PMS 2.0 1374 - Happy 4th of July Eve, Immanuel Iheanacho Makes His College Commitment, Jeff Passan, US Men's National Team Star Diego Luna, & AJ Hawk

16:47Pat McAfee:Yeah. Because then if we build up from this, we're literally worst team in baseball. And then now we're going to the top of it all.

16:53Jeff Passan:Yeah, people are still going to Rockies games. I saw something. Beautiful ballpark. Yeah, there were a shit ton of people there, and the fact that they're that bad is ridiculous.

17:01Pat McAfee:All right, let's do some NFL news that has happened. Congratulations to Dan over there in Kansas City. The NFL's longest tenured mascot is officially hanging up a suit. Congratulations, Dan. Oh, yeah, Dan. Baby Donald. So these mascots, I know Trey, who's obviously blue for the Indianapolis Colts, and he went to, I believe, mascot school at Auburn, if I'm not mistaken. They have a lot of mascots across the country. Trey created Blue, pitched it to the Colts. Colts were looking for a mascot, created the mascot, has run the mascot program. And Blue has like 270 shows a year or something like that where he's going to elementary schools, high schools, events.

17:47Pat McAfee:Obviously, he runs the TikTok. he does all his social content during the game i think they just give him like hey you got five timeouts where you got to figure out the entertainment for the entire stadium this dude's throwing footballs off the top he's doing big i mean he's just he's like a full-time creator i would assume the same is for dan i've never met dan personally i don't know how many people have known that he is necessarily the chief's mascot but like the amount of creativity that they have obviously you're a mascot so you uh you're signing up to do a job that not a lot of people do Nick Morales was Charles E.

18:21Pat McAfee:Chester whenever he was in high school. He decided never to do it again. The ultimate honor. Charles Entertainment Cheese. Thank you. Yeah, of course. Chuck. Chuck E. Cheese. So congrats to Dan on a hell of a run. But it's not just showing up on game day. I assume he's going to every elementary school in the state. He's going to... Because when the Colts need representation somewhere, Blue is sent to it. So I assume the Chiefs have done the same thing. So for 30 plus years doing that, Thank you for your commitment to ball. I assume the Hunt family says thank you for your commitment to the Chiefs.

18:53Pat McAfee:And hell of a run, bro. That's a long time in a suit. The amount of weight he has lost in that suit, I couldn't even fathom if you were to do the math of it. Because each game, I think Trey's like eight pounds, maybe nine pounds, because it's sweating in there. Kansas City gets a little cold. Think about how happy he was in that Dolphins playoff game to be in that suit. Dano's retiring, but does that mean that whole mascot is gone or is there going to be a new Don? I would assume they sub a new man in for Don in the costume. Now, we know who it's not going to be. Yeah. There's been some news out of the superfan world of the Kansas City Chiefs.

19:30Pat McAfee:Obviously, we all know X-Factor and Red Extreme have had their incidents in the past of the superfans of the Kansas City Chiefs. We've actually got a news clip that we've all seen of, I believe, x-factor coming out of the hospital after he had uh broken his ribs walking next to a gas station with a red cheese head on yep and uh he got beat up by red extreme actually who's another super fan and x-factor was not happy about it obviously but the chiefs have maybe the wildest situation in their super fans community mostly because of one chiefsaholic chiefsaholic was uh a wolf who was very prevalent around town.

20:10Pat McAfee:For those that don't know the story, you should look up Chiefsaholic. It is worthy. It is. I believe there's a documentary about it. We covered it in real time. We were very lucky that we kind of found out about it. The whole world found out about it. But when we learned about it, it was right in our this human inside the wolf costume was actually robbing banks to get money to go to Chiefs games. Like going on the way to an away game. How much money is front row seat for this game? Because need to get to Wolf. Obviously. Wolf needs to get in there. We're talking full commitment, this guy. He wanted to be known as the Chiefs' superist fan.

20:45Pat McAfee:So he was robbing banks to do this. We've learned it's 11 banks across three different states, I believe. Eight. Eight different states, sorry. And he got sentenced in May, and we have not done the update. He's getting 32 years in prison in Oklahoma. Correct. And then there's another 17-year sentence that's happening as well. So a potential 49 years in prison if we're reading the terms right, for Chiefsaholic, who we assume 49 is a long time. We don't know how old he is. We have seen him run before. So fast. Because at a couple of fan events, he actually ran. His legs would run sideways. He was somehow moving forward.

21:22Pat McAfee:I did.

21:25Pat McAfee:They did potentially catch him from the gate when he was running from a bank. Like, that's got to be that wolf. That's got to be that wolf. We are not 100 % sure if he was wearing the Chiefs-aholic costume when he was doing these robberies. But the thought is, this guy loved Chiefs football more than anybody else. So much so that he just apparently started sticking guns in people's faces and getting enough money to go there. So that's some journalism there that we didn't really complete the story arc, I don't think, of this guy because we're on the beat since the beginning. He loved Patrick Mahomes.

21:59Pat McAfee:Loved. loved watching Travis Kelsey play football. More than anyone. These Andy Reid offenses, he needed to see it. He is a guy that is a little bit too committed to the ball. We respect his fanhood, but obviously a danger to society. His obsession is a danger to society. And that's what I guess the jury of his peers said. Did we expect 49 years in jail? I'm not 100 % sure, or 32 at least, in Oklahoma. I don't know if that's what we were thinking. We all thought, I think it was $800 ,000 in total. Correct. Because obviously, he's going to seek it, I assume, try to get the best deal. It helped.

22:43Pat McAfee:But I mean,$800 ,000 in tickets to games, 49 years if we're reading it right, in jail. Wild story that we should talk about in the football world for decades to come about this guy. I mean, I definitely, I was thinking maybe, I don't know, what, 10 years? I don't know what the normal Statue of limitations is We're not law experts But then you see, okay, this was eight states This is a federal case This guy was doing it basically Across the entire southwest And into the Midwest a little bit too Then you kind of get a clearer picture There was a lot of people pissed at this guy A lot of people This guy was a menace to A lot of victims too Think about the bankers They were credit union banks, I believe 11 different credit union banks So we assumed that he had a tip on a credit union or knew something about a credit union.

23:30Pat McAfee:It was like, maybe this is a smaller bank. We can attack this. Think about the people that are working in those things, though. That's still a moment that they probably get PTSD for. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's just like, and that's happening in eight different states. So you got eight different governments being like, hey, not doing it here. Yeah. Not doing it here. That's a long time. Don't be robbing banks. Okay. We would like to make an official statement. Right. Don't be sticking guns in people's faces, especially in the name of football. which I feel like Chiefsaholic was doing. But Jesus Christ, if you're a Kansas City Chief player, what people are willing to do to watch you play ball, that should be some sort of compliment.

24:09They should probably be accessory to the crap.

24:14Pat McAfee:Zito just showed me a picture of his lawyer here on the screen. I do remember him. Oh, yeah. He's good. Best in the business. Almost got him off. Yeah, I don't think so. All right, let's pivot away from that. So congrats to Dan. with the Kansas City Chiefs mascot career coming to an end after 30-plus years. And Chiefs-a-holic, you had to know. Yeah. You couldn't just be running sideways around. You're a fool. Bank to bank doing that. You can't. He was, like, very popular. I guess he was buying paintings at these Chiefs foundations. Yeah, he had a lot of spare cash. Yeah, like, legit. You got to get rid of this.

24:50Pat McAfee:He was pleading it. Yeah, give me the Mahomes and Kelsey painting for sure. I'll take all of that. He was living a rock star life out there in Kansas City. Obviously, it all comes crashing down. Also, this video from, or this answer from Jonu Smith after Arthur Smith was let go from the Atlanta Falcons. Jonu was obviously on the Falcons whenever he was there. He is now a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers in a trade from the Miami Dolphins alongside Jalen Ramsey with Minka Fitzpatrick heading back down there. And Pittsburgh Steelers fans are pumped to get another weapon. Obviously got Friar Muth, who's currently out in Malibu right now, hanging with Aaron and the boys, which we will certainly dive into.

25:27Pat McAfee:But adding this weapon to the offense of Pittsburgh Steelers, fun to think about. Then you hear this answer, and it's like, oh, this guy's ready to go war for Arthur Smith.

25:37Jeff Passan:What was most important to me was being with them throughout my whole NFL career mostly and hearing him say, you know, whenever you need me, man, and my number will never change. That's who he is since the first day I met him. And I know that's how I truly, you know, stamped that, you know what I mean? So he'll be there for anybody, man. He'll bend over backwards for the people he love. And I don't know how many interviews I did about art. And, but true, I can't do enough, man. And he's been extremely instrumental in my journey in the NFL, going into my eighth season. And, you know, this guy is still here, man.

26:31Jeff Passan:It's crazy. I just think about that time we met at the senior bowl when I was 21 years old. And, you know, here I am. I'll be 30 next year. And he's still right here. So it hasn't happened a lot in this game.

26:42Pat McAfee:John Ewan, Arthur Smith, don't know if they're related, but I do know they have a lot of love for each other apparently. Steelers fans have to love hearing that, and obviously it makes a lot more sense now why this was a target for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Yeah, I don't know if they're blood related or not, but it does feel like they are brothers either way. Obviously, knowing each other since Johnny was 21 is insane, and then being with each other at the Titans, the Falcons, and now again at the Steelers, everyone talks about their bromance together, and I'm just pumped because Johnny was going to be Artie Smith's queen of the chessboard.

27:14So last year, Jonu was in line. He was in line, just typical normal tight end, 134 snaps. He was in the slot, 232 snaps, and out wide, 120 snaps. So he plays all over the place. And people talked about, you know, the Steelers need another, like, big play wide receiver. Like, Jonu is going to be this, and Artie Smith already likes to do things with his tight ends like this, moving them around in different spots. I'm very, very excited to see what they do together this season.

27:38Pat McAfee:Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers seemingly going all in, and every yinzer in Pittsburgh saying, here we go. Steelers Here we go I think you guys do think Yeah and I tell you what Going to the Super Bowl Here we go I think there's the answers that I think they're in I was already you know As high as I could possibly be on the Steelers Until I heard Sauce Gardner Talk yesterday on this show about Aaron Rodgers And boy it just pushed me even farther Called him a wizard brother You got a wizard playing quarterback in Pittsburgh They're adding weapons They're adding people on the defensive side.

28:14Pat McAfee:Is TJ Watts' deal ever going to get done? I don't think so. Oh, we'll see. We'll see. I think it's done. Is it by the time we get out there for training camp, we shall certainly keep an eye out for TJ Watts, not a Pittsburgh Steeler. That'd be crazy. Yeah, that'd be wild. Especially with how much money is going to all these people. Don't worry. He's under contract. He's a Pittsburgh Steeler. Okay. All right, you tell him that. On paper. Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for us to be a part of a moment that is gigantic not only for the player but his family his community and obviously this school that finds out that they are getting this absolute megastar now i don't know if you know about this particular 2026 number four overall recruit from on three because he's an offensive lineman so it's hard to i don't know if there's a lot of offensive lineman high school kids that are getting the recognition that they should if there's any of them that i have ever seen or heard of in my life six seven 350 pounds out of baltimore maryland he can squat over 600 pounds he's going into his senior year next year he's a junior this is a class of 2026 That is next year.

29:33Pat McAfee:He's coming to a high school near you. 6 '7", 350, squats, 600-plus pounds. Look at his knees. His ass just touched the ground. You're talking about everything you could possibly want as a football player. Then you look at his reps. His athleticism is insane. He doesn't look like a 6 '7 guy. He doesn't move like a 6 '7 guy. But if you were to stand in front of him, you'd say, holy shit, look at this monster of a man. ladies and gentlemen, to make his official commitment for where he will be playing college ball at. Please welcome, out of Georgetown Prep in Maryland, an absolute beast, five-star recruit with 34 different offers.

30:15Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, Manny Igenacho. Yay! Manny, what up?

30:24Jeff Passan:How you guys doing? How you doing?

30:25Pat McAfee:Hey, I'm great. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of this did i say your last name right i hear nacho he had it so that was pretty close he had a joke damn i listened to four different videos this he had it okay okay i got it i'm sorry about that i don't like getting people's last name wrong believe me my last name's butchered all the time manny he had he had an e hannah show yes yeah we need to learn learn this name because it's going to be a big one for a long time okay 34 recruits uh 34 different scholarships uh obviously everybody in the country has wanted you from what we read on the internet there was a final four that you were allegedly warm with uh oregon penn state lsu auburn amongst other offers you got ohio state alabama miss you name it every school that is in the college football world has offered manny and manny if you would like to let us know where you're headed and and then i can't wait to ask you some follow-up questions on why where are you going to play football at brother yes sir so first i'd like to thank my lord and savior jesus christ without

31:32Jeff Passan:him nothing i think my coaches are the c school of maryland george trump prep and my trainer coach nagy brown with that being said for the next three years i'll be taking my talents to the university oregon Let's go, Docs!

31:49Pat McAfee:Let's go, Docs! Let's go, Docs! Okay, so you'll be heading out to beautiful Eugene. I mean, that place is glorious. Their fans, rabid. The chance, immaculate. In the Nike uniforms, better than everywhere else. Manny, obviously, every school wanted your services. Everybody wanted you to play tackle and represent their university. Ultimately, why was it Oregon? And I assume Coach Dan Lanning is incredibly pumped about this.

32:24Jeff Passan:Yes, sir. I feel like, you know, after being on all these campuses, Oregon really just felt right. There's a lot of great people on those campuses, but I feel like Oregon really had the best people, best like-minded people, and really just the opportunity for me to play early was huge there. Coach Terry, you know, at a law firm, Coach Terry, Coach Wormack, Coach Whip, Coach Cut, Coach Walk, all those guys, you know, they just had Josh Connelly in the first round, so that's pretty big. I feel like just, you know, going all the way to that, it's going to be pretty tough, but I just know that it's going to be worth it at the end.

33:04Pat McAfee:It's beautiful out there, man. I mean, it's far. Like, it is far. The flight, obviously, you've been there. you got a chance to see it as you're flying out there you're like holy shit we're still in america i don't know how we're still in america you're flying all the way but when you land how beautiful is it i don't think a lot of people know because they obviously haven't made the trip it's beautiful out there on that campus was that a surprise for you yeah it was uh a decent surprise uh pleasant

33:28Jeff Passan:surprise my first time there it's just very greeny very earthy you know it's nice like it's very aesthetically pleasing too so you know that helps you know and i know i heard it rains a lot but you You know, the grass is down green to Eugene, so, you know.

33:41Pat McAfee:It has to rain. I mean, that is literally how we get there. Well, congratulations, Manny. We appreciate you. We can't wait to follow your journey, and good luck with everything, man.

33:51Jeff Passan:Yes, sir. Thank you.

33:52Pat McAfee:Ladies and gentlemen, future Oregon Duck, I'll say it, future NFL Hall of Famer, no pressure. You're going to be able to figure it out. Hey, that's no distraction. You're on a one-way trip, brother. You're the best. ladies and gentlemen, Manny Ihanacho. Ihanacho. Shit. That's on me, Manny. That's on me.

34:13Jeff Passan:I appreciate you, man. I appreciate you guys. Have a good day, all you guys.

34:18Pat McAfee:Good luck. You're the man. Hell yeah, Manny. Ihanacho.

34:24Jeff Passan:It's tough. You'll know when he's getting pitched in the first round for the Colts. 6 '7", 350.

34:30Pat McAfee:Did you see his mitts pop up? When he went on this screen here, when I looked at him on this screen, I'm like, this guy's gigantic. 6 '7", 350 as a 17-year-old?

34:40Jeff Passan:Yeah, those are the kids that they talk about where it's like, imagine being a senior in high school, finishing math class, and then having to get off the bus to go rush the passer against Manny. That's the nightmare scenario. I mean, look at that. That's Joe Alt, and they're talking about him being the biggest guy in the NFL, and Manny's 17 years old.

35:00Pat McAfee:But also his work ethic, too. like obviously he has it the size uh-huh his work ethic is it you're squatting 600 pounds yeah you don't just like get to squatting 600 pounds let alone the amount of weight on your back no matter how big you are so like the amount of work he's obviously putting in is incredible at his age especially with how gifted he is physically and all that from his lord and savior jesus christ and it's like out there in oregon too you'll have all the best everything yep literally the best everything and it's a lot of ball okay let's do ball out here so i don't know what the nil deal is that he has going on, I'd assume it's gigantic, especially if you have 34 offers.

35:34Pat McAfee:That's good news because obviously business you would like at least two offers so you can kind of make people compete against each other. I couldn't imagine 34 D1 schools all competing for my services, what that number is for him. On that note, congratulations to him and his family. Just keep working. Keep on working, Manny. Watching those, he moves like a 6-2-3-10 tackle. That is absurd to watch. Yeah, and normally when they're younger, they're obviously not as built. Everybody's not as built yet. So a little bit, I don't want to say sloppy, but, you know, it is. Yeah, your baby fat on you. A little bit, yeah.

36:09Pat McAfee:You still got a little baby. You haven't become, like, an adult yet, man. And it's like he looks like he's 28 years old. Yeah. I mean, like, I assume that this is some sort of, like, big-time camp with a lot of huge recruits, and he's Dorf and all these guys. And, like, a lot of these guys are probably top 20 recruits, massive human beings. Like, it is crazy to be that young and to be that big in that athleticism. I like how he's finishing, though. Like, that's one-on-one. He was out on an island right there. A guy hit him with an up-and-under in there, and he's still caught up to him. Yep. I don't think so.

36:41Pat McAfee:Jeez. Congrats, Manny. Congrats, Oregon. Yeah. And sorry to whoever Georgetown preps got on schedule next year. Yeah. He said next three years. I mean, maybe. He knows. I mean, maybe if they let that whole thing happen. All right, let's wrap up some news of the week. The Pirates are the hottest team in baseball. Yeah, they are. Okay, that's good news. Bad news of the week. Yeah. Red Panda did suffer a fractured wrist, severely fractured wrist, and the same wrist that she broke, I believe, 13 years ago or 12 years ago. So we got a message from her team, which we are very thankful for. We reached out yesterday morning just to try to get an update like, Like, hey, because we've obviously, we're very lucky that we've gotten a chance to interact with Red Panda.

37:35Pat McAfee:Yeah. And, like, kind of meet how, see how she goes about doing her business, meet with her people, chit chat with her people. And we just sent an email, and we didn't know if they would respond or not. They sent this message back that was, like, basically thanking everybody for all their well wishes. And also, shout out to the Minnesota Lynx. Greta and Sheridan, they were at the hospital for 11 hours with Red Panda. and then the mascot, I believe, drove Red Panda to both the hospital and to the airport in the morning whenever she was heading home. So it's like the Minnesota Lynx took care of our national, international treasure in Red Panda.

38:09Pat McAfee:So shout out to Minnesota Lynx for that. And also shout out to Red Panda because I believe there was another update that she's going back home to get a second repair and then it'll be a few months and then she will be back. Okay, here we go. Okay, so I believe that was reported. So congratulations, Red Panda. That's good news. We are happy to hear that you'll be back. And once again, I do hope you are feeling the love from everybody in the sports world. Red Panda's not ever looking, I assume, for people to say thank you to her. She's locked in on doing her job and trying to make everybody have a better night whenever she's working and doing her thing.

38:41Pat McAfee:I think this is probably a good moment for Red Panda to look around and let yourself know, Red Panda, that everybody that has ever seen you do your thing is like, Red Panda, we love you. So I don't know how often people get a chance to hear the people's appreciation for what they do. But it's like, Red Panda, I hope you got an opportunity to hear all these. It sounds like from your message you have heard all the love. But it's like, you've earned it with an outstanding skill that is still unbelievable that it takes place. And the reason why she fell, faulty pedal. Yeah, we knew it wasn't her. You're doing a transit.

39:14You know, I don't just, with how impossible it seemingly is.

39:19Pat McAfee:It's a balancing act on one wheel. There's no brakes. There's nothing. So it's always on a hard surface. So I guess that could be good, but it'll also be very slick at some points. The fact that she doesn't fall, I think, is the part of the whole thing, let alone the kicking of the bulls onto the head. So we've always believed that, yeah, she could fall off at any moment. So I think when she falls, finally, seemingly, and I don't want to say that in a negative way, but it's like whenever she proves that she's a human, I think there is a thought of like, ah, the unicycle beat her. And then as soon as I read in her message that no, it was a faulty pedal, I was like, of course it is.

39:56Pat McAfee:Of course it was a faulty pedal. Of course Red Panda's never going to fall. This is what she does. That is why she is so death-defying, fracture-defying every single time she gets up on that unicycle. So shout out to Red Panda, man. Tell you what, when she makes her return on Christmas Day for NBA season and hits a 10-0, it is going to hit like crack, man. Yeah, Christmas Eve is what the NBA should do next season. I don't want to. They are. They will. She may do it at halftime of a football game. She's never been on grass before, but maybe she. They could build a little stage. Easy. You're right.

40:32Pat McAfee:Easy. Look what they do. Do it. Netflix. Especially the Netflix game. Yeah. So what they have for Dolly? Yep. You're right. Didn't Dolly have the. Yeah, she had the star. Full star. Yep. He could certainly build a stage for Red Pan and hit. Oh, yeah. Football. Why don't you do it on the grass? Get a little dirt tire on there.

40:48Jeff Passan:I think she could. I mean, yeah, if she puts on her other tire, maybe. I didn't even think about putting mud tires on her. Put a mountain bike tire? Yeah, fat mountain bike tires. Oh, she could pedal and catch a deep post or something. With her head.

41:03Pat McAfee:In the top bowl. I saw a kid, a lot of these videos coming out, a lot of the high school bros and college bros that are on water, you know, a lake, jet ski, football throw. I saw a kid yesterday. I think he, I don't know if it was, I think it's a college football quarterback, dropped one full speed jet ski wide open. Didn't let off the thing right in the bucket. I'm like, that's a great throw. If we could get that kid to throw a football to Red Panda, she's at the 25 and she's go route basically into net. like an umbrella hat but flipped up on her head now we got football stadiums that we can have halftime shows for Red Panda just things to think about Red Panda you have to be one of the only things that is universally loved at this stage of life and you've earned it all let's get you into football stadiums she's been working with the NBA since 1993 that's a long time 1993 committed to the game absolutely unbelievable and good person too nobody uh nobody's against red panda ever okay uh done at lsu they got they're selling jersey patch advertisements uh pending ncaa approval now obviously there's this new commission that has to approve everything i do believe these patches for lsu i think obviously this is inevitable i assume you know i don't think football will ever get to the point of like soccer where soccer's jerseys just become the company basically is the big thing and then the team uh brooch crest they're the patch team crest patch is just kind of small there but the patch on the practice jerseys the patch on the actual jerseys it's only a matter of time before they nascar that and lsu obviously is the first as soon as lsu gets this done i assume every other school will do the exact same thing yeah i i agree and i i assume there are some people who are mad about maybe notre dame won't oh yeah you know like the uh maybe the buckeyes won't i think you're right but state maybe probably won't yeah like the the super traditional yeah i don't know if they will let it because they got a lot of money too this is probably for some sort not that lsu doesn't have enough money they fill that place up and everything like that but like i'd assume there's this money will go towards something is it a revenue you would

43:29Jeff Passan:assume yeah like the cat like uh nil the the salary cap or whatever and you've talked about the Big Ten money versus the SEC money in some instances. Like this might, the schools that we just listed at least, Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, like a lot, I mean Notre Dame is kind of the separator, but a lot of Big Ten schools versus the SEC, which has all that tradition and everything, but they might actually need to do that.

43:53Pat McAfee:Isn't it crazy to think that everybody from the North has said that everybody in the SEC has been paying players, right? That is just kind of how it's going. Everybody in the SEC has probably been saying the other sec schools have been paying players the reason why that is because sec has been so dominant so they got to be cheating that's how everybody thinks about everything yeah if these people are winning more than everybody else they got to be cheating they got to be paying we saw saban's reaction whenever he was accused of it yep he was not that shit i think still pisses him off the alabama jones conversation i still think he is like now you're like question of my integrity basically as a competitor against everybody else and i so i think a lot of people say hey coach Saban you were definitely doing that uh I think just like in conversation around sporting worlds and I think coach Saban does not just I think Shane was a person that learned that in a public situation but I don't think he so I think maybe that conversation is a little bit bigger because we hear the stories like McDonald's bags were being delivered with extra cheese extra cheddar in this thing from maybe an SEC school and then obviously there's conversations about number one overall picks and Heisman winners, dads allegedly negotiating deals behind the scenes and things like that.

45:00Pat McAfee:That's gotten out publicly. So I think whenever you hear those stories that justify the concern of it potentially taking place, it empowers people to have a convo and assume that it was happening everywhere. Now, I was not there. I do not know how any of it works. I just know that coach Saban gets very fucking pissed whenever people just say that he paid and did things that nobody else was doing. But with that being said, now the North in the paying of players is seemingly had an advantage if you ask everybody not everybody most people from the sec and most people from the big 10 they're like we got a lot of donors in this thing because we can take a hundred thousand dollars from each person and once we start accruing all of our people and they feel like they're a part of it let alone the five million ten million dollar donations but we got them penn state i bring them up all the time because i don't think anybody's talking about them yet but we will in two to three years when every sport they are in the final four four i was that's their goal and they have enough money to do it they have the most ceos out of any school in america ceos get paid a shit ton of money people get very pissed off about how much money ceos make ceos are also very proud i think of where they come from the penn state alumnus are a very proud bunch they are very culty just like other schools that are very in so it's like they've been able to rally hundreds of donors as opposed to some schools that have like two or three it's like they're not the only ones too michigan just recruited another billionaire to get into their thing let alone all the money that they have in there they have hundreds of donors as opposed to some of the other places that's a real advantage let alone oregon i mean we just talked about oregon yeah uncle phil up there yeah he's very prevalent in the sport this is literally his brand he would certainly want them.

46:43Pat McAfee:He's fully committed. It's like there's advantages in places and then some schools are trying to figure out how they can catch up and some big names I think too. And we're not blanket statements saying hey the whole Big Ten has more money than the SEC. And we're not saying that she doesn't have money by the way. We're just talking about an overall team. But there's levels to it like Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Oregon. I think those schools as far as donors and boosters are concerned have more money than the majority of the SEC schools except for Texas. And then you have levels like Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Georgia, stuff like that, who definitely have more money than that second tier of Big Ten schools.

47:18But those lower teams that were always giving the McDonald's bags away and stuff like that, I believe that was Tennessee. Those were teams that were always trying to catch those top tier teams. I don't think Saban, to the point we're talking about, Saban didn't have to. He was just putting guys in. And that's why he was so mad, because

47:33Pat McAfee:his entire thing was, guys are coming here to compete against the best and make it to the NFL. And I'm trying to develop the human into a man. I'm trying to develop the player into an all-pro. That was Saban's entire thing. I think whenever people say that he was doing this, he gets pissed off about it. He's like, no, that was happening, but you're wrong fucking guy. He was trying to catch those teams. Yeah, now it's like the more... I'll be intrigued to see how it all works out. It's not just football. This is all sports that this thing will take place. Last thing. Go ahead, comment.

48:04Jeff Passan:As far as the NIL goes, you see Ohio State and they took Caleb Downs from Alabama, but they were still able to retain Ryan Williams. Some places can have that one five-star, multi-million dollar player, and then some can have multiple.

48:19Pat McAfee:I think we need to start bringing up Texas A &M a little bit more from what I'm seeing from this Google search here. I've been down to Texas A &M. They got some old money down there. They got farmers down there. That place is awesome. I should have mentioned A &M. Texas A &M, by the way, they are all in with the cause. I mean, they are down for the Aggies down there. We're talking midnight practice the night before to rehearse the chant so we're all on the same page. I loved going down to that school, especially that flag. Yeah, huge. They had no problem with an$80 million buyout. See ya. All right, we're done with you, bud.

48:50All right, ladies and gentlemen, as we wrap up this first hour, it's time to bring back a segment that we debuted last week.

48:57Pat McAfee:It was something that we had been looking for all along, and maybe we had found it. how do we spotlight things that happened throughout the last week in the sports world or in the world that maybe don't get a chance to be brought up in conversation casually well we need a segment at the end of the week that kind of wraps it all up ladies and gentlemen welcome to hey that's good shit ladies and gentlemen whenever you talk about good shit happening especially in the sports world you have to think about places that we would never imagine Enjoying sport? Enjoying sport. Let's head to Jebediah in the squad out there.

49:34Pat McAfee:The Amish folks. This video hit the internet. Now, who's recording? Who's powering that light? Who cares? The Amish. Maybe in a rumspringa. Playing a little pickleball. Bringing the world together. Having a good time. Sweating. Competing. I love to see it. Hey, Amish folks. That's good shit. Let's go out to Malibu where Aaron Rodgers is bringing out all the Pittsburgh Steelers wide receivers. And that's Ben Skoranek with the alley-oop dunk. Ah! Maybe the Steelers are the team this year with a couple of exciting whites who are going to go to the Super Bowl.

50:07Jeff Passan:And that's good shit. Yeah, it absolutely is. Yeah, they're screaming for a different reason on Saturday night in Saudi, boys. The WWE Night of Champions, Charles Robinson, legend, debuted in 97, coming down. Piece of shit! John Cena puts him on his ass. But Charles Robinson ain't no bitch, Cena. He pops up, eats that bump. That's why Charles Robinson is the GOAT, and that's good shit. Yes, it is. Go ahead, Ty. Let's go to Somerset, Kentucky for the Summer Nights Cruise Classic Car Show. Wait a minute. Is that the General Lee jumping over a fountain? It sure is. Look at that. You can go ahead and ignore the flag on top of the car there.

50:47That's nothing to talk about. You've got the cameraman getting out of the way of a near-death experience with Bo Duke coming down and running into the guardrail here. And you're thinking, well, that's not good shit, but look at this guy. Look at this guy making sure that his driver is A-OK. You're good. You're good. You're good. You're good. You're good, Bo Duke. You're good. You're good. You're good. We're good. We're good. And you can see Daisy Duke in the bottom down here. She's looking down saying, thank God Bo Duke is OK. Hey. That's some good shit. It certainly is.

51:20Pat McAfee:and that is generally two, that is exactly two proportions. Yes, it is. Yep, exact model. Yeah, and that thing, maybe a ramp. They said, nope, send it. Send it over the fountain, just like Bodook would. Lost a door, probably suspension. I couldn't imagine what happened to the engine. Probably the frame. I mean, a lot of things happened for that moment. Hey, we appreciate that, especially in a public setting like that. The city had to sign off. You want to send General Lee through a goddamn fountain in the middle of downtown? Yeah. Send it. We do. We're going to do it during the cruise, and they're not just going to cruise.

51:49Pat McAfee:Guess what? They're going to fly. Hey, that's good shit. All right. Let's head across the pond to England Town. This is the final round of qualifying for the 153rd Open. And this is Richard Tedder Chippenipper Eagle. Wow. That is the 39th hole of his day. That is a four-man playoff to qualify for the 153rd Open. It's going to be in Rory's hometown. Tedder is the first Estonian all-time to qualify for the Open. Estonia, founder of Skype, is from there, I do believe. Really? I also learned from somebody who considers himself Croatian, Estonia is a big sauna community. Okay, okay. I do believe, right, Bruce Brown?

52:36Jeff Passan:Yeah, those are both fun facts about Estonia.

52:38Pat McAfee:And now they have an Open competitor in Mr. Tedder. Hey. That's good shit. That is good shit.

52:45Jeff Passan:America is Estonia, Florida, some people would say. Geno Smith was down there coaching the South Florida Express versus Raw Miami. They won 38-21, and Geno let them know, hey, bitch, this is why I got$66 million guaranteed in an extension this year. I get paid the big bucks, okay? That's why they pay me the big bucks because we scored 38 points and you guys couldn't even score four touchdowns, bitch. He's basically breaking chains all over in Miami, in Florida. and Geno Smith, that's good shit, brother. It certainly is. How about a Monk? Is there a Monk doing something? Well, funny enough, yeah, we saw Wemby giving Monk some buckets, and now where do we see him?

53:24He's on the pitch taking a free kick from what looks like about 60 yards out, right off the right boot, an absolute firecracker. Wemby goes crazy. I mean, crazy that you can't even see him here because he's got those eight-foot legs that he's swinging, But I tell you what, he's going to give buckets to monks on a Monday. What? And he's going to have an absolute firecracker free kick. Goal of the year on a Tuesday. Wemby, keep doing you, bro. That's some good shit.

53:54Pat McAfee:That is some good shit. Great shit. Patrick Maroon. Think about how far away that soccer ball is from his eyes. So far. So far. That thing is a different area code. He has the control. He's French. Oui, oui, bonjour. Right. Probably grew up playing. The control to bend that thing, Bardon. Bardon, upper 90. That is good shit, Wemby.

54:14Jeff Passan:It's like Antoine Griezmann. Yeah. Yeah. That is a French footballer. Boom. Thierry Henry. Thierry Henry. Paul.

54:21Pat McAfee:Zizou. Pogba. Yeah, okay. Okay, yeah. A lot of great players over here. Bonjour, ça va. Je m 'appelle Zizou, says Wemby.

54:31Jeff Passan:Frank Ribéry. Oh. One of the goats, another one of the goats, the big rig. Patty Maroon. He's playing in the T-O-H-R Nationals and he's not just playing alone. He's not the only Maroon on that roller rink. That is his boy. His sweet boy. Anthony Tony Maroon scoring his first ever professional roller hockey goal for the Roadrunners. And yeah they kicked ass. They ended up winning this game 8-0 I believe. Big rig sending it over to his young boy for the Geno. It was incredible. That's also in St. Louis, gentlemen, in their hometown, and that's good shit.

55:11Pat McAfee:That certainly is good shit. Is that even legal? Pat Maroon playing for that team? No, absolutely not. Think about it. That's like an NBA guy going to LA Fitness. Now, I love ball hockey. Now, I don't think I've ever been to a roller ball hockey game. Looks electrifying. Looks like a great league, by the way. I love that we have the footage of it. Looks like it was great skill. I watched more than just the highlight. A lot of dangles in there. Maybe guys that can't Skate is good, whatever the case, didn't make it, or never skated, whatever it is. Patty Maroon in there, I couldn't imagine how good he has to feel.

55:42Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah.

55:42Pat McAfee:And obviously with his boy, I think his boy's going to college or maybe got drafted or something.

55:45Jeff Passan:Tony had three goals in that game. Yeah, he did.

55:47Pat McAfee:Yeah, he's a player. He's a good player. I met them when they were at a WWE event down there in Tampa. He's a big boy. Oh. He's a big boy. Did you see the uniforms they were wearing there? Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, I don't – Was Memphis Grizzlies uniforms? I'm not 100 % sure. Okay, let's move to last night. United States of America taking on Guatemala in the semifinals of the Gold Cup. Diego Luna with the crisp finish after the beautiful touch. Have one, Diego. Cooking Guatemala. That's 1-0 in the Gold Cup semifinal. Let's go ahead and try to put him away just a few moments later. Diego Luna gets it from 25 yards out.

56:27Pat McAfee:Ah, step over. Cross. Boom. Have one, Diego. Ah, ah. puts him on skates have one he does go time all the time diego luna who gets that huh huh huh huh what's that from what's that from what's that from what's that from well you go right

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58:34America!

58:35Pat McAfee:Hell yeah, America. Happy birthday to America. We'll be celebrating that tomorrow. We're off next week because Wimbledon will be taking over everything as it gets into its most competitive stages. Wimbledon's been okay. Oh, yeah. Wimbledon's been... I don't think I've ever watched the early rounds of the entire day. I don't think I've ever done it.

58:53Jeff Passan:Never. I know I have never.

58:55Pat McAfee:That's the Talks to Tables at Boston. Connor, who looks very cool today. You too. Looking that cool while watching tennis. Are we evolving? I don't know. Is this what it's like to kind of be with the poppers, if you will? Yeah, the poppers are the opposite.

59:10Jeff Passan:I knew it. I knew it. When I was thinking about saying it, I waited a second, and I said, just go for it, and I knew it was wrong.

59:18Pat McAfee:Yeah, popper, I believe, is short for poor person. Oh. Popper, I believe, is the word. So it would be the complete opposite if you're going. And your outfit's worth, like, what, two million I think you paid for it?

59:29Jeff Passan:Yeah, I mean, what's a thing like money to a guy like that?

59:33Pat McAfee:How hilarious is that, though, that that word, popper, I was called that one time. By who? Awesome. Yeah, I had no idea what it was. Dap the person up. In Europe or? America. America. Dap person up. Leave. and I'm like, I heard what that Popper, nobody's ever called, I thought maybe he thought my name was Popper or something like that. Looked it up. Looked it up and it was like, oh. Oh, it's asshole's throat. He was just calling it, that was all, yeah. So it would be the complete opposite of Wimbledon. But watching these games, it's been nice to watch the competition. And I appreciate Nigel Seeley yesterday from Game, Bet, Matches, Betting Weekly.

1:00:09Pat McAfee:He basically told us the women's side, wide open. If there's any women's Wimbledon games, just if you like competition, there's nothing else on. I'm not telling you to watch tennis go out of your way to do this. But if you find yourself, know that the women's matches have been a lot of surprises, action, energy. And America's got a chance. America has been running the women's side. I didn't know that since Serena, Venus, obviously, whenever they exit the sport and everything like that. But I guess America's got like three, four girls that are dominant over here. Let's go ahead and win that now.

1:00:41Pat McAfee:Let's go ahead and do that. Maz Kees. Maz Kees, Amanda, Anna. Anasomova. Anasomova. Yeah, I can't wait to watch her. One half of the hammer. Time. Cowboys AP Tony's here. Wimbledon will carry us over the next week or so when it comes to sports. Baseball will as well. The W will do its thing. Savannah Bananas got any games? Yeah, they're actually playing this weekend. They sold out Fenway. They got a match against the firefighters. Yeah. Yeah, they created two new teams for the Savannah Bananas to play against, right? Yes. And now they're just selling – they sold out – the two new teams, the firefighters and there was another team.

1:01:12Pat McAfee:Yeah. They sold out, I think, three stadiums within 10 minutes or whatever. And I guess getting the tickets, because there's going to be one in Pittsburgh. We saw Caboli. I saw a couple other people. Yeah, but getting to the tickets, you've got to win like a lottery to get into a room. Crazy. To then get into that, to get to what. Yeah, it is like, it's impossible to get these Savannah Banana tickets. So I'd like to once again say, congrats to Savannah Bananas. Hell yeah. It's not easy to do in 2025. Create something, especially in the sports world, that ends up captivating everybody. and if you're selling out stadiums with things people have never heard of, hey, the firefighter's going to make a debut.

1:01:45Pat McAfee:It's like you have no idea what it is. You just know that it's in that vein of entertainment, and I think we know that Savannah Bananas are going to deliver. Do they have enough? I guess we'll find out. Are the same players wearing different uniforms? I don't know. I would guess at this point that they have, I think, once guys maybe who weren't playing anymore but are still good baseball players and maybe played in, like, different semi-pro leagues, once they saw this thing really take off, Like that's something you could practice. Like, okay, if I could come up with like some sort of gimmick while I'm fielding or like while I'm batting or something, like for a lot of these guys, I don't want to say they're one trick ponies because that's not the case.

1:02:20But like they have the thing they're known for. Exactly. The dancing ump. He's dancing. Right. Exactly. The ninja ump at first base who's, you know, rolling and calling outs and stuff like that. The bat guy? Yep. The bat trick guy?

1:02:33Pat McAfee:The bat wizard guy? Yeah. The whole, what they do with these bats, he's just dribbling a bat like it's a basketball. Yeah. It's unbelievable. So, like, I would assume that once guys maybe saw how popular this was getting and it's like, okay, this isn't just like these guys. Yeah, these guys are selling out Major League Baseball stadiums three nights in a row. So, like, I would guess that a lot of them are, you know, and then you get – I don't know what, like, their tryout deal is like, but I would assume that they were probably getting enough people where it's like, okay, we can add a couple more teams to this.

1:03:01Pat McAfee:All new players, you know, just told me for the Chicago Firefighters. Yeah. Obviously, it's a Chicago team, so Zito bought it in Jersey immediately. Right. How do they do the swing? The no-handed swing deal? Wow, their swing. I don't understand. You can do it. You just got to commit. Go ahead. That one's so good. No, I have done this before, and I've hit the bat with my – it's been a lot of fun. A lot of wrist. A lot of wrist action. But that's – it looks like they're defying physics. Just like Travis Pastrana told you last week, you just got to commit. Yeah, but to a car, I think I would do that.

1:03:31Pat McAfee:Or a motorcycle into a foam pit, I would do that. This one's like the worst type of punishment, like getting your knuckles just –

1:03:37Jeff Passan:Conor said you could do it, right? Your face. I've done it once. You've done the bat thing? No, no.

1:03:43Pat McAfee:But dressed like that.

1:03:44Jeff Passan:Dressed like that, I know I've done it once, yeah.

1:03:47Pat McAfee:So you say with the way you look right now, you know that you've definitely done the bat flip thing just because how cool it is? Exactly. And how cool you look.

1:03:55Jeff Passan:Yes.

1:03:56Pat McAfee:What are some other things that you know you've definitely done?

1:03:58Jeff Passan:You know, just simple 900 and a half pipe. I mean, basically anything that is interesting, I believe I've had a perfect bowling game, 300. Pete Weber, actually, I'm the only one to beat him. Who do you think you are? Didn't you want 80? Yeah, I've had 180. In darts? In darts, of course. Royal flush. I mean, there's just so many different types of things that I've done. Dressed like this, of course. I've been on America's Got Talent. I thought you judged America's Got Talent. Yeah, yeah. Judge Merrick has got talent and as a judge was given the golden buzzer for myself to go through to Hollywood.

1:04:43Jeff Passan:Wow. Yeah, yeah. That's how good they liked me there. And look, I told them, I can't have this. I already got a job. I'm going to have to turn this one down. I'm sorry. It's a great opportunity. That's very cool of you to give your spot to somebody else. Yeah, exactly. Who wants to be a millionaire? Made it all the way to the million bucks, said, shut up, Regis. I'm actually not going to answer the last question. I'm leaving. When that happened? It was a while ago. Last year? No, no. Regis was dead for us in peace. Actually, you know, I was there for him. I was a pallbearer in his wedding jacket.

1:05:13Jeff Passan:But there's a few. There's been a lot of things that you guys don't know about me when I'm looking like this that I have, in fact, done. I mean, I'm just glad we're not talking to Joey Chestnuts today because I've actually beaten him in a hot dog eating content. What do you think he was doing?

1:05:27Pat McAfee:Oh, you do look like you could gobble some dogs. Last July 4th. This guy's gobbling, Glizzy. Last July 4th. I don't like that that happened. When did that happen? The Glizzy. Was that you? New school dudes.

1:05:40Jeff Passan:Glizzy wasn't me. I've actually, I've asked that question. I don't like that. I just don't like saying it. It sounds, I've asked that question. Like when did it, what word? Like something different? It sounds dirty.

1:05:49Pat McAfee:Yeah, it sounds like something different. It's from the DMV. I think Wale made it up. No, he made it up. Put your left hand up. Who are we? The Glizzys. No, he did not do that or the Commander song, which is what that actually is. Wale is back in the lab, though, I do believe. from what I've seen from this, we should all be very excited about Wale being back in the lab. Penn, just outrageous. And I think there's something coming up. But I'm not a glizzy. I understand, like, different places have their own dialect shit. We're from Pittsburgh, so we understand that. The glizzy thing, that got more popular than I assumed it would.

1:06:23When I first heard it, I was like, you're talking about hot dogs.

1:06:27Pat McAfee:Yes, that's what we call hot dogs, glizzy. I'm like, nobody will say that. And it did. It became like... You notice who's saying it, though. People who grew up calling them hot dogs or dogs or ballpark franks, they're not fucking calling them glizzies. Yeah, you're right. He's a different generation. Exactly, younger. But nonetheless, Joey Chestnut is going to do something to those glizzies tomorrow that you've never seen before. Remember last year he was out because he – I hope so. He is a Hoosier. He lives here in Indianapolis. Yeah, well, there's an Italian competitor. He's an Italian-American.

1:06:59He flies under the American flag. Caboli's going this year? No, no, no. I don't think Caboli's Italian. I will remember his name, but just look out, Joey. Are you serious? What is the Italian's name? Let me look it up.

1:07:11Pat McAfee:Do you want us to try to guess on this? No. Pizzarini Braviolio. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, he is a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Ryder Cup winner, and I believe, if my intel is correct, we do have some more breaking news. He is competing in the hot dog eating contest tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, A.J. Hawk. Wow. Yep.

1:07:36Jeff Passan:Got to catch a fight tonight. Get down there and try to challenge old Joey Chestnut. See how we do.

1:07:40Pat McAfee:It's not just Joey Chestnut that you're competing against tomorrow. Obviously, you got to take on the great Italian named... Patrick Bertoletti. Patrick Bertoletti? Bertoletti. Bertoletti. Oh, I know Bertoletti. He's from Chicago. Yeah, 58 dogs is his most. I know Bertoletti. Yeah, he's from Chicago. Exactly. 58? I've watched too much of this to know exactly where this guy is from. I'll beat this. Yeah, he's a weapon. Bertoletti is certainly a pod. Watch out, Joey. No, I think even Bertoletti would say. It's time for a new king.

1:08:09Jeff Passan:How many did Joey have last time he competed? How many do we know?

1:08:11Pat McAfee:So last year he took on Old Buddy on Netflix, remember? Yeah, Kobayashi. Kobayashi to relive the rivalry. I think Netflix wanted to get in the game. It was done with different dogs, I think. It was a vegan operation, vegan dogs. And in doing that, Joey Chestnut got kicked out of the Nathan's Hot Dog eating contest fourth of july that was big drama if i do recall oh yeah that was big drama joey chestnut was never happy joey chestnut has come out and said like i said then i'm saying now i do have other food partnerships but i never had a hot dog partnership with anybody other than nathan so i think there was a little bit of either a misunderstanding a miscommunication or a we don't care what it is you're not eating our hot dogs on a very large platform business relationship because for those professional leaders, that is a huge partnership there for Jaws.

1:09:04Pat McAfee:You know? Fourth of July. He's representing all of America. He's putting on for America. They were actually going to cancel it, and he said, why go America? Yeah. That's literally what he said. Yep. And then he marched his ass right back down. Coney. Coney Island. Coney Island. And he went up there and broke his own record. He's planning on doing it again. While watching AJ, I do get a little sick to my stomach. It is a bit disgusting. Yeah.

1:09:27Jeff Passan:It's the dunking. The wet buns. The dunking of the buns. How does that not just compact? How did you even get that down?

1:09:34Pat McAfee:There are professionals in this whole thing. They practice. They do this. Joey Jaws has the shrimp cocktail at St. Elmo's record. He's got some chicken wing record, I believe. I think he's got a coleslaw record somewhere. He's got a pierogies record. A pierogies, a popcorn, a chicken nugget record, I believe he has. They have these contests. I watched a documentary on it. It is wild. and they practice and they're able to get that thing bigger, I think. And obviously you're not allowed to – I don't think you're allowed to puke. I think there's a certain amount of time you're not allowed to get it out of your body.

1:10:07Pat McAfee:He's a talent. Joey has a talent and is better than anybody that's ever existed, maybe. Somebody might have had a better talent than him at this particular thing but never tried it. But Joey Jaws tried it, found it, and he's the guy. He's not the liquid guy, though, because that would be – Yeah, that's Eric Badlands Booker. So I understand that, you know, Tony's trying to say like deep dish is coming. If Badlands one of these years just decided like, hey, I'm not going to drink six, two liters of Country Time pink lemonade before I go up to the stage and eat the hot dogs. I'm pretty sure Badlands could eat 150 hot dogs.

1:10:41Pat McAfee:Yeah, because have we ever seen Badlands at empty stomach? I don't think so. No. The build up to the main event.

1:10:48Jeff Passan:He's self-handicapping. He's handicapping himself because he doesn't want to blow Joey Chestnut out of the water. Is that what he's doing?

1:10:53Pat McAfee:Potentially. I mean, there's a chance. We've never really seen Badlands at his absolute best because Badlands is a draw. Okay, people want to come watch? When he's chugging drinks. Yeah. He'll take down that lemonade. Yeah, two sips. Insane. That thing disappears. And it's like, Badlands has done it again. He beats on record. And then it is a couple hours later. All right, now we need you to eat all these hot dogs. and it's like Badlands has got to deal with record-breaking liquids in his stomach. And he tries. He'll still put down 40 to 45 dogs, but Badlands is a big guy. 38 is career high. He has no chance.

1:11:29Pat McAfee:That's because he's gone all 11A. Does anybody know who won last year? Didn't watch it. To be clear, I didn't watch it. 86 % of the money is on the under 71.5 hot dogs. They think that Joey draws chestnuts. They don't think Joey's doing it. He only did 62 last time. Bernoletti's hot on his heels. Only 62 last time is before this whole getting kicked out of the damn tour, Doug. He didn't get kicked out. He kicked himself off the tour for going vegan. No, he did not go vegan. He went to a vegan contest. He could eat in the CCP contest if he wants. What are you talking about? He was representing the United States of America.

1:12:03Pat McAfee:He was for a while until he turned his back. No, he represented for us on an international platform on Netflix. Ain't nothing wrong with what Joey Josh Chestnut did. No, I didn't watch one on Netflix. Yeah, did he win that one? I don't remember. Yeah, definitely. He did. He won.

1:12:18Jeff Passan:He got a belt and a trophy.

1:12:21Pat McAfee:We should have supported him because he is a local guy now. But he does pay his respects to Badlands, though.

1:12:28Jeff Passan:Yeah.

1:12:28Pat McAfee:Because when I asked him about, he just so happened to be in town. So he was in town coming to our New Year's Eve show. I found out he was coming to the New Year's Eve show. And I was like, but do you want to, like, be a part of the show? We're doing, like, a variety type thing. And he goes, absolutely. What's your idea? And this is, like, hours beforehand, I think. like maybe three hours before the show i'm like it'd be really cool new year's eve you just chuck a bunch of beers or drinks or something like that and he goes uh i'm not badlands but i can put down some yeah and i was like how many beers like six beers you want to do 10 beers let's do 13 beers i'm like that seems like a pretty exact number yeah and then he did in what 78 seconds or something 80 seconds 13 beers just gone gone gone and then he had to live with that for the rest of the night and he did.

1:13:14Yes, he did.

1:13:15Pat McAfee:He did. He lived with that. I think he took a bottle of vodka too, maybe a little bit later because that beer started talking to his brain, you know. 13 beers is still a lot of. Yeah. 13 beers in 75 seconds. You get some courage pretty quick. You get some courage pretty quick, you know, and he was a great time. Joey Josh Chester was a great time. Crowd surfing. He was. He was crowd surfing. Yeah, dude. He was awesome. And it's like the amount of USA chance for Joey, like he does. I'm happy he's back on 4th of July. Yes. I'm happy we get a chance to watch that. And I think this year I'm going to try not to vomit, you know, because it does get a little disgusting.

1:13:53Pat McAfee:The guys that stink are worse to watch because they got that. All over their face. Yeah, it looks like they're crying. Joining us now is a man who will not be in the hot dog eating contest. I do not know if he calls it a dog or a glizzy. I would guess hot dog. I hope so. Let's go around the room. He's a hot dog guy. Yeah, I'm going to guess a dog. Tone? I think so. Joining us now, senior MLB insider for ESPN, friend of the program, ladies and gentlemen, Jet Passan. Yeah! Hot dog? Who uses the word glizzy aside from complete turds? Like, if we're being honest. Amen. Okay. Amen. Thank you, Jet. That is Jet Passan's takeout.

1:14:42Pat McAfee:To be clear, whenever we first heard it, Jet, we did not expect it to take off the way a lot of people say glizzy. You know that just naturally comes out of their mouth glizzy. And they're talking about hot. I am just as surprised, I think, as you are at this thing. But we need to acknowledge that's reality. You know who says that? Morons and children. And we shouldn't listen to either. I mean. Fair enough. Okay. Good point. That's the authority, Jet Passon. Okay, let's talk a little baseball here. and obviously much different than glizzies or hot dogs. You just broke some news, I believe, on your Twitter account.

1:15:16Pat McAfee:There is a gambling investigation now happening in the baseball world. Obviously, we just saw this with Malik Beasley. We've seen it before. Jonte Porter, Terry Rozier has been cleared, I believe, of his gambling investigation. But now that the leagues have kind of linked up with the government and also the sportsbooks themselves, they've been able to track all activity is seemingly what we have learned about the process. It's happened in the NFL as well. What do we know at this moment about Luis Ortiz? Has this happened a lot in baseball? And is this the beginning of this type of trend to happen in the MLB?

1:15:50Pat, a little more than a year ago, Tuca Pita Marcano, who was an infielder for the San Diego Padres, was banned for life for placing bets on nearly 400 Major League Baseball games. And look, in Major League Baseball, there is one rule. And that rule is very simple. do not bet on baseball and if you do bet on baseball you face a lifetime ban there were four other players during that time who were banned for a year because they were in the minor leagues when they bet on major league games but baseball is just the kind of sport that when you have the ability to gamble the way that you do these days is rife for potential corruption I mean, you can bet on individual pitches, Pat, to be balls or strikes.

1:16:39And when that's the case, and there are hundreds of pitches being thrown every game, the ability for a pitcher or for a player to have one of those little minuscule events turn into a windfall of money, potentially, that's why Major League Baseball and the other professional sports leagues have partnered as strongly as they have with gambling integrity organizations because the sports just leave opportunity for corruption to happen. And look, if Luis Ortiz does wind up getting banned from Major League Baseball for gambling, if there are alerts that were sent out or if there are specific pitches that are being looked at here, it's a problem for the sport.

1:17:24And listen, it's great when this sort of thing gets flagged but it also makes you think how many times does this happen where it doesn't get flagged as well and what does that mean for the integrity of the game i don't want to like just point out

1:17:38Pat McAfee:that the nba has had this because i think the nba is a good league and they don't want any of this either they've had a ref they've had some players it's not good i mean it's not good for any of the sports we agree 100 with what you're saying with what the leagues are saying we cannot have anybody questioning the integrity of our league but we turn into savannah bananas okay this can't and Not that that's a bad thing, but everybody needs to think what they're watching is legit. In the NBA, we watch the sport and we think to ourselves, oh, that is a gettable league. And then in baseball, as soon as I read about this pitcher, I'm thinking, my first reaction when I read your tweet was like, oh, yeah.

1:18:11Pat McAfee:Because let alone balls and strikes. I mean, they can throw a ball on the 15th pitch of the night. I'm going to throw a ball or whatever. And then on the 20th night pitch of the night, I'm going to throw a ball. Because you kind of can. You can throw that way outside. and it's an easy write-off like oh stuck to his finger or it's a bad throw it's like i wonder how they investigate this if they don't have a track it's going to be tough to legitimize it from a pitcher from just watching film do you think because can't anything happen i mean we see overthrows we see in the dirt we see that type of shit on a regular basis anyway so would it be easy to figure out if somebody's throwing a game or a bet for somebody or is it all going to be transactional records you think yeah it feels like it would have to be tied pat to just more than that more than let's say if there's a large amount of money placed on a specific pitch you know how do you tie that back to the pitcher himself um you just i don't know what the answer to that is at this point but that even being a possibility so get it yeah has to be alarming for Major League Baseball, knowing that there are hundreds of pitchers every year who are thrown in Major League Baseball games, and all of them, you have to track every single pitch, every single bet, line them up.

1:19:30I mean, it's a large undertaking, and the sort of thing that Major League Baseball has to take seriously, because the more players who are tied to gambling, the more the question goes back to the league, is this a clean league? Is this something that, as we're watching, we can take seriously and believe what's going on out there is actually happening without an invisible hand?

1:19:54Jeff Passan:Go ahead, AJ. Yeah, Jet, just pivoting quick, Clayton Kershaw, 3 ,000 strikeouts. We saw that. We saw the celebration of his family. Is there any way you could compare that to, say, like something in football that a quarterback would, hey, this is like some kind of record? How big of a deal is this for someone that doesn't know a ton about baseball? You know, I'm not going to say it's like 50 ,000 yards for a quarterback, AJ, but it's sort of along those lines. In Major League Baseball, the 3 ,000-hit club tends to be the one that we focus on. But there have been only 20 pitchers in Major League Baseball history who have reached 3 ,000 strikeouts.

1:20:29And when you look at that list, it is full of Hall of Famers. You need a combination of excellence and longevity to do it. Clayton Kershaw continuing to pitch into his late 30s, continuing to produce. And look, he's not the guy who won multiple Cy Youngs earlier in his career. He's not the best pitcher in baseball like he was for, you know, a half decade long period. But he's still a guy who's out there getting out, getting strikeouts, and is going to be a no doubt first ballot Hall of Famer. as easy of a Hall of Famer as just about anyone in Major League Baseball right now.

1:21:06Pat McAfee:Congrats to him. And also, huge win for the Dodgers last night. Walk-off with Freddie Freeman. We got a chance to follow the Dodgers this year. We've enjoyed the hell out of watching them. Also, getting into baseball. I'm enjoying Jet. I told you we're doing the baseball. We've been doing the baseball. Don't you think we've been doing it more and more each year? Don't you think? I adore the fact that you bring me on to talk about baseball and to ask questions from the perspective of someone who's trying to learn about it, who wants to educate an audience that might not be as baseball-centric, but gets to see the beauty of this sport.

1:21:40And it is a beautiful game. That's what I love about baseball more than anything. There's so many different elements to it and so many nuances and so many small things that, you know, someone who's a connoisseur of sports can really appreciate.

1:21:54Pat McAfee:Nuance, yeah. And I like watching greats be great, you know? And we're watching that this year. All the greats are seemingly performing at a very high level. A lot of big-time moments with the big-time players. And that's what makes big-time leagues, baby. We're kind of in the middle of it. We're very thankful. We will see you out at the Home Run Derby in Atlanta. We cannot wait for that, Jet. We're getting in there. We're getting in there. We're doing it. It's going to be the best. Look at the Pat McAfee show coming in strong to baseball. Did you ever think that you were going to see that day?

1:22:26like you're going to be around Otani you're going to be around Judge and Skeens and Acuna you might meet the big dumper like I feel like meeting the big dumper is an inevitability here and it's it's uh it's a good time and I think baseball and the city of Atlanta in particular are going to really show out for you guys because this is you know this is a big week for baseball It's the week where in the middle of a really long season, you get all of these great players together. And I believe Major League Baseball's all-star game, and really it's all-star week, is the best in all professional sports.

1:23:02I think it's better than what the NFL does, better than the NBA. You know, Four Nations this year, pretty good for the NHL. I'm not going to lie. That was a lot of fun. But just in terms of one-off all-star games, absolutely love what baseball does.

1:23:17Pat McAfee:The home run derby is, even growing up in a city that was very hard to be a baseball fan, shout out to Pittsburgh, which we're about to talk about here in a matter of moments. When I was growing up, bad baseball. Dad hated baseball. I mean, just like nothing. Home run derby was always something you look forward to because that is like, if you're not a big time baseball fan, I want to see dong shots. That's why I want to see them hit the ball. I want big baseball hitter guy walking in to the batter's box and knocking this thing out of the stadium. That's what I want to see happen. Maguire, you know, Sosa, Bonds, these types of guys.

1:23:54Pat McAfee:Everybody was captivated by baseball. The reason why is because balls were flying hard. And something that is so difficult to do was taking place right in front of all of us, and it was a spectacle, which it absolutely is. With how small the bat is, with how fast the ball is, the fact that a human can time it up and send it the opposite direction as far as you can. Home run derbies are and have been electrifying. So the fact that we're going to be there for one, I'm very excited to get, you know, feet on grass. Yeah. You know, feet on grass. Kind of see the balls flying out there. Sound of the bat that close.

1:24:29Pat McAfee:Boom. Crack of the bat. Yeah. Oh, the crack of the bat. Crack, yeah, of course. Okay, let's move on and talk about some baseball topics that we're going to be paying attention to over the next week and a half or so before the All-Star game and before the home run derby. Go ahead, Tone. Yeah, Jet, thank you for educating on baseball. Let me educate you on something. Six wins, no losses, 43 runs, four runs given up, 31 scoreless innings. You know what that equals? That's salty ball, my brother. That's the Pittsburgh Pirates over their last six games. The greatest six-game run any baseball team has ever had.

1:25:02Does this mean? That's not true. Well, it is. It is. Does this mean that the Buccos may hold on to Mitch Keller? They may actually be buyers at the deadline. They bring up Bubba Chandler. They bring up Connor Griffin. What are the chances the Buccos don't just completely sell off the season after Don Kelly has revitalized everything? None.

1:25:27Listen, I'm sorry to take a leak in your cornflakes here. They've been playing awesome lately. I give a ton of credit to Don Kelly. He has done a fantastic job of taking a clubhouse that looked like it was completely turned off and brought some life back to this season. And nobody's really ever questioned how good the Pirates pitching can be. Like, we've seen it with Skeens. We've seen it with Mitch Keller. Andrew Heaney's been really good this year. So, like, they have the guys to go out and pitch. It's always been just a matter of their offense. And the boys are scoring some runs lately. That's bound to happen.

1:26:04But, you know, Connor Griffin's 19 years old, and he's an A ball at this point. and as good as I think he's going to be. Baseball America just rated him the number two prospect in all baseball yesterday. So the kid's got a chance to be an absolute star. He's probably another couple of years away. Bubba Chandler, I thought Bubba Chandler was going to be up a lot earlier than he has been. But once he comes up, it might just be as a replacement for Mitch Keller rather than a compliment to Mitch Keller. But listen, if the Pirates can turn Mitch Keller into some bats, into some productive big league hitters, like that's how you build a winning team, guys, by addressing your weaknesses.

1:26:47And sometimes it takes strengths and taking away from your strengths to do it. It also should take free agent dollars. But these are the Pittsburgh Pirates. And, well, we know that.

1:26:57Pat McAfee:Well, I think Bob knew what type of wood they had in a clubhouse if you've seen what they've been doing. and Mr. Cohen over there in New York, he's writing every check he can write. They stink. Now let's talk about the other team. Still better than the Pirates. Who is it? They just swept them by the greatest amount that's ever happened in baseball. Yeah, if the season was four games long and those four games happened to be the one that the Pirates had against the Mets, we're hanging pennants. We're doing the pennants. We're doing the entire thing. Now let's talk about that other team in New York, shall we?

1:27:32Pat McAfee:Go ahead, Ty. Yeah, Jets, shoot me straight here. What the hell is going on with the Yankees? I'm getting very close to giving them a two-week ban and not watching them anymore. It's just so hard. You know exactly what's going to happen. Damn near every single night they play. How important do you think the series is with the Mets just for their juju going into the All-Star break? And also, what do they need to do with the deadline to kind of stop this thing from getting out of control, which it pretty much has been for the last month? Yeah, Ty, I'm sure they're going to miss you if you put a two-week ban in place.

1:28:06Anyway.

1:28:07Jeff Passan:All right. Quit being an asshole. You know what, Jay? Quit saying dumb things. That's the fucking problem. Is that you're right. They won't. They won't care about Yankees fans. They won't. George Carey. New York baseball. New York baseball, just generally speaking, sucks right now. That's awful. The Yankees are bad. The Mets are bad. And it also, guys, like we have to understand that in this environment where there is so much parity in baseball, where there's like no clear, obvious, great team, where they're just teams that are, you know, at best, very good. It's weird to hear this, but the baseball season is so long that you can have a really bad quarter of the season and it's probably not going to torpedo your postseason chances.

1:28:58Like you could have a terrible 40-game stretch. You can go 15-25 or 14-26 or even 12-28 over a 40-game stretch and still make the playoffs. I mean, let's look at where the Mets were. They were 45-21 at one point. They're now 49-38. And yet they are still in a playoffs right now. The Yankees have blown their lead in the American League East to the point where the Blue Jays are now tied with them and the Rays are a half game behind. And they are still far clear, even if the Jays and the Rays pass them, of any of the other teams that are in the playoff hunt right now. So I get the panic. I get why Yankees fans are pissed off.

1:29:43I get why Mets fans are pissed off. I get why they're all looking at it and saying these teams need to get fixed right now or something's going to go really, really wrong. But I also think we need to acknowledge that this is probably the worst that both of these teams are going to play this year.

1:29:59Pat McAfee:Maybe. And they're still both in playoff positions at this point. So what do the Yankees need? They need an infielder who can hit. I don't know if that's Eugenio Suarez or somebody else, but they need one more bat and they need relief arms. Luke Weaver's been giving up home runs since he's come back. Devin Williams hasn't been the guy the Yankees thought that they were getting. Fernando Cruz is injured right now. Like, the Yankees need relief pitching. The Mets need just pitching, period. Because when the Mets were in the position, guys, that they were at 45 and 21, it was on the strength of their pitching.

1:30:32And as good as Soto's been recently, and as good as Francisco Lindor has been over the last few years, he's slumped recently. But Brandon Nimmo, Jeff McNeil, Pete Alonso's been awesome this year. the Mets don't have that like 6 through 9 in their lineup who are going to complement those top 5 guys and so they need a bat, maybe it's a center fielder maybe it's an infielder, whatever it is, the Mets need quite a bit of help right now.

1:30:58Pat McAfee:In our world, if you pay the quarterback it's hard to build up the rest of the team because you've taken up so much money. They paid one set of $750 million, are they going to be able to fill 6 through 9? Or do you kind of take a hit? Pat, when Steve Cohen's your owner and it's an uncapped sport you can do whatever you want now are they going to be financially irresponsible as perhaps they were in past seasons i mean i think steve cohen's learned a lesson from that and if you look at the way that he spends the superstar players he has no problem like giving large sums of money to but it's those bottom you know middle tier guys who He doesn't want to overpay for.

1:31:38And the Mets farm system, you know, with Carson Benj, with Jet Williams, Jonah Tong, Nolan McClain, Brandon Sprout, like their farm system has gotten a whole lot better. Do they want to dip into that to improve a team that, you know, maybe doesn't warrant that much improvement at the deadline? It's going to be really interesting to see just how aggressive the Yankees and the Mets are at the deadline this year, because the way that both of them have been playing recently does not seem to suggest that either is going to be a true World Series contender. And yet, when you look at the rest of the sport, guys, there aren't many other teams that are suggesting that either.

1:32:19Pat McAfee:Jet, I love baseball more because you talk about it. Don't love that you acknowledge that quarters of seasons don't matter in the long run because the Pirates had a bad first quarter. Yeah. Second quarter, they're awesome baseball. They can go all the way to top. Dodgers, I think, is why Connor said, you said there's no clear favorite this year, and Connor goes, really? Every year. Dodgers are the clear favorite right now. Shohei starting to pitch. Life is good. We will see you down in Atlanta for the All-Star festivities. We appreciate the hell out of you, Jet. Gentlemen, looking forward to it.

1:32:52Safe travels.

1:32:52Pat McAfee:Hey, thanks for breaking the news, doing some journalism. Yeah. We appreciate that. I'm going to go do some more right now. See you guys in Atlanta. You go journalize, bro. Ladies and gentlemen, Jet. Pass it. Yay, Jay.

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1:34:27Pat McAfee:Baseball's not terrible this year. No.

1:34:30Jeff Passan:It's been great this year.

1:34:31Pat McAfee:I've enjoyed it. The guy's been hitting homers.

1:34:34Jeff Passan:We're seeing dong shots over and over.

1:34:36Pat McAfee:That's what we like. That's why the Home Run Derby, let's go do this. We have no idea who's in the Home Run Derby. I don't think anybody does. I think Cal said he would be in, right? He's in for sure, and so is Ronald Acuna. Those are the two guys that have been announced. Schwarber's got to do it. Schwarber's got to do it, right? Schwarbaums would be great, especially with how he's hitting. It'd be great to see. This would be the dream lineup, though, right, for the home run derbies. These are the home run leaders. Here's the home run derby. But a lot of guys choose not to do it right because it messes up your swing, potentially.

1:35:07That's, like, kind of the rumor. Also, just, like, for a guy like Judge, like, that'd be doing the MLB a massive favor. You know, it's like he plays every single day. Like, he might not want to go out there. Like, the home run derby, it used to be like that. Like, when you were saying, like, when we had McGuire and Sosa and all those guys. I think in recent years, like Shohei did it a couple years ago, but he's not going to do it again, obviously, because of the injury concern. I think now it's kind of turned into a little bit more of the younger guys who are good power hitters and hit a lot of homers.

1:35:38It's a good showcase for some of those guys who – because like you said, people who don't love baseball will watch the home run derby. And it's a good opportunity for like, oh, hey, I've never heard of this guy, but he's hitting absolute bombs tonight.

1:35:50Pat McAfee:Just like the dunk contest. I think we need to give us the – Need the stats. You know, because Aaron – no, I know Aaron doesn't want to do it, of course. The NBA guys don't want to do it either. Risk injury, more effort. The amount of hacks you have to take at the home run derby. I mean, it's not, like, feasible. But as me, as just a fan of home run derby, it's like, I want to see the guys.

1:36:10Jeff Passan:Yeah, give 10 mil. 10 mil to the winner or something like that. Really bring the stars out.

1:36:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, they need to do that for the dunk contest for sure. And also maybe for the home run derby as we move forward. We also need to up the prize pool for whatever the fuck the Gold Cup money is. Yep, we do. Ladies and gentlemen, joining us now is maybe America's new favorite athlete. This dude plays for Real Salt Lake in the MLS. He's won the MLS Young Player of the Year, which is their Rookie of the Year. It's a stupid title for an award, but it is an incredible honor, especially when the whole entire country hasn't had an opportunity to really see you work for the national team. You know, because a lot of people watching the MLS, a lot of people have seen this guy with Real Salt Lake.

1:36:54Pat McAfee:A lot of people have seen his highlights. But if you don't play for the national team, all the casuals don't really get a chance to see you. Well, this year, we've had an opportunity to watch this guy play. And thank God he's representing the United States of America. Every time he scores a goal, he goes right to the crest of the United States of America. Last night, he scores two to send us to the finals of the Gold Cup against Guatemala. Ladies and gentlemen, your new favorite soccer player, Diego Luna. Yay! How are you, brother? Good. How are you guys? Good, man. Thank you so much for making time.

1:37:25Pat McAfee:I know you guys are in the middle of this tournament. Big one on Sunday against Mexico. We'll dive into that here in a matter of moments. Last night, though, absolutely filthy rebound and touch to the left boot to kind of put that thing away and start this entire game with your first goal. Nasty. And then your second goal, getting the ball at about 30 yards out, taking a guy on, dicing him completely, and then ripping one from the 18, putting us up 2-0, inevitably we'd win 2-1. How does it feel to get this moment, get this opportunity to rep the United States of America here at the Gold Cup? And we want to say thank you for doing as such.

1:38:01Oh, yeah. I think for me it's an honor and a privilege to always wear the badge and then to do something like that and send the U.S. to a final. I think it's exciting for me and exciting for the country and for the team to really be behind that and held off that 2-0 win and now going into a super exciting final against Mexico on Sunday.

1:38:21Pat McAfee:Let's talk about Coach Potch. Obviously, there's been a lot talked about with some of the known players not playing. We're in a new era. We're very close to the World Cup. Feels like from outside looking in, I grew up playing soccer in the ODP process and all those things. I kind of understand it. A lot of guys that maybe hadn't gotten a lot of opportunities with the national team over the last few years, Coach Potch almost wanted those guys. He wanted to see a new pool, wanted to see new guys. Do you guys feel that? And Berhalter after the game said that your group is very, very close with everything you guys have been through through this Gold Cup.

1:38:51Pat McAfee:Do you feel that as well with the team? And how do you feel about the guys that are getting an opportunity right now, including yourself? Yeah, I think it's awesome to see, you know, local guys and guys that are putting in the work that get, you know, you can say they get, you know, hidden behind the, you know, the other guys that are playing in so-called bigger leagues and stuff like that, that are performing. And I think the U.S. has players that are playing all around the world that can perform. And I think with Poach coming in and giving the opportunity to guys that haven't had the opportunity and letting them showcase themselves and their talents on a bigger platform is really giving everybody the kind of wake-up call that we got players that are here to play and players that can put in the work.

1:39:35So I think that it helps build a better team when you got a bunch of rivals within the team and a bunch of guys fighting for a place on the spot.

1:39:45Pat McAfee:Yeah, and I think they even mentioned about how some of the big names not being there has provided some of the young guys opportunity to take leadership roles or confidence or peacock a little bit. I think you're one of those dudes. You're getting the ball for 25 out. You step over on that guy. I mean, you cook that motherfucker. Absolutely. Clint Dempsey literally talked to us when we were at TST because he launched a podcast, and he said he wants to see Americans go at people more. We didn't really have any guys that go at anybody. We were a lot of swinging, passing, combination play. We didn't really have guys attacking people anymore.

1:40:19Pat McAfee:So watching you do that in the semifinal of the Gold Cup, America says thank you, brother. Now on that note, speaking of America saying thank you, AP Tone has a question for you. Yeah, Diego, correct me if I'm wrong, but I read somewhere that you had a choice to play for the U.S. or play for Mexico, I believe because your parents are Mexican. So how hard was that decision, and then how big will then this game be on Sunday against Mexico? Yeah, I think there's a bunch of quotes and statements out there about, you know, the decision I made. But, you know, I'm very proud to be Mexican American, my family's heritage and stuff like that, my parents.

1:40:53But I think for me, it's I was born in the United States. I've played here all my life. And they've given me everything that I've had. And I've been able to perform them. They've given me the opportunity to do what I do and have supported me. And I think, you know, there's there's no better feeling than to give back to the to the country that has, you know, supported me and allowed me to be where I'm at today. And then going out to Sunday, it's going to be an awesome game. There's going to be definitely some emotions there of, you know, it's going to be cool to play against Mexico. My family's going to be there.

1:41:21But it doesn't take away that I'm going all in for USA and I'm going to give it my all to bring us the championship.

1:41:28Pat McAfee:I want to let you know, every time you score, you do this thing, what you just said there, like, hey, we need that too. You know, like America needs that as well. I don't know if you feel it, but it is. We've been rallying around your squad, a bunch of unknowns, basically. I don't want to say miss new coach a lot of people talking shit about you guys even in the soccer community talking shit about your team and you guys have just kind of shown up and played in an electrifying uh style now with that being said I like your moxie brother I like the way you

1:41:56Jeff Passan:operate out there Connor has a question for you yeah Diego you play an electrifying way and celebrate in an electrifying way we saw the celebration uh after your second goal I believe a little bit of this, a little bit of this. We thought it was from the video of the small lad on the boat kind of leading the way. Okay, that's what we thought. That's awesome. For the goal celebrations, when do you realize, like, yep, this is exactly what I need to repeat when you see a video? And do you have anything kind of specially planned for Sunday? Because this one, I mean, this is a 10 out of 10. 10 out of 10, bro.

1:42:31Jeff Passan:Yeah, you must have known, like, this is going to be. Some aura farming right there, man. Yeah, amazing.

1:42:36Pat McAfee:Or a farm, the shit out of me. You just scored two goals against Guatemala in the semifinals, brother. Hey, I need some help for some celebrations. So if you guys got anything to throw out there, I'm ready. Got good rhythm, too. It looked like you had pretty good rhythm there. It feels like you can... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, sounds good. Ty has a question for you, Diego. Diego, obviously it's a year plus out with the World Cup, but you've arguably been the star of the Gold Cup so far, especially for, like Pat was mentioning, kind of casual U.S. soccer fans. It's like, okay, we got our guys.

1:43:07So with that being said, with how well you've played, how much momentum can you take from this tournament into the World Cup, even though it's obviously still like another year away? Yeah, no, definitely. I think starting now is what we need. This is the big year, and I think starting it off with a championship here on Sunday could really lead the momentum and the confidence of the guys going into this year. And then it takes every guy going back to their respectable club and performing there on a daily basis and doing exactly what they need to be ready for the next camp or the next opportunity given.

1:43:41Yeah, and it's a journey, man. There's going to be a lot of challenges that people face through this next year and just making sure that every step and every day we take is leading to this big goal of performing and making the roster in the World Cup.

1:43:52Pat McAfee:I'm excited to watch Poch's dogs. I'm excited to watch you guys. I love his attitude and mindset. Can you talk about that a little bit more? Yeah, man. I think with Poch coming in here, I think bringing in that new energy and that, I think, you kind of that grit and that hard work and that mentality of doing that, but also having the technical and the tactical side of the game, I think it's bringing us to another level. And I think this year is going to be very exciting. And I think we're going to really showcase it on Sunday against a very difficult Mexico team. I think it's going to show, you know, the fight that we have.

1:44:24And then hopefully we have the players and the capability to do, you know, perform and create chances. So I think we're going to have a lot of flair with a lot of, you know, dog mentality going in on Sunday.

1:44:33Pat McAfee:On that note, AJ has a question for you. That's great to hear. Hey, that's great to hear. We like hearing it. Go ahead, AJ.

1:44:39Jeff Passan:Yeah, something that jumps off the screen watching you guys. You guys, like, you don't back down from anybody. You seem to kind of set the tone, and you're not flopping around. You're representing, like, America in what we feel like we want to see our guys do. Is that something you guys have to talk about as a team? It's just happened naturally? Like, you have the right group together led by Poch, like you said? because it is fun to watch you guys. It doesn't matter. You guys get knocked down, whatever. You're popping right back up. You're right back in their face. Is that something that you gain momentum each and every game to go out there and win and do that?

1:45:09For sure, but I think it's even in the friendlies before the Gold Cup. We didn't have the results. We lost 4-0 to Switzerland coming into this Gold Cup, but it was about the mentality, man, turning our heads and understanding that it wasn't good enough and we got to fight and keep going and keep going and look where we're at now, right? We're in the final of the Gold Cup against Mexico. And I think not letting things phase us and no matter what opponent we're playing, we're going to go in with the same mentality and just kind of run, run, run, not stop for every ball, fight for every ball, every 50-50, throw our body on the line.

1:45:43And that's what it's all about. That's what's going to win us championships. And like I said, we have the quality of players to perform. So it's that mentality that's going to help us to the next level.

1:45:51Pat McAfee:I think one of your guys in the back double-footed somebody or two-footed somebody early and it's like, yeah, we like that. And then seeing you guys run, which you're talking about, it's an electrifying style. It is a – and to AJ's point, AJ is like the biggest football meathead guy out there, okay? Has hated soccer for most of his life from Ohio. We took him to TST. It's seven on seven. I don't know if you know the style or know of TST. He loved it. It was electrifying. But I think the big thing that he hates and most Americans hate is the flopping. Like NBA started flopping. People stopped watching the NBA.

1:46:24Pat McAfee:It's like we don't want to see that. soccer kind of created it now i know in soccer long games rolling down around on the ground gives the boys a chance to breathe too like there's a to breathe yeah there's a lot that goes into it as well yeah yeah but like the non-flopping looking softness of your group i think is a great thing for our country you just need to know that yeah i think that's exactly right i think we're not going to go down unless we're we're hurt unless we can't walk or unless we can't you know i think that's the the thing that that we have here and um that's going to lead us, like I said, with that mentality.

1:46:56It's like, guys are going to hit us. Guys are going to push us down. And when they see us pop right back up, it gives them a sense of, oh, shit. Like, this is real deal type of thing. And then it puts them on their toes. And like I said, with the quality, you know, it really scares opponents.

1:47:10Pat McAfee:You can't punk the United States of America. No. Because that's how we feel when we're watching. It's like, hey, you're representing us out there right now. We can't be getting punked. Exactly. We can't be getting punked by those teams. And we're thankful that you're out there getting the opportunity. Last question here from co-host of the Concave Foot Podcast. Go ahead, Gumby. Yeah, Diego, you and Malik Tillman have been the stars of this tournament as we've watched you guys. You guys seem so connected, and every game it seems to be growing more and more. Can you just talk about your guys' connection on the pitch?

1:47:38Yeah, I think you said it, that each game and each training we've been able to play together and combine and build that chemistry on and off the field has really allowed us to, you know, see each other and find each other's way of a way of play and and kind of combine and and yeah so I think it's it's awesome to play with Malik amazing player great dude and then to to now be on the field with him and combine and really understand our movements and stuff and see what we need for each other to to score goals and to create chances I think is the is the coolest thing and you know now we have a new friend and somebody new that that I enjoy playing with and it's exciting that he has the same mentality as well.

1:48:17He's a dog, man. And he doesn't stop.

1:48:19Pat McAfee:I love that. Have you guys played together in all the camps growing up tournaments against each other? I assume this whole group or no, this was our first time, yeah. First time playing together. So, you know, having this chemistry and building it off basically a couple of weeks is pretty cool to see and hopefully more in the, in the future. All right, Diego, how's the body feel? Obviously you've been running a lot. Yeah, good. A lot of recovery. The staff here is amazing and we got straight to recovery after the game and I'm feeling good for Sunday. Good luck Sunday. day everybody's saying you guys are the underdogs mexico can't lose to this american team no way let them say let them say what they want boom that's our guy ladies and gentlemen diego luna we appreciate you buddy thank you diego he's the guy things are looking up like all that he's the guy he's got the dyed hair too the neck tats he's like cooking people out there dog it's like i think and I've said this multiple times now, and the soccer community doesn't always love the way this show talks about soccer, but the soccer community, easy to fucking do this.

1:49:19Pat McAfee:And the reason why I know that is because I was in the soccer community pretty well, know the soccer community pretty good, grew up in it in a pretty big way. I'd say committed a lot of my life to it. There's a lot of good players, like a lot of good players. But obviously the way you find players from each state, each region, each tryout each camp how much does each thing cost who do you have to know potentially to know that this like there's so much into it and obviously soccer youth soccer is big there's a lot of kids that play soccer in every town every single state so finding the right players to get to the national team has always been a controversy you know it always has been always will be i assume but always has been like hey there's some political shit to it there's a lot of networking you got to know the right people you gotta do this and but like you watch at the highest there's good players a lot of good players and it's like maybe they just didn't fit in the right place but they didn't get to know the right person missed the right tryout so then that changes the way the trajectory of their entire career or whatever and it's like this poach poach i don't know what we're calling he called him poach he said poach yeah he said poach so i i don't want to disrespect the new coach it feels like he has opened the gates a little bit more to like we gotta i don't care

1:50:30Jeff Passan:if they're like the right hire he feels like the right guy for the job yeah exactly and gritty is

1:50:35Pat McAfee:what he wants and like hey we're fucking running it's like rick carlo bouncing up like we are yeah and we're in their face everyone's is like that's what america's needed now if they would have hired him two years ago right you know that would give like a full world cup cycle to get his yeah like a year and a half before the world cup a couple months before the world cup that's a tough job for him but if he would have been able to get like a full four-year cycle building the program the development and everything that's what he's going to do and allegedly he had been asked a couple other jobs like uh interviews to and basically would end up leaving team usa and he was like nope i got no interest i'm doing this it's like i feel like he understands that if he is the coach that takes the united states of america to big places that's a that's really good for our country it's good for soccer as well and he's the right guy for it i also appreciate you know like them what was it last night after like talking about the media it's like i'm glad that they're hearing that because like we did it's like after they got beat by switzerland and for someone like Connor we were like, hey, fuck these guys they suck, I'm out on this team I'm not going to spend any There's a lot of drama There's just so much more bullshit and then you watch the games and they're not entertaining and then all of a sudden during this tournament it's like, okay, this is appointment television I will watch this team It feels kind of TST There's different styles of soccer England, a little bit bigger, they hit the ball in their styles of soccer Spain, Italy, they're boom, boom.

1:52:02Pat McAfee:It's going around a lot. We are running transition soccer is what our team is doing right now, where it's like waves, and that provides a lot of excitement. Now, we will concede. Yeah, the other way. You will concede on the other side. But if you've got guys that run and everybody's fit, which it seems like everybody is, it's like that can wear down. Mexico's one of the most fit teams in the world every single year. Like that is their thing. In the Mexico-American rivalry in soccer has always been something, always chippy always electrifying always now we've beat them okay we have beat them five straight times this is a brand new team in mexico has their guys and not that we don't because we might have our guys we yeah this might be the guys that take us to the thing from what i'm watching uh obviously it's good combo but just don't be scared to turn on this team usa team they're a fun team to watch and fun team to root for and they were very much counted out and it's a good time for us to have a good squad.

1:52:55Yeah, it's a great rivalry. It was always like when we were a little bit younger, it was always back and forth. The U.S. has had the better of Mexico the last five times, which is very, very rare in the rivalry, but since 2003, I think I said this yesterday, only Mexico and U.S. have won the Gold Cup. So they know this is in the stars to be the final.

1:53:14Pat McAfee:Yeah, Hembo sent me over a stat actually this morning. United States 2, Guatemala 1. United States advances to record-extending 13th Gold Cup final appearance and first since 2021. They hadn't been there since 2021. Defeated Mexico then. United States has never gone back-to-back Gold Cups without reaching the final since the tournament began in 1991. Okay, look at us. Shout out to America. Diego Luna here, two goals in the fourth minute and the 15th minute. Second player to score two goals in the first 15 minutes of a Gold Cup knockout stage match. Okay. Dog. The other was Brian McBride in 2002 against El Salvador.

1:53:57Pat McAfee:Brian McBride was the dog. Brian McBride would fit with this team. This is the team. Brian McBride would put his face through somebody else's head, and then he would have a shiner that would be this big, and he would just keep playing. I feel like I've seen him play numerous games with head wrap on as if he just got out of, like, war. He played for the Columbus Crew, I think, for a while. He was a backyard soccer goat as well. Yeah, McBride was an absolute dog there, and obviously Diego Luna is now in that conversation. Luna's first goal at 316 is the fastest goal in the United States history in the knockout stage match, any tournament, any senior tournament, breaking Clint Dempsey's record at 322.

1:54:34Pat McAfee:So we brought up Clint Dempsey to Diego Luna. Look at us. Wow. United States improves to 4-0-0 all-time versus Guatemala. Okay, so we're supposed to win. Own Guatemala. Yeah, absolutely. And United States has advanced in each of the last 20 CONCACAF Gold Cup knockout matches in which it held the lead at any point dating back to 2005. So we get the lead, we're going to hang on to it. Yeah. We're not going to piss anything away. Nuh-uh. Not poachers, boys. And I got people from around the world telling me, this is the conca cash. You need to relax. It's like, they're on our schedule, bro. Sorry.

1:55:04Pat McAfee:What do you want? We don't make it. If you do recall, there's a reason we're not in the Europe one. We're not in the Euros. And that thing's getting celebrated tomorrow. Yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you have the greatest 4th of July weekend of all time. I hope you enjoy your life. I hope you have fun. I hope you look around and say, you know what? this country might not be perfect but god damn it it's great to be alive in this country and uh we'll have some hot dogs you guys eat your glizzies we'll have some family time and when we return we'll be live from the home run derby in atlanta georgia should be an absolute blast you people are the greatest people on earth for allowing us to do this for a living from aj myself and everybody here have the greatest weekend of all time yeah i feel like i hit it Well done.

1:55:48Pat McAfee:Well done. You see, I transitioned in from Euro soccer to 4th of July. That felt pretty professional. Gotcha. And obviously, I knew that was happening the entire time while I was talking.

1:55:59Jeff Passan:Yeah, you could tell. Yeah, I had a path. It's on the prompter. Yep.

1:56:03Pat McAfee:Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it's the finish line for that one. Certainly. Right in front of us here. That dude's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, he's a great moxie. Young, too. Yeah, casual, comfortable, too. A little bit of this. A little bit of sit-up. Good talker. Got the dyed hair, obviously.

1:56:17Jeff Passan:He's only 21 years old? Yeah.

1:56:19Pat McAfee:Might have time to get in the captain's band. Who is the captain of this team? Do we know? Coach Poch. Pulisic. No, but the Gold Cup team. Oh, Tim Ream. Oh, yeah, Tim Ream. He's been with the team for a while. He was just quoted, right? He's elder statesman in the entire thing. What did he say? He just said this team's kind of been counted out. And for, like, the people who actually cover U.S. soccer, they kind of, no matter what, are going to be pissed off about something. Like, they win last night 2-1. It's like they're mad about the substitutions. It's like those guys were spent that got subbed off, man.

1:56:52It was a very hot night. They played 80 minutes. They were up 2-0. You're going to have to make subs at some point.

1:56:59Pat McAfee:Diego got subbed out in a 70-something minute. 78th. 78th minute. I saw him get subbed out. Yeah, I watched both those games last night. I'm like, I'm watching soccer right now.

1:57:09Jeff Passan:Yeah. He's trying to save his legs for the finals. I mean, what are we talking about?

1:57:13Pat McAfee:Yes, have to. And then he was talking about rehab and recovery today. It's like that's a lot of running. Yeah. And I don't want to say anything, you know, but Gumpy has the same thing. He's a little bit smaller guy. It's a lot of steps. Yeah. So, you know what I mean? Double the movement. That's a lot of steps. That's a lot more. You know, I think about that. You're right. When I'm not, like, striding out and I'm running, it's like, man, this feels like a longer than 110 yards here. Why is that? Oh, we got to stride out a little bit. We're taking less steps. Diego, when he cooked that guy.

1:57:41Jeff Passan:Yeah, what a sweet – that's a straight, like – The fact that this was in this moment, in this game, was nuts. It's like something you do in the backyard.

1:57:50Pat McAfee:And it rips one, too. I mean, it's not like, what a perfect setup there. Absolutely perfect setup. And then it goes straight to the USA patch. It's like, that's awesome. Yeah. I love what he writes. And then that Burrhalter fella there, super handsome. Super duper handsome. Hits a great corner kick, free kick. Also talks very, very well. They got a team, man. I'm telling you. Hi, hi. Got that guy on skate. That guy had one of the... He looked like me against Antonio Brown. Bang. Absolute firecracker. That's awesome. All right. Boys, AJ, let's enjoy this. Hell yeah. Yeah. Let's enjoy America's birthday.

1:58:33Happy birthday, America.

1:58:34Pat McAfee:Let's enjoy a week in the summer next week. Yep. Some people might be up to something next week. Ooh. Ooh. No wasted days. Not how Sean says it. Actually up to something. Yeah, what's he saying? I don't think he understands. He doesn't. He doesn't. It's okay, though. It's fine. But you use it how you want to use it. Exactly. You take it however you – listen, the words to a song or something. However you take it. Yeah. That's his interpretation. He's just trying to get like you, Pat. Up to something, up to something. Up to something season. Breaking news tonight. You are up to something. You are up to something.

1:59:12Pat McAfee:Sean's had a hell of a run here. He has two weeks. Can you FaceTime him so we can congratulate him on a hell of a run these last two weeks? I think he, I don't know, maybe he earned the respect of some of his peers. Doubt it. I know, I know, I know. It's hard. It's hard to get that. Yeah. He's got to break the Giannis news. Otherwise, it's all for naught, I guess. That's probably what they're saying. He's got to break. DeAndre Ayton goes to the Lakers. Congratulations. They got their center. Yep. Yeah. I think the Pacers were in on that. I think the Pacers were in on that. From my tea leaves understanding, DeAndre Ayton potentially was going to sign with the Pacers.

1:59:47Pat McAfee:Two years,$16.6 million. Okay, second year with a player option. That sounds like a one-year deal right there.

1:59:53Jeff Passan:It's$34 next year because of the Portland as well, so it's much more than that.

1:59:58Pat McAfee:Yeah, so it's$50 million, you know, next two years. That's awesome. Not bad. Not bad at all. Not bad. That's awesome 42 million next year Well just being able to be like You know what Fuck this place I hate this place I'm gonna leave I'm gonna go somewhere I can win You guys still gotta pay me 36 million dollars See you later Figure it out That's awesome Basketball Yeah baby That's America Be who you can afford to be Exactly And then you end up With the Los Angeles Lakers Yeah Congrats Sam Congrats We just tried to FaceTime Shams no answer He's probably on with his source Yeah Of course Doing his thing

2:00:29Jeff Passan:What do you think Shams does to relax Like if he gets a couple of off days Does he do anything eats lunch. Fork the oatmeal.

2:00:37Pat McAfee:Plugs into the wall. Oh, he's on SportsCenter right now. He's literally on TV. He does probably. Like Jacob Sully. Tom Pellicero. That ilk. The insiders, man. I don't think I fully knew how committed the insiders were. I think I knew screen time and shit like that. Whenever Woj retires, the way people were talking about what he did for so long and how he did it the other insiders it felt like the other insiders were telling us how they this is what the life is yeah you're sitting in a shower you can't even get steam on the window because there might be a call of a source giving you information and if you don't answer immediately and post it immediately somebody else will get it you lose your legitimacy if you lose too many of them to the other source all of a sudden you're not an insider anymore what's your entire job what's your purpose it's like jesus you guys don't breathe no not without checking our phone first that's insiders yes shams has been doing that for a long time and he's worked his way up with the inside like the inside information that he's getting and who he's getting it from good for him i'm proud of shams hell of a two weeks yeah unreal yeah it's all

2:01:42Jeff Passan:relationships you know they gotta always be like working those relationships fake so many fake conversations no it's gonna be hard because there's gotta be a there's a few real ones mixed

2:01:52Pat McAfee:in right though like there has to be i don't know anytime i talk to any of these insiders i don't know if this is just 100 uh this is just small talk to get through this conversation and then i go immediately next to that's every conversation they've ever had with anybody yeah hey good to see you how you doing everything good okay sweet anything going on no all right hope the family's good see you at the next thing okay hey how you doing anything going on i was wondering if you want anything hope the family's good okay hey and then you get a text oh you got anything how you How you doing? How the family's good?

2:02:23Pat McAfee:I love that. So much. How's the boy? I remember seeing the boy in Indianapolis. You got anything going on over there? Like, that's a wild profession. But it is attainable if you have the work ethic, which Shams obviously has. Samuel Schefter and Rapsheet. What else happened this week? We had a commitment earlier today. 6 '7", 350. Did you see that kid, Manny?

2:02:42Jeff Passan:He's going into his senior year in high school, right?

2:02:44Pat McAfee:Yeah, it's class of 2026. So, yeah.

2:02:47Jeff Passan:He's playing high school football next year. Give this kid the ball. Put him at tailback in short yardage situations. No question to ask. Or any time, really.

2:02:54Pat McAfee:Yeah, who's going to tackle 6 '7", 350? I mean, you do a tush push with him. Now, obviously, you're losing quite a vital piece to your offensive line and left tackle. But tush push with him under center, what?

2:03:05Jeff Passan:He's got good feet. He's got great feet.

2:03:07Pat McAfee:6 '7", dude. 6 '7". That's so, so tall for a football player. Even for tackles who are normally gigantic. 6 '6", big. 6 '5", big. Like 6 '7", with the reach that he's going to be able to have and the mobility that he has. And now, granted, we know he's 17, 18 years old. So, obviously, you have a little bit more bend at that age than you would naturally as you get older. But it's like, look how put together he is. He looks like he's 28 years old, AJ's body.

2:03:34Jeff Passan:I mean, what's it going to look like when he is 28? Yeah, still can grow. I have no idea. He's still so young, and he's going to mature and grow into his body. What a freak already.

2:03:44Pat McAfee:34 offers. I assume he could have had 134. Oh, look how low he goes, too. Yeah, his ass touches the ground. Then he stumbles. He's on one leg with 600 pounds while he's stumbling. It's like, this is a born offensive tackle right here. That's literally what we have. Now, granted, I assume he could play basketball as well if he wanted to with how good his feet are. But look, I mean.

2:04:03Jeff Passan:He's kidding the Crocs. He's kidding the Crocs. He's not going to do much if he's not going to get this. He's going to fall. Yeah.

2:04:08Pat McAfee:But we do appreciate him saying, let's go, big dog. You know, a lot of that going on there. Yeah, I appreciate that. Okay, sweet. That happened. Let's see what else. Kaitlin Clark, shotgun and beers. That was a good thing I learned this week.

2:04:23Jeff Passan:She was saying we get paid more to win the Commissioner's Cup than we do to win the whole championship.

2:04:28Pat McAfee:They're trying to make the league better for other people. Kaitlin Clark, hey, that's good shit. Because we literally had Peyton Manning on Monday, and he talked about how, yeah, I think you're supposed to have a couple Bud Lights, and then if you miss the 8 a.m. meeting, maybe you shouldn't be a quarterback. Maybe that shouldn't be the position that you play if you can't have a couple beers and then show up at 8 a.m. and do your thing. it's like that's a massive piece of like team building leadership now that's old school and i didn't i've never seen a women's basketball locker room that was the most i've seen of it and how they interact and how the team operates but it's like chugging beers champagne on the lives doing the entire thing it's like that looks like a tight team over there that looks like a

2:05:03Jeff Passan:very tight team at the fever yeah like i just know it honestly from coaching fifth and sixth grade girls basketball like girls bond together quickly and they will kill for each other like They are ruthless in a great way and loyal. And if they think somebody is messing with their teammate, they have no problem ganging up and saying, we found our target, we are going at her the rest of the game. It's cool to see how loyal they are and how they protect each other.

2:05:27Pat McAfee:See, on that note now, Kaitlin was an outsider going into the league. It felt like that was kind of a narrative of like, hey, this is different here than it was at Iowa. And now it feels like she is slowly earning the respect other than being voted the ninth best guard. And nobody put her at nine. It was just counting the amount of votes. She had the ninth highest votes. So it's like that is definitely still a message from the current players to her. But as the WNBA continues to be like, is Kaitlin Clark playing? No. She can be on the sideline now? Yeah. Put it on TV. Put it on TV. Yeah. And can we please tell the cities that she's going to be there?

2:06:08Pat McAfee:Can we please? Because these tickets are dropping from$400 a pop to$14 a pop. Can we say she'll throw out a t-shirt at halftime or something? Can we do? Is there something we could do? It's like I'm excited for her to get back healthy. When's that happen? I think she was doing a workout yesterday. I guess Coach Stephanie White was on her hip. She was doing some drills at the end of practice. I think she's back to moving. Probably just wait a little bit at this point with the all-star break right around the corner. And her Commissioner Cup champ. Yeah, Commissioner Cup championship, obviously. So we'll see.

2:06:40Pat McAfee:alright let's get the fuck out of here ladies and gentlemen joining us now Shom Sharanya hey all we wanted to say was you've had a great two weeks bub like a great two weeks not that the previous however many weeks you've been doing this business of living on your phone with small talk that doesn't really matter but with the information that comes from all the small talk we just wanted to say you absolutely murdered it the last two weeks man what a great run for you man I appreciate you guys so much you know Pat you know how much I appreciate you and the boys always have my back always looking out for me and it's just fun when we make magic happen on this show time after time and just know you're the man I appreciate your friendship from day one from the beginning I get too sentimental I get too sentimental over here have an incredible 4th of July weekend we'll see you soon happy 4th to all of you thank you baby Chami I didn't even think about the return Shut up, shut up I don't want to hear it I don't want to hear it Because we are lucky Like yesterday, you just broke news on the show Middle of the summer And I've seen some people say You guys are talking a lot more basketball than you used to It's like we're getting accents, brother Why would we not?

2:07:56Jeff Passan:And it's not football season right now At all

2:07:59Pat McAfee:But it's also Like it's been good shit to follow along It's been good Like even MLB I've been following along with the Major League Baseball season this year. I feel like I have been because of what we do on this show. Very lucky for it. And it's like I've enjoyed talking about it happening. Because these times for us back in the day this was like a two, three month period that felt like three years. It used to be so much worse. Can't stress how much worse it used to feel than it does now. I've heard some OG listeners the ones that absolutely murdered me because the show was going to change whenever it went to ESPN and I would sell out pieces of shit and all that stuff.

2:08:34Pat McAfee:they said some of them say that those old shows were better than these shows we're at the NBA finals I don't know what you're judging it against I guess just our dumb ass conversations well that's the thing it's like things evolve we can't really just like jack around and like just talk about fucking nothing for three hours sorry it just doesn't work like that I mean we could there will be days where that will happen Without a doubt. But if we're getting, hey, you want to go to the NBA finals and do things like. Yeah. Yeah. It's in your city. You want to talk to UD? Obviously a guy who's just multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple time champion.

2:09:14Pat McAfee:Yeah. You want to go to the home run derby? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we do. Shout out to all these leagues taking care of us. Shout out. Certainly. The MLB? Hey. It's pretty awesome. The MLB went to bat. Pun intended. Big time. For us. Yeah, they went to bat. That's awesome. because I think we weren't going to be able to make the cut with space or something from the company that is producing it, which is ESPN. So I don't think there was any room. And then the MLB was like, there's room. Yeah, we can definitely make some room for you. No problem at all. And it's like, really? They're like, you guys want to bring the show to the All-Star Week or whatever?

2:09:54Pat McAfee:We're like, yes. They're like, yeah, we would want you to be at the All-Star thing. And it's like, thank you. And then I immediately say, we went after man for pretty good, that piece of metal thing. And they go like, well, he has thick skin. And obviously, maybe you get a chance to talk to him about it all. It's like, okay. Go. Shout out to the MLB. We appreciate the hell out of the opportunity. And now we're going to be there. It's like, all of this is so crazy. It's out of control. And we're trying to do sports justice. I feel like we do try that. Yeah. I try to talk about every sport that's happening because sports fans should know that there are sports happening.

2:10:24Pat McAfee:And I think that is like a service that we owe sports fans. but every once in a while there ain't shit to talk about and I'll tell you what we will dive into some dumb like what the fuck's going on that's not a street light that's not a street light AJ

2:10:39Jeff Passan:is that a recent is that a new video

2:10:41Pat McAfee:yes it's new

2:10:43Jeff Passan:that's what I tried to find out man it's so like yeah like I agree what is it what's happening

2:10:49Pat McAfee:and also whole neighborhood the entire hood comes out and goes that ain't a street light They started screaming, and then this is the best quality that we've had. But on that note, could be absolutely nothing. Could be fake. AI Grok could create anything.

2:11:03Jeff Passan:You're right. 100 % right. How did it end, though? Did it fly away or just disappear? Do we know anything about that? It killed everyone.

2:11:08Pat McAfee:No, it did not. These people are still alive. Anyways, could be fake. Could be Grok. Could be what is that? Entirehood. Neighborhood says, excuse me, what is that? It gets very loud. You know, hopefully everybody's okay. and if it happens in our lifetime that we get a chance to go shake these things' hands, we would like to be on a list of people that get to go shake their hands. And if that's AI or Grok, mad respect. Without a doubt. And if that's just somebody that built that in their backyard, somebody can send this fucker up in the air. Turn on that spotlight real quick. Certainly possible.

2:11:42Pat McAfee:Super genius. Mad Mike or whatever. Yeah. Rest in peace. Rest in peace. Ziz.

2:11:48Jeff Passan:Yeah. Dust. All of them. nothing left like that sub down there unfortunately I watched that documentary man that was wild insane

2:12:01Pat McAfee:I didn't watch the doc but from the accounts of people that did watch the doc what we were saying about it being a shoebox going under to the Titanic was accurate I think

2:12:11Jeff Passan:every single person that worked on it said this thing is going to fail and they tried to stop the guy numerous times and he would not be stopped and it exploded

2:12:21Pat McAfee:it even the way they closed it they just bolted it together oh yeah it was just like i wouldn't

2:12:27Jeff Passan:get in that thing on so i wouldn't get that thing on land how they bolt you in like i was like i don't want to be in there even without going underwater like just no i don't want to rely

2:12:36Pat McAfee:on these people to have to get me out too i get a little claustrophobic as well i don't necessarily love that but water really scares me water i don't mind looking at water being in water really scares

2:12:46Jeff Passan:How about like 10 ,000 feet down? That would scare me a lot.

2:12:50Pat McAfee:Yeah, definitely. Yeah, because there's no exit there. You're kind of stuck in the pressure and no oxygen and who knows what fish you're dying in. Yeah, so dark. Cold. That shoebox could have got swallowed, in theory, by something under there. Yes. Oh, man. Just swallowed, let alone. It still might have. We don't know. No, I think they know. Well, I mean, at this point, it could, you know, a 10-ounce fish could have, because it kind of crushed up into a little tiny cube. The pressure. Yeah, I think so. You know, when you go down an elevator and your ears feel a little bit, or a plane you feel a little bit, you need to add a lot of motion.

2:13:27Pat McAfee:Mm-hmm. It was quick, they said, right?

2:13:30Jeff Passan:Yeah.

2:13:30Pat McAfee:Had to have been.

2:13:31Jeff Passan:Yeah. Terrible. Maybe. Because drowning. Yeah, you never know. Yeah, they actually didn't dive into that part. Because the air might have ran out, and then it would just be a slow.

2:13:40Pat McAfee:Drowning is worse for me. I don't know. Fire, I guess, bad. That would be a terrible way. drowning dying is inevitable for all of us i'm just talking about ways that it would take place i think the reason why i don't love going in water much is because drowning feels like it'd be tough that's tough because you're fighting i think and then you're just

2:13:58Jeff Passan:there's nothing going there fire crazy being buried alive would be tough yeah oh tough it's kind of absence of air no when you slow but i'm saying buried alive where there's enough air for like a little bit but eventually your air will run out and you're just you know in a box or something and you have no room you can't even like lift your arm i think that was a fear factor

2:14:18Pat McAfee:thing right they put you in that one would freak me out i do get a little claustrophobic i don't yeah i definitely do yeah i don't enjoy the tight areas tight areas even elevators sometimes freak me out you know you go to like a stadium or one of these events and everybody's trying to get to the same thing at the same time it's like there's a weight limit on here for a reason i assume i just assume that they put a weight limit on here for they don't just pick a random number and then when the thing's beeping and there's a crowd in there and then that door shuts them out because they override it and then we try to roll it's like this is my nightmare right here because what am I doing I'm standing in this place because there's no room to sit down it's so hot oxygen's going to run out of here soon

2:15:01Jeff Passan:people are going to start peeing on themselves and dumping their pants like four minutes in because they think they're never getting out

2:15:07Pat McAfee:yeah I didn't even think about people dumping all over themselves in there because of how scared they are but I might be one of them you never know no you wouldn't everybody keep calm but we need you to exit the arena yeah you do that does lead a pea corner yeah but what if there is no corner to be designated like I've been in a couple of those elevators where it's just circle set we're tight

2:15:29Jeff Passan:someone's gotta drink it well if you got a lifestyle directly into somebody's mouth

2:15:35Pat McAfee:and one person is that responsibility one person has to

2:15:40Jeff Passan:no one person has to volunteer here or there to me it needs to be like a leader elected he nominates someone you we will pee in your mouth and we will vote everybody thinks this should be that'd be terrible that would be tough that'd be you i'm taking leadership position then just to make sure that i'm not the person

2:15:57Pat McAfee:that's like those reality shows you really learn a lot about how you're true and felt about in the room that you're in there quickly yeah that's not fair everyone should just be in the person to the right of his mouth. I agree. So I want to be saying way left.

2:16:10Jeff Passan:Way left.

2:16:11Pat McAfee:Yeah, first in line. L1 is where you want to be.

2:16:13Jeff Passan:You got some dude that had 40 beers the night before he pees for four minutes straight. He's hydrated, though. So bad. Like all my buddy's dad's growing up, you know, they brag. I drank 30 beers before I even took a leak and then they peed for 11 minutes long. Yeah, it's going somewhere, Bill.

2:16:31Pat McAfee:It's going somewhere. I'll tell you what, some of those morning pisses where you're just standing there the best the best greatness i had one like uh let's say 5 45 the other morning didn't know it was going to be the one for the morning and i walked over there and it was just i mean it felt like 10 minutes felt like it was 10 minutes great i mean hands on wall at one point just like full yawn stretch out hands on hands on the hips i love

2:17:01Jeff Passan:Relax. Legends. Letting it go.

2:17:03Pat McAfee:Yeah. Alright, I hope everybody has a few of those. Yeah, one of those.

2:17:08Jeff Passan:For sure. Fourth of July.

2:17:10Pat McAfee:Hope you have a great one. Hope you have a great Fourth of July. Hope we celebrate the shit out of it. Hope we understand that America might not be perfect, but, you know, we're certainly better than a lot of places. All of them. I'd say, personally, I love being home. I love living here. Anytime I travel somewhere else, I can't wait to get back to America, but I understand there are certain things in America that need to get fixed will they ever be able to be i don't know is it just reality of life that there's going to be disagreements and maybe we'll never be able to hit a utopia um potentially but i know we shouldn't be scared to celebrate the shit out of the land that we're from in the land we represent every single day we're lucky to do as such so tomorrow we'll enjoy fourth of july then we'll be back whenever we're down there in elena for the home run derby in the all-star week and i I believe we're going to be heading to Los Angeles shortly there after that as well for a big time show.

2:18:02Pat McAfee:An award show. Okay. That's being hosted by who? Not who I think. Shane Gillis. Okay, that one. Yep. Yeah, can't wait to get out there. Thank God Shane's hosting that thing. That was a big choice, I assume, by a lot of people.

2:18:17Jeff Passan:Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah, that had to get run through the levels, didn't it? Great bunch.

2:18:22Pat McAfee:I would assume, yeah. And the fact that it did, or maybe there's just a couple of people that make actual decisions and everybody else doesn't matter. And those two people or three people say, this is actually what we're doing here. And, uh, yeah, we're going to turn this into a real, we're going to have, I think it's going to be a great night. It's going to be a fun night. I think it's going to be a great celebration of sports, I think. And sports are the best because what? They bring everybody together. Let's enjoy the shit out of all of this life. Be a friend, tell a friend, something nice might change your life.

2:18:47Pat McAfee:We're in this thing together. Have an incredible break. We'll see you on the other side. AJ, thank you, brother.

2:18:52Jeff Passan:Thank you, guys. Happy 4th.

2:18:54Pat McAfee:Happy 4th. Go, Joey Jaws. Go, Jaws. Happy 4th. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Team. Goodbye.

2:19:06Jeff Passan:This episode is brought to you by State Farm. No two football players are exactly alike, and the same is true off the field. That's why State Farm gets to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

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