PMS 2.0 1525 - LIVE From The NFL League Meetings, with Adam Schefter & Peter Schrager

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Pat McAfee Show 2.0 1525 – LIVE From The NFL League Meetings

Date: March 31, 2026
Host: Pat McAfee, with AJ Hawk, Toxic Table, Tone Digs, & Guests
Featured Guests: Adam Schefter (ESPN Senior NFL Insider), Peter Schrager (FOX Sports/Good Morning Football)

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Episode Overview

Broadcasting from the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, AZ, during the annual NFL League Meetings, Pat and his crew immerse themselves in the heart of football’s offseason fellowship and insider negotiations. The show explores behind-the-scenes dynamics of coaches, GMs, and executives, breaking news and storylines from the meetings, and discusses league-wide developments including rules changes, the state of officiating, and the growing international and multimedia ambitions of the NFL. Along the way, McAfee’s signature humor and candid rapport bring out insider anecdotes from prominent NFL media personalities Adam Schefter and Peter Schrager, creating a unique mix of insight and levity.

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Main Themes and Flow

• The NFL League Meetings: Clandestine Offseason Catalyst
  The show explores the dynamics and culture of the league meetings—including their reputation as a unique social event where competitive edges are softened, anonymity drops, and important relationships and storylines take shape.
• Inside the Party:
  Lengthy recaps and humorous awards for previous night’s NFL “party of the year.”
• NFL News Cycle:
  Live updates, rumors, and discussions with Adam Schefter and Peter Schrager on QB situations, contracts, officiating, and rule changes.
• Baseball & Umpires:
  The panel riffs on MLB’s new ABS challenge system, how technology is affecting officiating in sports, and possible impacts for the NFL.
• NFL’s International and Multimedia Expansion:
  Discussion of the NFL’s new international games, media projects, and the rise of flag football.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Social Fabric and Power Dynamics at the League Meetings

Timestamps: [00:01]–[11:17], [61:02]–[65:49]

• Biltmore Hotel hosts the league’s “all-chiefs-under-one-roof” event; camaraderie and boisterous socializing among league leadership.
• The party is likened to “the John Wick Continental…all the assassins go, but they can’t kill each other. That’s kinda what happened last night.” (Ty Schmidt, [03:03])
• “The amount of humans that were together last night, you would never expect…everybody just kind of put their swords aside and had a good time for football.” (Pat, [00:48])
• MVPs of the night: Seahawks GM John Schneider (“the most secure, nicest guy…has stories galore and he can hang” – Peter Schrager [64:51]), Mike McCarthy, Ty Schmidt “holding court” with beat reporters and GMs from multiple teams ([65:49]).

2. Adam Schefter on the State of the NFL and League Meetings

Timestamps: [11:17]–[56:07]

• Meetings have grown exponentially. “Now you walk into that room, you can’t even get in. It’s overflowing…it’s like everything else in the NFL. Everything is bigger.” (Schefter, [12:03])

• Main Decisions & Atmosphere:

  • Meetings are a “laid back event” after the intensity of free agency. Expectation of replay assist rule approval, largely a way to hedge against possible referee strikes ([15:46]).
  • Widespread concern about labor peace with officials and memories of disastrous “Fail Mary” (replacement refs, 2012) ([16:40]).

• Quarterback Questions:

  • Browns QB situation: Deshaun Watson “absolutely on the table” to return as starter, with Shador Sanders getting a “head start” by being in Cleveland early ([18:14]–[19:40]).
  • LA Rams & WR contracts: Puka Nacua’s new deal expected to be “around” the top WR number but likely not exceeding it. Emphasis on off-field leadership important to Rams ([21:09]).
  • Mahomes comeback & Chiefs outlook: Timeline for Patrick Mahomes recovery; Chiefs getting less league respect, “nobody’s scared of the Chiefs anymore” ([23:24]–[25:41]).
  • Daniel Jones (NYG) and Anthony Richardson (Colts): Jones “tracking okay” in rehab; Richardson’s trade market “soft” (no real interest), likely remaining on Colts ([26:01]-[41:41]).

• Other Updates:

  • Lions criticized for asking star OL Frank Ragnow for contract payback upon retirement. “This is disgusting…feels like same old Lions.” (Pat [39:18])
  • Hard Knocks announced for Seattle (this year) and New England (next year), as NFL leans into Super Bowl-quality teams rather than bottom-dwellers for prime TV ([44:00]).

3. Officiating, Technology, & New Rules

Timestamps: [10:46]–[16:50]; [93:03]–[99:33]

• MLB’s ABS challenge system—a harbinger for future NFL tech? The main panel riffs on players “putting umps on notice,” and posits that similar accountability will soon hit football officials ([10:46], [16:40]).
• NFL faces looming CBA battle with refs, considering more tech assistance at the league office level, especially if union disputes return ([15:46], [96:06]).
• New rules:
  • Onside kick can be declared any time, not just late in games.
  • Changes to kickoff rules and alignment.
  • One-year only replay assist system if officials’ union work stoppage happens. “Would you want Walt Anderson making the call from New York?...There’s a brotherhood—no way most of these ex-NFL refs are going to crack.” ([96:27]–[97:47])

4. The NFL as Entertainment Goliath: International, Multimedia, and Growth

Timestamps: [47:12]–[54:01]; [83:57]–[93:15]

• Expansion to Australia for the season opener: “Not ideal for coaches or players…but the league’s priorities are clear: flag football and international games.” (Schrager, [80:38])
• New TV series “The Land” about the Browns, first scripted NFL production (with Skydance and Dan Fogelman of “This Is Us”) ([91:38])
• International home markets now include Italy for Cleveland, Ireland for Pittsburgh; “It’s America’s product. Why are we sending teams overseas all the time?” (Tone Digs, [108:11])
• NFL’s flag football push, Olympic ambitions, and surprise losses to Team USA flag football specialists (“Our NFL legends thought they were just going to show up and dominate. It’s a different sport.” – Schrager, [85:07])

5. Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

Party/Camaraderie

• “You walk in and everyone’s an enemy, but last night it really was like a ceasefire, everyone just enjoying the sport.”
  —Pat, [00:48]
• “He had an open beer in his pocket while drinking another. That’s next level.”
  —Conversation about Ty, [65:25]
• “This event is the one week where it’s really laid back…you can build relationships. There’s a face behind the tweets.”—Schrager, [72:11]

Inside Football Operations

• “Every coach’s breakfast is now jammed. What was once ignored is now a huge event.”
  —Schefter, [12:03]
• “Last time there were replacement refs, it was a nightmare. Fail Mary, Facebook pics of refs in team gear…can’t have it.”
  —Schefter, [17:23]
• “Deshaun Watson could be starting again in Cleveland—it’s one of the least-talked-about, biggest stories of the offseason.”
  —Schefter, [18:14]; [18:51]
• “The Rams need their highest-paid players to set an example—you can’t have them doing things he’s done. But Nakua is a good kid.”
  —Schefter, [22:23]

Officiating & Tech

• “If the refs want to play hanky-panky, we’ll ref from the league office. But do we really want Walt Anderson making every call?”
  —Pat, [96:06]
• “You can’t just replace NFL refs with D1 college officials—they won’t break the union, because they hope to be in the NFL one day.”
  —Pat, [99:33]

On the NFL’s Future (International & Flag)

• “The Australia thing is huge—a divisional game, a week early, their bodies adjusting…NFL is dead set on global expansion and flag.”
  —Schrager, [80:07]
• “Flag football is going to be massive for this league at the Olympics. But it’s not easy—our players thought they’d own it and got embarrassed.”
  —Pat & Schrager, [85:07], [86:07]

Media & Pop Culture

• “The NFL is society now. With Skydance, they don’t want to just do a documentary—they want to tell the story, create pop culture.”
  —Pat on the Browns show, [92:32]

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• [00:01]–[05:43] – Setting the stage: Social life at League Meetings
• [11:17]–[16:50] – Adam Schefter: Meetings, rule changes, concerns about officiating
• [18:14]–[23:24] – Cleveland Browns and Deshaun Watson; LA Rams WR contract hierarchy
• [23:49]–[25:58] – Mahomes return, Chiefs’ diminished aura
• [39:18]–[42:45] – Lions “same old” contract drama
• [44:00]–[46:40] – Hard Knocks picks, NFL’s “entertainment as sport” logic
• [80:07]–[83:57] – International expansion; Australia game
• [91:38]–[93:15] – NFL entering scripted TV
• [93:03]–[99:33] – New rules, replay assist, and fate of officiating in a tech-driven future
• [115:31]–[117:11] – Final reflections, NFL meetings as relationship builders

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Summary of Insights for Non-Listeners

• The NFL’s annual meetings are as much about relationship building, rumor-milling, and league direction-setting as they are about official business. Rivalries go on pause for a few nights as deals take shape on the social scene.
• Officiating is at a crossroads, with the looming threat of labor strife and the increasing role of technology, mirroring what’s happening in baseball.
• Quarterback situations (notably in Cleveland and the LA Rams), WR contracts, and injury recoveries (Patrick Mahomes, Daniel Jones) remain central stories.
• The NFL’s media strategy continues to expand: new scripted programming, global games, and a focus on flag football as the next frontier—and source of new competitive headaches.
• Behind-the-curtain details, such as the Lions’ surprising treatment of a star player, bring to light front office cultures and lingering old-school mentalities.
• The tone of the meetings is typically professional but notably more relaxed during this social window, setting the table for a busy summer of football.
• McAfee and his crew deliver candid, often comedic, and highly inside views on these topics, making the episode accessible—even for those far outside the tightly guarded world of the NFL’s power brokers.

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A must-listen for:

• NFL fans interested in the real politicking and culture behind the league
• Those tracking the impact of technological changes on officiating
• Anyone curious about the league’s direction in media and international expansion
• Listeners who appreciate sharp, funny insider banter and offbeat awards for “conference MVPs” and most dramatic moments

Transcript

[A]

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome back to glorious Phoenix, Arizona, the Biltmore Hotel, the home of the league meetings. This glorious Tuesday begins right now. Spores are the greatest, and we're so incredibly lucky that we get a chance to chat about them every single day. We're here live at the Biltmore Hotel, which is a. This is pretty uppity spot. Whoa. We got really nice furnishings. We got good couches here. We got good restaurants here. And this place hosted a party last night that was one of the greatest events I've ever gone to. I would say every human in the NFL was at this place last night. Most of them have an abuse cocktail or two. Bud, it was a great time out here. And I would say Indianapolis, the combine is where a lot of free agency conversations kind of take place. You know, like seeds are planted. I think for here, the league is kind of pieced together at what happened last night. Yeah, the amount of humans that were together last night, you would never expect. Obviously. I mentioned yesterday about how I walked into a room over here where all the NFC coaches were talking, and it was all the local media, was all media people. And I walked in and I go, oh, there's a lot of enemies in here. There's a lot of people that. Everybody's enemies are here. That's what I learned last night. And it seemed like everybody just kind of put their swords aside and had a good time for football.

[B]

Let's get Boost up.

[A]

This has been spectacular. We are very grateful and thankful that we are here now. Granted, a lot of the sessions in which they are voting on what the NFL looks like is happening directly during our show. So us bringing this whole song and dance out here, was it the right move? That'll be judged. That'll certainly be judged. But the event we went to last night was certainly worth the trip, and we are very grateful that we've been welcomed here. A lot of news coming out of this thing. A lot of coaches talking, a lot of people telling the truth. Now, is it the liquid courage that is getting these people to tell the truth? Potentially? I will not name names, but I saw some drinking performances last night. General managers and coaches at this particular hotel that I would put up there as maybe elite. Elite. And then I saw some people roll into these Little press conferences 7:15am this morning, and I said, that's the football difference. That's kind of what we're on here, too. No IVs, not a lot of pedialytes. We have not found the electrolytes yet. We don't have a lot of sleep running through our soul. But we do know sports are fantastic. The final four is this weekend. Baseball is continuing to be electrifying, and the NFL is always alive. It's not just me here. It's a great group of dudes. The toxic tables here at Boston Corner at Ty Schmidt, Con man. The Patriots are represented very well in this particular party. Yesterday, we saw the coach's Ann photo.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And Mike Vrabel won it. As we were seeing the setup, our source says are telling me that he was proud of what he did in that coach's photo where he took both armrests on that plane. And I'll tell you, with the white pants, it's hard to miss what he's got going on in that front row.

[C]

Yeah. You can kind of tell just who's from Ohio, who's from Pennsylvania, just by the photo itself. You know, look at Big Mike up there. Yeah. Reeks of Pittsburgh. And so that's kind of the best thing for me. The hotel last night, you said it. I mean, kind of like a John Wick Continental, if you will, where all the assassins go, but they can't kill each other. Very similar to what happened last night. Everyone goes.

[A]

I think that's a great way to say. And there's no. There's.

[C]

There's no beef. It is just, hey, you want a booze cocktail? I want a booze cocktail. Let's just hang out for a little. Now, some people conversations went left. Some people they went right. It was an incredible time overall, though. And you mentioned rapes. I mean, he delivered on all fronts. We can just say right now, the NFL, the league, New England in particular, is in good. In good hands when Mike Vrabel is at the helm. And I feel like we all had a great time in our own little experience with certain people. And it's fun to hear your guys's tell stories about ours, but, I mean, one of the better things, too, was even just catching up with Mike Greenberg this morning. Yeah, that guy, he's first bout hall of Fame, but hell of a night here at the Biltmore, whatever the hell it's called.

[A]

Ty Schmidt, you were holding court in multiple different cities last night. So each kind of city gathers by themselves, and then there's a little bit of mingling. Ty held court in Green Bay and in Seattle last night. And I'll tell you what, it was an honor to watch. It was an honor to watch you put on a performance last night that I think people will be talking about for Some time. But on that note, did you learn anything that is relevant to ball or to your fanhood or anything like that from last night's massive booze conversations you were having?

[B]

You know, you tried to, but those conversations would have been. You would have had to have those within like the first 30 minutes we were there. Because really, it was after that kind of just, all right, strap in, boys. We're kind of going. So, you know, you get.

[A]

Everybody was boozing. They were hard. I did not expect. Now it's a football event. Football people normally good time havers, especially whenever you're not doing ball, which is what everybody in the NFL does all the time. So it was as if you just get like the first sense of freedom. It felt like what it was last night and everybody really dove into the freedom. I think it was a lot of celebration of freedom last night. And I, I didn't expect it. I almost didn't go.

[B]

Yeah, no, I don't think any of us knew what to expect.

[A]

Yeah. And that was. That would have been a mistake. I think a lot of things are happening for the NFL in that meeting.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

In that situation, like, I think there's a lot of good things happening around there. You might have been in the middle of a couple of them.

[D]

Well, and you know, I.

[B]

Kudos to the NFL too. Obviously they're not doing anything second rate, but I think the. The venue was part of it. You walked out there and it's almost like we were in just like a different world, you know, like, it just so nice. Like Connor mentioned, no one's really trying to, you know, let their beefs be known, even though everyone knows about these things. But then, yeah, when you have the opportunity to just sit down with a GM of one franchise and a head coach of a different franchise and just bullshit for 45 minutes, like, you're not getting that opportunity anywhere else. So that's why, you know, this was so special.

[A]

Lucky to be here. 1/2 of the Hammer Don Cowboys AP Ton is here. We've missed Hammer Don yesterday and today, obviously. Can't wait to see you guys back in a Thunderdome tomorrow. Gambling. Right now, all eyes are on the final four. What are we. What are we. Are we gambling on how many catchers dunk in the face of umpires? It feels like that's going to be the position that is going to be finally getting a one up on the umps. Can I be betting on how the umps are doing? Because let me tell you, as somebody who has publicly advocated for players having A pipeline into becoming NFL referees, mostly because I think players understand the game, especially if they get to a professional level where if you were to teach them the ins and outs of being an official, they'd probably be able to figure it out. Since the beginning of time, I assume catchers and umpires have had very interesting relationships. And catchers, obviously, all day, every day for their entire life have been strike zoning. That's why framing it is so, so important because they're trying to find what the strike zone is supposed to look like now that the catchers can publicly execute. Yeah, the umpire. Back to back to back to back to back pitches. Wow, what a flip in the entire thing. Whenever it comes to can I bet on what catchers are going to beat what umpires? Because that's not a bad little bet. Now that could potentially come and it's almost becoming one of the most electrifying things of baseball. Yes.

[E]

Everything has been awesome about it. And I know you cannot bet on specifically, you know, what catchers or which umpires are going to be worse or whatever. You know, will a team go perfect today on their ABS challenges or whatever. But I am interested to see, like, we get a week or two into this because the catchers statistically have been so much better than, let's say, the batters or the pitchers or whatever. Are the. Is it going to be beneficial to maybe unders, because they are getting so many more strike calls and less batters on base in, like, situations like this, like, if you're going to put a batter on base. No, because an ABS challenge is going to keep them in the box, keep more strikeouts. Will that lead to, like, more unders in situations like that? I'm very interested to see, like, once we get some more data on this situation, will the runs. Will that. I think the runs would be more effective than anything.

[A]

I don't know why the crown couldn't be up for me betting on Salvi beating the hell out of. What's his name? We'd have to ask.

[B]

Yeah, it was CB Buckner. I don't know if it was him, but, you know, one of these guys,

[A]

if it's a part of the game and it's regulated by the league, we

[E]

gotta ask the crown.

[A]

I don't know how can we get that? Because that would be a good time. Because some of these catchers, I think they've been waiting for this moment literally their entire life.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Like, obviously they're professionals now, but I assume a lot of these guys, the amount of confidence they had at high schoolers, they probably got into it with umps, I would say maybe even like, oh yeah, literally getting it going. Well, that's now in front of 40,000 people, they have the opportunity to finally go, oh yeah, bitch. Basically, yeah. Is what's happening there. Yankees won five for five yesterday.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's a big. That's a big storyline. Storyline. They made the pitch clock to make it faster. Storyline. All the stars played great last season. Storyline. Big dumper who hit a walk off last night. Oh no, Is he back?

[C]

Dumps back.

[A]

Oh no, is he. There's a lot of good storylines. This year's storyline is going to be abs and it is going to be what are the ump's real purpose in this whole thing? And the catchers continuing to dominate them is like problematic I think for refs everywhere if players are, you know, kind of going to be right for their warranted upsetness.

[E]

So as you know, I grew up as a catcher and like the first day one, you are taught not to show up the umpire because he's the most important part. Like, yes, you can frame, but if it's a strike and he misses it, you're like, you don't make noises, don't turn around and show them because they're sensitive. Yeah. And they're not going to give you calls the rest of the game. But now you can basically do whatever you want because you are the one back there determining whether you're going to challenge these calls or not. You still don't want to show them up because there's a lot of calls that aren't challenged. You're not challenging like the first pitch in a bat or something like that. I haven't seen anything like that yet. So you still don't want to show them up. It's going to be interesting to catch your ump relationship on how many times they get challenged.

[A]

Yeah, it's a little bit of a power con contrast, you know, because the catchers are now in charge.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that is beautifully. Get two abs's if you're right though they remain so you can't have 20 if you're right the entire time. And these umps little accountability coming very public.

[B]

See, and this is what was awesome too. I don't know how much of that will get but you know, it was in like the fourth inning and the Yankees had already gotten four, you know, five challenges. Right. And Boone from the dugout yells like, hey, wake up. Like, let's go. You know, you're. This is bad. Like so Umpires responding to that and maybe like tossing a manager out for basically just being like, hey, you've been all night. Like, that is absolutely going to happen as well. So it's.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

It's a whole new element. That is. It really has been, you know, no pun intended. It's been a home run thus far.

[A]

Oh, yeah. It has been taking a lap around the bases, isn't it? The, the best part about it is we remember managers, you know, kicking dust. That's all over, like little centimeters sometimes. Yeah, yeah. And now the managers and the catchers get to be like, just like we've been saying this whole time. Yes. And that's crazy.

[B]

And umps can still throw them out if they, you know, are like, I

[A]

don't like your attitude.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

[A]

Yeah. It's going to be a beautiful thing. Good for baseball. Nine year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler here.

[F]

Ums, kind of life support, though. I'm always proud. Pro human. Look, I want to get the calls right, but I'm pro. I'm pro umps. I'm pro chain gang. Like, I, like, certain things are on their way out of here. Like, why do we need them at this point?

[A]

That's a good question.

[B]

Still need them. There's going to be plays at the plate. They have other responsibilities, like where they have to go make calls. So I don't think, I don't think we'll get to that point. But I'll tell you what it is. It's putting them all on notice, that's for sure.

[A]

Ladies and gentlemen, we're live here at the NFL league meetings. And there's one man who's been pounding the pavement. He's been sending the texts, he's been shaking the hands. He's been trying to uncover everything that's going to come out of this league beating cycle. Ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL Insider for espn, Adam Schefter.

[G]

How you doing, my friend?

[A]

I'm great, Chef.

[G]

How are you guys?

[C]

Chef, what's going on?

[E]

Good to see you.

[C]

Always an honor.

[G]

Do I need headphones?

[A]

Yes, this is yours.

[G]

Okay, great.

[A]

Is it loud or no?

[G]

It's okay. All good?

[A]

I don't know. I don't think your microphone is on.

[G]

No. Is it not on? I hear myself talking in my ear.

[A]

It's on. Okay. Yeah. You sound good. Hey, Chef. How you doing, buddy?

[G]

It's great to be with you. I always love coming to Arizona. I was thinking, I've been coming to these league meetings for 35 years and they have a breakfast on Monday and Tuesday with each of the coaches. The NFC the first day, the AFC the second day. When I was coming to this breakfast back in the day, there were tables of coaches, head coaches that were left unintended. Like, nobody there. Nobody there. Now you walk into that room, you can't even get in there. It's overflowing with. It's. It's like everything else in the NFL. The combine has grown. Owners meetings have grown, Super Bowl's grown, Draft has grown. Everything. Everything is bigger.

[A]

Free agency frenzy. Yeah. I mean, everything is its own event. And I think it's because not only is the NFL brilliant creating events, that's.

[G]

That's. That's the coach's breakfast this morning. I'm just telling you, when I first started coming to these, there were tables where there might be one or two reporters at the table maybe.

[A]

And then last night's event, all these people were all in a lawn in every.

[G]

That's always been the case.

[A]

That's unbelievable.

[G]

That's always been the case.

[A]

That was an unbelievable event. I had no idea. People had told me about what it was.

[G]

Did that change your stance on these meetings?

[A]

Yeah, completely. Yeah. Last night was pretty sick. Last night was pretty dope.

[D]

I was like that.

[A]

We were very bummed that we were here Yesterday. It was 130 degrees.

[G]

Wasn't it hot?

[A]

Couldn't get into anything. There's no reason we're staying down a road. Couldn't even get in here. It was like, why are we. This is a bad idea. During our show, they have general sessions where they're voting on actual things. So, like, McCarthy had to sprint out of a meeting. Came through to bushes. Don't come over here.

[C]

Had to sprint out.

[A]

It was just like, man, it's a waste of time. And a lot of people work their asses off to build this entire thing. Like, it was very nice, but I felt bad idea for us to come all the way out here. I thought. Then last night, we flipped. We flipped you completely. I mean, no offense to anybody else that was at that thing. Me and D Butt were some of the last out of the building.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

Okay. So we were representing the program pretty well.

[G]

You beat my son out of there or not?

[A]

Yeah, we did. I saw your boy leave. I saw your boy leave.

[F]

He's holding it down, too.

[A]

He tried to come buy me a drink. He tried to come buy me a drink to make up for the 11 situation. Little he know I already had the tab. But on that note, what is coming out of this place? Because we know Combine is like free agency, seed seven. Last night was a very loose event where a lot of people were talking to a lot of people. How many like. And yet Jay Glazer just put out the day drinking head coach thing that he even Tomlin put together 18 years ago. 28 of the 32 coaches went to that yesterday. They were there from. Once again, from our source. I was there, Schefter included. There was a meeting that they all had to be at at 6. Okay. I was told some of these coaches coming out of this pool, 5:15, 525, 30, very low odds of making it to the 6 o'. Clock.

[G]

I'll say this, there was one thing I saw yesterday. Yeah, I didn't see him last night.

[A]

But you tell me about that though. It feels like it's a good vibe. So is there a lot of decisions being made here? Is there ideas being made here or is this just like a camaraderie thing?

[G]

Honestly, I think it's a laid back event. I think everybody's happy to be there. Free agency is such a slog on everybody. And the teams know the next month with the draft is going to be a brutal process for them, for the media. The draft is kind of fun. I mean there's not a lot of hard news stories like as opposed to free agency. When the Thunderdome, trade, trade, signing, signing, boom, boom. This, this is a different feel. And here, this is a league event. It's everybody coming together. There aren't many times in a year where you get to do that. Roger Goodell talked the end of the day today. They have a day of business. We'll probably get the league assist replay approved so that for the year, for the year. In the event, of course that there are replacement refs because that hangs over everything.

[A]

Oh yeah, that was talked about a lot last night.

[G]

Yeah, I think that, I think that's coming.

[A]

I will say the year vote, the year assistance or the ref. NFL massive blowout happening. What's going to happen?

[G]

Well, I think all of it's on the table.

[A]

Like I think so too.

[G]

Yeah, all of it's on the table.

[A]

Yeah. The last night everybody we talked to, it was like, hey, this refs thing.

[G]

And they're like, it's real deal.

[A]

Everybody's eyes just get real big.

[E]

We're not talking about.

[A]

Yeah, because we all lived through the replacement. Basically everybody that's in this building. There's not a lot of folks that are like that weren't a part of the league in some fashion, us included. It was like, hey, that was a nightmare. That was not good. Let alone the Fail Mary. Everybody goes to Fail Mary, which is worst call in history and an embarrassment. Every single down there is something that the refs have to do. Yeah. That these replacement refs couldn't do. And now none of the refs that think they can get to the NFL will break the union. So we're staring down another thing. But we're watching MLB right now. If we got league tech assists happening.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

That's huge.

[A]

There is. That's. That could be bad for refs long term. So they might be kind of rolling the dice here. Shefty, if you catch what I'm saying. Yeah. Well.

[G]

And that's why there's such a disagreement on the value of what officials should be making a year. And the officials, I think. I think they do a great job and I think, think they're entitled to get whatever they can get. And hopefully the two sides can figure it out. But I go back to 2012. I know everybody remembers the Seattle Green Bay game as the symbolic moment. Everybody thinks back when officials like this, ones like that. I always remember my late great colleague Chris Mortensen coming in or that week hearing about a story that he had one of the officials who was working a Saints game that weekend. He had on his Facebook page all these pictures of that particular official wearing Saints gear.

[A]

Yeah, exactly.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

That cannot happen.

[G]

I always remember that, you know, Morton covered this. I don't remember how he did it, but it was a great job and it was a wild story.

[A]

And so let's assume everybody understands the refs are going to be a problem. They're in negotiation. Hopefully they both come to an agreement at some point. Reasonable. Hopefully they're both reasonable. We would like the refs to get paid for what they're good at, which is what some of them are, which is officiating, which is a tough job, but also modern technology, accountability. We'd like a little bit better for the game. Hopefully they're able to meet. Let's move some other stuff that we're saying. Hasm said that deshaun Watson very much in play to play for the Cleveland Browns. Shador Sanders living in Cleveland, working out in Cleveland. Dylan Gabriel hasn't seen him around, says Todd Monkin. What is the quarterback situation in Cleveland? And desean Watson returning to Cleveland Brown. I guess desean Watson arriving as a Cleveland Browns star quarterback could happen this upcoming season. Is that real?

[G]

I think that's been one of the least talked about biggest stories going into the season. The fact that desean Watson could wind up being the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns, I think that's. I think that's absolutely on the table. I think that it feels like it's moving towards that right now. Now Todd Monkin comes in, and who knows exactly what he's going to do, but they're going to take a look at everybody. Todd Monkin said at breakfast this morning that he hasn't decided, at least publicly, how the quarterback rotation will work out in OTAs. He's going to lean on people who've had experience there. Shador's had some experience. Dylan Gabriel not being there. Like there's a message there. The fact that he's not there, I

[A]

think you know what it is.

[G]

Yeah, not through there.

[A]

Shador's dad is one of the greatest professional athletes of all time. He said, hey, when you're on a team, you fucking live there. You know, that's what. That's. Yeah. You're a fifth rounder. You probably don't have a lot of say. Remember, he was there before spring workouts.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

Doing charity stuff. It's like he understands what a professional athlete is. Is, you know, I think Shador has a very huge head start and all that. So obviously he had a lot more attention because who his dad was, which everybody said, well, I'm only hearing about it because who his dad is like, when. Well, coming alongside that is also a lot of intel that you can potentially learn about being a professional athlete, especially as a 5th round draft pick and having to earn your shit. So I like to hear that Shador's there in town. I think he's been trying to be the leader in the quarterback of that team since he got there. Deshaun Watson, though, if he's anywhere near when he was a good football player, he was like MVP. Oh, yeah. Was that 100 years ago?

[G]

100 years ago that it would be a wild comeback story. Yes, it would be Everything that he's come back from. Everything. Right. I mean, he's been off the football radar for a couple of years. Right. So he's back on the football radar and he could wind up being the starting quarterback.

[A]

Yeah. We got desean Doppler here in the football radar, potentially be the starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Andrew Barry looks jacked. Will he be jacked about the quarterback decision he has to make? We shall see. Todd Monken, not a lot of fanfare whenever he got hired as the head coach. Seems like he might be the right guy.

[G]

And I'll say this, they have two first round picks. They're picking, I believe, 6 and 24. And I don't think they're going to go quarterback in round one at all.

[C]

Really?

[G]

Really.

[E]

I mean, I mean there's pro, I

[F]

would hope you heard Mil Kuiper.

[E]

Well, there's also not really any quarterback

[G]

you're not going to, you're not going to do in six. 24 would be a possibility. And I, I, I don't see it happening right now.

[E]

But with the draft class next year, I think it's like, hey, let's figure out what we have this year. And depending on, on where we are next year with the class that 217 is supposed to be, maybe we'll address it.

[A]

A lot of teams just punting on 20, 26 sounds like the NBA. Okay. Hope that's not what's happening around here. Go ahead, D. Bud.

[F]

Team that's not punting on 2026, the LA Rams and the receiver in particular, JSN. He set the new market with a new wide receiver deal. What are the chances in your opinion, that Puka Nakua gets to that number or above that number? I know he's, you know, dealing with some stuff right now. I'm thinking, get figured out. Big fans of Puka on the field for sure. What's the chance that he gets a new deal that kind of tops.

[G]

Here's what I think that his deal, when it gets done, is going to be around there.

[F]

Okay.

[G]

I don't know that he's going to beat there. It's interesting because I saw that Jackson Smith and Jake Bedil come down. I'm like, I wonder if Puka's going to beat this. Spoke to some people and they're like going to be tough, going to be tough. But he's also, he gets to see the deal. It's there in front of him. So you know what you're trying to beat and you could always dress up the numbers to beat it. So it's not that hard to do. But talking to some people, they felt like it would be difficult to do. In theory, we'll see how so I would say it'll be around there.

[F]

Okay.

[A]

Okay. Sean McVay said something about being also one of the leaders of an organization. He's out in la, he's young, his energy is outrageous. He's, he's funny, he's very good at football. Everything he's doing is being talked about. It's like old school TMZ type life. Yeah, it does feel like I'm watching like an old school, when I was in high school, maybe in college, and TMZ was catching everybody doing everything. That's what Pukinakua has felt like over the last offseason or so. As long as he plays good football, nothing matters. Right. If he falls off at all, all of this shit is going to get thrown in his face. He knows that. I think he understands that. And from our understanding, he works his ass off. So I think he's only going to get better and better. I think McVay knows that. But McVay bringing up the, hey, you're a leader of an organization too. That's an interesting thing because obviously they're still trying to figure it all out.

[G]

Well, if you're going to pay him at that level, you need your highest paid players to be your leaders, to set an example. You can't have them doing some of the things that he's done themselves. You just can't do that. Right. So they need him to kind of get with the program, get with being the top paid player that he's going to be and hopefully he grows into. He's a good kid.

[C]

Yeah. And during the season too, when he had the, you know, the Aiden Ross situation where he had them at the facility and everything, I'm pretty sure he went out in Seattle and went for like 220 in a touchdown. So he does still deliver. To your point about, hey, you got to still continue to play well.

[A]

Yeah, he's going to have to, though. Yeah, I mean, that is going to. That's as soon as I started tweeting as a punter. I mean, I'm two shanks away from everybody being, oh, Twitter fingers, that's fine. Why don't you punt the football? And I'm punter, so that's a very low position. Anytime you bring any attention to yourself outside of football and your football slides at all, you're just providing. You're providing, you're providing. He hasn't. He's still very young. He's nowhere near his prime either, which is a scary thing to even think about. Con man has a question for you though. Shefty.

[C]

Yeah, Chef ds, let's stick with the quarterbacks here. Clark Hunt basically said like, yeah, I don't think we're going to be starting the season out in Seattle because Mahomes might not be ready by then and there's some concern around that. What is kind of Mahomes timeline at the moment because he tore his acl, I forget what it was, but there was a video recently 100 days later, you know, he's throwing the football. Do you expect him to be ready when week one rolls around? Do you know anything or is this kind of.

[G]

Well, first of all, when Clark Hunt says that, he knows that. So that tells me that the Seahawks are not going to be hosting the Chiefs in that Wednesday night opener. The Chiefs will be off the table. So the league will spare Patrick Mahomes and give him the extra time to try to get ready. There was a doctor, a team doctor that texted me when he was watching Mahomes through the video. He's like, watch the way that he puts his foot down. It's not all there yet, but I wouldn't expect it to be all there yet. And he's not playing now. He's playing in five plus months. To me, when I see that the doctors may say he's not ready, I say to myself, give this guy five more months and he's gonna be there on opening day. That's what I expect. This is a guy, when he dislocated his kneecap, is playing the next week, Right? So five more months to come back after this type of surgery, as significant as that knee injury was, he's coming back from it. I think he'll be back. And Andy Reid, I think, got his knee work done. He's moving around. Well, Patrick Mahomes got his knee worked. Everybody in Kansas City, like, if you. You're in, you get your knee fixed this off season and you're getting ready for the opener, which won't be in Seattle.

[A]

Whenever we talk about Patrick Mahomes, too, we want to make sure that he's. He remembers. Hey, they're saying, your ass, dude.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Saying you're not good.

[G]

Who said that?

[A]

Everybody.

[G]

He's the man.

[A]

Jeffy didn't, by the way. Lions fan back there. He looks incredible. I think he's staying to bill more. That means he's probably somebody back here. But Patrick Mahomes, you need to remember this clip this. Chiefs are dead. Your ass. That is what everybody's saying. That is what you. You know it. Nobody's talking about Chiefs at the party last night.

[G]

That's what everybody else was saying. Right.

[A]

I would like to let it be known I did not have any conversations about you being asked Patrick Mahomes here at this party if somebody would have said that, I would have stopped them immediately and said, excuse me, shut the fuck up.

[E]

Nobody at that party said, nobody.

[A]

Nobody at that party saying that. These people. No ball here.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

But on that note, nobody's Talking about the Chiefs. It's over. Travis Kelce is coming back for one year.

[C]

Deal.

[A]

That'll be fun. Okay. Patrick Mahomes coming out of injury. That'll be fun. Maybe they'll be able to get back into battling in the afc. But nobody's, like, scared of the Chief anymore, Pat. They say your ass, Patrick. Good luck out there. Five months to get back. We need him for all games. We need Patrick Mahomes.

[G]

Yeah, I think I'll be back.

[A]

How about Daniel Jones?

[G]

Sounds like he's tracking okay, right?

[A]

That sounds like a different.

[F]

Don't sound as confident.

[A]

That sounds like a answer.

[E]

Different age or.

[G]

I didn't see the video of him planting. You know, I can't look at the video and say, okay.

[A]

Mike Garofolo is reporting that Shane Steichen says that Daniel Jones is attacking his rehab. It's the second major injury of Jones's NFL career, which helps him understand the process. Steichen, he's been through so many different things. I don't think anything's gonna face that.

[E]

Shane Steicher, I don't think I've ever seen without a hat on.

[C]

Oh, no. Shane, he looks like a president now. He looks 65 years old.

[B]

Yeah, he does look.

[A]

He does look like a president. Yeah.

[G]

Wait, wait, wait. You guys in Indy wouldn't have known that that was your head coach without a hat.

[D]

Okay?

[G]

Your head coach. Your head coach.

[A]

Yeah. I don't like what they did. I don't like what they did. Now, granted, we gotta win some. Where do you guys live?

[G]

Where do you guys live?

[E]

I don't live outside in summer.

[C]

I pay taxes for that damn stadium. And it ain't one. Hey, that much. Big ten.

[G]

They won. They won. They just won. Before you pay your taxes for this.

[A]

Yeah. What about the Final four? You're going to be happy down there in Indianapolis.

[C]

I. I won't be pissed about the Final Four, but, I mean, what's the point? Is it the lighthouse or is it the. Hey, let's cut this thing in half and play.

[A]

It's the big house.

[G]

It's the big house. This weekend,

[A]

the big house is the big houses in Ann Arbor, okay? Y. There going to be a lot of

[E]

Michigan fans down there.

[G]

Big house in Indy this weekend.

[A]

No, it's not. The lad house.

[G]

Our house.

[C]

Yeah, Chef.

[A]

Okay. You going chef house. Dusty, man.

[G]

It's Dusty's house.

[A]

Chef. Dusty's from Indiana.

[G]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

You are not doing what you're doing right now. Please.

[G]

It's Dusty's house.

[A]

Is that What? All Michigan people are treating.

[G]

I'm treating right now.

[E]

They've been awesome.

[A]

Yeah. Michigan team's unbelievable. Maybe the most dominant when you got Arizona. They're also very good. Michigan favored by 1 1/2 in that. Unbelievable. Good for you guys. Illinois obviously taking on Yukon. Loud house. Lucas Oil Stadium will be phenomenal. You are going, right?

[G]

I don't know yet.

[A]

I thought you said you were going Michigan, man.

[G]

I don't know. I, I. It's up in the air. First of all, next week, I was supposed to take my daughter on some college visits and kind of planned it to go Monday.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Take her to Blooming.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Go Jaguars.

[G]

That's a good idea. Maybe we'll head down to Bloomington.

[C]

It's going to Michigan anyways.

[G]

Well, you know, it's funny. It was a couple of weeks ago, I was doing a talk at Penn State, and I was showing my daughter Penn State. So one of my friends in Michigan text me. He's like, what are you doing at Penn State? Like, she not going to Mission. I'm like, if you can promise me and assure me that she'll get into Michigan, we will cease all visits right now. But, like, it is such a hard school to get into. You have no idea how it's going to work.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Such a good school.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

So good.

[C]

Make a call, Chef.

[A]

Yeah, Chef.

[G]

It's not that simple.

[A]

It's not.

[G]

Not that simple.

[E]

They call it the Morgantown in the Midwest.

[G]

That simple.

[A]

Michigan.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

West Virginia lets everybody. If your daughter would like to go to West Virginia University. I know some people probably put her on scholarship. She's a media person, right?

[G]

Burgeoning media person. Yes.

[A]

Okay. So she can get it. She's on scholarship. West Virginia.

[G]

If she, like. Wow.

[A]

Yeah. I have the.

[C]

I thought that's huge.

[A]

Now, on that note, why don't you make a little bit of a donation to Michigan and maybe get the kids in for free. Why don't you do that? Why don't you?

[G]

I donated yesterday.

[A]

Did you really? Yeah. What's a quarterback or wide receiver?

[C]

Just your time.

[G]

Actually, there was. We went. My friends and I went to the game this weekend in Chicago, and one of the guys said, you know, he didn't. He didn't charge for things. He make a donation to the women's program. So we did that yesterday.

[A]

Oh, nice. Yeah. Which. Which program? Just in general.

[G]

The women's basketball program yesterday lost to Texas.

[F]

Oh.

[A]

Heartbreaking.

[E]

It was a close game, huh?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah, I was watching. That was crazy when it happened. Yeah. I was pretty bummed out.

[G]

Women's basketball, hockeys in the frozen four.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

Men's basketball going to our house, Dusty's house this weekend.

[E]

All right. Great new football coach Turleys.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

Great new football coach Whittingham.

[C]

He's pretty pissed about $50 million on the roster this year.

[A]

But this is not Michigan's house. Okay. It's the LOD house in Indianapolis, Indiana, and it is hosting the final four. It is not the Michigan house, is not Dusty's house. We'd like to let everybody know. Illinois, you need to look out for Illinois.

[E]

There's going be a lot.

[B]

Might be Brad Underwood.

[A]

Yeah. Especially because Tony kids coming back to his house as well. There's a lot of Indiana representatives here in the final four and they're going to over that entire place.

[G]

Yukon plus Michigan has the best odds to win the national championship.

[A]

Yes, sir. Plus 170. You want to hammer that? Maybe.

[G]

But they're underdogs. Aren't they underdogs on Saturday?

[A]

No. Your favorites.

[E]

Favorite by one.

[A]

One and a half.

[F]

Pick them though.

[B]

Bit of a pick them.

[A]

Yeah. One and a half's not a lot of points. Yeah. Your favorite. You guys have had a dominant run here through March Madness, brother.

[G]

They've been good. They're, they're. It's a good, good group of people.

[A]

You're just thinking about not going to see him play. Ty has a question for you, Chef.

[G]

No, I'd like to go see him play. It there's. It's complicated. It's getting there. It's getting tickets. It's all those things.

[A]

Other than Adam Schefter. Yeah, you're Adam.

[C]

Jeez.

[A]

We have tickets for you. Yeah. I mean, we don't have the Michigan connection that you're allegedly taking over a fucking stadium, but we could probably call somebody at the Lighthouse. Yeah, we could probably find you a ticket if we need to. Go ahead.

[B]

Ty Shefty, just curious. Last time you came on, you said that Kirk Cousins was basically like, he's. He's not just gonna go take a one or two million dollar deal to be a backup quarterback somewhere. Where we stand on that, I feel like that's the only name I've been seeing is, hey, where's Kirk Cousins going to go? And is he maybe waiting? I don't know. Does he think he's going to be a starting quarterback in Pittsburgh potentially? Or is the idea that, hey, we kind of know that Rogers is probably going to be going back to Pittsburgh and eventually here. Kurt Cousins, he does still Want to play and he's just going to go be a backup.

[G]

So it does sound like the Rogers thing in Pittsburgh thing is happening. Him and McCarthy are talking every day. Why are they talking every day if he's not going back? It just is not official. It's not contractual. I was told. I don't know where they're at. They just. It's Aaron being Aaron. Right.

[A]

What's that mean?

[G]

Hasn't decided.

[A]

What's that mean?

[B]

Going through his process.

[G]

Exactly.

[E]

He's talking to big Mike every week. I believe Mike McCarthy said this morning he was talking to him yesterday. What I mean, what are we doing?

[G]

Right?

[E]

You either want to play or you don't.

[C]

He's busy, guys. We know why.

[A]

Working out, doing push ups. You know why? Bone time, cooking bacon. That's what he's doing. His underwear. That's what he's in my kitchen. You think he's worried about what's going on in August, September, October, right now? No, can't. How could. Now on that note, I assume he is actually. And if he is Talking to Mike McCarthy every single week. When Mike was sitting here yesterday, yeah, I was putting it to him a little bit, you know, because we're pretty comfortable with him. Like, well, why wouldn't he want to play in your offense for one last trip? Because he loves your offense. He goes conversations. You go positively. And then I go, everybody here sounds like him.

[G]

Everybody can imitate him very well.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

He's against. Right.

[G]

It's pretty simple.

[A]

So you think Aaron playing for the

[G]

Steelers be my guess. Yeah. It seems like way.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Why don't you put a tweet out about it right now?

[G]

That's why I say seems and be my guest because we want to keep it like that.

[A]

Mark Caboli, who's obviously the Pittsburgh Steelers correspondent for this program, we saw him last night for the first time this year. Mike McCarthy said he talked to Aaron Rogers last night. Those two talk more than me and my wife. So it sounds like they're getting tied up.

[C]

Jeez.

[A]

Mark and Kaboli maybe reach out to your wife.

[G]

Exactly. That's the headline out of there. That Mark didn't talk to his wife last year.

[A]

Not just last night.

[G]

General.

[A]

Yeah. Mark, open up conversation with Ms. Caboli.

[G]

Exactly.

[A]

Yeah. Jeez. Stop eating a mayonnaise sandwich right in front of her face and say hello. Ask her how her days go and

[G]

don't take your business with Ms. Kaboli Public.

[A]

Well, we don't know. Maybe they're the next reality TV couple.

[B]

Mark Takes a couple.

[A]

I would too. The Cabolis. I'll tell you what. And then what if he starts working out so he can do what Aaron is doing with his.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Get a PhD.

[A]

Yeah. There's chance Cabo.

[E]

They actually already did that show.

[A]

What's that?

[E]

They actually already did that show.

[A]

Love is Blind.

[E]

No, it was, I believe it was

[B]

Mahersh or oh, Bob Loves Abby show.

[E]

Yeah, whatever.

[A]

That's Bill Gardell was in it.

[E]

Yeah.

[G]

By the way, I didn't answer Ty's question. I think Kirk Cousins is just sitting back and waiting. Whatever opportunity comes his way, he can be selective and choose. He's made as much money as an NFL player so he doesn't have to rush into anything.

[B]

Like not going to be mendoz.

[A]

Back up.

[G]

I, I, I, or start and then

[E]

let Mendoza come in.

[G]

Yeah, maybe. But is he rushing out to Vegas now? He's got his family like, I don't know, like he can go when he wants. He can go where he wants. He could play. He could not play. He could bruck. I don't think he's rushing to anything until he feels like it's the right thing, whatever that is.

[C]

Yeah. Shefty kind of a news story that hit the wire that kind of got us all going. It feels as though the Detroit, Detroit Lions are the cheap lines now. They asked for money back from Frank Reich.

[A]

I think we got a brand new graphic actually, if you would like to. We have a brand new graphic. If we could pull it up.

[C]

Frank right now basically broke his neck and said, no, I, I still want to play. Yeah, Taylor's old time. And they basically. It's almost as if they reversed the curse. That they reversed that. They're now going to be cursed again.

[A]

Sheila Ford Hamp brought in a whole new. That's the, that's the Lions. Who is that? Random Lions. No, it was, I think he made this before. The most recent version of you're going to have to give us your money back. Even though you certainly outplayed your contract and we are, I guess, not grateful. Jim Irsay gave Andrew Luck $25 million whenever he retired 13 days before the season.

[C]

Think about that just as a thank

[A]

you to Andrew Luck. And I'm not saying that that's how you have to do it, but just the fact that the Lions are seemingly still up to their old tricks.

[C]

What.

[A]

Why would you do? Is this, how normal is this? It's not normal. Right. Especially with stars. If they were like bottom half of roster and didn't contribute to City to team. I think it'd be a little bit more broken throat.

[G]

I was surprised to see that.

[A]

Me too. Because how much was it, Fox? Did you guys get like a new chair or something? Don't even know. I was defending the Lions right here. This is inexcusable. Those are three of the greatest players of my lifetime, by far and away. And like you guys said, Ragnar played through so many injuries, and he was here during the greatest era of Lions football in the history of the franchise. I don't care how much it was. It could have been $100 million billion dollars and we should have gave him the money. What the hell is going on, Shefty? I know they're gonna honestly. And Taylor Decker said what? They haven't talked to me. Yeah, yeah. That was just him. That was like two, three months. He's being a little dramatic, we think. I agree. But on that note, it does feel weird the way you guys treat your players. Honestly. Frag now.

[C]

Tried to come back. Yeah.

[A]

This couldn't pass the physical.

[C]

He had one hamstring, his other hamstring disappeared.

[A]

Shefty, inform us a little bit. Why it. Is it as abnormal as we are making it feel here? Because it feels abnormal for your star players to give back money to the team that they've played for.

[G]

I don't know how it works every team, but it feels more abnormal than not. I don't think that most teams do that. I. I'm open to be corrected, but it doesn't sound like teams ask their star players to start giving back money after that. And. And. And like I don't know how this comes out like this. And.

[C]

And then other players, you know, I think it was quandary. Diggs, I believe he chimed in. Alex Anzalone, paisan, who we know he basically also burying them like it just looks terrible as a team that we all think like, hey, if you're trying to resurrect your team, do what the Lions did.

[A]

Brand new Lions. This feels like some same old. And I want to know who makes that decision. Is that actually.

[E]

Is that actually never sit in that

[A]

chair or is it the president, Rod Wood? That needs to be clear.

[G]

I think Rod was retiring. I wonder if they're going to make him pay for pit back his bones.

[A]

That's a good question. Shafter, good call and thank you for being fair right there. Normally your people in your position would not go to bat for players versus executives or coaches.

[G]

Players earn all their money and. And when they sign that contract that is supposed to Be guaranteed money. If it's guaranteed, why are we guaranteed to give it back?

[A]

Well, the lion said it's actually our money we gave him for future use. Yeah, and he's not doing the future use, so that thing's going to have to come back. Just. It optically looks stupid. For a company that is billions and billions of dollars. How big the NFL is This guy rolled himself out of the hospital bed to try to play football for them because their offensive line sucked this last year. And they ran a physical and they're like, dude, you're not healthy enough to play. He's like, I'll die out there. Just let me do it. And then on his way out after he failed a physical and was willing to die, like, oh, yeah. Also, you owe us 5 million. You got cash on it on the way out. Please. It's like, what? Why would you. I don't know why you would do that. Makes no sense. But hey, cutthroat business. Hey, way to go. You guys are gonna need Peyton Manning and the guy from Dumb and Dumber to put another job out there.

[C]

And they're moving Penny, so. The left tackle.

[G]

Yeah, that's. That's what it sounds like.

[C]

So will he get a new contract? Are they gonna ask for some of the right tackle contract back and then give him a different left tackle?

[A]

That's a good question. I mean, honestly, we have to start asking these.

[C]

It's what's happening.

[A]

Any deal with the Lions, if you're a star player, you're gonna have to put in there, like, not paying this back. Yeah, well, I remember correctly when they paid Penny, so they paid him as the highest lineman in general. Not right left tackle specific. So I think that's where his contract's at. But you never know these days. You never know what's going to happen with that. I don't like that. We're a little hungover maybe, so we're going a little harder than we should on the Lions, but this is disgusting.

[C]

Disgusting.

[A]

This is disgusting. I don't like it either. Especially because I just met mcdc last night. It was one of the greatest nights of my life. So I hate that this has to happen.

[C]

Love his new hair.

[E]

Not his call.

[A]

Sounds like it's over. It's not. McD.

[E]

Yeah, I do. I saw you put out. And we know Chris Ballard likes his guys. That there's a possibility Anthony Richards is still going to be on the Colts. Is there a market for him? Do you see him being on the Colts? What's the latest with that situation of the former number four overall pick, the

[G]

market for him was soft. If there was a market for him, they would have traded him and it didn't materialize. So now you have to ask yourself, okay, is it worth it to deal him where you're like, I'm making some flipping picks like Richardson and a seven for a six. Like, why are you going to do that? You might as well hold on to the guy. He would obviously like a fresh start and go somewhere where he gets some reps and work and change the scenery. But you're not just going to give away the former fourth overall pick in the 2023 draft unless it makes a little sense now. We'll see how the draft materializes. Maybe somebody doesn't get somebody, maybe somebody gives up some pick that makes it worth the Colts while. But what they're saying there is we're not going to give them away. I don't think they're expecting a lot, but they're expecting something back and nothing has materialized so far. There's not been a team that has been overly interested in getting a deal done. I know Green Bay was out there. There was no real conversation. Now maybe that'll happen and heat back up with the draft, but nothing so far.

[A]

So did you follow up because you're a journalist with Kevin o' Connell who gave a full speech after a game to Anthony Richardson about how big of a dog he is, how good he is at football and how yada, yada, yada needs to keep going. Did you follow up that tweet saying there was no interest in trading for him with a hey, remember this clip from Kevin o' Connell saying that he would love to coach this guy, but

[G]

the Vikings signed Kyler Murray and they signed Carson Wentz to go along with

[A]

JJ Mc okay, so ask Kevin OConnell. He signs Carson Wentz over Anthony Richardson.

[G]

That's obviously what he preferred.

[A]

Okay. Yeah. So why don't you. I'm not going to say, hey, Kevin o'. Connell.

[G]

I thought that he obviously thinks Carson Wentz is a real dog too.

[A]

We love Carson Wentz. He is a fun experience watching it.

[B]

He almost died on the field last year for the Vikings.

[A]

For us, there's a lot of people for the good prime time sport. There's a lot of people, though, that whenever we were talking about Anthony Richardson not playing football well, they're from other teams that were telling me I was the biggest piece of trash and I don't understand what ball is and I don't blah, blah blah, blah Blah. This guy's been available now, right, for nothing.

[G]

Sounds like it would be minimal.

[A]

And nobody in the league wants him. So that's a couple questions. Now, injury that happened to him, is he.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Do we know enough about the injury? Because it sounded like there was a lot of people that were interested in Anthony Richardson outside of the Colts. Even though us who followed along with the culture, like, feels like he is never maybe going to hit his ceiling here in Indianapolis for whatever reason, whether it's not understanding what a pro is, not understanding what defense is, maybe people getting hurt, maybe him getting hurt, not getting reps. Freak accident happened. And then he comes back, seemingly figures it out, he's taking mental reps, doing this whole thing, has no idea what an elementary blitz is, breaks his pinky first preseason, preseason, whenever it was all going, it just like never really got going good. But I heard a lot of other people telling me that they would love to have him on their team. And it's like now it sounds like that's not the case. Maybe everybody's just posturing. But I want to let you know, there was a time, and it's still there, I guess, where I was a believer. Yeah.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

I was.

[E]

Look, there it is.

[A]

We made that AR5. You see, we are. Believe ours.

[G]

Ah. Ah.

[A]

Believe ours. Because I believed in him.

[G]

And you still are. You're not.

[A]

I'm out on him as a cult.

[B]

Yeah, sure.

[A]

I'm out on him as a cult. I don't think it'll ever work at the Colts. Well, anybody worked at the Colts.

[C]

Well, seems like no thus far, but maybe. Maybe this.

[A]

Soften that up. There is no reason for that.

[C]

Maybe it's like no changes.

[A]

The guy fade away. 70 yard throw.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Dunk from foul line.

[B]

I would love if he was the packers backup quarterback.

[A]

I mean, legit. Like he. There is certainly upside. So it's like, what was the injury? Was there more to the injury that we maybe didn't hear about, didn't know? Did people learn more about it? Did they hear more stories about what was happening behind the scenes? And I want to bring that in. Is it just the wrong timing? Like, there's so much about it, but as one of the most hyped athlete quarterbacks that at least we've been around, especially because he came to our city, it's like the upside is still, I assume very much there there. It's just like, will he ever get by the way?

[G]

And we've seen all these quarterbacks who have been taken high come back and have resurgent careers elsewhere. So that. That has to make him even more attractive.

[A]

True. Very true.

[C]

Yeah. Speaking of Sam Darnold, Hard Knocks with Seattle, it feels like we're gonna get a peek behind and McDonald, Curtin and Sam Darnold. And then, yeah, the Patriots the year after. First of all, how do they do, like, all of a sudden, hey, the next two years of hard knocks are decided, and will that maybe be the new thing? Like, if you play in the super

[A]

bowl, you're gonna get congrats.

[C]

Yeah, you're getting hard knocks.

[G]

I asked that question last night. How did it come to me? Because we've never seen it two years, and everyone always says, we'll do it next year, we'll do it next year. So they actually held a team's feet to the fire and said, oh, the Patriot, you'll do it next year. You're in. You're the 2027 team. So that's why it's two teams and not one. Because everybody always says they'll do it the next year. It's like, yeah, let's get lunch. Let's get lunch. Let's get lunch. And then you don't get lunch. Right. They scheduled lunch for 2027 on Hard Knocks. Now, let me say this. Mike McDonald, he's awesome. What a great guy. He's going to come across really well. He is so even killed. I said to him last night at that party, I'm like, how is this super bowl win? Has it changed your life? No. You don't feel like a certain puff at your chest here? No. One of the rare people that I've ever heard say that. No, no. He's like. Hasn't changed anything. Just kind of working along. I thought it was interesting because usually.

[A]

So when I talk to people that

[G]

won a Super bowl, like, they feel like, you know, they're proud. It carries over for the whole season.

[A]

Yeah, him, I saw him sitting down. You went over the one, he's sitting down. He was hanging out. Had to see a Seahawks hat. You sit down and go, what's up, dude? Feel like he got a little bigger in the pants. Because you want to. That's how I actually.

[G]

I saw him. I said, you. You look. You look bulky. Bulky. I said buffed. Buffed like him and Nick, sir.

[E]

They both cut up.

[G]

You know, they look good.

[A]

Sirianni. People.

[B]

People were killing.

[C]

Yeah, they called him a chud. Whatever that means.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know what that means. I still don't know what it means. But a lot of people People saw that tweet. It had big number.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I don't know what they were saying though. Chud. What do you think that. What do you think that is?

[E]

Let me look it up.

[G]

The only thing I can think of.

[C]

Jacked.

[G]

He looks big.

[A]

He does. He does look jacked. And he's pies on, you know, so probably eating still. Yeah.

[G]

You know, honestly, he looks like that from right here. I don't have my glasses on. Oh, it looks like Dan Campbell. Like I would guess. Who's that? That looks like Dan Campbell. Just a, you know, a rocked up big guy.

[A]

I mean, Salah, you don't want to be standing by Shanahan. Good idea. Kind of turning the shoes.

[E]

Do you want me to read Dan Quinn, Merriam Webster definition of chud.

[G]

What does it say?

[E]

Chud is a generalized term of disparagement used somewhat synonymously with full troll or jerk.

[C]

Oh, that's not.

[A]

He doesn't look like a chud.

[G]

I never heard that in my life.

[A]

Yeah, I guess. Cause you're not a.

[G]

When he said chud, I was thinking Rob Chudzinski.

[C]

Sure. Brown's great love.

[A]

Chud Changed a U to an O.

[C]

Maybe

[A]

with an E. Oh, yeah, sorry. Yeah. Add an E. Yeah. I think we all took the trip there together. He said Chode. That's what he said. Okay, so Hard Knocks in Seattle and New England.

[G]

Yep.

[A]

Which is awesome. Hopefully it'll be good. Hard knocks, obviously 11th.

[G]

August 11th. It starts.

[A]

Okay, August 11th. That starts with Seattle. Obviously very important to the history of the league. Hard Knocks, the inside scoop. Now social media teams are able to do that. So how does Hard Knocks stay relevant? Getting the two super bowl teams is a big way to do that because normally they do shit teams, you know, so that's a good thing. Super bowl going to Las Vegas in 2029, you broke that yesterday. That feels like a big deal. Vegas is an incredible. We are fans of Vegas as a hosting city. Are they now just going to get into the la? Miami, Vegas? I think New Orleans is.

[E]

Miami hasn't got one in a. That feels like Miami's getting skipped now. Is that the case?

[A]

Yeah, it feels like there's a couple homes that become like, we've been Miami

[G]

since the COVID Like it was right before COVID the Chiefs and the Niners. That was like Covid was hitting the next day that week.

[A]

So Vegas probably going to become a likely.

[G]

Yeah, I think. I think obviously the league liked experience there the last time and it's going back there pretty quickly.

[A]

WWE has done WrestleMania. They're now two years in a row and like it. Their fans got really pissed whenever it was announced. It was back at WrestleMania, but I think anybody that went to WrestleMania there was like, it was.

[B]

It was a great setup.

[A]

It's incredible. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a great hosting city, especially if you're gonna have a good time. You know, like, they are built for it, they are ready for it, and it's all very accessible. I think Vegas is a great hosting.

[C]

Yeah. Nashville might. You might keep eyes on Nashville because that new stadium and Nashville is a city.

[G]

Nashville, I'll bet, gets a Super Bowl.

[A]

As they should.

[C]

Multiple.

[A]

They should start getting into the rotation of the Super Bowl.

[G]

By the way, when the draft was there, that was awesome.

[A]

That was the first big, big, big, big, big one.

[G]

That was pretty cool.

[A]

Yeah. Was it 250, 300,000.

[G]

There's a lot of people up and down Broadway.

[A]

Yeah. I don't know why they haven't been back. I did the draft pick there for

[G]

the Colts, you know, because. Because there's a lot. Every city wants the draft, so they kind of spread cold weather ones.

[C]

Yeah. Pittsburgh, definitely.

[A]

Yeah. Because you can't get a Super Bowl.

[E]

Buffalo will get it. Probably because they're not going to get a Super bowl with their new stadium.

[A]

Carly or say yesterday. Carly or say Gordon yesterday said, we got really lucky during the super bowl with the weather. Yeah.

[G]

Which is unbelievable.

[A]

If you actually like. I know the people of Indiana are like, just speak positive about it because how much money comes to town? Please don't say anything else. I'm gonna say this. The weather was. We've never had that since. And we only had the football gods blessed Indiana for that. There was a zipline through the city in February. Okay. Yeah. Right. It was negative 10 in Indiana this year.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Minneapolis, when you guys were there.

[A]

Yeah. The exact.

[C]

So cold.

[A]

So like Indianapolis got very lucky and people left saying like, maybe best Super Bowl. Cause how connected everything. It's a very small town, but the weather was a huge part of that. New York, New Jersey got it. Remember? It was terrible weather. Yeah. So then everybody's like, it was a shitty one because it was hard to get to everywhere.

[G]

Well, and it's snow. There's a big storm the next morning.

[A]

Exactly. So the draft has become a great replacement. And Carly or say Gordon was like, I heard we got very lucky with the weather. So we definitely are interested in the draft. And it's like the draft has become a replacement super bowl for Football towns. I think it's a. Once again, a brilliant move by the NFL, and it's only going to get bigger. I'm excited to see what Pittsburgh is.

[G]

You know, it started, you know, they were at Radio City Musical all those years, and Radio City Musical booked it for an Easter special with the Rockettes. The NFL got up so upset that they said, we're gonna take it on the road next year, and they took it to Chicago. Rest is history.

[E]

Worked out great.

[A]

Yeah.

[G]

Raj, the Easter show. Thank you to the Easter show at Metro.

[F]

Shout Out.

[A]

Rocket. The way. The way the Raj talked about that was like. Yeah. I told her, like, hey, it's a draft. They basically told us they didn't care. It's like, how'd you feel in that moment, Raj? That's probably the last time that's happened.

[E]

Oh, yeah.

[G]

And by the way, like, when the draft was in New York, it was. You could feel it was nice, but it's not like it is. When it goes to these other cities. When it goes to these other cities, it's the biggest thing there is. Like, the Pittsburgh public schools are closing. Yeah. We're going to virtual learning.

[C]

Green Bay, when they picked the wide receiver.

[A]

Golden.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Place one.

[G]

I know. And so Detroit was great. Yeah.

[A]

Detroit wants to draft.

[D]

Yeah.

[G]

Detroit was fantastic.

[B]

D.C. should be pretty.

[E]

Billy was good everywhere.

[G]

D.C. is going to be beautiful. It's going to be on the mall.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, that's. It's going to be a cool setup.

[G]

Awesome. That's going to be fantastic.

[A]

Are you going to bring your politics into the draft when you're out there?

[G]

No.

[C]

Egg Seth's getting picked number one over

[A]

all Department of War.

[C]

Yeah. Next year, he's top of a lot of people's boards.

[A]

I heard Cash is going to try to get himself drafted.

[C]

Yeah, I could see that.

[A]

To the NFL. People are not happy with what he did after the hockey thing. They were not happy about it. What did you do? Did you report any news on that? No. Hey, way to keep politics out of sport.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Thank you, Shafter. Hey, anything else?

[G]

Oh, oh, oh. Well, it. Well, I will say this.

[D]

We had.

[G]

We had long talks. You know, you reviewed the film and study the tape and try to see how you could do better. So Pat and I had a long kind of moment about that, and we think we can make the show even better than it's been this season. But today, as for anything else going on right now, it's kind of quiet. We're waiting for Roger. It's kind of quiet.

[A]

Game Plan. I gave him a speech about like, hey, if we don't ask you about something, you're allowed to do the. Oh, and also, that is basically what I said. Like, hey Chef, you're allowed to do the. And also if we don't ask about it, like we. If you think something we should talk about, we would appreciate if you did that. You're like, okay, so like when I ba ba ba. And then I do. And also.

[G]

And also there isn't much also today. Well, I'm just sorry.

[C]

A profit flag football league. Correct.

[G]

Well, I'll say. And also, and also the NFL is really behind that flag football. Like the NFL.

[A]

Yeah, but you blew it. He had to do it. Yeah, but is the flag football that like, is it.

[G]

Break.

[E]

I did see Sean Payton say, ah, that was kind of an embarrassment. I don't think there's gonna be enough any NFL players in the Olympics. He said that this morning.

[C]

There's a sport.

[A]

Schrager says, I'll be surprised if there's one NFL player on that Team USA flag roster. Says Sean Payton after what he describes as a humbling experience coaching the NFL's best and the founders team in the fnatic super duper flag football deal that saw the NFL players get bamboozled by fanatics and have to play the greatest flag football players of all time on tv. That is. That is what. There's no way. The boys were told, hey, you guys are about to get your dicks kicked.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Watch this.

[A]

No way that happened. No, I will say we're definitely winning the gold.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Little, little.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

That guy Brown Jr. And who, who stuce it.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Manzana.

[C]

No, no, no, no Deuce. It's Doucette's nickname. Hoosh.

[A]

He's the. He's the, the guy. He's the one.

[E]

We're definitely winning Golden. That's all it matters.

[A]

He's the one that said he was Barry Mahomes.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

And then we all said, shut up, dude. And then turns out they play in a game in the middle of the off season with, with Logan, Paul and I show speed on the field and some retired players who haven't played football in a long time. And those guys certainly did beat the NFL guys and it was really prideful moment watching Team USA just run it up on guys. I know. And then talk. Yeah, I really like that Team USA

[B]

Luke Keakley still icing his knees.

[C]

That was unfair. Luke Keakley didn't know what he was getting.

[A]

These guys I Know they're getting into. To give them a month, though. Not that any of them will spend a month of their life, which is

[B]

part of the problem doing. Doing the little flag avoid dip.

[A]

The elevator. I don't know what they call it, but that is the move. Yeah, mackenzie needs to learn that stat for whenever she gets into flag football. All right. So you got nothing else to tell us?

[G]

Sorry. I wish I did.

[A]

I thought you had a good performance at that party last night. Shefty, especially. I didn't know you were just going up to guys, ask them if they're peacocking around now. I didn't know you were doing that. That's good journalism.

[G]

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I appreciate whatever it takes, Pat, to do the job.

[A]

You do not drink, right?

[G]

I mean, I. Every now and then I do, but not often.

[A]

Yeah. Like last night, you were watering, I think.

[G]

Correct.

[A]

The boy, though. You. The boy you had out there, he.

[G]

Oh, he drinks.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[G]

He drinks for the both of us and then some.

[B]

There you go.

[A]

Yeah, he was having a good time last. Having a good time, which I'm happy. It was very nice to meet him in person. Just like. We appreciate the hell out of you. Ladies and gentlemen, senior NFL insider, Michigan man Adam.

[G]

Thank you, guys.

[A]

Boom. No, no new chefy.

[C]

You guys gonna win this weekend?

[A]

I'm joking. No, it's muted. All right, see you. I'm out of here. Thank you, Shafter. You're the best. Genuinely. Chef has got enemies in this place.

[D]

What?

[C]

Yeah, he keeps that thing on.

[E]

Thought you got a speech last night. There was no animal enemies.

[A]

Oh, Shrek. Yeah, you're right at this thing. That's what I'm saying. Everybody kind of puts their swords.

[B]

Put the swords away.

[A]

That's what I'm saying is, like, once people start pointing out others. Other wars that, you know, kind of have a. What's that called? Ceasefire.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

At these league meetings, I started thinking to myself, oh, you guys have hate each other a lot longer than I hate all these other people.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I did see him in rap, though. They won forehead to forehead. Like Dan Hurley in that rap.

[A]

On that note, Dan Hurley was going to join the show today. He will not be.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

Almost had him, though.

[A]

Saw some people tweeting that they were excited to see his response on a program about him certainly potentially earning a technical foul. But the ref understanded. He just wanted to hear what he was saying. He was having a moment there. We were excited for that moment as well. We look forward to talking to coach Dan Hurley, hopefully.

[E]

I watched that video a thousand times.

[A]

How could you not? We called UConn and said he said this fake. Did he actually do this thing? It was non combative. He just couldn't hear a person. Then you look at it from that angle, it's like, oh, he was just kind of, I guess trying to hear him. But he certainly was letting him know what's up. Huh.

[B]

If he would have had his coat on normal, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But he just looks like such a deranged psychopath right there, that it's kind of.

[E]

And then the way he walks away.

[A]

What's that strut? What's that? What you say that's what you thought.

[F]

I love the ref saying he didn't remember it after either. What are you talking about?

[A]

I love it.

[C]

Even the ref being like, what the hell just happened?

[A]

Well, that's what I'm saying. I do. I do like that. The refs know that. Hey, when you're ref in a Dan Hurley game, forehead's the worst it gets. That's good. Ball game. Yeah.

[C]

Elite 8 buzzer beater. Okay, fine.

[A]

Okay. You got it. Yeah. Dan Hurley football also. We don't know if that's their handshake.

[B]

True.

[A]

Nobody has been able to clarify that. We were going to ask Dan Hurley, obviously. We'll hope to talk to him in the future. He's locked in trying to wait for you guys. He's locked in. The boys are ready to go. Braylon's a stud. Caraban's ready to do it. Michigan's excited. Bye. So is Illinois. Bye. So is Arizona. Back on the other side. Are fantastic. As is the event that we are currently guess at. We have no idea how we've gotten invited or why we're allowed to be here. But we will tell you that the NFL League meetings happening right here at the Biltmore Hotel in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona have been spectacular. It's been great to catch up with everybody. There's some news coming out of here. Biggest one. The refs in the NFL aren't getting along.

[E]

That is the biggest at all.

[A]

That's a constant conversation around football people. Strictly because we understand how important the officials are. They have a CBA negotiation happening. They always get ugly. Hopefully they're able to get that done. 18 games is coming. Heard some people from my source at the league say. Do we need a second buy?

[B]

Oh, come on. Whoa.

[A]

Second buy? Come on. The near last night wasn't. Wasn't from ball side.

[F]

Oh, okay.

[A]

Was it from ball side? Okay, makes sense then. Somebody dropped into like history. Like, you know, the last time there was two buys. It's terrible. Terrible for the game. Maybe do a little research. And I go, it's not going to get passed without another buyer week. Right. And wouldn't a bye week be another weekend of what's going on? Nick just talked to my ear as well. Hold on. It sounds like there's a little thing going on in the truck there. Oh, all right.

[C]

I think we're good, gentlemen.

[A]

I think we're good.

[C]

Are they confirming second buy?

[A]

That's what I'm saying. I don't know. Literally, Nick Moralda just hopped in my ear was like, I think we're good. They were down. You guys on a hot mic. Oh, yes. I like that. Is that what happened?

[E]

What happened?

[A]

I was peeing in a port John right before the show came back live.

[E]

What happened?

[A]

I don't know. You guys said something.

[E]

No, I have no idea.

[A]

Oh, sounds like. Oh, boys. Sounds like there might be a little bit of an Arizona Tuesday happening right now.

[C]

No, exactly what we were talking about. So I feel very good about whatever. Whatever thoughts that might full panic from Nick's.

[A]

Nick's mouth. My ear there just a few minutes ago was not supposed to go into my right ear. I do not believe certainly having an anxiety attack in that truck right there.

[E]

I said to D but I said yukon's definitely not showing up. Up at the final four.

[C]

And debut said, what the hell did we just talk about that first hour

[A]

mics were hot during the break as oh good. But over there I was in a Port John 100% sure. Talk tables here at boss Connor at Ty Schmid one after the Hammer Cowboys ap T here nine year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here and Rush

[F]

Porter Johns all the time.

[A]

Like deal, you need to lock the door.

[C]

I'm not touching anything in there. But I don't know.

[F]

Piss like Caboli with my cheeks out.

[A]

Standard porta John etiquette is let people outside know that you're in there.

[C]

Have to.

[A]

The way you do that is you slide the thing. Yeah, you slide the thing.

[B]

Go from green to red.

[A]

Yeah. Not touching he green Porta John. Only two port Johns. Everybody's sprinting over there. Especially with how we're living right now. So everybody was heading to the Port Johns. See green. Okay. I just run over there. Was laid over here. Obviously excited seeing run over that poor thing. Head down shoulder in debo while he's peeing. He's in a urinal on the left side here too. So I I literally. I go in, he goes, whoa. And I'm like, what are you even doing?

[C]

Something on your foot.

[A]

And I say, you gotta lock this thing. Yeah, I'm not touching that thing. It's like we just had a full memory. I'm a spear gin here. Like, I'm Raman Reigns. Because you didn't. You never do that.

[C]

No, but you have to expect that to happen.

[A]

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's the mayor here alongside Jay Glazer, a man who is the only person that kind of told us what schedule was. Yeah. Man who took care of us incredibly well. He invited us to eat Mr. Chris Bianca's pizza the other night. He is a living legend, friend of the program. Emmy award winner, ladies and gentlemen, Pierce Schrager. Pier Schrager.

[C]

Oh, Shrek, baby.

[E]

Shrek.

[A]

Hey. Good to see you, dude.

[D]

Great to see you.

[A]

Thank you for joining us again yesterday. Got cut off a little bit. I'll tell you what, I got good news for you today. We need all your stuff. Nothing but time. Yeah, we do.

[D]

Can I. Can I tell you, I know you spoke to Adam for a while, but, gosh, I loved seeing you boys last night at that event.

[E]

You were killing it.

[G]

Shregs.

[A]

Shregs. You spoke glowingly of that event numerous times. I think it was an incredible event last night. It was nice to see everybody. It was crazy that the amount of people that were super comfortable in there last night, like GMs, head coaches, ownership groups, I mean, all in there having a good time. It was special. It felt like it was a good thing for the league last night. And we appreciate you kind of guiding us through all of it, literally, because we have no other information about any of this stuff around here.

[D]

100%. I wanted you guys all to experience a different side of the NFL where everyone's guard is down a little bit. It only happens this week, really, because all 32 teams, we're done with free agency. We're heading towards the draft, but we're not close enough to the draft. We're. It's secret season. All their families are here, and the drinks are flowing, and we should give

[A]

out some awards, I think. Okay, let's go. We like to do that. We don't know what all we're allowed to say. What. What I let off the show was saying was I watched some people in there last night that I did not expect. Really tie one on.

[E]

I thought this was a Fight Club situation.

[A]

What, you're not allowed to talk about it?

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah. But how are we not supposed to.

[E]

No, no, I mean names. We didn't mention any names.

[A]

If you'd like to give us some awards, I think you potentially me and Debut would like an award alongside D Bone and Gu. One of the last five people out. Were you really? Yeah, we. We're one of the last got off

[F]

of the roster spot.

[D]

I left.

[A]

What's that?

[F]

D Bone got off of the roster spot.

[D]

What team?

[A]

Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, I was saying there's chance Debone is going to have a workout for the Dallas Cowboys.

[D]

What position?

[A]

Anything he wants, I will say immediately upon it coming out of sh's mouth to Debone. I said, he's got thin feet and this guy doesn't have a lot of discipline. You don't want that. And then he rescinded the offense offer. It was a moment in time, and

[D]

I. I'm happy for him because I swear I saw him Sunday after Duke lost and he was about to walk into traffic.

[A]

This guy has really had.

[B]

Yeah, he has.

[A]

He's had a little bit of an Arizona whirlwind, I would say, throughout this entirety. But, yeah, Shoddy. Shoddy did a point at him. I like your body. No, it was actually the complete opposite.

[E]

It was just me.

[A]

I was trying to get him back into shape. That was the motivation because I asked Shawnee to ask how old he was or guess how old he was. I think shot. I said, like, 45 or something.

[C]

Yeah, Golf, polo. Tucked.

[A]

Tucked in. I mean, it was a bad time. Then he's. Then he said, how old are you? 26. Then we said, he's national champion. And Shawnee goes, you want to play for the Dallas Cowboys? Best story. And the Bone gets, like, so excited, and I'm like, you don't want. And then he goes into full. Like, yeah, but could be motivation to get this guy. Best version of himself. And then he rescinded the offer and D. Ben, welcome. We get back to the hotel last night. Forgot about. Do you remember this?

[C]

Yes.

[F]

Airstrike.

[A]

Airstrike. McDonald's. Yeah. He. We get back to the lobby. I don't know 2. Whatever time it is. We were late. We were late late. I mean, it was very late. When we get in here, we walk in here, he has somebody that works at our hotel waiting on him with a McDonald's bag. Mr. Murphy Right in front of me.

[E]

Would you like to know how that ended? He told me fell asleep with fries in his hand.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

26 bone tighten up.

[B]

Not to. Not to rub it in. He airs.

[C]

He.

[B]

He called for an airstrike from McDonald's every single day we were in Arizona, I. I heard the exact same thing the two previous days. Had to get McDonald's late night because nothing was open.

[A]

There was that lady ledge holding it like this. He walked right in, walked up there, seamless. I'm like, what are you doing?

[C]

To be fair, he sleeps better when there's loose fries in the bed.

[A]

Let's move along. The awards.

[D]

I could say, though, it's like. I'm not saying this drunkest person. It's maybe the most gregarious, maybe the person that surprised you the most. Maybe it's the gregarious Go board. Maybe it's the person that, you know, you didn't think necessarily would be a warm reception and that you got, I'm going to say the MVP every year. And it's not because of the drinking consumption, just the friendliness and the charismatic. John Schneider, the GM of the Seahawks is. Is the winner always at this event.

[B]

I would agree.

[A]

He's the most secure.

[D]

He's the most secure in his job, he's the most successful at his job, and he's also the nicest guy in hell, has stories galore, and he can hang.

[A]

So did you. Did you happen to see. Ty was with Schneider and McCarthy last night for, I don't know, hour and 45 minutes. And Mrs. Schneider, I do believe.

[D]

Tracy.

[C]

Hello.

[A]

So she's awesome. You could see that Ty was doing the one more. He was walking back with four drinks. Okay. Every single time. It was. He was 50 yards away from us.

[E]

Snider was our MVP.

[A]

We were watching. Schneider was big for our group as well. Ty was over there with him.

[D]

T. I got to tell a Ty story.

[A]

I told him a beer in his pocket.

[B]

He did open beer in his pocket while he was drinking. That was.

[A]

Is phenomenal. Fight Club. We don't want to give away too much.

[D]

That's a good move.

[A]

You need to know that that's happening.

[E]

He's a goat.

[A]

Yeah. He is incredible. And he's also going to go down as one of the goats. He's built two super bowl champions with completely different rosters. Exactly.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

And he's a human and he's the man. Yeah. Which is a really cool thing, the league. You can see how special some people that are running the league are last night.

[D]

Yeah. Charismatic is a good word. And there are some people that are just magnets at these events. And everyone just goes to him like flies on. You know what. And it's. You have a few of those. Well, My favorite moment was. And I told. I told this to Ty just a second ago. We're all having fun, whatever. And then I think Zito pulled me over and is like, look at how happy Ty is. He was sitting with Rob Damofsky and Matt Schneiderman and the three beat reporters from the packers.

[A]

And he was. He was holding the court with the beat guys. And I'm like, this is the happening. So Schneiderman over there. Who else was over there?

[B]

Yeah, Wes Hodkovitz, who works for the packers, and then obviously Bob Damofsky.

[A]

Yeah. The Godfather, saying he was holding court with Green Bay. And then he went to Seattle. At one point, Buffalo.

[E]

A bit of Buffalo.

[D]

Those guys were up front.

[A]

Yeah, that was a good little run.

[C]

Joe Buck also had a nice little appearance.

[A]

Good to see Joe. I mean, all the. Greg Olsen folks. Greg Olson.

[C]

Yeah. G. Ray Phen.

[A]

Phenomenal Olsen.

[D]

I had dinner with Olson. I'll tell you this. I had dinner with Olson. I'm not gonna embarrass him, but I will. Olson, he gets a slider in his hand, all right, Like a. Like a hamburger or whatever. Just all over the place, right on his shirt, and then all over this. That's a disgusting sound effect. Then all over himself. All over. He's got just disgusting, like, meat sweats and meat stains all over him. And I look at him, I'm like, we can literally go right to my hotel. We can get you a new shirt.

[G]

Whatever.

[D]

He goes, this party starts at seven. Let's go, bro. He was in just floppy hair every day.

[A]

He seems to be the least maintenance person I love at his profession and how good he is. I mean, remember, that was a big story going into the year. Tom Brady's taking his spot. That's bullshit. I think everybody still feels that way, but we're all just kind of waiting to see where Greg Olson ends up. I think everybody likes Greg.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

I think Greg needs a prime time.

[B]

He does.

[C]

He does.

[F]

He does be on a prime time game every week. He is one of the best in the business when it comes to color commentating. Not saying it. Former teammate, but he's obviously awesome whenever you run into him. The same guy, like you said, at least maintenance. But he is great on the mic.

[A]

Fitz and Wit were there last night, as was Kaylee Hartsung. The whole Amazon. That was a cool group over there.

[D]

Troy, do you have any time with Troy? Troy was amazing. Amazing list.

[A]

Troy Aikman.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

No, I don't know how we are with Troy. I'll be honest.

[D]

No, I Think he's.

[A]

Yeah, I like him.

[D]

Troy's great.

[A]

I was a Joe Buck for a long time.

[D]

Buck's the best.

[A]

They were in half the booth last night. Troy never comes on our show. Then Rich Eisen's first day on espn at noon. He's on the show. Okay. So Troy always tells us, can't do it at noon. Sorry. It's impossible. First day, Rich is on. Troy's like, give me on that phone. So I won't take it as a personal heat, but I do not know. We don't know Troy. Boy like that. On that note, Joe Bach was legendary.

[G]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

He's called six Super Bowls. This is about to be his seventh Super Bowl. He's outrageously talented and has story for literally everything.

[D]

Everything. Every person.

[A]

Yeah, he was every sport. Phenomenal. Burke, I think, did a great job at this thing last night. Burke Magnus. This used to be his gig. Yep. These types of events. Yeah. So he might be the best in the history at these type of types of events. And he was. He's put on an absolute show. It was good to see everybody, man. It was fun.

[D]

Jay Glazer, let me tell you about Glaze's event last night. Yesterday. So he takes great pride in this. I worked with Jay for many years at fox. Two of us have a very good relationship, even though I am now playing for the other squad.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Glaze every year takes great pride in that. On Monday, from 1 to 3 at the annual league meetings, he tries to get as many coaches as he can for a heavy drinking session, hang session, all that.

[E]

That stuff.

[D]

Right. And here it is. Jay got 18 of 32 coaches.

[A]

28.

[D]

28. Sorry. 28. Brought Michael Phelps, brought Mark Kerr, I believe. The Smashing Insure shout out to my favorite guy, Dwayne Johnson. And he played that well. I'm not really a huge. I don't know him at all. Anyway, it's fine.

[A]

I think he is the man, though. I. I think you could say that. Yeah. I think he went right into. I like Emily Blake 1.

[D]

She was fantastic in that movie.

[A]

And I think Rock and Emily Blunt are kind of, you know.

[C]

Yeah, they've been in a few.

[A]

Yeah. Dwayne's the man. I think you should not feel bad about complimenting Dwayne.

[D]

Dwayne. It's pretty good.

[A]

People attacking him for the hair thing. The live action. Moana saw that.

[B]

It's like.

[A]

It's the Rock dude.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

And that's how Maui looks.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Character calls for.

[A]

Yeah, He's. He is Maui.

[E]

That's Maui.

[A]

Yeah. You're. You're okay. Compliment.

[D]

So Jay's thing, I was just like, all right, enough with the rocket.

[A]

Jace Papatouille. So good. Yeah.

[C]

Zoa.

[A]

Yeah. Tara. Mana, right? Yeah.

[C]

Mana.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[D]

What do we think of a live Moana? I'm excited for it.

[E]

Yes.

[A]

The Rock's gonna kill it.

[C]

They better amp up the colors.

[D]

Let me tell you something about the live Moana.

[A]

And I can go on and on. I can explain every natural phenomenon.

[D]

You know the song, the guy. There's a guy named Bo Flynn I sat next to on a plane, and he's one of the producers of this movie. He was telling me they. They found a girl to play the role who has never done, like, a bit. And she won out of, like, an open audition. And it's one of the great, like, Hollywood. So I am rooting for this girl. I don't know her name, but, like, she's gonna be Moana. And she's never done any of this stuff before.

[A]

And we would like to say the Rock needs one on the scoreboard as well. We would like this to do very well.

[E]

It'll make a billion dollars Mark.

[A]

Smashing Smash Machine didn't do as well. That's not mean the guy's not critical.

[D]

Critical got very like. I think it's a Safdie brother film. Like, the critical reception was fantastic.

[A]

But on that note, was there yesterday with Michael Phelps and 28 coaches with Jay Glenn.

[D]

So they're all there drinking. It leads into the whole thing. But the big question mark was, will Mike Tomlin show up? Because Tomlin and Glaser started this thing 18 years ago. So I was thinking maybe. Maybe Tomlin comes from wherever. He's been watching his daughter doing gymnastics almost like with the American flag. Like Rogers out of the tunnel. Like, let's.

[A]

And he shows up. He's like, let's go.

[D]

Tomlin did not show up. So 28 of 32. And we were hoping for an emeritus role from Tomlin, but Tomlin is not been seen at the league.

[A]

Okay. Yeah, we have not seen him. We would have tried to find him. We did see all the Steelers were there last night. Mike McCarthy, also MVP of this thing. He was one of the four, I do believe that were not at Jay Glazer's thing. Now, Jay Glazer told us Mike's normally there. Okay. That's what I said. Mike was in the middle of potentially talking to.

[E]

I heard he was in some meetings.

[A]

Okay. He's potentially actually talking to the quarterback

[D]

so he could Be doing two things at once here at these. But he could also be working very hard. Hard on wiring something.

[A]

Hey, you got to put your mic up on your mouth. You want an Emmy?

[D]

Remember that?

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

It's all right.

[A]

You. When you.

[C]

When he gave one of these.

[A]

Yeah. We do not want you to hold back from doing this. Yeah. So you continue.

[D]

I'm trying to bring the juice, and if I do that and I lose my microphone. Thank you for backing me up, guys.

[A]

Yeah, no problem. You've got a handheld here, too, so if you get too bad, you just go ahead and grab it. Go ahead. Ty has a question for you. Shregs.

[B]

So how much we asked Shefty this, like, how much actually gave gets done last night. Like, our guys actually talking about stuff like, what.

[D]

What is your kind of combine is where things are. You're getting your nuggets because free agency is coming up. So it's like, all right, which agents met with which teams, and we've now narrowed down, you know, Kenneth Walker, I knew at the combine was likely going to be Kansas City chief based on the conversations that we're having. And it's not legal tampering. It's like, all right, what's the roster composition? Who's there, and what do they need? And what are the Chiefs focusing on? Whatever. This is the one week where it's really laid back. So what your best bet is, if you're someone like me, is build a relationship. Go up to someone you might not know that. Well, I personally had no relationship with Brian Schottenheimer before yesterday. I went up to him, we had a coffee. We did NFL live. We talked for 20 minutes, have his number now. Brian Schottenheimer is someone that I can go up to and have a cool congrats. Yeah, that was a big win. No, but you do that shot.

[A]

He's the.

[D]

And it's that. It's that times 32. It's. You're talking just. I was just talking to Mandy Shanahan, Kyle's wife, who I've met before, but we're just having a casual conversation. Whatever. Kyle comes by, we talk. It's more about relationships and getting those contacts and saying, hey, okay, we are humans. We are working together here. I'm here if you need me. I also will be reporting the news, but there's a face behind the tweets, and I understand you guys, you know, however I can help you, but also vice versa. Let's talk, and let's have an open dialogue. So this is where that really Is established.

[A]

Yeah, it's a. It's a good. It's good for the league. This is very good for the league. I was kind of out on it. I thought it was all a bunch of bullshit. And then last night I saw how in everybody was.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Mark Davis is sitting four feet away from.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

I mean, just sitting there smoking a cigar. Turn to look at him. Holy. Nice to see you, man. Hey, good to see you guys. Just so happy. Sitting by himself. I'm like, you've been coming to these your whole life. Yeah, these are really good. And then I asked him. I don't know if I'm supposed to say this out of those because that's all off the record in there. According to source says that we're sitting very close to me last night. I don't think he's getting out of ownership. Just. I don't know if that's breaking news or not, but there was a bunch of things being said that he was going to get run out, basically.

[G]

I don't.

[A]

From my understanding. I don't think that's going to be the case. No, no, I don't think.

[D]

I have not heard.

[A]

I think it is. See you guys in the next 30. Yeah, he was electrified fine.

[D]

He's the best.

[A]

Yeah, he is.

[D]

He's a character. There's also a thing about this where, like, vibes. Characters are welcome in this.

[A]

This guy's vibes, you know, like characters. Yes.

[D]

So, like, Todd Monkin is a character. Like, I was talking to him, like, character. And like, that's. Maybe some of these guys don't have nine to five jobs at the accounting firm. And there's a place for them in the NFL if you can coach, if you can own, if you can talk, if you can be a g. Everyone's so different and so unique, and yet the melting pot is this league and the love for the game and the path. It's cool to see everyone intersect.

[A]

I wanted to be in Mark Davis's aura there, basically.

[B]

Sure.

[A]

This huge smile. Huge smile on his face. Just a huge smile. Just sitting there by himself, just smoking a cigar, smiling. Fitz walks over. Hey, how you doing? Good to see you. That's a big smile. He goes, yeah, I'm just happy, man. And I turned to dbut. I go, mark Davis just said, he's just. And dbut goes, well, why wouldn't he? Yeah, we did. We did a full cheers to him. He was not drinking. He was just smoking a cigar. But we did a full. Like, good for you, dude. And that was Just like a casual four minutes last night. It's outrageous that we were in there. D but has a question for you.

[F]

I enjoyed it. You just brought up Todd Machino and obviously we talked about Deshaun Watson and what Jimmy Haslam, the owner, has said. Shador, he's been in the building. New number. Shout out Shador. But if you had to place a bet right now, week one, who's Todd Monkey starting?

[D]

Oh, I. I mean, I was just sitting with him at the coach's breakfast and I was listening to every word. So Deshaun Watson, he has spoken to, but Watson I don't think has been around as much. And then Shador has been there every single day. Then Dylan Gabriel has not been there and they can't play football yet, but they can all be in the building and work out and everything. So if I was to put a bet right now, I would say Chador is likely in the lead spot just on the fact that he finished off last year and has been in the building and all that. But they are hoping that, yeah, Deshaun Watson's on the roster, that this guy can actually compete for the job. I don't envision them taking quarterback at six. And despite him knowing Ty Simpson very well because he knows Ty's dad, Jason Simpson from their college days, I don't think quarterback in the first round for the Cleveland Browns.

[A]

Okay. I think everybody's kind of saying that that has information. We'll see how it all goes. Obviously, all you need is one person to change their mind on a very important night to make a decision on draft night. That kind of changes it. Deshaun Watson playing football again, good for the Browns would be a little trip of nostalgia back whenever ball was ball. Let's go back when ball was ball and the fanatics flag football game. You kind of alluded to this yesterday. Go ahead.

[E]

Yeah, you did, Triggs, when you talked to us about Odell and his comeback. And then I saw a. From a guy who I believe is real, Dan Duggan, about Odell being here yesterday because he's in Arizona potentially meeting with the Giants yesterday. Is that the latest news on the potential return of Odell to the New York Giants?

[D]

He was spotted at this hotel, as Dan has that. I can't tell you how legitimate spot would be. But having spoken with Giant sources after that breakfast where Harbaugh was completely over the moon about Odell, I wouldn't close that door at all. It has to make sense. Look, not only do they need a receiver and not only does Odell want to be back in the NFL and I think the Giants would be a great place.

[G]

There's still a lot of love for

[D]

Odell Beckham in that Giants organization. Ownership on down. So when they were having their odell moment in 2013, 2014 and he was doing the one handed catches, it was a really cool time for the Giants fans. And I would tell you that there is a lot of love from the highest level for Odell Beckham.

[A]

Okay, let's go to the truck. A man who's a die hard Giants fan who while you were talking about, you know, The Odell Beckham Jr. Love over there in New York and as a Giants fan, I believe a man who was potentially walking these grounds yesterday and maybe had eyes on the situation. Also a guy would love to see this happen alongside Malik, neighbors, Jackson Dart and why not have fo fo in the back doe there with scatter. Boo. Bruce Brown, your thoughts on how this is all kind of playing out? He texts me to and he said, Shrek kind of alluded to this yesterday. Just Bruce would like to. Okay, Bruce would like. It feels like. And he was in my ear while Shregs was talking there saying, hey, I can also legitimize this. Bruce, if you would like to double down or add anything on the Giants beat that you saw last night. Yeah, I'm actually pretty confident that I am the one who spotted it. Okay.

[B]

Said, holy.

[C]

I can't believe that's going on right now.

[D]

What did I say? I said it could happen, I think. And then it was confirmed.

[E]

Yours.

[A]

Yeah, that's good reporting. Gordon Renan, we met him yesterday. Yeah, he looks very cool. Yeah, this guy walked onto this 120 degree astroturf or I'm sorry, Astroturf cement here. He had suit, the hair was perfect. Walked up. We appreciate him because Christopher Moltres.

[D]

Yeah, Jordan's a good man. Good man, Good man.

[A]

He had good energy. Bruce, though, as soon as you saw him so excited about his life, he felt a little tingle everywhere. You know, he walks right up to him, starts chatting with him. Him. The OBJ thing feels like he's going to be a Giant. When would OBJ want to do that and when would Harbaugh want that?

[D]

Oh, I think OBJ would be down to do it tomorrow if it's possible. I think the Giants are waiting out and seeing how things are going. They're not in any rush, but I think there is mutual interest. I'll say that.

[A]

Okay. I love to hear that Storylines continue to brew out Here in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, for the number one league in the world. Con man has a question for you. Shrey.

[C]

Yeah, straight. You mentioned the Shanahans earlier, so I'll ask you about what Kyle mentioned about how, hey, we got to go 19 hours to Australia. Basically travel in time. Whether that's forward or back, up to you.

[A]

Hey, is there anything positive about that, Coach?

[C]

As of right now, no. It feels like my entire team is going to be screwed for a month after this entire thing. What is kind of the vibe? Is that the vibe right now with the entire game? And then also I want to ask you, the Trent Williams situation, that quietly feels like it's massive, but it's just kind of at bay right now because no one's really wants to pay him or make a huge trade for Trenton Williams. Where are they?

[D]

Let's start with the international piece. It's not going anywhere. If the NFL has told us anything over the last three days, flag football and international are their two biggest priorities, and they want to really expand. And with the international piece, the Australia thing, they have now changed the date to the start of the NFL season from Thursday to now Wednesday. That's when the Seahawks are going to play. Then The Rams and 49ers are going to play on Thursday, which is not traditional. And if you're the 49ers, say, okay, I understand the league has these initiatives.

[G]

This is a.

[D]

This is a lot. And they're going a week early to go prepare for this game so their sleep and their bodies can all be adjusted. That's a lot. That's also a divisional rival. It's a huge game. When you play the Rams. Talk to the Rams guys. They haven't decided what they're going to do. Traditionally, when they go to London, they usually just fly right.

[A]

Billionaires everywhere. Yellow capture, show. Sorry. Go ahead, Shrigs, please.

[D]

The Rams, when they go to London last year, they flew in, they flew out, and they're like, we're not doing the whole song and dance. We're coming in. You're not going to see us. We're going to be like ghosts. We're going to come in. You can't do that with Australia. So this initiative for the league is enormous, and yet the coaches are feeling a little unfiltered here. And Kyle Shanahan saying, from a football perspective, this is obviously not ideal. They're playing at 10:35 in the morning in Melbourne, Australia.

[A]

Yeah, I. To start the season like that feels like you're going to be catching up.

[B]

That's Crazy.

[D]

The Chiefs last year and it wasn't complaints, but they said, you know, going to Brazil and then the packers the year before that, going to Brazil to start. It's not ideal. I understand the league has their initiatives and we're going to do this and it's what we want. We want to expand the game, but from a strictly football standpoint, you want one o' clock Eastern on a Sunday,

[A]

everybody's going to just deal with it.

[D]

It is. That's it.

[A]

And the game will continue to grow, you know, because Australia will like our Sport now. Granted. 10:35am I'm excited, excited to see how much they like our sport. Yeah, it's a huge game to sing to Australia. Massive.

[D]

It's an enormous game. I don't want to see the championship preview.

[A]

Exactly. And I don't want to say anything about the Jags. Okay. Because we love where the Jags are. Feels like it is the brand new Jag free. William Cohen's a dog. We love Stoner. The Kahn family has done their entire thing. But London for a long time was Jags who can't sell out their stadium. Send that shit to England. They own a soccer team over there too. So they know they lay the land over there. Send them to England. They were going to become England's team. That was almost like the initiative. This is a gigantic game just to send all the way to Australia for the first time. Granted, Australia has contributed to the NFL numerous times, especially with the punting techniques that are all over the place, let alone the actual Australians that have been punting. I think there's an Aussie baseball player that's very good. I think there's Jordan Myallotta Jordan offensive lineman who's very good. So it's like the Australian body type is good for American football. I think they especially the pun, everything. I think their game catching. Like once guys start getting into the right football thing species, I think it's only going to continue to grow in Australia. But man, the timing is difficult. And to send two top teams down there to begin the season, they're opening up for a lot of people to be pissed off about the teams playing the like afterwards. Granted, if they defeat it though, because if you fall asleep and wake up in the morning in Australia, technically in your life, you should just wake up on pace. I assume they have a bunch of science for it and did I did this last offseason.

[D]

I was going to say you went right.

[A]

It took me three, four days to like feel like I was.

[D]

They're Going a full week ahead of time to.

[A]

I think they should be good, especially professional athletes. But it's crazy to put our two. These are two.

[D]

And those are what I would say crown. Crown jewel franchises.

[A]

And I think that's what they're saying to Australia that was like, hey, we respect. Yeah.

[B]

We're not just going to give you a Jags, Browns or, you know, whatever.

[A]

No insult to people like our sport.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

Like we think. And I think it's going to grow. I think it's going to be good for the game ultimately with Kyle said the game, I guess we're spreading. Other than that, I have no idea. Any positives. And he didn't deliver it that way. But that's probably.

[D]

I'll tell you, they had meetings in there yesterday and I'm not privileged enough to be in those meetings. They're just for the owners and the people on the committee. When I tell you that this flag. And you mentioned with Adam that this Tomorrow Sports or whatever the company is that does TGL is doing a professional flag football league that is going to be a massive initiative for this league to get behind it. Oh, stop. So it was a. It was a very big initiative to now have a piece of the professional football league that the NFL is very behind with equity partners that are, you know, the private equity that are. The temper, whatever it is, is. And then international is massive. And so we're going to flip over every stone.

[A]

Everybody can play, too. Pads, helmet, the whole thing. Not easy, some of these. Yeah. Women. Not as easy in some places. If you don't have the full foundation academy kind of coming through it. Flags just so easy. Flags are just so easy to get everywhere. 7 on 7. Don't need a full 11 on 11. You can do 5 on 5. Obviously you do 4 on 4. I love the flag. Initiative. Initiative. Now, I don't think we should be just acting like it is football, though. I think we learned that with the difference. I think it is great for football. It is incredible for football.

[D]

So you. I saw you use my quote from Peyton. I sat at his table for the breakfast and Sean was preparing for, like two weeks for that game, like, and thought that he had a playbook and he's ready and he's a lunatic and didn't want to lose. And he's like. It was a very humbling experience.

[A]

Did the players think they were going to beat those guys?

[D]

Yes.

[C]

Bamboozle.

[E]

Even with like the retired guys. And yes.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

Lou Keakley said, you know what? We're gonna be okay. Who told him they're gonna be okay? Fanatics, definitely.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

I assume they weren't doing it to get their ass kicked on national television.

[A]

That's what I'm saying.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I think there had to be a bamboozling that took place. These guys actually thought they were gonna win, right? Yes.

[D]

And. And Peyton treated it seriously. Brady treated it very seriously. These guys were like, they were. And he said it was a humbling experience. And then I, you know, I said it. He said, I would be shocked if we have an NFL player on this team USA in 2028. It's different sports.

[A]

I don't think our guys are going to want to do it.

[B]

No.

[D]

Burrow, I'm told. And this isn't from Sean. This is from people who are Burrow, I'm told is hell bent. He wants this. He wants to win at Olympics.

[A]

He got tackled three times in the flag. Yeah. So we're happy about that. But I. And also he's a player, but I don't know if he has the elevator. Sixth floor to second floor. No, back up to the seventh floor.

[D]

Down to the first question is. And it's. You know, I talked to Olson for a while, who called the game and I was talking. He said, you know, the question is, if you say Kyler Murray, who would be great at flag football at that, like run. Can you commit? Would you be willing after the season to give us like a month of hardcore training? It's tough to ask these guys in the off season, you know, like, hey, you're going to commit to this because Hoosh Doucet has been training his whole life for this and it's a different sport.

[B]

God damn right.

[A]

Point.

[C]

And who got that dog?

[A]

Are you kind of a who Stuseka? It sounds like you're.

[B]

Well, I'm just saying, like, hey, if we want to win a gold, like, we don't need Joe Burrow being the quarterback for our team. We need Hoosh and no one else.

[F]

Well said.

[B]

We're talking about who's to set here.

[C]

Not some guy.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

So he's not just full time quarterback. As you know, Joe could be on the team and who Stusette could be on team. He also plays slot wide receiver.

[B]

I don't need Whoosh catching ball balls. I need Hoosh dropping dimes and pulling flags.

[D]

The. The thing that Olson said was maybe the most surprising for them, the players, because he spoke to him and Greg was like, I think they thought they were going to like throw the ball and it was going to be like, hey, three step drop pass to say it's.

[A]

It's.

[D]

It's a lot of laterals. It's. It's all sorts of different movement.

[A]

Yeah. We don't know the rules.

[D]

You don't.

[A]

Even if you don't have a bamboozle gimmick.

[D]

Tom Brady's going three step drop looking like.

[A]

I would just like to say, say. Because what flag football did in Indianapolis. Did they do the world championship or something in Indianapolis on NFL Network? Yes, we. I went and watched. Did you go? I wouldn't watch. It was at Butler. So I went and watched this thing and it was very. And I did not grow up in the flag football era. We did not have.

[D]

Nor did I flag football. We didn't have it in my town either.

[A]

I'm happy it exists now. Trying to get sanctioned as school sport in high school is for women and girls and men and everything like that.

[G]

That.

[A]

But I. Which it should. I was part of. I was part of a commercial. Yeah. Scholarship. We think it's great. We love it. I did not grow up in knowing what flag football was, though. I don't really understand it as much. So I went and watched that thing at Butler and I was like, that little doopy doo move. Like that is the game. How. How can you learn that quick?

[D]

And if you notice, they would do a dump down to Saquon and it was the. The flag guys. The flag right away.

[A]

Immediately.

[D]

I couldn't move right away.

[A]

Yes.

[D]

And then when. And they would get.

[A]

Kikley had to tackle. Jalen Ramsey actually did tackle. And then there was a couple moments where the NFL guys were like about sick of these little punks. And then there was a couple extra contact and it's like, well, that's a penalty, actually. It's like, well, what are we supposed to do? Grab the flag? It's impossible. They've been doing it for years. Yeah. I thought the. If the boys knew they were playing at Team usa, we did not know they were playing the good guys.

[B]

No, I didn't.

[A]

Yeah. We thought it was Cobras versus Vipers.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

We thought that's what we thought.

[D]

Which in hindsight, the NFL guys might have preferred.

[A]

Oh, yeah, definitely. If I would have known they were playing Team usa. I think I, as a person that has a microphone in front of me every day, would have said we are betting on the Team USA ones for sure. Just strictly because I'd seen it in person. If the boys are being told you'll be okay without even watching these guys play, that's on Them, but it's also middle of their off season. So whoever was telling them and feeding the information that they're going to be okay, I think you kind of set the boys up.

[E]

Team USA always supposed to be there or were they there because it got moved? I think it.

[D]

I think it was by the combine. I knew that that was the case and that was before it got moved. So. Yeah, I think it might have been.

[A]

You knew Team USA was going to be there?

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

Did you tell the players?

[D]

Because Sean Payton was telling me at the combine. I remember that it was legends and it was the current guys and there's going to be the Team USA piece.

[C]

Yeah.

[E]

Legends and leaders.

[C]

You would think they could believe it either way. Like if you're telling Tom Brady and Joe Burrow like, careful now. These guys, they can play ball. Like you would assume. Just a competitor in those guys.

[A]

Okay. And I understand that. Okay. I appreciate that. Actually, they're. Yeah, right.

[D]

I think Payton had the right word.

[C]

Once you see it, it's like, okay, you. There is a very legitimate skill to pull a flag and to do the elevator thing and the. The twisty turning thing like.

[A]

And now in the rules immediately.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

Knowing the place.

[C]

Exactly.

[A]

The cross boss route. Yeah, it is. We had no chance.

[B]

Coach Peyton should have showed him some Hoosh film. Put the fear of God in those guys hearts.

[D]

He had a playbook. He had a playbook. He told me he drew up a playbook.

[C]

They have film.

[A]

Did he text these guys video of Hoosh?

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

I don't know if he. I don't think. I don't think he had the defensive game plan ready, but I got. Who was D.C. solid. Was with Shanahan and I believe Harbaugh was with.

[E]

Yeah.

[F]

I got a coach we needed on the staff. We all know.

[E]

Yep, we do.

[D]

Chuck Pagana.

[E]

Nope. Lives in California.

[G]

Yep.

[E]

That's some great cigars and whiskey.

[D]

You are.

[C]

As a yacht when it helps a lot.

[E]

He has a yacht.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

He texted me yesterday.

[F]

Tell you later. Straight.

[A]

He texted me yesterday. First time. Tell me that if I want to go get my ass kicked in golf by Pat Perez, I can. I saw his name. It was late night. I saw his name on my phone. I was like, good to see this guy. We're talking about coach. National champion.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

JB coach.

[E]

Jb.

[A]

Yeah. He should be. If he was given the reins to Team usa, I don't know if there would be a single loaf in that entire term. No way. Who.

[C]

Respect.

[E]

We respect.

[A]

Yeah. All right. Now you get it. Now you get it? Anything we haven't talked about?

[C]

Yeah, I got one.

[A]

For strikes.

[C]

I got a question. For strikes. Unless you were about to say something that actually means something.

[A]

No. Go on. No, well, hold on, hold on. Strikes. Please say what you were gonna say and then we will definitely. No.

[D]

The other thing was last night before the big reception, the NFL unveiled that like they're also producing partners on a real television show, a scripted television show, which is the first time they're doing this. It's with the guy who does this is us in paradise and it's called the Land and it's about the Cleveland Browns and it's going to be sold to an actual network. But the NFL is a production partner on it, which is another asset in this media world. Now the NFL is going to be producing things at an even greater scale. We're talking about a non or a scripted like serial show that the NFL is a production partner.

[A]

So that's a relationship with Skydance, I do believe, which is owned by Paramount, which is now partnered with the NFL to create scripted. Non scripted feature film series is about football stories.

[D]

You know, everyone is a media company while the NFL is a media company.

[A]

Yeah, certainly are. And the people they hire are all like NFL films obviously involved with that as well. The way they're shooting everything, it's like they try to find the Scorsese of these stuff.

[D]

And Fogelman, he did obviously this is Us and I think he also did Parenthood. Maybe he's like got a long. But he's also a Die hard Brown Jones fan.

[A]

Oh, nice. Yeah, should be great. I think the NFL, from my understanding of the relationship with Skydance said there's so many stories that we would like to be able to tell that just. You can't just do a documentary for everything. Yeah, like we would like to tell these stories and it's a growth of a league and obviously we understand this more than a there expand Skydance Sports into the preeminent global sports content studio. It's like the NFL is pop culture. The NFL is society. Oh yeah. It's like it is society now. So them just starting their own stories and telling their own tales, how they want to tell it and what needs to be told or something that they think should be something that's old. Seemingly inevitable. Yeah, seemingly inevitable.

[B]

And I think like this will actually work with the buy in from the NFL because that always like if you watch a football movie or anything, like it takes you like any given Sunday, it takes you out immediately.

[D]

The Sharks.

[B]

Yeah. These aren't NFL teams. But if like the NFL is actually

[D]

working, why draft day actually works.

[B]

Yes, exactly.

[D]

You see the Seattle Seahawks and logo. See the Browns logo. Part of it.

[A]

I love Kobe Fleener with a pancake block during the credits.

[C]

That's kind of sweet.

[D]

It might be Stanford's own.

[A]

Yeah, it might be his best block he's ever had in the NFL. Kobe flee. I think he pancaked somebody Door credits. I was so happy.

[G]

I love that.

[A]

I was so. I was like, they put you over pretty big during the credits, bro. He had his head down driving that thing. It was a full on that. Nobody going to that guy's birthday party though. Did give us a little insight how everybody kind of views this entire thing. I like that they're doing that. What else are they talking about today? You said Goodell is talking later.

[D]

Goodell's gonna do a press conference later.

[A]

Oh, wait, wait. Pause.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Rules have broke. NFL owners have approved four rule changes per source. Shriggs, give us your opinion on the competition committee permitting the kicking team to declare an on site kick at any time during the game.

[D]

So last year it was only a fourth quarter two minute thing and they said, all right, let's scrap that. Let's go back to what it was. Just have to announce it.

[A]

Yeah, you can't surprise onside kick. But we can do one in the first quarter if we're Jeff Fisher and we're playing against Peyton, man. Oh yeah, he did three of those. Titans versus Colts, Colts won by 50 by competition committee to eliminate the kicking team's incentive to intentionally kick the ball out of bounds when kicking off from the 50 yard line. Okay, so that's just going back to where the touchback would be as opposed to half the distance. Every team that kicked it out of bounds looked like super geniuses. But the rule looks stupid. The league looks.

[D]

It looked dumb. And it happened Monday night, first game when we had on the broadcast, I think Troy and Joe or even the Manning cast were like, wait, I, I would just kick it out of bounds. You don't want to kick it and get a return. So like, yeah, just get rid of all that.

[A]

Yeah, it just looks extra strategy. Everybody looks super smart the first couple times it happened and then at the end. This is so stupid. Why would you do this? Shout out to the kickoff, by the way, upping the amount of returns by like 1500 or 2000. I forget what. It was by competition committee to modify the kickoff alignment requirements for receiving team players in the setup zone. Okay, so Pelosar is not Given a lot of detail on what was that

[D]

would be more your world than mine.

[A]

I think it's the other returner is allowed to move or the setup set. I think they're. They want to be able to at least move. I think they want to move people there. There's a group of eight on the return team I believe that are locked like they're just kind of locked. Not allowed to move. There's like an area. Then there's what, two in the back. So must be nine in the locked area. Two returners in the back. Two returners have been allowed to move. I think they want to have one. I don't know. There's something else to the kickoff that they want to make it more expensive.

[D]

This last one's fascinating. Pat.

[A]

Go by competition committee for one year only to allow the NFL officiating department to correct clear and obvious movement misses made by on field officials that impact game in the event that there is a work stoppage involving the game officials represented by the NFL Referees Association. As the NFL saying. Yeah, if these refs want to play a little hanky panky we'll certainly hop in a sack. If they don't want a ref will ref. Now who's controlling that?

[D]

Park Avenue. Who though that'll likely be the Walt Anderson's and the guy you think he

[A]

goes against the referees association.

[D]

Oh, great point.

[A]

Point.

[E]

That's a great. That's a great point.

[A]

Who's doing it official.

[D]

You're right.

[E]

Is he employed by the league though? Like if he's employed.

[D]

He's a league employee. He runs the official.

[A]

So do we like that It's Walt Anderson now on every call. Okay.

[D]

Troy Vincent is really the person who spearheads that whole department and now it's a decision he makes. But I don't know if Walt. That's a. That's a fascinating ask if Walt goes with his old colleagues. Who are the rest or if he's. I'm a league employee now because.

[A]

Let's talk like Stereotor. Sarah Tours obviously with CBS right now. Yeah, but he's not to. He's not going to crack.

[C]

Like that's what Tom would do. Mike Tomlin should do that.

[A]

Just call every.

[C]

If they. Hi. If.

[D]

If Jim Schwartz for a year did that when he was out of work he said I'm going to go work and. And learn from the officials and did that and worked in the league office as one of.

[C]

Maybe he does it again.

[A]

Chuck Pagano did the same thing. I believe he went and learned from the officials as well. And I think you see a lot of coaches and players want to learn more because they've probably been jaded by some terrible calls and they're like, I got to learn a little bit more about this. But if they're going to have the eye in the sky for every one of these games, who's looking at the eye? Maybe that's, that's a whole other question.

[D]

That's a good question, dude.

[A]

But Chuck Upper, I think ex coaches would be good, especially try to find the ones that have been jaded by a terrible call. They'll be a little bit more motivated. I think you can put them in there. But not every coach is going to be good at it. I mean, that's certainly not going to be the case. Walt Anderson, no offense, you gave us a great 15 years out of your 30 year career. I think. I think there was probably a good 15 in there somewhere at the beginning. Very, very thankful for him. But I don't. We don't want Walt in Anderson. Well, like every call, do we?

[B]

Like you said, like he's been a ref for how long? You think he's just. These are all his buddies. These guys hate him forever. If all of a sudden he's like, there's no way he's gonna do.

[A]

Territory won't crack, I assume bland, Terry

[D]

McCauley, I wouldn't think.

[A]

I don't think any of them, like legitimately. I don't think any of that's how the refs union. Very strong brotherhood. Very, very, very strong.

[D]

What do you think of the one year thing? I remember we had the past. Interference could be reviewed for one year, then they immediately pulled up. You think it's because of the labor strife that they would offer this or. It's more that the NFL overall wants the ability to say, hey, we gotta. If we're gonna go for this right here.

[A]

They get public leverage over the NFL Referees association, but they also get a chance to experiment on what they can do in the future. Just like what baseball's doing with ABS right now. They experimented a lot with that, right? Experiment, experiment, experiment, experiment, experiment, experiment. And then boom, we roll it out. Now it's one of the most exciting

[D]

things and people love it.

[A]

Love it.

[D]

Except the oomphs.

[A]

Bingo. Which who might not love this? The refs. So they're also getting a chance to kind of utilize the technology that we've always wanted them to pot utilize. And that could be a vision of what the future looks like in the NFL. Referee association doesn't want that you're giving them an opportunity to maybe explore with robots. Maybe that public leverage will get them into a negotiation where they're able to make an agreement. Remember, the refs say, the NFL is not even showing up to negotiate. The NFL is saying, you're not even moving anytime we do this. So, like, who's. It's a real standoff right now.

[D]

It feels like the ref's point is we are paid peanuts compared to the NBA and compared to the mlb and also we don't even get health benefits. So, yes, you want us there earlier, but where is it? And the NFL saying, hey, you guys, you guys are operating on your own.

[A]

Refs are also saying, we don't want to be talked to for two months after the Super Bowl. We don't want to have to.

[D]

Dark period is what they call.

[A]

Yeah, we don't have to talk to. We don't have to be full time. Like, there's.

[B]

Don't answer any questions in the pool.

[A]

Yeah, there's a lot of that. And also nobody can get fired if you get seniority. Like, there's a lot of other stuff too that the refs are saying that. I think we should be able to find a reasonable outcome there. That's going to take a lot of give up by the referee association.

[D]

Do you. Personally, I felt like yesterday your point to me about the D1 refs not going was the most illuminating thing I've heard on the topic. And I said it on my own show. I did the trigger hour afterwards and I was like, Pat McAfee had the best point ever. Like, you're not just going to get college refs raving their. Raising their hands here. This is a, a, this is a job and a profession where they respect the hierarchy and they go up the ladder.

[A]

Union.

[D]

Yeah, the union and all that. That you made a great point. I feel like you've been very, very clear and you've been very perceptive in the moment on a lot of this stuff. I feel like. Not that I'm asking you to be this person, but you have a real passion for the rules. It seems like.

[A]

Yeah, I hate these refs. Okay, Sorry. I like the good refs. I like the good refs.

[D]

Who was your favorite ref when you were a player?

[A]

I like Gene Steretor. He's a Pittsburgh guy. Yenzer, Italian. He's the greatest. He's the goat. Ed Hockey Lee was awesome. There was a couple others that I enjoyed Cleat. I enjoyed pretty well. Anybody that had moxie, that was a white cap. I Liked.

[D]

You liked that?

[A]

Yes.

[D]

Because some players like. It's not about you, dude.

[A]

No, I agree. But you're speaking for the game. So whenever you have an ISO with 50 million people watching, I think you have to have some moxie. I think you have to have some confidence. Who's the other guy?

[C]

The Big 12 Crew.

[A]

I love the Big 12 Crew. Yeah.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

They need to be just given a prime time slot.

[D]

Are they good?

[A]

Unbelievable.

[E]

In the college football.

[A]

They will not.

[F]

No.

[D]

They will never break the code.

[A]

Bingo. Yeah. Because they can't.

[D]

Ethics.

[A]

Because they're definitely going to be in the NFL.

[D]

There's a.

[A]

Just.

[D]

What is that? The biggest games in the Big 12. They have a crew that just does those games.

[A]

Yeah. You get voted into it. They. They did the college football playoffs last year and then the college football playoffs this year. They were selected for the national championship. But also two of the college Football playoff games, which is kind of.

[D]

I don't remember a single bad call in any of those games.

[A]

Boys. Let him play. Very consistent. Very consistent. Not scared either. Like white cap. Not scared of the moment. 30 million people. 40 million people watching. Give me this thing. Let me go ahead and deliver for the good of ball. And also whenever there was a kickoff.

[B]

Yeah, he's got moxy too.

[A]

He's got real moxie. He's down at the other end, you know. And they blow for the kickoff to start. When everybody's set, they check with the two side refs. Then they check with here. Then they count the people and then they send it basically to the side ref. I think that's there. Then that side ref runs off the field. Then the kicker is to go. Right. There's a whole thing. He would. He had different sense to the kicker.

[G]

He.

[A]

He threw one a couple times like a football. As he blew it. He took a. Yeah, took one out of the quiver. Michael Robin Hood. Vanderbilt.

[D]

That's his name.

[A]

So this is a college ref that we think. And his crew would do fantastic in the NFL on that note. Would never break out a scab.

[D]

He wouldn't never.

[A]

Because they know they're going to have to deal with this association, what, in a year, two years are going to be in there and that's like every good ref school. So I'm telling you that Fail Mary time was so bad. Just so, so, so bad.

[D]

Two games, right? Was that what it was? How many? Three.

[A]

That was longer than that. That was longer than that. Because I remember.

[C]

I did.

[D]

I did.

[E]

What year was that? 2012.

[A]

Three or four. Maybe five.

[C]

Maybe I thought it was into October.

[D]

Is it that long?

[A]

It was long because I remember when

[D]

they returned, I remember Jeff Triplett did a Packers game and like, you know, gave like a hero's welcome. And they were all standing ovation from the fans. And then I did. I did Baltimore and Stereotyp was there and, like, the crowd, like, stood up and like, for the first time ever, the refs were like, well, thank you. Thank you. We're back. And then a week later, everyone was

[A]

like, oh, yeah, but think about how much success. Three games, first three weeks. Think about how much success. Was there another prime time game in the four, or is it just the finish of week three?

[D]

I think the. The film area was the last.

[E]

It was.

[B]

It was Sunday Night Football. The Hail Mary or Mary was breaking point.

[A]

So three weeks of that. Think about how loud it was. Week one, week two, and then obviously week three. That ref union is very good. And I believe the guy that is leading, Scott Green, this is last. Who are up potentially too. So he was there during that one. It's like, hey, boys, we will find ourselves with incredible leverage here. Like, absolutely incredible leverage. We won't have to answer for anything. Everybody will have a job forever. We don't. We don't have to be full time like that.

[D]

I'll tell you, I. I remember this. I was working on Inside the NFL for Showtime, and that play happens to fail Mary. And we had. We had the. It's a ridiculous play. We had the ref come on because immediately after the labor strife, it's like he's going back to being a high school coach. Like, so he was on. And he was a guest on Inside the NFL. And he was like, it's my moment, too. I think he wrote a book.

[E]

Jeez.

[D]

Like. Like, it was. That was their moment. Like, these replacement guys.

[A]

I'm telling you, we can't have it. Can't have it, can't have it. I just can't. That would be det. That'd be like a work stoppage in my eyes, detrimental to the NFL.

[D]

But what about all the talk about Australia and the Dan Fogelman series and the flag football? This is what the priority has got

[A]

to be, especially with people gambling. Yeah, people gambling on the games.

[D]

Why. Why that accent?

[E]

Gambling?

[A]

What are you talking about? Are you gambling right now? We got a little bit of a crowd back here. No idea how this has happened. Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming, guys. Good to see you. Hell yeah, team. All right, so what's going on here?

[D]

Leaker trading.

[B]

I'd Imagine they're not.

[D]

I know it. Great card store.

[B]

The people that are staying.

[A]

Yeah, but are these people staying here? Are these people at the Biltmore?

[C]

I see a couple of guys get out of Ubers.

[A]

Yeah, I saw a yellow cat pull up.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Bingo.

[B]

I don't think they're all staying on property.

[D]

I don't think Jimmy Haslam showing up in a yellow cab.

[A]

But after he pays DeShawn Watson's deal might he my paid. That's David M Football. All right, Shanks, what else? Oh, actually, yeah, I cut you off. Yeah.

[C]

Oh, yeah. My question of course, which I remember

[A]

was yes, that's a great pool.

[C]

Was and granted it is early.

[A]

Are you trying to find it right now still?

[C]

No, I did find it.

[D]

They call this vamping.

[C]

I, I, I found it. But I do want to it with I know that it's early, but you are very good at pontificating things that are going to happen. And at this point free agency has happened, all the hirings have happened, the staffs are kind of established. I personally, as far as who's going to be the Patriots of this year, I do love the Giants because Harbaugh, the second year qb, things like that, the guys they signed like who right now are you kind of feeling out looking at everything they've done and they still have the draft, the camp and everything. But who do you have your eye on now as like a hey, Lions might miss the playoffs. That was your one last year you nailed year before Commanders, you know, making the playoffs, making a run, they go to the NFC title game. Like who right now are you kind of feeling almost as if a team that you might see, you know, doing very well or oh, don't look now, they might, they might be over the

[D]

too early for the oh Because I like to see training camp on the oh the team that is saying all the right things and seems to be building the right way. I, I do think the Ravens are going to come back with a vengeance right now and I know the Max Crosby trade fell through and I know this upsets tone in a real way, but talking to Minto, visibility, talking to Dacosta, talking to those guys, it's like they felt the impact of missing the playoffs and that went from the top to the bottom and they know that they had to scrap a lot of things and bring a lot of new faces and new voices and I believe there is a urgency, a desire and a freshness in that building where I think the Ravens are going to be very good.

[C]

Are you Going to extend Lamar. Because that was the other conversation. Like they didn't get an extension done with them. So is Lamar gonna leave?

[D]

I would imagine all that gets taken care of in the wash. And it will happen. And it's not going to happen on our timeline.

[A]

Okay, on their timeline, yeah. Steve Bashawi's time. Yeah, that's right. This is the man.

[D]

See him yesterday or no?

[A]

Did I. Is he here?

[D]

I haven't seen him, but he's also usually a fixture at these things. Cigar? Same deal. Similar vibe than what you were.

[A]

Oh, if I would have ran into Bashaw.

[C]

He's the man probably in the shadows. Doesn't want to be seen, but wants to be there.

[A]

Yeah, you're right. Want to experience it, but don't want others to experience me.

[D]

Remember after they won it, I was here probably 12 years ago. Now it's 2013.

[A]

Was. I just got ears. He was there. Nobody wanted to tell me.

[D]

Bashadi was sitting at this event, that same event.

[E]

I did not see him.

[C]

Nobody saw him.

[F]

I took a lap.

[C]

Probably Great Gatsby.

[E]

Oh, let me guess. Who was it?

[A]

Yeah, you know who it was.

[E]

Was it the $600 shirt guy?

[A]

It was. It was a $600 shirt guy. It was an Italian shirt, though, I'll have you know. And nobody thought he underpaid for it after they found out he paid $600 for it. That's Bruce Brown. Oh, Italy.

[C]

By the way, the Cleveland Brown. Shut up. That's Cleveland Browns nation. Now Italy fraud. That just reminded me of that. I forgot about that.

[E]

That's a tough loss.

[A]

Huge win for Cleveland.

[C]

All the Browns fans, great.

[A]

We get Italy.

[C]

Has to be a Cleveland Browns fan. We get potato. What happened?

[A]

Easy.

[D]

They gave the Italian market.

[C]

It's Italy.

[A]

Cleveland got Italy.

[C]

Yeah.

[F]

Congratulations.

[B]

They took one look at Monkin instead.

[D]

Tuscany.

[B]

He's a friend of mine.

[E]

And Pittsburgh got potato ville.

[A]

Excuse me. The Rooney family are ambassadors to Ireland.

[E]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Ireland.

[E]

Pittsburgh ambassadors to Italy.

[A]

Yeah. I would say Pittsburgh is a very Italian city. Cleveland. I think they got Italian sewers done

[E]

with the International Series. By the way, this is the straw that broke my back.

[A]

I will say, Tone, before he had the broken back from this particular straw, he said he's about sick of us having to send our product to these other countries. If these other countries don't like us, we don't send our game to them.

[E]

It's America's product. They want to come watch a game, get on. Get on a plane and come over. Okay.

[A]

I don't feel that way. I Think the game should grow.

[C]

I get the angle.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

I do get it.

[A]

Tony hates it.

[G]

Tony.

[A]

Tony has been very.

[E]

The only good part is that the game's on at 9:30 in the morning on Sunday.

[D]

That's good. It would be like having that window.

[G]

Right.

[E]

I love having that wake up. I don't like sending our athletes other countries. Okay. Injury risks. A lot of other risks.

[D]

What if they were to send this show in this group to one of these markets? Which one would interest you the most?

[C]

Ireland. Let's go back.

[D]

You've already done it though. For the better name game.

[A]

I'm not going back.

[D]

What about Paris?

[A]

I can't survive Paris. Paris would be the last one. I think we would pick Madrid, Germany.

[B]

That would be electric.

[E]

Paris already surrendered. Surrendered from us. Our show going over.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Really got it.

[B]

You nailed it.

[A]

You'll watch that one back and you'll say. And you high five it. Yeah. That's smart. That is not what.

[D]

We have a lot of French fans.

[A]

Will you please do we.

[D]

Yes.

[A]

I don't think we do.

[C]

Huge.

[A]

Maybe. Bonjour.

[D]

I think the McAfee show in Paris for a week before a Saints game would be incredible.

[A]

When I was 14, the McAfee show was in Paris. Yeah, it was. They did not go well.

[C]

Germany.

[A]

Yeah. Germany would be sweet. I think Germany would be awesome. Italy would be crazy. Any of them would be sweet, man. It's always a festival. Whenever we played in England, it was just like an American sports festival. You saw basketball jerseys, baseball jerseys. You saw everything. But now that football is becoming more and more. It is a festival. So I think. I didn't like to go to anyone. Paris, though. You can go ahead and jot that one down. It's probably never why.

[C]

Place smells awful.

[A]

That's not why. It's such a wonderful. That is not why. I've heard it smells like city of Rome.

[D]

City of great soccer. And of course.

[A]

Okay, I know. I got married in Indianapolis. There's a lot of romance. There's a lot of romance.

[E]

Why? Because they have a bridge that you put locks on.

[B]

Oh, come on.

[C]

That's kind of cool.

[B]

They were pooping in the sand.

[C]

They still. So that might get us there.

[E]

Breaking news in our group chat, by the way.

[A]

Breaking news in the group chat. It is. Ravens just texted. Mr. Bashai's not here. So that was a lie.

[D]

Okay. Thank you.

[E]

We would have told you.

[F]

We would have wouldn't. We wouldn't have missed him.

[D]

He's the best. I didn't.

[A]

So Bruce said I saw Him.

[C]

I didn't.

[A]

Didn't tell you. No, I. I said he was here. Da was back corner.

[C]

So I said back corner.

[A]

That's on me.

[C]

Or he was there. And then we are talking about him being here now. And they said, hey, make sure people

[A]

like Kaiser so sick. Yes, yes. Kaiser so sick. All right, this show's end in two minutes. Thank God. We're not going to.

[E]

By the way, France is not even in our top 23. Three countries watches this program. Really?

[A]

I would. That's pretty crazy. I would expect a 50 to 60 there. How many countries are you? Every time I find out how many

[C]

countries, I think there's 163 countries.

[D]

Give me a metric. Give me a country that we'd be surprised with.

[E]

It goes us, Canada, the uk, Australia, Germany, Mexico, India.

[F]

Boom.

[E]

The Philippines.

[A]

I've always wanted to have an Indian show since the beginning. You got to do it because I think we have somebody hang around me that's an Indian person that speaks their language. Now, granted, I think there's a lot of different languages in India as a whole. Just one of them kind of hang out, catch the vibe, deliver the whole show in my cadence. We're off in India now. The tech does it already.

[D]

That is incredible.

[A]

Well, thanks. YouTube beat us to it. They do it to every single country, actually.

[D]

What else after India?

[A]

Every single country. I did not know India was climbing like that, though. I'm happy to hear that.

[E]

After India, it was the Philippines, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Indonesia, South Africa, Africa, Sweden, Japan, Spain, Italy, Singapore, Brazil, Venezuela, Switzerland, Malaysia and Denmark all before France.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, that's French.

[E]

We got.

[A]

I was there as a 14 year old, bro. They didn't like me immediately. Immediately. They did not like. I mean, I got a cleat to the chest.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

I'm telling you, if you want to know how a country feels about America, drop me in the middle of it. I'm not saying people know who I am, but they look at me and they go, that is an American.

[C]

American.

[A]

Put that on the billboard. That one right there. Yeah. I could tell just looking at it. Bad. That's in America and that is everywhere in the world. You drop me in the middle, I'll probably be able to.

[E]

France is 26.

[A]

It just.

[D]

Bill just sent it 26.

[A]

We can probably go through there and see how people feel about Americans if we really wanted to dive into it. On that note, I love all you. Japan would be cool, would be down. We'll see you guys tomorrow. We'll be back in the thunderdome. We're gonna be on this shows kind of let us down. The league meetings didn't. It's been a blast. You all were the best. Have a good one. Goodbye. We battled through today. Yeah.

[C]

Okay, good.

[E]

We covered all the news.

[C]

Yeah. We've done it.

[A]

We did, Abs. We're still live. Strengths. Peace. Don't. We had a hot mic earlier too. Boys in the truck having one. It.

[E]

It caught me saying, did your shirt take over pory list?

[A]

That's why. That's the word I got.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

And on that note, there was some compliments to the shirt.

[E]

Great.

[A]

It was the only polo I had. Ward golfing.

[D]

You look great.

[A]

Thank you.

[D]

I thought you look great. Your shoes were cool too.

[A]

They're the only ones I brought, so I actually was looking to get some more shoes and a polo shirt. Turns out the mall here walked in the zombie land.

[D]

No, Macy's was open. I went to Macy's.

[B]

It was also finding a fit at Macy's. We were in there for a whole fit at Macy's.

[A]

Yeah. And Nick kept telling people I bullied him into it. He and I saw that outfit, thought Nick looked good. Yeah, exactly. There was a leather. There was a leather one that Connor could have wore.

[C]

Yeah. I. I thought about it, but I

[E]

was just pants or jacket.

[A]

Passing out shorts.

[B]

All the leather shorts. Leather and kind of like turn that down.

[C]

It would have stuck to me like gum.

[E]

Like Big Mike shirt.

[C]

The time I walked outside, especially finding out we didn't know the. The whole thing was outside.

[A]

So when we walked, we didn't know anything.

[B]

We didn't know anything.

[A]

We have no. Nothing. They put our set right here in front of the whole thing. We know nothing about what's going on.

[D]

Great set.

[A]

I've. Great.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

This has been unbelievable. Nobody can join the show though because all the sessions are happening while the show's.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

So what we need to do if we do this again, I'm not committing to. But if we do this again, we need to pre records of people whenever they're not in these sessions, run them in this thing.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Sunday night we record a full show.

[E]

Boom.

[C]

That gets run Monday. Monday night we just record the party. We record whole show.

[B]

Boom.

[C]

That gets.

[A]

Maybe we do the show at party

[E]

or we do the show at Glaze Caesar's place.

[A]

Yeah. Or we just fly in for last night.

[B]

That's not a bad idea.

[A]

And then we fly out the same

[D]

stories and have the same experiences that

[A]

if I was to guess, I would assume next year.

[D]

Can I tell you though they alternate east coast west. So next year will likely be in Florida.

[C]

Boom.

[A]

That's what I'm talking about.

[C]

We're in bed.

[A]

We're in bed by 4am yeah.

[E]

That place is beautiful. Last time we went to Florida league meetings. Yeah.

[C]

It was very nice.

[A]

Yeah, it was.

[E]

Remember? You remember. You remember the Harbaughs were.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

Shooting for takedowns on you.

[C]

But that's the thing. If it's on east coast, that changes everything, because then the meetings are 9 to 12am and so they will be able to bingo on the program between 12 and.

[F]

Boom.

[C]

Up top. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, that was all of us shrags kind of got left hanging there. Shregs, any final messages for the people who have had to sit through this one?

[D]

I think it's been great.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

I think it's been a real showcase for my talents and my ability to hang with the crew. So I'm exactly thrilled with this. This was a great episode. I loved it. I was say.

[A]

I'll tell you what, Shregs. That's a great way to view this. That is what it was.

[C]

Makes me feel better.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Shregs away last night, I loved seeing you guys in the mix. I know that, you know, there was some apprehension from some of the boys. Like, G, I don't want to be at something that's so official. And it was fun, and the guard was down, and you guys were great. And you were celebrated in a way that I think you were a little surprised. Probably. Probably a little bit, right?

[A]

A lot of people saying hello. That was very kind of everybody.

[B]

A lot of people saying, we probably should have known. Because I think, you know, I mean, the NFL is not doing anything. Thing Mickey Mouse. I don't know why I was expecting us to go to, like, a Holiday Inn ballroom. Just like a big open ballroom with like one. One bar and like a wedding.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

And like a thing of, like, combine, to be honest, is in a convention center. So you're thinking, oh, it's the same thing. This is a different deal.

[A]

Yeah. And everybody here kind of knows the deal. Yeah, everybody here knows the deal. Got 31 billionaire security walking around. You know, them tailing the families, too.

[D]

Two things. You like the. The. The fleet of black cars that will show up when the sessions close out. That is always a sight to be seen. You have thousands of them. And then the second thing would be, Godel does a press conference. The second that press conference ends, like rats, everyone leaves.

[A]

Yeah. What time is that press conference?

[D]

It's usually a moving target when the meetings are over. So I would say usually later today, probably like three or four o'. Clock.

[A]

Would we be able to ask a question if we get in there?

[D]

You're a credentialed member of the media. You sure can.

[A]

Goodness.

[F]

Boom.

[A]

What would be your one question?

[D]

As someone who did this from that side Many, many years, you always get one question. And you don't want to ask a softball and you don't want to, you know, necessarily ask me, it's going to be asked someone else. What would be your one question to Roger Goodell?

[A]

I don't know. It depends on how it was going. What. What are the other questions that have already been asked? Shreks, you know, you can't just go in there with the game.

[D]

You're gonna start off with the ref's question. You're gonna again be asked.

[A]

Ref's probably being asked by somebody else before me. Yeah.

[D]

Broadcasting will be a question. There will be a question about maybe be league initiatives, minority coaches. There'll be some questions about, like our league points that are like talking points. And then they're gonna be. All right, Pat McAfee, what's your question?

[A]

I don't know. I gotta be in the room. I'd have to be in the room. See how it.

[E]

Everyone said there's not a lot going on this year.

[D]

That's a great thing for the league.

[A]

Yeah, it is a great thing for the league. Not good for the refs. All right. I don't know who these. Hey, how you guys doing? Good to see you guys. You guys look good.

[F]

Official.

[C]

Look like hotel people.

[B]

People.

[D]

Thunderbirds.

[A]

I don't know. Are they Thunderbirds? That's a good question.

[D]

Sounds like they built more people.

[A]

Do we know if they can hear us? If I'm not looking at them. Those people over there that are by far. Yeah, they can. Okay, so I don't want to say anything. I was just gonna ask who they could possibly be.

[D]

You guys wanna.

[A]

Hey. Hey. You guys look awesome. Thank you guys for the hospitality you.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

This place is great.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

Thank you guys for what you do, man.

[D]

Frank Lloyd Wright.

[A]

That's right. We love this place. Nice.

[D]

Do you know that they're associated with

[C]

the hood, I think might own it, actually.

[D]

Bing Crosby wrote White Christmas from here. Right.

[C]

Get out of town.

[D]

That's true.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

They're all what I think. Guy in the middle owns it.

[A]

Okay. Yes. This is president of hotel. Hey, thanks for your service, buddy. Okay. We can tell. We can feel it.

[D]

I like that you added the pickleball courts. It adds something. I appreciate it.

[A]

We didn't get a chance to stay here.

[D]

No, but. But appreciate it.

[A]

We've heard the rooms. Unbelievable.

[C]

Next time getting sweaty.

[F]

Course is nice, right?

[A]

We didn't get a chance to play here, but preferred courses. Unbelievable. Guy's done well. This place is really nice.

[G]

Yeah.

[A]

Now, I've been told potentially that the Minnesota Vikings head coach is walking this way.

[D]

Okay.

[A]

I was certainly planning on ending this thing. Getting in the car.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

You guys are taking me back to God's country.

[E]

Uhhuh.

[C]

Amen. Get me home.

[A]

That's what I was thinking about.

[D]

So you won't be doing the Goodell Prescott?

[C]

No chance.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

The whole thing, you were just setting up there. There's no way Andy Reed's walking out here with a little bit of a limp. Hell yeah. Andy Reid knee.

[E]

Someone said knee surgery.

[A]

Hell yeah. Coach. Good to see you.

[D]

Red.

[F]

Battling.

[D]

Battling

[A]

out of town. Kevin OConnell come here. When do you know? Right. Yeah, but, like,

[C]

I think he'd understand.

[A]

You should send him back. Send him back. All right. We'll Talk to Kevin OConnell another day. I'm excited to hear what he's got to say. I'm honored for that, to be honest. This is one of the worst ones we've ever done.

[D]

Come on.

[A]

Yeah. Strikes, you were great. Thank you. Strikes, you're phenomenal. You got a chance to show.

[D]

I got a showcase.

[A]

Yeah. Just. We couldn't have it, I guess, the whole process of being here.

[E]

Yeah.

[B]

We're gonna get all these coaches and all.

[D]

I waited for two hours for a head coach to do a taped interview for NFL Live and I got blown off. So at least he didn't get blown off.

[C]

At least now we know next year they probably boozing. It will happen the way we thought it would.

[E]

Yeah. Cuz it's on the east in Florida, on American time.

[A]

To the crew to piece this together. Thank you. All you guys are guys.

[G]

Thank you.

[A]

You best of the best.

[C]

You and you.

[A]

Even in audio department,

[D]

Z's working right now. He's like, can't get out of here right now.

[A]

No.

[B]

You telling him?

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Catching. Catching.

[A]

Back in the truck. Appreciate you, boys.

[C]

Bo.

[A]

Way to go, Bruce. Really on top of all of it.

[C]

Took a couple hacks.

[A]

Couple hacks.

[C]

That's what it's all about.

[A]

He had the hotel and then the Bashani was to the police officers. Thank you, guys.

[E]

Thank you, police officers.

[A]

Thank you, officers. Guys are good. No rush. Little vitamin in the sky a couple different times. These cops didn't care about nothing. All right. We'll get out of here if he's right here. Just a little information, you know.

[F]

You going to hit the mic, McCarthy?

[B]

No, it doesn't look like he's not.

[A]

Stays around here. I mean if he gets here.

[D]

Who's that in the blue? Is that Shotty in the blue jacket?

[A]

Yeah.

[E]

Where's shot coming out underneath.

[A]

Oh, we're not doing that. We had good call. We know shot he was doing last night shy was awesome. He coached us in Indianapolis. Did he? Yeah. So I was what was his quarterback. Yeah. I think you on the team?

[E]

Yep.

[F]

No.

[A]

Yeah, we. It was a nice catch up with Shotty. We. We gave him. We gave him the full. Like you're the head coach of the Dallas Cowboy.

[D]

How cool is that?

[A]

That's crazy.

[D]

He was telling me he was 32 years old when he was an offensive coordinator. That's pretty young. That's pretty cool. And now he's at this stage in his career.

[A]

Yeah. Him talking about his dad last night a lot. There's a lot of stories about his dad and like things. It was really cool.

[C]

Cool.

[A]

It was a good event. A late night conversation. But he was like. Feels like he is very thankful for the opportunity. Pumped. And also like they feel good about the cow.

[C]

We going to do this.

[A]

They feel good about the cow. Double is. They feel really good about.

[F]

Very good about the new DC too.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes, definitely. That was a good part of the conversation. All right, we're ending it. Hey, hotel people. Good work.

[D]

Thanks guys.

[A]

Stay here straight. Be a friend. Tell friends something nice. You might change your life. We're in this thing together, boys. Great work out here too. Nobody embarrassed program. Too bad. I'd say.

[B]

No, I think we did good.

[A]

I mean there was some loud speaking in places, I think.

[B]

Yeah. Loud restaurant.

[E]

But after what I saw from the NFL last night.

[G]

Night, we're good.

[A]

I think kind of a different setting, but I do agree with what you're saying. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. You might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me. Officer, Officer. Put it up.

[F]

There we go.

[A]

Team on me.

[G]

Keep on.

[E]

There we go.

[A]

There you go. We're going to head back to Indianapolis, Indiana. We are grateful to Arizona for being fantastic every time it's here. Thank you to the NFL for allowing us to broadcast from the parking lot and for allowing us to be a part of last week night. The league is in good hands. We're proud to be a part of it. Small part of it. And they need to figure it out with these refs.

[F]

Yeah, they're in back there, too.

[A]

Nice one.

[F]

Guy's got his hand up like.

[A]

Oh, yeah. He's just raised his hand like a teacher. Maybe we should ask him a question. We should get out of here. Team on me. Team on three. Thank you all so much for allowing us to do this for a living. One, two, three, team. Come on.