo Jackson. Sure, certainly. Dion Sanders. Certainly. Many others are Chitchat Thorpe, Pistol Pete Maravich. Maybe. Yeah, maybe, sure. Because how many points he put up? I don't know if he played multiple.

[AJ Hawk]

No three point line either.

[Pat McAfee]

But yeah, okay, but so he's in the paint, so he can't. I don't know how athletic he is. Can you throw a ball? I'm not 100% sure. I'm only more of a short shooter. But I don't know if he played multiple sports. KYLER MURRAY, Top 10 NFL and MLB obviously has all the talent. The Vikings seemingly the good combo. Albert Breer says, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't discard the Colts.

[Michael Lombardi]

Wow.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Conor]

Excuse me.

[AJ Hawk]

Indianapolis color. Want to come here? Does Indy want him? Do you know?

[Pat McAfee]

I think there's maybe a mutual of everything.

[Tone]

Oh, really?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know. I don't do it. Wait a minute. Foxy says, if you read this closely, Albert Brear says Kyler's certainly interested in Indianapolis.

[Ty Schmidt]

Wow.

[Tone]

Wow.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, that's from Albert Brear and his sources. Then there's other sources that say stuff. And then there's probably other teams that we haven't heard of that are potentially interested in Kyler Murray because the quarterback market both through the draft and free agency right now is fascinating. Almost brought Derek Carr out of retirement because there's probably going to be opportunity. But, yeah, Kyler's thinking about maybe for the shoe. And I'll tell you what, having the greatest athlete of all time in Indianapolis. Yeah, that'll do the trick. But I thought we had Daniel Jones as our quarterback, so I'm still a little flustered on how it's all going to work out. A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

well, he's not Daniel Jones. I guess you'd only bring Kyler in if you feel like Daniel might not be healthy enough to start the season.

[Pat McAfee]

Correct. Or if somebody else pays him and we don't want to match him because we have the transition tag on him as opposed to the franchise tag on him, which certainly sent a lot of the Colts fans into quite a scuttlebug, I will say, about how we're going to lose Daniel Jones and we're going to lose Alec Pierce, and we had a franchise tag that we certainly could have kept one of them for at least a year here, and we didn't use any of them, so people aren't happy. So I think the conversation would be if Daniel Jones, who had torn Achilles on one side of broken leg on the other. That's right.

[AJ Hawk]

Tough play to that. Broken. That broken leg. I don't foresee that being an issue.

[Tone]

He was banged up up top.

[Pat McAfee]

Probably remember that happened. Yeah, yeah, he's good. He's good. He took. He took snaps today. And then we get Romeo. I guess you could say he took. I called. I called Conti immediately. Coach Prince, you guys just said that he took snaps today. Yeah, he did take snaps. I said, conti, I saw this. We all saw the snap that he took, though. That was not snap. He's in trouble. We're working through it. We're working. We'll see how he is tomorrow. He's obviously, we'll get back. We just came off a buy and that's when I knew we were in trouble. And then we weren't actually completely dead at that.

[Conor]

There it is. Looks good.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. That was what we saw. And then it would go on. Terror's Achilles on the other side. So Daniel Jones gave us a lot of great times. Eight and two, number one team in the league, best offense.

[AJ Hawk]

Sorry he's in so much pain.

[Pat McAfee]

That was the first video we saw.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Off of bye week that showed up.

[AJ Hawk]

Didn't they say this either right before or after this didn't shift. He say. I don't. We don't foresee this being an issue though.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes.

[AJ Hawk]

He's got a broken leg. Shifty. I think that might be an issue.

[Pat McAfee]

They said they could conceal it in a good spot or something. Like yeah, he broke his leg in a good place or something. Was the original reports. And then we saw the video and it was like. I think it's James Boyd. Romeo Ville kid. Romeo Ville Kid. This is James Boyd. He's. He does a local radio show and I think he also writes for Definitely indie star. Somebody. How many J is any star still?

[Conor]

I have no idea.

[Pat McAfee]

Anyways, we saw his video. We knew we were dead. Yeah. So is he coming back healthy next year after breaking his leg and tearing his Achilles post 10 weeks into a season? And then on that note, are we just going to try to get another quarterback to play until he can get back and we're going to pay him $38 million for that. It's like what an interesting dynamic in a situation. But everybody knows Kyler Murray's deal next year will probably be. Unless there becomes a bidding war, which I guess is possible because all the money is getting paid from Arizona. It'll probably be like a million. 1.2 million. Whatever league min is for a veter at this stage. So it's a Russell Wilson situation in Pittsburgh and it's like, is Kyler going to take 1.2 million to fill in for Daniel Jones? Who's going to come back? I don't know. I don't know if that.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know if it's his best. He is.

[Conor]

He's.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, everybody should. If you don't have a quarterback and you have to pay Kyler 1.3 million, whatever it is because Arizona is paying him, you. It would be. You'd be doing your team a disservice if you didn't at least kick the tires on and see if he could get to your organization.

[Pat McAfee]

I agree no, no. Money at 1.3 million is. Is less than a upside for you.

[AJ Hawk]

And I guess the Colts are in a good sit. Danny Jones isn't fully healthy. Hey, Kyler, come here. Revamp your career. Play for a year and then boom. Go sign a giant.

[Pat McAfee]

I like that. Prove it. You're here under Shane Stein's offense, and if you can do your stuff here, everybody's gonna want you.

[Conor]

Sure.

[Tone]

Plus, he saw the combine. He saw that coconut husk.

[Pat McAfee]

He's like, oh, everybody's flying. That's fast track. Yeah, that was a fast track over there. I will say. Go ahead.

[Conor]

What about for the Colts though? Like if the Colts bring in Kyler, they go eight and oh, Danny Dimes comes back. Are you gonna, you know, start Danny Dimes because you're paying him $35 million or are you gonna roll with Kyler like then you.

[Pat McAfee]

What's our record? 8 and 0. You're worried about that?

[AJ Hawk]

We're taking the hot hand.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we'll worry about that when we get.

[Tone]

I think you run a two quarterback package.

[Conor]

Could.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen, Shane, seconds if we're eight, zero right there. Shane second super.

[Ty Schmidt]

You've done it before.

[Pat McAfee]

He can do whatever the hell he wants.

[Conor]

Four and four.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. If you're above water, why are you.

[Conor]

If you're cuz. A and O was right. You're right. It's a little much if you're above water.

[Pat McAfee]

Little much. We're eight and two this year.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Conor]

That true with Danny Dimes. And then if Kyler comes in and does it for you and. And are you going to then pay Danny dimes $35 million to sit on the bench? It would track based on what we've seen as far as decision making goes in Indianapolis, but it just feels like that almost might set up for a little bit of a tizzy in the Colts locker room.

[Pat McAfee]

We're not worried about any tizzies. Okay. We're just worried about winning some games.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Which is. Has been my messaging to coaches and front office whenever I see them in public. And that's about it. You know, whenever. Whenever you end the season on a seven game losing streak. It's not. Not a great taste in your mouth in any off season. So. Still have jobs. Okay. A lot of people are surprised by that. It's been a long time since we've won around here. I appreciate the situation you've been in. Win some games. Okay. That. Just win. Just win some games. And if Kyler does that, it's great. He. Let's go ahead and look at how he ranks history. Whenever you talk about just running the ball. Oh, yeah. Top five all the time. Okay. Okay.

[Conor]

Not bad.

[Pat McAfee]

So do you want him on your team? On the coconut husk? Yeah, you do. But if we have Daniel Jones already, if we lose him, this would certainly be a great option if we have them both. We're in a fascinating situation here in Indianapolis, and I'm here for it. Let's talk about a fascinating situation. I didn't know you could sign anybody right now.

[Conor]

Yeah, what the hell.

[Pat McAfee]

I could sign anybody right now. But I guess whenever a player gets cut from a team, he's able to do whatever the hell he wants whenever he wants. Who cares when a new league year starts if you've already been cut and your contract has been waved and voided? Well, the Chargers got the job done. They signed Center Tyler Bish, three year, 30 mil. He got cut. Now he signs a three year, $30 million deal to go revamp a Los Angeles Chargers offensive line. And they certainly need it. Tone, people are celebrating Ortiz on the Internet right now, not only for getting a deal with a center and trying to revamp it, but also getting a deal done before the free agency frenzy thing on Monday, which is when everybody else has to wait to get these deals.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tone]

At the beginning of the season last year, you're looking at Chargers O line as a position of strength and obviously you lose two of the best offensive tackles, tackles in football and Joe Alton, Rayshawn Slater to injuries. So then that's an interesting issue in the mackay Becton, who they brought in at right guard didn't exactly work out. So by the end of the year that, that offensive line was terrible. So they bring in Biotish. They're going to get their two tackles back if they, you know, they have Zion Johnson at guard, I believe. So if they go the other guard, they should be like, it should be a position of strength again. So the Chargers going with that if they figure out their, you know, wide receiver, weapons issue, not an issue, but maybe adding a couple more of those like the Chargers in a really good spot. And I know Biash was taking trips to Chicago and some. A couple other places, but he had a great visit in LA and decided to go there.

[Pat McAfee]

Got pretty wide eye eyes, you know, he's got pretty locked in eyes.

[AJ Hawk]

That's a good for him, though.

[Pat McAfee]

That's a nice fish. Big eyes. It's a nice fish. Feels like him and Jim Harbaugh probably.

[Tone]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Probably on the same page. If I had to Guess right there. I like anytime time anybody invests in our offensive line. I personally like the move. I always like when people invest in our defensive line. How about Daniel Hunter? Daniel Hunter gets a new 40 point something million dollar, one year deal down there in Casario. Say we're not moving on, but also we need to figure this out. We get that you want some money. How about we just do a one year extension here? 40.1 million, including a $30.7 million signing bonus. We assume there's some salary cap gymnastic years in the back of this thing. Congrats to Danil Hunt. Hunter. Jeez, Easy for me to say. Going down to Houston, getting the job done, getting a massive payday, and for Nick Casario, getting a deal done with him. Even though I assume Danil wanted something different. Let's give you this. Let's figure this out a different time.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, I mean, what, he had 15 sacks last year. He's been so dominant. I feel like, you know, Will Anderson's going to get a big old deal. On the opposite side of him, Al Shayer is going to get a contract as well. So good for them, getting them out of this, getting this done early, I guess. But one year, $40 million deal. Have we ever heard that before before? I guess just one year extension, 40 year, 40 per year.

[Pat McAfee]

This is. I want a new deal. We can't do. Can't do. We can't do. Well, can we do something? And it's. I think this is legitimately, Nick, just being like, you're right, you deserve it. Here we go. Can we do this and then can we move on? That's what I read whenever I saw it. But it could also be, what year is this for Daniel?

[Tone]

He's 32. So he was.

[AJ Hawk]

Was he 7, 8?

[Pat McAfee]

I think it might be 9.

[AJ Hawk]

9 or 10, possibly 9 or 10.

[Conor]

He's in Minnesota for a while.

[Pat McAfee]

He's Daniel Hunter at stage of his career where he's like, I just want to go one year at a time. You know, like, let me figure that out. Is he the one who wanted it?

[Tone]

So he was under contract for this upcoming season. This is for the 2027 season. So they have them for the next two seasons. This is what I mean. This is kind of what the Bengals should have done with Trey last year to avoid what was happening. Yeah. But Danil has been unbelievable, so it makes sense to give him the contract. He is 32, 33, so maybe they didn't want to do a long term. So, hey, one year, 40 more million dollars. That's, that's a little lot.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, what's up squirrel? I did just that. Kevin Green's on here.

[AJ Hawk]

I was reading that. If you pop that graphic back up.

[Pat McAfee]

Sorry.

[AJ Hawk]

I was looking at this and I was driving here today, almost drove off the road. Just look at the company he is in. Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Kevin Green, kg. Love you, rip. Miles, Garrett and Hunter, like that's a pretty good crew to be a part of, I would imagine.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, that's one year, 40 point. Some million dollar deal worth, I would say. And I'll tell you, if Daniel Hunter is going to start doing one year deal, two year deal things towards the end, I think that's a smart play. Especially if you can bet on yourself and hit. That is a betting on yourself type mantra. And I respect it, I like it. And shout to Houston. Keeping the Houston sack station running because Houston is a problem.

[Conor]

Yeah, and he probably does know. I mean AJ mentioned Will Anderson getting a massive contract around the corner, like shout out to Casario. I wonder if Daniel Hunter, you know, didn't even go to Casario. And more so Kari went to him like, hey, we obviously need you here, want you here. We can probably get something done over the next two years. But also on the horizon is, you know, Will Anderson Jr. Getting $40 million a year too. Like that. If there was a spot to pay two guys, that would be the D line.

[Pat McAfee]

More news out of the NFL. Geno Smith has officially been released from the Raiders. He obviously is with the Seattle Seahawks. Before the Raiders. Before that I believe it was the Chargers. Before that I believe it was the,

[Conor]

was it the Giants before the Jets?

[Pat McAfee]

He's been, he's been on a journey, okay. Obviously highly touted stud out of West Virginia. His career took its own path, its own way. He had success in Seattle, led the number one offense at one point with Pete Carroll for the Seahawks post Russell Wilson. Then a deal was offered to him that he didn't necessarily like. An opportunity goes to Vegas to be a Raiders quarterback. He might have had the most unlucky interceptions all the time, every game. I mean people were dropping in from the sky like they were Criss angel on those things. Things picking him off, making the plays of their lives. Seemingly every time he threw a football. It does not work. Pete Carroll's gone. The entire system's gone. Geno's gone. And then he just retweeted a little bit ago, Kyrie Irving's Tweet from like 2014 that basically says the journey is the reward. So that Means Geno has been excited and thankful he's been here before and we assume he's going to get some looks because he can still spin it. That's another Minnesota Viking opportunity that could come through because they're looking for a guy that can layer a football. Geno can certainly do that. Now I will say in my head what I just thought of what Gino layering a ball is a safety flying over top, hitting it off his helmet and then catching it off of him. Because that's what it was like for Geno whenever he was in Vegas. But you get him in the right system, he can spin it. People are going to take chances on bringing Geno Smith in and we might see another resurgence from Geno or backup quarterback. Geno Smith becomes the new role for him. Especially with a guy with a lot of experience.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, that's. What about Miami about gumpies? Miami Dolphins if they move from tua. I don't know what the TUA situation is is going to to look like, but yeah, I could see him going back to Miami.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Gino going to Miami would be awesome. How about it? Gums?

[Tone]

Yeah, him and Finn Ewers. Quinn Ewers. When your spin yours, I mean I'm

[Pat McAfee]

good with Quinn yours at the helm. Spin to win. Hewer. Yeah.

[Tone]

We got Lynn Bin.

[Pat McAfee]

We got Finn Hewers.

[Tone]

I mean we got it all right now. Except any cap space to sign anybody.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, I got good news. I got good news for you. You're going to be able to find some more money because you guys are going to be releasing your kicker, maybe your best player. After the two side agree on a contract. The Dolphins are expected to release kicker Jason Sanders. Sanders leaves Miami with a streak of 27 field goals in nine and nine on his last.

[Tone]

He was hurt. He was hurt all last year. Riley Patterson was missed one kick all year as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. We like Riley. Hey. Of course. Move on. Move on. The Dolphins in 2023 Pro bowl fullback Alec Ingold are parting ways as well. Sources tell inside another pro bowler goes out the door. He's a three time old spade man of the year and team captain. Had discussions with Miami about a new deal but he'll be released and free to sign with as soon as today. If you wanted to. If anybody wants to bring the fullback back into their offense. Con man shaking his head mightily because of a text message we received potentially earlier today with a potential team getting the fullback or yes. Other ideas in your mind.

[Conor]

Yeah, no. Bingo. We're on the same page there. But he is also another one of those guys where it's like, he's not just a fullback. Like, he. They'll split him out when they're going five wide and he'll be catching passes.

[Pat McAfee]

Another use check. Just hit the market. Okay. Thank God the Miami Dolphins are letting other people have great players again. Everybody. That's good for the Dolphins. Dolphins over the last six years. Get them out of here.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Now, on that note, it's a new era. It is new time. Dan Marino, Troy Aikman. Oh, boys, helping out the hiring, you bring in the Green Bay packers, basically. Exactly. Good luck to you, Dolphins.

[Conor]

Not a bad move.

[Tone]

Sully's at the wheel, and I'm just glad everybody can now see how terrible Chris Greer was at his job. You know, this has been happening for a long time, and now here we are.

[Pat McAfee]

Gumpy wanted to take one last opportunity to piss on a grave of Chris Greer, former general manager slash president of football for the Miami Dolphins. For like, five coaches who felt like these guys can't coach anything, seems like there's one. No, he's good. He makes all the decisions. Well, it feels like the team's not good, though, no matter who's coaching. It's like, yeah, well, it's not this guy. That's basically what Gumpy's life has been. How come all fingers aren't going to that guy? That guy's the only guy around. And then Ross will get on. Mike fan. I love this guy. Yeah, I love this guy. This guy will be here. He'll be making all the decisions football wise, that'll get us into a spot. And then he finally fires this guy. And thank you for your service to football, Mr. Chris Greer. Gumpy would say a little bit too much service. But on that note, it does feel like Gumpy is a little bit more optimistic about whatever decisions are in the future. And that's what, like, turnover can do. Turnover just brings a natural optimism, a natural hope, a natural. Maybe things will be different than it has been. And whenever you see a natural, know Northern stars like the Jacksonville Jaguars and whenever you see the New England Patriots or Chicago Bears and even the Seattle Seahawks Hawks have this quick of a turnover. Whenever you make some change, it's hard not to get eager about firing people, you know, but then all these teams that have some consistency have had success over, like, the last 20 years.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Intrigued to see what the next 10 years are like. Is it going to be a lot of turnover, People wishing for a star, or is it going to be A lot of what's happening here in Indianapolis, where we're going on 10, 11 years, years and not winning. And it's like we want consistency, interesting turmoil and turning point, I think, for the league.

[Ty Schmidt]

And it's what we talk about every single time we get to Black Monday or whatever, when all these coaches get fired and it's like third of the league. Exactly. It's like they're.

[Conor]

And.

[Ty Schmidt]

And you know, certain teams who have been successful, their fan bases get fed up because that's kind of what happens. And it's like, hey, let's fire. Let's fire our guy right now. And it's like there aren't enough good coaches out there to fill all the. The openings that we have. So it's like you always think that the grass is greener on the other side, and you kind of have to when your entire, you know, organization gets torn down and starts anew. But, boy, it seems that the grass isn't always greener on the other side. We've seen it, you know, many, many times.

[Pat McAfee]

But that damn green grass that you think you're seeing, if you do happen upon it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Conor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Life is good.

[Ty Schmidt]

Exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

Life is good. Patriots, such green grass.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Then they went to a dirt astro turf field and then all of a sudden they're like, no, we need to get right back in there. And all of a sudden it's free.

[Ty Schmidt]

Scott's turf builder. Plus down there, no weeds.

[Pat McAfee]

He's just spitting out seeds for the grass.

[Conor]

Drake May.

[Pat McAfee]

It's unbelievable. Drake May out there, it's. It's outrageous. Good for. Hey, we're happy for you guys.

[Conor]

Thanks, man. Hopefully more moves coming today.

[Pat McAfee]

You know, New England is an area that is known to having a lot of success in all their sports. The Boston Fleet are the top of the pwhl.

[Conor]

Nobody.

[Pat McAfee]

We just found out they were a team. They are our favorite team, but they're number one around here. Sold out the Garden, by the way, the bcgc. Who? The Boston Fleet. Sick. Can't wait to get to one of those games. I'm sure it's absolutely electrifying, of course, because it's associated with New England up there. Red Sox have won everything, obviously. The Bruins have won everything. The Patriots have won everything. Yeah, this BCGC team and tgl, they don't even. They've never even sniffed Boston's air, but they have Boston in front of of it. They're number one in the tgl. It just seems like that area is just always going to win for some reason. We have to just live with that. We don't have to like it. We don't. But we just have to live with that. And now it feels like their basketball team. Okay. I don't know if you saw it. They had a fleet of exciting whites the other night. Yeah, they did okay. Just a fleet of them. Joe Maula said, boys, you know what we're doing. You know what you're doing out there. And all these hard whites, Wind dominate. Then, you know, they lose their megastar, their all star. Well, you stop it with this microphone.

[Tone]

It's unbelievable.

[AJ Hawk]

You smack the wood in my whole. The microphone went.

[Pat McAfee]

That's what they were doing to get it.

[Conor]

That's what they were doing.

[AJ Hawk]

Flopping around. Sorry.

[Pat McAfee]

But anyways, one of the best players on earth now has recovered from an injury faster than ever to get back on a winning team just because it's New England. This wouldn't happen and hasn't happened happened anywhere else. Allegedly, Jayson Tatum is going to be returning to the court, which is an absurd thing to think about after tearing his Achilles when he did last season. And everybody just said he's going to be gone forever. Well, Joe Mazzulla and the boys have been able to keep the team good and in contention and just say, hey, when you come back, we'll add you to our roster. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who broke the news and a guy who is always on the beat for the NBA. Ladies and gentlemen, Sham Sharan here. Yay, Shaman. This. Why does. Why is the New England area in Boston always get this type of shit? Honestly, why. Why is this. Is this ever happened before? It's been, what, 200 and some days, I guess, and this guy's going to be back on the hardwood, running back and forth. What should we expect out of him? And when did it become a reality that he was going to potentially return this season? Because my understanding was he was just gone for this season, maybe late postseason. How'd we get here, Shams? If you could kind of just catch us up on at all.

[Sham Sharan]

So, Pat, I mean, the point you make is very interesting because, yeah, it's the Celtics and it's. It's that area. And what they play for is championships. And I had a Celtics official tell me last night, it's like, we play for championships here. All of our players, they all know the aspirations that we have and that you have to believe that plays a big part in Jayson Tatum's mindset.

[Tone]

Now, if.

[Sham Sharan]

If Jaylen Brown hadn't led this team for you Know, the first, first, you know, 60 plus games of the season to put this team in position to compete for a championship, to make some real noise. Does Jayson Tatum come back? We will never know. But he literally from the moment when he had surgery in May, So just under 10 months ago, he underwent surgery for fully ruptured Achilles tendon. This is usually an injury that takes about a year. Kevin Durant took 16, 17, 18 months months to rehab and recover from his Jayson Tatum. The moment he had surgery, he started two, three days or two, three sessions per day. He had daily sessions, multiple sessions throughout the day. He made it his goal, his mission to come back for the 25, 26 season as unlikely as everyone else thought it was going to be. And even in the fall, he did a string of media and he said, I'm not doing these two a days, working out two, three times a day day just to sit at home. I'm doing this so I can play. And even still, I think a lot of people are on the league kind of just looked at it as like, all right, you know, that's a good hope. But in the last 24, 48 hours, I had multiple people around the situation, around the team, around Jayson Tatum tell me he is ready to go. So anytime you're coming back from an Achilles tear, an injury of this magnitude, yes, it's getting 100% medically, it's getting 100% mentally, and then it's getting the signal sign off from the doctors, from Jayson Tatum's representatives. Because think about it, Jayson Tatum has a contract of over $300 million. So there's a massive investment there. If you're someone around Jayson Tatum and then if you're the Boston Celtics, this is the biggest investment you have in any player in your franchise. So they're not just going to rush him back. They're not going to put him in a position where he's going to be in harm's way and he's not fully cleared. So when he got cleared over a month ago to do full five on five scrimmaging, I think that's when everything became a reality. And then from there it's just been about him getting there mentally, him getting the, the conditioning, the reps that he needed from a five on five scrimmaging basis. And this week I'm told he got fully cleared to return to action and make his season debut. And that will be all expectations are. That's going to be tonight. Night against the Dallas Mavericks. Celtics are bracing for that his teammates are ready for him to return. Jason Tatum has indicated to the team that he's ready to return tonight and the Celtics are already planning for him to be to be on a minutes restriction. They're planning that starting tonight you're going to have 19 games left in the season start to get him in as close to peak Jason Tatum form as possible before the playoffs. And then from there it's full steam ahead. Ahead. That's everything that's being envisioned. And Joe Missoula, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, all three parties, from my understanding they've had conversations just getting ready for tonight and getting ready for what's going to be, I think an unbelievable atmosphere because not only Jason Tatum expected to play tonight, but Cooper Flag who hails from Maine is expected the main event. Maine is, is, is going to be there tonight. So Cooper Flag, Jason Tatum on deck for tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Is this Cooper Flag's first time playing in Boston?

[Sham Sharan]

Yes, it is. It is.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't love what Missoula and Tatum are doing tonight. Yeah, I don't love that.

[Conor]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey kid. Yeah, sweet. You're from Maine. You're the main event. Okay. Actual main event mvp.

[Conor]

He's Boston bitch.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Tatum's gonna come play. Congrats Cooper Flag. We know he's a beast. Shout to him his entire run and him being the main event and everything like that. He's spectacular. But story of night is definitely Tatum defying odds, science and doubts from a lot of different people. Last question for me on the entire thing and as you were talking there, great layout of the entire situation. We appreciate you doing that. Conor was over here Jace ear to ear and doing the rock. Goosebump chills over here because how excited he is about it all.

[Sham Sharan]

We were in Indy during the conference finals and me and BC were talking about how bad it was looking for the Celtics and they were going to tear down the roster.

[Michael Lombardi]

Trade moves that were going to be made.

[Sham Sharan]

They moved Porzingis, they moved Jrue Holiday.

[Michael Lombardi]

They.

[Sham Sharan]

This is a totally different team team. This is a team built on like these scrappy rookie salary players. They're clearly not, they're not a tax team this year. So think about it. They were a second apron team which is like basketball salary hell. And now they're not even a luxury tax team and they're on the brink of potentially competing for a champion.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, of course. And once again Boston. But you know, like that it's always seem. They always do it. Yeah. You know and I'm at Tony. Tony's board Roman Anthony. He's going to be doing it for a long time up there as well. Oh great man. Just always this is always seems to work out up there. Good for you guys.

[Conor]

Thanks man.

[Pat McAfee]

We're really happy for you.

[Conor]

Appreciate it.

[Pat McAfee]

Shout out Joe Missoula But I am happy for Tatum. Yeah, he goes to bed questionable, wakes up probable. He, he has a line for absolutely everything. Last question for me on Tatum before we have one or two other NBA things because we have a hard out of 57 shams. We appreciate you joining us on this huge day. When we've seen guys in the NFL come back after an Achilles, it's clear that they're coming back from an Achilles. You said he's been playing five on five for 30 days. Have you seen any film of him playing? Should we be expecting him to be hobbly or are they expecting just other than cardio in game shape? They're expecting him to be able to move the same way he moved before. Is that what the reports are out of this practice as we should be expecting him?

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Sham Sharan]

Pat, I I've heard from multiple people that have been involved and seen Jason Tatum have even practiced against him and they say he looks like Jason Tatum. He looks great. But again, practicing in five on five, scrimmaging with the team team. He scrimmaged with coaches and then he scrimmaged with coaches and stayed ready group which in the NBA stay ready group is guys on two way contracts, guys in the G League, guys that are end of bench players. So he's doing five on five against them and then he goes up against all professional players so the main Celtics and then he goes up against the actual Boston Celtics practice. So he's been through every single prong of this as you possibly can go through to put himself through the gauntlet. So I don't think anyone's expecting Jayson Tatum to come in tonight and you know, have 30 minutes and 30 points and have have, you know, ton of usage percentage like that we're accustomed to seeing. It's going to be a gradual allow him to get his legs under him because this is there's going to be ebbs and flows, there's going to be stuff that comes up along the way, bumps in the road, soreness that he's going to deal with. This could lead to potentially other injuries. You know, you don't want to see it but there's always these potential. You know, he could deal with knee soreness, he could deal with something else just because of the Gruesome injury that is coming back from. But right now. Got it, everyone.

[Pat McAfee]

Got it. Yeah. Over under is 13 for him tonight. Just something to think about. Last question quick from con man.

[Conor]

Yeah, that's just the worry. Sean's like the minutes restriction is strictly to see how his body responds. Not as much like, hey, this guy isn't ready to play.

[Sham Sharan]

No, it's. It's 100 gonna be him getting his legs on, him conditioning. And honestly, this is another thing we haven't spoken about. It's like the anxiety, the nerves. And I think that is something that Jayson Tatum is very, very aware of. That like, what is it going to be like when I step foot in TD Garden and get announced and how will it be even. Even getting my first shot? And so that's all something he's dealing with.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. When you come back from an injury, you're always scared you're going to do it again. So that is like the biggest hurdle. I would assume that he's been getting through that for these five on fives that you just listed. But in real action against real 10 teams, especially with the main event coming to town, I'm excited to watch him respond. I think I'm taking the over there on him as well. And I think it's gonna be the first five shots, I think. I think we.

[Sham Sharan]

You gotta shoot him quick. You gotta get them. You got to get the nerves out. You gotta just get them.

[Pat McAfee]

They're gonna be feeding him, I assume. Hey, welcome to the show here. Main event. All right. I appreciate the hell out of you joining us. Seams. We're excited to chat. Basketball is this NBA season continues rolling. They're saying the college season much better than the NBA. Is that real?

[Sham Sharan]

Oo, come on now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Sham Sharan]

NBA season up to something. Season in the NBA.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. All right here, man. Ladies and gentlemen, Shop. They have been saying that.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah. And I think. I think it's kind of certified. We haven't even got to the tournament yet.

[Pat McAfee]

We're getting close to conference championships. Right. Those are happening all through next week and everything like that. Yeah. Age, age. They're saying college basketball up to the right, you know, And NBA is trying to keep up with them. And allegedly these college teams are squirrel scoring.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And allegedly the environments are obviously awesome and they turn on an NBA game and it is like what it is.

[AJ Hawk]

It's the atmosphere. I think it's the atmosphere around the college game that makes. It makes people think that.

[Pat McAfee]

And football as well. It has the same thing.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. The pageantry people are juiced like there's just the barns are much better than a lot of these NBA bars.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, you're right, Jack said. I don't know how many barns are

[Conor]

going to be doing not. Not tonight. That place in Boston is going to be absurd. And also, if marshmallows doesn't deliver in the NBA playoffs, the deliver, we'll have

[Pat McAfee]

the opposite conversation for the rest of the year. NBA always delivers towards the playoffs. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. We're back on the other side with Michael Lombardi. Want to earn extra income for your business? Amazon Hub Delivery is looking for ambitious business owners to assist with local deliveries. When you become a partner, you and your staff will deliver packages to customers in your area on a schedule that works for you. With each package delivered, you'll gain extra income and exposure for your business. Plus, Amazon Hub Delivery makes it easy to get started. There's no upfront costs, delivery experience or long term contracts required. Sign up to learn [e-mail] hubdelivery that's

[Ty Schmidt]

Amazon.com hubdelivery O'Reilly Auto Parts can help

[Pat McAfee]

take the guesswork out of your check engine, ABS or maintenance light with O'Reilly Verisk. The service is free and provides a report with solutions verified by ASE certified master technicians. O'Reilly Veriscan can identify the most likely problem with just one scan. If you need help, O'Reilly Auto Parts can recommend a shop for you. Don't ignore a check engine, ABS or maintenance light. Ask for O'Reilly Veriscan Today, a free service exclusively at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Are fantastic. And obviously they draw conversation every day and we're lucky to have them. The toxic table is here at Boston Conor and at Ty Schmidt. Con man tried to perpetuate a lie.

[Conor]

Not true.

[Pat McAfee]

I was told a lie. And it's bull.

[Conor]

I'm pissed right now just as much as you're pissed, but I'm more pissed.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, there's a dog on the Internet that breaks news in the NFL world named Ricky Scoops. And he puts out a tweet with Alec Pierce wearing a New England Patriots hard hat. And all of a sudden Conor goes, deal's done. I didn't even read the tweet. I was told the tweet and I was told the tweet said that the deal's done.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And then you're telling me Ricky Scoops, this dog knows. Okay, this dog knows. And what happens is, well, then Ty goes, that dog knew Micah before Micah. Yeah, Micah.

[Tone]

He had DK Metcalf, too.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Ty Schmidt]

Ricky Scoops knows.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Well, Ricky Scoops didn't say Alec Pierce is going to the Patriots. Well, that's what I was told. Ricky Scoops say what Ricky Scoops the dog ho ho said is that the New England Patriots are about to throw a bag at Alec Pierce, which I think a lot of people are potentially expecting for a lot of people to throw bags at Alec Pierce. And on that note, he did have by far his best season that he's ever had in the NFL going into his contract here, by far. And what he does is what every NFL team is looking for. Last year, explosive play rate went down. Explosive plays for the last five years have been a good indicator on who's going to win games. Alec Pierce is an explosive play. So whenever you got teams with shell coverages, you know they're trying to keep everything in front of you. You can get a few yards, then we're going to go ahead and tackle you. That's basically what defenses have done to kind of counteract what these NFL offenses have started to do. NFL offense started to have late motions, quick motions, and then they were taking advantages of defenses. They had big fatsos like middle linebacker for the Green Bay Packer, AJ Hawk, and they were just making them look like absolute maple syrup running slow losers out there. And explosive plays just started happening. Boom, boom, boom. Then defense coordinators who get paid millions of dollars as well, who are very high football iq, people said, well, if we just sit this thing back a little bit, get a little bit more speed out here, at least we'll give up the explosive plays. We're going to give up yards, but it's not a big deal. It was a counter to the chess move that NFL offenses did. Now explosive plays at a premium. Alec Pierce, he'll go get you one. He will go get you if you throw it in double coverage, he'll go get you one. If you throw it at man to man, he will certainly go up and get it. There's times in years past where the balls maybe weren't perfect or maybe they're getting broken up at the last second, but it was always an electrifying time. And then when you hear stories in practice of Alec Pierce just going up on everybody's heads and making incredible plays. Last year, we saw all that come to fruition when Daniel Jones was spinning the ball. And when he and Daniel Jones knew exactly what each other were doing, he became awesome to watch. He's a tough, tough song gun.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, this dude is tough. He's a farmer. He's got moxie, too. When he gets introduced coming out of the tunnel, I mean, he looks at the camera and does a full and then does a full sprint out. It's like he's got the moxie, he's got the grit, he's got the speed, he's got the ability to read a ball. It's like he is an explosive play waiting to happen for any NFL team. And we are in an era where people are looking for that because defenses have gotten so good. So we assume that Alec Pierce, who was on with K on up and Adams yesterday, said, I've earned the right to kind of see what free agency is. I think free agency is going to be good. Alec Pierce and I do assume the New England Patriots, who have a lot of money and also a lot to sell up there and vs, is a guy I think Alec Pierce would have a lot of respect for.

[Conor]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Whenever they were going in a conversation, remember we heard story. Alec Pierce hanging with the boys. Yep.

[Conor]

He's got it in him.

[Pat McAfee]

Two drinks. Guy who's hosting party. Also athlete leaving party. Alec Pierce puts one drink in other drink. Daps up person. How you doing? See you later. Pulls drink out of other drink. Takes a sip out of drink, continues conversation. Now that was after a big time win with the boys. That is what we're talking about with Alec Pierce. Checks every box seemingly. And the New England Patriots would obviously be interested, but I don't think they're going to be the only ones.

[AJ Hawk]

AJ No, I mean, he unrestricted free agent. Do you think there's any chance the Colts find a way to resign him?

[Pat McAfee]

No. Yeah, so that's probably, that's no.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, no way. Especially with what he said to K. Adams.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, I don't know.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't want to throw any shade at this canine that you guys are reading their tweets, but Ricky's Ricky Scoops.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got a name.

[AJ Hawk]

Scoops. I, I, this is the first time we're into Ricky Scoops. I was actually walking out of the bathroom when Bruce confirmed it was Connor. Oh, Ricky Scoops. Al Pierce. Done deal, New England.

[Pat McAfee]

Bruce, you're part of the problem.

[AJ Hawk]

If Ricky says it, it's as good as done. I, I didn't maybe read it all the way and see that he was just throwing.

[Pat McAfee]

You saw the hard hat? Yeah, I saw the hard hat on Alec Pierce's head.

[AJ Hawk]

I mean, they're probably going to be the highest bidder if I Had to guess.

[Pat McAfee]

I mean, is Al Pierce just looking for the highest bidder? What if he goes to the Chiefs? You know what. What if he heads to know who

[Tone]

his quarterback is going to be?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So. And Drake Maywood, obviously. Great deep ball thrower too.

[Conor]

Oh yeah. Best in the league, actually. Statistically. And we.

[AJ Hawk]

We. Man, the Colts could really use him again next year.

[Conor]

Now they couldn't.

[Ty Schmidt]

He said he wants to know who his quarterbacks can be.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. They're not. There's no chance he's going back. But it's a shame they had to lose him though. He was great.

[Pat McAfee]

Why'd you ask? Maybe seconds ago if he's coming back?

[AJ Hawk]

Maybe they should put his number. Retire his number.

[Ty Schmidt]

He's a great.

[Conor]

Four years as an Colts might actually.

[Pat McAfee]

Not a bet. See, everybody's kind of saying things in these condescending fashions and I don't know.

[AJ Hawk]

I didn't. I just said they.

[Pat McAfee]

They do have around that Kyler was hoping to come. The Colts. That was a good day. That was a good day. Still a good day.

[AJ Hawk]

I think he might come Friday.

[Tone]

It's a great day.

[Pat McAfee]

It's feel good Friday.

[Tone]

75 degrees outside.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, yeah. USA. USA. USA World Baseball Classic tonight. Tone, has the numbers moved? Has anything moved for that game and what other games are taking place today for the world Baseball classics that maybe we should think about putting a little money on? Because it feels like the good teams are playing well. Yes. And want to show up well early. Yeah.

[Tone]

I believe there's eight total games today.

[Pat McAfee]

The.

[Tone]

The line is not moved for usa. They're still minus nine and a half. Cuba and Panama are going on right now. Cuba's up 30 on yes. And the Netherlands and Venezuela are playing as well. Venezuela is up 2:1 on the Netherlands. A couple other ones. Mexico, Great Britain.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know.

[Tone]

Puerto Rico, Colombia, Nicaragua. Dominican Republican. The Dominican is only minus four and a half now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Jump on that.

[Tone]

Nicaragua is a great team.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

The Dominican though. We've seen what they've been doing. Minus four and a half.

[Pat McAfee]

Where's that game at?

[AJ Hawk]

That is.

[Tone]

Doesn't say.

[Conor]

I don't know. It's Dusty Baker right at the Dominican.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, it's got to be.

[Pat McAfee]

If that's Dominican, it says. Yeah, that's in the Dominican. Yeah.

[Tone]

It might be the pod.

[Conor]

Yeah, keep going, please.

[Pat McAfee]

We're gonna wait. We're gonna try to get ahead of that. We are not saying this to guarantee. We are just saying we are looking forward to watching this game because all their bats got lightning. And it's in Miami. Okay, it's in Miami.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

All right. Okay.

[Tone]

It's in Miami. Which, you know, that'll be mostly Dominican crowd.

[Pat McAfee]

If I. You think? So you just did a quick demo. Thought you got Miami demo figured out. No, I had a couple beers in elbow room. I had a conversation with a local or two. I think I know what's going on.

[Tone]

No, I texted Butsy. I got him on FaceTime here. And he went, yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Butsy goes a lot.

[Conor]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Tone]

And then so that. But that game's at seven. And then tonight, eight o' clock is USA and Brazil. That's the nightcap. Good games today. There's a lot of betting opportunities, a lot of home run opportunities. Dominican's a good home run opportunity game as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Conor]

Also throwing in Flagro Jr. And Juan Soto, if you guys want to do that.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. Yeah. All right. All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Needs to be done.

[Pat McAfee]

Thank you for that information. Yeah. Dominicans one of the team we're looking at to potentially battle against.

[Sham Sharan]

Exactly.

[Tone]

Chris Sanchez is their ace. Pretty much. He's on the mound, so their odds bumped up too.

[Conor]

If I saw that graphic earlier, I believe they are now the second favorite

[Pat McAfee]

behind the usa, the Dominican Republic, managed by Albert Pujols.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, exactly.

[Pat McAfee]

He's heavily favored against Nicaragua with pitchers like Christopher Sanchez leading a roster of MLB stars. That's at 6, 7 o' clock in Lone Depot park in Miami. Let's go, boys.

[Conor]

Yeah. Here we go, boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on. Demand Dominican for now. We need to see you later.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for baseball.

[AJ Hawk]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Joining us now is a man who's good for football. Now, not everybody in football loves every time he talks about football because he certainly has opinions because he's been learning about the game since, I don't know, what, 1970 or something like that. He's been in the NFL for 100 years. Now he's the general manager of a college football team. Friend of the program, Paon legend. Ladies and gentlemen, general manager of the North Carolina Tar Heel football football team, Michael Lombardi.

[Michael Lombardi]

Good to be back with you guys. Good to be back. How are you? Missed you guys. Yeah. Big days coming up, huh?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we got big stuff. You know, this is all let's narrative season for football. But then now we've gotten an interest and some friends in other sports we're covering. It's been a blast. I'll tell you. World Baseball Classic special, especially coming out of the Olympics. I assume you followed along with the Olympic competition, fishing and Loved it. I loved how we came together. I think World Baseball classics are going to do that as well. Lambo, quick question. Always recruiting, huh, baby? That NC looks good behind you right now with that Tar Heel blue little quarter zip. You look good right now, Lambo. How's life down there?

[Michael Lombardi]

Life is good. You know, we're getting ready to go in the spring. We've had a really good recruiting class and we've been really working hard in our offseason program, which is, look, you know, when you win six Super Bowls and you have one pick in the team top seven in those 20 some years that he was in New England. A lot of it goes into player development and player development starts with the off season program. It starts with our strength and conditioning, it starts with our nutrition. And that's really what we feel excited about going into the year. We've got a lot of good young players. You know, we've added players in the portal so to bring the team together, which we couldn't do last year because of the dual portal portals and because of the change in the calendar. Calendar this year allows us to be more of a Belichickian type team where we can go out there and focus on fundamentals techniques and improve the players.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay, so on that note, I thought you guys were going to get your asses ran out of there. I mean they were trying. It felt like every day you guys were going to be ran the hell out of town. And I'm going to be honest, even as somebody that knows you both and knew how much and how much passion I think you all had to get back into ball and how much you were enjoying it seemingly when you were talking to me, I even started to question like, is this going to be something they're going to continue to stick with? Is this going to be something they're going to continue to want to do and deal with on a daily basis? Is this what you want your life to be right now? Just constantly attack seemingly for everything that you have going on, saying that you're a piece of trash strictly because it's against recruiting now and they're trying to get players that you're potentially trying to get. I thought you guys were going to potentially say, all right, we are, we actually are done with this. But instead it almost like empowered you guys. Is that a way to describe it? And I think going in, your plan was we're going to need a few years here to kind of build what we want. I thought you were never going to get to that. Where do you Feel after basically everybody was trying to run you guys out of college football.

[Michael Lombardi]

I think the program got lifted in December, Pat. When we signed our recruiting class, we signed 39 players, 34 came in early. And the beautiful thing about why it lifted our program was all during those stormy times, all during when the boat was getting capsized, when people were attacking us with fake roof rumors and fake stories all over. Nobody's corrected them yet, but that's okay. We understand our players hung together. We did not lose one single recruit to another team. Now, they tried, but they didn't. We didn't lose one single recruit. A lot of that to me was the dedication of our recruiting class. And that's what I think gives all of everybody in this program the lift that we need, because those players have bought into our messaging and they stood firm in a time of trouble. Look, let's face, face it. If you're not worth a darn, they're not going to attack you. You know, some programs are not worth attacking. They're going to attack us. We expect it. It's all good. We've been in the arena before. We don't listen to the noise. We focus on what we have to focus on and we move forward. It's. It's. When you get older, you get more ability to deflect that and move on. And I think coach and I and this team has. And I think it's. I owe a lot of that to these 39 freshmen who have come in who really decided that they're going to build North Carolina into something special.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that for you. Congratulations. It got a lot out there. Boy, it got a lot out there. That might have been the loudest.

[Michael Lombardi]

I mean. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was. But I think, you know, look, you know, we probably have to understand that we were going to get attacked. I didn't think it was going to be on an everyday basis, but it is what it is and felt like

[Pat McAfee]

we had a little bit overkill.

[Michael Lombardi]

But, yeah, that's the motivation.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I love that. Well, I'm. I'm thankful and pumped for you guys that you're gonna stick with it and you're still in it and still loving it. Every time we talk to you, it feels like this morning we talked to you watching film, trying to figure out who the next guy is. I love that it's captivated you. Again. Can we ask you about some other things happening around football?

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah, okay.

[Pat McAfee]

College football.

[Michael Lombardi]

I still follow the NFL, Pat. I haven't given up on it yet. I still, I'VE got a son coaching the quarterbacks at the 49ers, so I'm fully vested in, in his future and seeing what's going on around the league. So I haven't, I haven't like just disappeared from the face of the earth.

[Pat McAfee]

O. Okay, good. The boys will have some NFL questions then for you as well. I'm happy that you're, you're still paying attention to that because it's probably good for your place of business as well to know what's going on up there. And your boy Coaching San Francisco 49ers quarterbacks, Mac Jones, whatever he was teaching them, he's got it. Did you see the ice shot glass? Takes a shot and then throws that thing off a gong. Perfect strike. And then dances while George Kittle rehabbing and Achilles in the background. What a shot strike by Mac Jones. A little dancing in there. I mean, he's living good. Good for the boy. Putting an incredible culture together over there in that quarterback room. Okay, let's talk college football. Last question for me. Then we will move to the NFL today at the White House, 4 o'. Clock. There is a college football committee or college sports committee coming together. It's a lot of people seemingly going there to kind of try to figure out what college sports and college football look looks like going forward. Everybody from Cody Campbell, obviously, former offensive lineman for the Indianapolis Colt Colts, now with Texas Tech, he is there. He is a very invested human being in this because I feel like he love of sport while also having a great business mind. And with what he's doing down there in West Texas, I feel like he thinks he has a model that we can maybe run elsewhere. He just wants to be heard. I think there's a lot of people that, that don't want to listen to him because they think he's just in it for himself. Which is why I think having all these different types of people, whether Saban's in there, I think Urban's in. There's a couple media people in there. I think there's a couple commissioners in there. There's some professional team executives in there. I think they're just trying to lay out what they think we need from this. I don't know if there's any decisions being made, but I like that we're trying to think about it and trying to figure it out. I think President Trump and the government are the only people that can figure out figure it out. Because from my understanding, the NCAA is always scared to get sued, so they're waiting on the government to put some policies in place so that they can enforce them. So I think the government is the one and are the ones that are going to have to figure this out inevitably. They're the ones that are going to have to do and empower whoever to make these guardrails that everybody seemingly wants to keep college football and college sports as a whole up and to the right because the product is beautiful, the atmosphere is electrophile, the pageantry is something that nobody else has and college sports fans are our best fans. Now you are in it and have been in it for a year. From your perspective, what do you think needs to happen? Have you even thought about what a good answer would be and how productive do you think any of these conversations potentially become to save what we all love in college?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, I think it's a two pronged question. The first is the NCAA has to stop some of these ridiculous rules that they have path that were put in place before. Basically players were compensated for the play. Because of that, we're going to spend money on high school players, transfer players. The rules that were put in place before were to try to even out the balance of power to keep teams from over recruiting. I think those old rules in the NC2 lay are outdated. They need to be contemporary. For example, Pat, I can't go to a high school school to see a kid, but I could FaceTime a kid. So if I go to a high school and talk to the coach and the kids five rooms down and we could FaceTime together, does that really make sense? Like there needs to be modernization of the rules through the NC2A that would be one section. Now let's get to the meat of the bone, right? The problem really is financial. And until we have a collective bargaining agreement where the players in college all form together like the NFL players form and they agree on on a deal, they agree on what is best for collective bargaining. Until we have that, we will spend most of our times in courts of law predicated on the state that you're in, predicated on what judge is going to rule. And I think we need to have that. So we have some guidelines and guardrails to operate and operate a business out of. Because essentially when you're bringing players in in your pay and you're running a business. For example, when in the NFL I do a contract for a player, we agree, the agent and I agree, the player agrees to the contract, I fax it over, it gets signed, email it over DocuSign in college, I have a North Carolina contract that has to go to the agent. The agent's going to redline that deal, send it back. That takes three days. You know what happens during those three days? The player has an opportunity to take my deal and go somewhere else and shop it around. And so it becomes very challenging as you move forward in this. So I think we need a collective bargaining agreement. We definitely need to clean up some of the rules that have been in place for over 50 years that aren't applicable. But we need a collective bargaining agreement. And I truly believe the people meeting in Washington have that in the best interest. I think Cody Campbell wants to see the sport to behave in a manner to where everybody has equal footing.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And he's certainly benefiting from the rules. You know, there's been a lot of people in the past. I think President Trump has even said it publicly, like, the tax system's broken here. How do you know? Because, like, everybody I know has been getting around. Everybody's like, this asshole has been doing it. He's like, but at least, you know, we're pointing. Cody Campbell has all the money in the world, and he's been supplying Texas Tech. And it's like, no matter what happens with these rules, if nothing changes, Texas Tech is going to do good. He legitimately seems like, he's like, I would like to just like, maybe because we're losing sports. He's talking about losing women in sports. We're losing Olympic sports. He was like, we're losing athletes because the finances of this are going to run out. All the money is going to be going towards one sport or two sports. And if we don't find a way to generate capital in this entire thing and make an actual business out of it, we're going to lose a lot of these other sports. And us as sports people, him as for professional athletes, like, we need more sports, not less sports. And I think what he is looking for is somehow to make them sustainable in a model in which we know football is going to make money, we know Bass college basketball is going to be able to make some money in some places. College baseball, I think, makes it like, there's some money makers. But he wants to make it a sustainable business, and I'm intrigued to see how they're able to do it. Now, quick last follow up for me on that. How do they get. How do you guys get the players to have a cba? Is it because there's enough agents now representing enough people that are above board that we all trust that we think they'll be able to get this Players to agree. Agreed to something because that's a. Changing every four years. That's a new group of kids, right? And like, how do you get everybody to agree to sign into a unit? That's a lot. Don't you think that's a lot?

[Michael Lombardi]

I think you have to get the institutions to sign in and you have to get Congress to back it up so that somebody can't take it and to court like the NFL has been able to do. You enter the NFL, Pat, as a college player, you sign into, whether you're in the NFL PA or not, you follow the rules. You can't challenge the NFL in some court of law because you've entered into a collective bargaining system. System. And I think that's something that we're going to have to do. Look, it's above my pay grade to figure all that legal stuff out. That's why those guys know what to do. But that's what has to happen. I mean, until we have that, we're never going to be able to control running to the courts. For a player to get a ninth year, for a player to get his 12th year, you know, for a player to do this or a player, you know, to get more money, all that. The rules are meaningless if there's no. There's no teeth behind them. And until we have teeth, which is a collective bargain agreement, everybody's going to operate as an independent contractor.

[Pat McAfee]

Such a fascinating thing because it's such a. Maybe this is the. The combustible moment where we're able to figure out how to do it. But has there ever been a product so good and then the back end so bad? I don't know. Like, every business we've encountered has terrible dumb people at some spots that you don't expect people that are that dumb to be at. And so you think there's a. Well, that's probably a bad business. But then they got other stuff at least in place that makes them a good business. It's like this one. The business side is just. There's really. There's nothing. I mean, it's really like whoever you can pitch to give you enough money on a certain day, let alone if they back out of it, let alone if the contract's real or not real. And the NCAA just sits there and says, government's got to tell us what we can do. And then the government says, this feels like an NCAA thing. And it's like, no, they're saying it's a use thing. So hopefully they're able to figure it out because the product of college sports is fantastic. I mean, it is absolutely spectacular. We got to keep it going. You're obviously a part of it. All right, let's pivot to some NFL conversation, shall we? AJ Hawk in studio has a question for you, paisan.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah. Hey, Lombo, we see, you know, DJ Moore, he's going to get traded to the Buffalo Bills. Hill, I guess when it's official on Wednesday next week. What are your thoughts on that whole trade? I guess the bill is giving up a second rounder for DJ I guess. Is there a way to figure out who wins this trade at this point right now? And I guess who do you. What do you think about both these teams?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, I think we have to stop, you know, every trade, everything that happens in the NFL, it's never player for draft pick. It's player, it's player, salary and draft pick. There's three elements that go into it. And we are entering really domino season because all these chips are going to create dominoes that are going to move something over. I thought it was a great trade for Chicago. I think what Chicago is doing with a lot of teams are trying to do when they have a young quarter quarterback is try to get that star player. Will they be able to acquire Max Crosby? Because they're one of the few teams that can because they're not paying their quarterback 70 million, $60 million. People say Dallas should go after Max Crosby. Well, the reason they trade Micah Parsons was because they had a quarterback that they're paying all this money to. So I think where Chicago is and I think Ben Johnson and North Carolina alum did an incredible job coaching that. I think he's one of the bright young coaches in the NFL. I love watching his offense. I do every week because I think he's so talented. And I think he sees DJ Moore as a replaceable part because he's got some really good young players. And to add something to his arsenal like a second round pick, even though it's a low two, it gives him an opportunity to throw those picks into a Max Crosby or someone like him. And I think for Buffalo, look, it's hard to say, just draft the receiver because he's young, he's going to come in. They don't get him until May. I think Buffalo, what happened in this off season is really about we've got to win now. I mean, Brandon Bean made a big move in firing a very good coach from Sean McDermott because of philosophical differences. And I think their window is really now. And so this move is about now, now is DJ Moore good enough? We're going to find out in terms of what they paid for him. But I think it was a move that Chicago's making to create another domino.

[Pat McAfee]

I like the fact that Chicago is trying to gear up for another big move, especially if ends up with Max Crosby. Good, better, best. Never let it rest till your good is better and better is best. Could you imagine Max Crosby and Ben Johnson shirtless in the locker room afterwards? That feels like a perfect match made in heaven up there. So if they're doing that, congrats to them and Chicago. And once again I so quickly have become I trust Ben Johnson guy. So if this is what Ben Johnson wants to do, I trust what he's thinking. But for the Buffalo Beals, and maybe it's because we do know Bean and we've got got a chance to chat with him and I actually asked him about DJ Moore whenever we were at the combine, whenever there was just a bunch of names in one of those slow times, he was like, they know they gotta win. You know, like to your point, they know they gotta win. So if DJ Moore comes in there and helps them win, however, on the offensive side with Joe Brady new offensive head coach and they're able to get the defense to be able to keep Josh Allen on the field, you know, if your defense can get off the field and Josh Allen can get back out there and they go on a run, maybe the best player on earth in everybody's eyes at this stage can win a Super Bowl. But boy, if they don't win a Super bowl, it is going to be continue to just grow louder and louder and louder for Bean. And he understands that. He's very thankful for that opportunity. But they got to make moves to win now. Go ahead. Speaking of moves to win now. Go ahead. Tone.

[Tone]

Yeah, Lambo. Not so surprising. The Rams who say fuck those picks decided to trade another first round round pick for a player. And Trent McDuffie who has been an all pro, been an incredible player for the Chiefs at the cornerback position and the Chiefs on the other side, it's kind of not surprising. They, they, they are a team that will let cornerbacks go to the market. They've done it twice, three times now. Well, how do you feel about the trade for, for both sides on the McDuffie trade?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, I think, look, the Rams window, they know is very tight. I mean Matthew Stafford was sensational last year year. He was incredible. And you know, they know they need to win now and they could have easily been the super bowl winning team. We all said when Seattle played Los Angeles, the winner of that game was going to win the super bowl. No matter who they were going to play. We all kind of felt that way. And I think the Rams knowing this off season, their secondary, they re signed curl, which was a really good move for them. And now they get McGuffie who was actually a better slot corner for Kansas City than it was an outside corner corner. But the Rams play so much zone that it's really going to benefit him and it's also going to benefit them on third down where he can match up on a receiver. So I like the trade for the Rams. Look, the Rams understand. I think you got to give Les Sneed a lot of credit. He always talks about not wanting draft picks, but when you break down his defense, what he's done with that defensive line, finding guys in the second and third round and really help that front seven for the Rams is legitimate. The problem with the Rams football team last year, and we saw Seattle, Seattle exploited, was their secondary. They couldn't cover me, you or anyone. And so that was the biggest issue. And I think they fixed that with this move and giving up a pick at the bottom of the first round. You get away from the salary, you get away from the five year decision and you get a player you can come in right now and play.

[Pat McAfee]

I like it. Any team that is trying to make a move to win, I like it at all times. I want full court press all the time for my team. I want the in the mix. I want them making moves, I want them trying to win. The Chiefs nobody's talking about now, the sportsbook still have them in the top five or whatever the case is because they have Patrick Mahomes and all that. The Chiefs are gearing up for something the Chiefs are about to unleash. I think this year I think there's a chance that the makeup of their team, the makeup of their players, but every move they make in every tweet that comes from Mahomes where he says, damn, you know, it certainly is an interesting time over there as they going to be moving over to another state.

[Conor]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

And then is 1587 steakhouse even going to be allowed to. We got plate. Oh, I got a plate. I, I don't even know if I'm allowed to have his plating. He's getting sued by YouTube. Did you see that? Somebody, somebody sued him for 1587 title.

[Conor]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Allegedly. I mean I could have got there. It's tough time no, I'm pretty sure for me. This is from Fitz and Wit.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

They had a nice burning diner. 1580.

[Tone]

You guys are so good.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, Kansas City, Missouri. Then you go ahead and have this steak in a couple years and get your car, you drive to Kansas. That's where Chiefs home is. That's right here. The Bears are coming to Indiana. Lambo.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah, I heard that. I mean, we'll see if it happens. I mean, you know, those are always. I mean, this is so much negotiations that go on, you know, look, the Bears played one time, you know, when they played at Wrigley Field, the field was so short that the players slipped into the dugout. There were times there. So I'm not quite sure that, you know, everything's going to lock down, down. But look, the governor told me.

[Pat McAfee]

The governor told me. Governor of Indiana said.

[Michael Lombardi]

I heard.

[Pat McAfee]

He said, yeah, they're coming.

[Michael Lombardi]

I thought, Pat, I pay attention. I just. Until it start. Until they start building something. I'm a little. I never believe it.

[Conor]

It's soon.

[Pat McAfee]

So I heard it's happening. Whatever. They're ready to break. I don't think they're using the Indiana thing as leverage over.

[Ty Schmidt]

No.

[Sham Sharan]

Why would they do that?

[Pat McAfee]

I don't think they're doing.

[Tone]

Who knows?

[Pat McAfee]

That governor is in an interesting spot.

[Conor]

I mean, more than one.

[Pat McAfee]

The governor of Illinois. You got the governor of Indiana calling the governor of Illinois a mayor whenever he's kind of burying his power and what he's able to do. And then I'm reading that guy's name and a lot of things. It's crazy time. Are they going to be able to handle a brand new stadium deal, new taxes to suffice? What? The Bears could potentially have just 15 minutes right over here on the other side where you can build up your own. I think it's going to happen.

[Michael Lombardi]

That's a great question, though, Pat, as a player, right. I mean, are you paying Indiana taxes and. And Illinois state taxes here? I mean, we saw that with the super bowl being in California, right. I mean, you know what, all the players salaries being garnished from the state that they were in. I watch Sam Darnold owe the state of California 137,000. I think this is kind of like another tax interest that you've got to get into, and that affects you in free agency. Look, the teams that don't have this tax burden, the Tennessee, the Florida, the Texas, those teams benefit in free agency because of the tax burden, tax liability that players have to pay.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know what it is in Tennessee and why they're able and how they're able to have no state income tax. But like Florida, obviously there's things that supplement the state income tax so they don't have to have it for their. Is their excuse their property. You know, there's California says we need all of it, you know, and then the other states that don't have a Tennessee. I wonder what it is. Just Tennessee not having it. It's awesome. Arizona doesn't have it. Awesome.

[Tone]

Texas, I figured it out. All the places that people like going to and touring, they don't need to charge people for living.

[Pat McAfee]

Spend your money there. Yeah, outsiders will spend the money here. We don't have to take it. Indiana, though, low. We have low state income tax. So although it's no state income tax, it is lower state income tax. So that'll certainly be a good sell for the Bears. Ben. Not that Ben Johnson needs it, but. Yeah, sounds like everything's up and up. If you come over to Indiana, which is basically what the governor was saying. Now, I don't know if you heard this. I'm trying to get the governor to pass weed as well. See, he wanted to, you know, there was conversation here, a little quid pro quo. You know, it's like, hey, feels like good time to talk about sports in Indiana. The combines here for the third, ninth straight year. And also getting the Bears would love to talk about that. Okay, cool, cool. Come on, come on, come on. Unprompted. I got some ideas, too. Isn't this how politics is, how politics work? I need weed. Need, need weed to be passed around here. Okay? It's every state governor discover it's. We are fully surrounded by weed. Okay? All of our money is going out here. So if we're worried about money and we're selling things, let's go and do it here. There's actually two people you should probably be talking to.

[Conor]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I can see the benefits. I've certainly understood them. But there's two people you need to be talking to. They're the ones that are really against or whatever. It's like, sweet. Can I get those names? Yeah. So, boys, we need to send Happy George.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, There you go, Lambo.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, something you should do for Bill today. Recruits thank or to recruits. Essentially him, Happy George. Okay, we got this guy sent to our office this morning alongside of his wife.

[Tone]

Go.

[Pat McAfee]

His name's Happy George. He plays a guitar. He's a singing telegram guy. He brought a message to the Thunderdome. We set up A little audience for him. We wanted to make him uncomfortable. Little do we know there's no chance of that ever happening. No, Happy George got more moxie than anybody. And some kid sent a resume in with a singing telegram. And we'd like to let him know, congrats, you cracked the code. This guy was so absurd outside, we felt obligated to let him in and do his thing. Turns out he had a thong on. And he's got pipes.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

And he. He's got an ability. He's got ability to sing. I mean. Yeah, we're having a good time. Maybe send one of these to Bill.

[Ty Schmidt]

It's not a bad idea.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Michael Lombardi]

There you go.

[Pat McAfee]

Just as a thank you. Say thank you, Bill, for letting me be here. So happy. Love that. Love you, happy George and Mrs. George. I'll tell you what. Great vibes. Really good vibes. Guy walks up to the front door, side door first, then the front door, two balloons wearing his cheeks out. You know, the whole thing. And Bruce goes, he's not an idiot, Pat.

[Michael Lombardi]

I mean, you get good marketing. Get on his show. Like, look at this. I mean, he can't buy this airtime, this guy. Now he's gonna get gigs. No, people are paying.

[Conor]

He's got gigs.

[Pat McAfee]

He's got gigs.

[Ty Schmidt]

Got gigs for days.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah.

[Conor]

Bingo.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy George is booked. Okay.

[Tone]

AJ Booked him for a week just to kind of hang out his house.

[Pat McAfee]

Same clothes.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Guy's got spurs on the back of his cowboy boots.

[Ty Schmidt]

He does ass kicking.

[Michael Lombardi]

I don't know what they're for, but that's good.

[Pat McAfee]

S. Yeah.

[Conor]

Just.

[Pat McAfee]

Anyway. Hey, Happy George. Well, here it comes, buddy. Hey, Happy George. Thanks for coming through today. Happy George.

[Conor]

Happy George.

[Pat McAfee]

Someone knows the bill will really go over well. They'll go pretty well. Okay. More questions about NFL Lambo. We appreciate you. Go ahead, con man.

[Conor]

Yeah, Lambo. Maybe send one to Florio. I think he might love it, too. Always a pleasure.

[Michael Lombardi]

Definitely would. Yeah. Yeah.

[Conor]

It's been too long. It's. It's been too long. Lambo. Truly an honor to speak to you again, Foxy. Great idea to bring in Lambo. He's the best. But with the Minnesota situation, Lambo, I want to kind of get your thoughts around it. Obviously, they're looking to add a veteran quarterback, even though J.J. mcCarthy's only going into year three and he really, really only had last year as experience. How would you kind of handle that situation in Minnesota with J.J. mcCarthy? Because kind of needs reps, but kind of needs time to learn more as an NFL quarterback. And then what do you think KOC is kind of going through right now? Just because he's the only guy, they don't have a GM throughout these, you know, next few weeks, which are pivotal, and then the draft in April.

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, I think Rob Brzezinski is outstanding. I think Rob, who took over in the interim role, should get the head job. I think Rob does a really good job. He's a great listener, he understands, he utilizes assets. I think they'll get back to doing more hands on tape as opposed to looking at some of the analytical or the PFF stuff that kind of can be misinterpreted or actually dead wrong. So I think Rob will do a really good job. I think the real fundamental question is, does Kevin believe in J.J. mcCarthy? And I think that answer is probably no. I would say not probably. I would say it is no. And so they're going to go for another quarterback now, where do they go? Do they go to the Malik Willis market? Do they think they can. They can take him and bring him in and pay him between 20 and 25 million? They're trying to get rid of cap room right now. So they're obviously up to something. Do they go for the Kyler Murray rehab program or the TUA rehab program? You know, Daniel Jones will sign a deal. One of the things about quarterbacks, you know, he'll sign a deal in Indianapolis. He has to. I mean, he's comfortable there. Shane knows him. He's comfortable with the offense. So you really almost. Daniel Jones, you could take them off the board unless somebody just really blows him out of the water. And I think Ballard would have to match that even if he did. So I think that's where they are. I think Minnesota, especially in this draft, where, you know, you've got the. You got the one quarterback going to go, first pick in the draft, and then who else is going to go and where they're going to go? I don't think Kevin has the patience or the. Or the will to want to draft somebody and then try to develop them like they did. Jj, he rehabbed Sam Donald perfectly. He put a lot of time, effort into him and then lost him to Seattle. I think this is where the program he's going to be on. And Kevin's such a good offensive coordinator and he's such a good quarterback coach that whoever they pick, I think is going to be the quarterback for their immediate future and then some. I think the JJ McCarthy era is going to be on the back burner, if not over.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, we it almost felt like, like the Quesi firing the gm. GM gets fired, Kevin o' Connell gets kept around. And then all the rumors are like, Kevin o' Connell wanted another year for JJ to develop, did want him to play. Feels like Quesi was pushing for a he's our guy. He's our guy, allegedly. And it seems like that's maybe what is being kind of portrayed publicly now with the decisions that they made. So with that conversation that we have heard had happened in the past, it's like Kevin o' Connell is definitely getting a guy that can spin the ball. I need somebody that can spin it. Kyler can spin it. Right. Are we worried about off the field, him being able to not match what Kevin o' Connell needs? Or do we think maybe Arizona was a potentially part of the problem of creating everything we heard about Kyler off the field? How do you feel about that change? How do you feel about maybe. Gina, go ahead.

[Michael Lombardi]

I talked a lot. The guys can tell you. I talked a lot about this Kyler Murray contract when I had my podcast and I thought it was ridiculous, him coming off the injury for. For the Cardinals to pick up all that guarantee to the contract. I really felt like they. They had seen him. I didn't think he connected to his teammates. You know, now we're hearing some stories about leadership and work ethic and all those things. I mean, it hasn't really gone smoothly there and they've gone through another coach as they started another administration with Mike LaFleur out there. I think to me, if somebody takes Kyler, it's going to be somebody. Somebody who really knows the kid and can connect to the kid because it's still difficult to play with an undersized quarterback. And it was the same thing I said about Tua when. When he was going to get that big contract. You know, it's like, look at the people around to. And look at where he did what he threw the football. Now, that doesn't mean he can't go in and the Kevin o' Connell system and utilize him. Perhaps that would be the alternative. But then you also have the health issues that come with it. Now he's been healthy for the last two years, so I think the Mary one's really interesting. I mean, think about it. Malik. Malik Willis. Malik Willis is going to.

[Pat McAfee]

You were so wrong. I mean, you were so wrong.

[Michael Lombardi]

I knew you were ready to jump on me, too. But see, I practiced it. I was in the bathroom practicing Malik Willis all the way. So I got. I. I think with that, he's going to be the first domino that falls, and then everything else is going to. But then what happens after he balls, you know, there's the Jets. Do they go, Are they in on Willis? I mean, because that's. Obviously they're not going to get the quarterback in the draft. Mendoza is going to be gone. So how do they get their team with. With. With. With the ability to go up with Frank Wright leading the charge at the Jets? I, I think that's an interesting question, Murray. It's got to me, it's got to

[Pat McAfee]

be about, you know, the answer in New York. If Frank Reich is running it, you know, they got their guy.

[Conor]

It's the right direction.

[Pat McAfee]

You know who that is? Do you?

[Michael Lombardi]

I would guess it's Carson Wentz. I don't know.

[Conor]

The goat.

[Pat McAfee]

You're gonna be more right. Carson headed over to the jets potentially. Obviously all these things are able to

[Michael Lombardi]

be said right now if you're the GM of the. If you're the GM of the Jets. And you gotta believe in Frank and what he's doing. And I certainly get that. But at some point you have to have a sense of doubt that a Carson can stay healthy and can he play to the same level? You know, I think that that would be a concern on my part. You're going to have to protect yourself. And perhaps they'll sign another quarterback to go along.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you see him in the international game? I just want. Yeah, you know, Carson's got it still in there. And on that note, definitely knows how Frank operates. Frank knows how he operates. This quarterback class of. Who's. Who's ready, who's not ready? Carson. Being a Jet this year would be awesome. And once again, Carson. It was an honor to experience the Carson. Carson Wentz experience. Whenever you're here in Indianapolis, the highs are real high. The lows are incredibly scary. So it's just. It's a fascinating existence that cwe Sam

[Conor]

Darnold goes to Minnesota, wins the Super Bowl. Dan Jones goes to win Minnesota, comes to Indianapolis, leads him to an 8 and 1 record. Carson Wentz goes from Minnesota to the New York Jets. I'm not so sure. They win 12 games.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, there's a chance. I guess everything they're doing over there makes a lot of sense.

[Michael Lombardi]

I'll take your action on that. Connor, I'll take your action

[Pat McAfee]

on. You can't do that. Okay. Speaking of action, there's seemingly a lot of chatter about some action, but not really a lot of actual action in Philly. Go ahead, Ty.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, Lambo. We've heard about A.J. brown potentially getting traded for the better part of the last two years, it seems like. And now, you know, every day Connor's coming in and saying, hey, you know, let's go. He's getting traded to the Patriots. And then we had Shefter on who basically said like, hey, they're not shopping him. If somebody, someone blows him away with an offer, they will listen. But that hasn't happened yet. What do you think is ultimately going to happen with A.J. brown?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, and Schefter I trust, so I believe that they're not shopping them. But I think too the fact that, you know, when you, when you look at A.J. brown and you look at what he does for the Eagles and especially as they transition into this, more of a Kyle Shanahan harder play action, which I think really fits. Jalen hurts more. You know, when they go into that style of offense, I think A.J. brown's a huge component. It's one thing to trade the player, it's another thing to figure what are you getting back in return. And I think that's where Howie Roseman has made a really good career of getting great value on return. The one thing we do know is New England is going to be very aggressive in the marketplace. I mean, they're going to go out there and try to look. They've got. The reason they're going to be aggressive is, is, is all the teams that are going to be aggressive are the teams that aren't paying a quarterback $60 million dollars. Now they're going to have to pay Drake May down the road. So they have to be fiduciary in terms of that. But they also have to understand this is their moment to add more talent to their team. So the Tennessee's and the, you know, the New England Patriots, those teams without a high priced quarterback are going to be the ones that are going to be active in free agency. To me, I think New England is going to try to be as active in the offensive line as they can and everywhere else because this is the, the moment to do it.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. And there's already been one center signed to a $30 million contract to the Chargers this morning. Lindenbaum still available. There's a chance that people are going to be making a move, a big one for him. I think Tennessee Titans have $100 million in cap space. Whenever you talk about the ability to make some plays quickly. 105 actually. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Letting us know there's a different number. As we have been chatting, some breaking news has taken Place for the Detroit. Detroit Lions. Left tackle Taylor Decker, the team's longest tenured player has been released by the Detroit Lions. Taylor Decker, put out a quote here. This is fascinating. Foxy, I'm excited for you to read this. Things change. 145 games started, three playoff appearances, two division titles, a decade carrying the shield. I fully intended to do it once again, but my time as a Lion is coming to an end. In the week since notifying the team of my return, there have been numerous discussions, many of which were a surprise to me. We cannot find common ground. Therefore, I decided to request my release. I am opting for a clean and amicable close to what has been such a beautiful 10 years going to war as a Lion. It has been the absolute privilege of my life to be your left tackle for the past 10 years. And I. I am forever grateful for the opportunity the Ford family and alliance organization afforded me. Taylor Decker, with a cool signature at the bottom of that. Okay, Foxy. He didn't want to leave. It's Pete Carroll situation. So that's what I'm hearing right there now. At the end, he certainly had to put aside his anger and say it was an honor. Detroit, I do appreciate this. How about him saying it was a surprise to me. Yeah. I said, hey, we'll be able to work this deal out pretty. What does that mean? That means they. They offered him amount of money that he was. Can you please back. Got that thing? You're upset about this? Yeah. This guy's banging the mic over here. Because I didn't know you were going to get that emotional

[Michael Lombardi]

domino move here. This is. There's another move here. This is. This is. This is how we have to think in free agency. This isn't just a singular move. There has to be something that's attached to this. Now, they know they can move Seoul to left tackle, but they had a price point on Decker that they didn't want to go over. Now, Decker's smart. He knows if he makes it to the open market, it's just, watch out. No left tackles rarely make it to the open market. Trent Williams is redoing his deal. So you understand that does this. Like the first thing is you're reading that I'm thinking, is Detroit trying to get into the. Into the, you know, the Max Crosby sweepstakes, which we've heard they were. He went to Eastern Michigan. He's from the area. Certainly he would be a huge impact plan. Are they in that ballpark now? They. Now they've got golf under a huge contract. But I think what they could be saying, and I don't know, this is if we move Sewell over to left tackle, we'll replace them, we'll get a right tackle for a lot cheaper and we could take that money and put it into a good player like a good player like Crosby. So I think this is more of a domino thing and I think if you are yet Decker, you understand your value is so great that why should you take the reduced deal? You know, it's one thing to take 3 million less. So I think take 10 million less.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. So the spotrak report on the money issue that you're talking about, 9.4 million of dead cap, 11.6 million of space kind of cleared out there. 32 year old has two years, 39 million remaining on this contract. Foxy, quick wrap up here about the. The pillar of Detroit on the left side. Yeah, no, this bums me out because Decker and Ragnar were really the only two guys that were part of the same old Lions and got to experience the brand new Lions. And when I, when he announced he was coming back, I'm like, okay, he's only coming back to play for Detroit. And as a fan, you only want to see him play for the Lions now that he's not. This is weird, but I'm sure it has some cap space thing going on here. But yeah, ultimately bummed out that Decker won't be a Lion through and through if Max Crosby ends up a Detroit. Yeah, now we're talking. I didn't even think of that line, Bones. You're like, this is something they're opening up.

[Michael Lombardi]

They got rid of David Montgomery. When you start shedding contracts, you're doing something, especially when you're as close as the Lions are to be in, into the Super Bowl. So when you start shedding contracts, understandable. They're older players, but they're still very good player. I mean, Montgomery is still a very good player. It isn't like, oh, he can't play anymore. We got to get rid of them. So when you start doing that, there's another move that you're going to make. And it could, could be, you know, we're going to sign this guy for less or whatever. But I think to me, my, my, if I were Green Bay, if I were Chicago and I were Minnesota, I'm like, what are the Lions up to? They're not doing this just because they can't. They can get Decker done. They've got cash in that building. So there's something else that's up their sleeve.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, is it. Is it up to something season up there? It might be. But also we. We're going to pay. Gibbs highest paid running back in the league. Jack Campbell, probably highest paid line linebacker in the Sam LaPorta. He might reset the tight end market. And then Brian Branch if he comes back off that Achilles. They got a lot of guys to pay. Too long. Oh, no. Maybe no Max Crosby then. Oh, no.

[Michael Lombardi]

And I think Evan makes.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe this is more of a remax where you're selling the house because you guys gotta pay for stuff. Oh, wow. Sorry. Yeah. Need a mortgage up there. Sorry.

[Michael Lombardi]

But you could sign those guys. I mean, look, I think all those guys are really good players. And obviously, Gibbs, they're going to have to sign. But remember, when you sign those guys, the beginning of their deals are the cheapest cap deals. It's going to cost more cash. So when you have to resign players the first two years of the deal, because of the structure of the signing bonus, you pick up. Enough.

[Pat McAfee]

Why don't you stop stupid things? This is why I said we got to get Michael Lombardi on. I actually said I need lambo to lose 20 games in a row at UNC because I want him on the show again. That was selfish. I apologize for that. And he does not actually wish that upon you. Tar Heels. I would like that to be.

[Michael Lombardi]

No, don't do that. But I think that's where you have to kind of constantly. That's where on Monday, you got to ask the question, what is the. What is going to be the cause of this move? What is the effect of this move? And how does it. And it may not happen instantaneously, but it will happen down the road. Right. And so, you know, do you know when Willis signs with a team. Team. What team he signs with, what does that free up? How does that make a move? You know, if somebody offers Something for A.J. brown that how he can't turn down, he's got to figure out how he replaces them. That's a domino that goes into effect. So I think it's all about. It's really. It's almost like you're playing pool, Pat. You know you're going to make this shot, but where do I put the cue ball to make the next shot?

[Pat McAfee]

Let me go ahead and back this song, bitch up a little bit just so I can get a little better at the side.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Tone]

Drop back.

[Pat McAfee]

Yep. You know nothing about the black Widow. You don't know anything about.

[AJ Hawk]

Show me how you. How you.

[Pat McAfee]

Once a While whenever you get in there, you got to let that thing smooth it out there. And you know, I'll take that thing and I. You know what that is? No, I'm chalking a cube, pal. Come on.

[Conor]

With your foot?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I'm spinning that, you fool. Right here, pal. You ever seen one of these?

[AJ Hawk]

Not with your foot.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, that's cuz you ain't been in

[AJ Hawk]

a billion some Pittsburgh.

[Pat McAfee]

You are exposing yourself as a man that has never been down there with Billies. Holiday Lanes had a lot of pool. Lot, actually.

[Tone]

The black. The Black widow loved to play at Holiday Lanes.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, she. I think she actually came through there. People would put their cigarettes out as she walked by and say, lady, lady, lady, thank you for coming through. I mean, that's what, that's what they actually did there. Nine ball, eight ball, you name it, I'll play. What's that they do over in snooker? There it is. Oh, yeah. You know who's actually surprisingly a good pool player?

[Conor]

Who's that?

[Pat McAfee]

My mom.

[Conor]

Oh.

[Pat McAfee]

Why is that surprising, Sally? Because I just don't think my mom really, like, hung out of places that really had that. But turns out her dad used to take her to places that had it. And whenever she was like a teenager, I guess she like kind of Ted Lasso situation. And every once in a while, yeah, she'll just show up and we'll be playing pool and then all of a sudden she grabs a stick and it's like, sad. What are you doing? That she. She's like, don't worry about it.

[AJ Hawk]

Run the table.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm like, whoa, Sally McAfee hanging out at boozing places. I didn't know that. Yeah, but that's what you got to do.

[AJ Hawk]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. I just need a little bit more respect. Last question for you here, Lambo, before we let you get back to your day job. Go ahead, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

lambo. We had obviously 10 coaches get fired last year in the NFL. Anyone that really piques your interest that you thought was a great hire, you know, Robert Sala is in Tennessee. We got Mike LaFleur out in Arizona. We mentioned them. We have a list here of everybody. But anyone here pop out of you, you thought, hey, this team did it, right?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, I. Look, obviously the Giants got a. They needed somebody to come in and be a proven winner, and John's done that in Baltimore. And so that gives them. The Giants bought instant credibility with their hire, you know, and they needed that. Going through the last regime that they've gone through going back to Ben McAdoo all the way up until Brian Dayball. So they needed to buy credibility and they certainly did did that. You know, I, I think the second time a guy's a head coach, you know, I, I think is always going to be a better situation for him. I think Robert Sala announced he was going to call the defense. I think he understood the mistakes that occurred in New York. I think he certainly could fix that. Same with Kevin Stefanski. I think he'll get that there's a learning curve being a head coach. But you know, you know, Mike McCarthy is the most fascinating of them all. You put Mike McCarthy's resume next to John Holt, our ball, and it is exactly the same. John gets incredible pr, Mike does it and it's, it's really.

[AJ Hawk]

What's that about?

[Pat McAfee]

Why is that?

[AJ Hawk]

How does that work? Why do you, why do you think?

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, look, as we have, we have people that are sell that are, that are seldom uncertain. Rarely. Right. That that report on the NFL and they've decided that they are going to, you know, Mike's not a good coach and he didn't do this. And then we got the guy in the basement in Des Moines who's calling about his play call on third and four, even though he's never played a play in his life or call to play. I mean we do it all the time. Pat started this conversation up with us getting attacked. Most of the people attacking us never even been built a football program before. So I think Mike pays a part of that and it's kind of unfair. You know, all this Belichick talk about not getting in the hall of Fame. I wrote about this in Football Done right. You know, I said that there needs to be a standard criteria, criteria for a head coach to enter the hall of Fame. And I set the criteria in the book and Pete Carroll, Mike McCarthy, John Harbaugh, they meet the criteria. Now whether they get in or not, that's another thing. But to get into the selection process, you've got to meet the criteria. And for Mike to have to take as much crap as he does media wise from people as opposed to John, who doesn't. And I like both coaches, but when you, if you did a blind taste test on their resumes, it's the same. And we could say, well, he had Aaron Rodgers timeout, we had Lamar Jackson, he won. You know, it's like.

[Pat McAfee]

And Joe Flacco. Yeah, please, little respect.

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, and he won one super bowl and Mike won one. And Mike did a great job in Dallas. Dallas felt they needed to make a Move. So I like it. I think Omar Khan got himself a proven coach to go in there, because, look, let's face it, if he brings Rodgers back, he's got Mike with them, but he needs to lay a foundation to develop whether it's Will Howard or someone else at quarterback.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, maybe we'll see you at the hall of Fame next year. Maybe.

[Michael Lombardi]

Well, you know, I mean, look, winning six Super Bowls is just not enough to get you in there. I mean, and then we couldn't even find out who voted for who. And you don't want to get me started on this subject at all, because this is the most ridiculous thing of all time.

[Pat McAfee]

Time.

[Michael Lombardi]

I mean, remember in the scene in the Godfather where they. They owe this committee owes this man an apology. Well, that's really what they do. Whoever voted for that thing owes Coach Belichick an apology because this is the most ridiculous thing we could have ever heard in our life. That you win six Super Bowls and you're not going to go in. Give me a break.

[Pat McAfee]

Give me a break. Amen. Hey, you know what? We took a break from you. Not in our life. It was way too long.

[Michael Lombardi]

I miss you guys, but I don't want to get. Get fired. I want to win here. So,

[Pat McAfee]

hey, this weekend, right, Unc Duke?

[Conor]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

Let's go. Let's make sure we're putting out good energy for this.

[Michael Lombardi]

Got a baseball game, too, Pat. And don't forget, our women's basketball team is outstanding.

[Pat McAfee]

WVU women's basketball team about doing it. And remember, it's March, so we got a monster in Iowa State and Audi crooks cooking as well. Good luck to all of them. We appreciate the hell out of you, Paon.

[Michael Lombardi]

Thank you, Pat. Thank you, guys.

[Pat McAfee]

Ladies and gentlemen, Michael, As you know, managing maintenance, repair and operations is never easy. But for the ones who always rise to the challenge, Grainger has your back.

[AJ Hawk]

From professional grade products you can count

[Pat McAfee]

on to fast, dependable 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

[Tone]

partner in protecting both your people and your facility.

[AJ Hawk]

Call 1-800-granger.

[Pat McAfee]

Click granger.com or just stop by from

[AJ Hawk]

30 for 30 podcasts.

[Pat McAfee]

Did you say someone got shot?

[Sham Sharan]

Brian Pata, senior defensive lineman from Miami,

[Tone]

gunned down the key to this case.

[Michael Lombardi]

It's Brian. An hour before he died, he was on the phone ring working with somebody.

[Pat McAfee]

This might be A hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction. Being placed under arrest.

[Tone]

We had a killer amongst us.

[AJ Hawk]

Murder at the U.

[Pat McAfee]

Listen now, while we were talking, the packers will be releasing Pro Bowl D end Rashawn Gary. Get him out of town. Yeah, yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I mean, kind of expected, you know, cap space move. And he was one of those guys who, when Micah got hurt, it was like, hey, we really need you to go here. Really need you to go. He's a very high draft pick and he kind of just never went.

[Pat McAfee]

Rashawn says when I got the call in 2019, it was one of the greatest moments of my life and it always will be. The opportunity to represent Green Bay and Packers nation across the country and around the world is something I will never forget. Like all chapters in life, this one has come to an end. I want to thank everyone who supported me and my family throughout the years. The love, the energy, and the mentors. Memories mean more than words can explain than bigger. Boulder letters. On to my next stop. Nowhere near done yet. All 65275. Can't wait. RASHAWN. Bang. Gary. We got another Bane. Huh? We got some. We got some Banes coming through here. Congrats. Him. I like to hear that. Oh, yeah. 65275. Still doing. If you're wondering right now here at the end of my sign off, it was cool. Chapter shout out to Green Bay. Loved all the cheese heads. On that note, who wants to win Super Bowl? Sean Bangar.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe it's Colts.

[Tone]

Could be.

[Pat McAfee]

Maybe it's your team.

[Ty Schmidt]

He'll f. He'll fetch. He'll fetch $. Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

You like dude complain. I wonder who's making these guys these graphics. They look pretty nice, don't they?

[Pat McAfee]

Deckers? I would like to say I need the words to be a little bit more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's rule number one. Message needs to be read. Then we add sauce around it. Like, those are really cool letters, but everybody's doing one of these. Yeah, I want to see those things.

[Conor]

Chicken scratch.

[Pat McAfee]

But congrats to you on hitting a free agency. Taylor Decker's on a move. Free agency frenzies on Monday. We'll be live with everybody that needs to be here. Holy hell. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. This could be the greatest weekend of all time. We'll see you Monday. Goodbye. I think I hit it.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, you got it.

[Conor]

There was also another massive release during the break. Bills corner Taron Johnson, who Rodgers just talked about as being one of their best Players.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. I'm seeing a bunch of people tweet us about how just one day after Aaron Rodgers said, this guy's one of the best players in football, Darren Johnson has been released from the Buffalo Bills corner. They got a new defensive scheme up there, so obviously they're trying to figure it out. A corner is not in the market that obviously people in ball have high regards for. This free agency frenzy is about to be bananas.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes, it is.

[Pat McAfee]

This is about to be a good time. I'm very excited for what's about to cook on Monday. Right now, Schefter, Rapaport and all the other insiders are just burning through their phones trying to predict what's going to happen on Monday at noon. And if this falls through, what does that mean for this? What does that mean for this? Are you interested in this? Am I going to see you maybe making a play? I'm going to be a MacFie sp place at the Thunderdome. I'm going to have a lot going on. Are you guys doing this or are you guys not doing this? If you don't do this, what else are you going to do? And then when that money's taken, how are you going to be able to fill this roster? That's what Shepard's doing right now.

[Michael Lombardi]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

And we'll certainly utilize his little chaotic brain to the maximum that we can as Schrager and Orlovsky will also make their ways out here. And we'll enjoy the hell out of a free agency frenzy that's going to really catapult us into draft season and into the next NFL season frenzy. Monday is a huge day for, for the league year. Huge day for fans. Huge day for the inevitable Lombardi winners.

[Conor]

Well, and it feels like there's a bunch of players now.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Conor]

Not, not to mention the guys that got released today. But we were even just looking over the wide receiver market. Feels like in years past, you're, you're hard pressed to find a really good receiver. And then there's random names popping up throughout that whole entire. Like Juwan Jennings. We realized Tyreek Hill. We forget Tyreek Hill is a free agent. He, a couple years ago was the number one one player in the entire league.

[Ty Schmidt]

And then Romeo Dobbs.

[Conor]

Yeah, Romeo Evans. Mike Evans. We also talked about, too, how two of the top four spenders last year in free agency were the Patriots and the Seahawks. Your team literally can't, can't win the super bowl in March, but you can set yourself up to go on a Super Bowl Run in March for sure.

[Pat McAfee]

Yes. A.J. any final thoughts on this? What's wrong? We're reading a story about what happened at 11 and it feels like there was maybe a. Oh, I didn't see it. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not.

[AJ Hawk]

We're not the USA Team usa.

[Pat McAfee]

We will continue to follow along.

[Tone]

We haven't got all the info yet.

[Pat McAfee]

The development down at 11. There's a little bit of an unrivaled championship celebration down there that I did not know about.

[AJ Hawk]

I would like to say unrivaled. The basketball league.

[Pat McAfee]

Come on.

[AJ Hawk]

That's not real.

[Pat McAfee]

I refuse to believe I know that. Think about me reading that while you're talking.

[Conor]

Well, I get it now.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. It was unbelievable. That was sent into the group. So what happens here during the program? Because we are a live program and a lot of things are happening while. All right, come on. I know. I know. You can't read it every time.

[Conor]

That's not real.

[Pat McAfee]

See, this is us.

[Conor]

Why didn't you call.

[Pat McAfee]

What's that?

[Conor]

Why?

[Pat McAfee]

I know, I know, I know. That's what I'm. That's why I laughed at it. It's just. We will continue to keep our ears to the grind and our nose to the grindstone on all developing stories around Club 11 and arrest at. Happened last night during an unrival championship celebration.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I would like to say. I love that they got after it.

[Ty Schmidt]

After.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

I love that they got after it. Yeah. Hell, yeah. What are you.

[AJ Hawk]

I just happened to read. I didn't know somebody. I know there was. It was a. There was an assault. Someone got struck.

[Pat McAfee]

That's definitely. That is definitely one.

[AJ Hawk]

Did it take the beer bottle and bam.

[Pat McAfee]

We don't know. We don't know. We don't know. We will not speculate, but we will say. I like that they walked in that song like we dream out. Yeah. Unraveled. I love that they're celebrating. That's what you work for.

[AJ Hawk]

Should.

[Pat McAfee]

That's why you win games is for that moment. You win the championship. You go have fun. Now. We can't just be punching handcuffs but jail. Been there, though. Hey, hey, man, learn from. Yeah. I like to hear that the unrivaled league gets after it, though. These are the positives that we are hearing.

[AJ Hawk]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

Negatives. Boy, people are going to really attack this entire thing. Yeah. If it's true, it's only like four people.

[Tone]

Four people on a team, too, so

[Pat McAfee]

I think it's seven. Please have some respect, man. If you don't know the League.

[Conor]

Watch it, because it's legit.

[Michael Lombardi]

What?

[Tone]

Team one, Connor.

[AJ Hawk]

It's pretty fast paced.

[Conor]

The best one.

[Pat McAfee]

And by the way, I think it's six actually, you know, with a. A swing woman, you know. Oh, sure, sure. And congrats on a Miss. Big time win. Okay. It's a good thing we are the Miss. Is that. Yeah.

[Conor]

Is that Beastu?

[Pat McAfee]

That is. And she's founder of the league, right?

[Conor]

I think so.

[AJ Hawk]

Miss the league, where they get paid,

[Tone]

do they have cities they represent or just like.

[Pat McAfee]

It's just a mist.

[Ty Schmidt]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

I think they played down there in Miami. Yeah, but Beastu started the league, Right. This is kind of her thing. And now she's the.

[Tone]

Yeah, we had her on for it.

[Pat McAfee]

Good for her. Congratulations to the Miss. Getting a chance. Is this so. Second championship, second league year.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know if they won last year. I. I want to. For some reason, I. I want to say, like the Roses won last year, but I could be wrong.

[Pat McAfee]

It's a misleague now, bub. And I'll tell you, when they're celebrating, don't you even think about getting in the way.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I hope there's video.

[Pat McAfee]

There is. They said allegedly.

[Conor]

Everything happens. 11 is film.

[Tone]

Yeah, the Rose. Rose won last year.

[Pat McAfee]

God.

[Ty Schmidt]

See, I know the league. That's why I need to dive in and make sure that this isn't real.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. We need to make sure that this league continues to go. More money in women's sports and in sports is a good thing. Congrats to the Miss. And I can't say this enough. I love that they won to 11. This. Yes, I do. I absolutely love that. Jail can't happen, right?

[AJ Hawk]

You've been there, right?

[Pat McAfee]

You've been to 11. Jail.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, that. Yeah, we know you've been there.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Never been to 11.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah, me either.

[Tone]

Ti's there tonight.

[Pat McAfee]

Tip, let him know Gumpy has been to 11 a few times.

[AJ Hawk]

He wears mesh shorts, he says when he goes. That's what he told me.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Conor]

No underwear.

[Pat McAfee]

Hey, find your best pair of sweats. Heading down to 11. That is Gumpy's normal text into the group whenever he's heading down. There he is. Our boots, underground correspondence.

[AJ Hawk]

He's in Miami all the time.

[Pat McAfee]

What I think about it, you know,

[AJ Hawk]

why flopping that thing all over beautiful leather after you go watch some obscure soccer game that nobody else has heard of.

[Pat McAfee]

Excuse. I'll have you know, Inter Miami was in the White House yesterday and Trump said, these guys are. These sexiest dudes are. Jesus Christ. Soccer Players are all like this tall, super jacked hand. So cool looking. So cool looking. And Gumpy tries to watch every one of their games. And then he's on a one way trip to a not 10, not 12. Right there in the middle. And yeah, that USA Hockey celebration up there. Every one of the lads that were there are basically echoing the sentiment that Gumpy says, greatest night in my life. Gumpy says, every single night. Wow. Yeah. And you're. Maybe you haven't figured out why. Because it's what he's choosing to wear there. Yeah. I even think about the wardrobe department for Gumps as he had done. He might have an Airbnb down there with an entire closet.

[AJ Hawk]

Different dick Sporting goods. Get everything you need for 11.

[Pat McAfee]

That's right. Lululemon too. Potentially a good one.

[Conor]

Sure.

[Pat McAfee]

That'll get you Jack Fancier. All right, aj, what do you got this weekend? Anything? Because I'm gonna tell you about the weekend of sports on tv.

[AJ Hawk]

I can't wait. I see this list that you're about to talk about. There are some great, great things going on this week.

[Pat McAfee]

What's on the menu if you want to watch some sports now that we're in the offseason, obviously Jason Tatum is returning what seemingly is impossible time after an Achilles tear to join the Celtics as Cooper flag the main event returns to New England is for his first time Celtics favored by 15 and a half.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

In Jason Tatum's return. This is good news for the Celtics, good news for sports and good news, good news for the NBA, I think.

[Conor]

Yeah. Fantastic. Especially at this time, you know, when basketball really does pick up and we all start paying attention. Tatum coming back 298 days since he tore his Achilles.

[Pat McAfee]

Team USA takes on Brazil. This is the first game, official game for team USA in our redemption run here as Japan won the last World Baseball Classic. We'll take on Brazil as the nine and a half point favorites. We are all team riding on that. We hope that the back bats get hot, but that's a lot of runs for baseball against anybody. Even if the guy pitching can't throw a strike. Miami continuing their streak. This is an unbelievable run here for this team over there in Ohio telling they're talking about bubble talk for this team. Are they 31 and oh or something like that?

[Tone]

Yeah, they're undefeated obviously. And yes it is the Mac, but like the max, the Mac's a solid conference. There's a lot of good teams in the Mac. And if you're 30, if you're undefeated in a basketball Series season, okay? You get your conference tournament, even if you don't win your conference tournament, there's 68 teams in there, okay? There's going to be some 8 and 8, 8 and 9 in conference team from the Big Ten or the ACC or something like that that gets in and gets blown out in the first round and they have no reason to be in there. That's why the, the Miami Redhawks should be in there, my friend.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think so. No matter what. I don't even know what we're talking about.

[Ty Schmidt]

Me neither.

[Pat McAfee]

There's 100 teams that are in there and an undefeated team going to say

[Ty Schmidt]

you don't need to do it that way though, because Devil's advocate would be that one of those 89 seeds from the Big Ten, they'd probably beat this Miami team by 25. That's all I'm saying.

[Tone]

As soon as the word came out my mouth.

[Ty Schmidt]

I'm not saying they shouldn't be in the tournament because they absolutely should. But let's not use that as the example, okay?

[Pat McAfee]

There'll certainly be others that we can throw under the.

[Tone]

I mean, like Indiana.

[Conor]

You.

[Pat McAfee]

What are you talking about?

[Tone]

Basketball team.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. The Freeze boy is getting hot right now.

[Ty Schmidt]

They're on the bubble.

[Michael Lombardi]

They are.

[Ty Schmidt]

They are a bubble team.

[Sham Sharan]

They're going to need to perform well

[Ty Schmidt]

in the Big Ten tournament.

[Conor]

They will.

[Michael Lombardi]

They won't.

[Tone]

The Big Ten's loaded, brother. The Hoosiers ain't got it this year. They're getting better, but they're not. That's who I was thinking about when I said that.

[Conor]

The, the Hooers who.

[Pat McAfee]

If Hooers played Miami, who would win?

[Ty Schmidt]

Where's that neutral site?

[AJ Hawk]

Yep.

[Tone]

Redhaw.

[Ty Schmidt]

I think if it's a neutral site, I think you see, Indiana's probably a 2 1/2 point favorite. If it's an assembly, Indiana might be a eight. Oh, I was gonna say six. Six and a half to eight.

[Pat McAfee]

That is the storyline. I haven't followed college basketball enough. I know if you go on the court and win 30 plus straight times, you're probably pretty good team no matter who you're playing against. And then Michaela Shiffrin, obviously over in Italy, will continue her World cup slalom.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yep.

[Pat McAfee]

Competition 4:45am On Peacock AJ I know. That'll be replaying. We need her to win.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yes.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know how feasible this is. This feels like a post Olympics men's hockey run here where the boys, you know, they had a selly for the ages and then they're right Back in their season. Michaela, remember how she talked about what she did for this Olympics? It was like full lock in, full everything. I want to be at my absolute best. She wins. She has not gone home. She's still over. And then now as a race, it's like if she's mentally tough enough to be able to go put out another one, it's like we're talking about a unique, unique individual, just human as whole. But she's the goat. Yeah. There's a chance she does it again and we'll definitely walk. I don't know if I'll be up at 4:45am on Saturday, but I will certainly watch that back to see her runs and certainly follow along. She was great on the program.

[Conor]

Yeah, no doubt about it. She's one of the best. All these Olympians. She was one of the best ones that we've had, especially on the the program. 4:45am Peacock time. I I, it's not bad. Almost wonder if being on the west coast is better. You catch this thing at 145.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, you're hey, before you go to bed, let's watch Michaela shred these slopes out here in Italy.

[Conor]

Bingo. Or if you wake up early cuz there's a chance, you know, start times 4:45. She's the goat. She's probably going last. You might catch it 5:35, 36am 7am her first run. She might be just going on then. Yeah. So check it in the morning as well.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Cuz main event, the evening. Bingo. Yeah. Okay, so that's a little later. And there's what, three runs normally is how they do it.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well, that's what I was going to say. Catching it at like set right when you wake up then maybe. Because then you don't have to watch all these other people who you don't really have interest in. You can just watch all of her runs and then see, see how she did.

[Tone]

Nice cup of red, white and blue.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, how do you do? Oh, Saturday. So good. Is true. Oh, I think she's going to fly down to the mountain. She was awesome on the show, aj.

[AJ Hawk]

She was, she was fun from, from the beginning. What she call you? Yappers? You call you a yapper.

[Pat McAfee]

She was talking to you too. I think you just weren't on with us. She was certainly talking about you. You're yappy. I know.

[AJ Hawk]

Believe me, I'm trying to stop.

[Tone]

She actually sent us a message after like hey, let AJ know I met

[Pat McAfee]

him mostly talking blue. She said that. So that's crazy.

[AJ Hawk]

She said Michigan, Jeff.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, I think she said, oh, well,

[AJ Hawk]

either way, I will support her. I'll be up at 4:45, five to watch.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. And he would be up regardless. But now he has something to watch as opposed to last night's stuff. Flyers taking on the Penguins. This is a huge one for us in this particular office because the Penguins are just so much better than them at home. 5:30, ESPN UNC Duke, gigantic Great Britain, Team USA, Saturday night, 8 o'. Clock. We should demolish them as well, right? Yeah.

[Tone]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Who's pitching? Logan Webs tonight. Who's Great Britain?

[Conor]

Scoops.

[Ty Schmidt]

We got scoops for 55.

[Tone]

5.

[Ty Schmidt]

And there's a chance that we're going to mercy rule them anyway. So, you know, we, we might, that might be all we need.

[Pat McAfee]

And then ufc, CBS and Paramount. That's going to do huge numbers, especially with how Holloway and Oliveira fight. I, I believe. Go ahead.

[Conor]

That's the BMF title. So that will be a end of the fight. Hey, let's just stand here in the middle and throw as heavy hands as we can as the time runs out.

[Pat McAfee]

And then on Sunday, we got everything. We got golf, we got basketball, we got hockey, bowling. You name it. Sure, if you want it, you can have it. Sports are the greatest. Go see something. SeatGeek has tickets to every. I don't know about everything. I don't know if you can go watch Michaela.

[Ty Schmidt]

I bet you could over there.

[Pat McAfee]

You think they have se tickets to that?

[Tone]

Let me look.

[Pat McAfee]

Okay. If they do, they have the best price tickets for it. Of course. Shout out to Seak. The greatest ticket buying platform on planet Earth and the moon. Obviously. Obviously they have tickets for any live event that is taking place, whether it's music or comedy or magic. You name it, they have tickets for it. But in sports, they have the best tickets. Just like in every other genre. For anything you want to go see if your team's playing, go watch them with your friends at SeatGeek. If you're just kind of bored, go watch them with your friends at SeatGeek. And right now, use code PAT McAFEE. You get $30 off tickets, whether you're a new customer or a returning customer. Shout out to seatgeek. They're our first ever partner. We're still partners with them and they're only getting better somehow. Shout out to them. Shout out to you. Shout out to sports and shout out to us. Getting to do this for a living.

[Conor]

Hell, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

What a time, aj. Great to have you in the office. Thank you for welcoming Happy George so much.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

I'll tell you what. I did not know what I was getting into. Why I walked in the door and I saw a bunch of chairs set up. You haven't really. You haven't played any of the Happy George clips, right?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, we showed a couple there. We didn't show you eyeballing every camera around there because you thought you were potentially getting. Getting some leverage blackmail footage on you as Happy George was moving his little tongue around your face.

[AJ Hawk]

No, I just. Walking into this, you would think it was like, oh, it's a setup. It's a bit. He knows what's going on. I don't. I feel like nobody knew what was going on.

[Pat McAfee]

No genuine. Saw a guy. Yeah. He came running in with his wife. We.

[AJ Hawk]

We didn't pat him down, make sure there's no weapons or anything.

[Pat McAfee]

Bruce. Yeah. So, yeah, you can see his confiscated weapons. Bruce. Bruce went out and saw him. This guy was just moseying around Thunderdome wearing this. Just moseying around with a lady following him with a camera like this. Just kind of following him around everywhere. Just outside, we could see him. We got cameras everywhere. So we'd see these people doing this. So it's like, all right, Bruce, go see what this is about. So Bruce goes out, talks for, like, 10 minutes, comes in and goes, his name's Happy George. He wants to deliver a message to you. And we did a quick little briefing, quick conversation. We're like, I think we have to do this. But I wanted to make it uncomfortable for Happy George. So we told Happy George to wait outside. Let's go ahead and set some chairs up. Let's get a stage here. When he comes in, he's immediately being thrusted into, like, oh, my God, this is a lot. This is kind of maybe intimidating. And then we hid him from you because we didn't want you to see him whenever you arrived either. So we actually told him to stand in a corner behind Bigfoot over here so that you don't see him when you're coming in. Because we were hoping for your first reaction to Happy George. And. And I think we got it all. I think we got absolutely everything. We had no idea what he was. He delivered, and he was not intimidated by the crowd at all. It almost empowered him. It made him even stronger and better. His cheeks were around. He took a couple requests, and he delivered the message. And I think the kid's last name was Young out of Ball State. That sent the resume in. Not a bad idea. To have Happy George deliver that thing. Yeah. Not hiring. But if I do, I will remember you as the person that's sent us incredible happiness from Happy George and Mrs. George and least one thong from the group. So it was a good time and a great guitar. And he had a microphone that went right into a speaker that was on his hip. So when he was talking to you, you had a stadium speaker coming at you. And I was like, did you plug into my speaker? How'd you get in this? He goes, bam. Right there, buddy. This guy's the best. He'll deliver a message for you.

[AJ Hawk]

He, look, I tell you what he we saw a little bit ago. You couldn't hear him. He was coming, coming for Gumpy. He came back a couple times and you. Yeah, I got a job for you.

[Conor]

I want you.

[Tone]

But you said no. You're coming back to Columbus with me

[AJ Hawk]

brother hopping the back of the truck. Yeah, him and his wife are still in the back of my car. I'm gonna take him back and tell my kids, hey, go get Happy George came.

[Pat McAfee]

I don't know if that's the best use. You should send him across state lines.

[AJ Hawk]

What do you mean?

[Pat McAfee]

No, he goes international.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, he's international.

[AJ Hawk]

What are you laughing at?

[Conor]

Tone.

[Pat McAfee]

He just thought about Happy George performing for a little.

[AJ Hawk]

If he just play the guitar, my whole r. Hey, keep me awake, George. I'm dozing off. You just play it for me.

[Sham Sharan]

Stick your butt cheeks in my face, George.

[Conor]

Dozing off.

[Tone]

That's.

[Conor]

Let me smell that song. George, I need to wake up.

[AJ Hawk]

These are all things I would not ask, but.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, well, we don't know you. That's a three hour trip. Your brain could explode.

[AJ Hawk]

How tired you get?

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, exactly.

[Tone]

No, I'm thinking of super troopers when they arrest that couple and they put

[Pat McAfee]

the kids in bed. All right, all right, all right. You and Happy George's cheeks, I do hope, are around each other again.

[AJ Hawk]

He. He wanted to make sure that you noticed his cheeks.

[Pat McAfee]

He did a couple spin, moose.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah, that's the best part. My best part.

[AJ Hawk]

Here.

[Conor]

You're good looking.

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Tone]

Okay.

[Pat McAfee]

Happy George delivered. Yes, he did. Yeah, he did. I don't know how much that was. 150, 200, 300 bucks? What?

[Ty Schmidt]

I don't know, $205 or something like that.

[Pat McAfee]

I would say Happy George gets the job done, if that is what you're looking to do. Have to pick the right group at the right time. Yeah. Talk was filming from the backside. Talk knew he had a thong on before any of them Because Talk's trying to get the clips for TikTok, you know, so he can get facial expressions and reactions on the other side. Patted him down and. Yeah, well, Bruce patted him down. Knew it. But Talk, as soon as this guy walks past Talk and he got his camera out, Talk just goes. Supposed to be getting a shot staring at this guy's ass. So I think he knew before anybody. AJ was certainly questioning a lot. You know, Bailey took a camera behind him at one point and AJ refused to even watch the Happy George show. And he just eyeballed the camera. The you consented, by the way, as soon as you walked in here.

[AJ Hawk]

I don't know if I did. I think I walked in, you guys. Hey, he's about to go. He's about to perform. I said, who is that? What is that? And then you guys said, just shut up, just sit down, we'll figure it out.

[Pat McAfee]

I didn't like that you were second row either. We wanted you front row so we get you. And as you remember, I was was trying to promote that, but instead I got balloons immediately upon arrival, which I had to deal with now I can't do. I don't think the balloons are the good play Happy George. I, I, I think you need something other than balloons.

[AJ Hawk]

What?

[Pat McAfee]

Flowers? Cuz I can put those down these balloons. Oh, I mean I had to actually.

[AJ Hawk]

I thought he had a weight at the bottom.

[Pat McAfee]

No, there was nothing. So I, I had to hold these things. They were getting in my face. I was missing George show.

[Tone]

You know, he ties them to his.

[Pat McAfee]

All right, have an incredible weekend of sport. All right. We're incredibly lucky and thankful that we get to do this. Monday is going to be a pretty epic show. It's going to be a pretty epic show. We're putting together a couple different studios for Schefter to organize all of his chaos that's going to happen on Monday as new deals are announced. Hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars are going to be given out in contracts on Monday. We're going to be covering it all from noon to 3 on ESPN. Shefter will be here, Shregs will be here, Orlovsky will be here. The boys will be here. I believe even AJ potentially going to stop by alongside D. But we should have an incredible Monday. But that's only going to follow the greatest weekend of our lives. That doesn't have football in it.

[Conor]

No World Baseball Classic.

[Pat McAfee]

A lot of good stuff going to carry us. America is about to do it. That's right. Bowling on CW is about to do it.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Show those guys are jacked up.

[Conor]

E.J.

[Pat McAfee]

tacky.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Arnie Palmer.

[AJ Hawk]

Who's the two hander?

[Pat McAfee]

Well, there's been a few. The last bowler of the year before EJ Tackets run here was a two hander handed roller.

[Conor]

So that's a ball. Ross of bowling, baby.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah, E.J. kind of just.

[AJ Hawk]

They should. They should ban two handed bowling.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa.

[Conor]

You should shut your mouth.

[Pat McAfee]

Whoa.

[AJ Hawk]

Just feels Mickey Mouse.

[Pat McAfee]

You're talking about the two handed one from down under.

[AJ Hawk]

If your wrist isn't in handed and strong enough to sling that thing one handed then you got to go to the minor league.

[Pat McAfee]

They're rolling 10,000 balls a day.

[AJ Hawk]

Oh, heavy are their balls. They ruined, you know.

[Pat McAfee]

Well, they think they got a heavier run.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oil patterns.

[Michael Lombardi]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Yeah. Two balls. Yeah. Rolling two of them. You would never understand. You're right. And now packers edge Rashawn Gary has deleted his goodbye to Green Bay post. All right.

[Ty Schmidt]

Good ridden son of a. Whoa.

[Pat McAfee]

What if he's not cut? What? What if something. What if they call?

[Ty Schmidt]

Then. Then. Welcome back, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh my.

[Conor]

Did they get dibs.

[Michael Lombardi]

Right?

[Ty Schmidt]

Excited to see what you do next year.

[Pat McAfee]

We'll see.

[Tone]

We'll see.

[Pat McAfee]

We will. Yeah. We will see. Yeah. All right. Let's get out of here. A.J. you're the best. Thank you for traveling over.

[AJ Hawk]

Thank you guys. It was awesome, A.J.

[Pat McAfee]

favorite thing of the week, man.

[AJ Hawk]

Big week we had this week, didn't we? I wasn't unable to go. World baseball classic situation. All of you guys. You getting a hit off of Clayton Kershaw has probably be the highlight.

[Pat McAfee]

You know what? We'll run that to end this thing. Because you said it. Aj that's good. Producing and directing and out of you.

[AJ Hawk]

My lips to God. God's ears.

[Conor]

Good work.

[AJ Hawk]

You ever heard that saying?

[Tone]

Oh, yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Oh, yeah.

[AJ Hawk]

Yeah.

[Ty Schmidt]

My lips to God.

[Pat McAfee]

You're talking to God.

[AJ Hawk]

Like if you talk. I would say your lips to God's ears, brother.

[Pat McAfee]

Your lips to happy ass.

[AJ Hawk]

I didn't say that.

[Pat McAfee]

I'm sure somebody has.

[AJ Hawk]

You're talking gumpy.

[Conor]

Who wants a mustache.

[Pat McAfee]

Gumpy was offered a couple times dragging me into this.

[AJ Hawk]

I can see your little happy George

[Pat McAfee]

tried tagging you in. Do it.

[AJ Hawk]

Need you beard George was backing right into Gump.

[Ty Schmidt]

Oh, I'm going to have fun with you later.

[Pat McAfee]

That's basically.

[AJ Hawk]

I saw him bump phones to their contacts. You know how you can get your contacts over that they were bumping?

[Ty Schmidt]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

Playing phone sticks is a good time. All right now we're having a great time because Sports have afforded us the opportunity. Boys in the back. Great work.

[Conor]

Work, boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Work, boys.

[Conor]

Good work, boys.

[Pat McAfee]

Graphic design, boys. Good work this week, boys. Zo. Good work this week. You know, Mick, the work this week.

[AJ Hawk]

All right.

[Pat McAfee]

Talk to the table. Well done.

[Ty Schmidt]

Well done.

[Conor]

Good job.

[Pat McAfee]

One half of the Hammer. God, Cowboys, AP Town. We'll see how good of a weekend. You okay? All right. You too. Hey, go baseball. Go baseball. I love baseball. Safe travels back, man. We will get you happy. George sitting shotgun with you. And from my understanding, he does live by the code of the road.

[Conor]

Yeah, he delivers whatever you need.

[Pat McAfee]

Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change your life. We're in this thing together. Anything for the team, A.J.

[AJ Hawk]

no.

[Pat McAfee]

And that's. That's all that really needs to be said at this point. America's playing Brazil tonight.

[Ty Schmidt]

That's right.

[Pat McAfee]

America's playing Great Britain tomorrow night.

[Conor]

Yeah.

[Pat McAfee]

And we don't need no tea party to let us understand that that needs to be enact. Just like this entire thing is. So, yeah, you're right. No words need to be said about what's about to happen. Magic everywhere. Because of sports. We will rerun me versus Kershaw immediately after this. And then we will see you on Monday for one of our biggest shows of the year. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this for a living. You're the greatest people on earth. We love you. We're forever indebted to you. Have a great weekend. We're in a sing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three.

[Tone]

Team.

[Pat McAfee]

Goodbye.

[Tone]

Calling all fun lovers and memory makers,

[Pat McAfee]

Texas invites you to cheer from our stadiums

[Sham Sharan]

and dance like no one is watching.

[Pat McAfee]

Culture seekers can find the art that truly inspires. And from our shopping hubs to our

[Tone]

chic boutiques, fashionistas will never leave empty handed.

[Pat McAfee]

Texas is an unforgettable experience that's waiting. Just visit traveltexas.com and plan your trip today.

[Michael Lombardi]

Let's texas911.

[Pat McAfee]

Where is the emergency? 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. Is it a missing person?

[Tone]

Is it a suicide?

[Pat McAfee]

At this point, nobody knows. Old friendship, 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,